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EVENING SESSION.
The society was called to
order at 8 o'clock by the President. Rev. J. W. Lee, of Atlanta, led in
prayer as follows:
Almighty God, our heavenly
Father, thou hast created us in thine image. Thou hast given to us minds
capable of grasping the truth embodied in the world about us and contained
in the Scriptures thou hast addressed to us. Thou hast given to us wills
like thine own will, which make it possible for us to keep the laws thou
hast ordained for our conduct. Thou hast given to us hearts capable of
being touched and cleansed and transfigured by the sacrifice of thy Son.
We thank thee for the high purposes thou hast ever had concerning us; that
thou hast designed our good; that thou hast set men in families, states,
and nations; that by organizing themselves into brotherhoods and
cooperative communities they might the more surely realize the purposes in
thy thought for them. We thank thee for the noble men thou hast raised up
all down the ages, who by word and deed have instructed the race; who have
helped us to see the truth and the right, and who have contributed so much
to make the truth and the right prevail. May we be enabled to augment the
of goodness and heroism and faithfulness to duty left us by our
forefathers. Guide us, we pray thee, in the way we should go. Increase
among us the spirit of brotherliness and sacrifice. Hasten the coming of
the day when all lines of prejudice and misunderstanding which separate
men shall be removed. Bless those who shall speak to us to-night, and make
permanent and abiding the impressions which have been made during this
Congress, and bring us all to the home of the good at last, and all the
praise we will ascribe to the Father, Son, and Spirit. Amen.
President Bonner:
I once knew a sweet little
girl whose parents were members of Dr. Hall's Church in New York. She was
about five years old. One morning she wanted to go to Church. Her mother
said to her: "There is no use, Mamie, in taking you to Church; you don't
listen to Dr. Hall." "Yes, mamma, I do listen to Dr. Hall. He said my
prayer last Sunday and he didn't say it right." On the first occasion that
Dr. Hall visited the house the mother called his attention to this
criticism. The Doctor, in his gentle way, said to the child: "Mamie, tell
me how you say your prayer?" She repeated the Lord's Prayer. The Doctor
said: "Now, Mamie, you use the word 'debts;' I use the word 'trespasses.
Both words mean the same. You are a little girl, and the word 'debts' is
suitable for you; I am a big man, and the word 'trespasses' fits me." I
think before Dr. Hall leaves Atlanta that you will come to the conclusion
we have reached in New York, that Dr. Hall is big in more senses than one.
[Applause.]
(For Dr. Hall's address,
see Part II., page 150.)
President Bonner:
The Rev. Dr. Cooke, a
distinguished clergyman of Alabama, will now address us in a ten minutes'
speech on the "Literature of the Scotch-Irish."
Rev. Dr. Cooke:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and
Gentlemen: I do not rise to reply to the gentleman who has just preceded
me. I indorse everything, and begin where he left off. He left off with
the importance of education; of educating the masses, and we all know that
the pen is more powerful than the sword. The authors of a land must mold
the people. Where you have good teachers and good people you need never be
afraid of the morals of the country. The fighting that we have been told
about here, and very eloquently too, I have nothing to say against. These
fighters had to come from an era growing out of conditions as far back as
the emigration of hordes from Tartary, who had to fly from the sword, and
who, with their children and their cattle, and everything they possessed,
were compelled to seek a home to the westward, with the intention to stay
or to perish, and the consequence was that the seas were full of brigands,
and the adjoining lands populated by men of violence, who had to employ
desperate methods to protect themselves from the wild beasts and wilder
men. It went on that way for a long time. The old Scotch maxim is
laughable to us now in the light of our civilization: " He may have who
has the power, and he may keep who can." We would not stand that a moment,
but as time passes on the disciples of the wonderful Nazarene began to
move among them, and the people began to follow after.
As I said awhile ago, the pen is mightier than
the sword. Has Scotland her authors? Yes, plenty of them. In the
profoundest and the most flexible branch of thought you find Stewart, Sir
William Hamilton; and instead of beholding the confused, cloudy
metaphysics of Germany, you will see principles of mind clearly and
plainly before you, so that you will be delighted with metaphysics, which
are not, however, usually very attractive, for as the Scotchman said, "He
that talks dinna ken, and he that hears dinna care." That is the idea of a
great many people with regard to metaphysics, though metaphysics have a
great deal to do with molding the mind. When you say that science is going
to rise up some day and kill Christ, you might just as well state that the
sun is going to rise in the west and go the other way. Geology has helped
Christianity. Metaphysics is helping Christianity now, and here I will
take the liberty of mentioning one Scotch author who is a coming man:
Henry Drummond. If you will take the laws of nature in the spiritual
world, you will think you are reading a pious, good book. Although I have
mentioned Mr. Stewart and the other gentleman, I will leave them without a
word to say. A
persuasive manner will win back all your bad boys and bring them under
kind and gentle parental treatment. And the mothers, how could we get
along without them? Benjamin Franklin said if mothers are the right kind
they bring a blessing to the youth; they speak gently to their boys when
they are about to go astray. A child orphaned of its father may sometimes
take its father's place and support the family, but the child that is
orphaned of its mother is bereft indeed.
I mention Douglas, Stewart, and Hamilton, but
we come to the poets. Have the Scotch any? Did you ever see a pastoral
people that did not have their poets? There is Burns riding through the
storm singing his song; but could he write nothing but that song of lingo?
O yes: "Man was made to mourn." Read that from beginning to end, and it is
seldom that you can read more delightfully smooth English poetry. As a
natural thing, wasn't he a terrible drunkard? I cannot help that he was,
and I don't suppose he could, though he tried to do it. The depths of
feeling that sometimes gushed from his warm heart may be seen to a slight
extent by his words when he was arrested: "The bridegroom may forget the
bride, the monarch may forget the crown that on his head an hour has been,
the mother too forget the child that sweetly smiled upon her knee; but
I'll remember thee, Glencarn." In another place whore he compliments the
Highlanders he says:
"When death's cold stream I ferry o'er,
That time too soon shall come;
If then it is, I ask no more,
Than just a Highland welcome. [Applause.]
Prof. Macloskie:
I want to call the attention of the meeting to
the fact that the Rev. H. Calhoun, of Mansfield, O., has been writing a
series of articles on the Scotch-Irish. When I saw one of them, I wrote
him for permission to have them submitted to this body for insertion in
our volume of proceedings. I will not read them now, but will say that
they give a very characteristic picture of the Scotch-Irish work in the
early days of Ohio. The first article I have here is the 'Acts of the
Scotch-Irish Fathers," in which is mentioned the case of a preacher in
those early times swimming across a swollen river, preaching the gospel in
his wet clothes, and swimming back again to get home. The other article is
called "Scotch-Irish Homespun," in which a very vivid and correct
portrayal of early life in our own homes and in our own country is given.
I submit these articles for publication in our annual volume of
proceedings. (For Mr.
Calhoun's articles, see Part II., pages 195-199.)
President Bonner:
There will be an opportunity now given for the
delegates from Springfield and Des Moines and Jacksonville to extend their
invitations to the Society to hold its next meeting with them.
Mr. George H. Frey:
I am pleased to have the opportunity of
presenting the documentary part of my invitation. I promised you yesterday
that it should be on hand to-night, and it may be a little tedious, not
possessing a great deal of interest to the assembly; but I trust that you
will be patient, as it seems to be indispensable and a necessity in the
case. [Read letter of W. G. Moorhead.] I met Dr. Moorhead a few days ago,
and it would be hard find a more enthusiastic man on any subject than he
is on this. [Read letter from Gov. McKinley.] Mr. President, I want to say
that Mr. Black and myself and others have taken the pains to carefully
canvass the opinions of the people on the subject, and I have never known
in all my residence of forty years in the city of Springfield, which is a
city of thirty-five thousand population, a matter in which there was more
hearty concurrence and a more genial welcome extended that is now the case
with this meeting in that city. I need not occupy your time on this
occasion in saying anything more, unless it shall be for the purpose of
emphasizing, if possible, the invitations to the people of the South. I
take it that the good sense of the Executive Committee of this association
will settle the matter properly. You know that we have been a couple of
years besieging you, threatening you with an invitation, and perhaps our
patience will wear out if we be delayed any longer; and leaving this
matter with the Executive Committee, I wish to say to these people who
have so grandly and kindly entertained us here this week that we will be
glad to see them, one and all, at Springfield, and we would not limit the
invitation to those who are present, but throughout this beautiful South,
wherever there is a Scotch-Irish element, wherever there is a disposition
to cultivate fraternal relations, to carry out the spirit and purpose of
this organization, we wish it understood there will be a warm welcome at
Springfield next year for every such person throughout the land.
[Applause.] Mr. Frey
submitted the following documents, which were read during the course of
his remarks: (See among letters, pages 10, 11.)
President Bonner:
Mr. Hunter, editor of the Steubenville
Gazette, and our efficient Vice President for Ohio, has a few words to say
in seconding the invitation extended by Mr. Frey. [Applause.]
Mr. W. H. Hunter:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Unlike
those who have so ably and so eloquently addressed this session of our
Congress, I am not a speechmaker. In fact, I have never before faced an
audience with even the intention of addressing it; but Col. Adair, who was
to have seconded Mr. Frey, not being present, I feel that I should not
allow this opportunity to pass without urging the committee to locate the
next session of the Congress in Springfield—a Scotch-Irish city in a state
where Scotch-Irishism is as solid as the rock-ribbed hills that are
eternal. Springfield is the Atlanta of the Buckeye State. Springfield is
like Atlanta in many distinguishing characteristics—in the enterprise and
energy of her men, in the grace and beauty of her lovely women, and in the
generous, open-handed, warm-hearted hospitality of all her people; Atlanta
is the Champion city of the South, and Springfield is the only "Champion
city " of the North.
I have said that Ohio is a Scotch-Irish state. How could it be otherwise
when the great bulk of her forceful population came from Western
Pennsylvania, the Valley of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee; and from
these people, Scotch-Irish almost to a man, have come our Governors from
the very first along down the line to the present executive, Maj.
McKinley, the most noted man in America to-day; while his immediate
predecessor, Gov. Campbell, is the most popular defeated candidate in the
United States. The Scotch-Irish of Ohio; and not the Puritan, conquered
the Indian, felled the forest, built the great canal systems, built and
manage the great railroads of our state, furnished the enterprise to
inaugurate and the energy to conduct the immense manufacturing and
business establishments that have placed Ohio third in the rank of states.
Our people, and not the Puritan, established the public school system that
is the star that never dims in our crown of glory.
It is true the first noted settlement in Ohio
was made by the Puritan who managed a land syndicate that built a little
town called Marietta on the Ohio River which is not much larger to-day
than it was twenty years after the Puritan came with flaming posters
announcing his coming. The fact of this Puritan settlement was so
thoroughly and so persistently advertised that up to the time Gov.
Campbell gave to the world some Scotch-Irish truth in his address before
this Congress at its Pittsburg meeting it was generally accepted, or at
least the assertion was not disputed, that it was the Puritan who made
Ohio and gave it all its distinguishing factors of greatness; and no one
felt himself a member of the royal family unless he had the name "Puritan"
blown in the neck of the bottle. But Gov. Campbell showed so conclusively
that it was another race of people that gave Ohio her force, that now, men
who boasted incessantly of their descent from good old Puritan stock, such
of them as can, point with pride to the least tinge of red in their hair,
and even cultivate freckles to show that they too are at least partly
Scotch-Irish by mixture. I have often inquired why so many of our race
have red hair, and the only comprehensive answer I ever received is that
the Scotch-Irish get their brain from the intellectual Irish who went up
into Scotland with St. Patrick's missionary pupils, their brawn from the
stalwart Scot, their presumption from the audacious Norman, their
conservatism from the staid Saxon, their red heads from the florid Dane,
and, in Ohio, their love for red liquor from all the races that give the
Scotch-Irish their distinguishing traits of character. But I am not yet
through with the Puritan. These Puritans, unadulterated Anglo-Saxons, at
one time claimed all the glory, and many of them still do, of the origin
of sentiment that brought about the abolition of slavery, when the truth
is that the first abolition sentiment in Ohio that had any force back of
it was brought to the state by the Scotch-Irish and Quakers from the
Southern States at a time when slavery was still held as a divine
institution in some parts of Connecticut. No one, perhaps, wielded
stronger influence in the direction of making obnoxious the belief that
property in man was a divine right than John Rankin, a Scotch-Irishman who
came to Ohio from Kentucky, in which latter state he began his career as
an abolitionist, uncompromising and indefatigable. Francis McCormick, a
Southern Scotch-Irishman, preached universal emancipation in Ohio one
hundred years ago. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, the New Englander who is given the
whole credit for the great movement, never thought of the evil until
Benjamin Lundy, who had spent the greater part of his life in the South,
inspired him and gave him work as a typesetter in his printing office.
Lundy was a Quaker. Had he gone among the Puritans at the time they were
showing their love for religious liberty by burning Presbyterian churches
and their hatred of slavery by an effort to capture William Penn in hope
of selling him into bondage for rum, Lundy would have had his tongue bored
with a red-hot poker. The Puritan did not cut so very much of a figure in
Ohio. While he was claiming everything in sight the Scotch-Irishman came
in and took it and said very little about it. The Scotch-Irish knew a good
thing when they saw it. This is the reason they are so numerous in Ohio.
The only other noted settlement of Puritans in Ohio was on what is known
as the Western Reserve. These people, too, were from Connecticut, and to
this day obtains among them the same traits that distinguished their
forefathers, who were noted as manufacturers of wooden nutmegs. The sons
do not now manufacture wooden nutmegs, but they do make maple molasses out
of glucose and hickory bark. They do not nowadays bore the Quaker tongue
with a red-hot poker, all for the love of God, but they do dearly love to
roast Democrats. Ohio is not a Puritan state. The brain and brawn, the
forceful factors that have made Ohio preeminent in the sisterhood of
states, come from the Scotch-Irish of the South and East, and there is a
blood tie that binds Ohio to the South that is inseparable. We in Ohio
have a warmth of love for the Southern people that is as tender, as sweet,
and as sincere as the affection of brother and sister. Whatever was the
bitterness one time engen-dered by political differences, to-day there
does not exist the least excuse for animosity. There is a new North as
well as a new South, for things have changed North as well as South. The
first time I crossed Mason and Dixon's line was when the awful nightmare
of reconstruction depressed this Southland, which had been laid waste by
the steel and torch of war. I was accompanied by a correspondent of an
Ohio journal. At a cross-roads store on the old Kanawha and James River
Turnpike we stopped to buy provisions, for we were pedestrians and were
about out of grub. I asked the typical mountaineer, who is the "cracker"
of Virginia, if he had bread on sale. "Naw; wee'ns don't eat bread." "Have
you any potatoes?" was the further inquiry made by the tourists. "Naw;
wee'ns don't raise them things down yer; but, I tell yer what it is,
stranger, I've got some of the slickest whisky you ever tasted." Well,
this correspondent wrote home to his paper that the old, unreconstructed
rebels were past the possibility of regeneration, for after a personal
investigation he could say without fear of contradiction that all they ate
and drank was moonshine whisky. But, as I said, we have a new North now.
That correspondent was converted, and died the editor of the leading
Democratic paper of Ohio, and last fall the warmest political contest
since "befoh de wah," as you say here, was fought in our state without
reference to the negro and the rebel shotgun. We are not picking old sores
in Ohio now, but are devoting much attention to the Scotch-Irish. We have
dropped the old-time Puritan fad, and are hunting up the escutcheon that
is a badge of royal blood—blood so much admired by the great and good
Washington, the fastidious cavalier, that he filled all but one seat in
his cabinet with its representatives. Come to Springfield, and in the
"Champion City" we will welcome you to the state made possible by George
Rogers Clark, the state of Grant, of the fighting McCooks, of the noble
Ewings, of McPherson, who was killed over yonder on the hill, of McDowell,
of Phil Sheridan, of Sherman, of Steadman, the hero of Chickamaugua, of
Hendricks, of McDonald, and of Thurman, "the noblest Roman of them all."
President Bonner:
Mr. Wallace, editor of the Iowa Homestead, who
gave us such an eloquent address on the Scotch-Irish of Iowa on our
opening day, will now present an invitation from Des Moines, and will be
followed by the Rev. Dr. McConnell, of the same place. [Applause.]
Mr. Henry Wallace:
Mr. President, on the center table in the home
of my early youth there lay from day to day and from week to week a
well-worn book, and it was one of the injunctions that my mother gave me
to read a chapter in that book every day of my life. From it I learned
many things not merely pertaining to the world that is to come, but to
this world, and I remember now that one of them was something about the
wisdom of a man who has but ten thousand going to war with one that has
twenty thousand, and the suggestion is that he send an embassy while the
other is yet a great way off and make conditions of peace. This would be
especially applicable if the other, like our Springfield, O., friends had
been entrenching and fortifying for the last year or two. I am reminded
still more forcibly of the application of the above by what I have read
frequently in the newspapers, viz., that the Ohio man, whether in war,
peace, politics, or love, is irresistible. [Applause.] Whatever the Ohio
man may be, I know the Ohio woman is irresistible. [Applause.] For as I
came from that Jerusalem of the Scotch-Irish of the North, the city of
Pittsburg, near which I was born, out to the Galilee of the Gentiles
beyond the Mississippi River I must needs pass through that Samaria which
is known as Ohio, and while I was there was captured and have been held
captive for almost thirty years by a Scotch-Irish, Ohio girl. The chain
has not been a very galling one, and I have not attempted to break away
from it, but it places me in the peculiar relation to Ohio of a son-in-law
to a mother-in-law [laughter], and the counsels of all wise men agree in
this: that it is wise to be at peace with your mother-in-law. The same old
book taught me that there are circumstances when a man should leave father
and mother and cleave unto somebody else, and I think it would not be a
bad inference from that to say that he should leave his mother-in-law,
especially when the duties to his race that his own state puts upon him
compels him to bravo her wrath and take the risk of making his peace with
her in the future.
Mr. President, the state of Iowa, through the Scotch-Irish Association of
Iowa, has sent me to Atlanta, with Dr. McConnell to assist me, with
instructions to use all lawful means to induce you to hold your meeting in
1893 in the state of Iowa and in the capital city of Des Moines. I have,
in the first place, instructions from the Scotch-Irish Society of the
state of Iowa to extend to you a welcome so cordial and hearty that it
might be fairly regarded as an improvement on a Scotch-Irish welcome in
the land of Ulster, which I hereby do. Various other associations, hearing
of our invitation, send resolutions like the following, for instance, from
the Des Moines Real Estate Association. This I may say, by the way, is a
purely benevolent association, having two objects in view: first, to see
that no man under the sun is ignorant of the value of corner lots in Des
Moines; and second, to see that he does not pay more than an honest price
for them. [Read resolution.]
We have also what is known as the Commercial
Exchange, which is another benevolent association, whose benign mission is
to see that no man who crosses the Mississippi or the Missouri, or comes
up from Missouri or down from Minnesota shall go through or around Des
Moines without knowing what a grand and splendid place it is for commerce
and manufactories, and without bringing his money there to spend, and by
spending, increase it. That Association sends you the following
invitation: [Read.]
The members of Congress at Washington heard of these invitations by some
happy accident, and I have here a letter from every Senator and
Representative of the state of Iowa at the national capital requesting you
to come. [Read.] I
forgot to tell you that if you go over to our State House you will find
the Scotch-Irish in full possession. The Governor, Secretary of State,
Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney-general, one or two Railroad Commissioners,
and some of the judges—I don't know how many—are Scotch-Irishmen, and they
unite in this invitation. [Read invitations, including one from Gov. Boies.]
His is a French name, but he assures me that on his mother's side—which I
have no doubt is the best side—he is Scotch-Irish.
Mr. President, all Iowa invites you to come to
the Mesopotamia of the new world, to that rich land lying between the two
great rivers, than which the sun looks not down upon a fairer or more
glorious section—where the glacier scraped the ancient soil away down to
bed rock and filled it from one hundred to three hundred feet deep with
selected soil from the great Northwest [laughter] - a state that by the
richness of its soil takes all possible virtue out of the sun, out of the
falling dew, the raindrop and the lightning's flash. [Applause.] The state
of Iowa—and I speak by statistics that you can verify by any agricultural
report in the last ten years—annually produces from one-sixth to
one-seventh of the corn crop of the United States, and from one-eighth to
one-ninth of the corn crop of the world. Are the nations hungry? It is not
to old Egypt that they go, but to the state of Iowa. To-night I read in my
Des Moines paper a telegram from Russia stating that the first shipload of
the nine million pounds of corn and flour that the women of Iowa (may
Heaven always bless them!) induced the farmers to contribute has reached
that hungry nation. When the hot blasts from the desert strike Nebraska
and Kansas and send the prodigal home, we take him as the father did in
the parable and kill for him the fatted calf, and place him back in his
heritage and tell him to be a wise man and no longer wander after strange
gods. So when the pass-the-hat states come to us and ask for aid in time
of trouble, we fill the vessel, no matter how large, with good Scripture
measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. [Laughter.] "We
send our brethren seed and bread, and advise them to retire from the
desert and come back to the newly discovered land of Eden. Do you know
that Iowa raises one-seventh of the hogs of the United States, with the
greatest regularity, year by year [laughter], and we feed them on cream,
the cream of our crops, on our matchless bluegrass and clover blossoms,
supplemented by the bread of the nations. The Iowa hog is unique. We have
shortened his nose and his legs, and are teaching him to be a gentleman.
We furnish baths for his comfort, and do not now need to put a ring in his
nose. When he has run his goodly career, we send him forth to be
transformed into the brain and brawn that moves the world. The highest
meed of praise that any foreign minister has received since the days of
Franklin was that bestowed the other day on Whitelaw Reid—viz., he had
smoothed the pathway of the Iowa hog on his beneficent mission of feeding
the hungry nations of the world. [Applause.] The Iowa steer, like the Iowa
hog, is a traveler, and he needs no letters of recommendation. He carries
them in his superb form.
I will not speak of Iowa horses, for if there
is any man on this earth that I don't want to lead into temptation, that
man is our worthy President, Robert Bonner; and were I to speak of
Allerton and Axtell, the result, I fear, would be their transportation to
those palatial stables in New York, for which there would be but one
compensation: that they would be taught to keep the Sabbath. [Applause.]
Now it is the queen city of this peerless
state that we invite you to, the city of Des Moines, the political,
educational, financial, as well as geographical center of the state. We
invite you, Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen of the association, to
what I believe to be the only city in the world of sixty thousand people
that for the past five years has had no open saloon. [Applause.] While I
was over in Ireland last summer they told me as a wonderful thing that in
some little town between Drogheda and Belfast they did not have a soldier,
nor a constabulary, nor a saloon. Why, we have hundreds of such towns in
Iowa, and they are so common that we don't think about them. Wherever you
find over the state of Iowa a Scotch-Irish people, you will find no open
saloon, and you will find the jails empty half of the time. [Applause.]
We invite you to the educational center of
Iowa, a city that has two thousand students in its various colleges, and
if ever one of them was arrested on the streets for being intoxicated,
that fact has never come to my knowledge, nor has it been published in the
papers. We ask you to come to Des Moines, because in coming to it you will
have to travel over one-fourth of the state; and when you see one-fourth
of the state of Iowa, you see a sample of it all; and as you come there
and depart, you will learn as you never did before the meaning of Psalm
Ixv. With flocks the
pastures clothed be,
The vales with corn are clad,
And now they shout and sing to thee,
For thou hast made them glad.
The wild geese as they fly over the
Scotch-Irish sections of Iowa in the fall are said to know where the good
feeding grounds are by hearing this psalm sung at family worship:
So thou the year most liberally
Dost with thy goodness crown,
And all thy paths abundantly
On us drop fatness down. [Applause.]
It is in this peerless city, in this peerless
state, that you are invited to hold your annual meeting in the centennial
year. (For letters of
invitation read by Mr. Wallace, see pages 12-14.)
Rev. Dr. McConnell:
Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I was a
little exercised for awhile over my colleague, Brother Wallace, for during
the first part of his remarks I did not know on which side of the question
he was speaking. I soon learned that he had friends in both Ohio and Iowa,
and it reminded me of the old story of the trouble which a lady had with
her Bridget taking so many things out of her kitchen. She said to her:
"Now, Bridget, if you don't quit taking things that don't belong to you,
you will go to the bad place." "Well," says Bridget, "I don't care which
place I go to, for I have good friends in both." [Laughter.] So I began to
fear that Mr. Wallace didn't care which place he went to, for he had
friends in both. I, however, saw him look back and I suppose he received a
nod from his esteemed wife in the audience which indicated that she would
take care of the mother-in-law, for he wheeled around and came on all
right. I will preface
what I have to say by reading the paper which I hold in my hand. It is the
action of the Ministerial Association of Des Moines taken with reference
to the invitations which have been presented from the State Scotch-Irish
Association and other organizations of our city. [Read paper.]
The stranger who, traveling, stands in one of
those grand canyons of the Colorado, finds himself surrounded by so much
that is beautiful, sublimely grand, that he scarcely knows what to look at
first; with the massive pillared walls of granite rising abruptly, almost
perpendicularly, on either side of him, with the variegated canopy of
cloud over him, the rays of sunlight peering in through the rifted clouds
and lighting up the peaks and pinnacles and towers of rock, and covering
them with a mantle of glory, and at his feet the mountain stream made
bright by the glorified sheen of its misty waters, he stands almost
overpowered, bewildered, scarcely knowing upon what to first rest his
eyes. He catches a glimpse, however, of something away yonder in the
distance, a hundred miles or more, and seemingly in that marvelous
atmosphere very near, and his attention is fixed until he forgets
everything else of beauty and grandeur around him. What is it? It is the
mountain of the holy cross where even nature seems to lift that symbol of
life and liberty and purity and holiness, and firmly plant it on the
crested summit of her mountains.
Again, we find two ranges of mountains
stretching northward and southward across this beautiful land of ours, the
Rockies and the Alleghanies; lying in between these two mountain ranges a
majestic, fertile valley, with its far-reaching prairies, its gentle
slopes, its table lands, its hills, all dotted over with the habitations
and the industries that indicate the activities of the American people.
Coursing down the great center of this valley,
moving in silent grandeur, are the waters of the great father of waters.
Standing by the banks of that river and looking out yonder toward the
chambers where day houses his light, or looking back yonder toward the
gates of the morning where the sun comes forth like a bridegroom, arrayed
and adorned in his glory, we see many houses, manufactories, and furnaces,
and everything which indicates the action and the energy of this great
American people. Whence do they get the inspiration thus to awaken such
energy, or to call forth such action? The answer has been given from this
stand several times to-day. They receive it from the Scotch-Irish blood.
[Applause.] But the question still is pressed, whence do the Scotch-Irish
receive this inspiration? And they point again to the industries and the
activities of this beautiful valley, and above them all there stand the
towering minarets of the churches of Christ like sentinels which the Lord
has planted on the hill tops and in the valleys to mark the way to
religious and civil liberties and the interest of the people, and if there
is anything which has led the Scotch-Irish upward and onward, it is not
merely the symbol of the cross, but the great doctrine which symbolizes
salvation through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence is it befitting that the invitation for
the Congress to meet in Des Moines next year should be, as it is, most
heartily seconded by the Ministerial Association of our city, representing
that element of the state especially that stands ready to welcome the
brethren who have stood as witnesses for truth and liberty.
It has been said that the backbone of the
Scotch-Irish Association is filled with the marrow of Presbyterianism. I
would not pretend to deny that, but whether that is true or not, it does
seem to me that if the marrow of a movement that has attained its majority
only four years ago is made of Presbyterianism, the unleavened bread of
Episcopacy, the strong sinewy meat of Methodism, the draught of the deep
waters of Baptism, and the pure air of our American institutions enter
into the make-up of the bones and the sinews and the muscle and the blood
of this great Scotch-Irish creation. Hence it would not be befitting for
any society representing one phase of religious belief to stand and plead
her cause before this Congress, but we are happy to be able to meet all
the demands of the association in this respect. If you come to our city,
we will welcome you to the Churches representing almost every phase of the
Christian belief, either up or down, as the case may be, from the Jewish
synagogue, the Unitarian, the Evangelical, the Friends, the Lutherans, the
Baptists, the Methodists, Presbyterians, Methodist Protestant,
Congregationalists, and others, to that Christian Scotch-Irish Church to
which I have the honor to belong, and which still sings the grand old
songs of David, though we have got beyond Rouse's version. We want you to
see these churches, and if there is a Scotch-Irishman here who would not
feel himself at home in either one of them we will show him the way to the
home of the Latter-day Saints or put him under guard and march him into
the barracks of the Salvation Army. [Applause.] We extend you the
hospitality of our city and of our churches; churches in which you will
find yourself at home, whether you be rich or poor. We offer you the
little mission chapel, built at a cost of five hundred dollars, up to the
stone church, costing from seventy-five to eighty thousand dollars. We
offer you the hospitality of the humble congregation in the little mission
of fifty members, up to the larger congregations of ten and twelve hundred
members. We invite you to the fellowship of such educators as Chancellor
Carpenter and President Aylesworth, of Drake University; President
Stetson, of Des Moines Baptist College; President Longwell, of Highland
Park Normal College, our phenomenal institution which at the close of the
first year had upon its books nearly seven hundred students who had been
in actual attendance at one time during the year, and whose enrollment is
expected to be, before the close of the second year, one thousand. We
invite the Scotch-Irish Congress to come to the beautiful capital city of
Iowa, the center of the social, the intellectual, the moral, and religious
faith of the whole Northwest. [Applause.]
Dr. Macintosh:
Mr. President: Florida does not come with the
long-gathered wealth of Ohio, nor with the silvery tongue of Iowa. Florida
came yesterday in the person of one of her sons for whom I promised to
speak to-night, Dr. Maxwell, and she has taken us by the hand and said
plainly: "We may not have the piled treasures of Ohio, and we may not have
the oratory of Des Moines, Ia.; but you have taken our hearts and our home
is yours, and here is our hand; will you take it, and come to
Jacksonville, Fla.? [Applause.]
Mr. J. L. C. Kerr:
I move that the decision of the next place of
meeting be left with the National Executive Committee.
Carried.
Dr. Macintosh:
The time has now come to
present to the Congress the following nominations which have been approved
for enrollment upon our list of membership, and therefore I submit the
following names: W. F. Parkhurst and Mrs. W. F. Parkhurst, of Atlanta;
Rev. Dr. John Craig, ex-President of Georgia State Society; and Capt. G.
B. Forbes, of Atlanta.
Col. Echols nominated Mr. Charles Runnette, of
Pittsburg; Dr. Hall, William C. McBride, of Brooklyn; and W. Hugh Hunter,
Mr. Hugh Hamilton Wilson, of Navasota, Tex. All were elected to
membership.
Dr. Macintosh:
The time has come to perform a duty that is at
once delightful and honorable. Into the study of a dear friend on the
other side of the water, a bright and promising Scotch-Irish student, a
man who loved his fellows and served his God faithfully for the few years
that the Lord permitted him to stand in his place a Christian minister, I
walked one afternoon, and lying on the table was a small square of marble
on which as I lifted it I saw four mysterious "F's;" and as I looked at it
more closely I saw traced in the hand that was so familiar to me four
Latin sentences which I may give here in English: "Forcible in the fight,"
"Firm in friendship," "Fortunate in country," "Faithful to my God." That
square of marble indicated the character of the man, for he was, as we
say, a square man, and the four thoughts were his ideals. That square of
marble with me to-night symbolizes Georgia and Atlanta. "Fortis in re,
Fidelis in amicitia, Fortunatus in patria, Fidus in templo." She has been
always forceful in the battle, her soldiers taking the first rank; she has
ever been firm to her friendships; she has been fortunate in her sunny,
mountain-sloping land; and she has been ever faithful to her religious
convictions. But it does not do to start a Macintosh on Georgia,
especially at this late* hour, and therefore I wish to content myself with
presenting the following resolutions:
The Scotch-Irish Society of America have
several times had the gladsome task of rendering thanks for flattering
receptions given and kindly attentions extended to our organization, hut
on no former occasion have we made the grateful return with deeper
feelings of thankfulness than this evening.
1. As is befitting, we acknowledge the
courtesy and the hearty, eloquent welcome of the Hon. William J. Northen,
Governor of Georgia. We recognize and appreciate the courtesy of the
Executive in granting us the use of the State House. We return our thanks
for the hospitality extended us by Governor and Mrs. Northen for their
reception in their home and many marks of favor.
2. Our thanks are due and are given with warm
heart to Mayor Hemphill, the distinguished chief magistrate of this
prosperous "Gate City of the South," for his earnest words of hearty
welcome, and we assure him of our full appreciation of his personal
kindness and official courtesy.
3. The City Council of Atlanta, the Northern
Society of Georgia, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Protestant
Churches of Atlanta, the Confederate Veterans' Association, the O. M.
Mitchell Post, G. A. R., the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministers'
Evangelical Association, have all united, and, indeed, vied with each
other in extending us warm-hearted invitations and have surpassed their
offers of hospitality by the splendid manifestations of generosity,
watchful care for our interests, and unwearying attentions to our comfort
since we came into this city. To every one and all we are under a heavy
debt of gratitude. 4.
In coming hither we naturally expected to find our brethren of the Atlanta
Scotch-Irish Society receive us with their own true words of greeting, but
we did not know how large-hearted these brothers are. Now we know the
fact, and we find words weak to tell our feelings of gratitude.
5. The members of the press have distinguished
themselves in the services they have rendered to our present Congress, and
thus to the widened interests of our national organization, and we
acknowledge these peculiar services.
6. To the railroad companies and hotels we
acknowledge our indebtedness for assistance and favors granted and our
appreciation of those kindnesses.
7. With one deep note of thankfulness we bear
witness to the marked kindness of the citizens of this noble and
progressive city; many days and brighter may they all know in their happy
homes and in their growing town.
8. We deem it due to express our high
appreciation of the Fourth United States Artillery Band, whose judicious
selection of tunes, excellent execution, and high degree of training have
delighted the Congress and our audiences and reflect great credit on Mr.
George Lavallee, the bandmaster.
9. To our fathers' God, to our own and our
children's Father in heaven we now lift our humble but ever swelling
thanksgiving for the marvelous way he has guided, trained, and blessed our
race, for the services to this land and to humanity he has helped the
Scotch-Irish men and women to render, and for the many opportunities of
still higher work in the future to our beloved country and to the
suffering and downtrodden of every nation. And our prayer rises from
reverent spirits and believing hearts that the Lord will make us more
worthy of our God-guided ancestors and more fitted to honor him who is the
giver of every good and perfect gift.
Mr. President, with an abounding heart of
thankfulness to our fellows and the humble spirit of gratitude to Almighty
God, I move the adoption of these resolutions.
Col. J. W. Echols:
It had been my intention to say a few words by
way of epilogue before the curtain is rung down upon the pleasant drama
that has been enacted here during the last three days, but I will only say
that I truthfully and heartily indorse the resolutions which have been
read by Dr. Macintosh, and now second their adoption.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted.
On motion of Capt. Forbes, Judge S. T. Logan,
of Knoxville, was received as a member of the Society.
President Bonner:
This Congress will now stand adjourned, after
a brief prayer and benediction by Dr. Hall.
Dr. John Hall:
O God Almighty, our heavenly Father, the giver
of every good and perfect gift, we magnify and praise thee. The God of
providence and the God of grace, we thank thee for thy goodness to the
generations that have gone before us, and for the benefits and blessings
that have come to us; we pray thee that thou wilt give us Zealand
earnestness and wisdom for all the time to come, and enable us to transmit
to those who follow after us the benefits and the blessings that we have
ourselves enjoyed. Let thy favor rest upon this organization; bless and
guide and direct its affairs; care for all its members; let the influence
that it exercises be an influence wielded for good; receive our thanks for
the comfort and the enjoyment that we have had while we have been gathered
together here. Let thy blessing rest upon this city and state; let thy
blessing come upon the whole land. O God, make this a God-fearing and a
righteous nation, and let its influence for good be felt among all the
tribes and countries of the race. Whatever thou hast seen in us that is
sinful since we met together, do thou forgive us for the sake of Jesus,
our Lord and Redeemer, and may we be led unto him who is able to keep us
from falling, and finally present us before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. To the all-wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, world without end. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be, with us
all. Amen. |
