Permitted,
through your kindness, to catch my second wind, let me say that I
appreciate the significance of being the first Southerner to speak at
this board, which bears the substance, if it surpasses the semblance, of
original New England hospitality--and honors the sentiment that in turn
honors you, but in which my personality is lost, and the compliment to
my people made plain.
My friends, Dr. Talmage has told you that the typical American has yet
to come. Let me tell you that he has already come. Great types, like
valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of the
colonists, Puritans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their
purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a
century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first who
comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the
majesty and grace of this republic--Abraham Lincoln. He was the sum of
Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of
both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost.
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