' consent, and forbade men to kiss
their wives on Sunday, the Cavalier was courting everything in sight,
and that the Almighty had vouchsafed great increase to the Cavalier
colonies, the huts in the wilderness being full as the nests in the
woods.

But having incorporated the Cavalier as a fact in your charming little
books I shall let him work out his own salvation, as he has always done
with engaging gallantry, and we will hold no controversy as to his
merits. Why should we? Neither Puritan nor Cavalier long survived as
such. The virtues and traditions of both happily still live for the
inspiration of their sons and the saving of the old fashion. But both
Puritan and Cavalier were lost in the storm of the first Revolution; and
the American citizen, supplanting both and stronger than either, took
possession of the Republic bought by their common blood and fashioned to
wisdom, and charged himself with teaching men government and
establishing the voice of the people as the voice of God.

My friend, 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
these colonies 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 son 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.
He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was
American renewed, and that in his homely form were first gathered the
vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government--charging it with such
tremendous meaning and so elevating it above human suffering that
martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life
consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing
the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands to
the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are
honored; and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and
to spare for your forefathers and for mine.

In speaking to the toast with which you have honored me. I accent the
term, "The New Sou