catholic generosity! [Continued
applause.]

ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR

VIRGINIA'S PART IN AMERICAN HISTORY

[Speech of Roger A. Pryor at the annual banquet of the New York
State Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, January 15,
1889. The President, Martin W. Cooke, introduced Justice Pryor in
these words: "The next in order is the benediction. There is no
poetical sentiment accompanying this toast, but if you will bear
with me I promise you learning, poetry, and eloquence. To that end
I call upon General Roger A. Pryor."]

MR. CHAIRMAN:--I don't know what I am to respond to. I have no
text; I have no topic. What am I to talk about? I am not only unlike
other gentlemen, taken by surprise, but I am absolutely without a
subject, and what am I to say? I don't know but that, as His Excellency
the Governor of this Imperial State expatiated, eloquently and justly,
upon the achievements and glories of New York, it might be pardoned me
in saying something of my own native State.

What has Virginia done for our common country? What names has she
contributed to your historic roll? She has given you George Washington.
[Applause.] She has given you Patrick Henry, who first sounded the
signal of revolt against Great Britain. She has given you John Marshall,
who so profoundly construed the Constitution formed by Madison and
Hamilton. She has given you Thomas Jefferson, the author of the
Declaration of Independence. [Applause.] She has given you Madison and
Monroe. Where is there such a galaxy of great men known to history? You
talk of the age of Pericles and of Augustus, but remember, gentlemen,
that at that day Virginia had a population of only one-half the
population of the city of Brooklyn to-day, and yet these are the men
that she then produced to illustrate the glory of Americans.

And what has Virginia done for our Union? Because sometime a rebel, as I
was, I say now that it is _my_ Union. [Applause.] As I have already said
it was a Virginian--Patrick Henry--kinsman, by the way, of Lord
Brougham, kinsman of Robertson, the historian, not a plebeian as some
would represent, and one nominated by George Washington to be Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States, which nomination was carried to
him by Light-Horse Harry Lee--I mention that because there is a notion
that Patrick Henry was no lawyer. He was a consummate lawyer, else
George Washington would never have propos