o the
American people was, as your President has so ably said, the inestimable
lesson of complete civil and religious liberty. It would be honor enough
for this stock to have been the first to put on American soil the public
school, the great engine for grinding out American citizens, the one
institution for which Americans should stand more stiffly than for aught
other. [Great applause.]

Whenever America has demanded of her sons that they should come to her
aid, whether in time of peace or in time of war, the Americans of Dutch
stock have been among the first to spring to the aid of the country. We
earnestly hope that there will not in the future be any war with any
power, but assuredly if there should be such a war one thing may be
taken for certain, and that is that every American of Dutch descent will
be found on the side of the United States. We give the amplest credit,
that some people now, to their shame, grudge to the profession of arms,
which we have here to-night represented by a man, who, when he has the
title of a Major-General of the Army of the United States [Thomas H.
Ruger], has a title as honorable as any that there is on the wide earth.
[Applause.] We also need to teach the lesson, that the Hollander taught,
of not refusing to do the small things because the day of large things
had not yet come or was in the past; of not waiting until the chance may
come to distinguish ourselves in arms, and meanwhile neglecting the
plain, prosaic duties of citizenship which call upon us every hour,
every day of our lives.

The Dutch kept their freedom in the great contest with Spain, not merely
because they warred valiantly, but because they did their duty as
burghers in their cities, because they strove according to the light
that was in them to be good citizens and to act as such. And we all here
to-night should strive so to live that we Americans of Dutch descent
shall not seem to have shrunk in this respect, compared to our fathers
who spoke another tongue and lived under other laws beyond the ocean; so
that it shall be acknowledged in the end to be what it is, a discredit
to a man if he does not in times of peace do all that in him lies to
make the government of the city, the government of the country, better
and cleaner by his efforts. [Great applause.]

I spoke of the militant spirit as if it may only be shown in time of
war. I think that if any of you gentlemen, no matter how peaceful you
may naturally be,