dollar to do it, and when it was proposed to commend the bonds of the
United States to the bankers of the world by placing upon them the
indorsement of Massachusetts [applause]; to remember that never has New
England learned to articulate the letters that spell the word
"Repudiation." [Great applause.]

To those members of the human family who are disposed to entertain too
high an estimate of themselves there is something aggravating in the
extreme humility and sensitive self-depreciation of the real New
Englander.

And the virtues of New England are all the more offensive because they
are exhibited in such a way as to take from her enemies the comfort that
grows out of a grievance. Said a Chicago wife, "It is real mean for
Charlie to be so good to me; I want to get a divorce and go on the
stage; but he is so kind I cannot help loving him, and that is what
makes me hate him so." When there comes the news that some far-off
region is desolated by fire, or flood, or tempest, or pestilence, the
first thing is a meeting in the metropolis of New England, and the
dispatching of food and funds and physicians and nurses; and the
relieved sufferers are compelled to murmur, "Oh, dear, it is too bad! We
want to hate them, and they won't let us." [Applause.]

One can manage to put up with goodness, however, if it is not too
obtrusive. The honored daughter of Connecticut, the author of "Uncle
Tom" and "Dred," now in the peaceful evening of her days,[11] has said,
"What is called goodness is often only want of force." A good man,
according to the popular idea, is a man who doesn't get in anybody's
way. But the restless New Englanders not only have virtues, but they
have convictions which are perpetually asserting themselves in the most
embarrassing manner. [Applause.] I pass over the time, two centuries
ago, when Cromwell and Hampden, those New Englanders who have never seen
New England, made themselves exceedingly offensive to Charles I, and
gave him at last a practical lesson touching the continuity of the
spinal column.

Later, when our fellow-citizens desired to "wallop their own niggers,"
and to carry the patriarchal institution wherever the American flag
went, they were naturally irritated at hearing that there was a handful
of meddling fanatics down in Essex County who, in their misguided and
malevolent ingenuity, had invented what they called liberty and human
rights. [Applause.] Presently, when it was proposed (under th