nt.]

* * * * *

THE ADOPTED CITIZEN

[Speech of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the 115th annual banquet of the
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, May 8, 1883. George W.
Lane, President of the Chamber of Commerce, presided, and announced as
the first regular toast: "The United States--the great modern
Republic--the home of a new cosmopolitan race; may those who seek the
blessings of its free institutions and the protection of its flag
remember the obligations they impose." The orchestra played "The
Star-Spangled Banner," and General Grant, who was called upon to
respond to this toast, was received with great enthusiasm.]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND
GUESTS:--I am very much obliged to your President for calling upon
me first, because the agony will soon be over and I shall enjoy the
misery of the rest of you. [Laughter.]

The first part of this toast--The United States--would be a voluminous
one to respond to on a single occasion. Bancroft commenced to publish
his notes on the History of the United States, starting even before
President Lane established this Chamber, which I think was something
over one hundred years ago. [Laughter.] Bancroft, I say, commenced
earlier, and I am not prepared to dispute his word if he should say that
he had kept an accurate journal from the time he commenced to write
about the country to the present, because there has been no period of
time when I have been alive that I have not heard of Bancroft, and I
should be equally credulous if President Lane should tell me that he was
here at the founding of this Institution. [Laughter.] But instead of
bringing those volumes of Bancroft's here, and reading them to you on
this occasion, I will let the reporters publish them as the prelude to
what I am going to say. [Laughter.]

I think Bancroft has finished up to a little after the time that
President Lane established this Chamber of Commerce, and I will let you
take the records of what he [Lane] has written and what he has said in
their monthly meetings and publish them as the second chapter of my
speech. And, gentlemen, those two chapters you will find the longest;
they will not amount to much more than what I have to say taking up the
subject at the present time. [Laughter.]

But in speaking of the United States, we who are native-born have a
country of which we may well be proud. Those of us who have