re people go
to spend money. You will find there is not one in ten who will be able
to tell you that there the Hessian was crushed, and foreign bayonets
forever driven from the soil of New York. [Applause.] Ask about
Brandywine, the place where Lafayette shed his young blood, where a
little handful of American troops were defeated, yet, although they were
defeated, broke the force of the English army for one critical year. Put
the word Brandywine in one of your public schools, and you will see that
the pupils laugh at the funny conjunction of the words "brandy" and
"wine," but they can tell you nothing about the history which made the
name famous. It seems to me it is dangerous to have your children
growing up in such ignorance of the past. [Applause.] How much did they
know here about the day when, a short time since, you celebrated the
battle of Haarlem Heights, where the British were shown that to land on
American soil was not everything? Is it quite safe for your children to
grow up in ignorance of your past, while you are looking down upon the
century of the future? The great institution we are hoping for in the
future is to carry this New England culture above the mere mathematics
of life, and to incorporate into all education that nobler culture which
made the men who made the Revolution, which made the men who have
sustained this country. [Applause.] We shall ask for the solid
assistance of all the Forefathers' stock in the country to carry out
this great work of national education, and I am quite sure, from what I
have seen here to-night, that we shall not ask in vain. [Applause.]

I ought to apologize for speaking so long. I am conscious of the fact
that I am a fraud, and I am nothing but a fraud. [Laughter.] The truth
is, gentlemen (I say this as I am sitting down), I have no business to
be here at all. I am not a Pilgrim, nor the son of a Pilgrim, nor the
grandson of a Pilgrim; there is not one drop of Pilgrim blood in my
veins. I am a "forefather" myself (for I have six children), but I am
not the son of a forefather. I had one father; most men have [laughter];
I have two grandfathers, I have four great-grandfathers, but I have not
four-fathers. [Laughter.] I want to explain, now, how all this happened,
because something is due to me before you put me out of the room. Like
most men, I had eight great-great-grandfathers--so have you; so have
you. If you run it up, I have got sixty-four great-grandfathers
of