ph, which was until then nothing but a heroic effort on our
part. [Cheers.] I do not know that the sixth of February has anywhere
been honored in any due proportion to the Fourth of July; but for my
part, as an humble individual, from the earliest moment I have done all
in my power to show my homage to that day, for on that day I was born.
[Laughter and applause.]

Now, we talk the most and must feel the most and with great propriety,
of the presence of our French and of our German aids, and of our own
presence at the battle of Yorktown and the surrender. But what would
that occasion have amounted to, either in the fact of it or in the
celebration of it, if the English had not been there? [Laughter.] You
may remember the composure of the hero that was going to the block and
felt that there was no occasion for hurry or confusion in the attendant
crowd, as nothing important could take place until he got there
[laughter]; and so, in this past history and in the present celebration,
we recognize that it is not a question of personal mortification or of
personal triumph--not even of national mortification or of national
triumph. This was one of the great battles of the world, in which all
the nations engaged, and all other nations had an everlasting interest
and one through which they were to reap an everlasting good. [Applause.]

And I would like to know if the granddaughter of George III has ever had
from her subjects, British or Indian, any sweeter incense than has just
now been poured out from the hearts of the American people, who freely
give that homage to her virtues as a woman that they deny to her sceptre
and her crown as a queen. [Applause.] Who would not rather be a great
man than a great king? Who would not rather be a great woman than a
great queen? [Applause.] Ah, is there not a wider sovereignty over the
race, and a deeper homage from human nature than ever can come from an
allegiance to power? And for woman, though she be a queen, what personal
power in human affairs can equal that of drawing a throb from every
heart and a tear from every eye, when she spoke to us as a woman in the
distress of our nation? [Applause.]

It was a very great thing for France to make the Treaty of Alliance and
the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with a nation that, as yet, had
received no acceptance from the powers of the earth. And when we
remember that France, in the contests of a thousand years, had found
England no unequal matc