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 There seems to be a singular fitness in the fact, that so 
 many Huguenot descendants from various parts of the 
 United States, should be assembled this evening in the 
 Huguenot Church of New York, to commemorate the 200th 
 Anniversary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and to 
 listen with thrilled interest to the eloquent words in which 
 we have been told of the brave men and women, who became 
 exiles from their beloved France, rather than give up the 
 right to worship their God, according to the reformed doc- 
 trines, which they believed to be the true exposition of His 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 We are not assembled to commemorate that Revocation, 
 but rather to express our gratitude, that the silver lining of 
 the dark cloud which two centuries ago overshadowed the 
 exiles, has been turned to us, and we are now able to appre- 
 ciate the blessings which have resulted from the then 'ap- 
 parent chastening. Very deep was the gloom when the 
 cruel Edict of Revocation was proclaimed, preceded as it had 
 been by the bloody persecutions and dragonnades which 
 foretold it The children of Israel left Egypt laded with 
 the spoils thrust upon them by their oppressors in their 
 anxiety to be rid of a people for whose deliverance such dire 
 plagues had been visited upon Pharaoh and his people. Not 
 so with the Huguenot exiles. Thrust out of their country, 
 yet visited with severest penalties for endeavoring to go : 
 husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and 
 sisters torn apart from each other while endeavoring to com- 
 ply with the sentence of banishment: despoiled of their 
 property and goods : escaping by flight, as best they could : 
 in penury : with physical sufferings, not a tithe of which 
 has ever been told, or can ever be learned : the pious exiles, 
 bearing their heavy crosses, sought refuge in foreign lands: 
 
those who fled for homes to the new world, bravmg the 
 hardships of the w'ilderness, and the ferocity of wild beasts 
 and of savages not less ferocious than the beasts of the forests. 
 Their simple, humble faith in Him whom they had learned 
 to worship as Lord of Lords, and to serve as King of Kings, 
 gave them strength to bear the crosses, hoping that He who 
 had permitted such to be laid upon them, would in His own 
 good time, replace the crosses with crowns. We are gathered, 
 to express our gratitude to Him for the crowns. 
 
 Very abundant is our cause for such gratitude. The 
 religious and political liberty enjoyed in this land : the 
 j)rotection given by the laws : the prosperity wdiich in two 
 centuries has converted the wilderness into a garden, a 
 granary for the world : and the inflence which the Huguenot 
 exiles to America exercised in bringing about such religious 
 End political liberties, framing its laws, developing the re- 
 sources of the country, all speak for the character of those 
 who preferred exile with its hardships, to an abandonment 
 of their religious convictions. The descendants of the Hu- 
 guenots, while deploring the injuries which resulted to the 
 fair, country of their forefathers from the ruthless persecu- 
 tions and banishments, can now see how the dark cloud 
 which overshadowed the exiles in their flight, had hidden 
 in it a silver lining for the dissemination in other lands of 
 the arts, sciences, education, faithful obedience to righteous 
 civil laws, which the exiles carried with them : and for the 
 industry, sobriety, integrity, and conscientious observance 
 of religious duties, which characterized their forefathers into 
 whatsoever lands they went ; all of which impressed them- 
 selves upon all the peoples among whom they settled. 
 
 Dr. Baird in the Rise of the Huguenots, quotes Bishop 
 Jewel, as saying of the Huguenots who in 1564 took refuge 
 in England, " They are our Brethren, they live not idly. If 
 they have houses of us, they pay rent for them. They hold 
 not our grounds but by making due recompense. They beg 
 not in our streets, nor crave anything at our hands, but to 
 breathe our air, and to see our sun. They labor truly, they 
 live sparefully. They are good examples of virtue, travail, 
 
 
faith and patience. The towns in which they abide are 
 happy, for God doth follow them with his blessings." 
 
 Professor Tuttle, of Cornell University, in his History of 
 Prussia, says of the Emigration to that country, " The repeal 
 of the Edict of Nantes, and the expulsion of the Huguenots 
 opened the way for French exiles, who came in large num- 
 bers, were liberally treated, and gave a powerful impulse 
 to industry, above all in the finer mechanical arts. * * * 
 Besides the German scholars there was also at Berlin 
 a large number of French Protestant refugees who were 
 already distinguished in letters and science. Such were 
 James Lenfant, who was a fierce enemy of the Jesuits, and 
 wrote histories of the Church Councils ; Isaac Beausobre, who 
 is still known by his learned work on the IVEanichaens ; 
 Vignolles, who prepared a chronology of the Old Testament ; 
 and Lacroze,who made researches into the Coptic, and other 
 obscure tongues. These were all men of fervent piety, and 
 their Gallic wit, taste, and eloquence, agreeably seasoned 
 the intellectual diet of Berlin Society. * * A circum- 
 stance which will strike the attention of any person who 
 looks at the roll of the early members of the Academy, is the 
 large number of French names. It was a number too, 
 wholly out of proportion to the total strength of the French 
 immigration. Exact data are of course not available. The 
 refugees were dispersed throughout the Elector's dominions, 
 and the movement itself continued for many years, but on 
 any reasonable estimate, the ratio of scholars among the 
 exiles must excite amazement. It proves that Protestantism 
 in France, at least as represented by Protestants who fled 
 from France to Prussia, was not a low delusion of the igno- 
 rant populace, or, on the other hand, a mere fancy of shallow 
 and sceptical nobles, but an intelligent conviction on the 
 part of some of the most erudite men of the age ; men who 
 joined learning to piety ; and who, when banished from their 
 country, carried the zeal of scholars, as well as the faith of 
 Christians among the people who gave them an asylum. Some 
 among the refugees, such especially as Lenfant and Beausobre, 
 were pulpit orators, widely known for the fervor and elo- 
 
quence of their sermons. The civil service and the army 
 found employment for others. And even the artisans, who 
 naturally formed the greater number in every French 
 Colony, were not only among the best whom their own 
 country had' produced, but were also vastly superior in 
 sobriety, in intelligence, in skill, in the range of their tal- 
 ents, to the workmen of Prussia. It is said that over forty 
 new branches of industrial art were introduced by them." 
 
 Who can forget the influences exerted upon the Christian 
 world by Farel, Beza, Calvin, and many others who could 
 be named. The Zurich letters alone, containing the corre- 
 spondence of Calvin with the English Divines of that day, 
 shew the impress which he made upon the English Reformed 
 Church. Throughout the world, wherever the Protestant 
 Church is known, these Huguenot names take rank as peers 
 of all who labored in the cause of a reformed Christianity. 
 
 If there were no other record of Beza left, but that grand 
 Colloquy at Poissy, could any one fail to see the stamp which 
 he made upon the religious convictions of every thinking 
 people. 
 
 While the simple, yet sublime Liturgies of the Reformed 
 Churches continue to be the media through which Protes- 
 tants using a liturgical service, address their supplications 
 to God, no one can fail to see the influence exerted by Farel, 
 in framing a worship so beautiful, so humble, so consoling, 
 so ennobling. 
 
 The Grand Monarch had driven into exile his Huguenot 
 subjects : did he dream, how soon the Marshal de Schomberg, 
 one of their number, would be one of the illustrious Generals 
 under William of Orange, to vindicate by force of arms, 
 against himself, the great interests of Protestantism, and 
 finally force the author of the Revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, to terms of peace humbling to his pride, and disastrous 
 to his kingdom. 
 
 That revocation deprived France of so large a part of its 
 truly religious element, that little more than a century had 
 passed, ere the streets of Paris which two centuries before 
 had run red with blood of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
 
again streamed with blood shed by citizens of that same 
 cit}', who denying the existence of God, erected an idol, the 
 Goddess of Reason, and as two centuries previously their 
 forefathers had butchered Huguenots in the name of Faith, 
 now again butchered thousands in the name of this idol, the 
 symbol of all want of faith. We would vainly close our 
 minds to the convictions of reason, did we not see in the 
 horrors of those da^^s of the French Revolution, how, in 
 that country, the influence of the conservative, religious and 
 faithful Huguenots was wanting and missed. Had that 
 part of its population been retained, France would probably 
 have achieved political liberty, without the infamies of such 
 bloody sacrifices. 
 
 The study of the civil law, to this day, causes the Univer- 
 sities of Germany, to take rank among the first institutions 
 of the continent of Europe. And the introduction of a 
 knowlecge of such law, is attributed to the Huguenot refu- 
 gees in Prussia. Weiss, in his History of the French Pro- 
 testant refugees, gives the names of many who were ap- 
 pointed by the Elector of Brandenburgh, as Judges of 
 Colonies, and adds, " The Judges of the Colonies, several of 
 whom were able jurists, first introduced the principles of 
 Roman Law, with which French Legislation is deeply im- 
 bued, into German practice. Thence came that tendency to 
 civil equality, which shewed itself in Prussia very long 
 before the French Revolution of 1789, and which prepared 
 the brilliant part which was to be played by that Kingdom 
 in modern times." A century and a third later than this 
 emigration, a descendant of the Huguenots who fled to 
 South Carolina, while representing the United States at the 
 Court of Belgium, diligently pursued the study of such civil 
 law, as he perceived its great importance. Returning to the 
 United States, after serving a term in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, the Hon. Hugh S. Legare was appointed Attor- 
 ney-General of the United States, and by his able opinions, 
 especially on great questions of International Law, mani- 
 fested the very important influence exerted by the Hugue- 
 not refugees, in shaping the great Code of Laws under which 
 
6 
 
 so large a part of the Continent of Europe, now administers 
 justice. 
 
 In science, Desaguliers, descendant of an Huguenot exile, 
 a pupil of Newton, vindicated the confidence placed in him 
 by his illustrious teacher, and by his public lectures con- 
 tributed greatly to the wider dissemination, and better un- 
 derstanding of the philosophy of his preceptor. And Denis 
 Papin in 1767, worked out the problem of the adaptability 
 of steam, to the ordinary purposes of life, inventing the 
 steam engine, in fact. 
 
 It is a grand feature of the Hebrew people wherever scat- 
 tered, that they so care for their indigent, that a Jew beggar 
 is a rarity. The Huguenots sorely tried as they had been, 
 and despoiled as they were of property, very early began 
 associations for the relief of the more necessitous among 
 themselves, and the Hospital for Poor French Protestants, 
 in London, is a noble monument to their laudable desire to 
 support and care for their ovv^n needy and distressed. The 
 oldest charitable Society in Charleston, the South Carolina 
 Society, owes its institution, for similar purposes, to the 
 Huguenot refugees to that colony. 
 
 No one can study the development of the mechanical in- 
 dustries in England, Holland, Prussia, Ireland, and wherever 
 else these refugees found shelter, without perceiving the 
 marked influence and improvement which rapidly shewed 
 itself. In woolens, silks, glasses, linens, and other branches 
 too numerous to name, the inferior work of the several coun- 
 tries became converted into skilled labor. I will illustrate 
 this thought, by one fact only. When the Huguenots first 
 fled to England, the paper used in that Kingdom was of a 
 coarse, brownish character, but under the teaching and ma- 
 nipulation of these refugees, English paper has long since 
 become a synonym for excellence in that branch of manu- 
 facture. 
 
 Instances such as above alluded to are mentioned to shew 
 the Huguenot influence in other lands than our own. We 
 are here, however, to-night, for the more especial purpose, of 
 considering the influences exerted by them in the United 
 
States, and expressing our gratitude to Him who led them 
 into the wilderness of the new world, for the character which, 
 under His teachings, they brought with them, to impress 
 itself upon the growing institutions and prosperity of this 
 great country. 
 
 From the condition of things existing among the original , 
 settlers in the new world, we naturally cannot look for much 
 of written material furnished by themselves from which to 
 learn what was their earlier life in the Colonies. All, of 
 whatever nationality or denomination, were too engrossed 
 in the strtiggle for the preservation of life, to have time or 
 opportunity to leave much of written history connected with 
 themselves. We are consequently left to glean from public 
 records, from tradition, from .the accounts given by travellers 
 visiting them for trade, or other purposes, or from brief and 
 scattered memoranda to be found in old family Bibles, or 
 fragments of letters, what were their privations and toils, and 
 by what heroic exertions they finally triumphed over their 
 difficulties, and laid deep the broad foundation on which 
 our present liberties, privileges, civilization, and powerful 
 influence upon the other peoples of the world, have arisen. 
 
 These settlers came to a land where there was no law, save 
 such as they brought with them, and put into execution. 
 Whetlier Cavalier or Puritan, Dutch or Swede, Scotch, Irish, 
 Pallatine or Swiss, or other nationality, Walloon, Huguenot, 
 Quaker, Presbyterian, Churchman, Baptist or other denomi- 
 nation, they were thrown together in greater or lesser degree 
 to work out the problem of building up a code of laws, and 
 institutions which should ultimately enure for the common 
 benefit of all. With the differences of views, and prejudices 
 which necessarily were brought over by such various settlers, 
 there were, as was to be expected, many jars and contentions, 
 before the contact and commingling could unite into a har- 
 monious whole. Very far is it from my intention to intimate 
 that the Huguenot element alone, produced the grand cosmo- 
 politan people who now constitute the people of the United 
 States, and by their very cosmopolitanism worked out the 
 toleration, and religious and political liberties, which cliarac- 
 
8 
 
 terize, at this day the institutions, and laws of the United 
 States. But I do mean, distinctly to claim, that the charac- 
 teristics of the Huguenot element, did contribute very mate- 
 rially to bring about such result. 
 
 W. R. Williams in his lectures on Baptist history, says, 
 '"So of the French Protestant body, how noble is the great 
 record of the French Huguenots. How much did they 
 suffer at home ; and how blessed was the influence which 
 they bore abroad to Prussia and Holland, to England and 
 to Scotland, to Ireland and to our own North America. Not 
 long since a Frenchman of science recorded his sense of the 
 Divine nemesis, that among the soldiers who pressed the 
 siege of Paris around the writer's place of study, so many 
 were under the ba)iners of Germany, serving against France 
 as the children of Huguenot exiles that Louis XIV. had 
 hounded and peeled, returning in God's mysterious arrange- 
 ments to plague the land where their forefathers had been 
 so cruelly treated." 
 
 It will be interesting to review very briefly, some of the 
 characteristics of the Huguenot exiles to America. " In 1686 
 a small French colony organized itself at New Oxford. The 
 same year a French church was founded at Boston, and ten 
 years after received as pastor a refugee minister of France, 
 named Daille." At new Rochelle, one of the earliest acts of 
 the immigrants was the erection of a church. "A small wooden 
 building was first erected. The second Huguenot Church 
 was built of stone. * * While they were building the 
 church every one was anxious to contribute something 
 to its progress. Females assisted, by carrying mortar in 
 their aprons, and stones in their hands." That first wooden 
 church was probably built before the Revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes. In Charleston, South Carolina, the first 
 colony was one of about ninety persons, sent out by Charles 
 II. in 1680, arriving at that town in the early spring of the 
 year, when as yet there was not a score of dwellings erected. 
 This colony settled on the banks of the Cooper River in the 
 vicinity of the new town. There is no positive evidence 
 when they erected a church, but in 1681, a lot in the town 
 
9 
 
 was granted, and on the margin of the grant, it is desig- 
 nated " ffrench Church," although the grant was to an in- 
 dividual, since under the then laws of the Province, while 
 seven persons could organize a congregation, yet the land 
 must be held in trust. Every circumstance to be learned from 
 contemporaneous records, seems to indicate, that a French 
 Protestant Church was organized in Charlestown, in the 
 early spring of 1681, and that the congregation worshippped 
 on the spot now occupied by the Huguenot Church of 
 Charleston, and have continued so to do from 1681 to the 
 present day. When the larger immigration, after the revoca- 
 tion, took place, the more recent comers, most probably, 
 found this congregation already organized, and a building 
 already erected in which its worship was conducted. The 
 new comers began to colonize, very speedily, from Charles- 
 town, and almost immediately ensuing, we find three other 
 congregations organized, one on the Eastern bank of the 
 Cooper River, known as Orange Quarter, one on the West- 
 ern bank, known as St. John's Berkley and one at James 
 Town on the Santee River. In December, 1700, Lawson, 
 travelling along the Santee, finds the pious Huguenots 
 returning on Sunday, from their church, to be reached only 
 by many miles of travel, along rough roads, through dense 
 swamps, and across deep creeks, passed by the canoes or 
 periaugers kept at these creeks for such purposes. 
 
 In this Huguenot Church of New York, successor of the 
 original Pine Street Church, and on an occasion such as the 
 present, we can almost fancy we hear the tramp of the new 
 Rochellers coming along the road, as they journey to com- 
 mune in that venerated Church of their Fathers, and we 
 listen with rapt attention for the 60th Psalm of Beza and 
 Marot, with which they accompanied their march. We can 
 almost see their wagons encamped around the walls of the 
 church, with parents and children, young and old, awaiting 
 the rising sun, to commence their humble prayers, and 
 return their grateful thanks at being able to assemble for 
 the worship of God according to their simple ritual, without 
 fear, or contradiction. 
 
10 
 
 And while listening to the march of the new Rochellers, 
 there comes to our ears, the echo from the far off Church in 
 Charlestown, " whither the Huguenots on every Lord's Day 
 gathered from their plantations of the Cooper, and taking 
 advantage of the ebb, and flow of the tide, they might all be 
 regularly seen, the parents with their children whom no 
 bigot could now wrest from them, making their way in light 
 skiffs, through scenes so tranquil, that silence was broken 
 only by the rippling of oars, and the hum of the flourishing 
 village at the confluence of the Rivers." 
 
 The recorded wills and deeds of many immigrant Hugue- 
 nots of South Carolina bear evidences of zeal for tlieir 
 Churches, and their poor, by bequests or conveyances of 
 lands for such purposes. 
 
 Elias Horry, the emigrant, by his will devised a tract of 
 land of about five hundred acres, for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing a free school in tlie Parish in which he resided. 
 Somewhat later, Benjamin Faneuil erected and donated to 
 the City of Boston, for public purposes, the Hall, which has 
 become historical under the soubriquet of the " Cradle of 
 Liberty." 
 
 The author of the Huguenots says : " Wherever the Hugue- 
 nots settled they were among the most estimable citizens." 
 Weiss adds : " The American Colonies were largely remu- 
 nerated for the wisely generous hospitality, by the services 
 which the exiles rendered them." And the first writer, 
 assigns a reason, which is so just as to commend itself to all 
 impartial minds : " They were not adventurers in search of 
 wealth, they were not men who fled their native country 
 after having lost for.tune and reputation ; but high hearts, 
 fervent in zeal for religion, and resolved never to surrender 
 their consciences to the imperious calls of Government or the 
 vengeance of monarchs." 
 
 The brief allusion made to the simple piety, and to the 
 interest in education, and the promotion of the public good^ 
 are but intended as illustrations of the characteristics of the 
 Huguenots, and which impressed them for the common weal, 
 upon all the communities in which they were intermingled. 
 
11 
 
 But in addition to these, there was one characteristic which 
 was destined to bear very abundant and lasting fruit upon 
 American soil. The very determination, born of their reli- 
 gion, to resist all attempt to restrain or coerce their religious 
 worship, or subject their consciences to subjection, wrought 
 in the Huguenot mind a true knowledge of a great political 
 liberty, and as they asserted this political liberty at La 
 Rochelle and Montauban, so they carried it with them 
 wheresoever they went, and especially brought it to the Colo- 
 nies of North America. Here while asserting no peculiar 
 rights or privileges, they were steadfast and unbending in 
 the claim to an equal participation in the fullest degree with 
 all other colonists of whatever nationality or creed. This 
 claim, made while the wars of Louis XIV were so greatly 
 disturbing the peace of Europe, and inflaming the national 
 prejudices of the other Provincial settlers, was yet so just, 
 and so addressed itself to the English Government, as well 
 as to the Colonists themselves, that eventually it resulted in 
 their being accorded the very fullest participation in every 
 right, franchise, privilege or advantage enjoyed by every 
 other class of Colonists. And the inflexible patriotism with 
 which, in all the English and French, Spanish or Indian 
 wars conducted in North America, the Huguenot descend- 
 ant, embraced and supported the Government of England, 
 fully vindicated that Government in the wisdom of its course 
 to them. While the almost universal adoption of the patriot 
 side in the war of the Revolution, told in strongest terms of 
 the true conception of political liberty with which the 
 Huguenot exile had been imbued by his religious teachings, 
 and had brought with him, to be practiced when occasion 
 should require. 
 
 It would be a theme of deep interest to dwell upon the 
 influences which the Huguenot descendants exerted, in as- 
 sisting their fellow colonists to work out the problem of the 
 republican government, which the revolutionary war has 
 created as a great palladium for human liberty, upon all 
 mankind. But time admonishes that I can but briefly state 
 a few facts, as evincing this. " Three men. Presidents of the 
 
12 
 
 old Congress which conducted the United States through 
 the revolutionary war, were descendants of French Protest- 
 ant refugees. Henry Laurens of South Carolina. John Jay 
 of New York. Elias Boudinot of New Jersey." The first 
 Chief Justice of the State of New York, and the first Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was John 
 Jay. In nothing was the character of Gen. Francis Marion, 
 more illustrious, than in his noble stand at the Jackson- 
 borough Assembly in South Carolina in 1781, when he re- 
 sisted the sequestration laws against the Tories of that State: 
 a resistance made when a price was set by the British upon 
 his own head ; when he was hunted with unsparing malig- 
 nity as the Swamp Fox, whom to destroy was an act of most 
 laudable warfare ; when his own property was lying so de- 
 vastated, that not a building was standing, nor a bushel of 
 food was grown, and when the troops which he commanded 
 had been so hounded and peeled, as had been done to his 
 ancestors by Louis XIV, that they did not have a sufficiency 
 of clothing to be able to appear on parade, for very decency 
 sake. Gabriel Manigault above the age of 75 years and 
 incapable of bearing arms, had placed the whole of his for- 
 tune, over $200,000, at the command of his State, and when 
 in 1779 Prevost invaded South Carolina, and appeared be- 
 fore the lines of (Charleston, this aged patriot not only 
 shouldered his own musket and repaired to the trenches, 
 but took in his hand with him his little grandson, Joseph 
 Manigault, a lad of 14, to offer their lives if necessary, for 
 the maintenance of their country's liberties. 
 
 Wherever commerce is known throughout the civilized 
 world the eminent services of Mathew Fontaine Maury, a 
 Huguenot descendant, is recognized in the Signal service, 
 holding out to those who go down to the deep, the warning 
 of danger, and foretelling from whence it threatens. In 
 him, the Huguenot influence, is felt not alone in his own 
 America, but throughout the nations of the earth. 
 
 He is said to be a benefactor of the whole Human family, 
 who will cause an oar of corn to grow, where else it was 
 sterile, and in his scientific development of the phosphate 
 
13 
 
 rocks so long buried and unknown for useful purposes in the 
 earth, St. Julien Ravenel, has given untold millions to rise 
 up and call him blessed. 
 
 In manufactures, arts, sciences, education, religious earnest- 
 ness and toleration, in laws, and in the steadfast perseverance 
 for the promotion of civil and political liberty, the Huguenot 
 descendant has so impressed himself upon the world, and 
 especially upon the United States, that we are not only 
 justified in claiming it for that people that they have exer- 
 cised a most potent influence, but to fill us this evening with 
 gratitude that under the dark cloud which overshadowed 
 him in his flight, we are now able to see the bright silver 
 lining, and be grateful to Him who led him forth, with 
 characteristics so grand, so simple, so elevating. 
 
 We have listened with deepest interest to the eloquent 
 language in which we have been told by the eminent 
 author of the rise of the Huguenots, of men and women so 
 courageous and brave ; and to Dr. Henry M. Baird, not only 
 we of Huguenot descent, but all who love their country, and 
 their country's good, all who delight in seeing the good 
 which is in human nature brought into light, are indebted 
 in a great debt of gratitude. 
 
 As representing the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, 
 I ask permission, not only, cordially to second the resolu- 
 tions already offered, but in asking their adoption to ask the 
 adoption of that which I will now read : 
 
 Resolved, " That the warm thanks of this assembly and of 
 the Huguenot Society of America are hereby tendered to 
 Professor Henry M. Baird, D. D., for the very able, learned 
 and striking address, to which we have just listened, and 
 that a copy be requested for publication by the Society." 
 
 Dr. Baird : In the name of the Huguenot descendants of 
 South Carolina, permit me to offer and pray your acceptance 
 of this unassuming little floral bouquet. It presents to the 
 eye, no gay exhibition of colors, nor would it attract especial 
 attention- at an horticultural exhibition. But as the virtues, 
 worth and qualities, which characterized the Huguenot, 
 
14 
 
 were modest, and unassuming, exerting their quiet, but gen- 
 tle and determined influences among those with whom they 
 commingled, from the intrinsic value of the qualities, and 
 not from any show. So this little bouquet grown and gath- 
 ered in our sunny land, may be considered as typical of our 
 forefathers' noble qualities. Scatter these little blossoms 
 among your papers, and day after day and week after week, 
 you will find the delicate perfume permeating all your 
 papers, and quietly imparting that fragrance, so touchingly 
 told by Ireland's gifted poet son : 
 
 " Like the vase in which roses liave once been distilled, 
 You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will. 
 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 
 
 In this little tribute, we desire to exhibit to you, person- 
 ally, our thanks for the noble language in which you have 
 told us of noble men, the Huguenots. Your words have 
 deeply impressed upon us the truth of the beautiful thought 
 so aptly expressed by a favorite son of New England : 
 
 " Lives of great men all remind us, 
 
 We can make our lives sublime. 
 And, departing, leave behind us. 
 
 Footprints on the sands of time ; 
 Footprints, that perhaps another, 
 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main ; 
 A forlorn, despondent brother, 
 
 Seeing, shall take heart again." 
 
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011 55^ '♦^ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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