“The Society is fortunate in having secured for the principal speaker today a gentleman who knows perhaps more about the life and works of General Sullivan than does any other in the United States; a statesman whose record is widely known, and whose voice has been heard in discussion of historical and other matters in the New York capitol at Albany on many occasions. The son of a former governor of New York, he has always been identified with New York institutions and New York laws. Through his efforts the Legislature of that State recently appropriated $10,000 for the purpose of erecting a suitable memorial to General Sullivan, and, while the purposes of that resolution have not yet been fulfilled, it will be but a short time before a fitting tribute is paid by the State of New York to the memory of Major General Sullivan. And the credit for that tribute will be due in large part to the gentleman I now have the honor to introduce, Col. David C. Robinson, of Elmira, N. Y.” Colonel Robinson spoke as follows: “_Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency the Governor, Members of the American Irish Historical Society, Ladies and Gentlemen_: I should do less than justice to the emotions of the hour if I did not, at the outset, express my high appreciation of and my profound thanks for the honor done me in the invitation from your Society to voice our mutual sentiments upon so important an occasion as this. It is an honor to be invited as a spectator to take part in such a ceremony as this; it is a higher honor to be accounted worthy even by a few to say a word on such an occasion; it is honor most of all that I have your unanimous invitation to say that which I may be able to in memory of one of the noblest and purest characters on whom the sun of history has ever shone. “It has been the habit of my life, my friends, to speak without a note; the professional training of many years has made it easier. I do remember many, very many things about Major General John Sullivan and his life; I do not remember all that I should mention, for the line is long, and I am, therefore, contrary to my usual custom, obliged to ask you to bear with me while I refresh my recollection from time to time with a memorandum of some of the most distinguished services with which this man’s life was filled, to the end that I may impress the lesson which speaks from this memorial, which speaks from the long-drawn procession of brave and good and kind deeds with which the life of the one whom we commemorate today is surrounded. “And first, before I enter on that which I would say of this memorial and of him to whose memory it is dedicated, I want to congratulate this Society on that which it has even in the few years of its existence accomplished, and on the labors, increased in volume every year, by which it makes known the Irish chapter in American history.