“It might be thought perhaps, my friends, that this rehearsal of the opinions of General Sherman and General Slocum, two of the greatest military leaders of our country, might have been more properly used here than on the dedication of a tablet somewhat, in its scope as a memorial, limited to your own State, but it has been my purpose, my friends, to illustrate General Sullivan as one of the most admirable representatives of his race; and when I have set before you a parallel drawn in the presence of General Sherman himself between the difficulties and the success of Sullivan’s march from Wyoming to the Genesee and Sherman’s own march to the sea, and have given you the opinions of both General Sherman and General Slocum, I have illustrated my proposition that of all the debts which America owes to Ireland, God bless her, General John Sullivan, in his varied talents, in that which he accomplished, in every spot and place in which we put him, is entitled to rank with the noblest and purest contribution which we, in America, have from the grand old Irish race. “My friends, my words are in substance ended. I have detained you longer than I meant to, but they who live around me could have told you that you have only to mention the name and memory of Major-General John Sullivan to set going any thoughtful student of American history who lives in the magnificent valleys of the Susquehanna, the Wyoming, and the Genesee. What we owe to this man we can never repay. “I am proud and happy to have been allowed to participate in the unveiling of such a tribute as this. As I said at the outset, I hope the day will come when every State House in this land will have one, and yet, when I think of what he was and what we owe him, I feel that no monument can make him greater than he is in the affections of our people a hundred and thirty years after his death. And yet I am proud for our own sake, for the uplifting of our own people, that we have thus recognized that which we know of his worth. I might have spoken in his behalf with truth the words of the great Roman: ‘_Exegi monumentum aere perennius_’—‘I have builded a monument more enduring than brass.’” Former Governor Lippitt was the next speaker, introduced by the Chairman as follows: “One of our invited guests, representing the Society of the Cincinnati, is obliged to go to a neighboring city within the next hour to deliver an address, and we will not have the pleasure of his company at our luncheon or the benefit of any words from him afterwards. I will therefore introduce him at once.