Loyalists’ Centennial Souvenir - 1887 - p33

Année
1887
Titre de l'article
CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES AND ORATION
Auteur
S. Jones, Esq., Mayor
Page(s)
33
Type d'article
Langue
Contenu de l'article
"I think we have to congratulate ourselves on having such a splendid day on which to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of our city and the landing of the Loyalists, and I feel sure that if the spirits of our Loyalist fathers can look down upon us they will thoroughly appreciate the entire proceedings by which the citizens of this city, and our friends from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and other places have tried to do honor to their memory—those brave men and women who for principle, who for love of king and country and the flag they had been born under — left everything to come to this city, which then presented nothing like its present appearance, but was nothing more than an almost barren rock with a few evergreens growing upon it. (Applause.) It is well now to honor those men who came here to make homes for themselves, for I have no doubt it was the loyal spirit and example they have left that has produced this vast Dominion of Canada which now reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and which will soon have a railway that will carry us from ocean to ocean over our own territory. And there is another reason why we should celebrate this day, a hundred years after our forefathers landed; the Loyalists came here with bitter feelings, and perhaps justly, rankling, in their hearts against their neighbors across the borders, who were then formed into the United States, but since that time all hard feelings have vanished. (Applause.) Who can forget the sympathy, kindness and practical help our friends across the border gave us in the great affliction that fell upon us only a few years since? Since that time it seems to me that all misunderstandings have passed away; we are now practically as one people, and the feelings enjoyed by one are the feelings enjoyed by the other (applause). And if there were any hard feelings still left, they must have vanished when the President of the United States was unfortunately assassinated; and if further proof were required that we are now as one nation, we have it in the presence of the representative of that great country, who is here on this platform to assist us in doing honor to the memory of those brave enemies of his sires, who came here and founded our city (cheers). And now, gentlemen, without taking up more of your time, I will call upon one of the oldest Loyalists present, a gentlemen well known to you all, and thoroughly identified with the interests of this city, the Lieut. Governor of this Province." (Great cheering.)