Gentlemen, that is the attitude of old Virginia, the Old Dominion, as we
proudly call her, and as such I am sure you will pardon her, because
when she was in the Union she never failed you in any emergency; when
you were menaced by the invasion of the British, it was Winfield Scott
and the Cockade Corps of Virginia that repelled the enemy from your
shores. Old Virginia has always been true to the Union, if you blot from
her history that recent episode which I say you have blotted generously
from your memory, and she from hers; we stand now with you, and I have
personal testimony of the fact, because coming among you, not only an
utter stranger, and having against me natural prejudices as a rebel,
nevertheless, I have been received in the State of New York with nothing
but courtesy and kindness. Mr. Benjamin, in England, is no parallel
instance, because he went among a people who sympathized with the
Rebellion, and who, if they had dared to strike would have taken sides
with the Rebellion, but I came here to those who naturally would have
repelled me, but instead of rejecting me, they have kindly taken me to
the bosom of their hospitalities and have rewarded me infinitely beyond
my merits; and to them, and especially to my brother lawyers of the
State of New York, I feel the profoundest gratitude, in attestation of
which I trust that when I go, my bones may rest under the green sod of
the Imperial State.
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