Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/23

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 * We are met to honor all that was good and true and brave in John Boyle O'Reilly. When asked to call this public meeting for such a purpose, your Mayor could not but entertain the wish of so many citizens.

Mr. O'Reilly illustrated, I think, the principle of true Americanism: he stood for equality.

Personally, he has been thought rash. I have not always agreed with him, but his integrity has never been doubted; and the people, who do not confide easily, confided in him, because he truly believed what he sang in the most splendid of all his poems, at Plymouth, that

It is easy to stand for equal rights when we are not to be the losers. John Boyle O'Reilly stood up for equal rights when he had reached a high station and wealth. In the height of his power he proclaimed the good American doctrine that

"There are no classes or races, but one human brotherhood;

There are no creeds to be outlawed, no colors of skin debarred;

Mankind is one in its rights and wrongs,—one right, one hope, one guard,—

The right to be free, and the hope to be just, and the guard against selfish greed."

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the presiding officer of this meeting.