Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/24

18 Mayor Hart then gracefully introduced the Chairman of the evening, Hon..

It is apparent in the faces of all before me, the spontaneous feeling of the heart that has called together this assemblage to-night in these vast numbers to pay a tribute of our respect and a token of our affection and esteem for the great and good man whose untimely death we deplore. For twenty years he has been among us, one of us, toiling in his daily toil, rejoicing in his hours of festivity and mirth, attending to all the duties of a citizen, and all the duties of a man. We knew, we felt him, and he grew to what he was amidst us; we saw the whole of it, and we recognized the brightness of his career, the fulness of his mind, and the lofty heights to which he reached. I would speak to you particularly of him as a citizen of the United States. He came here, and his first step upon landing on these shores was to embrace the opportunity of becoming a naturalized citizen. The principles of our Constitution, and the principles which mark our social life, the freedom, the order, the method, the rewards of industry, all broke upon his mind, and cheered and enchanted him with American institutions.

Had he been George Washington, Sam Adams, or John Hancock, he could not have loved more the