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Tohn Ericson
whole of that American fleet. It was a great service to his country, but it
was only made possible by and on account of the treaty then in force, which
had been made by the Government of Sweden twenty-nine years before, at
the invitation of the then
reigning King Gustaf III.
9 9 ’ 9 9
On the occasion of the .
celebration of the 250th an-
niversary of the first land-
ing of the Swedes on the
Delaware, held in Minne-
apolis, Minn., Sept. 14,1888,
the chief orator of the festi-
val, Mr. W. W. Thomas,
United States Minister to
Sweden, said:
“When our forefathers rose
in arms to throw off the yoke of
Great Britain, in that long struggle
of the revolution, that time that
tried men’s souls, let not America
forget that next after our ally,
France, it was the gallant King-
dom of Sweden, that, first among
the nations of the world, recog-
nized our new-born republic, made
with us a treaty of friendship, and
welcomed us into the great sister-
hood of nations.
“We, of this generation, can
never forget the incidents of the JOHN ERICSON
great American Rebellion, that
Titanic contest that for four years raged over the continent. We can never forget our
bright days of victory, nor our dark and gloomy days of defeat and disaster, when everything
that was dear and sacred to us as a nation seemed trembling in the balance. Shall we ever
forget one memorable morning when the rebel ram, Merrimac, steamed out of Norfolk harbor,
and, with her prow of iron, came down upon our wooden walls of defence, lying at anchor at
Hampton Roads ? How cruelly that monster iron-clad gored one after another of our brave
ships to the death, w’hile the shot from our cannon rattled off her coat of mail harmless as
hailstones. How bravely went down the good ship Cumberland, with the stars and stripes
still floating at her masthead, and with three hundred immortals on board, who fired the last
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