“The plan of operations had been agreed upon between Washington and the French Commander, and the conflict was laid out to be, as it should have been, the first great effort of the allied French and American forces against the British army of invasion.
“I am speaking to an audience whose youngest members should and probably do know more of the details of these military movements than I can ever hope to know.
“From first to last, down to the finest particular of necessary prevision, General Sullivan was more than ready. All that a commander could do to insure success, he had accomplished so well that the only criticism made of his actions was that he had seized the British works opposite the north end of the island one day ahead of time. At this, the French General who had expected a joint attack to be made the next day professed to believe his notions of military etiquette had been shocked, but, as no harm resulted and a distinct gain in time had been effected, he had small foundation for his complaint, which was soon practically abandoned.
“There had been an excellent opportunity to make the joint undertaking a magnificent success. If, as is now apparent, the attack had been made in the latter part of July as it might easily have been in view of Sullivan’s perfect preparations and the presence of the French fleet, it is probable that the war would have reached a complete and glorious close almost within sight of the ground upon which we stand today. Postponed as it was from day to day until August 10th, the British were given time to reinforce their fleet, hasten it to Newport, and there engage the French fleet in dilatory manœuvering which used up days of precious time and completely dissipated all hope of substantial assistance from the French warships. The expected, or that which should have been expected by the naval commanders, soon happened; many of us who have spent much time around here would have expected it to happen.
“About the twentieth of August, one of those storms for which the region of Point Judith is famous, set in with almost unexampled fury. Land and water forces were alike put out of condition for offensive or defensive operations. The French fleet limped away to Boston to refit, and Sullivan, deeply chagrined at the utter failure of his naval auxiliaries to render any assistance, set to work to protect his army and extricate it from a position made perilous by the departure of its entire marine support and the consequent desertion of most of his militia.
“The story of his great achievement in retiring his entire force in the face of a vastly superior English army, of the masterly retreat covered by his most skilfully selected position at Butts Hill, as I believe it is called—as to its proper name, I shall not attempt to correct a Rhode Island audience—a retreat effected finally so completely that not a man was left behind and not a single article lost, while, in the course of that retreat, signal and marked punishment was inflicted upon the British army, will ever read like a romance of model leadership, and, if General John Sullivan had no other memory, my friends, than of what he did within a radius of sixty miles of this Capitol, his fame could be no less great and no less enduring than it is, and, what is more, would be richly deserved.
“Thus briefly, as becomes my scanty time, I have sketched the work of John Sullivan to the close of 1778. I have not made the motive of my story clear if it has not already appeared that this man was greater in the hour of undeserved disappointment than most men in the exaltation of victory. Again and again, the fruits of deserved and brilliant success were held to his lips, only to be dashed away by the folly of the foibles of some weaker spirit necessarily entangled in his plans. Yet never for an instant did he yield to the despair and mortification which would have sunk less noble souls. Each disappointment seemed to but nerve him to stronger and more brilliant efforts. And herein, my friends, to my mind, is illustrated and should be made prominent one grand characteristic which we have taken from the noble Irish race. The patience under disappointment which Major General John Sullivan illustrates, the patience under disappointment which again and again was manifestly the fault of men to whom he never gave a word of rebuke or complaint, the steadfast iron determination with which he set to work instantly to repair the ruin that some, associated in common with him, had wrought, is the brightest leaf in the chaplet which America has put upon his grave.
“It is an honor to belong to that grand old race, aye, even to hold one drop of Irish blood in your veins, but, good friends all, with or without it, I am proud to testify to what Irish friendship, Irish loyalty and the matchless Irish courage can do. No man ever knew as I have known what Irish friendship is, no man ever knew as I have known what Irish hospitality is, no man ever knew as I have known what Irish loyalty and patience is, without bowing in humble respect to it, whether he drew his blood from France or from Russia, from America or from England, each one of which owes Ireland a measureless debt. And all who love truth in history and gratitude for priceless gifts received, will urge your Society onward every day and hour you labor in the work you have so well begun till every heroic son of this great line who has helped to build the fabric of American liberty shall have his rightful place in history and the laurels he has fairly won.
“I have now come to that which, in justice to Major General John Sullivan, I think should be related. I shall ask you to turn from the beautiful State in which you live to that far off region of beauty in which I have the honor to hold my home. In 1778 occurred in Wyoming that awful massacre whose horrors yet ring in the history of our country and in the hearts of the descendants of those who lost part of their families, who lost limb, who lost health, who were maimed, in that most horrible of savage invasions. Early in 1779 Congress, representing a country which had been shocked to the limit by those terrible outrages, passed a resolution of unlimited vigor, calling upon Washington to arrange for their punishment. It was suggested at first to Washington that General Gates should have the command, but Washington, whose knowledge of Indian warfare was complete, wanted General Sullivan, and to that officer was entrusted the conduct of that great fight.
“In the history of Indian warfare in this country there is nothing more successful, more thoroughly creditable to the commanding officer, than the history of what General John Sullivan and his command did in the then wilderness reaching from Wyoming to the Genesee; and today, think of him what you may, build to him tablets as beautiful as this, recall his manifestly skilful work in the State where you stand, and you cannot accord to him one half the veneration and the love which the citizens of the counties around me, now a million in number, feel towards General John Sullivan for the work which opened up that magnificent line of valleys unequalled in their fertility, and whose line of bordering hills to this day, one hundred and thirty years after, is resounding with thanksgiving and praise for what General John Sullivan did there.