Address by the Reverend George Lorimer DD of Chicago.

“I am here not as your orator but as your guest, not so much to speak as to listen – to listen to one man of poetic soul, Robert Collyer, eulogize another man of poetic genius, Robert Burns – and I am at present as a former citizen of Albany a life member of the St Andrew’s Society of this city, and as a Scotsman.  My father was a farmer on the Carrick border and he bred me up in decency and order.

Some years ago I visited the old Canongate cemetery in Edinburgh.   A venerable sexton led me among the graves.   He showed me where Dugald Stewart and Adam Smith were buried.  I enquired whether many people came to see their last resting place.   He replied in the negative but added that there was one green spot the people loved – the grave of Robert Fergusson.   I went to the simple and quiet home of the dead and I needed not the sexton to tell me that the headstone over that grave was reared by Robert Burns, and that he paid for it out of money earned by the Kilmarnock edition of his poems.  As I stood there I thought how natural it was that he cared for the memory of a dead brother poet should have his own memory perpetuated in bronze and marble.   The latest of these tributes we unveil today in this beautiful park – this recollection of Eden smiling on a great city as its home.   Well it is that in the heart of this poem, written in tree shrub and flower, by Albany – dear city, venerable yet ever young – there should be reared up the statue of a poet.  And, well it is, that from a woman’s heart, should proceed this generous gift; for women inspired his first song and his last and this woman’s monument may encourage some young unknown and timid bard in future years to sing.

There was much of the American in Burns.  He loved the principles of freedom liberty.  He was in ardour for the deliverance of the human race from oppression of every kind.   He was once asked to drink to the health of William Pitt, then the Prime Minister, and he declined.  He proposed in stead the health of “ a greater and better man – George Washington.”  While he sympathised with the French Revolution he was no friend of anarchy and terrorism.   This statue reminds me that we are in America and that America has adopted Goethe, Schiller and Burns and has raised tributes to their memory.   So America has accepted living Scotsmen and Germans and their duty – our duty is undying loyalty to her flag and institutions.   We have never, as a people, been faithless to our obligations and God forbids that any Scot should fail to support the government under which he lives.   I have always admired the independence of Burns.   He did not fawn on the polite society that received him in Edinburgh.   It is related of him that on his second visit to that city he was invited to dine with a nobleman.   Judge of his surprise when he was ushered into the servants’ hall.   He ate his meal quietly.   By and by he was called before a grand company and required to sing a song. Repressing his anger he sang ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’.  When he came to the verse:

Ye see yon birkie ca’d a Lord

Wha struts and stares and a’ that

Tho’ hundreds worship at his word

He’s but a coof for a’ that

He pointed to his host and closed,

For a’ that and a’ that

His ribbons star an’ a’ that

The man o’ independent mind

He laughs and mocks at a’ that

With these words he left the room.   This is the spirit of our poet. He was self-reliant and courageous.

This bronze image reminds us of this. See to it that you preserve your manhood.  When Jefrey saw him without knowing him, he looked, and friend touched him and said, “Ye may well look, that is Robert Burns”  So you may well look on this noble monument.   There it stands.   Like other things it will decay and perish, but the name of the poet will survive as long as Scotsmen live and as long as humanity shall treasure high thoughts and noble song.”

Dedication by Peter Kinnear; who was the organising force behind the project for a statue in Albany and whose grandson shared the unveiling.

“Honoured Sir and ladies and gentlemen.   In yielding up the trust committed to my country by the late Miss Mary McPherson, in her will dated March 14 1883, allow me to say a few words as to the donor, the goodly city which is to receive the gift and, the men and women who are here to do honour to the occasion.

First then, the donor: she was of humble parentage, trained in habits of industry and self-reliance in early youth.  While, not exactly what is known in these modern times as a strong minded woman, she had the full development and stern qualities necessary to worry through the battle of life successfully. And, she was of a temperament that was thoroughly practical. She, nor her brother, would not brook those around them who would not earn their own living.   In the midst of this plodding life there was a silver lining, and it was in music and poetry, primitive in some respects I admit, but still enjoyment that she would take pleasure.  In either reciting herself, or having others recite, some of Burns more humorous pieces that she was thoroughly appreciative of all that was good and great in her native land.   She loved to ponder over the scenes of her early youth.   But with Albany and its early history she was also familiar and fully desired to identify herself with it.   Hence the desire to perpetuate the reminiscence of childhood with those of old age.  Combining the two together, the result was the Burns monument which we, this day, look upon.

Now, as to our own dear Albany, the home of our monument that is here to the sweet singer of  “Albani”, or Caledonia.  Be assured, Sir, that I speak the sentiments of all Scotsmen in Albany when I say that in dedicating this monument we feel that the honour should be with the city as much as it is with the land of our birth.

The name of our good city was at one time the battle cry of Scottish soldiers in Scotland’s ancient battles and the bugle call for Albany has once again woke up the ancient spirit of the clans who have gathered from the East an from the West, the North and South – not to draw their swords in the defence of kings and princes but, to do honour to one who has contributed more to Scotland’s greatness than the titled heads that ever reigned upon the throne. We meet here to honour him whom God did honour by the great gifts that He bestowed upon Burns.   Not only Scotland but, the world, does honour to Burns memory.   He wrote in advance of his age, and for all time, when he penned these stray lines for freedom:

Then let us pray, that come it may

And come it shall for a’ that

That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth

May bear the gree an’ a’ that;

For a’ that an’ a’ that,

Our toils obscure an’ a’ that

The rank is but the guinea stamp

The Man’s the gowd for a’ that

I, now sir, as executor of the McPherson estate and on behalf of the Scotsmen of Albany present to your care as the representative of the park commissioners and through them the city of Albany, as by provision of the will, this statue of Robert Burns, hereafter to be known as the McPherson legacy to the city of Albany.”