Dedicatory Address by William Allan Neilson - President of Smith College

A hundred and sixty years ago, on the spot where we now stand lay in the midst of a wilderness through which roamed bands of savages. No European had ever seen it, save an occasional wandering Frenchman.   At that date there was born in a small cottage in the southwest of Scotland a boy who never travelled as far as two hundred miles from his birthplace, and who died in middle life a petty officer in the excise.   Today, in the heart of a great cosmopolitan city, standing where once was wilderness, a group of that obscure Scot's countrymen have met to dedicate a monument raised in his likeness.   What is the meaning of this extraordinary event?  Why after so long a stretch of time, four thousand miles away, should we be standing beside this statue cast in immortal bronze, in honour of that peasant?