{"id":"01KG8AM4MC9BRGFQX5SAJ1071H","cid":"bafkreicmas5vm4cuxxcjmsx3u5xahpyuduzhf3wawlwbkflobax5bym3zq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12226,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.988Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":12163,"text":"                                 A NOTE\r\n\r\n\r\nA member of the Burgundy, possessing an unusual library of Americana,\r\nwhich he is at the greatest pains and expense continually augmenting,\r\nthus evincing a singular interest in his country, but who, singularly\r\nenough, never votes, leaving that function to men wiser than himself (so\r\nhe puts it), and who for this and the like eccentricities is familiarly\r\nknown at the Burgundy as the philosopher; to this gentleman I submitted\r\nin manuscript my sketch of the Dean. He did not disapprove of the\r\nsketch, but pointed out one little oversight, as he civilly called it.\r\n‘In your mention of the ribbon of the Society of the Cincinnati, or\r\nrather in Colonel Josiah Bunkum’s mention of it, you in your cursory way\r\ntoo severely tax the information of the general reader should you have\r\nany. Walk Broadway from Times Square to the Battery, and could you\r\ninterrogate every man you should meet, with--“Excuse me, but pray, sir,\r\nwould you be kind enough to tell me the reason why the blue ribbon of\r\nthe Cincinnati is bordered with white?” I warrant you not ten of those\r\ntens of thousands would be able to answer you. You might as well\r\ninterrogate them as to the exact form of the insignia of the old Spanish\r\nOrder of the Knights of the Holy Ghost.’\r\n\r\n‘I see your drift,’ said I, amused at his closing allusion; ‘some sort\r\nof note to the passage is needed. And who better qualified to supply it\r\nthan yourself, my dear sir, with your fine library of Americana?’\r\n\r\nHe replied that he would be happy so to do, and the following somewhat\r\nsimplified dissertation is the result, which is given, as I rather\r\nrashly engaged, without alteration or curtailment, and is very\r\ncharacteristic of the Burgundy’s eccentric philosopher.\r\n\r\nIn the ribbon of the Cincinnati, the white bounding the blue\r\ncommemorates the French alliance during the War of Independence. At the\r\nfounding of the Society, France was a monarchy, and its natural colour\r\nwas that of the Bourbons--white. Eligible to the order were all\r\ncommissioned officers of the Continental army and navy. Eligible to be\r\nlife-members were also the admirals and captains of the French fleet,\r\nco-operating with the colonists in the war, as well as the generals and\r\ncolonels of the allied French army, and to these in especial compliment\r\nwas sent the medal of the Society. As to the Continental officers,\r\nmembership was declared thereby.\r\n\r\nForthwith upon its establishment the Society encountered much adverse\r\ncriticism, and from some noted public characters, who being civilians\r\nwere ineligible to membership. Ere long the violent democratic crusade\r\nbeginning in France, sympathy intensified this criticism into popular\r\nhostility. Some members of the order resigned; and even the staid mind\r\nof Washington, the General-President of the Society, was swayed on\r\ngrounds of prudence to question the expediency of maintaining it. But,\r\ntaking in sail, as it were, the Society rode out the tempest; and now\r\nfor years has been the least demonstrative of bodies.\r\n\r\nAs at the outset, it intermeddled not with political parties, and\r\nrefrained, among other things, from agitating for augmenting pensions,\r\nits members long content with the poor pittance the new government with\r\ndifficulty at last provided; so throughout it has never deviated from\r\nits one main principle, the priestly one of keeping alive the sacred\r\nfire of patriotism.\r\n\r\nIf the Society of the Cincinnati, a heritage from the Fathers, be really\r\nworthy of a respect bordering upon reverence, it is of the sort that the\r\nCatholics pay to the bones of the saints; for, indeed, this venerable\r\ninstitution survives but as a relic.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWC2W94YTEFERZ28B19Z","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM4MB6FKSEAQ3KMYA33J4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.276Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.429Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}