Excerpt from the Evangeline Speech
....Here beneath this oak; Evangeline waited for her lover,
who never came. It is a spot made immortal by Longfellow 's poem, but
Evangeline is not the only one who has waited here in disappointment.
Where are the schools you have waited for your children to have, which
have never come? Where are the roads and highways that you send your
money to build, which are now no nearer than before? Where are the
institutions to care for the sick and the disabled? Evangeline wept
bitter tears in her disappointment, but they lasted only through a
single lifetime. Your tears in this country, around this oak; have
lasted for generations. Give me the chance at last to dry the tears of
those who still weep her....