OR ATI ON
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
CITY GOVERNMENT
AND
CITIZENS OF BOSTON,
IN
MUSIC HALL, JULY 5, 1875.
' BY
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
BOSTON:
ROCKWELL AND -CHURCHILL, CITY PRINTERS,
No. 39 ARCHI STREET.
1875.  
CITY' OF BOSTON.
IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, July 6, 1875.
Ordered, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to Rev. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE for the very interesting and instructive Oration delivered by him before the
municipal authorities on the occasion of the observance of
the ninety-ninth anniversary of the Declaration of American Indepenldence; and that he be requested to furnish a
copy thereof for publication.
Passed; sent down for concurrence.
JOHN T. CLARK,.
Crairmnan.
IN CQMMON COUNCIL, July 8, 1875.
Passed in concurrence.
H. J. BOARDMAN,
President.
Approved July 9, 1875.
SAMUEL C. COBB,
Jalayor.
2>OanO 2
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0 RATION.
IT is an old custom, as you know, in many of our
Congregational churches, to have what is called a
preparatory lecture, the purpose of which is to prepare the minds of those who are to commune, so that
they shall partake of that feast of brotherly love in
the right spirit. I consider my little speech to-day,
this ninety-ninth anniversary of the Declaration of
American Independence, to be a kind of preparatory
lecture for the great feast to be held next year in
Philadelphia.  On the 4th of July, 1876, the thirtyseven sister States of this Republic, after a hundred
years' experience of free institutions, will meet to
thank God, and take courage. Certainly it is one
of those happy coincidences which seem something
more than mere accidents, that the people of this
great Union, so long divided, and now so happily reunited, shall inaugurate the new century of freedom
and union, henceforth one and inseparable, by giving
and receiving the hand of fellowship, in the CITY OF
BROTHERLY LovE.  Freedom and union; for without freedom, what is union worth, and without union,
-o 
ORATION.
how can we maintain freedom? All that I can expect to do to-day is to say a few words which may
help a little to prepare our minds for the coming of
that majestic commemoration.  And, in order to do
this, I shall endeavor to illustrate, as far as the time
permits, the WORTH OF REPUtBLICAN INSTITUTIONS,
as shown by what they have done for us during the
last one hundred years. We can be really and sincerely united only by a common love. What the
people of this country have in common are their free
institutions. If they value these, they will be
united; if they'undervalue or despise them, no
hearty union is possible.   Every word, therefore,
which can be truly said to show the solid worth of
our Republican form of Government will have  a
direct tendency to promote union and brotherly fellowship. But such'words must be those of truth
and soberness.   The time has happily passed by
when a Fourth of July oration was expected to contain
only glittering generalities, idle boasting, and empty
declarations concerning the superiority of America,
its people and institutions, to all the rest of the
world. The time has happily come when, though
one should speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and have not TRUTH, he will become as a
sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal.
And yet, though I should like to give all the
importance I can to my work to-day, I am obliged to
6 
JULY  5,  1875.
admit that you, Mr. Mayor, and you, gentlemen of the
City Government, have already given us the real preparatory lecture before next year's centennial. Your
splendid celebration of the Battle of Bunker's Hill,
conspicuous as a magnificent pageant, was vastly
more  remarkable  for the way  in which  Boston
offered the right hand of fellowship to the South, and
in which the South accepted the offer. For the first
time during a hundred years the jealousies, rivalries
and ignorant animosities between the Northern and
Southern people disappeared in a generous outbreak
of mutual good-will. Without disguising any of her
old convictions, Boston said to these Southern
soldiers, "Our fight is over; let us now forget the
past, and be friends." And the Southern soldiers
accepted this courtesy as freely as it was nobly
given. The echo of this warm brotherly meeting has
gone out through all the land, and has struck that
note of reconciliation, which we trust will be followed
next year by a grand choral of harmony. Sad
South Carolina, crushed between the upper and the
nether millstones, has heard the sound of it, and is
glad. Far Louisiana rejoices along her sugar-coast,
and gathers hope.  Even the'-New York Nation,"
which has carried its honest hatred of tawdry sentimentalism so far as almost to forget the real place sentiment must always occupy in human affairs, has been
forced to- admit that the political importance of this
7 
ORATIO-N.
outbreak of sentiment can hardly be over-estimated.
It seems now as if the period of demagogues, of
military interference with State rights, of ignorance
misled by low cunning, was approaching its end; and
the intelligence and virtue of the South, honestly
accepting the new situation, may be able to save that
fair region from its plunderers. One man among us,
gifted with that prophetic insight which is born
of unselfish sagacity, foresaw this, and advised it as
the only possible way of reconstruction. Ten years
ago, in his farewell address to the Legislature, our
great war-governor, John Albion Andrew, the pilot
who weathered the storm, told us that until the
South was governed by the intelligence of the South
no real reconstruction could take place. Then he
gave the advice which we have at last accepted; and
asked us, having done our.past duty in a vigorous
prosecution of war, now to do our present duty in a
vigorous prosecution of peace. I congratulate you,
Mr. Mayor and  gentlemen  of the City Government, that you have not lost this great opportunity,
but have known how to avail yourselves of it, and to
turn this noble celebration of the past into a nobler
preparation for the future.  And once again may we
not say, that it is not a mere coincidence, but rather
a happy providence, which makes this old city of
Boston, the place " where American freedom raised
its first voice," - the Cradle of Liberty a hundred
8 
JULY  5, 1875.
years ago, - to become again to-day the Cradle of
Reunion and of National Brotherhood?
Merely to boast of free institutions is always foolish, but to bring proofs of their value can never be
unreasonable. From the beginning there have always been prophets of evil, announcing the speedy
downfall of this Republic; always those who have
preferred the glare and glitter of courts and aristocracies to the simple happiness of a democracy.
Using the pithy definition of Abraham Lincoln, I
shall therefore proceed to show the advantages we
have derived in this country by maintaining, during a
hundred years, a government "of the people, by the
people, and for the people."
In this definition, the second clause gives the chief
characteristic,which distinguishes a Republic. Under
a monarchy or an oligarchy the government may be
of the people" and "for the people," but it is not
by the people."  When the people of France voted
in Napoleonism by the plebiscite, Imperialism was
then "of the people,"' for it proceeded from them. It
might also have been "Jfor the people," if administered
wholly for the public good.  But it was not " by the
people," for it was a centralized government, a
bureaucracy, every little commune in France being
governed by a mayor appointed in Paris. A good
king, like Alfred, may govern "for the people," but
his government was not, of the people" nor " by the
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ORATION.
people." Free institutions may exist under an aristo     cratic government, like that of England, where indi     vidual liberty is made secure by Magnia Charta, the
writ of Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury, and where
the rights of free speech, and liberty of worship, and
a free press are secured to all. But it is not a gov     ernment " by the people," but by a comparatively
small body of rich men. It is, in fact, a Ploutocracy.
It is so far "of the people" that whenever the major     ity of intelligent Englishmen wish a change, they
obtain it, as, in 1828, even the iron will of Wellington
gave way to the demand for Catholic emancipation.
But government "by the people," by the whole people,
in local districts, by their representatives in larger
communities, was the great experiment begun here
a hundred years ago, which has been continued to
the present time.
The main question to be settled was this: "Can
the people of any country govern themselves?"  And
that being answered in the affirmative, the second
question was,  Can they govern  themselves better
than they can be governed by others?" These ques     tions have always been answered differently, accord     ing as men have had more or less faith in human
nature. The vast progress made in this country in a
hundred years, in population, in wealth, in general
comfort, in general information, does not, by itself,
prove the advantage of popular self-government. The
A.*.....
10 
JULY  5, 1875.
progress, indeed, has been immense. In 1775 we
were thirteen colonies. We now are thirty-seven
States and eleven territories. We then had a population of about two million and a half, of which
Massachusetts contained more than any other State,
except Virginia,  and had about 360,000  persons.
The United States, to-day, contains about 40 millions
of people, and fifteen of the States have more than one
million of inhabitants.  Then, it was one of the poorest countries in the world; now, its resources are
characterized by an English statistical work, as "enormous." Then, its territory was a little strip of country east of the Alleghanies; now, its area contains
three millions of square miles, nearly equal to the area
of Europe; and we have nearly as many miles of railroad in operation, as in all of Europe. We send
through the mails 750 millions of letters every year,
or nineteen letters to each inhabitant, exceeded only
by Great Britain, which sends 979 millions a year, or
thirty letters to each inhabitant. Our mercantile
marine, though only half that of Great Britain, is
larger than that of any other nation. We imported,
in 1874, goods to the value of 567 millions of dollars,
and exported goods to the value of 586 millions of
dollars.  In the same year we exported 71 millions of
bushels of wheat, of which 60 millions of bushels went
to Great Britain. But this 71 millions exported was
less than one-fourth part of the amount raised in the
11 
ORATION.
country. According to the census tables of 1870, the
annual product of the total manufacturing industries
of the United States amounted to more than four
thousand millions of dollars.*
Such statistics as these may give a general idea of
the vast progress of this nation during the last hundred years.   The invention of the steam-engine,
steamboat, locomotive-engine and railroad, and the
electric telegraph, have made it possible to colonize
the great West, and to keep this vast area of territory united under one government. But the main
superiority of this country over Europe is that it
offers such comfort and advantages to the poor. This
is shown by the immense immigration of the humbler
classes to our shores. By the census of 1870, there
were living in the United States, more than five and
a half millions of persons born in foreign countries;
of whom more than a million and a half came from
Germany, nearly two millions from Ireland, and half
a million from England.
The majority of this five and a half millions
of people were in humble circumstances. And what
an attraction must not this country have exerted,
to cause such numbers to give up the ties of
home, to break through the walls of habit which
surround us all and keep us in our places to
collect the sums necessary to pay the expenses
*United States census for 1870. Almanach de Gotha, etc.
12 
JULY  5, 1875.
of the journey over land and ocean!   The cost of
this emigration, at only $100 each, would amount
to $550,000,000.
We  do not mean to attribute all this prosperity
and progress to Republican institutions. It is no
doubt also due to the abundance, cheapness, and fertility of the soil, the demand for labor, the energy
and intelligence of the race by which it was first
colonized, and the universal diffusion of education
and religious convictions, which have helped to
develop the forces of the American people. But
consider what a difference there would have been, if,
instead of our free institutions, and our federal Republic, this continent had been occupied, as Europe
is, by twenty different empires and monarchies; each
having its standing army, its custom-houses along
the frontier, its costly court, its soil owned by a few
rich noblemen; its restrictions on industry, trade, the
press, public meetings; with no local self-govermnent,
but official persons appointed by the court, transmitting all the governing power from above; and the
citizen a cipher, with no power to alter or improve
his own condition or that of his neighbors. We owe
a vast debt to our public schools; but another immense education has been given to this nation by the
town-meetings, by the frequent elections, bv the discussion of all public questions by the people themselves, and by the struggles of party.   Then, in
13 
ORATION.
European countries, a thousand restrictions, the
growth of centuries, rest like heavy weights crushing down the energies of the mind. Here there is
unlimited competition; the career open to all talents;
the highest prizes offered to any who are able to
grasp them; the largest part of the products of industry going into the hands of those who earn them.
And from all this results that terrible energy, that
ceaseless activity of our people, which, like the rush
of the earth on its axis, we do not perceive, because
we all share it, and because it is never interrupted.
No doubt every work of man has its good and its
evil. The advantage of a monarchy with aristocratic
institutions is, that it gives greater advantages to the
few; the advantages of a Republic with free institutions and equal laws is, that it gives a wider education and larger comfort to the many. People who
have plenty of money, and who care only for themselves, do well, therefore, to go and live in Europe,
and enjoy the various luxuries they can there find.
But those who can taste the higher satisfactions
which come from the sight of human progress; from
taking part in the conflict against ignorance, error,
wrong; from helping on great reforms, and contributing to the diffusion of knowledge, refinement, and
high principle, among the masses of men, - let them
come to America and help us, as so many noble
foreigners have done, from Lafayette and Steuben
14 
JULY 5, 1875.             15
to Follen and Schurz, in the greatest battle ever
waged on earth, - the battle of light with darkness,
of good with evil.  For America is the field of this
majestic struggle, and here is to be decided at last
the destinies of the human race.
If; then, it be asked, what has been accomplished by
our I~epublican iustitutions duri~g this hundred years,
I would reply, that they have demonstrated four
facts, viz.: (1.) That there can be universal religion
without an established church.  (2.) That there can
be - universal education wifl~out sectarian schools.
(3.) That there can be universal order without a
standing army.  (4.) That freedom a~d equal rights
make the most stable government.
We are so accustomed, in this country, to religious
institutions which are supported solely by the people
themselves, that we so1~etimes forget that we are the
only civilized nation which does not have an established church, or churches, supported by taxation.  It
has been, and is now, the almost universal opinion,
that if religion is not maintained by law, it will cease
to be maintained at all.  All the nations of Europe
are taxed to support public worship, and the result of
this is, that many of them have come to confound
Christianity with an odious form of government, and
so have lost their faith in religion itself.  Both the
friends and foes of Christianity suppose that it must be
held up by the State, or that it will fall. This scep{icism 
ORATION'.
is the natural consequence of the union of Church
and State.  Even within my own memory, every man
in Massachusetts was obliged to pay a tax to support
the Congregational church; which was the established church, and all others were dissenters. The
law had, to be sure, been so modified, that one who did
not wish to worship in the parish church might  sign
off" (as it was termed), and divert his tax to some
other church which he liked better.  But  pay he
must to one or to another. And when this last remains of an established church disappeared in Massachusetts, by the revision of the Constitution in 1820,
many good and wise men predicted the downfall of
Christianity. I myself heard a speech, made by SQ
sagacious a person as Judge Story, in which he declared that in consequence of allowing the people of
this State to'pay or not, as they pleased, for the support of public worship, in his opinion there would
not be a church left inl Massachusetts in twenty-five
years from that time.
What, then, is the result in the United States of this
strange and hazardous experiment of leaving religious institutions to be supported or neglected, according to the will of the people?  The result has
been, that the institutions are more widely, liberally
and universally supported in the United States than
in any part of the world.  There are in this country,
by the census 6f 1870, 72,000 religious societies,
16 
JULY  5, 1875.
63,000 church edifices, and church property to the
value of $354,000,000- with sitting accommodations
for more than twenty-one millions of persons. There
are 43,000 clergymen in the United States, and the
amount annually raised for the support of religious
worship must be from twenty to thirty millions of
dollars, beside the large sums given for missions and
other religious purposes. This is probably a greater
amount in proportion to population than that paid for
the support of any church in the world, except the
Church Of England, whose income, drawn from a
population of twenty-two millions, is supposed to be
about $40,000,000 a year.
We have proved, therefore, by our experiment - of
a hundred years, that men feel the need of religious instruction and religious worship  and that
they gladly give their money for this object without
any compulsion. And the census also shows, that,
during the two decades, extending from 1850 to 1860,
and from 1860 to 1870, the proportional amounts
contributed to these objects have not diminished, but
on the contrary steadily increased. The church property in 1850 amounted to $3.78 for every inhabitant;
in 1860, it was $5.51; and in 1870, it was $9.35.
Judging by this test alone, we see no reason for
doubting that freedom does more for the support of
religion than is ever done by law.
We  have also demonstrated, by our experiment in
17 
ORATION.
America, that free institutions  can give a wider
education to the people than has yet been given by a
monarchy or an aristocracy.  The  people of this
country were early so sagacious as to see that the
permanence of free institutions depends on the intelligence of the people.  And they also saw that this
intelligence could only be obtained by a public-school
system which would give every child in the land free
elementary instruction.  When  the people are to
govern, the people must be educated.  A government
by the people will not be a government for the
people unless the people are able to know what is
really good for them; and foreseeing that the time
would come when women,  as well as men, would
vote, they have made the schools free for girls as well
as for boys. Public free schools are, indeed, the
chief defence of a flee people.  They make standing
armies unnecessary; for an intelligent people will always be able to defend itself.'No matter how large
the sum spent on free schools, this expenditure is the
wisest economy, for it increases the wealth and taxable property of the whole  State by increasing the
producing power of every individual. Educated intelligent labor, as we all know, is vastly more productive than ignorant labor, and, besides this, it has
been abundantly proved that education diminishes
crime, and in this way is also a great economy.  I
find, for instance; a paper by that well-known scholar
18 
JULY   5,  1875.
an(d wise philanthropist, Mr. Charles Loring Brace,
in the reports of last yeas's Prison Congress at St.
Louis, in which these facts are given: In 1871, out
of 50,000 prisoners in New York jails, nearly 20,000
could not read or write. Of the illiterate class in the
city, which amounted to about 60,000, one in every
three had committed a crime that year, for which he
was sent to prison; while of those who could read and
write, only one in twenty-seven was thus guilty.
Taking the whole State of New York, it appears that
one-third of the crime is committed by the illiterate,
who constitute only one-sixteenth of the population.
In Massachusetts the proportion of criminals in jail
who cannot read or write is usually about thirty per
cent. of the whole number. In 1871 about one in
every twenty of those who could not read or write
were sentenced for crimes, while of those who were
able to do so, only one in one hundred and twentysix committed these offences.
Now, it may be true that such education as is given
in our common schools does not necessarily make
Christians, and it is not meant for that purpose. The
home and the church are for that purpose. But it is
very certain, if there is any truth in facts and figures,
that this common-school education does have a strong
tendency to prevent persons from becoming thieves,
burglars, pickpockets, intemperate, and murderers.
Schools cultivate habits of order, regularity, industry
19 
-ORATION.
and self-control. They take children from the streets
and  from  idleness.   They  open  their minds  to
thoughts of large interests.   They indirectly encourage what is good and right in all their lessons.
To denounce them because they are secular, and
do not teach religion, is therefore pure folly. What
are Sunday Schools for, but to teach religion? No
sensible man pretends that when you have taught
children to read, write and cipher, you have given to
them all they need in order to become wise and good
men and women. But you have given them " The
Key of Knowledge." You have put their feet in
the right way.  You have reduced their chance of
becoming criminals from thirty-three in a hundred to
three in a hundred. And you have made it certain
that the majority of the voters who are to make your
laws, and decide what shall be done with your property, cannot become the blind tools of selfish demagogues.
Mr. Maurice Block, a recent French writer on
Social Science (" L'Europe Politique et Sociale"),
tells us that in the United States popular instruction
comes nearest to its ideal. He adds that it is the
only country in the world which might dispense with
" compulsory education;" but adds that it was the first
country which declared it to be the right of the
community to insist on elementary instruction,
20 
JULY  5, 1875.
quoting the laws of Massachusetts in 1668 and of
Connecticut in 1650.
The  United States has led the way in giving
universal education to the people, and making this
education purely secular; leaving religious instruction in the hands of the churches, where it belongs.
Holland followed our example, in 1806, by separating
the school completely from the church; and, in spite
of the efforts of the Catholic Church, the law of 1857
maintained the neutrality of primary schools. Sweden
and Norway also give gratuitous education in primary
schools, and make it compulsory on parents. Switzerland has followed this example. Even Turkey
has adopted free elementary schools, and compulsory
education; and it is stated that ninety-five children
out of a hundred are in the Turkish schools. All
the countries of Europe recognize the right of government to insist on the education of the people.
But all, with perhaps one or two exceptions, arc
behind this country in the sums expended for education in the proportion of children in the schools, and
in the statistics of illiteracy.
We have been able, in the United States, to make
education almost universal by making it first secular;
and, secondly, free. Free schools, supported by the
whole community, and carefully abstaining from any
interference with religious opinion, have produced this
result. In Europe, where the whole power of an ab
21 
ORATION.
solute goverment has been at the service of the church
to enable it to educate the people, the people have not
been educated. The object of the church has always
been, and very properly from its point of view, not to
educate the intellect, but to train the heart in religious
sentiments. The church did not desire that the
people should learn to read and write, but that they
should be carefully taught the catechism.  Consequently, in 1866, the French minister of war reported
that out of a hundred conscripts only thirty could read.
By tables published in Turin, in 1864, by the exminister of public instruction, it appeared that out of
a thousand males in Sardinia and Lombardy, four
hundred and sixty-one did not know their letters. In
Tuscany, six hundred and forty-one out of a thousand
were equally ignorant.  In Naples and Sicily, eight
hundred and thirty-five men out of a thousand, and
nine hundred and thirty-eight women out of a thousand, could not read or write. Since Italy was united,
things have improved; yet, by the census of 1864, out
of twenty-one millions less than four millions could
read and write.  In Spain, about seventy-five per
cent. of the people are equally ignorant. In Spanish
America, seven-eighths of the people are in the same
condition.  Meantime, in the whole United States, including young children, the recently emancipated
slaves, the poor Southern whites and foreigners, only
four millions and a half out of thirty-eight millions of
22 
JULY  5,  1875.
the population could not read in 1870. In Massachusetts, including children and foreigners, only one in
twenty is unable to read; and two hundred and eightyseven thousand out of fourteen hundred thousand are.
at school. In the whole Unlited States there are one
hundred and forty-one thousand schools, and there
are more than seven millions of pupils in attendance.
The money expended in the whole United States for
schools in the year 1870 was ninety-five millions of
dollars, or about $2.50 for every man, woman and
child in the Union.  Sixty-four millions of this was
raised by taxation for the public schools.
Compare with this vast sum freely given for education in this country, the trifling amount levied by
taxation in England, which, in 1867, amounted to less
than two million dollars, all the rest of the education
of the people of England being left to local endowments and private charities. Twenty years before
that time, in 1847, Macaulay, in one of his most powerful speeches, had pointed out how the absence of
general education in England had led to terrible riots,
the direct effect " of the gross, brutish ignorance of the
population, left brutes in the midst of Christianity,
savages in the midst of civilization." "]No proposition," he adds,  can be more strange than this, that
the State is bound to punish its subjects for not knowing their duty, but at the same time is to take no step
to let them know what their duty is."
23 
ORATION.
If Macaulay justly.charges the ferocious, riotous
character of the populace of England to the absence
of universal public instruction, we may say, on the
other hand, that our own wonderful spectacle on the
17th of June may be partly credited to the influence
of our public schools. Massachusetts, with fourteen
hundred thousand inhabitants, pays every year, for
education, nearly five millions of dollars; of which over
three millions is for its public schools. The county of
Suffolk, with a population, in 1870, of 270,000, had
50,000 children at school. Is there any other city in
the world which could have collected a crowd such as
we saw here on that day; so orderly, so quiet, so welldressed, where you could scarcely find a single
drunken or noisy man; a crowd amid which the most
delicate lady or child could everywhere go, as safely
as in a private parlor? I think, Mr. Mayor, and citizens of Boston, we have a right to take some pride in
that remarkable exhibition of the results of a s) stem of
universal education, began by our fathers in 1642, and
maintained to the present hour. This great result of
Republican institutions is not likely to be abandoned.
It began with the Puritan Fathers of New England.
The  " Catholic World," certainly an impartial witness when it praises the Puritans, in the number
for April, 1870, says that "It is to the credit of the
Americanii people, at least the Calvinistic portion of
them, that they have, from the earliest colonial timnes,
24 
JULY  5, 1875.
taken a deep interest in the education of the young,"
and that "the present system of common schools at
the public expense" originated among the Congregationalists, and  in Massachusetts.   William  Penn,
Washington, and Jefferson, all exhorted this nation to
educate the people."  And since every other system
has proved ineffectual, and since our system of fiee
schools, independent of every sect, and teaching the
poorest child the elements of knowledge, has proved
so successful, the people of this country will continue
to maintain it, as one of the greatest blessings born
out of Republican principles and the methods of a
free State.
Another great result of this hundred years' experiment of government by the people  and for the
people is the complete demonstration that the
authority of the State can be supported, and universal
order maintained, without a standing army.
The nations of Europe groan und(er the burden of
standing armies.  Their vast military organizations
suck the very life-blood of the people. The colossal
armies of Europe take firom productive labor in time
of peace 2,700,000 men; and their number on a war
footing mounts up to 6,500,000.  The  expense of
maintaining these armies is $600,000,000 in time of
peace, - and the time taken each year from productive
industry amounts to eight hundred millions of days.
More than a hundred years ago Montesquieu wrote
25 
ORATION.
these words: " A new disease has gone through
Europe, and seized our princes with the desire to increase theii armies.  It is a contagious disease; for, as
soon as-one State increases its troops, the others suddenly augment theirs; so that nothing is gained but
the common ruin." The size of these armies is now
three times what it was when  Montesquieu wrote
that sentence, - so that now the expense has become
truly terrific. But this very expense is an advantage,
for it keeps down a little' the size of the armies. A
standing army, fed by conscription, is a temptation to
war. If France had not possessed such an army,
she never would have attacked Prussia.  If England
had not possessed such an army, she never would
have sent her eighty thousand soldiers to the Crimea, in
a senseless attempt to keep up the balance of power in
Europe,- an attempt which cost her ~78,000,000, or
nearly $400,()00,000, and has disgusted her for the
time with interfering any more in the politics of the
continent.
During the last hundred years the United States
has been engaged in several wars; the war of 1812
with England, the Florida war, the war with
Mexico, the great civil war. All of these wars
were caused by the slave power. All were occasioned
by slavery, seeking to extend itself; for slavery
itself was a condition of permanent war.. It was the
repetition in our time of the feudal system, in which
26 
JULY   5,  1875.
a small body, belonging to a superior race, keeps
down a much larger body by being always armed and
always prepared against insurrection.  But now that
slavery has perished, we shall be as peaceful as we
are powerful. We reduced our army, a year ago, to
twenty thousand regular troops, - a number hardly
large enough to be visible when scattered along our
immense frontier. We thus proclaim to the world
our peaceful purposes toward foreign nations; and,
also that we do not fear any danger coming from
abroad. And as regards insurrection at home, the
people themselves cal be depended on to put down
any such attempt, should it ever come.
We do not need an army to maintain domestic order,
or to support law. The people themselves take care
of that.   Fifty years ago Dr.  Lieber,  travelling
in this country, was struck by the universal respect
for law; and saw an evidence of it even in the signboards on our bridges, " Keep to the right, as the
law directs." A government by the people makes it
the personal interest of every man in the community
to maintain order. The laws which the people make
themselves, the people will themselves maintain. Few
things in this country have more surprised European
travellers than to see the universal security and quiet
where no soldiers are to be noticed, and where it is extremely difficult ever to find a policeman.   The
explanation is always at hand. In the States of
27 
ORATION.
Europe it is the business of the government to
execute the laws; here it is the business of every
citizen to see that they are enforced. A nation without
a large standing army is weak for offensive war; and
it is an advantage that it should be so. But it is
strong for defence; in its prosperity, in the comfort
and intelligence of the people, and in the might which
slumbers in a freeman's arm. It may be said that we
do not need standing armies here as Europe does,
because we are not surrounded by hostile States. But
that is also owing to our being a Federal Republic.
Massachusetts does not need a standing army to de fend itself from an attack of New York; because New
York and Massachusetts have a common interest, and
belong to the same great union. Let the states of
Europe become republics, and form a union among
themselves, and they also could disband their armies,
or reduce them to a mere police force like ours. But
wars will never cease so long as each of the great
nations has its immense army and fleet, which a few
men, sitting round a green table, can, at any time,
hurl upon their neighbors.
It is this principle also which has made our govern ment the strongest in the world, - the least liable to
convulsions, overthrow or change. Fisher Ames put
the difference between a republic and a monarchy in
one of those epigrams which contain the substance of
a long discussion.'In a republic," said he, "you
28 
JULY   5,  1875.
are like people on a raft; your feet are always wet,
but you will not sink. In a monarchy you are like
passengers in a ship, much more comfortable while
you are safe; but touch a rock, and you go to
the bottom."  We have been on our raft now for
a hundred years. Our feet have often been under
water; but the raft floats still. How many of the
monarchies of Christendom have been wrecked
during this interval! How many dynasties have
been driven firom their homes! What repeated
changes have taken place in the map of Europe!
And what government is there in the world, beside
our own, which could have put down the terrible
rebellion of the Slave States; could have organized
an enormous army and a powerful navy so suddenly; could have established and kept up an
effective blockade along a thousand miles of coast;
could have originated a new system of finance,
and  borrowed  such immense sums  to carry on
the war, and  sustain its credit?  And this, too,
was done in the face of a formidable opposition
in the free States, and without abridging any of the
guaranties of freedom. Europe saw with astonishment how, in the midst of this portentous struggle, the press was allowed full fieedom; the opponents of the government were allowed to meet and
say almost anything they pleased; and that a gireat
presidential election took place in which the ballot
29 
ORA'I'TI O N.
was left free, and the people were permitted to vote
whether this government, struggling for its life,
should be supported or not. All this proved that
ours is the strongest government in the world, and
that it is so strong because every man in the land
considers it his own, and has a personal stake in its
safety and power.
"But our feet are always under water," you say,
and that is disagreeable."  Yes, it is disagreeable;
but perhaps it is also profitable. On a raft all are
sailors, and in a Republic it is every man's business to
see that the State receives no detriment. The price of
liberty is not only perpetual vigilance, but personal
responsibility in all the citizens. Thus we are educated to a true patriotism.  No doubt we have many
battles to fight still. We shall have a long battle
with the trading politicians, with the caucus, with
rings, with the lobby. We shall have to fight for our
school system, with those who wish to make it sectarian.  We  shall have to invent and apply new
methods to save the tax-payers from being plundered
by rings who buy votes and bribe legislators. Some
of these inventions have already been made, and are
being applied. The State of Illinois is now trying,
with success, the plan of minority representation; with
such success as to have reduced the bills passed by its
Legislature from eight hundred to two hundred in the
first session under the new elections. The State of
30 
JULY  5, 1875.
Wisconsin has embodied in its Constitution a provision
preventing its Legislature or its municipalities from
imposing a higher tax than a certain fixed rate, based
on the assessment of five years before. The city of
New York has now  a provision in its charter, by
means of which three citizens may cause any officeholder to be examined in forty-eight hours before a
judge, in regard to any misconduct which he may
be intending to commit; so that the day of judgment for such civic offenders is always close at hand.
Last winter a Democratic Legislature in Albany
passed three acts to prevent the pilfering of public
treasuries; and these are acts which almost make
every public officer a trustee.
" Where there is a will there is a way." If we resolve to correct public abuses, as the old abolitionists
resolved to overthrow slavery, we can correct them
all. What a lesson of faith and courage is there not
for us all in that history! When Mr. Garrison and
his friends determined to overthrow slavery, it seemed
the most sublimely ridiculous attempt ever made.
On the side of slavery was united every social, political, and mercan tile             interest. It had  for  its defence
both of the great parties, the commercial and manufacturing interests, the Presidents, Congress, and the
U.      S.      Courts, all the newspapers, fashion in the upper
circle of society, and the mob below. On the other
side, the abolitionists had nothing but Truth and Jus
.. —:
31 
ORATION.
tice. Their only weapon was the fact that slavery
was wrong.  With that weapon they conquered in
the life of a single generation. They kept saying,
over and over again, " Slavery is wrong;" and before
that appeal to the conscience of the people slavery
tottered and fell. That one cry created the great Republican party, elected Abraham Lincoln, drove the
South into secession, by which they attacked both
Union and Freedom at once, and created the determination which at last conquered in thai awful
struggle.
And shall we, who have lived through this experience, be afraid of a Lobby or a Ring? Shall we
tremble, because a caucus of political demagogues
undertakes to dictate what we must do?   Their
power may seem enormous; but only defy it, and it
crumbles to the ground. Let good men and true men
have free speech and a free press, and they are
more than a match for all the combined rascality of
the country. Those who make politics a trade are,
no doubt, astonished and angry when the people
presume to select men for office outside of the
party programme. But they will have to bear it.
They appear to suppose that offices belong to the
politicians, and that we are taking their private property if we prefer to send to Washington an honest,
sensible, business man, outside of their clique. These
partisans seem to me like the people who stand in a
::     *.
.: ee.e..
32 
JULY   5,  1875.
queue waiting for their turn to get tickets to a popu lar lecture or concert. If any man steps in before
you firom the outside, you are displeased, and you re quest him to go to the foot of the line and take his
turn. So the politicians stand in the line of succession, waiting their turn to be nominated by the caucus, and are much disgusted if the people choose to
set aside their little arrangement, and take a better
man outside of the line.
All we need in order to accomplish reforms, and
put down abuses in public affairs are those great elementary forces, FAITH and WORK.  We must believe
in the people, believe that the people honestly mean
to do what is right, that when they see the truth they
will follow it. And then we must be willing to work
to make them see it.
It is not a new thing to have rings which plunder
the people, to enrich a few leaders. This has been
the case under every monarchy and every aristocracy.
The new thing is to have them successfully opposed
and conquered, as in the case of Tweed and his fellow-robbers. Just such a ring as that surrounded
Louis XIV. and Napoleon III.; only instead of being
plain Tweeds, Connollys or Sweeneys, they were
marquises and counts, Persignys and De Mornys.
But who ever saw these titled Tweeds and Sweeneys
sent to the penitentiary, driven into exile, or compelled to disgorge their plunder? And how was this
: 9 -.'.
. *.:Z..  
33 
ORATION.
victory over thle New  York  Ring accomplished?
They seemed to own the city. They were sure of as
many votes as they needed at every election. They
could pass almost any law at Albany. They were
so strongly entrenched, with a great mass of ignorant
voters behind them, and the ballot-boxes in their own
hands, that it seemed a hopeless thing to try to overthrow them. What, then, overturned their power?
Publicity,- that is, the voice of the people, speaking
through a free press. A strange terror, a panic only
known to the plunderers who live among free institutions, took possession of them. This vague, wonderful power, which we call public opinion, lifted up its
voice, and then this edifice of fraud fell into sudden
ruin. While Mr. Tweed was considering which foreign mission he had better accept, he went to the
penitentiary.
It is true that the first attempt at reforming the
Civil Service has failed. WVe have not succeeded, as
yet, in taking the public offices out of the hands of
the partisan politicians. Men are put into office, not
to do its duties, but to be rewarded for political services, by getting all the money out of the office they
can. This evil principle, that to the victors belong
the spoils, and that the spoils are all the offices of
the country, inaugurated by the Democratic party,
under Gen. Jackson, has been carried to its climax
by the Republican party of to-day.  This disgraceful
.
'.9:
.I99.9
34 
JULY 5, 1875.
and ominous result has been reached, - that a
department of the government has been found to be
in the pay of the whiskey ring, so that the President
and Secretary of the Treasury were obliged to colnceal from their own officers their attempts to convict
these thieves. Those whose business it was to collect the revenue were assisting the robbers in plundering it.
No doubt such facts show that our feet are still
under water. We do not yet give offices to those
who will best do the work.  But we are attermpting
to do it; and, except in China, this course  has
nowhere been regularly pursued. "Is he honest?
is he capable? "- this test for appointing to office,
which was practically applied by all our Presidents
down to the time of Jackson, will yet be established
as law, and organized into a working rule.
Republican institutions rest on faith in human
nature.  Unless this faith exists they cannot be sustained.  We must believe that people can be moved
by the argument that it is right to do this; that it is
wrong to do that. Assuming that people prefer to
do right, unless where prejudice or interest mislead
them, and also observing that prejudice and selfinterest will only influence some section or class of
society, in regard to any special measure, it is clear
that the majority of people will always be in favor of
what is right. This fact is the basis of universal
35 
ORATION.
suffrage, which, giving the  power to  the  whole
people, protects them against the passions, interests,
and prejudices of any local faction. But, in order to
accomplish this, the whole people must be intellectually educated, so as to be able to understand
what is right; and must be morally trained, so as to
feel it their duty to support what is right. This is
the basis for a universal State education, mental and
moral. And, beside this, the people must have access
to sources of information in regard to men and measures; and hence the necessity of free speech and a free
press. And, beside all this, there must be religion to
counteract the tendency to materialization which comes
from prosperity; to vitalize the higher nature, and to
lift man from the sphere of sense into that of soul.
Without  this  influence, progress in art, science,
literature, and social life would lose its inspiration.
Yet religion must be taught independently,- in the
church, not in the school.  If religion is taught in the
schools, religion, being so much more important than
knowledge, will be sure to make the education of the
mind subordinate to the education of the religious
nature. This would be the case, not only with the
earnest Catholic teacher, but also with every earnest
Protestant teacher. The colleges and academies in
this country, which are in the hands of Protestant
sects, have often had for their primary purpose to
build up their sects; and for their secondary object
36 
JULI,Y  5, 1875.
to give intellectual instruction. This will always be
the result; and the more sincerely religious the
teacher is, the worse will the school be, as a school.
Thus, in Spain, Austria and Italy, where the education of the people has been confided for centuries to
the Roman Catholic Church, almost one half of the
people have never learned to read or write. This was
not because the church was not faithful and laborious,
but because it necessarily subordinated intellectual
instruction to religious culture. It believed, and still
believes, that it is right to do so. The principle is
distinctly asserted in such statements as this, which I
take from the "Catholic World" for April, 1871:
"We do not prize as highly as some of our countrymen appear to do, the simple ability to read, write,
and cipher... In extending education, and endeavoring to train all to be leaders, we have only extended
presumption, pretension, conceit, indocility, and
broight incapacity to the surface.  We believe the
peasantry, in the old Catholic countries, two centuries
ago, were better educated, though for the most part
unable to read or write, than are the great body of
the American people.  They had faith, they had
morality, they had a sense of religion." This is manly
and plain, and we respect the honest conviction from
which it proceeds, though we dissent absolutely from
the principle. We do not believe that ignorance is
ever the mother either of morality or of true devotion.
37 
ORATION.
It substitutes superstition for devotion, and  ceremonies for virtue.
It is much to the credit of the Puritans, wherever
they were, that they believed in knowledge, and established schools. But they are almost the only
exception to the law by which religious sects are led
to make religion the primary thing in their schools,
and intellectual development the secondary thing.
By means of universal suffrage we no doubt introduce a great deal of ignorance into the government.
But at the same time we cause all to feel a personal
interest in the government, and we accomplish the
great object of widening the basis of representation,
so as to neutralize the influence of local interests,
caste prejudices, and private aims. In the same fact,
we find a basis for woman suffrage. Not because
woman is the same in character, ability, and quality as
man,-  but because she is diferent, we need her influence in public life. She will bring in new elements,
and help still further in keeping legislation free from
special tendencies. She will see many things which
man does not, as A?e sees many things which she does
not.   She will make many mistakes, as he makes
many mistakes,- but hers will be different from his,
and his from hers, and so they will neutralize each
other. Providentially, we have prepared for this
coming change, by freely admitting girls with boys to
all our schools, and we are now admitting the principle
38 
JULY   5,  1875.
of coeducation in many of our colleges. Life attains
its true and best equilibrium not by monotony, but
by the union of antagonist elements, by differentiation
and co-operation. For a perfect civilization men and
women must be companions in everything,- in work
and play, in study, in all occupations, in art and literature, in science and discovery. I do not think our
politics will be what they ought, till women are legislators and voters.  I do not think our schools and
colleges will be what they ought, till girls are educated with boys, and women are on the boards of
government and instruction with men. I do not
think that our prisons, hospitals, charitable institutions will be really good, till women are in the
direction together with men. When all careers are
open to all talents, society will be properly balanced
by the equipoise of man's force and woman's sympathy, man's logic and woman's intuition.
Mr. James Parton, in his A Life of Jefferson," tells
us that in 1785 America had contributed nothing to
the intellectual resources of man, except Franklin.
" We had," says he, " no art, little science, no literature; not a poem, not a book, not a picture, not a
statue, not an edifice." The books of Jonathan Edwards and the pictures of Copley may, perhaps, be regarded as exceptions; but, in the main, this statement
is correct. We have done a little better since. We
have produced no Goethe, no Byron, no Rafaelle; but
39 
ORATION.
it takes more than a hundred years to produce such
flowers as these. Everything with us has taken a
practical direction. Our best works of art have been
our vessels.  Our great poem has been the country
itself. Our great edifice has been the national character.  We  still find our best books in the running
brooks, the rolling rivers, the majestic mountains, the
roaring cataracts, the mysterious caverns, the boundless prairies; the lakes, rolling like the ocean; the
forests, sweeping thousands of miles toward the
setting sun.  It is true that the two writers whose
works have had the widest circulation in modern
times are American; namely, Noah Webster and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Twenty years ago fifty millions
copies of the books of Noah Webster had been sold,
to all parts of the world. Of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," so
many millions of copies had been sold, in 1870, that
Allibone found it impossible to estimate their number.
But, after all, our chief contribution to the history of
the world has been the successful result of these free
institutions. We have shown that order and freedom
may be united, that equal rights and universal respect
for law can be associated. Next to this is our contribution of MEN. What great edifice, though it were
a basilica of St. Peter, or a Strasburgh minster, is
such an addition to the wealth of mankind as the
character of George Washington, or of Abraham
Lincoln? We may not have produced many original
40 
JULY  5,  1875.
poems; our novdls may be often mild imitations of
European models. But these men are not imitations.
Untrained in any school of hereditary statesmanship,
they knew how to guide the nation through darkness and storm with comsummate ability and without
personal ambition. As our poet says of Abraham
Lincoln; Nature, in making him, copied no previous
model.
"For him her old world mould aside she threw,
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast
Of the unexhausted West,
-With stuff untainted, shaped a hero new,
Wise, steadfast in the strength of' God, and true.
" We knew that outward grace was dust,
And could not choose but trust
In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill,
And supple-tempered will,
That bent, like perfect steel, to spring again, and thrust."
In him, the man sent by God to be our leader,
what a union of modesty and self-reliance, of caution
and courage, of patience and energy, of care not to
go too fast, and the determination never to stand
still!- Other men have been more fluent in speech,
but his words had the eloquence which went to
the heart of the nation. Others were better read iii
books; but who had a surer knowledge of men and
things than he? And so, as the years recede, he
rises higher and higher above all his contemporaries;
as is the case with all true greatness.
41 
ORATION.
And our own Massachusetts has also given to
the records of the race some similar examples of
great powers devoted to great ends. Such men,
within our memory, were WILLIAM ELLERY CIIANNIG, whom Bunsen ranks with the prophets of
mankind -JoHN  QuINcY ADAMS, standing like a
majestic monument, beat upon with storms, but
never flinching, and holding on his way without
haste or rest -DANrIEL WEBSTER, whose majestic
presence, whose all-comprehensive intellect, have
given us another measure of the possible reach of
human thought- CHARLEs  SUMNER, with a soul
devoted to everything humane and noble, so simple
in his manners, so free firom guile, so pure from
every taint of selfish cunning, that he seems like an
old knight-errant dropped into our time, - one whose
chosen work it was to pluck the prey from the jaws
of the wicked, and to help the oppressed to go free.
What a lesson to time-servers and mere partisans
was that great outbreak of grateful love which
accompanied this honest man to his grave! What
a rebuke to those self-seekers who make political
life a scramble for office and gain!
" Vipers, who creep, where man disdains to climb;
And, having wound their noisome fetters round
The pillars of our capitol of state,
Hang, hissing, at the nobler man below."
42 
JULY  5, 1875.
Let young men mark well this lesson. They may
listen to many cynical doubts as to the possibility-of
honesty in public life; they may often find it the
fashion to regard politics as unworthy the attention
of refined persons; but, while selfish and partisan
politics aile, indeed, unworthy their pursuit, what
better work can they find than that which concerns the life, the happiness, the peace, the prosperity
of the nation? What better study than the complex
methods by which justice is organized into law, and
freedom takes form in stable institutions? What
higher chivalry is there to-day, than that which devotes itself to exposing the plunderers of the State;
to battling against the mere partisans who seek only
the spoils of victory; and touching with the Ithuriel
spear of truth, the lies with which demagogues seek
to deceive the people?  This is a work as high as
man can do, and will always win the reward of
human love, reverence and honor.
And then we have had graceful orators, like
EDWARD EVERETT, whose silver arrow always sped
straight on its course, to the understanding and taste
of his hearers; and another kind of men like JOSIAH
QUAcY, - the last, or almost the last, of that race of
Yankee Romans, who joined to the sagacity running
in their New England blood, a strain of the old heroic
loyalty to all that is most honorable and most true.
But the list increases while I attempt to bring it to
43 
ORATION.
a close. Our dear old State has never been without
its heroes, its saints, its martyrs; its old men, whose
long experience attains something like a strain of
prophecy; its young men, modest aid manly, " with
morn on their bright shields of expectation!"
But one name more I must not omit to mention,
one name dear to all our hearts too soon taken away
from the great work he seemed made to accomplish.
The greatness of our war-governor, JOHN A. ANDREW, was not in his having any one extraordinary
talent, but in the large, wide, well-balanced character
of his mind. Because he clearly saw both sides of
each question, he was always able to decide promptly.
His conscientious devotion to justice and truth prevented him from being blinded by vanity or selfinterest; the practical tendency of his mind kept him
from being led away by any mere theory. He was a
thorough Democrat, but he loved culture and cultivated people. He was an honest philanthropist, yet
his was no rose-water philanthropy.  He would not
sacrifice justice to love. He was a religious man,
with a most living faith in God, but as flee from the
cant of religion as any man I ever knew.
Why is it, let me finally ask, that to-day, while all
Europe is in such unstable equilibrium, here all politics are so stable?  Why is it that while there, republics are changed to monarchies, monarchies to
empires, empires to republics again, and revolutions
44 
JULY  5, 1875.
are the norminal condition of things; here, in this land,
a Republic has existed nearly a hundred years;
and, having overcome our late rebellion, is more
firmly established to-day than  ever?   It is because we have united freedom and order, law and
liberty. It is because we have not been afraid of the
fullest utterance of all truth, on the one hand; and
have not been ashamed of the worship and service of
God on the other. Religion, in this country, walks
hand in hand with freedom, with education, with science.  A free press, in this country, is the main support of government and law.
Long may it be so! Here in Massachusetts was
first proved the possibility of a free church, in a free
State, with free schools and a free press. That is
our chief gift to the cause of human progress; and
it  is a great one, and well deserves the praise of our
New England poet:.
" Rough, bleak and hard, our little State
Is scant of soil, of limits strait;
Her yellow sands are sands alone,
Her only mines are ice and stone.
" Yet on her rocks, and on her sands,,
And wintry hills, her school-house stands;;
And what her rugged soil denies,
The harvest of the mind supplies..
" For well she keeps her ancient stock,
The stubborn strength of Plymouth Rock,
45 
ORATION.
And still maintains, with milder laws,
And clearer light, the Good  Old Cause!
" Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands,'
While near her school the church-spire stands,
Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school! "
46