^UNIVERS/A AVlOS-AHCEl&>, ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS OF BOSTON, ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, GEO. FRED. WILLIAMS. BOSTON: PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. MDCCCLXXXVI. CITY OF BOSTON. IN BOARD or ALDERMEN, July 12, 1886. Ordered, That the thanks of the City Council be expressed to GEO. FRED. WILLIAMS for the Oration de- livered by him before the city authorities on the fifth instant, in commemoration of the one hundred and tenth anniversary of American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a copy thereof for publication. Passed unanimously. Sent down for concurrence. September 9, came up concurred. Approved by the Mayor, September 13, 1886. A true copy. Attest : AUG. N. SAMPSON, City Clerk. 566577 ORATION. FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN : This province began it : I might say this town, for here the arch- rebels formed their schemes long ago. This is the tribute of General Gage, one of our early governors, to the responsible conspirators for American independence. With what reverence, yet what exultation ; with what gratitude, yet what joy, should we celebrate this festival! We who daily tread where Adams, the " chief incendiary," poured his patriotic fire into the hearts of men; where Hancock laid his ease and fortune upon the altar of liberty; where Quincy impetuously forestalled the bitter struggle, and Warren courted his martyrdom; we who move under the walls of Faneuil Hall, the Old South, and the old State House, which first resounded with the imperious calls of independ- ence, we should deem it no mere form to gather here. There is no spot on earth where the God of nations may demand account of a higher stewardship. 6 ORATION. And to this day with what promise and por- tent Heaven has pointed! On this day Adams and Jefferson, united on earth in freedom's ser- vice, together answered the eternal summons. Was it not a gracious monition that the hands which moulded could not perpetuate, and that the foundations built by the fathers must ever be renewed by the patriotism of the children? On this day the heavenly sign appeared above the red fields of Gettysburg and Vicksburg; the anniversary was heavy with the groans of the wounded and the agonized cries of the bereaved. Oh, glorious sacrifice, which bought that day the promise that the union was to live ! * With your lives," said the God of battles, " shall ye keep the ark of liberty." If we be now in the presence of those pa- triots whose toil, devotion, and blood consecrated this institution; if it be vouchsafed to them who founded to watch over it, what account shall we here give of the keeping of their sacred heritage? Each may answer for himself. Let him recount the hours which he has given to his country; let him relate the works he has done, the duties performed, the sacrifices made, the obloquy borne, the truths championed, the dangers courted. How pitiable is our confession! JULY 5, 1886. 7 And yet, indeed, this day is set apart not alone for thanksgiving, but that we may renew our obligations, and pledge anew fealty and devo- tion to our country. Let us do it, solemnly, before God, now and here. Since last we celebrated this day the tears of the nation have not been spared. Many who were a part of our breathing present have been anchored in the dead past. Let us not forget their virtues. Him, who bore up the Union like an Atlas, and on whom the highest honors of a grateful Republic have descended; the warrior who fought for peace, who conquered to forgive, let us not forget. Let us wreathe two garlands of a nation's gratitude, and lay them this day upon the graves of the imperators of freedom, Washington and Grant. Within a few months it pleased God to call to himself four men who had been candidates for our chief magistracy, and three of them leading figures in the war of the Rebellion, McClellan, the upright man, the loyal soldier; Seymour, the sturdy citizen, the spotless states- man; Hancock, the majestic patriot, whose life was lived, whose blood was shed, for the Union; and Grant, the idol of the nation. These are now of the past, and with them may the sad 8 ORATION. discord which they allayed pass into the grave; the lesson of their work, rooted in their resting- places, will bud and blossom with the seasons, and its leaves will whisper the promise of peace. And let us not forget those yet among us who have borne our burdens : to him who last filled with dignity, and left with honor, the presidential chair, who now endures lingering sickness; to him w r ho has had guard and guidance of our national treasury, whose rugged strength went out in restless service to the people, till he was stricken at his post, to all who suffer for faithful public service, in war and in peace, let our gratitude and sympathy be now extended. But before this day is done not only must our praise and gratitude have been spoken for bygone deeds and men, we must search ourselves in solemn retrospect, and, learning and unlearning the lessons of the past, seek for new light upon duties to come. This is a time when we may lay aside our differences, our animosities, party ties, and sectional prejudices. What is this? Animosities, party ties, and sec- tional prejudices, these among the heirs of liberty, brothers, children of the Union? And are they to be taken up again? Alas, yes! To-morrow there will be fro\vns, jealousy, injustice, in this family JULY 5, 1886. 9 which now unites in common thanksgiving and devotion. Here, indeed, is subject for our intro- spection; let us give it our thought while we may, for the morrow comes soon. When the Father of our country laid down his mantle, he spoke words of warning and advice to his countrymen. Listen to these sentences of Washington in his farewell address : All combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are of fatal tendency. The}- serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small, but artful and enterprising, minority of the community ; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which, in different ages and countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public ad- ministration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jeal- ousies and false alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. Let me warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. 10 ORATION. Fellow-countrymen, have we heeded this warn- ing? Have we not, indeed, suffered each and all the results foretold in these prophetic words? It need not be questioned that the organization of public opinion is necessary, and political parties in our land have had in turn their mission and justification. But even a dazzling history should not blind us to their errors and excesses. There are pillars of our Republic which must be kept sacred; with new plans, new structures, new beauties, these must be preserved. There is nothing at last gained which violates the integ- rity of the ballot, degrades public virtue, or weakens the control of the people over their government. Have parties protected the ballot? The second century of Independence opened upon the most painful sight which freedom has yet witnessed, the election of a great people was offered by rascally officials in open market, and two political parties were bidding and bartering for its purchase; again and again, in cities and States, the voice of the majority has been sup- pressed by fraud and violence; with technicality, concealment, bribery, perjury, and force have parties overridden the expressed will of the people. We have become accustomed to the practice of Legis- JULY 5, 1886. 11 latures to ignore returns, and settle contested elections by party vote. And yet treason itself is hardly more threaten- ing to our republic than this crime, which goes unpunished in our midst, and is even committed by mutual consent. What deadly torpor is upon us that we should tolerate it? And, if parties practise it, should they not die a thousand deaths before we par- don the offence ? Have parties promoted public virtue? Let us not recount the gigantic robberies with which our politics has been shamed, the canal ring, the Tweed regime, the whiskey ring, the Star Route frauds, the corruption of legislators, judges, and cabinet officers, the repudiation of public debts: the awful record cannot be effaced. But this, it will be said, is an old story. How old are the indictments of a Board of Aldermen in our metropolis for receiving bribes? How old the corrupt sales of franchises in Chicago and St. Louis, and the charges of wholesale bribery in Ohio and Indiana? How old is our Fisher- Hill disgrace? Nay, these things are in our midst. Has the responsibility of the government to the people been maintained? 32 ORATION. We have seen a helpless minority in the South ridden and despoiled by unprincipled servants of the government; gross frauds in the departments and in Congress condoned and concealed in re- ports of partisan committees; great criminals untried or acquitted, and frauds upon the ballot unpunished. And all these wrongs, hateful as they are to the great majority of the people, have had the shield or palliation of party power. A single one of the great scandals in our public service would have shaken the govern- ments of England, France, or Germany, to their foundations. Is corruption, then, an incident of freedom? Perish the thought. Yet, if it has foisted itself upon the country, a great duty lies before us. This is the one reproach upon our govern- ment. Till it is made a shame the Republic is not a success. Fellow-citizens, these evils are rooted not in the immorality of the nation 7 but in a system of party management, which is foreign to the prin- ciples of a democracy, and which has impercep- tibly usurped the free will of the people. While political parties should be in our Republic the tools of the people, they have become its masters. It is difficult to expose the methods by which this end has been reached, because they have so JULY 5, 1886. 13 long been part of our political life that they seem familiar and harmless; but, in truth, we shall find that popular elections have been too often the puppet-shows of politicians rather than the Olympics of the Republic. The usurpation has been none the less real that it has been gradual. At about the coming in of this century Aaron Burr conceived this new plan of political or- ganization, the people are to be managed by the same rules of discipline as the soldiers of an army; a few leaders are to think for the masses, and the latter are to implicitly follow their leaders. When, later, it was proclaimed that w to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy " the plan of warfare was complete. Its basis of action is to control the caucus. At its threshold the citizen must put himself under command, and pledge himself to support its action. But its action is skilfully controlled by the mana- gers, and the pledge is to do their will. The perversion of the deliberative and advisory character of primary meetings, by stipulating loyalty to its decrees, is the basal sham of party discipline. It is extended to conventions, and with like rigor the party caucus, in more majestic shape, extorts the promise of conformity even from legislative assem- blies and executive officers. 14 ORATION. The helpless citizen soon abandons the caucus to its owners, and thus delivers into their hands the whole machinery of politics. And the caucus is easily controlled: money buys the service of the grog-shop and the needy, and secures purchasable voters; honors lure the ambitious, and the bribe of power engages a multitude of corporals in this army of discipline. The successful party enlists wealth and influence; monopoly must purchase its protection and wrong must secure immunity. But over and above these inducements is the dispensation of patronage. The offices shall be plundered from the people, to whom they belong. This is no secret : it is openly proclaimed. The offices are no longer to be places of trust, but the spoils of war. Oh, shameless presumption, which puts upon the peaceful service of a Republic the laws of pillage and rapine ! Hear the words of a Massachusetts statesman upon the floor of Congress: I have heard in the highest places the shameless doctrine avowed, by men grown old in public office, that the true way by which power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their service ; and the true end for which it should be used, when gained, is the promotion of selfish ambition, and the gratification of personal revenge. JULY 5, 1886. 15 Nor have the statesmen of earlier days been silent upon this evil. Quincy, Randolph, Clay, and Calhoun inveighed against it, and "Webster thundered against it in these words: It is the use of the power of patronage ; it is the universal giving and taking away of all place and office, for reasons no way connected with the public service, or the faithful execution of the laws ; it is this which threatens with overthrow the true principles of government. A numerous and well-disciplined corps of office-holders, acting with activity and zeal, and with incredible union of purpose, is attempting to seize on the strong posts, and to control effectually the expression of the public will. But, gentlemen, the principle 'is vicious; it is destructive and ruinous ; and, whether it produces its work of disunion to-day or to-morrow, it must produce it in the end. At last political warfare has secured a standing army. But the conscription of this soldiery now becomes the most delicate and important duty; this must be secured to the politicians. To this end the appointing power is invaded. Legislators demand the power of appointment. Senatorial courtesy subverts the constitution ; and we have even seen senators resign their offices be- cause the Executive would not perform his con- stitutional duty at their dictation. 16 ORATION. Legislators create offices to supply party de- mands, and raise salaries to supply party funds. The holders of office know that the politicians, and not the people, are their masters. At their bidding they overrun caucuses and conventions; they con- tribute and distribute bribes; they cajole the weak and threaten the strong; the public buildings be- come the barracks and fortresses of party warfare; mean men are not wanting for mean business, criminals for crime; the holy ballot-box is even defiled. Political patronage and corruption seem so unlike that they are not recognized as twin- brothers. Yet what protection has the public treasury from dishonest politicians, if the public servants are their tools? May not, indeed, the conspirators themselves be placed in charge of the department they would despoil? At least exposure is but little to be feared when all the guardians of the public trusts are at the mercy of those who violate them. But to this great engine for national control the spoils of a nation do not suffice; the patron- age of State, county, town, and village is poured into the hopper, and no place of honor escapes it. That national politics have usurped town and city elections is not an unnatural consequence of the scheme of controlling the popular will. The JULY 5, 1886. 17 frequency of elections gives better opportunity for party discipline, and there are rich rewards in offices and contracts. Parties have built a broad and smooth high- way to success, which is open to the wire-puller, the boss, the striker, the demagogue, any one who will bring votes and yield to the discipline. The statesman and independent, who do not like this company, may stumble in the rough and solitary by-ways. But there is not alone the reward of loyalty, but the punishment of treason. Abuse and cal- umny, jeers and scoffs, follow the deserter, not only into public, but private and professional, life. No one knows the relentlessness of this persecution who has not suffered from it. It is not strange that such a system does not produce statesmen, that the name of politi- cian is a reproach, that talent shrinks from public life, that legislators are cowardly, and that the people feel helpless to remedy the evils which enjoy the protection of political parties. It is not strange that the welfare of the country is sunk in the furor of party zeal. "If at any time," said a United States senator to a graduating class, "you find your party con- trolled by disreputable methods and with corrupt 18 ORATION. men in its management, do not abandon it, and seek to defeat it by going over to the opposi- tion." Though after defeat in the party yon must support the successful candidate, the logic fails when the people have defeated the party's can- didate. It then becomes your duty to doubt his virtues and his motives, and sneer at his preten- sions to reform. Is it not clear that it will be dangerous to allow him to acquit himself credit- ably? Can any one be so faithful to his trust that he will not be shamed by a slanderous party press? !Nbt even the President is to be shielded ; even here patriotism and national pride shall not suf- fice. For he is only the head of a successful faction. Is this an exaggeration ? Even now, when the whole world, with jealous or with friendly eye, looks to the President of the nation as the standard and personification of the national character, baffled partisanship de- mands, even on this anniversary of Independence, that we shall not point with joy . and pride to the manliness, the independence, the candor, fear- lessness, ability, devotion, honesty, and untiring patriotism of the present chief magistrate of the United States. JULY o, 1886. 19 To quote once more : K The best results in the operation of a government, wherein every citi- zen has a share, largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort, and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patri- otism of the citizen." Signed, Grover Cleveland. We need not to recall how sectional prejudice has been kept alive for political purposes ; we know how party rancor has set neighbor against neighbor ; we have heard that it was the pur- pose of one-half the people to destroy our indus- tries, to despoil the public service, to indemnify rebels and oppress a helpless race. Thank Heaven, we need no longer doubt that our countrymen are fit to govern, into whatever factions they may separate, or under whatever name they may combine ! Let there be no misunderstanding. Parties, as representatives of economic and social principles, are to be desired, they are inevitable in a healthy political condition; but parties ruled by military law are not adapted for the peaceful service of a Republic; they destroy public and private harmony, lower the standard of public morals, and substitute the schemes of politicians for the will of the people. Instead of rational 20 ORATION. organized representatives of a healthy public opinion we have seen parties which aim at power without statesmanship; which have ambition with- out a policy; which encourage sectionalism, pro- mote private and public dishonesty; which will not reform or be reformed; which are organizations with no soul or conscience; which are mere intelli- gence offices for the servants of the nation. There is an institution, which is purely demo- cratic, which was the mainspring of American Independence. It is the town-meeting. We, of New England, know that corruption has not yet polluted it. We discuss, we plan, we arrive at conclusions, mistaken at times, but, in the main, right. The leaders, who make promises in town-meeting, must redeem them or abdicate. Compare the rule of the people with the reign of party. The last Congress opened, unanimously pledged by open promises to the people to a readjust- ment of the tariff, honest currency, and a reform of the civil service. Its policy upon the tariff has been to do nothing, not even to debate; upon the silver ques- tion, to do nothing. Civil-service reform they have kissed upon the forehead and stabbed under the ribs ; but the policy is still to do nothing. JULY 5, 1866. 21 Nothing, though multiplied a million times, is still nothing. Such is the product of party discipline upon our national Legislature ; the woof of legislation is spun into the party warp, and legislators are measured by their party service ; a brave people is represented by timid men. Party platforms are a sham; the party's promise to you is worthless while your promise to the party must be re- deemed, even to the limit of supporting unprin- cipled men for office. The charge that the American people is as faithless as the parties in which they combine, is not true. They want honesty, they want true leadership, they want independence and manly courage. You, Mr. Mayor, have known how lavishly the votes of the people are poured upon the man who has the will and the courage to do the right. At last let ambition learn the lesson of Carlyle : Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. The -problem of to-day is to cure these evils ; to bring the government back into the hands of the 22 ORATION. people; to reestablish direct relations between the voter and the laws; to recreate direct responsibility of the agents of government at the public forum. It is a process of removing those "who impudently stand between the people and their government." Until existing parties shall promote this end the instrument to secure it must be independent deliberations, independent nominations, and inde- pendent votes. To this end the price of public honors should be untiring and single devotion to the public service, and to this end all venal motives should be removed from the path of politi- cal ambition. The caucus is not our master, but our servant; parties are form, and not substance; they may go out to-morrow, and not an atom of our institutions be lost; if they tyrannize, let us form new ones fit for freemen ; if our public men can only follow and obey, let us elect those who will lead and despise dictation ; but, above all, let us make corruption a deadly sin. Fellow-countrymen, let us not forget that to us God has intrusted the great problem of manhood government; that, as we preserve and safeguard that which the bravery, the wisdom, the self- sacrifice of our fathers gave us, so shall in future days our names be blessed or accursed. Time was when upon a single head descended the gratitude JULY5,1886. 23 or reproaches of mankind; now upon the fidelity and watchful care of each of us rests the destiny of a nation; none so humble that his voice may not be heard, no hand so weak that its blow may not be felt. From the throbbing of your heart comes the Republic's mighty pulse. The sword of liberty is grasped by a million hands. Be watch- ful, be fearless, be vigilant unto the end ! .9 (ff vjs & a i ^UNIYERtfA ^ *. -'Sf 5 & !.2^. E RN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY ^lOSANCElQ^ ^OF-GUIFO^ ^OF-C^ CO ^ ^-UBRARY