;i'- 
 
 m
 
 
 MODERN ELOQUENCE 
 
 LIBRARY OF^ 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, LECTURES 
 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 i 
 
 %
 
 THOMAS BR4CKETT REED 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life 
 
 ^^
 
 V. / 
 
 Copyright, igoo 
 
 By 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY
 
 COMMITTEE OF SELECTION 
 
 Edward Everett Hale, Author of " The Man Without a 
 Country." 
 
 John B. Gordon, Former United States Senator. 
 
 Nathan Haskell Dole, Associate Editor " International 
 Library of Famous Literature." 
 
 James B. Pond, Manager Lecture Bureau ; Author of " Eccen- 
 tricities of Genius.' 
 
 George McLean Harper, Professor of EngHsh Literature, 
 Princeton LTniversity. 
 
 Lorenzo Sears, Professor of Enghsh Literature, Brown Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Edwin M. Bacon, Former Editor " Boston Advertiser " and 
 " Boston Post." 
 
 J. Walker McSpadden, Managing Editor " Edition Royale " 
 of Balzac's Works. 
 
 F. CuNLiFFE Owen, Member Editorial Staff " New York- 
 Tribune." 
 
 Truman A. DeWeese, Member Editorial Staff " Chicago 
 Times-Herald." 
 
 Champ Clark, Member of Congress from Missouri. 
 
 Marcus Benjamin, Editor, National Museum, Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
 Clark Howell, Editor " Atlanta Constitution." 
 
 INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES BY 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, Hamilton Wright Mabie, 
 
 Lorenzo Sears, Jonathan P. Dolliver, 
 
 Champ Clark, Edward Everett Hale, 
 
 Albert Ellery Bergh. 
 
 Note. — A large number of tlie most distinguished speakers of this 
 country and Great Britain have selected their own best speeches for 
 this Library. These speakers include Whitelaw Reid, William Jennings 
 Bryan, Henry van Dyke, Henry M. Stanley, Newell Dwight Hillis, 
 Joseph Jefferson, Sir Henry Irving, Arthur T. Hadley, John D. Long, 
 David Starr Jordan, and many others of equal note.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE present work, as its title implies, is devoted exclu- 
 sively to Modern Eloqnence. Its publishers have 
 aimed to supply the reading public with the best After-Din- 
 ner Speeches, Lectures, and Occasional Addresses delivered 
 in this country, or abroad, during the past century. In this 
 respect the Library of Modern Eloquence may be said to 
 cover a field peculiarly its own. The orations of Demos- 
 thenes, Cicero, Burke, Webster and other noted orators may 
 be found in every well-equipped public library, and there 
 have been published, from time to time, oratorical antholo- 
 gies containing gems of eloquence culled from the speeches 
 of standard orators of all countries and of all ages; but this 
 is the first attempt to preserve unabridged and in lasting 
 form the best occasional oratory of recent times. 
 
 " Modern Eloquence " is in fact a cyclopaedia of the 
 choicest wit and wisdom embodied in the best speeches of 
 the century. Speeches are given complete, and there is 
 no collection of later oratory that surpasses this work either 
 in scope or scholarship. Indeed, there is no other collec- 
 tion devoted exclusively to occasional oratory. 
 
 The Editors have adhered strictly to the plan of excluding 
 all speeches that cannot properly be classed under the head 
 of oratorical literature. For this reason they have discarded 
 Parliamentary speeches, and all other speeches delivered in 
 the heat of debate, as well as addresses that were found to 
 be fragmentary or unsatisfactory. No address has been in- 
 cluded that bears evidence of loose construction and con- 
 fusion of ideas. The speeches selected possess in some de- 
 gree what Carlyle termed " the white sunlight of potent 
 words." They range from the humorous after-dinner speech 
 to the eloquent oration and classic lecture. In the list of 
 contents will be found masterpieces in every department of 
 modern eloquence — model after-dinner speeches, by such
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 noted postprandial orators as Joseph H. Choate, Samuel L. 
 Clemens (Mark Twain), Chauncey M. Depew, Charles Dick- 
 ens, and Horace Porter; — model lectures, both humorous 
 and profound, by such celebrities as Matthew Arnold, Henry 
 Ward Beecher, Thomas Carlyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 William M. Thackeray, and Wendell Phillips; — model occa- 
 sional addresses, of the most diversified order, by such emi- 
 nent authors and orators as William Ellery Channing, Rufus 
 Choate, George William Curtis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, ' 
 Henry van Dyke, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, 
 Thomas Henry Huxley, John Ruskin, Edmund Clarence 
 Stedman, Charles Sumner and Daniel Webster. 
 
 The three general departments are arranged in alpha- 
 betical order in accordance with the names of the speakers. 
 The first three volumes are devoted exclusively to after-din- 
 ner speeches, and the list of speakers ranges from Charles 
 Francis Adams to Wu Ting-Fang. The succeeding three 
 volumes contain classic and popular lectures, the alphabet- 
 ical list of lectures ranging from Matthew Arnold to Henry 
 Watterson. The seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes cover 
 the field of occasional addresses. This department includes 
 literary, scientific, commencement, and commemorative ad- 
 dresses, in addition to eulogies and speeches which come 
 under the general classification of occasional oratory. In 
 alphabetical sequence the speakers in this section range 
 from Lyman Abbott to Daniel Webster. The final volume 
 is devoted chiefly to stories and famous passages compiled 
 from thousands of after-dinner speeches, lectures, and oc- 
 casional addresses which, owing to the exigencies of space, 
 could not be given in the preceding volumes. The analyt- 
 ical index forms the latter portion of the final volume. 
 
 The compilation of " Modern Eloquence " has not been 
 easy of accomplishment. It has required extensive research 
 and a large corps of editors and editorial assistants. Many 
 of the addresses included in this library have never before 
 been published in any form whatever, and are printed here, 
 for the first time, from the original manuscripts. These 
 manuscripts have been secured by the publishers of the pres- 
 ent work by special arrangement with the speakers and lect- 
 urers themselves, or with their legal representatives. They 
 are published exclusively in this collection and are fully pro-
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 tected under the provisions of the International Copyright 
 Law. In their efforts to obtain these addresses the Pub- 
 Hshers liave spared neither pains nor expense. The Editors, 
 assisted l)y the Committee of Selection and other represent- 
 atives, have applied personally, or by correspondence, to 
 many prominent speakers for their best speeches or lectures. 
 In cases where a desirable speech or lecture was found to 
 exist in copyrii^hted form, special permission has been ob- 
 tained from the publisher or rightful owner to reproduce it 
 in the present work. In most instances, speeches and lect- 
 ures of living orators have been submitted to them for 
 personal revision. Furthermore, the Editors have inserted 
 numerous notes, explanatory of allusions which might not 
 be entirely obvious to the reader. These notes have been 
 interpolated between brackets in the text itself, or they 
 appear as foot-notes. 
 
 The after-dinner speeches are kaleidoscopic in variety of 
 topical eloquence. The majority of them partake of some 
 element of humor. They frequently alternate from passages 
 and sallies in lighter vein to passages and perorations of 
 inspired eloquence. Some idea of the variety of toasts, 
 topics, and themes to which noted personages have re- 
 sponded, may be obtained by glancing over the list of con- 
 tents. Among the long list of after-dinner speeches the 
 reader will find: " The Realm of Literature," by Matthew 
 Arnold; " Peace with Honor," by Lord Beaconsfield; " Mer- 
 chants and Ministers," by Henry Ward Beecher; " A Birth- 
 day Address," by William Cullen Bryant; "The Pilgrim 
 Mothers," by Joseph H. Choate; " Political Life in Eng- 
 land," by Lord Randolph Churchill; " Woman — God Bless 
 Her," and "Unconscious Plagiarism," by Mark Twain; 
 ," The English-Speaking Race," by George William Curtis; 
 '■' Unsolved Problems," by Chauncey M. Depew; " Friends 
 Across the Sea," by Charles Dickens; " The Typical Dutch- 
 man," by Henry van Dyke; "The Memory of Burns," by 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson; "The French Alliance," by Will- 
 iam M. Evarts; "The Race Problem," by Plenry W. 
 Grady; "Mere Man," by Sarah Grand; "The Mission of 
 Culture," by Edward Everett Hale; " Our New Country," 
 by Murat Ilalstead ; " Dorothy Q," by Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes; " The Music of Wagner," by Robert G. Ingersoll;
 
 vm INTRODUCTION 
 
 "The Drama," by Sir Henry Irving; "Literature," by 
 James Russell Lowell; "The Poets' Corner," by John 
 Lothrop Motley; "Woman," by Horace Porter; "The 
 Press — right or wrong," by Whitelaw Reid; "The Hol- 
 lander as an American," by Theodore Roosevelt; "The 
 Army and Navy," by General William T. Sherman; 
 "Music," by Sir Arthur Sullivan; "Tribute to Holmes," 
 by Charles Dudley Warner; and " The Force of Ideas," by 
 Heman Lincoln Wayland. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that this is the first attempt to 
 compile a collection of after-dinner speeches. Hitherto the 
 only available speeches of this class were those that hap- 
 pened to be included in the collected addresses of noted 
 orators. Now the reader may find diversion or instruction 
 in the perusal of the best efforts of all typical post-prandial 
 orators of recent times. Here will be found a wide range 
 of toasts to which responses have been made by some of the 
 most famous personages of the past century. The theme of 
 their respective speeches does not in every instance conform 
 altogether to the toast or sentiment to w^iich they were re- 
 quested to respond. The Editors, accordingly, have pre- 
 ferred to take the title from the theme of the address 
 rather than from the toast itself, but the explanatory note 
 preceding each speech invariably cites the actual toast, as 
 given by the toast-master or the chairman of the ban- 
 quet. Many of the brightest, wittiest, and wisest say- 
 ings of our time have been engendered amid the incense 
 of fragrant Havanas and the aroma of cafe noir. There 
 is something particularly inspiring in a group of men 
 who are in the best of spirits, owing to a good dinner 
 and genial company, and who settle back comfortably in 
 their chairs to listen to some scientific, literary, political, or 
 perhaps satirical, discourse from a noted speaker whose 
 words may be flashed around the world. The origin and 
 development of after-dinner speaking is fully explained in 
 the charming essay on that subject written especially for this 
 work by Dr. Lorenzo Sears, Professor of American Litera- 
 ture at Brown University. Dr. Sears is the author of a 
 standard work entitled " The Occasional Address," and is 
 eminently fitted to write on a subject of this character. 
 
 After-dinner speaking commends itself especially to
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 American manners and institutions, and in this line of ora- 
 tory our country is unsurpassed. The wide ran>;c of subject 
 permitted and the ilexibility of the occasion are acccnuUable 
 to a large extent for its universal popularity. Prospective 
 speakers for post-prandial occasions will derive much assist- 
 ance from a perusal of the first three volumes. Although 
 the Committee of Selection have aimed to include the bright- 
 est efforts of noted after-dinner speakers, the name and 
 reputation of the speaker have not been allowed to rule 
 exclusively. The question of prime importance related to 
 the speech itself. More than one thousand speeches, de- 
 livered on many different occasions, were carefully consid- 
 ered, and the speakers themselves were consulted whenever 
 this was possible. 
 
 Many suppose that the best after-dinner speeches are the 
 result of impromptu efforts. This, however, is rarely the 
 case. The great post-prandial orators make the most care- 
 ful preparation. They endeavor to crowd into the limits of 
 five or ten minutes an eloquent epitome of thought, argu- 
 ment, fact, fancy, and humor. Emerson is said to have put 
 into an after-dinner speech the best philosophy of a long 
 essay. The speeches of Chauncey M. Depew, Horace Por- 
 ter, and other typical after-dinner speakers abound in terse 
 wit and sparkling humor that are not to be found in their 
 more elaborate addresses. That " brevity is the soul of 
 wit " is most apparent in post-prandial eloquence. 
 
 Poets, artists, philosophers, novelists, scientists — men 
 noted for their brilliant wit, rollicking humor, or sound 
 common sense, have given to the world some of their best 
 utterances at society or public dinners. Explanatory and 
 editorial comments relative to the occasion have been placed 
 before each speech. In many cases the introductory speech 
 of the presiding officer is given in full. These presentation 
 remarks are the choicest specimens of introductory elo- 
 quence and serve to show how the best presiding officers 
 introduce speakers to audiences. 
 
 The Publishers are indebted to the New England Societies 
 of New York, St. Louis, Pennsylvania, Brooklyn, and other 
 cities; to the Lotos Club, of New York; the Sunset Club 
 and Hamilton Club, of Chicago; the Savage Club, of Lon- 
 don; the Harvard Alumni Association, of Boston; the
 
 X INTRODUCTION 
 
 Chambers of Commerce, of New York and other States; 
 the New York State Bar Association; the Clover Club, of 
 Philadelphia; the Holland Society of New York; to the 
 Royal Academy of Arts and the Royal Literary Fund, of 
 London, and to many other clubs and associations, for valu- 
 able material and assistance in the compilation of this sec- 
 tion of the work. The full list of contents of the first three 
 volumes comprises about 200 speakers and 300 speeches. 
 Many of the after-dinner speakers are represented by several 
 speeches, and from half a dozen to a dozen speeches have 
 been selected to represent those who have won especial fame 
 as orators at public banquets. 
 
 Some of the finest achievements in the literature of ora- 
 tory must be credited to lecturers of this and other countries 
 — to occasional and professional platform orators who have 
 won lasting renown by reason of their brilliant intellects and 
 persuasive eloquence. The lecture, by frequent repetition 
 and improvement, becomes the masterpiece of the speaker. 
 The sifting and perfecting process results in a highly finished 
 oratorical production. No sermon of Henry Ward Beecher 
 was ever so full of intellectual force or profound human in- 
 terest as his best lecture; no political address by Wendell 
 Phillips ever equalled, in point of interest or charm of style, 
 his delightful lecture on " The Lost Arts." The lectures 
 selected are bright and modern. They are not a series of 
 essays reprinted from some volume of forgotten lore. Most 
 of them are now published for the first time. They have 
 been chosen with due discrimination and with a view to 
 variety of subject and breadth of treatment. Prominence 
 has been given to lectures which abound in wit, humor, and 
 pathos. As in human life, the sublime and the ridiculous are 
 found side by side, and the source of laughter is placed close 
 by the fountain of tears. Every lecture selected presents 
 the condensed wit and wisdom of the speaker — a masterpiece 
 in the literature of platform oratory. 
 
 The biographical and critical lectures treat of poets and 
 their verses, musicians and their songs, artists and their 
 paintings, generals and their victories. These and kindred 
 topics of artistic inspiration and human achievement are 
 treated by lecturers who have devoted years of study to their 
 chosen themes. Among those who have excelled in this
 
 INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 order of lecture are William M. Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, 
 John Lord, Ian Maclaren, Wendell Phillips, Matthew Ar- 
 nold, William Ellery Channing, Marion Crawford, George 
 William Curtis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert G. Ingersoll, 
 Sir Henry Irving, Charles Dudley Warner, and Henry 
 Watterson. 
 
 In the list of those who are identified with moral and 
 didactic lectures are Dean Farrar, T. DeWitt Talmagc, John 
 B. Gough, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Ashton Livermore, 
 Charles Kingsley, and many others. History, travel, and 
 education have proved fruitful fields for platform orators, 
 Henry M. Stanley, John B. Gordon, Theodore Parker, Ed- 
 ward Everett, and a host of others have distinguished them- 
 selves as lecturers on themes of this order. 
 
 In the section devoted to occasional addresses the Com- 
 mittee of Selection have aimed to include only those ad- 
 dresses which are characterized by attractiveness of style, 
 clearness and force of thought, and appropriateness of illus- 
 tration. Among the literary addresses are given the most 
 representative speeches of great authors and critics. Those 
 presented are interpretative and expository, but never 
 descend to the dulness of dogmatism. They pertain to 
 some important phase of literature or to some famous 
 author. They differ from the lectures in having been 
 delivered only on special occasions. Among the speak- 
 ers represented in this class are Andrew Lang, Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes, John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Edmund Clarence 
 Stedman, and scores of others of equal note. Of scien- 
 tific addresses only those have been selected which are 
 at once clear, comprehensive, and entertaining — elements 
 which are seldom lacking when the speaker is an authority 
 on the particular branch of science of which he treats. 
 Among those who have delivered notable scientific ad- 
 dresses, and are here represented, are Sir John Lubbock, 
 Thomas Henry Huxley, John Tyndall, Charles Robert Dar- 
 win, Lord Kelvin, Richard A. Proctor, and Sir Frederick 
 Herschell. Some of the most famous educators and elo- 
 quent divines have been identified with commencement 
 addresses. There are also many fine examples of the eulogy. 
 George William Curtis, for instance, discoursed eloquently 
 on Lowell; Edward Everett eulogized Washington; anc|
 
 xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 numerous eloquent eulogies may be found in the addresses 
 of Rufus Choate, William Cullen Bryant, Charles Sumner, 
 Parke Godwin, and their contemporaries. 
 
 Many of the occasional addresses treat of miscellaneous 
 subjects which will be found systematically classified in the 
 analytical index. The representative speeches derived from 
 French, German, and Spanish sources were in most instances 
 specially translated for this work. In the English version 
 great care has been exercised in preserving the thought and 
 idiomatic flavor of the original text. 
 
 The capital stories, bright sayings, famous passages, and 
 flashes of wit embodied in the final volume greatly increase 
 the value of the library as a cyclopaedia of eloquence. Ref- 
 erence to each one of these extracts will be found in the 
 analytical index, entered under its proper subject-head or 
 topical classification. The work thus becomes a topical 
 cyclopaedia of oratorical quotations which will be found of 
 great convenience to public speakers and to all persons called 
 to prepare a lecture, respond to a toast, or deliver an occa- 
 sional address. At a moment's notice one may turn to the 
 brightest anecdote and most pertinent illustration for any 
 subject or occasion. 
 
 Wit and humor, however, are not confined to the final 
 volume. Throughout the whole body of the work the ele- 
 ment of humor is found in generous measure, but it is espe- 
 cially prevalent in the after-dinner speeches and the lectures. 
 A special effort has been made to find the best stories and 
 sayings of modern humorists. This feature of the li]:)rary 
 will make it highly interesting for the family circle. Stories 
 that have convulsed great audiences with laughter cannot 
 fail to evoke an echoing ripple around the fireside. 
 
 The work is embellished by numerous full-page photo- 
 gravures and illustrations in color. Portraits of great ora- 
 tors will be found in connection with their speeches. The 
 illustrations also include historic scenes and historic l)uild- 
 ings referred to in the text. Many of them are reproduc- 
 tions from famous paintings, and all of them are artistic 
 and appropriate. 
 
 Every page throughout the work has been thoroughly 
 indexed in order to enhance its usefulness for purposes of 
 reference. In this index each speech, lecture, and address
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 is presented in alpliabetical order, according to its title. 
 Reference to each subject will be found under the general 
 classification to which the subject in (juestion belongs. An 
 entry will be found of every person, place, or event cited on 
 any page of the entire work. Thus the analytical index 
 comprises a general index, an index of speakers, an index of 
 subjects, an index of illustrations, an index of stories, an in- 
 dex of wit and eloquence, and an index of events. The type, 
 paper, and press-work are all in keeping with the standard 
 of excellence required in a work of this character. 
 
 The Editors of " Modern Eloquence " have endeavored to 
 preserve for the present and future generations the best 
 spoken thought of the century. Lectures that entertained 
 and electrified large audiences all over the country, re- 
 sponses to toasts that struck the right chord at some mo- 
 mentous banquet, and occasional addresses of " piercing wit 
 and pregnant thought " are worthy of preservation in last- 
 ing form. 
 
 True eloquence is irresistible. It charms by its images of 
 beauty, it enforces an argument by its vehement simplicity. 
 Orators whose speeches are " full of sound and fury, signify- 
 ing nothing," only prevail where truth is not understood, 
 for knowledge and simplicity are the foundation of all true 
 eloquence. Eloquence abounds in beautiful and natural 
 images, sublime but simple conceptions, in passionate but 
 plain words. Burning words appeal to the emotions, as well 
 as to the intellect; they stir the soul and touch the heart. 
 
 Eloquence, according to the definition of Lyman Beecher, 
 is " logic on fire." Sweet and honeyed sentences, a profu- 
 sion of platitudinous phrases, a roll of resounding periods, 
 may tickle the ear for the time being, but no speech of this 
 order is worthy of permanent preservation. The language 
 of eloquence is founded on thought, emotion, earnestness, 
 humor, and enthusiasm. Above all, it requires innate talent, 
 for the secret of verbal magic was never acquired in a school 
 of oratory. In its higher forms eloquence requires natural 
 genius, profound knowledge, a lofty imagination, and an 
 unusual command of the power of language. 
 
 Men of literary genius have often been gifted with the 
 talent of thoughtful, cultured, and impressive speech, and 
 some of the speeches of this class which have been repro-
 
 xiT INTRODUCTION 
 
 diiced in the present collection fairly scintillate with epi- 
 grammatic wit and rollicking humor. Scholars and literary 
 men often deliver speeches that prove most readable because 
 they know both from intuition and training that simplicity 
 is the soul of style in spoken as well as in written thought. 
 Simplicity and culture have been largely considered by the 
 Committee of Selection; and take it, for all in all, the Edi- 
 tors and Publishers feel confident that the Library of 
 " Modern Eloquence " will be found a most comprehensive 
 compilation of recent oratory — both in serious and lighter 
 vein — and a work which ought to find a place in every educa- 
 tional institution and in every public or private library 
 throughout the land. 
 
 U^^^^ ^^!^ /^!^^^
 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 IT would be interesting to trace the origin and develop- 
 ment of a custom which is usually thought modern, were 
 its beginning not lost in remote antiquity. Imagination can 
 picture a tribe of feeding men, not too primitive to talk in- 
 telligently as they ate, and yet so numerous that mere table- 
 talk would not keep a single subject of discussion before them 
 for long, nor allow any but a chieftain to monopolize atten- 
 tion. At length it might become desirable to reconcile op- 
 posing views and factions, to give direction to roused energies, 
 and a single purpose to divided aims. 
 
 The hour had arrived for the men of counsel, who must 
 have preceded the men of war as soon as clan organization 
 succeeded to the personal struggle of every man for himself. 
 It would be safe to say that in early times and in the child- 
 hood of races a feast was not an unnecessary factor in get- 
 ting the assembly together and in securing assent to proposi- 
 tions. This method is efficacious with children still, and 
 adults have been known to be not entirely insensible to its 
 subtle influence. 
 
 Now the truth of this natural suggestion of the fancy is 
 established the moment that the beginnings of history and 
 literature reveal the customs of those primeval men whose 
 ways are a matter of authentic record. And it is fair to 
 suppose that in so simple habits as eating and speaking the 
 manner of them had come down unchanged, except in refine- 
 ment, from rude ages to the more polished of which early 
 literatures are a reflection. In the Homeric poems, for ex- 
 ample, which gather up the traditions of the earlier Epos, the 
 feast and the speech are in frequent and close conjunction, 
 and both are often tributary to important occasions and 
 measures. An example or two will illustrate this well-known 
 
 XV
 
 XVI AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 custom. The Iliad, as a war-epic, cannot be expected to 
 furnish instances of social gathering with attendant feasting 
 and speaking. Yet both are found in two of its most im- 
 portant passages. 
 
 Readers will recall the haste, bred of disaster and fear, with 
 which panic-stricken Agamemnon summoned the leaders of 
 the host to meet in general assembly, and made the cowardly 
 proposal to abandon the siege of Troy, charging defeat upon 
 Jove, cruel and faithless. The prolonged silence with 
 which his faint-hearted counsel was reproved being at length 
 broken by Diomede's courageous rebuke a stormy debate 
 appears likely to ensue. It is then that the wisdom of a 
 skilled master of assemblies becomes conspicuous. Venerable 
 Nestor, orator pre-eminent, gracefully turning down his im- 
 petuous junior with the remark that, though he had spoken 
 bravely and well, the chief point of the matter had been 
 missed, which he himself will enlarge upon. But not then. 
 Imminent as was the need of good counsel and immediate 
 action the mood of the assembly did not suit him. There- 
 fore he moves to dismiss the fighting men to a plenteous 
 meal. And to the king he says, " Do thou, Agamemnon, 
 taking the lead as supreme in command, assemble the elders 
 to a splendid feast in thy tent, one worthy thy station. 
 Plenty of wine hast thou in store, every appliance is thine, 
 and all will attend on their sovereign. Then let the leaders 
 consult, and of all the counsel they offer choose thou the 
 wisest and best. Good need hath Greece of suggestions, 
 prudent at once and bold, when the fires of the Trojans 
 around us blaze fearfully near, and on this night's decision 
 depends the fate of our army." But first the feast and then 
 the counsel that is to prevail in this crisis. Nor is it until 
 Atreus' son had convened the chiefs to a " strengthening 
 meal," and each one " la}'ing his hand on the plenteous 
 viands before him, hunger and thirst appeased," that they 
 betook themselves to counsel, Nestor introducing his pro- 
 posal to send an embassy to Achilles, the forlorn hope of 
 the Argives. 
 
 It was not a cheerful feast with speeches in the lighter 
 vein ; but all the more does this early example of after- 
 dinner discussion show the value of its employment in times 
 of great public concern. Incidentally, also, a dignity is con-
 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEAKINCf xvu 
 
 ferred upon the custom itself which is not always considered 
 as belonging to it. A poet who knew something of human 
 nature makes a wise counsellor and skilled orator dispose 
 his hearers to attentive listening by removing the distrac- 
 tions of hunger and thirst, and inspiring the sentiments of 
 good fellowship and unanimity which follow good cheer. 
 
 A similar scene occurs when the embassy which Nestor had 
 nominated reaches Achilles. Among the many cautions 
 which he conveyed to the ambassadors, it is not known wheth- 
 er he included the suggestion not to deliver their message 
 until after the refreshment which the hospitable chief was 
 sure to provide. Certain it is, however, that they did not de- 
 clare their errand, curious as Achilles evidently was as to its 
 purport, until he had ordered wine served and flesh roasted, 
 and the abundant viands were consumed and the meal con- 
 cluded. An hour or two must have passed in general 
 conversation, avoiding war topics, before the crafty Ulysses, 
 pledging his host, began to speak Avith a compliment to the 
 princely provision with which they had been received, and 
 made his transition to the main point by adding, " Matter, 
 however, more grave than feasts now claims our attention." 
 
 It was a noble display of appeal and rejoinder and of as 
 sober and fateful speech as should ever cross a table. And 
 although the purpose of the embassy failed, every favoring 
 precaution had been taken which according to the opinion 
 and custom of the time would contribute to its successful 
 issue. Of these provisions the banquet and the speech are 
 chief. 
 
 The value of these in connection with the present topic is 
 representative. In a book which more than any other was 
 the reflection of a remote past and a model for succeeding 
 literature incidents like the above count for much in estimat- 
 ing the prevalence of a custom. If, moreover, it is found 
 under unfavorable conditions in camps it is not unnatural to 
 look for its prevalence in courts. Accordingly, it is instruc- 
 tive to turn from the epic of War to that of the Wandering, 
 from the Iliad to the Odyssey. 
 
 It is to be expected that the character of the speech will 
 change with the fortunes of the principal speaker. Ulysses 
 is no longer the ambassador from a king to an offended 
 general, but a pilgrim wandering far from his home, seeing
 
 xviii AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 the cities and manners of many men in times of peace. 
 Entertained at many festive boards he listens to the song of 
 bards, and the speech that follows is of the narrative order. 
 He himself holds princely companies attentive by a recital 
 of his adventures on land and sea. The long relation in 
 the house of Alcinous, extending through four books, is the 
 sequence to a feast in which the raconteur sat on a throne 
 near the king " dividing portions of flesh and drinking mixed 
 wine." So Telemachus, in Mcnelaus' palace, had already re- 
 lated the state of affairs in Ithaca, but not until the host 
 had commanded him and his companions to " taste food 
 and rejoice, setting before them the fat back of an ox and 
 all kinds of flesh, with bread and many dainties, and near 
 them golden cups." And so on through all the poem ; and 
 it might be added through all the literatures of the ancients 
 the feasting and the speaking go together in the social and 
 often in the business assemblies of men. Enough, how- 
 ever, has been cited from the principal author of remote 
 antiquity and the inspirer and model of later writers to es- 
 tablish the general prevalence of the custom. He had 
 often witnessed it, as he had seen shields and spears, 
 chariots and ships. He portrayed what he had seen with 
 an accuracy which was unquestioned, giving to the banquet- 
 speech the dignity of an antiquity equal to that which 
 belongs to any other form of public address, and the impor- 
 tance which pertains to great crises and interesting episodes 
 in human affairs. 
 
 There is little need of tracing the custom through historic 
 centuries. It was rife in primeval times ; it obtains now ; 
 and as the elemental habits of social life have continued 
 without much change in the intervening ages, it may be 
 safely concluded that these two customs of feasting and 
 speaking for a purpose have gone together. It will be of 
 greater consequence to observe some of the conditions and 
 qualities which distinguish the after-dinner speech from 
 other forms of address, and to note some factors which con- 
 tribute to its efficiency. 
 
 Of the two quantities which are to be reckoned with in 
 the practical worth of any speech, namely, the speaker and 
 the audience, the latter is the lesser on festive occasions. 
 At least it is reduced to its lowest critical j)ower, and is
 
 AFTER-DINNKR SPlOAKIXCi xix 
 
 raised to the liiLjlicst point of charity and content. The 
 primitive " desire of meat and drink bein^ takeii away," as 
 the old poets have it, attention can be given unreservedly 
 to the feast of reason ; that is, if the reasoning be not too 
 hard to follow with diminished mental activity consequent 
 upon relaxation. Also, with the proverbial good nature 
 which succeeds to dining almost any proposition will be 
 assented to that does not cross a listener's political or re- 
 ligious principles at right angles. A certain openness of 
 mind is apt to prevail as the result of genial influences, 
 large companionship, and variety of sentiment expressed. 
 The soul of the guest expands, rises, and diffuses itself like 
 the all-including post-prandial smoke, denied to the ancients, 
 which so softens and narcoti/ces the atmosphere, making 
 drowsy the sentinel nerves, that men have been known to ap- 
 plaud at midnight statements which they reject with sus- 
 picion next noonday. Such indulgent mood also contributes 
 to ready appreciation of what is said, if pitched in the right 
 key. The one faculty which is sure to be wide awake is 
 the sense of humor, and a little Avit will go a great way. 
 Altogether the audience is in its most favorable temper, 
 and in striking contrast to conditions which sometimes pre- 
 vail in political, educational, and religious assemblies. 
 Properly and fairly treated it will be neither excited, 
 bored nor drowsy, but sympathetic, appreciative and in- 
 spiring. It will furnish its own share of the entertainment, 
 if the other contributor succeeds in furnishing his. 
 
 Of course the weight of responsibility falls upon the 
 speaker, and it is not small, notwithstanding the favoring 
 conditions. These he will be slow to presume upon. The 
 guest who has been notified of what will be expected of 
 him — and no other is contemplated here — will first of all 
 not interpret literally the intimation that he may be called 
 upon " to make a few informal remarks." That is a euphe- 
 mism — a leaf which covers a trap. Or if the remarks are 
 to be not formal, it will be understood that they are not, 
 on this account to be ill-considered, without form, and void. 
 
 Just here the man of experience takes pains to discover 
 in advance how large and what sort of a company is coming 
 together, how many and who the other speakers are to be, 
 and Avhat the purpose of the occasion is, if it has a purpose
 
 XX AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 beyond good cheer, as most festal occasions nowadays 
 have. Such inquiries are preliminary and pre-requisite to 
 any preparation he may wish to make ; and few will be so 
 rash as to make no preparation, since it is not a speech 
 merely, but a timely speech, that tells. 
 
 Another snare that an unwary guest may easily fall into is 
 the delusion that the inspiration of the place and the hour 
 will put words into his mouth. It is just as likely to take 
 them out of his mouth and ideas out of his head. There 
 are accompaniments of a feast which are not intellectually 
 stimulating. Things which make an audience well-conditioned 
 do not favor the speaker in like manner. Bacon says : *' Read- 
 ing maketh a full man, writing an exact man, conference a 
 ready man ; " but a dinner never served the last two ends, 
 admirable as it may be for the first. Nor is the full man 
 at his best for speaking. Let the appeal be to those 
 who find it necessary to toy with course after course, pre- 
 ferring to sacrifice appetite to intellect, choosing to spoil a 
 dinner, rather than a speech. There are doubtless those 
 who have no apprehensions of this kind, nor of the conse- 
 quences of antagonism between flesh and spirit, but they are 
 as rare as Homeric orators and belong to a heroic age. In 
 these degenerate days the ordinary man will not attempt 
 feats of eating and speaking, especially in the close con- 
 junction which distinguished the mighty in war and elo- 
 quence on the Dardan shore. 
 
 Neither does the foresighted guest hope for suggestive 
 inspiration from other speakers to put him on the right 
 track or to stir opposing sentiments. Debate has its own 
 place and time, but not at a public dinner, unless the dis- 
 cussion of a disputed question has been made the purpose 
 of assembling, as it seldom is made. Opposing sentiments 
 and their defence are contrary to the spirit of a festive com- 
 pany. Even on one of the most unfortunate occasions of 
 which there is an ancient record it is said, that " the people 
 sat down to cat and drink and rose up to play" — not to 
 argue and dispute. And in more seemly gatherings, the 
 spirit of contention and debate should not prevail nor any 
 speaker hope to strike fire from opinions and sentiments 
 opposed to his own. 
 
 Besides there is the risk that all commonplaces will be
 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING XXl 
 
 exhausted before one's turn comes, unless he is the first 
 speaker, who may preempt as much of the entire field as he 
 chooses. It is a skilled speaker who can warm over what 
 others have uttered without getting charged with plagiarism 
 or being called a parrot. Dependence on fortuitous aid 
 will be abandoned at the start by those who wish to be 
 assured of a reasonable success. It is an instance of 
 " every man for himself " — and frequently of the rest of the 
 f proverb. 
 
 By this time it will be suspected that some preparation 
 is deemed necessary for an after-dinner speech, as in the 
 case of other speaking. If the known practice of many of 
 the best speakers is worth anything, it may be inferred that 
 very careful prevision and provision are needful. Prevision 
 to see what is likely to be timely and effective : provision 
 to secure it and order it in effective sequence. Assuming 
 that foresight has been exercised, something may be said 
 of the kind of preparation which will be most serviceable 
 for after-dinner remarks. 
 
 This word " reinarks " is the term by which most speakers 
 prefer to designate such efforts as they choose to make on 
 these occasions. They do not dignify them by the more 
 formal title of a speech, much less an oration. Accordingly 
 the preparation to be made is not such as would be required 
 for either of these more pretentious performances. All 
 appearance of division into the sections of exordium, argu- 
 ment, and peroration would be as much out of place as an 
 oration itself. At the same time perhaps a greater skill 
 may be required to accomplish the ends for which these 
 divisions are essential in more elaborate addresses. There 
 is a beginning, a middle, and an ending to a paragraph even, 
 and much more to any discourse, long or short. Ordinary 
 conversation has its conventional beginning and ending, 
 which are not like the burden of it between the salutation 
 and the parting of the interlocutors. Remarks when one 
 has the floor cannot violate this natural imi)ulsc ; and the 
 opening sentences will often present more difficulty than 
 in conversation where tlie much-worn weather topic always 
 offers common ground of agreement as a starting-point. 
 The amenities of the occasion and the purpose of the com- 
 ing together generally serve the toastmaster or ruler of the
 
 xxll AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 feast and one or two more a good turn, but arc not to be 
 depended upon by every one. A man of ready wit may 
 catch a starting word from the chairman's introduction or 
 from the last speaker, if it wih fit on to what he is going to 
 say. This certainly gives an unepremeditated air at the 
 start which is most desirable, but to rely upon such a send- 
 off is risky. At the beginning, of all places, one needs to 
 be sure of getting under way without hesitation and entan- 
 glement. And although it is not the place for anything 
 profound, it is, all in all, the most trying part of the speech. 
 
 The pat anecdote is useful here, especially if it seems to 
 have fallen accidentally into the line of remark. It is a 
 powerful magnet for attracting immediate and universal 
 attention, and a capital pointer to indicate the direction 
 which the speaker is going to take, and may be made the 
 keynote of his discourse. Fortunate is the man who has 
 his quiver full of them and knows which one to draw and 
 when. There is but one drawback to the use of an anecdote 
 as he rises to speak. It may arouse an attention which can 
 be maintained only by a corresponding interest in the mat- 
 ter that follows. To make this, in its way, as interesting as 
 a good story, is possible, but difificult. 
 
 For this reason the burden of preparation will fall upon the 
 body of the speech. Aspeaker who takes the time which has 
 been surrendered from sleeping hours, or which others might 
 occupy, ought to offer something by way of compensation. 
 He will not merely say something, but will have something 
 to say. It may not be anything vastly wise or erudite or 
 mightily instructive or amusing. But it should be sensible, 
 to some point, and in harmony with the occasion. It is not 
 always an easy task to do this and may need more effort 
 than the speaker is willing to put into it. If, however, he 
 should conclude that rambling talk will answer as well, and 
 trust to the inspiration of the hour and the table and the 
 company, they may fail him. 
 
 "^lo minute suggestions can be made as to the details of 
 preparation. Assemblies are convened for all sorts of ob- 
 jects — usually with a financial appeal for a good cause in 
 the background or foreground even. To become an effect- 
 ive advocate requires acquaintance with the subject, sym- 
 pathy with its demands, and devotion to its aims. These
 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING xxi'ii 
 
 qualities give power to any words that arc an expression of 
 them — a few suggestions from a man of affairs often avail- 
 ing more than flights of wordy enthusiasm. 
 
 Or the feast may be of a reminiscent, commemorative, 
 or congratulatory order. Good taste, generous sentiment, 
 sober and fond recollection may be more needful than 
 knowledge and zeal. Indirect praise without adulation, the 
 best phase of life and character presented, to which all 
 portraiture has a right. For each and every kind of remark 
 the preparation will be according to the kind. Fitness is 
 the single and all-pervading demand. In general, however, 
 it must be said that lightness and good humor will be the 
 prevailing tone on most occasions, as becomes their festal 
 character. More serious ones are not usually introduced by 
 the pleasures of the table, and require a more elaborate 
 preparation. The labor given to lighter remark, it may be 
 added, is often in the direction of abundance rather than 
 of profundity. Abundance for the reason that previous 
 speakers may make sad inroads upon what first occurs to 
 one to say, and that he may need to carry more oil to the 
 feast than he expects to burn. The late speaker may have 
 little of his accumulation of material left untouched by his 
 predecessors. Therefore his stock should be large and 
 various. Moreover, he should allow some margin for forget- 
 fulness and recall Lowell's remark, and Goethe's, and 
 Thackeray's too : " This evening I made the best speech of 
 my life, — but it was in my carriage as I was coming home, 
 saying the things I forgot to say to the company." 
 
 There is a third and final section of every speech, long or 
 short, which has its own difficulties. If it is hard to begin 
 prosperously, it is sometimes harder to close gracefully and 
 effectively. In the first place it is important to know when 
 to conclude. The best time may be very soon after the 
 opening sentence. The guest who was called on unex- 
 pectedly was as wise as witty when he remarked, that great 
 speakers were no longer available : " Demosthenes is dead, 
 Cicero is dead, and I am not feeling well myself," and sat 
 down ! But he was a man who might have entertained the 
 company for hours. 
 
 It is fatal, however, for many to suppose that because 
 they are asked to speak a long speech is desired. The hours
 
 XXIV AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING 
 
 are apt to be few and the speakers many. But extempo- 
 raneous talkers are the worst of time-keepers. The fear of 
 not having enough to fill a few minutes often carries one on to 
 many until all consciousness of time is gone. Or the elation 
 bred by fluency may produce the same result. Then, too, the 
 respectful attention or easy applause of a good-natured com- 
 pany may be delusive. It is not an unknown occurrence 
 that an erudite and long-winded speaker has mistaken 
 the stamping which was intended to silence him for genuine 
 applause, and has continued to labor on for the supposed 
 gratification of his tired hearers after he would himself have 
 gladly closed. Therefore, it is not always safe to trust to 
 the appearance of an audience for the gauge of interest. A 
 watch in the hands of a next neighbor at the table is more 
 trustworthy. Even the rare speaker from a manuscript on 
 the cloth has an advantage with respect to time limit. He 
 knows how long he will be in reading it. It would be well 
 if the rule of the debater's signal could be established by 
 general consent, and the clink of a tumbler notify the speaker 
 when to begin to make an end. Then he could make it in 
 such time as he might allow himself or be allowed. 
 
 If he has a purpose to gain or a cause to further, the 
 close of his speech, according to the common rule of ad- 
 dress, will be convincing or persuasive. There will be a 
 climax of some sort as the outcome of what has gone be- 
 fore. It may be serious or humorous, but the weight of it, 
 like the weight of a hammer, will be at the far end, if any- 
 thing is to be enforced and a lasting impression left. This 
 does not imply that the impression of the speech as a 
 whole is not to be considered, nor that all its grace, fitness 
 and power are to be reserved for the closing sentences. 
 These simply gather up the thoughts that have been pre- 
 sented and mass their appropriateness and their force. 
 
 This ordering and prearrangement of a speech may seem 
 too careful and formal for so informal remark as an after- 
 dinner speech is supposed to be. To be sure there are all 
 grades and sorts of such discourses, as there are all kinds of 
 occasions and dinners, which themselves are often extremely 
 formal and elaborate. An address which should resemble a 
 sumptuous banquet in its artificiality and length should not 
 be contemplated for a moment. Yet there are occasions
 
 AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING xxv 
 
 whose dignity and importance demand an expenditure of 
 thought and care in furnishing an intellectual feast commen- 
 surate with the provision that has been made for the refine- 
 ments of appetite. It is with these important occasions in 
 mind that the foregoing pages have been written, since 
 lesser and informal gatherings will furnish their own standard 
 of performance. If the greater demand is handsomely met, 
 the lesser is easily provided for. 
 
 In the collection of speeches here presented there will be 
 found much to confirm the position taken, that there is 
 room for the exercise of great art and skill in this branch 
 of public address. Its seeming informality requires an art 
 that conceals art. Needful lightness of expression may cover 
 thoughts that are profound. Good humor may render pala- 
 table truths that are in themselves distasteful. Shrewd presen- 
 tation may obtain a hearing for unwelcome facts, and unfail- 
 ing tact may lead up to propositions that would have been 
 summarily dismissed at the outset. The diligent reader of 
 these speeches will find illustrations of these and similar 
 qualities in addresses of one and another master of an art as 
 rare as it is felicitous. Such perusal cannot fail to be of 
 service to those who sooner or later are likely to be called 
 upon to contribute their Avord of good humor or good cheer, 
 of wisdom or counsel, of encomium or eulogy, before the most 
 receptive and appreciative of audiences in an after-dinner 
 speech. 
 
 ^r^^/^T-X^J-Tp-^ 
 
 ^^E4^z^^,
 
 Banquet of the 
 Sons of the Revolution 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF 
 
 Washington's Birthday 
 
 Delmonico's, February 22nd.
 
 ILLUMINATED DINNER CARD 
 
 Photo-engraving in colors after a design by Tiffany 
 
 The accompanying annual dinner card, reproduced by permission of the 
 Sons of the Revolution, is an excellent example of the artistic qualities 
 which many of these cards possess. The original is about twice the size 
 of the present illustration .
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis 
 The Lessons of Life 
 
 Arnold, Sir Edwin 
 
 Ties of Kinship and Common Speech 
 
 Arnold, Matthew 
 
 The Realm of Literature 
 
 Ball, Sir Robert 
 
 Kinship of Art and Science . 
 
 Bancroft, George 
 
 Tribute to WilHam Cullen Bryant . 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord (Benjamin Disraeli) 
 Peace With Honor 
 The King of the Belgians 
 
 Beck, James M. 
 
 The Democracy of the " Mayflower " 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward 
 
 Religious Freedom . 
 The Glory of New England . 
 Tribute to Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 Merchants and Ministers 
 Home Rule for Ireland . 
 Tribute to Munkacsy 
 
 Bergen, Tunis Garrett 
 
 The First Settlers of New Netherlands 
 
 Beveridge, Albert J. 
 
 The Republic That Never Retreats . 
 
 . 7 
 . 14 
 . 16 
 . 18 
 
 . 21 
 
 • 30 
 
 • 33 
 
 41 
 46 
 
 51 
 54 
 60 
 62 
 
 64 
 
 70
 
 XXVUl 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Blaine, James Gillespie 
 
 Our Merchant Marine . 
 
 Blouet, Paul (Max O'Rell) 
 Monsieur and Madame . 
 
 Brewster, Benjamin Harris 
 
 Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania 
 
 Bromley, Isaac Hill 
 
 Connecticut's Part in the Business 
 
 Bryan, William Jennings 
 America's Mission . 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen 
 Louis Kossuth 
 A Birthday Address 
 The Press 
 
 Butler, Benjamin Franklin 
 Our Debt to England 
 
 Caldwell, Henry C. 
 
 A Blend of Cavalier and Puritan 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew 
 
 The Scotch-American 
 
 Carr, Lewis E. 
 
 The Lawyer and the Hod Carrier 
 
 Carson, Hampton L. 
 
 Our Navy .... 
 
 Chamberlain, Joseph 
 
 The Future of the British Empire 
 
 Choate, Joseph Hodges 
 
 A Test Examination 
 
 Tribute to Lord Houghton 
 
 The Bench and the Bar . 
 
 The Sorcerer's Response 
 
 The Pilgrim Mothers 
 
 America's Golden Age . 
 
 Harvard University 
 
 British Evacuation of New York 
 
 73 
 79 
 82 
 
 86 
 
 94 
 
 100 
 103 
 
 107 
 
 no 
 112 
 119 
 127 
 
 133 
 141 
 
 147 
 152 
 156 
 
 159 
 164 
 167 
 
 173 
 179
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 XXIX 
 
 Choate, Joseph Hodgf.s (continued) 
 
 Sons and Guests of Old Harvard . 
 
 Tribute to General Miles 
 
 Peace Between Nations .... 
 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph 
 
 Political Life and Thought in England . 
 
 Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (Mark Twain) 
 New England Weather 
 A " Littery " Episode 
 The Babies 
 
 Unconscious Plagiarism 
 Mistaken Identity . 
 Woman, God Bless Herl 
 
 Cleveland, Grover 
 
 True Democracy 
 
 CocKRAN, William Bourke 
 
 Our Constitutional System 
 
 CoGiiLAN, Captain Joseph Bullock 
 The Battle of Manila . 
 
 Coleridge, Lord 
 
 Henry Irving's Versatility 
 In Golden Chains . 
 
 Collins, Patrick A. 
 
 Ireland's Dream of Nationality 
 
 Collins, Wilkie 
 
 American Hospitality 
 
 CoLLYER, Robert 
 
 Saxon Grit .... 
 Tribute to Edwin Booth . 
 The Church and the Stage 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe 
 
 The State of New York . 
 
 Coudert, Frederic Rene 
 
 The City of New York . 
 Our Clients .... 
 
 187 
 
 193 
 195 
 
 201 
 
 210 
 214 
 218 
 221 
 223 
 225 
 
 229 
 
 232 
 
 239 
 
 246 
 253 
 
 257 
 261 
 
 263 
 266 
 267 
 
 269 
 
 277 
 282
 
 XXX 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Cox, Samuel Sullivan 
 
 Smith and So Forth 
 
 Curtis, George William 
 
 Liberty Under the Law . 
 Noblesse ObHge 
 Greeting the Autocrat 
 The Enghsh-Speaking Race 
 Commerce and Literature 
 Lowell's Americanism 
 
 Dana, Charles Anderson 
 
 Diplomacy and the Press 
 New England in Journalism 
 
 Dana, Richard Henry 
 
 Russia and the United States 
 
 286 
 
 290 
 
 295 
 299 
 
 303 
 
 307 
 312 
 
 318 
 321 
 
 323 
 
 Depew, Chauncey Mitchell 
 
 
 
 
 
 Woman 327 
 
 Welcome to Mayor Cooper 
 
 
 
 
 330 
 
 The Empire State . 
 
 
 
 
 333 
 
 Our English Visitors 
 
 
 
 
 338 
 
 Ireland .... 
 
 
 
 
 343 
 
 The New Netherlanders 
 
 
 
 
 349 
 
 Yale University 
 
 
 
 
 356 
 
 Unsolved Problems 
 
 
 
 
 361 
 
 The Beggars of the Sea . 
 
 
 
 
 366 
 
 Citizens of the World . 
 
 
 
 
 370 
 
 The Mutations of Time . 
 
 
 
 
 373 
 
 A Senatorial Forecast . 
 
 
 
 
 380 
 
 Derby, Earl of (Edward H. S. Stanley) 
 
 The Diplomatist 387 
 
 Dickens, Charles 
 
 Friends Across the Sea ...... 389 
 
 Tribute to Washington Irving 
 
 
 • 394 
 
 Macready and Bulwer-Lytton 
 
 
 • 398 
 
 The Actor's Art . 
 
 
 . 401 
 
 English Friendliness for Ame 
 
 rica . 
 
 
 
 405
 
 CONTENTS xxxi 
 
 PACK 
 
 Dix, John Adams 
 
 The Flag — the Old Flag 410 
 
 Draper, William Henry 
 
 Our Medical Advisers 415 
 
 Dyke, Henry van 
 
 The Typical Dutchman . . . . . .418
 
 ILL USTRA TIONS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Thomas P.. Reed Frontispiece 
 
 Photogravure after a i)hotograph from life 
 
 Illuminated Toast Card xxvii 
 
 Photo-engraving in colors after an original design 
 by Tiffany 
 
 Lord Eeaconsi-ield (Benjamin Disraeli) ... 21 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life 
 
 James Gillespie Blaine 73 
 
 Photogravure after an engraving by Hall 
 
 Joseph Hodges Choate I47 
 
 Photogravure after an engraving by Williams 
 
 Samuel Langiiorxe Clemens (Mark Twain) . . 210 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life 
 
 Ciiauncey Mitchell Depew 327 
 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life 
 
 Charles Dickens 3^9 
 
 Photogravure after an engraving
 
 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
 THE LESSONS OF LIFE 
 
 [Speech of Charles Francis Adams, dehvered at the Harvard Ahimni dinner, 
 in Cambridge, Mass., June 26, 1S95.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Alumni: — 
 Some years ago a distinguished literary character, as well as 
 accomplished and lovable man, — since gone over to the silent 
 majority, — stood here, as I now am standing, having a few 
 hours before received Harvard's highest degree. Not himself 
 a child of the University, he had been invitedhcre astrangcr, 
 — though in Cambridge he was by no means a stranger in a 
 strange land, — to receive well-deserved recognition for the 
 good life-work he had done, and the high standard of char- 
 acter he had ever maintained. When called upon by the 
 presiding officer of that occasion, as I now am called upon 
 by you, he responded by saying that the day before he had 
 left his New York home to come to Cambridge a simple, 
 ordinary man ; he would go back " ennobled." 
 
 In America patents of nobility may not be conferred, — 
 the fundamental law itself inhibits ; so, when from the Mother 
 Country the name of Sir Henry Irving comes sounding across 
 the Atlantic, we cannot answer in reply with a Sir Joseph 
 Jefferson, but we do not less, perhaps, in honor of great 
 Shakespeare's craft, by inviting him to whom you have this 
 day given the greatest ovation on any bestowed, to come up 
 and join the family circle which surrounds America's oldest 
 Alma Mater. Still, figurative though it was, for George 
 William Curtis to refer to Harvard's honorary degree as an 
 ennoblement was a graceful form of speech ; but I, to the 
 manner born, stand here under similar circumstances in a 
 
 I
 
 2 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
 different spirit. Memory insensibly reverts to other days — 
 other scenes. 
 
 Forty-two years ago President Eliot and I passed each 
 other on the steps of University Hall — he coming down them 
 with his freshly signed bachelor's degree in his hand, while I 
 ascended them an anxious candidate for admission to the 
 college. His apprenticeship was over; mine was about to 
 begin. For twenty-six eventful years now he has presided 
 over the destinies of the University, and at last we meet 
 here again ; I to receive from his hands the diploma which 
 signifies that the days of my travels — my WandcrjaJirc — as 
 well as my apprenticeship, are over, and that the journey- 
 man is at length admitted to the circle of master-workmen. 
 So, while Mr. Curtis declared that he went away from here 
 with a sense of ennoblement, my inclination is to sit down, 
 not metaphorically but in fact, on yonder steps of University 
 Hall, and think for a little — somewhat wearily, perhaps — 
 over the things I have seen and the lessons I have learned 
 since I first ascended those steps when the last half of the 
 century now ending had only just begun — an interval longer 
 than that during which the children of Israel were con- 
 demned to tarry in the wilderness ! 
 
 And, were I so to do, I am fain to confess two feelings 
 would predominate : wonder and admiration — wonder over 
 the age in which I have lived, mingled with admiration for 
 the results which in it have been accomplished and the hero- 
 ism displayed. And yet this was not altogether what the 
 prophet voices of my apprenticeship had, I remember, led 
 me to expect ; for in those days, and to a greater degree 
 than seems to be the case at present, we had here at Cam- 
 bridge prophet voices which in living words continually ex- 
 horted us. Such were Tennyson, Thackeray, Emerson, and, 
 perhaps, most of all Carlj'le — Thomas Carlyle with his 
 " Heroes and Hero Worship," his " Latter Day Pamphlets," 
 his worship of the Past and his scorn for the Present, his con- 
 tempt for what he taught us to term this " rag-gathering 
 age." We sat at the feet of the great literary artist, our 
 'prentice ears drank in his utterances ; to us he was inspired. 
 The literary artist remains. As such we bow down before 
 him now even more than we bowed down before him then ; 
 but how different have we found the aije in which our lot
 
 THE LESSONS OF LIF^E 3 
 
 was cast from that he had taught us to expect ! I have been 
 but a journeyman. Only to a small, a very small extent, I 
 know, can I, like the Ulysses of that other of our prophet 
 voices, declare — 
 
 " I am a part of all that I have met." 
 
 None the less, — 
 
 " Much have I seen and known; cities of men 
 And manners, climates, councils, governments; 
 And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 
 Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy." 
 
 We were told in those, our 'prentice days, of the heroism 
 of the past and the materialism of our present, when " who 
 but a fool would have faith in a tradesman's wares or his 
 word," and " only not all men lied ; " and yet, when, in 
 1853, you, Mr. President, the young journeyman, descended, 
 as I, the coming apprentice, ascended those steps, "the cob- 
 web woven across the cannon's mouth " still shook " its 
 threaded tears in the wind." Eight years later the cobweb 
 was swept away ; and though, as the names graven on the 
 tablets at the entrance of this hall bear witness, " many were 
 crushed in the clash of jarring claims," yet we too felt the 
 heart of a people beat with one desire, and witnessed the 
 sudden making of splendid names. I detract nothing from 
 the halo of knighthood which surrounds the heads of Sidney 
 and of 15ayard ; but I was the contemporary and friend of 
 Savage, of Lowell, and of Shaw. I had read of battles and 
 " the imminent deadly breach ; " but it was given to me to 
 stand on the field of Gettysburg when the solid earth trem- 
 bled under the assault of that Confederate Virginian column, 
 then performing a feat of arms than which I verily believe 
 none in all recorded warfare was ever more persistent, more 
 deadly or more heroic. 
 
 And our prophet spoke to us of the beauty of silent work, 
 and he held up before us the sturdy patience of the past in 
 sharp contrast with the garrulous self-evidence of that deter- 
 iorated present, of which we were to be a part ; and yet, 
 scarcely did we stand on the threshold of our time, when a 
 modest English naturalist and observer broke years of 
 silence by quietly uttering the word which relegated to the 
 domain of fable that which, since the days of Moses, had
 
 4 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
 been accepted as the foundation of religious belief. In the 
 time of our apprenticeship we still read of the mystery of 
 Africa in the pages of Herodotus, while the sources of the 
 Nile were as unknown to our world as to the world of the 
 Pharaohs; then one day a patient, long-suffering, solitary 
 explorer emerged from the wilderness, and the secret was 
 revealed. In our own time and before our purblind eyes, 
 scarcely realizing what they saw or knowing enough to 
 wonder, Livingstone eclipsed Columbus, and Darwin rewrote 
 Genesis. The Paladin we had been told was a thing of the 
 past ; ours was the era of the commonplace ; and, lo ! Gari- 
 baldi burst like a rocket above the horizon, and the legends 
 of Colchis and the crusader were eclipsed by the newspaper 
 record of current events. The eloquent voice from Cheyne 
 Row still echoed in our ears, lamenting the degeneracy of a 
 time given over to idle talk and the worship of mammon — 
 defiled by charlatans and devoid of workers ; and in answer, 
 as it were, Cavour and Lincoln and Bismarck crossed the 
 world's stage before us, and joined the immortals. We saw 
 a dreaming adventurer, in the name of a legend, possess 
 himself of France and of imperial power. A structure of 
 tinsel was reared, and glittered in the midst of an age of 
 actualities. Then all at once came the nineteenth century 
 Nemesis, and, eclipsing the avenging deity of which we had 
 read in our classics, drowned in blood and obliterated with 
 iron the shams and the charlatans who, our teacher had told 
 us, were the essence and characteristic of the age. 
 
 And the College, — the Alma Mater ! — she who to-day has 
 placed me above the rank of journeyman, — what changes has 
 she witnessed during those years of probation ? — rather what 
 changes has she not witnessed ! Of those — president, pro- 
 fessors, instructors and ofificers — connected with it then, two 
 only remain ; but the young bachelor of arts who, degree in 
 hand, came down the steps that I was then ascending, has 
 for more than half those years presided over the destinies of 
 the University, and, under the impulse of his strong will and 
 receptive mind, we have seen the simple, traditional College 
 of the first half of the century develop into the differentiated 
 University of the latter half. In 1856, when I received from 
 the University my first diploma, the college numbered in 
 the aggregate of all its classes fewer students than arc found
 
 THE LESSONS OF LIFE 5 
 
 in the average single class of to-day. And in the meanwhile 
 what have her alumni done for the Alma Mater? In 1853, 
 when my apprenticeship began, the accumulated endowment 
 of the more than two centuries which preceded amounted to 
 less than one million of dollars ; the gifts and bequests of 
 the forty-two years covered by my apprenticeship and travels 
 have added to the one million over ten millions. And this, 
 we were taught, was the " rag-gathering age " of a " trivial, 
 jeering, withered, unbelieving " generation — at least, it gave. 
 
 Thus, as I stand here to-day in the high places of the 
 University and try to speak of the lessons and the theories 
 of life which my travels have taught me, — as I pause for a 
 brief space by the well-remembered college steps which more 
 than forty classes have since gone up and descended, and, 
 while doing so, look back over the long vista of probation, 
 my impulse is to bear witness to the greatness and splendor, 
 not to the decadence and meanness, of the age of which I 
 have been a part. My eyes, too, have seen great men ac- 
 complishing great results, — I have lived and done journey- 
 man work in a time than which none history records have 
 been more steadfast and faithful in labor, more generous in 
 gift or more fruitful in results ; none so beneficent, none so 
 philanthropic, none more heroic of purpose, none more 
 romantic in act. 
 
 More than thirty years ago, while those cannon of Get- 
 tysburg were booming in my ears, sounding the diapason of 
 that desperate onslaught to which I have already referred, 
 there came up in my memory these lines from the " Samson 
 Aa;onistes " : — 
 
 " All is best, though we oft doubt, 
 
 What th' unsearchable dispose 
 C)f highest wisdom brings about, 
 
 And ever best found in the dose. 
 Oft he seems to hide his face, 
 
 But unexpectedly returns, 
 And to his faithful champion will in place 
 
 Bear witness gloriously." 
 
 These lines, I say, I repeated over and over to myself, 
 somewhat mechanically I suppose, in the dust and heat and 
 crash of that July day. I was young then ; I am young no 
 longer. But, now as then, those verses from Milton's 
 triumphant choral chant bring to me, clad in seventeenth-
 
 6 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
 century words and thought, the ideas of evolution, contin- 
 uity, environment and progression, and, above and beyond 
 all, abiding faith in man and in our mother age, which are 
 the lamps the last half of the nineteenth century has lit 
 whereby the steps of the twentieth century shall be guided. 
 [Applause.]
 
 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 
 
 TIES OF KINSHIP AND COMMON SPEECH 
 
 [Speech of Sir Edwin Arnold at the bancjuet given by the Lotos Club, 
 New York, October 31, 1S91, as a welcome to him on the occasion of his 
 visit to America, after his visit to the East. The hall decorations sym- 
 bolized his membership in the order of the White Elephant. Frank R. 
 Lawrence, President of the Lotos Club, in introducing tiie guest of 
 honor, said : " Splendid as are his qualities as a poet, they do not 
 obscure his usefulness as a journalist. We remember and acknowledge 
 bis services as a moulder of public opinion in England, and among his 
 many achievements it may not be amiss to recall the fact that it was he, 
 in conjunction with one of our own great American journalists, who 
 arranged the first visit of Stanley to Africa to perfect the discoveries of 
 Iiivingstone."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — In rising to return 
 my sincere thanks for the high honor done to me by this 
 magnificent banquet, by its lavish oi:)ulence of welcome, by 
 its goodly company, by the English so far too flattering 
 which has been employed by the president, and by the 
 generous warmth by which you have received my name, I 
 should be wholly unable to sustain the heavy burden of my 
 gratitude, but for a consideration of which I will presently 
 speak. To-night must always be for me indeed a memo- 
 rable occasion. 
 
 Many a time and oft during the lustrums composing my 
 life, I have had personal reason to rejoice at the splendid 
 mistake committed by Christopher Columbus in discovering 
 your now famous and powerful country. When his caravels 
 put forth from our side of the Atlantic, he had no expec- 
 tation whatever, contrary to the general belief and state- 
 ment, of discovering a new world. He was at that time 
 thinking of and searching for a very ancient land, the Empire 
 
 7
 
 8 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 
 
 of Xipangu, or Japan, at that era much and mysteriously 
 talked about by Marco Polo and other travellers ; but by a 
 splendid blunder he tumbled upon America. I have good 
 reason to greet his name in memory, apart from certain 
 other not unimportant results of his error, owing as I do to 
 him the prodigious debt of a dear American wife, now with 
 God, of children, half-American and half- English, of count- 
 less friends, of a large part of my literary reputation, and, 
 to crown all, for this memorable evening, " Nox ccena que 
 Deum," which of itself would be enough to reward me for 
 more than I have done, and to encourage me in a much 
 more arduous task than even that which I have under- 
 taken. . 
 
 I am, to-night, the proud and happy guest of a Club cele- 
 brated all over the world for its brilliant fellowship, its broad 
 enlightenment, and its large and gracious hospitalities. I 
 see around me here those who worthily reflect by thefr 
 weight, their learning, their social, civil, literary and artistic 
 achievements and accomplishments, the best intellect of this 
 vast and noble land ; and I have been pleasantly made 
 aware that other well-known Americans, although absent in 
 person, are present in spirit to-night at this board. Com- 
 prehending these things as I do, and by the significance 
 which underlies them, it is a special regret that I do not 
 command any such gift of easy speech as seems indigenous 
 to this country, for, truly, it appears to me that almost 
 every cultured American gentleman and many that are not 
 cultured are born powerful and persuasive orators. 
 
 How, lacking this, can I hope to give any adequate utter- 
 ance to the gratitude of respect, the deep amity, the ardent 
 good will with which my heart is laden ? An Arab proverb 
 says : " A camel knows himself when he goes under a 
 mountain," and if I have sometimes flattered myself that 
 much duty and long habitude with the world and its lead- 
 ers had made me, in some slight degree, master of my na- 
 tive tongue, the tumult of pride and pleasure which fills my 
 breast at this hour makes me understand that I must not 
 trust to-night to my unpractised powers, but must rely 
 almost entirely on your boundless kindness and assured 
 indulgence. 
 
 Indeed, gentlemen, I think I should become at once in*
 
 TIES OF KINSHIP AND COMMON SPEECH Q 
 
 articulate, and take refuge in the safe retreat of silence, but 
 for that consideration of which I spoke in the bej:;inning. 
 One can never tell what excellent things a man might have 
 said who holds his tongue, and I remember with what agree- 
 ment I heard Mr. Lowell at the Savage Club, in London, 
 remark that all of his best speeches were made in a carriage 
 going home at night. 
 
 But I have not the conceit to believe that your splendid 
 welcome of this evening is intended solely for me or for my 
 writings. In truth, although I say this in a certain confi- 
 dence and do not wish the observation to go far beyond this 
 banquet chamber, I have no high opinion of myself. The 
 true artist can never lose sight of the abyss which separates 
 his ideal from that which he has realized ; the thing he 
 sought and strove to do, from the actual poem or picture he 
 has accomplished. But I am confidently and joyously 
 aware, that in my comparatively unimportant person you 
 salute to-night, with the large-hcartedness characteristic of 
 your land, and of the Lotus Club in particular, the heart of 
 that other and older England which also loves you well, 
 and through me to-night warmly and sincerely greets you. 
 
 Moreover, the lowliest ambassador derives a measure of 
 dignity from the commission of a mighty sovereign, and the 
 conviction that supports me this evening is that, in my un- 
 worthy self, the men of letters of the cis-atlantic and trans- 
 altantic lands are here joining hands, and that, if I may in 
 humility speak for my literary countrymen, they also are here, 
 and now warmly salute those of your race. Not the less 
 warmly, because America has decreed a signal deed of 
 justice toward English authors in her copyright act. Some 
 years ago I wrote two little verses in a preface of a book, 
 dedicated to my numerous friends in America, which ran 
 like this : — 
 
 "Thou new Great Britain, famous, free and bright, 
 West of the West, sleepeth my ancient East ; 
 Our sunsets make thy noons, day time and night 
 Meet in sweet mornmg promise on thy breast. 
 Fulfil the promise, lady of wide lands, 
 Where with thine own an English singer ranks; 
 I who found favor from thy sovereign hands, 
 Kissed them, and at thy feet lay this for thanks." 
 
 [Applause]
 
 10 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 
 
 Your Legislature has since rendered my statement 
 absolutely true, and has given full citizenship in this 
 country to every English author. Personally I was never 
 a fanatic on the matter. I have always rather had a tender- 
 ness for those buccaneers of the ocean of books who, in 
 nefarious bottoms, carried my poetical goods far and wide, 
 without any charge for freight. Laurels, in my opinion, 
 fortheycan be won, are meant to be worn with thankfulness 
 and modesty, not to be eaten like salad or boiled like 
 cabbage for the pot, and when some of my comrades have 
 said impatiently, about their more thoughtful works, that 
 writers must live, I have perhaps, vexed them by replying 
 that an author, who aspires to fame and an independent 
 gratitude bestowed for the true creative service to man- 
 kind, should be content with those lofty and inestimable re- 
 wards, and not demand bread and butter also from the high 
 Muses, as if they were German waitresses in a coffee-house. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Other ways of earning daily bread should be followed. 
 If profit comes, of course it is to men, poets and authors 
 welcome enough, and justice is ever the best of all ex- 
 cellent things, but the one priceless reward for a true poet, 
 or sincere thinker, lives surely in the service his work has 
 done to his generation, and in the precious friendships 
 which even I have found enrich his existence and embellish 
 his path in life. But this excursion on the literary rights, 
 now equitably established, leads me to touch upon the noble 
 community of language which our two countries possess. 
 
 I am not what Canning describes as the friend of every 
 country but his own. Rather, in the best and worst sense 
 of the word, I am a darned Britisher who rejoices to think 
 that her Majesty is sovereign, is the best and noblest of all 
 noble ladies, and that " the Queen's morning drum beats 
 around the world ;" but it was an American who first uttered 
 that fine phrase,* and your greatness also marches to the 
 glorious reveille. You, too, besides your own ample glories, 
 have a large part by kinship and common speech in the 
 work which England has done and is doing in Asia, by 
 giving peace and development to India; in Africa, by 
 fostering and preserving order; in Egypt, by opening the 
 
 * Sir Edwin Arnold probably quoted Daniel Webster from memory.
 
 TIES OF KINSHIP AXD COMMON SPEECH II 
 
 Dark Continent ; as well as peopling Australia and many a 
 distant colony with her industrious children. Half of all 
 this I consider is America's, as she may also claim a large 
 and substantial part in the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 through this vast new world, under that lovely and honored 
 banner of which I must think our old poet was dreaming, 
 when he sang : — 
 
 " Ifer lightness and brightness do shine in such spendor, 
 That none but the stars are thought fit to attend her." 
 
 Beyond all, I say,we share together that glorious language 
 of Shakespeare, which it will be our common duty, and I 
 think our manifest destiny, to establish as a general tongue 
 of the globe. This seems to be inevitable, not without a 
 certain philological regret, since, if I were to choose an old 
 tongue, I think I would prefer, for its music and its majesty, 
 the beautiful Castilian. Nevertheless, the whole world 
 must eventually talk our speech, which is already so prev- 
 alent, that to circumnavigate the globe no other is neces- 
 sary. And even in the by-streets of Japan, the bazars of 
 India and China, and the villages of Malaya, one-half of 
 their shops write up the name and goods in English. Is 
 not this alone well-nigh enough to link us in pride and 
 peace? The English poet Cowper has nobly written : — 
 
 " Time was when it was praise and boast enough, 
 In every clime, travel where'er we might, 
 That we were born her children ; fame enough 
 To fill the mission of a common man, 
 That Chatham's language was his native tongue." 
 
 Let US all try to keep in speech and in writing as close 
 as we can to the pure English that Shakespeare and 
 Milton, and in these later times Longfellow, Emerson 
 and Hawthorne, have fixed. [Applause.] It will not be 
 easy. When I was conversing recently with Lord Tenny- 
 son, and expressing similar opinions, he said to me : " It is 
 bad for us that English will always be a spoken speech, since 
 that means that it will always be changing, and so the time 
 will come when you and I will be as hard to read for the 
 common people as Chaucer is to-day." You remember what 
 opinion your brilliant humorist, Artemus Ward, let fall 
 concerning that ancient singer. " Mr. Chaucer," he observed
 
 12 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 
 
 casually, " is an admirable poet, but as a spellist, a very 
 decided failure." [Laughter.] 
 
 To the treasure house of that noble tongue the United 
 States has splendidly contributed. It would be far poorer 
 to-day without the tender lines of Longfellow, the serene 
 and philosophic pages of Emerson, the convincing wit and 
 clear criticism of my illustrious departed friend, James Rus- 
 sell Lowell, the Catullus-like perfection of the lyrics of Edgar 
 Allan Poe, and the glorious, large-tempered dithyrambs of 
 Walt Whitman. [Applause.] 
 
 These stately and sacred laurel groves grow here in a 
 garden forever extending, ever carrying further forward, for 
 the sake of humanity, the irresistible flag of our Saxon 
 supremacy, leading one to falter in an attempt to eulogize 
 America, and the idea of her potency and her promise. 
 The most elaborate panegyric would seem but a weak im- 
 pertinence which would remind you, perhaps too vividly, of 
 Sidney Smith, who, when he saw his grandchild pat the 
 back of a large turtle, asked her why she did so. The little 
 maid replied : "Grandpapa, I do it to please the turtle." 
 
 " My child," he answered, "you might as well stroke the 
 dome of St. Paul's to please the Dean and chapter." 
 [Laughter.] I myself once heard, in our Zoological gardens 
 in London, another little girl ask her mamma whether it 
 would hurt the elephant if she offered him a chocolate 
 drop. In that guarded and respectful spirit it is that I 
 venture to tell you here to-night how truly in England the 
 peace and prosperity of your republic is desired, and that 
 nothing except good will is felt by the mass of our people 
 toward you, and nothing but the greatest satisfaction in 
 your wealth and progress. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 Between these two majestic sisters of the Saxon blood 
 the hatchet of war is, please God, buried. No cause of 
 quarrel, I think and hope, can ever be otherwise than truly 
 out of proportion to the vaster causes of affection and ac- 
 cord. We have no longer to prove to each other, or to the 
 world, that Englishmen and Americans are high-spirited and 
 fearless ; that Englishmen and Americans alike will do 
 justice, and will have justice, and will put up with nothing 
 else from each other and from the nations at large. [En- 
 thusiastic applause.] Our proofs are made on both sides,
 
 TIES OF KINSHIP AND COMMON SPEECH 13 
 
 and indelibly written on the page of history. Not that I 
 wish to speak platitudes about war. It has been necessary 
 to human progress; it has bred and preserved noble virtues; 
 it has been inevitable, and may be again ; but it belongs 
 to a low civilization. Other countries have, perhaps, not 
 yet reached that point of intimate contact and rational ad- 
 vance, but for us two, at least, the time seems to have come 
 when violent decisions, and even talk of them, should be as 
 much abolished between us as cannibalism. 
 
 I ventured, when in Washington, to propose to President 
 Harrison that we should some day, the sooner the better, 
 choose five men of public worth in the United States, and 
 five in England ; give them gold coats if you please, and a 
 handsome salary, and establish them as a standing and 
 supreme tribunal of arbitration, referring to them the little 
 family fallings-out of America and of England, whenever 
 something goes wrong between us about a sealskin in 
 Behring Strait, a lobster pot, an ambassador's letter, a 
 border tariff, or an Irish vote. He showed himself very well 
 disposed toward my suggestion. [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. President, in the sacred hope that you take me to be 
 a better poet than orator, I thank you all from the bottom 
 of my heart for your reception to-night, and personally pray 
 for the tranquillity and prosperity of this free and magnifi- 
 cent republic. 
 
 Under the circumstances, one word may perhaps be per- 
 mitted, before a company so intellectual and representative, 
 as to my purpose in visiting your States. I had the inclina- 
 tion to try this literary experiment, whether a poet might 
 not, with a certain degree of success, himself read the poems 
 which he had composed and best understands, as the pro- 
 mulgator of his own ideas. The boldness of such an enter- 
 prise really covers a sincere compliment to America, for 
 that which was possible and even popular in ancient Greece 
 could be nowhere again possible if not in America, which 
 has many great characteristics, and where the audiences are 
 so patient, generous and enlightened. We shall see. 
 Heartily, gratefully, and with a mind from which the 
 memory of this glorious evening will never be effaced, I 
 thank you for the very friendly and favorable omens of this 
 banquet. [Applause.]
 
 MATTHEW ARNOLD 
 
 THE REALM OF LITERATURE 
 
 [Speech delivered by Matthew Arnold in response to the toast, "The 
 Interests of Literature," at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, 
 London, May i, 1S75.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — Literature, no 
 doubt, is a great and splendid art, allied to that great and 
 splendid art of which we see around us the handiwork. 
 But, sir, you do me an undeserved honor when, as Presi- 
 dent of the Royal Academy, you desire me to speak in the 
 name of Literature. Whatever I may have once wished or 
 intended, my life is not that of a man of letters, but of an 
 Inspector of Schools [laughter], and it is with embarrass- 
 ment that I now stand up in the dread presence of my own 
 ofKicial chiefs who have lately been turning on their Inspec- 
 tor an eye of suspicion. [Laughter.] 
 
 Therefore, sir, I cannot quite with propriety speak here 
 as a literary man and as a brother artist ; but, since you 
 have called upon me, let me at least quote to you, and ap- 
 ply for my own benefit and that of others, something from 
 a historian of literature. Fauriel, the French literary his- 
 torian, tells us of a company of Greeks settled somewhere 
 in southern Italy, who retained for an extraordinary length 
 of time their Greek language and civilization. However, 
 time and circumstances were at last too strong for them ; 
 they began to lose, they felt themselves losing, their dis- 
 tinctive Greek character ; they grew like all the other peo- 
 ple about them. Only, once every year they assembled 
 themselves together at a public festival of their com- 
 munity, and there, in language which the inroads of 
 barbarism were every year more and more debasing, 
 
 14
 
 thp: realm oi'' utkrature 15 
 
 they reminded one another that they were once Greeks 
 [Cheers and laughter.] 
 
 How many of your guests to-night, sir, may remind one 
 another of the same thing! The brilliant statesman at the 
 head of Her Majesty's government [Gladstone], to whom 
 we shall listen with so much admiration, by and by, may 
 even boast that he was born in Arcadia. 
 
 To no people, probably, does it so often happen to have 
 to break in great measure with their vocation and with the 
 Muses as to the men of letters for whom you have sum- 
 moned mc to speak, ]5ut perhaps there is no one man 
 here, however positive and prosaic, who has not, at some 
 time or other of his life, and in some form or other, felt 
 something of that desire for the truth and beauty of things 
 which makes the Greek and the artist. The year goes 
 around for us amid other preoccupations ; then with the 
 spring arrives your hour. You collect us at this festival ; you 
 surround us with enchantment, and call upon us to remem- 
 ber, and, in our stammering and imperfect language, to con- 
 fess that we were once Greeks. If we have not forgotten it, 
 the reminder is delightful ; if we have forgotten it, it is 
 salutary, [Cheers.] 
 
 In the common and practical life of this country, in its 
 government, politics, commerce, lav/, medicine — even in its 
 religion — some compliance with men's conventionalit)^ vul- 
 garity, folly, and ignobleness, and a certain dose of clap- 
 trap, passes also for a thing of necessity. Ikit in that 
 world to which we have sometimes aspired, in your world 
 of art, sir, in the Greek world — for so I will call it after the 
 wonderful people who introduced mankind to it — in the 
 Greek world of art and science, clap-trap and compliance 
 with the conventional are simply fatal. Let us be grateful 
 to you for recalling it to us ; for reminding us that strength 
 and success are possible to find by taking one's law, not 
 from the form and pressure of the passing day, but from 
 the living forces of our genuine nature, [Cheers.] 
 Vivi^ur ingcnio ; ccicra mortis criint.
 
 SIR ROBERT BALL 
 
 KINSHIP OF ART AND SCIENCE 
 
 [Speech delivered by Sir Robert Ball at the annual banquet of the Royal 
 Academy, London, May 5, 1894.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — I rise to respond to the toast of " Science," 
 with which you have been so kind as to associate my name. 
 The particular branch with which I am concerned covers 
 only a small part of the vast extent of Science ; but I would 
 venture to mention a circumstance which may justify me 
 perhaps in taking a rather wider view of it. Among the 
 guests at a house where I once was staying was a certain 
 illustrious professor from the Continent. He did not know 
 many of the people in the house. I had occasion to go out 
 to a little gathering of the Royal Zoological Society. During 
 the week I saw that he did not take in, quite, who all the 
 people were, but just at the end of the week he said to me, 
 " Oh, you are the astronomer. I thought you were the wild- 
 beast man." [Laughter.] 
 
 The speakers, who have preceded me, have drawn inspi- 
 ration from the pictures that they find around them on the 
 walls of this beautiful chamber. Unfortunately, the subjects 
 in which astronomers are concerned do not lend themselves 
 to artistic portraiture. Distance may lend enchantment to 
 the view, but then that distance should be of moderate 
 dimensions — it should not exceed a few millions of miles. 
 [Laughter.] But, if I may be permitted to say a few words 
 for another branch of Science, with which I am not im- 
 mediately connected, I would like to remark on the striking 
 pictures of wild animals which decorate this room — in " Or- 
 pheus," and in that noble picture of the lion, " Come on if 
 you Dare ! " It appears to me that the paintings of these 
 
 16
 
 KINSHIP OF ART AND SCIENCE 1 7 
 
 animals, fcne nafiine, possess an importance whicii \vc 
 perhaps do not always appreciate, for it must be observed — 
 and it is one of the saddest facts to every lover of nature — 
 that these types of wild animals are disappearing^ with most 
 frightful rapidity. Many of them are already extinct, others 
 are daily becoming so, and, consequently, within a generation 
 or two at the most, these numerous and beautiful races which 
 adorn the earth will have, in a great measure, disappeared, 
 and all that our descendants will know of them will be re- 
 presented by the crumbling skeletons in our museums, or 
 the moldy skins which caricature the beautiful creatures 
 that still exist. Think, then, how great will be the value 
 that will attach to these beautiful pictures, in which the 
 skill and feeling of the artist will have depicted, for the ad- 
 miration of posterity, animals no longer existing. ["Hear! 
 Hear ! "] Think how we prize now the few pictures that 
 remain of the dodo, or even those rude etchings which the 
 Cave man inscribed with a flint on a bone, representing the 
 outlines of the mammoth. 
 
 This is the point of view from which Science regards the 
 importance of such pictures as those to which I have referred. 
 But there is a portrait on these walls which reminds me of 
 another branch of my subject. We have there a beautiful 
 painting of Professor Dewar, destined for the walls of Peter 
 House College, whose fame will be associated with those 
 splendid researches with which Professor Dewar is connected, 
 and which have added additional renown to the Royal In- 
 stitution of Great Britain. [" Hear ! Hear ! "] On behalf, 
 then, of the various departments of Science, I return you 
 my hearty thanks for this toast, which you, sir, have so 
 kindly proposed, and which has been so cordially honored 
 by your illustrious guests. [Cheers.]
 
 GEORGE BANCROFT 
 
 TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 [Speech delivered by George Bancroft, President of the Century As- 
 sociation, New York, November 5, 1864, on the occasion of its celebration of 
 the seventieth birthday of William Cullen Bryant, one of its founders and 
 trustees.] 
 
 Mr. Bryant : — The Century has set apart this evening to 
 show you honor. All its members, the old and the young, 
 crowd around you like brothers around a brother, like 
 children around a father. Our wives and daughters have 
 come with us, that they, too, may join in the pleasant office 
 of bearing witness to your worth. The artists of our 
 Association, whose labors you have ever been ready to 
 cheer, whose merits you have loved to proclaim, unite to 
 bring an enduring memorial to your excellence in an art near 
 akin to their own. The noble band of your compeers, in 
 your own high calling, from all parts of the country, offer 
 their salutations and praise and good wishes, and a full 
 chorus of respect and affection. Others who could not 
 accept our invitation keep the festival by themselves, and 
 are now in their own homes, going over the years which 
 you have done so much to gladden. 
 
 It is primarily your career as a poet that we celebrate. 
 The moment is well chosen. While the mountains and the 
 ocean-side ring with the tramp of cavalry and the din 
 of cannon, and the nation is in its agony, and an earthquake 
 sweeps through the land, we take arespite to escape into the 
 serene region of ideal pursuits which can never fail. 
 
 It has been thought praise enough of another to say that 
 he "wrote no line which dying he could wish to blot." 
 Every line that you have written may be remembered by 
 
 18
 
 TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IQ 
 
 yourself and by others at all times, for your genius has 
 listened only to the whisperings of the beautiful and the 
 pure. 
 
 Moreover, a warm nationality runs through all your 
 verse ; your imagination took the hue of the youth of our 
 country and has reflected its calm, contemplative moods 
 when the pulses of its early life beat vigorously but smoothl)', 
 and no bad passions had distorted its countenance. The 
 clashing whirlwinds of civil war, the sublime energy and 
 perseverance of the people, the mart}M-dom of myriads of its 
 bravest and best, its new birth through terrible sufferings, 
 will give a more passionate and tragic and varied cast to the 
 literature of the coming generations. A thousand years 
 hence posterity will turn to your pages as those which 
 best mirror the lovely earnestness of the rising Republic, 
 the sweet moments of her years of innocence, when she was 
 all unfamiliar with sorrow, bright with the halo of promise, 
 seizing the great solitudes by the busy hosts of civilization, 
 and guiding the nations of the earth into the pleasant paths 
 of freedom and of peace. 
 
 You have derived your inspiration as a poet from your love 
 of Nature, and she has returned your affection, and blessed 
 you as her favored son. At threescore and ten years, your 
 eye is undimmed, your step light and free, as in youth, 
 and the lyre, which ever responded so willingly to your 
 touch, refuses to leave your hand. 
 
 Our tribute to you is to the poet ; but we should not have 
 paid it, had we not revered you as a man. Your blameless 
 life is a continuous record of patriotism and integrity ; and, 
 passing untouched through the fiery conflicts that grow out 
 of the ambition of others, you have, as all agree, preserved a 
 perfect consistency with yourself, and an unswerving and 
 unselfish fidelity to your convictions. 
 
 This is high praise, but the period at which we address you 
 removes even the suspicion of flattery, for it is your entrance 
 upon your seventieth year. It is a solemn thing to draw 
 nearer and nearer to eternity. You teach us how to meet 
 old age; with each year you become more and more genial, 
 and cherish larger and still larger sympathies with your 
 fellow-men, and if Time has set on you any mark, you 
 preserve in all its freshness the youth of the soul.
 
 20 GEORGE BANCROFT 
 
 What remains but to wish you a long-continued life, 
 crowned with health and prosperity, with happiness and 
 honor? Live on till you hear your children's children rise 
 up and call you blessed. Live on for the sake of us, your 
 old associates, for whom life would lose much of its luster 
 in losing you as a companion and friend. Live on for your 
 own sake, that you may enjoy the better day of which your 
 eye already catches the dawn. Where faith discerned the 
 Saviour of the world, the unbeliever looked only on a man 
 of sorrows, crowned with thorns, and tottering under the 
 burden of the cross on which He was to die. The social 
 sceptic sees America sitting apart in her affliction, stung by 
 vipers at her bosom, and welcomed to the pit by " earth's 
 ancient kings ; " but through all the anguish of her grief, you 
 teach us to behold her in immortal beauty, as she steps 
 onward through trials to brighter glory. Live to enjoy 
 her coming triumph, when the acknowledged power of right 
 shall tear the root of sorrow out of the heart of the country, 
 and make her more than ever the guardian of human liberty 
 and the regenerator of the race. [Applause.]
 
 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 {BENJAMIN DISRAELI) 
 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life
 
 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 (BENJAMIN DISRAELI) 
 
 PEACE WITH HONOR 
 
 [A magnificent banquet was given in London, July 27, 1S7S, to the 
 Earl of Beaconsfield, and the Marquis of vSalisbury, by a numerous body 
 of the Conservative Peers and Members of the House of Commons to 
 testify their high appreciation and approval of the distinguished services 
 of Her Majesty's Plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Berlin, which 
 closed July 13, 1878. The large hall was decorated with flags, banners, 
 and Conservative mottoes, conspicuous among which was " Peace with 
 Honor." The chairman, the Duke of Buccleuch, in introducing Lord 
 Beaconsfield, said : "We have met here to welcome home, after arduous 
 and difficult duties, two noble lords, though on this occasion I shall refer 
 only to one who holds the position of Prime Minister of this country. 
 [Much cheering.] It is not for me on this occasion to enter upon the 
 career of that noble lord, for it is well known as a matter of history. 
 His career and his political character have been before us for upwards of 
 forty years. He has had one great advantage — I will not say at the end 
 of his career, for that I hope is still far distant. But his career, like that 
 of all statesmen in this country, has been and could not be otherwise 
 than a chequered one, sometimes defeat, oftentimes victory ; and now at 
 last I hope he has achieved the greatest victory of his life. [Cheers.] 
 He went out with an apprehension on the part of many, and with the 
 declaration of others, that he was going to produce war ; but he has 
 returned crowned with peace. [Loud cheers.] Notwithstanding the 
 difficult and arduous position in which he has been placed, assailed at 
 home as well as abroad, but at the same time well supported at home 
 [cheers], his motives and intentions well understood [cheers], we have 
 not at any time lost confidence in him. . . . He has been able in the 
 great council of nations to speak openly and clearly, with no uncertain 
 sound, producing the happy result which we now celebrate. A generous 
 foe is as welcome as the constant friend. No one can appreciate as I do 
 a noble, open, generous foe. We meet in the field ; let us have a fair 
 fight, and he who conquers, wins. [Cheers.] So it has been with my 
 noble friend. He has had many a hard battle to fight, but on this oc- 
 casion he has fought with success, carrying with him, I believe, the feel- 
 ing of the whole country. I propose now ' The Health of Lord Bea- 
 consfield,' and welcome home to him ; welcome to him as the greatest 
 conqueror, who has vanquished war and brought us back to peace."] 
 
 21
 
 22 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 My Lord Duke and Gentlemen : — I am sure you 
 will acquit me of affectation if I say that it is not without 
 emotion that I have received this expression of your good- 
 will and sympathy. [Cheers.] When I look round this 
 chamber I see the faces of some who entered public life with 
 myself, as my noble friend the noble Duke has reminded me, 
 more than forty years ago ; I see more whose entrance into 
 public life I witnessed when 1 had myself gained some ex- 
 perience of it ; and lastly I see those who have only recently 
 entered upon public life, and whom it has been my duty and 
 my delight to encourage and counsel [cheers] when they 
 entered that public career so characteristic of this country, 
 and which is one of the main securities of our liberty and 
 welfare. [Cheers.] 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, our chairman has referred to my 
 career, like that of all public men in this country, as one of 
 change and vicissitude ; but I have been sustained even in 
 the darkest hours of our party by the conviction that I pos- 
 sessed your confidence. [Cheers.] I will say your indulgent 
 confidence ; for in the long course of my public life that I 
 may have committed many mistakes is too obvious a truth 
 to touch upon ; but that you have been indulgent there is 
 no doubt, for I can, I hope I may say, proudly remember 
 that it has been my lot to lead in either House of Parliament 
 this great party for a longer period than has ever fallen to 
 the lot of any public man in the history of this country. 
 [Cheers.] That I have owed this result to your generous 
 indulgence more than to any personal qualities of my own 
 [cheers and cries of " No ! no ! "] no man is more sensible 
 than myself ; but it is a fact that I may recur to with some 
 degree of proud satisfaction. [Cheers.] 
 
 Our noble chairman has referred to the particular occasion 
 which has made me your guest to-day. I attended that 
 high assembly which has recently dispersed, with much re- 
 luctance. I yielded to the earnest solicitations of my noble 
 friend near me [the Marquis of Salisbury], my colleague 
 in that great enterprise. [Cheers.] He thought that my 
 presence might be of use to him in the vast difficulties he 
 had to encounter [cheers] ; but I must say now, as I shall 
 ever say, that to his lot fell the laboring oar in that great 
 work [cheers] and that you are, I will not say equally, but
 
 PEACE WITH HOXOR 23 
 
 more indebted to him than to myself for the satisfactory 
 result which you kindly reco<^ni/,e. [Cheers.] 
 
 I share the conviction of our noble chairman that it is one 
 which has been received with satisfaction by the country 
 [loud cheers], but I am perfectly aware that that satisfaction 
 is not complete or unanimous, because I know well that 
 before ei<^ht and forty hours have passed the marshaled hosts 
 of opposition will be prepared to challenLrc what has been 
 done and to question the policy we hope we have estab- 
 lished. [Cheers.] 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, as I can no longer raise my voice 
 in that House of Parliament where this contest is to take 
 place, as I sit now in a House where our opponents never 
 unsheathe their swords [cheers and laughter], a House 
 where, although the two chief plenipotentiariesof the Queen 
 sit, they are met only by innuendo and by question [cheers], 
 I hope you will permit me, though with extreme brevity, to 
 touch on one or two of the points which in a few hours may 
 much engage the interest and attention of Parliament. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, it is dif^cult to describe the 
 exact meaning of the charge which is brought against the 
 plenipotentiaries of the Queen, as it will be introduced to the 
 House of Commons on Monday. Drawn as it is, it appears 
 at first sight to be only a series of congratulatory regrets. 
 [Much cheering.] But, my lords and gentlemen, if ^'ou 
 penetrate the meaning of this movement, it would appear 
 that there are two points in which it is hoped that a success- 
 ful onset may be made on Her Majesty's Government, and 
 on those two points, and those alone, I hope with becoming 
 brevity, at this moment, perhaps, you will allow me to make 
 one or two remarks. [Cheers.] 
 
 It is charged against Her Majesty's Government that they 
 have particularly deceived and deserted Greece. Now, my 
 lords and gentlemen, this is a subject which is, I think, capable 
 of simpler treatment than hitherto it has encountered in 
 public discussion. We have given at all times, in public 
 and in private, to the Government of Greece and to all who 
 might influence its decisions but one advice — that on no 
 account should they be induced to interfere in those coming 
 disturbances which two years ago threatened Europe, and
 
 24 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 which concluded in a devastating war. And we gave that 
 advice on these grounds, which appear to me incontestable. 
 If, as Greece supposed, and as we thought erroneously sup- 
 posed, the partition of the Ottoman Empire was at hand, 
 Greece, morally, geographically, ethnographically, was sure 
 of receiving a considerable allotment of that partition when 
 it took place. 
 
 It would be impossible to make a re-settlement of the East 
 of Europe without largely satisfying the claims of Greece; 
 and great as those claims might be, if that was the case, it 
 was surely unwise in Greece to waste its treasure and its 
 blood. If, on the other hand, as Her Majesty's Government 
 believed, the end of this struggle would not be a partition of 
 the Ottoman Empire, but that the wisdom and experience 
 of all the powers and governments would come to the con- 
 clusion that the existence and strengthening of the Ottoman 
 Government was necessary to the peace of Europe, and 
 Avithout it long and sanguinary and intermitting struggles 
 must inevitably take place, it was equally clear to us that, 
 when the settlement occurred, all those rebellious tributary 
 principalities that have lavished their best blood and embar- 
 rassed their finances for generations would necessarily be 
 but scurvily treated, and that Greece, even under this alter- 
 native, would find that she was wise in following the advice 
 of England and not mixing in fray so fatal. [Cheers.] 
 
 Well, my lords and gentlemen, has not the event proved 
 the justice and accuracy of that view ? [Cheers.] At this 
 moment, though Greece has not interfered, fortunately for 
 herself, though she has not lavished the blood of her citizens 
 and wasted her treasure, under the Treaty of Berlin she has 
 the opportunity of obtaining a greater increase of territory 
 than will be attained by any of the rebellious principalities 
 that have lavished their blood and wasted their resources in 
 this fierce contest. [Cheers.] 
 
 I should like to see that view answered by those who ac- 
 cuse us of misleading Greece. [Cheers.] We gave to her 
 the best advice ; fortunately for Greece she followed it, and 
 I will hope that, following it with discretion and modera- 
 tion, .she will not lose the opportunity we have secured for 
 her in the advantages she may yet reap. [Cheers.] 
 
 I would make one more remark on this subject, which will
 
 PEACE WITH HONOR 25 
 
 soon occupy the attention of many who are here present. 
 It has been said we have misled and deserted Greece, because 
 we were the power which took steps that Greece should be 
 heard before the Congress. 
 
 Why did we do that ? Because we had ever expressed 
 our opinion that in the elevation of the Greek race — not 
 merely the subjects of the King of Greece — one of the best 
 chances of the improvement of society under the Ottoman 
 rule would be found, and that it was expedient that the 
 rights of the Greek race should be advocated by that portion 
 of it which enjoyed an independent political existence; and 
 all this time, too, let it be recollected that my noble friend 
 was unceasing in his efforts to obtain such a settlement of 
 the claims, or rather, I should say, the desires, of Greece with 
 the Porte, as would conduce greatly to the advantage of that 
 kingdom. [Cheers.] 
 
 And not without success. The proposition of Lord Salis- 
 bury for the rectification of the frontiers of Greece really in- 
 cludes all that moderate and sensible men could desire ; and 
 that was the plan that ultimately was adopted by the Con- 
 gress, and which Greece might avail herself of if there be 
 prudence and moderation in her councils. [Cheers.] Let 
 me here make one remark which, indeed, is one that applies 
 to other most interesting portions of this great question — it 
 refers to the personal character of the Sultan. From the 
 first, the Sultan of Turkey has expressed his desire to deal 
 with Greece in a spirit of friendliness and conciliation. 
 [Cheers.] He has been perfectly aware that in the union of 
 the Turkish and Greek races the only balance could be ob- 
 tained and secured against the Pan-Slavic monopoly which 
 was fast invading the whole of his dominions. [Cheers.] 
 Therefore, there was every disposition on his part to meet 
 the proposals of the English Government with favor, and 
 he did meet them with favor. [Cheers.] Remember the 
 position of that Prince. It is almost unprecedented. No 
 Prince, probably, that ever lived has gone through such 
 a series of catastrophes. One of liis predecessors commits 
 suicide ; his immediate predecessor is subject to a visitation 
 more awful even than suicide. The moment he ascends the 
 throne his ministers are assassinated. A conspiracy breaks 
 out in his own palace, and then he learns that his kingdom
 
 26 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 is invaded, his armies, however valiant, are defeated, and 
 that the enemy is at his gates ; yet, with all these trials, and 
 during all this period, he has never swerved in the expres- 
 sion and I believe the feeling of a desire to deal with Greece 
 in a spirit of friendship. [Cheers.] 
 
 Well, what has happened ? What was the last expression 
 of friendship on his part ? He is apparently a man whose 
 every impulse is good ; however great the difificulties he has 
 to encounter, however evil the influences that may sometimes 
 control him, his impulses are good ; and where impulses are 
 good, there is always hope. He is not a tyrant — he is not 
 dissolute — he is not a bigot or corrupt. What was his last 
 decision ? 
 
 When my noble friend, not encouraged I must say, by 
 Greece, but still continuing his efforts, endeavored to bring 
 to some practical result this question of the frontiers, the 
 Sultan said that what he was prepared to do he w'ished 
 should be looked on as an act of grace on his part, and of 
 his sense of the friendliness of Greece in not attacking him 
 during his troubles ; but as the Congress was now to meet, 
 he should like to hear the result of the wisdom of the Con- 
 gress on the subject. The Congress has now spoken, and 
 though it declared that it did not feel justified in compelling 
 the Sultan to adopt steps it might think advantageous even 
 for his own interests, the Congress expressed an opinion 
 which, I doubt not, the Sultan is prepared to consider in the 
 spirit of conciliation he has so often displayed. And this is 
 the moment when a party, for factious purposes [cheers], and 
 a party unhappily not limited to England, is egging on 
 Greece to violent courses ! 
 
 I may, perhaps, have touched at too much length on this 
 topic, but the attacks made on Her Majesty's Government 
 are nothing compared with the public mischief that may 
 occur if misconception exists on this point. [Cheers.] 
 There is one other point on which I would make a remark, 
 and that is with regard to the Convention of Constantinople 
 of the fourth of June. 
 
 When I study the catalogue of congratulatory regrets 
 with attention, this appears to be the ground on which a 
 great assault is to be made on the Government. It is said 
 that we have increased, and dangerously increased, our re*
 
 PEACE WITH HONOR 27 
 
 sponsibilities as a nation by that Convention. In the first 
 place, I deny that we have increased our responsibilities by 
 that Convention. I maintain that by that Convention we 
 have lessened our responsibilities. Suppose now, for ex- 
 ample, the settlement of Europe had not included the Con- 
 vention of Constantinople and the occupation of the isle of 
 Cyprus ; suppose it had been limited to the mere Treaty of 
 Berlin ; what, under all probable circumstances, might then 
 have occurred? In ten, fifteen, it might be in twenty, years, 
 the power and resources of Russia having revived, some 
 quarrel would again have occurred, Bulgarian or otherwise 
 [cheers], and in all probability the armies of Russia would 
 have been assailing the Ottoman dominions both in Eu- 
 rope and Asia, and enveloping and enclosing the city of 
 Constantinople and its all-powerful position. [Cheers.] 
 
 Now, what would be the probable conduct, under these 
 circumstances, of the Government of this country, whoever 
 the ministers might be, whatever party might be in power? 
 I fear there might be hesitation for a time — a want of de- 
 cision — a want of firmness; but no one doubts that ultimately 
 England would have said : " This will never do ; we must 
 prevent the conquest of Asia Minor [cheers] ; we must in- 
 terfere in this matter, and arrest the course of Russia." 
 [Cheers.] No one, I am sure, in this country who impar- 
 tially considers this question can for a moment doubt what, 
 under any circumstances, would have been the course of this 
 country. [Cheers.] 
 
 Well, then, that being the case, I say it is extremely im- 
 portant that this country should take a step beforehand 
 [cheers] which should indicate what the policy of England 
 would be ; that you should not have your Ministers meet- 
 ing in a Council Chamber, hesitating and doubting and con- 
 sidering contingencies, and then acting at last, but acting 
 perhaps too late. [Cheers.] I say, therefore, that the respon- 
 sibilities of this country have not been increased [cheers] ; the 
 responsibilities already existed, though I for one would never 
 shrink from increasing the responsibilities of this country, if 
 they are responsibilities Avhich ought to be undertaken. 
 [Cheers.] The responsibilities of this country are prattically 
 diminished by the course we have taken. 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, one of the results of my attend-
 
 28 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 ing the Congress of Berlin has been to prove, what I always 
 suspected to be the absolute fact, that neither the Crimean 
 war, nor this horrible devastating war which has just ter- 
 minated, would have taken place, if England had spoken 
 with the necessary firmness. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 Russia has complaints to make against this country that 
 neither in the case of the Crimean war nor on this occasion 
 — and I do not shrink from my share of the responsibility in 
 this matter — was the voice of England so clear and decided 
 as to exercise a due share in the guidance of European 
 opinion. [Cheers.] 
 
 Suppose, gentlemen, that my noble friend and I had 
 come back with the Treaty of Berlin, and had not taken the 
 step which is to be questioned within the next eight-and- 
 forty hours, could we, with any self-respect, have met our 
 countrymen when they asked, what securities have you 
 made for the peace of Europe? How far have you dimin- 
 ished the chance of perpetually recurring war on this question 
 of the East by the Treaty of Berlin ? Why, they could say, 
 all we have gained by the Treaty of Berlin is probably the 
 peace of a few years, and at the end of that time the same 
 phenomenon will arise and the Ministers of England must 
 patch up the affair as well as they could. 
 
 That was not the idea of public duty entertained by my 
 noble friend and myself. [Cheers.] We thought the time 
 had come when we ought to take steps which would produce 
 some order out of the anarchy and chaos that had so long 
 prevailed. [Cheers.] We asked ourselves, was it absolutely 
 a necessity that the fairest provinces of the world should be 
 the most devastated and most ill-used, and for this reason that 
 there is no security for life or property so long as that country 
 is in perpetual fear of invasion and aggression ? [Cheers.] 
 
 It was under these circumstances that we recommended 
 the course we have taken ; and I believe that the con- 
 sequences of that policy will tend to and even secure peace 
 and order in a portion of the globe which hitherto has 
 seldom been blessed by these celestial visitants. [Cheers.] 
 
 I hold that we have laid the foundation of a state of 
 affairs which may open a new continent to the civilization 
 of Europe [cheers], and that the welfare of the world and 
 the wealth of the world may be increased by availing
 
 PEACK WITH HONOR 29 
 
 ourselves of that tranquillity and order which the more 
 intimate connection of England with that country will now 
 produce. [Cheers.] 
 
 But I am sorry to say that though we taxed our brains and 
 our thought to establish a policy which might be beneficial to 
 the country, we have not satisfied those who arc our critics. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 I was astonished to learn that the Convention of the fourth 
 of June has been described as " an insane convention." It is 
 a strong epithet. I do not myself pretend to be as competent 
 a judge of insanity as my right honorable opponent. [Glad- 
 stone.] I will not say to the right honorable gentleman, 
 navigct Anticyratn, but I would put this issue to an English 
 jury — Which do you believe the most likely to enter into 
 an insane convention — a body of English gentlemen hon- 
 ored by the favor of their Sovereign and the confidence of 
 their fellow-subjects, managing your affairs for five years, I 
 hope with prudence, and not altogether without success 
 [cheers], or a sophisticated rhetorician, inebriated with the 
 exuberance of his own verbosity [loud cheers and laughter], 
 and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all 
 times command an interminable and inconsistent series of 
 arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself? 
 [Continued cheers and laughter.] 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, I leave the decision upon that 
 Convention to the Parliament and people of England. 
 [Loud cheers.] I believe that in that policy arc deeply laid 
 the seeds of future welfare, not merely to England, but to 
 Europe and Asia ; and confident that the policy we have 
 recommended is one that will be supported by the country, 
 I and those that act with me can endure these attacks. 
 [Loud cheers.] 
 
 My lords and gentlemen, let me thank you once more 
 for the manner in which you have welcomed me to-day. 
 [Cheers.] These are the rewards of public life that never 
 pall [cheers] — the sympathy of those who have known you 
 long, who have worked with you long, who have the same 
 opinions upon the policy that should be pursued in this 
 great and ancient Empire. [Cheers.] These are the senti- 
 ments which no language can sufficiently appreciate — 
 which are a consolation under all circumstances and the high-
 
 30 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 est reward that a public man can attain. The generous feel- 
 ing that has prompted you to welcome my colleague and my- 
 self on our return to England will inspire and strengthen 
 our efforts to serve our country [cheers], and it is not merely 
 that in this welcome you encourage those who are doing 
 their best for what they conceive to be the public interest, 
 but to tell to Europe also that England is a grateful 
 country and knows how to appreciate the efforts of those of 
 her public servants who are resolved to maintain to their 
 utmost the Empire of Great Britain. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 THE KING OF THE BELGIANS 
 
 [.Speech of Lord Beaconsfield at the dinner of the Royal Literary Fund, 
 London, May 8, 1S72. Leopold II, King of the Belgians, was present as 
 chairman, and his health was proposed by Lord Beaconsfield, who ad- 
 dressed His Majesty as " Sire." The King's father here alluded to was 
 Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, elected King of the Belgians in June, 
 1831.] 
 
 Sire : — Forty years ago a portion of Europe, and one not 
 the least fair, seemed doomed by an inexorable fate to per- 
 manent dependence and periodical devastation. And yet the 
 conditions of that country were favorable to civilization and 
 human happiness : a fertile soil skilfully cultivated, a land 
 covered with beautiful cities and occupied by a race prone 
 alike to liberty and religion, and always excelling in the fine 
 arts. In the midst of a European convulsion, a great states- 
 man resolved to terminate that deplorable destiny, and con- 
 ceived the idea of establishing the independence of Belgium 
 on the principle of political neutrality. That idea was wel- 
 comed at first with sceptical contempt. But we who live in 
 the after generation can bear witness to the triumphant 
 success of that principle, and can now take the opportunity 
 of congratulating that noble policy which consecrated to 
 perpetual peace the battlefield of Europe. 
 
 Such a fortunate result was, no doubt, owing in a great 
 degree to the qualities of the race that inhabited the land. 
 They have shown, on more than one occasion, under severe 
 trials, that they have possessed those two qualities which 
 can alone enable a nation to maintain the principle of neu-
 
 THE KING OF TIIK DKLGIANS 3 1 
 
 trality alike energy and discretion. lUit we must not forget 
 that it was their fortunate lot that the first monarch who 
 ascended their throne was the most eminent statesman of 
 the nineteenth century. With consummate prudence, with 
 unerring judgment, with vast and varied experience, he 
 combined those qualities which at the same time win and 
 retain tiie heart of communities. We can especially, at this 
 moment, remember with pride that he was virtually an 
 English Prince — not merely because he was doubly allied to 
 our Royal race, but because he had been educated — and 
 with his observant mind such an opportunity was invaluable 
 — he had been educated for years in this country, in the 
 practise of constitutional freedom. And when he ascended 
 the throne he proved at once that he was determined to be, 
 not the chief of a party, but the monarch of a nation. 
 
 When he left us, Europe was disheartened. The times 
 were troublous and menacing, and all felt how much depend- 
 ed upon the character of his successor. In the presence of 
 that successor it does not become me — it would be in every 
 sense presumptuous — to ofTer a panegyric. But I may be 
 permitted to speak of a public career in the language of crit- 
 ical appreciation ; and I think that all will agree that the 
 King of the Belgians, from the first moment at which he 
 entered into public life, proved that he was sensible of the 
 spirit of the age in which he lived, that he felt that authority 
 to be revered must be enlightened, and that the seat of no 
 sovereign was so secure as that of him who had confidence 
 in his subjects. The King of the Belgians, our sovereign 
 chairman, derived from his royal father another heritage 
 besides the fair province of Flanders ; he inherited an affec- 
 tion for the people of England. He has proved that in many 
 instances and on many occasions, but never, in my mind, 
 with more happy boldness than when he crossed the Chan- 
 nel and determined to accept our invitation and become the 
 chairman of the Royal Literary Fund. 
 
 With what felicity he has fulfilled his duties this evening, 
 you arc all witnesses, I have been connected with your 
 society for many years, as those who preceded me with my 
 name also were long before ; and I think I can venture to 
 say that in your annals none of those who have sat in that 
 chair have performed its duties in a manner more admirable.
 
 32 LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 It is something delightful, though at first sight inconsistent, 
 that the Republic of Letters should, as it were, be presided 
 over to-day by a monarch ; but if there be a charming incon- 
 sistency in such a circumstance, let us meet it with one as 
 amiably flagrant and give to our sovereign chairman to-night 
 a right royal welcome. It is with these feelings, gentlemen, 
 that I now propose to you, "The Health of His Majesty 
 the King." [Long continued applause.]
 
 JAMES M. HECK 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF THE MAYFLOWER 
 
 [Speech of the Hon. James IM. Beck, of Philadelphia, at the 931I anni- 
 versary dinner of the New England Society, in the city of New York, 
 December 22, 189S. Judge Henry Iv. Ilowland, President of the Society, 
 was in the chair, and introduced the speaker as follows: "There 
 are Pilgrims in Pennsylvania who have been immortalized l)y Whittierin 
 his poem of that name. There have been records of difliculties between 
 Connecticut settlers who trespassed upon the rights of the prior occu- 
 pants, for the early comers were eager after land ; but the Pilgrims we 
 like to remember are peaceful followers of William Penn, who gave a 
 lesson to all other colonies of righteous dealings and Christian action 
 with the aboriginal inhabitants, and proved themselves a blessing to the 
 country. I have great pleasure in introducing to you the Hon. James M. 
 Beck, of Philadelphia, who represents that connuonwealth, and who will 
 speak to you upon the Democracy of the ]\Iay flower."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I am charged by the 
 President of the New England Society of Pennsylvania to 
 extend its most cordial greetings to its sister Society in New 
 York. I am instructed by our President to "congratulate 
 you upon your long and honored history," He adds, in the 
 message which I bring, and which I shall venture to use as 
 a text : " It is well for neighbors so near to clasp hands fre- 
 quently. With kindred lineage, principles and aims, we 
 cannot emphasize too strongly the truths for which we 
 stand. While honoring the past our faces are toward the 
 future. We are confident that you and all true descendants 
 of the Pilgrim and the Puritan will wisely and lo)-ally help 
 our country in the new, untried place among the nations, to 
 which it has been so suddenly summoned." I wish, indeed, 
 that those for whom 1 speak had a worthier spokesman. 
 Indeed, in this presence, rei)resenting the culture of the 
 metropolis, and with distinguished guests to address you, 
 
 Z3
 
 34 JAMES M. BECK 
 
 whose names are household words throughout the length 
 and breadth of our land, I feel as did a certain colored de- 
 fendant in a criminal case which was recently tried in the 
 United States District Court of my city. He had been 
 charged with selling liquor without a license, and the Gov- 
 ernment had proved a strong case against him. When his 
 attorney asked him whether he desired to take the stand and 
 testify in his own behalf, the son of Africa replied : " Boss, 
 I think I had better remain neutral." Similarly, with men 
 like General Shafter and Governor Roosevelt as your 
 speakers, I feel that I should remain neutral. 
 
 Indeed, in the presence of these military gentlemen, I feel 
 as did the Burgess of Gettysburg, who, on the first day of 
 that famous battle, sent word to Generals Lee and Meade 
 that it was against the ordinances of the town to fire off fire- 
 arms within the borough limits. A poor civilian, I serve 
 like notice upon the warriors, lest their rhetorical fireworks 
 overwhelm me to-night. Perhaps, however, I am unneces- 
 sarily borrowing trouble — in New York, as Mr. Pierpont 
 Morgan will bear me out, trouble is all one can borrow with- 
 out collateral — but can I not rely upon )'our generous for- 
 bearance, and that you will treat me with the same princely 
 courtesy as did young Hamlet when he bade Polonius treat 
 well the players who had journeyed to Elsinore to entertain 
 his lordship ? " Use them," said Hamlet, " after your own 
 honor and dignity ; the less their deserving the more merit 
 is your bounty." 
 
 You have been gracious enough to assign to me a noble 
 and inspiring toast. It calls to our mind that little vessel, 
 tossing in the immeasurable waste of waters, so crowded 
 with its cargo of human life that the men slept in the very 
 boats upon the davits, driven by winter blasts that -were not 
 so relentless as the spirit of persecution which the Pilgrims 
 left behind, and named the " Mayflower " in unconscious 
 prophecy of the fact that the long winter of political tyranny 
 was about to break, and the springtime of civil and religious 
 liberty to dawn for the human race. How fallible are the 
 judgments that any generation places upon contemporaneous 
 men and events ! How little the world took note of this 
 little vessel as it slowly ploughed its way westward across 
 the waters! How little did James the First, as he then
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF THE MAYFLOWER 35 
 
 sought to strangle the liberties of the English people, or 
 Richelieu, as he then sought to build up a kingly despotism, 
 appreciate that even then a little group of carders, weavers 
 and farmers of England were founding a colony in an un- 
 broken wilderness, from whose vigorous loins would spring 
 a mighty Republic, which should dominate the world when 
 the Stuarts and the Bourbons were alike forgotten ! The 
 importance of the central incident of the famous voyage, 
 when those sturdy English yeomen met in the cabin of the 
 " Mayflower "and created of themselves a" civil body politic " 
 has sometimes been exaggerated. The rocking cabin of the 
 " Mayflower" was not the cradle of democracy. There were 
 brave men before Agamemnon, and similarly there were 
 sturdy champions of popular rights long before the famous 
 compact. Indeed, it should not require this gracious season 
 of Christmas time to remind us that the true cradle of de- 
 mocracy was the manger at Bethlehem. When the son of 
 a Nazareth carpenter brought to the world the gospel of the 
 fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man he ennobled 
 the individual, destroyed the spirit of caste and made de- 
 mocracy in its broadest and noblest sense inevitable. 
 
 It should also be remembered that the real vigor of our 
 institutions is due not so much to the rule of the majority 
 as to the restraints which our institutions place upon the 
 power of the majority. Democracy has not destroyed the 
 superstition of the divine right of kings in order to create 
 another, almost as indefensible, of the divine right of majori- 
 ties. It does not believe that the oil of anointing, which 
 was supposed to consecrate the person and the acts of a 
 king, has fallen upon the multitudinous tongue of the people 
 and invested it with infallibility. In the evolution of Ameri- 
 can institutions, we have learned to make w\ar against the 
 tyranny of the many as wx>ll as that of the few. If the 
 American Republic has enjoyed an unparalleled and almost 
 miraculous growth, it is due not merely to the natural re- 
 sources, with which God has endowed us as a people, but to 
 the lofty spirit of individualism, which our written constitu- 
 tions and unwritten laws have sought to conserve. While 
 democracy recognizes that, as to certain measures for the 
 common good, the will of the individual must be subordi- 
 Xiated to that of the majority, yet, with this saving rcserva-
 
 36 JAMES M. BECK 
 
 tion, its purpose is to insure the largest freedom to the State, 
 the community and the individual. It is for this reason 
 that democracy is eminently progressive. It grows with the 
 individual. Of necessity, its spirit is of progress. With it 
 expansion is an instinct. It cannot stand still. 
 
 It is well to remember this at this important crisis, when 
 our country is confronted with problems greater than any 
 in all its history, with the exception of the civil war. Within 
 twelve months a momentous revolution — or shall I say evo- 
 lution — has taken place in the spirit and purposes of the 
 American people. Twelve months ago we were a politically 
 isolated Republic. To-day we are a world empire. On the night 
 that the explosion of the " Maine " shook the foundations 
 of the deep in the harbor of Havana, I spoke at a banquet 
 in this city, and, unconscious of that which was then taking 
 place in Havana, and in describing the potential power of 
 the President of the United States, I said : " The President, 
 with a stroke of his pen, could shake the equilibrium of the 
 world." The possibility has become a fact. When George 
 Dewey sailed his little fleet past sleeping forts and over 
 hidden mines and annihilated his opponents, a new epoch in 
 our country and the world was begun, and when the Spanish 
 flag fell from the masthead of the " Reina Cristina " one world 
 empire had ended, another had begun. The President has 
 shaken the political equipoise of nations. In so doing he 
 has followed, and not led, a mysterious and puissant impulse 
 of the people. 
 
 Is the Western Hemisphere large enough for the influence 
 and progress of the American people, or must we surrender, 
 commercially and politically, our policy of isolation, and 
 claim an influence which shall be as limitless as the world is 
 round? The Atlantic coast was our cradle ; lusty youth found 
 us on the banks of the Mississippi ; vigorous maturity has 
 brought us to the Pacific. What of that momentous morrow, 
 the twentieth century? Are we, like Alexander, to stop at 
 the margin of the sea and mourn that it forever bars our 
 further progress, or are we, like the inspired pilot of Genoa, 
 to launch the bark of our national destiny into an unknown 
 sea, in search of new and untried routes to national pros- 
 perity ? 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss this great and burning
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OK Till': MAYFLOWER 37 
 
 question, but I do want to emphasize the thought that be- 
 cause democracy is progressive it cannot be cabined, cribbed 
 and confined within the narrow limits of any traditional 
 policy. Blind adherence to tradition is not the highest 
 patriotism, but is a form of intellectual slavery not worthy 
 of a free and progressive people. An assumption that the 
 teachings of our fathers expressed the finality of political 
 wisdom is contradicted by the uniform experience of man- 
 kind. The Almighty never intended that wisdom should 
 die either with one man, one generation, one race, one cen- 
 tury, or one epoch. Least of any people should America 
 doubt the " increasing purpose" of the ages, and the widen- 
 ing of thought " with the process of the suns." Our fathers 
 recognized that wise nations, as wise individuals, change 
 their minds when occasion justifies, but fools never. They, 
 too, had their traditional policy of loyalty to the king, hatred 
 of France, pride in the English empire, and disinclination 
 towards any union between themselves. When the revolu- 
 tion broke out nothing was further from their purpose than 
 separation from England. " Building better than they 
 knew," as all master builders of a nation, our fathers were 
 led, not by any conscious leadership, but by an instinctive 
 impulse of the masses, to disregard every tradition which 
 they held dear, to renounce allegiance to the king, separate 
 from the great English empire and make formal alliance 
 with their hated enemy, France, and create a union of which 
 each had been but too jealous. Let us, therefore, not 
 ascribe to our fathers an infallibility which they did not 
 claim for themselves. Democracy acknowledges no living 
 sovereign, much less those who are said to " rule us from 
 their urns." The decadence of Spain, which has cost her 
 the empire of the world and now brought her to the verge 
 of final ruin, is due to her " inordinate tenacity of old opin- 
 ions, old beliefs, and old habits," which Buckle finds to be 
 her predominant national characteristic. 
 
 Great and heroic as are the figures of our epic age, democ- 
 racy is too progressive to permit the. past to fetter the 
 present. The Republic cannot stand still. It must move 
 onward. From civilization it derives inestimable rights ; to 
 her it owes immeasurable duties, to shirk which would be 
 cowardice and moral death. No nation can live to itself,
 
 38 JAMES M. BECK 
 
 even if it would. The economic developments of the nine- 
 teenth century have produced a solidarity of humanity 
 which no racial prejudice or international hatred can de- 
 stroy. Each nation is its brother's keeper, and the greater 
 the power the greater the responsibility. If this be so, no 
 nation owes a greater duty to civilization, to be potential in 
 the councils of the world, than the United States. For it 
 to. skulk and shirk behind the selfish policy of isolation and 
 to abdicate a destined world supremacy would be the col- 
 ossal crime of history. The stern but just law which has 
 governed the nations in all history is that he alone shall 
 have who uses. Of every rotten tree the eternal inquiry of 
 the Great Woodman is heard : " Why cumbereth it the 
 ground ? " 
 
 I would not be understood, however, as saying that the 
 traditional policy of our country is opposed to colonization. 
 On the contrary, wc have been, with the single exception of 
 England, the greatest colonizing power of the world. We 
 are sprung from a race of colonists, the greatest of the 
 world, and their blood flows in our veins. To Massa- 
 chusetts came the Englishman ; to New York, the Dutch ; 
 to Delaware, the Swede ; to Pennsylvania, the Quaker, the 
 Scotchman, the Welsh and the German ; to Virginia, the 
 Cavalier; to Georgia, the Huguenot; to Florida, the Span- 
 iard ; to Louisiana, the French, — and thus the bravest and 
 wisest colonists of all history constructed the foundations 
 of the American Republic. Since then our entire history 
 has been one of colonial enterprise. The people have 
 always been in advance of the Government, and have sturdily 
 pushed their settlements westward into the unbroken wilder- 
 ness, and each year reclaimed vaster areas of untrodden 
 land to the uses of civilization. Before the present Consti- 
 tution was framed, the Continental Congress had persuaded 
 the States to cede their claims to the land west of the Allc- 
 ghanies to the central government as a national domain for 
 colonial enterprise, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 
 could still be a model for all colonial government, which we 
 may hereafter acquire. Originally the Alleghanies were re- 
 garded as our western boundary, but the people refused to 
 be confined within these narrow limits, and, crossing the 
 mountains, planted their colonics in Tennessee and Ken-
 
 THE DEMOCRACY OF THE MAYFLOWER 39 
 
 tucky, which subsequently became Territories, and later 
 States. 
 
 The magic of a name has sometimes obscured this signi- 
 ficant phase of our history. We have called our colonies 
 Territories, but colonies they remain in the truest sense of 
 the word, until elevated to the dignity of sovereign States. 
 At all times their legitimate claims upon our consideration 
 have vitally affected our policy. It was the colonics in Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee which led our country to claim the 
 territory to the Mississippi as the true western boundary of 
 our country. It was again the colonies in the valley of the 
 Mississippi which led Jefferson to purchase Louisiana in 
 order to preserve forever for the American people the great 
 pathway of commerce, the Mississippi River. It was the 
 colonies in Florida that led to the purchase of that State ; 
 it was the colonies in Texas which, revolting against Mex- 
 ico and forming an independent State, were later annexed 
 to the American Republic ; it was, again, the colonies in 
 Oregon which compelled an unwilling Congress to remem- 
 ber their existence, and which saved that noble country be- 
 tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific to the Union. 
 No argument against territorial expansion can be so false 
 to our history as that which asserts that we lack experience 
 in colonization. Sprung, as we are, from the teeming womb 
 of England, we could not be other than a colonizing power, 
 if we would. 
 
 Let us not be fearful as to our manifest destiny. Our 
 Republic, like young Siegfried in the old Teutonic leg- 
 end, has fashioned at the flaming forge of war the magic sword 
 of the world's supremacy. The Treaty of Paris ended one 
 empire and commenced another, which in area, numbers, 
 power and influence, will exceed that of Alexander or Caesar, 
 Charlemagne or Napoleon. To-day the Republic is the true 
 centre of the world, with the Occident on our right and the 
 Orient on our left. Let us have faith that the Ruler of Na- 
 tions, who has led us thus far, will give us no problem too 
 great for our solution, and no work too great for our 
 achievement. To grasp faintly the future of this country 
 is to bewilder and exhaust the imagination. The past is 
 but the " happy prologue to the swelling act of an imper- 
 ial theme." To-day, as never before, we face the world as
 
 40 JAMES M. BECK 
 
 a united country. If wounds there have been, they are 
 healed ; if cause for quarrel, it has gone. East and west 
 from the Father of Waters, north and south of Mason and 
 Dixon's line, we are one to-day, my fellow-countrymen ; one, 
 in the proud possession of a glorious past ; one, in a resolute 
 purpose to meet the duties of the hour, and one, in an abid- 
 ing faith in the future of our beloved countr)\ For one 
 land, one people, one flag, and one destiny, let us reverently 
 thank the God of our fathers. May the glory of the Re- 
 public be as lasting as the day which shines upon her flag, 
 and her beneficent influence upon future generations as 
 ceaseless as the majestic flow of the Mississippi to the sea. 
 
 Such has been the marvellous growth of the democracy of 
 the " Mayflower." It has realized, beyond his most far-reach- 
 ing imagination, the vision of the Puritan poet, Milton, when 
 he said : " Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
 nation, rousing itself like a strong man after his sleep, and 
 shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle 
 mewing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eyes 
 at the full midday beam, purging and unsealing her long- 
 abused eyesight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance." 
 [Applause.]
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 
 
 [Speech of Henry Ward Beecher at the sixty-eighth anniversary banquet 
 of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1S73 
 The President of the Society, Elliot C. Cowden, presided, and an- 
 nounced that the seventh r^gidar toast, " Religious Freedom," would be 
 responded to by Mr. Beecher, " that most gifted son of New England."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — I have attended 
 many New England dinners [laughter], I have eaten very 
 few. [Laughter.] I think I have never attended one in 
 <vhich there has been such good speaking as to-night, and 
 so much of it [laughter] ; and as I bear in memory a sen- 
 tence from the Book with which I am supposed to be familiar 
 [laughter], that " a full soul loatheth a feast," I do not pro- 
 pose to stuff you at this late period with a long speech 
 [laughter], for I have been myself a sufferer under like cir- 
 cumstances. [Laughter.] It does seem a pity, and would 
 to you if you had ever been speech-makers, to cut out an 
 elaborate speech with weeks of toil in order that it may be 
 extemporized admirably [laughter], and then to find your- 
 self drifted so late into the evening that everybody is tired 
 of speeches. What must a man under such circumstances 
 do ? As he abhors novelty, he cannot make a new one, and 
 he goes on to make his old speech, and it falls still-born 
 upon the ears of the listeners. I do not propose, therefore, 
 to give you the benefit of all that eloquence that I have 
 stored up for you to-night. [Laughter.] I merely say that 
 if you had only heard the speech that I was going to de- 
 liver, you would pity me for the speech that I am now 
 delivering. [Laughter.] One of the most precious ele- 
 ments of religious liberty is the right of a sensible man not 
 to speak [laughter], or even to make a poor speech. 
 
 41
 
 42 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 To go back to the New England days and to our fathers 
 who have been — well, I have no doubt of the communion 
 of the saints, and, therefore, I have no doubt that the blessed 
 spirits that have got rid of this world pay good attention in 
 the other land to what is going on here, and are interested 
 in all the compliments they receive [laughter] ; and though 
 I suppose heaven to be a very busy place, and the Pilgrim 
 Fathers to be exceedingly busy all the year round, yet, on 
 the twenty-second of December, earthly reckoning, they 
 must have the hardest day of the whole period which we 
 call year. [Laughter.] I can imagine them going around 
 with fragments of these speeches on their heads as extem- 
 porized crowns [laughter] ; and far be it from me who, I be- 
 lieve, have some ancestors there — I hope it is there 
 [laughter] — far be it from me to impose any additional 
 burden of sympathy upon them. [Laughter.] The old 
 New England divines were good fellows in their day, jovial 
 men — not on public occasions [laughter] — men given to the 
 cup and to the pipe in due measure, and to good stories as 
 well as to good conduct, but always with discretion — always 
 at home after the door was shut, because the example to the 
 flock must be reverend — the flock must be led by sobriety ; 
 but really, as I recollect the days in my father's parlor, when 
 I used to be sent for the tobacco and for the rum, when 
 the ministers came around, in old Connecticut, before the 
 temperance days, when the parlor was blue with smoke 
 and uproarious with laughter, I am sure that I have never 
 been in any assembly anywhere, where there was so much 
 good-fellowship, nor anywhere else — except here — where I 
 thought there was so much wit as there used to be in old 
 New England [laughter] ; and much of that which has been 
 witty to-night I attribute to the proximity of the generals, 
 statesmen, and lawyers to the clergy. [Laughter.] 
 
 In regard to the subject matter of the toast which I was 
 to speak to, I wish to say this : that those who have op- 
 pressed men by religion have only done by that instrument 
 what everybody else has been trying to do by every other 
 instrument. [Laughter and applause.] Everybody that 
 has any gumption is a pope, or would be glad to be. That 
 spirit of self, with a consciousness of power, with an intense 
 sense of right and of truth, and a disposition to project it
 
 RELIGIOUS FRKEDOM 43 
 
 upon others, is of necessity a domineering spirit, and it is 
 that that attempts to make men bend to your sense of what 
 is true and what is right. I do not, therefore, wonder that 
 there is a spirit of despotism. I do not wonder at it any 
 more than I wonder that mankind love to govern and be 
 governed; for there are two sides. It is not the fault of 
 the dry pole that is put into the ground that the morning- 
 glory twines round about it, and won't stand up itself. I 
 would like to be a dry stick myself, and have a convolvulus 
 twining around me with its ineffable beauty. [Applause.] 
 It is not the fault of the minister that the true and comely 
 and excellent ones lean on him and insist upon being led by 
 him, and thought for by him. It is not strange that clergy, 
 men think they hear angel voices, even among their own 
 parishioners, under such circumstances. If you take a man 
 out from the common people and tell him he is something 
 wonderful, tell him that he is a man of — his mother ? — 
 no, but a man of God, and therefore so far different from 
 his neighbors, that he stands in the electric chain, and gets 
 his inspiration fresh from the apostolic age, as then it was 
 had fresh from heaven ; that he is, by reason of having this 
 extra dose of good sense and infallibility, something more 
 than other men — only tell him so long enough, put your 
 hand on his head so as to rub it into him, make him feel it 
 in his heart, bring round about it his conscience, and j-ou 
 have made a despot. 
 
 It may be a despot that turns the ecclesiastical machinery 
 of the church, so that everybody has to keep step to the 
 music exactly. It is not his fault ; his parishioners make 
 him do it. He may turn that despotism into dogma ; it is 
 not his fault. He himself became first the subject, and then 
 the master, and then the despot. If there were not men 
 who wanted to be governed, there Avould not be so many 
 men who wanted to govern them ; and if men in the Church, 
 administering the Church as an institution, administering its 
 ordinances or its doctrines, are imperious, if they are arro- 
 gant, you make them so. They did not set out to be so. 
 It is inherent in the fundamental falsity of this idea, that 
 any body of men on earth are commissioned to govern any 
 other body of men by reason, or by their conscience, on the 
 supposition that they are nearer to God than others. [Ap-
 
 44 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 plause.] It is not the New Testament idea, which says, 
 " Ye are all brethren." There is democracy for you ! 
 Brotherhood never harmed anybody, because brotherhood 
 proceeds ever with justice for its instrument, in the spirit of 
 benevolence and love, and works by sympathy, works by the 
 heart more than by the head. Now, the moment that any 
 man stands among his fellowmen and says, " I own God, 
 and I own all God's decrees, and I am empowered to enforce 
 them upon you, and I bring down all that is terrible in the 
 world to lay it upon the imagination and upon the fear and 
 upon the conscience and upon the conduct and the life of 
 men " — the moment that any man has taken possession of 
 that vast and populous invisible realm, that very moment, 
 of necessity, he becomes an enemy to liberty, a leader to- 
 ward captivity, and men are bound by him to be servants. 
 
 So, then, if men are oppressed by the Church, it is only 
 because, through weakness, they invited it ; it is because, 
 through indifference, they permitted it. Who arc the makers 
 of ecclesiastical despots? Weak men. Power is not easily 
 oppressed ! It is weakness that is oppressed. Strong, 
 robust, round, and all-sided men are not often oppressed as 
 citizens, they always escape. It is the poor, the ignorant, 
 those that do not know how to defend themselves, that in 
 civil things or in intellectual realms are oppressed, and in 
 moral realms as well ; and the remedy for ecclesiastical op- 
 pression is, make the common people stronger and wiser. 
 [Applause.] Give them intelligence, and make them under- 
 stand that indifference to religion is invitation to despotism 
 [applause] ; that those men who have faith in God and 
 have faith that God is Father, believe also in manhood and 
 men. Give to men earnestness, consciousness of their own 
 affairs, self-respect and knowledge, and then insist upon it 
 that they shall use them ; give to men this spirit, and there 
 shall be found no priest and no bishop that shall govern 
 them except as the air governs the flowers, except as the 
 sun governs the seasons, for the sun wears no sceptre, but 
 with sweet kisses covers the ground with fragrance and with 
 beauty. One soul has a right to govern another if it loves 
 it ; but by authority and machinery and systematic creeds 
 or dogma, no man has a right to govern another, nor can he, if 
 those other men are not weak, effeminate, indifferent, infidel.
 
 RELIGIOUS frp:i-:dom 45 
 
 So, then, our New England fathers, although failing here 
 and there in some points in the administration of religious 
 liberty, were preeminent for the time in which they lived, 
 and, at the bottom, they were really the workmen that 
 brought in the doctrine of religious freedom, because they 
 undertook to make intelligent men, they educated men, 
 they tried to make them larger, to make them more knowl- 
 edgeable, to make them able to stand on their own feet with- 
 out being held up by priests or by any other preacher ; and 
 so, working to make larger manhood and larger liberty in 
 manhood, they tended to set men free from spiritual just as 
 much as from civil domination. I regard all men who are 
 working toward the enlargement of their fellowmen as 
 being truly guides toward emancipation from spiritual des- 
 potism. He that is gone, Agassiz, was also a priest of God 
 — not in the church which men's hands have built, but in 
 that great circle which Divine Providence marks out, where 
 men find out the footsteps and the handiwork of God, and 
 take that which they find to make men larger and richer and 
 truer and better. He, too, is a priest of God ; and that 
 glorious company of men who are saying to the rock and to 
 the sky and to the realms of nature, " What secret hath God 
 told you ? Tell it to us," they too are making men free, and 
 are emancipating the human mind. And every artist who 
 works upon his canvas or upon the stone, or rears up stately 
 fabrics, expressing something nobler to men, giving some 
 form to their ideals and aspirations— every such man also 
 is working for the largeness and so for the liberty of men. 
 And every mother who sits by the cradle, singing to her 
 babe the song which the angels sing all the way up to the 
 very throne, she too is God's priestess, and is working for 
 the largeness of men, and so for their liberty. Whoever 
 teaches men to be truthful, to be virtuous, to be enterpris- 
 ing; in short, whoever teaches Manhood, emancipates men ; 
 for liberty means not license, but such largeness and balance 
 of manhood that men go right, not because they are told 
 to, but because they love that which is right. [Prolonged 
 applause.]
 
 46 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 THE GLORY OF NEW ENGLAND 
 
 [Speech of Henry Ward Beecher at the second anniversary banquet of 
 the New England Society in the city of Brooklyn, December 21, 1881. The 
 President of the vSociet)^ Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman, presided and said 
 by way of introduction : " Our next toast is in a few words : ' New Eng- 
 land.' This is a vast theme — but the verj^ incarnalion of New England 
 is with us to-night, and we invoke him to its consideration. It is our 
 privilege to call upon the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — There is no other con- 
 test I enjoy beholding so much as to hear different nations 
 tell which of them has been foremost in the contest for 
 liberty. And when the representatives of the various Eu- 
 ropean nations come together, I like to see — I like to hear — 
 France tell what she has done, Germany what she has done, 
 and Holland what she has done. And it gives me courage 
 at last to tell a little of what New England has done. 
 
 The age in which Holland showed her great light, was an 
 age that was pouring oil into more lamps than hers ; one in 
 which intellect broke at last and began to lead, seemingly, 
 the nations toward the rising of the sun. And if you look 
 over the world to-day, there is scarcely a nation of Central 
 Europe not stirred by this resurrection trump to the in- 
 tellect of mankind. What .should they do with this in- 
 tellect? All Europe was thralled. Church fetters, and so- 
 cial fetters, and the various fetters of nobility and caste held 
 them all. 
 
 They forged the arrows of light on the anvils of Holland, 
 and France, and Germany, but there was no bow to send 
 the arrows home ; and God looked all around to see what 
 should be done with these silver arrows that were being 
 forged, but there was only one land where the oaks grew 
 tough enough to form the bow to send the arrow home, and 
 that was old England. She dominated the empires of the 
 then world, as America does to-day. 
 
 I boast then — and there is not another city on this con- 
 tinent where it is more fit that we should boast, and where 
 their honor and ours is combined, where the Dutch and the 
 Yankee are so nearly at one, as this very City of Brooklyn, 
 that has for its city flag the sublimest flag known on the
 
 THE GLORY OF NEW ENGLAND 47 
 
 face of the globe — not the United States flag which is barbaric 
 only by the flag of the City of Brooklyn, no doublc-hcaclctl 
 eagle, no twining serpent, simply this motto and symbol, 
 " Right makes might ! " [Applause.] And with such a flag 
 as that, we have a right to trace the history of these men 
 and these institutions which sprung from the loins of no 
 man, but from the Heart and Soul of Almighty God. 
 
 And when I speak of the Puritans, I know perfectly well 
 that they were not theorists ; they were not philosophers ; 
 they never sat down to write addresses. They had but just 
 one theory — that every man before God was a man, with a 
 right to himself and to open himself; that was the whole 
 theory. They had no splendid Utopian idea of a republic 
 drawn out, they had no Platonic theory of life, but simply 
 the declaration, " I am a man because Christ is in me, and I 
 have a right to everything that makes manhood." Contrast 
 this with Prudhomme and Fourier and other socialists who 
 eternally sit, and who eternally never lay an egg. [Laughter.] 
 They had simply the innate, intense, and ineradicable 
 sense of the right of a man to himself before God and 
 his fellowmen. And in that spirit they came to New Eng- 
 land ; not to build air castles and reform political theories. 
 They came here only to be free and to secure to all their 
 posterity freedom here. And out of that simple consider- 
 ation of the inherent dignity of man as a child of God, out 
 of that grew New England. They sat down there and 
 opened schoolhouses, they sat down in New England and 
 built churches, and made laws that should suit their con- 
 sciences and the rights of the individual. They had nosuch 
 forecast as we now have back-cast. [Laughter.] They did 
 not anticipate the future any more than we perfectly read 
 the past, but out of that little leaven grew all the institutions 
 of New England. Taking the best things that had served 
 old England, they brought out such as served them — that 
 was a good deal ; such as did not, they left behind, and that 
 was a good deal more. You call them " State builders." 
 You never hit it more perfectly in your life. Though that 
 was not their trade, yet, like the universal Yankee, the)- 
 could turn their hand to almost any trade when the time 
 came. They scarcely, like the Jews, ever separated patriot- 
 ism from religion.
 
 48 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 Now we have had a great many people who have tried to 
 build States. A good many tried it before they came. 
 There were the mound builders. No doubt the mounds 
 were built for political history, but the mound builders are 
 not to be found. There were the Aztecs, the temple build- 
 ers of Mexico, with an astonishing development of a cer- 
 tain civilization. They have left no history, nothing but a 
 memory. Then the Spanish undertook to colonize, and they 
 have left South America what she is. The French under- 
 took to colonize, and as they were when they landed at 
 Quebec, so they are to-day. They have not sprouted, nor 
 has one branch grown from that day to this. They went 
 West through Indiana and Ohio, and it is perfectly ludicrous 
 to hear how they took saws and cut down trees, taking four 
 days to cut down one good-sized tree. They hacked and 
 hewed all day and fiddled and danced all night. They tried 
 it in Florida and Louisiana. All the nations of Europe, 
 pretty near, tried their hand at it, even the Dutch at New 
 Amsterdam ; and they were swallowed up at one mouthful. 
 But no harm came of it, there was no violence done them, 
 for there was no resistance. We took them, married their 
 daughters, and so subdued them. 
 
 There is only one nation on this continent, and that is 
 New England. There is not a State nor a Territory whose 
 constitution to-day, laid alongside the New England con- 
 stitution, varies one-tenth of an inch from its fundamental 
 principles. Their essential laws, their constitutions, are 
 identical. New England has built America. You may like 
 it or not like it, there are the facts. And we are not here 
 to celebrate New England in any sense of making a pro- 
 vincial celebration. Where is New England ? Wherever 
 New Englanders live, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic 
 Ocean ; from the Northern lakes to the Mexican Gulf. We 
 are celebrating the whole country. We are the grandfathers 
 of every state in the Union, and this is a national gathering, 
 and therefore a family gathering. 
 
 There is a great deal more important question — Are we 
 going to maintain what our fathers received } Are the 
 children worthy of their fathers ? I say they are. [Ap- 
 plause.] You and I will leave ourselves all out, and settle 
 this matter impartially [looking at Judge Tracy who was
 
 TME GLOKY OF NEW ENdL.WI) 40 
 
 present] as if \vc wcto judges upon the bench. 1 liold that 
 the industry of New England has not gone out, except to 
 all the ends of the earth. The old settlers of New England 
 lived on rock and ground granite, and really committed bur- 
 glary on nature to get a living out of it. You don't know 
 anything about industry, you don't know even as much 
 about it as I do ; for I used to get up at four o'clock in the 
 morning at this season of the year to do the chores and 
 make the fires. I used to break out the roads with the 
 oxen to break a path in the snow, before the horses coultl 
 tread the path they broke. I used to go two miles to 
 school, and used to sit on Sundays in a church in which 
 they thought that a fire was a sacrilege, I used to live 
 where the old fireplace would hold logs ten feet long, which 
 required two men to roll them in. You were not brought 
 up in that way ; I was. I know what it was to work. Did 
 you ever hoe potatoes on a hillside just after the alder 
 bushes had been cut off? [A voice — "Yes, sir!"] I am 
 glad there is one real Yankee here. [Laughter.] I have. 
 
 Did you ever have but one single holiday in all the sum- 
 mer's vacation, and that the 4th of July? I have. Were 
 you ever shut up in your door-yard and not allowed to go 
 down town to see the training ? I was. One of the great 
 sorrows of my life, that never can be lifted from me, was to 
 hear the bass drum down in the village, and have a father 
 who was so solicitous for the morals of his son, that he 
 would not allow him to go out of the yard to see the sol- 
 diers train ! [Laughter.] We have two sons of New Eng- 
 land here that know more about soldiering, but then they 
 have descended a good way. 
 
 The industry of New England has not ceased, AH the 
 most fertile enterprises on this continent, and almost all 
 that exist in every part of the globe have in them either the 
 capital or management of New England men, and the com- 
 mercial and manufacturing interest of this continent reflect 
 honor on the posterity of the Puritans and the Pilgrims. 
 
 When it was sought to inaugurate a dynasty and an 
 aristocracy, and make slavery essentially the master of this 
 country, it was the spirit of New England that resisted that 
 despotism and that tyranny. And so was it recognized, 
 that it was actually in the council of Southern men to dis-
 
 50 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 solve the Union and re-compose it, leaving New England 
 out. A greater honor never was conferred upon New Eng- 
 land than that. When the war broke out — I shall leave my 
 friend on the left to speak of that — when our very best men 
 in every walk in life answered their country's call, the first 
 soldier that went through here was a son of New England. 
 
 There was one remarkable incident that happened in Bal- 
 timore, that I recall : When the Massachusetts Sixth was 
 there and being mobbed, and stood for a long time per- 
 fcctl}^ patient till their officers commanded them to fire, a 
 long Yankee — who had stood watching this crowd and saw 
 that the poor rufifians round about were merely the tools of 
 the respectable scoundrels standing away across the square 
 on boxes and barrels — stepped out from the ranks and drew 
 his bead and sent a bullet through one scoundrel's heart, 
 and knocked him like a pigeon off a branch. In Baltimore 
 1 heard the other side of that story, when a clergyman of 
 that city told me, " We lost a good deal out of our church 
 that day." "Ah?" said I, "How was that?" "Well, 
 one of the class leaders of our church was down there look- 
 ing on. He stood on a box on the other side of the square ; 
 he was not amongst the crowd at all, but a stray bullet came 
 across the end of the square and shot him ! " [Laughter.] 
 He was one of those broadclothed scoundrels, with a gold 
 headed cane, surrounding those poor fellows, and ought to 
 have been shot. 
 
 Afterward there came up the question of Repudiation, 
 and the spirit of New England rose against it and put that 
 down as a fatal heresy all over the country. 
 
 And when the question of the redemption of the currency 
 came up, the New England conscience and spirit showed 
 itself again, and that question has been fortunately settled 
 for honesty and for good morals. When the New England 
 spirit is rife in any community, it respects the law, it re- 
 spects government, it respects parties. But there is that 
 same plucky personal independence, and when the man- 
 agers of parties forget that they are the servants of the peo- 
 ple, and decree that the people shall do as they want to have 
 them do, instead of their doing what the people want to 
 have them do, the old New England pluck rises up against 
 it, and they " bust the machine," and elect to the magis-
 
 TRIBUTE TO HARRIET nElCCIIER STOWE 51 
 
 tracy of every city where this takes place, the man who ex- 
 presses the will of the people. I think we may say therefore 
 that the spirit of libcrt\% essential in Religion and in Phil- 
 osophy, the spirit (jf civil government, the spirit of enter- 
 prise, inhere in the posterity of New England ; that we 
 have come into a larger place, and that we are carrying on 
 the great work inangurated by our fathers, on a continent 
 and not in a province. I think we may say that the glory 
 of New England is not alone in the institutions that they 
 founded and gave to the continent, but her glory is also in 
 that posterity which has descended from them, and which is 
 thoroughbred, and that carried with it the heart, the con- 
 science, the will and the power of the fathers of New Eng- 
 land. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 TRIBUTE TO HARRIET BEECHER STOWE 
 
 [Address of Henry Ward Beecher * at the festival given by Messrs. 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Company at Newtonville, Mass., June 14, 1S82, the 
 birthday anniversary of Harriet Eeeclier Stowe. This festival was one 
 of a series given by the same firm to several of the distinguished authors 
 whose works they published. Mr. and Mrs. William Claflin tendered 
 their spacious and Ijeautiful comitry home and grounds for this occasion, 
 and the festival took the form of a garden party. It was attended by 
 about two hundred guests, among whom were persons eminent in letters, 
 art, science, statesmanship, and philanthropy. As the guests arrived 
 they were presented to Mrs. Stowe by Mr. H. O. Houghton, and after 
 two hours had been spent in social converse, the company gathered in a 
 tent on the lawn where Mr. Houghton, after an introductory address, pre- 
 sented Mr. Beecher.] 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: — I don't know whether it is 
 in good taste for any other member of my father's family 
 to join in the laudation of Mrs. Stowe, but if it is, I am a 
 very proper one to do it. I know that for a long time after 
 the publication of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " there were a great 
 many very wise people who said they knew that she never 
 wrote it herself, but that I did it. The matter at last be- 
 came so scandalous that I determined to put an end to it, 
 
 * This speech was originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, and is 
 used by permission of Ploughton, INIifflin 6c Co., of Boston, Mass.
 
 52 HENRY WARD RRECHE^R 
 
 and therefore I wrote " Norwood." That killed the thing 
 dead. 
 
 I will admit that I had something to do with " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." I recollect that Mrs. Stowe asked me one 
 day whether I took " The National Era." I said No; but I 
 would, if necessary. What was going to happen ? She 
 said that Dr. Bailey had sent her some money to write a 
 story for that paper, as far as that money would go ; that 
 it would run through three or four numbers, for when she 
 first planned Uncle Tom she thought it would probably 
 extend through three or four issues of the paper. When, 
 in the progress of the publication, people became very much 
 excited, and it was resolved to publish the story in a vol- 
 ume, she was still writing it, and John P. Jewett, who was 
 to be the publisher, said that the book must be limited to 
 one octavo volume. Such was the low estate of anti-slavery 
 literature that it was not believed an anti-slavery book of 
 more than one volume would find readers. I thought so 
 and wrote a most persuasive letter to her to kill off Uncle 
 Tom quickly, and to give the world the book in one volume, 
 if she expected it to be read. What became of that letter I 
 don't know, and perhaps she cannot recollect ; but, with a 
 peculiarity which belongs to no other member of my father's 
 family, she had her own way about it. 
 
 Now, I think we might have a good experience meeting 
 here this afternoon, if every one would tell under what cir- 
 cumstances he read the book, and how he acted. I can still 
 remember plainly the circumstances under which I finished 
 it. I had got well into the second volume. It was Thurs- 
 day. Sunday was looming up before me, and at the rate at 
 which I was going there would not be time to finish it be- 
 fore Sunday, and I could never preach till I had finished it. 
 So I set myself to it and determined to finish it at once. I 
 had got a considerable way into the second volume, and I 
 recommended my wife to go to bed. I didn't want any- 
 body down there. I soon began to cry. Then I went and 
 shut all the doors, for I did not want any one to see me. 
 Then I sat down to it and finished it that night, for I knew 
 that only in that way should I be able to preach on Sunday. 
 I know that many of you must have read it something as I 
 did at that time.
 
 TRIBUTE TO IIAKRIKT BKI'XIIIIR STOWi; 53 
 
 I am in sympathy with you in your rejoicing this after- 
 noon, and thank you for your courtesy shown to my sister 
 and your sister, for she has won that place in the licarts of 
 many. I leave the gratulations to you. 
 
 Professor Guyot, of Princeton, says that progress in the 
 world is like the development of plant life. It has three 
 periods of growth. The first is that in the soil, — growth by 
 the root. The second is more accelerated, — growth by the 
 stem. The third is the most rapid of all, — growth by 
 the blossom and fruit. The world has been growing by 
 the root, obscurely, lingeringly, slowly. It is growing by the 
 stem now, very much faster. It is beginning to break into 
 the blossom and fruit, when progress will be wonderful 
 compared with our past experience in all other periods. 
 Other years have seen great changes, but men in this gen- 
 eration have seen changes begin and have seen their ripening 
 fruit. We are now living in that period of the world in 
 which you have a long time of former life compressed, and 
 men may see the beginning and end of a great movement. 
 I have always been glad that that noble man, Mr. Garrison, 
 lived to see the chains broken and the slaves go free. It 
 took only the golden middle part of his life to see the be- 
 ginning and the end, Mrs. Stowe, when a wife and mother, 
 established in life, began her part of this great work. She 
 yet numbers her years here, and their blossom is on her 
 head. It lingers long, and long may it linger before it falls. 
 She saw slavery intrenched in all the power of politics, in all 
 the power of government, in all thepower of commerce, and 
 with the benediction of a sham religion, at the time in which 
 she entered upon this career. And, behold, where is it to- 
 day ? It is in history only. Upon that black cloud which 
 rested over all the land has risen the Sun of righteousness. 
 In a short period have occurred these great changes, in 
 ways that no man would have predicted, no man would 
 have broug-ht about. It is God who has done it. 
 
 Of course you all sympathize with me to-day, but, stand- 
 ing in this place, I do not see your faces more clearly than 
 I see those of my father and my mother. Her I only knew 
 as a mere babe-child. He was my teacher and my com- 
 panion. A more guileless soul than he, a more honest one, 
 more free from envy, from jealousy, and from selfishness, I
 
 54 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 never knew. Though he thought he was great by his 
 theology, everybody else knew he was great by his religion. 
 My mother is to me what the Virgin Mary is to a devout 
 Catholic. She was a woman of great nature, profound as a 
 philosophical thinker, great in argument, with a kind of 
 intellectual imagination, diffident, not talkative, — in that 
 respect I take after her, — a woman who gave birth to Mrs. 
 Stowe, whose graces and excellencies she probably more 
 than any other of her children — we number but thirteen — 
 has possessed. I suppose that in bodily resemblance, per- 
 haps, she is not like my mother, but in mind I presume she 
 is most like her. 
 
 I thank you for my father's sake and for my mother's 
 sake for the courtesy, the friendliness, and the kindness 
 which you give to Mrs. Stowe. 
 
 MERCHANTS AND MINISTERS 
 
 [Speech of Henry Ward Beeclier, delivered in New York City, May 
 8, 1SS3, at the 115th annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of 
 the State of New Y^ork.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen Merchants: — It 
 may seem a little strange that, in one toast, two so very 
 dissimilar professions should be associated. I suppose 
 it is partly because one preaches and the other practises. 
 [Laughter.] There are very many functions that are per- 
 formed in common. Merchants are usually men forehanded ; 
 ministers are generally men empty-handed. [Laughter.] 
 Merchants form important pillars in the structure of the 
 Church. Ministers are appointed often to go forth to 
 councils and associations, and a delegate is always sent with 
 them. The object of the delegate is to keep the minister 
 sober and to pay his expenses. [Laughter.] They are a 
 very useful set of men in the Church. [Laughter.] But 
 there are some moral functions that they have in common. 
 It is the business of the minister to preach the truth. It is 
 the interest of the merchant to practise it. I hold that not 
 even the Church itself is more dependent upon fundamental
 
 MERCHANTS AND MINISTERS 55 
 
 moralities than is the whole commercial structure of the 
 world. [Cries of " That's so ! "J 
 
 There arc three great elements that arc fundamental 
 elements. Tliey are the same everywhere — among all 
 people and in every business — truth, honesty and fidelity, 
 [Applause.] And it is my mission to-night to say that, to 
 a very large extent, I fear the pulpit has somewhat forgotten 
 to make this the staple of preaching. It has been given too 
 largely, recently, from the force of education and philosophical 
 research, to discourse upon what are considered the " higiier " 
 topics — theology — against which I bring no charge. 
 [Laughter.] But theology itself, that is not based on the 
 profoundest morality, is an empty cloud that sails through 
 the summer air, leaving as much drought as it found. I 
 believe that there is a theology that pertains to the higher 
 experiences of the human soul. As profoundly as any man, 
 I believe in that. 
 
 To-day, I have been transplanting magnolia trees. I am 
 speaking to-night as the farmer of Westchester County. 
 [Laughter.] There is one that stands among the earliest 
 I planted, twenty years ago, and now it is a vast ball of 
 white. I suppose five hundred thousand magnificent cups 
 are exhaling thanksgiving to God after the long winter has 
 passed. Now, no man need tell me that the root that nestles 
 in the ground is as handsome or smells as sweet as these 
 vases in the air ; but I should like to know what would be- 
 come of all these white cups in the air, if the connection 
 between those dirt-covered roots and the blossoms should 
 be cut to-night. The root is the prime provider, and there 
 can be no life and no blossom where there is no root con- 
 nection. 
 
 Theology and all the rhetoric of preaching is well enough 
 in its place, provided there is a clean and clear passage from 
 all beauty, and all speculations, and all doctrine, down to 
 fundamental, common, practical moralities without doubt. 
 [Applause.] I hold, then, that it is the interest both of the 
 Church and the Store to see to it that truth is spoken, and 
 that honesty and equity prevail between man and man, 
 nation and nation, people and people, and that men .should 
 be worthy of trust all over the Avorld. [Applause.] 
 
 Speaking the truth is an artificial matter. [Laughter.]
 
 56 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 Men are no more born to speak the Cruth than they are to 
 fire rifles, and, indeed, it is a good dea. like that. It is only 
 now and then that a man can hit the bull's-eye, and a 
 great many can't hit the target at all. [Laughter.] Speak- 
 ing the truth requires that a man should know a little about 
 what is truth. It is not an easy thing to be a true man. 
 We part with our fancies and call them truth. We part 
 with our interests and call them truth. We part with our 
 consciences, more often, and call that truth. [Laughter.] 
 
 The reason why these are fundamental moralities, and 
 why they are so important to the commercial interests of 
 men is this: commerce dies the moment, and is sick in the 
 degree in which men cannot trust each other. [Applause.] 
 That is the case in the smallest community, and it is more 
 marked, the greater the magnitude of commercial enter- 
 prises. And it is one of the evidences that things are not 
 so far gone as some would have us suppose, that men are 
 willing to trust each other so largely in all parts of the 
 earth. If a man can invest his hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars on the ocean or in distant countries, where men can- 
 not understand the documents Vv'e write, it shows that there 
 is trust between man and man, buyers and sellers : and if 
 there is trust between them it is because experience has 
 created the probabilities of truthfulness in the actions of 
 men and all the concordant circumstances. If men did not 
 believe in the truth of men, they never would send to China, 
 Japan or Mexico their great properties and interests, with 
 no other guarantee than that the men are trustworthy. 
 The shipmaster must be trustworthy, the officers of the 
 government must be trustworthy, and that business goes 
 on and increases the world over is a silent testimony that, 
 bad as men do lie, they do not lie bad enough to separate 
 man from man. [Laughter.] 
 
 Now, I wish to call your attention to one unpleasant 
 state of affairs. It is not to me so very surprising that men 
 intrusted with large interests are found to be so breakable. 
 There is nothing in the make-up of a president that should 
 cause him to make off with the funds committed to his 
 management. There is nothing in being a cashier or director 
 that ought to rot out a man so that he snaps under tempta- 
 tion. I admit that all men are breakable. Men are like
 
 MERCHANTS AND MINISTERS 57 
 
 timber. Oak will bear a stress that pine won't, but there 
 never was a stick of timber on the earth that could not be 
 broken at some pressure. There never was a man born on 
 the earth that could not be broken at some pressure — not 
 always the same nor put in the same place. There is many 
 a man who cannot be broken by money pressure, but who 
 can be by pressure of flattery. There is many a man im- 
 pervious to flattery who is warped and biased by his social 
 inclinations. There is many a man whom you cannot tcmjjt 
 with red gold, but you can with dinners and convivialities. 
 One way or the other, every man is vincible. There is a 
 great deal of meaning in that simple portion of the Lord's 
 prayer, " Lead us not into temptation." 
 
 No man knows what he will do, according to the nature of 
 the temptation as adapted to the peculiar weakness of his 
 constitution. But this is that which is peculiar — that it 
 requires piety to be a rascal. [Laughter.] It would almost 
 seem as if a man had to serve as a superintendent of a Sun- 
 day School as a passport to Sing Sing. [Laughter.] How 
 is it that pious men are defrauding their wards? That lead- 
 ing men in the Church arc running oE with one hundred 
 thousand or two hundred thousand dollars? In other 
 words, it would seem as if religion were sim[)ly a cloak for 
 rascality and villainy. It is time for merchants and 
 ministers to stand together and take counsel on that sub- 
 ject. I say the time has come when wc have got to go 
 back to old-fashioned, plain talk in our pulpits on the sub- 
 ject of common moralit)-, until men shall think not so much 
 about Adam as about his posterity [applause], not so 
 much about the higher themes of theology, which are re- 
 garded too often as being the test of men's ability and the 
 orthodoxy and salvability of churches. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, in regard to what men think in the vast 
 realm of theology, where nobody knows anything about it, 
 does not make any difference. [Laughter.] A man may 
 speak and be lying, and not know it, when he had got up 
 overhead in the clouds. But on the ground, where man 
 meets man, where interests meet interests, where temptation 
 pursues every man, where earthly considerations — greed- 
 iness, selfishness, pride, all influencesare working together — 
 we need to have every man, once a week at any rate, in the
 
 58 HENRY WARD REECHER 
 
 church, and every day at home, cautioned on the subject of 
 the simple virtues of truth and honesty and fidelity ; and a 
 man that is, in these three respects, thoroughly educated, 
 and education has trained him so that he is invincible to all 
 the other temptations of life, has come not necessarily to be 
 a perfect man, because he is ignorant of all theology ; but 
 I say that, over all the theories of theology, I think that 
 education will lead more men to heaven than any high 
 Church theology, or any other kind that leaves that out. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 What, then, are we going to do ? It seems to me there 
 are three things that must be done. In the first place, the 
 household must do its work. The things that we learn from 
 our fathers and mothers we never forget, by whichever end 
 they enter. [Laughter.] They become incorporated into 
 our being, and become almost instincts, apparently. If we 
 have learned at home to love and honor the truth, until we 
 come to hate, as men hate filth, all lying, all double-tongued 
 business — if we get that firmly ingrained, we shall probably 
 carry that feeling to the end of life — and it is the most pre- 
 cious thread of life — provided we keep out of politics. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Next, it seems to me that this doctrine of truth, equity 
 and fidelity must form a much larger part and a much more 
 instructive part of the ministrations of the Church than it 
 does to-day. Wonder is a great many times expressed why 
 the churches are so thin, why men do not go to meeting. 
 The. churches are always popular when people hear some- 
 thing there that they want to hear — when they receive that 
 which gives them light, and food for thought, and incite- 
 ment in all the legitimate ways of life. There they will go 
 again and again. And if churches are supported on any 
 other ground, they are illegitimate. The Church should 
 feed the hungry soul. When men arc hungry and get what 
 they need, they go every day to get such food as that. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Next, there must be a public sentiment amoiig all honor- 
 able merchants which shall frown, without fear or favor, 
 upon all obliquity, upon everything in commerce, at home 
 or abroad, that is violative of truth, equity and fidelity. 
 [Applause.] These three qualities are indispensable to the
 
 MERCHANTS AND MINISTERS 50 
 
 prosperity of commerce. With them, with the stimuhis, 
 enterprise, opportunities and means that we have in our 
 hands, America can carry the world. [Applause.] But 
 without them, without these commercial under-strata in the 
 commerce of America, wc shall do just as foolishly as other 
 people liave done, and shall come to the same disasters in 
 the long run as they have come to. [Applause.] 
 
 So, then, gentlemen, this toast, " Ministers and Mer- 
 chants," is not so strange a combination after all. You are 
 the merchants and I am the minister, and I have preached 
 to you and you have sat still and heard the whole of it ; 
 and with this simple testimony, with this foundation laid 
 before you for your future prosperity, I have only to say, if 
 you have been accustomed to do what the Mosaic law 
 wisely forbids, you must not twine the hemp and the wool 
 to make a thread under the Mosaic economy. You, mer- 
 chants, must not twine lies and sagacity with your threads 
 in weaving, for every lie that is told in business is a rotten 
 thread in the fabric, and though it may look well when it first 
 comes out of the loom, there will always be a hole there, 
 first or last, when you come to wear it. [Applause.] No 
 gloss in dressing, no finishing in bargainor goods, no lie, if 
 it be an organic lie, no lie that runs through whole trades or 
 whole departments, has any sanity, safety or salvation in it. 
 A lie is bad from top to bottom, from beginning to end, and 
 so is cheating — except in umbrellas, slate-i)encils and such 
 things. [Laughter.] There is a little line drawn before you 
 come quite up to the dead line of actual transgression. 
 [Laughter.] When a young man swears he will teach a 
 whole system of doctrines faithfully; no one supposes he 
 means it, but he is excused because everybody knows that 
 he does not know what he is saying, and doesn't under- 
 stand. Of course, there is the lying of permission, as when 
 a lawyer says to a jury, in a bad case : "On my soul, gentle- 
 men of the jury, I believe my client to be an injured man." 
 We know he is lying; he knows it, and the jury know it, 
 and so it is not lying at all, really. [Laughter.] And 
 even when engineers make one estimate [glancing 
 humorously in the direction of the gentleman * who 
 
 * Hon. James S. T. Stranalian who had responded to the toast : "The Great 
 Bridge — the engmeering trinniph of the nhieteenth century."
 
 6o HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 had eulogized the bridge management] — but we pay up 
 another bill. [Prolonged laughter.] Leaving out these 
 matters, lies of courtesy, lies of ignorance, professional lies, 
 lawyers' lies, thelogians' lies — and they are good men 
 [laughter] — I come to common, vulgar lies, calico lies, 
 broadcloth lies, cotton lies, silk lies, and those most vermi- 
 nous and multitudinous lies of grocers. [Roars of laughter.] 
 Gentlemen, I have been requested to say a word or two 
 on monopoly. I wish, on my soul, th(;re were a few men 
 who had the monopoly of lying, and that they had it all to 
 themselves. [Applause.] And now I go back to my first 
 statement. The Church and tlie Store have a common bus- 
 iness before them, to lay the foundation of sound morality, 
 as a ground of temporal prosperity, to say nothing of any 
 otiier direction. The minister and the merchant have a 
 like interest. The minister forthe sake of God and human- 
 ity, and the merchant for his own sake, to see to it that, 
 more and more, in public sentiment, even in newspapers — . 
 which are perhaps as free as any other organs of life from 
 bias and mistake [laughter] — lying shall be placed in the 
 category of vermin. [Applause.] And so, with my bene- 
 diction, gentlemen, I will leave you to meditate on this 
 important topic. [vVpplause.] 
 
 HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 
 
 [Speech of Henry Ward Beecher at the I02d aaniversary dinner of the 
 Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York City, March 17, 1886. Joseph J. 
 O'Donoghue, President of the vSociety, was in the chair, and proposed the 
 toast " Ireland, " to which Mr. Beecher spoke.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — There is a great deal 
 more in this struggle in Ireland than lies on the face of it. 
 She is small in territory, but large in men and brains, and 
 Ireland to-day happens to be the object of universal at- 
 tention. She stands more nearly at the front than other 
 European nations. The human race is not forever to be 
 trodden down. Universal intelligence is drawing near. 
 The nations are closer together. Nothing can any longer 
 be done in a corner. The whole human family are under
 
 HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 6t 
 
 the influence of its most cnliglitened part. The wliole of 
 society is lifted when any part of it is aroused. All over 
 the world men have heard (iod's trumpet. The mass of 
 men at the bottom are coming;" up ; they are going to make 
 room for themselves. All the nations in Europe are feeling 
 the throes which come from the rising of the under 
 classes of men. [ Ai)plause.] A democratic representative 
 race is working in all the nations of Europe. I do not 
 blame the Nihilist. Oppression will drive men mad. 
 But we know how to make States that will stand, and not 
 merely stand still, but that will radiate, vitalize and il- 
 luminate the world. Liberty is catching ; the nations of 
 Europe have caught it, and we are bound to take an interest 
 in the fruit of our hands. 
 
 Imperial Great liritain ought to give Home Rule to 
 Ireland. God forljid that I shoidd say aught irreverential 
 of Great Britain. Her spirit has given more liberty to us 
 than she has retained herself. There can never be a transfer 
 of American institutions to Great Britain., unless there is a 
 corresponding change in the make-up of Great Britain itself. 
 I believe that Ireland will attain a step in advance, but it 
 will be only preparatory to another step. Great Britain is 
 not to be exempted from the change that is to overtake all 
 nations; monarchy and democracy cannot exist together, 
 [y\pplausc.] With I'arnell and Gladstone, I believe that 
 Ireland will attain an improved condition, but it does not 
 become Irishmen to tread under foot those, who like them- 
 selves, come here to make a living. Chir, men are chil- 
 dren of God also. From the East, I believe, is to come 
 a civilization that will yet make the nations of Europe 
 tremble. Ireland is not the only aspirant forlibert)-. May 
 the day come quickly when Great Britain will discover that 
 Irishmen are her stanchcst friends, and when Irishmen will 
 learn that Englishmen are their brothers. [Applause. J
 
 62 HENRY WARD REECHER 
 
 TRIBUTE TO IMUNKACSY 
 
 [Speech of Henry Ward I'eecher at a banquet given in honor of Mihaly 
 Munkacsy, by a number of Hungarians of New York City.November 23, 18S6. 
 Joseph PuHtzer, of the New York " World," presided. Previous to the speech 
 (jf Mr. Beeclier, M. Munkacsy spoke a few words in Frencli, wliicli were in- 
 terpreted by Carl Schurz as follows : " M. Munkacsy tells me that if he could 
 appreciate the language as readily as he can appreciate the terrapin and canvas- 
 back duck, he would speak to you himself. [Laughter.] He has found here a 
 development of the knowledge and the appreciation of art which has greatly 
 surprised him. He tells me, too, that what has struck him most forcibly is the 
 fact that when the future historian of art undertakes to set forth the progress 
 of art in this century, he will have to look not to the progress of art in Europe 
 but in America."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — I am very- 
 happy to be here this evcninp^ to join with you in the 
 appreciation of a distinguished stranger — that was, but is 
 never to be again — known all over the world, but only to a 
 few in this land. Hereafter we shall consider him, if not 
 an American citizen, yet a citizen of America by a higher 
 tie than any political tic. lie is a citizen of the world. 
 He belongs to every nation that has any appreciation of 
 the refinement of art. Painting is the conveyance of 
 thought and feeling by color and by form. Words do the 
 same with form and without color, but all painting that 
 is simply form and color without any thought and deep 
 feeling behind it is not artistic work but artisan work. 
 
 I am very glad to be here, because we have in our guest a 
 man who has sVt his art far above the frivolities of art. He 
 has not set out to tickle our fancy ; he has seized life by its 
 very highest elements, and speaks to us through his canvas 
 in our deepest moods and our most pious aspirations. He 
 is not, therefore, a mere mechanical artist, but he is an artist 
 because he is a man of jM-ofound moral convictions. He 
 comes to us from the land of song, of art and of heroes. 
 He comes from the land of the great Louis Kossuth. 
 [Applause.] It is a memory I cherish, and have a right to 
 cherish, that Plymouth Church was the first that was opened 
 to raise funds for him in his sacred mission. When that 
 great audience had contributed five thousand ilollars for him, 
 profoundly affected as he was, he threw his arms aiound
 
 TlilBUTE TO MUNKACSY 63 
 
 me, and kissed me on both checks, and I saitl : " After 
 this, no man can honor me." I would to God that 
 the same facihties of speech which Kossuth had, had also 
 been given to our distinguished guest ; for if he had the 
 same gift of language that he has of pictorial art, he would 
 have transported us with his eloquence. [Great apj)lause.] 
 I marvel that our Government did not make him pay 
 duty when he came here. You cannot bring in a picture 
 without paying duty on it. Why don't they collect a tariff 
 on ministers? [Laughter.] They let them come in free. 
 [Renewed laughter.]
 
 TUNIS GARRETT BERGEN 
 
 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW NETHERLANDS 
 
 [Speech of Tunis G. Bergen at the tenth annual dinner of the II 
 nd Society of New York, January 29, 1895. The l*resident, Wan 
 
 [lol- 
 land Society of New York, January 29, 1895. The l^resident, Warner 
 Van Norden, occupied the chair, an.d called upon Mr. Bergen to speak 
 to the toast : " The First Settlers of New Netherlands ; worthy scions of 
 the Batavian stock." " The next speaker," said the Chairman, " is a fel- 
 low-nieniber of our Society, whom we always delight to hear, and one 
 whom we are soon to welcome also as a fellow-citizen, coming as he does 
 from that part of ovir city of New York, latel}- called Brookhm. [Laugh- 
 ter.] It also gives me pleasure to announce a fact which was made 
 public to-day, and that is, that the Governor of our State has appointed 
 him one of the State Commissioners of Charities luider the new Consti- 
 tution. [Applause.] I beg to introduce to you— indeed he needs no 
 introduction, for j-ou all know him as well as I — the Hon. Tunis G. 
 Bergen."] 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow-Dutchmen of Ameri- 
 can Descent: — [Laughter.] After refusing about six or 
 seven times, I found the Committee kept on printing my 
 name as responding to some toast or other. I consider that 
 the Committee are about the Dutchest of the Dutch, and 
 hence I find myself here to-night on the programme. The 
 toast, however, to which I have been called to respond, I 
 would state, is not a milk toast [laughter], and since it is a 
 hard toast for me, I will ask you to put the butter on and 
 help me out. [Laughter.] 
 
 It is not a hard task to introduce you to your sires, the 
 first Americans ; but the pencil of caricature and the pen of 
 writers, more or less distinguished, have exhausted their 
 wit and humor in so depicting the personal qualities of the 
 first settlers, that it is high time that at a Dutch dinner the 
 light of truth should be shown. ["Hear! Hear!"] The 
 trouble about these humorists — chiefl\' tlic New England 
 
 64
 
 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW NETHERLANDS 65 
 
 historians who write our school-books | l.iughtcr]— who of 
 course are careful not to omit New England in the history 
 of the progress of America [laughtcrj— has been when they 
 considered the characters of the first settlers of New Nether- 
 land, that they were confused by the costumes of the New 
 Netherlanders. Now, you know that Holland, in the 
 seventeenth and in the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
 was the country, the only country, of fine woolens and fine 
 linens. The weavers of Holland were famous. You re- 
 member in the time of Queen Elizabeth that whenever they 
 had a tablecloth (which I believe was only in the palace), 
 or a napkin (and the Dutch called it a doylic — it is a fash- 
 ionable word to-day) or anything in the way of fine linen, 
 they always called it "Hollands," because Holland was the 
 only country that had fine linen at that period. As a mat- 
 ter of fact, at that time Hollanders were the only people 
 who wore good underclothing. [Great laughter.] In the 
 seventeenth century, gentlemen, outside of Holland there 
 was not a night-shirt. [Renewed laughter.] That is an 
 historic fact. And outside of Holland there were no — 
 what shall I say when I speak of women ?— there were no 
 robes de unit. [Laughter.] You will pardon the French at 
 a Dutch dinner, but the Dutch is too accurate. [Renewed 
 laughter.] 
 
 You remember the stately chronicler of England, when 
 he speaks of the way that the virgin Queen Elizabeth of 
 England retired with her maids of honor. Of course you 
 do, and as descendants of your modest sires you cannot ask 
 me to tell the story. [Renewed laughter. " Go on, go on."] 
 There is a man from the Rondout who says " Go on." 
 [Great laughter and applause.] I am Dutch enough to go 
 on. It is said in the stately language of the ancient chron- 
 iclers, that when the Queen of England — and in the pres- 
 ence of the representative of the St. George Society I 
 shall allude to her as Her Majesty — retired, or, as we should 
 say in Dutch, was put to bed [great laughter], she was 
 simply laid between the feather beds in a state of nature. 
 [Renewed laughter.] There was not a linen toilet in the 
 civilization of Europe, outside of the civilization of Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Now, think of the sneers of the nations whom the Dutch
 
 66 TUNIS GARRETT BERGEN 
 
 had excelled (that includes all the nations except the 
 Dutch) in arms and in commerce, in industry and in art — • 
 when they spoke of little Holland. They alluded to her as 
 a little country, simply scooped uj) out of the sand, in which 
 men did not live, but went on board [great laughter] ; and 
 when the sea broke in on them, the country simply sprung 
 a leak. [Renewed laughter.] It was the same jealous peo- 
 ple who, looking upon the costumes, the rich costumes of 
 the first settlers of New Netherlands (and you know what 
 costumes the first settlers, wore : those long and roomy 
 waistcoats, made of the best Dutch material, and those ca- 
 pacious breeches, the envy of the outer world, and now 
 called knickerbockers), said in their vulgar, sneering way, 
 that the first settlers were built like their ships [laughter], 
 broad in the bow and high in the stern. [Great laughter.] 
 But you might as well, gentlemen, attempt to determine 
 the character of the woman of fashion to-day by the size of 
 her sleeves. [Laughter.] The first settlers simply wore 
 their big sleeves on their legs. [Great laughter,] 
 
 But if you wish to know what the first settlers looked 
 like, enter the galleries of Holland, the land of portraits, 
 and there you will see the figures and the portraits of the 
 contemporaries of our first settlers and some of the portraits 
 of themselves. From that group of the four brothers of 
 William of Orange, men of noble heads, with eyes that 
 seem to pierce the future, every one of whom filled a hero's 
 grave, down to the civic guards, the students at the hospital, 
 the soldiers in battle and the sailors on the decks, you will 
 see the men of broad brows and fine features, handsome 
 men, with minds of breadth and wills of iron and hearts of 
 truth — the moral and intellectual athletes of the modern 
 world ! [Great applause. " Hear ! Hear ! "] 
 
 There is another reason, however, why a distorted view 
 has been taken of the first settler of New Netherlands, and 
 that is because of his language. Although the first settlers 
 came from a land where every man could read and write, 
 and where public schools had been in existence for two 
 generations before they landed, still it was the sneer of the 
 Spaniard and the Englishman of those days that because 
 the Dutch did not speak English or Spanish fluently they 
 must be ignorant or illiterate. And that gave another dis-
 
 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW XETHKRLAXDS 67 
 
 torted view of the first settlers. Of course you all speak 
 Dutch [laughter], at least, if you only speak French at the 
 soup, you speak Dutch at the dessert, and the longer you 
 stay the better is the Dutch. Besides, in moments of high 
 inspiration, we descendants of the first settlers speak the 
 ancient Dutch with great freedom. I remember a few years 
 ago when I was on a trout-fishing excursion in that part of 
 our State where Dutch names abound, where many of the 
 mountains are bergs and where all the streams are kills, 
 worn out and hungry and thirsty I reached a house, and 
 before a blazing fireplace glowing with Dutch hospitality I 
 found a group of men, — fishermen, tired, hungry, and thirsty 
 like myself, whom by their handsome countenances I knew 
 to be descendants of the first settlers of New Netherlands. 
 [" A sure sign."] It is a sure sign, some one says, and I 
 may say, in looking upon you, that if you have not brought 
 with you your certificates of membership I would know you 
 were descendants of the early settlers. [Great laughter.] 
 But on approaching these gentlemen at the fireplace, I 
 naturally addressed them in the words of the ancient tongue 
 and they responded and rose as one man and drank the 
 health of the first settlers of New Ncthcrland. My words 
 were simply those seductive but eloquent words: "Mijne 
 Heeren, schnaps ! " [Great laughter and applause.] 
 
 There is another subject to which, even in the presence 
 of the President of the Colonial Wars Society — and there 
 was no peace, I suppose, in Colonial times — I may venture 
 to allude. I refer to the purchase of Manhattan Island. It 
 has been said by the flippant historians of to-day that the 
 price paid for Manhattan Island by the Dutch was very 
 trifling, and that it showed that the Dutch were very shrewd 
 and the poor Indian was deceived. The later historians 
 have affected to say, in their petty way, that the articles 
 which the Dutch g^ve for Manhattan Island, consisting of 
 so many steel knives and steel needles and other metal ar- 
 ticles, and beads, were an inadequate price for the island. 
 Now, the question is, What was Manhattan Island worth at 
 that time? What was the Indian point of view ? 
 
 What was Manhattan Island ? The Indian had vast pos- 
 sessions, bounded by the ocean on the east and the setting 
 sun on the west — hunting grounds galore ! What was Man-
 
 68 TUNIS GARRETT BERGEN 
 
 hattan Island ? It was a mass of rocks. There was not a 
 feeding ground for deer on it ; the soil was too poor. 
 There was not a spawning ground for fish on it ; the tides 
 were too swift. It abounded in swamps, and the few streams 
 that meandered through the rocks were so shallow and slug- 
 gish that even the beavers thought they were not worth a 
 dam. [Laughter.] Of course, other damns came later, but 
 not beaver dams. Now, the Indians were shrewd traders 
 and no mean financiers. Think of the currency of the 
 Indians of the North American Continent. Beaver skins 
 and wampum ! It was never inflated, and when anybody 
 attempted to palm off an old moth-eaten beaver skin for a 
 good beaver skin, the Indians simply said : " Bad beaver 
 skin ; no good." And when bad wampum was offered him 
 he simply said : " Heap bad shells ; no good." You could 
 not redeem their good wampum and their good beaver skins 
 with bad wampum or bad beaver skins. They always main- 
 tained the value of their currency [laughter], and they 
 never were obliged in times of peace to issue bonds in order 
 to borrow wampum to carry on the government. They 
 simply changed the governments [cheers and laughter] ; 
 that is, changed the governments from one place to another 
 [renewed laughter], but always maintained the value of 
 wampum. So that the candid historian of to-day who con- 
 siders the transaction of the purchase of Manhattan Island 
 will say that because of the shrewdness and financial ability 
 of tlie Indians, and the generosity or indifTerence of the 
 Dutch, the price paid for Manhattan Island was about five 
 knives too much. [Laughter.] Of course, since then, land 
 has become dearer and knives have become cheaper and 
 more abundant. [Laughter.] But still there have been 
 times when knives were not so abundant ; for example, at 
 the last election, when there were not enough knives to go 
 round. [Great laughter.] 
 
 Think of the country, my brothers, which the first settlers 
 founded ! The richest domain in the temperate zone ! 
 Beginning at the ocean, where a mighty river empties with 
 two magnificent bays, it extends and covers an area of 
 hundreds of square miles, over the timbered mountains, the 
 fertile valleys, the well-watered plains, including that neck- 
 lace of lakes where the five nations of the Indians lived, to
 
 THE FIRST SICTTLERS OF NEW NETlIlORIwW'I )S ()() 
 
 the shores of the monster frcsli-watcr seas on the north 
 and the plains of the unknown on the west. It was the hind 
 where nature built the throne of Western civilization ! To- 
 day the bones of those first settlers have long ago mingled 
 with the dust. All honor to their graves ! They adorn the 
 land of New Netherlands from the shores of Long Island, 
 the hills of New Jersey, the valley of the Hudson, the 
 banks of the Rondout, the slopes of Fort Orange, to the 
 sources of the Mohawk. Emblems are they of courage and 
 endurance, of enterprise and industry, of immortal faith and 
 freedom. 
 
 When the piratical capture of New Netherlands in a time 
 of peace by the English fleet took place (and there were 
 more cannon on the English vessels than there were 
 soldiers on the shore), and the flag of the Netherlands was 
 reluctantly hauled down, it was tlic flag of a Republic that 
 trailed in the dust. [Applause.] Then began the long and 
 narrow Colonial sway of the English kings, which lasted for 
 a hundred years. But the indomitable spirit of the Dutch 
 was not dead. The lessons of freedom — in Church and 
 State — which the Netherlanders gave were being learned 
 by the peoples of the world. For behold, when the hun- 
 dred years were over and the new American Republic 
 appeared upon the stage, its declaration of independence 
 contained the same sentiments and many of the same 
 phrases, translated from the good old Dutch of that older 
 declaration of independence of the Union of Utrecht two 
 hundred years before [applause], and the Federal Constitu- 
 tion of the New Republic took as its guide and model the 
 Constitution of that older Republic across the sea. And 
 lo and behold ! when the standard of the new Republic 
 was raised to the flagstaff, the red, white and blue of the 
 flag of the United States of the Netherlands were the only 
 colors in the flag of the United States of America. [Great 
 applause.]
 
 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 
 
 THE REPUBLIC THAT NEVER RETREATS 
 
 [Speech of Senator Albert J. Beveridge delivered at a banquet of the 
 I'nion League Club, Philadelphia, Penn., February 15, 1S99. The Presi- 
 dent of the Club occupied the chair.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — The Republic 
 never retreats. Why should it retreat ? The Republic is 
 the highest form of civilization, and civilization must 
 advance. The Republic's young men are the most virile 
 and unwasted in the world, and they pant for enter- 
 prise worthy of their power. The Republic's preparation 
 has been the self-discipline of a century, and that prepared- 
 ness has found its task. The Republic's opportunity is as 
 noble as its strength, and that opportunity is here. The 
 Republic's duty is as sacred as its opportunity is real, and 
 Americans never desert their duty. 
 
 The Republic could not retreat if it would. Whatever its 
 destiny it must proceed. For the American Republic is a 
 part of the movement of a race — the most masterful race of 
 history — and race movements are not to be stayed by the 
 hand of man. They are mighty answers to divine commands. 
 
 What is England's glory? England's immortal glory is 
 not Agincourt or Waterloo. It is not her merchandise or 
 commerce. It is Australia, New Zealand, and Africa re- 
 claimed. It is India redeemed. It is Egypt, mummy of the 
 nations, touched into modern life. 
 
 England's imperishable renown is in English science throt- 
 tling the plague in Calcutta, English law administering order 
 in Bombay, English energy planting an industrial civilization 
 from Cairo to the cape, and English discipline creating sol- 
 diers, men, and finally citizens, perhaps, even out of the 
 fellaheen of the dead land of the Pharaohs, And yet the 
 
 70
 
 THE REPUBLIC THAT NEVER RETREATS 7 1 
 
 liberties of Englishmen were never so secure as now. And 
 that which is England's undying fame has also been her 
 infinite profit, so sure is duty golden in the cui\. 
 
 The dominant notes in American history have thus far 
 been self-government and internal improvements, liut these 
 were not ends ; they were means. They were modes of 
 preparation. The dominant notes in American life hence- 
 forth will be, not onlj^ self-government and internal develoj)- 
 ment, but also administration and world improvement. 
 
 The future of Cuba is to be worked out by the wisdom of 
 events. Ultimately annexation is as certain as that island's 
 existence. Even if Cubans are capable of self-government, 
 every interest points to union. We and they may blunder 
 forward and timidly try devices of doubt. ]^ut in the end 
 Jefferson's desire will be fulfilled, and Cuba will be a part of 
 the great republic. 
 
 The Philippines are ours forever. Let faint hearts anoint 
 their fears with the thought that some day American admin- 
 istration and American duty there may end. But they never 
 will end. England's occupation of Egypt was to be tem- 
 porary ; but events, which are the commands of God, are 
 making it permanent. And now God has given us this Paci- 
 fic empire for civilized administration. The first office of 
 the administration is order. Order must be established 
 throughout the archipelago. 
 
 Rebellion against the authority of the flag must be crushed 
 without delay, for hesitation encourages revolt, and without 
 anger, for the turbulent children know not what they do. 
 And then civilization must be organized, administered and 
 maintained. Law and justice must rule where savages, 
 tyranny and caprice have rioted. The people must be taught 
 the art of orderly and continuous industry. 
 
 The frail of faith declare that those peoples are not fitted 
 for citizenship. It is not proposed to make them citizens. 
 Those who see disaster in every forward step of the republic 
 prophesy that cheap labor from the Philippines will overrun 
 our country and starve our workingmen. But the Javanese 
 have not so overrun Holland. New Zealand's Malays, Aus- 
 tralia's bushmen, Africa's Kaffirs, Zulus and Hottentots, and 
 India's millions of surplus labor have not so overrun England. 
 
 Those who measure duty by dollars cry out at the expense.
 
 72 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 
 
 When did America ever count the cost of righteousness ? 
 And, besides, this RepubHc must have a mighty navy in any 
 event. And new markets secured, new enterprises opened, 
 new resources in timber, mines and products of the tropics 
 acquired, and the vitalization of all our industries which will 
 follow, will pay back a thousandfold all the government 
 spends in discharging the highest duty to which the Republic 
 may be called. 
 
 Tiie blood already shed is but a drop to that which would 
 flow if America should desert its post in the Pacific. And 
 the blood already spilled was poured out upon the altar of 
 the world's regeneration. Manila is as noble as Omdurman, 
 and both are holier than Jericho. Retreat from the Philip- 
 pines on any pretext would be the master cowardice of his- 
 tory. It would be the betrayal of a trust as sacred as hu- 
 manity. It would be a crime against Christian civilization, 
 and would mark the beginning of the decadence of our race. 
 And so, thank God, the Republic never retreats. 
 
 Imperialism is not the word for our vast work. Imperi- 
 alism, as used by the opposers of national greatness, means 
 oppression, and we oppress not. Imperialism, as used by 
 the opposers of national destiny, means monarchy, and the 
 days of monarchy are spent. Imperialism, as used by the 
 opposers of national progress, is a word to frighten the faint 
 of heart, and so is powerless with the fearless American 
 people. 
 
 The Republic never retreats. Its flag is the only flag that 
 has never known defeat. Where that flag leads we follow, 
 for we know that the hand that bears it onward is the un- 
 seen hand of God. We follow the flag and independence is 
 ours. We follow the flag and nationality is ours. We follow 
 the flag and oceans are ruled. We follow the flag, and in 
 Occident and Orient tyranny falls and barbarism is subdued. 
 
 We followed the flag at Trenton and Valley Forge, at 
 Saratoga and upon the crimson seas, at Buena Vista and 
 Chapultepec, at Gettysburg and Mission ridge, at Santiago 
 and Manila, and everywhere and always it means larger 
 liberty, nobler opportunity, and greater human happiness ; 
 for everywhere and always it means the blessings of the 
 greater Republic. And so God leads, we follow the flag, and 
 the Republic never retreats.
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE JJLAINE 
 Pholograimre after a photograph from life

 
 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE 
 
 OUR MERCHANT MARINE 
 
 [Speech of James Gillespie Blaine at the iiitli annual banquet of the 
 Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, May 15, 1S79. Mr. 
 Blaine responded impromptu to the toast : " Steam Mail I^ines ; the keys 
 with whicli wise statesmen open foreign ports to maritime commerce."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — I rise only to get out of the way, in 
 order that this procession may go forward. [Laughter.] I 
 am a mere chance comer — a disturber of the programme — 
 but I do not intend to be made the butt of either the flat- 
 tery or the wit of the last speaker. [Laughter.] When, 
 however, I come to read this toast, I really do not know 
 exactly at what it is aimed. If it is aimed at mc, it is to 
 congratulate me on failure, and not on a success. If it be 
 a confession, on the part of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 that it is their creed, then it is the beginning of the end of 
 the victory to come [laughter and applause] ; because, if I 
 speak the voice of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, 
 in that toast, I know that I speak with a voice far mightier 
 than any that has been raised in Congress, and I have it to 
 declare, that if it be the will of that Chamber, ami of the 
 people, to initiate a policy for the revival of American com- 
 merce, then it is done ! [Applause.] 
 
 But you will permit me to say, speaking as an outsider, 
 to the Chamber of Commerce, and coming as I do from a 
 commercial State, that commerce as well as religion needs 
 a revival in this country. [Laughter.] Every other interest 
 in this country for the last fifteen years, — even including the 
 year 1866-67, a year of doubt and depression — has been 
 gathering strength, and is ready to march forward to victory, 
 save only the commerce of the nation. [The Rev. Dr. 
 
 73
 
 74 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE 
 
 Bellows: "And religion."] My dear friend, Dr. Bellows, 
 suggests religion also. [Laughter.] 
 
 Now I suppose that figures are familiar to you, gentlemen, 
 but the figures of American commerce in its decline are 
 startling. Twenty years ago, of the tonnage engaged in 
 the foreign trade of the United States, fully three-fourths 
 was American tonnage. Of the tonnage engaged in the 
 foreign trade of the United States to-day, not one-fourth 
 is American. In 1856-57, Great Britain, the leading com- 
 mercial nation of the world, had only 950,000 tons engaged 
 in trade between the United States and that kingdom. She 
 has 5,200,000 tons now. Germany then had but iG6,ooo 
 tons ; this last year she had 950,000 tons. Norway and 
 Sweden, twenty years ago, had in trade between this 
 country and their own but 20,000 tons ; last year the 
 reports show that she had 850,000 tons. Even Austria, 
 penned up with a limited seaboard as she is, had in com- 
 merce with us, twenty years ago, not a vessel of her own ; 
 but last year she had not less than 220,000 tons. And I 
 might go on thus through the whole list. [Applause.] 
 
 In this mighty increase of commerce, from 4,400,000 to 
 over 11,000,000 tons in a single year, the United States has 
 gone backward, and all the vast profit of this trade has gone 
 into the coffers of other nations. [Applause.] Let me ask 
 of you here, what other interests have gone backward in 
 that period ? Have manufactures ? They have outstripped 
 imagination. Has agriculture ? Why, it has gone ahead of 
 every possible calculation. Mas internal commerce? Why, 
 it has increased from thirty thousand to sixty-eight thousand 
 miles of railroad. The Government of the United States, be- 
 sides giving sixty millions in money, has given to internal 
 commerce over 200,000,000 acres of the public domain, — 
 more than New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
 Maryland combined. And meantime she has protected, by 
 tariff, every article that the American artisan and the Amer- 
 ican capitalist would invest in the manufacture of. [Ap- 
 plause.] ]>ut, for the foreign commerce of this country 
 what lias she done? Left it to the alien and the stranger; 
 and in the last ten years, the value of the products carried 
 between this country and foreign countries has exceeded 
 eleven thousand millions of dollars a year, out of the carry-
 
 OUR mp:rciiant marine 75 
 
 ing of which somebody has made $i 10,000,000 per annum — 
 a sum far larger than the interest of the pubHc debt. [Ap- 
 plause.] And who has made this money ? France, Eng- 
 land, Germany — everybody, excepting the United States. 
 Think of it ! $110,000,000, in gold coin has gone out of tlic 
 commerce of this country into the commerce of other coun- 
 tries. Can New York stand this ? Can this great port sus- 
 tain such a loss as this, with all her unbounded advantages 
 of position and of resources, and with the magnificent con- 
 tinental commerce that stands behind her? 
 
 I say, gentlemen, that if the carrying trade of this country, 
 aggi'egating $110,000,000, is permanently turned from us, 
 then the question of specie payments becomes one of far 
 more complicated difficulty than it is to-day ; and the only 
 way to make that ([uestion easier of solution is to turn that 
 current of gold from these coffers into our own. [Applause.] 
 I said just now that I come from a commercial State; but 
 our State is a State that flourishes with fleets of sailing- 
 
 o 
 
 ships, and the day of sailing-vessels in commerce is over. 
 The North Atlantic commerce is in the hands of the steam- 
 ships to-day, and of this your own commerce, from your own 
 port of New York, represents at least 2,000 vessels of 1,000 
 tons each, and it is all in the hands of Europeans. 
 
 An old ship-captain was once telling me of the value of 
 commerce. He was one of those wise, thrifty captains of 
 the old time, who owned a share of his vessel himself, and 
 some of you, doubtless, have met a few of his class. He 
 said : " People do not understand this commercial question. 
 I once took a load of coal from Cardiff to Valparaiso, and I 
 got considerably more for carrying it than the coal was 
 worth. Then I took back to England a cargo of guano 
 from the Chinchas, and I was paid more for carrying it than 
 the cargo was worth ; and so I made more out of the wind 
 and the waves than these merchants do, with all their risk 
 and shrewdness." And that is what commerce does. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 But, since that time, great changes have taken place in 
 the methods of commerce, and great changes are going oil 
 to-day. Lord Beaconsfield has said, that in the last ten 
 years, the loss to landed estates in Great Britain has 
 amounted to eight million pounds sterling. Now this great
 
 76 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE 
 
 loss is easily accounted for, if we look for it. It is a result 
 of the progress made in the means and facilities of cheap 
 transportation. To-day you can put a barrel of flour or a 
 bushel of wheat from Chicago into Liverpool at a cheaper 
 rate than you could bring it ten years ago from Buffalo to 
 New York. With this cheap rate for freights, therefore, the 
 great landed estates of England, that are rented at two 
 pounds to two pounds ten shillings per acre, cannot pretend 
 to compete with products that are raised on lands, the fee- 
 simple of which is not half as much as the annual of the 
 English lands. [Applause.] 
 
 In view of these facts, I say we are destined to feed the 
 world, because we can do it cheaper than anybody else can 
 do it. [Applause.] We are, in fact, doing that to-day, and 
 yet we are weakly losing the opportunity to reap these vast 
 profits that come from the carrying trade of our products. 
 There is no reason why this should be so. There are per- 
 sons here, I dare say, that can remember when " Clinton's 
 ditch " [the Erie Canal] had the water let into it. Nobody 
 appears willing, I see, to acknowledge such antiquity! [A 
 voice: "Yes, yes; here."] Well, you all probably have 
 heard of it. [Laughter.] Why, the tonnage from New York 
 to Buffalo was eighty-five dollars a ton the year before that 
 "ditch" was opened, but it fell to nine dollars a ton the year 
 afterward. That was considered a marvel, and yet that 
 is more than it is to-day from the far Northwest, from Min- 
 neapolis to the principal ports of Europe. 
 
 There is nothing that we have not done in this country 
 to encourage railroad building. We have gone wild on 
 that ! [Laughter.] We have built them where they were 
 needed, and we have built them where they were not needed. 
 We have built those that paid well, with much doubt and 
 blind distrust ; and we have rushed with blind confidence 
 into building roads that, after they were built, did not pay a 
 penny. In this multiplication of lines of transportation, we 
 have brought all our vast national products to the seaboard, 
 and think that that is to be the end of the line. We have 
 reaped the profits of it so far, and then are willing to let 
 foreigners have the rest of it. Why, it is one continuous 
 route from Chicago to Liverpool; but we take i,ooo miles 
 and give 3,000 m.iles to the foreigner, and that is the way
 
 OUR MERCHANT MARINE 77 
 
 we are dividing our carrying-trade. Why should \vc not 
 carry it across the sea, if they can make a profit in doing it ? 
 [^Applause.] 
 
 As I said at the outset of my somewhat rambling remarks, 
 if you had addressed this toast to me, it is to remind me 
 that all my adjurations and declarations up to this time on 
 this subject have been futile. If you intend it as a declara- 
 tion of the Chamber of Commerce, that its influence and its 
 resources and the influences of the vast forces of our coun- 
 try are to be used in the effort for a revival of the maritime 
 commerce, you may consider the thing as accomplished. 
 " If it is possible, it is done already ; if it is impossible, you 
 will see that it is done." You can apply the Tallej-rand 
 motto to this question. Vo?^. can do it, and no other power 
 in this country can do it. [Applause.] I am not here, of 
 course, to invoke any controversy on this matter, but I am 
 here to say that, thus far, so far as our legislation is con- 
 cerned, the influence of New York has not been felt in that 
 direction. When you get ready to exert it, let us hear from 
 you by telegraph. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 When the old lady was training her son for the trapeze, 
 the boy made three or four rather ineffectual efforts to get 
 over the bar. Then she was heard to suggest : " John 
 Henry Hobbs, if you will just throw your heart over the 
 bars, your body will follow." [Laughter.] And so it is 
 with you. If New York will throw her heart into this 
 matter, the rest will follow, and then Ave shall have com- 
 merce and manufacturing and agricultural interests of our 
 country going forward hand-in-hand, as they should go, 
 supporting each other. [Loud applause.] 
 
 I know that there is a difference of opinion as to the 
 means by which this is to be accomplished. One man says : 
 " Tear down your navigation laws, and let us have free ships." 
 Now, I am opposed to that, because that does not tend to 
 build up American commerce. I do not believe in false 
 trade-marks. I do not believe that buying a British ship 
 and calling her an American ship makes her an American 
 ship. [Applause.] I believe that, this very day and hour, 
 every single article that goes into the manufacture of a ship 
 can be produced and made as well here as in any spot on 
 this earth. Take a five hundred thousand dollar ship re-
 
 78 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE 
 
 presenting a tonnage of, say, three thousand five hundred 
 tons. Five thousand dollars represents the cost of the or- 
 iginal raw material, and four hundred and ninety-five thou- 
 sand dollars represents the value of the labor and skill to be 
 put on those materials by American hands. I say that I 
 am opposed to paying that four hundred and ninety-five 
 thousand dollars outside of this country. [Applause.] 
 
 Just so long as this country fails to become, or delays its 
 arrival at the position of a great and triumphant commer- 
 cial nation, just so long it is defeating the ends of Provi- 
 dence. [Applause.] We have seventeen thousand miles 
 of coast-line looking toward Europe, Asia and Africa, 
 giving us a larger sea frontage than all Europe, beginning 
 at Archangel and running to the Pillars of Hercules and 
 beyond them to the gates of Trebizond. Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson has said that England was great because she had 
 the best business-stand on the globe. That was perhaps 
 once true, but it is true no longer. To-day the best busi- 
 ness-stand is changed, and it is to be found in the United 
 States ; and your great imperial city, with its matchless 
 commercial connections and position, and its magnificent 
 harbor, is destined to be, under the enterprise and guidance 
 of its merchants, what London has dreamed of, but never 
 yet has realized. [Loud applause.!
 
 PAUL BLOUET 
 
 (MAX O'REIvL) 
 
 MONSIEUR AND MADAME 
 
 [Speech of Paul Blouet [Max O'Rell] at Ihc aiimuil Ladies' Banquet of 
 the Whitefriar's Chib, Loudon, Knji^dand, Ma}' 4, 1900. Max O'Rell 
 acted as toast-master, and delivered the followinj:,^ s])cech in respondinj^ 
 to the remarks of vSarah Grand, who hail spoken to the tuast, of " Mere 
 Man."] 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: — I feel somewhat jealous 
 of my brother, Friar Austin, to-night, lie had to propose 
 an easy toast. I think I could have attempted the praise of 
 woman, whose name I cannot hear without wanting to take 
 off my hat. I have to attempt the praise of man, and I do 
 not feel equal to it. I have half a mind to let the case go 
 against him, but I consider Madame Sarah Grand has let us 
 off pretty easy. Wel4, avc are not quite so bad as we are 
 painted sometimes. I believe half the lies that arc told 
 about men are not true. [Laughter.] Wc are in the habit 
 of running ourselves down, to summon women to our help, 
 but we do not believe a word of it. We are very mucli like 
 those English people who at church call themselves miserable 
 sinners, and who would knock down on the spot any one who 
 would take them at their word on coming out of church. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Now, the attitude of men towards women is very different, 
 according to the different nations to which they belong. 
 You will find a good illustration of that different attitude of 
 men towards women in France, in England, and in America, 
 if you go to the dining-rooms of their iiotels. You go to the 
 dining-room, and you take, if you can, a seat near the en- 
 trance door, and you watch the arrival of the couples, and 
 
 79
 
 8o PAUL BLOUET 
 
 also watch them as they cross the room and go to the table 
 that is assigned to them by the head waiter. Now, in Eu- 
 rope, you would find a very polite head waiter, who invites 
 you to go in, and asks you where you will sit, but in Amer- 
 ica the head waiter is a most magnificent potentate who lies 
 in w^ait for you at the door, and bids you to follow him 
 sometimes in the following respectful manner beckoning, 
 " There." [Laughter.] And you have got to do it, too. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 I travelled six times in America, and I never saw a man 
 so daring as not to sit there. [Laughter.] In the tremen- 
 dous hotels of the large cities, where you have to go to 
 number 992 or something of the sort, I generally got a little 
 entertainment out of the head waiter. He is so thoroughly 
 persuaded that it would never enter my head not to follow 
 him he will never look round to see if I am there. Why, 
 he knows I am there, but I'm not. [Laughter.] I wait my 
 time, and when he has got to the end I am sitting down 
 waiting for a chance to be left alone. He says: "You cannot 
 sit here." I say : " Why not ? What is the matter with this 
 seat?" He says : " You must not sit there." I say: "I 
 don't want a constitutional walk ; don't bother, I'm all right." 
 Once, indeed, after an article in the " North American 
 Review " — for your head waiter in America reads reviews — a 
 head waiter told me to sit where I pleased. I said : " Now, 
 wait a minute, give me time to realize that ; do I understand 
 that in this hotel I am going to sit where I like ?" He said : 
 •'Certainly!" He was in earnest. I said : " I should like to 
 sit over there at that table near the window." He said : 
 " All right, come with me." When I came out there were 
 some newspaper people in the hotel waiting for me, and it 
 was reported in half a column in one of the papers, with one 
 of those charming headlines which are so characteristic of 
 American journalism, " Max sits where he likes ! " [Laugh- 
 ter.] Well, I said, you go to the dining-room, you take your 
 seat, and you watch the arrival of the couples, and you will 
 know the position of men. In France Monsieur and Ma- 
 dame come in together abreast, as a rule arm in arm. They 
 look pleasant, smile, and talk to each other. They smile at 
 each other, even though married. [Laughter.] 
 
 In England, in the same class of hotel, John Bull comes
 
 MONSIEUR AND MADAME 8l 
 
 in first. He does not look happy. John Bull loves privacy. 
 He does not like to be obliged to eat in the presence of lots 
 of people who have not been introduced to him, and he 
 thinks it very hard he should not have the whole dining- 
 room to himself. That man, though, mind you, in his own 
 house undoubtedly the most hospitable, the most kind, the 
 most considerate of hosts in the world, that man in the 
 dining-room of a hotel always comes in with a frown. He 
 does not like it, he grumbles, and mild and demure, with 
 her hands hanging down, modestly follows Mrs. John Bull. 
 But in America, behold the arrival of Mrs. Jonathan. 
 [Laughter.] Behold her triumphant entry, pulling Jon- 
 athan behind! Well, I like my own country, and I cannot 
 help thinking that the proper and right way is the French. 
 [Applause.] Ladies, you know all our shortcomings. Our 
 hearts are exposed ever since the rib which covered them 
 was taken off. Yet we ask you kindly to allow us to go 
 through life with you, like the French, arm in arm, in good 
 friendship and camaraderie. [Applause.]
 
 BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER 
 
 BENCH AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 [Speech of Judge Benjamin H. Brewster at the dinner given by the 
 Philadelphia Bar, December 19, 1872, to Judge James Thompson, on his 
 retirement from the Bench. The Chairman, Peter McCall, proposed 
 the toast: " Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania," associating with it these 
 lines from Sidney Smith: "In all the civil difficulties of life men 
 depend upon your exercised faculties, and your spotless integrity ; and 
 they require of you an elevation above all that is mean, and a spirit 
 which will never yield when it ought not to yield. As long as your pro- 
 fession retains its character for learning, the right will be defended ; as 
 long as it preserves itself pure and incorruptible, on other occasions not 
 connected with 3'our profession, those talents will never be used to the 
 public injury, which were intended and nurtured for the public good."] 
 
 Mr. President: — You must let me complain of this sud- 
 den distinction you have thrust upon me. It is but two 
 minutes ago I was told that I must answer to this toast. 
 The honors of this important occasion have been very wisely 
 distributed by the gentlemen who have kindly undertaken 
 to arrange all for us ; but it seems that on me they have 
 imposed the burthens. Before I begin the few words I 
 shall say, I will arraign these gentlemen and ask them in 
 your presence, what is it that I have done to be so punished, 
 when others have soft and easy chairs of honor? In the 
 first place they have deputed me to preside over one of these 
 tables — and such a table ! of lawless larks ! no man ever 
 undertook to regulate. Over this table they have put me 
 to preside — and such a table ! as I have before said — all the 
 wild rakes and bold blades of the Bar are here ! [Laugh- 
 ter.] What man could hold them with their exuberant 
 spirits, in due subjection to dignified decorum? Not I ! 
 Why, sir, this reminds me of an event that once happened 
 
 82
 
 BENCH AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA «3 
 
 in England, which I will here relate, and you may apply it 
 if you care : 
 
 When the French invasion was threatened, and all Eng- 
 land was terrified, the lawyers from the temple and other 
 Inns of Court in London, formed themselves into a regiment, 
 and Lord Erskine, then the Honorable Mr. Erskine, was 
 created their Colonel. When they were reviewed in Hyde 
 Park by King George the Third, His Majesty was so well 
 pleased with their appearance, that he said to Mr. Erskine : 
 "Colonel! what name is your regiment called by?" To 
 which Colonel Erskine, saluting the king, promptly re- 
 sponded : " The Devil's Own ! your Majesty ! " So now, 
 sir, if you ask me what table I command, I shall call you all 
 to witness that truly do I command the Devil's own ! look- 
 ing at this rollicking set over whom I preside, and whom I 
 have vainly striven to control. [Laughter and cheers.] 
 They have no sense of obedience for me, nor have they any 
 fear of my friends. Judge Pierce and Judge Finletter, both 
 of whom flank me, and both of whom strive in vain to help 
 me. I sent them word a moment since I Avould have to 
 open a Court of Quarter Sessions and bind them all over to 
 keep the peace, and pointed to the judges I had with me. 
 This had no terror for them, but like true dare-devils as they 
 are, one and all they defied me. [Cheers.] Hear them, sir, 
 now ! Hear how with exultant shouts they jeer at me and 
 my authority ! Gentlemen of the Committee, have I not a 
 right to complain ? 
 
 And now they thrust me unprepared into the place that 
 was to have been filled by our honored and dear friend, the 
 former Chief Justice Black. This last imposition is the 
 most grievous of the trio ; for knowing as we all do, the 
 great merits of Judge Black as a speaker, and disappointed 
 as we are at his absence — for that which he would have said 
 would have been the glory of this occasion — any one will 
 readily see how hard a thing it is to ask me thus to take his 
 place. 
 
 In a loose and shambling way I must stand here uttering 
 random words, when, had he spoken, there would have been 
 floods of majestic eloquence, and of refined and exalted 
 thoughts. I am deputed to speak forjudge Black. That I 
 cannot do, and I defy the wit of man to do it as he can.
 
 84 BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER 
 
 The toast assigned to him is " The Bar of Pennsylvania." 
 With what splendor of rhetoric and what variety of knowl- 
 edge could he not treat of this subject. I can fancy, for 
 awhile, how with rapture and delight you would have hung 
 upon his glowing, sonorous periods, and the wealth of in- 
 formation and instructive reminiscences he would pour out 
 before us. I am daunted at the very thought. At the 
 threshold of my remarks, I stand in awe of his great name, 
 and the recollection of his great powers. Bear with me, 
 then. The Bar of this State, from its earliest history, has 
 been filled with great names. Let me, in this off-hand way, 
 recall a few of them. In the interior we had Wilkins, and 
 Ross, and Baldwin, and Duncan, and Watts, and Sitgreaves ; 
 and, here in Philadelphia, we had a perfect constellation 
 of men who have made the Philadelphia Bar illustrious 
 throughout the world. 
 
 In the beginning we must not forget that Philadelphia 
 was the capital of the whole country. In provincial times it 
 was the greatest of colonial cities. The first lawyers we ever 
 had were bred in the Temple, and came across the seas to 
 establish themselves here. They had walked in those ways 
 trodden by the " Benchers," so quaintly, so feelingly de- 
 scribed by Charles Lamb. Like him, they too had known 
 a Thomas Coventry " whose gait was peremptory and path- 
 keeping — whose step was massive and elephantine," and 
 they had seen Lord Hardwicke and Northington and Ryder, 
 Willes and Macclesfield and Wilmot and Camden and Mans- 
 field, and they had heard the great leaders of those days, and 
 learned their lessons at their feet, and they had brought with 
 them the knowledge of principle and practice from Westmin- 
 ster Hall, and hence it was that in the beginning we started 
 right, with a solid foundation of professional character and 
 duty. Here the Government of the United States first saw 
 the light of day, and here all the great questions of constitu- 
 tional law were first discussed and considered, and these 
 questions were handled by such men as Jared Ingersoll, Mr. 
 Lewis, Mr. Tilghman, Mr. Rawle and Mr. Dallas. Those 
 were the men that gave name and fame to our Bar. Heaven 
 send we may never lose it ! They established a standard by 
 which we have been obliged to live. How delightfully Mr. 
 Binny describes these gentlemen, and the history of their
 
 BP:NCH and bar of I'KNNSYLVANIA 85 
 
 career. And he, too, thank Heaven, is with us yet ! Can 
 I say more of those men and of their works than is said by 
 Lord Mansfield himself in a letter to Chief Justice McKeaii, 
 in which he acknowledges the receipt of Dallas' Reports, in 
 these words : 
 
 "Sir : I am not able to write with my own hand, and must, t}icrc- 
 fore, beg leave to use another to acknowledge the honor you have done 
 me, by your most obliging and elegant letter, and the sending me Dallas' 
 Reports. 
 
 " I am not able to read myself, but I have heard tliem read with mucli 
 pleasure. They do credit to the Court, the Bar, and the Reporter ; they 
 show readiness in practice, liberality in principle, strong reason and legal 
 learning ; the method, too, is clear, and the language plain. 
 
 "I undergo the weight of age, and other bodily infirmities, but blessed 
 be God ! my mind is cheerful, and still open to that sensibilitj' which 
 praise from the praiseworthy never fail to give. Lans, laudari a ie. 
 " Accept the thanks of, sir, your most obliged 
 
 " And obedient humble servant, 
 "Mansfield." 
 
 And it is over this tribunal made historic by these beauti- 
 ful words of commendation that our Chief Justice Thomp- 
 son has presided with so much merit and dignity. And it 
 is to honor him and commemorate his career that we have 
 gathered in here to-night, and thus cheer him with our 
 words of applause as he lays down his great office. Per- 
 sonal friendship and official relation with him both call on 
 me to testify how much we all owe him. 
 
 But, gentlemen, I must be done, others are to follow — 
 others whose efforts are worthy of applause, and whose care- 
 ful preparation will better fit them to invite your attention 
 than these " wild and whirling words " of mine. 
 
 For the compliment bestowed in choosing me to fill the 
 post of difficulty, I thank you ; but for the greater compli- 
 ment in thus bearing with me in patience as I talk" pribbles 
 and prabbles," I shall never cease to be grateful. [Ap- 
 plause.]
 
 ISAAC HILL BROMLEY 
 
 CONNECTICUT'S TART IN THE BUSINESS 
 
 [Speech of Isaac II. Bromie}-, of the New York " Tribune," at the 
 S6ih anniversary dinner of the New England Society in the City of New 
 York, December 22, 1891. J. Pierjiont Morgan, President of the Society, 
 was in the chair. Mr. Bromley .spoke to the toast: "Connecticut's 
 Part in the Business.'"] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — Notwithstanding 
 all that has been said at this table for the last eighty-six 
 years by persons who pay fifty dollars to begin with and 
 ten dollars annually thereafter for the privilege of treating 
 the transaction with levity, I cling with childlike faith to 
 the belief that there actually were Pilgrim Fathers, and that 
 they did land. [Laughter.] I believe they were serious 
 persons — no one can doubt it who has seen pictures of them 
 in public places — and I hope you will agree with me when 
 I say that the time has manifestly now arrived — Mass- 
 achusetts having elected a Democratic Governor two years 
 in succession — when we should begin to treat them seriously 
 and inquire what on the whole they were driving at. 
 [Laughter.] Let us consider them for a moment as historic 
 personages: real folks with mud on their boots and a look 
 of earnest waiting for the dinner horn, instead of painted 
 persons on a canvas, or brass heroes on a horse block who 
 never did a square day's work in their lives, but put in 
 their time leaning on a gun while the women folks did the 
 chores. [Laughter.] 
 
 The Pilgrims were just ordinary, common folk ; for the 
 most part lean, lank, hatchet-faced and slab-sided ; and two 
 hundred and seventy years ago they were not cheerful per- 
 sons to live with. No more are some of their descendants 
 now. But they meant business from the word go ; from the 
 
 86
 
 CONNECTICUT'S PART IN THE BUSINESS 87 
 
 Plymouth Rock pullet to the Plymouth Rock pants. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 It has been remarked of them, on one or two occasions, 
 that they builded better than they knew ; reference being 
 had to the fact that whereas they came over here for the 
 purpose of establishing one religion, there arc now within 
 five miles of Boston something like five hundred, without 
 including recent cleavages and new inventions. Taking a 
 broader and more elevated view, we may safely say that 
 they builded differently from what they knew. It is not 
 likely that they foresaw in their wildest dreams tlic filling 
 in of the Back Bay. Had they projected in their imagina- 
 tions that large body of made land held down in many places 
 by bronze specimens of mediaeval and wholly evil art, it is 
 doubtful if they would have come ashore ; in which case one 
 cannot help inquiring what would have become of the Sec- 
 retary of this Society. [Great laughter.] 
 
 Nor could they have conceived of the enormous improve- 
 ment there would be in the breeding and culture of the 
 domestic dog. In 1620 in the neighborhood of Plymouth 
 and around Massachusetts Bay there was but one variety of 
 dog, and that one of so furtive and elusive a character that 
 the artist who photographed the scene of the landing, as 
 shown on the certificates of membership of this Society, 
 was unable to secure anything but his bark ; which was on 
 the sea, and is represented at anchor in the engraving about 
 a sixteenth of an inch from Plymouth Rock. [Laughter.] 
 To-day more than a hundred varieties of dogs of the most 
 useful and ornamental character may be seen on Common- 
 wealth Avenue in Boston, attending to their several pur- 
 suits under the superintendence of ladies of the highest 
 culture, wearing spectacles. [Laughter.] 
 
 Nor could the Pilgrims have ever dreamed that two hundred 
 and seventy years from the day of their landing the members 
 of the different trades and professions in Boston, from retail 
 junk dealers up, would dine together every Saturday, and 
 make speeches to and about each other of the most lofty 
 and ennobling character. Nor that the thirst for precise and 
 accurate information concerning the entire universe would 
 be so absorbing as to fill Tremont Temple during the Joseph 
 Cook season with entranced audiences, yearning in desire
 
 88 ISAAC HILL BROMLEY 
 
 to follow Joseph Cook, like a sinking star beyond the 
 utmost bounds of human thought. 
 
 It is not likely that they would have banished Ann 
 Hutchinson so abruptly, if they could have foreseen the 
 organization, in less than three hundred years, of a Ques- 
 tion Club, which can ask more questions at one session 
 concerning the operation of the tariff than any candidate 
 for office can answer in the two months before election. 
 For poor old Ann's chief trouble was an inquiring mind. 
 
 They builded, indeed, more than they knew and differ- 
 ently from what they supposed. William Brewster was a 
 man of stubborn will ; had he been permitted to look with 
 prophetic vision down the ages — to see in his mind's eye the 
 vast accumulation of conflicting religions, the numberless 
 varieties of the domestic dog, the irregular eruptions of Back 
 Bay art, the Saturday dinners, the Cook lectures and the 
 Question Club of to-day — he might not have wished himself 
 back in Scrooby, but he certainly would have stood on his 
 head in the Mayflower's cabin, upset by the prospect and torn 
 with conflicting emotions. [Laughter.] 
 
 In the plaintive warble with which Dr. Chauncey Depew 
 broke his long silence on the occasion of the dinner of the 
 St. Nicholas Society at the opening of the present season 
 [great laughter], he is reported to have expressed his regret 
 that his ancestors who settled on this island had no his- 
 torian, except Washington Irving, who had not treated the 
 early Dutch with the seriousness they deserved. In this 
 respect he thought they were at a disadvantage as compared 
 with other colonists, whose stories had been told by sober- 
 minded writers in a stately and dignified style. We can 
 well understand how the accuracy of Cotton Mather and the 
 veracity of Samuel Peters would have better suited the Doc- 
 tor's austere taste than the jocularity of Irving. [Laughter.] 
 But Dr. Depew, who was not without early educational ad' 
 vantages, must know that it is by their own fault that the 
 early Dutch, instead of marching with stately tread across 
 the historic page, go limping over it with a wooden leg. 
 For it is well authenticated that the Brewsters and Brad- 
 fords and the rest intended to settle here at some point near 
 the Hudson River, but the early Dutch who were here 
 before them bribed the pilot of the Mayflower to tangle
 
 Connecticut's part in the business 89 
 
 them up between Cape Cod and a stern and rockbound 
 coast. That is the way the early Dutch lost all the good 
 historians, [Laughter.] 
 
 Had not the early Dutch bribed the pilot of the May- 
 flower, the Pilgrim Fathers would have landed on Pot Rock 
 instead of Plymouth Rock, and Bradford or Winslow, or 
 Winthrop or Cotton Mather would have written Knicker- 
 bocker's History of New York; but the Dutch Avould not 
 have cut so much of a figure in it. The "stern and rock- 
 bound coast" of Mrs. Hemans would have been different, 
 and the inestimable boon shortly afterward conferred upon 
 earth's stricken ones would have been known as Helleate 
 Elixir instead of New England Rum. [Great laughter.] 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers never lacked for historians. They 
 were not the Fletcher of Saltoun sort of men, who if they 
 could but make the ballads of a nation cared not who made 
 the laws ; they were rather of the type of the modern news- 
 paper man who cares not who throws the bomb if he only 
 gets the " scoop." [Laughter.] They kept diaries, and 
 when they said anything definite about the designs of 
 Providence — which they were always doing — somebody 
 made a memorandum of it ; partly for the benefit of the 
 historian, but chiefly for the guidance of Providence. 
 [Much laughter.] It was also the habit of the Pilgrim 
 Father when he had said anything final and conclusive about 
 election, predestination, foreordination or whispering in 
 meeting, to go immediately and sit for his picture before 
 he lost the expression. The result was that the historians 
 ■ — and the woods round Massachusetts Bay have always 
 been full of them — not only had down fine what the Pil- 
 grim Father said, but a picture of him while he Avas saying 
 it. That is the reason why the histories of New England 
 are so full ; also why they are chiefly confined to what hap- 
 pened around Massachusetts Bay. There were other lo- 
 calities in New England, to be sure, places where persons 
 who had migrated from round the Bay were saying and 
 doing things which turned out to be worth while ; but they 
 had no shorthand writers or portrait-painters and kept but 
 few diaries, so the materials for their story are more scanty, 
 and they have not figured so largely in spoken speeches or 
 printed books.
 
 90 ISAAC HILL BROMLEY 
 
 Perhaps another reason why the attention of the world 
 has been so focussed upon Massachusetts is that its vowel 
 sounds lend themselves so readily to the uses of the orator 
 and rhetorician. There's such a long and impressive roll 
 to the words "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts," that 
 the citizen when he hears it at the end of a Thanksgiving 
 proclamation stretches out at least two inches longer in his 
 pew, and thanks God for having been born there instead of 
 in Connecticut or Rhode Island. Since Mr. Webster, in a 
 burst of admiration for the State which he adorned by his 
 genius and enriched by his promissory notes [much laugh- 
 ter], said, "There she stands! Look at her!" mankind 
 has been engaged in the contemplation of that tableau 
 as representing all there was of New England. Only 
 once in a while a modest voice has spoken from the sister- 
 hood of New England States, saying: "We, too, are here. 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 The Plymouth and Massachusetts people started in, as 
 we all know, to establish religious freedom. Between 1620 
 and 1632 they had so far succeeded that nobody had any 
 voice in the direction of civil affairs except church members, 
 and among these, religious freedom had found so firm a 
 footing that any person who believed as they did was at 
 perfect liberty to say so. [Great laughter.] Li 1632 there 
 was an influx of new colonists under the lead of Thomas 
 Hooker and Samuel Stone, who settled in Dorchester, 
 Watertown and Newtown. These people had views of their 
 own on several questions, and especially upon that rather 
 important one of the separation of Church from State, 
 which afterward exercised so potent an influence in the 
 organization of civil government in America. They were 
 not disputatious or quarrelsome — Cotton Mather called 
 them " the judicious Christians " — but they soon saw that 
 the differences upon this very vital and fundamental ques- 
 tion would be fatal to the peace of the community ; so in 
 1634 they applied to the General Court for " liberty to re- 
 move." It took the General Court a year to bring itself to 
 grant the request, so strong was the desire of that body to 
 strengthen and enforce upon the minds of the new colonists 
 the principle of religious freedom. 
 
 In the spring of 1636 the movement of " judicious Chris-
 
 CONNECTICUT'S PART IN THE BUSINESS 91 
 
 tians " from the Bay country began, which has been in 
 progress in varying volume ever since, the last authenti- 
 cated case having occurred in October of the present vear 
 The Newtown people, to the number of a hundred, under 
 the lead of Hooker and Stone, were the pioneers. They 
 settled at Windsor, on the banks of the Connecticut, whither 
 they were soon followed by the colonists of Dorchester and 
 Watertown, so that the original population of the three Bay 
 towns was practically transferred to Windsor, Hartford and 
 Wethersfield by the spring of 1637. They found some 
 very early Dutch at Hartford, but, the hint being conveyed 
 to them that they were a trifle too early, they retired in 
 good order, leaving only an odor of profanity and a name 
 for " Dutch Point." [Laughter.] 
 
 It was the ''judicious Christians "of these three towns 
 who erected the model of a pure Democracy, then unknown 
 upon which the American Republic was built. Not in the 
 cabin of the Mayflower, where the "subjects of our dread 
 sovereign Lord, King James," made their famous covenant 
 and compact ; not in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose 
 head and chief had said he did not conceive that God had 
 ever ordained democracy as a fit government either for 
 Church or Commonwealth, but in Pastor Hooker's study 
 1,1 1638— in the sermon preached to the General Court, upon 
 the lines of which the Connecticut Constitution of January 
 1639, was formed— was government of the people, for the 
 people and by the people born on this continent. TGreat 
 applause.] 
 
 Here was the beginning of the first democratic common- 
 wealth, the first formulated assertion of the people's ricxht 
 to rule, the first efl"ective blow at class privilege. Here was 
 the disseverance of Church and State, here the establish- 
 ment of town government, the beginning of a federated 
 system, the inauguration of the plan and model upon which 
 the constitutions of all succeeding commonwealths and of 
 the United States, were formed. [Appkuse.] 
 
 The first proceeding of the General Court organized by 
 these "judicious Christians" was to take decisive action 
 in the matter of the Indian disturbances, which the parent 
 colony had been " puttering with," and only aggravatin^r 
 for a year or two previous. The Connecticut General Cou?t
 
 92 ISAAC HILL BROMLEY 
 
 formally declared war against the Pequots on May i ; on 
 May lO Captain John Mason was on the march with his 
 small force, and in three weeks' time he had settled the 
 whole business, made an end of the Pequot tribe, and given 
 to New England forty years of peace. This would seem 
 to be an important transaction. But, except as John Mason 
 told the story himself, in a modest and unheroic way, some 
 years afterward, it is almost unrecorded. The history of 
 that period deals chiefly with the hero who shoved Thomas 
 Morton out of the country for disturbing the Puritan peace, 
 and killed two or three bad Indians in a personal encounter. 
 Miles Standish lived among people who wrote history : 
 John Mason among those who made it. [Applause.] 
 
 From that time the little State organized by the " judicious 
 Christians " has gone on doing solid, useful work in the 
 world. Steadfast without bigotry, brave without boasting, 
 earnest without fanaticism, positive without dogmatism, her 
 well-descended sons trace back their lineage with pride to 
 the "judicious Christians " who came out with Hooker and 
 Stone from the three Bay towns in 1636. The word which 
 Napoleon could not do without but which Wellington never 
 needed does not bedizen the fair pages on which the story 
 of Connecticut is told. No " glories " flaunt themselves 
 along that simple record of the natural and orderly growth 
 and progress of a commonwealth of common men. The 
 narrative of that earlier migration when, in obedience to the 
 command, " Get thee out of thy country and from thy 
 kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will 
 show thee," the Father of the Faithful went out of Ur of 
 the Chaldees, is not more simply told than the story of the 
 journey of Hooker and his company through the wilderness 
 to the river. They were workingmen — not treading any 
 shining path, but trudging workday fashion to day's works 
 in the world. So went John Mason to the Pequot War ; so 
 hurried Israel Putnam to Bunker Hill ; so that wise, pains- 
 taking, Lebanon merchant, Jonathan Trumbull, by his un- 
 selfish devotion and tireless activity gathered for Washing- 
 ton the sinews of war when the struggle seemed hopeless ; 
 so in every crisis and at every high point in history for 
 more than than two hundred and fifty years the steady- 
 going, every-day workingmen of the first democratic com-
 
 CONNECTICUT'S PART IN THE BUSINESS 93 
 
 monwealth on the continent, unknighted and unplumed, 
 unmoved by aught but sense of duty, have stood in the 
 ranks and done days' works in the world. [Great applause.] 
 Pardon me if, in the glow of conscious pride which such a 
 retrospect awakens, I seem to take but a local, narrow view. 
 I am not insensible to the debt which Connecticut and the 
 country owe to the Bay Colony, or to that which mankind 
 owes to New England as a whole ; but there are some of us 
 who think it may not be amiss, upon an occasion like this, 
 to recall the circumstance that the commonwealth founded 
 by the "judicious Christians " is the mother of democracy • 
 mother, too, of States and statesmen, of scholars and phil- 
 osophers, of useful inventions, and, above all, of a sturdy 
 race of workingmen. And there are some of us who never 
 cross her border-line without a thrill of filial tenderness as 
 we say : " Thank God, this is our mother." [Long-con- 
 tinued applause.]
 
 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 
 
 AMERICA'S MISSION 
 
 [Speecli of William J. Bryan delivered at the Washington Day banquet 
 given by the Virginia Democratic Association at Washington, D. C, 
 February 22, 1899.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — When the advocatesof imperialism find 
 it impossible to reconcile a colonial policy with the principles 
 of our government or with the canons of morality ; when 
 they are unable to defend it upon the ground of religious 
 duty or pecuniary profit, they fall back in helpless despair 
 upon the assertion that it is destiny. "Suppose it does 
 violate the constitution," they say ; " suppose it does break 
 all the commandments ; suppose it does entail upon the 
 nation an incalculable expenditure of blood and money ; it 
 is destiny and we must submit." 
 
 The people have not voted for imperialism ; no national 
 convention has declared for it ; no Congress has passed upon 
 it. To whom, then, has the future been revealed ? Whence 
 this voice of authority ? We can all prophesy, but our 
 prophecies are merely guesses, colored by our hopes and 
 our surroundings. Man's opinion of what is to be is half 
 wish and half environment. Avarice paints destiny with a 
 dollar mark before it, militarism equips it with a sword. 
 
 He is the best prophet who, recognizing the omnipotence 
 of truth, comprehends most clearly the great forces which 
 are working out the progress, not of one party, not of one 
 nation, but of the human race. 
 
 History is replete with predictions which once wore the 
 hue of destiny, but which failed of fulfilment because those 
 who uttered them saw too small an arc of the circle of 
 events. When Pharaoh pursued the fleeing Israelites to 
 the edge of the Red Sea he was confident that their bond- 
 
 94
 
 AMERICA'S MISSION 95 
 
 age would be renewed and that they would again make 
 bricks without straw, but destiny was not revealed until 
 Moses and his followers reached the farther shore dry shod 
 and the waves rolled over the horses and chariots of the 
 Egyptians. When Belshazzar, on the last night of his reign, 
 led his thousand lords into the Babylonian banquet-hall 
 and sat down to a table glittering with vessels of silver and 
 gold, he felt sure of his kingdom for many years to come, 
 but destiny was not revealed until the hand wrote upon 
 the wall those awe-inspiring words, " Mene, Mene, Tekel 
 Upharsin." When Abderrahman swept northward with his 
 conquering hosts his imagination saw the Crescent trium- 
 phant throughout the world, but destiny was not revealed 
 until Charles Martel raised the cross above the battle-field 
 of Tours and saved Europe from the sword of Mohamme- 
 danism. When Napoleon emerged victorious from Maren- 
 go, from Ulm and from Austerlitz, he thought himself the 
 child of destiny, but destiny was not revealed until Blii- 
 cher's forces joined the army of Wellington and the van- 
 quished Corsican began his melancholy march toward St. 
 Helena. When the redcoats of George the Third routed 
 the New Englanders at Lexington and Bunker Hill there 
 arose before the British sovereign visions of colonies taxed 
 without representation and drained of their wealth by 
 foreign-made laws, but destiny was not revealed until the 
 surrender of Cornwallis completed the work begun at Inde- 
 pendence Hall and ushered into existence a government 
 deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed. 
 
 We have reached another crisis. The ancient doctrine of 
 imperialism, banished from our land more than a century 
 ago, has recrossed the Atlantic and challenged democracy 
 to mortal combat upon American soil. 
 
 Whether the Spanish war shall be known in history as a 
 war for liberty or as a war of conquest ; whether the prin- 
 ciples of self-government shall be strengthened or aban- 
 doned ; whether this nation shall remain a homogeneous re- 
 public or become a heterogeneous empire — these questions 
 must be answered by the American people — when they 
 speak, and not until then, will destiny be revealed. 
 
 Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice*, 
 it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
 
 96 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 
 
 No one can see the end from the beginning, but every one 
 can make his course an honorable one from beginning to 
 end, by adhering to the right under all circumstances. 
 Whether a man steals much or little may depend upon his 
 opportunities, but whether he steals at all depends upon his 
 own volition. 
 
 So with our nation. If we embark upon a career of con- 
 quest no one can tell how many islands we may be able to 
 seize or how many races we may be able to subjugate ; 
 neither can any one estimate the cost, immediate and re- 
 mote, to the nation's purse and to the nation's character, 
 but whether we shall enter upon such a career is a ques- 
 tion which the people have a right to decide for them- 
 selves. 
 
 Unexpected events may retard or advance the nation's 
 growth, but the nation's purpose determines its destiny. 
 
 What is the nation's purpose? 
 
 The main purpose of the founders of our government 
 was to secure for themselves and for posterity the blessings 
 of liberty, and that purpose has been faithfully followed up 
 to this time. Our statesmen have opposed each other upon 
 economic questions, but they have agreed in defending self- 
 government as the controlling national idea. They have 
 quarreled among themselves over tariff and finance, but they 
 have been united in their opposition to an entangling al- 
 liance with any European power. 
 
 Under this policy our nation has grown in numbers and 
 in strength. Under this policy its beneficent influence has 
 encircled the globe. Under this policy the taxpayers have 
 been spared the burden and the menace of a large military 
 establishment and the young men have been taught the arts 
 of peace rather than the science of war. On each returning 
 Fourth of July ourpeople have met to celebrate the signing 
 of the Declaration of Independence ; their hearts have re- 
 newed their vows to free institutions and their voices have 
 praised the forefathers whose wisdom and courage and pa- 
 triotism made it possible for each succeeding generation to 
 repeat the words : — 
 
 " M3' country, 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of Liberty, 
 Of thee I sing."
 
 AMERICA'S MISSION 97 
 
 This sentiment was well-nigh universal until a year ago. 
 It was to this sentiment that the Cuban insurgents appealed ; 
 it was this sentiment that impelled our people to enter into 
 the war with Spain. Have the people so changed within a 
 few short months that they are now willing to apologize for 
 the War of the Revolution and force upon the Filipinos the 
 same system of government against which the colonists pro- 
 tested with fire and sword ? 
 
 The hour of temptation has come, but temptationsdo not 
 destroy, they merely test the strength of individuals and 
 nations ; they are stumbling blocks or stepping-stones ; they 
 lead to infamy or fame, according to the use made of them. 
 
 Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen served together in the 
 Continental army and both were offered British gold. Ar- 
 nold yielded to the temptation and made his name a syn- 
 onym for treason ; Allen resisted and lives in the affections 
 of his countrymen. 
 
 Our nation is tempted to depart from its " standard of 
 morality" and adopt a policy of "criminal aggression." 
 But, will it yield ? 
 
 If I mistake not the sentiment of the American people 
 they will spurn the bribe of imperialism, and, by resisting 
 temptation, win such a victory as has not been won since 
 the battle of Yorktown. Let it be written of the United 
 States: Behold a republic that took up arms to aid a 
 neighboring people, struggling to be free ; a republic that, 
 in the progress of the war, helped distant races whose 
 wrongs were not in contemplation when hostilities began ; a 
 republic that, when peace was restored, turned a deaf ear to 
 the clamorous voice of greed and to those borne down by 
 the weight of a foreign yoke spoke the welcome words, 
 Stand up ; be free — let this be the record made on history's 
 page and the silent example of this republic, true to its 
 principles in the hour of trial, will do more to extend the 
 area of self-government and civilization than could be done 
 by all the wars of conquest that we could wage in a genera- 
 tion. 
 
 The forcible annexation of the Philippine Islands is not 
 necessary to make the United States a world-power. For 
 over ten decades our nation has been a world-power. Dur- 
 ing its brief existence it has exerted upon the human race
 
 9S WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 
 
 an influence more potent for good than all the other nations 
 of the earth combined, and it has exerted that influence 
 without the use of sword or Gatling gun. Mexico and the 
 republics of Central and South America testify to the benign 
 influence of our institutions, while Europe and Asia give 
 evidence of the working of the leaven of self-government. 
 In the growth of democracy we observe the triumphant 
 march of an idea — an idea that would be weighted down 
 rather than aided by the armor and weapons proffered by 
 imperialism. 
 
 Much has been said of late about Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
 tion. Far be it from me to detract from the service rendered 
 to the world by the sturdy race whose language we speak. 
 The union of the Angle and the Saxon formed a new and 
 valuable type, but the process of race evolution was not 
 completed when the Angle and the Saxon met. A still 
 later type has appeared which is superior to any which has 
 existed heretofore ; and Avith this new type will come a 
 higher civilization than any which has preceded it. Great 
 has been the Greek, the Latin, the Slav, the Celt, the Teuton 
 and the Anglo-Saxon, but greater than any of these is the 
 American, in whom are blended the virtues of them all. 
 
 Civil and religious liberty, universal education and the 
 right to participate, directly or through representatives 
 chosen by himself, in all the affairs of government — these 
 give to the American citizen an opportunity and an inspira- 
 tion which can be found nowhere else. 
 
 Standing upon the vantage ground already gained the 
 American people can aspire to a grander destiny than has 
 opened before any other race. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to 
 protect his own rights ; American civilization will teach him 
 to respect the rights of others. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to take 
 care of himself; American civilization, proclaiming the 
 equality of all before the law, will teach him that his own 
 highest good requires the observance of the commandment : 
 *' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization has, by force of arms, applied 
 the art of government to other races for the benefit of Anglo- 
 Saxons ; American civilization will, by the influence of
 
 America's mission 99 
 
 example, excite in other races a desire for self-government 
 and a determination to secure it. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization has carried its flag to every clime 
 and defended it with forts and garrisons ; American civiliza- 
 tion will imprint its flag upon the hearts of all who long for 
 freedom. 
 
 To American civilization, all hail! 
 
 " Time's noblest offspring is the last I" 
 
 [Long-continued applause.]
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH 
 
 [Address in ^vhicll William Cullcu Bryant introduced Louis Kossuth 
 at tlie banquet given in honor of the Hungarian patriot by the Press of 
 New York, December 9, 1851.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — Before announcing the third regular toast, 
 which is a very short one, allow me to say a few words. 
 Let me ask you to imagine that the contest in which the 
 United States asserted their independence of Great Britain 
 had closed in disaster and defeat ; that our armies, through 
 treason and a league of tyrants against us, had been broken 
 and scattered ; that the great men who led them, and who 
 swayed our councils, our Washington, our Franklin, the 
 vencriible President of the American Congress, and their 
 illustrious associates, had been driven forth as exiles. If 
 there had existed at that day, in any part of the civilized 
 world, a powerful republic, with institutions resting on the 
 same foundations of liberty which our own countrymen 
 sought to establish, would there have been in that republic 
 any hospitality too cordial, any sympathy too deep, any 
 zeal for their glorious but unfortunate cause too fervent or 
 too active to be shown towards these illustrious fugitives? 
 Gentlemen, the case I have supposed is before you. The 
 Washingtons, the Franklins of Hungary, her sages, her legis- 
 lators, her warriors, expelled by a far worse tyranny than 
 was ever endured here, are wanderers in foreign lands. 
 Some of them are within our own borders ; one of them sits 
 with his companions as our guest to-night, and we must 
 measure the duty we owe them by the same standard which 
 we would have had history apply, if our ancestors had met 
 with a fate like theirs.
 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH 10 1 
 
 I have compared the exiled Hungarians to the great men 
 of our own history. Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of 
 greatness — a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster- 
 children into strength and athletic proportion. The mind, 
 grappling with great aims and wrestling with mighty im- 
 pediments, grows by a certain necessity to their stature. 
 Scarce anything so convinces me of the capacity of the 
 human intellect for indefinite expansion in the different 
 stages of its being, as this power of enlarging itself to the 
 height and compass of surrounding emergencies. These 
 men have been trained to greatness by a quicker and surer 
 method than a peaceful country and a tranquil period can 
 know. 
 
 But it is not merely, or even principall}', for their personal 
 ciualities that we honor them ; we honor them for the cause 
 in which they so gloriously failed. Great issues hung upon 
 that cause, and great interests of mankind were crushed by 
 its downfall. I was on the continent of Europe when the 
 treason of Gorgey laid Hungary bound at the feet of the 
 Czar. Europe was at that time in the midst of the reaction ; 
 the ebb tide was rushing violently back, sweeping all that 
 the friends of freedom had planned into the black bosom of 
 the deep. In France the liberty of the press was extinct ; 
 Paris was in a state of siege ; the soldiery of that Republic 
 had just quenched in blood the freedom of Rome ; Austria 
 had suppressed liberty in northern Italy ; absolutism was 
 restored in Prussia ; along the Rhine and its tributaries, and 
 in the towns and villages of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, troops, 
 withdrawn from the barracks and garrisons, filled the streets 
 and kept the inhabitants quiet with the bayonet at their 
 breasts. Hungary, at that moment, alone upheld — and 
 upheld with a firm hand and dauntless heart — the blazing 
 torch of liberty. To Hungary were turned up the eyes, to 
 Hungary clung the hopes of all who did not despair of the 
 freedom of Europe. 
 
 I recollect that, while the armies of Russia Avere moving, 
 like a tempest from the north, upon the Hungarian host, 
 the progress of events was watched with the deepest solici- 
 tude by the people of Germany. I was at that time in 
 Munich, the splendid capital of Bavaria. The Bavarians 
 seemed for the time to have put off their usual character,
 
 102 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 and scrambled for the daily prints, wet from the press, with 
 such eagerness that I almost thought myself in America. 
 The news of the catastrophe at last arrived ; Gorgey had 
 betrayed the cause of Hungary, and yielded to the demands 
 of the Russians. Immediately a funeral gloom settled, like 
 a noonday darkness, upon the city. I heard the muttered 
 exclamations of the people : " It is all over: the last hope 
 of European liberty is gone ! " 
 
 Russia did not misjudge. If she had allowed Hungary to 
 become independent and free, the reaction in favor of abso- 
 lutism had been incomplete ; there would have been one 
 perilous example of successful resistance to despotism ; in 
 one corner of Europe a flame would have been kept alive, at 
 which the other nations might have rekindled among them- 
 selves the light of liberty. Hungary was subdued ; but does 
 any one, who hears me, believe that the present state of 
 things in Europe will last ? The despots themselves scarce- 
 ly believe it ; they rule in constant fear, and, made cruel 
 by their fears, are heaping chain on chain around the limbs 
 of their subjects. 
 
 They are hastening the event they dread. Every added 
 shackle galls into a more fiery impatience those who are 
 condemned to wear it. I look with mingled hope and 
 horror to the day — the hope, my brethren, predominates — a 
 day bloodier, perhaps, than we have seen since the wars of 
 Napoleon, when the exasperated nations shall snap their 
 chains and start to their feet. It may well be that Hungary, 
 made less patient of the yoke by the remembrance of her 
 own many and glorious struggles for independence, and 
 better fitted than other nations, by the peculiar structure of 
 her institutions, for founding the liberty of her citizens on 
 a rational basis, will take the lead. In that glorious and 
 hazardous enterprise, in that hour of her sore need and 
 peril, I hope she will be cheered and strengthened with 
 aid from this side the Atlantic ; aid given, not with a 
 parsimonious hand, not with a cowardly and selfish appre- 
 hension lest we should not err on the safe side — wisely, of 
 course, — I care not with how broad and comprehensive a 
 regard to the future — but in large, generous, effectual meas- 
 ure. 
 
 And you, our guest, fearless, eloquent, large of heart and
 
 A BIRTHDAY ADDRESS 10^ 
 
 of mind, wliosc one thought is the salvation of oppressed 
 Hungary, unfortunate, but undiscouraged, struck down in 
 the battle of liberty, but great in defeat, and gathering 
 strength for triumphs to conic, receive the assurance at our 
 hands, that in this great attempt of man to repossess himself 
 of the rights which God gave him, though the strife be waged 
 under a distant belt of longitude, and with the mightiest 
 despotisms of the world, the Press of America will take part 
 — zvi/l take, do I say? — already takes part with you and 
 your countrymen. 
 
 Enough of this; I will detain you from the accents to 
 which I know you are impatient to listen only just long 
 enough to pronounce the toast of the evening : " LOUIS 
 Kossuth." [Applause.] 
 
 A BIRTHDAY ADDRESS 
 
 [Address delivered by William Cullen Bryant on the occasion of the 
 *' Bryant Festival ," a celebration held in honor of his seventieth birth- 
 day by the Century Association of New York City, November 5, 1864. 
 This address was spoken in response to the one delivered by George 
 Bancroft, President of the Association.] 
 
 I thank you, Mr. President, for the kind words you have 
 uttered, and I thank this good-natured company for having 
 listened to them with so many tokens of assent and ap- 
 probation. I must suppose, however, that most of this 
 approbation was bestowed upon the orator rather than upon 
 his subject. He who has brought to the writing of our nation- 
 al history a genius equal to the vastness of the subject, has, 
 of course, more than talent enough for humbler tastes. I 
 wonder not, therefore, that he should be applauded this 
 evening for the skill he has shown in embellishing a barren 
 topic. 
 
 I am congratulated on having completed my seventieth 
 year. Is there nothing ambiguous, Mr. President, in such a 
 compliment ? To be congratulated on one's senility ! To 
 be congratulated on having reached that stage of life when 
 the bodily and mental powers pass into decline and decay !
 
 104 WILLIA^I CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 *' Lear" is made by Shakespeare to say : " Age is unneces- 
 sary." And a later poet, Dr. Johnson, expressed the same 
 idea in one of his sonorous lines: "Superfluous lags the 
 veteran on the stage." 
 
 You have not forgotten, Mr. President, the old Greek 
 saying: " Whom the gods love die young ; " nor the pas- 
 sage in Wordsworth : — 
 
 — " oh, sir, the good die first. 
 
 And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, 
 
 Burn to the socket." 
 
 Much has been said of the wisdom of old age. Old age is 
 wise, I grant, for itself, but not wise for the community. It 
 is wise in declining new enterprises, for it has not the power 
 nor the time to execute them ; wise in shrinking from diffi- 
 culty, for it has not the strength to overcome it ; wise in 
 avoiding danger, for it lacks the faculty of ready and swift 
 action by which dangers are parried and converted into ad- 
 vantages. But this is not wisdom for mankind at large by 
 whom new enterprises must be undertaken, dangers met, and 
 difficulties surmounted. What a world would this be if it 
 were made up of old men — generation succeeding to genera- 
 tion of hoary ancients who had but half a dozen years, or 
 perhaps half that time, to live ! What new work of good 
 would be attempted ? What existing abuse or evil correct- 
 ed? What strange subjects would such a world afford for 
 the pencils of our artists ! — groups of superannuated gray- 
 beards basking in the sun, through the long days of spring, 
 or huddling like sheep in Avarm corners in the winter time ; 
 houses with the timbers dropping apart; cities in ruins; 
 roads unwrought and impassable ; weedy gardens and fields 
 with the surface feebly scratched to put in a scanty harvest ; 
 feeble old men climbing into crazy wagons, perhaps to be 
 run away with, or mounting horses, if they mounted them 
 at all, in terror of being hurled from their backs like a stone 
 from a sling. Well it is that, in this world of ours, the old 
 men are but a very small minority. 
 
 Ah, Mr. President, if we could but stop this rushing tide 
 of time that bears us so swiftly onward, and make it flow 
 toward its source ; if we could cause the shadow to turn back
 
 A BIRTHDAY ADDRESS I05 
 
 on the dial-plate ! I see before me many excellent friends 
 of mine worthy to live a thousand years, on whose coun- 
 tenances years have set their seal, marking them with the 
 lines of thought and care, and causing their temples to glisten 
 with the frosts of life's autumn. If to any one of these could 
 be restored his glorious prime, his golden youth, with its 
 hyacinthine locks, its smooth, unwrinkled brow, its fresh and 
 rounded cheek, its pearly and perfect teeth, its lustrous eyes, 
 its light and agile step, its frame full of energy, its exulting 
 spirits, its high hopes, its generous impulses — and add all 
 these to the experience and fixed principles of mature age — 
 I am sure, Mr. President, that I should start at once to my 
 feet, and propose that, in commemoration of such a marvel, 
 and by way of congratulating our friend who was its subject, 
 we should hold such a festivity as the Century has never 
 seen nor will ever see again. Eloquence should bring its 
 highest tribute, and Art its fairest decorations to grace the 
 festival. The most skilful musicians should be here with 
 all manner of instruments of music, ancient and modern ;we 
 would have sackbut and trumpet and shawm, and damsels 
 with dulcimers, and a modern band three times as large as 
 the one that now plays on that balcony. But why dwell on 
 such a vain dream, since it is only by passing through the 
 dark valley of the shadow of death that man can reach his 
 second youth. 
 
 I have read, in descriptions of the Old World, of the 
 families of princes and barons, coming out of their castles to 
 be present at some rustic festivity, such as a wedding of one 
 of their peasantry. I am reminded of this custom by the 
 presence of many literary persons of eminence in these 
 rooms, and I thank them for this act of benevolence. Yet 
 I miss among them several whom I wished, rather than ven- 
 tured to hope, that I should meet on this occasion. I miss 
 my old friend Dana, who gave so grandly the story of the 
 Buccaneer in his solemn verses. I miss Pierpont, venerable in 
 years, yet vigorous in mind and body, and with an undimmed 
 fancy ; and him whose pages are wet with the tears of maidens 
 who read the story of Evangeline ; and the author of Fanny 
 and the Croakers, no less renowned for the fiery spirit which 
 animates his Marcos Bozzaris [Fitz-Greene Halleck] ; and 
 him to whose wit we owe the Bigelow Papers, who has made
 
 I06 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 a lowly flower of the Avayside as classical as the rose of Ana- 
 crcon ; and the Quaker poet whose verses, Quaker as he is, 
 stir the blood like the voice of a trumpet calling to battle ; 
 and the poetess of Hartford [Lydia H. Sigourney], whose 
 beautiful lyrics are in a million hands; and others, whose 
 names, were they to occur to me here as in my study, I might 
 accompany with the mention of some characteristic merit. 
 But here is he whose aerial verse has raised the little insect 
 of our fields, making its murmuring journey from flower to 
 flower, the humble-bee, to a dignity equal to that of Pindar's 
 eagle : here is the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table — author of 
 that most spirited of naval lyrics, beginning with the line : — 
 
 " Aye, tear her tattered ensign down ! " 
 
 Here, too, is the poet [N. P. Willis] who told in pathetic 
 verse the story of Jephtha's daughter; and here are others, 
 w^orthy compeers of those I have mentioned, yet greatly my 
 juniors, in the brightness of whose rising fame I am like one 
 who has carried a lantern in the night, and who perceives that 
 its beams are no longer visible in the glory which the morning 
 pours around him. To them and to all the members of the 
 Century, allow me, Mr. President, to offer the wish that they 
 may live longer than I have done, in health of body and mind, 
 and in the same contentment and serenity of spirit which has 
 fallen to my lot. I must not overlook the ladies who have 
 deigned tohonor these rooms with their presence. If I knew 
 where, amid myrtle bowers and flowers that never wither, 
 gushed from the ground the fountain of perpetual youth 
 so long vainly sought by the first Spanish adventurers on 
 the North American continent, I would offer to the lips of 
 every one of them a beaker of its fresh and sparkling waters, 
 and bid them drink unfading bloom. But since that is 
 not to be, I will wish what, perhaps, is as well, and what some 
 would think better, that the same kindness of heart, which has 
 prompted them to come hither to-night, may lend a beauty 
 to every action of their future lives. And to the Century 
 Club itself — the dear old Century Club — to whose members 
 I owe both the honors and the embarrassments of this oc- 
 casion — to that association, fortunate in having possessed 
 two such presidents as the distinguished historian who now
 
 THE PRESS 107 
 
 occupies the chair, and tlie eminent and accomplished schol- 
 ar and admirable writer [Gulian C. Verplanck] who preceded 
 him, I offer the wish that it may endure, not only for the 
 term of years signified by its name— not for one century 
 only, but for ten centuries — so that hereafter, perhaps, its 
 members may discuss the question whether its name should 
 not be changed to that of the Club of a Thousand Years ; 
 and that these may be centuries of peace and prosperity, 
 from which its members may look back to this period of 
 bloody strife as to a frightful dream soon chased away by 
 the beams of a glorious morning. [Applause.] 
 
 THE PRESS 
 
 [Speech of William Cullen Bryant at the sixty-seventh anniversary ban- 
 quet of the New England Society, in the City of New York, December 23, 
 1872. Elliot C. Cowden, President of the Society, was in the chair, and 
 said: " I now give you the sixth regular toast — 'The Press.' It is our 
 privilege, gentlemen, to have with us this evening one of the oldest and 
 most eminent of American journalists — a gentleman known all over the 
 world as a scholar, an author, and a poet of the highest rank — Mr. Wil- 
 liam Cullen Bryant, whom I now have the honor to present to you."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gi:NTLEMEN: — The subject which 
 has been assigned to me this evening is a very large one, 
 and a subject that has many ramifications. I shall take 
 care to despatch it in a very few words. 
 
 In looking about me at the beginning of this festival, I 
 perceived a small sprinkling of eminent individuals of the 
 clergy. Whether any of them are here now ornot, I cannot 
 say. One of them — certainly one of the most eminent — 
 has disappeared ; but if there are any here, will they permit 
 me to ask them, why it is that, in bearing their testimony 
 against the sins of the times, they have never taken as the 
 text for one of their discourses that passage from one of the 
 Evangelists, in which it is related that certain persons came 
 to the Saviour of the world with one sick of the palsy, that 
 he might be healed. And then it states that they were un- 
 able to get nigh unto that exalted personage by reason of 
 the press. [Laughter.] In some respects it is a vehicle of 
 mischief, and what an opportunity that would have afforded 
 the clergy to inveigh against and rebuke wickedness in one 
 of the strongest of its strongholds ; to rebuke the sacrifice 
 of truth for party purposes ; for the suiDpression of truth ;
 
 I08 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 
 for the contradiction of truth ; for the perversion of truth; 
 for the deliberate exaggeration of trifles for the sake of pro- 
 ducing astonishment and attracting the attention of readers; 
 for whitewashing a rogue until he has turned out as spotless 
 as a lily ; for bespattering with dirt an honest man until he 
 is as black as the ace of spades. It seems to me that some 
 one might have been instructed from the text as remark- 
 able as in the case related of a certain English divine of 
 more than a century ago, — two centuries, I think — in which 
 he took for his text the remarkable words " top not come 
 down." At that time the women wore top-knots on their 
 heads, and he took those four disjointed w^ords from the 
 verse in the Scripture, " Let him which is on the house-top 
 not come down to take anything out of the house." On 
 those words, " top not come down," he made a most power- 
 ful discourse against the prevailing fashion. 
 
 Perhaps the reason of this may be that many of the cler- 
 gy are indebted to the press, and perhaps some of them have 
 presses of their own. Our eloquent friend who went to 
 England to condemn the London mob, and did it, making 
 the many-headed monster ashamed of himself, what would 
 he do, what would he have done by way of airing his lecture- 
 room talks weekly but for the press which prints the " Chris- 
 tian Union?" [Applause.] What would other clergymen 
 do — eminent men — to secure their weekly audience if they 
 were not announced by the press? All the religious papers 
 at present have articles of very considerable length under 
 the names of w^ell-known clergymen, so that they are not 
 only preachers but journalists. 
 
 But, Mr. President and gentlemen, the triumphs of the 
 press, the great marvels of the press, are not produced mere- 
 ly by the newspaper press, nor by the book press, important 
 as those are. There are other provinces in which the press 
 performs a work of great usefulness and admirable excellence. 
 P^or instance : here is a rag, a worthless rag ; I might toss it 
 upon a dung heap and nobody be poorer ; but let the press 
 be brought to act upon it and it becomes a bank-note. It 
 transforms that rag into a $5, a $10, a $50, a $100, or a 
 $1,000 bank-note, forming a part of the currency of the coun- 
 try, as good a currency as we have at present, and as good 
 as the Government will give us. I believe there are some
 
 THE PRESS 109 
 
 members of the Government here, and I hope they will take 
 pains by and by to give us a better. [Applause.] There is one 
 triumph of the press. It is the printing press that does this. 
 
 Here is another. An eminent artist, a man of genius, a 
 man who has studied carefully his vocation, will produce a 
 design of great merit after long toil ; a merit that is instinct 
 with all the glow of genius. He hands it over to the en- 
 graver, and the engraver toils upon it for months, copies 
 every outline, every shade, and every blade of light. He 
 evolves everything that belongs to the religion of labor, the 
 rights of labor. The work of the engraver would be lost but 
 for the printing press. The printing press, brought down 
 upon the plain white sheet, and you have a perfect copy of 
 the oriq-inal desip-n, and thousands and thousands of them are 
 spread over the country for the wonder and admiration of 
 millions. There is another triumph of the press. 
 
 Here, gentlemen, is a letter. There is nothing written 
 upon it except the address of the person to whom it is di- 
 rected. I go and put it in the post-office, or in the letter- 
 box, and the postmaster takes it, throws it aside, and will 
 have nothing to do with it. But let me put upon one cor- 
 ner of that letter a little piece of paper not an inch square, 
 which the press has stamped, and it has the signet royal of 
 the Government in the shape of the head of Washington, and 
 which at once makes the postmaster my obedient servant. 
 He takes it with reverence in the post-office, he folds it in a 
 wrapper, puts it in a bag, delivers it to a carrier. The car- 
 rier toils with it over mountain and valley, through forests 
 and across rivers, until at last he delivers it to another post- 
 master, who is also made by the press my lackey, and he 
 carefully delivers it to the person to whom it is directed. 
 That is a third triumph of the press. 
 
 Now, Mr. President and gentlemen, what would the world 
 of art do in all civilized countries but for this aid of the 
 press ? What would Wall Street, the seat of exchanges for 
 the western hemisphere — that great mother reservoir of 
 currency for this part of the world — but for its aid ? What 
 would the correspondence of this country between its own 
 citizens and between its citizens in foreign countries do but 
 for the aid of the printing press? Therefore, Mr. President, 
 I say that the press is rightly remembered kmdly and hon- 
 orably on this occasion. [Applause.]
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER 
 
 OUR DEBT TO ENGLAND 
 
 [Speech of Governor Benjamin F. Butler, at a banquet given by the city 
 of Boston, at the Parker House, September 8, 1883, to the " visiting rep- 
 resentatives to the Foreign and Domestic Exhibition, " then in progress.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman : — We recognize that our laws come from 
 England ; that her common law is the law, not only of this 
 State, but of this whole country, with the exception of a 
 single State. The common law, passed by no parliament, 
 passed by no body of men, the growth of the decisions of a 
 thousand judges of strong common sense, yet so adapted to 
 the wants of any people that there can be no change in 
 the situation that that common law, the gathered wisdom 
 of 1000 years, does not cover [applause] — that we owe to 
 England. [Applause.] 
 
 But we owe more. We owe the sturdy divinity which 
 came over here, brought by the confreres of Cromwell. 
 We owe even the motto upon our flag to one of those stern 
 Puritans ; but more, still more than that, we owe our libera- 
 tion to England. For years and years, until it was debauched 
 by the newspapers [laughter], we spoke better English 
 in Massachusetts than was spoken on earth. And why ? 
 What was the book of our fathers best known and most 
 read by every scholar, little and great, in every school ? 
 The Old and New Testaments, good old English, I suppose 
 you will agree, the English of James. What was the next 
 book, the best known to us ? " The Pilgrim's Progress," 
 the English of Bunyan, clear and prim old Saxon, without 
 any adulteration. What book, then ? The " Paradise Lost " 
 and " Paradise Regained " of John Milton. Good English 
 again, and then, after that, they still further drew their lan- 
 
 IIO
 
 OUR DEBT TO ENGLAND HI 
 
 guage from the immortal spirit, and from the hmgiiage in 
 which the highest triumphs of Enghind and America have 
 been achieved, — the language of William Shakespeare. 
 
 But to go still further. We owe to our English extraction 
 our inventive genius and talent, so that you see in America 
 the product of English brain transplanted to a sunny soil. 
 
 Now, then, our Commonwealth, with these advantages, 
 with this nurture, what is she? A pattern commonwealth, 
 a pattern State, an exemplar, in every idea, of freedom reg- 
 ulated by law, of liberty without excess, equal and just 
 laws, furnishing the United States of America, in war and 
 peace, with the best ideas upon the subject of government, 
 and on the subject of defending the government. Our sons 
 look upon an oath of allegiance to the general government 
 as the first and highest obligation ; next to that, the oath of 
 allegiance to our State. We have sent our sons and daugh- 
 ters all over the West. We are going to send more of them 
 in a different capacity [laughter] down South, and have 
 them stay there. 
 
 And who shall say that Massachusetts has lost her grip 
 in this government? We are not as many in proportion as 
 we were, but the most powerful of all explosives, as well 
 as all medicines, are put up in the smallest packages. 
 [Laughter.] We can take care of ourselves and everybody 
 else that wants taking care of, either here or elsewhere. 
 That is a natural boast, and I have a right to boast a little 
 when I am at home. Besides, I want the Lord Chief Justice 
 to carry back to England the remembrance of our good 
 qualities in this State and country. [Applause.]
 
 HENRY C. CALDWELL 
 
 A BLEND OF CAVALIER AND PURITAN 
 
 [Speech of Judge Henrj' C. Caldwell at the eleventh annual dinner of 
 the New England Society of St. Louis, December 21, 1S95. The Presi- 
 dent, Elmer B. Adams, occupied the chair, and said in introducing Judge 
 Caldwell : " About one week ago, I called upon a distinguished jurist, a 
 member of the Federal Court, and requested him to be present this 
 evening as the guest of this Society and help us out. He declined per- 
 emptorily. He said he could not speak. He did not know how to 
 speak on such occasions ; he had not anything to say ; it was useless for 
 him to try and that he must decline. I urged him to make the attempt 
 and suggested this fact to him : that he had been presiding in Court for 
 a great manj- years, and had been calling down one after another of the 
 lawyers that had appeared before him in a way very unpleasant to them ; 
 and I suggested that towards the close of the evening, it would very 
 likely be found that man}' of those present had been telling strange 
 stories about the Yankees, turning the meeting into a sort of mutual ad- 
 miration society ; and that I thought he might, in perfect consistency 
 with the general tenor of his life, call us down. He said he could not 
 do anything of the sort, but finally I over-persuaded him, and only on 
 Friday last I got him to say that he would be present and would endeav- 
 or to call us down. Now, I do not know what he has in store for us, 
 but the gentleman I allude to is the distinguished jurist. Judge Caldwell, 
 of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States."] 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — An after- 
 dinner speech is a kind of intellectual skirt-dancing that I 
 know nothing about. To prevent misapprehension, I will 
 take the precaution to add that I don't know anything 
 about any kind of skirt-dancing. 
 
 You are a curious people up here. You are never satisfied 
 to eat your dinner in peace and give it a chance to digest. 
 With the fact fully established by medical science that dull, 
 leaden after-dinner speeches stop the process of digestion 
 in those compelled to listen and are the source of most of the 
 dyspepsia, apoplexy and paralysis that affect the country, 
 
 112
 
 A BLEND OF CAVALIER AND PURITAN II3 
 
 you still go right along inviting these deadly maladies. 
 Where I live people are allowed to eat their dinners in peace 
 and give them a chance to digest. When I get into such 
 a box as this, I feel like the Kentuckian. There is a moun- 
 tain region in Kentucky where from time immemorial it has 
 been the custom of the people to gather at the county seat 
 of their county each Saturday and have fist-fights. This 
 was an amusement witnessed and applauded by all, includ- 
 ing the peace officers. After the construction of the Cin- 
 cinnati Southern Road, which ran through one of these 
 counties, one of the old-time fighters concluded he would 
 go out and see something of the world. The first thing he 
 did when he got to Cincinnati was to fill up on Cincinnati 
 whiskey, take a position on the sidewalk and proceed to 
 knock down, every passer-by until he had five or six prone 
 on the sidewalk. The minions of the law gathered around 
 him, finally succeeded in overpowering him, and carried him 
 before the police judge, who said : "■ Sixty days and one 
 hundred dollars." From the police court he was taken to 
 the jail. He immediately sent for a lawyer. WHien his 
 lawyer came he told him what he had been doing and 
 begged to know what on earth they had put him in jail for. 
 The lawyer explained to him that it was for a breach of the 
 peace, that it was for fighting, whereat the Kentuckian was 
 profoundly astonished, and said to his lawyer : " Mr. Law- 
 yer, for God's sake get me out of here so I can go back to 
 Kentucky, where I can fight in peace." [Laughter.] 
 
 When I fall into the hands of one of these despots called 
 toast-masters, I feel like the old darkey down in Arkansas 
 who had lost four wives. After he had lost the fourth his 
 pastor called on him and asked him how he felt, to which 
 he responded: "Well, Brother Johnson, I feel like I was in 
 the hands of an all-wise and unscrupulous Providence." 
 
 I have no business here, anyway. I am not a New Eng- 
 lander, but very far removed from them. Norse on one 
 side and Scotch on the other, the reason that I am a dead 
 failure at the intellectual skirt-dancing is apparent. The 
 Norse in me is too stupid to make that kind of a speech, 
 and the Scotch is too religious. I never was in New Eng- 
 land but once in my life, and then I got lost in the laby- 
 rinths of Boston and had to give a man a dollar to take me
 
 114 HENRY C. CALDWELL 
 
 to my hotel, and I was not drunk either. I had not for- 
 gotten the name of my hotel, however, and I was that much 
 better off than the Colonel from Missouri who forgot the 
 name of the suburb near Boston he wanted to go to. He 
 said to the hotel-clerk : " It runs in my head — its name is 
 something like Whiskey Straight, though that is not it exact- 
 ly." " Oh," said the clerk, " I know ; you mean Jamaica 
 Plain." " Yes," said the Missouri Colonel, and immediately 
 ordered two whiskey straights. [Laughter.] 
 
 The ancestors of you New Englanders came over in the 
 Mayflower, and you seem to be very proud of the fact, but I 
 want to tell you that the ancestors of a good many people 
 of my native State are a long way ahead of yours, for they 
 didn't have to come over at all. They were always here. 
 As compared to the ancestors of Pocahontas, your ancestors 
 are mere carpet-baggers. 
 
 Undoubtedly the Puritan was a grand man. He was a 
 Christian as he understood Christianity. Religion was a 
 very solemn thing with him. He believed that much feel- 
 ing was synonymous with sin. Among scenes of pleasure 
 there was no joy in his smile, and in the contests of ambi- 
 tion there was no quicker beat to his pulse. He rather en- 
 dured than enjoyed life. His religion was so solemn that 
 singing, except when out of tune, was a sin, and dancing a 
 device of the devil. A tuning fork was the nearest approach 
 to a musical instrument he could tolerate. He was infected 
 with that curious and almost incurable infirmity, infallibility. 
 He was sure of his creed, and a man who is sure of his creed 
 is sure of his own infallibility. The consciousness of his in- 
 fallibility gave him splendid moral courage, which is the only 
 kind of courage that elevates our character. He had, in a 
 word, the courage of his convictions. This splendid moral 
 courage, I am sorry to say, is not characteristic of all his 
 descendants. We have the humiliating spectacle to-day of 
 a great, rotund New Englander frightened into silence, and 
 bowing to the storm like a Reed, and all because the cloud 
 has a silver lining. 
 
 The New Englander of to-day is much more tolerant than 
 his ancestors. He has learned that there is more good in 
 bad men and more bad in good men than his Puritan an- 
 cestors dreamed there was. But while the Puritan thought
 
 A BLEND OF CAVALIER AND PURITAN II5 
 
 a great deal about the next world, he did not lose interest 
 in this. He was frugal and thrifty and never mistook his 
 capital for his income. When his conscience pricked him 
 for owning slaves, he quietly unloaded them on the Virginia 
 tobacco planters and immediately organized an abolition 
 society to set them free, expiating the sin of trafficking in 
 slaves himself by freeing the slaves of others. [Laughter.] 
 
 He worked zealously for the conversion of the heathen. 
 He had the happy faculty of mingling business with his mis- 
 sionary work, and when he sent a ship-load of 5,000 casks 
 of New England rum to the heathen Africans, he sent on 
 the same vessel a missionary, and the world has wondered 
 ever since what the heathen people with 5,000 casks of New 
 England rum wanted with so much missionary. Though 
 possessed of splendid physical courage, he preferred to carry 
 his point rather by force of logic than by force of arms. He 
 would tell the truth regardless of consequences. " I called 
 him a liar," said one of them, "and he knocked me down. 
 I am not the first man who has been knocked down for 
 telling the truth," and he rejoiced at having suffered for 
 truth's sake. But his descendants, like the Chinaman, have 
 become a little more civilized, and it is not perfectly safe 
 any more to knock one of them down or call him a liar. 
 
 Their present idea of civilization resembles somewhat that 
 of the Colorado miner. An American citizen who believed 
 every man had a right to do as he pleased, with the proviso 
 that every man did not include a negro or a Chinaman, 
 jumped a Chinaman's mining claim, and was swiftly and 
 scientifically shot by the Chinaman. The miner's friends 
 gathered around his dead body and inspected the location 
 of the wound, which was in a vital spot and produced by a 
 big bullet, and then one of them remarked sadly, " Boys, 
 them damn Mongolians is becoming civilized." [Laughter.] 
 
 He was a firm believer in the essential prerequisite to 
 the establishment and maintenance of a republican form of 
 government, either in Church or State. He had no religious 
 or political idols. He worshipped God alone and esteemed 
 men according to their virtue. With him all nobility was 
 based on virtue. He proclaimed that the nobility based on 
 riches or heredity was spurious, no matter what antiquity it 
 might boast. A republican form of government both in
 
 Il6 HENRY C. CALDWELL 
 
 Church and State was the necessary outgrowth of such 
 beliefs. A cynic has said of him that he was entitled to 
 little credit for his virtues, because he had neither money 
 enough to be extravagant, nor leisure enough to be dissi- 
 pated. His poverty preserved him from vice. Well! if 
 poverty were a test of virtue, or the only restraint upon vice 
 in these days, very few of his descendants would be able to 
 get through the eye of that needle. In fairness, it must be 
 said for his descendants that, as rich as they are, they are 
 measurably free from the polished vices that spring from 
 wealth and luxury. 
 
 He believed in the providence of God, and his faith gave 
 him splendid courage. A minister esteemed it his religious 
 duty to visit an extreme frontier settlement to preach. To 
 reach that settlement he had to pass through a wilderness 
 infested with hostile Indians. When about to start on one 
 of these journeys, he took his rifle from its rack and was 
 about to depart with it on his shoulder when his good wife 
 said to him : " My dear husband, why do you carry that 
 great heavy rifle on these long journeys ? Don't you know 
 that the time and manner of your taking off has been decreed 
 from the beginning of time, and that rifle cannot vary the 
 decree one hair's breadth?" "That is true, my dear wife, 
 and I don't take my rifle to vary, but to execute the decree. 
 What if I should meet an Indian whose time had come ac- 
 cording to the decree and I didn't have my rifle? " [Laugh- 
 ter.] And the pious woman acknowledged her short- 
 sightedness. 
 
 He had the merit to conceive and the courage to exe- 
 cute grand things, but he did everything in the name of the 
 Lord, to whom he gave the credit. He never was troubled 
 on this score with the doubts that beset the old darkey in 
 my State. An old colored woman who was teaching her 
 grandchildren the Catechism wound up with the statement, 
 " Yes, and de Lawd freed your grand-daddy and your grand- 
 mammy." "What for you tellin' them children dat for?" 
 said the old man, who sat in the corner smoking his pipe. 
 " The Lawd never done no such thing. 'Twas the Union 
 soldiers freed us, 'cause I done seed 'em do it with my own 
 eyes." " Well," said the old woman, " I reckon the Lawd 
 hoped 'cm do it." The old man responded, " Well, maybe
 
 A BLEND OF CAVALIER AND PURITAN I17 
 
 the Lawd hoped 'em some, but he never done it by hisself. 
 He done been tryin' to do it by hisself for a long time and 
 couldn't." [Laughter.] 
 
 If the sermons of their preachers are not as effective as 
 formerly that is easily accounted for by the fact that they 
 have fallen into the habit of writing their sermons. " New 
 England ministers," said an old Methodist minister of my 
 acquaintance, " have lost all their power since they fell into 
 this habit." Said he, " The devil, knowing what a minister 
 who writes his sermon is going to say, has the whole week 
 in which to thwart and counteract its good effect on his 
 hearers, but the Methodist minister steps into the pulpit 
 trusting to the inspiration of the moment, and the devil 
 himself don't know what he is going to say until after he has 
 said it." [Laughter.] 
 
 These carpet-bag ancestors of yours, having sent the In- 
 dians to their happy hunting grounds above, and having 
 possessed themselves of all their lands, and taken possession 
 of all the cod-fish in the sea, hastened to send their sons 
 and daughters out to take possession of the balance of the 
 country. This process has gone on until I am told it is 
 doubtful whether there is enough of the old stock left in New 
 England for seed. Never backward about coming forward 
 to accept a good thing, they are to-day the governors, sen- 
 ators, members of Congress, preachers and teachers of the 
 land. Ladies and gentlemen, out of tender regard for the 
 feelings of your honored President, and not wishing to be 
 personal or too pointed in my remarks, I have, as you have 
 doubtless observed, refrained from saying, and I will not 
 now call attention to the fact, that these same New Eng- 
 landers sit in the judgment seats of the State and Nation, 
 and where the judgeships are not filled by New Englanders, 
 they are filled by their first cousins, New Yorkers. The only 
 dangerous competitors in the office-holding line that these 
 New Englanders have are the Irish. There is small chance 
 in this country for one not born in New England or Ireland. 
 It is only by chance or mischance that a man born anywhere 
 else ever gets an office. The truth is there is a much better 
 mode of settling the Venezuelan trouble than that suggested 
 by Mr. Cleveland. Send a ship-load of New Englanders to 
 that country, and in a year or two neither Venezuela nor
 
 Il8 HENRY C. CALDWELL 
 
 England will have enough left in that country to fight over. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, the difference between your an- 
 cestors and mine is this: Mine left their native country for 
 their country's good, and yours left their native country 
 much to its delight for their own good. [Laughter.] Mine 
 left to come to a country where they could " swear, chew 
 tobacco and larrup niggers," and yours left to come to a 
 country where they could pray as they pleased and make 
 everybody else pray as they did. 
 
 To conclude, New England had her Warrens and her 
 Adamses, and Virginia had her Washingtons and her Jef- 
 fersons. Each had his excellencies and probably his weak- 
 nesses, but now that they are blended into one harmonious 
 whole, what a splendid mosaic they make. The Cavalier 
 learned much that was good from the Puritan and the Puritan 
 learned something from the Cavalier, and they have so 
 mingled together that to-day there remains neither Cavalier 
 nor Puritan, but in their stead the broad-gauge, brave and 
 patriotic American. [Applause.]
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 THE SCOTCH-AMERICAN 
 
 [Speech of Andrew Carnegie delivered at the annual dinner of the St. 
 Andrew's Society, New York, November 30, 1891.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen:— This is, indeed, the 
 age of instantaneous photography. I appear before you to- 
 night commissioned to kodak, develop and finish the Scots- 
 man at home, in four minutes ; in four minutes more, to 
 picture him in America ; and in two minutes more, to 
 celebrate the union of the two varieties, and place before 
 you the ideal character of the world, the best flower in the 
 garden, the first-prize chrysanthemum — the Scotch-Amer- 
 ican. 
 
 Gentlemen, no race pure in blood has ever amounted to 
 anything, either in the human or in the lower varieties of the 
 animal kingdom. The Briton sings : " Saxon and Dane, 
 Norman and Celt are we." The American is great chiefly 
 because he is a conglomerate of all the races of Europe. 
 For the improvement of a race we must have a cross. 
 Taken by himself, the Scotsman's qualities give him a high 
 place ; taken by himself, the American is also in the front ; 
 but it is only through their union that the crowning mercy has 
 been bestowed upon the world, and perfection at last at- 
 tained in the new variety known as the Scotch-American, 
 who in himself combines, in one perfect whole, the best 
 qualities and all the virtues of both, and stands before the 
 world shining for all, the sole possessor of these united 
 talents, traits, characteristics and virtues, rare in their 
 several excellencies and wonderful in their combination. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 The result of lack of fusion between the races is seen in 
 
 119
 
 120 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 the royal families of Europe, most of whom are diseased, 
 many weak-minded, not a few imbecile, and none of them 
 good for much. The nobilities of the Continent show the 
 operation of the same law, and the aristocracy of Britain 
 has been preserved from equal degradation only by the wise 
 fusion which is constantly going on between the different 
 classes of our parent land. We must have these mixtures 
 if we are to live and improve. But the greatest and best of 
 all these that ever was made is the union between the Scot 
 and the American. Scotch wives for American husbands is 
 a fusion which I am told is hard to beat, and I have a very 
 decided opinion, which many of you have good reason, I 
 know, to endorse, that Scotch husbands for American wives 
 is an alliance which cannot be equalled. [Laughter and 
 applause.] 
 
 The original home of the Scot is a little land, the northern 
 part of an island in the North Sea stretching almost to a 
 line with Greenland, the land of the mountain and the flood, 
 stern and tempestuous in climate, broad and rugged in its 
 hills, but its moors glorious with the purple heather, and 
 its dells exquisite in their loveliness with the fox-glove, the 
 wild-rose and the blue-bell. This most beautiful of all lands 
 is inhabited by a sturdy race who have been forced to plough 
 upon the sea and reap upon the crag, their lives an unceas- 
 ing struggle. By the bracing influence of poverty, uncursed 
 by the evils of luxury, a race twin brother to the Swiss has 
 been developed, who have held the mountain fastnesses 
 against all odds, and have maintained their free institutions 
 in the midst of surrounding despotisms. Switzerland and 
 Scotland have thus become, to all lovers of liberty, sacred 
 ground. An attempt at this day to touch either would be 
 met by a general protest throughout the civilized world, 
 whose cry would be " Hands off Switzerland ! Hands off 
 Scotland ! for these are the cradles of liberty and independ- 
 ence." Even the determination of this new world to hold 
 aloof from the struggles of Europe would melt away in a 
 breath of indignation, if the liberty of Scotland or Switzer- 
 land were assailed. In the largest sense, the land of Wallace, 
 Knox, .Scott and Burns belongs not to itself alone, but to 
 the world. [Applause.] 
 
 What are the elemental traits of the Scot ? Two are prom-
 
 THE SCOTCH-AMERICAN 121 
 
 inent : an inextinguishable love of liberty, both civil and 
 religious, and a passion for education. Before he was 
 educated, away back before the days of Bannockburn, in the 
 days of Wallace and Bruce, imbedded in the Scotsman lay 
 the instinct of freedom and independence. He was born to 
 be neither slave nor sycophant ; he would have liberty if he 
 had to fight for it, and independence if he had to die for it. 
 Let it never be forgotten that these sentiments have been 
 powerfully moulded by his religion, for while the Church in 
 other lands of Europe, when connected with and supported 
 by the State, has always been the tool of power, and is to- 
 day the tool of power in England, the Church of Scotland 
 has sprung from the people and has remained true to its 
 origin, the Church of the people. In all the crises of Scot- 
 tish history, among the most powerful advocates of the 
 cause of the people, have been men in the pulpit, and this 
 from the days of Knox and Melville to the present. 
 
 His mountains and his glens, his moors and his heather, 
 his babbling burns, his religion, climate, — everything sur- 
 rounding him has inculcated in the core of the heart of the 
 Scotsman this intense and all-consuming love of liberty and 
 indepentience. 
 
 What, gentlemen, is the greatest glory of a State? The 
 universal education of its people. In this Scotland stands 
 pre-eminent. John Knox is immortal, not because of his 
 theological and ecclesiastical services, important as they 
 were, but because of his resolve that there should be es- 
 tablished a public school in every parish in Scotland. 
 Education has done its work with the Scotch, One might 
 be challenged to produce a Scotchman who cannot read, 
 write and cipher, and cipher well, too, and who knows just 
 where the balance lies and to whom it belongs. For the 
 education of their children the poorest Scotch family will 
 suffer privation. They may starve, but rear their children 
 in ignorance they will not. Frugal, shrewd, prudent, peace- 
 able, conscientious in the discharge of duty to a degree, 
 and, above all other races, gifted with the power of concen- 
 tration, the Scottish race of four millions, as is acknowledged 
 by all, has produced an effect upon the world which no 
 other four million of human beings, or double that number, 
 can pretend to lay claim to, [Applause.]
 
 122 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 Every Scotchman is two Scotchmen. As his land has 
 the wild, barren, stern crags and mountain peaks, around 
 which tempests blow, and also the smiling valleys below, 
 where the wild-rose, the fox-glove and the blue-bell blossom, 
 so the Scotchman, with his rugged force and hard intellect 
 in his head above, has a heart below capable of being 
 touched to the finest issues. Sentimental, enthusiastic, the 
 traces of a hare-brained race floating about him from his 
 Celtic blood, which gives him fire, he is the most poetic 
 being alive. Poetry and song are a part of his very nature. 
 He is born to such a heritage of poetry and song and ro- 
 mance, as the child of no other land enjoys. Touch his 
 head, and he will bargain and argue with you to the last. 
 Touch his heart, and he falls upon your breast. Such is 
 the Scot as we find him at home. [Applause.] And, pos- 
 sessed of such traits, when he settles in this future home 
 of our race — the English-speaking race — and broadens and 
 develops under the bracing effect of our political institu- 
 tions fovmded upon the royalty of man, and quickened by 
 a climate which calls forth with increased force the activities 
 of body and mind, what part has he played from the Amer- 
 ican side of his history? Sir, we have heard a great deal 
 to-night, and trust to hear more, of the land we live in. 
 The Americans have what every man worthy of the name 
 of man must have — a country to live for ; if need be, 
 a country to die for. [Applause.] 
 
 Who made the American nation? A little more than a 
 century ago, what was the American ? A puny, miserable 
 colonist, a dependent of another nation. He was nothing 
 higher, nothing better, than a Canadian, — a man without a 
 country and, therefore, but little of a man. Who gave the 
 American a country ? Bancroft tells : " The first voice for 
 dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from 
 the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, or 
 the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch Presbyterians 
 of North Carolina." [Applause.] The great claims of the 
 Puritans, of the Virginia planters, are gladly admitted ; and 
 to the Dutch of New York every one is willing to express 
 our gratitude for the part they played. But these races 
 only followed the first voice crying aloud to the poor de- 
 graded colonists to rise and be men. That voice was the
 
 THE SCOTCH-AMERICAN 123 
 
 echo from the heather hills, and rightly so, for ours is the 
 race whose main work for centuries was the maintenance of 
 the existence of our own country at home against England. 
 The same great task devolved upon the Scot here. It is the 
 mission of the true Scot ever to lead the people wherever 
 he goes, in the cause of liberty and independence, and, in 
 any struggle for liberty, our place is ever in the van. And 
 when this Scotch idea had electrified the land and the 
 second declaration was signed, no fewer than six of these 
 great Scotch-American leaders attached their names and 
 pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
 The part that our race played in the Revolutionary struggle, 
 taken in comparison with our numbers, both in council and 
 in the field, is one worthy of a race of heroes. Wherever 
 the Scot goes, he cannot live without a country. The 
 development of the Australian Commonwealth to-day is an- 
 other proof of his ineradicable yearning for a country of his 
 own. If there be no country, he calls upon his less alert, 
 less independent fellow-citizens, to follow him and create 
 one. He found this a colony, and he summoned it to arise 
 and become a Nation. 
 
 There was another service which he rendered to this 
 countr}^, second only, if it be second, to giving to it the orig- 
 inal idea of independence. The most remarkable political 
 work known to man is, admittedly, the Constitution of 
 the United States. It is the universal charter of political 
 government. Mr. Gladstone himself has proclaimed it the 
 greatest political work that was ever struck off, at one time, 
 by the brain and purpose of man. Lord Salisbury and 
 many Conservative leaders are now extolling its rare deeds. 
 Who gave that inestimable charter to this country? That 
 constitution is substantially the work of our race, the 
 Scotch-American — Alexander Hamilton. No other single 
 influence, nor, perhaps, all other influences combined, in the 
 making of this great instrument, were so potent as the con- 
 tribution of that one Scotch-American. [Applause.] 
 
 Our race is entitled to share the rich heritage of the 
 great republic. We stand here as of right, by virtue of 
 the share — a large share — we took in the making of Amer- 
 ica. We are joint proprietors here. Just as we find diffi- 
 culty in crediting one human brain with all that we find in
 
 124 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 Shakespeare, it is difficult to credit the makers of the 
 American Constitution with a full knowledge of the merits 
 of their work. They builded wiser, much wiser, than they 
 knew. Designed for three millions of people, occupying the 
 fringe of the Atlantic seaboard, it has been found capable 
 of governing the majority of the English-speaking race. 
 Radical in the extreme, founded upon the equality of the 
 citizen, and yet most conservative in its provisions and 
 actions, it has just been copied, in the main, by the Aus- 
 tralian Constitutional Convention. [Applause.] Wher- 
 ever an English-speaking community exists, it adopts the 
 principles of that Constitution : even the mother-land itself, 
 year by year, irrespective of the party that may be in 
 power, whether you call it Liberal or Conservative, is en- 
 gaged in bringing its institutions into harmony with that 
 great work of political perfection ; and no Parliament has 
 done more in that direction than that which now sits. It 
 is founded upon justice and equality, and its principles are 
 rapidly permeating the English-speaking race throughout 
 the world. [Applause.] 
 
 We all hear much in these days of Imperial Federation, 
 which is an attempt to band together the minority, leaving 
 out the majority, of the English-speaking race. This phase 
 is rapidly passing away, and giving place to what I may 
 venture to claim is a nobler conception, — the confederation 
 of the entire race. Each of the three great branches, — the 
 British, the Australian, and the American, including our 
 Scotland, Canada, merged in the union, to be perfectly in- 
 dependent, — these three branches, cemented by an alliance 
 which year after year, generation after generation, must 
 assume closer and closer forms, as, by increased speed of 
 communication, the parts come nearer and nearer to each 
 other. This idea is beginning to take root. I have already 
 been told that three distinguished Englishmen have recently 
 declared that, if it Avere necessary to its realization that 
 even Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales were to become 
 states of the American union, they were prepared for this, 
 because the fruits certain to flow from such a federation 
 were such as to justify any change of form. 
 
 A great orator is to follow me and speak of the destiny 
 of our adopted country. This idea postulates as that des-
 
 TFIE SCOTCH-AMERICAN 1 25 
 
 tiny that our adopted country adopt all other En;j^hsli- 
 speaking communities under the ample folds of the Ameri- 
 can Constitution, of which Webster said that, although it 
 had extended further and further and the poimiation had 
 doubled over and over again, they had not outrun its bene- 
 fits or its protection. Neither would the scattered portions 
 of the English-speaking race, if all embraced within its folds, 
 exhaust its benefits or its protection. Such a confederation 
 would hold in its hand the destinies and the peace of the 
 world. It would banish humanity's deepest disgrace, the 
 murder of men under the name of war, saying to any dis- 
 turbers of the peace — 
 
 " Hold, I command you both ! 
 The one that stirs the first makes me his foe. 
 Unfold to me the causes of your quarrel -; 
 
 And I will judge betwixt you." 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, not a sword would be drawn, not a shot fired, 
 if the English-speaking people unitedly say nay. I shall be 
 told this is a wild dream ; that the man who always dreams 
 accomplishes nothing. If that be true, it is none the less 
 true that the man who never dreams, never accomplishes 
 anything either. If it be a dream, it is a noble dream, and 
 illumines the path to the coming brotherhood of man — the 
 Parliament of man. The English-speaking race has already 
 banished war from its members. Since a Scotch Prime 
 Minister settled the Alabama controversy by arbitration, 
 there has been no thought of war ; from that day till now, 
 up to the Behring Sea arbitration, it is manifest that Eng- 
 lish-speaking men are never hereafter to be called upon to 
 murder each other in war. Thus far we have already trav- 
 elled, and I submit to you to-night that, as it was our 
 Scotch-American race that first proclaimed the independence 
 of this country and forced separation, the duty falls upon us 
 to proclaim the new doctrine of reconciliation, confedera- 
 tion and reunion. It is an idea worthy of a sentimental, 
 romantic, idea-creating race, gifted with that rarest of all 
 gifts, imagination, which raises man to God-like action, or 
 at least to God-like dreams. [Applause.] 
 
 If the drawing together of all portions of the English-
 
 126 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 speaking race be a dream, wake me not, let me dream. It 
 is a dream better than most realities. Give me as my con- 
 stant hope that — through which I see in the future, the draw- 
 ing together closer and closer of the English-speaking race 
 under a Federal constitution, which has shown that the 
 freest government of the parts produces the strongest gov- 
 ernment of the whole — there may come a common citizen- 
 ship embracing all lands, the only test being : 
 
 " If Shakespeare's tongue be spoken there, 
 And songs of Burns are in the air. ' ' 
 
 [Applause, loud and long-continued.]
 
 LEWIS E. CARR 
 
 THE LAWYER AND THE HOD CARRIER 
 
 [Speech of Lewis E. Carr at the annual banquet of the New York State 
 Bar Association, Albany, N. Y., January 17, 1900. Walter S. Logan, 
 President of the Association, occupied the chair. The speech of Mr. 
 Carr followed that of John Cunneen, and President Logan introduced 
 Mr. Carr in the following words : " The Committee of Arrangements de- 
 cided some time ago that it never would do to let John Cunneen speak for 
 the Bar of Buffalo without having something to follow him which would 
 bring the audience down to earth. [Applause.] They have selected that 
 modest and retiring gentleman, that best and greatest of lawyers, Mr. 
 Lewis E. Carr, of Albany."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Bar 
 Association of the State of New York: — These occa- 
 sions, when the lions of the profession emerge from their urban 
 and rural lairs for their annual meet and the time comes for 
 them to gather about the festive board to enjoy the feast of rea- 
 son and the flow of Bear spring water and the other innocuous 
 beverages, are exceedingly enjoyable, yet they have their 
 mournful aspect. A year ago it was my fortune to take 
 part in the proceedings of that annual meeting for the educa- 
 tion and amusement of those who were then assembled. I 
 was then associated with distinguished individuals, star- 
 actors, as it were, but, as I look around to-night and see who 
 have been called upon to take part at this time, I find I am 
 the only one who ofificiated then. Whether it be another 
 instance of the survival of the fittest [laughter], or for what- 
 ever reason, you can well understand why it is that I am 
 about to speak to you in a melancholy way upon this occa- 
 sion. Of course, you will not take what I say literally. We 
 had on that occasion, as we have had now, the Chief Judge of 
 the Court of Appeals, who graced and adorned that feast, 
 
 127
 
 128 LEWIS E. CARR 
 
 as he graces and adorns every place where he may be, and 
 every position he may occupy. We had the Governor 
 then ; Ave have had the Governor now ; not the same person, 
 but one that, ex officio, is just as big when the other isn't 
 around. Now things are a little different than they were 
 last year, because then they said I might roam all over the lot 
 and take a nip wherever the herbage promised the sweetest 
 bite, but, when I was told that I was to say something here 
 this time, an old stager at this sort of business— he must 
 have been an old stager, because he called me a young man 
 — took me one side and said : " Now, you ought to have a 
 subject ; not that you are expected to say much about that 
 subject; the less, perhaps, the better ; but," said he, " it is 
 just like one of those big boat races, where there are a num- 
 ber of crews that are anxious to exploit themselves ; they 
 stake the course off with little flags, and each crew has a lane 
 in which they are expected to keep." I said : " That is all 
 right ; I can well understand how the crew that is ahead in 
 their abounding vigor may prance all over the course, but I 
 never could see any temptation for the fellows that were 
 behind to wobble over the line and take some other fellow's 
 water." I think that fits my case [laughter], because it is 
 ordinarily xsxy luck to be either near or at the tail end of the 
 procession [laughter], or in the front rank of the urchins 
 that tag on behind. But this old stager said — I Avon't tell 
 who it was — " I will give you a subject that will be a poser," 
 and, what do you suppose he brought in, written in a round, 
 bold hand on the typewriter [laughter], " The Lawyer and the 
 Hod Carrier," an essay supposed to be wise, and possibly, 
 otherwise, with regard to the similarities and the dissimilari- 
 ties of the profession of the one and the avocation of the 
 other, bound in law sheep on the edges. 
 
 The idea didn't originate with him. It originated with a 
 wise and eminent judge of one of our courts, I won't say 
 who it was, because if you keep abreast of the current judi- 
 cial opinions you will have already guessed who it was, and, 
 if you haven't done that, let me admonish you to do it, or 
 you will find some fellow who has got a full-fledged demon 
 of pernicious activity in him will confront you to your undo- 
 ing with the latest edition from the judicial seat of war. 
 [Laughter.]
 
 THE LAWYER AND THE HOD CARRIER 129 
 
 After all, there are many similarities, if you will remember, 
 or if you will look at it, between the hod carrier and the lawyer. 
 Both are useful members of society. The hod carrier, with 
 patient and laborious toil, carries up to the skilled craftsman 
 above the material with which to build the lasting and per- 
 fect wall. If he loiters on the way, or if he carries up un- 
 fitted or unsuited material, then the results will not be such 
 as redound to the credit of the craftsman that is on high. 
 We, too, from the great heap of material, gather that which 
 we think is fitted for the case, and, wath patient toil, carry 
 it up these slippery hills to the stony mansion above, and 
 there the judicial craftsman is expected to put in true and 
 perfect form the materials that we take up, and we sometimes 
 criticise the result ; possibly it may be our fault, because the 
 material we take may not be exactly fitted and suited for the 
 work. You will remember, I think some of you will, at all 
 events, the scriptural story about the complaints that were 
 made by the race that was in bondage, that they were re- 
 quired to make bricks without straw. That was hard enough ; 
 but we oftentimes ask our judicial craftsmen to make the 
 true and enduring wall of legal precedent from straw alone, 
 ancient, mouldy and well threshed. [Laughter.] Of course, 
 it isn't our fault at all times, because there is such an abun- 
 dance of material from which we must select. I took occa- 
 sion last year to speak about the horde of Huns that was 
 consuming our substance, and adding to the white man's 
 burden, but now the Scherer is at hand [laughter], making 
 diligent and persistent search for the golden fleece. All that 
 we can do is to pray, if we are not of the class to which the 
 efficacy of prayer is denied, that the Lord should temper the 
 wind to the shorn lambs of the profession. [Laughter.] 
 
 But now some other things are to be noted, because it 
 oftentimes occurs that the poor, patient hod carrier, as he is 
 on his skyward way, is met by a brick or mortar from the 
 scaffolding falling carelessly, and down he goes. We ex- 
 perience just exactly such misfortunes. There are three 
 ways, as 1 take it you will have already observed, in which 
 you meet misfortune and your clients come to grief in the 
 zigzag way from the exultant beginning of a litigation to its 
 mournful close. The first is when the court lands a right 
 hook on the point of the jaw and you go to kingdom come,
 
 130 LEWIS E. CARR 
 
 no questions asked or answered. [Laughter.] That is 
 quick and merciful, too, because it saves you that agony of 
 suspense when you are alternating between hope and fear. 
 The second way is when they fence a little with you, when 
 they ward off your blow, and when they will make you be- 
 lieve that in the end they are going to throw up the sponge 
 and let you carry off the belt; but, look out ; the first thing 
 you know a solar plexus knocks you over. [Laughter.] 
 Now, in that case we feel better, because we all take a little 
 pride in the idea that we can stand up against a judicial 
 Sharkey or Jeffries and not be knocked out in the first round. 
 The third way is when they tell you the points you make 
 are good ; you have argued them in an exceedingly strong 
 and forcible fashion, and, very likely, if that had been the 
 idea at the origin of the suit, it might have been successful. 
 But it is too late when you get up where they are, and your 
 client must get whipped by what they call the justice of the 
 law. That is the aggravating way, because they tell you 
 how near you came to catching your hare, but you can't have 
 the pleasure of cooking it, because some less experienced 
 huntsman at an earlier period of the chase started the dog 
 on the wrong trail. [Laughter.] 
 
 Li the course of these remarks you will notice that I have 
 made use of some expressions, from which you might think 
 that I have been devoting my time to reading accounts of 
 these gentle encounters that take place under the Horton 
 law, but it isn't true ; you are not always to take words 
 exactly in the way they are used, nor are you to judge of 
 the meaning exactly from what people say, and you will 
 pardon me if I digress a little from this subject that was 
 given me by the old stager I have already mentioned ; per- 
 haps it isn't exactly germane to that subject, but yet it is 
 just about as germane as a good deal of the stock we carry 
 up on the hill for the judicial fanning-mill that operates in 
 the cloistered precincts of the Capitol. [Laughter.] 
 
 Members of our profession have somehow confused the 
 use of terms, and you will pardon me for speaking about it 
 here; that is, in referring to a portion of the apparel of the 
 judges of our highest court, and calling it a gown. Now, 
 bear in mind, I am in favor of the distinguishing mark, by 
 which the judge is taken out from the class of the individual,
 
 THE LAWYER AND THE HOD CARRIER 131 
 
 but you will sec from what I am about to sa}-, how inappro- 
 priate is that term. The term gown sometimes suggests 
 that exceedingly early period in our lives, when sex isn't 
 exactly determinable by the character of the dress. That is 
 what a candidate for office learned one day when lie was out 
 seeking to have some supporting influence among his con- 
 stituents, and finding a youngster in the room, and, feeling 
 sure that he might reach the mother's heart, says : " My 
 little miss, how are you to-day ? " And the youngster said : 
 " I dess you made a mistake ; I ain't a girl ; I's a boy." 
 Then the matter of the gown suggests another thing. The 
 story is told of some lawyer a good ways off, not here, who 
 had been ingloriously defeated in some litigation, and in the 
 acrid moments of defeat said : " The court that pronounced 
 a judgment of that kind must be a lot of old women." So 
 you see the term " gown " is inappropriate. [Laughter.] 
 
 But the term " gown" is appropriate to some ; is appropri- 
 ate to the mother, whose watchful care over the beginning of 
 our lives, and whose kindly nurture first started us on the jour- 
 ney of life. The mother, whose words of consolation have 
 assuaged our many griefs, and whose admonitions have saved 
 us from many a wrong ; whose tear-stained cheek was more 
 eloquent than words that might be uttered ; the mother, who, 
 living, we regard with the most reverent respect, and of 
 whom, dead, our treasured memories are the choicest posses- 
 sion of our lives. It reminds us, too, of that other one of the 
 female creation, the wife, who, in the early beginning of our 
 lives, linked her fate and fortune with ours, and confidingly 
 put her hand in ours, prepared to go on through the storm and 
 through the sunshine ; who has been by our side in all of 
 our trials, in all of our sufferings and in the hour of triumph; 
 whose patient endurance has been to us of the utmost value ; 
 whose words of consolation have poured balm into the sore 
 and bleeding heart, and whose words of commendation have 
 brought added pleasure to the exquisite joy of our triumph. 
 [Applause.] The wife who now, when the bloom of youth 
 is gone, and frosty fingers have turned the raven tresses of 
 that early time into a snowy crown, still stands, by our side, 
 and, steadily looking forward, goes with us down into the 
 narrowing vale, where the branches, bending lower and still 
 lower above our heads, shut out the view and keep us from
 
 132 LEWIS E. CARR 
 
 observation of the realm beyond. [Applause.] For her no 
 gown is too rich or costly that human fingers can fashion, no 
 gems of loving thought too priceless for which our human 
 tongues can frame a setting. 
 
 Call it a robe and that brings to us a sense of the dignity 
 of the ofifice they hold ! A kingly robe brings to us a con- 
 sciousness, not of the atom of mortality who occupies the 
 place, but of the magnificent authority that guides, directs 
 and controls the fate and fortunes of a people. The priestly 
 robe, Avhile it may speak to us of the kindly men who minis- 
 ter to broken hearts and wounded feelings, still tells us of 
 that world-wide dominion, and of that universal sway by 
 which men's thoughts and feelings are turned to the upper 
 air for the comfort, consolation and relief they would have. 
 So does the judicial robe tell us of the mighty power and 
 the tenderness, after all, of the judicial ofifice, so kindly in 
 its nature that it shelters the frailest right of the humble, so 
 strong and invulnerable that it checks and stays the assault 
 of the mightiest baron in the land. 
 
 But it is time forme to disappear. I have felt, along with 
 others of my age, the pressure from the younger generation, 
 and the indication it was time to make room for their abun- 
 dant vigor, and so the change is coming now, as it has been 
 before, and as it will be in the future, so that change seems to 
 be the order of the day and of our lives ; change in thought 
 and feeling, change in mind and manner, change in practice 
 and procedure, but, after all, it will come to this younger 
 generation, as it has come to us, that the great principles of 
 law, the eternal truths on which we rest for the protection 
 of human rights and the redress of human wrongs, are as 
 unchangeable and enduring as the eternal twinkling of the 
 stars. [Applause,]
 
 HAMPTON L. CARSON 
 
 OUR NAVY 
 
 [vSpeech of Hampton I,. Carson, delivered at the dinner in honor of 
 Captain Charles E. Clark, U. S. N., late Commander of the battleship 
 "Oregon," at the Union League, Philadelphia, April 5, 1899. Joseph 
 G. Darlington, President of the Union League, in introducing Mr. Carson 
 remarked: "The next toast is 'Our Navy.' Well, he would be a 
 rather poor apology for an American who could not respond to that. 
 When we consider that the gentleman upon whom I now call is not only 
 a very good American, but a very eloquent speaker, you will have some 
 idea of the pleasure in store for you. I have great pleasure in in- 
 troducing Mr. Hampton L,. Carson."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Union 
 League : — It was my good fortune, some eighteen months 
 ago, to be in the city of Seattle, when the " Monterey " was 
 lying in the harbor under the command of Captain Clark. At 
 the time of my visit clear skies, placid waters and silent guns 
 gave little indication of the awful responsibility that was 
 soon to be imposed upon the gallant commander. My boys, 
 having met him, were, like myself, intensely interested in 
 the outcome of his voyage ; and I can say to him that the 
 pulsations of the engines which drove the '' Oregon " through 
 fourteen thousand miles of tropic seas were accompanied by 
 the sympathetic beatings of hearts which had learned to love 
 and respect this great captain as he richly deserved. 
 
 The American Navy ! The most concise tribute that I 
 ever heard paid to the sailors of the United States was 
 contained in the answer of a man from Indiana, who was an 
 applicant for office under General Grant, just after the Civil 
 Service rules had gone into operation. The applicant was 
 apprehensive as to his ability to respond to the questions, 
 but one of his answers captured the Board of Examiners as 
 
 ^33
 
 134 HAMPTON L. CARSON 
 
 well as the President, and he secured the place. The ques- 
 tion was, " How many sailors did Great Britain send here, 
 during the war of the Revolution, for the purpose of sub- 
 duing us ? " and the answer was, " More by a d sight than 
 
 ever got back." [Great laughter.] 
 
 When Louis XIV, in order to check what he perceived 
 to be the growing supremacy of England upon the seas, 
 determined to establish a navy, he sent for his great minister 
 Colbert, and said to him, " I wish a navy — how can I create 
 it? " Colbert replied, " Make as many galley slaves as you 
 can." Thereupon every Huguenot who refused to doff his 
 bonnet on the street as the king passed by, every boy of 
 seventeen who could give no account of himself, every 
 vagrant without an occupation, was seized, convicted and 
 sent to the galleys. Could a navy of heroes be made of 
 galley slaves? The history of the Anglo-Saxon race says 
 "No." 
 
 On the twenty-second day of December, 1775, the navy of 
 the United States was born on the waters of our Delaware. 
 On that day Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, was placed in 
 command of a little fleet of eight vessels — two of them ships, 
 two of them brigs, the others very much smaller. The 
 English officers sneered in derision at " the fleet of whale- 
 boats." The rattlesnake flag — a yellow flag with a pine 
 tree in the centre and a rattlesnake coiled beneath its 
 branches, with the words ** Don't tread on me " — was run to 
 the masthead of the " Providence ", being hauled there by 
 the hands of the first lieutenant, John Paul Jones. That 
 little fleet of eight vessels, mounting only 114 guns, was 
 sent forth to confront a naval power of 1 12 battleships with 
 3,714 guns — not a single gun of ours throwing a ball heavier 
 than nine pounds, while five hundred of the English guns 
 threw a weight of metal of double that amount. Wasn't it 
 an audacious thing ? Why, it seems to me one of the 
 marvels of human history when I reflect upon what was at- 
 tempted by the Americans of 1776. 
 
 Look at the situation. Thirteen different colonics strung 
 along a narrow strip of coast ; three thousand miles of rolling 
 ocean on the one side and three thousand miles of impene- 
 trable wilderness on the other ; colonies with infinite diver- 
 sity of interests — diverse in blood, diverse in conditions of
 
 OUR NAVY 135 
 
 society, diverse in ambition, diverse in pursuits — the English 
 Puritan on the rock of Plymouth, the Knickerbocker Dutch 
 on the shores of the Hudson, the Jersey Quaker on the other 
 side of the Delaware, the Swede extending from here to 
 Wilmington, Maryland bisected by our great bay of the 
 Chesapeake, Virginia cut in half by the same water-way. 
 North Carolina and South Carolina lying south of impene- 
 trable swamps as inaccessible to communication as a range 
 of mountains, and farther south the sparsely-settled colony 
 of Georgia. Huguenot, Cavalier, Catholic, Quaker, Dutch- 
 man, Puritan, Mennonite, Moravian and Church of England 
 men ; and yet, under the hammer stroke of British oppres- 
 sion, thirteen colonies were welded into one thunderbolt, 
 which was launched at the throne of George HI. 
 
 That little navy under Hopkins — where wxre those sailors 
 bred? Read Burke's speech on the conciliation of America. 
 They sprang from the loins of hardy fishermen amidst 
 tumbling fields of ice on the banks of Newfoundland, from 
 those who had speared whales in the tepid waters of Brazil, 
 or who had pursued their gigantic game into the Arctic zone 
 or beneath the light of the Southern Cross. That fleet of 
 eight ships sailed from the Delaware on the twenty-second of 
 December, 1775, and proceeded to the island of New Provi- 
 dence, among the Bahamas. Our colonies and our armies 
 were without arms, without powder, without munitions of 
 war. The very first exploit of the fleet was the capture, on 
 the nineteenth of March, 1776, of 150 cannon, 130 barrels of 
 powder and eight warships, which were carried in triumph 
 into Long Island Sound. But what of Am.erican heroism 
 when the soldiers of Howe, of Clinton, of Carleton and of 
 Gage came here to fight the farmers of Pennsylvania, of Con- 
 necticut and Virginia, and the gay cavaliers who loved adven- 
 ture ? The British soldiers had conquered India under Sir 
 Robert Clive and Sir Eyre Coote ; they had been the heroes 
 of Plassey and Pondicherry ; men who had subjected to 
 British dominion a country almost as extensive as our own 
 fair republic and containing one hundred and ninety millions 
 of souls. Here they found themselves faced by men of 
 their own blood, men in whose breasts burned the spirit and 
 the love of that liberty which was to encircle the heavens. 
 On the glory-crowned heights of Bunker Hill the patriots
 
 136 HAMPTON L. CARSON 
 
 gazed at the rafters of their own burning dwellings in the 
 town of Charlestown, and heard the cannon shots hurled 
 from British ships against the base of the great hill. Three 
 times did scarlet regiments ascend that hill only to be driven 
 back ; the voice of that idiot boy, Job Pray, ringing out 
 above the din of battle, " Let them come on to Breed's — 
 the people will teach them the law." 
 
 When the evacuation by the British of the metropolis of 
 New England was effected by the troops under the com- 
 mand of a Virginia soldier. General Washington, then for 
 the first time did sectionalism and partisanship and divisions 
 on narrow lines vanish ; the patriots who had fought at 
 Bunker Hill were now no longer to be known as the troops 
 of Massachusetts, of Connecticut or of Rhode Island, but 
 henceforth it was the Continental Army. On the very day 
 when the British were driven out of Boston, John Paul 
 Jones, with that historic rattlesnake flag, and, floating above 
 it, not the Stars and Stripes, but the Stripes with the Union 
 Jack, entered the waters of Great Britain ; and then it was 
 seen that an American captain with an American ship and 
 American sailors had the pluck to push out into foreign seas 
 and to beard the British lion in his den. The same channel 
 which had witnessed the victories of Dc Ruyter and Von 
 Tromp, which was the scene of Blake's victory over the 
 Dutch, and where the father of our great William Penn 
 won his laurels as an admiral, Avas now the scene of the ex- 
 ploits of an American captain fighting beneath an Amer- 
 ican flag for American rights inherited from old mother 
 England, who, in a moment of forgetfulness, had sought 
 to deprive her offspring of liberty. I know of no more 
 thrilling incident in revolutionary naval annals than the 
 fight between the " Serapis " and the "Bon Homme Richard," 
 when Paul Jones, on the burning deck of a sinking ship, 
 lashed his yard arms to those of the enemy and fought 
 hand to hand, man to man, until the British colors struck, 
 and then, under the very cliffs of Old England, were run up 
 for the first time the Stars and Stripes — with a field of blue 
 into which the skilful fingers of Betsey Ross, of Philadel- 
 phia, had woven inextinguishable stars ; the red stripes 
 typifying the glory, the valor and the self-sacrifice of the 
 men who died that liberty might live ; and the white, em-
 
 OUR NAVY 137 
 
 blematic of purit}% fitly representing those principles to pre- 
 serve which these men had sanctified themselves by an im- 
 mortal self-dedication. And there, too, in the Continental 
 Navy was Richard Dale, the young " Middy," who fought 
 beside Paul Joiies ; and Joshua Barney, and John l^)arry, 
 and Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia, who later, in the gallant 
 little " Randolph," in order to help a convoyed fleet of Amer- 
 ican merchantmen to escape, boldly attacked the battleship 
 "Yarmouth ;" and when it was found that he was doomed to 
 defeat, blew up his vessel, perishing with all his crew, rather 
 than strike the colors of the newly-born republic. 
 
 All honor to the navy of the United States ! I never can 
 read of its exploits — peaceful citizen as I am — without my 
 blood bubbling with a joyous sense of exultation at the 
 thought that the flag which has swept the seas, carrying 
 liberty behind it, is the flag which is destined to sweep the 
 seas again and carry liberty, civilization and all the blessings 
 of free government into benighted islands far, far from 
 hence. 
 
 Why, gentlemen, the story of the exploits of our little 
 fleets reads like a romance. At the end of the Revolution- 
 ary War eight hundred British ships, fifteen of them battle- 
 ships, had surrendered to the prowess of the American navy, 
 together with twelve thousand five hundred prisoners cap- 
 tured by less than three thousand men ; and in that war our 
 country had produced the boldest admirals that, up to that 
 time, civilization had known, and the greatest fighting naval 
 heroes that the world had seen. 
 
 Then came the war of 18 12, to establish sailors' rights 
 upon the high seas, when the American navy again proved 
 victor despite overwhelming odds. I have in my possession 
 a list of the British and American vessels at the outbreak of 
 that war ; and if I were to represent them by something 
 tangible in order to indicate the proportions of each, I would 
 say, taking this box lid for example [illustrating with the 
 stem of a rose upon the cover of a discarded flower box], 
 that if you were to draw a line across here, near the top, 
 you would have sufficient space in the narrow strip above 
 the dividing line to write the names of all the American 
 ships, while the entire remaining space would not be more 
 than sufficient for the English fleet, which was more than
 
 138 HAMPTON L. CARSON 
 
 thirty times the size of its antagonist. The ships which un- 
 der Nelson had fought at the Nile and had won imperish- 
 able glory at Trafalgar, coming into our waters, struck their 
 flags time and again. The glorious old " Ironsides " (the 
 "Constitution") captured the " Guerriere," the "Java," 
 the " Cyane," and " Levant." The United States took the 
 " Macedonian ;" the "Wasp " destroyed the " Frolic," while 
 on the lakes we point with pride to the victories of Perry and 
 McDonough. When battle after battle had been fought it 
 was found that, of eighteen fixed engagements, seventeen 
 were victories for the Stars and Stripes. And this over the 
 greatest maritime war power of the world ! 
 
 Philadelphia is honorably associated with the glories of 
 our navy. Our early battleships, though not all built here, 
 were planned and constructed by the brain of Joshua 
 Humphreys, a Philadelphian, who in his day was the pre- 
 decessor of our great ship-builder of to-day, Charles H. 
 Cramp. 
 
 Need I speak of the navy from 1861 to 1865, or tell of the 
 exploits of those gallant fleets which clove a pathway down 
 the valley of the Ohio, of the Tennessee and of the Missis- 
 sippi, in order that liberty might ride unvexed from the 
 lakes to the gulf ? Need I dwell upon the part taken by the 
 guest of this evening, who was an officer who fought under 
 Farragut ? 
 
 In our recent war with Spain there were some who, in 
 doubting moments, yielded to that atrabilious disposition 
 which has been so well described by Mr. Tomkins ; who 
 thought that our ships were not strong enough to hazard an 
 encounter with the fleets of Spain. But meanwhile there 
 was doubling " around the Horn " a battleship, with a cap- 
 tain and a crew whose marvellous voyage was attracting the 
 eyes of the world. Night after night we took up the map, 
 traced his course from port to port, and our hearts beat 
 high, our lips were firmly compressed, the color faded from 
 our cheeks with excitement, but our eyes blazed with ex- 
 ultant anticipation as nearer and nearer to Pernambuco did 
 he come. We all now feel, judging of the possibilities by 
 actual achievement, that had Captain Clark encountered the 
 enemy's ships, he could and would have successfully fought 
 and defeated the entire Spanish fleet. He carried his ship
 
 OUR NAVY 139 
 
 ready for instant action, every man at his post, God bless 
 that crew ! God bless those stokers, far down below those 
 decks, confident that the captain who commanded them was 
 on the bridge, and that he would never flinch nor fail in the 
 hour of trial 1 I have often tried to draw a mental picture of 
 what the scene must have been when the " Oregon " steamed 
 in to join the fleet before Santiago; when the white jackets 
 on the yard-arms tossed their caps in the air, and southern 
 tars gave back to Yankee cheers a lusty welcome to the man 
 who for so long, against all odds, with no encouraging ad- 
 vices, with unknown terrors all about him, had never flinched 
 from duty, and who, when the last summons came, re- 
 sponded in the words of Colonel Newcomb, Adsiivi — " I 
 am here." 
 
 On the morning of the third of July, 1898, there stood the 
 frowning Morro Castle, the prison of the glorious Hobson ; 
 on the other side the fortress of Estrella ; the narrow channel 
 blocked by the wreck of the " Merrimac; " the " Brooklyn," 
 the "Oregon," the "Texas," the " Indiana," the " Iowa " 
 and the " Massachusetts " all watching that orifice. Then 
 black smoke rolled from the funnels of the enemy's ships, in- 
 dicating that the tiger had roused him from his lair and was 
 making a rush for the open sea. Up went the signal on the 
 flagstaff of the " Brooklyn," " Forward — the enemy is ap- 
 proaching." Then engines moved ; then guns thundered 
 their volleys ; then sky and sea became black with the 
 smoke of battle ; and swiftly steamed the " Oregon " in 
 pursuit of the " Cristobal Colon." Beneath well-directed 
 shots the monster reeled, like a wounded athlete, to the 
 beach ; and then from the flagstaff of the " New York" were 
 displayed those signals now on these walls before your eyes 
 — " 1-7-3 ; cornet ; 2m-9m-7m " — which, translated, meant — • 
 and we of the League to-night repeat the words — " Well 
 done, ' Oregon.' " [Cheers.] 
 
 Captain Clark, the city of Philadelphia has always con- 
 tributed her share to the building of the navy and to a fit- 
 ting recognition of the heroes who have commanded our 
 battleships. In the old churchyard of St. Mary's, on Fourth 
 Street, sleep the bones of John Barry ; and in the older 
 churchyard of St. Peter's stands the monument to Decatur. 
 We have with us also the ashes of Stewart, who commanded
 
 140 HAMPTON L. CARSON 
 
 " Old Ironsides" when she captured the " Cyane " and the 
 " Levant ;" and we have those of Bauibridge, who captured 
 the " Java." 
 
 In reading of the exploits of the master spirits of the past, 
 1 have sometimes w^ondered whether we had men of to-day 
 who were their equals. My answer is this : I say to soldiers 
 and sailors, whether of our Civil War or of the late war with 
 Spain, you arc worthy of your sires, you have caught the 
 inspiration of their glowing deeds, you have taken up the 
 burden which they threw upon your shoulders, and though 
 in time to come you may sleep in unmarked graves, the 
 memory of your deeds will live ; and, like your sires, you 
 have become immortal. 
 
 To fight for liberty is indeed a privilege. " Disguise thy- 
 self as thou wilt, still. Slavery, thou art a bitter draught ; 
 and, though thousands in all ages have been made to drink 
 thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. 'Tis thou, O 
 Liberty ! thrice sweet and gracious goddess, whose taste is 
 grateful, and ever wall be so till nature herself shall change. 
 No tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, nor chemic 
 power turn thy sceptre into iron. With thee to smile upon 
 him, as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than the mon- 
 arch from whose courts thou art exiled." So wrote Lawrence 
 Sterne. 
 
 And then Rufus Choate : " To form and uphold a state, 
 it is not enough that our judgments should believe it to be 
 useful ; the better part of our affections should feel it to be 
 lovely. It is not enough that our arithmetic should com- 
 pute its value and find it high ; our hearts should hold it 
 priceless — above all things rich and rare — dearer than health 
 and beauty, brighter than all the order of the stars." In 
 contemplating those mysterious dispensations of Providence 
 by which the light which broke upon this continent two 
 hundred years ago is now penetrating and illuminating the 
 darkest corners of the earth, it will be a supreme satisfaction 
 for us to know that our children and our children's children 
 will have set for their imitation and encouragement the 
 example of the heroism, the manliness, the courage, the 
 patriotism and the modesty of the captains of to-day. [Long- 
 continued cheering.]
 
 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 [On November 6, 1S95, Joseph Chamberlain was the principal guest at 
 a dinner given in London, by Walter Peace, the Agent-General for Natal, 
 in celebration of the completion of the Natal-Transvaal Railway. This 
 was the first public occasion on which IVIr. Chamberlain appeared in his 
 official capacity as Secretary of State for the Colonies ; and, in replying 
 to the toast of " The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State 
 for the Colonies," which was proposed by Sir Charles Tupper, High 
 Commissioner of Canada, Mr. Chamberlain took " The Future of the 
 British Empire " as his theme.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I thank you sincerely 
 for the hearty reception you have given to this toast. I 
 appreciate very much the warmth of your welcome, and I 
 see in it confirmation of the evidence which is afforded by 
 the cordial and graceful telegram from the Premier of Natal, 
 which has been read by your chairman, and by other public 
 and private communications that I have received, that any 
 man who makes it his first duty, as I do, to draw closer to- 
 gether the different portions of the British Empire [" Hear ! 
 Hear!"] will meet with hearty sympathy, encouragement 
 and support. [Cheers.] I thank my old friend and colleague, 
 Sir Charles Tupper, for the kind manner in which he has 
 spoken of me. Pie has said much, no doubt, that transcends 
 my merits, but that is a circumstance so unusual in the life 
 of a politician [laughter] that I do not feel it in my heart to 
 complain. [Laughter,] I remember that Dr. Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes, who was certainly one of the most genial 
 Americans who ever visited these shores, said that when he 
 was young he liked his praise in teaspoonfuls, that when he 
 got older he preferred it in tablespoonfuls, and that in ad- 
 vanced years he was content to receive it in ladles. [Laugh- 
 
 141
 
 142 
 
 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 ter.] I confess that I am arriving at the period when I 
 sympathize with Dr. Ohver Wendell Holmes. [Laughter 
 and cheers.] 
 
 Gentlemen, the occasion which has brought us together 
 is an extremely interesting one. We are here to congratulate 
 Natal, its Government and its people, and to congratulate 
 ourselves on the completion of a great work of commercial 
 enterprise and civilization, which one of our colonies, which 
 happens to be the last to have been included in the great 
 circle of self-governing communities, has brought to a suc- 
 cessful conclusion, giving once more a proof of the vigor and 
 the resolution which have distinguished all the nations that 
 have sprung from the parent British stock. [Cheers.] 
 
 This occasion has been honored by the presence of the 
 representatives of sister colonies, who are here to offer 
 words of sympathy and encouragement ; and, in view of the 
 representative character of the gathering, I think, perhaps, 
 I may be permitted, especially as this is the first occasion 
 upon which I have publicly appeared in my capacity as 
 Minister for the colonies [cheers] to offer a few words of a 
 general application. [" Hear ! Hear ! "] 
 
 I think it will not be disputed that we are approaching a 
 critical stage in the history of the relations between our- 
 selves and the self-governing colonies. We are entering 
 upon a chapter of our colonial history, the whole of which 
 will probably be written in the next few years, certainly in 
 the lifetime of the next generation, and which will be one 
 of the most important in our colonial annals, since upon the 
 events and policy which it describes will depend the future 
 of the British Empire. That Empire, gentlemen, that 
 world-wide dominion to which no Englishman can allude 
 without a thrill of enthusiasm and patriotism, which has 
 been the admiration, and perhaps the envy, of foreign 
 nations, hangs together by a thread so slender that it may 
 well seem that even a breath would sever it. 
 
 There have been periods in our history, not so very far 
 distant, when leading statesmen, despairing of the possibility 
 of maintaining anything in the nature of a permanent union, 
 have looked forward to the time when the vigorous com- 
 munities to which they rightly intrusted the control of their 
 own destinies would grow strong and independent, would
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE I43 
 
 assert their independence, and would claim entire separation 
 from the parent stem. The time to which they looked for- 
 ward has arrived sooner than they expected. Tlic condi- 
 tions to which they referred have been more tlian fulfilled ; 
 and now these great communities, which have within them 
 every element of national life, have taken their rank amongst 
 the nations of the world ; and I do not suppose that any one 
 would consider the idea of compelling them to remain with- 
 in the empire as within the region of intelligent specula- 
 tion. Yet, although, as I have said, the time has come, 
 and the conditions have been fulfilled, the results which 
 these statesmen anticipated have not followed. [Cheers.] 
 They felt, perhaps, overwhelmed by the growing burdens 
 of the vast dominions of the British Crown. They may 
 well have shrunk from the responsibilities and the obliga- 
 tions which they involve ; and so it happened that some of 
 them looked forward not only without alarm, but with hope- 
 ful expectation, to a severance of the union which now exists. 
 
 But if such feelings were ever entertained they are enter- 
 tained no longer. [Cheers.] As the possibility of separa- 
 tion has become greater, the desire for separation has be- 
 come less. [Renewed cheers.] While we on our part are 
 prepared to take our share of responsibility, and to do all 
 that may fairly be expected from the mother country, and 
 while we should look upon a separation as the greatest calam- 
 ity that could befall us [" Hear ! Hear ! "] our fellow-subjects 
 on their part see to what a great inheritance they have come 
 by mere virtue of their citizenship ; and they m.ust feel that 
 no separate existence, however splendid, could compare 
 with that which they enjoy equally with ourselves as joint 
 heirs of all the traditions of the past, and as joint partakers 
 of all the influence, resources and power of the British 
 Empire. [Cheers.] 
 
 I rejoice at the change that has taken place. I rejoice at 
 the wider patriotism, no longer confined to this small island, 
 which embraces the whole of Greater Britain and which 
 has carried to every clime British institutions and the best 
 characteristics of the British race. [Renewed cheering.] 
 How could it be otherwise ? We have a common origin, 
 we have a common history, a common language, a common 
 literature, and a common love of liberty and law. We have
 
 144 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 common principles to assert, we have common interests to 
 maintain. ["Hear! Hear."] I said it was a slender thread 
 that binds us together. I remember on one occasion hav- 
 ing been shown a wire so fine and delicate that a blow 
 might break it ; yet I was told that it was capable of trans- 
 mitting an electrical energy that would set powerful machin- 
 ery in motion. May it not be the same with the relations 
 which exist between the colonies and ourselves ; and may 
 not that thread of union be capable of carrying a force of 
 sentiment and of sympathy which will yet be a potent factor 
 in the history of the world ? [" Hear ! Hear ! "] 
 
 There is a word which I am almost afraid to mention, 
 lest at the very outset of my career I should lose my char- 
 acter as a practical statesman. I am told on every hand 
 that Imperial Federation is a vain and empty dream. [Cries 
 of "No! No!"] I will not contest that judgment, but I will 
 say this: that that man must be blind, indeed, who does 
 not see that it is a dream which has vividly impressed itself 
 on the mind of the English-speaking race, and who does 
 not admit that dreams of that kind, which have so powerful 
 an influence upon the imagination of men, have somehow or 
 another an unaccountable way of being realized in their own 
 time. ["Hear! Hear!"] If it be a dream, it is a dream 
 that appeals to the highest sentiments of patriotism, as well 
 as to our material interests. It is a dream which is calcu- 
 lated to stimulate and to inspire every one who cares for 
 the future of the Anglo-Saxon people. [Cheers.] I think 
 myself that the spirit of the time is, at all events, in the 
 direction of such a movement. How far it will carry us no 
 man can tell ; but, believe me, upon the temper and the 
 tone in which we approach the solution of the problems 
 which are now coming upon us depend the security and the 
 maintenance of that world-wide dominion, that edifice of 
 Imperial rule, which has been so ably built for us by those 
 who have gone before. [Cheers.] 
 
 Gentlemen, I admit that I have strayed somewhat widely 
 from the toast which your chairman has committed to my 
 charge. [" No."] That toast is "The Prosperity of South 
 Africa and the Natal and Transvaal Railway." As to South 
 Africa, there can be no doubt as to its prosperity. We 
 have witnessed in our own time a development of natural
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH EMI'IRE I45 
 
 and mineral wealth in that country altogether beyond pre- 
 cedent or human knowledge ; and what we have seen in 
 the past, and what we see in the present, is bound to be far 
 surpassed in the near future. ["Hear! Hear!"] The 
 product of the mines, great as it is at present, is certain to be 
 multiplied many fold, and before many years are over the 
 mines of the Transvaal may be rivalled by the mines of 
 Mashonaland or Matabeleland ; and in the train of this 
 great, exceptional and wonderful prosperity, in the train of 
 the diamond-digger and of the miner, will come a demand 
 for labor which no man can measure — a demand for all the 
 products of agriculture and of manufacture, in which not 
 South Africa alone, but all the colonies and the mother 
 country itself must have a share. [Cheers.] 
 
 The climate and soil leave nothing to be desired, and 
 there is only one thing wanted — that is, a complete union 
 and identity of sentiment and interest between the different 
 States existing in South Africa. [Cheers.] Gentlemen, I 
 have no doubt that that union will be forthcoming [cheers], 
 although it may not be immediately established. I do not 
 shut my eyes to differences amongst friends which have 
 unfortunately already arisen, and which have not yet 
 been arranged. I think these differences, if you look below 
 the surface, will be found to be due principally to the fact 
 that we have not yet achieved in South Africa that local 
 federation which is the necessary preface to any serious 
 consideration of the question of Imperial federation. 
 [Cheers.] But, gentlemen, in these differences, my position, 
 of course, renders it absolutely necessary that I should take 
 no side. [Cheers.] I pronounce no opinion, and it would 
 not become me to offer any advice ; although, if the good 
 ofifices of my department were at any time invoked by 
 those who are now separated, all I can say is that they 
 would be heartily placed at their service. [Cheers.] 
 
 Gentlemen, I wish success to the Natal Railway, and to 
 every railway in South Africa. [Cheers.] There is room for 
 all. [Cheers.] There is prosperity for all [" Hear ! Hear!"] 
 — enough to make the mouth of an English director posi- 
 tively water. -^[Laughter.] There is success for all, if only 
 they will not waste their resources in internecine conflict. 
 [" Hear ! Hear ! "] I have seen with pleasure that a confer-
 
 140 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 ence is being held in order to discuss, and I hope to settle, 
 these differences. I trust that they may be satisfactorily 
 arranged. In the meantime I congratulate our chairman, as 
 representing this prosperous colony, upon the enterprise they 
 hav^e displayed, upon the dif^culties they have surmounted, 
 and on the success they have already achieved. [Cheers.] 
 And I hope for them — confidently hope — the fullest share 
 in that prosperity which I predict without hesitation for the 
 whole of South Africa. [Cheers.]
 
 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 Photogravure after an engraving by Williams
 
 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 A TEST EXAMINATION 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate at the Harvard Alumni dinner, Cam- 
 bridge, Mass., June 30, 1875.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Alumni : — If 
 our worthy Alma Mater looked forth this morning, as I 
 have no doubt she did, upon our passing column, she must 
 have congratulated herself upon the fact that all the boys 
 were here, — even the old boy himself was here. I refer, 
 sir, to no person ; I mean nothing personal, none of those 
 gray-headed men who immediately surround your table, but 
 I speak of that venerable and reverend company of ancient 
 graduates who preceded the class of 1835, and who, there- 
 fore, upon their own merits, are allowed to eat and drink freely 
 in honor of Alma Mater. [Laughter and applause.] To 
 us, sir, children of a later growth, who are mindful of the 
 almighty dollar, it lends a new charm to life, a new ambi- 
 tion, and something purer and grander than we have had 
 before, to which we may work up. For, gentlemen, before 
 the only real prize for seniority among Harvard graduates 
 was the position of the oldest-surviving graduate; and as 
 playing for that, sir, was extremely a game of chance, there 
 were very few who had the temerity to aim at it. Now, sir, 
 to recollect that forty-three years of faithful service, paying 
 always for our dinners as we go, will enable us to spend the 
 evening of our days in free and sumptuous feeding at these 
 tables, is indeed, an incentive to the highest happiness. 
 [Laughter and applause.] I take it for granted, sir, that it 
 was for age of service that that compliment was paid 
 them, for, judging from symptoms I have observed to-day, 
 if it was upon the idea that these gentlemen have outlived 
 
 147
 
 148 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 their appetites, that was a mistake which has told witli 
 frightful effect upon the general dinner. [Loud laughter.] 
 
 Mr. President, to graduates, distant in time or place, re- 
 turning upon these festive days, one of the most delightful 
 things that we observe is the universal emulation of youth 
 that marks the Avhole concern ; how each man, each class, 
 is struggling to be a little younger than they really are. 
 How to preserve youth, the art of keeping perpetually 
 young, is, indeed, a secret worth discovering. Lord Bacon, 
 sir, understood it, as he understood almost everything that 
 pertains to human nature ; and he concentrated the whole 
 thing in a little story that he told in one of his famous 
 apothegms on Sir Thomas More. As I have heard it told 
 at a commencement dinner, I will tell it here. " Sir Thomas 
 More," he said, " married, and at the first had daughters 
 only ; and his wife did ever pray for a boy. At last she had 
 a boy, which, after it reached man's years, proved simple. 
 Sir Thomas said to his wife, ' Thou prayedst so long for a boy 
 that he will be a boy as long as he lives.' " [Laughter.] 
 I could not help observing here to-day, Mr. President, 
 how this struggle for youth marked the advancing column. 
 How frisky the aged graduate appeared, how boyish the 
 men of middle age, and how perfectly childish the last of 
 the column. [Loud laughter and applause.] 
 
 Mr. President, we, who are getting to be among the 
 older graduates, refer with longing to the past ; and great 
 and growing as is the college, or the university in which it 
 is now lost, we can't help thinking that our brightest days 
 were when we were under her cool and shady trees. And, 
 for one, I shall always, whatever fate may come upon the 
 college, remain of the honest conviction that the Presi- 
 dency of Jared Sparks was the best time of the college. 
 [Laughter.] And, sir, in those days the government of the 
 college was administered on very different principles than 
 those which are now maintained. The standard was es- 
 tablished upon the orthodox theory that the capability of 
 every class is to be measured by the strength of the weak- 
 est links in the chain, and the curriculum was adapted to 
 the understandingof the stupidest. That worthy president, 
 Mr. Chairman, whose precepts and examples have been so 
 much neglected in recent days, made a practical application,
 
 A TEST EXAMINATION 149 
 
 in his treatment of the student, of what Mr. Quincy, I be- 
 lieve, had once jocosely pronounced when he said that his 
 maxim was: " Be to their faults a little blind, be to their 
 virtues very blind, but clap the padlock on the mind." 
 [Laughter.] The key, sir, to that padlock was lost in 
 Quincy's time ; Sparks never looked for it, and when I hear 
 of the miseries of the undergraduates of the present day, I 
 almost regret that Eliot found it and set out to insert it in 
 the rusty wards of the lock. [Laughter and applause.] I 
 don't mean to say, sir, that we were kept away from the 
 fountain of learning ; far from it. We learned few things, 
 and tried to learn them well ; but then, too, there were hidden 
 mysteries in those days as in these more recent. 
 
 I remember Professor Pierce, whose venerable form I now 
 rejoice to see in freshness among us. [Great applause.] 
 He and his functions were the ;/^ //;/5' ?/'//r(7. [Laughter.] 
 I believe that a modern upstart among philosophers, Her- 
 bert Spencer, has claimed to be the first originator and 
 teacher of the unknowable. Professor Pierce was ahead of 
 him by many years. [Great laughter and applause.] He, 
 sir, had three different forms of a mathematical problem by 
 which he used to test our progress : the first and simplest 
 were those that only the first eight in the class could under- 
 stand ; the second were those which nobody but the pro- 
 fessor himself could master, and the third were those which 
 neither he nor anybody else could understand. [Laughter.] 
 Now, sir, I am truly horrified in taking up one of these 
 annual catalogues, to see the tests that are applied to the 
 modern mind. I verily believe that any simple-minded 
 graduate of more than twenty-years' standing would find it 
 more difficult to pass any one of the junior examinations 
 that we have laid down, than really it would be for a camel 
 to pass through the eye of a needle. [Laughter.] I wish, 
 sir, that justice might be done to these trembling youths 
 [laughter], and that for once the tables might be turned 
 upon the board of overseers [loud and prolonged applause], 
 under whose authority these excruciating tests are applied 
 to the infant minds. I take up the last annual catalogue 
 [pulling the book from his pocket], with a view to see 
 whether there were probably any of the venerable and honor- 
 able overseers, as they used to be called, who could answer
 
 150 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 the simplest of these questions, and I would like to have it 
 applied here and now. [Great applause and laughter.] 
 Begin, sir, with the venerable head of the university. 
 [Roars of laughter.] That, sir, was the formal mode of 
 speaking of the President when I was in college. I don't 
 know how it suits him to be addressed in that way by one 
 who was a sophomore when he was a freshman. But really, 
 gentlemen, if wisdom, if the gray head of man and honest 
 living are true old age, why he is already as old as Quincy 
 and as venerable as Walker. [Applause.] 
 
 Now let us have a little examination in philosophy. 
 Why, Mr. President, there was something called philosophy 
 taught in our day by Professor Bowen. That was before 
 the true function of the brain as the seat of the mind had 
 been discovered ; but we were taught a spurious and effete 
 kind of mental philosophy which consisted in evolving 
 something out of our own consciousness which was not 
 there. [Loud laughter.] Let us see whether the venerable 
 head of the university could answer a single one of these 
 questions, and if he can he will rise to do it. [Roars of 
 laughter.] 
 
 " Explain the Paralogism of Rational Psychology, the Antinomies of 
 Rational Cosmology (proving the thesis and antithesis of one of them, as 
 an example) ; and the ontological, cosmological, and physico-theological 
 proofs of the Ideal of Pure Reason, or Idea of God, together with Kant's 
 objections to each of these three modes of proof." 
 
 I am sorry Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the genial Pres- 
 ident of the board of overseers, has left in time to escape 
 the examination, and in his absence I would like to ask 
 Judge Hoar to tell me this : — 
 
 " Explain briefly the theory of atomistic dynamism, and how it re- 
 duces matter to mere Will and Presentation. Of what only do the senses 
 and the physical sciences take cognizance as constituting the primitive 
 element of Matter ? What must ideally or in thought precede every 
 motion or physical force ? " 
 
 Judge Hoar: — " Not prepared." [Loud laughter and ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Then, sir, I would like to ask Dr. Samuel Green, that 
 youthful and ubiquitous member of the board, to answer a 
 plain question in " harmony " which is now required : —
 
 A TEST EXAMINATION 151 
 
 " Resolve the dominant seventh chord of G into other seventh chords 
 and give an example of the progression of three of tlie secondary chords 
 of the seventh into other chords than those of the regv:lar progression." 
 
 Why, sir, I might go on exhausting, not these questions, 
 but the honorable board of overseers [laughter] till I could 
 demonstrate to you that not one of these gentlemen is, as 
 he is found at present sitting at the table, fitted to enter 
 into, much less to escape out of, their difficulties. [Renewed 
 laughter,] 
 
 Mr. President, I am very glad you wrote down the toast 
 that I was to speak on. You wrote me that I was to speak 
 for the graduates, in partibus infidcliuvi, and if I rightly re- 
 member the Latin that used to be taught us by Dr. Peck 
 and Professor Lane, that means "a region where infidelity 
 prevails." I would have you know, sir, that I came from 
 the virtuous and orthodox city of New York. You may 
 well study the example and virtues of the people, even the 
 alumni of Harvard. We are not so benighted as you, in 
 your note, seem to suppose. Why, sir, we have a Harvard 
 club organized after the fashion of this association of the 
 alumni, and so far as I can see it is a perfect miniature. 
 Meeting periodically, we resolve ourselves into a mutual ad- 
 miration society, and sing the praises of our Alma Mater. 
 We are visited every year by the worthy head of the univer- 
 sity himself, who comes to us as certain as the twenty-second 
 of February comes round. He tells us all that is being done 
 and attempted in this our ancient college, and never leaves 
 us without revealing to the sons the needy condition of the 
 college. [Laughter.] And from all that I can learn it is 
 not only his favorable theme, but her normal condition. 
 [Laughter.] We have a chance, sir, to put our names to all 
 the subscriptions that are started, although we have not the 
 right of representation on the board of overseers. But, sir, 
 if the board of overseers is to be subjected to a test, an ex- 
 ample of which I have suggested, it may be a happy escape 
 for us. [Loud applause.]
 
 i:;2 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 TRIBUTE TO LORD HOUGHTON 
 
 [Speech of Joseph II. Choate at the farewell reception given to Lord 
 Houghton (Richard Monckton INIilnes) at the Union League Club, New 
 York, November 23, 1S75, the day pi-eviousto his return to England. In 
 a report of this banquet, the " New York Tribune " said : " When the 
 speaker referred to America's position during the war, Lord Houghton 
 applauded with the rest. When Mr. Choate expressed the gratitude of 
 America for the stand Lord Houghton took in favor of the Union cause 
 during the Rebellion, tears of pleasure came into the ej-esof the guest."] 
 
 Gentlemen of the Union League Club :—ln seek- 
 ing this opportunity to pay our respects to the distinguished 
 gentleman who now honors us with his presence, we cer- 
 tainly could not hope, by our modest reception, to equal the 
 bounteous hospitality which has been showered upon him at 
 the hands of private citizens in every city that he has visited, 
 or to add to the warmth of that cordial greeting which has 
 attended his steps throughout his wanderings in the United 
 States. The familiar maxim of Apelles, by which, in the 
 earlier years of his manhood, our guest is believed to have 
 trained his Muse, appears to have been practically applied 
 in an altered sense to his lordship, at every stage of his 
 American pilgrimage, 7iu//a die's sine linca — no day Avithout 
 a line to come to dinner. Whatever pleasures and what- 
 ever perils belong to that peculiar institution of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, as Emerson calls it, he must already have fully 
 experienced. We must congratulate ourselves and him that 
 he has happily survived them all, with health and strength 
 still unimpaired, for, having done so, he stands before us to- 
 night a living argument to the robust and hardy vigor of 
 the British constitution, of which he is so worthy a repre- 
 sentative. Neither can we offer him, at a meeting of the 
 Club, the charms of the feminine presence with which, if he 
 was not misreportcd on a recent occasion, he has been hon- 
 ored and delighted during his stay among us. It was only 
 yesterday that I read In the newspapers of a high tribute 
 paid by him to the wit and beauty of the women of Amer- 
 ica. Had we known in season that his lordship cherished 
 that gentle enthusiasm, had we supposed it possible that a
 
 TRIBUTE TO LORD HOUGHTON , 1 53 
 
 peer of England would be open to those tender influences, 
 we mii^ht have put in practice the theory of natural selec- 
 tion, as the occasion would have justified, and have sur- 
 rounded him on this last night of his stay in America with 
 such a glittering array of loveliness as would have set his 
 " poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling," and perhaps some 
 future edition of " I'alm Leaves" or of " Poems of Many 
 Years" would have contained some stanzas to the women 
 of the West by Lord Houghton that, in delicacy and sweet- 
 ness, would have matched the lyric tributes which Monck- 
 ton Milncs was wont to pay to the far-famed graces of the 
 Orient. 
 
 No, we have sought this occasion not so much for his 
 own pleasure as for ours, having little to offer him but the 
 honest expression of that high consideration and regard 
 which has long been felt for his lordship in the United 
 States. We desired an opportunity to look upon one whose 
 name has been associated for a whole generation with those 
 things which tend to elevate and improve the condition of 
 mankind. Many of us, from childhood, have been accus- 
 tomed to hear of him as one of the men of letters of Eng- 
 land, who, by their devotion to good learning and polite 
 literature, have been missionaries of knowledge and pleas- 
 ure to all who speak and read the English tongue. Some 
 of us have read his books — 
 
 " And books, we know. 
 Are a substantial world, both pure and good : 
 Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 
 Our pastime and our happiness will grow." 
 
 We have heard by tradition and report of his generous 
 sympathy for humanity in all its suffering forms, that the 
 cause of oppressed nationalities has found in him a constant 
 advocate and friend — whether Poland, the bleeding victim 
 of her rapacious neighbors — or Italy, suffering the accumu- 
 lated miseries of centuries — or Greece, the classic heir of an- 
 cient woes. We have been told also that the promptings 
 of a generous and manly heart have led him to support at 
 home all measures for the reform and amelioration of the 
 criminal classes, and to alleviate the distresses of the poor; 
 that he wears the well-earned title of a friend of humanity.
 
 154 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 We have not forgotten his stout assertions of the right of 
 freedom in reHgion, and remember his statement — made 
 when it was not yet altogether popular — that " religious 
 equality is the natural birthright of every Briton," 
 
 But, after all, the chief and immediate title of Lord 
 Houghton to our special regard and gratitude is in the manly 
 stand he took with certain other liberal statesmen of England 
 on the occasion of our late civil war, by which they proved 
 themselves the steadfast and effective friends alike of their 
 own country and of ours. Not more from political con- 
 sideration, I think, than from a natural, instinctive, Anglo- 
 Saxon love of fair play — because they could not help it — 
 they insisted — and none more emphatically than our guest 
 of this evening — that England should observe a real and 
 honest friendship to America. To borrow words of his 
 own : — 
 
 '* Great thoughts, great feelings came to them. 
 Like instincts, unawares." 
 
 He will pardon me, I know, forrefreshing your recollection 
 from the Debates, with regard to one or two things which 
 he said in his place in the House of Commons. When the 
 seizure of the " Alexandra " was under discussion, in April, 
 1863, which you will remember as one of the very darkest 
 periods we ever passed through — it was in that month that 
 President Lincoln, in accordance with a resolution of the Sen- 
 ate, set apart a day of fasting and prayer for the whole people 
 to humble themselves before Almighty God for the deadly 
 scourgings of the war — it was then that, after hearing some 
 violent words spoken in Parliament, tending to measures 
 which, if adopted, would force us in our crippled condition 
 into the desperate e.xtremity of war with England, he said, 
 after regretting the violent language to which he had 
 listened : — 
 
 " Sir : — I trust that peace will continue, for many reasons, but above 
 all for this. For us to talk of war — for England armed to the teeth — 
 England with all her wealth and power to talk of war against a nation in 
 the very agonies of her destinies, and torn to the vitals by a great, civil 
 commotion, is so utterly ungenerous, so repugnant to every manly feel- 
 ing, that I cannot conceive it possible. Honorable gentlemen opposite 
 talk of acting in a gallant spirit. Is it to act in a gallant spirit for a
 
 TRIBUTE TO LORD HOUGHTON 1 55 
 
 strong man to figlit a man with his arms tied, with his eyes blinded ? And 
 that is what you pro])ose to do — you, with the wealth and power of 
 England — when you seek to promote war with the United States." 
 
 Happily for us, such friendly and generous words and 
 counsels prevailed, and we escaped that untold calamity. 
 And again, a little earlier, wlien our blockade, whose main- 
 tenance was so absolutely essential to the successful prosecu- 
 tion of the war, pressed so hard on their own domestic 
 prosperity as to provoke appeals to the British government 
 to disregard and ignore it, he scouted the idea, and after 
 arguing that the blockade was as effective as, in the nature 
 of things, it was possible to make it, he said : — 
 
 " I have always regarded a disruption of the American Union as a great 
 calamity for the world, believing with De Tocqueville that it would do 
 more to destroy political liberty and arrest the progress of mankind than 
 any other event that can possibl}' be imagined. . . . The Americans are our 
 fellow-countrymen. I shall always call them so. I see in them our own 
 character reproduced with all its merits and all its defects. They are as 
 vigorous, as industrious, as powerful, as honest and truthful as ourselves. 
 And I can never for a moment disassociate the fortunes of Great Britain 
 from the fortunes of the United States of America." 
 
 No wonder that Lord Houghton finds many friends in 
 America. I need not assure him that we appreciate and re- 
 ciprocate these generous sentiments uttered in those darkest 
 hours of our sorest need, and that we join our prayers to his 
 for the perpetual peace and friendship between these two 
 nations that are of but one interest, one tongue, and one 
 blood. 
 
 In the name, my lord, of this Club, which may modestly 
 claim to represent a portion of the intelligence and the 
 public spirit of New York, supported as it is to-night by the 
 presence of her chief magistrate and of many other citizens 
 who, without regard to politics or creeds, have assembled 
 with it in your honor, I bid you a most cordial and hearty 
 welcome.
 
 156 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 THE BENCH AND THE BAR 
 
 [Speech of Mr. Clioate at the iiith Annual Banquet of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of the State of New York, May 13, 1879. I" introducmg 
 him, the President, Samuel Babcock, said : "The next toast is ' The 
 Bench and the Bar — Blessed are the peacemakers.' [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] I must say in reference to this toast, that it is a much greater 
 piece of sarcasm than the one on ' Sister Cities.' I never heard lawyers 
 called by that title before, but I will ask our distinguished fellow-citizen, 
 from whom we are alwa^-s glad to hear on these oecasions, Joseph H. 
 Choate, Esquire, to respond."] 
 
 Mr. President: — I rise with unprecedented embarras.s- 
 ment in this presence and at this hour to respond to this sen- 
 timent, so flattering to the feelings of all members of the 
 Bench and Bar [applause], to say nothing of that shrinking 
 modesty inherent in the breast of every lawyer and which 
 the longer he practises seems to grow stronger and stronger. 
 [Laughter.] I have a specific trouble which overwhelms 
 me at this moment, and that is that all the preparation 
 I had made for this occasion is a complete miscarriage. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 I received this sentiment yesterday with an intimation 
 that I was expected to respond to it. I had prepared a se- 
 rious and sober essay on the relations of commerce to the 
 law — the one great relation of client and counsel [laughter], 
 but I have laid all that aside ; I do not intend to have a 
 single sober word to-night. [Laughter.] I do not know 
 that I could. [Renewed laughter.] There is a reason, how- 
 ever, ^f hy nothing more of a sober sort should be uttered at 
 this table ; there is a danger that it would increase by how- 
 ever small a measure the specific gravity of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of New York. Certainly nothing could be a 
 greater calamity than that. [Laughter.] At an hour like 
 this, sir, merchants like witnesses are to be weighed as well 
 as counted ; and when I compare your appearance at this 
 moment with what it was when you entered this room, when 
 I look around upon these swollen girths and these expanded 
 countenances, when I see that each individual of the Cham- 
 ber has increased his avoirdupois at least ten pounds since
 
 THE BENCH AND THE BAR 1 57 
 
 he took his scat at this table, why the total weight of the 
 aggregate body must be startling, indeed [laughter], and 
 as I suppose you believe in a resurrection from this long 
 session, as you undoubtedly hope to rise again from these 
 chairs, to which you have been glued so long, I should be 
 the last person to add a feather's weight to what has been 
 so heavily heaped upon you. [Applause.] 
 
 I have forgotten, Mr. President, whether it was Josh 
 Billings or Henry F. Spaulding, who gave utterance to the 
 profound sentiment that there is no substitute for wisdom, 
 and that the next best thing to wisdom is silence. [Laughter 
 and applause.] And so, handing to the reporters the essay 
 which I had prepared for your instruction, it would be my 
 duty to sit down in peace. [Laughter.] But I cannot take 
 my seat without repudiating some of the gloomy views 
 which have fallen from the gentlemen who preceded me. 
 My worthy pastor, the Rev. Dr. Bellows, has said, if I re- 
 member rightly his language, that there is a great distrust 
 in the American heart of the permanence of our American 
 institutions. [Laughter.] 
 
 [Rev. Dr. Bellows: "I did not say anything of the kind." 
 [Laughter and applause.] 1 
 
 [Mr. Choate : " Well, I leave it to your recollection, 
 gentlemen of the jury, what he did say." [Laughter.] "1 
 
 I am perfectly willing that the doctor should speak for 
 his own institution, but not for mine. I do not believe that 
 a body of merchants of New York with their stomachs full 
 have any growing scepticism or distrust of the permanence 
 of the institution which I represent. [Laughter.] The 
 poor, gentlemen, you have Avith you always, and so the 
 lawyer will always be your sure and steadfast companion. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Blaine, freighted with wisdom from the floor of the 
 Senate house and from long study of American institutions, 
 has deplored the low condition of'the carrying trade. Now, 
 for our part, as representing one of the institutions which 
 does its full share of the carrying trade, I repudiate the idea. 
 We undoubtedly are still prepared to carry all that can be 
 heaped upon us. [Laughter.] Lord Bacon, who was thought 
 the greatest lawyer of his age, has said that every man owes
 
 158 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 a duty to his profession ; but I think that can be amended 
 by saying, in reference to the law, that every man in the 
 community owes a duty to our profession [laughter] ; and 
 somewhere, at some time, somewhere between the cradle 
 and the grave, he must acknowledge the liability and pay 
 the debt. [Applause.] Why, gentlemen, you cannot live 
 without the lawyers, and certainly you cannot die without 
 them. [Laughter.] It was one of the brightest members 
 of the profession, you remember, who had taken his passage 
 for Europe to spend his summer vacation on the other side, 
 and failed to go ; and when called upon for an explanation, 
 he said, — why, yes ; he had taken his passage, and had in- 
 tended to go, but one of his rich clients had died, and he 
 was afraid if he had gone across the Atlantic, the heirs 
 would have got all the property. [Applause and laughter.] 
 
 Our celebrated Minister to Berlin [Andrew D. White] 
 also has spoken a good many earnest words in behalf of the 
 institutions he represents. I did not observe any imme- 
 diate response to the calls he made, but I could not help 
 thinking as he was speaking, how such an appeal might be 
 made, and probably would be made with effect, in behalf 
 of the institution I represent, upon many of you in the 
 course of the immediate future. When I look around me 
 on this solid body of merchants, all this heaped-up and idle 
 capital, all these great representatives of immense railroad, 
 steamship and every other interest under the face of the 
 sun, I believe that the fortunes of the Bar are yet at their 
 very beginning. [Applause.] Gentlemen, the future is all 
 before us. We have no sympathy with Communism, but 
 like Communists we have everything to gain and nothing 
 to lose. [Laughter.] 
 
 But my attention must be called for a moment, before I 
 sit down, to the rather remarkable phraseology of the toast. 
 I have heard lawyers abused on many occasions. In the 
 midst of strife we certainly are most active participants. 
 But you apply the phrase to us : " Blessed are the peace- 
 makers ! " Well, now, I believe that is true. I believe that 
 if you will devote yourself assiduously enough, and long 
 enough, to our profession, it will result in perfect peace. 
 [Laughter.] But you never knew — did you ? — a lawsuit, if 
 it was prosecuted vigorously enough and lasted long enough,
 
 THE sorcerer's RESPONSE 159 
 
 where at the end there was anything left for the parties to 
 quarrel over. [Continued laughter.] 
 
 Mr. President, I shall not weary your patience longer. 
 This long programme of toasts is not yet exhausted. The 
 witching hour of midnight is not far off, and yet there are 
 many statesmen, there are many lawyers, there are many 
 merchants who arc yet to be heard from, and so it is time I 
 should take my seat, exhorting you to do justice always to 
 the profession of the law. [Loud applause.] 
 
 THE SORCERER'S RESPONSE 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate at the first banquet of the New England 
 Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. Benjamin D. Silli- 
 man, President of the Society, was in the chair. The toast to which 
 Mr. Choate responded was: "The New England Society in the City 
 of New York — a worthy representative of New England Principles." 
 The chairman said : " Salem had its witches. They were generally of 
 the gentle sex. But one of them in the shape of mortal man emigrated, 
 some twenty-five years ago, from Salem to New York, where he has ever 
 since (as his famed kinsman and namesake before him did in Boston) 
 bewitched courts and juries. At the risk of being bewitched, we will 
 invoke the sorcerer to respond to this toast and I therefore call on Mr. 
 Choate."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — As I intend to walk 
 home over the bridge to-night [laughter] my remarks will 
 be as brief as they must be sober ; and a word of that great 
 structure before I begin. If Mr. Murphy will excuse me 
 for saying so, it is in every possible sense of the word to the 
 people of both cities a " Bridge of Sighs ! " [Laughter.] 
 
 It is well for you that you made this experiment before 
 it was finally completed ; because, if, as they tell us, it is to 
 make of us one city and one people, there should be written 
 at its terminus, when it .shall be completed, a motto bor- 
 rowed from its namesake on the shores of the Adriatic : 
 " who enters here must leave all hope of an independent 
 celebration in Brooklyn behind." [Laughter.] Gentlemen, 
 I have been sent here to-night by your parent society, the 
 New England Society of New York [laughter], to welcome 
 in its behalf this infant prodigy, which has grown to full
 
 l6o JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 manhood, or womanhood, in the first night of its existence. 
 [Applause.] Why, you have accompHshed as much in one 
 twenty-four hours, as we in the protracted struggle of the 
 whole seventy-five years of our career. And this, too, in 
 Brooklyn, the dormitory of New York [laughter] — well, it 
 shows how much good there is in sleep. [Laughter.] It 
 shows how true those eulogies are which all the poets have 
 exhausted upon sleep : 
 
 " Sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care ; 
 The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath ; 
 Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course. 
 Chief nourisher at life's feast." 
 
 And yet, gentlemen, it gives a death blow to some of that 
 esteem and consideration in which we, on the other side of 
 the river, have been in the habit of holding our brethren and 
 neighbors of Brooklyn. Seeing you, as we have year after 
 year, for the last seventy-five years [laughter], coming as 
 modest partakers of the viands that we set before you on 
 Manhattan Island, we had come to look upon you as modest, 
 unassuming, self-denying descendants of the Pilgrims, and 
 worthy followers in their footsteps. But this declaration of 
 independence of yours puts an entirely new phase upon the 
 situation; where is your long-asserted modesty? [Laugh- 
 ter.] Why, the most sublime instance that I have ever 
 known or heard of, of a modest, self-denying descendant of 
 the sons of the Pilgrims was exhibited by a Brooklynite. 
 He has since become a great Congregational clergyman. I 
 name no names, for names are always invidious. It v/as in 
 his younger days, after he had completed his course of in- 
 struction, and was ready to take upon himself the sacred 
 orders ; when he presented himself before the dignified con- 
 ference that was to pass upon his qualifications, the Moder- 
 ator put to him that great orthodox question, the test of 
 which every candidate was expected to stand. " Sir," said 
 the Moderator, "are you willing to be saved by consenting 
 to be damned for the glory of God?" [Laughter.] And 
 the sublime answer that he gave justified the great reputa- 
 tion that he afterward gained. " No," said he, " Mr. Mod- 
 erator, but I am perfectly willing that you should be ! " 
 [Great applause.] What perfect self-abnegation was there
 
 THE SORCERERS RESPONSE l6l 
 
 displayed ! and how sadly have you all fallen froni that 
 exalted standard ! 
 
 Another thing that I noticed, Mr. President, is that you 
 have selected the twenty-first of December for your celebra- 
 tion, instead of the twenty-second. General Sherman has 
 been charitable enough to suppose that it is because there 
 is a doubt on which of these days the Pilgrims landed. We 
 believe, on the contrary, that you have selected the twenty- 
 first because we have selected the twenty-second [laughter], 
 or possibly at this late hour of the evening, we may be 
 excused, not for considering it doubtful whether they 
 landed on the twenty-first or the twenty-second, but 
 for firmly believing that they landed on both days. 
 [Laughter.] Gentlemen, it is a very serious question, this 
 complication and re-duplication of New England festivals. 
 The wheels of the Federal Government, as you perceive, 
 must necessarily be stopped, until both these days are cel- 
 ebrated, and both these dinners eaten and digested. For 
 one, I believe that the great welfare of this people would be 
 promoted if the event could be celebrated on all the 365 days 
 of the year. [Applause,] If not only the President and 
 Secretary of State, and tlie General of the Armies, but all 
 the holders of office from them down to the lowest tide- 
 water, could be fed every day upon your simple fare of pork 
 and beans — and codfish and Indian pudding — why it would 
 solve immediately that great problem of civil service reform 
 which has vexed so much the patience of this Administra- 
 tion, and would give a free course, over which their succes- 
 sors could go on their way rejoicing and triumphant. [Ap- 
 plause.] But it is a great thing to have two dinners, if we 
 cannot have three hundred and sixty-five. It is a splendid 
 thing to bring General Sherman here, who with his little 
 army has now only to fight Indians, that he may learn at 
 the shrine of Miles Standish, who also had nobody but In- 
 dians to fight — and who put them all to rout with his little 
 trained band of thirteen armed Pilgrims. [Laughter.] You 
 may depend upon it that on Thursday morning, at any rate, 
 the Secretary of State [\V. M. Evarts] will return to his 
 great duties at Washington, after partaking of both of these 
 festivals, a fatter and a better man. [Tumultuous laugh-
 
 l62 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 Mr. President, one of the most interesting reflections that 
 occur to any thoughtful mind, on gazing around on such a 
 company as this, is to compare these sleek, well-fed, self- 
 satisfied and contented men with what they were when they 
 started out from New England. [Laughter.] Archimedes, 
 brandishing his lever, said that if you could give him a point 
 to stand on, he would move the world, and so, the genuine 
 emigrant from New England says : " Give me but a point for 
 my feet [laughter], and plenty of elbow-room, and I will 
 make all the world about me, mine." It is told traditionally 
 — I believe it is true — of ®ne of the first pioneers from New 
 England to this good old City of Brooklyn, that, when he 
 presented his letters at the counting-room at which he sought 
 admission, the lordly proprietor of the establishment asked 
 him : " Why, what in the world are all you Yankee boys 
 coming here for?" " Sir," said he, with that modest assur- 
 ance that marked the whole tribe [laughter], " we are coming 
 to attend to }'our business, to marry your daughters, and 
 take charge of your estates." [Laughter.] I believe, sir, 
 that the descendants of that hero are still here, actual guests 
 at this table to-night, and still have that particular estate in 
 charge. [Laughter.] And if not they, why all these gen- 
 tlemen represent the same practical application of that 
 experience, and of that rule. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in behalf of the parent society that I 
 represent, I bid you Godspeed. You cannot do better than 
 to continue as you have begun, to eat and drink }'our way 
 back to Plymouth Rock. It is the true way to celebrate 
 the Pilgrim leathers. Do not have any long orations. 
 They nearly killed the parent society. [Laughter.] 
 
 And let me tell you a very interesting reminiscence; for 
 one who has eaten twenty-five New England diimers in suc- 
 cession at the New York table, may indulge in one reminis- 
 cence : It Avas the first celebration that I ever attended, 
 twenty-five years ago, in the City of New York, and we had 
 an oration, and the very narration of what then occurred 
 shows what wondrous progress the principles of the Pilgrims 
 have made in this last quarter of a century. It was in the 
 old church of the Puritans, on Union Square, that has given 
 place to that palace of art, now known by the name of Tif- 
 fany's. There came one of the great and shining lights of
 
 THE sorcerer's RESPONSE 1 63 
 
 Boston's intellect, giving us the best exposition that he could 
 give of what my friend, Mr. Hale, describes as Boston in- 
 tensity, overshadowed by Boston conservatism. He ap- 
 pealed to that congregation, with all the eloquence that he 
 could command, to stand by the Union as it was, upon the 
 physical fact of slavery as it then existed. He appealed to 
 them — to the white blood that ran in their veins — to stand 
 by their white brethren, whenever there should come the 
 conflict of races in this land. And I remember the icy chill 
 that ran through the assembled company of New England's 
 sons and daughters when he took his seat. 
 
 But, fortunately there rose up after him that grand old 
 chip of Plymouth Rock, John Pierpont, who had himself 
 suffered persecution in the very city of Boston, of which 
 we are so proud, and he delivered the poem of the occasion, 
 and as those glowing stanzas fell from his burning and in- 
 dignant lips, he fired the hearts of the congregation with 
 his prophetic utterances. I remember the stanza with 
 which he closed ; which no one who heard him, it seemed 
 to me, could ever forget, when he invoked the aid of the 
 Almighty to inspire the hearts of the sons and daughters of 
 the Pilgrims to be true to their fathers, and never to turn 
 their backs on Liberty — never to desert the cause of the 
 slave : — 
 
 " O Thou Holy One, and just, 
 Thou who wast the Pilgrims' trust, 
 Thou who watchest o'er their dust, 
 
 By the moaning sea, 
 By their conflicts, toils and cares, 
 By their perils, and their prayers. 
 By their ashes, make their heirs, 
 True to them and Thee ! " 
 
 The cold fatalism of the orator was lost and forgotten ; 
 but that burning prophecy of the poet lives to-day. We 
 see its fruits in a land redeemed from slavery, in a nation 
 starting on an imperishable career of glory, where equal lib- 
 erty, and equal law, are secure to all men, of every color, 
 and of every race. [Long-continued applause.]
 
 l64 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 THE PILGRIM MOTHERS 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate at the seventy-fifth anniversary banquet 
 of the New England Society, in the City of New York, December 22, 
 1S80. James C. Carter, President of the Society, was in the chair, and 
 said by way of introduction : "I have here a toast to ' The Wives and 
 Daughters of New England ' coupled with the name of a gentleman very 
 familiar to 5'ou ; but I hesitate a little about having him speak for them, 
 without first consulting the husbands and fathers. So I will give j-ou 
 ' The Pilgrim Mothers,' and call upon Mr. Joseph H. Choate to respond."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — 
 
 " As unto the bow the cord is. 
 So unto the man is woman : 
 Though she bends him, she obej^s him ; 
 Though she draws him, 5-et she follows ; 
 Useless each without the other." 
 
 I have no doubt, Mr. President, that it is in obedience to 
 this most truthful sentiment of our New England poet that, 
 to-night, your committee of arrangements have added the 
 cord to the bow, so that, for the first time in the history of 
 the Society, there might be a complete celebration of the 
 landing of the Pilgrims. [Cheers.] I am not surprised, 
 Mr. President, that you deem this subject so delicate a one 
 for your rude hands to touch, or for your inexperienced lips 
 to salute [laughter] ; that you have left it to one who 
 claims to be by nature and experience more gifted with 
 knowledge of the subject. [Laughter.] And yet even I 
 tremble at the task which you have assigned me. To speak 
 for so many women at once is a rare and a difficult oppor- 
 tunity. It is given to most of the sons of the Pilgrims once 
 only in a lifetime to speak for one woman. [Laughter.] 
 Sometimes, in rare cases of felicity, they are allowed to do 
 so a second time ; and if, by the gift of Divine Providence, 
 it reaches to a third and a fourth, it is what very few of us 
 can hope for. [Laughter and cheers.] And yet, sir, they 
 will point out to you in one village of Connecticut a grave- 
 yard wherein repose the bones of a true son of the Pilgrims, 
 surrounded by five wives who in succession had shared his
 
 THE PILGRIM MOTHERS 165 
 
 lot, and he rests in the centre, in serene felicity, with the 
 epitaph upon the marble headstone that entombs him in- 
 scribed, "Our Husband." [Laughter.] Now, whose hus- 
 band, sir, shall he be in the world to come, if it shall then 
 turn out that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet? 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 I really don't know, at this late hour, Mr. Chairman, how 
 you expect me to treat this difficult and tender subject. I 
 suppose, to begin with, I may take it up historically. There 
 is no part of the sacred writings that has so much impressed 
 me as the history of the first creation of woman. I believe 
 that no invasion of science has shaken the truth of that re- 
 markable record — how Adam slept, and his best rib was 
 taken from his side and transformed into the first woman. 
 Thus, sir, she became the " side-bone " of man ! — the sweet- 
 est morsel in his whole organism ! [Laughter.] Why, sir, 
 there is nothing within the pages of sacred writ that is 
 dearer to me than that story. I believe in it as firmly as I 
 do in that of Daniel in the den of lions, or Jonah in the whale's 
 belly, or any other of those remarkable tales. [Laughter.] 
 There is something in our very organism, sir, that confirms 
 its truth ; for if any one of you will lay his hand upon his 
 heart, where the space between the ribs is widest, you feel 
 there a vacuum, which nature abhors, and which noth- 
 ing can ever replace until the dear creature that was taken 
 from that spot is restored to it. [Cheers and laughter.] 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, you, as a bachelor, may doubt the 
 truth of that ; but I ask you, just once, here and now, 
 to try it. [Laughter.] Follow my example, sir, and place 
 your hand just there, and see if you do not feel a sense of 
 " gone-ness " which nothing that you have ever yet experi- 
 enced has been able to satisfy. [Cheers and laughter.] 
 
 I might next take up the subject etymologically, and try 
 and explain how woman ever acquired that remarkable 
 name. But that has been done before me by a poet with 
 whose stanzas you are not familiar, but whom you will rec- 
 ognize as deeply versed in this subject, for he says:- — 
 
 " When Eve brought woe to all mankind, 
 Old Adam called her woe-man, 
 But when she woo'd with love so kind, 
 He then pronounced her woman.
 
 166 JOSEPH HODGES CMOATE 
 
 *' But now, u'ith folly and with pride, 
 Their husband's pockets trimming. 
 The ladies are so full of whims 
 That people call them w(h)imeu." 
 
 [Laughter and cheers.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I beheve you said I should say something 
 about the Pilgrim mothers. Well, sir, it is rather late in 
 the evening to venture upon that historic subject. But, for 
 one, I pity them. The occupants of the galleries will bear 
 me witness that even these modern Pilgrims — these Pilgrims 
 with all the modern improvements — how hard it is to put 
 up with their weaknesses, their follies, their tyrannies, their 
 oppressions, their desire of dominion and rule. [Laughter.] 
 But when you go back to the stern horrors of the Pilgrim 
 rule, when you contemplate the rugged character of the 
 Pilgrim fathers, why, you give credence to what a witty 
 woman of Boston said — she had heard enough of the glories 
 and virtues and sufferings of the Pilgrim fathers ; for her 
 part, she had a world of sympathy for the Pilgrim mothers, 
 because they not only endured all that the Pilgrim fathers 
 had done, but they also had to endure the Pilgrim fathers 
 to boot. [Laughter.] Well, sir, they were afraid of wo- 
 man. They thought she was almost too refined a luxury 
 for them to indulge in. Miles Standish spoke for them all, 
 and I am sure that General Sherman, who so much re- 
 sembles Miles Standish, not only in his military renown but 
 in his rugged exterior and in his warm and tender heart, 
 will echo his words when he says : — 
 
 " I can march up to a fortress, and summon the place to surrender, 
 But march up to a woman with such a proposal, I dare not. 
 I am not afraid of bullets, nor shot from the mouth of a cannon. 
 But of a thundering ' No ! ' point-blank from the mouth of a woman, 
 That I confess I'm afraid of, nor am I ashamed to confess it." 
 
 Mr. President, did you ever see a more self-satisfied or 
 contented set of men than these that are gathered at these 
 tables this evening? I never come to the Pilgrim dinner 
 and see these men, who have achieved in the various depart- 
 ments of life such definite and satisfactory success, but that 
 I look back twenty or thirty or forty years, and see the 
 lantern-jawed boy who started out from the banks of the
 
 AMERICAS GOLDEN AGE 167 
 
 Connecticut, or some more remote river of New England, 
 with five dollars in his pocket and his father's blessing on 
 his head and his mother's Bible in his carpet-bag, to seek 
 those fortunes which now they have so gloriously made. 
 And there is one woman whom each of these, through all 
 liis progress and to the last expiring hour of his life, bears 
 in tender remembrance. It is the mother who sent him forth 
 with her blessing. A mother is a mother still — the holiest 
 thing alive ; and if I could dismiss you with a benediction 
 to-night, it would be by invoking upon the heads of you all 
 the blessing of the mothers that we left behind us. [Pro- 
 longed cheers.] 
 
 AMERICA'S GOLDEN AGE 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate at the seventy-seventh anniversary ban- 
 quet of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 
 1882. Joseph M. Fiske, President of the Society, was in the chair. Mr. 
 Choate was called upon to respond to the toast " Forefathers' Day."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New Eng- 
 land Society : — We have come together here to-night for 
 the two hundred and sixty-second time [laughter] to cele- 
 brate the landing of the Pilgrims upon that rock which all 
 men now recognize as the corner-stone of liberty. But 
 thoufjh it be a corner-stone, it will no longer do for us to 
 say, as Cotton Mather once said, that the sacrifices and sor- 
 rows of those heroic men lie hid in a corner, because it is 
 now settled on the highest authority that a corner is the 
 last place in which respectable children would wish to find 
 their parents. [Laughter.] 
 
 Well, gentlemen, it must be confessed that in more ways 
 than one we have fairly turned the tables upon those far- 
 away sires of ours. They shivered in the wintry blast and 
 toiled and starved that we as a people might live. We glow 
 with generous wine, and feast upon the fat of the land, that 
 their memories may not die. [Laughter.] If they could 
 look in upon us here to-night— those high-crowned and hun- 
 gry passengers of the Mayflower — they would hardly rec- 
 ognize us for their children. If they could listen to these 
 our annual revels, they would rather mistake us for the sons
 
 l68 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 of those I'oystering rollickers of Merry-Mount, and would 
 send Miles Standish with his troop of eight to disperse us 
 at the muzzles of their muskets. I don't know whether we 
 could resist; probably we could rally behind our Great Cap- 
 tain and successfully oppose them. [Applause.] 
 
 Then, too, until 1690 the Pilgrims never saw a newspaper ; 
 among them the reporter was an unknown terror [laughter], 
 and the interviewer was to be still for two centuries an un- 
 discovered horror. [Laughter.] And yet to-day we spread 
 their praise abroad upon the Avings of a press that speaks 
 with a million voices. 
 
 In one other respect, too, the age of the Pilgrims was the 
 golden age of America, for Ovid says that in the golden age 
 men did right of their own accord, without the fear of laws or 
 the aid of lawyers, or the presence of the judge, and we 
 read that in the early days of the Plymouth Colony it was 
 the same. What a happy people they were to be vexed by 
 no lawj'ers, to be awed by no judges (saving the presence of 
 Judge Lawrence), and never under any circumstances hav- 
 ing a session of the Legislature or of Congress ! [Laughter.] 
 
 It was not until a whole generation later that the eccen- 
 tric people of Connecticut enacted the " blue laws," and here 
 we, at the end of the nineteenth century, at the instigation 
 of a native of Haddam, Connecticut, under the form of a 
 Penal Code, are enacting obnoxious penalties for offences 
 that are no sins [applause and laughter], for which, let me 
 say, the ignorance of the seventeenth century was the only 
 excuse. [Applause.] 
 
 The venerable Secretary of this Society, Mr. Luther P. 
 Hubbard [laughter]— himself the sole survivor of the com- 
 pany of the " Mayflower," and who has brought down to our 
 day, in his own person, the austere morality and the simple 
 habits of his fellow-passengers [laughter] — has been in the 
 habit of declaring any time in these last fifty years that the 
 last New England dinner is always the best. And this un- 
 happy company of Pilgrims, Mr. President, who meet here 
 annually at Delmonico's to drown the sorrows and sufferings 
 of their ancestors in the flowing bowl [laughter], and to con- 
 template their own virtues in the mirror of history [loud ap- 
 plause], are wont to feel as every year comes around that 
 there is more cause than ever to celebrate the return of this
 
 AMERICA'S GOLDEN AGE 1 69 
 
 great day. Perhaps this is not to be a sohtary exception to 
 the record of our annual and mutual congratulation. 
 
 A celebrated American traveller has recorded that he shed 
 copious tears at the grave of Adam [laughter], and I suppose 
 it was because in these days of evolution Adam was the first 
 authentic ancestor in whose identity he felt any confidence. 
 [Laughter.] But we have got far beyond that ; we have so 
 thoroughly schooled ourselves to rejoice instead of weeping 
 over the afflictions of our sires that on this day, which 
 records the darkest hour of their pilgrimage, we find that 
 festive hilarity is the most appropriate way to celebrate their 
 fearful trials and perils. [Laughter.] 
 
 But in sober earnest, Mr. President — if this company will 
 allow me to be sober [laughter] for a few minutes [laughter] — 
 there is, this year, cause for solid congratulation, 
 
 A great tidal-wave of virtue and repentance has swept 
 over the country. Yes, gentlemen, it has just swept over 
 the land from Maine to California. Reform in the public 
 household is the recognized order of the day. " Honest 
 politics are the best," is the universal cry. Look at the two 
 great parties of the country Avho divide it all between them- 
 selves : how they arc vying with each other to see which 
 shall profess the loudest and which shall be first to have the 
 credit of putting in practice those principles of public mor- 
 ality and of good government which they know the people 
 love! [Applause.] Even dear old Massachusetts is kneel- 
 ing with the rest and is counting her beads and confessing 
 her sins, [Laughter and applause.] And Congress, too 
 [laughter], is on the stool of repentance, and I hope she may 
 long remain there. [Applause.] She really seems for once 
 to be in sober earnest, trying to go to work to save the peo- 
 ple's money, and to take off the heavy burdens that rest upon 
 their bending backs. Why, it seemed for a long time as 
 though they meant really to imitate the Pilgrim fathers by 
 working all through the Christmas holidays, [Laughter.] 
 But at the last moment, finding that the New England 
 Society was not going to adjourn on account of the stress of 
 political weather, they have sent some of their representa- 
 tives to attend its dinners in the various cities, in the hope 
 that they would imbibe new wisdom and fresh virtue with 
 which to treat their good resolution. [Applause.]
 
 1 70 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 Why, perhaps the millennium is coming at last, and we 
 are really going to have (as I believe we are, if this storm 
 continues long enough) a governmei\t of the people, by the 
 people, and not by the politicians for themselves. [Ap- 
 plause.] And then, perhaps, the first American Constitu- 
 tion, that was written in the cabin of the " Mayflower" and 
 signed by all the men on board, for the institution of the 
 new government on the basis of equal laws, passed by the 
 whole people, for the general benefit of the whole country, 
 will become the law of the whole land. Gentlemen, I want 
 to read that constitution to you for my one serious word 
 to-night, because, short as it is, it is the best Republican plat- 
 form and the best Democratic platform that any convention 
 ever adopted : " In the name of God, amen : We whose 
 names are hereunder written, the loyal subjects of our dread 
 sovereign King James, having undertaken, for the glory of 
 God and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to 
 plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do 
 by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of 
 God and of one another, covenant and bind ourselves together 
 into a civil body politic for the better and more orderly 
 preservation of the community, to constitute and frame 
 such just and equal laws from time to time as shall be 
 thought most convenient for the general good of the whole 
 country, unto which we promise all due submission and 
 obedience." 
 
 As Bancroft has well said, there is the very birth of pop- 
 ular constitutional liberty, and it breathes the same spirit 
 that inspired the utterance of the sainted Lincoln on the 
 field of Gettysburg, in honor of the dead heroes of the war 
 — that briefest and best eulogy that ever was spoken. But, 
 Mr. Chairman, I need not wander far in search of cause 
 for congratulation, when I look up and down this table and 
 see how all the best part of mankind is represented by these 
 guests who have joined us to-night to assist us in honoring 
 the memory of our fathers. How, for instance, could the 
 United States of America be so fitly represented and re- 
 sponded to as by that great soldier who long ago spoke for 
 her at the cannon's mouth in thunder-tones that still echo 
 around the globe? [Applause.] I believe that he had not 
 , the good fortune to be born on the soil of New England,
 
 America's golden age 171 
 
 but then we claim him as the closest of kindred, for, if I 
 mistake not, he is the grandson of a Connecticut captain 
 who drew his sword at Bunker Hill for independence and 
 fought at Yorktown for the union of the States. [Applause.] 
 I find on the list, too, a toast to the great State of New 
 York, that State which belongs to the Yankees just as 
 much by right of occupation as it does to its own natives. 
 [Applause.] I am sorry that Governor Cornell is detained 
 by illness from being here to-night, for I know this com- 
 pany would like to congratulate him upon liis honorable 
 administration [applause], an administration which has com- 
 manded the gratitude and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 The City of New York, too — our City of Refuge [laughter], 
 whose faults we acknowledge and attribute to others [laugh- 
 ter], whose merits and glories we enjoy as if they were our 
 ovvn [laughter] — she is fitly represented by her honored 
 chief magistrate. [Applause.] Tradition says that the Pil- 
 grims themselves intended to land here and to be the first 
 upon the spot, but they Avere wafted by wayward breezes 
 to the more sterile shores of Cape Cod. But, gentlemen, 
 we have done our best to redeem the errors of our fathers, 
 and have recaptured, after two centuries, the prize which 
 they so narrowly lost. 
 
 And then women — the better half of the Yankee world, 
 at whose tender summons even the stern Pilgrims were ever 
 ready to spring to arms [laughter], and without whose aid 
 they never would have achieved their historic title of the 
 Pilgrims Fathers [laughter] — they are to be escorted into 
 your presence to-night by one who is never tired of cele- 
 brating the " Innocents," whether abroad or at home. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The great State of Massachusetts, too, has sent the worthy 
 representative of Endicott and VVinthrop and Carver to speak 
 for her in person — an almost unprecedented honor, which I 
 am sure you will duly appreciate. [Applause.] For if the 
 Pilgrims Fathers had done nothing more than to be the 
 founders of such a State — so rich in education, so loyal to 
 public virtue, so steadfast for freedom — they certainly would 
 have commanded the lasting gratitude of mankind. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 I am sure you would not allow me to quit this pleasing
 
 172 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 programme if I did not felicitate you upon the presence of 
 two other gentlemen — those twin hail fellows, well met, at 
 every festive board — without whom no banquet is ever 
 complete ; I mean, of course. Mr. Depewand General Porter. 
 [Applause.] Their splendid efforts on a thousand fields like 
 this have fairly won their golden spurs. [Laughter.] I 
 forget whether it was Pythagoras or Emerson who finally 
 decided that the soul of mankind is located in the stomach, 
 but these two gentlemen, certainly, by their achievements 
 on such arenas as this have demonstrated at least this rule 
 of anatomy, that the pyloric orifice is the shortest cut to the 
 human brain, [Laughter.] Their well-won title of first of 
 dinner-orators is the true survival of the fittest, for I assure 
 you that their triumphant struggles in all these many years 
 at scenes like this would long ago have laid all the rest of us 
 under the table, if not under the sod. And so I think in 
 your names I may bid them welcome, thrice welcome — duo 
 fidviina belli. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Mr. President, my ten minutes are exhausted, and I have 
 not yet got to my subject — that splendid theme — " The 
 Day we Celebrate," and those heroes and heroines who made 
 it immortal. 
 
 When that little company of Nonconformists at Scrooby, 
 with Elder William Brewster at their head, having lost all 
 but conscience and honor, took their lives in their hands and 
 fled to Protestant Holland, seeking nothing but freedom to 
 worship God in their own way and to earn their scanty bread 
 by the sweat of their brows — when they toiled and wor- 
 shipped there in Leyden for twelve long and suffering years 
 — when at last longing for a larger liberty they crossed the 
 raging Atlantic in that crazy little bark that bore at the 
 peak the cross of St. George, the sole emblem of their 
 country and their hopes — Avhen they landed in the dead 
 of winter on a stern and rock-bound coast — when they saw 
 before the spring came around one entire half of the number 
 of their dear comrades perished of cold and want — when 
 they knew not where to lay their heads — 
 
 '■ They little thought how clear a light 
 
 With years should gather round this day, 
 How love should keep their memories bright ; 
 How wide a realm their sous should sway ; "
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 1 73 
 
 how the day and the place should be honored as the source 
 from which true liberty derived its birth, and how at last a 
 nation of fifty millions of freemen would bend in homage 
 over their shrine. 
 
 We honor them for their dauntless courage, for their sub- 
 lime virtue, for their self-denial, for their hard work, for their 
 common-sense, for their ever-living sense of duty, for their 
 fear of God that cast out all other fears, and for their raging 
 thirst for liberty. 
 
 In common with all those generations through which we 
 trace our proud lineage to their hardy stock, we owe a great 
 share of all that we have achieved, and all that we enjoy of 
 strength, of freedom, of prosperity, to their matchless virtue 
 and their grand example. 
 
 So long as America continues to love truth and duty, so 
 long as she cherishes liberty and justice, she will never tire 
 of hearing the praises of the Pilgrims, or of heaping fresh 
 laurels upon their altar. [Loud applause and cheers.] 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate, as presiding officer at the Harvard Alumni 
 dinner, Cambridge, Mass., June 27, 18S3. This was the year of General 
 Benjamin F. Butler's incumbency of the Governorship of Massachusetts, 
 when the honorary degree of LL.D., which it had been customary for 
 Harvard to confer upon each new Governor of the State, was withheld. 
 Governor Butler's presence at the dinner, in accordance with custom, 
 heightened the interest in the occasion.] 
 
 Brethren of the Alumni : — I hardly know how to be- 
 gin. My head swims when I look down from the giddy and 
 somewhat dangerous elevation to which you have unwit- 
 tingly raised me. Here have I been seated for the last hour 
 between the two hornsof a veritable dilemma. [Laughter.] 
 On the one side the President of the University [cheers], 
 on the other His Excellency the Governor of Massachusetts 
 [applause], whom to-day we welcome to the hospitalities of 
 Harvard. [Prolonged applause.] As to our worthy Presi- 
 dent — you all know him — you know how he strikes — always 
 from the shoulder — a true Harvard athlete, and how idle it
 
 174 JOSEPH HODGEiJ CHOATE 
 
 is for any ordinary alumnus to contend with him. [Ap- 
 plause.] And as to his Excellency, a long professional ob- 
 servation and some experience of him have taught me that 
 he, too, like the President, is a safe man to let alone, — 
 Experto credite. Quantiis in clypeiiui asstirgat, quo turbine 
 torqucat Jiastani. Well, I assure you I have found it a most 
 safe and comfortable seat. I have got along splendidly with 
 both by agreeing exactly to everything that each of them 
 has said. [Laughter.] For you know the horns of a 
 dilemma, however perilous they may be to their victims, 
 never can come in conflict with each other. [Laughter.] 
 And so, directly between them, if you take care to hold on, 
 as I have done, tight to each, you are sure to find safety and 
 repose. [Laughter.] UTedio tutissiinus ibis. I accept it as 
 a happy omen, — prophetic, let us hope, of that peace and 
 harmony which shall govern this meeting to its close. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 And now, brethren, I am at a loss whether to thank you 
 or not for the honor you have done me in calling me to pre- 
 side on this occasion, for it was only when the alumni of 
 Harvard had lost their head that they invited me to supply 
 its place. [Laughter.] I sincerely regret the absence from 
 this chair to-day of that distinguished gentleman who 
 should have occupied it, in deference to your wishes, ex- 
 pressed by your ballots. [Applause.] His character, his 
 eloquence, and his life-long loyalty to Harvard, would have 
 graced and adorned the occasion, and we all lament his ab- 
 sence. But though the association of the alumni is for the- 
 moment without a head. Harvard College still lives, and to- 
 day is younger and fresher, more vigorous and more power- 
 ful, than ever before. [Applause.] 
 
 With the pious devotion of elder children, we have come 
 up here to-day to attend upon our venerable Alma Mater 
 in the hour of her annual travail [laughter], and gathered 
 about her couch with patient reverence to witness the birth 
 of the latest addition to the family, those two hundred and 
 five new pledges of her never-failing and ever-renewing 
 creative power. [Laughter.] We wish them Godspeed on 
 that journey of life which they have to-day so auspiciously 
 begun. [Applause.] The degree conferred upon them this 
 morning is an assurance to the world that they start in the
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 175 
 
 race with more or less learning — some of them a good deal 
 more, and some of them a good deal less. [Laughter.] 
 But let us hope that every man of them has got and carries 
 away with him what is better than all their learning, and 
 what it has been our boast to believe, that the training of 
 Harvard has always tended to cultivate, an honest and manly 
 character, a hatred of all shams and humbugs [prolonged 
 applause], an earnest purpose to make the most of them- 
 selves, and to serve their times as men, and their country 
 as good citizens and patriots. [Applause.] 
 
 I think we may well congratulate each other upon the 
 dignified and proud attitude which Harvard University now 
 presents to the country and to the world [applause]; and 
 that she has made more real and lasting progress in the last 
 fifteen years than in any prior period of her history [applause] 
 - — a progress due in large measure to the hopeful wisdom and 
 tireless energy of President Eliot. [Enthusiastic applause 
 and cheers.] He found here a local college whose adminis- 
 tration, whose standard, whose system, had undergone no 
 radical change for generations; and to-day he presents her 
 to the world a great and national university, and the national 
 features and relations of Harvard are now its most striking 
 and attractive ones. No State — not even Massachusetts — 
 can any longer appropriate her. [Applause.] No city — 
 not even Boston — can any longer claim her for its own. 
 [Applause.] She belongs henceforth to the whole country, 
 and is justly regarded at home and abroad as the one 
 typical American university. [Applause.] Perhaps we of 
 the alumni who live in other and distant parts of the coun- 
 try can appreciate this change better than those of you 
 whose lives are spent almost within the shadow of her elms. 
 The tide is setting towards Harvard across the whole con- 
 tinent. Her examinations, carried first to New York, and 
 then to Cincinnati, and then to Chicago, and at last to the 
 Pacific coast, have raised the standard of education and 
 the quality of the schools throughout the whole country 
 [applause] ; and this influence is yearly increasing. And 
 the diplomas of her professional schools now carry into all 
 the States an assurance of new and increased fitness for 
 the commencement of professional life. [Applause.] 
 
 The best test of your success, Mr. President, is that other
 
 176 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 colleges are rapidly beginning to adopt and accept your 
 system and your reforms. Even the meagre little that 
 Harvard has yet done for the education of women, is begin- 
 ning to bear fruit elsewhere. [Applause,] To-day, Colum- 
 bia, forced by the pressure of public opinion, with tardy 
 and reluctant hand is beginning to dole out to women a few 
 stale and paltry crumbs that fall from the bountiful table 
 in distant imitation of the Harvard Annex. [Applause.] 
 Of course Harvard will by and by do a great deal more for 
 them than she has done yet [applause], and Madam Boyls- 
 ton, who alone of her sex has held her solitary place on 
 these walls for nearly a century, among these shades of 
 learned men, looks down upon me with smiling approval 
 when I say that somehow or other, sooner or later, Harvard 
 will yet give the women a better chance for education, as 
 Cambridge and Oxford have already done. [Applause.] 
 
 No enumeration, Mr. President, of the glories of Harvard 
 would be quite complete which omitted to refer to the ath- 
 letic development of these latter days. Voltaire wrote to 
 Helvetius: " The body of an athlete and the soul of a sage 
 are what we require to be happy." How prophetic of to- 
 day's curriculum at Harvard ! [Laughter.] To-morrow at 
 New London will put our muscle and our mettle to the 
 test. Let us pray for the pluck and the wind and the bot- 
 tom of the Harvard crew. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 I must not prolong these pleasing bits of eloquence 
 [laughter], or else his Excellency will begin to expect that 
 we sons of Harvard think a little too much of ourselves. 
 [Laughter.] Nothing could be farther from the truth than 
 that. [Laughter and applause.] Yet I need not assure 
 him, because he knows it already, that it is our true boast 
 that an overweening modesty is the leading Harvard attri- 
 bute. [Laughter.] But let me before closing refer to one 
 or two special incidents of the day. It is now two hundred 
 and forty-five years since John Harvard died at Charlestown, 
 bequeathing his fair name, his library and the half of his 
 estate to the infant college in the wilderness, then just 
 struggling into existence and matriculating its first freshman 
 class of nine. He surely builded wiser than he knew ; he 
 died all unconscious of the immortality of glory that awaited 
 him, for it was not till after his death that the General
 
 HARVARD UxNIVERSITY 177 
 
 Court voted, in recognition of his generous gifts, to change 
 the name of the little college at Newton to Harvard College. 
 And now, after eight generations of graduates have been 
 baptized in his name, a pious worshipper at his shrine, turn- 
 ing his face towards Mecca, has presented to the alumni 
 a bronze statue of our prophetic founder, which is to be 
 erected at the head of the delta, and to stand for coming 
 ages as the guardian genius of the college. [Applause.] 
 Let me read the letter which precedes the gift, and I will 
 say that the writer and the giver, a gentlemen here present, 
 from whom and of whom I hope we shall hear more by and 
 by, is Mr. Samuel J. Bridge, of Boston. The letter is as 
 follows : — 
 
 To the President and Fellows of Harvard College : 
 
 Gentlemen, — I have the pleasure of offermg you an ideal statue in bronze 
 representing your founder, the Rev. John Harvard, to be designed by Daniel 
 C. French, of Concord, and to be placed in the west end of the enclosure in 
 which Memorial Hall stands. If you do me the honor to accept this offer, I 
 propose to contract at once for the work, including an appropriate pedestal, 
 and I am assured that the statue can be in place by June i, 18S4. I am, with 
 much respect, 
 
 Samuel J. Bridge. 
 
 [The reading of the letter was followed by loud applause, 
 which became more enthusiastic when Mr. Bridge rose in 
 his place on the platform and bowed his acknowledg- 
 ments.] 
 
 I am sure, gentlemen, that I can assure the generous donor, 
 in your name, of the hearty thanks of all the alumni of the 
 college, those who are here to-day and those who are scat- 
 tered throughout the country and the world. [Applause.] 
 
 Other generous gifts commemorate this occasion, — a 
 marble bust of General William F. Bartlett [prolonged 
 applause and cheers], of the class of 1862, — a hero, if God 
 ever made one [applause], a martyr who was fourteen years 
 dying for his country of wounds that he bore for her,— is 
 placed in this hall to-day to stay as long as marble shall 
 endure in the fit company of heroes and martyrs to whom 
 its walls are dedicated. [Applause.] Colonel Henry Lee, 
 by and by, will formally present it to you, and also a bust 
 of Ralph Waldo Emerson, sacred forever within these walls, 
 [Applause.] Surely, if Harvard had never produced any*
 
 178 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 thing but Emerson, she would have been entitled to a front 
 rank among the great universities. [Applause.] 
 
 But, brethren, I know you are all impatient to hear those 
 you have come to hear. [Applause.] You cannot wait any 
 longer, I am sure, to hear from our excellent President his 
 annual message of comfort and distress. [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] He will tell you all that the college in the last 
 year has done for you, and all that you in return in the year 
 to come are expected to do for the college. [Laughter and 
 applause.] It will also be your privilege to hear from the 
 people of Massachusetts, as represented in the person of his 
 Excellency the Governor [prolonged applause and cheers], 
 who has come here to-day by the invitation of the President 
 and Fellows, which he accepted in deference to an ancient 
 custom not easily to be broken. [Applause and laughter.] 
 You all remember, gentlemen, that intimate and honorable 
 alliance that has existed between the college and the State 
 for nearly two centuries, out of tender regard for which tradi- 
 tion assures us that every Commencement, beginning with 
 that of 1642, has been graced by the presence of the Governor 
 of the Commonwealth. [Applause.] And, for one, I hope 
 the day may be far, very far, distant when the Governor of 
 Massachusetts shall fail to be welcomed on Commencement 
 day within the walls of Harvard. [Prolonged applause.] 
 Li the name of Massachusetts we greet him, remembering, 
 as we may fitly remember in this place sacred to heroic deeds, 
 that it was he who, at the call of Andrew, led the advanced 
 guard of Massachusetts, in which certain sons of Harvard 
 were a part, to the rescue and the relief of the besieged 
 capital [applause] ; that Lincoln set his seal upon that service 
 by commissioning their commander as a major-general of 
 the United States [applause], and that it did not need that 
 diploma to prove that he bore, and they followed to the 
 front, the ancient standard of Massachusetts, in the spirit of 
 Sidney's motto, which the State has made its own, — Ense 
 petit placidavi sub libcrtate quicteni. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, I give you the first regular toast, 
 " Our Beloved Alma Mater," and I propose with it the health 
 of the head of her great family. President Eliot, who will 
 now address you to your lasting benefit. [Loud applause.]
 
 BRITISH EVACUATION OF NEW YORK 1 79 
 
 BRITISH EVACUATION OF NEW YORK 
 
 [vSpeech of Joseph H. Choate at the banquet of the Chamber of Coin- 
 merce of the State of New York, November 26, 1S83, in commemora- 
 tion of the Evacuation of the City of New York by the British, NovemV-er 
 25. 1783- 'fl^e President of the Chamber, George W. Lane, occupied the 
 chair. In introducing the speaker, Mr. Lane said : "The fourth reguUir 
 toast is, ' The Day we Celebrate— the vSecond Birthday of New York. Out 
 of the ashes of the Revolution in the gladsome light of liberty and peace, 
 she rose to her place as the metropolis of the Continent.' This will be 
 responded to by Mr. Joseph H. Choate."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen :— I came here to- 
 night with some notes for a speech in my pocket, but I 
 have been sitting next to General Butler and in the course of 
 the evening they have mysteriously disappeared. [Loud 
 laughter, in which General Butler joined.] The consequence 
 is, gentlemen, that you may expect a very good speech 
 from him and a very poor one from me. [Laughter.] Your 
 committee, Mr. President, found me amid the ruins of 
 the temple of Golgos, into which the Federal Court has for 
 the time being been converted, engaged in the study of 
 Cypriote antiquities,* and they did me the very great honor 
 of asking me to come here to-night and take part in the 
 merchants' celebration of the Evacuation of New York by 
 the British. Well, it is hardly to be expected that a man 
 whose whole soul is absorbed in the study of ancient art 
 and in the resurrection of gods and demigods that have 
 slumbered in the dust of Cyprus for fifteen hundred years, 
 until their very identity is brought into question [laughter], 
 should have much thought or emotion left for such an 
 event of yesterday as the evacuation of New York by the 
 British, which occurred but a century ago. [Laughter.] 
 And so if my thoughts prove to be wandering and scattered 
 and even little better than a "patchwork of unrelated 
 parts" [laughter], why, gentlemen, you will not lay it to 
 any want of patriotism but only the pressure of circum- 
 stances. [Laughter.] When I read this toast which you 
 have just drunk in honor of Her Gracious Majesty, the 
 * The Feuardent-Ccsnola suit.
 
 l8o JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 Queen of Great Britain, and heard how you received the 
 letter of the British Minister that was read in response, and 
 how heartily you joined in singing " God Save the Queen," 
 when I look up and down these tables and see among you 
 so many representatives of English capital and English 
 trade, I have my doubts whether the evacuation of New 
 York by the British was quite as thorough and lasting as 
 history would fain have us believe. [Laughter.] If 
 George III, who certainly did all he could to despoil us of 
 our rights and liberties and bring us to ruin — if he could 
 rise from his grave and see how his granddaughter is 
 honored at your hands to-night, why, I think he would 
 return whence he came, thanking God that his efforts to 
 enslave us, in which for eight long years he drained 
 the resources of the British Empire, were not successful. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The truth is, the boasted triumph of New York in get- 
 ting rid of the British once and forever has proved, after all, 
 to be but a dismal failure. We drove them out in one 
 century only to see them return in the next to devour our 
 substance and to carry off all the honors. [Applause.] 
 We have just seen the noble Chief Justice of England, the 
 feasted favorite of all America, making a triumphal tour 
 across the Continent and carrying all before him at the rate 
 of fifty miles an hour. [Applause.] Night after night at 
 our very great cost we have been paying the richest 
 tribute to the reigning monarch of the British stage, and 
 nowhere in the world are English men and women of 
 character and culture received with a more hearty welcome, 
 a more earnest hospitality, than in this very State of New 
 York. [Applause.] The truth is, that this event that we 
 celebrate to-day, which sealed the independence of America 
 and seemed for the time to give a staggering blow to the 
 prestige and the power of England, has proved to be no 
 less a blessing to her own people than to ours. [Applause.] 
 The latest and best of the English historians has said 
 that, however important the independence of America 
 might be in the history of England, it was of overwhelming 
 importance in the history of the world, and that though it 
 might have crippled for a while the supremacy of the 
 English nation, it founded the supremacy of the English
 
 BRITISH EVACUATION OF NEW YORK l8l 
 
 race [applause] ; and after tracing the growth of America 
 from three millions of people scattered along the Atlantic 
 coast, in 1783, to fifty millions of people filling the whole 
 continent to-day, he declares that, in wealth and imperial 
 energy as well as in numbers, it far surpasses the mother 
 country from which it sprang ; that it has become the main 
 branch of the English people and that the history of that 
 people henceforth is to run along the channel, not of the 
 Thames and the Mersey, but of the Hudson and the Miss- 
 issippi. [Applause.] And in the same spirit we welcome 
 the fact that those social, political and material barriers 
 that separated the two nations a century ago have now 
 utterly vanished ; that year by year we are being drawn 
 closer and closer together, and that this day may be cele- 
 brated with equal fitness on both sides of the Atlantic and 
 by all who speak the English tongue. [Applause,] 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce, gentlemen, — our noble host 
 of to-night — has its own appropriate method of celebrating 
 great public events. It cares for no grand processions, it 
 delighteth not in long orations [laughter], but I must beg 
 pardon both of Mr. Beecher and General Butler for saying 
 that — I did not mean to tread on either of their corns. 
 [Laughter.] This Chamber indulges in no fireworks, but 
 being made up of none but solid and prosperous men, it 
 comes directly to the point and celebrates at the same 
 time its own virtues and merits [laughter], and the event 
 or the scene which it seeks to commemorate by a glorious 
 and gorgeous banquet such as it has spread before us to- 
 night. Thus it reaches the sympathies of its members 
 [laughter] in a way that could not otherwise be done — 
 through the broad avenue of the stomach [laughter], which 
 Emerson long ago said was with all the branches of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race the direct and shortest cut to their hearts. 
 [Laughter.] This genial method of celebrating, gentlemen, 
 is another charming trait which we have derived with our 
 blood from our remote English ancestors ; for a celebrated 
 Venetian traveller, visiting England as long ago as 1 500, 
 wrote home to a friend : " The people of this island are so 
 given to hospitality that they really would rather spend ten 
 ducats in entertaining a stranger handsomely than give a 
 single groat to aid any in distress." [Laughter.] But
 
 1 82 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 when we remember how promptly the hands of the New York 
 merchants leap to their pockets to relieve distress wherever 
 it appears, it must be said that the race has marvellously 
 developed, and that if these are Englishmen, why, they are 
 Englishmen with all the modern improvements. [Applause.] 
 
 This fine method of celebration, gentlemen, derives double 
 strength from the charming power of contrast. It was 
 a very hungry and thirsty day that we now commemorate. 
 New York was pretty nearly starved out by those seven 
 years of hostile occupation. It was to no such bill of fare 
 as this that Washington and Hamilton and Clinton and 
 their compatriots sat down in Fraunces' tavern a hundred 
 years ago to-night. But this I hope, gentlemen, that the 
 same ardent love of liberty and the same undying devotion 
 to country serves as the same relish to both feasts. [Loud 
 applause.] 
 
 But I must return to the particular subject of my toast. 
 I am a little off the track. [Laughter.] The Chamber of 
 Commerce, which owns everything in New York, and which 
 always does what it likes, in its own way, thinks what it 
 pleases, says what it pleases, and above all, eats and drinks 
 what it pleases, — the summit of ordinary human ambition — 
 has invited us to-night to celebrate the day that the toast 
 very truthfully describes as the " second birthday " of this 
 great city, in which we live and which this mixed company 
 of Yankees, Germans, Hebrews, Scotchmen, Irishmen, South- 
 erners and Danes, with here and there scattered a lost Knick- 
 erbocker [laughter], are proud to call their home. 
 
 It has been the misfortune of all the great cities that have 
 preceded us that their origin was lost in the mists of tradi- 
 tion in a time that runs beyond the memory of man. But 
 fortunately the art of printing preceded by nearly two cen- 
 turies the settlement of New Amsterdam, and every step of 
 its progress is recorded in the imperishable letter of history, 
 so that we can turn to the book and the page for each one 
 of the Red Letter days in its annals. We not only know 
 the day but the hour and the very time of the tide when 
 Hendrick Hudson anchored in the Half Moon inside of 
 Sandy Hook and hoisted the Dutch flag to take the sover- 
 eignty of the soil for Holland. W^e preserve the parchment 
 by which the first settlers purchased from the Indians the
 
 BRITISH EVACUATION Of- .^EW YOPK 183 
 
 whole Island of Manhattan for the sum of twenty-four dol- 
 lars. Wc can trace in the veracious history of Washington 
 Irving the truthful details of all the sixty years of the period 
 of the Dutch dominion, until that fatal day when Charles II, 
 exercising that time-honored prerogative of a British mon- 
 arch to give away what did not belong to him (which he 
 had, you know, from William the Norman who gave away 
 all England without owning one foot of it), handed over the 
 whole City and Province together in a fit of generous liber- 
 ality to his brother, the Duke of York, who straightway 
 imposed upon the unwilling inhabitants a name which, in 
 time, was to redeem his own from dishonored oblivion. We 
 can trace, too, year by year the annals of the hundred years 
 of English dominion during which the people of this city so 
 learned the principles of English liberty that when the hand 
 of oppression was laid upon them, it merely awoke them to 
 independence, and the best statesmen of England at once 
 conceded that it was impossible to conquer America. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 This memorable day, gentlemen, closes the long series of 
 Centennial memories which began in April, 1775, at Lexing- 
 ton and has marked and illuminated each historic spot, each 
 scene of trial and of conflict, each field of victory that to- 
 gether make up our Revolutionary struggle. We should 
 have been base ingrates indeed, if we had neglected any of 
 those golden occasions, to record our gratitude and admi- 
 ration for the services by which our fathers laid the foun- 
 dations of that liberty and union which in a single century 
 have brought us where we now stand. But of all the his- 
 toric jubilees, there is not one which New York can celebrate 
 with greater spirit or more hearty enthusiasm than that 
 day which saw the last remnant of the British and Hessian 
 army embark at the Battery, and Washington and war-worn 
 veterans treading upon their heels to raise upon Fort George 
 for the first time the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of a 
 free nation. [Applause.] People understand this a great 
 deal better than words can describe it, as tlieir swarming 
 millions in the streets to-day have testified. The clouds may 
 lower and the tempest might break upon them, but they 
 defied the elements to do their worst ; these could not 
 dampen their ardor nor chill the enthusiasm with which they
 
 l84 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 waited to see and cheer the President of the United States 
 and General Grant at the head of the procession ; the Presi- 
 dent as worthily representing the majesty of that country 
 which they love, and General Grant as the living champion of 
 the struggles that have maintained it. [Applause.] 
 
 Although Yorktown two years before had ended the great 
 battles of the war, although the preliminary treaty had been 
 signed a year before, and its final exchange in September, 
 1783, had formally introduced the thirteen colonies to the 
 world as free, sovereign and independent, yet as long as New 
 York, the great seaport of the country, remained in the hands 
 of the enemy, the fruits of the treaty and of the peace were 
 not realized ; and their final departure on the twenty-fifth 
 of November, 1783, was a signal demonstration to the people 
 that peace at last had really returned and that the inde- 
 pendence for which they had been struggling and suffering 
 for so many years was at last actually achieved. [Applause.] 
 In April, 1775, Joseph Warren had written : " America must 
 and will be free. The contest may be severe but the end 
 will be glorious." He sealed the words with his blood, and 
 took his place as the first great martyr of the great cause. 
 And now the people saw that the contest, severer far than 
 Warren ev^er dreamed of, was over, and that the end all 
 glorious as he hoped had come. [Applause.] Of all the 
 thirteen States, New York in the struggles and sacrifices of 
 the war had suffered incomparably more than any of the rest. 
 Its soil had been overrun and occupied in succession by both 
 armies ; its rich capital had been seized and made for six 
 long years the base of British operations ; the people had 
 been driven from their homes and their property despoiled 
 and destroyed. From the beginning the British IMinistry 
 had made the most desperate efforts to debauch them from 
 their loyalty to their brethren of the other colonies. The 
 Royal Council and a Tory Legislature had refused to rep- 
 resent them in the Congress, but the outraged people took 
 their own affairs into their own hands, and, thanks to a free 
 press that could neither be muzzled nor bought and to such 
 men as Jay and Hamilton and Clinton, names never to be 
 forgotten on days like this, they linked their fortunes indis- 
 solubly to those of the other colonies. The great majority 
 of the people of the colony were true to themselves and their
 
 BRITISH EVACUATION OF NEW YORK 1 85 
 
 country ; another disproof of the fallacy which the great 
 EngHsh critic [Matthew Arnold] is now preaching among 
 us, and to which I believe our friend Governor ]^utler has 
 recently become a reluctant convert, that majorities are in 
 the wrong. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 On every field of victory or defeat the sons of New York 
 stood or fell with the rest ; but their beautiful city, never- 
 theless, the pride of the whole province and country had 
 been blasted by the ravages of war. Fire had destroyed its 
 fairest portion ; its people had been driven from theii* 
 homes; its population reduced one-lialf and the remnant 
 had been handed over to foreign soldiers and Tory refugees. 
 And now the day of their deliverance had come, and their 
 homes in ashes and in ruin, as the city was about to be 
 surrendered to its loyal and long-sufTering sons. The scene 
 which this day commemorates summed up, as it ended, the 
 whole history of the war. You remember what Lord 
 Chatham said, probably every member of the Chamber of 
 Commerce used to speak it at school : " If I were an Amer- 
 ican, as I am an Englishman, while a single foreign soldier 
 remained in my country, I would never lay down my arms." 
 [Applause.] Now, America had been true to that cheering 
 word, and at last, at last, the saving hour had come. Of the 
 departing troops nearly one-half were foreign mercenaries ; 
 a signal proof that the war from the beginning to the end 
 was a war of the King and the Ministry and not of the 
 people [applause], and that Chatham and Burke and Con- 
 way and their great associates, friends of America, had large 
 backing behind them in the hearts of the English people 
 when they declared that the liberties of England no less 
 than those of America were staked upon our success. 
 Throughout the war from the beginning to the end the 
 Ministry could not find Englishmen enough to fill up the 
 army, but had to depend upon German mercenaries, hired 
 at so much a head from petty princes to do their distasteful 
 and hopeless work. [Applause.] 
 
 Who can conceive, then, with what infinite exultation and 
 pride the returning citizens of New York on that glorious 
 day saw the last of these foreign invaders and hirelings 
 depart from these shores which their hostile feet had so long 
 desecr9,ted and profaned ? Who can imagine with what
 
 l86 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 gratitude and love they turned on the afternoon of the same 
 day to greet the battered remnant of the Continental army 
 bearing the flags that had triumphed at Lexington, at Bunker 
 Hill, at Saratoga, and at Yorktown ? — those veterans whose 
 bronzed and scarred faces told the whole story of the war? 
 And who above all can realize with what boundless enthu- 
 siasm and adoration they hastened to welcome Washington 
 — Washington whose great soul had been the beacon-light 
 that had led all America on its way to liberty, from that 
 far-distant day when he first unsheathed the sword under 
 the old elm tree at Cambridge until now that the great goal 
 was reached? [Applause,] He came not in uniform ; he 
 came not at the head of the army, but leading a civic pro- 
 cession in the plain clothes of a citizen, in token that there 
 was no more war, no more need of the soldier or of the 
 general ; and after seeing the last foot of American soil 
 purged from the presence of the invader he was about to 
 bid a last farewell to his companions in arms, and hasten to 
 Annapolis to lay down his sword and his commission at the 
 feet of that Congress from whom eight years before he had 
 received it. [Cheers.] And Washington came not alone. 
 By his side there marched another hero, whose name no 
 native or adopted citizen of New York can fail to recall 
 whenever her part in the Revolution is remembered — hei 
 great war governor, George Clinton [cheers]— whose grate- 
 ful task it was on that day to represent the sovereignty of 
 the State of New York over its recovered capital. 
 
 Very well then and truthfully may we say, as the toast 
 says, that this day we celebrate was the " second birthday" 
 of the city in which we live. All its bright destiny dates 
 from that happy hour of triumph. Its mighty commerce, 
 its boundless wealth, its vast population, its majestic pro- 
 portions — all trace their origin to the day we celebrate. It 
 is not for me, gentlemen, to relate its subsequent progress. 
 " Then and Now," has been reserved upon your programme 
 for wiser and more eloquent lips than mine. But I may say 
 in conclusion that if wealth and numbers are the end of 
 civilization. New York may rest content ; but if, as Mr. 
 Arnold declares, and as every man in his senses must agree, 
 these, great as they are, are but the means for higher ends, 
 then New York has but just begun the great work that lies
 
 SONS AND GUESTS OF OLD HARVARD 1 87 
 
 ready for her hands to do, and has thus far only been laying 
 the foundation of her future greatness. I do not know, Mr. 
 President, how the committee who had the banquet in 
 charge could have better decorated these walls for this occa- 
 sion than by hanging upon them these striking portraits of 
 George Washington and George Clinton, as now they appear 
 before you, standing side by side, so on that great day they 
 rode into the city, one representing the State of New York 
 and the other the imperial majesty of the United Colonies, 
 soon destined to become the United States of America. 
 [Applause.] As they look down upon this festival in their 
 honor, upon these citizens and the great city which has 
 shared in such rich measure the fruits of their joint labors 
 and sacrifices, upon this scene so fitly graced by the presence 
 of the President of the Republic, which they did so much 
 to found, and by the presence of so many of the Governors 
 of the old thirteen States which they welded into one — 
 could these dignified and majestic lips but speak, how fer- 
 vently would they thank God for permitting them to labor 
 and to suffer for such results, and how urgently would they 
 exhort us to hand down untarnished and unbroken to pos- 
 terity the liberty and the union which they so stoutly fought 
 for and maintained. [Applause.] 
 
 SONS AND GUESTS OF OLD HARVARD 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate, as presiding officer at the Harvard 
 Alumni dinner, Cambridge, Mass., June 24, 1885.] 
 
 Brethren of the Alumni : — Now that you have ban- 
 queted upon these more substantial dainties which the Del- 
 monico of Harvard has provided [laughter], I invite you 
 to partake of the more delicate diet of tongues and sounds 
 [laughter] — the favorite dish of every Harvard dinner — 
 where, of course, every alumnus expects to get his deserts. 
 We have assembled for the two hundred and forty-ninth 
 time to pay our vows at the shrine of our Alma Mater, to 
 revel in the delights of mutual admiration, and to welcome to 
 the commencement of actual life 175 new brethren that our
 
 1 88 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 mother has brought forth to-day. [Laughter.] Gentlemen, 
 it is your great misfortune, that I have been called upon, on 
 two occasions, to stand here in the place of the president 
 of your choice, and to fill the shoes of a better man, and if I 
 shuffle awkwardly along in them, you will remember that 
 they are several sizes too large for me, and with higher heels 
 than I am accustomed to wear. [Laughter.] On a former 
 occasion, in view of the incompatibility of sentiment among 
 high authorities [laughter], I did what I might to stem the 
 tide of a seemingly irrepressible conflict, and, by your coun- 
 sel and aid, with apparent success. [Applause.] " Grim 
 visaged war" did smooth " his wrinkled front " [laughter], 
 and peace and harmony prevailed wdiere blood had threat- 
 ened. 
 
 But how, gentlemen, can I hope to fill your just expec- 
 tations to-day, when you have justly counted upon the most 
 popular of all j'our divines and the most fervent of all your 
 orators, who should now be leading your council here ? But 
 Phillips Brooks, having long ago mastered all hearts at 
 home, has gone abroad in search of new conquests. [Ap- 
 plause.] When last heard from he was doing well in very 
 kindred co/inpany ; for he was breakfasting with Gladstone, 
 the statesman whose defeat is his mightiest victory [ap- 
 plause] ; the scholar and the orator, who would exchange for 
 no title in the royal gift the lustre of his own great name. [Ap- 
 plause.] But, gentlemen, I have no fears for the success 
 of this occasion, notwithstanding the absence we deplore, 
 when I look around these tables and see who still are here. 
 In the first place, you are all here. [Laughter and applause.] 
 And when the sons of Harvard are all together, basking in 
 the sunshine of each other's countenances, what need is 
 there for the sun to shine ? And, then, President Eliot is here. 
 [Applause.] I remember that sixteen years ago, we gave 
 him his first welcome to the seat where Ouincy, Everett, 
 Sparks and Felton and Walker had sat before him ; and, 
 to-day, in your names, I may thank him that he has more 
 than redeemed the pride and promise of the earlier days. 
 While it cannot exactly be said that he found Harvard of 
 brick and left it marble, it can truly be said that he found 
 it a college and has already made it a university [applause] ; 
 and let us all hope that his faithful reign over us may con-
 
 SONS AND GUESTS OF OLD HARVARD 1 89 
 
 tinue aslon^ashe has the strength and the courage to carry 
 on the good work that he has in hand. And, then, the 
 governor of the Commonwealth is here [apphiusc], always a 
 most honored guest among the alumni of Harvard. [Ap- 
 plause.] Governor Winthrop attended the first commence- 
 ment in 1642; and I believe that since that time there has 
 never been any exception to the presence of the chief mag- 
 istrate. 
 
 Then, gentlemen, wc are honored with the presence of 
 the Vice-Presidentof the United States.* [Applause.] And 
 now that Harvard has assumed such national proportions, 
 what could be more fit than that we should welcome to our 
 board one of the chief representatives of the national govern- 
 ment? He comes to us, gentlemen, fresh from Yale [laugh- 
 ter], and if we may believe the morning papers — a very 
 large if, I admit — if we may believe those veracious jour- 
 nals, the eminent Vice-President yesterday at New Haven 
 gave utterance to two brief and pithy sentiments, one of 
 which we shall accept, with absolute, unqualified applause, 
 and the other of which we must swallow, if at all, with a 
 modification. " Yale," said he, in short and sententious 
 words — which are the essence of great men and which we 
 are all so fond of hearing and reporting — " Yale," said he, 
 "is everywhere." Gentlemen, I would say with this mod- 
 ification: Yes, Yale is everywhere, but she always finds 
 Harvard there before her. [Applause.] Gentlemen, the 
 rudeness of your manner broke off my sentence. [Laugh- 
 ter.] She always finds Harvard there before her, or close 
 alongside or very close in her rear ; and let us hope that her 
 boys at New London will demonstrate the truth of that to- 
 morrow. [Applause.] The other sentiment that he uttered, 
 gentlemen, and that needs no qualification, is that pub- 
 lic oflfice is a public trust. [Applause.] Gentlemen, in say- 
 ing that, he stole Harvard thunder. That has been her doc- 
 trine since the days of John Adams ; and I am sure that 
 you will be perfectly delighted to hear from this eminent 
 man that old doctrine of ours reinforced. 
 
 But, gentlemen, better than all the rest, once more at 
 home in his old place among us again, is James Russell 
 
 * Thomas Andrew Hendricks.
 
 190 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 Lowell. [Applause. All rose for three cheers and nins 
 " rahs."] Eight years ago, gentlemen, he left us for the 
 public service. Men who did not know him wondered how 
 poetry and diplomacy would work together; poetry, the 
 science of all truth, and diplomacy that is thought some- 
 times to be not quite so true. Well, if you will allow me, 
 I will explain his triumphs abroad by a wise saying of 
 Goethe's, the fitness of which, I think, you will recognize. 
 " Poetry," he says, *' belongs not to the noble nor to the 
 people, neither to king nor to peasant ; it is the offspring of 
 a true man." Gentlemen, it is not because of the laurels 
 that were heaped upon him abroad, not because he com- 
 manded new honor for the American scholar and the Amer- 
 ican people, and not because his name will henceforth be a 
 new bond of union between the two countries; but we 
 learned to love him before he went away, because we knew 
 that, from the beginning, he had been the fearless champion 
 of truth and of freedom, and, during every year of his ab- 
 sence, we have loved him the more. And so, in your 
 names, I bid him a cordial welcome home again. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 You will also be pleased to hear that Dr. Holmes [ap- 
 plause] has been inspired by this interesting feature of the 
 occasion to mount his Pegasus once more and ride out to 
 Cambridge upon his back ; and soon you will hear him 
 strike his lyre once more in praise of his younger brother. 
 [Applause.] But, gentlemen, these are not all the treasures 
 that are in store for you. Dr. James Freeman Clarke, after 
 twenty-five years of continuous service on the Board of 
 Overseers, from which he now retires, by the strength of the 
 constitution, will tell you frankly what he thinks about you 
 and about them. And then, to the class of 1835 the crown- 
 ing honors of this day belong, and I am pleased to say that 
 their chosen spokesman, although pretending to be for the 
 moment an invalid — he wrote to me that he was no better 
 than he should be [laughter] — he is here to speak for them. 
 For us who have been coming up to Cambridge for the last 
 thirty years, I would like to know what a Harvard Com- 
 mencement without Judge Hoar would be? Who can 
 forget the quips and cranks and wanton wiles with which he 
 has beguiled many an hour that promised to be dull ; and
 
 SONS AND GUESTS OF OLD HARVARD IQI 
 
 how he has, I will not say blighted, but dimmed, some of 
 our lighter moments by words of wisdom and power. So 
 in your name I say : " Long life and a green old age to 
 Judge Hoar and all the members of the class of 1835." 
 
 Then, gentlemen, all these new doctors of the law : why, 
 Harvard, returning to an ancient custom, has been graduating 
 them out of her own sons, and to-day it may truly be said 
 that the university has been growing rich and strong by 
 degrees. [Laughter.] You will be glad to hear all of them 
 speak for themselves. Of one of them. Dr. Carter, I will 
 say, from intimate knowledge, that he leads us gallantly at 
 the bar of New York, and all his associates rejoice in his 
 leadership. He has recently rendered a signal service to the 
 jurisprudence of that great State by contributing more than 
 any other man to the defeat of a code which threatened to 
 involve all the settled law of the community in confusion 
 and contempt. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, as I have told you who are to speak to 
 you, I should sit down. I believe, however, it is usual for 
 the presiding officer to recall any startling events in the 
 history of the college. Gentlemen, there have been none. 
 The petition of the undergraduates for what they called a 
 fuller civil and religious liberty, in being relieved from com- 
 pulsory attendance on morning prayers, was happily denied. 
 The answer of the overseers was well-conceived — that, in 
 obedience to the settled rules and regulations of the college, 
 of which that was one, they would find an all-sufficient 
 liberty. That idea was not original with them ; they bor- 
 rowed it from Mr. Lowell, when he said and sung in his 
 sonnet upon the reformers : — 
 
 Who yet have not the one great lesson learned 
 
 That grows in leavcN, 
 
 Tides in the mighty seas, 
 And in the stars eternally hath burned, 
 
 That only full obedience is free. 
 
 The only other incident in the history of the year is the 
 successful effort that has been made in digging out the his- 
 tory of John Harvard ; and about that, the President of the 
 college will tell you in good time — who he was, whence he 
 came, and where he got the fortune and the library which he
 
 192 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 contributed, along with his melodious name, to the college. 
 He gave half of all he had, gentlemen, and out of that 
 modest fountain what vast results have flowed ! May no 
 red-handed vandal of an undergraduate ever desecrate his 
 statue that stands at the head of the park. [Applause.] 
 Now, brethren, w'ould you have your statue crowned ? 
 Would you, too, become immortal } Would you identify 
 your homes with the glory of the college ? The way is open 
 and easy. Follow exactly the example of the founder ; 
 give one equal half of all 5^ou are worth to the college, and 
 if you wish to enjoy your own immortality, do it to-morrow, 
 while you are alive. [Applause and laughter.] If you 
 shrink from that, die at once and give it to them. [Laugh- 
 ter.] Other people, possibly, will rise up and call you 
 blessed, whatever your own may do [laughter] ; so you will 
 relieve the President of more than half the labors of his 
 ofifice. 
 
 Gentlemen, I did want to say a word about another mat- 
 ter, the elective system, but President Eliot tells me I had 
 better not. He says that the Board of Overseers of the col- 
 lege are incubating on that question, and that there is no 
 telling what they may hatch out. Now don't let us disturb 
 them, gentlemen ; at any rate, while they are on the nest ; 
 we might crack the shell, and then the whole work would 
 have to be done over again. And so, gentlemen, as you 
 now seem to be in good mood, let me say one word more 
 about this elective system. I don't care how they settle it ; 
 I hope they will give us the means of sustaining and forti- 
 fying their decision when they make it. We alumni at a 
 distance from the college are often stung to indignation by 
 the attacks that are made upon us by the representatives 
 of other colleges. One would think, by the way they talk 
 down there at Princeton, that Harvard was going to the 
 everlasting bow-wows ; that the fountains of learning were 
 being undermined and broken up ; that, as Mr. Lowell said 
 again : — 
 
 "The Auglo-Saxondom's idee's abreakin' 'em to pieces, 
 An' thet idee's thet every man doos jest wut he damn jjleases." 
 
 I suppose that the truth about the elective system is that 
 the world moves on and the college moves with it. In Cot-
 
 TRIBUTE TO GENERAL MILES 193 
 
 ton Mather's time, when he said that the sole object of the 
 foundation of a college was to furnish a good supply of 
 godly ministers for the provinces, it was well enough to 
 feed them on Latin and Greek only. Now that young men 
 when they go out into the world have everything to do 
 about taking part in all the activities of life, I for one say 
 let them have the chance to learn here anything they can 
 possibly want to learn. [Applause.] And I hope that our 
 President will persevere in one direction, at least until he can 
 say truly that whatever is worth learning can be taught well 
 at Ilarvard. This is well expressed again in an idea of Mr. 
 Lowell's, who always has ideas enough, if divided, to go 
 around even among us : — 
 
 " New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 
 They mast upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of truth." 
 
 Gentlemen, let me say a single word before I sit down. 
 I hope you will be very patient with all the other speakers. 
 I advise them, as the hour is late and the afternoon is short 
 and there arc a great many of them in number, each to put 
 a good deal of shortening in his cake. That is a rule that 
 never is applied to the presiding officer, and I am afraid 
 that it never will be. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I give you the health of President Eliot ; 
 long life to him. [Applause.] 
 
 TRIBUTE TO GENERAL MILES 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate, as presiding oiEcer at a dinner given, 
 November 11, 1S98, in honor of Major-General Nelson A. Miles, by more 
 than seven hundred of the most distinguished citizens of New York. 
 Mr. Choate read a letter from President McKinley, who said that 
 although his engagements prevented his presence, he desired to express 
 his hearty congratulations to the general commanding the United States 
 Army.] 
 
 O ye gods, and [with a glance at the boxes] goddesses 
 [laughter] ! we have not come hereto talk our distinguished 
 friend to death, but to express our admiration for his lofty 
 character [cheers] ; our appreciation for his splendid career, 
 and our gratitude for the magnificent services he has ren.
 
 194 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 dercd to his country. [Prolonged cheers.] But he would 
 not forgive me if I omitted to mention the name that is 
 ever first in our hearts, the name of President McKinley. [At 
 the mention of the President's name, every guest arose and 
 stood until the cheering ceased.] It is fitting at this time to 
 mention a few things that have recently taken place. First, 
 the credit and good faith of the country have been placed 
 on an imperishable basis of pure gold; second, a general 
 and reasonable prosperity has come to the whole people of 
 the United States to stay ; third, the last vestige of Span- 
 ish power has been driven from the last foot of American 
 soil [great cheering] ; and so a debt that America has owed 
 humanity for the last fifty years has been fully paid. Last- 
 ly, the name and fame of America have been advanced 
 among the nations of the earth so that all pay to her re- 
 spect, deference and a wholesome apprehension never given 
 her before. 
 
 But this is no political occasion. When my eyes rest on 
 Colonel Roosevelt [here cheering broke out again and lasted 
 for a full minute], I, for one, desire to say that I have 
 had enough of politics, and I want to hear no more of them 
 for two years to come. [Laughter and cheers.] We are 
 assembled here to extend a welcome to one of the greatest 
 soldiers of America, whom we all admire. Did we not see 
 him marching down Broadway in 1861 as a lieutenant of 
 the twenty-second Massachusetts volunteers ? Did we not 
 learn of his rapid promotion to be lieutenant-colonel of the 
 sixty-first New York volunteers? Has he not been in com- 
 mand of thirty-two regiments of New York soldiers when 
 he was commander of an army corps ? Why should not 
 New Yorkers admire him? Have we forgotten Fredericks- 
 burg, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, where he imperilled his 
 life and won immortal fame ? He is identified more than 
 any other soldier with the volunteers of the country. And 
 were there many Indian campaigns in the last thirty years 
 in which he was not engaged ? And in this last war he has 
 rendered such infinite services as only a master of the art of 
 war could render. The Government has availed itself of 
 his counsel, his courage, his loyalty, and his undying alle- 
 giance. Am I making any mistake in saying that when he 
 sailed for Cuba everybody knew that safety and courage
 
 PEACE BETWEEN NATIONS IQ5 
 
 and wisdom went with him, and that when he appeared upon 
 the soil of Cuba the heart of every officer and soldier 
 upon that soil was cheered ? What of that last and blood- 
 less Porto Rican campaign? He was sent to conquer, and 
 was received with open arms as a deliverer instead of a con- 
 queror. He had to send for a vast supply of American 
 flags instead of for more ammunition and troops. [Great 
 cheers.] [In conclusion, Mr. Choate called on the guests to 
 drink the health of General Miles, which was done standing 
 and amid cheers that did not cease entirely until after two 
 or three of General Miles' old comrades had called for" three 
 more."] 
 
 PEACE BETWEEN NATIONS 
 
 [Speech of Joseph H. Choate, at a banquet given in his honor by the 
 Associated Chambers of Commerce, London, March 15, 1899. The Pres- 
 ident, Sir Stafford Northcote, was in the chair. The toast, " Our Guests," 
 to which Mr. Choate responded, was proposed by G. T. Harper.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — In the first place 
 let me protest against the unequalled manner in which 
 the response to this toast has been assigned. That I, a 
 total stranger among you, should have been called upon 
 to respond to it in priority to the Lord Chief Justice 
 of England — at whose feet I have sat, at a great distance ofT 
 [laughter], and whose example I have vainly tried to follow — 
 that 1 should have been called upon to speak before him 
 overwhelms me with embarrassment. Then another thing 
 I would have you understand, which is that I feel that when 
 the British lion is about to roar, even the American eagle 
 should hold his peace. [Cheers and laughter.] Wlien I 
 received, before I left America, a very kind note from Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, inviting m.e to attend this banquet of the 
 Associated Chambers of Commerce of England — realizing as 
 I did that this company \vould embody the whole might of 
 the commerce of Great Britain [cheers], I felt that I ought 
 to accept it in the same cordial spirit in which it was given. 
 [Cheers.] To be sure, I am not at liberty to discuss British 
 commerce ; my general instructions from my Government
 
 196 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 are not to speak about political questions, and only on ex- 
 traordinarily festal occasions. [Laughter.] I am sure that 
 your manifestations bring this occasion within the latter 
 clause. [Laughter.] I was assured by my President that 
 this Association in all its doings was absolutely non-political. 
 
 I have read one or two of your publications — not all 
 through [laughter] — I take the liberty to skip the figures, 
 statistics, and most of the speeches [laughter] — but I read 
 what Lord Salisbury said to you two years ago, that the first 
 duty of the Government for which he then spoke — was the 
 maintenance of British interests and of British obligations ; 
 and what is there in that which commerce does not embrace ? 
 Truly commerce is the main stay of the British Empire, and 
 I was glad to hear from the rear-admiral that the sole ob- 
 ject of maintaining your splendid fleets and splendid armies 
 is to preserve peace for the encouragement of commerce. 
 [Cheers.] But I felt that, anyway, I might properly and 
 with all modesty avail myself of this occasion — the first 
 public occasion to which I was invited on my arrival* — of 
 expressing the appreciation of my country men, of the for- 
 bearance, the good-will and the friendship which have been 
 manifested to them so freely by the people of this country. 
 [Cheers.] It is true that peace between the United States 
 and Great Britain is the first interest, not only of these two 
 nations, but of the rest of the world together. [Cheers.] 
 I have to express my gratitude for the cordial greeting 
 which I have received since my landing, from all sorts and 
 conditions of men. [" Hear ! Hear ! "] Everywhere I have 
 been treated as a friend and brother and as a representative 
 of your friends and brothers. [Cheers.] 
 
 I find that England never fails to practise what she 
 preaches; and this open door I have found was broadly open 
 in such a way and to such an extent as would satisfy, I have 
 no doubt, the yearnings even of the rear-admiral who has 
 swung the circuit of the globe to find it. [Cheers and laugh- 
 ter.] I have read carefully the speeches which he made in 
 the various hemispheres which he has visited [laughter], and 
 I find that he is a good deal troubled, not about the open 
 door but about the people inside and behind the open door. 
 
 * To fill the ofEce of American Ambassador to Great Britain.
 
 PEACE BETWEEN NATIONS 1 97 
 
 He has said many times that there is no such great difficulty 
 in getting or holding the door open as there is in managing 
 the people inside the door, who, as he has often said, have 
 really no capacity to take care of themselves [laughter] ; but 
 I have found, so far as my observation and experience go — 
 extending over only two weeks [laughter] — that the people 
 inside or behind the door which has been thrown open to 
 him are not only capable of taking care of themselves but 
 of nearly all the rest of mankind together. [Laughter.] I 
 think I may say, as testimony and as witness of the good 
 feeling which is sought to be encouraged on our side of the 
 water, that the President gave, as I thought, the best illus- 
 tration of it when he said in my letter of credence that he 
 relied with confidence upon my constant endeavor during 
 my stay in this country, to promote the interests and pros- 
 perity of both nations. [Cheers.] And then I want to take 
 issue with Lord Charles Beresford on one further point, and 
 that is that I have found not only the open door, but that I am 
 able to combine with it a new and enlarged sphere of influ- 
 ence [" Hear ! Hear ! " and laughter] — a sphere of influence 
 in this era of good feeling peculiarly open to the American 
 people and its representatives ; for in this cordial and over- 
 flowing demonstration of brotherhood which greets me, 
 what is there that either of us could ask from the other, 
 that we should ask amiss? [Loud cheers.] I beg you not 
 to mistake my meaning in what I have said. I do not 
 believe that although friends we shall ever cease to be rivals 
 in the future as we have been in the past. ["Hear ! hear ! "] 
 We on our part and you on yours will still press every ad' 
 vantage that we can fairly take, but it shall be a generous 
 and a loyal rivalry, and all questions, disputes, controversies 
 that may arise — may we not all say so, shall be settled b)'- 
 peaceful means [cheers], by negotiation, by arbitration, by 
 any possible and every possible means, except that of war. 
 [Loud cheers.] I want to say one word more about this 
 state of good feeling that prevails among us, and of which 
 we are all so proud. It is not new sentiment ; it is as old 
 almost as the existence of the Republic. It is now 84 years 
 since the last armed conflict between the United States and 
 Great Britain came to an end, and any of you present who 
 are old enough to remember that [laughter] will recall that
 
 198 JOi^KPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 that conflict of three years ended by a sort of peterlng-out 
 process, and that no question upon which either side had 
 taken up arms was settled by means of war ; showing that 
 between brothers war is the worst possible means of set- 
 tling any controversy. [Cheers.] But then, during these 
 eighty-four years, what tremendous questions we have had, 
 what heated words, what threatened demonstrations on 
 both sides, and yet while those questions were such as 
 would inevitably have brought any other two nations into 
 open and frequent conflict, they have all been arranged and 
 adjusted between us without even a resort to arms. 
 [Cheers]. 
 
 Look at some of those questions — the Oregon boundary, 
 the North-East boundary, the Confederate cruisers, the Trent 
 seizure — what one of those would not between other nations 
 have given rise to war? And even at last this little un- 
 pleasantness about Venezuela. [Laughter.] I am glad, 
 gentlemen, that we can laugh at that now, ['• Hear ! 
 Hear! "] You know that on our side of the water we love 
 occasionally to twist the British lion's tail [laughter], for the 
 mere sport of hearing him roar. [Renewed laughter.] That 
 time he disappointed us — he would not roar at all. [" Hear ! 
 Hear! "] He sat as silent and as dumb as the Sphinx it- 
 self, and by dint of mutual forbearance, of which I have no 
 doubt you claim the lion's share [laughter] ; only by virtue 
 of your national emblem, by our sober second thought aid- 
 ing your sober first thought, we averted everything but a 
 mere war of words. [Cheers.] And now the Chief Justice 
 of the United States [Melville W. Fuller] and an ex- 
 President of the United States [Benjamin Harrison] are 
 shortly coming over to Paris in connection with similar 
 great representatives of your own jurists to settle that 
 vexed question which has agitated the remote and obscure 
 corners of the world. [" Hear ! Hear ! "] 
 
 Before I sit down I should like to refer to two or three 
 events which have happened since I have been in England, 
 which are illustrations of this era of good feeling. 
 Something happened here that I read a great deal about in 
 the newspapers, which was talked about as a great crisis, and 
 when the first fresh breeze blew away the fog, — which is one 
 of Uic ornanients of )'our town [laughter] — that crisis had
 
 PEACE RETWEEX NATIOXS 199 
 
 disappeared by means of peaceful diplomacy. ["Hear! 
 Hear ! "J That is what we in America want to imitate and 
 learn ; and that is the kind of diplomacy which I, just en- 
 tering upon the diplomatic career, desire very much to ex- 
 tend. For I am fresh enough to believe that if these two 
 countries labor together for peace and unite their voices in 
 demanding it, it is almost sure in every case. [Cheers.] 
 Peace is our paramount interest, and it is also yours ; and I 
 would like to quote my President again, for the last words 
 1 heard from him were that the United States were to-day 
 on better terms w^'th every nation upon the face of the earth 
 than they had ever been before. [Cheers.] 
 
 I do not know that I ought to say anything more about 
 our country. ["Go on."] America, our young republic, 
 has had a great deal to do during the last hundred years; 
 she has had to subdue a continent, and to convert the wilder- 
 ness from the Atlantic to the Pacific into a smiling and 
 healthy garden. That business has pretty nearly been 
 finished off. [" Hear ! Hear ! "] And so last year your 
 Brother Jonathan started out to see the world. [Laughter.] 
 He put on, not his seven-league boots, but his 700-league 
 boots, and planted his footsteps on the islands of the sea. 
 [Cheers.] And what gigantic strides he made ! To Hawaii, 
 Manila, and another step would have brought him to Hong 
 Kong. [Laughter and cheers.] Our interests in commerce 
 differ from those of England, not in kind but in degree only. 
 [Cheers.] And it is certainly by a common purpose and a 
 united voice that we can command peace everywhere for 
 the mutual support of the commerce of the two countries. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let me say one word more — a 
 serious word — in illustration of this happy union which now 
 prevails between our two nations. I should not be satisfied 
 myself if I resumed my seat without referring to that 
 universal expression of grief and disappointment which over- 
 came the American people at the sudden and untimely death 
 of Lord Herschell. Lord Herschell sacrificed his life in the 
 common service of both nations. [Cheers.] I first had the 
 pleasure of meeting him nearly twenty years ago, when he 
 was Solicitor-General, at the house of Lord I'^rederick Cav- 
 endish, who was soon afterwards enrolled in the noble army
 
 200 JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 
 
 of martyrs. I have watched his career ever since with that 
 admiration and that adoration which all lawyers, I think, felt 
 for him. The American Bar has followed in his footsteps — 
 has read his opinions, has admired his judicial work ; and 
 when he came over as chief representative of England on 
 the Commission, which was to settle all disputes between 
 the two countries, the nation felt that it must put forth its 
 best faculties to meet him, and so the event did prove. 
 [Cheers.] He maintained the trust committed to him with 
 infinite zeal and absolute fidelity, and when he fell the obse- 
 quies which w^ere performed over him in the Capitol of 
 Washington, in the presence of the President, and of all the 
 great ofificials of the nation, were as sincere and as sacred as 
 those which will be celebrated in a few days by his own 
 countrymen in Westminster Abbey. But this union is not 
 confined to these two limited countries, if I may speak of 
 England as a limited country. We have had another event 
 in the last two weeks which has provoked an emotion un- 
 speakable on every continent and in every land where the 
 English language is spoken, and in the heart of every man 
 and woman. I refer to the sudden, startling and almost 
 fatal illness and the happy recovery of Rudyard Kipling. 
 [Cheers.] Somehow or other he had reached the hearts, I 
 think, of more English-speaking men, women and children 
 of the world than any other living writer. He was cherished 
 equally in the palaces of Queens and Emperors, and in the 
 cabins of the poor ; and when the sorrowful tidings went 
 out — borne to all quarters of the globe — of his sad condi- 
 tion, the response came back to him, which if he has now 
 been able to read it, must have thrilled his heart with grat- 
 itude and pride. 
 
 Gentlemen, we are almost one people. [Loud cheers.] 
 What I say is, let our voices always be lifted together 
 for the cause of human progress and the advance of civiliza- 
 tion ; and take my word for it, if that can always be followed, 
 law and order and peace and freedom — which are the wants 
 of commerce all the world over — will prevail and the cause 
 of humanity will be far advanced. [Loud cheers.]
 
 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE AND THOUGHT IN ENGLAND 
 
 [Speech of Lord Randolph Churchill at a dinner tendered him at Cam- 
 bridge, England, June 6, 18S5, by the University Carlton Club, of which he 
 was President at that time.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — It may not be uninteresting to many of 
 you to know that the Cambridge Carlton had a very re- 
 markable effect on my own political career, whatever it is 
 and such as it has been. There was a time, last year, when 
 it happened to me to be engaged in something partaking 
 of the nature of a struggle — at any rate, in a difference of 
 opinion — with men of great position, great responsibility, 
 and great experience, as to the form which modern Conserva- 
 tive political organization ought to take. Well, that differ- 
 ence of opinion at one time became very sharp, and I did not 
 know what the result of it might be ; and I was getting 
 extremely anxious, more for the sake of the Conservative 
 party than for my own sake. But this matter had attracted 
 a great deal of public attention, and one evening I came 
 home from the House of Commons very anxious and rather 
 discouraged, because at the House of Commons, among 
 people whom I ought to look upon as my political friends, 
 I had met nothing but gloomy looks ; and I felt very much 
 inclined to retire from the game, thinking I was doing more 
 harm than good, and rather — to use a slang expression — 
 disposed to cut the whole concern. 
 
 However, when I arrived at my house I found there 
 waiting for me a deputation from the University Carlton. 
 Three gentlemen — three, I will venture to say, of the most 
 accomplished and able envoys ever sent out on any mission 
 — were waiting for me ; and the only error which they com- 
 
 201
 
 203 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 
 
 mitted — and it was a very serious error — was that, instead 
 of going into my house and waiting for me there, with 
 whatever accommodation that dwelling might afford, they 
 waited for me in the street, and had been waiting for me 
 some time. And they conveyed to me an expression of 
 entire sympathy and agreement from this club with the 
 views which I had then put forth, and they invited me to a 
 banquet to be held in this town under the auspices of this 
 club. I do not think you can imagine the effect that ex- 
 pression of sympathy and that cordial invitation had upon 
 me at the time. Before I received it, I felt that I was very 
 young, very inexperienced, and very much alone, and I did 
 not know to what extent any portion or fraction of public 
 opinion might be with me. But the expression of opinion 
 from your club filled me with hopes that after all I was not 
 going so very far wrong — that I might still persevere a little 
 longer ; and though I was not able at that time to come to 
 the banquet to which I was invited, still I did persevere; 
 everything came all right, everything settled down, both to 
 the harmony, and, I think, to the advantage of the Tory 
 party. That was, to my mind, and must always be, so far 
 as I am concerned, a most interesting and memorable inci- 
 dent. It was an encouragement from youth to youth. 
 
 I can never fail to take the deepest and most abiding 
 interest in the fortunes of the University Carlton. I cannot 
 say how glad I am that we should meet together at last, 
 and make each other's acquaintance. When I arrived at 
 Brindisi, in April, on my return from India, the only letter 
 which met me from Europe was an invitation from this 
 club to become its President, and to attend the annual dinner. 
 I knew that it would be my duty and my pleasure to obey 
 that invitation, but as the time of the dinner drew near I 
 thought to myself ; "What on earth am I going to say at the 
 dinner?" because I knew from experience that a university 
 audience is perhaps more critical than any political audience 
 could possibly be. I thought that the ordinary topics, not to 
 say the commonplaces, of party controversy would be inap- 
 propriate to the concentrated essence of intelligence which I 
 see before me, although it is undoubtedly very important at 
 all times to explain, and to enlarge upon, the nature of the 
 differences which exist between the Conservative and the
 
 POLITICAL LIFE AND THOUGHT IM EX'GLAXD 203 
 
 Liberal party, particularly as regards the present state of 
 things. Still, if I were to take up your time this evening 
 by bringing up the case which the Conservative party liave 
 against Her Majesty's Government, I feel that I should be 
 imitating the action of the man who carried coals to New- 
 castle. I have no doubt that on that subject you can 
 tell me a great deal more than I can tell you. Besides 
 which, really, as regards the position of the Government at 
 the present moment, it is such an intensely wretched 
 position that they have almost passed beyond the scope of 
 blame. No one, not even their worst enemy, can feel any- 
 thing for them but pity. My own feelings with regard to 
 them are precisely similar to my feelings when I read in the 
 paper of some criminal condemned to death. I imagine one 
 would more appropriately address them as the Judge is 
 generally supposed to address the convict who has been 
 condemned to death : " Unfortunate man, I do not wish 
 by any word of mine to add to the agony of your last 
 moments." I thought, therefore, that, whatever happened, 
 I, at any rate, ought to try to direct your attention to some 
 subject a little less commonplace, and suggest respectfully 
 to your consideration some subject or other not usually 
 brought up at political gatherings. 
 
 I was thinking over this, and it suddenly occurred to me 
 how very little time the ordinary politician has for political 
 thought. An English politician of the present day lives in 
 such a giddy hurly-burly of events, incidents flash before 
 his mind with such dazzling rapidity of cause and conse- 
 quence, and he has at the same time to deal with such a 
 complexity, such a heterogeneous mass of business, that as 
 for sitting down quietly to think out, and getting to the 
 bottom of, any grave political situation — as you would sit 
 down to study a problem of chess — such a process is out of 
 the question and almost impossible. What is the nature of 
 the life of an ordinary member of Parliament ? He has to 
 fly up to the House of Commons, and from the House of 
 Commons he has to fly down to a public meeting, at which 
 pubHc meeting he is supposed and expected to discuss an 
 illimitable range of British interests, and the policy of the 
 Government as regards those interests : and having done 
 this, he is again obliged to fly back to the House of Com-
 
 204 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 
 
 mons, and there perhaps take part cither by voting or speaking 
 on some most difficult or comph'cated question brimming 
 over with serious results, either to himself personally or to 
 his party. Besides that, he has more or less— and generally, 
 I fear, less rather than more — to digest and assimilate an 
 immense quantity of newspaper and periodical literature, 
 and he has to deal with an enormous mass of correspond- 
 ence ; because the great feature of the present day is not 
 only the cacoethes lognendi, but also the caco'etJies scri- 
 bendi. 
 
 There are many people nowadays who take a great in^ 
 terest in politics, and everybody who takes a great interest 
 in politics always thinks it necessary, from time to time, to 
 write voluminously, generally in very imperfect caligraphy, 
 to his own particular friend in the House of Commons for 
 whom he happens to have a fancy. That is the nature of 
 the duties of an ordinary member of Parliament. And what 
 must be the nature of the duties of a Minister, who, in ad- 
 dition to all that, has to think of the business of his depart- 
 ment, and the condition of his Government, and the pros- 
 pects of his party? In such a state of things, how can you 
 expect, on any subject, anything like political thought ? 
 How can you expect your Government or your public men 
 to avoid blunders ? How can you expect the statesman- 
 ship of men like Lord Grey, or men like Lord John Rus- 
 sell, or Sir Robert Peel, or Mr. Canning, or, in later years. 
 Lord Beaconsfield ? I do not believe that any of these 
 great statesmen whom I have named, in the whole course of 
 their career, attended half a dozen of those public meetings 
 of the nature which some of us have to attend every week 
 or every month. Cabinet Councils were very few, the 
 House of Commons rarely sat late, and the sessions were 
 comparatively short ; so that these great men had ample 
 time to devote their abilities to deep consideration of the 
 affairs of their country. Yet you had blunders then, and 
 Governments came to grief ; and if that was the state of 
 things then, what can you expect now? 
 
 This is essentially an age of action. It does not appear 
 to me to be an age of thought. I doubt very much 
 whether, if Adam Smith, or even Mr. John Stuart Mill, had 
 lived in these days, they would have been able to produce
 
 FOLITICAL LIFE AND TPIOUGHT IX EXGLAXD 205 
 
 the works which they did produce. Raihvays and tele- 
 graphs, the steam printing-machine, and shorthand writing 
 have done their best to kill political thought. It is essen- 
 tially an age of action, but action based rather on instinct 
 than on logic, or reason, or experience. Look how sud- 
 denly things occur, how very little anything is foreseen, and 
 how very rapidly everything is forgotten. Take even such 
 instances as the death of General Gordon, or the battle of 
 Penj-deh, or even the vote of credit, and Mr. Gladstone's 
 great war speech. These are events which caused in- 
 tense and immeasurable excitement at the moment. That 
 excitement lasted for about twenty-four hours. Everybody 
 chattered to everybody about that particular subject for 
 that space of time, and then it was decently interred, for all 
 practical political purposes, in the political cemetery of ut- 
 ter oblivion. I do not think this at all an exaggerated or 
 untrue picture of the manner in which we conduct our 
 government and our political affairs. It is a very serious 
 consideration. Yet, strange to say, I suppose there never 
 was a time in the history of England when profound politi- 
 cal thought and prolonged political study were more essen- 
 tial to the interests of England. 
 
 The process of government has never approached even 
 the nature of an exact science. It has always been purely 
 empirical, and still continues to be so ; and yet the difficul- 
 ties of government now grow greater and greater every day, 
 and experience seems to become less useful. I suppose 
 there is not a man in England more experienced in the 
 public service — I doubt whether there has ever been a man 
 of greater experience in the public service — than Mr. Glad- 
 stone ; and yet look at the extraordinary ill-luck, to put it 
 in the mildest way, which has attended his Government 
 every single day. There are a great many people — I dare say 
 there are people in this university — who will tell you that, if 
 you want to be able to judge the present, and forecast the 
 future, you must study history. Well, I apprehend that the 
 study of history in our present case is almost useless. The 
 study of history to the Russian politician is very useful, be- 
 cause it will tell him what must be the inevitable and speedy 
 end of a grinding and cruel despotism. The study of 
 history to the German may be useful, because it will tell
 
 206 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 
 
 him that a military oligarchy, acting under the semblance 
 of a constitutional form, is a political system of ephemeral 
 duration. The study of history to the Frenchman is useful, 
 because it will tell him that the transition from a republic 
 to absolute and irresponsible power in one man is alike easy 
 and regular. But, in our case, the study of history to an 
 English politician affords very little guide whatever, be- 
 cause the state of things you have to deal with in England, 
 at the present moment, is unparalleled in history. 
 
 What are the duties of the English Government at the 
 present moment } They have to provide for the security, and, 
 as best they can, to minister to the happiness of some three 
 hundred millions or more of human beings, and these three 
 hundred millions are scattered over every quarter of the 
 world, and they comprise every imaginable variety of the 
 human race, of custom, of religion, of language and dialect. 
 And what is the nature of the Government which has to 
 discharge these extraordinary and unparalleled duties? 
 You have an hereditary monarchy, exercising an immense 
 influence indirectly, but hardly any influence directly — al- 
 most precisely the reverse of what was the nature of an 
 hereditary monarchy two hundred years ago. You have an 
 hereditary Chamber possessing executive and legislative 
 powers ; and you have a representative Chamber controlling 
 these two forces and seeking to acquire, and gradually ac- 
 quiring, into its own hands almost all executive and legisla- 
 tive authority. All these three institutions are institutions 
 of extremely ancient origin, and they are all institutions 
 intensely conservative in their constitution and their pro- 
 cedure. Because, mind you, if the House of Commons 
 were to be elected in November, and were to be composed 
 almost entirely of the Radical party, still you may take it 
 for certain, the spirit and the procedure of that House would 
 be intensely conservative. 
 
 What is the foundation of this very curious and ancient 
 structure ? The foundation is totally new, purely modern, 
 absolutely untried. You have changed the old foundation. 
 You have gone to a new foundation. Your new foundation 
 is a great seething and swaying mass of some five million 
 electors, who have it in their power, if they should so 
 please, by the mere heave of the shoulders, if they only act
 
 POLITICAL LIFE AND THOUGHT IN ENGLAND 207 
 
 with moderate unanimity, to sweep away entirely the three 
 ancient institutions which I have described, and put any- 
 thinc^ they like in their place, and to alter profoundly, and 
 perhaps for a time ruin altogether, the interests of the three 
 hundred million beings who are committed to their charge. 
 That is, I say, a state of things unparalleled in history. 
 
 And how do you think it will all end ? Are we being 
 swept along a turbulent and irresistible torrent which is bear- 
 ing us towards some political Niagara, in which every mortal 
 thing we now know will be twisted and smashed beyond all 
 recognition ? Or are we, on the other Jiand, gliding pas- 
 sively along a quiet river of human progress that will lead 
 us to some undiscovered ocean of almost superhuman 
 development? Who can tell? Is it not, gentlemen, an 
 age — is not this a moment — when political thought, and deep 
 political thought, is necessary ? To what extent do you 
 think these five million electors will be controlled, or in- 
 fluenced, by law or custom, by religion or by reason ? I 
 can understand — it is not difficult to understand — that five 
 million people may govern themselves with more or less 
 success ; but to what extent will these five million people be 
 able to control and direct the destinies — and in what man- 
 ner will they do so — of the three hundred millions whom they 
 have in their power? And to what extent will the five 
 million electors be exempt from the ordinary human in- 
 fluences of passion and caprice ? This is a problem totally 
 new. It is a problem upon which history throws no light 
 whatever, and moreover it is a problem which comes at a 
 time when the persons who are chiefly responsible for the 
 government of our country are precluded by the very cir- 
 cumstances of their life from giving it the deep attention 
 which it absolutely requires. 
 
 I believe that a club like yours can give much assistance 
 in this direction. You are not yet drawn into that political 
 machine which kills thought and stifles reflection. I dare 
 say many of those whom 1 see before me soon will be, but 
 some of you perhaps may not. At any rate, all I would say 
 to you, filling the honorable position of President, to which 
 you have so kindly elected me, is to give time while you 
 have time to political thought, and to the present considera- 
 tion of these questions, and to questions analogous to
 
 208 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL 
 
 those which I have tried to set before you. Discuss them 
 and write about them, and lecture about them, and endeavor, 
 in your respective spheres, to stimulate also political 
 thought among the masses of your fellow-countrymen. But 
 you can do more than this, because, by able summaries of 
 statistical information, by precise investigation into sharply 
 opposing arguments, and by original conclusions all put to- 
 gether in an agreeable and attractive literary form, you may 
 be able to do much to restrain politicians from acting hast- 
 ily and heedlessly at critical moments and upon important 
 subjects. In all probability, you possess enormous advan- 
 tages for this task. You represent the most perfect centre 
 of higher education, practical and theoretical, which any 
 country can show. You possess mental powers at the present 
 moment in their highest degree of energetic efficiency. Be- 
 cause, depend upon it that the mental powers of a man of 
 twenty-one for getting at the bottom of any difficult ques- 
 tion, or for arriving at the truth on any much-contested 
 subject, are worth double and treble the mental powers of a 
 man of thirty-five or forty, w'ho, harassed and exhausted by 
 ten or fifteen years of active political life, and by the cir- 
 cumstances of that life, is precluded from giving to the 
 subject the concentrated attention you can give it. Do you 
 suppose that a man at thirty-five or forty could go in for the 
 higher mathematics of this university with any chance of 
 success? Why, he would be mad ; every undergraduate in 
 the schools would beat him hollow. And yet, the difiicul- 
 ties of the extraordinary problems of higher mathematics 
 are as nothing compared with the mystery, darkness, and 
 confusion that surround some of our great political questions 
 at the present day. I am quite certain that it is impossible 
 for any of you to overestimate the benefits you can confer 
 upon society, and your country generally, by devoting and 
 applying your best energies to the development and popular- 
 ization of high and deep political thought. 
 
 I have shown — very cursorily, indeed, but in a manner which 
 your own intellects will fill up — the extraordinary, unparal- 
 elled and complicated nature of the political problems with 
 which political parties in England have to deal ; and I have 
 asked you, on my own behalf and on behalf of other politi- 
 cians busily engaged, for your assistance. At the same time,
 
 POLITICAL LIFE AND THOUGHT IN EXGLAXD 209 
 
 gentlemen, I do not wish you to suppose, for a moment, 
 that I am alarmed as to the future. My state of mind when 
 these great problems come across me — which is very rarely — is 
 one of wonder, or, perhaps, I should rather say of admiration 
 and of hope, because the alternative state of mind would be 
 one of terror and despair. And I am guarded from that lat- 
 ter state of mind by a firm belief in the essential goodness of 
 life, and in the evolution, by some process or other which I 
 do not exactly know and cannot determine, of a higher and 
 nobler humanity. But, above all, my especial safeguard 
 against such a state of mental annihilation and mental despair 
 is my firm belief in the ascertained and much-tried common 
 sense which is the peculiarity of the English people. That 
 is the faith which, I think, ought to animate and protect 
 you in your political future; that is the faith of the Tory 
 democracy in which I shall ever abide ; that is the faith 
 which your club can, and I hope will, widely and wisely 
 propagate ; and that is the faith which, dominating our 
 minds and influencing our actions on all occasions, no matter 
 how dark and gloomy the horizon may appear to be, will 
 contribute to preserve and adapt the institutions of our 
 country and to guarantee and to consolidate the spreading 
 dominions of the Queen. [Applause.]
 
 SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS 
 
 (MARK TWAIN) 
 
 NEW ENGLAND WEATHER 
 
 [Speech of vSaniuel L. Clemens at the seventy-first annual dinner of 
 the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1876. 
 The President, William Borden, was in the chair and announced the 
 eighth regular toast as follows : " The Oldest luhauitaut — The 
 Weather of New England." 
 
 " Who can lose it and forget it? 
 
 Who can have it and regret it ? " 
 •' Be iuterposer twixt us Twain." 
 
 Jlferchant of Venice.^ 
 
 Gentlemen : — I reverently believe that the Maker who 
 made us all, makes everything in New England — but 
 the weather, [ Laughter.] I don't know who makes that, 
 but I think it must be raw apprentices in the Weather Clerk's 
 factor}^, who experiment and learn how in New England 
 for board and clothes, and then are promoted to make 
 weather for countries that require a good article and will 
 take their custom elsewhere if they don't get it. [Laughter.] 
 There is a sumptuous variety about the New England 
 weather that compels the stranger's admiration — and regret. 
 [Laughter.] The weather is always doing something there ; 
 always attending strictly to business; always getting up 
 new designs and trying them on the people to see how they 
 will go. [Laughter.] But it gets through more business in 
 spring than in any other season. In the spring I have 
 counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather 
 inside of four and twenty hours. [Laughter.] It was I 
 that made the fame and fortune of that man that had 
 that marvelous collection of weather on exhibition at the 
 
 2x0
 
 SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS 
 {MARK TWAIN) 
 
 Photogravure after a photograph fro^n life
 
 N K\Y i::s G I ,A X I ) \v ]•: at m: r 211 
 
 Centennial that so astounded the foreigners. lie was po. 
 ing to travel all over the world and get specimens from all 
 the climes. I said : " Don't you do it ; you come to New 
 England on a favorable spring day." I told him what we could 
 do, in the way of style, variety, and quantity. [I.aughtcr.] 
 Well, he came, and he made his collection in four days. 
 [Laughter.] As to variety — why, he confessed that he got 
 hundreds of kinds of weather that he had never heard of be- 
 fore. And as to quantity — well, after he had picked out 
 and discarded all that was blemished in any wav, he not 
 only had weather enough, but weather to spare; weather to 
 hire out ; weather to sell ; to deposit ; weather to invest ; 
 weather to give to the poor. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 The people of New England arc by nature patient and 
 forbearing; but there are some things which they will not 
 stand. Every year they kill a lot of poets for writing about 
 " Beautiful Spring." [Laughter.] These are generally 
 casual visitors, who bring their notions of spring from some- 
 w^here else, and cannot, of course, know how the natives feel 
 about spring. And so, the first thing they know, the op- 
 portunity to inquire how they feel has permanently gone 
 by. [Laughter.] 
 
 Old Probabilities has a mighty reputation for accurate 
 prophecy, and thoroughly well deserves it. You take up 
 the papers and observe how crisply and confidently he 
 checks off what to-day's weather is going to be on the 
 Pacific, down South, in the Middle States, in the Wisconsin 
 region ; see him sail along in the joy and pride of his power 
 till he gets to New England, and then — see his tail drop. 
 [Laughter.] He doesn't know what the weather is going 
 to be in New England. He can't any more tell than he can 
 tell how many Presidents of the United States there's going 
 to be next year. [Applause.] Well, he mulls over it, and 
 by and by he gets out something about like this : Probable 
 nor'-east to sou'-west winds, varying to the southard and 
 westard and eastard and points between ; high and low 
 barometer, sweeping around from place to place ; probable 
 areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded 
 by earthquakes, with thunder and lightning. [Loud laughter 
 and applause.] Then he jots down this postscript from his 
 wandering mind to cover accidents : " But it is possible
 
 212 SAMUEL LAXGHORNE CLEMENS 
 
 that the programme may be wholly changed in the mean 
 time." [Loud laughter.] 
 
 Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England 
 weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it. There is only 
 one thing certain about it, you are certain there is going to 
 be plenty of weather [laughter] — a perfect grand review; 
 but you never can tell which end of the procession is going 
 to move first. You fix up for the drought ; you leave your 
 umbrella in the house and sally out with your sprinkling- 
 pot, and ten to one you get drowned. [Applause.] You 
 make up your mind that the earthquake is due ; you stand 
 from under and take hold of something to steady yourself, 
 and the first thing you know, you get struck by lightning. 
 [Laughter.] These are great disappointments. But they 
 can't be helped. [Laughter.] The lightning there is peculiar ; 
 it is so convincing ! When it strikes a thing, it doesn't leave 
 enough of that thing behind for you to tell whether — well, 
 you'd think it was something valuable, and a Congressman 
 had been there. [Loud laughter and applause.] 
 
 And the thunder. When the thunder commences to 
 merely tune up, and scrape, and saw, and key up the instru- 
 ments for the performance, strangers say : " Wliy, what aw- 
 ful thunder you have here ! " But when the baton is raised 
 and the real concert begins you'll find that stranger down 
 in the cellar, with his head in the ash-barrel. [Laughter.] 
 
 Now, as to the size of the weather in New England — length- 
 ways, I mean. It is utterly disproportioned to the size of 
 that little country. [Laughter.] Half the time, when it is 
 packed as full as it can stick, you will see that New England 
 weather sticking out beyond the edges and projecting around 
 hundreds and hundreds of miles over the neighboring States. 
 [Laughter.] She can't hold a tenth part of her weather. 
 You can see cracks all about, where she has strained herself 
 trying to do it. [Laughter.] 
 
 I could speak volumes about the inhuman perversity of the 
 New England weather, but I will give but a single specimen. 
 I like to hear rain on a tin roof, so I covered part of my 
 roof with tin, with an eye to that luxury. Well, sir, do you 
 think it ever rains on the tin ? No, sir ; skips it every time. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Mind, in this speech I have been trying merely to do
 
 NE\V EXGLAXD WEATHER 21 ^ 
 
 honor to the New England weather; no language could do 
 it justice. [Laughter.] But after all, there are at least one 
 or two things about that weather (or, if you please, effects 
 produced by it) which we residents would not like to part 
 with. [Applause.] If we had not our bewitching autumn 
 foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one 
 feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries — the 
 ice-storm— when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the 
 bottom to the top — ice that is as bright and clear as crystal ; 
 every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew- 
 drops, and the whole tree sparkles, cold and white, like the 
 Shah of Persia's diamond plume. [Applause.] Then the 
 wind waves the branches, and the sun comes out and turns 
 all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms, that glow 
 and hum and flash with all manner of colored fires, which 
 change and change again, with inconceivable rapidity, from 
 blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold ; the tree 
 becomes a sparkling fountain, a very explosion of dazzling 
 jewels ; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the su- 
 premest possibility in art or nature of bewildering, intoxi- 
 cating, intolerable magnificence ! One cannot make the 
 words too strong. [Long-continued applause.] 
 
 Month after month I lay up hate and grudge against the 
 New England weather ; but when the ice-storm comes at 
 last, I say : " There, I forgive you now ; the books are square 
 between us ; you don't owe me a cent ; go and sin some 
 more ; your little faults and foibles count for nothing; you 
 are the most enchanting weather in the world ! " [Applause 
 and laughter.]
 
 214 SAMUEL LAXGHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 A "LITTERY" EPISODE 
 
 [Speech of Samuel L. Clemens at the " Whittier Birthday Din- 
 ner," at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, Mass., December 17, 1877, 
 given bv the publishers of the "Atlantic Monthl\'," in celebration of the 
 seventieth anniversary of John Greenleaf Whittier's birthday, and the 
 twentieth anniversary of the founding of the magazine. The subjects of 
 ISIark Twain's wit— Emerson, Longfellow, and Holmes— were of the 
 large company present, and all three took his humorous thrusts witli 
 supreme good nature.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — Thi.s is an occasion peculiarly meet for 
 the digging up of pleasant reminiscences concerning liter- 
 ary folk ; therefore, I will drop lightly into history myself. 
 Standing here on the shore of the " Atlantic," and contem- 
 plating certain of the biggest literary billows, I am reminded 
 of a thing which happened to me fifteen years ago, when I 
 had just succeeded in stirring up a little Nevadian literary 
 ocean-puddle myself, whose spume-flakes were beginning to 
 blow thinly California-wards. I started on an inspection 
 tram.p through the southern mines of California. I was 
 callow and conceited, and I resolved to try the virtue of my 
 7toin dc pluvie. I very soon had an opportunity. I knocked 
 at a miner's lonely log-cabin in the foot-hills of the Sierras, 
 just at nightfall. It was snowing at the time. A jaded, 
 melancholy man of fifty, barefooted, opened to me. When 
 he heard my noni de phunc he looked more dejected than 
 before. He let mc in pretty reluctantly, I thought, — and 
 after the customary bacon and beans, black coffee, and a hot 
 whiskey, I took a pi[)e. This sorrowful man had not said 
 three words up to this time. Now he spoke up and said, in 
 the voice of one who is secretly suffering : " You're the 
 fourth — I'm a-going to move." "The fourth what?" said 
 I. " The fourth littery man that's been here in twent}-- 
 four hours — I'm a-going to move," " You don't tell me ! " 
 said I. "Who were the others.^" "Mr. Longfellow, Mr. 
 Emerson, and Mr. Oliver Wendell Holmes — dad fetch the 
 lot ! " [Laughter.] 
 
 You can easily believe I was interested. I supplicated 
 — three hot whiskys did the rest — and finally the melan- 
 choly miner began. Said he : " They cmc here just at dark
 
 A ].Tr'i"i:KY " i-;i'is()ii': 215 
 
 yp'^terday evening;, ami 1 ht them in, of course. Sai^l they 
 were going to Yosemite. They were a rou-h h)t - but that's 
 nothing— everybody looks rough that travels afoot. Mr. 
 Emerson was a seedy little bit of a chap— red-headed. Mr. 
 Holmes was as fat as a balloon — he w eii^hed as much as three 
 hundred, and had double chins all the way down to his 
 stomach. Mr. Longfellow was built like a prize fighter. 
 His head was cropped and bristly — like as if he had a wig 
 made of hair-brushes. His nose lay straight down his face, 
 like a finger with the end-joint tilted up. They had been 
 drinking — I could see that. And what queer talk they 
 used ! Mr. Holmes inspected this cabin, then he took me 
 by the buttonhole, and says he : — 
 
 ' Through the deep caves of thought 
 I hear a voice that sings : 
 Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul ! ' 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Says I, ' I can't afford it, Mr. Holmes, and, moreover, I 
 don't want to.' Blamed if I liked it pretty well, either, 
 coming from a stranger, that way. However, I started to 
 git out my bacon and beans, when Mr. Emerson came and 
 looked on awhile, and then he takes me aside by the button- 
 hole and says : — 
 
 ' Give me agates for my meat ; 
 Give me cantharids to eat ; 
 From air and ocean bring me foods. 
 From all zones and altitudes.' 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Says I, ' Mr. Emerson, if you'll excuse me, this ain't no 
 hotel.' [Renewed laughter.] You see it sort of riled me, — 
 I wasn't used to the ways of littery swells. But I went on 
 a-sweating over my work, and next comes Mr. Longfellow 
 and buttonholes me, and interrupts me. Says he : — 
 
 ' Honor be to Mudjikeewis ! 
 You shall hear how Paw-Puk-Keewis' — 
 
 But I broke in, and says I, * Begging your pardon, Mr. 
 Longfellow, if you'll be so kind as to hold your yawp for 
 about five minutes and let me get this grub ready, you'll do 
 me proud,' [Continued laughter.] Well, sir, after they'd
 
 2l6 SA^IUEL LAX'GHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 filled up I set out the jug. Mr. Holmes looks at it, and 
 then fires up all of a sudden, and yells :— 
 
 ' Flash out a stream of blood-red wine ! 
 For I would drink to other days.' 
 
 [Great merriment.] 
 
 By George, I was getting kind o' worked up. I don't deny 
 it, I was getting kind o' worked up. I turns to Mr, 
 Holmes, and, says I, ' Looky here, my fat friend, I'm 
 a-running this shanty, and if the court knows herself, you'll 
 take whisky-straight, or you'll go dry.' [Laughter.] Them's 
 the very words I said to him. Now I didn't want to sass 
 such famous littery people, but you see they kind o' forced 
 me. There ain't nothing onreasonable 'bout me ; I don't 
 mind a passel of guests a-tread'n on my tail three or four 
 times, but when it comes to standiii on it, it's different, and 
 if the court knows herself, you'll take whisky-straight, or 
 you'll go dry.' Well, between drinks, they'd swell around 
 the cabin and strike attitudes and spout. [Laughter.] Says 
 Mr. Longfellow : — 
 
 ' This is the forest primeval.' 
 Says Mr. Emerson : — 
 
 ' Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world.' 
 
 Says I: * Oh, blackguard the premises as much as you 
 want to — it don't cost you a cent.' [Laughter.] Well, 
 they went on drinking, and pretty soon they got out a 
 greasy old deck and went to playing cut-throat euchre at 
 ten cents a corner — on trust. I begun to notice some pretty 
 suspicious things. Mr. Emerson dealt, looked at his hand, 
 shook his head, says : — 
 
 ' I am the doubter and the doubt ' 
 
 — and calmly bunched the hands and went to shuffling for a 
 new lay out. Says he : — 
 
 ' They reckon ill who leave me out ; 
 They know not well the subtle ways 
 I keep, I pass, and deal again ! ' 
 [Laughter.]
 
 A LITTKRY EPISODE 21 7 
 
 Hang'd if he didn't go ahead, and do it, too ! O, he was a 
 cool ane ! Well, in about a minute, things were running 
 pretty tight, but of a sudden I see by Mr. Emerson's eye 
 that he judged he had 'em. lie had already corralled two 
 tricks, and each of the others one. So now he kind o' lifts 
 a little in his chair, and says : — 
 
 ' I tire of globes and aces ! 
 Too long the game is played ! ' 
 
 • — and down he fetched a right bower. Mr. Longfellow 
 smiles as sweet as pie, and says : — 
 
 ' Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, 
 For the lesson thou hast taught.' 
 
 — and dog my cats if he didn't down with another right 
 bower ! Well, sir, up jumps Holmes, a-war-whooping as 
 usual, and says : — 
 
 ' God help them if the tempest swings 
 The pine against the palm ! ' 
 
 — and I wish I may go to grass if he didn't swoop down 
 with another right bower! [Great laughter.] Emerson 
 claps his hand on his bowie, Longfellow claps his on his 
 revolver, and I went under a bunk. There was going to be 
 trouble; but that monstrous Holmes rose up, wobbling his 
 double chins, and says he: 'Order, gentlemen! The first 
 man that draws, I'll lay down on him and smother him ! ' 
 [Laughter,] All quiet on the Potomac, you bet you ! 
 
 " They were pretty how-comc-you-so now, and they be- 
 gun to blow. Emerson says, ' The bulliest thing I ever 
 wrote was " Barbara Frietchie." ' Says Longfellow, ' It don't 
 begin with my " Biglow Papers." ' Says Holmes, ' My 
 " Thanatopsis " lays over 'em both.' [Laughter.] They 
 mighty near ended in a fight. Then they wished they had 
 some more company, and Mr. Emerson pointed at me and 
 says : — 
 
 ' Is yonder squalid peasant all 
 That this proud nursery could breed ? * 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 He was a-whetting his bowie on his boot — so I let it pass. 
 
 [Laughter.] Well, sir, next they took it into their heads
 
 2l8 SAMUEL LAXGHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 that they would Hke some music ; so they made me stand 
 up and sing ' When Johnny Comes Marching Home ', till I 
 dropped — at thirteen minutes past four this morning. That's 
 what I've been through, my friend. When I woke at seven 
 they were leaving, thank goodness, and Mr. Longfellow had 
 my only boots on, and his own under his arm. Says I, 
 ' Hold on there, Evangeline, what you going to do with 
 tJicni ?' He says, ' Going to make tracks with 'em, because — 
 
 ' Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime ; 
 And departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time.' 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 " As I said, Mr. Twain, you are the fourth in twenty-four 
 hours — and I'm going to move — I ain't suited to a littery 
 atmosphere." 
 
 I said to the miner, " Why, my dear sir, tJiese were not 
 the gracious singers to whom we and the world pay loving 
 reverence and homage : these were impostors." 
 
 The miner investigated me with a calm eye for a while, 
 then said he, " Ah ! impostors, were they ? — are you ? " 
 I did not pursue the subject ; and since then I haven't 
 traveled on my noin de plume enough to hurt. 
 
 Such was the reminiscence I was moved to contribute, 
 Mr. Chairman. \\\ my enthusiasm I may have exaggerated 
 the details a little ; but you will easily forgive me that 
 fault, since I believe it is the first time I have ever deflected 
 from perpendicular fact on an occasion like this. [Laughter 
 and applause.] 
 
 THE BABIES 
 
 [Speech of Samuel L. Clemens at a banquet given b}- the Army of ths 
 Tennessee at Chicago, 111. November 13, 1879, 'i^ honor of General 
 Grant on his return from his trip around the world. Mark Twain re- 
 sponded to the toast : " The Babies : As they comfort us in our sorrows, 
 let us not forget them in our festivities."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen :—" The Babies!" 
 Now, that's something like. We haven't all had the good 
 fortune to be ladies ; we have not all been generals, or poets.
 
 THE BABIES 
 
 219 
 
 or statesmen ; but when the toast works clown to the babies, 
 we stand on common ground — for we've all been babies. 
 [Laughter.] It is a shame that for a thousand years the 
 world's banquets have utterly ignored the baby, as if he 
 didn't amount to anything! If you, gentlemen, will stop 
 and think a minute — if you will go back fifty or a hundred 
 years, to your early married life and recontemplate your 
 first baby — you will remember that he amounted to a good 
 deal — and even something over. [Laughter.] 
 
 You soldiers all know that when that little fellow arrived 
 at family headquarters you had to hand in your resignation. 
 He took entire command. Vou became his lackey, his 
 mere body-guard; and you had to stand around, too. He 
 was not a commander who made allowances for the time, 
 distance, weather, or anything else: you had to execute his 
 order whether it was possible or not. And there was only 
 one form of marching in his manual of tactics, and that was 
 the double-quick. [Laughter.] He treated you with every 
 sort of insolence and disrespect, and the bravest of you did 
 not dare to say a word. You could face the death-storm of 
 Donelson and Vicksburg, and give back blow for blow ; 
 but when he clawed your whiskers and pulled your hair, 
 and twisted your nose you had to take it. [Laughter.] 
 When the thunders of war sounded in your ears, you set 
 your faces towards the batteries and advanced with steady 
 tread; but when he turned on the terrors of his war-whoop 
 [laughter], you advanced in — the other direction, and mighty 
 glad of the chance, too. When he called for soothing syrup 
 did you venture to throw out any remarks about certain 
 services being unbecoming to an of^cer and a gentleman ? 
 No; you got up and got it ! If he ordered his pap-bottle 
 and it wasn't warm, did you talk back ? Not you ; you 
 went to work and warmed it. You even descended so far 
 in your menial office as to take a suck at that warm, insipid 
 stuff yourself to see if it was right! — three parts water to 
 one of milk, a touch of sugar to modify the colic, and a 
 drop of peppermint to kill those immortal hiccoughs. I can 
 taste that stuff yet ! [Uproarious laughter.] 
 
 And how many things you learned as you went along! 
 Sentimental young folks still take stock in that beautiful 
 old saying, that when the baby smiles in his sleep it is be-
 
 220 SAMUEL LAXGHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 f lusc the angels are Avhispering to him. Very pretty, but 
 "too thin"— simply wind on the stomach, my friends. 
 [Laughter.] If the baby proposed to take a walk at his 
 usuaniour—half-past two in the morning— didn't you rise 
 up promptly and remark (with a mental addition which 
 wouldn't improve a Sunday-school much) that that was the 
 very thing you were about to propose yourself? Oh, you 
 were under good discipline. And as you went fluttering up 
 and down the room in your " undress uniform " [laughter], 
 you not only prattled undignified baby-talk, but even tuned 
 up your martial voices and tried to sing " Rock-a-bye-baby on 
 the tree-top," for instance. What a spectacle for an Army 
 of the Tennessee ! And what an afBiction for the neighbors, 
 too, for it isn't everybody within a mile around that likes 
 military music at three o'clock in the morning. [Laughter.] 
 And when you had been keeping this sort of thing up two 
 or three hours, and your little velvet head intimated that 
 nothing suited him like exercise and noise, and proposed to 
 fight it out on that line if it took all night — " Go on ! What 
 did you do ? " You simply went on till you dropped in the 
 last ditch. [Laughter.] 
 
 I like the idea that a baby doesn't amount to anything ! 
 Why, one baby is just a house and a front yard full by 
 itself ; one baby can furnish more business than you and 
 your whole interior department can attend to ; he is en- 
 terprising, irrepressible, brimful of lawless activities ; do 
 what you please, you can't make him stay on the reserva- 
 tion. Suf^cient unto the day is one baby. As long as you 
 are in your right mind don't you ever pray for twins. Twins 
 amount to a permanent riot; and there ain't any real differ- 
 ence between triplets and insurrection. [Great laughter.] 
 
 Among the three or four million cradles now rocking in 
 the land, are some which this nation would preserve for ages 
 as sacred things if we could know which ones they are. For 
 in one of these cradles the unconscious Farragut of the future 
 is at this moment teething. Think of it ! and putting a 
 word of dead earnest, unarticulated, but justifiable, pro- 
 fanity over it, too; in another, the future renowned astrono- 
 mer is blinking at the shining Milky Way with but a languid 
 interest, poor little chap, and wondering what has become 
 of that other one they call the wet-nurse ; in another, the
 
 UNXOXSCIOUS PLAGIARISM 221 
 
 future great historian is lying, and tloubtless he will con- 
 tinue to lie until his earthly mission is ended ; in another, 
 the future President is busying himself with no profoundcr 
 problem of State than what the mischief has become of his 
 hair so early [laughter] ; and in a mighty array of other 
 cradles there are now some sixty thousand future office- 
 seekers getting ready to furnish him occasion to grapple 
 with that same old problem a second time! And in still 
 one more cradle, somewhere under the flag, the future illus- 
 trious commander-in-chief of the American armies is so little 
 burdened with his approaching grandeurs and responsibili- 
 ties as to be giving his whole strategic mind, at this moment, 
 to trying to find out some way to get his own big toe into 
 his mouth, an achievement which (meaning no disrespect) 
 the illustrious guest of this evening also turned his atten- 
 tion to some fifty-six years ago ! And if the child is but 
 the prophecy of the man there are mighty few will doubt 
 that he succeeded. [Laughter and prolonged applause.] 
 
 UNCONSCIOUS PLAGIARISM 
 
 [Speech of Samuel L. Clemens at the " Holmes Breakfast " in Boston, 
 December 3, 1879, given by the publishers of the "Atlantic Monthly " to 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes upon his seventieth birthday, for which oc- 
 casion the Autocrat wrote his poem, " The Iron Gate," closing with the 
 tender lines : — 
 
 " And now with grateful smile and accents cheerful, 
 And warmer heart than look or word can tell, 
 In simplest phrase — these traitorous eyes are tearful — 
 Thanks, Brothers, Sisters, Children — and Farewell ! "] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:— I would 
 have travelled a much greater distance than I have come to 
 witness the paying of honors to Dr. Holmes. For my feel- 
 ing toward him has always been one of peculiar warmth. 
 When one receives a letter from a great man for the first 
 time in his life, it is a large event to him, as all of you know 
 by your own experience. You never can receive letters 
 enough from famous men afterward to obliterate that one, 
 or dim the memory of the pleasant surprise it was, and the
 
 2 22 SAMUEL LAN'GHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 gratification it gave you. Lapse of time cannot make it 
 commonplace or cheap. 
 
 Well, the first great man who ever wrote me a letter was 
 our guest — Oliver Wendell Holmes. He was also the first 
 great literary man I ever stole anything from [laughter], 
 and that is how I came to write to him and he to me. When 
 my first book was new a friend of mine said to me, " The 
 dedication is very neat." Yes, I said, I thought it was. 
 My friend said : " I always admired it, even before I saw it 
 in the ' Innocents Abroad.'" I naturally said, "What do 
 you mean ? Where did you ever see it before?" " Well, I 
 saw it first some years ago as Dr. Holmes's dedication to 
 his ' Songs in Many Keys.'" Of course, my first impulse 
 Avas to prepare this man's remains for burial [laughter], but 
 upon reflection I said I would reprieve him for a moment or 
 two, and give him a chance to prove his assertion if he could. 
 We stepped into a bookstore, and he did prove it. I had 
 really stolen that dedication, almost word for word. I could 
 not imagine how this curious thing had happened ; for I 
 knew one thing, for a dead certainty, — that a certain amount 
 of pride always goes along with a teaspoonful of brains, and 
 that this pride protects a man from deliberately stealing 
 other people's ideas. That is what a teaspoonful of brains 
 will do for a man, — and admirers had often told me I had 
 nearly a basketful, though they were rather reserved as to 
 the size of the basket. [Laughter.] 
 
 However, 1 thought the thing out and solved the mys- 
 tery. Two years before I had been laid up a couple of 
 M'eeks in the Sandwich Islands, and had read and reread 
 Dr. Holmes's poems until my mental reservoir was filled 
 up with them to the brim. The dedication lay on top and 
 handy [laughter], so by and by I unconsciously stole it. 
 Perhaps I unconsciously stole the rest of the volume, too, 
 for many people have told me that mj^ book was pretty 
 poetical, in one way or another. Well, of course, I wrote 
 Dr. Holmes and told him I hadn't meant to steal, and he 
 wrote back and said in the kindest way that it was all right 
 and no harm done ; and added that he believed we all un- 
 consciously worked over ideas gathered in reading and hear- 
 ing, iinagining they were original with ourselves. lie 
 stated a truth, and did it in such a pleasant way, and salved
 
 MISTAKEN IDFA'TITV 223 
 
 over my sore spot so gently nnd so healingly, that I was 
 rather glad I had committed the crime, for the sake of the 
 letter. I afterward called on hin^ and told him to make 
 perfectly free with any ideas of mine that struck him as 
 being good protoplasm for poetry. [Laughter.] lie 
 could sec by that that there wasn't anything mean about 
 me ; so we got along right from the start. 
 
 I have met Dr. Holmes many times since ; and lately he 
 said, — however, I am -wandering wildly away from the one 
 thing which I got on my feet to do : that is, to make my 
 compliments to you, my fellow-teachers of the great public, 
 and likewise to say I am right glad to see that Dr. Holmes 
 is still in his prime and full of generous life ; and as age is 
 not determined by years, but by trouble and infirmities of 
 mind and body, I hope it may be a very long time yet be- 
 fore any can truthfully say, " He is growing old." [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 MISTAKEN IDENTITY 
 
 [Speech of Samuel I,. Clemens, at the " Ladies ' Night " banquet of the 
 Papyrus Club, Boston, February 24, 1S81.] 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — I am perfectly astounded at 
 the way in which history repeats itself. I find myself 
 situated, at this moment, exactly and precisely as I was 
 once before, years ago, to a jot, to a tittle, to a very hair. 
 There isn't a shade of difference. It is the most astonish- 
 ing coincidence that ever — but wait, I will tell you the for- 
 mer instance and then you will see it yourselves. 
 
 Years ago I arrived one day at Salamanca, Pa., eastward 
 bound, must change cars there, and take the sleeper-train. 
 There were crowds of people there, and they were swarm- 
 ing into the long sleeper-train and packing it full, and it 
 was a perfect purgatory of rush and confusion and gritting 
 of teeth, and soft, sweet, and low profanity. I asked the 
 young man in the ticket office if I could have a sleeping 
 section, and he answered " No ! " with a snarl that shrivelled 
 me up like burned leather. I went off smarting under this 
 insult to my dignity and asked another local official, supplicate
 
 224 SAMUEL LAXGIIORNE CLEMENS 
 
 in^ly, if I couldn't have some poor little corner somewhere 
 in a sleeping car, and he cut me short with a venomous 
 " No, }'ou can't ; every corner's full — now don't bother me 
 any more." And he turned his back and walked off. My 
 diornitv was in a state now which cannot be described. I 
 was so ruffled that — well, I said to my companion : " If 
 
 these people knew who I am they " But my companion 
 
 cut me short there, and said: "Don't talk such folly! If 
 they did know who you are, do you suppose it would help 
 your high mightiness to a vacancy in a train which has no 
 vacancies in it? Ah, me ! if you could only get rid of 148 
 pounds of your self-conceit, I would value the other pound 
 of you above the national debt." 
 
 This did not improve my condition any to speak of. But 
 just then I observed that the colored porter of a sleeping-car 
 had his eye on me ; I saw his dark countenance light up ; 
 he whispered to the uniformed conductor, punctuating 
 with nods and jerks toward me, and straightway this con- 
 ductor came forward, oozing politeness from every pore, 
 and said : " Can I be of any service ? Will you have a 
 place in the sleeper ? " " Yes," I said, " and much obliged, 
 too ; give me anything — anything will answer." He said, 
 " We have nothing left but the big family stateroom, with 
 two berths and a couple of armchairs in it ; but it is entirely 
 at your disposal, and we shall not charge you any more 
 than we should for a couple of ordinary berths. Here, 
 Tom, take these satchels aboard." He touched his hat, 
 and we and the colored Tom moved along. I was bursting 
 to drop just one little remark to my companion, but I held 
 in and waited. 
 
 Tom made us comfortable in that sumptuous great apart- 
 ment, and then said, with many bows and a perfect affluence 
 of smile : " Now, is dey anything you want, sah ? — 'case you 
 kin have jes' anything you wants, don't make no difference 
 what it is." I said, " Can I have some hot water and a 
 tumbler at nine to-night — blazing hot, you know — about 
 the right temperature for a hot Scotch punch?" "Yes, 
 sah, dat you kin ; you can 'pen' on it ; I'll get it myse'f." 
 " Good ; now that lamp ishungtoo high ; can I have a big 
 coach candle fixed up just at the head of my bed, so that I can 
 read comfortably?" "Yes, sah, you kin; I'll fix her up
 
 WOMAX, COD HLESS IIKR ! ^25 
 
 myse'f, an' I'll fix her so she'll burn all nl^Ljht, an* I'll see 
 dat she does, too, 'case I'll keep my eye on her troo dc do'; 
 yes,sah, an' you kin jcs call for anything you wants— it 
 don't make no difference what it is— an' dis yer whole rail- 
 road'll be turned wrong eend up an' inside out for to git it 
 for you — dat's so ! " And lie disappeared. 
 
 Well, I tilted my head back, hooked my thumbs in my 
 armholes, smiled a smile on my companion, and said 
 gently: " Well, what do you say now?" My companion 
 was not in a humor to respond — and didn't. The next 
 moment that smiling black face was thrust in at the crack 
 of the door, and this speech followed : " Law bless you, 
 sah, I knowed you in a minute! I told the conductah so. 
 Laws, I knowed you the minute I set eyes on you." "Is 
 that so, my boy (handing him a quadruple fee) ; well, who 
 am I ? " " General McClellan ! " [great merriment]— and 
 he disappeared again. My companion said, vinegarishly, 
 " Well, what do you say now ? " 
 
 Right there comes in the marvelous coincidence I men- 
 tioned a week ago, viz., I was — speechless. And that is my 
 condition now. Perceive it ? [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 WOMAN, GOD BLESS HER! 
 
 [Speech of vSamuel L. Clemens, at the 77th anniversary banquet of the 
 New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1SS2. 
 Joseph M. Fiske, President of the Society, was in the chair. Mr. Clemens 
 spoke to the toast " Woman, God bless her ! "] 
 
 The toast includes the sex, universally ; it is to Woman 
 comprehensively, wheresoever she may be found. Let us 
 consider her ways. First com.es the matter of dress. This 
 is a most important consideration, and must be disposed of 
 before we can intelligently proceed to examine the pro- 
 founder depths of the themie. For text let us take the 
 dress of two antipodal types — the savage woman of Central 
 Africa and the cultivated daughter of our high modern civi- 
 lization. Among the Fans, a great negro tribe, a woman 
 when dressed for home, or to go out shopping or calling, 
 doesn't wear anything at all but just her complexion. 
 IS
 
 2 26 SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS 
 
 [Laughter.] That is all ; it is her entire outfit. [Laughter.] 
 It is the lightest costume in the world, but is made of the 
 darkest material. [Laughter.] It has often been mistaken 
 for mourning. [Laughter.] It is the trimmest, and neat- 
 est, and gracefulest costume that is now in fashion ; it 
 wears well, is fast colors, doesn't show dirt, you don't have 
 to send it down-town to wash, and have some of it corne 
 back scorched with the flat-iron, and some of it with the 
 buttons ironed off, and some of it petrified with starch, and 
 some of it chewed by the calf, and some of it rotted with 
 acids, and some of it exchanged for other customers' things 
 that haven't any virtue but holiness, and ten-twelfths of the 
 pieces overcharged for and the rest of the dozen " mislaid." 
 [Laughter]. And it always fits ; it is the perfection of a 
 fit. [Laughter.] And it is the handiest dress in the whole 
 realm of fashion. It is always ready, always " done up." 
 When you call on a Fan lady and send up your card, the 
 hired girl never says, " Please take a seat, madame is dress- 
 ing ; she'll be down in three-quarters of an hour." No, 
 madame is always dressed, always ready to receive ; and be- 
 fore you can get the door-mat before your eyes she is in 
 your midst. [Laughter.] Then, again, the Fan ladies 
 don't go to church to see what each other has got on ; and 
 they don't go back home and describe it and slander it. 
 [Laughter,] 
 
 Such is the dark child of savagery, as to every-day toilet ; 
 and thus, curiously enough, she finds a point of con- 
 tact with the fair daughter of civilization and high fashion 
 — who often has " nothing to wear ; " and thus these widely- 
 separated types of the sex meet upon common ground. 
 Yes, such is the Fan woman as she appears in her simple, 
 unostentatious, every-day toilet ; but on state occasions 
 she is more dressy. At a banquet she wears bracelets ; at 
 a lecture she wears earrings and a belt ; at a ball she wears 
 stockings — and, with true feminine fondness for display, 
 .she wears them on her arms [laughter] ; at a funeral she 
 wears a jacket of tar and ashes [laughter] ; at a wedding 
 the bride who can afford it puts on pantaloons. [Laugh- 
 ter.] Thus the dark child of savagery and the fair daughter 
 of civilization meet once more upon common ground, and 
 these two touches of nature make their whole world kin.
 
 WOMAN, COD HLESS IIKR ! 227 
 
 Now we will consider the dress of our other type. A lar^^e 
 part of the daughter of civilization is her dress— as it shouM 
 be. Some civilized women would lose half their charm with- 
 out dress ; and some would lose all of it. [ Laughter.] 
 The daughter of modern civilization dressed at her utmost 
 best, is a marvel of exquisite and beautiful art and expense. 
 All the lands, all the climes, and all the arts are laid under 
 tribute to furnish her forth. Her linen is from ]5elfast, her 
 robe is from Paris, her lace is from Venice, or Si)ain, or 
 France ; her feathers are from the remote regions of 
 Southern Africa, her furs from the remoter home of the ice- 
 berg and the aurora, her fan from Japan, her diamonds from 
 Brazil, her bracelets from California, her pearls from Ceylon, 
 her cameos from Rome; she has gems and trinkets from 
 buried Pompeii, and others that graced comely Egyptian 
 forms that have been dust and ashes now for forty centuries; 
 her watch is from Geneva, her card-case is from China, her 
 hair is from — from — I don't know where her hair is from ; I 
 never could find out. [Much laughter.] That is, her other 
 hair — her public hair, her Sunday hair; I don't mean the 
 hair she goes to bed with. [Laughter.] Why, you ought to 
 know the hair I mean ; it's that thing which she calls a switch, 
 and which resembles a switch as much as it resembles a brick- 
 bat or a shotgun, or any other thing which you correct 
 people with. It's that thing which she twists and then coils 
 round and round her head, beehive fashion, and then tucks 
 the end in under the hive and harpoons it with a hairpin. 
 And that reminds me of a trifle : any time you want to, you 
 can glance around the carpet of a Pullman car, and go and 
 pick up a hairpin ; but not to save your life can you get any 
 woman in that car to acknowledge that hairpin. Now, isn't 
 that strange ? But it's true. The woman who has never 
 swerved from cast-iron veracity and fidelity in her whole life 
 will, when confronted with this crucial test, deny her hairpin. 
 [Laughter.] She will deny that hairpin before a hundred 
 witnesses. I have stupidly got into more trouble and more 
 hot water trying to hunt up theownerof a hairpin in a Pull- 
 man car than by any other indiscretion of my life. 
 
 Well, you see what the daughter of civilization is when 
 she is dressed, and you have seen what the daughter of 
 savagery is when she isn't. Such is woman, as to costume.
 
 228 SAMUEL LAXGHORXE CLEMENS 
 
 I come now to consider her in her higher and nobler aspects 
 — as mother, wife, widow, grass-widow, mother-in-hiw, hired 
 girl, telegraph operator, telephone helloer, queen, book-agent, 
 wet-nurse, stepmother, boss, professional fat woman, profes- 
 sional double-headed woman, professional beauty, and so 
 forth and so on. [Laughter.] 
 
 We will simply discuss these few — let the rest of the sex 
 tarry in Jericho till we come again. First in the list of right, 
 and first in our gratitude, comes a woman who — why, dear 
 me, I've been talking three-quarters of an hour ! I beg a 
 thousand pardons. But you see, yourselves, that I had a 
 large contract. I have accomplished something, anyway. 
 I have introduced my subject. And if I had till next Fore- 
 fathers' Day, I am satisfied that I could discuss it as ade- 
 quately and appreciatively as so gracious and noble a theme 
 deserves. But as the matter stands now, let us finish as we 
 began — and say, without jesting, but with all sincerity, 
 " Woman — God bless her! " [Applause.]
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 TRUE DEMOCRACY 
 
 [Speech of Ex-President Grover Cleveland, at a banquet given in Phila- 
 delphia, January 8, 1891, by the Young Men's Democratic Association 
 of that city. The event signalized the anniversary of the battle of New 
 Orleans. Samuel Gustine Thompson, the President of the Association, 
 was in the chair, and proposed the toast to which Mr. Cleveland spoke : 
 " The principles of True Democracy ; they are enduring because they 
 are right, and invincible because they are just."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — As I rise to respond 
 to the sentiment which has been assigned to me, I cannot 
 avoid the impression made tipon my mind by the announce- 
 ment of the words " True Democracy." I believe them to 
 mean a sober conviction or conclusion touching the political 
 topics which, formulated into political belief or creed, inspires 
 a patriotic performance and the duties of citizenship. When 
 illusions are dispelled, when misconceptions are rectified, 
 and when those who guide are consecrated to truth and 
 duty, the ark of the people's safety will still be discerned in 
 the keeping of those who hold fast the principles of true 
 democracy. 
 
 These principles are not uncertain nor doubtful. They 
 comprise equal and exact justice to all men ; peace, com- 
 merce, and hence friendship with all nations — entangling 
 alliance with none ; the support of the State Governments 
 in all their rights ; the preservation of the General Govern- 
 ment in its whole constitutional vigor ; a jealous care of the 
 right of election by the people ; absolute acquiescence in 
 the decisions of the majority ; the supremacy of the civil 
 over the military authority ; economy in the public expenses ; 
 the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of 
 the public faith; the encouragement of agriculture and 
 
 229
 
 230 GROVER CLEVELAXD 
 
 commerce as its handmaid, and freedom of religion, freedom 
 of the press, and freedom of the person. 
 
 The great President and intrepid democratic leader whom 
 we especially honor to-night found his inspiration and guide 
 in these principles. 
 
 Not all who have followed the banner have been able by 
 a long train of close reasoning to demonstrate as an abstrac- 
 tion why democratic principles are best suited to their wants 
 and the country's good ; but they have known and felt that 
 as their government was established for the people, the 
 principles and men nearest to the people and standing for 
 them could be the safest trusted. 
 
 Jackson has been in their eyes the incarnation of the 
 things which Jefferson declared ; if they did not understand 
 all that Jefferson wrote, they saw and knew what Jackson 
 did. Those who insisted upon voting for Jackson after his 
 death felt sure that whether their candidate was alive or dead, 
 they were voting the ticket of true democracy. 
 
 The devoted political adherent of Jackson, who after his 
 death became Involved in a dispute as to whether his hero 
 had gone to heaven or not, was prompted by democratic 
 instinct when he disposed of the question by declaring : " I 
 tell you, sir, that if Andrew Jackson has made up his mind 
 to go to heaven, you may depend upon it, he is there." 
 
 Under anti-democratic encouragement we have seen a con- 
 stantly increasing selfishness attach to our political affairs. 
 The departure from the sound and safe theory that the 
 people should support the Government for the sake of the 
 benefits resulting to all has bred a sentiment, manifesting itself 
 with astounding boldness, that the Government may be en- 
 listed in the furtherance and advantage of private interests, 
 through their willing agents in public places. Such an 
 abandonment of the idea of patriotic political action on the 
 part of these interests has naturally led to an estimate of the 
 people's franchise so degrading that it has been openly and 
 palpably debauched for the promotion of selfish schemes. 
 Nothing could be more hateful to true and genuine de- 
 mocracy than such offences against our free institutions. 
 
 In several of the States the honest sentiment of the party 
 has asserted itself in the support of every plan proposed for 
 the ratification of this terrible wrong. I may perhaps be
 
 TRUE DEMOCRACY 2^1 
 
 permitted to express a hope that the State of IVnns>'lvania 
 will not long remain behind her sister States in adoptin^r an 
 effective plan to protect her ])eople's suffrarrc. ^ 
 
 It remains to say that in the midst of our rej<. icing and 
 in the time of party hope and expectation we shoufd re- 
 member that the way of riglit and justice should be followed 
 as a matter of duty and regardless of immediate success. 
 Above all things, let us not for a moment forget that grave 
 responsibilities await a party which the people trust T and 
 let us look for guidance to the principles of " True Democ- 
 racy" which "are enduring because they are right, and in- 
 vincible because they are just."
 
 WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN 
 
 OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 
 
 [Speech of William Bourke Cockran, at the tenth annual banquet of 
 the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1S89. 
 Willard Bartlett, President of the society, occupied the chair, and in- 
 troduced Mr. Cockran to respond to the toast, "Our Constitutional 
 System as tested by a Century," as follows : " About a quarter of a cen- 
 tury ago, gentlemen, when I was at the Polytechnic with such boys as 
 Seth Low, and George Abbott, and other unknown citizens, there used 
 to be a story about a student who got himself into disgrace at the time 
 of examination in endeayoring to giye the solution of a certain problem 
 and state the reasons for the solution w hich he gaye. He wrote on his paper 
 that there were 222,222 reasons, but he had time to state only one. 
 Isow, gentlemen, there are almost an equal number of reasons why New 
 England should pay a debt of gratitude to Ireland. I will not endeayor 
 to state them all to-night ; I will state three : the first is that, indirectly, 
 we owe the beautiful poem of ]\Irs. Hemans upon the landing of the 
 Pilgrims to Ireland, for the poet was of Irish parentage. In the second 
 place, the New England of the present day owes a great deal to Ireland 
 in the willingness of her sons to take possession of the farms which the de- 
 scendants of our New England forefathers deem unworth}' of their further 
 occupation, and Irishmen have turned man}- of those farms into a land 
 flowing with milk and honey. The third reason you Ayill discover after 
 you have heard my friend from New York, the Hon. William Bourke 
 Cockran." In this speech Mr. Cockran alludes to two previous speeches, 
 "The Navy," delivered by Benjamin F. Tracy, and "The Pilgrims in 
 Holland," delivered by Rev. Dr. A. J. F. Behrends.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman AND Gentlemen of the New England 
 Society: — I might be permitted to add a fourth reason, 
 which the Irish race will .soon establish, for the gratitude of 
 New England. Your Chairman has told you that they have 
 already taken possession of the vacant farms, and I promise 
 you that in the future they will be ready to take possession 
 of the vacant offices. 
 
 This is the second time that it has been my fortune to be 
 
 232
 
 OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 233 
 
 honored by an invitation to a dinner of the New England 
 Society, and each time that I have attended the festival I 
 have become impressed with a more enlarged notion of the 
 splendid destiny which lies before this Republic. I have 
 watched with some attention and curiosity the distinguishing 
 features of this feast, as contrasted with those of the one at 
 which I was permitted to assist in New York ; and I feel 
 bound to add my expression of wonder to the feeling that 
 might fairly be attributed to a returned New Englandcr, if 
 he were permitted to assist at this banquet to-night. As I 
 watched the color of the liquid in your glasses, I have be- 
 come firmly persuaded that such is the strength of your de- 
 votion to your New England ancestors you have become 
 fully resolved that, until you can return to that spring which 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts described to-night, you 
 will never slake your thirst with water. [Laughter.] I 
 have been highly edified with much that has been said here 
 this evening. As I listened to the distinguished Secretary 
 of the Navy, I was filled with admiration for the chivalrous 
 spirit which prompted him to recognize the good work of 
 the late administration, as well as to celebrate the good 
 work of this, in the rebuilding of our navy. [Applause.] 
 I became deeply imbued with the conviction that these 
 leviathans of the deep lately constructed by American 
 genius will not be the only vessels which will leave our shores 
 bearing the American flag into foreign climes. The same 
 spirit, the same genius and the same industry which have 
 created these marvels of marine architecture will, I fondly 
 believe, resurrect our merchant marine [applause], and 
 within a few years restore our vessels to the bosom of the 
 deep, refreshing our patriotism as we once more feel that 
 the white sails of American commerce are being wafted 
 by every breeze that blows across the ocean ; that the prows 
 of our vessels are parting the waters of every harbor, from 
 the Brama-Pootra to the Hudson ; and that the American 
 flag, flying from the masthead of American ships, will be as 
 familiar a sight within the shadow of St. Sophia as it is 
 within the shadow of Trinity Church, in your neighboring 
 city. [Applause.] 
 
 And I may say that, as I listened with the utmost in- 
 terest to the eloquent speech of Rev. Dr. Bchrcnds, and fol-
 
 234 WILLIAM ROURKE COCKRAN 
 
 lowed the retrospect which he made of the history of the 
 world, from the eruption of the Northern barbarian across 
 the provinces of Europe, through all the mutations of the 
 warfare of the Crusades, through the Reformation, and 
 down to the French Revolution, I became profoundly im- 
 pressed with the force of that maxim which has been laid 
 down by the greatest of English historians, " That all 
 human institutions are but phantoms, disappearing at cock- 
 crow ; if not at the crow of this cock, then at the crow of 
 that cock ;" and that the governments that seem to us the 
 most durable and the strongest are destined some day to dis- 
 appear in noise, disaster and confusion, into that womb of 
 time in which are engulfed the Merovingian kings, the dy- 
 nasties that sprung into existence upon the dissolution of 
 the Carlovingian Empire, and all the kingdoms and the 
 principalities that even one hundred years ago covered the 
 face of Western Europe. Now, like all maxims of similar 
 character, this is to some extent sound, and to some extent 
 unsound. Governmental forms are indeed perishable. 
 Nations change their names, their boundaries, their creeds 
 and their languages. The altars of yesterday are but the 
 curios of to-day. The temples that have been raised to the 
 worships that have now disappeared from the face of the 
 earth but move our wonder that beliefs so simple and so 
 transparent should have nerved the minds of men to raise 
 such marvels of architecture. But though creeds and dynas- 
 ties and languages are ephemeral, the principles of justice 
 are eternal ; and this Government, founded and built upon 
 them, will, I believe, last to the end of time. [Applause.] 
 
 I have been given to-night the toast of " Our Constitu- 
 tional System as tested by a Century." What is this Con- 
 stitutional System ? Does it consist of executive officers, 
 clothed with extraordinary powers, beside which the meagre 
 prerogative of constitutional monarchs shrink into insignifi- 
 cance ? Does it consist of a judiciary armed with power over 
 life, limb and property ? Does it consist of legislators, that 
 they may be enabled and authorized to prefix the title 
 " Honorable " to their names? Does it consist of the mere 
 parchment upon which certain figures may be traced and 
 certain words may be read ? No ! Our Constitutional 
 System consists of the application of the eternal principles
 
 OUR COXSTITUTIOXAL SYSTEM 235 
 
 of justice to the relations of men to each other unckT f)ur 
 social compact, [Apphause.] In the provisions that no man 
 can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due pro- 
 cess of law; that all men shall take an equal part in the 
 affairs of government ; that the privilege of habeas corpus 
 shall never be denied ; that no private property shall be 
 taken for public uses without proper compensation, you 
 have the essence of our Constitutional System, and you have 
 the principles of justice made the birthright of the American 
 citizen, beyond the reach of any disturbance from any source 
 whatever. [Applause.] You have the rule of equity applied 
 to your every-day existence. You have rights guaranteed 
 to every citizen which the strongest may not invade, which 
 the weakest is free to invoke for his own protection. 
 
 And these principles are not of yesterday, they are not 
 of recent discovery. Their origin cannot be traced by his- 
 tory. Their source is lost in the mists of antiquity. Those 
 same principles flourished under the ancient English com- 
 mon law, and 'twas but the declaration of them that was 
 contained in the great charter extracted from John at Runny- 
 mead. Through the darkness of years we can discern the 
 harbinger of the common law, when Alfred reconstructed, 
 a thousand years ago, the ancient English system of jurispru- 
 dence, and defended it from foreign invasion and domestic 
 tumult. These principles existed and were recognized 
 among the rugged inhabitants of the Northern forests, when 
 dastard rulers had denied their existence and refused them 
 recognition in the crowded cities and in the palaces of 
 Europe. They lived, they flourished, they came across the 
 impassable frontiers of the northern morass ; they were 
 borne into the farthest parts of Europe; against King and 
 Court they were asserted, and they lived to nerve the arms 
 and fire the hearts of the oppressed till they achieved 
 triumph amid the wreck of dynasties and the falling heads 
 of tyrants. 
 
 If I were asked what it is that is significant in your festi- 
 val to-night I would answer that it was the commemoration 
 of the carrying of these eternal principles of justice and 
 sound government across the sea and the planting of them 
 in American soil. I would tell you that that first agreement 
 in the cabin of the " Mayflower," that first charter which
 
 236 WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN 
 
 was established as the rule which would govern these Pil- 
 grims upon their landing on the bleak and desolate shore of 
 Massachusetts, was the germ of our Constitutional System — 
 was the seed which, though cast in a rocky and forbidding 
 soil, has grown and flourished until it has become a tree 
 whose branches and shade have overspread this continent, 
 whose fruits are culled by the eager hands of the patriotic 
 all over the world, that they may be planted in other soil, 
 and bear fruit in other climes. [Applause.] 
 
 The significance of this festival is, then, the birth of our 
 "Constitutional System." But, sons of New England, con- 
 stitutions are more than paper documents. I doubt if there 
 has been an invention of human genius more often copied 
 than our Constitutional System. I doubt if there has been 
 anything which has been so often created, and so often vio- 
 lated, as a new constitution in other countries. We have 
 seen well within the lines of recent history a great nation 
 honestly bent on achieving independence and free institu- 
 tions, conducting a heroic and successful struggle against a 
 despotism of 800 years ; emancipating itself, against odds 
 which no man thought at the beginning could be overcome, 
 when liberty was in its hands framing a constitution with 
 more elaborate declarations of rights even than ours pos- 
 sess ; and yet, within a few years the whole system went 
 down in ruin, disaster, tyranny and universal distress. 
 
 It is not any constitutional system that maybe reduced to 
 paper that is the genius of our Constitution. The noblest, 
 the strongest declaration of rights may be mere maxims 
 discarded at pleasure. It is the genius of a people that 
 makes a constitutional system. That spirit which took ex- 
 pression in the cabin of the " Mayflower" is the spirit which 
 has dominated this land to this day, and given us this 
 Republic, the marvel of the world, destined to be the source 
 of enlightenment to all Christendom, for all generations to 
 come. We have, under our Constitutional System, achieved 
 greatness ; but more than that, we have achieved rational 
 freedom. We have made a majority all powerful for every 
 salutary purpose. In the powers that we confer, we keep 
 alive the spirit of liberty. In the limitations which we place 
 upon that power, we do even more to preserve the genius 
 of freedom to our people.
 
 OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 237 
 
 If we are asked what have been the practical effects of 
 this Constitutional System, we have but to tell our 
 questioner to look around him. In the sight which will 
 meet his eye will be found the answer to his question. On 
 every hand we see liberty and order, prosperity and happi- 
 ness. We see fields radiant with prosperity, homes on 
 every hillside, where the fires of liberty are kept alive on 
 the hearthstones ; neither fortress nor arsenal casting its 
 grim shadow across the highway ; laws dictated by public 
 opinion and obeyed by universal consent. A nation is 
 reunited after a terrible conflict ; and were our soil to be 
 molested by foreign invasion, throughout the whole country, 
 in the North and in the South, in village and in hamlet, a 
 million citizens would become soldiers, a million swords 
 would leap from their scabbards ; a million breasts would 
 be bared to the shot of the foe ; a million hands would be 
 prepared to wipe out in blood any insult that might be 
 offered to the integrity of our flag. 
 
 Nor is it alone in material prosperity that the triumph of 
 our Constitutional System is apparent. It is equally proven 
 by the moral development of our people. Wealth has been 
 enjoyed by other nations, and wealth belongs to this Re- 
 public. Freedom, too, has been known in this world, and 
 freedom is the corner-stone of our Government. But here 
 alone have we solved the problem that freedom and 
 wealth are consistent; that property may be secure while 
 the largest power is confided to the hands of the masses ; 
 that the virtue of the people is a better shield for the secur- 
 ity of the citizen than armed force or uniformed troops, and 
 that the American spirit is the truest protection to life and 
 to property. 
 
 I have listened with surpassing pleasure to the liberal sen- 
 timents which were expressed by Rev. Dr. Behrends, when 
 he was discussing this banquet even as a Protestant festival, 
 and I may say in reply to him that I believe I voice the 
 sentiment of every person who kneels before any altar in 
 this country when I say that, however different may be the 
 roads on which we start, we all believe that we may hope to 
 come together at the gates of Heaven. I may say that, no 
 matter what the character of the edifice whose doors will be 
 opened for worship to-morrow, whether the scrviQ^s be con-
 
 238 WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN 
 
 ducted by robed priest or by plainly-dressed preacher; 
 whether the petitions rise from marble altar or from plain 
 reading-desk, wherever through stained-glass windows the 
 sun of Heaven shall shine down upon the heads of worship- 
 pers to-morrow, one prayer will rise to God alike from the 
 hearts of all, and that prayer will be for the safety, security 
 and prosperity of this Government, of this land, and of its 
 Constitutional System. [Cheers.] 
 
 It may be that all things human are ephemeral ; it may 
 be that this Government, which we love so well and in 
 whose future we believe so deeply, will be found at the 
 dawn of some day to have disappeared. And yet I feel 
 justified in believing that, as the principles of justice are 
 eternal, the government which is founded upon them will 
 last forever. Not as she stands to-day ; I know that noth- 
 ing in nature can remain inert ; but I believe she will live to 
 the end of time, forever progressive, ever freer, ever greater, 
 ever stronger, ever more durable. [Applause.] I believe 
 that with each successive force which is liberated from 
 nature ; with each new development of science ; with each 
 new element that may enter into the daily lives of men, 
 creating vast additions to our wealth, annihilating space and 
 multiplying the fields of industry, our Constitutional System 
 will be found elastic enough to include them, strong enough 
 to regulate them, and that here in these two cities, lying 
 side by side, at the very gateway of Western commerce, 
 linked together now by physical bonds as well as by com- 
 mon ends and aims, will ever flourish the truest and strong- 
 est types of American democracy, maintaining institutions 
 which will forever stimulate patriotism, strengthen virtue 
 and illuminate the world with the light of freedom, reveal- 
 ing liberty, hand in hand with order and prosperity. 
 [Cheers.]
 
 JOSEPH BULLOCK COGHLAN 
 
 THE BATTLE OF MANILA 
 
 [Speech of Captain Joseph B. Co.<,'hlan, at a banquet of the Union 
 League Club of New York City, April 21, 1899. The banquet was ^iven 
 in honor of Captain Coghlan and the officers of the U.S. Cruiser " Ral- 
 eigh." Elihu Root presided, and said in introducing Captain Coglilan: 
 " Behind the men at ^Manila were the ideas of liberty, justice and equal 
 rights to all people. They did their duty, not thinking of theories or 
 future governments ; they had their orders, orders that led into the jaws 
 of death, and they went in to do their w-ork thinkingof their work alone. 
 But behind them were the great ideas that America represents in the 
 progress of mankind. Greater than we know or realize was the work 
 done by the brave sailors who followed Dewey in the harbor of INIanila. 
 And now I ask 3'ou to join me in drinking the health of Captain Coghlan 
 and the officers of the ' Raleigh.' "] 
 
 Mr. President and GentlejMen of the Union 
 League : — I thought I came here on the condition that I was 
 to do no talking, I get scared to death when called upon to 
 speak, and sometimes I don't say Avhat I want to. So you 
 will excuse me for everything out of the way that I say to- 
 night. I was almost breathless as I listened to your Pres- 
 ident's speech. The more he spoke the more I thought : 
 "For God's sake, can he mean us ? " [Laughter.] Ashe 
 went on and I recognized the name of our beloved chief, 
 Admiral Dewey [applause], I knew he was simply patting 
 the admiral over our shoulders, and I thought to myself : 
 " He can't do too much of that to suit me." [Applause.] 
 We feel that we may be congratulated on our home-coming ; 
 not for what we have done, but for having served under 
 Admiral Dewey. We love him and give him all the credit 
 for what was done by the American fleet at Manila, If we 
 thought it was possible by accepting this kind reception to- 
 night to take away from him one iota of this credit, we 
 would feel that we were doing wrong. [Applause.] 
 
 239
 
 240 JOSEPH RULLOCK COGHLAN 
 
 Wc were with Dewey from the start to the finish, and on 
 eacii day we learned more to love and respect him. The 
 more we knew him, the more we knew that our country's 
 honor was safe in his hands and that nothing in which he 
 was engaged but would redound to the credit of our country. 
 [Applause.] During the days after the great fight was 
 over, he suffered the most outrageous nagging ; on, on it 
 went, day after day, rubbing clean through the flesh to the 
 bone, but he always held himself and others up. I tell you 
 it was magnificent. [Prolonged applause.] I must tell you 
 of an incident which I think will be of interest. Our friend 
 [sarcastically]. Admiral von Diedrichs, sent an officer to 
 complain of the restrictions placed upon him by Admiral 
 Dewey. I happened to be near by at the time, and I over- 
 heard the latter part of the conversation between this officer 
 and our chief. I shall never forget it, and I want the people 
 of the United States to know what Admiral Dewey said that 
 day. " Tell your admiral," said he, " his ships must stop 
 where I say." " But we fly a flag," said the officer. " Those 
 flags can be bought at half-a-dollar a yard anywhere," said 
 the admiral, and there wasn't a bit of fun in his face when 
 he said it either. " Any one can fly that flag," he con- 
 tinued. " The whole Spanish fleet might come on us with 
 those colors if they wanted to. Therefore I must and will 
 stop you. Tell your admiral I am blockading here. I am 
 tired of the character of his conduct. I have made it as 
 lenient as possible for him. Now the time has arrived when 
 he must stop. Listen to me. Tell your admiral that the 
 slightest infraction of these orders by himself or his officers 
 will mean but one thing. Tell him what I say — it will mean 
 war. Make no mistake when I say that it will mean war. 
 If you people are ready for war with the United States^ 
 you can have it in five minutes." [Tremendous applause, 
 followed by more cheers for Dewey.] 
 
 I am free to admit that the admiral's speech to that of- 
 ficer took my breath away. As that officer left to go back 
 to his ship, he said to an American officer whose name I do 
 not recall: " I think your admiral does not exactly under- 
 .stand." " Oh, yes he does," said the American officer. 
 " Me not only understands, but he means every word he 
 says." That was the end of that bosh. After that the
 
 THE BATTLE OF MANILA 2-} I 
 
 Germans didn't dare to breathe more than four times in 
 succession without asking the admiral's permission. I don't 
 know what I can talk to you about tliat will interest you 
 unless I tell you some of our experiences at Manila, and I 
 guess you know most of that already. [Cries of "Tell us 
 about the fight ! "] 
 
 Well, I will. We held our last consultation at the dinner 
 hour the night before the fight, and the admiral said that 
 we were going in that night. I don't think any of us ate 
 much dinner. We went in in a calm sea, although we were 
 not so calm ourselves. About midnight we became a little 
 anxious because we had arrived at a point where we had been 
 informed there were lots of torpedoes anchored for us. Now 
 torpedoes are all very well for the storehouse, but they are 
 bad things to have floating round a ship. I've shot some 
 myself, and they sometimes show an inclination to turn 
 round and come back after you've started them. They're 
 a loving sort of animal, and seem to hate to leave you. 
 [Laughter.] But when we got to the entrance and the 
 " Olympia " went through without being blown up, we felt 
 better ; we felt positively brave when the " Baltimore " went 
 through all right, and were ready to go right through a grave- 
 yard ourselves then. You see the men at the batteries were 
 sleeping some four miles away that night, and they didn't 
 get to their posts until the poor old "Raleigh " came along. 
 I saw a flash and turning to an officer I said : " Hallo, what's 
 that ? " He told me that was the second time he had noticed 
 it, and asked if he should fire. I told him not to, as it was 
 probably our friends the insurgents signalling to us ; but 
 when a shot came along a moment later, I knew better. 
 Then a second shot came, and it was in response to this that 
 the " Raleigh " fired her first gun. It was the first shot fired 
 by an American ship at Manila, and there is the man sitting 
 over there that fired it. [Captain Coghlan pointed to Ensign 
 Provost Babin who sat several ch.airs away from him. En- 
 sign Babin was obliged to stand up and bow several times 
 in response to prolonged applause.] 
 
 I tell you we were all on the qui vive that night ; our 
 
 orders were to go in and anchor, eat breakfast at da^dight, 
 
 and wipe the Spanish fleet off the face of the earth ; but in 
 
 the darkness we overran our reckoning, and at daylight we 
 
 16 
 
 V
 
 242 JOSEPH BULLOCK COG H LAN 
 
 found ourselves right under the batteries of Manila. In the 
 tropics the daylight conies like a flash, and this was a most 
 beautiful morning. Our friends the enemy on shore opened 
 upon us, and instead of the anticipated signal to take break- 
 fast, the signal came from the flag-ship " Engage the enemy." 
 This is where the old man came in. His whole pre-arranged 
 plan had to be changed in a second. We all turned and 
 stood towards the Spanish fleet, taking the fire of the bat- 
 teries, without response, for thirty-seven minutes. When 
 we finally got into the position we wanted, we opened up 
 and you know what followed. We kept at it for two hours 
 and a half, and at the end of that time there was no Spanish 
 fleet. [Applause.] 
 
 This is a good time for me to correct a statement which I 
 understand has been most persistently sjoread here at home, 
 that we were short of ammunition. It was reported to 
 Admiral Dewey that certain classes of guns were short. He 
 asked me about it, because there were many guns of this 
 class on my ship. I told him that we hadn't used thirty-five 
 per cent, of this ammunition in the whole fight, and Captain 
 Gridley — rest his soul ! — reported the same thing. We were 
 not short of ammunition at any time. The report that we 
 were has gone out ; but the proof that we were not has 
 never been told. Why, we could have fought two battles 
 that day without inconvenience. Well, the end of the battle 
 found us in fine shape. The admiral told us we had better 
 go in and clean up the rest of our work, so we steamed 
 toward the shore and simply wiped out the batteries. After 
 it was all over we felt "bully;" though I cannot say the 
 same for the poor devils on the other side. It was at this 
 time that to our utter amazement we saw Admiral Dewey 
 steaming alone right under the batteries. I tell you when I 
 saw him there in that position I went right after him with 
 the " Raleigh " as fast as I could. [Applause.] Fortunately 
 nothing happened. I agree with our President that it is given 
 to every man to be brave ; but I tell you given to few men 
 is the bravery of our admiral. He not only has the physical 
 courage but also the moral courage to do anything in God's 
 green world that he thinks will advance the interests of our 
 country. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 When he wished us to do anything, he did not hamper us
 
 THE P.ATTT.K OF ^lAXILA 243 
 
 with written orders— he just tokl us to do it, and we did it. 
 He had the courage to try anything that was possible to be 
 done ; and we had the courage to try to do anything he said 
 could be done. The North and South fought together at 
 Manila Bay, as they did in Cuba; and I tefl you together 
 they are invincible. Not only is our country one to-day, 
 but I tell you the English-spealdng race is one also. [Ap- 
 plause.] The English people are with us heart and soul, 
 and they were with us before we went to Manila, as I will 
 show you. On the wharves at Hong Kong before we started 
 for Manila, strange officers met us and introduced them- 
 selves, which you will agree is a very un-English proceeding. 
 They wished us all manner of luck. One said to me : '' By 
 Jove, if you fellows don't wipe them out, don't come back 
 to us, because we won't speak to you." Afterward when 
 we went back to Hong Kong, one of those English officers 
 said to me : " By Jove, we never gave you credit for style, 
 but my ! you can shoot ! " [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 And now that is all that I have to say, except to ask a 
 favor. I want you to join me in drinking the health of our 
 chief. Admiral Dewey. 
 
 [At the close of liis speech, Captain Coghlan was called upon to re- 
 cite a burlesque poem entitled " Iloch ! der Kaiser." His compliance 
 with this request resulted in some diplomatic comment afterwards. In 
 its original form (as appended herewith) the poem contains thirteen 
 stanzas, but eight only were recited on the above occasion, the omitted 
 portions being stanzas 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The verses were written under 
 peculiar circumstances in Montreal in October, 1S97. They were in- 
 spired by a speech of William II, Emperor of Germany, upon the divine 
 right of kings and his own special mission upon earth. At that time 
 A. M. R. Gordon, a Scotchman by birth, whose real name was A. 
 McGregor Rose, was a member of the "Montreal Herald " staff. He 
 had been in the habit of writing verses upon different subjects, and was 
 looked upon as a bright fellow. The city editor, turning to him, said : 
 
 " Give us a poem, Gordon, on the Emperor." In less than an hour's 
 time, he turned out thirteen verses, which w-ere entitled by him, 
 " Kaiser & Co." not " Hoch ! der Kaiser." The matter was sent to the 
 printer just as it was written. By some mistake the foreman of the com- 
 posing-room picked up only eight stanzas in type, leaving the other 
 five on the galley. Gordon, who was very particular about his matter 
 being strict!}' correct, got one of the first copies off the press. He at 
 once saw the mistake and the form was recast, not, however, before a 
 few hundred had been sent into the mailing room for the foreign mails. 
 This is why only eight verses were copied in the papers which printed
 
 2^4 JOSICPH P,ULLOCK COGHLAN 
 
 the poem at th-- time. In the second edition it was given in full and 
 signed, A. .M. K. Gordon.] 
 
 IIOCII ! DER KAISER. 
 
 Der Kaiser of dis Faterland 
 Und Gott on high all dings command, 
 Ye two— ach ! don'd you understand? 
 Meinself — und Gott. 
 
 He reigns in Heafen und always shall, 
 Und meinown Embire don'd vasshmall. 
 Ein noble bair I dinks you call 
 
 Meinself — und Gott. 
 
 Vile some men sing der power divine 
 Mein .soldiers sing " Die Wacht am Rhein," 
 Uud drink der health in Rhenish wine, 
 Of Me— und Gott. 
 
 Dere's France— she svaggers all aroundt, 
 She's ausgespielt, of no aggoundt, 
 To much ve dinks she don'd amouudt, 
 Meinself — und Gott. 
 
 She vill not dare to fight again, 
 But if she shouldt, I'll show her blain, 
 Dot Elsass, und (in French) Lorraine 
 Are mein — by Gott ! 
 
 Von Bismarck vas a man of might 
 Und dought he was glear oud of sight, 
 But ach ! he vas nicht goot to fight 
 Mit Me— und Gott. 
 
 Ve knock him like ein man of sdraw, 
 Ve let him know whose vill vas law, 
 Und dot ve don'd vould sdand his jaw, 
 Meinself — und Gott. 
 
 Ve send him outdt in big disgrace, 
 Ve gif him insuldt to his face, 
 Uud put Caprivi in his place, 
 
 Meinself — und Gott. 
 
 Und ven Caprivi get svelled hedt 
 Ve very bromjjlly on him set, 
 Und toldt him to get up and get, 
 Mwinself — und Gott.
 
 THK r.ATTLlv OK MANILA 2^5 
 
 Dere's Grandma dinks slu-'s nit-hl shniall l)ier, 
 Mit Boers und such she interfere, 
 She'll learn none owns dis hemisphere 
 But Me— und Gott. 
 
 She dinks, good frau, some ships she's got, 
 Und soldiers mit der scarlet goat, 
 Ach ! we could knock 'em— poof ! like dot. 
 Meinself— und Gott. 
 
 In dimes of 1)eace brcpare for wars, 
 I bear der helm und shpear of Mars, 
 Und care not for den dousand Czars, 
 Meinself— und Gott. 
 
 In fact, I humor efery vhim, 
 Mit aspect dark und visage grim 
 Gott pulls mit me, und I mit I Tim, 
 Meiufc«lf — uud GotU
 
 LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 HENRY IRVING'S VERSATILITY 
 
 [Speech of John Duke Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of England, atq 
 banquet given to Henry Irving [now Sir Henry Irving] London, July 4, 
 1SS3, in view of his impending departure for a professional tour of 
 America. Lord Coleridge occupied the chair.] 
 
 ]VIy Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : — We are about, 
 as you know, to send our honored guest, Mr. Irving, on a 
 tour through the great RepubHc of America, and we have 
 invited him to dinner on the fourth of July, the day, now 
 more than a hundred years ago, when the American Re- 
 pubHc broke away from this country, and rejected the yoke 
 which the Ministers of George the Third attempted to im- 
 pose upon the necks of a free people. [Cheers. J I hope 
 that it is not an unbecoming toast, I hope it is not an un- 
 %velcome tribute to a great and friendly nation [cheers], 
 that it is on its birthday we should drink its health ; a birth- 
 day, like most birthdays, full of pain and sorrow to its 
 mother, but of pain and sorrow which have long since 
 passed away, to be followed by feelings of unmingled pride 
 in the magnificence of the offspring and in the yet more 
 magnificent development which the future will undoubtedly 
 reveal. [Cheers.] 
 
 We know that that great nation has as its head an elected 
 president — a man, for the time that he fills the office, more 
 powerful than the most despotic monarch, because he rep- 
 resents the irresistible will of the great nation which has 
 elected him [cheers] ; the chief, for the time, of a vast Eng- 
 lish-speaking people, the friend of our sovereign [cheers] ; 
 the successor of a man whose life was pure, whose aims were 
 noble, whose death bound together, in the ties of a com- 
 
 246
 
 HENRY IRVING S VERSATILITY 247 
 
 mon honor and of a common sorrow, the hearts of America 
 and Enj^land. [Cheers. | I give you the "American Re- 
 pubHc, and the President of the United States," [Cheers.] 
 My lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have now to ask you to 
 drink the toast for the purpose of drinking which we have 
 all come together here to-night, [Loud cheers.] And for 
 your misfortune and my own it is necessary that the toast 
 should be prefaced by what is called a speech, [Laughter,] 
 An after-dinner speech, according to a well-known recipe, 
 should be made up of a joke, a platitude, and a quotation. 
 [Laughter,] As for jokes, I am too old and have got too dull 
 to make them, [Laughter,] As for platitudes, you will 
 have plenty of them before I have done. [Laughter,] And 
 then for a quotation. Well, I think I must introduce you 
 to one that none of you have ever heard — quite absolutely 
 new [laughter], entirely unhackneyed [laughter], from out of 
 the unknown play of an obscure poet : — 
 
 " All the world's a stage, 
 And all the men and women merely players. 
 They have their exits and their entrances ; 
 And one man in his time plays many i^arts." 
 
 [Laughter and cheers.] 
 
 If it be true that all men and women are players, by a 
 slight inaccuracy of logic it follows that all players are men 
 and women [laughter], and that therefore a great player 
 ought to be a great man. [Cheers.] At all events, it is 
 certain that he ought to be able to appreciate great qualities ; 
 to delineate, so that men may understand and admire, a 
 great character ; to be able to give fit and appropriate ex- 
 pression to great thoughts. But more than that. A master 
 of music, a Mozart or a Beethoven, is dead and done with- 
 out artists to interpret him ; and so a dramatist, be he ever 
 so great, is half dead and altogether done if he cannot find 
 a master to breathe life into the creations of his brain, and 
 make them live and walk across the stage, [Cheers.] 
 
 What does the world know — I do not speak of students 
 of literature, of course — but what does the world know of 
 most dramatists except Shakespeare, and perhaps, at a great 
 distance, Sheridan? And yet Ben Jonson, Massinger, 
 Webster, Marlowe, and Fletcher were all great men [cheers] :
 
 248 LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 but they are almost unknown to the world at large, be- 
 cause their productions are so seldom acted. So, if you will 
 reverse the picture, a great actor will frequently keep alive, 
 by a few scenes of a play, or by a single play or two out of a 
 great number, men inferior to those I have mentioned, al- 
 though, nevertheless, great men — such as Macklin, Farquhar, 
 Milman, and Tennyson. 
 
 But more than that. A great actor shares in the earthly 
 immortality which he so much helps to create. I do not 
 know that I can accept as true the marvellous verse in West- 
 minster Abbey in which we are told that Shakespeare and 
 Garrick : — 
 
 ' ' Like twin stars shall shine, 
 And earth irradiate with beam divine." 
 
 But however absurd and extravagant these lines may be, 
 it is nevertheless certainly true that the names of great 
 actors live almost as long as those of great dramatists. The 
 name of Garrick, for example, will live nearly as long prob- 
 ably as the name of Shakespeare. Roscius is certainly 
 as well known as Terence, and Racine is hardly better 
 known than Talma. But more than that. The genius of a 
 great actor elevates him into absolute equality with the first 
 personages of his time. Pericles was the intimate friend 
 of Sophocles and Euripides, Roscius lived in the closest 
 intimacy with Cicero and Caesar, Garrick was the chosen 
 friend of Burke and Dr. Johnson, Kemble lived in intimacy 
 with Sir Walter Scott and the King, Henry Irving is the 
 friend of this great country. [Loud cheers.] To us he is 
 the last, because we are the last. We shall have successors, 
 and so will he ; but to us he is the last of a great list of 
 great names — Quin, Betterton, Booth, Garrick, Kean, the 
 Kembles, Young, IMacready. [Cheers.] The list is inex- 
 haustible, and if it were not, I have no power, no knowledge, 
 to exhaust it. 
 
 And what is true of actors is, of course, true of actresses 
 too. [Loud cheers.] England has a race of great actresses 
 of which any nation may be proud : and if on this occasion 
 I select from this " dream of fair women " one image, and 
 name one name, and that the name of Ellen Terry [enthusi- 
 astic cheers], it is not that I forget Mrs. Siddons, or Miss
 
 HENRY IRVIXG's VERSATILITY 249 
 
 O'Neill, or Mrs. Glover, or Mrs. Stirling [loud cheers], or 
 many other great women living and passed away ; but because 
 Ellen Terry has been associated so closely with many of 
 Mr. Irving's successes, and because to her genius, I am sure, 
 he would be the first to say, he owes not a little of some of 
 his brightest triumphs. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 I wish, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, that I had the 
 time or the power to detain you, with Charles Lamb, 
 among some of the old actors, but I have not. I simply 
 refer you to that inimitable paper, so-called — if you have 
 never read it, don't go to bed without reading it [laughter] — 
 and if you have read it, read it again to-morrow morning. 
 [Renewed laughter.] 
 
 Passing from that, let me ask what it is that we owe to 
 Mr. Irving. What is it, stated shortly and simply, tluit has 
 brought this magnificent gathering together to-night? We 
 all know that it is the result of the magnificent presenta- 
 tion of some of the plays of Shakespeare — " Richard III," 
 " Macbeth," " Much Ado About Nothing " [loud cheers], 
 " Romeo and Juliet " [cheers], "The Merchant of Venice." 
 [Cheers.] I know not whether I have exhausted the cata- 
 logue [cries of " Hamlet ! "], but those, at any rate, arc 
 some. [Cheers.] But it is not only in the plays of Shake- 
 speare that Mr. Irving has exerted his genius and has em- 
 ployed his unrivalled powers of presentation upon the stage. 
 ["Hear! Hear ! "] He has done much for us in other mat- 
 ters. He has done what careful and accomplished acting, 
 what beneficent and wise and intelligent expense in presenting 
 a play will do. [Cheers.] For the plays of other men, of 
 whom it is no disparagement to say they are inferior to 
 those of the greatest dramatist that ever lived, Shakespeare 
 [cheers], but who themselves are considerable persons — 
 " Charles I " [cheers], " The Bells," " The Cup," " The Belle's 
 Stratagem," " The Lyon's Mail " — all these are things that 
 we owe to Mr. Irving. [Cheers.] And for these, and for 
 the manner in which he has presented the greater and the 
 lesser plays to us, as it has been unexampled in our time, so 
 we owe him a very great debt of gratitude, because, although 
 it may be that the effort of acting, and the labor of presenta- 
 tion, have been less in these latter plays, at any rate the 
 success has been absolute and complete. [Cheers.]
 
 25o LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 Moreover, as far as the example and influence of one man 
 can do it, he has done much, to use the expression of the 
 Bishop of Durham, " to purify and exalt the dramatic art." 
 [Cheers.] On this point let me not be misunderstood. I 
 do not mean to say that in this particular matter Mr. 
 Irving has stood alone, ["Hear! Hear!"] It would be un- 
 just and ungenerous to say so. It would be unfair praise — 
 it would be praise that I am sure Mr, Irving would reject, 
 and, if I know anything of him, would resent. But, at any 
 rate, he has followed the best traditions, he has helped, so 
 far as he could, his contemporaries, and he has made the 
 matter easier for those who may come after him. [Cheers.] 
 For, never let us forget that the profession of an actor is 
 surrounded, as many other professions are surrounded, with 
 difificulties, dangers, and temptations peculiar to itself. 
 [" Hear! Hear!"] It is true that in the case of an actor 
 the difficulties and the temptations are more open and more 
 obvious than in many professions, but I do not know that 
 they are for that reason any the more easy to resist and to 
 overcome, because they are founded upon the strongest and 
 commonest passions of mankind. ["Hear! Hear!"] I do 
 not here speak of those commoner, coarser, fouler forms of 
 vice which when I was a young man were the disgrace and the 
 dishonor of the playhouses of London, playhouses in which 
 the actors and actresses were frequently men and women of 
 not unspotted character. Reform in that matter was begun 
 by a man I am proud to think of as a friend — it was begun 
 by Mr. Macready, [Cheers.] It was carried on with some 
 self-sacrifice, but with great and successful results. Every 
 respectable manager, I believe, since his time has followed 
 the example of Mr. Macready, and of course I need not say 
 Mr. Irving among them. [Cheers.] 
 
 But I mean something more than that, I mean that the 
 general tone and atmosphere of the theatre, wherever Mr. 
 Irving's influence is predominant, has been uniformly higher 
 and purer. The pieces which he has acted, and the way he 
 has acted them, have been always such that no husband 
 need hesitate to take his wife, no mother to take her daugh- 
 ter, where Mr, Irving is the ruling spirit, [Cheers.] He 
 has, I believe, recognized that in this matter there lies upon 
 him, as upon every one in his position, a grave responsibility.
 
 HENRY IRVIXG's VERSATILITY 
 
 251 
 
 He has felt, possibly unconsciously, that the- heroic si<;nal 
 of Lord Nelson ought not to be confined in its application 
 simply to men of arms, but that En^dand expects every man 
 to do his duty when it lays upon him a duty to do, and to 
 do it nobly. [Cheers.] 
 
 Moreover, I believe that what has brought us together to- 
 night, besides that feeling, is the remembrance of the gen- 
 erosity and unselfishness of Mr. Irving's career. [Cheer.^.] 
 He has shown that generosity, not only in the parts he has 
 played, but in the parts he has not played. He has shown 
 that he did not care to be always the central figure of a sur- 
 rounding group in which every one was to be subordinated 
 to the centre, and in which every actor was to be considered 
 as a foil to the leading part. He has been superior to the 
 selfishness which now and again has interfered with the 
 course of some of our best actors, and he has had his re- 
 ward. He has collected around him a set of men who, I be- 
 lieve, are proud to act with him [cheers], men whose feeling 
 towards him has added not a little to the brilliant success 
 which his management has achieved ; men who feel that 
 they act, not merely under a manager, but under a friend ; 
 men who are proud to be his companions, and many of 
 whom have come here to-night to show by their presence 
 that they are so. [Cheers.] I confess that, being a profes- 
 sional man myself, I honor alike his feeling and his wisdom. 
 What to the professional man can compensate for the good 
 feeling, the affection and regard of those among whom his life 
 is passed? [Cheers.] Surely, such feelings are worth more, 
 are worth far, far more, than the little added triumph which 
 an undeviating and steady self-assertion may sometimes 
 secure. [Cheers.] My lords and gentlemen, I think it is 
 because we believe that those high aims have been pursued 
 by Mr. Irving, and because we admire his character in so 
 pursuing them, that this unexampled gathering has come 
 together to-night. [Loud cheers.] It is the desire to say 
 to him in public, as we have often and often said of him in 
 private, that we admire his character, we respect his course, 
 and we heartily wish him success in all his undertakings. 
 [Loud cheers.] It is plain that no man could come to such 
 a meeting as this, and could bring together such an associa- 
 tion of men as I see before me, unless he had great and re-
 
 ^'D-' 
 
 LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 markable qualities as an artist. [Cheers.] These alone 
 would not be sufficient, because there has been many a 
 great artist who has never had such a recognition as this. 
 But it is undoubtedly true, it is in vain to dispute it, that no 
 one could have produced so great an effect upon the culti- 
 vated mind of England, who was not himself an accom- 
 plished, a cultivated, and a thorough artist. [Cheers.] 
 
 It does not become me — indeed, I have not the skill or power 
 — to analyze critically Mr. Irving's genius, to weigh it in the 
 balance of results, and to say that in this it exceeds or in 
 that it is deficient. To me it is sufficient to be certain that he 
 has an exceptional and unusual power of distinctly realizing 
 to himself an intellectual conception of the part which he 
 acts. [Cheers.] He has the power of expressing to me and 
 to others, and of making us comprehend what his own distinct 
 intellectual conviction is, and that to me is most profoundly 
 interesting. It does not become me, where some is good 
 and so much is more than good — is excellent — as an occa- 
 sional playgoer, to pick out and praise this or that partic- 
 ular thing; but if I may be permitted* to say in what, in mj'- 
 judgment, the genius of Mr. Irving has culminated, I should, 
 merely as a matter of personal opinion, pick out the play 
 scene in " Hamlet," and the intense malignity of the felon 
 in " The Lyons Mail." [Cheers.] But I do not pretend to 
 be a critic. AH I can say is, that I have found great delight in 
 Mr. Irving, and that I have found great cause for w^onderand 
 admiration in the versatility of his powers. In this he appears 
 to me to be a thorough artist. He not only plays good 
 tragedy but he plays good comedy and he plays good farce. 
 [Cheers.] It has been said — I know not with how much truth 
 — of Garrick, that he played in one and the same night 
 " King Lear" and "Abel Drugger." I do not know whether 
 Mr. Irving ever played in one night " Hamlet " and " Alfred 
 Jingle," but I know that he has played both and played 
 them well. I am content simply to admire, and I say that 
 in these things Mr. Irving has shown himself a thorough and 
 accomplished artist. [Cheers.] 
 
 In conclusion let me say that as America sent Booth to us, 
 so we send Irving to America, and as Irving and England re- 
 ceived Booth with open arms,so I am convinced that that great 
 and generous country will receive our first-rate and admirable
 
 IN GOLDEN CHAINS 253 
 
 actor. [Cheers.] At all events, we tell America that \vc 
 send her one of our best [cheers], on this her birthday as a 
 birthday present [cheers] ; and that \\e send her a man to 
 whom I may fitly and properly adapt the words of the threat 
 Roman orator spoken of his predecessor — I mean Mr, Irvine's 
 predecessor — " Summiis artifcx cf, nichcrcule, semper artiuvi 
 in repnblica tanqnauiin sccna optiinaruin," which I may ven- 
 ture to translate roughly, for the benefit of the one or two 
 people here who do not understand Latin [ laughter], that 
 he is a consummate artist; and, by Jove! capable of the 
 best arts both on the .stage and off it. [Loud and pro- 
 longed cheers.] 
 
 IN GOLDEN CHAINS 
 
 [Speech of Lord Coleridge at a banquet given by the City of Boston, 
 at the Parker House, September 8, 1883, to "visiting representatives to 
 the Foreign and Domestic Exhibition " then in progress. Lord Coleridge 
 was heartily welcomed by the large company present, and his remarks, 
 with his clever references to American authors and American affairs, 
 were received with cheers.] 
 
 Mr. Mayor, your Excellency and Gentlemen :— I 
 assure you that I rise to return thanks on this occasion with 
 feelings of the most unfeigned gratitude — gratitude to you, 
 sir, for the gracious manner in which you have been pleased 
 to propose this toast ; to you, gentlemen, for the cordial 
 manner in which you have been pleased to accept it. It is 
 true that on more than one occasion during my very short 
 sojourn in America I have been compelled to inflict a speech 
 upon long-suffering American audiences. [Laughter.] In 
 the stately City of Albany ; in the cheerful, picturesque, 
 homely, delightful City of Portland, the charms of whose 
 men and whose women I shall never forget, and once more, 
 to-day, in this city. And yet I can truly say that never in 
 my life till now, or not more than now, rising to return 
 thanks to this toast in this splendid and magnificent city, 
 have I so earnestly and unfeignedly desired that some more 
 adequate example of my dear old country was before you ; 
 that there was some more competent and adequate exponent
 
 254 LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 of the learning and eloquence and the refinement of English- 
 men than an old and weary lawyer, who, although by some 
 accident he chances to have attained and to hold all but the 
 very highest and proudest station in the great profession to 
 which it is his pride and privilege to belong, has never ceased 
 to wonder how he came to hold it. [Laughter and applause.] 
 Nevertheless, the kindness and cordiality of this greeting 
 will be remembered. Dmn nicmorissc met, dum spiritus kos 
 regit artus. [Applause.] 
 
 I am quite conscious that such a greeting as you have 
 been pleased to extend to-night is made to my country, and 
 not to me ; or, if made to me, because I am an Englishman, 
 and because 1 represent to you in some faint measure the 
 great country from which I come. [Applause.] I knew 
 enough, from newspapers and other authentic modes of in- 
 formation [laughter], of the kindly and cordial feeling en- 
 tertained in American cities toward my beloved sovereign, 
 not to be surprised when I heard " God Save the Queen." 
 But I will confess to you, gentlemen, in spite of all I have 
 heard of American cordiality and American hospitality, I 
 was for a moment surprised to hear " Rule Britannia " played 
 on these shores of the Atlantic. Upon that great ocean, here- 
 tofore, the two great nations have contended, with equal 
 courage, I hope I may say, but not always (in the nature of 
 things it could not be) with equal success. If we could point 
 to the battle of the " Chesapeake" and the " Shannon," you 
 can point to the battle of the "Java" and the" Constitution," 
 and your victory in that combat is, through the medium of 
 mezzotint engravings, one of the earliest recollections of my 
 childhood, because, although it was long before I was born, 
 yet a near relative of my own was an of^cer in the " Java " 
 and for some time a prisoner in America, and I can testify 
 that he never forgot to his dying day either the gallantry 
 of American seamen or the kindness of American people. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, the welcome that has been extended to me 
 since I landed at New York has followed me here. I am 
 here as the guest of this ancient and famous Commonwealth 
 — ancient, I say, as far as things in America can be ancient 
 — as I have said, the guest of this Commonwealth, at the 
 hands of your Excellency, the Governor of this State. [Ap-
 
 IN GOLDEN CHAINS 255 
 
 plause.] And I must say that his Excellency has spared no 
 pains, no trouble, no thoughtful care, to make my stay in 
 this place happy and cheerful, and, to use an English wonl, 
 thoroughly comfortable. I thank you and I thank him most 
 cordially and warmly for this welcome. I thank him for 
 another thing. He has changed sticks with me, gentlemen 
 [laughter], and he has given me in return for one of no 
 intrinsic value a very valuable and excellent stick. In the 
 "Iliad," when Glaucus exchanged his golden armor for the 
 mail of Diomedc, ill-natured people said he was afraid. I 
 think no man, ill-natured or good-natured, will say your 
 Governor is afraid of me. But, as I have told him in private, 
 so I say in public, he sends me back to Europe with this 
 proud and consolatory feeling that I am the only man in 
 the world who ever got the better of General Butler. [Loud 
 laughter and applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, passing away from the kindness and cordiality 
 and generosity of General Butler, how am I to rise to the 
 heights which the recollections of Massachusetts and of 
 Boston would fain invite me to aspire to? I speak in 
 the neighborhood of Bunker Hill, in the neighborhood of 
 "T wharf," which, a friend of mine has told me since I came 
 into this room, has nothing to do with the Boston tea-fight. 
 I scorn such strictly historic accuracy. I believe faithfully 
 that that admirable beverage, which you have brewed ever 
 since, has been improved since the fight at " T wharf." I have 
 seen your old State House, with the lion and unicorn upon 
 it. I have seen your noble building in which your two 
 houses assemble, with General Burgoyne's cannon in the 
 ante-chamber. I have seen Faneuil Hall, a plain but most 
 magnificent building. I have seen that most magnificent 
 building within a few miles of this place — the Memorial Hall 
 of Harvard University. Gentlemen, these things are full of 
 interest and history ; and I don't believe men who tell me 
 you have no history. It may be that you have a short his- 
 tory, because you cannot help it ; but you have a great 
 history. You have a history of which any commonwealth 
 may justly and rightly be proud. [Applause.] 
 
 You know — forgive my vanity if I say I know, too — that 
 you bred Benjamin Franklin, and Daniel Webster, and 
 Joseph Story, and Theodore Parker: Daniel Webster, whose
 
 256 LORD COLERIDGE 
 
 hand I was privileged as a boy at Eton to press, when he 
 was in England as your representative, and whose eloquence 
 I have humbly studied ever since; Story, a household word 
 with every English lawyer ; Parker, perhaps one of your 
 highest and greatest souls. [Applause.] Hawthorne, if 
 you will forgive me the expression of a foreigner, is, perhaps, 
 taken altogether, almost your foremost man of letters 
 [applause] ; Longfellow, the delight and darling of two 
 hemispheres ; Holmes, the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 
 [applause] ; the autocrat, if he chose, of every dinner table, 
 too — but there I am told he is content to play the part of a 
 constitutional sovereign. Emerson, as broad and as strong 
 as one of your long rivers, and as pure ; Lowell, I am proud 
 to say, my own honest friend [applause], your representa- 
 tive at this moment in my own country. Like Garrick in 
 Joshua Reynolds's picture, he excels in either tragedy or 
 comedy, and is delightful whether as Hosea Biglow or as 
 James Russell Lowell, skilled with equal genius to move 
 the hearts of his readers whether to smiles or tears. And 
 Howells, the last of your American invaders who have taken 
 England by storm. [Applause.] These are your glories, 
 these are the men who make your history. These are the 
 men, forgive me for saying, of whom you ought to be proud, 
 if you are not heartily proud. [Applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, in the person of a very humble Englishman 
 on the one side, and of this great company on the other, let 
 me think that England and America have met together 
 to-night, that they have come together and may ever stay 
 together. [Applause.] Gentlemen, we are one, as Wash- 
 ington Allston said, and most truly said, — the great painter 
 and the poet who worked in this city, and who lies not far 
 off in the Cambridge churchyard, — we are one in blood, we 
 are one in language, we are one in law, we are one in hatred 
 of oppression and love of liberty. [Cries of " Good," and 
 loud applause.] We are bound together, if I may rever- 
 ently say so, by God Himself in golden chains of mutual 
 affection and mutual respect, and two nations so joined to- 
 gether, I am firmly convinced, man will never put asunder. 
 [Loud and prolonged applause and cheers.]
 
 PATRICK A. COLLINS 
 
 IRELAND'S DREAM OF NATIONALITY 
 
 [vSpeech of Tatrick A. Collins at the banquet of the Charitable Irish 
 Society of the City of Boston. The banquet took place in Boston, March 
 J 7, 1899. Mr. Collins had lately returned from his service abroad as 
 United States Consul-General at London.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — I have been .so long 
 a truant to these gatherings that I appreciate all the more 
 your kindness in assigning me to respond to this time- 
 honored sentiment — " The day we celebrate." For more 
 than 160 years some one has stood in this place to say what 
 the day means to this society, what it means to us and ours, 
 and all the men and women of our race in every land, as well 
 as Ireland. For everywhere on the earth our kindred are 
 scattered, and on all the seas, speaking the speech of all men, 
 and found in all their activities ; and wherever they are, 
 they group and gather to-day to honor saint and mother- 
 land. 
 
 The festival is religious, national, Irish. Fourteen 
 hundred years ago a simple, sublime young man, with the 
 atmosphere of heaven about him, walked through Ireland, 
 preaching and baptizing, and when his footsteps had ended, 
 the pagan land he saw at first had become Christian for- 
 ever; and not only Christian itself, but destined for ages to 
 give letters and light to Pict and Briton and Frank, and to 
 send St. Gall to set the cross high on the Alps in the canton 
 that still bears his name. 
 
 Christian and reverent Ireland became in that far-avvay 
 time, and Christian and reverent it has remained, through 
 all the troubled centuries, down to this hour. So, rever- 
 ently, we honor the memory of the saintly Pict or Frank, 
 
 257
 
 258 PATRICK A. COLLINS 
 
 wiio brought the light to Ireland, the light that shall last 
 there till all the lights of the world go out ; and so our 
 kindred celebrate the day, and will throughout the ages. 
 
 Seven hundred years after St. Patrick went into Ireland 
 to do God's enduring work, an English King sent mission- 
 aries there to do another kind of work — and that work is 
 not yet done. It never will be done ; it simply never can 
 be done while England is England and Ireland stands. 
 
 I'or these last 700 years the ghastly story runs of Eng- 
 land's attempt to force her rule, and for more than two cen- 
 turies to force her newly-acquired creed, upon a people who 
 loved their religion with all the fervor taught by their own 
 apostle, and wdio loved liberty with a passion never yet 
 comprehended by a tyrant. The eye sweeps the island in 
 those dreadful times, and sees nothing but flame and blood, 
 desolation, ruin and misery. It rests upon the statute book, 
 and reads nothing but infamy. 
 
 The coldest-blooded English historian admits that after 
 four centuries of wasteful wars, the policy of his country 
 changed from conquest to extermination. But as the people 
 declined to submit, they also declined to die. A trium- 
 phant chapter in Kingsley's " Westward Ho " describes the 
 murder by an English army of a host of unarmed Irish men, 
 women and children, not far from my early home, so that 
 the story should be spread and terror seize the province. 
 Elizabeth's lieutenant, when he thought his work was done, 
 wrote to his mistress that " now all that is left of the 
 ancient Irish is carcasses and ashes." But the prolific, un- 
 conquered race rose from its carcasses and ashes, survived 
 the butcheries of Elizabeth and Cromwell, the perfidy of 
 William, the banishment or murder of their leaders, the 
 awful agony of penal terms, the ruin or plunder of their last 
 chapel, and the loss of their last acre of land, ever resisting 
 as best they could, till they lived at last to see the victor of 
 Waterloo surrender to O'Connell. 
 
 In our own days, a pale young man from Ireland rose in 
 the alien Parliament and declared that no more business for 
 the empire should be done till the case of his country was 
 heard. And no more business was done until modern Irish 
 reform began and the awful burden of the poorest people 
 in Europe began to be lifted.
 
 Ireland's dkeam of xatkjxality 259 
 
 The poorest people they yet remain, crushed by a wci^jlit 
 that only long companionship with miser}' can bear; but 
 the burden lightens year by }car, and we may hoi)c to sec 
 in the next generation better material conditions than Ireland 
 has known since her land was stolen and her industries sup- 
 pressed. More than that, another generation will see the 
 land of Ireland practically owned by those who till it, or 
 held on terms that allow them to live. Of course, there 
 is no restitution, no return of the stolen land, any more 
 than there is of stolen churches. St. Patrick could not say 
 mass in the cathedral that bears his name, and that his fol- 
 lowers built. But the people who occupy the land stolen 
 from their ancestors are at kist permitted to buy it from the 
 descendants of those who stole it, and to pay for it by fifty 
 years or more of painful toil and nameless privation ; but at 
 last the land will be theirs and forever, after ages of struggle 
 and woe and misery, such as no other people ever endured. 
 So ends the fight over Irish land. 
 
 And as in the meantime the Irish will till their own lands, 
 so will they some time make their own laws and fly their 
 own flag. For the Irish question, like the Irish man, has a 
 soul as well as a body, and the soul of the Irish question is 
 not land, but liberty. " Three acres and a cow " and fellow- 
 ship with the earth may satisfy all the longings of swinish 
 men, but the Irish Celt, next to God, loves liberty — for 
 himself and for all men — and next to God he loves his 
 country. For liberty and for country he has struggled 
 through these dreary centuries, suffered and endured all 
 hate and wrong, died on tlie field and swung from the gib- 
 bet, and he and his people are as Irish to-day as when 
 Henry's horde came in to conquer — and to fail. 
 
 Do you think that this people, with a history so full of 
 passionate aspiration and heroic fortitude, so full of courage, 
 of sacrifice and glory, will surrender or fail at last? Not so, 
 while they dream the dream of nationality, and still believe 
 in a God that made them Celts, not Saxons, and has ever 
 watched over them. Whether that dream shall become a 
 reality in our day or in a later one, it will come true, by 
 some fair chance to fight for it in the coming clash and 
 smash of nations, or if England can get eyes to see that 
 her Irish experiment has been and ever will be a failure, and
 
 26o PATRICK A. COLLINS 
 
 conclude a lasting peace with her neighbor — come soon or 
 late, in one form or in another — the Irish question will be 
 settled at last, and settled upon Irish lines. Till then many- 
 things for England, great and powerful as she is, remain un- 
 settled ; when that question is settled many things that ap- 
 pear dark will be made plain, many things that vex Eng- 
 land's councils and her politicians will pass away. 
 
 But in any case, time and the age and the progress of 
 mankind fight for Ireland. What she has suffered she will 
 endure no more. All her gains are permanent. Every step 
 is forward. Every throb of her great heart makes more life 
 and blood and energy. God watch and ward the old land 
 and keep the hearts of its mothers as pure and sweet as they 
 are to-day, and the arms of her sons as strong, till the faith 
 that never faltered is justified, till the passionate longing is 
 satisfied at last. [Applause.]
 
 WILKIE COLLINS 
 
 AMERICAN HOSPITALITY 
 
 [Speech of Wilkie Collins at a reception given by the Lotos Club, in 
 his honor, New York City, September 27, 1873. Whitelaw Raid, in intro- 
 ducing Mr. Collins, said : " We have met to-night to greet a visitor from 
 the other side, of whom nothing is unknown to us but his face. Mav he 
 give us long and frequent opportunity for better acquaintance with that. 
 Thackeray once closed a charming paper on an American author with 
 words which we may fitly take up and apply in turn to our English 
 guest : ' It has been his fortunate lot to give great happiness and dcHght 
 to the world, which thanks him in return with an immense kindhne.ss, 
 respect, affection.' [Applau.se.] And as Thackeray's great companion 
 in work and fame, our guest's name is a familiar association with his, in 
 America, for we had come to prize him as the friend and literary asso- 
 ciate of Charles Dickens, even before we had learned to honor him yet 
 more for his own sake."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — Many years aero, 
 more years than I now quite like to reckon — I was visiting 
 Sorrento, in the Bay of Naples, with my father, mother and 
 brothers, as a boy of thirteen. At that time of my life, as 
 at this time of my life, I was an insatiable reader of that 
 order of books for which heavy people have invented the 
 name of " light literature." [Laughter.] Indue course of 
 time I exhausted the modest resources of the library which 
 we had brought to Naples, and found myself faced with the 
 necessity of borrowing from the resources of our fellow- 
 travellers, summer residents of Sorrento like ourselves. 
 
 Among them was a certain countryman of yours, very 
 tall, very lean, very silent, and very melancholy. Under 
 what circumstances the melancholy of this gentleman took 
 its rise, I am not able to tell you. The ladies thought it 
 was a disappointment in love ; the men attributed it to a 
 cause infinitely more serious than that — I mean indigestion. 
 
 261
 
 262 WILKIE COLLINS 
 
 Whether he suffered in heart or whether he suffered in 
 stomach, I took, I remember, a boy's unreasonable fancy to 
 him, passing over dozens of other people, apparently far 
 more acceptable than he was. I ventured to look up to the 
 tall American — it was a long way to look up — and said in a 
 trembling voice : " Can you lend me a book to read ? " 
 He looked down to me — it was a long way to look down — 
 and said : " I have got but two amusing books ; one of 
 them is ' The Sorrows of Werther,' and the other is * The 
 Sentimental Journey.' [Laughter.] You are heartily wel- 
 come to both these books. Take them home and when you 
 have read them, bring them back and dine with me, and tell 
 me what you think of them." 
 
 I took them home and read them, and told him what I 
 thought of them, much more freely than I would now, and 
 last, not least, I had an excellent dinner crowned with a 
 cake, which was an epoch in my youthful existence, and 
 which, I may say, lives gratefully and greasily in my mem- 
 ory to the present day. [Applause.] 
 
 Now, Mr. President and gentlemen, I venture to tell you 
 this for one reason. It marks my first experience with 
 American kindness and American hospitality. In many 
 different ways this early expression of your kindness and 
 hospitality has mingled in my after-life, now in England, 
 now on the Continent, until it has culminated in this magni- 
 ficent reception from the Lotos Club. I am not only grati- 
 fied but touched by the manner in which you have greeted 
 me, and the cordiality with which the remarks of your Presi- 
 dent have been received. I venture to say that I see in 
 this reception something more than a recognition of my 
 humble labors only. I think I see a recognition of English 
 literature, liberal, spontaneous and sincere, which I think is 
 an honor to you as well as an honor to me. In the name of 
 English literature, I beg gratefully to thank you. On my 
 own behalf, I beg to assure you that I shall not soon forget . 
 the encouragement you have offered to me, at the outset of ^ 
 my career in America. Permit mc to remind you that I 
 am now speaking the language of sincere gratitude, and 
 that is essentially a language of very few words. [Ap- 
 plause.]
 
 ROBERT COLLYER 
 
 SAXON GRIT 
 
 [Speech of Rev. Dr. Robert Collycr at the seventy-fourth anniversary 
 banquet of the New England vSociety in the City of New York, Decem- 
 ber 22, 1879. The President of the Society, Daniel F. Appleton, was in 
 the chair, and called upon Dr. Coll3'er to respond to the followiufj 
 toast : " The Saxon Grit — which in New England as in Old England 
 has made a race of men to be honored, feared and respected."] 
 
 Gentlemen: — When your President sent nic word about 
 the sentiment to which he wanted me to respond — Saxon 
 Grit — and I began to think the ground over, and to see 
 what Saxon grit meant, it seemed so great a thing to talk 
 about, so wide in its sweep, and so noble in its ingathering, 
 that knowing just the sort of men I was to meet, and how 
 scant the time must be, I came near illustrating the fact 
 that I had no Saxon grit in me by running aAvay. [Laugh- 
 ter.] It is a grand subject, and demands a grand handling, 
 and to do it any justice I should need to take some such 
 time as a minister once took who came to preach for my 
 people, on an exchange. I said to one of the deacons, on 
 Monday, " How did you like the sermon?" "Well," he 
 said, " the first three hours and a half I liked pretty well, 
 but after that I began to get discouraged." [Laughter.] 
 For you see Saxon grit is the story of a thousand years. It 
 is the story of the struggle of millions of men, on battle- 
 fields in two worlds. It is the story of men like Alfred, and 
 Cromwell, and Washington, and Lincoln, and Grant [ap- 
 plause], and of others who were just as brave and true, and 
 " as positive as the earth is firm," but who had to be content 
 with the feeling that they had done their duty, and take 
 that for their reward. [Applause.] It takes in the mighty 
 conquests of peace as well as war, the stand made for the 
 
 263
 
 264 ROBERT COLLYER 
 
 great Charter, the open Bible and a free mind to read it, the 
 fi"ht over ship money, the " tempest in a tea-pot " in Bos- 
 ton Harbor which could only be content with a reach of the 
 Atlantic for the brewing ; and it includes the honest dollar. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 These are the lines a man must follow who would speak 
 of the Saxon grit ; and to trespass so upon your time would 
 be a gross intrusion that I could not expect you to pardon 
 and again tender me an invitation to a New England dinner. 
 [Laughter and applause.] I like a good dinner and good 
 company too well to run that risk. And so I thought I 
 would try and compress what I had to say into a very small 
 compass, and as I found my thought going off in a sort of 
 swing and taking the shape of an old ballad, I concluded to 
 " drop into poetry," which, Mr. Wegg says, " comes more 
 expensive " than prose ; and so for this reason, for want of 
 a better, you will have to put up with all the less of it. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 Worn with the battle by Stamford town, 
 
 Fighting the Norman by Hastings Bay, 
 Harold the Saxon's sun went dov/n 
 
 While the acorns were falling, one autumn day. 
 Then the Norman said, " I am lord of the land ; 
 
 By tenor of conquest here I sit ; 
 I will rule you now with the iron hand " — 
 
 But he had not thought of the Saxon grit. 
 
 He took the land, and he took the men, 
 
 And burnt the homesteads from Trent to Tyne, 
 Made the freemen serfs by a stroke of the pen, 
 
 Eat up the corn, and drank the wine, 
 And said to the maiden pure and fair, 
 
 " You shall be my leman, as is most fit, 
 Your Saxon churl may rot in his lair " — , 
 
 But he had not measured the Saxon grit. 
 
 To the merrj' green wood went bold Robin Hood, 
 
 With his strong-hearted yeomanry ripe for the fray. 
 Driving the arrow into the marrow 
 
 Of all the proud Normans who came in his way ; 
 Scorning the fetter, fearless and free, 
 
 Winning by valor or foiling by wit, 
 Dear to our Saxon folk ever is he. 
 
 This merry old rogue with the Saxon grit.
 
 S\XON GKIT 265 
 
 And Kelt the tanner wliipt out hi.-, knife, 
 
 And Watt tlie smith his lianimcr hr<)uj,dit down 
 For rnth of the maid he loved Letter lliaii Hfe, 
 
 And by breakinj,' a licad made a hole in the' Crown. 
 From the vSaxon heart rose a mi^'hty roar, 
 
 " Our life shall not be by the Kins^r's permit ; 
 We will fight for the risht, we want no more "'— 
 
 Then the Norman found out the Saxon "rit. 
 
 For slow and sure as the oaks had j^rown 
 
 From the acorns falling that autumn day, 
 So the vSaxon manhood in thorpe and town 
 
 To a nobler stature grew alway, 
 Winning by inches, holding by clinches, 
 
 Sanding by law and the human right, 
 Many times failing, never once quailing, 
 
 So the new day came out of the night. 
 
 Then rising afar in the Western sea, 
 
 A new world stood in the morn of the day, 
 Ready to welcome the brave and free 
 
 Who could wrench out the heart and march away 
 From the narrow, contracted, dear old land, 
 
 Where the poor are held by a cruel bit, 
 To ampler spaces for heart and hand — 
 
 And here was a chance for the Saxon grit. 
 
 Steadily steering, eagerly peering, 
 
 Trusting in God, your fathers came, 
 Pilgrims and strangers, fronting all dangers, 
 
 Cool-headed Saxons with hearts aflame. 
 Bound by the letter, but free from the fetter, 
 
 And hiding their freedom in Holy Writ, 
 They gave Deuteronomy hints in economy, 
 
 And made a new Moses of Saxou grit. 
 
 They whittled and waded through forest and fen, 
 
 Fearless as ever of what might befall ; 
 Pouring out life for the nurture of men ; 
 
 In faith that by manhood the world wins all. 
 Inventing baked beans, and no end of machines ; 
 
 Great with the rifle and great with the axe — 
 Sending their notions over the oceans. 
 
 To fill empty stomachs and straighten bent backs. 
 
 Swift to take chances that end in the dollar. 
 
 Yet open of hand when the dollar is made. 
 Maintaining the meet'n, exalting the scholar, 
 
 But a little too anxious about a good trade ;
 
 266 RODERT COLLYER 
 
 This is 3-oung Jonathan, son of old John, 
 Positive, peaceable, firm in the right ; 
 
 Saxon men all of us, may we be one, 
 Steady for freedom, and strong in her might. 
 
 Then, slow and sure, as the oaks have grown 
 
 From the acorns that fell on that old dim day, 
 So this new manhood, in city and town. 
 
 To a nobler stature will grow alvvay ; 
 Winning by inches, holding by clinches. 
 
 Slow to contention, and slower to quit. 
 Now and then failing, but never once quailing, 
 
 Let us thank God for the Saxon grit. 
 [Prolonged applause] 
 
 TRIBUTE TO EDWIN BOOTH 
 
 [Speech of Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer at a complimentary breakfast 
 given to Edwin Booth by his friends and admirers, just previous to his 
 departure for Europe, New York Cit}', June 15, iSSo. Judge John R. 
 Brady presided.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — I do not want to commence my speech by 
 remarking that I do not know about the theatre and the stage, 
 because, if I said that, I should not tell the truth. I go to 
 the theatre whenever I can get a chance. And I never go 
 when a man like our friend is playing that I am not filled 
 M'ith it. I forget myself and laugh and cry at the beck of 
 the actor, and cannot help it. [Applause.] I feel that I 
 have no business to stand outside of the business of the 
 evening, and criticise it. What I have got to do is to enter 
 into the spirit of the play, and have what I call a "good 
 time." And I have had more grand times, I suppose, 
 listening to Mr. Booth and watching him than to any other 
 actor living. [Applause.] 
 
 I recognize in the greatest that we ministers can do, and 
 in the greatest our friend can do, that we are together in 
 this great work of impressing the human heart and soul. 
 The word he utters, the word we utter when we are lifted 
 to the height of a great occasion, goes to the same place 
 and goes on the same errand, and while " I magnify mine 
 office," and believe that on the earth there is no higher and 
 no better, I feel at the same time, when a man like our
 
 THE CHURCH and the stage 267 
 
 guest interprets some mighty mystery of life,— the shadow 
 of it, and the shine, the laughter and the tears, sin and sor- 
 row and repentance, if it please God ; there is no grander 
 coadjutor of the minister than a man of this profession, 
 who can teach the thought he carries hidden in his heart by 
 the mightiest genius of the world. [Applause.] When our 
 friends on the other side have been touched by the genius 
 of our guest, as we have been touched so many times, then 
 they will understand that there is something loved and 
 cherished in the hearts of America besides the " almighty 
 dollar." [Loud cheers.] 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE STAGE 
 
 [Speech of Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer at a banquet in honor of Tommaso 
 Salvini, New York City, April 26, 1S83.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman:— I feel a little touch of fear, sir, that, in 
 answering to this sentiment, " The Church and the Stage," 
 if my speech does not seem to you a " Comedy of Errors " it 
 may still seem to me to be " Love's Labor's Lost," by reason 
 of the wide distance between my good-will and my ability 
 to do justice to such a theme. 
 
 This is one of those times when the Church should give 
 you the best she has, and you should have found a bishop 
 glad and proud to give the right hand of fellowship to your 
 noble guest, and bid him God-speed. But, speaking for the 
 Church, so far as a heretic may, what can I say better than 
 that the Church is the mother and the Stage is the daugh- 
 ter, and that, after so long an estrangement, they should 
 kiss and be friends ? 
 
 The mystery plays, to which the Church gave birth in the 
 Middle Ages, are different only from the great dramas of 
 the present, as the " infant muling and puking in the nurse's 
 arms " is different from the splendid persons dowered with 
 all beauty and aglow with the choicest genius — men like Mr. 
 Salvini — who mirror forth our time. 
 
 Let us make sure that we are of one blood, and then we 
 may come together again. The mother has scorned, and 
 the daughter has scoffed. We would not see your play, and
 
 268 ROBERT COLLYER 
 
 you would not hear our sermons. It is all a sham, we have 
 said, your pretence of passion. And you have been of the 
 mind of a manager who would not let a minister have his 
 theatre for a Sunday evening service, saying : " No, sir, I 
 will not have so poor an actor on my stage. It will demor- 
 alize the place." Is it not time all this was ended? And 
 if the Church says : " Why should I mingle my gold with 
 such dross?" the answer is that some very good Church- 
 men have not thought it dross. 
 
 I was greatly charmed last summer, sir, by a sight in the 
 mountains of four stately chestnuts growing from one root. 
 I loved to sit in the shadow first of one and then of another, 
 and to watch them swaying in the wind and kissing each 
 other through the interlacing branches. So I have thought 
 it is with the drama, the finer arts, and music, and with re- 
 ligious aspirations, — each separate in some sense from the 
 other, and yet, down in the deepest one, blossoming alike 
 and bearing fruit, shooting up into the light together, and 
 glorifying the land where they grow. 
 
 I love mine best ; you love yours best ; but I can see in 
 all that there is the same spirit at work, to make men wiser 
 and better. I thank God for them all, and look for the time 
 to come when the whole world will hold them at their true 
 worth.
 
 ROSCOE CONKLING 
 
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 [Speech of Roscoe Conkling at the sixty-ninth anniversary banquet of 
 the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1874. The 
 President of the Society, Isaac H. Bailey, presided, and introduced Senator 
 Conkling in these words : " Gentlemen, the third regular toast is, — ' The 
 State of New York, — her boundless resources, her world-wide commerce, 
 and the steady virtue of her people will ever maintain her proud rank as 
 the Empire State of the Union.' The gentleman who will respond to this 
 toast has a right to speak for the State of New York, for the State of New 
 York has spoken for him ou two occasions, I introduce to you Senator 
 Conkling."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New Eng- 
 land Society : — The annals of this honored association, 
 resplendent as they are with so much that is illustrious and 
 remarkable, record no instance, to my knowledge, in which 
 a guest at a New England dinner ever labored under em- 
 barrassment or diffidence. Always to say, and say readily 
 and easily, the right thing at the right time, has till now 
 been the gift of all embraced in your boundless hospitality. 
 [Applause.] At last selection has grown careless or per- 
 verse, and one has been bidden wanting in all that beseems 
 the feast. This is not the worst of it. Bent on hurrying 
 over everything dangerous to the enjoyment of the occa- 
 sion, and usurping powers not conferred on him by your 
 constitution or by-laws, the autocrat of the table gave me 
 timely warning to be brief. I will not tell you how little is 
 the drop of time poured out to me. It is not half so large 
 as to hold half my thanks for a greeting so cordial. [Ap- 
 plause.] Being thus tethered on an isthmus not wider than 
 a hair, I was blandly and generously given an empire for a 
 theme, and told to feel perfectly free to range over all space. 
 [Laughter.] This wonderful invention for contracting time, 
 
 269
 
 270 ROSCOE COX K LING 
 
 and expandinc^ its use — a sort of intro-convertible scheme of 
 financiering — impressed me the more because it revealed a 
 trace of ingenuity and frugahty notoriously foreign to the 
 New England character. [Laughter.] It is but just to 
 your President, however, to acquit him of all feeling to- 
 ward me in this effort to abridge the right of free speech. 
 He acted, no doubt, strictly on the principle which led the 
 Puritans to oppose bear-baiting — not because it gave pain to 
 the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the people. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 The toast is a State — pardon mc if I say in some respects 
 the first Republican State in Christendom — that great Com- 
 monwealth whose interests, whose honor, and whose destiny 
 are so dear to all of us, whether we first breathed the air of 
 New England, or the ashes of our fathers hallow the vales of 
 New York. What trains of memories and hopes such a 
 sentiment ushers in ! We have no pyramids from which 
 forty centuries look down upon us. Two centuries ago the 
 agents of a Greenland company disputed with Henry 
 Hudson whether they or he caught the first glimpse of rocks 
 and sedges afterward bartered for a trunk of beans — rocks 
 and sedges ranged by wild beasts and wild men, now the 
 home of a mighty people, and the site of a world-trod city, 
 in whose streets eighty-four languages and dialects are 
 spoken. 
 
 Three-quarters of a century ago, progress had not yet 
 made such headway as to dig a canal for drainage in this 
 city, where now the pavements of Canal Street are worn by 
 the feet of millions, and trampled by a traffic conspicuous in 
 the ledgers of the world. In the lifetime of men still living, 
 in three-quarters of the State, untrodden and trackless 
 forests, unknown lakes and rivers, and undiscovered fields 
 and mines, were wra;>t in solitudes where now temples of 
 charity and religion, temples of learning, and temples of 
 mammon outglitter each other in the splendor of a won- 
 drous civilization. A wondrous civilization, not merely be- 
 cause its energy has sent out the restless foot of adventure 
 to traverse every continent, visit every island, vex every 
 sea — not merely because of its opulence and enterprise, 
 which for seventy years nourished the nation with ninety 
 per cent, of the nation's revenues, and, while an income tax
 
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK 27 1 
 
 was gathered, poured into the treasury, from one eleventh 
 of the population of the United States, one-third of the 
 total tax. A civilization wondrous, not merely because 
 the men it marshalled and the wealth it had amassed saved 
 the nation in a conflict described by a British statesman, the 
 other day, in a speech in this city, as the greatest war of 
 the century — he might have said in some respects, the 
 greatest war that ever shook the world. [Applause.] I say, 
 saved the nation — is it too much to assert that the State of 
 New York could not have been spared in the struggle for 
 the Union? [Applause.] 
 
 War, in our times, is, in great part, a problem of money. 
 The battles which the Crusaders fought and the troubadours 
 sang were all before the invention of the ponderous ma- 
 chinery and costly appliances of modern warfare. Valor 
 and devotion alone cannot equip and maintain armies now, 
 and at last the question is, who can pay, and feed, and 
 clothe, and arm the most men ? When that fact is ascer- 
 tained, the fight is over. Thus it comes to pass, the last 
 issues of war must be resolved by taxation, by credit, and 
 by money ; and I claim for the soldiers and seamen of New 
 York, and for her taxpayers and capitalists, a share in the 
 glory, the liberty, and the nationalit}^ which, without them, 
 could not have been won. [Applause.] A civilization, 
 wondrous, not merely because its brief career is luminous 
 with the names of heroes, patriots, sages, statesmen, and 
 jurists, whose memorials the world will not willingly let die, 
 but, above all, because it has lifted higher and higher the 
 standard of liberty, humanity, morality and right. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Many would smile at the idea that, as a rule, men in our 
 day have grown better. Many insist that decadence, and 
 not improvement, in morality is the tendency of our times. 
 I will not argue this. Curious witnesses might easily be 
 called. I recently met with a report, made in 1695 to the 
 Lord Bishop of London, by Rev. John Miller, a chaplain in 
 the army, after a residence of some years in the Province 
 of New York. He seems to have been a God-fearing man ; 
 it is not comforting to believe him a truth-telling man. 
 [Laughter.] I read from this book as the lawyer read 
 Blackstoneto the justice of the peace — not to show that the
 
 2 72 ROSCOE COXKLING 
 
 justice was wrong, but only to show what an old fool Black, 
 stone was, [Laughter.] He sets forth this list of short- 
 comings falling under his own observation : " First. Wick- 
 edness and irreligion in the inhabitants. Second. Want of 
 ministers. Third. Difference of opinion in religion. Fourth 
 Civil dissension. Fifth. The heathenism of the Indians. 
 Sixth. The neighborhood of Canada." He portrays all six 
 of these sins vividly. Five of them need not be noticed, 
 they are so nearly obsolete. No sane man in this presence 
 dare pretend that we are still " wanting in ministers." 
 [Laughter.] As to " differences of opinion in religion," we 
 have none to speak of. [Laughter.] As to " civil dissen- 
 sion," there will be none till the next election, and then, 
 if they be only " civils," we will cure them by the ballot — a 
 safe and sovereign remedy for such disorders — invented 
 since good Mr. Miller wrote. The " heathenism of the In- 
 dians " has nearly died out in this State ; soon even Chris- 
 tian Indians will be few, and found only far toward the set- 
 ting sun. " The neighborhood of Canada," to be sure, re- 
 mains a case for moral suasion, and if it had proved as easy 
 to change the map of America as it has been found to 
 change the map of Europe, we might do away with Canada 
 altogether. [Applause.] 
 
 But hear a few words of what this witness says about the 
 prevailing bad morals of his day. Evidently the generation 
 he knew, died, " no son of theirs succeeding." They may 
 have gone back to England, or gone West. Decidedly 
 they left no descendants here or hereabouts. This pious 
 scribe thus descants: " The first is the wickedness and irre- 
 ligion of the inhabitants, which abounds in all parts of the 
 province, and appears in so many shapes, constituting so 
 many sorts. In a soil so rank as this, no marvel if the Evil 
 One find a ready entertainment for the seed he is minded 
 to cast in ; and from a people so inconstant, and regardless 
 of heaven and holy things, no wonder if God withdraw His 
 grace, and give them up a prey to those temptations which 
 they so industriously seek to embrace ; hence it is, there- 
 fore, that their natural corruption, without check or hin- 
 drance, is, by frequents acts, improved into habits most evil 
 in the practise, and difificult in the correction. One of 
 which, and the first I am minded to speak of, is drunken-
 
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK 273 
 
 ness, which, though of itself a great sin, is yet aggravated 
 in that it is an occasion of many others. 'Tis in this coun- 
 try a common tiling, even for the meanest persons, as soon 
 as the bounty of God has furnished them with a plentiful 
 crop, to turn what they can, as soon as may be, into money 
 and that money into drink, at the same time when their 
 families at home have nothing but rags to protect their 
 bodies from the winter's cold ; nay, if the fruits of their 
 plantations be such as are by their own immediate labor 
 convertible into liquor, such as cider, perry, etc., they have 
 scarce the patience to stay till it is fit for drinking, but, in- 
 viting their pot companions, they all of them, neglecting 
 whatsoever work they are about, set to it together, and 
 give not over till they have drunk it off. And to these sot- 
 tish engagements they will make nothing to ride ten or 
 twenty miles, and at the conclusion of one debauch another 
 generally is appointed, except their stock of liquor fail 
 them. Nor are the country people only guilty of this vice, 
 but they are equalled, nay, surpassed, by many in the City 
 of New York, whose daily practise is to frequent the tav- 
 erns, and to carouse and game their night employment. 
 This course is the ruin and destruction of many merchants, 
 especially those of the younger sort, who, carrying over 
 with them a stock, whether as factors or on their own ac- 
 count, spend even to prodigality, till they find themselves 
 bankrupt ere they are aware." 
 
 He goes on to speak of cursing and swearing, of open 
 and shameless immorality, of dishonesty, of sloth, and prof- 
 ligacy among high and low, rich and poor, as comprising 
 the body of the times. Unfortunately the witness is not 
 solitary, and when we abate and jest away all we may, does 
 not something in this quaint production seriously tell us 
 that progress has been made in lifting society from the 
 groveling instincts and low desires of an earlier age? 
 
 But I have dwelt on the past and the present, when I 
 should have spoken of the future. States cannot live on 
 the past, more than political parties. Chancellor Kent says, 
 speaking of families, that they "must repose upon the vir- 
 tue of their descendants for the perpetuity of their fame." 
 The leader of an Arctic band said to his followers : " Who- 
 ever sits down will sleep, and whoever sleeps will perish."
 
 274 KOSCOE COXKLING 
 
 So will it be with States. [Applause] This is a law of 
 matter, mind and heart. At this moment the times are 
 full of signs and warnings for New York, threatening her 
 commercial and material primacy. I speak to those who 
 know better than I the many things which might here be 
 said ; let me remind you of one of them : " Clinton's 
 Ditch " was dug to bring the products of one part of this 
 one State to another. Soon this great work of statesman- 
 ship and forecast transcended its mission, and bore to the 
 sea from far Western States a traffic greater than that of 
 the River Rhine, flowing through seven sovereignties in the 
 heart of Europe. The Erie Canal, enriching and draining 
 vast regions, poured like a golden river into the City of 
 New York. Railways came and railways doubled, but 
 there came also, at the rate of a State a year from distant 
 lands, men and women to till that fertile basin between the 
 two watersheds of the continent, stretching 2,000 miles north, 
 and south, and 1,400 miles east and west. There in the 
 valley of the Mississippi is, and is to be, the granary of the 
 world ; there is the food of the nations ; it is not wanted 
 where it grows, and it is bound to get out and go where it 
 is wanted. The value of property in this country is not in 
 what it is, but in where it is. Speak the cereals of the 
 West into the port of New York without cost in moving 
 them, and the national debt would be like dust in the 
 scales. [Applause.] 
 
 This cannot be done, but it can and will be done — nay, 
 it is being done in part. Transportation can be cheapened ! 
 it will be cheapened, and the tracks will be marked anew 
 for a colossal commerce. Shall New York have it ? Shall 
 Canada have it? Shall Pennsjdvania and Maryland have it? 
 Who shall have it ? Men hear me who will do much to 
 decide the question. Terminal facilities in this city, ele- 
 vators, harbor accommodations, sea-going opportunities — 
 these are factors in the problem, as well as canal and railway 
 policy and advantages of route. Here is a huge, unfinished 
 work for this State and this city, and he who lives for five 
 years will see a vast stake won or lost by what shall yet be 
 done or left undone. [Applause.] 
 
 This subject urges itself upon us in a double aspect. Lay- 
 ing aside the inquiry who shall profit by handling an untold
 
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK 275 
 
 traffic, the matter of cheap transportation touches the pros- 
 perity of the West; and whatever touches the prosperity 
 of any section or State of the Union touches tiie prosperity 
 of New York. [Applause.] Nothing affecting the welfare 
 of any community in the nation can be without influence 
 on this metropolis. " All roads lead to Rome," and mad 
 and guilty as sectional hate or jealousy must be everywhere 
 in our land, nowhere could it be so besotted as here. The 
 capital of New York is planted from sea to sea — from the 
 St. Lawrence to the Gulf. There is not a State or city in 
 all our borders which can be blighted without shrivelling us. 
 The bonds of every State, the bonds of cities, the bonds of 
 the railways that gridiron the West and the South, are held 
 in great sums in the East and in the North. Whatever 
 wounds any member of the Union we feel also ; whatever 
 fertilizes and enriches the most distant field, invigorates this 
 commonwealth from Buffalo to Montauk. [Applause.] 
 Whenever help is needed, it is the highest policy for New 
 York to help, whether in one quarter or another, as far as 
 prudence points a way. The South cannot sit in the ashes 
 of a fire kindled by herself, and not enfeeble every Northern 
 State. The South cannot grope in the desolation of shat- 
 tered institutions, without unbalancing the healthful forces 
 of all the nation. When she can see and feel this, and know 
 that every patriot in the land longs for her resurrection, 
 longs for the time when in all her borders the Constitution 
 and laws, and right, and order, and peace, and common-sense, 
 shall reign, then, if she can rule her own spirit, her wealth 
 will be our wealth, her welfare our welfare. [Applause.] 
 
 But prosperity, like charity, begins at home. Who would 
 have the rose themselves must grasp the thorn. Every 
 community must trim its own vineyard. [Applause.] 
 Rapid transit on Manhattan Island would instantly kindle 
 new life here and send it through a circuit sweeping far be- 
 yond this State. [Applause.] Regeneration in finance, 
 sound and wholesome methods in business, thorough and 
 frugal management of public affairs. State and Municipal — 
 these are some of the matters in which New York should 
 lead. [Applause] 
 
 The drama of the Western Hemisphere is only begun ; 
 the scene thus far enacted might be entitled " breaking the
 
 2/6 ROSCOE CONKLING 
 
 way for future ages." Let those now on the stage act well 
 their parts, and when the portals are closed behind us, New- 
 England dinners will be celebrated in New York amid a 
 grandeur yet more worthy of the fatherhood of God and 
 the brotherhood of man — a grandeur which will endure 
 when dynasties have decayed and diadems have crumbled. 
 [Apj^lause.]
 
 FREDERIC RENE COUDERT 
 
 THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 [Speech of Frederic R. Coudert at the seventy-ninth anniversary ban- 
 quet of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 
 1884. Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, President of the society, was in the 
 chair, and said, in introducing the speaker : " The teachers of our old 
 politics taught that from the farms the safety of the future grew. The 
 conditions of our progress show, by the sure figures of the census, that 
 more than one-quarter of the people of this State, and nearly one-quarter 
 of our Legislature, is chosen from the cities of the State. As in the Italy 
 of old times, so in the New York of to-day, the liberty of the past is to be 
 kept by the cities of the present, and that leads by New England logic 
 to our next toast : ' Our City of New York. Great are its responsibili- 
 ties, immense is its power.' None better than our own New York citizen, 
 Mr. Coudert, could respond to the toast of the ' City of New York.' "] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — It is not to 
 be reckoned among the smallest privileges of the City 
 of New York that the New England Society should 
 once in every year pat it on the back and say — or cause to 
 be said — a good word in its favor. If our city has done 
 anything to deserve this annual praise, it has not been over- 
 taxed, misgoverned, and maligned in vain. On this one 
 day she may forget the tribulations of the other three hun- 
 dred and sixty-four, and comfort herself with the reflection 
 that the descendants of the Puritans, having taken her under 
 their patronage, find her fair enough to admire and to 
 praise. [Applause.] There is something in the City of 
 New York worthy of commendation after all. In her com- 
 position the most various elements of the world have en- 
 tered. Dutch, English, French, Irish, Germans, have been 
 boiled in the cauldron of her progress; they simmered to- 
 gether in the process of harmonious assimilation, until the 
 diverse and discordant elements have become thoroughly 
 welded and fused into unity. The product resulting thcre- 
 
 277
 
 278 FREDERIC RENE COUDERT 
 
 from is unique in our history or in any history, and yet the 
 result lias been a logical and providential one. Cities, like 
 States, must develop according to the laws of their origin, 
 and no city founded by our Dutch forefathers, and impressed 
 with the stamp of their honest independence and stub- 
 born patriotism, could fail to produce a result which would 
 benefit mankind. [Cheers.] Other nations came in to pur- 
 sue the task that they had commenced ; but the foundations 
 were laid by them, and upon these the structure was built. 
 
 New York has ever been the chosen spot and home of 
 the stranger. She erected no barriers to exclude him, and 
 whether he came alone or with an army at his back, he was 
 always cordially received. New York, indeed, never made 
 strenuous objections to being captured, and she seems 
 rather to have prided herself upon the graceful ease with 
 which she accomplished her various surrenders. The Dutch 
 surrendered to the English, and the English to the Dutch ; 
 and then again the Dutch to the English, and the English 
 to the Americans, and the Americans to — but no, the 
 Americans never surrendered to any one [laughter] ; and if 
 certain changes have taken place in the distribution of 
 power, it is due to a friendly acquiescence in the quiet 
 assumption with which friends from abroad, under the law- 
 ful form of the ballot, relieved the native population from 
 the dangers, cares, temptations and tribulations of ofifice. 
 
 It is only just to say, however, that none of these sur- 
 renders were accomplished without compensation — to wit, 
 the honors of war. The Dutch kindly accorded them to 
 the departing Briton ; the latter, a few years later, to the 
 surrendering Dutchman, — who surrendered, but never de- 
 parted. The English received the honors of war from the 
 Americans, and all appeared satisfied that the fullest re- 
 quirements of the situation had been adequately met. The 
 only exception that I can find is in the case of General 
 Washington, who — after an unpleasant and unsatisfactory 
 debate with the British on Long Island — passed through 
 New York on his way to Westchester County. The ur- 
 gency of his pending engagements and the insufficiency of 
 the town accommodations compelled him to leave in some 
 haste. [Laughter.] Hence his failure to receive the honors 
 of war, which would no doubt have been accorded had he
 
 THE CITY OF NEW YORK 279 
 
 chosen to await them. But there were occasions when the 
 Cunctator displayed great ahicrity. This was one. 
 
 If we look back into history, and examine the various 
 nations that flourished in the world — I mean at the time 
 that our city was founded — we will be disposed to agree 
 that of all the great ones of the earth, none could have 
 suited us so well as ancestors as the Dutch. [Laughter.] 
 The English were too full of business to take proper care 
 of our young city. Besides, they were a bit arrogant and 
 proud. Although they had not done much toward building 
 up Boston, they had, no doubt, some premonition of the 
 brilliant success that awaited them in that direction. 
 Ireland had not yet become one of the ruling nations of the 
 globe, and was not fully educated at that time to the point 
 of ruling any given city (out of Ireland) on the most favor- 
 able terms. Germany and Spain were full of war, religion, 
 blood and bluster. They had more land than they knew 
 what to do with. France was struggling to found and pre- 
 serve those vast colonies which still retain, after a century of 
 separation, her language, religion, traditions and affection. 
 Besides, all these countries spoke a language more or less 
 intelligible to some one. As for the Dutch — well, Boston 
 tried to pick a quarrel with old Petrus, the one-legged Gov- 
 ernor, but it was of no avail. The grim Dutchman wrote 
 the Bostonian a despatch in alleged Low Dutch. That 
 ended the quarrel. [Laughter.] How can you fight a man 
 whose missive may be full of respect and affection ? Oh ! 
 you may say an interpreter might have been procured. Pre- 
 cisely — that is what the Englishman tried to do. He did 
 procure one, but the interpreter swore that he would not 
 (and probably he could not) translate the despatch. War 
 was averted, and Boston was saved from annihilation. 
 [Applause and laughter,] 
 
 The Dutch, then, planted the tree, but all the nations 
 that I have mentioned watered the young sapling. The 
 strangers of other lands who came to our midst brought 
 with them those traditions of their own which are best 
 worth preserving. Whether it is that the exile's heart is 
 too full of home and regret and misgivings of the future to 
 contain anything not worth preserving; whether it be that 
 the fire of persecution and of tribulation burns out of his
 
 28o FREDERIC RENE COUDERT 
 
 nature all but the best of that nature, I know not; but cer- 
 tain it is that whether English or Dutch, or Scotch or Irish, 
 or German or French, they all brought with them those 
 traditions and practices which were most calculated to en- 
 rich and strengthen our young city. And from these ele- 
 ments a new combination was formed, which has made the 
 City of New York the greatest and best of the continent. 
 [Loud applause.] 
 
 I am aware that other cities have claimed — I know that 
 one provincial town especially does claim, in entire good 
 faith — the precedence if not the monopoly of early patriot- 
 ism and of early self-denial in the good cause. New York 
 City is so rich in present goods and past glories that she 
 has, perhaps with excessive indulgence, looked smilingly 
 upon the earnest advocates of these untenable claims. But 
 historic truth cannot afford to be thus blinded. She will 
 tell you that this island city was the first to throw down the 
 gauntlet to royal armies and to royal fleets. Rhode Island 
 and Maryland, especially the latter, may have worn before 
 her the crown of religious toleration ; but even in the early 
 days, when religious freedom was almost unknown to the 
 best and wisest men, this soil upon which we stand to-night 
 was open to the persecuted of all climates. I shall not 
 speak of the sectaries of Massachusetts, driven from their 
 homes by persecutions which it is not pleasant to think of 
 now ; but Jews and Dissenters the world over, fleeing from 
 the cruelties which they endured for conscience' sake, found 
 here a home and safety. [Cheers.] 
 
 We hear much of the famous Boston tea-party, the com- 
 memoration of which is as necessary to a New England 
 banquet as the conventional soup or the traditional salad. 
 New York, it is true, did not dramatize the performance or 
 emphasize its importance with the adjuncts of Indian dis- 
 guises and a moonlit night. No, our practical fathers ob- 
 jected to the odious tea, and manifested their objection 
 by quietly moving it into the stream, in the broad light of 
 day, in the ordinary accoutrements of business men, and 
 there dumped it into the harbor with as little ceremony or 
 concealment as our own people of to-day dump other and 
 more objectionable material into the same waters. [Laugh- 
 ter.] It will be some satisfaction to remember, if our noble
 
 THE CITY OF NEW YORK 28 1 
 
 harbor is ever choked up by these repeated Invasions, that 
 the foundation was hiid with expensive material and patri- 
 otic purpose. [Laughter and cheers.] 
 
 But why dwell upon this ? Pray tell me in what partic- 
 ular our city has not been the first to sound the clarion of 
 rebellion against tyranny ; to speak in loud tones for civil 
 liberty and political independence? More than two hun- 
 dred years ago the merchants of New York declared that 
 they must have a voice and a vote in the administration of 
 public business; and they meant it, and showed their good 
 faith by stubborn resistance until final success. Who main- 
 tained the liberty of the press by first consecrating its im- 
 portance through the verdict of a jury? Who first opposed 
 by arms the odious claim that citizens could be impressed 
 by force into the military and naval service ? Who led the 
 battle against the Stamp Act, and declared it to be the duty 
 of the colonies to consider as an act of tyranny any viola- 
 tion of her rights and privileges? New York, ever New 
 York ! [Ringing applause.] To sum all up, who first shed 
 the blood of her citizens in defence of America, if not New 
 York? And more than all this, with prophetic vision look- 
 ing to the necessities of the city that they were founding 
 and building up, while writs were still issued in the king's 
 name, she taught us that the true secret of prosperity, dig- 
 nity and freedom lay in the vigilance of the citizens ; and 
 then and there the citizens of New York established a 
 "Committee of One Hundred," which worked efTectually and 
 well, and, having overturned the king's authority, established 
 free government in its stead. How history repeats itself! 
 
 But the glory of New York in the past was but the 
 promise of the fruit that was to ripen in the future. [Ap- 
 plause.] She stands to-day firm in the enjoyment of those 
 great truths and blessings which cost so much blood and 
 treasure to secure. All the noble tendencies of her origin 
 have been developed. No city exceeds her in wealth, edu- 
 cation, intelligence and prosperity. None approaches her 
 in that which best proves her excellence — I mean her charity. 
 [Cheers.] To enumerate the manifold channels in which 
 that ever-flowing charity pursues its daily course would far 
 exceed my limits. It covers every form of human suffer- 
 ing. It embraces every nationality and creed — it knows no
 
 282 FREDERIC RENE COUDERT 
 
 limitation. The great heart of our city has a throb of pity 
 for every form of wretchedness. Nay, going beyond this 
 sympathy with human misfortune, one of our citizens was 
 the first to discover that the dumb beast appealed to the 
 humanity of man, and that his duty was not complete until 
 he heeded that appeal. [Cheers.] The helpless child who 
 was elsewhere left to the cruel mercies of the law, or to the 
 isolated exercise of religious or individual bounty, became 
 the object of new and enlightened solicitude. Our thrifty 
 citizens, quite ready to scrutinize with jealous care the ex- 
 penditure of their money in taxation, have ever grumbled 
 and still grumble with Anglo-Saxon heartiness at all tributes 
 that are unreasonable and extravagant. But where the 
 education of our people is concerned, their voice is silent, 
 except to urge renewed and increased expenditure. The 
 descendants of the men who shed blood to resist a petty ex- 
 action because it was against their rights, spend four mil- 
 lions and more every year that all may be bountifully sup- 
 plied with intellectual food. Her rapidly increasing wealth 
 is surpassed by the rapidly accumulating monuments of 
 her generosity. Libraries, hospitals, drinking-fountains, art 
 associations, relieve, enlighten, encourage and delight those 
 on whom fortune has never smiled. Freely has she received 
 and freely does she give, remembering that of all virtues 
 charity is the greatest. That there are no dark spots in the 
 picture, who will pretend ? But Ave all know and feel that 
 we may build much hope for the future on the glories of 
 the past and the greatness of the present. No hand is 
 strong enough to destroy our city, except that of her own 
 children. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 OUR CLIENTS 
 
 [Speech of Frederic R. Coudert at a dinner given to Benjamin 
 Sillinian by the Bar of New York and Brooklyn to commemorate the 
 sixtieth anniversary of his admission to the Bar. The banquet was given 
 in New York Cit}', May 24, 18S9. Mr. Coudert responded to the 
 toast, " Our Clients."] 
 
 Mr. President and other Venerable Gentlemen : — 
 I am grateful to you for this undeserved honor. I have
 
 OUR CLIENTS 283 
 
 few reminiscences. I do not know anything about the past, 
 very Httle about the future, and less about the present. I 
 liad hoped that I would have some comfort in the compan- 
 ionship of my brother Carter [James C. Carter], but when 
 he got up claiming to be sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, 
 sans everything, when he invoked the favor of the au- 
 dience and placed his plea wholly upon age, I felt that I 
 was alone here to plead the privilege of infancy and to 
 invoke the benefit of the statute. [Laughter.] 
 
 I do not know, I repeat, a great deal about the great men 
 who have passed before us. I have no opinion to speak of. 
 In fact, my opinion on that subject is vague, and its value 
 easily susceptible of illustration. One gentleman to-night 
 mentioned a great advocate, George Wood. I can re- 
 member, looking back to early boyhood, that venerable 
 figure and recall speaking to one of his contemporaries 
 about him. He said, "Yes; a client of mine got an opinion 
 from him once." " Well," I said, " how was it done; how 
 much did he charge ? " — for even in those early days the 
 professional instinct asserted itself. [Laughter.] " Well," 
 he said, " my client went to him and said, Mr. Wood, I 
 would like to have your opinion on these papers." " Give 
 me the papers ; come back to-morrow." And he went 
 back the next day and Mr. Wood said, " Fifty dollars," and 
 nothing more. The client was intelligent, and assumed 
 that he should pay him that sum, which he did. " What 
 about my papers ? " he said. " They are not worth a damn," 
 said he. [Laughter.] 
 
 If this is a sample of the methodical business practices of 
 the ancient Bar, I am not surprised that our learned and 
 distinguished brother should have attained prosperity and 
 distinction both together. I attribute it rather to that, than 
 to the happy accident of his sleeping in the solitudes of 
 Brooklyn of which you have spoken. 
 
 That this is a great day for Brooklyn we all realize. The 
 hordes of Brooklyn men who have appeared to-night, 
 drawn by the prospects of this feast and the allurements, — 
 they were bound to be deceived, — the allurements of a 
 speech apiece, are such as have never been known before. 
 The first arrangement for the programme of this evening's 
 speech-making was the best. I understood that our di:^
 
 284 FREDERIC RENE COUDERT 
 
 tinguished friend was to be partitioned. You will observe 
 that out of respect to him I adopt the word usually applied to 
 large communities. One was to have " Our Brother, his 
 Mental Qualities," another his " Moral Qualities," another his 
 " Stomach," and so on. It was found that there was enough 
 of him to go around, but the difficulty was that every 
 Brooklyn man wanted at least twenty minutes and a com- 
 putation of at least eighty speeches at twenty minutes could 
 easily be made. Thus it had to be abandoned, and the desul- 
 tory course which we have taken to-night was perforce se- 
 lected. You now understand the unhappy faces of our Brook- 
 lyn friends, and may give them your sympathy. [Laughter.] 
 
 Let me tell them, however, that the manufacture of a 
 speech is never in vain. Either they can find a client who 
 will take it upon reasonable terms, or they may discharge 
 it on some future occasion. 
 
 I read but recently a story in Plutarch's " Morals," a work 
 that I have no doubt Mr. Silliman reads in his leisure mo- 
 ments. There was a certain officer of Thrace, who, taking 
 a dislike to a dog, fired a stone at him. He missed the 
 object, but struck his mother-in-law. [Laughter.] " It 
 was not so bad a shot," he philosophically exclaimed. I 
 leave my Brooklyn friends to draw the moral. 
 
 As to speaking for our clients, I cannot be dictated to in 
 that fashion. What have our clients done for us to-night 
 that we should do this for nothing for them? If there be a 
 weak spot in the constitution and mental organization of 
 Mr. Silliman, I fancy it had been an undue yielding to the 
 caprices of clients. Let us be braver and bolder and 
 stronger than he. Let them get all they are entitled to, 
 and very little of that. [Laughter.] They are certainly not 
 entitled to be admitted to our secret rites, nor to pervade 
 this hall and its atmosphere with their uninvited and 
 gratuitous presence. 
 
 Much has been said to-night to show that our profession 
 of to-day, and our Bar, are equal to the profession and the 
 Bar of the past. But, is it claiming more than we are 
 entitled to if we insist that the Bar never has had as much 
 honor, as much talent, as much industry, considering the 
 vastly increased numbers in its ranks and the vastly in- 
 creased temptations of to-day? It is idle to talk of a great
 
 OUR CLIFA'TS 285 
 
 body remaining stationary and immovable. The Pyramids 
 of Egypt may do that, but no h'ving organization ever will. 
 We are improving or we are going back. It was a bcauti- 
 ful thought of Pascal that the human race was like a child, 
 always growing, but never growing old. So of every large 
 and organized body of learned and intelligent men. 
 
 And so especially it is with our profession, the profession 
 of professions — if we do not keep ahead of the times we go 
 back. The examples that we have in these older men, all 
 stimulate us to nobler effort, perhaps, and teach after all, 
 that in the record of an upright and honorable life, there is 
 much to stimulate even the baser motives of self-interest. 
 But as the great mass of our people are being instructed, so 
 should we rise with and above the rest, and although each 
 one of us will not deserve, as few of us ever can, the eulo- 
 gies that pour from our hearts through our lips to-night in 
 the presence of a beloved and honored brother, each man 
 may do his best in his own sphere at least, so that some of 
 us who may remain behind him shall not be unworthy to 
 stand by the monument that shows wdiere he rests, and say 
 one kindly and loving word for him. 
 
 I am exceeding my time, but no one will follow more 
 sincerely the echo of what was said to-night of Mr. Silli- 
 man. I am not prepared like Brother Carter to recite, in 
 advance, his obituary notice. Far distant be that day ! 
 Many of us will fall by the wayside before he is gathered 
 to his fathers. But we will continue to honor and to love 
 him, and to honor and love those younger brethren who 
 grow in honor by our side, for we know the increased and 
 accumulated weight of daily temptations that press upon 
 their shoulders. For him I can only say, in closing, that I 
 know that I am giving voice to what you all feel — Deal 
 with him gently, gentle Time. [Great applause.]
 
 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 
 
 SMITH AND SO FORTH 
 
 [Impromptu speech of Samuel Sullivan Cox, at the 120th annual 
 banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. The 
 banquet was given in New York Cit}^ November 20, 18S8. Mr. Cox, 
 after much reluctance, responded to the call for an address.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentle:\ien of the Chamber of 
 Commerce : — I have no particular toast to speak to, but in 
 my emergency, I may select a subject fruitful to many a 
 student, and especially as we are at the festive climax of our 
 entertainment. In looking around this audience I feel like 
 generalizing, and in a nebulous way, therefore, allow me to 
 select as a subject that of Smith. [Laughter.] We have 
 two representatives of the family here to-night.* Both are 
 near to me. And, if you will look in the New York Direc- 
 tory, you will find 2,000 other names, members of the same 
 Smith family. As a politician, not unused, " on the occasion 
 sudden," to cultivating the graces, I will never utter a syl- 
 lable against the Smith family. [Laughter.] Why, in the 
 early days of Grecian history, they were demigods and 
 founders of states. The only place where they were not is 
 recorded in Samuel— the chapter and verse I will not recall, 
 for I am not certain about them. But it will not hurt you 
 to search for the verse yourself from Genesis to Revelation. 
 [Laughter.] The words are : " There was no Smith in all 
 Israel." [Loud laughter.] Whenever the children of Israel 
 wanted to sharpen their spears, or polish their ploughshares 
 or cutlasses, or close up the rivets in their armor, they had to 
 go down to Tyre or Sidon, and call in the Smiths of that 
 locality. 
 
 * Charles S. Smith, President of Chamber; Professor Goldwin Smith. 
 
 286
 
 SMITH AND SO I'ORTII 287 
 
 The Smiths have progressed and multiplied ; they are 
 everywhere, including Canada. [Laughter.] The Registrar- 
 General of Great Britain says, that in Kngland and Wales 
 there are three-quarters of a million of Smiths. Oh, sir, it is 
 a great family. [Laughter.] In the early chronicles of 
 Norseland, it is said, the Smiths were honored by being ad- 
 mitted to the royal presence. They drank mead with the 
 king. I never saw a Smith in my life that would ever refuse 
 to take a drink. [Roars of laughter, in which President 
 Smith and Professor Goldwin Smith heartily joined.] It 
 mattered not what kind of liquor. [Laughter.] Why, 
 when the Smith family predominated in every country, 
 liberty also triumphed [" Good ! good ! "] — commercial, 
 personal and public liberty. [Cheers.] The age of iron was 
 the age of the Smith. The age of iron has always ruled. 
 It means to-day speedy locomotion and transportation. 
 [Cheers.] It means commerce, with its chambers of in- 
 fluence. Iron does not mean the mere furtherance of trade 
 between one state and another — between one country and 
 another, between Canada and the United States — between 
 Mexico and our country. It means the largest liberty of 
 interchange between all the chambers of political power, as 
 well as the chambers of commerce. 
 
 I dare to say to you, to-night, as a representative of New 
 York City, not altogether in the minority — [Renewed laugh- 
 ter, which drowned the remainder of the sentence.] I believe 
 my friend, Warner Miller, is gone. [Laughter.] I wanted 
 to sympathize with him. [Cheers and laughter.] For I 
 noticed that when your President Smith called upon our 
 late candidate for Governor to speak, he did not ask you to 
 fill your glasses to the Millers. High license and other 
 sumptuary laws would have prevented that. [Laughter.] 
 
 Nevertheless my party is in one sense in the minority, 
 along with the Millers. I am not one of those that repine 
 because we are thus situated. It has its compensations. 
 For one, I am used to it. [Laughter and cheers.] I have 
 been there before. [Renewed merriment.] I am about the 
 only Democrat here this evening that is called upon to 
 speak. I feel lonesome [laughter], as this is a non partisan 
 association. [Laughter.] But still, out of my solitude I 
 want to say to you, gentlemen, that, in this great whirling,
 
 288 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 
 
 swilling City of New York, our party still has a majority of 
 one hundred thousand to back up its commercial interests, 
 freedom and unity. I join the sagacious and eloquent 
 gentleman from Canada (Mr. Smith), who has addressed 
 you on this question of enlarged interchange. I may not 
 live to see the time when the Democratic party may resume 
 power. [Laughter.] I am getting to be old [" No ! No!"] 
 — and when I sat here this evening, and heard the victors 
 reviving and rejoicing over their recent victories,* I gathered 
 some consolation from the verse of Virgil. When Dido 
 asks JEneas to recount the miseries of the siege of Troy, he 
 responds : 
 
 " O Regina,jiibcs renovare infandiun dolorem" 
 
 Every syllable is a tear ; but there is a prism of hope in 
 its every hue. [Cheers and laughter.] It is not altogether 
 a dead language. It is not Turkish, either. [Laughter.] 
 
 When my friend, Mr. Miller, talked about the advantages 
 of this magnificent port, and its early history, as the goal 
 and home of adventure and trade — when he spoke about the 
 natural advantages we enjoy, which your enterprise has en- 
 hanced in a marvellous manner — my heart burned within my 
 body, as if some divine truth had inspired him. I felt that 
 our defeat was negative success ; for had it not converted 
 him to the main issue of the recent election ? I felt that 
 our triumph may be such a victory as Wendell Phillips 
 called a minority of one with God ! [Laughter.] Wait till 
 the time rolls round, when, perhaps, there are bad crops here 
 and good crops abroad — and the stress for a larger education 
 falls upon the land — then the bucolic element will rise up 
 and recall to power the party which favors agricultural culti- 
 vation and commercial freedom between the nations. 
 
 I have been interested in hearing all the gentlemen who 
 have spoken ; and, politics aside, I am proud to know that 
 since our elections are over — after one party has been more 
 or less in the ascendant — a little more " more " than " less " 
 [laughter] — that under our institutions and liberalities, we 
 can accept the result in a manner creditable to our good 
 feeling and our best interests. Why do we thus acquiesce ? 
 
 * The Presidential election of 1888 when Benjamin Harrison de- 
 feated Grover Cleveland.
 
 SMITH AXl) so FORTH 3S9 
 
 It is because ^vc have a constitutional and political order, 
 and an educational discipline in this country, which is be- 
 yond all praise, as it is without a precedent or a peer. 
 The Constitution, with its refinement of theory and practice 
 of administration, is never greater than when its majesty 
 asserts itself through popular and electoral majorities. 
 Greater than our Washingtons, Jeffersons and Madisons ; 
 greater than our Jacksons, Lincolns and Grants; greater 
 than all civic and military personalities, is the Constitution, 
 which gives to us that personal liberty and religious freedom, 
 that autonomy of Steite and unity of federation ; that great 
 and glorious aegis, brighter, more resplendent and more far- 
 reaching than all other politics which have come through all 
 the ages of mankind, and, we hope, more enduring than any 
 other system ever devised by the prudence of man. 
 
 I remember once when I resided in Turkey, as its repre- 
 sentative, to have seen the Sultan coming down from his 
 star palace of Yildiz, at the season of Bairam, to visit the 
 mosque in Stamboul, where the banner of the prophet was 
 preserved. Forty thousand soldiers guarded his passage 
 over the Golden Horn, and a hundred thousand of the 
 Faithful welcomed him as he passed by on his sacred mission. 
 As he moved on toward the mosque of his devotion, to kiss 
 the hallowed ensign of his religion, I heard the multitude 
 salute him with acclamations: "Long live Abdul Ahmed 
 the Second ! Long live the Padishah of the Ottoman ! 
 Great is our Sultan ! Great is the Caliph of Islam ! But 
 there is One — One greater than he — Allah il Allah ! Allah 
 il Allah ! " These salutations were carried along the route, 
 with an ecstasy that proclaimed at once the loyalty of his 
 subjects, and the fidelity of the devotees of an unseen God ! 
 
 So I say to you, that although, in our elections, we may 
 have designated and proclaimed this and that man to be our 
 chief and vice-magistrates — and although the historic Muse 
 points Vvith significant gesture to our statesmen and heroes 
 who are great — yet there is something greater than they all, 
 and that is, the Constitution of the United States, and its 
 representative element and order. Irrespective of parties 
 and their vicissitudes, it stands unassailable and splendid — 
 amidst all the passionate forces and fiery ordeals by which 
 it has been tried by a benignant Providence ! [Applause.] 
 19
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 LIBERTY UNDER THE LAW 
 
 [speech of George William Curtis at the seventy-first anniversary 
 banquet of the New England Societ}- in the City of New York, December 
 22, 1876. The President of the Society, William Borden, presided. 
 The toast to which Mr. Curtis responded was, "Forefathers' Day — we 
 best celebrate the day by imitating the virtues of the men who made it 
 glorious." The conclusion of this speech contains one of the earliest 
 suggestions of the eventual solution of the Tilden-Hayes Presidential 
 election controversy known as the " Electoral Commission law of 1877."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England 
 Society: — It was Izaak Walton in his "Angler" who said 
 that Dr. Botelier was accustomed to remark " that doubtless 
 God might have made a better berry than the strawberry, but 
 doubtless He never did." And I suppose I speak the secret 
 feeling of this festive company when I say that doubtless 
 there might have been a better place to be born in than 
 New England, but doubtless no such place exists. [Ap- 
 plause and laughter.] And if any skeptic should reply that 
 our very presence here would seem to indicate that doubt- 
 less, also. New England is as good a place to leave as to 
 stay in [laughter], I should reply to him that, on the con- 
 trary, our presence is but an added glory of our mother. It 
 is an illustration of that devout, missionary spirit, of the 
 willingness in which she has trained us to share with others 
 the blessings that we have received, and to circle the con- 
 tinent, to girdle the globe, with the strength of New Eng- 
 land character and the purity of New England principles. 
 [Applause.] Even the Knickerbockers, Mr. President — in 
 whose stately and splendid city we are at this moment as- 
 sembled, and assembled of right because it is our home — 
 even they would doubtless concede that much of the state 
 
 290
 
 libp:rty under the law 291 
 
 and splendor of this city is due to the enterprise, the in- 
 dustry, and the genius of those whom their first historian 
 describes as " losel Yankees." [Laughter.] Sir, they grace 
 our feast with their presence ; they will enliven it, I am 
 sure, with their eloquence and wit. Our tables are rich with 
 the flowers grown in their soil ; but there is one flower that 
 we do not see, one flower whose perfume fills a continent, 
 which has blossomed for more than two centuries and a half 
 with ever-increasing and deepening beauty — a flower which 
 blooms at this moment, on this wintry night, in never-fad- 
 ing freshness in a million of true hearts, from the snow-clad 
 Katahdin to the warm Golden Gate of the South Sea, and 
 over its waters to the isles of the East and the land of 
 Prester John — the flower of flowers, the Pilgrim's " May- 
 flower." [Applause.] 
 
 Well, sir, holding that flower in my hand at this moment, 
 I say that the day we celebrate commemorates the introduc- 
 tion upon this continent of the master principle of its civi- 
 lization. I do not forget that we are a nation of many na- 
 tionalities. I do not forget that there are gentlemen at this 
 board who wear the flower of other nations close upon their 
 hearts. I remember the forget-me-nots of Germany, and I 
 know that the race which keeps " watch upon the Rhine " 
 keeps watch also upon the Mississippi and the Lakes. I 
 recall — how could I forget ? — the delicate shamrock ; for 
 there "came to this beach a poor exile of Erin," and on 
 this beach, with his native modesty, " he still sings his 
 bold anthem of Erin go Bragh." [Applause.] I remember 
 surely, sir, the lily — too often the tiger-lily — of France 
 [laughter and applause] and the thistle of Scotland ; I 
 recall the daisy and the rose of England ; and, sir, in 
 Switzerland, high upon the Alps, on the very edge of the 
 glacier, the highest flower that grows in Europe, is the 
 rare edehveiss. It is in Europe ; we are in America. And 
 here in America, higher than shamrock or thistle, higher 
 than rose, lily, or daisy, higher than the highest, blooms the 
 perennial Mayflower. [Applause.] For, sir and gentlemen, 
 it is the English-speaking race that has moulded the destiny 
 of this continent; and the Puritan influence is the strongest 
 influence that has acted upon it. [Applause.] 
 
 I am surely not here to assert that the men who have re-
 
 292 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 presented that influence have always been men whose spirit 
 was blended of sweetness and light. I confess truly their 
 hardness, their prejudice, their narrowness. All this I know: 
 Charles Stuart could bow more blandly, could dance more 
 gracefully than John Milton ; and the cavalier King looks 
 out from the canvas of Vandyke with a more romantic 
 beauty of flowing love-locks than hung upon the brows of 
 Edward Winslow, the only Pilgrim father whose portrait 
 comes down to us. [Applause.] But, sir, we estimate the 
 cause beyond the man. Not even is the gracious spirit of 
 Christianity itself measured by its confessors. If we would 
 see the actual force, the creative power of the Pilgrim prin- 
 ciple, we are not to look at the company who came over in 
 the cabin of the " Mayflower " ; we are to look upon the forty 
 millions who fill this continent from sea to sea. [Applause.] 
 The " Mayflower, " sir, brought seed and not a harvest. In a 
 century and a half, the religious restrictions of the Puritans 
 had grown into absolute religious liberty, and in two cen- 
 turies it had burst beyond the limits of New England, and 
 John Carver, of the " Mayflower," had ripened into Abraham 
 Lincoln, of the Illinois prairie. [Great and prolonged ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Why, gentlemen, if you would see the most conclusive 
 proof of the power of this principle, you have but to ob- 
 serve that the local distinctive title of New Englanders has 
 now become that of every man in the country. Every man 
 who hears me, from whatever State in the Union, is, to 
 Europe, a Yankee, and to-day the United States are but the 
 "Universal Yankee Nation." [Applause.] Do you ask me, 
 then, what is this Puritan principle ? Do you ask me 
 whether it is as good for to-day as for yesterday ; whether 
 it is good for every national emergency ; whether it is good 
 for the situation of this hour? I think we need neither 
 doubt nor fear. The Puritan principle in its essence is sim- 
 ply individual freedom. From that spring religious liberty 
 and political equality. The free State, the free Church, the 
 free School — these are the triple armor of American nation- 
 ality, of American security. [Applause.] But the Pilgrims, 
 while they have stood above all men for their idea of liberty, 
 have always asserted liberty under law and never separated 
 it from law. John Robinson, in theletter that he wrote the
 
 LIBERTY UNDER THE LAW 293 
 
 Pilgrims when they sailed, said these words, that well, sir, 
 might be written in gold around the cornice of that future 
 banqueting-hall to which you have alluded: "You know 
 that the image of the Lord's dignity and authority which 
 the magistry beareth is honorable in how mean person so- 
 ever." [Applause.] This is the Puritan principle. Those 
 men stood for liberty under the law. They had tossed long 
 upon a wintry sea ; their minds were full of images derived 
 from their voyage; they knew that the will of the people 
 alone is but a gale smiting a rudderless and saillcss sliip, and 
 hurling it a mass of wreck upon the rocks. But the will of 
 the people, subject to law, is the same gale filling the trim 
 canvas of a ship that minds the helm, bearing it over yawn- 
 ing and awful abysses of ocean safely to port [Loud ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in this country the Puritan principle in 
 its development has advanced to this point, that it provides 
 us a lawful remedy for every emergency that may arise. 
 [Cheers.] I stand here as a son of New England. In every 
 fibre of my being am I a child of the Pilgrims. [Applause.] 
 The most knightly of all the gentlemen at Elizabeth's court 
 said to the young poet, when he would write an immortal 
 song, " Look into your own heart and write." And I, sir 
 and brothers, if, looking into my own heart at this moment, 
 I might dare to think that what I find written there is 
 written also upon the heart of my mother, clad in her snows 
 at home, her voice in this hour would be a message spoken 
 from the land of the Pilgrims to the capital of this nation — 
 a message like that which Patrick Henry sent from Virginia 
 to Massachusetts when he heard of Concord and Lexington: 
 •' I am not a Virginian, I am an American." [Great applause.] 
 And so, gentlemen, at this hour, we are not Republicans, 
 we are not Democrats, we are Americans. [Tremendous ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 The voice of New England, I believe, going to the capital, 
 would be this, that neither is the Republican Senate to in- 
 sist upon its exclusive partisan way, nor is the Democratic 
 Mouse to insist upon its exclusive partisan w^ay, but Senate 
 and House, representing the American people and the 
 American people only, in the light of the Constitution and 
 by the authority of the law, arc to provide a way over which
 
 294 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 a President, be he Republican or be he Democrat, shall pass 
 unchallenged to his chair. [Vociferous applause, the com- 
 pany rising to their feet.] Ah ! gentlemen [renewed ap- 
 plause]— think not, Mr. President, that I am forgetting the 
 occasion or its amenities. [Cries of " No, no," and " Go on."] 
 I am remembering the Puritans ; I am remembering Ply- 
 mouth Rock, and the virtues that made it illustrious. But 
 we, gentlemen, are to imitate those virtues, as our toast 
 says, only by being greater than the men who stood upon 
 that rock. [Applause.] As this gay and luxurious banquet, 
 to their scant and severe fare, so must our virtues, to be 
 worthy of them, be greater and richer than theirs. And as 
 we are three centuries older, so should we be three centuries 
 wiser than they. [Applause.] 
 
 Sons of the Pilgrims, you are not to level forests, you are 
 not to war with savage men and savage beasts, you are not 
 to tame a continent, nor even found a State. Our task is 
 nobler, is diviner. Our task, sir, is to reconcile a nation. It 
 is to curb the fury of party spirit. It is to introduce a loftier 
 and manlier tone everywhere into our political life. It is 
 to educate every boy and every girl, and then leave them 
 perfectly free to go from any schoolhouse to any church. 
 [Cries of " Good," and cheers.] Above all, sir, it is to pro- 
 tect absolutely the equal rights of the poorest and the 
 richest, of the most ignorant and the most intelligent cit- 
 izen, and it is to stand forth, brethren, as a triple wall of 
 brass, around our native land, against the mad blows of 
 violence or the fatal dry-rot of fraud. [Loud applause.] 
 And at this moment, sir, the grave and august shades of the 
 forefathers whom we invoke bend over us in benediction as 
 they call us to this sublime task. This, brothers and friends, 
 this is to imitate the virtues of our forefathers ; this is to 
 make our day as glorious as theirs. [Great applause, fol- 
 lowed by three cheers for the distinguished speaker.]
 
 NOBLESSE OBLIGE 295 
 
 NOBLESSE OBLIGE 
 
 [Speech of George William Curtis at the Harvard Aluuiui diuner .-it 
 Cambridtfe, IVIass., June 29, iSSi. Mr. Curtis received the honorary 
 degree of LL.D. from Harvard Uuiversity this year.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — In the old Italian 
 story the nobleman turns out of the hot street crowded 
 with eager faces into the coolness and silence of his 
 palace. As he looks at the pictures of the long line 
 of ancestors he hears a voice, — or is it his own heart 
 beating? — which says to him, noblesse oblige. The youngest 
 scion of the oldest house is pledged by all the virtues and 
 honor of his ancestry to a life not unworthy his lineage. 
 Mr. President, when I came here I was not a nobleman, but 
 to-day I have been ennobled. The youngest doctor of the 
 oldest school, I, too, say with the Italian, noblesse oblige. For 
 your favor is not approval only ; it is admonition. It says 
 not alone, " Well done," but " Come up higher." I am 
 pledged by all the honorable traditions of the noble family 
 into which I am this day adopted and of which tliis spacious 
 and stately temple is the memorial. Christo et Ecclesice. 
 That is your motto. And yet, as I look around this hall 
 upon the portraits of your ancestry, as I think of the emi- 
 nent men, your children ; and above all when I read in 
 yonder corridor, rank upon rank, in immortal lines, the 
 names of the heroic youth, Integer vitce scelerisque ptiris, 
 these cold stones burn and glow ; and as I think of our great 
 legend " Fair play for all men," imperishable because writ^ 
 ten in their hearts' blood, I feel that to your motto one 
 word might well be added, Christo et Ecclesice et Civitati, — 
 To Christ, to the Church, to the Commonwealth. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 A complete and thorough education, Milton tells us, is 
 that which fits a man for the performance of all public and 
 private duties in peace and in war. That, sir, is the praise 
 of this college. For as the history of religious liberty in 
 America shows what Harvard College has done for the 
 Church, not less do the annals of the continent attest what 
 it has done for the State. There was never a good word to 
 be spoken, nor a strong blow to be struck, nor a young life
 
 296 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 to be sacrificed for political or civil liberty, that Harvard 
 College in the person of her children was not there. [Loud 
 applause.] That is the lesson which I read in your pages 
 to-day. From your Samuel Adams in Faneuil Hall, your 
 James Otis in the courts of law, your Joseph Warren upon 
 Bunker Hill, through all the resplendent succession down to 
 your Charles Sumner in the forum, your Reveres, your 
 Shaw, and the shining host of their brethren in the field, 
 attest the glory of Harvard in the persons of her children. 
 
 '■ The applause of listening senates to command, 
 
 The threats of pain and ruin to despise ; 
 To scatter plent}' o'er a smiling land 
 
 And read their history in a nation's eyes." 
 
 And, sir, I say this the more gladly that I am here offi- 
 cially, the representative of another university. The Uni- 
 versity of the State of New York is composed of all the 
 chartered collegiate institutions of that great commonwealth, 
 and as a regent of that university I offer the right hand of 
 fellowship to Harvard College of all the colleges of the 
 Empire State. [Applause.] We delight to believe, gentle- 
 men, in the State of New York, that at least the origin of 
 our public school system is one with yours. Religious he- 
 roism founded New England; commercial enterprise settled 
 New York. But the Pilgrims brought to Plymouth and 
 the Dutch traders brought to the island of Manhattan the 
 schoolmaster, the birch — the birch, Mr. Chairman, which 
 your tingling memory, I am sure, records as being so much 
 better in its bark than in its bite. [Laughter.] The birch 
 of the first schoolmaster on the shores of the Hudson was 
 cut from the same tree with that of your Master Cheever 
 and your Master Moody on the shores of Essex, training 
 Yankee boj^s for Harvard College. [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] And although, sir, with the magnanimity of New 
 York, Ave freely admit that twenty years before there was a 
 Latin school in that city New England already had this col- 
 lege, and although as late, I think, as 1658, the nearest place 
 to which a young Dutchman could be sent for training in 
 the Latin language was the town of Boston ; yet we remem- 
 ber, also, that if New York lagged a little in her Latin she 
 was stoutly the defender of the English tongue ; and it is
 
 NODLESSK OBLIGE 297 
 
 among our proudest traditions in that State that New York- 
 first maintained the freedom of the English press upon this 
 continent against European power. [Applause.] 
 
 And yet, sir, to make my story quite complete, and to ad- 
 here strictly to the truth of history, I am obliged to add 
 that the royal governor bitterly complained that those who 
 asserted the freedom of speech in New York were tainted 
 with Boston principles. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Yet, gentlemen, I assure you that we liave our extreme 
 consolations. Our earliest annals in the State of New York 
 inform us that one sachem of the five nations of New York 
 was in the habit of driving a whole tribe of New England 
 Indians before him [laughter] ; and it is even recorded, 
 despite the observations and implications of his excellency 
 the Governor, that one New York sachem had been known 
 to be reverenced throughout Massachusetts Bay. [Laugh- 
 ter.] I am afraid, sir, that the bay has lost quite all its rev- 
 erence for the New York sachem [loud laughter] ; and hap- 
 pily for us, sir, as your President knows, the most ferocious 
 of our native tribes in the City of New York, the tribe of 
 Tammany, now confines itself to internecine war. [Laugh- 
 ter.] And yet, when I look upon the President who fills 
 this chair to-day ; when I think of that other gentleman 
 who will fill the chair at the Phi Beta Kappa dinner to-mor- 
 row ; when I look here and there upon those gorgeous feath- 
 ers and that war paint which has gathered to these coun- 
 cil fires from beyond the Connecticut, I cannot but feel 
 that the New York braves are here to-day in some force. 
 [Laughter and applause.] And when I recall that event to 
 which our President has alluded, that foray of the New 
 York sachems upon the New England tribe known as the 
 Overseers, and how they returned to their city dancing — 
 if you will permit me the expression — jigs of joy and 
 brandishing their Harvard club in triumph [laughter], I 
 cannot help feeling that history is reproducing itself, and 
 that we have seen the New York sachems in most civilized 
 warfare, not wielding the scalping-knife, but simply bran- 
 dishing a bellows [laughter and applause], and blowing 
 their enemy away. [Applause.] And even this day, sir, 
 as our tribes upon the shore of the Hudson look across 
 to Massachusetts, it is no longer, as I have said, with the
 
 298 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 scalping-knife in their hands ; but they shake their heads 
 sorrowfully, even in Tammany hall, and as they see you, 
 they repeat unconsciously the sentiment of the English 
 statesman, " That damned morality is sure to be the ruin 
 of everytliing." [Loud laughter and applause.] 
 
 When the first deputation came from the new Nether- 
 lands to the new Plymouth, the historian tells us it was like 
 the meeting of friends and comrades. We are assisting 
 here and now at the last meeting of these two colonies, and 
 your smiling presence attests that it is still a meeting of 
 friends and comrades. If our Cornell sometimes modestly 
 excels with the oar [laughter] ; if our Columbia, not in 
 some unknown New London of a New England, but in the 
 neighborhood of old London, in old England, teaches the 
 crews of English colleges a boating skill like the Thames 
 upon which it was displayed — " strong without rage, without 
 o'erflowing full ; " if our Knickerbocker bat and ball are 
 sometimes wreathed with the laurels of friendly victory ; 
 yet, sir, in all the collegiate institutions, not in New York 
 alone, but throughout the country, as I am sure the gentle- 
 man on my right, President Oilman, will attest, there is no 
 grudging of any honorable precedence to this venerable 
 mother, the Alma Mater of colleges as well as the nourish- 
 ing parent of sound learning in America. [Applause.] 
 
 And here, gentlemen, if anywhere in the country, and 
 to-day if on any day in the year, is proven the faith of one 
 of our most distinguished sons, spoken forty years ago on 
 one commencement day, " Neither years nor books have 
 availed to extirpate the prejudice then rooted in me that 
 the scholar is the favorite of heaven and earth, the excel- 
 lency of his countr}', the prince of men." His own life has 
 amply vindicated his words. Like a strain of commanding 
 music, it has won the hearts of his countrymen gladly 
 to acknowledge the value, the dignity, the immort;il 
 power of the scholar, in Ralph V aldo Emerson. [Loud 
 applause.] Led by the great excxmples, by the inspiring 
 associations, by the elevated consecration of this university, 
 shall not every commencement day send us forth such rein- 
 vigorated resolution to live worthily of this mother, that 
 every man we meet, even the New York sachem, shall wish 
 they were sons of Harvard? [Loud applause.]
 
 GREETING THE AUTOCRAT 299 
 
 GREETING THE AUTOCRAT 
 
 [Speech of George William Curtis at a banquet given by members 
 of the medical profession of New York to Oliver Wendell Holmes, April 
 12, 1883. Dr. Fordyce Barker presided. This speech was delivered by 
 Mr. Curtis iu response to the toast, " L,iterature."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gextlkmen :— Medicine has spoken 
 the praises of our guest ; and the Church and the Eaw. And as 
 the Church disposes satisfactorily of a man's mind, and Med- 
 icine summarily of his body, and Law most effectually of his 
 estate, what remains for Literature to add to a doctor's sub- 
 ject so thoroughly disposed of, but that in Literature he has 
 chosen to build his most enduring monument ? All of the 
 faculties have claimed him and have spoken his praises. 
 Each in turn has cried : " Hail ! thane of Glamis ! Hail ! 
 thane of Cawdor ! " and now comes Literature with : " All 
 hail ! thou that shalt be King hereafter ! " And what time, 
 tell me, gentlemen, in New York, can be so fitting as this 
 for Literature in this city to greet this brother from New 
 England ? Longfellow sang in one of his earliest poems : 
 
 " Sweet April, many hearts are wedded 
 Unto thee, as hearts are wed." 
 
 But to this particular April the heart of this whole country 
 is wedded by a proud and tender memory, for it is the cen- 
 tenary month of the birth of that kindly genius of whom we 
 may truly say that the long and dreary and frozen winter of 
 our colonial literature was made glorious summer by this 
 son of York. The City of New York, gentlemen, has many 
 sins to answer for. You need not tremble. I am not about 
 to enumerate them, for I will not detain this company until 
 midsummer : but surely it may condone many offences that 
 the City of New York was the birthplace of Washington 
 Irving, and of the first distinctive American literature. Our 
 literature in the last century like our government was pro- 
 vincial and colonial. It did not declare its independence 
 until the daring humor of a young son of New York plucked 
 the venerable traditions of New Amsterdam by the beard 
 and turned the history of his native city into an immortal
 
 300 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 jest. I do not deny that the force of Yankee scholarship 
 will yet show that Irving was a Yankee. My friend, Bishop 
 Clark [Thomas M. Clark, D.D., Bishop of R. I.], has 
 already shown us the clerical descent of our distinguished 
 guest and has ranked him among the theologians. New 
 England is quite capable of this process of ratiocination. 
 Irx'ing's father was a Scotchman ; the Scotch were Cov- 
 enanters ; the Covenanters were Presbyterians ; the Pres- 
 b\'tcrians v/ere Puritans, and the Puritans in their various 
 imniigrations to this country became Yankees. It is thus 
 demonstrated that the son of the Scotchman was a Yankee, 
 somehow astray upon the Island of Manhattan. And this 
 theory will be shortly supported by this other truth that the 
 Pilgrims whom Rip van Winkle saw were evidently sons of 
 Holland, and they had brought with them so much " Hol- 
 lands " under their jackets that somehow they stumbled 
 ashore on the Catskill Mountain instead of on Plymouth 
 Rock. 
 
 Nevertheless we must admit that the Muses early fright- 
 ened by the Plutos and Mercury who marked New Am- 
 sterdam for their own, have in the main preferred those other 
 banks on the Charles and that in fact upon those happy 
 shores they have planted their Holmes. Yet we dwellers 
 upon the banks of the Hudson have this consolation : that 
 here the genius of our literature arose, and has invested our 
 city and our rivers and its shores with imperishable charms. 
 As long as the story of the Revolution is told, "The Spy" 
 will ride his rounds in the neutral ground unchallenged and 
 secure. As long as the Hudson pours through the stately 
 gates of the Highlands to the sea : — 
 
 " The middle watch of the summer's night, 
 When the earth is dark, and the heavens are bright," 
 
 will be given to the " Culprit Fay ". So long as the thunder 
 rolls in the western sky, the traveller upon our enchanted 
 stream in the shadow of the Catskill will hear the mighty 
 Mountain King whom Rip van Winkle saw. And if any of 
 you, gentlemen, happily neighbors of this city shall endeavor 
 to thread your way home to-night through Westchester, in 
 the fitful gusts of the midnight breeze, you will hear the 
 headlong flight of Ichabod Crane ; and in the gleamings of
 
 GREETING THE AUTOCRAT 30I 
 
 the struggling moon, you will see the Headless Horseman 
 of Sleepy Hollow. Then, how naturally the genius that has 
 given us all these figures that has peopled for us our own 
 realm, welcomes this kindred genius from beyond the Con- 
 necticut. Diederich Knickerbocker with both hands out- 
 stretched folds to his heart the Autocrat of the Breakfast 
 Table, and confesses that if the old Yankee could not take 
 his fort of New Amsterdam, the younger Yankee has cap- 
 tured the heart of New York. [Applause.] 
 
 And Leatherstocking, leaning upon his rifle, muses that 
 the wilderness and Pocahontas were a less happy home even 
 for him than Boston and Dorothea Pugh. The Dutchman's 
 fireside glows and burns with hope and expectation at the 
 coming of the guardian angel. Marco Bozzaris flings aside 
 his guarded tent at midnight to hear from Bunker Hill the 
 tremendous summons : " Choose you this day whom you 
 will serve." The Stout Gentleman nods to the Deacon, in 
 the " One Hoss Shay " ; " the flood of years " as it nears the 
 main pauses in its majestic flight to hear with joy the celes- 
 tial music of the " Chambered Nautilus " and Dr. Drake, of 
 New York, sounding his immortal lyric : — 
 
 " Forever float that standard sheet. 
 
 Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
 With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 
 And Freedom's banner floating o'er us." 
 
 finds his music mingled with that of Dr. Holmes in his lyric 
 which shoots out like a rattling broadside from his own 
 " Ironsides" : — 
 
 " Nail to the mast our holy flag, 
 Set every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the god of storms, 
 The lightning, and the gale." 
 
 Ah ! gentlemen, you who are doctors, — well have these two 
 doctors arrayed themselves in the glory of our flag, each 
 urging the other with the glittering stripes of emulation and 
 a grateful country crowning both with the inextinguishable 
 stars of national renown. [Applause.] 
 
 The bishop told us and I think every orator thus far has 
 told us that the earliest constellation in our literary firma- 
 ment might have arisen a little south of New England ; and
 
 302 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 yet there was no delay after the full splendor of Ursa Major 
 filled the Northern heavens. To the great literary group of 
 New York — Irving, Cooper, Bryant (if the city of his res- 
 idence may claim his fame), Halleck, Drake, Verplanck and 
 Paulding — has succeeded a circle in Boston, of a genius so 
 various in accomplishments and achievement, that like the 
 Round Table of King Arthur — it was an image of the mighty 
 world. Poets, romancers, historians, philosophers, essayists 
 — masters in every art, and in every science were blended 
 there into goodliest literary fellowship whereof our Western 
 world has record. Happier possibly than some of you, 
 gentlemen, it has been my fortune to sit sometimes at their 
 feasts — feasts for which glowing John Dryden would have 
 hurried from Will's, and Addison and Sterne, Johnson and 
 Burke would have hastened from literary society, and Sidney 
 Smith and Jeffrey would have stolen from the " Edinburgh 
 Review " and earlier, farther and first of all, Shakespeare 
 and Bacon would have come fraternally from the " Mermaid " 
 to see that, in the literature of our Western world, " night's 
 candles are burned out, and jocund day stands tip-toe on 
 the misty mountain-top." 
 
 Gentlemen, one of the knights at that table sits this eve- 
 ning at ours. He has shown us again and again the sweet 
 kindred of tears and laughter. His frolicking fancy, his 
 tender sympathy, his sparkling thought, his flashing wit, had 
 shone upon and illuminated his own time as they charm and 
 brighten ours. Had I magic finer than that of yours I could 
 reveal to you at this moment, doubtless, those who are sit- 
 ting by this doubly-laurelled guest. Your art, Mr. Chair- 
 man, your art, gentlemen, and that for which I speak may 
 well confess his renown. But mark his own impartiality : 
 while he professes medicine, he practises literature ; while he 
 cools the fever that wastes the body, he kindles the fires 
 that ennoble the soul ; and soothing mortal pains with cun- 
 ning anodyne, he has distilled immortal joy from the divine 
 nepenthe of song. By that finer magic, could I at this 
 witching hour but touch your eyes for a moment, shortly we 
 should see by his side the great Sydney taking one hand, and 
 the other should rest, not in that of Rabelais, — no; but in 
 those of Sir Thomas Browne and of Dr. Oliver Goldsmith ; 
 and that younger Brown of Edinburgh, to whom my friend
 
 THE Ki\C.LIsn-SFEAKIX(; RACK 303 
 
 referred, would gladly own him as a brother, while his airy 
 fancy and penetrating pathos would breathe softly in the 
 ears of our poet, " My master, my master." Well, sir, I 
 respect his modesty; I shall not mention his name. Men- 
 tion it? Why not? He has written it indelibly on the 
 literature of his country and upon the hearts of his country- 
 men." [Applause.] 
 
 THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING RACE 
 
 [Speech of George William Curtis at the 119th annual banquet of the 
 Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, November 15, 1S87. 
 Charles Stewart Smith, the President of the Chamber, proposed the fol- 
 lowing toast : " The English-speaking Race. The founders of common- 
 wealths ; pioneers of progress ; stubborn defenders of liberty ; maj' they 
 ever work together for the world's welfare." Joseph Chamberlain, to 
 whom Mr. Curtis refers, was the guest of the evening.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the CiiAMr.ER of 
 Commerce : — I rise with some trepidation to respond to this 
 toast, because we have been assured upon high authority, 
 although after what we have heard this evening w^e cannot 
 believe it, that the English-speaking race speaks altogether 
 too much. Our eloquent Minister in England recently con- 
 gratulated the Mechanics' Institute at Nottingham that it 
 had abolished its debating club, and said that he gladly 
 anticipated the establishment in all great institutions of 
 education of a professorship of Silence. I confess that the 
 proposal never seemed to me so timely and wise as at this 
 moment. If I had only taken a high degree in silence, Mr. 
 Chairman, how cordially you would congratulate me and 
 this cheerful company ! [Laughter.] 
 
 When Mr. Phelps proceeded to say that Americans are 
 not allowed to talk all the time, and that our orators are 
 turned loose upon the public only once in four years, I was 
 lost in admiration of the boundless sweep of his imagination. 
 But when he said that the result of this quadrennial outburst 
 was to make the country grateful that it did not come of- 
 tener, I saw that his case required heroic treatment, and 
 must be turned over to Dr. Depew. [Laughter.] 
 
 I am sure, at least, that when our distinguished friends
 
 304 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 from England return to their native land they will hasten to 
 besiege His Excellency to tell them where the Americans 
 are kept who speak only once in four years. And if they 
 will but remain through the winter, they will discover that 
 if our orators are turned loose upon the public only once in 
 four years, they are turned loose in private all the rest of the 
 time ; and if the experience and observation of our guests 
 are as fortunate as mine, they will learn that there are certain 
 orators of both branches of the English-speaking race — not 
 one hundred miles from me at this moment — whom the 
 public would gladly hear, if they were turned loose upon it 
 every four hours. [Cheers.] 
 
 Wendell Phillips used to say that as soon as a Yankee 
 baby could sit up in his cradle, he called the nursery to 
 order and proceeded to address the house. If this Parlia- 
 mentary instinct is irrepressible, if all the year round we are 
 listening to orations, speeches, lectures, sermons, and the 
 incessant, if not always soothing, oratory of the press, to 
 which His Honor the Mayor is understood to be a closely- 
 attentive listener, we have at least the consolation of know- 
 ing that the talking countries are the free countries, and that 
 the English-speaking races are the invincible legions of 
 liberty. [Applause.! 
 
 The sentiment which you have read, Mr. Chairman, de- 
 scribes in a few comprehensive words the historic character- 
 istics of the English-speaking race. That it is the founder 
 of commonwealths, let the miracle of empire which we have 
 wrought upon the Western Continent attest : — its advance 
 from the seaboard with the rifle and the axe, the plough and 
 the shuttle, the teapot and the Bible, the rocking-chair and 
 the spelling-book, the bath-tub and a free constitution, 
 sweeping across the Alleghanies, overspreading the prairies 
 and pushing on until the dash of the Atlantic in their ears 
 dies in the murmur of the Pacific ; and as the wonderful 
 Goddess of the old mythology touched earth, flowers and 
 fruits answered her footfall, so in the long trail of this ad- 
 vancing race, it has 'left clusters of happy States, teeming 
 with a population, man by man, more intelligent and pros- 
 perous than ever before the sun shone upon, and each 
 remoter camp of that triumphal march is but a further out- 
 post of English-speaking civilization. [Applause.]
 
 THE ENGLISH -SPEAKING RACE 305 
 
 That it is the pioneer of progress, is written all over the 
 globe to the utmost islands of the sea, and upon every page 
 of the history of civil and religious and commercial freedom. 
 [Cheers.] Every factory that hums with marvellous machi- 
 nery, every railway and steamer, every telegraph and tel- 
 ephone, the changed systems of agriculture, the endless and 
 universal throb and heat of magical invention, are, in their 
 larger part, but the expression of the genius of the race that 
 with Watts drew from the airiest vapor the mightiest of 
 motive powers; with Franklin leashed the lightning, and 
 with Morse outfablcd fairy lore. The race that extorted 
 from kings the charter of its political rights has won, from 
 the princes and powers of the air, the earth and the water, 
 the secret of supreme dominion, the illimitable franchise of 
 beneficent material progress. [Applause.] 
 
 That it is the stubborn defender of liberty, let our own 
 annals answer, for America sprang from the defence of Eng- 
 lish liberty in English colonies, by men of English blood, 
 who still proudly speak the English language, cherish 
 English traditions, and share of right, and as their own, the 
 ancient glory of England. [Applause.] 
 
 No English-speaking people could, if it would, escape its 
 distinctive name, and, since Greece and Judea, no name has 
 the same worth and honor among men. We Americans may 
 flout England a hundred times. We may oppose her 
 opinions with reason, we may think her views unsound, her 
 policy unwise ; but from what country would the most Amer- 
 ican of Americans prefer to have derived the characteristic 
 impulse of American development and civilization rather 
 than England? What language would we rather speak than 
 the tongue of Shakespeare and Hampden, of the Pilgrims 
 and King James's version? What yachts, as a tribute to 
 ourselves upon their own element, would we rather outsail 
 than English yachts ? [Laughter.] In what national life, 
 modes of thought, standards and estimates of character and 
 achievement do we find our own so perfectly reflected as in 
 the English House of Commons, in English counting-rooms 
 and workshops, and in English homes ? [Applause.] 
 
 No doubt the original stock has been essentially modified 
 in the younger branch. The American, as he looks across 
 the sea, to what Hawthorne happily called " Our old home,"
 
 306 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 and contemplates himself, is disposed to murmur : " Out of 
 the eater shall come forth meat, and out of the strength shall 
 come forth sweetness." He left England a Puritan icono- 
 clast ; he has developed in Church and State into a constitu- 
 tional reformer. He came hither a knotted club ; he has 
 been transformed into a Damascus blade. He seized and 
 tamed a continent with a hand of iron ; he civilizes and con- 
 trols it with a touch of velvet. No music is so sweet to his 
 car as the sound of the common-school bell ; no principle so 
 dear to his heart as the equal rights of all men ; no vision so 
 entrancing to his hope as those rights universally secured. 
 [Applause. J 
 
 This is the Yankee ; this is the younger branch ; but a 
 branch of no base or brittle fibre, but of the tough old English 
 oak, which has weathered triumphantly the tempest of a 
 thousand years. It is a noble contention whether the 
 younger or the elder branch has further advanced the fron- 
 tiers of liberty, but it is unquestionable that liberty, as we 
 understand it on both sides of the sea, is an English tradition ; 
 we inherit it, we possess it, we transmit it, under forms pe- 
 culiar to the English race. It is, as Mr. Chamberlain has said, 
 liberty under law. It is liberty, not license ; civilization, not 
 barbarism ; it is liberty clad in the celestial robe of law, 
 because law is the only authoritative expression of the will 
 of the people, representative government, trial by jury, 
 habeas corpus, freedom of speech and of the press — why, Mr. 
 Chairman, they are the family heirlooms, the family dia- 
 monds, and they go wherever in the wide world go the family 
 name and language and tradition. [Applause.] 
 
 Sir, with all my heart, and, I am sure, with the hearty as- 
 sent of this great and representative company, I respond to 
 the final aspiration of your toast : " May this great family 
 in all its branches ever work together for the world's wel- 
 fare." Certainly its division and alienation would be the 
 world's misfortune. That England and America have had 
 sharp and angry quarrels, is undeniable. Party spirit in this 
 countr}^, recalling old animosity, has always stigmatized with 
 the English name whatever it opposed. Every difference, 
 every misunderstanding with England has been ignobly 
 turned to party account ; but the two great branches of this 
 common race have come of age, and wherever they may en-
 
 COMMERCE AND LITERATURE 307 
 
 counter a serious difficulty whicii must be accommodated 
 tliey have but to thrust demagogues aside, to recall the 
 sublime words of Abraham Lincoln, " With malice toward 
 none, with charity for all," and in that spirit, and in the spirit 
 and the emotion represented in this country by the gentlemen 
 upon my right and my left, I make bold to say to Mr, Cham- 
 berlain in your name, there can be no misunderstanding 
 which may not be honorably and happily adjusted. [Cheers.] 
 For to our race, gentlemen of both countries, is committed 
 not only the defence but the illustration of constitutional 
 liberty. 
 
 The question is not what we did a century ago, or in the 
 beginning of this century, with the lights that shone around 
 us, but what is our duty to-day, in the light which is given 
 to us of popular government under the republican form in 
 this country, and the parliamentary form in England. 
 
 If a sensitive public conscience, if general intelligence, 
 should not fail to secure us from unnatural conflict, then 
 liberty will not be justified of her children, and the glory of 
 the English-speaking race will decline. I do not believe it. 
 I believe that it is constantly increasing, and that the colossal 
 power which slumbers in the arms of a kindred people will 
 henceforth be invoked, not to drive them further asunder, 
 but to weld them more indissolubly together in the defence of 
 liberty under law. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 COMMERCE AND LITERATURE 
 
 [Speech of George William Curtis at the i22d annual banquet of the 
 Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, November 18, 1S90. 
 Charles Stewart Smith, the President, in introducing Mr. Curtis, said : 
 " Gentlemen, we have been so often placed under such obligations to our 
 friend, Mr. Curtis, for his elegant and scholarly addresses from this plat- 
 form that no introduction is needed from me. I have always felt that an 
 occasion of this kind is not full rounded and complete without the voice 
 of George William Curtis. To Mr. Curtis, who will now address you, has 
 been assigned the subject, ' Commerce and Literature.' "] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Chamber of 
 Commerce : — I belong to the class of Americans which was 
 graphically described by an eminent statesman as blanked 
 ** littery fellers." I suppose that class is the human litter and
 
 308 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 refuse that remains over after Pennsylvania statesmen are 
 finished, [Laughter.] 
 
 But I am very happy to be the guest, this evening, of that 
 other great class to which you belong, the equally blanked 
 " commercial fellers." From the days of the oldest tra- 
 ditions we have been associated. Your tutelary genius, I be- 
 lieve, is Mercury ; and Apollo is ours. If you are satisfied, 
 we are. [Laughter.] To be sure, your god outwitted ours 
 and stole his oxen, but he left his horses of the sun, and I 
 have observed that it is with those that Apollo generally 
 prefers to travel. His children avenged their parent by 
 giving your deity a bad name. But you in turn have been 
 avenged by time and tradition. P'or if Mercury is the god 
 of the thief, it is universally agreed that Apollo is the god 
 of the lyre. [Laughter.] 
 
 Undoubtedly also we constantly invade each other's do- 
 main [laughter] ; for if the poet's statements in writing are 
 works of imagination, the merchant's statements in driving 
 a bargain are often alleged to be of the same kind. On the 
 other hand, the " littery fellers " venture into your realm; 
 for if the god of trade was the messenger of the gods, and 
 the merchants, his children, have always been the messen- 
 gers of civilization, not less are the children of Apollo, from 
 Homer to Shakespeare, and from Milton and Burns to 
 Bryant and Longfellow, the winged and swift-footed bearers 
 of a celestial and civilizing message to men. 
 
 Commerce and literature have been always mutually help- 
 ful. Indeed, when tradition says that Apollo gave Mercury 
 the caduceus — you remember the caduceus, gentlemen — 
 it was the winged rod twined with serpents — it was merely 
 the mythological way of saying that Literature, the perma- 
 nent record of civilization and of human achievement, gave 
 to Commerce its fundamental principles of prudence, 
 promptness and persistence, and taught the merchants to 
 bring the ends of the earth together and bind them fast in 
 peace by a common prosperity. In both its forms of his- 
 tory and philosophy. Literature demonstrates that reciproc- 
 ity is the law of ever-widening civilization, and the justifica- 
 tion of the poet's vision of " the parliament of man, the 
 federation of the world." 
 
 If commerce has done great deeds, literature has made
 
 CUMMERCK AND LITKRATURK 309 
 
 them famous. It is to literature that we owe our knowledge 
 of the first commercial voyage. At least, I sup[)ose it was 
 a commercial voyage, because it was an expedition for wool. 
 I mean the voyage of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece ; 
 and, considering the definite purpose, the unquailing courage 
 and the triumphant success of that expedition, it is curious 
 that aimless maunderings, and absence of mind, should be 
 called wool-gathering. The question of wool has played a 
 large part in the recent political debate, [Laughter.] If 
 wool has not been pulled over anybody's eyes, it has cer- 
 tainly been stuffed into everybody's ears by the eloquent 
 campaign orators. They have earnestly besought the coun- 
 try to do its duty by wool [laughter] ; but they could 
 not agree what the duty should be. None of them, so far 
 as I know, have even mentioned the highest duty upon 
 wool ever paid. It Avas paid upon that importation of a 
 single golden fleece, of which I have spoken, and it consisted 
 of taming wild bulls that snorted fire, killing enchanted 
 dragons, escaping Scylla and Charybdis, and overcoming 
 every kind of magical horror and hostility. It was the 
 highest tariff ever paid upon wool. Yet such were the 
 energy and resources of the wool-gatherers, that even that 
 terrific duty was not prohibitory. 
 
 A distinguished Senator of the United States was lately 
 reported to have said that, under certain circumstances, he 
 would gladly see commerce annihilated. The Senator is a 
 man of literary tastes, and some recent events may have 
 recalled to him that ancient legend, and suggested to him 
 that, however appalling the duty, American commerce will 
 refuse to be annihilated. [Applause.] And why? Because 
 if there be no magical way to pay the duty, as in the case 
 of the old Greeks, there is in his fellow-Americans a common- 
 sense way of reasonably revising and adjusting duties, 
 which, in the language of mythology, is merely taming the 
 fire-breathing bulls and slaying the devastating dragons. 
 
 A happy illustration of the association between commerce 
 and literature is found in the City of New York. In the 
 commercial capital of the continent our distinctive Ameri- 
 can literature began, and the first American book, which 
 was accepted and approved by the world, was the work of 
 a young American merchant. To be sure, he failed as a
 
 310 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 merchant. But what an encouragement in the counting 
 room to know that if you cannot be a fortunate merchant 
 vou may be a famous author ! That if you cannot be a 
 Cruger, or a Walton or a Franklin of the older day, or a 
 Minturn or a Marshall of a later day, you may be a Wash- 
 ington Irving ! 
 
 Our sombre colonial writing was all sermon. It was not 
 until 1809 that Mr. Buckminster, the orator of the Phi Beta 
 Kappa at Harvard, said that the genius of our letters began 
 to show signs of greater vigor ; and in the same year a 
 young man, who, as a boy, to escape the rigors of domestic 
 religious discipline, used to drop out of the window of his 
 father's house in William Street in the evening, and steal 
 off to the play around the corner in John Street, published 
 a book called " Knickerbocker's History of New York ; " 
 and in the gay genius of Irving, American literature es- 
 caped the sermon and came laughing into life. The winter 
 of our long literary discontent was made glorious summer 
 by this son of York. But it was not until ten years later, 
 when he was an unsuccessful merchant, and Sydney Smith 
 asked his famous question : " Who reads an American 
 book?" that Irving had just answered it by the first num- 
 bers of the "Sketch Book," and John Bull was the first to 
 own that Jonathan had described traditional and charming 
 aspects of his own life and character with more delicate grace 
 than any Englishman of the time. 
 
 What a sweet and blameless genius it was ! It aroused 
 no passion, no prejudice, no hostility. Irving was popu- 
 larl)' beloved, like Sir Walter Scott, and I recall the amusing 
 enthusiasm with which a party of Germans in Berlin, upon 
 discovering that I was an American, exclaimed : " Ah, we 
 know full well your great general, Washington Irving!" 
 [Laughter.] He touched ourhistoric river with the glamour 
 of the imagination. He invested it with the subtle and en- 
 during charm of literary association. He peopled it with 
 figures that make it dear to the whole world, like Scott's 
 Tweed or Burns's Bonny Doon. The belated wanderer, in 
 the twilight roads of Tarrytown, as he hears approaching 
 the j)attcring gallop behind him, knows that it is not his 
 ncighbcjr, it is the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. 
 It is not thunder that we hear in the Katskill on a still
 
 commercp: and litkraturk 311 
 
 summer afternoon, it is the airy game of llcndrik Hudson's 
 crew that Rip Van Winkle heard. 
 
 The commerce of New York may penetrate every sea, and 
 carry around the world the promise of the American fla"- 
 and the grandeur of the American name, and return tri- 
 umphant with the trophies of every clime; but over their 
 leagues of wharves and towering warehouses and far-stretch- 
 ing streets can it throw a charm, as fresh to the next cen- 
 tury as to this, such as the genius of literature cast upon 
 the quaint little Dutch town more than two centuries ago, 
 and upon the river whicli is our pride ? Yet it is commerce 
 which has made the city splendid and prosperous, which 
 pours the largest revenue into the national treasury, and has 
 identified the name of New York with the most darin^r 
 enterprise and comprehensive sagacity. 
 
 Four hundred years ago, the City of Florence was ruled 
 by a family of merchants, the greatest merchants in the 
 world. The founder of the family was given the name 
 which we give to Washington alone, the Father of his 
 Country. His grandson, tlie greatest of the family, knew 
 the secret of the greatness that endures whether in cities, 
 states, or nations. He was the friend of authors and of 
 artists. He adopted Michael Angelo as his son ; he built 
 palaces and gardens, erected statues, endowed universities 
 and libraries, and under his magnificent sway Florence 
 reached its golden prime of opulence and power. In him 
 Mercury and Apollo clasped hands, and commerce and lit- 
 erature claim equally the fame of Lorenzo di Medici. 
 
 As I remember him, I think of other merchant i)rinces. 
 As I recall Florence, I see New York; and mindful of the 
 truth that no other body of merchants in the world con- 
 tains a larger proportion of men of cultivation, of refined 
 taste and generous and princely liberality than those who 
 compose this Chamber, I ask why, in our noble pleasure- 
 grounds of Central Park, amid the memorials of men of 
 kindred genius in every century and time, in the commercial 
 capital in which he was born, and with which, as its most 
 illustrious son, his name will be always associated — why, in 
 perpetual commemoration of the amity of commerce and 
 literature, should not a statue of Washington Irving be 
 erected by the merchants of New York ? [Cheers.]
 
 312 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 L0WELT;S AMERICANISM 
 
 [Speech of George William Curtis at the Ashfield dinner, at Ashfield, 
 Massachusetts, August 27, 1891, in defence of James Russell Lowell's 
 Americanism.] 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — In Browning's poem " The 
 Ring and the Book," an old ItaHan story is told by 
 twelve persons, each in his own way ; but such is 
 the dramatic genius of the poet that each version 
 resembles the others only as different men look alike, 
 or as this landscape now blossoming and green and a 
 little later buried in snow is still the same country. These 
 different versions of the same tale in "The Ring and 
 the Book " are among the most extraordinary intellect- 
 ual feats or tours dc fo?'cc in literature, and Mr. Norton's 
 twelve annual introductions of me at the Ashfield dinners 
 are similarly remarkable feats in oratory. Twelve times 
 has he asked me to sing the doxology at this dinner, not, 
 I think, so much thankful that it was over, as grateful that 
 it had been so good, and twelve times the picture he has 
 drawn of me has differed from the others, like the versions 
 of the poet's story. But in all these versions there is nec- 
 essarily essentially the same tale ; and so in all the preludes 
 to my little speeches, although I am amazed at their fresh- 
 ness and variety, there has been the same affectionate gen- 
 erosity of a friendship which is now a very long one, and 
 which makes each of these preludes the pleasantest speech 
 that I hear in the year. 
 
 I say that this is the twelfth of them, but as Mr. Norton 
 was away one year, this is the thirteenth of our academic 
 dinners. The old Romans had a series of records which 
 they called Fasti Annales, registers of important events. 
 Are there any more important events in the history of Ash- 
 field than these annual dinners ? — attracting to these tables 
 a friendly company from all the country round, while on the 
 horizon of this further table, like brilliant constellations, 
 have risen, year after year, as to-day, clusters of distinguished 
 speakers from abroad, but all the guests at all the tables are 
 American citizens met to confer upon subjects of a common 
 interest and common importance, in aid of that character-
 
 Lowell's Americanism 313 
 
 istic American institution from which so much of tlie im- 
 pulse of the noblest American life has sprung, the New 
 England academy. 
 
 The names of the stars in these oratorical constellations 
 that have risen and set here will readily occur to you. 
 They are the golden beads that we tell upon our rosary of 
 remembrance. Among them there is Howells, our charming 
 story-teller, whose stories reveal to us not only the subtle 
 observation of the humorist, and the fine insight of the so- 
 cial philosopher, but the inspiring vision of the true realist 
 to whom man is more than his costume or circumstance. 
 His work docs not amuse merely, but cheers and enlightens. 
 It quickens human sympathy and stimulates generous ac- 
 tion. It is like the flower which is fragrant and gay not 
 only to please the idle loiterer of an hour but to entice and 
 detain the busy bee so as to secure its own perpetuity, and 
 by constantly renewed blossoming and odor and beauty to 
 make delight perennial. Such a story-teller is a minister of 
 human happiness, and as the modest master stood here 
 speaking to us I thought of Goldsmith's village pastor: — 
 
 " He tried each art, reproved each dull delaj'. 
 Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." 
 
 And there is Warner, whose " Summer in a Garden " fs 
 in endless bloom ; and who says in it to his fellow-farmer 
 in planting time, in the famous words of Grant, " Let us 
 have peas." He has added to the beatitudes another beat- 
 itude, " Blessed be agriculture, if one does not have too 
 much of it." He did not talk agriculture to us, probably 
 because he supposed we knew all about his kind of agricul- 
 ture ; nor horticulture, as indeed there was no need, because 
 he is constantly making our minds gardens and sowing 
 them with pleasant thoughts and fancies like violets and 
 mignonette, summer savory and sweet marjoram. But, as 
 we are all naturally disposed to do here, he spoke of our 
 national character and national pride probably because he 
 hoped that our feeling was like his, which does not suppose 
 that Mount Owen is higher than Mont Blanc merely be- 
 cause Mount Owen is in Franklin county and Mont Blanc 
 in Switzerland. Long ago, before I knew that tliere was r,
 
 314 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 town of Ashfield, I drove one summer day on the top of the 
 stage from Greenfield over the Hoosac mountain to Grey- 
 lock, and when afterward I saw the Vale of Enna in Sicily, 
 where Proserpina was playingamong the flowers when Pluto 
 carried her off, I did not think the Vale of Enna lovelier 
 than the valley of Deerfield. But I did not, therefore, 
 think that the meeting-houses in that valley were nobler build- 
 ings than St. Peter's, nor that Colonel Eeavitt's barn was 
 finer than the Vatican, although the Pope was a mere Italian 
 and the Colonel one of the best of Yankees. I have not ob- 
 served that we are generally more than seven feet high in 
 this country, although we are Americans and the other fel- 
 lows only Europeans. [Applause.] 
 
 Then there was Mr. Cable, who came to our dinner and in a 
 strain of fervent and persuasive speech poured for us a 
 " beaker full of the warm South," which still tingles in our 
 memories and quickens the blood in our veins; and Mr. 
 Choate, who expounded to us the final cause and signifi- 
 cance of the Ashfield dinner in a jest of such blended humor 
 and wit that its laughing tradition will last as long as the 
 dinner itself ; and rising annually from the horizon of this 
 table with the brightness of Mercury and the constancy of 
 Sirius to its season, is the bright particular star of Chester- 
 field [John White Chadwick], which for an hour benignantly 
 shines over our valley and illuminates our "Ashfield, love- 
 liest village of the plain." I cannot repeat the long list of 
 those who by their wise and winning words have made our 
 dinners memorable, and whose eloquence has been at least 
 some recompense to the kind hands of Ashfield, which 
 annually spread and serve the feast, — those hands, indeed, 
 which, the world over, sweeten the feast of life for all men. 
 
 But there is one orator among this famous company of 
 many years whose name in the days that are passing is 
 mentioned with respectful and tender admiration wherever 
 our language is heard and whose presence and speech will 
 be always cherished as among the high honors of our festi- 
 val. That Mr. Lowell has spoken at this table gives to this 
 plain room a dignity and charm which no grandeur of form, 
 no grace of decoration could enhance. I like to remember 
 that, returning from his long official residence abroad, and 
 coming almost immediately to this characteristic New Eng-
 
 Lowell's amkkicaxism 315 
 
 land town, the poet and statesman who, in his life ami by 
 his pen so truly interpreted the heart of New England to the 
 heart of the world, said how glad he was, after looking in the 
 eyesof so many old English audiences, to see again face to 
 face a New England one. In a half-playful tone, but with 
 great earnestness, — for the banter was only the sparkle upon 
 a deep, strong-flowing river,— he alluded to the supposition 
 that long residence in Europe might alienate an American 
 from love of his country, as an unworthy distrust of the 
 power of America to excite affection. Love of country, he 
 said, is deeper than a sentiment, deeper even than an in- 
 stinct. It is that absolute self-renunciation and complete 
 identification with another which Ruth expressed, " Where 
 thou goest I will go ; where thou livest I will live ; where 
 thou diest there will I die also." 
 
 No one who heard Mr. Lowell that day in this room but 
 was taught by him once more, for he w\as always teaching 
 it, the highest lesson of patriotism. I have seen it said 
 recently that with all his gifts he was, nevertheless, on the 
 wrong side of every great question in this country. But I 
 venture to think that whoever differed with Mr. Lowell 
 upon any point of literature or morals or politics, should 
 have been very sure before he decided that it was Mr. 
 Lowell whose view was wrong. Was the young poet wrong 
 whose early verses tipped with fire the darts of Wendell 
 Phillips's relentless eloquence? Was Hosea Biglow on the 
 wrong side fifty years ago ? Was it the " Commemoration 
 Ode," the noblest pasan of the greatest cause, that struck a 
 false American key ? Was it the address on Democracy 
 _ that betrayed America, an address which spoke to England 
 in a strain of English speech that England had never heard, 
 declaring the vital and fundamental American doctrine, a 
 democrac)^, deeper, richer, truer, than England or America 
 had ever grasped, an American speech which was the flight 
 of our undazzled eagle nearest the sun ? If he was wrong, 
 who of us was right? For what is it to be an American ? 
 It is a most pertinent question for this dinner, and the 
 answer is easy ; for to be an American is to be, in spirit, in 
 purpose, in fidelity, what Mr. Lowell was. If he was not dis- 
 tinctively an American, the worse for us, the worse for Amer- 
 ica. If scorn of pretence of ever}- kind, of sham patriotism, of
 
 3i6 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 vulgar bragging, of impudent vanity, of bullying states, 
 manship, of craven servility to the majority, and of the ex- 
 altation of ignorance and blackguardism, — if active and 
 aggressive scorn of all these is not American, the sooner we 
 make it so, the better. [Applause.] 
 
 The clear perception that popular government, like all 
 other governments, is an expedient and not a panacea ; that 
 its abuses and evils must be plainly exposed and resolutely 
 resisted ; that the price of liberty is not eternal cringing to 
 a party, but eternal fidelity to our own minds and con- 
 sciences ; that our fathers made America independent, and 
 that their sons must keep it so, each man for himself declar- 
 ing his mental, moral and political independence, not only 
 on the Fourth of July, but every day in the year; that the 
 hope of free institutions lies in character, in educated intel- 
 ligence, in self-reliance, in quality, not in quantity, — this is 
 the sublime faith, the unchilled hope, the untiring endeavor 
 of a patriotism like Lowell's. By a resistless humor of 
 kindly satire which searches out follies and laughs them 
 away, by an incisive thought which probes and disperses 
 familiar and accepted sophistries, by a vigorous statement of 
 fundamental principles of political conduct illuminated with 
 unprecedented profusion and splendor of illustration, ap- 
 plying the experiences of all other times and countries to the 
 exigencies of our own, by lofty flights of song that quicken 
 the heart, ennoble the life, and lift the soul toward heaven, 
 — the poet, the scholar, the statesman who sat at our table 
 still shows us the America which we feel in our hearts and 
 see in our hopes, the America in Avhich he believed and of 
 which he was so true a harbinger. [Applause.] 
 
 Such memories our Ashfield dinner begins to gather. 
 Places that are associated with famous men are enchanted 
 for all other men by the glamour of their genius. It is a 
 truth which was never more happily expressed than by our 
 distinguished guest, Mr. Phelps, when as our Minister in 
 England he spoke at Glasgow of the spell laid upon Scot- 
 land by the genius of Scott and Burns, which every year 
 draws a throng of pilgrims, not only to see where they lived, 
 but to see also the scenes of events that never happened 
 and the homes of people who never lived except in the 
 world of their creative imagination. The famous guests at
 
 LOWELL'S AMERICANISM 317 
 
 our dinner have given to this town-hall a precious tradition 
 and to these green hills of western Massachusetts another 
 charm. The spiritual forces are the most enduring forces, 
 and when Alvan Sanderson modestly planted here this little 
 academy, he unconsciously opened the gate by which feet 
 that will be beautiful upon these mountains for ever have 
 passed through our village. [Applause.]
 
 CHARLES ANDERSON DANA 
 
 DIPLOMACY AND THE PRESS 
 
 [Speech of Charles Anderson Dana at a banquet given by the 
 Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, April i6, 1892, to 
 Whitelaw Reid, on the occasion of his appointment as United Slates 
 Minister to France. In introducing the speaker, Charles Stewart Smith, 
 President of the Chamber of Commerce, said : " It is eminently fitting 
 and proper that this powerful exponent of public opinion should be re- 
 presented upon this occasion by the learned and eloquent Nestor of New 
 York journalism."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I cannot imagine 
 that there is any occasion for any representative of the press 
 to arise here after Mr. Reid has taken his seat. Who can 
 speak for the press so well as he ? Who has had experience 
 so wide, so varied, so creditable, so successful as he ? There 
 was in the earlier history of this Republic a school of 
 thinkers who held that diplomacy was comparatively un- 
 necessary, that we should have no foreign ministers, except 
 upon special occasions, when they might be sent out to 
 settle some pressing controversy, and then come home, 
 leaving the country without any representative except its 
 consuls in foreign lands. That school was never very ex- 
 tensive. So far as I am aware, its principal members were 
 two men of different parties and most distinguished genius. 
 One of them was Thomas H. Benton, a great and broad- 
 minded statesman, of the earlier days of our political life ; 
 and the other was another man of genius, Horace Greeley. 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 They both taught this doctrine, and taught it with such 
 ability and such success that they made at least one con- 
 vert, and at an early age I entered their school myself. 
 [Laughter.] I also know of one other newspaper man who 
 
 318
 
 DIPLOMACY AND J UK PRKSS 319 
 
 belonged to the school, but it never was a successful party; 
 it never got any standing in the world ; the American people 
 never adopted the idea, — and why ? 
 
 Well, in the first place, there is a kind of politeness and 
 good society among nations, which requires that every 
 power, every nation of any consequence, should have its 
 regular representatives near to the governments of other 
 nations. That is a kind of international honor, which the 
 world has never been willing to resign. We all agree — I 
 have joined the other side, I have gone over to the major- 
 ity [applause] — we all agree that diplomatic representatives 
 and ministers maintained permanently abroad are indispen- 
 sable for the good conduct of international affairs. Another 
 consideration also bears upon this question. There are 
 certain offices, certain political and public functions, which 
 are indispensable to the conduct of society. There must 
 be governors, there must be legislators, there must be judges, 
 there must be tax-collectors — all those functions are ab- 
 solutely necessary, and they are maintained as a matter of 
 necessity ; but the catalogue of public offices is not com- 
 plete with those indispensable functionaries. It has to go 
 further. We must have ofificers who, under certain cir- 
 cumstances and to a certain extent, are ornamental ; there 
 must be places of importance for public men of distinction. 
 They cannot all be elected judges or lieutenant-governors 
 or members of Congress or Senators ; there must be other 
 places to which, when a new President comes into power, 
 he can send the distinguished men of his party, and he 
 ought not to send any other to foreign lands, as the 
 representatives of the government and of the power and 
 dignity of the United States. 
 
 For a great part of the time these foreign representatives 
 of ours may have very little to do ; but it is indispensable, 
 I think, to have them there, and when the occasion arises, 
 when there is a need, when there is some important question 
 to be settled, then we must have them there ; and unless 
 they are there, with some antecedents and some experience 
 and some knowledge of the medium in which they have to 
 labor, and of the men with whom they have to deal, their 
 efforts would be comparatively ineffectual and useless. So 
 we have for all these reasons come over to the doctrine that
 
 320 CHARLES ANDERSON DANA 
 
 there must be a diplomatic establishment maintained by the 
 United States. 
 
 Now, we do not maintain it as other countries do. The 
 old governments make diplomacy a profession ; men are 
 educated to it ; they make their careers in it ; they follow 
 that business all their lives through. Here we do not do it 
 that way, for the reason that this is a government of change ; 
 that it is a government in which men pass from one sphere 
 of life to another, and in which they are promoted accord- 
 ing to their deserts ; so that we, instead of educating our 
 diplomats to be diplomats, put them early in life into 
 newspaper ofifices, and when they graduate it is to some- 
 thing brilliant and admirable. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 The honors which you are paying to our distinguished 
 fellow-citizen, Mr. Reid, this evening, are not only well 
 deserved, but, as has been remarked they are paid in sub- 
 stance by all parties in this country. [Applause.] When 
 you can get not merely a Republican like my friend, Mr. 
 Smith, and a celebrated Mugwump like my friend Cou- 
 dert [laughter], and modest and unpretentious Democrats 
 like Senator Brice and myself [laughter], to come here and 
 join in the honor; and when General Schurz, the worst 
 Mugwump of them all comes [laughter], and when they 
 all combine in paying this well-deserved tribute to a dis- 
 tinguished and successful public servant, we may be sure 
 that the honor is perfectly deserved, and that greater services 
 hereafter may be expected from the gentleman who has 
 rendered them. [Applause.] 
 
 The fact is that there is not an important public service 
 that a successful newspaper man is not perfectly well able 
 to render, on the shortest notice. [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] The foundation of success such as Mr. Reid has 
 achieved, is considerably made up of good fortune; it is not 
 merely taleiit ; it is not merely devotion to duty undertaken; 
 it is not merely concentration of every faculty ; but, after 
 all, good-luck comes into it very considerably. This good- 
 luck 1 like to see further illustrated in the case of our distin- 
 guished guest of this evening. [Applause.] 
 
 The past at least is secure. [Applause.] That is a com- 
 mon saying, but the past is always a pointer to the future, 
 and these distinctions, outside of those stricth' belonging
 
 NEW ENGLAND IN JOURNALISM 32I 
 
 to the newspaper press, must be placed upon Mr. Rcid here- 
 after, as the laurel is placed upon the head of a great and 
 successful soldier. 
 
 We shall feel, we who belong to the newspaper press, 
 whether in the capacity of retired members, like General 
 Schurz, or active members like my friend, Mr. Halstead, 
 or occasional contributors, like my friend, Mr. Coudert 
 [laughter], — we shall all feel that a part of the honor and a 
 part of the renown belongs to the profession of which Mr. 
 Reid is so distinguished a member. [Applause.] 
 
 NEW ENGLAND IN JOURNALISM 
 
 [Speech of Charles A. Dana at the fourteenth annual festival of the 
 New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, 1894. 
 The President, Charles Emory Smith, said in introducing Mr. Dana : 
 " We are honored to-night with the presence of one wlio is universally 
 recognized by his professional brethren and by the general public, as the 
 foremost journalist of the United States ; that is to say, to-day, of all the 
 world ; at once the most experienced and the most accomplished, the 
 wisest, and the brightest, the Hercules with the heaviest club, and the 
 Harlequin, if I may say so, with the lightest lathe-sword ; the intrepid 
 American patriot who, in a single vivid phrase, immortalized and killed 
 an un-American measure when he called it ' the policy of infamy,' the 
 discoverer, perhaps I should say of Dink Botts and Abe vSluskey. With 
 all these attributes, I may fairly describe him as the Nestor and the 
 jester, the bon-savant and the bon-vivant of American journalism— him- 
 self sharing and preserving the fame of the greatest group of journalists 
 the world has ever seen, given to this country by New England. No 
 one is so capable of speaking of New England journalism as the Hon. 
 Charles A. Dana, of the New York 'Sun,' whom I now present."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen — New Engi>anders, 
 Brethren — all of one blood and all of one spirit : — 
 I care not to what parties in politics, to what schools in 
 thought, to what churches in religion we respectively be- 
 long, there is one heart in all of us, and it is the heart of 
 New England. [Applause.] 
 
 I am here, I believe, though the Chairman avoided read- 
 ing the toast, to speak on " New England in Journalism ; " 
 and I am exceedingly glad of this opportunity to render 
 justice to my brethren of that profession whom 1 see here 
 around me. It is a remarkable circumstance that my eye 
 falls at this moment, without wandering any distance from 
 21
 
 0-'- 
 
 CHARLES ANDERSON DANA 
 
 where I stand, upon four eminent Yankee journalists whom 
 we all know and whom we are all wont to honor. On my 
 left hand I see the Reverend Dr. Conwell ; on my right 
 hand there is the Reverend Dr. Wayland — a noble son, let 
 me say, of a nobler father; — here, too, is the honored Dr. 
 Trumbull ; and here, chief of all, is my honored and be- 
 loved friend — the friend of many years — Charles Emory 
 Smith. Where can we look for better illustrations of the 
 New England character ? Where can we look for brighter 
 genius, ready for every emergency and shedding light upon 
 every event and upon every occasion ? Where is there wit 
 and humor like Dr. Wayland's? Where is there the 
 elevated and lovely religious sentiment that can surpass 
 Dr. Trumbull's ? Where is the appeal to the popular heart 
 in behalf of the divine truths of Christianity that goes be- 
 yond Dr. Conwell's? And where, let me ask, in that high 
 intelligence of the philosophy of journalism, of the phi- 
 losophy which forms public thought and directs public 
 policy from the beginning, which takes hold of it in the 
 seed and carries it forward to development and blooming 
 perfection — where is there any one who is entitled to higher 
 honor and a more beautiful laurel than my friend, Charles 
 Emory Smith ? 
 
 Gentlemen, here we have " New England in Journalism," 
 and we do not need to look any farther for its illustration. 
 I say to you, young man (turning to President Smith), 
 standing, crowned with honors, almost at the very threshold 
 of your career, I say to you, only persevere. Remember 
 above all that you are an American ; remember that the 
 principles of the American Republic are the principles you 
 have to defend. I am an old man and shall not live to see 
 you complete and round out that glorious course of the 
 defence of free thought, of right politics and of America that 
 you A\ ill live to see ; but I look forward to it with confidence, 
 antl 1 salute it beforehand with the pride which a father 
 may feel in the prospects of his son. [Applause.]
 
 RICHARD HENRY DANA 
 
 RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES 
 
 [Speech of Richard H. Dana, Jr., at the Ijanquet given by the City of 
 Boston, June 7, 1864, to Rear-Adniiral Lessoffsky and the officers of the 
 Russian Fleet, then visiting American waters. I\Ir. Dana responded to 
 the toast : "The Admiralty and Maritime Courts of Russia and the 
 United States : — may they never adjudicate in questions of prize upon 
 American or Russian vessels."] 
 
 Mr. Mayor : — Adjudication upon prizes, though it may 
 have a judicial sound, means war ; and war between Russia 
 and the United States of America I take to be as improbable 
 as anything in human affairs. If nearly a century of har- 
 mony and good ofifices indicates anything, or furnishes any 
 security for future peace, we have the fullest assurances here. 
 
 When we were in the struggle for our independence, to 
 throw off the rule of distant government in which we had no 
 voice or hand, which claimed an unlimited jurisdiction over 
 us, and all we had, we sent to Russia a citizen of Massa- 
 chusetts [Chief Justice Dana, of Massachusetts] to Avhom 
 you, sir, and Mr. Everett, have kindly alluded in connection 
 with my name ; and, although she gave us no fleet or army, 
 Ave got from her a moral support, which did much — those 
 familiar with that history know how much — towards securing, 
 at last, the recognition of our independence. This, sir, 
 was a good beginning, and circumstances made sure for 
 years a fair following of the beginning. In that dark period 
 of wars the world around, when neutrals were in danger of 
 being crushed between the giant belligerents at sea, Russia 
 and the United States had a common interest, and were 
 kept in sympathy and co-operation on the great questions of 
 belligerent and neutral rights. It was not only the fear of 
 the mistress of the sea that oppressed neutral commerce.
 
 324 RICHARD HENRY DANA 
 
 There was almost as much danger from coercion, in ports on 
 the Continent by the feebler maritime power of France. 
 Thus, neutrals were threatened if they did not co-operate 
 with the weaker, or submit to the law of the stronger. In 
 that partial eclipse of peace and commerce that covered so 
 long the habitable globe, Russia and the United States 
 together strove for the light of peace and the beneficence of 
 commercial intercourse. 
 
 But, sir, Russia has not only maintained peace with us, 
 but has kindly and wisely done her best to keep us at peace 
 with the world. When the War of 1812 was upon us, she 
 offered, as Mr. Everett has reminded us, her mediation. 
 She did not ask the contending parties to abide her decision 
 as an arbiter, or to allow of her intervention. She asked 
 them only to receive her advice as a mediator. We accepted 
 the offer at once, and empowered our ministers to act upon 
 it. Great Britain refused it, and the war was fought out to 
 its end. I hope she had good reasons for the refusal ; but 
 Sir James Mackintosh did not think so, and censured the 
 refusal in terms of strong condemnation. Again, the treaty 
 of 1782 had left open a question of compensation for prop- 
 erty — including slaves, I regret to say — on territory which 
 England was to restore to us. To whom did we go for 
 arbitration? Why, to Russia, most naturally; and the ar- 
 bitration of Russia, made, and repeated on new questions 
 arising out of the first decision, was satisfactory. But there 
 was one question between us, of such magnitude and dififi- 
 culty that neither of the treaties — that of Paris, in 1782, nor 
 that of Ghent, in 18 14 — seemed able to close it, — that was the 
 northern boundary. Nearly the whole line, from the Island 
 of Grand Menan, off Eastport, to the Lake of the Woods, 
 was in dispute. Such was our confidence in Russia, that we 
 were ready to put all our rights and interests on that vast 
 issue in her hands. England objected to the arbitration of 
 Russia, and we fell back upon the unlucky King of the 
 Netherlands, whose " Dutch highlands," lying in the beds 
 of rivers, left the question open, with all its elements of 
 irritation, until it was closed by the great act of three men, 
 capable of large ideas and high action, — Peel, Webster and 
 Ashburton, in 1842. 
 
 This is not all, sir. Our day of distress, weakness and
 
 RUSSIA AND THE UNITICD STATES 325 
 
 peril came upon us. We met with sad disappointment 
 in the tone of speech from friendly nations. They told us, 
 by the speeches of statesmen and the voice of the press, that 
 we had grown too strong, and that we must expect them to 
 wish for our division. Some, more civilly, assured us it was 
 for our good to be divided. " Rise and be hanged, Master 
 Barnardine ! These are your friends, the hangmen, Master 
 Barnardine ! " I hope we may forget, no doubt we should 
 ^try to forget, the ill-concealed delight with which our mis- 
 ■ fortunes were witnessed, as well as the open derision and 
 obloquy, that was poured upon us in those days: the utmost 
 efforts made to secure against us the opinion of the world 
 on every available ground. And when the commander of 
 a sloop of war, uninstructcd, does an act, the legality of 
 which the law officers of the British Crown and the British 
 press first admitted and then questioned, without waiting to 
 learn whether our Government sustained or repudiated it, the 
 British Government, which, in any other state of this coun- 
 try, would have unquestionably made it matter of diplo- 
 matic inquiry, availed themselves of the occasion to make a 
 military and naval demonstration against our blockade and 
 entire war, — for that I take to have been the plain English 
 of the war movement in the Trent affair. 
 
 From this trying picture, how pleasing it is to turn to the 
 aspect which Russia presented to us. Mr. Everett has read 
 to us the friendly and graceful message of Russia to America 
 sent to us in our darkest hour, — telling us that the preserva- 
 tion of our Union was essential to the universal political 
 equilibrium, and that Russia stood pledged to the most 
 friendly interest. Well did Mr. Seward, in reply, acknowl- 
 edge that the friendship of Russia " had its beginning with 
 the national existence of the United States." 
 
 I must return, Mr. Mayor, to the subject to which you 
 more immediately directed my attention, the prize courts 
 and navy of Russia. Of its courts, I cannot speak from 
 personal knowledge ; but of its navy, it has been my fortune 
 to know something. I have met Russian ships of war in all 
 quarters of the globe. At the Sandwich Islands, they told 
 me with delight of the escape of the frigate " Diana " from a 
 British fleet which came to Honolulu, in 1854, a few days 
 after the " Diana " hurried awav ;— that same frigate whose
 
 326 RICHARD HENRY DANA 
 
 sin<Tular fate, a few months afterwards, attracted the atten- 
 tion of the scientific world, lifted up from her anchors in 
 Simoda Bay, in Japan, and swamped by one monstrous 
 swell of the sea, in a quiet day, which rolled from Japan to 
 California with the regularity of the march of a planet, 
 raising and plunging everything in its course, until its last 
 effects were registered by the astonished watchers of the 
 tide-gauges at San Diego and San Francisco. And when I 
 was mentioning this, just now, to the Russian ofificer whom 
 I have the pleasure of finding at my side, he replied, — " O 
 yes ! our admiral commanded the ' Diana ' then." 
 
 I met them in China, in Japan, and I found a squadron 
 at San Francisco ; and when I went to the navy yard at 
 Mare Island, in California, there I found a room full of 
 Russian naval officers who had been examining our works. 
 Wherever science, or general knowledge, or national interests 
 called them, there Russian ships of war were found. And 
 our friends will not think me indelicate or assuming if I pay 
 my tribute to the high order of education I always found 
 among them. All spoke French, — and the world knows 
 that Russian French is the best out of Paris, — and most 
 spoke English also ; and it is well known that among 
 Russian naval officers are found competent representatives 
 of their country in diplomacy and science as well as war. 
 
 Let me ask your leave, sir, to propose, not as a formal 
 toast, — that is not my office, — but as a sentiment to be taken 
 into our hearts : The friendship of Russia and America, 
 beginning with our national existence, in our darkest hour 
 showing no abatement, may it last as long as there shall be 
 Russia in the old world and United States in the new. 
 [Applause.]
 
 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 Photogravure after a photograph from life
 
 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 WOMAN 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at the seventieth anniversary 
 banquet of the New England Society in the City of New York, Di-- 
 cember 22, 1875. The President of the Society, Isaac H.Bailey, presided. 
 In introducing the speaker, he said: "Gentlemen, our next toast is 
 ' Woman. ' 
 
 ' From women's eyes this doctrine I derive. 
 They sparkle still the right Promethean fire, 
 They are the books, the arts, the Academes, 
 That show, contain and nourish all the world.' 
 
 [Love's Labor's Lost, Act IV., Sc. 3.] 
 
 " Gentlemen, this toast will be responded to by one who deserves to be 
 known as an expert on all questions that concern the fair sisters — Mr. 
 Chauncey M. Depew."] 
 
 Mr. President : — I know of no act of my life which justi- 
 fies your assertion that I am an expert on this question. I can 
 very well understand why it is that the toast to " Woman " 
 should follow the toast to "the Press." [Laughter.] I am 
 called upon to respond to the best, the most suggestive, and 
 the most important sentiment which has been delivered this 
 evening, at this midnight hour, when the varied and cease- 
 less flow of eloquence has exhausted subjects and audience, 
 when the chairs are mainly vacant, the bottles empty, and the 
 oldest veteran and most valiant Roman of us all scarce dares 
 meet the doom he knows awaits him at home. [Laughter.] 
 Bishop Berkeley, when he wrote his beautiful verses upon 
 our Western World, and penned the line "Time's noblest 
 offspring is the last," described not so nearly our prophetic 
 future as the last and best creation of the Almighty — woman 
 — whom we both love and worship. [Applause.] We have 
 here the President of the United States and the General of our 
 
 327
 
 328 CHAUXXEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 Armies: around these tables is gathered a galaxy of intellect, 
 genius and achievement seldom presented on any occasion, 
 but none of them would merit the applause we so enthusiasti- 
 cally bestow, or have won their high honors, had they not 
 been guided or inspired by the woman they revered or 
 loved. 
 
 I have noticed one peculiarity about the toasts this eve- 
 ning very remarkable in the New England Society : every one 
 of them is a quotation from Shakespeare. If Elder l^rewster 
 and Carver and Cotton Mather, the early divines of Massa- 
 chusetts, and the whole colony of Plymouth could have been 
 collected together in general assembly, and have seen with 
 prophetic vision the flower of their descendants celebrating 
 the virtues of this ancestry in sentiments every one of which 
 was couched in the language of a playwright, what would 
 they have said ? [Laughter.] The imagination cannot 
 compass the emotions and the utterances of the occasion. 
 But I can understand Avhy this has been done. It is because 
 the most versatile and distinguished actor upon our muni- 
 cipal stage is the President of the New England Society. 
 [Laughter and applause.] We live in an age when from the 
 highest offices of our city the incumbent seeks the stage to 
 achieve his greatest honors. [Laughter.] I see now our 
 worthy President, Mr. Bailey, industriously thumbing his 
 Shakespeare to select these toasts. He admires the airy 
 grace and flitting beauty of Titania ; he weeps over the mis- 
 fortunes of Desdemona and Ophelia. Each individual hair 
 stands on end as he contemplates the character of Lady 
 Macbeth ; but as he spends his nights with Juliet, he softly 
 murmurs, " Parting is such sweet sorrow." [Loud laughter.] 
 
 You know it is a physiological fact that the boys take after 
 their mothers, and reproduce the characteristics and intel- 
 lectual qualities of the maternal, and not the paternal, side. 
 Standing here in the presence of the most worthy represent- 
 atives of Plymouth, and knowing as I do your moral and 
 mental worth, the places you fill, and the commercial, finan- 
 cial, humane and catholic impetus you give to our met- 
 ropolitan life, how can I do otherwise than on bended knee 
 reverence the New England mothers who gave you birth ! 
 [Applause.] Your President, in his speech to-night, spoke 
 of himself asa descendant of JohnAlden. In my judgment,
 
 \V(XMAN 329 
 
 Priscilla uttered the sciUinu;nt wliich gave the Yankee the 
 key-note of success, ;ukI condensed the primal elements of 
 his character, when she said to John Alden, " Prythee, why 
 don't you speak for yourself, John ? " ( Luughtcr. ) That 
 motto has been the spear in the rear and the star in the van 
 of the New-Englander's progress. It has made liim the 
 most audacious, self-reliant, and irrepressible member of 
 the human family ; and for illustration we need look no 
 farther than the present descendant of rriscilla and Jolm 
 A'dcn. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 The only way I can reciprocate your call at this late hour 
 is to keej) you here as long I can. I think I sec now the 
 descendant of a " Mayflower " immortal who has been listen- 
 ing here to the glories of his ancestry, and learning that he is 
 " the heir of all the ages," as puffed and swollen with pride 
 of race and history, he stands solitary and alone upon his 
 doorstep, reflects on his broken promise of an earl)^ return, 
 and remembers that within " there is a divinity which shapes 
 his end." [Applause and laughter.] 
 
 In all ages woman has been the source of all that is pure, 
 unselfish, and heroic in the spirit and life of man. It was 
 for love that Antony lost a world. It was for love that 
 Jacob worked seven long years, and for seven more ; and I 
 have often wondered what must have been his emotions 
 when on the morningof the eighth year he awoke and found 
 the homely, scrawny, bony Leah instead of the lovely and 
 beautiful presence of his beloved Rachel. [Laughter.] A 
 distinguished French philosopher answered the narrative 
 of every event with the question, ** Who was she?" Helen 
 conquered Troy, plunged all the nations of antiquity into 
 war, and gave that earliest, as it is still the grandest, epic which 
 has come down through all time. Poetry and fiction are 
 based upon woman's love, and the movements of history arc 
 mainly due to the sentiments or ambitions she has inspired. 
 Semiramis, Zenobia, Queen Elizabeth, claim a cold and 
 distant admiration ; they do not touch the heart. But 
 when Florence Nightingale, or Grace Darling, or Ida Lewis, 
 unselfish and unheralded, peril all to succor and to save, 
 the jjrofoundest and holiest emotions of our nature render 
 them tribute and homage. [Applause.] Mr. President, 
 there is no aspiration which any man here to-night entertains,
 
 330 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 no achievement he seeks to accomplish, no great and honor- 
 able ambition he desires to gratify, which is not directly 
 related to either or both a mother or a wife. [Applause.] 
 From the hearth-stone around which linger the recollections 
 of our mother, from the fireside where our wife awaits us, 
 come all the purity, all the hope, and all the courage with 
 which we fight the battle of life. [Applause.] The man 
 who is not thus inspired, who labors not so much to secure 
 the applause of the world as the solid and more precious 
 approval of his home, accomplishes little of good for others 
 or of honor for himself. I close with the hope that each of 
 us may always have near us. 
 
 " A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, and command, 
 And yet a spirit still, and bright 
 With something of an angel light." 
 [Applause.] 
 
 WELCOME TO MAYOR COOPER 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at a dinner given by the Lotos Club, 
 January ii, 1879, to Edward Cooper, Mayor of New York, on his 
 election. The President, Whitelaw Reid, occupied the chair, and 
 toward the end of the speaking, addressed Mr. Depew as follows : " You 
 may possibly think that we have got through with the various branches 
 of the elaborate and almost perfect system of municipal government 
 under which we live. If you do, you make a mistake. We live under 
 the rule, I may say, the divided rule of a Mayor and a Controller, and we 
 live also under the alien rule of a Legislature. But we live, too, under 
 another branch — a branch equal to any, perhaps greater than all. It is a 
 branch which is always represented ; it is a branch which appears in the 
 Lotos Club by attorney. I need not tell you that I refer to the New 
 York Central Railroad [laughter], or that I shall call upon Chauncey 
 M. Depew to respond."] 
 
 Mr. President : — When you were describing the gentle- 
 man upon whom you were to call, I thought, until the last 
 clause of your last sentence, that you were referring to the 
 Judiciary of the State. There are many points of resem- 
 blance between the New York Central Railroad and the 
 State Judiciary, in that in the administration of the affairs 
 of the Commonwealth they both delight to do equal justice 
 to all. [Laughter and applause.]
 
 WELCOME TO MAYOR COOI'lOR 33 1 
 
 I have been a member of the Lotos Club for many years, 
 but this is the most extraordinary and anomalous gathcrin<^ 
 which I have ever attended. [Laughter.] Judge Davis 
 and myself have during the evening been looking at a work 
 of art, which for more than ten years has adorned the walls 
 of the Lotos Club, and that is this lion with a toothache 
 that hangs on an adjoining wall. [Great laughter.] The 
 question in our minds is — where is the lamb ? And the only 
 location that we can decide upon for it is that the lamb 
 must be inside. [Renewed laughter,] 
 
 Well, gentlemen, that is a very suitable picture. I find 
 here on one side of this table the Grand Sachem of Tam- 
 many, and immediately opposite a gentleman who wanted 
 to be Grand Sachem. [Laughter.] I find here the gentle- 
 man who ran for Mayor and was elected and the gentle- 
 man who contested for that honor with him [Hon. Augus- 
 tus Schell] and was defeated. I find here Tammany and 
 anti-Tammany, Administration Republicans, and anti- 
 Administration Republicans, and every representative of 
 public spirit and public opinion except Liberal Republi- 
 cans. [Laughter.] I think there are gathered around this 
 festive board more integrity [laughter], more devotion to 
 the public service, more capacity for the public good, more 
 distinguished men in and out of ofifice [laughter], and 
 more abominable politics than were ever gathered anywhere 
 else. [Great laughter.] Mr. Reid represents bullion, Mr. 
 Croly [D. G. Croly] silver, and together they seek to restore 
 a standard by which each can receive in his own metal all 
 he possibly can lay his hands upon. [Great laughter.] 
 
 It is a peculiarity of the Lotos Club that it welcomes the 
 incoming and bids farewell to the outgoing Mayor. There 
 have been chief magistrates of this city who have endeavored 
 to ignore this courtesy, but their administrations in every 
 instance have proved lamentable failures. [Laughter.] 
 When a mayor is elected, he reads the messages of his pre- 
 decessors for the purpose of forming his own, until he is 
 threatened with water on the brain. [Laughter.] He 
 reads the reports of the Controller for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining the financial condition of the city, until his friends 
 call on Dr. Macdonald to watch over him to keep him out of 
 the asylum, to which he is rapidly making his way.
 
 332 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 [Laughter.] Then it is found necessary to brace him up 
 with some intellectual stimulants and the hopeful atmos- 
 phere, which is only to be reached within the periphery of 
 the Lotos Club. [Laughter.] 
 
 I had occasion once to criticise Mayor Cooper's predeces- 
 sor on the ground that his bread-basket resembled the 
 municipal treasury ; the more he put into it, the less good 
 it seemed to do. [Laughter.] I believe in this era of re- 
 form we have reached reform in that respect. [Renewed 
 laughter.] It is expected bj^ every good citizen in this 
 metropolis that its Mayor shall have the fluency of Henry 
 Clay, the solidity of Daniel Webster, the firmness of 
 Andrew Jackson and the digestion of an ostrich [great 
 laughter], to which fulfilment of all the duties that belong 
 to the office the Lotos Club Avelcomes Mr. Cooper. 
 [Laughter.] I have often noticed this peculiarity about 
 mayors, and I have known a good many of them — not so 
 many, however, as Mayor Ely, whose mature recollection 
 runs back to about forty mayors. I have observed that 
 they think a great deal more of themselves during the first 
 month of their office than they do in the last. [Laughter.] 
 The only exception that I ever met to this rule was in the 
 case of the late lamented Mayor Havemeyer. In the clos- 
 ing days of his administration I was in his office one day. 
 He led me to the window and pointed to the moving crowds 
 on Broadway. Said he : " Depew, look there. There go 
 business men, capitalists, men of influence and property. 
 There they are hurrying on to provide for themselves, their 
 families and future, and paying no attention to political 
 affairs. Not one of them looks over to this office, because 
 they know that the old Dutchman is here, protecting their 
 lives and their property against the thieves of Tammany 
 Hall and the gamblers of the Republican party. " [Laugh- 
 ter and applause.] 
 
 Now, I am probably more competent to speak in this 
 mixed assembly than any person here. I served the Re- 
 publicans for many years, and ran for Lieutenant-Governor on 
 the Liberal Democratic ticket. [Laughter.] While running 
 for Lieutenant-Governor, I remember that once I was speak- 
 ing at Potsdam. There were six Democrats in the town. I 
 was told that there was one man in the town who had read
 
 thp: empirk statk 333 
 
 " The Day-Book " all through the war, and believed in it still, 
 and that if I could secure him I could get the solid vote. 
 During my speech that man was present. When I got 
 through, he came to me and said : "If what our paper has 
 been saying of you for the last ten years is true, you are 
 
 probably the d st rascal agoing [laughter] ; but if you 
 
 will exercise your peculiar talents as well for the Demo- 
 cratic party as you have for your Republicans, I will vote for 
 you with my whole heart." [Great laughter.] That is about 
 the only town in the State in which I got the solid vote. 
 [Renewed laughter.] Now the Lotos Club welcomes Mayor 
 Cooper upon his entrance upon his important duties with 
 that enthusiasm and encouragement that only a body com- 
 prising the intellect and influence of this Club can possibly 
 bestow. [Laughter.] We welcome him and bid him good 
 cheer, in common with all our fellow-citizens. [Applause.] 
 It isa common thing to criticise, but it has almost uniformly 
 been the habit of all parties in the City of New York to 
 put forward as candidate for its Chief Magistrate for the 
 suffrages of citizens, men, men on either side who if elected 
 would be eminently worthy of the dignity and honor to 
 which they aspire. The late contest was between men of 
 high intelligence and old citizenship. Both candidates were 
 gentlemen of worth, of character, virtue and independence. 
 The citizens of New York have accorded the honor to the 
 gentleman who is our guest to-night. It is a worthy honor, 
 worthily bestowed, and I have no doubt that the office will 
 be worthily administered. [Long-continued applause.] 
 
 THE EMPIRE STATE 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at the seventy-fourth atiiiiversary ban- 
 quet of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 
 22, 1879. President Daniel A. Appleton was in the chair, and intro- 
 duced the speaker as follows: "Gentlemen, we cannot forget our 
 loyalty to the State in which we live, and our next regular toast is 
 ' The State of New York : Our voice is imperial.' — Henry V. This toast 
 will be responded to by one whom we are always pleased to hear — Mr. 
 Chauncey M. Depew."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — It has been my lot 
 from a time whence I cannot remember to respond each
 
 334 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 year to this toast. When I received the invitation from the 
 committee, its originality and ingenuity astonished and over- 
 whehncd me. [Laughter.] But there is one thing the 
 committee took into consideration when they invited me to 
 this platform. This is a Presidential year, and it becomes 
 men not to trust themselves talking on dangerous topics. 
 The State of New York is eminently safe. [Laughter.] 
 Ever since the present able and distinguished Governor has 
 held his place I have been called upon by the New England 
 Society to respond for him. It is probably due to that ele- 
 ment in the New Englander that he delights in provoking 
 controversy. The Governor is a Democrat, and I am a Re- 
 publican. Whatever he believes in I detest ; whatever he 
 admires I hate. [Laughter.] The manner in which this 
 toast is received leads me to believe that in the New Eng- 
 land Society his administration is unanimously approved. 
 [Laughter.] Governor Robinson, if I understand correctly his 
 views, would rather that any other man should have been 
 elected as Chief Magistrate than Mr. John Kelly. Mr. 
 Kelly, if I interpret aright his public utterances, would pre- 
 fer any other man for Governor of New York than Lucius 
 Robinson [laughter], and therefore, in one of the most 
 heated controversies we have ever had, we elected a Gov- 
 ernor by unanimous consent or assent in Alonzo B. Cornell. 
 [Cheers and laughter.] Horace Greeley once said to me, as 
 we were returning from a State convention where he had 
 been a candidate, but the delegates had failed to nominate 
 the fittest man for the place : " I don't see why any man 
 wants to be Governor of the State of New York [laughter], 
 for there is no one living who can name the last ten Gov- 
 ernors on a moment's notice." [Laughter.] But though 
 there have been Governors and Governors, there is, when 
 the gubernatorial ofifice is mentioned, one figure that strides 
 down the centuries before all the rest ; that is the old Dutch 
 Governor of New York, with his wooden leg — Peter Stuy- 
 vesant. [Applause.] There have been heroines, too, who 
 have aroused the poetry and eloquence of all times, but 
 none who have about them the substantial aroma of the 
 Dutch heroine, Anneke Jans. [Laughter.] 
 
 It is within the memory of men now living when the 
 \vhole of American literature was dismissed with the sneer of
 
 THE EMPIRE STATE -^35 
 
 the "Edinburgh Review," " Who reads an American book?" 
 But out of the American wilderness a broad avenue to the 
 highway which has been trod by the genius of all times in 
 its march to fame was opened by Washington Irving, and 
 in his footsteps have followed the men who are read of all 
 the world, and who will receive the highest tributes in all 
 times— Longfellow, and Whittier, and Hawthorne and 
 Prescott. [Applause.] 
 
 New York is not only imperial in all those material results 
 which constitute and form the greatest commonwealth in 
 this constellation of commonwealths, but in our poHtical 
 system she has become the arbiter of our national destiny. 
 As goes New York so goes the Union, and her voice indi- 
 cates that the next President will be a man with New 
 England blood in his veins or a representative of New 
 England ideas. [Applause.] 
 
 And for the gentleman who will not be elected I have a 
 Yankee story. In the Berkshire hills there was a funeral, 
 and as they gathered in the little parlor there came the 
 typical New England female, who mingles curiosity with 
 her .sympathy, and as she glanced around the darkened room 
 .she said to the bereaved widow, " When did you get that 
 new eight-day clock ? " " We ain't got no new eight-day 
 clock," was the reply. "You ain't? What's that in the 
 corner there ? " " Why no, that's not an eight-day clock, 
 that's the deceased ; we stood him on end, to make room 
 for the mourners." [Great laughter.] 
 
 Up to within fifty years ago all roads in New England led 
 to Boston; but within the last fifty years every byway and 
 highway in New England leads to New York. [Laughter.] 
 New York has become the capital of New England, and 
 within her limits are more Yankees than in any three New 
 England States combined. The boy who is to-day plough- 
 ing the stony hillside in New England, who is boarding 
 around and teaching school, and who is to be the future 
 merchant-prince or great lavv}er, or wise statesman, looks 
 not now to Boston, but to New York, as the El Dorado of 
 his hopes. [Applause.] And how generously, sons of 
 New England, have we treated you ? We have put you in 
 the best ofifices ; we have made you our merchant-princes. 
 Where is the city or village in our State where you do not
 
 336 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 own the best houses, run the largest manufactories, and con- 
 trol the principal industries ? We have several times made 
 one of your number Governor of the State, and we have 
 placed you in positions where you honor us while w^e honor 
 you. [Applause.] New York's choice in the National 
 Cabinet is the distinguished Secretary of State, whose pure 
 Yankee blood renders him none the less a most fit and most 
 eminent representative of the Empire State. [Cheers.] 
 
 But while we have done our best to satisfy the Yankee, 
 there is one thing we have never been able to do. We can 
 meet his ambition and fill his purse, but we never can 
 satisfy his stomach. [Laughter.] When the President 
 stated to-night that Plymouth Rock celebrated this anni- 
 versary on the 2 1st, while we here did so on the 22d, he did 
 not state the true reason. It is not as he said, a dispute 
 about dates. The pork and beans of Plymouth are insufifi- 
 cient for the cravings of the Yankee appetite, and they 
 chose the 2ist, in order that, by the night train, they may 
 get to New York on the 22d, to have once a year a square 
 meal. [Laughter.] From 1620 down to the opening of 
 New York to their settlement, a constantly increasing void 
 was growing inside the Yankee diaphragm, and even now 
 the native and imported Yankee finds the best-appointed 
 restaurant in the world insufficient for his wants ; and he 
 has migrated to this house, that he may annually have the 
 sensation of suf^ciency in the largest hotel in the United 
 States. [Laughter.] 
 
 My friend, Mr. Curtis, has eloquently stated, in the begin- 
 ning of his address, the Dutchman's idea of the old Puritan. 
 He has stated, at the close of his address, the modern 
 opinion of the old Puritan. He was an uncomfortable man 
 to live with, but two hundred years off a grand historic 
 figure. If any one of you, gentlemen, was compelled to 
 leave this festive board, and go back two hundred years 
 and live with your ancestor of that day, eat his fare, drink 
 his drink, and listen to his talk, what a time would be there, 
 my countrymen ! [Laughter.] Before the Puritan was 
 fitted to accomplish the work he did, with all the great 
 opportunities that were in him, it was necessary that he 
 should spend two years in Leyden and learn from the Dutch 
 the important lesson of religious toleration, and the other
 
 THK EMPIRE STATE 337 
 
 fundamental lesson, that a common-school education lies at 
 the foundation of all civil and religious liberty. | Applause.] 
 If the Dutchman had conquered Boston, it would have been 
 a misfortune to this land, and to the world. It would have 
 been like Diedrich Knickerbocker wrestling with an electric 
 battery. 
 
 But when the Yankee conquered New York, his union 
 with the Dutch formed those sterling elements which have 
 made the Republic what it is. [Applause.] Yankee ideas 
 prevailed in this land in the grandest contest in the Senate 
 of the United States which has ever taken place, or ever 
 will ; in the victory of Nationalism over Sectionalism by the 
 ponderous eloquence of that great defender of the Constitu- 
 tion, Daniel Webster. [Applause.] And when, failing in 
 the forum. Sectionalism took the field, Yankee ideas con- 
 quered again in that historic meeting when Lee gave up his 
 sword to Grant. [Applause.] And when, in the disturb- 
 ance of credit and industry which followed, the twin heresies 
 Expansion and Repudiation stalked abroad, Yankee ideas 
 conquered again in the policy of our distinguished guest, 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. [Applause.] So great a 
 triumph has never been won by any financial officer of the 
 government before, as in the funding of our national debt 
 at four per cent., and the restoration of the national credit, 
 which has given an impulse to our prosperity and industry 
 that can neither be stayed nor stopped. [Applause.] 
 
 When Henry Hudson sailed up the great harbor of New 
 York, and saw with prophetic vision its magnificent oppor- 
 tunities, he could only emphasize his thought, with true 
 Dutch significance, in one sentence — " See here! " When 
 the Yankee came and settled in New York, he emphasized 
 his coming with another sentence — " Sit here ! " — and he sat 
 down upon the Dutchman with such force that he squeezed 
 him out of his cabbage-patch, and upon it he built his ware- 
 house and his residence. [Applause.] He found this city 
 laid out in a beautiful labyrinth of cowpatches, with the 
 inhabitants and the houses all standing with their gable- 
 ends to the street, and he turned them all to the avenue, 
 and made New York a parallelogram of palaces ; and he has 
 multiplied to such an extent that now he fills every nook 
 of our great State, and we recognize here to-night that, with 
 22
 
 33^ CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 no tariff, and free trade between New England and New 
 York, the native specimen is an improvement upon the im- 
 ported article. [Laughter.] Gentlemen, I beg leave to 
 say, as a native New Yorker of many generations, that by 
 the influence, the hospitality, the liberal spirit, and the cos- 
 mopolitan influences of this great State, from the unlovable 
 Puritan of two hundred years ago you have become the 
 most agreeable and companionable of men. [Cheers.] 
 
 New York to-day, the Empire State of all the great 
 States of the Commonwealth, brings in through her grand 
 avenue to the sea eighty per cent, of all the imports, and sends 
 forth a majority of all the exports, of the Republic. She col- 
 lects and pays four-fifths of the taxes which carry on the gov- 
 ernment of the country. In the close competition to secure 
 the great Western commerce which is to-day feeding the world 
 and seeking an outlet along three thousand miles of coast, she 
 holds by her commercial prestige and enterprise more than 
 all the ports from New Orleans to Portland combined. Let 
 us, whether native or adopted New Yorkers, be true to the 
 past, to the present, to the future, of this commercial and 
 financial metropolis. Let us enlarge our terminal facilities 
 and bring the rail and the steamship close together. Let 
 us do away with the burdens that make New York the 
 dearest, and make her the cheapest, port on the continent ; 
 and let us impress our commercial ideas upon the national 
 legislature, so that the navigation laws, which have driven 
 the merchant marine of the Republic from the seas, shall be 
 repealed, and the breezes of every clime shall unfurl, and 
 the waves of every sea reflect, the flag of the Republic. 
 [ Loud cheers.] 
 
 OUR ENGLISH VISITORS 
 
 [Speech of Chauncej' M. Depew at a banquet given by the Lotos 
 Club, New York, January lo, 1885, in honor of George Augustus Sala, 
 who was stopping in New York, on his way to a lecturing tour through 
 Australia. Whitelaw Reid, President of the Society, occupied the chair. 
 He introduced Mr. Depew as the vanquished, but not yet extinguished 
 Senator. ] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — Nothing pleases 
 and compliments me more than to be called upon on this
 
 OUR ENGLISH VISITOKS 339 
 
 occasion [laughter], to speak by my fellow extinct Senator. 
 [Laughter.] When in Dublin, last summer, an Irish orator 
 was dilating upon an opponent who he said possessed all 
 the characteristics of an extinct volcano, one of the audience 
 yelled out : " Poor cratur." [Laughter.] 
 
 As this occasion seems to be turned somewhat from a 
 social to a political discussion [laughter], it pleases me to 
 find that the representative newspaper of America, which 
 has been for months my personal organ [laughter], is here 
 to-night in the person of Mr. Pulitzer. [Laughter.] The 
 public may not understand this thing, but Pulitzer and I do 
 [laughter], and I am always pleased that while Mr. Reid 
 represents the Blaine element, which w^ould have succeeded 
 but for certain unforeseen accidents [applause] ; and Mr. 
 Pulitzer, both in his Congressional record and as the repre- 
 sentative of a party newspaper represents the party which 
 did not succeed — that the secretary supplemented the full 
 round of the political horizon by reading the letters of those 
 most distinguished Mugwumps, George William Curtis 
 and Henry Ward Beecher. [Laughter and applause.] 
 And after having seen and heard our guest of to-night in his 
 reply to the president, no one can doubt where his sym- 
 pathies are. 
 
 I have noticed that after some of the jocose remarks of 
 the eminent wits who have preceded me, they have in- 
 troduced some of the most witty parts of their observations 
 by saying: "Now, to be serious." [Laughter.] I have 
 thought, as I have sat here at this table to-night, what a con- 
 gregation it would be if all the eminent men who have 
 been received by the Lotos Club were gathered in one 
 room. It would be an intellectual kaleidoscope that at 
 every turn would illustrate and present the best form of 
 genius. [Applause.] 
 
 We have received here these men who in letters, in arms, 
 and in statesmanship have illustrated all that is greatest and 
 grandest of our time in this and other countries ; at the 
 same time by sundry accidents which happen in clubs like 
 this, as well as in politics, we have received gentlemen who 
 have culminated at this reception and never been heard of 
 afterward. [Laughter.] And the receptions which have 
 marked our history would illustrate the manner in which
 
 340 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 in one sense the country which our guest represents sought 
 to capture this great and growing empire. When that 
 gentleman whom Macaulay alludes to as sitting upon the 
 broken arch of London Bridge, has become tired of these 
 reflections and come over here for grander and larger ones, 
 swinging upon the broken string of the Brooklyn Bridge, 
 to muse upon what has been and might be, his thoughts 
 will recur to the efforts continuously made and partly suc- 
 cessful of the mother country to capture and control her 
 wayward child on this side of the Atlantic. She began at 
 the beginning by attempting to wallop us, and made that 
 discovery which many a parent has made before, when the 
 child has gone forth into the world and become independent 
 and self-reliant, that he returns, not a boy, but a full-grown 
 man. Since that time for a hundred years, by diplomacy 
 and by other art, England has endeavored to make this great 
 empire the tail of the British kite. [Laughter.] Now, we 
 have been able to resist her armies and her navies, but she 
 has captured us in a sense, that she does all our carrying- 
 trade, and tolls us for the whole of the profit. She has 
 captured us in a sense that our best society speaks with a 
 dialect of the noble language which is called English 
 [laughter] ; but while we could resist her armies and her 
 navies, while we could withstand the metrical and musical 
 assaults of her Sullivans and her Gilberts [laughter], there 
 is a point where we feel that there is a necessity of not 
 surrendering — that is when the British lecturer appears. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 A modern Briton, when he feels that he has a mission to 
 reveal to the world, goes out, not to the country which 
 needs it most, his own [laughter], but comes over here and 
 in the spirit of the purest philanthropy lets us have it at 
 two hundred dollars a night. [Applause and laughter.] 
 And that is the reason why Mr. Sala, notwithstanding his 
 modest declaimer that he is a traveller sojourning through 
 the land, goes to San Fransisco by way of Portland and 
 Boston. [Laughter.] Now, then, the present commercial 
 difficulties in this country — lack of prosperity, the closing 
 of the mills and all that which we are accustomed to ascribe 
 to the fact that a Democratic Administration has come into 
 power, are due to this horde of English lecturers. [Laugh-
 
 OUR ENCil.Isn VISITORS 3_j I 
 
 ter. ] But like the Chinaman who comes here, to accumu- 
 late and not to stay, he carries away with him all our sur- 
 plus and leaves nothing but ideas. ( Laughtcr.J 
 
 I well remember, as you do, Mr. President, when this 
 system of insidious English attack upon our institutions 
 was begun. Thackeray, that grand-hearted and genial critic, 
 began it ; Dickens, with his magnificent dramatic talent, 
 continued it, and then what have we suffered since! Look 
 at Sergeant Ballantync, who brought to us jokes so old 
 tliat they fall within the provisions of the penal act [laugh- 
 ter], and carried away stories which have since convulsed 
 the British Empire. [Laughter and applause.] Look at 
 Herbert Spencer, the dyspeptic, lean, hungry, sleepless, ema- 
 ciated, prostrated with nervous prostration [laughter] ; he 
 appeared before us looking for all the world like Pickwick 
 gone to seed, and lectured us upon overwork. [Laughter.] 
 Look at Matthew Arnold, that apostle of light and sunshine, 
 who came here and had an experience wdiich might excite 
 the compassion of all. He found himself in that region 
 from which Mr. Pulitzer hails, in the midst of what is termed 
 a lecture corpse : The lecture manager made this introduc- 
 tory speech : " Ladies and gentlemen, next week we shall 
 have here those beautiful singers, the Johnson sisters ; two 
 weeks from to-night Professor Force-Wind will give us mag- 
 nificent views of Europe upon the magic lantern ; and to- 
 night I have the pleasure of introducing to you that dis- 
 tinguished philosopher who has passed most of his life in 
 Lidia, Matthew Arnold, who is the author of that great poem 
 " The Light of Asia." [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Well now then, gentlemen, whatever may be said of the 
 previous representatives of the British Empire, we, repre- 
 senting the whole American people, welcome here to-night 
 our guest, George Augustus Sala. [Applause.] We wel- 
 come him, because he is, of all Englishmen, the most like an 
 American. He writes editorials v/hich fire people like the 
 sound of a trumpet ; he writes books which a man may take 
 home to his friends and read to his famil)' with perfect sat- 
 isfaction, and without the fear of a blush. Me is the best 
 after-dinner speaker among the English people, and equal to 
 most of our American after-dinner speakers. [ Laughter.] 
 I see that in that interview in which he sa\'s tliat he has
 
 342 CHAUNCKY mitchp:ll depp:w 
 
 come here to make money — 1 was glad to see he refuted 
 the statement that among his lectures was one upon "Cul- 
 ture, Costumes, and Cookery." I want him to understand, 
 as he traverses this continent by w^ay of Boston and Portland 
 to San Francisco, that the lecture-going and intelligent peo- 
 ple of this country will not stand alliteration. [Laughter 
 and applause.] A great social, religious and moral and po- 
 litical revolution has been wrought in this Republic by 
 Rome, Rheumatism and Rebellion. [ Loud laughter.] 
 
 While we were opposed for twenty years to Mr. Sala, 
 and did not see him because he said the South would ulti- 
 mately succeed in conquering this country, we welcome him 
 here to-night, because we entertained then a prophet un- 
 awares. [Laughter.] Now, then, I feel always a degree of 
 hesitancy and timidity in criticising to any extent, the rep- 
 resentatives of the Third Estate, and I understand from 
 this same interview that our guest to-night has written 
 seven thousand leading articles, while he claims that he is 
 the possessor beyond all other men of the largest catholicity 
 of opinion and of the greatest charity for the opinions of 
 other men. I have always found that in his views and in 
 his view of other people's views, he is very much like the 
 sentiment entertained by good old Dean Richmond in the 
 early history of the New York Central Railroad — by the 
 waj^ the best railroad in this country [laughter], a man 
 must sometimes have the courage of his convictions. 
 [Laughter.] Dean Richmond called before him at one time 
 the superintendent of the Car Department and said to him : 
 " Sir, I want you to understand that this organization allows 
 absolute liberty to the head of every department to do as he 
 pleases in his own department, responsible only for the re- 
 sults, and you can paint your cars any blank color you like, 
 provided you paint them red." [Laughter.] 
 
 But, gentlemen, in a broader and a larger sense we wel- 
 come Mr. Sala here to-night ; it is not so much because he 
 is an eminent journalist, as he is ; not so much because he 
 is an eminent lecturer, as he is ; but because America is rec- 
 ognizing the fact which she needs to recognize quite as 
 much as any country in the world, that he is a citizen of the 
 world. [Applause.] Steam and electricity have broken 
 down barriers which in former times made provincialism,
 
 IRELAND 343 
 
 patriotism ; and every man no mattei" whether he be a busi- 
 ness man, whether he be a journaHst, whether he be a lec- 
 turer, whether he be a statesman, is forced to reco^Miizethat 
 steam and electricity bring all the world in harmony to- 
 gether. 
 
 What concerns civilization, what concerns the progress, 
 what concerns the policy, what concerns the statesmanship, 
 what concerns the legislation of any country, concerns 
 equally the interests of all other countries on the face of 
 globe. [Applause.] Upon the banks of the Merrimac, 
 upon the banks of the Ohio, and the Mississippi, upon the 
 banks of the great northern lakes, a million hands may be idle, 
 dependent upon the fact whether the Suez Canal is open, 
 dependent upon the fact whether the Isthmus is pierced, 
 dependent upon the fact whether the Congo is made a mart 
 for the commerce of the world. And in a rush which is not 
 commercial but literary we welcome Sala here to-night, be- 
 cause, though a London journaHst, he is serving the world, 
 concentrating there his ideas, putting them in such shape 
 that in England, in America, in Australia, in all quarters of 
 the civilized world they are recognized as ideas of value 
 and interest to all men. [Loud and continued applause.] 
 
 IRELAND 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at a complimentary dinner given to 
 Justin McCarthy by the Irish Parliamentary Fund Association at New 
 York, October 2, 1886. Judge Edward Browne presided. The response 
 to the toast, " Ireland," was assigned to Mr. Depew. The following 
 lines by John Boyle O'Reilly were selected for the motto : — 
 
 " God scatters her sons like seed on the lea, 
 
 And they root where they fall, be it mountain or furrow ; 
 They come to remain and remember ; and she 
 
 In their growth will rejoice in a blissful to-morrow."] 
 
 Mr. Chairman : — The first of my ancestors reached this 
 country about 250 years ago. Many of them came after- 
 ward. [Great laughter.] The result is I am selected to 
 stand in the presence of every nationality as one of Ameri- 
 can blood. [Renewed laughter.] One of my ancestors left 
 Ireland over 125 years ago, and I left it three weeks ago.
 
 344 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 [Laughter and applause.] He never returned, but I expect 
 to take my seat in the strangers' gallery of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment. [A voice : " There will be no strangers' gallery in 
 the Irish Parliament."] Unless I should be elected a mem- 
 ber from County Cork. [Great laughter and applause.] 
 
 It affords mc unusual pleasure to begin the festive exer- 
 cises of the winter by joining in a welcome to our dis- 
 tinguished guest to-night. In his versatility, his marvellous 
 capacity to move in many directions, and all acceptable to 
 himself and his friends, he seems to me to be more than any 
 man on the other side peculiarly an American. [Laughter.] 
 He has impressed himself upon the American people as a 
 literary man by possessing that facility which alone secures 
 from them a reading. In his romances he seems to be re- 
 citing history, and his histories are romances. [Great 
 laughter.] But we welcome him to-night, not because he 
 has touched the chord which is responded to by every cul- 
 tivated American — and every American is cultivated [laugh- 
 ter and applause] — but because he represents a principle 
 with which every American agrees with him. [Applause.] 
 In England, during the recent canvass and elections, a Tory 
 member of Parliament said to me : " Does anybody in 
 x\merica take any interest in the question which Mr. Glad- 
 stone has precipitated upon us except the Irish?" I said 
 to him : " There are no cross-roads in the United States 
 where the question is not watched with the same eagerness 
 with which we watch a Presidential canvass and election. 
 There is no cross-roads hamlet, village or city in America 
 where the Irish question is not talked about day by day, 
 and the only difference between an ordinary Presidential 
 election with us and this election is, that our voices and our 
 votes are all on one side." [Long-continued applause.] 
 " Well," he said, " that is because you are not informed." 
 I said to him : " It is because we are educated on that 
 question, and England proper is not." The principle of 
 Home Rule starts from the town meeting, starts from 
 the village caucus, starts from the ward gathering, reaches 
 the County Supervisors, stops at the State Legislature, and 
 delegates imperial power only to Congress. [Great ap- 
 plause.] The whole genius and spirit of American liberty 
 is Home Rule in the locality where it best understands
 
 irp:land 345 
 
 what it needs, and it is only on general matters that the 
 general government controls. [Applause.] 
 
 With all our English-speaking race, whatever may be its 
 origin or its commingling with other races, there is at the 
 bottom a savage spirit, a brutal spirit, by which we seek to 
 gain what is necessary to our power or our pelf by might, 
 and to hold it no matter what may be the right. Under 
 the impetus of that spirit, the English-speaking race have 
 trodden upon rights and liberties and secured privileges 
 until they virtually circle and control the globe. We our- 
 selves, in our own country, are no strangers to the spirit in 
 the manner in which for a century we trampled upon the 
 rights of the slave, and in the manner in which we to-day 
 trample upon the rights of the Indian, [Applause.] But, 
 thank God ! in the evolution of the moral principle of human 
 nature, in the enlightenment which belongs to the race of 
 which we are so proud, in the exercise and in the power of 
 the Church within and without, there has grown up in our 
 race a conscience to which an appeal can be successfully 
 made. [Applause.] It is the appeal to that conscience 
 which came within seventy-five thousand votes of carrying 
 the election for Home Rule in Ireland. The middle-class 
 Englishman, whatever may be the prejudices against him 
 in Ireland and in this country, is a hard-hearted, but con- 
 scientious, moral, and family-loving man. [Applause.] All 
 he needs is to be educated to a realization of what is right 
 and what is wrong, and he will rise to the emergency. 
 [Applause.] He had followed Gladstone for a quarter of a 
 century, and when Gladstone said this is the right road, 
 believing it not to be the right, he followed Gladstone. 
 [Applause.] When Gladstone and those who are behind 
 him have educated him, within two years from to-night he 
 will turn around and say to the Tory government, to Union- 
 Liberal government, to Liberal government, to Radical 
 government : " Justice to Ireland, or you cannot stay in 
 power." [Great applause.] 
 
 Now, I thought I would talk to these people. The 
 Yankee doesn't amount to much unless he asks questions — 
 and I am a Yankee — that is, an Irish Yankee. I said to a 
 Tory of some note : " Why do you oppose Mr. Gladstone's 
 bill?" "Why," said he, " because it would confiscate, by
 
 346 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 the Irish Parliament, every bit of property there is in Ire- 
 land, and the Protestant minority would be crushed out and 
 driven from the face of the earth." I said to the Union- 
 Liberal: " Why do you oppose Home Rule?" He said: 
 •' Because it would lead to the disruption of the British 
 Empire — the same question you had to contend with in 
 America." I said to the English manufacturer : " Why 
 don't you help Ireland by taking over your capital and de- 
 veloping her capacities ? " He said : " Because the beggars 
 won't work," I said to the English squire, who is alive to- 
 day, but who is simply the mummied representative of his 
 ancestors of the fourteenth century : " Why are you 
 opposed to Gladstone and Home Rule for Ireland?" 
 " Why," said he, " because the Irish are children and must 
 have a firm hand to govern them." 
 
 Well, gentlemen, all those questions are answered suc- 
 cessfully either in America or Ireland to-day. The fact that 
 among the noblest, the most brilliant, the most magnificent 
 contributions to the forces of human liberty, not only in 
 Ireland but in the world, which have been given in the last 
 century, have come from the Protestant minority in Ireland, 
 answers the question of Irish bigotry. Through that an- 
 cestor who left Ireland a hundred and twenty-five years ago, 
 I come from that same Presbyterian stock which is repre- 
 sented to-day by Parnell, and which dared to take its chances 
 with Home Rule among its fellow-citizens. What have the 
 Irishmen in this country done? Whenever they are freed 
 from the distressing and oppressing influences which have 
 borne them down for centuries in their country, they do 
 work. They have built our great public works ; they have 
 constructed our vast system of railways ; they have done 
 more than that ; they have risen to places of power and 
 eminence in every walk of industry and in every avenue 
 which is open to brains and to pluck. The only complaint 
 we have against them is, that they show too much genius 
 for government and get all the ofifices. I have some ambi- 
 tions myself, and I am for Home Rule in Ireland, because I 
 want these fellows to go back to give me a chance. 
 
 I read in one of the leading papers this morning — I shall 
 not state which for fear of exciting an irruption here on 
 this platform, but it was the leading paper — that the
 
 IKKLAXD 3^17 
 
 Prime Minister of Austria [Count Taaffc], who was a 
 member of the Irish Peerage, under some name which I 
 now forget, had been engaged through his agent in evicting 
 some hundreds of his tenants. It seemed to me to preacli 
 the most pregnant lesson of Irish difficulty and Irish relief. 
 The Prime Minister of Austria, as all the world knows, is a 
 m;ui of pre-eminent ability, of extraordinary power in the 
 management of international questions, of profound and 
 magnificent patriotism — to Austria. But engrossed as he is 
 in the great question of how the peace of Europe is to be 
 preserved with the position of Russia on one hand and 
 Germany on the other, how is he to perform his part as an 
 Irish citizen toward the people who are dependent upon 
 him for support or encouragement, for that sympathy 
 which should flow between him who holds the land, and 
 him wlio tills it for a price ? The world has come to 
 recognize that property has its obligations as well as 
 labor. The world has come to recognize that he who has, 
 if he would enjoy, must reciprocate with those who have 
 not, and with those who are dependent upon him. But 
 as all wealth springs from the earth, and as all national 
 prosperity comes from the soil, if there is in any country 
 — as thank God there is not in ours — a system by which the 
 tenant's title goes down from generation to generation, 
 unless the lord is there in his castle, so that between the 
 castle and the cottage there is an indissoluble tie, in sickness 
 and in health, in poverty and prosperity, each sympathizing 
 with the other's woes, each sharing the other's joys — 
 he has no place in that land, and the law should say to him, 
 not : " We wall strip you of your possessions without price ; " 
 but " with a price that is fair, we will give them to the tillers 
 of the soil." 
 
 I was the other day — three weeks ago — in an Irish city ; 
 and as I was passing along the street, I saw on the lintel of 
 a door the emblems of mourning. There came out two 
 solemn-looking persons whom I judged from their conversa- 
 tion to be the doctor and his assistant. They walked along 
 seeming to feel very bad over the misfortune that had 
 befallen the family or the falling off of their revenues, but 
 when they reached the opposite corner of the street, they 
 turned, and one said to the other: " Mr. O'Flyn, we did the
 
 348 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 best we could." "Yes," says he, " Mr. O'Brien, and it was 
 a melancholy pleasure." Now I have attended a great many 
 funerals in my life ; I expect to attend a grea': many more ; 
 and there are many obsequies to which I go which afford 
 me a melancholy pleasure. I feel melancholy in outward 
 aspect out of respect to my surroundings, and have great 
 pleasure in the event ; and the funeral of the passion and 
 the prejudice of England, which for ages have cursed Ire- 
 land, I shall attend with a melancholy pleasure. 
 
 The difficulty about Ireland and the United States is, that 
 while the Americans have talked — as wc all have to talk 
 upon the stump and platform, some of us for votes, and some 
 of us because we feel it, about the rights and wrongs of 
 Ireland — the difficulty with us has always been that we did 
 not know what Irishmen wanted. We have reached an age 
 when sentiment is gone. We are no longer a sentimental 
 people. We have come to a period when passion can no 
 longer be torn to tatters, unless there is a foundation for the 
 cloth. When we believe a people to be suffering from 
 tyranny and injustice, then we can be full of sentiment in 
 our sympathies, and intensely practical in our assistance. 
 In the divided councils of the past we could not learn what 
 the Irish wanted for Ireland, but the full lesson has been 
 taught us by the same great leader who has consolidated the 
 opinions and the purposes of his countrymen — Charles 
 Stewart Parnell. 
 
 I doubt if the justice and strength of Mr. Parnell's position 
 would have been so thoroughly understood, and so unani- 
 mously approved, by the American people, except for the 
 conversion and resistless advocacy of an English statesman 
 who has for years held the first place in our admiration and 
 respect. Americans recognize genius everywhere, and 
 neither race nor nationality is a barrier to their appreciation 
 and applause. Beyond all other men in the Old World, one 
 luiglishman of supreme ability, of marvellous eloquence, and 
 varied acquirements, has fired their imaginations and en' 
 thusiasm — William E. Gladstone. 
 
 During the fifty years he has been in public life, there 
 have been other English statesmen as accomplished and 
 eminent in many departments of activity and thought; 
 many whose home and foreign policies have received equal,
 
 THE NEW NETHERLANDERS 349 
 
 if not greater, approval from their contemporaries ; two 
 hundred years from now none of them will be remembered 
 but Gladstone. His fame will rest upon the great achieve- 
 ment of having saved the Empire he loved from a policy 
 based upon ignorance and prejudice which would have 
 destroyed it, and the greater triumph of having liberated a 
 noble people, for centuries oppressed, who will forever keep 
 his name alive with their gratitude. 
 
 THE NEW NETHERLANDERS 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at the sixth annual festival of the 
 New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, 
 1886. The President, Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland, was in the chair. In 
 introducing Mr. Depew the chairman said : "There are states not set 
 down on the map. We used to hear of the State of Camden and Amboy. 
 [Laughter.] I remember that when Commodore Stockton resigned his 
 seat in the United States Senate, it was remarked as an example of close 
 adherence to official etiquette that his letter of resignation was addressed 
 to the Governor of the State of New Jersey, and not to the President of 
 the Camden & Amboy Railroad. [Laughter.] There is a State to the 
 north of us which is largely known by its initials, H. R. & N. Y. C. R. R. 
 [Laughter.] The presiding officer of that municipality is a gentleman 
 to whose honor it should be said that he recognizes the duties as well as 
 the rights of the position, and that high among those duties he places 
 a wise regard for the welfare of the great army of his employed. He is 
 not, it is true, a native of New England ; but then, if you come to that, 
 neither were the Pilgrim Fathers. [Laughter.] He belongs to a race 
 which had much in common with New England, the same industry and 
 thrift, the same mastery of the seas, the same love for civil and religious 
 liberty. Nor let us forget that the refuge which the Pilgrims could not 
 find in their native land, they found in Holland. The sentiment, ' The 
 New Netherlanders, the Pilgrim Fathers of Manhattan,' will be responded 
 to by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — I do not see why 
 you should send to New York for after-dinner speakers when 
 you have a chairman fully equipped to make a speech upon 
 every toast that is presented. [Laughter.] He takes the 
 meat, as it were, dessicates it, and leaves the shell for the 
 unfortunate guest who is to follow. Next year we will take 
 him over to New York. The President of the New England 
 Society of New York said to me : " Depew, you know a good 
 thing when you see it. If you find anything of that sort in
 
 350 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 Philadelphia let us know." I have found it. [Laughter 
 and applause.] 
 
 I met on the train, coming over here to-night, a Penn- 
 sylvania Dutchman of several generations, who asked me 
 what business called me to Philadelphia. I replied : " I am 
 going to attend the annual banquet of the New England 
 Society of Pennsylvania ; which I understand to be the most 
 important event that takes place in that State." He re- 
 marked : " 1 did not know there was such a society, nor 
 did I know there were enough Yankees in Philadelphia 
 to form a decent crowd around a dinner table ; because the 
 Yankees can't make money in Philadelphia, and a Yankee 
 never stays where he can't make money." [Laughter.] 
 
 It is a most extraordinary thing that one should come 
 from New York to Philadelphia for the purpose of attending 
 a New England dinner. It is a most extraordinary thing 
 that a New England dinner should be held in Philadelphia. 
 Your Chairman to-night spoke of the hard condition of the 
 Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock. Let me say that 
 if the Puritans had come up the Delaware, landed here and 
 begun life with terrapin and canvas-back duck, there never 
 would have been any Puritan story to be retailed from year 
 to year at Forefathers' dinners. [Laughter.] If William 
 Penn had ever contemplated that around his festive board 
 would sit those Puritans with whom he was familiar in 
 England, he would have exclaimed : " Let all the savages on 
 the Continent come, but not them." It is one of the pleas- 
 ing peculiarities of the Puritan mind, as evidenced in the 
 admirable address of Mr. Curtis here to-night (and when 
 you have heard Mr. Curtis, you have heard the best that a 
 New Englander, who has been educated in New York, can 
 do), that when they erect a monument in Philadelphia or 
 New York to the Pilgrim or Puritan, they say : " See how 
 these people respect the man whom they profess to revile." 
 But they paid for them and built the monuments them- 
 selves ! [Laughter.] The only New Englanders of Phil- 
 adelphia whom I have met are the officials of the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad. When I dine with them, enjoy their 
 hospitality, revel in that glorious sociability which is their 
 characteristic and charm, I think that they are Dutchmen. 
 When I meet them in business, and am impressed with their
 
 THE NEW NETHERLANDERS 351 
 
 desire to possess the earth, I think that they came over in 
 the " Mayflower." [Continued laughter.] 
 
 There is no part of the world to-night, whether it be in 
 the Arctic Zone, or under the equatorial sun, or in monar- 
 chies, or in despotisms, or among the Fiji Islanders, where 
 the New Englanders are not gathered for the purpose of 
 celebrating and feasting upon Forefathers' Day. But there 
 is this peculiarity about the New Englander, that, if he 
 cannot find anybody to quarrel with, he gets up a contro- 
 versy with himself, inside of himself. [Laughter.] We who 
 expect to eat this dinner annually — and to take the conse- 
 quences ! — went along peacefully for years with the under- 
 standing that the 22d of December was the day, when it 
 suddenly broke out that the New Englander, within himself, 
 had got up a dispute that the 21st was the day. I watched 
 it with interest, because I always knew that when a Yankee 
 got up a controversy with anybody else, it was for his profit ; 
 and I wondered how he could make anything by having a 
 quarrel with himself. Then I found that he ate both the 
 dinners with serene satisfaction ! [Laughter.] But why 
 should a Dutchman, a man of Holland descent, bring " coals 
 to Newcastle" by coming here among the Pennsylvania 
 Dutch for the purpose of attending a New England 
 dinner? It is simply another tribute extorted by the con- 
 queror from the conquered people, in compelling him not 
 only to part with his possessions, his farms, his sisters, his 
 daughters, but to attend the feast, to see devoured the 
 things raised upon his own farm, and then to assist the con- 
 queror to digest them by telling him stories. [Laughter.] 
 
 My first familiarity with the Boston mind and its pecu- 
 liarities was when I was a small boy, in that little Dutch 
 hamlet on the Hudson where I was born, when we were 
 electrified by the State Superintendent of Massachusetts 
 coming to deliver us an address. He said : " My children, 
 there was a little flaxen-haired boy in a school that I ad- 
 dressed last year ; and when I came over this year, he was 
 gone. Where do you suppose he had gone?" One of our 
 little Dutch innocents replied, " To heaven." " Oh, no, my 
 boy," the Superintendent said, *' he is a clerk in a store in 
 Boston." [Laughter.] 
 
 John Winslow said that the Connecticut River was the
 
 352 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 dividing line between the Continent of New England and 
 the Continent of America ; and he foresaw the time, in his 
 imagination, when there should grow up, upon the eastern 
 side of the Connecticut River, a population of hundreds of 
 thousands, perhaps millions, who would enjoy their homes, 
 their liberties, civil and religious, and build up a State. lie 
 never looked forward to that time, in the evolution of the 
 species, when the New England farm would pass from the 
 hands of the Puritan into the possession of the Irishman, 
 who would cultivate it and earn a living where the Yankee 
 could not live, and who would threaten the supremacy of 
 New England faith and the supremacy of New England pol- 
 itics. If he had looked forward, he would have rejoiced in the 
 fact that, in the expansion of the New England idea and in 
 the exodus of the New England Pilgrim, the Yankee marched 
 forth over the continent to possess it and to build it 
 up in the interests of civil and religious liberty ; so that, 
 instead of a few hundred thousands on the sterile hills of 
 New England, sixty millions of people should rise up and 
 call him blessed in the plenitude of a power, a greatness 
 and a future unequalled among the nations of the earth. 
 
 If from any of the planets in our sphere there should 
 come a being endowed with larger perceptions and observa- 
 tions than our own, and not familiar with our civilization or 
 creeds, and he should drop in at a New England dinner any- 
 where to-night, he might ask, "Who are these people?" 
 and he would be told, "They are the people who claim to 
 have created this great Republic, and to have put into it 
 all that is in it that is worth preserving." If he should ask, 
 " What is their creed and faith, and what do they worship ? " 
 he would be told to wait and listen to their speeches. 
 When finally he had gone out, he would say, " They wor- 
 ship their forefathers and themselves." [Laughter.] And 
 yet there is not a descendant of the Pilgrims in this room 
 to-night who could stay in a ten-acre lot for three hours v\"ith 
 his ancestors, to save his soul. [Laughter.] There is not 
 one of those gaunt, ascetic and bigoted men who sang 
 through his nose and talked cant, as described here so effect- 
 ively on the other side of the picture presented by Mr. Cur- 
 tis, who would not have every one of his descendants here 
 to-night put into the lock-up as roystering blades, danger-
 
 THE NEW NETHEKLANDERS 353 
 
 oustothe morals of the community. But, nevertheless, i 
 can join in that measure of sweet song, of magnificent adu- 
 lation and superb eulogium which has been given to us from 
 the tongue and pen of one who has no equal among our 
 speakers and writers of America. 
 
 The Puritan was a grand character. He was a grand 
 character, because of what he was and did, and because of 
 what circumstances made him. Fighting with the State for 
 his liberty, he learned to doubt, and then to deny, the divine 
 right of kings. Fighting with the Church for his conscience, 
 its possession and expression, he learned to doubt, and then 
 to deny, the divine right of hierarchies ; but this created within 
 him that spirit which made him recognize that the only 
 foundation of the Church, if it will live, that the only foun- 
 dation of the State, if it will be free, is man and the man- 
 hood of the individual. The family idea of all ages created 
 the patriarch and his rule, the chieftain of the tribe and his 
 rule, the despot and his rule, the military chieftain and his 
 rule, the feudal lord and his rule ; every step illumining 
 the individual, crushing liberty, producing despotism, 
 making the riders and the ridden ; but when the Puritan 
 discovered, as he annunciated in the cabin of the " May- 
 flower," that there should be just and equal laws, and 
 before those laws all men should stand equal ; when he 
 carried out in his administration that there should be the 
 township as the basis of the State, and the State as the unit 
 out of which should be created the Republic, then he dis- 
 covered the sublime and eternal principle which solves all 
 difficulties of Home Rule and modern liberty. 
 
 Now, this magnificent man never would have amounted 
 to much, never would have founded a State, never would 
 have builded a government, if Providence had not sent him to 
 Holland, among my ancestors. The Pilgrim who went to 
 Holland, and there learned toleration, there learned to re- 
 spect the rights, the opinions and liberties of others ; there 
 learned the principle of the common school and universal 
 education ; when he got to Plymouth Rock, never burned 
 witches, never hanged Quakers, never drove out Baptists ; 
 he always fought against all this. It was the Puritan, 
 20,000 strong, who came years afterwards, who did those 
 things ; and, except for the leaven of the Pilgrim who had 
 23
 
 354 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 been to Holland, the Puritan would not be celebrated here 
 to-night. P'our hundred of them went to Holland, every 
 man with a creed of his own and anxious to burn at the 
 stake the other three hundred and ninety-nine because they 
 did not agree with him. But being there enlightened, they 
 discovered the magnificence of the universe. All over Hol- 
 land they saw compulsory school education sustained by 
 the State. They found a country in which there was uni- 
 versal toleration of religion, in which the persecuted Jew 
 could find an asylum, in which even the Inquisitor could 
 be safe from the vengeance of his enemies ; and there, after 
 they had been prepared to found a State, and to build it, 
 when they got down to Delfshaven to depart, the Dutch- 
 men, in their hospitality, gave them a farewell dinner as a 
 send-off. It was the first good dinner they had ever had, 
 the first square meal the Puritan ever had. [Laughter.] It 
 followed that when they went on board the ship they were 
 happy and they were— full. I do not know whether the 
 word " full " had the same signifiance in those times that it 
 has now, or not. [Laughter.] And then Pastor Robinson 
 preached the sermon in the afternoon, in which he told them 
 that the whole truth was not given to Luther, though he 
 thought so, nor to Calvin, though his disciples said so ; but 
 that in the future there would be a development of the truth 
 which they must nurse and evolute. See how they have 
 nursed and evoluted it. Why, they have nursed and evo- 
 luted that truth into so many creeds and doctrines on the 
 sterile hills of New England that they deny the existence 
 of a heaven — many of them ; and many more would deprive 
 us of the comforts of a hell for — some people. [Laughter.] 
 Now, who were those people who founded New Nether- 
 lands and who entertained so hospitably those Puritans and 
 gave them such a grand send-off ? I remember that a 
 vicious and irate adherent of the Stuarts says, in his history, 
 looking with vengeance upon the accession of William of 
 Orange to the throne of England, that the Puritan and the 
 Hollander were shaken out of the same bag. And so they 
 were. That same vigorous Northern stock came down to 
 settle upon the marshes of Holland and in the fens of Eng- 
 land. The stock that remained in England produced Pym 
 and Hampden, and Sidney and Russell, with a cross of
 
 THE NEW NETIIERLANDERS 355 
 
 Swedish pirate or Nortliern conqueror; ])ut tlie orifjinal 
 stock which went to Holland fought off forever, during its 
 whole existence, the power of the Roman Empire ; fought 
 off the hordes of barbarians who came down upon the 
 ruins of the Roman Empire, fought off all the forces 
 and powers of mediaeval chivalry and won their grand 
 victory when they took from the sea herself a land, that 
 upon it they might govern themselves upon the principles of 
 their own manhood and of civil and religious liberty. Those 
 people were not a selfish people ; but they liked to be by 
 themselves and to govern themselves. Theirs was precisely 
 the sentiment of the Hebrew speculator in Wall Street re- 
 cently, who, when he had scooped everybody about him, 
 gathered his co-conspirators around the festive board and 
 said to them, " Now, shentlemen, we feel shust as if we were 
 among ourselves." [Laughter.] 
 
 Holland, at a time when there was no light for man any- 
 where in the world, preserved the principles of civil liberty. 
 Holland, at a time when learning was crushed out or buried 
 in the monasteries, had her asylums, her libraries and her 
 universities. Holland, at a time when the bigotry of the 
 church crushed out all expression of conscience and individ- 
 ual belief, had her toleration and religious liberty. For a 
 century, Holland was the safe-deposit company of the 
 rights of man. For a century, Holland was the electric 
 light which illumined the world and saved mankind. 
 
 But, gentlemen, how did your forefathers repay my an- 
 cestors for all this kindness? Why, you came over to New 
 York to teach school, and you got into the confiding Dutch 
 families ; you married their daughters ; and then, as the 
 able son-in-law, you administered upon the estate and you 
 gave us — what was left. [Laughter.] Yet I am willing to 
 admit that the Dutchmen never could have colonized this 
 country or created this Republic. I am willing to admit 
 that my ancestors were too pleasure-loving, comfort-loving 
 and home-loving. They needed just that strain which you 
 have, which is never tired, never restful, never at peace ; 
 just that strain which, receiving sufficient capital to start 
 with from my ancestors, went out and crossed the borders 
 and built up all these grand Western and Northwestern 
 States .and carried civilization across the continent to the
 
 356 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 Pacific coast. You go into a territory, you organize the men 
 of all nationalities and of all languages who are there into a 
 territorial government ; then you organize them into a 
 State ; then you take the Governorships and the Judgeships ; 
 then you found the capital at the place where you own all 
 the town-lots ; then you bring the territory into the Union, 
 and the glory and perfection of the Federal principle is vindi- 
 cated. But, without you and just these incentives, we never 
 would have had an American Republic as great and glo- 
 rious as it is. 
 
 But, with all your selfishness, with all your desire for 
 profit, for pelf, for gain, there is this underlying principle 
 in the Yankee : in every community which he founds, in 
 every State which he builds, he carries with him the church, 
 he carries with him the schoolhouse. He may want money, 
 and he will get it if he can ; he may want property, and he 
 will get it if he can ; but, first and foremost, he must have 
 liberty of conscience, liberty of thought, liberty of speech, 
 all of liberty that belongs to a man, consonant with the 
 liberty of others ; and he must have that same liberty for 
 every man beside himself. [Applause.] 
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY 
 
 [Speecli of Chauncey M. Depew at a dinner of the Yale Alumni, New 
 York, January 20, 188S. Dr. Depew presided and, in opening the speak- 
 ing, announced the apologies of some who were unable to be present, 
 among whom were William M. Evarts, Wayne MacVeagh and Abram 
 Hewitt. When the laughter following Dr. Depew's humorous presenta- 
 tion of these apologies had subsided, he said : " Notwithstanding these 
 disappointments, Yale is here. [Applause.] For the loss of no man af- 
 fects Yale. [Applause.] It only affects the man himself." Then he 
 turned to his speech, which follows.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — An eminent alumnus said to me some years 
 ago that there was not enough in the theme or enthusiasm 
 to sustain the annual dinner for any American college. The 
 conditions which he contemplated at the time this remark 
 was made, justified the assertion. The annual collegiate 
 dinner at varying intervals was celebrated and abandoned, 
 and nowhere except in New York was it observed at all.
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY 357 
 
 Now there is no territory in the United States that does not 
 look forward with increasing interest to these gatherings, 
 and they have become so frequent and at points so distant 
 that the health and digestion of the college presidents have 
 been found absolutely unequal to their demands. [Laughter.] 
 We need not look far for the reasons of this extraordinary 
 and significant revolution. The college of Abelard, which 
 the conservatism of the Middle Ages had confined within 
 the scholastic limits of the classics and creeds, continued to 
 be, until the close of our Civil War, very largely the col- 
 lege of the Republic. Not the least of the emancipations of 
 that terrific struggle was the liberalism of the university. 
 The spirit of unrest was communicated from the alumni to 
 the faculty, from the faculty to the students. The mighty 
 forces which were combined in the prodigious development 
 of the nation urged irresistibly upon the colleges the ne- 
 cessity of an education which should be abreast of the times. 
 [Applause.] The old training which gave to the student 
 mental discipline and little else, must be exchanged for the 
 new learning which would give him mental discipline and 
 everything else. 
 
 With scarcely any adequate recognition of the change, 
 the great colleges of the country advanced in the years fol- 
 lowing the war with a step that kept pace with the highest 
 progress of the age. When our New York alumni began to 
 question the policy of the college and claim that it was not 
 producing the peculiar results which the times demanded, 
 the college had already reached a point beyond the demands 
 of the critics. [Applause.] The youth, the experience, the 
 talent for administration, the popularity of its new president, 
 enabled him to seize at once upon all the elements of 
 university life which existed in the college, and with the 
 material which only required the moulding hand of a great 
 architect, to build upon the old foundation a Nineteenth 
 Century university. [Applause.] From the teacher only, 
 the president became the executive of teachers; from the 
 active head of a department, lie became the responsible 
 manager of all departments and the sole administrator of 
 the young republic. The college was no longer bureaucratic 
 and disintegrated in its work, but it had an efficient execu- 
 tive and an admirable working cabinet. [Applause.]
 
 358 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 There is this difference between these two greatest and 
 most beneficent governments on earth, — that of the United 
 States and that of the University of Yale — one does not 
 know how to handle a surplus in the treasury, and the other 
 is showing a marvellous ability with a deficiency. [Laugh- 
 ter and applause.] Not that Yale is in debt or running 
 down, but her resources and income are unequal to her 
 superb preparation for expansion and her great opportun- 
 ities. 
 
 The resurrecting process and the rapid evolutions which 
 followed the creation of the university, developed limitless 
 opportunities for useful work. I have no hesitation in say- 
 ing from personal examination of the subject that, if the 
 liberal wealth, which is so freely bestowed when rightly in- 
 formed, could be given to the extent of three or four mil- 
 lions of dollars to Yale University, there would be in New 
 Haven, within five or six years, an institution of learning so 
 full rounded and complete in every department of educa- 
 tion, of thought and of practical work, that it would have no 
 equal in any country of the world. [Prolonged applause.] 
 Its influence would be felt through the magnificent equip- 
 ment of its graduates to the lasting honor and glory of the 
 country. 
 
 The graduate of thirty years ago could not enter the 
 freshman class of to-day. [Laughter.] His education has 
 come to him largely through the hard knocks and trying 
 experience of the making of a career, and yet he feels more 
 strongly than anyone else the advantages of an all-embrac- 
 ing university. He knows that the student of the present 
 and of the future should be left, not to his own ideas of 
 what he needs, not to the narrowing forces of a specialty 
 through the abuse of the optional system, but he should be 
 so broadly cultured and at the same time so practically in- 
 formed, that when he comes out and enters the law which 
 will narrow him ; upon the pulpit of his sect, which may 
 make him to some extent a bigot ; upon the journalistic 
 career, which will develop the partisan ; upon the medical or 
 scientific course which will absorb his attention and en- 
 thusiasm from other pursuits, the healthful and never-ceas- 
 ing influence of the broad and general realization of his 
 universal education will prevent him from ever becoming
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY 359 
 
 completely narrow or bigoted or partisan or blind. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 We go back to our college home at the annual Commence- 
 ment after a lapse of years and we rejoice and are proud of 
 the things that make it unlike the Yale of old. Our grati- 
 tude and our admiration are outspoken for the Sheffield 
 foundation, the Peabody, the Sloane, the Dwight Mall con- 
 tributions, the buildings which immortalize the donors and 
 aggrandize the college, and we say to the corporation and 
 the faculty: "Some things arc sacred and must not be 
 touched; increase your improvements but, no matter how 
 weighty the considerations for the change, spare the college 
 fence. [Laughter and applause.] It is connected with 
 associations that are tender and reminiscences that are rich 
 beyond the power of eloquence or poetry to portray. [Ap- 
 plause.] The seat upon the college fence was our first title 
 of manhood. From it we viewed for the first time that 
 beatific vision of the New Haven student, the New Haven 
 girl ; but whenever we returned, no matter how long have 
 been the intervening years, she looks as fresh and beautiful 
 as if she had drunk at the fountain of perennial youth. 
 [Laughter and applause.] Sitting upon the fence, no 
 matter how our early musical training may liave been 
 neglected, we have there acquired a musical education. 
 [Laughter.] The intense and absorbing strain produced by 
 the excitements of the opera compels the continuous con- 
 versation during the acts to escape the dangers incident to 
 nervous prostration, but when the sound is in progress upon 
 the college fence, no conversation is possible — or desirable. 
 What Thermopylae was to Greece, Runnymeade to England, 
 Yorktown to the American Republic, the fence is to the 
 student and alumnus of Yale, and it must not be touched.' 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 At the Columbia dinner an eloquent and witty repre- 
 sentative of Harvard took occasion in recounting the recent 
 glories of Yale to speak slightingly of her Sunday evening 
 appearance at Dockstader's theatre. His remarks illus- 
 trated upon what widely different lines Harvard and Yale 
 have progressed from their Puritan foundation. 
 
 When the Monday morning after we met, the metropolitan 
 press took exception to the remarks of Stagg that he al-
 
 360 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 ways prayed before he pitched, it showed a lamentable 
 ignorance of the true meaning of the Puritan spirit. It was 
 of the same origin as Cromwell's famous order : " Trust in 
 God and keep your powder dry," which carried his Iron- 
 sides to victory and liberty. [Applause.] It meant that 
 we are not fatalists, but believe in the old doctrine that 
 " God helps those who help themselves, and those who 
 help themselves God only helps." But Harvard had 
 a closer territorial relationship and repulsion from the 
 extremes of Puritan history ; instead of beginning her 
 athletic contests in the spirit and with the invoca- 
 tion of Naseby and Marston Moor, she ends them by im- 
 itating the example of that famous army which was the 
 antithesis of Puritanism, and of whom the historian says 
 that " they swore terribly in Flanders." [Laughter and 
 applause.] The athletic record of the year reads like a 
 triumphal announcement of the heralds at the Olympian 
 games. With bat and ball and oar on land and water the 
 blue has been uniformly triumphant and Yale reigns 
 supreme. Columbia cheers and strives to imitate, Prince- 
 ton applauds and despairs, and Harvard goes back to 
 Cambridge and kicks; but her misfortune is, that she does 
 not kick hard enought at the right time. The athletic 
 triumphs of Yale are celebrated by the increasing number 
 of the Freshman class, for the students at the preparatory 
 schools know what constitutes the higher branches of a 
 liberal education. But the enthusiasm of the victory 
 stretches beyond the field and the college walls. It stirs 
 up the old doctor riding around on his country calls ; it 
 gives a sensation not felt in years to the old lawyer among 
 his dusty briefs ; it quickens the pulse of the judge upon 
 the bench, the grave statesman of the Senate, the journalist 
 in his sanctum, and the minister in his study, and brings to 
 the surface that deep bond of sympathy which binds in 
 one united whole the students and faculty, corporation and 
 the alumni of the University of Yale. Gentlemen, here's 
 to Yale and her President, Timothy Dwight. [Great ap- 
 plause.J
 
 UNSOLVED I'KOliLKMS 36 1 
 
 UNSOLVED PROBLEMS 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at the eighty-fourth anniversary ban- 
 quet of the New Enghmd Society in the City of New York, December 
 23, 18S9. Cornelius N. Bhss, President of the Society, was in the chair. 
 The title of the toast was " Unsolved Problems." The sentiments as- 
 sociated with this toast were as follows : 
 
 "There are many events in the womb of time that will be deliv- 
 ered." — Othello, Act. I, Sc. 3. 
 
 " Since the affairs of men rest still uncertain, 
 Let's reason with the worst that may befall." 
 
 Julius Caesar, Act. V, Sc. i.] 
 
 President Bliss .said that it was not neces.sary to introduce the man who 
 would respond to this toast — " A man who made but one mistake in his 
 life, which was being born in Peekskill, instead of in New England. 
 No New England feast, however, is complete without him. We respect, 
 admire and love him — Chauncey M. Depew."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — The evolution of 
 the Puritan in problem solving is one of the most in- 
 teresting of studies. He acquired the faculty slowly, but 
 his developed genius in this work has made modern his- 
 tory. Before and after the English conquest of New 
 Amsterdam, the Yankee schoolmasters had given Dutch 
 youths object lessons in the value of this talent by set- 
 ting them sums which they could not do. [Laughter.] 
 By making the sums easy for the girls they won away the 
 Dutchmen's sweethearts and the broad acres of their sires. 
 [More laughter.] But the Puritans began their develop- 
 ment by licking the teacher. [Cheers.] Cromwell and 
 Hampden were the leaders of revolt against authority, and 
 Naseby, Marston Moor, and Dunbar, victories over the 
 Church and the university. When the Puritans in their 
 turn were whipped, they did not accept either the doctrine 
 or the ceremonial, but they ran away. They played hookey 
 on a gigantic scale, and never came again within the power 
 of the teachers of their age. But during their sojourn of 
 thirteen years in Holland, they learned that truth is an active 
 germ, which may be protected, but cannot grow by protests 
 and resistance. To regenerate the world, to create the con- 
 ditions dimly shadowed by their prayerful aspiration.s, it
 
 362 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 must be planted in every soil, and nurtured and cultured in 
 the midst of the most discouraging and forbidding surround- 
 ings. 
 
 The Dutch had solved their problems. They had saved 
 and kept alive for all the earth the expiring spark of liberty. 
 They had won and were enjoying civil and religious freedom. 
 Their little land was the sole asylum on the globe for per- 
 secuted conscience and the victims of tyranny. They liad 
 the university and the common school. But it was their 
 nature to be content. Their race was not of the propagan- 
 dist kind. They were never stirred with an uneasy and un- 
 quenchable desire to do something for other peoples. They 
 had profound faith in the virtue of minding their own busi- 
 ness. They encircled the earth with their commerce and 
 their colonies, but only for trade. The world stood upon 
 the great divide between retrogression and progress. It re- 
 quired the spirit of the martyrs, the courage of the crusaders, 
 the self-denial of religious enthusiasts, minds liberalized by 
 culture and consciences broadened by tolerance, to lead this 
 majestic advance of the peoples to the lofty planes of in- 
 dividual liberty and the highest civilization, and God gave 
 the commissions to the Puritan pilgrims from Holland. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 They were practical statesmen, these pilgrims. They 
 wasted no time theorizing upon methods, but went straight 
 at the mark. They solved the Indian problem with shot- 
 guns, and it was not General Sherman but Miles Standish 
 who originated the axiom that the only good Indians are the 
 dead ones. They were bound by neither customs nor 
 traditions, nor committals to this or that policy. The only 
 question with them was, Does it work ? The success of 
 their Indian experiment led them to try similar methods 
 with witches, Quakers, and Baptists. Their failure taught 
 them the difference between mind and matter. A dead 
 savage was another wolf under ground, but one of them- 
 selves, persecuted or killed for conscience' sake, sowed the 
 seed of discontent and disbelief. The effort to wall in a 
 creed and wall out liberty was at once abandoned, and to- 
 day New England has more religions and not less religion, 
 but less bigotry, than any other community in the world. 
 [Cheers.] Mr. Gladstone, in his broad and brilliant, but not
 
 UNSOLVED PROBLEMS 363 
 
 always accurate, generalizations, said that a most interesting 
 thing about the pilgrims was, that having left England two 
 hundred and fifty years ago, and braved the hardships and 
 perils of the sea and the wilderness, to enjoy the privilege 
 of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own 
 consciences, they had so impressed upon their children their 
 own intense piety that their descendants, after a lapse of 
 more than two centuries, were returning to the mother 
 country by the thousands with the single purpose of revisit- 
 ing the grand old cathedrals in which their ancestors wor- 
 shipped. I did not disillusionize the Grand Old Man by 
 telling him that, though having a larger acquaintance than 
 any person in America, I had never met that pilgrim, nor by 
 remarking that the fathers, if they could have had their way, 
 would have torn down the cathedrals as the sanctuaries of 
 Antichrist; and that while their descendants know more 
 about architecture, they have little more reverence than 
 their ancestors for religion symbolized in stone. 
 
 In an age when dynamite was unknown, the pilgrim in- 
 vented in the cabin of the " Mayflower" the most powerful of 
 explosives. The declaration of the equality of all men be- 
 fore the law has rocked thrones and consolidated classes. It 
 separated the colonies from Great Britain, and created the 
 United States. [Cheers.] It pulverized the chains of the 
 slaves, and gave manhood suffrage. [Cheers.] It devolved 
 upon the individual the functions of government, and made 
 the people the sole source of power. It substituted the cap of 
 liberty for the royal crown in France, and by a bloodless rev- 
 olution has added to the constellation of American republics 
 the star of Brazil. [Cheers.] But with the ever-varying con- 
 ditions incident to free government, the Puritan's talent as a 
 political mathematician will never rust. Problems of the ut- 
 most importance press upon him for solution. When, in the 
 effort to regulate the liquor traffic, he has advanced beyond 
 the temper of the times and the sentiment of the people in 
 the attempt to enact or enforce prohibition, and either been 
 disastrously defeated or the flagrant evasions of the statutes 
 have brought the law into contempt, he does not despair, but 
 tries to find the error in his calculation. [Applause.] 
 
 If gubernatorial objections block the way of high license, 
 he will bombard the executive judgment and conscience by
 
 364 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 a proposition to tax. The destruction of homes, the ruin of 
 the young, the increase of pauperism and crime, the added 
 burdens upon the taxpayers by the evils of intemperance, ap- 
 peal with resistless force to his training and traditions. As 
 the power of the saloon increases the difficulties of the task, 
 he becomes more and more certain that some time or other 
 and in some way or other he will do that sum. [Applause.] 
 
 The Dutchman soon tires before such obstacles, and takes 
 his ease. Theheir of three generations of Dutchmen at Peek- 
 skill, to whom his father had left the whole estate, said, after 
 the contest over the will had been going on for a year, " This 
 fight gives me so much trouble that I am almost sorry that 
 dad died." [Laughter.] But the further the Puritan got in 
 that contest the more he would enjoy it. He would not care 
 so much for the principles underlying the construction of 
 wills as to settle the question, even if it took his whole prop- 
 erty, whether a man can do what he likes with his own. In 
 the meantime, he is not disturbed by any unavailing regrets 
 over the sad event which gave him his opportunity. 
 
 Corporations and individuals, with the American talent for 
 affairs, have settled satisfactorily the basis upon which em- 
 ployment yields the greater happiness to the employed and 
 the larger returns to the business. The intelligence and ad- 
 mirable service of the 750,000 men on the pay-rolls of the rail- 
 way companies of the country have been demonstrated. 
 [Cheers.] The system by which they are appointed and pro- 
 moted is no secret. It is in accord with human nature and 
 common-sense. It is only the Government of the most prac- 
 tical people in the world whose operations with 100,000 em- 
 ployes are paralyzed by this problem. The continuance of 
 the amazing spectacle of the periodical demoralization of the 
 business of the Government by the concentration of the time 
 of the administration upon the distribution of patronage, and 
 of the eyes of the people on the wheel which holds the blanks 
 and the prizes in the lottery of offices, shows that the Pilgrim 
 has hitherto been so busy with many great questions as to 
 neglect the solution of some of the most important of them. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Thirty years ago Robert Toombs, of Georgia, one of the 
 ablest and most brilliant defenders of slavery, said, in his 
 place in the United States Senate, that he would yet call
 
 UNSOLVED PROBLEMS 365 
 
 the roll of his bondmen ;it tin; foot of Bunker Hill Alonii- 
 mcnt. To-day his slaves arc citizens and voters. [Cheers. | 
 Within a few days a youn^^er Georgian, possessed of equal 
 genius, but imbued with sentiments so liberal that the great 
 Senator would have held him an enemy to the State, was 
 the guest of Boston. With powers of presentation and 
 fervor of declamation worthy the best days and noblest 
 efforts of eloquence, he stood beneath the shadow of Bunker 
 Hill and uttered opinions justifying the suppression of the 
 negro vote which were hostile to the views of every man 
 in his audience. And yet they gave to his argument an 
 eager and candid hearing, and to his oratory unstinted and 
 generous applause. It was the triumph of Puritan prin- 
 ciples and Puritan pluck. [Cheers.] They knew, as we 
 know, that no system of suffrage can survive the intimida- 
 tion of the voter or falsification of the count. [Cheers.] 
 The public conscience, seared by the approv^al of fraud 
 upon the ballot by the virtue and intelligence of the com- 
 munity, will soon be indifferent to the extension of these 
 methods by the present officeholders to continue in power, 
 and arbitrary reversals of the will of the majority will end 
 in anart;hy and despotism. This is a burning question, not 
 only in Georgia, but in New York. It is that government 
 for the people shall be by the people. [Cheers.] No mat- 
 ter how grave the questions which absorb the Puritans' 
 attention or engross their time, the permanence of their 
 solution rests upon a pure ballot. [Applause.] 
 
 The telegraph brings us this evening the announcement 
 of the death of Henry W. Grady. We forget all differ- 
 ences of opinion, and remember only his chivalry, patriot- 
 ism, and genius. He was the leader of the new South, and 
 died in the great work of impressing its marvellous growth 
 and national inspirations upon the willing ears of the North. 
 Upon this platform and before this audience three years ago 
 he commanded the attention of the country and won uni- 
 versal fame. [Applause.] Kis death in the meridian of 
 his powers and the hopefulness of his mission, at the criti- 
 cal period of the removal for ever of all misunderstandings 
 and differences between all sections of the Republic, is a 
 national calamity. New York mingles her tears with those 
 of his kindred, and offers to his memory the tribute of her
 
 366 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 profoundcst admiration for his talents and achievements. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Cheap and rapid transportation has quickly solved the 
 problem of our agricultural and industrial development, and 
 promoted an internal commerce which in volume and value 
 has no parallel. The sixteenth-century fever for gold and 
 the fabled El Dorado, which explored unknown seas and 
 discovered new continents, is again burning in the veins of 
 the nations, not for treasure, but to find outlets for over- 
 crowded populations. Great Britain and Germany, Italy 
 and France, Portugal and Belgium, are pushing with mad 
 haste and nineteenth-century equipment into the heart of 
 Africa and upon the islands of the ocean. The American 
 Republic, amply territoried and content, superbly prepared 
 and alert, has in these conditions boundless opportunities. 
 [Cheers.] The great Exhibition of 1892 will teach the world 
 our resources, and the cruisers and ships of our navy and 
 marine will carry our flag and bear our commerce to feed 
 and furnish machinery and fabrics for those modern colonists, 
 city founders, and State builders during their period of 
 march, settlement, and development. [Loud and prolonged 
 cheering.] 
 
 THE BEGGARS OF THE SEA 
 
 [Speech of Cliaiincey M. Depew at the fifth annual banquet of the Hol- 
 land Society of New York, January 10, 1890. Robert B. Roosevelt, Act- 
 ing President of the Society, was in the chair. The toast to which Mr. 
 Depew responded was " The Beggars of the Sea."] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — You have listened 
 to the most eminent clergyman [Henry Van Dyke, D. D.] 
 of the Holland faith we have in New York. You have heard 
 the most famous civil-service reformer [Theodore Roosevelt] 
 in the United States. Religion, which teaches the possible 
 in the next world ; and civil-service reform, which teaches 
 the impossible in this. [Laughter.] Each of them has 
 given us his doctrine and prophecy. We are equally ortho- 
 dox on their creeds, and wish our faith was as firm in the 
 forecast of the Reformer as it is in the promises of the Rev- 
 erend Doctor. [Renewed laughter.]
 
 THE HbXlGARS OF THK SKA 367 
 
 The clergyman who stated that 1 always took the middle 
 of the train was not enough of a railroad man to understand 
 the location of a private car. [Increased laughter.J As a 
 clergyman he usually occupied the upper berth. [Great 
 laughter.] A private car is always at the end of the train. 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 This is the largest collection of Dutchmen ever gathered 
 on Manhattan Island since the army of Peter Stuyvesant 
 met to repel the incursion of the English and the Yankee. 
 It resembles Stuyvesant's army, because it is more able 
 to eat than to fight. [Great laughter.] My friend says, 
 " Thank God for that ! " He has taken every one of the 
 courses [continued laughter], and his family physician will 
 get the benefit. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 The peculiarity about the Dutchman which distinguishes 
 him from all the other nations, and especially from the 
 Yankee, is that he minds his own business, and that, so far 
 as he can, he prevents any other fellow from knowing any- 
 thing about his business. [Laughter.] It is that which has 
 given him in the past the distinguished place of the leader 
 of civilization, the arbiter of the destinies of nations and the 
 preserver of the liberties of mankind. [Great applause.] 
 
 For the purpose of minding his own business, and of pre- 
 venting any other man from interfering with his business, 
 thousands of years ago he settled in the Swamps of the 
 Batavian Islands, thinking that, if there was nothing in his 
 home to tempt the invader, he might be permitted to work 
 out his own destiny. 
 
 He did not settle there to lead a life of seclusion and of 
 ease, but to live alone with his kindred, because he knew 
 that, freed from the bigotry, fanaticism, and ignorance of 
 the nations around him, he could cultivate his intellect by 
 founding the university and the common school, secure free- 
 dom and enlightenment of conscience by tolerating churches 
 of every creed, and secure a home surrounded with all the 
 comforts of life, and beautified and adorned with true hospi- 
 tality and all the virtues and the purity of the family. 
 [Great applause.] 
 
 A Dutchman is distinguished beyond all other peoples 
 who ever lived by his staying power. Whether he sits at a 
 feast or serves in a municipal council, in a public office, in
 
 368 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 a syndicate, or in a bank, he stays there. [Laughter.] The 
 whole power of the Roman world was concentrated to 
 drive him from the Swamps, and the Roman world recog- 
 nized his valor, and said : "If you will give us a body- 
 guard we will grant to you your liberty." [Applause.] 
 And the Batavian body-guard was the symbol of valor and 
 heroism for the Roman legions. [Continued applause.] 
 
 The hordes of barbarian warriors who came from the 
 wilds of the forest of Germany, sweeping over all Roman 
 civilization, were hurled back again and again by the fierce 
 bravery of an impassable barrier, the Batavians, whom they 
 could not conquer. [Great applause.] 
 
 Thermopylae rings down the ages ; but what is it ? It is 
 the story of the courage and patriotism of a noble band, 
 which has been the inspiration of centuries. The Ten 
 Thousand at Marathon, what were they ? They were 
 patriots fighting for a day for their nationality, and their 
 example has inspired men to die for their country during 
 succeeding generations. But the Dutch — what were they ? 
 Struggling, not for hours, not for a day, but for eighty 
 years against one third of the world, to preserve civil and 
 religious liberty for all mankind. [Loud and long cheering.] 
 
 William the Silent, John of Barneveld, and William III 
 stood guardians upon all that had been received from the 
 past which was precious to humanity, and they preserved to 
 posterity all that constitutes the intellectual, civil and re- 
 ligious freedom of the people of Europe and the Republic 
 of the United States. [Continued applause.] 
 
 It was a Dutch navigator who got nearer the North Pole, 
 in his efforts to discover the Northwest Passage, than any 
 man for one hundred and fifty years had reached. When 
 the Pope's bull had given away the South American and 
 the North American continents, it was a Dutchman who 
 took the bull by the horns, sailed around Cape Horn, and 
 added the East Indian possessions to the Batavian territory. 
 [Great applause.] 
 
 The glory of the Dutch is that they stood firm and un- 
 dismayed at a period in the history of nations when all the 
 powers of darkness, supplemented by all the powers of the 
 visible Church and of the State commanded by a sovereign 
 who controlled almost the whole of the civilized world,
 
 THE BEGGARS OF THE SEA 369 
 
 opposed them. That sovereign, thus backed, thus sup- 
 ported, said to the Dutchman: "Surrender your liberty 
 to my autocracy, surrender your reh'gion to my dogma, and 
 you shall be free from persecution. If you resist my 
 autocracy, if you deny my dogma, then will your cities be 
 sacked, your country ravaged, your old men murdered, your 
 young men tortured, and your women dishonored ; " and 
 the Dutchman said : " I accept all these dangers, rather than 
 fetter my conscience and lose my liberty." [Loud and 
 continued applause.] 
 
 You may search the histories of the peoples from the be- 
 ginning of recorded time, and there is nothing in the efforts 
 made by man to preserve the precious principles which 
 make life worth the living which equals the eighty years' 
 fight of the Dutch against the whole world for the liberties 
 of which we are the inheritors. [Renewed cheers.] 
 
 In that fight the Beggars of the Sea cut the dikes, and, 
 sailing over their rich farms upon the ocean, rescued Ley- 
 den. In that fight the Beggars of the Sea defeated the 
 Spanish armada, and saved civilization for modern times. 
 In that fight the Beggars of the Sea created a republic 
 which had in it the federal principle adopted by the United 
 States and a declaration largely copied by Jefferson in the 
 Declaration of Independence. [Loud cheering.] 
 
 Whenever I state these things, as I do as a " Huguenot 
 Dutchman " at the New England Society [laughter], they 
 make the same impression upon the audience as my family 
 physician says that a prescription to a hard drinker pro- 
 duced upon him when he told him to take milk for break- 
 fast, milk for lunch, and milk for dinner. He met him the 
 next morning, and said : " How are you ?" Said he: " I 
 am not feeling very well ; the milk corroded on my chest ! " 
 [Renewed laughter.] 
 
 Whenever you find a State in wiiicli, under the conditions 
 of our rapid American development, there is, first, the 
 church, then the common school, then the university, then 
 villages and cities and mills and commerce— the progress, 
 the energy, the growth, the prosperity, that is Yankee. 
 But the university and the common school which educates 
 the children to understand and maintain it all, that is 
 Dutch ! [Applause.] 
 24
 
 370 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 Where you see the genius of trade making the wilderness 
 a garden and the watercourse resound with the hum of busy 
 industry, that is Yankee. Where you see coming from the 
 church of the Catholic, from the synagogue of the Jew, 
 from the meeting-house of the Episcopalian, the Methodist, 
 the Baptist, the Presbyterian, or the Unitarian, the people 
 who, while worshipping according to their own ideas, recog- 
 nize the right of all men to follow the dictates of their own 
 consciences, that is Dutch. [Applause.] 
 
 The Dutchman liberalized the Puritan, taught him the 
 merits of a universal education, showed him what the 
 common school and religious tolerance could do, and after 
 hard work upon him for thirteen years transformed him 
 from a Puritan to a Pilgrim, and then sent him forth to 
 build states and to regulate the business of other men. 
 To-day, in these United States, when there is progress of 
 commerce and promotion of " schemes," when there is 
 building of railroads and founding of trust companies, when 
 there are operations and enterprises upon credit either 
 within or beyond the possibility to respond on pay-day, the 
 Yankee is the creator and motive power. But the bank 
 which never fails, the banking-house which stands the 
 financial storm, the trust company which resists the attack, 
 the institutions which prevent bankruptcy, and keep up 
 credit and promote the restoration of business prosperity, 
 they are controlled and managed by Dutch. [Renewed 
 applause and cheers.] 
 
 CITIZENS OF THE WORLD 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey INI. Depew at the banquet of the St. Patrick's 
 CkiVj, New York City, March 17, 1893. Edwanl R. McCall presided al 
 the banquet. The "twenty-first Irish speech," alhided to by Mr. 
 Depew, at the opening of his address, was made by him before this Club 
 three years previously.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — On my twenty-first 
 birthday as an Irishman I spoke to you. I have been 
 speaking to the loyal Sons of St. Patrick for many }'ears. I 
 believe you all come from Ireland. [Laughter.] I once 
 had an Irish ancestor, and the thing he considered most
 
 CITIZKXS OF Till-; WORLD ^71 
 
 was his brogue. S.iid he : " If 1 sliould lose that brownie, I 
 would be obliL,^ed to retire from jjublic life." A quiet man 
 was that Irish ancestor of miur. lie li\ed in a iui<;iilj()r- 
 hood where no one but hini.^elf was Irish, yet lie doniin.ited 
 [laughter], he held all the elective offices in the county, and 
 when he had patronage to distribute he gave his country, 
 men as much as possible. He believed in the good old 
 Irish doctrine that " charity begins at home." He could 
 roll his tongue in a way that would make these shamrocks 
 turn green with envy. He had that brogue, that immortal 
 brogue which gives eloquence to speech, piquancy to wit, 
 and is a most indomitable foil for getting out of a dilemma. 
 If that ancestor of mine had only given to me his brogue, 
 I would have been Mayor of this town. [Laughter.] 
 
 I had to register last fall. Not so much for the purpose 
 of voting, for the election was an unimportant affair, but to 
 perform my duties as an American citizen. [Laughter.] 
 The registry office was only a few feet from my door, and 
 yet the registry clerk had never heard of me. Such is fame 
 in a great city. There was an Irish reporter around, and 
 he wrote all about it, and put in the mouth of the clerk 
 as rich a brogue as could be found in Tipperary. When I 
 read that brogue in the paper next morning, I said that 
 registry clerk was destined for high distinction in this State. 
 The next day he sent his affidavit to the newspapers that 
 he never had a brogue at all. There is no future for that 
 man in this world. [Laughter.] Then a Saxon Democrat 
 wrote an editorial in which he said I was trying to ridicule 
 the Irish. 
 
 The Irishman is a citizen of the world. He is the only 
 citizen of the world. The conditions at home have made 
 him a universal solvent of the unity of the races. No 
 tyranny is able to destroy the spiritual and intellectual life 
 of the Irish man and woman. [Applause.] The Irish- 
 woman is a home ruler. Every married Irishman has learned 
 that from his wife ; and every unmarried Irishman has 
 learned it from his mother. The Irishman adapts himself 
 to where he is. In France he is a Frenchman ; in Italy an 
 Italian ; but not in New York. [Laughter.] In the 
 United States he is an American of Americans. The world 
 is interested in the martial valor of Ireland, and she takes
 
 372 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 an interest in the woes of Ireland, because the Irishman has 
 taught the world that Ireland deserves better than she has 
 received. It was the success of the American Revolution 
 which moved the soul of Grattan. Then came O'Connell, 
 the child of the American Revolution, and last came that 
 genius for organization, who united the Irish party and 
 divided the British party in twain. The flower and fruitage 
 of one hundred years of Irish statesmanship was in Charles 
 Stewart Parnell. [Applause, cries of " You're right, Mr. 
 Depew," and several dissenting voices.] There are grounds 
 on which we Irishmen may differ. [Laughter and applause.] 
 Why should Great Britain be so angry because Ireland 
 wants home rule, and is likely to get it ? Home rule is the 
 genius of American institutions. The English say that the 
 Irish cannot govern themselves, yet all the world over the 
 Irishman is a success. He lands as an immigrant without 
 a dollar, and in a few years he owns corner lots in Fifth 
 Avenue. It takes many years for a foreigner to become an 
 American citizen, yet in six months an Irishman is a voter. 
 He is an Alderman the second year, and in the fifth year 
 he is in the Legislature, [Laughter.] His children become 
 judges and hold high office, to the satisfaction not only of 
 their own countrymen but also to the constituency who 
 place them in office. After the Commons have passed a 
 bill for Home Rule, and the House of Lords has defeated 
 it, the friends of Home Rule must look to America. The 
 United States has been the treasury of Home Rule. For 
 its ultimate success Home Rule depends upon Mr. Glad- 
 stone. Let us say to Mr. Redmond and his associates that 
 we respect them ; but, from our point of view, what Mr. 
 Gladstone wants to accomplish is what the Irish people 
 want ; and that any man who is false to that is a traitor to 
 his country. [Applause.] Full of the vigor of youth, full 
 of the strength of manhood, full of the wisdom of old age, 
 Gladstone is struggling on for justice to Ireland and for 
 Home Rule. [Long and continued applause.]
 
 THE MUTATIONS OF TIMK 373 
 
 THE MUTATIONS OF TIME 
 
 [Speech of Chaunccy I\I. Depew at a banquet given in his honor l>y 
 the Lotos CUib, New York City, Februarj- 22, 1.S96. l-rank R. Ivawrcnce, 
 President of the Chib, presided, and introduced IMr. Dcpew as fol- 
 lows : " I find I have two or three difTeniit and inconsistent spcrrlus 
 floating about in my uiind, and I am uot dear as to which to make. 
 But I am minded to propose briefly the health of our guest in such terms 
 as shall lead to a 1)rief, modest and altogether decorous reply [laughlcr], 
 on his part, without levity, and thus terminate the proceedings. You 
 may perhaps think that it is quite unnecessary that the President of the 
 Club should make any speech on this occasion, other than to pronouiice 
 the name of our guest and leave the rest to fate and to you. We cele- 
 brate to-night, gentlemen, two typical Americans. We commemorate 
 to-day the Father of our Country, by paying our tribute of affection to 
 Chauncey M. Depew. [Applause.] And there is much propriety in link- 
 ing together these two names, for as one represents the highest type of 
 character at the birth of our country, the other represents its oldest 
 development near the opening of the twentieth century."] 
 
 Mr. President AND Gentlemen: — Lanf^uagc i.s inade- 
 quate to voice my appreciation of your compliment. 
 When President Harrison tendered to me the position of 
 Secretary of State as the successor of Mr. Blaine, a member 
 of his Cabinet said : " You ought to take the office, Mr. 
 Depew, even if to do so you have to surrender the positions 
 of trust which are the accumulations of a lifetime ; while, if 
 General Harrison is not re-elected, you may be in only a 
 few months, and have no opportunity to gain a reputation 
 or fame as a foreign minister, because you will have your 
 name on that list of Secretaries of State." 
 
 A reception and dinner by the Lotos Club puts the re- 
 cipient's name on a noble li.st without involving any sacrifice 
 whatever. [Applause.] For nearly a quarter of a century I 
 have been a member of this Club, and the recollections of the 
 famous men whose coming has made famous nights, if writ- 
 ten, would add another and the most interesting volume to 
 the Nodes AjubrosiaiKE. The Lotos has no politics, no creed 
 and no dogma. [Applause.] It stands for the catholicity 
 of brains and the universality of good-fellowship. It is a 
 citizen of the world and claims fellow.ship with men and 
 women of every race and nation who possess these qualities.
 
 374 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 Here have come from the department of music Gilbert 
 and SuHivan, Offenbach, Paderewski, and the De Reszkes ; 
 from fiction, Canon Kingsley and Conan Doyle, and Wilkie 
 Collins and Mark Twain ; from poetry, Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes and Sir Edwin Arnold ; from history, James An- 
 thony Froude and others ; from journalism, Whitelaw Reid 
 and Charles A. Dana and Murat Halstead ; from statesman- 
 ship, in its best and purest expression, William M. Evarts ; 
 from the stage, Irving, Barrett and Booth ; and from the 
 army, General Grant. [Applause.] But w^hy prolong the 
 list ? Bohemia embraces all who participate in the cultiva- 
 tion of art and the advancement of the truth, from Shake- 
 speare to his humblest interpreter, and from the writer 
 whose name is writ large on the tablets of fame to the one 
 who anonymously delivers his sermon day by day. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 In recalling the past and its delightful memories, we can- 
 not help both lamenting and rejoicing in the evanescence of 
 fame — rejoicing because, except for the disappearance of 
 those who occupied the stage, there would be no room for 
 the rest of us. [Laughter.] 
 
 When we entertained Canon Kingsley, "Hypatia" and 
 " Westward Ho " were the models of the schools and col- 
 leges, the conversation of the dinner-table and the ornaments 
 of the drawing-room. Now only the student reads the 
 works of Charles Kingsley. Offenbach brought to us opera 
 bouffe and Tostee. Never was there such excitement about 
 the lyric stage. The American people were captured by 
 being shocked. [Laughter.] Everybody went to see Tostee 
 to be shocked, and her suggestive singing was denounced 
 from the pulpits and filled the newspapers with indignant 
 editorials and communications. Guilbert comes here and 
 sings songs on a moral plane as much below Tostee as Tostee 
 was below Patti, and the American press and public paid 
 little heed and cared little about it. Is it because we have 
 grown worse, or better ? It is because we have become 
 better and stronger as well as more cultured. 
 
 Offenbach found us in a provincial condition where the 
 professor of virtue is a peeper at vice. [Laughter.] Guil- 
 bert found us in the cosmopolitan state where we might for 
 a while tolerate filth and vulgarity, if it was the highest art;
 
 THE MUTATIONS OK TIMK 375 
 
 but unless it was the higliest art, we would stand it out and 
 starve it out; and if it was the highest art, we would sjieed- 
 ily demand that ait should not be degraded and insulted 
 by depraved uses. When Gilbert and Sullivan were wel- 
 comed, their tuneful melodies were the f(jlk-lorc of the 
 country. We had " Pinafore " banged at us on the piano 
 before breakfast [laughter] ; thundered at us by the bands 
 on the streets, we were tortured by the hand-organ playing 
 it, our friends humming it even in church, and rasping friends 
 whistling it [applause]; it was the song and the nuisance 
 which spared neither age nor sex nor condition in life, 
 [Laughter.] There is not a gentleman present to-night who 
 could whistle or sing a bar of "Pinafore." Ikit there is a 
 general appreciation and understanding of the noblest 
 works of the greatest composers which at that time had 
 scarcely an existence in this country. 
 
 At the time of the craze for Kingsley's works I was in 
 England, on the coast where the plot of one of his great 
 novels is laid. A stately hall of Norman ancestry, Vigrande 
 dame presiding grandly at the most hospitable of boards, 
 and a guest remarking upon the beauty of the situation and 
 the invigorating breeze from the sea, the grand dame said : 
 "Yes, all that is true, and makes this place attractive beyond 
 almost any other. It has, however, one drawback. W'hen 
 alone at night we cannot help thinking that only the At- 
 lantic Ocean separates us from the dreadful American sav- 
 ages." [Applause.] 
 
 Provincialism and isolation from the world produce mag- 
 nificent enthusiasm ; the effort of higher civilization and 
 universal knowledge is to repress it. Enthusiasm is like 
 the thunder and the lightning, which clears the atmosphere 
 and gives new vigor to life. In lamenting the disappear- 
 ance of its manifestations, I often wonder if the passion is 
 lost. I saw the Seventh Regiment march down Broadway 
 to protect the Capitol at the beginning of the Civil War 
 and receive a popular ovation which set the heart beating 
 and the blood throbbing so that in the ecstasy of the hour it 
 was difTficult to breathe or live. [Applause.] I felt as a 
 boy a wild and contagious feeling there was for Henry Clay. 
 We have all of us been carried along on the waves of 
 emotion which after the end of the Civil strife swept against
 
 376 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 the unmoved and immovable figure of General Grant. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 But where are our enthusiasms of to-day ? We are in the 
 Presidential year, the year of all others for idols and idol- 
 worship [laughter], the year Avhen the politician becomes 
 a statesman, and the statesman becomes endowed in the 
 popular imagination with supreme qualities ; and yet the 
 American people are calmly analyzing instead of frescoing, 
 they are doubting instead of accepting without question as 
 prophet, sage, leader and saviour and chosen favorite, and 
 they are subjecting them to all the frightful processes of the 
 cathode ray. [Applause,] All these are unquestionably 
 the results of more universal education, of the universal 
 reading of the newspapers, and of electric touch from day 
 to day with all the world. 
 
 And yet, without lamenting the good old times, I believe 
 that a people should be stirred at least once in a generation 
 by a Peter the Hermit enthusiasm, which sinks the com- 
 mercial considerations, that now control all the transactions 
 of life and sacrifice everything for an idea or a name. It is 
 that which makes patriotism and patriots ; it is that which 
 creates heroes and statesmen ! [Applause.] 
 
 They are carried to the heights where they lead, and the 
 multitude follows as much by the uplifting applause and 
 inspiration of the people whose enthusiasm condenses in 
 them as by their own superior genius and acquirements. 
 [Hearty applause.] 
 
 When Governor Seymour, one of the finest types of the 
 American gentleman that ever lived, was defeated in his 
 last race to succeed himself in the Gubernatorial office, I met 
 him in Albany and supposed, because I had been six weeks 
 on the stump, speaking after him every night, and attacking 
 his positions and himself politically, that there would be, as 
 the girl said about herself and her lover, " a distance and at 
 the same time a coolness between us." [Laughter.] But 
 he greeted me with the old-time cordiality and then said : 
 "You are a young man, and I am an old one; you have 
 got a talent for public life; have got on very fast, and un- 
 doubtedly can make a career. But there is nothing in it. 
 I have seen, during my thirty years of activity in politics, 
 the men go up and down State Street to the Capitol who
 
 THE MUTATIONS OF TIME 377 
 
 held the attention of the people iiiui seemed destined to be 
 always famous. One by one they were dropped by their 
 party, disappeared from public view, lost touch with their 
 business or profession, and died in obscurity and poverty. 
 In the War of 18 12, there were three men who performed 
 signal service on the frontier, and the State so appreciated 
 their deeds that the Legislature sent a special commission 
 to bring their bodies to Albany, and the remains were met 
 there by all there was of power and authority in the Empire 
 State. The Governor, the judges, the State officers and 
 the Legislature marched in procession and buried them in 
 the grounds of the Capitol ; and now no one knows what 
 part of the Capitol grounds they were buried in, what were 
 their names, or what they did." In building the new Cap- 
 itol, their remains were found. 
 
 While there is much philosophy and infinite truth for the 
 average man in the old Governor's advice, yet there are ex- 
 ceptions in exceptional times, when enthusiasm should 
 again inspire effort and fame be a secondary consideration. 
 
 It is a curious trait of this period that we are inclined to 
 take nothing seriously. A story goes further than an argu- 
 ment, and a joke captures more than a speech. It matters 
 not whether it be a crisis in national affairs, a critical time 
 in finance, a disturbing contention in the church, or the 
 varying fortunes of party leaders, the public find comfort 
 somewhere by a presentation and universal acceptance of a 
 humorous or ludicrous side of the situation. We apply this 
 process in the humanizing of the deified heroes of the past. 
 To hit a Populist Senator and get a horizontal view of a 
 great statesman, they tell a story of the Senator being shaved 
 by a colored barber at the Arlington and remarking to the 
 barber : " Uncle, you must have had among your customers 
 many of my distinguished predecessors in the Senate — many 
 of the men now dead, who have occupied the great place 
 which I fill?" " Yes, sar," said the barber, " I'se known 
 most all of dem ; by de way, Senator, you remind me of 
 Dan'el Webster," The gratified statesman rose in his chair, 
 and placing his fingers upon his forehead said : " Is it my 
 brow? " " No, boss," said the barber, " it is your breath." 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 And yet the processes of humor seem to have destroyed
 
 378 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 wit. Or has publicity done it ? We hail with intense de- 
 light the autobiographies which give us table gossip of the 
 wits of preceding generations ; we treasure their epigrams 
 and their mots ; but now when every newspaper, even the 
 sedatest, and every magazine, even the most solemn, has its 
 humorous column or chapter, we hear no more epigrams, 
 immortal witticisms or new and embarrassing presentations 
 of current incidents, either in society or at the dinner-table. 
 What are the Sydney Smiths, the Douglas Jerrolds, the 
 Tom Hoods and the Richard Brinsley Sheridans doing 
 now ? There are plenty of them in every American city ; 
 they are found upon newspapers and in the professions. I 
 think it is the spirit of commerce again, and the trail of the 
 serpent is over us all. [Laughter.] Jokes have become 
 marketable, witticisms command a high price, and humor is 
 a source of daily livelihood. 
 
 The story that is either painfully or slowly constructed 
 from the breath of genius, when told at the most private 
 of dinners to-night, is in all the newspapers to-morrow. In 
 other times the author would have been a welcome guest 
 everywhere, in order that there might be heard from his lips 
 a repetition of his creation ; but now he is either a writer 
 and cannot afford to treat his friends to such expensive en- 
 tertainments and lose the authorship or the dissipation by 
 publication of a story or a joke ; or a humorous suggestion 
 in embryo prevents subsequent processes by which it be- 
 comes an immortal contribution to the gayct}' of nations. 
 
 I do not know why you should have selected Washington's 
 birthday on which to pay me this honor ; there is no re- 
 semblance between the Father of his Country and myself, 
 unless in my capacity as a railroad man you connect me with 
 him, from his first venture in what has grown to be a great 
 system of transportation, because Parson Wccnis, in his 
 delightful and simple story of Washington's life, says that 
 when a small boy he took a hack at the cherry tree. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 This February, for the first time, both Washington's and 
 Lincoln's birthdays have been made legal holidiiys. Never 
 since the creation of man were two human beings so unlike, 
 so nearly extremes or opposed to each other, as Washington 
 and Lincoln. The one an aristocrat by birth, by breeding
 
 THE MUTATIONS OK TIMK 379 
 
 and association ; the other in every sense and by every sur- 
 rounding a Democrat. As the richest man in America, a 
 large slaveholder, the possessor of an enormous landed 
 estate and the leader and representative of tlie property and 
 the culture and the colleges of the Colonial period, Wash- 
 ington stood for the conservation and preservation of law 
 and order. He could be a revolutionist and pledge his hfe 
 and fortune and honor for the principles which in his juilg- 
 mcnt safeguarded the rights and liberties of his country. 
 [Applause.] But in the construction of the Republic and 
 in the formation of its institutions, and in the critical period 
 of experiment until they could get in working order, he 
 gave to them and implanted in them conservative elements 
 which are found in no other system of government. And 
 yet, millionaire, slaveholder, and aristocrat in its best sense, 
 that he was, all his life ; so at any time he would have died 
 for the immortal principle put by the Puritans in their 
 charter adopted in the cabin of the " Mayflower " and re- 
 enacted in the Declaration of Independence, of the equality 
 of all men before the law, and of the equal opportunity for 
 all to rise, [Applause.] 
 
 Lincoln, on the other hand, was born in a cabin among 
 that class known as poor whites in slavesholding times, who 
 held and could hold no position, and whose condition was so 
 hopeless as to paralyze ambition and effort. His situation, 
 so far as his surroundings were concerned, had considerable 
 mental but little moral improvement by the removal to In- 
 diana, and subsequently to Illinois. Anywhere in the Old 
 World a man born amid such an environment and teachings, 
 and possessed of unconquerable energy, and ambition and 
 the greatest powers of eloquence and constructive states- 
 manship, would have been a socialist and the leader of a 
 social revolt. He might have been an Anarchist. His one 
 ambition would have been to break the crust above him 
 and shatter it to pieces. He would see otherwise no op- 
 portunity for himself and his fellows in social or political or 
 professional life, l^ut Lincoln attained from the log cabin 
 of the poor white in the wilderness the same position which 
 George Washington reached from his palatial mansion and 
 baronial estate on the Potomac. He made the same fight, 
 unselfishly, patriotically and grandly for the preservation of
 
 38c CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 the Republic, that Washington had made for its creation 
 and foundation. 
 
 Widely as they are separated, these two heroes of the two 
 great crises of our national life stand together in represent- 
 ing solvent powers, inspiring processes and the hopeful op- 
 portunities of American liberty. The one coming from the 
 top, and the other from the bottom, to the Presidency of 
 the United States, the leadership of the people, the build- 
 ino- up of government and the reconstruction of States, they 
 superbly illustrate the fact that under our institutions there 
 is neither place nor time for the Socialist or the Anarchist, 
 but there is a place and always a time, notwithstanding the 
 discouragements of origin or of youth, for grit, pluck, am- 
 bition, honesty and brains. [Applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, in the good fellowship of the hour, in the 
 genial encouragement which reckons every man for what 
 he is and not for what he has, in the glorious associations 
 and atmosphere of Bohemia, I wash you all long life and 
 happiness, and the Lotos immortality. [Applause, long 
 continued.] 
 
 A SENATORIAL FORECAST 
 
 [Speech of Chauncey M. Depew at a banquet given in his honor by 
 the Lotos Club, New York City, March ii, 1899, on the occasion of 
 his election as United States Senator. The President of the Club, Mr. 
 Frank R. Lawrence, presided, and said in introducing Dr. Depew : "To 
 introduce him properl}^ to this assembly one needs a new vocabulary. 
 For twenty-five years lie has been a member of the Club, and during most 
 of that time he has stood among the foremost orators of the day, equall}' 
 at home with all subjects, ' from grave to gay, from lively to severe,' pre- 
 eminent upon the jjolitical platform, in the academic forum, and at the 
 table after dinner, where we have best loved to hear him. We recognize 
 in his election to the Senate of the United States a sign of promise for 
 the future and an event which increases the prestige of that ancient and 
 honorable body. In him we shall have no mute, inglorious Senator ; 
 sitting to represent the Empire State in that chamber, wherein their day 
 the greatest and best of her sons have sat ; we know that his voice will 
 ring loud and clear tipon all questions where public welfare or national 
 honor are concerned, and we esteem it fortunate that for the next six 
 years the weight which always attaches to his utterances will be en- 
 hanced by the position of authority from which they will be delivered. 
 We wish him all happiness and success in his new career, and may the
 
 A SENATORIAL F0K1-:CAST 38 1 
 
 Senate, throuj^li the accession of sncli nicn as St iiator Depew, grow more 
 and more representative of the best intellect and the hiKhest pnrjx.ses of 
 the nation becoming the seat of most intelligent discussion of pul>lic 
 questions and the source of the wisest legislation.") 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen :— Permit mc frankly 
 to say I love your greeting and your cheers. Any man 
 would be insensible to ambition and its gratification who 
 was not proud of the fact that his fellow-citizens had selected 
 him for a position of trust and grave responsibility in their 
 interests. But a deeper-seated and tenderer chord is touched 
 when men of all parties and all creeds express as much 
 pleasure in the event as if the honor had come to one of 
 themselves. The situation is best illustrated by a personal 
 incident — for, by your favor, this is a personal night. When 
 the news came to the old homestead at Peekskill on the eve 
 of election-day way back in my youth, that I had been 
 elected Secretary of State, the house was soon surrounded 
 by a shouting multitude with banners, bands and fireworks. 
 My old Democratic father, who was too sturdy a Democrat 
 to vote for his Republican son, and too good a father not to 
 rejoice in his success, embraced the boy and wept for joy. 
 Those tears made a deeper impression and a more memora- 
 ble night than all the votes dropped in the ballot-box which 
 had made possible the event. 
 
 The famous operatic composers had different methods of 
 getting inspiration for their immortal compositions. One 
 could not write the score unless he had a cat upon his 
 shoulders. There are in his symphonies suggestions of an 
 orchestra which everyone of us born in the country recog- 
 nizes as the familiar strain of a summer's night. Another 
 could stir his genius best at the billiard-table, and in his 
 refrains is heard the rattling fire of the ivory balls. While 
 a third, by walks in the woods and communing with Nature, 
 transferred to the orchestra and chorus the sublime secrets 
 of creation. So the greetings of friends are individual or 
 universal, are within limited lines or impress the world. The 
 wild and contagious enthusiasm of the political club is 
 marred by the condition inevitable in political parties of 
 factional division. The side with which you have acted 
 think you might have been less cordial with their enemies ; 
 and the other side think the defect in your character is your
 
 382 CHAUXCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 previous association. To cross that Arctic circle and bring 
 them together rcc]uires the courage and skill of a Kane in 
 his boat and a Nansen on his sled, or an Andree in his bal- 
 loon. In the social club are the divisions of cliques, formed 
 from associations of birth, fortune or income, and in art cir- 
 cles the isolation is best proved by the familiar story of 
 Whistler, who, upon being complimented as being with 
 Velasquez the greatest portrait painter of all ages, answered : 
 " Why drag in Velasquez?" Politicians without partisan- 
 ship, artists who do not isolate themselves, preachers 
 without bigotry, workaday people in the fields of journalism 
 and the professions, all meet in common brotherhood with 
 clear minds and unvexed judgments within the walls of 
 liberal Bohemia. Bohemians enjoy the world and the fruits 
 thereof, and take pleasure in the joy which the world can 
 give to everybody. 
 
 It is your greeting, so representative, so sincere, so broad, 
 which emphasizes the belief that life is worth the living. 
 New York has had United States Senators famous for their 
 eloquence, for their statesmanship, for their shrewdness as 
 politicians, for their practical ability as legislators, and for the 
 distinguished services which they have rendered not only to 
 the State but to the Nation. None of us remembers a 
 United States Senator who was, by his associations, his 
 activities, his interests and his characteristics, a representa- 
 tive of the cosmopolitan thought and ways and life of this 
 metropolis of the western world. The tj-pe is familiar to 
 those who saw in public life in Washington President 
 Chester A. Arthur. The typical New Yorker is rarely if 
 ever born here. He has entered the gates of this great city 
 seeking his fortune with the swarms who are ever crowding 
 through. Many fall by the wayside, or, broken and disap- 
 pointed, return to the country. A few bring fortunes with 
 which to clean out Wall Street, and go back home shorn of 
 their riches, to spend their lives denouncing the wickedness 
 of the money-sharks. Others, with the grit, shrewdness and 
 indomitable Americanism which they have brought from the 
 granite hills of New England, or the fertile farms of the West, 
 or the plantations of the South, or with native genius for 
 getting on which has carried them from foreign lands to our 
 coasts, fight their way to a foothold and become the survival
 
 A SliNATOKIAL FOIH-XAST 383 
 
 of the fittest. In the ordinary duties of life, in the home, 
 the church, or industry, they do not differ from their felh)\v- 
 citizens of other neii^hborhoods, but as metropolitans and 
 cosmopolitans, as men of the theatre, of the clubs, of the 
 charities, of the great national and international interests 
 which centre in New York, they are New Yorkers. 
 
 I shall feel it one of the greatest pleasures of official life 
 in Washington if every one of these men and women who 
 make this metropolis what it is, will feel that in the Senate 
 they have a friend who understands them and whom they 
 know. There is no place where human nature can be 
 studied to better advantage, or public opinion be more 
 quickly ascertained, than in the office of a railroad president. 
 It helps the railway president if he is also a politician and a 
 man of the world. The experience tends to cynicism and 
 cultivates the theory which gives too great prominence to 
 the influence of association and point of view in fixing 
 creeds, faiths, churchmanship and partisanship. The vis- 
 itor always tries to make the president believe that he came 
 for some other purpose than the real object of his mission. 
 Why men beheve they can succeed better in what they 
 seek by this sort of fraud, is a mystery. The most curious 
 exhibit is the man of many millions, who pretends that he 
 wishes to consult you in regard to investments in the secu- 
 rities of your company, and ends by asking for a pass. 
 
 I was riding in one of the rooms of the parlor car with 
 Mr. Tilden, while he was Governor. We were interrupted 
 by an up-State politician informing the Governor with great 
 indignation that in the selection of delegates to the State 
 Convention which was to send delegates to the National 
 Convention which nominated Mr. Tilden for President, 
 he and his friends, who had for years controlled the 
 organization of the Democratic party in the county, had 
 been beaten by the pernicious activity and malign influ- 
 ence of the freight agent of the New York Central Rail- 
 road in that district. He asked the Governor if he did 
 not think this exercise of corporate power was danger- 
 ous to the liberties of the country, and asked that an 
 example should be made of this tool of monopoly by the 
 Governor, demanding of the company the immediate dis- 
 charge of the freight agent. The Governor replied that he
 
 384 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 looked with alarm upon any evidence of corporation influ- 
 ence in politics, and if he found such to be the case in 
 this instance, he would take the proper steps, through 
 me, whom he introduced, to check and punish the evil. 
 The politician retired, and then the Governor said to me: 
 " Do you know this employe of your company ? " I said : 
 " Only as one of the most intelligent and useful men in the 
 freight service." " Well," said the Governor, " I sent for 
 him some weeks since to come and see me, and in the 
 course of the interview formed a very high opinion of him." 
 The Governor had selected him to perform the very work of 
 which the excited politician complained, and this aggres- 
 sion of corporate power did not alarm the Governor. 
 
 Some periods of national life are so commonplace and 
 parochial that they afford little opportunity for useful pub- 
 lic service, and make public life singularly unattractive 
 compared with the progress and healthy excitement which 
 can be found in business and in the professions. There are 
 other periods when public life is a pleasure and an inspira- 
 tion. Many years prior to 1898 were the dull days of 
 American politics. We were arguing century-old questions, 
 measures and policies. The acute currency and financial 
 conditions, and the campaign of 1896, were distinctly edu- 
 cational, and gave an impetus not felt before in a genera- 
 tion to national study and thought. The last year has 
 done more ; it has marvellously elevated the plane of 
 national thought, and enlarged the area of national ques- 
 tions. There are two lines of Tennyson wdiich are American 
 beyond the dream of the Poet-Laureate. The first is: — 
 
 "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 
 
 The poet referred to the Europe of letters, but the senti- 
 ment superbly describes and differenti9,tes this era of action. 
 We all remember the general training days of the fifties. 
 The contempt and ridicule which greeted the appearance of 
 the training and manoeuvres of the citizen soldiers, the in- 
 difference to the position and future of the United States, 
 to the liberties of other peoples, and the commerce of the 
 world, which starved our navy. Even the Fourth of July 
 lost its significance and became a revel, and not a sacra-
 
 A SKNATOKIAL FOKKCAST 3X5 
 
 ment. Upon the Island of Malta the Cross and the Crescent 
 fought fiercely for the control of Europe for a century. It 
 was a battle for faith and immortality. Upon its i.ssuc 
 hung the fate of modern civilization. The Cross won, and 
 we had Christianity, liberty, humanity, art and industry. 
 Yesterday the citizen soldiers whom wc laughed at in the 
 fifties, with the flag representing the best which the victory 
 of the Cross made possible, marched in serried lines over 
 the causeways at Malta built by the Crusaders, and beneath 
 the battlements heroically and gloriously defended by the 
 Knights of St. John. The martial appearance and sol- 
 dierly perfection and equipment of our little army received 
 the unstinted applause of the military experts of Europe. 
 But as the cable flashed the incident and pictured the 
 scene, the Old World and the New felt alike the elevating 
 and inspiring thought that the heirs of the largest measure 
 of the blessings which had come to humanity from the 
 triumphs of the Cross, had taken up the burden which God 
 had thrust upon them, and were bearing those blessings 
 to the lands and peoples which Providence had put in 
 their hands. 
 
 The other sentiment of Tennyson, often quoted and now 
 derided, is : — 
 
 " We the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time." 
 
 The poet had in his mind the thinkers of antiquity, the 
 literature of the Middle Ages, Dante, Milton, Bacon, and 
 Shakespeare. We have in our minds all these and also the 
 fruits of the active working of the principles of freedom 
 which we have inherited. Wc have in our minds and in our 
 politics the throttling grasp of the skeleton hand and mailed 
 fingers of Cortez and Pizarro struck from the throats of the 
 peoples of this Western hemisphere. We share the deep 
 exultation of Tennyson in all the glorious works of ancient, 
 mediaeval, and modern genius; but we leave our libraries 
 and the companionship of the ancient, when the night is 
 spent, to take a step by day under the Stars and Stripes 
 with Dewey, Sampson and Schley, with Shafter, Mcnitt 
 and our own Roosevelt. The problems of our politics 
 are soluble by American pluck, and the heritage which 
 makes us Americans. 
 25
 
 386 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 
 
 They will be solved in the American way. We will 
 prove that we can both preserve every principle of the 
 Declaration of Independence, of the Constitution of the 
 United States, and of governed Colonies. We will keep 
 intact and free from entanglements the Republic and its 
 States upon the American continent. We will educate our 
 wards by the lessons which have made us free and great, to 
 an understanding of law, justice and liberty. We will 
 share with them the prosperity which is sure to come to 
 them and to us in the expansion of industry and of markets, 
 inspired by order and freedom ; and as they become worthy 
 of self-government, under the protection of the flag which 
 has made them free, they will have already conferred upon 
 them and exercise its duties and its functions. [Great 
 applause.]
 
 LORD DERBY 
 
 (EDWARD H. S. STANIJvY) 
 
 THE DIPLOMATIST 
 
 [Speech of Edward II. S. vStaiiley [Lord Derl)y] at the ninetieth anni- 
 versary banquet of the Royal Literary Finid, London, May 7, 1.S79. ],ord 
 Derby acted as chairman for the occasion and delivered the following 
 speech in proposing "The Health of the Anil)assadors and lAIinisters of 
 Foreign Countries," coupling with the toast the name of General Bulow, 
 the Danish Minister.] 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen:— I have to propose to 
 you the health of the Diplomatic Body — the Ambassadors 
 and Ministers of foreign countries who are resident at this 
 Court. [Cheers.] During more than six years of my life 
 I was in close and constant intercourse with those gentle- 
 men. That intercourse was always cordial ; it was often of 
 a very confidential character, and looking back upon it I 
 can say with truth that it was one of the most agreeable in- 
 cidents of an official existence which in other respects in- 
 volved, on the whole, considerably more of labor and anx- 
 iety than of personal enjoyment. [Cheers and laughter.] 
 
 In all my dealings with the representatives of foreign 
 countries I have invariably experienced, not merely that 
 courtesy which is the immemorial tradition of their pro- 
 fession, but I have found also that habit of frankness, or 
 plainness, and fair dealing with which diplomacy has not 
 always been credited, but which I fancy sensible men in all 
 countries and in all employments \\ave long ago found out 
 to be the most successful and the most satisfying manner 
 of transacting business. [Cheers.] 
 
 The employment of the diplomatist is peculiar in more 
 respects than one. He pays a heavy penalty for his dis- 
 tinction — the penalty of an almost lifelong exile from his 
 own country ; but he has in exchange for that serious loss 
 
 387
 
 388 LORD DERBY 
 
 the advanta^^e of an exceptional and enviable position. 
 Familiar with the ideas of all nations, he is, or ought to be, 
 free from the prejudices of any. Conversant with the 
 secrets of Courts and Cabinets, he is at the same time 
 brought by the exigencies of his profession into contact 
 with men of all occupations and various classes. To the 
 great events of the world which are passing around him he 
 stands in a double relation — that of actor and of spectator. 
 He has at once to study with vigilance and accuracy — 
 which is, indeed, his professional duty — the events which 
 are happening around him, and, far above the heat and 
 excitement of the actual conflict, has to be able to observe 
 what is passing with a coolness and impartiality which can 
 seldom be attained by those who are less fortunately cir- 
 cumstanced. 
 
 It is a thing commonly said — one hears it every day — 
 that with the new means of instantaneous communication 
 between country and country which exists in these days the 
 importance of the diplomatic profession is greatly dimin- 
 ished, if not destroyed. That I believe is not only not the 
 truth but the exact reverse of the truth. It is one of those 
 conversational commonplaces which everybody thinks and 
 nobody examines. The telegraph may report facts ; very 
 often it reports fiction. [Laughter.] It may to a limited 
 extent convey arguments ; but that is the least part of the 
 work which a diplomatist has to do. To judge of the im- 
 pulses which influence nations, of the tendencies which 
 govern society, to measure the peculiarities of individual 
 character, to tell his government what are the chances that 
 this or that proposition will meet with acceptance or with 
 rejection — these are functions which cannot be discharged 
 through any merely mechanical medium. They require and 
 they involve the personal contact of mind with mind ; they 
 require and they call out the highest intellectual faculties 
 of men. [Cheers.] 
 
 For that reason and because, with the increase of inter- 
 national intercourse, the relations of the great countries of 
 the world are every day becoming more numerous and more 
 complicated, I believe that the importance and the influence 
 of the diplomatic profession, so far from diminishing, tend 
 rather to increase, [Cheers.]
 
 CHARLES DICKENS 
 Photogravure after an engraving
 
 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 FRIENDS ACROSS TIIR SKA 
 
 [Speech of Charles Dickens at the banquet given him hy tlic " Vouti" 
 Men of Boston," February i, 1842, in response to the toast: "Health" 
 Happiness and a Hearty Welcome to Charles Dickens." The company 
 consisted of about two hundred, among whom were George Bancroft, 
 Washington AUston, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. At the close of the 
 novelist's speech, which the newspapers of the day recorded as having 
 been delivered in a " warm, fluent and manly tone," the President of the 
 evening, Josiah Ouincy, Jr., rose amid the cheering, and proposed a second 
 toast as follows : " It has been said that painters in portraying pictures 
 of ideal female beauty imconsciously sketched the features of her who 
 was dearest to their hearts. If this were true of the novelist as of the 
 painter,how greatl}' are the admirers of the lovely creations of our friend's 
 genius indebted to her who holds this relation to him ! With his permis- 
 sion, therefore, I propose the health of the lady of our distinguished 
 guest. If .she were the model of the pure and elevated women of his 
 works, it might be well said that she was the better half even of Charles 
 Dickens." This toast was received with nine cheers, and was drunk 
 while the company were all standing.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — If you had given this splendid entertain- 
 ment to any one else in the whole wide world — if I were to- 
 night to exult in the triumph of my dearest friend — if I 
 stood here upon my defence, to repel any unjust attack — 
 to appeal as a stranger to your generosity and kindness as 
 the freeest people on the earth — I could, putting some re- 
 straint upon myself, stand among you as self-possessed and 
 unmoved as I should be alone in my own room in England. 
 But when I have the echoes of your cordial greeting ring- 
 ing in my ears ; when I see your kind faces beaming a wel- 
 come so warm and earnest as never man had — I feel, it is 
 my nature, so vanquished and subdued, that I have hardly 
 fortitude enough to thank you. If your President, instead 
 
 389
 
 390 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 of pouring forth that delightful mixture of humor and 
 pathos which you have just heard with so much delight had 
 been but a caustic, ill-natured man — if he had only been a 
 dull one — if I could only have doubted or distrusted him 
 or you, I should have had my wits at my fingers' ends, and, 
 using them, could have held you at arm's length. But you 
 have given me no such opportunity ; you take advantage of 
 me in the tenderest point ; you give me no chance of play- 
 ing at company, or holding you at a distance, but flock 
 about me like a host of brothers, and make this place like 
 home. Indeed, gentlemen, indeed, if it be natural and 
 allowable for each of us, on his own hearth, to express his 
 thoughts in the most homely fashion, and to appear in his 
 plainest garb, I have a fair claim upon you to let me do so 
 to-night, for you have made my house an Aladdin's Palace. 
 You fold so tenderly within your breasts that common house- 
 hold lamp in which my feeble fire is all enshrined, and at 
 which my flickering torch is lighted up, that straight my 
 household gods take wing, and are transported there. And 
 whereas it is written of that fairy structure that it never 
 moved without two shocks — one when it rose, and one 
 when it settled down — I can say of mine that, however sharp 
 a tug it took to pluck it from its native ground, it struck at 
 once an easy, and a deep and lasting root into this soil ; and 
 loved it as its own. I can say more of it, and say with truth, 
 that long before it moved, or had a chance of moving, its 
 master — perhaps from some secret sympathy between its tim- 
 bers, and a certain stately tree that has its being hereabout, 
 and spreads its broad branches far and wide — dreamed by 
 day and night, for years, of setting foot upon this shore, 
 and breathing this pure air. And, trust me, gentlemen, 
 that, if I had wandered here, unknowing and unknown, I 
 would — if I know my own heart — have come with all my 
 sympathies clustering as richly about this land and people — 
 with all my sense of justice as keenly alive to their high 
 claims on every man who loves God's image — with all my 
 energies as fully bent on judging for myself, and speaking 
 out, and telling in my sphere the truth, as I do now, when 
 you rain down your welcomes on my head. 
 
 Your President has alluded to those writings which have 
 been my occupation for some years past ; and you have re.
 
 FRIENDS ACROSS THE SEA 39 1 
 
 ccivcd his allusions in manner which assures nie— if I needed 
 any such assurance — that wc arc old friends in tiie spirit, 
 and have been in close communion for a lon^^ time. 
 
 It is not easy for a man to speak of in's own books. I 
 daresay that few persons have been more interested in mine 
 than I, and if it be a general principle in nature that a lover's 
 love is blind, and that a mother's love is blind, I believe it 
 may be said of an author's attachment to the creatures of 
 his own imagination, that it is a perfect model of constancy 
 and devotion, and is the blindest of all. But the objects and 
 purposes I have had in view are very plain and simple, and 
 may be easily told. I have always had, and always shall have, 
 an earnest and true desire to contribute, as far as in me lies, to 
 the common stock of healthful cheerfulness and enjoyment, 
 I have always had, and always shall have, an invincible re- 
 pugnance to that mole-eyed philosophy which loves the dark- 
 ness, and winks and scowls in the light. I believe that Vir- 
 tue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in 
 purple and fine linen. I believe that she and every beautiful 
 object in external nature, claim some sympathy in the 
 breast of the poorest man who breaks his scanty loaf of daily 
 bread. I believe that she goes barefoot as well as shod. I 
 believe that she dwells rather oftener in alleys and by-ways 
 than she does in courts and palaces, and that it is good, and 
 pleasant, and profitable to track her out, and follow her. I 
 believe that to lay one's hand upon some of those rejected 
 ones whom the world has too long forgotten, and too often 
 misused, and to say to the proudest and most thoughtless — 
 "These creatures have the same elements and cai)acities of 
 goodness as yourselves, they are moulded in the same form, 
 and made of the same clay ; and though ten times worse 
 than you, may, in having retained anything of their original 
 nature amidst the trials and distresses of their condition, be 
 really ten times better." I believe that to do this is to 
 pursue a worthy and not useless vocation. Gentlemen, that 
 you think so too, your fervent greeting sufficiently assures 
 me. That this feeling is alive in the Old World as well as 
 in the New, no man should know better than I — I, who 
 have found such wide and ready sympathy in my own dear 
 land. That in expressing it, Ave are but treading in the steps 
 of those great master-spirits who have gone before, we
 
 392 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 know by reference to all the bright examples in our literature 
 from Shakespeare downward. 
 
 There is one otlier point connected with the labors (if I 
 may call them so) that you hold in such generous esteem, 
 to which I cannot help adverting. I cannot help expressing 
 the delight, the more than happiness it was to me to find 
 so strong an interest awakened on this side of the water, in 
 favor of that little heroine of mine, to whom your Presi- 
 dent has made allusion, who died in her youth. I had let- 
 ters about that child, in England, from the dwellers in log- 
 houses, amongst the morasses, and swamps, and densest 
 forests, and deepest solitudes of the Far West. Many a 
 sturdy hand, hard with the axe and spade, and browned by 
 the summer's sun, has taken up the pen, and written to me 
 a little history of domestic joy or sorrow, always coupled, 
 I am proud to say, with something of interest in that little 
 tale, or some comfort or happiness derived from it ; and my 
 correspondent has always addressed me, not as a writer of 
 books for sale, resident some four or five thousand miles 
 away, but as a friend to whom he might freely impart the 
 joys and sorrows of his own fireside. Many a mother — I 
 could reckon them now by dozens, not by units — has done 
 the like, and has told me how she lost such a child at such a 
 time, and where she lay buried, and how good she was, and 
 how, in this or that respect, she resembled Nell. I do as- 
 sure you that no circumstance of my life has given me one- 
 hundredth part of the gratification I have derived from this 
 source. I was wavering at the time whether or not to wind 
 up my Clock* and come and see this country, and this de- 
 cided me. I felt as if it were a positive duty, as if I were 
 bound to pack up my clothes, and come and see my friends ; 
 and even now I have such an odd sensation in connection 
 with these things, that you have no chance of spoiling me. 
 I feel as though we were agreeing — as indeed we are, if we 
 substitute for fictitious characters the classes from which 
 they are drawn — about third parties, in whom we had a 
 common interest. At every new act of kindness on your 
 part, I say to myself, " That's for Oliver ; I should not 
 
 * "Master Humphrey's Clock," under which title the two novels — 
 " Barnaby Rudge " and "The Old Curiosity Shop " — originally ap> 
 peared.
 
 FRIENDS ACROSS TIIK SKA ^03 
 
 wonder if that were meant for Sinikc; I have no ch)ubt ih.it 
 is intended for Nell;" and so I become a much happier, 
 certainly, but a more sober and relirin-; man than ever I 
 was before. 
 
 Gentlemen, talking of my friends in America brings me 
 back, naturally and of course, to you. Coming back to you, 
 and being thereby reminded of the pleasure we have in store 
 in hearing the gentlemen who sit about me, I arrive by the 
 easiest, though not by the shortest course in the world, at 
 the end of what I have to say. But before I sit down, there 
 is one topic on which I am desirous to lay particular stress. 
 It has, or should have, a strong interest for us all, since to 
 its literature every country must look for one great means 
 of refining and improving its people, and one great source 
 of national pride and honor. You have in America great 
 writers — great writers — who will live in all time, and are as 
 familiar to our lips as household words. Deriving (as they 
 all do in a greater or less degree, in their several walks) 
 their inspiration from the stupendous country that gave 
 them birth, they diffuse a better knowledge of it, and a 
 higher love for it, all over the civilized world. I take leave 
 to say, in the presence of some of those gentlemen, that I 
 hope the time is not far distant when they, in America, 
 will receive of right some substantial profit and return in 
 England from their labors : and when we, in England, shall 
 receive some substantial profit and return in America for 
 ours. Pray do not misunderstand me. Securing to myself 
 from day to day the means of an honorable subsistence, 
 I would rather have the affectionate regard of my fellow 
 men, than I would have heaps and mines of gold, liut the 
 two things do not seem to me incompatible. They cannot 
 be, for nothing good is incompatible with justice. There 
 must be an international arrangement in this respect. Eng- 
 land has done her part, and I am confident that the time is 
 not far distant when America will do hers. It becomes the 
 character of a great country; firstly, because it is justice; 
 secondly, because without it you never can have, and keep, 
 a literature of your own. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you with feelings of gratitude, such 
 as are not often awakened, and can never be expressed. 
 As I understand it to be the pleasant custom here to finish
 
 394 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 with a toast, I would beg to give you : " America and 
 England, and may they never have any division but the 
 Atkmtic between them." [Applause.] 
 
 TRIBUTE TO WASHINGTON IRVING 
 
 [Speech of Charles Dickens at the banquet given in his honor during 
 his first visit to America, New York Cit}-, February iS, 1S42. Washington 
 Irving presided at the banquet, and nearly eight hundred of the most 
 distinguished citizens of New York were present. The speech here given 
 was delivered in response to the sentiment proposed by the chairman 
 " Charles Dickens, the Literary Guest of the Nation."] 
 
 Gentlemen : — I don't know how to thank you — I really 
 don't know how. You would naturally suppose that my 
 former experience would have given me this power, and 
 that the difficulties in my way would have been diminished ; 
 but I assure you the fact is exactly the reverse, and I have 
 completely balked the ancient proverb that "a rolling stone 
 gathers no moss;" and in my progress to this city I have 
 collected such a weight of obligations and acknowledgment 
 — I have picked up such an enormous mass of fresh moss at 
 every point, and was so struck by the brilliant scenes of 
 Monday night, that I thought I could never by any pos- 
 sibility grow any bigger. I have made continually new ac- 
 cumulations to such an extent that I am compelled to stand 
 still, and can roll no more ! 
 
 Gentlemen, we learn from the authorities, that, when 
 fairy stones, or balls, or rolls of thread, stopped at their own 
 accord — as I do not — it presaged some great catastrophe 
 near at hand. The precedent holds good in this case. 
 When I have remembered the short time I have before me 
 to spend in this land of mighty interests, and the poor op- 
 portunity I can at best have of acquiring a knowledge of, 
 and forming an acquaintance with it, I have felt it almost a 
 duty to decline the honors you so generously heap upon me, 
 and pass more quietly among you. For Argus himself, 
 though he had but one mouth for his hundred eyes, would 
 have found the reception of a public entertainment once a 
 week too much for his greatest activity ; and, as I would lose 
 no scrap of the rich instruction and the delightful knowledge
 
 TRIIUJTE TO WASmXdTOX IRVING 395 
 
 which meet mc on every hand (and already I have gleaned 
 a great deal from your hospitals and connnon jails),— I have 
 resolved to take up my staff, and go my way rejoicing, and 
 for the future to shake hands with America, not at parties 
 but at home ; and, therefore, gentlemen, I say to-night, with 
 a full heart, and an honest purpose, and grateful feelings, that 
 I bear, and shall ever bear, a deep sense of your kind, your 
 affectionate and your noble greeting, which it is utterly im- 
 possible to convey in words. No European sky without, 
 and no cheerful home or wx^ll-warmed room within, shall 
 ever shut out this land from my vision. I shall often hear 
 your words of welcome in my quiet room, and oftenest 
 when most quiet ; and shall see your faces in the blazing fire. 
 If I should live to grow old, the scenes of this and other eve- 
 nings will shine as brightly to my dull eyes fifty years hence 
 as now ; and the honors you bestow upon mc shall be wl-11 
 remembered and paid back in my undying love, and honest 
 endeavors for the good of my race. 
 
 Gentlemen, one other Avord whh reference to this first 
 person singular, and then I shall close. I came here in an 
 open, honest, and confiding spirit, if ever man did, and be- 
 cause I felt a deep sympathy in your land ; had I felt other- 
 wise, I should have kept away. As I came here, and am 
 here, without the least admixture of one-hundredth part of 
 one grain of base alloy, without one feeling of unworthy 
 reference to self in any respect, I claim, in regard to the 
 past, for the last time, my right in reason, in truth, and in 
 justice, to approach, as I have done on two former occasions, 
 a question of literary interest. I claim that justice be done ; 
 and I prefer this claim as one who has a right to speak and 
 be heard. I have only to add that I shall be as true to you 
 as you have been to me. I recognize, in your enthusiastic 
 approval of the creatures of my fancy, your enlightened care 
 for the happiness of the many, your tender regard for the 
 afflicted, your sympathy for the downcast, your plans for 
 correcting and improving the bad, and for encouraging the 
 good; and to advance these great objects shall be, to the 
 end of my life, my earnest endeavor, to the extent of my 
 humble ability. Having said thus much with reference to 
 myself, I shall have the pleasure of saying a few words with 
 reference to somebody else.
 
 396 CHARLES dickp:ns 
 
 There is in this city a gentleman who, at the reception of 
 one of my books — I well remember it was "The Old Curios- 
 ity Shop " — wrote to me in England a letter so generous, so 
 affectionate, and so manly, that if I had written the book 
 under every circumstance of disappointment, of discourage- 
 ment, and difficulty, instead of the reverse, I should have 
 found in the receipt of that letter my best and most happy 
 reward. I answered him, and he answered me, and so we 
 kept shaking hands autographically, as if no ocean rolled 
 between us. I came here to this city eager to see him, and 
 [laying his hand upon Irving's shoulder] here he sits ! I 
 need not tell you how happy and delighted I am to see him 
 here to-night in this capacity. 
 
 Washington Irving! Why, gentlemen, I don't go up- 
 stairs to bed two nights out of the seven — as a very creditable 
 witness near at hand can testify — I say I do not go to bed two 
 nights out of the seven without taking Washington Irving 
 under my arm ; and, when I don't take him I take his own 
 brother, Oliver Goldsmith. Washington Irving! Why, of 
 whom but him was I thinking the other day when I came 
 up by the Hog's Back, the Frying Pan, Hell Gate, and all 
 these places ? Why, when, not long ago, I visited Shake- 
 speare's birthplace, and went beneath the roof where he 
 first saw light, whose name but his was pointed out to me 
 upon the wall ? Washington Irving — Diedrich Knicker- 
 bocker — Geoffrey Crayon — why, where can you go that 
 they have not been there before ? Is there an English farm 
 — is there an English stream, an English city, or an English 
 country-seat, where they have not been ? Is there no 
 Bracebridge Hall in existence ? Has it no ancient shades 
 or quiet streets? 
 
 In bygone times, when Irving left that Hall, he left sit- 
 ting in an old oak chair, in a small parlor of the Boar's 
 Head, a little man with a red nose, and an oilskin hat. 
 When I came away he was sitting there still ! — not a man 
 like him, but the same man — with the nose of immortal 
 redness and the hat of an undying glaze ! Crayon, while 
 there, was on terms of intimacy with a certain radical fel- 
 low, who used to go about, with a hatful of newspapers, 
 woefully out at elbows, and with a coat of great an- 
 tiquity. Why, gentlemen, I know that man — Tibbies the
 
 TRIBUTE TO WASFIIXC, TON IKVIN'G 397 
 
 elder, and he has not changed a liair ; and, when I came 
 away, he charged me to give his best respects to Washing- 
 ton Irving ! 
 
 Leaving the town and the rustic Ufe of I'lnghind— for- 
 getting this man, if we can — putting out of mind the country 
 churchyard and the broken heart — let us cross the water 
 again, and ask who has associated himself most closely with 
 the Italian peasantry and the bandits of the Pyrenees? 
 When the traveller enters his little chamber beyond the 
 Alps — listening to the dim echoes of the long passages 
 and spacious corridors — damp, and gloomy, and cold — as 
 he hears the tempest beating with fury against his window, 
 and gazes at the curtains, dark, and heavy, and covered with 
 mould — and when all the ghost-stories that ever were told 
 come up before him — amid all his thick-coming fancies, 
 whom does he think of? Washington Irving. 
 
 Go farther still : go to the Moorish fountains, sparkling 
 full in the moonlight — go among the water-carriers and the 
 village gossips living still as in days of old — and who has 
 travelled among them before you, and peopled the Alham- 
 bra and made eloquent its shadows? Who awakes there a 
 voice from every hill and in every cavern, and bids legends, 
 which for centuries have slept a dreamless sleep, or watched 
 unwinkingly, start up and pass before you in all their life 
 and glory ? 
 
 But leaving this again, who embarked with Columbus 
 upon his gallant ship, traversed with him the dark and 
 mighty ocean, leaped upon the land and planted there the 
 flag of Spain, but this same man, now sitting by my side? 
 And being here at home again, who is a more fit companion 
 for money-diggers? And what pen but his has made Rip 
 Van Winkle, playing at nine-pins on that thundering 
 afternoon, as much part and parcel of the Catskill Moun- 
 tains as any tree or crag that they can boast ? 
 
 But these are topics familiar from my boyhood, and which 
 I am apt to pursue ; and lest I should be tempted now to 
 talk too long about them, I will, in conclusion, give you a 
 sentiment, most appropriate, I am sure, in the presence of 
 such writers as Bryant, Ilalleck, and — but I suppose I 
 must not mention the ladies here — " The Literature of 
 America." She well knows how to do honor to her own
 
 398 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 literature and to that of other lands, when she chooses 
 Washington Irving for her representative in the country of 
 Cervantes. [Applause.] 
 
 MACREADY AND BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 [Speech of Charles Dickens at a banquet given to William Charles 
 Macready, London, March i, 1851. Upwards of six hundred gentle- 
 men assembled to do honor to the great actor on his retirement from the 
 stage. Sir Edward Bnlwer-Lji-ton took the chair. The following speech 
 was delivered b}' Charles Dickens in proposing " The Health of the 
 Chairman."] 
 
 Gentlemen : — After all you have already heard, and so 
 rapturously received, I assure you that not ev^en the warmth 
 of your kind welcome would embolden me to hope to 
 interest you if I had not full confidence in the subject I have 
 to offer to your notice. But my reliance on the strength of 
 this appeal to you is so strong that I am rather encouraged 
 than daunted by the brightness of the track on which I have 
 to throw my little shadow. 
 
 Gentlemen, as it seems to me, there are three great requi- 
 sites essential to the perfect realization of a scene so unusual 
 and so splendid as that in which we are now assembled. The 
 first, and I must say very difficult requisite, is a man pos- 
 sessing the stronghold in the general remembrance, the 
 indisputable claim on the general regard and esteem, which 
 is possessed by my dear and much-valued friend, our guest. 
 The second requisite is the presence of a body of entertain- 
 ers, — a great multitude of hosts so cheerful and good- 
 humored (under, I am sorry to say, some personal incon- 
 venience), — so warmhearted and so nobly in earnest, as 
 those whom I have the privilege of addressing. The third, 
 and certainly not the least of these requisites, is a president 
 who, less by his social position, which he may claim by 
 inheritance, or by fortune, which may have been adventi- 
 tiously won, and may be again accidentally lost, than by his 
 comprehensive genius, shall fitly represent the best part of 
 him to whom honor is due, and the best part of those who 
 unite in the doing of it. Such a president I think we have 
 found in our chairman of to-night, and I need scarcely add
 
 MACREADY AND i;iMAVKk-LVT ION y)t) 
 
 that our chairnian's health is the toasl I luivc to piuijusc to 
 you. 
 
 Many of those who now hear nic were present, I daresay, 
 at that memorable scene on Wednesday ni^dit hist,* when 
 the great vision which had been a delight and a lesson,— 
 very often, I daresay, a support and a comfort to you, which 
 had for many years improved and charmed us, and to which 
 we had looked for an elevated relief from the labors of our 
 lives, faded from our sight for ever. I will not stop to 
 inquire whether our guest may or may not have looked 
 backward, through rather too long a period for us, to some 
 remote and distant time when he might possibly bear some 
 far-off likeness to a certain Spanish archbishop whom Gil 
 Bias once served. Nor will I stop to inquire whether it was 
 a reasonable disposition in the audience of Wednesday to 
 seize upon the words : — 
 
 "And I have bought 
 Golden opinions from all sorts of people, 
 Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
 Not cast aside so soon " f 
 
 but I will venture to intimate to those whom I am now 
 addressing how in my mind I mainly connect that occasion 
 with the present. When I looked round on the vast 
 assemblage, and observed the huge pit hushed into stillness 
 on the rising of the curtain, and that mighty surging gallery, 
 where men in their shirt-sleeves had been striking out their 
 arms like strong swimmers — when I saw that boisterous 
 human flood become still water in a moment, and remain so 
 from the opening to the end of the play, it suggested to me 
 something besides the trustworthiness of an English crowd, 
 and the delusion under which those labor who are apt to 
 disparage and malign it; it suggested to me that in meeting 
 here to-night we undertook to represent something of the 
 all-pervading feeling of that crowd, through all its inter- 
 mediate degrees, from the full-dressed lady, with her 
 diamonds sparkling upon her breast in the proscenium box, 
 to the half-undressed gentleman, who bides his time to take 
 
 * February 26, 1851, Mr. Macready's farewell benefit at Drury I.ane 
 Theatre, on which occasion he played the part of ISIacbelh.— Ed. 
 f Macbeth, Act I., Sc 7.
 
 400 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 some refreshment in the back row of the gallery. And I 
 consider, gentlemen, that no one who could possibly be 
 placed in this chair could so well head that comprehensive 
 representation, and could so well give the crowning grace 
 to our festivities, as one whose comprehensive genius has in 
 his various works embraced them all, and who has, in his 
 dramatic genius, enchanted and enthralled them all at once. 
 
 Gentlemen, it is not for me here to recall, after what you 
 have heard this night, what I have seen and known in the 
 bygone times of Mr. Macready's management, of the 
 strong friendship of Sir Bulwer Lytton for him, of the 
 association of his pen with his earliest successes, or of Mr. 
 Macready's zealous and untiring services ; but it may be 
 permitted me to say what, in any public mention of him, I 
 can never repress, that in the path we both tread I have 
 uniformly found him from the first the most generous of 
 men ; quick to encourage, slow to disparage, ever anxious to 
 assert the order of which he is so great an ornament ; never 
 condescending to shuffle it off, and leave it outside state 
 rooms, as a Mussulman might leave his slippers outside 
 a mosque. 
 
 There is a popular prejudice, a kind of superstition to the 
 effect that authors are not a particularly united body, that 
 they are not invariably and inseparably attached to each 
 other. I am afraid I must concede half a grain or so of truth 
 to that superstition ; but this I know, that there can hardly be 
 — that there hardly can have been — among the followers of 
 literature, a man of more high standing farther above these 
 little grudging jealousies, which do sometimes disparage 
 its brightness, than Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. 
 
 And I have the strongest reason just at present to bear 
 my testimony to his great consideration for those evils 
 which are sometimes unfortunately attendant upon it, 
 though not on him. For, in conjunction with some other 
 gentlemen now present, I have just embarked in a design 
 with Sir Bulwer Lytton, to smooth the rugged way of 
 young laborers, both in literature and the fine arts, and to 
 soften, but by no eleemosynary means, the declining years 
 of meritorious age. And if that project prosper as I hope 
 it will, and as I know it ought, it will one day be an honor 
 to England where there is now a reproach ; originating in
 
 THE ACTOH's art 40I 
 
 his sympathies, bcin<,' brought into operation by his ac- 
 tivity, and endowed from its very cradle by his generosity. 
 There are many among you who will have each his own 
 favorite reason for drinking our chairman's health, resting 
 his claim probably upon some of his diversified successes. 
 According to the nature of your reading, some of you will 
 connect him with prose, others will connect him with 
 poetry. One will connect him with comedy, and another 
 with the romantic passions of the stage, and his assertion of 
 worthy ambition and earnest struggle against " those twin 
 gaolers of the human heart, low birth and iron fortune." 
 
 Again, another's taste will lead him to the contemplation 
 of Rienzi and the streets of Rome; another's to the rebuilt 
 and repeopled streets of Pompeii ; another's to the touch- 
 ing history of the fireside where the Caxton family learned 
 how to discipline their natures and tame their wild hopes 
 down. But, however various their feelings and reasons may 
 be, I am sure that with one accord each will help the other, 
 and all will swell the greeting with which I shall now pro- 
 pose to you "The Health of our Chairman, Sir Edward 
 Bulwer-Lytton," [Applause.] 
 
 THE ACTOR'S ART 
 
 [Speech of Charles Dickens at the sixth annual dinner of the Royal 
 General Theatrical Fund, London, April 14, 1S51. Charles Dickens oc- 
 cupied the chair, and delivered this speech in proposin<; the toast of the 
 evening, "Success to the Royal General Theatrical I'und."] 
 
 Gentlemen : — I have so often had the satisfaction of bear- 
 ing my testimony, in this place, to the usefulness of the excel- 
 lent Institution in whose behalf we are assembled, that I 
 should be really sensible of the disadvantage of having now 
 nothing to say in proposing the toast you all anticipate, if 
 I were not well assured that there is really nutliing which 
 needs be said. I have to appeal to you on the old grounds, 
 and no ingenuity of mine could render those grounds of 
 greater weight than they have hitherto successfully proved 
 to you. 
 
 Althoudi the General Theatrical Fund Association, un- 
 like many other public societies and endowmeiUs, is repre- 
 26
 
 402 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 sentcd by no building, whether of stone, or brick, or glass, 
 like that astonishing evidence of the skill and energy of my 
 friend, Mr. Paxton, which all the world is now called upon 
 to admire, and the great merit of which, as you learn from 
 the best authorities, is, that it ought to have fallen down 
 long before it was built, and yet that it would by no means 
 consent to doing so — although, I say, this Association pos- 
 sesses no architectural home, it is, nevertheless, as plain a 
 fact, rests on as solid a foundation, and carries as erect a 
 front, as any building in the world. And the best and the 
 utmost that its exponent and its advocate can do, standing 
 here, is to point it out to those who gather round it, and to 
 say, " Judge for yourselves." 
 
 It may not, however, be improper for me to suggest to that 
 portion of the company whose previous acquaintance with 
 it may have been limited, what it is not. It is not a the- 
 atrical association whose benefits are confined to a small and 
 exclusive body of actors. It is a society whose claims are 
 always preferred in the name of the whole histrionic art. 
 It is not a theatrical association adopted to a state of the- 
 atrical things entirely past and gone, and no more suited 
 to present theatrical requirements than a string of pack- 
 horses would be suited to the conveyance of traffic between 
 London and Birmingham. It is not a rich old gentleman, 
 with the gout in his vitals, brushed and got up once a year 
 to look as vigorous as possible, and brought out for a 
 public airing by the few survivors of a large family of neph- 
 ews and nieces, who, afterwards, double-lock the street- 
 door upon the poor relations. It is not a theatrical asso- 
 ciation which insists that no actor can share its bounty who 
 has not walked so many years on those boards where the Eng- 
 lish tongue is never heard — between the little bars of music 
 in an aviary of singing birds, to which the unwieldy Swan 
 of Avon is never admitted — that bounty which was gath- 
 ered in the name and for the ele\ation of an all-embracing 
 art. 
 
 No, if there be such things, this thing is not of that k'ind. 
 This is a theatrical association, expressly adapted to the 
 wants and to the means of the whole theatrical profession 
 all over England. It is a society in which the word exclu- 
 siveness is wholly unknown. It is a society which includes
 
 TUK actor's art 403 
 
 every actor, whether he be Hcncdict or Ilamlct. or the 
 Ghost, or the Bandit, or the court-physician, or, in the (jnc 
 person, the whole King's arni)-. lie may do the " n<,'ht 
 business," or the " heavy," or the comic, or the eccentric. 
 He may be the captain who courts the young lady, whose 
 uncle still unaccountably persists in dressing himself in a 
 costume one hundred years older than his time. Or he may 
 be the young lady's brother in the white gloves and inex- 
 pressibles, whose duty in the family appears to be to listen 
 to the female members of it whenever they sing, and to 
 shake hands with everybody between all the verses. Or he 
 may be the baron who gives the fete, and who sits uneasily 
 on the sofa under a canopy with the baroness while the fete 
 is going on. Or he may be the peasant at the fete who 
 comes on the stage to swell the drinking chorus, and who, 
 it may be observed, always turns his glass upside down 
 before he begins to drink out of it. Or he may be the clown 
 who takes away the doorstep of the house where the eve- 
 ning party is going on. Or he may be the gentleman who 
 issues out of the house on the false alarm, and is pre- 
 cipitated into the area. Or, to come to the actresses, she 
 may be the fairy who resides forever in a revolving star 
 with an occasional visit to a bovver or a palace. Or the 
 actor may be the armed head of the witch's cauldron ; or 
 even that extraordinary witch, concerning whom I have 
 observed in country places, that he is much less like the 
 notion formed from the description of Hopkins than the 
 Malcolm or Donalbain of the previous scenes. This society, 
 in short, says : " Be you what you may, be you actor or ac- 
 tress, be your path in your profession never so high, or never 
 so low, never so haughty, or never so humble, wc offer you 
 the means of doing good to yourselves, and of doing 
 good to your brethren." 
 
 This society is essentially a provident institution, appeal- 
 ing to a class of men to take care of their own interests, 
 and giving a continuous security only in return for a con- 
 tinuous sacrifice and effort. The actor by the means of this 
 society obtains his own right, to no man's wrong; and when, 
 in old age, or in disastrous times, he makes his claim on the 
 institution, he is enabled to say, *' I am neither a beggar, nor 
 a suppliant. I am but reaping what I sowed long ago. "
 
 404 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 And therefore it is that I cannot hold out to you that in 
 assisting this fund you are doing an act of charity in the 
 common acceptation of that phrase. Of all the abuses of 
 that much abused term, none have more raised my indigna' 
 tion than what I have heard in this room in past times, in 
 reference to this institution. I say, if you help this institu- 
 tion you will be helping the wagoner who has resolutely put 
 his own shoulder to the wheel, and who has not stuck idle 
 in the mud. In giving this aid you will be doing an act of 
 justice, and you will be performing an act of gratitude ; 
 and this is what I solicit from you ; but I will not so far 
 wrong those who are struggling manfully for their own in- 
 dependence as to pretend to entreat from you an act of 
 charity. 
 
 I have used the word gratitude ; and let any man ask his 
 own heart, and confess if he have not some grateful acknowl- 
 edgments for the actor's art ? Not peculiarly because it is 
 a profession often pursued, and as it were marked, by 
 poverty and misfortune — for other callings, God knows, 
 have their distresses — nor because the actor has sometimes 
 to come from scenes of sickness, of suffering, aye, even of 
 death itself, to play his part before us — for all of us. in our 
 spheres, have as often to do violence to our feelings and to 
 hide our hearts in fighting this great battle of life, and in 
 discharging our duties and responsibilities. But the art of 
 the actor excites reflections, sombre or grotesque, awful or 
 humorous, which we are all familiar with. If any man were 
 to tell me that he denied his acknowledgments to the stage, 
 I would simply put to him one question — whether he re- 
 membered his first play ? 
 
 If you, gentlemen, will but carry back your recollection 
 of that great night, and call to mind the bright and harm- 
 less world which then opened to your view, we shall, I think, 
 hear favorably of the effect upon your liberality on this oc- 
 casion from our Secretary. 
 
 This is the sixth year of meetings of this kind — the sixth 
 time we have had this fine child down after dinner. His 
 nurse, a very worthy person of the name of Buckstone, who 
 has an excellent character from several places, will presently 
 report to you that his chest is perfectly sound, and that his 
 general health is in the most thriving condition. Long may
 
 ENGLISH FRIENDLINESS FOR AMEKKA 405 
 
 it be so ; long may it thrive and grow ; long may wc meet (it 
 is my sincere wish) to exchange our congratulations on its 
 prosperity ; and longer than the line of Ranquo may be that 
 line of figures which, as its patrotic share in the national 
 debt, a century hence shall be stated by the Governor and 
 Company of the Bank of England. [Applause.] 
 
 ENGLISH FRIENDLINESS FOR AMERICA 
 
 [Speech of Charles Dickens at a farewell dinner, previous to his return 
 to England, New York City, April iS, 1S6S. Two hundred gentlemen 
 attended the dinner. Horace Greeley presided. In acknowledgment 
 of the toast of his health, proposed by the chairmam, ISIr. Dickens spoke 
 on the subject of international friendliness.] 
 
 Gentlemen : — I cannot do better than take my cue from 
 your distinguished President, and refer in my first remarks 
 to his remarks in connection with the old, natural, associ- 
 ation between you and me. When I received an invitation 
 from a private association of working members of the press 
 of New York to dine with them to-day, I accepted that 
 compliment in grateful remembrance of a calling that was 
 once my own, and in loyal sympathy towards a brotherhood 
 which, in the spirit, I have never quitted. To the wholesome 
 training of severe newspaper work, when I was a very young 
 man, I constantly refer my first successes; and my sons will 
 hereafter testify of their father that he was always steadily 
 proud of that ladder by wdiich he rose. If it were other- 
 wise, I should have but a very poor opinion of their father, 
 which, perhaps, upon the whole, I have not. Hence, 
 gentlemen, under any circumstances, this company would 
 have been exceptionally interesting and gratifying to me. 
 But whereas I supposed that like the fairies' pavilion in the 
 "Arabian Nights," it would be but a mere handful, and I 
 find it turn out, like the same elastic pavilion, capable of 
 comprehending a multitude, so much the more proud am I of 
 the honor of being your guest ; for you will readily believe 
 that the more widely representative of the press in America 
 my entertainers are, the more I must feel the good-will and 
 the kindly sentiments towards me of that vast institution. 
 
 Gentlemen, so much of my voice has lately been heard in
 
 406 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 the land, and I have for upwards of four hard winter months 
 so contended against what I have been sometimes quite ad- 
 miringly assured was " a true American catarrh " — a pos- 
 session which I have throughout highly appreciated, though 
 I might have preferred to be naturalized by any other out- 
 ward and visible signs — I say, gentlemen, so much of my 
 voice has lately been heard, that I might have been con^ 
 tented with troubling 3^ou no further, from my present stand- 
 ing-point, were it not a duty with which I henceforth charge 
 myself, not only here but on every suitable occasion what- 
 soever and wheresoever, to express my high and grateful 
 sense of my second reception in America, and to bear my 
 honest testimony to the national generosity and magnani- 
 mity. Also, to declare how astounded I have been by the 
 amazing changes that I have seen around me on every side 
 — changes moral, changes physical, changes in the amount 
 of land subdued and peopled, changes in the rise of vast 
 new cities, changes in the growth of older cities almost out 
 of recognition, changes in the graces and amenities of life, 
 changes in the press, without whose advancement no advance- 
 ment can be made anywhere. Nor am I, believe me, so 
 arrogant as to suppose that in five-and-twenty years there 
 have been no changes in me, and that I had nothing to learn 
 and no extreme impressions to correct when I was here first. 
 And, gentlemen, this brings me to a point on which I 
 have, ever since T landed here last November, observed a 
 strict silence, though tempted sometimes to break it, but in 
 reference to which I will, with your good leave, take you 
 into my confidence now. Even the press, being human, 
 may be sometimes mistaken or misinformed, and I rather 
 think that I have in one or two rare instances known its in- 
 formation to be not perfectly accurate with reference to my- 
 self. Indeed, I have now and again been more surprised by 
 printed news that I have read of myself than by any printed 
 news that I have ever read in my present state of existence. 
 Thus, the vigor and perseverance with which I have for 
 some months past been collecting materialsfor and hammer- 
 ing away at a new book on America have much astonished 
 me, seeing that all that time it has been perfectly well- 
 known to my publishers on both sides of the Atlantic that 
 I positively declared that no consideration on earth should
 
 ENGLISH FRIENDLIXKSS FOR AMIiRiCA 407 
 
 induce mc to write one. lint what I have intended, what I 
 have resolved upon (and this is the confidence I sock to 
 place in you) is, on my return to Kn-^land, in my own 
 person, to bear, for the behoof of my countrymen, such 
 testimony to the gigantic changes in this country as I have 
 hinted at to-night. Also, to record that wherever I have 
 been, in the smallest places equally with the largest, I have 
 been received with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet 
 temper, hospitality, consideration, and with unsurpassable 
 respect for the privacy daily enforced upon me by the 
 nature of my avocation here, and the state of my health. 
 This testimony, so long as I live, and*o long as my descend- 
 ants have any legal right in my books, I shall cause to be 
 re-published, as an appendix to every copy of those two 
 books of mine in which I have referred to America. And 
 this I will do and cause to be done, not in mere love and 
 thankfulness, but because I regard it as an act of plain jus- 
 tice and honor. 
 
 Gentlemen, the transition from my own feelings towards 
 and interest in America to those of the mass of my country- 
 men seems to be a natural one ; but, whether or no, I make 
 it with an express object. I was asked in this very city, 
 about last Christmas time, whether an American was not at 
 some disadvantage in England as a foreigner. The notion 
 of an American being regarded in England as a foreigner at 
 all, of his ever being thought of or spoken of in that char- 
 acter, was so uncommonly incongruous and absurd to me, 
 that my gravity was, for the moment, quite overpowered. 
 As soon as it was restored, I said that for years and years 
 past I hoped I had had as many American friends and had 
 received as many American visitors as almost any English- 
 man living, and that my unvarying experience, fortified by 
 theirs, was that it was enough in England to be an Ameri- 
 can to be received with the readiest respect and recognition 
 anywhere. Hereupon, out of half-a-dozen people, suddenly 
 spoke out two, one an American gentleman, with a culti- 
 vated taste for art, who, finding himself on a certain Sunday 
 outside the walls of a certain historical English castle, 
 famous for its pictures, was refused admission there, accord- 
 ing to the strict rules of the establishment on that day, but 
 who, on merely representing that he was an American gen-
 
 408 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 tleman, on his travels, had, not to say the picture gallery, 
 but the whole castle, placed at his immediate disposal. The 
 other was a lady, who, being in London, and having a great 
 desire to see the famous reading-room of the British Museum, 
 was assured by the English tamily with whom she stayed 
 that it was unfortunately impossible, because the place was 
 closed for a week, and she had only three days there. Upon 
 that lady's going to the Museum, as she assured me, alone 
 to the gate, self-introduced as an American lady, the gate 
 flew open, as it were, magically. I am unwillingly bound 
 to add that she certainly was young and exceedingly pretty. 
 Still, the porter of that institution is of an obese habit, and, 
 according to the best of my observation of him, not very 
 impressible. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I refer to these trifles as a collateral as- 
 surance to you that the Englishmen who shall humbly strive, 
 as I hope to do, to be in England as faithful to America as 
 to England herself, has no previous conceptions to contend 
 against. Points of difference there have been, points of 
 difference there are, points of difference there probably 
 always will be between the two great peoples. But broad- 
 cast in England is sown the sentiment that those two peoples 
 are essentially one, and that it rests with them jointly to 
 uphold the great Anglo-Saxon race, to which our president 
 has referred, and all its great achievements before the world. 
 And if I know anything of my countrymen — and they give 
 me credit for knowing something — if I know anything of my 
 countrymen, gentlemen, the English heart is stirred by the 
 fluttering of those Stars and Stripes, as it is stirred by no 
 other flag that flies except its own. If I know my country- 
 men, in any and every relation towards America, they begin, 
 not as Sir Anthony Absolute recommended that lovers should 
 begin, with " a little aversion," but with a great liking and a 
 profound respect : and whatever the little sensitiveness of 
 the moment, or the little official passion, or the little ofUcial 
 policy now, or then, or here, or there, may be, take my word 
 for it, that the first enduring, great, popular consideration 
 in England is a generous construction of justice. 
 
 Finally, gentlemen, and I say this subject to your correc- 
 tion, I do believe that from the great majority of honest 
 minds on both sides, there cannot be absent the conviction
 
 ENGLISH FRIENDLINKSS FOR A.MKKICA 409 
 
 that it would be better for this globe to be riven by an 
 earthquake, fired by a comet, overrun by an iceberg, and 
 abandoned to the Arctic fox and bear, than that it should 
 present the spectacle of these two great nations, each of 
 which has, in its own way and hour, striven so hard and so 
 successfully for freedom, ever again being arrayed the one 
 against the other. Gentlemen, I cannot thank your Presi- 
 dent enough or you enough for your kind reception of my 
 health, and of my poor remarks, but, believe me, I do thank 
 you with the utmost fervor of which my soul is capable. 
 [Applause.]
 
 JOHN ADAMS DIX 
 
 THE FLAG— THE OLD FLAG 
 
 [Speech of Major-Gen. John A. Dix at the fiftj'-eighth annual dinner of 
 the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1863. 
 The President, Henry A. Hurlbut, occupied the chair. The fifth toast was : 
 " The Flag — The Old Flag — At last it waves again upon the soil of every 
 State. It flaunts defiance in the face of treason, and soon shall float in tri- 
 umph and in honor over the unhallowed grave." In introducing Major- 
 General Dix the President said : " The gentleman who will respond to 
 this toast is one whom we all know, love and esteem. When he held the 
 position of Secretary of the Treasury, you all recollect that he issued 
 that memorable order : ' If any man attempts to haul down that flag, 
 shoot him on the spot.' " Three cheers were given for General Dix. All 
 present rose, and made the banquet hall ring with their cheers and 
 plaudits.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — The enthusiastic re- 
 sponse which the sentiment just read has received, is but the 
 emanation of a principle in our nature as old as human 
 society. In every age through which mankind has passed, 
 organized communities have had appropriate emblems for 
 the assertion of their authority at home, and their rights 
 abroad. From the eagles, under which the Roman empire 
 was extended over the known portions of the globe, the 
 crescents of the Saracenic race, and the banners and ori- 
 flammes of the Middle Ages, down to the national flags and 
 standards of our own times, a peculiar veneration has con- 
 secrated these symbols of sovereignty. Victories, social 
 progress, the march of the nations to prosperity and power, 
 have become identified with them. Insult to them from 
 abroad has been resented by war. Treachery to them at 
 home has been visited with the penalties of treason. They 
 have been hallowed by lofty and ennobling associations ; 
 but none of them by higher or more endearing recollections 
 
 410
 
 TIllC FLAG— Till-: OLD FLAG 411 
 
 than the flag which liangs over us to-day [cheers] —the same- 
 flag under which our fathers battled for freedom and inde- 
 pendence. [Applause.] It was adopted by the old Con- 
 gress while the new-born Republic was struggling into life. 
 Our armies first went forth to combat under it when Wash- 
 ington was their commander-in-chief. [Cheering.] In the 
 hour of victory we have given it to the winds, as the 
 expression of our thankfulness and joy. In the days of our 
 calamity we have turned to it for support, as the people of 
 God turned in the darkness of the night to the Pillar of Fire, 
 which was conducting them through the perils of the wil- 
 derness. [Loud cheering.] Holy associations like these 
 should have made it sacred. But it has been more than 
 once torn down, and trampled under foot by traitors. 
 When men have made up their minds to treason, the highest 
 of all crimes, there is no baacness so low that they will not 
 descend to it. 
 
 Two years and a half ago, a hundred thousand people met 
 together in this city to resent the insult to the Flag at 
 Sumter, and to prepare for putting down by force a conspir- 
 acy against the authority of the government and the integrity 
 of the Union. The conspiracy was inaugurated by the 
 treacherous seizure of forts and revenue vessels, the plunder 
 of mints and arsenals, and by a course of fraud and violence 
 on the part of the leaders without a parallel in the annals of 
 civilization. The authority of the government had been 
 struck down in every State south of Maryland. The 
 navigation of the Mississippi had been usurped, and was 
 permitted to be carried on only by sufferance of the rebel 
 authorities at New Orleans. The piratical flag of Jefferson 
 Davis and his associates had been unfurled where the old 
 Flag of the Confederation and the Union, consecrated by a 
 thousand precious memories, had waved for more than 
 three-quarters of a century as the emblem of order, enlight- 
 ened government, and civil liberty. [Cheers.] Thank God! 
 the old banner has been restored in portions of every State 
 of the Union. [Enthusiastic applause.] The waters of the 
 Mississippi flow on from their sources to the sea without 
 obstruction, bearing on their bosom no token of the treason 
 which but recently held dominion over them. [Loud 
 cheering.] The ancient geographical boundaries are being
 
 412 JOHN ADAMS DIX 
 
 rapidly regained. In population the power of the rebellion 
 is declining as signally as in territorial extent. The seceded 
 States began the contest with about five hundred thousand 
 men capable of bearing arms. One half must have perished 
 by the sword and disease, or have become disqualified for 
 service in the field. We began with two millions of able- 
 bodied men. Our losses do not exceed theirs ; and equal 
 losses, with aggregate numbers so unequal, must soon 
 exhaust them, while our own relative strength is every 
 moment increased. [Applause.] 
 
 The time is not far distant when the elements of society 
 in the United States, thus rudely and wickedly disturbed, 
 must be re-adjusted, and the old order of things re-estab- 
 lished, possibly with modifications, growing as necessities 
 out of the shock they have sustained. With whom shall the 
 conditions of the re-union be negotiated and arranged ? Cer- 
 tainly not with the men who caused the war[" No, no ! "], and 
 with it a sacrifice of half a million of lives. National honor, 
 retributive justice, respect for the principle of stability in 
 established systems, a proper regard for the generations 
 which are to come after us, and whose political organiza- 
 tions will derive strength or weakness from the issue of the 
 mighty conflict we are engaged in — all these considerations 
 demand that the architects of disorder who have violated 
 the public peace, and broken the social contract they had 
 sworn to observe, shall have no part in our future govern- 
 ment. With them we can never even negotiate for peace. 
 [Great applause.] When they shall have been expelled 
 from the country they have devastated and dishonored, 
 when their military power shall have been broken, and their 
 forces dispersed, and the deluded masses of the South shall 
 have been liberated from the tyranny under which they 
 have been crushed, it will be time to make terms — not with 
 the guilty leaders, but with those whom they have defrauded, 
 plundered, and oppressed. [Loud cheering.] 
 
 In a contest reaching far beyond ourselves, involving the 
 destinies of our children, and the fate of the country itself 
 — a contest which is to settle for all future time the momen- 
 tous problem whether governments founded upon popular 
 representation have the strength necessary to sustain 
 themselves again internal discord and violence — it is amaz-
 
 THE FLAG-THE OLD FLAG 413 
 
 ing that there are any amon- us who cannot rise above the 
 level of their personal and party interests, and act only in 
 
 'f 'T' MfV ^'' ^^'"^^ P'^'^ '''^^' ''^''''^' '''^ ^'^ grappling, and 
 which still threatens with destruction all that is most sacred 
 in government, in society, and in domestic life. TEnthu- 
 siastic applause.] 
 
 In .such a contest, no man who thinks rightly can doubt 
 wherein his duty consists. It may be stated in a sin^r],. 
 breath. Stand by the Union. Stand by the Government • 
 It IS the representative of the Union. Stand by the Adl 
 ministration in its war measures ; it is the exponent of the 
 Government [cheers] : nay, it is, for the time being the 
 Government itself. [" That's it ! "] It may not have suited 
 us all in every respect. We may think that in some things 
 it has done wrong, in others that it might have done better 
 But the destinies of the country are in its hands [" That's 
 so"], and it is not only the duty, but the interest of those 
 who desire a speedy and successful termination of tlie war, 
 to sustain it, strengthen it, co-operate with it cordially and 
 thoroughly, until its authority is firmly re-cstabh\shed. 
 [Great applause.] 
 
 Let us bear perpetually in mind that, in a Government 
 constituted like ours, with numerous parts aggregated into 
 one consisent whole, disruption is death— not merely to one 
 or a few, but death to each and to all. No sacrifice of treas- 
 ure or life is too great to avert such a dissolution of our 
 political system. [Louder cheers.] Better that these walls 
 within which we are assembled should crumble into dust ; 
 better that this island, with all its treasures of industry and 
 art, with its unexampled social and commercial activity, 
 to which a million of voices everyday of its great life bears 
 testimony — better, I say, that it should be given up, with 
 all these trophies of civilization, to its primeval silence and 
 solitude, than that the institutions which have made it wliat 
 it is should be torn down by traitorous hands. [Tremen- 
 dous cheering.] 
 
 But I have no such gloomy forebodings of evil. If the 
 darkness is not yet all gone, and the light not fully come ; 
 if the period of transition is not yet ended ; 7(/>i iiox abiit, 
 nee tavien orta dies. Yet every day brings with it fresh 
 evidence of the hopelessness of the rebel cause, and tlie
 
 414 JOHN ADAMS DIX 
 
 speedy exhaustion of its strength in resources and in men. 
 Every day furnishes stronger assurance that the process of 
 fermentation through which we are passing will throw off 
 what is impiw'e, and give in the end new strength to the 
 Union, new prosperity, glory, and grandeur to the Republic. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 And to return to the topic with which I began — when our 
 day of trial shall have gone by, the old flag shall float again 
 unquestioned on the land and on the sea, the emblem not 
 merely of the past, but of the latest and noblest of all victo- 
 ries — the triumph of a great nation over the elements of 
 weakness and danger contained within itself. [Enthusiastic 
 cheers, the whole company rising and giving three cheers 
 for General Dix.]
 
 WILLIAM HENRY DRAPER 
 
 OUR MEDICAL ADVISERS 
 
 [Speech of Dr. William H. Draper at the Ii3lh anniversary banquet 
 of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. The banquet 
 was given in New York City, May lo, 1881, and James IM. Brown, tlie 
 Vice-President, occupied the chair.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : — The reverend gentle- 
 man* who has recently spoken said that he was a stranger 
 and you had taken him in ; I regret that I am an old citizen 
 of New York, and the Chamber of Commerce has taken me 
 in. [Laughter.] When I received the cordial invitation 
 from the Chamber of Commerce to attend this banquet I 
 was entirely at a loss to know why I had been so honored. 
 Two days ago I received a kind note from the secretary, 
 informing me that I should be expected to make a few re- 
 marks on any subject appropriate to the occasion. This 
 explained to me the honor, if not the motive, of the invita- 
 tion. I find myself in the most embarrassing predicament. 
 There is no place in a banquet like this for a doctor. The 
 duties of a doctor so far as I know in relation to an occasion 
 of this kind are post-praiidial. [Laughter.] Had you in- 
 vited me to arrange this banquet for you upon a physio- 
 logical basis and with a view to your welfare I might have 
 been of service to you. But as I said before, the doctor 
 will find his true place in relation to the sort of banquet a 
 merchant prince provides — to-morrow. [Laughter.] 
 
 When I considered the subject on whick I should address 
 a few words to you I must sa\' that I was at a loss to under- 
 stand what relation commerce bears to the profession I have 
 the honor to represent. I thought to myself that commerce 
 had a good deal to do with drugs, but not much with doc- 
 tors. We all know the interest which commerce has in the 
 * Rev. Dr. Wilbur V. Watkiiu.
 
 4l6 WILLIAM HENRY DRAPER 
 
 trade in opium ; how the tax upon cinchona bark brings a 
 laro-e revenue to the Government and fortunes to the manu- 
 facturers of quinine and how patent medicines constitute 
 an ever-increasing means of commercial intercourse. But 
 this does not seem to me to have much to do with doctors. 
 It then occurred to me that perhaps you were not aware 
 that in this City of New York we make every year from 
 600 to 800 doctors, and I thought I would suggest to you 
 that doctors might, perhaps, if you were in search of some 
 new enterprise, constitute a very excellent article of export. 
 [Laughter and applause.] I thought it would be a good 
 thing for the country if you were to export doctors, who 
 constitute one of our surest and most considerable crops. 
 [Laughter.] You are perhaps not aware that in periods of 
 great commercial depression the number of young men who 
 seek their fortunes in the medical profession always in- 
 creases. This is a fact which I believe is confirmed by 
 statistics. Why it should be so, I am at a loss to explain, 
 unless it be that by this arrangement society is spared the 
 influx of a large number of very poor merchants ; or it is 
 possible that it is a providential arrangement by which the 
 surplus population is removed, a point of great importance 
 in times of commercial distrust. [Laughter.] 
 
 I was asked only a few moments ago to furnish the chair- 
 man with the theme of my remarks. Inasmuch as I had 
 not prepared an address I was at a loss to know what the 
 theme of my discursive speech should be. I looked down 
 the list of themes and saw one which had been given to my 
 friend, the Rev. Dr. Taylor, and it suggested this : " Our 
 Medical Advisers ; they lead to a brighter world, and show 
 the way." [Laughter.] Now I hope my friend. Dr. Taylor, 
 will not regard this as simply a travesty upon the theme to 
 which he is to respond. I do not intend it as such, for I 
 am prepared to affirm that doctors do lead to brighter worlds 
 and show the way. I do not mean the world that is to 
 come, I do not believe there is anything more dark and 
 dismal and narrow in the way of a world than the one in 
 which the miserable dyspeptic lives. Now, when a doctor 
 leads one out of that wretched world into the bright and 
 hopeful realm of health, he carries him, it seems to me, into 
 a sort of heaven on earth. [Applause.] And it is in this
 
 OUR MEDICAL ADVISERS 417 
 
 sense I think it may be truly said that doctors lead to 
 brighter worlds. 
 
 Now, the gentleman who sits at my left hand took occa- 
 sion in his speech to say that if you had any difficulty in 
 knowing how to spend the money which has accumulated 
 in your coffers he could tell you what to do with it. The 
 gentleman who has just sat down has also told you how 
 you can spend some of your surplus income in educating 
 the negroes. But if I may be allowed, gentlemen, modestly 
 to suggest a way in which you would do yourselves great 
 honor and the world great benefit, it would be in doing 
 something to make a better class of doctors than are made 
 at the present day. [Applause.] I have said that 600 or 
 800 doctors are made in this city every year, and this is but 
 a fraction of those made all over the country. I have gone 
 so far as to suggest that you could make of them an article 
 of export ; but by putting better means of instruction 
 within reach of these young men, by making them stronger 
 in knowledge and improving in every way their means of 
 education, you can keep them at home and they will con- 
 stitute what they ought to be — one of the most important 
 and useful classes in society. [Applause.] Commerce, we 
 all know, is the vanguard of civilization, and wherever com- 
 merce goes, there must go the blessings of science, and of 
 the arts, and among them I regard none greater than the 
 blessing dispensed by the medical profession. [Applause.] 
 27
 
 HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 THE TYPICAL DUTCHMAN 
 
 [Speech of the Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke at the fifth annual banquet 
 of the Holland Society of New York, January lo, 1890. Robert B. Roose- 
 velt, Vice-President of the Society, presided. Dr. van Dyke responded 
 to the toast, " The Typical Dutchman."] 
 
 Mr. President and Members of the Holland So- 
 ciety: — Who is the typical Dutchman? Rembrandt, the 
 splendid artist ; Erasmus, the brilliant scholar ; Coster, the 
 inventor of printing; Leuwenhoek, the profound scientist; 
 Grotius, the great lawyer; Barendz, the daring explorer; 
 De Witt, the skilful statesman ; Van Tromp, the trump of 
 admirals ; William the Silent, heroic defender of liberty 
 against a world of tyranny ; William HI, the emancipator 
 of England, whose firm, peaceful hand, just two centuries 
 ago, set the Anglo-Saxon race free to fulfil its mighty des- 
 tiny — what hero, artist, philosopher, discoverer, lawgiver, 
 admiral, general or monarch shall we choose from the long 
 list of Holland's illustWous dead to stand as the typical 
 Dutchman? 
 
 Nay, not one of these men, famous as they were, can fill 
 the pedestal of honor to-night. For though their glorious 
 achievements have lent an undying lustre to the name of 
 Holland, the qualities that really created her and made her 
 great, lifted her in triumph from the sullen sea, massed her 
 inhabitants like a living bulwark against oppression, filled 
 her cities with the light of learning and her homes with the 
 arts of peace, covered the ocean with her ships and the 
 islands with her colonies — the qualities that made Holland 
 great were the qualities of the common people. The ideal 
 character of the Dutch race is not an exceptional genius, 
 
 418
 
 THE TYPICAL UUIXUMAN 4If) 
 
 but a plain, brave, straightforw;ird, kiiul-licarted, liberty- 
 loving, law-abiding citizen — a man with a healtliy conscience, 
 a good digestion, and a cheerful determination to do his 
 duty in the sphere of life to which God has called him. 
 [Applause.] Let me try to etch the portrait of such a man 
 in few and simple lines. Grant me but six strokes for the 
 picture. 
 
 The typical Dutchman is an honest man, and tiiat's tlic 
 noblest work of God. Physically he may be — and if he 
 attends these dinners he probably will be — more or less 
 round. But morally he must be square. And surely in 
 this age of sham, when there is so much plated ware that 
 passes itself off for solid silver, and so much work done at 
 half measure and charged at full price — so many doctors 
 who buy diplomas, and lawyers whose names should be 
 " Necessity," because they know no law [laughter and 
 applause], and preachers who insist on keeping in their 
 creeds doctrines which they do not profess to believe — surely 
 in this age, in which sky-rockets are so plentiful and well- 
 seasoned firewood is so scarce, the man who is most 
 needed is not the genius, the discoverer, the brilliant sayer 
 of new things, but simply the honest man, who speaks the 
 truth, pays his debts, does his work thoroughly, and is 
 satisfied with what he has earned. [Applause.] 
 
 The typical Dutchman is a free man. Liberty is his pas- 
 sion ; and has been since the days of Leyden and Alkmaar. 
 It runs in the blood. A descendant of the old Batavian 
 who fought against Rome is bound to be free at any cost : 
 he hates tyranny in every form. [Applause.] 
 
 " I honor the man who is ready to sink 
 Half his present repute for the freedom to think ; 
 And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, 
 Will sink t'other half for the freedom to speak, 
 Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, 
 L,et that mob be the upper ten thousand, or lower."* 
 
 That is the spirit of the typical Dutchman. Never has it 
 been more needed than it is to-day; to guard our land 
 against the oppression of the plutocrat on the one hand, and 
 the demagogue on the other hand ; to prevent a government 
 of the parties by the bosses for the spoils, and to preserve a 
 * James Russell Lowell.
 
 420 HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 government of the people, by the people, for the people. 
 [Renewed applause.] 
 
 The typical Dutchman is a prudent man. He will be free 
 to choose for himself; but he generally chooses to do 
 nothing rash. He does not admire those movements which 
 are like the Chinaman's description of the toboggan-slide, 
 "Whiz! Walk a mile!" He prefers a one-story ground- 
 rent to a twelve-story mortgage with an elevator. [Laugh- 
 ter.] He has a constitutional aversion to unnecessary risks. 
 In society, in philosophy, in commerce, he sticks to the old 
 way until he knows that the new one is better. On the 
 train of progress he usually sits in the middle car, sometimes 
 in the smoker, but never on the cow-catcher. [Laughter.] 
 And yet he arrives at his destination all the same. [Re- 
 newed laughter.] 
 
 The typical Dutchman is a devout man. He could not 
 respect himself if he did not reverence God. [Applause.] 
 Religion was at the centre of Holland's most glorious life, 
 and it is impossible to understand the sturdy heroism and 
 cheerful industry of our Dutch forefathers without remem- 
 bering that whether they ate or drank or labored or prayed 
 or fought or sailed or farmed, they did all to the glory of 
 God. [Applause.] The only difference between New Am- 
 sterdam and New England was this : The Puritans founded 
 a religious community with commercial principles ; the 
 Dutchman founded a commercial community with relig- 
 ious principles. [Laughter.] Which was the better I do 
 not say ; but every one knows which was the happier to live 
 in. 
 
 The typical Dutchman is a liberal man. He believes, but 
 he does not persecute. He says, in the immortal words of 
 William HI, "Conscience is God's province." So it came 
 to pass that New Amsterdam became an asylum for the op- 
 pressed in the New World, as Old Amsterdam had been in 
 the Old World. No witches burned ; no Quakers flogged ; 
 peace and fair chances for everybody ; love God as much as 
 you can, and don't forget to love your neighbor as yourself. 
 How excellent the character in which. piety and charity are 
 joined ! While I have been speaking you have been thinking 
 of one who showed us the harmony of such a character in 
 his living presence — Judge Hooper C. Van Vorst, the first
 
 THE TYPICAL DUTCHMAN' 42 1 
 
 President of the Ilollaiul Society — an honest lawyer, an 
 upright judge, a prudent counsellor, a sincere Christian, a 
 genial connpanion. While such a man lives his fellowship is 
 a blessing, and when he dies his memory is sacred. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 But one more stroke remains to be added to the picture. 
 The typical Dutchman is a man of few words. Perhaps I 
 ought to say he zvas : for in this talkative age, even in The 
 Holland Society, a degenerate speaker will forget himself 
 so far as not to keep silence when he talks about the typical 
 Dutchman. [Laughter.] But those old companions v. ho 
 came to this country previous to the year 1675, as Dutch 
 citizens, under the Dutch flag, and holding their tongues in 
 the Dutch language, — ah, they understood their business. 
 Their motto was facta non verba. They are the men we 
 praise to-night in our : — 
 
 SONG OF THE TYPICAL DUTCHMAN. 
 
 They sailed from the shores of the Zuidir Zee 
 
 Across the stormy ocean, 
 To build for the world a new country 
 
 According to their notion ; 
 A land where thought should be free as air, 
 
 And speech be free as water ; 
 Where man to man should be just and fair, 
 And Law be Liberty's daughter. 
 They were brave and kind. 
 And of simple mind, 
 And the world has need of such men ; 
 So we say with pride, 
 (On the father's side). 
 That they were typical Dutchmen. 
 
 They bought their land in an honest way, 
 
 For the red man was their neighbor ; 
 They farmed it well, and made it pay 
 
 By the increment of labor. 
 They ate their bread in the sweat o' their brow. 
 
 And smoked their pipes at leisure ; 
 For they said tlien, as we say now. 
 That the fruit of toil is pleasure. 
 
 When their work was done, 
 They had their fun, 
 And the world has need of such men ; 
 So we say with pride, 
 (On the father's side), 
 That they were typical Dutchmen.
 
 422 HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 They held their faith without offence, 
 
 And said their pra3'ers on Sunday ; 
 But they never could see a bit of sense 
 
 In burning a witch on Monday. 
 They loved their God with a love so true, 
 
 And with a head so level, 
 That they could afford to love men too, 
 And not be afraid of the devil. 
 They kept their creed 
 In word and deed, 
 And the world has need of such men ; 
 So we say with pride, 
 (On the father's side). 
 That they were typical Dutchmen. 
 
 When the English fleet sailed up the bay, 
 
 The small Dutch town was taken ; 
 But the Dutchmen there had come to stay. 
 
 Their hold was never shaken. 
 They could keep right on, and work and waii 
 
 For the freedom of the nation ; 
 And we claim to-day that New York State 
 Is built on a Dutch foundation. 
 
 They were solid and strong. 
 They have lasted long, 
 And the world has need of such men • 
 So we say with pride, 
 (On the father's side), 
 That they were typical Dutchmen. 
 
 [Great applause.]
 
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