IBrrqugt Te Gommemorate TBG framing and §igning er TBG Constitution of tfjr SiJnitftJ ^^tntris. BANQUET GIVKN 1!V THK LEARNED SOCIETIES OF PHILADELPHIA AT THK AMERICAN ACADEMY OE MUSIC SEI'TKMHKR 17, 1S87 CLOSING THE CEREMONIES IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FRAMING AND SIGNING Constitution of ti^c Clnitrti states • •"» . : » » •» • » ••, PHILADELPHIA PRINTED FOR THE COMMITTEE 1888 •• • • • r * ■ PKINTHD UY J. 11. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHIUkDBLPHIA. ^^^ BANQUET COMMEMORA riNG THE KRAMINc; tlK TllK CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, Septf.mdek 17, 18(87. The thought naturally suggested itself that on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the Framing and Promulgation of the Constitution of the United States the older institutions of learning, of art, and of science in Philadelphia should bear some important part. Their origin was due to the same intelli- gent and energetic public spirit which made Philadelphia the home of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitu- tion, and which has caused her to become the shrine of Ameri- can patriotic sentiment. Their pro.sperous careers, beginning at the time when it was the ambition of every man of scientific attainments to become a member of the American Philosophical Society, when every physician regarded Benjamin Rush as the head of his profession, and every artist felt a pride in the rec- ognition accorded to the talents of Benjamin West, continued down to the present, as exemplified in the activities of the University of Pennsylvania, the Franklin Institute, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, are a proof that under the Constitution which provides for civil government and protects religious liberty is also fostered every agency needful for the development of the highest civilization. The dignity of these institutions, and their harmonious relations toward each other, 3 made it eminently proper that, actin., New York. I-KNNo.'c Browne, M.1>., K.R.S., London. Fordvce Barker, M.I)., New York. T. Vr Valcoi'RT, M.D., France. Sinclair Ccctor, U.S.N. Colonel Georoe H. Wanino, Georgia. Colonel TnfxirxjRE E. Wiedersheim. Joseph R. Smith, Surgeon U.S.A. Hon. John S. Wise, Virginia. Hon. Jamks M. Leach, North Carolina. Hon. Henrv M. Hovt. Hon. Andrew G. Curtin. Hon. Lyman K. Bass, New York. Hon. George A. Jenks, Washington, D.C. Hon. James P. Kimkai.l, W.tshington, D.C. Hon. Benjamin Bi'tterworth, Ohio. Hon. William Henry Smith, Chicago. Baron Nicholas Korkf, St. Petersburg. Hon. William S. Kirkpatrick, Pennsylvania. Hon. Courtland Parker, New Jersey. George H. Moore, LL.D., New York. Charles J. Bonaparte, Baltimore. John Lafarge, New York. Bernhard Uhle, Philadelphia. Peter F. Rothermel, Philadelphia. Thomas Hovendf.n. Pennsylvania. rROKKSsoK E. Otis Kf.ndau., rhiladclphia. Professor FREDKRirK A. Gentii, Pliilailelphia. Professor Edward K. Perry, Columbia Collejje. THt)MAs M. Thompson, Philadelphia. Richard W. Gii.der, Editor Century Magazine. Hon. Chari.ks J. Ciiai'MAN, I'oiilaiid, Maine. CiiARi.ia I''. Guild, Paymaster U.S.N. Jackson McEi.mei.i., Chief-Engineer I'.S.N. John S. .'\iihott, Lieutenant U..S.N. Joseph Pulitzer, New York. R. Alonzo Brikjk, Virginia. Caitain James Hkli,, Yacht Thistle. S. C. Eastman, Vice-President Historical Society of New Hampshire. GOVERNORS OF STATES. Hon. Simon P. Hughes, Arkansas. Hon. Phineas C. Lounshury, Connecticut. Hon. Edward A. Perry, Florida. Hon. John B. Gordon, Georgia. Hon. William Larrabee, Iowa. Hon. Joseph R. Bodwell, Maine. Hon. Charles H. Sawyer, New Hampshire. Hon. Robert S. Grekn, New Jersey. Hon. Alfred M. Scales, North Carolina. Hon. Sylvester Pennover, Oregon. Hon. James A. Beaver, Pennsylvania. Hon. John W. Davis, Rhode Island. Hon. John P. Richardson, South Carolina. Hon. Fitzhugh Lee, Virginia. Hon. E. Willis Wilson, West Virginia. CENTENNIAL COMMISSIONERS. Hon. John A. Kasson, President, Iowa. Hon. Amos R. Little, Vice-President, Pennsylvania. Hon. Oscar R. Hindley, Alabama. Hon. Samuel A. Henzey, Arizona. Hon. Henry C. Robinson, Connecticut. Hon. John H. Rodney, Delaware. Hon. N. G. Ordway, Dakota. 2 lO Hon. Nelson Tifft, Georgia. Hon. Charles H. Reevk, Indiana. Hon. Charles E. Fennkr, Louisiana. Hon. Clinton P. Paine, Maryland. Hon. Henry Cabot Iojdcie, Massachusetts. Hon. Alexanukk Ramsey, Minnesota. Hun. Marckli.us Green, Mississippi. Hon. Thomas T. Ganti', Missouri. Hon. Uenjamin A. Kimiiall, New Hampshire. Hon. Charles G. Garrison, New Jersey. Hon. William A. Rohertson, Nelir-tska. Hon. Lewin W. Barrinuer, North Carolina. Hon. Alcred T. Goshorn, Ohio. Hon. Rowland Hazard, Rhode Island. Hon. James A. Hovt, Souih Carolina. Hon. L. E. Chittenden, Vermont. Hon. William Wirt Henry, Virginia. Hamiton L. Carson, Secretary, Pennsylvania. K. C. Brewster, Jr., AaistatU Secretary, Pennsylvania. Tlic following nicmbcr.s of the .societies participating, and their friends, were al.so present: Adler, John M., M.D. Banks, George W. Agncw, D. Hayes, M.D. Barker, Abraham. Allen, Harrison, M.D. Barker, Wharton. Allen, Rol>ert P. Baugh, Daniel. Allinson, Edward P. Bausman, J. W. B. Ashlmmcr, C. A. Beaman, Charles C. Ashhurst, Richard L. Beasley, C. Oscar. Ashman, Hon. Willian\ N. Bclfielil, T. Brown. Bergner, C. W. Baeder, Charles B. Biddle, Alexander. Baily, Joel J. Biddle, Cadwalader. Baird, John. Biddle, Thomas A. Baird, John E. Binder, Jacob. Baird, Thomas E. Bingham, George A. Baker, Alfred G. Bispham, George Tucker. Baker, William de Ford. Blanchard, William. Baker, William S. Blankenburg, Rudolph. Banes, Charles H. Bodine, Francis L. II Ronnafitm, F. V. Bonwill, W. G. A. Boy6, Martin H. Bradfonl, T. Hewsoii, M.U. Brock, Arthur. Brock. Roliert C. H. Brockie, William. Brooke, Francis M. Broomall, John M. Brown, Alexander P. Butltl, Henry. Bullitt, John C. Cadwalader, Charles E., M.D. CadwaLader, John. Caldwell, Ste])hen A. Cassidy, Lewis C. Calherwood, J. H. Catherwood, H. W. Cattell, Henry S. Cattell, Rev. William C. Caven, Joseph L. Chi Ids, George W. Clapp, B. Frank. Clark, E. W. Cleemann, Richard A. Coates, Edward H. Coates, George M. Coates, William M. Cochran, Thomas. Cochran, William. Cohen, Charles J. Cohen, J. Solis, M.D. Coleman, H. T. Comegys, B. B. Cooper, Thomas V. , Cox, John Bellangee. Coxe, Brinton. Coxe, Eckley B. Coxc, Eustus R. Hallowell, Frederick Fraley. Handy, Moses P. Hargraves, W. H. C. Harrah, Charles J. Harris, Joseph S. Harrison, Alfred C. Harrison, Charles C. Hart, Charles. Hart, Charles Henry. Haydon, James C. Helme, Willi.am. llensel, W. U. HiUleburn, Charles R. Hill, R. n. C. Ilollingsworth, Samuel S. Horner, William Macpherson. Horstmann, Walter. Houston, Edwin J. Houston, Henry H. Hpincott, J. Dundas. Little, Amos R. Lockwood, E. Dunbar. Longslrcth, Edwar.l. 13 I,U(lIow, J. I.., M.D. McClure, Alcxamk'r K. Mcllhenny, John. McKeaii, Thomas. McKean, William V. McMichacl, Morton. McMurtrie, Richard C. MacAlister, James. Macfarlane, John J. Mackellar, Thomas. Meade, George. Meehan, Thomas. Meigs, William M. Meredith, William M. Miles, Thomas J. Miller, Andrew H. Miller, Edgar G. Miller, J. Rulon. Mitchell, J.imes T. Mitchell, S. Weir, M.D. Montgomery, Thomas H. Morris, John T. Munday, Eugene H. Norris, Isaac. North, H. M. Oberrender, E. A. Opdyke, B. P. Ostheimer, Alfred J. Packard, John H., M.D. Page, S. Davis. Pancoast, William H. Parrish, Joseph. Parsons, James. Parvin, Theophilus, M.D. Patterson, Joseph. Pennypacker, Samuel W. Penrose, Clement B. Pepper, (Jeorge S. Pep|H'r, William, M.D. Perot, T. Morris. Pollock, James. _ Potter, Beverly K. Potter, Thomas, Jr. Potter, W. Uubley. Potts, Francis L. Potts, Joseph D. Potts, William M. Pratt, D. T. Pri^ce, J. Sergeant. Prichard, Frank P. Rand, Theodore D. Rawie, William Brooke. Rawie, Willi.am Henry. Reakirt, E• 'u c s 'o M £ E < c o u 3 ■—I (A U c o M u 6 t E *-» ♦^ !-• i> o u u 3 3 o o o O '5 B V 4-* C V o a z u h Q Z < Q Z < > U u S n X o n > z o o < n 'SJOUJ9AOO REAR OF STAGE. 3 i8 of Portland, Maine, on his right; the Gm'cniors' Tabic, by Hon. James A. Beaver, on his right Governor Fitzhugh R. Lee, of Virginia ; the Centennial Commission Table, by Amos Little, Esq., on his right Hon. John A. Kasson, President of Centennial Commission. The menu was printed on six slieets of Holland and India papers ornamented with etched designs emblematic of the occasion and of the objects of the Societies giving the banquet. Impressions from the original plates accompany this description. While the banquet was in progre.ss a reception was being given to Mrs. Cleveland in the Foyer by the ladies of Phila- delphia. The committee in charge was composed of — Mrs. J. DuNDAs LlPiMNCOTT. Mrs. Frank M. Dick. Mrs. Edwin H. Fitler. Mrs. Henrv Whei-EN, Jr. Mrs. Chaki.es Henrv Hart. Mrs. Clarence H. Clark. Mrs. Samuel Dickson. Mrs. A. Louden Snowden. Mrs. Thomas M. Thomi-son. Mrs. Louis Starr. Mrs. R. L. AsHHURST. Mrs. William Pepi-er. Mrs. George W. Childs. Mrs. C. H. C. Brock. Mrs. J. Granville Leach. Mrs. George Meade. Mrs. George Harrison Fisher. Mrs. Charles C. Harrison. Mrs. Amos R. Little. Mrs. Charles H. Banes. Mrs. E. D. Gillespie. Mrs. William Sellers. Mrs. Morton McMichael. Mrs. Henry C. Gibson. Mrs. George B. Roberts. At half-past eight o'clock Mrs. Cleveland, accompanied by Mrs. Waite, wife of the Chief Justice of the United States ; Mrs. Miller, wife of Justice Miller of the United States Supreme Court; Mrs. General Sheridan, Mrs. Daniel C. Lamont, and Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott, entered the balcony box on the south side of the Academy. The doors of the balcony were then thrown open for the entrance of the ladies who had received invitations, and in a few minutes nearly every seat was occupied. r proem » The convention of delegates from the thirteen original states, appointed for the purpose of "revising, amending, and alter- ing the Federal Government," met in the State House, at Phil- adelphia, on the 25th day of May, 1787, and upon the motion of Robert Morris, George Washington was unanimously chosen President of the convention. The deliberations of the body were continued until the 17th day of September, when the delegates " met in Convention and signed the proceedings," which provided for the United States a fundamental law for its governance ; after which they dined together at the City Tavern. At the close of a century from that day to appropriately terminate the commemorative services we meet and dine together here. '^^^ /^"^. Menu. y. Points. Oreen Turtle. Ckateam Y^utm. AmoniiltaJo. MON, Oyster Crab Sauce. Uth/raHmii '■ JTATOES. Cucumbers. h Chicken Cutlets. / Filet of Beef with Olives. Potato Croquettes. Green Peas. Mashed Sweet Potatoes. Sorbet. Terrapin. Reed Birds. Veuve Oi^uoi. L, Roederer Grand Vin Sec. Pommery Sec. Jaunay Sec. Cieiler &• Co., Blue Seal. Delbeck. Chaieau La/itte. Clot da Vougeot. LErrucE. Sliced Tomatoes. Mayonnaise and French Dressing. Roquefort. GRUYfeRE. Ices. Madeira t 'j^, Gorgonzola. Brie. Fruits. ^ Cognac, l&is. Tf oasts. 1. The President of the United States. Okovbr Clrvbland, President of the United States. 2. The Federal Judiciary, . Stanley Matthuw-s. Associate Justice Supreme Court, U. S. 3. Congress 4. The United States of 1787. (P The United States of 1887. 6. The Army 7. The Navy. . . . ' . 9. France— Our Old Ally. 10. American Education. 11. Tni^ Centennial Commission. John Jamks Inualls, President of the Senate. FiTzHUGH Lee, Governor of Virginia. Charlbs Francis Adams, of Massachusetts. Philip H. Shrkioan, Lieutcnant-General U. S. Army. Stbphbn B. Lucb, Rear Admual U. S. Navy. 8. England— Our Mother Country, sir Lyon Plavfair. of Great Britain. Marquis Dk Chambritn, of France. Andrew D. White, of New York. John A. Kasson, President. 12. Honor and Immortality to the Members i)F THE Federal Convention of 1787. USNRY M. HovT, o£.*ena»5fl/ani:i ■TK^A •'-^r^' Committee of Arrangements. , William Pepper, M.D., • Provost of the University of Pennsylvania) Chairman. Frederick Fraley, ;_. President of the American Philosophical Society. S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., President of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Isaac Elwell, President of the Law Academy of Philailcipl^^iMi v , Brinton Coxe, c osident of the Historical Society of Pennsylvatiia. "\^ Joseph M. Wilson, "['resident of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania. George S. Pepper, President of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Joseph Leidy, M.D., President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Charles C. Harrison, Samuel Dickson, .Samuel W. Pennypacker, Cadwalader Uiddle, William A. Ingham, John Ashhurst, Jr., M.D., George DeB. Keim, Edwin T. Eisknhrey, William Sellers, William P. Tatham, Charles Henry Hart, Henry Whelen, Jr., Richard A. Cleemann, M.D., John H. Packard, M.D J. Granville Leach, Thomas Meehan, Richard C. McMurtrie, Jacob Binder, William Henry Rawle, Theodore D. Rand, Wharton Barker, Treasurer. Fred. D. Stone, Secretary, TOASTS AND SPEECHES. At nine o'clock Provost Pepper arose and said, — " In Washington's Diary, as quoted in the Pennsylvania Magazine, the following entry occurs for Monday, September • 7. i?'^?'- 'Met in convention when the Constitution received the unanimous assent of eleven States and of Colonel Hamil- ton, of New York, the only delegate from thence in Conven- tion, and was subscribed to by every member present except Governor Randolph and Colonel Mason from Virginia, and Mr. Gerry from Massachusetts. The business being thus closed, the members adjourned to the City Tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave of each other. After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business and received the papers from the Secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate on the momentous work which had been executed.' " There is nothing but this scant record of that meeting, but of the men who sat around the table in the old tavern in that old-time Philadelphia with her forty thousand people, there is much written on the pages of history ; and of the work which they had that day completed we are assembled, after the lapse of a century, to testify that, judged by its marvellous results, by the loyal and unanimous approval of America's sixty million citizens, and equally by the opinion of the wisest of other lands, it was the most remarkable work produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke, so to speak, in its applica- tion to political affairs. " We have heard this morning a memorable account of that great document, the Constitution of the United States, from the lips of one who.se place is with the very foremost of its «9 20 expounders and supporters. Created by an overruling spirit of wisdom from the mutual antagonisms of conflicfing inter- ests, it has maintained an equilibrium among the mighty bodies and forces subject to it, like that of the solar system, whose countless members pursue their allotted courses, orb within orb, under the all-pervading power of gravitation. Many of the ceremonies which one hundred years ago formed part of the celebration of the success of the Federal Convention of 1787 have been reproduced at this time. But it is not merely in imitation of the dinner to which I have alluded that a number of the literary and scientific bodies of Philadelphia have united in extending the invitation which has been so courteously ac- cepted. " In the name of these societies, the organization and consti- tutions of a number of which antedate our national existence, I extend to you all, representatives of all departments of our national and local governments, of our own and of the sister States in this Union, and of the greater sisterhood of foreign Nations, with all of whom, thank God, our relations are and bid fair ever to be friendly and cordial, — ^to you all I extend a hearty greeting. " It was much to have secured for a nation, liberty, — personal, political, religious. This it is which forms the essential basis of all that renders life most precious. But scarcely less re- markable than the statesmanship and political foresight of the men who founded this Government, was their appreciation of the fact that for national progress and development, for stability of government, and, most of all, for human happiness, there must be not only universal liberty but universal education, and the largest encouragement of letters, arts, and science. " True as this was of the leading men of other States and cities, it was pre-eminently true of those of Pennsylvania and of Philadelphia, and I should fail in my loyal duty were I to 21 omit mention of what resulted from labors of such men as Rush and Morfjan and Cadwaiader and Hiddlc and Shippen and Clymer and Morris and, above all, of I'ranklin. I know that our friends in Massachusetts claim Franklin as an illustri- ous Bostonian who passed a few years of his later life in Phila- delphia. At least they were fruitful years ; and those of us who doubt at times whether the individual counts for much in this crowded life may take heart on seeing what this one man did. Time does not now permit even a bare allusion to all the institutions he organized, among them to the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731, the first public library in America; to the Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in 1755, the oldest on this continent. " Of those societies which have the honor of being your hosts this evening, the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1749, fifth of American colleges in order of seniority, looks to him as its founder; the American Philosophical Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, by far the earliest of its kind in this country, was organized by him in 1743, and was the direct outgrowth of the Junto, a less formal society started by him in 1727; and the Franklin In.stitute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts was organized in 1824 by men thoroughly im- bued with the spirit of Franklin, and by them was named in honor of the great philosopher. It may truly be added, that by its long career of constantly enlarging usefulness, and by the powerful encouragement it has given to scientific education and to the mechanic arts, it has indeed reflected honor upon him whose name it bears. " Of the record of the work done by the American Phil- osophical Society during the first century of its existence, its distinguished librarian, Professor Lesley, well says, ' It is not so much the record of the growth of an American society as a record of the growth of society in America.' The potent 22 ideas which make their first appearance in those pages ; the first steps in far-reaching scientific paths there shown ; the dis- tinguished names from all sections which adorn it, indicate clearly the powerful and pervasive influence exerted by this venerable society, which to-day, as at all times, numbers among its members the leading men in American and Kuropean science and letters. " In all communities where artificial conditions do not inter- fere, a prominent part is played in public and in social life by members of the medical and legal professions. America has been no e.Kception to this rule, and nowhere in America has the organization of these professions been so good and their influence so potent as in Philadelphia. " In the early part of this year was celebrated fitly the cen- tennial anniversary of the College of Physicians of this city, the oldest medical society in America, except the State medi- cal organizations of New Jersey and Massachusetts. Housed in a building comporting with her dignity, richly endowed with funds, and with collections surpassed only by those of our Government, and, above all, with the traditions of a century of duty faithfully done, of the highest standard of private and public professional work steadily maintained, and of a hundred years without one break in the meetings for scientific work save when pestilence thrust upon her members a more impera- tive service, this venerable society holds up before the medical world of to-day the example of her founders for gratitude and emulation. " I know that not a few of those whom I have the honor of welcoming this evening were yesterday the guests of the Bar Association ; and I am assured that this interesting occasion was not allowed to pass without an eloquent account of the elder sister society, the Law Academy ; for whether we assume 1783, the date of the earliest steps in the direction of this 23 organization, or 1823, the year of actual incorporation, as its starting-point, it may fairly be claimed to have exerted through- out these long years a constant and powerful influence upon the improvement of legal education, and upon the maintenance of that lofty standard of professional feeling and conduct which is the just pride of our bar. " Has not already enough been said to establish the fact that, under our democratic form of government, institutions of the most varied kinds may develop and thrive as vigorously as though fostered by royalty's most lavish favor ? Nay, will not one who looks over the length and breadth of this land and notes the growing strength and numbers of these institutions, with their magnificent endowment and equipment, be led to conclude that a consciousness that such foundations are need- ful for the stability as well as for the grace of the social fabric in this country is rapidly developing the deliberate purpose, among those intrusted with large wealth, of devoting much of it to such enduring monuments ? Here in this city stand the Academy of Natural Sciences, founded in 181 2, within whose walls are garnered the constantly increasing and well-nigh priceless collections from all quarters of the globe ; and the Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1805, the first art academy in America, whose vigorous work, with that of her sister academies, is rapidly developing a genuine school of American art. For, if true art requires for its growth an impressionable and imaginative race, with an heroic and picturesque history, in contact with an environment of natural beauty marvellous in variety and perfection, and under the influence of lofty ideals of personal and national duty, it were strange if in the glorious Augustan age on which America is entering there should not develop a school of art whose splendor shall outshine the lustre of our more material achievements. " Even now our active workers are gathering in the records 24 of the early life of this country. Within the stately rooms of our own Historical Society, founded in 1824, where, under the influence of the new quickening and reviving of all intellectual movements, there is marvellous activity in collection and re- search, are rapidly accumulating the materials for many a thrilling romance or moving ballad or impassioned canvas. Nor is it the least important feature of this grand growth that, although originating independently yet from a common thought, these various institutions, both here and elsewhere, are working in concert for the higher education of the people, and are lending their powerful aid towards the extension of the scope and influence of our great university .system. The American university is the university of the people, not of a class. There is no fear of too much nor of too high education in this country. He who pursues the humblest calling will pursue it the more contentedly because he has some .sources of consolation within himself And to all with the natural ability and with the energy to use it mu.st the road be open, clear and straight, to the highest education, which being sound and thorough will develop all that is good and great in each, and will fit him for the highest usefulness and success. " I stand here by the accident of my official relation to the University of Pennsylvania, and it were impossible to mention the name of this institution without testifying again to the wisdom and the devotion and the .self-sacrifice of those who founded her, and of tho.se who through nearly a century and a half have labored to promote her welfare, until she stands to-day the intellectual centre of this vast community, beloved and honored on account of her earnest labors in the cause of truth and sound learning, served gladly and zealously by the wise and learned in all her departments, and supported by the generous devotion of thousands of her children who in all 25 lands on which the sun shines are holding her in lo%'ing re- membrance for the happiness and the help she gave them. " It is by such hosts, Mr. President and gentlemen who are now the honored guests of Philadelphia and of Pennsylvania, that you are welcomed here to-night. And if in this one city, illustrious though it be, there stands such an array of organ- ized powers co-operating as willing servants with the vast spiritual forces of our American churches, and with the great silent influence of our Constitution and our political institu- tions, for the diffusion of truth and the elevation of society, surely we must, when we recall that in every centre and every corner of this continent there are similar agencies at work, look forward with confidence to the future. " Can earth hold in store for any man greater honor than to be called — the elect of such a nation — to the post of highest authority over it? Of the dignity of this office, of the tre- mendous power and responsibility devolving on him who assumes it, it were impossible for me to speak adequately. And equally so were it to depict the dignified yet reverent homage which is paid by this vast people to their uncrowned king, — when seen to wear the purple robe of authority un- stained by partisan or personal purpose. But we arc honored to-night by the presence of him who now, and with not un- equal strength, holds this lofty place, and it is from the Presi- dent of the United States that we beg to hear in response to the toast to his high office." "The President of the United States." " On such a day as this," responded President Cleveland, " and in the atmosphere that now surrounds him, I feel that the President of the United States should be thoughtfully modest and humble. The great office he occupies stands to-day in the presence of its maker ; and it is especially fitting for this servant 4 26 of the people and creature of the Constitution, amid the im- pressive scenes of this centennial occasion, by a rigid self- examination, to be assured concerning his loyalty and obedi- ence to the law of his existence. He will find that the rules prescribed for his guidance require for the performance of his duty, not the intellect or attainments which would raise him far above the feeling and sentiment of the plain people of the land, but rather such a knowledge of their condition and sympathy with their wants and needs as will bring him near to them. [Applau.se.] And though he may be almost appalled by the weight of his responsibility and the solemnity of his situation, he cannot fail to find comfort and encouragement in the success the fathers of the Constitution wrought from their simple patriotic devotion to the rights and interests of the people. / Surely he may hope that, if reverently invoked, the spirit which gave the Constitution life will be sufficient for its success- ful operation and the accomplishment of its beneficent pur- poses. " Because they are brought nearest to the events and scenes which marked the birth of American institutions, the people of Philadelphia should of all our citizens be most imbued with .sentiments of the broadest patriotism. The first Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention met here, and Philadelphia still has in her keeping Carpenters' Hall, Inde- pendence Hall and its bell, and the grave of I'ranklin. " As I look about me and see here represented the societies that express so largely the culture of Philadelphia, its love of art, its devotion to science, its regard for the broadest knowl- edge, and its studious care for historical research, — societies some of which antedate the Constitution, — I feel that I am in a notable company. To you is given the duty of preserving and protecting for your city, for all your fellow-countrymen, and for mankind, the traditions and the incidents related to the 27 establishment of the freest and best government ever vouch- safed to man. [Applause.] It is a sacred trust; and as time leads our government further and further from the date of its birth, may you solemnly remember that a nation exacts of you that these traditions and incidents shall never be tarnished nor neglected ; but that, brightly burnished, they may always be held aloft, fastening the gaze of a patriotic people and keeping alive their love and reverence for the Constitution." [Long and continued applause.] In proposing the next toast, " To the Federal Judiciary," Dr. Pepper said, — " While the eloquent and forcible words of the distinguished orator of to-day are still ringing in our ears, and while we retain fresh and unimpaired the impression of the splendid demonstration he gave us of the powers and virtues of the Constitution of the United States, it is fitting that we should pay our tribute of respect to that body of men to whom in an especial sense is intrusted the interpretation, the custody, and the maintenance of that immortal document. I am tempted to quote from a well-known .speech made in 1805 by Joseph Hop- kinson, a member and a Vice-Provost of our Law Academy, in defence of a justice of the Supreme Court on his impeach- ment before the Senate of the United States. In glowing sentences, which have often been repeated, he enforces the supreme necessity of a pure and upright judiciary, and adds, ' If I am called upon to declare whether the independence of judges were more essentially important in a monarchy or a republic, I should say in the latter. ... If you have read of the death of Seneca, under the ferocity of a Nero, you have read, too, of the murder of Socrates, under the delusions of a republic. An independent and firm judiciary, protected and protecting by the laws, would have snatched the one from the 28 fury of a despot, and preserved the other from the madness of a people.' " Have we not seen the immortal Marshall, while the majesty of law seemed heightened by the simple grandeur of his char- acter, hold with true and level hand the balance, though in one scale there was but a wretched life, and in the other the fury and hatred of a nation? Have we not seen the august body of our highest court plant itself upon the side of truth and right in momentous issues, and still the raging of the people by its inflexible and incorruptible strength ? " It is with deep veneration, therefore, that I propose to you the toast of the ' Federal Judiciarv,' whether of the Supreme or Circuit Courts, illustrious for learning, integrity, and inde- pendence, and call upon Mr. Justice Matthews, of the Supreme Court of the United States, to respond." Justice Matthews said, — " The display of national power and prosperity witnessed by the three days now fitly closing ; the consciousness of the .strength and fulness of our national life, now swelling in the hearts of so many millions of freemen, citizens of the United States, attest the wise frame of our civil and political institu- tions. A retrospect of a hundred years enables the present generation to judge how far the work of our fathers has ful- filled its hope and promise. The organization, function, and development of the judicial power of the United States under the Federal Constitution, as concerned in the growth of our national life, is the subject presented to you by the sentiment to which I respond. "A judicial establishment was essential to the idea of a government as distinguished from a league or confederacy. A judicial establishment co-ordinate with and independent of the legislative and executive departments was essential to the idea 29 of a government intended to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty. For the very definition of despotism is the concentration of power in a single will. " It was necessary that two other constituents should enter into its organization. The Government of the United States was to be autonomous, self-maintaining, .self-sufficient, and in- dependent of the separate governments of the several States, to which, however, and to the people of the States, was reserved all powers not delegated, cither e.Kpressly or by reasonable implication, to the Government of the United States. Hence it was declared by the Constitution that the judicial power of the United States shall extend to all cases in law or equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more States, between a State and citizens of another State (limited by the Eleventh Amend- ment to ca.ses where the State is the plaintiff), between citizens of different States, between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign .states, citizens, or subjects. " It was further necessary that within the whole area of this jurisdiction the judicial power of the United States should be final, and, in the last resort, exclusive. It was therefore de- clared by the Constitution that ' This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the con- trary notwithstanding.' 30 "Thus was cast upon tlie Federal Judiciary the burden and the duty, in the due course of judicial determination between litigant parties, of enforcing the supreme law of the land, even though it became essential, in doing so, to declare void acts of Congress and of the legislatures of the States. This is the logical necessity of liberty secured by written constitutions of government unalterable by ordinary acts of legislation. If the prohibitions and limitation of the charters of government can- not be enforced in favor of individual rights, by the judgments of the judicial tribunals, then there are and can be no barriers again.st the exactions and despotism of arbitrary power ; then there is and can be no guarantee or security for the rights of life, liberty, or property ; then everything we hold to be dear and sacred as personal right is at the mercy of a monarch or a mob. " This function, it will be observed, is judicial as distin- guished from political. The judicial power does not act as critic or censor of the legislative or executive departments of cither the State governments or of the Government of the United States. It adjudges only between parties within its jurisdiction by process of law, and what it declares or deter- mines as to the validity of the acts of other departments of government is collateral and incidental only. It nevertheless binds and obliges the parties to the judgment and furnishes a precedent for subsequent decisions in like cases. And as the Constitution of the United States is the Constitution and supreme law of each State, so the courts and judges of the United States are the courts and judges of each State in and for which they may be sitting to hold pleas ; they are not and ought not to be regarded as aliens and strangers, administering a foreign and hostile jurisprudence. The law they declare and admini.ster in every ca.se within their jurisdiction is as much the domestic law of the State in which it is applied as 31 though it derived its authority solely from State legislation and was adjudged by State tribunals. It is not a patriotic part to encourage the feeling or inculcate the opinion that the exercise of a jurisdiction under the laws of the Union is an invasion of the sphere of local government, or to diminish the respect duo to lawful authority by the prejudice or jealousy of local pride. [Applau.se.] " Although the Federal Judiciary are invested with no politi- cal power, nevertheless the exercise of judicial power has neces.sarily resulted in important political consequences. In the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, and of the acts of Congress, and of the executive departments, and of the legislation of the States, while prescribing rules for the regulation of private conduct, the courts have also necessarily fixed the lines of public law along and within which official action must move so as to be effective. The Federal Judiciary, therefore, has been a prime factor in the political education of the people by practical exhibition of their political institutions in actual legal operation upon their affairs, and affecting in the most important particulars their interests and their rights. The plan and system of their double government has been taught in a series of impressive object-lessons, establishing the doctrine, in the language of a late chief ju.stice, of an inde- structible Union of indestructible States, and vindicating the confidence of every individual in the protection afforded by the law of the land against arbitrary power of government, whether State or national, seeking to deprive him of life, liberty, or property. "With what success the Courts of the United States have fulfilled the purposes of the Constitution is recorded in the annals of the century which closes to-night. It is to be found in the history of the great controversies which they have settled to the public satisfaction, and in the. roll of great names 32 made famous by the part those who bore them have taken in their decision. They are too many to be enumerated here now. Suffice it to say that the judgments in which that history is contained form a body of jurisprudence, which for originality and scientific accuracy and beauty distinguishes American con.stitutional and public law among all the codes and sy.stems of civilized states, while no name of higher rank- has been given to the jurisprudence of the world than that of John Marshall. [Applause.] " How it may be in the future the future must be left to tell. If the judges of to-day, and those who shall come after them in the new century on whose threshold we now .stand, prove not to be so greatly endowed as those who have preceded them in those days when there were giants, nevertheless their task will be easier. The foundations have been laid well and strong and deep. The plan of the building and its lines are already fixed and plain. It is our part, and the part of those who come after, to build on this foundation according to this plan and within these lines. We have but to follow where others have led and pursue the ancient ways. " Mistakes doubtless will be made. Errors cannot always be avoided. But fortunately they are not irremediable even when committed by judicial tribunals of last resort. There is after all always a remaining appeal. For it is only what is just and right and true that will abide. The judgments of the Supreme Court are constantly reviewed by it.self after further enlightenment, and are subject always to the ultimate consen- sus of professional public opinion which sooner or later takes away the authority of every bad precedent. The law, as em- bodied in judicial decision, is a progressive and not a fixed science. It takes part in the general social growth and keeps even step with the march of improvement in every depart- ment of life. 33 " It thus vindicates its divine origin and quality by meeting and providing for every human need." [Applause.] Dr. Pepper then proposed the next toast in the following words : " In proposing the ne.xt toast, — to the legislative branch of our Government, — I may well leave to the honorable and elo- quent senator who will reply all allusion to the functions, powers, and privileges of this enviable body. Truly our fore- fathers builded even better than they knew in devising our unique system of representation. E.xamples in abundance they had before them of leagues and confederations. But at the touch of time and practical experience they had all fallen asunder. Never had this supreme problem of statesmanship — the mode of securing the permanent union of many separate and independent States of unequal power — been solved until the Federal Convention of 1787 devised the American plan by which the strong is strengthened, but its power of aggres- sion is curbed, while the weak is made strong to maintain its equal rights. The final proof of the success of this plan is that despite changes and vicissitudes, greater than have befallen any nation known to history in an equal period, our Constitution stands practically unchanged, with but sixteen amendments in one hundred years. " Point me to a single system of government, unless v/e go so far off as Russia or as China, in which it can be said that more serious and radical changes have not been made during the past century than have been found necessary in what must have seemed a wild and Utopian scheme. For its share in this grand result too much praise cannot be awarded to Congress for the self-controlled and law-abiding manner in which have been discharged its mighty functions. So that while few of us seem to doubt our ability to become, on short notice, com- 5 34 petent members of that august body, yet all will unite in a hearty recognition of the high standard of efficiency and prac- tical wisdom maintained by it, and in approving the toast of ' The Congress of the United States,' to which I shall beg the Hon. J. J. Ingalls, of Kansas, the President of the Senate, to respond." Mr. Ingali^ said, — "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Philadelphia Societies: — I rise to respond to this sentiment with serious and unaffected embarrassment, from the fact that the honorable Provost of the University in his invitation informed me that, in consequence of the great number of speakers and the length of the programme, my reply should be limited to eight or ten minutes. [Laughter.] Those who are familiar — as I presume most of you arc — with the somewhat prolix and loquacious verbosity of the debates in Congress will appreciate the diffi- culty under which I labor [Laughter] on account of this restriction and limitation. "And I may say further, at the outset, that I should fail in the discharge of my duty to that great body of which you have designated me as the representative, were I not to call the attention of the learned and distinguished societies of which we are the guests to the fact that the first article of the Constitution defines the powers and duties of Congress. The second article describes the prerogatives of the Executive, and the third the functions of the Judiciary. Our hosts in the order of precedence have declared that the first shall be last, [laughter and applause.] I protest against this violation of the great charter of our liberties, and serve notice upon the Committee of Arrangements that, should I be present at the next Centennial, I shall insist upon reversal of this order, and demand for Congress its constitutional priority in the festivities 35 of the day. But for the next century I waive the question of etiquette. [Laueculiar grace, we are told, from the Pennsylvania delegation because she had in her delegation the only member that could possibly be a competitor with Washington for that position. Dr. Franklin, the gentleman to whom I refer, in- tended to place Washington in nomination himself, but the state of the weather and his own health prevented him from being present. Under these auspices this convention met, and for four months they labored to perfect a scheme for human government. Oh, my friends, what an anxious period that was. We have .seen divisions charging the fiqry heights, while both armies waited and wondered. And we have read of the charge of the six hundred at Balaklava, while both sides stood trembling and looking on. But here these patriots were en- gaged in their work, and the whole world wondered whether they would succeed. Think of it ! F"orty-nine delegates were present making a form of government for four millions of people. Here were great mountains, whose swelling sides hid the wealth of centuries underneath ; here were broad rivers, whose currents were inviting the sails of commerce ; here were huge forests, whose trees were waving for the saw ; here were cities — great cities — waiting for the magic touch of the workman ; here were waters waiting idle for the wheel of the manufacturer. Ay, these patriots were equal to their task, and they produced what Mr. Gladstone but yesterday again repeated as the greatest work yet struck off with a single stroke of the brain and purpose of man. There were, however, 41 gentlemen, two disturbing influences left unsettled. It is hard at this hour to imagine how those patriotic framers of the Constitution could have settled them then and there. They were left. I refer to the slavery question, and to that question of the right of the withdrawal of a State from the Union they were then forming. Brilliant, bright John Randolph, who was a boy when he witne.s.sed the inauguriition of Washington, said : ' I see what but two other men in the country sec. I .see the poison under the wing of the American eagle, now being plumed for his flight, and it should be extracted lest it shed pestilence and death over the country whose destiny it is to protect.' This disturbing influence, I .say, was left. But the sword, I have reason to know, stepped in from 1861 to 1865 and destroyed the disturbing influences, and the poison has dropped from under the wing of the eagle. [Great applause.] " What then, gentlemen, is to prevent this great country from going on and fulfilling its destiny ? The strings of the patriotic hearts of the founders of the Republic were touched by the hand of compromise and mutual concession, and fra- ternal music floated over the land. And so, if we, the men of 1887, should be guided by the examples of moderation and con- cession and compromise of the men of 1787, in 1987 the cele- bration, to which my learned friend from Kansas has referred, will take place. And I pray to God that every footstep in the life of the Republic from this period to that may be marked by blessed peace, union, fraternity, progress, and prosperity. [Applause.] Wc arc told that behind the chair of President Washington, when he presided over the convention, was the representation of a sun near the horizon ; and good old Dr. Franklin said, as he sat there, that he had always understood it was difificult for the painter to so paint the sun close to the horizon so as to tell whether the sun was rising or setting. ' But,' said he, ' after the Constitution had been passed and the 6 42 last members were signing, 1 looked at the sun behind Presi- dent Washington, and I saw for the first time that it was a rising sun.' Oh, Dr. Franislin, it was indeed a rising sun ! It has been obscured temporarily since, but now it is shining in all the splendor of an unclouded majesty, bearing peace and hap- piness into the hearts and homes of si.xty millions of people." [Long-continued applause and cheers.] " You have heard," .said Dr. Pepper, " one of the many anec- dotes of Franklin in connection with the Federal Convention, and I am reminded of the quaint u.se he makes of an observa- tion that .some flies apparently drowned in a bottle of Madeira were revived by exposure to the rays of the sun. ' I wish it were possible,' said he, ' from this instance, to invent a method of embalming drowned persons in such a manner that they may be recalled to life at any period, however distant ; for, having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country.' With the glorious vision to which he would awake, of sixty millions of people, happy, prosperous, and united, we are too familiar to be mindful of its real significance. Certainly, had he stood with us this morning while in the clear air there rang out that fine refrain — ' While the stars in heaven shall bum. While the ocean tides return. Ever shall the circling sun Find the many still are one' — he would have gratefully recognized the completion of his old prophecy in the glowing words of our centennial poet. " Our triumphs of this past century have not been wholly 43 material ones, but moral and political and intellectual and artistic as well. And he who is to respond to the toast of 'The United States of 1887' must keep touch at many points with this new world. Difficult as the task, you will agree it is assigned to most worthy hands when I call on Hon. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for a response." " You have called upon me, Mr. Chairman," responded Mr. Adams, " to say a word for the present, as contradistinguished from the past ; the year that now is, is set face to face with the year a century gone. I must seek to compress the significance of an hundred years into a sentence. Looking back over that century, — gathering up in one confused glance all the revolu- tions, material, intellectual, and political, which have been crowded into it (for from 1789 to the day that now is it has been replete with revolutions), — gathering all this in, I say, at a glance, at first it does not seem that any written form of govern- ment possible to be devised by man could contain within itself the elements of .strength, vitality, and elasticity to enable it to meet successfully the trials to which our national Constitution has perforce been subjected. " During that century — almost wholly during it — man has obtained his scientific mastery over material forces. When the Convention of 1787 met in this city, those composing it came hither on the back of the wind or the back of the horse, neither so rapidly nor so conveniently as the conclaves of the Church had gathered at Rome through a thousand years. Franklin had indeed half a century before, and within the limits of this city, drawn down the lightning from heaven ; but another half century was to elapse before it was to be ren- dered docile and subjected to the uses of man. This has been the era of the steam-engine and the telegraph ; and in presence 44 of powers like these, men, and constitutions made by man, become like jilaythings of an hour. " Consider for an instant the influence these material forces have had on the development of that which the Constitution of the United States was intended to control. Strange as it may sound, I do not hesitate to say that these forces of steam and electricity have within the century not only saved the Con- stitution, making its perpetuity possible, but they have actually made the wrong construction of it the right construction, and the right construction wrong. " But let me explain. From the very beginning there have been two views of the Constitution, — the liberal view and the strict view. In the first cabinet of Washington, Hamilton represented one side of the great debate which has gone on from that day to this, and Jefferson the other. Both parties to this debate have, I submit, been for a part of the time right ; both have been for a part of the time wrong. The unexpected occurred : steam and electricity have in these days converted each thoughtful Hamiltonian into a believer in the construction theories of Jefferson ; while, none the less, events have at the same time conclusively shown that in his own day Jefferson was wrong and Hamilton was right. " This, as Hamlet says, ' was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof;' in other words, an equally thoughtful and observant man, looking before and after, understanding the physical conditions of his country, and desirous only of its good, — such a man, in the light of all subsequent events, could not but have felt that a strong central government — such a government as could only be secured through a liberal construction of the Constitution — was for the United States of the time anterior to 1830 a political necessity. Without it the country must fall to pieces. So Hamilton was right and Jeffer- son was wrong. Then the railroad and the telegraph came 45 upon the stage, and under the new conditions they created and imposed the shield was reversed, — Jefferson became right and Hamilton wrong. " Why, consider for a moment the kaleidoscopic changes of the problem. During the first half of its con.stitutional cen- tury, the United States was a vast and sparsely-.settled country, devoid of means of communication, and with little diversity of industries ; its parts recognized no centres of thought or of busi- ness, and teemed with sectional pride and local jealousies ; it was a country always on the verge of dissolution from mere lack of the very elements of cohesiveness ; in other words, the centrifugal tendency continually threatened to overcome the centripetal force. Unless it was doomed to destruction, it was for the government to hold such a country together. This was Hamilton's political faith, and in his day and generation Hamilton was right. But ours is another day and a different generation. Science has supplied that cohesive element which then it was the study of the statesman to provide. It is from the other side of the circle that danger is now to be an- ticipated ; everything to-day centralizes itself; gravitation is the law. The centripetal force, unaided by government, working only through scientific sinews and nerves of steel and steam and lightning, — this centripetal force is daily overcoming all centrifugal action. The ultimate result can by thoughtful men no longer be ignored. Jefferson is right, and Hamilton is wrong. " And thus, as the political error of yesterday becomes the truth of to-day, it is the thoroughly consistent man only who is hopelessly in error. The destinies of nations are much more frequently decided in the workshops of mechanics than in the cabinets of statesmen. When thus regarded, how small and immaterial appear the wrangling debates of the Senate and the clamor of the hustings ! We turn from them to watch the genius of Franklin as from yonder hill it soars with his kite to 46 the cloud, or to think of Watt patiently bending in thought over the steam that jets from the nozzle of a tea-kettle. It is these men who within the century have saved for us the Con- stitution and shaped it to our needs. " But to-day, Mr. Chairman, and in this presence, I cannot speak only of the present or of the influence of its science on the constitutional theories of the past. I remember that I am speaking for Massachusetts as well as for the year that is, and so my mind insensibly reverts to other times and other men, and to another member of the Old Thirteen. " We have heard somewhat of late of the originators of what is called ' the written Constitution,' and of the framers of that particular instrument, the centennial of which we celebrate. I would in no degree detract from the credit which is theirs by right, nor from the encomiums which have here been lavished upon them. Honor to whom honor is due ; and much honor from us, at least, is due to them. Verily, as of old so also now is that saying true, — ' One soweth and another reapeth ; . . . other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.' " But it was Pope, I believe, who wrote, fifty years before the Constitution was passed, — ' For fonns of government let fools contest ; Whate'er is best administered is best.' While no one would, I suppose, give unqualified assent to this epigrammatic couplet, yet few will deny that it is a far less difficult task to devise and frame a paper constitution than to put a constitution, fresh from the hands of its framers, in prac- tical and successful operation. Indeed, the world during the last hundred years and more has swarmed with constitution- makers, — or constitution-mongers, as they are sometimes irrev- erently called. Nearly a century ago Burke contemptuously described them, with their ' whole nests of pigeon-holes full of 47 constitutions ready-made, ticketed, sorted, and numbered, suited to every season and every fancy; some with the top of the pattern at the bottom, and some with the bottom at the top ; some plain, some flowered, some distinguished for their sim- plicity, others for their complexity ; some in long coats, and some in short cloaks ; some in pantaloons, some without breeches ; some with five-shilling qualifications, some totally unqualified.' " In a world thus full of governmental contrivance, it has been, as Pope truly put it, less a question of ingenuity on paper than of administrative skill. Many nations on both con- tinents have before and since the year 1800 framed cunningly- devised charters and forms of fundamental laws ; the difficulty has almost invariably been that, when set upon its feet, the Constitution, as Carlyle phrased it, 'would not walk;' it is our boast that in America alone has the miracle been accomplished. Our Constitution has now ' walked' for an hundred years, and that is why we are here. " Why has this Constitution ' walked' when so many others fell ? That it did so, was, I hold, due to two men more than to, all other men and all other circumstances, save one, combined, — those two men were not sons of Massachusetts, but of Vir- ginia, — and to these two, more, far more than to the framers, are the honors of this occasion due. " The aged historian of the United States, whose gathered years wellnigh cover the whole life of the nation, has recently recorded that the immediate successor of Washington, when in doubt as to whom the people would choose to the high office soon to be made vacant, declared that the Constitution was, even then, already so perfectly established that the system of government could not be departed from by any one, no matter who might be chosen President. ' Even Jefferson,' he wrote, ' could not stir a step in any other system than that which was "48 begun. . . . There is no more danger in a change [of the Presi- dent] than there would be in changing a member of the Sen- ate ; and whoever Hves to see it will own me a prophet.' Thus, in 1796, the miracle had already been performed, — the Con- stitution ' walked ;' for eight yearg it had been administered by Washington, who during these years proved himself greater — far greater — in peace than before he had proved himself in war. " Still, the Constitution, even as late as 1800, was, as it were, but in the gristle and not yet hardened into the bone. The work of administration had been done ; that of construction re- mained to do. Nations change, grow, expand ; new and un- foreseen conditions are developed ; science, a.s 1 have already shown, works its results in the body politic much as the strong sap works in the young tree, — it is the unanticipated which occurs. Would the Constitution adapt itself as a garment to growing limbs, or would it bind them in swaddling-clothes of iron ? This was the momentous question in the early years of the century. Again it was a son of Virginia who proved to be the right man in the right place; and for more than thirty years John Marshall presided over the tribunal which during that eventful jx;riod gave strength and consistence, elasticity and permanence, power to resist and capacity to receive — steel and India-rubber, gutta-percha and adamant — to that Constitu- tion which Washington had taken from the hands of its framers and first made to ' walk.' The result we see to-day ; and to these two men that result in greatest part is due. " And in lauding them we laud ourselves. It has well been said that for the ordinary man it is enough of honor to speak great Shakespeare's tongue ; and so we Americans may well take pride that we are descended from those who made Wash- ington and Marshall possible. No individual can move far in advance of the people and of the age in which his lot is cast 49 I hold, therefore, that it is praise enough for the average citizen of the United States, during the century which has now come to a close, to say that he was one of the supporting column at the head of which walked George Washington and John Marshall ; for how shall even wise and valiant captains pre- vail unless they be followed by soldiers brave and intelligent, and what availeth a prophet unless he speaks to those who, having cars, are no less capable of understanding than of hear- ing? What volumes, then, does it speak of the political capacity and moral worth of a whole people, when history records that in the hour of trial men like Washington and Marshall came forth from the ranks, that the whole people put those men in their high places ; followed and sustained them while they lived, and now, when only their work survives, honor and revere them, and give ear unto their precepts. As it was with our fathers so may it be with us ; let us put our feet in their tracks, in which we can neither wander nor stumble." [Applause.] The Chairman then said, — " Emblem of our sovereign power, and itself of mighty force, because the sword now borne sheathed would, if drawn in a righteous cause by an united America, become wellnigh irre- sistible, I give you the toast of ' The Army of the United States,' and call on that most gallant of .soldiers and truest- hearted of comrades, Lieutenant-General Philip H. Sheridan, for a response." General Sheridan said, — " Mr. Chairman, — I never discussed the Constitution very much, nor made many speeches upon it, but I have done a good deal of fighting for it. [Great applause.] But I cannot let this occasion pass without expressing my thanks, my grate- 7 50 ful acknowledgments, and my sincere gratitude to the Centen- nial Commission and to the citizens of Philadelphia for inviting me to be present on this occasion. It has been a delightful occasion to me, and it is one which will always be dear to my memory. It is the first centennial of the adoption of the Con- stitution of the United States, and I have no doubt that every soldier in the Army entertains the sentiments I feel, becau.se the old regular Army has a representation here. [Applause.] As you know, for many years we have been cut off from all these occasions where there was a chance for a little patriotic feeling, and we have been as it were forgotten. Now, I hope, we are to come in and will be able to participate in these celebrations the .same as other citizens. " The so-called Army of the United States, gentlemen, is very small, I am sorry to say, but it is the Army of sixty millions of people, and if they are satisfied with it nobody has any right to complain. [Applause.] The officers of that Army are a highly-educated body of gentlemen. There is none more so in any profession. The soldiers are well disciplined, subordi- nate, and obedient to all demands made upon them. " We see the time coming when we will not be so much engaged in Indian hostilities. Then we will be willing to come and join with the State forces and cordially co-operate with them, so that in the event of any necessity we can mobilize a good strong army in this country. [Applause.] The regular Army of the United States is a mere fiction. The real Army of the United States is all the able-bodied citizens of the United States capable of bearing arms. Mobilized it would amount to four or five million good soldiers. " Now, if all the shipping in Europe were allowed to come over here carrying men and materials of war, and the Navy under Admiral Luce was to let them come over, without inter- fering with them in any way, they could not carry men and 51 war-material enough to make one campaign. [Applause.] So that the Arni)' of the United States, in that sense, would be about the largest army in the world ; but, as it is found to-day, it is about the smallest. " I am rather on the side of Senator Ingalls in what he said to-night. He wants to make a continental republic of this country. But there is one thing that you should appreciate, and that is that the improvement in guns and in the material of war, in dynamite and other explosives, and in breech- loading guns, is rapidly bringing us to a period when war will eliminate itself, when we can no longer stand up and fight each other in battle, and when we will have to resort to something else. Now, what will that 'something else' be? It will be arbitration. [Applause.] I mean what I say when I express the belief that if any one now present here could live until the next centennial he would find that arbitration will rule the world." [Cheers and continued applause.] The Chairman said, — " Peace is mo.st sure when war is least to be feared. The glorious annals of our Navy remain among our proudest pos- sessions. Our gallant officers and men are now, we know, as brave as ever were the bravest. But proud recollections and present security may dull the ear to calls of future needs. And in giving you the toast of ' The Navy of the United States,' I would couple with it the prayer that a wisely liberal policy on the part of successive governments may ever maintain it as befits the dignity and the position of this great wave-washed land. " I would beg to call on Rear-Admiral Stephen B. Luce to respond." 52 Admiral Luce replied as follows: " In behalf of my brother officers of the naval profession and myself, I return our cordial thanks for the honor con- ferred upon the Navy upon this momentous occasion. And, in doing so, it is with a feeling of exultation that I find myself able to announce that, in the grand march of events which has distinguished the centennial year just closed, the Navy has not fallen in the rear. Small in mere numerical force, it has yet kept pace with the intellectual progress of the age. In that respect, at least, it may safely challenge a comparison with any of the navies of the Old World. " While the century was .still young, the school of the naval officer was on the quarter-deck. It was there that the ' young gentlemen" learned their first lessons in that art of seamanship which formed one of the distinguishing features of our early Navy, and contributed so largely to our successes in the War of 1812. "In 1838 the first attempt to furnish our midshipmen with something like educational facilities was made here in the city of Philadelphia, at the Naval A.sylum, then under the gov- ernorship of the gallant Commodore James Biddle, of this city. It was at the Naval Asylum that the distinguished admiral of the Navy and the vice-admiral passed their examinations for promotion. " But a longing on the part of our officers for wider fields of knowledge soon developed itself The Naval Lyceum, estab- lished at the Navy Yard, New York, in 1833, was organized for the express purpose of ' promoting a diffusion of u.seful knowledge.' It published a jVai-a/ Magazine, at that time the only one, and for many years the best, that had appeared in this country. This was followed in 1838 by the exploring expedition under Lieutenant (the late Rear-Admiral) Charles Wilkes. A depot of charts and instruments had already been 53 established in the Navy Department as early as 1830, and as- tronomical observations had been made by Lieutenant Wilkes, the first, it is believed, undertaken in this country. On the de- pairture of the exploring expedition, commanded by the officer just named, these observations, conducted by Lieutenant James M. Gillis, were continued, by order of the Secretary of the Navy, for the purpose of determining differences of longitude with the stations which might be occupied by the expedition. " Such was the origin of the Naval Observatory at Washing- ton, an institution which, besides its valuable contributions to the science of astronomy, has done so much towards the more thorough instruction of our officers in nautical astronomy and the cultivation of their taste for the science itself " Astronomical observations, originally undertaken in an unpretending manner by our naval officers, carried on in con- junction with the great naval expedition, undertaken in the interests of science, and continued for the better part of the century under the superintendency of naval officers, it is only natural that we have always claimed, and always will claim, the outgrowth of these early endeavors, the Naval Observatory at Washington, as our peculiar property. Jt is the living witness of the progressive spirit of the Navy. And it is a high tribute, indeed, to the success of the naval administration of the Obser\'atory that the French government, profiting by our example, has placed a naval officer, Rear-Admiral Mouchez, in charge of the National Observatory in France. "The coast survey had already begun its great work, em- ploying many naval officers on the hydrography of our rivers and harbors, and on the inshore and deep-sea soundings. This special branch of the public service has expanded with the rest. The hydrographic office, with its extensive fields of research, is rendering good .service to our navigation interests, as all our seaport towns will attest, and the labors of Com- 54 mander C. D. Sigsbee and Lieutenant J. E. Pillsbury, United States Navy, with ingeniously-contrived instruments, of their own invention, in examining the origin, extent, phenomenon, and influence of the Gulf Stream, will doubtless prove among the most valuable contributions of the day to the physical geog- raphy of the sea. The deep-sea soundings and surveys in dis- tant parts of the world, the correction of longitude by tele- graphic comparisons of time, the light-house service, all give employment to a body of officers who, while rendering good service to the country, are obtaining more extended knowledge and experience in those special branches of their profession. "That our naval officers are found qualified for so much scientific work is due, mainly, to the Naval Academy. "The Naval Academy rendered possible, or rather has re- sulted in, the Naval Institute, which was established ' for the advancement of professional and scientific knowledge in the Navy.' Its publications have already enriched our professional literature. " The Naval Academy rendered possible the office of Naval Intelligence, which, though of recent origin, has, by its rapid growth and extensive researches, become one of the most important adjuncts of the Navy Department. And by a nat- ural law of development the Naval Academy has produced the Torpedo School and that crowning glory of our educational system, the Naval War College, the like of which, for the breadth and comprehensiveness of its scheme of lectures on the. science and art of war and on international law, is not to be found in any other country in the world. " This is a record of which the Navy may be justly proud. " Nor have our seamen been neglected. Our training squadron is bringing out a class of young sailors, who for their loyalty, habits of discipline, intelligence, and their re- markable aptitude for acquiring a knowledge of the use of 55 modern arms and the various naval' appliance to be found on board the later types of ships of war, will compare favorably with any body of seamen in the world. " Thus much for the personnel of the Navy. " With regard to ships of war we certainly enjoy an envi- able reputation. In numerical force alone have we been found wanting. "From the frigates built in '97 to those launched in '55 we have excelled other nations in the beauty, strength, and fight- ing qualities of our men of war. " Those magnificent specimens of naval architecture known as the Minnesota class, carrying batteries until then unthought of, were for years the objects of universal admiration. " Will any one have the hardihood to say that this bright chapter in our history shall suddenly and forever close ? " The history of every navy shows that each in its turn has had its flood-tide of prosperity as well as its periods of depres- sion. Our own forms no exception to the rule. But the ex- tremes with us have never been excessive. " In the early days of the century ship-building flourished most generously where ship-timber abounded, and during long years ship-building formed one of the principal industries of our eastern coasts. But now, the naval architect, abandoning the timber lands, looks for his materials in the iron and coal regions, and the banks of the Delaware have now become the birthplace and cradle of the New Navy. " The city of Philadelphia has been associated with the history of the Navy in a peculiar manner. "The remains of the Alliance, the last ship of the Conti- nental Navy, and consort of the Bonhomme Richard, during her celebrated fight under Paul Jones in 1779, now lies upon her shores. " During an interval of twelve years we had no Navy. But 56 the Continental Navy died only as the fruitful seed dies to germinate and bring forth more abundantly ; and not long after the adoption of the Constitution measures were taken to build a Navy, and the frigate United States, launched in Philadel- phia in '97, was the first ship afloat of the Navy under our government as at present organized. " And now wc have the beautiful Dolphin, the first ship of the Navy of steel. " The Navy is small indeed, and if sixty millions of people deem that it shall remain so, we, of the profe.ssion, cheerfully acquiesce in their decision. " But when, in the fulness of time and the wisdom of Con- gress, the burdens which now embarrass our mercantile marine shall be removed, and our ocean commerce shall once more spread over every sea, then will the Navy attain its full and natural growth, not in numbers perhaps, but in the perfection of its organization and means and capacity of expansion. " A change in the colors or device of a flag generally indi- cates a change in the political conditions of the country it represents. " But our beautiful flag during the century just closing has changed only in the lustre and abundance of the stars in its canton. Let us pray that those stars — symbols of our States — may never be subject to perturbation nor occultation ; but that each one may, like the celestial spheres, silently and steadfastly follow its appointed course in jierfect harmony with law and order, and in humble submission to the will of the Great Ruler of all." [Applause.] " In rising to propose the ne.xt toast," said the Ch.-virman, " I confess I feel myself almost unable to confine within the limits of a few formal phrases the thoughts and emotions which are suggested by the theme. Deep in the very constitution of our 57 natures, stamped ineradicably in the structure of our frames, the qualities of race assert themselves. The force of hered- ity cannot be evaded. Temporary dissensions may alienate, fierce passions may throw into deadly conflict, the members of a family, the sections of a race. Wide separation, divergent interests, may well-nigh efface all apparent kinship for a time. But the fundamental and germinal principles still persist in common ; and, though evolution permits variety, it will never break the links which bind the distant descendants to the ancestral type. Here in America we have welcomed millions from many lands. Our race is no longer of simple strain, but the manifold currents have crossed and blended, and have flowed through such new environment of climate and social conditions, that out of this it might seem as though there would come a new type, — a new race. Yet we may be sure that forever there will be stamped on its character tho.se grand prominent traits which mark the Anglo-Saxon ; that as our people become more thoroughly acclimated there will be a tendency to revert to the parent type; and that there will remain an abiding and it may well be an ever deepening and strengthening sense of true kinship with the older portions of the race. The Greater Britain and the Greater America must have many — very many — things in common in their future. And surely the time will never come, no matter what tem- porary differences of policy may arise, when the very magni- tude of our common interests ; when the interests and aspira- tions of our common race ; when the glorious heritage of our common possessions — our language, our history, our heroes, our law, our liberty, civil and religious — will not make us Americans ready as now to gladly pledge ' England, our Mother Country.' " We had hoped to have with us to-night one who through a long career has devoted his splendid powers and his inex- 8 58 haustible energy to the sacred cause of liberty, political and religious. But although Mr. Gladstone is unavoidably absent, we are favored with the presence of one who embodies in him- self in a peculiar sense all that could entitle him to reply to this toast on this historic occasion, — a profound scholar and scientist ; eminent as an educator, liberal and progressive as a statesman ; endeared to all by his services in the cause of truth and liberty, and yet further allied to America by the closest ties a man can form. " I call on Rt. Hon. Sir Lyon Plavfair to respond to this toast of ' England, our Mother Country.' " Said Sir Lyon Playfair, — " Mr. Chairman, — It is impossible for an Englishman to reply without emotion to a toast such as this, or without mingled feelings of pride, humiliation, and confidence. With pride, because this celebration is the triumph of the principles of political liberty and of constitutional government of a people by the people, in entire accord with the great traditions which have made England the cradle of political liberty. [Applause.] With humiliation, because England, in the re- action which followed the Cromwellian revolution and which lasted until the close of the reign of George III., forgot many of its old traditions, and in its relation with the American colonies tried to suppress instead of foster the growth of government by the people. With confidence, because Eng- land and the United States now know that they are the chief guardians of political liberty and constitutional government throughout the world, and that they ought to be linked for evermore by the bonds of friendship and kinsmanship. [Ap- plause.] " On such an occasion as this you will not desire that I should refer to the political blunders of England which led to 59 the wars of the independence and of 1812. In our present mood you would rather acknowledge the benefits which you have received from the mother country in laying the founda- tions of constitutional government. Your ancestors brought with them, as their most precious birthright, the principles of constitutional liberty. The Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, and the common law are your safe- guards for liberty as they are our safeguards in England. " Cromwell was the political father of Washington, because both were champions of individual jyid constitutional liberty, and they both taught kings that government can only secure permanent obedience when it consults the safety and happiness of the people. The acts which led to the outbreak at Lexing- ton and the battle of Bunker Hill were in themselves not very oppressive, but they were a continuation of slow and constant interference with the natural growth of constitutional liberty. The whole country uprose after the final tea-party, which was given to the British at Griffin's Wharf, in Boston, because the people knew, though they had scarcely felt the tyranny, that the mere exposure to it was the destruction of freedom. " ' For what avail the plough or sail Or land or life, if freedom fail ?' " How I wish that either of those whom I am proud to call my friends, William Glad.stone or John Bright [cheers], were here to-day to reply to the toast now given. I am only an humble Englishman, half scientist, half politician, with no other claim to address you than the fact that while I ardently love my own country, I warmly love yours also. " I .speak in a city which framed the Declaration of Inde- pendence and built the Constitution. If Boston may claim the credit of infusing fresh blood into the young commonwealth, it was in Philadelphia that its brain was nurtured and matured. 6o " The occasion of this celebration, the place and all its en- vironments inspire thoughts, but do not fit them for condensa- tion into an after-dinner speech. I shall say nothing more as to your War of Independence beyond this, that without it yoii would never have become a great nation. Great nations must have a history, and that war created history for you and gave you illustrious traditions and ancestors of your own to whom you can point with pride as the founders of your fatherland. [Applause.] " This day we are celebrating your second, though peaceful, revolution. It is true that the thirteen States had become a nation by a loose confederation. Hut that nation, though of one promise, had thirteen performances, and no nation has ever preserved its unity with even two executives. It was, there- fore, a veritable revolution when the Convention of 1787 framed that marvellous production of human genius, political foresight, and practical sagacity,— the Constitution of the United States. Its first words, ' We, the people of the United States,' not ' We, the States,' show the greatness of the revolution. It was as if the people had instructed the Convention in the words of Shakespeare, ' We must have liberty withal, as large a Charter as the wind.' The Anglo-Sa.\on spirit breathes through every word of the Constitution. Notwithstanding your boundless and continuous territory, its framers recollected that great free nations only succeed when they are composed of smaller States, because there is a longing among men of oui- race for local independence as opposed to centralization. With what skill and wisdom were the executive powers given to the nation while all the essentials of local government were re- served to the States. Ah, there were intellectual giants in those days. When will you, or the lovers of liberty through- out the world, ever forget the names of the master builders of the Constitution, — Washington, Hamilton, Sherman, Madison, 6r Pinckncy, and the aged Franklin ? It does not lessen but it enhances the value of the Constitution that the best parts of English constitutional law are preserved in it set like jewels in a golden casket. Hamilton gloried in this fact at a later time. And so the Constitution, both in its inception and execution even in your last terrible struggle for unity, has remained the bright polar star of liberty. When I think of it I feel inclined to exclaim, in the words of Shakespeare, ' How beauteous mankind is : O, brave new World that has such people in't.' " But, in speaking of the object of this celebration, I have left but a few moments to reply to the sentiment of the toast, ' Our Mother Country.' The people of the United States as well as the people of the United Kingdom are the joint and common possessor of their respective glories and traditions. " Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, and Locke, Burns, Scott, and Moore, are your great authors as they are ours. When I see their .statues in your parks or museums I think it quite as natural as when I .see the monument of Longfellow in West- minster Cathedral. As you grow older in history our great Walhalla in London will claim its right to possess a record and share in the illustrious men born on this side of the Atlantic. Even now, Emerson, Longfellow, Wendell Holmes, and Whittier are the cherished inmates of every cultivated English home. Hume and Macaulay teach history to your schools just as Prescott, Motley, and Parkman extend his- torical knowledge in England. Science has no country, though its investigators have birthplaces. In Philadephia I, as an ex- professor, cannot forget that one man to whom all my life I have given hero-worship lived and labored in this city. In his old age he co-operated with Washington to humble King George III. But before that he had actually swept out of the universe a much more powerful prince. When Benjamin Frank- lin drew down lightning from the clouds he freed religion from a degrading superstition. Till then the ' Prince of the Power of the Air" troubled the world with thunder-storms, and Popes blessed bells and set them ringing to frighten the turbulent prince. Franklin was more powerful than the Popes, for he knocked the prince on the head, — " ' Eripuit ealo fulmtn sceptrumgut tyratinis.^ " Another of your great Americans, Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford), taught mankind the correlation of forces, and founded the Royal Institution in London, which has pro- duced a Davy, a Faraday, and a Tyndall. It was right that an Englishman should found your great Smithsonian Institution at Washington. " Long may wc cherish our common possessions and national sympathies. When America rejoices England is glad. When you mourn a great national calamity we join in your grief When Lincoln and Garfield fell by the acts of assassins, the colors of English ships all over the world were lowered ' half-mast' in honor of their great names. At the death of your great general. Grant, I felt I was with you in body and spirit when I attended the solemn services at West- minster Cathedral in commemoration of his .services to your country and to the cause of liberty throughout the world. When Ireland, unhappy Ireland, suffered from famine, we do not forget that the United States sent over a frigate laden with provisions for the starving people. Your acts of sympathy with us in our joys and sorrows have been many. Let us con- tinue to cherish our common glories and past traditions, and never cease to aim at a community of interests and pride in our national prosperity. " It is no insignificant evidence of the friendly feeling now- existing between England and the United States that a memorial, signed by more than two hundred members of 63 Parliament, is about to be presented to the President, urging that any political differences which may from time to time arise between the two countries should in the last resort be setded by arbitration. This memorial is the actual outcome of the workingmen of England, who have pressed it upon their representatives. " I know that I have been far too long, but you will forgive me because the toast unites two great nations in one sentiment. The small islands in the northern seas from which your an- cestors came to found this great nation even now contain only thirty-six millions of people, while already you have sixty millions, and have in your vast continent an immense poten- tiality of growth. We know that you must become our big brother, and we ask you to cherish in the future that feeling of pride in our common ancestry and that sympathy for an allied people which we now possess. If we do so the great Anglo- Saxon race throughout the world will become a security for peace and a surety for the continued growth of Constitutional Liberty." Said Provost Pepper, — " If time permitted, it would be pleasant to have placed, instead of the toast which is now to be offered, a series em- bracing all of the foreign powers which, by their friendly atti- tude during and after the Revolution, did so much to cheer the courage and strengthen the hands of the struggling nation. It indicates no lack of grateful remembrance of each and all of them that we have felt ourselves restricted to a special mention of that one power which, by her enthusiastic sym- pathy, by the prestige of her powerful friendship, by her repeated and liberal advances of money, by the services of her gallant sons, contributed so influentially to our success. It would, indeed, be strange if, on such an occasion as this, we 64 should not give voice to the deep feelings of gratitude which we have ever continued to entertain for her, — a gratitude heightened by the enthusiastic attachment long felt for the chivalrous and high-minded Lafayette, the beloved friend of our great leader. As late as 1824, Everett could say, address- ing Lafayette at Harvard College, ' that he had returned in his age to receive the gratitude of the nation to which he devoted his youth,' and could bid him ' enjoy a triumph such as never conqueror or monarch enjoyed, the assurance that throughout America there is not a bosom which does not beat with joy and gratitude at the sound of his name.' Deeply as Philadelphia has been stirred at this historic time, the arrival of Lafayette in this city evoked an almost equal enthusiasm. Nor was this excessive or unwarranted, because it was uni- versally felt that in him were symbolized not only personal heroism and devotion to the cause of human liberty, but the generous and almost fraternal sentiments and conduct of France toward us at the most critical moment in our history. It is a most felicitous coincidence that we are favored to-night by the presence of one who has kindly consented to respond to the toast I am about to offer, and who not only appears as a most fitting representative of France, but, through family ties, of Lafeyette also. I would pledge, therefore, ' Fran'ce, — our Old Ally,' and request the Marquis de Chambrun to reply to this toast." The Marquis de Chambrun said, — " Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — The history of the alliance between the United States and France is in some respects a very curious one. A solemn treaty was signed in 1778 between the Court of Versailles and the government of the insurgent colonies ; according to the stipulations con- tained therein, France sent her army and her fleet to assist the 65 thirteen colonies in the Revolutionary War, and history has recorded with what success this determined action was at- tended. But, a few years later, when the government of France called upon the United States to execute in turn its obligations under the same treaty, President Washington, supported by the most prominent, the most patriotic men of his time, declined to comply with such a demand ; he asserted the international independence of the United States, enforced a policy of ab- solute neutrality, and in his Farewell Address warned his countrymen against a policy of ' entangling alliances.' At first blush what strange contrast this change of faith seems to disclose. Nevertheless, France so well appreciated the wisdom of Washington that, in 1800, the First Consul, Bonaparte, assented to the abrogation of the Treaty of Alliance. And I may say that to-day an examination of the statute books show that there are fewer treaty stipulations in force between the United States and France than between the United States and Belgium, for instance. " Nevertheless, I claim that there is, as there always has been, a feeling of friendship existing between the two' coun- tries which is above and beyond the scope of treaty stipula- tions and of ' entangling alliances.' What is the cause of it ? The cause is the same that a celebrated moralist, Pascal, as- cribed to love. Pascal said that love could not exist without a ' linking of thoughts ;' and I claim that as between France and the United States there is a linking of thoughts. [Ap- plause.] The French mind was the first in Europe which foresaw what this continent would become, it was also the first which came forward to assist in its growth. [Applause.] Here let me quote to you an anecdote which I do not believe has ever been printed. In 1800, or a little later, General Lafayette was invited to a state dinner given by General Bonaparte, then First Consul. At that state dinner were 9 66 Moreau, Massena, and nearly all those generals who had fought in Europe for about eight years, and who had conquered part of it. During the dinner the conversation turned upon the victories of each of those men. General Lafayette remained perfectly silent until Bonaparte turned to him and .said, ' Why, General I^fayette, you do not say anything about your campaigns in America? Please speak to us on them.' The general, noticing a little smile of derision on the lips of the generals who had just spoken, said, ' I will not allude, Citizen First Consul, to such skirmishes, though these skirmishes have decided the fate of a continent.' [Applause.] " I say, again, that no European thinkers and writers have understood American institutions so well as the French have done. I ask the gentlemen of great learning who are here to-night whether there is a more philosophical book, a more graphic description of the United States than that written by Alexis de Tocqueville under the title of ' Democracy in America?" Far from contradicting what a distinguished Englishman has said to-night, I agreed with him when he stated that as between you and England there is the tie of the Magna Charta, of the Habeas Corpus, the ' linking of thoughts,' binding together both countries, the writings of Shakespeare that have prepared and maintained the intellectual unity of all the English-speaking people, and this still greater feet that England has produced America. " But, on the other hand, I contend on behalf of France that as between the United States and France there exi.st these very ' linking of thoughts' that resulted in both countries from the application of such democratic principles, of such ideas of intellectual freedom, which in many respects unite to-day both nations in the work of securing the moral, the intellectual, and the material progress of the people. " My friend, if he will allow me to call him such, General 6; Sheridan, spoke of the Army of the United States and of the possible creation of an army of millions of soldiers. If he will allow me I will suggest to him that besides these millions of armed men there are still other millions of soldiers who are continually on duty in this country, — 1 refer to those immense armies of pioneers that have opened the West and created new countries. They have done this not by war, not at the cost of human lives, but by the most legitimate, the most honest, and the most peaceful means. They have conquered the wilder- ness and appropriated it to the uses of Christian communities, so that to-day millions of human beings are thanking God for the home and the freedom that was secured, and for the civiliza- tion that was bestowed upon them under the Constitution and under the laws of the United States. " I think that the Constitution of the United States is the most perfectly-written Constitution in the history of the world. To test it, it must be compared with three other Constitutions ; with the Constitution of Rome, with that of Venice, and with that of England. So long as Rome maintained her liberty she never succeeded in casting aside the privileges of a few fami- lies, and when the idea of a certain equality among classes and to a certain extent among men began to prevail the despotism of the emperors had suppressed the liberty of the Roman world. " Venice was governed for five hundred years by a close aristocracy. " England alone has transformed her institutions by the slow process of reform which political freedom has secured, so that she is nearing every day the very principles the enforcement of which the constitutions of the various States of America and the Constitution of the United States secured one hundred years ago on this continent ; and let me express this sentiment, that I do heartily wish that these very principles that America has first asserted, that England is tending to recognize, that 68 France proclaimed in turn ninety-eight years ago, may be main- tained where they are in full vigor, may be developed where they are asserting themselves, and grow where they are hardly in existence." [Applause.] In proposing the next toast Dr. Pepper said, — " I trust that all here would have felt this Centennial Cele- bration to have been .somewhat incomplete without this closing event which emphasizes not so much the material progress we have made, nor yet the material forces which we hold in reserve ; as the vast power which education exerts among us, and the rapid development which has been effected, under the influence of our free institutions, by our societies for the pro- motion of letters, arts, and sciences. It is the wide diffusion of education in America which, more than anything else, has made possible the successful adaptation of the Constitution to every phase of our national life. It is to the continued exten- sion of education, conjoined with the holy teachings of religion, that we look with confidence as the means by which all threatened dangers to our system of government shall be averted. I beg, therefore, to propose the toast of ' American Kducatiun,' and to call for a response from Hon. Andrew D. White, Ex-President of Cornell University and formerly Min- ister to the Court of Berlin, one of our most distinguished educators, and an admirable example of the value of the scholar in public life." Mr. White said, — " Mr. Provost, — Nothing could seem at first sight more remote from the Constitution of the United States than the present growth of American education. " A vast growth it is, indeed, with its schools numbered by hundreds of thousands, from the log cabin of our frontiers to 69 the stately edifices of our universities, with millions on millions of scholars of every grade, with hundreds of millions of money lavished upon it by the nation, the States, the municipalities, the rural hamlets, and with a growth of private munificence such as the world has never before seen : and yet not a word in the Constitution provides for this growth or even foreshadows it. And still it would not be hard to prove, first, that when the Constitution had been framed a vast educational development must follow normally and logically, and it would be still more easy to prove, next, that this great growth of education must take substantially its present form and no other. " For, sir, what is the central and germinating force in this great educational evolution ? Inherited ideas, the zeal of sects, the ambition of localities, the pride or patriotism of individuals have doubtless contributed much, yet they explain but a small part of it. What is the cause underlying a growth so deep, so broad, so vigorous ? " My answer is that it is an instinct — an instinct developed out of a conviction — an instinct and conviction growing ever more and more — that, without adequate provision /or the educa- tion and enlightenment of the great majority of our citizens, we have no .security for the maintenance of this vast complex of institutions, and especially of the Constitution of the United States, which is their radiant centre. " The thoughtful observer of human histoiy knows that this instinct is well founded ; he knows that all the great republics of antiquity and of the mediaeval period failed for want of that enlightenment which could enable their citizens to appreciate free institutions and maintain them. He knows, too, that most of the great efforts for republican institutions in modern times have been drowned in unreason, fanaticism, anarchy, and blood, — nay, he knows, even as to republics which are to-day suc- cessful, that unenlightened political conduct subjects them to 70 the greatest dangers at home, and gives force and point to the arguments of their enemies abroad. " I am aware that many have claimed that a special divine illumination or inspiration is possessed by political aggregations of the human species ; that there is in such great bodies, when the)' come to discuss political subjects, an inerrancy, an infalli- bilit)', which prevents their going far wrong. This doctrine takes shape in the famous declaration that the ' voice of the people is the voice of God.' In one sense history shows this statement to be true, for the voice of any people, whose God- given powers of mind, heart, and soul have not been properly developed, has ever been the voice of an avenging God against human unreason. The voice of an illiterate people made Marcus Aurelius and Philip II. more popular than Charles V.; Ferdinand, of Austria, more popular than Joseph II. ; Henry VIII. and Charles II., of England, more popular than William III., — nay, does not every child know that Harabbas was more popular than Jesus ? An illiterate mass of men, large or small, is a mob. If such a mob has a hundred million of heads; if .it extends from ice to coral, it is none the less a mob, and the voice of a mob has been in all time evil, for it has ever been the voice of a tyrant, conscious of power, unconscious of responsibility. " There are many, also, who attribute to a Constitution so revered as ours a sort of magic force to restrain the wilder ele- ments of liberty ; but, after all, what constitution shall curb the despotism of a mob ? The despotism of an individual may be, and has been, tempered by assassins, by epigrams, by historians, by a sense of responsibility ; but how shall any such forces, how shall any sense of responsibility, be brought to bear upon a mob ? It passes at one bound from extreme credulity towards demagogues to extreme scepticism towards statesmen ; from mawkish sympathy for criminals to blood-thirsty ferocity 71 ajjainst the innocent ; from the wildest rashness to the most abject fear. To rely upon a constitution to control such a mob would be like relying upon a cathedral organ to still the fury of a tornado. Build your Constitution as lordly as you may, let its ground tone of justice be the most profound, let its utterances of human right be trumpet-tongucd, let its combi- nations of checks and balances be the most subtle ; yet what statesman shall so play upon its mighty keys as to still the howling tempest of party spirit, or .sectional prejudice, or race hatreds, sweeping through an illiterate mob crowding a con- tinent ? " And, finally, it is said that a nation is educated to freedom by events and institutions. That is largely true ; but the ques- tion is a question of price. The price of political education in a nation without intellectual and moral training is large in- deed. It is generally centuries of time and oceans of blood and treasure. Think of the price paid for religious liberty in Germany, for civil liberty in England, for political liberty in France, for national unity everywhere. " The great masses of our people may not be able to give all the elaborate reasons for their conviction that widespread edu- cation is a necessity, but these reasons have filtered down through them, and in the conviction and instinct thus created resides the strength of American education. " So much, sir, for the indirect relation of the Constitution to education. I come now to its direct effect in giving to American education its present form. It was the boast of a mini.ster of public instruction in one of the greatest European .states that, at whatever hour in the day he opened his watch, he knew exactly what study was at that time occupying the attention of every scholar in that empire. Under the political .system established by the Constitution of the United States no such boast can ever be possible. No autocrat or bureau- 72 crat or mandarin can ever thus confiscate the developing thought of the nation to the ambition of any sect, party, or individual. " Among the most profound remarks ever made by that great thinker, John Stuart Mill, is his statement that one of the greatest misfortunes in the education of a nation would be the establishment of uniformity under the name of unity ; that in the best national education there will be freedom to many sys- tems, thus preventing mandarinism and stagnation, thus insur- ing that attrition between the minds of men educated to ap- proach truth from various sides, and to state truth in various ways, which is the best guarantee for the healthful and per- petual development of the national thought. " This ideal of a national education the Constitution has insured to us. In the whole system there is subtantial unity but no uniformity. Each State, each municipality, every in- dividual has the largest freedom to work out the best results. Especially true is this of the higher education, and, though to a superficial observer the whole system is chaotic, the closer thinker will see a great cosmic force shaping the whole and developing a complete well-grounded system, growing with the growth and strengthening with the strength of the Republic. Of good omen is it, too, that the higher education throughout our country is occupying itself with the study of social and political problems as never before, and that more and more are coming from our universities men who, in the light of the best modern thought, can discuss the most important problems arising in this second century of the Constitution, — through the press, from the pulpit and professor's chair, and in the halls of legislation. Especially noteworthy is the noble exam- ple set in the devolpment of these studies by the University of Pennsylvania. "At the centre of the whole, Congress has established a 73 Bureau of Education. This would seem the logical outcome of our system, — not its lord but its servant, keeping as it were the standard time of the whole, recording the best results of experiments here and there, enabling all to profit by the example of each and each to profit by the example of all, but without a particle of power to impose a central will. It may, indeed, be said that in the whole growth of American educa- tion there is much boastful immaturity. This is true, but im- maturity in a living organism means growth, and whatever boastfulness there may be is but a sign of growth, robust, luxuriant — not exotic, but prophetic of strength and long service. " It is true, also, that this growth is not what many good men would have it. Some would have a vast system of primary schools and nothing more, some would stop with high schools and intermediate colleges, some would care for nothing save the universities. " But the very laws of growth in the whole system bring all such narrow views to naught. For in this whole living growth of American education the public schools are the roots, — push- ing deeply and broadly among the whole people and drawing in life from them ; the academies and high schools are the stalwart trunk, rising strong from the roots and binding the whole growth in unity ; and the universities, now beginning to spread broadly forth, are its boughs and branches bearing its foliage and bloom and fruitage, — gathering in light and life and a.spira- tion from what is best in the whole atmosphere of the world's science and literature and art ; bringing it to circulate back through trunk and root, repaying what it has drawn from the people by new currents of ennobling and strengthening thought and endeavor. " As well try, then, to cultivate a vast oak in hope of having it all root, or all trunk, or all foliage, as to create a worthy lO 74 system of American education without these three divisions of the organic whole. " In the atmosphere diffused by this growth of American education we may have confidence that the Constitution will go on as a blessing to century after century, — that it will enable us to regard this ever-growing mass of citizens with assured hope of prosperity and to look into the faces of its soldiers without fear for liberty. We may have confidence that the foundations of the Constitution will grow ever firmer in the right reason of the people ; that its mighty buttres.ses will grow ever stronger in enlightened patriotism ; that the mists of fac- tion which ignorance would throw around it shall be more and more dispelled until it shall stand in splendor unobscured, ray- ing forth justice and freedom to all the nations of the earth." The Chairman, — " I am sure that all who have enjoyed the splendid ceremo- nies of these three days will gladly join in the toast I am about to propose. But did all know — as we do who have been able to watch closely the long and anxious and skilful labor needed to secure the well-nigh perfect result — they would pledge, in the fullest bumpers of the evening, ' The Centen- nial Commission and their Associates,' to whose devoted and self-sacrificing exertions the country owes the success of this great celebration. I beg to call on Hon. John A. Kasson, of Iowa, the President of the Commission, for a response." He said, — " Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — There is little need to interpret the purpose of the Commission in the celebration which has just closed. All who have listened to the speeches here to-night must be convinced that the demonstration of the three days has made one impression upon the hearts of every 75 lover of our country from tlic North and South, Mast and West. " We had, indeed, a moral object in this celebration. At the end of a century of enormously augmented riches the time had come, in our judgment, to remind each true son of America — "'Thou wast not m-ide for lucre, For pleasure nor for rest. Thou that art sprung from Freedom's loins And lipped thy milk from War's stern breast.' On no previous occasion had there been a special effort to a.ssemble representatives of all orders and classes, and from all parts of the country with a view to harmony of feeling and purpose. And we thought on this occasion that the North and East, the South and West, the common people, the rich and poor, the religious and secular, scientific and artistic, politicians of all loyal colors, in a word, that every element of national progress should be put upon one footing, one common ground, where all loyal people of this country could stand ; which ground was the very foundation of their liberties and their prosperity. To emphasize their constitutional devotion we summoned also the descendants of the Fathers of our country, of the great names of the Revolution, and invited them to come and witness the popular devotion to the chartered liber- ties which their ancestors had established. Many of them came, and recalled with fitting pride the memories of their Fathers. " God grant that our efforts may not have resulted in a vain show. You have heard the sentiments which have been ex- pressed by the representatives of the South, the North, the East, and the West to-night ; and I hear it of one representa- tive from the distant South, that before he came to Philadelphia he had doubted whether this Constitution would stand another 76 hundred years. He should return feehng that its existence would not be limited by the year 1987, but that centennials of its creation might be celebrated upon their recurrence here- after from century to century. Mr. President, we feel gratified at this and other like testimony to the morals inspired by our national festivities. Interpreting the sentiments of the Com- mission, I need only .say that we acknowledge, with gratitude, the sympathetic and important aid which we have received from all the country, and especially from the people of your city. We heartily express our wish that Philadelphia may find at the Centennial one hundred years hence all parts of the continent joj-ously represented, and all animated by increased fervor and devotion to the interests of the Union and the Con- stitution." [Applause.] The CiiAiKMAS, — " It is unnecessary to preface by any words of mine the last toast of this evening, since it was offered one hundred years ago at that memorable dinner to which allusion has already been made more than once. I beg you to join with me in the sentiment, ' Honor and Immortality to the Members of THE Federal Convention of 1787,' to which Hon. Henrv M. Hoyt, of Pennsylvania, will respond." He said, — " Mr. President and Gentlemen, — The last act of the week's pageant has been performed. The last blare of the trumpet has been silenced and the tread of freemen is no longer heard on our streets. The issues of a century of political and social life have been displayed in your pres- ence. " The time has come for the last word to be spoken. The hour admonishes us that this word should be short. Yet the 17 pious gravity of the sentiment you propose demands more than the momentary consideration we can give it, — " ' Honor and immortality to the members of the Federal Convention of 1787.' " These were the large and stately words with which the verdict of futurity was invoked upon the actors in the work just then completed and accepted by a body of citizens as- sembled, as you are, in thoughtful and patriotic festivities. "This solemn appeal to the judgment of mankind has now been in the air for a hundred years. This prophetic sub- mission of the fame of these men to the coming ages has reverberated through the ears of all men everywhere, and now, at the end of a century, returns to us as no empty echo. This brave challenge of their historical fate, in the final sum- mary which posterity will make, then reverently risked in the terms of hope, we now accept in the terms of accomplished fact. " Who were these men ? " Taken individually, they were large-minded, sincere, and brave men, who led honorable and honored lives among their fellows, and at the end descended into modest and, in some instances, obscure graves. The whole earth is now their sepulchre. We need not follow their personal fortunes. Our reverent duty to them is as 'members of the Convention of 1787.' "What, gentlemen, did this group of men, less than half a hundred in number, what did they do which had not been done by their predecessors in the aforetime? What was the precise work which they wrought, upon which we now, in the year of grace, 1887, predicate with such absoluteness, ' honor and immortality ?' " Surely the idea of civil liberty was not a new one in their day. An older group of Englishmen, who, five hundred years 78 before, had put the clamps on King John, their feudal over- lord, had not escaped the sweep of their historic survey. This group had asserted and defined forever the fundamental personal rights of life, liberty, and property. ' Magna Charta and all our statutes,' says Sir Edward Coke, ' are absolute and without any saving of sovereign power. Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign.' "A hundred years before, in 1688, these same English for- bearers had taught the final lesson oi cottstitutional got'crnment, — the institution built on the supremacy of certain fixed principles, — 'the true, ancient, and indubitable rights of Englishmen.' " Precedents already existed of a government of the people by the people. Perhaps its .solution did not stand out clear and distinct, but this problem had already been partly solved. It is to be reckoned among the beatitudes which have de- scended upon the authors of the Constitution of 1787, that their constituencies — the husbandmen strung along the Atlantic coast — were a free, proud, self-respecting people who rightly conceived their rights. In their profound consciousness of the infinite destiny of humanity, they had already, in their daily lives, exercised the politUal pmccr necessary to protect their personal rights against any merely human authority which they themselves had not set up. Their corporate thought, definitely apprehended, only needed the wise and skilful formulation in clear-cut phrase, which it received at the hands of these faithful trustees of human interests. " Human interests were presented in new aspects and with new possibilities to the group of men of whom we speak. They had not ignorantly generalized the facts of history. The career of Athens, under its democracy, will always fill some of the brightest and freshest pages in the annals of the race. Yet that was a government by the citizens of a single city. The pride and passion of mere citizenship has, perhaps, never 79 reached the height attained in the democracy of Kleisthenes and Pericles. Students of constitutional history lament the failure of the Greek to have enlarged his idea of nationality so as to include the fortunes of all Hellenes. The Macedonian soldier made an easy conquest of the splendid but warring cities whose statesmen had never reached the conception of a Federal Union of free cities having the same ideals and aspirations. The group of philosophers and orators who moved the Ekklcsia, and whose words still move us, did not, at last, present an object-lesson from which the members of the Convention of 1787 could gather many maxims of practical conduct. " But, after the Macedonian conquest, another group of men did arise in Greece who did reach the Federal idea and under- took to appropriate it. The Achaian League furnishes us with the first and most instructive lesson in the form of Confederated States. This league is the great exemplar of our own Union of Republics, and its analogies were widely sought and discussed in its formation. The idea of a federal union is a subtle and artificial one, and has only been attained three or four times in the history of the human family. Markos, Aratos, and their group, the authors of the Achaian League, missed the point of sovereignty, divided in balanced and harmonious measure be- tween the separate States and the League. It was reserved to the members of the Convention of 1787 to disentangle the refinements of the dual sovereignty, and devise, for the first time, a frame of government which, while conceding the abso- lute municipal freedom and sovereignty of the States, should, at the same time, lead the people — the people of the whole nation — up to the exercise and performance of acts of smwr- eignty, original, and, in certain spheres, unlimited. "This sounds commonplace to us. It is, however,, of the essence of the work of the members of the Convention of 8o 1787. It would unworthily become us to forget that our fathers borrowed something from the Confederation of the Swiss Cantons, upon which the Alpine heights have for ages shed the light of freedom, whose organizing power and unify- ing inspiration found their centre at Geneva. Nevertheless, it remains true that the Constitution of 1787 is the most com- plete compact between free and equal States which has yet issued from the hand of man. Whether consciously wrought or not, it has stood the practical test of two foreign wars. Our Civil War has served to renew and energize the sense of tiation- ality which that Constitution, as it left the hands of its framcrs, brought into existence. We now know that the continent is not broad enough to hold the warring legions, nor the free air expansive enough to contain the hostile banners of a race, one in lineage, one in aspirations, and one in destiny. " Everything which came down to these men out of the past, in any way touched with human interest, underwent a clarify- ing and perfecting process at their hands. They reduced to plain and easy propositions the wild speculations, and the vague and rhetorical declamation over the rights of man with which that other group of proijagandists — the I-'ncyclopedists — were, during the eighteenth century, inflaming the minds of France. These Saxons handed back to their Latin brethren their problem — solved. " Our own great group — the group of 1787, bearing the names of Weishington and Hamilton in their front — now take their places at the head of the column of immortals. These men tnade a g(n