SES ROBERT ERNEST COWAN OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES^ BY GEO. H. WILLIAMS PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY F. W. BALTES AND COMPANY AT PORTLAND, OREGON MDCCCXCV PREFACE. I have gathered together, from newspapers and stray places, the following addresses, upon the idea, sug- gested to me, that they are worth preservation in book form. No professional, political or Congressional speeches are included. Primarily, this book is intended as a souvenir to be given to my friends; but a limited number will be for sale at about the cost of their publication. If these pages afford an hour's agreeable reading to my friends, or if they make a lodgment of any valuable thoughts in the mind of the reader, all that I can rea- sonably expect will have been accomplished. 0. H. W. Portland, Oregon, March, 1S95. 286766 CONTENTS. PACK GEN. U. S. GRANT 1 WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN .... 21 GEORGE WASHINGTON 29 SALMON P. CHASE 44 THE PIONEERS OF OREGON .... 46 JUSTICE SAMUEL F. MILLER .... 72 OUR VETERANS 77 THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION .... 93 GEN. W. T. SHERMAN 102 THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS . . .106 EX-JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS . . 120 JUDGE LORENZO SAWYER .... 125 THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD . 129 PORTLAND, OREGON : ITS GROWTH AND PROSPECTS 138 WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OK GERMANY . . 14-9 THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE . 156 THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION . . . 167 JUDGE MATTHEW P. DKADY . . . .173 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA . 176 THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT . . 185 THE MILITIA 200 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. GEN. U. 5. GRANT. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED IN PORTLAND, OREGON, AUGUST 8, 1885. Friends and Fellow Citizens : I have been invited by the bereaved family of General Grant, on account of our former personal and official relations, to join the great procession that is now marching with his mortal remains to their last resting place at Riverside in New York. I regret my inability to accept their invitation because I wanted, before he passed forever from human view, to look once more on that face, though composed in death, whose smiles of recognition and favor are among the most cherished and valued memories of my life. I know what is expected at a public funeral the long processions, the mournful music, the tolling of bells and the hush of business indicate the style of speech suited to the occasion, but if I were to give vent to my feelings I should speak not so much to swell this public display, as to express my personal sorrow at the loss of one who has been tome the best and most unself- ish of friends. I appreciate the significance of this demonstration. I know it is the only way in which the 2 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. people of a country can show their estimate of the dis- tinguished dead, but withal there is an oppressive sense of emptiness and inadequacy in this parade, which grates harshly upon the severed ties of friendship and affec- tion. Death is a thing of awful import to the living. The grave is dark, unyielding and silent. Stillness seems suited to the desolate home and the bleeding heart, and seclusion is sacred to the sorrows of the afflicted ; but the great world mourns for a day with noise and show, and then relapses back into its accus- tomed grooves of business and pleasure. Multitudes who have read or heard of General Grant will partici- pate in the ceremonies of this day from a sense of pro- priety or duty, but there are many others in every part of our land whose hearts are bowed down with unaf- fected sorrow. I do not speak of the irreparable loss and inconsolable grief of the stricken family, but I speak especially of those who have been associated with General Grant in military or civil life. Some of the serious misfortunes of the Union army in the war of the rebellion were due to the jealousy by commanding officers of each other, and some have gone so far as to say that the Confederacy was seriously weak- ened by jealousy among its leaders ; but there was noth- ing of this in the noble nature of General Grant. He was not only just but generous to his brother officers. He was as careful of their reputation as he was of his own. He gave credit where credit was due and granted to merit all that it deserved. He was not only willing but anxious that others should win laurels upon the field of battle by winning victories for the Union cause. He was able to detect incompetency and inefficiency in command, and he had the courage to put them where GEN. U. S. GRANT. 3 they belonged. Rife as jealousy was among others, there appears to have been little or none towards General Grant, though he was growing all the time into great popularity and power. This arose not only from a uni- versal confidence in his capacity, but from a universal con- viction that he would be just to all his comrades in arms. Friendships begotten under such circumstances take hold with the strength of brotherly affection, and to the hearts of those officers of the Union army who survive the death of their great commander will carry a feeling of sorrow to which the pageantry of this day can give 1:0 expression. Thousands of the soldiers of the. Union army have outlived the man who so often led them to victory. Confidence by soldiers in their commanding officer rapidly ripens into affection amid the perils of war. General Grant believed that armies were organized to fight, and that vigorous and sometimes bloody work was essential to success ; but he was always anxious for the health and comfort of the common soldier, and ten- derly considerate of his rights and interests. He was not indifferent to the value of discipline, but there was no taint of tyranny in his disposition. No man ever lived with less regard for the distinctions of rank or office, and no man ever placed a lower estimate upon those differences which the accidents of fortune some- times create among men. He was as cordial to the low- est private as to the highest officer. General Grant was not an emotional man, and I have never .seen him exhibit more feeling than when taking some man by the hand who had fought in the ranks when he commanded in battle. Numerous processions are marching to-day with draped flags and funeral dirges, and there may be 4 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. nothing in the outward display to distinguish one mourner from another ; but in the hearts of those who knew and followed General Grant through the struggles of the war, there will be a feeling of sadness that can only find its true expression in the silence of tears. Most of the' members of General Grant's political household, while he was President, are sincere mourners at this great funeral. There is nothing, not of the family relations, which comes nearer to them than the Cabinet of the President. Confidence there is, or ought to be, unlimited and reciprocal. Cabinet officers have every possible opportunity to learn and know what is real and true in the character of their chief. Policy sometimes makes it necessary for public men to disguise their motives and purposes for the time being ; but in the council-chamber of the Cabinet there is unstrained freedom of intercourse and speech. General Grant, while he was President, appeared to public view to be one person, but to his confidential advisers he was quite another and different person. He was called a silent and not unfrequently a stolid man by those who came to see and hear him talk, and sometimes he seemed to be an indifferent listener, when in fact he was trea- suring up every word that was uttered in his hearing. Possibly his reserve in general speech was somewhat due to a habit acquired in the army, where great caution in speaking of military plans and operations is an abso- lute necessity. General Grant was not accustomed to talk much to visitors, but what he did say was plain and simple and directly to the point. When in the Cabinet chamber, he threw off his reserve ; he was frank, fluent and exceedingly interesting in conversation. Here was where he unfolded the real elements of his nature. Here GEN. U. S. GRANT. 5 was where candor, truth and faith prevailed in all that was said or done. I believe it to be universally true that the better General Grant was known, the better he was liked. Those who knew him best loved him most. There was nothing about him to captivate the fancy ; he was not graceful in action or refined in his tastes ; he knew little or nothing of poetry or fine literature, and less, if possible, of music. He was a strong, solid, robust man. His nature was not like the brilliant, bab- bling, sparkling brook, imparting music to the ear and beauty to the eye, but it was more like the slow and steady river, whose force and power and value lie in the hidden depth of its waters. Notwithstanding all this, there was around General Grant an atmosphere as soft as the haze of a summer's morning. There was no moroseness or harshness or cruelty in his temper, but in all his words and looks there was kindness and benignity of expression. When Daniel Webster lay dead at Marshfield, a neighboring farmer gazing into his coffin, said, as it talking to the great statesman : " Daniel Webster, the world will seem lonesome without you." I am sure that this simple language of the New Hampshire farmer can be properly appropriated to this occasion by every surviving member of General Grant's political family. My intimate acquaintance with General Grant com- menced in 1860, when in some way I became one of his advisers and counsellors in a controversy he then had with President Johnson and his Cabinet. I was exasperated at the unjustifiable attempt made to impeach his veracity, but I found him cool and undisturbed, though his honor was at stake, and undismayed by the formidable array of power and influence against him. I 6 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. had frequent consultations with him after he became President and before I was connected with his adminis- tration, and I always, and under the most trying cir- cumstances, found him the same serene, self-reliant, conscientious man and officer. I was called to his Cab- inet in 1871, and for nearly four years my relations to him were of the most intimate nature, and I believe I enjoyed his unbounded confidence. Flattery cannot "soothe the dull, cold ear of death," but for the sake of those who live, I want to say, and lay this tribute upon his tomb, that I never heard General Grant, under *any circumstances, breathe a thought or a sentiment that was not consistent with perfect integrity and the most exalted patriotism. During his second administration, especially, the sluice- ways of slander and filthy abuse were opened upon his devoted head. Most of the New York city newspapers, whose politics are like an open sewer on the surface of the earth, carrying pollution and stench wherever it goes, vied with each other in assaults upon the integrity and capacity of the man whose wisdom and virtues they are now extolling to the skies. When one of these mer- cenary journals made an accusation against a public man, Congress responded with an investigating commit- tee, and more than one good man and true patriot was hounded to his grave by hirelings, whose bread was pur- chased by the then current coin of falsehood and cal- umny. Much of this grew out of Grant's administrative policy as to the South, but more out of an apprehen- sion that he would be a candidate for re-election in 1876. One day a newspaper reporter came into my office and inquired about some matter, and in answer I stated to him the facts ; but in a day or two I saw in his GEN. U. S. GRANT. 7 paper a total misrepresentation of what I had said, and when I asked for an explanation he said, in effect : "We have nothing in particular against you, but we want to break down the administration, so as to prevent the re-election of General Grant." No man except, possibly, Abraham Lincoln ever administered the gov- ernment under such difficulties as surrounded General Grant. When he became President the southern states were a seething abyss of discord and disjointed ele- ments. The fires of the rebellion were slumbering in its ashes. White masters and negro slaves had just been made equals before the law, with all the bitterness of race prejudice between them. Sectional hate was deep and bitter. The animosities of the war were unextinguished, and the mortification of defeat rankled in the bosoms of the southern people. No man was ever wise enough to administer the government under these conditions and attempt reconciliation, harmony and peace, without arousing a fierce and formidable opposition. Little or no allowance was made to General Grant for this state of things. He was always slow and reluctant to interfere in southern matters, and when dis- order, violence and murder made it necessary to use the strong arm of the government, the cry of military usurp- ation came up from the South, and the cowardly politi- cians and newspapers of the North re-echoed the cry. Grant's administration was attacked from all quarters for an alleged oppressive use of military power in the southern states, when the only thing he ever attempted to do there with troops, after the rebellion was crushed, was to conserve the public peace. I do not hesitate to say that, in my judgment, the kind-hearted- ness of General Grant for the defeated insurgents was 8 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. a weakness in his southern policy. Knowing what I do, if I had been in his place, I should have been more aggressive than he was. I would not have persecuted or proscribed anybody. I would have had no forfeitures of life or property on account of the rebellion ; but at all hazards and at any expense of blood or treasure I would have protected the men in the south, white or black, who supported the Union cause when the Union was trembling to its fall. Considering all the circumstances and all that was accomplished during the eight years of General Grant's administration, he ought to be placed in the front rank of American statesmen. I do not say that his adminis- tration was free from errors, but I do say that these, in the light of the great achievements of his political life, were like misty clouds before the morning sun. His too trusting heart was the weakness of his character. He was not sudden in his friendships, but when they were once formed they took hold with hooks of steel. His faith was whole-hearted, unreserved, and hard to be shaken. He was easily influenced by those around him in whom he had confidence, as to appointments and minor matters ; but when the weightier matters of state demanded his attention, "Richard was himself again." I have to say, without aiming at extreme accuracy, that General Grant appeared to me to be a small man in small things and a great man in great things. There has been much written and said about the corruption of the Grant administration. Tennyson well says that "a lie which is half truth is the most dangerous of lies." There was a mustard-seed of truth and a mountain of lies in the stuff published upon this sub- ject. During his administration, in consequence of war, GEN. U. S. GRANT. 9 the revenues of the government were immense, and its expenditures large. Applying the best test that can be applied, it appears that the loss on the receipts, in proportion to the amount, was less than that of any former administration. Much of all this, however, is buried in the potter's field of party warfare. Under his administration, order and system were established where chaos and confusion had prevailed. He sent his com- pliments to Great Britain, and she paid us $15,000,000 for her dalliance with the rebellion. His veto of the inflation policy opened the way to specie payments. But without going further into particulars, I am willing to leave the record of his administration in the hands of impartial history. To-day, General Grant goes down to the darkness and silence of the grave, but truth is radiant with its long- delayed victory and "returning justice lifts aloft her scale." Falsehood, slander and calumny, which have preyed upon his life, fly away to their demoniac abodes upon the death of their victim. The bats and owls of politics have suddenly disappeared and birds of song and beauty fill the air with their mournful melodies. New light is breaking from the portals of the tomb. Pens that defiled the public journals of the day with defamation of the too sensitive living, are now busy writing up the great deeds of the unconscious dead. Tongues that distilled their venom as the deadly upas distils its dew, are now trying to heal with honeyed phrases the wanton and wicked wounds they made. People, as they hear the tolling of the bells and see the emblems of mourning, arc beginning to think ser- iously of their debt of gratitude to the departed states- man and warrior. Whether the United States would 10 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. now exist as a nation if Grant had not lived is a ques- tion that cannot be solved ; but that to him more than to any other individual we owe the preservation of the American union is a fact that admits of no controversy. Many of us can remember the dark days at the begin- ning of the war. One disaster after another befell the Union forces, and the heavens of the future were hung in black, but unexpectedly the gloom gave way upon the western horizon with Grant's great success at Fort Don- elson. Hope, faith and courage were the northern echoes of this great victory. It was the beginning of the end. I cannot and need not tell you of the campaign sieges and battles of the now nerveless warrior, but suf- fice it to say, that battle followed battle, and victory succeeded victory, to the final triumph at Appomattox Court House. To what position, with Bonaparte, Wellington and the other great soldiers of modern times, history will assign General Grant, I do not know, but it may be that in the clearer vision of future times he will appear greater than any of them. Bonaparte said that ' ' suc- cess is the test of merit," and if this be true, then Grant was greater than Bonaparte ; but the assertion of the French emperor is only relatively true. Bonaparte possessed adventitious aids which Grant did not have. He governed the state and commanded the army. Everybody and everything in his country was subordi- nate to his will. France was united and enthusiastic in his support ; but in the end he was defeated, his army destroyed, and he died a prisoner and in exile. Grant, on the other hand, in his highest command, was subordinate to a higher authority. He was fighting his own countrymen upon their own soil. His foes were GEN. U. S. GRANT. 11 brave men, inspired with the idea that they were fight- ing for independence. Treason was in his front and treachery in his rear ; but in the end he overcame all these difficulties and won a permanent peace. My opinion is that Bonaparte was the greater general, but Grant had the better judgment. Bonaparte had more dash, and Grant more tenacity. Either might have failed if placed in the position of the other. I am not aware that General Grant was ever charged with an unnecessary destruction of Confederate life or property in the prosecution of the war. Bonaparte and most of the other great captains of history have been accused of taking spoils, and of cruelty to individuals in their power ; but no such imputation rests upon the fame of Grant. He accepted whatever bloodshed or destruction the necessities of war demanded, but for human suffer- ing he had the tenderness of a woman's sympathies. His bearing at the surrender of Lee was in keeping with his character. There was nothing said or done that was not necessary to the occasion. There was no offensive exultation no indignity to Confederate officers or troops no boastful or arbitrary exercise of power. But, quietly and gently as it could be done, the surrender was effected, and the captured officers and men dis- missed to their homes with their horses and equipments in their possession. Grant's magnanimity was one of the most remarkable traits of his character. He was wholly without vanity or egotism. I have frequently heard him talk of his military operations ; but he seldom spoke of himself, and never boastingly of his own actions. His success he ascribed chiefly to the skill and bravery of his subor- dinates and soldiers. He indicated no fear that his 12 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. laurels would be appropriated by others. He gloried in the great reputations of Sherman, Sheridan and other distinguished officers of the army. I have noticed par- ticularly the relations between Grant and Sherman. Judging from what we know of others, it might be expected that there would be some feeling of rivalry or jealousy or distrust between them, but nothing of the kind was discoverable. They always spoke in the high- est terms of each other, and both agreed that ' ' a friend should bear his friend's infirmities." Grant differed, in his innate and inflexible simplicity, from all the military men who have figured in history. No one in his presence would be apt to discover from his conversation or actions that he was a man of great military distinction or experience. When he laid down his sword, he laid down all semblance of the soldier. Few men could have risen as Grant did, from obscurity and poverty, to be the laureled chieftain of a victorious army the chief magistrate of a great nation to be the guest of emperors and kings without some visi- ble effect upon their personal bearing ; but it is abso- lutely true of Grant, that at the head of the army, or in the executive mansion, or at the courts of kings and emperors, he made no more display of conscious import- ance than he did when hauling wood in St. Louis or tanning leather in Galena. He never said or did any- thing, under any circumstances, for effect. When per- sons distinguished in the political, literary or social world called upon him at the White House, he was civil and courteous, but he never tried to show off, or make them think that he had any extraordinary civic or mili- tary attainments. He had none of the politician's policy. When senators and representatives and political GEN. U. S. GRANT. 13 leaders called upon him, he received them with urbanity and listened with politeness to what they had to say, and then, with a few words, disposed of the busi- ness in hand, apparently as indifferent to the effect upon his popularity as though he had been discussing the play of a theatre. He had none of that misleading palaver from which all our Presidents have not been free. When the gay and fashionable world thronged to his receptions, or he gave state dinners to official digni- taries, he went through the performances with as little apparent excitement or attempt at effect, as though he was going through the routine of a military drill. From the time that Grant appeared as the evangel of victory to a bleeding country down to the closing scenes at Mt. McGregor, there was no affectation or theatrical display in his private or public life. Everywhere he bore himself with the same rigid sincerity and simplic- ity of manner. While he was waiting with the cold hand of death upon his brow, nothing was said or done by him to excite public sympathy. Though the harpies of the press hung around his dwelling for sensational news, he ministered nothing to their mercenary pur- poses or to the morbid appetite that would feed its curi- osity upon the heart-throbs of a dying man. His physicians published bulletins as to the progress of the disease, and something now and then leaked out from the sick chamber, but nothing emanated from the sick man that might not have come from the lowliest son of obscurity. He made no religious parade for the public eye ; there was no farewell rhetoric of last words to be repeated. Nothing of that ; but, giving his case to his physicians, he waited patiently, working when he could, for the night of death to come, "when no man 14 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. can work. ' ' Whether this stubborn simplicity was of any advantage or not to General Grant in life, it gives him a conspicuous individuality among the great men of history. Bonaparte and Wellington, and even Wash- ington, assimilated their bearing and manners to the fashions of their office and power. I know nothing of the religious views or opinions of General Grant further than may be inferred from the fact that he was a regular attendant of the Methodist Church, and had close relations with some of its minis- ters. I know that he was no bigot or fanatic, but lib- eral and tolerant in his views ; and I know, too, that he was a man of unbending morality. I do not mean to say that he would not play cards and drink wine when so disposed, but I mean to say that as to purity of word and deed, as to fidelity to his family, as to truth, honor and charity, he was without reproach. I never heard him utter a profane or obscene word in my life, and I have seen him greet a few attempts to tell smutty stories in his presence with a sickly smile of disgust. I have tried, without much success, to form a satisfac- tory opinion as to what intellectual or other qualities made him a great military leader. No doubt his imper- turbability was one great element of his success. Included in this is the power to keep cool and self-pos- sessed under exciting causes, and personal courage in the face of danger. Wellington has been called the Iron Duke, and of Grant it may be said, without much exag- geration, that he was a man of iron nerves. I believe that Grant was so constituted that if, in battle where he commanded, news came to him that one part of his army was routed, he could reason as coolly upon the situation as though he was among the maps and papers GEN. U. S. GRANT. 15 of his office. I never saw him in battle, but I have seen him unmoved when all others around him were excited. I was with him on the evening of the day when he was re-elected in 1872, and the returns of the election were coming in from different parts of the country. Washington City was in a white heat of excitement, and everybody in a fever of anxiety. Tele- gram after telegram came announcing great Republican majorities in New York, Pennsylvania and other states, but they seemed to have no more effect upon him than upon the portraits of his predecessors hanging in the executive mansion. He made no expression of his feel- ings in words, and it was impossible to detect the move- ment of a nerve or a muscle by the surrounding excite- ment. Persons may be qualified for the command of a corps or a brigade and not be qualified for general-in-chief of all the armies, which latter office Grant filled with signal ability. He had one peculiar talent which may have had something to do with his fitness for this posi- tion, and that was, his almost intuitive knowledge of the topography of a country through which he had passed. He made a brief visit to Colorado while he was President, and when he returned he seemed to have the state mapped out in his mind, and talked of the roads and towns and cities as though he had been a resident there for years. I have heard him discourse in the same way of Mexico, Texas and Oregon, and other places where he had been, telling of localities, situations and distances with a fullness and accuracy which few men could acquire with the same opportunities for observation. How much this had to do with his ability to plan cam- paigns and direct their execution is more than I k:;ow. 16 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Towering, however, above all his other qualifications, was his rare good judgment This, as to military men and things, must have been of the highest order. Whatever mistakes he made as to his Cabinet officers, he made none as to his military assistants. He was not unlike Bonaparte in this respect. General Grant's pub- lic career was magnificent in its proportions and results, and it will stand, growing purer and brighter with the lapse of time, as an imperishable monument in the world's history. I speak now of two mistakes of his private life, because I know they are the thoughts of the people. One was in allowing his name to be used in 1880, as a candidate for the Presidency. I have no positive knowl- edge of his views at that time, but believed then and believe now that this was contrary to his own good judgment. I know that very many of his best friends were opposed to it and advised against it. Certain poli- ticians in his party, understood to be his friends, deter- mined to make him a candidate, and the influences around him bore in that direction ; and so, without any positive action, and unwilling to disoblige his impor- tunate friends, he allowed himself to be drawn into the convention, to be rejected by it. I would rather have worked and voted for him than for any living man, but my conviction then was, and still is, that if he had been nominated he would have been defeated. Much as the people delighted to honor him, there were vast numbers of his admirers and friends who would not vote to make any man President for a third term. I know that at one time General Grant contemplated following the example of Washington, for he told me so ; but influ- ence subsequently may have changed his mind. GEN. U. S. GRANT. 17 His other and greater mistake was in allowing him- self to be drawn into his late disastrous business con- nection in New York. Grand as he was in the turmoil of war and in the affairs of state, as to money matters he had the weakness of an unsophisticated boy. He was weak in trying to be richer when he was rich enough, and weaker still in trying to add to his fortune by speculations in Wall Street, but in this respect he was not peculiar, for history shows that a great majority of the statesmen, warriors and scholars, who have gained distinction as such, have been lacking in financial abili- ties. That General Grant, in this matter, was the victim of misplaced confidence, no one who knows him can doubt No circumstance has come to light to raise a question in the mind of any impartial judge as to his personal integrity ; and his struggles and sacrifices to make reparation to those injured by his misfortunes ought to be conclusive proof upon this point. I know not, nor can it ever be known for he was one who would not tell what anguish and torture he suffered by the knowledge that innocent people had been reduced from affluence to poverty by the failure of his firm, but I believe it worked like burning iron thrust into his just and generous nature. Mental suffering, as well as physical pain, reduced this mighty man of war to the weakness of a tottering child. Whatever his errors were, as to his personal interests, his judgment was unerring as to the interests of his country. When the thunder-cloud of war burst from a southern sky, he made no mistake as to the line of his duty. He had no affiliation with the administration of Mr. Lincoln by party ties, but he had fought for the glory of the flag upon the bloody fields of Mexico, and 18 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. he could not see it dishonored by the impious hands of treason . When it was proposed as a war measure to emancipate the slaves, his judgment approved the proc- lamation of President Lincoln, and thenceforward he was the stalwart champion of universal freedom. When he was called to be chief magistrate, he consented reluc- tantly, from a sense of duty, and because he believed and he was not mistaken in his judgment that he could do more than any other man for the restoration of peace and harmony to the Union. When popular clamor for the inflation of a redundant currency carried away with it such men as Morton and Thurman, he stood unshaken, like a rock amid the waves of the ocean, and by his veto saved the country from dishonor and bankruptcy. Two of our Presidents have been assassinated, and the nation has been in mourning at their funerals ; but now a private citizen has died a natural death, and the nation comes to his funeral like Rachel weeping for her children, and cannot be comforted. How shall we account for this universal expression of sorrow ? Every citizen of the United States is interested in the unity and happiness of his country, and therefore every citi- zen, in the death of General Grant, has lost a benefactor and a friend. We do not know the strength of our attachments to kindred and friends until they are rent asunder by the ruthless hand of Death. While General Grant was alive we thought of him kindly, but care- lessly as we think of one whom we meet every day ; but when it was known that a fatal disease had seized him for its victim, a general sympathy sprang up, which grew stronger and stronger with his severe and pro- tracted sufferings. When he died, the heart of the nation was tenderlv affected towards him. GEN. U. S. GRANT. 19 General Grant was tried in all the vicissitudes of war ; time and again his courage was tested at the cannon's mouth and under the iron hail of battle ; his public and private life for years were a target for the poisoned arrows of malice, hatred and revenge ; but never was his endurance, courage or patience so tried as when for half a year in helpless, hopeless weakness he was com- pelled to look into the face of advancing and inevitable death. Inscrutable are the ways of the Almighty, and we are bound to accept the wisdom of Him " who doeth all things well," but to human understanding it seems hard that one so great, so good and so just should have been put to this terrible ordeal. Uncomplain- ingly, unflinchingly and heroically he met his doom. When the disease pressed upon him he said, with that naturalness which he never disguised : "I should be glad to live ; but if it is the will of Providence, I am prepared to go." Grand in life, sublime in death, " Calm on the bosom of thy God, Fair spirit, rest thee now ; E'en while with ours thy footsteps trod, His seal was on thy brow. Dust to its narrow house beneath Soul to its place on high ! They that have seen thy look in death No more may fear to die." Nevermore will mortal eye see this man whom a nation mourns and a world admired ; but forgetftilness can never claim him for her own. Tens of thousands of veterans who still live will cherish with affection, among their memories of the war, the memory of him who led them through the storm of battle to the shin- ing heights of victory. They will tell of him to their children, and they to theirs, and unborn generations 20 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. with growing admiration shall hear the story of his deeds. Far away from where he now sleeps, and in the lowly cabins of the South, where the slave once crouched and trembled, the emancipated man shall tell his free- born children how Grant fought for their freedom ; and the tutelar deities of their song and story shall be Lin- coln and Grant. Wherever the stars and stripes may float on the land or on the sea, they shall emblazon to the world with their inspiring associations the illustrious name of Grant. Union and Liberty are the monuments of his fame. To-day, with mourning and tears, we com- mit all that is mortal of Ulysses S. Grant to the bosom of his mother Earth ; but with pride we commit his name to the pen of History, to be written with those of Washington and Lincoln, high upon the roll-call of The few immortal names That were not born to die. On the banks of the beautiful Hudson a grateful country will erect a stately monument to his memory. Unnumbered millions in the far-off future will gaze upon that structure with mingled feelings of gratitude and pride. Sunshine and cloud, for centuries to come, will cast their lights and shadows upon its summit, while the memorial river ever murmurs at its base ; but when the marble and iron and brass of that monu- ment shall have moldered into dust, the name of Grant will live. Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, For now he lives in fame, though not in life. WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 21 WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. DECEMBER it. 1869. Mr. President : William Pitt Fessenden, though not without his faults, was in many respects a model sena- tor and statesman. Education and experience had cul- tivated and matured his mental faculties ; and to the consideration of every public question upon which he was called to act, he brought a careful, enlightened and independent judgment. Official association of more than ordinary intimacy enabled me to observe and appre- ciate those qualities of his character which distinguish the ideal from the actual senator. Of these, the most striking that which gave tone and complexion to the others was his utter repugnance to every form of indirection and deceit, and his profound contempt for all the arts and appliances of the demagogue. Con- scious of the rectitude of his own purposes, and confi- dent in the correctness of his own views, popular clamor was to him as the breath of an idle wind ; and to argue that a proposed policy which he believed to be wrong would please the people, was to employ the weakest of means to influence his sturdy judgment. Nothing dis- turbed him more than an effort to carry through the Senate for partisan ends some measure which he consid- ered to be unreasonable or unjust ; and I have seen him writhe with pain at the delivery of speeches here, the fallacies and false conclusions of which, though obvi- ous to him, were plausible enough to impose upon the ignorant or mislead the unreflecting populace. Deep 22 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. down in his nature was implanted an instinctive resist- ance to the smiles of flattery as well as the frowns of disfavor ; and, by either, he was as immovable as the mountain cliff whose rugged brow encounters the sun- shine and the storm with equal indifference. Arising from one's intercourse with some men of irreproachable character, there is a doubt as to the solidity of their moral structure a fear that in some unhappy moment temptation may overpower them. But no such doubts or fears obtruded themselves into the company of Mr. Fessenden. It was not only that perfect faith in his integrity possessed all those who approached him ; but from his presence there proceeded the perfect assur- ance that he was as much beyond the reach of corrup- tion as the polished steel is beyond the reach of that rust which fastens itself upon the softer and baser metals. While calumny with its thousand tongues discussed the proceedings of this body upon the trial of the late President, there was none so wicked or malicious as to whisper that Mr. Fessenden' s motives upon that occa- sion were subject to sordid influences. Many questioned the legality and correctness of his opinions ; many were deeply pained at his vote : but there was that in his solid and noble character which made it impossible to suppose that his convictions were not as pure in their origin as they were fearless in expression. Some men, whose public and official acts admit of no question, allow themselves to be drawn into various irregularities and impurities of private life ; but he was as free from dissipation and all its affiliated vices as he was from contact with any scheme of plundering or fraudu- lent legislation. Much is said about the corruption WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 23 of Congress a thousand times more than is true ; but, be that as it may, it will be a great consolation to the family and friends of the departed senator that through all the seductions and temptations of a long and varied political life, he came down to his grave full of years and full of honors a pure and honest man. Intellectually, Mr. Fessenden was among the foremost men of the country. Putting aside the discussion upon the slavery question, in which the pre-eminence without dispute belongs to another, he towered in mind among those around him like Saul in form among his country- men. While admitting his title to this distinction, can- dor compels me to say that upon any novel and excit- ing question where the road to success seemed to lie through the chances of recklessness and temerity, he did not possess the requisite qualifications of a great parliamentary leader. He believed that caution was the parent of safety. He was so careful not to do wrong that sometimes he seemed afraid to do right. All that there was akin to cowardice in the nature of Mr. Fes- senden is indicated by Shakespeare, when he says that "Conscience does make cowards of us all." Prudence is not (infrequently mistaken for timidity, and it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins ; but that the deceased should be described as a prudent rather than a timid man, is evidenced by the fact that, as to any untried experiment in legislation, while he thought little of himself, he was much con- cerned about its effect upon the safety and happiness of the people, and the honor and peace of the country. One feature of the senatorial career of Mr. Fessenden deserves especial mention ; and that is, he never indulged 24 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. in anything of a sensational nature. He had no taste for legislative pyrotechnics. He had no ambition to do something simply to attract attention or to excite com- ment. All that he said and did was statesmanlike and businesslike, and looked to some useful result. I may add, too, that he did not pretend to know everything or discuss every question before the Senate. Familiar and thoroughly conversant with most of the leading subjects of debate, particularly those relating to finance, he spoke as to them only when there was a manifest pro- priety in his speaking. There was no parade, pompos- ity, or tinsel about his speeches. French was his aver- sion, and in my hearing he never used a Latin or poeti- cal quotation. Greece and Rome he left with his college exercises in the classic shades of Bowdoin. Plain, simple and unaffected in manner and habit, so he was in speech, and his style was as pure and trans- parent as the waters of a New England brook. When Mr. Fessenden arose to address the Senate, it is not irreverent to say that, so far as the subject under discus- sion was concerned, he was generally able to say, " ' Let there be light,' and there was light." Clearness of expression, more than anything else, distinguished his speech, so that the ideas presented, instead of the words in which they were clothed, filled the mind of the hearer. One of the Justices of the Supreme Court told me that many years ago he was associated with Mr. Fessen- den in the trial of a cause. According to the agree- ment, the judge was to argue the law, for which he made elaborate preparation, and the late senator was to state the facts. Mr. Fessenden made his statement, after which the court said that nothing further was WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 25 necessary on that side of the case. So clear, condensed and convincing was his presentation of the facts that no room was left for argument. As a debater, our departed friend had few equals. Logic, sarcasm and ridicule were employed as circum- stances seemed to require. He analyzed and dissipated an adverse argument. Clearness, vigor and acuteness characterized his discourses. Saladin's sword was not sharper than his intellect. To describe him in the promiscuous debates of this body I would borrow the language of Tennyson : " When one would aim an arrow fair, But send it slackly from the string ; And one would pierce an outer ring, And one an inner here and there ; And last the master-bowman, he, Would cleave the mark." Common sense and a practical view of things were the noticeable features of Mr. Fessenden's statesman- ship. Poets, orators and philosophers may rise to emi- nence by the display of a brilliant or eccentric genius ; but no man can be a wise or safe statesman without a large endowment of common sense or, in other words, of that comprehension and clearness of mind which enables him to form correct judgments. Theories and abstractions have been and are the bane of the repub- lic : the less a man charged with public affairs has to do with them, the better for the country. Right and wrong, as applied to political affairs, are oftentimes rela- tive and not absolute terms. To-day, a certain policy may be right ; but the circumstances of the people to be affected by it may wholly change, and then it may be wrong. So thought Mr. Fessenden. Free from all 26 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Utopian ideas, he acted upon men and things as he found them, not as they might or ought to be ; and his action carefully looked to the interests and welfare of all concerned. Some have said, with more or less truth, that he was conservative. No doubt he had some reverence for time-honored things. He loved, like many lawyers, to walk in the ancient ways ; he had no pleasure in the work of 'destruction ; he believed in let- ting well enough alone. But, after all, the records of Congress will show that he was a friend to all those great modern reforms in government that have redeemed and purified the republic. There was a grace of modesty about the deportment of Mr. Fessenden. He had none of the " I am Sir Oracle " way about him ; nor had he any of that offen- sive dogmatism which age sometimes arrogates to itself, though he was frequently emphatic and severe in the statement of his views. He had no ambition to appear more than he was. Among those who depend upon newspapers for information, he did not pass current at his real value. Keenly alive to any breath upon the purity of his character, he took no pains to cultivate notoriety. His reputation was the product of no hot-bed appliances ; but, slowly and noiselessly, it grew strong and high, like the tall pines of his native state, whose heads revel proudly in the highest winds of heaven. No little was said in the lifetime of our friend about the infirmity of his temper. That he was irritable at times is true ; that he suffered much from physical debility is also true. He was a nervous and high-strung man. He was compelled to struggle for self-control. Charity, however, and a consciousness of our own imper- fections, should draw a veil over this slight defect in WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 27 one otherwise so good ; and, whatever his foibles were in this respect, "he but stumbled in the path we have in weakness trod." To show more of this, let me state that I was a member of two committees of which he was chairman, and only once did his anger break out in hasty words toward me. Believing that "a friend should bear his friend's infirmities," I did not notice the matter, and in a few moments he came and in the kindest man- ner expressed his deep regret at the unpleasant occurrence. While I knew him he displayed little fondness for society : he rather shrank from the fashionable gather- ings and gaieties of the capital. He was not so easy of approach as some who are less agreeable to meet. There was a dignity in his manner that repressed familiarity. His intimate associates were few, but to these he seemed strongly attached. Fawning and flattery were foreign to his nature ; those who conceived a dislike for him found their own reasons for a change of feeling. With much truth it may be said of him : " Lofty and sour to those who loved him not ; But to the men that sought him, sweet as summer." When the last session of Congress adjourned, in the seats nearest to mine sat two distinguished senators, now gone. One is dead, and the other in foreign lands seek- ing for health. Similar in many respects, they were devoted friends of each other, and friends of mine. While I am paying this humble tribute to the memory of one whom death has taken, I cannot forget the other and older friend, stricken and away. Unhappily for the country, his public life is ended ; and the state that he so long represented here will be fortunate indeed if it finds another equal in intelligence, integrity and power to occupy his place in this body. 28 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. When the sun of a bright day declines below the horizon, a soft radiance lingers among the shadows of approaching night ; and so it is when a good man goes down from a high position in the world to his resting- place in the grave. Streaming behind him is the effulgence of an exalted character to illumine the way for others, and to lighten and soothe the sorrows of bereavement. Where the departed statesman lived and died, the bells have tolled their farewell peals ; the pall, the hearse and funeral procession have passed and gone. u Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," have been spoken, and to her maternal bosom the earth has folded his mortal remains ; and now we, his fellow senators, have met in this chamber, where his person and voice were once so familiar, to celebrate the closing scenes. This is the last of ceremony. Bowing our heads to the will of Providence, and striving to shun his few faults and emulate his many virtues, to the affections of those who loved him, to the gratitude of a country he served long and well, and to the safe-keeping of impartial history, with faith and pride we commit the memory and fame of William Pitt Fessenden. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 29 GEORGE WASHINGTON. ADDRESS UPON THE 1OOTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DELIVERED IN PORTLAND, OREGON, MAY 1, 1889. Everything associated with the name of Washington is interesting to the people of the United States. His fame is one of the imperishable treasures of our coun- try. To recur to his history is to refresh our patriotism and increase our respect for the virtues of private and public life. On the 14th day of December, 1799, he departed this life, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," and his influence, since that time, has been a living, active force, little dimin- ished by the lapse of time. Washington, after being President for eight years, declined a re-election. Con- strained by the force of this precedent, all his successors in this respect have followed in his footsteps. When General Grant, second only to Washington in the estimation of the American people, was proposed for a third term, his nomination was defeated by the example of Washington. If he had been nominated, no doubt, upon that ground, he would have been defeated at the election. Our Constitution contains no written limitations upon the eligibility of the President for re-election, but an unwritten provision has been incorporated into it upon this subject by the example of Washington, of as much force as any of its written provisions. Here is a beauti- ful illustration of the moral influence of a great and good character. All of our Presidents have manifested a desire to succeed themselves, and some of them, no 30 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. doubt, would have struggled for more than two elections if they had not known that Washington's example was an impassable barrier to a third term. Ambition invested with power is sometimes stronger than conscience or patriotism ; and Washington rendered an invaluable ser- vice to his country when he ordained, by his example, that no man should wield the presidential office for a longer period than eight years. Armies and navies are generally used for the govern- ment of men and nations, but the necessity for their use would be greatly lessened if the effect of moral force were better understood and appreciated. Every human being, however humble his sphere, exerts a moral influence, and the individual influences of a com- munity, combined in one direction, are more powerful than penal enactments or political institutions. Indivi- duals may become so loved, respected, or feared, as to make their names the synonyms of strength and power. I was greatly impressed with this fact while General Grant was President. Reconstruction of the Union after the war of the Rebellion would have been extremely difficult if he had not been at the head of the government. Ordinarily, during his administration, no force was necessary to control the disorganized elements of the southern states ; and the mere appearance of a squad of soldiers in disturbed localities, without striking a blow, was sufficient to suppress impending disorders, because these representatives of the govern- ment were backed up by the name and influence of that mighty man of war. Washington's personal influence was a tower of strength to the new government of the United States, of which he was the first President. Whether the revolutionary war, without him as GEORGE WASHINGTON. 31 commander-in-chief of its armies, would have been a success, we do not know ; and whether the union of the colonies could have been effected and preserved without his personal aid we cannot tell : but there is no doubt that his influence was a powerful factor in producing both results. When, in 1798, France and this country had made all their preparations for war, it is believed that the appointment of Washington to command the armies of the United States averted impending hostili- ties between the two nations. Napoleon Bonaparte, then at the head of the French government, had a proper respect for the abilities and influence of Washington. Nothing, perhaps, occurred during the public career of Washington more trying to his great qualities than the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. While he was President, Congress passed an act to impose a tax of from nine to twenty cents per gallon upon distilled spirits. To resist the collection of this tax, a violent rebellion broke out in the western counties of Pennsyl- vania ; and at one time seven thousand men were in arms to prevent the enforcement of the act. Our gov- ernment was in its infancy. Its powers were undefined and untried ; and the whole country was alarmed at this formidable attempt to overthrow its authority. Wash- ington, after expostulating with the insurgents in vain, determined to subdue and disperse them by force. Military forces were put into the field under distingu- ished officers, but the rebellion maintained a defiant attitude; and it was not until Washington decided to take the command of the government forces in person that the insurrection fell to pieces. His fame and influ- ence as a military chieftain was like an army with ban- ners both to the foreign and domestic foes of his country. 32 ' ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. This circumstance brings to our notice the vast differ- ence between the public opinion of that day and of the present time upon the whisky question. Then a slight tax upon spirituous liquors produced a tremendous com- motion and almost a revolution ; but since that time, and quite recently, spirituous liquors have been subjected to a federal tax of two dollars per gallon ; and the tax now upon whisky is seventy cents per gallon. Not only this, but some of the states have absolutely prohibited the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors, and others have heavily burdened their retail under high license systems. Some litigation has grown out of this state of things ; but there has been no talk of revolution, and little or no forcible resistance to the execution of these laws. Intemperance prevails now to a deplorable extent ; but the fact is, the cause of temperance has made immense strides in this country since Washington's adminstration. Then, any restriction or pecuniary bur- den upon the use of spirituous liquors was regarded as an infringement upon the liberty of the citizen ; but now the question is, not whether it is right or wrong to restrain or prohibit the use of such liquors, but what is the most effective way of producing that result. When Washington was President, the use of alcoholic drinks was fashionable, and intoxication was not seriously hurtful to character ; but now fashion smiles upon their disuse, and it is disgraceful for a man to get drunk. Then, the family Bible and the family jug were placed upon the same shelf in the closet ; but now the Bible is laid upon the family table, and the jug is left to keep company with the barrel in the storehouse of the dealer. I can remember the time when distinguished senators and representatives in Congress GEORGE WASHINGTON. 33 not uncommonly appeared in their seats and other public places in a state of intoxication ; but such exhibi- tions are rarely witnessed in these days, and drunken- ness, to a great extent, has been forced by public opin- ion down to the scum and dregs of society. In the early days of the republic, an official entertainment in Wash- ington City without the "flowing bowl" would have been as startling as a presidential dinner in a kitchen ; but throughout the administration of President Hayes, intoxicants of all kinds were excluded from the execu- tive mansion, and no wines were served with the refreshments at the inauguration ball of President Har- rison. Different influences working to the same end have produced this change. Institutions of learning, the pulpit, the press and the example of good people have co-operated to elevate the tone of public sentiment upon this subject ; and there is a dawn of hope that the time will come when men will be ashamed to sell whisky for a livelihood, and to get drunk will be as disgraceful as going to the penitentiary. Accustomed as we are to the smooth and systematic working of our institutions, it is difficult for us to understand the obstacles that Washington encountered in his first administration. The new government was an unfamiliar skeleton, without substance or vitality ; discordant and jarring elements clashed with each other; local and sectional interests clamored for recognition ; the rivalries and jealousies of ambitious men distracted the public councils ; and it took all the wisdom, courage, and i;reat influence of the President to prevent this dis- order from ending in disruption and disgrace. Jefferson and Hamilton, though .acting together as the constitu- tional advisers of Washington, were bitterly antagonistic 34- ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. to each other ; but through the calm judgment of their chief, a successful administration was crystallized out of their unseemly contentions. Jefferson represented the theory of a limited and weak central government, with the largest latitude of popular and state rights, and Hamilton contended for a stronger centralized power, and a more circumscribed control by the states and the people ; and it is not improbable that their differences, perplexing as they were to Washing- ton, modified by each other, were better for the country in the end, than the adoption of the extreme views of either of those great men. Washington, when he became President, had no pre- cedents to follow. He was made the pilot of a ship entering upon an unknown sea. To perfect the Federal Union ; to allay discontent ; to establish the credit of the government ; to provide ways and means for its sup- port ; to liquidate the public debt with an empty treas- ury ; to negotiate treaties with foreign powers ; to con- cilitate or conquer the Indian tribes : these were some of the tremendous responsibilities thrown upon his hands with the office of President. Guided by his own good judgment, he responded with extraordinary suc- cess to the exigencies of the situation. His policies of administration have become fixtures in the govern- ment, and would be more useful to us if they were more closely followed. Occasions of this kind are generally seized upon to depict in glowing colors the material progress of our country. Washington was inaugurated 100 years ago, and the first thought suggested in commemorating that event is the wonderful growth and prosperity of the United States. Thirteen feeble states, with a population GEORGE WASHINGTON. 35 of three millions, have grown into thirty-eight great states, containing sixty millions of people. Washington necessarily made the journey from Mount Veruon to New York, to be inaugurated, in carriages and on horse- back, for then there was not a steamboat or railroad in the world. Now, our immense lakes and rivers are alive with steam vessels, and railways, like lines upon a map, stretch across the land in all directions. Our commerce at that time was carried on in a few sailing vessels with a few foreign ports, but now our canvass whitens every navigable sea, and our flag floats in every port of the civilized world. Vast regions of territory, whose soli- tudes resounded with the war-whoop of the savage and the cries of wild animals, are now beautified and blessed with farms, orchards and gardens, and all the improve- ments of enlightened husbandry. Manufacturing estab- lishments have sprung up in our towns and cities, and our factories, mills and furnaces are ever-flowing fount- ains of wealth to our people. Men whose fortunes are counted by millions, structures of architectural grandeur and beauty, the evidences of culture and taste, abound ; and our great country is filled with the glory of power, riches and prosperity. All these things swell our hearts with exultation as we look back to the early days of the republic ; but the voices of the ages warn us that all these blessings will turn to bitter ashes if the moral advancement of the people does not keep pace with their material prosperity. Ambition and the love of money may be depended upon for material aggrandizement, but the moral elevation of a people depends upon aggressive and persistent efforts to that end. Men dig and grovel in the earth for gold, but they must climb heavenward for the saving virtues. History records the rise and fall 36 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. of many nations, and it is not difficult to determine in a general way under what influence they grew and became strong, and the causes which led to their decay and downfall. Much as nations may differ in their forms of government and other circumstances, there are certain elements of society common to all, that work for good or evil. Bxalted as we are in many respects above the con- dition of those nations whose greatness has departed, we have no right to suppose that we are entirely free from those elements that worked their overthrow ; for human nature has been essentially the same in all ages and countries of the world. Empires and cities that aforetime dazzled mankind with their greatness and riches have perished from the face of the earth ; and where great armies assembled with the spoils of conquest, and brilliant courts rioted in pomp and splendor, the owls and the bats hold undisputed sway, and serpents hiss among the half- buried ruins. Some of these vanished dynasties have left us only a faint glimmering of their fate ; but others, with the wrecks of fallen greatness, have left us memorials of their growth and decadence. L/ooking back as far as the light of history will enable us to see, we are struck with the close resemblance between the life of an individual and the life of a nation. Bach seems to pass through the weakness of infancy, the fiery energy and ambition of youth, the strength of maturity, and the decay and decrepitude of old age. Every day's experience teaches us that a false system of living will bring the individual down to a premature grave ; and the same sad fact, as to communities, is inscribed upon the tombstones of many departed nations. To carry healthful ness, hopefulness, courage and the GEORGE WASHINGTON. 37 strength of early life into the impulses of old age, is the great secret of true living. Few are so ignorant as not to know how this may be done, and yet comparatively few utilize as fully as they might their knowledge upon this subject. Health is the normal condition of all living things ; and it is safe to say that premature sick- ness, suffering and death are greatly due to the reckless and careless disregard of those safeguards which nature has provided for the preservation of life and health. Nations are only aggregations of individuals, and it is as necessary to take care of the life of a nation as it is to take care of the life of an individual. When Washington was inaugurated, our country was in its infancy ; and a hundred years have not only brought it into the vigor of youth, but into the immediate pres- ence of the cares and responsibilities of early manhood. Every citizen of this republic, at all times, and especi- ally upon occasions of this kind, without losing faith in our high destiny, should note the danger signals beset- ting our future pathway. One hundred years ago, foreign immigration was an advantage to the United States ; but, as oftentimes hap- pens, that which is at one time a benefit or a blessing, at another time and under different circumstances becomes an evil and an injury. There is a tidal wave of popula- tion from the old world pouring in upon our shores. Some of this brings health and strength to our country, but much of it is like pouring poison into the blood of the body politic. Ignorance, poverty and crime are being steadily turned loose, by the ship-load, upon the wharves of our seaboard cities. Licentiousness and liberty are equivalent terms with many of these people. Infidelity and anarchy, with them, stand for God and j^ood 286766 38 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. government. They vitiate the social atmosphere in which they live. They sow the seeds of discontent and dis- order. They abuse the freedom of our institutions, and their presence here is a perpetual menace to the peace and good order of our country. Obviously, here is a great and growing evil which it is easy enough to see, but for which it is exceedingly difficult to find an ade- quate remedy. Congress is the only legislative body having jurisdiction upon this subject, and it would seem that it ought to take radical steps in the direction of / protecting our country from the offscourings of Europe, as well as from the degraded hordes of Asia. But we cannot rely altogether upon legislation to meet the exigencies of the case. Our duty, as to those who have or may come here, is to civilize, Americanize and redeem them, if we can, from their deplorable condition. Rich men should give of their abundance ; the pious should offer their prayers ; and those who can do noth- ing else should use their example and influence to con- vert these people into good and peaceable citizens. To exclude them from the United States is most desir- able ; and the next best thing to do, is to inspire them with a love for our country, its laws and institutions. The older I grow, the less faith I have in the compulsory processes of reform. Penal enactments and prisons are necessary for the protection of society ; but, as a general rule, the criminally depraved can only be effectually reformed through some regenerating influence operating upon their motives or the mainspring of their actions. Forcible measures, under existing circumstances, cannot be abandoned ; but the sheet-anchor of our society is in the wisdom and charity of good men and women, and there is a broad field for the exercise of these virtues among the foreigners in our country. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 39 Grecian and Roman history abounds in instructive lessons to us. It is the school of nations. Greece occupies but a small space upon the map of the earth, but her greatness at one time overshadowed the nations of antiquity. Her power was not in her numbers, but in the education and habits of her people. Every thing was subordinated to the development, cultivation and discipline of the individual. Simplicity of life and fewness of wants were the national virtues. These conditions evolved a healthy and vigorous growth. But a change came over the people. Ambition looked abroad for dominion. Faction and the lust of power made their appearance. Great riches were accumulated by the few, while the multitude struggled in abject pov- erty. Luxurious habits supervened ; indolence, effemi- nacy and vice followed, and this once glorious land of philosophers, poets and heroes sank into obscure imbe- cility. Rome was not different in the essentials of her history. She commenced her career by cultivating heroic virtues, and grew mighty in their exercise. She sent forth her legions to war, and they brought kings and emperors in captivity to her gates. Her victorious eagles and imperial decrees ruled the civilized world. But the tide of her affairs took a turn. Ambitious men arose to divide and distract her people. Wealth and corruption debauched her government, virtue was bar- tered for gold, and her decline and fall is the greatest of the gloomy pictures in the book of Time. Our republic has that which Greece and Rome did not have, to save it, as we hope, from a similar fate ; but, whether for good or evil, the fact is before us that the greed for gold and great riches absorb, to a great degree, the aspirations and activities of our people. Associated 40 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. wealth and corporate power have enthroned themselves in the vital energies of onr country. Our trust is that God will protect and preserve us as a nation ; but the beacon lights of history show that the descent is easy from wealth to luxury, from luxury to ease, from ease to effeminacy, and finally to destruction. Theoretically, our government is a representative government. Those who make and execute our laws are supposed to be elected by the people for that pur- pose. Without the freedom and purity of the ballot, this theory is a mockery and a fraud. Here is a lurk- ing danger to our institutions, not so much on account of the men who may be fraudulently elected as on account of the loss of confidence in our system of gov- ernment which false elections are liable to create. There is a tendency to control elections by the use of money ; and it takes no prophet to foresee the doom of this republic if the time ever comes when the public conscience is unmoved by the buying and selling of votes. To prevent the prostitution of the elective fran- chise by bribery, force, or fraud, is the plain duty of the men of all parties and all sections of the country ; and indifference to this duty is a symptom of peril to our free institutions. Whether the choice of the people be wise or unwise, the conviction that it is the result of their free and unbought suffrages upholds their confi- dence in the republican system ; but when elections are carried by corruption and violence, the thought may be suggested that something better than the mis- rule of a mob can be found in a less popular form of government. Notwithstanding these evil tendencies, we have grounds of faith and hope for our country, which the GEORGE WASHINGTON. 41 fallen nations of antiquity did not possess. Their knowledge was limited and imperfect compared with the inexhaustible stores of our day. We have the common school and printing press, which they did not have. We have some advantages in the cljmate, soil and extent of our country ; but, above all, we have a religion infinitely superior to theirs in its influence upon all the institutions of human society. I do not speak of religion in any narrow sense. I do not mean the religion of any particular church, but I mean that religion which recognizes the God of the Christian and the Jew as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. When Nineveh and Babylon perished, their gods perished with them. The gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome live only in song and story. Idola- trous nations, in moral character, rise only to the level of the gods they worship. Paganism is the deification of the animal. Theism is the deification of the spirit- ual. Our God is from everlasting to everlasting, infi- nite in wisdom, goodness and power. To believe in such a God is to be lifted up into thoughts of his exalted attributes. There is a preserving, elevating power in this belief which "spreads undivided, operates unspent." No mind in all Christendom is absolutely free from its influence. Some may say there is no God, but they might as well shut their eyes and say there is no sun while they breathe an atmosphere vitali/ed by its warmth and light. Whatever else may happen, there is no doubt that the prophecy of the Psalmist as to our God will be fulfilled: "His name shall endure for- ever ; His name shall remain under the sun among the posterities which shall be blessed through Him. All 42 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. the heathen shall praise Him." Washington, in his farewell address, said: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Let us with cau- tion indulge the supposition that morality can be main- tained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle," On the 30th day of April, 1789, Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall, in the City of New York, and the first thing he did after taking the oath of office was to repair to St. Paul's Church to acknowledge his obligations to God for His goodness to the people of the United States. On this centennial anniversary of that event, it is fit- ting that we should imitate his example, and render thanks to the Giver of all good for the preservation of the American Union, and the prosperity and happiness of our people. Our gratitude is especially due to Divine Providence for permitting us to behold this day. We live in a land of promise and beauty. Our state is on the threshold of a great career. We are rapidly increasing in population, wealth and power. Our thoughts stretch away in wonder at what Oregon will be when this celebration is repeated at the end of another hundred years. Nothing is necessary to stimulate the material progress of our state, but eternal vigilance is the price of moral character. Our fields may excel in the fruits of the earth, our mountains unbosom their mineral riches, our commerce bring the wealth of for- eign lands to our shores ; but all these will be as dross if they pour their treasures into the lap of a debauched and degraded people. Oregon, with all its advantages, GEORGE WASHINGTON. 43 may aspire to stand in moral comparison among her sister states, as Mount Hood stands among the other mountains, robed in whiteness and purity. To put our young state upon this eminence should be the great ambition of our people. Let us labor to this end. Let the rich man give his money, the intellectual man his learning, and all others their influence, to build up our state upon the solid foundations of intelligence and virtue. Money and merchandise are transient and per- ishable ; but this is something that moth and rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. Let us do our full duty in this respect, and future generations will be as grateful to us as we are to Washington and his compeers, and when we are gone we shall live on in our influence, and our good works will smell sweet and blossom in the dust. On the banks of the Potomac, in the City of Wash- ington, stands a monument to the memory of him who has been affectionately called the father of his country. Towering above the dome of the Capitol, and the high- est of all human structures, it represents the gratitude of a great nation, and the grandeur of a great life. Every state has a stone in that monument, indicative of its hope and faith in the Federal Union; and every stone symbolizes a prayer that our republic may withstand sectional and party strife as this majestic pile of marble withstands the storm-clouds that break upon its summit. To us and to all posterity, this monument makes its sub- lime appeal always to bear in mind that the only way that our nation can be preserved is to transfuse into its life the patriotism and purity that graced the life of Washington. 44 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. SALMON P. CHASE. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, OCTOBER 23, 1873. May It Please the Court : I have been charged with the sad duty of formally announcing to your Honors the death of Chief Justice Chase, and of present- ing, to be spread upon the records of the court, the reso- lutions of the bar touching that mournful event. On the first day of last May, by the adjournment of this court for the term, he laid aside his official robes to seek that temporary repose which his arduous labors and bodily infirmities seemed to require ; but in a few days thereafter, to the great disappointment and grief of his family and friends, he laid aside all that was mortal of his nature and passed to where the weary are forever at rest. While spring was revealing its new and beautiful forms of life upon earth, he was carried in the gentle arms of Hope and Faith to the new life of another world. To recount the public incidents of his eventful career upon this occasion would be to repeat what is as famil- iar as household words to the people of this country. Suffice it to say that as the governor of a great state, as a senator in Congress, as a Secretary of the Treasury and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he was dis- tinguished for great abilities and great devotion to duty. Conspicuous among his many claims to popular and lasting regard, were his early, continued and effectual labors for the universal freedom of man. His fame in this respect will be as enduring as the love of liberty in the hearts of the American people. To say that he administered the finances of the country through the late war of the rebellion is enough to establish his pre- eminence and show his title to a nation's gratitude. SALMON P. CHASE. 45 Jay, Rutledge, Ellsworth, Marshall and Taney, are the few imperishable names of the great departed who have filled the chief seat in this court, and to those is now added, with new lustre to the galaxy, the name of Chase. Posterity will know of him through his public services, but we, his associates and friends, know and can appreciate as well his private virtues. All the influences of his example were for good, and he was above reproach in his relations to society. His physical proportions were in harmony with his high intellectual qualities. He was dignified and grace- ful in his deportment, and especially kind and courteous to members of the bar. His writings are remarkable for their clearness and force, and all who knew him know how instructive and charming he was in conversation. Physically, intellectually and morally he was all that a chief justice ought to be. Impelled by what has been called the infirmity of noble minds, he pursued with untiring zeal his lofty aims, and whatever else may be said of his aspirations, happily no one can say that they marred the excellence or purity of his personal character. Early in life he emigrated from New Hamp- shire, where he was born in 1808, and soon after became a citizen of Ohio, where, unaided by fortune or friends, he commenced his successful public career. Inspired by an ardor that spurned all obstacles, he passed onward and upward until he was exalted to the head of this high tribunal a place that few men can ever attain. Thence he has come down to his grave, crowned with years and many honors. He leaves to his children and his country the record of a life "Rich in the world's opinions and men's praise And full of all we could desire, but davs." 46 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. ADDRESS AT THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REUNION OF THE OREGON PIONEER ASSOCIATION, AT OREGON CITY, JUNE 15, 1885. Mr. President and Members of the Pioneer Associa- tion of Oregon : You have honored me with an appointment to address you upon this occasion, expect- ing, no doubt, that I would contribute something of the early history of Oregon to the recorded reminiscences of your Association. I have been very much perplexed to know what I should say about those who are justly entitled to be called pioneers, without repeating what has been said at your former meetings, in the varied forms of narrative, eloquence and song. To avoid gleaning a barren field, I have concluded to make some remarks upon the political institutions founded by the pioneers, which they have helped to rear, and under which we have grown to be a great and prosperous community. Publicists and philosophers, with great elaboration of argument and diversity of views, have discussed the origin of human government the advantages and dis- advantages of its different forms and the respective duties and obligations of the citizens and the state. Society, for the purpose of these discussions, is resolved into its original elements ; and men are supposed to be in circumstances where they are subject to no laws except the laws of Nature. Hobbes, a celebrated phil- osopher and eminent writer, contends that the primeval state of human beings is a state of war, and that gov- ernment is the result of an agreement among them to THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 4-7 keep the peace. Locke, another distinguished writer, controverts this proposition, and holds that the primitive state of man is a state of equality and liberty, and that government is instituted by the voluntary agreement of individuals to submit themselves to its authority. Our Declaration of Independence affirms that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; and the fact is now generally admitted that the social compact is the founda- tion of all just systems of government. Whatever may be true of savages, the early settlers of this country furnished a practical exemplification of the origin of human government among civilized men. When the vanguard of civilization came to Oregon, it was a most suitable place for the exhibition of man's capacity for self-government. Vast and trackless regions stretched themselves away for thousands of miles toward the east- ern horizon, and on the west the Pacific Ocean spread its boundless waste of waters. Northward, penetrating the citadels of eternal snow, and southward to the reign of perennial summer, was a country whose native wild- ness was only disturbed by traders, trappers and employees belonging to the service of trans-Atlantic nations. All the associations of early life, of kindred and of home, were cut off by a practically impassable barrier. All the encouraging and restraining influences of educational, religious and social institutions died out upon the confines of the distant plains, or lingered only in the recesses of a loving memory. Surrounded, excluded and isolated in this way, Oregon, with its 48 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. mountain solitudes, its unshorn meadows, and its deep and solemn woods, seemed to be fitted up by Almighty Wisdom for the implantation of those elementary prin- ciples which form the basis of a just and free govern- ment. Coming, as they did, from the different states of the Union, each settler naturally brought with him the prejudices and predilections of the locality from which he emigrated, and therefore there were many possibili- ties of conflict and contention in their thoughts and actions. Various motives have been assigned to the pioneers of Oregon for their action in organizing a provisional gov- ernment, but it is altogether probable that different per- sons were actuated by different motives. Some may have thought that a government would be necessary in case of a war between the United States and Great Britain, or a war between the settlers and the Indian tribes : others may have thought a government neces- sary to protect their rights of person and of property from the aggressions of other individuals : but, what- ever their motives may have been, they were sufficient to lead the people to the creation of a civil community. Primarily, in the inception of this movement, there must have been a meeting of two or more minds. Indi- viduals must have agreed to come together for the pur- pose of interchanging views and consulting with each other as to their future action. This is the germ of the social compact. To assemble is an easier thing than to agree upon the resolves of the assembly. Personal ambi- tion obtruded itself upon the pioneers at the very thres- hold of the discussion as to the establishment of a civil polity. To organize a government implies the investi- ture of some individual or individuals with extraordinary THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 4-9 distinction and power ; and human nature is so con- stituted that it is not probable that any government was ever attempted upon earth without difficulties grow- ing out of rival aspirations for the offices of the govern- ment. Many times in the history of mankind, these differences have been settled by an appeal to arms, and some individual more able and daring than others has been chosen by the wager of battle to be the chief of a tribe the lawgiver of a people or the ruler of a coun- try. Every association of men in church or state, to be permanent and effective, must designate some one or more persons to execute its will ; and the selection of one of a number by his associates implies confidence in his wisdom and integrity, and is therefore justly regarded as a token of eminence and honor. When the little band of state-builders first came together in 1843 to initiate a political organization, none of them wanted to be a Moses, a Caesar, or a Cromwell, but more than one of them wanted to be the governor of the pro- posed community ; and for this reason, with others of less moment, their first attempt was a failure. Subse- quently, however, and presumably to secure harmony in their proceedings, an executive committee of three was appointed. Theoretically, and under ordinary cir- cumstances, this was an unwise arrangement ; but as a temporary expedient it may be regarded as the exer- cise of good judgment. All governments must be organized in a spirit of compromise. Unity of action can only be accomplished by mutual concessions. Anarchy is the necessary result of a stubborn adherence to individual views and interests. Devotion to what is called principle in matters of state is gene-rally praiseworthy, but sometimes it may become but 50 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. little more than a display of extreme obstinacy. He is a statesman who knows when to yield and when to stand firm. Law is indispensable to the existence of all organic bodies in nature and among men, and therefore it was necessary to have a law-making as well as a law-execut- ing power in the new community. Simple as the cere- mony seems to be, it is a sublime spectacle to see men voluntarily take upon themselves obligations and restraints, with an agreement that whoever disregards these self-imposed duties shall suffer punishment, even unto death, if the circumstances of the case so require. Nine persons were appointed to make laws, and this lit- tle parliament laid the foundation-stones of a political edifice within whose strong and symmetrical walls count- less generations shall enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Notwithstanding society is the result of an agreement among its members, individual contentions are inevit- able, and the existence of a disinterested tribunal for their settlement becomes a public necessity. Accord- ingly, a judicial system was devised, consisting of a supreme judge and two justices of the peace, whose decisions as to the suitors in their courts, though perhaps not so learned, were as binding as those of a Mansfield or a Marshall. To separate the executive, legislative and judicial departments of a government, and make them independent of each other, is one of the great safeguards of freedom and justice. Despotism is essentially the unification of all these departments in the hands of one man. No credit is due the Oregon pioneers for any dis- covery in this matter, but they are entitled to com- mendation for adhering to safe precedents, when it was THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 51 so easy and natural, with but few people to control, for one person or one official to absorb an undue proportion of governmental authority. Plato says that "nothing great is easy," and it is no easy task, under any cir- cumstances, to construct the framework of a good gov- ernment ; and the persons of whom I amlspeaking found many obstacles to overcome in this work. Religious differences, prejudices of nationality, andlpersonal likes and dislikes, were potent antagonisms to harmony of action ; but their good sense, self-control and charity were equal to the emergency, and crowned their labors with complete success. Underlying every form of government, there are cer- tain fundamental principles which are* as necessary to its character and vitality as living fountains are to the rivers that run into and replenish the sea. Emperors, kings, princes and potentates rule by hereditary-, or, as they impiously claim, by divine right, and without any personal or direct responsibility to the subjects ; cabi- net ministers, counsellors and courtiers may err, but the king can do no wrong. There is a high wall and a deep ditch between the rulers and the ruled. Power is lodged in privileged classes. Birth and not merit is the badge of distinction. These conditions are essential to the existence of a monarchy or an oligarchy, but the con- ditions of a democracy or a republic are of a different nature and tendency. " Provisional " was the name applied to the pioneer government to signify that it didjnot sustain those rela- tions to the general government which were applicable to the organized localities in the Union ; but it was not expected that the principles established or rights acquired under thegovernment]would be disturbed by any Federal 52 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. or other authority. States, schools of doctrine and sys- tems of religion must stand or fall according to the principles upon which they are founded. Our Saviour illustrates this idea by the parable which represents the foolish man as building his house upon the sand, and when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat, upon that house, it fell ; but when the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon that house that the wise man had built, it fell not, because it was founded upon a rock. Builders in wood and stone lay their founda- tions deep and strong, and the builders of our state com- menced their work upon the enduring principles of equality and justice, as the following brief abstract of their resolutions will show. They resolved that no person should be disturbed on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments ; that the inhabitants of the country should always have the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus and the right of trial by jury ; that they should have the right of just representation in the legislature and of judicial proceed- ings according to the course of the common law ; that no man should be deprived of his liberty but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land ; that no man's property or services should be taken for public use without just compensation therefor ; that private contracts should be sacred, and schools and the means of education encouraged, with freedom of discussion and freedom of the press ; that slavery or involuntary serv- itude should not exist ; and that good faith should be observed toward the Indian tribes. I feel safe in saying that a government established and administered upon these principles, with their legitimate amplifications, would be the perfection of THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 53 human government. All the institutions of man are imperfect, and the best of governments is a compara- tive evil made necessary by the weakness and wicked- ness of mankind. No problem has been presented to the political world more difficult of solution than the determination of the proper relations of a government to the religion of a people. Statesmen, scholars and churchmen, from the days of Constantine, have discussed this question, some contending that it was the right and duty of the state to take charge of the religion as well as of the educacion and morals of the people others holding that it is the right of every person to choose for himself his own belief upon such matters, without any interference by the state ; and this discussion in many instances has been carried to the field of battle. Assuming that the religi- ous interests of the people are of more importance than any other, which is the Christian doctrine, there is force in the argument that the state ought to provide for such interests ; but experience shows that a state religion is apt to become the passive tool of selfish and ambitious prelates and politicians. Political power in the hands of religious bigotry is dangerous to human liberty. Religious convictions seem to be of such an absorbing power that when church and state are united, magis- trates who ought to be impartial, frenzied by their zeal, make decrees of intolerance and kindle the fires of persecution. Citizens of a state may be forced by law to an outward conformity with a prescribed religion, but the state cannot by compulsion destroy the belief of the human mind, or change the convictions of an honest conscience. When the pioneers came to Oregon, they found no church establishment to which thcv were 54 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. compelled to submit, nor any dogmatic creed which they were forced to acknowledge ; but they found a temple prepared by an Almighty Architect, whose rituals were as pure as its eternal snows and as free as its varying winds, and this temple they dedicated forever to freedom of conscience. And when they are gone, it can be said of them with more of truth than it was of the pilgrim fathers : "They have left unstained what there they found Freedom to worship God." One of the great bulwarks of human liberty is the writ of habeas corpus. History affords abundant proof of this fact. There is a multitude of ways in which one may be deprived of his liberty. People of all countries are liable to arrest and imprisonment by the edicts of arbitrary power, the violence of popular passion, or the machinations of wicked men ; and to the end that such persons may not be condemned or punished without a hearing before an impartial tribunal, the writ of habeas corpus was brought into existence. Once it was the practice in all countries, and so it is now in some, as in Russia, for example, for the pub- lic authorities to seize a citizen and hurry him away to a dungeon or into exile without any hearing, and without his knowing who his accuser was or of what he was accused. Some spy or detective reports what he con- considers an act of disloyalty or delinquency to the government, and upon this secret representation the suspect is thrown into prison or banished from his country. Where the writ of habeas corpus obtains, the bastiles of France and the towers of London can never come to serve the purposes of despotic power. No matter how humble and obscure the petitioner may be, THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 55 the court is bound to inquire into his case and determine whether or not he is lawfully restrained of his liberty. Cognate to this high privilege of the citizen is the right of trial by jury. The necessity and value of the jury system has been the subject of much discussion of late years, and there are many good reasons for dispensing with a jury in civil cases, involving alone the right of property ; but when the life or liberty of the citizen is involved, its utility ought not to be questioned. Whether an act is criminal or not, depends, in very many instances, upon the motive with which it is committed. Men of practical experience in life can judge of this matter as well as judges learned in the law, if no better. Sometimes, when the law, by its strictness and rigidity, bears hard upon one who is technically but not morally guilty of crime, the sympathies of the jury for the accused may subserve the ends of justice ; and again, the good common sense of a jury comes into play where guilt seeks to screen itself from deserved punishment through the technicalities of the law. When a man charged with crime is tried by his peers, there is not only a recognition of equality of right under the law, but the jurors, in the spirit of the golden rule, are expected to do unto the accused as they would have him do unto them, if their circumstances were reversed. Criminal prosecutions are conducted by the state, and it frequently happens that the zeal of its officers oversteps the bounds of right and duty ; but injustice in such cases is prevented when the empaneled citizenhood of the country holds the scales of justice with a steady hand, and interposes its deliberate will between the weakness of the individual and the power and influence of the government. No man shall be deprived of his liberty 56 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. except by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land, is a declaration that sounds the death knell to tyranny, but rings in tones of silvery sweetness to the ears of freedom. When the pioneers declared for the right of just rep- resentation, they recognized the vital principle of repub- lican institutions. Despotism, which is the absolute subjection of a country to the capricious will of a single individual, is unbearable ; and democracy, which is the absolute and direct sway of the people, is impracticable : but republicanism is the golden mean between these two, and is intended to unite the vigor and efficacy of the one with the safety and justice of the other. Every citizen under a republican system has indirectly a voice in making the laws by which he is governed, and also a voice in choosing those who shall interpret and execute those laws. Man's capacity for self-government is the basis of this system ; and if this fails, the whole super- structure falls to the ground. Some deep thinkers have expressed doubts upon this subject ; but the tendency of enlightened thought everywhere is to the supremacy of this theory. Civilization and education, however, are indispensa- ble to its ascendency and perpetuity, and therefore the pioneers resolved to encourage schools and the means of education. Intellectual cultivation, or the mere acquisi- tion of knowledge, is not the most essential part of the education which fits men for self-government. Scrip- ture tells us that "he who ruleth his spirit is better than he who taketh a city ;" and in so far as individuals control themselves, they can with safety control the gov- ernment. Knowledge is power ; but power without moral restraint is "like as a lion that is greedy of THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 57 his prey." To cultivate clear perceptions of right and wrong, a high sense of personal honor, a due regard for the rights of others, and an unfaltering loyalty to law and good order, are the saving qualities of a freeman's education. Republican institutions are not in danger from pioneers who subdued the wilderness, or their descendants who beautify the lands with fields of grain, and orchards and gardens ; but the disorders of the old world bring to the surface a scum of population which, drifting away to these shores, are a constant menace to our domestic tranquillity. Our welcome to the indus- trious and law-abiding is not inconsistent with a vigor- ous repression of this disturbing element. Republican- ism is liberty regulated by law, and is as much opposed to that licentiousness which some mistake for liberty, as it is to despotism which some mistake for a conservative organism. The right of representation is the right preservative of all political rights. We are told that when the righteous are in authorty the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn ; and whether the wicked or the righteous shall rule is for the people to say, under a representative government. They can have a patriotic, wise and honest administration of pub- lic affairs, or otherwise, as they choose. They can lift their country's standard to the mountain tops of great- ness and glory, or lower it into the dark valleys of shame and dishonor. Society cannot exist as an organized body unless the rights of property are respected ; and therefore the pio- neers resolved that private property should not be- taken for public use without just compensation therefor, that no law should be passed to impair the obligation of 58 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. contracts, and that the people should be entitled to judicial proceedings according to the course of the com- mon law. Personal liberty is carefully guarded by the resolves before referred to, and these provisions are intended to guard with equal solicitude the rights of private property. Lands, goods and contracts are alike property, and alike are to be protected from the aggres- sions of the government and the invasion of individu- als. All men have instinctive convictions of their rights to possess and enjoy that which they acquire by their own labor and skill, and this right is recognized among savages as well as among civilized people. Many communistic theories have been proposed, the most notable of which are Plato's Republic and Sir Thomas More's Utopia, arid many efforts have been made to reduce these theories to practice ; but the experi- ments in all cases have proved to be wretched failures. Social institutions, as a general rule, are not made, but grow ; and anything like the right of private property which originated in prehistoric times, and has been per- petuated in all ages and in all countries, must grow out of the natural wants and necessities of mankind. Con- sequent upon this right is an unequal, and what appears to be an unjust distribution of property. Some are immensely rich and others miserably poor, and with this state of things many are greatly dissatisfied ; but though it may be modified, it is one of those inherent conditions of human life which cannot be prevented. Any effort to make and maintain an equality of condi- tions between industry and idleness, energy and sloth, wisdom and folly, would be as impotent as an attempt to change- the equinoxes, or control the tides of the ocean. There can be no peace in a community where THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 59 private property is not protected. Laws may be created to control monopolies, corporations, and accumulated wealth ; but it is a law implanted in human nature, which no legislation can overcome, that every man has a right to enjoy the fruits of his own labor. Society would stagnate and sink into a state of dead uniformity if the incentive to action which the acquisition of property affords was removed. Associated with this right is the institution of the family ; a laudable desire to have a permanent home, an ambition to be independent, and a feeling of devotion to country. Among the things inducing an emigration to Oregon in an early day, was the expectation that each pioneer would become the proprietor of a piece of land, upon which he could set up his household gods, and live in peace and contentment. To multiply the landholders in any country is to promote the strength and purity of society and the stability of government. Laws were passed by common consent to confirm and protect the rights of settlers to their possessions ; and under these laws the wild prairies and the dark woods have been converted into beautiful farms, and the homes of Ore- gon stand 14 By thousands on her plains ; They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks And round the hauilet fanes : Through glowing orchards forth they peep, Each from its nook of leaves, And fearless there the lowly sleep As the birds beneath their eaves." The pioneers resolved in favor of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. They doubtless intended by this that no man should be con- demned without a hearing, and that parties to judicial 60 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. proceedings should have their day in court, with a right of trial by witnesses before a fair and impartial tribunal ; but in this matter it is probable that "they builded better than they knew." We hear much of the uncer- tainty of the law, and its administration is not always free from just criticism ; but as a scheme for ascertain- ing, determining and vindicating the rights of persons and of property, the common law system is the best that has been devised, and I think it is safe to say can be devised by human wisdom. Theoretically, this system proceeds upon the idea that where there is a wrong there is a remedy ; or in other words, when one man injures another in 'his person, reputation or estate, the law will compel the wrong-doer, as far as practicable, to make reparation. Millions of people inhabit the earth, and yet it is difficult, if not impossible, to find two human faces exactly alike ; and so the infinitude of cases that arise, to which this doctrine is to be applied, vary more or less in their details and circumstances. The glory of the common law is its adaptability to these cases. It is as perfect a combination of certainty and elasticity as can be made. It struggles to maintain a rule once estab- lished, but yields to modification under imperative cir- cumstances ; and when the reason for the rule fails, it refuses longer to recognize the rule. Common law is the logic of man's necessities verified by experience. Arguments borrowed from the civil and ecclesiastical law, customs whose value has been tested by immemorial use, traditions that have stood the test of time, treatises by men of great and varied learning, and the decisions of innumerable judges, have contribu- ted to the wisdom and justice of those rules which are THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 61 administered in judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. Our code and statutory enactments, for the most part, are declaratory of rules resulting from the processes of the common law. Tak- ing into consideration its comprehensiveness, its adapt- ability to human affairs, and its certainty, so far as the fallible judgments of men can make it so, the pioneers established for themselves and their posterity a system of jurisprudence kindred to that more universal law " whose seat is in the bosom of God and whose voice is the harmony of the world." While both of the political parties in the East were bowing their heads to the power of the slave-holding states, the pioneers of 1844 boldly declared that human slavery should not exist in Oregon, and that good faith should be observed toward the Indian tribes. They sacrificed their race prejudices upon the altar of liberty and justice. I believe there has been a universal acqui- escence in all of the conditions of the compact made by the early settlers here for their government, except that determined efforts have been made to resist and over- throw the inhibition upon slavery. Among the first cases I was called upon to decide when I came to Ore- gon in 1853, was an application by a colored family in Polk county to be liberated upon habeas corpus from their Missouri owner, who had brought and held them here as slaves. They were held upon the claim that the Constitution of the United States protected slave prop- erty in the territories ; but it was my judgment that the law made by the pioneers upon the subject was not inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution and was the law of the land, and the petitioners were set free ; and, so far as I know, this was the last attempt at 62 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. slave-holding in Oregon. When the state government was formed, strenuous efforts were put forth to make Oregon a slave state ; but, inspired by the example and sentiments of the early pioneers, we decided to go into the Union as a free state " With freedom's soil beneath our feet And freedom's banner streaming o'er us." L,ooking at the organic resolutions of the pioneers as an entirety, it is evident that liberty and justice were the beacon lights of their policy. All their sur- roundings were favorable to an expansion and liberality of thought and action. Immensity, diversity and beauty were the characteristic features of the country. Mountains, rivers and woods were of vast proportions. There was a lofty grandeur in the scenery. The una- dulterated breath of heaven sweetened the face of the earth, and all the forms and forces of nature were full of freshness, life and vigor. There was no pressure of population ; no crowded cities, towns or thoroughfares ; none of the strife, tumult and rush of commercial life : everything was new, free and unconstrained. Natur- ally enough, the civil polity adopted by the pioneers would be in consonance with these circumstances. On the 14th day of August, 1848, Congress created for Oregon a territorial government ; but the organic act expressly provided that all the laws of the pro- visional government, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, should remain in force : so that while the government was changed in form, it was not changed as to the principles of its administration. Slowly, but stead- ily, the population of the territory increased. Every year brought additional immigrants, and the sons and THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 63 daughters of the pioneers were entering upon the stage of active life. There is a curious similarity between individual and state development. Boyhood, when it begins to appreciate its growth, begins to be ambitious to throw off parental domination and exercisC'the privi- leges of a full grown man ; and so, here, not long after the territory was organized, a restlessness under federal restraints soon ripened into a desire to make Oregon an independent state of the Union. On the third Monday of August, 1857, a convention of sixty delegates, chosen from the different counties of the territory, assembled at Salem to form a state constitution. Many of the delegates were pioneers. Some of them had helped to organize and a majority of them had lived under the provisional government. All of the princi- ples upon which that government was founded were incorporated into the constitution then made, and no doubt will stand as long as the state continues to exist. Most of the pioneers were in favor of a simple, unosten- tatious and inexpensive government ; and their views prevailed. Considerable effort has been made of late to disparage the work of that convention, and a proposition has been made in the legislature to call a new convention to frame another constitution ; but, while it may be admitted that the present constitution has its defects, it may be doubted, taken as a whole, whether any other state has a better one. I have always thought that the salaries fixed by the constitution were too low ; but, notwith- standing this, its workings, in the aggregate, have been to the great advantage of the state. Chief among its salutary provisions are the restrictions which it places upon public indebtedness. Experience shows that 64 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. municipal corporations have a fatal tendency to plunge into debt. Corporations of various kinds, and especially transportation companies, fill the ears of the people with syren songs of wealth and prosperity ; but when rude and inevitable reality breaks the spell, they find them- selves bound hand and foot, at the mercy of their charmers. Thousands of millions of indebtedness have been piled up in this way upon states, counties, cities and towns of the United States. To pay the principal and interest of these debts makes taxation unbearable, and the courts are overwhelmed with the litigious efforts of the people to repudiate these obligations ; and some municipalities have resorted to the desperate expedient of dissolving their local govern- ments to avoid the demands of corporation creditors. Our constitution prohibits a state indebtedness exceed- ing $50,000, and declares that no county shall incur a debt exceeding $5,000 ; and without these provisions, for which we are greatly indebted to the influence of the pioneers in the convention, there is little doubt that Oregon to-day would be floundering in an unfathomed sea of insolvency. Neither the state, nor any county, city or town is allowed to be a stockholder in any private corporation ; and this divorcement of the government from stock- jobbing interests is greatly conducive to purity in public affairs. State banking institutions are prohibited ; in consequence of which we have not been victimized, like the people of many other states, by irredeemable paper currency issued by irresponsible speculators upon public credulity. Taken altogether, the constitution of this state is adequate to all the purposes of good govern- ment ; and if it is administered in the spirit in which it THE PIONEERS OK OREGON. 65 was made, public justice and prosperity will be promoted and preserved. I do not claim, of course, for the pio- neers of Oregon, that they invented any new theories of government. I only say that in its formation they adopted correct principles. Washington did not invent morality ; but he is none the less entitled to credit for his exemplary life. Jeffer- son and his compatriots made no new discovery when they established free institutions. Grant did not invent the art of war ; but he used what he had learned effec- tively for the Union cause : and so the pioneers, with practical good sense, distinguished the true principles of government, and applied them to the exigencies ot their country. Responsive to reflections upon this subject, the electric chords of memory bring to our view many of the inter- esting scenes of the early immigration to and settlement of Oregon. We look through the misty shroud of departed years and see the ancestral homes, with fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers around the family fireside ; and there is talk of a land of fertility and beauty, far away on the sunset side of the continent. Young people starting in life are apt to be sanguine and romantic, and no sooner is a settlement in this distant country sug- gested than there is an earnest opposition : the difficul- ties and dangers of the way are pointed out ; fathers remonstrate and mothers plead ; and the thought is made prominent that the ties of affection, thus severed, will never be reunited upon earth. Preparations, however, are made ; teams and provisions are procured ; and when the hour of departure arrives, there are tender words, and tears, and farewells : and the long journey is commenced from which not a few of the 66 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. hopeful and high-hearted are never to return. We can look back and see, in the dim distance, the slowly moving train ; the wagons with their once white, but now dingy covers ; the patient oxen, measuring their weary steps ; men travel-stained and bronzed by expo- sure ; women with mingled hope and care depicted upon their anxious faces ; and children peering from their uneasy abodes, and wondering when their discom- forts will cease. These are pioneers on their way to the promised land. Moons wax and wane, again and again ; but day after day the toilsome march is resumed. Sometimes there are Indian scares and depredations ; unbridged streams are encountered ; rugged ascents and steep declivities occur ; teams give out and wagons break down: but finally, through "moving accidents by flood and field," and when the year has glided into the gold and russet of autumn, they reach the long-looked- for end of their journey. To some, all this did not happen ; to others, more than this happened. And there were those who looked back with sad hearts, and remem- bered where they had left the wild winds to chant their funeral requiem over a lonely and deserted grave. When the pioneers arrived here, they found a land of marvelous beauty. They found extended prairies, rich with luxuriant verdure. They found grand and gloomy forests, majestic rivers, and mountains covered with eter- nal snow ; but they found no friends to greet them, no homes to go to, nothing but the genial heavens and the generous earth to give them consolation and hope. I cannot tell how they lived ; with what tools and materi- als they built their houses ; where they procured their plows and farming utensils ; who furnished them with seed in the spring, or helped in the harvests ; or how, in THE PIONEERS OF OREGON. 67 their isolated condition, they supplied the numerous wants of family life. All these things are mysteries to everybody, excepting to those who can give their solu- tion from actual experience. When I came to Oregon, most of the pioneers were living in comparative comfort and prosperity. They had lands and herds and horses, and were rapidly subjecting the native exuberance of the soil to the productions of civilized life. I have enjoyed the personal friendship and confidence of these people. I have summered and wintered with them, and have been permitted to share their generous hospitalities. Much of this comes back to me now, like the dying echoes of distant melodies. I have been in close rela- tions with the highest dignitaries of state ; I have been much among those whose social gatherings glit- tered with gold and diamonds and gay equipages ; I have sat at sumptuous entertainments in palatial man- sions, where wine and music and flowers enlivened and beautified the scene : but deeper and dearer than the recollection of these are the memories of those number- less times, when, weary with travel and chilled by inclement weather, I have been welcomed to the warm fireside and substantial comforts of a pioneer's home. There is a great mistake extant upon this subject. Many people imagine that the powerful and rich, those who occupy the high places of earth, are to be envied for their happiness ; but the fact is, that ambitions, jeal- ousies, rivalries, and the envenomed tongue of slander, poison these apparent pleasures ; and those who know from experience can testify that " ' Tis better to be lowly borti And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perkeORTLAND EXPOSITION. ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF THE EXPOSITION BUILDING, DELIV- ERED IN PORTLAND, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 27, 189O. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : We are told in holy writ, that when man was created, he was digni- fied by his Creator with a commission to multiply and replenish, and subdue the earth, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. History is a record of the manner in which this divine commission has been executed. Power and dominion are the sceptre and crown of man's greatness. Can we imagine what the earth would be if this power and dominion had never existed ? Can we comprehend all that has been accomplished in the exercise of this power and dominion? Looking back over the ages, we are struck by the impressive fact that man has been grow- ing into a larger comprehension of his power and destiny as the God-ordained ruler of the earth. We are not the worms of the dust we are sometimes represented to be ; but we are the vice-regents of the Almighty, and we shall never know ourselves until we come into a full consciousness of our dignity and divine relations. Our royal birthright is to have dominion over and subdue the earth. We are qualified and equipped by our Heavenly Father for this exalted office, and the highest of human attainments is to know and realize this fact. Unsubdued by man, the wilderness, the waste place and the desert despoil the bosom of the earth. 94 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Human wisdom and skill have already won great vic- tories, and the future is pregnant with still greater victories over- these impediments to man's dominion. Think of the different kinds of cereals that the husband- man gathers from the golden fields of the harvest. Think of the great variety of vegetables that are seen in the market-places of the world. Think of the different sorts of fruit suited to every taste, and the infinite variety of flowers that delight our senses with their fragrance and beauty. All these, if not discovered, were developed by human skill and industry ; and all contribute to the support, comfort and happiness of the human family. No limit has been found to the diversity and improvement of these productions, and for aught that appears they may go on in endless progression. Man's dominion is not confined to manipulations of the soil, but the structural formations of the earth are subject to his will. Mountains are torn down or tun- neled ; rocks are demolished and removed by explosive inventions. Rivers are bridged or turned into new channels, and the mighty ocean is compelled to carry the burdens of human trade and commerce. More than in anything else, the dominion of man is displayed in subjugating Nature's forces to his con- trol. Water flows gently from its crystal fountains ; it murmurs softly in its brooks ; it rolls silently in its rivers, and sleeps majestically in its oceans : but man has discovered and developed the tremendous expansibility of its nature. Steam appears at the bidding of its master, like the fabled genie from the mist, a giant worker needing no sleep or rest. It turns the wheels of the thousand mills and factories with its imprisoned breath. In its harness of iron it draws innumerable THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 95 trains of passengers and freight, and by its saving of time and conquest of distance it has revolutionized the commercial facilities of the world. The winds and the waves of the sea are its playthings. Steadily and stub- bornly it propels the great ships through storm and calm, bringing lands otherwise foreign into family relations. Pre-eminently is man's dominion exemplified in the. use of electricity. To capture and control this subtle and invisible agency is the most wonderful achievement of human wisdom and skill. One hundred and fifty years ago, lightning was looked upon as a wrathful expression of Divine Providence ; but in 1736, Benjamin Franklin made it known that this fiery mes- senger of thunder among the clouds could be subjected to the will of man. Now it is found everywhere, and used for almost ever}' purpose. It rides upon the storm, and reposes in the bowels of the earth. It shivers the sturdy oak with its bolts, and gently quickens the sick man's pulse. It is an invisible locomotive of unlimited power. It moves with noiseless force the engines of great machines. It transmits messages with the light- ning's speed. It is self-inflammable, burns without fuel, and emits a light of incomparable brilliancy. Wherever other means of illumination do not exist, wherever other kinds of fuel cannot be found, wherever other mechan- ical motors cannot be applied, electricity is always at hand with an inexhaustible supply of light, heat and power. Considering these things, who can put limits to human progress? who can prescribe bounds to man's dominion ? To think of the advancement in knowledge and power, within a comparatively late period, startles the mind with the possibilities of the future. Prior to the fifteenth century, there was not a printing press, 96 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILUAMS. prior to 1802, there was not a steamboat, prior to 1825, there was not a railroad, and prior to 1835 there was not an electric wire, in the world. Most of the machines to save time and labor, with power to do almost every- thing, except to think and talk, are of recent invention. Modern times are particularly distinguished by the exaltation of man's dominion from the visible into the invisible world. Here is a region in which human thought may soar and spread its wings with unrestrained freedom. Here are mountains of discovery inviting to loftier flights the researches of star-eyed science. Higher than all these is that mysterious realm in which the faith of man expands into the inspiration of God. Here are revelations of wisdom and power to be made not dreamed of in our philosophies. Comprehensively viewed, it is evident that the world is better now than it ever was, and that mankind is grow- ing wiser and better ' ' with the process of the suns. ' ' Opinions to the contrary are entertained, largely due, no doubt, to the wide-spread publicity given to sensa- tional events by the news journals of our day. To Him in whose hands this improvement is, a thousand years are as one day. Generations of men may come and go with hardly any perceptible growth in their intellectual or moral power ; but one step in a cycle of ages is no encroachment upon an infinitude of time. All growth in the material world is imperceptible, except as to results ; and the analogy holds good in the intellectual and moral world. Human advancement is like the increment of the ocean, in which every drop of water produces an effect. Some individuals acquire an eminence from which, by their example and influence, they enlighten and THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 97 exalt others, and some are sordid and grovelling in their lives ; but the aggregate result is good, for light is stronger than darkness, and goodness more enduring than evil. Reciprocity of influence is the law of social life. Thought is power. Conjoined, the thoughts of a few strong-minded persons may excite a mob, repress a despotism, or revolutionize a country. Educational institutions are largely founded upon the idea that what one man has said or done will influence the thoughts and actions of other men. We have inheri- ted from our progenitors the discoveries and inventions which they made, and our descendants will inherit from us what we have added to these discoveries and inven- tions ; and this accumulation of knowledge must be productive of beneficial results. All our surroundings are educational in their influ- ence. While it is true that "evil communications corrupt good manners," it is also true that good communications create and preserve good manners. Schools with books, and churches with Bibles, from time immemorial, have been employed to develop the intellectual and moral faculties of mankind ; but lat- terly new and additional methods have been adopted with great success. I refer particularly to kindergartens for little children, and industrial expositions for children of a larger growth. Playthings are made educational in the kindergarten. The first impulse of infancy is to see a thing : the next is to touch, and then, if possible, to take it apart and try to put it together again. The little girl wants to dress and undress her doll, and is curious as to the construction of its body ; and the little boy is fond of investigating things with a hammer, and finding out the secrets of their mechanism. 98 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. To make these natural inclinations conduce to the improvement as well as the pleasure of the little ones, is the theory of teaching in the kindergarten. Things in these infant schools are used to cultivate the senses of sight, sound and touch, and those faculties which delight in the object lessons of nature and art. Public expositions of the collected productions of human industry and skill are of a kindred nature, and are schools of universal study. They bring out the learning of books into practical and useful forms. They diffuse knowledge, and spread their edifying influences to all countries and to all classes of people. Prance inaugu- rated the system of international expositions in 1798, and very soon other nations followed her example. In 1851 a world's exhibition was held in London with great success ; and since then such exhibitions have been held in Paris in 1855, again in London in 1862, again in Paris in 1867, in Vienna in 1878, and in 1876 the Centennial of the United States. Another such exposition is now open in Paris, and great preparations are being made for another in the United States in 1892. To estimate the benign influence of these meetings ol the nations is an impossibility. They are as shadows cast before that ideal time pictured by the poet, "When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furled In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." Differences of political institutions, differences of religious systems, and differences of latitude, are apt to make different countries jealous and unfriendly to each other ; but these international convocations are calculated to break down the partitions of ignorance and prejudice, THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 99 and create good feeling and concord in their place. Asiatics, Europeans and Americans meet upon common ground. The tendency is to make the good of each common to all. Taken as a rule, the people of other races are less enlightened than we are, but not as bad as they are frequently represented to be. Human nature is substantially the same everywhere, and the differences among men are mainly due to the adventitious circumstances of birth and education. No matter how debased the 'Asiatic or African may be, all have intellectual and moral faculties ; and individual instances of improvement show that, with adequate means and opportunities, all can be raised to the stand- ard of Christian civilization. To this end, these inter- national exhibitions are of inestimable value. One nation is made acquainted with the useful and beautiful of another nation. One country shows its supremacy in agricultural implements and pursuits, another in man- ufactures, and another in art ; and all are raised by a generous spirit of emulation to a higher degree of human advancement. Heaven may have ordained these as one of the evangels of "peace on earth and good will to men." Similar in their influences are state and inter-state expositions in our country. We are to-day opening one of these ; and our first duty is to acknowledge our grati- tude to God for the auspicious circumstances under which we are permitted to assemble. Peace reigns everywhere with a gentle and gracious hand, and the " fiery wheels of discord " are the chained captives of her sway. Plenty has poured into our laps the garnered treasures of her golden fields, and the young autumn conies to us laden with the fruitage of a 100 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. glorious summer. Health fulness disports itself in our valleys, mingling the mountain breeze with the ocean's breath, and rejoicing in the vigor of our men and the wholesome comeliness of our maidens. Nature spreads around us her unequaled charms, and fills our vision with every variety of beauty, from the snow-capped mountain touching the clouds to the dainty flower that glistens in the dew of the morning. Lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean is a vast region to whose future greatness there is every reason to expect no parallel can be found in the chronicles of Time, greatness, not in war, but great- ness in peace. Here can be found all the beauties of classic Greece, all the softness and brilliancy of Italian skies, all the fertility of sunny France, and all the grandeur of Alpine scenery. Taking into the account our mild and healthful climate, our soil of varied rich- ness, our beautiful and inspiring surroundings, there is no reason why the people of this coast should not attain the highest pinnacle of material prosperity. We have to-day the evidence of our past progress, and the pro- phetic assurances of our future advancement. Many of us can recall the time when the wilderness encompassed the place where this magnificent structure stands, when the moaning of the lonely winds among the trees, and the murmur of the modest rivulet in the vale, were the only sounds invading the solitude. Now, everything is so different that the change seems like the transfor- mation of a dream. Sixty thousand people are dwel- ling within an hour's journey of this edifice ; the activi- ties of a great city are throbbing around its walls ; the streets are filled with the rush, the rattle and the roar of commerce and .traffic ; and numerous churches, THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. loi schools and beautiful homes bear witness to the intelli- gence, morality and refinement of the people. Inspired by the progressive spirit of the age, our citizens have erected this great building, at a cost of $150,000, for the public exposition of the industries of the North Pacific Coast. This is a theatre in which labor plays all the parts. Agriculture, from whose inexhaustible stores all other industries derive their sustenance and support, appears with her wonderful inventions for the cultivation of the soil and the varied productions of her intelligent hus- bandry. Manufacturers are here, with their multiform machinery, to show how iron and wood may be made to work with skill and power for the wants and comforts of mankind. Art brings its treasures of genius and taste, to show that the love of the beautiful is among the highest and best of human aspirations. And, to crown all, these dazzling lights and gorgeous decora- tions, this grand and inspiring music, this bewildering display of exhibits, make a scene of surpassing magnifi- cence, splendor and beauty. Faith and Hope are the presiding divinities of this occasion. In their names we dedicate this building to the useful and beautiful in all the departments of human labor and skill, and our invocation for the future is : " Oh, make Thou us. through centuries long, In peace secure and justice strong ; And, cast in some diviner mould, Let the new cycle shame the old." 102 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. GEN. W. T. SHERMAN. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED IN PORTLAND, OREGON, FEBRUARY 23, 1891. Early in the year 1865, two hundred thousand war- worn veterans of the Union army, with bands of music and flying banners, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and at the head of one division of that magnificent procession rode General W. T. Sherman. Rejoicing mul- titudes greeted him with every demonstration of grati- tude and praise. My first meeting with the great warrior was upon that memorable occasion. Our official and social relations thereafter enabled me to know him well ; and the more I knew of him the better I liked him. I found him to be an amiable and unselfish man, over- flowing with good nature and kindness for everybody. There were no sore places or sour feelings in his composition : all was genial and sunny. I have noticed that not a few of our public men have some grievance : somebody, as they imagine, has slighted, affronted, or wronged them ; and they have resentments to cherish. But nothing of the kind disturbed the serenity and joy fulness of General Sherman's life. Judging from our knowledge of others, we might sup- pose that the decided disapproval and rejection by the authorities of Washington, and especially by Grant, of the terms upon which he accepted the surrender of Johnston, would have left a mortifying sting to rankle in his bosom ; but he made no sign of enmity to any one, on this or any other account. His battles, marches and sieges made him many enemies, whose animosities survived the war ; but with him, when hostilities ceased, GEN. W. T. SHERMAN. 103 all his war feelings came to an end. He was a friend in peace to those to whom he had been an enemy in war. We are familiar with the story of David and Jona- than ; but if their extraordinary friendship was more sentimental, it was not more interesting than the rela- tions of Grant and Sherman. These relations were indeed beautiful. They exalted both men in my esti- mation. Our country, and all countries, from time immemorial, have been cursed with the rivalries and jealousies of great men. Few people know how much these have to do with the turmoils, wars and bad gov- ernments of the world. Grant and Sherman were the two great generals of the war. Circumstances conduced to make them rivals for distinction and the honors of their country. There was ample room and provocation enough for jealousy between them ; but the common cause in which they drew their swords seems to have rounded their lives into an unbroken harmony. I have frequently conversed with each about the other. There were no complaints or fault-findings upon these occa- sions. Grant always spoke kindly of Sherman : Sher- man enjoyed the praises of Grant. It is difficult to com- pare the military capabilities of two men so different in temperament. Sherman was quick, nervous and impulsive ; Grant, thoughtful, deliberate and iinperturb- able. Marching through Georgia suited the dash of Sherman ; the siege of Yieksburg, the deep resolve and unyielding tenacity of Grant. Hoth have written books. Sherman had more snap and sparkle iu his style ; Grant, more terseness, strength, and simplicity. Grant was a man of few words, and no speech-maker : Sherman frequently spoke on public occasions in a fluent and pleasing manner. 104 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Few men have lived in the United States who had an option *upon the office of President ; but General Sher- man could have been nominated, and in all human prob- ability elected, President of the United States, if he had consented to become a candidate for that office. Poli- ticians allured General Grant, contrary to his own judg- ment, to be a candidate for a third term : but when they approached Sherman, he notified them distinctly that he would not take any political office ; and he never changed this resolution. To go over the military record of General Sherman upon this occasion would serve no useful purpose. Our school-boys are familiar with the distinguishing features of that record. His deeds are celebrated in song and story. History has written his name, in letters that time cannot efface, among the great war chieftains of the world. When a great man dies, it is a consolation to friends and country if it can be truthfully said over his grave that he was good as well as great. I can say with confidence that General Sherman was a good man. I mean by that to say that he was patriotic, honest, gen- erous, and pure, as husband, father, soldier, and citizen. No scandal about wine, women, or money tarnished his good name. Twenty-five years ago, the war for the Union ended. Death has been busy with the men of that war ; but Time is erecting a monument to their memories, in states united, that will stand as long as our flag repre- sents the freedom and union of the American people. Our country has folded to its green bosom, and to their earthly rest, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Han- cock, Logan, and many of their compatriots ; but their graves are pilgrim shrines to which future generations will come to commune with the historic dead, and con- secrate themselves to the service of their country. I GEN. W. T. SHERMAN. 105 feel that a great vacancy is caused by the death of Gen- eral Sherman. He had a deep, strong hold upon the hearts of the people, and was the most conspicuous of his living countrymen in the eyes of the world. He represented to the rising generation the battles and vic- tories of a great war, by which slavery was abolished and the Union preserved. When such a man dies, we experience a sense of bereavement, and feel as if we were separated from one who had cared for us with the vigilance and tenderness of a father. One after another, the statesmen and soldiers who stood with Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman are falling around us "like leaves in wintry weather;" and those who still survive are whitened for the harvest whose reaper is Death. Happy are those who, as they fall, can say : "I have fought a good fight : I have finished my course : I have kept the faith." There is no philosophy so profound, and no preacher so eloquent, as an open grave. All temporal things are swallowed up forever in its darkness and silence. On the other side is the unknown, the invis- ible and the everlasting. General Sherman is dead ! Millions of people will utter these words, and then, like the breath out of which they are made, they will be gone. Bells will toll, mili- tary processions move, funeral marches be played, and eulogies pronounced ; and then the human tide will roll on unconcernedly, as though a bubble had burst upon its bosom. "What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue !" Possibly, the dying man and the falling leaf perish alike, and pass into nonentity ; but to the eye of faith a bow of promise spans the darkness and silence of the tomb, with the comforting assurance that " Who in life's battles firm doth stand, Shall hear Hope's tender blossoms into the silent land." 106 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, DELIV- ERED IN PORTLAND, OREGON, JUNE 23, 1891. My Young- Friends : My object in addressing you this evening is to give you some advice of which I hope you may avail yourselves with profit when you go out from this school into the active duties and responsibili- ties of life. To find happiness is the chief pursuit of mankind, and its attainment the chief end of all human aspirations and efforts. Disappointment is the constant companion of this universal desire, and strews the earth with blasted hopes and ruined expectations. One of the most noticeable things in human society is the struggle going on everywhere for something which it is supposed will make its possessor happy, and the almost universal failure and fruitlessness of this struggle. Looking at the subject from an abstract point of view, something appears to be wrong ; for it is reasonable to suppose that the Creator of this general desire for hap- piness has also created a corresponding and adequate capacity and way for its gratification. My opinion is that very much of the unhappiness in the world is unnecessary, and might, with proper effort to that end, be averted. While it is true that every individual is to some extent under the control and influence of his environments, it is also true that these environments are, to a great extent, under the control of the indi- vidual, so far as the enjoyments or sorrows of life are concerned. We can readily see that a large proportion of the misery of the world is due to the wickedness, THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 107 improvidence and folly of those who suffer, and might be prevented ; and that those misfortunes which are inevit- able are made more burdensome and grievous than they need to be. There are two sources of joy and sorrow : one is the external circumstances and surroundings of the individual, and the other is the mental condition or workings of the inner man. To govern and control these so as to produce joy, and avoid sorrow and suffer- ing, is the end to which all of us look, but to which comparatively few of us attain. Assuming that you partake of the universal desire to be happy, the briefest and best prescription that I can give for the consum- mation of your wishes is, to think good thoughts. I take it for granted, in giving this advice, that you can control your thoughts ; although, under some circum- stances, the exercise is attended with great difficulty. You need only to consult your own consciousness to know that, by the mere exercise of your will, you can think of the past, the present, or the future. While you sit in this room, you can think of events that occur- red years ago, or of a distant friend, or of your immedi- ate surroundings ; or you can project your thoughts into the future, and the far-away realms of imagination. All this is very easy, and demonstrates, to a certain extent, the dominion of the will over the thoughts ; but certain physical conditions may impair, and in some cases overcome, this power of the will. When the body is suffering from severe pain, it is exceedingly difficult, and by some thought to be impossible, for the will to produce in the mind an unconsciousness of such pain. Whether the sickness or pain of the body can be neu- tralized by diverting the thoughts to other matters, is a question upon which there is a diversity of opinion ; but 108 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. there can be no doubt that under certain circumstances the sufferings of the body may be increased or dimin- ished by the operations of the mind. Illustrative of this, it is said that certain physicians obtained permis- sion to experiment with a criminal condemned to death, and, after putting him in a dungeon where he could not see, and telling him that he was to suffer death by bleeding, made an incision into his flesh, having arranged that dripping water should fall into a vessel to sound like the flow of blood ; the result of which was, as it is said, that the man actually died from the thought that he was bleeding to death, when, in fact, he was losing little or no blood. To say that the condition of the body is nothing more or less than a material expression of the condition of the mind may not be strictly accurate ; but this I do affirm as absolutely true, that good and happy thoughts are conducive to good health, and evil and unhappy thoughts tend to bodily infirmities. Numerous instances are recorded where persons wasting away under a mel- ancholy state of mind have been restored to health by a change in the character of their thoughts. It is a mat- ter of common observation that mental troubles impair physical strength, and draw to them debility, disease, and sometimes self-destruction. To medicate the mind with cheerful words and exhilarating thoughts, is in many, if not most cases, more effective as a remedy than the medication of the body with drugs. I hold it to be the duty of every physician, whatever his private opin- ion may be, to speak hopeful and encouraging words to his patient, and, if possible, stimulate his recuperative powers with the hope of recovery. Some good people consider it their duty to impress the sick with an idea of THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 109 impending death, so that they may be prepared to die ; but in so doing they are ministering to despair and helping disease to do its deadly work. Common sense teaches us that when a sick person lets go his hold upon life, death has a more easy victory than it would have if it encountered faith, hope and courage in its struggle for the ascendancy. Faith cure, as it is called, may not be all that is claimed for it ; but, beyond question, it has raised multi- tudes from beds of languishing and pain by the power of the mind or spirit over the body. " According to your faith, be it unto you," is a revelation and promise from infinite Wisdom and Power. Faith is the Archi- medean lever that moves the world. Faith convoyed Columbus to the discovery of a western hemisphere. Faith spans oceans with telegraphs and continents with railroads. Faith has founded empires and won great victories. Faith is the inspiration of every great inven- tion and every great enterprise ; and without faith the dead level of animal life would hardly be disturbed. Faith is defined to be " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" which is a summary way of describing life in the world of thought brightened by the promise of hope. Faith in God, faith in man, and faith in the good, the true and the beauti- ful, are elements of exalted and refined pleasures. No mistake is so fatal to our happiness as to neglect the operations of our minds. We do not sufficiently appreciate the influence of our thoughts upon our lives. We depend too much upon our physical sensations. Take care of your thoughts, and your bodies will take care of themselves ; or, to be more accurate, take care of your thoughts, and your thoughts will take care of 110 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. your bodies. To cultivate the intellect by the acquisi- tion of knowledge is an inconsiderable part of such an education as will impart happiness to its possessor. John Bunyan, the poor, illiterate and imprisoned preacher, was a happier man than David Hume, the great, learned and honored historian. True happiness consists in having your minds occupied with good, just and pure thoughts ; and if your minds are filled with such thoughts, your bodily surroundings are of no great consequence. This power of controlling the thoughts, especially under adverse circumstances, is not intuitive ; nor is it easily acquired. lyike other accomplishments of the mind and body, it comes through cultivation and discipline. Our minds, untrained, have a tendency to produce evil thoughts, like the tendency of the untilled earth to produce wild grasses and weeds. Avarice, envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, discontent and fear, are names given to classify those different condi- tions of the mind from which proceed a great part of the unhappiness of the human family. To overcome and put an end to these mental conditions is like the fight of Hercules with the hydra ; but in this fight, as in that, perseverance will achieve success. One person is born in poverty, and bound by circumstances beyond his control to a life of obscurity and toil. Another is born in affluence, and inherits distinction and ease. Very often the former is discontented and depressed with his lot, and his life is poisoned with envy of the latter ; when, as a matter of fact, there may not be, and in a majority of cases is not, any good ground for this unhappiness. It is misery made out of nothing but perverted thoughts. When a poor man, in good health, has all that he needs to eat, drink and to wear, he has THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. Ill about all a rich man can get out of his wealth, so far as bodily enjoyments are concerned. The air is as fresh and pure, and the sunshine as bright and warm, to the poor as to the rich. All the glories of the heavens and all the beauties of the earth are as free to the poor as the rich. God is no respecter of persons, and all His wondrous works are for the equal good and pleasure of all His children. Moreover, it does not follow that because a man is rich, he is happy ; for happiness does not depend so much upon external circumstances as upon mental conditions, and it may happen that the mind of the man with millions of money is distracted with care and trouble, while the boy who blacks his boots is happy in the thought of better days to come. Were it possible to look into the thoughts of those around us, we should find that there is not half as much difference among people, so far as their happiness is con- cerned, as there seems to be. Alexander wept for other worlds to conquer, but Diogenes was contented in his tub. Envious thoughts are extremely foolish, for they neither help the envious nor hurt the envied. They only sting the brain that brings them into being. Our great need is to know how to change injurious and evil thoughts into those that give us pleasure and peace. To know this is to have more wisdom than the schools can teach, and he who can do it with constancy is greater than he who taketh a city. We must learn this great lesson by positively and persistently asserting the supremacy of the will over the thoughts. We must be diligent in the exercise of this will-power. Self-exami- nation will show that, as a general rule, our wills are allowed to be dormant, while passion, prejudice, or some exciting circumstances evolve and control our thoughts. 112 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Disuse makes our wills, like our limbs, weak and ineffi- cient when we desire to use them. You believe that some one has wronged you, in consequence of which you are excited with angry and revengeful thoughts. To get rid of these thoughts as soon as possible is advisable, because they not only destroy mental serenity, but inau- gurate disorders of the body. To do this, it is necessary to substitute pleasant and soothing thoughts for those that irritate and annoy. Bring up from the storehouse of memory some scene to which your affections cling : think of some event that has given you pleasure or profit, or give yourself up to some bright dream of the future. Drive away the clouds, and enter into the sun- light. Poe's "Raven" is the picture of a mind filled with thoughts of sorrow, gloom and death, while Wood- worth's "Old Oaken Bucket" is the picture of a mind full of refreshing and grateful memories. To substitute the thoughts that inspired the song of Woodworth for those that inspired the wail of Poe, is to substitute the oil of joy for the ashes of mourning. To change or divert the thoughts from that which is evil to that which is good, is comparatively easy ; but the difficulty is to maintain the change. Bad thoughts are always striving for the mastery, and eternal vigilance is necessary to prevent their success. To try this experiment involves a mental struggle. There will be failures and disappoint- ments ; but every time the unconquered will brings in good thoughts, it gains strength for the next conflict ; and so, by persistent efforts, the mind is released from dis- traction, and made the citadel of contentment and peace. I want to say this with emphasis : Watch the coming and going of your thoughts, and whenever you perceive that an evil, unkind or unhappy thought has entered THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 113 into your mind, displace it at once with something that is good, kind or agreeable ; and if you can make this the fixed habit of your mind, you have gained what is worth more to your happiness than all "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind. " Society is greatly disturbed by individual differences. Two men disagree, and each thinks the other is wrong. Vituperation, litigation and sometimes personal encoun- ters follow from such differences. I have had more or less to do with the quarrels of men for nearly fifty years ; and the result of my observation and experience is, that a great part of these disagreements are unnecessary, and would not occur if people did not act without reflection. I have no right, when I differ with another, to get angry, and act from passion ; but it is my duty to consider that I may be blinded by self-interest, or that I may have been misinformed, or may have misunderstood what has been said or done, and I ought to know the views and thoughts of the other man before I decide upon any definite action. Our Lord gave us good advice when he said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." You will be better satisfied with yourselves, and add to your happiness, if you take a charitable instead of an uncharitable view of the motives and actions of other people : though you may know that others have gone wrong, it is noble and gen- erous to think of them that they "have but stumbled in the path you have in weakness trod." What a world of trouble and sorrow would be prevented if people would think more kindly or even justly of each other ! Take away the pleasures of imagination, the pleasures of hope, the pleasures of faith, and the pleasures of memory, and but little more than the animal remains. 114 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. How much of the enjoyments of youth are due to the glowing visions of the future that float through the imag- ination ! Young men revel in imaginary fortunes and temples of fame, and young women dwell with loving hearts in imaginary homes of domestic bliss. Some people frown upon these thoughts, for the reason, as alleged, that they beget false notions of life ; but, though not generally fully realized, they as often as otherwise prove an inspiration to high deeds and unselfish and holy duties. Imagination is not to be crushed, but to be controlled and cultivated. To live in the regions of a well- ordered imagination is to live above the rough, hard ways of the world. To read .the works of Bulwer, Scott and Dickens, and similar writings, is a real pleasure ; and to hold communion with the beautiful imagery of the poets is an intellectual luxury. Dissipation, how- ever, is as hurtful in this as in other habits ; and purity in reading, as well as purity in other things, is essential to lasting happiness. Take as an antidote for trouble and worry of mind thoughts like these : The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ; The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea ; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. What a fresh, graphic, soothing picture of rural life is here presented ! Reared as I was in the country, I can almost live my youth over again in these inspired lines. What I wish, however, particularly to say, is this : Fill your minds with such thoughts as are suggested in these words of the poet, or any innocent and agreeable THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 115 thoughts ; and so long as you give yourselves up to their individual sway, you may stand undisturbed while the waves of adversity dash and break at your feet. Everybody is praising truth ; but I want to say a word here for what are called the delusions of life. Who would take away from children their conceptions of Santa Claus, or those little works of fiction which they read with so much avidity and pleasure, of which "Lit- tle Red Riding Hood" is an example? Who would suppress the maternal instincts of the little girl by rob- bing her of her doll, or dispel the manly conceits of the little boy in riding his wooden horse? Visions of love, wealth and power are to the morning of life what summer breezes and the singing of birds are to the ris- ing day, and, though largely delusive, are delightful while they last, and shed their fading brightness over the sober scenes of later life. I have lived in handsome houses of brick and stone, and held high positions of honor and trust ; but the most beautiful houses in which I ever lived, and the highest honors I ever enjoyed, are those which an unfledged ambition constructed out of my boyhood fancies. I desire to impress upon your minds another phase of this subject. Whatever your circumstances in life may be, try to take a cheerful, and not a gloomy view of your prospects and surroundings. To cultivate a cheer- ful disposition or state of mind, is not only to cultivate your own happiness, but to make your presence like mingled flowers and sunshine to your family and friends. I think it safe to say that more than one-half of the troubles of life have no existence outside of a mis- guided or morbid state of mind. Take, as an illustra- tion, Shakes peare's great impersonation in Othello. 116 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Here was a soldier, honored by men and loved by woman for his great deeds, who was driven by false and poisoned thought to murder a true and loving wife, and then to commit the kindred crime of suicide. All this was the outcome of thinking evil instead of good of one whose virtue and purity were ignored to give place to a base suspicion. There is no greater folly than to brood despondently over some mistake or misfortune that has passed beyond recall. Try always to encourage yourself with the reflection that apparent evils are frequently blessings in disguise. Every cloud, it is said, has a silver lining. Sad are the sorrows that oftentimes come, Heavy and dull and blighting and chill, Shutting the lights from our hearts and our homes, Marring our hopes and defying our will ; But let us not sink 'neath the burden of woe, Perchance it is well we are troubled and bowed, For be sure, though it may not be seen from below, There's a silvery lining to every cloud. Looking backward over the ills of life is poor busi- ness ; but to look forward and upward with faith and hope is to draw down from heaven some of the choicest blessings. There is one class of thoughts to which I beg to direct your special attention. When we look out upon the world, we see that great numbers of people are stricken with poverty, or are sorrowing under the weight of some misfortune or affliction. Our Lord declared that the chief object of His Messiahship was to preach His gospel to such people. Great multitudes are chained down by poverty to unremitting toil, without a hope or a prospect of any change in their circumstances. Men and things can do [little for them, and the only THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 117 comfort or consolation they can find, if they find any, is in their own thoughts. Take, for illustration, a poor wife and mother burdened with a dissolute husband and needy family. She has a heavy load to carry. She hears, or seems to hear, a gentle voice saying unto her : "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." She cannot change her external circumstances in answer to this voice. She can only accept the invitation in her thought. She can go in her thought to Him who calls. She can live with Him in her thought, and in her thought find the promised rest. She can find strength and support in the consciousness that when life's troubles are ended, the rich in faith, though poor in worldly things, have "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Such thoughts as these are free to all, high and low, rich and poor ; but they are of espe- cial value to the poor. Rich people can diversify their lives with recreations and amusements of various kinds ; but those who labor for their daily bread are largely dependent upon their daily thoughts for refreshment and rest : though the body is bound to the earth, the thought may be in heaven. Where can the mother, whose heart is bleeding from the loss of her child, find such comfort as in the thought of being reunited to her loved one in another and better world ? Our Lord has provided for the poor and afflicted, by showing them that, if they will make their thoughts like His thoughts, they will have a wealth of peace which the world can- not give or take away. Some people profess to believe that these comforting thoughts arc nothing but the vagaries of weak and sensitive minds ; but, be this as it may, they have lightened the burdens of many weary 118 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. souls ; and it is safe to assume that they will be found to be eternal realities, when flesh and blood have mould- ered into dust. Another thing to be mentioned, in considering this subject, is this : Our thoughts affect others, favorably or unfavorably, as they affect ourselves. Good thoughts exert a good influence, and bad thoughts a bad influence, upon those around us. Some philosophers contend that thought is as much a substance as magnetism, electric- ity or heat ; and the analogies of this argument are good, for all alike are intangible, invisible and capable of changing and controlling material things. Actual experiments have demonstrated that thought can be transferred from one mind to another without the use of any visible or audible signs ; and it is therefore a rea- sonable conclusion that all thoughts, to some extent, are common to all minds. Go into a company of people whose thoughts are pure, bright and joyous, and then go into [-another company whose thoughts are low, hate- ful and'gloomy ; and, though nothing be said, the change will be perceptible in the changed condition of your own thoughts. One little spark may kindle a great fire ; and one new and vigorous thought may set in motion a great thought-wave. I have noticed, in the political and religious world, that where the thought in one locality drifted in a certain direction, the same drift was observed in other and remote localities. Language may in part account for this ; but results indicate that currents of thought run through the social fabric, like currents of electricity through the unconscious earth. When the spiritual is more fully developed, and the intellectual becomes more apprehensive, it may be that the telegraph and telephone will fall into disuse, and THE VALUE OF GOOD THOUGHTS. 119 mind answer to mind, and thought to thought, through a medium common to all. Our thinking faculties con- join us to the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe. They stamp the dust of the earth with the image of the Deity. They can lift us to the pinnacles of human life. They can do more : they can lift us up to Heaven, or they can bear us down the endless declivi- ties of eternal darkness. Gird up the loins of your minds. Prepare yourselves for the smiles and frowns of fortune. Go out, with faith in God, into the field of duty, always remembering that the secret of a happy life is to think good thoughts. 120 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. EX-JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, OCTOBER 23, 1874. May It Please the Court : Benjamin R. Curtis, formerly an associate justice of this court, and one of the most distinguished members of its bar, departed this life the fifteenth day of last month, and his profes- sional associates here, feeling like a family bereft of its head, have expressed the sense of their bereavement in fitting resolutions, which, at their request, I have now the honor to present to this court. Our deceased brother was born at Watertown, Massa- chusetts, in the year 1809, and came down to his grave with all his faculties unimpaired by decay or the infirm- ities of age. I can only speak of Judge Curtis as a lawyer ; and those who knew him in that capacity will not, I am sure, charge me with exaggeration in saying that all that has been said of the ablest and best of our profession may with fitness be applied to him. I was a member of the High Court of Impeachment when the President of the United States was put upon his trial before that body, and had therefore an excellent opportunity to see and hear the deceased, who was the leading counsel for the defense in that case. The late Chief-Justice presided. Senators and representatives occupied the floor of the Senate, and distinguished people from all parts of the world filled its galleries. The political pulses of the nation throbbed with intense anxiety. The scene was thrilling and historic. EX-JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS. 121 When the prosecutors had submitted their evidence in support of the articles of impeachment, Judge Curtis followed with a statement of the respondent's defense. I was greatly impressed with his presence. When he arose to speak, he seemed to be the personification of solidity and strength. Added to his striking features and form, he had a peculiarly firm and broad way of standing while he spoke, which seemed to express an inflexible determination not to be moved from his posi- tion. He was not excited or embarrassed. He com- menced with the composure of conscious power. He presented the facts and points of the case in such a com- prehensive, compact and logical manner as to make the speech a model of forensic discussion. Brougham or Burke would have displayed upon that occasion a wealth of imagery and illustration, but the language of Judge Curtis was as pure and chaste as the lectures of Black- stone. I will not venture to say that our departed brother was the equal of Webster ; but it is safe, I think, to assert that he was more like Webster than any man who of late years, if ever, appeared in this court. Some one has said of Lord Mansfield, that his statement of the facts of a case was worth the argument of any other man ; and few gentlemen will feel disparaged, I presume, if this remark is made applicable to Judge Curtis. His eminence as a justice of this court has been universally acknowledged. His opinions indicate an enlightened and conscientious judgment. Masterly expositions of constitutional law have been given from time to time by the great judges of this court ; but none ever delivered here was more exhaustive in its learning, or far- reaching in its results, than his dissenting opinion 122 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. in the Dred Scott case. Chief-Justice Taney and his associates, excepting Curtis and McLean, labored with great ability to make color a constitutional cri- terion of citizenship ; but Justice Curtis, with a broader appreciation of the true principles of our gov- ernment, affirmed that the free native-born citizens of each state are citizens of the United States ; and on account of the overwhelming force with which he made the reason and justice of this declaration to appear, the contrary opinion of the court has been without any con- siderable weight and influence. Civil war has since followed upon this and cognate questions ; but it yet remains for this court to define the rights, immunities and privileges of citizens of the United States, and to determine what degree of pro- tection, as such citizens, they are entitled to from the government of the United States. Our deceased friend was not distinguished in the poli- tical world. He was never drawn into the vortex of partisan strife by the prospect of official honors. His ambition was to be a great and successful lawyer. Seven- teen years ago he gave up his exalted position upon the bench of this court to resume the practice of his profes- sion, and since then he has hardly been equaled in the number and variety of the great causes in which he has appeared. His solid and massive intellect was enriched by acquisitions from every branch of jurisprudence. He argued questions as to the functions of government, the construction of statutes, and the doctrines of the unwrit- ten law, with an equal fullness of learning and profound- ness of thought. There were no fanciful quotations or pomp of words about his speeches. They were as plain and simple as they could be. This is the highest style EX-JUSTICE BENJAMIN R. CURTIS. 123 of speaking at the bar. Weakness of argumentative power, as often as otherwise, displays itself in turgid and showy declamation ; but to make each word a necessary link in a chain of logic that draws and binds the judg- ment of the hearer to the conclusion of him who speaks, is the work of the master mind, and in this Judge Curtis excelled. Few cases come before this court in which there is not a great variety of debatable points some vital and others incidental to the controversy, and very often all these are discussed as though there was no difference in their value ; but, in addition to his other fine faculties, Judge Curtis had the power to detect and eliminate from the collaterals of a case its decisive issues, and with these alone he occupied the time of the court. I would not seek vainly to pour flattery into the "dull, cold ear of death," or seem to praise one who is dead, as though he had none of the infirmities of human nature ; but, leaving out of view his personal, domestic and social qualities and habits ( of which I know little or nothing ), and judging only from his pro- fessional character, I feel at liberty to say that, as nearly as any one I ever knew, he filled the measure of a perfect lawyer. When an intellect so highly gifted by nature, and so developed and invigorated by discipline and cul- ture, is extinguished, society as well as friends suffer a great loss, the bench and the bar are stricken with a real sorrow. Our sad duties to-day forcibly remind us of the brev- ity of human life. All those who, with Judge Curtis, occupied the seats now filled by your Honors, are, with one exception, dead ; but they are not forgotten, and will not be, so long as in this supreme tribunal of justice questions relating to the powers of government, the 124 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. relations of states, and the rights of citizens, are argued and decided. No more forever will they be seen here, but their words of wisdom and authority remain. Grateful memories silently linger around their recorded opinions. Our successors and those who come after them will, as we do now, ponder over their imperish- able thoughts with interest and profit. Humbly fol- lowing their example and emulating their virtues, we may hope that, when our time comes to go from this earthly court to a higher judgment-seat, we can look cheerfully into the Great Hereafter, and, like them, too, leave behind us "footprints in the sands of Time." JUDGE LORENZO SAWYER. 125 JUDGE LORENZO SAWYER. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH. DELIVERED AT PORTLAND, OREGON, OCTOBER 5. 1891. I have been requested to present to your Honor the resolutions adopted by the bar of this city relative to the death of Judge Sawyer, and ask that they be spread upon the records of this court. I desire to supplement these resolutions with an expression of my personal loss and sorrow in the death of this eminent jurist. My relations with Judge Sawyer were as agreeable and inti- mate as they well could be between persons residing a long distance apart. He never failed to spend an even- ing or two at my house, and to dine at my table, when he came to Portland ; and he was always not only a wel- come, but most enjoyable guest. His death has made a vacancy in the judiciary of the Pacific Coast that is hard to fill. Judge Sawyer's career is both a commentary upon the excellence of our institutions, and an inspiration to those who, under adverse circumstances, in early life aspire to positions of usefulness and distinction. Com- mencing as a laborer upon a farm in northern New York, he developed from a scholar to a teacher in a common school, then worked his way through college, devoting, meanwhile, his spare time to the study of law ; after- wards a miner, then a practising lawyer, then a state judge, and finally, for more than twenty years, judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the United States. He crossed the plains to California in 1S50, at the beginning of the formative period of government and society in 126 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. that state. Reckless and vicious living, so common there at that time, had no charms for him. His sturdy virtue withstood all its allurements. His personal, pro- fessional and official influence was always on the side of uprightness and morality. No individual has made a deeper or more lasting impression upon the institutions of California than Judge Sawyer. When the state was admitted into the Union, law and order were desperately involved in a struggle with commotion and excitement. Judge Saw- yer soon after became a conspicuous actor in these scenes. He laid his hand upon lawlessness, and it stood still. He confronted disorder, and it retired. He spoke to the stormy elements, and they obeyed his voice. He was appointed to a judicial position in 1862, and for nearly thirty years unmoved by passion, clamor or prejudice held the scales of justice with a firm and steady hand. Prominent among his other qualifications for a judge was his perfect fearlessness. He had the moral courage to do what he thought was right under all circumstances. When the tide of popular prejudice ran high against the Chinese, threatening them with mob violence, he stood forth, the impersonation of the majesty and power of the law, and said to the mad wave : " Thus far shalt thou come, and no further ! " And so, when popular clamor demanded that the great and rich corporations of California should be stripped of their legal rights, he lifted up the shield of the Consti- tution, and the voice of the spoiler died away into an impotent murmur of disappointment and rage. I cannot better describe the judicial administration of Judge Sawyer than to quote from an eloquent speech made by him in 1868, in which he said : - JUDGE LORENZO SAWYER. 127 "There can be no assured enjoyment of civil liberty, no social security, no permanently advanced stage in the development of our race, no stability in the institu- tions of civilization, where there is no honest, effective and fearless administration of the law, where the foun- tain of justice is not pure, and where its stream is not allowed to flow freely and without obstruction, and unaffected by disturbing influences. On the other hand, wherever the laws are faithfully administered by a cap- able, independent and fearless judiciary, wherever strict justice is meted out to every individual, whether rich or poor, high or low, wherever the thatched cot- tage of the lowest-born is the castle of the proprietor, which, while the winds and rain may enter, the king may not, wherever the judiciary is no respecter of per- sons, always holding the scales of justice with an eye single to the trepidations of the balance ; there no rem- nant of barbarism will be found. In the words of one who clothed his great thoughts in language second only in terseness and felicity of expression to that of Him who spake as never man spake, 'Justice is the great interest of man on earth.' It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. And whoever labors on this edifice with useful- ness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contri- butes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself in name and fame and character with that which is and must be as durable as the frame of human society." 128 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Such sentiments as these were creditable alike to the head and heart of our departed friend. They ought to be emblazoned upon the commission of every judge in the United States. Possibly it may be a fancy of mine, but I cannot get rid of the impression that the opinions of the Supreme Court of California, while Sawyer was on that bench, and especially while he was Chief-Justice, were more carefully prepared, and carry with them more weight, than those delivered by that court at any other time in its history. Those opinions show exhaustive research, and, what is of great importance in the deci- sion of a supreme court, a studied care in the use of language. Spanish grants gave rise to numerous law- suits about land titles in California, many of which came before Judge Sawyer for adjudication. Some of these cases involved vast and valuable tracts of country, and, on account of the frauds and forgeries common to that sort of litigation, required great patience, labor and good judgment in their determination. I do not now recall any of these cases in which his judgment was reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States. I believe it is safe to say that the decisions of no circuit judge have stood the test of the review in that court better than those of Judge Sawyer. One year more than three-score years and ten of life, and more than twenty years' service as a Federal judge, entitled him to private life with his salary continued, and for this he had made all his arrangements ; but it seemed good to the Great Disposer of events that his days should end with his official career. " Like one who lies down to pleasant dreams," a good citizen, an able, honest and impartial judge, a faithful father and friend, has passed into the land of shadows and silence ; but Hope, trembling over the darkness of his grave, clings to the assurance that " After midnight cometh morn." THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. 129 THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. ADDRESS UPON ITS COMPLETION. DELIVERED AT PORTLAND, OREGON, DECEMBER 2O, 1887. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : E pluri- bus unum are words of union inscribed upon the flag of our country, and every mile of railroad constructed in the United States helps to make good these words of greatness and glory. Blood has been spilled upon a hundred battle-fields to create and continue the Federal Union, but now the age of steam and iron has come, with its powerful and peace- ful agencies, to secure and confirm the sacrifices and triumphs of patriotism. Prophecy, in its hopeful imag- ery, has conceived of a possible time when the sword and the spear will be beaten into the ploughshare and prun- ing hook, but the period has actually arrived when the soldier surrenders to the engineer, and the rush of artil- lery is supplanted by the rattle of the railway train. To paraphrase a poetical expression, I may say that the lever of the locomotive, in the hands of one entirely fit, is " mightier than the sword." Many happy influ- ences are at work to consolidate the American Union, but the railway and telegraph systems of the United States are more powerful to this end than all other influ- ences combined. State sovereignty, though not dethroned, sits with iron bands upon its arms, with the lightning of the tele- graph playing around its head. Railway trains are thundering in our towns and cities that, though separated by lines upon the map, upon the 130 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. solid earth we are one and indivisible ; and telegraphs everywhere are whispering in the ears of the people the admonitory words, "United we stand, divided we fall." Putting iron into the metaphor, it may be said that our country has no north or south, east or west. Steam power tramples under its hot heels all sections and divisions of the country. Traveling like the wind, it hurries the snow and ice of a northern winter into the melting rays of a southern sun ; and before their bloom can fade, it whirls the flowers of the sunny South into the freezing winds of a northern sky. Railroads have made near neighbors of the two oceans, though a conti- nent stretches between, and Neptune humbly lays his trident at the feet of the iron king. Politically, com- mercially and socially, steam and electricity have made the many into one. Party leaders may invoke sectional prejudice and state pride for party effects ; but the elec- tric spark explodes their schemes, and the loud-mouthed whistle of the locomotives stifles their selfish and feeble cries. Trains of cars upon our railroads are as indiffer- ent to political and territorial distinctions as ships upon the billows of the ocean. Rapid transit changes the otherwise formal and distant connections of business into relations of intimacy and friendship. New Eng- land factories and the cotton-fields of the South are at each others' doors, and New York and San Francisco are co-operative members of a municipal union as well as competitors in trade. Iron and steel have become the silken cords of social intercourse and unity. Distance has lost much of its power to divide friends and families : everybody is everywhere at home, with the telegraph for communica- tion. Love speaks to love, and quick sympathy reaches THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. 131 the sorrowing through a flash along the electric wires. Remote districts are brought together by railroads. Friendly relations are established and preserved by fre- quent meetings, and neighboring communities are har- monized by an easy interchange of civilities. Whenever sections or localities quarrel, it is often as otherwise because they are comparative strangers, and ignorant of each others' feelings and actions. Our prejudices fre- quently lead us to look upon those as enemies, whom, with a better understanding of their motives and cir- cumstances, we might regard as friends. Acquaintance- ship and association tend to assimilate and unify com- munities and states. Tides of travel flow in all direc- tions over our railroads, and, intermingling, crystalize into homogeneous bodies of people. Imagination can- not depict the disorders and disasters that would befall the country, if railroads and telegraphs, by a sudden blow, were to be stricken out of existence. No people of the United States are more indebted to railroads and telegraphs for prosperity and happiness than the people of the Pacific Coast. Thirty years ago, thousands of miles intervened between the Atlantic states and the shores of the Pacific, with hardly a human habitation to break the monotonous solitude. Some were bold enough to encounter the perils and hardships of a journey across the plains ; but generally travel, as well as traffic, wended its weary way around Cape Horn or across the murky isthmus of Darien. Weeks and months were then occupied in bringing about what is now accomplished in hours and days. Ghostly reminis- cences of those times come back to us who were living here then, but the realities are "gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were." Ox- wagons 132 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. toiling through heat and dust ; stage-coaches fleeing from Indian outbreaks ; immigrant ships freighted with impatient seekers for gold, have dwindled away before our vision into the shadows of departed things. Steam transportation has worked out these marvelous results. Certain citizens of California, prominent among whom was one of the present senators in Congress from that state, commenced in 1863, at Sacramento, to build a transcontinental railroad. They were met at the outset by difficulties that to most men seemed insurmountable. Sectional strife had developed into a civil war. Credit was weak and crippled, and capital was afraid to move. Doubts and fears hung like a black cloud over the uncer- tain future. Confronting them at the threshold were the Sierra Nevada Mountains, whose rugged and rocky brows frowned defiance upon the enterprise ; and beyond these lay the discouraging prospect of a bleak and deso- late country. Faith, however, triumphed then, as it has thousands of times in the history of the world, over the weakness of men and the obstacles of nature. Faith inspired Columbus to the discovery of a new world : faith trusted the depths of the ocean with the Atlantic cable : faith has revealed the wonders of the telegraph, telephone and phonograph : faith, with indomitable energy, completed the California Central Railroad to a connection with the Union Pacific, thus making a con- tinuous railway from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Considering all that has been accomplished in this age, it seems doubtful whether there is anything, in the vis- ible or invisible world, beyond the reach of faith in God and the capabilities of man. On the 2d of July, 1864, Congress made a munificent grant of lands to aid in the construction of a North THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. 133 Pacific railroad. The people of the Northwest looked to this road for relief from their isolated condition, but their hopes were deferred and their hearts made sick by the disappointments and delays that attended the work. While timid men were tinkering and paltering with their petty schemes, and demagogues were howling for a repeal of the land grant, a man appeared upon the scene whose genius, courage and energy pushed this magnificent enterprise through to its long-desired completion. New York, Chicago and Portland were made kindred by this great railway, and every twenty-four hours contribute their treasures of trade and travel to each others' wealth and prosperity. Down beyond the regions of frost and snow, the Southern Pacific spans the continent ; and north, where the eternal glaciers repose in cold sublim- ity, the Canadian Pacific stretches from ocean to ocean. Other transcontinental railroads are projected or in pro- gress, and it seems as though the surface of the round earth, upon this continent, was to be bound to its founda- tions by hoops of iron and steel. All of these railroads are prophetic of the mighty empire that is to be upon this coast. We, who are here to-day, are only the van- guard of advancing millions. Europe is moving west- ward, and Asia is moving eastward, and the tides of population are meeting upon these shores. Railway cars crossing the land come to our cities, and ships cross- ing the ocean come to our ports ; but on our mountain peaks there is a greater than Canute saying to each, "Thus far shall thou come, and no further." Thirty years ago, Oregon, in a political sense, was admitted into the Union ; but otherwise she was like an adopted daughter, debarred of the privileges and enjoy- ments of familv and home. On one side was a wild 134 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. territory of mountains and uninhabited plains ; on the other, the expanded waste of a trackless ocean. Com- munications by the sea came as often as the moon filled her horn, but moon after moon waxed and waned while they were traveling across the land. Most of our people were immigrants from the old states, with ties of kin- dred and home unbroken by distance ; and not a few grew restive under the comparative seclusion from the rest of the world. When they looked to the east, a vast wilder- ness seemed to shut out all hope in that direction ; and when they looked to the west, they only saw their own weakness reflected in the bosom of the broad Pacific. California was then a young state, and some of our citi- zens had tried their fortunes in its golden sands. Cut off as we were from the civilized world, our thoughts naturally turned to the only other state upon the Pacific Coast for relief and consolation. Accordingly, a number of Oregonians associated themselves together under the name of the Oregon Central Railroad Company. This corporation was without money, means or credit ; but it was the beginning of an enterprise whose beneficial results, reaching through revolving years, can only be fully known to future generations. Congress, in 1866, granted lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Central Pacific in California to Portland, Oregon. Work was commenced in 1868, and 150 miles of the road completed, chiefly through the efforts of one lately deceased, whose name is justly associated with the names of those who, by their courage and energy, have contributed to the develop- ment of the Pacific Coast. Like many other enterprises of a like nature, the Oregon & California Railroad pas- sed through the different stages of suspension, litigation THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. 135 and insolvency, till it fell into the hands of those in whose bright lexicon there is no such word as fail. Twenty years ago next April, the soil of Oregon was broken for this road, and on the 17th day of December, 1887, the last rail was laid and the last spike driven. Mountains have been tunneled, rivers bridged, the high places cut down and the low places leveled up, and a lasting monument made to engineering skill and well- directed labor. Iron wheels, starting from Portland, can now roll their precious burdens into San Francisco before the tinge of the morning rays can be twice seen upon our mountain tops. Transportation between Cali- fornia and Oregon has heretofore been at the mercy of the winds and waves of the ocean, and travel between the two states has generally been accomplished through the perils and discomforts of a voyage at sea. Commer- cial intercourse by water will not cease, of course, but bars and breakers, the pitching and rolling of ships, will be a matter of choice to those who love such things, and not one of the necessities of travel between San Francisco and Portland. Those of us who came to Ore- gon in an early day, can appreciate the convenience and comfort of railroad travel. To sit upon a cushioned seat in a palace car, and be carried along strongly, safely and smoothly, at the rate of a mile in two minutes, is quite a different thing from riding a cayuse pony in the rain, or floundering through the mud in a stage wagon, at the rate of three miles an hour. For the greater part of the year, a journey by rail from Portland to San Francisco is an episode of delightful incidents. We have in Oregon the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, composedly lying between the Coast and Cascade ranges of mountains, with their broad cultivated 136 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. fields of unvarying freshness and fertility ; their bright streams, laid like silver ribbons upon the landscape ; their wooded hills and grassy vales ; their attractive homes and flourishing villages, a picture, three hun- dred miles long, of thrift, comfort and beauty. Climb- ing the Siskiyou Mountains, with their granite pin- nacles and panoramic views, we descend into the varied and picturesque scenery of the Sacramento valley, in full view of Mount Shasta, over whose majestic form eternal winter throws its spotless robe, and thence on through a land of sunshine, flowers and fruits, to the city of the Golden Gate. This California & Oregon road is destined to be a great thoroughfare. It is the connecting link between the transcontinental roads of the North and those of the South. To travel across the continent on one of these roads, and return by the other, is becoming the fashion of the Eastern world. Streams of people pour into California over the Central or Southern Pacific roads, with a tendency to flow over the California & Oregon road to this Northwestern country ; some to stay, and others to return by the Northern, Short Line or Canadian Pacific to their East- ern homes. California and Oregon, by the construction of this road, have taken each other for better or worse, and are indissolubly bound together in the bonds of a common welfare. Whatever conduces to the prosperity of one state will beneficially affect the other, and both will be profited by what we may expect to see, a free and generous rivalry. Embraced within these two states is about 1000 miles of sea-coast ; and if there is room within a radius of 500 miles on the Atlantic seaboard for four such cities as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New THE OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD. 137 York and Boston, there certainly is "ample room and verge enough " in these two states for the growth of two great commercial cities, San Francisco, in Califor- nia, and Portland, in Oregon. Could some one gifted with the vision of Moses from another Mount Pisgah overlook these two states, he would see a land whose riches and beauty beggar the fanciful descriptions of romance or poetry. A land whose mountains teem with gold and silver, whose bosom is variegated with orange groves and vineyards, wheat-fields and meadows, flocks and herds, and the grandeur of whose scenery is the wonder and admiration of the world. Heaven has fixed the elements of our future greatness in the salubrity and softness of our climate, the riches of our mines, the fertility of our soil and the accessibility of our ports, into which the winds of the Pacific are bound to waft "the wealth of Onnus and of Ind." Whatever else may follow the completion of the Oregon & California Railroad, it will certainly bring the citizens of both states into a closer neighbor- hood. They will now have new opportunities to culti- vate the amenities of social intercourse. They will find it a pleasant duty to reciprocate acts of civility and kindness. They will see each other more and know each other better. The representative men of Califor- nia are here to-day to inaugurate this new order of things. They have come to celebrate a great commer- cial event, and visit their new relations. \Ve are here to meet them to show our appreciation of their kindly presence - to extend to them our hospitalities ; and it has been made my duty on behalf of our people, in the performance of which I take great pleasure, to give to each one and all of these distinguished gentlemen a cordial and heart v welcome to the Citv of Portland. 138 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. PORTLAND, OREGON: ITS GROWTH AND PROSPECTS. ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CHAM- BER OF COMMERCE BUILDING, JANUARY 1, 1892. History and prophecy are sometimes combined in the same event. Occasions arise when a review of the past and a forecast of the future seem to struggle for simul- taneous utterance. We are engaged in a ceremony to-day that carries our thoughts back to the infancy of our city, and at the same time brings before our minds visions of its future growth and greatness. There seems to be something inexplicable in the growth of great cities. It is not unusual for several localities aspiring to city distinction to start with equal advan- tages, and while one succeeds beyond all expectations, the others sink down into weakness and obscurity. This result is accounted for in various ways, none of which are quite satisfactory. Palmyra, we are told, was a great city in a surrounding desert. What good reason can be given why London, situated on a small stream in the interior of England, should number its popula- tion by millions, while Liverpool, with its great com- mercial advantages, cannot go beyond thousands in the enumeration of its inhabitants? Why is it that Paris, with few natural facilities for commerce, should be so much greater in population and wealth than any of the numerous seaports of France ? Why is it that New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston, situated within a few hundred miles of each other, should be the only great cities of our Atlantic seaboard ? Time and again it has been predicted that the numerous railroads PORTLAND, OREGON. 139 running from all parts of the West to seaports north and south of New York, would retard the growth of that city, but these predictions do not seem to be verified. Taking the history of cities together, many of them seem to be favored and fostered by an auspicious des- tiny. Municipal fortunes in many respects are not dis- similar to the fortunes of an individual. Some men will struggle and toil for wealth or power with apparent wisdom and energy, and utterly fail, while the less demonstrative efforts of others are crowned with abund- ant success. Generally, these different results are ascribed to what is called good or bad luck ; but this is only saying that the facts are not explainable upon logical principles. Our history as a country abounds in instances where places with navigable waters and other natural advan- tages have tried in vain to swell themselves into metro- politan proportions by a great show of energy, while other places less favored by Nature and with less show have advanced to the pinnacle of power and influence. Our city has been criticised for its conservative tenden- cies and alleged lack of enterprise ; but these criticisms are more or less superficial, and do not take into account the advantages of a steady and healthful growth as compared with spasmodic and reactionary efforts to outstrip competition. Western cities, as a general rule, are not satisfied with a development corre- sponding to the legitimate influence of trade and com- merce, but are very much disposed to resort to artificial stimulants, which, like the youthful dissipation of an individual, bring on a premature and decrepit old age. There is a fever in the body politic. Incorporated com- munities, conceiving themselves to be rivals, rush madly 140 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. into schemes of self-aggrandizement, blind to everything but temporary success. False and exaggerated reports are put in circulation, and populations are increased by deception and fraud. Pauperism and crime are the legi- timate fruits of this policy. Municipal debts are piled up till the consequent taxation becomes a blight to individ- ual enterprise. The reckless and extravagant expendi- ture of money by municipal governments is one of the great and growing evils of this age. There is need of truth, economy and deliberation in the management of city affairs. Since, I came to Portland, about forty years ago, its constantly impending downfall has been the point of many plausible arguments. We have been told that it is too far inland, that the Columbia and Willamette Rivers were not deep enough to float large ships to its port, or that it was a decree of Nature that the great city of Oregon should be at the mouth of the Columbia. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was constructed to Puget Sound, it was said that the decadence of Portland would surely follow ; and finally, it was argued that the Oregon & California Railroad, when completed, would draw away the business of Oregon from Portland to San Francisco. All these arguments appeared reasonable enough when made, but they have been answered and disproved by what looks like an edict of destiny. None of these predicted calamities caused any particular excitement here ; but Portland, with a step as steady as the current of the river flowing at its feet, moved for- ward to its present acknowledged supremacy. There is no longer any question as to the position of this city. The prophets of evil have turned to be prophets of good. Great ships navigate the rivers whose waters were PORTLAND, OREGON. to cripple our commerce, and cars that were to carry away our business are bringing their freight and passen- gers to our doors. The currents of trade have set in from all directions to this city, and it is beyond the power of any other or rival localities to divert them to other channels. According to the laws of the commer- cial world, business gravitates to the money centers of a country. One dollar may have little influence over another, but millions have a strong affinity for other millions. Little streams trickle down the mountains or through the meadows, and lose themselves in unobserved places ; but the rivers pour their waters into the great reservoir of the ocean, from which the clouds again supply the fountains : and so the money centers draw to themselves and send forth the financial circulation of the country. I need hardly say what everybody knows, that Portland is the money center of the Pacific North- west, and occupies in this respect the same relation to that region that San Francisco does to California, Chi- cago to the Mississippi valley, and New York to the Atlantic States. Forty-five years ago, not far from where we now stand, a woodman with his axe struck a blow whose echoes will resound " to the last syllable of recorded time." Lapse of years have almost effaced from the memories of men the log house in which our city was born. There was no feasting or drinking upon that occasion. Over the roof of that humble abode the tall fir-trees waved their green plumes, and near its threshold, undisturbed by keel or craft, glided the waters of the river. All the silence of the deep woods brooded over the place, and Nature seemed averse to any disturb- ance of her "ancient, solitary reign." Standing like 142 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. an army with serried ranks from the banks of the river to the tops of the hills behind us, the mighty forest grappled the earth with its huge roots, and covered the heavens with its dark and dismal foliage. To build a city under these circumstances was like a battle with giants ; but destiny waved her magic wand over the scene, and the wilderness gloomily submitted to its fate. On or near the site of the First National Bank, a log store was erected in 1849 ; and then and there was inaugurated a traffic whose transactions have reached the borders of the civilized world. Not far from the same time, the first vessel to discharge its cargo here fastened its shore lines to a friendly stump, and then and there commenced a commerce whose white wings have fluttered in the breezes of every ocean. Thence- forward the forest gradually receded from the river before the advance of improvement ; log cabins gave place to frame buildings, frame buildings to brick, and so the little hamlet slowly changed its simple ways into the customs and conventionalities of city life. Several localities, some on the Willamette and some on the Columbia, started out as competitors of Portland ; but they soon fell out of the race, and nothing but the industry of the historian has rescued the names of some of them from absolute oblivion. One, and not an unim- portant factor, in the successful start of Portland, was the liberal spirit of its founders. Many embryo cities with good natural prospects have been crushed out of exist- ence at the beginning by the greed of their proprietors in demanding exorbitant prices for property ; but the projectors of Portland were wiser, and by a large-hearted policy, in this respect, " builded better than they knew." PORTLAND, OREGON. 143 When I came to Oregon, the little steamer Columbia made its monthly trips between San Francisco and Port- land, and sometimes the moon twice filled her horn between the times of our receiving intelligence from the Eastern states. Water communications gradually mul- tiplied as the population and business increased, but soon there grew up among the people an irrepressible desire for railroad connection with other parts of the country, and to that end work was commenced in 1868 but delays intervened, and it is not yet ten years since the first car from the other side of the Rocky Mount- ains came to this city. Two score and five years ago, the browsing deer upon Portland Heights eyed with curiosity and composure the smoke as it curled up from the pioneer's cabin ; but now the delighted tourist stands there to see a city extending six miles in one direction and four miles in the other, with 75,000 people living within its borders, a city within whose bounds four transcontinental railroads practically terminate, whose annual export amounts to more than twelve millions of dollars, whose job- bing business amounts to more than one hundred and thirty millions per annum, whose fiscal affairs are managed by twenty banks, with more than $10,000,000 of capital, whose streets are occupied with more than twenty miles of electric and cable railways, whose churches, school-houses and private dwellings excite surprise and admiration, and whose business houses, with their massive walls and lofty towers, testify to the solidity and wealth of a great and growing city. Our present surroundings are full of great promises. "All roads lead to Rome," was an old saying ; and so it may be said of the North Pacific country, that all roads lead 144 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. to Portland. Imagination is too feeble to estimate the riches that will flow to our wharves and depots when the magnificent valleys south of us are filled with people and cultivated to their full capacity. When the Snake and Columbia rivers are opened to continuous navigation from Idaho and Eastern Washington to Portland, as they surely will be, the agricultural productions and mineral wealth of an empire in extent will be poured into the channels of our business. Our commerce will be incalculably increased when quick and cheap trans- portation by water between Europe and the Atlantic States and the Pacific Coast is established by the Nicara- gua Canal, and the amenities of intercourse with our Asiatic neighbors are broadened, as they undoubtedly will be. Portland is the half-way house between those countries in which, when it is high noon in one, it is midnight in the other. Here is where the civilizations of the old world and the new meet face to face. Here is where the Caucasian and the Mongolian confront each other, and here is where Christianity and Paganism will dispute for the ascendency. Great populations, great commer- cial dealings and great wealth must attend these condi- tions. I am moved to say, however, that in all this there is not only glory, but danger. The spectres of dead cities are flitting across bright visions. History tells us over and over again that luxury, debauchery and vice, the too frequent concomitants of great wealth, will destroy any city, though it be made of marble and iron, and filled with all the splendor and power of untold riches. The strength of a city is in the virtues of its inhabitants, and its weakness in their vices. "Except God keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain." PORTLAND, OREGON. 145 Among the other useful institutions developed by the growth of Portland, is the Chamber of Commerce. Sev- enteen years ago, some gentlemen distinguished for their energy and public spirit organized a board of trade ; but this was an unincorporated association, and lacked those legal faculties and powers essential to its suc- cessful operation. Early last year, the board of trade was incorporated, and its name changed to that of the Cham- ber of Commerce. Five hundred and fifty of the repre- sentative men of this city now constitute the member- ship of this corporation, the chief business of which is to advance the commercial, mercantile, manufacturing and industrial interests of Portland and the state of Oregon. Legislation affecting the welfare of our city, questions relative to navigation and transportation by water and by land, public improvements, and all the interests of trade and commerce, are made the subjects of its care and attention. Practically, the Chamber of Commerce is the experience, wisdom and wealth of Portland, com- bined to promote the general prosperity. We are indebted to this institution and its predecessor for many things of advantage in the city, but an allusion to two of these must suffice for this occasion. Chiefly through the influence of the Chamber of Commerce, an act was passed by the late legislative assembly, establishing the Port of Portland, which act provides for the expenditure of $500,000 for the creation of a channel twenty-five feet deep from Portland to the sea. When the jetties at the mouth of the Columbia are completed, as they soon will be, and the deep channel provided for in this act is made, Portland will be more accessible to vessels of deep draft than any other place in the United States at as great a distance from the ocean, and will unite all the 146 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. advantages of a seaport and an inland city. Sea-going vessels go to Philadelphia on the Delaware, to New Orleans on the Mississippi, to Montreal on the St. Law- rence ; and they will come to Portland, bringing and seeking freight and passengers, no matter how many railroads parallel the river. Another thing largely due to the influence of the Chamber of Commerce is the act consolidating Portland, East Portland and Albina, into one grand city. One strong government is better and less expensive than three weak ones ; and the less local jealousy there is among those whose interests are iden- tical, the better for all concerned. When I survey from Portland Heights our newly- formed city and its additions, I am reminded of what I have read about Rome upon her seven hills, with the Tiber rolling between ; and it has occurred to me that possibly the high lands on the east side of the Willam- ette, and the hills behind us on the west side, may become as famous in song and story as the Palatine, Quirinal and Capitoline hills of the "Imperial City." Ours are the triumphs of peace, and, irrespective of war, Rome had no advantages over us in country, climate or the sources of wealth and power. To one standing on any of the acclivities around Portland, a panoramic view is presented which for variety and beauty has few, if any, equals in any country. North and south, and far away to the eastward, stretches the landscape, diver- sified by mountain, hill, plain, forest and river, and so inlaid with the works of the architect and builder as to make a scene worthy of the pen that described Arcadia, or of the pencil that painted the Yosemite Valley. To-day we are laying the corner-stone of a building which is to be another monumental proof of the growth PORTLAND, OREGON. 147 and prosperity of this city. It will be a witness to pos- terity of the public spirit and architectural skill and taste of this day. It is to be an immense structure, 100 by 200 feet upon the ground, eight stories high, with a tower two stories higher ; is to be constructed of marble, iron and brick, so as to be as completely fire- proof as practicable, and is to cost $500,000. Within its solid walls will be conducted deliberations by which, no doubt, millions of people will be affected. We know not what is before us, but we lay this foundation-stone in faith and hope. We are building to-day, not only for ourselves and our children, but for coming genera- tions. They are interested in this event. They are coming forward to take our places as we pass on to the silent land ; and for them, as well as for ourselves, I do invoke upon this building the blessings of Heaven, and dedicate it, as far as I am able, to the twin deities of wisdom and justice. Let it be remembered that mater- ial prosperity is not all that makes a city. The intelli- gence and morality of the people are the true and endur- ing elements of greatness. Educational and charitable institutions are twice blessed. They bless those who build them up, and bless those who enjoy their benefac- tions. To make judicious provisions for the poor in our large cities, is one of the difficult problems of the day. While it is true, as said by one of old, that the poor we are always to have with us, it is also true that much of the poverty is unnecessary, and much of it might be prevented. Intemperance and gambling produce a large share of the want and suffering in our cities, and God and humanity appeal to all good citizens to do what they can to repress these vices. Taken as individuals, the 148 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. men who compose the Chamber of Commerce in this city have more influence than any other equal number of persons in the state ; and if they would show the same energy and zeal for the moral advancement of our city that they do for its material progress, the good name of Portland would be worth more than ornaments of gold and chains of precious stones. Nothing, in my judgment, will conduce more to the prosperity of this city than to have it known that Portland is the most peaceful and law-abiding city on the Pacific Coast. We are not only laying the corner-stone of a new building to-day, but celebrating the advent of a new year. Eighteen hundred and ninety-one has gone, with its faded flowers and fallen leaves ; and eighteen hundred and ninety-two has come, with its budding hopes and bright expectations. This is an auspicious and eventful day. Looking backward with gratitude and forward with hope, we bid an affectionate farewell to the old and a hearty welcome to the new. WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 149 WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED AT PORTLAND, OREGON. MARCH 16, 1888. Ladies and Gentlemen : I was requested yesterday to be present, and add a few words in the English lan- guage to the memorial exercises of this occasion. We are assembled to celebrate the funeral obsequies of Wil- liam I., Emperor of Germany, who, on the 9th day of this month, came down to his grave, full of years and full of honors. Few men within the last half cen- tury have occupied a more conspicuous place in the eyes of the world than the man whose death has brought us together this evening. Whatever we may think of the form or system of the German government, its adminis- tration by the late emperor confessedly has commanded the attention and admiration of the civilized world. When William I. ascended the throne of his fathers, he found his power circumscribed to one of the states of divided and distracted Germany. His purpose from the beginning was to create a confederation of the German states with Prussia at its head, and the great Bismarck was accepted as his chief minister for the development of this object. Austria antagonized Prussia upon this question, and war ensued between the two countries ; but the crushing defeat of Austria in the great battle of Koniggratz, in 1806, gave permanent ascendency to the cause of German unity. Consequent upon this victory of King William, a North German confederacy was rapidly formed, though the states of South Germany were not prepared at that time to accept the sovereignty 150 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. of the Prussian King ; but when France declared war against Prussia in 1870, the North and South of Ger- many made common cause, and mingled their blood together in the great and decisive battles of that war. On the 18th of January, 1871, the victorious William, in the capital of conquered France, was proclaimed emperor, and the states that followed him to victory were consolidated into a great German empire. Noth- ing greater than this has been accomplished in modern statesmanship, whether we consider the brilliant effec- tiveness of the means employed, or the beneficial results to follow. Monuments of marble and brass will be raised to the memory of the dead monarch by his proud and grateful countrymen ; but the greatest of all his monuments will be the united hearts and hands of undivided Germany. Inspired by Bismarck, William, as king or emperor, adhered with inflexible tenacity to the ancient and hereditary prerogatives of his crown ; but it is not improper to say that justice and mercy were the habitations of his throne. He was a soldier almost from his cradle to the grave, but his fighting, from Waterloo to the siege of Paris, was for the protection and peace of his country. He controlled, with absolute authority, the horrible machinery of war, and was familiar with scenes of blood and carnage upon the battle-field ; but no act of personal cruelty, like those which disgraced the first Napoleon, stains the escutcheon of his military fame. Surrounded by all the temptations and trappings of imperial power, he was distinguished for the simplic- ity of his habits, and the purity of his private life. Speaking only from what I know of current history, he was an affectionate husband and father, recognizing his WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 151 duty to his family, and his obligations for the goodness and mercy of God. Monarchs are to be judged, like other men, according to the sphere of life to which they are allotted. No one is better or worse for the inheri- tance to which he is born ; but the greater the tempta- tions to do wrong, the greater the merit in doing right. Princes and potentates are generally surrounded by sycophants and the seductions of great riches and power, and too often under these circumstances prema- turely end an inglorious life ; but the moral strength of the dead emperor is demonstrated by the fact that four- score years and ten of a sound mind in a sound body crowned the close of an active and illustrious life. Emperor William was a man of majestic mien and splendid physical proportions. " A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man." Our opinion of the emperor, as a ruler and a man, ought to be greatly influenced by the estimate in which he was held by his subjects. Much diversity of opinion exists among the people of Germany as to the princi- ples of government and the right of imperial sway ; but popular affection seems to have clustered around this departed sovereign, and all classes of his people bow their uncovered heads in sorrow at his grave. No matter under what foreign flag a native-born German may be, or however much he may be opposed to a mon- archical form of government, the tender chords of his memory and affection are touched with a new thrill by the death of one who has done so much for the great- ness and glory of his Fatherland. To be added to the solemnities of this occasion is the sympathy we feel 152 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. for the son and successor of the dead emperor, whose critical condition of health forebodes another early vacancy in the imperial house of Germany. He will live, however, if the wishes and prayers of an affection- ate people can save him. I must say, as an American citizen, that I am opposed to the hereditary privileges and class distinc- tions of the German government ; but that is no reason why I should not award a just meed of praise to him who has been at the head of that govern- ment. Whatever his views were as to republics, he never was unfriendly to the United States. While other European countries interfered to promote the dissolution of the American Union in our war of the rebellion, we had no cause to complain of the attitude or action of Germany in that day of our distress. When the British and American High Joint Commission was formed to make the treaty of Washington, the long-pending con- troversy as to our northwestern boundary was one of the questions to be adjusted by that Commission. Both countries, through a long diplomatic correspondence, were thoroughly committed to their respective views. Great Britain claimed that the true boundary was the Rosario Strait, and the United States claimed that it was the Canal de Haro. I happened to be upon that Commis- sion, and, on account of my residence in Oregon, was supposed to peculiarly represent the United States upon that question. I cannot state what took place in the sessions of the Commission, which were to be kept secret ; but the result was that the question was submit- ted to the Emperor of Germany, who, after a patient and careful examination of the subject, decided in favor of the United States. Bv this decision the United WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 153 States came into the undisputed possession of the Island of San Juan and adjacent islands, making in all about two hundred square miles of territory. I refer to this, not doubting the correctness of the decision, but to show that Emperor William had the courage of his con- victions, and did not hesitate to do justice between a republic and a European government, kindred to his own. How much more sensible and satisfactory- an arbitration like this for the settlement of international disputes than an appeal to the barbarities and uncertainties of war. OUT minds are overwhelmed when we attempt to inlj' of. the great changes that have occurred in the world's. history, between the birth and death of the late German Emperor. Napoleon Bonaparte had not com- menced his extraordinary career when William was born in 1797, and he lived to see the rise and fall of the whole Napoleonic dynasty. When he was born, John Adams was President of the United States, and twenty different men have filled that office since that time, all of whom, with two exceptions, are now dead. George III. was King of England ; and Mexico and the South American republics were under the dominion of Spain. All the population of the United States did not exceed 4,000,000 people, and they were confined to the thirteen original colonies. Steam transportation by land or water was unknown, and the use of electric wires for the trans- mission of intelligence was among the far-off discoveries of science. Destined in early life to see the victorious eagles of France wave over his native land, broken and bleeding at the feet of Napoleon, he lived to see, at the end of two wars, the banners of Germany wave in tri- umph over the capital of France, and his once clown-trod- den country raised to one of the great empires of the earth. 154 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Political greatness was not the only distinction ac- quired by Germany during the life of the late emperor. Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Fichte and Von Humboldt were his contemporaries ; and their poetical, philosophical and historical works are as brilliant in the world of letters as the glories of the German empire are in the world of arms. Intellectually, the emperor was more or less eclipsed by the great abilities of Bismarck. I once asked the venerable George Bancroft, who has been intimate with the scholars and statesmen of Europe and America for the last fifty years, whom he con- sidered the greatest man among his acquaintances ; and he promptly answered that Bismarck was incompar- ably the greatest man he ever knew. Much credit, however, is due the late emperor for good judg- ment in surrounding himself with wise counsellors. Napoleon was largely indebted for his success to his judicious selection of his lieutenants ; and the sovereign or ruler is justly distinguished for wisdom who chooses strong and sturdy men, instead of feeble flatterers, to be his confidential friends and advisers. All distinctions perish before an open grave ; and the ties of nature, sundered by death, bleed alike in the bosom of the peasant and the king. Surrounded by all her palatial grandeur, the widow of the dead emperor suffers in her sorrow like one whose humble cottage has been desolated by the hand of death. Friendship and sympathy will pour their well-intended words of condolence into her ears, but the) 7 will fall unheeded into the silence of a voice that is forever still. All the pomp and pageantry of the imperial funeral now going on in the capital of Germany, though they show the WILLIAM I., EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 155 expression of a loyal and grateful people, show, too, in a significant form, "what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue." " Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; He is gone who seemed so great. Gone ; but nothing can bereave him Of the force he made his own Being here, and we believe him Something far advanced in state, And that he wears a truer crown Than any wreath that man can weave him. But speak no more of his renown, Lay your earthly fancies down, And in the vast cathedral leave him. God accept him, Christ receive him." 156 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE MEDICAL, DEPART- MENT OF THE WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY, PORTLAND, OREGON, DELIVERED APRIL 16, 1885. ' ' Every girl, ' ' says Macaulay, ' ' who has read Mrs. Mancal's little dialogues on political economy, could teach Montague or Walpole many lessons in finance." And further on he says : " Any intelligent man may now, by resolutely applying himself for a few years to mathe- matics, learn more than the great Newton knew after half a century of study and meditation." These words are full of significance. They imply that truth is every- where and in everything, and that to detect and extri- cate this truth from the infinitude of error by which it is surrounded, is the great work of human improve- ment. Every generation, by discovery or experience, acquires some truth not known to its predecessor, which it transmits to its successor ; and so, from generation to generation, the stores of human knowledge are increased. Whether we are wiser and better than our fathers may be a debatable question, but that we know more ' of the laws of nature and the truths of science than they did, no intelligent person will deny ; and that they had more of this sort of knowledge than their progenitors is quite as incontestable. There is a well-founded opinion that mankind grows wiser, better and happier by this increase of knowledge. Statistics, it is said, will show that the people of the civilized world, taken in the aggregate, are less savage in their dispositions, more liberal and tolerant in their views, are better housed and THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 157 fed and clad, and are more healthful and live longer than they did when the pilgrim fathers landed upon the shores of New England. Among all the discoveries and improvements made in the course of human events, there are none more remarkable or beneficial to man- kind than those made in medical science. ^sculapius was the mythological god of the art of healing, and it is represented that the sick were carried to his temples to be cured by ablutions, prayers and sacrifices. Indeed, in many countries, in the olden time, medicine was a mere appendage of religion, and a minor office of the priesthood was to heal the sick by prayers, incantations and other mystical rites and cere- monies ; but time and experience gradually dispelled these delusions, and led inquiry to more reasonable and practical methods of treating the diseases of the human system. Hippocrates, who lived before the Christian era, and who is called the father of medicine, is entitled to the credit of evolving from the religious mummeries of his day the doctrine that the maladies of the human family and their treatment were subject to natural laws, and not to supernatural agencies. His theory was that there were four humors in the human body, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, and that an undue predominance of one of these was the proximate cause of sickness ; and his labor and skill were devoted to the support of this theory : but he was ignorant of the dif- ference between veins and arteries, nerves, tendons and ligaments, and of the anatomical structure of the human system. Galen, another great light in the medical world, adopted the theory that, besides the solids and fluids which it contains, the human body was animated by three kinds of spirits, the vital spirits, the natural 158 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. spirits and the animal spirits ; and at a still later period Borelli propounded the dogma that the human body was to be regulated as a machine, to which the laws of mechanics, hydraulics and hydrostatics were to be applied in the treatment of its ailments. All these theories, and others too numerous to mention, have been tried in the crucible of experience, and from the false and the fanciful, the real and the true have been eliminated ; and in this way steady and useful improve- ments have been made in medical science. When we consider the discoveries of Galileo and Newton, we are surprised that, with all the achievements in art and science of antecedent ages, mankind should have remained so long ignorant of the revolutions and laws of the planetary world ; but it is none the less sur- prising that the circulation of the blood should have been unknown until it was discovered by Harvey in 1628. It is another surprising fact that the true theory of respiration was not known until after the circulation of the blood was discovered. Less than one hundred years ago, Jenner made the great discovery that vac- cination would prevent the ravages of the small-pox. Prior to that time, it was estimated that more than 400,000 of the people of Europe were carried off annu- ally by this dread disease. Within the last century, brilliant discoveries have been made in chemistry ; microscopy, by which the germs of disease can be detected and their development traced, has shed a new light upon the medical world ; comparative anatomy and physiology have furnished new and more perfect methods of investigation ; and certainty in the practice of medi- cine has made great strides into the regions of doubt, dogmatism and speculation. All these things show that THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 159 medicine is a progressive science ; that study, observa- tion and experience dissipate error and develop truth ; and that the physician of the present day may, if he will, know more of his business than the most distin- guished of his predecessors in the profession. To acquire what others have ascertained and published is not all of true professional ambition. Apparently, the field of exploration and discover)' is illimitable. There are depths of learning not yet sounded, and problems of deep import yet unsolved. Human life is a wonderful mystery, and many of the ills that flesh is heir to still challenge and defy the highest efforts of medical skill. All disease is due to a disturbance of, or a departure from, some law of nature. The normal condition of animal existence is perfect health. Sickness is not for- tuitous or accidental, but, like all other phenomena, is subject to the jurisdiction of cause and effect. Under- lying the whole system of medical science is the all-per- vading fact that every breath of the nostrils, every drop of blood in the veins, every flutter of the nerves and every throb of pain, is governed by a law as immutable as the law of gravitation. All argumentation leading to correct conclusions in medicine must proceed from this standpoint. To detect these laws, which are marvelous in number and subtlety, and to understand their operation and effect, is the achievement to which medical learning leads its votaries. Medical science is greatly indebted for its recent triumphs to the substitution of the inductive for the deductive or Aristotelian mode of reasoning, which obtained in former times ; or, in other words, the unknown is now deduced from the known, not by arguing from the general to the particular, but from 160 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. the particular to the general. Assuming (air other things being equal ) that like causes produce like effects, the law of any phenomena in pathology is to be deter- mined by analyzing and reducing those phenomena to their elemental factors, and then, by careful and exhaus- tive observation, attesting the presence or absence of all or some of these factors whenever the like pheno- mena appear ; and thus it may be found that the pres- ence of one or more of these factors always accompanies, creates or controls the phenomena. Mathematical exacti- tude may not be attainable in this way, and sometimes there may be influences at work which the most critical examination cannot detect ; but by such means the true is sifted out from the false, the cause from its concomit- ants, and mere speculation thereon is reduced to scien- tific knowledge. Materia medica is a boundless field, prospected only to a limited extent. When the cause and nature of a disease are known, the next thing is to apply a remedy. Logically, it would seem that if the cause can be and is removed, a cure would be effected ; and to that end it is generally necessary to introduce into the disordered sys- tem some foreign substance, either to eradicate the cause or neutralize and destroy its effects. This is the domain of absolute empiricism. No one, otherwise than by actual experiment, can tell whether a drug, a plant or a fluid will extirpate a disease. Possibly, there may be among the productions of nature remedies for all abnormal interruptions of health ; but all we know now is, that some maladies may be cured and others mitigated by the use of vegetable and mineral substances. Perhaps it may be allowable to suggest that physicians are inclined to reject information as to these matters not THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 161 coming from professional sources. Peruvian bark, in its various forms, is extensively and successfully used, and has a recognized place in materia medica ; but the knowledge of its medicinal virtues was derived from the fact that it was eaten by the untutored natives of the country where it grows, to counteract the malarial influences of the climate in which they live. Doubtless there are many traditions and experiments among the unlearned that may be appropriated to useful purposes by the learned. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," seems to be the correct rule in the field of empiricism. No profession affords a wider scope or higher consider- ations for industry, learning and great abilities than the medical profession ; and there is none in which there is more of ignorance and incompetency. Many unquali- fied persons find their way into the legal and clerical professions ; but they soon sink to a level corresponding to their lack of learning and abilities, because the duties of these professions are of such a public nature that people can soon distinguish between those who are fit and those who are unfit for their vocations. In these professions, and especially in the legal profession, public controversy brings into view the incompetency of the feeble-minded or half-educated contestant. All classes and ages of the living are liable to die ; and there- fore, when death comes, it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether it is inevitable, or is due to the incapac- ity of the medical attendants, and the public have poor opportunities to form a correct judgment upon the sub- ject. When disease attacks the human system, ordi- narily it encounters a natural tendency to resist and overcome the attack, and not unfrequently this tendency 162 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. prevails, irrespective of extraneous aid ; and in such a case it is difficult to tell whether the recovery is due to the skill of the doctor or the recuperative energies of his patient. My opinion is, that all the learned profes- sions are too easy of access by persons without the requisite qualifications ; and this is emphatically so as to the medical profession. The responsibilities of lawyers relate chiefly to property ; clergymen attend to the morals of the people ; but health and life are in the hands of the physician. With unbounded opportunities for doing good, the physician has infinitely greater opportunities for doing evil than any other professional man. Thousands are probably destroyed every year by persons pretending to practice medicine, and thousands of others are made wretched for life by the reckless experiments of those impostors. Society ought to be protected from this evil by the strong arm of the crimi- nal law. No man should be allowed to hold himself out to the community as a physician, unless he can fur- nish proof that he has been thoroughly educated and prepared for his profession. To make a correct diagnosis of a disease is the primary and chief necessity for its proper treatment ; and it is a plain dictate of common sense that no one can do this, especially in complex and intricate cases, who has not studied and does not understand the organs of the human body, their rela- tions to each other, and their respective functions. All men cannot be great physicians, any more than all men can be great poets or philosophers ; but, as a general rule, the most scientific will be the most skillful and successful physician. Truth, like an ever-moving drill, is constantly undermining all kinds of heresy, traditions and superstitions, and it is astonishing to THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 163 consider how many medical theories, systems and schools have been exploded under the blazing rays of science. Surgery was at one time an ignoble pursuit, and was carried on by barbers as an incident to their business ; but it has risen by scientific investigation to be one of the most learned and honorable of the professions. Few discoveries of modern times are more wonderful, and certainly none more beneficial, than the use of anaes- thetics in surgical operations. No conception can be formed of the amount of pain and suffering prevented in this way. Limbs are now amputated, and the dan- gerous and bloody work of the surgeon's knife and saw can now be performed, upon living subjects as uncon- scious of pain as though they were folded in the arms of natural sleep. Hospitals have become comparatively pleasant retreats, and grim-visaged war has been robbed of many of its ancient terrors by means of this invalu- able discovery. According to the laws of nature, all life must terminate by the lapse of time ; and it is the province of the physi- cian to contend with the multiform enemies of human existence until these laws have produced their legiti- mate results. He is called to the tender offices of the nursery, to provide for the indiscretions of youth, to re-establish the vigor of mature years, and to soften the sorrows and sufferings of decrepitude and old age. Here is a broad field for the cultivation and exercise of the noblest qualilies of human nature. To be able to interpret correctly the symptoms of a disease, and to apply the proper remedy, is, of course, the first qualifi- cation for a physician ; but there are other means by which he can contribute, if not to the health, at least to the comfort of suffering humanity. 164 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. There is no doubt that the operations of the mind have great influence upon the body, especially when it is unnerved or enfeebled by disease. Faith, it is said, will remove mountains, and confidence in the capacity and integrity of the physician is like a bow of promise in the chamber of sickness. Who has not seen the dull eye brighten and a flush mantle the pallid cheek when it has been announced that the doctor has come ? For the victims of disease and suffering, there is strength in cheerful words, hope in a smiling countenance, and courage in the confident demeanor of the physician. Sickness is no respecter of persons, and, like the wind, goeth where it listeth ; and oftentimes the physician is required to follow it to the abodes of want and desti- tution. Difficult and disagreeable duties in this way are imposed upon him, without the prospect of receiving compensation for his services. This is a severe task, but it is one that cannot properly be shunned. Human- ity demands that the impecunious, the impoverished and the immoral, as well as the more deserving, should be cared for in sickness, and no inconsiderable part of the burden falls upon the medical fraternity. This is a work that is twice blessed: "It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." Good physicians must be good Samaritans. They must exercise that charity which is "gentle and easy to be entreated." The crowning glory of a Christian civilization is its char- itable institutions. Whatever may be thought or said of religious creeds and ceremonies, the tenderness of church organizations for the poor, the unfortunate and the afflicted, their sisterhoods of charity and mercy, their homes and schools and hospitals, will make and preserve for them an impregnable wall of protection and defense. Personal courage deserves and com- mands our admiration. We call the man a hero who THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 165 faces death upon the battle-field. Our great men are those who have distinguished themselves in the brilliant and exciting scenes of war ; but the physician who is called upon to fight the wasting pestilence, who goes when bidden to the murky seats of contagion, and who confronts as duty requires the invisible arrows of death, displays as much true heroism as the fierce warrior upon fields of blood and carnage. Modern philanthropy and medical science have joined hands to promote the sanitary interests of the people. Medical societies, boards of health and quarantine regu- lations are efficient means, not only for the advancement of knowledge, but for the preservation of public health. Asylums for the insane and intemperate have been founded, and homes and hospitals established for those who, on account of their bodily infirmities, need succor, sympathy and aid. All of these beneficent institutions are more or less under the supervision of the medical profession. No one can estimate their value in pre- venting the spread of infectious and contagious dis- eases, or appreciate their influence in the prolongation of human life. Generations may come and go, but these things will go on forever. Men always have violated and always will violate the laws of their being, and those laws execute themselves. No judge or jury is required, but pain and suffering follow the transgression with as much certainty as night follows the day. Microbes float in the atmosphere and poison the air we inhale. Our labors and pleasures are full of pitfalls and perils, and whatever may befall other avoca- tions, the services of the physician and surgeon will always be in demand. Ambition agitates and pervades our age and country. Some seek for glory in the achievements of war, some for distinction in the accumulation of wealth, and others 166 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. aspire to office and power ; but there is no ambition more useful than the ambition to combat and conquer the mul- titudinous ills which afflict the human family. Every man who belongs to a profession contributes something to its honor and elevation, or something to its discredit and dishonor. To know a rule of practice is good, but it is better to know the reasons of the rule. There is a philosophy in every science ; and the deeper the practi- tioner goes into that, the higher he will rise in his pro- fession. Many professional men are content with the knowledge they acquire in learning their profession. They stop studying, and they stop growing. Their "Castle of Indolence" is a fortress of mediocrity. Different men no doubt have different aptitudes for dif- erent spheres of life. Some are born with a poetical faculty, some have a natural taste for painting, and some have an innate adaptability for the learned pro- fessions not possessed by others ; but it not infrequently happens that the untiring student outstrips his more brilliant but less industrious competitor. To be what he ought to be and may be, the physician should aim to be respectable, if not distinguished, in his profession. He may plod along in obscurity for a mere livelihood, or he may be a leader in the ranks, a "hero in the strife." Success is not a chance in a lottery, but the prize of a struggle. Professional men must ' ' learn to labor and to wait." True merit will generally find its just reward. " Seest thou a man diligent in his busi- ness? He shall stand before kings." And let it be remembered that " Perseverance Keeps honor bright. To have done, is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery." THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 167 THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE EXPOSITION IN PORTLAND, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 18, 1891. This is the opening day of the greatest exposition, in some respects, ever held upon the Pacific Coast. I do not refer so much to the size of the building, or to the number of persons present, as to the completeness, har- mony and excellence of the arrangements the multi- tudinous productions of diversified industry and the extraordinary collections of music and art. Good judg- ment and good taste have made this place look like those enchanted castles of which we read. Inventions of almost every description, combining utility and beauty ; music laden with melodies from the halls of the Monte- zumas ; paintings of the old masters from the most renowned galleries of the East, make this an exhibi- tion of surpassing attractiveness and beauty. We owe to the Giver of all good our grateful acknowledgment for the auspicious circumstances under which we are assembled. A glorious summer is gliding into a golden an tu inn. No cloudbursts, cyclones or hailstorms have devastated our state ; no drouth has scorched our soil with its withering breath ; no pestilence has draped our habitations in mourning ; sunshine and shower have smiled upon us with equal blessings ; the generous earth has honored the faith of the husbandman ; our store- houses and granaries are bursting with a bountiful har- vest ; and it is true of us, what the poet said of a less favored country : " How has kind heaven adorned this happy land. And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand." 168 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. We have come here to see the evidences of our growth and prosperity. People are here who came to this state when there were no towns or cities, stages or steamboats, within its borders. Some are here, to see these wonder- ful achievements of industry and art, who knew and remember Oregon when the Indian pony and canoe were its only means of transportation, and herds of timid deer fed undisturbed upon its unshorn meadows. How marvelous to them must all these changes, which they have witnessed, appear ! How wonderful the transformation from the scantiness of pioneer life to this vast scene of magnificence and beauty ! They can bear witness to what civilization has done for a country. Among other noticeable things, they have seen a revolu- tion in farming operations. Once, within their knowl- edge, the farmer plodded his weary way behind his plow, or with toilsome step followed his harrow ; but now, if he chooses, he rides at his ease in these occupations. Once, within their knowledge, the sower carried the seed upon his shoulder, and scattered it with his single hand ; but now he rides a machine that performs that labor with wonderful speed and accuracy. Once, within their knowledge, the implements for making hay were the scythe, the pitchfork and the hand-rake, and the harvest- ing was done by one to cut down the grain, and another to follow, binding it into sheaves ; but now machines propelled by horse-power, with their numerous knives and wheels and bands, have made all this work more of a pastime than a drudgery, as it formerly was, to the farmer. From the ground to the granary there is a succession of machines, seeming to possess every power necessary for the cultivation of the earth, excepting the intelligence THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 169 of man. Within these walls, all these labor-saving inventions are put upon competitive exhibition. Here all those interested can see what science has done to substitute the use of iron, steel and wood, for the wear and tear of the muscles, sinews and nerves of the human system. Contiguous to this building is an enclosure in which are representatives of the horses, cattle, sheep and swine of our state. Some of us, who can remember when our stock consisted chiefly of cay- use horses and Spanish cattle, can duly appreciate this part of the exposition. Here is a department in which the ambition of the farmer can find its highest gratifi- cation. Pictures of cattle, sheep and horses are the common features of a beautiful landscape, and great painters have made them the subject of the highest art. We have here horses, cattle and sheep that would delight the eyes of a Landseer and baffle the skill of a Rosa Bonheur. Our exhibits of grains, vegetables, fruits and flowers are fit not only to challenge universal admiration, but to show the unsurpassed fertility of our soil, and the variety of its productions. We can show specimens of wheat as good as the earth ever produced, with specimens of vegetables and fruits that will com- pare favorably with similar productions in any part of the world. Spread out before us are ores from our mines, indicat- ing the inexhaustible stores of wealth that our moun- tains and rocks bear in their bosoms. We live in a land congenial to the growth of flowers ; they speak to us in a language of many meanings ; they teach, with their graceful forms and peerless colors, the highest lessons of art ; they smile upon us with a refining influence, and goodness and purity are affiliated with the love of their 170 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. cultivation. When I see upon the window-sill or door- step of a dwelling a bunch of growing flowers, I feel sure that within that home, however poor or humble it may be, there is a sentiment which under favorable cir- cumstances would expand into an exalted life. " Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine." One thought rises above all others in connection with this great exposition, and that is the thought of improve- ment. Every year breaks the record of every preced- ing year with something new and better. Does human progress belong to Infinity? Or, if not, when and where shall we find its end ? Man may come and man may go, but it seems that the increase of knowledge, like Ten- nyson's brook, is to "go on forever." The wonder of the age is the appropriation of invisible forces to produce practical results. Great ships navigate the seas without any visible means of propulsion ; and an unseen hand, with unerring skill, controls the compass of the mariner. Railroad trains rush over the land in all directions, driven by the struggles of an unseen giant to escape from his iron prison. Cars filled with people dash along our streets with no motive power to be seen, and nothing to be heard but the rattling of rapid wheels and the ringing of warning bells. When the shadows of night gather over our cities, from out the invisible world there come upon the darkness a thousand brilliant lights, in whose presence the moon and stars "pale their ineffectual fires." Messages are transported from place to place, and to distant parts of the world, by a flash of unseen lightning ; and conversation is carried on, with THE PORTLAND EXPOSITION. 171 miles between the speakers. When the proper time arrives, all these ponderous machines will be set in motion, and this great building made to tremble, by a power that no eye can see, and no hand can touch. Byron's apostrophe to the ocean may fitly be addressed to electricity, "boundless, endless and sublime." Every few days, we are told of some new discovery or new application of this inscrutable force, and we try in vain to imagine what miracles in this line the future will reveal. We ought to be made wiser and better by what we see and hear in this exposition. There are books in what is made by man, and sermons in what is raised from the earth. We can here take in at a glance what has cost others years of study and labor to create. The ages have been formulating lessons for our instruction. There are ideas in iron, thoughts in wood, and suggestions in structure, which may be made the subject of profitable reflections. We are surrounded here by a wilderness of beautiful things ; and the poet has prettily said that "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever : Its loveliness increases ; it will never Pass into nothingness." Things of beauty are closely allied to the good, the true and the pure, and as distinctly foreign to the base, the sordid and the savage. There is a benefit as well as a pleasure in looking at beautiful things. They quicken the finer sensibilities of our natures : they mirror themselves in our thoughts : they lift us with an elevating tendency toward a higher life. To crown all this magnificent display, these halls are to be filled even- day, while the exposition continues, with a "concord of sweet sounds." Of all the means 172 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. devised to please mankind, music is the most univers- ally employed to that end. Wedding marches and funeral dirges, military airs and sacred melodies, are common to all civilized countries and all conditions of people. Music gives to our homes a foretaste of heaven, enlivens the services of the sanctuary with its inspiring strains, and draws to the ballroom and theater with its "voluptuous swell." Our highest conception of hap- piness is to enjoy the harmonies of the heavenly world. Thousands will come to occupy seats in the grand gallery around us who will temporarily drown the cares and troubles of life in waves of music, floating heavenward from this stand to fill their ears and captivate their thoughts and feelings. Everybody is invited to this exposition, and especially those who live in this great northwestern part of our country, of which Portland is the metropolis. Mer- chants, manufacturers, farmers, miners and mechanics are expected to hold a great convention here for their mutual instruction and improvement. Here they can combine business and pleasure. Let all come, and a cordial welcome is extended to all. Here are useful lessons for the men, recreation and rest for the women, and innocent amusements for the children. Let us hope that all things here will work together for good, and that in after time we may look back with pleasure to the Portland Exposition of 1891. JUDGE MATTHEW P. DEADY. 173 JUDGE MATTHEW P. DEADY. ADDRESS UPON HIS DEATH, DELIVERED AT PORTLAND, OREGON. APRIL 1, 1893. May It Please the Court : Since the death of Judge Deady, those mournful lines of the poet Moore have frequently come into my mind : I feel like one who treads alone some banquet hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed. When I came to Oregon in 1853, with an appoint- ment as Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the ter- ritory, I found Judges Deady and Olney here as associ- ate justices of that court. They are now both dead, and I am the sole survivor of all those who were judges under the territorial government of Oregon. I was seventy years old last Sunday, and celebrated my birth- day by following to the grave one whom I had known for forty years, and whose age, less a year and two months, was also three-score years and ten. I recur to the time when I was associated with Judges Deady and Olney in the territorial government, with agreeable recollections. Our personal and official rela- tions were kindly and cordial, though all of us were somewhat firm and unyielding in our opinions ; and I now recall one instance when we sat down at a table in my residence at Salem to consider a case, and continued the discussion, with no little animation, until we adjourned for breakfast in the broad daylight of the next morning. 174 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Judges Deady and Olney were both men of fine natural abilities, and in those early days were compelled, in the discharge of their official duties, to rely more upon their brains than upon their books. The results were emi- nently satisfactory. We were all of us at that time comparatively young men, full of ambition, energy and hope, and with bright anticipations as to the future of the new country with which we then became identified. As to the state, our anticipations have been realized. I knew Olney in Iowa, as a lawyer and a judge. He was elected judge of the second judicial district at the first election under the state organization in 1847 ; and I was chosen, at the same election, judge of the first judicial district of that state. Judge Olney was mod- est, retiring and rather eccentric, but no ordinary man. I have come in contact with a great many lawyers in the course of a professional experience of nearly fifty years ; but I have never met one who, in my judgment, could dovetail the facts and circumstances of a case together with more completeness and convincing effect than Cyrus Olney : but, notwithstanding this, my opin- ion is that his qualifications for a judge were not equal to those possessed by Judge Deady. Poets, painters and orators are not made, but born ; that is to say, any one of these, to become great, must have a natural aptitude for his vocation : and this holds true, I believe, as to judges. Judge Deady had by nature a judicial mind. His inclination and practice were to drive through the technicalities to the vital points of a case. When he made up his mind that a certain result in a case was right, he was accustomed to remove with a strong hand all obstacles to the attainment of that end. JUDGE MATTHEW P. DEADY. 175 There were some things about Judge Deady that I did not particularly admire, but there was one thing about him that commanded my highest admiration : there was no sign or taint of the demagogue about him. He was independent and fearless. He was unmoved by popular prejudice or public censure. He was not always looking out of the windows of the court-house to see which way the popular breeze was blowing. When a corporation was a party to a suit before him, he was not afraid to decide in favor of the corporation because it might expose him to newspaper criticisms ; and when a poor and friendless Chinaman was before him as a liti- gant, he was not afraid to decide in favor of the China- man because the decision might be unpopular. He had the courage to make his judgments according to his convictions. I know of no higher praise that I can bestow upon a judge than to say of him that he admin- istered the law without fear, favor or affection. We shall see Judge Deady no more upon the bench ; but he will continue to speak to us. We shall cite and read his decisions, and they will be referred to and read in our hearing. Though dead, in this respect he remains with us. His written opinions have spread his fame to all parts of the United States, and they will stand, an imperishable monument to his memory. No hand has been so strongly and deeply impressed upon the legislative and judicial history of Oregon as that of Judge Deady ; and those who come after us will read of his actings and doings with feelings of pride, and a profound sense of gratitude for his services to the state. 176 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. ADDRESS UPON THE 400th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS, DELIVERED AT PORTLAND, OREGON, OCTOBER 22, 1892. Every student of history must have observed that there are periods in the course of time when a group of great men appears like a constellation in the heavens ; and that there are other long periods when no remark- able personage appears to attract the gaze of mankind, and break the monotony of the times. Christopher Columbus was the cotemporary of great men and great events. ^While Martin Luther and John Calvin were hurling defiance at the Roman pontiff, and striking titantic blows for religious freedom, and Ignatius Loyola was founding the most powerful relig- ious body ever known, to defend and support the papal power ; while the great sculptor, painter, and architect, Michael Angelo, was at work upon St. Peter's at Rome, and that great astronomer, Copernicus, was explaining the clockwork of the skies, Christopher Columbus was making a new geography of continents and seas, and demonstrating the rotundity of the earth. Europe experienced a new life with the discovery of a new world. Letters broke out of monastic cells, in which they had been slumbering for ages ; art was revived, and reappeared in forms of Grecian grace and Roman majesty; and science, throwing off its mediaeval shackles, surveyed the heavens with a new vision of their harmony, and sailed the seas with new ideas as to the conformation of the earth. Ambition and avarice, THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 177 no doubt, had their influence ; but the commotions, changes and discoveries of that day were chiefly due to convulsions in the religious world. That was an age in which everybody was ruled and everything was done in the name of religion ; and the teaching of the church was the standard by which every enterprise was approved or condemned. Asia was lying adjacent to Europe on the east ; but Columbus conceived the idea that he could reach Asia by sailing westward from the coast of Spain, an idea involving the conception of the globular form of the earth. When he made known his theory, it was opposed by principalities and powers in church and state, chiefly upon the ground that it was in conflict with the cos- mogony of the Bible. Columbus was a devout Catholic, and did not question the authority of his church ; but the innovating spirit of the age seems to have caught his intellectual vision, and lifted it above the prevailing ignorance and prejudice of his country. To estimate the greatness of a successful man, it is necessary to consider the circumstances under which he achieved success. Greatness, as the world esteems great- ness, is a relative term. Shakespeare says that "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' 1 Columbus, as much as any man, achieved his greatness ; and the proof of this is not only found in his great voyage, but in the pro- tracted and tremendous struggle he was compelled to make to provide ways and means for that voyage. Men, money and ships were necessary to his great undertak- ing ; and of these he had none. He asked his native city, Genoa, for help ; but his application was treated with derision and contempt. He appealed to King John 178 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. of Portugal, and was turned away empty. He inter- viewed dukes and lords upon his favorite topic without success, and, as a last resort, petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and L/eon for aid. His petition was referred to a junta of ecclesiastics, and rejected on account of its alleged visionary and heretical views ; and so, for nearly twenty years, he traveled, argued, impor- tuned and toiled, until penury compelled him to beg for his daily subsistence. " God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." So it happened that while begging at the door of a monastery for bread and water, he found a congenial spirit in a good friar who listened to his glowing words, and took an interest in his project ; and through his priestly influence, Queen Isabella was induced to recall her first decision, and to furnish Columbus with the necessary men and supplies for his contemplated voyage. No man ever encountered greater discouragements, and no man was ever more determined not to be discouraged. He was considered a lunatic by the state, and a heretic by the church. He was sneered at, ridiculed, denounced and persecuted ; but he maintained his convictions, and stood unshaken by the storms of opposition about him, like Teneriffe amid the waves of the ocean. Columbus personified the sublimity of faith : while he appeared to be baffled on every hand, some good angel was continu- ally whispering in his ear those words of immortal import, u According to your faith be it unto you." It takes great faith to make a great man. Columbus had faith in his convictions, faith in his courage, faith in his capacity, and, above all, faith in God. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 179 It is impossible to tell how much religious zeal had to do with the discovery of America ; but it was no small factor in that event. To increase the wealth and power of Spain was the ambition of Columbus ; but to spread the Catholic religion was his inspiration. Apparently, his devotion to the church was not weakened by its antagonism to his studies of geography. Priest and peasant were alike ignorant upon that subject. Juan Perez Marchena, the good friar who assisted Columbus, and whose name ought not to be forgotten upon an occa- sion of this kind, belonged to an order whose lives were wholly given up to their church ; and no doubt his zeal was influenced by the prospect that if Columbus discovered new lands, they would add to the dominion of the papal see. Queen Isabella was a religious fanatic, and, next to the interest of her throne, her ambition was to broaden the boundaries and strengthen the power of the Roman Catholic church. On the third day of August, 1492, with three small vessels and 120 men, Columbus set sail upon his memor- able voyage. There are few examples in history of such courage. We cannot understand how he was able to supply his ships with men. Before them was an ocean, "boundless, endless and sublime." No sail had ever struggled with its mighty winds, and no keel had ever parted its measureless billows. Everything was shrouded in an awful uncertainty. Every day carried the men upon their ships further from home and friends ; and every day bore them on further into the vast unknown. Naturally, they would be afraid under such circumstances ; and finally they became so alarmed by real or imaginary dangers, that they were ready to sci/.e the ships, and by force turn their course homeward. 180 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Here, again, is the evidence that Columbus was a great man. Among the fearful, he alone was fearless. Difficulties and delays did not weaken his faith or cour- age ; and that he was able to control his superstitious and insubordinate sailors, shows that he was able to gov- ern men as well as to navigate the seas. On the 12th of October, 1492, that discovery was made which we have met to celebrate, a discovery, if measured by its results, second to no event in the history of the human race. Rising like the poet's Venus from the sea, a land of enchantment broke upon the vision of the once disheartened but now exultant mariners. Instead of a barren waste of waters, before them was a scene of forests luxuriant with green foliage and golden fruit, flowers of exquisite beauty and fragrance, birds of brilliant plumage, and all the gorgeous productions of a tropical climate. Columbus and his men, as they landed upon those delightful shores, bowed their heads to the earth with thankful hearts, and then and there, for the first time in the Western hemisphere, proclaimed a Christian's faith in a Christian's God. Following this momentous event came new explora- tions and new discoveries, and the occupation of the American continent by the people of the Old World. This theme suggests thoughts that overwhelm the mind. I take up one idea : others, no doubt, will dis- cover different aspects of the subject. I have said that religion had much to do with the discovery of America: it is also true that religion had much to do with its settlement. It may sound strange to say that religious persecutions have been fruitful of blessings to mankind, but the same idea is substantially expressed in the say- ing that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 181 church." Prior to the year 1600, all of the United States north of Florida was an unbroken wilderness. There was no sound of civilization anywhere to dis- turb its gloomy solitudes. Religious persecutions were incident to the religious disturbances of the old world. Catholics persecuted Protestants, and Protestants perse- cuted Catholics. America was looked upon as a land in which there was no priest or king, and where those denied their religious freedom in Europe could enjoy the rights of conscience. In 1620, a little band of peo- ple, persecuted on account of their religious faith, sailed from Holland in the Mayflower, and on the 21st day of December of that year, amid the storms of a northern winter, landed upon "a wild New England shore." "What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine ? The wealth of seas ? The spoils of war ? They sought a faith's pure shrine." Whatever may be said of the motives of Columbus, and of those who contributed to the discovery of America, no one can doubt that civilization is indebted to religion for the yet unconquered banner of freedom that was raised upon Plymouth Rock. I agree that the Puritans were not as liberal or tolerant as they ought to have been, or as their descendants are ; but, notwith- standing all that can truthfully be said against them, my opinion is that the political, religious and educa- tional institutions and influences proceeding from them have contributed as much to the growth, prosperity and greatness of the American republic as all other influ- ences combined, if not more. Later on, the Huguenots were driven from France by religious persecutors, and, fleeing across the ocean, col- onized the Carolinas with a people who had left home 182 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. and friends and native land to find a place where they could worship God according to their own convictions. They were a brave, high-spirited, self-reliant people, and have had a powerful influence in moulding the institutions of the southern states. We are accustomed to speak harshly of the intoler- ance and bigotry of Christianity in the days of Colum- bus and the Puritans ; but, evil as these influences were, it cannot be said of them that they were altogether bad. Generally, outside of statecraft, a persecuting spirit in religion springs out of deep and strong convictions, which make men of positive strength and power. Take, for example, the Scotch Presbyterians, imbued with the uncompromising spirit of John Knox. Take the followers of Oliver Cromwell, so fervent in prayer and so terrible in battle, or the French Protestants, whose leader was the plumed knight of Navarre. They were religious bigots ; but they were mighty men of force and valor, and struck blows for God and right that will resound " to the last syllable of recorded time." We can form some estimate of the early settlers of this country by comparing them with the foreigners who are now flocking to the United States. Better a thou- sand times the Puritans of New England, the Catholics of Maryland, and the Huguenots of South Carolina, with their illiberal sentiments upon the subject of relig- ion, whatever they were, than the hordes of anarchists and infidels who are now pouring into our country and poisoning our political and social life with their pernici- ous doctrines. Four hundred years have passed away since Columbus discovered America, and every year has added to the evidence that the Christian religion is the true conserv- ative force of good government and good society. I THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. speak now exclusively from the standpoint of a citizen, without reference to any sect or denomination of Chris- tians, but with express reference to those rules of human conduct accepted as Divine teachings by all Christendom. Theological creeds, doctrines and dog- mas, about which men differ, divide the Christian world into numerous sects ; but these do not necessarily affect the relations or duties of man to his fellow-men. Citi- zenship is not especially concerned with the apostolic succession, predestination, the form of baptism, or any other sectarian question. I do not mean to detract from the importance of these in a strictly religious or spirit- ual sense ; but what I mean to say is, that any man who accepts and acts upon those Divine teachings as to which all Christians agree, will and must be a good citizen. Our country is greatly disturbed by a bitter and some- times bloody contest between capital and labor. Pub- licists and lawmakers are proposing and trying to settle the difficulty by the interposition of the government ; but their efforts will amount to little or nothing. Legis- lation can never reconcile nor overcome the differences between capital and labor. Our Divine Master has given to the world an absolute solution of the great problem. Whenever men can overcome their selfishness and greed of gain so as to do unto others as they would have others do to them, then, and not till then, will the conflict between labor and capital cease to exist. That this consummation, so devoutly to be wished, will ever come, seems improbable ; but every influ- ence that softens the heart and awakens the sym- pathies of man for his fellow-man, will bring the world a little nearer to universal peace and harmony. While it must be admitted that many wicked men are working mischief under the cloak of religion, I affirm and evcrv man of observation knows it to be- true 184 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. that the nearer any individual class or community of individuals comes to the standard of living set up by the Founder of Christianity, the better citizens they will be ; and that if all would come up to that standard, there would not be a jail or a penitentiary in the land, or a saloon at work making criminals and paupers. While we honor the memory of Columbus, we remem- ber with gratitude the hardships, privations and perils of the men and women who have carried the ark of Christian civilization from one side to the other of the American continent. In so far as self-denial, courage and inflexibility of purpose go to make up greatness, our great men have lived in the log cabins of the coun- try. Stress of circumstances compelled them to fight untamed Nature for a livelihood, and wild Indians for their lives. Their homes were in the solitudes of the wilderness, their faithful dogs and trusty rifles their needful champions and friends. They pushed aside the wigwam and war-dance with the school-house and the church. They have made the way for us to this beauti- ful land. Here is the end of all that Columbus dis- covered. Here is the final resting-place of the pioneer. Going westward, emigration has travelled around the globe, and now looks out upon the waters from whose western shores it started. Here the East and the West come together ; and whatever there may be to excite our fears, we may hope that, under God, future genera- tions will find this last meeting-ground of nations and races a place where mercy and truth are met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 185 THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, PORTLAND, OREGON. OCTOBER 13. 1K93. On motion of Reverdy Johnson, at one time Attorney- General, and afterwards a senator in Congress from Maryland, I was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in 1865. Salmon P. Chase was then Chief-Jus- tice, and the associates were James M. Wayne, Robert C. Grier, Noah H. Swayne, David Davis, Samuel Nel- son, Nathan Clifford, Samuel F. Miller and Stephen J. Field. All of these, excepting Justice Field, are now dead. I was in Washington at the inauguration of Franklin Pierce in 1853, and attended some of the ses- sions of the Supreme Court at that time. That court then consisted of Roger B. Taney, Chief-Justice, and John McLean, James M. Wayne, John Catron, Peter Y. Daniel, Samuel Nelson, Robert C. Grier, Benjamin R. Curtis and John A. Campbell, associates, none of whom are now living. I never saw Taney, Catron or Daniel afterward, and have no very distinct impressions as to Catron or Daniel ; but Chief-Justice Taney was a notice- able man, and his appearance is still daguerreotyped upon my memory. He was a tall, angular and exceed- ingly slim man. Apparently, there was little or no flesh upon his bones ; and his face was deeply furrowed by the ravages of time. His eyes, surmounted by shaggy eye- brows, were deeply set under a remarkably low forehead. There was a rough and rugged distinctness about all his features. He was appointed Chief-Justice in 1S3<>, and died in office when he was eighty eight years old. He 186 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. was eighty years of age when he delivered the opinion of the court in the celebrated Dred Scott case. Public sentiment and subsequent events have overruled that opinion, but it cannot be denied that it not only proves the great ability of its author, but that eighty years had not impaired in any sensible degree his intellectual faculties. While I differ decidedly from his conclu- sions, I cannot be blind to the perspicuity and strength with which he states his views ; and, without question, that opinion is the most persuasive argument for the extension of slavery under the old Constitution ever put upon record. Chief-Justice Taney was gentle and gracious in his deportment, and possessed all the suaviter in modo of an old-fashioned Southern gentle- man. Marshall was chief-justice thirty-four and Taney thirty-two years. My relations with Chief-Justice Chase, the successor of Tauey, were something more than official. From about the time of his appointment until his death, we were neighbors and social friends. Chase was a charm- ing man, with great faculties, but enthralled by an overpowering ambition to become President of the United States. He was a victim of that "Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself, And falls on t'other side." He took little or no pride in the high office which he held, and its labors and duties appeared to be irksome to him. When spoken to about his exalted position, he disdainfully declared that it was nothing literally noth- ing. Like Hainan, of Biblical fame, he could not be happy while he saw another sitting in the Presidential chair. His distinction, before he became Secretary of THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 187 the Treasury, was chiefly due to his anti-slavery senti- ments, and the zeal and ability with which he opposed the enforcement of the fugitive slave law in Ohio. But after he became Chief-Justice, it was evident that he anchored his hope of becoming President upon the sup- port of the Democratic party. He foresaw what has come to pass, that for a generation the Presidential candidates of the Republican party would be taken from the generals of the Union army. He made a tremend- ous effort to be nominated by the Democratic National Convention in New York in 1868, but failed, and died broken-hearted, if political disappointment ever broke the heart of a man. Chief-Justice Chase, both in form and features, was a handsome man, and in his manners combined dignity, elegance and refinement. He was assisted in his social duties by his daughter, Mrs. Sena- tor Sprague, whose beauty and accomplishments were unequaled in Washington society. Justice Clifford was the senior justice by commission, and therefore became acting Chief-Justice upon the death of Chase. From March, 1865, to March, 1871, I was a fellow-boarder at the National Hotel with Justice Clifford, Justice Nelson, Justice Davis, and for a large part of the time with Justice Miller. Justice Clifford was a large man, and the impersonation of the highest style of judicial decorum and propriety. He was proud of his official position, and the uppermost thought of his mind in the presence of others appeared to be, "I am a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and don't you forget it." He was not credited by the legal profession with abilities of the highest order, but he was a most industrious and conscientious judge. He prepared his opinions with great care. I have frequently 188 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. seen him writing them when most of the inmates of the hotel were wrapped in their midnight slumbers. One of his peculiarites was his implacable hostility to the articles of the English language. He was a justice of the Supreme Court for nearly twenty-four years, and delivered a great number of opinions during that time, but I do not believe that a sentence can be found in those opinions commencing with the definite article "the" or the indefinite article "a" or "an." When one of his associates quizzed him a little about his studied disuse of the articles, it is said that he quite tartly replied : " Sir, my opinions are the opinions of the court, but their style is my own." One can see, in reading his opinions, that they are fash- ioned in the same mold, and, so far as forms of expres- sion are concerned, are as much alike as peas in the same pod. It is the invariable custom of the Supreme Court, at the beginning of each session, to call upon the President in a body, accompanied by the Attorney-Gen- eral. It became my official duty to attend upon one occasion of this kind, with Clifford acting as Chief-Jus- tice, and the extreme punctiliousness with which he conducted that ceremony was interesting to behold. Chief-Justice Chase died May 7th, 1873, and Presi- dent Grant made the mistake of not nominating his successor until the meeting of Congress in the following December. This delay caused him great trouble. I was favorable to the appointment of Justice Miller ; but the President was unwilling to discriminate between the judges on the bench, and determined to adhere to precedent and take an outside man. Accordingly, the appointment was tendered to Roscoe Conkling. To the great disappointment of the President, Mr. Conkliug THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 189 declined the office. He would have made a splendid Chief-Justice ; but he was just commencing a term in the Senate, and without doubt the White House was the goal of his ambition. Conkling's forensic abilities were great, and he was great on the floor of the Senate, but he lacked coolness of judgment and self-control. He was proud, overbearing, impetuous and vain, but withal a friend to be loved and a foeman to be feared. Mr. Conkling's refusal to accept the office left the President in a sea of perplexity. Candidates were numerous and their friends importunate. Caleb dishing was nomi- nated, but an old letter that he had written to Jefferson Davis at the commencement of the civil war was dug up, and he was unceremoniously rejected by the Senate. No man of his day was better equipped than Caleb Gushing for any office. He was a scholar, statesman and lawyer of many and varied attainments. Whether justly or not I do not know, but there seemed to be among many persons a lack of confidence in his integrity of character. He was slovenly in his habits, and careless of his reputation. He lived chiefly to him- self and in the society of his books. President Grant, without my knowledge or consent, nominated me, after the rejection of dishing. I had no reason to expect any support from the Democrats in the Senate, because I had been during the war, and was then, their active and unsparing opponent ; but I was surprised, and so was the President, at the oppositon of some of the Republican senators. I had been twice confirmed by the Senate, once for High Joint Commissioner to make the Treaty of Washington, and again for Attorney-General, without the usual reference of my name to a committee. I shall not go into that matter at this time ; suffice it to say that 190 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. the reasons for the Republican opposition to me in the Senate were not such as were given to the public by the newspapers. Finding 'that the Senate would not act upon my nomination, and after six weeks of suspense, I requested the President to withdraw my name, which he did with reluctance, and with the assurance that, if I so desired, he would stand by me to the bitter end. Things had assumed such a shape with reference to this office at that time that a "dark horse" to use a political expression became a necessity. Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, was supposed to be sufficiently obscure to meet the requirements of the occasion. One can readily imagine the surprise of Mr. Waite when I telegraphed to know if he would accept the office of Chief-Justice. He had never dreamed of such a thing. He, of course, accepted, and was nominated and confirmed. Judge Waite, at the time of his appointment, had never held a federal office, had never argued a case in the Supreme Court, and was comparatively unknown in Washington. He had, however, been an assistant of Gushing and Evarts before the Geneva tribunal to adjust the Alabama claims, had an excellent local rep- utation, and was regarded by those who knew him as a careful, painstaking and conscientious lawyer. Greater men, no doubt, have been judges, but no better man than Morrison R. Waite ever graced the bench of the Supreme Court. I knew him intimately after he came to Washington, and I believe that those who knew him best loved him most. He was a plain, practical, sens- ible man, and conducted the business of the Supreme Court in an efficient and business-like manner. When I commenced practice in Washington, Samuel Nelson, of New York, had for many years been a justice THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 191 of the Supreme Court. He was the Chesterfield of that august body. His long, flowing hair, white as silver, gave to him a venerable appearance ; but there was an elasticity in his movements which a more youthful man might envy. Having been a fellow-boarder with him for several years, I had an opportunity to observe his unof- ficial life. He was an elegant old gentleman, with man- ners that a cavalier of the olden time might be supposed to have, and as a lady's escort he was without a peer in the official circles of Washington. We were together members of the High Joint Commission to make the Treaty of Washington, and I saw him almost every day for three months while that commission was in session. Though he was a judge of the Supreme Court of New York for fourteen years, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for twenty-seven years, and had many accomplishments, I cannot say that he appeared to me to be more or less than a dignified, courtly gentleman of respectable talents. Noah H. Swayne was appointed justice of the Supreme Court in 1862, and died in 1882. Judging from what I have seen and heard, I do not think his merits have been fully appreciated by his professional brethren. He was an eminent judge, with all that the term "eminent" implies. He was a large, well-pro- portioned and fine-looking man, and his presence alone was enough to impress one with the strength of his char- acter. His opinions are models of clearness, force and brevity. They are epigrammatic in style. He did not leave the reader of what he wrote in any doubt as to hi* meaning. I think his opinions may be studied with profit by every lawyer who expects to be a jiul^e. Justice Swayne was a very wealthy man, and told me how he 192 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. made his fortune. When he was a young man, practis- ing law at Toledo, Ohio, he received from New York a demand of about $3000 for collection. He sued, obtained judgment, and caused the real estate of the debtor, adjacent to the town, to be sold on execution. He bid in the property for his clients, but they refused to take it, and compelled him to pay the amount of the judgment in money. He told me that he had sold one- half of that property for $500,000, and that the remain- ing one-half was worth not less than that sum. I can speak of Justice Miller more knowingly than of his associates, because I was acquainted with him long before his elevation to the bench. He came to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1850, where I was then circuit judge, and practised before me for the ensuing two years. I at once recognized his abilities. He was not remarkable for his scholarly or professional attainments, but he had what was worth more than those for a position upon the bench : he had a natural aptitude for judicial business. He was a born judge. He had a sound, well- balanced mind, fall of good, hard sense, and the cap- acity to discriminate between the vital and inconsequen- tial points of a case. He grappled the great questions growing out of the civil war with strength and success, and his opinions stand like lighthouses along the bound- ary line between the delegated powers of the federal government and the reserved rights of the states. His opinion in the case of Watson v. Jones, 13 Wallace, 679, defines with comprehension and clearness the* cor- relative jurisdictions of civil and ecclesiastical tribunals in the United States, and is everywhere regarded as a leading authority upon that subject. Judge Miller was a very agreeable man socially, but in the later years of THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 193 his life became somewhat impatient upon the bench. He was no orator himself, and seemed to have an aversion to all attempts at oratory in court. I have seen him on more than one occasion disjoint with sharp questions a beautifully-prepared speech with which an ambitious orator expected to charm and captivate the court. One midsummer day, as it is said, he was holding court in a Western state, and a lawyer, whom we will call Brown, was addressing him in a long, rambling speech. The judge listened and fanned himself, and fidgeted around on the bench for some time, and, finally, leaning over his desk, said in an audible whisper : " D n it, Brown, come to the point !" "What point?" inquired the astonished lawyer. u Any point," responded the judge ; and though the sequel does not appear, it is probable that there was a rapid condensation of talk in that court- room after this short colloquy. A woman in Illinois claimed that under the Constitution of the United States she had a right to vote. The judges of the election and the state courts decided against her. She appealed to the Supreme Court, and employed Matt Carpenter. No one appeared for the defendant in error, and Carpenter commenced his speech by saying that a lawyer could not be expected to make much of an argument where there was no opposition. He proceeded, however, and very soon Judge Miller commenced to ask questions which Carpenter found it difficult to answer ; but he floundered along an hour or two under a fire of interrogations from the judge, and concluded by saying, with a graceful bow, "I thank the court for the necessary opposition." Judge Miller was on the bench of the Supreme Court twenty-nine years, and his opinions during that period, if properly collated, would make an admirable treatise on many branches of American jurisprudence. 194 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Justice Field was appointed in the same year with Miller, and is the only justice now on the Supreme bench who was there while I was in the Department of Justice. He might fitly be addressed as Webster addressed Lafayette: "Venerable man, you have come down to us from a former generation. " Justice Field has a fine mind, thoroughly educated and trained for the legal profession. His opinions excel in literary merit, and are characterized by vigor and sometimes pungency of expression. He is an independent thinker and writer. With him, the unexpected often happens. He is a Democrat in politics ; but he vigorously dissented from the decision of the court, though made by Repub- licans, in the celebrated " slaughter-house cases, " on the ground that they went too far in the direction of state's rights. His residence is in California, where there are more Chinese and more clamor and prejudice against that race than in any part of the United States ; but he dissented in a spirited manner from the decision of the court affirming the Geary law. Most of the cases as to Mexican land grants in California, and all, or nearly all of the mineral-land cases, and many of the cases as to railroad grants, have been referred to Judge Field to write the opinions of the court ; and these opinions have not only reflected credit upon their author, but have been of great benefit to the country in settling questions involving vast amounts of property. Judge Field is now seventy-seven years old, but neither age nor cus- tom has dimmed the brightness of his intellect. Robert Grier was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court in 1848, and resigned, on account of ill health, in 1870. He was a man of rugged characteristics. He knew what he wanted to do, and was not afraid to do it. THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 195 He had what a good many judges need judicial backbone. I have heard this story about him. There was a case in his court in which the owner of a farm sued to recover its possession from an intruder. The title of the plaintiff was perfect ; but the counsel for the defendant denounced the plaintiff as rich and grasping, claimed that his client was a poor man with a large family, and so worked upon the prejudices and sympa- thies of the jury that they returned a verdict for the defendant. Judge Grier said : u Mr. Clerk, you may receive that verdict and enter an order setting it aside. I want it understood that it takes thirteen men in this court to steal a man's farm." Myra Clark Gaines claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of one Clark, and that she was entitled as his heir to a large part of the city of New Orleans. The Supreme Court at first decided against her, but afterward a majority of the judges decided in her favor. Judge Grier dissented from this last decision in " thoughts that breathe and words that burn." William Strong, of Pennsylvania, was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court in 1870, and resigned in 1880. My impression is that in the technical learning of the law he had no equal, certainly no superior, QII the Supreme bench. He was a state and federal judge for many years, and retired to private life with the universal plaudit of, "Well done, good and faithful servant." To my inquiry why he resigned while his health and mental powers appeared to be as good as they ever were, he answered : "I would rather go when everybody would be glad to have me stay, than to stay until every- body would be glad to have me go." 196 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. Ward H. Hunt, of New York, was a justice of the Supreme Court from 1872 to 1881. He was a gentle- man of culture and refinement After Hunt's appoint- ment, some one asked Judge Black, of Pennsylvania, what he thought of the new justice. The old judge, changing his quid of tobacco from one cheek to the other, smiled significantly and remarked: u He is a very lady-like personage." I will add, in speaking of Judge Black, that I never came in contact with a more agreeable man. He was a bed-rock Democrat, and I was a red-hot Republican, when we came together, but he seemed to be pleased with our acquaintance. So sometimes he would devote a quiet hour to conversation with me. I can see the old gentleman now with the eye of memory, composedly holding his bright steel tobacco-box between the thumb and fingers of his left hand, and twirling it with his right, while from his lips flowed a sparkling stream of wise and witty sayings. He was equally at home in the Bible, Blackstone and Shakespeare, and his memory was stored with felicitous illustrations and humorous anecdotes. He was one of the great men of his day. Justice Bradley's appointment was concurrent with that of Judge Strong. I think I am safe in saying of Justice Bradley, that he was the most scientific man ever upon the bench of the Supreme Court. I made a social call upon him one evening, and found him in his library, poring over immense sheets of paper covered with arithmetical characters ; and as I queried about their meaning, he gave me to understand that, as a sort of recreation and pastime, he was calculating a transit of Venus. Most of the patent cases, while he was on the bench, and especially the most complicated and difficult THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 197 ones, were referred to him to write the opinions of the court, and he wrote them with a fountain pen of law as well as science. He was accustomed to sit during an argument with his eyes closed, as though he was asleep ; but his ears were wide awake, and his evident object was to secure concentration of thought by shutting out distractions of sight. Justice Bradley was a small, quiet, modest man, with depth and strength reserved for all the demands of official duty. David Davis was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court in 1867, and resigned in 1872, when he was elected a senator in Congress from the state of Illinois. He was a man of large physical proportions, great wealth and good mental capacity, but it always seemed to me that he did not take that interest or pride in his judicial office exhibited by some of his associates on the bench. Day-dreams of glory in other departments of the government haunted his imagination. When he became senator, his ambition to become President deprived him of the position and influence in that body to which his abilities entitled him ; and, with all his aspirations and efforts, he turned out to be a political failure. I do not mean to say that Jus- tice Davis was not an able and upright judge. I only express my belief that he did not reach that position in the judicial history of the country which he might have attained if he had consecrated his life wholly to that end. James M. Wayne was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court in 1835, and resigned in 1867. He was a Jacksonian Democrat. He was in Congress when Jackson throttled nullification, and he voted to strengthen the hands of the President. During the war of the 198 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. rebellion, though his state seceded, he remained loyal to the Union, and his record is that of a good man, a wise judge and a true patriot. I have now mentioned all the justices of the Supreme Court before whom I had the honor to appear while I was officially connected with the government ; and, taken together, they embodied in a worthy manner the dignity and power of the most important judicial tribu- nal in the world. The Supreme Court consists of nine justices the Chief-Justice and eight associates. They are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and hold their offices during good behavior, that is to say, they cannot be removed from office otherwise than by impeachment. The sal- ary of the Chief-Justice is $10,500, and the associates each receive $10,000 per annum. There is but one term of the court in a year, beginning in October and ending, generally, in May. The daily session of the court com- mences at noon and continues till four o'clock p. M. Saturdays are consultation days. When the court is in session, the judges are robed in long, flowing black silk gowns. All persons present rise and stand as the jus- tices enter the court-room. No noise or reading of newspapers or talking is allowed, save that of the coun- sel addressing the court. When a case is called for argument, each justice is furnished with a printed copy of the record, with the briefs of counsel attached. These he takes to his residence, and upon the examina- tion determines for himself how the case ought to be decided. When all the judges are ready, they meet in consultation ; and the conclusions of the majority, if they do not all agree, make the decision of the court. The Chief-Justice designates one of the associates to write the THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 199 opinion, or, if he chooses, writes it himself. The sit- tings of the court are in the old senate-chamber. Here is where Webster, Clay and Calhoun made their great speeches. Here is where the mighty men of the law meet in forensic combat. Here is where great constitu- tional questions are discussed and decided, and here is where " the pen is mightier than the sword." Sitting in the capitol, midway between the two houses of Con- gress, and independent of both, this exalted and serene tribunal holds the balances of the government with a firm and equal hand. It guards the Constitution and protects the rights of the states. The citadel of the nation's unity is in the Supreme Court of the United States. 200 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. THE MILITIA. ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE ARMORY OF THE OREGON NATIONAL GUARD, PORTLAND, OREGON, AUGUST 6, 1887. Ladies and Gentlemen : I have not had time, within the three days since I was requested to be here, with other pressing demands upon my time, to prepare an address satisfactory to myself or suitable to this inter- esting occasion ; and this is my apology for what follows. Article II. of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States declares that "a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Experience taught the framers of the Constitution that standing armies, as they existed under monarchical gov- ernments, were a constant menace to the liberties of the people ; and therefore, though recognizing the necessity of arms, they resolved that a well-regulated militia was the only military power compatible with the existence of a free state. One of the charges brought against the King of Great Britain in the Declaration of Independ- ence, was that in times of peace he kept standing armies in the colonies, without their consent. As a general rule, standing armies in all countries have been instruments of oppression and tyranny. Despotic gov- ernments would disappear from the face of the earth, if a well-regulated militia was everywhere substituted for THE MILITIA. 201 a standing army ; because, under a militia system, the citizen and the soldier are one and the same person. A free citizen makes a free soldier. When the Constitution declares that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, it implies that any different military organization is fraught with danger ; and it also assumes, with emphatic clearness, the capability of man for self-gov- ernment. Liberty is not imperiled by this right of the citizen to bear arms, but, on the contrary, is protected and preserved in that way, under a government by the people and for the people. Intelligence, patriotism and self-interest lead the citizen to bear his arms against the equally dangerous extremes of despotism and anarchy. Militiamen organized into companies are citizens who voluntarily assume the duties and obligations of soldiers, and hold themselves in readiness to protect their coun- try from foreign invasion or domestic violence. Intelligence is an indispensable element of a well-reg- ulated militia. Organized bodies of armed men in a free state, ignorant of their relations to their govern- ment, and of their obligations to their fellow-men, are a source of weakness, and not of strength to the state. Arms can safely be entrusted to those who understand the value of law, and of the peace and good order of society. The ignorant, the vicious and tne brutal make poor soldiers as well as poor citizens. I think it is now universally admitted that the fighting capacity of an army depends as much upon its intellectual advantages as upon its animal courage ; and in a free state it is not only necessary for a soldier to know how, but to know why, and under what circumstances, it is his duty to fight. When our country is invaded by a hostile force, 202 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. it is, of course, the duty of every one to assist in repel- ling the invader ; but such an event is not likely to happen, and a conflict of arms is not probable unless domestic difficulties should arise which the civic power is too weak to suppress. Apparently, there is more danger in this country from rebellion, lawlessness, and anarchy than from a too despotic government or a foreign foe. Internal dissensions may create a state of civil war, or make deadly conflict a necessity for the safety and peace of the country ; in which unhappy event, more intelligence and a higher sense of duty and honor will be required than in a war between the United States and another country. When those who under- stand and appreciate the nature and theory of our gov- ernment and its institutions, its history and laws, the obligation of the citizen and the rights of all, associate in military companies, we may consider our militia as "well-regulated," and fit to guard the safety of the state. Education, training and discipline are essential to a soldier's accomplishments : without these, a body of armed men is a mob, and not a military organization. An untrained soldier is no more effective than an untrained pugilist. To march to time, and in order ; to handle his arms with celerity, ease and effect ; to execute move- ments according to command, are things which men cannot know by intuition, but must learn as the mechanic learns his trade. There has been considerable controversy at times about the necessity or utility of the West Point Military Academy. I am not here to defend that institution, but it must be admitted that scientific attainments are as useful in the military as in any other profession or business. Thoroughly educated THE MILITIA. 203 officers are certainly more competent than others with- out that qualification to teach and train men ; and it seems to me that our military standard is higher than it would be without the influence of the West Point Academy. Logan was a successful military commander, though without a military education ; but, after all, the efficiency of his army depended largely upon the engineering and other scholarly acquirements of his subordinate officers and men. Science and money, in these'days, are^factors in war of as much consequence to a country as the numerical force of its armies. Improve- ments in the means of military destructiveness have kept pace jWith Bother improvements of the age ; but at the same^time an enlightened humanity has divested " grim-visaged war" of many of its most revolting features. Our regular army is not in any odious sense a stand- ing army. To be sure, it is a permanent but compara- tively^diminutive organization, wholly inadequate to the purposes of an international war. It is hardly sufficient in size to garrison the different military posts of our extended country. There is no conscription to fill its ranks. Soldiers of the regular army are the voluntary subjects of military law during the terms of their enlist- ment. Time was when the rank and file of the regular army was made [up largely of the riff-raff of the Euro- pean world ; but in this respect there has been a marked improvement in its ranks. This improvement ought to be encouraged and increased. There is no reason why a soldier, in our country, should not be an intelligent, moral, high-toned man. Congress ought to hold out such pecuniary and other considerations as will induce the enlistment of such men. The more American blood 204 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. there is in our military service, the more patriotic its spirit will be. The honor of our country and the glory of its flag are reflected in the honor and pride of the American soldier. Be the merits of the regular army what they may, the people of the United States must necessarily depend upon a well-regulated militia for their protection and safety. This has been true of the past, and it will be true of the future. From the fight at Lexington, where u the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world," to the surrender at Yorktown, the banner of the Revolution was borne aloft, from one bloody field to another, by men coming from the peace- ful avocations of life. Militiamen with their trusty rifles closed the war of 1812 in a blaze of glory by the great victory at New Orleans ; Mexico was conquered by an army chiefly composed of volunteers for the war ; and when the great rebellion broke out, the regular army dwindled into a speck compared with the hundreds of thousands who rushed from their homes into that direful conflict Much credit is due, of course, to Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and the other great generals of the war ; but the Union was saved by the fighting of men who belonged to the militia of the states, many of whom sleep in unknown graves, where they bravely fought and fell. Human history, sacred and profane, is replete with the annals of war. Civilization and Christianity have won great triumphs in the enlightenment and elevation of mankind ; but they have not eradicated, and, as it seems now, never can eradicate from the human heart the love of military glory. Patriotic ardor and personal heroism have been through all time the themes of song and THE MILITIA. 205 story. The bravery of men and the beauty of women are twin pictures upon the historic page. Martial music, the waving of banners, the glitter of equipage, the grace of military evolutions in short, " the pomp and circumstance of glorious war," awaken in every bosom emotions of admiration and sympathy. War for ambi- tious purposes or national aggrandizement is to be dep- recated ; but, nevertheless, the cultivation of a military spirit among a people is not without beneficial results. Primarily, it develops an attachment to the flag which represents the integrity, honor and glory of the coun- try. There is nothing grovelling or sordid in a true military spirit. It promotes physical development, creates a feeling of self-respect and a proper sense of personal honor, and in its real character is a generous, chivalric, and courageous spirit. Voluntary associations, like the military companies in this city, are formed to foster this spirit and open a school in which the citizen may acquire the accomplish- ments of the professional soldier. What ought to commend these associations to popular favor is the fact that our most prominent and promising young men - the youthful intelligence, ambition and energy of our community enter into their formation. When for- eign or domestic foes threaten our peace, we cati trust these men ; for they are personally and deeply interested in the stability of our institutions and the supremacy of our laws. Unusual attention is directed to this subject in all parts of our country, and not without a cause. Unhap- pily, the United States have become the receptacle of the offscourings of the earth. Paupers are shipped from foreign ports to our shores, and fugitives from 206 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILUAMS. justice find here a city of refuge. Communists, socialists and nihilists the enemies of God and man are swarming from all parts of Europe to this free land, and with diabolical zeal are working up an organized hostility to the reign of law and the rights of property. To meet any possible contingency that may arise out of this state of things, it is proper, if not necessary, that law-abiding citizens should organize themselves into armed and trained associations to uphold, when- ever it is imperiled, the cause of law and order. Our experience with the motley crowd of Europeans and Asiatics flocking to this country may demonstrate the truth of that declaration in the federal Constitution that "a well-regulated militia is necessary to the secur- ity of a free state." Our legislative assembly, at its late session, passed an act to organize and regulate the militia of this state. Careful provisions are made for the enrollment of men, the appointment and election of officers, the equipment of companies, military boards and courts-martial, and all other necessary details. Companies formed by the enlistment of men are designated by this act as the "Oregon National Guard." No immediate necessity for this legislation may be apparent ; but it is a wise saying that one way to prevent war is to be prepared for it, and besides, if thoroughly carried out, this act will become educational in its influence, and a thing of joy and pride to the state. We have thousands of strong, active young men in Oregon who cannot spend their time and money to better advantage than to enroll themselves, learn the manual of arms, and submit to the instructions and discipline of a military training. Independent of these practical results, there is nothing that contributes more to the pleasure of the people upon anniversary and other public days than a military parade. THE MILITIA. 207 When we hear the music that inspired the soldiers of Washington, Scott and Grant, and see the battalions of men gracefully moving, with their arms glittering in the sunlight, under a flag " whose hues were born in heaven," we feel a glow of pride in our past his- tory and of bright hopes for the future of our country. The legislative assembly, at its last session, passed another act, authorizing county courts to erect, in cities containing over 10,000 inhabitants, armories, safe, suit- able and of sufficient size for the drill of a company. Pursuant to this act, the County Court of Multnomah County determined to erect an armory in this city ; and we have assembled to-day to lay its corner-stone. We meet under auspicious circumstances. Heaven is smil- ing upon us with sunshine and breeze : Nature has scattered its blessings and beauties around us with lavish hand : our city and state are prosperous, and our coun- try united and at peace. May we not consider these things as omens of good to this armory? When the building is finished, it will be one of the most substantial and beautiful structures in this state. It will occupy one-half of a block, at the corner of Ninth and C streets, being two hundred feet deep and one hundred feet in width, and two stories high. The lower story, with rooms twelve feet in the clear, will be built of stone, and the upper story, with a room sixteen feet in the clear, will be of brick. The roof is to be of tin, surmounted with suitable towers. The cost will be about thirty-five thousand dollars. Such a building will be a credit and an ornament to the city of Portland. The laying of this corner-stone is a deeply suggestive ceremony. It takes hold upon the boundless future. Many generations will come and go : a great city will grow up here, with its rush and rattle and noise : dumb forgetfulness will make our memories its prey, while 208 ADDRESSES BY GEORGE H. WILLIAMS. this stone remains unchanged and unmoved. While the builders, with hammer and trowel, are forming and fit- ting materials for this armory, we will build our antici- pation upon the faith that, when it is finished, it will be dedicated to the honor and glory of our country. Presuming upon the familiar adage, "Old men for counsel and young men for war," I will venture to say to the young gentlemen who may use this armory, that there are responsibilities as well as pleasures in store for them. The people who pay for this building have a right to expect that its use will be a benefit to this com- munity. Their equivalent for what they will have expended in its construction will be the improvement of those who congregate within its walls. To learn the manual of arms and perfect themselves in military prac- tices follow as a matter of course ; but the beneficiaries and graduates of this institution ought to be gentlemen as well as soldiers. There will be an opportunity and every reasonable inducement for the young man who comes here to drill, to acquire the habit of correct deportment, to cultivate self-respect and a sensitiveness to his honor, to learn civility to his superiors and polite- ness to his equals, and to become what is known to the military code as a soldier and a gentleman. This armory ought to be as sacred to good morals as a church is to religion. To indicate the character of this building, above its loftiest tower will float the flag of the United States. "Excelsior" is the appeal of its star-lit emblazonry to those who shall assemble here. While this building stands, let no unresented insult be offered to that flag, and no disloyal hand stain it with dishonor ; and when this corner-stone shall have mouldered into dust, may that beautiful emblem of our country's union and glory wave triumphantly, as it now does, "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below Form L- 23m-10,'44<24r.l) UEi? JEKSmr of CALIFORR1A AT L(X-i ANGELJBS ACS W67o Williams addresses. ACS W67o UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A A 000042