OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 BY 
 
 ELMER HEWITT CAPEN 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 1902 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1902 
 BY E. H. CAPEN 
 
 TUFTS COLLEGE PRESS 
 
TO 
 
 MY PUPILS AND OTHER FRIENDS 
 
 WHO HAVE SHOWN AN INTEREST IN MY PUBLIC 
 WORK AND FAVORED ME WITH THEIR 
 
 CONFIDENCE AND COUNSEL 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY AND 
 
 GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 M123742 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY, ORATION 
 EDWARD L. PIERCE, DINNER 
 A. A. MINER, D.D., LL.D. 
 TRIBUTE TO BENJAMIN K. Russ 
 CONGREGATIONAL CLUB ADDRESS 
 TRIBUTE TO DR. SAWYER 
 TRIBUTE TO JOHN D. W. JOY 
 ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS 
 WELCOME TO JOHN D. LONG 
 DEAN I/EONARD 
 
THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 
 
 THE INAUGURAL, ADDRESS AS PRESIDENT 
 OF TUFTS COLLEGE, JUNE 2, 1875 
 
 It has been intimated in certain quarters 
 that I would embrace this occasion to an- 
 nounce the policy by which I propose to be 
 governed in performing the duties with which 
 I have just now been clothed. If I had a 
 policy which differed materially from that 
 which has been in successful operation here 
 since the foundations of this College were 
 laid, this might be, perhaps, the fitting time 
 to set it forth. But I am no revolutionist or 
 iconoclast, if I were I should not have ven- 
 tured to respond to the summons which has 
 placed me in this chair. I have supposed 
 that the honorable and reverend gentlemen 
 who have seen fit to commit to my keeping 
 this great and solemn trust have been guided 
 by the conviction that, in some way, I may 
 be instrumental in carrying out the wise in- 
 tentions of the projectors and founders of this 
 seat of learning. Only with this view could 
 I have been induced to relinquish a chosen 
 
V .' -OCCASIONAI, ADDRESSES 
 
 grrjct .delightful' field of labor, in which, with- 
 out vanity I trust, I may claim to have met 
 with some success, to walk in strange and 
 difficult paths and to take up responsibilities 
 which experience alone can demonstrate my 
 fitness to discharge. 
 
 You will naturally expect, however, and 
 the occasion itself would seem to demand, 
 that I should take up some topic which has 
 a direct and immediate bearing on the objects 
 which this institution and those of a kindred 
 nature are seeking to accomplish. Moreover, 
 the air is rife just now with discussions of 
 questions pertaining to education. The most 
 eminent thinkers both in this country and in 
 Europe, are giving profound attention to this 
 subject, which is perhaps as vitally related as 
 any other to the civilization and progress of 
 humanity. On either side of the water 
 theories are advanced which touch not only 
 the methods and objects, but may I not say, 
 the kind and quality of intellectual culture. 
 If we trusted alone to certain prominent, but, 
 I believe, superficial signs we might conclude 
 that a revolution impends in relation to nearly 
 every kind of teaching both primary and 
 academic. It can scarcely l^e, however, that 
 the world is ready for such sweeping changes 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 3 
 
 as many are demanding, and it would seem 
 to be the duty of thoughtful persons to resist 
 with all their might tendencies which are 
 heavily fraught with evil. Especially does it 
 devolve upon those who are called to keep 
 watch over learning in her highest and holiest 
 retreats to turn a deaf ear to whatever has the 
 appearance merely of a popular clamor, to 
 hold with a tenacious grasp whatever the 
 experience of ages has approved, and to enter 
 the portals of the future by those ancient and 
 established ways over which the sages and 
 philosophers of every time have successfully 
 travelled. 
 
 In a country so recently settled as our own, 
 with institutions so fresh and full of youthful 
 vigor, there cannot be much danger in cling- 
 ing to methods which have shown themselves 
 capable of the grandest results, in advancing 
 in a line of development which has already 
 furnished so many proofs of its adaptation to 
 the people out of whose necessities it sprang. 
 Indeed it is impossible to forget, standing as I 
 do to-day on the threshold of a new service in 
 the cause of learning, in the midst of a com- 
 munity the most refined and cultivated of any 
 in this land, a community whose efforts in 
 behalf of intellectual improvement form a 
 
4 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 leading feature of its history, it is impossible 
 to forget the origin and progress of systematic 
 education on these shores. It is impossible 
 to forget the existence of established methods 
 among us, which according to the unbiased 
 judgment of accomplished observers from 
 abroad, will bear favorable comparison with 
 any in the world . It is impossible to forget the 
 traditions and customs of even this youthful 
 institution the noble and eminent men who 
 have preceded me in this office and their able 
 and faithful coadjutors, the dreams of those 
 who may be said to be the fathers of the 
 enterprise, arM the high hopes and fond antici- 
 pations which still cluster around this most 
 worthy object of a devout and holy love. 
 
 It cannot be out of place, therefore, to con- 
 sider as simply and briefly as may be : 
 
 THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF UNIVERSITY 
 TRAINING IN AMERICA. 
 
 Nowhere on the face of the earth has there 
 been such anxious solicitude displayed for 
 the higher forms of culture as in America. 
 Nowhere have there been so many instrumen- 
 talities created for the purpose of imparting 
 the noblest and most recondite parts of knowl- 
 edge. With what pride every American, and 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 5 
 
 especially every man of New England birth, 
 reverts to the fact that one of the first acts of 
 the early settlers of the Massachusetts colony 
 before there was anything like permanently 
 established government among them was to 
 take measures for the establishment of a 
 college. "Provision had hardly been made 
 for the first wants of life," says the historian, 
 ' ' habitations, food, clothing and churches. 
 Walls, roads and bridges were yet to be 
 built. The power of England stood in an 
 attitude to strike. A desperate war with the 
 natives had already begun and the govern- 
 ment was threatened with an Antinomian 
 insurrection. Through and beyond these 
 dark complications of the present, the New 
 England founders looked to great necessities 
 of future times which could not be provided 
 for too soon." {Palfrey.*) This then, is the 
 key-note of at least one of the most important 
 strains in our history. This is the beginning 
 of that golden thread which runs through the 
 entire web of our American social life. The 
 schools of highest grade which have followed 
 in such rapid and constant succession are the 
 legitimate offspring of that first effort to plant 
 the seeds of a noble intellectual life. 
 
 What is the purpose of the American 
 
6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 University ? As we survey the institutions 
 scattered so thickly up and down the land, 
 as we listen to the music of their chiming 
 bells and witness the pilgrimages which the 
 youth of the country are making to their 
 shrines, we cannot forbear the question, 
 what is the idea that underlies them ? The 
 more one contemplates them, the more he 
 is struck with the marvellous way in which 
 their immediate ends have been overruled 
 so that they have been made to serve in 
 Platonic phrase, though in a sense higher 
 and broader than that in which the philoso- 
 pher himself used it, ' * the divine necessities 
 of knowledge." The forming of a learned 
 ministry was the object chiefly sought by the 
 first college, and I suppose a like motive 
 prompted the establishment of the majority 
 of similar institutions. Certainly this was the 
 womb out of which Tufts was born. But for- 
 tunately the founders builded better than 
 they knew. The course of study adopted at 
 Harvard College in the beginning was mod- 
 eled after that which was then followed in the 
 English universities, and its graduates almost 
 immediately became distinguished, not only 
 in the new world, but even in the mother 
 country, to which some of them returned, for 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 7 
 
 the breadth and thoroughness of their scholar- 
 ship. There was something, therefore, in its 
 accidental surroundings, or in the uncon- 
 scious wisdom of those who created it, which 
 fitted the university at once to meet the 
 exigencies of the people among whom it was 
 to be unfolded and whose destinies it was 
 itself to aid in moulding. 
 
 First of all it proposes culture, pure 
 and simple ; and this, too, for its own sake. 
 All other objects are sunk from view. It as- 
 sumes that learning is the highest and noblest 
 of all temporal pursuits, that it is even re- 
 moved from the common range of temporalities 
 and linked by a mysterious process to the 
 Ineffable and Eternal. Hence it aims to 
 present learning in the guise of a fair and 
 beautiful maiden to whom youth are invited 
 to pay their court as to one who will hold 
 sweet and delightful converse with them and 
 never deceive them or lead them astray. 
 The beauty and chastity of Athena are hers ; 
 nay, she seems to say in the language of 
 Scripture : " Get wisdom, get understanding: 
 forget it not." No ulterior aims are suffered 
 to have play in the blessed sanctuary of 
 knowledge. Its work must be done in the 
 spirit of the cloister. The youth who enters 
 
8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 into her service, for the time, at least, must 
 know no other mistress. He must trust his 
 soul in her keeping. And then how marvel- 
 lous are her transformations ! It is not her 
 aim simply to give instruction, to communi- 
 cate facts and expound principles, but she 
 deals with the very substance of being. She 
 takes the callow youth and makes of him a 
 stalwart man. She receives the rough boor 
 and returns him to the world an accomplished 
 gentleman. Her work is to bring out in the 
 full perfection of strength and beauty, the 
 latent possibilities of human nature. All the 
 powers of man are given into her charge, the 
 bodily not less than the mental. In this re- 
 spect, I remark just here, modern university 
 training is returning happily to the most an- 
 cient methods. Certainly a system of culture 
 which aims to present a whole man cannot 
 afford to neglect the " human form divine." 
 Gymnastics which held so prominent a place 
 in the matchless system of Athens, are indis- 
 pensable in what Milton would call a ' ' com- 
 plete and generous education which fits a man 
 to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously 
 all the offices both private and public of peace 
 and war. ' ' But the business of the university 
 is primarily with the mental powers, to sharpen 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 9 
 
 and strengthen them ; to give breadth and 
 solidity to the understanding ; to quicken the 
 perceptions ; to inflame and exalt and steady 
 the imagination ; to refine the fancy, so that 
 there may be not only clearness and scope of 
 intellectual vision, power of carrying forward 
 high and connected trains of thought, ability 
 to observe and compare the facts and phe- 
 nomena of nature, to solve the abstruse prob- 
 lems of mathematics, to analyze and construct, 
 to make just discriminations and accurate 
 generalizations, but an appreciation of the 
 beautiful in art and, above all, a relish for 
 whatever is most choice and rare in the litera- 
 ture of humanity. 
 
 I go further and declare that a school 
 which would meet the highest wants of man 
 must not neglect the feelings. The human 
 mind is a very complex instrument, and 
 notwithstanding the contempt with which cer- 
 tain materialistic philosophers speak of them, 
 the sentiments, the affections, the emotions, 
 constitute when joined with sound reason, the 
 noblest part of our nature. In our own College 
 we would not overlook this fact. We would 
 teach universality. That is no better than a 
 school of technology which does not draw the 
 mind of the pupil away from the narrow chan- 
 
IO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSKS 
 
 nel of thought and action in which his bread is 
 to be earned and lead him to contemplate the 
 whole realm of God ; which does not arouse his 
 sympathies, stimulate his generosity and show 
 him how he is related to all ages, to all races, 
 and even to all the facts and principles of being. 
 He only is thoroughly furnished for the stern 
 necessities of life who has tenacity of will, 
 sensitiveness of conscience and high moral 
 purpose. The university rightly administered 
 will not fail to develop these qualities. She 
 will so deal with the tender wards committed 
 to her care that not only will they be con- 
 scious of their membership of the great body 
 of humanity, but self-centered and self-con- 
 tained ; she will give them resources, render 
 them strong in the might of their own man- 
 hood, enabling them to exhibit in their inter- 
 course with the world the lofty equipoise of 
 spirit, which Cicero ascribed to Cato. Dicit 
 tanquam in Platonis iroAtret?, non tanquam in 
 Romulifcece, sententiam. 
 
 If it is objected that this is putting the 
 university too far away from the conscious 
 needs of the public on which it depends for 
 patronage, I reply that it is its duty to lead. 
 Its function is to open a path through the 
 tangled wilderness of knowledge. Until it 
 
INAUGURAI, ADDRESS II 
 
 has done this it has no right to expect a 
 following. For one I believe thoroughly in 
 Dr. Newman's doctrine of demand and sup- 
 ply in relation to education that the supply 
 must necessarily precede the demand . W hile 
 it furnishes the food which the mind needs, 
 the only food which can perfectly satisfy, it 
 is also charged with the duty of creating an 
 appetite for it. The way to receive and relish 
 it is an art in itself. Thus it will often hap- 
 pen that a community may have a vague 
 sense of the value of education in the abstract, 
 it may even make large sacrifices to promote 
 it, and yet be lamentably ignorant of the 
 steps which individuals must take to avail 
 themselves of it. But the need is in the hu- 
 man soul, and if the instrumentality which is 
 called forth by it performs its duty faithfully, 
 the hunger for knowledge will at length be 
 aroused with overmastering, irrepressible 
 force. I say this by way of comforting those 
 who may think Tufts College has received 
 something less of patronage than it should 
 have had, considering the number of its mate- 
 rial favors and the enthusiasm it has awakened. 
 But let us be patient. Already we have 
 accomplished much. In a little while she 
 will have a multitude of noble sons, jealous 
 
12 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 of her fame, who will rejoice to lay their 
 laurel wreaths at her feet ; and then the ar- 
 dent youths from every quarter will come 
 flocking to her halls, like bees to Hymettus, 
 to taste the sweets which she has in store for 
 them. Meanwhile we must be true to our 
 purpose. We must continue to proclaim our 
 ideal and summon the people to its standard. 
 Any abatement of it will be fatal. The exi- 
 gencies of our situation compel us to seek the 
 loftiest summits of intellectual attainment. 
 Placed as it were in immediate contact with 
 the most venerable, the most famous, the 
 most complete and successful University on 
 this continent, so that our students may com- 
 pare notes with hers at every step of their 
 progress, and so that our graduates are 
 brought into sharp competition with hers, 
 wherever they chance to take up the active 
 duties of life, we cannot afford to be second 
 rate or commonplace in anything. Nor 
 should we yield to the temptation before 
 which so many institutions are already 
 bending to debase the standard of college 
 work to the level of a popular demand. We 
 must gird our loins and push on in the ' ' path 
 of a virtuous and noble education ; laborious 
 indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 13 
 
 so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melo- 
 dious sounds on every side, that the harp of 
 Orpheus was not more charming." 
 
 Above all, the university must exhibit 
 a supreme and unwavering loyalty to truth. 
 Wherever she finds it she must embrace it. 
 Her faith in the integrity of knowledge must 
 be irrefragable, that the universe is one, 
 and that all its parts are only so many vary- 
 ing but harmonious expressions of the mind 
 of God. Especially is it the duty of a school, 
 springing as this does, out of a universal 
 interpretation of the divine economy, to teach 
 that there is a perfect relation and kinship 
 whether we are able to detect it not exist- 
 ing between all facts, all phenomena, all prin- 
 ciples of being ; and that therefore true phil- 
 osophy is not at variance with itself, genuine 
 science is not self destructive ; that, for exam- 
 ple, no law or principle can be true in physics 
 which is not equally true, or which, at least, is 
 proved to be false, in metaphysics ; that no 
 maxim of political economy can be sound 
 or just which is subversive of a clear rule 
 of ethics ; that, however it may be with 
 legislation, jurisprudence, " that law which," 
 as Hooper says, " hath been of God and with 
 God everlastingly," must coincide with good 
 
14 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 morals. This is the principle, doubtless, 
 which Plato dimly recognized when in his 
 ideal state, he made music so important a 
 factor of education. ' ' Is not this the reason, ' ' 
 he asks ' ' why musical training is so power- 
 ful, because rhythm and harmony find their 
 way into the secret places of the soul, on 
 which they mightily fasten, bearing grace in 
 their movements, and making the soul grace- 
 ful of him who is rightly educated, or un- 
 graceful if ill educated ; and also because he 
 who has received this true education of the 
 inner being will most shrewdly perceive omis- 
 sions or faults in art and nature, and with a 
 true taste, while he praises and rejoices over, 
 and receives into his soul the good, and be- 
 comes noble and good, he will justly blame 
 and hate the bad." If only this principle 
 could have had a distinct and conscious oper- 
 ation in all the teachings of Christendom 
 how much misery might have h>een averted ! 
 The doctrine of Rousseau and his followers 
 that men have rights which transcend, 
 and are not reciprocated by their obliga- 
 tions would have been robbed of its power 
 to sting ; and the wretched conclusions of 
 materialistic philosophy so insulting to the 
 dignity of human nature, so contradictory to 
 
INAUGURAly ADDRESS 15 
 
 the lessons of human experience, so danger- 
 ous to the very foundations of civil society, 
 would meet with the contempt which they 
 deserve. 
 
 What is the range of work in a University ? 
 How much, and in what way may it teach ? 
 Well, I answer both of these questions at 
 once by saying, it should teach everything 
 that is capable of being taught in a philo- 
 sophic spirit. Its very name implies the scope 
 of its obligations to learning. It is a univer- 
 sity, studium generate. It cannot shut out 
 from its domain a single province of knowl- 
 edge and still pretend to teach, as its name 
 implies, de omni scibili. Nobody of course 
 will understand me as affirming that it should 
 undertake to teach everything at once to the 
 same pupil, or that it should attempt to em- 
 brace even the elements of every branch of 
 study in its curriculum. An effort so absurd 
 and foolish would only end in shallowness and 
 superficiality. But it should have the means 
 of satisfying the thirsty student who comes to 
 drink at its fountains, no matter how deep 
 and singular his desire may be. It is just in 
 this respect that the universities of Europe 
 present such a marked advantage over any- 
 thing that is commonly to be found here. 
 
1 6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 The gray haired scholar, who has spent the 
 studious intervals of a long life in a special 
 line of research, goes to one of those great 
 intellectual centers to perfect himself in his 
 chosen pursuit, and there he finds, not only 
 the implements ready to his hands, but 
 somebody trained and specially appointed to 
 direct him in their use. 
 
 Perhaps I have already sufficiently answered 
 the question whether the studies of the uni- 
 versity should be practical. I think it was 
 Schelling who taught, in substance, that the 
 ideal alone gives interest to the practical. 
 "Art and nature," he tells us " are prod- 
 ucts of the same intelligence ; whenever they 
 meet unconsciously they form the real world ; 
 whenever they meet consciously they form 
 the ideal world." For myself I say, very 
 frankly, that if you mean by the practical 
 merely the technical, that which renders 
 learning useful simply as a trade, I would 
 not have that element enter into the course 
 of study. If you desire simply riches for 
 your sons, if your sole aim is to put them in 
 a way to make money, if the mercenary mo- 
 tive rules wholly, then the university is not 
 the place for them. But if you wish to give 
 them what is ' ' better than rubies, ' ' what not 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 17 
 
 even princely wealth can command, what 
 commercial convulsions can neither tarnish 
 nor destroy, what will be a perpetual joy to 
 them in prosperity and an unfailing solace in 
 adversity, they can find it by seeking dili- 
 gently in these halls. Let them come as 
 Hippocrates went to Protagoras, ready to lay 
 his fortune at his feet, not to be made a soph- 
 ist, but that he might acquire the art, ' ' as a 
 part of education, " and possess the wisdom 
 of his master. 
 
 But it may be objected that anything so 
 visionary, so far removed from the hard re- 
 alities of life, is poor stuff to furnish young 
 men with, who, after all must make a liveli- 
 hood and get on in life ; and I reply, that on 
 actual trial it will be found that men thus 
 furnished are the most practical of all. For 
 in the highest and best sense, the ideal and 
 the practical coincide. The ideal is the 
 eternal, and whatever is eternal, unchang- 
 able, indestructible, fits a man to meet all ex- 
 igencies and rise superior to circumstances. 
 You may talk of those who are thus trained 
 as abstractionists, idealists, dreamers, but it 
 is they who give law to the world. Without 
 their presence human society would be as des- 
 olate and dreary as the burning sands of 
 
1 8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 Central Africa or the glistening glaciers of 
 Greenland. They sit in our halls of legisla- 
 tion. They fill our editorial chairs. They 
 administer justice in our courts of law- 
 They preside in our school-rooms. They 
 stand by the bedsides of our sick and dying. 
 They carry the gospel of peace and comfort to 
 a distracted and sorrowing world. Yes, it is 
 they who explore continents, measure moun- 
 tains and rivers, dredge the bottom of the sea, 
 analyze and weigh the sunbeams, watch the 
 movements and oscillations of the stars, and 
 peer into the depths of microscopic wonder. 
 It is they, too, who, regulate social customs, 
 prescribe the conventionalisms of men, estab- 
 lish precedents, watch over the traditions of 
 the past, and open the pearly gates of the 
 future. 
 
 Who shall say then, that studies bearing 
 such fruit, which are transmuted thus into 
 character of the loftiest and noblest type, are 
 only visionary ? 
 
 It is unnecessary that I should specify par- 
 ticular branches. The course of study already 
 prescribed here and so ably expounded and 
 applied by these learned gentlemen, some of 
 whom were formerly my teachers, and who are 
 now to be my associates, is its own vindication. 
 
INAUGURAIy ADDRESS 19 
 
 I would not have it curtailed in any of its de- 
 partments, but on the contrary I would have it 
 expanded and enlarged in all. It is a matter 
 of deep satisfaction, that, through the noble 
 benefactions of Dr. Walker, the study of math- 
 ematics is placed on a sound and durable 
 basis with such ample possibilities for future 
 development. When we think of the power 
 which this study has in arousing the faculties, 
 in giving intensity and continuity and pre- 
 cision to the thoughts especially when we 
 think of the great examples of its power; of 
 Alexander Hamilton, for instance, in intervals 
 of gigantic labor, refreshing and strengthen- 
 ing his mind for the task of bringing order out 
 of financial chaos and creating anew the credit 
 of a nation, with a cup of coffee and the propo- 
 sitions of Euclid; of Lincoln preparing him- 
 self by the same process to guide the Republic 
 through the awful tempest of civil strife, we 
 cannot be too thankful that it is here, and that 
 it is here on such broad and permanent founda- 
 tions. 
 
 In behalf of all learning, whose servant I am , 
 I rejoice in the large space which the phys- 
 ical sciences have already come to fill here. 
 I rejoice on abstract ground. But I rejoice 
 especially in view of the increased importance 
 
20 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 which men are attaching just now to these and 
 kindred branches of knowledge, and it would 
 afford me unspeakable gratification if I might 
 live to see the work performed in this depart- 
 ment, alone, excelled by no school in the world. 
 I would like to see history, which was taught 
 in the beginning by Dr. Ballou with such en- 
 thusiasm, such accuracy, such profound pen- 
 etration restored to something of its old-time 
 importance. Remembering, too, the noble 
 declaration of Burke that the study of law in the 
 American colleges made them u augur mis- 
 government at a distance; and snuff the 
 approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze, ' ' 
 I would supplement the work which is done 
 now so effectively in metaphysical and ethical 
 studies with jurisprudence at least, so far 
 as it relates to the Roman Civil L,aw, and to 
 the law of nature and of nations. 
 
 But I desire to say a word in passing of a 
 branch of learning which is coming to be 
 much disparaged in our time, so that it is in 
 danger, almost, of being dropped from the list 
 of university studies altogether, or put simply 
 upon the elective roll. I mean the classic 
 languages of Greece and Rome. And I speak 
 of them not because of any personal fondness 
 for, or efficiency in them; for I am only too 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 21 
 
 painfully conscious of the imperfect and super- 
 ficial way in which I have studied them . More- 
 over, lest this confession should seem to bear 
 with undue severity upon my Alma Mater, 
 let me add, that what seems to be my own 
 deficiency in this respect corresponds very 
 nearly with what is felt by all American 
 graduates with whom it has been my privi- 
 lege to compare notes. It is the one depart- 
 ment, I believe in which American university 
 training is the most defective. Yet some 
 would banish them altogether as dry and worth- 
 less rubbish, wearisome to the flesh and profit- 
 less to the mind of the student. No doubt 
 there is a way of teaching them, and I am 
 afraid that way prevails in too many instan- 
 ces, so that they may become to the pupil, to 
 use a homely but expressive phrase of Milton, 
 an ' ' asinine feast of sow - thistles and bram- 
 bles." But there is away of relieving them 
 of all their dullness and drudgery and 
 making them among the most delightful 
 pursuits of man. So far from having less of 
 them we should have more of them, and they 
 should be more extensively and generally cul- 
 tivated. There is no reason why they should 
 not be in the common schools as well as English 
 grammar and arithmetic; and they might well 
 
22 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 be there before either of them. A boy may 
 get befogged in attempting to construe the 
 simplest sentence of his own language who 
 can learn I^atin without difficulty, and in 
 learning that he acquires, not only the essential 
 principles of his own, but of all Aryan tongues . 
 In Germany a boy is put into L,atin as soon as 
 he has mastered reading and writing, and the 
 study of Greek follows in a year or two. 
 When he comes to the university he passes out 
 from the hands of the drill-master. He can 
 then read Plato in his own tongue without 
 assistance, can attend lectures delivered in the 
 sonorous language of Cicero and compose 
 theses in the same tongue after the exalted 
 model of that great master. But in America 
 even the university graduate who could do that 
 would be thought almost a prodigy of learning; 
 yet nothing less than that is absolutely indis- 
 pensable to profound and wide scholarship. 
 
 I need not reiterate the arguments which 
 have been so often urged by the most eminent 
 educators of modern times in behalf of classical 
 studies. I would only call attention inciden- 
 tally to their scientific value; their value, I 
 mean, as related to the whole domain of human 
 speech. For this should be the aim, as Bunsen 
 has justly observed, of all linguistic study, to 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 23 
 
 "find out the analogies of languages and de- 
 duce consequences from them." Indeed, 
 there is no science in our day which, according 
 to my thinking, promises such large results 
 to the historian, the antiquarian, the archae- 
 ologist, the student of ethnology, to historical 
 jurisprudence, to social ethics, to metaphysics, 
 aye, even to theology itself, as linguistics. 
 For the clear and unequivocal testimony of 
 language upon any of these subjects is abso- 
 lutely irrefutable . Moreover, the two branches 
 of classical study, Latin and Greek, together 
 with the Sanscrit, are the keys to the most 
 important family of human tongues. I believe 
 therefore, that the true university should have, 
 in addition to those teachers whose especial 
 business it is to give the requisite classical 
 drill at least one chair or lectureship devoted 
 to comparative philology. 
 
 But you will say I am talking all the while 
 of a university, when this is only a college. 
 To be sure we have given it in our modesty 
 that name. But it is limited only in name. 
 Its chartered rights and therefore its possi- 
 bilities in the realm of intellectual culture are 
 as broad as the boundaries of knowledge. I 
 have already intimated how by the very nec- 
 essities of its situation it cannot afford to hold a 
 
24 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 subordinate place. Besides, if we Have not 
 reached perfection we can, at least, aim at it, 
 and we will spare no effort to hit the mark. 
 
 There is one important respect in which 
 the American university is somewhat pecu- 
 liar ; that is, in the establishment of schools 
 for professional training under the same board 
 of government as the college. In the Divin- 
 ity School, called into being under the effec- 
 tive administration of my predecessor, and 
 which is already giving abundant signs of a 
 vigorous and healthy life, a long step has 
 been taken towards vindicating the claims 
 we shall one day make in the republic of let- 
 ters. The enlarged facilities which have also 
 been instituted for scientific instruction and 
 research is likewise a hopeful sign in the 
 same direction. I trust that ere long we shall 
 rejoice in the establishment of a separate 
 school of science, whose course of study will 
 be regarded not a substitute for, nor a parallel 
 with, but as a supplement of collegiate train- 
 ing. The other professional schools are yet 
 to come. But they are coming, and I de- 
 voutly pray that somehow, through the provi- 
 dence of God, my hands may assist in placing 
 their basal stones. 
 
 Moreover, the principle, I am sure, is a 
 
IN AUGUR AI, ADDRESS 25 
 
 just one, of bringing together in one spot as 
 many colleges as possible. They act and re- 
 act upon one another. Especially does the 
 college proper exert an elevating and inspir- 
 ing influence upon the professional school. 
 It awakens within it the philosophic spirit, 
 takes away in a measure the commercial and 
 grovelling desires which are too apt to en- 
 gross its members, and leads them to regard 
 their vocations not as temporary make- shifts 
 by which they are to escape the drudgery of 
 manual labor and keep themselves and their 
 families from want, but as noble avenues 
 through which they are to seize the truth 
 and apply it to the necessities of men. It is 
 the college that imparts a divine halo to the 
 professions and enables them to be classed 
 not as trades, but as liberal arts. Logically, 
 therefore, the college precedes the profess- 
 ional school. " If any man," says Bacon, 
 ' ' think philosophy and universality to be 
 idle studies, he doth not consider that all pro- 
 fessions are from thence served and supplied. 
 And this I take to be the great cause that 
 hath hindered the progression of learning, be- 
 cause these fundamental knowledges have 
 been studied but in passage." So far from 
 exerting a secularizing influence even upon 
 
26 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 students of divinity, as some have feared, the 
 effect of the college is to awaken a sublime 
 and holy ideal, and call forth an unshrinking 
 purpose in its pursuit. 
 
 Such, then, is the range of the work which 
 the university is called to undertake, and 
 such the spirit in which it must be performed. 
 
 What agencies will best secure the ends of 
 the university? How also may the instrumen- 
 talities to which it has given rise reach their 
 highest efficiency ? 
 
 All writers who have given profound 
 attention to the subject, agree in attaching 
 great importance to situation. It must be 
 in a fair spot to which both nature, and art 
 have lent their charms. It must be retired, 
 away from the bustle and confusion of the 
 great world where the mind may freely give 
 itself to undisturbed reflections. Yet it must 
 be near some centre of life and trade, and es- 
 pecially does it need to feel the power of a 
 higher intellectual life surging around it and 
 ever lifting it to nobler and grander attain- 
 ments. The image of Athens, which, for 
 more than a thousand years, was the intellect- 
 ual mistress of the civilized world, whose 
 immortal teachers 
 
 "Still rule our spirits from their urns," 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRKSS 27 
 
 rises before us in all her loveliness and beauty. 
 We think how she by her matchless climate, 
 which fostered poetic dreams and made life 
 seem like one long midsummer's day ; by her 
 indescribable atmosphere, which gave to the 
 cold marbles of Praxiteles the richness and 
 warmth almost of Titian's coloring, and re- 
 lieved the severe angles of her temples so 
 that they seemed to be filled with a depth 
 and softness of feeling unsurpassed by the 
 most ornate of mediaeval cathedrals ; by her 
 contiguity to the sea and her relations to the 
 mysterious Bast; by her commercial impor- 
 tance ; by her marvellous language, softer 
 and sweeter and more flexible and of wider 
 compass than the tones of an organ ; by her 
 free institutions and public spirit; by her 
 great men ; by her inspiring traditions and 
 her wonderful mythology, was fitted to be the 
 university of all nations. We think also of 
 the grand facilities she had within herself for 
 noble schools ; of her groves which Cimon 
 planted ; of her beautiful public buildings 
 which Pericles erected and Phidias adorned ; 
 of her porticoes, surrounding the Agora, filled 
 with superb paintings and delicious sculp- 
 tures. We think of her sweet poets and 
 eloquent orators whose inspiring words thrill 
 
28 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 and sway our hearts to-day as they thrilled 
 and swayed the living multitudes to whom 
 they were addressed. But above all we think 
 of her great philosophers, to whom even 
 kings came for instruction, and who were 
 surrounded by a crowd of youths out of 
 every nation under heaven. We seem to see 
 them in their chosen retreats just outside the 
 din of the great city, yet where they could 
 hear the drowsy murmur of its bustle and 
 traffic, directing, by the compass of their 
 learning, the fascinations of their culture and 
 the force of their enthusiasm, the minds of 
 their hearers to the most sublime contem- 
 plations. Those were conditions in which 
 both nature and art combined to produce a 
 degree of intellectual refinement without a 
 rival either in ancient or modern times. 
 
 But wherever, in any age, similiar results 
 have been achieved it has been under a com- 
 bination of like advantages. I will not pause 
 now to cite instances. I need only point you 
 to our own fortunate position. The New 
 World herself does not embrace a lovelier 
 spot than this. On whichever side the eye 
 turns, it commands a fairer prospect than 
 that which inflamed the heart of L,ot when he 
 beheld all the plain of Jordan fertile and 
 
IN AUGUR A!, ADDRESS 29 
 
 well watered everywhere. It is in close con- 
 tact, too, with a great commercial metropo- 
 lis a grand city which presents many aspects 
 of resemblance to ancient Athens, not the 
 least of which is her intense intellectual ac- 
 tivity, and her schools and teachers whose 
 renown is coextensive with civilization. 
 
 Just here, then, is the place for a great 
 college, however modestly it may assert its 
 claims in the beginning, to grow up and 
 flourish. Surely it does not require any very 
 painful stretch of the faculties to see, in a 
 future not greatly remote, this hill crowned 
 with noble architecture, peeping out from 
 amid embowering trees, and to hear the 
 thronging footsteps of youths, coming from 
 the East and from the West, from the North 
 and from the South, to enjoy the sweet repose 
 of its quiet shades, and to feel the kindling 
 impulse of its mental life. 
 
 It is impossible to overestimate the value 
 of living teachers in a university. The ques- 
 tion might arise in some minds, what is 
 the use of such an array of professors in one 
 school ? Why not place the young gentle- 
 men in an intellectual city, like Boston, with 
 its museums and lectureships and libraries, 
 and let them choose their own instruments 
 
30 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 of instruction ? Because there is something 
 in the personal contact with living men, which 
 institutions alone, though they be the best ap- 
 pointed that a beneficent public has ever de- 
 vised, cannot supply. It is a blessed thing 
 that a man fresh from his home, with all 
 the impulsiveness and enthusiasm and ardor 
 of youth, about to enter the sanctuary of a 
 new science, which is to him terra incognita , 
 may be met at the threshold by one who has 
 spent long years in studying and exploring 
 that same science, who takes him by the hand 
 and welcomes him to the delightful pursuit. 
 The pupil sees, as it were, in the mind of his 
 master, though the master has been a long 
 time in acquiring it, the science which he 
 wishes .to know, as a concrete, present, living 
 reality. He beholds it there in all the fulness 
 and beauty of perfection ; and it comes to him, 
 not by degrees, not by slow and painful pro- 
 cesses, as he would be compelled to learn it 
 from books, but it bursts upon him like a rev- 
 elation from the skies, and excites in his breast 
 that heavenly glow, which, if he has once felt 
 it raises him forever above the sordid drudgery 
 of the world. Of such teachers there cannot 
 be too many ; and they should be taken not 
 from one school, nor one state, nor even from 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRKSS 31 
 
 one race. They should be gathered from 
 every nation that has any worthy knowledge 
 to supply, so that the pupils who assemble 
 from different quarters of the globe, may, 
 like the multitudes who listened to the 
 Apostles on the day of Pentecost, every man 
 hear in his own language ; and so that there 
 may be given to each tongues and the inter- 
 pretation of tongues. 
 
 But a university accomplishes its work also 
 through dead teachers It is a part of its duty 
 to set the pupil face to face with all the wise and 
 all the good of every age and every race. To 
 this end it must have books, books, books 
 not simply a limited collection of them, how- 
 ever well selected, but in boundless profusion. 
 All the literature of all the world must be at 
 the immediate command of him who wants it, 
 whether for the facts which it records, or for 
 mental refreshment. ' ' Libraries which are, ' ' 
 as Bacon said, "the shrines where all the 
 relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, 
 and that without delusion or imposture, are 
 preserved and reposed," are the first and last 
 necessity of a university. They are needful 
 not only to the learned professor and the un- 
 dergraduate, but to that cultivated community 
 which it is so essential that a repository of 
 
32 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 knowledge should gather around itself com- 
 posed of men of elegant and refined leisure, 
 of men who are engaged in historical or 
 scientific research, in the development of 
 philosophy or theology, men in short who 
 have any occasion to examine the literary re- 
 mains of the past. If you would make or 
 attract scholars you must furnish the imple- 
 ments with which they labor, and you must 
 give them that mental pabulum without which 
 they would starve and die. 
 
 Then, finally, a university must have 
 loyal children men who love her, if for 
 no other reason, because she is their mother ; 
 men who are devoted to her interests, who will 
 cheerfully endure sacrifices and even die for 
 her sake. The alumni of every college have 
 the power in their own hands to make or 
 break her reputation. If they are true men, 
 pursuing their vocations with honorable 
 fidelity and with an ambition,' worthy and 
 sublime, not only to reach the highest attain- 
 ments possible for themselves, but to serve, 
 as they are able, their country and their kind ; 
 and, above all, if they maintain, through all 
 the vicissitudes of their experience, an affec- 
 tionate regard for their Alma Mater, sound- 
 ing her praises on every occasion, vindicating 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 33 
 
 her name from calumny and reproach, she 
 will continually rise to new heights of glory 
 and renown, and increase from year to year 
 in those traditions which never fail to inspire 
 the student with all the charms of poetry and 
 romance. lyike Cornelia's sons, the children 
 of a college are her jewels. Always she leans 
 upon them with confiding affection and par- 
 donable pride ; at the same time she stimu- 
 lates them to great activities and heroic deeds. 
 L,et the children of Tufts College remember 
 this, and ever maintain " such honorable 
 carriages ' ' that she never will have cause to 
 blush for their folly, or mourn over their 
 treachery and desertion. 
 
 Thus I have tried to sketch the university 
 which will meet the wants of the country in 
 present and future times. If the picture 
 seems extravagant, you will bear me witness, 
 I doubt not, that I have not exceeded the 
 bounds of possible reality. Certainly it can- 
 not be more improbable than even our present 
 attainments must have seemed when the first 
 President was inaugurated twenty years ago. 
 We have no apologies to make for the exist- 
 ence of this College. It arose out of the in- 
 tellectual necessities of a great people, and 
 every man among us must feel a thrill of ex- 
 
34 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 ultation as he recalls its past triumphs. We 
 are proud of its history proud of the noble 
 men who have filled the presidential office 
 before me, and it is the devout prayer of all 
 our hearts, that he who has just laid aside 
 this dignity, may long live to witness with 
 affectionate interest the increasing power and 
 glory of the institution, whose material devel- 
 opment he has done more than any man 
 among the living or the dead to promote, 
 whose intellectual aims he has so completely 
 represented and embodied, and whose chief 
 administrative responsibilities he has dis- 
 charged with rare ability and success. We 
 are proud of the noble band of professors and 
 teachers who have labored from the begin- 
 ning, with such patient and self-sacrificing 
 devotion, to fashion this school according to 
 the idea which I have all-too-faintly indicated. 
 We are proud of our patrons and founders, 
 and of the unexampled beneficence which 
 they have invariably manifested ; and not the 
 least of all we are proud of our Alumni, for 
 what they have already accomplished and for 
 the abundant promise which they give of 
 future eminence and renown. 
 
 To preside over such a college is no light 
 responsibility. Sensible as I am of the com- 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 35 
 
 pliment implied in an election to such a post, 
 be assured, I have not entered upon its duties 
 without due reflection. Through prayers 
 and tears I have approached them ; and only 
 in obedience to a mandate, which, to me was 
 imperative, should I have ventured to aband- 
 on the cherished ambitions of my maturer 
 manhood and assume so great a burden. 
 Because I love the Church which this College 
 was intended to strengthen and advance ; 
 because I love the College which has made me 
 what I am, there was for me no alternative. I 
 trust I shall be found to have some qualifica- 
 tions for my work. At least, I am deeply 
 interested in young men. I have, as you 
 have seen, a high regard for the value of edu- 
 cation ; and I believe I appreciate, in some 
 faint degree, the solemn relation which cul- 
 ture sustains to religion. You may, there- 
 fore, I think, safely trust your sons to my 
 care. I will watch over them with fraternal 
 interest, and try to guide them with a fatherly 
 solicitude, not only to the fountains of pure 
 knowledge, but to the serene heights of 
 righteousness and peace. 
 
 I enter upon my work with the greater confi- 
 dence, because I am assured, at the outset of 
 it, of the cordial welcome and co-operation of 
 
36 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 the faculty and undergraduates; and because 
 I can turn in every time of need to the honor- 
 able and reverend trustees in the confidence 
 of a generous and hearty support. We shall 
 all of us, however, require the assistance of a 
 wider public. Especially do I invite the 
 frank counsel and confidential friendship of 
 my brethren of the Alumni. In a peculiar 
 and very important sense, the College is 
 theirs ; and it is within their power to exert 
 a greater influence than any other body of 
 men whatever over its achievements and 
 destiny. By wisdom and prudence they can 
 easily direct its action and shape its policy. 
 I invoke, moreover, the continued generosity 
 of all its friends. 
 
 We have not yet reached that point where 
 we can afford, even if we were disposed, to 
 disregard the favor of public beneficence. 
 
 Our needs are still many and great. L,et no 
 man say that Tufts College, because of her 
 good fortune in the past, is placed beyond the 
 possibility of want hereafter. In reality our 
 necessities to-day are very pressing. We 
 need, for example, at least two more profess- 
 ors in the Divinity School to relieve the already 
 over- worked teachers there who are carrying 
 forward, without assistance, a course of study 
 
INAUGURAL, ADDRESS 37 
 
 covering a period of four years, with most 
 gratifying results. We need a divinity hall, 
 which will enable us to separate the students of 
 that School who are coming to us in constantly 
 increasing numbers, from the candidates for 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and furnish 
 us with ample and convenient rooms for lec- 
 tures and class-work. We need a new scien- 
 tific building appropriately arranged and fur- 
 nished. We need a library, new-created, 
 almost, from the bottom. And here it is im- 
 possible to set any reasonable limit to what 
 might profitably be done. Why, even a mill- 
 ion dollars would not be too large a founda- 
 tion for such a collection as every first-class 
 university should have. We need a gymna- 
 sium, and more than all, yea, first of all, 
 we need a comely and commodious chapel, 
 which by the beauty and fitness of its adorn- 
 ments, will invite the pupils to worship, 
 excite their religious feelings and afford 
 them spiritual refreshment and repose, at the 
 same time that it answers the requirements 
 of these families around us who are depend- 
 ent upon us for Christian privileges. It is 
 entirely safe to assert, that the time can never 
 come when valuable gifts may not be applied 
 to useful ends. Then, too, we need students, 
 
38 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 in every department, young men fired by 
 a devout and holy zeal to possess all the 
 available secrets of the universe, and to fit 
 themselves to stand hereafter as priests in the 
 grand temple of learning. Would that my 
 voice might reach the remotest boundaries of 
 our Church ! How gladly would I call, as 
 with trumpet-blast, those who have any re- 
 sponsibility for the education of young men ! 
 How gladly would I rouse the hearts of 
 young men themselves, until they should 
 come, in overwhelming numbers, as they 
 went after Abelard at Paris in the twelfth 
 century, content to live in booths of their own 
 construction and subsist on a diet of herbs, if 
 only they might profit by the instructions of 
 that matchless teacher ; as they went in the 
 same epoch by thousands and tens of thous- 
 ands to Oxford and Bologna. 
 
 That we may make at least some approach 
 towards the realization of the most immediate 
 and worthy of these ends, we invoke the 
 aid of all. Remember the College, beloved 
 brethren and friends, wherever the pathway of 
 your life may chance to run. Remember it 
 earnestly and devoutly in your prayers before 
 God. Remember it whenever you have any- 
 thing to bestow that will increase the funds of 
 
INAUGURAI, ADDRESS 39 
 
 its treasury or enrich its museums or its 
 libraries. Remember it in your wills, no 
 matter how small the sum you can afford to 
 bequeath it. The little mountain rills feed 
 the mighty stream which bears on its bosom 
 to the sea the commerce of a continent. 
 Remember it when you look into the fair and 
 hopeful faces of your little sons and try to 
 think how you will transfigure toil for them 
 and make this world through which they are 
 compelled to walk, however humble and 
 obscure their lot, however many and great 
 the burdens under which they bend, one 
 bright, sweet vale of celestial sunlight and 
 heavenly verdure. 
 
JOHN BOYLE O'REIU/Y 
 
 ORATION DELIVERED AT THE UNVEIUNG OP THE 
 MONUMENT IN BOSTON, JUNE 20, 1896 
 
 John Boyle O'Reilly was born on June 28, 
 1844, in Dowth Castle, which is situated on 
 the South bank of the river Boyne, in one of 
 the most beautiful and historic spots in all 
 Ireland. The very air of the place is redo- 
 lent of memories and traditions, associated 
 alike with the glory and the degradation of the 
 Green Island. On his father's side he had 
 behind him a long line of noble and patriotic 
 ancestors. His mother was of like honorable 
 stock. His childhood home was one of re- 
 finement and culture. He was well-born, 
 fulfilling Dr. Holmes's condition of a liberal 
 education which must begin with one's 
 grandfather. 
 
 Indeed, from the earliest times the 
 O'Reillys had been distinguished not only 
 for their princely blood and high social stand- 
 ing, but for their martial deeds and devotion 
 to their country. In the later generations 
 they have taken to quieter and more studious 
 
ORATION 41 
 
 ways. The father of John Boyle O'Reilly 
 was a scholar and a teacher of youth. 
 Dowth Castle was a school-house, and from 
 his very infancy, therefore, he was a pupil, 
 with his father for a teacher. What wonder 
 that with such surroundings and under such 
 influences the quick-witted youth, with his 
 ardent temperament and sensitive nature, 
 should have imbibed an intense devotion to 
 his native land ? 
 
 From the beginning he was fond of out- 
 door sports and of natural scenery. He in- 
 dulged in all the rough and tumble of boyish 
 life. He romped, hunted, fished and swam 
 in the Boyne, thus laying the foundation of 
 that robust physical constitution which stood 
 him in such stead in after years. It was the 
 exuberance of his spirits that enabled him to 
 put in that store of health which rendered 
 him superior to pestilence and death when 
 others all around him were falling before the 
 insidious poison of malaria or wasting from 
 scant or unwholesome diet. The beauty of 
 the landscape kindled his imagination and 
 appealed to the tenderest sentiments of his 
 soul. The bees, the birds, the flowers, the 
 fields, the running waters, the woods and 
 hills all had a message for him. Those 
 
42 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 scenes of his youth seemed to be stamped 
 upon his mind like an ineffaceable picture. 
 The farther he was removed from them by 
 distance, the more remote from him they were 
 in time, the more vivid they became in his 
 recollection. There is something poetic and 
 yet sad almost to heartbreaking in that earn- 
 est request to his friend, Father Conaty, who 
 was visiting Ireland to see where he was 
 born. "It is the loveliest spot in the world. 
 I have not seen it for over twenty-five years, 
 but, oh, God ! I would like to see it again. 
 See it for me, will you ?" 
 
 It may be a question how far external sur- 
 roundings contribute to the poetic faculty in 
 men. Probably we cannot have strong poetic 
 expression without the poetic temperament to 
 begin with. But given that, the early con- 
 ditions under which the mind is awakened 
 and receives its first bias are of momentous 
 importance. No one can read critically the 
 writings of Mr. O'Reilly, either his formal 
 verse or his prose, which is often times no less 
 poetical than his verse, without feeling that 
 the inspiration of all is to be found not only 
 in that ardent love of nature which was so 
 early developed in him, but in those scenes 
 of surpassing beauty which made their lasting 
 
ORATION 43 
 
 and irresistible appeal to his youthful imagi- 
 nation. Who that ever listened to his pass- 
 ionate description of his native land, more 
 beautiful in his conception than any other 
 land under the sun ; her climate tempered by 
 ocean breezes on every side; her soil fertilized 
 by the clouds from the Gulf Stream which 
 break and discharge their moisture on every 
 hillside and in every valley, making the land 
 green to the very tops of the mountains ; her 
 broad rivers; her rushing brooks and tum- 
 bling cataracts, without feeling that it was 
 the boy in him that was speaking, and giving 
 vent to those delightful memories of youth 
 which time can never efface. 
 
 His schooling ended where most boys' 
 schooling begins, at eleven years of age. 
 Perhaps nothing proclaims more emphatically 
 the quality of his mental endowment. Yet it 
 must be remembered that he went out of 
 school in Dowth Castle to enter the printing 
 office, that university in which so many men 
 of commanding genius, from Benjamin 
 Franklin to Horace Greeley, have received 
 their introduction to the higher learning. He 
 entered the employ of the Drogheda Argus 
 as an apprentice, where he remained four 
 years. Owing to the death of the proprietor, 
 
44 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 the term of his apprenticeship was broken. 
 From there he went to Preston, England, 
 where he found service on the Guardian of 
 that city for a period of three years. 
 
 The seven years thus spent in the compos- 
 ing room were the quietest years of his life, 
 but from an intellectual point of view they 
 were perhaps the most profitable. They 
 were years of study, of profound reflection 
 and of careful training in the forms of ex- 
 pression. They afforded him an opportunity 
 to become familiar with the history of his 
 country, to acquire a clear perception of the 
 wrongs she had suffered, and to be thrilled 
 with the story of the patriots and heroes who 
 in other times had made the cause of Ireland 
 their own. So that when he was summoned 
 by his father to his native land, he was not 
 only a man grown, robust and healthy, fit for 
 any kind of manly service, but he had a full 
 intellectual equipment, as we are wont to say 
 of the young college graduate, the ' ' complete 
 and generous education," as Milton has so 
 aptly phrased it, " which fits a man to per- 
 form justly, skilfully and magnanimously all 
 the offices, both private and public, of peace 
 and war." 
 
 His return to Ireland marked a great crisis 
 
ORATION 45 
 
 in his career. He went back intending to 
 take up the work of journalism, to which he 
 seems almost to have been predestined, but 
 in reality to enter the Tenth Hussars, the 
 famous regiment of cavalry, stationed then at 
 Drogheda, but subsequently transferred to 
 Dublin. He had all the elements of a good 
 soldier. He was young, good tempered, ar- 
 dently enthusiastic, intelligent and obedient 
 to discipline. He had also a fine physique, 
 a handsome countenance, and a courage that 
 was absolutely intrepid. That he did make 
 a good soldier was the unanimous testi- 
 mony of his officers and comrades. Probably 
 there was open to him as brilliant an oppor- 
 tunity as could be open to any young subject 
 of the Queen enlisting in the ranks as a pri- 
 vate. He was a subject of Great Britain. 
 His position as a soldier called upon him 
 daily to salute the cross of St. Andrew and 
 St. George. Under that inspiring symbol he 
 was ready to do valiant service wherever the 
 sword of England clashed with the sword of 
 other nations. But he had also the birth- 
 right of an Irishman. Like many a loyal 
 subject of George III in America, a century 
 and a quarter ago, he put the claims of native 
 land above the claims of England. He was 
 
46 OCCASIONAL ADDRKSSES 
 
 a disciple of O'Connell and Emmet. The 
 two hundred and fifty years of England's 
 misrule in Ireland had made their indelible 
 impress upon his soul. Wherever he went, 
 and whatever alliance he formed, the call of 
 his country sounded in his ears with all the 
 sweetness and power of a trumpet, and when 
 she summoned him he must obey, if need be, 
 with his honor and his life. 
 
 As he entered the military service in the 
 twentieth year of his age, the great Fenian 
 movement, which had its beginning about 
 the year 1860, and which before it had spent 
 its force shook the British nation from centre 
 to circumference, was just coming to its cli- 
 max. Before the year 1865 nearly every 
 youth of Irish birth or parentage on both 
 sides of the Atlantic had been swept into this 
 movement. Those who were enlisted in the 
 British service formed no exception. Indeed, 
 it was the aim of the leaders to secure the 
 alliance of the Irish contingent which consti- 
 tuted then nearly one-third of the entire force 
 of the army. Their aim was not merely to 
 sow disaffection in the ranks of the soldiers, 
 but in the armed conflict at which they were 
 aiming, first to produce a great cleavage in 
 the British forces of one-third or one-half of 
 
ORATION 47 
 
 the soldiery, and, secondly, to obtain a body 
 of one hundred thousand men, more or less, 
 who had received martial training, and who 
 might become the nucleus of the army of 
 the Irish republic. 
 
 That John Boyle O'Reilly should join this 
 movement, when asked, was as natural as 
 that he should take a swim in the river Boyne 
 on a hot summer's day. He joined it with 
 mind and body and heart and soul. As a 
 boy climbs to some eminence in order to take 
 a more effective ' ' header, " so he literally 
 plunged into the great tide of Fenianism and 
 committed himself absolutely and without re- 
 serve to the current. I need not rehearse the 
 story. It is known by heart. Fenianism, 
 like many other efforts for the liberation of 
 Ireland, came to a sad and inglorious end. 
 Its plots were exposed, its leaders arrested, 
 and many of those who had part in it were 
 convicted of treason and doomed to imprison- 
 ment or exile. 
 
 O'Reilly's turn came with the rest and it is 
 needless to say that he took it as a brave man 
 should, in the spirit of the great Irish patriots 
 who had served as his models of heroism. 
 He knew when his hour was at hand, but he 
 never sought to evade the responsibility. By 
 
48 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 confession and apology he might, like many 
 another, have secured his liberty. Indeed, 
 the bribe was repeatedly held out to him, but 
 he scorned it, he put it aside, as the tempta- 
 tion of the devil. He had done what he had 
 done, and he was neither ashamed nor sorry 
 for it. He was Ireland's servant, and in her 
 name he was ready to suffer or die. 
 
 In this connection, however, I wish to say 
 that his trial was, to my mind, a travesty 
 of justice. It was one of those cases where 
 an accused person is convicted beforehand in 
 the presuppositions of the court. No weak- 
 ness in the evidence and no defense which 
 the accused could make was of any avail. 
 He was convicted of treason and sentenced 
 to death. The sentence was immediately 
 commuted, however, to twenty years' im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 What a horrible prospect was that for a 
 young man of twenty-two ! A1J his young 
 manhood blighted ! All his youthful hopes 
 and ambitions cast to the winds ! He might 
 well have been excused if he had yielded to 
 the most wretched lamentations of misan- 
 thropy and despair. But he did not. He 
 preserved his wonderful buoyancy of spirits in 
 his worst sufferings, rejoicing that he had 
 
ORATION 49 
 
 been transformed from an ' ' English soldier ' ' 
 into an "Irish felon," and even expressing de- 
 vout gratitude to God that he was counted 
 worthy of the great and enduring fellowship 
 of his country's heroes and martyrs. It was 
 this temper, doubtless, which went far to pre- 
 serve his health and keep his faculties alert 
 so that when the opportunity of escape finally 
 came he did not fail. 
 
 He had his taste of all the different phases 
 of British prison life. At Millbank he under- 
 went solitary confinement for several months, 
 the severest form of punishment known to 
 prison discipline. From Millbank he was 
 transferred to Chatham, where he was put to 
 work in the prison brickyards with the com- 
 mon criminals. For attempting to escape 
 from here he was put on bread and water for 
 a month and then removed, first to Ports- 
 mouth and afterward to Dartmoor Dartmoor, 
 the very name of which awakens in the 
 American mind the worst feeling of detesta- 
 tion and resentment. How he survived the 
 harsh treatment, the terrible labor, the 
 wretched fare and the unsanitary conditions 
 of Dartmoor, which is as much a reproach to 
 England as ever the Bastile was to France, 
 or as Siberia is to Russia, only God can tell. 
 
50 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 Perhaps because he was reserved by God for 
 higher service to the human race. 
 
 At all events a change came to him, sooner, 
 no doubt, than he had expected, which he 
 hailed with almost as much joy as he would 
 have hailed a proclamation of freedom. He 
 was one of those who had been chosen for 
 transportation to Australia. It was little 
 more perhaps, than the change of one form of 
 hardship for another. But it was at all 
 events a change. Moreover, it gave room for 
 the indulgence of the hope that somehow he 
 would ere long escape from that hateful bond- 
 age. 
 
 He was not relieved from the hardship of 
 prison life in Australia. But somehow his 
 good nature, the rare charm of his personal- 
 ity, which even his prison garb could not 
 conceal, won the confidence of his keepers, 
 and, notwithstanding his repeated efforts for 
 liberty, procured for him many privileges. 
 These he sought to make use of for the real- 
 ization of his dream. But his progress was 
 slow, and it was only after what seemed to 
 him an interminable waiting that he fell in 
 with the good priest, Father McCabe, who 
 promised to think out for him a way to free- 
 dom. The thrilling story is too long to be 
 
ORATION 51 
 
 told here. Suffice it to say that through 
 Father McCabe's gracious instrumentality 
 and the loyal and devoted friends whom he 
 called to his aid, the way was found, not, to 
 be sure, without almost unutterable suffering 
 and many perils of the gravest sort, by which 
 he was at last placed on board an American 
 whaler, and under the Stars and Stripes, 
 bade good-bye forever to the tyranny and 
 woe of Knglish prison life. 
 
 Of course, Englishmen say that John 
 Boyle O'Reilly was a traitor, that he had 
 joined and taken the oath of allegiance to a 
 society which menaced the integrity of the 
 British nation, and that he had entered into a 
 conspiracy to betray the army in whose ranks 
 he was enrolled. Therefore his punishment 
 was merited. There are those outside of Eng- 
 land who make the same accusation, who 
 maintain not only that his punishment was 
 deserved, but that in seeking to break away 
 from it he was simply adding to the crimes 
 on account of which he was justly held. 
 This attitude may be expected of an English- 
 man. It may even be excused in an advo- 
 cate of monarchical government and an 
 apologist of despotism. But it is a strange 
 position for a free-born American citizen to 
 
52 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 assume. We say that the struggle which 
 ended in the independence of the colonies, 
 and opened the way for our great and free 
 republic, was just and holy in the sight of 
 God. But in the same sense that John Boyle 
 O'Reilly was a traitor, Sam Adams and 
 John Hancock and George Washington and 
 Thomas Jefferson were traitors. In the lan- 
 guage of Edward Everett, ' * they were rebels, 
 obnoxious to the fate of rebel." England 
 would have decreed a worse punishment for 
 them if she could have captured them than 
 she did to the young Irish Hussar, whose love 
 of native land transcended his allegiance to 
 the Crown of England. In the same way 
 that we should have applauded the escape of 
 one of our revolutionary heroes from the 
 clutches of the enemy, we should welcome 
 O'Reilly fleeing from the hardships of an 
 Australian penal colony. 
 
 On the twenty-third day of November, 1869, 
 he landed in Philadelphia. To the ordinary 
 observer he may have appeared not much 
 different from the hundreds of thousands of 
 Irish immigrants who had preceded him to 
 these shores. But the resemblance was 
 scarcely more than superficial. To be sure, 
 he was Irish, and had in large measure all 
 
ORATION 63 
 
 the peculiar traits by which his race is distin- 
 guished. But he was also an American. As 
 Minerva leaped full grown from the head of 
 Jove, so he, in the maturity of his powers, 
 stood up for the first time on American soil 
 an American citizen. His first act was to 
 take out his preliminary papers of naturaliza- 
 tion, and swear allegiance to that flag under 
 whose gracious folds he had come from dark- 
 ness to light. It is scarcely an exaggeration 
 to say that his advent was the grandest birth 
 that took place within the limits of the nation 
 during the year 1869. I say this, not merely 
 because he was a man of extraordinary intel- 
 lectual gifts, or because of the contribution 
 he made to American letters, but because, 
 being imbued with the true spirit of freedom 
 and humanity, he was an interpreter of Ameri- 
 can ideas and a leader of hosts of men 
 toward the larger conception of civic equality 
 and spiritual emancipation, in which our be- 
 loved nationality is to find its perfection and 
 glory. 
 
 He came to America a stranger. He 
 hardly suspected that there was a living soul 
 from end to end of this broad land who would 
 take cognizance of his coming. Yet his ad- 
 vent was heralded and waited for. The 
 
54 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 story of his escape had been told in Ireland 
 and repeated in the American press. He 
 had already won fame. Fugitive pieces from 
 his pen had found their way through prison 
 bars, and had already caused him to be desig- 
 nated as " the poet." Moreover, he had held 
 a conspicuous place in the Fenian struggle, 
 and though Fenianism had experienced noth- 
 ing but disaster, the few in America who still 
 ventured to call themselves Fenians, remem- 
 bered with admiration the brave young 
 soldier who had dared and suffered so much 
 in that lost cause. They received him with 
 cordiality and extended to him such poor 
 hospitality as they could command. In 
 Philadelphia and New York and Boston op- 
 portunity was given him to recount his per- 
 sonal experiences, and tell the larger story of 
 the Irish political prisoners. So that to his 
 amazement, no doubt, he found himself among 
 friends. It was as if the old world had jour- 
 neyed with him, and enabled him to find 
 here under other skies and in very unfamiliar 
 surroundings the Ireland that he loved. 
 
 But the old life, however delightful and 
 attractive, was not what he was seeking. He 
 had come hither to begin a new life, to be- 
 come the centre of a fresh set of influences 
 
ORATION 55 
 
 and to carve out for himself a name and a 
 destiny wholly disconnected with his past. 
 He took up his abode in Boston, where a few 
 congenial spirits gathered around him and 
 never wavered in their affection and devotion 
 so long as he lived. By the same law that in 
 physics a body freely moving in space must 
 always go in the direction of the least resist- 
 ance, he gravitated to journalism. He 
 found the work for which he was born, and 
 the work found the man for whom work al- 
 ways waits. From the hour that he took his 
 seat in the editorial chair of the Pilot he be- 
 came one of the great forces for the moulding 
 of public opinion. He wielded for twenty 
 years an influence scarcely surpassed by any 
 of the great journalists, religious or secular, 
 on either side of the ocean. Surely that were 
 glory enough in itself. If he had done noth- 
 ing else to win the admiration of the world 
 and compel the gratitude of mankind, this 
 were sufficient. For this alone we might 
 well indulge in imposing memorial rites, in- 
 scribe his name on enduring bronze and place 
 his monument in the busy streets of the city 
 in which his task was done. 
 
 Journalism, however, was his vocation. 
 It was the profession by which he earned his 
 
56 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 daily bread. But his avocation was im- 
 mensely greater than his vocation. His 
 varied gifts and accomplishments could not 
 be confined to a single channel. His genius 
 was bound to rise above the banks, however 
 high, and spread abroad a vast and living 
 tide for the joy and refreshment of mankind. 
 All the world was determined to taste the 
 qualities of his ripe and rare personality. 
 This man, who had so recently worn the hu- 
 miliating garb of a prisoner, was an orator, 
 and as soon as he had acquired command of 
 himself in the presence of an audience, so 
 that he could think logically on his feet, and 
 use his clear and ringing voice with full 
 effect, multitudes were importunate to hear 
 the message he had to tell. Before vast 
 audiences in every part of the country, from 
 Maine to California, he read his indictment of 
 Great Britain for her misrule and tyranny in 
 Ireland, or discoursed on some literary theme 
 with profound wisdom and entrancing beauty, 
 holding men spellbound by the power of his 
 eloquence. 
 
 His poetic gift, also, of which he had given 
 signs in his imprisonment, asserted itself 
 with increasing power and certainty. As 
 the great questions which are of perennial in- 
 
ORATION 57 
 
 terest passed in review before him, he took 
 them up and put in the crystalline form of 
 poetic phrase the truth which abides forever. 
 Moreover, his spontaneous enthusiasm, his 
 ready wit, his wonderful conversational pow- 
 ers, his genial and kindly spirit, made him 
 not only the welcome, but the indispensable 
 guest at clubs and social reunions. 
 
 But all this, however it may have gratified 
 his ambition and made him feel that his life 
 had a meaning and a purpose beyond the 
 wildest imaginings of his youth, was more 
 than a nature so finely strung could endure. 
 The best made instrument loses its tone and 
 quality by constant striking of the keys, and 
 at last becomes fit only for the junk heap. 
 The stoutest anchor will in time give way 
 before the awful wrench and pull of an ocean 
 tempest. The human soul is a harp of a 
 thousand strings, but it can be so wrought and 
 played upon that by-and-by its sweetest and 
 most resonant chords will cease to vibrate. 
 The time comes when, in the wear and stress 
 of a busy life, only the hand of an angel can so 
 sweep the strings of the soul that it will give 
 forth the music of the spheres. This was 
 the case with John Boyle O'Reilly. His 
 vitality was most extraordinary, but he made 
 
58 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 such fearful drafts upon it that at length it 
 was exhausted. He stretched the cable of 
 his life until there was no more elasticity in 
 it. He poured forth his nervous energy in 
 so many ways and in such fulness that at 
 length it was all gone, and "sleep which 
 knits up the ravelled sleeve of care," ceased 
 to visit his eyelids. Then came the end. 
 Suddenly and unexpectedly, even to his 
 nearest friends, the cry broke forth, on the 
 still air of the Christian Sunday, August 
 tenth, 1890, that John Boyle O'Reilly was 
 dead. 
 
 Before that sad cry men stopped and held 
 their breath, or gathered in eager and silent 
 groups around the bulletin boards, as they 
 were wont to assemble in the awful days of 
 the Rebellion, when the news of a battle was 
 posted before the great newspaper offices, and 
 scan with wan faces the ominous list of the 
 wounded and dead. A great personal and 
 living sorrow had all at once come into the 
 life of nearly every man, woman and child in 
 America. Even beyond seas the hearts of 
 the people were wrung. A man who bore no 
 title, held no office and carried no insignia of 
 battle had fallen at his post of duty. Yet 
 there have been kings, rulers of high quality, 
 
ORATION 59 
 
 who have held their office meekly and used 
 their powers for the good of their subjects, 
 who, in their death, have failed to be honored 
 by a tithe of the sorrow that the death of this 
 man of the people, this fugitive from English 
 justice, whose crime was unforgiven, and 
 who had been denied the poor privilege of 
 standing beside his mother's grave, called 
 forth from multitudes in every land beneath 
 the sun. The mournful tidings were the 
 signal for universal grief. Not only did the 
 columns of the press teem with expressions 
 in varying phrases of the people's loss, but 
 in many of the chief cities of the nation men, 
 without distinction of race or creed, gathered 
 in great companies, and eloquent lips broke 
 forth in eulogy. High and low, rich and 
 poor, scholars and unlettered men, vied with 
 each other in casting their laurel wreaths 
 upon his bier and dropping their tears upon 
 his sepulchre. 
 
 What were the qualities in this man's char- 
 acter that gave him such high distinction 
 and brought him such universal honor ? 
 
 It is impossible to say just how posterity 
 will judge him, or what place he will hold 
 ultimately among the leaders and teachers of 
 humanity. But there are some things on 
 
60 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 which we can pronounce with certainty that 
 the judgment of the world will not be re- 
 versed. 
 
 First of all, his sincerity and gentleness 
 were of the rarest order. These were the 
 qualities that drew men to him, and held 
 them, just as the particles of steel are drawn 
 and held by the magnet. His soul was abso- 
 lutely transparent and without guile. He 
 had all the simplicity, spontaneity and genu- 
 ineness of a child. When he opened his 
 mind on any subject the conviction was irre- 
 sistible that he spoke the truth at least as 
 he saw it the whole truth and nothing but 
 the truth. He wore his heart upon his 
 sleeve. He had no concealments and no du- 
 plicity. His wisdom was not of the self- 
 conscious sort, which puffs and struts and 
 vaunts itself before men. Everywhere he 
 was the Christian gentleman, and his wisdom, 
 therefore, was of that refined and heavenly 
 sort, which an Apostle has described as, 
 " first, pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy 
 to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
 without partiality and without hypocrisy." 
 A man so endowed cannot go through the 
 world without having troops of friends. They 
 will rise up around him as soldiers gather in 
 
ORATION 6 1 
 
 battle around a beloved leader. They will 
 give him unstinted affection, and when he 
 raises his standard and sounds the advance 
 they will follow wherever he leads the way, 
 even though it be into the jaws of death. 
 
 But he had many charms of the subtile 
 sort. His culture was of an all-round char- 
 acter. More than any man of modern times, 
 so far as I know, he reproduced the old 
 Greek life. In the Olympic games, the run- 
 ner, the boxer and the charioteer, the reciter 
 of history, the orator and the poet received 
 alike the laurel wreath of victory ; and the 
 same person might take part in every contest. 
 O'Reilly was equally at home in whatever 
 effort called forth the best in men. He was 
 an expert in all manly sports. His muscle 
 and his eye had been trained as well as his 
 brain. But he also excelled in the creations 
 of the mind. He was a master of speech, and 
 could sway an audience as with a magician's 
 wand. In presiding at a literary festival his 
 brilliancy was the delight and wonder of his 
 friends. He could give clear utterance to 
 profound truth, and could, when occasion 
 required, rise with the sure, firm flight of an 
 eagle into the empyrean of poetic vision. 
 
 With such many-sided gifts it was inevi- 
 
62 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 table that he should be a subject of curiosity 
 and admiration. The witty, the learned and 
 gay would surely desire to bask in the sun- 
 shine of his genius. The men of heavier 
 mould, but who were ambitious of the intel- 
 lectual life, would seek for reenforcement 
 and inspiration from his keen and super- 
 abounding intelligence ; and those who dwelt 
 on the plane of humble and ordinary life 
 waited for him to lift them by his more than 
 common strength to the mountain tops of 
 boundless prospect and heavenly glory. 
 
 Of his place in letters it is too early to speak 
 with certainty. Undoubtedly his culture 
 missed the refined quality that is apparent in 
 Lowell and Longfellow, or in Moore and Shel- 
 ley. His schooling was too brief and termi- 
 nated too early to secure for him the exquisite 
 finish which nothing but schooling can give. 
 It is clear that he had not studied the great 
 poetical canons, or, if he had studied them, 
 he was unable to bring his muse completely 
 under their control. Hence the critics will 
 tell us that his verse is crude. Without 
 question they are right. But the crudeness, 
 which was most apparent in his earlier work, 
 was gradually giving way, and little by little 
 he was acquiring the sure and strong mastery 
 
ORATION 63 
 
 of his lyre. But whatever may be said of the 
 roughness of his execution, and of his failure 
 to meet the demands of conventional stand- 
 ards, no one will deny that he had in fullest 
 measure and highest degree the poetic fire. 
 None, not even the greatest poets, have given 
 more unmistakable evidence of ability to 
 touch the very heart of truth, which is the 
 poet's first and highest function, or have had 
 a more commanding conviction of the undy- 
 ing reality of the ideal realm in which poets 
 live and move and have their poetic being. 
 Moreover, his hand swept all chords, from 
 the fanciful and tender to the majestic and 
 sublime. In the very nature of things, 
 therefore, not only must his poetry make its 
 appeal to the universal heart of man, but it 
 will constitute a mine in which future poets, 
 so long as poetry is studied, must delve for 
 the virgin ore of poetic truth. 
 
 But in studying this man's life, I think I 
 have discovered other and higher qualities 
 than any I have yet named. He had an un- 
 mistakable power of leadership. He seemed 
 to feel that it was his province to go before 
 and blaze the way. As a journalist he strove 
 to be in advance of his constituency. There 
 are two kinds of journalism ; one throws it- 
 
64 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSKS 
 
 self on the great current of public opinion 
 and is borne along with it, never seeking to 
 do more than voice the sentiments of the 
 people to whom it appeals for support ; the 
 other strikes out into new ways, and creates 
 the channel in which public opinion must 
 flow, and sets up for the people the indubi- 
 table and inexorable moral imperative which 
 their situation and surroundings have evoked. 
 Boyle O'Reilly belonged to the latter class of 
 journalists as clearly as Horace Greeley or 
 L,yman Abbott. He did not ask his great 
 clientele what they thought or what they 
 wanted. He proceeded at once, and without 
 equivocation or apology, to tell them what 
 they ought to think and how they ought to be- 
 have. He startled Irishmen by telling them 
 they that here were no longer Irishmen ex- 
 cept by blood and memory and tradition they 
 were American citizens. He even deprecated 
 the display of the green flag in processions 
 and on festival occasions, because so long as 
 the Irish patriot did that, he would give ex- 
 cuse to the Orangeman to hang out the 
 symbol which stirs the deepest resentment in 
 the Irish heart. That ancient feud had no 
 ground for continuance in America. Here 
 there should be no line of cleavage between 
 
ORATION 65 
 
 Catholics and Protestants, or between Orange- 
 men and the disciples of O'Connell. Here 
 all branches of the Irish race were blended 
 and fused together in the fervent heat of 
 American equality. They should march 
 shoulder to shoulder, therefore, in demonstra- 
 tion of joy for their emancipation. They 
 should join hands and work together with all 
 their might to strengthen the institutions and 
 make more solid and enduring the underly- 
 ing principles of this mighty and beneficent 
 Republic. 
 
 This way of leadership, let me say, upon 
 which he entered with bold and unfaltering 
 tread, swept him forward to sentiments of the 
 loftiest patriotism and the broadest humanity. 
 He was something of a partisan and had his 
 party affiliations as most men do. He knew 
 how to give and take blows in behalf of party, 
 and could rejoice in a well-won victory as 
 heartily as anybody. But if a question was 
 presented which involved the welfare and 
 honor of the country, his mind rose instantly 
 above all partisan considerations. Indeed, 
 in the discussion of the fundamental princi- 
 ples of administration or government, he was 
 unconscious of his political creed. I have 
 heard him myself by more than an hour at a 
 
66 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 stretch indulge in the most scathing denunci- 
 ation of that wretched English policy that had 
 made commerce an impossibility for Ireland, 
 destroyed her manufactures, unchained her 
 waterfalls, obliterated industries, and even 
 tried to cover her fertile acres with desolation, 
 without seeming to see in it the slightest re- 
 flection upon any shibboleth he had ever 
 uttered. 
 
 Nay, when the inherent and inalienable 
 rights of man was the issue, he left all parties 
 behind him and took his stand beside Wen- 
 dell Phillips, the great iconoclast and re- 
 former. No singer ' ' the wide world round ' ' 
 has ever sung in clearer accents or more fer- 
 vent spirit the great song of humanity than 
 he that our brotherhood is one, and thus 
 transcends all limits of nationality or race ; 
 that manhood does not depend upon complex- 
 ion, but is a principle of the blood that runs 
 in all our veins. In short, that k ' ' God hath 
 made of one blood all nations of men to dwell 
 on all the face of the earth." 
 
 O blood of the people ! Changeless tide, through 
 
 century, creed and race ! 
 Still one as the salt sea is one, though tempered by 
 
 sun and place ; 
 The same in the ocean currents and the same in the 
 
 sheltered seas ; 
 
ORATION 67 
 
 Forever the fountain of common hopes and kindly 
 
 sympathies. 
 Indian and Negro, Saxon and. Celt, Teuton and Latin 
 
 and Gaul 
 Mere surface shadow and sunshine, while the 
 
 sounding unifies all ! 
 One love, one hope, one duty theirs ! No matter 
 
 the time or ken, 
 There never was separate heart-beat in all the races 
 
 of men ! 
 
 But no account of John Boyle O'Reilly 
 would be complete that failed to recognize 
 his religious character. In this he occupied 
 a peculiar place among literary men in an 
 age that is sometimes called agnostic and 
 irreverent. His religion was an ever present 
 reality, pervading his whole being, not as is 
 often the case, even with church members, 
 something to be kept in the background of 
 one's life and to be apologized for to his 
 friends. Wherever he went, he walked, con- 
 sciously and with reverent steps in the great 
 temple of the everliving and omnipresent 
 God. The spiritual element of the universe 
 no more needed demonstration than the air 
 or the sunlight. His faith was so lofty and 
 clear that he could affirm with St. Paul, 
 1 ' the things which are seen are temporal ; 
 but the things which are not seen are eter- 
 
68 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 nal. ' ' With every fibre of his being he was 
 a Roman Catholic. Why should he not be ? 
 Not only was he born and reared in the Cath- 
 olic Church, so that her traditions and his- 
 tory were interwoven with every thread of 
 his conscious being, but she touched him 
 gently and with irresistible force on the bet- 
 ter and more sensitive side of his nature by 
 her artistic creations; her stately and gor- 
 geous ritual; her noble and devoted priest- 
 hood; her orderly and powerful administra- 
 tion; her countless and inexhaustible philan- 
 thropies; her vast and world-wide fellowship 
 and communion, and her clear and unwaver- 
 ing answer to all the deeper questions of the 
 soul. 
 
 Yet I am constrained to say that he was 
 more than a Catholic. No single name, how- 
 ever venerable and comprehensive ; no label, 
 however broadly and carefully phrased, could 
 adequately describe that subtile and elastic 
 quality of soul which we call his religion. 
 By a strange and unerring instinct his mind, 
 with the swiftness of light, seized the inher- 
 ent and essential truth which forever defines 
 the relation between the human soul and 
 God. He saw that the quality of men's faith 
 is not determined by the form in which it is 
 
ORATION 69 
 
 expressed. Oh, how he tried to overcome 
 and destroy the false issue which for a quar- 
 ter of a millennium England had been trying 
 to raise between Protestants and Catholics in 
 Ireland ! Living in constant daily fellow- 
 ship with the sons of Pilgrims and Puritans 
 men who came hither hating the Papacy as 
 the instrument of Satan he saw the serenity 
 and beauty of their piety, and that they were 
 the very elect of God for the more perfect es- 
 tablishment of his kingdom among men. 
 
 Not even Longfellow could more truly say 
 . than he that 
 God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat 
 
 for this planting, 
 
 And then had sifted the wheat as the living seed of 
 the nation. 
 
 He perceived that there is more than one 
 way into the heavenly presence. The poor 
 heathen mother pressing her babe for a mo- 
 ment to her breast in agonized affection before 
 she casts it to the crocodiles to appease the 
 vengence of her deity, the minister of a Prot- 
 estant conventicle preaching in harsh and 
 strident tones a divisive gospel, and the in- 
 different, yet gently charitable sceptic, can 
 
 all present an offering that 
 
 may rise 
 To heaven and find acceptance there, 
 
70 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 no less than he whose petition is borne up- 
 ward on clouds of incense that float from 
 censers swung by priestly hands before ca- 
 thedral altars. This clear-eyed, tender, 
 transcendent and all-comprehending faith was 
 the solvent in which provincialism, prejudice, 
 bigotry and vindictiveness vanished utterly 
 and forever. 
 
 Such in my poor and fragmentary speech 
 was the man whose monument we have 
 reared the broadest-minded and most ac- 
 complished Irishman since Kdmund Burke; 
 one of the rare and transparent souls to whom, 
 out of all the races, the last half of the nine- 
 teenth century has decreed an immortality of 
 fame. We place him here in our great Val- 
 halla. The venerable Puritan founders of this 
 glorious Commonwealth, the mighty leaders of 
 the revolutionary epoch, the soldiers whose 
 blood moistened and rendered sacred forever 
 the soil of Bunker Hill, the matchless orators 
 and heroes of the anti-slavery reform, the 
 nameless hosts who with the first echoes of 
 Sumpter's guns grasped their muskets, and 
 marched to the defense of the Republic, must 
 all lie a little closer in their graves to make 
 room for this lover of mankind. 
 
 Here we set his memorial in the public 
 
ORATION 71 
 
 square, embellished with all the grace and 
 beauty that art can bestow. L,et those who 
 go swarming past it day after day, fleeing 
 from the dust and turmoil of the city, seeking 
 the fields and woods beyond, turn their eyes 
 hither and recall the happy-hearted, sunny 
 soul, to whom the song of birds and the noise 
 of running waters were ever like angels' 
 voices speaking of paradise. L,et the dis- 
 heartened reformer pause here for a moment 
 and hear him say, as it were out of the open 
 heavens : 
 
 I know 
 
 That when God gives us the clearest light, 
 He does not touch our eyes with love, but sorrow. 
 
 Let the hunted fugitive, speaking in an 
 alien tongue, or our English speech with an 
 alien accent, set down his knapsack beside 
 these stones, and, remembering the welcome 
 which America gave to this stranger, be 
 assured that here there is room for honest 
 work and patriotic effort whether men are na- 
 tive to the soil or foreign born. L,et him who 
 would serve his country by pen, or speech 
 or sword, look at these symbols in bronze, 
 and find his patriotism renewed. Let the 
 children of the poor, as they behold this 
 monument, be reminded that it is neither 
 
72 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 wealth nor station but honorable service that 
 secures for men under the Stars and Stripes 
 affection and renown. L,et the high-bred 
 youth of the great city who may be tempted 
 to regard with scorn the poor and lowly, 
 pause and listen before this noble pile, and 
 he will learn the lesson which the rich must 
 learn for safety, that 
 
 The bluest blood is putrid blood, 
 The people's blood is red. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 AT A DINNER COMPLIMENTARY TO EDWARD Iv. 
 PIERCE, DECEMBER 29, 1894. 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN, It is certainly a distin- 
 guished honor and privilege to be asked to 
 speak in such a presence and on such an 
 occasion as this, though I must confess the 
 call is wholly unexpected. I came into the 
 room almost at the end of the procession, and 
 sat down very humbly, and ate my dinner in 
 peace, greatly enjoying the conversation of 
 my neighbors. The dinner was nearly over 
 before I was informed, much to my surprise, 
 that you had placed my name in the list of 
 victims. But I suppose in obedience to your 
 summons I must give an account of my pres- 
 ence here, and I assure you I do it very 
 cheerfully. A number of motives have com- 
 bined to draw me into this company to-day. 
 First and foremost of all let me say, that I 
 have come prompted by my long friendship 
 and high regard for the gentleman to whom 
 this meeting is a most just and worthy com- 
 pliment. I have known him from my very 
 early boyhood. I am indebted to him for 
 
74 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 favors rendered in my young manhood. He 
 and I were born in the same town, and I 
 come, therefore, as a loyal son of old Stough- 
 ton to rejoice in one of the fairest and noblest 
 products of that ancient town, to join with 
 you in the acclaim which is due to his achieve- 
 ments, to bask in the sunlight of his fame, 
 and to appropriate some of the reflected glory 
 of his life. 
 
 I am drawn hither also by the magic name 
 of Charles Sumner. That is one of the 
 charms that I can never resist. The person- 
 ality of Sumner fired my youthful enthusiasm 
 as no other human being ever did ; it called 
 forth all the admiration of my mature man- 
 hood ; and to this hour it is as potent as ever 
 to rouse and quicken. I have sometimes 
 thought that if I were awakened in the middle 
 of the night and summoned to speak on his 
 life and services, I should not fail or falter. 
 But somehow this occasion seems to take 
 away my power of utterance. This company 
 of distinguished men, the renowned and 
 graceful orators who have preceded me, have 
 rendered me nearly speechless. 
 
 The hour is late, sir, and I will take time 
 for only a single word. That word must bear 
 directly upon the significance of this banquet. 
 
ADDRESS AT A DINNER 75 
 
 Why are we here ? What is the spell that 
 holds us ? I have asked myself what it is in 
 the character of Sumner that brings together, 
 twenty years after his death, such an assem- 
 blage of his admirers and followers ? Is there 
 another civilian in our American history, 
 Abraham Lincoln alone excepted, who could 
 call forth such a tribute to his worth and 
 fame ? Could even the great Webster him- 
 self ? We have been reminded recently of 
 the merits and achievements of that mighty 
 champion of the Union and expounder of the 
 Constitution. I have read, Mr. Chairman, 
 every gentleman in this room has read with a 
 thrill of admiration, your eloquent eulogy 
 in the Senate of the United States upon the 
 career of the majestic and peerless statesman 
 who for so many years stood before the civil- 
 ized world as the representative and type of 
 all that is highest and noblest in this Ameri- 
 can Republic. For myself I observed with 
 delight the fine analysis of your speech, the 
 accurate description and careful weighing of 
 the wonderful powers of that wonderful man ; 
 above all, the portrayal of the grounds on 
 which for more than a generation he was held 
 almost as an idol in Massachusetts. It was a 
 satisfaction to me also to note how, with un- 
 
76 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 flinching courage and perfect fidelity to truth, 
 you showed why, after all that idolatry, the 
 hearts of the people fell away from him as if 
 he had done some sacrilegious and evil thing, 
 and left him to oblivion, ignominy, and death. 
 It seems to me, however, that your speech 
 had a deeper meaning than appears to the 
 casual reader. It ought to be said here 
 that in that speech in which you have 
 sketched so profoundly alike the triumph 
 and failure of Daniel Webster, you have as- 
 signed the real reason why in the same hour 
 that he was rejected Massachusetts turned, as 
 if under the influence of a mighty loadstone, to 
 the imperial personality of Charles Sumner ; 
 why it followed his leadership, not only in 
 life, but follows it in death, and will follow it 
 so long as the life-blood courses in the veins 
 of her people. No public man was ever more 
 ardently loved or more completely trusted. 
 Both the love and trust were evoked by the 
 moral grandeur of his life. The people fol- 
 lowed his standard because he believed in 
 holding governments to the eternal and un- 
 changeable law of right ; because he was true 
 to the moral principles on which our beloved 
 Commonwealth is founded ; because he had 
 lofty ideals, and never wavered in his devo- 
 
ADDRESS AT A DINNER 77 
 
 tion to them ; because he walked reverently 
 and loyally in the steps of the Pilgrims and 
 Puritans, who, in the fear of God and the love 
 of man, set up here in this western wilderness 
 a nation whose foundation stones are human 
 equality, freedom, and justice. 
 
 This, moreover, is the quality in the char- 
 acters and offices of men in public life that 
 abides. Other qualities shift and fluctuate, 
 but this remains the same. Other qualities 
 may dazzle and even dominate for a season, 
 but this never loses its potency, but even 
 grows stronger as time goes on. Not long 
 ago Dr. Edward Everett Hale told me of an 
 address which he gave at Brown University, 
 in which, of set purpose, he drew the picture 
 of two men. One was of the man who, when 
 he rose in his place to speak in the House, 
 emptied the Senate ; and who, when he rose 
 to speak in the Senate, emptied the House. 
 
 The other was the picture of the great man 
 who put the impress of his life on Brown Uni- 
 versity. He told me that when he had fin- 
 ished and stepped down from the platform, men 
 born in Rhode Island, who were the contempo- 
 raries of the man described, came to him and 
 asked him whom he meant by the man, who, 
 when he was a representative and rose to speak 
 
78 OCCASIONAL, ADDRESSES 
 
 in the House, emptied the Senate, and when he 
 was a senator and rose to speak, emptied the 
 House, so completely had the memory and 
 tradition of Tristam B urges faded from men's 
 minds. The brilliant genius, the biting sar- 
 casm, the eloquent speech had not sufficed to 
 preserve him from oblivion. But there was 
 no doubt about the other man. Whoever 
 walks the streets of Providence to-day, who- 
 ever shall walk them for generations to come, 
 will recognize Francis Wayland as a living 
 and abiding presence. It is so everywhere. 
 Brilliancy of intellect, even commanding 
 genius, cannot keep men alive. Moral power 
 alone abides. Our ancestors sleep under the 
 sod ; the men who came in that bitter winter 
 and made the settlement of Plymouth that 
 they might ' * keep their names and nation ' ' 
 and ' ' give their children such an education 
 as they themselves had received ; ' ' the men 
 who followed in their steps and settled here 
 in Boston and the adjoining territory ; the 
 men who struggled and wrought for good 
 government and pure morals in the Colony 
 and Province of Massachusetts ; the great 
 men, represented in their descendants at this 
 table to-day, who put the quality and stamp 
 of their peerless characters into the Constitu- 
 
ADDRESS AT A DINNER 79 
 
 tion and civil order of this Commonwealth, 
 and whose names are an inspiration to youth 
 and a guide to the people, and will be to the 
 end of time, are all of them mouldering in 
 their graves. Yet they are still alive, and 
 never were they so potent in their activity as 
 now. They walk abroad ; they speak with 
 the living voice ; we see them as we could 
 not see them in the flesh, and they make to 
 us and to all men an irresistible appeal. 
 
 Some men we know were impatient with 
 what they called the extreme views and action 
 of Charles Sumner. Not long before he died 
 I spent a few weeks in Washington. While 
 sitting in the gallery of the Senate I saw that 
 whenever he rose to urge his Civil Rights Bill, 
 Senators in their impatience would spring 
 from their seats, wheel round and rush into 
 the cloak-rooms, leaving him to make his 
 speech almost alone to the President of the 
 Senate. He seemed to be regarded with 
 something akin to hatred. At least, men 
 could not conceal their indignation; some 
 even treated him with contempt when he tried 
 to address them from the high moral plane of 
 his convictions concerning freedom and equal- 
 ity. In a short time he died, with the words 
 "Take care of my Civil Rights Bill" trem- 
 
8O OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 bling on his lips. Then what a change took 
 place ! Around his open grave men forgot 
 their animosities ; every bitter epithet was 
 recalled ; the tumult of controversy was 
 hushed ; strife and hatred vanished away ; 
 the tenderest and most beautiful tributes to 
 his memory were from those who had been 
 his life-long enemies. And the Civil Rights 
 Bill; what of that ? The formal thing which 
 bore that name dropped into "inocuous desue- 
 tude." But the ' 'living creature" that ani- 
 mated it, the spirit that called it forth, was 
 taken up instantly into the conscience and 
 heart alike of America and of the whole civil- 
 ized world. To-day it is no longer a question 
 whether the negro shall have civil rights. 
 Civil rights are accorded to all men, without 
 distinction of race or color, by virtue of their 
 manhood. 
 
 It is a great thing, a rare privilege, to have 
 been the contemporaries and followers of such 
 a man. A far greater privilege it must have 
 been for our friend to have walked by his side, 
 enjoyed his friendship, shared his counsels, 
 received his confidence, won his affection, 
 gathered up and put together the materials 
 which will make both for the great Senator 
 himself and his biographer an imperishable 
 
ADDRESS AT A DINNER 8 1 
 
 memorial. I congratulate Mr. Pierce on his 
 noble achievement. I rejoice for the memory 
 of Sumner, that the mighty part which he 
 performed in the most important epoch of the 
 Republic has had so just and faithful and lov- 
 ing a chronicler. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE TO DR. A. A. MINER, 
 IN THE COLUMBUS AVE. CHURCH, Nov. 10, 1895 
 
 We are here to-night to indulge in affec- 
 tionate and grateful reminiscence of a man 
 who had more sides to his character and ex- 
 erted a wider and more varied influence than 
 almost any man who has lived in Boston dur- 
 ing the latter half of the nineteenth century. 
 To say that a man is great in a particular line 
 to which he has devoted the larger part of his 
 time and on which he has laid the emphasis of 
 his life, and that he has maintained his pre- 
 eminence in that line throughout, is praise 
 enough. We do not expect a preacher to be 
 a financier, any more than we look for high 
 literary gifts and attainments in one who may 
 be a very potent factor in the financial circles 
 of a great city. But Dr. Miner was great 
 in more than a single department of effort. 
 He was a great preacher, holding a foremost 
 place in his Boston pulpit for more than 
 forty years ; and he was very nearly an ideal 
 pastor. But he was also an orator almost 
 without a peer among the great public speak- 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 83 
 
 ers of his time. He was a statesman who, 
 without holding public office, has done as 
 much to shape the legislation of the Common- 
 wealth in things relating to its moral and 
 social welfare as any senator or representative 
 who has sat under the gilded dome during 
 the whole period of his activity. He was a 
 philanthropist whose ear caught from afar 
 the cry of the oppressed and down-trodden, 
 and to whom the appeal of the poor and 
 lowly was never made in vain. He was a 
 reformer as earnest and relentless in his de- 
 nunciation of wrong as Elijah or John the 
 Baptist ; and he was a business man of pru- 
 dence and sagacity. 
 
 But this does not exhaust the catalogue of 
 things in which he was truly great. After 
 his work as a Christian minister, his work in 
 the field of education was the greatest and 
 most enduring. 
 
 Having had in early life a successful experi- 
 ence as a teacher he took hold of this subject 
 with something of the knowledge of an expert, 
 and with that intelligent enthusiasm which 
 only they can feel whose interest has been 
 roused by actual contact with young and 
 ardent minds. Throughout his public career 
 he was intensely devoted to the welfare and 
 
84 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 progress of the public schools. The stealthy 
 approach of old age marked no abatement of 
 his desire that the schools of the state and 
 nation should be kept free from contamina- 
 tion or destructive influences and that they 
 should be the disseminators of a pure and 
 wholesome knowledge and the nurseries of 
 sound and noble culture. During the earlier 
 part of his ministry in Boston he was fre- 
 quently called upon to address teachers' in- 
 stitutes and other similar bodies on educa- 
 tional themes. He took thus a prominent 
 part in the discussion of the problems that 
 were up for solution at that time, and contrib- 
 uted in a substantial way, by the vigor, 
 ability, and soundness of his views to the im- 
 portant educational movements which followed 
 closely in the footsteps of Horace Mann. 
 I/ater he was appointed a member of the 
 State Board of Education, an office which, by 
 repeated reappointments, he held Continuously 
 for twenty years. Here, for the most part, 
 almost to the completion of his term of ser- 
 vice, he exerted a commanding influence 
 among his associates, having no subordinate 
 or incidental share in the supervision and di- 
 rection of the normal schools, and in shaping 
 the educational policy of the State. It is not 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 85 
 
 too much to say that the Normal Art School is 
 largely his creation. If the idea did not first 
 originate with him, he took it up with intelli- 
 gence and zeal, and carried it forward to a 
 practical result. The beneficent work accom- 
 plished by that School, and the large place it 
 has come to fill in our educational organiza- 
 tion, have fully justified the undertaking. 
 It is therefore, in an important sense, his 
 monument ; and if he had done no other not- 
 able public work, this alone would have en- 
 titled him to the gratitude of his fellow-citi- 
 zens. I might enlarge upon these phases of 
 Dr. Miner's educational activity. The theme 
 is an attractive one, and there is much that 
 might be said with profit concerning it. If 
 the history of public education in Massachu- 
 setts within this period is ever written, the 
 people of the State will be surprised to learn 
 how grand are the proportions of Dr. Miner's 
 work for the progress of human enlighten- 
 ment through the public schools. 
 
 In all this, however, he was only walking 
 in a by-path. The one educational interest 
 which towered above every other and drew 
 forth the best that was in him was Tufts 
 College. When this enterprise was first 
 broached, Dr. Miner was a very young man, 
 
86 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 too young, indeed, to have been an influ- 
 ential factor in it. Sometimes the very 
 inception of Tufts College is attributed to 
 him. But this is a mistake. Other forces 
 were at work before he had assumed the most 
 conspicuous place of leadership in the Uni- 
 versalist Church. We must not forget that 
 away back in the early forties, and even be- 
 fore, our venerable and beloved Dr. Sawyer 
 was preaching the gospel of education, and 
 urging Universalists, under their own pat- 
 ronage and control, to build and endow 
 schools and colleges. This agitation bore its 
 legitimate fruit. His appeals were responded 
 to by Dr. Ballou, Otis A. Skinner, and other 
 men, both clerical and lay, of influence and 
 power. The movement for the establishment 
 of a college took definite shape at the session 
 of the Universalist General Convention in 
 New York in 1847. But no sooner was the 
 scheme fairly outlined than it found Dr. 
 Miner ready to accept and champion it. 
 From that hour on he became its most con- 
 spicuous, devoted, and efficient friend. 
 Without a dissenting voice I suppose we 
 shall all say that it is largely due to his 
 efforts, that what must have seemed to many 
 a doubtful undertaking then, has become a 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 87 
 
 great and flourishing institution, full of vigor 
 and vitality, and giving ample evidence 
 of abundant and abiding prosperity and 
 progress. Time would fail me were I to 
 attempt to give even a complete outline of 
 the ways in which Dr. Miner served Tufts 
 College. It is enough to say, perhaps, that 
 the institution entered into his soul and took 
 possession of his whole being. No other in- 
 terest had precedence of it. No other work 
 called forth so much of his energy. No other 
 object of whatever name or nature stood 
 higher in his affections ; and his unwavering 
 loyalty and ardent devotion to it, and his de- 
 termination to serve it by every power he 
 possessed, followed him to the grave. His 
 will, like Caesar's testament, is the witness 
 of a love which death could not quench. 
 
 Though I cannot give here and now a full 
 account of his varied and remarkable service 
 to the College, there are two or three particu- 
 lars which I must not omit to mention. 
 
 His service on the material side of the Col- 
 lege was great. His advocacy of it inspired 
 confidence in it at once. The effect upon the 
 wealthy members of his own parish was 
 almost electric. Under his inspiring counsels 
 they were led immediately to give the means 
 
88 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 that was necessary to maintain the infant 
 institution, and their benefactions steadily 
 increased, until at length Silvanus Packard 
 was induced to make the College his heir, be- 
 queathing to it his whole fortune. Oliver 
 Dean was led not only to give one hundred 
 thousand dollars to the College, but to devote 
 the remainder of his possessions to the found- 
 ing of a school whose primary object should 
 be the fitting of students for it. Thomas A. 
 Goddard was his faithful lieutenant, paying 
 reverent heed to his wise suggestions, giving 
 of his substance constantly and with a liberal 
 hand. Indeed, no man will ever know the 
 extent of his generosity, which was wholly 
 without ostentation, and out of an affection 
 as pure and unselfish as man ever cherished 
 for a noble cause. Others followed with 
 equal loyalty, though at a somewhat slower 
 pace. Some of us can remember the remark- 
 able, and, at that time, almost unprecedented 
 collection, in the old School Street Church of 
 sixteen thousand dollars for the College. 
 
 Nor was it only his own parishioners whom 
 he filled with confidence in this worthy enter- 
 prise. His commanding talents, sound judg- 
 ment, and rare administrative ability made 
 men who were outside his parish and beyond 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 89 
 
 the limits of the Universalist Church feel 
 that the future of the College was assured, 
 and that it was a fitting object on which to 
 bestow their gifts. When Dr. William J. 
 Walker resolved to devote the whole of his 
 vast accumulations to education, and pro- 
 posed to divide them among several of the 
 institutions of the State, the friends of Tufts 
 College were delighted to learn that their in- 
 stitution, which possessed little more than a 
 few barren acres of ground in Medford and 
 Somerville, with buildings that scarcely more 
 than served to emphasize its poverty, was one 
 of them. It turned out, too, to their great 
 gratification, that Dr. Miner was the man 
 in whom Dr. Walker had the highest confi- 
 dence. Indeed, the presidents of the other 
 Colleges with spontaneous unanimity turned to 
 Dr. Miner as the one best fitted among them 
 all to get on amicably with that peculiar 
 gentleman, whose life, in spite of his profess- 
 ional eminence and his business triumphs, 
 had been filled with turmoil and trouble. 
 Nor did he fail to meet the full measure of his 
 responsibility. With that tactful urbanity 
 which sometimes with him amounted almost 
 to genius, he accommodated himself to all the 
 whims of the dying millionaire. If he were 
 
9O OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 bidden to be in his chamber at two o'clock in 
 the morning, he was there, as clear and fresh 
 and ready for business as if it were high 
 noon. Thus, little by little, because Dr. 
 Miner stood sponsor for it, the College won 
 its way to the thoughtful regard of business 
 men. 
 
 Dr. Miner's service to the College in the 
 legislative counsels of the State was almost 
 beyond computation. It was his skilful dip- 
 lomacy and his wide knowledge of and 
 influence with public men that won from a 
 reluctant Legislature a donation of fifty thous- 
 and dollars from the proceeds of the sale of 
 the Back Bay lands, thus taking the first step 
 towards putting the institution in a position 
 of independence and on a sound financial 
 basis. The marvellous tide of material bene- 
 factions, almost unparalled in the history of 
 New England colleges, has flowed in through 
 the gateway thus opened. 
 
 The original charter of the College au- 
 thorized the conferring of all the degrees 
 usually given by colleges ' ' except medical 
 degrees." Without any distinct purpose of 
 founding a medical school, or any immediate 
 desire to confer these degrees, Dr. Miner felt 
 that this was a discrimination that ought not 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 91 
 
 to exist, and so, almost alone, he went before 
 the Legislature, and in spite of the combined 
 opposition of Harvard College and nearly the 
 entire medical faculty of Massachusetts, se- 
 cured its removal. Truly "other men have 
 labored, and we are entered into their labors." 
 Our young medical school, now scarcely three 
 years old, yet with an enrolment of more 
 than one hundred and fifty students, estab- 
 lished with the cordial approval of men emi- 
 nent in the medical profession throughout 
 New England, even of men upon the Medical 
 faculty of Harvard University, is the proof of 
 the wisdom and foresight of this prudent 
 friend of the College. 
 
 The death of Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D., in 
 the spring of 1861, left the College without a 
 responsible head. The trustees and friends of 
 the institution were in dismay. They did not 
 know where to turn for a suitable successor 
 to the great and wise scholar who had been so 
 successful in launching this new experiment 
 with a people who had up to that time made 
 few achievements in the higher learning. It 
 seemed as if a crisis had been reached, and 
 there were those who felt very dubious con- 
 cerning the future. The people, however, 
 were not long in doubt. The trustees, after 
 
92 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 a little fruitless searching in most unpromis- 
 ing fields, turned with one consent to the 
 man who had rendered such conspicuous and 
 efficient aid in other ways, and designated 
 him to assume the headship of the College. 
 This was a new and difficult role for one to 
 assume who had not even had the advantage 
 of a college education himself. But Dr. 
 Miner took it up as naturally and gracefully 
 as if he had been predestined from the found- 
 ation of the world to be a college president. 
 He did not devote his whole time to the office, 
 nor even go to the College to reside. But it 
 was not long before he was familiar with 
 every detail of its work, and made his strong 
 hand felt in its administration. He became, 
 moreover, before the world the conspicuous 
 and shining exponent of its intellectual aims 
 and spirit. No man could look at him and 
 feel that the College under his control could 
 lead an inferior intellectual life. 
 
 Dr. Miner has been called narrow. But 
 those who say that of him only evince 
 their own ignorance of the real nature of 
 the man. His mind displayed the utmost 
 catholicity, and responded instantly to the 
 intellectual demands of the situation and the 
 times. True, his eye did not sweep the en- 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 93 
 
 tire horizon all at once. In an address which 
 he gave at the laying of the corner-stone of 
 Ballou Hall, he said : " L,et it be inscribed 
 over the doors of this College that no man 
 shall go forth from hence who is not versed 
 in letters and theology." It would seem as 
 if he were thinking only of a theological 
 school. But it was during his presidency 
 that physics was made a separate department, 
 with Professor Dolbear as its head. He also 
 created the department of engineering. These 
 were the initial measures which in their devel- 
 opment have given the College such wide and 
 high renown in the realm of both theoretical 
 and applied science. Surely one who could 
 thus overcome all the prepossessions of his 
 earlier manhood in favor of literary and 
 theological training was not a narrow man. 
 It is clear, beyond question, that he meant 
 that the foundations of the College should be 
 as broad as the whole field of human learning. 
 Early in the year 1875 circumstances arose 
 which led him finally to resign the office as 
 president. The trustees were unanimous in 
 desiring a different result. They urged him 
 by every consideration at their command to 
 abandon his Boston pulpit, come to the Col- 
 lege to reside, and devote his whole time to its 
 
94 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 administration. After mature deliberation he 
 held fast to his declination. But his resig- 
 nation of the presidency did not signify the 
 slightest abatement of interest in the welfare 
 of the institution. As a member of the board 
 of trustees, as chairman of its executive 
 committee and of other subordinate commit- 
 tees, he labored assiduously for the prosperity 
 in other hands of what he might, almost 
 without impropriety, have regarded as his 
 personal perquisite. This is the more re- 
 markable because sometimes he found him- 
 self in direct opposition to the policy of his 
 successor and in direct opposition to the 
 views of all his associates. Yet in matters 
 which I know he must have regarded as of 
 vital moment, I never could detect a single 
 trace of vexation or resentment towards the 
 College that his views were not adopted. In- 
 deed I have known him to withstand me almost 
 to the point of ferocity in the board, and after 
 the meeting he would take my arm and walk 
 up the street, leaning upon me as if I were 
 his son, and conversing with me in the most 
 amicable and confidential way on the high 
 themes of religion and the church. 
 
 I think it may be affirmed that his interest 
 deepened and strengthened in the cause to 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 95 
 
 which he had given the best energies of his 
 young and mature manhood as time wore on. 
 Returning as it were by a natural rebound of 
 affection to his earlier regard for literary and 
 theological culture, he made the splendid do- 
 nation of Miner Theological Hall to the 
 Divinity School. Then, as if he would not 
 be bound to any restricted channel of educa- 
 tional efforts, he sought the aid of the Supreme 
 Judicial Court of Massachusetts that he 
 might apply the funds left in his hands by the 
 will of the late Henry B. Pearson to some of 
 the phases of scientific effort already under- 
 taken by the College. The Bromfield-Pearson 
 School is the result. Finally, by his last will 
 and testament, he gives the whole of the 
 residuary of his estate to the College, the in- 
 come to be used by the trustees without re- 
 striction for those objects which they deem 
 most wise. You will all agree with me that 
 none but a great man could thus give up his 
 official connection with a cherished instru- 
 mentality, and still keep, in spite of many 
 disappointments and some crossing of pur- 
 poses, his affection ardent and warm toward 
 it, and ultimately crown and seal has love by 
 the noblest benefactions. 
 
 His former pupils, not a few of whom are 
 
96 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 here to-night, would not feel that I had per- 
 formed my duty if I failed to speak of him as 
 a teacher. The splendid tribute of Dr. Adams, 
 however, renders the task nearly superfluous. 
 Dr. Miner belonged to a type of college presi- 
 dents which is now extinct, a type which 
 was represented by such men as Francis Way- 
 land, James Walker, Theodore D. Woolsey, 
 and Mark Hopkins. They were men who 
 taught not so much by their learning (though 
 they were not without learning) as by their 
 personality. I heard President D wight of 
 Yale University say, not long since, that Dr. 
 Woolsey could not go through the college 
 yard without communicating to the students 
 who saw him a distinct intellectual impulse. 
 To no man in the world could this remark be 
 applied more justly than to Dr. Miner. How- 
 ever he appeared, whether on foot or on 
 horseback, his presence was majestic. The 
 man who saw him for the first 1 time turned 
 involuntarily and gazed after him. Even 
 those to whom his goings to and fro upon the 
 street were familiar often stopped and looked 
 upon him with admiration. To his own pu- 
 pils, as he ascended the hill of science before 
 them, he seemed a veritable " king of men." 
 The modern college president is a curious 
 
DR. A. A. MINER 97 
 
 compound. He is expected, to be sure, to 
 know something of pedagogical subjects and 
 to be able to expound them to his own and 
 other bodies of teachers. His time, however, 
 is mainly occupied with petty details of busi- 
 ness. Of his own faculty he is little more than 
 the presiding officer, and the entire work of 
 college administration and discipline is done 
 by act of the college parliament. He may do 
 some teaching if he can find time for it, but 
 he is quite as likely to be found in the amphi- 
 theatre of the ball-field, stimulating his pupils 
 to athletic achievement, as in the academic 
 hall, rousing their minds with the mighty 
 themes of philosophy and duty. Fortunately 
 Dr. Miner was not cast in this mould, and 
 was not called to do his work under the con- 
 ditions which this mould imposes. Wherever 
 he was, he was a masterful spirit. Whether 
 seated in the presidential chair among his as- 
 sociate teachers, or face to face with the under- 
 graduates, every one was made to feel that in 
 some just and profound measure his will was 
 law. In the class-room it was not his expo- 
 sitions of the text that most impressed his 
 pupils, but rather the clearness and force with 
 which he grasped ideas and truth. The bril- 
 liancy and profundity of his own thought 
 
98 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 drew forth their intellectual resources, and 
 set them to thinking for themselves on inde- 
 pendent lines. For this reason no man who 
 ever felt as a pupil the inspiration of his intel- 
 lectual life can fail to revere him as a wise 
 teacher and profound thinker. 
 
 So his work goes on, through the College 
 to which he has contributed not only more 
 variously, but a greater sum of things than 
 any other single individual thus far in its his- 
 tory ; through the departments of study which 
 he created ; through the noble intellectual 
 ideals which he embodied, and through the 
 stimulus of his peerless personality. This is 
 his legacy to us. God help us to hand it on 
 not only unimpaired, but with fresh accumu- 
 lations to the generations that are to come. 
 
THE REV. BENJAMIN KIMBALL RUSS 
 
 A TRIBUTE GIVEN AT THE UNIVERSAWST MINIS- 
 TERS' MEETING, NOVEMBER 16, 1896 
 
 My acquaintance with Benjamin Kimball 
 Russ began in the Spring of 1853, at the 
 Green Mountain liberal Institute in South 
 Woodstock, Vermont. He had been for some 
 time a member of the school and I had just 
 entered it. We were both in the same class 
 preparing for Tufts College, which we entered 
 in the fall of 1856, just forty years ago. At 
 the fitting school he distinguished himself by 
 his faithfulness as a student and by many 
 brilliant and agreeable qualities. In the win- 
 ter of 1854 we became room-mates, a relation 
 which we held without interruption through- 
 out our connection with the Academy and 
 until we left college in 1860. In all that long 
 and intimate connection I do not recall a 
 harsh or unpleasant word spoken by either of 
 us. I think this is somewhat remarkable, as 
 we were both very positive and often differed 
 radically in our opinions. He was in many 
 respects a unique character, unlike any other 
 man whom I have ever known, and with 
 
IOO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 many strong qualities which deserve com- 
 mendation. He was remarkable even in his 
 early youth, and a great future was pre- 
 dicted for him. Undoubtedly he would have 
 achieved this but for certain peculiarities 
 which limited him and held him in check. 
 At the Academy he was regarded by both 
 teachers and students as a person of extra- 
 ordinary natural endowments. These char- 
 acteristics became more and more strongly 
 emphasized in his college career. 
 
 When we entered college in the fall of 
 1856 we set up housekeeping in one of the 
 attic chambers of Middle Hall. From the 
 day of our arrival for more than a week a 
 storm of extraordinary violence raged. This 
 storm blew down the mammoth tent that had 
 been set up in the field near the great oak 
 where the station on the Boston and L,owell 
 Railroad now stands, for a festival to mark 
 the opening of the college year/ As none of 
 our furniture had arrived we were compelled 
 to sleep on an uncovered mattress on the 
 floor of our room. I remember a laughable 
 incident of our first year in the attic. Our 
 room was heated by an old fashioned Frank- 
 lin coal stove, and we were greatly troubled 
 with gas on account of a defect in the chim- 
 
THE RKV. B. K SUSS. 
 
 ney. Benjamin was a great wag and loved a 
 practical joke. There was a certain way of 
 putting on the blower to the stove that would 
 cause the gas to pour out into the room in a 
 great blue flame carrying with it a cloud of 
 dust and ashes. One day he sent for Presi- 
 dent Ballou that he might complain of the 
 draft and explain the discomfort to which we 
 were subjected. As soon as the venerable 
 doctor came in he adjusted the blower, and 
 the gas came out covering the old gentleman 
 with a shower of ashes. The latter turned 
 with a start that was peculiar to him and said, 
 "This will never do, Mr. Russ ; you must 
 get out of this room at once." 
 
 Augustus E. Scott, of the class of 1858, 
 now residing in Lexington, was at the time 
 of our entrance a member of the junior class, 
 having come to Tufts College from Brown 
 University in the autumn of 1855. While 
 at Brown Mr. Scott had been initiated into 
 the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Very soon 
 after our advent upon College Hill, he se- 
 lected Mr. Russ, two others of the Freshman 
 class, myself, and two or three men from 
 the class of 1859 who have since attained 
 high distinction in their professions, to be- 
 come the charter members of what is now the 
 
O2 OCCAGIPNAI, ADDRESSES 
 
 Kappa chapter of this society. Russ was a 
 faithful member of his fraternity throughout 
 his college course and never lost his interest 
 in it while he lived. 
 
 Our relation to each other was more than 
 fraternal. It was one of those high friend- 
 ships which are seldom realized in this world, 
 like the friendship of David and Jonathan. 
 We had no secrets from each other ; even 
 our most private confidences we shared as 
 if our identity were one and the same. For 
 a time after entering college his fidelity as a 
 student seemed to warrant for him the attain- 
 ment of high rank in his class. But he had 
 an enormously large and active brain and an 
 extremely delicate and frail body. We used 
 to call him the tadpole, because beginning 
 with his head, he seemed to taper gradually to 
 his feet. The close application of a studious 
 life soon began to tell upon his health. By 
 the beginning of his junior year the activity 
 of his brain developed symptoms that were 
 uncomfortable and alarming. He was obliged 
 more and more to relax his studious effort. 
 In the latter part of his senior year, he was 
 unable to take the examinations that would 
 have entitled him to the degree of Bachelor 
 of Arts, and he left college without it. One 
 
REV. B. K. RUSS 103 
 
 of the highest satisfactions of my official ex- 
 perience was the privilege, at the first com- 
 mencement over which I presided, in 1875, 
 of conferring upon him extra ordinem this de- 
 gree. This was done at the suggestion and 
 on the motion, in the meeting of the trustees, 
 of the Reverend I^ucius R. Paige, D.D., who 
 knew Mr. Russ intimately and appreciated 
 him at his true worth. I believe -myself that 
 the degree was richly merited. 
 
 Mr. Russ had a personality that was irre- 
 sistibly attractive. He was accessible to all 
 classes of students, open, generous and free. 
 Every one who was in college with him will 
 agree with me that he was the most popular 
 man in the institution. He was perfectly 
 democratic, genial and hospitable. Our room 
 was the almost constant resort of the men, in 
 whatever class, who were inclined to socia- 
 bility, and often in the hours not devoted to 
 study it would be crowded to suffocation, 
 nearly, with visitors. We sometimes found it 
 difficult to get time for our own work and not 
 unfrequently had to turn out the company vi 
 et armis. He had an inexhaustible fund of 
 anecdote and was an unequalled story teller, 
 his rare dramatic powers and his imitative 
 qualities enabling him to illustrate a narra- 
 
104 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 tive with all the grace of a finished actor. 
 How often have I heard the exclamation 
 burst forth from one and another admiring 
 listener : ' ' Ben, you ought to go on the stage 
 You would equal Warren ! * ' He was a mas- 
 ter of sarcasm and his wit was subtle and 
 inspiring. L,ike Falstaff, "he was not only 
 witty in himself, but the cause of wit in other 
 men." In argument, also, he was invincible. 
 Most of the discussions of our time were of 
 the theological order. He knew the Bible 
 by heart ; in the quotation and marshall- 
 ing of texts I never knew but two masters in 
 that art who could be put in the same cate- 
 gory with him, and these were no lesser per- 
 sonages than Hosea Ballou and Thomas 
 Whittemore. 
 
 In the privacy of his own apartments sur- 
 rounded by congenial friends he had a mar- 
 vellous fluency of speech, and when his 
 interest in a subject was fully kindled he rose 
 not unfrequently to the loftiest flights of elo- 
 quence. Men have said to me again and 
 again, "if Benjamin could only bring his 
 mind to it and let himself out in public as 
 he is wont to do in private with his friends, 
 he would be a foremost orator. ' ' Among his 
 other attractions, he had a rich voice and 
 
THE REV. B. K. RUSS 105 
 
 was a good natural singer. He was very fond 
 of religious hymns and songs of the camp- 
 meeting variety. Often the company that 
 gathered around him would render the dormi- 
 tory untenantable to all who did not join with 
 them, by the songs which he would deacon 
 off, interspersed with imitations of the great 
 revivalists of the Burchard and Knapp type. 
 Are there not still some living who can say, 
 
 " Ah, yes, we can remember those nights; 
 
 For we spent them not in toys, nor lusts nor wine; 
 But search of deep philosophy, wit, eloquence and 
 
 poesy, 
 
 Arts which I loved, for they, my friend, were 
 thine"? 
 
 Notwithstanding his fondness for mirth and 
 jollity, he never lost his sense of manhood. 
 He kept his proper dignity and never over- 
 stepped the bounds of propriety in anything. 
 The great serious purposes of life dominated 
 him. He may be said to have been predes- 
 tined to the Christian Ministry. He used to 
 declare that he never could remember the 
 time, even in his earliest childhood, when he 
 did not have that profession as his choice. 
 His entire spiritual nature was cast in the 
 ministerial mould. In spite of his geniality 
 and mirthfulness, he was always serious and 
 
106 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 high minded ; and, without the slightest sug- 
 gestion of cant, he was profoundly religious. 
 I have never known a man to whom the 
 spiritual realm was so much a reality. His 
 consciousness of that seemed to be just as 
 fine and clear as his consciousness of temporal 
 things. Literally, we may say, he walked 
 with God. 
 
 He began preaching immediately upon the 
 completion of his college course. Indeed, I 
 think he had preached somewhat before that. 
 His promise was recognized at once, and he 
 had many flattering invitations. The parish 
 in Somerville being vacant, he accepted a call 
 to become its pastor, a position which he 
 held for twelve years. At the beginning 
 of his ministry there, the congregation wor- 
 shipped in a wooden building in the easterly 
 section of the town. But after some years 
 this building was destroyed by fire and the 
 existing brick structure on Cross Street was 
 erected. Under his care the society grew in 
 numbers and strength, enjoying a very high 
 degree of prosperity. The congregations 
 were large, filling the church in every part. 
 The Sunday School was almost phenomenal 
 in size and interest, a characteristic which it 
 has retained ever since. The roll of church 
 
REV. B. K. RUSS 107 
 
 membership was larger than in most congre- 
 gations of like magnitude. The people who 
 gathered about and sustained him in his work 
 were among the most influential and respect- 
 able in the community. 
 
 But notwithstanding this prosperity there 
 came a time when he was conscious of a 
 ripple of discontent, and he was so sensitive 
 in his mental and spiritual organism that he 
 could not work against an adverse current. 
 The parish had a small burden of debt and 
 some complained that he did not raise it. 
 But he was not a debt raiser and he felt him- 
 self unequal to the task. Some complained 
 that his methods were stereotyped. I have 
 alluded to his timidity and reserve. In this 
 he was almost abnormal. Although he had, 
 as everyone who knew him can testify, 
 native extemporaneous ability of a rare 
 order, in his public ministration, I think he 
 never allowed himself to utter five consecu- 
 tive sentences extemporaneously. If he had 
 anything to say, even to his Sunday School, 
 he felt that he must have it written down be- 
 fore him. Therefore, though no one could 
 complain of the ability with which his pulpit 
 work was done, or of his faithfulness and de- 
 votion as a pastor, or of the dignified relations 
 
108 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 which he sustained to the community, there 
 were those who felt that a change might be 
 better. Experience taught them that they 
 were in woeful error. 
 
 As soon, however, as Mr. Russ became 
 aware of the feeling he resigned, and no 
 amount of importunity could have induced 
 him to recall his resignation. Still, to one 
 constituted as he was, it is no exaggeration 
 to say that the step was heart-breaking. I 
 know how bitterly he suffered. For many 
 years his dejection and sorrow interfered with 
 his mental activity and prevented him from 
 much useful work. Though his services 
 were in constant request and he preached 
 nearly every Sunday, he could not bring 
 himself to the task of taking on the responsi- 
 bilities of a new parish. He had struck his 
 roots deeply in Somerville, and he could not 
 contemplate the possibility of life in any other 
 place. Moreover, the home of which he had 
 then become a part, was immeasurabty 
 attractive. Immediately on his going to 
 Somerville, the elder Hollanders took him to 
 their house and made him as one of their 
 sons. Their children regarded him with as 
 much affection as if he had been a brother of 
 their own flesh and blood. This relation 
 
THE REV. B. K. RUSS 109 
 
 continued until the home was broken up by 
 the death of Mrs. Hollander, when he trans- 
 ferred his abode to the family of the oldest 
 son, Mr. I/ouis P. Hollander. Many people 
 looked upon him with a critical eye. Some 
 said harsh things about him. They called 
 him indolent. They said he was letting 
 great powers run to waste. They charged 
 that he was wanting in devotion to the cause 
 which he had espoused. But all tongues 
 were silenced when that awful paralysis fell 
 upon him like a thunder bolt out of heaven. 
 Men saw then the ghostly shadow that had 
 dogged his footsteps from his youth. They 
 knew that it was this that had put an inex- 
 orable limit to his activity and his powers. 
 
 Then it was, however, that he nerved him- 
 self for a new effort with a heroism that I 
 can rarely think of without tears. As soon 
 as strength returned to him in a slight degree, 
 he took himself at once to Gorham, New 
 Hampshire, where, during many summer va- 
 cations he had made friends, and immediately 
 set about the work of gathering and organ- 
 izing a parish. At first his tongue failed to 
 respond to the efforts of his will and his 
 speech was clouded. He was unable, even, 
 to stand in the pulpit. But he worked on 
 
110 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 without complaint, and the work prospered 
 in his hands. The young were drawn to him 
 by the charm of his personality ; the middle 
 aged and the old learned to love and venerate 
 him for his sincerity and wisdom. Little by 
 little the means were gathered for the erec- 
 tion of one of the most beautiful and commodi- 
 ous churches to be found in a New England 
 country village ; and he lived there in the 
 midst of his flock, as truly venerated and be- 
 loved as the village pastor immortalized by 
 Goldsmith. He was respected and admired 
 by the entire community. The whole body 
 of the clergy for miles around, Catholic and 
 Protestant alike, held him in esteem as a 
 Christian brother and fellow servant of the 
 living God. In view of the masterly devo- 
 tion of his later years let no man say that 
 Benjamin Russ was indolent. He lived like 
 an anchorite, in painstaking and unselfish 
 consecration. He took no stipend save what 
 was freely given in the morning offertory of 
 the church. That, after paying the expenses 
 of heating, lighting and janitor's service, left 
 but a pittance for the simple necessities of his 
 daily life. But he would rather have it so. 
 
 Two years ago I spent a week with him in 
 his field of labor. It was a delight to witness 
 
REV. B. K. RUSS III 
 
 the honor and affection in which he was 
 held. I remonstrated with him and tried to 
 induce him to adopt some other method of 
 raising a revenue in his parish that would 
 give him a better and more trustworthy sup- 
 port. But he said: "No, this method is 
 according to my idea, and I do not wish 
 to change it." He had a small suite of 
 rooms in a block over the post-office in the 
 heart of the village. Before I left him, I 
 said: " Ben, you ought not to live in this 
 way. With your infirmities you are liable to 
 a sudden illness, and here you are beyond the 
 reach of help in time of need." He turned 
 to me with a smile and replied : ' ' Elmer, I 
 am an old bachelor, and I like this way best. 
 Some night I shall go to sleep here and wake 
 up in Heaven. This is the way I want it to 
 be." I grasped his hand and looked into his 
 face. His lip did not quiver, but the tears 
 rolled down his cheeks. As for myself, I was 
 nearly blind as I tried to say farewell. 
 
 I have seen him once or twice since. Last 
 winter he came to my house and we spent a 
 day in delightful reminiscence of the days of 
 our youth, and then he went back to his work 
 among the hills. He seemed so much stronger 
 and so much like his old self, that I felt he 
 
112 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 had yet some years of happiness and work. 
 But when on the sixth day of this month, the 
 sad message was flashed over the country, 
 " The Reverend B. K. Russ this morning was 
 found dead in his bed, ' ' I recalled the scene 
 in his room and his words, ( ' This is the way 
 I want it to be." 
 
 He had an inordinate fondness for attend- 
 ing divine worship. No inveterate theatre- 
 goer, drunk with the passion for seeing plays, 
 ever had such fondness for the dramatic art 
 as he had for attending religious services. 
 During the time that he lived in Somerville, 
 I think he must have attended, at some time 
 or other, for some service or other, nearly every 
 church in Boston. Indeed, the most curious 
 conventicle in the most obscure hall he sought 
 out and could tell you all about it from actual 
 observation. His eyes were so keen, his 
 verbal memory so strong and accurate and 
 his power of imitation so true that he could 
 reproduce the whole before the eye and mind 
 of the listener. The lofty eloquence of the 
 great pulpit orator lived and glowed again 
 and burnt its way into the soul of the hearer 
 from his lips. Tne strange and often ludi- 
 crous eccentricities of the uncultured colored 
 preacher were just as vividly portrayed. He 
 
THE REV. B. K. RUSS 113 
 
 could paint with equal faithfulness the pecu- 
 liar fervor of the revivalist and the graceful 
 genuflexions of the ritualist. Nor was it a 
 mere idle curiosity that carried him to so 
 many and such varied services. He went to 
 them impelled by a mighty instinct, because 
 he loved himself to worship God and because 
 he desired to know the methods by which 
 other souls found their way into the presence 
 of the Highest. Nay, he worshipped himself 
 with the worshippers of every cult and creed. 
 His spirit went out in communion just as 
 surely on the wings of the modest prayer ut- 
 tered in the poorest and meanest earthly tab- 
 ernacle as on the incense of a pompous cere- 
 monial in a gorgeous cathedral. Since 
 Thomas Wilson, the first minister of the first 
 church in this historic city, no more genuinely 
 pious and devout soul has walked the streets 
 of Boston than Benjamin Kimball Russ. 
 
 He was a passionate lover of nature ; not 
 only that, but he knew and rejoiced in the 
 message it had to give. Like Hosea Ballou, 
 2d, and Thomas Starr King he loved the 
 mighty hills among which in these later years 
 his daily life was cast. Every day he looked 
 upon the impressive forms of Adams and Jef- 
 ferson with increasing interest because they 
 
114 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 proclaimed with an emphasis that could not 
 be mistaken the majesty and infinity of God. 
 I rode down with him one day through Shel- 
 burne, crossed the river and came up on 
 the other side of the bridge from which the 
 finest view of Mount Washington is to be had, 
 where you see the whole mountain from its 
 roots to the summit set in the everlasting 
 framework of the hills. I suppose he had 
 seen it a hundred times, but he stopped his 
 horse and sat awed and silent before it for 
 several minutes; and then he turned to me 
 and said, " I will lift up mine eyes unto the 
 hills, from whence cometh my help." It is 
 something of a satisfaction that one who 
 adored the hills not only for their beauty, but 
 for the exposition they give of eternal verities, 
 should have passed his last days under their 
 shadow and that they should have been the 
 last things his eyes beheld. In his thought 
 they stood as the living gateway of the new 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 To the youngest of the present generation 
 of Universalist ministers, he is almost entirely 
 unknown, and even those of ten or fifteen 
 years' standing have had few opportunities to 
 test his quality. But those of us who knew 
 him in the unfolding period of his bright and 
 
THE REV. B. K. RUSS 115 
 
 promising youth, or in the strength and ma- 
 turity of his powers, without dissent, will 
 affirm that but for limitations which were 
 superficial, but which he could not overcome, 
 he would have been a great leader and teacher 
 among men. To us, therefore, the passing 
 away of so much power is an occasion of in- 
 effable sadness. Our sorrow is enhanced still 
 further by the fact that he possessed qualities 
 of almost matchless loveliness. The charm 
 and grace of his personality was irresistible. 
 He was bound to those he loved with hooks 
 of steel. A friendship once formed was to him 
 sacred and inviolable forever ; and those who 
 walked with him as I have done in confi- 
 dential affection feel as if a very essential part 
 of life had been taken away. After such a 
 loss I feel more than ever as if henceforth 
 my conversation should be in heaven. The 
 best privilege that I can claim is that of lay- 
 ing this tribute of a lifelong love on his new 
 made grave. 
 
 Farewell beloved friend, noble and true, 
 friend of my youth and maturer manhood ! 
 Farewell white soul, fit for the society and 
 fellowship of angels ! That you have entered 
 into the great company of immortals whom 
 your matchless religious imagination so often 
 
Il6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 enabled you to prefigure, the great company 
 of those who have, washed their robes and 
 made them white in the blood of the lamb, I 
 do not doubt any more than I doubt my own 
 existence. My devout prayer to almighty 
 God is, that when my time shall come to 
 cross the mysterious boundary into the ' ' land 
 of the hereafter, ' ' your clarion voice may be 
 the first to hail me from the other side and 
 your hand the first extended in welcome. 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE CONGREGATIONAL CLUB IN 
 TREMONT TEMPLE, DECEMBER 27, 1898. 
 
 Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I count it an honor to be invited to this 
 board on this festive and, may I not say, his- 
 toric occasion. Nevertheless I feel that I 
 am entitled to your commiseration, since I 
 am to present one side of the most important 
 question that has confronted the American 
 people since the war of the rebellion, and am 
 to be followed by one of the most eminent 
 constitutional lawyers and statesmen of the 
 country. Of course, I have not the vanity to 
 suppose that any words that I can utter will 
 have the value that attaches to Governor 
 Boutwell's thought. Still I am compelled after 
 the most careful consideration to lift up my 
 voice in behalf of the policy of President 
 McKinley. My sense of nationality is too 
 intense to permit me to do otherwise. I hate 
 to be called a little American. Moreover, I 
 feel that expansion has been the moving 
 principle of the country from the time of the 
 earliest settlement. Your meeting to-night is 
 
Il8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 a postponed celebration of Forefathers' Day. 
 Who were the Pilgrim Fathers but an ex- 
 pansionist embassy going forth in the name 
 of God and humanity to lay the foundations 
 of a new empire in a new world ? When I 
 think of the marvellous history, first of the 
 American colonies and then of the American 
 states; when I recall the march of empire 
 from the straggling villages, planted in toil 
 and terror by the Atlantic seaboard, to the 
 valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi and 
 over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
 shore; when I remember the providential res- 
 cue of the people from the throes of revolu- 
 tion and rebellion and their guidance in the 
 pathway of a constantly enlarging national 
 existence, I am compelled to believe that 
 God was at the helm guiding the Olympia 
 and her consorts into Manila Bay just as 
 surely as he guided the Mayflower into Ply- 
 mouth harbor. Accordingly, I believe also 
 that the United States is perfectly justified 
 in wresting the Philippines from the grasp 
 of Spain and in holding them for the pur- 
 poses of good government and progressive 
 civilization. Indeed, I am persuaded that the 
 country would be exposed to the reproach 
 of history and the unmistakable condem- 
 
POIylCY OF EXPANSION 1 19 
 
 nation of all good men if she were to do less. 
 What are the objections to this course ? 
 
 We are told, in the first place, that it is 
 unconstitutional. We cannot assume the 
 sovereignty of their territory or their peoples. 
 Any act that looks in the direction of the ac- 
 quisition of new territory and new population 
 is in the nature of annexation, making the 
 people virtually citizens of the United States. 
 No one reveres more than I do the authority 
 of those who present this view. I bow 
 cheerfully to the wisdom of the gentleman 
 who is to follow me in this discussion. My 
 respect for his right to speak upon constitu- 
 tional questions is witnessed by the fact that 
 I use his treatise in my own classes as a text- 
 book. 
 
 But I cannot help remarking that the view 
 is that of the strict constructionist ; and 
 while the strict constructionist has ever had 
 great influence and rendered important ser- 
 vice he has invariably gone to the wall. 
 Contrast Buchanan with Lincoln. Buchanan 
 was undoubtedly a patriot and a statesman. 
 But he was paralyzed in the presence of re- 
 bellion because he could not find in the con- 
 stitution the authority to coerce a state. But 
 Mr. Lincoln took the ground that the consti- 
 
120 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 tution was not a finality, it was only the 
 instrument of the national life. The nation 
 did not exist for the constitution, but the 
 constitution for the nation. The framers of 
 the constitution were not so vain as to imag- 
 ine that they had uttered the final word. 
 They made provision for amendment, and 
 already there have been fifteen amendments 
 to the instrument in less than a hundred 
 years. 
 
 Moreover, it is of the very essence of a suc- 
 cessful constitution that it shall be elastic. 
 The English constitution is unwritten, and 
 hence there is no obstacle to its modification 
 to suit the exigencies of new times. But 
 even written constitutions have capacities for 
 growth. The Roman jurisconsults assumed 
 that the Twelve Tables contained not only 
 the ground work but the ultimate expression 
 of the law of Rome ; and yet, as Mr. Maine 
 has shown, on the basis of the Twelve Tables 
 they built up the most elastic, the most com- 
 prehensive and the most perfect system of 
 jurisprudence that the world ever saw. That 
 system in principle and essence is ours to- 
 day. We must be faithful to its spirit. The 
 Constitution of the United States stands face 
 to face with a condition to which it must 
 
THE; POLICY OF EXPANSION 121 
 
 bend. I am reminded of General Butler be- 
 fore Baltimore. He said, "I cannot go over 
 the city nor under it, and I shall go through 
 it." The American people have decreed that 
 a certain thing shall be done and they will 
 find a way to do it without violence to the 
 fundamental law of the republic. 
 
 Again, it is said that the course proposed 
 by the President and involved in the treaty of 
 peace, is unjust. It is contrary to the De- 
 claration of Independence, which asserts that 
 the just powers of states are ' ' derived from 
 the consent of the governed." Of course 
 all intelligent Americans accept the doctrine 
 of the Declaration of Independence. But it 
 must not be forgotten that this is a sweeping 
 assertion of a universal principle. The diffi- 
 culty consists in its application. There has 
 never been a time when the principle has 
 been in perfect operation since the indepen- 
 dence of the nation was achieved. How shall 
 the application of the principle be secured in 
 the Philippines ? By sailing away and leav- 
 ing them to anarchy and self-destruction ? 
 By handing them over to the tyranny of na- 
 tions that, on our departure, will immediately 
 begin the struggle for their capture ? Or by 
 taking control, preserving order, prescribing 
 
122 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 just laws, setting up schools, teaching letters, 
 morals, and the broad and wholesome ideas of 
 ethical and religious freedom which the Pil- 
 grims brought to our shores ? I leave it for 
 you to answer. 
 
 It is said that we are attempting an impos- 
 sible task. We shall have to deal with an 
 unassimilable population. We have had no 
 experience in governing colonies and we 
 have no wisdom of statesmanship that is 
 equal to the perplexing problems which will 
 be presented. Of course we cannot make 
 white men of black men. We cannot change 
 Malays into Aryans. But anthropological 
 science, and the careful study of the habits 
 and mental characteristics of races, are dem- 
 onstrating the truth of the Apostle's declara- 
 tion that "God hath made of one blood all races 
 of men," and that while there is an ineradi- 
 cable difference between the Aryan, the Ne- 
 gro, and the Mongolian, there' is the same 
 fundamental human quality in all. Do we 
 not assume too much when we attribute the 
 instinct and possibility of free institutions to 
 men of Anglo Saxon blood and breeding? 
 Surely the Filipinos have already imbibed the 
 idea and the ardent desire for freedom, in- 
 
POUCY OF EXPANSION 123 
 
 spired and encouraged largely by the example 
 of this great republic. 
 
 Who, moreover, shall say that in view of 
 the experience we have acquired, the lessons 
 we have learned and the traditions we have 
 inherited, we are unequal to the task of de- 
 vising a government suited to the needs of a 
 people whom we are seeking to uplift and 
 transform ? For myself I do not cherish so 
 poor an opinion of American statesmanship. 
 The one thing for which the American states- 
 man is characterized above every other is the 
 ability to meet new exigencies and to devise 
 governments adapted to original and untried 
 conditions. By the memory of all the 
 Adamses, by the unrivalled genius of Jeffer- 
 son, by the matchless common sense of Lin- 
 coln, I declare that this assumption is the 
 substance of tales that are told to frighten 
 children. Of course, we can govern depen- 
 dencies, by whatever name you call them, 
 and govern them well, if we set out to do it. 
 
 But we have no right to make the effort 
 until our own home problems are all solved 
 and we have achieved a perfect government. 
 Who believes that ? Shall the citizen refrain 
 from voting and from any effort to regulate 
 the affairs of the community at large because 
 
124 OCCASION AI, ADDRESSES 
 
 he cannot rule his own household according 
 to an ideal standard which he or some one 
 else has conceived as essential ? How often 
 it happens that men acquire wisdom, modera- 
 tion, justice, and self-control, which are ap- 
 plicable within the domestic circle, from their 
 contact with man in the outer world. This 
 is precisely what happens in the experience 
 of nations. Great Britain began to acquire 
 toleration, breadth of view, humanity and a 
 nobler justice, as soon as she adopted a hu- 
 mane policy for her colonies. The United 
 States of America will exhibit a broader wis- 
 dom, a higher statesmanship as soon as she 
 begins to look beyond the dominion of her 
 own states vast as that dominion may be. 
 
 We are trying, it is affirmed, to play the 
 imperialistic role. We are walking in the 
 steps of ancient Rome and following her ex- 
 ample to decadence and destruction. Men 
 seem to forget that Rome was pagan and not 
 Christian, that she gave shelter to corruptions 
 and cruelties which have not even a name in 
 modern civilization. Yet in spite of her de- 
 fects and her wickedness she exerted her 
 power for nearly a thousand years. Her de- 
 cline was not due to the enlargement of her 
 dominion. Indeed her strength came as she 
 
THE) POLICY OF EXPANSION 125 
 
 pushed out from her narrow boundaries on 
 the banks of the Tiber until the whole of 
 Italy was hers and did not cease in her con- 
 quering movement until she held the known 
 world in her relentless grasp. Her decline 
 came with the advent of public corruption, 
 the decay of civic virtue and the failure of 
 that stoic philosophy in which her great men 
 and heroes had been nurtured. I do not 
 know how long the American republic may 
 be expected to endure. But I am sure that 
 the people have all the virility and valor of 
 the Romans, and they have what the Romans 
 had not, a Christian morality, a Christian 
 civilization and a Christian faith. 
 
 Be it remembered, also, as has been justly 
 said, that the true comparison is not with 
 Rome but England. England certainly is 
 the grandest and most successful colonizer in 
 the history of the world. Her civilization 
 has endured for a thousand years and is not 
 yet touched with the symptoms of decay. 
 We who are not doomed to the isolation of a 
 sea-girt island, we who have a vast continent 
 as the seat of our dominion, we who have in- 
 herited not only the English blood, but the 
 English speech, traditions, civilization, law, 
 and whatever is most noble in the English 
 
126 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 aspirations and ambitions, may certainly hope 
 for at least one millennium of power, even 
 though we may seek to follow the English 
 example of governing colonies beyond the 
 seas. 
 
 But what are some of the positive reasons 
 for this policy ? 
 
 At the outset I should affirm with emphasis 
 that expansion is the law of growth. It is 
 true of trees. When a tree ceases to expand 
 then its decay sets in. If you try to prevent 
 its expansion by putting an iron jacket 
 around it you ensure its destruction. It is 
 true of men. I am not so tall by half an inch 
 as I was twenty years ago, I may have more 
 fat but I have not the muscular power that I 
 had at forty. No doubt, the fathers would 
 have been stricken dumb at the thought of a 
 dominion in the far off islands of the Pacific 
 sea. But the times have changed. Think 
 of what the conditions were when the consti- 
 tution was framed! Think of what Boston 
 was, a mere village shivering on our New 
 England seaboard ; and now its pavements 
 echo daily to the tramp of nearly a million 
 men! Think of the mighty cities that have 
 sprung up in different parts of the country that 
 did not have a name to exist then ! Think 
 
THE) POLICY OF EXPANSION 127 
 
 how our territories have been enlarged by 
 conquest and by treaty and by purchase ! 
 Think of the statesmen and reformers and 
 spiritual leaders and heroes who have been 
 bred within our borders ! Think of the mar- 
 vels that have been wrought in the control of 
 Nature's forces, the locomotive transporting 
 men and merchandise with almost the swift- 
 ness of light from one end of the continent to 
 the other, the steamship bringing London 
 nearer to Boston than New York was in the 
 time of the Revolution, the electric current 
 belting the globe, enabling us to read at our 
 breakfast table the deeds of yesterday in 
 Bgypt, in India, in China and Japan ! And 
 now the children of this great republic have 
 come to the gates of the farther sea. They 
 look out towards the West or the East, which- 
 ever you choose to call it, towards the region 
 of both the setting and the rising sun. Nay, 
 the standard of the nation has already been 
 planted in the Hawaiian islands, which the 
 sons of the missionaries sent out by your own 
 denomination, have civilized and turned into 
 a garden. Shall they hesitate or falter? 
 Shall they fail to go forward because some 
 timid souls have not been able to recognize 
 that seal of destiny which the Almighty put 
 
128 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 upon the Mayflower as she sailed past the toe 
 of Cape Cod and cast her anchor in Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, her cabin stowed with the sifted 
 wheat of three kingdoms as the living seed of 
 of a new nation in the West ? 
 
 "O East is East and West is West 
 
 ' ' And never the twain shall meet 
 
 " Till earth and sky stand presently 
 
 "At God's great judgment seat. 
 
 " But there is neither East nor West 
 
 "Border, nor breed nor birth, 
 
 " When two strong men stand face to face, 
 
 Though they come from the ends of the earth." 
 
 Our destiny is decreed by the law of nat- 
 ure and the law of humanity. 
 
 Another reason for expansion is found in 
 the demands of commerce. Some will say 
 this is a mercenary reason and should not be 
 regarded. But if one will stop to reflect for 
 a moment and consider how vitally commerce 
 is related to all the more spiritual elements of 
 human life, he will cease to press this ob- 
 jection. There are none bold enough to say 
 openly, ' ' we do not want commerce in the 
 far-off orient." But there are those who say 
 it by implication. We have room enough for 
 commercial development within our own 
 borders. We can consume what we produce 
 
THE POUCY OF EXPANSION 129 
 
 and produce what we can consume. The 
 home market is sufficient. No doubt we 
 have a most remarkable home market. But 
 no nation ever yet reached the highest point 
 of achievement by relying simply on its own 
 markets. Moreover, we are a commercial 
 people. What would become of Boston and 
 New York and Philadelphia and Baltimore 
 without commerce ? Our exports of the year 
 just drawing to a close are almost beyond 
 precedent. And yet, the complaint on every 
 hand is that our mills are idle and that our 
 labor is unemployed. We must have new 
 demands for our products. This is true to- 
 day when we have a population of seventy 
 millions. How much more will it be true 
 when we have two hundred millions. The 
 child is born in Boston who will live to see 
 that number within the existing borders of the 
 United States. Ours must be therefore the 
 great commercial nation of the future. Do 
 not forget that the time is ripe in the Orient 
 and now is one of golden opportunity. The 
 old conditions in that part of the world are 
 passing away. Not only Great Britain with 
 her unrivalled naval and commercial power is 
 there watching her interests, but the nations 
 of continental Kurope are struggling for an 
 
130 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 advantage. But with a strong intrenchment 
 in the Philippines we can have the commerce 
 of the world at our feet. 
 
 Again, the policy of expansion is demand- 
 ed by the law of reciprocal obligation. There 
 are those who say that we had better mind 
 our own business. They quote Washington 
 who in the infancy of the republic counselled 
 against entangling alliances. But no man 
 reads the Farewell Address aright if he de- 
 duces from it the suggestion that the nation 
 as it should grow to power must neglect its re- 
 sponsibilities and obligations in the world at 
 large. There was a time, beyond question, 
 when it behooved the nation to attend strictly 
 to its own concerns, to compact its resources, 
 to husband its strength and perfect its insti- 
 tutions. But that time has gone by forever. 
 A young man marries a wife and moves into 
 a humble tenement on a side street. He 
 goes about modestly as becomes one who is 
 conscious of his poverty and youth. But by 
 prudence and economy and strict attention to 
 business his fortunes by and by improve. 
 Wealth rolls in upon him and he begins to 
 be a power in trade. It is time for him to 
 move out of the side street and build a man- 
 sion on the main avenue, to take his place in 
 
THE POUCY OF EXPANSION 131 
 
 the community as one of its active forces and 
 to bear his part of the burdens of church 
 and state. If he fails to do that we de- 
 clare that he is wanting in public spirit, that 
 he is selfish, living only for his own gratifica- 
 tion, and that he is unworthy of the regard of 
 society whose blessings he enjoys. But there 
 is no law for men that does not also apply to 
 nations. The time has come for the United 
 States to bear her full part in the politics and 
 policies of nations. She cannot do otherwise 
 if she would. She must stand forth as the 
 champion of justice and liberty and progress. 
 Finally, I may claim that expansion is jus- 
 tified on the grounds of humanity. I know 
 it is held that nations have nothing to do 
 with sentiments of humanity outside of their 
 own borders. I have heard it boldly pro- 
 claimed by the sons of those who were in- 
 strumental in striking the shackles from the 
 limbs of slaves, that we have enough to do to 
 lift up the down-trodden at home without go- 
 ing over seas to give succor to those who 
 may be suffering under an alien flag. In- 
 deed, our recent war with Spain was declared 
 unholy and wicked even though waged in 
 the name of justice and humanity. That is a 
 strange doctrine. 
 
132 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 The right of interference on the grounds of 
 humanity has been defended by the most 
 eminent international lawyers in modern 
 times, and is always held when diplomacy 
 rises above the dead level of a time serving 
 policy. This was the ground on which 
 France extended a helping hand to us in our 
 great struggle for independence. This was 
 the ground on which the nations of Europe 
 in the early part of this century combined 
 against Turkey for the preservation of 
 Greece. It has formed the basis of some of 
 the greatest conflicts of the modern world. 
 This was what moved President McKinley 
 when he replied to the diplomatic representa- 
 tives of Europe that the condition of affairs 
 in Cuba had become intolerable. Almost 
 from the foundation of our republic Spain 
 had been making her unjust exactions of the 
 Cuban people. For three quarters of a cen- 
 tury the unhappy island had been in a state 
 of chronic rebellion. At last the American 
 people could endure it no longer. They re- 
 solved that it must cease at once and forever. 
 In the carrying out of that resolution, 
 Dewey was sent to destroy the Spanish fleet 
 at Manila. But no sooner was the work ac- 
 complished than it was found that a state of 
 
OF EXPANSION 133 
 
 things existed in the Philippines that was 
 nearly analogous to that in Cuba. Surely 
 justice and humanity alike require that we 
 should pursue a similar course of friendly 
 oversight and control. It would be cowardly 
 and cruel to abandon the Philippines in their 
 time of need after we have driven the tyrant 
 from their doors. 
 
 For myself I can but take the most hopeful 
 view of the entire situation. The coming of 
 the Olympia on that May morning into Ma- 
 nila Bay was the herald of the dawn of a new 
 day in the Malayan Archipelago. With the 
 booming of the guns of the American fleet 
 the dim and flickering light of the sixteenth 
 century civilization went out in darkness and 
 blood and the sun of the twentieth century 
 rose in full orbed majesty and splendor. The 
 oppression of four hundred years vanished. 
 Who shall say that the rising of that sun is 
 unwelcome ? Who shall assume to stay the 
 bright shining of its beams ? Only He who 
 said in the beginning, " I^et there be light," 
 can tell when the new day shall have fulfilled 
 its purpose. 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 To THE REV. THOMAS JEFFERSON SAWYER, D.D., 
 
 IvIv.D., AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE IN 
 
 GODDARD CHAPEI, Nov. 26, 1899 
 
 We have gathered here to pay a tribute of 
 friendship, respect, and admiration to a man 
 who holds no mean place among the rare 
 souls whose lives have dignified and glorified 
 this nineteenth century of Christendom. 
 There are many points of excellence in his 
 character which might fitly inspire the elo- 
 quence of highest eulogy. If there were time 
 I should be tempted myself to indulge in 
 almost unstinted praise of our great and 
 noble friend. I can, however, only claim a 
 few moments of your time, as it were by way 
 of preface, in which to speak of a few things 
 that have served to place him on a lofty ped- 
 estal of honor in our regard. 
 
 To begin with, I cannot withhold my tribute 
 of admiration that he should have lived so 
 long in the world, and retained to the very end 
 the full measure of his remarkable gifts and 
 powers. It is a rare and notable achievement 
 that a single human life should have spanned 
 almost the whole of this most wonderful cent- 
 
TO DR. SAWYER 135 
 
 ury. One cannot help pausing for a moment 
 to try and grasp the significance of such a 
 fact. But to have lived through it as Dr. 
 Sawyer did, with open-eyed intelligence, to 
 have felt in the depths of his soul the force 
 and meaning of its movements, to have re- 
 sponded with sympathetic thrill to every up- 
 ward and progressive impulse of the age, to 
 have been himself for three quarters of a cent- 
 ury an influential factor in nearly every im- 
 portant effort that has had for its aim the 
 progress and regeneration of humanity, are 
 facts that cannot fail to draw forth an expres- 
 sion of admiration and gratitude. Think of 
 what the world was when his eyes first saw the 
 light of day ! This Republic, whose right to 
 be had been purchased by the blood of heroes 
 and martyrs, was not two decades old. The 
 population of the country comprised only a few 
 millions, distributed for the most part in farms 
 and straggling villages up and down our At- 
 lantic seaboard. Not only were the means of 
 communication and transportation crude and 
 difficult, but all the facilities of living were of 
 the most meager and primitive sort. He saw 
 our country expand until it filled the choicest 
 portions of the continent between the two 
 oceans. He saw the population increase and 
 
136 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 multiply until the nation had taken her place 
 side by side with the most powerful empires. 
 He was an intelligent witness of nearly all of 
 the devices and inventions that have trans- 
 formed and transfigured the physical environ- 
 ment of man, and have brought into the hum- 
 blest homes facilities and comforts which the 
 wealth of princes could not command in any 
 previous age of the world. 
 
 Dr. Sawyer not merely saw all this as an 
 interested spectator, but he was a part of it. 
 He was a loyal citizen of his country, a faith- 
 ful citizen of the world. When, in 1832, New 
 York was visited with an epidemic of cholera, 
 he was one of the few ministers who stood at 
 his post, burying the dead, ministering to the 
 dying, and comforting the living. As a dis- 
 tributor of alms among the poor, both from 
 his own slender resources and the contribu- 
 tions of his wealthy parishioners, few minis- 
 ters have ever been more conspicuous. He 
 was a philanthropist and patriot in every 
 fibre of his being. In the cause of anti-slav- 
 ery he was outspoken when it required cour- 
 age and heroism to take a stand. Horace Gree- 
 ley was a constant attendant upon his preach- 
 ing; the latch-string of the Sawyer home was 
 always out to the great reformer, and he re- 
 
TO DR. SAWYER 137 
 
 ceived unfailing encouragement and counsel 
 for his work from both Dr. and Mrs. Sawyer. 
 When the war for the preservation of the 
 Union broke out, his sons entered the service 
 of their country ; and the columns of The 
 Christian Ambassador, of which he was the 
 editor, blazed with patriotic fervor. I have 
 never known a man who had a keener interest 
 in all the great movements of mankind, nor 
 one whose judgment was cooler and saner. 
 He was never swept away by enthusiasms, 
 never acted from caprice, never took an ex- 
 treme or exaggerated view of public ques- 
 tions, and never suffered himself to be blinded 
 by prejudice to the light of new truth. The 
 departure from this life of such a well-bal- 
 anced, wholesome, human soul is a positive 
 loss to mankind. 
 
 All this, however, is scarcely more than 
 incidental, in your thought and mine, to the 
 career which our friend accomplished. We 
 think of him to-day, and shall always think 
 of him, as the champion in some respects, 
 perhaps, the foremost champion of Univer- 
 salism. All his other achievements are but 
 secondary and subordinate to this. He con- 
 secrated himself and all his powers to this 
 cause in his early manhood, and to his dying 
 
138 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 day he never failed to make this the one 
 supreme interest of his being. When he first 
 began the proclamation of his message in the 
 city of New York, it was like the "voice of 
 one crying in the wilderness. ' ' The attitude 
 of John at the fords of the Jordan was not 
 more original or heroic ; and as the forerun- 
 ner and herald of larger things in the expe- 
 rience of men, scarcely one since the days of 
 that greatest of all the Messianic prophets has 
 performed a nobler task. L,ike the early 
 evangelists he went carrying * ' neither purse 
 nor scrip," or, as we say in modern parlance, 
 * 'he burned his bridges behind him. ' ' He went 
 forth to do a great work, and he meant to stay 
 until it was done. He had a word to utter, 
 and he meant that the town should hear it, 
 and it did. As Paul stirred Kphesus, so this 
 young servant of Christ stirred New York 
 from eighteen hundred and thirty to eighteen 
 hundred and forty-five. His first aim was to 
 preach the gospel in the new interpretation 
 which he had conceived. It was not long be- 
 fore the people recognized that he was a 
 preacher not only with a new message but 
 with a new power. He came to his pulpit on 
 Sunday with painstaking and ample prepara- 
 tion. He spoke not only with a scholar's ele- 
 
TRIBUTE) TO DR. SAWYER 139 
 
 gance and finish but with a force, a vigor, and 
 an eloquence which made the people listen. 
 I like to think of him as a preacher of com- 
 manding personality and apostolic fire, as one 
 whose soul was alive with a great and domi- 
 nating idea, and one who was determined to 
 know nothing among men but that noble and 
 life-giving message. I like to recall his equip- 
 ment for the ministry, and his diligence and 
 devotion. These qualities would have been of 
 themselves enough to ensure the making of a 
 permanent impress upon the life of a great 
 city. 
 
 But he was more than a preacher of unusual 
 merit and power. His message was in itself 
 a challenge. It was a bold defiance of cher- 
 ished dogmas which had held sway in Chris- 
 tendom for three hundred years. It was in- 
 evitable that his attitude should give rise to 
 the fiercest and most unrelenting theological 
 controversy that has been waged in modern 
 times. In this field he was the supreme and 
 absolute master. There was not a single 
 piece of vantage ground in it, whether for 
 purposes of defence or offence, that did not 
 fall under his watchful eye. He was omni- 
 present. His intellect rose to gigantic pro- 
 portions. No matter how distinguished his 
 
140 OCCASIONAL, ADDRESSES 
 
 antagonist, it was an unequal contest. The 
 victory was always with him. It made no 
 difference whether it was a hand-to-hand con- 
 flict of open debate, or whether the missiles 
 were the products of pen and ink, hurled from 
 behind the breastworks of the editorial office 
 or the minister's study. He never retired 
 from the field except as a victor. No warrior 
 ever dealt him a blow that caused his eye to 
 droop or his tongue to falter. Moreover, 
 though the fray was eager, and there were 
 heart burnings and jealousies and even hatreds, 
 he was undisturbed. His urbanity, simplicity 
 and gentleness never forsook him. Whoever 
 crossed swords with him was sure to go away 
 with the conviction that, though he could 
 fight like Sampson or Gideon, he was always 
 a courteous, Christian gentleman. 
 
 No Universalist gathering can ever forget 
 his matchless service in behalf of denomina- 
 tional education. When his work began, 
 there were no schools under Universalist 
 auspices. He himself had been trained in 
 Middlebury College, and he was a scholar by 
 instinct. He saw the need of the higher 
 training, both for the clergy and the laity of 
 our communion. Accordingly, in 1845, he 
 withdrew from his New York pulpit and went 
 
TRIBUTE TO DR. SAWYER 141 
 
 to Clinton to take up, on his own responsibil- 
 ity, the work of both academic and theolog- 
 ical instruction. But he felt that that was 
 but a makeshift, and he began immediately 
 the agitation for something more substantial 
 and permanent. In this effort he found a 
 congenial helper in the Rev. Hosea Ballou 2d, 
 of Medford. The correspondence preserved 
 between them shows how completely sympa- 
 thetic they were in regard to the establish- 
 ment of an institution of the higher learning. 
 But the movement out of which Tufts College 
 sprang had its inception in his brain. He 
 conceived the idea. He set the forces in mo- 
 tion. He called the first meeting to consider 
 the founding of a college, and he labored with 
 unflagging energy and zeal until the deed 
 was done. We remember, of course, that 
 other men besides Dr. Ballou joined hands 
 with him in the effort ; Otis A. Skinner, 
 Thomas Whittemore and others of the clergy, 
 and Silvanus Packard, Thomas A. Goddard 
 and Benjamin B. Mussey of the laity. With- 
 out their help, and the help of a multitude of 
 others, only second to them in importance, 
 the enterprise could never have been brought 
 to a successful termination, yet it is equally 
 true that the beginning was with him. When 
 
142 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 we stand on this beautiful hilltop and look 
 around and behold the achievements of fifty 
 years, we cannot resist the conviction that all 
 this is in a sense a memorial of this noble soul 
 whom we can never too highly honor. 
 
 If I were to speak of the peculiar personal 
 qualities of our departed friend, perhaps I 
 could not do better than to illustrate what I 
 wish to say by a reference to his relations 
 to myself. When I came to my present office, 
 now nearly twenty-five years ago, I was 
 scarcely more than a stripling, with little 
 wisdom and less experience. But, though 
 he had twice been offered the presidency of 
 the institution; though he was its father 
 among living men, and, in a sense, its founder; 
 though he was the Nestor, alike among our 
 clergy and our teachers, he received me with 
 the greatest cordiality. Indeed, it was a 
 comfort to me then, has been ever since, and 
 will be to the end of my life, to know that his 
 name stood at the head of a list of honorable 
 names presented to the trustees, asking for 
 my appointment. Moreover, his demeanor 
 towards me never changed. Frederick Doug- 
 lass used to say that Mr. Lincoln was the 
 most perfect gentleman he had ever known. 
 For he was the only man, who, in conversation 
 
TRIBUTE) TO DR. SAWYER 143 
 
 with him, did not make him conscious that 
 he was a negro. So Dr. Sawyer never once 
 made me feel that he knew that he was a 
 wiser man and a more accomplished scholar 
 than I. But, on the contrary, he ever treated 
 me with the respectful deference which he 
 thought one member of the teaching body 
 owed to his superior in office. This surely 
 is the rarest accomplishment of the gentleman. 
 While, therefore, I have every reason that 
 you have to honor him, I have reasons which 
 you have not, to regard him with profound 
 respect, admiration, affection and gratitude. 
 
 Just what niche in the immortal gallery of 
 fame will be reserved for his effigy it may not 
 be possible to foretell. If the world does not 
 absolutely forget those who have served it 
 with heroic courage and self-denying fidelity, 
 it surely should set apart a simple chaplet for 
 the spot where his dust reposes. Of course 
 he will stand forever on one of the loftiest 
 pinnacles which the Universalist Church has 
 consecrated to its great leaders and teachers. 
 But how will the larger and broader com- 
 munion of the saints regard him ? No doubt 
 the Universalist fellowship will fill, ultimately, 
 a mightier space than it does to-day. Still, 
 not all of those who cherish the larger hope, 
 
144 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 not all of those, even, who believe in the final 
 destruction of evil and the permanent triumph 
 of good, will gather under the Universalist 
 banner. Nevertheless, in that great day of 
 reckoning which comes at last to all things 
 human, in that time, far off, perhaps, when 
 the Church counts up her jewels, when she 
 gives her plaudit of honor to those who have 
 been the pioneers and heralds of her most 
 precious truths, when she singles out the men 
 who have done more than all others to pro- 
 claim the fatherhood of God, and to establish 
 among the imperishable beliefs of mankind 
 the infinite, all comprehending, and uncon- 
 querable qualities of the divine love, she 
 will cause to stand, at least side by side with 
 Hosea Ballou, set about with an undying halo 
 of glory, and exalted forever before the admir- 
 ing gaze of posterity, our venerable and be- 
 loved friend, Thomas Jefferson Sawyer. 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 
 
 ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE NEW ENGLAND 
 CONFERENCE, ROXBURY, OCTOBER 19, 1898. 
 
 There could be perhaps no more fitting oc- 
 casion on which to pay a tribute to the late 
 John D. W. Joy, than this first public meet- 
 ing held under the auspices of the Universal- 
 ist General Convention, an institution which 
 he served so long and with such loving faith- 
 fulness, and upon which he impressed, in 
 many years of his service, so large a part of 
 his own personality. There are many organ- 
 izations in which he held official relation, 
 where it seems almost impossible that his 
 place can be filled. But nowhere can his loss 
 be more keenly felt than in this convention. 
 It is almost impossible to believe that we shall 
 not meet him again in our counsels. We 
 have been so accustomed to look to him for 
 leadership, that for a good while to come 
 when any question of policy is under discus- 
 sion, we shall find ourselves looking about 
 for the glance of his eye and waiting for the 
 word from him that is to decide our own judg- 
 ment. Perhaps this is more emphatically true 
 
146 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 in the General Convention than anywhere else . 
 Naturally, therefore, we ask what were the 
 qualities that gave him so high a place among 
 us and made his influence and example so 
 irresistible ? 
 
 The story of his life has been recently told 
 and its outline doubtless is fresh and strong 
 in all our minds ; and yet I must refer to it, 
 in a way, because it furnishes the clue to his 
 character and career. Most of the men who 
 have risen to eminence in the business or 
 social life of Boston have been country bred. 
 It is really a marvel how many there are who 
 came from the rural districts of some of the 
 New England states with nothing but their 
 strong hands and imperious wills, and have 
 come to be ' ' known in the gates ' ' as the 
 custodians of a large part of the city's fame 
 and power. But this man was born and bred 
 in the city. All his life long he lived within 
 the limits of Boston. As a boy lie played in 
 its streets, around its docks and wharves, and 
 roamed over all its vacant spaces, until every 
 inch of its ground was as familiar to him as 
 his own dooryard. As he grew to manhood 
 he watched with keenest interest the growth 
 of populations. He saw the rising tide of 
 trade and commerce. He observed the cur- 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 147 
 
 rents of humanity as they swept outward from 
 the old centres. This was what made his 
 judgment of the values of city property so 
 accurate and valuable. 
 
 From the very beginning he entered into 
 the life of the metropolis. He entered it, too, 
 from its best side, the side of its churches 
 and charities. He might be said almost to 
 have been born into Father Streeter's Church. 
 There he was taken by his mother when he 
 was a little child and placed in the Sunday 
 school, and from the Sunday school he never 
 strayed, to his dying day. His interest in the 
 Sunday school grew with his years and it 
 was through that organization that he gave 
 the first proof of his capacity for denomina- 
 tional leadership. He, with two others, Henry 
 B. Metcalf and the late Hiram Bowles, were 
 the prime movers and organizers of the Sab- 
 bath School Union, an institution which has 
 exerted an incalculable influence upon the 
 Sunday school cause, and was the forerunner 
 of the other organizations which have had 
 such an important part in shaping and direct- 
 ing our denominational development. 
 
 But as a Boston boy, penetrated with the 
 spirit of this historic municipality, as a Bos- 
 ton boy, moreover, who had embraced the 
 
148 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 principles of the Christian religion in the 
 humane aspects presented by the Universalist 
 interpretation, it was most natural that he 
 should become strongly conscious of the needs 
 of the city, and that he should enter at once 
 and with ardor into those institutions which 
 had a humanitarian aim. He took up, with 
 that zeal and devotion that ever characterized 
 him, the charitable work that had been under- 
 taken by more than one society in that part 
 of the city in which he then lived. Indeed, 
 I have heard him say that the method which 
 is in vogue to-day in the Associated Charities 
 of Boston, was first applied there, and I in- 
 ferred that it was he himself who was instru- 
 mental in devising and working out the plan. 
 Singularly enough, too, it was here that he 
 formed the business acquaintance and connec- 
 tion which shaped and determined his subse- 
 quent career. The firm of Mason and I^wrence 
 was one of the strongest in New England, 
 known, indeed, throughout the civilized world. 
 A member of that firm was a leading officer 
 in one or more of the charitable organizations 
 which attracted Mr. Joy's service. Here Mr. 
 L/awrence had an opportunity to observe and 
 test the qualities of the young man. He saw 
 the stuff he was made of and the capacity he 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 149 
 
 had for business. Accordingly when the oc- 
 casion arose for special work in his store he 
 selected this young man to perform it. After 
 his fitness had been tested still further in actual 
 performance, he gave him the permanent en- 
 gagement which ultimately led to partnership 
 in that world-renowned house. 
 
 Is there not a lesson here for the ambitious 
 young men of our time, for those who are seek- 
 ing success in business, or eminence in profes- 
 sional life ? Many doubtless think that Mr. 
 Joy was absorbed in making money, that the 
 accumulation of a fortune was the be all and 
 end all of his existence, and that he subordi- 
 nated every other interest to that. No greater 
 or more unjust conclusion could be reached. 
 His career began and ended with the care for 
 religion and humanity in the foreground of 
 his life. In the very last days of his earthly 
 being, he was as punctual in meeting an en- 
 gagement with the trustees of the Home for 
 Aged Men as with the directors of his bank ; 
 and I need not say in this presence that he 
 allowed no duty to stand between him and the 
 demands of either the Universalist General 
 Convention or the trustees of Tufts College. 
 Many young men begin their professional or 
 business career by putting these things on 
 
150 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 one side with the excuse that they have no 
 time for them, and they are very likely to 
 wake up some day and see the places which 
 they had hoped to fill, taken by those who 
 somehow have found the necessary time. 
 The truth is, our whole civilization is a very 
 complicated web. It takes a thousand differ- 
 ent strands to make it, and they who expect 
 to have an important share in it, cannot afford 
 to neglect a single one. They who hope to 
 have a large place in shaping the affairs of 
 the world, and who desire and aim to reap a 
 rich harvest from it, cannot afford to overlook 
 the concerns of religion and humanity. Be- 
 yond question this is what the L,ord meant 
 when he said : ' ' Seek first the kingdom of 
 God and his righteousness, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you." 
 
 But the real thing for which Mr. Joy seems 
 to have been predestined from his birth, was 
 the organization and development of the in- 
 stitutions of the Universalist Church. Before 
 he reached mature manhood, the great distin- 
 guishing doctrines for which our name stands, 
 and for which we are known the world over, 
 had received a grand proclamation. In literary 
 statement and vocal utterance they had taken 
 their place among the well-recognized and 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 151 
 
 imperishable truths of the world. Many of 
 the men who had won an immortality of fame 
 in the advocacy of these doctrines, were still 
 living in the prime of their power. Wherever 
 they went, multitudes continued to gather, 
 to listen to the message which they had to 
 deliver. Interest in Universalism as a new 
 phase of Christian teaching and belief had 
 scarcety begun to wane, and it was a great 
 company of men and women, taking the coun- 
 try together, who could be counted upon under 
 some circumstances to lift up the Universalist 
 banner. Yet there was no way of taking the 
 census of the faithful. The believers, how- 
 ever numerous and widespread, did not in 
 any proper sense constitute a religious body, 
 still less a denomination, not to speak of a liv- 
 ing and working Church. The multitudes 
 who were wont to gather at the trumpet call 
 of the great evangelists of our early history, 
 were little better than a mob, though a very 
 orderly and pious mob. Mr. Joy saw with 
 perfect clearness of vision that if Universalism 
 was to continue and be a power among men, 
 there must be a new order in its life. There 
 must be system in its efforts. Channels must 
 be created in which the tide of its energy 
 
152 OCCASIONAL, ADDRESSES 
 
 might be controlled and through which it 
 could be poured. 
 
 Of course, I do not mean to say that he was 
 the only one who recognized the situation 
 and felt that something must be done to give 
 the cause he loved a permanent place among 
 the great religious forces of mankind. There 
 was a goodly number of such persons, men 
 who were resolved that something should be 
 done to bring the whole mass of believers into 
 a compact and working body. But when we 
 have given due credit to everyone, it still re- 
 mains true that there was not one who was 
 prepared to move forward with snch clearness 
 and definiteness of action as he. Moreover, 
 when he had once determined to go forward 
 nothing could induce him to turn back. He 
 would advance at whatever cost or hazard. 
 No doubt the fight which he found himself 
 compelled to make with men whom he had 
 been taught from his childhood to 1 revere gave 
 him a great pang; but the issue was joined and 
 the ends to be gained by it rose above all per- 
 sonal considerations; and though the work that 
 was proposed might give pain to some of the 
 grandest witnesses to reform in religious 
 thought that the world had ever seen, it must 
 be done for the sake of the truth, for the sake 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 153 
 
 of the kingdom of God. Such, in brief, is the 
 account of the organization of the Massachu- 
 setts Universalist Convention, and in that 
 movement no one, clergyman or layman, 
 exerted a greater influence, or is better en- 
 titled to be termed a leader, than Mr. Joy. 
 
 At a later date substantially the same thing 
 was accomplished for the General Convention 
 and in substantially the same way. Fortu- 
 nately, the bitterness of the earlier conflict 
 had passed into oblivion, and in peace and 
 harmony it was permitted to the leaders of 
 that time to work out the organization through 
 which our general Church to-day puts forth 
 its energies. Our friend was not merely an 
 organizer. He was not less conspicuous in 
 executive ability. It has been an inestimable 
 boon to the Church that this man, who was so 
 important a factor in giving us our organiz- 
 ations, was permitted for so many years to take 
 a leading part in administering them. For 
 more than thirty years his hand has been lit- 
 erally on the helm of the State Convention. 
 As treasurer and member of the Executive 
 Board he has not only gathered the funds, but 
 shaped the policy of the organization. It is 
 astonishing what power he had in the initi- 
 ation of new movements, in stimulating and 
 
154 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 directing missionary efforts, and in solving 
 the various problems that were presented. 
 How many churches there are, now on a self- 
 sustaining basis, that were saved from collapse 
 and ruin by his method of taking hold of 
 their difficulties, and pointing out to them the 
 road to economy and success. 
 
 Nor did any greater bit of good fortune 
 ever come to the General Convention than 
 when, at Chicago in 1877, he signified his 
 willingness to serve as a member of its board 
 of trustees. His tenure of the office covered a 
 period of twenty-one years. During eighteen 
 years of that time it was my privilege to sit 
 by his side. I can testify from personal know- 
 ledge to the breadth of his views, the sound- 
 ness of his judgment, the tenacity of his pur- 
 pose and the unselfishness of his devotion. 
 As chairman of the board, and for a good 
 part of the time President of the convention, 
 he was entitled to exert a commanding influ- 
 ence. But the real ground of the power 
 which he has wielded in all our convention 
 enterprises must be attributed to the superi- 
 ority of his wisdom. Of course, I do not 
 claim that he was infallible, nor would I be 
 thought to intimate that his counsels always 
 prevailed. Not unfrequently his most earnest 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 155 
 
 convictions were overruled by the votes of 
 his associates. But I can assert with con- 
 fidence that his view was generally the repre- 
 sentative view, and whenever opportunity 
 was given, it was usually ratified by popular 
 approval. So then, if we take an inventory 
 of what the Universalist Church has accom- 
 plished through its various organizations 
 during the last thirty years, and count up 
 our present achievements, we must feel that 
 we are only gathering so many stones to 
 build a monument to a great and unselfish 
 layman. 
 
 Time would fail me if I were to attempt to 
 speak of all the organizations with which he 
 was associated. I must not, however, pass 
 over without mention his connection with 
 Tufts College. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that of the institutions which the Universalist 
 Church has created, the grandest of them all, 
 and the one in which the Universalist people 
 take the deepest and most genuine pride, is 
 Tufts College. The time was, undoubtedly, 
 when the very continuance of our Church as 
 a distinct and powerful religious body de- 
 pended upon the disposition and ability of 
 our people to create and establish at least one 
 first class school devoted to the higher learn- 
 
156 OCCASION AI, ADDRESSES 
 
 ing. That was the contention of both Thomas 
 J. Sawyer and Hosea Ballou, 2d. When, 
 therefore, the occasion was ripe for the be- 
 ginning to be made, Mr. Joy was one of those 
 to respond to the summons. He was then 
 a young man and his fortune was all to be 
 made. But he was ready to do what he 
 could, and was one of those of the then rising 
 generation on whom Dr. Ballou leaned. 
 The interest which he manifested has never 
 nagged but has grown stronger year by year. 
 Twenty-three years ago last June I deliv- 
 ered my inaugural address as President of 
 the College. As I .stepped from the platform 
 at the conclusion of the ceremony, one of the 
 first persons to grasp me by the hand and 
 tender me his cordial sympathy and support 
 was Mr. Joy. He was not then a trustee 
 and did not become one until five years later, 
 but I began immediately to seek his advice. 
 Whenever there was money to be raised or a 
 new policy to be devised, I was sure to get 
 encouragement, help, and wise suggestion 
 from him. In 1880 he became a trustee of 
 the institution, and from that time on, it is 
 no disparagement to his associates to say that 
 he has exerted a greater influence in the 
 board than any other. His service to the 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 157 
 
 financial interests of the College cannot be 
 computed. But he has not confined his at- 
 tention to the financial side of things. He 
 has ever been ready to study the higher prob- 
 lems of college administration and life, and, 
 considering that he was not a college man 
 himself, it was wonderful that his judgment 
 in these matters was so accurate. His views 
 were broad and progressive. He did not stick 
 in any rut of conservatism. He wanted to see 
 the College in the van of the new educational 
 movements. He was eager to enlarge its 
 scope and would go to the verge of our finan- 
 cial limits to give it the expansion demanded 
 by the best expert opinion. He was ready 
 for the addition of new departments, and 
 hoped he might live to see the time when the 
 institution could justly bear the name of a 
 university. Surely it was a rare good fortune 
 for any institution of learning to have so wise 
 and true a friend. 
 
 The time has not come, however, to make 
 a catalogue of all his services to the Church 
 and the community, or to attempt a just anal- 
 ysis of his character. But we may safely 
 enough indicate some of the elements which 
 formed the substance of his manhood. 
 
 If I were asked to name, off hand, what I 
 
158 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 conceive to be his most prominent mental 
 characteristic, I should unhesitatingly say, 
 common sense. He never pretended to be 
 profound and never sought to make a display 
 of wisdom. Yet he had unbounded confi- 
 dence in his ability to see the manifold bear- 
 ings of a proposition, and even to gauge the 
 motives of those who made it. He was fully 
 justified, too, in that confidence. His ability, 
 however, was not the result of training. It 
 was inherent and instinctive. It had been 
 enlarged and strengthened, to be sure, by 
 constant exercise, and performed its opera- 
 tions in the clear light of a long and varied 
 experience. However one might be in doubt 
 as to what his ultimate judgment would be 
 in a particular combination of circumstances, 
 one thing could be determined beforehand 
 with absolute certainty, he would not make a 
 foolish judgment. Usually, too, it might be 
 assumed, his conclusions would be in complete 
 accord with the general opinions of mankind. 
 He had that rare power which was so marked 
 a feature in the character of Lincoln, of seeing 
 things with the eye of the "plain people." 
 This was what made him a safe and strong 
 leader. Men felt that in following him they 
 not only could not go far astray, but that 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 159 
 
 wherever they went they would be sure of the 
 approval of those whom they sought to serve. 
 I should say, too, that he had great clear- 
 ness of vision. There were no cobwebs in his 
 mind. There was no fog in the landscape 
 on which he looked. He could untangle 
 any skein, however knotted and snarled. 
 Nothing baffled his analytical power. He 
 could detect the salient points of the most 
 difficult argument. He could bring order out 
 of seeming chaos. He could make his own 
 meaning clear. Nobody could misunderstand 
 or misinterpret the terms in which he sought 
 to give expression to his ideas. His letters 
 were models of conciseness and brevity, and 
 yet he seemed to say all that was necessary 
 for the elucidation of a subject. This no 
 doubt was the secret of his wonderful power 
 of turning off business, of settling the most 
 complicated problems which the varied situa- 
 tions of trade presented, by a single word or 
 a nod of the head. This was what made him 
 a master in drafting constitutions and by-laws 
 for the various organizations with which he 
 was connected. I have known but one or two 
 men who were his equals in quickness and 
 clearness of perception. No matter how grave 
 and delicate the matter might be, his decision 
 
l6o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 was almost instantaneous ; and if he took the 
 time to revise his reasonings it was only, in 
 the end, to reaffirm his first impression. 
 
 I suppose you have all expected me to men- 
 tion his fertility of resource. There seemed 
 to be no limit to his ability for finding ways 
 of doing things, and the harder and more 
 desperate the situation with which he had to 
 deal the more readily his mind seemed to re- 
 spond to the demand. This is the explana- 
 tion of his success, not only in looking after 
 his own financial interests, but in dealing with 
 the finances of parishes and other organiza- 
 tions with which he was connected, in secur- 
 ing and building up funds, and in originating 
 policies of administration and work. In a 
 denominational leader this quality is of the 
 rarest order. In this one particular we shall 
 probably for a long time experience the great- 
 est consciousness of our loss, for it is not 
 probable that in this respect we. shall see his 
 like again for a whole generation. 
 
 Added to all these qualities was that of in- 
 flexible decisiveness of judgment. The Ger- 
 man people are fond of characterizing the 
 great statesman who brought together the 
 scattered principalities and petty kingdoms of 
 Germany and moulded them into an empire, as 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY l6l 
 
 the Iron Chancellor, because whatever he put 
 his hand to, he accomplished. When he had 
 once ' ' set his face steadfastly " to go in a 
 certain direction, nothing could turn him aside 
 or cause him to retrace his steps. Indeed, it 
 sometimes seemed as if all the iron of the mar- 
 vellous race which he typified and served had 
 been taken into the blood of that foremost 
 political leader of modern times. But I am 
 sure that all of you who knew Mr. Joy in 
 the intimate relations of business or denom- 
 inational activity, will agree with me that 
 the great Chancellor of the German Empire, 
 with all the sturdiness of his intellect and 
 the inflexibility of his purpose, was not more 
 sturdy or inflexible than he. His judg- 
 ments were iron. When after careful consid- 
 eration he had once made up his mind upon 
 an important subject you could no more move 
 him to a different conclusion than you could 
 pluck up a mountain by the roots and cast it 
 into the sea. This was not always comfort- 
 able for those who saw things in a different 
 light or who had other ends to gain. But 
 there was this advantage in the situation, }'ou 
 always knew where to find him. He was not 
 two faced. He never sat on the fence. But 
 he walked where his convictions led him, 
 
162 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 though he walked alone. Usually, however, 
 because of this very positiveness, the multi- 
 tude flocked to his standard and followed 
 where his footsteps pointed the way. 
 
 This, however, does not complete the sum 
 of the singular combination of qualities which 
 made him a most extraordinary personality. 
 He had that poise of judgment which I have 
 rarely seen matched. He could not be sur- 
 prised or stampeded into a course of action 
 which subsequently his reason would not ap- 
 prove. When he had delivered his ultimatum 
 he could wait. ' ' L,et the squirrel sit, " was a 
 frequent expression with him when he had 
 made a business proposition which his corre- 
 spondent had not seen fit to accept. He 
 knew that if he failed in one line of effort he 
 could take up another, and moreover he was 
 persuaded that, if his judgment was well 
 founded, men would come to it sooner or later. 
 In the affairs of the Church he 4 had none of 
 that feverishness of spirit which always con- 
 veys the impression that it is now or never. 
 If there is a dollar in hand it must be spent 
 now or the chance of spending it to any profit 
 will be gone. If there is a policy which seems 
 to invite effort it must be put in force at once 
 or it will be useless to imagine that it can ever 
 
JOHN D. W. JOY 163 
 
 be adopted in the future. He knew that the 
 Church would abide. He was content to dig 
 deep for great foundations, to make provision 
 for a time of need that is yet far ahead and to 
 carefully devise and mature the plans which 
 those coming after us may take up and make 
 effective. This seer-like and prophetic pre- 
 vision, this clear-sighted forecasting of ex- 
 igencies that are yet to be, this ability to wait 
 with serenity and unshrinking faith for the 
 fulfilment of the decrees of God in the affairs 
 of any organization divine or human, is the 
 grandest legacy that a layman has yet given to 
 the Universalist Church. For this mighty 
 contribution, generations that^are yet unborn 
 will rise up to call him blessed. 
 
 Such, I am deeply conscious, is a very im- 
 perfect and incomplete account of a few of 
 the actions and qualities which have served 
 to render our loss in the death of Mr. Joy, 
 irreparable. What shall we do, then? We 
 may shed a tear by his new sepulchre. We 
 may cast a wreath of affection on his grave. 
 We may give utterance to our sorrow in elo- 
 quent phrase. But it is not tears, or flowers, 
 or words of eulogy that he would desire. If 
 he could speak from his place of silent repose 
 to-day, he would certainly assure us that he 
 
164 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 does not want a funeral tribute, that the faith 
 which inspired him in his youth, guided him 
 in his manhood and solaced him in his death, 
 is infinitely more precious to him than any 
 contribution that can be laid upon his bier, 
 and that the Church, through which that faith 
 is proclaimed to the world, is dearer than all 
 earthly memorials whatever. If he were here 
 to-day he would say: "Brethren, serve the 
 Church, be loyal to it, labor for it, believe in 
 it, have patience, have faith, and wait for God 
 to give the increase to your efforts, as he surely 
 will in his own good time." 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 
 
 THE POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE ACQUI- 
 SITION OF TERRITORY, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 TOWER CROSS SOCIETY, FEBRUARY, 1899. 
 
 I count it a privilege and honor to be asked 
 by the young gentlemen of the Tower Cross 
 Society to open this course of lectures on vital 
 themes. It is a most significant and hopeful 
 sign, that not only the students of this College, 
 but of all the colleges in the land, are inter- 
 ested in such matters. It is the hope of the 
 nation, the hope of the world. Nothing so 
 conclusively justifies the existence of the in- 
 stitutions of the higher learning here and else- 
 where. Indeed, when we consider the history 
 of these institutions, no conviction is borne in 
 upon us with greater force than that the most 
 important movements of modern times have 
 had their genesis and often their organization 
 in these retreats and nurseries of the youthful 
 mind. Not to go farther back, I may mention 
 the " Godly Club" of John Wesley, out of 
 which grew the magnificent Methodist Church 
 with its world-wide message of free grace and 
 its unconquerable missionary spirit ; the Trac- 
 
1 66 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 torian Movement, fostered by the great names 
 of Pusey and Newman and Keble, which 
 breathed anew the breath of life into the dry 
 bones of the English Church ; the fundamen- 
 tal principles of American liberty which were 
 wrought out in the minds of Samuel and John 
 Adams while they were yet undergraduates 
 in Harvard College ; the fervid spirit in which 
 the New England colleges from 1850 to 1860 
 took up the discussion of the anti-slavery 
 question and furnished the creative force of 
 that public opinion which decreed that the 
 nation should no longer exist ' ' half slave and 
 half free." For myself I believe with all my 
 heart that these institutions are just as potent 
 as ever to forecast and direct the future des- 
 tinies of civilization. 
 
 Turning to our own country to-day, there 
 is no question of greater moment than that 
 which pertains to the position of the American 
 Republic as a great world power of the future. 
 Alexis de Tocqueville, the most astute foreign 
 observer of American institutions who has 
 ever put his observations in writing, with 
 the possible exception of Mr. Bryce, in 1835, 
 closed one of the most brilliant chapters of his 
 work on Democracy in America with the fol- 
 lowing paragraph. 
 
THE POUCY OF EXPANSION 167 
 
 (< There are at the present time two great 
 nations in the world, which started from dif- 
 ferent points, but seem to tend towards the 
 same end. I allude to the Russians and the 
 Americans. Both of them have grown up un- 
 noticed ; and whilst the attention of mankind 
 was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly 
 placed themselves in the front rank among 
 the nations, and the world welcomed their 
 existence and their greatness at almost the 
 same time. All other nations seem to have 
 nearly reached their natural limits, and they 
 have only to maintain their power ; but these 
 are still in the act of growth. All the others 
 have stopped, or continue to advance with 
 extreme difficulty ; these alone are proceeding 
 with ease and celerity along a path to which 
 no limit can be perceived. The American 
 struggles against the obstacles which nature 
 opposes to him ; the adversaries of the Russian 
 are men. The former controls the wilderness 
 and savage life ; the latter, civilization with 
 all its arms. The conquests of the American 
 are, therefore, gained by the ploughshare ; 
 those of the Russian, by the sword. The 
 Anglo-American relies upon personal interest 
 to accomplish his ends, and gives free scope 
 to the unguided strength and common sense 
 
1 68 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 of the people; the Russian centres all the au- 
 thority of society in a single arm. The prin- 
 cipal instrument of the former is freedom ; of 
 the latter, servitude. Their starting point is 
 different, and their courses are not the same ; 
 yet each of them seems marked out by the 
 will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half 
 the Globe." 
 
 If the great French publicist were alive to- 
 day we cannot conceive that it would be pos- 
 sible for him to find language in which to de- 
 scribe more accurately the political situation 
 of the world. The only modification that it 
 would seem to demand springs from the fact 
 that Great Britain, during the sixty years 
 since these words were penned, has been push- 
 ing her dominion with striking success in 
 various parts of the world and is still engaged 
 in enlarging the borders of her power. Some 
 of the wisest of English statesmen have fore- 
 seen that she has nearly reached the limit of 
 her growth. They have even thought that 
 ere long some, perhaps most, of her colonies 
 may prefer to walk alone, or seek alliance 
 with other nations ; and if the time should 
 ever come in which England should be bereft 
 of her chief colonies, it is not difficult to imag- 
 
THK POUCY OF EXPANSION 169 
 
 ine what her case would be among the great 
 powers of the earth. 
 
 Recent events have turned the attention of 
 mankind more sharply than ever towards the 
 American Republic. In all quarters men are 
 asking what is the purpose and tendency of 
 this great nation which has just startled the 
 world with its energy and prowess on land 
 and sea. The Americans themselves are ask- 
 ing what use they are to make of their new- 
 found capacities. Are they, too, like the 
 older nations of Europe, to broaden their 
 phylacteries and enlarge their dominion ? Is 
 that freedom, which philosophic observers of 
 our institutions hitherto have recognized as 
 the " principal instrument " of our growth, to 
 follow the flag into new lands and among 
 strange peoples ? The answer to this question 
 can be given only in our history. Patrick 
 Henry said, " I know of no way of judging of 
 the future but by the past. ' ' Precedent is the 
 foundation principle of constitutional govern- 
 ment. The continuity of historic events can be 
 broken only by revolution. Accordingly the 
 most important question which the student of 
 our time, anxious that the ship of state shall 
 be steered aright as she enters the unknown 
 sea of the generations that are yet to be, is 
 
1 70 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 what has been the policy of the United 
 States, from its earliest beginnings, in the 
 acquisition of territory ? 
 
 The fact is that there has been an immense 
 increase of our domain. Within less than a 
 hundred years from the adoption of the federal 
 constitution our boundaries were enlarged in 
 more than imperial proportions. On the fourth 
 of March, 1789, eleven states had ratified the 
 constitution. They were the following: Dela- 
 ware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, 
 Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South 
 Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, and New 
 York. Subsequently, North Carolina, Rhode 
 Island, and Vermont gave in their adhesion. 
 Fourteen states constituted the United States 
 of America as it was one hundred and ten 
 years ago when it first began to do business 
 as a nation under the constitution. The total 
 area of the colonies in revolt against Great 
 Britain, whose independence was acknowl- 
 edged in 1783, was a little over eight hundred 
 and twenty thousand square miles. This was 
 more than doubled by the Louisiana pur- 
 chase. The annexation of Texas added 
 nearly half as much more, and the Oregon 
 treaty a further area equally large. The 
 Mexican treaties gave us more than five hun- 
 
THE POUCY OF EXPANSION 171 
 
 dred and fifty thousand square miles, and the 
 Alaska purchase upward of five hundred and 
 fourteen thousand square miles. So that in 
 1867, the year in which Russia transferred 
 the whole of her American possessions to the 
 United States, the dominions over which the 
 flag of our Union floated without dispute, in 
 less than eighty years from the adoption of 
 the federal constitution, had increased in va- 
 rious ways, by conquest, by treaty, and by 
 purchase, from eight hundred and twenty 
 thousand square miles to more than three 
 million five hundred and eighty thousand 
 square miles, or more than four fold. Using 
 the words with which Daniel Webster closed 
 his seventh of March speech, in 1850, we can 
 say with even more truth than he : "It has 
 received a vast addition of territory. Large 
 before, the country has now, by recent events, 
 become vastly larger. This republic now ex- 
 tends, with a vast breadth, across the whole 
 continent. The two great seas of the world 
 wash the one and the other shore. We real- 
 ize on a mighty scale the beautiful description 
 of the ornamental edging of the buckler of 
 Achilles 
 
172 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 " Now the broad shield complete the artist crowned 
 With his last hand, and poured the ocean round ; 
 In living silver seemed the waves to roll, 
 And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the 
 whole." 
 
 When we remember that there were those 
 in the beginning grave and learned states- 
 men and pure patriots and have been in 
 every generation, who have held that it was 
 no part of the function of the states to acquire 
 territory, and that the powers of the constitu- 
 tion are imperilled by every acquisition, it is 
 instructive to recall the circumstances under 
 which these various acquisitions have been 
 accomplished. 
 
 The first and greatest addition of all was 
 secured, in 1803, under the Presidency and 
 largely through the agency of Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, most powerfully aided by Livingston, our 
 minister to France. In this he assumed a re- 
 sponsibility that has scarcely ever been par- 
 alleled by any of his successors. In common 
 with many of the wisest statesmen of his time, 
 he doubted whether the constitution gave ade- 
 quate warrant for the acquisition of territory on 
 any considerable scale, and still further whether 
 the President had the right to take the initia- 
 tive in such a case. But looking at the situ- 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 173 
 
 ation of the infant states, stretched along the 
 Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia to the 
 Florida line, skirting the St. I/awrence and 
 touching the Great L,akes, he perceived that, 
 in the developments of the not distant future, 
 in order to use to their fullest extent the great 
 interior water ways that lay wholly within 
 United States territory, it would be absolutely 
 necessary to control the outlet of the Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 The compelling causes to that brave and 
 brilliant act of statesmanship were both com- 
 mercial and political. The industrial ac- 
 tivity and commercial prosperity of the whole 
 country were largely dependent upon this step. 
 The farmer could not bring the cultivation of 
 the soil to the highest point of productiveness, 
 the mechanic could not pursue his calling 
 with the assurance of full remuneration, the 
 tradesman could not effect the interchange of 
 commodities on the most economical basis, if 
 the gateway to the Gulf should be closed. 
 But there was a still more portentous reason 
 than that. Great Britain had only just reluc- 
 tantly relinquished her grasp upon her rebel- 
 lious colonies. She had not yet recovered 
 from her resentment and shame. In the great 
 conflict that she was then waging with France 
 
174 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 on the ocean and which she was soon to wage 
 on the land, it was not unlikely that she would 
 seek to break the grasp of her enemy upon 
 her North American possessions and set up 
 her power there in a way to menance and per- 
 haps destroy the independence of the United 
 States. Few statesmen have ever had occa- 
 sion to act under a graver compulsion of need, 
 or to a grander and more far-reaching result. 
 Still, it was fortunate for America that the 
 presidential office was filled by a statesman of 
 the wisdom and courage of Jefferson. 
 
 It was equally fortunate that the man, who, 
 as the First Consul, guided the destinies of 
 France, was the far-seeing, astute and auda- 
 cious Napoleon. At the period which we 
 are considering, the French settlements were 
 scarcely less important than those of the Eng- 
 lish on American soil. During the reign of 
 Louis XIV, the French government, acting 
 under the impulse of colonial enterprise, or 
 what might be termed in our day imperial 
 expansion, had carried on a systematic ex- 
 ploration reaching from the mouth of the St. 
 Lawrence up the Great Lakes and down the 
 Illinois and the Mississippi to the Gulf of 
 Mexico itself. Great companies of French 
 priests, with the blessings of mother church 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 175 
 
 upon them and with a devotion and self- 
 denial almost unexampled in Christian annals, 
 had set themselves the task of teaching letters 
 and religion to the wild denizens of the prairie 
 and forest. The foundation of a mighty civ- 
 ilization was laid with toilsome patience. 
 Owing, however, to the superior force of 
 Great Britain, France was unable, for a time 
 at least, to retain her hold here upon her great 
 continental domain. As a result of the war 
 of 1754, in which Washington received his 
 soldierly training, France ceded Louisiana to 
 Spain and relinquished Canada to England. 
 Spain, however, then as ever, was only a step- 
 mother to her acquisitions. Partly, therefore, 
 in response to a sense of obligation to those 
 of her own kindred and tongue, France, in 
 1800, secured by treaty the retrocession of 
 that vast province of nearly nine hundred 
 thousand square miles. But she was not 
 long to retain her power over it. In the 
 state-craft of the great Napoleon there were 
 other and nobler uses for it. Not only was 
 its possession essential to the well being and 
 prosperity of the young republic of the West, 
 for which France had conceived an affection 
 that has never yet been broken, but Napoleon 
 saw the opportunity in the move he was about 
 
1 76 OCCASION AT, ADDRESSES 
 
 to make, to thwart the schemes of his tradi- 
 tional enemy and put a curb upon his ambi- 
 tions that would last as long as the world. 
 
 Kdward Everett in a speech delivered at 
 the Revere House, September 25, 1861, on 
 the occasion of a banquet to Prince Napoleon, 
 gave a most eloquent and graphic picture of 
 this masterly act of Napoleon. " The treaty 
 of the 3oth of September, 1800, wise and wel- 
 come as it was, in restoring peace between 
 the two countries, was far surpassed in im- 
 portance by that imperial stroke of policy, 
 the cession of Louisiana. Originally discov- 
 ered under the powerful monarch whose name 
 it perpetuates in the western hemisphere, 
 transferred to Spain at the close of the Seven 
 Years' War, recovered by the First Consul in 
 1800, by the treaty of San Ildefonso, the 
 youthful hero conceived the plan of making 
 Louisiana the basis of a colonial power which 
 .should balance that of England. The ap- 
 proaching renewal of hostilities by the rup- 
 ture of the treaty of Amiens rendering it 
 doubtful whether he should be able to hold 
 Louisiana against the naval power of Great 
 Britain, in pursuance of that great idea which 
 runs through the whole policy of France to- 
 wards this country, that of confirming the 'uni- 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 177 
 
 versal political equilibrium ' by the growth 
 of a great commercial and naval power in the 
 West, the First Consul announced to his as- 
 tonished Council, on Easter Sunday of 1803, 
 that he had made up his mind to cede the 
 whole of Louisiana to the United States. The 
 deed followed up the word, and the treaty was 
 signed on the 3oth of April. By this truly 
 Napoleonic stroke of the highest state wis- 
 dom and the most superb political courage, 
 the whole of this vast province, a world in it- 
 self, from the Gulf of Mexico to the forty-ninth 
 parallel of latitude and from the Mississippi 
 to the Pacific, all passed to the possession of 
 the United States ; illustrious record of the 
 profound convictions of Napoleon that the in- 
 terest of France and the equilibrium of Europe 
 require the growth, consolidation and perma- 
 nence of the American Union." 
 
 We have, then, the reasons, both from the 
 American and French point of view, for the 
 first, the greatest and the most magnificent of 
 all our acquisitions. Had there not been a 
 Jefferson, with wisdom to forecast the future 
 and boldness to execute in the time of need, 
 and had there not been a Napoleon who knew 
 how to be magnanimous to a rival as well as 
 relentless to a foe, we might still have been 
 
178 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 shivering on our Atlantic seaboard, shut up 
 between the Alleghanies and the sea. But 
 there were not wanting those in both hemi- 
 spheres who thought the transaction one of 
 madness and folly. In the old world men 
 thought that Napoleon had exchanged an 
 empire for a song and shut the door forever 
 to the possibility of colonial expansion. On 
 our own soil there were those who said boldly 
 that Jefferson had set his heel in contempt 
 upon the constitution of his country, had dug 
 the grave of democratic institutions and ex- 
 tinguished the possibility of a great repub- 
 lican commonwealth. But the deed was done 
 and for nearly a century the nation has been 
 reaping the fruits thereof. 
 
 The case of Florida was different. In some 
 respects it would seem as if the absorption of 
 Florida would be a logically necessary result 
 of the acquirement of Louisiana. The two 
 territories were in closest juxtaposition. The 
 relations between the populations of each 
 were intimate and constant. Still, there does 
 not appear to have been any very eager desire, 
 either on the part of the people of the United 
 States or the authorities at Washington, to 
 make a further expansion by the addition of 
 Spanish territory. Strangely enough the de- 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 179 
 
 sire that the United States should secure 
 Florida was British rather than American, 
 lyord Castlereagh, who in more than one 
 instance influenced the diplomatic policy of 
 America, was eager and insistent that the 
 United States should take steps to secure that 
 prize from Spain. 
 
 Jackson, however, thought otherwise. He 
 believed that England was putting every pos- 
 sible obstacle in the way, and that she was 
 even maintaining spies and intriguers to pre- 
 vent the consummation which a treaty between 
 this country and Spain would be sure to effect. 
 Indeed, Jackson himself was about the only 
 person in this part of the world who was filled 
 with a truly passionate desire to add this bit of 
 Spanish domain to the territory of the United 
 States. He, however, was ready to go to any 
 length in such an enterprise. He would not 
 stop at usurpation and outrage. Having been 
 appointed to the command of the forces in 
 Georgia, charged with keeping order among 
 the Indians and negroes on the border line, 
 he wrote to President Monroe : ' ' Let it be 
 signified to me through any channel that the 
 possession of Florida would be desirable to 
 the United States and in sixty days it will be 
 accomplished." Even without orders, or an 
 
l8o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 intimation from the government, he violated 
 every principle of international obligation and 
 gave abundant reason for hostile resentment 
 by the King of Spain. But Ferdinand had 
 all the wars on his hands in this hemisphere 
 that he could manage. The South American 
 provinces of Spain and Mexico were all in re- 
 volt at once, and he did not care to increase 
 the complication by a war with the United 
 States. He showed little resentment for the 
 capture of Florida fortresses, for the encroach- 
 ment upon Spanish possessions, for the over- 
 turning of Spanish authority at St. Marks 
 and Pensacola and for the violence done to 
 Spanish subjects. Even when a treaty had 
 been drafted and executed, in 1819, by the 
 United States he delayed to put his own 
 hand to it for two years, though urged to it 
 by the representatives of nearly all the lead- 
 ing powers of Europe. 
 
 Thus another scene was enacted in the 
 drama of territorial expansion, and along with 
 it, had been created an ' ' earth hunger, ' ' as 
 the English call it, that has not yet been 
 satiated. Not until we examine the subject 
 with care do we realize to what an extent 
 the American people have been swayed by 
 a longing to enlarge their boundaries. No 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION l8l 
 
 doubt Andrew Jackson was the chief instru- 
 ment, humanly speaking, in creating this 
 hunger. We even find John Quincy Adams, 
 as early as 1828, casting wistful glances 
 towards Texas and offering to purchase that 
 and the portions of Mexico which we now 
 know as New Mexico and California, for one 
 million dollars. We can hardly suppose him 
 to have been aware of the motive by which 
 annexation was soon to become the rallying 
 cry of all who desired the perpetuity of human 
 slavery. The history of the movement which 
 not only brought Texas into the Union, but 
 led to the Mexican war, is one of the 
 darkest chapters in our history one of the 
 darkest chapters in the history of modern 
 times. 
 
 By a strange oversight, which even the 
 greedy eye of Jackson failed to detect, the 
 westerly boundary of Florida, in the treaty 
 with Spain was drawn at the Sabine River. 
 It might just as well, in those days when all 
 areas in this country were vague and indefi- 
 nite, have been placed at the Rio Grande. 
 In that case Texas would have been ours 
 without a struggle. But the diplomatists 
 who shaped the treaty were uncanny, bun- 
 gling and shortsighted. Their work was 
 
1 82 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 scarcely completed before it was realized that 
 tlie borders assigned to the institution of 
 slavery in view of the Missouri Compromise, 
 were too restricted. If the slave states 
 were to maintain a proper equilibrium with 
 the free states of the North they must have 
 more room for expansion. Mexico, just 
 emerging from her struggle with Spain for 
 independence, with a form of government 
 unintelligently copied from the government 
 of the United States, her people wholly un- 
 prepared to appreciate or use their newly 
 acquired freedom, was too weak to defend 
 and hold the vast domain of Texas and upper 
 California. When Van Buren, therefore, in 
 1829, raised the offer of John Quincy Adams 
 from one million to five million dollars, which 
 was to wrest from the grasp of Mexico her 
 grandest and fairest possessions, the storm 
 had really begun. 
 
 One part of the plans of the annexationists 
 was to stir up revolt from within. If they 
 could induce Texas to break away from the 
 parent country and set up an independent 
 government of her own they could by a quiet 
 process of annexation accomplish what they 
 might have great difficulty in accomplishing 
 otherwise, especially in view of the rising senti- 
 
THE POIvICY OF EXPANSION 183 
 
 ment of the North in opposition to slavery. 
 That doubtless was the motive of Jackson 
 who, coming from the slave holding state of 
 Tennessee, was in sympathy with the pur- 
 poses of slavery to prompt that rather un- 
 savory adventurer, Sam Houston, to emigrate 
 to Texas, to rally the people under a revolu- 
 tionary standard, and effectually secure their 
 permanent separation from Mexico. This 
 task was the easier because the great body of 
 the settlers in Texas were of the Anglo- 
 American stock and had nothing in common 
 with the population of Mexico, and because 
 Mexico herself had shown little wisdom in 
 dealing with the uneasy settlers in the terri- 
 tory over which she was determined to main- 
 tain her power at all hazards. Houston 
 gathered an army and was appointed to the 
 chief command. This force was able for a 
 a time to keep the Mexicans out of the terri- 
 tory. But in 1836, Santa Anna, the bravest 
 and most brilliant Mexican soldier of his time, 
 led an army of seventy-five hundred men into 
 Texas for the purpose of bringing about the 
 submission of the people. At an opportune 
 moment, when his forces were divided, Hous- 
 ton fell upon him at San Jacinto, secured a 
 complete victory and took Santa Anna him- 
 
1 84 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 self prisoner. This ended the conflict and 
 resulted in the independence of Texas. But 
 although the United States recognized her 
 independence on the last day of President 
 Jackson's official term, in 1837, owing to the 
 growing opposition of the Whig Party and 
 the vigorous protests of the anti-slavery 
 people of the North, the coveted annexation 
 was not consummated until after the inaugura- 
 tion of President Polk, in 1845. 
 
 If this were all, there would not be much 
 room at this day for criticism. For though the 
 methods by which the result was reached were 
 high-handed and unscrupulous, they were 
 perhaps in keeping with the temper of the 
 times and with the lawless character of the 
 people of our south-western frontier ; and 
 though the motive of those who were the 
 chief promoters of annexation was to secure 
 new territory out of which more slave states in 
 the future might be carved, yet, after all, they 
 were but the instruments of a natural process, 
 hastening a little the inevitable ' ' logic of 
 events." Texas, not only by her climate and 
 her soil, but by her geographical position be- 
 tween the Sabine and the Rio Grande, could 
 not long be separated from the imperial tract 
 embraced in the Louisiana purchase. When 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 185 
 
 Jefferson completed his agreement with Na- 
 poleon he, in effect, took over the title deeds 
 to Texas as a part of the large domain which 
 we have known as the Louisiana purchase. 
 
 But the greed of the annexationists was not 
 satisfied by even this mighty acquisition. 
 Already their eyes were on the Pacific ocean 
 and the bay of San Francisco. Already they 
 had visions of other states dedicated to slav- 
 ery between the Rocky mountains and the 
 farther sea. Already they had formed their 
 plans to compass their designs by outrages, in 
 comparison with which those attending the 
 revolt of Texas were pale and trivial. Al- 
 though the rallying cry of the Democratic 
 Party in the campaign which raised James 
 K. Polk to the presidency, was the annexa- 
 tion of Texas, it was an open secret that the 
 real purpose was a contest with Mexico, by 
 which Upper California and New Mexico 
 might be added to the national domain. 
 Polk understood perfectly the purport of his 
 election, and immediately upon his inaugura- 
 tion proceeded to put the demand of his 
 party into execution. Without waiting to 
 take the advice of Congress he ordered Gen- 
 eral Taylor to take up a position upon terri- 
 tory which Mexico had never formally relin- 
 
1 86 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 quished, and to menace the dominions beyond 
 the Rio Grande. An unauthorized scrim- 
 mage between a body of Mexican dragoons 
 and a small party of American soldiers, was 
 deemed a sufficient occasion for a declaration 
 of war. Of course there could be but one 
 issue to such a conflict. It was written in the 
 book of fate that Mexico must lose in the 
 struggle. A great and powerful nation had 
 set itself in battle array against her. Though 
 her people were righting for home and liberty 
 and fatherland, they were no match for the 
 trained and efficient soldiery of the United 
 States. So far as the latter country was con- 
 cerned it was only a question of a certain 
 amount of time and the expenditure of a cer- 
 tain quantity of blood and treasure. The 
 end came as might have been predicted, by 
 the entrance of General Scott into the city of 
 Mexico. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidal- 
 go, concluded on the 2nd of February, 1848, 
 California and all the possessions of Mexico 
 between that territory and Texas, passed to 
 the United States. 
 
 No high-minded and self-respecting Amer- 
 ican can read this story of outrage and usur- 
 pation without feeling a blush of shame rising 
 to his temples. Still, when we think how 
 
THE) POLICY OF EXPANSION 187 
 
 transient and short lived were the sordid mo- 
 tives and the selfish intrigues, how the states- 
 men and politicians who were the parties to 
 this infamy have gone to their merited obloquy 
 "unwept, unhonored and unsung" how 
 the machinations of the apologists and de- 
 fenders of human slavery have been circum- 
 vented and brought to naught by the aboli- 
 tion of slavery and the dedication of every 
 rood of American soil to freedom forever ; 
 when we think of the teeming populations 
 that have come into what were great silences, 
 unbroken by the presence of man since the 
 morning of creation, of the golden channels 
 that have been opened, of the mighty indus- 
 tries that have sprung up, of the civilization, 
 prosperity and peace that have followed in the 
 wilderness track of bloodshed and war, we are 
 constrained to believe that this is one of the 
 instances in which the Great Ruler of human 
 events turns aside the transient purpose and 
 " maketh the wrath of man to praise him." 
 
 Simultaneously with the plans for the en- 
 largement of the national boundaries by the 
 purchase of Florida, the annexation of Texas, 
 and the conquest of California, there had been 
 rising the question in many minds as to the 
 possession of Oregon. The constant west- 
 
1 88 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 ward drift of population brought this ques- 
 tion more and more into the foreground. 
 Even Jefferson, after his eyes were open to 
 the full significance of his masterly achieve- 
 ment in doubling the area of the United 
 States, began to have visions of people filling 
 the great unoccupied spaces of the country 
 and pressing forward in an unbroken proces- 
 sion westward over the summits of the Rocky 
 Mountains and finding no rest in their cease- 
 less movement until they had reached the 
 Pacific shores. Accordingly, he asked from 
 Congress an appropriation to explore that far- 
 off region, which being granted, he sent I/ewis 
 and Clark on their immortal expedition up 
 the Missouri River, over the mountains and 
 down the Columbia to its mouth. It was this 
 expedition, together with the heroic action of 
 American sailors in those far-off waters, that 
 gave us a foothold in the north western por- 
 tion of the continent. This 'foothold was 
 further strengthened by the business enter- 
 prises of John Jacob Astor ; and if discovery 
 and settlement constitute valid titles to terri- 
 tory, as they have been thought to do ever 
 since mediaeval times, no doubt our claim to 
 the whole of the land reaching from California 
 to the Russian Possessions was perfectly justi- 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 189 
 
 fied. But the Northwest Fur Company of 
 Great Britain came in on the heels of our own 
 discoverers and traders and set up a counter 
 claim. In 1818 it was found necessary, in 
 order to avoid friction and a possible conflict, 
 to frame a treaty of joint occupancy. 
 
 This, however, was only a temporary expe- 
 dient. While the devotees of slavery were 
 looking for new lands in which to expand and 
 strengthen their peculiar institution, the hardy 
 sons of toil here in the North were seeking 
 fresh opportunities for profitable enterprise. 
 The fur trade and the fisheries made it neces- 
 sary that the flag should give its protection 
 to those whose daring had carried them to the 
 northwestern slopes of the continent. The 
 pro-slavery interest did not regard with favor 
 this demand and was quite willing that the 
 nation should yield to any claims that Eng- 
 land might make. Even Benton declared that 
 the Rocky Mountains was the proper western 
 boundary of the Union. But the pressure 
 was too strong. The Democratic Party could 
 not ignore the issue and was forced to put it 
 into the platform of 1844. To the cry of the 
 annexation of Texas was added in many parts 
 of the country the watchword of ' ' fifty-four 
 forty or fight." But Polk, having accom- 
 
190 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 plished his purpose in the war with Mexico, 
 was eager for a settlement of the Oregon 
 boundary question. He had no heart to press 
 for the whole of the American demand. It 
 did not enter into his conception that Russia 
 might, within a score of years, tender her 
 possessions in the north, to the United States, 
 and that then it would be of immense import- 
 ance to this country to have an unbroken 
 territorial domain reaching up to Behring 
 Strait. Hence when the English premier 
 suggested the 49th parallel as a compromise, 
 and when Daniel Webster, though not in 
 office, lent the weight of his great authority 
 in favor of that compromise, it was readily 
 accepted. A treaty was formed which made 
 the 49th parallel on the mainland the bound- 
 ary, being an extension of the then existing 
 northern boundary line from the Great L,akes 
 to Oregon. The whole of Vancouver Island 
 was given to Great Britain and the strait of 
 Juan de Fuca was made the dividing water- 
 way. In consequence of that compromise, 
 that yielding up of territory that had been 
 pre-occupied by American adventurers, the 
 citizens of this Republic today are obliged to 
 pay an exorbitant toll to British subjects in 
 order to pass from Oregon to Alaska, and a 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 19 1 
 
 chronic quarrel exists between American and 
 Canadian miners. Still, the territory confirmed 
 to the United States by the treaty was of 
 gigantic proportions and out of it have been 
 carved the states of Washington, Oregon, 
 Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. 
 
 This completes the list of our territorial ac- 
 quisitions anterior to the war of the Rebel- 
 lion. During the progress of that war this 
 country had many proofs of the strong and 
 unyielding friendship of Russia. It was as if 
 she had some secret sense of that common 
 mission in "the dominion of half the Globe" 
 which De Toqueville sixty years ago assigned 
 to America and Russia. It is believed by 
 many that, but for the manifestation of that 
 friendship, there might have been some overt 
 act from Great Britain in conjunction with 
 France and Austria to put an end to the hos- 
 tilities between the North and the South, and 
 to set up the Confederate States as an inde- 
 pendent nation with slavery as its " corner- 
 stone." At all events, in the darkest hour of 
 our tribulation, when all faces were averted 
 and when every man's hand seemed to be 
 against us, that mighty monarchy placed her 
 battle ships and her sailors where they could 
 be within call at any moment. Probably it 
 
IQ2 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 will never be known how much we are in- 
 debted for the preservation of the Union and 
 the magnificent results of the triumph of our 
 arms in that great civil contest, to the vast 
 empire whose dominions reach from the 
 Pacific Ocean across the continent of Asia 
 and across Europe also, to the Baltic Sea. It 
 is a somewhat significant fact that no sooner 
 was the war ended by the triumph of the 
 Union arms, than Russia came forward with a 
 tender of Alaska for the paltry sum of seven 
 million dollars five hundred and eighty 
 thousand square miles of territory ! The 
 statesmen of America were almost paralyzed 
 by the proposition, and it is believed that 
 they were largely moved to the acceptance of 
 it because they wished to do a favor to a na- 
 tion whose friendship for America had never 
 faltered. That, however, was a poor con- 
 struction to put upon an act of great magna- 
 nimity. Today we are beginning to have 
 some sense of the value of this mighty province 
 in her furs, her timber, her fisheries and her 
 gold mines ; and no man can tell what possi- 
 bilities the future has in store. 
 
 This was the first instance in our history of 
 the acquisition of territory that was not contig- 
 uous to existing possessions. The accession 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 193 
 
 has given little difficulty on that account, and 
 perhaps it is the schooling that we have had 
 in the government of territory at a distance 
 that has made us willing to contemplate with 
 favor after twenty years, new possessions lying 
 beyond seas. For many years, as far back 
 as Webster's time, our broadest-minded and 
 most forecasting statesmen have recognized 
 the strategic importance of the Hawaiian 
 group to the United States, whenever its com- 
 merce should reach its due proportions. 
 These islands lie directly in the track of 
 steamships traversing the Pacific Ocean from 
 our western seaboard to the farther East. In 
 the developments of recent years it has been 
 felt by many that the future of America as a 
 sea power, or as a commercial power, was 
 vitally related to the possession of those is- 
 lands. They were as truly the gateway of 
 our ocean-going trade in that direction as was 
 the mouth of the Mississippi to the interior 
 commerce of the continent, before our trans- 
 continental railroads had flung defiance to our 
 river ways. Moreover, these islands were in 
 a sense American. American missionaries 
 had gone there with the healing and uplifting 
 messages of Christianity. They had taught 
 both letters and religion to the native popula- 
 
194 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 tion. Their sons, by an enterprise that was 
 truly American, had transformed the wilder- 
 ness into a garden and set up an enduring 
 American civilization. They had kept, too, 
 their loyalty and love for the old flag. In the 
 war of the Rebellion they gave their money 
 and risked their lives for the preservation of 
 the Union. The one, unwavering desire of 
 their hearts was that they might see the glo- 
 rious flag of their fathers floating in triumph 
 above their beautiful islands. Still, though 
 the invitation was again and again urgently 
 repeated to take them under our sheltering 
 wing, the nation hesitated to assume grave 
 political responsibilities, so far away from our 
 continental possessions. Not until the ex- 
 igencies of the Spanish war taught us that 
 the control of this archipelago was absolutely 
 vital to us in any conflict of arms that might 
 occur in the distant orient, did we venture to 
 take the step to which we had been urged. 
 Then the deed was done and it was done 
 quickly. 
 
 In looking back now over this rapid survey 
 of the steps by which we have grown from a 
 little strip of land lying along the Atlantic 
 seaboard between New Brunswick and the 
 Savannah River, to a vast continental domain 
 
THE POUCY OF EXPANSION 195 
 
 that has even now set up the standard of its 
 power in the mid- Pacific, we perceive that 
 two great controlling motives have dictated 
 the policy of its acquisitions, from the time of 
 Jefferson to the present hour. These motives 
 are: first, commercial, and secondly, political. 
 That man of transcendent genius, whose 
 hand drafted the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, saw with perfect clearness of vision, 
 when once his thought was directed to the 
 subject, that the first concern of a nation 
 must be for the industries and trade of its 
 people. Without adequate attention to these 
 things there could be neither prosperity nor 
 happiness for any. But in order that the 
 state might afford due protection and give 
 ample impulse within this province, care 
 should be taken that the state might preserve 
 its independence and its power. If she were 
 neglectful of these she would become the easy 
 prey of every set of reckless adventurers, and 
 every unscrupulous nation, ambitious for colo- 
 nial expansion. She must entrench herself 
 beyond the possibility of successful assault 
 from any quarter. These were the controlling 
 reasons in the purchase of Louisiana, and, 
 with only slight deviations the}' have been 
 followed steadfastly by all our statesmen who 
 
196 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 have taken an active part in the enlargement 
 of our national domain. The only possible 
 exception, perhaps, was the case of Alaska. 
 But in this case, also, it should be remembered 
 that both Sumner and Seward, who had 
 mainly to do with the drafting and execution 
 of that treaty, never failed to keep before the 
 mind's eye the hope that one day the entire 
 American continent, from the North Pole to 
 the Isthmus of Panama, would repose under 
 the ample folds of the Stars and Stripes ; and 
 they thought they saw in this acquisition one 
 long step towards the fulfilment of their 
 dream. Who shall yet say that they were 
 altogether mistaken in this expectation ? 
 Who will dare to proclaim that the time may 
 not come far off though it be when this 
 great North American continent, covered from 
 end to end with a people speaking our Anglo- 
 American tongue, shall hail the one glorious 
 flag of freedom as their symbdl and look to 
 one grand Union for protection ? 
 
 It may be said of our earlier acquisitions, 
 what Jefferson himself felt, that, if they were 
 not exactly opposed to the provisions of the 
 Constitution, they were, at least, beyond its 
 scope. They were extra constitutional. But 
 the process has been so often repeated that it 
 
THE POLICY OF EXPANSION 197 
 
 has become a part of our organic law with 
 the full sanction of our highest judicial tri- 
 bunal. There can be no longer any doubt as 
 to the legality of the process. The method 
 of government, too, that has been applied to 
 our various territories is interesting and in- 
 structive. In no single instance has an effort 
 been made to get a formal expression of the 
 will of the people domiciled within the do- 
 main to be acquired, as a condition precedent 
 to the acquisition. No plebiscite has ever 
 been sought. Neither has any pains been 
 taken to secure the ' ' consent of the gov- 
 erned " before setting up a governmental 
 regime. The governors of all our territories 
 are of presidential appointment. They are 
 as much an emanation from the central au- 
 thority as were the proconsuls of Rome, and, 
 while a certain measure of independence in 
 legislation is allowed to the people, the su- 
 preme legislative authority for the territories 
 as well as for the District of Columbia, is 
 lodged in the Congress. Never has Congress 
 shown itself to be under any compulsion to 
 recognize the statehood of a territory so soon 
 as the constitutional limit of population shall 
 have been reached. It may be kept under 
 
198 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 territorial subjection, as in the case of Utah, 
 long after that limit is passed. 
 
 All this is of immense significance in view 
 of the enormous possessions that, within less 
 than three years, have fallen within the scope 
 of our power as an incident of the Spanish 
 war. It may help us to answer the question 
 with which we began, the question which all 
 the world is asking with eager interest and 
 which we ourselves are asking the most 
 eagerly of all, what position is the United 
 States to assume as a great world power and 
 what attitude is she to take towards the pos- 
 sessions which are now, by every considera- 
 tion of historic precedent and national expe- 
 rience, a part of our great domain ? 
 
 There can be but one answer. The banner 
 of the United States has inscribed upon its 
 folds the old Latin device, nulla vestigia re- 
 trorsum, and she is not likely to shrink from 
 any of the obligations, however onerous or 
 however complicated, which the exigencies 
 of the situation have cast upon her. To the 
 islands and the people both of the West and 
 the East that have suddenly, and, as it were, 
 by accident fallen under her power, she will, 
 as in the territories previously acquired, 
 whether by purchase or conquest, proceed to 
 
THE POIylCY OF EXPANSION 199 
 
 carry without delay her institutions of free- 
 dom and her uplifting and stimulating arm 
 for every measure of a progressive civilization. 
 Who shall say that there is in this any ele- 
 ment of usurpation or injustice ? The fact 
 that the Philippine Islands contain eight mil- 
 lions of people, many of them well advanced 
 in the arts of life, does not alter the conditions 
 of the problem. We are there under a respon- 
 sibility which cannot be evaded. When the 
 Olympia and her consorts on that bright May 
 morning sailed into Manila Bay and, in a brief 
 hour, swept every vestige of Spanish power 
 from those eastern seas, a great burden fell 
 upon the American nation, which it could not 
 put aside. To have sailed away in that same 
 hour and left the great, opulent and populous 
 city of Manila to the lust and rapine of the 
 insurgent and native population, would have 
 exposed the American nation not only to the 
 scorn, but the just opprobrium of the world. 
 We were there to maintain the dignity and 
 authority of the nation, and there we must re- 
 main until we have removed every danger 
 from hostility, brought order out of chaos and 
 set up as large a measure of freedom as the 
 people are able to appreciate and use. 
 
 One can scarcely help believing that there 
 
200 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 is a providence in all this, and that the Su- 
 preme Ruler of the universe, for his own grand 
 purpose in the elevation and redemption of 
 mankind, has shaped these conditions for us 
 and marked out for us the path of duty, 
 which is but a continuation of that path 
 which was prescribed for our Pilgrim ances- 
 tors when they brought the Mayflower into 
 Plymouth Harbor, and began to lay in the 
 wilderness of America the foundations of a 
 new empire of freedom. The whole situation 
 in which we find ourselves is at least a fulfil- 
 ment of the magnificent prediction of De 
 Tocqueville that the United States with her 
 democratic institutions is to sway with Russia 
 1 ' the destinies of half the Globe. ' ' The Span- 
 ish war has taught us that alike for the pro- 
 tection of our commerce and for the perfect 
 use of our navy, in order that we may make 
 our great continental possessions impregnable 
 and without a rival in power, i as Jefferson 
 perceived they would ultimately become, and 
 as Sumner and Seward labored to make them, 
 we must proceed immediately to construct 
 across the Isthmus of Panama a canal that 
 may safely bear upon its bosom from ocean to 
 ocean the entire commerce of our country, and 
 our giant battle-ships in time of need. This 
 
THK POIvICY OF KXPANSION 2OI 
 
 war, also, has put into our possession Porto 
 Rico, and given us such privileges in the 
 " Pearl of the Antilles," that we may build 
 our canal and hold it, if need be, against the 
 combined power of the civilized world. In 
 the same way and largely through the 
 same instrumentality we have just awak- 
 ened to the sense of our mighty possibilities 
 in the Orient. The doors which the other 
 nations are now opening in the crumbling 
 Chinese empire, invite us also to enter. With 
 a gateway established by the possession of 
 the Hawaiian islands, and a foothold from 
 which we cannot be dislodged, established in 
 the Philippines, we are in a position not only 
 to enjoy our full share of the almost bound- 
 less commercial privileges of the Hast, but to 
 exert that degree of political influence to 
 which our dignity and power among the na- 
 tions entitle us. Surely it is a proud day for 
 the citizens of the American Republic, a day 
 of hope and promise for the enslaved people 
 of all the despotic kingdoms of the earth. 
 The hour for the decay of tyranny has struck, 
 the hour for the triumph of democracy has 
 come. The United States of America is to 
 bear aloft the sacred banner of freedom in the 
 eyes of the nations, and to lead in the im- 
 
202 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 posing procession which is to conduct all the 
 struggling races of mankind at last into the 
 promised land of equality and privilege. 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 GIVEN BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCE 
 OF EDUCATIONAL WORKERS, NOVEMBER, 1900. 
 
 What has the Commonwealth done for pub- 
 lic education during the nineteenth century ? 
 It might be sufficient to cite the statutes and 
 let them tell their own story. Possibly many 
 would be able to see from such recital not 
 only an outline of the work which the State 
 has done, but, in imagination, to recreate and 
 cause to live again those splendid achieve- 
 ments which have brought us to our present 
 high position. The passing, however, from 
 one century to another would seem to demand 
 something more than that. The nineteenth 
 century, we are prone to think, is likely to 
 stand as the most remarkable thus far in his- 
 tory for a great variety of achievements. 
 Perhaps it is impossible to say now in just 
 what line of effort it has left the richest legacy 
 to mankind. But there can be little doubt 
 that when the great sum of the contributions 
 which it has made to posterity, especially here 
 in America, is fully computed, the progres- 
 
204 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 sive steps that have been taken in education 
 will not be wholly overlooked. 
 
 One thing, however, should be distinctly 
 borne in mind, the work of the century is a 
 continuous process. It is the logical result 
 of everything that has gone before. All writ- 
 ers upon the subject concede this. Indeed, 
 nearly all begin by quoting the statutes of 
 1642, and 1647, which have attracted the at- 
 tention of intelligent observers the world over. 
 Here, undoubtedly, we have the key-note, and, 
 in a way, the justification of everything that 
 has followed. But to my mind, for the source, 
 so far as the Commonwealth itself is concerned, 
 we need to go a little farther back than that. 
 It ought never to be forgotten that the one 
 paramount motive that brought the Pilgrim 
 colony to Massachusetts was not, as is so often 
 claimed, religious freedom, not the possibility 
 of worldly profit, nor even the very worthy 
 ambition of laying the foundations, and, in 
 part, rearing the superstructure of a new and 
 more glorious commonwealth than the world 
 had ever seen before. The real desire which 
 possessed the minds of the Pilgrims and led 
 them to undergo all their trials and sacrifices, 
 was the education and training of their chil- 
 dren. How instructive are the simple words 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 205 
 
 of their own narrative ! ' ' Many of their chil- 
 dren that were of best dispositions and gracious 
 inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke 
 in their youth and willing to bear part of their 
 parents' burden, were oftentimes so oppressed 
 with their heavy labors, that, although their 
 minds were free and willing, yet their bodies 
 bowed under the weight of the same, and be- 
 came decrepit in their early youth, the vigor 
 of nature being consumed in the bud, as it 
 were. But that which was more lamentable, 
 and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, 
 was that many of their children, by these oc- 
 casions, and the great licentiousness of youth 
 in the country, and the manifold temptations 
 of the place, were drawn away by evil exam- 
 ples into extravagant and dangerous courses. ' ' 
 Nor was this the worst result. They saw their 
 children becoming Dutch, and they could not 
 help reflecting, "how like they were to lose 
 their language and their name of English . . . 
 how unable there to give their children such 
 an education as they themselves had received. ' ' 
 Therefore they thought, " If God would be 
 pleased to discover some place unto them, 
 though in America, where they might ex- 
 emplarily show their tender countrymen by 
 their example, no less burdened than them- 
 
206 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 selves, where they might live and comfortably 
 subsist," they might "keep their names and 
 nation, and not only be a means to enlarge 
 the English State, but the Church of Christ 
 also, if the L,ord had a people among the 
 natives whither he would bring them." 
 " Hereby they thought they might more 
 glorify God, do more good to their country, 
 better provide for their posterity, and live to 
 be more refreshed by their labors, than ever 
 they could do in Holland, where they were." 
 The education and training of posterity ap- 
 pear to have been the great burden which 
 weighed upon the minds of the Pilgrims be- 
 fore they had determined to emigrate, and was 
 one of the most powerful causes impelling to 
 their emigration. Of course, for the ultimate 
 sources of that interest in intellectual develop- 
 ment which has characterized Massachusetts 
 in common with all the New England states, 
 we need to look, as Mr. Martin has reminded 
 us in his admirable treatise on the evolution 
 of the public school system, to the revival of 
 learning, the Protestant Reformation, and the 
 Puritan movement in Great Britain. These 
 are the things that have created the intellec- 
 tual atmosphere in which we and our fathers 
 have lived from the beginning. Without 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 207 
 
 these the legislative act of 1647 would have 
 been impossible. Without these John Adams 
 would never have been inspired to put into 
 the Constitution of Massachusetts the sublime 
 injunction, " it shall be the duty of legisla- 
 tures and magistrates, in all future periods of 
 the Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of 
 literature and the sciences, and all seminaries 
 of them ; especially the University at Cam- 
 bridge, public schools and grammar schools 
 in the towns. ' ' Without these we should not 
 have had for the greater part of the nineteenth 
 century, the school house in every town and 
 district of the State, with its doors open to 
 boys and girls alike. Without these we could 
 never have had that constant and growing 
 conviction, that the one paramount interest 
 and duty of thfc Commonwealth is not only to 
 preserve intact our institutions of public in- 
 struction, but to multiply them and increase 
 their efficiency. 
 
 But while, as I have said, every great move- 
 ment of mankind is a continuous process 
 whose roots often run backward to remotest 
 times, yet there will be variations in the force 
 of the movement from generation to genera- 
 tion and from age to age. The ' 'tide in the 
 affairs of men " must ebb and flow. There 
 
208 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 will be seasons when everything seeins to be 
 lifted on the bosom of a vast and inexhausti- 
 ble flood, and again seasons in which the en- 
 tire race seems to be stranded in sandy and 
 hopeless desolation, when everything that is 
 vital to its welfare appears to have run out 
 and vanished. It was natural, perhaps, that 
 the cause of public education in Massachu- 
 setts should have passed through some such 
 unhappy phase. The gradual deterioration 
 of the population from the original stock; the 
 poverty and barrenness of the country, de- 
 priving the people of nearly all the instrumen- 
 talities of a refined and noble life, and thus 
 deadening their sentiments and lowering their 
 ideals ; the Revolution in which the people 
 were exposed to peril, privation and hardship, 
 and in which the mind was occupied by a 
 great and absorbing passion; the stupor which 
 succeeded the revolutionary contest, leaving 
 men for a time, at least, without a spur to 
 their ambition and without a consuming 
 moral energy, all these things combined at 
 the opening of the nineteenth century and for 
 nearly the first half of it, to put the cause of 
 popular education in a deplorable condition. 
 
 The school houses of the period were as poor 
 and bare and mean and ill-adapted for their 
 
PUBUC EDUCATION 2OQ 
 
 purpose as it is possible to conceive such 
 buildings to be. They were unsightly, un- 
 healthy, and sometimes indecent. Many a 
 farmer in the districts where these buildings 
 were situated had houses for his animals that 
 were as comfortable as these. Yet into these 
 buildings were herded for purposes of in- 
 struction, from a wide area, children of both 
 sexes and of all ages, from toddling infants, 
 to the shoemaker who was out of a job and 
 the sailor who was home from a voyage. 
 The teachers for the most part were wholly 
 incompetent. They had no adequate training 
 and no proper idea of their work ; they were 
 destitute alike of self-discipline and the power 
 to discipline others, and, many times, without 
 the moral principle which should be the first 
 requisite of a preceptor of youth. The text- 
 books, for the most part, were not only unfit 
 for their purpose almost to the point of being 
 ludicrous, but they were chosen without sup- 
 ervision at the caprice of teachers or from the 
 sordidness of parents. I myself remember 
 a kinsman of mine, a small manufacturer and 
 trader, in one his trips to the city, buying a 
 job lot of school books, arithmetics by a 
 variety of authors, geographies, antiquated 
 and unscientific, spelling books and readers 
 
210 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 unheard of in any approved list of text-books, 
 and distributing them around among his own 
 and the neighbors' children as far as they 
 would go. These books were used for at 
 least one winter to the confusion of the 
 classes and the despair of the teacher. Noth- 
 ing could be more hopeless than the condition 
 of public education in Massachusetts, and, 
 indeed, in all America for that matter, in 
 1825, and even as late as the middle of the 
 century. 
 
 But as the old proverb has it, " it is always 
 darkest just before day." Sometimes, indeed, 
 the darkness is the harbinger of a new and 
 more glorious light. So it was in this case. 
 As old Blomidon looks out on the Bay of 
 Fundy, when the waters have fled from his 
 feet, and waits serenely for the return of the 
 flood which will come with a roar like artil- 
 lery, and a rush like an invincible army, so 
 there were those in Massachusetts who waited 
 in hope, and never quite lost their faith or 
 their courage. They felt that the people 
 would awake out of their stupor, that they 
 would arise in their might and do for their 
 children what was essential, not only for their 
 development, but for the safety and progress 
 of the state. Among these was Mr. James G. 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 211 
 
 Carter, a man to whom the state is, and ever 
 will be, under an immeasurable obligation. 
 Away back in the early twenties he began the 
 agitation which resulted in those legislative 
 enactments that have borne such rich fruit in 
 the school life of the state during the last forty 
 years. The legislation of 1826 which pro- 
 vided for our modern type of high school, 
 especially as it is now differentiated into Eng- 
 lish and Latin ; of 1827 which made the entire 
 support of the public schools by taxation com- 
 pulsory; of 1834 establishing the School Fund, 
 is largely due to his efforts. But the grand- 
 est work of his life, that for which his name 
 deserves to be written in any temple of fame 
 of Massachusetts, above the names of either 
 her heroes or her statesmen, was the passage, 
 in 1837, of the law creating the Board of 
 Education. 
 
 It is unnecessary that I should outline the 
 powers and functions of this board. Many 
 who are accustomed to work under more im- 
 perious, not to say more drastic conditions, 
 are inclined to smile at what seems to them 
 the perfectly colorless authority of a commis- 
 sion that holds so important a place in the 
 government of a great state. But such per- 
 sons can have but a poor appreciation of the 
 
212 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 fact that in democratic society the thing which 
 is of more force than any statute and which 
 ultimately prevails, is public opinion. The 
 real function of the Board of Education has 
 been to create and guide public opinion in all 
 matters pertaining to the ideals and instru- 
 ments of popular instruction. I need not say 
 that it has discharged this function in a man- 
 ner that reflects no discredit either upon the 
 board or the Commonwealth. Indeed, it has 
 done some things that may be set down among 
 the noblest chapters in the history of a great 
 people. The first thing that it did was to call 
 into its service as Secretary, Horace Mann, a 
 man of great intellectual endowment and vol- 
 canic' enthusiasm, who took up the cause of 
 education with a devotion that has scarcely 
 ever been surpassed in any cause before or 
 since. No soldier of the Cross ever preached 
 a crusade with more consuming or irresistible 
 ardor. No missionary ever went 'forth with a 
 sublimer confidence in the value of his mes- 
 sage ; and no statesman ever had more prac- 
 tical and practicable methods to offer. The 
 work performed by Horace Mann has placed 
 him forever at the head, so far as this country 
 is concerned, of the great leaders of popular 
 education, and though in his official term he 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 213 
 
 saw few of the results for which he wrought, 
 we to-day are beginning to pluck the ripened 
 fruit of his unparalleled exertions. 
 
 Almost immediately upon its creation the 
 Board of Education took measures for the es- 
 tablishment of normal schools. In 1839 two 
 of these were opened, one in L,exington and 
 one in Barre. These are continued in the 
 schools of Framingham and Westfield. The 
 school in Bridgewater was opened in 1840. 
 Thus early the Board of Education took the 
 step which has elevated teaching to the dig- 
 nity of a learned profession and made prepara- 
 tion for it as imperative as preparation for 
 the Christian ministry. It has had entire 
 charge of these schools from the beginning, 
 and has watched over them with such fidelity 
 that their number has increased from three to 
 ten. It has steadily raised the standard of 
 admission until now the high schools stand 
 under them as completely as they do under 
 the colleges and universities. It has length- 
 ened the time required for graduation from 
 one year to two years and is beginning to look 
 to a three years' course as the proper requisite 
 for a diploma. At the same time the char- 
 acter of the teaching in the normal schools 
 has kept pace with the growing demands of 
 
214 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 education. Normally trained teachers have 
 demonstrated their superiority over all others, 
 and the call for them has increased until now 
 it is nearly universal. If the Board of Edu- 
 cation had rendered no other service its ex- 
 istence would have been amply justified. 
 
 But the sphere of its activity has not been 
 thus limited. Its supervision has embraced 
 the entire field of public instruction. Through 
 its Secretary and agents, it has caused its in- 
 fluence to be felt in every part of the Common- 
 wealth disseminating information, rousing the 
 interest of the people in their schools, setting 
 before them proper standards, and helping 
 poorly trained teachers to overcome their 
 faults and adopt right methods. Thus it has 
 been a fountain of light and inspiration. It 
 has had oversight of all the schools of the 
 Commonwealth, both public and private. It 
 has gathered information, omitting no fact 
 that has any conceivable beari'ng upon the 
 subject with which it is charged, classified 
 and tabulated it, and spread it broadcast for 
 the enlightenment of the people and the 
 guidance of the legislature . Its reports from 
 1838 until the present time are a rich mine 
 which no student of popular learning can 
 afford to neglect. In much of this work, too, 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 215 
 
 it should be remembered, the board has been 
 a pioneer, walking in no beaten path, but en- 
 tering the wilderness with unfaltering tread, 
 and clearing the way for others. 
 
 It would be impossible in this brief address 
 even to hint at all the important things which 
 have been done in Massachusetts since 1837, 
 but there are a few matters of such command- 
 ing importance that they should not be omitted 
 even in the most cursory treatment of the sub- 
 tect. At every step the Board of Education 
 has sought to furnish to the Legislature a 
 proper basis for its judgment, and the Legis- 
 lature has rarely failed to turn to it for en- 
 lightenment and counsel. Acting thus in 
 mutual harmony and confidence, very marked 
 progress has been secured. 
 
 For example, a minimum time for the main- 
 tenance of public schools has been fixed by 
 statute. Whereas, formerly the local author- 
 ities could fix their own time, and did actu- 
 ally in perhaps a majority of the towns, con- 
 fine the school privilege to two terms a year, 
 varying in length from ten to thirteen weeks 
 each, the Legislature has enacted that in every 
 town there shall be kept, for at least six 
 months, a sufficient number of schools for the 
 instruction of all the children. This time has 
 
2l6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 now been increased from six to eight months. 
 Thus, education instead of being a mere in- 
 cident, or possibly a pastime, in the lives of 
 children is now their regular business during 
 the period of school age. 
 
 But the law does not stop at this point. 
 Not only does it command that provision shall 
 be made for a continuous school privilege 
 covering all the time that is available for 
 study, but the use of the privilege is made 
 mandatory upon all between the ages of eight 
 and fourteen. In this way, by a vigorous en- 
 forcement of the law, illiteracy among the 
 children is a practical impossibility in Massa- 
 chusetts. Here, too, it may be remarked, 
 the old Commonwealth marches at the head 
 of the column, providing and compelling 
 nearly twice the amount of education that is 
 given on the average in the other states of the 
 nation. 
 
 Moreover, every pupil of the public schools 
 has the requisite text-books ready to his hand. 
 The committee select and prescribe the books 
 according to their best judgment of intrinsic 
 merit, without reference to the costliness or 
 cheapness of the book, and no child is com- 
 pelled to remain at home, or enter the class 
 unprepared, because of the parents' inability 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 217 
 
 to purchase the book at the very moment it is 
 needed. The books are provided at the pub- 
 lic expense, and like the teacher's salary, the 
 fuel, the chalk, the janitor's service, this ex- 
 pense enters into the annual appropriation, and 
 must be met by the taxation of the people. 
 
 At first glance one might be inclined to 
 think that legislation could go no further. 
 And yet there are upon the statute-book requi- 
 sitions far more radical than these. I/et me 
 cite one or two. 
 
 In the first place the abolition of the school 
 districts. For some reason the principle of 
 democracy, involving local autonomy, got its 
 most extreme development in dealing with the 
 schools. Not only did it rest with the towns 
 to provide school houses and schooling, but 
 the towns were divided into districts for school 
 purposes, and the responsibility was handed 
 over entire to the districts. They acquired 
 corporate rights for these purposes. They 
 built the school houses, by special tax, they 
 prescribed the text-books, hired the teachers 
 and determined the length of the school pe- 
 riods. This was, indeed, one of the most in- 
 surmountable obstacles encountered by Mr. 
 Mann in his efforts to rouse the people and 
 to secure a more efficient system of school 
 
2l8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 organization and management. Yet any 
 effort to change this condition was met 
 with the fiercest opposition. It was only 
 after prolonged agitation covering many de- 
 cades attended by repeated attempts in the 
 Legislature, that the law was finally enacted 
 which abolished the districts and placed the re- 
 sponsibility for the schools back again where 
 it belonged originally, with the towns, and 
 gave to the school committees the power to 
 appoint, as well as certificate the teachers, 
 and to organize the schools and assemble the 
 pupils without reference to neighborhood lines. 
 Certainly no legislation has ever been at- 
 tempted more radical than this, unless it be 
 the legislation for compulsory supervision. 
 
 Then, too, that expert oversight is desirable 
 and profitable is implied in the selection of 
 school committees. From the earliest times it 
 has been customary in most towns to place upon 
 the school committee the men 'supposed to be 
 the best qualified to deal with educational mat- 
 ters. The clergymen of the different denomina- 
 tions, the local physicians, the country squires 
 and retired school-masters, were the persons 
 from whom, generally, choice was made for this 
 service. They were expected not only to ex- 
 amine the teachers and decide upon their fit- 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 219 
 
 ness to teach, but to visit the schools, advise 
 with the teachers, exhort the scholars and 
 make a report to the town of the condition 
 and work of the schools. It is but fair to say 
 that a great deal of valuable service was ren- 
 dered, in many instances, even where the 
 authority was vague and indefinite. To pass 
 from that kind of oversight to expert super- 
 vision was only a step. No argiiment was 
 needed to convince men of the value of expe- 
 rience in teaching and training in school 
 management for work of this character. From 
 the first the idea has met with favor. After 
 the first trial in a few of the larger communi- 
 ties the practice became very general in the 
 cities and more populous towns of the state. 
 Then came legislation permitting towns to 
 form districts for the purpose of supervision 
 and the granting of aid from the state to 
 render such supervision possible, and now we 
 have the matter made compulsory for all the 
 towns. In one aspect it is an interference 
 with local management, a stretching forth of 
 the hand of the state to regulate the relation 
 of the municipalities in their most vital con- 
 cerns. But the good to be accomplished by 
 it is of such transcendent importance that no 
 serious objection has yet been raised against it. 
 
220 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 I ought not to conclude this survey without 
 some reference to the instrumentalities which 
 the Commonwealth has provided. Among 
 these I know of none more beneficent than 
 the evening school. In a community like 
 ours, made up not only of individuals who 
 have been born and raised within our borders, 
 but of many who have come hither from for- 
 eign parts, there must be not a few who have 
 passed the limit of the school age without en- 
 joying in full measure the privileges which 
 Massachusetts accords to all her children. 
 Yet their education is important not only to 
 themselves, but to the state whose citizens 
 they are to be. Herein is the reason for some 
 device which may afford them, though in a 
 partial and incomplete way, the training they 
 have missed. The legislation requiring the 
 establishment of evening schools in towns and 
 cities of ten thousand inhabitants and over 
 came in response to this recognized necessity. 
 
 Nor does our legislation rest here. We 
 must not regard this as evidence that our gov- 
 ernors believe that the mere rudiments of 
 learning only are essential to good citizenship. 
 The fact that this law has been followed by 
 an act requiring that cities of fifty thousand 
 inhabitants and upwards shall establish and 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 221 
 
 maintain evening high schools clearly testifies 
 to the conviction that education of the higher 
 order is valuable to the state. It sets forth 
 the purpose of the Commonwealth that those 
 who have been compelled for any reason to 
 abandon their formal training at the end of 
 the grammar school period shall have the 
 opportunity to go forward, keeping step in 
 some measure with their more fortunate com- 
 rades. The state recognizes the value of the 
 broadest possible training, and she does not 
 mean to be deprived of the advantage it con-, 
 fers upon the children of the poorest of her 
 people. 
 
 Moreover, during the past thirty years and 
 more, the public has been advancing towards 
 the belief that no well rounded system of edu- 
 cation can overlook either the industrial or the 
 artistic side of life. The human mind does 
 not utter itself only, or wholly, by the instru- 
 mentality of speech. There have been great 
 epochs of human progress in which the genius 
 of the people has impressed itself upon the 
 world through works of the highest artistic 
 conception and form. Egypt speaks to us 
 to-day from the graves of her forgotten history 
 through the marvellous creations of her tem- 
 ples and mausoleums ; even the Napoleonic 
 
222 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 regime of France proclaims its glory chiefly 
 through the Barbizon school of painters ; while 
 Greece remains to us the type of the highest 
 civilization the world has yet seen, because 
 she gave to us both letters and art in blended 
 and harmonious perfection. Slowly and dimly, 
 to be sure, the people of Massachusetts have 
 been coming to perceive this phase of educa- 
 tion. To this we must attribute the provision 
 that has been made first for industrial and 
 mechanical drawing, culminating in the es- 
 tablishment of the Normal Art School, then 
 for the elementary use of tools, and finally for 
 manual training. The state has not entered 
 upon the business of teaching trades. But 
 she is preparing her children for the new in- 
 dustrial activity in which their lives are to be 
 passed ; and she hopes that they may be 
 endowed with the artistic sense that will en- 
 able them to contribute, not only to the 
 strength, but to the beauty of ottr civilization. 
 But the crowning instrumentality to which 
 the Commonwealth has given its sanction is 
 the high school. Indeed, it was this, though 
 called a grammar school, that first received 
 legislative attention. This is the fountain 
 out of which our free public education has 
 sprung. The original intention was to give 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION 223 
 
 the necessary instruction in Latin and Greek 
 to prepare pupils for the university. The 
 people, however, who have furnished the 
 money for the maintenance of the high school 
 have not been content that it should occupy 
 so restricted a field. A greater breadth and 
 variety have been given to its courses from 
 time to time until it has come to be itself a 
 great popular university. It is fitted up, in 
 our cities and larger towns, with a palatial 
 magnificence which only the richest univer- 
 sities can approach. It is provided with labo- 
 ratories, recitation and lecture rooms, and 
 with library facilities which very few colleges 
 in the land could command forty years ago. 
 The development of the last fifty years is 
 something marvellous. But for the statistics, 
 one even who has witnessed the process with 
 his own eyes could scarcely credit it. In 1852 
 there were but sixty-four high schools in the 
 Commonwealth . To-day there are two hundred 
 and sixty-two. These afford instruction to 
 forty thousand pupils, of whom thirty thousand 
 are in schools whose average membership is 
 two hundred and upwards. The high school as 
 it is thus equipped and organized has wrought 
 a complete modification, not to say transforma- 
 tion, in our system of education, public and pri- 
 
224 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 vate, inferior and superior. For in the lower 
 grades the inspiration and spur to activity and 
 achievement come from the high school, while 
 it is no longer the exclusive privilege of the 
 college to prescribe the curriculum and set the 
 pace for the high school, but it is beginning 
 to look longingly towards it and to consider 
 how it can shape its own courses to meet the 
 ever broadening and varying programmes so 
 as to give a liberal training to every aspiring 
 youth who has been substantially prepared. 
 Thus the high school has become the final 
 avenue of approach for every phase of educa- 
 tion to which the Commonwealth has lent its 
 sanction, opening outward towards the world 
 and upward towards the university. 
 
 It only remains for me to say that a careful 
 survey of the century will convince any un- 
 prejudiced observer, not only that the Com- 
 monwealth has made vast achievements in the 
 educational field, but that she has been carry- 
 ing forward an equalizing process designed to 
 place the highest benefits of learning within 
 the reach of rich and poor alike. The impulse 
 of the educational movement has touched all 
 classes. While the people in the more fortu- 
 nate sections have been pushing forward for 
 the best results in both the instruments and 
 
PUBI/EC EDUCATION 225 
 
 substance of learning, those in the less fortu- 
 nate portions of the community have been 
 moved, if possible, by a fiercer ardor not to be 
 left behind in the race for a true ideal and a 
 perfect method. The aim has been to reach 
 a uniform standard of excellence. Still, there 
 are great differences ; and these differences 
 must continue under existing conditions. So 
 long as the responsibility for furnishing edu- 
 cational facilities rests with each particular 
 municipality, it will follow that the poorer and 
 less enlightened towns will, as a rule, provide 
 only inferior and ordinary schools. 
 
 Here, then, is the point for a great reform. 
 Here is the work marked out for the educa- 
 tional leaders of the next century. To me it 
 seems that the duty of the state is not dis- 
 charged until all the children have an equal 
 privilege. In a great city like Boston the 
 children of the poorer sections have as good 
 teachers as the children of the rich and fash- 
 ionable quarters. The North Knd and the 
 West End are on the same plane ; Charles- 
 town and East Boston, South Boston and 
 Dorchester are treated as nearly alike as pos- 
 sible. Why should not this principle extend 
 to the entire Commonwealth ? Some one will 
 say, ' ' Because that would be interfering with 
 
226 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 the principle of local self-government." But 
 that argument was exploded when the district 
 system was abolished. The taxable property 
 of the state would undoubtedly object. It 
 always objects when it is called upon to meet 
 a new expenditure for the public good. But 
 there is no reason why the property of the 
 state, which receives the highest benefits 
 from the education of the people, should not 
 contribute as far as possible to make it equal 
 to all, precisely as for similar reasons within 
 the range of the benefits received it con- 
 tributes for state highways, parks, sewerage 
 and water- works. Our educational leaders 
 and legislators must look this question in the 
 face, and when they shall consent to give it 
 careful and profound study, they will see to it 
 that Berkshire and Hampshire shall not be 
 separated by a great gulf from Middlesex and 
 Suffolk. 
 
WELCOME TO JOHN D. U)NG 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS 
 CI/QB, MAY 10, 1902 
 
 Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Club: 
 
 I count it both a distinction and a privilege 
 to stand in this place and give voice to your 
 welcome to our almost, if not altogether, most 
 distinguished fellow member on his return 
 from a great career in the public service to 
 private life in our good old Commonwealth. 
 I have only one regret, and that I am sure 
 you all share with me, that the honored and 
 beloved President of this Club, Ex-Gov- 
 ernor Claflin, is prevented by the infirmities 
 of age from being here to give this welcome 
 in person, which he would do with so much 
 grace and with such genuine, heartfelt sin- 
 cerity. If it were not an arraignment of the 
 ways of Divine Providence I might also wish 
 that Alanson Beard, that stalwart son of the 
 Green Mountain State, were here to extend his 
 strong right hand to this equally stalwart son 
 of the Pine Tree State. These two men 
 aside, who more than any others embody in 
 our thoughts the ideals for which this Club 
 
228 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 stands, I am glad that the lot has fallen to 
 me. Not that I would assume to put myself in 
 the same category with them or even to stand 
 before many other older and more distin- 
 guished members. For my own sake, how- 
 ever, I am glad to have this privilege. 
 
 I recall, doubtless many of you have done 
 the same, the meeting which we held 
 five years ago, it seems but yesterday, in this 
 very room, to bid godspeed to our friend 
 who was just then going to assume the duties 
 of Secretary of the Navy. We were glad 
 that he had been called to that high office. 
 We were glad that he was to represent this 
 Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Club in 
 the Cabinet of President McKinley. There 
 were those, to be sure, who could not suppress 
 their astonishment that Governor I^ong should 
 be willing to accept the portfolio of the Navy. 
 Surely, there were no new laurels to be won 
 there. The United States was at peace with 
 all the world, and in its magnificent isolation 
 here between the two oceans it was not pos- 
 sible that it could ever come into warlike 
 relations with any foreign power. The Navy, 
 what was it but a superfluous limb of the 
 National Government ? At the very best it 
 was only a plaything, and a very costly play- 
 
TO JOHN D. I.ONG 22Q 
 
 thing, whose chief utility was to furnish 
 delightful outings in many seas, to a select 
 class of men, educated at the government ex- 
 pense, who were thus enabled to take part in 
 stately functions which authorities in foreign 
 ports devised for them because they bore the 
 nation's flag. Still, the most of us were glad 
 that Governor I/ong had been selected, if only 
 that he might have part in the rehabilitation 
 of the Navy which had been already so aus- 
 piciously begun. We knew that with him in 
 charge the work would be done thoroughly, 
 honestly and with due regard to the dignity 
 and power of the nation. 
 
 We did not then know, no human foresight 
 had been able to perceive, that we were 
 standing on the very verge of a great and 
 brilliant epoch, as momentous and memorable, 
 almost, as any in the history of the Republic. 
 We had not seen, the wisest of our statesmen 
 could not discern, the small cloud, no bigger 
 than a man's hand, that was then gathering 
 and would soon overspread the entire political 
 horizon. We could not understand that the 
 muse of history had already, to use a figure 
 of Wendell Phillips, ' 'dipped her pen in the 
 rainbow" that she might write high up on 
 the scroll of the nation's heroes the names of 
 
230 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 Sampson and Dewey beside the names of 
 Porter and Farragut. If we had known all 
 that, we should have been gladder than we 
 were. But when the crisis came, when 
 the storm burst, we felt an infinite satis- 
 faction that our friend's hand was on the 
 helm. Mayor Collins the other night at the 
 banquet to Prince Henry of Prussia face- 
 tiously alluded to him as "that old salt," John 
 D . Long . I do not know how much exp er ience 
 Governor Long has had with salt water, 
 whether he has done more than sail up from 
 Hingham in a summer boat on a summer sea, 
 but inasmuch as he has put his hand upon 
 the helm of the American Navy and guided it 
 through a mighty storm and fearful tempest 
 until it has come out under clear skies and 
 into calm waters, he is entitled to be called a 
 skilful pilot, if not, indeed, our Lord High 
 Admiral. 
 
 I recall at this moment, you must all remem- 
 ber it, another great meeting in yonder room, 
 when Alanson Beard sat at the head of the 
 table, flanked on either side by a distinguished 
 rear admiral and surrounded by men who 
 had won renown for the state alike in peace 
 and war, and we were rejoicing over the 
 glorious news then coming over the wires, of 
 
TO JOHN D. LONG 231 
 
 Dewey's matchless victory in Manila Bay. 
 The Secretary of the Navy had sent an order 
 to Commodore Dewey to find the Spanish 
 fleet in the orient and destroy it. I^ike the 
 brave and faithful officer he is, he had obeyed 
 the order. Neither he nor the Secretary, I 
 suspect, had given much thought to the con- 
 sequences which the execution of that order 
 would carry with it. But we who sat around 
 the tables on that memorable day knew that 
 as a result of that victory we had an empire 
 on our hands and that we were about to be 
 confronted with problems for the solution of 
 which there were no precedents in the experi- 
 ence of the Republic. We knew, too, that this 
 Navy which some had thought a useless play- 
 thing, had made a demonstration that, ship 
 for ship and man for man, it was the equal, 
 and more than the equal, of any navy afloat. 
 Above all, we knew that the United States of 
 America had come forth from her splendid iso- 
 lation and was henceforth to stand on the 
 great carpet of international politics and have 
 her full share in all the great movements by 
 which the civilization and progress of hu- 
 manity are to be secured. In all these events 
 which have meant so much for the expansion 
 and glory of the American nation, no man, 
 
232 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 unless it be the President of the United 
 States, the lamented McKinley himself, has 
 borne a more conspicuous part than our hon- 
 ored guest. It would be impossible to write 
 the history of the United States during the 
 last five years without writing the biography 
 of John D. lyong. 
 
 Some two years ago the Congregationalists 
 held a great international council in Boston. 
 A prominent layman of that body gave a 
 complimentary banquet to the foreign dele- 
 gates at the Algonquin Club House. He paid 
 me the honor of an invitation to that banquet. 
 I had my seat at the table beside a learned 
 delegate from Australia, the head of an insti- 
 tution of learning in that far off island em- 
 pire, who was making his first visit to 
 this country. He had just come by leisurely 
 stages from the Pacific coast to Boston. He 
 had taken time to receive a full and strong 
 impression of the magnitude, wealth, pros- 
 perity and power of this great nation, and he 
 was so penetrated with the sense of it that he 
 could talk of nothing else. "Ah!" said he, 
 * ' John made his greatest mistake when he 
 let Jonathan go." I have thought of that 
 remark many times and wondered whether 
 any mistake was made. George III and his 
 
TO JOHN D. I,ONG 233 
 
 ministers regarded the American Colonies with 
 hatred and contempt. Great Britain for more 
 than a hundred years cherished the same 
 feeling towards the people whom they had 
 cast aside. When the war of the Rebellion 
 broke out the walls of the Parliament House 
 echoed to the joyful cry, "The great repub- 
 lican bubble has burst ! ' ' 
 
 But now a mighty change has come over 
 the spirit of Britain's dreams. She is now 
 the isolated nation. Her hand is against 
 every man and every man's hand is against 
 her. There is not a nation in continental 
 Kurope that would not rend her in pieces, 
 if it dared. Sometimes it looks as if all the 
 nations of continental Kurope would com- 
 bine and rend her in pieces, if they dared. 
 
 If such a contingency should ever arise, 
 where would Jonathan stand ? Would he 
 not take his place beside his father John ? 
 Joseph, the great Hebrew sage, said to his 
 brethren, ' ( As for you ye thought evil 
 against me, but God meant it unto good to save 
 much people alive." So in a great interna- 
 tional crisis America would stand with Kng- 
 land, to save much people alive ; to save 
 what is infinitely more precious even than 
 men's lives, the principles that were planted 
 
254 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 at Runnymede, that had their gorgeous 
 flowering at Plymouth and whose fruits we 
 are gathering in such rich abundance today. 
 For this new attitude of the Republic we are 
 in no small measure indebted to the good 
 sense, wisdom and patriotism of the man for 
 whom this welcome is meant. 
 
 We are truly glad to have him amongst us 
 once more. It will be a real comfort to see 
 him climbing again the court house hill with 
 his green bag under his arm. While such 
 men, representing the noblest traditions of 
 the American bar, practice law in our courts, 
 we feel a sense of added security and know 
 that the law will be preserved as the noblest 
 instrument of liberty and justice among men. 
 We are glad to have him in our gatherings of 
 citizens for various objects, meeting every 
 one with that democratic simplicity which is 
 characteristic of him. He is a transcendent 
 type of American manhood, and we are 
 thrilled with a new pride in our citizenship 
 when we look upon him. We are glad to re- 
 ceive him again at our table. 
 
 There is only one regret about it and that 
 touches what I can scarcely help feeling is a 
 weak spot in our republican institutions. 
 When a man has given evidence of a great 
 
WELCOME TO JOHN D. IX>NG 255 
 
 natural aptitude for public affairs, and when 
 that aptitude has been increased and strength- 
 ened by thorough training and wide experi- 
 ence, it is a pity that he should be relegated 
 to private life, and that hands, unproved and 
 with less experience, should take up the bur- 
 den. There ought be be some way devised 
 by which men who have given demonstration 
 of fearless and incorruptible integrity, of 
 transcendent ability and highest patriotism, 
 might remain in the service of the state so 
 long as they live. Nevertheless we welcome 
 him. You who sit around these tables will 
 bear witness, that, however warm the greet- 
 ing may be that he will receive in other parts 
 of the old Bay State or of the country at 
 large, nowhere can he command a warmer 
 and more cordial greeting than we give him 
 in this old Massachusetts Club. Gentlemen, 
 I have the honor of presenting to you our fel- 
 low-member, John Davis Long. 
 
ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSALIST CLUB 
 
 CELEBRATING THE ATTAINMENT OE 80 YEARS BY 
 
 THE REV. C. H. LEONARD, D.D., 
 
 Nov. 10, 1902. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Club : 
 
 I am glad of the privilege of taking part in 
 the exercises of this evening in honor of the 
 attainment of eighty years by Dean Leonard. 
 You have limited me, sir, in your invitation 
 to from seven to ten minutes. I should need 
 two or three times that number of minutes in 
 which to speak fittingly of my personal rela- 
 tions to the Dean, and when it comes to a 
 consideration of his official relations to the 
 College and the Divinity School I could use 
 the entire time of this evening and not begin 
 to say all that might be said properly on so 
 large a subject. There are three or four things 
 that I must try to mention without transcend- 
 ing the limits of time allotted to me. 
 
 I have enjoyed an intimate friendship with 
 our honored guest for nearly forty years. 
 There are few men, either among the living 
 or the dead, for whom I have a warmer regard 
 
REV. C. H. IvEONARD 237 
 
 or to whom I am under greater obligations 
 for favors received. When I entered the 
 ministry in 1865 I was without special theo- 
 logical preparation. I needed counsel and 
 help in the difficulties that confronted me, and 
 I received them in fullest measure from Mr. 
 Leonard. The homiletical suggestions which 
 he gave me were of incalculable value. I 
 feel to-day that I am profoundly indebted to 
 him for whatever success I have achieved as 
 a preacher. I presume that there are at 
 least a score of men who began their minis- 
 terial work while Charles Leonard was in 
 Chelsea, who would gladly give the same 
 testimony. Indeed, I suppose that Starr 
 King, if he were alive, would bear confirming 
 witness to the value of his homiletical advice, 
 long before he became a Professor of Homi- 
 letics. 
 
 If we turn to the Church at large I think 
 it would be just to say that Charles Leonard 
 was the real leader in what may be called the 
 new Universalism. His place as a parish 
 minister was in the transition period between 
 the controversial methods of the fathers and 
 the more positive constructive work of the 
 later time. Everybody knew what this quiet, 
 
238 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 modest man, without any flourish of trumpets, 
 was doing over there in Chelsea ; that he was 
 preaching the old doctrine in a new way ; 
 that he was organizing his church in a com- 
 pact and orderly fashion and introducing an 
 element of spirituality almost unknown be- 
 fore ; that he was creating institutions that 
 were to be permanent and universal. You 
 have all heard of the wonderful Sunday 
 school which he gathered and organized, of 
 which Mr. Kndicott, who has just spoken, was 
 a member. He introduced a more orderly 
 and spiritual form of worship. He originated 
 the day known as Children's Sunday, which 
 was adopted by all the congregations of our 
 communion and which has overleaped the 
 barriers of this denomination and been taken 
 up by most of the Protestant churches of 
 America. It is, therefore, no exaggeration 
 to say that he was a real leader in what we 
 now accept for substance of doctrine, and in 
 our most approved methods of organization 
 and work. 
 
 I suppose, however, that we are under the 
 greatest obligation to him for what he has 
 done for the Divinity School. He was called 
 to Tufts College in 1869 to co-operate with Dr. 
 
REV. C. H. LEONARD 239 
 
 Sawyer in the beginning of this enterprise. 
 Dr. Sawyer was the logical, one might almost 
 say, the necessary head of the work that was 
 to be done. He was the ripest, the broadest 
 and the most exact scholar that the Univer- 
 salist Church, up to that time, had produced. 
 He was a great man, the greatest perhaps 
 that the denomination has had and one 
 of the greatest that any church in this coun- 
 try has given to the world during the nine- 
 teenth century. But notwithstanding his 
 greatness, there were some things for which 
 he had neither faculty nor taste. He was not 
 an administrator ; he was not a disciplinarian, 
 and he had little interest in or ability for or- 
 ganization and executive work. He was 
 contented, therefore, to turn all these things 
 over to his associate. Accordingly the organ- 
 ization of the Divinity School as we have it to- 
 day is mainly the fruit of Professor Leonard's 
 efforts. Its curriculum of study is largely of 
 his devising and the discipline of students, 
 from the inception of the undertaking until the 
 present moment, has been almost wholly in his 
 hands. Naturally, on the relinquishment of the 
 Deanship by Dr. Sawyer, he was promoted to 
 the office and became in name as well as in fact 
 
240 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 the executive officer of the School. It may 
 be said justly that the Divinity School as a 
 concrete thing, and the product of the Divin- 
 ity School in those who have gone forth from 
 it and who are now for the most part engaged 
 in the ministry, all bear the strong stamp, the 
 sign manual of Dean Leonard. 
 
 Of his official relations to me as the head 
 of the College I cannot begin to say what I 
 could wish I might be permitted to put in the 
 form of words. When I came to my present 
 position I was a very young man, wholly with- 
 out training or experience in the kind of 
 duties to which I was compelled to give at- 
 tention at once. Professor Leonard was an 
 older man and more experienced teacher. 
 He might have been pardoned if he had 
 looked upon me with suspicion, if he had 
 waited for me to make demonstration of my 
 capacity. But he did not. His cordiality 
 was open-armed from the start, and it has 
 been maintained without impairment through- 
 out. There has never been one moment of 
 friction or of strained relations between us. 
 There has never been a word of difference ; 
 so far as I know, he has never entertained a 
 different opinion on matters of administration 
 
REV. C. H. I,EONARD 241 
 
 and policy from me. Sometimes I imagine 
 I must have startled him by radical sugges- 
 tions, as, for example, in this new proposal 
 for the reorganization of the work of the Di- 
 vinity School , with reference to the College of 
 Letters, with the view of making all divinity 
 students candidates for the degree of bachelor 
 of arts before becoming candidates for the 
 degree of bachelor of divinity. But what- 
 ever may have been his inmost feeling, he has 
 always taken an attitude of hospitality and 
 been ready to test every proposed departure 
 from the beaten way by actual trial. 
 
 In conclusion let me say that I have been 
 a very close observer of his going and coming 
 for many years. I have never known him to 
 be in better physical condition than he is now. 
 It does not seem possible that he is four score 
 years old. Why, I believe he could run a 
 mile today as quickly as he could twenty 
 years ago. Mentally his faculties were never 
 more alert. He not only knows the subject 
 which it is his business as a teacher and ad- 
 ministrator to know, but he is in close touch 
 with all the movements of our time. His eye 
 is unclouded and his mind shines as the sun. 
 It is not only a wish that I express in com- 
 
242 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 
 
 mon with others here tonight that he may 
 long continue to live and work in his chosen 
 sphere ; it is a confident belief that he has 
 yet many years of happiness and usefulness 
 in store for him. His life has been built into 
 the Church of our love and into the noblest 
 institutions of that Church. May he long re- 
 main among us to enjoy the glory of it. Here's 
 to his good health ! May he live long and 
 prosper ! 
 
YB 05667 
 
 M123742 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY