j. ////fowl . J f. ///s/J 
 
 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY 
 
 DX1VER8ITY OP WISCONSI 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN, U. S. 
 
 EUROPEAN ADDRESS 
 
 AMERICAN" EXPRESS COMPANY 
 
 LONDON OR PARIS 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Professor 
 John D. Hicks 
 
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 -> 
 
 .Y 
 
This is No - 7 ( y of an edition of one hundred 
 
 copies which have been printed for private distribution. 
 
ADDRESSES AND ORATIONS 
 
SELECTED 
 ADDRESSES AND ORATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM F. VILAS 
 
 To seek the power of knowledge for the gains 
 of mere selfishness, is criminal debasement; to 
 accept its investiture for increase of usefulness 
 among men, exalts and ennobles the soul. 
 
 FROM THE JUBILEE ADDRESS. 
 
 MADISON 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION 
 1912 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
 GIFT 
 
173 
 
 V&1 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 THE PERSONAL FRIENDS 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 WILLIAM F. VILAS 
 
 BY HIS WIFE 
 
 954 
 
"IN ALL THE POSITIONS TO WHICH HE WAS CALLED, IN ALL 
 THE WORK WHICH HE UNDERTOOK, HE APPLIED HIMSELF TO 
 THE DISCHARGE OF DUTY WITH AN ENERGY WHICH KNEW NO 
 FLAGGING, WITH A DEVOTION WHICH KNEW NO TURNING, 
 SPARING NEITHER HIMSELF NOR OTHERS THAT FAITH MIGHT 
 BE KEPT AND DUTY PERFORMED. THIS CHARACTERISTIC RUNS 
 THROUGH ALL HIS LIFE AND ILLUMINATES ALL HIS WORK. HE 
 WAS, IT IS TRUE, AMBITIOUS ; BUT IT WAS THE NOBLE AMBITION 
 TO EXCEL. HE DESIRED PLACE AND POWER, NOT FROM SORDID 
 MOTIVE, BUT FOR THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY OFFERED FOR 
 USEFULNESS. HE SOUGHT TO AID HIS KIND BY TEACHING 
 THEM AND HELPING THEM TO HELP THEMSELVES. HE RECOG 
 NIZED THE TRUTH THAT INDISCRIMINATE CHARITY IS HURTFUL 
 BOTH TO THE GIVER AND TO THE RECEIVER, AND THAT THAT IS 
 THE TRUE CHARITY WHICH AIDS TO BUILD UP INDEPENDENCE 
 OF CHARACTER AND SELF-RELIANCE. WITH WISE STATESMAN 
 SHIP, HE SAW THAT THE BEST REMEDY FOR THE ILLS OF GOV 
 ERNMENT, THE TRUE SAFEGUARD FROM THE EVILS OF PASSION 
 AND PREJUDICE, THE SURE FOUNDATION FOR MANLY INDE 
 PENDENCE OF CHARACTER AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP, THE ANCHOR 
 WHICH CAN HOLD THE SHIP OF STATE IN THE STORMS WHICH 
 BESET HER, THE MAIN ESSENTIAL OF SUCCESS FOR THE INDI 
 VIDUAL, is EDUCATION/ From the Memorial Address by 
 the Honorable James G. Jenkins. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prefatory Note 7 
 
 Biographical Sketch . . . . . . 11 
 
 Address before the Law Class .... 19 
 
 Address before the Society of the Army of the Ten 
 nessee ........ 55 
 
 Banquet Oration on Our First Commander, General 
 
 U. S. Grant .... .. 85 
 
 Memorial Address on Chief Justice Edward G. Ryan 97 
 Address on Agriculture . . . . .113 
 
 Iroquois Club Banquet Oration on Andrew Jackson 141 
 
 Address of Notification to Grover Cleveland . 153 
 
 Extempore Address on General Grant . . . 159 
 
 Decoration Day Address ..... 167 
 
 Address on the Presentation of the Statue of Pere 
 
 Marquette ....... 181 
 
 Tribute to General Edwin E. Bryant ... 209 
 
 Address at the Jubilee of the University of Wisconsin 249 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The addresses and orations contained in this vol 
 ume have previously appeared in scattered publica 
 tions, not easy of access. They are here gathered 
 under one cover with the especial hope that the 
 collection may prove welcome to the personal 
 friends of Mr. Vilas. A glance at the contents will 
 make it evident to those who knew him that there 
 has been no attempt at anything like completeness. 
 Thus it has not been thought desirable to include 
 any of his purely political speeches, rather those 
 things only which seem the choicest of his more for 
 mal addresses efforts possessing something more 
 than ephemeral interest and value. 
 
 Nor has it been found feasible to present, at this 
 time, a comprehensive biography of Mr. Vilas. That 
 must remain a task of the future. Only the main 
 facts of his life have been given. Yet it is hoped 
 that these may, in a measure, prove elucidating 
 merely by calling to mind the numerous interests 
 and activities of his life, of which the varying spirit 
 and characteristics of the addresses are, in a sense, 
 an index and expression. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume I have had the 
 editorial assistance of Professor Julius E. Olson, of 
 the University of Wisconsin. It is a pleasure to 
 make grateful acknowledgment of his sympathetic 
 co-operation. ANNA M y ILAg 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN, 
 December, 1911. 
 
WILLIAM F. VILAS 
 
 William Freeman Vilas was born at Chelsea, Ver 
 mont, on the 9th of July, 1840, the son of Levi Baker 
 Vilas and Esther Green Smilie. In 1851 the family 
 came west, arriving at Madison on the 5th of June. 
 At an early age he entered the University of Wis 
 consin, graduating in 1858. During the whole of 
 his college career he was particularly interested in 
 the Hesperian Society, of which he was one of the 
 charter members. Here he laid the foundation of 
 his later forensic achievements. He pursued his 
 legal studies at the Albany Law School, New York, 
 from which institution he received the degree of 
 Bachelor of Laws, in 1860. He then returned to 
 Madison, where he entered upon the practice of the 
 law, forming his first partnership on the twentieth 
 anniversary of his birthday. A year later he re 
 ceived the degree of Master of Arts from his alma 
 mater, to which, in 1885, was added the honorary 
 degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 
 As is evidenced by his addresses, young Vilas was 
 profoundly affected by the outbreak of the war; and, 
 despite the allurements of his profession, he felt 
 compelled to offer his services to his country. As 
 Captain of Company A, Twenty-third Regiment of 
 the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, he joined the 
 Army of the Tennessee under General Grant, in 
 August, 1862. In February, 1863, he was promoted 
 
to the position of Major, and in the month succeed 
 ing to that of Lieutenant-Colonel. Owing to the ab 
 sence of the officer in higher assignment, he com 
 manded the regiment in the battles about Vicks- 
 burg, and during the siege and capitulation. After 
 this great victory, the pressure of private affairs 
 called him home, and in August, 1863, he resigned 
 from the army to resume his professional labors. 
 
 His work in the law found early recognition. 
 Without relinquishing his private practice, he 
 served as a professor of law at the University of 
 Wisconsin from 1868 to 1885, and, during the period 
 from 1875 to 1878, co-operated with others in the 
 revision of the statutes of the state. Other honors, 
 beyond the pale of his professional interests, came 
 to him from both the state and the nation. He was 
 thus a trustee of the Wisconsin Soldiers 7 Orphans 
 Home from 1874 to 1893, and a regent of the Uni 
 versity from 1881 to 1885. In 1884 he was elected 
 permanent chairman of the Democratic National 
 Convention at Chicago, and was also chairman of 
 the committee to notify Gfrover Cleveland of his 
 nomination as candidate for the presidency, on 
 which occasion he made a notable address, included 
 in this volume. During the famous campaign that 
 ensued, Colonel Vilas was elected a member of the 
 state legislature, the only elective office held by him 
 up to that time. 
 
 Upon the organization of the Cleveland cabinet, 
 in 1885, he became Postmaster General, serving until 
 1888, when he was appointed Secretary of the In 
 terior, to succeed Secretary Lamar, who had become 
 
 [12] 
 
a Justice of the Supreme Court. At the close of the 
 Cleveland administration, he turned again to his law 
 practice in Madison. He was soon to return to 
 Washington, however, as United States Senator, in 
 which capacity he served from 1891 to 1897. 
 
 Meanwhile his services were demanded by his 
 home state. In 1896 he was appointed a member 
 of the State Historical Library Building Commis 
 sion, to which he gave much time, serving until 
 1906, when the magnificent home of the State His 
 torical Society of Wisconsin was completed. At 
 this time, too, the University again received the aid 
 of his great knowledge and energy, which, as regent 
 from 1898 to 1905, he gave without stint. More 
 over, in 1898 he was elected Vice-President of the 
 State Historical Society, and in 1906 he was made a 
 member of the Wisconsin Capitol Building Commis 
 sion, both of which positions he held until the time 
 of his death, on the 27th of August, 1908. To the 
 construction of the new capitol, he contributed much 
 time and thought, and was actively engaged with 
 his fellow members of the commission until his last 
 illness. 
 
 Colonel Vilas also served as a member of the Wis 
 consin Vicksburg Park Monument Commission, in 
 connection with the labors of which he wrote A 
 View of the Vicksburg Campaign, which was pub 
 lished by the Wisconsin History Commission, in Oc 
 tober, 1908. 
 
 The many demands, both public and private, 
 made upon Colonel Vilas, left him but scant time 
 for recreation and travel. His three visits to Eu- 
 
 [13] 
 
rope the last in 1906 were of only brief duration. 
 Nor did he seek opportunities for prolonged recrea 
 tion. He found his greatest pleasure in work, the 
 genuine delights of which shine forth from all of 
 his addresses. But he found needed respite from 
 the exacting labors incident to his profession and 
 the public positions that he occupied, by frequent 
 exercise of his powers, on important public occa 
 sions, as an orator. Moreover, as a conscientious 
 and life-long democrat, his sense of political duty 
 often impelled him to take the stump in behalf of 
 his party; but his oratorical honors, as this volume 
 of addresses will amply testify, were won in a higher 
 sphere. He was a devoted member of the Society 
 of the Army of the Tennessee, and as such, gave to 
 this association his ripest oratorical efforts. At a 
 meeting of the society in 1877, he was selected to 
 give the oration at the next meeting of this distin 
 guished body of veterans. The successful accom 
 plishment of the task marked him as the man on 
 whom should devolve the response to the toast, Our 
 First Commander, at the banquet given by the so 
 ciety at the Palmer House, Chicago, in 1879, on the 
 occasion of the return of General Grant from his 
 trip around the world, an effort executed with 
 such brilliancy as to place him in the front rank of 
 national orators. 
 
 In 1866, Colonel Vilas married Miss Anna M. 
 Fox, a daughter of Dr. William H. Fox, of Fitch- 
 burg, Wisconsin. They made their first home in a 
 beautiful grove of oaks, a few miles south of Madi 
 son. In this quiet spot the young lawyer was en- 
 
 [14] 
 
abled to give that time to the study of his profes 
 sion so essential to one who would lay a broad and 
 deep foundation. In 1879, he moved into the city, 
 where, in a beautiful home on the shores of Lake 
 Mendota, at the corner of Gilman Street and Wis 
 consin Avenue, he passed his manhood s best years 
 and ended the arduous labors of his life. 
 
 Of four children, but one remains, Mary Esther, 
 wife of Lucien M. Hanks. With their three chil 
 dren, William Vilas, Sybil Anna, and Lucien Mason, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hanks reside in a new home near the 
 old homestead, which is still maintained by Mrs. 
 Vilas. 
 
 [15] 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE LAW CLASS 
 
 1876 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE LAW CLASS 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 JUNE 19, 1876 
 
 Gentlemen of the Law Class of 1876: 
 
 In that age of the world when the institution of 
 chivalry was esteemed to furnish the noblest occupa 
 tion of men, its usages required that the youthful 
 aspirant for the honors of knighthood, having per 
 formed the probationary services of page and squire 
 to some noble chevalier, should, on the eve of his 
 induction to that rank, maintain his vigil of arms. 
 With intellect eager for preparatory fasting, he re 
 paired at twilight to some holy shrine, and there, 
 through the slow and silent hours of night, in prayer 
 ful meditation, he kept his watch. We may fancy 
 what ardent thoughts careered through his enthusi 
 astic brain; with what expectation he looked for the 
 morrow, when he should become a belted knight, 
 and, clad in his bright armor, receive the knightly 
 weapons pledged to the cause of oppressed merit, 
 the service of his lord and the honor of the mistress 
 of his heart. As the hours of meditation passed over 
 him, so revolving the noble character he sought to 
 attain, then highest in the admiration of men and 
 dearest to the loving glance of beauty his mind 
 would come to dwell, with an intense hold, on those 
 leading features of character and attainment, by 
 the development and display of which, alone, might 
 
 [19] 
 
he hope to win the green laurels of fame. A soldier s 
 honor, constancy and courage, a high morality, un 
 failing faith and fortitude, the most refined cour 
 tesy; these to cherish and maintain would bring 
 forth many an earnest vow. 
 
 Not infrequently some devotee of holy robes 
 shared the watch with the neophyte of arms; who, 
 with his native spirit firing with sympathetic flame 
 beneath the chilled ashes of a disciplined exterior, 
 was well fitted by his profession and by historic 
 reading, both to heat white the faith and purpose of 
 youth, and temper its ebullitions into the sedate and 
 settled resolutions of manhood. 
 
 Thus the morning found the candidate, from the 
 nervousness of abstinence, the excitement of watch 
 ing, the transports of his meditation, in such an ex 
 altation of spirit, as should serve to forever mark in 
 his memory the principles of his knightly duty, and 
 that era of his life when he assumed its performance. 
 The succeeding ceremony of investiture, when, in 
 the goodly presence of noble company, with sword 
 suspended from his neck, he was dubbed a knight in 
 the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, well 
 finished the work of transition. The lofty cliff rises 
 not more conspicuous from the plain^ than were so 
 reared in his life, as an imperishable monument, the 
 elevated aims and high resolutions with which that 
 day he took his departure from the shores of youth. 
 
 Knights and esquires, with all their tinselry, have 
 long since passed away. Their glory expired sooner 
 than their race. Unworthy descendants and incapa 
 ble imitators brought the old form of manly valor 
 
 [20] 
 
to its final burial amid general derision. The fog of 
 fable has settled on their history, and cast indis 
 tinctness and suspicion on its brightest rays. But 
 the warmest emotions of humanity must continue 
 forever to respond to the sentiment of knighthood, 
 and heart and judgment applaud the qualities of 
 mind and body which that sentiment demanded and 
 nourished. It had for its basis the utmost which 
 mankind could then claim of manly virtue, of re 
 ligion, of morality and honor. 
 
 The lawyer, with all his dry reading of precedents 
 and lean study of exact reason, has always found 
 peculiar charm in the story of chivalry. There is 
 kinship between the profession of arms and the pro 
 fession of the law. Lawyers are the belligerents of 
 the time of peace; and history repeatedly exhibits 
 the striking tendency of their training and habits 
 to send them to fields of physical strife when the 
 laws become dumb in the din of arms. The obliga 
 tions of knightly duty, the qualities of heart and 
 mind which shone in the cavalier in an age of war, 
 are typical of the obligations of the lawyer s duty, 
 and the qualities which make him illustrious amid 
 the tribulations of peace. An active emulation, in 
 all professional work, of the noble sentiment and 
 highbred courtesy of that departed order, becomes 
 the truest finish of the refined and perfect lawyer. 
 
 But I think I may, with peculiar appropriateness, 
 gentlemen, liken this interesting hour of your lives 
 to that special custom of chivalry which was pro 
 vided for admission to its honors; and, responding 
 to your flattering invitation, attend you upon a pro- 
 
 [21] 
 
fessional vigil of arms; and, with the rights and 
 freedom of that fellowship of study we have enjoyed 
 together, strive to aid you in giving a permanent 
 solidity to the high conception of our profession, its 
 character and duties, with which a generous en 
 thusiasm now fills your breasts. Instead of attempt 
 ing any topic from the consideration of which you 
 might derive a temporary pleasure, let me pursue 
 further the simple capacity in which I have enjoyed 
 our intercourse of the year now passed, and endeavor 
 to contribute at its close an unpretending service to 
 your professional career. 
 
 I invoke this usage of a former age, especially be 
 cause it recognized so conspicuously, that admission 
 to the most honorable calling among men, ought to 
 be preceded by the severest efforts to impress, with 
 unalterable fixity, the aims to be achieved and the 
 principles by which conduct should be guided. The 
 opinions or practices of modern life have, indeed, 
 substantially abolished the discipline of fasting and 
 watching. It may be questioned whether with wis 
 dom to the full extent. The deepest impressions are 
 graven on the mind by the profoundest accompany 
 ing emotions. And I repeat but the observation of 
 the wisest men of all time, which ought to be the 
 guiding star of education when I assure you that 
 to the realization of a high destiny, nothing will so 
 contribute as settled convictions, fixed principles of 
 life; such a clear grasping of the great laws which 
 govern the relations of men and things, and they 
 are few and unmistakable, now while temptation 
 does not seduce, nor force or fraud compel, that, 
 
 [22] 
 
with unalterable steadfastness of mind, action will 
 follow their dictates in all future life, as it were, 
 spontaneously, harassed by no doubt, alarmed by 
 no assault. 
 
 The observation may indeed embrace every order 
 of men. But it obtains with peculiar significance in 
 our profession. The successful lawyer must, sooner 
 or later, be plunged into every situation of human 
 suffering, passion, and temptation. In his greatest 
 need, the worse will oft appear the better reason to 
 the mind whose rules of guidance await to be fixed 
 in the hour of exigency. Sometimes beleagured by 
 temptations, sometimes beset by perils, often in 
 quarrel, perhaps in anger, yea, often amidst the dis 
 traction and tumult of a very tempest of conflicting 
 passions, he must perceive and weigh the contesting 
 reasons for action, and unfalteringly pursue the 
 wiser course. It is the absolute condition of success. 
 No client pardons, with a full oblivion, a harmful 
 error. He rarely tries it a second time. Circum 
 stances of distress and apology will seldom be suf 
 fered to save the lawyer. The client will sometimes 
 have so lost his reason and firmness in confusion and 
 fear, as to be worse than a puling infant, exciting- 
 contempt and dispelling sympathy; yet will require 
 a perfect protection by his lawyer, and the world 
 will sustain him. Men judge a lawyer much as they 
 do a general. He must take the true course to vic 
 tory, under no matter what conditions of choice. 
 Success alone determines the right to it. It is, in 
 good truth, the ordeal of battle, which best puts 
 down the superficial qualities of the pretentious, 
 
 [23] 
 
and brings to light the deeper-lying temper and 
 prowess of the strong. In such scenes, the scenes of 
 trial, but the opportunities of triumph, the strength 
 of settled principles can alone achieve or support 
 success. The mere shell, though made of iron, must 
 crush under pressure. It is the soul rock-ribbed with 
 principles of strength, secure as nature, whom no 
 external assault can force to yield. I would far 
 rather the man of firm convictions, though the taint 
 of error was on them, than to find them wanting 
 altogether. Better far to have unalterable guides, 
 though some be mistaken ones, than to be a buffeted 
 weather-cock that never points a direction of its 
 own. 
 
 There is an instability in our republican life which, 
 in some aspects, has become terrifying. It is not 
 alone that the accidental favorites of a capricious 
 fortune, the boorish possessors of sudden wealth, are 
 sometimes our social aristocrats. Too often the un 
 principled adventurer has secured possession of our 
 seats of statesmanship, and unbred upstarts have 
 been upheaved from the social depths to become our 
 rulers. The minds of the people have become poisoned 
 by these sudden and marvelous accessions to place, 
 and accumulations of unearned wealth. They have 
 lost their heads, like children witnessing Harlequin 
 in the pantomime, and scout the security of doctrines 
 which are the corner stones of social liberty. The 
 fearful threat, though not expressed, is heard mut 
 tering, of the mutiny of social chaos against social 
 order. The land cries out for the service of men of 
 
 [24] 
 
principle; and its desire is as the craving of a dry 
 and thirsty land, where no water is. 
 
 On no profession, calling or pursuit, rests a higher 
 duty, and on none, more than the profession of the 
 law, can be better placed an expectation of safe re 
 sistance to the dangers that threaten the structure 
 of our free society. The nature of the profession, 
 its veneration for settled order, its principles of de 
 votion and justice, must, if anything shall, be a chief 
 security of the state. Would that every pupil of the 
 law might sufficiently pause in his ardor to mix with 
 the affairs of manhood, and with long and profound 
 meditation, survey the character and aims of the 
 career he undertakes, and ponder the guides by 
 which he will pursue it, until, unmixed with baser 
 matter, the high possibilities, the security of the 
 principles, and the noble usefulness of a well ordered 
 life, might rule his mind in unquestioned dominion; 
 while to his awakened soul should glare, in brighter 
 lines than flashed on Belshazzar s wall, the peril and 
 warning of incertitude and indifference. 
 
 We shall derive renewed inspiration, and elevate 
 our views, gentlemen, by a glance, though necessar 
 ily a swift and imperfect one, at the nature of the 
 profession. Whether regarded in theoretic abstrac 
 tion or in the reality of its actual existence, you shall 
 find it justly to occupy the noble place it has ever 
 maintained in the civilized world. 
 
 Two ultimate sources of law are recognized no 
 more the Almighty God of the Universe, and Hu 
 man Society. Law, as emanating from both these 
 fountains, is most truly defined to be, simply, rules 
 
 [25] 
 
of action, the principles of conduct, by which all 
 things and beings, within their purview, are regu 
 lated. 
 
 The law of God we become conscious of in our 
 earliest observations upon the world; our profound- 
 est study but intensifies our delightful repose upon 
 it. We observe it first in the grosser surroundings 
 of our being; the periodical recurrence of times and 
 seasons, the regularly repeated rise, succession, and 
 decay of the vegetable and animal world; the move 
 ment of the wind and the marvelous transitions of 
 the elements. With increased and prolonged atten 
 tion, we discover it to be equally vital in every place, 
 from the mountain s top to the caverns of the sea, 
 in everything, however small as well as however 
 great ; in every movement of matter, from the burst 
 ing of the smallest germ to the convulsions of an 
 earthquake. In the infant ages of the world, God 
 was evidenced to men in the mysterious and striking 
 phenomena of nature. He called to Moses from the 
 burning bush; and he answered Job from out of the 
 whirlwind. But with the accumulated information 
 of centuries of recorded observation, the greater 
 manifestations of His power become no more mar 
 velous than those of infinitesimal dimensions. The 
 ancient sage adored a mysterious providence in the 
 great ocean. The modern philosopher worships his 
 infinitely perfect law in the atom. The ancient be 
 held the working of His mighty forces in fear and 
 dread. The modern contemplates the blissful har 
 mony of nature in love and repose. No longer do 
 the heavens, in their occult changes, appear charged 
 
 [26] 
 
with fearful portents of human disorder. Man has 
 come to know that these unnumbered worlds swing 
 their flights with no less security and order, than 
 the sunshine comes to warm the fields which give 
 him bread; a sure expression of infinite power, in 
 finite wisdom, and infinite beneficence, which carry 
 with equal efficacy to a minute particle of matter 
 and to a planetary system, as all within a single 
 jurisdiction, the strength, safety, and peace of un 
 failing law. Such is the perfection of the Divine 
 Order in nature. 
 
 But strangely interwoven on this plan, within a 
 limited place, is the dominion and free will of man. 
 Except man, all things and beings on the earth seem 
 sufficiently provided for by this scheme of natural 
 law. No other animal is permitted or required, by 
 any exigency of its being, to establish society volun 
 tarily, and enact laws for self-control. There are 
 other gregarious animals, and there are the laws of 
 their communities, of more than human adaptation 
 to their ends. What models are the bees, the beavers, 
 the ants, the wild fowl! Yet their association is in 
 stinctive, and their laws are not of their own estab 
 lishment, but unalterably decreed unto them; as con 
 clusively testify their identity in all communities of 
 the same sort, and the unfailing certainty of their 
 observance. 
 
 But men establish and change society by concert 
 and at will. Their societies are composed not alone 
 of one race or kind, but often inextricably com 
 mingled. They enact forms of government and de 
 cree observances, social, religious, and political, as 
 
 [27] 
 
variant as anything in nature. The variance is not 
 of kind or species, but the fruit of dominion and free 
 will, combined, alas! with human imperfection and 
 error is the highest evidence of free will. 
 
 Heaven has not dealt with man as with brutes. No 
 unerring instinct guides his daily life. No faculty 
 of mind discerns, unconscious of effort and without 
 the possibility of error, the conduct desired by na 
 ture. The universe has been spread before him and 
 beneath him. He is given the powers to observe and 
 comprehend it in some sort, to read of its history 
 upon its surface and his own records, to forecast 
 somewhat of its action. The existence of an infinite 
 benevolence, and the perfect order of nature, are 
 manifest unto him for a guide, and he is left to de 
 velop his own destiny and devise his own law. 
 
 It has thus become incumbent on human society to 
 decree its own organization and fix every particular 
 of its action; to prescribe the principles by which 
 men shall go forth to possess the earth and its pro 
 ductions; by which the rights of property shall be 
 known, enjoyed, and transmitted; by which the fam 
 ily and relations of kindred shall be guided; by 
 which life and person shall be secure; by which 
 speech and thought shall be unrestrained, except 
 from doing evil; by which state, associate, and indi 
 vidual enterprise shall be carried on, and the race 
 developed; and by which laws shall be enforced and 
 infractions punished. It cannot be supposed that 
 any, not the least of all the rules of our law, is with 
 out a perfect pattern in the mind of deity, whose 
 omniscience has not failed to conform the law of the 
 
 [28] 
 
invisible molecule to the order of universal good. 
 But no revelation of this divine wisdom has been 
 given. What was sometime in an early age claimed 
 to be His command to men, is now acknowledged 
 for their fallacious handiwork; and the code which 
 demanded an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is 
 no longer imputed to the justice of heaven, or ob 
 served among civilized men. Nor did the gospel of 
 Christ announce social laws to men. He delivered 
 rather the spirit of law, than the law. He uprooted 
 the stern and false severity which deformed the 
 Mosaic code and displayed the spirit of infinite love 
 as the true source, the touchstone, guide, and end of 
 all law. 
 
 Thus it is seen to have been awarded to mankind 
 to pronounce the specific canons of their social con 
 duct. Human society is charged with the agency of 
 heaven. It undertakes to speak the social laws, the 
 divine pattern for which has been retained within 
 divine keeping. It speaks with an authority depend 
 ent only upon its own perfection. In nature, the 
 perfection of law is seen in the absence of effort for 
 its enforcement. No inquiry is there requisite to 
 ascertain its infraction, or provide a compensation. 
 The result inevitably follows. So, indeed, may per 
 haps be the mysterious and perfect working of the 
 moral law of heaven. 
 
 But municipal law is far different. Not only is the 
 true law to be discovered and formulated, it must 
 be administered and enforced. This duty inheres 
 with the great agency of declaration. Law is noth 
 ing in the abstract. It is an existence only in its 
 
 [29] 
 
effects. And with humanity, investigation must pre 
 cede punishment or compensation. This is adminis 
 tration. 
 
 In early ages, the inquiry was summary, but the 
 results were capricious. It was not the action of 
 society, so much as the rude sense of justice of some 
 strong member of it. With time, came the special 
 agents, the magistrates. With accumulated expe 
 rience and growing wisdom, came the settled estab 
 lishment of the judicial department, as one of the 
 three original and co-ordinate divisions of the pow 
 ers of all human government. The administration 
 of law has place as a necessity to the existence of 
 law, of society, of mankind. 
 
 For the discharge of this high duty in its behalf, 
 society has set apart the profession of the law. It 
 is constituted as an order of men charged with the 
 practical performance, in the greatest share, of that 
 function which nature has left to mankind, alone of 
 all her creations. Beginning with the beginning of 
 human judicature, the profession of the law has 
 risen, in character and usefulness, with the growth 
 of perfection in the law. As justice is more exactly 
 administered, its administrators increase in honor. 
 As human law approaches more nearly the discovery 
 of its divine pattern, its ministers come to wear the 
 livery of the servants of heaven. Thus its chart of 
 honor lies in its very position. Whatever else may 
 be good, whatever dignified, whatever honorable, it 
 cannot be denied to this profession, that all the af 
 fairs of men yield no pursuit which can surpass it in 
 the excellence, the dignity, the honor, which its very 
 
 r o i 
 
nature demands. In the comprehensive eloquence of 
 D Aguesseau, "it is an order as ancient as human 
 magistracy, as noble as virtue, as necessary as jus 
 tice." 
 
 These considerations increase in weight when we 
 regard the manner in which the law itself, and there 
 with the safety and rights of men, are in actual fact 
 dependent on the profession. It is indeed a theory 
 that in the partition of governmental powers, the 
 agents of the state who make the law, are a distinct 
 and independent class from those who administer it. 
 It is a theory true of statute law alone; as to the rest 
 it is a fallacy. And little, very little, comparatively, 
 of the law of the land is denned on the pages of the 
 statute book. The legislature there provides for the 
 political machinery of the state and municipal gov 
 ernment, the administration of public trusts and 
 charities, police regulations, the organization, pow 
 ers and modes of practice in courts, and the punish 
 ment for crime. With the exception, besides, of real 
 estate and the domestic relations, and somewhat of 
 corporations, no topic of the law touching the inter 
 course and rights of individuals in their complex 
 business dealings, receives from the statute any 
 treatment beyond an occasional partial touch. 
 
 Where rests the remainder? To what repository 
 has the state committed the custody of those princi 
 ples, so delicate of application and infinitely various 
 in circumstance, by which the contract obligations 
 of men are upheld, and the infraction or neglect of 
 duties to one another, imposed by nature, by situa 
 tion or convention, shall be restrained or redressed ? 
 
 [31] 
 
Where lie, securely placed, the foundations on which 
 repose millions in property and many of the dearest 
 privileges of the citizen? In the knowledge of the 
 profession of the law, the wisdom and integrity of 
 its members at the bar and on the bench! In the un 
 written law! 
 
 And the unwritten law is the elevated philosophy, 
 the summa ratio, of the profession of the law. No 
 legislature established its canons. No form of 
 enacted words has given unyielding rigidity to its 
 principles. It has expanded with the increase of oc 
 casion for its service, from a beginning in the sim 
 plest usages of new-born society. It has witnessed 
 every form of disorder, wrong and fraud, in which 
 "man s inhumanity to man has made countless mil 
 lions mourn. It has improved by an experience of 
 the folly and the wickedness of men. It has reformed 
 its own heresies, and purged itself greatly of error. 
 It has put away old things and put on the new. It 
 has grown great on the rich soil of noble brains. It 
 is to-day perfected beyond, far beyond, other moral 
 sciences, but its development to new and greater 
 uses is perhaps more active than ever. Flexible and 
 adaptable to every emergency, it is stronger than all 
 the written constitutions of men. Hoary with age, it 
 is quick with young and eternal life. It is, indeed, 
 the best human semblance of the law of God. 
 
 The servant and the minister of such an exalted 
 philosophy, the aid and dispenser of terrene justice, 
 the lawyer undertakes to become. In the language 
 of old Sir John Davys, the professors of the law 
 are but conduit pipes, deriving and conveying the 
 streams of justice unto all the subjects of the state. 
 
 [32] 
 
It is manifest from thus considering its place in 
 the world, that you are permitted, gentlemen, no op 
 portunity for error in determining the aims with 
 which the profession ought to be embraced. Its ap 
 propriate function lies in its usefulness to men. To 
 attempt this calling is, therefore, to become a candi 
 date for the esteem of your fellow men, by becoming 
 valuable to them in it; to challenge the approbation 
 of heaven by an attempt to exalt justice on earth. It 
 is a sin against its nature to take it up in mere sel 
 fishness. It can be rightfully put to the selfish uses 
 of neither lawyer nor client. No client has the right 
 to a lawyer s service to prosecute an object forbid 
 den by law and justice. 
 
 I do not mean by this to deny professional assist 
 ance to any citizen called upon to defend himself in 
 the courts. Without delaying to enter into that 
 much disputed question, I content myself that the 
 fair presentation of such points of defense as every 
 case affords, in an honorable manner, has been found 
 necessary to the safe administration of justice, as 
 well as long established, after much denial, to be the 
 clear legal right of every defendant; and that it is a 
 duty often highly onerous, generally the most un 
 pleasant which the lawyer is bound by his profes 
 sion to undertake, leaving judgment to them on 
 whom the burden of judgment falls. 
 
 But this duty is to be wholly distinguished from 
 the conscious prosecution of false and unjust ends. 
 No lawyer has the right to defame his profession by 
 willfully prostituting his efforts, his talents and 
 learning, to such a cause. It is, I am happy to add, 
 
 [33] 
 
a course that brings forth, inevitably, the abhorrence 
 of the profession. 
 
 It is equally a debasing ambition which puts on 
 the professional robe as a cloak to cover other objects 
 of desire. Whoever fixes his hope on the mere ac 
 quisition of wealth, or on the expectation of political 
 preferment, or the stepping into the seats of power, 
 by putting into subserviency to such ends this grand 
 old profession of the law, has already dishonored it, 
 and begun to debauch its usefulness and defile its 
 glory. Such abuses have been its reproach. And 
 though somewhat successful, the false desire has 
 turned awry the career of thousands, and wrecked 
 them on the lee shore of life. To put the practice to 
 the mere getting of money, destroys all hope of mak 
 ing a great professional character. It is to see in 
 the unhappy affairs of mankind only the possibility 
 of profit, to watch the flames of anger with a pleas 
 urable hope to pick molten metals from its ashes, lit 
 tle better than to rob the dead upon a battle field. 
 Mankind soon see through such disguises, and do not 
 commit the delicate and intricate affairs of great 
 moment, on which alone professional greatness can 
 rise, to one who has no care for his duties but to get 
 the money they may yield. Men of talents in the pro 
 fession do not always escape the auri sacra fames; 
 but few yield to its vigor without destroying, or 
 greatly lessening, their professional tone and char 
 acter. 
 
 I mention the pursuit of politics only to point out 
 its dangers. The desire for public place not infre 
 quently becomes a mental disease. The doctrine of 
 
 [34] 
 
rotation in office, sets more heads whirling than those 
 on the shoulders of the office holders. It is pitiably 
 ridiculous to see how small a height sometimes 
 makes men giddy; not generally so much from the 
 present altitude, as that which their spinning fancies 
 promise, when they shall " swing around the circle " 
 they believe to have been so begun upon. When this 
 mania possesses the lawyer s brain, it utterly un 
 seats the dominion of professional devotion. He not 
 infrequently becomes a skilled politician, rising, 
 perhaps, to an absolute control of party, and eats 
 the hard-earned bread a public salary will buy. But 
 he is a lawyer no longer. Clients shun him as if he 
 had a legal small-pox. Often they lament him, with 
 an amusing tenderness of regret for a good lawyer 
 gone, and sighing, seek new counsel. Happy the ad 
 vocate, when struck with such frenzy, if the people 
 shall discard him and his party. The cold water of 
 defeat, suddenly and repeatedly dashed, may provi 
 dentially restore him. 
 
 But, although I raise you the cry of "breakers 
 ahead, it is no warning never to approach a shore. 
 The lawyer is bound, perhaps more than other citi 
 zens and the duty unmistakably rests heavily upon 
 all to understand politics, and have his convictions 
 upon questions of public policy. He ought to be a 
 student of, nay, accomplished in, the principles of 
 statesmanship. It is a part of his education as a 
 jurist. He should be capable of giving sound coun 
 sel here as elsewhere. It may become justly obliga 
 tory upon him, too, to perform public service in 
 political office. It is, of course, peculiarly incumbent 
 
 [35] 
 
on the profession to discharge public duty in the 
 legal departments. He should not be denied, nor 
 his children, all the honor which the well-earned 
 esteem of his fellow men may bestow. 
 
 Draw the line about his profession as the field of 
 his ambition, the mistress of his desires; denying 
 to him to seek, to its dishonor, the spoils of office, or 
 to engage in petty partisanship; but commending 
 that upright participation in public affairs, which 
 belongs to enlightened citizenship and harmoniously 
 accords with professional labor. Insist, too, on his 
 right to every dollar of wealth, an upright profes 
 sional conduct and a temperate life honestly produce 
 him. I seek only to declare his true over-ruling am 
 bition to endeavor, in whatever field of action, how 
 ever limited, and to the utmost of his powers, to be 
 come a learned, wise, upright, and independent law 
 yer; believing steadfastly that nothing can be more 
 worthy ambition, as no pursuit is more useful to 
 mankind. 
 
 Do not fear thus, gentlemen, unduly to "magnify 
 our office. It was the fatal error of the contending 
 knight, who sped from the barrier to the shock of 
 mortal encounter in the tournament, if he dropped 
 too low the point of his lance. The more dreadful 
 the adversary, the fiercer, the more desperate the 
 fight, with the superior firmness should he summon 
 his faculties to bear a high and unerring aim. It is 
 the elevated ambition that drops not its point in any 
 distress of sudden temptation or fear, which will 
 secure the highest fruits of life. Unless, also, you 
 shall find the end to be so great and justly desirable, 
 
 [36] 
 
you will not endure the conditions by which, alone, 
 the eminent character can be won and supported. It 
 results from its nature, as we have considered it; 
 from its uses, so inestimable to men; it results from 
 the inadequacy of human faculties, so far short of 
 the infinite prototype whose perfection they look up 
 to; that the profession of the law demands an exer 
 tion of intellect, a fortitude of character, and a tena 
 city of pursuit, required in no greater degree by any 
 other human avocation. Who is incapable to appre 
 ciate the glory of the accomplished character, who 
 cannot practice the self-denial, and submit to the 
 tasks, necessary to rear a good and learned lawyer, 
 let him stop at the threshold. He will begin in dis 
 couragement, he will proceed either to fail or to soil 
 the lustre of the order. 
 
 The prime necessity of a successful professional 
 career imposes a life-long task the acquirement of 
 solid learning. The law is not an art to be first 
 learned, and thereafter practiced. It is a study from 
 infancy to age, and life is too short to compass its 
 possibilities. 
 
 The advocate sometimes secures a local distinction 
 by sheer force of native talents, without sound edu 
 cation. But his sphere is limited, and his success 
 temporary. Youth are dazzled by occasional flashes 
 of such unusual light, and an impression finds root 
 that they may rely upon talents, without the severe 
 discipline and protracted toil which are demanded 
 to secure a sound learning. The notion is false and 
 dangerous. The gifts of quick perception and fluency 
 of speech often mislead their self-complacent pos- 
 
 [37] 
 
sessor to contemn the toiling student whose results 
 are only wrought from persistent labor, and cheat 
 him with the hope to step lightly along the path the 
 toiler plods so wearily. The inevitable end is medi 
 ocrity or total failure. No lawyer ever was, or ever 
 will be, so reared to eminence. The learning of the 
 law is far beyond the invention of any one man, or 
 generation of men. It is not the product of mere 
 genius, nor capable of grasp by mere genius. It has 
 been evolved from the experience of ages, by the 
 superadded labor of generation after generation of 
 men of the greatest abilities. Its history must be 
 known, in order that its principles may be under 
 stood; and barely to read history, with intelligent 
 appreciation, puts the best genius to toil. 
 
 But not alone from its slow growth is it an arduous 
 and intricate science. The multitudinous objects to 
 which it must be applied; the infinite variety of ex 
 pression which must be given to its precepts; the 
 continual changes in social affairs, as civilization ad 
 vances, which demand new adaptations; all combine 
 to render its administration dangerous, if attempted 
 without profound learning. The errors begotten 
 among the hurried affairs and vicissitudes of life are 
 perpetuated, rather than relieved, if they be cor 
 rected by the temporary expedients of inexpert sciol 
 ists. Both society and the law have been occasional 
 sufferers at the hands of such intermeddlers. It is 
 a comprehensive science, embracing within its juris 
 diction every society of men, from that which is the 
 greatest, the family of nations, to that which is least, 
 but the basis of all, the circle of the hearthstone; its 
 
 [38] 
 
principles permeating every other science, and en 
 tering every art; supporting magnificent enterprises, 
 as well as protecting the humblest rights. Petty 
 causes must be resolved upon principles which de 
 scend from a common source, and consist with 
 the harmony and advantage of the entire system. 
 Hence it happens, in special instances, that doctrines 
 appear arbitrary and severe to the hasty and partial 
 view of the ignorant, which rest in sound wisdom 
 and are approved by long experience. How should 
 any man be able to know of his own ability, if never 
 so great, the rules governing the enjoyment and dis 
 position of real estate! He cannot even read the 
 written statute with understanding, until prepared 
 by a thorough mastery of the English law, and its 
 long and involved history. Ah! if ever in the effer 
 vescence of spirits over some particular success, or 
 from any natural swelling of the blood, you suffer 
 egotism to whisper self-assurance in legal knowl 
 edge, go to that statutory title on the nature, quali 
 ties, and alienation of estates in land; you shall not 
 be without justification in your vanity, if you do 
 not then confess it, with "a penitent and contrite 
 heart. " 
 
 The just necessity for patient study is not to be 
 misinterpreted, however, and the devotee converted, 
 by mistaken zeal, into a mere absorbent of legal for 
 mulas. It is a grave error, too often committed by 
 the eager and untiring laborer, to read too much 
 and think too little. It breeds the case-lawyer; a 
 character deserving of compassion in his very suc 
 cess, because his errors in acquisition deny him the 
 
 [39] 
 
full measure of glory, which ought to reward his 
 indefatigable industry. His reading of precedents 
 is unremitting. His memory is retentive, sometimes 
 to a marvelous degree. He gathers and retains an 
 amazing array of legal propositions, and appended 
 to each the case or cases wherein it was ruled; the 
 latter its more essential part. His mind is a great 
 storehouse of poorly assorted legal wealth. Like the 
 writings of many modern pamperers to the book- 
 publisher s greed, every statement of his informa 
 tion begins with "So where/ 7 and ends with a cita 
 tion. He knows the law only as he knows decisions. 
 He resolves every doubt by finding a reported case. 
 So, in truth, the case-lawyer, though he may never 
 be a profound jurist, is apt to be by no means a con 
 temptible adversary. He may not be inventive in 
 strategy, but his ammunition will always be dry. 
 
 The wisdom of the profession has denounced that 
 mode of study. It is jejune and withering, forbid 
 ding the highest advancement. It is not so that the 
 greatest lawyers are bred. Details may well be ob 
 served with care, and precedents attentively exam 
 ined. But they should be read as aids to reflection 
 and the search for principle. The student makes 
 sound advancement only as he unfolds the reason of 
 the law. Such study is a real enlightenment to the 
 mind, and fills it with a pleasure which is a continual 
 reward. Perhaps earth affords no keener delight 
 than his mind enjoys, who, in whatever science, is 
 able to catch the sound from everything he touches, 
 of the harmony of that order with which divinity 
 has filled the universe. 
 
 [40] 
 
A great advantage afforded by the established 
 schools in legal education, over the methods formerly 
 pursued, lies in giving this direction in the begin 
 ning. The experience of intelligent practitioners 
 may best afford this valuable lesson, so as to enable 
 their pupil to thread an intelligent line through the 
 multiplied volumes, in which the lore of the profes 
 sion is garnered. It is a matter of great regret, 
 which I believe you share, that the eager haste of 
 our customs has not suffered the period of such 
 preparation to be at least doubled. I sometimes fear 
 we are jeopardizing the permanent supremacy of 
 professional usefulness, by committing its education 
 too largely to unaided individual effort. I am happy 
 in the confidence that this apprehension will find no 
 justification in the future work of this class. 
 
 It follows from the nature of our profession, as 
 we have seen it to be, that not less on learning, the 
 lawyer must be founded on an exalted morality. 
 Such a proposition may need no enforcement by ar 
 gument. But, assuredly, every dictate of policy 
 lends a hand to sink it with immovable fixity in the 
 mind. 
 
 First, because the lawyer must rest, for any 
 worthy results, upon the confidence and esteem of 
 his fellow men. He must be their counselor in many 
 emergencies, where he can derive little aid from the 
 rules of municipal law. His authority cannot long 
 endure, or rather, it will never come into a lively ex 
 istence, unless the springs of counsel be pure and un- 
 defiled. It should be a rule which never finds an ex 
 ception, that every disclosure of his judgment be 
 
 [41] 
 
made with unfailing truth. It is a frightful error, 
 happily confined in practice to an unworthy few, to 
 give counsel alloyed by self-interest. Humanity is 
 so perverse that clients will occasionally apply, with 
 a fierce demand, for advice in accordance with their 
 wishes. Better send such a man away, in a hot 
 anger, but carrying the truth which will, with time, 
 convert it to friendship, than pander for a moment 
 to such a vice. If you yield to him, you put yourself 
 where, in the end, he can and will belabor and cudgel 
 you with just complaints. Never bring a lawsuit 
 which your judgment does not approve as the 
 client s interest, to gratify any passion of his. The 
 bitter fruit of such sowing, you cannot afterwards 
 reject from your lips. 
 
 Again, I mention a sound morality as the only 
 buckler to safely turn innumerable temptations, 
 which the events of a professional career will pre 
 sent in seductive assaults. There is no honorable 
 profession which leads to greater familiarity with 
 the vices of humanity. The opportunity to make an 
 ignoble profit from vice, and folly, and crime, seems 
 constantly recurring to his reach. If he stoop to 
 take the spoil, he is unfit to wear the robes of a ser 
 vant of justice. His fault is not only a sin against 
 his profession, it is a stab against his own prosper 
 ity. The gains, which for the moment he seems to 
 make, are losses ten-fold greater than they seem to 
 be gains. No investments return the practitioner 
 such liberal increase, as those which leave untouched 
 the money a vicious opportunity holds to his hand. 
 
 But a still higher reason commends uprightness 
 
 [42] 
 
of character to him who embraces these engage 
 ments with that exalted aim with which, alone, he 
 can justify accepting them. His shame defiles the 
 law itself. The law must speak, through the pro 
 fession, to other men. They depend upon the law 
 yer, when they depend upon the law. He is identi 
 fied with it. Its character, as a useful and noble 
 science, depends upon the character of the profes 
 sion. So, as men see the profession in individuals, 
 rather than in the whole, it has happened that much 
 unmerited reproach and obloquy has fallen on the 
 law. If the scorn of society could but roll up the 
 vermin that breed upon its surface, like worms 
 curled by heat, it would be a happy consummation. 
 
 In this country the sphere of duty, and the diffi 
 culty of performance, is in some respect much 
 greater than in Great Britain, the mother of our 
 common law. The morale of the profession there, 
 limits the labor of the advocate to service at the bar, 
 and through solicitors, forbidding direct communi 
 cation or dealing with the client. But recently, two 
 of the Irish bar, one with the rank of queen s coun 
 sel, attempted to establish a system of direct com 
 munication in general business out of court, with 
 out intervention by solicitors. But they met igno 
 minious failure, and the attempt was so stamped 
 upon by the profession, as to bring the authors to 
 condign apology. 
 
 The contrary has always obtained on this side of 
 the sea. Here we bring the lawyer into immediate 
 contact with the client, combining attorneyship and 
 advocacy; multiplying his labors and difficulties. 
 
 [43] 
 
He must not only discharge the duties of an advo 
 cate in court, but meet at his office the applicant for 
 counsel or business. Unmoved by the passions, yet 
 profoundly sympathizing with the misfortunes and 
 griefs, he must distinguish the duties and the rights 
 of his client, and while he obtains the one, must not 
 suffer the other to be despised. It is, indeed, in that 
 business which makes no display, quite as much as 
 in advocacy, that the American lawyer discharges 
 his function as a minister of justice. His value to 
 society cannot be rightly estimated by the causes 
 he tries in court, nor always by the success he there 
 obtains. In his office he should not only have his 
 workshop, but erect his altar. He may not there 
 achieve his most shining victories, but there may 
 do his best deeds. There he so guides the incipient 
 controversy, that strife is averted. Or when strife 
 arises, he may, perchance, supercede both court and 
 officer, if, with calm discrimination, he shifts the 
 true relations of the parties, and, with firm integ 
 rity, exhibits their true duties. It was a sentiment 
 to be treasured in the heart, which once fell from 
 this place to a body of young men, that "every good 
 lawyer s office is a court of conciliation. 
 
 Based in part upon his learning and morality, 
 and in part on native temper, perhaps to some ex 
 tent on his bodily constitution, there must stand an 
 other attribute to make the great lawyer, a fear 
 less courage. Many an ardent candidate for the 
 honors of knighthood, in many a night of watching 
 in the olden time, has implored the support of 
 heaven to his constancy in the hour of peril. You 
 
 [44] 
 
may with equal need invoke high fortitude for the 
 trials which shall beset your career. The soldier 
 has hardly higher need of valor than the lawyer; 
 although somewhat different in kind, and differently 
 displayed. I have heard an experienced practi 
 tioner, a sound philosopher withal, declare, as the 
 result of the observation of his life, that lawsuits 
 were lost and won according to the quality of the 
 lawyers, oftener than the merit of the causes. Supe 
 rior industry, more careful habits of preparation and 
 higher skill may, in part, account for this, if true. 
 But I should appeal unhesitatingly to the profession 
 to say, that mere superiority of courage has not in 
 frequently secured triumph. All the world will 
 bear witness to the stern necessities, which often 
 call for its conspicuous exhibition at the bar. When 
 Cicero defended the Roman senator, Milo, charged 
 with the murder of the profligate, but popular Clod- 
 ius, he well appreciated that the occasion, the cause, 
 the client, and the tribunal provided the opportu 
 nity, and justly provoked the expectation, of a mas 
 terpiece of forensic power. He prepared accord 
 ingly. But losing presence of mind amidst the 
 threatening surroundings which the vicious popu 
 larity of the deceased had gathered at the Forum, 
 he faltered, and failed. His courage was not of the 
 temper of his understanding; and his client was 
 convicted and banished. In exile, the noble Milo 
 read the oration in his defense, then published by 
 Cicero which has descended as among the most 
 splendid specimens of ancient oratory and recog 
 nizing its power, while he lamented its author s 
 
 [45] 
 
weakness, he cried, "Had Cicero so spoken, I should 
 not now feed on figs at Marseilles." That oration 
 is not more beautiful as a model, than its history is 
 valuable as an example to modern advocates. 
 
 Closely kin to this attribute is the quality of in 
 dependence. The nature of the calling, the aims 
 with which it should be pursued, the lofty learning 
 which adorns it, every sentiment of morality, alike 
 demand a manly independence of character and con 
 duct in every aspect of the lawyer s life. He owes it 
 as a duty to society, whose law he attempts to ad 
 minister; he owes it as a duty to the court, whose 
 officer he is, and whose honest friend he ought to 
 be; he owes it as a duty to himself, and the honor 
 able fame he should bequeath his children. 
 
 As a support to such independence, as well as be 
 cause it is the just return of a laborious life, the 
 lawyer is well entitled to a fair and adequate com 
 pensation for his service. The old Roman lawyer 
 esteemed it a stain upon independence to accept 
 payment for his advocacy; but he expected an hon 
 orarium from the generosity of the client, and usage 
 readily made the client s liberality more profitable 
 to him as well as his counselor, than parsimony. 
 
 A similar sentiment denies the British barrister 
 a title to any fee. But the resulting etiquette, be 
 tween him and the solicitors, converts this paraded 
 independence into a most convenient and inexorable 
 facility for securing a liberal honorarium in ad 
 vance. We, on this side, meet the subject with plain 
 directness, and pay the laborer his worthy hire. In 
 the simplicity of republican customs, it is the inde- 
 
 [46] 
 
pendent way. The right ought not to be abused, 
 nor exorbitant exactions imposed. 
 
 But from the fair returns of devoted toil, the law 
 yer owes it to his family and to his independence of 
 character, to provide a competence. Put from you 
 that false counsel generally a covert apology for 
 the vices of illustrious spendthrifts that forbids to 
 the lawyer to take that care of his own, which it is 
 his constant duty to exert over the property of oth 
 ers. It is a most pernicious teaching. The habits of 
 his vocation and business sufficiently tempt to an 
 unhappy lavishness, and too often leave his wife and 
 children his sole legacies to an unfeeling world. It 
 is an unpardonable sin to reinforce such usages by 
 false doctrine. It saps the foundations of manly in 
 dependence. Sordid greed may well be reprehended. 
 But not less reprehensible is the negligence or vice 
 which keeps the wife and children in uncertainty, 
 and the husband and father in servility to clients 
 who have money to bestow. It is a most humiliat 
 ing spectacle to see a lawyer, of professional learn 
 ing, first-rate talents and achieved position, fawn 
 with sycophantic and debasing obsequiousness on 
 some lord of the dollar, paying lavish homage that 
 a profitable cause may be vouchsafed him. Let tem 
 perance rule the life, and honest integrity keep the 
 respect of the butcher, the grocer, the tailor; while, 
 with advancing years, the just increase is gathered 
 into honorable store, to support the elegant repose 
 which, like the mellow richness of a glorious sunset, 
 should bathe the parting hours of a well-spent life. 
 
 There was yet another accomplishment which 
 
 [47] 
 
made the cavalier illustrious, and which adorns the 
 lawyer with not less becoming grace, a refined 
 courtesy of demeanor. Affability in discourse with 
 whom you deal, urbanity to the court and to the ad 
 versary, civility to the witness on the stand, and a 
 generous temper in argument, not only gild the char 
 acter but lend strength to the faculties of the advo 
 cate. Alas! how many of us fail in the elegant 
 accomplishments whose excellence we so readily rec 
 ognize. Sometimes the heart is wanting; but more 
 often, the eagerness and heat of controversy are 
 falsely suffered to distract attention from what are 
 thought minor points of conduct. Some relic lingers, 
 too, of an old-time fashion of coarseness and brutal 
 ity. In days which are now passed away, it was 
 thought to be a source of rude glory, even a part of 
 duty, for the advocate to amuse a boorish auditory 
 by buffoonery, and a sort of bear-baiting of oppo 
 nents. There were a class, then unrestrained, who 
 could not endure the coming forward of a young 
 man; but with feelings made by practice about as 
 tender as rhinoceros hide, delighted to impale on 
 their coarse banter the callow sensibilities of the 
 timid beginner. They were rough beasts, some of 
 those old fellows, barely tame enough to go uncaged. 
 Some few imitators, already gray, who saw in youth 
 the old stock and remember successfully nothing but 
 their vices, yet 
 
 Lag superfluous on the stage. 
 
 You may fancy now the morning to dawn upon 
 your tedious vigil; and as the early sun lifts his 
 bright disk in an unclouded sky, so may there rise in 
 
 [48] 
 
promise of glorious day the fire of a noble devotion 
 in your souls. Your reward shall be rich as the har 
 vests his beams beget on earth. You shall have it 
 in the regard and esteem of neighbors and friends, 
 in the communities where you shall pass honorable 
 lives. You shall have it in the proper honors, a 
 gratified people may worthily bestow. You shall 
 have it in a well-earned competence, sufficient to 
 supply all the wants a temperate life should desire. 
 I trust you shall have it, richly granted, in the tour 
 nament of the forum, which most excites the ambi 
 tion of youth. Here may you gain the laurel chap- 
 let, here win a dear renown. 
 
 You should worthily complete your meditation, 
 by pausing to view the splendid track, illuminated 
 by illustrious names, which the march through the 
 ages of the profession you are now to join, has left 
 on the pages of history. Did time suffice, I should 
 joyously expatiate on the theme. It is a stream of 
 true glory, on which the order of advocates has come 
 down the course of time. The parade and glitter 
 of arms have pleased the vanity, the great achieve 
 ments of the soldier have awakened the fancy, and 
 his intrepid daring provoked the highest admira 
 tion, of every age. The poet has sung in his honor, 
 and cast the glamour of imagination over the reali 
 ties of his career. But his fame has been watered by 
 the blood of his race, and thriven upon the desola 
 tion of society. His glory shines with a dazzling 
 brightness, but, as it touches, it withers the beau 
 tiful things of earth. The just renown of the pro 
 fession of the law holds its place in the hearts of 
 
 [49] 
 
men, undisturbed by the criticism of reason, and un 
 alloyed with compassion. Its triumphs have been 
 the triumphs of humanity; its victories, social bless 
 ings. The radiance of its glory has not been as the 
 fierce light of a city s conflagration, but has warmed 
 to life and growth like the nourishing sunbeam. In 
 the happiest periods of every century, great lawyers 
 have held high control in the state and over the 
 hearts of their fellow men. 
 
 Now, for those who have borne the labor of your 
 instruction, and, in parting, raise the fond hopes 
 imagination so pleasingly builds and which may 
 heaven grant shall not be wrecked for your future 
 greatness and renown, I bid you, God speed. Fight 
 the true fight, and keep the faith. 
 
 And on behalf of that profession which your 
 labors have prepared you now to enter, I extend to 
 you the hand of fellowship, and greet you with a 
 cordial welcome. 
 
 [50] 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF 
 THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE 
 
 1878 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE 
 ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 
 OCTOBER 30, 1878 
 
 Mr. President and Companions of the Society of 
 
 the Army of the Tennessee: 
 
 We are met again, in this season of the falling 
 year, as men of a time already left well behind in 
 the rapid sweep of a hurrying age the surviving 
 participants in eventful scenes which are fast re 
 ceding from the foreground of an engrossing present 
 into the quieter light of history to answer the call 
 of our names from the roster of an army many years 
 disbanded and scattered, whose ranks can never 
 again be reformed, whose banners are kept as the 
 emblems of a glory achieved, whose arms are pre 
 served only for transmission as honorable legacies 
 to other generations. The tie that binds us is the 
 memory of companionship in a mighty struggle, 
 when side by side we trod the weary steps of the line 
 of march, or shoulder to shoulder faced a threaten 
 ing foe. We are gathered in no convention to re 
 volve the problems of an uncertain future, or discuss 
 the questions which agitate the turbulent present. 
 We pause in the busy life which surrounds us, to 
 renew the greetings of former friendships and cher 
 ish the recollection of old association, to sit again 
 
 [55] 
 
around a common camp-fire, and, with social cheer, 
 review the scenes in which we acted a part. The 
 lights and shadows of a day that is gone, flit again 
 before our view, all the lights more grateful to the 
 vision, the shadows all softer, from the healing 
 touch of time. Mingling with all, the memory of 
 honored dead breathes a holy calm upon our hearts, 
 and shades the joys of reunion with the sadness of 
 our treasured sorrow. At such a meeting it would 
 be wrong to awaken, by any topic of discussion, 
 differences of opinion or feeling which might range 
 us in divided ranks, or to strike a note to sound dis 
 cordant in any ear. Obedient to this sentiment, I 
 shall ask you to listen to no discourse upon any 
 theme of present agitation, but, relying on the spirit 
 that animates your gathering for your interest in 
 my remarks, I shall simply essay to draw some lines 
 from the character and actions of the American sol 
 dier, which distinguish him among all who have 
 borne arms on the battle-fields of the world, and 
 display his just title to the gratitude of his country 
 and the admiration of mankind. I shall, in this, at 
 tempt nothing new. His deeds were done in open 
 view, seen and known of all men. Bright and clear 
 as sunlight, they shone at the rising, and have illu 
 minated the forenoon of our national day. Yet the 
 mind never tires upon the inspiring strains of an 
 epic poem, nor does the blood cease to flow swifter 
 from the animating glow it continually imparts. So 
 the heart of mankind is swelled with thrilling emo 
 tion by the repeated story of the soldier of the re 
 public. Especially in such a presence, we may recur 
 
 [56] 
 
with renewed delight to the springs of our national 
 glory, to be filled afresh with the enthusiasm of 
 patriotic devotion, with renewed hope for the happy 
 future of the land we love. 
 
 That type of soldiership which the discriminat 
 ing historian will paint as distinctively American, 
 he will not find in the discipline, habits, and warfare 
 of any standing army. It does not live in the 
 perpetuated traditions and practices maintained 
 through successive ages by a renowned school of 
 arms. Twice, only, has the peculiar soldier of the 
 republic taken the weapons of war and entered the 
 arena of battle. In both instances he was a sudden 
 apparition, born of the great circumstances of the 
 time, and disappearing so soon as he had fulfilled 
 its high demands. In both instances, he came of a 
 people unused to arms, but was put to do, and glo 
 riously achieved, results of warfare as mighty in 
 themselves, and momentous in consequence to man 
 kind, as any which were ever accomplished. 
 
 First, he tore his new world from the grasp of its 
 masters in the old, and, having won it, at once laid 
 aside his arms and devoted it to the fraternal en 
 joyment of mankind, in political liberty. His entry 
 on the stage of action created a new nation with a 
 new order and system of government so humane and 
 benevolent, so equal, just, and free, that within a 
 single century the continent, which for ages had 
 been a wilderness, was transformed into the happy 
 abode of millions of his race in the fruition of a 
 prosperous and enlightened civilization. 
 
 And his second advent was like unto his first. 
 That beautiful frame of freedom and order tottered 
 
 [57] 
 
with the almost overwhelming blow of unexpected 
 and terrible revolt. But the later soldier of the re 
 public was potent to save what his ancestor had 
 been able to build. His struggle was intense and pro 
 tracted, but the event was complete. Again he dis 
 dained all claims as a conqueror, restored the enemy 
 he had subdued to his former place as a fellow- 
 countryman, quietly laid down his arms, and disap 
 peared from the scene. 
 
 Thus, in war for its creation, and again in war for 
 its salvation, the champion of American liberty has 
 twice appeared in arms, and twice performed a 
 great part in the drama of human destiny. The 
 prayer rises involuntarily from the heart: In the 
 gracious providence of God, may he never be re 
 quired more! 
 
 I claim for the men of the last great army of free 
 dom the characteristic features of noble distinction 
 which history has accorded the soldiers of the Revo 
 lution; some more, some less conspicuously dis 
 played, as their circumstances varied. Submission 
 to discipline and obedience to authority, skill and 
 dexterity in tactical training and the use of arms, 
 fortitude and steadfastness in privation and extreme 
 trial, courage and valor in conflict, the royal senti 
 ments of soldierly honor these are attributes of all 
 succesful warriors in a greater or lesser degree. But 
 in the men who created and the men who saved the 
 splendid fabric of our independence, higher char 
 acteristics were found. Their peculiar glory rests 
 on their personality, springs from their distinct in 
 dividuality of understanding, character, and action. 
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
Their cause was, indeed, the noblest that ever led 
 men to war. But their title to honor is not alone in 
 the cause, nor their victorious vindication of it. Far 
 more, it is founded on their complete understand 
 ing of its nature as a personal duty to free men, and 
 their manly performance of all the peculiar demands 
 which that duty imposed. Out of this they are dis 
 tinguished among all men of war, in the motives of 
 their action, the spirit of their patriotism, their self- 
 denying demeanor in the hour of victory. 
 
 And I hold up to your view to-night the individual 
 soldier of American liberty familiar spirit in the 
 emotions of our earlier manhood. I hope, though 
 but with quick and hasty touches, to portray the 
 marks of his independent personality to display 
 his cause and the impulses of his conduct in honor 
 able contrast with the purposes of historic warfare 
 to discriminate his deeds from the bloody course of 
 rapine and slaughter which war has inflicted on 
 mankind to show him the intelligent friend, not 
 the savage destroyer of humanity and to find a 
 generous and noble patriotism in the simple rewards 
 which he claims for his achievements. We may be 
 told we dream of an ideal, rather than an actual, 
 soldier. But I present him as an ideal realized, a 
 noble ambition accomplished; as you have seen him 
 in many a moment of fervid devotion, when, in hard 
 ship or in battle, you have supported your constant 
 minds by his clear image, and have striven, and seen 
 your comrades strive as none can know but who 
 have felt the trial to fill the measure of his char 
 acter. Call him up again, the idol of old enthusi- 
 
 [59] 
 
asm, to fill this passing hour with the pleasing mem 
 ory of glorious duty done; and realize in the accom 
 plished facts of time the solid work of his arms! 
 
 If we undertake, in a comprehensive retrospect, 
 to view as a whole the progression of the human 
 race, in the old world, from the earliest period to 
 the present time, what is the history of man but a 
 tale of the rise and fall of dynasties, and the story 
 of their wars? When the student strains his eyes 
 to pierce the dim twilight of remotest antiquity, he 
 discerns the indistinct forms of armies engaged in 
 fight to assert the quarrel of some old king, or gain 
 him some new source of tribute. Descending to a 
 period of clearer record, he continues to read of am 
 bitious conquerors, strewing the fields of earth with 
 havoc and desolation in the vain effort to satiate 
 their greed of dominion. All the great ocean of 
 tears, expressed from the tender eyes of countless 
 women and children by the cruelties of unceasing 
 war, has not so much wet the page of ancient his 
 tory, as the few drops of unsatisfied bloodthirstiness 
 which welled from the ardent soul of a warrior who 
 had mastered the world. 
 
 Through all the earlier ages the hatreds of race, 
 and the rage for conquest, gave humanity few and 
 troubled respites from the calamities of strife, until 
 the success of Roman arms bestowed the peace of 
 subjugation. Nor was the restful blessing of that 
 splendid dominion long enjoyed. Eival Caesars and 
 emperors tore it with their dissensions; and over the 
 broken members of the empire the fierce barbarians 
 of Scythia rolled in successive herds, more like 
 
 [60] 
 
beasts of prey than men. Then ensued, for cen 
 turies, the struggles of princes to secure their ut 
 most portions of territory and power among the 
 down-trodden people; and in their mutual greed and 
 animosities were the baleful influences of conti 
 nental conflict. In the midst of all, flamed up an 
 other element of human passion and folly, the fury 
 of religious fanaticism; and the known world was 
 swept with its besom of destruction. Humanity has 
 quailed before its mighty power, and philosophy 
 can not fathom its foundations. Like a stream of 
 burning lava, the despised Arabs of the desert 
 poured over Asia and Africa, and even lodged in 
 the peninsula of Spain; and the sway of Mahomet 
 has never passed away from the continents that his 
 disciples subdued. Christianity gained the mastery 
 in Europe, and the companion of civilization has 
 risen to a complete ascendency. By doctrine and 
 precept, gentle in every word and deed, patient of 
 every insult and injury, its teaching has been up 
 held by the most antagonistic examples. The lamb 
 and dove have led the front of most direful war, 
 and their followers stood to the waist in the blood 
 of human slaughter. Such, in brief, is historic war 
 fare, its springs and causes. Cast back the eye on 
 the dark and bloody scenes through which the peo 
 ple of civilized Europe have risen to their present 
 forms of nationality, and behold their progress to 
 the ends of destiny! The storm of war has, for ages, 
 hardly ceased to blow, or, if intermitting its vio 
 lence or checked in temporary lull, it has but re 
 gained vigor to renew the gale; and, down through 
 
 [61] 
 
the centuries, the surge and roar of strife falls un 
 ceasingly on the ear as the beating of waves on the 
 ocean s shore. Through it all, the philanthropist 
 and philosopher may see the necessities and ambi 
 tion of princes, the greed and craft of rulers, the 
 red-hot bigotry of fanaticism, to have kept the 
 plains of the old world resounding to the tread of 
 armies and its people sick with strife. And this 
 contention has not ended, nor ever will end where 
 governments belong to princes and not to peoples. 
 Even in the broad light of this modern noonday, 
 when statesmen profess the welfare of the people to 
 be their chief concern, who can deny that the cause 
 of the cabinet is taken for the cause of the people ? 
 
 Who will not admit the ambition of rulers to ex 
 tend dominion; who claim the wars of this century 
 to have been the necessities of the nations? Who 
 cannot strip the cover from the punctilio of diplo 
 macy, assigned in technical phrase as casus belli, to 
 see craft aiding ambition, the cant of religion cloak 
 ing cupidity for power! Under our immediate ob 
 servation, the great vultures are picking the bones 
 of the sick man of the East, before he is yet dead. 
 On many a field this year, in farther Europe, the 
 spots of deeper green in the new-grown vegetation 
 have stirred the observer s horror, marking recent 
 blood spilled there in pretext of the Christian s 
 cause. 
 
 The character of soldiery cannot rise above the 
 character of the cause for which they contend, and 
 the nature of the institutions under which they en 
 list. To the trained profession, in every grade and 
 
 [62] 
 
rank, the be-all and end-all of justification has been 
 obedience to superiors. The rule is, in good truth, 
 the backbone of an army s composition, a sine qua 
 non of its power. But in the policy of royalty, it 
 goes beyond the needs of discipline, and bids the 
 subject to cast on the cabinet the solution and peril 
 of all questions of political right and wrong. By 
 the casuistry of kings, it is made the solace of their 
 troops for the maintenance of their own dominion. 
 
 In like subservience to their uses, the ministers of 
 monarch s educate and guide the hatreds of race, 
 isolating their people from the common brotherhood 
 of humanity; they inflame and pervert the frenzy 
 of religious feeling, putting the love of God to work 
 cruelty to men; they put out the eyes of patriotism, 
 and the noble instinct blindly follows the cause of 
 the ruler as the cause of the country. 
 
 Formidable armies rise on such foundations; the 
 purse equips them with a full panoply; they are in 
 structed with skill and often commanded by genius; 
 and they play the mighty game of war with spirit 
 and fortitude, when the arts or anger of diplomacy 
 are followed by the word of command. 
 
 But individuality is utterly lost in the mass; the 
 soldier is nothing more than his rifle and bayonet; 
 the rider and the horse but one implement; all voice 
 less parts of a great instrument of state, whose direc 
 tion and uses are governed by a master without and 
 above its own consciousness. Exceptions rise on the 
 rule, and splendid instances of individual renown 
 in soldiership illuminate the records of the past. 
 But, though a Sydney or a Bayard be a comrade 
 
 [63] 
 
within its ranks, the soldier in such a body cannot 
 but realize that he yields his strength or life to 
 maintain quarrels in which he and his have no con 
 cern, to gain results in which they can have no 
 share. To gather fit material for such uses, the re 
 cruiting sergeant and press gang might well solicit 
 or compel the idle and dissolute. Nor is it strange 
 that disbanding such an army should scatter appre 
 hension and dismay among the peaceful classes of 
 society. 
 
 Against this history and these methods, the Amer 
 ican soldier, in purposes of action, in personality, 
 character, and conduct, stands in marked and hon 
 orable contrast. The difference is extreme and radi 
 cal. It distinguishes him in his motives, in his 
 entry into service, in his return to citizenship; to 
 some extent in his discipline and habits; and, pecu 
 liarly, in his resolute perseverance to a complete 
 accomplishment of his objects of war. These differ 
 ences are as great in degree, and the same in kind, 
 as those which divide the institutions of political 
 manhood from the government of kings. The root 
 of all is the personal individuality of freemen. 
 
 The soldier of America has taken arms only be 
 cause he was an independent man, conscious of the 
 rights, willing to abide the duties of a free man 
 hood, and fearless to defend the former and per 
 form the latter. Upon the same foundation rests 
 our free society. Its benign influences educate and 
 improve the character. Its hopes of perpetuity rest 
 upon the steady maintenance of that character by 
 its citizens. If ever that unhappy day shall come, 
 
 [64] 
 
when her people shall want the manhood to be such 
 soldiers, or to prohibit other forms of armies in the 
 land which may God forbid in that day our re 
 public must fall! 
 
 The experiences of our forefathers were singu 
 larly adapted to beget individuality in their soldier 
 ship, as well as to instruct them in the rights of 
 humanity. They were forced to wage many a hard 
 conflict, and to fight an uncommon foe. They had 
 no teaching in civilized warfare, nor would it have 
 much availed them. Their trials were beyond the 
 forecast of military art, outstripping the fables as 
 well as realities of previous war. Their march was 
 in the primeval forest, a toilsome passage forced 
 with stealthy watchfulness, the silent threat of un 
 seen peril ever present to the mind. Their battle 
 was a series of personal conflicts, each fighting sev 
 erally according to his temper and skill; their cor 
 poration the result of individual intelligence, with 
 little of generalship to guide it. At home, and in 
 the fields of their labor, constant vigilance and cour 
 age were indispensable to preserve their families, 
 and continual alarms disturbed their repose. By 
 insensible degrees, and almost unconsciously, there 
 rose among them a new order of fighting men. And 
 when Braddock s brilliant array was routed, and the 
 men of forest training saved, by their intrepidity, 
 his flying thoroughbreds from destruction, the 
 glamour of invincibility fell from British discipline, 
 and the birth of the American soldier became known. 
 
 Upon that discovery the spirit of confidence rose 
 in the colonies. Their life in the wilderness had 
 
 [65] 
 
filled their minds with understanding of the natural 
 rights of man, and, supported by this new conscious 
 ness of strength, their heroism was exalted to resist 
 tyranny and demand their rightful independence. 
 
 The suddenly gathered host which the great Cap 
 tain of our Liberties found ready to his command 
 upon the surrounding heights of Boston, was a typi 
 cal beginning of the true American army. They had 
 risen spontaneously and individually, pne by one. 
 No love of arms had enticed them; no conscription 
 compelled them. They were not sprung from idle 
 or dissolute social life. They came of the best forms 
 of manhood, and from every rank with equal zeal. 
 
 They came, besides, of various peoples. No one 
 race or nation contained their ancestry. The most 
 adventurous and bold of different lands alone had 
 dared to tempt the forbidden wilderness, to plant 
 civilization in the face of its savage possessors; and 
 in their common manliness and the mingled blood of 
 their generations, the differences and hatreds of race 
 and nationality faded away. They were shaped by 
 nature to establish a state founded on the brother 
 hood of man. 
 
 None had military training, nearly all were un 
 used to arms, except those weapons which were com 
 mon to the settlers of a new country. They were 
 men of peace, with families at home fathers, hus 
 bands, sons, brothers. But they were resolute to 
 risk all, to suffer or to die, as need might be, for 
 their cause. They matched themselves, without 
 fear, to fight the best armies and the richest nation 
 of the world. 
 
 [66] 
 
They obeyed in their coming no decree of cabinet, 
 no call of rulers. They owned no rulers. Their cause 
 was wholly their own and that of their fellow men. 
 They understood it. They fought the fight of man 
 hood. The morning light of independence illumi 
 nated their souls. 
 
 The world had seen men struggle for liberty be 
 fore, and it laughed them to scorn. It soon heard 
 with amazement that these untrained men, by their 
 individual appreciation, co-operation, and courage, 
 had repeatedly rolled the splendid troops of perfect 
 science in bloody disaster down the slopes of Bunker 
 Hill; that the lesson of Fort du Quesne was illus 
 trated by the slaughter of Gage s veterans. 
 
 Upon such an army engraft discipline and skilled 
 mobility, and it becomes formidable almost invin 
 cible. But their subsequent discipline was of their 
 own stamp, the submission of free men, for the 
 time being, that their work for freedom might be 
 stronger. In it they did not forget the nature of the 
 cause, nor their citizenship. The license of war did 
 not debauch their minds, because they were good 
 soldiers that they might enjoy to be good citizens. 
 
 It was peculiar also to their character that there 
 could be for them but one issue from the strife 
 the event of complete success and independence. 
 All soldiers must have endurance. They had more; 
 they had fortitude and self-imposed patience and 
 self-willed persistence. No diplomacy could nego 
 tiate a compromise of their quarrel. They wanted 
 no patch-work of peace. Complete, finished, abso 
 lute victory, entire and perfect independence must 
 be theirs! 
 
 [67] 
 
And they achieved it! How nobly and well, is 
 now the treasured memory of the world. The beau 
 tiful dream of human liberty became a realization. 
 Philosophers had discoursed upon it, poets sung of 
 it; yet it could never attain the credit of a prophecy. 
 By the help of God, our fathers accomplished it for 
 men! 
 
 They builded their structure in wisdom and un 
 derstanding , with a benevolent foresight and love 
 for their race, which may well seem beyond the at 
 tributes of human nature. They left it to us, a rich 
 legacy of happiness, the fruit of their heroism, their 
 labors, their sacrifice, and their blood. Where is 
 the man whose heart does not swell with pride that 
 he sprung from such an ancestry, surpassing in the 
 nobility of manhood the lineage of kings? If, now 
 that the fathers are dead, their great inheritance can 
 not be maintained to the blessed uses of human lib 
 erty, the shame shall not impeach the wisdom of 
 our sires, but the degeneracy of their sons! 
 
 For near a century this frame of social order stood 
 secure before the world. The great trial of man s 
 possibilities for self-government seemed assured of 
 success. The nation s strength had long since risen 
 to proportions which defied all danger from any for 
 eign source. 
 
 And at home, how excellent have been its uses to 
 its people! Fed with its abundance from youth, we 
 do not appreciate the truth that its beneficent bless 
 ings have been without parallel, nay, without near 
 approximation, in any other country under the 
 sun. Those honors, privileges, opportunities, and 
 
 [68] 
 
gratifications, which in other lands distinguish the 
 higher ranks, are here the common rights of all. 
 For the ranks have no existence. Neither govern 
 ment nor law confer gradations of superiority. All 
 stand upon a level floor; the head and shoulders 
 alone may rise. Those fruits, in truth, which grow 
 only upon personal qualifications the abilities, 
 courage, and devotion of the individual govern 
 ments can not bestow, but they may diminish or 
 destroy. Yet, look around! Of our citizens of 
 wealth, of power, of good report, and consideration, 
 behold! nine in ten have gained it all themselves. 
 
 Look at the workman who must daily labor 
 for livelihood. Eespectability, not degradation, at 
 taches to his honest industry. In the home to which 
 he repairs from toil, he may, with thrift, have more 
 comforts than the nobility of England three hun 
 dred years ago. 
 
 It is an epoch marvelous for invention. The arts 
 of utility and taste are productive to abundance, 
 and a free press scatters the wisdom of science and 
 the pleasures of literature in profusion. No coun 
 try on earth so promptly and diffusely enjoys the 
 benefits of the advancement of knowledge and in 
 crease of skill, pre-eminent in this age. In civilized 
 Europe, whole communities, entire classes and or 
 ders of people, remain to this day practically un 
 acquainted with these advantages, still plodding the 
 hard paths of past generations. They are spread on 
 every hand with lavish prodigality about you, in 
 this splendid city and surrounding country, where 
 the forest stood within the memory of living men; 
 
 [69] 
 
and so every town and village has its share. The 
 provision of nature has been bountifully adequate 
 to the wants of such a people. Her skies are gener 
 ous and temperate; her scenery pleasing to the eye; 
 her climate salubrious and inspiriting; the harvests 
 of her soil will feed the world; even in her age. 
 Chaos had forethought for us, and filled her paleo 
 zoic storehouses with minerals and fuel suitable to 
 our every need. 
 
 It is a land of plenteousness and a land of beauty; 
 but what is more, and most of all, it is a land of lib 
 erty. From ev3ry quarter the eager claimants of 
 its generous beneficence have been received and 
 made welcome. In every country of civilization, its 
 citizenship has been respected. The happy pos 
 sessor of that title, if, journeying on some distant 
 errand, he chanced upon a crowded seaport flutter 
 ing with the banners of many nations, saw no em 
 blem, lifted by the breeze, of greater safety or higher 
 honor than the beautiful flag of stripes and stars. 
 
 Who that loved his fellow men did not rejoice in 
 the institutions of American liberty ? Who that be 
 lieved the great Creator comprehended all men in 
 his benevolence, not the special few, did not pray 
 for their perpetuity! Above all, how could an 
 American fail to love his country? or dare attempt 
 to destroy it? 
 
 But it is written that sin shall be visited even upon 
 the third and fourth generation. And there was sin 
 in the land. Out of it grew sectional division, and 
 hatred between countrymen. Ambition and craft 
 seized upon the fact, plotted in secret, and stirred 
 
 [70] 
 
up strife. The voice of warning was unheeded. Its 
 very excellence was a temporary danger to our sys 
 tem, so confident were men no design upon it could 
 be serious. And when upon a sudden the storm 
 burst upon it, the government of men tottered and 
 trembled to its foundation under the fierce assault. 
 
 Then rose to arms the second Army of Freedom- 
 fit successor to its early prototype! How enlarged 
 and varied the great theatre of its action, yet how 
 like the first in its characteristics! 
 
 Again it was the cause of the people, again the 
 fight of manhood. Liberty and independence were 
 again at stake. Not upon the issue of creation; that 
 had been accomplished, the experiment had been 
 tried, its splendid usefulness established. I enter 
 into no refined debate upon contingent possibilities. 
 The union of these states, and the liberties and hap 
 piness of their citizens, are inseparably bound to 
 gether. The great question was, shall the institu 
 tions of freedom endure? 
 
 Now, as before, the momentous question rested 
 upon the individual and personal qualities of a free 
 people. It was fully comprehended. Do we not all 
 remember? In every household, on every family 
 altar, the incense of devotion rose. In the breast of 
 manhood the consciousness of duty was accom 
 panied by resolution, and from every hamlet came 
 a quick response in the tramp of thousands to the 
 front. 
 
 Like the army of our fathers, these soldiers were 
 men of peace, and behind them were parents, wives, 
 and children. The weapons of war were unfamiliar 
 
 [71] 
 
to their hands. Even the sight of holiday soldiers 
 had been rare. Military training was all unknown. 
 Though willing to submit to every demand of duty, 
 the discipline of soldiery was strange to such a peo 
 ple. They were formed into companies, regiments, 
 and capital divisions. They wore the clothes and 
 carried the arms of soldiers. Impelled by the hasty 
 cry of ignorant enthusiasts, they hurried forward to 
 engagement as brave men by nature as ever met 
 an enemy but little better than a mob. Large 
 bodies came in conflict, and then, where individual 
 valor is nothing if discipline does not regulate and 
 science guide its force, confusion ruled the scene. 
 Both sides shared the confusion, but the defeat and 
 humiliation were ours. 
 
 It was, after all, a useful day. Disaster awakened 
 strength, and its sharp stroke, like the blow of 
 Moses rod upon the rock in Horeb, but opened a 
 more copious flow of reanimating vigor. The reser 
 voirs of courage and endurance in this land of peace 
 ful prosperity had been wholly unknown. They 
 made a dreadful mistake, who reckoned on a lost 
 manhood in the offspring of the Eevolution. Fool 
 ish enthusiasm settled into resolution. Out of their 
 mingled shame and devotion, above the smoke of 
 battle, there rose before the enemy and in view of 
 the world, that magnificent spectacle unseen for a 
 century the firm and undaunted countenance of a 
 free people, in mighty fight for the institutions of 
 freedom. There it stood, our national character! 
 There were its iron features! Like the square fore 
 head, solid jaw, steadfast eye, and grim visage which 
 
 [72] 
 
mark our first great commander, now journeying in 
 a foreign land ; no hope for relenting lay in that stern 
 aspect. 
 
 Well was it for us, in time of trial, that the fore 
 thought of our fathers had planted that quiet school 
 of science on the banks of the Hudson. The rich 
 seed of its nurture now bore abundant return, and 
 repaid us in harvest of its discipline and skill an 
 hundredfold. What though some among its disciples 
 turned awry its teachings to the injury of their 
 country? Happy, thrice, was this people that its 
 wise instruction had also fallen on the fruitful soil 
 of patriotism and understanding, yea, quickened 
 and bore fruit in the brain of the living genius, equal 
 to our hour of need . 
 
 Throughout the splendid army which accepted, 
 with quick intelligence, the tactical training of the 
 military art, there remained the characteristic indi 
 viduality of which I have spoken. In so great a host, 
 its manifestations were less open to the outward 
 observer. To him who was in frequent contact, it 
 was ever conspicuous. It was not so much the war 
 rior, as the citizen in arms, who fought our war. It 
 was becoming to him to strive to be a good soldier, 
 and all the sentiments of soldierly honor held lively 
 sway over his mind. But his discipline was put on 
 with the understanding that it was to make him use 
 ful. He aimed not to gain the rewards of a soldier s 
 life. His hope of recompense lay in his return to 
 citizenship. There, in the circle of home, secure in 
 the enjoyments of peace by his valor, he should gain 
 his reward. There was representation of many na- 
 
 [73] 
 
tions in our ranks. The various origin of our sol 
 diers gave renewed expression of that characteristic 
 of the army of our ancestors. It was fitting to the 
 nature of our national life. Eisen on the strength of 
 the principles of free manhood, the genius of our 
 land has trusted in that strength; and American 
 citizenship has demanded no rite of induction but 
 that its claimant should declare his faith in liberty 
 and his allegiance to her institutions. And right 
 well that trust was repaid. The flame of devotion 
 burned high and brightly in the hearts of our 
 adopted countrymen. They were found in every 
 regiment, they fought in every field. Mingling with 
 the native current, the blood of Irishmen, whose 
 birthright is hatred of oppression, of Germans, 
 whose ancient stock was free when all the world was 
 subjugated by Eome, of the sturdy men of Scandi 
 navia, and many other countries still flowed freely 
 on the altar of their chosen land. The hope for free 
 dom for all men rises higher and higher, upon such 
 proof that all are capable to maintain it; from such 
 examples the promise brightens that race-lines shall 
 fade away, and the clasp of common humanity bind 
 all in equal possession of the rights of man. 
 
 I have remarked of the army of the Eevolution 
 that a complete success was necessary to its char 
 acter. The same unflinching persistence was pecu 
 liar to the army of salvation. But one issue was 
 possible to its mission. No temporizing diplomacy, 
 no compromise, was admissible. But one end could 
 appease the injured spirit of liberty and order the 
 utter submission of the last foeman. Our fathers 
 
 [74] 
 
had delivered us forever from all fear of enemies 
 without. It was for us to administer the lesson 
 which should deliver the nation forever from the 
 danger of revolt within. And not one syllable was 
 omitted in the example of the army. All the hosts 
 of rebellion were scattered, and, from the chief down 
 through every rank, the last man in arms was laid 
 a captive at the feet of his injured country. 
 
 Comrades: I am of those who rejoice in the mag 
 nanimity of spirit which has prevailed; who regret 
 that its splendor was at all clouded by some unnec 
 essary violence; who have such faith in the republic 
 as would have admitted no despotic hand to do what 
 the force of restored law might have done; and 
 would have trusted as henceforth we all know we 
 may trust the patriotism of our fellow countrymen, 
 regained from the interrupting frenzy of temporary 
 anger, to share the honored memories of our com 
 mon ancestry and participate in the glorious possi 
 bilities of our common future, with abiding faith in 
 their honor and abiding pride in the association. 
 
 But for all that, I would not abate one jot or tittle 
 of the true teaching of the memorable past; nor 
 withdraw one line from the full measure of that con 
 demnation, which the issue of the appeal to arms 
 adjudged to the portion of rebellion. If, indeed, as 
 we trust, the actions of men are under the immediate 
 guidance of Almighty God, and nations do but work 
 forth His great purposes, then, assuredly, this peo 
 ple, who for so many years received the uninter 
 rupted flow of His benevolence in unexampled pros 
 perity, may well recognize His hand in the complete 
 
 [75] 
 
and finished result which His providence has com 
 mended to be a warning to all after- time! 
 
 There can be no error admitted here. It questions 
 our title to the dearest reward we enjoy. It molests 
 the repose of our heroic dead. It exposes to peril 
 all the fruits of sacrifice and blood. The triumph 
 of our armies was not the work of chance. The 
 mighty struggle was not a game between gigantic 
 wrestlers, in which the crown of dominion was the 
 prize of the stronger. This was no battle of Greeks 
 for mere mastery over our fellows. The significance 
 of our victory is not that superiority is with the 
 greater numbers in war. It is not true now; and it 
 never has been true. History teaches a better les 
 son, and even in war we read the progress of man 
 kind. God will defend the right! 
 
 It is, indeed, our highest glory and without it 
 we are miserable men that we fought for the right, 
 and conquered in the right. Our cause was the cause 
 of humanity. Our gallant comrades who are gone 
 were not deceived. They laid not down their lives 
 in vain. For the welfare of their race, for their 
 children and their children s children forever, they 
 met a mortal foe, and, in the fierce conflict falling, 
 they bravely died for men. Eest! rest in glory, noble 
 shades! Gallant and manly in your lives, honored 
 in your glorious death! The great tree of Liberty, 
 whose roots your lifeblood watered, shall spread its 
 hallowed branches over your posterity forever! 
 
 But, companions, while we will not yield the sup 
 ports of our conduct and our title to honor, we recur 
 to them in no spirit of remaining anger. Long ago 
 
 [76] 
 
it was forgotten. First of all, the soldiers of the 
 Union were ready to " clasp hands across the bloody 
 chasm." Better than others, they knew the valor 
 and the worth of our brethren of the South. And 
 right ready have they ever been to rejoice in the re 
 stored brotherhood, and heartily they pray that if 
 ever again this nation shall have need of war, 
 shoulder to shoulder we shall oppose a common foe, 
 and, each for the other, fight its common cause. 
 
 Nor are we assembled in any spirit of boastful- 
 ness or vainglory. We meet no more as soldiers. 
 But in days that are passed, when we were all 
 younger men, we were comrades in privation and in 
 peril. Together we supported toil and hardship. 
 We were to one another then friends and helpers. 
 The old Army of the Tennessee was a band of broth- 
 ers-in-arms. The ties which such experiences form, 
 life is too short for forgetfulness to sunder. In the 
 words of our constitution, the object of this society 
 is, and shall be, "to keep alive and preserve that 
 kindly and cordial feeling which has been one of the 
 characteristics of this army during its career in the 
 service. 
 
 Nor are we here to perpetuate a spirit of military 
 ambition. We are here now, as we were joined in 
 the army, as citizens and lovers of our country and 
 our country s liberties. The inspiration of hope 
 which we renew, is the hope for the continuance of 
 liberty and peace in a happy land. In that glorious 
 expectation is our joy and our reward. Upon it we 
 build our trust in the prosperity and happiness of 
 ourselves, our families, and our posterity. And the 
 dearest wish to the heart of the old soldier of Amer- 
 
 [77] 
 
ica is, that when, his life work done, he turns his 
 last look upon the scenes of earth, he may close his 
 eyes upon the country he has saved, standing secure 
 from every danger, the dispenser to men of all the 
 blessings government can bestow. 
 
 I picture him in fancy, sometimes, when his age 
 shall have settled upon him, and the labor and toil 
 of manhood shall have passed, as he waits for the 
 summons to go where his comrades have gone be 
 fore. I see him sit upon the western porch of his 
 children s cottage home, where the well-kept vines 
 have clambered on the lattice, while the sunny 
 afternoon sinks away. He holds upon his knee the 
 sweet grand-daughter who is nearest to his heart. 
 Translating to the simple speech of childhood, he 
 tells her tales of younger days, when he was a soldier 
 for his country. How sweetly she listens, with won 
 dering eyes! How proudly she thinks of the great 
 actions in which her grandsire had a part! How 
 tender the joy of that old man s love for the little 
 beginner of life! 
 
 Bye and bye the soft warmth of the summer s day 
 inclines him to sleep, and his old frame, once so 
 strong, is now easily wearied. The continued talk 
 ing has tired his senses, and his head drops back 
 upon his easy chair. She pillows her face upon his 
 breast, and together they rest in gentle slumber- 
 emblems of Peace reposing in the arms of its savior 
 and defender! Lo! from the evening sun a ray 
 breaks through between the trees, and falls upon 
 his whitened locks with a touch of light and glory. 
 It is the benediction of heaven on the old soldier of 
 Liberty! May it rest on them all, forever! 
 
 [78] 
 
BANQUET ORATION 
 
 ON OUR FIRST COMMANDER 
 
 GENERAL U. S. GRANT 
 
 1879 
 
Stormfield, Redding, Connecticut, 
 
 October 13, 1909. 
 Dear Mrs. Vilas: 
 
 I thank you so much for the Memorial, ivhich I 
 have read with the deepest interest. I had a warm 
 place in my heart for Colonel Vilas, and a great ad 
 miration for his lofty gifts and character. I can 
 still vividly see him, as I saw him twenty years ago, 
 lacking a month, at the Grant banquet in Chicago, 
 as he stood upon a table, with his tips closing upon 
 the last word of his magnificent speech, and his 
 happy eyes looking out in contentment over a sea of 
 applauding soldiers glimpsed through a frantic 
 storm of waving napkins a great picture, and one 
 which will never grow dim in my memory. 
 
 I thank you again, dear madam. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 (Signed) S. L. Clemens. 
 
 P. S. No, it was thirty years ago. 
 
ORATION ON OUR FIRST COMMANDER 
 GENERAL U. S. GRANT 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE SOCIETY OF THE 
 
 ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 NOVEMBER 13, 1879 
 
 Your call invites me, sir, I am conscious, to give 
 expression to the profound feeling with which every 
 heart of our assembled companions responds to the 
 stirring sentiment. But how shall I attempt to 
 choose, in the brief compass the occasion allows, 
 from the multitudinous thoughts that crowd the 
 mind ? Our first commander, the illustrious General 
 whose fame has grown to fill the world! Nay, more! 
 Our old band of the Tennessee was his first army! 
 What honorable memories of old assocations, you, 
 companions, may now recall! 
 
 How splendid was your entrance on the scene of 
 arms! The anxious eye of the North had long been 
 fixed intently on the eastern theatre, almost uncon 
 scious of the new-formed Army of the Tennessee 
 and its unknown general. Suddenly there fell on the 
 startled ear the roar of your fight at Donelson, and 
 your chieftain s victorious cry, which waked the 
 country s heart to ecstacy, and rung, like a pro 
 phetic knell, the doom our army of salvation bore to 
 rebels "Nothing but unconditional surrender." 
 
 Then, but a few days later, there burst at Shiloh, 
 on his Army of the Tennessee, the flame and fury 
 
 [85] 
 
of the first great field fight of the war. In desperate 
 doubt, the nightfall of the bloody day closed on the 
 unequal struggle. Higher, then, rose the iron reso 
 lution of that great commander! Urged by cautious 
 counsel to prepare a way for retreat, with trust in 
 your valor, he gave the characteristic answer, "I 
 have not despaired of whipping them yet." And 
 loyally, on the morrow, was he vindicated in that 
 reliance, as he rode before the soldiery, driving the 
 enemy over the victorious field. 
 
 How darkly comes back in recollection the long 
 and dismal toil in the pestilential swamps before 
 impregnable Vicksburg! The sky was overhung in 
 gloom, and the soaked earth sunk under the foot. 
 Unlit by the flash of powder, unheralded by the 
 noise of arms, in miserable darkness, the last enemy 
 irresistibly plied his fatal work, changing the river 
 levees where only was solid ground for burial 
 into tombs for our trebly-decimated ranks. Then, 
 again, new light broke from his troubled genius on 
 the scene, and displayed the possible path for valor. 
 Breaking past the rebel battlements and across the 
 great river, he flung our army into the midst of the 
 hostile host, like a mighty gladiator surrounded by 
 his foes, choosing no escape but in victory. There, 
 with fiery zest, in fierce rapidity he smote the foe the 
 crushing strokes of Port Gibson, Eaymond, Jack 
 son, Champion Hills, and Black River, and seized 
 the doomed city with the unrelenting grasp of his 
 Army of the Tennessee. And when, on the new 
 birthday of the republic, her flag shook out its beau 
 tiful folds above the ramparts of that boasted cita- 
 
 [86] 
 
del, the territory of revolt was finally split in twain, 
 the backbone of rebellion was broken. 
 
 Such, in a glance, is your splendid story, com 
 panions, under our first commander! 
 
 He and his Army of the Tennessee entered on the 
 page of history together. Together they achieved 
 the first great prophetic triumphs for the Union; 
 together they followed and fought her enemies from 
 field to field, pushing our advancing arms in steady 
 career toward the Gulf. Nor were their efforts for 
 our country disunited until, having dismembered 
 the vast rebellion, the beginning of its utter down 
 fall had been seen. 
 
 Guided by his genius, your army had learned to 
 fight only to conquer. Parted from him, it forgot 
 not the teaching. Its march and war struck every 
 revolted state save two, but never general anywhere 
 lamented over its retreat from the field of arms. 
 Joyfully may we point to that exalted fame, which, 
 rising like a pinnacle of the Alps, breaks through 
 the firmament above to carry up the name of the 
 unconquered Grant ; for it is our felicity, that on the 
 solid base from which it lifts, history has written 
 the proud legend of the Army of the Tennessee, 
 which never shunned and never lost a battle with 
 its foes. 
 
 Joined to it by such a story, and especially when 
 so assembled, his old associates and soldiers in war, 
 we may rightfully, without censure and without 
 adulation, claim and speak the just measure of his 
 merit and renown. Nor shall his presence deny that 
 satisfaction to us. His reputation is not his, not 
 
 [87] 
 
even his country s alone; it is, in part, our peculiar 
 possession. We who fought to aid its rising, may 
 well rejoice in its meridian splendor. 
 
 The foundations of his title are deep laid and 
 safe. There was reaction in the minds of our people 
 after the intense strain of war and many distracting 
 subjects for attention. But with regained compos 
 ure and reflection, his reputation augments, and its 
 foundations more and more plainly appear irre- 
 movably fixed for lasting duration. They spring not 
 from merely having enjoyed possession of the hon 
 ors of place and power, which his countrymen have 
 bestowed; others have had them too. They lie not 
 specially on his shining courage and personal con 
 duct before the enemy, who was never outdone in 
 calm intrepidity; nor in the splendid daring with 
 which he ever urged the battle he immediately or 
 dered; though long these will live in song and story. 
 Beyond the warrior s distinction which was his 
 early glory his is the true genius of the general. 
 The strategic learning of the military art was to 
 him a simple implement, like colors and brush to a 
 Raphael, not fetters to the mind. How like a weapon 
 in a giant s hand, did he wield the vast aggrega 
 tions of soldiery, whose immensity oppressed so 
 many minds! How easily moved his divisions, yet 
 how firm the place of all! How every soldier came 
 to feel his participation a direct contribution to the 
 general success! And when, at length, his merit 
 won the government of the entire military power of 
 the North, how perfect became, without noise or 
 friction, the co-operation of every army, of every 
 
 [88] 
 
strength throughout the wide territory of the war, 
 toward the common end! Subordinate every will 
 and jealous soul the profound military wisdom of 
 the capital, even to the clear purpose and compre 
 hensive grasp of the one commanding mind! Then 
 how rapidly crumbled on every side the crushed re 
 volt! Where shall we find, in past records, the tale 
 of such a struggle, so enormous in extent, so nearly 
 matched at the outset, so desperately contested, so 
 effectively decided! Through what a course of un 
 interrupted victory did he proceed from the earliest 
 engagements to a complete dominion of the vast 
 catastrophe ! 
 
 Spare, in pity, the poor brain which cannot see, 
 in this career, more than a dogged pertinacity! Out 
 upon the unjust prejudice which will consciously 
 disparage the true meed of genius! Leave it where 
 his reliant silence leaves it! Leave it to history! 
 Leave it to the world ! 
 
 But in the great cause so well understood, and the 
 great results to men, so well accomplished, the basis 
 of his renown is justly broadened. For the salva 
 tion of this government of freedom for mankind, we 
 took up arms. When liberty was safe, they were 
 again laid down. Eisen to the highest seat of power, 
 he has descended as a citizen, of equal rank with 
 all. This goes to the soul of American liberty, en 
 nobling individual citizenship above all servants in 
 office. His is indeed the noblest grandeur of man 
 hood, who can rise from the grasp of over-topping 
 power above the ambition of self, to exalt the am 
 bition of humanity; denying the spoils of the brief 
 time to the lasting guerdon of immortal honor. 
 
 [89] 
 
The judgment of immediate contemporaries has 
 been apt to rise too high or fall too low. But let not 
 detraction or calumny mislead. They have ever 
 been the temporal accompaniments of human great 
 ness. That glory cannot rise beyond the clouds 
 which passes not through the clouds. We may con 
 fidently accept the judgment of the world. It has 
 been unmistakably delivered. But lately, as he has 
 pressed his wandering course about the round earth, 
 mankind have everywhere bowed in homage at his 
 coming, as the ancient devotees of the East fell be 
 fore the sun at his rising. These honors were not 
 paid to his person, which was unknown; they were 
 not paid to his country, for which he went on no 
 errand, and whose representative never had the like 
 before; they were not paid to him as to some poten 
 tate of a people, for he journeyed not as a man in 
 power. They have been the willing prostration of 
 mortality before a glory imperishable! 
 
 His memory shall, indeed, be in the line of the 
 heroes of war, but distinctive, and apart from the 
 greater number. Not with the kind of Alexander, 
 who ravaged the earth to add to mere dominion; 
 nor of Belisarius, who but fed the greedy craving 
 of an imperial beast of prey; not with Marlborough, 
 Eugene, Wellington, who played the parts set them 
 by the craft of diplomacy; not with the Napoleons, 
 who chose "to wade through slaughter to a throne, 
 and shut the gates of mercy on mankind;" not with 
 Caesar, who would have put the ambitious hand of 
 arms on the delicate fabric of constitutional free 
 dom; America holds a higher place in the congrega- 
 
 [90] 
 
tion of glory for her heroes of liberty, where sits, in 
 expectation, her majestic Washington. In nobler 
 ambition than the gaining of empire, they have 
 borne their puissant arms for the kingdom of man, 
 where liberty reigneth forever. From the blood 
 poured out in their warfare, sweet incense rose to 
 heaven, and angels soothed, with honorable pride, 
 the tears which sorrow started for the dead. 
 
 Home again, now, our first commander, after the 
 journey of the world. Here, here again we greet 
 him at our social board, where, with recurring years, 
 we regale on the deeper-ripening memories of our 
 soldiership for freedom. Partakers of the labors, 
 the perils, the triumphs, which were the beginnings 
 of his glory, we join now, in exultation, in the wel 
 coming honors by which his grateful countrymen 
 tell their foreknowledge of the immortality of his 
 renown. 
 
 Long and many be the years, illustrious leader, 
 before your hour of departure comes! Green and 
 vigorous be your age, undecayed every faculty of 
 mind and sense, in full fruition of the well-earned 
 joys of life; happy in the welfare of your native 
 land, the love of your countrymen, and admiration 
 of the world. 
 
 [91] 
 
EXTRACT FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF 
 THE SOCIETY. 
 
 It would be difficult to fidly portray the scene fol 
 lowing the conclusion of Colonel Vilas response. The 
 entire banquet party rose to its feet, and the hall 
 resounded with cheer upon cheer, and each indi 
 vidual seemed to contest, with marks of apprecia 
 tion, till Colonel Vilas was compelled again to rise, 
 standing in his chair, while hearty cheers were 
 given. Rarely has such eloquence been observed, 
 and never in the history of our Society. 
 
CHIEF JUSTICE EDWARD G. RYAN 
 A MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 1880 
 
CHIEF JUSTICE EDWARD G. RYAN 
 
 A MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN, OCTOBER 19, 1880 
 
 May it Please Your Honors: 
 
 The unusual assemblage of so many of the bar of 
 the state, the sad sense of bereavement and sorrow 
 which sits upon the visages of those here present, 
 the funeral decorations of this court room, that 
 empty chair, so eloquent all presage the melan 
 choly announcement which I am deputed by my 
 brethren of the state bar, in accordance with the 
 solemn usages of the profession, to formally make to 
 the court. 
 
 Chief Justice Ryan is no more. 
 
 That profound and abundant wealth of learning, 
 that eloquent tongue, that massive brain, which, like 
 an exhaustless mine, yielded richer stores the deeper 
 it was tried, while its every product sparkled with 
 the gleam of priceless value, are gone from men, lost 
 to us and to the state, forever. 
 
 A pioneer of civilization to the bar of the west; 
 an advocate fit to cope with any of historic renown; 
 a lawyer and a judge of comprehensive and accurate 
 learning, penetrating acumen and wise judgment, 
 the head of the bar and the Chief Justice of the 
 state: profession and people may well sit down in 
 sack cloth and ashes, lamenting our irreparable loss. 
 
 [97] 
 
"He was a man, take him all in all, we shall not look 
 upon his like again. " 
 
 The duty of this solemn hour I cannot hope to dis 
 charge. The day for preparation afforded me has 
 been half destroyed by illness. But no time would 
 be enough for me to do the great theme justice. He 
 was, in every aspect in which his character and abili 
 ties are regarded, an extraordinary man. Every 
 faculty he exerted, every accomplishment he as 
 sumed to possess, every passion which moved him, 
 was great, intensely great. He was a giant among 
 men, in soul, intellect, and attributes. 
 
 It would require his own power and discrimina 
 tion, his own perfection of speech, truly to represent 
 him. In the hands of such an artist in language, 
 the portrait of his mind and character would be as 
 striking and absorbing in interest as any ever drawn 
 for the gaze and wonder of mankind. But who now 
 shall paint it? I know none who could but him, and, 
 in his death, the subject, the artist, and the portrait, 
 are lost together. 
 
 I shall attempt but a rapid statement of his life, 
 and to point out a few salient features of his char 
 acter and powers. 
 
 On the 13th of November, 1810, at New Castle 
 House, in the county of Meath, Ireland, Edward Gr. 
 Eyan was born. His parents were possessors of for 
 tune, but, a second son, he took no share, save what 
 was bestowed on his education. He completed, in 
 1827, the course of instruction at Clougone s Wood 
 Cottage, and entered upon the study of the law. He 
 had but partly finished that course when, in 1830, 
 
 [98] 
 
he migrated to New York. There, sometimes teach 
 ing in private schools, sometimes at work in the 
 office to gain support, he pursued his legal studies 
 until 1836. In that year he was called to the bar 
 and removed to Chicago, then but a village in the 
 remote west. Here he practiced for six years, 
 mingling with professional duties the work of edit 
 ing a newspaper. In 1840 and 1841 he was prosecut 
 ing attorney of the county. In 1842 he changed his 
 residence to Racine; and in 1846 represented that 
 county in the first constitutional convention of Wis 
 consin. In 1848 he removed his residence to Mil 
 waukee, where his bones now repose. There he prac 
 ticed his profession until called in June, 1874, to 
 this bench, holding in the meantime, for three years, 
 the office of city attorney. From the time he took 
 his seat here, he continued in faithful labor, often 
 interrupted by failing health, but always persist 
 ently resumed, until the 13th day of October last, 
 when, broken and exhausted by his patient toil, he 
 descended from his seat to his last bed, where on 
 the morning of the 19th of October he passed away. 
 Laid to his final rest by his brethren of the bar and 
 bench, his remains repose in Forest Home Cemetery, 
 near the city of his unchanging love. 
 
 Heaven give him rest! 
 
 It is a fair question whether his wondrous pow 
 ers as a writer, a speaker, and a lawyer were due in 
 greater degree to the strength of his natural parts 
 or the perfection of his education. Perhaps gener 
 ally it would be answered, to the former. But cer 
 tain it is, no one was ever more finished by educa- 
 
 [99] 
 
tion. Every spoken and every written performance 
 of his life bears the impress of his learning, shines 
 conspicuously with the lustre of his scholarship. 
 His training was chiefly in law and in language; in 
 both he was remarkable for accuracy and finish. 
 And it is especially noteworthy, in his eminence in 
 both, that he was self trained. He finished his course 
 in school at seventeen; he was but twenty when he 
 quit his pupilage in law in his native country for 
 the new world. From that time forward his instruc 
 tion was administered to him by himself, from books 
 and observation of men. His history, as we see it, 
 discloses no marked precocity. For six years after 
 his coming to this country, he supported himself by 
 teaching and clerical labor, while he prosecuted his 
 preparations for the profession. He was admitted 
 to the bar at twenty-six, but does not appear to have 
 attracted especial attention to his superior powers 
 until past thirty. He was in his thirty-sixth year, 
 when, in the first constitutional convention of the 
 territory, he acquired that acknowledged preemi 
 nence which he ever after maintained. 
 
 To me, his natural parts appear most splendid 
 and valuable for the manner in which they assimi 
 lated and profited by knowledge and observation. 
 Every book he read and every phase of life he 
 passed, made addition to his powers. He did not 
 merely read and seek to add to his store of learning; 
 what he gained was not so much increase of posses 
 sions, as increase of power, of the mind. He read 
 much, but never inactively. No book held him in 
 passive submission; he mastered it easily with an 
 
 [ 100 ] 
 
acute and analytical grasp. His memory was re 
 tentive and exact; yet he never seemed to speak so 
 much from remembrance as from himself. This was 
 no less true of his discourse upon legal than upon 
 literary topics. His understanding was so informed 
 by his methods of study, that what it gave forth 
 was his own; if in substance it was the learning of 
 the books, in form and manner it was so marked by 
 his genius as to be apparently his own. 
 
 And so vigorous was his grasp, so clear his con 
 ception, so finished his style, that it is rare to find 
 instances where he has added to the vigor and 
 beauty of his expression by any quotation from oth 
 ers, although his extensive reading supplied him 
 readily. 
 
 But he was not only rich in the lore of books, he 
 was an accurate observer of men. It has never been 
 my fortune to meet with any who was his equal 
 in ability to analyze character. He read the motives 
 of action, the various faculties and changing char 
 acteristics of men, with intuitive ease and nice jus 
 tice. This gave peculiar force to his speech when 
 inveighing against the conduct and motives of those 
 he attacked, a feature of his powers which made 
 him not less terrible to his enemies, than the wonder 
 of his hearers, when the occasion demanded or al 
 lowed the exhibition. 
 
 His course of self-education was not limited, as so 
 commonly the error is made, to mere processes of 
 study. He refined and corrected his ideas by dili 
 gent writing, and enlarged their abundance by fre 
 quent conversation. They who read with delight 
 
 [101] 
 
the smooth and delicious flow of his composition, 
 who ride at ease of understanding upon the per 
 spicuous current of his expressed thought, clearly 
 informed, without effort of their own save attention, 
 upon abstruse and difficult subjects of distressful 
 doubt, are little fitted to realize the freight of labor 
 which every word carried from his brain. Yet they 
 who know his habit of writing can testify to the 
 painstaking toil with which he criticised and puri 
 fied every product of his pen. He could, if he would, 
 compose with a rapidity unsurpassed by any; and 
 the hasty labor of his desk he could well trust in 
 competition with the fruit of pains in others. But 
 he was too sincere arid ardent a servant and lover of 
 the English language to imprint her words with 
 haste, or indolent inattention, on a page where they 
 might stand to her and his reproach. To him the 
 legal rule of interpretation was a fact: "Every word 
 has its meaning. " He vigorously condemned the 
 debauchery of language which the rapid penny-a- 
 liners of the newspapers have inflicted on our native 
 tongue, and the speech of some, even, of our scholars. 
 So, in all his labor of writing, dictionaries were 
 his companions and his friends. He trusted to no 
 one of them, but, surrounded by many, he gathered 
 from the best linguists the perfect hue of intelligence 
 and beauty that belonged to every word he used, 
 and set it then in happy harmony with its fellows 
 in the finished picture of thought which his every 
 period became. Such discipline had its reward. His 
 style is his own, strong, clear, and beautiful; not 
 wholly without fault, but as worthy of study as 
 
 [102] 
 
Addison s; not always, in Ms opinions, perfectly 
 judicial, but turning from that path only to bring 
 in gems of beauty by the way. To be able to write 
 as Edward G. Eyan has written, is a crown of glory 
 in letters, a sufficient title to literary renown. 
 
 He cultivated conversation, and, as I have 
 thought, not only for its pleasure, but for its bene 
 fits to him. Certain it is, he shone in social discourse 
 with a brilliancy not often equalled. In happy hours, 
 when in health and spirits, who more delightful 
 than he? His rapid and easy speech was wise or 
 witty as the time and subject suited, but always 
 sweet in the simplicity and purity of the language 
 he employed. He was ever conspicuous for elegant 
 diction in ordinary speech; nor did the tumult of 
 emotion or passion which sometimes possessed him 
 mar his accomplishments, or lead him to vulgarity. 
 It rather seemed to heighten and intensify his pow 
 ers, and clothe his expressions with a richer color. 
 
 Thus the self-imposed habits and discipline of his 
 entire life finished and perfected all the powers of 
 the man. He met all the points of Bacon s aphor 
 ism: reading made him a full man; conference a 
 ready man; and writing an exact man. 
 
 View his finished character and faculties as 
 trained and accomplished by his course of educa 
 tion, and discarding the faults of temperament and 
 want of self-control which blighted his life, cast 
 ing up the account on his credit side only, how splen 
 did and magnificent does he appear, the ideal and 
 mirror of professional power and glory. 
 
 [103] 
 
His learning of the law was thorough and pro 
 found. To him the science of jurisprudence was an 
 open book, every page familiar to his eye. He was 
 trained in its technical learning and versed in the 
 long line of precedents and judicial opinions which 
 support and explain its nice distinctions and some 
 time arbitrary doctrines. But he was far beyond 
 that plane, the level only of the complete case law 
 yer. He knew the law far more profoundly. He had 
 traversed the great superstructure with patient ex 
 amination from its deepest foundations to the last 
 pinnacle on the turret. He saw it not merely as a 
 builded thing, acknowledging its parts and relations 
 because he found them so. He knew the principles 
 on which its foundations rest, which support its 
 noble walls, and partition its manifold departments, 
 which inspire its pillars and its arches, which gild 
 its towers with light, and fill its secret recesses with 
 the blessing of justice for men. He knew it as an 
 architect who might have builded it, and who could 
 finish, in harmony with the whole, the parts on 
 which his duty set him to work. 
 
 And not alone the common law the law of nature 
 as applied to the relations of men among themselves; 
 but his perception of the complex and delicate rela 
 tions of the different portions and civil divisions of 
 the union, and of the various duties and powers of 
 its numerous officers and tribunals, federal and state, 
 was singularly acute and comprehensive. Though a 
 native of another land, he had from boyhood pro 
 foundly contemplated the wisdom of the fathers of 
 this country of his adoption; and he was fit and 
 
 [104] 
 
ready, when the hour came, to give unanswerable 
 expression to that discriminating judgment of this 
 court to recede from its former declaration that a 
 statute of this state was void under the federal con 
 stitution, and to suffer its enforcement according to 
 the mandate of this tribunal. In that result this 
 bench and its bar, as well as the rights of the people, 
 gained signal illustration. 
 
 Founded on such learning, our departed leader 
 could not but be a great lawyer. But his profes 
 sional powers were not only strong; they shone with 
 splendor. He was a great advocate and a great 
 orator. In many a cause in the forum, upon many a 
 platform before the people, he has exhibited the elo 
 quence and action, which, with their opportunities, 
 would have ranked him among the great names of 
 the world. And though the memory of the advocate 
 is local and generally fades with his generation, he 
 has left in bequest to his professional brethren some 
 such examples of forensic eloquence as they will 
 not "willingly let die." 
 
 But he will be longest remembered and honored 
 for his work as the Chief Justice of this court. 
 
 He came to this great place, as every one should 
 come who is worthy to occupy it. He came in the 
 ripeness of years and experience, after a long life of 
 labor at the bar. He came laden with profound 
 knowledge of the science he was to administer. He 
 came not from some obscure corner, to sit in judg 
 ment on arguments greater than his understanding; 
 he was pushed by no skillful intrigue into a shameful 
 reward for mere party service: but, sought and 
 
 [ 105 ] 
 
taken from the topmost place of professional leader 
 ship, which, by merit, he had worthily won, he came 
 fit to govern and control where for so long he had 
 confessedly led. He came to the judgment seat with 
 an honorable ambition as to the crowning glory of a 
 devoted professional life; but he came reverently, 
 with an exalted sense of the responsibilities he as 
 sumed, and a noble devotion of all his faculties and 
 strength to the performance of its duties. He came 
 to rest on no pillow of repose, but to toil and build, 
 that he might still higher elevate the court and the 
 law, and exalt justice on earth. 
 
 And so he bent to his task with all the conscien 
 tious intensity of his nature. There fell to his lot to 
 decide and elucidate as important and interesting 
 questions as any which have come before this bench 
 since its institution. I need not say in this presence 
 with what satisfaction he expounded the views of 
 the court. His opinions were not only profound, but 
 profoundly beautiful in every circumstance which 
 excites the admiration of the lawyer. It is a matter 
 of no wonder that a great university of the land has 
 chosen them for commendation to students of law as 
 models of the purity, beauty, and strength of the 
 English tongue. They will carry his name with 
 growing honor to generations of students and law 
 yers yet unborn. 
 
 Few, indeed, are the law books, where so much 
 of excellence in literature and law is combined to 
 the advantage of both; where the lamp of literature 
 so illuminates the dark obscurities of the law, with 
 out a ray of meretricious light; where the strength 
 
 [106] 
 
of jurisprudence so informs words of beautiful har 
 mony with a solid majesty like Grecian architecture. 
 
 We can but remember, too, that much of this 
 crowning labor was done when his old frame was 
 broken by the weight of years and infirmities, and 
 torn by convulsions of passion; when his hours of 
 rest were disconsolate and lonely, or racked with 
 pain. 
 
 For with that justice he would have unsparingly 
 administered, we cannot omit from view his faults 
 and imperfections. They, too, were great. Princi 
 pal of all was his sudden and violent temper. The 
 electric current responds no quicker to a disturbing 
 influence, than did his wrath to an offensive touch; 
 and its explosions are not more furious than the out 
 bursts of his anger. His passions burned, when 
 lighted, like a flaming volcano, shaking him with 
 fearful violence, and belching the hot lava of his 
 wrath on everything and everybody which stood in 
 opposition. He was a painful proof of the value of 
 self control. For the chiefest misfortune of his life 
 was his weakness in presence of his own passion. 
 That subdued and governed him, turning his power 
 to his own destruction. It made him terrible to his 
 friends as well as his enemies; tyrannical, perhaps 
 sometimes cruel, where he should have been gentle 
 . and ]oving; suspicious and jealous, where he should 
 have been confiding; violent and hostile, where he 
 ought to have been friendly. It led him into false 
 positions, from which he was too proud to with 
 draw. It stood in the path of his advancement 
 among men, like a flaming sword. It turned friends 
 
 [107] 
 
into enemies, and froze off the tendrils of love. It 
 brought humiliation, grief, and loneliness to his soul 
 and his hearthstone. 
 
 Let us drop the veil over the contemplation of 
 these infirmities of a great and noble mind. If, as I 
 believe, these afflictions of character were mostly 
 but manifestations of physical disease, which, at 
 varying periods and with unequal intensity, spread 
 inflammation through the sensitive fibre of his brain, 
 the fault was not his own. The tear of pity must 
 fall at view of the sufferings that his nature in 
 flicted. For, to whatever his infirmities were due, 
 he was their victim and the great sufferer. With 
 his death, their consequences mainly cease. What 
 he leaves behind is the product and the legacy of 
 his worth and virtue. The good he has done lives 
 after him; let the evil be interred with his bones. 
 
 When we review his life, let us turn from its dark 
 ness and weakness, and rather view him in periods 
 of light and power. Look on him in the happy hours 
 of health. Thus shall you perceive the possibilities 
 of his forces, and better take the lesson from his in 
 firmities. 
 
 It is for us to contemplate him as he was to us, the 
 lawyer and the judge. No lawyer ever lived whose 
 standing of professional excellence was exalted 
 higher. His conception of professional morals are as 
 noble and refined, as pure and elevating, as wisdom, 
 philosophy, and religion can form. He loved and 
 honored the profession of the law above all occupa 
 tions of men ; he reverenced it as " subrogated, " so he 
 said, "on earth, for the angels who administer God s 
 
 [108] 
 
law in heaven." "This," said he, to the graduating 
 class of the law school in 1873, "is the true ambi 
 tion of the lawyer: to obey God in the service of 
 society; to fulfill His law in the order of society; to 
 promote His order in the subordination of society 
 to its own law, adopted under His authority; to ad 
 minister to His justice by the nearest approach to it, 
 under the municipal law, which human intelligence 
 and conscience can accomplish." 
 
 He brought to the bench this spirit, and many 
 judgments of this court have been radiant with its 
 glory. They will be beacons on the track to pilot 
 generations of lawyers to come. Let the hopeful 
 enthusiasm of youth look upon his virtues, and, 
 shunning his imperfections, strive for his height of 
 learning and power. Can the neophyte, who sees 
 in dreams the gleaming splendor of professional 
 grandeur, but attain the one and avoid the other, he 
 may confidently expect the highest reward to which 
 the noble profession leads. 
 
 | 109] 
 
ADDRESS ON AGRICULTURE 
 1881 
 
ADDRESS ON AGRICULTURE 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL STATE FAIR, ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA, 1881 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I recognize a representative assembly of the far 
 mers of the most magnificent farm on earth; whose 
 wide expanse stretching from the western bank of 
 the Father of Waters receives the swift-running 
 light of morning in glory unbroken until the Rocky 
 Mountains intercept its brilliant race for day; on 
 whose undulating surface the oceans pour, through 
 clouds and wind, their fertilizing moisture; whose 
 broad fields, teeming with the fatness of a fecund 
 soil, can satisfy the desire for bread of all the hungry 
 children of men. 
 
 Around us are gathered the abundant evidences 
 of your material prosperity. The glory of your 
 fields, the bounty of your dairies, the fruit of your 
 trees and vines, the sweets of your blossoms lie on 
 the well spread tables; the stalls display the excel 
 lent blood and culture of your flocks and herds; on 
 every side the altars of the fruitful Pan and the 
 bountiful Ceres are redolent with the incense most 
 pleasing to the rural gods. 
 
 The scene suggests the theme to whom you choose 
 for your spokesman. It is most natural to the hour 
 to recall those distinctive features of the American 
 farmer s character and relations to men which have 
 
 8 [ 113 ] 
 
brought him to the "happy state and condition 7 
 here represented. 
 
 Demagogues love to thrum our eardrums with 
 their clamor of the wrongs the agriculturist suffers, 
 and stir a spirit of unrest. Their regular outcries 
 are doubtless proof of the healthy condition of our 
 free political atmosphere; but sometimes this mark 
 of salubrity seems a trifle too abundant. Calm wis 
 dom, with a broader view, superior to the irritations 
 of the passing moment, perceives the solid founda 
 tions for satisfaction in our present state, and sure 
 hopes for a steady progress with advancing years. 
 
 Nor shall your speaker be justly charged with 
 optimism, if he do but point to the characteristics 
 which exalt his subject, give little heed to the queru 
 lous cavils of detractors. 
 
 If it were a fault it should be pardoned to the oc 
 casion. I am only partly willing to believe that all 
 the fruits of Minnesota are so rich, that all her cat 
 tle are so sleek and fat, as the exhibit on the plat 
 ters over here, as the splendid creatures in the stalls 
 yonder. It is right to bring out the best to the fair. 
 
 But there shall be no such fault. There is the 
 noblest philosophy in that contentment which rises 
 on a wise survey of great results accomplished, and 
 co-exists with a high purpose to make enlightened 
 progress beyond. It is in that spirit of confidence 
 in his future advancement that I would dwell with 
 pride and satisfaction on the present character and 
 attainments of our typical American farmer. 
 
 Yet I venture the essay with a great regret that 
 it must be so hurriedly and imperfectly done as to 
 be but a hint of the true measure of the subject. 
 
 [114] 
 
The farmer of America is a vastly different being 
 from the kind who has for ages fretted the soil of 
 the old world. Various and multiplied are these 
 differences, but the chief of all, perhaps the pro 
 ducer of most of them, is the transformation which 
 has come over his relations to his fellow men. He 
 stands forth, first, in sharp contrast with his class 
 in other lands, in the origin of his title to, and the 
 nature of his possession of, the soil he cultivates. 
 He entered upon his fields not as the tenant or 
 villein of some feudal lord, wearing the collar of 
 servitude and yielding all the better portion of his 
 produce in return for protection to him as a weak 
 ling laborer. He strode at the outset beyond the 
 pale of ancient law and arbitrary usages. He bore 
 in his hands the arms of a lord of the forest, the 
 rifle and the ax. Self-reliant and self-dependent, he 
 took from nature the lease of his estate, rent free 
 and bondage free. Not, however, free of cost and 
 without price; but the price paid was the price man 
 hood loves to render for the gains which do it 
 honor. It was at the cost of that labor which builds 
 up the man; with privations which strengthen rather 
 than enervate; and facing perils which exalt the 
 soul. With every trunk he lifted to its place in the 
 cabin wall, a new layer of strength was added to his 
 character; every rood of ground he subdued to cul 
 tivation gave new breadth to his views; every peril 
 he surmounted, every conflict which he won, refined 
 and sublimated the spirit of his life. And when, 
 after such discipline of labor and trial, standing by 
 the door of his castle of logs, he heard the sound of 
 
 r us i 
 
the contented housewife within and the voices of 
 happy children round about, while his eyes swept 
 the fruitful possessions he had wrought from the 
 wilderness to their sufficient support and comfort, 
 he realized the individual independence of free 
 manhood, and, with unopened lips, his soul joined 
 in the great hymn of liberty, raising a strain har 
 monious with the symphony of the stars, which 
 heaven s ear might hear. 
 
 To such a man, those who wore crowns and titles 
 were not superior in the elements of manhood; and 
 he neither so acknowledged them, nor feared them. 
 His thought exalted him to their level, and he dealt 
 with them in spirit as their equal. His domain might 
 not be so large, but it was just as much his own. 
 His rights and powers might not be so extensive, 
 but they were equally as sacred. His happiness lay 
 more in contentment and less in splendor, but his 
 privilege to pursue it he was ready to defend as a 
 king his kingdom. So, awarding to all like him the 
 rights he claimed, he found in his union with his 
 peers and co-workers the strength and ability to re 
 sist oppression, which, all on a sudden, manifested 
 the farm- workers of America to be a new element 
 in the world. They had fought in the forlorn hope 
 of civilization, and had carried the assault. In every 
 added hour of life their understandings, newly in 
 formed, came more clearly to see that the civiliza 
 tion whose banners they had carried in the front was 
 not that of the old world institutions of feudal lord 
 and tenant, of master and slave; but that the abodes 
 they had wrought were the homesteads of freedom 
 and independence. 
 
 [116] 
 
To such men, the hour of labor was not an hour 
 of sodden toil, whose burden was borne as the laden 
 ass carried his pack; nor the hour of repose a period 
 of brutish rest. They loved to pursue high medita 
 tions, and the problems of life, the rights of men, 
 the methods of social order and happiness, were ex 
 cogitated and understood. They were not the men 
 to bear unlawful exaction, though a king and parlia 
 ment put it on them; their manly pride resented the 
 arrogance of power and the insolence of office; and 
 they taught the aristocrats of England who saw 
 with mere scorn the rebellion of peasants that they 
 were not peasants who tilled the new world. The 
 continental armies of the Eevolution were filled and 
 sustained by the farmers of America, and the men 
 who had set up their household gods in the clearings 
 of the forest maintained in every hour of trial the 
 spirit sprung from the teaching of their labor, and 
 the discipline of their dangers. They appeared 
 foremost in every assembly, whether for delibera 
 tion or for war. They manifested in various emer 
 gencies every noble gift of intellect and soul which 
 the great object demanded. 
 
 From the broad acres of Mount Vernon came the 
 loftiest soul of history, to lead to victory the armies 
 of Liberty and establish her foundations secure for 
 ever. That defiant declaration the pillar of cloud 
 by day, of fire by night, before the hosts of freedom 
 in their long years of trial sprung from the in 
 spired brain of the farmer of Monticello. It was 
 farmer Putnam who dropped with eager joy the 
 plow in the furrow to fight in his shirt sleeves the 
 
 [117] 
 
richly uniformed veterans of England, and roll them 
 in blood down the slopes of Bunker Hill. Heaven 
 gave to the farmer boys of the Hudson that incor 
 ruptible patriotism which defied the seduction of 
 riches to deliver the nation in peril from the most 
 successful treason of Arnold. 
 
 Oh, farmers of America! The story of the plant 
 ing of your race is glorious! A new career was 
 opened then for the tiller of the soil! Poets and 
 philosophers have ever made honor of agriculture. 
 But their honor was for the great nobles and wealthy 
 owners, their patrons, who toiled not, yet reaped 
 where others wrought. Twas but "to heap the 
 shrine of luxury and pride with incense kindled at 
 the Muse s flame." The real farmer, the laborer for 
 their glory, shared neither profits nor glory. A hun 
 dred years ago that order was changed forever in 
 the new world. Great as was the farmer s part in 
 the achievements of that era, not less has been his 
 share of their beneficent results. 
 
 From that time dominion of the soil has been his; 
 and his tenure made secure. His labor has yielded 
 its return to his own hands; to him his seed has 
 borne its increase. 
 
 No steward descends upon his harvest fields to 
 sweep the profits into the granary of his lord. No 
 tithe-collector snatches for the dignitaries of the 
 church what the landlord has spared. He may lift 
 his prayers direct to the God of nature; and the 
 bounty with which nature blesses his seed is all his 
 own. 
 
 But not alone in the riches of his tillage has he 
 realized the benefits of independence. Better ad- 
 
 [118] 
 
vancement still has been his in the social and politi 
 cal relations he enjoys. With ownership of the soil 
 has come that equality of caste which belongs to 
 dominion. There is no lord or master above him. 
 There is no rank or grade of social life which is his 
 superior. I speak it with the full meaning of the 
 words employed, and affirm again, that beyond the 
 farmer there is no business, no avocation, no grade 
 of social life, and no higher class of men in the 
 states of America. 
 
 It is not meant that all farmers reach the full 
 plane of their class. In the providence of God, there 
 has been ordained an infinite variety of intellect, 
 character, and capability among men. "One star 
 differeth from another star in glory. " Farmers are 
 precisely as other men. They are not and cannot all 
 be equal; neither in strength of muscle or fibre of 
 brain. Among them, as with others, the gradations 
 of intellect and power are almost infinite. Their 
 achievements must vary accordingly. No laws of 
 men, no institutions of society, can alter their ordi 
 nation of heaven. All that laws and constitutions, 
 all that social opinions and usages can do, is to open 
 the road, with equal access to all. This the farmers 
 of America have accomplished for their class. The 
 way is open. Many have already traveled it. They 
 are examples to the race. 
 
 Do any doubt their social rank? Look about you 
 here in Minnesota! Cannot you, any one here pres 
 ent, name at once, within your borders, numerous 
 farmers, the social equals of the best in your com 
 monwealth? I am but a stranger, yet am confident 
 
 [119] 
 
to challenge the test. On the fields of your neigh 
 boring Wisconsin, I claim the honor of friendship 
 with scores who are the social and intellectual equals 
 of the highest of other classes. In some, I know a 
 pride of manhood and a degree of power, riches of 
 intellect and integrity of character, which are the 
 honor and adornment of humanity. Nor is the far 
 mer s place less, or less important in political circles. 
 His voice has ever been potent his influence com 
 manding in all affairs of state and nation. It could 
 not be otherwise under the constitution of our politi 
 cal society. Where the majority of votes appoints 
 the holders of every public trust, the wielders of 
 that sceptre of power must hold a sovereign influ 
 ence. The farmer s class outnumbers any other; 
 and, when you add those immediately dependent on 
 it, perhaps all others. It is the great substratum and 
 foundation rank of the republic. The farmer holds 
 his place in every governing board and through all 
 gradations of office, in town, county, state, and na 
 tion. In most of the administrative subdivisions of 
 government he is nearly supreme. Town and county 
 boards are almost wholly controlled by him, and 
 in every legislature his representatives outnumber 
 those of any other order. 
 
 And, let it be remembered, these are the bodies 
 which mainly rule the prosperity and welfare of the 
 people in the ordinary affairs of life. Places of na 
 tional trust have more of splendor and honor in ap 
 pearance, as the scope of their authority is more 
 extended. 
 
 But except in extraordinary emergencies their 
 influence and effect on the business conditions and 
 
 [120] 
 
affairs of our citizens is far less. Two-thirds of our 
 taxes are expended by our counties, towns, and local 
 bodies. Substantially all our laws which define and 
 sustain the rights of property and persons, which ad 
 just the social and domestic relations, which secure 
 our peace, our liberty, our happiness, are of state au 
 thority alone. In national affairs, moreover, the 
 farmer has always enjoyed a large, if not a full 
 share. Presidents, senators, and representatives 
 have been often called from the farm, and oftener 
 still from among the farmer s boys. I cannot dwell 
 to recapitulate the proofs. Eecall to mind the illus 
 trious men who have honored our land, and you will 
 name a majority who sprung from the farm. To 
 sum it, to agriculture in America have been paid the 
 genuine honors, which in other countries have but 
 been sung to it. Our constitution, laws, and usages 
 have opened wide the door to all to achieve whatever 
 nature has given ability to attain. The farmer has 
 been exalted to dominion of the soil, to social rank 
 and political power equal to that of any other class 
 or order. 
 
 Let any who would justly measure his great 
 advancement and present condition cast his eye 
 abroad! Let him read the history of rural labor, 
 and view it as it is in other countries. Where is the 
 land under the sun in which the tiller of the soil has 
 so maintained himself against the greed and craft 
 of men? Look to Great Britain. There, among more 
 than thirty million, ownership of lands is absorbed 
 by a few thousand, whose hands put no touch of 
 labor to increase its product, but with relentless 
 
 [121] 
 
greed draw from the toilers on the fields the better 
 portion in rents, by which alone can labor be allowed 
 the privilege to earn subsistence. The farmer there 
 must be a rent-payer; he can have no title but a lease. 
 The farm laborer must be a hind; he is fed and 
 sheltered. The father of one can have no inheritance 
 but a rent charge; of the other, but the patrimony 
 of the beasts of burden. The church shares the 
 benefit and lends to this the sanction of her spiritual 
 authority. Feudalism is gone, indeed, but it is not 
 yet for Englishmen to own the lands they till, nor 
 enjoy "the kindly fruits of the earth/ which their 
 hands gather from seed they sow except in the 
 litany. 
 
 Or consider the melancholy state of poor Ire 
 land! There sit Irishmen, poverty-bound to the 
 spot, whose fathers were robbed of title to the rich 
 vales and fertile meadows of that bright and beau 
 tiful isle. They still plant the seed upon its surface; 
 they nurse its growth; from early morn to dewy eve 
 they ply the implements of husbandry to nourish its 
 increase; their eyes linger on the rich products which 
 nature s lavish bounty abundantly bestows to their 
 labor; themselves reaping the plentiful harvest, they 
 must bear it to their master s ships to furnish out a 
 replete luxury in a foreign land; and then return to 
 the miserable cabin to hear their children cry for 
 bread. Again and again the world has heard and 
 pitied the wail of famished Ireland. Yet in every 
 year when famine has swung the scythe of death 
 among the toilers of that land, the lavish bounty of 
 nature sacrificed to pampered greed has been abun- 
 
 [122] 
 
dant to have fed every Irishman, every starving wife 
 and child. Ships laden with the succor of humanity 
 met in their ports others bearing off the plenty of 
 Irish fields. 
 
 For there, with all their cries of hunger, generous 
 nature never failed of enough for Irishmen; she has 
 only refused to satiate the avarice of the foreign 
 land-holder. 
 
 Let him who repines in unreasoning discontent 
 in this happy land, but stop to think how, within a 
 few months, the Irish husbandman has been forced 
 to see the flesh dry up, the bones protrude, and the 
 eyes sink back in the starving faces of his wife and 
 babes, in his own beautiful and bountiful Ireland! 
 
 A more extended survey must still further en 
 hance our comparative satisfaction. The master of 
 the National Grange recently illustrated the social 
 condition of the farmers of republican France by a 
 significant anecdote of his own experience. He 
 dined, on a recent visit there, with a farmer of repu 
 tation, a model of his class. The rich repast with 
 which he was able to regale the distinguished com 
 missioner of agriculture from the United States con 
 sisted of soup and then stewed rabbits! Afterwards 
 some lettuce, "to take the taste out" of his mouth. 
 A few days later the compliment was returned by 
 invitation of the farmer to the hotel; and lo! the 
 manager wouldn t let him sit at the table with ladies 
 and gentlemen! With all their bluster, the French 
 man s liberty savors yet too much of royal garlic! 
 
 It must suffice to close this hasty view, to point to 
 one ample proof, embracing all. Stand for a week 
 
 [123] 
 
at Castle Garden! Behold descend from the great 
 ships the thousands who have tempted the long and 
 dreary waste of seas, mingling all the tongues of 
 Europe, join the great throng to claim the happy 
 homes and free air of America ! 
 
 The conditions I have thus reviewed I rank of 
 the greatest value, the highest in the farmer s honor. 
 They go to his nobility of character, the exaltation 
 ofi his manhood. They are the mainspring of all his 
 advancement, the real source of his prosperity. 
 Their influence and effect have been prodigious for 
 his welfare. The material prosperity which has fol 
 lowed to their lead is marvelous to contemplate, even 
 in this age of marvels. The American farmer is as 
 cending to be, has almost now become, the supplier 
 of the world. His cotton and sugar, his grains and 
 corn, his butter and cheese, even his fresh meats, 
 pour with magnificent currents into the markets of 
 the old world, returning "golden showers of com 
 pensation." I shall not enter on the statistician s 
 office, to amplify the splendid theme. I beg to turn 
 the view to other results of these primal causes, 
 which are themselves contributory causes of this 
 prosperity, and merit an especial attention. Among 
 these is the peculiar advantage derived from the va 
 riety and usefulness of labor-saving machinery. 
 Here is a notable result and proof of value of the 
 leading conditions already considered. The rents 
 which the land tenants of other nations have con 
 tributed to the luxury of landlords, our farmers have 
 accumulated for themselves. Thus they have be 
 come able to be liberal purchasers, and have focused 
 
 [124] 
 
the thought of inventors and manufacturers on the 
 necessities of the farm and the amelioration of their 
 labor. No other land possesses implements in aid of 
 husbandry comparable to ours in extent and value. 
 The agricultural operations of the old world have 
 been mainly conducted by the laboring hand of man. 
 The farm laborer and the ox have plodded in the 
 yoke, day by day, together. The old methods, the 
 old tools, in the rude simplicity of generations long 
 gone, still remain in the hands of the peasantry 
 there. We read occasionally, indeed, of some noble 
 lord or rich landholder who has pleased his leisure 
 by introducing some new-invented implement to his 
 fields. Among the toiling masses labor-saving ma 
 chinery is little known. In truth, it is only where 
 institutions of liberty develop and uplift the indi 
 vidual to intelligence and ability to demand aid for 
 himself that such amelioration comes. It is rarely 
 furnished to the general, by the consideration of 
 the higher few. 
 
 It has been the enterprise of our manufacturers, 
 which has shown the startled laborer on European 
 field that ingenious mechanism which sweeps down 
 the waving grain by acres, binding it in convenient 
 sheaves, while the ruler of the harvest rides tri 
 umphant over the scene. This honor truly belongs 
 to the American farmer. He begot the American 
 manufacturer. It is, in real fact, his moving influ 
 ence and power which have put on the fields of Eus- 
 sia and the plains of Australia the harvester and the 
 mower of America. 
 
 In this country the progress of the last generation 
 has revolutionized the whole business of agricul- 
 
 [125] 
 
ture. It has introduced new forms and processes 
 with new implements, and vastly enlarged the scope 
 and extent of the pursuit. Eecall to mind the farmer 
 of fifty or sixty years ago. Behold him in his har 
 vest season. He hurries through the neighborhood 
 to collect labor for the task. His forces gathered, 
 each weaponed with a crooked sickle, they attack 
 the field of but a few acres as the great undertaking 
 of the year. The lark is startled by their early call, 
 who must save every hour of light. They gather in 
 the hand the berry-laden stalks, then sever them 
 with the knife, and tenderly lay them down. Inch 
 by inch they crawl slowly on. Day after day the 
 back-breaking toil advances before the field is won. 
 Then the heavy wain, urged by the patient oxen, 
 creeps painfully to the barn, where the sheaves are 
 laid at rest. By and by, amid winter winds, for 
 weary days, the farmer flings the heavy flail to fill 
 the moderate bin. Seize such a one in your fancy, 
 advance the years by sudden turn upon him, to look 
 on your broad waving fields, rich with the world s 
 supply! Invite him to a ride on your harvester, 
 while you toss off by the acre the well bound bun 
 dles! Then go with him to the thresher, whose de 
 vouring mouth swallows the sheaves as the big stack 
 falls, while at the spout the rapid stream of golden 
 berries runs! Could he believe you to be the child 
 of his loins, not in league with some genius of the 
 fairy world? Or, bid him drop the hoe in the old 
 cornfield, hung with strings and streamers and 
 guarded by the bogus sentry against the crows, and 
 by sudden transformation seat him on the sulky 
 
 [126] 
 
corn plow, to stir the earth with rapid step on your 
 broad acres! Would he not laugh to hear you call 
 that working in the corn! Such and so many are the 
 devices which have relieved the man and woman 
 from the drudgery of the farm that the imagination 
 can hardly pause in the forecast of the future. They 
 begin with the farmer s plowing, they attend him in 
 seed time, in cultivation, in the gathering of crops, 
 in their storage, their reduction, even to the hour of 
 marketing. They have lifted the husbandman be 
 yond the level of mere toil. The farm is already a 
 manufactory. Its labor is applied through ingenious 
 mechanism with intelligent skill. Its laborers are 
 mechanics. Its operations hum with the music of 
 civilization. The ox and the ass have lost their 
 character as beasts of burden. Steam has expelled 
 them from the fields, and works in the farmer s yoke. 
 Who forbids that electricity shall next become a 
 farm servant, and leave the noble horse but for the 
 enjoyment of the highway and the track? 
 
 But the enormous producing power which these 
 implements of husbandry have developed would 
 have been no blessing, perhaps a curse, had inven 
 tion ceased with them. The mill wheel cannot run 
 unless the tail race delivers the flood which grants 
 it power. It were folly to multiply production, if 
 the product do but accumulate in hand. Coals are 
 little worth to Newcastle for use, nor wheat to Min 
 nesota. So heaven filled the inventor s brain with 
 other cunning to meet the farmer s need. The won 
 derful highway of iron was bestowed in time. It is, 
 also, the farmer s debtor; at least developed by his 
 
 [127] 
 
demands. Without him, it would be of compara 
 tively small extent and value. Without its aid, 
 where would be the farmer of the west! 
 
 Before railroads were devised, there was no ex 
 tensive freight communication but by water. And 
 that was valueless unless conveniently accessible. 
 From this, the agriculture of past ages gathered 
 around the seas and lakes, or lined the river s mar 
 gin. It girt the Mediterranean and made famous the 
 valley of the Nile. The unwatered world of the in 
 terior was left to the wandering nomad or the for 
 est barbarian. It was the unknown region full of 
 mysterious terrors. The great Hercynian wood was 
 the home of beasts, brute and human; the latter ever 
 the impending peril, and finally the destroyer of the 
 civilization of the world. The reserve corps of bar 
 barism lay back on the plains of Russia and Tartary, 
 which nourished the fierce savages who could live 
 on equine flesh and carouse on the milk of mares. 
 So, too, water communication was slow and tedious, 
 even when accessible. That is true, especially of 
 inland navigation. It is weeks by water from St. 
 Paul to New York, though the aid of steam be in 
 voked; and in northern climes that avenue is avail 
 able for but half the year. Your magnificent wheat 
 fields would mostly lie unbroken, farmers of Minne 
 sota, had not the invention and enterprise of other 
 men, stimulated by your demands, laid the double 
 lined highway to carry the freight car, laden with 
 your precious berry, to the sea; the Indian would 
 still be master of the territories of the west. Your 
 lands derive their value, your industry its reward, 
 
 r 128 ] 
 
your homes the luxuries and many of the comforts 
 they exhibit, from the well-abused railroads of the 
 continent. 
 
 In the beautiful language of that noble lover of 
 human liberty, once the pride and ornament of Wis 
 consin s supreme bench, the lamented Byron Paine, 
 "Railroads are the great public highways of the 
 world, along which its gigantic currents of trade 
 and travel continually pour highways compared 
 with which the most magnificent highways of an 
 tiquity dwindle into insignificance. They are the 
 most marvelous invention of modern times. They 
 have done more to develop the wealth and resources, 
 to stimulate the industry, reward the labor and pro 
 mote the general comfort and prosperity of the coun 
 try, than any other, perhaps than all other mere 
 physical causes combined. There is probably not a 
 man, woman or child, whose interest or comfort has 
 not been in some degree subserved by them. They 
 bring to our doors the productions of the earth. 
 They enable us to anticipate and protract the sea 
 sons. They enable the inhabitants of each clime to 
 enjoy the pleasures and luxuries of all. They scat 
 ter the productions of the press and literature broad 
 cast through the country with amazing rapidity. 
 There is scarcely a want, wish or aspiration of the 
 human heart which they do not in some measure 
 help to gratify. They promote the pleasures of 
 social life and of friendship; they bring the skilled 
 physician swiftly from a distance to attend the sick 
 and the wounded, and enable the absent friend to be 
 present at the bedside of the dying. They have more 
 
 9 [ 129 ] 
 
than realized the fabulous conception of the eastern 
 imagination, which pictured the genii as transport 
 ing inhabited palaces through the air. They take a 
 train of inhabited palaces from the Atlantic coast, 
 and, with a marvelous swiftness, deposit it on the 
 shores that are washed by the Pacific seas. In war, 
 they transport the armies and supplies of the gov 
 ernment with the greatest celerity, and carry for 
 ward, as it were, on the wings of the wind, relief 
 and comfort to those who are stretched bleeding and 
 wounded on the field of battle." 
 
 But while we do them justice, let us not forget 
 there are doubtless many faults to be corrected and 
 abuses to be reformed in the administration of these 
 highways. Corporate powers and corporate values 
 have advanced with a more rapid step than the in 
 vention of our statesmen and law-makers. The 
 agency of the corporation is comparatively modern, 
 and, like the agency of steam, is a mighty power. 
 Unless subdued by proper appliances of law suffi 
 cient to control it, we are liable to disasters injurious 
 to our welfare, as the accidents which sometimes be 
 fall the train are destructive of life. 
 
 But I must not protract this weary hour to discuss 
 this problem foreign to my subject. Important as it 
 is, we need not fear it. The railroad, rightly used, 
 is the friend of the farmer and the whole people. It 
 is the paramount interest of its owners that it should 
 so remain. They dare not make it an enemy, and 
 when we reflect that a single invention the steel 
 rail has reduced the freight tariff forty per centum, 
 we may trust somewhat to time and genius to relieve 
 
 [130] 
 
the inconveniences, and continue to enjoy its bless 
 ings with composure. All these considerations mul 
 tiply the necessity for the high education of farmers. 
 The avocation has ever been one affording oppor 
 tunity for meditation; and the higher types of man 
 hood, broad thought and well fixed convictions have 
 ever marked our American agriculturists. Yet the 
 world has not been accustomed to admit the neces 
 sity of much education for the farmer s business. It 
 can no longer be so regarded. The steady progress 
 which the noble calling has made in methods and 
 scope, has placed it fairly on a par with any other, 
 in advance of many others, in the need of a broad 
 mental cultivation and general information. It is 
 still possible for the clumsy and brainless lout who 
 works without appreciation and intelligence to gain 
 subsistence from the bounty of nature. She is too 
 lavish of her abundance to suffer even the block 
 head to go unfed. But such is not the farmer of this 
 country, though sometimes found in his company. 
 
 The true farmer is far more exalted. He is capable 
 of great things. He brings science to his aid. He 
 studies the laws of nature, manifested in the subtle 
 essences of the soil, the organization and growth 
 of the vegetable kingdom, even meteorological 
 changes. He reaches out his inquiries over all the 
 earth, seeking better plants and foods, improved 
 breeds of animals, more enlightened processes. No 
 business pursued by man opens more far-reaching 
 avenues of research, because, being everywhere in 
 some form pursued, subjects of inquiry multiply 
 with every country. 
 
 [131] 
 
So, on the other hand, the great facilities for in 
 terchange have made the world the farmer s market. 
 You do not sell your grain to the wheat buyer at -the 
 station where you deliver it. He is a mere factor. 
 He fixes no price on your commodity. That is done 
 by his masters in Liverpool; and they, in turn, are 
 but the barometer of the world s appetite. 
 
 When the children of men grow hungry, the golden 
 kernels grow more golden, by some cents to the 
 bushel. When they are fed you must sell for less, 
 or wait till they are hungry again. 
 
 So, substantially, with your corn, your butter and 
 cheese, your fat cattle, and all your money-bringing 
 products, except that with them the varying mar 
 kets add to the demands on the farmer s intelli 
 gence. For, to skillfully conduct his negotiations, to 
 understand the instructions of the world to its 
 agent at the station in respect to price, to regulate 
 with wise forecast the production of profitable 
 crops, the farmer must be acquainted with the busi 
 ness of the world. He must be a reading man, of 
 quick perception and comprehensive judgment. 
 
 The farmer s newspaper has been and continues 
 his efficient and valuable coadjutor. It, too, has been 
 the product and kept pace with the development of 
 the age. Many of them rival the best general sheets 
 in industry and value, and deserve the highest credit 
 for their work. But the aggressive spirit born of 
 the farmer s liberty and power has wrought a new 
 institution, the agricultural college. This, too, may 
 fairly be classed as a laurel in the chaplet of the 
 American farmer. The refinement and value of 
 
 [ 132 ] 
 
studies, the world has never failed to acknowledge, 
 but until modern times has regarded them almost 
 exclusively the portion of the so-called learned pro 
 fessions. That the hand of labor should be guided 
 by the intelligence of science, and the workman s 
 brain refined by the discipline of study, the world 
 denied until the principles of America taught the 
 practical equality of humanity. Schools were for 
 the priest to pore over the myriad tomes of religious 
 controversy; for the lawyer to search the refine 
 ments of jurisprudence through "many a volume of 
 forgotten lore;" for the doctor to trace back the 
 story of the ills that flesh is heir to, and learn the 
 prescriptions of Esculapius and his following line; 
 for the scholar and the antiquary to hunt the 
 changes in human speech, and read the history of 
 dynasties and wars. 
 
 But a great change has come upon our institutions 
 of learning. We do not deny the value of the old, 
 but we realize the no less value of the new. These 
 schools are yet but beginning, their power undevel 
 oped. Their future is full of promise. The time 
 shall come, and that I hope not long hence, when, 
 to rise in his calling, the man who labors with the 
 hand must have a well-trained and well-filled brain, 
 as well as he who works by the pen; when the far 
 mer s boy shall learn that science which discloses 
 the laws of the soil, as well as to handle the plow 
 which breaks it; which teaches the germination and 
 growth of the grain, as well as to drive the reaper 
 which cuts it. But the farmer s education must go 
 beyond his business. In his hands repose the prog- 
 
 [133] 
 
ress and security of our institutions of liberty. All 
 good citizens should be so informed, so upright and 
 so wise, as rightly to discharge their high duties in 
 this respect to their fellow men and future ages. But 
 I think the duty rests with peculiar weight on the 
 farmer, and that it should be his highest pride to so 
 regard it. First, because his class holds a greater 
 share than any other of political power. He is there 
 fore bound to rise beyond it to care for the state, or 
 his race, and for posterity with a broad and manly 
 philanthropy. And again, because his history and 
 traditions demand it. The political wisdom which 
 wrought our free institutions has ever been in pos 
 session of those who till the soil. There be many 
 who fear the perpetuity and safety of our nation, 
 because its increase of population and wealth dimin 
 ish the influence of the rural classes. There is some 
 thing about the open communion with nature which 
 has always raised the loftiest spirits among men to 
 profound reflection. It has been the purifier of the 
 soul, restoring the strength of convictions and up 
 right purposes. The possession of the broad acres, 
 when nature, with recurring seasons, unfailingly be 
 stows her bounty to man, enlarges the currents of 
 the soul. He has, indeed, a sodden brain, who is not 
 stirred to high purposes and a broad philanthropy in 
 witnessing the wisdom and benevolence with which 
 heaven informs the face of earth. 
 
 And where is the man with a heart big enough to 
 love his fellow men, who can survey the magnificent 
 territory of this Union, the millions multiplying on 
 it, the unexampled prosperity and happiness which 
 
 [134] 
 
they enjoy under our constitution, and yet reflect on 
 the history of past ages without poignant anxiety 
 for the security and perpetuation of these blessings 
 to posterity? How anxiously does he turn his eye 
 over the wide expanse, seeking a safe anchorage for 
 his ardent hope. To what special rank or class can 
 he turn with a better reliance than to the owners and 
 tillers of the republic s wide domain? Eemoved 
 from the cankering vices of the cities, the false lux 
 ury, the feverish chase for riches, the absorbing 
 struggle for ephemeral ends, what offers such repose 
 to hope as the rural homes? The altar and hearth 
 stones of our American farmsides are sacred places. 
 They have been the nurseries of the great men and 
 great women of this country. In them have been 
 laid the foundations of that purity, patriotism, and 
 power, which have been the glory of our public men. 
 To these calm retreats our wisest and strongest have 
 ever loved to retire, to shake off the vicious influ 
 ences of crowded centres, to restore the brain, to 
 purify the heart, and invigorate the soul. There the 
 sweetest pleasures of life have been found. There 
 they have found rest and peace, when the storms of 
 life have exhausted them with turbulence. And 
 there they have gone to die. From the farmside 
 came Washington to draw the sword for man, and to 
 it he withdrew with joyful contentment when the 
 great victory was won. Thence he came again to 
 take the helm when our national voyage began, and 
 there again retired when his high duty was done. 
 And there he died ! How holy is that soil of Mount 
 Vernon! How wishfully did Webster, the great ex- 
 
 [135] 
 
pounder of the constitution, ever turn his weary eye, 
 in the meridian splendor of fame, to his sweet farm 
 home of Marshfield! What moving pathos in that 
 latest view of his life, when after a night of pain, he 
 caused his herd of oxen to be driven before his win 
 dow that he might look once more in their great, 
 gentle eyes, and see them crop the grass. "It was 
 his last enjoyment. " Whose heartstrings have not 
 been strained, whose eyes not moistened by the piti 
 ful supplication from the wasted lips of the nation s 
 great sufferer, to be carried back to the old farm 
 house at Mentor? What now to him the splendors 
 of ambition s highest goal, beside the dear old farm 
 home of his heart! Who but profoundly feels that 
 there he might be saved? How fervently rises the 
 spontaneous and universal prayer in every heart that 
 he yet may see the old roof tree, and be there re 
 stored to life, to strength, to happiness and power 
 again. Heaven grant its perfect answer! 
 
 Yes, these homes of the republic are her safe- 
 anchored foundations. Fountains of purity and 
 strength, they will nourish and sustain the virtue 
 and wisdom of her people. Upon the enlightened in 
 tegrity, the high patriotism, the devoted fidelity of 
 men reared among such influences, she may securely 
 repose. We may confidently fix our view upon the 
 future and with composure go forward. We are 
 riding on the grandest currents of the tide of time. 
 The prosperity we have is but the promise of the 
 prosperity that is to be. Dare you look forward for 
 one hundred years? Whose eye can rest unflinch 
 ingly on the advancing sun of our national glory? 
 
 [ 136 ] 
 
Who can picture to his fancy this continent after the 
 second century of liberty? when two hundred mil 
 lions, seated on every rood of the vast surface, with 
 all the appliances by which progressive invention 
 will supply increasing needs, shall enjoy the mag 
 nificent fruits of the highest human wisdom and lib 
 erty, and illustrate the noblest possibilities of hu 
 manity. Who shall, with mortal power, attempt the 
 glorious forecast, but to cry with the poet seer: 
 
 Visions of glory, spare my aching sight, 
 Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! 
 
 [137] 
 
IROQUOIS CLUB BANQUET ORATION 
 ON ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 1882 
 
BANQUET ORATION ON ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 AT THE IROQUOIS CLUB, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 JANUARY 10, 1882 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Iroquois Club: 
 The selection of this anniversary for your first 
 festival is a signal mark of the patriotism, wisdom, 
 and political courage which animate your organiza 
 tion, and a prophecy of its usefulness. 
 
 Andrew Jackson! What a flood of glorious his 
 tory rises on the name! A generation ago, and more, 
 the old democratic hero passed behind the curtain of 
 death. But only in the flesh to die. The mortal 
 change was his apotheosis to the celestial company 
 of the gods of our political religion. 
 
 Well worthy of his immortality was that heroic 
 life! Eiven by passion and scarred by the strokes 
 of strife, yet, it stands a colossal figure among the 
 heroes and statesmen of mankind, pre-eminent for 
 single-hearted honesty of purpose and exalted brav 
 ery to do and bear. The ivy of affection and the 
 laurel of renown, rich with the growth of years, now 
 hide with their beauty the scars and seams of hu 
 man weakness in that splendid tower of God s archi 
 tecture in man. The features of its majesty and 
 strength alone are left open to view. Turn we our 
 gaze on them, behold the beacon which blazes from 
 its lofty head, and fitly celebrate his day by invok- 
 
ing the inspiration of that character to rule again 
 our political world. 
 
 This country ever loved, and, as it shall be ever 
 free, ever must love, in its true ideal, the Jackson 
 democracy. False leadership and the turbulence of 
 war distracted its counsels, obscured its distinctive- 
 ness, and scattered its followers among various par 
 ties. The painful political scenes of our day cry 
 aloud for their patriotic reunion and the restoration 
 of its power. 
 
 It was not great intellect that made Andrew Jack 
 son a great leader of men. It was his towering 
 character. He had great intellect; and for war, 
 genius. But high above all, as mountain peaks 
 ascend above the lower-lying hills, rose the lofty 
 eminences of his stupendous character. Its para 
 mount features were indomitable will and daring, 
 but intelligent courage. No page of history tells of 
 one who, before him, survived seventy-eight years 
 and so continually performed such, and so many, 
 actions of desperate audacity. 
 
 From early boyhood to whitened age he was beset 
 by perils and involved in strife, sometimes crippled 
 by wounds, and often broken by disease. Others 
 would have yielded; or not yielding, would have 
 died. But not he! Through every year of life, in 
 every danger, in difficulties unmeasured, the flame of 
 that matchless soul burned undimmed, his courage 
 never flinched nor his iron will surrendered. His 
 personal hardihood was not more remarkable than 
 his moral courage. The two went hand in hand. He 
 as boldly met the judgment of men and angels as 
 
 [142] 
 
the efforts of an enemy. For he was founded on ab 
 solute honesty of thought. Not always right, he 
 always thought he was right. His acts were some 
 times wrong; his purposes in them, to his mind, 
 never. It guided him in quarrel with his enemies, 
 it ennobled his intercourse with friends. It gov 
 erned his individual transactions, and rose to ex 
 altation when he dealt for his country and fellow- 
 men. There his example voiced the teaching: The 
 man is a felon who in politics cheats the people, and 
 he a traitor who betrays public trust. 
 
 And this our day and generation which has seen 
 a secret plotter, because his corrupt arts turned 
 awry a state s election on which a presidential con 
 test pivoted, wined and feasted as a political hero 
 which witnesses even now at the capital of its great 
 est state the consummation of a shameful compact 
 for the barter of public offices of trust, while yet we 
 have not ceased to shudder from the horror of a 
 president s assassination in time of peace because 
 of the passionate intrigue of faction may we not 
 turn an anxious eye to the lesson of honest convic 
 tion and integrity of purpose taught by Jackson s 
 open war. Better far to the country were all his 
 upright errors, than a single drop of the subtle 
 poison of the blood inoculated by the chicane and 
 fraud which have been too long the instruments of 
 power in the republic. These were the qualities 
 which made the leadership of Jackson great and suc 
 cessful. These magnetized and unified the Jackson 
 democracy of fifty years ago. These were their 
 principles of action. First, to see the right blazing 
 
 [143] 
 
with the authority of the burning bush to Moses; 
 then fight for it, recking no peril. 
 
 Above all things, and first of all, the Jackson 
 democrat, as Jackson did, loves his country with a 
 love which knows no higher duty but to God. He 
 loves this complex frame of government which, 
 when young, kings derided, and the world can not 
 comprehend, this mystic child of liberty, heaven 
 conceived, of one in many and many in one; this fast- 
 bound union of independent states; this system of 
 the stars, resting on the equipoise of contending 
 forces, safe as law and free as space. He loves it 
 without reasoning and with reason; not alone be 
 cause it shelters his wife and babes and household 
 gods, protects his labor and opens unlimited possi 
 bilities to his manhood, but because it satisfies the 
 natural longings of his soul, because our fathers won 
 it as the price of blood, because it is the ark of their 
 covenant and holds in security the fruit and hope of 
 liberty. He loves it because it stands up in the way 
 o the tyrants of earth, inviting the oppressed to 
 safety, and teaching the examples of freedom to 
 men. The springing manhood of his youth rejoices 
 in this idol, superior to the love of woman, and the 
 experience in his age sinks the roots of his affec 
 tion in wisdom and philanthropy. 
 
 Such was Jackson s patriotism, intense as his 
 character, passionate and true. It was a nursling 
 of the bloody Tarleton s Washau massacre, printed 
 on his boyish head by a British butcher s sword- 
 stroke, nourished in captivity while yet but four 
 teen. It sank deeper in his heart as he helped to 
 
 [144] 
 
raise the frame of a state in the wilds of primitive 
 Tennessee, and fought the savage in the southern 
 glades and forests. And how full of glory to his 
 country were its ripened fruits! Recall the scenes 
 of the second war with Great Britain! With all our 
 victories on land and sea, disaster and humiliation 
 had befallen us by land. Our soil had been invaded, 
 our capital captured and ravaged by fire. Our wide 
 seacoast, so promising to commerce, seemed helpless 
 of defense. And when England gathered at Jamaica 
 her vast Armada, boastfully threatening to seize our 
 great river, rob us of our new-bought territory, and 
 push her ships and arms in triumph northward till 
 her cordon of empire bound us from Canada to the 
 Gulf, who compared her mighty preparation with 
 our feeble forces, without some fear? Who but 
 Andrew Jackson? With the daring patriotism of 
 Leonidas, intelligently skillful as it was desperate, 
 he flung by night his little band upon the enemy, in 
 stantly he had landed on the Louisiana shore; then 
 gaining delay to raise a hasty breastwork, with 
 bloody slaughter of her trained and veteran army, 
 he gave to England, more by valor than by arms, 
 her most ignominious defeat, and, changing our 
 humiliation to joy, finished the war in glory by the 
 splendid victory of New Orleans. 
 
 Not alone by a savage or a foreign enemy was 
 that love of country tried. When his hair was white 
 with the toils and wars of more than three-score 
 years, when care, disease, and grief had long pressed 
 hard upon his soul from the very people he had 
 fought and labored for, from his own southern 
 
 10 [ 145 ] 
 
clime a deadly blow was leveled at this country. 
 The treason of secession raised its horrid front to 
 defy the constitution and tear our union asunder. 
 Though many trembled, the old president was un 
 shaken. With the fierce alacrity of youth he met it 
 before it came forward, and raising that fitting cry 
 of a republic s chief magistrate, "By the God of 
 heaven I will uphold the law ! " he struck the treason 
 down. He knew but one dealing with the country s 
 enemy, whether he came in ships across the sea, or 
 traitorously at home struck at the sacred bond of 
 union, to fight him on the instant and fight him to 
 the death. 
 
 And this is the devotion everywhere of the true 
 Jackson democrat. This led him to the fore-ranks 
 of war, when a second time secession aimed its mor 
 tal stroke upon our nation s bond; when, alas! no 
 Jackson stood in front. Forgotten all divisions, 
 loosed all other ties, this devotion bound the Jack 
 son democrat to all true comrades in arms. Let the 
 warriors who fought with tongues and offices at 
 home raise their chatter in vain! It was not they. 
 This fellowship of the brave in patriotic duty then 
 saved the republic to men, and shall be its safe 
 foundation forever. 
 
 Fellow-democrats, these were the ruling guides of 
 the illustrious man whose name and inspiration you 
 invoke to-night. But volumes only can tell the 
 many deeds and services by which he exemplified 
 them in action. I may not pause to touch them with 
 even bare allusion. Yet I would bid you mark his 
 dealing with another peculiar danger to popular in- 
 
 [146] 
 
stitutions the clutch of a great corporation on the 
 government. Like other combinations of capital, 
 the bank of the United States had its field and day 
 of usefulness. In its useful work it was entitled to 
 credit and protection, and both it received. But 
 with strength it grew ambitious and strained for un 
 just power. It stretched out its arm and took the 
 Congress in its grasp. It defied the executive, and 
 a weaker one would have bent to its will. But Jack 
 son smote it, like Hercules the dragon, and it fell! 
 And with it fell to us the warning: Keep corpora 
 tions in their places. Hands off the government of 
 the free! 
 
 And still more pertinent to the day is it to recall 
 his entrance on the field of national politics. Then, 
 as now, a vicious party system bound the people and 
 their free choice. Spurning the power of the caucus 
 he burst its bands of false cohesion as a mass of cob 
 web, and won the people overwhelmingly by direct, 
 open war. Let us emulate the pregnant example. 
 Down with mere intrigues for office! Democracy 
 wants no hireling soldiery who war for sack and 
 spoil. Up with our clear-cut principles which mark 
 the manhood of a freeman, and recruit our hosts 
 from them who will fight for the right because it is 
 right, for love of country and fellow men. 
 
 There is work enough to do were we all herculean. 
 The Augean stables must be cleaned of long accu 
 mulated corruption, our public trusts set utterly 
 above the reach of political beasts of prey, our trade 
 made free of taxes which rob the general people, our 
 
 [147] 
 
commerce to ride the waves of every sea beneath our 
 country s flag. 
 
 Fill up, then, gentlemen, a brimming cup to the 
 glorious memory of Andrew Jackson! With joy all 
 good men may drink it, through the reunited nation. 
 In southern homes his fame must have peculiar 
 honor. For he was theirs from whom we claim this 
 heritage of glory. And so was the majestic Wash 
 ington. So was Jefferson, and a long line of sacred 
 memory. Well may they jump the sins of a later- 
 generation, to sink into oblivion, and seize again on 
 the traditions of the fathers as theirs and ours to 
 gether. Drink to the glories of the past, the hopes 
 of coming time. And while this government bears 
 the ark of liberty down the ages, green grow the 
 laurels on the hero s grave and sweetly rest his sleep. 
 Abide with us forever the alert and fearless courage, 
 the open, simple honesty, and pure patriotic love of 
 Old Hickory! 
 
 [148] 
 
ADDRESS OF NOTIFICATION TO 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 1884 
 
ADDRESS OF NOTIFICATION TO GROVER 
 CLEVELAND 
 
 ALBANY, NEW YORK, JULY 28, 1884 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF HIS NOMINATION BY THE NATIONAL 
 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 
 
 Grover Cleveland, Governor of the State of New 
 York: 
 
 These gentlemen, my associates here present, 
 whose voice I am honored with authority to utter, 
 are a committee appointed by the national Demo 
 cratic convention which recently assembled in Chi 
 cago, and charged with the grateful duty of ac 
 quainting you, officially, and in that solemn and 
 ceremonious manner which the dignity and import 
 ance of the communication demand, with the inter 
 esting result of its deliberations, already known to 
 you through the ordinary channels of news. 
 
 Sir, that august body, convened by direct delega 
 tion from the Democratic people of the several states 
 and territories of the republic, and deliberating un 
 der the witness of the greatest assembly of freemen 
 ever gathered for such a conference, in forethought 
 of the election which the constitution imposes upon 
 them to make during the current year, have nomi 
 nated you to the people of these United States to be 
 their president for the next ensuing term of that 
 great office, and, with grave consideration of its ex 
 alted responsibilities, have confidently invoked their 
 
 [ 153 ] 
 
suffrages to invest you with its functions. Through 
 this committee, the convention s high requirement 
 is delivered that you accept that candidacy. 
 
 This choice carries with it profound personal re 
 spect and admiration; but it has been in no manner 
 the fruit of these sentiments. The national Democ 
 racy seek a president not in compliment for what 
 the man is, or reward for what he has done, but in 
 a just expectation of what he will accomplish as the 
 true servant of a free people, fit for their lofty trust. 
 Always of momentous consequence, they conceive 
 the public exigency to be now of transcendant im 
 portance; that a laborious reform in administration, 
 as well as legislation, is imperatively necessary to 
 the prosperity and honor of the republic, and a com 
 petent chief magistrate must be of unusual temper 
 and power. They have observed with attention your 
 execution of the public trust you have held, espe 
 cially of that with which you are now so honorably 
 invested. They place their reliance for the useful 
 ness of the services they expect to exact for the bene 
 fit of the nation, upon the evidence derived from the 
 services you have performed for the State of New 
 York. They invite the electors to such proofs of 
 character and competence, to justify their confidence 
 that in the nation, as heretofore in the state, the 
 public business will be administered with commen 
 surate intelligence and ability, with single-hearted 
 honesty and fidelity, and with a resolute and daring 
 fearlessness which no faction, no combination, no 
 power of wealth, no mistaken clamor can dismay or 
 qualify. In the spirit of the wisdom, and invoking 
 
 [154] 
 
the benediction of the Divine Teacher of men, we 
 challenge from the sovereignty of this nation His 
 words, in commendation and ratification of our 
 choice: "Well done, thou good and faithful ser 
 vant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
 make thee ruler over many things. In further ful 
 filment of our duty, the secretary will now present 
 the written communication signed by the committee. 
 
 [155] 
 
EXTEMPORE ADDRESS ON GENERAL 
 GRANT 
 
 1885 
 
EXTEMPORE ADDRESS ON GENERAL 
 GRANT 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF 
 THE TENNESSEE AT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 SEPTEMBER 9, 1885 
 
 Mr. President, Companions: 
 
 It was a prudent stipulation, expressly made be 
 tween your committee and myself, that my part in 
 this goodly array of platform ornamentation should 
 be fulfilled by my silence, and how, at this stage of 
 these exercises, shall I dare to break that pledge, 
 how attempt to interest you after what we have 
 listened to to-night upon the glorious theme which 
 has engaged the speakers. Our hearts throb with 
 emotion, stirred by the eloquent speeches which have 
 proceeded from our soldier president and our chosen 
 orator, and the noble tide of thought and feeling- 
 runs tumultuous through the brain and heart. He 
 would be a daring man who should essay extempo 
 raneously to give further expression to the tender 
 and glorious sentiments that stir your breasts with 
 all these circumstances, and he, vain-glorious and 
 rash, who should attempt hastily to view and meas 
 ure the magnificent proportions of that hero who has 
 been our theme, and whose heroic course was not 
 finished until that morn of July, on Mount Mc 
 Gregor. Yet I will venture, since I am here, to touch 
 
 [159] 
 
one feature, the like of which the past of all human 
 history has never exhibited the shining mark of 
 his highest glory which, heaven be praised! his eyes 
 were permitted in clear vision to see: I mean the 
 love he won from the people whom he conquered; 
 won by his magnanimity of soul; won by the result 
 ing value to them of his war against them; I mean 
 the enemies of his mighty strife who stood as tear 
 ful friends at his dying bed. No contending armies 
 ever fought before to so desperate a conclusion. No 
 conqueror ever wrought to such utter victory. But 
 his war was waged for no conquest, for no personal 
 ambition. He fought in enlightened love of fellow- 
 men for the salvation of the dearest principles of 
 universal human liberty, and his success shed bless 
 ings on the vanquished and victorious alike. He 
 lived to receive the perfect reward of perfected work, 
 the grateful homage of a reunited nation indissolu- 
 bly bound by common interests now universally rec 
 ognized, still further knit by general national love 
 now universally felt. What a marvelous vicissitude! 
 What warrior ever wrote his adversary before two 
 such messages as he to Buckner. Once he woke the 
 reverberations of a gloomy sky when he sent that 
 stern demand to his foe which first gave promise to 
 our cause "No terms but unconditional surrender. " 
 To that foe, become his friend, and rendering tearful 
 duty at his bedside, he wrote again: "I have wit 
 nessed since my sickness just what I have wished to 
 see ever since the war harmony and good feeling 
 between the sections." And who bore his pall and 
 mingled tears upon his urn! The greatest surviving 
 
 [160] 
 
comrades of his war, the greatest surviving enemies 
 of his war. Who are now his mourners? The sur 
 vivors of the armies which he led and the armies 
 which he fought, and all the people from whom those 
 armies sprung, and a double generation of their 
 parentage. Think how the great warriors of earth 
 have wrought before! How noble captives and 
 ruined nations have made their triumphal marches 
 grand! How concourses of enslaved men have chased 
 their harried souls in the flight of death! And then 
 how sweetly, borne to heaven s embrace, Grant s 
 mighty soul rose on the heartfelt prayers of a grate 
 ful people, rejoicing in the liberty and mutual love 
 he fought and struggled for! No! weave no chaplet 
 of mere laurel for his marble, but twine there the 
 woodbine, the honeysuckle, and the rose, to tell the 
 world that the affection of his countryman, rising 
 like incense from all happy American homes, is the 
 guerdon of his character and deeds, the ending laurel 
 of his renowned name. 
 
 And I cannot forbear, Mr. President, to speak the 
 fervent gratitude I feel, yours as well, I know, 
 companions that we are spared to assemble with 
 our old commander here; not with adulation to 
 speak our love, but with him to witness the fruition 
 of our strife, the full fruition, as Grant himself de 
 clared it in that letter which I quoted, to say with 
 him, as he wrote: "We may now look forward to 
 perpetual peace at home and to a national strength 
 which shall secure us against any foreign compli 
 cation. " And in the happiness of this vast people, 
 careering forward with multiplying millions rejoic- 
 
 [161] 
 
ing in the civilized comforts and enlightened gratifi 
 cation for body, brain, and soul, such as were never 
 so widely diffused before, securely placed on insti 
 tutions resting upon common interests and general 
 harmony, the fruit of war is ripe amid the sunshine 
 of peace. And when we turn our thoughts backward 
 to the noble men whose life-blood poured from many 
 a gaping wound or ebbed away in slow disease, we 
 may feel assured their sacrifices were acceptable to 
 heaven, that their glory in that other world is secure, 
 for Christ is not going to be too hard on the men 
 who died for men. 
 
 I will not attempt to occupy your time longer. It 
 is no occasion for me to endeavor to indulge in any 
 thing that will please, especially in anything that 
 will furnish entertainment or amusement. My heart 
 is full of this great subject, upon which I love to 
 dwell. 
 
 [162] 
 
DECORATION DAY ADDRESS 
 
 1886 
 
DECORATION DAY ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC, MAY 30, 1886 
 
 A quarter of a century has sunk into the grave of 
 time since the dread alarum of civil war rang 
 through our land. A new era has begun; a new gen 
 eration is upon the stage of life. You see now every 
 where, in your daily walks, active men, whose hands 
 are on the levers of affairs, who carry no useful mem 
 ory of the events of those direful years. It is a duty 
 and a privilege of two-fold value to recount and 
 emphasize the features of the patriotism, purposes, 
 and grand results by which our union soldiers gained 
 their title to the veneration of their countrymen and 
 the world; first to them, in the keeping of their 
 rightful glory bright and pure; and then to living 
 men and to our children by emulous quickening and 
 better understanding of the love and duty due our 
 country. 
 
 It is not from their soldiership alone that the 
 sheen of their renown is so bright, their labors, 
 privations, and dreadful sufferings; their valorous 
 courage and gallant deeds in arms, for these were 
 not distinctive in their ennoblement. These they 
 shared with their adversaries, whose soldiership, ap 
 proved on many a hard-fought and bloody field, 
 worthily compete for its equal place on the page 
 of military fame. Beyond the soldier s qualities, 
 
 [167] 
 
though unsurpassed in them, the men who wrought 
 by arms the salvation of this government raise noble 
 claim to gratitude and remembrance in the unsel 
 fish, chivalric spirit of their sacrifice for the liberty 
 and progress of man, and in the vast, far-reaching 
 benefits bestowed by them on their countrymen. 
 Their meed of praise rests on their acceptance of 
 conditions never before imposed in human affairs. 
 In the calm of history, now that the clouds of con 
 temporaneous turmoil have disappeared, we may 
 distinguish, in clear view, "the height of the great 
 argument" to which their souls responded. It is 
 easy to give reasons which demand patriotic devo 
 tion in sacred duty from every citizen; another thing 
 to so answer the call that the noble passion mounts 
 to the cool heights of self-sacrifice. Patriotism and 
 piety are kindred elements and obligations of man 
 hood, both the soul s homage to the great giver of 
 happiness. Life, and all the bounteous provisions 
 of nature for its joys, man takes from heaven; from 
 his country, the peace and care of law in which to 
 possess them. All states are but aggregated men; 
 peculiarly the republic sums in its character only 
 the qualities of its people, and its wisdom and power 
 rise no higher than their source in the best and 
 truest of her freemen. Their patriotism is the 
 barometer of her vitality. Yet in peace, even, how 
 many deny or neglect the obligations of their citi 
 zenship ; and when, in war, the country cries for help, 
 hard, hard indeed, comes to the true and peaceful 
 citizen the summons to arms. 
 
 What though his heart be stout and his eye flinch 
 
 [168] 
 
riot in danger s front ! Is life not dear to the noble- 
 spirited? Is home sweet but to the base? Are pri 
 vations and toil and disease, absence from them you 
 love, the steady round of daily hardship, and the 
 frequent look in the face of death though in the 
 path of duty not shunned by the brave yet objects 
 of desire? It was a hard and strange problem that 
 fell upon this people twenty-five years ago. War, 
 that has everywhere desolated the earth, was beyond 
 conception of Americans as a possibility between 
 the sweet sister states, in this, our land of free and 
 heaven-given institutions. Elsewhere, history told 
 us how kings and potentates had marched to con 
 quest, striving to lay the world beneath their scep 
 tres; how bad men s ambition oft had overturned the 
 state, and a thousand pretexts opened human arter 
 ies and filled hasty graves. But in this dear land 
 these horrid inflammations were impossible; desper 
 ate threatening^ were esteemed unmeaning bluster, 
 and nothing to be weighed as perilous against an 
 American s patriotism. There was a rough and sud 
 den wakening. While patriotism trusted, here, too, 
 ambition had plotted its advantage, regardless of 
 human suffering; here passion raged, obscuring 
 reason s light; here fraudulent, pernicious theories 
 had blinded true men and disguised the aspect of 
 revolt, until it seemed the duty of allegiance, and 
 while incredulous fidelity gazed inert, secession be 
 came a fact and menaced the Union with dismem 
 berment. What, then, was their duty who faith 
 fully acknowledged the allegiance that was the debt 
 of all, to the union of these states? All the experi- 
 
 [169] 
 
ence of men never held such a question before. Lib 
 erty had been oft the inspiration of war, but always 
 liberty for them who fought for it, either to acquire 
 or defend its blessing for themselves. But in the 
 name and for the cause of liberty, why, to what end 
 should the men of the faithful states, themselves free 
 and in their freedom unchallenged and secure, carry 
 elsewhere their lives and treasure in the dreadful 
 waste of war? Stay, for a brief space, to contemplate 
 the practical question the business aspects of it, 
 so to say, to calculating minds; for, through the 
 effect of selfishness in the men whose natures they 
 misconceived, the plotters of secession reckoned on 
 an easy seizure of the separate dominion they cov 
 eted. Well might the calculating wisdom of the 
 world, reckoning the palpable self-interests of the 
 living generation, predict the supine sufferance of 
 separation. Set debit and credit in their different 
 columns, and how did every mercenary argument, 
 touching living men, swell the balance against the 
 Union? On what might rise the hope that patriot 
 ism could be so lofty, courage so daring, fortitude 
 so long-enduring, men so self-sacrificing, that they 
 would so waste their substance and slay themselves, 
 in a far-strained forecast of loving care for genera 
 tions yet unborn, embracing in the generous grasp 
 the humanity of their enemy as their own ? It was a 
 noble study, a surpassing spectacle, the demeanor of 
 this great people, long accustomed to quiet freedom, 
 confronted with such a fateful war. The overwhelm 
 ing magnitude of the interest, involving every man 
 in person, engaged and concentrated the intensest 
 
 [170] 
 
attention, thought, and passion; and public opinion, 
 usually slow to form and show expression, became 
 quick of decision and impatiently incisive in declar 
 ation. But partially roused and still sluggish with 
 lingering confidence at the first call to arms, the 
 initial disaster effected what mere threatening 
 failed to produce. Then, in colossal form and feat 
 ure, majestically rising in clear lines, the spirit 
 of the freemen of the republic came out to view, tow 
 ering in the northern sky, like an apparition from 
 above. Upon its aspect amazement has given way 
 to understanding, sorrow and pain were overlaid by 
 the flush of noble rage, and every lineament, kind 
 ling with inward fire, told of stern and unrelenting 
 resolution, while the rising murmur of united voices 
 broke into shrill and clear response to the grand 
 challenge of their patriotism and courage. "By 
 God s providence our fathers delivered this land 
 from bonds, and dedicated it to be the homestead of 
 liberty forever. They left it to us a blessed legacy 
 and a sacred charge. To divide is to destroy it. 
 Kings and their courtiers already smile at our 
 threatened catastrophe, while fear casts gloom and 
 horror on them who love their fellow men. Away 
 with every base appeal to ease, to interest or to 
 safety! The union of these states shall not fail; not 
 a state shall be lost to the great family of the consti 
 tution; not a star shall fall from the azure field of the 
 flag of our country. We seek no conquest, we will 
 invade no right. But recking no cost, no sacrifice, no 
 peril, wherever treason and rebellion raise their 
 heads against this government, there we will strike 
 
 [171] 
 
them down, till the last foe bends his knee in duty 
 and allegiance. This was the plain and simple issue 
 tendered to the arbitrament of arms; this the call to 
 battle to which the Union soldier answered. He went 
 on this awful errand to shed blood in the cause of hu 
 manity, by war to maintain the dominion of broth 
 erly love among men. The south was surrounded 
 and invested as though a vast fortress, with Rich 
 mond for its citadel, and the other lines of war the 
 outlying circumvallation. By sea the navy stretched 
 its coil of blockade along three thousand miles of 
 stormy coast; and, though received with scoffs, be 
 fore the end its iron grasp shut every throat of nour 
 ishment on the rebellious shore. On the land side 
 the cordon of armies extending from the eastern 
 front, enveloped with fiery folds all the convulsive, 
 struggling mass of embattled enemies. Locked in 
 almost constantly deadly conflict, contending armies 
 swayed between the capitals to and fro, in equal in 
 decisive struggle; while, with mighty stroke, the 
 western forces cut off great segments of the south 
 ern territory from co-operation, and the constricting 
 bands of the nation s power drew closer and tighter 
 their fierce embrace. Once and again desperate sal 
 lies by the beleaguered forces were essayed, but en 
 countered and repelled with bloody lesson; while, in 
 hot rapidity, titanic blows of battle broke their nar 
 rowing lines of defense. At last, after weary, fear 
 ful years, surcharged with battle, toil, privation, dis 
 ease, and death, came the grand catastrophe, and the 
 war-worn boys in blue beheld the last armed enemy 
 a captive, and their tremendous labor done. How 
 
 [172] 
 
wonderful had been their work; how absolute the 
 accomplishment of the purpose of their arms! What 
 mighty deeds had their four years wrought! Not an 
 unfaithful state remained unswept by the besom of 
 their war; not a rebel force unsmitten by their fire. 
 Where in the annals of war can the like be found? 
 Where such a contest so gigantic in all its propor 
 tions, so nearly matched in the outset, so charged 
 with multiplied battles, so obstinately and fiercely 
 fought, so soon and so effectively determined! And 
 so were recompensed our brethren in arms. In ven 
 eration of the fathers they mustered in the name of 
 union, content but to save what the Revolution had 
 planted ; and lo ! the angel of liberty, in shining pres 
 ence, led their battle on beyond the fathers aims, to 
 finish the work they left undone and win a brighter 
 crown. They blotted from the constitution the cov 
 ert meaning of that abhorrent word the voice of 
 freedom refused to utter there; they scourged from 
 her temple the mongering of mothers and babes. 
 Twas they who gave you honest right, ere the con 
 stitution has aged a century, without self-reproach 
 to raise, at the gate where the nations enter our habi 
 tation, the lofty figure which boldly proclaims for 
 the spirit of our liberty, leadership in the enlighten 
 ment of mankind. I have spoken of these facts in 
 the nation s history as peculiar titles of honor to the 
 soldiers of the Union. But, comrades, it would be 
 false and vainglorious to arrogate as theirs alone 
 any feature of these honors. They are the property 
 of the nation. Patriotism, high purpose, and great 
 sacrifices in the time of war were shared by all, 
 
however varying in degree. And for more than 
 twenty years the outcome of results has been incum 
 bent wholly on the patriotism and conduct of Ameri 
 cans as citizens and not as soldiers. Not those of the 
 faithful states alone, let it be justly remembered, but 
 of the south as well. Vanquished as well as victors 
 had to bend passion s knee to duty; and to accept, 
 not less than to bestow, forgiveness and magnanim 
 ity requires the generous mind. The trial of tem 
 per, wisdom, and character has been unexampled, 
 but the issue has been triumphant, and the great pur 
 poses of the war have been secured by magnanimity 
 on the one hand and honor on the other, blended in 
 restored common national love and pride. The para 
 mount remaining duty is fraternity and mutual hu 
 man love. The best and bravest of the soldiers of 
 the Union, and the best and bravest of the soldiers 
 of the South, long since joined their friendly hands, 
 honoring each other s valor, proud of their common 
 nationality, banishing remembrance of error, unit 
 ing their spirit and pride to the traditions of the na 
 tion, and pledging themselves to its future power 
 and glory. They who have justified their manhood 
 by the ordeal of battle are brave enough to trust and 
 worthy to be trusted. In brigades and divisions they 
 have marched off the field in this world s strife, and 
 passed across the dark valley to the mysterious land 
 of death. In that unknown world, if hopes and faith 
 for the life beyond have value, the nobility of their 
 manhood here is assurance of their condition there, 
 and in joyous happy union they possess the realms 
 of bliss. Shall their children left behind pursue their 
 
 [174] 
 
earthly quarrel, or accept the richer legacy of their 
 reconciliation? The past can not be altered; the 
 future, under God, is in our hands. The hope of 
 that future is in union of fellowship, cemented by 
 interest, by patriotism, and by pride. Eeproaches 
 for deeds beyond redemption, for conditions gone 
 forever; sighs for hopes once entertained, but long 
 turned to ashes, may be worse than folly they may 
 become a crime. Whoever gives his voice or his ex 
 ample to light or fan a flame of sectional discord 
 among this fraternal people, aims at the nation s 
 peace and life. He has spoken treason, though not 
 dared to act it, who from the one side flings vain 
 taunts and scoffs, the lingering demons of the past, 
 or on the other sentimentally prates of the resurrec 
 tion of that moldering mummy, "the lost cause. " 
 Let him who can, pitch his prophetic vision through 
 the coming years over the prosperity, the grandeur 
 of this land teeming with multiplied millions of free 
 men, rich in resources, enlightened by well-diffused 
 knowledge, and happy in developed life, and, as he 
 contemplates the safely-moving train of human hap 
 piness, weigh the iniquity that would cast an ob 
 struction on its track. Eash with enthusiasm and 
 inexperience, we sent out our earliest body of troops 
 as if victories in war required only a feverish desire. 
 They soon returned in panic, and the land quivered 
 with tremor of humiliation and fear. McClellan took 
 the mob, and an army came into being, never sur 
 passed in all the ages of war. That splendid corps 
 was his, the Army of the Potomac. From the begin 
 ning to the end it coped in constant struggle with 
 
 [175] 
 
the best trained and best led enemy. In chequered 
 fortune it bore the direct shocks and blows of war, 
 but none could break its spirit or its form. Relent 
 less in its iron purpose, at last it gained the triumph 
 of the age, and took the sword of Lee. Never more 
 magnificent than when he led it, through all its re 
 nowned career it remained McClellan s army and 
 loved him as its father to the end. And though cruel 
 fate denied him but to look upon the glittering capi 
 tal promised to its prowess, the glory of his army 
 that won it will forever irradiate his name. And 
 Hancock s name was also called by that dread con 
 stable who summons to the grave. The superb Han 
 cock! The beau ideal of manhood s splendor! 
 Fancy s figure of the fighting general! Bred in all 
 the learning of the martial art, practiced in its ex 
 ercises, in stature, port, and speech, the soldier and 
 the gentleman in lustrous perfection. His brilliant 
 star shines in the galaxy of the heroes of the battle 
 field, whom, from both sides, history has chosen for 
 the firmament of military fame. In that great com 
 bat on which, more than any single one besides, the 
 nation s safety hung, the supreme moment of de 
 cision was committed to his conduct. His command 
 sustained the desperate assault which Pickett led, 
 staking the battle on the issue, and with bloody pen 
 alty drove him back and won the momentous day. 
 And there, stricken with a grievous wound, his own 
 blood poured upon the earth. But it fell upon the 
 roots of his renown, and among the laurels of the 
 field of Gettysburg, Hancock s springs immortal. 
 Upon the rocky side of your majestic Hudson an- 
 
 [ 176 ] 
 
other sepulchre has been builded, an urn of mortality 
 inclosed within it. And thither, through coming ages 
 far beyond the stretch of human ken to tell, the 
 patriots of ours and the great souled of every land, 
 in unceasing pilgrimage will hold their way to feel 
 the touch of glory there. For, in that shrine of im 
 mortality are stored the ashes of the invincible in 
 strument of God, whose genius ruled the whirlwind 
 of war to the salvation of the republic. There, 
 parted from the sight of his lamenting countrymen, 
 lies the perishable form of the unconquered Grant. 
 Oh, noble dead! Your sacrifice was not in vain! 
 Safely rests the land you saved on the patriotic 
 breasts of your countrymen. "With malice toward 
 none, with charity for all/ 7 they shall fraternally 
 pursue their grand career; and in their hearts your 
 hallowed memory shall be your country s treasure 
 and stay forever. 
 
 12 
 
 [177] 
 
ADDRESS ON THE PRESENTATION OF 
 THE STATUE OF PERE MARQUETTE 
 
 1897 
 
ADDRESS ON THE PRESENTATION OF THE 
 STATUE OF PERE MARQUETTE 
 
 PRESENTED TO CONGRESS BY THE STATE OF WISCONSIN, IN 
 THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, APRIL 29, 1897 
 
 Mr. President, when this lusty nation, outgrow 
 ing the habitations of its youth, built new council 
 chambers for its legislators, it was a happy thought 
 that consecrated to the noble art of sculpture the old 
 Hall of the House of Representatives, where patriot 
 ism will hear the echoes ring forever of glorious 
 words there spoken for liberty and justice among 
 men. Nor less felicitous was the plan which pro 
 posed to the sovereign associates in Federal Union 
 the work of its embellishment as authors and sharers, 
 in fraternal equality, of the national prizes of honor 
 and fame to be there illustrated and preserved. So, 
 naturally enough, came up the suggestion that was 
 directed by Congress to go with the invitation which 
 the President was empowered to give, desiring the 
 states to select for this noble commemoration from 
 among them who in life on earth had been their citi 
 zens "illustrious for historic renown or for distin 
 guished civic or military services." It was the off 
 spring, too, of a time when the country throbbed 
 with patriotic fervor, and all hearts and minds were 
 fixed on the mighty conflict then raging, the year 
 1864, when the world witnessed the soldiers of the 
 
 [181] 
 
Union clinched in a death grapple with the great re 
 volt, and surely saw the last issue of war had been 
 joined, and that with the coming triumph a glory 
 unequaled in the annals of mankind would be won 
 by the heroes of liberty. 
 
 This restriction of the invitation was, however, 
 very differently applicable to the States of our Fed 
 eration. The older, especially the original thirteen, 
 had gained even then, as states, a historic past. 
 Among their possessions "already secure" were the 
 records of a time beyond the memory of living men; 
 and if not yet dim or misty still we are able to see 
 in perspective the creative and memorable deeds 
 done in the course of their evolution, distinguishing 
 the merit of achievement as contemporaries can 
 never see it. They may, therefore, justly lay pecu 
 liar claims to noble figures, radiant among the 
 shades, whose story is the treasure of all Americans, 
 and say, "These were our citizens." 
 
 But, sir, the conditions are necessarily somewhat 
 different with the newer states like Wisconsin. For, 
 although as part of colonial grants whose base was 
 on the Atlantic coast, our territory shared with the 
 earliest the boon of independence; it long lay an 
 almost unknown land, the remote corner of the old 
 Northwest of the republic. During many ensuing 
 years the eager crowd of home seekers pushed out 
 upon a course southward of the Great Lakes, uncon 
 scious of the surpassing excellence, riches, and 
 beauty with which nature had endowed her land of 
 choice, and so left it the prize of a later but not less 
 fortunate generation. Thus it happens that while 
 
 [182] 
 
Wisconsin takes date with the first in liberty and 
 title, her entrance to the Union was preceded not 
 only by ten states all the states, in fact, until Vir 
 ginia was divided in war which were built upon the 
 soil won from Great Britain but also by six erected 
 upon later acquisitions, four of them even beyond 
 the Mississippi. Her organization as a territory, a 
 territory then stretching from Lake Michigan to the 
 Missouri, is within the recollection of venerable 
 Senators still in honored service in this Chamber. 
 So it was that but sixteen years had passed of state 
 hood when this invitation was received to share the 
 honor and duty of contribution to the nation s Hall 
 of Statuary. 
 
 To accept it, therefore, in terms unqualified, de 
 manded the choice among contemporaries for the 
 special commemoration; an invidious task not con 
 genial to human nature, inevitably to be shrunken 
 from. There was no chance for a far retrospection 
 through the aisles of time, with its softening lights, 
 its soothing oblivion, its justice in relative measure 
 ments, its elimination of true desert. Many were 
 the brave and generous spirits, the strong and help 
 ful, among our pioneers and the builders of our state, 
 whom the respect and affection of their fellows com 
 mend to the grateful remembrance of posterity; too 
 many most cherished to be omitted by a particular- 
 ization of some. And when the war time befell, and 
 manhood heard throughout the land the call of Lib 
 erty to arms, the answering voice of Wisconsin came 
 not from some daring few, in advanced leadership 
 of thought and action, but from every home and 
 
 [183] 
 
hearthstone, through town and countryside, re 
 sponding thousands poured forth to battle, knowing 
 well their cause; near one-half of all her voting citi 
 zens bore her banner, floating beside the Stars and 
 Stripes on every field of war in the Southern land, 
 and her list of true heroes a Homer might worthily 
 sing. Not yet do we dare the choice among them, 
 all so cherished in honor and esteem. 
 
 And so it was that, from no lack of sensibility, no 
 lethargy of appreciation, more than twenty years 
 passed by while the national summons to participate 
 in an undertaking so honorable remained, not un 
 heeded, yet unanswered. 
 
 But, sir, although the sway of nature was there 
 longer undisturbed by immigration and settlement, 
 that goodly land made, in fact, its entrance to the 
 page of American history at a far earlier date. In 
 deed, its discovery and visitation by the white man 
 had much precedency in time over many of our sis 
 ter states of prior establishment in the Union. A 
 peculiar charm attaches to the story of those early 
 days. It is augmented by the very length of the in 
 tervening period before the settlements of civiliza 
 tion came, during which the activity of development 
 elsewhere increased the seeming quiet there. This 
 has cast back into even deeper shade its historic 
 dawn, and thrown upon the simple facts something 
 like the twilight hues of an ancient story. But four 
 teen years after the Mayflower sowed her precious 
 seed on l the wild New England shore, Jean Nicol- 
 let paddled his canoe through the rich natural rice 
 fields of the Fox in the centre of our present borders. 
 
 [184] 
 
Before any footstep but of red men had been im 
 printed on the western slopes of the Alleghanies, 
 "the good tidings of great joy" sent down through 
 the ages by a crucified Savior were delivered to His 
 barbaric children of the forests in the far interior 
 Wisconsin land. 
 
 It was Nature s way of shaping the continent 
 which thus lured the explorer to its very heart so 
 soon after settlement was begun upon its borders. 
 Once upon the magnificent waters of those great in 
 terior seas, the like of which the earth does not else 
 where show, a fascination irresistible pressed on to 
 their fountain head. Side by side, often even 
 hand in hand, cupidity and benevolence, with daring 
 hardihood, urged the quest; and the trader s greedy 
 courage found more than a match in the unfaltering 
 hearts who challenged the horrors of the wilderness, 
 bent on no selfish aim, but wholly to rescue the im 
 periled souls within its deep recesses. It so came to 
 pass that without intermediate establishments of 
 any sort, without even journey posts or resting sta 
 tions, or a white man s abode along the entire route, 
 Christianity had her missions domiciled in Wiscon 
 sin, on Lake Superior and Green Bay, while the ad 
 vanced frontier of European movement, the nearest 
 settlement or residence to the east, was a thousand 
 miles away at Montreal. 
 
 The heavy forest stood, in primeval majesty, 
 stretching to the prairies of the Mississippi from the 
 mountains of the east, and not one of the coming 
 race had ventured once within its awful solitudes. 
 Through the vast woods westward from the Hudson 
 
 [185] 
 
and the Delaware roamed the merciless Iroquois in 
 terrible dominion, the scourge and destroyer of the 
 savage race, the Tartars of the wilderness, whose 
 butcheries multiplied and deepened its solitudes and 
 filled them with perils and horrors. 
 
 And there, sir, in the deep interior of the conti 
 nent, on whose wild primeval surface no light of 
 civilization cast a ray save the flickerings here and 
 there begun to show along the ocean margin, there 
 in that vast isolation, that "profundity obscure, " 
 the lamp of Christianity was kindled by the spark 
 brought from Calvary, and its gleams burst forth 
 above the forest gloom, a solitary beacon, presaging 
 and beckoning to the oncoming column of humanity 
 soon to march thitherward in trimphant splendor. 
 And there, sir, slender and feeble as was that early 
 flame, and though amid sometimes distressing vicis 
 situdes and perils, there has it ever burned un- 
 quenched. There, in the first faint gray of morning, 
 a Caucasian s home was builded and church and 
 school were founded; and thus, with typical step, 
 civilization, the civilization of highest evolution, 
 made its advent to the continent s interior on the 
 land of Wisconsin, and, in a sense, Wisconsin took 
 also her beginning as one among civilization s 
 grandest forms and agencies, a self-governed com 
 monwealth of intelligent, God-fearing freemen. 
 
 Among the shadowy forms that move on that far- 
 off scene, touched by the light rosy ray that tells 
 of a splendor coming in its time, among the brave 
 who dared the peril of that morning hour, was one, 
 the type and exemplar of a noble class, fixed in 
 
 [186] 
 
human honor by devotion, heroism and sacrifice, in 
 whose soul burned also the genius of the explorer, 
 the glorious greed of knowledge. Short and swiftly 
 sped was his path to the altar of self-sacrifice, so 
 often the goal of his class, but his few hard years 
 were enough for his renown; he departed for the 
 world beyond rewarded by the fame of history here. 
 He was a citizen of Wisconsin only in its embryonic 
 age; no more; but otherwise it was of such as him 
 that Congress spake when it marked for this special 
 honor "persons illustrious for historic renown." 
 
 Wherefore, Mr. President, the legislature of Wis 
 consin, unwilling that a state which yields in public 
 spirit and intelligence to none should stand no 
 sharer in the national gallery of honor, and conceiv 
 ing the true sense of the Congressional plan to 
 comprehend whatever achievements upon our coun 
 try s soil have brilliantly wrought toward its pre 
 destined usefulness to man, proposed to Congress 
 that Wisconsin should be permitted, at once and to- 
 gether, to recognize and honor the men who dar 
 ingly planted there the first abode of civilization; 
 to distinguish and illustrate the noblest character in 
 the vanguard of its march the missionary of 
 Christ; and to celebrate also a famous triumph of 
 geographic exploration from within her borders, by 
 raising here the marble effigy of that gentle, de 
 voted, high-souled, fearless priest and teacher, 
 James Marquette, the discoverer of the Mississippi. 
 
 Well knowing, of course, that the original invita 
 tion was, for the reason given, not literally a full 
 authority therefor, the consent of Congress was ex- 
 
 [187] 
 
plicitly sought. Twice the legislature of the state 
 declared itself; by its act of 1887, and again, when 
 its Senators, or one of them, hesitated in doubt of 
 its true desire, by its joint resolution of 1893, 
 " urgently requesting" those Senators to secure that 
 assent of the government. And Congress twice 
 responded with the desired permission. At first, the 
 concurrence of the Senate in a joint resolution of 
 the House of Eepresentatives was given on the last 
 day of the Fifty- second Congress, too late for execu 
 tive consideration among the mass of crowding 
 measures. 
 
 The next session, first of the Fifty-third Congress, 
 supplied the failure, and by joint resolution ap 
 proved on the 14th of October, 1893, the State of 
 Wisconsin was "authorized and granted the privi 
 lege of placing in Statuary Hall at the Capitol the 
 statue of Pere Marquette, the faithful missionary, 
 whose work among the Indians and explorations 
 within the borders of said state in early days are 
 recognized all over the civilized world. " 
 
 In these terms the Congress testified, Mr. Presi 
 dent, its intelligence and appreciation of the moving 
 considerations which justly award to this mission 
 ary and explorer a commemoration among the his 
 toric characters of America. The choice of Wis 
 consin was ratified, and the free interpretation which 
 carried back the theory of citizenship to the early 
 movers on her soil found approval. 
 
 The privilege bestowed has been exercised as it 
 should have been. By universal testimony a work 
 of art unexcelled has been erected in our Hall. The 
 
 [188] 
 
representatives of the state feel no other need than 
 to say, "Go, view the artist s work, gaze upon the 
 noble figure discerned by genius in the Italian 
 stone. There you shall find the ideal we would com 
 memorate; a noble man, with a soul lifted up to God, 
 a mind inflexibly bent to duty, a heart swelling with 
 tenderness toward his fellow-creatures, so surely 
 treading the pathway lighted to him by education 
 and conscience that suffering, privation, danger, 
 death, could cause no shadow of turning in it; yet 
 still the gentle, enthusiastic, generous man, beloved 
 among his fellows the man to dare without flinch 
 ing, to do without boasting, the deeds that heroes 
 do, when heaven calls. 
 
 Perhaps so I might leave it, confident in the award 
 of credit so justly due the good state I love for its 
 worthy gift, and conscious that the eloquent re 
 marks of my colleague and other Senators have left 
 no addition needful by me. 
 
 But yet, sir, I would wish to contribute some 
 thing, if I could, to distinguish with clarity the 
 figure and career of Marquette from confusion with 
 intermingling persons and events in the background 
 of history, and give a plainer view of what he was 
 and what he did by drawing to the eye the circum 
 stances in which he stood and acted. 
 
 For the the discovery of the Mississippi in 1673 
 the Muse of History has recorded his name to stand 
 forever on her unfading scroll. 
 
 Yet there be some, perhaps many, who see in that 
 achievement little more than a summer ride in a 
 bark canoe adown the beautiful Wisconsin Eiver, as 
 
 [189] 
 
if it were in the sunlight and sweet airs, the peace 
 and security, which the student tourist of our day 
 oft delights in as he traces again the famous water 
 path of exploration. It is an indolent, thoughtless 
 view. Far different has been ever must be the 
 just measure of its character and merit. A strong, 
 vivid imagination, capable of reproducing the facts 
 collated from memorials of the time, a penetrating 
 sympathy with beliefs and modes of thought then 
 entertained, must gain sway in any mind which will 
 realize the conditions then and there environing and 
 characterizing human effort. 
 
 It was the fruit of no sudden inspiration, fortuit 
 ously conceived and hastily executed. Already so 
 far sunk in the immensity of forest wilds, with hor 
 rors on its trail and terrors in front, exploration had 
 for a period halted on the shores of Superior and 
 Michigan, or moved but little in adjacent territory. 
 Eight years had passed since the first white man s 
 house was built on the Bay of Chequamegon to give 
 a home to the mission of the Holy Ghost, and all 
 that undertaking a panic of terror had ruined, driv 
 ing thence backward to the Straits of Mackinac the 
 converts who had found a refuge there. For in the 
 unknown western country dwelt the Sioux, mon 
 sters of bloody deeds, the constant fear of all natives 
 within reach of their excursions. Marquette, then 
 beginning the labors to which he had consecrated his 
 life, had wrought there with the tribes whose sum 
 mer wanderings, like those of modern tourists, car 
 ried them to the great Northern Sea. Among them 
 the Illinois, who told him stories of the great river, 
 
 [190] 
 
long before then a misty rumor, a far-off unreality. 
 It fired his imagination and stirred his heart with 
 hope that craving souls in other lands might hear the 
 Gospel s tidings from his lips. He reported to his 
 superiors, opened the plan, and waited obediently. 
 It required years before the answering orders fol 
 lowed. Then came Joliet, with five other French 
 men. Seven men, no more, were thus to hazard the 
 unknown regions, of which no native spake but in 
 notes of warning. They heard on every hand fore 
 boding tales of terror, of mysterious and dreadful 
 dangers. Monsters would be found in the waters, 
 the fiercest savages upon the lands. 
 
 It was an age of credulity, and the stoutest hearts 
 quailed often before chimeras of the fancy spring 
 ing from the dread unknown. Now every friendly 
 tribe, with common voice, at the Green Bay, along 
 the Fox, and at the village of the Mascoutins and 
 Miamis, where they bid adieu to the last frontier 
 of the known, to the last friendly face, all picture 
 only coming peril, with supplication to change their 
 purpose. Yet on they pushed their way; timorously 
 at times we may well imagine; with straining eye, 
 as their frail canoes swept the bending curves of the 
 Wisconsin; with hearts that sometimes throbbed, 
 but unfalteringly, resolute of purpose. At length, a 
 full month gone since they started from the Green 
 Bay the traveler now needs hardly a day and 
 there it rolled before them, the Father of Waters; 
 there, as for untold ages all unknown, the majestic 
 servant of nature s mighty plan! They had found 
 it! For nearly forty years the voyageurs had passed 
 
 [191] 
 
the tale, the mystery of Indian report, of the great 
 water in the West; now they saw it with their eyes 
 in veritable majesty! 
 
 Mr. President, perhaps no man without experience 
 can bring to himself by any effort a full sympathy 
 with the emotion which such an achievement must 
 stir in the explorer s mind. The long dream of 
 meditation, the ripening purpose, the fixed plan, 
 the execution begun, the hard labors done, the men 
 acing perils met, all at last compressed to perfect 
 fruition in a single moment! Who can measure it 
 by any gauge but experience, yet who but must feel 
 it worth a life to win? The judgment of the world 
 has given accordant honor, and brightly shines the 
 name of the discoverer on the temple wall of Fame. 
 
 Sir, no balance can invidiously weigh in competi 
 tion the variant elements of merit in the many who 
 have lifted the veil of mystery over hidden lands. 
 One star differeth from another star in glory. There 
 can forever be but one Columbus; never another Ma 
 gellan. But the pages will never want for readers 
 on which are written the stories of the discovery of 
 the Mississippi and of the sources of the Nile, nor 
 fade the names of Livingstone and Marquette. 
 
 Yet this was not discovery complete. They knew 
 well their duty, and, though plunging afresh into 
 the depths of prophesied perils, on they fared, out 
 upon its wide waters, fearlessly bent to know the 
 bounds and course set to the mighty flood in the plan 
 of the continent, to carry back to civilized men a 
 broadened field of knowledge, a new map, re-forming 
 the old terra incognita. A full month longer, oft in 
 
 [192] 
 
dangers great and real, they sturdily and bravely 
 held their purpose down its turgid current, among 
 strange lands and tribes, and marked its assured 
 flowage to the Gulf of Mexico. Then, their mission 
 fulfilled, to return with its fruits no longer jeoparded 
 was the ensuing duty, second only in importance. 
 
 It should perhaps be noticed, sir, that in point of 
 fact, as men now know, more than a century before 
 the Mississippi had twice been seen by European 
 eyes. Coasting on the Gulf in 1519, De Pineda 
 turned through its mouth and sailed up this river, 
 no one knows how far. Wandering over the conti 
 nent in 1542, De Soto crossed it, near the Yazoo s 
 mouth, ascended for a distance its western bank, 
 died, and was buried in it. Neither event gave the 
 river to the world. Where it was, what it was, 
 whence it came, what the countries of its drainage- 
 all were untold. Water only had been found, a 
 fluvial mystery unsolved. Geography had gained 
 nothing, nor, until Marquette had shown it, was the 
 water known to be the Mississippi which these wan 
 derers had seen. Only he who looks on past events 
 without a perspective, like a Chinese drawing, con 
 founds these transactions. Nor by one jot or tittle 
 has it lessened the meed of honor measured to Mar 
 quette. 
 
 It is to this historic event, Mr. President, that the 
 personal distinction of Marquette in the annals of 
 America is to be ascribed. It was not conspicuously 
 gained by service in his capacity of a missionary 
 priest. Others shared with him the excellence, the 
 labors, the sorrows of that character to a not in- 
 
 13 [193] 
 
ferior degree. But Fame, like the first beams of 
 morning, gilds the heights of singular eminence, and 
 men worship most the victories which increase do 
 minion. And " Peace hath her victories not less 
 renowned than war." It was his geographical con 
 quest, the opening to man of a country unequaled 
 in capacity for his enjoyment, the broad and splen 
 did region of the Mississippi s drainage, which 
 marked him for illustration by succeeding genera 
 tions. Mainly this it was that affixed his name to the 
 handsome city on the shore of Superior, to coun 
 ties in the states that adjoin that wide water, and 
 has led to the erection of the stately figure in marble 
 now placed in the keeping of the nation. 
 
 But there mingles also, sir, a just respect for the 
 heroic messenger of Christianity to God s children 
 in the wilderness which has entered into its design 
 and will share in the commemoration to endure in 
 this monument may it be for ages. The statue is 
 itself an idealization, yet it is believed so natural, 
 so true, that every detail is but genuine exposition 
 of personality and character. If the artist has 
 thrown into the beauty of the face the look and 
 lineaments which tell the far sight, the fixed hope, 
 the unbending courage of the successful explorer, 
 they comport and mingle with features informed by 
 submissive piety, benevolence, and zeal to do the will 
 of God. Sir, the early missionary to the Indian the 
 world will never cease to reverence, as heroism and 
 goodness must be reverenced, however differently 
 the light may fall in after times on beliefs and meth 
 ods then entertained and pursued. Among them all, 
 
 [194] 
 
of whatever church or creed, Marquette deserves 
 place with the foremost. Not that the effects he 
 wrought were great, nor his experience of suffering 
 unsurpassed. Others in that " noble army of mar 
 tyrs " perhaps accomplished more and suffered more. 
 It was the abundant power in him oft and fully 
 manifested, the spirit that burned within, and his 
 sad untimely loss, rather than shining achievements 
 in his few years of labor, that give his prominence 
 as a missionary among the mission pioneers. 
 
 Mr. President, you have heard in the appropriate 
 and interesting remarks of our colleagues the story 
 of his career pleasingly told. Who that listened can 
 picture to himself the conditions which then beset 
 the devoted wanderer in that far interior, and with 
 hold admiration of the intrepid self-consecration 
 that took him there on such an errand? I tried a 
 few moments since to draw to the mind by some 
 lines the superficial picture the continent then pre 
 sented, the helplessness of these missionaries re 
 mote isolation, their necessarily absolute surrender 
 to the fate of the wilderness. But how can one now 
 depict to entire realization all the meaning of peril 
 and horror that resignation then implied to them 
 who ventured on in the very light, as it were, of the 
 fires which had consumed their martyred predeces 
 sors? 
 
 For bitter, indeed, had been the missionaries ex 
 periences on the very path they traveled. Once al 
 ready, in the wilds between Huron and Ontario, the 
 soldiers of the cross had performed labors and en 
 dured privations the tale of which must ever excite 
 
 [195] 
 
pity and admiration, and yet their catastrophe had 
 been utter and horrible. Through sufferings and in 
 dignities that might have rather moved despair, 
 love and faith had bred still a sustaining hope. 
 Never was its light more awfully extinguished. 
 Their unhappy converts first were decimated by 
 smallpox, and then upon them fell the fiendish Iro- 
 quois. Horrible was the fate of all. Massacre, even 
 to annihilation, swept the friendly tribes men, 
 mothers, babes from the face of the earth; and 
 death, death through torments inconceivable but to 
 savage ingenuity, the slow exhaustion of vital force 
 amid lingering flames while agonizing wounds lacer 
 ated the inflamed flesh, had been the portion dealt 
 to messengers of divine love. The annals of heroic 
 devotion have no tale more pitiful than the con 
 stancy in duty to their disgusting pupils, and for it 
 the awful earthly recompense, of the faithful fath 
 ers, Brebeuf and Lallemant. 
 
 Such was the present example, such the impend 
 ing menace martyrdom through agony unspeak 
 able for the missionary, butchery for his converts 
 that lay across the path of the young priest of 29 
 as he set forth upon his lonely way to La Pointe 
 de St. Esprit, on the Bay of Chequamegon. And to 
 what a task assigned! Not, like the voyageur or 
 trader, to plunge licentiously into the wild Indian 
 life, rejoicing in its freedom and adventure, reck 
 less of results. The Christian missionary met those 
 natives to challenge their habits of thought, to at 
 tack their traditions of life, to rebuke their morals. 
 Yet his appeal was to a spiritual nature of which 
 
 [196] 
 
they knew nothing, to hearken to a tale beyond their 
 understanding, to lift them beyond the only world 
 they knew or were capable of knowing. At first, 
 perhaps, he might win attention by the charm of nov 
 elty, attractive always to the savage as to animal 
 nature. That sway was but momentary; his teach 
 ing necessarily carried reproof; and, gentle as he 
 made it, few of those coarse, fierce spirits would tol 
 erate it. Their frequent return and sometimes habit 
 ual usage were contumely, ridicule, indignity. Dis 
 gustful alike to his education, breeding, taste, was 
 every close contact with them, and nature could but 
 rebel against the duty religion enjoined. Dependent 
 on them for the means of subsistence, his privations 
 were often severe. Yet he toiled with unfailing per 
 severance, inventing new devices to win their trust 
 and fix their minds on things eternal; always to en 
 counter backsliding and relapse, and ever to see the 
 momentous truths he taught fall like seed upon a 
 stony ground. Whose heart must not melt in sym 
 pathy with those words my colleague read from that 
 letter of the wearied Marquette to his superior after 
 the ruin of the mission at St. Esprit: 
 
 God alone can fix these fickle minds and place and keep them 
 in His grace and touch their hearts while we stammer in their 
 ears. 
 
 Yet bethink you with admiration of the unflag 
 ging zeal that in so few years made him master of 
 speech in half a dozen various native tongues, that 
 he might better strive in that desperate work of 
 salvation ! 
 
 And who so base of spirit that would deny the 
 guerdon of fidelity and goodness when, sick and 
 
 [197] 
 
broken with the malady that sent him to his grave, 
 in the face of coming winter he set off again on the 
 long, hard journey up Lake Michigan from Green 
 Bay, to bring the healing truth to the heathen souls 
 among the Illinois, who loved him ? The event real 
 ized the gloomy presage with which the journey was 
 begun. That testimony of the faith he gave as a dy 
 ing man. With return of spring he tried his last 
 chance for life. Borne by his red brethren to the 
 shore near where Chicago teems with multitudes 
 to-day, he was launched in a bark canoe with two 
 friends to paddle the long way to Mackinac. The at 
 tempt was vain. One day, gliding along the eastern 
 coast, he recognized his summons and bade them 
 land. They sheltered him with a hut of bark, and he, 
 beseeching forgiveness for all their pains, calmly 
 ordered the particulars of his burial. Parkman, to 
 whom we owe so much, paints with simple eloquence 
 the final scene : 
 
 At night, seeing that they were fatigued, he told them to 
 take rest, saying that he would call them when he felt his 
 time approaching. Two or three hours after they heard a 
 feeble voice, and hastening to his side found him at the point 
 of death. He expired calmly, murmuring the names of Jesus 
 and Mary, with his eyes fixed on the crucifix which one of his 
 followers held before him. They dug a grave beside the hut, 
 according to the directions which he had given them, then re- 
 embarking they made their way to Michillimackinac, to bear 
 the tidings to the priests at the mission of St. Ignace. 
 
 Mr. President, let him who doubts the noble ex 
 cellence of that good man s life contemplate the 
 scene enacted on that coast in the next ensuing year! 
 Then Nature bore her testimony unimpeachable to 
 the wondrous impress of his goodness. A band of 
 
 [198] 
 
Ottawas, seven years before his pupils at La Pointe 
 de St. Esprit, repaired at the bidding solely of their 
 hearts to that lonely grave, with tender hands, after 
 the fashion of their fathers- 
 Washed and dried the bones, and placed them carefully in a 
 box of birch bark. Then in a procession of 30 canoes they 
 bore it, singing their funeral songs, to St. Ignace of Michilli- 
 mackinac. As they approached, priests, Indians, and traders 
 all thronged to the shore. The relics of Marquette were re 
 ceived with solemn ceremony, and buried beneath the floor of 
 the little chapel of the mission. 
 
 Sir, was ever tribute more genuine paid to king 
 or conqueror! Could proof more ample be of the 
 power of that noble spirit who had thus sent the 
 beams of human kindness through the hearts of 
 those rough savages in whom he saw the children of 
 God? The cold marble in yonder hall, midst all its 
 glorious company, can testify no more clearly to 
 a character fit for remembrance than that wild pro 
 cession which in the genuine reverence of nature 
 moved slowly through many days adown the waters 
 of Lake Michigan. God e eye was on it; His spirit 
 ruled that scene. 
 
 Tell me not of creeds, of sects, of societies. There 
 is a greater confraternity, the brotherhood of man, 
 whose fellowship overrules and embraces all lesser 
 societies and sects, all true men; and nowhere more 
 than in this land of man s enfranchisement ought 
 its triumphant power to break the fetters that nar 
 row and degrade his soul. He, who could so stamp 
 his goodness on the hearts of those fickle barbarians 
 in whose ears he " stammered " the precepts of 
 Christian faith, is worthy to-day and always the 
 
 [199] 
 
remembering honor of all true American manhood; 
 and will surely have it. 
 
 But, Mr. President, the State of Wisconsin, now a 
 commonwealth of 2,000,000 freemen, rejoicing in 
 prosperity and happiness on the soil he trod so long 
 ago, in raising this stone in the nation s Hall of Stat 
 uary does not merely celebrate a name "illustrious 
 for historic renown," a character whose excellence is 
 worthy of perpetual remembrance. It means still 
 more, that it shall stand there as a testimony and 
 monument to a principle of our social order of the 
 utmost value to mankind the principle of religious 
 liberty! Sir, human intelligence and reason, all the 
 history of the world, teach no more useful and im 
 pressive lesson than is embodied in that funda 
 mental rule which draws an absolute and impassable 
 line between the affairs of state and the affairs of 
 religion, and denies to the social law all right or 
 jurisdiction to transcend it. On one side is the citi 
 zen, a component of and subject to the state, charged 
 with its duties, obedient to the laws within its 
 sphere. Across it is the man, the creature of Al 
 mighty God, His worshiper, His subject, amenable 
 there to His law and no other. 
 
 In that domain man is entitled to enjoy all the 
 liberty of nature untrammeled, unchecked, unre 
 strained by his fellows in the state. There he stands 
 lighted and led by his own conscience. Thither no 
 human law can follow him. If the potentate of hu 
 man creation pursues him there he may, he must 
 resist, or be recreant to his nature and his God. Un 
 flinching before any menace, undaunted by any 
 
 [200] 
 
power, true to his faith, like Luther in his greater 
 majesty before the emperor at Worms, he must de 
 clare, "Here I stand; I can not do otherwise. God 
 help me. Amen. Sir, this is no rule, as sometimes 
 miscalled, of toleration. I contemn the term. I deny 
 all it implies. It is the right, absolute, uncontrolla 
 ble, of utter, perfect liberty. It is an inalienable 
 right. The coward, the willing slave, can not divest 
 himself of it. It goes with him in his bondage how 
 ever recreant he be to nature. And, sir, this right 
 attends and belongs to man as perfectly, also, upon 
 the social side of the great dividing line, though 
 with a different effect. He does not lose it; he re 
 tains it there in full perfection. His rights, his 
 duties, his privileges as a citizen in whatever his 
 relations to the state and society comport with and 
 are independent of it. 
 
 Sir, he is wrongfully despoiled, his right invaded, 
 a grievous injury done, when to any man is denied 
 any part or share of his social rights or privileges 
 by reason of his religious faith. If property, if 
 place, if honor be his rightful due among his fellows, 
 he who strikes aught away of either because of re 
 ligious opinion is an enemy to law, to humanity, and 
 all its hopes. Hostis humani generis. 
 
 And therefore it is, sir, that this statue of James 
 Marquette will stand as a monument and emblem of 
 religious liberty. The noble right to honor and re 
 membrance among men, which the legislature of 
 Wisconsin and the Congress of the United States 
 have declared to be his, he is not denied. It is 
 sacredly preserved. This statue is raised to him in 
 
 [201] 
 
no token of his religion, in ascription of no honor to 
 his creed, his opinions. It invites no special coun 
 tenance from the adherents of any church or any 
 creed. Eegardless of all these, neither with favor 
 nor with disfavor to any, this statue ideal repro 
 duction of him as in life he was stands to the 
 honor of the discoverer and the man, the testimonial 
 of a people who rejoice in the brotherhood of man, 
 who love liberty, and who guide their conduct by 
 its precepts without a shade of fear. 
 
 Sir, no state in all this Union can more worthily, 
 more honorably support this attitude in the presence 
 of the nation and mankind than the State of Wis 
 consin. There, sir, is a composite citizenship which 
 mingles the blood of all the civilized peoples on the 
 earth. Around their altars gather the faithful ser 
 vants of God in many and various forms, of many 
 diverse churches, sects, and creeds. Together they 
 abide in fraternity, in liberty, enjoying each his 
 rights, trampling not upon his neighbor. Nowhere 
 is order better maintained, life, person, property 
 more secure. Nowhere does benevolence show a 
 more generous and kindly face in public or in pri 
 vate care of misfortune. Nowhere is education more 
 lavishly supplied; and yet, in strict observance of 
 the rule of liberty, every shade of sectarian instruc 
 tion removed from the public schools is left in 
 unfettered freedom to the schools maintained by 
 conscience. There, too, home and fireside are the 
 centers of the noblest, sweetest life, the sure and 
 safe foundation of a free, intelligent, powerful state. 
 
 Mr. President, no people more intelligently under- 
 
 [202] 
 
stands, more devotedly maintains, the basic princi 
 ple of freedom to which their testimony is thus 
 borne. They believe that upon it rest their peace 
 and happiness. They will defend it, if need be, at 
 any hazard. They as freely accord it to all. 
 
 We speak for no single class; we represent no 
 creed; we court no favor, when, sir, from and for 
 all the body of our good people, irrespective of race 
 or opinion, my colleague and myself thus declare 
 the sentiment which actuates our state, and supple 
 ment the action of its worthy governor in present 
 ing to Congress the beautiful statue of James Mar- 
 quette, in commemoration of his just renown and in 
 illustration of the light and strength of liberty 
 among men. 
 
 [203] 
 
TRIBUTE TO 
 GENERAL EDWIN E. BRYANT 
 
 1904 
 
In the Fuller Opera House, Sunday afternoon 
 (May 29), Senator William F. Vilas paid a beautiful 
 and appreciative tribute to Ms friend of thirty years, 
 the late General E. E. Bryant. The auditorium was 
 filled, and the tender yet eloquent eulogy was fol 
 lowed with sympathetic attention most sincere. In 
 a corner of the parquet, at the front, the national 
 colors, folded and draped, ivere placed by the patri 
 ots of the Lucius Fair child post of the Grand Army 
 who came in a body. Deans of the various depart^ 
 ments at the university occupied the stage, with the 
 speaker, the university glee club, and Dr. C. R. Van 
 Hise who presided, and boys of the law school, many 
 score, state officials, members of the supreme and 
 other courts, of the university faculty and of the 
 Madison public in general composed the hundreds/ 
 who testified their affection for the distinguished 
 dead by their presence. The exercises were under 
 the auspices of the university faculty, and ivere ar 
 ranged by a committee comprised of Professors R. 
 M. Bashford, W. A. Henry and Storm Bull. The 
 glee club sang both before and after the address. 
 Senator Vilas spoke, it was evident, from the depth 
 of a heart deeply touched. Madison Democrat. 
 
TRIBUTE TO GENERAL EDWIN E. BRYANT 
 
 A COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS, MAY 29, 1904 
 
 I address you at the invitation and on behalf of 
 his associates of the faculty, in attempt to portray 
 the life and commemorate the excellence of Edwin 
 Eustace Bryant, late Dean of the College of Law 
 in the University of Wisconsin. We would testify 
 respect and affection for this good man lost to us; 
 regardful of his faithful labors in education of men, 
 of his learning, his lofty aims, his inspirational 
 power, his noble attributes of character; with love 
 that entwines his cherished memory like a blossom 
 ing vine, rooted in his rich amiability, and redolent 
 with the sweetness of his soul. The tribute will be 
 prosperous accordingly as the portrait of the man 
 shall be true, his doings fairly told. For he needs, 
 as we think, no ascription of virtues not undeniably 
 his own, no adjectives of mere eulogy; no borrowed 
 plumage or perfumed speech. He shall be lauded 
 for no majestic greatness of intellect, no masterful 
 stature among his fellows. But in what he truly 
 was, noble in spirit, zealous in labor, eager for use 
 fulness to others, gentle and sweet in intercourse, 
 self-sacrificing and tender, seeking always that men 
 might be better and happier for him, there will be 
 found the attributes, in riches, which must worthily 
 keep his memory green. What matters it that in 
 
 n [ 209 ] 
 
not all things lie had the power some other might 
 possess; that in not all undertakings he climbed the 
 possible heights? Be sure his ideals fell not below 
 the justest aims; be sure if any rose higher, it drew 
 not envy but encouraging cheer from this honest 
 heart, whose delight was in good things well done 
 for men. 
 
 Our purpose is no obscuration by clouds of praise, 
 but to limn in just and clear perspective the true 
 image of the good soul which, casting its earthly 
 cerements, has obeyed the Master s call. Yet my 
 foot trembles on the threshold of trial and desire. 
 For he was my intimate friend, and for more than 
 t hirty years we footed the path of life in close com 
 panionship. I loved him; I know he loved me. 
 
 Beyond the holy circle of family and fraternal 
 tenderness, none other ever so familiarly permeated 
 all the byways of my aspirations, purposes, thoughts, 
 and work; none other was so in and out with me, 
 joyously welcome at every hour; none so cheering, 
 soothing, helpful, faithful, so honestly to rejoice in 
 things approved in the doing; alas! not one so to pal 
 liate shortcoming in ends or deeds. What would 
 have been, must be, life with no such friend! What 
 a boon from heaven, at one s right hand to have such 
 true and trusty sympathy, tender as woman s, yet 
 sturdily strong in intellect and righteous in char 
 acter to sustain and share, with unbending spirit, 
 the projects, studies, aspirations, yea, indignations, 
 which the problems of life force upon every stirring 
 mind! How lighter lie the burdens of care, of deep- 
 moving meditation, when there is a yoke-fellow in 
 
 [210] 
 
trusty intercourse, of power to comprehend, to pene 
 trate, to share, with responsive counsel! Earth can 
 proffer, beyond the bonds of domestic bliss, no bet 
 ter joy! If bye and bye such ties are renewable, the 
 mortal stroke knocks, indeed, at the door of happi 
 ness and heaven. 
 
 The risks of partial fondness I dare to strive, not 
 withstanding, to avoid, and to set him forth as he in 
 truth was; so obviously claiming within the fact that 
 the actualities of his merit none can believe over 
 drawn. 
 
 The recognition will be ready, I conceive, that, in 
 the headship of the College of Law, Bryant found 
 and performed the work of his highest usefulness, 
 on which he won the widest esteem. It was the cul 
 mination of his life s preparation, led up to by his 
 profession, well adapted to the properties of his 
 heart, and suited to the acquirements of a varied 
 experience. Besides professional practice, he had 
 enjoyed the training of a teacher in the common 
 schools, of an editor and political writer, of service 
 in public office, state and national, and won by his 
 sword in his country s peril that lustre which, as 
 the sheen of gold enriches every color in art, glori 
 fied his life by the distinction of comradeship with 
 the brave and patriotic. I recount his history not 
 only for its interest, but in development of his mis 
 sion, to carry the underlying idea of adaptation of 
 means to end, of the man s production through en 
 vironments and trials. For the testimony of oth 
 ers, especially illustrative of his labors as dean, I 
 am much indebted to my associate on the committee 
 
 [211] 
 
of the bar, Mr. Olin, who invited from many former 
 students, with good return, their remembrance of 
 characteristic anecdotes and deeds; many of whose 
 responses I shall quote. 
 
 Bryant was born among the rocky ridges of the 
 Green Mountain state, at Milton in Chittenden 
 County, not far from the base of Hardscrabble Hill- 
 significant name! on the 10th of January, sixty- 
 nine years ago. His father was a Baptist minister, 
 one of those combinations of strong brain and good 
 heart so many times shown in the theologians of the 
 long period extending from the 16th to the earlier 
 portion of the 19th centuries; men who expended 
 enough "gray matter " to govern a state in differ 
 entiations upon the logic of the plan of salvation 
 for human sinners, with a self-sacrifice that ought 
 at least to have assured their own; though in the 
 judgment of the unappreciative worldly with results 
 hardly compensatory of the talents, the toil, self- 
 denials, and generously devoted lives expended in 
 their production. The memory of "Elder Bryant" 
 still survives in the valleys and on the hillsides of 
 Chittenden and Lamoille counties, whose traditions 
 carry the loving goodness of the man quite as well 
 as his trained skill in theology. But he and his 
 household were the not infrequent examples of such 
 devotion. With but a few hundreds of promised 
 salary, and this to great extent the regular accumu 
 lation of worthless arrears, besides subjection to the 
 annual visitation known as a donation party, the 
 poor minister picked by toil from a few rocky acres 
 the crumbs of life, and cheerfully scattered abroad 
 
 [212] 
 
the loaves of salvation, intrepidly reliant on the 
 promises of heaven for recompense beyond the grave. 
 It was always a treat to hear Bryant discourse of 
 these boyhood scenes with the wit and tale-bearing 
 skill peculiarly his own, when often the indignant 
 remembrance of injustice and distress from neglect 
 of the minister s dues would break the veneer of 
 forgiveness so well laid on in his youth. 
 
 He lost his mother in infancy, which might well 
 have sent him on the proverbial road of the minis 
 ter s son. But a stepmother took her place whose 
 excellence and tenderness made her a perfect mother 
 to him, won his abiding love and devotion, and was 
 recompensed by such care and affection in her age 
 as only a faithful son can bestow. For when the 
 sorrows of widowhood befell her, and, in aggra 
 vated affliction, the light of nature was withdrawn 
 from her eyes, this good son hastened to her side, 
 brought her to his own hearthstone, and with gentle 
 ministrations, which his loving wife and daughters 
 could so well assist him in, gave all but restoration 
 of sight half supplied even that in the cheer ing- 
 happiness brought to her heart through many re 
 maining years. She was still a woman of sweet 
 gifts, worthy of such love. Grace and amiability 
 characterized all her intercourse, which a strong and 
 instructed mind rendered always interesting, and 
 the burden of her care disappeared in the pleasures 
 of her companionship. 
 
 Elder Bryant s family comprised many children, 
 and, straitened by such narrow conditions, this lad s 
 boyhood could but be pinched by self-denials and 
 
 [213] 
 
tried by deprivations. But, after all, could there 
 be a better education for labor, character, constancy, 
 and disposition? With a father who knew how to 
 instruct and edify the mind, whose unfailing exam 
 ple was a constant stimulant to excellence; with a 
 mother so fitted to infuse the spirit of gentleness 
 and charity with the power to do and bear, it may 
 well be no better influences could have moulded the 
 man. It is at least the fact that with all the bodily 
 wants his boyhood encountered, Bryant never car 
 ried the reminiscence of mental distresses, or, to his 
 most intimate friends, ever the least sense of any 
 thing but regard, respect, and grateful affection for 
 his parents and their care of his early life. So far 
 from it, his memories of youth were happy, and 
 glowed with the genial humor that always made 
 them delightful to hear. The mental environment 
 could not have been less than excellent which gave 
 both freedom and fun to so many incidents in the 
 contacts of this youth with the world about him. 
 
 Of instruction he got what was common to his 
 time; indeed, more than the average which youth 
 then enjoyed. Passing the district schools, by fath 
 erly care and personal frugality, he traversed the 
 academy, then the goal of most as a finish of schol 
 astic training. But there are other, and in some 
 aspects, even better forms of education than can be 
 taken from tutors. The favorite New England 
 scheme for man-making is the ordeal of the district 
 schoolmaster, without which, many savants then 
 maintained, the finest traits could hardly be educed 
 no doubt a valuable discipline. It taught the 
 
 [214] 
 
young fellow from the academy quite as much as he 
 imparted; demanding self-perfection in all he 
 thought to have learned, training him in resource 
 fulness, in patience, in sympathy, in kindness, and, 
 not infrequently, in courage and skill for govern 
 ment. In rural New England, at least in the gener 
 ation now within our attention, the schoolmaster s 
 experiences of the school room were varied by those, 
 sometimes more trying, of " boarding around. " For 
 in that day of republican simplicity, school patrons 
 employed the teacher as their "hired man," for the 
 least available wage and subsistence furnished. 
 Therein the old leader in the law especially con 
 ceived the young hopeful, whose objective was that 
 noble profession, gained that somewhat indefinite 
 but supposedly most valuable acquirement, a knowl 
 edge of human nature. The round of victualing 
 through a winter s term took him to nearly every 
 home in the district, far and near, "for richer, for 
 poorer, for better, for worse," to encounter the vari 
 ant tempers of men and women, youths and maidens, 
 in close communion and familiar trial. To some the 
 master s visit was the occasion of pride and genial 
 distinction, to others of mere indifference; while oc 
 casionally, if but seldom, a narrow spirit, even more 
 than narrow circumstances, took him for a hateful 
 tax, begrudging food and comfort in any degree. 
 There was sometimes jealousy of maidens or envy 
 of stout lads to vex, and surly ill nature oft imputed 
 a self-valuation far beyond allowance. Always, too, 
 the district authorities to be reckoned with, and 
 whimsicalities of opinion at times as arrogant as un- 
 
 [215] 
 
of education, his thoughts turned on the professional 
 and there; but at their best, more still on the aver 
 age, the district school was a " liberal education 7 
 to the master, and his measure of success or failure 
 a prophecy of his future. 
 
 It was so in Bryant s case. He then displayed, and 
 then fixed, the elements of disposition, which bore 
 him safely through his trial, and ever after assured 
 regard and good will from all worth consideration 
 throughout his days. It was impossible to unkindly 
 harass, in or out of school, so genial, sincere, and 
 zealous a helper of his pupils; so resourceful and 
 ready an inventor of easy aids to sluggish compre 
 hension, so good a friend on the path to knowledge. 
 Then the glowing kindly humor, the racy wit and 
 story-telling which ever commended Bryant to com 
 panionship, gave welcome at every door. As ever, 
 too, in after years, no helpful though gratuitous and 
 extra labor found him in the slightest reluctance; 
 and no paterfamilias of the farmstead who had 
 yielded his heart to the winsome manners of the 
 master but felt a deeper obligation when the even 
 ing hours were addressed with kindly assiduity to 
 aid his children in preparation for the coming day 
 of school. 
 
 So it was with a sense of successful achievement 
 justly entertained and with a rich repertory of ob 
 servations of young and old, which his humor de 
 ducted all the fun of, preserved for many a merry 
 narration in later days, that Bryant advanced to 
 graduation in this useful seminary whose diploma 
 was the impress of character; and, with such a course 
 
 [216] 
 
of education, his thoughts turned on the professional 
 career at which his ambition aimed. 
 
 Having now attained to majority, he struck out, 
 after his fashion, alone, but with a buoyant heart, 
 for the new world of the west, in search of his fate. 
 He paused a short space in Buffalo, N. Y., but, not 
 falling upon inviting signs of promise, pushed on to 
 Janesville, in Wisconsin, then possessing a galaxy 
 of legal luminaries, and expecting great growth as 
 a manufacturing center. 
 
 Here he began professional reading in the office 
 of Ira C. Jenks, meanwhile again teaching for sup 
 port. The long preparation usual in older communi 
 ties was not then demanded of the professional aspir 
 ant, and necessity pressed to the service in which he 
 could rely on his industry for special equipment in 
 particular emergencies. He was admitted to prac 
 tice by the Circuit Court of Eock County on the 18th 
 of July, 1857, chose Monroe, shiretown of Green 
 County, for his scene, and, removing thither, began 
 the same season the lawyer s career. 
 
 He soon formed a partnership with Hon. John A. 
 Bingham, a worthy and respected lawyer. Earely 
 does the young practitioner shake down much fruit 
 in his early efforts; and it is not unfrequently more 
 misfortune than benefit when he does. No profes 
 sion demands of its neophytes greater constancy in 
 labor and purpose through slow and anxious begin 
 nings; the hard road of hope deferred and privation 
 borne. Bryant had no claim to immunity. He came 
 unheralded to favor, with no recommendation but 
 that best, though often slowest, honest character and 
 talents. 
 
 [217] 
 
Yet evidently he enjoyed a reasonable prosperity 
 from the outset; in the arena of gallantry not less 
 than business. Two years sufficed, not only to pro 
 vide a justifiable income, but to win the prize of 
 love s ambition. On the 29th of June, 1859, his 
 marriage with Louise Boynton was duly celebrated; 
 in every circumstance a happy consummation by 
 which a favoring providence bestowed the domestic 
 tranquility and joy which, for forty-four succeeding 
 years, blessed his industrious life. Happy the man, 
 beyond all other sources of life s cheer, whom 
 heaven wisely guides in this crisis of his fate! who 
 finds and wins what God saw to be the lack of his 
 first human creation, "a helpmeet for him" in the 
 trials of the earthly sojourn. And this was Bryant s 
 undimmed and lifelong light and joy. 
 
 There was in Bryant a natural aptitude for litera 
 ture, of which I shall later say something more. 
 This turned him to newspaper writing, in which he 
 indulged more or less all his years in mere gratifica 
 tion of the propensity, when no other incentive 
 spurred. In 1860, General James Bintliff offered 
 him partnership in the Monroe Sentinel. He ac 
 cepted and engaged in editorial writing on that 
 paper. 
 
 It was a fortunate association. Bintliff was al 
 ready known for abilities, sound sense, and nobility 
 of character. He was qualified to guide and inspire 
 any young man worth effort, and Bryant derived 
 from him an uplifting of mind and spirit for which 
 he revered and loved him to the end of his days. 
 Some time later Bintliff also joined the army of the 
 
 [218] 
 
Union, became Colonel of the 22nd, and later of the 
 38th regiments of Wisconsin s foot volunteers, and 
 was brevetted brigadier for conspicuous gallantry 
 in the assault of Petersburg. He passed away a 
 few years ago, and the world lost one of nature s 
 gentlemen. 
 
 But soon the delights of Bryant s new-made home, 
 the joy of upbuilding prosperity, the plans and 
 dreams of young manhood, were roughly shattered. 
 "Lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him" 
 and upon all the people. War, such all-embracing, 
 deadly, relentless, bloody war as this new world 
 never dreamed could crash through our fabric of 
 freedom and civilization, broke like a sudden tor 
 nado upon our homes. It is futile to try to bring to 
 realization by this generation all the dread meaning 
 of it. None can fully share, who saw or felt not all 
 the agonies of it, the horror that darkened the souls 
 of patriotic men. That all the glories of American 
 liberty, all the deeds of our American ancestors, all 
 the hopes of freedom s lovers throughout the world, 
 all fond expectations of civilization s progress, 
 should so awfully disappear in the chaos of disunion, 
 while strife unceasing should build altars of sacri 
 fice in every home, and bring sorrow to brood over 
 every hearthstone, cast such gloom over the land as 
 no tongue can depict and few imaginations conceive. 
 Then, it seemed, the Lord of heaven spake to the 
 men of America "out of the midst of the fire, of 
 the cloud and of the thick darkness" with a great 
 voice. With tens of thousands whose deeds immor 
 tally tell the nobility of American manhood, Bryant 
 
 [219] 
 
heard the call from on high. Discarding hope, am 
 bition, the joy of home, he sternly followed, took the 
 oath of enlistment in April, 1861, and was enrolled 
 in the ranks of his country s soldiery. 
 
 Oft and again has their tale been told, their glory 
 lauded, who put on the armor of liberty and union 
 in that day of trial. Yet never, never can the noble 
 theme cease to swell the soul of manhood. Their 
 advent to the scene of arms was hailed with scoffing 
 ridicule by the enemy, here and elsewhere, su 
 premely sure of their lack of courage and qualities 
 for war. Their early defeats, natural to inexperi 
 ence, were taken for the presage of despair. The 
 monarchs of Europe thought their opportunity was 
 come; and perhaps but for friendly Eussia and 
 may this people never fail in grateful remembrance 
 of that timely friend, whatever her misfortunes, her 
 enemies, or her faults! would have combined to 
 win their foothold here, as Louis Napoleon alone at 
 tempted; under God s providence to his own ruin! 
 And when, gradually true to its cause, and taught 
 by bloody instruction how its valor should do its 
 perfect work, the army rose, through detraction and 
 croaking prophecy, to stand unsurpassed for disci 
 pline, courage, deeds, unconquerable as ever heard 
 the trumpet sound, came next the ominous forecast 
 of destructive turbulence when its ranks should be 
 broken and discipline dissolved. 
 
 Never did soldiery so confound the predictions of 
 the astute; never was so unselfishly led, so nobly, so 
 intelligently inspired, by the cause of humanity; 
 never more self-sacrificing, more fearfully sacrificed, 
 
 [220] 
 
more unquailing through error, blood and loss; until, 
 at length, what foreign observers reckoned a hope 
 less chance, intelligence, courage and loyalty carried 
 to a trimph never equalled in completeness of its 
 good for men. 
 
 When now we look upon the eastern conflict, be 
 tween two emperors leading two doomed peoples to 
 divide the territory of a third, so typical of war s 
 ends and injuries, the contrast of our saved and 
 splendid republic, the fruit of that army s blood 
 nourishment, lifts its rightful glory among the stars. 
 
 Destruction is war s accustomed work; ours was 
 salvation, re-creation, enfranchisement. And in their 
 exultant hour of conquering power, that noble sol 
 diery serenely accepted transformation to unobtru 
 sive citizenship as the crowning act of intelligent 
 devotion to their cause. 
 
 The flight of time must but better build the monu 
 ments of its honor, and increasing years raise a ten 
 derer anthem above the graves where rest their 
 heroes. 
 
 "How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 
 By all their country s wishes blest! 
 When spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
 Returns to deck their hallowed mould, 
 She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
 Than Fancy s feet have ever trod. 
 By fairy hands their knell is wrung, 
 By forms unseen their dirge is sung. 
 There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, 
 To bless the turf that wraps their clay, 
 And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
 To dwell, a weeping hermit, there." 
 
 No special detail of Bryant s soldiership is requis 
 ite. It differed not in essentials from others of ap 
 proved excellence. 
 
 [221] 
 
He was appointed Sergeant-Major, head of the 
 non-coinmissioned staff, of the third regiment, be 
 fore it left the state; promoted Second Lieutenant 
 of Company A soon after, First Lieutenant the fol 
 lowing year, and then Regimental Adjutant. In De 
 cember, 1863, he re-enlisted with the regiment, but 
 was that winter sent north on recruiting service. 
 He was made Assistant Provost Marshal and re 
 signed as Adjutant in June, 1864. In February, 
 1865, he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the fiftieth 
 Wisconsin. War was still flagrant, but this regi 
 ment was sent to the Southwest, and saw no fight 
 ing. But Colonel Bryant was long since a veteran 
 soldier. One who had for nearly three years waded 
 the red glue of Virginia and Maryland with the 
 Army of the Potomac, mixed often in such skir 
 mishes as our now-a-days soldiers call battles, fought 
 in the rear guard that covered Banks down the val 
 ley, survived the bloody fields of Cedar Mountain, 
 Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, with 
 the applause of his comrades for his conduct, needs 
 no words. Like a ducal title, the fact tells all. 
 
 Resigning his commission in February, 1866, he 
 returned to his practice at Monroe. But the forum 
 had been long nearly silenced by arms, and when, 
 early in 1868, Governor Fairchild tendered him the 
 offices of private secretary arid Adjutant-General, 
 his necessity accepted. It is interesting to recall 
 that he here succeeded our distinguished fellow- 
 townsman, John C. Spooner, who refused longer 
 withdrawal from the professional career, doubtless 
 conscious of his intellectual endowment and guided 
 
 [222] 
 
by a fine sense of obligation to its giver, even if 
 without foresight of the power and distinction which 
 have been his reward. Beyond extending acquaint 
 ance and knowledge of state affairs, General Bryant 
 gained little from this post; save one treasure which 
 he warmly prized, the lifelong friendship of General 
 Fairchild, to whose person and memory he was ever 
 faithful. 
 
 The opportunity for professional labor, deeply 
 yearned after, came to him through a personal 
 friendship contracted in this period. On New 
 Year s Day of 1872, Governor Fairchild s term 
 then expiring the partnership called Vilas & Bry 
 ant began business. It was something charming to 
 look upon the burning zest, the intensity of joy, with 
 which he addressed himself to the regained tasks of 
 the lawyer. It was like discovery of a fountain by 
 a desert-lost traveler, whose "flesh longeth * 
 in a dry and thirsty land where no water is;" the 
 joy of a captive knight-errant, restored to sunlight 
 with the arms of chivalry again in his vigorous hand. 
 He eagerly cried for work, work; expressing no fear 
 but that the demands on the office might not tax the 
 powers which yearned for healthful tension. That 
 desire was not denied satisfaction. By the year s 
 end, when he had rarely laid down his pen before 
 the midnight hour for repose, he pleasantly con 
 fessed one day that his apprehension of idleness had 
 disappeared. Yet no tasks subdued his ardor or 
 wearied his disposition. He loved toil, almost for 
 its own sake; at least always from the sense of well 
 doing. I have seen few to equal him in this spirit, 
 
 [ 223 ] 
 
especially with so little care for the recompense of 
 pecuniary gain. But they were prosperous years 
 which ensued, and his estate gained by steady, if 
 moderate, increase. They were years of cheerful 
 happiness, the brightest, lightest, cheeriest years of 
 life to both him and his partner; of constant toil, not 
 without the anxieties of the profession, but carried 
 on the bounding vigor of mid-manhood with little 
 sense of weight; years of ripening study, ever-gain 
 ing strength, firmer-growing friendship and joy in 
 it; the time of fullest life if not of highest wisdom. 
 At midsummer, 1876, Edward P. Vilas was received 
 into the firm; now for years in practice at Mil 
 waukee. 
 
 In December, 1880, Governor Pound, then repre 
 sentative of our northwestern district in Congress 
 and chairman of the important house committee on 
 public lands, a friend who well knew Bryant s value, 
 solicited his aid as clerk to that committee. Pleased 
 by the favor of this distinguished friend, and moved 
 by the privilege of widening his knowledge of pub 
 lic affairs, though with reluctance to yield time from 
 his profession, he accepted and held the post until 
 March 4th, 1883. The governor writes of him with 
 earnest affection, saying: "General Bryant was one 
 of the best men I was ever privileged to know and 
 enjoy. " 
 
 During the preceding winter the general had pur 
 chased an interest in the Democrat Printing Com 
 pany, and, on returning home he resumed, as editor 
 of the Madison Democrat, a vocation to which he 
 ever turned with pleasure. In my estimation Bry- 
 
 [224] 
 
ant s gifts were more addressed by nature to this 
 pursuit even than his profession. His literary taste 
 was intuitive and refined; his love of writing great; 
 his sympathetic nature pointed the way to public 
 appreciation; his skill in composition, the wit and 
 clarity of his style, continually improved by his 
 reading, commended his fruit to the choice of all. 
 To these he added a calm and well-instructed judg 
 ment in public affairs, purity of principle, an honest 
 devotion to the interests of the people, an indignant 
 repulsion of everything wrong or mean and a capa 
 city for studious and conscientious labor in prepara 
 tion of articles, which were calculated to raise him 
 to conspicuous place in the journalism of the state 
 and country. It will be taken invidiously by none to 
 say the truth, that he advanced the repute and influ 
 ence of the newspaper during his editorial manage 
 ment, nor to add my own opinion that had he per 
 sisted in it he would have attained recognition un 
 surpassed in our state; perhaps not a few will accord 
 it upon what he did. Had his life been applied to 
 literature, I believe his eminence would have been 
 still more widely conspicuous. His inclination to 
 express himself on public * topics abided always, and 
 was gratified by occasional unavowed contributions, 
 often brilliant for wit or pungent with good sense, 
 to the columns of various journals. 
 
 In March, 1885, he accepted the office of Assistant 
 Attorney-General for the postoffice department of 
 the United States, in which he served throughout 
 the first administration of President Cleveland, re 
 signing to Mr. Wanamaker, Postmaster General in 
 
 [225] 
 
the cabinet of General Harrison. He was peculiarly 
 qualified for it. It demanded continuous industry, 
 judicial temper, sound perception of the law govern 
 ing the service, integrity of devotion to public inter 
 ests, untiring patience; and none could better bring 
 them to it. His duty extended to legal questions 
 touching the whole range of departmental authority, 
 but so numerous were the cases of loss by postmas 
 ters from fire and theft, that he wittily declared his 
 office to be the "department of conflagration and 
 burglary. 
 
 To say that he discharged his duty well, but faintly 
 tells the just meed of praise he fairly won. I be 
 lieve the functions of the place were never more 
 adequately met. Nothing was neglected, no task 
 despised, and no care for hours crossed his assiduous 
 attention to its requirements. Night, not less than 
 day, found him addressed to its demands whenever 
 and that frequently they pressed upon him. In his 
 integrity and shrewd perception, absolute safety 
 was assured against every invasion of fraud, deceit 
 or base influence. No suspicion of wrong or irregu 
 lar motive ever impugned the purity of the public 
 reasons which inspired his opinions and acts; and 
 all suitors came to see their best chance of success 
 lay in the simplest presentation of the just and law 
 ful reasons for it. As courage in the soldier, so rec 
 titude in the public officer is, to be sure, the justly- 
 demanded virtue upon which all character and serv 
 ice ought to rest; and peradventure, therefore, this 
 should be said to be small praise, I grant it, without 
 question. And yet, in this day, when such effluvia of 
 
 [226] 
 
corruption offend the public sensibility, when his 
 immediate successor has undergone trial upon in 
 dictment of a grand jury of misdemeanors in that 
 very office, although recently acquitted, the chastity 
 of Bryant s career in it, untouched by the breath of 
 suspicion, may well lend some tone to the true note 
 of his high merit. 
 
 It was, indeed, to have been anticipated that his 
 unfailing courtesy and geniality would command 
 esteem from his associates in the department. Far 
 beyond that bound, he won their affection as well. 
 Compelled sometimes to differ in judgment, yet his 
 kindness in difference left no pain; while his gentle 
 helpfulness to all, his winsome urbanity, merry wit 
 and good heart fixed universal attachment. Though 
 years so many have swept over that scene, I know 
 that still remained there those of that association 
 whose love follows him to the bourne of all human 
 ity with undenied tenderness. 
 
 Early in 1889 President Chamberlin was seeking 
 a dean for the College of Law. Applying to me to 
 take the post, I pointed to Bryant as a prize. Sena 
 tor Spooner, who intimately knew his fitness, cor 
 dially joined in effective commendation; and when 
 the General came home on the first of May, the 
 crowning work of his life stood assigned to him. His 
 labor of preparation began at once; his instructional 
 service with the opening of the University in the 
 autumn of 1889. Fourteen years of unbroken con 
 tinuity followed; how ardent, severe and self- 
 sacrificing, few beyond his household circle entirely 
 realized. I sometimes admonished him that his ap- 
 
 [227] 
 
plication was excessive, but with small effect. His 
 devotion was not simply conscientious; he burned 
 with appreciation of the high duty his position de 
 manded for usefulness to the University and the 
 profession. He saw its possible value to others far 
 beyond a gratification of personal ambition; to be 
 worthy in it, indeed, was all his ambition, deeply 
 feeling it to offer his last and noblest life perform 
 ance. And he felt the due measure, and chiefest 
 means, to success in it, was assiduous, untiring in 
 dustry, to work with all his might, to make avail of 
 the utmost limit of his talents. He never paused to 
 inquire what might be demanded of him, what would 
 be taken as satisfactory by the governing authori 
 ties. The simple question was, How can I do more 
 to promote the good end? 
 
 This fervor of spirit was well illustrated in his as 
 sumption of a class at the capitol. It happened that 
 there were many ambitious youths in the state s 
 clerical service who desired instruction in the law, 
 but were denied by their employment attendance by 
 day upon the lectures of the College of Law. One of 
 them, W. F. Dockery, now resident in St. Louis, may 
 tell the story: 
 
 "In the fall of 1891, some fifteen of the employes 
 about the state capitol, I being one, resolved to read 
 law. Our duties made it impossible to attend lec 
 tures on the hill. Plans to secure the services of 
 various lawyers and judges in the city to direct us 
 in our work were suggested. After investigating, 
 our committee reported the outlook for getting us 
 on a working basis as discouraging. Finally, the 
 
 [228] 
 
committee waited on Dean Bryant for suggestions 
 on ways and means, not for a moment expecting his 
 services. Without a moment s hesitation or appa 
 rent thought of the additional labors he was assum 
 ing, he said: Go back and tell the boys I will see 
 them through myself. We were jubilant; the way 
 to the honors and emoluments of the legal profession 
 seemed cleared of all obstacles. Daily for two years 
 he met us at the capitol, and helped us over the hard 
 places of the law. Often he was well nigh exhausted 
 with the burden of the day, but there was always 
 that genial smile and that kindly light in the eye 
 which, with the youngster, never fails to put dis 
 couragement to flight. As for remuneration, he 
 would have none of it. The pleasure it gives me to 
 help you up the first few rounds of a great profession 
 is worth more than gold and silver to me, was his 
 reply." And Mr. Dockery, with other comment, 
 adds: "Not the least of the benefits we got out of 
 our law course was the opportunity of knowing so 
 sunny and lovable a personality." The story is 
 characteristic. Appeal to his generous enthusiasm 
 was never vain. 
 
 The auxiliary service so inaugurated, he contin 
 ued long. It severely wore upon nervous energy. 
 He pursued it with doubtful wisdom, sacrificing 
 hours demanded by nature for vital reparation, and 
 was compelled at last to yield. But that was Bry 
 ant striving to exhaustion. 
 
 And likewise illustrative was his dealing with the 
 receipts amounting to many hundreds of dollars 
 which his beneficiaries voluntarily contributed dur- 
 
 [229] 
 
ing those years, in return for the toilsome service. 
 He refused them for himself, however justly his, un 
 willing to stain the purity of his self-sacrifice, and 
 applied all to enlargement of the library of the col 
 lege, the needs of which the annual legislative ap 
 propriation too slowly supplied. 
 
 His sympathy with young men was exquisitely 
 keen and tender. He warmed with admiration and 
 pride to all whose aptitude and progress gave prom 
 ise; to those of good parts but slow comprehension 
 he was patient, inventive of suggestion, fertile in 
 illustration, inspiring; and to them naturally weaker 
 yet sincerely ambitious of learning, he was consid 
 erate and untiring in his efforts to aid; always, to a 
 degree nowadays unusual, perhaps, ready to address 
 himself to the needs of any individual student. 
 Nothing seemed to distress him more when he con 
 fided to me sometimes these peculiar trials than his 
 perception of duty, reluctantly admitted, to advise a 
 student that he had mistaken his calling from in 
 herent inaptitude for the profession; nothing save 
 one thing, the toils of poverty involving a youth of 
 talents and character. This wrung him painfully. 
 He would not bear the doom of "hearts once preg 
 nant with celestial fire" depictured by the poet, that 
 
 Knowledge to their eyes, her ample page, 
 Rich with the spoils of time, did ne er unroll. 
 
 Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the soul. 
 
 To such his ready purse flew open, as many a youth 
 might tell. 
 
 A lawyer, now established, writes: "I had a posi 
 tion from which I should receive my pay about the 
 
 F 230 ] 
 
20th of November, but entered the law school with 
 out the funds for tuition, etc., and attended classes 
 for several days. The associate dean announced to 
 the class two or three times that those whose tuition 
 was unpaid would be excluded from classes after a 
 certain date, and finally all but I had paid. Mr. 
 Gregory called me to his office, (pursuing the rule 
 necessarily enjoined by the regents) and informed 
 me that though I might have a valid excuse in ex 
 pecting the money, yet he could not consider it, and I 
 must remain from classes till my pay day. I told him 
 I was sorry, but had no credit in Madison and left 
 the office. The dean s private secretary came to the 
 hall stairway and called me back to his office. There, 
 General Bryant, saying he had overheard the conver 
 sation because the communicating door was ajar, 
 told me he was always willing to divide with a man; 
 there was no necessity for my staying from class, 
 wrote his personal check, directed me to present it 
 to Secretary Eiley, and when I got my money I could 
 pay him. He refused a note, and when I paid him 
 he would not listen to my thanks. 
 
 Another writes : * I was working my way through 
 the law school, had a position down town, paying a 
 small amount monthly. At the beginning of the sec 
 ond year I had saved but half of the fifty dollars 
 tuition. I asked the Dean to accept half and wait 
 for the balance. He said the matter was beyond his 
 jurisdiction. But, he said, come to my house in 
 the evening and I ll give you a check for fifty dol 
 lars and you can let me have it back when able. 
 I had been a little nervous during the interview, and 
 
 [ 231 ] 
 
when the dear old man laid bare his affection for me 
 in that generous way, the quick tears sprang and the 
 rest of the interview was hurried and short. I 
 thanked him as best I could and got out. I made 
 other arrangements to pay the tuition, and might 
 have thought the offer lightly made had I not met 
 the General in the hallway two days later, when he 
 drew me to a corner, put his arms across my shoul 
 ders, and said: You haven t been up to get that 
 check/ I explained; and he assured me I must al 
 ways feel that when in difficulties I could come to 
 him; he was always ready to help his boys. 
 
 That was, indeed, but simple truth. His benefac 
 tions were many; nor ever, I think, did deserving 
 student lack his aid. These contributions sometimes 
 "fell on stony ground;" but mistakes did not impair 
 the flow of his sympathy or help. 
 
 Another form of its manifestation was the sur 
 render of vacation rest in aid of some behind in 
 work, or who, from necessity, sought graduation in 
 less than the prescribed time. 
 
 An instance from one such : l During the summer 
 vacation of 1890, I with fourteen other law students 
 put in three months with Dean Bryant at his resi 
 dence, receiving private instruction, so that we 
 might pass the examination for advancement to the 
 senior class the following year. Of course we all 
 expected to pay for his time and trouble, but he ab 
 solutely refused to accept any compensation, saying: 
 1 1 was a poor boy once and know how hard it is to 
 get started in life. So we all chipped in and bought 
 him a revolving bookcase, which, by the way, he was 
 
 [232] 
 
badly in need of, and arranged to have it delivered 
 during our last recitation at his house. It was 
 brought in and presented by one of the boys, and I 
 shall never forget the scene. Tears trickled down 
 General Bryant s cheeks, and he was so overcome by 
 emotion that he was unable to respond without con 
 siderable effort. I am sure Dean Bryant prized this 
 small token from the boys more than he would a 
 money consideration for his services/ 
 
 The truth of that last remark, both in the special 
 instance and in general, I happen well to know. 
 Pecuniary hire could not have induced the surrender 
 of his vacation rest, and he would have felt himself 
 debased by it; yet his heart revelled in the affection 
 ate regard of these young men, so testified. 
 
 Another like practice was to help them who found 
 some topic difficult, by holding, in addition to the 
 regular lecture, a special afternoon or evening ses 
 sion in their aid who desired it; inviting their ques 
 tions and clearing misapprehensions. Mental short 
 coming ever provoked his patience and pity, not his 
 censure. In the same spirit he followed the careers 
 of his young men after graduation, inviting their 
 recourse to him in difficulties. I quote from one of 
 them in illustration: 
 
 " Early in my practice I was retained by an ar 
 chitect who had prepared plans for a residence for 
 his client, and the client, after building his house, 
 handed the plans to another who also built a house 
 after them; and the question was whether the archi 
 tect was entitled to a lien on the last mentioned house 
 for the plans used in its construction. I could find 
 
 [ 233 ] 
 
no cases touching the point, and in my desperation 
 wrote Dean Bryant for advice. I have, from his 
 own hand, a brief covering the point, which he had 
 prepared with considerable care, and would accept 
 no compensation for. " 
 
 Like many another strong and kindly nature, 
 Bryant had rare talent for humor, waggery and racy 
 story-telling, and a genius for oddities to exemplify 
 a point he wished to impress. The moot cases he 
 devised were often attractive for the ingenuity and 
 quaintness of the facts stated to educe the point for 
 debate, giving additional charm to their discussion. 
 This faculty seemed omnipresent with him, issuing 
 in continual merry or grotesque expression, and lend 
 ing peculiar delight to his conversation and inter 
 course. 
 
 Were all his wit and waggeries collected they 
 would fill volumes. One writes that the Dean once 
 handed him a small parcel of butter, desiring him to 
 feed the associate dean s canary. "I found the tilt 
 ing chair which the associate dean used in the ad 
 joining office creaked with a grating sound that an 
 noyed him, and he wanted me to grease it. 
 
 In the classroom this penchant served sometimes 
 to cloak a criticism or rebuke, which his tenderness 
 led him to intimate as gently as possible. Discov 
 ering one day that somnolence had overcome one of 
 his audience, he paused, and, after expectant waiting 
 by the class, he softly said: "The learned Johnson 
 sleeps." Needless to add, he slept no longer. 
 
 On another such occasion, espying one put to rest 
 by the balmy warmth of the morning, relates a wit- 
 
 [234] 
 
ness of it: "A sudden lull took place in the rapid 
 fire of questions, and the Dean looked over his spec 
 tacles. He began to smile and said: 
 
 Our Elver s asleep by the murmuring stream, 
 Flow gently dull lecture, disturb not his dream. 
 
 The ensuing laughter brought the man to his feet, 
 crying: "I beg your pardon, General, but 
 "That s all right," interrupted the Dean, "your 
 apology is accepted, but don t let it happen again." 
 He remarked another day, with a geniality that took 
 away all sting, of one whose baptismal name was 
 Jeremiah, that if a certain member of the class did 
 not take more care in study, there would be a new 
 edition of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. 
 
 To one whose apology was inability to remember, 
 though he had studied hard, the Dean suggested 
 that he write what he learned to fix it in memory. 
 But failing again, the student, being asked why he 
 did not write, replied he did and even then had the 
 written lesson in his pocket. Then Bryant told a 
 story of two counsels, one of herculean size, the other 
 a pigmy, contending in court, when the former said 
 scornfully, I could put you in my pocket. " il Yes, 
 retorted the little one, "but if you did, you would 
 have more law in your pocket than in your head." 
 Whereupon, writes our correspondent, one student 
 smiled, the rest laughed. 
 
 He could take, as well as give, a joke. Mr. Con- 
 way, practicing at Lansing, Iowa, tells that the Dean 
 one day asked, for registration, the full Christian 
 and surname of each member of the class. "When 
 asked, I arose and gave the full name, James Pat- 
 
 [ 235 ] 
 
rick Conway. Scarcely was the second name uttered 
 when the class roared. The Dean, smiling, said: 
 That name designates its origin; not so with many 
 of yours. The next Hibernian, apparently to avoid 
 the laugh, arose and answered, * Thomas M. Casey. 7 
 What does the M stand for? sternly inquired the 
 Dean. For designation, Sorr, replied Casey, and 
 the Dean seemed to enjoy the laugh at his expense 
 as much as the others." 
 
 His propensity for anecdote and waggery in the 
 class room has been criticised, and may have some 
 times reached a slight excess; but it was a fault on 
 virtue s side. The habit sprang far more from de 
 sire to inculcate principle by taking illustration, or 
 relieve the tedium of plodding study, than from 
 thought of self-exploitation. It sprang from his 
 kindness, and nothing pained him more than occa 
 sion for severity. But he could, in necessity, apply 
 a severe measure of discipline, though with distress. 
 One truthfully says: "The Dean s good nature was 
 his greatest weakness, and students not infrequently 
 took advantage of it. I was never quite certain 
 whether he could see and hear so poorly as he seemed 
 at times, or whether he purposely let many things 
 pass unnoticed. Yet sometimes he would administer 
 so scathing a rebuke that it made the most shame 
 less feel ashamed. When they saw the Dean s feel 
 ings had really been hurt, the boys took it deeply to 
 heart, and would respect his wishes. But he never 
 could rebuke the class or individuals without 
 smoothing it over by telling a story. 
 
 It is a trying problem for the most skillful in- 
 
 [236] 
 
structor, how best not only to maintain decorum 
 throughout the numbers who throng the lecture 
 rooms, but also to keep ever at high pressure, among 
 all, individual ambition and zeal, so that out of sight 
 effort and purpose shall be steadfast. 
 
 It cannot be doubted one most efficacious incentive 
 must be recognition of genuine, affectionate kind 
 ness to rule the master s spirit. And when this is 
 combined, as in Bryant s case, with unflagging labor 
 to promote understanding and progress, he must in 
 deed be afflicted with a despicable nature who re 
 fuses response to such leadership. And it is a truth 
 beyond question that no man has won a greater and 
 more abiding measure of love and respect than he, 
 from all beneath his care, whatever renown other 
 masters have won, how rich soever the laurels bound 
 in honor on any brow, it is a sure and noble testi 
 mony that no personality was ever deeper planted in 
 love, no memory will be more sweetly treasured, by 
 the students for whom he wrought, than of Edwin 
 E. Bryant. 
 
 I have sought to reach in some degree by statis 
 tics, a showing of the usefulness to society of the 
 College of Law, both before and during Bryant s ad 
 ministration, but find reports too incomplete to af 
 ford all the satisfaction desirable. Some approxi 
 mations may indicate somewhat of its value to them 
 who have pursued its course to graduation and 
 thus to the communities they serve and so far as 
 given the figures are much within the full measure 
 of the facts. Yet some surprises in them excite the 
 hope that greater fulness of information will be 
 
 [ 237 ] 
 
sought and attained hereafter, by which its credit 
 will be much augmented. 
 
 Mr. Secretary Riley informs me the number of 
 individual students enrolled in Bryant s time is 
 1611. Yet the annual average attendance was 198, 
 the course requiring three years. Of these, but 861 
 received the degree of bachelor of laws. Of the 750 
 who remained not to the end, probably a consider 
 able number, impatient of delay, were admitted 
 through the state law examination here, and many 
 more by the courts of other states. 
 
 Taking the 35 years of the College of Law to 
 gether the total recipients of degrees have been 1538; 
 of whom death has seized 99. Eeviewing the reports, 
 the most impressive fact, to me, is the comparatively 
 small number of these who have withdrawn from 
 professional pursuits; 216, little over 14 per centum; 
 the more remarkable because doubtless some sought 
 legal instruction but in aid of other callings. I 
 doubt much if any considerable school of law can 
 surpass, indeed, can match this record. 
 
 Of these 216, it is curious to note that six enlisted 
 with the clergy, twenty-three in journalism, seven in 
 the army, perhaps as more pugnacious avocations; 
 six chose medicine as equally disputatious; thir 
 teen sought the peace of husbandry; thirteen 
 adopted educational service, while 146 were led off 
 by the profitableness of banking, manufacturing, in 
 surance or other aspects of business; one now and 
 for many years the excellent reading clerk of the 
 United States Senate; and, most felicitously of all 
 for us, one gently rules our good state, as the charm- 
 
 [238] 
 
ing wife of our distinguished, this submissive, Gov 
 ernor. 
 
 Consulting, next, the careers of those whom the 
 law retained, reason for warm congratulation 
 springs from their attainments. Briefly stated for 
 time commands it they stand among the foremost 
 in the honors of life. You will instantly recall, 
 without invidious mention, many in the highest esti 
 mation at the bar in other states, as here, the trusted 
 counsel of vast interests in railways and other forms 
 of business wealth; and the official list comprises two 
 senators of the United States, five representatives 
 in Congress, two governors, two lieutenant govern 
 ors of states; 122 upon the judicial bench, six of su 
 preme, twenty-two of circuit or district, fifty- seven 
 of county, thirty-seven of municipal, courts; two as 
 sistant attorneys general of the United States, eleven 
 federal attorneys, six attorneys general of states, 175 
 county or state s attorneys, 100 city attorneys; 
 twenty-three senators of states, fifty in legislative 
 lower houses; and 130 or more in other office, federal 
 or state, at home and abroad. Complete information 
 of our bachelors would add sensibly to these figures, 
 no doubt; and were account made also of those who 
 broke their shell to enter the profession without de 
 gree, the impatient course of many, the reckoning 
 would be still further augmented. 
 
 Let him who will cavil at collegiate training! And 
 always honor, pre-eminently as he deserves, who 
 puts his life to high attainment and usefulness with 
 out it! But in results like these lies the demonstra 
 tion which leaves the good father, of possible means, 
 
 [239] 
 
helpless to deny his offspring, without sin and shame, 
 the opportunity of education; which establish among 
 the worthiest of human laborers, the instructors of 
 youth; which ennoble and dignify the aims and devo 
 tion of Bryant s faithful work. 
 
 I can justify here but mere mention of the Gener 
 al s performances in authorship. With a single ex 
 ception, his books were professional. He contrib 
 uted much to the edition of the first twenty volumes 
 of reports of decisions by the supreme court of the 
 state, republished with corrections and annotations 
 under authority of that tribunal; of which two vol 
 umes were prepared by Chief Justice Dixon, and 
 eighteen by Vilas & Bryant. 
 
 It was devotion to "his boys" that, years after 
 ward, again addressed him to the toil of book- 
 making. He began with small, unambitious hand 
 books of elementary principles, designed only for 
 his classes. The publishers pressed upon him 
 for works which would command abundant sales. 
 Chiefly noteworthy were his Wisconsin Justice, and 
 text books on code practice; the former very useful 
 though of modest aim, and long to remain the vade 
 mecum of justices of the peace and practitioners in 
 their humble but valuable courts; the other finding 
 more pretentious place in libraries generally. 
 
 To please his old comrades, he wrote at much cost 
 of time and toil, one of the excellent regimental his 
 tories of the Civil War, the History of the Third 
 Wisconsin Veterans; of course without other recom 
 pense than their grateful esteem and his joy in it. 
 
 The General s facility of expression improved con- 
 
 [240] 
 
tinually, with years, one reward of Ms intense labors. 
 His public addresses grew more and more conspicu 
 ous for beauty of diction and sentiment, until he be 
 came appreciated, I am sure, as among our most 
 pleasing and effective speakers, especially felicitous 
 in the brief and witty sort called "after-dinner" 
 speeches. 
 
 For many years he was upon the Fish Commission 
 of Wisconsin, most of the time its chairman. His 
 associates commend highly the efficiency of his serv 
 ice; wholly a labor of love, but of much public ad 
 vantage. One could hardly ask better proof of that 
 than the hearty recognition of transportation com 
 panies, whose receipts from tourists and sportsmen 
 have been much enhanced because the work of the 
 commission so greatly raised the attractiveness of 
 our beautiful waters. This function led him to mem 
 bership in the National Fisheries Association, and 
 he received from its members the high distinction of 
 election as president of that body. His attendance 
 on the annual session gave him an annual treat of 
 great refreshment. 
 
 Such, was, indeed, the last recreation granted him 
 by Providence. Returning from the association s 
 meeting by the seaside in 1903, while visiting by the 
 way his Vermont friends, sickness there befell him 
 menacingly. His son, Dr. Bryant, was summoned 
 thither, and soon restored him to seeming convales 
 cence and spirits, so that his journey westward was 
 happily begun with no thought or sign of peril. 
 Alas! by what a spider thread hangs an inestimable 
 life! Rolling through Ontario on his home-bound 
 
 " [ 241 ] 
 
way, he passed in Ms stateroom many hours of a 
 wakeful night cheerily singing in low^ and gentle 
 voice he was a sweet and delicious singer the 
 songs and hymns he loved, for self-companionship, 
 till earth was flooded with the light of morning. 
 Then, rising from his berth to welcome with light 
 heart the liberty of day, Lo! Heaven s beneficence 
 attended him! Suddenly, the silver cord was loosed; 
 a single exclamation, and he sank to death, as he 
 might have prayed for it, in the arms of his beloved 
 son, with but at most one pang of flesh to free the 
 soul. He merited well this providence and mercy. 
 Others had already the full exhaustion for their use 
 of his faculties of life ; righteously was he supported, 
 without a premonition of its imminence, to the ex 
 tremity of strength. Grievous the stroke to them 
 that loved him; yet tears cannot hide perception of 
 the blessing on his going hence. 
 
 The years of the psalmist were well nigh his; his 
 career, completed to the fullness of harmony, in wise 
 consciousness of its finished term, himself had vol 
 untarily surrendered. Who can say but the years 
 love would have added might have been but of un- 
 recompensed distresses here, of deprivation from 
 beatitude there. Leave it to omniscient goodness! 
 If excellence, fidelity, purity and good works on 
 earth commend to peace and welfare above, we need 
 no better assurance! 
 
 However deficiently his story be told, the plain 
 facts of it sufficiently speak, without more elabora 
 tion, the attributes of his character. 
 
 It wants no added words to know what, as husband 
 
 [242] 
 
and father, he was at home, nor should these pre 
 cincts be invaded with curious search, but to freshen 
 the sorrows there. 
 
 In all the intercourse of his years with fellow men, 
 outside it, if he left one enmity to upbraid his mem 
 ory, it was in a scoundrel s heart. For so upright 
 and unexacting was he in all his dealings, that, what 
 soever he received of possessions, of happiness, of 
 good fame and honor, came always short of his true 
 deserving. I dare affirm with no shade of doubt that 
 never in all his days did he acquire an unjust penny, 
 do an unworthy deed, receive award of merit not 
 entirely his due. If, in any error of judgment, any 
 slip of haste, he mistakenly dropped a word of harm, 
 quick atonement followed its discovery. 
 
 I have recounted as his no shining achievement 
 of what men call greatness; no lustrous triumph in 
 advocacy at the bar; no supremacy in the state; 
 no pre-eminence in arms; no wondrous writing. 
 Though, touching that last, I have thought, had he 
 given to literature the constancy bestowed to make 
 his labors useful, his imagination might have left 
 "something so writ as that the world should not 
 willingly let it die. 
 
 But it may be truly said, if all men were as he, 
 the greatness of any would be little needed. Among 
 such a people peace and kindness would discard 
 necessity of warriors, statesmen, courts, officials, 
 requisite now to master passion, fraud and wrong. 
 Yet though his ambition aimed at lower flights, it 
 led him where usefulness to fellow men attained 
 to the best performance his gifts from nature en- 
 
 [243] 
 
abled. Could he render better account for the talent 
 given by the Master ? 
 
 A sweeter soul of human kindness, gentleness, de 
 votion and good will, a spirit of higher rectitude 
 and purity, the angel of death has rarely ushered 
 to the realms above. If amidst the greedy strifes of 
 earth, it may not be here a treasure of enduring 
 memory, let us rejoice in the faith which assures 
 him an eternity of recognition in heaven. 
 
 [244] 
 
ADDRESS AT THE JUBILEE OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 
 1904 
 
ADDRESS AT THE JUBILEE OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 
 ON BEHALF OF THE REGENTS. JUNE 7, 1904 
 
 Until modern times, the scope of learning, outside 
 the exact branches, was very limited. Among the 
 ancients, little else than speculative philosophy, 
 municipal law, Greek and Latin literature; in the 
 middle ages, down even to a comparatively recent 
 period, the addition was mainly of theological his 
 tory and disputation. Throughout all, weak empir 
 icism and stout superstition ruled where science now 
 prevails. And all learning, beyond personal expe 
 rience, was the privilege of few, even very few. 
 Though evolution slowly made way, it may perhaps 
 be safely said that learning remained in shackles 
 until, after long and troubled dawning hours, the 
 morning of liberty broke in the west. The illumina 
 tion waked the fathers of American civilization to 
 noble ideas, which, if dimly seen by some, had never 
 before a practical force. Not even their great deeds 
 demand higher tribute. 
 
 First, that among the inherent, equal rights of all 
 men is the right of knowledge, enjoyable by every 
 one according to his powers. Next, that to the se 
 curity and excellence of the republic, education of 
 men is an absolute condition; hence, finally, an over 
 ruling obligation of the state to its citizens. 
 
 [249] 
 
Not all the fruitage of the grand idea can be fore 
 seen by those who plant it. Their husbandry nature 
 oft forwards to perfection beyond human forecast. 
 So has it been with this conception of the fathers. 
 Their decree of equal rights to men threw open also 
 a liberty to knowledge whose effects in a single cen 
 tury might confound them with amazement could 
 they return to their view. It liberated myriad minds 
 to pursuit of truth, unfettered by thought-habits of 
 past ages, who improved the Baconian gift of method 
 to results otherwise to have been far slower none 
 can say how greatly slower of attainment. The 
 century after the American constitution has shown a 
 progress surpassing all before since the birth of the 
 Christian Savior. 
 
 Upon the foundation of these ideas has risen, un 
 der the auspices of the good state we love, and 
 which, we proudly believe, intelligently understands 
 them, this institution of learning to co-ordinate, 
 vivify, and complete her system of free education. 
 And on the part of its governing regency, I ven 
 ture to emphasize, with the summary brevity de 
 manded by the occasion, two aspects of its benevo 
 lent service which, however familiar, are of the 
 highest import to its usefulness. 
 
 The first springs from the revolution accomplished 
 in the elements and purposes of learning. The 
 boundaries of the long- guiding aphorism, rvw& o-eavrw, 
 man s history, philosophy, philology, literature, 
 law, or whatever else of him and his perform- 
 mances, measure now but paddocks in the expand 
 ing fields of knowledge. Sweeping indefinitely be- 
 
 [250] 
 
yond, is thie science of nature, her composition, 
 forces, history, laws, adaptations. From that im 
 mensity, the gains already have issued in marvelous 
 forms of power and welfare to mankind; enough 
 further is discerned to assure the forecast of greater 
 wonders yet to come; until, indeed, the imagination, 
 lifted to heights of dazzling view, may well utter 
 the poet s cry: 
 
 Visions of glory, spare my aching sight, 
 Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul ! 
 
 And better than material splendor, progress there 
 has proven the cleansing besom for the hoary errors 
 of ages; old obstructions to human view have turned 
 to gossamers in this new sunlight; the ghosts of 
 superstition dissolved; and the far stretching vistas 
 of science may yet reveal though now too dim for 
 sight a radiance on life s mystic problem; and 
 from his compass of outward things a higher knowl 
 edge of himself return to man, until, at last, realiza 
 tion, impossible to introspection, of the !Vw0i o-eavrdi/, 
 may reach him sitting at the feet of nature. We 
 have at least achieved so much that human research 
 is justified of presumption, though it boldly grope 
 and strive to grasp the treasures of the Infinite. 
 
 And to such a university, of the universe to be a 
 storehouse, the vivifying heart and supply to the 
 arteries of the state s educational system, the first 
 and great commandment is, to strive in the vanguard 
 of human research, worthily to aid and quickly to 
 gather every new conquest of the spoil of knowl 
 edge. A great people must have all the best, with 
 least delay. 
 
 [251] 
 
For here we reach the widened purposes of learn 
 ing. Man is so involved with nature for all he is 
 and all he does, that no art, trade, profession, per 
 haps no branch of human labor, but is, or shall be, 
 somehow informed to its best performance by the 
 teaching of science. And any people who will tread 
 the measures of civilization, command the world s 
 abundance in pursuit of happiness, share God s 
 promised "dominion over all the earth," can only 
 win, or after winning hold, that happy place, by 
 grasping all the power of completest knowledge of 
 its possessions and laws. Thus necessity combines 
 with wisdom to charge the state, obedient to the 
 overruling law of the equal rights of all, to provide 
 and proffer the utmost best as the rightful portion 
 of every citizen youth capable to embrace and utilize 
 the gift. And when we know that in 1900 this state 
 contained over 116,000 youths, eighteen to twenty 
 years of age, we can but see, in the small proportion 
 led to these fountains, greater duty to the future 
 than satisfaction with even the marked achievement 
 of the past. We are yet far, far below the plane of 
 the democracy of learning. 
 
 Let me add to parry misconceptions that to 
 seek more implies no yielding of treasures gained; 
 that so far from suggesting diminished pursuit of 
 "the humanities," I regard ardent efficiency in 
 those liberal studies so essential to the university 
 as to constitute the truest gauge of its scholastic 
 character, and any slackening there to mark a retro 
 grade neither to be tolerated nor to be excused by 
 advances otherwise. The language we speak can 
 
 [252] 
 
rarely fall in eloquence or purity from tongue or 
 pen uninspired by this discipline; nor has any other 
 training won richer triumphs for the intellect. In 
 vestigation and research must ever be insistent in 
 these fields, still fruitful of buried treasures; and 
 moreover, doubly necessary to co-ordinate the true 
 acquisitions of the past with the gains of science. 
 
 Turning next to the university s mission to impart 
 and infuse the elixir of wisdom, we pause now only 
 on the grand objective the creation of citizens of 
 intelligence and virtue, apt to enjoy and advance 
 the privileges and aspirations of a noble humanity. 
 This is the aim, the justification, the mandate of the 
 state in all its undertakings for education; culmi 
 nating here in chief est obligation. None is fit to be 
 among its instructors who reckons not with this 
 duty in every hour; none tolerable among its disci 
 ples whose secret heart swells not with yearning for 
 that crown of excellence. 
 
 To seek the power of knowledge for the gains of 
 mere selfishness is criminal debasement; to accept 
 its investiture for increase of usefulness among 
 men, exalts and ennobles the soul. The first issues 
 in sin; the last in wisdom. All the glory of this 
 university would turn to corruption were its lesson 
 and example not addresed to the making first of 
 character, even above intelligence. Learning, intel 
 lect, character; the best of these is character. With 
 out it, the others may be but spirits of evil; with it, 
 angels of light and leading. 
 
 For such purposes, to such ideals, you, sir, have 
 been called to head and guide this generous founda- 
 
 [253] 
 
tion of the state for her good people. You succeed 
 to a noble line in its presidency. I shall be pardoned 
 if I name the only one known to my student life from 
 the first day of opening in the then solitary old 
 North Hall. To that great, good man, first chan 
 cellor, John H. Lathrop, who, with true vision of 
 its high aims and ultimate triumph, wrought its 
 establishment, unfaltering amid storm and trial, my 
 heart fondly turns with reverent respect and affec 
 tion. Would he, too, might return to view this 
 monument to his wisdom and labors now! Ever 
 green be his memory preserved in honor here; 
 worthy first among the glorious men who have 
 builded to its height and fame the University of 
 Wisconsin! 
 
 Your task, as your succession, sir, is great and 
 splendid. All the energies of life will be none too 
 much for it. To its worthy, its high performance, 
 the regents, who have given you their trust, now 
 bring you hope and cheer. On with it ! And in the 
 gracious favor of Providence, may this good insti 
 tution of learning be forever a beacon of light and 
 a blessing to mankind. 
 
MADISON , 
 
Illi! 
 
 Ill 
 
 ill! 
 
 
 Illfiil