GIFT OF RHODE ISLAND ALPHA OF PHI BETA KAPPA A SECRETARY OF STATE FROM BROWN, WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY AN ADDRESS BY JOHN BASSETT MOORE BROTHERHOOD A POEM BY HENRY ROBINSON PALMER ff The following address and poem zvere delivered before the Rhode Island Alpha of Phi Beta Kappa at Sayles Memorial Hall, Brown University, on June 15, 1915, with Robert P. Brown, A. M., President of the Society, in the chair. A SECRETARY OF STATE FROM BROWN, WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY BY JOHN BASSETT MOORE, LL. D. PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DIPLOMACY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND FORMERLY ASSIST ANT SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES A SECRETARY OF STATE FROM BROWN WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY It might seem to be presumptuous on my part to undertake to designate the three greatest alumni of Brown University ; but, whoever they may be, I venture to claim that the subject of my address to day is entitled to a place among them. In his day and generation, he stood among the foremost men of the country. He barely lost the nomination for the Presidency of the United States, and if nomi nated would have been elected. A few years after his death, his fame suffered the eclipse which befell that of so many able statesmen whose public career ended just prior to the Civil War. The great con flict naturally cast into oblivion the men and the measures that immediately preceded it unless they were distinctly identified with the controversies which brought it about. Such was the fate of more than one of the most capable and most eminent leaders of the old National Democratic Party, and among these was William L. Marcy, the subject of the present address. William Learned Marcy was born December 12, 1786, in Massachusetts, in that part of the town of Sturbridge which is now called Southbridge. His father was Jedediah Marcy, a farmer; his mother, whose maiden name was Ruth Learned, was a husbandman s daughter. After studying for a time at Leicester Academy, their son, William 333596 L., entered Brown University, where he was grad uated with high honors in 1808. Being obliged to rely upon his own resources, young Marcy soon after his graduation at Brown set out to seek his fortune in the world, and to this end footed it across the State of Massachusetts to what must then have been regarded, in Stur- bridge, as the distant city of Troy, in the State of New York. Here, supporting himself by employ ment in a store, and perhaps also to some extent by teaching, he entered upon the study of the law, and was in due time admitted to the practice of that profession. From the very first, he also took an active interest in politics, and became a contrib utor to the columns of the Troy Budget, an anti- Federalist organ. It was an age of warm political controversy, in which foreign questions loomed comparatively at least as large as they do today. Marcy early espoused the principles of the Repub lican or, as it was afterwards called, the Democratic party. It w r as a favorite story of an old friend of mine, the late Francis Wharton, that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts once formally de cided that Jeffersonian Republicans were ferae naturae and might be shot on sight. I have never sought to verify this tale by an examination of the reports of that exalted tribunal, but its humorous exaggeration perhaps scarcely over-emphasizes the antagonism and the horror formerly excited in cer tain quarters by what appeared to be the subversive and impious creed of the Jeffersonian sect. Marcy, in a brief autobiographical memorandum, a copy of which I have in my possession, narrates that he was excluded from a literary society formed by the principal of Leicester Academy because of his Re publican proclivities. Upon this incident he re marks that it served only to increase his devotion to his principles. In June 1812, the war with Great Britain broke out. A military company in which Marcy was a lieutenant, offering its services to Governor Tomp- kins, was sent to the front. It was subsequently dispatched to French Mills, later known as Fort Covington. On the night of October 22, 1812, a detachment under Colonel Young was sent out to capture a company of Canadian militia at St. Regis. Marcy was of the party. At the head of a file of men, he approached the house in which the militia lodged, and himself broke open the door. The inmates were captured and disarmed. These were, with the exception of some troops captured by General Cass in Michigan but after wards recaptured, the first British troops taken on land during the war. Their flag was also captured and was the first standard taken on land. Marcy with his company subsequently joined the main army under General Dearborn. When his first en listment expired, he returned to Troy; but later, when the city of New York was threatened, he volunteered a second time and was for a while again in service. In 1816, Marcy was appointed Recorder of Troy. He had already formed an intimacy, personal and political, with Martin Van Buren, and like Van Buren reluctantly voted for DeWitt Clinton as the Republican candidate for governor in 1817. His well-known dissatisfaction with some of the meas ures of Clinton s administration gave rise to threats of his removal from the office of Recorder ; and the desire to subject him to discipline was increased by his criticism of Clinton s administration in the col umns of the Albany Argus, to which he became a frequent contributor. As a result, he was in June 1818 removed from the Recordership and a Clin- tonian was appointed in his stead. This act, which Marcy never ceased to resent, greatly intensified the repugnance he had always felt to proscription for political opinions. For the next three years, being out of office, he actively pursued the practice of his profession ; but he also continued to engage in politics. He supported Van Buren in his efforts to reorganize the Republican party in 1819 and 1820 by the exclusion of Clintonians, and power fully contributed by his pen to the success of the anti-Clintonian cause. In January 1821, a new Council of Appointment composed entirely of Republicans having been chosen, Marcy was appointed Adjutant General of the State. In this position there was little oppor tunity for distinction; but in February 1823 he was chosen to fill the office of State Comptroller, which had been left vacant by the appointment of its incumbent, John Savage, as Chief Justice of the new Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1821. On his election to the comptrollership, Marcy removed to Albany, where he afterwards continued to reside. The office of Comptroller was then a highly important one, owing to the large ex penditures required for the Erie and Champlain Canals and the consequent increase of State debt. It was universally conceded that Marcy performed the duties of the office with marked fidelity and skill. He introduced an improved system of col lecting tolls and making disbursements, and first exacted the payment of interest on moneys of the State deposited with banks. In 1829 Marcy was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. He discharged the duties of this office with great credit to himself, and with entire satisfaction both to the bar and to the public. During his term of service on the bench, it fell to his lot to preside over one of the most celebrated criminal trials ever held in the United States. This was the trial of the alleged slayers of William Morgan, of Batavia, New York, a case that for several years excited the liveliest in terest, and divided families, society, churches, and political parties. Moved partly by differences with some of the members of the Masonic order, of which he was a member, Morgan conceived the design of exposing its secrets. To this end he wrote a book, the publication of which he com mitted to a printer named Miller. When the ex istence of this design became known, it produced in Masonic circles an agitation and alarm for which there was less reason than excited minds were then disposed to think. Attempts were made to destroy Miller s printing house; and after the failure of these and of other efforts to prevent the publica tion of the volume, certain misguided persons re sorted to the desperate expedient of getting Mor gan out of the way. He was accordingly seized and taken to Fort Niagara, where, after a brief detention, he was, as came generally to be believed, thrown into the Niagara River. Trials of persons concerned in the conspiracy were held at various places; but, for what may be regarded as the prin cipal trial, that of the actual slayers, the Legislature of New York, in 1830, passed a law for the holding of a special circuit of the Supreme Court in Niag ara county. For this difficult task Marcy was se lected. Thurlow Weed had sought to make of Morgan s case a political issue, because of the iden tification of leading Democratic politicians with the Masonic fraternity; but, after the trial was over, although it resulted in a doubtful verdict for the defendants, it was conceded on all sides that Judge Marcy had conducted his part of the pro ceedings with distinguished ability and entire im partiality. But, to the upright judge, the recollection of the case was not without its pangs. History, if truly narrated, does not always move on the stilts of dignity; and it is my duty to record that there was a trivial incident of Marcy s brief sojourn in Niagara county that caused him greater mortifica tion than any other event of his life. The statute under which the special circuit was held provided for the payment of the judge s expenses, and while sitting under it, Marcy was compelled to invoke the reparative skill of a tailor. As Comptroller of the State he had strongly objected to the lumping of charges, insisting upon the itemization of all accounts. Obeying as a judge the rule he had en forced as Comptroller, he included in his account for expenses at Niagara an item reading: "For mending my pantaloons, 50 cents." When he ran for the governorship in 1832, some curious and diligent enemy, closely scrutinizing his accounts, saw in this charge an opportunity to expose the scrupulous candidate to public ridicule. The re sult was startling. Public questions were forgot ten, while the people of the State were absorbed in the story of "the patch on Marcy s pantaloons." It is said that the story did not always work to his detriment, a rural elector having been heard pro foundly to remark that "if Bill Marcy wore patched clothes," then Marcy was the man for him. Nev ertheless, the victim of the incident found himself at a loss for means to counteract its effect, till he discovered, also among the accounts in the Morgan case, a charge for the "transportation" of his po litical enemy but personal friend, Thurlow Weed, to Auburn, which happened to be the seat of the State penitentiary. Taking this item as his text, Marcy contributed an article in his best vein to the Albany Argus, in which he declared that the peo ple of the State could well have afforded to pay for Weed s "transportation" to Auburn, if he had only been permanently detained there. To the extent to which this good-natured rejoinder turned the laugh on Weed, Marcy s situation was tem porarily mitigated. In 1831 Marcy was elected to the United States Senate. He was not an orator, but his political experience, the breadth of his information, and the clearness and force with which he was able to ex press himself, soon caused him to be recognized as 8 a worthy compeer of any of the members of that great body. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, and a member of the Committee on Finance. Unfortunately, however, a phrase which he used in debate gained great no toriety, and created in regard to his political views and action an erroneous impression which he after wards strove to correct but never was able wholly to remove. This phrase was used in the animated debate on the rejection of Van Buren s nomination as Minister to England, an act savoring of politi cal revenge and specially humiliating, since its victim had reached his post in London and was ac tively engaged in the discharge of his diplomatic duties. The justification chiefly alleged for it was the charge that Van Buren was identified with the spoils system," to which the "Albany Regency," of which he was the head, was supposed to be pe culiarly addicted. Of that celebrated confraternity, Marcy, as State Comptroller; Samuel L. Talcott, Attorney- General ; Benjamin Knower, State Treas urer, (whose daughter became Marcy s second wife); and Ed\vin Croswell, editor of the Argus and State Printer, constituted, says Thurlow Weed, "with Van Buren as their chief, . . . the nucleus;" and, speaking further of his old political antagonists, Weed continues : "After adding Silas Wright, Azariah C. Flagg, John A. Dix, James Porter, Thomas W. Olcott, and Charles E. Dud ley to their number, I do not believe that a stronger political combination ever existed at any State capital, or even at the national capital. They were men of great ability, great industry, indom- 9 itable courage, and strict personal integrity. Their influence and power for nearly twenty years was almost as potential in national as in State politics. In defending his political associates, and partic ularly his friend and leader, Van Buren, against the assaults of the Whigs, Marcy, while denying that they were peculiarly open to reproach, de clared that the politicians of New York boldly preached what they practiced, and saw nothing wrong in the rule that "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." The use of this catching phrase Marcy lived to repent ; nor did he ever cease to repel the interpretation popularly placed upon it. I have among my papers a copy of a carefully prepared memorandum, in which he declares his dislike of the rule of proscription, of which he was himself an early victim, and refutes the charge that he was a "spoilsman" in that sense. Al though it was his practice to appoint to office only persons of his own political faith, he affirms that, while he held the post of Comptroller and had at his disposal more patronage than any other official of the State, he steadily refused to discharge men from the public service because of their political views; and that even when he became, as Secre tary of War, the center of partisan attacks growing out of the conduct of the war with Mexico, he re tained in confidential positions near him men who were attached by political opinion and also by fam ily connection to his political adversaries. In the Department of State he disturbed no man on ac count of his political convictions, and carefully pre served the organization of the Department intact. 10 In 1833, Marcy resigned his place in the United States Senate to assume the office of Governor of New York, to which he had just been elected. He held this office three terms, his majority at each biennial election successively expanding, until, in the autumn of 1838, he was defeated by William H. Seward. His fall was the result of financial conditions and of the unpopularity of the monetary policy of the national administration, at the head of which stood Martin Van Buren. Under pres sure from Washington, Marcy reluctantly advo cated and signed the law prohibiting the circulation of safety-fund bank notes under the denomination of five dollars. This measure proved to be most unpopular, the suppression of small notes resulting not in the increased use of gold and silver, but in the flooding of the commonwealth with currency from other States and from Canada of variant and uncertain value. The State administration being thus placed at a disadvantage and exposed to pop ular disfavor, its decline seems to have been some what accelerated by the revival of the story of the sartorial patch, of which effective use was made for the last time. On June 16, 1840, Marcy was appointed by Van Buren as one of the commissioners under the con vention with Mexico of April 11, 1839, for the ad justment of claims. The duties of this position occupied him for two years, but he was destined for still further honors. In March, 1845, he became Secretary of War in the administration of James K. Polk. Like all the other members of the cabinet, he received from 11 Polk a letter pledging him, in case he should be come a candidate for the Presidency, to resign his place. After the lapse of little more than a year, the war with Mexico began. As has always been the case with the government of the United States, it was not prepared for the conflict, and the com plex burden of enlisting and organizing a sufficient army was thrown on Marcy s hands. The ability and skill with which he performed this task have been universally attested. He was not, it is true, wholly exempt from the loose charges of misman agement, of inefficiency, and even of sinister ob struction of our own commanding officers in the field, which were circulated against the administra tion in connection with the conduct of the war; but, fortunately, these charges were at length con centrated in certain unconsidered letters which General Scott addressed to him, while he was still Secretary of War. These charges and complaints, Marcy, by a letter of April 21, 1848, triumphantly answered. This great state paper was as famous in its day as was, in the preceding generation, John Quincy Adams reply to Jonathan Russell in the celebrated Duplicate Letters ; and for some years after Marcy s controversy with Scott, the letter of 1848 was cited as an example and a warning. It is, however, gratifying to narrate that when these sturdy controversialists subsequently met, Marcy extended his hand, which the gallant and high- souled Scott, harboring no resentments, cordially clasped. Between 1849 and 1853, Marcy held no public office. It was the longest period in his adult life 12 in which he was not saddled with some sort of offi cial responsibilities. He spent his time pleasantly at Albany in social intercourse with his political enemies as well as with his political friends, and although he continued to be active in politics, he read much, chiefly in historical works. One of his chief diversions was whist, at which he almost daily contended with his old political antagonist, Thurlow Weed. His reading was, however, ex ceptionally extensive. When out of office, he was far from being a methodical man, and perhaps the nearest attempt he made at method was in his reading. He sometimes essayed to read regularly a certain number of pages a day, but he was too much interested in politics and too fond of the so ciety of his friends to adhere rigorously to such a plan. In 1852, he figured as a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. As has so often happened with favorite sons of New York, his chief danger lay in a factious opposition in his own State. He had the warm and cordial support of such men as John V. L. Pruyn and Erastus Corning; but, unhappily, Daniel S. Dick inson, who had a certain Southern support, partic ularly in the State of Virginia, could not rid him self of the hope that he might himself eventually obtain the coveted prize, if he only could succeed in blighting Marcy s chances. Before the conven tion met at Baltimore, an effort was made by some of Marcy s friends to effect an arrangement with Dickinson, under which the candidate having the strongest support outside of New York should have 13 the support of the State delegation. Dickinson, according to Thurlow Weed, said in later years that if this proposition had come to him earlier, before his friends had fully launched his candidacy, he would have accepted it. It is probable that this later impression was not well founded. Certain it is, as appears by the journal of Mr. Pruyn, the other State delegations stood ready to nominate Marcy if only they could be assured that the New York delegates had agreed to treat their divisions as being at an end. This step, Dickinson, who was a delegate, refused to take. "He would not," said Mr. Pruyn, "surrender his personal animosi ties toward Governor Marcy." The sittings of the convention, which began on the 1st of June, were protracted till the 5th of the month, when, on the forty-ninth ballot, the convention with practical unanimity suddenly nominated Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. Pierce s vote on the forty-eighth ballot was 55; Marcy s was 90, the highest of any aspirant. In the conditions then existing, the nomination was equivalent to an elec tion, and Pierce was duly installed as President on March 4, 1853. In Pierce s cabinet, Marcy was called to the place of Secretary of State, a post for which his ex perience in administrative positions, his wide read ing and his unusually extensive information gave him important qualifications. His career as Sec retary of State was a great one. While strong in controversy, he never pursued it for its own sake, but devoted himself to the accomplishment of valu able results. At the very outset, he declined a 14 suggestion of his predecessor in office for the con tinuance of a debate with France and Great Britain upon a proposed tripartite arrangement in regard to Cuba. One of his earlier remarkable achievements was the conclusion of the Canadian reciprocity treaty of June 5, 1854. The negotiations, which were partly carried on at Berkeley Springs in West Vir ginia, were conducted on the part of Great Britain by Lord Elgin, who came to the United States as a special plenipotentiary. That the picturesque account of his lordship s clever attache, Laurence Oliphant, of the signing of the treaty should be re ceived with a grain of allowance is to be inferred from the fact that he speaks of Marcy as a general in the Mexican War and represents him as having been a noted duelist. The effects of the treaty were beneficial to both countries, and its ter mination at the close of the Civil War, on notice by the United States, was due to a combination of causes in which a feeling of resentment appears to have played an appreciable part. So long as the treaty lasted it provided an amicable working ar rangement in regard to the fisheries, and if it had been permitted to continue in force, the statesmen of Canada of imperialistic tendencies would have found difficulties even greater than those they ac tually overcame in bringing about the formation of the Dominion. Another measure which Marcy sought to carry through was the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. Almost fifty years elapsed before this conception of his far-reaching statesmanship was fulfilled. 15 An important subject with which he dealt in an intelligent and practical way was that of the extra dition of fugitives from justice. Prior to his time the Department of State had declined to enter into extradition treaties with countries that re fused to deliver up their own citizens or sub jects. In many instances this refusal rested on ancient laws which were regarded as having a fundamental character. Marcy took a practical view of the matter. As Governor of New York he had learned how undesirable it was to make one country the refuge of criminals from another coun try. He therefore decided to accept, wherever it was necessary, a reciprocal exemption of citizens or subjects from surrender. On this working basis he concluded numerous treaties, and gave to the development of the system of extradition in the United States its most decided early impulse. He also initiated the movement which resulted in the abolition of the Danish Sound dues, that is to say, the dues which had been charged by Denmark on commerce passing into and out of the Baltic Sea through the Straits of Elsinore. His action led to the calling of a European conference, which, although the United States did not take a direct part in it, devised a general arrangement for the capitalization and abolition of the dues. It fell to his successor in the Department of State actually to sign the convention exempting American ves sels from these burdensome exactions. But the draft was drawn and the work substantially com pleted before Marcy s retirement. On all occasions Marcy took high ground as an 16 advocate of the freedom of the seas and of the nat ural channels by which they are connected. He urged the free navigation of international streams, and the making of treaties to obtain it. When, towards the close of Pierce s administration, the United States was invited to adhere to the Decla ration of Paris, he proposed, as the condition of adhesion, the exemption of private property at sea, except contraband of war, from capture, and be lieved that, if he could have remained at his task, he might have secured the general acceptance of the principle. Three notable cases occurred during Marcy s term as Secretary of State which I group together because they each contain a predominant personal element. One of these was the dismissal of Sir John Crampton as British Minister at Washington. Some time after the outbreak of the Crimean War, rumors became rife that a system of enlistments in violation of the neutrality laws was carried on in the United States under the supervision of the British Minister and of certain British consuls. Pre cise proof of this fact was eventually disclosed in the trial at Philadelphia of a man named Hertz. The United States asked for Crampton s recall to gether with that of the implicated consuls. The British ministry procrastinated and objected until it became necessary for the United States to act for itself. This step was taken by Marcy not with out pain and regret, for his personal relations with Crampton had been of the friendliest character. But, when brought to the point of action, he moved with firmness and resolution, sending to 17 the Minister his passports and revoking the exe quaturs of the consuls at New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Another celebrated case was that of Martin Koszta. This case is the source of a popular delu sion which even high officials have occasionally shared. Koszta was a Hungarian political refugee who came to the United States about the time of Kossuth s visit. After residing in the United States upwards of a year and making a declaration of in tention to become a citizen, he paid a visit to Tur key. While in that country, certain agents of the Austrian government conceived the idea of secur ing possession of his person under the guise of the system of extraterritoriality which prevailed to a limited extent in the Ottoman Empire. Proceed ing, however, in an irregular manner, they caused Koszta, while walking on the quay in Smyrna, to be seized and thrown into the water, where he was picked up by a boat s crew from the Austrian brig- of-war Huszar, in which he was presently con fined. Immediately afterwards Captain Ingraham, of the U. S. sloop-of-war St. Louis, sailed into the harbor and learning that Koszta claimed American protection, instituted an inquiry; but having sub sequently received notice of a design to remove the prisoner clandestinely, before the investigation could be completed, he demanded Koszta s release, with an intimation that, unless the demand was complied with by a certain hour, it would be en forced. Fortunately, an arrangement was then ef fected under which Koszta was delivered into the custody of the French consul-general, till the 18 question should be adjusted between the two governments directly concerned. The Austrian government, strongly remonstrating, lodged a protest at Washington, in which it expressed confidence that the United States would dis avow the conduct of its agents, call them to a severe account, and tender "a satisfaction propor tionate to the magnitude of the outrage." To this protest Marcy replied in the celebrated state paper since known as the Koszta note, presenting a mas terly review of the facts and the law, and express ing in conclusion the expectation that his Imperial Majesty would cause Koszta to be set at liberty. This note has been popularly supposed to have jus tified the protection extended to Koszta on the ground of his having made a declaration of inten tion to become a citizen of the United States. No supposition could be more completely unfounded. The declaration of intention was referred to by Marcy only as one of the proofs that Koszta had acquired a domicil in the United States. In reality, Koszta when seized was a protege of the American consulate, a fact which, under the custom prevail ing in Turkey and recognized by the Powers, enti tled him to the protection of the United States without regard to his original nationality. This was the ground on which his protection was in the first instance exclusively justified. Subse quently, the ground of domicil was introduced as an independent source of national character, in view of the fact that he had, as Marcy contended, been by a decree of banishment deprived of his rights as an Austrian subject and had not yet ac- 19 quired by naturalization the rights of a citizen of the United States. In making this argument Marcy probably had in mind, although he did not mention it, a peculiar case of similarly exceptional circum stances, which came before him as a commissioner under the treaty with Mexico of 1839. It is grat ifying to relate that the Austrian government eventually assented to Koszta s return to the United States. The third case in which an individual bore a highly conspicuous part was that of the Walker- Rivas government in Nicaragua, an organization created and dominated by William Walker, once euphemistically heralded as the * grey-eyed man of destiny. Walker, who was of Scotch antecedents, exhibited, in singular union with extraordinary de termination, a grotesque perversion of the advent urous spirit which has so often characterized the children of that interesting land. A physician by profession, but a filibuster by occupation, he was fanatically devoted to the design of extending tKB domain of slavery. Landing in Nicaragua witrTa small band of recruits from the United States, he effected a junction with a disaffected revolutionist named Rivas, with whom Jie set u> and operated a government. Of the manner in which this govern ment was conducted, much favorable testimony has been adduced ; but it aroused a feeling of uni versal horror and alarm in Central America, and was eventually overthrown through the patriotic sacrifices of Costa Rica, who made war upon it and brought it to an end. For a long while the Walker- Rivas government was not recognized by 20 the United States, and its recognition was strenu ously opposed by Marcy on the ground that the United States could not afford to expose itself to the imputation of countenancing hostile expedi tions organized in its own territory against friendly Powers. Eventually, however, the President de cided to recognize the government ; and I may say it was only the insistence of the President and his appeal to personal considerations that induced Marcy to remain in the cabinet. On a third fili bustering expedition to Central America in 1860, Walker was seized and put to death. His surrender in Nicaragua on May 1, 1857, was, as late as 1890, annually celebrated in the Costa Rican capital. Marcy s state papers are distinguished by rare ability. In comprehensiveness of view, massive force of statement, strength of legal argumenta tion, and clearness and vigor of style, they stand unsurpassed in the records of the Department of State. Apart from what I had heard of him in my childhood, it was my own fascination with them, on my first service in that Department, that led me to be specially interested in his life. Of these pa pers, the Kos/ta note is no doubt the one most widely known, but there are others that, in my judgment, surpass it. If I were asked to name my favorite, I should not hesitate to designate the note to the French Minister, Count Sartiges, on the Greytown claims. Greytown, a community lying outside the then generally acknowledged boundaries of Nicaragua, in what was known as the Mosquito Coast, claimed and sought to maintain an independent existence under the authority of the Mosquito king, who was understood to enjoy the patronage of the British Government. As the result of a controversy with Nicaragua concerning limits, which involved the question of jurisdiction over Punta Arenas, prop erty belonging to the Accessory Transit Company, an organization of American citizens holding a charter from Nicaragua, was on various occasions seized or destroyed at that point by the Grey town authorities, and for these acts damages were de manded. There was, however, another complaint which was supposed to affect the "dignity" of the United States. At that time the United States was represented in Central America by a Minister named Solon Borland, from Arkansas, a man of spirit who had served in the Mexican war. One day the Greytown authorities attempted to arrest the captain of an Accessory Transit steamer, then lying at Punta Arenas, when Mr. Borland hap pened to be aboard. The captain resisted, and, in the scrimmage that ensued, Mr. Borland seized a musket and gave to the captain successful support. Great excitement ensued at Greytown; and this excitement was presently fanned to a flame by the announcement that Mr. Borland intended to call upon the resident United States commercial agent in the evening. A suggestion from the latter that this visit be considerately omitted, Mr. Borland, his blood still up, scornfully rejected ; and, while he was in the agent s house, a violent commotion in the street denoted the presence of a mob. Mr. Bor land, nothing daunted, promptly appeared in the gallery and warned the tumultuous assemblage to disperse. But his oratory was suddenly checked by a blow in the face from a bottle, thrown by someone in the crowd, who, after draining from the flask the last inspiring drop, used it as a missile. For the redress of these accumulated grievances Captain Hollins, of the U. S. S. Cyane, was dis patched to Greytown. Lacking specific instruc tions as to procedure, he made upon the local com munity demands which it was either unwilling, or unable, or without adequate opportunity, to meet, and the time-limit having expired, first bombarded and then burned the town, utterly destroying it. This somewhat fierce and drastic punitive measure created a sensation throughout the civilized world. I have in my collections a pamphlet on the case, published in France, on the cover of which the ac tion of the United States is typified by an arm up lifted in vengeance and bearing an incendiary torch. At the time when Greytown was destroyed nu merous foreigners were residing there, including some of British and some of French allegiance. Claims in behalf of the latter were unofficially pre sented to the United States by the French Govern ment on the ground that the destruction of the place was unlawful and unjustified. Marcy, in his response, maintained that, as the claimants had settled in Greytown, they must be regarded as having committed themselves to its protection, so that, for any injuries they had suffered, they must look for redress to that community, and not to the United States or to any other country with which the local government had happened to fall into difficulty. The argument was marshalled with such crushing force that Lord Palmerston an nounced in Parliament that Great Britain would not present the claims of her subjects to the United States. The French claims were abandoned. I have reason to believe that Marcy himself consid ered his note in this case to be on the whole the most finished of all his diplomatic papers. Any review of Marcy s eventful career as Secre tary of State would be palpably incomplete that failed to include his well known circular of June 1, 1853, in relation to diplomatic dress. While ex pressing, in this circular, the expectation that a diplomatic representative of the United States, on the occasion of his reception, would, as far as was consistent with a "just sense of his devotion to re publican institutions," conform to the "customs of the country" wherein he resided and to the rules pre scribed for officials of his rank, Marcy announced that the Department of State would "encourage" on the part of such representative as far as prac ticable, without impairing his usefulness to his country, his appearance at court in the simple dress of an American citizen." He added: "Should there be cases where this cannot be done, owing to the character of the foreign government, without detriment to the public interest, the nearest ap proach to it compatible with the due performance of his duties is earnestly recommended. This circular, which marks, so far as the diplo matic service of the United States is concerned, the crest of the great democratic movement that culminated in the middle of the past century, was explained as reflecting "the simplicity of our 24 usages and the tone of feeling among our people." With such a certificate of origin, it produced, in the dovecot of those who aspired to further polit ical honors at home, a flutter in which the latitude of action it allowed seemed to be quite overlooked. To its keen and clear-sighted author, whose sense of humor seldom flagged, this agitation must have furnished a certain amusement ; but there can be no doubt that the circular expressed his own in most feelings. With the men of his time and his type, uniting with a sense of responsibility and en tire self-respect an unaffected, rugged simplicity, democracy was not merely a cult ; it was a creed, a faith, in which were bound up humanity s best hopes and ideals. We have seen that the object of our present devotions possessed extraordinary vigor of mind; that he was a statesman of grasp and of vision ; and that he bore through life an unblemished reputa tion. It is evident that he was as the world goes an honest man. In reality, although not deficient in shrewdness, he was remarkably tenacious of principle and sincere ; incapable of playing the part of a poseur, an apostle of cant. But, admitting all this to be so, did he measure up to the high est standard of integrity? Could it be said of him, as was said of another great public servant, "States man, yet friend to truth"? Was he free from that form of self-deception which, often facilitated by the emotions, deludes the promptings of justice and truth with the exalted phrases of patriotism and benevolence? Let him answer for himself. During the administration of Pierce, the ques- 25 tion of Cuba loomed large. Only a few years be fore, the United States had offered to purchase the island from Spain, but this offer had been indig nantly repulsed. Subsequently, certain disputes arose, one of which grew out of the seizure of the Black Warrior, an American vessel, by the au thorities at Havana. These controversies, com bined with the desire for more slave territory, ad ded much strength to the annexationist movement in the United States. Of this measure one of the leading advocates was Pierre Soule, a native of Brittany in France, who, after settling in Louisiana, became a Senator from that State. Soule was sent by Pierce as Minister to Spain, The inner histor}^ of his mission to Madrid has never been written ; but, in the midst of a violent agitation in the United States for the annexation of Cuba, the sin gular step was taken of instructing Soule, together with James Buchanan, then Minister at London, and John Y. Mason, Minister at Paris, to repair to some place in Europe and, after conference, to make a report to their Government on the Cuban question. They met in October 1854 at Ostend, in Belgium, and duly formulated and submitted a report. In this report, which is known as the "Ostend Manifesto," it was declared that "if Spain, deaf to the voice of her own interest, and actuated by a stubborn pride and false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, "the time would then have come for the United States to consider whether Cuba in the possession of Spain seriously endangered "our internal peace and the 26 existence of our cherished Union;" that, if this question should be answered in the affirmative, "then, by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we pos sess the power;" and that we should be "recreant to our duty be unworthy of our gallant forefa thers, and commit base treason against our poster ity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo." When Marcy received this report his official comments upon it were as parsimonious as they were effective. In a dispatch to Soule, he remarked that the language of some parts of the report might perhaps be so construed as to convey the inference that the United States was "determined to have the island," and would obtain it by other means, if efforts to purchase it should fail; while other parts of the report repelled this inference. On this he would, he said, only remark that while "the ac quisition of Cuba by the United States would be preeminently advantageous in itself and of the highest importance as a precautionary measure of security," yet the failure to obtain it by cession "would not, without a material change in the condition of the island, involve imminent peril to the existence of our Government. Such were his conclusions as formally expressed. Not long afterward, however, in the freedom of private correspondence, he gave full vent to the feelings by which those conclusions were inspired. In a confidential letter addressed to L. B. Shepard, a friend in New York, he said : "I have not time to say much, though I have much to say on the subject to which your letter of yesterday refers. "I am entirely opposed to getting up a war for the purpose of seizing Cuba; but if the conduct of Spain should be such as to justify a war, I should not hesitate to meet that state of things. The authorities of Cuba act un wisely, but not so much so as is represented. They are more alarmed than they need be in regard to the dangers from this country, though it cannot be said that the filibuster spirit and movements do not furnish just grounds of apprehension. They have a clear right to take measures for defense, but what those measures may be it is not easy to define. In exercising their own rights they are bound to respect the rights of other nations. This they have not done in all cases. That they have deliberately intended to commit wrongs against the United States I do not believe; but that they have done so I do not deny. The conduct of Spain and the Cuban author ities has been exaggerated and even misrep resented in some of our leading journals, par ticularly in the Union. L cannot speak of the views of the conductors of the latter paper, for I have little or no intercourse with them. From what I have seen of it, I am not much surprised at the opinion that it is for war, right or wrong; but I venture to assure you that such is not the policy of the Administration. It does not want war, would avoid it, but would not shrink from it, if it becomes necessary in the defence of our just rights. "The robber doctrine I abhor. If carried out it would degrade us in our own estimation and disgrace us in the eyes of the civilized world. Should the Administration commit the fatal folly of acting upon it, it could not hope to be sustained by the country, and would leave a tarnished name to all future times. "Cuba would be a very desirable possession, if it came to us in the right way, but we can not afford to get it by robbery or theft." On the confession thus made by her son, Brown University s recording angel will have occasion to shed no tears but those of joy and satisfaction. On leaving the Department of State in March 1857, Marcy contemplated a voyage to Europe in company with the late Hamilton Fish, afterward Secretary of State, who was then on the point of making a two years sojourn on the Continent. Marcy and Fish had always been political antago nists, their correspondence having begun with Marcy s refusal, as Governor, to appoint Fish a commissioner of deeds for the City of New York ; but they became warm personal friends. At the beginning of July, Marcy, who had been at Sar atoga Springs, started towards New York. On the Fourth he stopped at Ballston Spa. For some time he had occasionally felt in the region of the heart a troublesome disturbance, which the ex hausting effects of the warm weather seemed to aggravate. Feeling weary, he lay down on the bed, in his room at the hotel, with a copy of Ba- 29 eon s Essays in his hand, and as he read he sud denly entered upon his last sleep. A servant, on entering the room some hours later, found him ly ing with the volume still in his hand, open at the place at which he had been reading. Himself a man of singular strength and wisdom, he spent his last moments on earth in communion with one whose words are the common treasure of mankind. Sharing, as an honorary alumnus of Brown Uni versity, the pride she must feel in the distinguished son whose memory we revive today, I wish to pre sent to her, as I now do, a memorial of him. Em bracing photographic reproductions of three succes sive portraits representing him as Governor, as Sec retary of War, and as Secretary of State, I trust that this memorial, while preserving for posterity his features, may move some of those who look upon it to study his career and emulate his example. BROTHERHOOD A POEM BY HENRY ROBINSON PALMER, LITT. D. BROTHERHOOD I Across the sea the thunder runs From Europe s passion-throated guns The guns of hate, the guns of blood, That shame our common brotherhood. Yet brotherhood, aye brotherhood, Must make our desperate evils good, And maddened Earth be brought at length To know the beauty and the strength Of new-awaking, war-forsaking, Nation-shaking brotherhood. The politician draws his line Along the Danube and the Rhine; The boundary -maker drives his stakes Beside the blue Masurian lakes. Little they know or little care They plant the seeds of slaughter there; Little they reck of hate and blood And the stark shape of brotherhood. Yet brotherhood, aye brotherhood, Shall one day gather like a flood, And man shall list the sunrise larks Above his deluged boundary marks. II The schools have taught the stupid creed That breed must scoff its neighbor breed A creed that builds on love s negation And makes a fetich of the nation. But in our wonder-woven veins We feel the beat of hostile strains: England and Prussia side by side Are borne upon their stormy tide; France it may be, and flax -haired Sweden; A complex host from many a coast, Back to uncomplex Eden. Who, who is artful to invent A measure for each element ? What skill can seek the mystery out That wraps our origins about? What craft can unmix blood from blood. Label this bad and call that good? Alien with alien must abide, Tartar with Muscovite is tied; Though Rome is Rome, she s much beside. Upon our green New England streets The Present with the Dim Past meets The bearded patriarch with his eye of blue Thinks he is English through and through; And yet his twin, like him devised and planned, Sits neath a palm in Samarkand. Ill But still the unpersuaded schools Rehearse their theories and their rules, And far from battle s thunderous roar Proclaim the ennobling art of war. Remote from Flanders wooded crest, Where lie the bonniest and the best, Where Youth has flung itself to sleep Upon the unawaking steep, And Frenzy out of murderous guns Erects an altar for her sons. Is war seen face to face, a boon ? Who needs the answer here in June, Unvexed by war, where the red rose sways On its untroubled bough this day of days, And blue-skied summer overwhelms The unscarred branches of the elms ? And who that sees the lads that tread These college walks would wish them dead- Dead that a manlier land might rise, And publish their red sacrifice ? Is there no other way than war The heart to teach, the soul to scar ? Go watch the swaying riveter who risks His life upon the tall steel obelisks; The unsung hero of the street, The brakeman in the blinding sleet, The mother in whose patient eyes Shines the clear light of sacrifice. The miner flinging life away Beneath the blessed world of day. The grave physician gladly spent, The nurse with black infection pent. The stoker at the furnace mouth, The stern explorer faring forth To win the guerdon of the North, And the new Northman at the Farthest South. We need not fear lest life should be Burdened by dull conformity When war is done and men are one And brotherhood has new-begun: The years will bud and blossom still, Escaped from war s conforming drill; Duty will loom in place of Doom, Impetuous Courage still have room. And blithe Variety find release To climb the enchanted paths of peace. IV Commerce hath built herself a realm As sweeping as the sailor s helm. Within her all-embracing state No people can live separate. Her great republic leaps the barriers That Hate would set about her carriers. She smiles to see the childish bound It traces on her common ground. Her myriad messengers ignore The fastened gate, the unfriendly door. Within the hollow of her hands She holds the oceans and the lands. Her august fleets and armies probe The isolate precincts of the globe, And though the hour be not yet ripe, She is the World State s prototype. We love our fir woods flashing green, Our sapphire rivers swift between, Village and city all our own, And the bright flag above them blown. Its striped folds proclaim its cost In matchless thousands loved and lost; And who of us that sees it flutter The throbbings of his heart can utter? Its simple loveliness outstrips The homage of our eyes and lips; It floats above the maple-leaf, The memory-weighted hope of grief. The sculptor with his plodding mallet, The painter with his rainbow palette, The trumpet and its sounding strain, The tempest and the singing rain, The joy of childhood s ringing laughter That makes a home of hearth and rafter, The sweetest vale, the sternest crag, Shall not so stir us as the Flag! The Flag ! But shall it ever be The symbol of a sundering sea? Shall Hatred hide and Envy bluster Beneath its stripes and starry cluster? Too late For Earth hath cast her hosts Across our hospitable coasts, And what the Pilgrims called their own With East and West is intersown, And we are blood and we are bone Forever knit, forever fast Of the inextricable Past. VI Thus Time and Love and High Design Are leagued against the boundary line; Not the fair mete that justice needs. Or law requires or weakness pleads, Not the old bound of sentiment England shall still be England; Kent shall still be Kent. But from the beginnings faint and vague That Peace hath fashioned at The Hague, And out of the dream that God hath dreamed Mankind shall one day be redeemed. And if proud Hamburg still must be Jealous of London on the sea, Or Glasgow watch with wishful eyes The mighty masts of Bremen rise, No more shall the murderous guns boom hate, The sword in its quiet sheath shall wait, For round the far, the impartial sea, Each forest-masted port shall be A port of the Union strong and free, The many-pillared State. VII Our children s children may not see This Ultimate Democracy, But soon or late the news shall run, As glad and shining as the sun, That Earth hath drawn her chariest folk Under her light and loving yoke A yoke for safety and a pledge Of individual privilege, Not for the high dynastic few, Not the old yoke of Rome anew A yoke to serve man s private good, And save the stumbling multitude, A yoke to outdare our faint-heart prayer, And bind the world in brotherhood. PROVIDENCE I Al.MKK PKKSS mi:, AN iHiTiM- ^&"t?Bs DAY "ME -=== ===== OCT41940M. OCT "4 1940M. SEP 26 Syracuse, W.J/IM.2I, ICT 18 1 :T 4 . T? 4 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY