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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18422-8.txt b/18422-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d09baca --- /dev/null +++ b/18422-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15840 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner +Speeches P-Z, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 19, 2006 [EBook #18422] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + MODERN ELOQUENCE + + + LIBRARY OF + + AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, LECTURES + + OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES + + + + + [Illustration: _PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN_ + + _Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. Potts_ + + An admirable conception of the old story of an early Puritan courtship + famous in song and story, and made use of by many New England orators.] + + + + + MODERN + + ELOQUENCE + + + EDITOR + + THOMAS B REED + + JUSTIN McCARTHY ˇ ROSSITER JOHNSON + + ALBERT ELLERY BERGH + + + ASSOCIATE EDITORS + + + + VOLUME III + + After-Dinner + + Speeches + + P-Z + + + GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO. + CHICAGO + Copyright, 1903 + JOHN R SHUMAN + + + + + _COMMITTEE OF SELECTION_ + + + EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Author of "The Man Without a Country." + + JOHN B. GORDON, Former United States Senator. + + NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, Associate Editor "International Library of + Famous Literature." + + JAMES B. POND, Manager Lecture Bureau; Author of "Eccentricities of + Genius." + + GEORGE McLEAN HARPER, Professor of English Literature, Princeton + University. + + LORENZO SEARS, Professor of English Literature, Brown University. + + EDWIN M. BACON, Former Editor "Boston Advertiser" and "Boston Post." + + J. WALKER McSPADDEN, Managing Editor "Édition Royale" of Balzac's + Works. + + F. CUNLIFFE OWEN, Member Editorial Staff "New York Tribune." + + TRUMAN A. DEWEESE, Member Editorial Staff "Chicago Times-Herald." + + CHAMP CLARK, Member of Congress from Missouri. + + MARCUS BENJAMIN, Editor, National Museum, Washington, D. C. + + CLARK HOWELL, Editor "Atlanta Constitution." + + + INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES BY + + THOMAS B. REED, + LORENZO SEARS, + CHAMP CLARK, + HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, + JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER, + EDWARD EVERETT HALE, + ALBERT ELLERY BERGH. + + NOTE.--A large number of the most distinguished speakers of + this country and Great Britain have selected their own best speeches for + this Library. These speakers include Whitelaw Reid, William Jennings + Bryan, Henry van Dyke, Henry M. Stanley, Newell Dwight Hillis, Joseph + Jefferson, Sir Henry Irving, Arthur T. Hadley, John D. Long, David Starr + Jordan, and many others of equal note. + + + + + _CONTENTS_ + + VOLUME III + + + PAGE + PAGE, THOMAS NELSON + The Torch of Civilization 861 + + PALMER, GEORGE M. + The Lawyer in Politics 872 + + PALMERSTON, LORD (HENRY JOHN TEMPLE) + Illusions Created by Art 876 + + PAXTON, JOHN R. + A Scotch-Irishman's Views of the Puritan 880 + + PHELPS, EDWARD JOHN + Farewell Address 887 + + PINERO, ARTHUR WING + The Drama 892 + + PORTER, HORACE + Men of Many Inventions 897 + How to Avoid the Subject 904 + A Trip Abroad with Depew 908 + Woman 913 + Friendliness of the French 919 + The Citizen Soldier 924 + The Many-Sided Puritan 928 + Abraham Lincoln 931 + Sires and Sons 935 + The Assimilated Dutchman 939 + Tribute to General Grant 944 + + PORTER, NOAH + Teachings of Science and Religion 950 + + POTTER, HENRY CODMAN + The Church 955 + + PRYOR, ROGER ATKINSON + Virginia's Part in American History 959 + + QUINCY, JOSIAH + Welcome to Dickens 964 + + RAYMOND, ANDREW V. V. + The Dutch as Enemies 970 + + READ, OPIE P. + Modern Fiction 976 + + REID, WHITELAW + The Press--Right or Wrong 979 + Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader 981 + + ROBBINS, W. L. + The Pulpit and the Bar 985 + + ROCHE, JAMES JEFFREY + The Press 988 + + ROOSA, D. B. ST. JOHN + The Salt of the Earth 992 + + ROOSEVELT, THEODORE + The Hollander as an American 998 + True Americanism and Expansion 1002 + + ROSEBERY, LORD (ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) + Portrait and Landscape Painting 1008 + + SALA, GEORGE AUGUSTUS + Friend and Foe 1014 + + SALISBURY, LORD + (ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOYNE-CECIL) + Kitchener in Africa 1018 + + SAMPSON, WILLIAM THOMAS + Victory in Superior Numbers 1023 + + SCHENCK, NOAH HUNT + Truth and Trade 1026 + + SCHLEY, WINFIELD SCOTT + The Navy in Peace and in War 1031 + + SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH + The Beginnings of Art 1034 + + SCHURZ, CARL + The Old World and the New 1036 + + SEWARD, WILLIAM H. + A Pious Pilgrimage 1042 + + SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH + The Army and Navy 1046 + A Reminiscence of the War 1051 + + SMITH, BALLARD + The Press of the South 1057 + + SMITH, CHARLES EMORY + Ireland's Struggles 1059 + The President's Prelude 1062 + + SPENCER, HERBERT + The Gospel of Relaxation 1067 + + STANLEY, ARTHUR PENRHYN + America Visited 1073 + + STANLEY, HENRY MORTON + Through the Dark Continent 1077 + + STEDMAN, EDMUND CLARENCE + Tribute to Richard Henry Stoddard 1085 + + STEPHEN, LESLIE + The Critic 1091 + + STORRS, RICHARD SALTER + The Victory at Yorktown 1094 + + STRYKER, WILLIAM SCUDDER + Dutch Heroes of the New World 1104 + + SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR + Music 1108 + + SUMNER, CHARLES + Intercourse with China 1110 + The Qualities that Win 1115 + + TALMAGE, THOMAS DEWITT + Behold the American! 1122 + What I Know about the Dutch 1128 + + TAYLOR, BAYARD + Tribute to Goethe 1136 + + THOMPSON, SLASON + The Ethics of the Press 1139 + + TILTON, THEODORE + Woman 1142 + + TWICHELL, JOSEPH HOPKINS + Yankee Notions 1147 + The Soldier Stamp 1153 + + TYNDALL, JOHN + Art and Science 1160 + + VAN DE WATER, GEORGE ROE + Dutch Traits 1162 + + VERDERY, MARION J. + The South in Wall Street 1168 + + WALES, PRINCE OF (ALBERT EDWARD) + The Colonies 1175 + + WALLACE, HUGH C. + The Southerner in the West 1178 + + WARD, SAMUEL BALDWIN + The Medical Profession 1182 + + WARNER, CHARLES DUDLEY + The Rise of "The Atlantic" 1186 + + WATTERSON, HENRY + Our Wives 1189 + The Puritan, and the Cavalier 1191 + + WAYLAND, HEMAN LINCOLN + The Force of Ideas 1197 + Causes of Unpopularity 1201 + + WEBSTER, DANIEL + The Constitution and the Union 1210 + + WHEELER, JOSEPH + The American Soldier 1220 + + WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY + China Emerging from Her Isolation 1225 + The Sphere of Woman 1229 + + WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON + Commerce and Diplomacy 1232 + + WILEY, HARVEY WASHINGTON + The Ideal Woman 1240 + + WILSON, WOODROW + Our Ancestral Responsibilities 1248 + + WINSLOW, JOHN + The First Thanksgiving Day 1253 + + WINTER, WILLIAM + Tribute to John Gilbert 1257 + Tribute to Lester Wallack 1260 + + WINTHROP, ROBERT C. + The Ottoman Empire 1263 + + WISE, JOHN SERGEANT + Captain John Smith 1266 + The Legal Profession 1271 + + WOLCOTT, EDWARD OLIVER + The Bright Land to Westward 1273 + + WOLSELEY, LORD (GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY) + The Army in the Transvaal 1280 + + WU TING-FANG + China and the United States 1284 + + WYMAN, WALTER + Sons of the Revolution 1288 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + VOLUME III + + PAGE + + PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN _Frontispiece_ + Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. + Potts + + "LAW" 872 + Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic + panel by Frederick Dielman + + HORACE PORTER 897 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + THE MINUTE MAN 936 + Photogravure after a photograph + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT 998 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + LORD ROSEBERY (ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) 1008 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + HENRY WATTERSON 1189 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS 1210 + Photogravure after a photograph + + + + +THOMAS NELSON PAGE + + +THE TORCH OF CIVILIZATION + + [Speech of Thomas Nelson Page at the twentieth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1899. The + President, Frederic A. Ward, said: "In these days of blessed amity, + when there is no longer a united South or a disunited North, when + the boundary of the North is the St. Lawrence and the boundary of + the South the Rio Grande, and Mason and Dixon's Line is forever + blotted from the map of our beloved country, and the nation has + grown color-blind to blue and gray, it is with peculiar pleasure + that we welcome here to-night a distinguished and typical + representative of that noble people who live in that part of the + present North that used to be called Dixie, of whom he has himself + so beautifully and so truly said, 'If they bore themselves + haughtily in their hour of triumph, they bore defeat with splendid + fortitude. Their entire system crumbled and fell around them in + ruins; they remained unmoved; they suffered the greatest + humiliation of modern times; their slaves were put over them; they + reconquered their section and preserved the civilization of the + Anglo-Saxon.' It is not necessary, ladies and gentlemen, that I + should introduce the next speaker to you, for I doubt not that you + all belong to the multitude of mourners, who have wept real tears + with black Sam and Miss Annie beside the coffin of Marse Chan; but + I will call upon our friend, Thomas Nelson Page, to respond to the + next toast, 'The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the Other.'"] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I did not remember that I had written +anything as good as that which my friend has just quoted. It sounded to +me, as he quoted it, very good indeed. At any rate, it is very true, +and, perhaps, that it is true is the reason that you have done me the +honor to invite me here to-night. I have been sitting for an hour in +such a state of tremulousness and fright, facing this audience I was to +address, that the ideas I had carefully gathered together have, I fear, +rather taken flight; but I shall give them to you as they come, though +they may not be in quite as good order as I should like them. The gift +of after-dinner speaking is one I heard illustrated the other day very +well at a dinner at which my friend, Judge Bartlett and I were present. +A gentleman told a story of an English bishop travelling in a +third-class railway carriage with an individual who was swearing most +tremendously, originally, and picturesquely, till finally the bishop +said to him: "My dear sir, where in the world did you learn to swear in +that extraordinary manner?" And he said, "It can't be learned, it is a +gift." After-dinner speaking is a gift I have often envied, ladies and +gentlemen, and as I have not it I can only promise to tell you what I +really think on the subject which I am here to speak about to-night. + +I feel that in inviting me here as the representative of the South to +speak on this occasion, I could not do you any better honor than to tell +you precisely what I do think and what those, I in a manner represent, +think; and I do not know that our views would differ very materially +from yours. I could not, if I would, undertake merely to be entertaining +to you. I am very much in that respect like an old darky I knew of down +in Virginia, who on one occasion was given by his mistress some +syllabub. It was spiced a little with--perhaps--New England rum, or +something quite as strong that came from the other side of Mason and +Dixon's Line, but still was not very strong. When he got through she +said, "How did you like that?" He said, "If you gwine to gimme foam, +gimme foam; but if you gwine to gimme dram, gimme dram." You do not want +from me syllabub I am sure. + +When I came here I had no idea that I was to address so imposing an +assemblage as this. I had heard about forefathers and knew that there +were foremothers also, but did not know that they were going to grace +this assembly with their presence as they do to-night. When a youngster, +I was told by an old gentleman, before the day of the unhappy +stenographer, "You can go out in the world all right if you have four +speeches. If you have one for the Fourth of July, one for a tournament +address, one to answer the toast to 'Woman,' and the fourth 'to sweep +all creation.'" I thought of bringing with me my Fourth of July speech. +If I had known I was going to address this audience I would have +brought along the one that answered the toast to "Woman." + +But I do not know any man in the world better prepared to address you on +the subject of my toast, "The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the +Other," than myself, for I married a lady from the North. She +represented in her person the blood both of Virginia and of New England. +Her mother was a Virginian and her father a gentleman from New +Hampshire; consequently, as I have two young daughters, who always +declare themselves Yankees, I am here to speak with due gratitude to +both sections, and with strong feeling for both sections to-night. + +It seems to me that the two sections which we have all heard talked +about so much in the past, have been gradually merging into one, and +Heaven knows I hope there may never be but one again. In the nature of +things it was impossible at first that there could be only one, but of +late the one great wall that divided them has passed away, and, standing +here facing you to-night, I feel precisely as I should if I were +standing facing an audience of my own dear Virginians. There is no +longer division among us. They say that the South became reconciled and +showed its loyalty to the Union first at the time of the war with Spain. +It is not true; the South became reconciled and showed its loyalty to +the Union after Appomattox. When Lee laid down his arms and accepted the +terms of the magnanimous Grant, the South rallied behind him, and he +went to teach peace and amity and union to his scholars at Lexington, to +the sons of his old soldiers. It is my pride that I was one of the +pupils at that university, which bears the doubly-honored names of +Washington and Lee. He taught us only fealty to the Union and to the +flag of the Union. He taught us also that we should never forget the +flag under which our fathers fought during the Civil War. With it are +embalmed the tears, the holy memories that cluster thick around our +hearts, and I should be unworthy to stand and talk to you to-night as an +honorable man if I did not hold in deepest reverence that flag that +represented the spirit that actuated our fathers. It stood for the +principles of liberty, and, strange as it may seem, both sides, though +fighting under different banners, fought for the same principles seen +from different sides. It has not interfered with our loyalty to the +Union since that flag was furled. + +I do not, however, mean to drift into that line of thought. I do not +think that it is really in place here to-night, but I want you to know +how we feel at the South. Mason and Dixon's Line is laid down on no map +and no longer laid down in the memory of either side. The Mason and +Dixon's Line of to-day is that which circumscribes this great Union, +with all its advantages, all its hopes, and all its aspirations. This is +the Mason and Dixon's Line for us to-day, and as a representative of the +South, I am here to speak to you on that account. We do owe--these two +sections do owe--each other a great deal. But I will tell you what we +owe each other more, perhaps, than anything else. When this country was +settled for us it was with sparsely scattered settlements, ranging along +the Atlantic coast. When the first outside danger threatened it, the two +sections immediately drew together. New England had formed her own +confederation, and at the South the Carolinas and Virginia had a +confederation of their own, though not so compact; but the first thing +formed when danger threatened this country was a committee of safety, +which immediately began correspondence among the several colonies, and +it was the fact that these very colonies stood together in the face of +danger, shoulder to shoulder, and back to back, that enabled us to +achieve what we did achieve. + +Standing here, on this great anniversary at the very end of the century, +facing the new century, it is impossible that one should not look back, +and equally impossible that one should not look forward. We are just at +the close of what we call, and call rightly, a century of great +achievements. We pride ourselves upon the work this country has +accomplished. We point to a government based upon the consent of the +governed, such as the world has never seen; wealth which has been piled +up such as no country has ever attained within that time, or double or +quadruple that time. It is such a condition of life as never existed in +any other country. From Mount Desert to the Golden Gate, yes, from the +islands which Columbus saw, thinking he had found the East Indies, to +the East Indies themselves, where, even as I speak, the American flag +is being planted, our possessions and our wealth extend. We have, though +following the arts of peace, an army ready to rise at the sound of the +bugle greater than Rome was ever able to summon behind her golden +eagles. We are right to call it a century of achievement. We pride +ourselves upon it. Now, who achieved that? Not we, personally; our +fathers achieved it; your fathers and my fathers; your fathers, when +they left England and set their prows westward and landed upon the +rock-bound coast; when they drew up their compact of civil government, +which was a new thing in the history of the world. We did our part in +the South, and when the time came they staked all that they had upon the +principle of a government based only upon the consent of the governed. + +We pride ourselves upon the fact that we can worship God according to +the dictates of our own conscience. We speak easily of God, "whose +service is perfect freedom," but it was not we, but our fathers who +achieved that. Our fathers "left us an heritage, and it has brought +forth abundantly." + +I say this to draw clearly the line between mere material wealth and +that which is the real wealth and welfare of a people. We are rich, but +our fathers were poor. How did they achieve it? Not by their wealth, but +by their character--by their devotion to principle. When I was thinking +of the speech I was to make here to-night, I asked the descendant of a +New Englander what he would say was the best thing that the fathers had +left to the country. He thought for a second and made me a wise answer. +He said, "I think it was their character." That is indeed the heritage +they left us; they left us their character. Wealth will not preserve +that which they left us; not wealth, not power, not "dalliance nor wit" +will preserve it; nothing but that which is of the spirit will preserve +it, nothing but character. + +The whole story of civilization speaks this truth with trumpet voice. +One nation rises upon the ruins of another nation. It is when Samson +lies in the lap of Delilah that the enemy steals upon him and ensnares +him and binds him. It was when the great Assyrian king walked through +his palace, and looking around him said in his pride, "Is not this great +Babylon that I have built for the honor of the kingdom and for the honor +of my majesty?" that the voice came to him, even while the words were in +the king's mouth (saith the chronicle), "Thy kingdom is departed from +thee." It was when Belshazzar sat feasting in his Babylonian palace, +with his lords and ladies, eating and drinking out of the golden vessels +that had been sacred to the Lord, that the writing came upon the wall, +"Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Not only in the +palace, but all through the great city there was feasting and dancing. +Why should they not feast and why should they not dance? They were +secure, with walls that were 350 feet high, eighty-five feet thick, with +a hundred brazen gates, the city filled with greater wealth than had +ever been brought before within walls. But out in the country a few +hardy mountaineers had been digging ditches for some time. Nobody took +much account of them, yet even that night, in the midst of Belshazzar's +luxury and feasting, the veteran troops of Cyrus were marching silently +under the dripping walls, down the bed of the lowered Euphrates, so that +that which had been the very passageway of Babylon's wealth became the +pathway of her ruin. + +Unless we preserve the character and the institutions our fathers gave +us we will go down as other nations have gone. We may talk and theorize +as much as we please, but this is the law of nature--the stronger pushes +the weaker to the wall and takes its place. + +In the history of civilization first one nation rises and becomes the +torch-bearer, and then another takes the torch as it becomes stronger, +the stronger always pushing the weaker aside and becoming in its turn +the leader. So it has been with the Assyrian, and Babylonian, and +Median, and, coming on down, with the Greek, the Roman, the Frank, and +then came that great race, the Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic race, which seems to +me to-day to be the great torch-bearer for this and for the next coming +time. Each nation that has borne the torch of civilization has followed +some path peculiarly its own. Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, +Frank, all had their ideal of power--order and progress directed under +Supreme authority, maintained by armed organization. We bear the torch +of civilization because we possess the principles of civil liberty, and +we have the character, or should have the character, which our fathers +have transmitted to us with which to uphold it. If we have it not, then +be sure that with the certainty of a law of nature some nation--it may +be one or it may be another--it may be Grecian or it may be Slav, +already knocking at our doors, will push us from the way, and take the +torch and bear it onward, and we shall go down. + +But I have no fear of the future. I think, looking around upon the +country at present, that even if it would seem to us at times that there +are gravest perils which confront us, that even though there may be +evidence of weakening in our character, notwithstanding this I say, I +believe the great Anglo-Saxon race, not only on the other side of the +water, but on this side of the water--and when I say the Anglo-Saxon +race I mean the great white, English-speaking race--I use the other term +because there is none more satisfactory to me--contains elements which +alone can continue to be the leaders of civilization, the elements of +fundamental power, abiding virtue, public and private. Wealth will not +preserve a state; it must be the aggregation of individual integrity in +its members, in its citizens, that shall preserve it. That integrity, I +believe, exists, deep-rooted among our people. Sometimes when I read +accounts of vice here and there eating into the heart of the people, I +feel inclined to be pessimistic; but when I come face to face with the +American and see him in his life, as he truly is; when I reflect on the +great body of our people that stretch from one side of this country to +the other, their homes perched on every hill and nestled in every +valley, and recognize the sterling virtue and the kind of character that +sustains it, built on the rock of those principles that our fathers +transmitted to us, my pessimism disappears and I know that not only for +this immediate time but for many long generations to come, with that +reservoir of virtue to draw from, we shall sustain and carry both +ourselves and the whole human race forward. + +There are many problems that confront us which we can only solve by the +exercise of our utmost courage and wisdom. I do not want anything I say +here this evening to have in the least degree the complexion of a +political talk. I am like a friend of mine down in Virginia who told me +that he never could talk politics with a man, "Because," he says, "I am +that sort of a blanked fool that thinks if a man disagrees with him in +politics he has insulted him." Consequently, I am not discussing this +matter in any political sense whatever. But I feel quite sure, though I +see many men whose opinion I respect who disagree with me, that yet this +great people of ours is strong enough to carry through any obligations +whatever which they may take up. I have no fear, however it may cause +trouble, or may create difference and complication, of our extending our +flag in the way we have done of late. I know that I differ with a very +considerable section of the people of the South from whom I come, but I +have no question whatever that we possess the strength to maintain any +obligation that we assume, and I feel sure that in the coming years this +great race of ours will have shown strength and resolution enough not +only to preserve itself, to preserve the great heritage our fathers have +given us of civil liberty here, but also to carry it to the isles of the +sea, and, if necessary, to the nations beyond the sea. Of one thing I am +very sure, that had our fathers been called on to solve this problem +they would have solved it, not in the light of a hundred years ago, but +in that of the present. + +Among the problems that confront us we have one great problem, already +alluded to indirectly to-night. You do not have it here in the North as +we have it with us in the South, and yet, I think, it is a problem that +vitally concerns you too. There is no problem that can greatly affect +one section of this country that does not affect the other. As I came +into your city to-night I saw your great structure across the river +here, binding the two great cities together and making them one, and I +remember that as I came the last time into your beautiful bay down +yonder, I saw what seemed to be a mere web of gossamer, a bare hand's +breadth along the horizon. It seemed as if I might have swept it away +with my hand if I could have reached it, so airy and light it was in the +distance, but when I came close to it to-night I found that it was one +of the greatest structures that human intellect has ever devised. I saw +it thrilling and vibrating with every energy of our pulsating, modern +life. At a distance it looked as if the vessels nearest would strike it, +full head, and carry it away. When I reached it I saw that it was so +high, so vast, that the traffic of your great stream passed easily +backward and forward under it. So it is with some of these problems. +They may appear very small to you, ladies and gentlemen, or to us, when +seen at a distance--as though merely a hand-sweep would get rid of them; +but I tell you they are too vast to be moved easily. + +There is one that with us overshadows all the rest. The great +Anglo-Saxon race in the section of this country containing the +inhabitants of the South understands better than you do the gravity of +that great problem which confronts them. It is "like the pestilence that +walketh in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday." It +confronts us all the day; it is the spectre that ever sits beside our +bed. No doubt we make mistakes about it; no doubt there are outbreaks +growing out of some phases of it that astound, and shock, and stun you, +as they do ourselves. But believe me, the Anglo-Saxon race has set +itself, with all its power, to face it and to overcome it; to solve it +in some way, and in the wisest way. Have patience and it will be solved. +Time is the great solver, and time alone. If you knew the problem as I +do, my words would have more weight with you than they have. I cannot, +perhaps, expect you even to understand entirely what I am saying to you, +but when I tell you that it is the greatest problem that at present +faces the South, as it has done for the last thirty years, I am saying +it to you as an American--one of yourselves, who wants to get at the +right, and get at the truth, and who will get on his knees and thank God +for anyone who will tell him how to solve the problem and meet the +dangers that are therein. + +Those dangers are not only for us, they are for you. The key to it, in +our opinion, is that to which I alluded but just now; that for the +present, at least, the white race is the torch-bearer of civilization, +not only for itself, but for the world. There is only one thing that I +can say assuredly, and that is that never again will that element of the +white race, the white people of the South, any more than you of the +North, consent to be dominated by any weaker race whatsoever. And on +this depends your salvation, no less than ours. Some of you may remember +that once, during that great siege of Petersburg, which resulted, in the +beginning of April, 1865, in the capture of the city and the overthrow +of the Confederacy, there was an attempt made to mine the hitherto +impregnable lines of General Lee. Finally, one cold morning, the mine +was sprung, and a space perhaps double the length of one of your squares +was blown up, carrying everything adjacent into the air and making a +breach in the lines. Beside a little stream under the hill in the Union +lines was massed a large force, a section of which, in front, was +composed of negroes. They were hurried forward to rush the breach that +had been created. They were wild with the ardor of battle. As it +happened, a part of the gray line which had held the adjacent trenches, +knowing the peril, had thrown themselves, in the dim dawn of the +morning, across the newly made breach, and when they found the colored +troops rushing in they nerved themselves anew to the contest. I may say +to you calmly, after thirty odd years of experience with the negro race, +that it was well for the town of Petersburg that morning that that +attempt to carry the lines failed. That thin gray line there in the gray +dawn set themselves to meet the on-rushing columns and hold them till +knowledge of the attack spread and succor arrived. You may not agree +with me that what happened at that time is happening now; but I tell you +as one who has stood on the line, that we are not only holding it for +ourselves, but for you. It is the white people of the South that are +standing to-day between you and the dread problem that now confronts us. +They are the thin line of Anglo-Saxons who are holding the broken breach +with all their might till succor comes. And I believe the light will +come, the day will break and you yourselves stand shoulder to shoulder +with us, and then with this united, great American people we can face +not only the colored race at the South, but we can face all other races +of the world. That is what I look for and pray for, and there are many +millions of people who are doing the same to-night. + +Ladies and gentlemen, I am not speaking in any spirit which I think +will challenge your serious criticism. We are ready to do all we can to +accord full justice to that people. I have many, many friends among +them. I know well what we owe to that race in the past. I am their +sincere well-wisher in the present and for the future. They are more +unfortunate than to blame; they have been misdirected, deceived. Not +only the welfare of the white people of the South and the welfare of the +white people of the North, but the salvation of the negro himself +depends upon the carrying out, in a wise way, the things which I have +outlined, very imperfectly, I know. When that shall be done we will find +the African race in America, instead of devoting its energies to the +uncomprehended and futile political efforts which have been its curse in +the past, devoting them to the better arts of peace, and then from that +race will come intellects and intellectual achievements which may +challenge and demand the recognition of the world. Then those intellects +will come up and take their places and be accorded their places, not +only willingly, but gladly. This is already the new line along which +they are advancing, and their best friends can do them no greater +service than to encourage and assist them in it; their worst enemy could +do them no greater injury than to deflect them from it. + +This is a very imperfect way, I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of +presenting the matter, but I hope you will accept it and believe that I +am sincere in it. Accept my assurance of the great pleasure I have had +in coming here this evening. + +I remember, when I was a boy, hearing your great fellow-townsman, Mr. +Beecher, in a lecture in Richmond, speak of this great city as "The +round-house of New York," in which, he said, the machinery that drove +New York and moved the world was cleaned and polished every night. I am +glad to be here, where you have that greatest of American achievements, +the American home and the American spirit. May it always be kept pure +and always at only the right fountains have its strength renewed. +[Prolonged applause.] + + + + +GEORGE M. PALMER + + +THE LAWYER IN POLITICS + + [Speech of George M. Palmer at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, given in Albany, January 18, 1899. President + Walter S. Logan introduced Mr. Palmer in the following words: "The + next speaker is the Hon. George M. Palmer, minority leader of the + Assembly. [Applause.] He is going to speak on 'The Lawyer in + Politics,' and I am very glad to assure you that his politics are + of the right kind."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW +YORK:--Through the generous impulse of your committee I enjoy the +privilege of responding to this toast. I was informed some four weeks +ago I would be called upon, the committee thinking I would require that +time in preparation, and I have devoted the entire time since in +preparing the address for this occasion. "The Lawyer in Politics." The +first inquiry of the lawyer and politician is, "What is there in it?" +[Laughter.] I mean by that, the lawyer says in a dignified way, "What +principle is involved, and how can I best serve my client, always +forgetting myself?" The politician, and not the statesman, says, "What +is in it?" Not for himself, oh, never. Not the lawyer in politics; but +"What is there in it for the people I represent? How can I best serve +them?" + +You may inquire what is there in this toast for you. Not very much. You +remember the distinguished jurist who once sat down to a course dinner +similar to this. He had been waited on by one servant during two +courses. He had had the soup. Another servant came to him and said, +"Sir, shall I take your order? Will you have some of the chicken soup?" +"No, sir; I have been served with chicken soup, but the chicken proved +an alibi." [Laughter.] A distinguished judge in this presence said he +was much indebted to the Bar. I am very glad to say that the lawyer in +politics formed a resolution on the first day of last January to square +himself with the Bar, and he now stands without any debt. [Laughter.] I +remember a reference made by the distinguished gentleman to a case that +was tried by a young, struggling attorney. I also remember a young judge +who appeared in one of the rural counties, who sat and heard a case very +similar to the one to which reference was made, and I remember the fight +of the giants before him. Points were raised of momentous importance. +They were to affect the policy of the State. One lawyer insisted upon +the correctness of an objection and succeeded. He felt so elated over +that success he in a short time objected again, and the judge ruled +against him, but in his ardor he argued with the court. "Why, I can't +conceive why you make this ruling." "Why," the judge says, "I have just +ruled with you once, I must rule with the other fellow this time." +[Laughter.] + + +[Illustration: REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE LIBRARY OF +CONGRESS, WASHINGTON + + +_"LAW"_ + +_Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic panel by Frederick +Dielman_ + + +The mosaics by Mr. Dielman are remarkable for their wealth of color and +detail--properties so elusive as to defy the reproducer's art. But the +picture here given preserves the fundamental idea of the artist. "Law" +is typified by the central figure of a woman seated on a marble throne +and holding in one hand the sword of punishment, and in the other the +palm branch of reward. She wears on her breast the Ćgis of Minerva. On +the steps of the throne are the scales of Justice, the book of Law and +the white doves of Mercy. On her right are the emblematic figures of +Truth, Peace, and Industry, on her left are Fraud, Discord, and +Violence. "Law" is a companion piece to "History."] + + + +"The Lawyer in Politics." It is sometimes a question which way the +lawyer will start when he enters politics. I remember reading once of a +distinguished lawyer who had a witness upon the stand. He was +endeavoring to locate the surroundings of a building in which an +accident occurred, and he had put a female witness on the stand. "Now +the location of the door: please give it," and she gave it in a timid +way. "Will you now kindly give the location of the hall in which the +accident occurred?" She gave it. "Now," he says, "we have arrived at the +stairs; will you kindly tell me which way the stairs run?" She became a +little nervous and she says, "I will tell you the best I can; if you are +at the foot of the stairs they run up, and if you are to the top of the +stairs they run down." [Laughter.] So sometimes it is pretty important +to find out which way the lawyer is going when he enters in politics. He +should be tried and tested before being permitted to enter politics, in +my judgment, and while the State is taking upon itself the paternal +control of all our professions and business industries, it seems to me +they should have a civil service examination for the lawyer before he +enters the realm of politics. + +A lawyer that I heard of, coming from a county down the river--a county +that has produced distinguished judges who have occupied positions on +the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the State--said of a +lawyer there who had been in politics, that he had started with bright +prospects, but had become indebted to the Bar during his period in +politics. He had gone back and had taken up the small cases, and yet in +his sober moments it was said the sparks of genius still exhibited +themselves at times. He was called upon to defend a poor woman at one +time who was arrested by a heartless corporation for stealing a lot of +their coal. He sobered up and squared himself before the jury, conducted +the examination of the case and the trial of it, and in a magnificent +burst of eloquence the case went to the jury. And after the jury +retired, he sat, while they deliberated, by his client. And finally the +jury came in. The foreman rose and said that "The jury find the +defendant not guilty." The distinguished lawyer, in the presence of the +crowd and jury, and justice of the peace, straightened back in his +chair. "My dear Miss Smith, you are again a free woman. No longer the +imputation of this heinous crime rests upon you. You may go from this +court-room as free as the bird that pinions its wings and flies toward +the heavens, to kiss the first ray of the morning sunshine. You may go +as free as that bird, but before you go pay me that $3.00 you owe me on +account." [Laughter.] What I mean to enforce by this is that the lawyer +who is in politics solely for the $3.00 is not a safe man to intrust +with political power. + +Judge Baldwin, of Indiana, it is said, in giving his advice to lawyers +upon one occasion, told them that the course to be pursued by a lawyer +was first to get on, second to get honor, and third to get honest. +[Laughter.] A man who follows that policy in my judgment is not such a +lawyer as should be let loose in politics. Rather, it seems to me, that +the advice to give to lawyers, and the principle to follow is, first to +be honest, second to get on, and third, upon this broad basis, get honor +if you can. [Applause.] It is unnecessary for me at this time to refer +to the distinguished men who have entered politics from the profession +of the law. I could point to those who have occupied the highest +positions in the gift of the people, who have been the chief executives +of this great Nation, and who have stood in the halls of Congress, and +in the legislative halls of our various States, and in these important +positions have helped formulate the fundamental principles which to-day +govern us as a free people, and upon which the ark of our freedom rests. +I believe that while in the past opportunities have presented themselves +for lawyers in politics, yet no time was ever more favorable than now, +when it seems to me that the service of the Bar is required in helping +shape the policies and destinies of our country. We are confronted with +new conditions, with new propositions, and it seems to me that the man +who is learned in the law, who, as was once said of the great Peel, that +his entire course in life, in and out of the profession, was guided by +the desire to do right and justice, should aid in our adjustment to +these new conditions. + +Professional men who are superior to the fascination of power, or the +charms of wealth, men who do not employ their power solely for +self-aggrandizement, but devote their energies in favor of the public +weal, are men who should be found in the councils of the State. Ours is +the country and this the occasion when patriotism and legal learning are +at a premium. + +In the settling of the policy of the United States with reference to +territory recently acquired, lawyers are destined to play a leading +part. They are very well fitted to appreciate the fundamental principles +of a free government and of human liberty. It seems the patriotic duty +of the lawyer to give the country the benefit of his study and +experience, not as a mere politician, but as a high-minded and learned +statesman and citizen of our common country. + +This is the time when high-minded, learned, and professional men should +assist to plant and protect the flower of our American policy under our +new conditions so that the fruitage of our system may be naturalized in +new fields as a correct policy. + +Duty, therefore, seems to call the lawyer to the councils of State. Our +Country is his client, her perpetuity will be his retainer, fee, and +compensation. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD PALMERSTON + +(HENRY JOHN TEMPLE) + + +ILLUSIONS CREATED BY ART + + [Speech of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister + of England 1859-1865, at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, + London, May 2, 1863. Sir Charles Eastlake, the President of the + Royal Academy, said, in introducing Lord Palmerston: "I now have + the honor to propose the health of one who is entitled to the + respect and gratitude of the friends of science and art, the + promoters of education and the upholders of time-honored + institutions. I have the honor to propose the health of Viscount + Palmerston."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--I need not, I am certain, assure you that nothing can +be more gratifying to the feelings of any man than to receive that +compliment which you have been pleased to propose and which this +distinguished assembly has been kind enough so favorably to entertain in +the toast of his health. It is natural that any man who is engaged in +public life should feel the greatest interest in the promotion of the +fine arts. In fact, without a great cultivation of art no nation has +ever arrived at any point of eminence. We have seen great warlike +exploits performed by nations in a state, I won't say of comparative +barbarism, but wanting comparative civilization; we have seen nations +amassing great wealth, but yet not standing thereby high in the +estimation of the rest of the world; but when great warlike +achievements, great national prosperity, and a high cultivation of the +arts are all combined together, the nation in which those conditions are +found may pride itself on holding that eminent position among the +nations of the world which I am proud to say belongs to this country. +[Loud cheers.] + +It is gratifying to have the honor of being invited to these periodical +meetings where we find assembled within these rooms a greater amount of +cultivation of mind, of natural genius, of everything which constitutes +the development of human intellect than perhaps ever has assembled +within the same space elsewhere. And we have besides the gratification +of seeing that in addition to those living examples of national genius +the walls are covered with proofs that the national genius is capable of +the most active and admirable development. [Cheers.] Upon the present +occasion, Mr. President, every visitor must have seen with the greatest +delight that by the side of the works of those whose names are familiar +to all, there are works of great ability brought hither by men who are +still rising to fame; and, therefore, we have the satisfaction of +feeling that this country will never be wanting in men distinguished in +the practice of the fine arts. [Cheers.] One great merit of this +Exhibition is that whatever may be the turn of a man's mind, whatever +his position in life, he may at least during the period he is within +these walls, indulge the most pleasant illusions applicable to the wants +his mind at that time may feel. A man who comes here shivering in one of +those days which mark the severity of an English summer, may imagine +that he is basking in an African sun and he may feel an imaginary warmth +from the representation of a tropical climate. If, on the other hand, he +is suffering under those exceptional miseries which one of the few hot +days of an English summer is apt to create, he may imagine himself +inhaling the fresh breezes of the seaside; he may suppose himself +reclining in the cool shade of the most luxuriant foliage; he may for a +time, in fancy, feel all the delights which the streets and pavements of +London deny in reality. [Cheers and laughter.] And if he happens to be a +young man, upon what is conventionally said to be his preferment, that +is to say, looking out for a partner in life, he may here study all +kinds and descriptions of female beauty [laughter and cheers]; he may +satisfy his mind whether light hair or dark, blue eyes or black, the +tender or the serious, the gay or the sentimental, are most likely to +contribute to the happiness of his future life. [Cheers.] And without +exposing himself to any of those embarrassing questions as to his +intentions [laughter] which sometimes too inquisitive a scrutiny may +bring [much laughter], without creating disappointment or breaking any +hearts, by being referred to any paternal authority, which, he may not +desire to consult, he may go and apply to practical selection those +principles of choice which will result from the study within these +walls. + +Then those of a more serious turn of mind who direct their thoughts to +State affairs, and who wish to know of what that august assembly the +House of Commons is composed, may here [pointing to Phillips's picture +behind the chair], without the trouble of asking an order, without +waiting in Westminster Hall until a seat be vacant, without passing +hours in a hot gallery listening perhaps to dull discourses in an +uninteresting debate--they may here see what kind of thing the House of +Commons is, and go back edified by the sight without being bored by dull +speeches. [Cheers and laughter.] + +Now, don't, gentlemen, imagine that I am romancing when I attribute this +virtue to ocular demonstration--don't imagine that that which enters the +eye does not sometimes penetrate to the mind and feelings. I will give +you an instance to the contrary. I remember within these walls seeing +two gentlemen who evidently, from their remarks, were very good judges +of horses, looking with the greatest admiration upon the well-known +picture of Landseer, "The Horseshoeing at the Blacksmith's;" and after +they had looked at it for some time one was approaching nearer, when the +other in an agony of enthusiasm said: "For heaven's sake, don't go too +near, he will kick you." [Cheers and laughter.] + +Well, gentlemen, I said that a public man must take great interest in +art, but I feel that the present Government has an apology to make to +one department of art, and that is to the sculptors; for there is an old +maxim denoting one of the high functions of art which is "_Ars est +celare artem_." Now there was a cellar in which the art of the most +distinguished sculptors was concealed to the utmost extent of the +application of that saying. We have brought them comparatively into +light; and if the sculptors will excuse us for having departed from that +sage and ancient maxim, I am sure the public will thank us for having +given them an opportunity of seeing those beautiful works of men of +which it may be said: "_Vivos ducunt de marmore vultus_." I trust, +therefore, the sculptors will excuse us for having done, not perhaps the +best they might have wished, but at least for having relieved them a +little from the darkness of that Cimmerian cellar in which their works +were hid. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank you, gentlemen, for the honor +you have done me in drinking my health. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +JOHN R. PAXTON + + +A SCOTCH-IRISHMAN'S VIEWS OF THE PURITAN + + [Speech of Rev. John R. Paxton, D.D., at the seventy-seventh annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1882. Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair. Dr. + Paxton responded for "The Clergy."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--There is no help for it, alas! +now. The Pilgrim or Puritan doth bestride the broad continent like +another Colossus and we Dutch, English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Irish +walk about under his huge legs [laughter]; "we must bend our bodies when +he doth carelessly nod to us." For the Puritan is the pious Joseph of +the land, and to his sheaf all our sheaves must make obeisance. As he +pipes unto us so we dance. He takes the chief seat at every national +feast and compels us highway-and-hedge people, us unfortunate Dutch and +Scotch-Irish, to come in and shout his triumphs and praise at his own +self-glorification meetings. [Laughter and applause.] Of course we all +know it's a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. But it is too late +now to go back to the order of nature or the truth of history. The +Puritan, like another Old Man of the Sea, is astride our shoulders and +won't come down, protest, pray, roll, wriggle as Sindbad may. Why, the +Puritan has imposed his Thanksgiving Day and pumpkin-pie upon South +Carolina, even. [Applause.] He got mad at the old Whig party, on account +of his higher law and abolitionism, and put it to death. When the +Puritan first came to these shores, he made the way to heaven so narrow +that only a tight-rope performer could walk it. [Laughter.] Now, what +with his Concord philosophies, transcendentalisms, and every heresy, he +has made it so wide that you could drive all Barnum's elephants abreast +upon it and through the strait gate. He compels us to send our sons to +his colleges for his nasal note. He is communicating his dyspepsia to +the whole country by means of codfish-balls and baked beans. He has +encouraged the revolt of women, does our thinking, writes our books, +insists on his standard of culture, defines our God, and, as the +crowning glory of his audacity, has imposed his own sectional, fit, and +distinguishing name upon us all, and swells with gratified pride to hear +all the nations of the earth speak of all Americans as Yankees. +[Laughter and applause.] + +I would enter a protest, but what use? We simply grace his triumph, and +no images may be hung at this feast but the trophies of the Puritan. For +all that, I mean to say a brief word for my Scotch-Irish race in +America. Mr. President, General Horace Porter, on my left, and I, did +not come over in the Half Moon or the Mayflower. We stayed on in County +Donegal, Ireland, in the loins of our forefathers, content with poteen +and potatoes, stayed on until the Pilgrims had put down the Indians, the +Baptists, and the witches; until the Dutch had got all the furs this +side Lake Erie. [Laughter and applause.] By the way, what hands and feet +those early Knickerbockers had! In trading with the Indians it was fixed +that a Dutchman's hand weighed one pound and his foot two pounds in the +scales. But what puzzled the Indian was that no matter how big his pack +of furs, the Dutchman's foot was its exact weight at the opposite end of +the scale. Enormous feet the first Van--or De--or Stuy--had. [Continued +laughter.] + +But in course of time, after the Pilgrims had come for freedom, the +Dutch for furs, Penn for a frock--a Quaker cut and color--we came, we +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, for what? Perhaps the king oppressed the +presbytery, or potatoes failed, or the tax on whiskey was doubled. +Anyway we came to stay: some of us in New England, some in the valleys +of Virginia, some in the mountains of North Carolina, others in New +York; but the greater part pushed out into Pennsylvania--as far away as +they could get from the Puritans and the Dutch--settled the great +Cumberland Valley; then, crossing the Alleghany Mountains, staked out +their farms on the banks of the Monongahela River, set up their stills, +built their meeting-houses, organized the presbytery--and, gentlemen, +the reputation of our Monongahela rye is unsurpassed to this day [long +applause], and our unqualified orthodoxy even now turns the stomach of a +modern Puritan and constrains Colonel Ingersoll[1] not to pray, alas! +but to swear. [Loud laughter.] + +Mr. President, I hope General Porter will join me in claiming some +recognition for the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from these sons of the +Puritans. For do you not know that your own man Bancroft says that the +first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great +Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New +York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians? [Applause.] Therefore, Mr. President, be kind enough to +accept from us the greeting of the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, our +native State--that prolific mother of pig-iron and coal, whose favorite +and greatest sons are still Albert Gallatin, of Switzerland, and +Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts. [Laughter and applause.] + +The first son of a Forefather I ever fell in with was a nine-months +Connecticut man at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the spring of '62. Now, +I was a guileless and generous lad of nineteen--all Pennsylvanians are +guileless and generous, for our mountains are so rich in coal, our +valleys so fat with soil, that our living is easy and therefore our wits +are dull, and we are still voting for Jackson. [Great laughter.] The +reason the Yankees are smart is because they have to wrest a precarious +subsistence from a reluctant soil. "What shall I do to make my son get +forward in the world?" asked an English lord of a bishop. "I know of +only one way," replied the bishop; "give him poverty and parts." Well, +that's the reason the sons of the Pilgrims have all got on in the world. +They all started with poverty, and had to exercise their wits on nutmegs +or notions or something to thrive. [Laughter.] Yes, they had "parts." +Why, they have taken New York from the Dutch; they are half of Wall +Street, and only a Jew, or a long-headed Sage, or that surprising and +surpassing genius in finance, Jay,[2] can wrestle with them on equal +terms. Ah! these Yankees have "parts"--lean bodies, sterile soil, but +such brains that they grew a Webster. [Applause.] Well, this Connecticut +man invited me to his quarters. When I got back to my regiment I had a +shabby overcoat instead of my new one, I had a frying-pan worth twenty +cents, that cost me five dollars, and a recipe for baked beans for which +I had parted with my gold pen and pencil. [Continued laughter.] I was a +sadder and a wiser man that night for that encounter with the +Connecticut Pilgrim. + +But my allotted time is running away, and, preacher-like, I couldn't +begin without an introduction. I am afraid in this case the porch will +be bigger than the house. But now to my toast, "The Clergy." Surely, Mr. +President and gentlemen, you sons of the Pilgrims appreciate the debt +you owe the Puritan divines. What made your section great, dominant, +glorious in the history of our common country? To what class of your +citizens--more than to any other, I think--do you owe the proud memories +of your past, and your strength, achievements, and culture in the +present? Who had the first chance on your destiny, your character, your +development? Why, the Puritan preacher, of course; the man who in every +parish inculcated the fear of God in your fathers' souls, obedience to +law, civil and divine, the dignity of man, the worth of the soul and +right conduct in life. [Applause.] Believe me, gentlemen, the Puritan +clergy did a great work for New England. Our whole country feels yet the +impulse and movement given it by those stern preachers of righteousness, +who had Abrahamic eyes under their foreheads and the stuff of Elijah in +their souls. [Applause.] I know it's the fashion now to poke fun at the +Puritans, to use the "Blue Laws" as a weapon against them, to sneer at +them as hard, narrow, and intolerant. Yes, alas! we do not breathe +through their lungs any more. The wheel has gone round, and we have come +back to the very things the Puritans fled from in hatred and in horror. + +We pride ourselves these days on our "sweetness and light," on our +culture and manners. The soul of the age is hospitable and entertains, +like an inn, "God or the devil on equal terms," as George Eliot says. +Alas! the Puritan chart has failed us in the sea through which we are +passing; the old stars have ceased to shine; too many of us know neither +our course nor destination; "authority is mute;" the "Thus saith the +Lord" of the Puritan is not enough now for our guidance. For the age is +in all things not one of reason or of faith, but of speculation not only +in the business of the world, but in all moral and spiritual questions +as well. Well, we shall see what we shall see. But for one, I admire +with all my soul a man who knows just what he was put into this world +for, what his chief end in it is, what he believes, must do and must be, +and in the ways thereof is willing to inflict or to suffer death. +[Applause.] The Puritan divine was such a man. He sowed your rocky +coasts and sterile hills with conscience and God. You are living on the +virtue that came out of the hem of his garment; he is our bulwark still +in this land against superstition on the one hand and infidelity on the +other. [Applause.] Grand man he was, the old Puritan; once arrived he +was always arrived; while other men hesitated he acted; while others +debated he declared; fearing God, he was lifted above every other fear; +and though he has passed away for a time--only for a time, remember: the +wheel is still turning, we can't stand on air--he will come back again, +but in the meantime he is still a "preacher of righteousness" to our +souls as effective in death as in life. [Applause.] + +In your presence I greet with my warmest admiration, I salute with my +profound reverence, the old Puritan divines of New England who had a +scorn for all base uses of life, who were true to duty as they saw it, +who had convictions for which they would kill or die, who formed their +characters and guided their lives by the law of righteousness in human +conduct. To these men under God we largely owe our liberties and our +laws in this land. I take off my hat to his ghost, and salute him as +greater than he who has taken a city, for the Puritan divine conquered +himself. He was an Isaac, not an Ishmael; he was a Jacob, not an Esau; a +God-born man who knew what his soul did wear. Great man he was, hard, +stern, and intolerant. Yes, but what would you have, gentlemen? The +Puritan was not a pretty head carved on a cherry-stone, but a Colossus +cut from the rock, huge, grim, but awe-inspiring, fortifying to the soul +if not warming to the heart. [Applause.] + +Well, would he know you to-night, I wonder, his own sons, if he came in +upon you now, in circumstances so different and with manners and +customs so changed? Would he gaze at you with sad, sad eyes, and weep +over you as the degenerate sons of noble sires? [Laughter.] No, no; you +are worthy, I think. The sons will keep what the fathers won. After all, +you are still one with the Puritan in all essential things. [Applause.] +You clasp hands with him in devotion to the same principle, in obedience +to the same God. True, the man between doublet and skin plays many +parts; fashions come and go, never long the same, but "clothe me as you +will I am Sancho Panza still." So you are Puritans still. Back of your +Unitarianism, back of your Episcopalianism, back of your +Transcendentalism, back of all your isms, conceits, vagaries--and there +is no end to them--back of them all there beats in you the Puritan +heart. Blood will tell. Scratch a child of sweetness and light on Beacon +Hill to-day and you will find a Puritan. [Laughter.] Scratch your +Emerson, your Bellows, your Lowell, your Longfellow, your Wendell +Phillips, your Phillips Brooks, and you find the Puritan. [Applause.] In +intellectual conclusions vastly different, in heart, at bottom, you're +all one in love of liberty, in fear of God, contempt for shams, and +scorn of all things base and mean. [Applause.] + +So, ye ghosts of old Puritan divines, ye cannot look down on your sons +to-night with sad and reproachful eyes. For the sons have not wasted +what the fathers gained, nor failed in any critical emergency, nor yet +forsaken the God ye feared so well, though they have modified your +creed. Gentlemen, I cannot think that the blood has run out. Exchange +your evening dress for the belted tunic and cloak; take off the silk hat +and put on the wide brim and the steeple crown, and lo! I see the +Puritan. And twenty years ago I heard him speak and saw him act. "If any +man hauls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Why, Warren in +old Boston did not act more promptly or do a finer thing. Well, what +moved in your splendid Dix when he gave that order? The spirit of the +old Puritan. And I saw the sons of the sires act. Who reddened the +streets of Baltimore with the first Union blood?--Massachusetts. [Loud +applause.] Who to-day are the first to rally to the side of a good +cause, on trial in the community? Who are Still first in colleges and +letters in this land? Who, east or west, advocate justice, redress +wrongs, maintain equal rights, support churches, love liberty, and +thrive where others starve? Why, these ubiquitous sons of the Puritans, +of course, who dine me to-night. Gentlemen, I salute you. "If I were not +Miltiades I would be Themistocles;" if I were not a Scotch-Irishman I +would be a Puritan. [Continued applause.] + + + + +EDWARD JOHN PHELPS + + +FAREWELL ADDRESS + + [Speech of Edward J. Phelps, Minister to England, on the occasion + of the farewell banquet given to him by the Lord Mayor of London, + James Whitehead, at the Mansion House, London, January 24, 1889. + The Lord Mayor, in proposing the toast of the evening, said, in the + course of his introductory remarks: "It now becomes my pride and + privilege to ask you to join with me in drinking the health of my + distinguished guest, Mr. Phelps. I have invited you here this + evening because I felt it was my duty as Chief Magistrate of the + City of London to take the initiative in giving you an opportunity + to testify to the very high esteem in which Mr. Phelps is held by + all classes of society. It is to me a very sincere satisfaction + that I am able to be the medium of conveying to him, on the eve of + his departure, the fact that his presence here in this country has + been appreciated by the whole British nation. If anything were + required to give force to what I have said, it is the fact that on + this occasion we are honored by the presence of members of + governments past and present, of statesmen without distinction of + party, of members of both Houses of Parliament, and of nearly all + the judges of the land. We have here also the highest + representatives of science, of art, of literature, and of the + press; and we are also honored with the presence of neighbors and + friends in some of the most eminent bankers and merchants of the + city. I am glad to add that all the distinguished Americans that I + know of at present visiting this city have come here to show their + esteem for their fellow-countryman. It may be said that this + remarkable gathering is a proof not only of the fact that our + distinguished guest is personally popular, but also that we are + satisfied that, so far as he could, he has endeavored to do his + duty faithfully and well between the country he represents and the + country to which he is delegated. Mr. Phelps in leaving our shores, + I think, will take with him a feeling that he has been received in + the most cordial spirit, in the most friendly manner in this + country. I think he will feel also--at any rate, I should like to + assure him so far as I am able to observe--that he has greatly + tended, by his manner and by his courteous bearing, to consolidate + those friendly relations which we desire should forever exist + between his country and our own. Those of us who have had the honor + from time to time to meet his Excellency, know what high and good + qualities he possesses, and we feel sure he will take with him to + the United States a not unfavorable impression of the old country, + and that so far as he can he will endeavor in the future, as I + believe he has done in the past, to promote those feelings of + peace, of amity between the two countries, the maintenance of which + is one of the objects to be most desired in the interests of the + world at large. I give you 'His Excellency, the American Minister, + Mr. Phelps,' and I ask you, if you please, to rise and give the + toast standing, in the usual manner."] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--I am sure you will not be +surprised to be told that the poor words at my command do not enable me +to respond adequately to your most kind greeting, nor the too flattering +words which have fallen from my friend, the Lord Mayor, and from my +distinguished colleague, the Lord Chancellor. But you will do me the +justice to believe that my feelings are not the less sincere and hearty +if I cannot put them into language. I am under a very great obligation +to your Lordship not merely for the honor of meeting this evening an +assembly more distinguished I apprehend than it appears to me has often +assembled under one roof, but especially for the opportunity of meeting +under such pleasant circumstances so many of those to whom I have become +so warmly attached, and from whom I am so sorry to part. [Cheers.] + +It is rather a pleasant coincidence to me that about the first +hospitality that was offered me after my arrival in England came from my +friend, the Lord Mayor, who was at the time one of the Sheriffs of +London. I hope it is no disparagement to my countrymen to say that under +existing circumstances the first place that I felt it my duty to visit +was the Old Bailey Criminal Court. [Laughter.] I had there the pleasure +of being entertained by my friend, the Lord Mayor. And it happens also +that it was in this room almost four years ago at a dinner given to Her +Majesty's Judges by my friend Sir Robert Fowler, then Lord Mayor, whose +genial face I see before me, that I appeared for the first time on any +public occasion in England and addressed my first words to an English +company. It seems to me a fortunate propriety that my last public words +should be spoken under the same hospitable roof, the home of the Chief +Magistrate of the city of London. ["Hear! Hear!"] Nor can I ever forget +the cordial and generous reception that was then accorded, not to myself +personally, for I was altogether a stranger, but to the representative +of my country. It struck what has proved the keynote of all my relations +here. It indicated to me at the outset how warm and hearty was the +feeling of Englishmen toward America. [Cheers.] + +And it gave me to understand, what I was not slow to accept and believe, +that I was accredited not merely from one government to the other, but +from the people of America to the people of England--that the American +Minister was not expected to be merely a diplomatic functionary shrouded +in reticence and retirement, jealously watching over doubtful relations, +and carefully guarding against anticipated dangers; but that he was to +be the guest of his kinsmen--one of themselves--the messenger of the +sympathy and good-will, the mutual and warm regard and esteem that bind +together the two great nations of the same race, and make them one in +all the fair humanities of life. [Cheers.] The suggestion that met me at +the threshold has not proved to be mistaken. The promise then held out +has been generously fulfilled. Ever since and through all my intercourse +here I have received, in all quarters, from all classes with whom I have +come in contact, under all circumstances and in all vicissitudes, a +uniform and widely varied kindness, far beyond what I had personally the +least claim to. And I am glad of this public opportunity to acknowledge +it in the most emphatic manner. + +My relations with the successive governments I have had to do with have +been at all times most fortunate and agreeable, and quite beyond those I +have been happy in feeling always that the English people had a claim +upon the American Minister for all kind and friendly offices in his +power, and upon his presence and voice on all occasions when they could +be thought to further any good work. [Cheers.] + +And so I have gone in and out among you these four years and have come +to know you well. I have taken part in many gratifying public functions; +I have been the guest at many homes; and my heart has gone out with +yours in memorable jubilee of that Sovereign Lady whom all Englishmen +love and all Americans honor. I have stood with you by some unforgotten +graves; I have shared in many joys; and I have tried as well as I could +through it all, in my small way, to promote constantly a better +understanding, a fuller and more accurate knowledge, a more genuine +sympathy between the people of the two countries. [Cheers.] + +And this leads me to say a word on the nature of these relations. The +moral intercourse between the governments is most important to be +maintained, and its value is not to be overlooked or disregarded. But +the real significance of the attitude of nations depends in these days +upon the feelings which the general intelligence of their inhabitants +entertains toward each other. The time has long passed when kings or +rulers can involve their nations in hostilities to gratify their own +ambition or caprice. There can be no war nowadays between civilized +nations, nor any peace that is not hollow and delusive, unless sustained +and backed up by the sentiment of the people who are parties to it. +[Cheers.] Before nations can quarrel, their inhabitants must first +become hostile. Then a cause of quarrel is not far to seek. The men of +our race are not likely to become hostile until they begin to +misunderstand each other. [Cheers.] There are no dragon's teeth so +prolific as mutual misunderstandings. It is in the great and constantly +increasing intercourse between England and America, in its +reciprocities, and its amenities, that the security against +misunderstanding must be found. While that continues, they cannot be +otherwise than friendly. Unlucky incidents may sometimes happen; +interests may conflict; mistakes may be made on one side or on the +other, and sharp words may occasionally be spoken by unguarded or +ignorant tongues. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make +anything. [Cheers and laughter.] The nation that comes to be without +fault will have reached the millennium, and will have little further +concern with the storm-swept geography of this imperfect world. But +these things are all ephemeral; they do not touch the great heart of +either people; they float for a moment on the surface and in the wind, +and then they disappear and are gone--"in the deep bosom of the ocean +buried." + +I do not know, sir, who may be my successor, but I venture to assure you +that he will be an American gentleman, fit by character and capacity to +be the medium of communication between our countries; and an American +gentleman, when you come to know him, generally turns out to be a not +very distant kinsman of an English gentleman. [Cheers.] I need not +bespeak for him a kindly reception. I know he will receive it for his +country's sake and his own. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +"Farewell," sir, is a word often lightly uttered and readily forgotten. +But when it marks the rounding-off and completion of a chapter in life, +the severance of ties many and cherished, of the parting with many +friends at once--especially when it is spoken among the lengthening +shadows of the western light--it sticks somewhat in the throat. It +becomes, indeed, "the word that makes us linger." But it does not prompt +many other words. It is best expressed in few. What goes without saying +is better than what is said. Not much can be added to the old English +word "Good-by." You are not sending me away empty-handed or alone. I go +freighted and laden with happy memories--inexhaustible and unalloyed--of +England, its warm-hearted people, and their measureless kindness. +Spirits more than twain will cross with me, messengers of your +good-will. Happy the nation that can thus speed its parting guest! +Fortunate the guest who has found his welcome almost an adoption, and +whose farewell leaves half his heart behind! [Loud cheers.] + + + + +ARTHUR WING PINERO + + +THE DRAMA + + [Speech of Arthur Wing Pinero at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 4, 1895. The toast to the "Drama" was coupled + with that to "Music," to which Sir Alexander Mackenzie responded. + Sir John Millais in proposing the toast said: "I have already + spoken for both music and the drama with my brush. ["Hear! Hear!"] + I have painted Sterndale Bennett, Arthur Sullivan, Irving, and + Hare."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--There ought to +be at least one strong link of sympathy between certain painters and +certain dramatists, for in the craft of painting as in that of +play-writing, popular success is not always held to be quite creditable. +Not very long ago I met at an exhibition of pictures a friend whose +business it is to comment in the public journals upon painting and the +drama. The exhibition was composed of the works of two artists, and I +found myself in one room praising the pictures of the man who was +exhibiting in the other. My friend promptly took me to task. "Surely," +said he, "you noticed that two-thirds of the works in the next room are +already sold?" I admitted having observed that many of the pictures were +so ticketed. My friend shrugged his shoulders. "But," said I, anxiously, +"do you really regard that circumstance as reflecting disparagingly upon +the man's work in the next room?" His reply was: "Good work rarely +sells." [Laughter.] My lords and gentlemen, if the dictum laid down by +my friend be a sound one, I am placed to-night in a situation of some +embarrassment. For, in representing, as you honor me, by giving me leave +to do, my brother dramatists, I confess I am not in the position to deny +that their wares frequently "sell." [Laughter.] I might, of course, +artfully plead in extenuation of this condition of affairs that success +in such a shape is the very last reward the dramatist toils for, or +desires; that when the theatre in which his work is presented is +thronged nightly no one is more surprised, more abashed than himself; +that his modesty is so impenetrable, his artistic absorption so +profound, that the sound of the voices of public approbation reduces him +to a state of shame and dismay. [Laughter.] But did I advance this plea, +I think it would at once be found to be a very shallow plea. For in any +department of life, social, political, or artistic, nothing is more +difficult than to avoid incurring the suspicion that you mean to succeed +in the widest application of that term, if you can. If therefore there +be any truth in the assertion that "good work rarely sells," it would +appear that I must, on behalf of certain of my brother dramatists, +either bow my head in frank humiliation, or strike out some ingenious +line of defence. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +But, my lords and gentlemen, I shall, with your sanction, adopt neither +of those expedients; I shall simply beg leave to acknowledge freely, to +acknowledge without a blush, that what is known as popular success is, I +believe, greatly coveted, sternly fought for, by even the most earnest +of those writers who deal in the commodity labelled "modern British +drama." And I would, moreover, submit that of all the affectations +displayed by artists of any craft, the affectation of despising the +approval and support of the great public is the most mischievous and +misleading. [Cheers.] Speaking at any rate of dramatic art, I believe +that its most substantial claim upon consideration rests in its power of +legitimately interesting a great number of people. I believe this of any +art; I believe it especially of the drama. Whatever distinction the +dramatist may attain in gaining the attention of the so-called select +few, I believe that his finest task is that of giving back to a +multitude their own thoughts and conceptions, illuminated, enlarged, and +if needful, purged, perfected, transfigured. The making of a play that +shall be closely observant in its portrayal of character, moral in +purpose, dignified in expression, stirring in its development, yet not +beyond our possible experience of life; a drama, the unfolding of whose +story shall be watched intently, responsively, night after night by +thousands of men and women, necessarily of diversified temperaments, +aims, and interests, men and women of all classes of society--surely the +writing of that drama, the weaving of that complex fabric, is one of the +most arduous of the tasks which art has set us; surely its successful +accomplishment is one of the highest achievements of which an artist is +capable. + +I cannot claim--it would be immodest to make such a claim in speaking +even of my brother dramatists--I cannot claim that the thorough +achievement of such a task is a common one in this country. It is indeed +a rare one in any country. But I can claim--I do claim for my +fellow-workers that they are not utterly unequal to the demands made +upon them, and that of late there have been signs of the growth of a +thoughtful, serious drama in England. ["Hear! Hear!"] I venture to +think, too, that these signs are not in any sense exotics; I make bold +to say that they do not consist of mere imitations of certain models; I +submit that they are not as a few critics of limited outlook and +exclusive enthusiasm would have us believe--I submit that they are not +mere echoes of foreign voices. I submit that the drama of the present +day is the natural outcome of our own immediate environment, of the life +that closely surrounds us. And, perhaps, it would be only fair to allow +that the reproaches which have been levelled for so long a period at the +British theatre--the most important of these reproaches being that it +possessed no drama at all--perhaps I say we may grant in a spirit of +charity that these reproaches ought not to be wholly laid at the door of +the native playwright. If it be true that he has been in the habit of +producing plays invariably conventional in sentiment, trite in comedy, +wrought on traditional lines, inculcating no philosophy, making no +intellectual appeal whatever, may it not be that the attitude of the +frequenters of the theatre has made it hard for him to do anything else? +If he has until lately evaded in his theatrical work any attempt at a +true criticism of life, if he has ignored the social, religious, and +scientific problems of his day, may we not attribute this to the fact +that the public have not been in the mood for these elements of +seriousness in their theatrical entertainment, have not demanded these +special elements of seriousness either in plays or in novels? But +during recent years, the temper of the times has been changing; it is +now the period of analysis, of general restless inquiry; and as this +spirit creates a demand for freer expression on the part of our writers +of books, so it naturally permits to our writers of plays a wider scope +in the selection of subject, and calls for an accompanying effort of +thought, a large freedom of utterance. + +At this moment, perhaps, the difficulty of the dramatist lies less in +paucity of subject, than in an almost embarrassing wealth of it. The +life around us teems with problems of conduct and character, which may +be said almost to cry aloud for dramatic treatment, and the temptation +that besets the busy playwright of an uneasy, an impatient age, is that +in yielding himself to the allurements of contemporary psychology, he is +apt to forget that fancy and romance have also their immortal rights in +the drama. ["Hear! Hear!"] But when all is claimed for romance, we must +remember that the laws of supply and demand assert themselves in the +domain of dramatic literature as elsewhere. What the people, out of the +advancement of their knowledge, out of the enlightenment of modern +education, want, they will ask for; what they demand, they will have. +And at the present moment the English people appear to be inclined to +grant to the English dramatist the utmost freedom to deal with questions +which have long been thought to be outside the province of the stage. I +do not deplore, I rejoice that this is so, and I rejoice that to the +dramatists of my day--to those at least who care to attempt to discharge +it, falls the duty of striking from the limbs of English drama some of +its shackles. ["Hear! Hear!"] I know that the discharge of this duty is +attended by one great, one special peril. And in thinking particularly +of the younger generation of dramatists, those upon whom the immediate +future of our drama depends, I cannot help expressing the hope that they +will accept this freedom as a privilege to be jealously exercised, a +privilege to be exercised in the spirit which I have been so +presumptuous as to indicate. + +It would be easy by a heedless employment of the latitude allowed us to +destroy its usefulness, indeed to bring about a reaction which would +deprive us of our newly granted liberty altogether. Upon this point the +young, the coming dramatist would perhaps do well to ponder; he would +do well, I think, to realize fully that freedom in art must be guarded +by the eternal unwritten laws of good taste, morality, and beauty, he +would do well to remember always that the real courage of the artist is +in his capacity for restraint. [Cheers.] I am deeply sensible of the +honor which has been done me in the association of my name with this +toast, and I ask your leave to add one word--a word of regret at the +absence to-night of my friend, Mr. Toole, an absence unhappily +occasioned by an illness from which he is but slowly recovering. Mr. +Toole charges me to express his deep disappointment at being prevented +from attending this banquet. He does not, however, instruct me to say +what I do say heartily--that Mr. Toole fitly represents in any +assemblage, his own particular department of the drama; more fitly +represents his department than I do mine. I know of no actor who stands +higher in the esteem, who exists more durably in the affection of those +who know him, than does John Lawrence Toole. + + +[Illustration: _HORACE PORTER_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + + + +HORACE PORTER + + +MEN OF MANY INVENTIONS + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-second annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The + President, William Borden, said: "Gentlemen, in giving you the next + toast, I will call upon one whom we are always glad to listen to. I + suppose you have been waiting to hear him, and are surprised that + he comes so late in the evening; but I will tell you in confidence, + he is put there at his own request. [Applause.] I give you the + eleventh regular toast: 'Internal Improvements.'--The triumph of + American invention. The modern palace runs on wheels. + + 'When thy car is loaden with [dead] heads, + Good Porter, turn the key.' + + General Horace Porter will respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I +suppose it was a matter of necessity, calling on some of us from other +States to speak for you to-night, for we have learned from the history +of Priscilla and John Alden, that a New Englander may be too modest to +speak for himself. [Laughter.] But this modesty, like some of the +greater blessings of the war, has been more or less disguised to-night. + +We have heard from the eloquent gentleman [Noah Porter, D.D.] on my left +all about the good-fellowship and the still better fellowships in the +rival universities of Harvard and Yale. We have heard from my sculptor +friend [W. W. Story] upon the extreme right all about Hawthorne's tales, +and all the great Storys that have emanated from Salem; but I am not a +little surprised that in this age, when speeches are made principally by +those running for office, you should call upon one engaged only in +running cars, and more particularly upon one brought up in the military +service, where the practice of running is not regarded as strictly +professional. [Laughter.] It occurred to me some years ago that the +occupation of moving cars would be fully as congenial as that of +stopping bullets--as a steady business, so when I left Washington I +changed my profession. I know how hard it is to believe that persons +from Washington ever change their professions. [Laughter.] In this regal +age, when every man is his own sovereign, somebody had to provide +palaces, and, as royalty is not supposed to have any permanent abiding +place in a country like this, it was thought best to put these palaces +on wheels; and, since we have been told by reliable authority that +"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," we thought it necessary to +introduce every device to enable those crowned heads to rest as easily +as possible. Of course we cannot be expected to do as much for the +travelling public as the railway companies. They at times put their +passengers to death. We only put them to sleep. We don't pretend that +all the devices, patents, and inventions upon these cars are due to the +genius of the management. Many of the best suggestions have come from +the travellers themselves, especially New England travellers. +[Laughter.] + +Some years ago, when the bedding was not supposed to be as fat as it +ought to be, and the pillows were accused of being constructed upon the +homoeopathic principle, a New Englander got on a car one night. Now, +it is a remarkable fact that a New Englander never goes to sleep in one +of these cars. He lies awake all night, thinking how he can improve upon +every device and patent in sight. [Laughter.] He poked his head out of +the upper berth at midnight, hailed the porter and said, "Say, have you +got such a thing as a corkscrew about you?" "We don't 'low no drinkin' +sperits aboa'd these yer cars, sah," was the reply. "'Tain't that," said +the Yankee, "but I want to get hold onto one of your pillows that has +kind of worked its way into my ear." [Loud laughter.] The pillows have +since been enlarged. + +I notice that, in the general comprehensiveness of the sentiment which +follows this toast, you allude to that large and liberal class of +patrons, active though defunct, known as "deadheads." It is said to be +a quotation from Shakespeare. That is a revelation. It proves +conclusively that Shakespeare must at one time have resided in the State +of Missouri. It is well-known that the term was derived from a practice +upon a Missouri railroad, where, by a decision of the courts, the +railroad company had been held liable in heavy damages in case of +accidents where a passenger lost an arm or a leg, but when he was killed +outright his friends seldom sued, and he never did; and the company +never lost any money in such cases. In fact, a grateful mother-in-law +would occasionally pay the company a bonus. The conductors on that +railroad were all armed with hatchets, and in case of an accident they +were instructed to go around and knock every wounded passenger in the +head, thus saving the company large amounts of money; and these were +reported to the general office as "deadheads," and in railway circles +the term has ever since been applied to passengers where no money +consideration is involved. [Laughter.] + +One might suppose, from the manifestations around these tables for the +first three hours to-night, that the toast "Internal Improvements" +referred more especially to the benefiting of the true inwardness of the +New England men; but I see that the sentiment which follows contains +much more than human stomachs, and covers much more ground than cars. It +soars into the realms of invention. Unfortunately the genius of +invention is always accompanied by the demon of unrest. A New England +Yankee can never let well enough alone. I have always supposed him to be +the person specially alluded to in Scripture as the man who has found +out many inventions. If he were a Chinese Pagan, he would invent a new +kind of Joss to worship every week. You get married and settle down in +your home. You are delighted with everything about you. You rest in +blissful ignorance of the terrible discomforts that surround you, until +a Yankee friend comes to visit you. He at once tells you you mustn't +build a fire in that chimney-place; that he knows the chimney will +smoke; that if he had been there when it was built he could have shown +you how to give a different sort of flare to the flue. You go to read a +chapter in the family Bible. He tells you to drop that; that he has just +written an enlarged and improved version, that can just put that old +book to bed. [Laughter.] You think you are at least raising your +children in general uprightness; but he tells you if you don't go out at +once and buy the latest patented article in the way of steel leg-braces +and put on the baby, the baby will grow up bow-legged. [Laughter.] He +intimates, before he leaves, that if he had been around to advise you +before you were married, he could have got you a much better wife. These +are some of the things that reconcile a man to sudden death. [Continued +laughter and applause.] + +Such occurrences as these, and the fact of so many New Englanders being +residents of this city and elsewhere, show that New England must be a +good place--to come from. + +At the beginning of the war we thought we could shoot people rapidly +enough to satisfy our consciences, with single-loading rifles; but along +came the inventive Yankee and produced revolvers and repeaters, and +Gatling guns, and magazine guns--guns that carried a dozen shots at a +time. I didn't wonder at the curiosity exhibited in this direction by a +backwoods Virginian we captured one night. The first remark he made was, +"I would like to see one of them thar new-fangled weepons of yourn. They +tell me, sah, it's a most remarkable eenstrument. They say, sah, it's a +kind o' repeatable, which you can load it up enough on Sunday to fiah it +off all the rest of the week." [Laughter.] Then there was every sort of +new invention in the way of bayonets. Our distinguished Secretary of +State has expressed an opinion to-night that bayonets are bad things to +sit down on. Well, they are equally bad things to be tossed up on. If he +continues to hold up such terrors to the army, there will have to be +important modifications in the uniform. A soldier won't know where to +wear his breastplate. [Laughter.] But there have not only been +inventions in the way of guns, but important inventions in the way of +firing them. In these days a man drops on his back, coils himself up, +sticks up one foot, and fires off his gun over the top of his great toe. +It changes the whole stage business of battle. It used to be the man who +was shot, but now it is the man who shoots that falls on his back and +turns up his toes. [Laughter and applause.] The consequence is, that the +whole world wants American arms, and as soon as they get them they go +to war to test them. Russia and Turkey had no sooner bought a supply +than they went to fighting. Greece got a schooner-load, and, although +she has not yet taken a part in the struggle, yet ever since the digging +up of the lost limbs of the Venus of Milo, it has been feared that this +may indicate a disposition on the part of Greece generally to take up +arms. [Laughter and applause.] + +But there was one inveterate old inventor that you had to get rid of, +and you put him on to us Pennsylvanians--Benjamin Franklin. [Laughter.] +Instead of stopping in New York, in Wall Street, as such men usually do, +he continued on into Pennsylvania to pursue his kiting operations. He +never could let well enough alone. Instead of allowing the lightning to +occupy the heavens as the sole theatre for its pyrotechnic displays, he +showed it how to get down on to the earth, and then he invented the +lightning-rod to catch it. Houses that had got along perfectly well for +years without any lightning at all, now thought they must have a rod to +catch a portion of it every time it came around. Nearly every house in +the country was equipped with a lightning-rod through Franklin's direct +agency. You, with your superior New England intelligence, succeeded in +ridding yourselves of him; but in Pennsylvania, though we have made a +great many laudable efforts in a similar direction, somehow or other we +have never once succeeded in getting rid of a lightning-rod agent. +[Laughter.] Then the lightning was introduced on the telegraph wires, +and now we have the duplex and quadruplex instruments, by which any +number of messages can be sent from opposite ends of the same wire at +the same time, and they all appear to arrive at the front in good order. +Electricians have not yet told us which messages lies down and which one +steps over it, but they all seem to bring up in the right camp without +confusion. I shouldn't wonder if this principle were introduced before +long in the operating of railroads. We may then see trains running in +opposite directions pass each other on a single-track road. [Laughter.] + +There was a New England quartermaster in charge of railroads in +Tennessee, who tried to introduce this principle during the war. The +result was discouraging. He succeeded in telescoping two or three +trains every day. He seemed to think that the easiest way to shorten up +a long train and get it on a short siding was to telescope it. I have +always thought that if that man's attention had been turned in an +astronomical direction, he would have been the first man to telescope +the satellites of Mars. [Laughter.] + +The latest invention in the application of electricity is the telephone. +By means of it we may be able soon to sit in our houses, and hear all +the speeches, without going to the New England dinner. The telephone +enables an orchestra to keep at a distance of miles away when it plays. +If the instrument can be made to keep hand-organs at a distance, its +popularity will be indescribable. The worst form I have ever known an +invention to take was one that was introduced in a country town, when I +was a boy, by a Yankee of musical turn of mind, who came along and +taught every branch of education by singing. He taught geography by +singing, and to combine accuracy of memory with patriotism, he taught +the multiplication-table to the tune of Yankee Doodle. [Laughter.] This +worked very well as an aid to the memory in school, but when the boys +went into business it often led to inconvenience. When a boy got a +situation in a grocery-store and customers were waiting for their +change, he never could tell the product of two numbers without +commencing at the beginning of the table and singing up till he had +reached those numbers. In case the customer's ears had not received a +proper musical training, this practice often injured the business of the +store. [Laughter.] + +It is said that the Yankee has always manifested a disposition for +making money, but he never struck a proper field for the display of his +genius until we got to making paper money. [Laughter.] Then every man +who owned a printing-press wanted to try his hand at it. I remember that +in Washington ten cents' worth of rags picked up in the street would be +converted the next day into thousands of dollars. + +An old mule and cart used to haul up the currency from the Printing +Bureau to the door of the Treasury Department. Every morning, as +regularly as the morning came, that old mule would back up and dump a +cart-load of the sinews of war at the Treasury. [Laughter.] A patriotic +son of Columbia, who lived opposite, was sitting on the doorstep of his +house one morning, looking mournfully in the direction of the mule. A +friend came along, and seeing that the man did not look as pleasant as +usual, said to him, "What is the matter? It seems to me you look kind of +disconsolate this morning." "I was just thinking," he replied, "what +would become of this government if that old mule was to break down." +[Laughter and applause.] Now they propose to give us a currency which is +brighter and heavier, but not worth quite as much as the rags. Our +financial horizon has been dimmed by it for some time, but there is a +lining of silver to every cloud. We are supposed to take it with 4121/2 +grains of silver--a great many more grains of allowance. [Laughter.] +Congress seems disposed to pay us in the "dollar of our daddies"--in the +currency which we were familiar with in our childhood. Congress seems +determined to pay us off in something that is "child-like and Bland." +[Laughter and applause.] But I have detained you too long already. +[Cries of "No, no; go on!"] + +Why, the excellent President of your Society has for the last five +minutes been looking at me like a man who might be expected, at any +moment, to break out in the disconsolate language of Bildad the Shuhite +to the patriarch Job, "How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?" +Let me say then, in conclusion, that, coming as I do from the unassuming +State of Pennsylvania, and standing in the presence of the dazzling +genius of New England, I wish to express the same degree of humility +that was expressed by a Dutch Pennsylvania farmer in a railroad car, at +the breaking out of the war. A New Englander came in who had just heard +of the fall of Fort Sumter, and he was describing it to the farmer and +his fellow-passengers. He said that in the fort they had an engineer +from New England, who had constructed the traverses, and the embrasures, +and the parapets in such a manner as to make everybody within the fort +as safe as if he had been at home; and on the other side, the +Southerners had an engineer who had been educated in New England, and he +had, with his scientific attainments, succeeded in making the batteries +of the bombarders as safe as any harvest field, and the bombardment had +raged for two whole days, and the fort had been captured, and the +garrison had surrendered, and not a man was hurt on either side. A great +triumph for science, and a proud day for New England education. Said the +farmer, "I suppose dat ish all right, but it vouldn't do to send any of +us Pennsylvany fellers down dare to fight mit does pattles. Like as not +ve vould shoost pe fools enough to kill somepody." [Loud applause and +laughter, and cries of "Go on; go on."] + + + * * * * * + + +HOW TO AVOID THE SUBJECT + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-fifth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1880. "We + have been told here to-night," said the President, James C. Carter, + "that New York has been peopled by pilgrims of various races, and I + propose, as our next toast, 'The Pilgrims of Every Race.' And I + call upon our ever welcome friend, General Horace Porter, for a + response."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I am here, like the rest of your guests, to-night, in +consequence of these notes of invitation that we have received. I know +it is always more gratifying to an audience for speakers to be able to +assure them, in the outset of their remarks, that they are here without +notes; but such is not my case. I received the following: + +"The Committee of Arrangements of the New England Society respectfully +invite you to be present at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the +Society, and the two hundred and sixtieth of the landing of the Pilgrims +at Metropolitan Concert Hall." [Laughter.] + +Such is the ignorance of those of us upon whom Providence did not +sufficiently smile to permit us to be born in New England, that I never +knew, until I received that note, anything about the landing of the +Pilgrims at Metropolitan Concert Hall. This certainly will be sad news +to communicate to those pious people who assembled in Brooklyn last +night, and who still rest happy in the belief that the Pilgrims landed +on Plymouth Church. [Laughter.] From the day they have chosen for the +anniversary, it seems very evident that the Pilgrims must have landed +somewhere one day before they struck Plymouth Rock. [Laughter.] + +The poet Longfellow tells us, in one of his short poems, "learn to labor +and to wait." I have labored through about twenty-five courses at this +table, and then I have waited until this hour, in the hope that I might +be spared the inevitable ordeal. But when the last plate had been +removed, and your president, who is a stern man of duty, rapped upon the +table, I saw there was no escape, and the time had come when he was +going to present to you one of the most popular of all dishes at a New +England banquet, tongue garnished with brains. He seems, following the +late teachings of Harvard and Yale, to have invited the guests to enter +for a sort of skull-race. [Laughter.] Now, I suppose that, in calling +first upon those on his right and left, it is a matter of convenience +for himself, and he has acted from the same motives that actuated a +newly fledged dentist who, when his first patient applied, determined to +exercise all that genius and understanding which Boston men generally +exercise in the practice of their profession. The patient, coming from +the country, told him he wanted two back teeth, which he pointed out to +him, pulled. The dentist placed him in a chair, and in a few moments he +had pulled out his two front teeth. The patient left the chair, and it +occurred to him that the circumstance might be deemed of sufficient +importance to call the dentist's attention to it. He said, "I told you +to pull out these two back teeth." "Yes," said the dentist, "so you did; +but I found that the front ones were kind of handier to get at." +[Laughter and applause.] I suppose the reason your president called upon +those of us nearest the platform to-night was because he found us a +little handier to get at. But there is no use in speakers coming here +and pleading want of preparation, because, doubtless, the New Englanders +who expected to take part to-night might have been found at any time +within the last six months sitting under blue glass to enlarge their +ideas. [Laughter.] I ventured to say to the committee that, this being +such a large room, some of your speakers might not have a high enough +tone of voice to be heard at the other end. They looked unutterable +things at me, as much as to say that at New England dinners I would +find the speakers could not be otherwise than high-toned. [Laughter.] + +The first New Englander I ever had the pleasure to listen to was a +Pilgrim from Boston, who came out to the town in Pennsylvania, where I +lived, to deliver a lecture. We all went to the lecture. We were told it +was worth twice the price of admission to see that man wipe the corners +of his mouth with his handkerchief before he commenced to speak. Well, +he spoke for about two hours on the subject of the indestructibility of +the absolute in connection with the mutability of mundane affairs. The +pitch and variety of the nasal tones was wonderful, and he had an +amazing command of the longest nouns and adjectives. It was a beautiful +lecture. The town council tried to borrow it and have it set to music. +It was one of those lectures that would pay a man to walk ten miles in +wet feet--to avoid. After he got through, a gentleman in the audience, +thinking it the part of good nature, stepped up and congratulated him +upon his "great effort." The lecturer took it as a matter of course, and +replied, "Oh, yes, you will find the whole atmosphere of Boston +exhilarant with intellectual vitality." [Laughter.] + +Now, if there is one thing which modern Pilgrims pride themselves upon +more than another, it is in being the lineal descendants of those who +came over by the Mayflower. To prove this, when you visit their homes, +they bring forth family records in the shape of knives, forks, and +spoons that were taken from the Mayflower. From the number of those +articles I have seen, I have come to the conclusion that the captain of +the Mayflower did not get back to England with a single article +belonging to the ship that was not nailed fast to the deck. Such a dread +have the people of that island of this widespread Puritanical +kleptomania attaching to people coming here, that even as late as 1812 +the commander of one of the British frigates took the wise precaution to +nail his flag fast to the mast. [Laughter.] + +We have heard that the Pilgrim fathers made amends for their +shortcomings, from the fact of their having determined, after landing, +to fill the meeting-houses and have worship there, and that brave men +were detailed from the congregation to stand sentinels against a +surprise by the Indians. It is even said that during those long and +solemn sermons some of the members vied with each other in taking their +chances with the Indians outside. Some of these acts of heroism +re-appear in the race. I have been told that some of the lineal +descendants of these hardy men that paced up and down in front of the +meeting-house have recently been seen pacing up and down all night in +front of the Globe Theatre, in Boston, ready in the morning to take +their chance of the nearest seat for Sara Bernhardt's performance. +[Laughter.] + +Now, sir, the New Englanders are eminently reformers. I have never seen +anything they did not attempt to reform. They even introduced the +Children of the Sun to the shoe-shops of Lynn, with the alleged purpose +of instructing the Chinese in letters, yet recently in Massachusetts +they themselves showed such lamentable ignorance as not to know a +Chinese letter when they saw it. [Laughter.] But the poor Chinese have +been driven away. They have been driven away from many places by that +formidable weapon--the only weapon which Dennis Kearney has ever been +able to use against them--the Chinese must-get. [Laughter.] + +I have never seen but one thing the Yankee could not reform, and that +was the line of battle at Bull Run, and I call upon Pilgrim Sherman as a +witness to this. He was there, and knows. Bulls have given as much +trouble to Yankees as to Irishmen. Bulls always seem to be associated +with Yankee defeat, from the time of Bull Run down to Sitting Bull, and +I will call upon Pilgrim Miles as a witness to that. + +Now, gentlemen, let me say that the presence of General Grant to-night +will enable you to settle forever that question which has vexed the New +England mind all the period during which he was making his triumphal +journey round the globe--the question as to whether, in his intercourse +with kings and potentates, he was always sure to keep in sufficient +prominence the merits of the Pilgrim fathers, and more especially of +their descendants. I have no doubt he did. I have no doubt that to those +crowned heads, with numerous recalcitrant subjects constantly raising +Cain in their dominions, the recital of how the Pilgrims went +voluntarily to a distant country to live, where their scalps were in +danger, must have been a pleasant picture. [Laughter.] + +If I am to have any reputation for brevity I must now close these +remarks. I remember a lesson in brevity I once received in a barber's +shop. An Irishman came in, and the unsteady gait with which he +approached the chair showed that he had been imbibing of the produce of +the still run by North Carolina Moonshiners. He wanted his hair cut, and +while the barber was getting him ready, went off into a drunken sleep. +His head got bobbing from one side to the other, and at length the +barber, in making a snip, cut off the lower part of his ear. The barber +jumped about and howled, and a crowd of neighbors rushed in. Finally the +demonstration became so great that it began to attract the attention of +the man in the chair, and he opened one eye and said, "Wh-wh-at's the +matther wid yez?" "Good Lord!" said the barber, "I've cut off the whole +lower part of your ear." "Have yez? Ah, thin, go on wid yer bizness--it +was too long, anyhow!" [Laughter.] If I don't close this speech, some +one of the company will be inclined to remark that it has been too long, +anyhow. [Cheers and laughter.] + + + * * * * * + + +A TRIP ABROAD WITH DEPEW + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-seventh annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1882. + Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair and called upon + General Porter to respond to the toast: "The Embarkation of the + Pilgrims."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--Last summer two pilgrims might have been seen +embarking from the port of New York to visit the land from which the +Pilgrim Fathers once embarked. One was the speaker who just sat down +[Chauncey M. Depew], and the other the speaker who has just arisen. I do +not know why we chose that particular time. Perhaps Mr. Choate, with his +usual disregard of the more accurate bounds of veracity, would have you +believe that we selected that time because it was a season when there +was likely to be a general vacation from dinners here. [Laughter.] Our +hopes of pleasure abroad had not risen to any dizzy height. We did not +expect that the land which so discriminating a band as the Pilgrim +Fathers had deliberately abandoned, and preferred New England thereto, +could be a very engaging country. We expected to feel at home there upon +the general principle that the Yankees never appear so much at home as +when they are visiting other people. [Laughter.] + +I have noticed that Americans have a desire to go to Europe, and I have +observed, especially, that those who have certain ambitions with regard +to public life think that they ought to cross the ocean; that crossing +the water will add to their public reputations, particularly when they +think how it added to the reputation of George Washington even crossing +the Delaware River. [Laughter and applause.] The process is very simple. +You get aboard a steamer, and when you get out of sight of land you +suddenly realize that the ship has taken up seriously its corkscrew +career through the sea. Certain gastronomic uncertainties follow. You +are sailing under the British flag. You always knew that "Britannia +ruled the waves;" but the only trouble with her now is that she don't +appear to rule them straight. [Laughter.] Then you lean up against the +rail; soon you begin to look about as much discouraged as a Brooklyn +Alderman in contempt of court. Your more experienced and sympathizing +friends tell you that it will soon pass over, and it does. You even try +to beguile your misery with pleasant recollections of Shakespeare. The +only line that seems to come to your memory is the advice of Lady +Macbeth--"To bed, to bed!"--and when you are tucked away in your berth +and the ship is rolling at its worst, your more advisory friends look in +upon you, and they give you plenty of that economical advice that was +given to Joseph's brother, not to "fall out by the way." [Laughter.] + +For several days you find your stomach is about in the condition of the +tariff question in the present Congress--likely to come up any minute. +This is particularly hard upon those who had been brought up in the +army, whose previous experience in this direction had been confined +entirely to throwing up earthworks. [Laughter.] You begin to realize how +naval officers sometimes have even gone so far as to throw up their +commissions. If Mr. Choate had seen Mr. Depew and myself under these +circumstances he would not have made those disparaging remarks which he +uttered to-night about the engorgement of our stomachs. If he had +turned those stomachs wrong side out and gazed upon their inner walls +through that opera-glass with which he has been looking so intently +lately upon Mrs. Langtry, he would have found that there was not even +the undigested corner of a carbuncular potato to stop the pyloric +orifice; he would have found upon those inner walls not a morsel of +those things which perish with using. [Laughter.] + +But Mr. Choate must have his joke. He is a professional lawyer, and I +have frequently observed that lawyers' jokes are like an undertaker's +griefs--strictly professional. You begin now to sympathize with +everybody that ever went to sea. You think of the Pilgrim Fathers during +the tempestuous voyage in the Mayflower. You reflect how fully their +throats must have been occupied, and you can see how they originated the +practice of speaking through their noses. [Great laughter and applause.] +Why, you will get so nauseated before the trip is over at the very sight +of the white caps that you can't look at the heads of the French nurses +in Paris without feeling seasick. There are the usual "characters" +about. There is the customary foreign spinster of uncertain age that has +been visiting here, who regales you with stories of how in New York she +had twelve men at her feet. Subsequent inquiry proves that they were +chiropodists. [Laughter.] + +And then you approach Ireland. You have had enough of the ocean wave, +and you think you will stop there. I have no doubt everybody present, +after hearing from the lips of the distinguished chaplain on my right as +to the character of the men who come from that country, will hereafter +always want to stop there. And when you land at Queenstown you are taken +for an American suspect. They think you are going to join the Fenian +army. They look at you as if you intended to go forth from that ship as +the dove went forth from the ark, in search of some green thing. You +assure them that the only manner in which you can be compared with that +dove is in the general peacefulness of your intentions. Then you go +wandering around by the shores of the Lakes of Killarney and the Gap of +Dunloe, that spot where the Irishman worked all day for the agent of an +absentee landlord on the promise of getting a glass of grog. At night +the agent brought out the grog to him, and the Irishman tasted it, and +he said to the agent, "Which did you put in first, the whiskey or the +water?" "Oh," said he, "the whiskey." "Ah, ha! Well, maybe I'll come to +it by and by." [Laughter.] You look around upon the army, the +constabulary, the police, and you begin to think that Ireland is a good +deal like our own city of Troy, where there are two police forces on +duty--that it is governed a great deal. You can't help thinking of the +philosophical remark made by that learned Chinese statesman, Chin Lan +Pin, when he was here at the time Dennis Kearney was having an +unpleasantness with the Orientals. A man said to him, "Your people will +have to get out of here; the Irish carry too much religion around to +associate with Pagans." "Yes," said Chin Lan Pin, "we have determined to +go. Our own country is too overcrowded now, we can't go there, and I +think we'll go to Ireland." Said the man, "To Ireland? You will be +jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire." Said Chin Lan Pin, "I have +travelled in your country and all around a good deal, and I have come to +the conclusion that nowadays Ireland is about the only country that is +not governed by the Irish." [Applause and laughter.] + +Then you go to Scotland. You want to learn from personal observation +whether the allegation is true that the Scotch are a people who are +given to keeping the Sabbath day--and everything else they can lay their +hands on. [Laughter.] You have heard that it is a musical country, and +you immediately find that it is. You hardly land there before you hear +the bag-pipes. You hear that disheartening music, and you sit down and +weep. You know that there is only one other instrument in the world that +will produce such strains, and that is a steam piano on a Mississippi +steamboat when the engineer is drunk. And in this musical country they +tell you in song about the "Lassies Comin' Through the Rye;" but they +never tell you about the rye that goes through the "laddies." And they +will tell you in song about "bodies meeting bodies coming through the +rye," and you tell them that the practice is entirely un-American; that +in America bodies usually are impressed with the solemnity of the +occasion and the general propriety of the thing, and lie quiet until the +arrival of the coroner, but that the coroners are disputing so much in +regard to their jurisdiction, and so many delays occur in issuing burial +permits, that, altogether, they are making the process so tedious and +disagreeable that nowadays in America hardly anybody cares to die. You +tell them this in all seriousness, and you will see from their +expression that they receive it in the same spirit. [Laughter.] + +Then you go to England. You have seen her colonies forming a belt around +the circle of the earth, on which the sun never sets. And now you have +laid eyes on the mother-country, on which it appears the sun never +rises. Then you begin to compare legislative bodies, Parliament and +Congress. You find that in Parliament the members sit with their hats on +and cough, while in Congress the members sit with their hats off and +spit. I believe that no international tribunal of competent jurisdiction +has yet determined which nation has the advantage over the other in +these little legislative amenities. And, as you cross the English +Channel, the last thing you see is the English soldier with his blue +trousers and red coat, and the first you see on landing in France is the +French soldier with his red trousers and blue coat, and you come to the +conclusion that if you turn an English soldier upside down he is, +uniformly speaking, a Frenchman. [Laughter.] + +We could not tarry long in France; it was the ambition of my travelling +companion to go to Holland, and upon his arrival there the boyish antics +that were performed by my travelling companion in disporting himself +upon the ancestral ground were one of the most touching and playful +sights ever witnessed in the open air. [Laughter.] Nobody knows Mr. +Depew who has not seen him among the Dutch. He wanted especially to go +to Holland, because he knew the Pilgrims had gone from there. They did +not start immediately from England to come here. Before taking their +leap across the ocean they stepped back on to Holland to get a good +ready. [Laughter.] It is a country where water mingles with everything +except gin--a country that has been so effectually diked by the natives +and damned by tourists. [Laughter.] There is one peculiar and especial +advantage that you can enjoy in that country in going out to a banquet +like this. It is that rare and peculiar privilege which you cannot +expect to enjoy in a New England Society even when Mr. Choate addresses +you--the privilege of never being able to understand a word that is said +by the speakers after dinner. But we had to hurry home. We were +Republicans, and there was going to be an election in November. We +didn't suppose that our votes would be necessary at all; still it would +look well, you know, to come home and swell the Republican majority. +[Laughter.] Now when you get on that ship to come back, you begin for +the first time to appreciate the advantage of the steam lanes that are +laid down by the steamship company, by which a vessel goes to Europe one +season over one route and comes back another season over another route, +so that a man who goes to Europe one season and comes back another is +treated to another change of scenery along the entire route. [Laughter.] + +As I said, we thought it was the thing for Republicans to come home to +vote. At the polls we found it was rather the thing for them to stay +away. But we acted upon that impulse which often seizes upon the human +breast--the desire to come home to die. I never for one moment realized +the overwhelming defeat that we were going to suffer until one day Mr. +Choate confided to me his determination to speak for the Citizens' +candidate. [Loud laughter.] And this left us the day after that election +and left the other members of our party standing around the highways and +byways with that one supplication upon each one's lips: "Lord, be +merciful unto me a Republican and a sinner." [Loud applause and +laughter.] + + + * * * * * + + +WOMAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-eighth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1883. The + President, Marvelle W. Cooper, in introducing the speaker, arose, + mentioned the single word "Woman"--and said: "This toast will be + responded to by one whom you know well, General Horace Porter."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--When this toast was proposed to +me, I insisted that it ought to be responded to by a bachelor, by some +one who is known as a ladies' man; but in these days of female +proprietorship it is supposed that a married person is more essentially +a ladies' man than anybody else, and it was thought that only one who +had had the courage to address a lady could have the courage, under +these circumstances, to address the New England Society. [Laughter.] + +The toast, I see, is not in its usual order to-night. At public dinners +this toast is habitually placed last on the list. It seems to be a +benevolent provision of the Committee on Toasts in order to give man in +replying to Woman one chance at least in life of having the last word. +[Laughter.] At the New England dinners, unfortunately the most fruitful +subject of remark regarding woman is not so much her appearance as her +disappearance. I know that this was remedied a few years ago, when this +grand annual gastronomic high carnival was held in the Metropolitan +Concert Hall. There ladies were introduced into the galleries to grace +the scene by their presence; and I am sure the experiment was +sufficiently encouraging to warrant repetition, for it was beautiful to +see the descendants of the Pilgrims sitting with eyes upturned in true +Puritanic sanctity; it was encouraging to see the sons of those pious +sires devoting themselves, at least for one night, to setting their +affections upon "things above." [Applause and laughter.] + +Woman's first home was in the Garden of Eden. There man first married +woman. Strange that the incident should have suggested to Milton the +"Paradise Lost." [Laughter.] Man was placed in a profound sleep, a rib +was taken from his side, a woman was created from it, and she became his +wife. Evil-minded persons constantly tell us that thus man's first sleep +became his last repose. But if woman be given at times to that +contrariety of thought and perversity of mind which sometimes passeth +our understanding, it must be recollected in her favor that she was +created out of the crookedest part of man. [Laughter.] + +The Rabbins have a different theory regarding creation. They go back to +the time when we were all monkeys. They insist that man was originally +created with a kind of Darwinian tail, and that in the process of +evolution this caudal appendage was removed and created into woman. This +might better account for those Caudle lectures which woman is in the +habit of delivering, and some color is given to this theory, from the +fact that husbands even down to the present day seem to inherit a +general disposition to leave their wives behind. [Laughter.] + +The first woman, finding no other man in that garden except her own +husband, took to flirting even with the Devil. [Laughter.] The race +might have been saved much tribulation if Eden had been located in some +calm and tranquil land--like Ireland. There would at least have been no +snakes there to get into the garden. Now woman in her thirst after +knowledge, showed her true female inquisitiveness in her +cross-examination of the serpent, and, in commemoration of that +circumstance, the serpent seems to have been curled up and used in +nearly all languages as a sign of interrogation. Soon the domestic +troubles of our first parents began. The first woman's favorite son was +killed with a club, and married women even to this day seem to have an +instinctive horror of clubs. The first woman learned that it was Cain +that raised a club. The modern woman has learned it is a club that +raises cain. Yet, I think, I recognize faces here to-night that I see +behind the windows of Fifth Avenue clubs of an afternoon, with their +noses pressed flat against the broad plate glass, and as woman trips +along the sidewalk, I have observed that these gentlemen appear to be +more assiduously engaged than ever was a government scientific +commission in taking observations upon the transit of Venus. [Laughter.] + +Before those windows passes many a face fairer than that of the +Ludovician Juno or the Venus of Medici. There is the Saxon blonde with +the deep blue eye, whose glances return love for love, whose silken +tresses rest upon her shoulders like a wealth of golden fleece, each +thread of which looks like a ray of the morning sunbeam. There is the +Latin brunette with the deep, black, piercing eye, whose jetty lashes +rest like silken fringe upon the pearly texture of her dainty cheek, +looking like raven's wings spread out upon new-fallen snow. + +And yet the club man is not happy. As the ages roll on woman has +materially elevated herself in the scale of being. Now she stops at +nothing. She soars. She demands the coeducation of the sexes. She thinks +nothing of delving into the most abstruse problems of the higher +branches of analytical science. She can cipher out the exact hour of the +night when her husband ought to be home, either according to the old or +the recently adopted method of calculating time. I never knew of but one +married man who gained any decided domestic advantage by this change in +our time. He was an _habitué_ of a club situated next door to his house. +His wife was always upbraiding him for coming home too late at night. +Fortunately, when they made this change of time, they placed one of +those meridians from which our time is calculated right between the club +and his house. [Laughter.] Every time he stepped across that imaginary +line it set him back a whole hour in time. He found that he could then +leave his club at one o'clock and get home to his wife at twelve; and +for the first time in twenty years peace reigned around that +hearthstone. + +Woman now revels even in the more complicated problems of mathematical +astronomy. Give a woman ten minutes and she will describe a heliocentric +parallax of the heavens. Give her twenty minutes and she will find +astronomically the longitude of a place by means of lunar culminations. +Give that same woman an hour and a half, with the present fashions, and +she cannot find the pocket in her dress. + +And yet man's admiration for woman never flags. He will give her half +his fortune; he will give her his whole heart; he seems always willing +to give her everything that he possesses, except his seat in a +horse-car. [Laughter.] + +Every nation has had its heroines as well as its heroes. England, in her +wars, had a Florence Nightingale; and the soldiers in the expression of +their adoration, used to stoop and kiss the hem of her garment as she +passed. America, in her war, had a Dr. Mary Walker. Nobody ever stooped +to kiss the hem of her garment--because that was not exactly the kind of +garment she wore. [Laughter.] But why should man stand here and attempt +to speak for woman, when she is so abundantly equipped to speak for +herself. I know that is the case in New England; and I am reminded, by +seeing General Grant here to-night, of an incident in proof of it which +occurred when he was making that marvellous tour through New England, +just after the war. The train stopped at a station in the State of +Maine. The General was standing on the rear platform of the last car. At +that time, as you know, he had a great reputation for silence--for it +was before he had made his series of brilliant speeches before the New +England Society. They spoke of his reticence--a quality which New +Englanders admire so much--in others. [Laughter.] Suddenly there was a +commotion in the crowd, and as it opened a large, tall, gaunt-looking +woman came rushing toward the car, out of breath. Taking her spectacles +off from the top of her head and putting them on her nose, she put her +arms akimbo, and looking up, said: "Well, I've just come down here a +runnin' nigh onto two mile, right on the clean jump, just to get a look +at the man that lets the women do all the talkin'." [Laughter.] + +The first regular speaker of the evening [William M. Evarts] touched +upon woman, but only incidentally, only in reference to Mormonism and +that sad land of Utah, where a single death may make a dozen widows. +[Laughter.] + +A speaker at the New England dinner in Brooklyn last night [Henry Ward +Beecher] tried to prove that the Mormons came originally from New +Hampshire and Vermont. I know that a New Englander sometimes in the +course of his life marries several times; but he takes the precaution to +take his wives in their proper order of legal succession. The difference +is that he drives his team of wives tandem, while the Mormon insists +upon driving his abreast. [Laughter.] + +But even the least serious of us, Mr. President, have some serious +moments in which to contemplate the true nobility of woman's character. +If she were created from a rib, she was made from that part which lies +nearest a man's heart. + +It has been beautifully said that man was fashioned out of the dust of +the earth while woman was created from God's own image. It is our pride +in this land that woman's honor is her own best defence; that here +female virtue is not measured by the vigilance of detective nurses; that +here woman may walk throughout the length and the breadth of this land, +through its highways and its byways, uninsulted, unmolested, clothed in +the invulnerable panoply of her own woman's virtue; that even in places +where crime lurks and vice prevails in the haunts of our great cities, +and in the rude mining gulches of the West, owing to the noble efforts +of our women, and the influence of their example, there are raised up, +even there, girls who are good daughters, loyal wives, and faithful +mothers. They seem to rise in those rude surroundings as grows the pond +lily, which is entangled by every species of rank growth, environed by +poison, miasma and corruption, and yet which rises in the beauty of its +purity and lifts its fair face unblushing to the sun. + +No one who has witnessed the heroism of America's daughters in the field +should fail to pay a passing tribute to their worth. I do not speak +alone of those trained Sisters of Charity, who in scenes of misery and +woe seem Heaven's chosen messengers on earth; but I would speak also of +those fair daughters who come forth from the comfortable firesides of +New England and other States, little trained to scenes of suffering, +little used to the rudeness of a life in camp, who gave their all, their +time, their health, and even life itself, as a willing sacrifice in that +cause which then moved the nation's soul. As one of these, with her +graceful form, was seen moving silently through the darkened aisles of +an army hospital, as the motion of her passing dress wafted a breeze +across the face of the wounded, they felt that their parched brows had +been fanned by the wings of the angel of mercy. + +Ah! Mr. President, woman is after all a mystery. It has been well said, +that woman is the great conundrum of the nineteenth century; but if we +cannot guess her, we will never give her up. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +FRIENDLINESS OF THE FRENCH + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet given by the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, June 24, 1885, to the officers + of the French national ship "Isere," which brought over the statue + of "Liberty Enlightening the World." Charles Stewart Smith, + vice-President of the Chamber, proposed the following toast: "The + French Alliance; initiated by noble and sympathetic Frenchmen; + grandly maintained by the blood and treasure of France; now newly + cemented by the spontaneous action of the French people; may it be + perpetuated through all time." In concluding his introduction, the + Chairman said: "We shall hear from our friend, General Porter."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--[3]_Voulez-vous me permettre de +faire mes remarques en français? Si je m'addresse ŕ vous dans une langue +que je ne parle pas, et que personne ici ne comprends, j'en impute la +faute entičrement ŕ l'example malheureux de Monsieur Coudert. Ce que je +veux dire est que_--this is the fault of Coudert. He has been switching +the languages round in every direction, and has done all he could to +sidetrack English. + +What I mean to say is, that if I were to mention in either language one +tithe of the subjects which should be alluded to to-night in connection +with the French Alliance, I should keep you all here until the rising of +another sun, and these military gentlemen around me, from abroad, in +attempting to listen to it, would have to exhibit what Napoleon +considered the highest quality in a soldier: "Two-o'clock-in-the-morning +courage." [Applause.] + +One cannot speak of the French Alliance without recalling the services +of Benjamin Franklin in connection with it. When he was in Paris and was +received in a public assemblage, not understanding anything of the +language, and believing, very properly, that it was a good thing always +to follow the example of the French in society, he vociferously +applauded every time the rest of them applauded, and he did not learn +until it was all over that the applause was, in each instance, elicited +by a reference to his name and distinguished public services, and so, +during the eloquent speech of our friend, Mr. Coudert, I could not but +look upon the American members of this assemblage, and notice that they +applauded most vociferously when they supposed that the speaker was +alluding particularly to their arduous services as members of the +Chamber of Commerce. [Laughter.] + +I congratulate our friends from abroad, who do not understand our +language, upon the very great privilege they enjoy here to-night, a +privilege that is not enjoyed by Americans or by Englishmen who come +among us. It is the rare and precious privilege at an American banquet +of not being expected to pay the slightest attention to the remarks of +the after-dinner speakers. [Laughter.] If there is one thing I feel I +can enjoy more than another, it is standing upon firm land and speaking +to those whose life is on the sea, to these "toilers of the deep." There +is in this a sort of poetic justice, a sentimental retribution; for on +their element I am never able to stand up, and, owing to certain +gastronomic uncertainties, my feelings on that element are just the +reverse of those I experience at the present moment. For in the agonies +of a storm I have so much on my mind that I have nothing whatever on my +stomach. But after this feast to-night I have so much on my stomach that +I fear I have nothing whatever on my mind. And when I next go to sea I +want to go as the great statue of Liberty: first being taken all apart +with the pieces carefully stored amidships. [Laughter.] + +While they were building the statue in France, we were preparing slowly +for the pedestal. You cannot hurry constructions of this kind; they must +have time to settle. We long ago prepared the stones for that pedestal, +and we first secured the services of the most useful, most precious +stone of all--the Pasha from Egypt. [Laughter.] We felt that his +services in Egypt had particularly fitted him for this task. There is a +popular belief in this country, which I have never once heard +contradicted, that he took a prominent part in laying the foundations of +the great Pyramids, that he assisted in placing the Egyptian Sphinx in +position, and that he even had something to do with Cleopatra's Needle. +[Laughter.] + +When Napoleon was in Egypt he said to his people: "Forty centuries are +looking down upon you." We say to General Stone, as he stands upon that +pedestal: "Fifty-five millions of people are looking up to you! and some +of them have contributed to the fund." [Laughter.] When we read of the +size of that statue, we were troubled, particularly when we saw the +gigantic dimensions of the Goddess's nose, but our minds were relieved +when we found that that nose was to face southward, and not in the +direction of Hunter's Point. [Laughter and applause.] + +_Monsieur le President_:--[4]_Quand le coeur est plein il deborde, et +ce soir mon coeur est plein de la France, mais_--Oh, there I go, again +wandering with Coudert away from the mother-tongue. [Laughter.] + +I have no doubt all the gentlemen here to-night of an American turn of +mind wish that the mantle of Elijah of old had fallen upon the shoulders +of Mr. Coudert, for then he might have stood some chance of being +translated. [Laughter.] A few years ago distinguished military men from +abroad came here to participate in the celebration of the 100th +anniversary of the surrender of Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis. They were +invited here by the Government, the descendants of all distinguished +foreigners, to participate in that historical event, except the +descendants of Lord Cornwallis. [Laughter.] And if our French guests had +been here then, and had gone down and seen Yorktown, they would not have +wondered that Cornwallis gave up that place; their only astonishment +would have been that he consented to remain there as long as he did. +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, upon a subject fraught with so much interest to us +all, and with so much dignity, let me, before I close, speak a few words +in all seriousness. If we would properly appreciate the depth and the +lasting nature of that traditional friendship between the two nations, +which is the child of the French Alliance, we must consider the +conditions of history at the time that alliance was formed. For years a +desperate war had been waged between the most powerful of nations and +the weakest of peoples, struggling to become a nation. The American +coffers had been drained, the spirit of the people was waning, hope was +fading, and patriot hearts who had never despaired before were now +bowed in the dust. The trials of the Continental army had never been +matched since the trade of war began. Their sufferings had never been +equalled since the days of the early Christian martyrs. While courage +still animated the hearts of the people, and their leaders never took +counsel of their fears, yet a general gloom had settled down upon the +land. Then we saw a light breaking in upon our eastern horizon, a light +which grew in brilliancy until it became to us a true bow of promise. +That light came from the brave land of France. [Enthusiastic cheering.] + +Then hope raised our standards; then joy brightened our crest; then it +was, that when we saw Gates and Lincoln and Greene and Washington, we +saw standing shoulder to shoulder with them, D'Estaing, De Grasse, +Rochambeau, and that princely hero [pointing to a portrait against the +wall], that man who was the embodiment of gallantry, of liberty, of +chivalry, the immortal Lafayette. [Loud cheers.] Then the two armies +moved hand-in-hand to fight the common foe. They vied nobly with each +other and, by an unselfish emulation and by a generous rivalry, showed +the world that the path of ambition had not become so narrow that two +could not walk it abreast. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and cheers.] + +Two treaties were made; one was military in its terms, and was called +the Defensive Treaty. The other we recall with great interest in the +presence of an assemblage of business men such as this. The second +treaty was called the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. The results of +those treaties have passed into history. That alliance taught many +worthy lessons. It taught that tyranny you may find anywhere; it is a +weed that grows on any soil. But if you want liberty, you must go forth +and fight for it. [Applause.] It taught us those kindly sentiments +between nations which warm the heart, liberalize the mind, and animate +the courage. It taught men that true liberty can turn blind submission +into rational obedience. It taught men, as Hall has said, that true +liberty smothers the voice of kings, dispels the mists of superstition, +and by its magic touch kindles the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of +poetry, the flame of eloquence, pours into our laps opulence and art, +and embellishes life with innumerable institutions and improvements +which make it one grand theatre of wonders. [Cheers.] + +And now that this traditional friendship between the two nations is to +be ever cemented by that generous gift of our ally, that colossal +statue, which so nobly typifies the great principle for which our +fathers fought, may the flame which is to arise from its uplifted arm +light the path of liberty to all who follow in its ways, until human +rights and human freedom become the common heritage of mankind. + +Ariosto tells us a pretty story of a gentle fairy, who, by a mysterious +law of her nature, was at certain periods compelled to assume the form +of a serpent and to crawl upon the ground. Those who in the days of her +disguise spurned her and trod upon her were forever debarred from a +participation in those gifts that it was her privilege to bestow, but to +those who, despite her unsightly aspect, comforted her and encouraged +her and aided her, she appeared in the beautiful and celestial form of +her true nature, followed them ever after with outstretched arms, +lavished upon them her gifts, and filled their homes with happiness and +wealth. + +And so, when America lay prostrate upon the ground, after throwing off +the British yoke, yet not having established a government which the +nations of the earth were willing to recognize, then it was that France +sympathized with her, and comforted her, and aided her, and now that +America has arisen in her strength and stands erect before the nations +of the world, in the true majesty and glory of that form in which God +intended she should thenceforth tread the earth, she always stands with +arms outstretched towards France in token of the great gratitude she +bears her. [Applause and cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE CITIZEN SOLDIER + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighth annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1887. The + President, John Winslow, proposed the toast, "The Citizen Soldier," + saying: "The next regular toast is 'The Citizen Soldier.' I have + already referred to the embarrassment which a presiding officer + feels in introducing a well-known and distinguished man. If I refer + to the distinguished gentleman who is to respond to this toast as a + pathetic speaker, you will immediately recall some of his fine + humor; and if I should speak of him as a humorous speaker you will + recall some pathetic sentence; so it is better to let General + Horace Porter speak for himself."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--After General Sherman the deluge. +I am the deluge. It is fortunate for me this evening that I come after +General Sherman only in the order of speech, and not in the order of +dinner, for a person once said in Georgia--and he was a man who knew +regarding the March to the Sea--that anyone who came after General +Sherman wouldn't find much to eat. Having been brought up in +Pennsylvania, I listened with great interest to General Sherman's +reference to the proposed names of the States in the country. He +mentioned one as "Sylvania." That was evidently a dead letter till we +put the Pen(n) to it. [Laughter.] I noticed that President Dwight +listened with equal interest to the statement of that expedition which +went West and carried such a large quantity of whiskey with it, in +consequence of which the first University was founded. [Laughter.] + +But, gentlemen, when I am requested in such an august presence as this +to speak of the "Citizen Soldier," I cannot help feeling like the +citizen soldier of Hibernian extraction who came up, in the streets of +New York, to a general officer and held out his hand for alms, evidently +wanting to put himself temporarily on the General's pay-roll, as it +were. The General said: "Why don't you work?" He said he couldn't on +account of his wounds. The General asked where he was wounded. He said, +"In the retrate at Bull Run." "But whereabouts on your person?" He +replied, "You'll notice the scar here." [Pointing to his face.] "Now, +how could you get wounded in the face while on the retreat?" "I had the +indiscrition to look back." [Laughter.] "Well," said the General, "that +wouldn't prevent your working." "Ah," answered the man, "the worst wound +is here." [Left breast.] The General said, "Oh, that's all bosh; if the +bullet had gone in there it would have passed through your heart and +killed you." "I beg your pardon, sir, at that moment me heart was in me +mouth!" [Great laughter.] So if I had known that such an early attack +was to be made upon me here to-night, I should have thrown my pickets +farther out to the front, in hopes of getting sufficient information to +beat a hasty retreat; for if there is one lesson better than another +taught by the war, it is that a man may retreat successfully from almost +any position, if he only starts in time. [Laughter.] + +In alluding to the Citizen Soldier I desire it to be distinctly +understood that I make no reference to that organization of Home Guards +once formed in Kansas, where the commanding officer tried to pose as one +of the last surviving heroes of the Algerine War, when he had never +drawn a sword but once and that was in a raffle, and where his men had +determined to emulate the immortal example of Lord Nelson. The last +thing that Nelson did was to die for his country, and this was the last +thing they ever intended to do. [Laughter.] + +I allude to that Citizen Soldier who breathed the spirit of old Miles +Standish, but had the additional advantage of always being able to speak +for himself; who came down to the front with hair close cropped, clean +shaven, newly baptized, freshly vaccinated, pocket in his shirt, musket +on his shoulder, ready to do anything, from squirrel hunting up to +manslaughter in the first degree. He felt that with a single rush he +could carry away two spans of barbed-wire fence without scratching +himself. If too short-sighted to see the enemy, he would go nearer; if +lame, he would make this an excuse to disobey an order to retreat; if he +had but one stocking, he would take it off his foot in wet weather and +wrap it around the lock of his gun; and as to marching, he would keep on +the march as long as he had upper garments enough left to wad a gun or +nether garments enough to flag a train with. [Laughter.] He was the last +man in a retreat, the first man in an enemy's smoke-house. When he +wanted fuel he took only the top rail of the fence, and kept on taking +the top rail till there was none of that fence left standing. The New +England soldier knew everything that was between the covers of books, +from light infantry tactics to the new version of the Scriptures. One +day, on a forced march in Virginia, a New England man was lagging +behind, when his colonel began stirring him up and telling him he ought +to make better time. He at once started to argue the case with the +colonel, and said: "See here, colonel, I've studied the tactics and hev +learned from 'em how to form double column at half distance, but I hev +never yet learned how to perform double distance on half rations." +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, this is a subject which should receive a few serious +words from me before I sit down. It was not until the black war cloud of +rebellion broke upon us that we really appreciated the Citizen Soldier +at his full worth. But when the country was struck we saw, pouring down +from the hill tops, and surging up from the valleys, that magnificent +army of citizen soldiery, at the sight of which all Christendom stood +amazed. They gathered until the streets of every hamlet in the land were +lighted by the glitter of their steel and resounded to the tread of +their marching columns. It seemed that the middle wall of partition was +broken down between all classes, that we were living once more in the +heroic ages, that there had returned to us the brave days of old, when +"none were for a party but all were for the state." [Applause.] And then +that unbroken line swept down to the front. But in that front what +scenes were met! There was the blistering Southern sun; swamps which +bred miasma and death; rivers with impassable approaches; heights to be +scaled, batteries to be captured, the open plain with guns in front and +guns in flank, which swept those devoted columns until human blood +flowed as freely as festal wine; there was the dense forest, the +under-growth barring the passage of man, the upper-growth shutting out +the light of heaven; ammunition-trains exploding, the woods afire, the +dead roasted in the flames, the wounded dragging their mangled limbs +after them to escape its ravages, until it seemed that Christian men had +turned to fiends, and hell itself had usurped the place of earth. +[Applause.] + +And when success perched upon our banners, when the bugle sounded the +glad notes of final and triumphal victory, the disbanding of that army +was even more marvellous than its organization. It disappeared, not as +the flood of waters of the spring, which rend the earth, and leave havoc +and destruction in their course; but rather, as was once eloquently +said, like the snows of winter under a genial sun, leaving the face of +Nature untouched, and the handiwork of man undisturbed; not injuring, +but moistening and fructifying the earth. [Applause.] But the mission of +the Citizen Soldier did not end there, it has not ended yet. We have no +European enemy to dread, it is true; we have on our own continent no +foeman worthy of our steel; for, unlike the lands of Europe, this land +is not cursed by propinquity. But we must look straight in the face the +fact that we have in our midst a discontented class, repudiated alike by +employers and by honest laborers. They come here from the effete +monarchies of the old world, rave about the horrors of tyrannous +governments, and make no distinction between them and the blessings of a +free and independent government. They have, but a little while ago, +created scenes in which mob-law ruled the hour, riot held its sanguinary +sway, and the earth of our streets tasted the blood of our citizens. +When such scenes as these occur, we cannot wait for aid from the crews +of vessels in the offing, we cannot look for succor to the army +garrisons of distant forts; but in our great cities--those plague spots +in the body politic--we want trained militia who can rally as rapidly as +the long roll can be beaten. And I know that all property-owners feel +safer, that all law-abiding citizens breathe freer, when they see a +militia, particularly like that in our own State, go forth in the summer +to be inured to the hardships of the march, to the discipline of +tent-life in the field, exhibiting an _esprit de corps_, a discipline, a +true touch of the elbow, which is beyond all praise. I love to take off +my hat to their marching column; I love to salute its passing banners. +They will always be the true bulwark of our defence. I know of no man, +and no set of men, who more gladly or more eagerly make this statement +than those who have been reared in the regular army; and I take +particular pride in making this acknowledgment and paying this tribute +in the presence of the senior and the most illustrious living commander +of our Citizen Soldiery. [Allusion to General Sherman followed by great +applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE MANY-SIDED PURITAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-second annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. + Ex-Judge Horace Russell, the President of the Society, in + introducing General Porter, said: "James T. Brady used to say that + a good lawyer imbibed his law rather than read it. [Laughter.] If + that proposition holds true in other regards, the gentleman whom I + am to call to the next toast is one of the very best of New + Englanders--General Horace Porter [applause], who will speak to + 'Puritan Influence.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--While you were eating +Forefathers' dinner here a year ago, I happened to be in Mexico, but on +my return I found that the Puritan influence had extended to me, for I +was taken for the distinguished head of this organization, and was in +receipt of no end of letters addressed to General Horace Russell and +Judge Horace Porter and Mr. Horace Russell and Porter, President of the +New England Society, and all begging for a copy of Grady's[5] speech. +Distant communities had got the names of the modern Horatii mixed. +[Laughter.] In replying I had to acknowledge that my nativity barred me +out from the moral realms of this puritanical society, and I could only +coincide with Charles II when he said he always admired virtue, but he +never could imitate it. [Laughter and applause.] When the Puritan +influence spread across the ocean; when it was imported here as part of +the cargo of the Mayflower, the crew of the craft, like sensible men, +steered for the port of New York, but a reliable tradition informs us +that the cook on board that vessel chopped his wood on deck and always +stood with his broadaxe on the starboard side of the binnacle, and that +this mass of ferruginous substance so attracted the needle that the ship +brought up in Plymouth harbor. And the Puritans did not reach New York +harbor for a couple of hundred years thereafter, and then in the persons +of the members of the New England Society. It is seen that the same +influences are still at work, for the fact that these Puritans have +brought up in Delmonico's haven of rest is entirely owing to the +attractions of the cook. [Laughter and applause.] + +The old Puritan was not the most rollicking, the jolliest, or the most +playful of men. He at times amused himself sadly; he was given to a mild +disregard of the conventionalities. He had suppressed bear-baiting, not, +it is believed, because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave +pleasure to the audience. He found the Indians were the proprietors of +the land, and he felt himself constrained to move against them with his +gun with a view to increasing the number of absentee landlords. +[Laughter and applause.] He found the Indians on one side and the +witches on the other. He was surrounded with troubles. He had to keep +the Indians under fire and the witches over it. These were some of the +things that reconciled that good man to sudden death. He frequently +wanted to set up a mark and swear at it, but his principles would not +permit him. He never let the sun go down upon his wrath, but he, no +doubt, often wished that he was in that region near the pole where the +sun does not go down for six months at a time, and gives wrath a fair +chance to materialize. He was a thoughtful man. He spent his days +inventing snow-ploughs and his evenings in sipping hot rum and +ruminating upon the probable strength of the future Prohibition vote. +Those were times when the wives remonstrated with their husbands +regarding the unfortunate and disappointing results of too much drink, +particularly when it led the men to go out and shoot at Indians--and +miss them. [Long continued laughter.] It is supposed that these men, +like many others, generally began drinking on account of the bite of a +snake, and usually had to quit on account of attacks from the same +reptiles. + +But, Mr. President, if you will allow me a few words of becoming gravity +with which to retract any aspersions which I may have inadvertently cast +upon the sacred person of the ancient Puritan, I assure you I will use +those words with a due sense of the truth of the epigram--that "gravity +is a stratagem invented to conceal the poverty of the mind." That rugged +old Puritan, firm of purpose and stout of heart, had been fittingly +trained by his life in the Old World, for the conspicuous part he was +to enact in the New. He was acquainted with hardships, inured to trials, +practised in self-abnegation. He had reformed religions, revolutionized +society, and shaken the thrones of tyrants. He had learned that tyranny +you may have anywhere--it is a weed which grows on any soil--but if you +want freedom you must go forth and fight for it. [Long continued +applause.] + +At his very birth he had had breathed into his nostrils the breath of +that true liberty which can turn blind submission into rational +obedience, which, as Hall says, can "smother the voice of kings, +dissipate the mists of superstition, and by its magic touch kindle the +rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, the flames of eloquence." +[Applause.] He had the courage of his convictions, he counselled not +with his fears. He neither looked to the past with regret nor to the +future with apprehension. He might have been a zealot--he was never a +hypocrite; he might have been eccentric--he was never ridiculous. He was +a Hercules rather than an Adonis. In his warfare he fired hot shot; he +did not send in flags of truce; he led forlorn hopes; he did not follow +in the wake of charges. When he went forth with his sledge-hammer logic +and his saw-mill philosophy, all who stood in the path of his righteous +wrath went down before him, with nothing by which to recognize them +except the pieces he had left of them. When he crossed the seas to plant +his banners in the West, when he disembarked upon the bleak shores of +America, the land which was one day to speak with the voice of a mighty +prophet, then the infant just discovered in the bulrushes of the New +World, he came with loins girded and all accoutred for the great work of +founding a race which should create a permanent abiding place for +liberty, and one day dominate the destinies of the world. [Prolonged +applause.] Unlike the Spanish conqueror upon far southern coasts, the +leader did not have to burn his ship to retain his followers, for when +the Mayflower spread her sails for home, not a man of Plymouth Colony +returned on board her. + +The Puritan early saw that in the new land, liberty could not flourish +when subject to the caprices of European Courts; he realized with Burke +that there was "more wisdom and sagacity in American workshops than in +the cabinets of princes." He wanted elbow-room; he was philosophic +enough to recognize the truth of the adage that it is "better to sit on +a pumpkin and have it all to yourself than to be crowded on a velvet +cushion." + +When the struggle for independence came, the Puritan influence played no +small part in the contest. When a separate government had been formed he +showed himself foremost in impressing upon it his principles of broad +and comprehensive liberty. He dignified labor; he believed that as the +banner of the young Republic was composed of and derived its chief +beauty from its different colors, so should its broad folds cover and +protect its citizens of different colors. + +He was a grand character in history. We take off our hats to him. We +salute his memory. In his person were combined the chivalry of +Knighthood, the fervor of the Crusader, the wit of Gascony, and the +courage of Navarre. [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at a dinner given by the Republican Club + in honor of the ninetieth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's + birthday, New York City, February 12, 1889. Mortimer C. Addams, the + newly elected President of the Club, occupied the chair. General + Porter was called upon for a response to the first toast, "Abraham + Lincoln--the fragrant memory of such a life will increase as the + generations succeed each other." General Porter was introduced by + the chairman, as one "whose long acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, + intimate relationship, both official and personal, with our + illustrious chieftain, General Grant, and distinguished career as a + brave defender of his country in the time of her peril, have + eminently fitted him to tell the story of our great War + President."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am encumbered with diverse +misgivings in being called upon to rise and cast the first firebrand +into this peaceful assemblage, which has evidently been enjoying itself +so much up to the present time. From the herculean task accomplished by +the Republican party last fall we have come to think of its members as +men of deeds and not of words, except the spellbinders. [Laughter.] I +fear your committee is treating me like one of those toy balloons that +are sent up previous to the main ascension, to test the currents of the +air; but I hope that in this sort of ballooning I may not be interrupted +by the remark that interrupted a Fourth of July orator in the West when +he was tickling the American Eagle under both wings, delivering himself +of no end of platitudes and soaring aloft into the brilliant realms of +fancy when a man in the audience quietly remarked: "If he goes on +throwing out his ballast, in that way, the Lord knows where he will +land." [Laughter.] If I demonstrate to-night that dryness is a quality +not only of the champagne but of the first speech as well, you may +reflect on that remark as Abraham Lincoln did at City Point after he had +been shaken up the night before in his boat in a storm in Chesapeake +Bay. When he complained of the feeling of gastronomic uncertainty which +we suffer on the water, a young staff officer rushed up to him with a +bottle of champagne and said: "This is the cure for that sort of an +ill." Said the President: "No, young man, I have seen too many fellows +seasick ashore from drinking that very article." [Laughter.] + +The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln savors more of romance than +reality. It is more like a fable of the ancient days than a story of a +plain American of the nineteenth century. The singular vicissitudes in +the life of our martyred President surround him with an interest which +attaches to few men in history. He sprang from that class which he +always alluded to as the "plain people," and never attempted to disdain +them. He believed that the government was made for the people, not the +people for the government. He felt that true Republicanism is a +torch--the more it is shaken in the hands of the people the brighter it +will burn. He was transcendently fit to be the first successful +standard-bearer of the progressive, aggressive, invincible Republican +party. [Loud applause.] He might well have said to those who chanced to +sneer at his humble origin what a marshal of France raised from the +ranks said to the haughty nobles of Vienna boasting of their long line +of descent, when they refused to associate with him: "I am an ancestor; +you are only descendants!" [Laughter and cheers.] He was never guilty +of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish +sentimentality, any of that puppyism so often bred by power, that +dogmatism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity. +[Laughter.] He made no claim to knowledge he did not possess. He felt +with Addison that pedantry and learning are like hypocrisy in +religion--the form of knowledge without the power of it. He had nothing +in common with those men of mental malformation who are educated beyond +their intellects. [Laughter.] + +The names of Washington and Lincoln are inseparably associated, and yet +as the popular historian would have us believe one spent his entire life +in chopping down acorn trees and the other splitting them up into rails. +Washington could not tell a story. Lincoln always could. [Laughter.] And +Lincoln's stories always possessed the true geometrical requisites, they +were never too long, and never too broad. [Laughter.] He never forgot a +point. A sentinel pacing near the watchfire while Lincoln was once +telling some stories quietly remarked that "He had a mighty powerful +memory, but an awful poor forgettery." [Laughter.] + +The last time I ever heard him converse, he told one of the stories +which best illustrated his peculiar talent for pointing a moral with an +anecdote. Speaking of England's assistance to the South, and how she +would one day find she had aided it but little and only injured herself, +he said: "Yes, that reminds me of a barber in Sangamon County. He was +about going to bed when a stranger came along and said he must have a +shave. He said he had a few days' beard on his face, and he was going to +a ball, and the barber must cut it off. The barber got up reluctantly, +dressed, and put the stranger in a chair with a low back to it, and +every time he bore down he came near dislocating his patient's neck. He +began by lathering his face, including nose, eyes, and ears, strapped +his razor on his boot, and then made a drive scraping down the right +cheek, carrying away the beard and a pimple and two or three warts. The +man in the chair said: 'You appear to make everything level as you go.' +[Laughter.] The barber said: 'Yes, if this handle don't break, I will +get away with what there is there.' The man's cheeks were so hollow that +the barber could not get down into the valleys with the razor and an +ingenious idea occurred to him to stick his finger in the man's mouth +and press out the cheeks. Finally he cut clean through the cheek and +into his own finger. He pulled the finger out of the man's mouth, and +snapped the blood off it, looked at him, and said: 'There, you +lantern-jawed cuss, you have made me cut my finger.'" [Laughter.] "Now," +said Lincoln, "England will find she has got the South into a pretty bad +scrape from trying to administer to her. In the end she will find she +has only cut her own finger." [Applause.] + +But his heart was not always attuned to mirth; its chords were often set +to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost the +courage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by +doubting Thomases, by unbelieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, +his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their +war-horses in order that they might not be affrighted by the din of +battle, so Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all that might have discouraged +him, and exhibited an unwavering faith in the justice of the cause and +the integrity of the Union. [Cries of "Bravo!" and cheers.] + +It is said that for three hundred years after the battle of Thermopylć +every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from +memory the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the defence of +that Pass. It would be a crowning triumph in patriotic education if +every school child in America could contemplate each day the grand +character and utter the inspiring name of Abraham Lincoln. [Loud +applause.] + +He has passed from our view. We shall not meet him again until he stands +forth to answer to his name at the roll-call when the great of earth are +summoned in the morning of the last great reveille. Till then +[apostrophizing Lincoln's portrait which hung above the President's +head], till then, farewell, gentlest of all spirits, noblest of all +hearts! The child's simplicity was mingled with the majestic grandeur of +your nature. You have handed down unto a grateful people the richest +legacy which man can leave to man--the memory of a good name, the +inheritance of a great example! [Loud and enthusiastic applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +SIRES AND SONS + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-sixth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1891. J. + Pierpont Morgan, the President, occupied the chair, and called upon + General Porter to speak on "Sires and Sons."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--All my shortcomings upon this +occasion must be attributed to the fact that I have just come from last +night's New England dinner, in Brooklyn, which occurred largely this +morning. They promised me when I accepted their invitation that I should +get away early, and I did. I am apprehensive that the circumstance may +give rise to statements which may reflect upon my advancing years, and +that I may be pointed out as one who has dined with the early New +Englanders. + +I do not like the fact of Depew's coming into the room so late to-night +and leaving so short an interval between his speech and mine. His +conduct is of a piece with the conduct of so many married men nowadays +who manifest such exceedingly bad taste and want of tact in dying only +such a very short time before the remarriage of their wives. + +I have acquired some useful experience in attending New England Society +dinners in various cities. I dine with New Englanders in Boston; the +rejoicing is marked, but not aggressive. I dine with them in New York; +the hilarity and cheer of mind are increased in large degree. I dine +with them in Philadelphia; the joy is unconfined and measured neither by +metes nor bounds. Indeed, it has become patent to the most casual +observer that the further the New Englander finds himself from New +England the more hilarious is his rejoicing. Whenever we find a son of +New England who has passed beyond the borders of his own section, who +has stepped out into the damp cold fog of a benighted outside world and +has brought up in another State, he seems to take more pride than ever +in his descent--doubtless because he feels that it has been so great. +[Laughter.] + +The New England sire was a stern man on duty and determined to +administer discipline totally regardless of previous acquaintance. He +detested all revolutions in which he had taken no part. If he possessed +too much piety, it was tempered by religion; while always seeking out +new virtues, he never lost his grip on his vices. [Laughter.] He was +always ambitious to acquire a reputation that would extend into the next +world. But in his own individual case he manifested a decided preference +for the doctrine of damnation without representation. + +When he landed at Plymouth he boldly set about the appalling task of +cultivating the alleged soil. His labors were largely lightened by the +fact that there were no agricultural newspapers to direct his efforts. +By a fiction of speech which could not have been conceived by a less +ingenious mind, he founded a government based upon a common poverty and +called it a commonwealth. He was prompt and eminently practical in his +worldly methods. In the rigors of a New England winter when he found a +witch suffering he brought her in to the fire; when he found an Indian +suffering he went out and covered him with a shotgun. [Laughter.] + +The discipline of the race, however, is chiefly due to the New England +mother. She could be seen going to church of a Sabbath with the Bible +under one arm and a small boy under the other, and her mind equally +harassed by the tortures of maternity and eternity. When her offspring +were found suffering from spring fever and the laziness which +accompanies it, she braced them up with a heroic dose of brimstone and +molasses. The brimstone given here was a reminder of the discipline +hereafter; the molasses has doubtless been chiefly responsible for the +tendency of the race to stick to everything, especially their opinions. +[Laughter.] + +The New Englanders always take the initiative in great national +movements. At Lexington and Concord they marched out alone without +waiting for the rest of the Colonies, to have their fling at the +red-coats, and a number of the colonists on that occasion succeeded in +interfering with British bullets. It was soon after observed that their +afternoon excursion had attracted the attention of England. They acted +in the spirit of the fly who bit the elephant on the tail. When the fly +was asked whether he expected to kill him he said: "No, but I notice I +made him look round." [Laughter.] + + +[Illustration: _THE MINUTE MAN_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph_ + + +In commemoration of the famous Revolutionary struggle of the farmers of +Concord, Mass., April 19, 1775, this statue was erected. The sculptor +was Daniel Chester French, a native of Concord. The statue was unveiled +at the centennial celebration of the battle, 1875. It is of bronze, +heroic size, and stands near the town of Concord, by the battlefield, on +the side of the Concord River occupied by the Americans. The position is +described by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his lines which are graven in the +pedestal of the statue: + + "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, + Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, + Here once the embattled farmers stood, + And fired the shot heard round the world."] + + +Such are the inventive faculty and self-reliance of New Englanders that +they always entertain a profound respect for impossibilities. It has +been largely owing to their influence that we took the negro, who is a +natural agriculturist, and made a soldier of him; took the Indian, who +is a natural warrior, and made an agriculturist of him; took the +American, who is a natural destructionist, and made a protectionist of +him. They are always revolutionizing affairs. Recently a Boston company +equipped with electricity the horse-cars, or rather the mule-cars, in +the streets of Atlanta. When the first electric-motor cars were put into +service an aged "contraband" looked at them from the street corner and +said: "Dem Yankees is a powerful sma't people; furst dey come down h'yar +and freed de niggers, now dey've done freed de mules." [Laughter.] + +The New Englander is so constantly engaged in creating changes that in +his eyes even variety appears monotonous. When a German subject finds +himself oppressed by his Government he emigrates; when a French citizen +is oppressed he makes the Government emigrate; when Americans find a +portion of their Government trying to emigrate they arm themselves and +spend four years in going after it and bringing it back. [Laughter and +applause.] + +You will find the sons of New England everywhere throughout the world, +and they are always at the fore. I happened to be at a French banquet in +Paris where several of us Americans spoke, employing that form of the +French language which is so often used by Americans in France, and which +is usually so successful in concealing one's ideas from the natives. +There was a young Bostonian there who believed he had successfully +mastered all the most difficult modern languages except that which is +spoken by the brake-men on the elevated railroads. When he spoke French +the only departure from the accent of the Parisian was that _nuance_ of +difference arising from the mere accidental circumstance of one having +learned his French in Paris and the other in Boston. The French give +much praise to Moličre for having changed the pronunciation of a great +many French words; but his most successful efforts in that direction +were far surpassed by the Boston young man. When he had finished his +remarks a French gentleman sitting beside me inquired: "Where is he +from?" I replied: "From New England." Said he: "I don't see anything +English about him except his French." [Laughter.] + +In speaking of the sons of New England sires, I know that one name is +uppermost in all minds here to-night--the name of one who added new +lustre to the fame of his distinguished ancestors. The members of your +Society, like the Nation at large, found themselves within the shadow of +a profound grief, and oppressed by a sense of sadness akin to the sorrow +of a personal bereavement, as they stood with uncovered heads beside the +bier of William T. Sherman; when the echo of his guns gave place to the +tolling of cathedral bells; when the flag of his country, which had +never been lowered in his presence, dropped to half-mast, as if +conscious that his strong arm was no longer there to hold it to the +peak; when he passed from the living here to join the other living, +commonly called the dead. We shall never meet the great soldier again +until he stands forth to answer to his name at roll-call on the morning +of the last great reveille. At this board he was always a thrice welcome +guest. The same blood coursed in his veins which flows in yours. All +hearts warmed to him with the glow of an abiding affection. He was a +many-sided man. He possessed all the characteristics of the successful +soldier: bold in conception, vigorous in execution, and unshrinking +under grave responsibilities. He was singularly self-reliant, +demonstrating by all his acts that "much danger makes great hearts most +resolute." He combined in his temperament the restlessness of a Hotspur +with the patience of a Fabius. Under the magnetism of his presence his +troops rushed to victory with all the dash of Cćsar's Tenth Legion. +Opposing ranks went down before the fierceness of his onsets, never to +rise again. He paused not till he saw the folds of his banners wave +above the strongholds he had wrested from the foe. + +While mankind will always appreciate the practical workings of the mind +of the great strategist, they will also see in his marvellous career +much which savors of romance as well as reality, appeals to the +imagination and excites the fancy. They will picture him as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; as a general who could +make a Christmas gift to his President of a great seaboard city; as a +chieftain whose field of military operations covered nearly half a +continent; who had penetrated everglades and bayous; the inspiration of +whose commands forged weaklings into giants; whose orders all spoke with +the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depth to +mountain height, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. No one can +rob him of his laurels; no man can lessen the measure of his fame. His +friends will never cease to sing pćans in his honor, and even the wrath +of his enemies may be counted in his praise. [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE ASSIMILATED DUTCHMAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the fourth annual dinner of the + Poughkeepsie District Members of the Holland Society of New York, + October 3, 1893. The banquet was held in commemoration of the + relief of the siege of Leyden, 1574. J. William Beekman, the + President, introduced General Porter as follows: "Gentlemen, we + will now proceed to a toast that we shall all enjoy, I am sure, + after so much has been said about the Dutch. This toast is to be + responded to by a gentleman whom we all know. It is hardly + necessary to introduce him. But I will read the sentiment attached + to this toast: 'The American: Formed of the blendings of the best + strains of Europe, he cannot be worthy of his ancestry without + combining in himself the best qualities of them all.' And I call + upon General Horace Porter to respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--We speakers have naturally been a +little embarrassed at the outset this evening, for just as we were about +to break into speech, your President reminded us that the only one +worthy of having a monument built to his memory was William the Silent. +Well, it seemed to carry me back to those ancient days of Greece, when +Pythagoras inaugurated his School of Silence, and called on Damocles to +make the opening speech. + +Your President has shown from the start this evening that he is +determined to enforce discipline, totally regardless of previous +acquaintance. He appears to have been in a Shakespearian mood to-night. +He seemed to be looking at each one of these alleged speakers and saying +of him: "Therefore, I'll watch him till he be dieted to my request and +then I will set upon him." But he must remember that Shakespeare also +said: "Dainty bits make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits." + +I do not know how the rest of you feel, but after these delicious but +somewhat plethoric dinners, I feel very much like Mr. Butterby, when his +lavender-colored trousers were sent to him the night before his wedding, +and he returned them to the tailor with a note saying, "Let them out two +inches around the waist, which will leave a margin for emotion and the +wedding breakfast." [Laughter.] + +Now, we speakers to-night cannot expect to be received with any vast +ebullition of boisterous enthusiasm here, for we understand that every +member pays for his own wine. Besides, I am sure that you will not be +likely to get any more ideas from me than you would get lather from a +cake of hotel soap. + +After having wrestled with about thirty dishes at this dinner, and after +all this being called upon to speak, I feel a great sympathy with that +woman in Ireland who had had something of a field-day on hand. She began +by knocking down two somewhat unpopular agents of her absentee landlord, +and was seen, later in the day, dancing a jig on the stomach of the +prostrate form of the Presbyterian minister. One of her friends admired +her prowess in this direction and invited her in, and gave her a good +stiff glass of whiskey. Her friend said, "Shall I pour some water in +your whiskey?" and the woman replied, "For God's sake, haven't I had +trouble enough already to-day?" [Laughter.] + +I am a little at a loss still to know how I got into this company +to-night. I begin to feel like some of those United States Senators who, +after they have reached Washington, look around and wonder how they got +there. The nearest approach to being decorated with a sufficiently +aristocratic epithet to make me worthy of admission to this Society was +when I used to visit outside of my native State and be called a +"Pennsylvania Dutchman." But history tells us that at the beginning of +the Revolution there was a battle fought at Breed's Hill, and it was +called the Battle of Bunker Hill, because it was not fought there; and I +suppose I have been brought into this Dutch Society to-night because I +am not a Dutchman. [Laughter.] + +I have great admiration for these Dutchmen; they always get to the +front. When they appear in New York they are always invited to seats on +the roof; when they go into an orchestra, they are always given one of +the big fiddles to play; and when they march in a procession, they are +always sure to get a little ahead of the band. This Society differs +materially from other so-called foreign societies. When we meet the +English, we invariably refer to the common stock from which we sprang, +but in the Dutch Society the stock is always preferred! and when a +Dutchman dies, why, his funeral is like that funeral of Abel, who was +killed by his brother Cain--no one is allowed to attend unless he +belongs to a first family. [Laughter.] + +Now, a Dutchman is only happy when he gets a "Van" attached to the front +of his name, and a "dam" to the rear end of the city from which his +ancestors came. I notice they are all very particular about the "dam." +[Laughter.] + +There was a lady--a New York young lady--who had been spending several +years in England and had just returned. She had posed awhile as a +professional beauty. Then she attempted to marry into the aristocracy, +but the market for titles was a little dull that year and she came home. +She had lived there long enough to become an Anglomaniac. She met a +Dutchman in New York--I think he was a member of the Holland +Society--and she said: "Everything seems so remarkably commonplace here, +after getting back from England; I am sure you must admit that there is +nothing so romantic here as in England." The Dutchman remarked: "Well, I +don't know about that." She said: "I was stopping at a place in the +country, with one of the members of the aristocracy, and there was a +little piece of water--a sort of miniature lake, as it were--so sweet. +The waters were confined by little rustic walls, so to speak, and that +was called the 'Earl's Oath'; we have nothing so romantic in New York, +I'm sure." Said the Dutchman: "Oh, yes, here we have McComb's Dam." +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, I certainly am in earnest sympathy with the +patriotic sentiment expressed in the toast which you have been pleased +to assign to me to-night, saying, in effect, that the American is +composed of the best strains of Europe, and the American cannot be +worthy of his ancestors unless he aims to combine within himself the +good qualities of all. America has gained much by being the conglomerate +country that she is, made up of a commingling of the blood of other +races. It is a well-known fact in the crossing of breeds that the best +traits predominate in the result. We in this land, have gained much from +the purity of those bloods; we have suffered little from the taint. + +It is well in this material age, when we are dwelling so much upon +posterity, not to be altogether oblivious to pedigree. It has been well +said that he who does not respect his ancestors will never be likely to +achieve anything for which his descendants will respect him. Man learns +but very little in this world from precept; he learns something from +experience; he learns much from example, and the "best teachers of +humanity are the lives of worthy men." + +We have a great many admirable so-called foreign societies in New York, +and they are all doing good work--good work in collecting interesting +historical data in regard to the ancestors who begat them; in regard to +the lands from which they came--good work in the broad field of charity. +But it is the Holland Society which seems to be a little closer to us +than the others--more _our_ Society, even with those of us who have no +Dutch blood in our veins. We feel that these old Dutch names are really +more closely associated in our minds with the city of New York than with +Holland itself. + +The men from whom you sprang were well calculated to carry on the great +work undertaken by them. In the first place, in that good old land they +had educated the conscience. The conscience never lost its hold upon the +man. He stood as firm in his convictions as the rock to its base. His +religion was a religion of the soul, and not of the senses. He might +have broken the tables of stone on which the laws were written; he never +would have broken those laws themselves. He turned neither to the past +with regret nor to the future with apprehension. He was a man inured to +trials; practised in self-abnegation; educated in the severe school of +adversity; and that little band which set out from Holland to take up +its career in the New World was well calculated to undertake the work +which Providence had marked out for them. Those men had had breathed +into their nostrils at their very birth the true spirit of liberty. +Somehow or other liberty seemed to be indigenous in that land. They +imbibed that true spirit of liberty which does not mean unbridled +license of the individual, but that spirit of liberty which can turn +blind submission into rational obedience; that spirit of liberty which +Hall says stifles the voices of kings, dissipates the mists of +superstition, kindles the flames of art, and pours happiness into the +laps of the people. Those men started out boldly upon the ocean; they +paused not until they dipped the fringes of their banners in the waters +of the western seas. They built up this great metropolis. They bore +their full share in building up this great nation and in planting in it +their pure principles. They builded even better than they knew. + +In the past year I think our people have been more inclined than ever +before to pause and contemplate how big with events is the history of +this land. It was developed by people who believed not in the "divine +right of kings," but in the divine right of human liberty. If we may +judge the future progress of this land by its progress in the past, it +does not require that one should be endowed with prophetic vision to +predict that in the near future this young but giant Republic will +dominate the policy of the world. America was not born amidst the +mysteries of barbaric ages; and it is about the only nation which knows +its own birthday. Woven of the stoutest fibres of other lands, nurtured +by a commingling of the best blood of other races, America has now cast +off the swaddling-clothes of infancy, and stands forth erect, clothed in +robes of majesty and power, in which the God who made her intends that +she shall henceforth tread the earth; and to-day she may be seen moving +down the great highways of history, teaching by example; moving at the +head of the procession of the world's events; marching in the van of +civilized and christianized liberty, her manifest destiny to light the +torch of liberty till it illumines the entire pathway of the world, and +till human freedom and human rights become the common heritage of +mankind. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO GENERAL GRANT + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet of the Army of the + Tennessee, upon the occasion of the inauguration of the Grant + Equestrian Statue in Chicago, October 8, 1891.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--When a man from the armies of the East finds himself in +the presence of men of the armies of the West, he feels that he cannot +strike their gait. He can only look at them wistfully and say, in the +words of Charles II, "I always admired virtue, but I never could imitate +it." [Laughter.] If I do not in the course of my remarks succeed in +seeing each one of you, it will be because the formation of the Army of +the Tennessee to-night is like its formation in the field, when it won +its matchless victories, the heavy columns in the centre. [An allusion +to the large columns in the room.] [Laughter.] + +Almost all the conspicuous characters in history have risen to +prominence by gradual steps, but Ulysses S. Grant seemed to come before +the people with a sudden bound. Almost the first sight they caught of +him was in the flashes of his guns, and the blaze of his camp-fires, +those wintry days and nights in front of Donelson. From that hour until +the closing triumph at Appomattox he was the leader whose name was the +harbinger of victory. From the final sheath of his sword until the +tragedy on Mount McGregor he was the chief citizen of the republic and +the great central figure of the world. [Applause.] The story of his life +savors more of romance than reality. It is more like a fabled tale of +ancient days than the history of an American citizen of the nineteenth +century. As light and shade produce the most attractive effects in a +picture, so the singular contrasts, the strange vicissitudes in his +marvellous career, surround him with an interest which attaches to few +characters in history. His rise from an obscure lieutenancy to the +command of the veteran armies of the republic; his transition from a +frontier post of the untrodden West to the Executive Mansion of the +nation; his sitting at one time in his little store in Galena, not even +known to the Congressman from his own district; at another time striding +through the palaces of the Old World, with the descendants of a line of +Kings rising and standing uncovered in his presence [Applause.]--these +are some of the features of his extraordinary career which appeal to the +imagination, excite men's wonder, and fascinate all who read the story +of his life. [Applause.] + +General Grant possessed in a striking degree all the characteristics of +the successful soldier. His methods were all stamped with tenacity of +purpose, with originality and ingenuity. He depended for his success +more upon the powers of invention than of adaptation, and the fact that +he has been compared, at different times, to nearly every great +commander in history is perhaps the best proof that he was like none of +them. He was possessed of a moral and physical courage which was equal +to every emergency in which he was placed: calm amidst excitement, +patient under trials, never unduly elated by victory or depressed by +defeat. While he possessed a sensitive nature and a singularly tender +heart, yet he never allowed his sentiments to interfere with the stern +duties of the soldier. He knew better than to attempt to hew rocks with +a razor. He realized that paper bullets cannot be fired in warfare. He +felt that the hardest blows bring the quickest results; that more men +die from disease in sickly camps than from shot and shell in battle. + +His magnanimity to foes, his generosity to friends, will be talked of as +long as manly qualities are honored. [Applause.] + +You know after Vicksburg had succumbed to him he said in his order: "The +garrison will march out to-morrow. Instruct your commands to be quiet +and orderly as the prisoners pass by, and make no offensive remarks." +After Lee's surrender at Appomattox, when our batteries began to fire +triumphal salutes, he at once suppressed them, saying, in his order: +"The war is over; the rebels are again our countrymen; the best way to +celebrate the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the +field." [Applause.] After the war General Lee and his officers were +indicted in the civil courts of Virginia by directions of a President +who was endeavoring to make treason odious and succeeding in making +nothing so odious as himself. [Applause.] General Lee appealed to his +old antagonist for protection. He did not appeal to that heart in vain. +General Grant at once took up the cudgels in his defence, threatened to +resign his office if such officers were indicted while they continued +to obey their paroles, and such was the logic of his argument and the +force of his character that those indictments were soon after quashed. +So that he penned no idle platitude; he fashioned no stilted epigrams; +he spoke the earnest convictions of an honest heart when he said, "Let +us have peace." [Applause.] He never tired of giving unstinted praise to +worthy subordinates for the work they did. Like the chief artists who +weave the Gobelin tapestries, he was content to stand behind the cloth +and let those in front appear to be the chief contributors to the beauty +of the fabric. [Applause.] + +One of the most beautiful chapters in all history is that which records +the generous relations existing between him and Sherman, that great +soldier who for so many years was the honored head of this society, that +great chieftain whom men will always love to picture as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; whose field of military +operations covered nearly half a continent; whose orders always spoke +with the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depths +to mountain heights, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. +[Applause.] Their rivalry manifested itself only in one respect--the +endeavor of each to outdo the other in generosity. With hearts untouched +by jealousy, with souls too great for rivalry, each stood ready to +abandon the path of ambition when it became so narrow that two could not +tread it abreast. [Applause.] + +If there be one single word in all the wealth of the English language +which best describes the predominating trait of General Grant's +character, that word is "loyalty." [Applause.] Loyal to every great +cause and work he was engaged in; loyal to his friends; loyal to his +family; loyal to his country; loyal to his God. [Applause.] This +produced a reciprocal effect in all who came in contact with him. It was +one of the chief reasons why men became so loyally attached to him. It +is true that this trait so dominated his whole character that it led him +to make mistakes; it induced him to continue to stand by men who were no +longer worthy of his confidence; but after all, it was a trait so grand, +so noble, we do not stop to count the errors which resulted. +[Applause.] It showed him to be a man who had the courage to be just, to +stand between worthy men and their unworthy slanderers, and to let +kindly sentiments have a voice in an age in which the heart played so +small a part in public life. Many a public man has had hosts of +followers because they fattened on the patronage dispensed at his hands; +many a one has had troops of adherents because they were blind zealots +in a cause he represented, but perhaps no man but General Grant had so +many friends who loved him for his own sake; whose attachment +strengthened only with time; whose affection knew neither variableness, +nor shadow of turning; who stuck to him as closely as the toga to +Nessus, whether he was Captain, General, President, or simply private +citizen. [Great applause.] + +General Grant was essentially created for great emergencies; it was the +very magnitude of the task which called forth the powers which mastered +it. In ordinary matters he was an ordinary man. In momentous affairs he +towered as a giant. When he served in a company there was nothing in his +acts to distinguish him from the fellow-officers; but when he wielded +corps and armies the great qualities of the commander flashed forth and +his master strokes of genius placed him at once in the front rank of the +world's great captains. When he hauled wood from his little farm and +sold it in the streets of St. Louis there was nothing in his business or +financial capacity different from that of the small farmers about him; +but when, as President of the Republic, he found it his duty to puncture +the fallacy of the inflationists, to throttle by a veto the attempt of +unwise legislators to tamper with the American credit, he penned a State +paper so logical, so masterly, that it has ever since been the pride, +wonder, and admiration of every lover of an honest currency. [Applause.] +He was made for great things, not for little. He could collect for the +nation $15,000,000 from Great Britain in settlement of the Alabama +claims; he could not protect his own personal savings from the +miscreants who robbed him in Wall Street. + +But General Grant needs no eulogist. His name is indelibly engraved upon +the hearts of his countrymen. His services attest his greatness. He did +his duty and trusted to history for his meed of praise. The more +history discusses him, the more brilliant becomes the lustre of his +deeds. His record is like a torch; the more it is shaken, the brighter +it burns. His name will stand imperishable when epitaphs have vanished +utterly, and monuments and statues have crumbled into dust; but the +people of this great city, everywhere renowned for their deeds of +generosity, have covered themselves anew with glory in fashioning in +enduring bronze, in rearing in monumental rock that magnificent tribute +to his worth which was to-day unveiled in the presence of countless +thousands. As I gazed upon its graceful lines and colossal proportions I +was reminded of that child-like simplicity which was mingled with the +majestic grandeur of his nature. The memories clustering about it will +recall the heroic age of the Republic; it will point the path of loyalty +to children yet unborn; its mute eloquence will plead for equal +sacrifice, should war ever again threaten the Nation's life; generations +yet to come will pause to read the inscription which it bears, and the +voices of a grateful people will ascend from the consecrated spot on +which it stands, as incense rises from holy places, invoking blessings +upon the memory of him who had filled to the very full the largest +measure of human greatness and covered the earth with his renown. +[Applause.] + +An indescribably touching incident happened which will ever be memorable +and which never can be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed +it. Even at this late date I can scarcely trust my own feelings to +recall it. It was on Decoration Day in the City of New York, the last +one he ever saw on earth. That morning the members of the Grand Army of +the Republic, the veterans in that vicinity, arose earlier than was +their wont. They seemed to spend more time that morning in unfurling the +old battle flags, in burnishing the medals of honor which decorated +their breasts, for on that day they had determined to march by the house +of their dying commander to give him a last marching salute. In the +streets the columns were forming; inside the house on that bed, from +which he was never to rise again, lay the stricken chief. The hand which +had seized the surrendered swords of countless thousands could scarcely +return the pressure of the friendly grasp. The voice which had cheered +on to triumphant victory the legions of America's manhood, could no +longer call for the cooling draught which slaked the thirst of a fevered +tongue; and prostrate on that bed of anguish lay the form which in the +New World had ridden at the head of the conquering column, which in the +Old World had been deemed worthy to stand with head covered and feet +sandaled in the presence of princes, kings, and emperors. Now his ear +caught the sound of martial music. Bands were playing the same strains +which had mingled with the echoes of his guns at Vicksburg, the same +quick-steps to which his men had sped in hot haste in pursuit of Lee +through Virginia. And then came the heavy, measured steps of moving +columns, a step which can be acquired only by years of service in the +field. He recognized it all now. It was the tread of his old veterans. +With his little remaining strength he arose and dragged himself to the +window. As he gazed upon those battle-flags dipping to him in salute, +those precious standards bullet-riddled, battle-stained, but remnants of +their former selves, with scarcely enough left of them on which to print +the names of the battles they had seen, his eyes once more kindled with +the flames which had lighted them at Shiloh, on the heights of +Chattanooga, amid the glories of Appomattox; and as those war-scarred +veterans looked with uncovered heads and upturned faces for the last +time upon the pallid features of their old chief, cheeks which had been +bronzed by Southern suns and begrimed with powder, were bathed in the +tears of a manly grief. Soon they saw rising the hand which had so often +pointed out to them the path of victory. He raised it slowly and +painfully to his head in recognition of their salutations. The column +had passed, the hand fell heavily by his side. It was his last military +salute. [Long continued applause and cheers.] + + + + +NOAH PORTER + + +TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale College, at the + seventy-second anniversary banquet of the New England Society in + the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The President of the + Society, William Borden, occupied the chair. This speech of + President Porter followed a speech of President Eliot of Harvard. + The two Presidents spoke in response to the toast: "Harvard and + Yale, the two elder sisters among the educational institutions of + New England, where generous rivalry has ever promoted patriotism + and learning. Their children have, in peace and war, in life and + death, deserved well of the Republic. Smile, Heaven, upon this fair + conjunction."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--The +somewhat miscellaneous character of the sentiment which has called me up +embarrasses me not a little as to which of the points I should select as +the subject of my remarks. I am still more embarrassed by the +introduction of additional topics on the part of my friend, the +President of Harvard College. The president knows that it is our custom +to meet once a year, and discuss all the matters to which he has +referred, as often as we meet. [Laughter.] He knows also that he was +providentially prevented, by a very happy occurrence to himself, from +attending our last College Convention; and in consequence of his +absence, for which we all excused and congratulated him, the meeting was +more than usually tame. [Laughter.] Now, I find that all the sentiments +which he had been gathering for a year have been precipitated upon me on +this occasion. [Laughter.] I rejoice that His Excellency, the President +of the United States, and the distinguished Secretary of State +[Rutherford B. Hayes and William M. Evarts], are between us. [Laughter.] +For here is a special occasion for the application of the policy of +peace. [Laughter.] I therefore reserve what few remarks I shall make +upon this special theme for a moment later. + +The first point in the sentiment proposed recognizes New England as the +mother of two colleges. I think we should do well also to call to mind, +especially under the circumstances by which we are surrounded this +evening, that New England was not merely the mother of two colleges +which have had some influence in this land, but that New England, with +all its glory and its achievements, was, in a certain sense, the +creation of a college. It would be easy to show that had it not been for +the existence of one or two rather inferior colleges of the University +of Cambridge in England, there never would have been a New England. In +these colleges were gathered and trained not a few of the great leaders +of opinion under whose influence the father of New England became a +great political power in the mother country. It is not to the Pilgrim +Fathers alone who landed at Plymouth on December 22, 1620, that New +England owes its characteristic principles and its splendid renown, but +it is also to the leaders of the great Puritan party in England, who +reinforced that immigration by the subsequent higher and nobler life of +the planters of Massachusetts Bay, conspicuous among whom was the +distinguished and ever-to-be-honored Governor Winthrop. [Applause.] + +It was from these colleges that so many strong-hearted young men went +forth into political public life in England to act the scholar in +politics, and who, as scholars in politics, enunciated those new +principles and new theories of government which made Old England +glorious for a time, and which made New England the power for good which +she afterward became, first at her home in the old States, and in all +their extension westward even to this hour. These scholars sought +emphatically a reform of the civil service in England. That was their +mission. They vindicated their principles upon the scaffold and their +rights upon the field of battle at home, and they transmitted that +spirit to the emigrants who came out from among them before the great +rebellion reached its great crisis and finished its memorable history. + +While, then, we honor the universities of which New England has been +the mother, let us remember that New England owes its being to a +university. In remembering this, we shall be prepared to follow in the +steps of our fathers, and to be mindful of what we ourselves owe to our +own institutions of learning. + +In respect to the rivalry between Yale and Harvard, which was noticed in +the sentiment to which I speak, and in reply to the suggestions which +have been offered by the President of Harvard, I will venture a single +remark. You, sir, who are learned in our New England history, are not +unfamiliar with the saying which was once somewhat current, that when a +man was found in Boston, in the earlier generations, who was a little +too bad to live with, they sent him to Rhode Island [Laughter.]; and +when they found a man who was a little too good to be a comfortable +neighbor, they sent him to Connecticut. [Laughter.] The remainder--the +men of average respectability and worth--were allowed to remain on the +shores of Massachusetts Bay and in Boston. And so it happened that these +people of average goodness, from constantly looking each other in the +face, contracted the habit of always praising one another with especial +emphasis; and the habit has not been altogether outgrown. [Laughter.] +The people of Rhode Island, being such as I have described, found it +necessary to have certain principles of toleration to suit their +peculiar condition, which they denominated the principles of soul +liberty. + +The people of Connecticut, being so very good, could not allow their +goodness to remain at home, and they very soon proceeded on a missionary +errand westward toward the city of New York, and in due time captured +the harbor and the infant city, and the great river of the North. In +this way, New York fell into the hands of those super-excellent +Connecticut Yankees, and with that began the stream of emigration +westward which has made our country what it is. [Laughter and applause.] +Perhaps this piece of history is about as good an explanation of the +jealousy of Yale toward Harvard as the interpretation which has been +given by the President of that honorable university--that Yale College +was founded because of the discontent of the self-righteous Puritans of +Connecticut with the religious opinions of the ruling spirits at +Harvard. [Laughter.] That piece of information has been amply discussed +and exploded by an able critic, and I will not repeat the arguments +here. + +As to any present rivalry which may exist between those institutions, we +disclaim it altogether. We know no jealousy of Harvard College now. We +acknowledge no rivalry except in the great enterprise of training +upright and intelligent and good-principled men for the service and the +glory of our common land. [Applause, and cries of "Hear! Hear!"] But +there is one means to this end you may be sure we shall always insist +upon--and that is the principle which we have received from our fathers, +that manhood and character are better than knowledge. The training which +our country demands is that which we intend always to give; and it is a +training in manhood of intelligence, in manhood of character, and in a +constant, ever-present faith in the providence and goodness of the +living God. [Applause.] + +I deem it proper here to remind you, that Yale College was foremost +among the American colleges in cherishing the taste for physical +science, and that these sciences, in all their forms, have received from +us the most liberal attention and care. If any of you doubt this, we +would like to show you our museum, with its collections, which represent +all that the most recent explorations have been able to gather. In these +well-ordered collections you would find as satisfactory an exhibition of +results as you could ask for. [Applause.] You need not fear, however, +that, because we believe in science, we have learned any more to +disbelieve in the living God. As we stand in the midst of one of the +halls of our splendid museum, and see arrayed before us all the forms of +vertebrate life, from man down to the lowest type, and see how one and +the other suggests the progress--the evolution, if you please--during we +care not how many centuries of advancing life; the more closely we study +these indications, the more distinctly do we see lines of thought, of +intelligence, and goodness reflected from one structure to another, and +all declaring that a divine thought and love has ordered each and all. +[Applause.] Hence we find no inconsistency between the teachings of this +museum on the one corner and the teachings of the college chapel on the +other. [Applause.] We therefore commit ourselves, in the presence of all +these sons of New England, whether they live in this city of their +habitation and their glory, or whether they are residents of other +cities and States of the North and Northwest, to the solemn declaration, +that we esteem it to be our duty to train our pupils on the one hand in +enlightened science, and on the other in the living power of the +Christian faith. [Applause.] We are certainly not sectarian. It is +enough that I say that we aim to be enlightened Christian believers, and +with those hopes and those aspirations we trust that the next generation +of men whom we shall educate will do their part in upholding this +country in fidelity to its obligations of duty, in fidelity to every +form of integrity, in generous self-sacrifice on the field of contest, +if it be required, and in Christian sympathy with the toleration and +forbearance which should come after the fight. [Applause.] + + + + +HENRY CODMAN POTTER + + +THE CHURCH + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of + New York, at the seventy-third annual dinner of the New England + Society in the City of New York, December 23, 1878. Daniel F. + Appleton presided and proposed the toast, "The Church--a fountain + of charity and good works, which is not established, but + establishes itself, by God's blessing, in men's hearts."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I take up the strain where the distinguished +Senator from Maine [James G. Blaine] has dropped it. I would fain be +with him one of those who should see a typical New England dinner spread +upon a table at which Miles Standish and John Alden sat, and upon which +should be spread viands of which John Alden and Miles Standish and the +rest, two hundred and seventy-three years ago, partook. I would fain see +something more, or rather I would fain hear something more--and that is, +the sentiments of those who gathered about that table, and the measure +in which those sentiments accorded with the sentiments of those who sit +at these tables to-night. [Applause.] Why, Mr. President, the viands of +which John Alden and Miles Standish partook did not differ more +radically from the splendor of this banquet than did the sentiments with +which the Puritans came to these shores differ from the sentiments of +the men who gather in this room to-night. If it had happened to them as +it happened to a distinguished company in New England, where an eminent +New England divine was called upon to lead in prayer, their feelings +would have been as little wounded as those against whom he offered up +his petition; or rather, if I were here to-night to denounce their +sentiments as to religious toleration, in which they did not believe; +their sentiments as to the separation of the Church from the State, in +which they did not believe any more than they believed in religious +toleration; their sentiments as to Democracy, in which they did not +believe any more than they believed in religious toleration--those of us +who are here and who do believe in these things would be as little +wounded as the company to which I have referred. The distinguished +divine to whom I have alluded was called upon to offer prayer, some +fifty years ago, in a mixed company, when, in accordance with the custom +of the times, he included in his petition to the Almighty a large +measure of anathema, as "We beseech Thee, O Lord! to overwhelm the +tyrant! We beseech Thee to overwhelm and to pull down the oppressor! We +beseech Thee to overwhelm and pull down the Papist!" And then opening +his eyes, and seeing that a Roman Catholic archbishop and his secretary +were present, he saw he must change the current of his petitions if he +would be courteous to his audience, and said vehemently, "We beseech +Thee, O Lord! we beseech Thee--we beseech Thee--we beseech Thee to pull +down and overwhelm the Hottentot!" Said some one to him when the prayer +was over, "My dear brother, why were you so hard upon the Hottentot?" +"Well," said he, "the fact is, when I opened my eyes and looked around, +between the paragraphs in the prayer, at the assembled guests, I found +that the Hottentots were the only people who had not some friends among +the company." [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen of the New England Society, if I were to denounce the views of +the Puritans to-night, they would be like the Hottentots. [Laughter.] +Nay more, if one of their number were to come into this banqueting hall +and sit down at this splendid feast, so unlike what he had been wont to +see, and were to expound his views as to constitutional liberty and as +to religious toleration, or as to the relations of the Church to the +State, I am very much afraid that you and I would be tempted to answer +him as an American answered an English traveller in a railway-carriage +in Belgium. Said this Englishman, whom I happened to meet in Brussels, +and who recognized me as an American citizen: "Your countrymen have a +very strange conception of the English tongue: I never heard any people +who speak the English language in such an odd way as the Americans do." +"What do you mean?" I said; "I supposed that in the American States the +educated and cultivated people spoke the English tongue with the utmost +propriety, with the same accuracy and the same classical refinement as +yours." He replied: "I was travelling hither, and found sitting opposite +an intelligent gentleman, who turned out to be an American. I went on to +explain to him my views as to the late unpleasantness in America. I told +him how profoundly I deplored the results of the civil war. That I +believed the interests of good government would have been better +advanced if the South, rather than the North, had triumphed. I showed +him at great length how, if the South had succeeded, you would have been +able to have laid in that land, first, the foundations of an +aristocracy, and then from that would have grown a monarchy; how by the +planters you would have got a noble class, and out of that class you +would have got a king; and after I had drawn this picture I showed to +him what would have been the great and glorious result; and what do you +think was his reply to these views? He turned round, looked me coolly in +the face, and said, 'Why, what a blundering old cuss you are!'" [Great +laughter.] Gentlemen, if one of our New England ancestors were here +to-night, expounding his views to us, I am very much afraid that you and +I would be tempted to turn round and say: "Why, what a blundering old +cuss you are!" [Renewed laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, though all this is true, the seeds of our liberty, +our toleration, our free institutions, our "Church, not established by +law, but establishing itself in the hearts of men," were all in the +simple and single devotion of the truth so far as it was revealed to +them, which was the supreme characteristic of our New England +forefathers. With them religion and the Church meant supremely personal +religion, and obedience to the personal conscience. It meant truth and +righteousness, obedience and purity, reverence and intelligence in the +family, in the shop, in the field, and on the bench. It meant compassion +and charity toward the savages among whom they found themselves, and +good works as the daily outcome of a faith which, if stern, was +steadfast and undaunted. + +And so, Mr. President, however the sentiments and opinions of our +ancestors may seem to have differed from ours, those New England +ancestors did believe in a church that included and incarnated those +ideas of charity and love and brotherhood to which you have referred; +and if, to-day, the Church of New York, whatever name it may bear, is to +be maintained, as one of your distinguished guests has said, not for +ornament but for use, it is because the hard, practical, and yet, when +the occasion demanded, large-minded and open-hearted spirit of the New +England ancestors shall be in it. [Applause.] Said an English swell +footman, with his calves nearly as large as his waist, having been +called upon by the lady of the house to carry a coal-scuttle from the +cellar to the second story, "Madam, ham I for use, or ham I for +hornament?" [Laughter.] + +I believe it to be the mind of the men of New England ancestry who live +in New York to-day, that the Church, if it is to exist here, shall exist +for use, and not for ornament; that it shall exist to make our streets +cleaner, to make our tenement-houses better built and better drained and +better ventilated; to respect the rights of the poor man in regard to +fresh air and light, as well as the rights of the rich man. And in order +that it shall do these things, and that the Church of New York shall +exist not for ornament but for use, I, as one of the descendants of New +England ancestors, ask no better thing for it than that it shall have, +not only among those who fill its pulpits, men of New England ancestry, +but also among those who sit in its pews men of New England brains and +New England sympathies, and New England catholic generosity! [Continued +applause.] + + + + +ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR + + +VIRGINIA'S PART IN AMERICAN HISTORY + + [Speech of Roger A. Pryor at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, January 15, + 1889. The President, Martin W. Cooke, introduced Justice Pryor in + these words: "The next in order is the benediction. There is no + poetical sentiment accompanying this toast, but if you will bear + with me I promise you learning, poetry, and eloquence. To that end + I call upon General Roger A. Pryor."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I don't know what I am to respond to. I have no +text; I have no topic. What am I to talk about? I am not only unlike +other gentlemen, taken by surprise, but I am absolutely without a +subject, and what am I to say? I don't know but that, as His Excellency +the Governor of this Imperial State expatiated, eloquently and justly, +upon the achievements and glories of New York, it might be pardoned me +in saying something of my own native State. + +What has Virginia done for our common country? What names has she +contributed to your historic roll? She has given you George Washington. +[Applause.] She has given you Patrick Henry, who first sounded the +signal of revolt against Great Britain. She has given you John Marshall, +who so profoundly construed the Constitution formed by Madison and +Hamilton. She has given you Thomas Jefferson, the author of the +Declaration of Independence. [Applause.] She has given you Madison and +Monroe. Where is there such a galaxy of great men known to history? You +talk of the age of Pericles and of Augustus, but remember, gentlemen, +that at that day Virginia had a population of only one-half the +population of the city of Brooklyn to-day, and yet these are the men +that she then produced to illustrate the glory of Americans. + +And what has Virginia done for our Union? Because sometime a rebel, as I +was, I say now that it is _my_ Union. [Applause.] As I have already said +it was a Virginian--Patrick Henry--kinsman, by the way, of Lord +Brougham, kinsman of Robertson, the historian, not a plebeian as some +would represent, and one nominated by George Washington to be Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States, which nomination was carried to +him by Light-Horse Harry Lee--I mention that because there is a notion +that Patrick Henry was no lawyer. He was a consummate lawyer, else +George Washington would never have proposed him to be Chief Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States; and he was a reading man, too, a +scholar, deeply learned, and he printed at his own expense Soame Jenyns' +work upon the internal evidence of Christianity. He was a profound +student, not of many books, but of a few books and of human nature. He +first challenged Great Britain by his resolutions against the Stamp act +in 1765, and then it was that Virginia, apropos of what you said to-day +in your admirable discourse--I address myself to Judge Cooley--Virginia +was the first free and independent people on earth that formulated a +written complete Constitution. I affirm that the Constitution of +Virginia in 1776 was the first written Constitution known to history +adopted by the people. And the frontispiece and the fundamental +principle of that Constitution, was the Bill of Rights--that Bill of +Rights, drawn by George Mason, you, gentlemen, in your Constitution of +New York, from your first Constitution to your last, have adopted. So +when you expatiate upon the merits of written-over prescriptive +constitutions, and with such eloquence and convincing force, I beg you +to remember that this now forlorn and bereaved Commonwealth was the +first people on earth that ever promulgated a formal, complete, written +Constitution, dividing the functions of government in separate +departments and reposing it for its authority upon the will of the +people. Jefferson gave you the Declaration of Independence in pursuance +of a resolution adopted by the Legislature of Virginia, instructing the +delegates in the Continental Congress to propose a Declaration of +Independence. The first suggestion of your more perfect union came from +the Legislature of Virginia in January, 1786, and your Federal +Constitution is construed upon the lines laid down by Edmund Randolph, +and proposed in the convention as the basis of the Constitution which +resulted in your now incomparable, as Mr. Gladstone says, incomparable +instrument of government. + +Furthermore, your great Northwest, your States of Ohio and Michigan, +whose jurisprudence Judge Cooley so signally illustrates, Indiana and +others, to whom are you indebted that this vast and fertile and glorious +country is an integral part of our Union? You are indebted to a +Virginian, to Patrick Henry, then the Governor of Virginia, for the +expedition to the Northwest headed by George Rogers Clark, as he was +called, the Hannibal of the New World, who with three hundred untrained +militia conquered for you that vast domain of the Northwest, which +Virginia, in her devotion to the Union gave, a free donation with +magnanimity surpassing that of Lear. She divided her possession with her +associates, and let me add, it has not been requited with the +ingratitude of Lear's daughters, for the disposition and the policy of +this Government toward Virginia at the end of the war, and toward the +people of the South has been characterized by a magnanimity and clemency +unparalleled in the history of the world. [Applause.] + +You must remember that the war commenced, as you gentlemen believe, +without provocation; we believe otherwise. This war so commenced, +costing a million of lives and countless millions of treasure, has not +been expiated by one drop of retributive blood. [Applause.] You must +further remember, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that at the formation of +the Constitution every distinguished Virginian was hostile to slavery +and advocated its abolition. [Applause.] Patrick Henry, George +Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, all without exception, were +the enemies of slavery and desired its extinction, and why it was not +then abolished I leave you gentlemen to determine by consulting history; +it was certainly not the fault of Virginia. + +Now will you pardon me, I have been led into these remarks because you +did not give me a text, and I had to extemporize one, or rather adopt +the suggestion of his Excellency, the Governor of this State. Now, here +we are asked, why did Virginia go into the War of Secession? Let me tell +you as one who was personally cognizant of the events. Twice Virginia in +her convention voted against the ordinance of secession, the deliberate +will of the people of Virginia, expressed under circumstances which did +not coerce their opinion, was that it was her interest and her duty to +remain loyal to the Union, but meanwhile a blow was struck at Sumter, +war, actual war, occurred. What then was the course of Virginia? She +said to herself, I know I am to be the Flanders of this conflict; I know +that my fields are to be ravaged and my sons to be slaughtered and my +homes to be desolated, but war has occurred, the South is my sister and +I will go with her. It was a magnanimous and it was a disinterested +resolution, and if her fault was grievous, grievously hath she answered +it. When this war occurred, she, beyond dispute, occupied the primacy in +the Union; she is to-day the Niobe of nations, veiled and weeping the +loss of her sons, her property confiscated and her homes in ashes. +Perhaps, you may say, the punishment is not disproportionate to her +trespass, but nevertheless there she is, and I say for her, that +Virginia is loyal to the Union. [Applause.] And never more, mark what I +say, never more will you see from Virginia any intimations of hostility +to the Union; she has weighed the alternative of success, and she sees +now, every sensible man in the South sees, that the greatest calamity +that could have befallen the South would have been the ascendency of +this ill-starred Confederacy. [Applause.] Because that Confederacy +carried to the utmost extreme, to the _reductio ad absurdum_, the right +of secession, carried in its bosom the seed of its own destruction, and +even in the progress of war, welded together as we were under pressure, +some were so recalcitrant, that the president of the Confederacy +recommended the suspension of the _habeas corpus_ act for the +suppression of disaffection, and let me say, rebels as we were, so true +were we to the traditions of Anglo-Saxon liberty that we never would +suspend for a moment that sacred sanction of personal freedom. +[Applause.] And, moreover, we see now, you will be surprised at what I +say, I voice the sentiment of every reflecting man in Virginia, and +woman too. We see now that slavery was a material and a moral evil, and +we exult that the black man is emancipated and stands as our equal under +the law. + +Why didn't we see it before? You know the story of the view of the +opposite sides of the shield. We had been educated under slavery, our +preachers had taught us that it had the sanction of the Divine +Scripture, we never saw any other aspect of the question, but now since +it is changed, we look at it and we perceive that slavery is not only +incompatible with the moral principles of government, but is hostile to +the material interests of the country, and I repeat that to-day, if the +people of the South were permitted to vote upon the question to +re-establish African slavery, there would not be a hundred votes in the +entire South, in favor of reshackling the limbs of the liberated negro. + +Gentlemen, that is the attitude of old Virginia, the Old Dominion, as we +proudly call her, and as such I am sure you will pardon her, because +when she was in the Union she never failed you in any emergency; when +you were menaced by the invasion of the British, it was Winfield Scott +and the Cockade Corps of Virginia that repelled the enemy from your +shores. Old Virginia has always been true to the Union, if you blot from +her history that recent episode which I say you have blotted generously +from your memory, and she from hers; we stand now with you, and I have +personal testimony of the fact, because coming among you, not only an +utter stranger, and having against me natural prejudices as a rebel, +nevertheless, I have been received in the State of New York with nothing +but courtesy and kindness. Mr. Benjamin, in England, is no parallel +instance, because he went among a people who sympathized with the +Rebellion, and who, if they had dared to strike would have taken sides +with the Rebellion, but I came here to those who naturally would have +repelled me, but instead of rejecting me, they have kindly taken me to +the bosom of their hospitalities and have rewarded me infinitely beyond +my merits; and to them, and especially to my brother lawyers of the +State of New York, I feel the profoundest gratitude, in attestation of +which I trust that when I go, my bones may rest under the green sod of +the Imperial State. [Applause.] + + + + +JOSIAH QUINCY + + +WELCOME TO DICKENS + + [Speech of Josiah Quincy, Jr., at the banquet given by the "Young + Men of Boston" at Boston, Mass., February 1, 1842, to Charles + Dickens, upon his first visit to America. Mr. Quincy was the + President of the evening. About two hundred gentlemen sat at the + tables, the brilliant company including George Bancroft, Richard H. + Dana, Sr., Richard H. Dana, Jr., Washington Allston, the painter, + Oliver Wendell Holmes, George S. Hillard, Josiah Quincy, President + of Harvard College, the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the + city, and Thomas C. Grattan, the British Consul.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--The occasion that calls us together is almost +unprecedented in the annals of literature. A young man has crossed the +ocean, with no hereditary title, no military laurels, no princely +fortune, and yet his approach is hailed with pleasure by every age and +condition, and on his arrival he is welcomed as a long-known and highly +valued friend. How shall we account for this reception? Must we not at +the first glance conclude with Falstaff, "If the rascal have not given +me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged: it could not be +else--I have drunk medicines." + +But when reflection leads us to the causes of this universal sentiment, +we cannot but be struck by the power which mind exercises over mind, +even while we are individually separated by time, space, and other +conditions of our present being. Why should we not welcome him as a +friend? Have we not walked with him in every scene of varied life? Have +we not together investigated, with Mr. Pickwick, the theory of +Tittlebats? Have we not ridden together to the "Markis of Granby" with +old Weller on the box, and his son Samivel on the dickey? Have we not +been rook-shooting with Mr. Winkle, and courting with Mr. Tupman? Have +we not played cribbage with "the Marchioness," and quaffed the rosy with +Dick Swiveller? Tell us not of animal magnetism! We, and thousands of +our countrymen, have for years been eating and talking, riding and +walking, dancing and sliding, drinking and sleeping, with our +distinguished guest, and he never knew of the existence of one of us. Is +it wonderful that we are delighted to see him, and to return in a +measure his unbounded hospitalities? Boz a stranger! Well may we again +exclaim, with Sir John Falstaff, "D'ye think we didn't know ye?--We knew +ye as well as Him that made ye." + +But a jovial fellow is not always the dearest friend; and, although the +pleasure of his society would always recommend the progenitor of Dick +Swiveller, "the perpetual grand of the glorious Appollers," in a scene +like this, yet the respect of grave doctors and of fair ladies proves +that there are higher qualities than those of a pleasant companion to +recommend and attach them to our distinguished guest. What is the charm +that unites so many suffrages? It is that in the lightest hours, and in +the most degraded scenes which he has portrayed, there has been a +reforming object and a moral tone, not formally thrust into the canvas, +but infused into the spirit of the picture, with those natural touches +whose contemplation never tires. + +With what a power of delineation have the abuses of his institutions +been portrayed! How have the poor-house, the jail, the police courts of +justice, passed before his magic mirror, and displayed to us the petty +tyranny of the low-minded official, from the magnificent Mr. Bumble, and +the hard-hearted Mr. Roker, to the authoritative Justice Fang, the +positive Judge Starleigh! And as we contemplate them, how strongly have +we realized the time-worn evils of some of the systems they revealed to +our eyesight, sharpened to detect the deficiencies and malpractices +under our own. + +The genius of chivalry, which had walked with such power among men, was +exorcised by the pen of Cervantes. He did but clothe it with the name +and images of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful Squire, and +ridicule destroyed what argument could not reach. + +This power belongs in an eminent degree to some of the personifications +of our guest. A short time ago it was discovered that a petty tyrant had +abused the children who had been committed to his care. No long and +elaborate discussion was needed to arouse the public mind. He was +pronounced a perfect Squeers, and eloquence could go no further. Happy +is he who can add a pleasure to the hours of childhood, but far happier +he who, by fixing the attention of the world on their secret sufferings, +can protect or deliver them from their power. + +But it is not only as a portrayer of public wrongs that we are indebted +to our friend. What reflecting mind can contemplate some of those +characters without being made more kind-hearted and charitable? Descend +with him into the very sink of vice--contemplate the mistress of a +robber--the victim of a murderer--disgraced without--polluted +within--and yet when, in better moments, her natural kindness breaks +through the cloud, then she tells you that no word of counsel, no tone +of moral teaching, ever fell upon her ear. When she looks forward from a +life of misery to a death by suicide, you cannot but feel that there is +no condition so degraded as not to be visited by gleams of a higher +nature, and rejoice that He alone will judge the sin who knows also the +temptation. Again, how strongly are the happiness of virtue and the +misery of vice contrasted. The morning scene of Sir Mulberry Hawk and +his pupil brings out in strong relief the night scene of Kit Nubbles and +his mother. The one in affluence and splendor, trying to find an easier +position for his aching head, surrounded with means and trophies of +debauchery, and thinking "there would be nothing so snug and comfortable +as to die at once." The other in the poorest room, earning a precarious +subsistence by her labors at the wash-tub--ugly, and ignorant, and +vulgar, surrounded by poverty, with one child in the cradle, and the +other in the clothes-basket, "whose great round eyes emphatically +declared that he never meant to go to sleep any more, and thus opened a +cheerful prospect to his relations and friends"--and yet in this +situation, with only the comfort that cleanliness and order could +impart, kindness of heart and the determination to be talkative and +agreeable throws a halo round the scene, and as we contemplate it we +cannot but feel that Kit Nubbles attained to the summit of philosophy, +when he discovered "there was nothing in the way in which he was made +that called upon him to be a snivelling, solemn, whispering +chap--sneaking about as if he couldn't help it, and expressing himself +in a most unpleasant snuffle--but that it was as natural for him to +laugh as it was for a sheep to bleat, a pig to grunt, or a bird to +sing." + +Or take another example, when wealth is attained, though by different +means and for different purposes. Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride are +industrious and successful; like the vulture, they are ever soaring over +the field that they may pounce on the weak and unprotected. Their +constant employment is grinding the poor and preying upon the rich. What +is the result? Their homes are cold and cheerless--the blessing of him +that is ready to perish comes not to them, and they live in wretchedness +to die in misery. What a contrast have we in the glorious old +twins--brother Charles and brother Ned. They have never been to school, +they eat with their knives (as the Yankees are said to do), and yet what +an elucidation do they present of the truth that it is better to give +than to receive! They acquire their wealth in the honorable pursuits of +business. They expend it to promote the happiness of every one within +their sphere, and their cheerful days and tranquil nights show that +wealth is a blessing or a curse, as it ministers to the higher or lower +propensities of our nature. + + "He that hath light within his own clear breast, + May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day; + But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon." + +Such men are powerful preachers of the truth that universal benevolence +is the true panacea of life; and, although it was a pleasant fiction of +brother Charles, "that Tim Linkinwater was born a hundred and fifty +years old, and was gradually coming down to five and twenty," yet he who +habitually cultivates such a sentiment will, as years roll by, attain +more and more to the spirit of a little child; and the hour will come +when that principle shall conduct the possessor to immortal happiness +and eternal youth. + +If, then, our guest is called upon to state what are + + "The drugs, the charms, + The conjuration and the mighty magic, + He's won our daughters with," + +well might he reply, that in endeavoring to relieve the oppressed, to +elevate the poor, and to instruct and edify those of a happier +condition, he had only held "the mirror up to Nature. To show virtue her +own form--scorn her own image." That "this only was the witchcraft he +had used;" and, did he need proof of this, there are many fair girls on +both sides of the water who, though they might not repeat the whole of +Desdemona's speech to a married man, yet could each tell him, + + "That if he had a friend that loved her, + He should but teach him how to tell _his stories_, + And that would win her." + +I would, gentlemen, it were in my power to present, as on the mirror in +the Arabian tale, the various scenes in our extended country, where the +master-mind of our guest is at this moment acting. In the empty +school-room, the boy at his evening task has dropped his grammar, that +he may roam with Oliver or Nell. The traveller has forgotten the fumes +of the crowded steamboat, and is far off with our guest, among the green +valleys and hoary hills of old England. The trapper, beyond the Rocky +Mountains, has left his lonely tent, and is unroofing the houses in +London with the more than Mephistopheles at my elbow. And, perhaps, in +some well-lighted hall, the unbidden tear steals from the father's eye, +as the exquisite sketch of the poor schoolmaster and his little scholar +brings back the form of that gifted boy, whose "little hand" worked its +wonders under his guidance, and who, in the dawning of intellect and +warm affections, was summoned from the school-room and the play-ground +forever. Or to some bereaved mother the tender sympathies and womanly +devotion, the touching purity of little Nell, may call up the form where +dwelt that harmonious soul, which uniting in itself God's best gifts, +for a short space shed its celestial light upon her household, and then +vanishing, "turned all hope into memory." + +But it is not to scenes like these that I would now recall you. I would +that my voice could reach the ear of every admirer of our guest +throughout the land, that with us they might welcome him, on this, his +first public appearance to our shores. Like the rushing of many waters, +the response would come to us from the bleak hills of Canada, from the +savannas of the South, from the prairies of the West, uniting in an +"earthquake voice" in the cheers with which we welcome Charles Dickens +to this new world. + + + + +ANDREW V. V. RAYMOND + + +THE DUTCH AS ENEMIES + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Andrew V. V. Raymond at the thirteenth annual + dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 12, 1898. The + President, John W. Vrooman, said: "I must now make good a promise, + and permit me to illustrate it by a brief story. A minister about + to perform the last rites for a dying man, a resident of Kentucky, + said to him with solemnity that he hoped he was ready for a better + land. The man instantly rallied and cried out, 'Look here, Mr. + Minister, there ain't no better land than Kentucky!' To secure the + attendance of our genial and eloquent College President I made a + promise to him to state publicly at this time that there is no + better college in the world than Union College; that there is no + better president in the world than the president of old Union; and + I may add that there is no better man than my valued friend, + President Andrew V. V. Raymond, of Union College, who will respond + to the toast: 'The Dutch as Enemies.--Did a person but know the + value of an enemy he would purchase him with fine gold.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Ladies--to whom now, as always, I look up for +inspiration--and gentlemen of the Holland Society, when one has been +rocked in a Dutch cradle, and baptized with a Dutch name and caressed +with a Dutch slipper, and nursed on Dutch history, and fed on Dutch +theology, he is open to accept an invitation from the Holland Society. +It is now four years since I had the pleasure of speaking my mind freely +about the Dutch, and in the meantime so much mind--or is it only +speech--has accumulated that the present opportunity comes very much +like a merciful interposition of Providence on my behalf. During these +years my residence has been changed, for whereas I used to live in +Albany now I live in Schenectady, which is like moving from The Hague to +Leyden, or in other words, going a little farther into the heart of +Dutchdom, for nowhere else is Dutch spelled with a larger D than in the +city of my residence to-day, with Lisha's Kill on one side, and +Rotterdam on another, and Amsterdam on the third, and a real dyke on the +fourth, to say nothing of the canal. + +You do not remember that speech of mine four years ago for you did not +hear it. That was not my fault, however, but your misfortune, of course. +You did not hear it because you were not here. You were asleep in your +own beds, of course, where Dutchmen always go when they are sleepy, +which is perhaps the principal reason why they are not caught napping in +business hours. Unfortunately, however, that speech was printed in full, +or I might repeat it now. One learns from such little experiences what +not to do the next time. But if you do not remember the speech, I do--at +least the subject--which was "The Dutch as Neighbors," and it has seemed +wise to get as far as possible from that subject to-night lest I might +be tempted to plagiarize, and so I propose to talk for a moment only +about "The Dutch as Enemies." + +I do not like the first suggestion of this subject any more than do you. +For to think of a man as an enemy is to think ill of him, and to +intimate that the Dutchman was not and is not perfect is to intimate +something which no one here will believe, and which no one certainly +came to hear. But as a matter of fact, gentlemen, no one can be perfect +without being an enemy any more than he can be perfect without being a +friend. The two things are complementary; the one is the reverse side of +the other. Everything in this universe, except a shadow, has two +sides--unless, perhaps, it may be a political machine whose +one-sidedness is so proverbial as to suggest that it also is a thing +wholly of darkness caused by someone standing in the way of the light. +The Dutchman, however, is not a shadow of anything or of anybody. You +can walk around him, and when you do that you find that he has not only +a kindly face and a warm hand, but something called backbone, and it is +that of which I am to speak to-night, for it suggests about all that I +mean by the Dutchman as an enemy. + +Some people are enemies, or become enemies, because of their spleen; +others because of their total depravity; and others still because they +persist in standing upright when someone wants them to lie down and be +stepped on. That is the meaning of backbone, in this world of human +strife, and if, from time to time, it has made an enemy of the +peace-loving Dutchman, it has been the kind of enmity that has gathered +to itself not a little gratitude, for after all it is the kind of enmity +that has made this world more tolerable as a place of temporary abode. If +no one opposes tyrants and thieves and heretics and franchise-grabbers, +city lots fall rapidly in price. It is the Dutchman who keeps up the real +estate market. When I have suggested that it is because of his opposition +that he is regarded as an enemy, I have come to the heart of all that + I propose to say to-night. As a matter of fact, the Dutchman has never +been very aggressive. He may not be enterprising, but his powers of +resistance are superb, and as this world wags it is often better to hold +fast than it is to be fast. + +If the Dutchman has not been aggressive, he has certainly been +steadfast. He has never become an enemy willingly, but always under +compulsion; willing to let other people alone if they will let him +alone, and if they will not do that, then he makes them do it. Those +dykes tell the whole story. The Dutchman did not want the sea--only the +earth. But when the sea wanted him he took up arms against it. It was so +with those Roman legions. The Dutchman had no quarrel with Rome until +Rome wanted to extend its empire that way, and to acquire him and grow +fat from his tribute money. But the Dutchman had no need of an empire up +his way, and so kept his tribute money, and sent the eagles home hungry. +If Spain had not wanted to whip the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not +have whipped Spain. If England had not wanted a brush with the Dutch, +that broom would never have been nailed to Tromp's masthead. If Jameson +had not tried to raid the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not have +corralled Jameson. From first to last, his battles have been on the +defensive. He has always been ambitious to be a good friend with the +latch-string always on the outside, and has only become an enemy when +somebody has tried to get into his house through the window. That kind +of enmity hurts no one who does not deserve to be hurt. + +As this world goes, it is a great thing to say of a man that he never +gets down his gun until he sees another gun pointed his way, but it is a +greater thing to say that when he does see that other gun he does not +get under the bed, and that is what can be said of the Dutchman more +than of any other man in the world. He will not run into a fight; he +will not run away from a fight--in fact he has no reputation whatever as +a runner in any direction. But he can take a stand, and when the smoke +has cleared away there he is, still standing. He will not vote himself +an enemy, but if against his will he is voted an enemy, he accepts the +election, and discharges the duties of his office with painstaking +vigilance and care. Now, no one does that, and ever gets re-elected, no +matter what the office. Such is the world. And so the Dutchman has never +been voted an enemy twice by the same people. One term of his vigorous +administration of hostile forces is quite enough, and inasmuch as he +does not care for the office personally, and takes it only from a sense +of duty, he never seeks a re-election. He is always ready to step down +and out, and resume his old occupation of being a good neighbor and a +peace-loving citizen. + +That is perhaps his greatest virtue, and it all grows out of the fact +that his spirit of antagonism is located in his backbone, leaving his +heart free. He does not love strife and he does not hate the man with +whom he fights, and so, in all his battles, he has never been +vindictive, cruel, merciless. When he has had to fight he has fought +like a man and a Christian, for righteousness' sake, and not like a +demon to humiliate and to annihilate his foes. That makes the Dutchman a +rare kind of enemy, and that, more than anything else, I think, has +distinguished his enmity through all the years of his history. He has +gone far toward obeying the precept, "Love your enemies, and bless them +that curse you." If he has not been able to keep men from hating him, +and cursing him, and persecuting him, he has been able to keep himself +from hating and cursing and persecuting in return; and so, while he is +one of the greatest of military heroes in history, he is also one of the +greatest of moral heroes, and that is a greater honor, inasmuch as "He +that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." + +I do not claim all glory for the Dutch. It is not given to any one +nation to monopolize virtue. I only assert that the Dutchman's virtue is +of a peculiarly exalted type. The Englishman's virtue is just as real, +only another kind of virtue. If the Dutchman's spirit of hostility or of +antagonism resides in his backbone, the Englishman's spirit of hostility +or antagonism resides in his breastbone. That makes all the difference +between them. The Englishman fights, but he fights aggressively. And as +the heart lies back of the breastbone it never gets into his fighting. +He neither loves his enemies nor hates them. He simply loves England. If +it has been the mission of the Dutch to keep, it has been the mission of +the English to get, and in the getting he has had to do a world of +fighting. + +It comes with ill grace from us, however, to condemn the Englishman when +to-day Uncle Sam is standing on the Pacific Slope expanding his chest +toward Hawaii. But if we cannot condemn with good grace, there is no +need to praise English aggressiveness and acquisitiveness overmuch; what +we do need to praise and cultivate is the Dutch virtue of holding fast +our own. We have institutions and principles, rights and privileges, in +this country which are constantly attacked, and the need of America is +that the backbone which the Dutch have given to this country should +assert itself. Hospitality loses its virtue when it means the +destruction of the Lares and Penates of our own firesides. When a guest +insists on sitting at the head of the table, then it is time for the +host to become _hostis_. What America needs in this new year of grace is +not less hospitality toward friends but more hostility toward intruders. + +The spirit of this age is iconoclastic. It seeks to destroy sacred +memorials, hallowed associations, holy shrines, everything that tells of +the faith and the worship of a God-fearing past. The spirit of the age +is irreverent, destructive, faithless. Against this and all despoiling +forces we as patriots are called to arms. For what does America stand? +What are the truths that have gone into her blood and made her strong +and beautiful and dominant? The divineness of human rights, the claims +of men superior to the claims of property; popular government--not an +oligarchy; popular government--not a dictatorship; the sacredness of +the home, the holiness of the sanctuary, faith in humanity, faith in +God. These have made America, and without these there can be no America. +And because they are attacked, gentlemen, the need of the hour is a +patriotism that shall breathe forth the spirit of the people who above +all others in history have known how to keep their land, their honor, +and their faith. The mission of little Holland will never be ended so +long as America needs the inspiration of her glorious example, and the +devoted citizenship of her loving sons. + + + + +OPIE P. READ + + +MODERN FICTION + + [Speech of Opie P. Read at the eighty-second dinner of the Sunset + Club, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1895. The general subject of the + evening's discussion was "The Tendency and Influence of Modern + Fiction." The chairman of the evening, Arthur W. Underwood, said in + introducing Mr. Read, "It is very seldom that the Sunset Club + discharges its speakers in batteries of four, but something is due + to the speakers. Four barrels is a light load, I am told, for a + Kentucky colonel, and I have the pleasure of introducing the + original 'Kentucky Colonel,' Mr. Opie P. Read."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The drift of latter-day fiction +is largely shown by the department store. The selling of books by the +ton proves a return to the extremes of romanticism. People do not jostle +one another in their eagerness to secure even a semblance of the truth. +The taste of to-day is a strong appetite for sadism; and a novel to be +successful must bear the stamp of society rather than the approval of +the critic. The reader has gone slumming, and must be shocked in order +to be amused. Reviewers tell us of a revolt against realism, that we no +longer fawn upon a dull truth, that we crave gauze rather than +substance. In fact, realism was never a fad. Truth has never been +fashionable; no society takes up philosophy as an amusement. + +But after all, popular taste does not make a literature. Strength does +not meet with immediate recognition; originality is more often condemned +than praised. The intense book often dies with one reading, its story is +a wild pigeon of the mind, and sails away to be soon forgotten; but the +novel in which there is even one real character, one man of the soil, +remains with us as a friend. In the minds of thinking people, realism +cannot be supplanted. But by realism, I do not mean the commonplace +details of an uninteresting household, nor the hired man with mud on his +cowhide boots, nor the whining farmer who sits with his feet on the +kitchen-stove, but the glory that we find in nature and the grandeur +that we find in man, his bravery, his honor, his self-sacrifice, his +virtue. Realism does not mean the unattractive. A rose is as real as a +toad. And a realistic novel of the days of Cćsar would be worth more +than Plutarch's Lives. + +Every age sees a literary revolution, but out of that revolution there +may come no great work of art. The best fiction is the unconscious grace +of a cultivated mind, a catching of the quaint humor of men, a soft look +of mercy, a sympathetic tear. And this sort of a book may be neglected +for years, no busy critic may speak a word in its behalf, but there +comes a time when by the merest accident a great mind finds it and +flashes its genius back upon the cloud that has hidden it. + +Yes, there is a return to romanticism, if indeed there was ever a turn +from it. The well-told story has ever found admirers. To the world all +the stories have not been told. The stars show no age, and the sun was +as bright yesterday as it was the morning after creation. But a simple +story without character is not the highest form of fiction. It is a +story that may become a fad, if it be shocking enough, if it has in it +the thrill of delicious wickedness, but it cannot live. The literary +lion of to-day may be the literary ass of to-morrow, but the ass has his +bin full of oats and cannot complain. + +One very striking literary tendency of to-day is the worship of the +English author in America and the hissing of the American author in +London. And this proves that American literature is scarcely more +popular in England than it is at home. But may not American publishers +after awhile take up a London hissing and use it as an advertisement. +Hissing is surely a recognition, and proves that an author has not been +wholly neglected. + +The novel, whether it be of classic form or of faddish type, makes a +mark upon the mind of the public. Fiction is a necessary element of +modern education. A man may be a successful physician or a noted lawyer +without having read a novel; but he could not be regarded as a man of +refined culture. A novel is an intellectual luxury, and in the luxuries +of a country we find the refinements of the nation. It was not invention +but fancy that made Greece great. A novel-reading nation is a +progressive nation. At one time the most successful publication in this +country was a weekly paper filled with graceless sensationalism, and it +was not the pulpit nor the lecture-platform that took hold of the public +taste and lifted it above this trash--it was the publication in cheap +form of the English classics. And when the mind of the masses had been +thus improved, the magazine became a success. + +One slow but unmistakable drift of fiction is toward the short story, +and the carefully edited newspaper may hold the fiction of the future. + + + + +WHITELAW REID + + +THE PRESS--RIGHT OR WRONG + + [Speech of Whitelaw Reid at the 108th annual banquet of the Chamber + of Commerce of the State of New York, May 4, 1876. Samuel D. + Babcock, President of the Chamber, was in the chair, and proposed + the following toast, to which Mr. Reid was called upon for a + response: "The Press--right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; + when wrong, to be set right."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Lastly, Satan came also, the printer's, if not +the public's devil, _in propria persona_! [Laughter.] The rest of you +gentlemen have better provided for yourselves. Even the Chamber of +Commerce took the benefit of clergy. The Presidential candidates and the +representatives of the Administration and the leading statesmen who +throng your hospitable board, all put forward as their counsel the +Attorney-General [Alphonso Taft] of the United States. And, as one of +his old clients at my left said a moment ago, "a precious dear old +counsel he was." [Laughter.] + +The Press is without clergymen or counsel; and you doubtless wish it +were also without voice. At this hour none of you have the least desire +to hear anything or to say anything about the press. There are a number +of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that platform--I utterly +refuse to say whether I refer to Presidential candidates or not--but +there were a number of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that +table, who are very much more anxious to know what the press to-morrow +morning will have to say about them [laughter], and I know it because I +saw the care with which they handed up to the reporters the manuscript +copies of their entirely unprepared and extempore remarks. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, the press is a mild-spoken and truly modest institution which +never chants its own praises. Unlike Walt Whitman, it never celebrates +itself. Even if it did become me--one of the youngest of its conductors +in New York--to undertake at this late hour to inflict upon you its +eulogy, there are two circumstances which might well make me pause. It +is an absurdity for me--an absurdity, indeed, for any of us--to assume +to speak for the press of New York at a table where William Cullen +Bryant sits silent. Besides, I have been reminded since I came here, by +Dr. Chapin, that the pithiest eulogy ever pronounced upon the first +editor of America, was pronounced in this very room and from that very +platform by the man who at that time was the first of living editors in +this country, when he said that he honored the memory of Benjamin +Franklin because he was a journeyman printer who did not drink, a +philosopher who wrote common sense, and an office-holder who did not +steal. [Applause.] + +One word only of any seriousness about your toast; it says: "The +Press--right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be +set right." Gentlemen, this is your affair. A stream will not rise +higher than its fountain. The Hudson River will not flow backward over +the Adirondacks. The press of New York is fed and sustained by the +commerce of New York, and the press of New York to-day, bad as it is in +many respects--and I take my full share of the blame it fairly +deserves--is just what the merchants of New York choose to have it. If +you want it better, you can make it better. So long as you are satisfied +with it as it is, sustain it as it is, take it into your families and +into your counting-rooms as it is, and encourage it as it is, it will +remain what it is. + +If, for instance, the venerable leader of your Bar, conspicuous through +a long life for the practice of every virtue that adorns his profession +and his race, is met on his return from the very jaws of the grave, as +he re-enters the Court-room to undertake again the gratuitous +championship of your cause against thieves who robbed you, with the +slander that he is himself a thief of the meanest kind, a robber of +defenceless women--I say if such a man is subject to persistent +repetition of such a calumny in the very city he has honored and +served, and at the very end and crown of his life, it is because you do +not choose to object to it and make your objection felt. A score of +similar instances will readily occur to anyone who runs over in his +memory the course of our municipal history for the last dozen years, but +there is no time to repeat or even to refer to them here. + +And so, Mr. President, because this throng of gentlemen, gathered about +the doors, pay me the too great compliment by remaining standing to +listen when they have started to go home--let me come back to the text +you gave me, and the sentiment with which we began: "The Press--right or +wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be set right." +[Applause.] The task in either case is to be performed by the merchants +of New York, who have the power to do it and only need resolve that they +will. + +I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the continued attractions of the +annual entertainment you offer us; above all, I congratulate you on +having given us the great pleasure of meeting once more and seeing +seated together at your table the first four citizens of the metropolis +of the Empire State: Charles O'Conor, Peter Cooper, William Cullen +Bryant, and John A. Dix. I thank you for the courtesy of your +remembrance of the Press; and so to one and all, good-night. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +GLADSTONE, ENGLAND'S GREATEST LEADER + + [Speech of Whitelaw Reid at a dinner given by the Irish-Americans + to Justin McCarthy, New York City, October 2, 1886. Judge Edward + Browne presided. Mr. Reid was called upon to speak to the toast, + "Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I am pleased to see that since this toast was sent +me by your committee, it has been proof-read. As it came to me, it +describes Mr. Gladstone as England's greatest Liberal leader. I thought +you might well say that and more. It delights me to find that you have +said more--that you have justly described him as England's greatest +leader. ["Hear! Hear!"] I do not forget that other, always remembered +when Gladstone is mentioned, who educated his party till it captured +its opponents' place by first disguising and then adopting their +measures. That was in its way as brilliant party leadership as the +century has seen, and it placed an alien adventurer in the British +peerage and enshrined his name in the grateful memory of a great party +that vainly looks for Disraeli's successor. [Applause.] I do not forget +a younger statesman, never to be forgotten henceforth by Irishmen, who +revived an impoverished and exhausted people, stilled their dissensions, +harmonized their conflicting plans, consolidated their chaotic forces, +conducted a peaceful Parliamentary struggle in their behalf with +incomparable pertinacity, coolness, and resources; and through storms +and rough weather has held steadily on till even his enemies see now, in +the very flush of their own temporary success, that in the end the +victory of Parnell is sure. [Loud applause.] Great leaders both; great +historic figures whom our grandchildren will study and analyze and +admire. + +But this man whom your toast honors, after a career that might have +filled any man's ambition, became the head of the Empire whose mourning +drum-beat heralds the rising sun on its journey round the world. That +place he risked and lost, and risked again to give to an ill-treated +powerless section of the Empire, not even friendly to his sway, Church +Reform, Educational Reform, Land Reform, Liberty! [Cheers.] It was no +sudden impulse and it is no short or recent record. It is more than +seventeen years since Mr. Gladstone secured for Ireland the boon of +disestablishment. It is nearly as long since he carried the first bill +recognizing and seriously endeavoring to remedy the evils of Irish land +tenure. + +He has rarely been able to advance as rapidly or as far as he wished; +and more than once he has gone by a way that few of us liked. But if he +was not always right, he has been courageous enough to set himself +right. If he made a mistake in our affairs when he said Jefferson Davis +had founded a nation, he offered reparation when he secured the Geneva +Arbitration, and loyally paid its award. If he made a mistake in Irish +affairs in early attempts at an unwise coercion he more than made amends +when he led that recent magnificent struggle in Parliament and before +the English people, which ended in a defeat, it is true, but a defeat +more brilliant than many victories and more hopeful for Ireland. +[Applause.] + +And over what a length of road has he led the English people! From +rotten boroughs to household suffrage; from a government of classes to a +government more truly popular than any other in the world outside of +Switzerland and the United States. Then consider the advance on Irish +questions. From the iniquitous burden of a gigantic and extravagant +church establishment, imposed upon the people of whom seven-eighths were +of hostile faith, to disestablishment; from the principle stated by Lord +Palmerston with brutal frankness that "tenant-right is landlord's +wrong," to judicial rents and the near prospect of tenant ownership on +fair terms; from the arbitrary arrests of Irish leaders to the alliance +of the Prime Minister and ruling party with the prisoner of Kilmainham +Jail! [Loud cheers.] It has been no holiday parade, the leadership on a +march like that. Long ago Mr. Disraeli flung at him the exultant taunt +that the English people had had enough of his policy of confiscation; +and so it proved for a time, for Mr. Disraeli turned him out. But Mr. +Gladstone knew far better than his great rival did the deep and secret +springs of English action, and he never judged from the temper of the +House or a tour of the London drawing-rooms. Society, indeed, always +disapproved of him, as it did of those kindred spirits, the anti-slavery +leaders of American politics. But the frowns of Fifth Avenue and Beacon +Street have not dimmed the fame of Sumner and Chase; of Seward and +Lincoln [a voice: "And of Wendell Phillips." Cheers]; nor does Belgravia +control the future of Mr. Gladstone's career any more than it has been +able to hinder his past. + +More than any other statesman of his epoch, he has combined practical +skill in the conduct of politics with a steadfast appeal to the highest +moral considerations. To a leader of that sort defeats are only +stepping-stones, and the end is not in doubt. A phrase once famous among +us has sometimes seemed to me fit for English use about Ireland. A great +man, a very great man, whose name sheds lasting honor upon our city said +in an impulsive moment--that he "never wanted to live in a country where +the one-half was pinned to the other by bayonets." If Mr. Gladstone +ever believed in thus fastening Ireland to England, he has learned a +more excellent way. Like Greeley he would no doubt at the last fight, if +need be, for the territorial integrity of his country. But he has +learned the lesson Charles James Fox taught nearly a hundred years +before: "The more Ireland is under Irish Government, the more she will +be bound to English interests." That precept he has been trying to +reduce to practice. God grant the old statesman life and light to see +the sure end of the work he has begun! [Loud applause.] + +I must not sit down without a word more to express the personal +gratification I feel in seeing an old comrade here as your guest. Twelve +or fourteen years ago he did me the honor to fill for a time an +important place on the staff of my newspaper. With what skill and power +he did his work; with what readiness and ample store of information you +need not be told, for the anonymous editorial writer of those days is +now known to the English-speaking world as the brilliant historian of +"Our Own Times." Those of us who knew him then have seen his sacrifice +of private interests and personal tastes for the stormy life of an Irish +member of Parliament, and have followed with equal interest and +admiration his bold yet prudent and high-minded Parliamentary career. He +has done all that an Irishman ought for his country; he has done it with +as little sympathy or encouragement for the policy of dynamite and +assassination in England as we have had for bomb-throwing in Chicago. +[Loud and prolonged applause.] + + + + +W. L. ROBBINS + + +THE PULPIT AND THE BAR + +[Speech of Rev. W. L. Robbins at the annual dinner of the New York State +Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891, +in response to the sentiment, "The Relation of the Pulpit to the Bar." +Matthew Hale presided.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am so dazed at the temerity +which has ventured to put so soporific a subject as "The Pulpit" at so +late an hour in the evening, that I can only conceive of but one merit +in any response to the present toast, and that is brevity. I had always +supposed that the pulpit was "sleepy" enough in its effect upon men in +the early hours of the day, at least that was my conclusion, in so far +as it has been my privilege to see men present, at pulpit ministrations, +leaving us as they do for the most part to preach to women and children. +Shall I confess that the feeling came over me during the first part of +the evening that I was rather out of place among so many laymen, alone +as a representative of the clergy; but later, I found confidence through +a sense of kinship in suffering, for is it not true that we represent +two of the best abused professions in the world? I do not mean by that, +abuse _ab extra_. I am told indeed, occasionally, that the pulpit is +effete, that its place has been filled by the press and lecture +platform, that there is no further use for it. But I do not know that I +have heard abuse _ab extra_ of the Bar, unless some ill-natured person +should read it into the broad Scotch pronunciation of an old friend of +mine who used to say to me, "Ah, the lieyers, the lieyers." + +But what we must needs guard against is abuse from within. In the first +place we are a good deal given to self-congratulation. I use the first +person plural and not the second person; I remember a friend of mine, a +distinguished clergyman in Boston, an Englishman, who once ventured to +preach upon political corruption in the municipal government, and the +next day he had the audacity to drop into the office of one of the +business men of his congregation and say, "What did you think of that +sermon?"--a very dangerous question, by the way, always to ask--and the +reply came promptly, "You had better go and be naturalized so that you +can say 'we sinners,' instead of 'you sinners.'" [Laughter.] Since that +time, from the pulpit or from any other place, I have hesitated to say, +"You sinners," and I will promise to say "we sinners" to-night. + +But truly the pulpit and the Bar, in their ideal, are, as it were, "the +voice of one crying in the wilderness," a witness to the eternal truth. +Are they not? The pulpit is sent forth to herald the love of God, and +the Bar is sent forth to herald the justice of God; but they don't +always succeed. I can speak from experience for the pulpit, that the +position of authority, the claim of a divine mission, is often turned +into the excuse for the airing of a man's individual fads, and is naught +but a cloak for pretentious ignorance. [Applause.] And for the Bar, I +wonder if I might venture to quote the definition of legal practice +which was given me the other night, apropos of this toast, by a +distinguished representative of the New York Bar Association, that it +was "a clever device for frustrating justice, and getting money into the +lawyer's pocket." [Laughter.] But if it be true that we have a mission, +it is equally true that we must join hands if we are going to accomplish +that mission. I am tired of hearing about the Pulpit as the voice of the +public conscience. I do not know why the Bar should not be the voice of +the public conscience quite as much as the Pulpit. If there are laws on +the statute book that are not obeyed, I don't know why the clergy should +make public protest rather than the lawyers, who are representatives of +the law. [Applause.] And if principles of our Constitution are being +subtly invaded to-day under the mask, for instance, of State subsidies +or national subsidies to sectarian institutions either of learning or of +charity, I don't know why the first voice of warning should come from +the Pulpit rather than from the Bar. Indeed, when the clergy initiate +reforming movements it always seems to me as though there is need of +rather more ballast in the boat, need of one of those great wheels which +act as a check on the machinery in an engine; and the best fly-wheel is +the layman. The tendency, you know, of the Pulpit is toward an +unpractical sort of idealism. Its theories are all very good, but my +professor in physics used to tell me that the best mathematical theory +is put out of gear by friction when you come to illustrate it in +practical physics, and so with even the best kind of theoretical +philanthropy. The theoretical solution of the problems, social and +economic, which confront us is put "out of gear" by facts, about which, +alas, the clergy are not as careful as they are about their theory; and, +therefore, I plead for a lay enthusiasm. But surely there is no better +lay element than the legal to act as ballast for the clergy in pleading +the cause of philanthropy and piety and righteousness. + +Then I would suggest first of all, that the Pulpit needs to leave the A, +B, C's of morality, about which it has been pottering so long, and begin +to spell words and sometimes have a reading lesson in morals. That is, +that it should apply its principles to practical living issues and +questions of the day. And I plead to the lawyers to come out once in +awhile from the technicalities of practice, and from their worship of +cleverness and success, and look to the mission which is laid on them, +namely, to bear witness to justice and righteousness. [Applause.] My +toast would be "Common sense in the Pulpit and a love of righteousness +at the Bar." + + + + +JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE + + +THE PRESS + +[Speech of James Jeffrey Roche at the banquet of the Friendly Sons of +St. Patrick, New York City, March 17, 1894. John D. Crimmins presided. +Mr. Roche, as editor of the "Boston Pilot," responded for "The Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE FRIENDLY SONS OF ST. +PATRICK:--I am deeply sensible of the honor you have done me in +inviting me to respond to the toast which has just been read. + +The virtues of the Press are so many and so self-evident that they +scarcely need a eulogist. Even the newspapers recognize and admit them. +If you had asked a New York journalist to sing the praises of his craft, +his native and professional modesty would have embarrassed his voice. If +you had asked a Chicagoan, the honorable chairman would have been +compelled to resort to cloture before the orator got through. If you had +asked a Philadelphian, he would have been in bed by this hour. + +Therefore, you wisely went to the city which not only produces all the +virtues--but puts them up in cans, for export to all the world. We do +not claim to know everything, in Boston--but we do know where to find +it. We have an excellent newspaper press, daily and weekly, and should +either or both ever, by any chance, fail to know anything--past, +present, or to come--we have a Monday Lectureship, beside which the +Oracle of Delphi was a last year's almanac. [Applause.] + +I met a man, on the train, yesterday--a New York man (he said he +was)--of very agreeable manners. He told me what his business was, and +when I told him my business in New York, he surprised me by asking: +"What are you going to say to them in your speech that will be real +sassy, and calculated to make all their pet corns ache?" I told him I +did not know what he meant, that of course I should say nothing but the +most pleasant things I could think of; that, in fact, I intended to read +my speech, lest, in the agitation of the moment, I might overlook some +complimentary impromptu little touch. Then he laughed and said: "Why, +that isn't the way to do at all--in New York. It is easy to see you are +a stranger, and don't read the papers. The correct thing nowadays is for +the guest to criticise his entertainers. Mayor So-and-So always does it. +And only last year--it was at an Irish banquet, too--the speaker of the +evening, a Down-Easter like yourself, just spilled boiling vitriol over +the whole company, and rubbed it in." + +I told him I didn't believe that story, and asked him to tell me the +gentleman's name. And he only answered me, evasively: "I didn't say he +was a gentleman." + +I trust I know better than to say anything uncomplimentary about the +Press of New York, which compiles, or constructs, news for the whole +Continent, not only before our slower communities have heard of the +things chronicled, but often, with commendable enterprise, before they +have happened. + +I admire the Press of New York. There are a great many Boston men on it, +and I have no mission to reform it. In New York, when you have a surplus +of journalistic talent, you export it to London, where it is out of +place--some of it. The feverish race for priority, which kills off so +many American journalists, sometimes, it would seem, almost before their +time (but that is a matter of opinion), is unknown in London. A man who +reads the "London Times," regularly and conscientiously, is guaranteed +forever against insomnia. London "Punch" is a paper which the severest +ascetic may read, all through Lent, without danger to his sobriety of +soul. + +London gets even with you, too. You send her an Astor, and she +retaliates with a Stead. We ought to deal gently with Mr. Stead; for he +says that we are all children of the one "Anglo-Saxon" family--without +regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude. He avers that +England looks upon America as a brother, and that may be so. It is not +easy, at this distance of time, to know just how Romulus looked upon +Remus, how Esau looked upon Jacob, how Cain looked upon Abel--but I have +no doubt that it was in about the same light that England looks upon +America--fraternally! But she ought not to afflict us with Mr. Stead. We +have enough to bear without him. + +We know that the Press has its faults and its weaknesses. We can see +them every day, in our miserable contemporaries, and we do not shirk the +painful duty of pointing them out. We know that it has also virtues, +manifold, and we do not deny them, when an appreciative audience +compliments us upon them. A conscientious journalist never shrinks from +the truth, even when it does violence to his modesty. In fact, he tells +the truth under all circumstances, or nearly all. If driven to the +painful alternative of choosing between that which is new and that which +is true, he wisely decides that "truth" is mighty, and will prevail, +whereas news won't keep. Nevertheless, it is a safe rule not to believe +everything that you see in the papers. Advertisers are human, and liable +to err. + +Lamartine predicted, long ago, that before the end of the present +century the Press would be the whole literature of the world. His +prediction is almost verified already. The multiplication and the +magnitude of newspapers present, not a literary, but an economic +problem. The Sunday paper alone has grown, within a decade, from a +modest quarto to a volume of 48, 60, 96, 120 pages, with the stream +steadily rising and threatening the levees on both banks. At a similar +rate of expansion in the next ten years, it will be made up of not less +than 1,000 pages, and the man who undertakes to read it will be liable +to miss First Mass. + +The thoughtful provision of giving away a "farm coupon" with every +number may avert trouble for a time, but it will be only for a time. The +reader will need a farm, on which to spread out and peruse his purchase; +but the world is small, and land has not the self-inflating quality of +paper. + +But to speak more seriously: Is modern journalism, then, nothing but a +reflection of the frivolity of the day, of the passing love of +notoriety? I say no! I believe that the day of sensational journalism, +of the blanket sheet and the fearful woodcut, is already passing away. +Quantity cannot forever overcome quality, in that or any other field. +When we think of the men who have done honor to the newspaper +profession, we do not think so proudly of this or that one who "scooped" +his contemporaries with the first, or "exclusive," report of a murder or +a hanging, but of men like the late George W. Childs, whom all true +journalists honor and lament. + +We think of the heroes of the pen, who carried their lives in their +hands as they went into strange, savage countries, pioneers of +civilization. It would be invidious to mention names, where the roll is +so long and glorious; but I think, at the moment, of O'Donovan, Forbes, +Stanley, Burnaby, Collins, and our own Irish-American, MacGahan, the +great-hearted correspondent, who changed the political map of Eastern +Europe by exposing the Bulgarian atrocities. The instinct which impelled +those men was the same which impelled Columbus. + +I think, in another field, of the noblest man I have ever known, the +truest, most chivalrous gentleman, a newspaper man, an editor--I am +proud to say, an Irish-American editor--the memory of whose honored +name, I well know, is the only excuse for my being here to-night--John +Boyle O'Reilly! You have honored his name more than once here to-night, +and in honoring him you honor the profession which he so adorned. + + + + +D. B. ST. JOHN ROOSA + + +THE SALT OF THE EARTH + + [Speech of Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, as President of the Holland + Society of New York, at the eleventh annual dinner of the Society, + New York City, January 15, 1896.] + + +GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY, AND OUR HONORED GUESTS:--My +first duty is to welcome to our Board the representatives of the various +societies who honor us by their presence: St. George's, St. Nicholas, +New England, St. Andrew's, Colonial Order, and Colonial Wars, Southern +Society, the Holland Society welcomes you most heartily. I ought to say +that the Holland Society, as at present constituted, could run a Police +Board [applause], furnish the Mayors for two cities, and judges to +order, to decide on any kind of a case. As a matter of fact, when they +get hard up down-town for a judge, they just send up to the man who +happens to be President of the Holland Society and say "Now we want a +judge," and we send Van Hoesen, Beekman, Truax, or Van Wyck. [Applause.] +They are all right. They are Dutch, and they will do. [Laughter.] All +the people say it does not make any difference about their politics, so +long as the blood is right. + +Now, gentlemen, seriously, I thank you very sincerely for the honor +which you have conferred upon me--and which I was not able, on account +of circumstances entirely beyond my control, to acknowledge at the +annual meeting of the Society--in making me your President. I do not +think there is any honor in the world that compares with it, and if you +think over the names of the Presidents of this Society you may imagine +that a doctor, especially knowing what the Dutch in South Africa think +of doctors just now [laughter and applause], would have a mighty slim +chance to come in against a Van Vorst, a Roosevelt, a Van Hoesen, a +Beekman, a Van Wyck, or a Van Norden. But my name is not Jameson. +[Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, there seems to be an impression that the Holland Society, +because it does not have a Club-house--and it may have a Club-house, +that remains for you to decide; and because it does not have a great +many other things, has no reason for its existence. But, gentlemen, +there is one sufficient reason for the existence of the Hollanders in a +Society. We have eight hundred and forty members, and each one of us has +a function--to teach our neighboring Yankees just exactly what we are, +whence we came, and where we mean to go. [Laughter and applause.] The +colossal ignorance of the ordinary New Englander [laughter and +applause]--I mean in regard to the Dutch [laughter]--is something that I +would delineate were it not for the presence of the President of the +Mayflower Society. [Renewed laughter.] Why, it was only the other night +that at one of these entertainments when I was representing you and +doing the best I could with my medal and my ribbon, that a friend came +up to me and said: "You belong to the Holland Society, don't you?" I +said, "Yes." "Well," he said, "you Dutch did lick us on the Excise +question, didn't you?" [Great laughter and applause.] Now what are you +going to do with a people like that? We got the credit of that thing, +anyhow. [Renewed laughter.] There is a Governor of Connecticut here +to-night [P. C. Lounsbury], and I was going to say something about +Governors of Connecticut of years and years ago. A man could not +properly relate the history of New Amsterdam without remarking on the +Governors of Connecticut, but out of respect to the distinguished +gentleman, whom we all delight to honor, I shall draw it very mild. I +shall only tell one or two things that those Governors of Connecticut +used to do. There was one of them, I have forgotten his name and I am +glad I have [laughter], who used to say in all his letters to his +subordinates when they were pushing us to the wall and getting the +English over to help them push: "Don't you say anything to those people, +don't you talk to those people, but always keep crowding the Dutch." +[Laughter.] That is what a Connecticut Governor gave as official advice +years ago. And they did crowd us. But Governor Lounsbury told me that +if they really had their rights Manhattan Island would belong to +Connecticut. So you see they are crowding the Dutch still. [Laughter.] + +Now, every once in a while, one of these New Englanders that owns the +earth, especially that little stone portion called Plymouth Rock, which +we never begrudged them, gets up at a great dinner and reads a fine +speech and talks about civil and religious liberty which the Puritan +came over to cause to flourish. Why, the poor Puritan did not know any +more about religious liberty than an ordinary horse does about +astronomy. What the Puritan came over here for, was to get a place to do +what he liked, in his own way, without interference from anybody else, +with power to keep everybody out that wanted to do anything the least +bit different from his way. [Great laughter and applause. A voice--"I'm +glad I voted for you."] I never can get elected from New England. + +I want to tell you just a thing or two about this business. The Dutch +tried very hard to teach them civil and religious liberty before they +came over, and then they put the Yankees in a ship and sent them over +from Leyden and Delfshaven, saying: "It is utterly useless; we cannot +teach you." [Great laughter.] But we came over to New Amsterdam and we +had free schools in New York until the English took the city by +treachery when there was only Peter Stuyvesant to fire one gun against +the invaders, and then they abolished free schools and had their church +ones, and they are fighting over that question in England now. Free +schools! New York established them when we were free again, years and +years afterwards, but they are an invention of the Dutch. + +Civil and religious liberty! it was born in Holland, it was nourished by +the valor of the Beggars of the Sea, and finally it began to grow into +the minds of the peoples of the earth, that it was not only right to +enjoy your own religion, but it was also right to let your neighbor +enjoy his. [Applause.] + +Then there is another story, that the English conquered Manhattan +Island, and that we are here by the grace of any people on earth except +our own. That is another mistake. Just read Theodore Roosevelt's "Rise +of New York." [Great laughter.] Now I am going to tell you this story +because you must go up to Ulster County and up to Dutchess and Albany +Counties, and you must tell every Yankee you meet the truth about this, +and not let him talk any more about the English having subjugated the +Dutch. + +It is true the English captured Manhattan Island, but nine years +afterwards Admiral Evertsen and another Admiral whose name escapes me, +came up the harbor in two frigates with guns well shotted, got beyond +Staten Island, and gave the military authorities of New York notice that +they were going to take that town, and granted them thirty minutes to +make up their minds whether they would give it up or not. When the +thirty minutes elapsed, six hundred Dutch troops were landed just back +of where Trinity Church now is, and New York became New Amsterdam again. +Then how did we lose it? Because the Dutch States-General, which did not +know enough, in deciding between New York and Surinam, to choose New +York, took Surinam, and they have been wishing ever since they never had +been born. Now talk about anybody conquering the Dutch! We generally get +there. They sometimes say: "That is all very well, they were very brave +people and all that, but they don't do anything now." Waterloo, Van +Speyk, Majuba Hill, and the Boers of the Transvaal show what their +courage has been in the later generations. What are the Dutch? Why, we +are the salt of the earth! We do not pretend to be the bread and butter +and the cheese, but we are the salt [laughter], and I think the Boers in +South Africa very lately salted some people I know of. [Great laughter +and applause.] + +If you want to see a city that is well salted, look at New York. Go to +the St. Nicholas Society dinner and see that grand assembly; if there is +ever a society in New York that is well salted with Dutch, that is, and +we are all proud of it. And so it is with every other society, New York +society, but not on the paternal side! [Great laughter and applause.] + +But if you want to see a place where the Yankee is salt, pepper, bread, +butter, and everything, go to Boston. It is a great city. That is all +right. But we prefer New York, and we prefer just what God has ordained +us to be--the people not always getting the credit of it, but always +accomplishing all the good that is ever accomplished on the face of the +earth! [Laughter and applause.] Now you may think that I have not +whooped it up enough for the Dutch [great laughter], so I will go on, +just for a minute. + +The State of North Carolina is always talking about having had a +Declaration of Independence in Mecklenburg County, about six months +before they had one in Philadelphia. Why, the Dutch farmers up in the +Mamacotting Valley of Ulster County signed a Declaration of Independence +in April, 1775, and they would have signed it six months before if the +New York Council of Safety had given it to them! [Laughter.] This same +New England gentleman to whom I have alluded--I have it rather mixed up +in my mind which gentleman said it--but some one said that the New +Englanders were very unwilling to part from the English, who were +patronizing them with tea and stamps. Why, the liberty boys of New York +had made up their minds many months before the Declaration of +Independence. The Dutch, and notably the Scotch-Irish, had made up their +minds. As I say, up in Ulster County they circulated that Declaration of +Independence a year and three months before it was really signed +in Philadelphia. They knew what they meant. They said, "We shall never +be slaves." If you will excuse the fact that I did have a +great-grandfather--I am happy to say that my great-grandfather signed +that paper and he had a commission in the Continental Army, which I +possess, signed by John Hancock, and he was at Saratoga. He was in the +2d New York Line. The Dutch knew that what we wanted was to be a free +and independent people, even if our friends over there had not made up +their minds. The Dutch are satisfied with a very modest position in the +world--so that they have the goods and control its destinies. [Great +laughter.] Others may call it New York, if they like, or Manhattan, but +we call it Dutch. + +Now this Society, gentlemen, has a great work before it; our President, +who is very much like the President of the French Republic, goes around +with a big ribbon, but he has no authority of any kind whatever. He +might have some at the Board of Trustees meeting, but that is such an +orderly set that there is no use for authority there, and as for the +dinner, Judge Van Hoesen and Mr. Van Schaick manage it very well. But +the President does not wish any authority, and glories in the great +honor, which it seems to him to be one that any one in this Society +might be proud of. We have, however, work to do, and in that your +President, by your grace, as a private member and as a trustee, hopes to +co-operate with you. + +It is a strange thing that this great city of New York has allowed the +Puritans first to commemorate the virtues of their heroic race which we +all admire, and all love to speak of in terms of praise in our serious +moments. It is strange that Central Park is adorned by them with that +beautiful statue, while the Dutch have no monument. I well remember the +day that that silver-tongued orator, George William Curtis, made the +dedication address. But why is it that on this Hudson, which was first +ploughed by a Dutch keel, over which first of all a Dutch flag floated, +along this Hudson which was first discovered and explored and made +habitable by Dutch industry and Dutch thrift, there is no Dutch monument +to which we may proudly point as we pass by. There ought to be a statue +of that great Dutchman, William the Silent, on Riverside Drive. [Great +applause.] Do you ever think of him? Do you ever think of his career, +that of the prototype of our own Washington? At fifteen years of age the +companion of an emperor; at twenty-one years of age, the commander of a +great army, and later giving up wealth and pomp and power, preferring to +be among the people of God, than to dwell at ease in the tents of +wickedness; giving up everything for a life of tedious struggle in the +cold marshes of the Netherlands, finally to die at the hand of an +assassin with a prayer for his country upon his lips as he passed away. +He was the first human being on the face of this earth, who fairly and +fully understood the principles of religious and civic freedom. This +great city, the exemplifier of those principles to which it owes so much +for its prosperity and magnificence, has not yet commemorated that man. +How long shall it be, sons of Hollanders, before William the Silent +shall be there looking out upon the Hudson and lifted on high as an +example for all time? I hope our eyes will see the day! [Great +applause.] + + + + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + +THE HOLLANDER AS AN AMERICAN + + [Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the eleventh annual dinner of the + Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1896. The President, Dr. + D. B. St. John Roosa, said: "The next regular toast is: 'The + Hollander as an American,' and I shall have the pleasure of + introducing a gentleman who is a member of this Society, and, + therefore, descended on the male line [laughter] from some one who + came here before 1675, is it not? [A voice--"That is right; 1675."] + One of the first Roosevelts came very near outstripping Robert + Fulton and inventing the steamboat. He did invent a steamboat, and + you know the Roosevelts have had something of a steamboat in them + ever since. Now there is another thing I want you Dutchmen to teach + the Yankees to do--pronounce his name Rosavelt and not Rusevelt. + And, by the way, mine is pronounced Rosa too. Now Mr. Roosevelt is + a man, evidently, who has the courage of his convictions [A + Voice--"That is right." Applause], and it will be a cold day for + the party to which he belongs if they undertake to turn him down. I + hoped that you all thought so. There was an old darky that used to + say about the Commandments: 'Yes, preacher, they are all right, but + in this here neighborhood the eighth Commandment ought to be taught + with some discreetions.' [Great laughter.] [A Voice: "Which is the + eighth Commandment?"] 'Thou shalt not steal.' Now in New York there + are some people who think there are some commandments that ought to + be taught with some 'discreetions.' But they had better alter their + law if they don't like it, and they had better not put a Dutchman + in office after an oath to enforce the law and then ask him why he + does enforce it. [Great applause.] This gentleman does not need any + introduction, evidently--the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt." [Great + applause. Three cheers were proposed and given for Mr. Roosevelt. A + Voice: "Tiger!"] Mr. Roosevelt: "In the presence of the judiciary, + no!" [Laughter.] There was great cheering when Mr. Roosevelt rose + to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN, AND BRETHREN OF THE HOLLAND +SOCIETY:--I am more than touched, if you will permit me to begin +rather seriously, by the way you have greeted me to-night. When I was in +Washington, there was a story in reference to a certain President, +who was not popular with some of his own people in a particular Western +State. One of its Senators went to the White House and said he wanted a +friend of his appointed postmaster of Topeka. The President's Private +Secretary said: "I am very sorry, indeed, sir, but the President wants +to appoint a personal friend." Thereupon the Senator said: "Well, for +God's sake, if he has one friend in Kansas, let him appoint him!" [Great +laughter.] + + +[Illustration: _THEODORE ROOSEVELT_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +There have been periods during which the dissembled eulogies of the able +press and my relations with about every politician of every party and +every faction have made me feel I would like to know whether I had one +friend in New York, and here I feel I have many. [Great applause.] And +more than that, gentlemen, I should think ill of myself and think that I +was a discredit to the stock from which I sprang if I feared to go on +along the path that I deemed right, whether I had few friends or many. +[Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.] + +I am glad to answer to the toast, "The Hollander as an American." The +Hollander was a good American, because the Hollander was fitted to be a +good citizen. There are two branches of government which must be kept on +a high plane, if any nation is to be great. A nation must have laws that +are honestly and fearlessly administered, and a nation must be ready, in +time of need, to fight [applause], and we men of Dutch descent have here +to-night these gentlemen of the same blood as ourselves who represent +New York so worthily on the bench, and a Major-General of the Army of +the United States. [Applause.] + +It seems to me, at times, that the Dutch in America have one or two +lessons to teach. We want to teach the very refined and very cultivated +men who believe it impossible that the United States can ever be right +in a quarrel with another nation--a little of the elementary virtue of +patriotism. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and applause.] And we also wish to +teach our fellow-citizens that laws are put on the statute books to be +enforced [cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause]; and that if it is not +intended they shall be enforced, it is a mistake to put a Dutchman in +office to enforce them. + +The lines put on the programme underneath my toast begin: "America! +half-brother of the world!" America, half-brother of the world--and all +Americans full brothers one to the other. That is the way that the line +should be concluded. The prime virtue of the Hollander here in America +and the way in which he has most done credit to his stock as a +Hollander, is that he has ceased to be a Hollander and has become an +American, absolutely. [Great applause.] We are not Dutch-Americans. We +are not "Americans" with a hyphen before it. We are Americans pure and +simple, and we have a right to demand that the other people whose stocks +go to compose our great nation, like ourselves, shall cease to be aught +else and shall become Americans. [Cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause.] + +And further than that, we have another thing to demand, and that is that +if they do honestly and in good faith become Americans, those shall be +regarded as infamous who dare to discriminate against them because of +creed or because of birthplace. When New Amsterdam had but a few hundred +souls, among those few hundred souls no less than eighteen different +race-stocks were represented, and almost as many creeds as there were +race-stocks, and the great contribution that the Hollander gave to the +American people was, as your President has so ably said, the inestimable +lesson of complete civil and religious liberty. It would be honor enough +for this stock to have been the first to put on American soil the public +school, the great engine for grinding out American citizens, the one +institution for which Americans should stand more stiffly than for aught +other. [Great applause.] + +Whenever America has demanded of her sons that they should come to her +aid, whether in time of peace or in time of war, the Americans of Dutch +stock have been among the first to spring to the aid of the country. We +earnestly hope that there will not in the future be any war with any +power, but assuredly if there should be such a war one thing may be +taken for certain, and that is that every American of Dutch descent will +be found on the side of the United States. We give the amplest credit, +that some people now, to their shame, grudge to the profession of arms, +which we have here to-night represented by a man, who, when he has the +title of a Major-General of the Army of the United States [Thomas H. +Ruger], has a title as honorable as any that there is on the wide earth. +[Applause.] We also need to teach the lesson, that the Hollander taught, +of not refusing to do the small things because the day of large things +had not yet come or was in the past; of not waiting until the chance may +come to distinguish ourselves in arms, and meanwhile neglecting the +plain, prosaic duties of citizenship which call upon us every hour, +every day of our lives. + +The Dutch kept their freedom in the great contest with Spain, not merely +because they warred valiantly, but because they did their duty as +burghers in their cities, because they strove according to the light +that was in them to be good citizens and to act as such. And we all here +to-night should strive so to live that we Americans of Dutch descent +shall not seem to have shrunk in this respect, compared to our fathers +who spoke another tongue and lived under other laws beyond the ocean; so +that it shall be acknowledged in the end to be what it is, a discredit +to a man if he does not in times of peace do all that in him lies to +make the government of the city, the government of the country, better +and cleaner by his efforts. [Great applause.] + +I spoke of the militant spirit as if it may only be shown in time of +war. I think that if any of you gentlemen, no matter how peaceful you +may naturally be, and I am very peaceful naturally [laughter], if you +would undertake the administration of the Police Department you would +have plenty of fighting on hand before you would get through [renewed +laughter]; and if you are true to your blood you will try to do the best +you can, fighting or not fighting. You will make up your mind that you +will make mistakes, because you won't make anything if you don't make +some mistakes, and you will go forward according to your lights, utterly +heedless of what either politicians or newspapers may say, knowing that +if you act as you feel bound according to your conscience to act, you +will then at least have the right when you go out of office, however +soon [laughter], to feel that you go out without any regret, and to feel +that you have, according to your capacity, warred valiantly for what you +deemed to be the right. [Great applause.] + +These, then, are the qualities that I should claim for the Hollander as +an American: In the first place, that he has cast himself without +reservation into the current of American life; that he is an American, +pure and simple, and nothing else. In the next place, that he works hand +in hand and shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Americans, without any +regard to differences of creed or to differences of race and religion, +if only they are good Americans. [Great applause.] In the third place, +that he is willing, when the need shall arise, to fight for his country; +and in the fourth place, and finally, that he recognizes that this is a +country of laws and not men, that it is his duty as an honest citizen to +uphold the laws, to strive for honesty, to strive for a decent +administration, and to do all that in him lies, by incessant, patient +work in our government, municipal or national, to bring about the day +when it shall be taken as a matter of course that every public official +is to execute a law honestly, and that no capacity in a public officer +shall atone if he is personally dishonest. [Tremendous applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRUE AMERICANISM AND EXPANSION + + [Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the nineteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1898. + The President, William B. Davenport, in calling upon Theodore + Roosevelt to speak to the toast, "The Day we Celebrate," said: "For + many years we have been celebrating this day and looking at + ourselves through Yankee eyes. To-night it is to be given us to see + ourselves as others see us. We have with us one of whom it may be + said, to paraphrase the epitaph in the Welsh churchyard:-- + + 'A Dutchman born, at Harvard bred, + In Cuba travelled, but not yet dead.' + + In response to this toast, I have the honor of introducing Hon. + Theodore Roosevelt."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--The gentleman on my +right, with the unmistakably Puritan name of McKelway, in the issue of +the "Eagle" to-night alluded to me as a Yankeeized Hollander. I am a +middling good Yankee. I always felt that at these dinners of the New +England Society, to which I come a trifle more readily than to any other +like affairs, I and the president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, +who is also invariably in attendance, represent, what you would say, +the victims tied to the wheels of the Roman chariot of triumph. You see +I am half Irish myself, and, as I told a New England Senator with whom I +am intimate, when he remarked that the Dutch had been conquered by the +New Englanders, "the Irish have avenged us." + +I want to say to you seriously, and, singularly enough, right along the +lines of the admirable speech made by your President, a few words on the +day we celebrate and what it means. + +As the years go by, this nation will realize more and more that the year +that has just passed has given to every American the right to hold his +head higher as a citizen of the great Republic, which has taken a long +stride forward toward its proper place among the nations of the world. I +have scant sympathy with this mock humanitarianism, a mock +humanitarianism which is no more alien to the spirit of true religion +than it is to the true spirit of civilization, which would prevent the +great, free, liberty and order-loving races of the earth doing their +duty in the world's waste spaces because there must needs be some rough +surgery at the outset. I do not speak simply of my own country. I hold +that throughout the world every man who strives to be both efficient and +moral--and neither quality is worth anything without the other--that +every man should realize that it is for the interests of mankind to have +the higher supplant the lower life. Small indeed is my sympathy with +those people who bemoan the fact, sometimes in prose, sometimes in even +weaker verse, that the champions of civilization and of righteousness +have overcome the champions of barbarism or of an outworn tyranny, +whether the conflict be fought by the Russian heralds of civilization in +Turkestan, by the English champion of the higher life in the Eastern +world, or by the men who upheld the Stars and Stripes as they freed the +people of the tropic islands of the sea from the medićval tyranny of +Spain. + +I do not ask that you look at this policy from a merely national +standpoint, although if you are good Americans you must look from the +national standpoint first. I ask that you look at it from the standpoint +of civilization, from the standpoint of righteousness, and realize that +it is better for the men who are as yet ages behind us in the struggle +upward that they be helped upward, and that it does not cease to be +better for them, merely because it is better for us also. As I say, cast +aside the selfish view. Consider whether or not it is better that the +brutal barbarism of northern Asia should be supplanted by the +civilization of Russia, which has not yet risen to what we of the +Occident are proud to claim as our standard, but which, as it stands, is +tens of centuries in advance of that of the races it supplants. Again, +from the standpoint of the outsider, look at the improvement worked by +the Englishmen in all the islands of the sea and all the places on the +dark continents where the British flag has been planted; seriously +consider the enormous, the incalculable betterment that comes at this +moment to ninety-five per cent. of the people who have been cowering +under the inconceivably inhuman rule of Mahdism in the Sudan because it +has been supplanted by the reign of law and of justice. I ask you to +read the accounts of the Catholic missionary priests, the Austrian +priests who suffered under Mahdism, to read in their words what they +have suffered under conditions that have gone back to the stone age in +the middle of the nineteenth century. Then you will realize that the +Sirdar and his troops were fighting the battle of righteousness as truly +as ever it was fought by your ancestors and mine two or three or four +centuries ago. + +I think you can now understand that I admire what other nations have +done in this regard, and, therefore, that you will believe that I speak +with sincerity when I speak of what we ourselves have done. Thank heaven +that we of this generation, to whom was denied the chance of taking part +in the greatest struggle for righteousness that this century has seen, +the great Civil War, have at least been given the chance to see our +country take part in the world movement that has gone on around about +us. Of course it was partly for our own interest, but it was also +largely a purely disinterested movement. It is a good thing for this +nation that it should be lifted up beyond simply material matters. It is +a good thing for us that we should have interests outside of our own +borders. It is a good thing for us that we must look outward; that we +must consider more than the question of exports and imports; that we +must consider more than whether or not in one decade we have increased +one and a half per cent. more than the average rate of increase in +wealth or not. It is a good thing that we of this nation should keep in +mind, and should have vividly brought before us the fact to which your +ancestors, Mr. President and members of this Society, owe their +greatness; that while it pays a people to pay heed to material matters, +it pays infinitely better to treat material as absolutely second to +moral considerations. I am glad for the sake of America that we have +seen the American Army and the American Navy driving the Spaniard from +the Western world. I am glad that the descendants of the Puritan and the +Hollander should have completed the work begun, when Drake and Hawkins +and Frobisher singed the beard of the King of Spain, and William the +Silent fought to the death to free Holland. I am glad we did it for our +own sake, but I am infinitely more glad because we did it to free the +people of the islands of the sea and tried to do good to them. + +I have told you why I am glad, because of what we have done. Let me add +my final word as to why I am anxious about it. We have driven out the +Spaniards. This did not prove for this nation a very serious task. Now +we are approaching the really serious task. Now it behooves us to show +that we are capable of doing infinitely better the work which we blame +the Spaniards for doing so badly; and woe to us unless we do show not +merely a slight but a well-nigh immeasurable improvement! We have +assumed heavy burdens, heavy responsibilities. I have no sympathy with +the men who cry out against our assuming them. If this great nation, if +this nation with its wealth, with its continental vastness of domain, +with its glorious history, with its memory of Washington and Lincoln, of +its statesmen and soldiers and sailors, the builders and the wielders of +commonwealths, if this nation is to stand cowering back because it is +afraid to undertake tasks lest they prove too formidable, we may well +suppose that the decadence of our race has begun. No; the tasks are +difficult, and all the more for that reason let us gird up our loins and +go out to do them. But let us meet them, realizing their difficulty; not +in a spirit of levity, but in a spirit of sincere and earnest desire to +do our duty as it is given us to see our duty. Let us not do it in the +spirit of sentimentality, not saying we must at once give universal +suffrage to the people of the Philippines--they are unfit for it. Do not +let us mistake the shadow for the substance. We have got to show the +practical common sense which was combined with the fervent religion of +the Puritan; the combination which gave him the chance to establish here +that little group of commonwealths which more than any others have +shaped the spirit and destiny of this nation; we must show both +qualities. + +Gentlemen, if one of the islands which we have acquired is not fit to +govern itself, then we must govern it until it is fit. If you cannot +govern it according to the principles of the New England town +meeting--because the Philippine Islander is not a New Englander--if you +cannot govern it according to these principles, then find out the +principles upon which you can govern it, and apply those principles. +Fortunately, while we can and ought with wisdom to look abroad for +examples, and to profit by the experience of other nations, we are +already producing, even in this brief period, material of the proper +character within our own border, men of our own people, who are showing +us what to do with these islands. A New Englander, a man who would be +entitled to belong to this Society, a man who is in sympathy with all +that is best and most characteristic of the New England spirit, both +because of his attitude in war and of his attitude toward civic morality +in time of peace, is at present giving us a good object lesson in +administering those tropic provinces. I allude to my former commander, +the present Governor-General of Santiago, Major-General Leonard Wood. +General Wood has before him about as difficult a task as man could well +have. He is now intrusted with the supreme government of a province +which has been torn by the most hideously cruel of all possible civil +wars for the last three years, which has been brought down to a +condition of savage anarchy, and from which our armies, when they +expelled the armies of Spain, expelled the last authoritative +representatives of what order there still was in the province. To him +fell the task of keeping order, of preventing the insurgent visiting +upon the Spaniard his own terrible wrongs, of preventing the taking of +that revenge which to his wild nature seemed eminently justifiable, the +preserving of the rights of property, of keeping unharmed the people who +had been pacific, and yet of gradually giving over the administration +of the island to the people who had fought for its freedom, just as fast +as, and no faster than, they proved that they could be trusted with it. +He has gone about that task, devoted himself to it, body and soul, +spending his strength, his courage, and perseverance, and in the face of +incredible obstacles he has accomplished very, very much. + +Now, if we are going to administer the government of the West Indies +Islands which we have acquired, and the Philippines, in a way that will +be a credit to us and to our institutions, we must see that they are +administered by the General Woods. We have got to make up our minds that +we can only send our best men there; that we must then leave them as +largely unhampered as may be. We must exact good results from them, but +give them a large liberty in the methods of reaching these results. If +we treat those islands as the spoil of the politician, we shall tread +again the path which Spain has trod before, and we shall show ourselves +infinitely more blameworthy than Spain, for we shall sin against the +light, seeing the light. + +The President says that this is New England doctrine. So it is. It is +Dutch doctrine, too. It is the doctrine of sound Americanism, the +doctrine of common sense and common morality. I am an expansionist. I am +glad we have acquired the islands we have acquired. I am not a bit +afraid of the responsibilities which we have incurred; but neither am I +blind to how heavy those responsibilities are. In closing my speech, I +ask each of you to remember that he cannot shove the blame on others +entirely, if things go wrong. This is a government by the people, and +the people are to blame ultimately if they are misrepresented, just +exactly as much as if their worst passions, their worst desires are +represented; for in the one case it is their supineness that is +represented exactly as in the other case it is their vice. Let each man +here strive to make his weight felt on the side of decency and morality. +Let each man here make his weight felt in supporting a truly American +policy, a policy which decrees that we shall be free and shall hold our +own in the face of other nations, but which decrees also that we shall +be just, and that the peoples whose administration we have taken over +shall have their condition made better and not worse by the fact that +they have come under our sway. + + + + +LORD ROSEBERY + +(ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) + + +PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAINTING + + [Speech of Lord Rosebery at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 5, 1894. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of + the Royal Academy, was in the chair, and in proposing "The Health + of Her Majesty's Ministers," to which Lord Rosebery replied, he + said: "No function could be more lofty, no problem is more complex + than the governance of our Empire, so vast and various in land and + folk as that which owns the sceptre of the Queen. No toast, + therefore, claims a more respectful reception than that to which I + now invite your cordial response--the health of the eminent + statesmen in whose hands that problem lies--Her Majesty's + Ministers. And not admiration only for high and various endowments, + but memories also of a most sparkling speech delivered twelve + months ago at this table, sharpens the gratification with which I + call for response on the brilliant statesman who heads Her + Majesty's Government, the Earl of Rosebery."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN: No one, I think, +can respond unmoved for the first time in such an assembly as this in +the character in which I now stand before you. You have alluded, sir, to +the speech which I delivered here last year. But I have to confess with +a feeling of melancholy that since that period I have made a change for +the worse. [Laughter.] I have had to exchange all those dreams of +imagination to which I then alluded, which are, I believe, the proper +concomitants of the Foreign Office intelligently wielded, and which, I +have no doubt, my noble friend on my right sees in imagination as I did +then--I have had to exchange all those dreams for the dreary and +immediate prose of life--all the more dreary prose because a great deal +of it is my own. + + +[Illustration: _LORD ROSEBERY_ + +(_ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE_) + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +There is one function, however, which has already devolved upon me, +and which is not without interest for this Academy. My great +predecessor, much to my regret, left in my hands the appointment of a +successor to Sir Frederick Burton. That has cost me probably more +trouble and travail than any other act of this young administration. +[Laughter.] I have sought, and I have abundantly received, counsels, and +it is after long consideration, and with the most earnest and +conscientious desire to do not what is most agreeable to individuals +themselves, but what is best for art in general, that I have nominated +Mr. Poynter to succeed Sir Frederick Burton. [Cheers.] + +I have at the same time made a change in the minute relating to the +conditions of that post, which to a greater extent than was formerly the +case associates the trustees of the National Gallery in the work of +selection with the new director. The trustees have been hitherto rather +those flies on the wheel of which we read in ancient fable. It is now +proposed to make them working wheels, and to make them work well and +co-operatively with the new director. ["Hear! Hear!"] I hope that this +arrangement will be satisfactory in its results. But, Mr. President, I +have long thought, as an individual, that the task of a Minister or of a +Government in co-operating with the Royal Academy, and with those who +have art at heart, ought not to end with a mere appointment of this +description. I take a larger view of the responsibilities of my office, +and I should be glad to offer to you with great respect a few +suggestions that have recently occurred to me with regard to the present +position of English art, which I regard with some misgivings. + +There is, first, the subject of portraiture. I am deeply concerned for +the future condition of portrait-painting. It is not, as you may +imagine, with any distrust whatever of those distinguished men who take +a part in that branch of art; it is much more for the subjects that I am +concerned. [Laughter.] And it is not so much with the subjects as with +that important part of the subject which was illustrated in the famous +work "Sartor Resartus," by the great Carlyle, that I chiefly trouble +myself. How can it be that any man should make a decent portrait of his +fellow-man in these days? No one can entertain so vindictive a hatred of +his fellow-creature as to wish to paint him in the costume in which I +am now addressing you. [Laughter.] I believe that that costume is +practically dropped for all purposes of portraiture; and if that be so, +in what costume is the Englishman of the present century to descend to +remotest posterity through the vehicle of the gifted artists whom I see +around me? We are not all sufficiently fortunate to be the Chancellor of +the University. [Laughter and cheers.] We have not always even the happy +chance to be a municipal dignitary, with a costume which I will not at +present characterize. [Laughter.] We are not all of us masters of +hounds; and I think that the robes of a peer, unattractive in their +ćsthetic aspect, have lost something of their popularity. [Laughter.] +Again, the black velvet coat, with which we are accustomed to associate +deep thought and artistic instincts, has become a little faded. +[Laughter.] + +I am told, and told four or five times every day in speeches delivered +in various parts of the country, that I have no right to offer a +criticism without offering a suggestive remedy. Well, Sir Frederic, I am +prepared to offer my remedy for what it is worth, and for that reason I +ask your co-operation. Why should not a committee of the Royal Academy +gather together in order to find some chaste and interesting national +costume, in which the distinguished men of the nineteenth century might +descend to posterity without the drawbacks which I have pointed out? +Robespierre had such a costume designed, and other great sumptuary +legislators have had the same idea in their minds; and I would not push +the suggestion so far as to imply that we should be compelled to wear +this costume in ordinary life. It might be one kept to gratify the +artistic instincts of those to whom we sit. [Laughter.] And I will make +a practical suggestion by which this costume--when you, sir, have +selected it--might be associated with the ordinary run of life. It might +be made an official costume of a justice of the peace, and in that way +the great mass of our fellow-countrymen, with only a few and +insignificant exceptions, of whom I am one, might descend to remotest +posterity in a graceful, becoming, and official costume. [Laughter.] + +I pass on from that, because I should not limit myself to portraiture in +a great survey of this kind; and I may say that I am seriously concerned +for the prospects of landscape painting in this country. I have of late +been doing a great deal of light travelling in behalf of the respectable +firm which I represent [laughter], and I beg at once to give notice, in +the hearing of the noble marquis who is more to your left [Lord +Salisbury], that I now nail to the counter any proposal to call me a +political bagman as wanting in originality and wit. [Laughter.] + +But I have been doing a certain amount of light travelling in behalf of +our excellent and creditable firm. The other day, on returning from +Manchester, I was deeply and hideously impressed with the fact that all +along that line of railway which we traversed, the whole of a pleasing +landscape was entirely ruined by appeals to the public to save their +constitutions but ruin their ćsthetic senses by a constant application +of a particular form of pill. [Laughter and cheers.] + +Now, Sir Frederic, I view that prospect with the gravest misgiving. What +is to become of our English landscape if it is to be simply a sanitary +or advertising appliance? [Laughter.] I appeal to my right honorable +friend the Chancellor of the Duchy [James Bryce], who sits opposite to +me. His whole heart is bound up in a proposition for obtaining free +access to the mountains of the Highlands. But what advantage will it be +to him, or to those whose case he so justly and eloquently espouses, if +at the top of Schiehallion, or any other mountain which you may have in +your mind's eye, the bewildered climber can only find an advertisement +of some remedy of the description of which I have mentioned [cheers], an +advertisement of a kind common, I am sorry to say, in the United +States--and I speak with reverence in the presence of the ambassador of +that great community--but it would be in the Highlands distressing to +the deer and infinitely perplexing even to the British tourist. +[Laughter and cheers.] + +But I turned my eyes mentally from the land, and I said that, after all, +the great painter of the present may turn to the sea, and there at least +he is safe. There are effects on the ocean which no one can ruin, which +not even a pill can impair. [Laughter.] But I was informed in +confidence--it caused me some distress--that the same enterprising firm +which has placarded our rural recesses, has offered a mainsail free of +expense to every ship that will accept it, on condition that it bears +the same hideous legend upon it to which I have referred. [Laughter.] +Think, Mr. President, of the feelings of the illustrious Turner if he +returned to life to see the luggers and the coasting ships which he has +made so glorious in his paintings, converted into a simple vehicle for +the advertisement of a quack medicine--although I will not say "quack," +because that is actionable [laughter]--I will say of a medicine of which +I do not know the properties. [Laughter.] + +But I turned my eyes beyond the land and ocean, and I turned them to the +heavens, and I said, "There, at any rate, we are safe." The painter of +the present may turn his eye from the land and ocean, but in the skies +he can always find some great effect which cannot be polluted. At this +moment I looked from the railway-carriage window, and I saw the skeleton +of a gigantic tower arising. It had apparently been abandoned at a lofty +stage, possibly in consequence of the workmen having found that they +spoke different languages at the height at which they had arrived. +[Laughter.] I made inquiries, and I found that it was the enterprise of +a great speculator, who resides himself on a mountain, and who is +equally prepared to bore under the ocean or ascend into the heavens. I +was given to understand that this admirable erection comprised all the +delights of a celestial occupation without any detachment from +terrestrial pursuits. [Laughter.] But I am bound to say that if +buildings of that kind are to cover this country, and if they are to be +joined to the advertising efforts to which I have alluded, neither +earth, nor sea, nor sky in Great Britain will be fit subject for any +painter. [Cheers.] + +What, then, is the part of Her Majesty's Government in this critical and +difficult circumstance? We have--no, I will not say we have, because +there would be a protest on the left--but different governments have +added allotments to the attractions of rural neighborhoods. I venture to +think that an allotment is not an unpicturesque thing. Certainly, small +holdings are more picturesque than large holdings, but I do not say that +from the point of view in which Sydney Smith said that the difference +between the picturesque and the beautiful was that the rector's horse +was beautiful, and that the curate's horse was picturesque. [Laughter.] +I simply mean that a small holding is more picturesque than a large +holding, and I think we may hope that the parish councils, if they meet, +as they did in primeval times, under the shade of some large spreading +oak, and not in the public house which we so much fear, as their +headquarters, may yet add a picturesque feature to the rural landscape +of Great Britain. + +But there is one feature at which a government can always aim as adding +to the landscape of Great Britain. In a very famous but too little read +novel, "Pelham," by the late Lord Lytton, there is a passage which +always struck me greatly. It is where Pelham goes to see an uncle from +whom he is to inherit a great estate, and he asks what the uncle has +done to beautify that exquisite spot. The uncle says that he has done +nothing but added the most beautiful feature of landscape, which is +happy faces. Well, the Government in its immediate neighborhood has +little to do with making happy faces. [Laughter.] It certainly does not +make its opponents happy, except on rare occasions when it leaves +office, and it is not always so fortunate as to make its supporters +happy. [Laughter.] But I believe that in this country all governments do +aim in their various ways and methods at making a happy population +around them; and in that respect, in adding happy faces to the +landscape, whether we fail or whether we succeed, we have a good-will in +the work, and I am quite sure we have the hearty encouragement of the +great and brilliant assembly which I address. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA + + +FRIEND AND FOE + + [Speech of George Augustus Sala at a banquet given in his honor by + the Lotos Club, January 10, 1885. The President, Whitelaw Reid, sat + at the centre table, having on his right hand the guest of the + evening. He said, in welcoming Mr. Sala: "The last time we met here + it was my pleasant duty to give your welcome to an old friend. Now + you make it my duty--still a pleasant one--to give your welcome to + an old enemy. ["Hear! Hear!"] Yes; an old enemy! We shall get on + better with the facts by admitting them at the outset. Our guest + was more or less against us in the great struggle twenty years ago + in which everybody now wishes to be thought to have been with us. + He did not believe this nation would down the slaveholders' + rebellion and he did not want it to; and he wrote frankly as he + believed and wished. [Laughter.] He never made any disguise about + it then or since; and for that, at least, we think the better of + him! [Applause.] He came of a slaveholding family; many personal + and social influences drew him toward those of our countrymen who + were on the wrong side; and now that it is all over, we bear no + malice! [Applause.] More than that; we are heartily glad to see + him. The statute of limitations runs in his favor; and his old + opinions are outlawed. He revisited the country long after the + war--and he changed his mind about it. He thought a great deal + better of us; and we in turn found his letters a great deal + pleasanter reading. We like a man who can change his mind + [applause]; and if a bit of international frankness may be + permitted in the good-fellowship of this board, perhaps I may + venture to add that we particularly like to discover that trait in + an Englishman! [Applause and laughter.] We've changed our minds--at + least about some things. We've not only forgiven our countrymen; + whom our guest used to sympathize with; but we have put--and are + getting ready to put--the most of them into office! What we are + most anxious about just now is, whether they are going to forgive + us! Seriously, gentlemen, we are very glad to see Mr. Sala here + again. He was a veteran in the profession in which so many of you + are interested, worthily wearing the laurels won in many fields, + and enjoying the association, esteem, and trust of a great master + whose fame the world holds precious, when the most of us were + fledglings. We all know him as a wit, a man of letters, and a man + of the world. Some of us have known him also in that pleasanter + character of all clubmen described in the old phrase, 'a jolly + good fellow.' On the other side of the Atlantic the grasp he gives + an American hand is a warm one; and we do not mean that in New York + he shall feel away from home. I give you, gentlemen, 'The health + and prosperity of George Augustus Sala.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LOTOS CLUB: I am under the +deepest feeling of gratitude to Mr. Whitelaw Reid for having torn the +mask from the face of the stealthy conspirator, for having exposed the +wily plotter and insidious libeller, and defied the malignant +Copperhead. [Applause.] I thought that I had long ago been choked with +that venom; but no, it rises still and poisons all that belongs to his +otherwise happy condition. Gentlemen, I am indeed an enemy of the United +States. I am he who has come here to requite your hospitalities with +unfounded calumny and to bite the hand that has fed me. Unfortunately +there are so many hands that have fed me that it will take me from this +time until to-morrow morning to bite all the friendly hands. + +With regard to events that took place twenty years ago and of which I +was an interested spectator, I may say that albeit I was mistaken; but +the mistake was partaken of by many hundred thousands of my +fellow-countrymen, who had not the courage subsequently to avow that +they had been mistaken, but yet set to curry favor with the North by +saying that they had always been their friends. The only apology--if +apology I should choose to make--would be this: that that which I had to +say against you I said while I was in your midst, when I was living at +the Brevoort House; and when my letters came weekly back from England; +and when it was quite in your power to have ridden me out on a rail or +to have inflicted on me any of the ordinary visitations which a +malignant Copperhead was supposed to deserve. But you did not do so, and +I remember that when I left New York, I had quite as many good, kind, +cordial friends on the Union League side as I had on the Democratic +side. I would say further that when I came to publish my letters I found +that there were many statements which I had made, which seemed to me to +have been hasty and inconsiderate, and I did my best to modify them; and +I did not wait until I got home to malign the people from whom I had +received hospitality. + +But I have been indeed an enemy to the United States; so much so that +when I came here again in 1879-80 with my wife, the enemy was received +on all sides with the greatest kindness and cordiality. So much am I an +enemy to the United States, that for years while I was connected with +the weekly paper called "The Echo" there was hardly a week when I did +not receive scores of letters from Americans from every part of the +Union--from down South, from the West, the North, and the East--full of +kindly matter and expressions bearing out the idea that I am a friend +rather than an enemy to the United States. And I know perfectly well +that there is no American who comes to London, be he lawyer, +diplomatist, actor, artist, or man of letters, but I am always glad to +see him, and always glad to show him, that, although an enemy, I still +retain some feelings of gratitude toward my friends in the United +States. + +I have seen it stated in one of your remarkably versatile and "Graphic" +journals that I have boasted of having come here with the idea of making +some money in the United States. But bless your hearts and souls, +gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I assure you that I have no such idea! +[Laughter.] I am really speaking to you seriously when I say that it was +by merest accident that upon taking my ticket for Australia, I was told +by my energetic manager that I might see a most interesting and +picturesque country by crossing the Rocky Mountains and embarking at San +Francisco, instead of going by way of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. I +had seen your Rocky Mountains, it is true, but I had seen them in March; +and now I shall see them at the end of January, and that is really one +of the main purposes of my journey. If from time to time in my passage I +do deliver a few incoherent utterances, these utterances will not be +prompted by any desire for pelf. That is far from my thoughts, but still +if anyone wants to pay two dollars, or seventy-five cents, to hear those +incoherent utterances you may be assured that my managers and myself +will do our utmost to devote the funds accruing therefrom to purposes of +mercy and of charity. [Applause.] I am sure you believe every word that +I say; and that Australia is my objective. [Laughter.] + +But, seriously, I only conclude by saying that I do not believe a word +of what your President has said. He does not believe now that for the +past twenty years I have been and am an enemy of the United States. We +were blinded, many of us, for the time being; we took a wrong lane for +the time, just as many of your tourists and many of your Radicals have +taken the wrong lane in England; but I think that differences of opinion +should never alter friendships. And when we consider the number of years +that have elapsed; when we consider that the wounds which I saw red and +gaping and bleeding are now healed, scarcely leaving a scar, I think +that the enemy might now be regarded as a friend; and that whatever +unkind feelings were begotten in that terrible time should be now buried +in the Red Sea of oblivion. [Applause.] There never before was a time +when it was so expedient for England to say to America: "Don't quarrel!" + +England is surrounded by enemies--by real enemies who hate her. Why? +Because she tries to be honest; and she tries to be free. She is hated +by Germans; and Germany equally hates the institutions of this country, +because she sees the blood and the bone of intelligent Germany coming to +the United States and becoming capable citizens, instead of carrying the +needle-musket at home. She is hated by France, because France has got a +Republic which she calls democratic and social, but which is still a +tyranny--and the worst of all tyrannies, because the tyrant is a mob. I +do not disguise the fact that we are surrounded by foes of every +description; and for that reason and because blood is thicker than +water, I say to Americans that, inasmuch as we have atoned for past +offences (the Alabama and all other difficulties having been settled), +no other difficulty should be permitted to rise; and if there be a place +in all the world where real peace may be secured and perfect freedom +reign, England and America should there join hands as against all the +world in arms. [Applause.] + +I have nothing more to say, except to entreat you to pardon my somewhat +serious utterances because of the many painful reminiscences which your +good-natured sarcasm has brought to my lips, although softened by the +kindly and genial terms in which you have received me, and I beg you to +accept the grateful expression of my heartfelt gratitude for this +glorious reception. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD SALISBURY + +(ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOYNE-CECIL) + + +KITCHENER IN AFRICA + + [Speech of Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, at a banquet given + in honor of Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, by the Lord Mayor of + London, Right Hon. Horatio David Davies, at the Mansion House, + London, November 4, 1898.] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--The task has been placed in my hands of proposing the +toast of the evening: "The Health of the Sirdar." [Loud cheers.] It is +the proud prerogative of this city that, without any mandate from the +Constitution, without any legal sanction it yet has the privilege of +sealing by its approval the reputation and renown of the great men whom +this country produces; and the honors which it confers are as much +valued and as much desired as any which are given in this country. +[Cheers.] It has won that position not because it has been given to it, +but because it has shown discrimination and earnestness and because it +has united the suffrage of the people in the approval of the course that +it has taken and of the honors it has bestowed. [Cheers.] My Lord Mayor, +it is in reference to that function which you have performed to-day and +the most brilliant reception which has been accorded to the Sirdar that +I now do your bidding and propose his health. [Cheers.] But if the task +would be in any circumstances arduous and alarming, it is much more so +because all that can be said in his behalf has already been said by more +eloquent tongues than mine. I have little hope that I can add anything +to the picture that has been already drawn [allusion to previous +speeches made by the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord +Rosebery], but no one can wonder at the vast enthusiasm by which the +career of this great soldier has been received in this city. It is not +merely his own personal qualities that have achieved it. It is also the +strange dramatic interest of the circumstances, and the conditions under +which his laurels have been won. [Cheers.] + +It has been a long campaign, the first part of which we do not look back +to with so much pleasure because we had undertaken a fearful task +without a full knowledge of the conditions we had to satisfy or the real +character of the foes to whom we were opposed. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +remembrance of that heroic figure whose virtues and whose death are +impressed so deeply upon the memory of the whole of the present +generation of Englishmen, the vicissitudes of those anxious campaigns in +which the most splendid deeds of gallantry were achieved are yet fresh +in the minds of the English people and Lord Rosebery has not exaggerated +when he has said that the debt was felt deeply in the mind of every +Englishman, however little they might talk of it at the time and when +the opportunity arrived with what eagerness, in spite of any possible +discouragement--with what eagerness the opportunity was seized. +[Cheers.] It was a campaign--the campaign which your gallant guest has +won--it was a campaign marked by circumstances which have seldom marked +a campaign in the history of the world. [Cheers.] I suppose that +wonderful combination of all achievements and discoveries of modern +science, in support of the gallantry and well-tried strategy of a +British leader--I suppose these things have not been seen in our history +before. [Cheers.] But the note of this campaign was that the Sirdar not +only won the battles which he was set to fight, but he furnished himself +the instruments by which they were won, or rather, I should say, he was +the last and perhaps by the nature of the circumstances the most +efficient of a list of distinguished men whose task it has been to +rescue the Egyptian army from inefficiency and contempt in order to put +it on the pinnacle of glory it occupies now. [Cheers.] + +I remember in our debates during that terrible campaign of 1884-85 a +distinguished member of the Government of that day observing with +respect to Egyptian troops that they were splendid soldiers if only +they would not run away. [Laughter.] + +It was a quaint way of putting it, but it was very accurate. They had +splendid physique; they had great fidelity and loyalty to their chiefs; +they had many of the qualities of the soldier, but like men who had been +recruited under the slave whip, and who had been accustomed to the +methods of despotism, they had not that courage which can only be +obtained by freedom and by united military training. [Cheers.] What they +lacked has been supplied to them, and the Egyptian army, as it has +issued from the hands of Sir Evelyn Wood, Sir Francis Grenfell, and the +Sirdar, is a magnificent specimen of the motive power of the English +leader. [Cheers.] We do not reflect on it, yet if we have any interest +in the administrative processes that go on in various parts of the +Empire we cannot help being impressed by the fact that numbers on +numbers of educated young men, who at home, in this country, would show +no very conspicuous qualities except those we are accustomed to look for +in an English gentleman, yet, if thrown on their own resources, and +bidden to govern and control and guide large bodies of men of another +race, they never or hardly ever fall short of the task which has been +given to them; but they will make of that body of promising material +splendid regiments by which the Empire of England is extended and +sustained. [Cheers.] + +It is one of the great qualities of the Sirdar that he has been able to +direct the races that are under him, to make them effective and loyal +soldiers, to attach them to himself, and insure their good conduct in +the field of battle. [Cheers.] He has many other qualities upon which I +might dilate if time permitted. Lord Cromer, who I am glad to see Lord +Rosebery noted as one who ought to have his full share in any honors you +confer on those who have built up Egyptian prosperity, who is one of the +finest administrators the British race has ever produced--Lord Cromer is +in the habit of saying that the Sirdar has almost missed his vocation, +and that if he was not one of the first generals in the world, he would +be one of the first Chancellors of the Exchequer. [Laughter and cheers.] +I daresay many people think it a small thing that a soldier should be +able to save money [laughter], but it is not so if you will only +conceive for yourselves the agony of mind with which in former times the +Chancellors of the Exchequer or financial members of the Council have +received from time to time accounts of brilliant victories, knowing all +the time what a terrible effect upon the ultimate balance of the budget +those victories will entail. [Laughter.] It is a hazardous thing to say, +but I am almost inclined to believe that the Sirdar is the only general +that has fought a campaign for Ł300,000 less than he originally promised +to do it. [Laughter.] It is a very great quality, and if it existed more +generally, I think that terror which financiers entertain of soldiers, +and that contempt which soldiers entertain for financiers would not be +so frequently felt. ["Hear! Hear!" and laughter.] + +Well, then, the Sirdar has another great quality: he is a splendid +diplomatist. It would require talents of no small acuteness and +development to enable him to carry to so successful a result as he did +that exceedingly delicate mission up the Nile which conducted him into +the presence of Major Marchand. The intercourse of that time has ended +apparently in the deepest affection on both sides [laughter]--certainly +in the most unrestricted and unstinted compliments and expressions of +admiration and approval. I think these things show very much for the +diplomatic talents of the Sirdar. He recently expressed his hope that +the differences which might have arisen from the presence of Major +Marchand would not transcend the powers of diplomacy to adjust. I am +glad to say that up to a certain point he has proved a true prophet. +[Cheers.] I received from the French Ambassador this afternoon the +information that the French Government had come to the conclusion that +the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of value to the French +Republic. [Loud cheers and some laughter.] And they thought that in the +circumstances to persist in an occupation which only cost them money and +did them harm merely because some bad advisers thought it might be +disagreeable to an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom by +which I think the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they +have done what I believe the government of any other country would have +done, in the same position--they have resolved that that occupation must +cease. [Cheers.] A formal intimation of that fact was made to me this +afternoon and it has been conveyed to the French authorities at Cairo. I +believe that the fact of that extremely difficult juxtaposition between +the Sirdar and Major Marchand has led to a result which is certainly +gratifying and, to some extent, unexpected; and that it is largely due +to the chivalrous character and diplomatic talents which the Sirdar +displayed on that occasion. [Cheers.] I do not wish to be understood as +saying that all causes of controversy are removed by this between the +French Government and ourselves. It is probably not so, and I daresay we +shall have many discussions in the future; but a cause of controversy of +a somewhat acute and dangerous character has been removed and we cannot +but congratulate ourselves upon that. [Cheers.] + +I will only say that alike in his patient and quiet forethought, lasting +over three years, in his brilliant strategy on the field of battle, in +his fearless undertaking of responsibility and his contempt of danger, +and last but not least in the kindness and consideration which he +displayed for men who were for a moment in a position of antagonism to +himself--in these things he has shown a combination of the noblest +qualities which distinguish the race to which he belongs and by the +exercise of which the high position of England in this generation in the +world and in her great Empire has been won. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON + + +VICTORY IN SUPERIOR NUMBERS + + [Speech of Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson at a banquet given in + his honor by citizens of Boston, Mass., February 6, 1899. Hon. + Richard Olney presided on the occasion.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I rise to thank you for your most +generous greeting for myself, for my friends, and for all of the Navy +that you have included in the various remarks which have been made. I +want you to understand that I do not take it all to myself, but that +this is divided with all the men; and while with great hesitation I +attempt to make a speech at all, I feel that this is an opportunity +which should not be thrown away. I do not propose to say anything, as +you might expect, about the battle of Santiago, but I would like to say +a few words about the lessons which we have learned, or should learn, +from that battle. + +First, I would say that neither that battle nor any other that I know +of, was won by chance. It requires an adequate means to accomplish such +a result. That battles are not won by chance, you have only to consider +for a moment a few--one or two--of the principal battles of the world. +Not that I mean to class the battle of Santiago as one of the great +battles of the world--but just as an illustration. You will see the +result of adequate means in the case of the battle of Waterloo, for +instance. When we remember that Wellington fought that battle with +130,000 men opposed to Napoleon's 80,000, we are not surprised that it +was Wellington's battle. Take another decisive battle--Sedan. When the +Germans had 125,000 men opposed to 84,000, it does not seem possible +that the result could have been anything else. + +So we might go over a long list. The sea fights furnish many instances +where it was found that the most powerful fleet was the one that was +successful. Nelson was always in favor of overwhelming fleets, though he +did not have them always at his command. Our own war of 1812 furnishes +numerous instances where our victories depended upon the superior force. +It seems unnecessary that such self-evident truths should be stated +before this assemblage of intelligent gentlemen, but we are apt to +forget that a superior force is necessary to win a victory. As I said +before, victory is not due to chance. Had superior force not been our +own case at the battle of Santiago, had it been the reverse, or had it +been materially modified, what turned out to be a victory might have +been a disaster; and that we must not forget. + +The second lesson, if we may call it so, is closely allied, perhaps, to +the first. Shall we learn the lesson which is taught us in this recent +war? Shall we rest on the laurels which we may have won, or shall we +prepare for the future? Shall we not imagine our foe in the future, as +might well be the case, to be superior to the one over which we have +been victorious? It is a question that comes home to us directly. On +July 3d, when Cervera was returned, on board the "Iowa," to the mouth of +the harbor at Santiago, he requested permission to send a telegram +reporting the state of the case to Captain-General Blanco. Of course, no +objection was raised to this, and Cervera wrote out a telegram and sent +it on board the flagship to be scrutinized and forwarded to Blanco. He +stated in this telegram that he obeyed his (General Blanco's) orders and +left the harbor of Santiago at 9.30 Sunday morning, and "now," he said, +"it is with the most profound regret that I have to report that my fleet +has been completely destroyed. We went out to meet the forces of the +enemy, which outnumbered us three to one." + +I had so much sympathy with old Admiral Cervera that I did not have it +in my heart to modify or change in any respect the report which he +proposed to make to Captain-General Blanco. I felt that the truth would +be understood in the course of time, and that while I would not now, or +then, under any circumstances, admit that he was outnumbered in the +proportion of three to one, I still felt that he should be at liberty to +defend himself in that manner. + +The fleets that were opposed to each other on that Sunday morning were, +as regards the number of the ships, about six to seven. Leaving out the +torpedo-destroyers and the "Gloucester," which may be said not to have +been fighting ships, the proportion was six to four. The fleet of the +Spaniards consisted of four beautiful ships. I think I am stating the +case within bounds when I say that they were--barring their condition at +that time, which, of course, we did not all know, in many respects--that +they were all our imaginations had led us to suppose. We outnumbered +them, but this is only another illustration of the fact which I wish to +bring before you, that it is necessary to have a superior force to make +sure of victory in any case. + +It seems to me that you, gentlemen, who are so influential in +determining and deciding what the Navy of the United States should be, +should bear this emphatically in mind--that we must have more ships, +more guns, and all that goes to constitute an efficient navy. I am not +advocating a large navy. I do not believe that we should support a large +navy, but that it should be much larger than it is at present I think +you will all concede. The increased territory which we have added to our +country will probably produce an increase in our chances for war by at +least one hundred per cent.--not that we need increase the Navy to that +extent--but probably will. + + + + +NOAH HUNT SCHENCK + + +TRUTH AND TRADE + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Hunt Schenck at the 110th annual banquet + of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, + May 14, 1878. In introducing Dr. Schenck, the President, Samuel D. + Babcock, said: "The loose manner in which the Dinner Committee have + conducted their business is now becoming evident. The chairman has + got considerably mixed on the toasts. You may recollect that the + toast to which Dr. Chapin responded referred to twins [Rev. Dr. + Edwin H. Chapin had spoken to the toast 'Commerce and Capital, twin + forerunners of civilization and philanthropy'], and here is one + that refers to matrimony, and it is very evident that this one + ought to have preceded the other. [Laughter and applause.] Eighth + regular toast, 'Truth and Trade: those whom God hath joined + together, let no man put asunder.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It were an ambitious effort to +hold the attention of this distinguished body directly after its ears +had been ravished by the eloquent deliverances of the finished orators +who have just preceded me. In fact, I can scarcely imagine why you +enlist another voice from Brooklyn, unless it be to show that there is a +possibility of exhausting Brooklyn, and you would make it my sad office +to afford you the illustration. [Applause.] + +The Chairman said at the beginning that the best speeches were to be at +the last. You have already discovered that this was designed for irony, +for thus far the speeches have been incomparable, but mine is to be the +beginning of the end. [Laughter and applause.] + +I know that what I say is true when I charge the Chairman with irony, +for do not I feel his iron entering my soul? [Laughter and applause.] It +is an act of considerable temerity, even though the ground has been so +gracefully broken by the Rev. Dr. Chapin, for a clergyman to rise +before this common-sense body of three hundred business men (unless we +had you in our churches), for you well know that this precious quality +of common sense is supposed to have its habitat almost entirely with +business men, and rarely with the clergy. + +I know full well that the men of the pulpit are held to be wanting in +practical knowledge, and that we know but little of the dark and devious +ways of this naughty world. So that, rising here, I feel as if I were +but a little one among a thousand, and yet I would venture to submit +that the clergy are not wholly unpractical. Nay, I sometimes am led to +think that the men of my cloth are the most practical, common-sense +business men in the world. [Laughter and applause.] + +There is certainly no class of men who can make so little go so far, who +can live so comfortably on such small incomes, who can fatten on +pastures where the members of this Chamber of Commerce would starve. +[Applause and laughter.] There is no class of men that go through life +in such large proportion without bankruptcy. [Laughter and applause.] + +While 25,000 merchants in the United States during the four years from +1871 to 1875 failed in business, with liabilities amounting to +$800,000,000 (I quote statistics from accepted authority), I do not +believe that one-quarter of that number of clergymen failed [laughter +and applause], or that their liabilities amounted to anything like that +sum. [Laughter and applause.] I have seen the estimate that eighty-five +per cent. of merchants fail within two years after they embark in +business, notwithstanding their common sense, and that only three per +cent, make more money in the long run than is enough for a comfortable +livelihood. + +Having thus attempted to fortify my waning "Dutch courage" by an +off-hand attack upon my hospitable entertainers, and having in some +sense, even though it be Pickwickian, vindicated my cloth, let me go on +for a moment and cut my garment according to it. [Laughter and +applause.] + +I have been asked to say a word upon the wedlock of Truth and Trade, and +advocate the idea that what in the nature of things has been joined +together of God, should not, should never be sundered by man. We know +that Truth is eternal. Trade, thank God, is not. [Laughter and +applause.] Still, so far as time and earth are concerned, trade endures +from first to last and everywhere. God married it to truth with the fiat +that men should eat bread in the sweat of their faces. From that moment +men have been wrangling in every court of conscience and society to +secure decrees of divorce. How manifold and multitudinous the tricks, +dodges, and evasions to which men have resorted to be rid of the work +which conditions bread. [Laughter and applause.] The great art of life +in the estimate of the general, said a great economist, is to have +others do the face-sweating and themselves the bread-eating. [Laughter +and applause.] + +But all along the line of the centuries the divine utterances have given +forth with clarion clearness that God would have men illustrate morals +and religion in the routine of business life. And so in all the upper +levels of civilization we observe that society points with pride to the +integrity that is proof against the temptations of trade. The men who +have honored sublime relations of business and religion are they whom +the world has delighted to honor. With but rare exceptions trade, +wherever it has been prosperous, has had truth for its wedded partner. +For the most part, wherever men have achieved high success in traffic, +it has been not upon the principle that "Honesty is the best policy," +for honesty is never policy, but upon the basis of fidelity to truth and +right under every possible condition of things. The man who is honest +from motives of policy will be dishonest when policy beckons in that +direction. The men who have illumined the annals of trade are those who +have bought the truth and sold it not, who held it only to dispense it +for the welfare of others. + +We cannot too highly honor the temper of that generation of business men +who half a century ago sternly refused to compromise with any form of +deceit in the details of traffic, visiting with the severest penalties +those who at all impinged upon the well-accepted morals of trade. The +story is told of a young merchant who, beginning business some fifty +years ago, overheard one day a clerk misrepresenting the quality of some +merchandise. He was instantly reprimanded and the article was unsold. +The clerk resigned his position at once, and told his employer that the +man who did business that way could not last long. But the merchant did +last, and but lately died the possessor of the largest wealth ever +gathered in a single lifetime. + +Permit me another incident and this not from New York, but Philadelphia. +One of the Copes had but just written his check for $50 for some local +charity, when a messenger announced the wreck of an East Indiaman +belonging to the firm, and that the ship and cargo were a total loss. +Another check for $500 was substituted at once, and given to the agent +of the hospital with the remark: "What I have God gave me, and before it +all goes, I had better put some of it where it can never be lost." +[Applause.] + +Such illustrations as these are not infrequent in the biographies of +those noble men who in days gone by as well as in our own times, have +never divorced truth from trade, but have always reverenced the sacred +relations. I dare venture the remark that the prosperity of a nation is +more largely dependent upon the probity of its merchants than upon any +other one class of men. [Applause.] This because of their numbers, their +influence over so many who are subject to them in business, and their +close relation to, and important control over, the financial interests +of the country. + +What a wide area of opportunity is afforded in the counting-room, where +so many students of trade are preparing for the uncertain future! +Accept, I beseech you, the responsibility of moulding the characters of +your young men and so prepare a generation of merchants who shall know +of nothing but honesty and honor, and who will cherish nobility of +sentiment in all their business transactions. [Applause.] + +And can you not help the world abroad as well as at home? I believe that +merchants engaged in commerce with foreign nations, have it within the +scope and purview of their business relations to do as much for the +propagation of Christian truth as the Church itself. If your ventures +are intrusted to the direction of men of character; if your agents are +men who recognize in practice the morals of the religion they profess, +you will not only not negative as now, alas! but too often the efforts +of the Church's envoys, by the frequent violations of Christian law, on +the part of those who propose to be governed by it; but through the +illustrations you can send out of Christian consistency--by the living +representatives of our higher civilization, which you can furnish to +remote nations, to say nothing of the voluntary agency in scattering the +printed powers of our faith in all quarters of the globe, how much may +not be accomplished in this and in other ways by your men and your +ships--Trade thus travelling round the world with Truth by her side, +helping each other and healing the nations. [Applause.] + + + + +WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY + + +THE NAVY IN PEACE AND IN WAR + + [Speech of Winfield S. Schley at the eighteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1898. The President, Stephen W. Dana, presented Admiral Schley in + these words: "Admiral Schley needs no introduction from me--he + speaks for himself."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I am very +much in the condition of the gentleman who, being about to be married +and having had his wedding suit brought home a day before the event, +returned it to the tailor with instructions to increase the girth just +two inches. His explanation was that not enough room had been left to +accommodate the wedding breakfast he had to eat or for the emotion that +was to follow the event. + +I am always glad to meet my countrymen anywhere and everywhere. They +stand for all that is representative; they stand for all that is +progressive; they stand for all that represents humanity, and they stand +for all that is fair-minded, high-minded, and honorable. As to those of +us who by the circumstances of our service are obliged to pass the +greater part of our lives away from home, away from kindred, and away +from the flag, it may be difficult to understand how to keep the altar +of one's patriotism burning when we are separated from the sweetest and +kindest influences of life and performing a service and a duty that are +outside of the public observation. But there is a large-heartedness at +home that never forgets us. We are bound to our country by ties that are +not only sweet in their nature, but the circumstances of service +generate a love of home and a patriotism that are the surest guarantees +of the welfare and the safety of our people. + +The Navy is that arm of the public defence the nature of whose duties is +dual in that they relate to both peace and war. In times of peace the +Navy blazes the way across the trackless deep, maps out and marks the +dangers which lie in the routes of commerce, in order that the peaceful +argosies of trade may pursue safe routes to the distant markets of the +world, there to exchange the varied commodities of commerce. It +penetrates the jungle and the tangle of the inter-tropical regions. It +stands ready to starve to death or to die from exposure. It pushes its +way into the icy fastnesses of the North or of the South, in order that +it may discover new channels of trade. It carries the influence of your +power and the beneficent advantages of your civilization to the secluded +and hermit empires of the Eastern world, and brings them into touch with +our Western civilization and its love of law for the sake of the law +rather than for fear of the law's punishments. It stands guard upon the +outer frontiers of civilization, in pestilential climates, often exposed +to noisome disease, performing duties that are beyond the public +observation but yet which have their happy influence in maintaining the +reputation and character of our country and extending the civilizing +agency of its commerce. + +The bones of the officers and men of the Navy lie in every country in +the world, or along the highways of commerce; they mark the +resting-places of martyrs to a sense of duty that is stronger than any +fear of death. The Navy works and strives and serves, without any +misgivings and without any complaints, only that it may be considered +the chief and best guardian of the interests of this people, of the +prestige of this nation, and of the glory and renown of its flag. + +These are some of the duties of peace, which has its triumphs "no less +renowned than war." But it is the martial side of the Navy that is the +more attractive one to us. It is that side of its duty which presents to +us its characters who have written their names and their fames in fire. +No matter what may be our ideas of civilization or how high our notions +of peace, there is no one of us who has not felt his heart beat a little +bit faster and his blood course a little bit more rapidly when reading +of the daring and thrilling deeds of such men as John Paul Jones or of +Decatur or of Stewart or of Hull or of Perry or of MacDonald or of +Tatnall or of Ingram or of Cushing or of Porter or of Farragut. + +The war so happily ended has added new names to the galaxy of naval +worthies. New stars are in the firmament. The records indicate that your +naval representatives have been faithful to the lesson of their +traditions, that they have been true to their history, whilst the men of +our Navy have shown that they have lost none of the skill and none of +the tact that they have inherited. But they have proven again that a +generation of men who are able to defend their title to the spurs they +inherited are proper successors to their progenitors. [Applause.] + + + + +HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN + + +THE BEGINNINGS OF ART + + [Speech of Heinrich Schliemann at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 5, 1877. Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent + architect, took the chair in the absence of Sir Frederick Grant, + the President of the Academy. In introducing Dr. Schliemann, Sir + Gilbert Scott spoke as follows: "There is one gentleman present + among us this evening who has special claims upon an expression of + our thanks. Antiquarian investigation is emphatically a subject of + our own day. More has been discovered of the substantial vestiges + of history in our own than probably in any previous age; and it + only needs the mention of the names of Champollion, Layard, + Rawlinson, and Lipsius to prove that we have in this age obtained a + genuine knowledge of the history of art as practised in all + previous ages. Not only have we obtained a correct understanding of + the arts of our own race as exemplified in our own medićval + antiquities, but lost buildings of antiquity such as the Egyptian + labyrinth, the palace of Nineveh, the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, + the temple and statues of Olympia, and the temple of Diana at + Ephesus have been re-discovered and disinterred. ["Hear! Hear!"] + There remained, however, one great hiatus. We knew something of the + more archaic periods of Greek art, and we knew that on the gate of + Mycenć there were evidences of an art far more archaic and + apparently not allied with true Hellenic art, but we knew no more + nor had an idea how the great gulf in art history was to be bridged + over. It still remains a great gulf, but Dr. Schliemann by his + excavations, first on the site of Troy and then of Mycenć, has + brought to open daylight what, without prejudging questions as yet + _sub judice_, seem to be the veritable works of the heroes of the + Iliad; and if he has not yet actually solved the mysteries which + shroud that age, he has brought before us a perfect wealth of fact + at the least calculated to sharpen our antiquarian appetite for + more certain knowledge. Knowing that Dr. Schliemann is like one in + old times, who, while longing to tell of the Atrides and of Cadmus, + yet allowed the chords of his heart to vibrate to softer + influences, I will, while proposing his health, conjoin with his + name that of his energetic fellow-explorer, Madame Schliemann."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--You have been pleased +to confer upon me two of the greatest honors which this country can +possibly bestow upon a foreigner--first, by your kind invitation to this +hospitable banquet to meet the most illustrious statesmen, the most +eminent scholars, and the most distinguished artists; and secondly, by +your toast to my health. In warmly thanking you, I feel the greatest +satisfaction to think that for these signal honors, I am solely indebted +to my labors in Troy and Mycenć. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +In Troy art was only in its first dawn; color was still completely +unknown, and instead of painting, the vases were decorated with incised +patterns filled with white clay. The productions of sculpture were +limited to carving of small flat idols of Minerva [Greek: glaukôpis][6] +of marble, almost in the forms of two discs, which adhered to each +other, and upon which the owl's face is rudely scratched. The Trojan +treasure certainly shows more art, but it is characterized by an absence +of ornamentation. In Mycenć, on the contrary, the monuments which I have +brought to light show a high state of civilization, and the skill with +which the gold ornaments are made leads us to pre-suppose a school of +domestic artists which had flourished for ages before it reached such +perfection. + +The very great symmetry we see also in the vase-paintings and in the +carvings of spirals and rosettes on stone, whereas representations of +men or animals are exceedingly rude and appear to be the primitive +Mycenean sculptor's first essay. But rude as they are, and childish as +they look, these primitive productions of Greek art are of paramount +interest to science, because we see in them the great-grandfathers of +the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxiteles; they prove to us in the most +certain manner that the artistic genius of the epoch of Pericles did not +come suddenly down from heaven like Minerva from the head of Jove, but +that it was the result of a school of artists, which had gradually +developed in the course of ages. + +Once more, I tender my thanks for the patience with which you have +listened to a stranger. ["Hear! Hear!"] + + + + +CARL SCHURZ + + +THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW + + [Speech of Carl Schurz at a banquet given by the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, November 5, 1881, + in honor of the guests of the Nation, the French diplomatic + representatives in America, and members of the families descended + from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General Lafayette, Count + de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben, and others, who + were present at the centennial celebration of the victory at + Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, Vice-President of the + Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast, "The Old World and the + New," to which Carl Schurz was called upon for a response.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--If you +had been called upon to respond to the toast: "The Old World and the +New" as frequently as I have, you would certainly find as much +difficulty as I find in saying anything of the Old World that is new or +of the New World that is not old. [Applause.] + +And the embarrassment grows upon me as I grow older, as it would upon +all of you, except perhaps my good friend, Mr. Evarts, who has +determined never to grow old, and whose witty sayings are always as good +as new. [Laughter.] Still, gentlemen, the scenes which we have been +beholding during the last few weeks have had something of a fresh +inspiration in them. We have been celebrating a great warlike event--not +great in the number of men that were killed in it, but very great in the +number of people it has made happy. It has made happy not only the +people of this country who now count over fifty millions, but it has +made happier than they were before the nations of the Old World, too; +who, combined, count a great many more. [Applause.] + +American Independence was declared at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, by +those who were born upon this soil, but American Independence was +virtually accomplished by that very warlike event I speak of, on the +field of Yorktown, where the Old World lent a helping hand to the New. +[Applause.] To be sure, there was a part of the Old World consisting of +the British, and I am sorry to say, some German soldiers, who strove to +keep down the aspirations of the New, but they were there in obedience +to the command of a power which they were not able to resist, while that +part of the Old World which fought upon the American side was here of +its own free will as volunteers. [Cheers.] + +It might be said that most of the regular soldiers of France were here +also by the command of power, but it will not be forgotten that there +was not only Lafayette, led here by his youthful enthusiasm for the +American cause, but there was France herself, the great power of the Old +World appearing as a volunteer on a great scale. [Cheers.] So were there +as volunteers those who brought their individual swords to the service +of the New World. There was the gallant Steuben, the great organizer who +trained the American army to victory, a representative of that great +nation whose monuments stand not only upon hundreds of battle-fields of +arms, but whose prouder monuments stand upon many more battle-fields of +thought. [Cheers.] There was Pulaski, the Pole, and DeKalb who died for +American Independence before it was achieved. And there were many more +Frenchmen, Germans, Swedes, Hollanders, Englishmen even, who did not +obey the behests of power. [Cheers.] And so it may be said that the +cause of the New World was the cause of the volunteers of the Old. And +it has remained the cause of volunteers in peace as well as in war, for +since then we have received millions of them, and they are arriving now +in a steady stream, thousands of them every week; I have the honor to +say, gentlemen, that I am one of them. [Cheers.] + +Nor is it probable that this volunteering in mass will ever stop, for it +is in fact drawn over here by the excitement of war as much as by the +victories of peace. It was, therefore, natural that the great +celebration of that warlike event should have been turned or rather that +it should have turned itself into a festival of peace on the old field +of Yorktown--peace illustrated by the happy faces of a vast multitude, +and by all the evidence of thrift and prosperity and well-being; peace +illustrated by the very citizen-soldiery who appeared there to ornament +as a pageant, with their brilliant bayonets that peaceful festival; +peace illustrated by the warmth of a grand popular welcome offered to +the honored representatives of the Old World; peace illustrated, still +more, by their friendly meeting upon American soil whatever their +contentions at home may have been; peace glorified by what has already +been so eloquently referred to by Dr. Storrs and Mr. Evarts; that solemn +salute offered to the British flag, to the very emblem of the old +antagonism of a hundred years ago; and that salute, echoing in every +patriotic American heart, to be followed as the telegraph tells us now, +by the carrying of the American flag in honor in the Lord Mayor's +procession in London--all this a cosmopolitan peace festival, in which +the Old World sent its representatives to join in rejoicing over the +prosperity and progress of the New. [Cheers.] + +There could hardly have been a happier expression of this spirit of +harmony than was presented in the serenade offered to these +gentlemen--representatives of the honored name of Steuben on the evening +of their arrival in New York, the band playing first "The Watch on the +Rhine," followed by the "Marseillaise" and "God Save the Queen," and +then the martial airs of the Old World resolving themselves into the +peaceful strains of the crowning glory of "Hail, Columbia!" and "Yankee +Doodle." [Cheers.] + +The cordiality of feeling which binds the Old and the New World +together, and which found so touching, so tender, so wonderful an +expression in the universal heartfelt sorrow of all civilized mankind at +the great national bereavement, which recently has befallen us [the +assassination of President Garfield], can hardly fail to be strengthened +by this visit of the Old World guests whom we delight to honor. +[Cheers.] + +They have seen now something of our country, and our people; most of +them, probably, for the first time, and I have no doubt they have +arrived at the conclusion that the country for which Lafayette and +Steuben and Rochambeau fought is a good country, inhabited by a good +people [cheers]; a good country and a good people, worthy of being +fought for by the noblest men of the earth; and I trust also when these +gentlemen return to their own homes they will go back with the assurance +that the names of their ancestors who drew their swords for American +liberty stand in the heart of every true American side by side with the +greatest American names, and that, although a century has elapsed since +the surrender of Yorktown, still the gratitude of American hearts is as +young and fresh and warm to-day as it was at the moment when Cornwallis +hauled down his flag. [Applause.] + +It seems to me also, gentlemen, that we have already given some +practical evidence of that gratitude. The independence they helped to +achieve has made the American nation so strong and active and prosperous +that when the Old World runs short of provisions, the New stands always +ready and eager even, to fill the gap, and by and by we may even send +over some products of other industries for their accommodation. +[Applause.] + +In fact, we have been so very liberal and generous in that respect, that +some of our friends on the other side of the sea are beginning to think +that there may be a little too much of a good thing, and are talking of +shutting it off by tricks of taxation. [Laughter.] However, we are not +easily baffled. Not content with the contribution of our material +products, we even send them from time to time, some of our wisdom, as, +for instance, a few months ago, our friend, Mr. Evarts, went over there +to tell them about the double standard--all that we knew and a good deal +more. [Laughter.] We might even be willing to send them all the +accumulated stock of our silver, if they will give us their gold for it. +[Cheers.] It is to be apprehended that this kind of generosity will not +be fittingly appreciated and in that respect they may prefer the wisdom +of the Old World to that of the New. [Laughter.] + +However, we shall not quarrel about that, for seriously speaking, the +New and the Old World must and will, in the commercial point of view, be +of infinite use one to another as mutual customers, and our commercial +relations will grow more fruitful to both sides from year to year, and +from day to day, as we remain true to the good old maxim: "Live and let +live." [Cheers.] Nor is there the least speck of danger in the horizon +threatening to disturb the friendliness of an international +understanding between the Old World and the New. That cordial +international understanding rests upon a very simple, natural, and solid +basis. We rejoice with the nations of the Old World in all their +successes, all their prosperity, and all their happiness, and we +profoundly and earnestly sympathize with them whenever a misfortune +overtakes them. But one thing we shall never think of doing, and that +is, interfering in their affairs. [Cheers.] + +On the other hand they will give us always their sympathy in good and +evil as they have done heretofore, and we expect that they will never +think of interfering with our affairs on this side of the ocean. [Loud +cheers.] Our limits are very distinctly drawn, and certainly no just or +prudent power will ever think of upsetting them. The Old World and the +New will ever live in harmonious accord as long as we do not try to jump +over their fences and they do not try to jump over ours. [Cheers.] + +This being our understanding, nothing will be more natural than +friendship and good-will between the nations of the two sides of the +Atlantic. The only danger ahead of us might be that arising from +altogether too sentimental a fondness for one another which may lead us +into lovers' jealousies and quarrels. Already some of our honored guests +may feel like complaining that we have come very near to killing them +with kindness; at any rate, we are permitted to hope that a hundred +years hence our descendants may assemble again to celebrate the memory +of the feast of cordial friendship which we now enjoy, and when they do +so, they will come to an American Republic of three hundred millions of +people, a city of New York of ten million inhabitants, and to a +Delmonico's ten stories high with a station for airships running between +Europe and America on the top of it [cheers], and then our guests may +even expect to find comfortable hotels and decent accommodations at the +deserted village of Yorktown. [Laughter and cheers.] + +But, in the meantime, I am sure our Old World guests who to-night +delight us with their presence, will never cease to be proud of it that +the great names of which they are the honored representatives are +inscribed upon some of the most splendid pages of the New World's +history, and will live forever in the grateful affection of the New +World's heart. [Loud applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD + + +A PIOUS PILGRIMAGE + + [Speech of William H. Seward at a banquet held at Plymouth, Mass., + December 21, 1855. Preceding this banquet Mr. Seward delivered an + oration on "The Pilgrims and Liberty." The speech here given is his + response to the toast proposed at the banquet, "The Orator of the + Day, eloquent in his tribute to the virtues of the Pilgrims; + faithful, in his life, to the lessons they taught."] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--The Puritans were Protestants, but they +were not protestants against everybody and everything, right or wrong. +They did not protest indiscriminately against everything they found in +England. On the other hand, we have abundant indications in the works of +genius and art which they left behind them that they had a reverence for +all that is good and true; while they protested against everything that +was false and vicious. They had a reverence for the good taste and the +literature, science, eloquence, and poetry of England, and so I trust it +is with their successors in this once bleak and inhospitable, but now +rich and prosperous land. They could appreciate poetry, as well as good +sense and good taste, and so I call to your recollection the language of +a poet who had not loomed up at the time of the Puritans as he has +since. It was addressed to his steed, after an ill-starred journey to +Islingtontown. The poet said:-- + + "'Twas for your pleasure you came here, + You shall go back for mine." + +Being a candid and frank man, as one ought to be who addresses the +descendants of the Puritans, I may say that it was not at all for your +pleasure that I came here. Though I may go back to gratify you, yet I +came here for my own purposes. The time has passed away when I could +make a distant journey from a mild climate to a cold though fair region, +without inconvenience; but there was one wish, I might almost say there +was only one wish of my heart that I was anxious should be gratified. I +had been favored with many occasions to see the seats of empire in this +western world, and had never omitted occasions to see where the seats of +empire were planted, and how they prospered. I had visited the capital +of my own and of many other American States. I had regarded with +admiration the capital of this great Republic, in whose destinies, in +common with you all, I feel an interest which can never die. I had seen +the capitals of the British Empire, and of many foreign empires, and had +endeavored to study for myself the principles which have prevailed in +the foundation of states and empires. With that view I had beheld a city +standing where a migration from the Netherlands planted an empire on the +bay of New York, at Manhattan, or perhaps more properly at Fort Orange. +They sought to plant a commercial empire, and they did not fail; but in +New York now, although they celebrate the memories and virtues of +fatherland, there is no day dedicated to the colonization of New York by +the original settlers, the immigrants from Holland. I have visited +Wilmington, on Christina Creek, in Delaware, where a colony was planted +by the Swedes, about the time of the settlement of Plymouth, and though +the old church built by the colonists still stands there, I learned that +there did not remain in the whole State a family capable of speaking the +language, or conscious of bearing the name of one of the thirty-one +original colonists. + +I have stood on the spot where a treaty was made by William Penn with +the aborigines of Pennsylvania, where a seat of empire was established +by him, and, although the statue of the good man stands in public +places, and his memory remains in the minds of men, yet there is no day +set apart for the recollection of the time and occasion when civil and +religious liberty were planted in that State. I went still farther +south, and descending the James River, sought the first colony of +Virginia at Jamestown. There remains nothing but the broken, ruined +tower of a poor church built of brick, in which Pocahontas was married, +and over the ruins of which the ivy now creeps. Not a human being, bond +or free, is to be seen within a mile from the spot, nor a town or city +as numerously populated as Plymouth, on the whole shores of the broad, +beautiful, majestic river, between Richmond at the head, and Norfolk, +where arms and the government have established fortifications. Nowhere +else in America, then, was there left a remembrance by the descendants +of the founders of colonies, of the virtues, the sufferings, the +bravery, the fidelity to truth and freedom of their ancestors; and more +painful still, nowhere in Europe can be found an acknowledgment or even +a memory of these colonists. In Holland, in Spain, in Great Britain, in +France, nowhere is there to be found any remembrance of the men they +sent out to plant liberty on this continent. So on the way to the +Mississippi, I saw where De Soto planted the standard of Spain, and, in +imagination at least, I followed the march of Cortez in Mexico, and +Pizarro in Peru; but their memory has gone out. Civil liberty perishes, +and religious liberty was never known in South America; nor does Spain, +any more than other lands, retain the memory of the apostles she sent +out to convert the new world to a purer faith, and raise the hopes of +mankind for the well-being of the future. + +There was one only place, where a company of outcasts, men despised, +contemned, reproached as malcontents and fanatics, had planted a colony, +and that colony had grown and flourished; and there had never been a day +since it was planted that the very town, and shore, and coast, where it +was planted had not grown and spread in population, wealth, prosperity, +and happiness, richer and stronger continually. It had not only grown +and flourished like a vigorous tree, rejoicing in its own strength, but +had sent out offshoots in all directions. Everywhere the descendants of +these colonists were found engaged in the struggles for civil and +religious liberty, and the rights of man. I had found them by my side, +the champions of humanity, upon whose stalwart arms I might safely rely. + +I came here, then, because the occasion offered, and if I pretermitted +this, it might be the last, and I was unwilling that any friend or any +child, who might lean upon me, who reckoned upon my counsel or advice, +should know that I had been such a truant to the cause of religious +liberty and humanity, as never to have seen the Rock of Plymouth. + +My mission being now accomplished, having shed tears in the first church +of the Puritans, when the heartfelt benediction was pronounced over my +unworthy head by that venerable pastor, I have only to ask that I be +dismissed from further service with your kind wishes. I will hold the +occasion ever dear to my remembrance, for it is here I have found the +solution of the great political problem. Like Archimedes, I have found +the fulcrum by whose aid I may move the world--the moral world--and that +fulcrum is Plymouth Rock. + + + + +WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN + + +THE ARMY AND NAVY + + [Speech of General William T. Sherman at the first annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. + The President, Benjamin D. Silliman, on announcing the toast, "The + Army and Navy--Great and imperishable names and deeds have + illustrated their history," said: "In response to this toast, I + have the privilege of calling on the great Captain who commands the + armies of the Republic; of whom it has been said, that he combines + the skill and valor of the soldier, with the wisdom of the + statesman, and whose name will ever live in the history of the + nation. We shall have the great satisfaction of listening to + General Sherman."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--While in Washington I was +somewhat embarrassed by receiving invitations from two different New +England societies to dine with them on different days in commemoration +of the same event. I hoped, under cover of that mistake, to escape one +or the other, but I find that each claims its day to be the genuine +anniversary of the landing of their Fathers on Plymouth Rock. I must +leave some of you to settle this controversy, for I don't know whether +it was the 21st or 22d; you here in Brooklyn say the 21st; they in New +York say it was the 22d. Laboring under this serious doubt, when I came +on the stand and found my name enrolled among the orators and statesmen +present, and saw that I was booked to make a speech, I appealed to a +learned and most eloquent attorney to represent me on this occasion. I +even tried to bribe him with an office which I could not give; but he +said that he belonged to that army sometimes described as "invincible in +peace, invisible in war." [Laughter.] He would not respond for me. +Therefore I find myself upon the stand at this moment compelled to +respond, after wars have been abolished by the Honorable Secretary of +State, and men are said to have risen to that level where they are never +to do harm to each other again--with the millennium come, in fact, God +grant it may be so? [Applause.] + +I doubt it. I heard Henry Clay announce the same doctrine long before +our Civil War. I heard also assertions of the same kind uttered on the +floor of our Senate by learned and good men twenty years ago when we +were on the very threshold of one of the most bloody wars which ever +devastated this or any other land. Therefore I have some doubt whether +mankind has attained that eminence where it can look backward upon wars +and rumors of war, and forward to a state of perpetual peace. + +No, my friends, I think man remains the same to-day, as he was in the +beginning. He is not alone a being of reason; he has passions and +feelings which require sometimes to be curbed by force; and all prudent +people ought to be ready and willing to meet strife when it comes. To be +prepared is the best answer to that question. [Applause.] + +Now my friends, the toast you have given me to-night to respond to is +somewhat obscure to me. We have heard to-night enumerated the principles +of your society--which are called "New England ideas." They are as +perfect as the catechism. [Applause and laughter.] I have heard them +supplemented by a sort of codicil, to the effect that a large part of +our country--probably one-half--is still disturbed, and that the +Northern man is not welcome there. I know of my own knowledge that +two-thirds of the territory of the United States are not yet settled. I +believe that when our Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, they +began the war of civilization against barbarism, which is not yet ended +in America. The Nation then, as Mr. Beecher has well said, in the strife +begun by our fathers, aimed to reach a higher manhood--a manhood of +virtue, a manhood of courage, a manhood of faith, a manhood that aspires +to approach the attributes of God Himself. + +Whilst granting to every man the highest liberty known on earth, every +Yankee believes that the citizen must be the architect of his own +fortune; must carry the same civilization wherever he goes, building +school-houses and churches for all alike, and wherever the Yankee has +gone thus far he has carried his principles and has enlarged New England +so that it now embraces probably a third or a half of the settled part +of America. That has been a great achievement, but it is not yet +completed. Your work is not all finished. + +You who sit here in New York, just as your London cousins did two +hundred and fifty years ago, know not the struggle that is beyond. At +this very moment of time there are Miles Standishes, under the cover of +the snow of the Rocky Mountains, doing just what your forefathers did +two hundred and fifty years ago. They have the same hard struggle before +them that your fathers had. You remember they commenced in New England +by building log cabins and fences and tilling the sterile, stony, soil, +which Mr. Beecher describes, and I believe these have been largely +instrumental in the development of the New England character. Had your +ancestors been cast on the fertile shores of the lower Mississippi, you +might not be the same vigorous men you are to-day. Your fathers had to +toil and labor. That was a good thing for you, and it will be good for +your children if you can only keep them in the same tracks. But here in +New York and in Brooklyn, I do not think you now are exactly like your +forefathers, but I can take you where you will see real live Yankees, +very much the same as your fathers were. In New York with wealth and +station, and everything that makes life pleasant, you are not the same +persons physically, though you profess the same principles, yet as +prudent men, you employ more policemen in New York--a larger proportion +to the inhabitants of your city than the whole army of the United States +bears to the people of the United States. You have no Indians here, +though you have "scalpers." [Applause and laughter.] You have no +"road-agents" here, and yet you keep your police; and so does our +Government keep a police force where there are real Indians and real +road-agents, and you, gentlemen, who sit here at this table to-night who +have contributed of your means whereby railroads have been built across +the continent, know well that this little army, which I represent here +to-night, is at this moment guarding these great roadways against +incursions of desperate men who would stop the cars and interfere with +the mails and travel, which would paralyze the trade and commerce of the +whole civilized world, that now passes safely over the great Pacific +road, leading to San Francisco. Others are building roads north and +south, over which we soldiers pass almost yearly, and there also you +will find the blue-coats to-day, guarding the road, not for their +advantage, or their safety, but for your safety, for the safety of your +capital. + +So long as there is such a thing as money, there will be people trying +to get that money; they will struggle for it, and they will die for it +sometimes. We are a good-enough people, a better people it may be than +those of England, or France, though some doubt it. Still we believe +ourselves a higher race of people than have ever been produced by any +concatenation of events before. [Laughter.] We claim to be, and whether +it be due to the ministers of New England, or to the higher type of +manhood, of which Mr. Beecher speaks--which latter doctrine I prefer to +submit to--I don't care which, there is in human nature a spark of +mischief, a spark of danger, which in the aggregate will make force as +necessary for the government of mankind as the Almighty finds the +electric fluid necessary to clear the atmosphere. [Applause.] + +You speak in your toast of "honored names"; you are more familiar with +the history of your country than I am, and know that the brightest pages +have been written on the battle-field. Is there a New Englander here who +would wipe "Bunker Hill" from his list for any price in Wall Street? Not +one of you! Yet you can go out into Pennsylvania and find a thousand of +bigger hills which you can buy for ten dollars an acre. It is not +because of its money value, but because Warren died there in defence of +your government which makes it so dear to you. Turn to the West. What +man would part with the fame of Harrison and of Perry? They made the +settlement of the great Northwest by your Yankees possible. They opened +that highway to you, and shall no honor be given to them? Had it not +been for the battles on the Thames by Harrison, and by Perry on Lake +Erie, the settlement of the great West would not have occurred by New +England industry and thrift. Therefore I say that there is an eloquence +of thought in those names as great as ever was heard on the floor of +Congress, or in the courts of New York. [Applause.] + +So I might go on, and take New Orleans, for example, where General +Jackson fought a battle with the assistance of pirates, many of them +black men and slaves, who became free by that act. There the black man +first fought for his freedom, and I believe black men must fight for +their freedom if they expect to get it and hold it secure. Every white +soldier in this land will help him fight for his freedom, but he must +first strike for it himself. "Who would be free, themselves must strike +the blow." [Cheers.] That truth is ripening, and will manifest itself in +due time. I have as much faith in it as I have that the manhood, and +faith, and firmness, and courage of New England has contributed so much +to the wealth, the civilization, the fame, and glory of our country. +There is no danger of this country going backward. The Civil War settled +facts that remain recorded and never will be obliterated. Taken in that +connection I say that these battles were fought after many good and wise +men had declared all war to be a barbarism--a thing of the past. The +fields stained with patriotic blood will be revered by our children and +our children's children, long after we, the actors, may be forgotten. +The world will not stop; it is moving on; and the day will come when all +nations will be equal "brothers all," when the Scotchman and the +Englishman will be as the son of America. We want the universal humanity +and manhood that Mr. Beecher has spoken of so eloquently. You Yankees +don't want to monopolize all the virtues; if you do, you won't get them. +[Laughter.] + +The Germans have an industry and a type of manhood which we may well +imitate. We find them settling now in South America, and in fact they +are heading you Yankees off in the South American trade. It won't do to +sit down here and brag. You must go forth and settle up new lands for +you and your children, as your fathers did. That is what has been going +on since Plymouth Rock, and will to the end. The end is not yet, but +that it will come and that this highest type of manhood will prevail in +the end I believe as firmly as any man who stands on this floor. It will +be done not by us alone, but by all people uniting, each acting his own +part; the merchant, the lawyer, the mechanic, the farmer, and the +soldier. But I contend that so long as man is man there is a necessity +for organized force, to enable us to reach the highest type of manhood +aimed at by our New England ancestors. [Loud applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE WAR + + [Speech of General William T. Sherman at the eighty-first annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1886. Judge Horace Russell presided and introduced General + Sherman as a son of New England whom the Society delighted to + honor. The toast proposed was, "Health and Long Life to General + Sherman." The General was visibly affected by the enthusiastic + greeting he received when he rose to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF NEW +YORK:--Were I to do the proper thing, I would turn to my friend on +the left [T. DeWitt Talmage] and say, Amen; for he has drawn a glorious +picture of war in language stronger than even I or my friend, General +Schofield, could dare to use. But looking over the Society to-night--so +many young faces here, so many old and loved ones gone--I feel almost as +one of your Forefathers. [Laughter and applause.] Many and many a time +have I been welcomed among you. I came from a bloody Civil War to New +York twenty or twenty-one years ago, when a committee came to me in my +room and dragged me unwillingly before the then New England Society of +New York. They received me with such hearty applause and such kindly +greetings that my heart goes out to you now to-night as their +representatives. [Applause.] God knows I wish you, one and all, the +blessings of life and enjoyment of the good things you now possess, and +others yet in store for you. + +I hope not to occupy more than a few minutes of your time, for last +night I celebrated the same event in Brooklyn, and at about two or three +o'clock this morning I saw this hall filled with lovely ladies waltzing +[laughter], and here again I am to-night. [Renewed laughter. A voice, +"You're a rounder, General."] But I shall ever, ever recur to the early +meetings of the New England Society, in which I shared, with a pride and +satisfaction which words will not express; and I hope the few I now say +will be received in the kindly spirit they are made in, be they what +they may, for the call upon me is sudden and somewhat unexpected. + +I have no toast. I am a rover. [Laughter.] I can choose to say what I +may--not tied by any text or formula. I know when you look upon old +General Sherman, as you seem to call him [Oh, oh!]--pretty young yet, my +friends, not all the devil out of me yet, and I hope still to share with +you many a festive occasion--whenever you may assemble, wherever the +sons of New England may assemble, be it here under this Delmonico roof, +or in Brooklyn, or even in Boston, I will try to be there. [Applause.] + +My friends, I have had many, many experiences, and it always seems to me +easier to recur to some of them when I am on my feet, for they come back +to me like the memory of a dream, pleasant to think of. And now, +to-night, I know the Civil War is uppermost in your minds, although I +would banish it as a thing of trade, something too common to my calling; +yet I know it pleases the audience to refer to little incidents here and +there of the great Civil War, in which I took a humble part. [Applause.] +I remember, one day away down in Georgia, somewhere between, I think, +Milledgeville and Millen, I was riding on a good horse and had some +friends along with me to keep good-fellowship. [Laughter.] A pretty +numerous party, all clever good fellows. [Renewed laughter.] Riding +along, I spied a plantation. I was thirsty, rode up to the gate and +dismounted. One of these men with sabres by their side, called +orderlies, stood by my horse. I walked up on the porch, where there was +an old gentleman, probably sixty years of age, white-haired and very +gentle in his manners--evidently a planter of the higher class. I asked +him if he would be kind enough to give me some water. He called a boy, +and soon he had a bucket of water with a dipper. I then asked for a +chair, and called one or two of my officers. Among them was, I think, +Dr. John Moore, who recently has been made Surgeon-General of the Army, +for which I am very glad--indebted to Mr. Cleveland. [Laughter and +applause.] We sat on the porch, and the old man held the bucket, and I +took a long drink of water, and maybe lighted a cigar [laughter], and it +is possible I may have had a little flask of whiskey along. [Renewed +laughter.] + +At all events, I got into a conversation; and the troops drifted along, +passing down the roadway closely by fours, and every regiment had its +banner, regimental or national, sometimes furled and sometimes afloat. +The old gentleman says:-- + +"General, what troops are these passing now?" + +As the color-bearer came by, I said: "Throw out your colors. That is the +39th Iowa." + +"The 39th Iowa! 39th Iowa! Iowa! 39th! What do you mean by 39th?" + +"Well," said I, "habitually, a regiment, when organized, amounts to +1,000 men." + +"Do you pretend to say Iowa has sent 39,000 men into this cruel Civil +War?" [Laughter.] + +"Why, my friend, I think that may be inferred." + +"Well," says he, "where's Iowa?" [Laughter.] + +"Iowa is a State bounded on the east by the Mississippi, on the south by +Missouri, on the west by unknown country, and on the north by the North +Pole." + +"Well," says he, "39,000 men from Iowa! You must have a million men." + +Says I: "I think about that." + +Presently another regiment came along. + +"What may that be?" + +I called to the color-bearer: "Throw out your colors and let us see," +and it was the 21st or 22d Wisconsin--I have forgotten which. + +"Wisconsin! Northwest Territory! Wisconsin! Is it spelled with an O or a +W?" + +"Why, we spell it now with a W. It used to be spelled Ouis." + +"The 22d! that makes 22,000 men?" + +"Yes, I think there are a good many more than that. Wisconsin has sent +about 30,000 men into the war." + +Then again came along another regiment from Minnesota. + +"Minnesota! My God! where is Minnesota?" [Laughter.] "Minnesota!" + +"Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi River, a +beautiful Territory, too, by the way--a beautiful State." + +"A State?" + +"Yes; has Senators in Congress; good ones, too. They're very fine +men--very fine troops." + +"How many men has she sent to this cruel war?" + +"Well, I don't exactly know; somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 men, +probably. Don't make any difference--all we want." [Laughter.] + +"Well," says he, "now we must have been a set of fools to throw down the +gage of battle to a country we didn't know the geography of!" [Laughter +and applause.] "When I went to school that was the Northwest Territory, +and the Northwest Territory--well," says he, "we looked upon that as +away off, and didn't know anything about it. Fact is, we didn't know +anything at all about it." + +Said I: "My friend, think of it a moment. Down here in Georgia, one of +the original thirteen States which formed the great Union of this +country, you have stood fast. You have stood fast while the great +Northwest has been growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my +friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of +cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more +colleges--more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened +State--than the whole State of Georgia." + +"My God," says the man, "it's awful. I didn't dream of that." + +"Well," says I, "look here, my friend; I was once a banker, and have +some knowledge of notes, indorsements, and so forth. Did you ever have +anything to do with indorsements?" + +Says he: "Yes, I have had my share. I have a factor in Savannah, and I +give my note and he indorses it, and I get the money somehow or other. I +have to pay it in the end out of the crop." + +"Well," says I, "now look here. In 1861 the Southern States had +4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States of Pennsylvania, New +York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so forth, were indorsers. We were on +the bond. Your slaves were protected by the same law which protects land +and other property. Now, you got mad at them because they didn't think +exactly as you did about religion, and about this thing and t'other +thing; and like a set of fools you first took your bond and drew your +pen through the indorser's names. Do you know what the effect will be? +You will never get paid for those niggers at all." [Laughter.] "They are +gone. They're free men now." + +"Well," says he, "we were the greatest set of fools that ever were in +the world." [Laughter.] + +And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State of Georgia before I +left it. [Laughter and applause.] + +Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to us, but the +decree came from a higher power. No pen, no statesman, in fact, no +divine could have solved the riddle which bound us at that time; nothing +but the great God of War. And you and your fathers, your ancestors, if +you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had to resort to the +great arbiter of battles, and call upon Jove himself. And now all men in +America, North and South, East and West, stand free before the tribunal +of the Almighty, each man to work out his own destiny according to his +ability, and according to his virtue, and according to his manhood. +[Applause.] I assure you that we who took part in that war were kindly +men. We did not wish to kill. We did not wish to strike a blow. I know +that I grieved as much as any man when I saw pain and sorrow and +affliction among the innocent and distressed, and when I saw burning and +desolation. But these were incidents of war, and were forced upon +us--forced upon us by men influenced by a bad ambition; not by the men +who owned those slaves, but by politicians who used that as a pretext, +and forced you and your fathers and me and others who sit near me, to +take up arms and settle the controversy once and forever. [Cries of +"good," and loud applause.] + +Now, my friends of New England, we all know what your ancestors are +recorded to have been; mine were of the same stock. Both my parents were +from Norwalk, Connecticut. I think and feel like you. I, too, was taught +the alphabet with blows, and all the knowledge I possessed before I went +to West Point was spanked into me by the ferule of those old +schoolmasters. [Laughter.] I learned my lesson well, and I hope that +you, sons of New England, will ever stand by your country and its flag, +glory in the achievements of your ancestors, and forever--and to a day +beyond forever, if necessary, giving you time to make the journey to +your last resting-place--honor your blood, honor your Forefathers, honor +yourselves, and treasure the memories of those who have gone before you. +[Enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +BALLARD SMITH + + +THE PRESS OF THE SOUTH + + [Speech of Ballard Smith at the annual banquet given by the + Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1888. John C. Calhoun, + one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, presided. Mr. Smith + spoke to the toast, "The Press of the South."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The newspaper has always been a +potent factor in the South--for many years almost exclusively political, +but since the war occupying its more proper sphere and assisting more +largely in the material development of the country. I think every +Southern man will agree with me that the change of procession has been +to the very great advantage of our section. The columns of the +ante-bellum newspaper were too often the opportunity for the indulgence +of excited passions, political and social, and I doubt if our people +could not have better spared the newspaper altogether than to have +permitted the license of accusation, political incitement, and personal +rancor which characterized so largely the journals of thirty years ago. +[Applause.] But they were virile hands which held editorial pens in +those days and the faults were doubtless faults of the period rather +than of the men themselves. It was a splendid galaxy--that company which +included George D. Prentiss, Rhett, Forsythe, Hughes, Henry D. Wise, +John Mitchell, and Thomas Ritchie. + +But it is of Southern journalism during these last twenty years of which +I would speak. I have known something of it because my own +apprenticeship was served in one of the most brilliant journals of this +or any other time and of this or any other country. The services of +Henry Watterson to the South and to the country are a part of the +history of our time. [Applause.] His loyalty toward his section could +never have been doubted, and his firmness and broad patriotism served it +at a time of need to a degree which perhaps the firmness and patriotism +of no other man in the South could have equalled. He had for the vehicle +of his eloquent fervor a newspaper which commanded the affection of his +own people and the respect of the North. [Applause.] With the +restoration of order great newspapers--fair rivals to their great +contemporaries in the Eastern and Northern States--have grown to +prosperity in the various centres of the South, and they have acted out +a mission which is in some respects peculiar to themselves. + +More important than politics to the South, more important than the +advocacy of good morals--for of that our people took good care +themselves in city as in country--has been the material development of +our resources. The War left us very poor. The carpet-bag governments +stole a very large part of the little that was left. Injudicious +speculations in cotton during a few years of madness almost completed +our bankruptcy. With fertile fields, cheap labor, extraordinary mineral +resources, our almost undisputed control of one of the great staples of +the world, the year 1876 found us a prostrate people almost beyond +precedent. To this breach came several thoughtful, public-spirited, +eloquent men of the newspaper guild. It was our good fortune that in +Dawson of the "Charleston News and Courier," in Major Burke, Page M. +Baker, and Colonel Nicholson of New Orleans; in Major Belo of Galveston; +in the editors of "The Nashville Banner," "The American," "The Memphis +Appeal," "The Richmond Dispatch and State," and above all, in Henry W. +Grady, of "The Atlanta Constitution" [applause], we had spokesmen who, +day in and day out, in season and out, year after year devoted their +thoughts, their study, and their abilities to showing the world, first, +the sturdy intention of our people to recuperate their lost fortunes; +and second, the extraordinary resources of their section. [Applause.] +Certainly not in the history of my profession and perhaps not in any +history of such endeavor, have men, sinking mere personal interests and +ignoring the allurements of ambition, through a more dramatic exercise +of their talents so devoted themselves to the practical interests of +their people. [Applause.] We saw the results in the awakened curiosity +of the world, and in the speedy influx of capital to aid us in our +recuperation. [Applause.] + + + + +CHARLES EMORY SMITH + + +IRELAND'S STRUGGLES + + [Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the banquet given by the + Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, + 1887. Mr. Smith was introduced by the Society's President, John + Field, and called upon to speak to the toast, "The Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--These annual dinners of the +Hibernian Society, several of which I have had the honor of attending, +are distinguished by a peculiar association and spirit. The sons of +other nationalities, Englishmen, Welshmen, Scotchmen, Germans, and those +among whom I count myself--the sons of New England--are accustomed to +meet annually on the anniversary of a patron saint or on some great +historic occasion as you do. And those of us who have the opportunity of +going from one to the other will, I am sure, agree with me that nowhere +else do we find the patriotic fire and the deep moving spirit which we +find here. Something of this, Mr. President, is due to the buoyant +quality of blood which flows in every Irishman's veins--a quality which +makes the Irishman, wherever he may be and under all circumstances, +absolutely irrepressible. Something, I say, is due to this buoyant +quality of the Irish blood. Still, some of it is due to the fact that he +is moved by a deep sense of the woes and the wrongs, of the sadness and +the sorrows of his native land. Oppression and injustice only inflame +the spirit of nationality. The heel of the oppressor may crush and tear +the form or reduce the strength, but nothing crushes the inward resolve +of the heart. The Americans were never so American as when they revolted +against England and threw the tea overboard into Boston harbor, and +punished the Red-Coats at Bunker Hill. The heavy yoke of Austria rested +grievously upon Hungary, but they raised themselves in revolt and fought +fearlessly for their home rule, for their freedom and their rights. And +they were defeated by treason in their camps and by the combined forces +of Austria and Russia. Yet, sir, they persevered until they achieved +home rule--as will Ireland at no distant day. + +The long history of oppression and injustice in Ireland has not only not +extinguished the flame of Irish patriotism and feeling, but has served +to kindle it, to make it more glowing to-day than ever before. For seven +centuries Ireland has wrestled with and been subjected to misrule--to +England's misrule: a rule great and noble in many things, as her +priceless statesman says, but with this one dark, terrible stain upon an +otherwise noble history. Only a day or two ago there reached our shores +the last number of an English periodical, containing an article from the +pen of that great statesman, to whom not only all Ireland, but all the +civilized world is looking to-day to battle for freedom in England. The +article presents, in the most striking form that I have ever seen, +statements of what is properly called Ireland's demands. And I was +struck there with the most extraordinary statement coming from this +great statesman of England, of the character of England's rule, or +rather England's misrule, of Ireland during those seven centuries. For +all those centuries, he says, were centuries not only of subjection, but +of extreme oppression. The fifth century was the century of +confiscation; the sixth was a century of penal laws--penal laws, which, +he says, "we cannot defend and which we must condemn and wash our hands +of the whole proceedings"--a century of penal laws, except from 1778 to +1795, which he calls the golden age of Ireland. And as I stop for a +moment to recollect what had distinguished that period, and as you stop +here to-night and recollect for a single moment what had distinguished +that short period of that century and made it the golden age of Ireland, +you will understand why it was so called. It was the period when Henry +Grattan, the great leader of the first battle for home rule, poured +forth his learned and masterly eloquence; when Curran made his powerful +plea for religious emancipation. The period when Robert Emmet--to whom +such glorious tribute has been paid here to-night--was learning, in the +bright early morn of that career which promised to be so great and to do +so much, those lessons of patriotism which enabled him, when cut down in +the flower of youth, to meet even his ignominious death with marvellous +nerve and firm confidence, with courage and patriotism. + +And, Gentlemen, I believe that it is one glorious trait of the American +press that during this struggle which has gone on now for years, this +struggle for justice in Ireland, that the press of America has been true +to the best inspirations of liberty; and I unhesitatingly say to England +and to the English ministers, that if they would conform to the judgment +of the civilized world they must abandon their course of intoleration +and oppression, and must do justice to long oppressed Ireland. The +press, the united press of Philadelphia, and of other great cities of +the country, have done their part in promoting that work which has been +going on among our people for the last few years to attain this end. + +The press of Philadelphia aided in raising that magnificent fund of +$50,000 which went from this side; and if it need be, it will put its +hand to the plough and renew work. It was the remark of Mr. Gladstone, +that looking at past events, they [England] could not cite a single +witness in behalf of the cause which they represented. The American +people began their contributions in 1847, to prevent the starvation of +many of those people, and they continued their contributions to stop +evictions, and to pay the landlords; they continued their contributions +to promote that work of freedom and justice and home rule, for which we +stand united, inflexible and immovable until it shall be finally +accomplished. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE PRESIDENT'S PRELUDE + + [Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the thirteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1893. Mr. Smith, then President of the Society, delivered the usual + introductory address of the presiding officer, immediately after + ex-President Benjamin F. Harrison had spoken.] + + +HONORED GUESTS AND FELLOW-MEMBERS:--I am sure that you have +greatly enjoyed the brilliant and witty speech to which you have just +listened--a speech which shows that our distinguished guest is as +felicitous at the dinner-table as he is signally successful in other +fields of oratory. But if you have deluded yourself with the idea that +because of this change in the programme you are to escape the infliction +of the usual address by the President of the Society, it is now my duty +to undeceive you. [Laughter.] Even the keen reflections of General +Harrison respecting the prepared impromptu speeches shall not deter us. +The rest of us who are not as gifted as he is have expended too much +midnight oil and sacrificed too much of the gray matter of the brain to +lose our opportunity. You will see that we have anticipated his +impromptu observations by carefully premeditating our impromptu reply. +[Laughter.] Lord Beaconsfield said that Carlyle had reasons to speak +civilly of Cromwell, for Cromwell would have hanged him. [Laughter.] +General Harrison has been hanging the rest of us--yes, hanging and +quartering us--though this is far from being the only reason for +speaking civilly of him, and yet we must go on with the exhibition. + +You have observed that on the programme, as arranged by the Committee, +the first number is a prelude by the President and the last a hymn by +the Society. The Committee evidently intended to begin and end with +music. What particular solo they expect me to perform I am somewhat +uncertain. But the truth is you have already had a part of the music and +you will have the rest when I am done. For my part is only that of the +leader in the old Puritan choir--to take up the tuning fork and pitch +the key; and I do this when I say that we are assembled for the two +hundred and seventy-third time [laughter] to commemorate the landing of +the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. If any one doubts the correctness of that +chronology, let him consult Brothers Shortridge and Lewis and Clark and +Cornish, who have been with us from the beginning. [Laughter.] We have +met to celebrate these fourfathers [laughter], as well as some others, +and to glorify ourselves. If we had any doubts about the duty we owe our +ancestors, we have no scruples about the satisfaction we take in their +posterity. "My idea of first-rate poetry," said Josh Billings, "is the +kind of poetry that I would have writ." So our idea of first-rate +posterity is the kind of posterity we are. [Laughter.] + +But while not forgetting the posterity, it is not forbidden at these +dinners to make an occasional and casual allusion to the Pilgrim +Fathers. Thackeray tells us of an ardent young lady who had a devotion +of the same sort to "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted instruction, +she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted amusement, she read +"Nicholas Nickleby." When she had leisure, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." +When she was busy, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she was sick, she +read "Nicholas Nickleby," and when she got well, she read "Nicholas +Nickleby" over again. [Laughter.] We return with the same infrequent, +inconstant and uncertain fidelity to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers. +If we seek the light persiflage and airy humor of the after-dinner +spirit, we find an inexhaustible fountain in the quaint customs and odd +conceits of the Pilgrim Fathers. If we seek the enkindling fire and the +moral elevation of high principle and profound conviction and resolute +courage, we find a never-ceasing inspiration in the unfaltering +earnestness and imperishable deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Applause.] +After praying for all the rest of mankind, the good colored preacher +closed up with the invocation "And, finally, O Lord! bless the people of +the uninhabited portions of the globe." [Laughter.] We are sometimes as +comprehensive in our good-will as the colored brother; but to-night we +fix our thoughts upon that more limited portion of mankind which belongs +in nativity or ancestry to that more restricted part of the globe known +as New England. + +We are here to sing the praises of these sturdy people. They, too, +sang--and sang with a fervor that was celebrated in the memorable +inscription on one of the pews of old Salem Church:-- + + "Could poor King David but for once + To Salem Church repair, + And hear his Psalms thus warbled out, + Good Lord! how he would swear." + +And it was not in Salem Church, either, that the Psalms were sung with +the peculiar variations of which we have record. An enterprising +establishment proposed to furnish all the hymn-books to a congregation +not abundantly blessed with this world's goods, provided it might insert +a little advertisement. The thrifty congregation in turn thought there +would be no harm in binding up any proper announcement with Watt and +Doddridge; but when they assembled on Christmas morning, they started +back aghast as they found themselves singing-- + + "Hark! The herald angels sing, + Beecham's Pills are just the thing; + Peace on earth and mercy mild, + Two for man and one for child." + +But if the Pilgrim Fathers were not the sweetest warblers, they at least +never wobbled. They always went direct to their mark. As Emerson said of +Napoleon, they would shorten a straight line to get at a point. They +faced the terrors of the New England northeast blast and starved in the +wilderness in order that we might live in freedom. We have literally +turned the tables on them and patiently endure the trying hardships of +this festive board in order that their memories may not die in +forgetfulness. + +We can never forget the hardships which they were forced to endure, but +at the same time we must recognize that they had some advantages over +us. They escaped some of the inflictions to which we have been compelled +to submit. They braved the wintry blast of Plymouth, but they never knew +the everlasting wind of the United States Senate. [Laughter.] They +slumbered under the long sermons of Cotton Mather, but they never +dreamed of the fourteen consecutive hours of Nebraska Allen or Nevada +Stewart. They battled with Armenian dogmas and Antinomian heresies, but +they never experienced the exhilarating delights of the Silver debate +or throbbed under the rapturous and tumultuous emotions of a Tariff +Schedule. [Laughter.] + +They had their days of festivity. They observed the annual day of +Thanksgiving with a reverent, and not infrequently with a jocund, +spirit; but advanced as they were in many respects, they never reached +that sublime moral elevation and that high state of civilization which +enable us in our day to see that the only true way to observe +Thanksgiving is to shut up the churches and revel in the spiritual +glories of the flying wedge and the triumphant touchdown. [Laughter.] +Their calendar had three great red-letter days of celebration: +Commencement day, which expressed and emphasized the foremost place they +gave to education in their civil and religious polity; Training or +Muster day, which illustrated the spirit and the skill that gave them +victory over the Indians and made them stand undaunted on Bunker Hill +under Warren and Putnam until above the gleaming column of red-coats +they could look into the whites of the enemies' eyes; and Election day, +upon which, with its election sermon and its solemn choice of rulers, +they acted out their high sense of patriotic duty to the Commonwealth. +We are deeply concerned in these days about the debasement of the +ballot-box. Perhaps we could find a panacea in the practice of our +Pilgrim Fathers. They enacted a law that the right of suffrage should be +limited to church members in good standing. Suppose we had such a law +now, what a mighty revolution it would work either in exterminating +fraud or in promoting piety! "Men and Brethren!" said the colored +parson, "two ways are open before you, the broad and narrow way which +leads to perdition, and the straight and crooked way which leads to +damnation." [Laughter.] We have before us now the two ways of stuffed +ballot-boxes and empty pews, and our problem is to change the stuffing +from the ballot-boxes to the pews. I am not altogether sure which result +would be accomplished; but it is quite clear that if the law of our +Fathers did not destroy corruption in politics, it would at least kindle +a fresh interest in the church. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, it is with honest pride and fresh inspiration that we gather +once a year to revive our enkindling story. The Santa Maria, with its +antique form and its flying pennant, contrasting the past with the +present, amid the dazzling and now vanishing splendors of the wondrous +White City, has this year recalled the discovery of America. But the +jewel is more precious than the casket. The speaking picture appeals to +us more than its stately setting. And heroic as was the voyage of the +Santa Maria across a trackless sea to an unknown continent, it was the +nobler mission of the Mayflower to bring the priceless seeds of +principle and liberty which have blossomed in the resplendent +development and progress of our great free Republic. Conscience +incarnate in Brewster and Bradford, in Winthrop and Winslow, smote +Plymouth Rock; and from that hour there has poured forth from its rich +fountain a perennial stream of intellectual and moral force which has +flooded and fertilized a broad continent. The Puritan spirit was duty; +the Puritan creed was conscience; the Puritan principle was individual +freedom; the Puritan demand was organized liberty, guaranteed and +regulated by law. [Applause.] That spirit is for to-day as much as for +two centuries ago. It fired at Lexington the shot heard round the world, +and it thundered down the ages in the Emancipation Proclamation. It +lives for no narrow section and it is limited to no single class. The +soul that accepts God and conscience and equal manhood has the Puritan +spirit, whether he comes from Massachusetts or Virginia, from Vermont or +Indiana; whether you call him Quaker or Catholic, disciple of Saint +Nicholas or follower of Saint George. [Applause.] The Puritan did not +pass away with his early struggles. He has changed his garb and his +speech; he has advanced with the progress of the age; but in his +fidelity to principle and his devotion to duty he lives to-day as truly +as he lived in the days of the Puritan Revolution and the Puritan +Pilgrimage. His spirit shines in the lofty teachings of Channing and in +the unbending principles of Sumner, in the ripened wisdom of Emerson and +in the rhythmical lessons of Longfellow. The courageous John Pym was not +more resolute and penetrating in leading the great struggle in the Long +Parliament than was George F. Edmunds in the Senate of the United +States. And the intrepid and sagacious John Hampden, heroic in battle +and supreme in council, wise, steadfast, and true, was but a prototype +of Benjamin Harrison. + + + + +HERBERT SPENCER + + +THE GOSPEL OF RELAXATION + + [Speech of Herbert Spencer at a dinner given in his honor in New + York City, November 9, 1882. William M. Evarts presided.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Along with your kindness there +comes to me a great unkindness from Fate; for now, that above all times +in my life I need the full command of what powers of speech I possess, +disturbed health so threatens to interfere with them, that I fear I +shall often inadequately express myself. Any failure in my response you +must please ascribe, in part at least, to a greatly disordered nervous +system. Regarding you as representing Americans at large, I feel that +the occasion is one on which arrears of thanks are due. I ought to begin +with the time, some two and twenty years ago, when my highly valued +friend, Professor Youmans, making efforts to diffuse my books here, +interested on their behalf Messrs. Appleton, who have ever treated me so +honorably and so handsomely; and I ought to detail from that time onward +the various marks and acts of sympathy by which I have been encouraged +in a struggle which was for many years disheartening. + +But intimating thus briefly my general indebtedness to my numerous +friends most of them unknown on this side of the Atlantic, I must name +more especially the many attentions and proffered hospitalities met with +during my late tour as well as, lastly and chiefly, this marked +expression of the sympathies and good wishes which many of you have +travelled so far to give at great cost of that time which is so precious +to an American. I believe I may truly say that the better health which +you have so cordially wished me will be in a measure furthered by the +wish; since all pleasurable emotion is conducive to health, and as you +will fully believe, the remembrance of this evening will ever continue +to be a source of pleasurable emotion exceeded by few if any of my +remembrances. + +And now that I have thanked you sincerely though too briefly, I am going +to find fault with you. Already in some remarks drawn from me respecting +American affairs and American character, I have passed criticisms which +have been accepted far more good-naturedly than I could reasonably have +expected; and it seems strange that I should now again propose to +transgress. However, the fault I have to comment upon is one which most +will scarcely regard as a fault. It seems to me that in one respect +Americans have diverged too widely from savages. I do not mean to say +that they are in general unduly civilized. Throughout large parts of the +population even in long-settled regions there is no excess of those +virtues needed for the maintenance of social harmony. Especially out in +the West men's dealings do not yet betray too much of the "sweetness and +light" which we are told distinguish the cultured man from the +barbarian; nevertheless there is a sense in which my assertion is true. + +You know that the primitive man lacks power of application. Spurred by +hunger, by danger or revenge he can exert himself energetically for a +time, but his energy is spasmodic. Monotonous daily toil is impossible +to him. It is otherwise with the more developed man. The stern +discipline of social life has gradually increased the aptitude for +persistent industry; until among us, and still more among you, work has +become with many a passion. This contrast of nature is another aspect. +The savage thinks only of present satisfactions and leaves future +satisfactions uncared for. Contrariwise the American, eagerly pursuing a +future good almost ignores what good the passing day offers him; and +when the future good is gained, he neglects that while striving for some +still remoter good. + +What I have seen and heard during my stay among you has forced on me the +belief that this slow change from habitual inertness to persistent +activity has reached an extreme from which there must begin a +counter-change--a reaction. Everywhere I have been struck with the +number of faces which told in strong lines of the burdens that had to +be borne. I have been struck, too, with the large proportion of +gray-haired men; and inquiries have brought out the fact that with you +the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier than with us. +Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had themselves suffered +from nervous collapse due to the stress of business, or named friends +who had either killed themselves by overwork or had been permanently +incapacitated or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health. +I do but echo the opinion of all the observant persons I have spoken to +that immense injury is being done by this high-pressure life--the +physique is being undermined. That subtle thinker and poet whom you have +lately had to mourn--Emerson,--says in his "Essay on the Gentleman," +that the first requisite is that he shall be a good animal. The +requisite is a general one--it extends to man, the father, the citizen. +We hear a great deal about the "vile body"; and many are encouraged by +the phrase to transgress the laws of health. But Nature quietly +suppresses those who treat thus disrespectfully one of her highest +products and leaves the world to be peopled by the descendants of those +who are not so foolish. + +Beyond these immediate mischiefs, there are remoter mischiefs. Exclusive +devotion to work has the result that amusements cease to please; and +when relaxation becomes imperative, life becomes dreary from lack of its +sole interest--the interest in business. The remark current in England +that when the American travels, his aim is to do the greatest amount of +sight-seeing in the shortest time, I find current here also; it is +recognized that the satisfaction of getting on devours nearly all other +satisfactions. When recently at Niagara, which gave us a whole week's +pleasure, I learned from the landlord of the hotel that most Americans +come one day and go away the next. Old Froissart, who said of the +English of his day that "they take their pleasures sadly after their +fashion," would doubtless, if he lived now, say of the Americans that +"they take their pleasures hurriedly after their fashion." In large +measure with us, and still more with you, there is not that abandonment +to the moment which is requisite for full enjoyment; and this +abandonment is prevented by the ever-present sense of multitudinous +responsibilities. So that beyond the serious physical mischief caused by +overwork, there is the further mischief that it destroys what value +there would otherwise be in the leisure part of life. Nor do the evils +end here. There is the injury to posterity. Damaged constitutions +re-appear in their children and entail on them far more of ill than +great fortunes yield them of good. When life has been duly rationalized +by science, it will be seen that among a man's duties the care of the +body is imperative not only out of regard for personal welfare, but also +out of regard for descendants. His constitution will be considered as an +entailed estate which he ought to pass on uninjured if not improved to +those who follow; and it will be held that millions bequeathed by him +will not compensate for feeble health and decreased ability to enjoy +life. + +Once more, there is the injury to fellow-citizens taking the shape of +undue regard of competitors. I hear that a great trader among you +deliberately endeavored to crush out everyone whose business competed +with his own; and manifestly the man who, making himself a slave to +accumulation, absorbs an inordinate share of the trade or profession he +is engaged in, makes life harder for all others engaged in it and +excludes from it many who might otherwise gain competencies. Thus, +besides the egoistic motive, there are two altruistic motives which +should deter from this excess in work. + +The truth is there needs a revised ideal of life. Look back through the +past, or look abroad through the present, and we find that the ideal of +life is variable and depends on social conditions. Everyone knows that +to be a successful warrior was the highest aim among all ancient peoples +of note, as it is still among many barbarous peoples. When we remember +that in the Norseman's heaven, the time was to be passed in daily +battles with magical healing of wounds, we see how deeply rooted may +become the conception that fighting is man's proper business and that +industry is fit only for slaves and people of low degree. That is to +say, when the chronic struggles of races necessitate perpetual wars +there is evolved an ideal of life adapted to the requirements. We have +changed all that in modern civilized societies, especially in England +and still more in America. With the decline of militant activity and +the growth of industrial activity the occupations once disgraceful have +become honorable. The duty to work has taken the place of the duty to +fight; and in the one case as in the other the ideal of life has become +so well established that scarcely anybody dreams of questioning it. +Practical business has been substituted for war as the purpose of +existence. + +Is this modern ideal to survive throughout the future? I think not. +While all other things undergo continuous change, it is impossible that +ideals should remain fixed. The ancient ideal was appropriate to the +ages of conquest by man over man and spread of the strongest races. The +modern ideal is appropriate to ages in which conquest of the earth and +subjection of the powers of Nature to human use is the predominant need. +But hereafter, when both these ends have in the main been achieved, the +ideal formed will probably differ considerably from the present one. May +we not foresee the nature of the difference? I think we may. + +Some twenty years ago, a good friend of mine and a good friend of yours, +too, though you never saw him, John Stuart Mill, delivered at St. +Andrew's an inaugural address on the occasion of his appointment to the +Lord Rectorship. It contained much to be admired, as did all he wrote; +there ran through it, however, the tacit assumption that life is for +learning and working. I felt at the time that I should have liked to +take up the opposite thesis. I should have liked to contend that life is +not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and working are +for life. The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct +under all circumstances as shall make living complete--all other uses of +knowledge are secondary. It scarcely needs saying that the primary use +of work is that of supplying the materials and aids to living +completely; and that any other uses of work are secondary. But in men's +conceptions the secondary has in great measure usurped the place of the +primary. + +The apostle of culture, as culture is commonly conceived, Mr. Matthew +Arnold, makes little or no reference to the fact that the first use of +knowledge is the right ordering of all actions; and Mr. Carlyle, who is +a good exponent of current ideas about work, insists on its virtues for +quite other reasons than that it achieves sustentation. We may trace +everywhere in human affairs a tendency to transform the means into the +end. All see that the miser does this when making the accumulation of +money his sole satisfaction; he forgets that money is of value only to +purchase satisfactions. But it is less commonly seen that the like is +true of the work by which the money is accumulated--that industry, too, +bodily or mental, is but a means, and that it is as irrational to pursue +it to the exclusion of that complete living it subserves as it is for +the miser to accumulate money and make no use of it. Hereafter when this +age of active material progress has yielded mankind its benefits there +will, I think, come a better adjustment of labor and enjoyment. Among +reasons for thinking this there is the reason that the processes of +evolution throughout the world at large bring an increasing surplus of +energies that are not absorbed in fulfilling material needs and point to +a still larger surplus for humanity of the future. And there are other +reasons which I must pass over. In brief, I may say that we have had +somewhat too much of the "gospel of work." It is time to preach the +gospel of relaxation. + +This is a very unconventional after-dinner speech. Especially it will be +thought strange that in returning thanks I should deliver something very +much like a homily. But I have thought I could not better convey my +thanks than by the expression of a sympathy which issues in a fear. If, +as I gather, this intemperance in work affects more especially the +Anglo-American part of the population, if there results an undermining +of the physique not only in adults, but also in the young, who as I +learn from your daily journals are also being injured by overwork--if +the ultimate consequence should be a dwindling away of those among you +who are the inheritors of free institutions and best adapted to them, +then there will come a further difficulty in the working out of that +great future which lies before the American nation. To my anxiety on +this account you must please ascribe the unusual character of my +remarks. + +And now I must bid you farewell. When I sail by the Germanic on +Saturday, I shall bear with me pleasant remembrances of my intercourse +with many Americans, joined with regrets that my state of health has +prevented me from seeing a larger number. + + + + +ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY + + +AMERICA VISITED + + [Speech of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, at the + breakfast given by the Century Club, New York City, November 2, + 1878.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The hospitality shown to me has +been no exception to that with which every Englishman meets in this +country, in the endless repetition of kind words and the overwhelming +pressure of genial entertainment which has been thrust upon me. That +famous Englishman, Dr. Johnson, when he went from England to Scotland, +which, at that time, was a more formidable undertaking than is a voyage +from England to America at the present time, met at a reception at St. +Andrew's a young professor who said, breaking the gloomy silence of the +occasion: "I trust you have not been disappointed!" And the famous +Englishman replied: "No; I was told that I should find men of rude +manners and savage tastes, and I have not been disappointed." So, too, +when I set out for your shores I was told that I should meet a kindly +welcome and the most friendly hospitality. I can only say, with Dr. +Johnson, I have not been disappointed. + +But in my vivid though short experience of American life and manners, I +have experienced not only hospitality, but considerate and thoughtful +kindness, for which I must ever be grateful. I can find it in my heart +even to forgive the reporters who have left little of what I have said +or done unnoted, and when they have failed in this, have invented +fabulous histories of things which I never did and sayings which I never +uttered. Sometimes when I have been questioned as to my impressions and +views of America, I have been tempted to say with an Englishman who was +hard pressed by his constituents with absurd solicitations: "Gentlemen, +this is the humblest moment of my life, that you should take me for such +a fool as to answer all your questions." But I know their good +intentions and I forgive them freely. + +The two months which I have spent on these shores seem to me two years +in actual work, or two centuries rather, for in them I have lived +through all American history. In Virginia I saw the era of the earliest +settlers, and I met John Smith and Pocahontas on the shores of the James +River. In Philadelphia I lived with William Penn, but in a splendor +which I fear would have shocked his simple soul. At Salem I encountered +the stern founders of Massachusetts; at Plymouth I watched the Mayflower +threading its way round the shoals and promontories of that intricate +bay. On Lake George and at Quebec I followed the struggle between the +English and the French for the possession of this great continent. At +Boston and Concord I followed the progress of the War of Independence. +At Mount Vernon I enjoyed the felicity of companionship with Washington +and his associates. I pause at this great name, and carry my +recollections no further. But you will understand how long and fruitful +an experience has thus been added to my life, during the few weeks in +which I have moved amongst the scenes of your eventful history. + +And then, leaving the past for the present, a new field opens before me. +There are two impressions which are fixed upon my mind as to the leading +characteristics of the people among whom I have passed, as the almanac +informs me, but two short months. On the one hand I see that everything +seems to be fermenting and growing, changing, perplexing, bewildering. +In that memorable hour--memorable in the life of every man, memorable as +when he sees the first view of the Pyramids, or of the snow-clad range +of the Alps--in the hour when for the first time I stood before the +cataracts of Niagara, I seemed to see a vision of the fears and hopes of +America. It was midnight, the moon was full, and I saw from the +Suspension Bridge the ceaseless contortion, confusion, whirl, and chaos, +which burst forth in clouds of foam from that immense central chasm +which divides the American from the British dominion; and as I looked +on that ever-changing movement, and listened to that everlasting roar, +I saw an emblem of the devouring activity, and ceaseless, restless, +beating whirlpool of existence in the United States. But into the +moonlight sky there rose a cloud of spray twice as high as the Falls +themselves, silent, majestic, immovable. In that silver column, +glittering in the moonlight, I saw an image of the future of American +destiny, of the pillar of light which should emerge from the +distractions of the present--a likeness of the buoyancy and hopefulness +which characterize you both as individuals and as a nation. + +You may remember Wordsworth's fine lines on "Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow +Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited." "America Unvisited"--that is now for +me a vision of the past; that fabulous America, in which, before they +come to your shores, Englishmen believe Pennsylvania to be the capital +of Massachusetts, and Chicago to be a few miles from New York--that has +now passed away from my mind forever. "America Visited"; this, with its +historic scenes and its endless suggestions of thought, has taken the +place of that fictitious region. Whether there will ever be an "America +Revisited" I cannot say; but if there should be, it will then be to me +not the land of the Pilgrim Fathers and Washington, so much as the land +of kindly homes, and enduring friendships, and happy recollections, +which have now endeared it to me. One feature of this visit I fear I +cannot hope to see repeated, yet one without which it could never have +been accomplished. My two friends, to whom such a pleasing reference has +been made by Dr. Adams, who have made the task easy for me which else +would have been impossible; who have lightened every anxiety; who have +watched over me with such vigilant care that I have not been allowed to +touch more than two dollars in the whole course of my journey--they, +perchance, may not share in "America Revisited." But if ever such should +be my own good fortune, I shall remember it as the land which I visited +with them; where, if at first they were welcomed to your homes for my +sake, I have often felt as the days rolled on that I was welcomed for +their sake. And you will remember them. When in after years you read at +the end of some elaborate essay on the history of music or on Biblical +geography the name of George Grove, you will recall with pleasure the +incessant questionings, the eager desire for knowledge, the wide and +varied capacity for all manner of instruction, which you experienced in +your conversations with him here. And when also hereafter there shall +reach to your shores the fame of the distinguished physician, Dr. +Harper, whether in England or in New Zealand, you will be the more +rejoiced because it will bring before you the memory of the youthful and +blooming student who inspected your hospitals with such keen +appreciation, so impartially sifting the good from the evil. + +I part from you with the conviction that such bonds of kindly +intercourse will cement the union between the two countries even more +than the wonderful cable, on which it is popularly believed in England +that my friend and host, Mr. Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious +existence appearing and reappearing at one and the same moment in London +and in New York. Of that unbroken union there seemed to me a likeness, +when on the beautiful shores of Lake George, the Loch Katrine of +America, I saw a maple and an oak-tree growing together from the same +stem, perhaps from the same root--the brilliant fiery maple, the emblem +of America; the gnarled and twisted oak, the emblem of England. So may +the two nations always rise together, so different each from each, and +representing so distinct a future, yet each springing from the same +ancestral root, each bound together by the same healthful sap, and the +same vigorous growth. + + + + +HENRY MORTON STANLEY + + +THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT + + [Speech of Henry M. Stanley at a dinner given in his honor by the + Lotos Club, New York City, November 27, 1886. Whitelaw Reid, + President of the Lotos Club, in welcoming Mr. Stanley, said: "Well, + gentlemen, your alarm of yesterday and last night was needless. The + Atlantic Ocean would not break even a dinner engagement for the man + whom the terrors of the Congo and the Nile could not turn back, and + your guest is here. [Applause.] It is fourteen years since you last + gave him welcome. Then he came to you fresh from the discovery of + Livingstone. The credulity which even doubted the records of that + adventurous march or the reality of his brilliant result had hardly + died out. Our young correspondent, after seeing the war end here + without his having a fair chance to win his spurs, had suddenly + made a wonderful hit out of the expedition which nobody had really + believed in and most people had laughed at. We were proud of him, + and right glad to see him, and a little bit uneasy, but vastly + amused over his peppery dealings with the Royal Geographers. + [Laughter.] In spite of our admiration for his pluck and his luck + we did not take him quite seriously. [Laughter.] In fact we did not + take anything very seriously in those days. The Lotos Club at first + was younger in that hearty enthusiastic reception to Stanley + fourteen years ago in that gay little clubhouse next to the Academy + of Music; we were thinking far more of a hearty greeting to the + comrade of the quill who had been having a hard time but had scored + 'a big beat' [laughter] than of adequate recognition to the man + already well launched on a career that ranks him among the foremost + explorers of the century. [Loud cheers.] It is the character in + which you must welcome him now. The Royal Geographical Society has + no further doubt as to the credit to which he is entitled. He + brings its diploma of honorary membership ["Hear! Hear!"], he bears + the gold medal of Victor Emmanuel, the decorations of the Khedive, + the commission of the King of the Belgians. More than any of them + he cherishes another distinction--what American would not prize + it?--the vote of thanks of the Legislature and the recognition of + his work by our Government. The young war-correspondent has led + expeditions of his own--the man who set out merely to find + Livingstone, has himself done a work greater than Livingstone's. + [Applause.] He has explored Equatorial Africa, penetrated the Dark + Continent from side to side, mapped the Nile, and founded the Free + State on the Congo.' [Applause.] All honor to our returning guest! + The years have left their marks upon his frame and their honors + upon his name. Let us make him forget the fevers that have parched + him, the wild beasts and the more savage men that have pursued him. + ["Hear! Hear!"] He is once more among the friends of his youth, in + the land of his adoption. Let us make him feel at home. [Applause.] + I give you the health of our friend and comrade."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LOTOS CLUB: One might start a +great many principles and ideas which would require to be illustrated +and drawn out in order to present a picture of my feelings at the +present moment. I am conscious that in my immediate vicinity there are +people who were great when I was little. I remember very well when I was +unknown to anybody, how I was sent to report a lecture by my friend +right opposite, Mr. George Alfred Townsend, and I remember the manner in +which he said: "Galileo said: 'The world moves round,' and the world +does move round," upon the platform of the Mercantile Hall in St. +Louis--one of the grandest things out. [Laughter and applause.] The next +great occasion that I had to come before the public was Mark Twain's +lecture on the Sandwich Islands, which I was sent to report. And when I +look to my left here I see Colonel Anderson, whose very face gives me an +idea that Bennett has got some telegraphic despatch and is just about to +send me to some terrible region for some desperate commission. +[Laughter.] + +And, of course, you are aware that it was owing to the proprietor and +editor of a newspaper that I dropped the pacific garb of a journalist +and donned the costume of an African traveller. It was not for me, one +of the least in the newspaper corps, to question the newspaper +proprietor's motives. He was an able editor, very rich, desperately +despotic. [Laughter.] He commanded a great army of roving writers, +people of fame in the news-gathering world; men who had been everywhere +and had seen everything from the bottom of the Atlantic to the top of +the very highest mountain; men who were as ready to give their advice to +National Cabinets [laughter] as they were ready to give it to the +smallest police courts in the United States. [Laughter.] I belonged to +this class of roving writers, and I can truly say that I did my best to +be conspicuously great in it, by an untiring devotion to my duties, an +untiring indefatigability, as though the ordinary rotation of the +universe depended upon my single endeavors. [Laughter.] If, as some of +you suspect, the enterprise of the able editor was only inspired with a +view to obtain the largest circulation, my unyielding and guiding +motive, if I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with all my +might that duty to which according to the English State Church +Catechism, "it had pleased God to call me." [Laughter and applause.] + +He first despatched me to Abyssinia--straight from Missouri to +Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! [Laughter.] People who lived west +of the Missouri River have scarcely, I think, much knowledge of +Abyssinia, and there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that, +but it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, and it seemed to his +agent in London a very ordinary thing indeed, so I of course followed +suit. I took it as a very ordinary thing, and I went to Abyssinia, and +somehow or other good-luck followed me and my telegrams reporting the +fall of Magdala happened to be a week ahead of the British Government's. +The people said I had done right well, though the London papers said I +was an impostor. [Laughter.] + +The second thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to Crete to run +the blockade, describe the Cretan rebellion from the Cretan side, and +from the Turkish side; and then I was sent to Spain to report from the +Republican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dispassionately. +[Laughter.] And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to Paris. +Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, said: "I want you to go +and find Livingstone." As I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I +dared not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely said: "Go," and +I went. He gave me a glass of champagne and I think that was superb. +[Laughter.] I confessed my duty to him, and I went. And as good-luck +would have it, I found Livingstone. [Loud and continued cheering.] I +returned as a good citizen ought and as a good reporter ought and as a +good correspondent ought, to tell the tale, and arriving at Aden, I +telegraphed a request that I might be permitted to visit civilization +before I went to China. [Laughter.] I came to civilization, and what do +you think was the result? Why, only to find that all the world +disbelieved my story. [Laughter.] Dear me! If I were proud of anything, +it was that what I said was a fact ["Good!"]; that whatever I said I +would do, I would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many a good +man had done before, as my predecessors had done, to lay my bones +behind. That's all. [Loud cheering.] I was requested in an off-hand +manner--just as any member of the Lotos Club here present would +say--"Would you mind giving us a little résumé of your geographical +work?" I said: "Not in the least, my dear sir; I have not the slightest +objection." And do you know that to make it perfectly geographical and +not in the least sensational, I took particular pains and I wrote a +paper out, and when it was printed, it was just about so long +[indicating an inch]. It contained about a hundred polysyllabic African +words. [Laughter.] And yet "for a' that and a' that" the pundits of the +Geographical Society--Brighton Association--said that they hadn't come +to listen to any sensational stories, but that they had come to listen +to facts. [Laughter.] Well now, a little gentleman, very reverend, full +of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions and cuneiform +characters, wrote to "The Times" stating that it was not Stanley who had +discovered Livingstone but that it was Livingstone who had discovered +Stanley. [Laughter.] + +If it had not been for that unbelief, I don't believe I should ever have +visited Africa again; I should have become, or I should have endeavored +to become, with Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the +Lotos Club. [Laughter.] I should have settled down and become as steady +and as stolid as some of these patriots that you have around here, I +should have said nothing offensive. I should have done some "treating." +I should have offered a few cigars and on Saturday night, perhaps, I +would have opened a bottle of champagne and distributed it among my +friends. But that was not to be. I left New York for Spain and then the +Ashantee War broke out and once more my good-luck followed me and I got +the treaty of peace ahead of everybody else, and as I was coming to +England from the Ashantee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my +hands at the Island of St. Vincent, saying that Livingstone was dead. I +said: "What does that mean to me? New Yorkers don't believe in me. How +was I to prove that what I have said is true? By George! I will go and +complete Livingstone's work. I will prove that the discovery of +Livingstone was a mere fleabite. I will prove to them that I am a good +man and true." That is all that I wanted. [Loud cheers.] + +I accompanied Livingstone's remains to Westminster Abbey. I saw those +remains buried which I had left sixteen months before enjoying full life +and abundant hope. The "Daily Telegraph's" proprietor cabled over to +Bennett: "Will you join us in sending Stanley over to complete +Livingstone's explorations?" Bennett received the telegram in New York, +read it, pondered a moment, snatched a blank and wrote: "Yes. Bennett." +That was my commission, and I set out to Africa intending to complete +Livingstone's explorations, also to settle the Nile problem, as to where +the head-waters of the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted +of one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow lakes; to throw +some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, and also to discover the +outlet of Lake Tanganyika, and then to find out what strange, mysterious +river this was which had lured Livingstone on to his death--whether it +was the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of "The +Light of Asia," said: "Do you think you can do all this?" "Don't ask me +such a conundrum as that. Put down the funds and tell me to go. That is +all." ["Hear! Hear!"] And he induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. +The funds were put down, and I went. + +First of all, we settled the problem of the Victoria that it was one +body of water, that instead of being a cluster of shallow lakes or +marshes, it was one body of water, 21,500 square miles in extent. While +endeavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, we +discovered a new lake, a much superior lake to Albert Nyanza--the dead +Locust Lake--and at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to +discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza and he found it to be only +a miserable 140 miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm had stood +on the brow of a high plateau and looking down on the dark blue waters +of Albert Nyanza, cried romantically: "I see it extending indefinitely +toward the southwest!" Indefinitely is not a geographical expression, +gentlemen. [Laughter.] We found that there was no outlet to the +Tanganyika, although it was a sweet-water lake; we, settling that +problem, day after day as we glided down the strange river that had +lured Livingstone to his death, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone +had been, when he wrote his last letter and said: "I will never be made +black man's meat for anything less than the classic Nile." + +After travelling 400 miles we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond +them, we saw the river deflect from its Nileward course toward the +Northwest. Then it turned west, and then visions of towers and towns and +strange tribes and strange nations broke upon our imagination, and we +wondered what we were going to see, when the river suddenly took a +decided turn toward the southwest and our dreams were put an end to. We +saw then that it was aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had +propitiated some natives whom we encountered, by showing them crimson +beads and polished wire, that had been polished for the occasion, we +said: "This is for your answer. What river is this?" "Why, it is _the_ +river, of course." That was not an answer, and it required some +persuasion before the chief, bit by bit digging into his brain, managed +to roll out sonorously that, "It is the Ko-to-yah Congo." "It is the +river of Congo-land." Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and +Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for the banks of the +river where Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh! This is the +parvenu Congo! Then we glided on and on past strange nations and +cannibals--not past those nations which have their heads under their +arms--for 1,100 miles, until we arrived at the circular extension of the +river and my last remaining companion called it the Stanley Pool, and +then five months after that our journey ended. + +After that I had a very good mind to come back to America, and say, like +the Queen of Uganda: "There, what did I tell you?" But you know, the +fates would not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I landed in +Europe the King of Italy gave me an express train to convey me to +France, and the very moment I descended from it at Marseilles there +were three ambassadors from the King of the Belgians asked me to go back +to Africa. "What! go back to Africa? Never! [Laughter.] I have come for +civilization; I have come for enjoyment. I have come for love, for life, +for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask some of those people you know who have +never been to Africa before. I have had enough of it." "Well, perhaps, +by and by?" "Ah, I don't know what will happen by and by, but, just now, +never! never! Not for Rothschild's wealth!" [Laughter and applause.] + +I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, and it was then I +began to feel "Well, after all, I have done something, haven't I?" I +felt superb [laughter], but you know I have always considered myself a +Republican. I have those bullet-riddled flags, and those arrow-torn +flags, the Stars and Stripes that I carried in Africa, for the discovery +of Livingstone, and that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. +I have them in London now, jealously guarded in the secret recesses of +my cabinet. I only allow my very best friends to look at them, and if +any of you gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters, I will show them to +you. [Applause.] + +After I had written my book, "Through the Dark Continent," I began to +lecture, using these words: "I have passed through a land watered by the +largest river of the African continent, and that land knows no owner. A +word to the wise is sufficient. You have cloths and hardware and +glassware and gunpowder and these millions of natives have ivory and +gums and rubber and dye-stuffs, and in barter there is good profit." +[Laughter.] + +The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to that country. My +expedition when we started from the coast numbered 300 colored people +and fourteen Europeans. We returned with 3,000 trained black men and 300 +Europeans. The first sum allowed me was $50,000 a year, but it has ended +at something like $700,000 a year. Thus, you see, the progress of +civilization. We found the Congo, having only canoes. To-day there are +eight steamers. It was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. He +dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa into a confederacy and +called it the Free State, but on February 25, 1885, the Powers of +Europe and America also ratified an act, recognizing the territories +acquired by us to be the free and independent State of the Congo. +Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have reflected a little more +upon the value of what Livingstone and Leopold have been doing, they +will also agree that these men have done their duty in this world and in +the age that they lived, and that their labor has not been in vain on +account of the great sacrifices they have made to the benighted millions +of dark Africa. [Loud and enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN + + +TRIBUTE TO RICHARD HENRY STODDARD + + [Speech of Edmund Clarence Stedman as chairman of the dinner given + by the Authors' Club to Richard Henry Stoddard, New York City, + March 26, 1897.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--The members of the Authors' Club are closely +associated to-night with many other citizens in a sentiment felt by one +and all--that of love and reverence for the chief guest of the evening. +He has our common pride in his fame. He has what is, I think, of even +more value to him, our entire affection. We have heard something of late +concerning the "banquet habit," and there are banquets which make it +seem to the point. But there are also occasions which transfigure even +custom, and make it honored "in the observance." Nor is this a feast of +the habitual kind, as concerns its givers, its recipient, and the city +in which it is given. The Authors' Club, with many festivals counted in +its private annals, now, for the first time, offers a public tribute to +one of its own number; in this case, one upon whom it long since +conferred a promotion to honorary membership. As for New York, warder of +the gates of the ocean, and by instinct and tradition first to welcome +the nation's visitors, it constantly offers bread and salt--yes, and +speeches--to authors, as to other guests, from older lands, and many of +us often have joined in this function. But we do not remember that it +has been a habit for New York to tender either the oratorical bane or +the gustatory antidote to her own writers. Except within the shade of +their own coverts they have escaped these offerings, unless there has +been something other than literary service to bring them public +recognition. In the latter case, as when men who are or have been +members of our club become Ambassadors, because they are undeniably +fitted for the missions to Great Britain and France, even authors are +made to sit in state. To-night's gathering, then, is, indeed, +exceptional, being in public honor of an American author here +resident--of "one of our own"--who is not booked for a foreign mission, +nor leaving the country, nor returning, nor doing anything more unusual +than to perform his stint of work, and to sing any song that comes to +him--as he tells us, + + "Not because he woos it long, + But because it suits its will, + Tired at last of being still." + +Our homage is rendered, with love and enthusiasm, for his service to +"mere literature"--for his indomitable devotion throughout half a +century to the joy and toil of his profession, in which he has so fought +the fight and kept the faith of a working man of letters. It is rendered +to the most distinguished poet, of his country and generation, still +remaining with us and still in full voice. It is rendered to the +comrade--to the man who, with his modesty and fortitude and the absence +of self-seeking--with the quips and quirks that cover his gravest moods, +with his attachment for the city which has given him that which Lamb so +loved, "the sweet security of streets"--it is rendered, I say, to the +man who best preserves for us, in his living presence, the traditions of +all that an English-speaking poet and book-fellow should be to +constitute a satisfying type. + +There is, perhaps, a special fitness in our gathering at this time. I +sometimes have thought upon the possible career of our poet if his life +had been passed in the suburbs of the down-east Athens, among serenities +and mutualities so auspicious to the genius and repute of that shining +group lately gathered to the past. One thing is certain, he would not +have weathered his seventieth birthday, at any season, without receiving +such a tribute as this, nor would a public dinner have reminded him of +days when a poet was glad to get any dinner at all. Through his birth, +Massachusetts claims her share in his distinction. But, having been +brought to New York in childhood, he seems to have reasoned out for +himself the corollary to a certain famous epigram, and to have thought +it just as well to stay in the city which resident Bostonians keep as +the best place to go to while still in the flesh. Probably he had not +then realized the truth, since expressed in his own lines:-- + + "Yes, there's a luck in most things, and in none + More than in being born at the right time!" + +His birthday, in fact, comes in midsummer, when New York is more inert +than an analytic novel. This dinner, then, is one of those gifts of love +which are all the more unstinted because by chance deferred. + +It was in the order of things, and no cause for blame, that, after this +town passed from the provincial stage, there was so long a period when +it had to be, as De Quincey said of Oxford Street, a stony-hearted +mother to her bookmen and poets; that she had few posts for them and +little of a market. Even her colleges had not the means, if they had the +will, to utilize their talents and acquirements. We do owe to her +newspapers and magazines, and now and then to the traditional liking of +Uncle Sam for his bookish offspring, that some of them did not fall by +the way, even in that arid time succeeding the Civil War, when we +learned that letters were foregone, not only inter arma, but for a long +while afterward. Those were the days when English went untaught, and +when publishers were more afraid of poetry than they now are of verse. +Yet here is one who was able to live through it all, and now sees a +changed condition, to the evolution of which he contributed his full +share. But he is no more a child of the past than of the present, nor +need he repine like Cato, as one who has to account for himself to a new +generation. He is with us and of us, and in the working ranks, as ever. + +For all this he began long enough ago to have his early poetry refused +by Poe, because it was too good to be the work of an obscure stripling, +and to have had Hawthorne for his sponsor and friend. His youth showed +again how much more inborn tendency has to do with one's life than any +external forces--such as guardianship, means, and what we call +education. The thrush takes to the bough, wheresoever hatched and +fledged. Many waters cannot quench genius, neither can the floods drown +it. The story of Dickens's boyhood, as told by himself, is not more +pathetic--nor is its outcome more beautiful--than what we know of our +guest's experiences--his orphanage, his few years' meagre schooling, his +work as a boy in all sorts of shifting occupations, the attempt to make +a learned blacksmith of him, his final apprenticeship to iron-moulding, +at which he worked on the East Side from his eighteenth to his +twenty-first year. As Dr. Griswold put it, he began to mould his +thoughts into the symmetry of verse while he moulded the molten metal +into shapes of grace. Mr. Stoddard, however, says that a knowledge of +foundries was not one of the learned Doctor's strong points. Yet the +young artisan somehow got hold of books, and not only made poetry, but +succeeded in showing it to such magnates as Park Benjamin and Willis. +The kindly Willis said that he had brains enough to make a reputation, +but that "writing was hard work to do, and ill paid when done." But the +youth was bound to take the road to Arcady. He asked for nothing better +than this ill-paid craft. His passion for it, doubtless was strengthened +by his physical toil and uncongenial surroundings. For one I am not +surprised that much of his early verse, which is still retained in his +works, breathes the spirit of Keats, though where and how this strayed +singer came to study that most perfect and delicate of masters none but +himself can tell. The fact remains that he somehow, also, left his +moulding and trusted to his pen. To use his own words, he "set +resolutely to work to learn the only trade for which he seemed +fitted--that of literature." From that time to this, a half century, he +has clung to it. Never in his worst seasons did he stop to think how the +world treated him, or that he was entitled to special providences. He +accepted poverty or good-luck with an equal mind, content with the +reward of being a reader, a writer, and, above all, a poet. He managed +not to loaf, and yet to invite his soul--and his songs are evidence that +the invitation was accepted. If to labor is to pray, his industry has +been a religion, for I doubt if there has been a day in all these fifty +years when, unless disabled bodily, he has not worked at his trade. + +We all know with what results. He has earned a manly living from the +first, and therewithal has steadily contributed a vital portion to the +current, and to the enduring, literature of his land and language. +There was one thing that characterized the somewhat isolated New York +group of young writers in his early prime--especially himself and his +nearest associates, such as Taylor and Boker, and, later, Aldrich and +Winter. They called themselves squires of poesy, in their romantic way, +but they had neither the arrogance nor the chances for a self-heralding, +more common in these chipper modern days. They seem to have followed +their art because they adored it, quite as much as for what it could do +for them. + +Of Mr. Stoddard it may be said that there have been few important +literary names and enterprises, North or South, but he has "been of the +company." If he found friends in youth, he has abundantly repaid his +debt in helpful counsel to his juniors--among whom I am one of the +eldest and most grateful. But I cannot realize that thirty-seven years +of our close friendship have passed since I showed my first early work +to him, and he took me to a publisher. Just as I found him then, I find +him any evening now, in the same chair, in the same corner of the study, +"under the evening lamp." We still talk of the same themes; his jests +are as frequent as ever, but the black hair is silvered and the active +movements are less alert. I then had never known a mind so stored with +bookish lore, so intimate with the lives of rare poets gone by, yet to +what it then possessed he, with his wonderful memory, has been adding +ever since. + +If his early verse was like Keats, how soon he came to that unmistakable +style of his own--to the utterance of those pure lyrics, "most musical, +most melancholy"--"to the perfection of his matchless songs," and again, +to the mastery of blank verse, that noblest measure, in "The Fisher and +Charon"--to the grace and limpid narrative verse of "The King's Bell," +to the feeling, wisdom--above all, to the imagination--of his loftier +odes, among which that on Lincoln remains unsurpassed. This is not the +place to eulogize such work. But one thing may be noted in the progress +of what in Berkeley's phrase may be called the planting of arts and +letters in America. Mr. Stoddard and his group were the first after Poe +to make poetry--whatever else it might be--the rhythmical creation of +beauty. As an outcome of this, and in distinction from the poetry of +conviction to which the New England group were so addicted, look at the +"Songs of Summer" which our own poet brought out in 1857. For beauty +pure and simple it still seems to me fresher and more significant than +any single volume produced up to that date by any Eastern poet save +Emerson. It was "poetry or nothing," and though it came out of time in +that stormy period, it had to do with the making of new poets +thereafter. + +In conclusion, I am moved to say, very much as I wrote on his seventieth +birthday, that our poet's laborious and nobly independent life, with all +its lights and shadows, has been one to be envied. There is much in +completeness--its rainbow has not been dissevered--it is a perfect arc. +As I know him, it has been the absolute realization of his young desire, +the unhasting, unresting life of a poet and student, beyond that of any +other writer among us. Its compensations have been greater than those of +ease and wealth. Even now he would not change it, though at an age when +one might well have others stay his hands. He had the happiness to win +in youth the one woman he loved, with the power of whose singular and +forceful genius his own is inseparably allied. These wedded poets have +been blessed in their children, in the exquisite memory of the dead, in +the success and loyalty of the living. His comrades have been such as he +pictured to his hope in youth--poets, scholars, artists of the +beautiful, with whom he has "warmed both hands before the fire of life." +None of them has been a more patient worker or more loved his work. To +it he has given his years, whether waxing or waning; he has surrendered +for it the strength of his right hand, he has yielded the light of his +eyes, and complains not, nor need he, "for so were Milton and Mćonides." +What tears this final devotion may have caused to flow, come from other +eyes than his own. And so, with gratulation void of all regrets, let us +drink to the continued years, service, happiness of our strong and +tender-hearted elder comrade, our white-haired minstrel, Richard Henry +Stoddard. + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN + + +THE CRITIC + + [Speech of Leslie Stephen at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, April 29, 1893, in response to the toast, + "Literature." Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, + spoke of Literature as "that in which is garnered up the heat that + feeds the spiritual life of men." In the vein of personal + compliment he said: "For literature I turn to a distinguished + writer whose acute and fearless mind finds a fit vehicle in clear + and vigorous English and to me seems winged by that vivid air which + plays about the Alpine peaks his feet have in the past so dearly + loved to tread--I mean my friend, Mr. Leslie Stephen."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--When a poet or a great imaginative writer has to speak +in this assembly he speaks as to brethren-in-arms, to persons with +congenial tastes and with mutual sympathies, but when, instead of the +creative writer, the Academy asks a critic to speak to them, then +nothing but your proverbial courtesy can conceal the fact that they must +really think they are appealing to a natural enemy. I have the +misfortune to be a critic [laughter], but in this assembly I must say I +am not an art critic. Friends have made a presumptuous attempt to fathom +the depth of my ignorance upon artistic subjects, and they have thought +that in some respects I must be admirably qualified for art criticism. +[Laughter.] + +As a literary critic I have felt, and I could not say I was surprised to +find how unanimously critics have been condemned by poets and artists of +all generations. I need only quote the words of the greatest authority, +Shakespeare, who in one of his most pathetic sonnets reckons up the +causes of the weariness of life and speaks of the spectacle of-- + + "Art made tongue-tied by authority, + And folly (doctor-like), controlling skill." + +The great poet probably wrote these words after the much misrepresented +interview with Lord Bacon in which the Chancellor explained to the poet +how "Hamlet" should have been written, and from which it has been +inferred that he took credit for having written it himself. [Laughter.] +Shakespeare naturally said what every artist must feel; for what is an +artist? That is hardly a question to be asked in such an assembly, where +I have only to look round to find plenty of people who realize the ideal +artist, persons who are simple, unconventional, spontaneous, +sweet-natured [laughter], who go through the world influenced by +impressions of everything that is beautiful, sublime, and pathetic. +Sometimes they seem to take up impressions of a different kind +[laughter]; but still this is their main purpose--to receive impressions +of images, the reproduction of which may make this world a little better +for us all. For such people a very essential condition is that they +should be spontaneous; that they should look to nothing but telling us +what they feel and how they feel it; that they should obey no external +rules, and only embody those laws which have become a part of their +natural instinct, and that they should think nothing, as of course they +do nothing, for money; though they would not be so hard-hearted as to +refuse to receive the spontaneous homage of the world, even when it came +in that comparatively vulgar form. [Laughter.] + +But what is a critic? He is a person who enforces rules upon the artist, +like a gardener who snips a tree in order to make it grow into a +preconceived form, or grafts upon it until it develops into a +monstrosity which he considers beautiful. We have made some advance upon +the old savage. The man who went about saying, "This will never do," has +become a thing of the past. The modern critic if he has a fault has +become too genial; he seems not to distinguish between the functions of +a critic and the founder of a new religious sect. [Laughter.] He erects +shrines to his ideals, and he burns upon them good, strong, stupefying +incense. This may be less painful to the artist than the old-fashioned +style; but it may be doubted whether it is not equally corrupting, and +whether it does not stimulate a selfishness equally fatal to spontaneous +production; whether it does not in the attempt to encourage originality +favor a spurious type which consists merely in setting at defiance real +common sense, and sometimes common decency. + +I hope that critics are becoming better, that they have learned what +impostors they have been, and that their philosophy has been merely the +skilful manipulation of sonorous words, and that on the whole, they must +lay aside their magisterial role and cease to suppose they are persons +enforcing judicial decisions or experts who can speak with authority +about chemical analysis. I hope that critics will learn to lay aside all +pretension and to see only things that a critic really can see, and +express genuine sympathy with human nature; and when they have succeeded +in doing that they will be received as friends in such gatherings as the +banquet of the Royal Academy. [Cheers.] + + + + +RICHARD SALTER STORRS + + +THE VICTORY AT YORKTOWN + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs at a banquet of the Chamber + of Commerce of the State of New York, given November 5, 1881, in + New York City, in honor of the guests of the nation, the French + diplomatic representatives in America, and members of the families + descended from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General + Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben + and others, who had been present at the centennial celebration of + the victory at Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, vice + President of the Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast to which + Dr. Storrs responded, "The Victory at Yorktown: it has rare + distinction among victories, that the power which seemed humbled by + it looks back to it now without regret, while the peoples who + combined to secure it, after the lapse of a century of years, are + more devoted than ever to the furtherance of the freedom to which + it contributed."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--It is +always pleasant to respond to your invitations and to join with you on +these festival occasions. You remember the reply of the English lady +[Lady Dufferin] perhaps, when the poet Rogers sent her a note saying: +"Will you do me the favor to breakfast with me to-morrow?" To which she +returned the still more laconic autograph, "Won't I?" [Laughter.] + +Perhaps one might as well have that lithographed as his reply to your +cordial and not infrequent invitations. [Laughter.] I do not know +whether you are aware of it, on this side of the East River--perhaps you +don't read the newspapers much--but in that better part of the great +metropolis in which it is my privilege to live, we think of showing our +appreciation of this Chamber of Commerce by electing for Mayor next +week, one of your younger members, the son of one of your older and +most distinguished members, my honored friend, Mr. Low. [Applause.] + +It is certainly especially pleasant to be here this evening, Mr. +President and gentlemen, when we meet together, men of commerce, men of +finance, lawyers, journalists, physicians, clergymen, of whatever +occupation, all of us, I am sure, patriotic citizens, to congratulate +each other upon what occurred at Yorktown a hundred years ago, on the +19th of October, 1781, and to express our hearty honor and esteem for +these distinguished descendants or representatives of the gallant men +who then stood with our fathers as their associates and helpers. +[Applause.] + +It has always seemed to me one of the most significant and memorable +things connected with our Revolutionary struggle, that it attracted the +attention, elicited the sympathy, inspired the enthusiasm, and drew out +the self-sacrificing co-operation of so many noble spirits, loving +freedom, in different parts of Western and Central Europe. [Applause.] +You remember that Lord Camden testified from his own observation in +1775, about the time of the battle of Concord Bridge, that the +merchants, tradesmen, and common people of England were on the side of +the Colonists, and that only the landed interest really sustained the +Government. So the more distant Poland sent to us Count Pulaski of noble +family, who had been a brilliant leader for liberty at home, who fought +gallantly in our battles, and who poured out his life in our behalf in +the assault upon Savannah. [Cheers.] And it sent another, whose name has +been one to conjure with for freedom from that day to this; who planned +the works on Bemis Heights, against which Burgoyne in vain hurled his +assault; who superintended the works at West Point; who, returning to +his own country, fought for Poland as long as there was a Poland to +fight for; whom the very Empire against which he had so long and so +fiercely contended on behalf of his country, honored and eulogized after +his death--Thaddeus Kosciusko. [Cheers.] + +Germany sent us Von Steuben; one, but a host, whose services in our war +were of immense and continual aid to our troops; who fought gallantly at +Yorktown; and who, chose afterwards, to finish his life in the country +for which he had fearlessly drawn his sword. [Applause.] France sent us +Lafayette [loud cheers], young, brilliant, with everything to detain him +at home, who had heard of our struggle, at Metz, you remember, in a +conversation with the Duke of Gloucester, in whom the purpose was there +formed, in a flash, to identify himself with the fortunes of the remote, +poor, unfriended, and almost unknown colonists; who came, against every +opposition, in a ship which he had bought and fitted for the purpose, +and whose name, as has well been said in the sentiment in which we have +already united, will be joined imperishably with that of Washington, as +long as the history of our country continues. [Applause.] + +With him came John DeKalb, the intrepid Alsatian, who, after fighting +gallantly through the war, up to the point of his death, fell at Camden, +pierced at last by many wounds. [Cheers.] With them, or after them, came +others, Gouvion, Duportail--some of their names are hardly now familiar +to us--Duplessis, Duponceau, afterward distinguished in literature and +in law, in the country in which he made his residence. There came great +supplies of military equipment, important, we may say indispensable, +aids of money, clothing, and of all the apparatus of war; and, finally, +came the organized naval and military force, with great captains at the +head, Rochambeau [loud cheers], Chastellux, De Choisy, De Lauzun, St. +Simon, De Grasse--all this force brilliantly representative, as we know, +of our foreign allies, in the victory at Yorktown. [Applause.] + +I suppose there has never been a stranger contrast on any field of +victory, than that which was presented, between the worn clothing of the +American troops, soiled with mud, rusted with storm, wet with blood, and +the fresh white uniforms of the French troops, ornamented with colored +trimmings; the poor, plain battle-flags of the Colonists, stained with +smoke and rent with shot, compared with the shining and lofty standards +of the French army, bearing on a ground of brilliant white silk +emblazoned in gold embroidery the Bourbon lilies. [Applause.] Indeed +such a contrast went into everything. The American troops were made up +of men who had been, six years before, mechanics, farmers, merchants, +fishermen, lawyers, teachers, with no more thought of any exploits to be +accomplished by them on fields of battle than they had of being elected +Czars of all the Russias. They had a few victories to look back to; +Bennington, Stillwater, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the one great +triumph of Saratoga. They had many defeats to remember; Brandywine, +where somebody at the time said that the mixture of the two liquors was +too much for the sober Americans [laughter], Camden, Guilford +Court-house, and others, with one tragic and terrible defeat on the +heights of Long Island. There were men who had been the subjects, and +many of them officers of the very power against which they were +fighting; and some of the older among them might have stood for that +power at Louisbourg or Quebec. On the other hand, the French troops were +part of an army, the lustre of whose splendid history could be traced +back for a thousand years, beyond the Crusaders, beyond Charlemagne. +Their officers had been trained in the best military schools of the +time. They were amply provided with the last and choicest equipments of +war. They had gallantly achieved victory, or as gallantly sustained +defeat on almost every principal battle-field in Europe. They were now +confronting an enemy whom that army had faced in previous centuries on +sea and land; and very likely something of special exhilaration and +animation went into their spirit from thought of this, as they assailed +the English breastworks, swarming into the trenches, capturing the +redoubts, storming the lines with that strange battle-shout, in our +republican American air: "Vive le Roi!" [Applause.] + +A singular combination! Undoubtedly, to unfold the influences which had +led to it would take months instead of minutes, and occupy volumes +rather than sentences. I think however, that we reckon too much on +national rivalry, or national animosity, when we seek to explain it, +although these no doubt had their part in it. Doubtless the eager +efforts of Silas Dean, our first diplomatic representative in +Europe--efforts too eager for courtesy or wisdom--had a part in it; and +the skilful diplomacy of Franklin had, as we know, a large and important +influence upon it. The spirit of adventure, the desire for distinction +upon fresh fields, had something to do with it. But the principal factor +in that great effort was the spirit of freedom--the spirit that looked +to the advancement and the maintenance of popular liberty among the +peoples of the earth, wherever civilization had gone; that spirit which +was notably expressed by Van der Capellen, the Dutch orator and +statesman, when he vehemently said, in presence of the States-General of +Holland, in reply to an autograph letter of George III soliciting their +aid, that this was a business for hired janissaries rather than for +soldiers of a free State; that it would be, in his judgment, +"superlatively detestable" to aid in any way to overcome the Americans, +whom he regarded as a brave people, righting in a manly, honorable, +religious manner, not for the rights which had come to them, not from +any British legislation but from God Almighty. [Applause.] + +That spirit was native to Holland. But that spirit was also widely in +France. The old temper and enthusiasm for liberty, both civil and +religious, had not passed away. Sixty years and more since the accession +of Louis XV had perhaps only intensified this spirit. It had entered the +higher philosophical minds. They were meditating the questions of the +true social order, with daring disregard of all existing institutions, +and their spirit and instructions found an echo even in our Declaration +of Independence. They made it more theoretical than English state papers +have usually been. Palpably, the same spirit which afterward broke into +fierce exhibition, when the Bastille was stormed in 1789, or when the +First Republic was declared in 1792, was already at work in France, at +work there far more vitally and energetically than was yet recognized by +those in authority; while it wrought perhaps in the field offered by +this country, more eagerly and largely because it was repressed at home. +So it was that so many brilliant Frenchmen came as glad volunteers. It +was because of this electric and vital spirit looking toward freedom. +Travelling was slow. Communication between continents was tardy and +difficult. A sailing ship, dependent upon the wind, hugged the breeze or +was driven before the blast across the stormy North Atlantic. The +steamship was unknown. The telegraph wire was no more imagined than it +was imagined that the Rhine might flow a river of flame or that the +Jungfrau or the Weisshorn might go out on a journey. + +But there was this distributed spirit of freedom, propagating itself by +means which we cannot wholly trace, and to an extent which was scarcely +recognized, which brought volunteers in such numbers to our shores, that +Washington, you know, at one time, expressed himself as embarrassed to +know what to do with them; and there were fervent and high aspirations +going up from multitudes of households and of hearts in Central and in +Western Europe, which found realization in what we claim as the greatest +and most fruitful of American victories. [Applause.] The impulse given +by that victory to the same spirit is one on which we can never look +back without gratitude and gladness. It was an impulse not confined to +one nation but common to all which had had part in the struggle. We know +what an impulse it gave to everything greatest and best in our own +country. The spirit of popular exhilaration, rising from that victory at +Yorktown, was a force which really established and moulded our national +Government. The nation rose to one of those exalted points, those +supreme levels, in its public experience, where it found a grander +wisdom, where it had nobler forecast than perhaps it otherwise could +have reached. In consequence of it, our Government came, which has stood +the storm and stress of a hundred years. We may have to amend its +Constitution in time to come, as it has been amended in the past; but we +have become a nation by means of it. It commands the attention--to some +extent, the admiration--of other people of the earth; at all events, it +is bound to endure upon this continent as long as there remains a +continent here for it to rest upon. [Cheers.] + +Then came the incessant movement westward: the vast foreign immigration, +the occupation of the immense grainfields, which might almost feed the +hungry world; the multiplication of manufacturers, supplying everything, +nearly, that we need; the uncovering of mines, bringing out the wealth +which has actually disturbed the money standards of the world; the +transforming of territories into States by a process as swift and +magical almost as that by which the turbid mixture of the chemist is +crystallized into its delicate and translucent spars; the building of an +empire on the Western coast, looking out toward the older continent of +Asia. [Cheers.] + +We know, too, what an impulse was given to popular rights and hopes in +England. We rejoice in all the progress of England. That salute fired at +the British flag the other day at Yorktown [cheers] was a stroke of the +hammer on the horologe of time, which marks the coming of a new era, +when national animosities shall be forgotten, and only national +sympathies and good-will shall remain. It might seem, perhaps, to have +in it a tone of the old "diapason of the cannonade"; but on the +thoughtful ear, falls from the thundering voice of those guns, a note of +that supreme music which fell on the ear of Longfellow, when "like a +bell with solemn sweet vibration" he heard "once more the voice of +Christ say: 'Peace!'" [Loud applause.] + +We rejoice in the progress of English manufactures, which extracts every +force from each ounce of coal, and pounds or weaves the English iron +into nearly everything for human use except boots and brown-bread +[laughter]; in the commerce which spreads its sails on all seas; in the +wealth and splendor that are assembled in her cities; but we rejoice +more than all in the constant progress of those liberal ideas to which +such an impulse was given by this victory of Yorktown. [Cheers.] You +remember that Fox is said to have heard of it "with a wild delight"; and +even he may not have anticipated its full future outcome. You remember +the hissing hate with which he was often assailed, as when the tradesman +of Westminster whose vote he had solicited, flung back at him the +answer: "I have nothing for you, sir, but a halter," to which Fox, by +the way, with instant wit and imperturbable good-nature, smilingly +responded: "I could not think, my dear sir, of depriving you of such an +interesting family relic." [Laughter.] Look back to that time and then +see the prodigious advance of liberal ideas in England, the changed +political condition of the workingman. Look at the position of that +great Commoner, who now regulates the English policy, who equals Fox in +his liberal principles and surpasses him in his eloquence--Mr. +Gladstone. [Cheers.] The English troops marched out of Yorktown, after +their surrender, to that singularly appropriate tune, as they thought +it, "The World Turned Upside Down." [Laughter.] But that vast +disturbance of the old equilibrium which had balanced a King against a +Nation, has given to England the treasures of statesmanship, the +treasures of eloquence, a vast part of the splendor and the power which +are now collected under the reign of that one royal woman in the world, +to whom every American heart pays its eager and unforced fealty--Queen +Victoria. [Loud applause.] + +We know what an impulse was given to the same spirit in Germany. Mr. +Schurz will tell us of it in eloquent words. But no discourse that he +can utter, however brilliant in rhetoric; no analysis, however lucid; no +clear and comprehensive sweep of his thought, though expressed in words +which ring in our ears and live in our memories, can so fully and +fittingly illustrate it to us as does the man himself, in his character +and career--an Old World citizen of the American Republic whose +marvellous mastery of our tough English tongue is still surpassed by his +more marvellous mastery over the judgments and the hearts of those who +hear him use it. [Cheers.] + +What an impulse was given to the same spirit in France we know. At +first, it fell upon a people not altogether prepared to receive it. +There was, therefore, a passionate effervescence, a fierce ebullition +into popular violence and popular outrage which darkened for the time +the world's annals. But we know that the spirit never died; and through +all the winding and bloody paths in which it has marched, it has brought +France the fair consummation of its present power and wealth and renown. +[Cheers.] We rejoice in its multiform manufactures, which weave the +woollen or silken fibre into every form and tissue of fabric; in the +delicate, dainty skill which keeps the time of all creation with its +watchwork and clockwork; which ornaments beauty with its jewelry, and +furnishes science with its finest instruments; we rejoice in the 14,000 +miles of railway there constructed, almost all of it within forty years; +we rejoice in the riches there accumulated; we rejoice in the expansion +of the population from the twenty-three millions of the day of Yorktown +to the thirty-eight millions of the present; but we rejoice more than +all in the liberal spirit evermore there advancing, which has built the +fifteen universities, and gathered the 41,000 students into them; which +builds libraries and higher seminaries, and multiplies common schools: +which gives liberty if not license to the press. [Cheers.] + +We rejoice in the universal suffrage which puts the 532 deputies into +the Chamber and which combines the Chamber of Deputies with the Senate +into a National Assembly to elect the President of the Republic. We +rejoice in the rapid political education now and always going on in +France, and that she is to be hereafter a noble leader in Europe, in +illustrating the security and commending the benefits of Republican +institutions. [Applause.] + +France has been foremost in many things; she was foremost in chivalry, +and the most magnificent spectacles and examples which that institution +ever furnished were on her fields. She was foremost in the Crusades and +the volcanic country around Auvergne was not more full of latent fire +than was the spirit of her people at the Council of Clermont or before +the appeal of Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard. She led the march of +philosophical discussion in the Middle Ages. She has been foremost in +many achievements of science and art. She is foremost to-day in piercing +with tunnels the mountain-chains, that the wheels of trade may roll +unobstructed through rocky barriers, and cutting canals through the +great isthmuses that the keels of commerce may sweep unhindered across +the seas. But she has never yet had an office so illustrious as that +which falls to her now--to show Europe how Republican institutions +stimulate industry, guarantee order, promote all progress in enterprise +and in thought, and are the best and surest security for a nation's +grandest advancement. + +That enthusiasm which has led her always to champion ideas, which led +her soldiers to say in the first Revolution: "With bread and iron we +will march to China," entering now into fulfilment of this great office, +will carry her influence to China and beyond it; her peaceful influence +on behalf of the liberty for which she fought with us at Yorktown, and +for which she has bled and struggled with a pathetic and lofty +stubbornness ever since. [Cheers.] + +I do not look back merely then from this evening; I see illustrated at +Yorktown the lesson of that hour; that colonies maturing into great +commonwealths, and peoples combining for common liberties are the best +pledges of the world's future, but I look forward as well and see France +in Europe, a Republic, the United States on this continent, a Republic, +standing again in the future as before, shoulder to shoulder, expecting +with tranquil and exultant spirit the grander victory yet to come, the +outcome of which shall be liberty to all the peoples of the world, and +that benign and divine peace which is the sure and sovereign fruit of +such a liberty. [Applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM SCUDDER STRYKER + + +DUTCH HEROES OF THE NEW WORLD + + [Speech of William S. Stryker at the fifth annual dinner of the + Holland Society of New York, January 10, 1890. The vice-President, + Robert B. Roosevelt, presided, and called upon General Stryker to + respond to the toast, "The Dutch Soldier in America."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--As well-born Dutchmen, full, of course, +to-night of the spirit which creates Dutch courage, it is pleasant for +us to look across the seas, to recall the martial life of our +progenitors and to speak of their great deeds for liberty. It is +conducive to our family pride to trace back the source of the blessings +we enjoy to-day through all the brilliant pages of Netherland history to +the time when the soldiers of freedom--the "Beggars"--chose rather to +let in the merciless ocean waves than to surrender to the ruthless +invader. [Applause.] + +We love to say that we can see in the glory of free institutions in this +century the steady outgrowth of that germ of human liberty which was +planted by the sturdy labor, which was watered by the tears and blood, +and fructified by the precious lives of those who fought by land and sea +in the battles of the sixteenth century. [Applause.] + +Although we make our boast of the indomitable courage, the many +self-denials, the homely virtues of our forefathers, think you that we +in America are degenerate sons of noble sires? I trow not! [Renewed +applause.] + +That irascible old Governor who stamped his wooden leg on the streets of +New Amsterdam, who ruled with his iron will and his cane the thrifty +burghers of this young city, did he not, when called upon to show a +soldier's courage, wage a successful contest with savage foes, with the +testy Puritans of Connecticut and with the obdurate Swedes on +Christiana Creek? + +Before the old Dutch church in Millstone on the Raritan River, in the +summer of 1775, a hundred of the young men of the village were drilled +every night. They had on their long smock-frocks, broad-brimmed black +hats, and leggings. Their own firelocks were on their shoulders, +twenty-three cartridges in their cartouches, the worm, the priming-wire, +and twelve flints in their pockets. These were the bold minute-men of +New Jersey, and Frederick Frelinghuysen was their gallant Dutch captain, +who stood ready to march, in case an alarm bonfire burned on Sourland +Mountain, to fight any enemy. [Applause.] + +When fighting under Bradstreet on the Oswego River in the old French +war, when laboring against great odds at Fort Edward, when retarding the +British advance after the evacuation of Ticonderoga, when urging on a +force to the relief of Fort Stanwix, when planning the campaign which +ended in the capture of Burgoyne, and placing laurels, now faded, on the +head of Gates, the character of our own Knickerbocker General, Philip +Schuyler, the pure patriot, the noble soldier, is lustrous with +evidences of his sagacious counsels, his wonderful energy, and his +military skill. [Renewed applause.] + +The good blood of the patroons never flowed purer or brighter than when, +as soldiers, they battled for a nation's rights. In the fight at +Saratoga, Colonel Henry Kiliaen Van Rensselaer greatly distinguished +himself and carried from the field an ounce of British lead, which +remained in his body thirty-five years. Captain Solomon Van Rensselaer +fought most courageously by the side of Mad Anthony Wayne in the Miami +campaign. Being seriously wounded in a brilliant charge, he refused to +be carried off the field on a litter, but insisted that, as a dragoon, +he should be allowed to ride his horse from the battle and, if he +dropped, to die where he fell. [Applause.] + +Worn and bleeding were the feet, scant the clothing of our ragged +Continentals, as, turning upon their foe, they recrossed the icy +Delaware on Christmas night, surprised Rall and his revellers in +Trenton's village, punished the left of Cornwallis's column at +Princeton, and then, on their way to the mountains of Morris County, +fell by the wayside with hunger and wretchedness, perishing with the +intense cold. But, in the darkness of the night, a partisan trooper, +with twenty horsemen, surrounded the baggage-wagons of the British +force, fired into the two hundred soldiers guarding them, and, shouting +like a host of demons, captured the train, and the doughty captain with +my own ancestral name woke up the weary soldiers of Washington's army +with the rumbling of wagons heavily laden with woollen clothing and +supplies, bravely stolen from the enemy. [Applause.] + +The poisoned arrows whistled in the Newtown fight as the New York +contingent pressed forward toward Seneca Castle, the great capitol-house +of the Six Nations. The redskins and their Tory allies, under Brant, +tried hard to resist the progress of that awful human wedge that was +driven with relentless fury among the wigwams of those who had burned +the homes in beautiful Wyoming, who had despoiled with the bloody +tomahawk the settlement at German Flats, and had closed the horrid +campaign with the cruel massacre at Cherry Valley. Bold and daring in +this revengeful expedition was Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, a name +honored in all Dutch civil and military history. [Continued applause.] + +As a leader of three thousand cavalrymen the youthful General Bayard +[great cheers], proud of his Dutch descent, fell on the heights of +bloody Fredericksburg. Like the good knight, he was "without fear and +without reproach." Full of zeal for the cause, the bravest of the brave, +his sword flashed always where dangers were the thickest. When a +bursting shell left him dead on the field of honor, his brave men +mourned him and the foe missed him. [Cheers.] + +In the leaden tempest which rained around Drury's Bluff, a boyish +officer led a column of riflemen, gallant and daring. His uniform was +soiled with the grim dirt of many a battle, but his bright blue eye took +in every feature of the conflict. The day was just closing when an angry +bullet pierced his throat as he was cheering on his men, and the young +life of my college friend, Abram Zabriskie, of Jersey City, as chivalric +a Dutch colonel as ever drew a blade in battle, was breathed out in the +mighty throes of civil war. [Applause.] + +As we picture to ourselves the appearance of that grand figure of +William of Orange, as he led his heroic people through and out of scenes +of darkness and hunger and death into the sweet light of freedom; as we +turn the pages of history that recount the deeds of glory of Vander +Werf, the burgomaster of Leyden; of Count Egmont and Count Horn, of de +Ruyter and Van Tromp, let us not forget that the same sturdy stock has +developed in the New World the same zeal for human rights, the same high +resolves of duty, the same devotion to liberty. If ever again this +nation needs brave defenders, your sons and mine will, I trust, be able +to show to the world that the patriotism of Dutchmen, that true Dutch +valor, still fills the breasts of the soldiers of America! [Prolonged +cheering.] + + + + +SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN + + +MUSIC + + [Speech of Sir Arthur Sullivan at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, May 2, 1891. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the + Academy, occupied the chair. "In response for Music," said the + President, "I shall call on a man whose brilliant and many-sided + gifts are not honored in his own country alone, and who has + gathered laurels with full hands in every field of musical + achievement--my old friend, Sir Arthur Sullivan."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN: It is gratifying +to find that at the great representative art-gathering of the year the +sister arts are now receiving at the hands of the painters and sculptors +of the United Kingdom that compliment to which their members are justly +entitled. Art is a commonwealth in which all the component estates hold +an equal position, and it has been reserved for you, sir, under your +distinguished presidency, to give full and honorable recognition to this +important fact. You have done so in those terms of delicate, subtle +compliment, which whilst displaying the touch of the master, also bear +the impress of genuine sympathy, by calling upon my friend Mr. Irving, +and myself, as representatives of the drama and of music, to return +thanks for those branches of art to which our lives' efforts have been +devoted. + +I may add, speaking for my own art, that there is a singular +appropriateness that this compliment to Music should be paid by the +artist whose brain has conceived and whose hand depicted a most +enchanting "Music Lesson." You, sir, have touched with eloquence and +feeling upon some of the tenderer attributes of music; I would with your +permission, call attention to another--namely, its power and influence +on popular sentiment; for of all the arts I think Music has the most +mighty, universal, and immediate effect. ["Hear! hear!"] I know there +are many educated and intelligent people who, absorbed in commerce, +politics, and other pursuits, think that music is a mere family +pastime--an ear-gratifying enjoyment. Great popularity has its drawbacks +as well as its advantages, and there is no doubt that the widespread, +instantaneous appreciation and popularity of melody has detracted +somewhat from the proper recognition of the higher and graver attributes +of music. But that music is a power and has influenced humanity with +dynamic force in politics, religion, peace, and war, no one can gainsay. +Who can deny the effect in great crises of the world's history of the +Lutheran Chorale, "Ein' feste Burg," which roused the enthusiasm of +whole towns and cities and caused them to embrace the reformed faith en +masse--of the "Ça ira," with its ghastly association of tumbril and +guillotine, and of the still more powerful "Marseillaise?" These three +tunes alone have been largely instrumental in varying the course of +history. [Cheers.] + +Amongst our own people, no one who has visited the Greater Britain +beyond the seas but must be alive to the depth of feeling stirred by the +first bar of "God Save the Queen." It is not too much to say that this +air has done more than any other single agency to consolidate the +national sentiment which forms the basis of our world-wide Empire. +[Cheers.] But, sir, my duty is not to deliver a dissertation on music, +my duty is to thank you for the offering and the acceptation of this +toast, which I do most sincerely. + +With regard to the more than generous terms in which you, sir, have +alluded to my humble individuality, I need not say how deeply I feel the +spirit in which they were spoken. This much I would add--that highly as +I value your kindly utterances, I count still more highly the fact that +I should have been selected by you to respond for Music, whose dignity +and whose progress in England are so near and dear to me at heart. +[Cheers.] + + + + +CHARLES SUMNER + + +INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA + + [Speech of Charles Sumner at the banquet given by the City of + Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his + associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to + the United States and the powers of Europe.] + + +MR. MAYOR:--I cannot speak on this interesting occasion without +first declaring the happiness I enjoy at meeting my friend of many years +in the exalted position which he now holds. Besides being my personal +friend, he was also an honored associate in representing the good people +of this community, and in advancing a great cause, which he championed +with memorable eloquence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit +me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the municipal +authorities of Boston, is only a natural expression of the sentiments +which must prevail in this community. Here his labors and triumphs +began. Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he first +tasted of that honor which is now his in such ample measure. He is one +of us, who, going forth into a strange country, has come back with its +highest trusts and dignities. Once the representative of a single +Congressional district, he now represents the most populous nation of +the globe. Once the representative of little more than a third of +Boston, he is now the representative of more than a third part of the +human race. The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hundred +millions; that of China at more than four hundred millions, and +sometimes even at five hundred millions. + +If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder, there is still +more for gratitude in the unparalleled opportunity which it affords. +What we all ask is opportunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing +scale--to be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best interests of +the Human Family; and, if these are advanced, no nation can suffer. Each +is contained in all. With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule, +and nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there can be no +limits to the immeasurable consequences. For myself, I am less +solicitous with regard to concessions or privileges, than with regard to +that spirit of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces alike +the distant and the near, and, when once established, renders all else +easy. + +The necessary result of the present experiment in diplomacy will be to +make the countries which it visits better known to the Chinese, and also +to make the Chinese better known to them. Each will know the other +better and will better comprehend that condition of mutual dependence +which is the law of humanity. In the relations among nations, as in +common life, this is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the +Chinese are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure that we are +poorly informed with regard to them. We know them through the porcelain +on our tables with its lawless perspective, and the tea-chest with its +unintelligible hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the +literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an impression. +The first is in "Paradise Lost," where Milton, always learned even in +his poetry, represents Satan as descending in his flight, + + ... on the barren plains + Of Sericana, where _Chineses_ drive, + With sails and wind their cany wagons light. + +The other is that admirable address on the study of the law of nature +and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh, in words of singular felicity, +alludes to "the tame but ancient and immovable civilization of China." +It will be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the canvas +with life. + +I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest, that he is not +the first stranger who, after sojourning in this distant unknown land, +has come back loaded with its honors, and with messages to the +Christian powers. He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There +is another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the Venetian, +Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as the fables of a +traveller, are now recognized among the sources of history, and +especially of geographical knowledge. Nobody can read them without +feeling their verity. It was in the latter part of the far-away +thirteenth century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company with his +father and uncle, all of them merchants, journeyed from Venice, by the +way of Constantinople, Trebizond, on the Black Sea, and Central Asia, +until they reached first the land of Prester John, and then that golden +country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler, Kubla Khan, treated +them with gracious consideration, and employed young Polo as his +ambassador. This was none other than China, and the great ruler, called +the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its Mongolian dynasty, +having his imperial residence in the immense city of Kambalu, or Peking. +After many years of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his +companions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged with letters +for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian is charged with similar +letters now. There were letters for the Pope, the King of France, the +King of Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear that +England was expressly designated. Her name, so great now, was not at +that time on the visiting list of the distant Emperor. Such are the +contrasts in national life. Marco Polo, with his companions, reached +Venice on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante, in Florence, +was meditating his divine poem, and when Roger Bacon, in England, was +astonishing the age with his knowledge. These were two of his greatest +contemporaries. + +The return of the Venetian to his native city was attended by incidents +which have not occurred among us. Bronzed by long residence under the +sun of the East--wearing the dress of a Tartar--and speaking his native +language with difficulty, it was some time before he could persuade his +friends of his identity. Happily there is no question on the identity of +our returned fellow-citizen; and surely it cannot be said that he speaks +his native language with difficulty. There was a dinner given at Venice, +as now at Boston, and the Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly +five hundred years, still lives in glowing description. On this occasion +Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in long robes of crimson +satin reaching to the floor, which, after the guests had washed their +hands, were changed for other robes of crimson damask, and then again, +after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of crimson velvet, +and at the conclusion of the banquet, for the ordinary dress worn by the +rest of the company. Meanwhile the other costly garments were +distributed in succession among the attendants at the table. In all your +magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no such largess. Then was +brought forward the coarse threadbare clothes in which they had +travelled, when, on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly +jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the eyes of the +company, who for a time were motionless with wonder. Then at last, says +the Italian chronicler, every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied +that these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the house of +Polo. I do not relate this history in order to suggest any such +operation on the dress of our returned fellow-citizen. No such evidence +is needed to assure us of his identity. + +The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From his habit of speaking +of millions of people and millions of money, he was known as _millioni_, +or the millionnaire, being the earliest instance in history of a +designation so common in our prosperous age. But better than "millions" +was the knowledge he imparted, and the impulse that he gave to that +science, which teaches the configuration of the globe, and the place of +nations on its surface. His travels, as dictated by him, were reproduced +in various languages, and, after the invention of printing, the book was +multiplied in more than fifty editions. Unquestionably it prepared the +way for the two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times, that +of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama, and the New World, by +Christopher Columbus. One of his admirers, a learned German, does not +hesitate to say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the +three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries, have most +contributed to the progress of geography and the knowledge of the globe, +the modest name of the Venetian finds a place in the same line with +Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known that the +imagination of the Genoese navigator was fired by the revelations of the +Venetian, and that, in his mind, all the countries embraced by his +transcendent discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with its +various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish Sovereigns, Cuba was +nothing else than Xipangu, or Japan, as described by the Venetian, and +he thought himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king of +kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not reached Cathay or the Grand +Khan; but he had discovered a new world, destined in the history of +civilization to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to +welcome the ambassador of the grand Khan. + +The Venetian on his return home, journeyed out of the East, westward. +Our Marco Polo on his return home, journeyed out of the west, eastward; +and yet they both came from the same region. Their common starting-point +was Peking. This change is typical of that transcendent revolution under +whose influence the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying +westward, the first welcome is from the nations of Europe. Journeying +eastward, the first welcome is from our Republic. It only remains that +this welcome should be extended until it opens a pathway for the +mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces within the sphere of +American activity that ancient ancestral empire, where population, +industry and education, on an unprecedented scale, create resources and +necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See to it, merchants of the +United States, and you, merchants of Boston, that this opportunity is +not lost. + +And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the treaty, which you invited me to +discuss. But I will not now enter upon this topic. If you did not call +me to order for speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in +another place for undertaking to speak of a treaty which has not yet +been proclaimed by the President. One remark I will make and take the +consequences. The treaty does not propose much; but it is an excellent +beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of our fellow-citizen, +the honored plenipotentiary, will unlock those great Chinese gates which +have been bolted and barred for long centuries. The embassy is more +than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for further intercourse +and will help that new order of things which is among the promises of +the future. + + + * * * * * + + +THE QUALITIES THAT WIN + + [Speech of Charles Sumner at the sixty-eighth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1873. The + President, Isaac H. Bailey, in proposing the toast, "The Senate of + the United States," said: "We are happy to greet on this occasion + the senior in consecutive service, and the most eminent member of + the Senate, whose early, varied, and distinguished services in the + cause of freedom have made his name a household word throughout the + world--the Honorable Charles Sumner." On rising to respond, Mr. + Sumner was received with loud applause. The members of the Society + rose to their feet, applauded and waved handkerchiefs.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND BROTHERS OF NEW ENGLAND:--For the first time +in my life I have the good fortune to enjoy this famous anniversary +festival. Though often honored by your most tempting invitation, and +longing to celebrate the day in this goodly company of which all have +heard so much, I could never excuse myself from duties in another place. +If now I yield to well-known attractions, and journey from Washington +for my first holiday during a protracted public service, it is because +all was enhanced by the appeal of your excellent president, to whom I am +bound by the friendship of many years in Boston, in New York, and in a +foreign land. [Applause.] It is much to be a brother of New England, but +it is more to be a friend [applause], and this tie I have pleasure in +confessing to-night. + +It is with much doubt and humility that I venture to answer for the +Senate of the United States, and I believe the least I say on this head +will be the most prudent. [Laughter.] But I shall be entirely safe in +expressing my doubt if there is a single Senator who would not be glad +of a seat at this generous banquet. What is the Senate? It is a +component part of the National Government. But we celebrate to-day more +than any component part of any government. We celebrate an epoch in the +history of mankind--not only never to be forgotten, but to grow in +grandeur as the world appreciates the elements of true greatness. Of +mankind I say--for the landing on Plymouth Rock, on December 22, 1620, +marks the origin of a new order of ages, by which the whole human family +will be elevated. Then and there was the great beginning. + +Throughout all time, from the dawn of history, men have swarmed to found +new homes in distant lands. The Tyrians, skirting Northern Africa, +stopped at Carthage; Carthaginians dotted Spain and even the distant +coasts of Britain and Ireland; Greeks gemmed Italy and Sicily with +art-loving settlements; Rome carried multitudinous colonies with her +conquering eagles. Saxons, Danes, and Normans violently mingled with the +original Britons. And in more modern times, Venice, Genoa, Portugal, +Spain, France, and England, all sent forth emigrants to people foreign +shores. But in these various expeditions, trade or war was the impelling +motive. Too often commerce and conquest moved hand in hand, and the +colony was incarnadined with blood. + +On the day we celebrate, the sun for the first time in his course looked +down upon a different scene, begun and continued under a different +inspiration. A few conscientious Englishmen, in obedience to the monitor +within, and that they might be free to worship God according to their +own sense of duty, set sail for the unknown wilds of the North American +continent. After a voyage of sixty-four days in the ship Mayflower, with +Liberty at the prow and Conscience at the helm [applause], they sighted +the white sandbanks of Cape Cod, and soon thereafter in the small cabin +framed that brief compact, forever memorable, which is the first written +constitution of government in human history, and the very corner-stone +of the American Republic; and then these Pilgrims landed. + +This compact was not only foremost in time, it was also august in +character, and worthy of perpetual example. Never before had the object +of the "civil body public" been announced as "to enact, constitute, and +frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and +offices from time to time as shall be thought most meet and convenient +for the general good of the colony." How lofty! how true! Undoubtedly, +these were the grandest words of government with the largest promise of +any at that time uttered. + +If more were needed to illustrate the new epoch, it would be found in +the parting words of the venerable pastor, John Robinson, addressed to +the Pilgrims, as they were about to sail from Delfshaven--words often +quoted, yet never enough. How sweetly and beautifully he says: "And if +God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be as +ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my +ministry; but I am confident that the Lord hath more light and truth yet +to break forth out of his holy word." And then how justly the good +preacher rebukes those who close their souls to truth! "The Lutherans, +for example, cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw, and whatever +part of God's will he hath further imparted to Calvin, they will rather +die than embrace, and so the Calvinists stick where he left them. This +is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were precious, shining +lights in their times, God hath not revealed his whole will to them." +Beyond the merited rebuke, here is a plain recognition of the law of +human progress little discerned at the time, which teaches the sure +advance of the human family, and opens the vista of the ever-broadening, +never-ending future on earth. + +Our Pilgrims were few and poor. The whole outfit of this historic +voyage, including Ł1,700 of trading stock, was only Ł2,400, and how +little was required for their succor appears in the experience of the +soldier Captain Miles Standish, who, being sent to England for +assistance--not military, but financial--(God save the mark!) succeeded +in borrowing--how much do you suppose?--Ł150 sterling. [Laughter.] +Something in the way of help; and the historian adds, "though at fifty +per cent. interest." So much for a valiant soldier on a financial +expedition. [Laughter, in which General Sherman and the company joined.] +A later agent, Allerton, was able to borrow for the colony Ł200 at a +reduced interest of thirty per cent. Plainly, the money-sharks of our +day may trace an undoubted pedigree to these London merchants. +[Laughter.] But I know not if any son of New England, oppressed by +exorbitant interest, will be consoled by the thought that the Pilgrims +paid the same. + +And yet this small people--so obscure and outcast in condition--so +slender in numbers and in means--so entirely unknown to the proud and +great--so absolutely without name in contemporary records--whose +departure from the Old World took little more than the breath of their +bodies--are now illustrious beyond the lot of men; and the Mayflower is +immortal beyond the Grecian Argo, or the stately ship of any victorious +admiral. Though this was little foreseen in their day, it is plain now +how it has come to pass. The highest greatness surviving time and storm +is that which proceeds from the soul of man. [Applause.] Monarchs and +cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of courts and the +circumstance of war, in the gradual lapse of time disappear from sight; +but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose +example elevates human nature and teaches the rights of man, so that +government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not +perish from the earth [great applause], such harbingers can never be +forgotten, and their renown spreads coextensive with the cause they +served. + +I know not if any whom I now have the honor of addressing have thought +to recall the great in rank and power filling the gaze of the world as +the Mayflower with her company fared forth on their adventurous voyage. +The foolish James was yet on the English throne, glorying that he had +"peppered the Puritans." The morose Louis XIII, through whom Richelieu +ruled, was King of France. The imbecile Philip III swayed Spain and the +Indies. The persecuting Ferdinand the Second, tormentor of Protestants, +was Emperor of Germany. Paul V, of the House of Borghese, was Pope of +Rome. In the same princely company and all contemporaries were Christian +IV, King of Denmark, and his son Christian, Prince of Norway; Gustavus +Adolphus, King of Sweden; Sigismund the Third, King of Poland; +Frederick, King of Bohemia, with his wife, the unhappy Elizabeth of +England, progenitor of the house of Hanover; George William, Margrave of +Brandenburg, and ancestor of the Prussian house that has given an +emperor to Germany; Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria; Maurice, landgrave of +Hesse; Christian, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg; John Frederick, Duke +of Würtemberg and Teck; John, Count of Nassau; Henry, Duke of Lorraine; +Isabella, Infanta of Spain and ruler of the Low Countries; Maurice, +fourth Prince of Orange; Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy and ancestor of +the King of United Italy; Cosmo de' Medici, third Grand Duke of +Florence; Antonio Priuli, ninety-third Doge of Venice, just after the +terrible tragedy commemorated on the English stage as "Venice +Preserved"; Bethlehem Gabor, Prince of Unitarian Transylvania, and +elected King of Hungary, with the countenance of an African; and the +Sultan Mustapha, of Constantinople, twentieth ruler of the Turks. + +Such at that time were the crowned sovereigns of Europe, whose names +were mentioned always with awe, and whose countenances are handed down +by art, so that at this day they are visible to the curious as if they +walked these streets. Mark now the contrast. There was no artist for our +forefathers, nor are their countenances now known to men; but more than +any powerful contemporaries at whose tread the earth trembled is their +memory sacred. [Applause.] Pope, emperor, king, sultan, grand-duke, +duke, doge, margrave, landgrave, count--what are they all by the side of +the humble company that landed on Plymouth Rock? Theirs, indeed, were +the ensigns of worldly power, but our Pilgrims had in themselves that +inborn virtue which was more than all else besides, and their landing +was an epoch. + +Who in the imposing troop of worldly grandeur is now remembered but with +indifference or contempt? If I except Gustavus Adolphus, it is because +he revealed a superior character. Confront the Mayflower and the +Pilgrims with the potentates who occupied such space in the world. The +former are ascending into the firmament, there to shine forever, while +the latter have been long dropping into the darkness of oblivion, to be +brought forth only to point a moral or illustrate the fame of +contemporaries whom they regarded not. [Applause.] Do I err in supposing +this an illustration of the supremacy which belongs to the triumphs of +the moral nature? At first impeded or postponed, they at last prevail. +Theirs is a brightness which, breaking through all clouds, will shine +forth with ever-increasing splendor. + +I have often thought that if I were a preacher, if I had the honor to +occupy the pulpit so grandly filled by my friend near me [gracefully +inclining toward Mr. Beecher], one of my sermons should be from the +text, "A little leaven shall leaven the whole lump." Nor do I know a +better illustration of these words than the influence exerted by our +Pilgrims. That small band, with the lesson of self-sacrifice, of just +and equal laws, of the government of a majority, of unshrinking loyalty +to principle, is now leavening this whole continent, and in the fulness +of time will leaven the world. [Great applause.] By their example, +republican institutions have been commended, and in proportion as we +imitate them will these institutions be assured. [Applause.] + +Liberty, which we so much covet, is not a solitary plant. Always by its +side is Justice. [Applause.] But Justice is nothing but right applied to +human affairs. Do not forget, I entreat you, that with the highest +morality is the highest liberty. A great poet, in one of his inspired +sonnets, speaking of this priceless possession, has said, "But who loves +that must first be wise and good." Therefore do the Pilgrims in their +beautiful example teach liberty, teach republican institutions, as at an +earlier day, Socrates and Plato, in their lessons of wisdom, taught +liberty and helped the idea of the republic. If republican government +has thus far failed in any experiment, as, perhaps, somewhere in Spanish +America, it is because these lessons have been wanting. There have been +no Pilgrims to teach the moral law. + +Mr. President, with these thoughts, which I imperfectly express, I +confess my obligations to the forefathers of New England, and offer to +them the homage of a grateful heart. But not in thanksgiving only would +I celebrate their memory. I would if I could make their example a +universal lesson, and stamp it upon the land. [Applause.] The conscience +which directed them should be the guide for our public councils. The +just and equal laws which they required should be ordained by us, and +the hospitality to truth which was their rule should be ours. Nor would +I forget their courage and steadfastness. Had they turned back or +wavered, I know not what would have been the record of this continent, +but I see clearly that a great example would have been lost. [Applause.] +Had Columbus yielded to his mutinous crew and returned to Spain without +his great discovery; had Washington shrunk away disheartened by British +power and the snows of New Jersey, these great instances would have been +wanting for the encouragement of men. But our Pilgrims belong to the +same heroic company, and their example is not less precious. [Applause.] + +Only a short time after the landing on Plymouth Rock, the great +republican poet, John Milton, wrote his "Comus," so wonderful for beauty +and truth. His nature was more refined than that of the Pilgrims, and +yet it requires little effort of imagination to catch from one of them, +or at least from their beloved pastor, the exquisite, almost angelic +words at the close-- + + "Mortals, who would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free; + She can teach ye how to climb + Higher than the sphery chime. + Or if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her." + +[At the conclusion of Senator Sumner's speech the audience arose and +gave cheer upon cheer.] + + + + +THOMAS DEWITT TALMAGE + + +BEHOLD THE AMERICAN! + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the eighty-first annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1886. The President of the Society, Judge Horace Russell, + introduced Dr. Talmage to speak to the toast, "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, AND ALL YOU GOOD NEW ENGLANDERS: If we leave to +the evolutionists to guess where we came from and to the theologians to +prophesy where we are going to, we still have left for consideration the +fact that we are here; and we are here at an interesting time. Of all +the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the +century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this +is the best year, and of all the months of the year this is the best +month, and of all the nights of the month this is the best night. +[Applause and laughter.] Many of these advantages we trace straight back +to Forefathers' Day, about which I am to speak. + +But I must not introduce a new habit into these New England dinners and +confine myself to the one theme. For eighty-one years your speakers have +been accustomed to make the toast announced the point from which they +start, but to which they never return. [Laughter.] So I shall not stick +to my text, but only be particular to have all I say my own, and not +make the mistake of a minister whose sermon was a patchwork from a +variety of authors, to whom he gave no credit. There was an intoxicated +wag in the audience who had read about everything, and he announced the +authors as the minister went on. The clergyman gave an extract without +any credit to the author, and the man in the audience cried out: +"That's Jeremy Taylor." The speaker went on and gave an extract from +another author without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: +"That is John Wesley." The minister gave an extract from another author +without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: "That is George +Whitefield." When the minister lost his patience and cried out, "Shut +up, you old fool!" the man in the audience replied: "That is your own." +[Laughter.] + +Well, what about this Forefathers' Day? In Brooklyn they say the Landing +of the Pilgrims was December the 21st; in New York you say it was +December the 22d. You are both right. Not through the specious and +artful reasoning you have sometimes indulged in, but by a little +historical incident that seems to have escaped your attention. You see, +the Forefathers landed in the morning of December the 21st, but about +noon that day a pack of hungry wolves swept down the bleak American +beach looking for a New England dinner [laughter], and a band of savages +out for a tomahawk picnic hove in sight, and the Pilgrim Fathers thought +it best for safety and warmth to go on board the Mayflower and pass the +night. [Renewed laughter.] And during the night there came up a strong +wind blowing off shore that swept the Mayflower from its moorings clear +out to sea, and there was a prospect that our Forefathers, having +escaped oppression in foreign lands, would yet go down under an oceanic +tempest. But the next day they fortunately got control of their ship and +steered her in, and the second time the Forefathers stepped ashore. + +Brooklyn celebrated the first landing; New York the second landing. So I +say Hail! Hail! to both celebrations, for one day, anyhow, could not do +justice to such a subject; and I only wish I could have kissed the +blarney stone of America, which is Plymouth Rock, so that I might have +done justice to this subject. [Laughter and applause.] Ah, gentlemen, +that Mayflower was the ark that floated the deluge of oppression, and +Plymouth Rock was the Ararat on which it landed. + +But let me say that these Forefathers were of no more importance than +the Foremothers. [Applause.] As I understand it, there were eight of +them--that is, four fathers and four mothers--from whom all these +illustrious New Englanders descended. Now I was not born in New England, +though far back my ancestors lived in Connecticut, and then crossed over +to Long Island and there joined the Dutch, and that mixture of Yankee +and Dutch makes royal blood. [Applause.] Neither is perfect without the +other, the Yankee in a man's nature saying "Go ahead!" the Dutch in his +blood saying, "Be prudent while you do go ahead!" Some people do not +understand why Long Island was stretched along parallel with all of the +Connecticut coast. I have no doubt that it was so placed that the Dutch +might watch the Yankees. [Laughter.] + +But though not born in New England, in my boyhood I had a New England +schoolmaster, whom I shall never forget. He taught us our A, B, C's. +"What is that?" "I don't know, sir." "That's A" [with a slap]. "What is +that?" "I don't know, sir." [With a slap]--"That is B." [Laughter.] I +tell you, a boy that learned his letters in that way never forgot them; +and if the boy was particularly dull, then this New England schoolmaster +would take him over the knee, and then the boy got his information from +both directions. [Renewed laughter.] + +But all these things aside, no one sitting at these tables has higher +admiration for the Pilgrim Fathers than I have--the men who believed in +two great doctrines, which are the foundation of every religion that is +worth anything: namely, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of +Man--these men of backbone and endowed with that great and magnificent +attribute of stick-to-it-iveness. Macaulay said that no one ever sneered +at the Puritans who had met them in halls of debate or crossed swords +with them on the field of battle. [Applause.] They are sometimes defamed +for their rigorous Sabbaths, but our danger is in the opposite direction +of no Sabbaths at all. It is said that they destroyed witches. I wish +that they had cleared them all out, for the world is full of witches +yet, and if at all these tables there is a man who has not sometimes +been bewitched, let him hold up his glass of ice-water. [Laughter.] It +is said that these Forefathers carried religion into everything, and +before a man kissed his wife he asked a blessing, and afterward said: +"Having received another favor from the Lord, let us return thanks." +[Laughter.] But our great need now is more religion in every-day life. + +I think their plain diet had much to do with their ruggedness of nature. +They had not as many good things to eat as we have, and they had better +digestion. Now, all the evening some of our best men sit with an awful +bad feeling at the pit of their stomach, and the food taken fails to +assimilate, and in the agitated digestive organs the lamb and the cow +lie down together and get up just as they have a mind to. [Laughter.] +After dinner I sat down with my friend to talk. He had for many years +been troubled with indigestion. I felt guilty when I insisted on his +taking that last piece of lemon pie. I knew that pastry always made him +crusty. I said to him: "I never felt better in all my life; how do you +feel?" And putting one hand over one piece of lemon pie and the other +hand over the other piece of lemon pie, he said: "I feel miserable." +Smaller varieties of food had the old Fathers, but it did them more +good. + +Still, take it all in all, I think the descendants of the Pilgrim +Fathers are as good as their ancestors, and in many ways better. +Children are apt to be an echo of their ancestors. We are apt to put a +halo around the Forefathers, but I expect that at our age they were very +much like ourselves. People are not wise when they long for the good old +days. They say: "Just think of the pride of people at this day! Just +look at the ladies' hats!" [Laughter.] Why, there is nothing in the +ladies' hats of to-day equal to the coal-scuttle hats a hundred years +ago. They say: "Just look at the way people dress their hair!" Why, the +extremest style of to-day will not equal the top-knots which our +great-grandmothers wore, put up with high combs that we would have +thought would have made our great-grandfathers die with laughter. The +hair was lifted into a pyramid a foot high. On the top of that tower lay +a white rose. Shoes of bespangled white kid, and heels two or three +inches high. Grandfather went out to meet her on the floor with a coat +of sky-blue silk and vest of white satin embroidered with gold lace, +lace ruffles around his wrist and his hair flung in a queue. The great +George Washington had his horse's hoofs blackened when about to appear +on a parade, and writes to Europe ordering sent for the use of himself +and family, one silver-lace hat, one pair of silver shoe-buckles, a +coat made of fashionable silk, one pair of gold sleeve-buttons, six +pairs of kid gloves, one dozen most fashionable cambric +pocket-handkerchiefs, besides ruffles and tucker. That was George. +[Laughter.] + +Talk about dissipations, ye who have ever seen the old-fashioned +sideboard! Did I not have an old relative who always, when visitors +came, used to go upstairs and take a drink through economical habits, +not offering anything to his visitors? [Laughter.] On the old-fashioned +training days the most sober men were apt to take a day to themselves. +Many of the familiar drinks of to-day were unknown to them, but their +hard cider, mint julep, metheglin, hot toddy, and lemonade in which the +lemon was not at all prominent, sometimes made lively work for the +broad-brimmed hats and silver knee-buckles. Talk of dissipating parties +of to-day and keeping of late hours! Why, did they not have their "bees" +and sausage-stuffings and tea-parties and dances, that for heartiness +and uproar utterly eclipsed all the waltzes, lanciers, redowas, and +breakdowns of the nineteenth century, and they never went home till +morning. And as to the old-time courtships, oh, my! Washington Irving +describes them. [Laughter.] + +But though your Forefathers may not have been much, if any, better than +yourselves, let us extol them for the fact that they started this +country in the right direction. They laid the foundation for American +manhood. The foundation must be more solid and firm and unyielding than +any other part of the structure. On that Puritanic foundation we can +safely build all nationalities. [Applause.] Let us remember that the +coming American is to be an admixture of all foreign bloods. In about +twenty-five or fifty years the model American will step forth. He will +have the strong brain of the German, the polished manners of the French, +the artistic taste of the Italian, the stanch heart of the English, the +steadfast piety of the Scotch, the lightning wit of the Irish, and when +he steps forth, bone, muscle, nerve, brain entwined with the fibres of +all nationalities, the nations will break out in the cry: "Behold the +American!" [Applause.] + +Columbus discovered only the shell of this country. Agassiz came and +discovered fossiliferous America. Silliman came and discovered +geological America. Audubon came and discovered bird America. Longfellow +came and discovered poetic America; and there are a half-dozen other +Americas yet to be discovered. + +I never realized what this country was and is as on the day when I first +saw some of these gentlemen of the Army and Navy. It was when at the +close of the War our armies came back and marched in review before the +President's stand at Washington. I do not care whether a man was a +Republican or a Democrat, a Northern man or a Southern man, if he had +any emotion of nature, he could not look upon it without weeping. God +knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heaven of cloud and +mist and chill, and sprung the blue sky as the triumphal arch for the +returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring +foliage shook out its welcome, as the hosts came over the hills, and the +sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the +battalions as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable +line passed over. The Capitol never seemed so majestic as that morning: +snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging down, +billow after billow. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the +thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see +dripping from their smoke-blackened flags the blood of our country's +martyrs. For the best part of two days we stood and watched the filing +on of what seemed endless battalions, brigade after brigade, division +after division, host after host, rank beyond rank; ever moving, ever +passing; marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp--thousands after +thousands, battery front, arms shouldered, columns solid, shoulder to +shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril. + +Commanders on horses with their manes entwined with roses, and necks +enchained with garlands, fractious at the shouts that ran along the +line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, +standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferation of +hundreds of thousands of enraptured multitudes, crying "Huzza! Huzza!" +Gleaming muskets, thundering parks of artillery, rumbling pontoon +wagons, ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out the groans of +the crushed and the dying that they had carried. These men came from +balmy Minnesota, those from Illinois prairies. These were often hummed +to sleep by the pines of Oregon, those were New England lumbermen. Those +came out of the coal-shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side in one great +cause, consecrated through fire and storm and darkness, brothers in +peril, on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and +Fredericksburg, in lines that seemed infinite they passed on. + +We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our heads to see if the end +had come, but no! Looking from one end of that long avenue to the other, +we saw them yet in solid column, battery front, host beyond host, wheel +to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril, coming as it were from +under the Capitol. Forward! Forward! Their bayonets, caught in the sun, +glimmered and flashed and blazed, till they seemed like one long river +of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the +procession, no rest for the eyes. We turned our heads from the scene, +unable longer to look. We felt disposed to stop our ears, but still we +heard it, marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp. But hush,--uncover +every head! Here they pass, the remnant of ten men of a full regiment. +Silence! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. But +wheel into line, all ye people! North, South, East, West--all decades, +all centuries, all millenniums! Forward, the whole line! Huzza! Huzza! +[Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE DUTCH + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the seventh annual dinner + of the Holland Society of New York, January 14, 1892. The President + of the Society, George M. Van Hoesen, said: "The next regular toast + is: 'What I Know about the Dutch,' which will be responded to by a + gentleman who needs no introduction--the Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt + Talmage."] + + +Oh, Judge Van Hoesen, this is not the first time we have been side by +side, for we were college boys together; and I remember that there was +this difference between us--you seemed to know about everything, and it +would take a very large library, a library larger than the Vatican, to +tell all that I didn't know. It is good to be here. What a multitude of +delightful people there are in this world! If you and I had been +consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we +could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always +been glad that I got aboard this planet. There are three classes of +people that I especially admire--men, women, and children. I have +enjoyed this banquet very much, for there are two places where I always +have a good appetite--at home and away from home. I have not been +interfered with as were some gentlemen that I heard of at a public +dinner some years ago. A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, +came to the city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who +were showing him the sights: "Who are those gentlemen who are eating so +heartily?" The answer was: "They are the men who pay for the dinner." +"And who are those gentlemen up there on the elevation looking so pale +and frightened and eating nothing?" "Oh," said his friend, "those are +the fellows who make the speeches." + +It is very appropriate that we should celebrate the Hollanders by hearty +eating, for you know the royal house that the Hollanders admire above +any other royal house, is named after one of the most delicious fruits +on this table--the house of Orange. I feel that I have a right to be +here. While I have in my arteries the blood of many nationalities, so +that I am a cosmopolitan and feel at home anywhere, there is in my veins +a strong tide of Dutch blood. My mother was a Van Nest, and I was +baptized in a Dutch church and named after a Dutch Domini, graduated at +a Dutch theological seminary, and was ordained by a Dutch minister, +married a Dutch girl, preached thirteen years in a Dutch church, and +always took a Dutch newspaper; and though I have got off into another +denomination, I am thankful to say that, while nearly all of our +denominations are in hot water, each one of them having on a big +ecclesiastical fight--and you know when ministers do fight, they fight +like sin--I am glad that the old Dutch Church sails on over unruffled +seas, and the flag at her masthead is still inscribed with "Peace and +good-will to men." Departed spirits of John Livingston and Gabriel +Ludlow, and Dr. Van Draken and magnificent Thomas de Witt, from your +thrones witness! + +Gentlemen here to-night have spoken much already in regard to what +Holland did on the other side of the sea; and neither historian's pen, +nor poet's canto, nor painter's pencil nor sculptor's chisel, nor +orator's tongue, can ever tell the full story of the prowess of those +people. Isn't it strange that two of the smallest sections of the earth +should have produced most of the grandest history of the world? +Palestine, only a little over 100 miles in length, yet yielding the most +glorious event of all history; and little Holland, only about one +quarter of the size of the State of New Jersey, achieving wonderful +history and wonderful deeds not only at home, but starting an influence +under which Robert Burns wrote "A man's a man for a' that," and sending +across the Atlantic a thunder of indignation against oppression of which +the American Declaration of Independence, and Yorktown and Bunker Hill, +and Monmouth and Gettysburg, are only the echoes! + +As I look across the ocean to-night, I say: England for manufactories, +Germany for scholarship, France for manners, Italy for pictures--but +Holland for liberty and for God! And leaving to other gentlemen to tell +that story--for they can tell it better than I can--I can to-night get +but little further than our own immediate Dutch ancestors, most of whom +have already taken the sacrament of the dust. Ah, what a glorious race +of old folks they were! May our right hand forget its cunning, and our +tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth, if we forget to honor their +memories! What good advice they gave us; and when they went away +forever--well, our emotions were a little different as we stood over the +silent forms of the two old folks. In one case I think the dominant +emotion was reverence. In the other case I think it was tenderness, and +a wish that we could go with her.-- + + "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight; + Make me a child again, just for to-night! + Mother, come back from the echoless shore, + Take me again to your heart as of yore; + Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, + Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair; + Over my slumbers a loving watch keep;-- + Rock me to sleep, mother--rock me to sleep!" + +My, my! doesn't the old Dutch home come back to us, and don't we see the +plain cap, and the large round spectacles, and the shoulders that stoop +from carrying our burden! Was there ever any other hand like hers to +wipe away a tear, or to bind up a wound; for when she put the +far-sighted spectacles clear up on her forehead, so that her eyes might +the nearer look at the wound, it felt better right away! And have we +ever since heard any music like that which she hushed us to sleep +with--could any prima donna sing as she could! And could any other face +so fill a room with light and comfort and peace! + +Mr. President, Dutch blood is good blood. We do not propose to +antagonize any other to-night; but at our public dinners, about December +21st, we are very apt to get into the Mayflower and sail around the New +England coast. I think it will be good for us to-night to take another +boat quite as good, and sail around New York harbor in the Half-Moon. + +I heard, years ago, the difference illustrated between the Yankee and +the Dutchman. There was an explosion on a Mississippi River steamboat; +the boiler burst, and the passengers were thrown into the air. After the +accident, the captain came around to inquire in regard to them, and he +found the Dutchman, but not the Yankee; and he said to the Dutchman, +"Did you see anything of that Yankee?" The Dutchman replied, "Oh, yes; +when I vas going up, he vas coming down." Now, the Dutch blood may not +be quite so quick as the Yankee, but it is more apt to be sure it is +right before it goes ahead. Dutch blood means patience, fidelity, and +perseverance. It means faith in God also. Yes, it means generosity. I +hardly ever knew a mean Dutchman. That man who fell down dead in my +native village couldn't have had any Dutch blood in him. He was over +eighty years of age, and had never given a cent to any benevolent object +during his life; but in a moment of weakness, when he saw a face of +distress, he gave a cent to an unfortunate man, and immediately dropped +dead; and the surgeon declared, after the post-mortem examination, that +he died of sudden enlargement of the heart. Neither is there any such +mean man among the Dutch as that man who was so economical in regard to +meat that he cut off a dog's tail and roasted it and ate the meat, and +then gave the bone back to the dog. Or that other mean man I heard of, +who was so economical that he used a wart on the back of his neck for a +collar-button. I have so much faith in Holland blood, that I declare the +more Hollanders come to this country the better we ought to like it. +Wherever they try to land, let them land on our American soil; for all +this continent is going to be after a while under one government. I +suppose you have noticed how the governments on the southern part of the +continent are gradually melting into our own; and soon the difficulty on +the north between Canada and the United States will be amicably settled +and the time will come when the United States Government will offer hand +and heart in marriage to beautiful and hospitable Canada; and when the +United States shall so offer its hand in marriage, Canada will blush and +look down, and, thinking of her allegiance across the sea, will say, +"Ask mother." + +In a suggestive letter which the chairman of the committee wrote me, +inviting me to take part in this entertainment, he very beautifully and +potently said that the Republic of the Netherlands had given hospitality +in the days that are past to English Puritans and French Huguenots and +Polish refugees and Portuguese Jews, and prospered; and I thought, as I +read that letter, "Why, then, if the Republic of the Netherlands was so +hospitable to other nations, surely we ought to be hospitable to all +nations, especially to Hollanders." Oh, this absurd talk about "America +for Americans!" Why, there isn't a man here to-night that is not +descended from some foreigner, unless he is an Indian. Why, the native +Americans were Modocs, Chippewas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, +and such like. Suppose, when our fathers were trying to come to this +country, the Indians had stood on Plymouth Rock and at the Highlands of +the Navesink, and when the Hollanders and the Pilgrim Fathers attempted +to land, had shouted, "Back with you to Holland and to England; America +for Americans!" Had that watchword been an early and successful cry, +where now stand our cities would have stood Indian wigwams; and canoes +instead of steamers would have tracked the Hudson and the Connecticut; +and, instead of the Mississippi being the main artery of the continent, +it would have been only a trough for deer and antelope and wild pigeons +to drink out of. What makes this cry of "America for the Americans" the +more absurd and the more inhuman is that some in this country, who +themselves arrived here in their boyhood or only one or two generations +back, are joining in the cry. Having escaped themselves into this +beautiful land, they say: "Shut the door of escape for others." Getting +themselves on our shores in the life-boat from the shipwreck, they say: +"Haul up the boat on the beach, and let the rest of the passengers go to +the bottom." Men who have yet on them a Holland, or Scotch, or German, +or English, or Irish brogue, are crying out: "America for the +Americans!" What if the native inhabitants of heaven (I mean the angels, +the cherubim, and the seraphim, for they were born there) should say to +us when we arrive there at last, "Go back. Heaven for the Heavenians!" + +Of course, we do not want foreign nations to make this a convict colony. +We wouldn't let their thieves and anarchists land here, nor even wipe +their feet on the mat of the outside door of this continent. When they +send their criminals here, let us put them in chains and send them back. +This country must not be made the dumping-ground for foreign +vagabondism. But for the hard-working and industrious people who come +here, do not let us build up any wall around New York harbor to keep +them out, or it will after a while fall down with a red-hot thunderburst +of God's indignation. Suppose you are a father, and you have five +children. One is named Philip, and Philip says to his brothers and +sisters: "Now, John, you go and live in the small room at the end of the +hall. George, you go and stay up in the garret. Mary, you go and live in +the cellar, and Fannie, you go and live in the kitchen, and don't any of +you come out. I am Philip, and will occupy the parlor; I like it; I like +the lambrequins at the window, and I like the pictures on the wall. I am +Philip, and, being Philip, the parlor shall only be for the Philipians." +You, the father, come home, and you say: "Fannie, what are you doing in +the kitchen? Come out of there." And you say to Mary, "Mary, come out of +that cellar." And you say to John, "John, don't stay shut up in that +small room. Come out of there." And you say to George, "George, come +down out of that garret." And you say to the children, "This is my +house. You can go anywhere in it that you want to." And you go and haul +Philip out of the parlor, and you tell him that his brothers and sisters +have just as much right in there as he has, and that they are all to +enjoy it. Now, God is our Father, and this world is a house of several +rooms, and God has at least five children--the North American continent, +the South American continent, the Asiatic continent, the European +continent, and the African continent. The North American continent +sneaks away, and says: "I prefer the parlor. You South Americans, +Asiatics, Europeans, and Africans, you stay in your own rooms; this is +the place for me; I prefer it, and I am going to stay in the parlor; I +like the front windows facing on the Atlantic, and the side windows +facing on the Pacific, and the nice piazza on the south where the sun +shines, and the glorious view from the piazza to the north." And God, +the Father, comes in and sends thunder and lightning through the house, +and says to his son, the American continent: "You are no more my child +than are all these others, and they have just as much right to enjoy +this part of my house as you have." + +It will be a great day for the health of our American atmosphere when +this race prejudice is buried in the earth. Come, bring your spades, and +let us dig a grave for it; and dig it deep down into the heart of the +earth, but not clear through to China, lest the race prejudice should +fasten the prejudice on the other side. Having got this grave deeply +dug, come, let us throw in all the hard things that have been said and +written between Jew and Gentile, between Protestant and Catholic, +between Turk and Russian, between French and English, between Mongolian +and anti-Mongolian, between black and white; and then let us set up a +tombstone and put upon it the epitaph: "Here lies the monster that +cursed the earth for nearly three thousand years. He has departed to go +to perdition, from which he started. No peace to his ashes." + +From this glorious Holland dinner let us go out trying to imitate the +virtues of our ancestors, the men who built the Holland dikes, which are +the only things that ever conquered the sea, slapping it in the face and +making it go back. There was a young Holland engineer who was to be +married to a maiden living in one of the villages sheltered by these +dikes, and in the evening there was to be a banquet in honor of the +wedding, which was to be given to the coming bridegroom. But all day +long the sea was raging and beating against the dikes. And this engineer +reasoned with himself: "Shall I go to the banquet which is to be given +in my honor, or shall I go and join my workmen down on the dikes?" And +he finally concluded that it was his duty to go and join his workmen on +the dikes, and he went. And when the poor fellows toiling there saw that +their engineer was coming to help them, they set up a cheer. The +engineer had a rope put around him and was lowered down into the surf, +and other men came and had ropes put about them, and they were lowered +down. And after a while the cry was heard: "More mortar and more blocks +of stone!" But there were no more. "Now," said the Holland engineer, +"men, take off your clothes!" and they took them off, and they stopped +up the holes in the dikes. But still the stones were giving way against +the mighty wrath of the strong sea which was beating against them. And +then the Holland engineer said: "We cannot do any more. My men, get on +your knees and pray to God for help." And they got down on their knees +and they prayed; and the wind began to silence, and the sea began to +cease its angry wavings, and the wall was saved; and all the people who +lived in the village went on with the banquet and the dance, for they +did not know their peril, and they were all saved. + +What you and I ought to do is to go out and help build up the dikes +against the ocean of crime and depravity and sin which threatens to +overwhelm this nation. Men of Holland, descend!--to the dikes! to the +dikes! Bring all the faith and all the courage of your ancestors to the +work, and then get down on your knees, and kneel with us on the creaking +wall, and pray to the God of the wind and of the sea that He may hush +the one and silence the other. + + + + +BAYARD TAYLOR + + +TRIBUTE TO GOETHE + + [Speech of Bayard Taylor at a reception given in his honor by the + Goethe Club, New York City, March 20, 1878. The reception was held + in recognition of Mr. Taylor's appointment as United States + Minister to Germany. Dr. A. Ruppaner, President of the Club, + presided.] + + +It is difficult for me to respond fitly to what you have done, +fellow-members of the Goethe Club, and what my old friend Parke Godwin +has said. I may take gratefully whatever applies to an already +accomplished work, but I cannot accept any reference to any work yet to +be done without a feeling of doubt and uncertainty. No man can count on +future success without seeming to invoke the evil fates. + +I am somewhat relieved in knowing that this reception, by which I am so +greatly honored, is not wholly owing to the official distinction which +has been conferred upon me by the President. I am informed that it had +been already intended by the Goethe Club as a large and liberal +recognition of my former literary labors, and I will only refer a moment +to the diplomatic post in order that there may be no misconception of my +position in accepting it. + +The fact that for years past I have designed writing a new biography of +the great German master, is generally known; there was no necessity for +keeping it secret; it has been specially mentioned by the press since my +appointment, and I need not hesitate to say that the favor of our +government will give me important facilities in the prosecution of the +work. [Applause.] + +But the question has also been asked, here and there--and very +naturally--is a Minister to a foreign Court to be appointed for such a +purpose? I answer, No! The Minister's duty to the government and to the +interests of his fellow-citizens is always paramount. I shall go to +Berlin with the full understanding of the character of the services I +may be expected to render, and the honest determination to fulfil them +to the best of my ability. + +But, as my friends know, I have the power and the habit of doing a great +deal of work; and I think no one will complain if, instead of the +recreation which others allow themselves, I should find my own +recreation in another form of labor. + +I hope to secure at least two hours out of each twenty-four for my own +work, without detriment to my official duties--and if two hours are not +practicable, one must suffice. I shall be in the midst of the material I +most need--I shall be able to make the acquaintance of the men and women +who can give me the best assistance--and without looking forward +positively to the completion of the task, I may safely say that this +opportunity gives me a cheerful hope of being able to complete it. + +I was first led to the study of Goethe's life by the necessity of making +the full meaning of his greatest poem clear to the readers of our +language. I found that he himself was a better guide for me than all his +critics and commentators. I learned to understand the grand +individuality of his nature, and his increasing importance as an +intellectual force in our century. I owe as much to him in the way of +stimulus as to any other poet whatever. Except Shakespeare, no other +poet has ever so thoroughly inculcated the value of breadth, the +advantage of various knowledge, as the chief element of the highest +human culture. Through the form of his creative activity, Shakespeare +could only teach this lesson indirectly. Goethe taught it always in the +most direct and emphatic manner, for it was the governing principle of +his nature. It is not yet fifty years since he died, but he has already +become a permanent elemental power, the operation of which will continue +through many generations to come. The fact that an association bearing +his name exists and flourishes here in New York is a good omen for our +own development. + +We grow, not by questioning or denying great minds--which is a very +prevalent fashion of the day--but by reverently accepting whatever they +can give us. The "heir of all the ages" is unworthy of his ancestors if +he throws their legacy away. It is enough for me if this honor to-night +reaches through and far beyond me, to Goethe. It is his name not mine, +which has brought us together. Let me lay upon him--he is able to bear +even that much--whatever of the honor I am not truly worthy to receive, +and to thank you gratefully for what remains. [Applause.] + + + + +SLASON THOMPSON + + +THE ETHICS OF THE PRESS + + [Speech of Slason Thompson at the seventy-fourth dinner and fourth + "Ladies' Night" of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill., April 26, 1894. + The Secretary, Alexander A. McCormick, presided. Mr. Thompson spoke + on the general topic of the evening's discussion, "The Ethics of + the Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It would be interesting, I think, +for the gentlemen of the press who are here to-night if they could find +out from what newspaper in Chicago the last speaker [Howard L. Smith] +derives his idea of the press of Chicago. I stand here to say that there +is no such paper printed in this city. There may be one that, perhaps, +comes close down to his ideas of the press of Chicago, but there is only +one--a weekly--and I believe it is printed in New York. The reverend +gentleman who began the discussion to-night started into this subject +very much like a coon, and as we listened, as he went on, we perceived +he came out a porcupine. He was scientific in everything he said in +favor of the press; unscientific in everything against it. He spoke to +you in favor of the suppression of news, which means, I take it, the +dissemination of crime. He spoke to you in favor of the suppression of +sewer-gas. Chicago to-day owes its good health to the fact that we do +discuss sewer-gas. A reverend gentleman once discussing the province of +the press, spoke of its province as the suppression of news. If some +gentlemen knew the facts that come to us, they would wonder at our +lenience to their faults. The question of an anonymous press has been +brought up. If you will glance over the files of the newspapers +throughout the world, you will find in that country where the articles +are signed the press is most corrupt, weakest, most venal, and has the +least influence of any press in the world. To tell me that a reporter +who writes an article is of more consequence than the editor, is to tell +me a thing I believe you do not believe. + +When Charles A. Dana was asked what was the first essential in +publishing a newspaper, he is said to have replied, "Raise Cain and sell +papers." Whether the story is true or not, his answer comes as near a +general definition of the governing principle in newspaper offices as +you are likely to get. + +Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as ethics of the press. Each +newspaper editor, publisher, or proprietor--whoever is the controlling +spirit behind the types, the man who pockets the profits, or empties his +pockets to make good the losses--his will, his judgment, his conscience, +his hopes, necessities, or ambitions, constitute the ethics of one +newspaper--no more! There is no association of editors, no understanding +or agreement to formulate ethics for the press. And if there were, not +one of the parties to it would live up to it any more than the managers +of railways live up to the agreements over which they spend so much +time. + +The general press prints what the public wants; the specific newspaper +prints what its editor thinks the class of readers to which it caters +wants. If he gauges his public right, he succeeds; if he does not, he +fails. You can no more make the people read a newspaper they do not want +than you can make a horse drink when he is not thirsty. In this respect +the pulpit has the better of the press. It can thrash over old straw and +thunder forth distasteful tenets to its congregations year after year, +and at least be sure of the continued attention of the sexton and the +deacon who circulates the contribution-box. + +What are the ethics of the press of Chicago? They are those of Joseph +Medill, Victor F. Lawson, H. H. Kohlsaat, John R. Walsh, Carter Harrison, +Jr., Washington Hesing, individually, not collectively. As these +gentlemen are personally able, conscientious, fearless for the right, +patriotic, incorruptible, and devoted to the public good, so are their +respective newspapers. If they are otherwise, so are their respective +newspapers. + +As I have said before this club on another occasion, the citizens of +Chicago are fortunate above those of any other great city in the United +States in the average high character of their newspapers. They may have +their faults, but who has not? Let him or her who is without fault throw +stones. + +If the newspaper press is as bad as some people always pretend to think, +how comes it that every good cause instinctively seeks its aid with +almost absolute confidence of obtaining it? And how comes it that the +workers of evil just as instinctively aim to fraudulently use it or +silence it, and with such poor success? + +To expose and oppose wrong is an almost involuntary rule among newspaper +workers--from chief to printer's devil. They make mistakes like others, +they are tempted and fall like others, but I testify to a +well-recognized intention of our profession, the rule is to learn the +facts, and print them, too--to know the truth and not hide it under a +bushel. Nine-tenths of the criticisms of the press one hears is the +braying of the galled jades or the crackling of thorns under a pot. + +The press stands for light, not darkness. It is the greatest power in +our modern civilization. Thieves and rascals of high and low degree hate +and malign it, but no honest man has reasonable cause to fear the abuse +of its power. It is a beacon, and not a false light. It casts its +blessed beams into dark places, and while it brings countless crimes to +light, it also reveals to the beneficence of the world the wrongs and +needs of the necessitous. It is the embodiment of energy in the pursuit +of news, for its name is Light, and its aim is Knowledge. Ignorance and +crime flee from before it like mist before the God of Light. It stands +to-day + + "For the truth that lacks assistance, + For the wrong that needs resistance, + For the future in the distance, + And the good that it can do." + +It has no license to do wrong; it has boundless liberty and opportunity +to do good. + + + + +THEODORE TILTON + + +WOMAN + + [Speech of Theodore Tilton at the sixtieth annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1865. The + Chairman, Joseph H. Choate, gave the following toast, "Woman--the + strong staff and beautiful rod which sustained and comforted our + forefathers during every step of the pilgrims' progress." Theodore + Tilton was called upon to respond.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--It is somewhat to a modest man's embarrassment, on +rising to this toast, to know that it has already been twice partially +spoken to this evening--first by my friend, Senator Lane from Indiana, +and just now, most eloquently, by the mayor-elect of New York [John T. +Hoffman], who could not utter a better word in his own praise than to +tell us that he married a Massachusetts wife. [Applause.] In choosing +the most proper spot on this platform as my standpoint for such remarks +as are appropriate to such a toast, my first impulse was to go to the +other end of the table; for hereafter, Mr. Chairman, when you are in +want of a man to speak for Woman, remember what Hamlet said, "Bring me +the recorder!"[7] [Laughter.] But, on the other hand, here, at this end, +a prior claim was put in from the State of Indiana, whose venerable +Senator [Henry S. Lane] has expressed himself disappointed at finding no +women present. So, as my toast introduces that sex, I feel bound to +stand at the Senator's end of the room--not, however, too near the +Senator's chair, for it may be dangerous to take Woman too near that +"good-looking man." [Laughter and applause.] Therefore, gentlemen, I +stand between these two chairs--the Army on my right [General Hancock], +the Navy on my left [Admiral Farragut]--to hold over their heads a name +that conquers both--Woman! [Applause.] The Chairman has pictured a +vice-admiral tied for a little while to a mast; but it is the spirit of +my sentiment to give you a vice-admiral tied life-long to a master. +[Applause.] In the absence of woman, therefore, from this gilded feast, +I summon her to your golden remembrance. There is an old English +song--older, sir, than the Pilgrims:-- + + "By absence, this good means I gain, + That I can catch her + Where none can watch her, + In some close corner of my brain: + There I embrace and kiss her: + And so I both enjoy and miss her!" + +You must not forget, Mr. President, in eulogizing the early men of New +England, who are your clients to-night, that it was only through the +help of the early women of New England, who are mine, that your boasted +heroes could ever have earned their title of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Great +laughter.] A health, therefore, to the women in the cabin of the +Mayflower! A cluster of May-flowers themselves, transplanted from summer +in the old world to winter in the new! Counting over those matrons and +maidens, they numbered, all told, just eighteen. Their names are now +written among the heroines of history! For as over the ashes of Cornelia +stood the epitaph "The Mother of the Gracchi," so over these women of +the Pilgrimage we write as proudly "The Mothers of the Republic." +[Applause.] There was good Mistress Bradford, whose feet were not +allowed of God to kiss Plymouth Rock, and who, like Moses, came only +near enough to see but not to enter the Promised Land. She was washed +overboard from the deck--and to this day the sea is her grave and Cape +Cod her monument! [Applause.] There was Mistress Carver, wife of the +first governor, and who, when her husband fell under the stroke of +sudden death, followed him first with heroic grief to the grave, and +then, a fortnight after, followed him with heroic joy up into Heaven! +[Applause.] There was Mistress White--the mother of the first child +born to the New England Pilgrims on this continent. And it was a good +omen, sir, that this historic babe was brought into the world on board +the Mayflower between the time of the casting of her anchor and the +landing of her passengers--a kind of amphibious prophecy that the +new-born nation was to have a birthright inheritance over the sea and +over the land. [Great applause.] There, also, was Rose Standish, whose +name is a perpetual June fragrance, to mellow and sweeten those December +winds. And there, too, was Mrs. Winslow, whose name is even more than a +fragrance; it is a taste; for, as the advertisements say, "children cry +for it"; it is a soothing syrup. [Great laughter.] + +Then, after the first vessel with these women, there came other +women--loving hearts drawn from the olden land by those silken threads +which afterwards harden into golden chains. For instance, Governor +Bradford, a lonesome widower, went down to the sea-beach, and, facing +the waves, tossed a love-letter over the wide ocean into the lap of +Alice Southworth in old England, who caught it up, and read it, and +said, "Yes, I will go." And she went! And it is said that the governor, +at his second wedding, married his first love! Which, according to the +New Theology, furnishes the providential reason why the first Mrs. +Bradford fell overboard! [Great laughter.] + +Now, gentlemen, as you sit to-night in this elegant hall, think of the +houses in which the Mayflower men and women lived in that first winter! +Think of a cabin in the wilderness--where winds whistled--where wolves +howled--where Indians yelled! And yet, within that log-house, burning +like a lamp was the pure flame of Christian faith, love, patience, +fortitude, heroism! As the Star of the East rested over the rude manger +where Christ lay, so--speaking not irreverently--there rested over the +roofs of the Pilgrims a Star of the West--the Star of Empire; and to-day +that empire is the proudest in the world! [Applause.] And if we could +summon up from their graves, and bring hither to-night, that olden +company of long-mouldered men, and they could sit with us at this +feast--in their mortal flesh--and with their stately presence--the whole +world would make a pilgrimage to see those pilgrims! [Applause.] How +quaint their attire! How grotesque their names! How we treasure every +relic of their day and generation! And of all the heirlooms of the +earlier times in Yankeeland, what household memorial is clustered round +about with more sacred and touching associations than the +spinning-wheel! The industrious mother sat by it doing her work while +she instructed her children! The blushing daughter plied it diligently, +while her sweetheart had a chair very close by. And you remember, too, +another person who used it more than all the rest--that peculiar kind of +maiden, well along in life, who, while she spun her yarn into one "blue +stocking," spun herself into another. [Laughter.] But perhaps my toast +forbids me to touch upon this well-known class of Yankee +women--restricting me, rather, to such women as "comforted" the +Pilgrims. [Laughter.] + +But, my friends, such of the Pilgrim Fathers as found good women to +"comfort" them had, I am sure, their full share of matrimonial thorns in +the flesh. For instance, I know of an early New England epitaph on a +tombstone, in these words: "Obadiah and Sarah Wilkenson--their warfare +is accomplished." [Uproarious laughter.] And among the early statutes of +Connecticut--a State that began with blue laws, and ends with black +[laughter]--there was one which said: "No Gospel minister shall unite +people in marriage; the civil magistrates shall unite people in +marriage; as they may do it with less scandal to the church." [Loud +laughter.] Now, gentlemen, since Yankee clergymen fared so hard for +wedding-fees in those days, is it to be wondered at that so many Yankee +clergymen have escaped out of New England, and are here to-night? +[Laughter.] Dropping their frailties in the graves which cover their +ashes, I hold up anew to your love and respect the Forefathers of New +England! And as the sons of the Pilgrims are worthy of their sires, so +the daughters of the Pilgrims are worthy of their mothers. I hold that +in true womanly worth, in housewifely thrift, in domestic skill, in +every lovable and endearing quality, the present race of Yankee women +are the women of the earth! [Applause.] And I trust that we shall yet +have a Republic which, instead of disfranchising one-half its citizens, +and that too by common consent its "better half," shall ordain the +political equality, not only of both colors, but of both sexes! I +believe in a reconstructed Union wherein every good woman shall have a +wedding-ring on her finger, and a ballot in her hand! [Sensation.] + +And now, to close, let me give you just a bit of good advice. The +cottages of our forefathers had few pictures on the walls, but many +families had a print of "King Charles's Twelve Good Rules," the eleventh +of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and +you will have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your long meal, +you go home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to find? You will +find my toast--"Woman, a beautiful rod!" [Laughter.] Now my advice is, +"Kiss the rod!" [Great laughter, during which Mr. Tilton took his +seat.] + + + + +JOSEPH HOPKINS TWICHELL + + +YANKEE NOTIONS + + [Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the + eighty-second annual dinner of the New England Society in the City + of New York, December 22, 1887. The President, Horace Russell, + occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the first toast, + "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I have heard of an Irishman who, +on being asked by a kind-hearted person if he would have a drink of +whiskey, made no reply at first, but struck an attitude and stood gazing +up into the sky. "What are you looking at, Mike?" inquired his friend. +"Bedad, sir," said Mike, "I thought an angel spoke to me." [Much +laughter.] + +Somewhat so did I feel, Mr. President, when I got your invitation to be +here this evening and speak. I own I was uncommonly pleased by it. I +considered it the biggest compliment of the kind I had ever received in +my life. For that matter it was too big, as I had to acknowledge. That, +however, sir, was your affair; and so, without stopping much to think, +and before I could muster the cowardice to decline, I accepted it. +[Laughter.] But as soon as I began to reflect, especially when I came to +ask myself what in the world I had or could have to say in this august +presence, I was scared to think of what I had done. I was like the man +who while breaking a yoke of steers that he held by a rope, having +occasion to use both his hands in letting down a pair of bars, fetched +the rope a turn around one of his legs. That instant something +frightened the steers, and that unfortunate farmer was tripped up and +snaked off feet first on a wild, erratic excursion, a mile or so, over +rough ground, as long as the rope lasted, and left in a very lamentable +condition, indeed. His neighbors ran to him and gathered him up and laid +him together, and waited around for him to come to; which, when he did, +one of them inquired of him how he came to do such a thing as hitch a +rope around his leg under such circumstances. "Well," said he, "we +hadn't gone five rods 'fore I see my mistake." [Hearty laughter.] + +But here I am, and the President has passed the tremendous subject of +Forefathers' Day, like a Rugby ball, into my hands--after making elegant +play with it himself--and, frightful as the responsibility is, I realize +that I've got to do something with it--and do it mighty quick. +[Laughter.] This is a festive hour, and even a preacher mustn't be any +more edifying in his remarks, I suppose, than he can help. And I promise +accordingly to use my conscientious endeavors to-night to leave this +worshipful company no better than I found it. [Laughter.] + +But, gentlemen, well intending as one may be to that effect, and lightly +as he may approach the theme of the Forefathers, the minute he sets foot +within its threshold he stops his fooling and gets his hat off at once. +[Applause.] + +Those unconscious, pathetic heroes, pulling their shallop ashore on the +Cape yonder in 1620--what reverence can exceed their just merit! What +praise can compass the virtue of that sublime, unconquerable manhood, by +which in the calamitous, woful days that followed, not accepting +deliverance, letting the Mayflower go back empty, they stayed perishing +by the graves of their fallen; rather, stayed fast by the flickering +flame of their living truth, and so invoked and got on their side +forever the force of that great law of the universe, "except a corn of +wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit." How richly and how speedily fruitful that +seed was, we know. It did not wait for any large unfolding of events on +these shores to prove the might of its quickening. "Westward the star of +empire takes its way." Yes, but the first pulse of vital power from the +new State moved eastward. For behold it still in its young infancy--if +it can be said to have had an infancy--stretching a strong hand of help +across the sea to reinforce the cause of that Commonwealth, the rise of +which marks the epoch of England's new birth in liberty. [Applause.] + +The pen of New England, fertilized by freedom and marvellously prolific +ere a single generation passed, was indeed the Commonwealth's true +nursing mother. Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Milton, Owen, were disciples +of teachers mostly from this side the Atlantic. Professor Masson, of +Edinburgh University, in his admirable "Life of Milton," enumerates +seventeen New England men whom he describes as "potent" in England in +that period. Numbers went to England in person, twelve of the first +twenty graduates of Harvard College prior to 1646, among them; and +others, not a few representing the leading families of the colonies, who +going over with their breasts full of New England milk, nourished the +heart of the great enterprise; "performed," so Palfrey tells us, "parts +of consequence in the Parliamentary service, and afterward in the +service of the Protectorate." It is not too much to say that on the +fields of Marston Moor and Naseby New England appeared; and that those +names may fairly be written on her banners. [Applause.] + +That, I would observe--and Mr. Grady would freely concede it--was before +there was much mingling anywhere of the Puritan and the Cavalier blood, +save as it ran together between Cromwell's Ironsides and Rupert's +troopers. I would observe also that the propagation eastward inaugurated +in that early day has never ceased. The immigration of populations +hither from Europe, great a factor as it has been in shaping the history +of this continent, has not been so great a factor as the emigration of +ideas the other way has been, and continues to be, in shaping the +history of Europe, and of the mother country most of all. But that +carries me where I did not intend to go. + +An inebriated man who had set out to row a boat across a pond was +observed to pursue a very devious course. On being hailed and asked what +the matter was, he replied that it was the rotundity of the earth that +bothered him; he kept sliding off. So it is the rotundity of my subject +that bothers me. But I do mean to stay on one hemisphere of it if +possible. [Laughter.] + +The Forefathers were a power on earth from the start--and that by the +masterful quality of their mind and spirit. They had endless pluck, +intellectual and moral. They believed that the kingdom in this world was +with ideas. It was, you might say, one of their original Yankee notions +that it was the property of a man to have opinions and to stand by them +to the death. Judged from the standpoint of their times, as any one who +will take the pains to look will discover, they were tolerant men; but +they were fell debaters, and they were no compromisers. They split +hairs, if you will, but they wouldn't split the difference. [Laughter.] + +A German professor of theology is reported to have said in lecturing to +his students on the Existence of God, that while the doctrine, no doubt, +was an important one, it was so difficult and perplexed that it was not +advisable to take too certain a position upon it, as many were disposed +to do. There were those, he remarked, who were wont in the most +unqualified way to affirm that there was a God. There were others who, +with equal immoderation, committed themselves to the opposite +proposition--that there was no God. The philosophical mind, he added, +will look for the truth somewhere between these extremes. The +Forefathers had none of that in theirs. [Laughter and applause.] + +They were men who employed the great and responsible gift of speech +honestly and straightforwardly. There was a sublime sincerity in their +tongues. They spoke their minds. + +Their sons, I fear, have declined somewhat from their veracity at that +precise point. At times we certainly have, and have had to be brought +back to it by severest pains--as, for example, twenty-six years ago by +the voice of Beauregard's and Sumter's cannon, which was a terrible +voice indeed, but had this vast merit that it told the truth, and set a +whole people free to say what they thought once more. [Great applause.] + +Our fathers of the early day were not literary; but they were apt, when +they spoke, to make themselves understood. + +There was in my regiment during the war--I was a chaplain--a certain +corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of whom I was very +fond--with whom on occasion of his recovery from a dangerous sickness I +felt it my duty to have a serious pastoral talk; and while he +convalesced I watched for an opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the +side of his bed in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what +the campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I told him +that I didn't know. "Well," said he, "I suppose that General McClellan +knows all about it." (This was away back in 1861, not long after we went +to the field.) I answered: "General McClellan has his plans, of course, +but he doesn't know. Things may not turn out as he expects." "But," said +the corporal, "President Lincoln knows, doesn't he?" "No," I said, "he +doesn't know, either. He has his ideas, but he can't see ahead any more +than General McClellan can." "Dear me," said the corporal, "it would be +a great comfort if there was somebody that did know about things"--and I +saw my chance. "True, corporal," I observed, "that's a very natural +feeling; and the blessed fact is there is One who does know everything, +both past and future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows +when we are going to move, and where to, and what's going to happen; +knows the whole thing." "Oh," says the corporal, "you mean old Scott!" +[Laughter.] + +The Forefathers generally spared people the trouble of guessing what +they were driving at. [Applause.] + +That for which they valued education was that it gave men power to think +and reason and form judgments and communicate and expound the same, and +so capacitated them for valid membership of the Church and of the State. +And that was still another original Yankee notion. + +Not often has the nature and the praise of it been more worthily +expressed, that I am aware of, than in these sentences, which I lately +happened upon, the name of whose author I will, by your leave, reserve +till I have repeated them: "Next to religion they prized education. If +their lot had been cast in some pleasant place of the valley of the +Mississippi, they would have sown wheat and educated their children; but +as it was, they educated their children and planted whatever might grow +and ripen on that scanty soil with which capricious nature had tricked +off and disguised the granite beds beneath. Other colonies would have +brought up some of the people to the school; they, if I may be allowed +so to express it, let down the school to all the people, not doubting +but by doing so the people and the school would rise of themselves." + +I do not know if Cardinal Gibbons is present; I do not recognize him. If +he is, I am pleased to have had the honor to recite in his hearing and +to commend to his attention these words, so true, so just, so +appreciative, of a distinguished ecclesiastic of his communion; for they +were spoken by the late Archbishop Hughes in a public lecture in this +city in 1852. [Applause.] + +I would, however, much rather have recited them in the ears of those +Protestant Americans--alas, that there should be born New Englanders +among them, that is, such according to the flesh, not according to the +spirit--who are wont to betray a strange relish for disparaging both the +principles and the conduct of our great sires in that early day when +they were sowing in weakness what has ever since been rising with power. + +There have always, indeed, been those who were fond of spying the +blemishes of New England, of illustrating human depravity by instances +her sinners contributed. With the open spectacle of armies of +beggars--God's beggars they are; I do not object to them--continually +swarming in across her borders, as bees to their meadows, and returning +not empty, they keep on calling her close-fisted. They even blaspheme +her weather--her warm-hearted summers and her magnificent winters. There +is, to be sure, a time along in March--but let that pass. [Laughter.] + +I refer to this without the least irritation. I do not complain of it. +On the contrary, I glory in it. I love her for the enemies she has made. +[Laughter.] + +She is the church member among the communities, and must catch it +accordingly. It is the saints who are always in the wrong. [Laughter.] + +Elijah troubled Israel. Daniel was a nuisance in Babylon. And long may +New England be such as to make it an object to find fault with her. +[Hearty applause.] + +Such she will be so long as she is true to herself--true to her great +traditions; true to the principles of which her life was begotten; so +long as her public spirit has supreme regard to the higher ranges of the +public interest; so long as in her ancient glorious way she leaves the +power of the keys in the hands of the people; so long as her patriotism +springs, as in the beginning it sprang, from the consciousness of rights +wedded to the consciousness of duties; so long as by her manifold +institutions of learning, humanity, religion, thickly sown, +multitudinous, universal, she keeps the law of the Forefathers' faith, +that "Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out +of the mouth of God." [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE SOLDIER STAMP + + [Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the + eighty-sixth annual dinner of the New England Society in the city + of New York, December 22, 1891. J. Pierpont Morgan, the President, + occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the toast, + "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--The +posture of my mind the last fortnight relative to the duty of the +present hour--which, indeed, I was proud to be assigned to, as I ought +to have been, but which has been a black care to me ever since I +undertook it--has a not inapt illustration in the case of the old New +England parson who, when asked why he was going to do a certain thing +that had been laid upon him, yet the thought of which affected him with +extreme timidity, answered: "I wouldn't if I didn't suppose it had been +foreordained from all eternity--and I'm a good mind to not as it is." +[Laughter.] However, I have the undisguised good-will of my audience to +begin with, and that's half the battle. The forefathers, in whose honor +we meet, were men of good-will, profoundly so; but they were, in their +day, more afraid of showing it, in some forms, than their descendants +happily are. + +The first time I ever stood in the pulpit to preach was in the +meeting-house of the ancient Connecticut town where I was brought up. +That was a great day for our folks and all my old neighbors, you may +depend. After benediction, when I passed out into the vestibule, I was +the recipient there of many congratulatory expressions. Among my +friends in the crowd was an aged deacon, a man in whom survived, to a +rather remarkable degree, the original New England Puritan type, who had +known me from the cradle, and to whom the elevation I had reached was as +gratifying as it could possibly be to anybody. But when he saw the smile +of favor focussed on me there, and me, I dare say, appearing to bask +somewhat in it, the dear old man took alarm. He was apprehensive of the +consequences to that youngster. And so, taking me by the hand and +wrestling down his natural feelings--he was ready to cry for joy--he +said: "Well, Joseph, I hope you'll live to preach a great deal better +than that!" [Laughter.] It was an exceedingly appropriate remark, and a +very tender one if you were at the bottom of it. + +That severe, undemonstrative New England habit, that emotional reserve +and self-suppression, though it lingers here and there, has mostly +passed away and is not to be regretted. As much as could be has been +made of it to our forefathers' discredit, as has been made of everything +capable of being construed unfavorably to them. They to whom what they +call the cant of the Puritan is an offence, themselves have established +and practise a distinct anti-Puritan cant with which we are all +familiar. The very people who find it abhorrent and intolerable that +they were such censors of the private life of their contemporaries, do +not scruple to bring to bear on their private life a search-light that +leaves no accessible nook of it unexplored, and regarding any unpretty +trait espied by that unsparing inquest the rule of judgment persistently +employed--as one is obliged to perceive--tends to be: "No explanation +wanted or admitted but the worst." [Applause.] + +Accordingly, the infestive deportment characteristic of the New England +colonist has been extensively interpreted as the indisputable index of +his sour and morose spirit, begotten of his religion. I often wonder +that, in computing the cause of his rigorous manners, so inadequate +account is wont to be made of his situation, as in a principal and +long-continuing aspect substantially military--which it was. The truth +is, his physiognomy was primarily the soldier stamp on him. + +If you had been at Gettysburg on the morning of July 2, 1863, as I was, +and had perused the countenance of the First and Eleventh Corps, +exhausted and bleeding with the previous day's losing battle, and the +countenance of the Second, Third, and Twelfth Corps, getting into +position to meet the next onset, which everybody knew was immediately +impending, you would have said that it was a sombre community--that Army +of the Potomac--with a good deal of grimness in the face of it; with a +notable lack of the playful element, and no fiddling or other fine arts +to speak of. + +As sure as you live, gentlemen, that is no unfair representation of how +it was with the founders of the New England commonwealths in their +planting period. + +The Puritan of the seventeenth century lived, moved, and had his being +on the field of an undecided struggle for existence--the New England +Puritan most emphatically so. He was under arms in body much of the +time--in mind all the time. Nothing can be truer than to say that. And +yet people everlastingly pick and poke at him for being stern-featured +and deficient in the softer graces of life. + +It was his beauty that he was so, for it grew out of and was befitting +his circumstances. And I, for one, love to see that austere demeanor so +far as it is yet hereditary on the old soil--and some of it is +left--thinking of its origin. It is the signature of a fighting far more +than of an ascetic ancestry--memorial of a new Pass of Thermopylć held +by the latest race of Spartans on the shores of a new world. [Applause.] + +It may be doubted if ever in the history of mankind was displayed a +quality of public courage--of pure, indomitable pluck--surpassing that +of the New England plantations in their infant day. No condition of its +extremest proof was lacking. While the Bay Colony, for example, was in +the pinch of its first wrestle with Nature for a living, much as ever +able to furnish its table with a piece of bread--with the hunger-wolf +never far away from the door, and behind that wolf the Narragansett and +the Pequot, at what moment to burst into savagery none could tell--in +the season when mere existence was the purchase of physical toil, +universal and intense, and of watching night and day--there came from +the old country, from the high places of authority, the peremptory +mandate: Send us back that charter! Under the clause of it granting you +the rule of your own affairs, you are claiming more than was intended or +can be allowed. Send it back! And what was the answer? Mind, there were +less than 5,000 souls of them, all told: less than 1,000 grown men. On +the one hand the power of England--on the other that scrap of a new-born +State, sore pressed with difficulties already. + +What was the answer? Why, they got out some old cannon they had and +mounted them, and moulded a stock of bullets, and distributed powder, +and took of every male citizen above the age of sixteen an oath of +allegiance to Massachusetts--and then set their teeth and waited to see +what would happen. And that was their answer. It meant distinctly: Our +charter, which we had of the King's majesty (and therefore came we +hither), is our lawful possession--fair title to the territory we occupy +and the rights we here exercise. And whoever wants it has got to come +and take it. Surrender it we never will! [Applause.] + +Nor was that the only time. Again and again during the Colony's initial +stage, when it was exceedingly little of stature and had enough to do to +keep the breath of life in it, that demand was renewed with rising anger +and with menaces; yet never could those Puritans of the Bay be scared +into making a solitary move of any kind toward compliance with it. David +with his sling daring Goliath in armor is an insufficient figure of that +nerve, that transcendent grit, that superb gallantry. Where will you +look for its parallel? I certainly do not know. [Applause.] + +They used to tell during the war of a colonel who was ordered to assault +a position which his regiment, when they had advanced far enough to get +a good look at it, saw to be so impossible that they fell back and +became immovable. Whereupon (so the story ran) the colonel, who took the +same sense of the situation that his command did, yet must do his duty, +called out in an ostensibly pleading and fervid voice: "Oh, don't give +it up so! Forward again! Forward! Charge! Great heavens, men, do you +want to live forever?" [Laughter.] + +How those first New England Puritans we are speaking of were to come off +from their defiance of the crown alive could scarcely be conjectured. +The only ally they had was distance. The thing they ventured on was the +chance that the Royal Government, which had troubles nearer home, would +have its hands too full to execute its orders 3,000 miles away across +the sea by force. But they accepted all hazards whatsoever of refusing +always to obey those orders. They held on to their charter like grim +death, and they kept it in their time. More than once or twice it seemed +as good as gone; but delay helped them; turns of events helped them; +God's providence delivered them, they thought; anyhow, they kept it; +that intrepid handful against immeasurable odds, mainly because it lay +not in the power of mortal man to intimidate them. And I contend that, +all things considered, no more splendid exhibition of the essential +stuff of manhood stands on human record. They were no hot-heads. All +that while, rash as they appeared, their pulse was calm. The justifying +reasons of their course were ever plain before their eyes. They were of +the kind of men who understood their objects. + +The representative of an English newspaper, sent some time since to +Ireland to move about and learn by personal observation the real +political mind of the people there, reported on his return that he had +been everywhere and talked with all sorts, and that as nearly as he +could make out, the attitude of the Irish might be stated about thus: +"They don't know what they want--and they are bound to have it." +[Laughter.] + +But those unbending Forefathers well knew what they wanted that charter +for. It was their legal guarantee of the privilege of a spacious +freedom, civil and religious, and all that they did and risked for its +sake is witness of the price at which they held that privilege. It was +not that they had any special objection to the interference in the +province of their domestic administration of the king as a king; for you +find them presently crying "Hands Off!" to the Puritan Parliament as +strenuously as ever they said it to the agents of Charles I. It was +simply and positively the value they set on the self-governing +independence that had been pledged them at the beginning of the +enterprise. + +And who that has a man's heart in him but must own that their +inspiration to such a degree, with such an idea and sentiment in the +time, place, and circumstances in which they stood, was magnificent? Was +the inexorable unrelaxing determination with which they, being so few +and so poor, maintained their point somewhat wrought into their faces? +Very probably. Strange if it had not been. Of course, it was. But if +they were stern-visaged in their day, it was that we in our day, which +in vision they foresaw, might of all communities beneath the sun have +reason for a cheerful countenance. [Applause.] + +They achieved immense great things for us, those Puritan men who were +not smiling enough to suit the critics. The real foundation on which the +structure of American national liberty subsequently rose was laid by +them in those first heroic years. + +And what a marvel it was, when you stop to think, that in conditions so +hard, so utterly prosaic, calculated to clip the wings of generous +thought, they maintained themselves in that elevation of sentiment, that +supreme estimate of the unmaterial, the ideal factors of life that +distinguished them--in such largeness of mind and of spirit altogether. +While confronting at deadly close quarters their own necessities and +perils, their sympathies were wide as the world. To their brethren in +old England, contending with tyranny, every ship that crossed the +Atlantic carried their benediction. Look at the days of thanksgiving and +of fast with which they followed the shifting fortunes of the wars of +Protestantism--which were wars for humanity--on the continent! Look at +the vital consequence they attached to the interest of education; at the +taxes that in their penury, and while for the most part they still lived +in huts, they imposed on themselves to found and to sustain the +institution of the school! [Applause.] + +"Child," said a matron of primitive New England to her young son, "if +God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, thou hast all that +ever thy mother asked for thee." And so saying she spoke like a true +daughter of the Puritans. + +They were poets--those brave, stanch, aspiring souls, whose will was +adamant and who feared none but God. Only, as Charles Kingsley has said, +they did not sing their poetry like birds, but acted it like men. +[Applause.] It was their high calling to stand by the divine cause of +human progress at a momentous crisis of its evolution, and they were +worthy to be put on duty at that post. Evolution! I hardly dare speak +the word, knowing so little about the thing. It represents a very great +matter, which I am humbly conscious of being about as far from +surrounding as was a simple-minded Irish priest I have been told of, +who, having heard that we were descended from monkeys, yet not quite +grasping the chronology of the business, the next time he visited a +menagerie, gave particular and patient attention to a large cage of our +alleged poor relations on exhibition there. He stood for a long time +intently scrutinizing their human-like motions, gestures, and +expressions. By and by he fancied that the largest of them, an +individual of a singularly grave demeanor, seated at the front of the +cage, gave him a glance of intelligence. The glance was returned. A +palpable wink followed, which also was returned, as were other like +signals; and so it went on until his Reverence, having cast an eye +around to see that nobody was observing him, leaned forward and said, in +a low, confidential tone: "Av ye'll spake one w-u-r-r-d, I'll baptize +ye, begorra!" [Laughter.] + +But, deficient as one's knowledge of evolution, scientifically and in +detail, may be, he may have attained to a not unintelligent perception +of the all-embracing creative process called by that name as that in +which, in the whole range of the advancing universal movement of life, +what is ascends from what was, and fulfils it. + +And what I wish to say for my last word is, that whoever of us in +tracing back along the line of its potent and fruitful sources that +which is his noblest heritage as an American and a member of the English +race, leaves out that hard-featured forefather of ours on the shore of +Massachusetts Bay in the seventeenth century, and makes not large +account of the tremendous fight he fought which was reflected in the +face he wore, misses a chief explanation of the fortune to which we and +our children are born. [Loud applause.] + + + + +JOHN TYNDALL + + +ART AND SCIENCE + + [Speech of Professor John Tyndall at the annual banquet of the + Royal Academy, London, May 5, 1888. The toast to Science was + coupled with that to Literature, to the latter of which William E. + H. Lecky was called upon to respond. In introducing Professor + Tyndall, the President, Sir Frederic Leighton, said: "On behalf of + Science, on whom could I call more fitly than on my old friend + Professor Tyndall. ["Hear! Hear!"] Fervid in imagination, after the + manner of his race, clothing thoughts luminous and full of color in + a sharply chiselled form, he seems to me to be, in very deed, an + artist and our kin; and I, as an artist, rejoice to see that in + this priest within the temple of Science, Knowledge has not clipped + the wings of wonder, and that to him the tint of Heaven is not the + less lovely that he can reproduce its azure in a little phial, nor + does, because Science has been said to unweave it, the rainbow lift + its arc less triumphantly in the sky."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN: Faraday, whose +standing in the science of the world needs not to be insisted on, used +to say to me that he knew of only two festivals that gave him real +pleasure. He loved to meet, on Tower Hill, the frank and genial +gentlemen-sailors of the Trinity House; but his crowning enjoyment was +the banquet of the Royal Academy. The feeling thus expressed by Faraday +is a representative feeling: for surely it is a high pleasure to men of +science to mingle annually in this illustrious throng, and it is an +honor and a pleasure to hear the toast of Science so cordially proposed +and so warmly responded to year after year. + +Art and Science in their widest sense cover nearly the whole field of +man's intellectual action. They are the outward and visible expressions +of two distinct and supplementary portions of our complex human +nature--distinct, but not opposed, the one working by the dry light of +the intellect, the other in the warm glow of the emotions; the one ever +seeking to interpret and express the beauty of the universe, the other +ever searching for its truth. One vast personality in the course of +history, and one only, seems to have embraced them both. ["Hear! Hear!"] +That transcendent genius died three days ago plus three hundred and +sixty-nine years--Leonardo da Vinci. + +Emerson describes an artist who could never paint a rock until he had +first understood its geological structure; and the late Lord Houghton +told me that an illustrious living poet once destroyed some exquisite +verses on a flower because on examination he found that his botany was +wrong. This is not saying that all the geology in the world, or all the +botany in the world, could create an artist. + +In illustration of the subtle influences which here come into play, a +late member of this Academy once said to me--"Let Raphael take a crayon +in his hand and sweep a curve; let an engineer take tracing paper and +all other appliances necessary to accurate reproduction, and let him +copy that curve--his line will not be the line of Raphael." In these +matters, through lack of knowledge, I must speak, more or less, as a +fool, leaving it to you, as wise men, to judge what I say. Rules and +principles are profitable and necessary for the guidance of the growing +artist and for the artist full-grown; but rules and principles, I take +it, just as little as geology and botany, can create the artist. +Guidance and rule imply something to be guided and ruled. And that +indefinable something which baffles all analysis, and which when wisely +guided and ruled emerges in supreme excellence, is individual genius, +which, to use familiar language, is "the gift of God." [Cheers.] + +In like manner all the precepts of Bacon, linked together and applied in +one great integration, would fail to produce a complete man of science. +In this respect Art and Science are identical--that to reach their +highest outcome and achievement they must pass beyond knowledge and +culture, which are understood by all, to inspiration and creative power, +which pass the understanding even of him who possesses them in the +highest degree. [Cheers.] + + + + +GEORGE ROE VAN DE WATER + + +DUTCH TRAITS + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. George R. Van de Water at the eighth annual + dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1893. The + President, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, said: "The next toast is: + 'Holland--a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, and + a sanctuary for the rights of mankind.' This toast will be + responded to by one of the greatest stars in New York's + constellation of the Embassadors of Him on High--Rev. Dr. George R. + Van de Water, rector of St. Andrew's Church, Harlem."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY:--One loves to +observe a fitness in things. There is manifest fitness in one coming to +New York from Harlem to speak to the members of the Holland Society and +their friends. There is also manifest fitness in taking the words of +this country's earliest benefactor, the Marquis de Lafayette, and, +removing them from their original association with this fair and favored +land, applying them to that little but lovely, lowly yet lofty, country +of the Netherlands. Geologists tell us that, minor considerations +waived, the character of a stream can be discerned as well anywhere +along its course as at its source. Whether this be true or not, anything +that can be said of the fundamental principles of liberty, upon which +our national fabric has been built, can be said with even increased +emphasis of the free States of the Netherlands. + +From the Dutch our free America has secured the inspiration of her +chartered liberties. Of the Dutch, then, we can appropriately say, as +Lafayette once said of free America, "They are a lesson to oppressors, +an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind." + +We are here to-night to glorify the Dutch. Fortunately for us, to do +this we have not by the addition of so much as a jot or a tittle to +magnify history. The facts are sufficient to justify our boast and +fortify our pride. We need to detract nothing from other nationalities +that have contributed much to the formation of our modern national +conglomerate, although it is easily seen that the superior qualities of +other nations have had a large infusion of Dutch virtue. All that we +claim is that no nation under the heavens can make such an exhibit of +marvellous success against adverse circumstances as does Holland. From +the days when Julius Cćsar mentions their bravery under the name of +Batavians, to the notable time when, voluntarily assuming the title of +reproach, they became "the beggars of the sea," and for nearly a century +fought for their chartered rights against the most powerful and +unscrupulous of foes, the Dutch have shown the most splendid of human +virtues in most conspicuous light. In doing this they have made a noble +name for themselves, and furnished the worthiest of examples for all the +nations of the earth. This is not the time nor the place to deal with +mere facts of history. Yet I take it that even this jolly assembly will +take pleasure in the mention of the deeds that have now become eternally +historic. Who that knows anything of the son of Charles V, who in 1555 +made promises to Holland that he never meant to keep, and for years +after sought in every way to break; who that has ever read of this +fanatical, heartless, cruel, and despotic Philip II of Spain, or of that +wonderful, pure, magnanimous, noblest Dutchman of all, William of +Orange, or of that fickle and false Margaret of Parma, the wicked sister +in Holland, who lived to execute the will of a wicked brother in Spain, +or of those monsters at the head of Spanish armies, Alva, Requesens, and +Don Juan; who that has been fired by the sieges of Leyden and Haarlem, +by the assassinations concocted in the Council of Blood, by the patient, +faithful, undying patriotism of the Netherlanders in protesting for the +truth of God and the rights of man, will need any response to the toast +"a lesson to oppressors"? A little land, fighting for the right, +succeeded in overcoming the power of the mightiest nation of Europe. + + "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." + +When once we consider the earnestness for civil and religious liberty, +the record of no nation can stand comparison with that of Holland. Some +of the English Puritans fled across the Atlantic from persecutions very +slight compared with those inflicted upon Dutchmen by Philip, here to +found a New England. Those who did not flee remained in old England, +fought a few battles, and tried to establish a commonwealth, which in +less than fifteen years ended disastrously, because the founders were +unfit for government. But these Puritans of Holland, to their +everlasting praise be it remembered, battled for their homes, lives, and +liberty for eighty years. For four-fifths of a century they faced not +only the best and bravest soldiers of Europe, but they faced, along with +their wives, their children, and their old folk, the flame, the gibbet, +the flood, the siege, the pestilence, the famine, "and all men know, or +dream, or fear of agony," all for one thing--to teach the oppressor that +his cause must fail. It is difficult, sitting around a comfortable board +at a public dinner, to make men realize what their forefathers suffered +that the heritage of priceless liberty should be their children's pride. +But read Motley, or the recent and remarkably well-written volumes of +Douglas Campbell, and you will see that every atrocity that Spanish +hatred, religious intolerance, and medićval bigotry could invent, every +horror that ever followed in the train of war, swept over and desolated +Holland. And yet, to teach a lesson to oppressors, they endured, they +fought, they suffered, they conquered; and when they conquered, the +whole world was taught the lesson--worth all the Dutchmen's agony to +teach it--that the children of a heavenly Father are born free and +equal, and that it is neither the province of nation or church to coerce +them into any religious belief or doctrine whatsoever. + +The principle of Protestantism was won in the eighty-year war of the +Netherlanders. During all this time the Dutch were notably giving a +lesson to oppressors. But then and afterward they furnished a brilliant +and commendable example to the oppressed. Though they fought the wrong, +they never opposed the truth. They were fierce, but never fanatical. +They loved liberty, but they never encouraged license; they believed in +freedom and the maintenance of chartered rights, but they never denied +their lawful allegiance to their governor, nor refused scriptural +submission to the powers ordained of God. The public documents +throughout the eighty years of war invariably recognized Philip as +lawful king. Even the University of Leyden, founded as a thanksgiving +offering for their successful resistance to the Spanish siege, observed +the usual legal fiction, and acknowledged the King as ruler of the +realm. And, although the Dutch had abundant reason to be vindictive, +once the opportunity offered, the desire for persecution vanished. +William the Silent, as early as 1556, in a public speech before the +regent and her council, says, "Force can make no impression on one's +conscience." "It is the nature of heresy," he goes on to say (would we +had the spirit of William in our churches to-day)--"it is the nature of +heresy, if it rests it rusts: he that rubs it whets it." His was an age +when religious toleration, except as a political necessity, was unknown. +Holland first practised it, then taught it to the world. No less in her +example to the oppressed than in her warning to oppressors, is Holland +conspicuous, is Holland great. During the reign of William of Orange, +first a Romanist, then a Calvinist, never a bigot, always gentle, at +last a Christian, in Holland and in Zeeland, where for years he was +almost military dictator, these principles of tolerance were put to +severest test. Fortunately for the world, they were sufficiently strong +to stand the strain. The people about him had been the sad victims of a +horrible persecution which had furrowed their soil with graves, and +filled their land with widows and orphans. We know what is human nature. +But Dutch nature is a little more generous than ordinary human nature. A +Dutchman's heart is big, a Dutchman travels on a broad-gauge track; a +Dutchman can forgive and forget an injury; a Dutchman has no fears and +few frowns; a Dutchman is never icebergy, nor sullen, nor revengeful. He +may make mistakes from impulse, he never wounds with intention; he will +never put his foot twice in the same trap, nor will he take any pleasure +in seeing his enemy entrapped. All of a Dutchman's faults come from an +over-indulgence of a Dutchman's virtues. He is not cold, nor +calculating, nor cruel. Generally happy himself, he desires others to be +happy also. If he cannot get on with people, he lets them alone. He +does not seek to ruin them. + +Such are traits of the Dutch character. When, after driving out the +awful, vindictive, bloodthirsty Spaniards, the Dutch came into power, it +was but natural to think of retaliation: banish the Papists, or +persecute the Anabaptists, suppress their paganism, or crush their +fanaticism, would have been most natural. Against any such ideas the +nation as a whole set its face like a wall of adamant. Very soon the +sober convictions of the people were triumphant. And after the most +atrociously cruel war, in which these men had suffered untold agonies, +they became an example to the oppressed, the like of which the world had +never witnessed since the Son of God and Saviour of men cried out from +his cross, "Father, forgive them: they know not what they do." When the +union was formed between Holland and Zeeland, it was provided that no +inquisition should be made into any man's belief or conscience, nor +should any man by cause thereof suffer injury or hindrance. Toleration +for the oppressor by the oppressed, full forgiveness of enemies by the +victors, became thus the corner-stone of the republic, under which all +sects of Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, Jews, Turks, infidels, +and even heretics, throve and prospered. + +Now, do you need anything said after thus showing Holland to have been +the teacher of a lesson to oppressors, and the example to the oppressed, +to show that she has ever been the sanctuary for the rights of mankind? + +In the nature of things, she could not have been otherwise. The little +country of Holland, that in 1555, on the accession of Philip II to the +sovereignty, was the richest jewel in his crown, and of the five +millions poured annually into his treasury contributed nearly half, +emerged as a republic out of the war with Spain of eighty years' +duration, and remained for two full centuries the greatest republic in +the world. She has been the instructor of the world in art, in music, in +science; has outstripped other nations in the commercial race; had +wealth and luxury, palaces and architectural splendor, when England's +yeomanry lived in huts and never ate a vegetable; discovered +oil-painting, originated portrait and landscape-painting, was foremost +in all the mechanical arts; invented wood-engraving, printing from +blocks, and gave to the world both telescope and microscope, thus +furnishing the implements to see the largest things of the heavens +above, and the smallest of both earth beneath and waters under the +earth. The corner-stone was liberty, and especially religious liberty +and toleration. As such Holland could not have been other than the +sanctuary for the rights of mankind. The great number of Englishmen in +the Netherlands, and the reciprocal influence of the Netherlands upon +these Englishmen--an influence all too little marked by English +historians--prepared the way for transplanting to this country the seeds +from which has sprung the large tree beneath the bounteous shade of +which nearly seventy millions of people take shelter to-day, and, while +they rest, rejoice in full security of their rights and their freedom. + +Two hundred years ago, the English courtiers about Charles II, +regardless of the fact that the Netherlands had been the guide and the +instructor of England in almost everything which had made her materially +great, regarded the Dutchman as a boor, plain and ill-mannered, and +wanting in taste, because as a republican the Hollander thought it a +disgrace to have his wife or his daughter debauched by king or noble. +From the aristocratic point of view, the Dutchman was not altogether a +gentleman. To-day we have some representatives of the Charles II +courtiers, who affect to ape the English, and would, no doubt, despise +the Dutch. But he who appreciates the genuine meaning of a man, born in +the image and living in the fear of his God, has nothing but direst +disgust for a dude, nothing but the rarest respect for a Dutchman. + + + + +MARION J. VERDERY + + +THE SOUTH IN WALL STREET + + [Speech of Marion J. Verdery at the third annual banquet of the + Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1889. The President, + John C. Calhoun, presided, and in introducing Mr. Verdery, said: + "The next toast is 'The South in Wall Street.' What our friend Mr. + Verdery has to say in response to this toast I'm sure I don't know; + but if he proposes to tell us how there is any money for the South + in Wall Street--to give us a straight tip on the market--he may be + sure of a very attentive audience. Now, Mr. Verdery, if you will + tell us what to do to-morrow, we will all of us cheerfully give you + half of what we make--that is, of course, if you will guarantee us + against loss.".] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--When Colonel Fellows concluded his +speech and sat down next to me, after he had by his matchless oratory +electrified this audience and had immersed me in the flood of his +eloquence, both literally and figuratively, for in the graceful swing of +his gestures, he turned over a goblet of water in my lap [laughter], I +felt very much as the little boy did who had stood at the head of his +spelling-class for three weeks, and then was stumped by the word +kaleidoscope. He thought for a moment or two, and then seriously said, +"he didn't believe there was a boy on earth who could spell it." I did +not believe, after Colonel Fellows finished, that there was another man +on earth who could follow him. [Applause.] + +Mr. Chairman, in the course of my experience I never knew of but one +absolutely straight tip in Wall Street. To that, you and this Society +are perfectly welcome. If you act on it, I will cheerfully guarantee you +against loss, without exacting that you shall divide with me the +profits. It is a point that the late Mr. Travers gave our friend Henry +Grady. [Laughter.] They had been to attend a national convention at +Chicago, and on returning were seriously disappointed because of the +failure to have nominated their chosen candidate. As they came across +the ferry in the gray light of the morning, Grady, who was seeking +consolation, said: "Mr. Travers, what is the best thing I can buy in +Wall Street?" The noted wit of the Stock Exchange replied: "The best +thing you can buy is a ticket back to Atlanta." [Laughter.] + +Two old darkies, lounging on a street corner in Richmond, Va., one day, +were suddenly aroused by a runaway team that came dashing toward them at +breakneck speed. The driver, scared nearly to death, had abandoned his +reins, and was awkwardly climbing out of the wagon at the rear end. One +of the old negroes said: "Brer' Johnson, sure as you born man, de +runaway horse am powerful gran' and a monstrous fine sight to see." +Johnson shook his head doubtfully, and then replied, philosophically, +"Dat 'pends berry much, nigger, on whedder you be standin' on de corner +obsarvin' of him, or be gittin' ober de tail-board ob de waggin." And +likewise, it strikes me that any keen enjoyment to be gotten out of +after-dinner speaking is peculiarly contingent--"'pendin' berry much on +whedder you is standin' off lookin' on, or gittin' ober de tail-board of +de waggin." [Laughter.] + +If Wall Street is all that spiteful cynics and ignorant fanatics say of +it--if we are to admit that it is a den of thieves, where only +falsehood, treachery, and iniquitous schemes are propagated; if there is +any ground for believing that all the exchanges are side-shows to hell +[laughter], and their members devils incarnate [laughter], I fail to +appreciate any advantage to the South in being there, and in no place +where her presence could not be counted a credit would I assist in +discovering her. + +But if, on the other hand, we repudiate such wholesale abuse of the +place, and insist, for truth's sake, upon an acknowledgment of facts as +they exist, then the South can well afford to be found in Wall Street, +and if prominent there we may proudly salute her. + +Wall Street is the throbbing heart of America's finance. It is a common +nursery for an infinite variety of enterprises, all over our land. +Innumerable manufactories, North, South, East, and West, have drawn +their capital from Wall Street. The industrial progress and material +development of our blessed Southland is being pushed forward vigorously +to-day by the monetary backing of Wall Street. The vast fields of the +fertile West, luxurious in the beauty and rich in the promise of +tasselled corn and bearded grain, are tilled and harvested by helpful +loans from Wall Street. Old railroads, run down in their physical +condition and thereby seriously impaired for public service, are +constantly being rehabilitated with Wall Street money, while eight out +of every ten new ones draw the means for their construction and +equipment from this same source of financial supply. + +To all attacks recklessly made on the methods of Wall Street, it seems +to me there is ample answer in this one undeniable fact--the daily +business done there foots up in dollars and cents more than the total +trade of any whole State of the Union, except New York; and, although +the great bulk of transactions are made in the midst of intense +excitement, incident to rapid and sometimes violent fluctuation of +values, and, although gigantic trades are made binding by only a wink or +a nod, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, the +contracting parties stand rigidly by their bargains, prove they good or +bad. [Applause.] So much for the heroic integrity of the so-called bulls +and bears. Out in the broader realm of commercial vocation, and through +the wider fields of pastoral pursuit, it occurs to me this lesson might +be learned without any reduction of existing morality. [Applause.] + +In Wall Street the brainiest financiers are congregated. Vigorous +energy, unremitting industry, clear judgment, and unswerving nerve are +absolutely essential to personal success. In the light of those +requirements, we venture to ask what place has the South taken. + +Honorable Abram S. Hewitt in his speech before this Society one year +ago, said: "If by some inscrutable providence this list of gentlemen +[meaning members of the Southern Society] were suddenly returned to the +homes which I suppose will know them no longer, there would be in this +city what the quack medicine men call 'a sense of goneness,' and I think +we should have to send to the wise men of the East, Dr. Atkinson, for +example, to tell us how to supply the vacuum." Taking my cue from that +generous compliment, I venture to suggest that if the South should +suddenly withdraw from Wall Street, it would occasion such a contraction +of the currency in that district as would demand even a more liberal +policy than Secretary Fairchild has practised in purchasing Government +bonds. [Applause and laughter.] The aggregate wealth of Southerners in +Wall Street to-day is over $100,000,000 and the great bulk of that vast +amount has been accumulated within the last twenty years. That is to +say, "The South in Wall Street," has made at least $4,000,000 annually +since the war. Under all the circumstances, who will dispute the +magnificence of that showing? It must be remembered that the great +majority of Southern men on entering Wall Street were poor; so poor, +indeed, that they might almost have afforded to begin their career on +the terms that I once heard of a man in South Carolina proposing to some +little negroes. He told them if they would pick wild blackberries from +morning till night he would give them half they gathered. [Laughter.] +The Southerners of Wall Street, with but very few exceptions, entered +that great field of finance with but one consolation, and that was the +calm consciousness of being thoroughly protected against loss from the +simple fact that they had nothing to lose. [Applause and laughter.] A +hundred millions of dollars is no small pile when stacked up +beside--nothing. Of course we are not called upon to analyze this +fortune, nor do I mean to imply that it is evenly divided. Some of us it +must be admitted spoil the average dreadfully, but we all may get the +same satisfaction out of it that the childless man derived, who said +that he and his brother together had three boys and two girls. +[Laughter.] + +The South is a power in Wall Street. She is identified with the +management of many leading financial institutions, and has also founded +private banking-houses and built up other prosperous business +establishments on her own account. It would be in bad taste to mention +names unless I had the roll of honor at hand and could read it off +without exception. The President of the Cotton Exchange and nearly forty +per cent. of its members are Southerners. One of the oldest and +strongest firms on the Produce Exchange is essentially Southern. That +private banking-house in Wall Street, which has stood longest without +any change in the personnel of its partnership, and which ranks to-day +with the most reputable and successful establishments of its kind, is +Southern in every branch of its membership. Seven of the National Banks +have Southern men for Presidents, and the list of Southern cashiers and +tellers is long and honorable. It was a Southern boy who, ten years ago, +counted himself lucky on getting the humble place of mail carrier in one +of the greatest banking houses of America. That very boy, when not long +since he resigned to enter business on his own account, was filling one +of the most responsible positions and drawing the third largest salary +in that same great establishment. + +Another instance of signal success is told in this short story: Less +than six years ago a young Georgian tacked up a cheap little sign on the +door of a sky-lit room in the "Evening Post" building. To-day his is the +leading name of one of the most conspicuous houses in the Street, and +the rent of his present quarters is more per month than the first office +he occupied cost for a whole year. One of the most famous Southern +leaders in Wall Street to-day [John H. Inman] was so little known when +he first attracted attention there that many people assumed he must in +some way be connected with a certain great ocean steamship line, simply +because he bore the same name. To-day it is just as often supposed that +the steamship line is an offshoot from him, because it bears his name. A +great Italian painter once vitalized a canvas with the expression of his +poetic thought and called it "Aurora." In looking at that masterpiece of +art I have sometimes been reminded of this distinguished Southerner. +Immediately after the war the South was enveloped in darkness. Out of +that gloom this man emerged and came here to the East, where the sun +shines first in the morning. Judging him to-day by the record he has +made, we are warranted in saying that on coming here he adopted +Usefulness as his chariot, and that thereto he harnessed the spirited +steeds of Enterprise, Progress, and Development. To-day we see him +driving that triumphal car through the land of his birth, and making the +sunlight of prosperity to shine there. [Tremendous applause.] Sharing +with him the honors of their firm name is another Southerner, whose +career of usefulness and record of splendid success suffer nothing by +comparison. Two other Southern representatives, because of admirable +achievements and brilliant strokes of fortune, have recently gained +great distinction and won much applause in Wall Street. If I called +their names it would awake an echo in the temple of history, where an +illustrious ancestor is enshrined in immortal renown. [Applause and +cries of "Calhoun! Calhoun!"] + +It is not only as financiers and railroad magnates that the South ranks +high in Wall Street, but Southern lawyers likewise have established +themselves in this dollar district, and to-day challenge attention and +deserve tribute. Under the brilliant leadership of two commanding +generals, the younger barristers are steadily winning wider reputation +and pressing forward in professional triumph. + +One question, with its answer, and I shall have done: Are these +Southerners in Wall Street divorced in spirit and sympathy from their +old homes? [Cries of "No! No!"] You say "No." Let the record of their +deeds also make reply. One of them had done a thing so unique and +beautiful that I cannot refrain from alluding to it. It touches the +chord of humanity in every true heart and makes it vibrate with sacred +memories. In the cemetery of the little town of Hopkinsville, Ky., there +stands a splendid monument dedicated to "The Unknown Confederate Dead." +There is no inscription that even hints at who erected it. The builder +subordinated his personality to the glory of his purpose, and only the +consummate beauty of the memorial stands forth. The inspiration of his +impulse was only equalled by the modesty of his method. Truth, touched +by the tenderness and beauty of the tribute to those heroes who died +"for conscience sake," has revealed the author, and in him we recognize +a generous surviving comrade. [Applause, and cries of "Latham! Latham! +John Latham!"] + +Turning from this epitome of sentiment, we are confronted by abundant +evidence of the substantial interest taken by Wall Street Southerners in +the material affairs of the South. What they have done to reclaim the +waste places and develop the resources of their native States is beyond +estimate. They have not only contributed liberally by personal +investment, but they have used every honorable endeavor to influence +other men to do likewise. Loyalty has stimulated their efforts. Their +hearts are in the present and prospective glory of the New South. They +are untiring in their furtherance of legitimate enterprises, and the +fruit of their labor is seen to-day in every Southern State where new +railroads are building, various manufacturing enterprises springing up, +and vast mining interests being developed. The steady flow of capital +into all those channels is greatly due to their influence. There is more +money drifting that way to-day than ever before, and the time will soon +come, if it is not already here, when the sentiment to which I have +responded will admit of transposition, and we can with as much propriety +toast "Wall Street in the South," as to-night we toast "The South in +Wall Street." [Great and long-continued applause.] + + + + +KING EDWARD VII. + + +THE COLONIES + + [Speech of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales [Edward VII, crowned King + of England January 23, 1901], at the banquet given at the Mansion + House, London, July 16, 1881, by the Lord Mayor of London [Sir + William McArthur], to the Prince of Wales, as President of the + Colonial Institute, and to a large company of representatives of + the colonies--governors, premiers, and administrators. This speech + was delivered in response to the toast proposed by the Lord Mayor, + "The Health of the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and the + other members of the Royal Family."] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR MAJESTY, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--For the +kind and remarkably flattering way in which you, my Lord Mayor, have +been good enough to propose this toast, and you, my lords and gentlemen, +for the kind and hearty way in which you have received it, I beg to +offer you my most sincere thanks. It is a peculiar pleasure to me to +come to the City, because I have the honor of being one of its freemen. +But this is, indeed, a very special dinner, one of a kind that I do not +suppose has ever been given before; for we have here this evening +representatives of probably every Colony in the Empire. We have not only +the Secretary of the Colonies, but Governors past and present, +ministers, administrators, and agents, are all I think, to be found here +this evening. I regret that it has not been possible for me to see half +or one-third of the Colonies which it has been the good fortune of my +brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, to visit. In his voyages round the world +he has had opportunities more than once of seeing all our great +Colonies. Though I have not been able personally to see them, or have +seen only a small portion of them, you may rest assured it does not +diminish in any way the interest I take in them. + +It is, I am sorry to say, now going on for twenty-one years since I +visited our large North American Colonies. Still, though I was very +young at the time, the remembrance of that visit is as deeply imprinted +upon my memory now as it was at that time. I shall never forget the +public receptions which were accorded to me in Canada, New Brunswick, +Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, and if it were possible for me at +any time to repeat that visit, I need not tell you gentlemen, who now +represent here those great North American Colonies, of the great +pleasure it would give me to do so. It affords me great gratification to +see an old friend, Sir John Macdonald, the Premier of Canada, here this +evening. + +It was a most pressing invitation, certainly, that I received two years +ago to visit the great Australasian Colonies, and though at the time I +was unable to give an answer in the affirmative or in the negative, +still it soon became apparent that my many duties here in England, would +prevent my accomplishing what would have been a long, though a most +interesting voyage. I regret that such has been the case, and that I was +not able to accept the kind invitation I received to visit the +Exhibitions at Sydney and at Melbourne. I am glad, however, to know that +they have proved a great success, as has been testified to me only this +evening by the noble Duke [Manchester] by my side, who has so lately +returned. Though, my lords and gentlemen, I have, as I said before, not +had the opportunity of seeing these great Australasian Colonies, which +every day and every year are making such immense development, still, at +the International Exhibitions of London, Paris, and Vienna, I had not +only an opportunity of seeing their various products there exhibited, +but I had the pleasure of making the personal acquaintance of many +colonists--a fact which has been a matter of great importance and great +benefit to myself. + +It is now thirty years since the first International Exhibition took +place in London, and then for the first time Colonial exhibits were +shown to the world. Since that time, from the Exhibitions which have +followed our first great gathering in 1851, the improvements that have +been made are manifest. That in itself is a clear proof of the way in +which the Colonies have been exerting themselves to make their vast +territories of the great importance that they are at the present moment. +But though, my Lord Mayor, I have not been to Australasia, as you have +mentioned, I have sent my two sons on a visit there; and it has been a +matter of great gratification, not only to myself, but to the Queen, to +hear of the kindly reception they have met with everywhere. They are but +young, but I feel confident that their visit to the Antipodes will do +them an incalculable amount of good. On their way out they visited a +Colony in which, unfortunately, the condition of affairs was not quite +as satisfactory as we could wish, and as a consequence they did not +extend their visits in that part of South Africa quite so far inland as +might otherwise have been the case. + +I must thank you once more, my Lord Mayor, for the kind way in which you +have proposed this toast. I thank you in the name of the Princess and +the other members of the Royal Family, for the kind reception their +names have met with from all here to-night, and I beg again to assure +you most cordially and heartily of the great pleasure it has given me to +be present here among so many distinguished Colonists and gentlemen +connected with the Colonies, and to have had an opportunity of meeting +your distinguished guest, the King of the Sandwich Islands. If your +lordship's visit to his dominions remains impressed on your mind, I +think your lordship's kindly reception of his Majesty here to-night is +not likely soon to be forgotten by him. + + + + +HUGH C. WALLACE + + +THE SOUTHERNER IN THE WEST + + [Speech of Hugh C. Wallace at the fifth annual banquet of the New + York Southern Society, February 21, 1891. The President, Hugh R. + Garden, occupied the chair. In introducing Mr. Wallace, he said: + "It was said of old that the Southerner was wanting in that energy + and fixedness of purpose which make a successful American. No + broader field has existed for the exercise of those qualities than + the great region west of the Rocky Mountains. We are fortunate in + the presence of a gentleman whose young life is already a + successful refutation of that opinion, and I turn with confidence + to 'The Southerner of the Pacific Slope,' and invite Mr. Hugh C. + Wallace, of the State of Washington, to respond."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--For more than one hundred years +upon this continent a silent army has been marching from the East toward +the West. No silken banners have waved above it, and no blare of trumpet +or beat of drum has heralded its progress. And yet its conquests have +been grander than those of Peru or Mexico, its victories more glorious +than those of Marengo, of Friedland, or of Austerlitz. It has subdued an +empire richer than the Indies without inflicting the cruelties of Clive, +or the exactions of Hastings, and that empire is to-day, Mr. President, +a part of your heritage and mine. [Applause.] For more than thirty years +past the region in which most of those I see around me first saw the +light has lain prostrate, borne down by a Titanic struggle whose +blighting force fell wholly upon her. For more than a generation her +enterprise has seemed exhausted, her strength wasted, and her glory +departed. And yet she has not failed to furnish her full quota to the +grand army of conquest to carry to completion the great work which +Boone, Crockett, and Houston, all her sons--began, and which her genius +alone made possible. [Applause.] + +Turn back with me the pages of time to the beginning of this imposing +march and glance for a moment at its resplendent progress. Its beginning +was in Virginia. Virginians led by that first of Southerners whose natal +day we celebrate to-night and whose fame grows brighter in the +lengthening perspective of the years, conquered the savage and his +little less than savage European ally, and saved for the Nation then +unborn the whole Northwest. The Pinckneys, the Rutledges, and the +Gwinetts forced the hand of Spain from the throat of the Mississippi, +and left the current of trade free to flow to the Gulf unvexed by +foreign influence. + +Another Virginian, illustrious through all time as the great vindicator +of humanity, doubled the area of the national possession of his time by +the Louisiana purchase, and Lewis and Clarke, both sons of the Old +Dominion, in 1804 first trod the vast uninhabited wilds of the far +Northwest to find a land richer in all the precious products of the East +than mortal eyes had yet beheld. So were our borders extended from the +Gulf and the Rio Grande to the 49th parallel and from the Atlantic to +the Pacific--but for Southern enterprise they might have stopped at +Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Niagara. [Applause.] + +The empire thus secured remained to be subdued. From the States in which +you and I, gentlemen, were born has come a noble wing of the grand army +of subjugation, all of whose battles have been victories and all of +whose victories have been victories of civilization. Moving first from +the old States of the South it took possession of territory along the +Gulf and of Tennessee and of Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground." Fame +crowned the heroes of these campaigns with the patriot's name, and +glorified them as pioneers. As their advance guards swept across the +Mississippi and took possession of Missouri, Arkansas, and territory +farther north, envy called it invasion, and when their scouts appeared +in Nebraska and Kansas they were repelled amid the passion of the hour. +Meanwhile, a new element, whose quickening power is scarcely yet +appreciated, had joined the grand movement. Early in the forties a South +Carolinian captain of engineers, the Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, had +marked the way to the far West coast, and added a new realm to the +National domain. [Applause.] It was the domain soon famed for its +delightful climate, its wealth of resources, and its combination of +every natural advantage that human life desires. The gleaming gold soon +after found in the sands of Sutter's Fort spread its fame afar and +attracted to it the superb band of men who came from every State to lay +firm and sure the foundation of the new commonwealth. + +There were only fourteen Southerners in the Constitutional Convention at +Monterey, but their genius for government made them a fair working +majority in the body of forty-eight members. Not content with building a +grand State like this, the united army gathered from the North and South +alike turned its face toward the desert and fastnesses of the eternal +hills and "continuous woods where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound +save his own dashings," and pitched their tents, rolled back the awful +silence that through ages had reigned there; and learned the secrets +that desolation guarded, alluring to them from their fastnesses a +renewed stream of treasure which has resulted in making us the envy of +all other nations. + +In conspicuous contrast to the attitude and sentiment of the South, the +East has never followed to encourage nor sympathize with the West. +Whether it be in legislation or politics or finance, the Western idea +has ever failed to command the earnest attention to which it is +entitled. There is a sentiment which is growing more general and +vigorous every day in the far West, that the time is near at hand when +it will decline to adhere to the fortunes of any leader or body which +recklessly ignores its claims or persistently refuses to it recognition. +It is a very significant fact, Mr. President, that this great region, +containing one-fourth of the National area, one-seventeenth of the +population, and constituting one-seventh of the whole number of States +has had up to this time, but one member of the Cabinet. In the present +Cabinet, fourteen States (east of the Mississippi and North of the old +Mason and Dixon's Line) have seven members and the remaining thirty +States have but one. Those thirty States will see to it in the future +that the party which succeeds through their support has its +representation their efforts have deserved. + +I cannot close, Mr. President, without giving expression to a sentiment +to which Southerners in the West are peculiarly alive--the sentiment of +sympathy and fraternity which exists between the South and the West. +[Applause.] The course of historical development which I have outlined +of the Western man has wrought a bond of friendship between them, and +that bond is not a reminiscence, but a living, vital, and efficient +fact. Only but yesterday, politicians, thank God not the people, sought +for selfish ends to cast back the South into Stygian gloom from which +she had slowly and laboriously but gloriously emerged, to forge upon her +again hope-killing shackles of a barbarous rule. In that hour of trial +which you and I, sir, know to have been a menace and a reality to whom +did she turn for succor? To this man of the West, and quick and glorious +was the response. + + + + +SAMUEL BALDWIN WARD + + +THE MEDICAL PROFESSION + + [Speech of Dr. Samuel B. Ward at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, in the City of Albany, January 18, 1887.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--That a medical man should be +asked to be in attendance at a banquet such as this was natural, and +when I looked over the list of toasts and found that the clergymen had +been omitted, I took it as an intended though perhaps rather dubious +compliment to my profession, the supposition being that the services of +the clergy would not of course be required. When I was asked to respond +to this toast, in an unguarded moment of good nature, which is +remarkable even in me, I was beguiled into consenting by the persuasive +eloquence of your worthy President and Secretary, and a day or two after +I visited the Executive chamber with the view of endeavoring to make "a +little bargain" with his Excellency. Being myself neither a lawyer, a +politician, nor the editor of a Brooklyn newspaper [laughter], I was +totally unacquainted with such things, but still I am the reader of a +weekly Republican newspaper (that is spelled with two e's and not an a, +and has no reference to the "Albany Evening Journal"), and have +ascertained that among a certain class of men, these "bargains" were +exceedingly common. Respecting the exact nature of the proposition I +shall not reveal? but suffice it to say I failed most ignominiously. + +After leaving the executive chamber I spent a good part of the morning +in reflection as to the cause of the failure. Among other things it +occurred to me that perhaps the newspaper statement, that "bargains" +were so common among officials was untrue, but when I reflected that my +newspaper was a republican organ and that the Executive was a democratic +official I knew that every word that organ would say about a political +opponent must be absolutely true. It occurred to me that perhaps +inasmuch as I was not a politician, his Excellency might have feared to +trust me, but I recollected to have read of the dire misfortune that +befalls certain politicians in New York from trusting each other. As the +Governor's shrewdness was well-known, I knew that he felt that if he +could trust any one, it would be one of my profession, and therefore +that excuse would not answer. It also occurred to me, that perhaps I was +somewhat green and unwise in consenting to make this bargain in the +presence of witnesses, but when I thought of all the sagacity and +shrewdness and reticence that was concealed behind Colonel Rice's +outspoken countenance, and of the numerous "arrangements" of which he +was cognizant, and in relation to which he had never said a word, I felt +assured that that was not the reason. I finally came to the conclusion +that the Governor was a man to be trusted; that if there still be cynics +who believe that "every man has his price," they would find the +Governor's price far too high for them ever to reach. [Applause.] + +In the play of King Henry VI occurs an expression by Dick, the butcher, +which is so short and so pointed that I may be pardoned for reproducing +it in its completeness. It runs thus: "The first thing we do, let's kill +the lawyers." This is not at all the attitude of our profession toward +yours. On the contrary the most stupid charge that is ever laid to the +door of the medical man is that he intentionally, or ever either by luck +or intention, kills his patients. Ere the coffin-lid closes the doctor's +harvest is reaped, but how different it is with you gentlemen. +[Laughter.] Not more than a few days after the debt of nature has been +paid by the unfortunate patient, your harvest--and especially if he has +had the unusual fortune to make a will--begins, and oh! how we are +sometimes tempted to envy you. Through how many seasons this harvest +will be prolonged no one can foretell. That it will be carefully +garnered to the last we can fully rely upon. + +There is perhaps only one state of circumstances under which the +medical man is likely to re-echo the sentiment, and that is when he +steps down from the witness-stand, having served as an "expert." You +lawyers have a duty to discharge to your clients which necessitates your +"taking a part." Even though a man be guilty, there may be "extenuating +circumstances," and it is your right, as it is your duty, "to do all +that lies within your power in his behalf." The "medical expert" should +go upon the stand in a purely judicial frame of mind, and as a rule I +believe he does. But by the manner in which questions are propounded to +him, and by the exercise of every little persuasive art incident to your +calling, he is inevitably led into taking "sides." He is surrounded by +circumstances that are to him entirely strange. He is more or less +annoyed and flurried by his surroundings, and then comes the necessity +of making a categorical answer to questions that are put to him more +especially upon the cross-examination, which cannot be correctly +answered categorically. Unfortunately in a profession like ours, in a +science of art like ours, it often is absolutely impossible to answer a +question categorically without conveying an erroneous impression to the +jury. + +In addition to this, we are subjected at the close of the examination to +what you are pleased to term a "hypothetical question." The theory of +this "hypothetical question" is that it embraces or expresses in a few +words, and not always so very few either [laughter], the main features +of the case under consideration. In nine cases out of ten if the expert +makes a direct and unqualified answer to the question he leaves an +absolutely erroneous idea upon the minds of the jury, and this is the +explanation of why so many experts have made answers to questions which +have elicited adverse criticism. + +In my judgment, after a not very long experience I must admit, but a +sorry one, in some instances, there is but one way in which this matter +of expert evidence should be conducted. The judge should appoint three +experts, one of them at the suggestion of the counsel upon either side, +and the third one at his own discretion. These three appointees should +present their report in writing to the court, and the compensation for +the service should be equally divided between the parties interested. In +that way can expert evidence escape the disrepute now attaching to it, +and the ends of justice be furthered. Now, gentlemen, the hour is +getting late, and I have but one wish to express to you. The medical +profession of the State of New York has an organization very similar to +your own, which has now reached very nearly its ninetieth year, with a +membership of almost 1,000, and with an annual attendance something +double that of your own. I can only hope that your Association may live +on and develop until it reaches as vigorous and flourishing an old age +as that of the medical profession. [Applause.] + + + + +CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +THE RISE OF "THE ATLANTIC" + + [Speech of Charles Dudley Warner at the "Whittier Dinner" in + celebration of the poet's seventieth birthday and the twentieth + birthday of "The Atlantic Monthly," given by the publishers, + Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., at Boston, Mass., December 17, + 1877.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--It is impossible to express my gratitude to you +for calling on me. There is but one pleasure in life equal to that of +being called on to make an after-dinner speech, and that is not being +called on. It is such an enjoyment to sit through the courses with this +prospect like a ten-pound weight on your digestive organs! If it were +ever possible to refuse anything in this world, except by the +concurrence of the three branches of government--the executive, the +obstructive, and the destructive, I believe they are called--I should +hope that we might some time have our speeches first, so that we could +eat our dinner without fear or favor. + +I suppose, however, that I am called up not to grumble, but to say that +the establishment of "The Atlantic Monthly" was an era in literature. I +say it cheerfully. I believe, nevertheless, it was not the first era of +the sort. The sanguine generations have been indulging in them all +along, and as "eras" they are apt to flat out, or, as the editor of the +"Atlantic" would say, they "peter out." But the establishment of the +"Atlantic" was the expression of a genuine literary movement. That +movement is the most interesting because it was the most fruitful in our +history. It was nicknamed transcendentalism. It was, in fact, a +recurrence to realism. They who were sitting in Boston saw a great +light. The beauty of this new realism was that it required imagination, +as it always does, to see truth. That was the charm of the Teufelsdröckh +philosophy; it was also poetry. Mr. Emerson puts it in a phrase--the +poet is the Seer. Most of you recall the intellectual stir of that time. +Mr. Carlyle had spread the German world to us. Mr. Emerson lighted his +torch. The horizon of English literature was broken, and it was not +necessary any longer to imitate English models. Criticism began to +assert itself. Mr. Lowell launched that audacious "Fable for Critics"--a +lusty colt, rejoicing in his young energy, had broken into the +old-fashioned garden, and unceremoniously trampled about among the rows +of box, the beds of pinks and sweet-williams, and mullen seed. I +remember how all this excited the imagination of the college where I +was. It was what that great navigator who made the "swellings from the +Atlantic" called "a fresh-water college." Everybody read "Sartor +Resartus." The best writer in college wrote exactly like Carlyle--why, +it was the universal opinion--without Carlyle's obscurity! The rest of +them wrote like Jean Paul Richter and like Emerson, and like Longfellow, +and like Ossian. The poems of our genius you couldn't tell from Ossian. +I believe it turned out that they were Ossian's. [Laughter.] Something +was evidently about to happen. When this tumult had a little settled the +"Atlantic" arose serenely out of Boston Bay--a consummation and a star +of promise as well. + +The promise has been abundantly fulfilled. The magazine has had its fair +share in the total revolution of the character of American literature--I +mean the revolution out of the sentimental period; for the truth of this +I might appeal to the present audience, but for the well-known fact that +writers of books never read any except those they make themselves. +[Laughter.] I distinctly remember the page in that first "Atlantic" that +began with--"If the red slayer thinks he slays--" a famous poem, that +immediately became the target of all the small wits of the country, and +went in with the "Opinions," paragraphs of that Autocratic talk, which +speedily broke the bounds of the "Atlantic," and the Pacific as well, +and went round the world. [Applause.] + +Yes, the "Atlantic" has had its triumphs of all sorts. The Government +even was jealous of its power. It repeatedly tried to banish one of its +editors, and finally did send him off to the court of Madrid [James +Russell Lowell]. And I am told that the present editor [William Dean +Howells] might have been snatched away from it, but for his good fortune +in being legally connected with a person who is distantly related to a +very high personage who was at that time reforming the civil service. + +Mr. Chairman, there is no reason why I should not ramble on in this way +all night; but then, there is no reason why I should. There is only one +thing more that I desire to note, and that is, that during the existence +of the "Atlantic," American authors have become very nearly emancipated +from fear or dependence on English criticisms. In comparison with former +days they care now very little what London says. This is an acknowledged +fact. Whether it is the result of a sturdy growth at home or of a +visible deterioration of the quality of the criticism--a want of the +discriminating faculty--the Contributors' Club can, no doubt, point out. + +[In conclusion, Mr. Warner paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the +Quaker poet.] + + + + +[Illustration: _HENRY WATTERSON_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +HENRY WATTERSON + + +OUR WIVES + + [Speech of Henry Watterson at the dinner held on the anniversary of + General W. T. Sherman's birthday, Washington, D. C., February 8, + 1883. Colonel George B. Corkhill presided, and introduced Mr. + Watterson to speak to the toast, "Our Wives."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--When one undertakes to respond to such a sentiment +as you do me the honor to assign me, he knows in advance that he is put, +as it were, upon his good behavior. I recognize the justice of this and +accepted the responsibility with the charge; though I may say that if +General Sherman's wife resembles mine--and I very much suspect she +does--he has a sympathy for me at the present moment. Once upon a festal +occasion, a little late, quite after the hour when Cinderella was bidden +by her godmother to go to bed, I happened to extol the graces and +virtues of the newly wedded wife of a friend of mine, and finally, as a +knockdown argument, I compared her to my own wife. "In this case," said +he, dryly, "you'll catch it when you get home." It is a peculiarity they +all have: not a ray of humor where the husband is concerned; to the best +of them and to the last he must be and must continue to be--a hero! + +Now, I do not wish you to believe, nor to think that I myself believe, +that all women make heroes of their husbands. Women are logical in +nothing. They naturally hate mathematics. So, they would have their +husbands be heroes only to the rest of the world. There is a charming +picture by John Leech, the English satirist, which depicts Jones, who +never looked askance at a woman in his life, sitting demurely at table, +stuck with his nose on his plate, and Mrs. Jones opposite, redundant to +a degree, observing with gratified severity, "Now, Mr. Jones, don't let +me see you ogling those Smith girls again!" She, too, was like the +rest--the good ones, I mean--seeing the world through her husband; no +happiness but his comfort; no vanity but his glory; sacrificing herself +to his wants, and where he proves inadequate putting her imagination out +to service and bringing home a basket of flowers to deck his brow. Of +our sweethearts the humorist hath it:-- + + "Where are the Marys and Anns and Elizas, + Lovely and loving of yore? + Look in the columns of old 'Advertisers,' + Married and dead by the score." + +But "our wives." We don't have far to look to find them; sometimes, I am +told, you army gentlemen have been known to find them turning +unexpectedly up along the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and making +their presence felt even as far as the halls of the Montezumas. Yet how +should we get on without them? Rob mankind of his wife and time could +never become a grandfather. Strange as you may think it our wives are, +in a sense, responsible for our children; and I ask you seriously how +could the world get on if it had no children? It might get on for a +while, I do admit; but I challenge the boldest among you to say how long +it could get on without "our wives." It would not only give out of +children; in a little--a very little--while it would have no +mother-in-law, nor sister-in-law, nor brother-in-law, nor any of those +acquired relatives whom it has learned to love, and who have contributed +so largely to its stock of harmless pleasure. + +But, as this is not exactly a tariff discussion, though a duty, I drop +statistics; let me ask you what would become of the revenues of man if +it were not for "our wives?" We should have no milliners but for "our +wives." But for "our wives" those makers of happiness and furbelows, +those fabricators of smiles and frills, those gentle beings who bias and +scollop and do their sacking at both ends of the bill, and sometimes in +the middle, would be compelled to shut up shop, retire from business, +and return to the good old city of Mantua, whence they came. The world +would grow too rich; albeit, on this promise I do not propose to +construct an argument in favor of more wives. One wife is enough, two +is too many, and more than two are an abomination everywhere, except in +Utah and the halls of our national legislature. + +I beg you will forgive me. I do but speak in banter. It has been said +that a good woman, fitly mated, grows doubly good; but how often have we +seen a bad man mated to a good woman turned into a good man? Why, I +myself was not wholly good till I married my wife; and, if the eminent +soldier and gentleman in whose honor we are here--and may he be among us +many and many another anniversary, yet always sixty-three--if he should +tell the story of his life, I am sure he would say that its darkest +hours were cherished, its brightest illuminated by the fair lady of a +noble race, who stepped from the highest social eminence to place her +hand in that of an obscure young subaltern of the line. The world had +not become acquainted with him, but with the prophetic instinct of a +true woman she discovered, as she has since developed, the mine. So it +is with all "our wives." Whatever there is good in us they bring it out; +wherefor may they be forever honored in the myriad of hearts they come +to lighten and to bless. [Loud applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE PURITAN AND THE CAVALIER + + [Speech of Henry Watterson at the eighty-ninth anniversary banquet + of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, + 1894. Elihu Root, President of the Society, introduced Mr. + Watterson in the following words: "Gentlemen, we are forced to + recognize the truth of the observation that all the people of New + England are not Puritans; we must admit an occasional exception. It + is equally true, I am told, that all the people of the South are + not cavaliers; but there is one cavalier without fear and without + reproach [applause], the splendid courage of whose convictions + shows how close together the highest examples of different types + can be among godlike men--a cavalier of the South, of southern + blood and southern life, who carries in thought and in deed all the + serious purpose and disinterested action that characterized the + Pilgrim Fathers whom we commemorate. He comes from an impressionist + State where the grass is blue [laughter], where the men are either + all white or all black, and where, we are told, quite often the + settlements are painted red. [Laughter.] He is a soldier, a + statesman, a scholar, and, above all, a lover; and among all the + world which loves a lover the descendants of those who, generation + after generation, with tears and laughter, have sympathized with + John Alden and Priscilla, cannot fail to open their hearts in + sympathy to Henry Watterson and his star-eyed goddess. [Applause.] + I have the honor and great pleasure of introducing him to respond + to the toast of 'The Puritan and the Cavalier.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Eight years ago, to-night, there +stood where I am standing now a young Georgian, who, not without reason, +recognized the "significance" of his presence here--"the first +southerner to speak at this board"--a circumstance, let me add, not very +creditable to any of us--and in words whose eloquence I cannot hope to +recall, appealed from the New South to New England for a united country. + +He was my disciple, my protege, my friend. He came to me from the +southern schools, where he had perused the arts of oratory and letters, +to get a few hints in journalism, as he said; needing so few, indeed, +that, but a little later, I sent him to one of the foremost journalists +of this foremost city, bearing a letter of introduction, which described +him as "the greatest boy ever born in Dixie, or anywhere else." + +He is gone now. But, short as his life was, its heaven-born mission was +fulfilled; the dream of his childhood was realized; for he had been +appointed by God to carry a message of peace on earth, good-will to men, +and, this done, he vanished from the sight of mortal eyes, even as the +dove from the ark. + +I mean to take up the word where Grady left it off, but I shall continue +the sentence with a somewhat larger confidence, and, perhaps, with a +somewhat fuller meaning; because, notwithstanding the Puritan trappings, +traditions, and associations which surround me--visible illustrations of +the self-denying fortitude of the Puritan character and the sombre +simplicity of the Puritan taste and habit--I never felt less out of +place in all my life. + +To tell you the truth, I am afraid that I have gained access here on +false pretences; for I am no Cavalier at all; just plain Scotch-Irish; +one of those Scotch-Irish southerners who ate no fire in the green leaf +and has eaten no dirt in the brown, and who, accepting, for the moment, +the terms Puritan and Cavalier in the sense an effete sectionalism once +sought to ascribe to them--descriptive labels at once classifying and +separating North and South--verbal redoubts along that mythical line +called Mason and Dixon, over which there were supposed by the extremists +of other days to be no bridges--I am much disposed to say, "A plague o' +both your houses!" + +Each was good enough and bad enough in its way, whilst they lasted; each +in its turn filled the English-speaking world with mourning; and each, +if either could have resisted the infection of the soil and climate they +found here, would be to-day striving at the sword's point to square life +by the iron rule of Theocracy, or to round it by the dizzy whirl of a +petticoat! It is very pretty to read about the Maypole in Virginia and +very edifying and inspiring to celebrate the deeds of the Pilgrim +Fathers. But there is not Cavalier blood enough left in the Old Dominion +to produce a single crop of first families, whilst out in Nebraska and +Iowa they claim that they have so stripped New England of her Puritan +stock as to spare her hardly enough for farm hands. This I do know, from +personal experience, that it is impossible for the stranger-guest, +sitting beneath a bower of roses in the Palmetto Club at Charleston, or +by a mimic log-heap in the Algonquin Club at Boston, to tell the +assembled company apart, particularly after ten o'clock in the evening! +Why, in that great, final struggle between the Puritans and the +Cavaliers--which we still hear sometimes casually mentioned--although it +ended nearly thirty years ago, there had been such a mixing up of +Puritan babies and Cavalier babies during the two or three generations +preceding it, that the surviving grandmothers of the combatants could +not, except for their uniforms, have picked out their own on any field +of battle! + +Turning to the Cyclopćdia of American Biography, I find that Webster had +all the vices that are supposed to have signalized the Cavalier, and +Calhoun all the virtues that are claimed for the Puritan. During twenty +years three statesmen of Puritan origin were the chosen party leaders of +Cavalier Mississippi: Robert J. Walker, born and reared in Pennsylvania; +John A. Quitman, born and reared in New York, and Sargent S. Prentiss, +born and reared in the good old State of Maine. That sturdy Puritan, +John Slidell, never saw Louisiana until he was old enough to vote and +to fight; native here--an alumnus of Columbia College--but sprung from +New England ancestors. Albert Sidney Johnston, the most resplendent of +modern Cavaliers--from tip to toe a type of the species--the very rose +and expectancy of the young Confederacy--did not have a drop of Southern +blood in his veins; Yankee on both sides of the house, though born in +Kentucky a little while after his father and mother arrived there from +Connecticut. The Ambassador who serves our Government near the French +Republic was a gallant Confederate soldier and is a representative +southern statesman; but he owns the estate in Massachusetts where his +father was born, and where his father's fathers lived through many +generations. + +And the Cavaliers, who missed their stirrups, somehow, and got into +Yankee saddles? The woods were full of them. If Custer was not a +Cavalier, Rupert was a Puritan. And Sherwood and Wadsworth and Kearny, +and McPherson and their dashing companions and followers! The one +typical Puritan soldier of the war--mark you!--was a Southern, and not a +Northern, soldier; Stonewall Jackson, of the Virginia line. And, if we +should care to pursue the subject farther back, what about Ethan Allen +and John Stark and Mad Anthony Wayne--Cavaliers each and every one? +Indeed, from Israel Putnam to "Buffalo Bill," it seems to me the +Puritans have had rather the best of it in turning out Cavaliers. So the +least said about the Puritan and the Cavalier--except as blessed +memories or horrid examples--the better for historic accuracy. + +If you wish to get at the bottom facts, I don't mind telling you--in +confidence--that it was we Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you--some +of us in peace--others of us in war--supplying the missing link of +adaptability--the needed ingredient of common sense--the conservative +principle of creed and action, to which this generation of Americans +owes its intellectual and moral emancipation from frivolity and +pharisaism--its rescue from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand--and +its crystallization into a national character and polity, ruling by +force of brains and not by force of arms. + +Gentlemen--Sir--I, too, have been to Boston. Strange as the admission +may seem, it is true; and I live to tell the tale. I have been to +Boston; and when I declare that I found there many things that suggested +the Cavalier and did not suggest the Puritan, I shall not say I was +sorry. But among other things, I found there a civilization perfect in +its union of the art of living with the grace of life; an Americanism +ideal in its simple strength. Grady told us, and told us truly, of that +typical American who, in Dr. Talmage's mind's eye, was coming, but who, +in Abraham Lincoln's actuality, had already come. In some recent studies +into the career of that great man, I have encountered many startling +confirmations of this judgment; and from that rugged trunk, drawing its +sustenance from gnarled roots, interlocked with Cavalier sprays and +Puritan branches deep beneath the soil, shall spring, is springing, a +shapely tree--symmetric in all its parts--under whose sheltering boughs +this nation shall have the new birth of freedom Lincoln promised it, and +mankind the refuge which was sought by the forefathers when they fled +from oppression. Thank God, the axe, the gibbet, and the stake have had +their day. They have gone, let us hope, to keep company with the lost +arts. It has been demonstrated that great wrongs may be redressed and +great reforms be achieved without the shedding of one drop of human +blood; that vengeance does not purify, but brutalizes; and that +tolerance, which in private transactions is reckoned a virtue, becomes +in public affairs a dogma of the most far-seeing statesmanship. Else how +could this noble city have been redeemed from bondage? It was held like +a castle of the Middle Ages by robber barons, who levied tribute right +and left. Yet have the mounds and dykes of corruption been carried--from +buttress to bell-tower the walls of crime have fallen--without a shot +out of a gun, and still no fires of Smithfield to light the pathway of +the victor, no bloody assizes to vindicate the justice of the cause; nor +need of any. + +So I appeal from the men in silken hose who danced to music made by +slaves--and called it freedom--from the men in bell-crowned hats, who +led Hester Prynne to her shame--and called it religion--to that +Americanism which reaches forth its arms to smite wrong with reason and +truth, secure in the power of both. I appeal from the patriarchs of New +England to the poets of New England; from Endicott to Lowell; from +Winthrop to Longfellow; from Norton to Holmes; and I appeal in the name +and by the rights of that common citizenship--of that common +origin--back both of the Puritan and the Cavalier--to which all of us +owe our being. Let the dead past, consecrated by the blood of its +martyrs, not by its savage hatreds--darkened alike by kingcraft and +priestcraft--let the dead past bury its dead. Let the present and the +future ring with the song of the singers. Blessed be the lessons they +teach, the laws they make. Blessed be the eye to see, the light to +reveal. Blessed be Tolerance, sitting ever on the right hand of God to +guide the way with loving word, as blessed be all that brings us nearer +the goal of true religion, true Republicanism and true patriotism, +distrust of watchwords and labels, shams and heroes, belief in our +country and ourselves. It was not Cotton Mather, but John Greenleaf +Whittier, who cried: + + "Dear God and Father of us all, + Forgive our faith in cruel lies, + Forgive the blindness that denies. + + "Cast down our idols--overturn + Our bloody altars--make us see + Thyself in Thy humanity!" + +[Applause and cheers.] + + + + +HEMAN LINCOLN WAYLAND + + +THE FORCE OF IDEAS + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the fourth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1884. Dr. Wayland, as President of the Society, occupied the chair, + and delivered the following address in welcoming the guests.] + + +FELLOW NEW ENGLANDERS--Or, in view of our habitual modesty and +self-depreciation, I ought, perhaps, rather to say, Fellow Pharisees +[laughter]--I congratulate you that we are able to show our guests a +little real New England weather--weather that recalls the sleigh-rides, +and crossing the bridges, and the singing-school. You are reminded of +the observation of the British tar, who, after a long cruise in the +Mediterranean, as he came into the eternal fog which surrounds the +"tight little island," exclaimed, "This is weather as is weather; none +of your blasted blue sky for me!" [Laughter.] + +Let me also apologize to our guests for the extreme plainness and +frugality of the entertainment. They will kindly make allowance, when +they remember that this is washing-day. [Laughter.] + +I am aware that the occasion is so large as to dwarf all merely personal +considerations; but I cannot omit to return you my thanks for the +unmerited kindness which has placed me in the position I occupy. I must +add that the position is at once the more honorable and the more +onerous, because I am called to follow a gentleman whose administration +of the office has been so superlatively successful. + +In making this allusion to my honored predecessor, I am reminded of an +event in which we all feel a common pride. On the 25th of last June, +amid the hills which overshadow Dartmouth College, our then president +laid the corner-stone of "Rollins Chapel" for Christian worship, while +on the same day, at the same place, on the grounds traversed in earlier +years by Webster and Choate, another son of New England laid the +corner-stone of the "Wilson Library Building." Thus does intelligent +industry, large-hearted benevolence, and filial piety, plant upon the +granite hills of New England the olive-groves of Academus and the palms +of Judea. [Applause.] + +But perhaps there may be here some intelligent stranger who asks me to +define an expression which is now and then heard on these occasions: +"What is this New England of which you speak so seldom and so +reluctantly? Is it a place?" Yes, it is a place; not indeed only a +place, but it is a place; and he cannot know New England who has not +traversed it from Watch Hill to Mount Washington, from Champlain to +Passamaquoddy. In no other wise can one realize how the sterile soil and +the bleak winds and the short summer have been the rugged parents of +that thrift, that industry, that economy, that regard for the small +savings, which have made New England the banker of America. As the +population grew beyond the capacity of the soil, her sons from her +myriad harbors swarmed out upon the sea, an army of occupation, and +annexed the Grand Banks, making them national banks before the days of +Secretary Chase. [Laughter.] When the limits of agriculture were +reached, they enslaved the streams, and clothed the continent. They +gathered hides from Iowa and Texas, and sold them, in the shape of +boots, in Dubuque and Galveston. Sterile New England underlaid the +imperial Northwest with mortgages, and overlaid it with insurance. I +chanced to be in Chicago two or three days after the great fire of 1871. +As I walked among the smoking ruins, if I saw a man with a cheerful air, +I knew that he was a resident of Chicago; if I saw a man with a long +face, I knew that he represented a Hartford insurance company. +[Laughter.] Really, the cheerful resignation with which the Chicago +people endured the losses of New England did honor to human nature. +[Laughter.] + +Perhaps it is well that New England is not yet more sterile, for it +would have owned the whole of the country, and would have monopolized +all the wealth, as it has confessedly got a corner on all the virtues. + +And while the narrow limit of the season, called by courtesy "summer," +has enforced promptness and rapidity of action, the long winters have +given pause for reflection, have fostered the red school-house, have +engendered reading and discussion, have made her sons and her daughters +thoughtful beings. + +The other day, in reading the life of a New England woman,[8] I met with +a letter written when she was seventeen years old: "I have begun reading +Dugald Stewart. How are my sources of enjoyment multiplied. By bringing +into view the various systems of philosophers concerning the origin of +our knowledge, he enlarges the mind, and extends the range of our ideas, +... while clearly distinguishing between proper objects of inquiry and +those that must forever remain inexplicable to man in the present state +of his faculties. Reasonings from induction are delightful." [Laughter.] + +I think you will agree with me that only where there was a long winter, +and long winter evenings, would such a letter be written by a girl in +her teens. + +The question has often been asked why there are so many poets in New +England. A traveller passing through Concord inquired, "How do all these +people support themselves?" The answer was, "They all live by writing +poems for 'The Atlantic Monthly.'" [Laughter.] + +Now, any one who thinks of it must see that it is the weather which +makes all these poets, or rather the weathers, for there are so many. As +Mr. Choate said: "Cold to-day, hot to-morrow; mercury at eighty in the +morning, with wind at southeast; and in three hours more a sea-turn, +wind at east, a thick fog from the bottom of the ocean, and a fall of +forty degrees; now, so dry as to kill all the beans in New Hampshire; +then, a flood, carrying off the bridges on the Penobscot; snow in +Portsmouth in July, and the next day a man and a yoke of oxen killed by +lightning down in Rhode Island." [Laughter.] + +The commonplace question: "How is the weather going to be?" gives a +boundless play to the imagination, and makes a man a poet before he +knows it. And then a poet must have grand subjects in nature. And what +does a poet want that he does not find in New England? Wooded glens, +mysterious ravines, inaccessible summits, hurrying rivers; the White +Hills, keeping up, as Starr King said, "a perpetual peak against the +sky"; the Old Man of the Mountains looking down the valley of the +Pemigewasset, and hearing from afar the Ammonoosuc as it breaks into a +hundred cataracts; Katahdin, Kearsarge, setting its back up higher than +ever since that little affair off Cherbourg; the everlasting ocean +inviting to adventure, inspiring to its own wild freedom, and making a +harbor in every front yard, so that the hardy mariner can have his smack +at his own doorstep. [Laughter.] (Need I say I mean his fishing-smack?) +What more can a poet desire? + +And then life in New England, especially New England of the olden time, +has been an epic poem. It was a struggle against obstacles and enemies, +and a triumph over nature in behalf of human welfare. + +What would a poet sing about, I wonder, who lived on the Kankakee Flats? +Of course, the epic poet must have a hero, and an enemy, and a war. The +great enemy in those parts is shakes; so, as Virgil began, "I sing of +arms and the man," the Kankakee poet would open: + + "I sing the glories of cinchona and the man + Who first invented calomel." + +Yes, if the Pilgrims had landed upon the far Western prairies or the +Southern savannas, they would never have made America; they would never +have won a glory beyond that of Columbus, who only discovered America, +whereas these men created it. [Applause.] + +But not a place alone. New England is also a race; the race that plants +colonies and makes nations; the race that carries everywhere a free +press, a free pulpit, an open Bible, and that has almost learned to +spell and parse its own language; the race which began the battle for +civil and religious liberty in the time of Elizabeth, which fought the +good fight at Edgehill, which, beside Concord Bridge, "fired the shot +heard round the world," which made a continent secure for liberty at +Appomattox. [Applause.] + +And New England is not alone a place and a race; it is as well an idea, +or a congeries of ideas, so closely joined as properly to be called but +one; and this idea is not the idea of force, but the force of ideas. + +But, gentlemen, I am in danger of forgetting that a marked +characteristic of New Englanders is an unwillingness to talk, and +especially to talk about themselves. And I know that you are eager to +listen to the illustrious men whom we have the honor to gather about our +humble board this evening. + + + * * * * * + + +CAUSES OF UNPOPULARITY + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the eighty-fourth annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 23, 1889. The President, Cornelius N. Bliss, proposed the query for + Dr. Wayland, "Why are New Englanders Unpopular?" enforcing it with + the following quotations: "Do you question me as an honest man + should do for my simple true judgment?" [Much Ado About Nothing, + Act I, Sc. I], and "Merit less solid less despite has bred: the man + that makes a character makes foes" [Edward Young]. Turning to Dr. + Wayland, Mr. Bliss said: "Our sister, the New England Society of + Philadelphia, to-night sends us greeting in the person of her + honored President, whom I have the pleasure of presenting to you." + The eloquence of Dr. Wayland was loudly applauded; and Chauncey M. + Depew declared that he had heard one of the best speeches to which + he had ever listened at a New England dinner.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--That I am here this evening is as +complete a mystery to me as to you. I do not know why your Society, at +whose annual meetings orators are as the sand upon the seashore for +multitude, should call upon Philadelphia, a city in which the acme of +eloquence is attained by a Friends' Yearly Meeting, "sitting under the +canopy of silence." I can only suppose that you designed to relieve the +insufferable brilliancy of your annual festival, that you wished to +dilute the highly-flavored, richly-colored, full-bodied streams of the +Croton with the pure, limpid, colorless (or, at any rate, only +drab-colored) waters of the Schuylkill. [Laughter.] + +My first and wiser impulse was to decline the invitation with which you +honored me, or rather the Society of which I am the humblest member. +But I considered the great debt we have been under to you for the loan +of many of your most accomplished speakers: of Curtis, whose diction is +chaste as the snows of his own New England, while his zeal for justice +is as fervid as her July sun; of Depew, who, as I listen to him, makes +me believe that the doctrine of transmigration is true, and that in a +former day his soul occupied the body of one of the Puritan fathers, and +that for some lapse he was compelled to spend a period of time in the +body of a Hollander [laughter]; of Beaman,[9] one of the lights of your +bar; of Evarts, who, whether as statesman or as orator, delights in +making historic periods. And this year you have favored us with General +Porter,[10] whom we have been trying to capture for our annual dinner, +it seems to me, ever since the Mayflower entered Plymouth Bay. + +We have condoled with these honored guests as they with tears have told +us of their pitiful lot, have narrated to us how, when they might have +been tilling the soil (or what passes for soil) of the New Hampshire +hills, shearing their lambs, manipulating their shares (with the aid of +plough-handles), and watering their stock at the nearest brook, and +might have been on speaking acquaintance with the Ten Commandments and +have indulged a hope of some day going to heaven, and possibly to Boston +[laughter]--on the other hand, a hard fate has compelled them to be +millionaires, living in palaces on Murray Hill, to confine their +agricultural operations to the Swamp, and to eke out a precarious +livelihood by buying what they do not want and selling what they have +not got. [Laughter and applause.] Remembering this debt, I thought that +it was at least due to you that, in recognition of your courtesy, I +should come over and confess judgment, and put you out of suspense by +telling you at once that the assets will not pay for the expenses of +distribution. The best I can do is to make you a preferred creditor. +[Laughter.] I have heard that an Israelite without guile, doing business +down in Chatham Street, called his creditors together, and offered them +in settlement his note for ten per cent, on their claims, payable in +four months. His brother, one of the largest creditors, rather "kicked"; +but the debtor took him aside and said, "Do not make any objections, +and I will make you a preferred creditor." [Laughter and applause.] So +the proposal was accepted by all. Presently, the preferred brother said, +"Well, I should like what is coming to me." "Oh," was the reply, "you +won't get anything; they won't any of them get anything." "But I thought +I was a preferred creditor." "So you are. These notes will not be paid +when they come due; but it will take them four months to find out that +they are not going to get anything. But you know it now; you see you are +preferred." [Renewed laughter.] + +In casting about for a subject (in case I should unhappily be called on +to occupy your attention for a moment), I had thought on offering a few +observations upon Plymouth Rock; but I was deterred by a weird and lurid +announcement which I saw in your papers, appearing in connection with +the name of an eminent clothing dealer, which led me to apprehend that +Plymouth Rock was getting tired. [Laughter.] The announcement read, +"Plymouth Rock pants!" I presumed that Plymouth Rock was tired in +advance, at the prospect of being trotted out once more, from the Old +Colony down to New Orleans, thence to San Francisco, thence to the +cities of the unsalted seas, and so on back to the point of departure. +[Great laughter.] Upon fuller examination, I found that the legend read, +"Plymouth Rock pants for $3." It seemed to me that, without solicitation +on my part, there ought to be public spirit enough in this audience to +make up this evening the modest sum which would put Plymouth Rock at +ease. [Great laughter.] + +As I look along this board, Mr. President, and gaze upon these faces +radiant with honesty, with industry, with wisdom, with benevolence, with +frugality, and, above all, with a contented and cheerful poverty, I am +led to ask the question, suggested by the topic assigned me in the +programme, "Why are we New Englanders so unpopular?" Why those phrases, +always kept in stock by provincial orators and editors, "the mean +Yankees," "the stingy Yankees," "the close-fisted Yankees," "the +tin-peddling Yankees," and, above all, the terse and condensed +collocation, "those d----d--those blessed Yankees," the blessing being +comprised between two d's, as though conferred by a benevolent doctor of +divinity. [Laughter.] I remember in the olden time, in the years beyond +the flood, when the Presidential office was vacant and James Buchanan +was drawing the salary, at a period before the recollection of any one +present except myself, although possibly my esteemed friend, your +secretary, Mr. Hubbard, may have heard his grandparents speak of it as a +reminiscence of his youth, there was a poem going about, descriptive of +the feelings of our brethren living between us and the Equator, running +somewhat thus: + + "'Neath the shade of the gum-tree the Southerner sat, + A-twisting the brim of his palmetto hat, + And trying to lighten his mind of a'load + By humming the words of the following ode: + 'Oh! for a nigger, and oh! for a whip; + Oh! for a cocktail, and oh! for a nip; + Oh! for a shot at old Greeley and Beecher; + Oh! for a crack at a Yankee school-teacher.' + And so he kept oh-ing for all he had not, + Not contented with owing for all that he'd got." + +Why does the world minify our intelligence by depreciating our favorite +article of diet, and express the ultimate extreme of mental pauperism by +saying of him on whose intellect they would heap contempt, "He doesn't +know beans"? [Laughter.] And it is within my recollection that there was +a time when it was proposed to reconstruct the Union of the States, with +New England left out. Why, I repeat it, the intense unpopularity of New +England? + +For one thing, it seems to me, we are hated because of our virtues; we +are ostracized because men are tired of hearing about "New England, the +good." The virtues of New England seem to italicize the moral poverty of +mankind at large. The fact that the very first act of our foremothers, +even before the landing was made, two hundred and sixty-nine years ago, +was to go on shore and do up the household linen, which had suffered +from the voyage of ninety days, is a perpetual reproof to those nations +among whom there is a great opening for soap, who have a great many +saints' days, but no washing day. [Laughter and applause.] When men +nowadays are disposed to steal a million acres from the Indians, it +detracts from their enjoyment to read what Governor Josiah Winslow wrote +in _1676_: "I think I can clearly say that, before the present troubles +broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this colony +but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian +proprietors." When our fellow-citizens of other States look at their +public buildings, every stone in which tells of unpaid loans; when they +remember how they have scaled and scaled the unfortunate people who were +guilty of the crime of having money to lend, until the creditors might +be considered obnoxious to the Mosaic law, which looked with disfavor +upon scaleless fish, it is naturally aggravating to them to remember +that, at the close of King Philip's war, Plymouth Colony was owing a +debt more than equal to the personal property of the colony, and that +the debt was paid to the last cent [applause]; to remember the time, not +very far gone by, when the Bay State paid the interest on her bonds in +gold, though it cost her two hundred and seventy-six cents on every +dollar to do it, and when it was proposed to commend the bonds of the +United States to the bankers of the world by placing upon them the +indorsement of Massachusetts [applause]; to remember that never has New +England learned to articulate the letters that spell the word +"Repudiation." [Great applause.] + +To those members of the human family who are disposed to entertain too +high an estimate of themselves there is something aggravating in the +extreme humility and sensitive self-depreciation of the real New +Englander. + +And the virtues of New England are all the more offensive because they +are exhibited in such a way as to take from her enemies the comfort that +grows out of a grievance. Said a Chicago wife, "It is real mean for +Charlie to be so good to me; I want to get a divorce and go on the +stage; but he is so kind I cannot help loving him, and that is what +makes me hate him so." When there comes the news that some far-off +region is desolated by fire, or flood, or tempest, or pestilence, the +first thing is a meeting in the metropolis of New England, and the +dispatching of food and funds and physicians and nurses; and the +relieved sufferers are compelled to murmur, "Oh, dear, it is too bad! We +want to hate them, and they won't let us." [Applause.] + +One can manage to put up with goodness, however, if it is not too +obtrusive. The honored daughter of Connecticut, the author of "Uncle +Tom" and "Dred," now in the peaceful evening of her days,[11] has said, +"What is called goodness is often only want of force." A good man, +according to the popular idea, is a man who doesn't get in anybody's +way. But the restless New Englanders not only have virtues, but they +have convictions which are perpetually asserting themselves in the most +embarrassing manner. [Applause.] I pass over the time, two centuries +ago, when Cromwell and Hampden, those New Englanders who have never seen +New England, made themselves exceedingly offensive to Charles I, and +gave him at last a practical lesson touching the continuity of the +spinal column. + +Later, when our fellow-citizens desired to "wallop their own niggers," +and to carry the patriarchal institution wherever the American flag +went, they were naturally irritated at hearing that there was a handful +of meddling fanatics down in Essex County who, in their misguided and +malevolent ingenuity, had invented what they called liberty and human +rights. [Applause.] Presently, when it was proposed (under the +inspiration of a man recently deceased, who will stand in history as a +monument to the clemency and magnanimity of a great and free people) to +break up the Union in order to insure the perpetuity of slavery, then a +man, plain of speech, rude of garb[12] descended from the Lincolns of +Hingham, in Plymouth County, sounded a rally for Union and freedom +[tremendous applause]; and, hark! there is the tramp, tramp of the +fishermen from Marblehead; there are the Connecticut boys from old +Litchfield; and there is the First Rhode Island; and there are the +sailors from Casco Bay; and the farmers' sons from old Coos, and from +along the Onion River, their hearts beating with the enthusiasm of +liberty, while their steps keep pace with the drum-beat that salutes the +national flag. [Applause.] And, see! is that a thunder-cloud in the +North? No, it is the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, made up of American +citizens of African descent, officered by the best blood of Suffolk, and +at their head Robert G. Shaw, going down to die in the trenches before +Fort Wagner. And there is the man whom a kindly Providence yet spares to +us, descended from the Shermans of Connecticut, preparing for the march +that is to cleave the Confederacy in twain. [Cheers for General +Sherman.] And there is the silent man, eight generations removed from +Matthew Grant (who landed at Dorchester in 1630), destined to make the +continent secure for liberty and to inaugurate the New South, dating +from Appomattox, with traditions of freedom, teeming with a prosperity +rivalling that of New England, a prosperity begotten of the marriage of +labor and intelligence. [Continued applause.] + +In times somewhat more recent, when a political campaign was under full +headway, and when politicians were husbanding truth with their wonted +frugality and dispensing fiction with their habitual lavishness, there +sprung up a man removed by only two generations from the Lows of Salem, +who, in the resources of a mind capable of such things, devised what he +was pleased to call "Sunday-school politics"; who has had the further +hardihood to be made president of the college which is the glory of your +metropolis, designing, no doubt, to infuse into the mind of the tender +youth of the New Amsterdam his baleful idea, which, so far as I can make +out, has as its essence the conduct of political affairs on the basis of +the Decalogue. + +The campaign over, when the victors are rolling up their sleeves and are +preparing to dispense the spoils according to the hunger and thirst of +their retainers, to their amazed horror there is heard the voice of a +native of Rhode Island, who has conceived a scheme almost too monstrous +for mention, which he designates "Civil Service Reform," and who with +characteristic effrontery has got up a society, of which he is +president, for the purpose of diffusing his blood-curdling sentiments. +Do we need to look further for a reply to the question, "Why are the New +Englanders unpopular?" Almost any man is unpopular who goes around with +his pockets full of moral dynamite. [Applause.] + +But perhaps I have not yet reached the most essential cause of the +odium. Men will forgive a man almost anything if he only fails; but we, +alas! have committed the crime of success. [Laughter and applause.] It +makes people angry when they see New England prospering, influential, +the banker of the country, leading public sentiment, shaping +legislation. Men would not mind so much if this success were attained +by a happy accident, or were the result of a favoring fortune; but it is +aggravating to see the New Englanders, to whom Providence has given +nothing but rocks and ice and weather--a great deal of it--and a +thermometer [laughter], yet mining gold in Colorado, chasing the walrus +off the Aleutian Islands, building railroads in Dakota, and covering +half the continent with insurance, and underlying it with a mortgage. +Success is the one unpardonable crime. [Renewed laughter and applause.] + +It is true, when a man has so far acknowledged his participation in the +common frailty as to die, then men begin to condone his faults; and by +the time he is dead one or two hundred years they find him quite +tolerable. An eminent ecclesiastic in the Anglican Church recently +pronounced the greatest of the Puritans, Oliver Cromwell, "the most +righteous ruler England ever had." A man who is dead is out of the way. +We live in the home which he built, and are not disturbed by the chips +and sawdust and noise, and perhaps the casualties and mistakes, which +attended its building. I will offer a definition (without charge) to the +editors of the magnificent "Century Dictionary": "Saint--a man with +convictions, who has been dead a hundred years; canonized now, +cannonaded then." [Laughter and applause.] + +We are building monuments now to the Abolitionists. It is quite possible +that when a hundred winters shall have shed their snows upon the lonely +grave at North Elba, the Old Dominion will take pride in the fact that +she for a little while gave a home to the latest--I trust not the +last--of the Puritans; and the traveller, in 1959, as he goes through +Harper's Ferry, may see upon the site of the old engine-house, looking +out upon the regenerate Commonwealth, cunningly graven in bronze, copied +perhaps from the bust in your own Union League, the undaunted features +of John Brown. [Applause.] And the South that is to be, standing +uncovered beside the grave of the Union soldier, will say: "It was for +us, too, that he died," and will render beside the tomb in the capital +city of Illinois a reverence akin to that which she pays amid the shades +of Mount Vernon. [Great applause.] + +The Czar of to-day honors the memory of John Howard (who died a hundred +years ago next January), and offers 15,000 roubles for an essay on his +life; but when George Kennan, following in the steps of Howard, draws +back the curtain and shows the shuddering horrors in the prisons of +Siberia, the Czar would willingly offer much more than 15,000 roubles +for a successful essay upon his life. John Howard sleeps in innocuous +silence at Kherson; George Kennan speaks through the everywhere-present +press to the court of last appeal, the civilized world. [Applause.] + +There was not much money, there was not much popularity then, in being a +Puritan, in being a Pilgrim; there is not much profit, there is not much +applause, in being to-day a son of the Puritans, in standing as they did +for great ideas and convictions, for liberty and righteousness, in +holding the same relation to our age that they held to theirs. But let +us be satisfied if, through unpopularity and loneliness and obloquy, we +shall have done our duty as they did theirs, and let us hope that when +another hundred years have passed, and when the ideal of to-day has +become the commonplace of to-morrow, another generation may write over +your grave and mine, "A Son of the Puritans." + + + + +DANIEL WEBSTER + + +THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION + + [Speech of Daniel Webster at the dinner of the New England Society + in the City of New York, December 23, 1850. The early published + form of this address is very rare. It bears the following + title-page: "Speech of Mr. Webster at the Celebration of the New + York New England Society, December 23, 1850. Washington: printed by + Gideon & Co., 1851." The presiding officer of the celebration, + Moses H. Grinnell, asked attention of the company to a toast not on + the catalogue. He gave, "The Constitution and the Union, and their + Chief Defender." This sentiment was received with great applause, + which became most tumultuous when Mr. Webster rose to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW YORK NEW ENGLAND +SOCIETY:--Ye sons of New England! Ye brethren of the kindred tie! I +have come hither to-night, not without some inconvenience, that I might +behold a congregation whose faces bear lineaments of a New England +origin, and whose hearts beat with full New England pulsations. +[Cheers.] I willingly make the sacrifice. I am here, to meet this +assembly of the great off-shoot of the Pilgrim Society of Massachusetts, +the Pilgrim Society of New York. And, gentlemen, I shall begin what I +have to say, which is but little, by tendering to you my thanks for the +invitation extended to me, and by wishing you, one and all, every kind +of happiness and prosperity. + +Gentlemen, this has been a stormy, a cold, a boisterous and inclement +day. The winds have been harsh, the skies have been severe; and if we +had no houses over our heads; if we had no shelter against this howling +and freezing tempest; if we were wan and worn out; if half of us were +sick and tired, and ready to descend into the grave; if we were on the +bleak coast of Plymouth, houseless, homeless, with nothing over our +heads but the Heavens, and that God who sits above the Heavens; if we +had distressed wives on our arms, and hungry and shivering children +clinging to our skirts, we should see something, and feel something, of +that scene, which, in the providence of God, was enacted at Plymouth on +December 22, 1620. + + +[Illustration: _THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph_ + + The corner-stone of the National Monument to the Forefathers at + Plymouth, Mass., was laid August 2, 1859. The monument was + completed in October, 1888, and dedicated with appropriate + ceremonies, August 1, 1889. It is built entirely of granite. The + plan of the principal pedestal is octagonal, with four small, and + four large faces; from the small faces project four buttresses. On + the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of Faith, said to be the + largest and finest piece of granite statuary in the world. The + sculptor was Joseph Archie, a Spaniard. Upon the four buttresses + are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the + Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth--Morality, Education, Law, and + Freedom. Each was wrought from a solid block of granite. On the + face of the buttresses, beneath these figures are alto-reliefs in + marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim history. Upon the four + faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. The right + and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the + Mayflower. The rear panel is plain, being reserved for an + inscription at some future day. The front panel is inscribed as + follows: "National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a + grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and + sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty."] + + +Thanks to Almighty God, who from that distressed, early condition of our +fathers, has raised us to a height of prosperity and of happiness, which +they neither enjoyed, nor could have anticipated! We have learned much +of them; they could have foreseen little of us. Would to God, my +friends, would to God, that when we carry our affections and our +recollections back to that period, we could arm ourselves with something +of the stern virtues which supported them, in that hour of peril, and +exposure, and suffering. Would to God that we possessed that +unconquerable resolution, stronger than bars of brass or iron, which +nerved their hearts; that patience, "sovereign o'er transmuted ill," +and, above all, that faith, that religious faith, which, with eyes fast +fixed upon Heaven, tramples all things earthly beneath her triumphant +feet! [Applause.] + +Gentlemen, the scenes of this world change. What our ancestors saw and +felt, we shall not see nor feel. What they achieved, it is denied to us +even to attempt. The severer duties of life, requiring the exercise of +the stern and unbending virtues, were theirs. They were called upon for +the exhibition of those austere qualities, which, before they came to +the Western wilderness, had made them what they were. Things have +changed. In the progress of society, the fashions, the habits of life, +and all its conditions, have changed. Their rigid sentiments, and their +tenets, apparently harsh and exclusive, we are not called on, in every +respect, to imitate or commend; or rather to imitate, for we should +commend them always, when we consider that state of society in which +they had been adopted, and in which they seemed necessary. Our fathers +had that religious sentiment, that trust in Providence, that +determination to do right, and to seek, through every degree of toil and +suffering, the honor of God, and the preservation of their liberties, +which we shall do well to cherish, to imitate, and to equal, so far as +God may enable us. It may be true, and it is true, that in the progress +of society the milder virtues have come to belong more especially to our +day and our condition. The Pilgrims had been great sufferers from +intolerance; it was not unnatural that their own faith and practice, as +a consequence, should become somewhat intolerant. This is the common +infirmity of human nature. Man retaliates on man. It is to be hoped, +however, that the greater spread of the benignant principles of +religion, and of the divine charity of Christianity, has, to some +extent, improved the sentiments which prevailed in the world at that +time. No doubt the "first comers," as they were called, were attached to +their own forms of public worship and to their own particular and +strongly cherished religious sentiments. No doubt they esteemed those +sentiments, and the observances which they practised, to be absolutely +binding on all, by the authority of the word of God. It is true, I +think, in the general advancement of human intelligence, that we find +what they do not seem to have found, that a greater toleration of +religious opinion, a more friendly feeling toward all who profess +reverence for God, and obedience to His commands, is not inconsistent +with the great and fundamental principles of religion--I might rather +say is, itself, one of those fundamental principles. So we see in our +day, I think, without any departure from the essential principles of our +fathers, a more enlarged and comprehensive Christian philanthropy. It +seems to be the American destiny, the mission which God has intrusted to +us here on this shore of the Atlantic, the great conception and the +great duty to which we are born, to show that all sects, and all +denominations, professing reverence for the authority of the Author of +our being, and belief in His Revelations, may be safely tolerated +without prejudice either to our religion or to our liberties. [Cheers.] + +We are Protestants, generally speaking; but you all know that there +presides at the head of the Supreme Judicature of the United States a +Roman Catholic; and no man, I suppose, through the whole United States, +imagines that the judicature of the country is less safe, that the +administration of public justice is less respectable or less secure, +because the Chief Justice of the United States has been, and is, an +ardent adherent to that religion. And so it is in every department of +society amongst us. In both Houses of Congress, in all public offices, +and all public affairs, we proceed on the idea that a man's religious +belief is a matter above human law; that it is a question to be settled +between him and his Maker, because he is responsible to none but his +Maker for adopting or rejecting revealed truth. And here is the great +distinction which is sometimes overlooked, and which I am afraid is now +too often overlooked, in this land, the glorious inheritance of the sons +of the Pilgrims. Men, for their religious sentiments, are accountable to +God, and to God only. Religion is both a communication and a tie between +man and his Maker; and to his own master every man standeth or falleth. +But when men come together in society, establish social relations, and +form governments for the protection of the rights of all, then it is +indispensable that this right of private judgment should in some measure +be relinquished and made subservient to the judgment of the whole. +Religion may exist while every man is left responsible only to God. +Society, civil rule, the civil state, cannot exist, while every man is +responsible to nobody and to nothing but to his own opinion. And our New +England ancestors understood all this quite well. Gentlemen, there is +the "Constitution" which was adopted on board the Mayflower in November, +1620, while that bark of immortal memory was riding at anchor in the +harbor of Cape Cod. What is it? Its authors honored God; they professed +to obey all His commandments, and to live ever and in all things in His +obedience. But they say, nevertheless, that for the establishment of a +civil polity, for the greater security and preservation of their civil +rights and liberties, they agree that the laws and ordinances, and I am +glad they put in the word "constitutions," invoking the name of the +Deity on their resolution; they say, that these laws and ordinances, and +constitutions, which may be established by those they should appoint to +enact them, they, in all due submission and obedience, will support. + +This constitution is not long. I will read it. It invokes a religious +sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations; for it was +no doctrine of theirs that civil obedience was a mere matter of +expediency. Here it is: + + "In the name of God, Amen: We whose names are underwritten, the + loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the + Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, and + Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of + God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King + and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the heathen + parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in + the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine + ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better + ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, + and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and + equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time + to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the + general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due + submission and obedience." + +The right of private judgment in matters between the Creator and +himself, and submission and obedience to the will of the whole, upon +whatsoever respects civil polity and the administration of such affairs +as concerned the colony about to be established, they regarded as +entirely consistent; and the common sense of mankind, lettered and +unlettered, everywhere establishes and confirms this sentiment. Indeed, +all must see, that it is the very ligament, the very tie, which connects +man to man, in the social system; and these sentiments are embodied in +that constitution. Gentlemen, discourse on this topic might be enlarged, +but I pass from it. + +Gentlemen, we are now two hundred and thirty years from that great +event. There is the Mayflower [pointing to a small figure of a ship, in +the form of confectionery, that stood before him]. There is a little +resemblance, but a correct one, of the Mayflower. Sons of New England! +there was in ancient times a ship that carried Jason to the acquisition +of the Golden Fleece. There was a flag-ship at the battle of Actium +which made Augustus Cćsar master of the world. In modern times, there +have been flag-ships which have carried Hawkes, and Howe, and Nelson on +the other continent, and Hull, and Decatur, and Stewart, on this, to +triumph. What are they all; what are they all, in the chance of +remembrance among men, to that little bark, the Mayflower, which reached +these shores on December 22, 1620. Yes, brethren of New England, yes! +that Mayflower was a flower destined to be of perpetual bloom! [Cheers.] +Its verdure will stand the sultry blasts of summer, and the chilling +winds of autumn. It will defy winter; it will defy all climate, and all +time, and will continue to spread its petals to the world, and to +exhale an ever-living odor and fragrance to the last syllable of +recorded time. [Cheers.] + +Gentlemen, brethren, ye of New England! whom I have come some hundreds +of miles to meet this night, let me present to you one of the most +distinguished of those personages who came hither on the deck of the +Mayflower. Let me fancy that I now see Elder William Brewster entering +the door at the further end of this hall. A tall and erect figure, of +plain dress, of no elegance of manner beyond a respectful bow, mild and +cheerful, but of no merriment that reaches beyond a smile. Let me +suppose that his image stood now before us, or that it was looking in +upon this assembly. + +"Are ye, are ye," he would say, with a voice of exultation, and yet +softened with melancholy, "Are ye our children? Does this scene of +refinement, of elegance, of riches, of luxury, does all this come from +our labors? Is this magnificent city, the like of which we never saw nor +heard of on either continent, is this but an offshoot from Plymouth +Rock? + + "'... Quis jam locus ... + Quć regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?' + +"Is this one part of the great reward, for which my brethren and myself +endured lives of toil and of hardship? We had faith and hope. God +granted us the spirit to look forward, and we did look forward. But this +scene we never anticipated. Our hopes were on another life. Of earthly +gratifications we tasted little; for human honors we had little +expectation. Our bones lie on the hill in Plymouth churchyard, obscure, +unmarked, secreted to preserve our graves from the knowledge of savage +foes. No stone tells where we lie. And yet, let me say to you, who are +our descendants, who possess this glorious country, and all it contains, +who enjoy this hour of prosperity, and the thousand blessings showered +upon it by the God of your fathers, we envy you not; we reproach you +not. Be rich, be prosperous, be enlightened. Live in pleasure, if such +be your allotment on earth; but live, also, always to God and to duty. +Spread yourselves and your children over the continent; accomplish the +whole of your great destiny; and if so be, that through the whole you +carry Puritan hearts with you; if you still cherish an undying love of +civil and religious liberty, and mean to enjoy them yourselves, and are +willing to shed your heart's blood to transmit them to your posterity, +then are you worthy descendants of Carver and Allerton and Bradford, and +the rest of those who landed from stormy seas on the rock of Plymouth." +[Loud and prolonged cheers.] + +Gentlemen, that little vessel, on December 22, 1620, made her safe +landing on the shore of Plymouth. She had been tossed on a tempestuous +ocean; she approached the New England coast under circumstances of great +distress and trouble; yet amidst all the disasters of her voyage, she +accomplished her end, and she placed the feet of a hundred precious +souls on the shore of the New World. + +Gentlemen, let her be considered this night as an emblem of New England, +as New England now is. New England is a ship, stanch, strong, +well-built, and particularly well-manned. She may be occasionally thrown +into the trough of the sea, by the violence of winds and waves, and may +wallow there for a time; but, depend upon it, she will right herself. +She will, ere long, come round to the wind, and will obey her helm. +[Cheers and applause.] + +We have hardly begun, my brethren, to realize the vast importance, on +human society, and on the history and happiness of the world, of the +voyage of that little vessel which brought the love of civil and +religious liberty hither, and the Bible, the Word of God, for the +instruction of the future generations of men. We have hardly begun to +realize the consequences of that voyage. Heretofore the extension of our +race, following our New England ancestry, has crept along the shore. But +now the race has extended. It has crossed the continent. It has not only +transcended the Alleghany, but has capped the Rocky Mountains. It is now +upon the shores of the Pacific; and on this day, or if not on this day, +then this day twelvemonth, descendants of New England will there +celebrate the landing--[A Voice: "To-day; they celebrate to-day."] + +God bless them! Here's to the health and success of the California +Society of Pilgrims assembled on the shores of the Pacific. [Prolonged +applause.] And it shall yet go hard, if the three hundred millions of +people of China--if they are intelligent enough to understand +anything--shall not one day hear and know something of the Rock of +Plymouth too! [Laughter and cheers.] + +But, gentlemen, I am trespassing too long on your time. [Cries of "No, +no! Go on!"] I am taking too much of what belongs to others. My voice is +neither a new voice, nor is it the voice of a young man. It has been +heard before in this place, and the most that I have thought or felt +concerning New England history and New England principles, has been +before, in the course of my life, said here or elsewhere. + +Your sentiment, Mr. President, which called me up before this meeting, +is of a larger and more comprehensive nature. It speaks of the +Constitution under which we live; of the Union, which for sixty years +has been over us, and made us associates, fellow-citizens of those who +settled at Yorktown and the mouth of the Mississippi and their +descendants, and now, at last, of those who have come from all corners +of the earth and assembled in California. I confess I have had my doubts +whether the republican system under which we live could be so vastly +extended without danger of dissolution. Thus far, I willingly admit, my +apprehensions have not been realized. The distance is immense; the +intervening country is vast. But the principle on which our Government +is established, the representative system, seems to be indefinitely +expansive; and wherever it does extend, it seems to create a strong +attachment to the Union and the Constitution that protects it. I believe +California and New Mexico have had new life inspired into all their +people. They consider themselves subjects of a new being, a new +creation, a new existence. They are not the men they thought themselves +to be, now that they find they are members of this great Government, and +hailed as citizens of the United States of America. I hope, in the +providence of God, as this system of States and representative +governments shall extend, that it will be strengthened. In some respects +the tendency is to strengthen it. Local agitations will disturb it less. +If there has been on the Atlantic coast, somewhere south of the +Potomac--and I will not define further where it is--if there has been +dissatisfaction, that dissatisfaction has not been felt in California; +it has not been felt that side the Rocky Mountains. It is a localism, +and I am one of those who believe that our system of government is not +to be destroyed by localisms, North or South! [Cheers.] No; we have our +private opinions, State prejudices, local ideas; but over all, +submerging all, drowning all, is that great sentiment, that always, and +nevertheless, we are all Americans. It is as Americans that we are +known, the whole world over. Who asks what State you are from, in +Europe, or in Africa, or in Asia? Is he an American--is he of us? Does +he belong to the flag of the country? Does that flag protect him? Does +he rest under the eagle and the Stars and Stripes? If he does, if he is, +all else is subordinate and worthy of little concern. [Cheers.] + +Now it is our duty, while we live on the earth, to cherish this +sentiment, to make it prevail over the whole country, even if that +country should spread over the whole continent. It is our duty to carry +English principles--I mean, sir [said Mr. Webster turning to Sir Henry +Bulwer], Anglo-Saxon American principles, over the whole continent--the +great principles of Magna Charta, of the English revolution, and +especially of the American Revolution, and of the English language. Our +children will hear Shakespeare and Milton recited on the shores of the +Pacific. Nay, before that, American ideas, which are essentially and +originally English ideas, will penetrate the Mexican--the Spanish mind; +and Mexicans and Spaniards will thank God that they have been brought to +know something of civil liberty, of the trial by jury, and of security +for personal rights. + +As for the rest, let us take courage. The day-spring from on high has +visited us; the country has been called back, to conscience and to duty. +There is no longer imminent danger of dissolution in these United +States. [Loud and repeated cheers.] We shall live, and not die. We shall +live as united Americans; and those who have supposed that they could +sever us, that they could rend one American heart from another, and that +speculation and hypothesis, that secession and metaphysics, could tear +us asunder, will find themselves dreadfully mistaken. [Cheers.] + +Let the mind of the sober American people remain sober. Let it not +inflame itself. Let it do justice to all. And the truest course, and +the surest course, to disappoint those who meditate disunion, is just to +leave them to themselves, and see what they can make of it. No, +gentlemen; the time for meditated secession is past. Americans, North +and South, will be hereafter more and more united. There is a sternness +and severity in the public mind lately aroused. I believe that, North +and South, there has been, in the last year, a renovation of public +sentiment, an animated revival of the spirit of Union, and, more than +all, of attachment to the Constitution, regarding it as indispensably +necessary; and if we would preserve our nationality, it is indispensable +that the spirit of devotion should be still more largely increased. And +who doubts it? If we give up that Constitution, what are we? You are a +Manhattan man; I am a Boston man. Another is a Connecticut, and another +a Rhode Island man. Is it not a great deal better, standing hand to +hand, and clasping hands, that we should remain as we have been for +sixty years--citizens of the same country, members of the same +Government, united all--united now and united forever? That we shall be, +gentlemen. There have been difficulties, contentions, controversies--angry +controversies; but I tell you that, in my judgment,-- + + "those opposed eyes, + Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, + All of one nature, of one substance bred, + Did lately meet in th' intestine shock, + Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, + March all one way." + +[Mr. Webster, on closing, was greeted with the most hearty, prolonged, +and tumultuous applause.] + + + + +JOSEPH WHEELER + + +THE AMERICAN SOLDIER + + [Speech of Joseph Wheeler prepared for the tenth annual banquet of + the Confederate Veteran Camp of New York, New York City, January + 19, 1898. Edward Owen, Commander of the Camp, presided. As General + Wheeler was ill and unable to attend the banquet, his speech was + read by J. E. Graybill.] + + +History has many heroes whose martial renown has fired the world, whose +daring and wonderful exploits have altered the boundaries of nations and +changed the very face of the earth. To say nothing of the warriors of +biblical history and Homeric verse, as the ages march along every great +nation leaves us the glorious memory of some unique character, such as +Alexander, Hannibal, Cćsar. Even the wild hordes of northern Europe and +the barbaric nations of the East had their grand military leaders whose +names will ever live on history's pages, to be eclipsed only by that of +Napoleon, the man of destiny, who, as a military genius, stands alone +and unrivalled: "Grand, gloomy, peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a +sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality." + +The medićval ages gave us noble examples of devotedness and chivalry; +but it belonged to the American Republic, founded and defended by +Freedom's sons, to give to the world the noblest type of warrior; men in +whom martial renown went hand in hand with the noblest of virtues, men +who united in their own characters the highest military genius with the +loftiest patriotism, the most daring courage with the gentlest courtesy, +the most obstinate endurance with the utmost self-sacrifice, the genius +of a Cćsar with the courage and purity of a Bayard. + +Patriotism and love of liberty, the most ennobling motives that can fire +the heart of man, expanding and thriving in the atmosphere of free +America, added a refining touch to the martial enthusiasm of our +forefathers and elevated the character of the American soldier to a +standard never attained by fighting men of any other age or nation. + +To recall their names and recount their deeds would lead me far beyond +the time and space allotted. Volumes would never do justice to the +valorous achievements of George Washington and his compeers, the boys of +'76--of the heroes of 1812 and of 1848; of the men in blue who fought +under Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Farragut; of the men in gray +who followed the lead of Johnston, Jackson, and Lee from 1861 to 1865; +of the intrepid band that sailed with Dewey into Manila Bay, or of the +small but heroic army of 1898 that fought at Las Guasimas, El Caney, and +San Juan, and left the Stars and Stripes floating in triumph over the +last stronghold of Spain in the New World. + +But above the grand heroic names immortalized by historian and poet +shines with an undimmed lustre, all its own, the immortal name of Robert +Edmund Lee.-- + + "Ah, Muse! You dare not claim + A nobler man than he-- + Nor nobler man hath less of blame, + Nor blameless man hath purer name, + Nor purer name hath grander fame, + Nor fame--another Lee." + +The late Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, in an address delivered at the +time of General Lee's death, thus beautifully describes his character: +"He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier +without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without +murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen +without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without +hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was Cćsar without his ambition; +Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and +Washington without his reward. He was as obedient to authority as a +servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman +in life, and modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a +Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle +as Achilles!" + +Forty-four years ago last June, I found myself in the presence of +Colonel Lee, who was then Superintendent of the Military Academy at West +Point. I have never in all my life seen another form or face which so +impressed me, as embodying dignity, modesty, kindness, and all the +characteristics which indicate purity and nobility. While he was then +only a captain and brevet-colonel, he was so highly regarded by the Army +that it was generally conceded that he was the proper officer to succeed +General Scott. + +His wonderful career as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia, as its +commander, is so familiar to all of you that any comment would seem to +be unnecessary. But to give some of the younger generation an idea of +the magnitude of the struggle in which General Lee was the central and +leading figure, I will call attention to the fact that in the battles of +the Wilderness and Spottsylvania (which really should be called one +battle), the killed and wounded in General Grant's army by the army +under General Lee, was far greater than the aggregate killed and wounded +in all the battles of all the wars fought by the English-speaking people +on this continent since the discovery of America by Columbus. + +To be more explicit: take the killed and wounded in all the battles of +the French and Indian War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the +Revolutionary War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the War of +1812, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the Mexican War, take the +aggregate killed and wounded in all our wars with the Indians, and they +amount to less than the killed and wounded in Grant's army in the +struggle from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania. + +In order further to appreciate the magnitude of the struggle, let us +make a comparison between the losses in some of the great battles of our +Civil War, and those of some of the most famous battles of modern +Europe. The official reports give the following as the losses in killed +and wounded of the Federal Army in seven, out of nearly a thousand +severely contested struggles during the four years' of war: Seven Days +fight, 9,291; Antietam, 11,426; Murfreesboro, 8,778; Gettysburg, +16,426; Chickamauga, 10,906; Wilderness and Spottsylvania, 24,481. + +In the Battle of Marengo, the French lost in killed and wounded, 4,700, +the Austrians, 6,475. In the Battle of Hohenlinden, the French loss in +killed and wounded was 2,200, the Austrian loss was 5,000; at Austerlitz +the French loss was 9,000; at Waterloo, Wellington lost 9,061 in killed +and wounded, Blucher lost 5,613, making the total loss of the Allies, +14,674. + +I mention these facts because such sanguinary conflicts as those of our +Civil War could only have occurred when the soldiers of both contending +armies were men of superb determination and courage. Such unquestioned +prowess as this should be gratifying to all Americans, showing to the +world as they did that the intrepid fortitude and courage of Americans +have excelled that of any other people upon the earth. And as the world +will extol the exhibition of these qualities by the soldiers that fought +under Grant, the historian will find words inadequate to express his +admiration of the superb heroism of the soldiers led by the intrepid +Lee. Meeting a thoroughly organized, and trebly equipped and appointed +army, they successfully grappled in deadly conflict with these +tremendous odds, while civilization viewed with amazement this climax of +unparalleled and unequal chivalry, surpassing in grandeur of action +anything heretofore portrayed either in story or in song. Whence came +these qualities? They were the product of Southern chivalry, which two +centuries had finally perfected. A chivalry which esteemed stainless +honor as a priceless gem, and a knighthood which sought combat for +honor's sake, generously yielding to an antagonist all possible +advantage; the chivalry which taught Southern youth to esteem life as +nothing when honor was at stake, a chivalry which taught that the +highest, noblest, and most exalted privilege of man was the defence of +woman, family, and country. It was this Southern chivalry that formed +such men as Lee and Stonewall Jackson; they were the central leading +figures, but they were only prototypes of the soldiers whom they led. + +It is this character of men who meet in banquet to-night to honor the +name they revere and the noble life they seek to emulate. I say, God +bless you all, the whole world breathes blessings upon you. Among the +foremost in these sentiments are the brave soldiers against whom you +were once arrayed in battle, and they, together with seventy million +Americans know that in future perils to our country, you and your +children will be foremost in the battle-line of duty, proud of the +privilege of defending the glory, honor, and prestige of our country, +presenting under the folds of our national ensign an unbroken phalanx of +united hearts--an impregnable bulwark of defence against any power that +may arise against us. + + + + +EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE + + +CHINA EMERGING FROM HER ISOLATION + + [Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the banquet given by the City of + Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his + associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to + the United States and the European powers. Mr. Whipple responded to + the toast, "The Press."] + + +MR. MAYOR:--One cannot attempt to respond here for the Press, +without being reminded that the Press and the Chinese Embassy have been +on singularly good terms from the start. To record the progress, applaud +the object, extend the influence, and cordially eulogize the members of +that Embassy, have been for months no inconsiderable part of the +business of all newspapers; and if China anticipated us, by some five +hundred years, in the invention of printing, our Chinese guests will +still admit that, in the minute account we have given both of what they +have, and of what they have not, said and done, since they arrived in +the country, we have carried the invention to a perfection of which they +never dreamed--having not only invented printing, but invented a great +deal of what we print. + +But, apart from the rich material they have furnished the press in the +way of news, there is something strangely alluring and inspiring to the +editorial imagination in the comprehensive purpose which has prompted +their mission to the civilized nations of the West. That purpose is +doubly peaceful, for it includes a two-fold commerce of material +products and of immaterial ideas. Probably the vastest conception which +ever entered into the mind of a conqueror was that which was profoundly +meditated, and, in its initial steps, practically carried out, by +Alexander the Great. He was engaged in a clearly defined project of +assimilating the populations of Europe and Asia, when, at the early age +of thirty-three, he was killed--I tremble to state it here--by a too +eager indulgence in an altogether too munificent public dinner! +Alexander's weapon was force, but it was at least the force of genius, +and it was exerted in the service of a magnificent idea. His successors +in modern times have but too often availed themselves of force divested +of all ideas, except the idea of bullying or outwitting the Asiatics in +a trade. + +As to China, this conduct aroused an insurrection of Chinese conceit +against European conceit. The Chinese were guilty of the offence of +calling the representatives of the proudest and most supercilious of all +civilizations, "outside barbarians"; illustrating in this that too +common conservative weakness of human nature, of holding fixedly to an +opinion long after the facts which justified it have changed or passed +away. It certainly cannot be questioned that at a period which, when +compared with the long date of Chinese annals, may be called recent, we +were outside barbarians as contrasted with that highly civilized and +ingenious people. At the time when our European ancestors were squalid, +swinish, wolfish savages, digging with their hands into the earth for +roots to allay the pangs of hunger, without arts, letters, or written +speech, China rejoiced in an old, refined, complicated civilization; was +rich, populous, enlightened, cultivated, humane; was fertile in savants, +poets, moralists, metaphysicians, saints; had invented printing, +gunpowder, the mariner's compass, the Sage's Rule of Life; had, in one +of her three State religions--that of Confucius--presented a code of +morals never become obsolete; and had, in another of her State +religions--that of Buddha--solemnly professed her allegiance to that +equality of men, which Buddha taught twenty-four hundred years before +our Jefferson was born, and had at the same time vigorously grappled +with that problem of existence which our Emerson finds as insolvable now +as it was then. + +Well, sir, after all this had relatively changed, after the Western +nations had made their marvellous advances in civilization, they were +too apt to exhibit to China only their barbaric side--that is, their +ravenous cupidity backed by their insolent strength. We judge, for +example, of England by the poetry of Shakespeare, the science of Newton, +the ethics of Butler, the religion of Taylor, the philanthropy of +Wilberforce; but what poetry, science, ethics, religion, or philanthropy +was she accustomed to show in her intercourse with China? Did not John +Bull, in his rough methods with the Celestial Empire, sometimes +literally act "like a bull in a China shop"? You remember, sir, that +"intelligent contraband" who, when asked his opinion of an offending +white brother, delicately hinted his distrust by replying: "Sar, if I +was a chicken, and that man was about, I should take care to roost +high." Well, all that we can say of China is, that for a long time she +"roosted high"--withdrew suspiciously into her own civilization to +escape the rough contact with the harsher side of ours. + +But, by a sudden inspiration of almost miraculous confidence, springing +from a faith in the nobler qualities of our Caucasian civilization, she +has changed her policy. She has learned that in the language, and on the +lips, and in the hearts of most members of the English race, there is +such a word as equity, and at the magic of that word she has nearly +emerged from her isolation. And, sir, what we see here to-day reminds me +that, some thirty years ago, Boston confined one of her citizens in a +lunatic asylum, for the offence of being possessed by a too intensified +Boston "notion." He had discovered a new and expeditious way of getting +to China. "All agree," he said, "that the earth revolves daily on its +own axis. If you desire," he therefore contended, "to go to China, all +you have to do is to go up in a balloon, wait till China comes round, +then let off the gas, and drop softly down." Now I will put it to you, +Mr. Mayor, if you are not bound to release that philosopher from +confinement, for has not his conception been realized?--has not China, +to-day, unmistakably come round to us? + +And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gentleman at the head of +the Embassy--a gentleman specially dear to the Press. Judging from the +eagerness with which the position is sought, I am led to believe that +the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a human being is, that he +has once represented Boston in the National House of Representatives. +After such a distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great, +must still show a sensible decline from political grace. But I trust +that you will all admit, that next to the honor of representing Boston +in the House of Representatives comes the honor of representing the vast +Empire of China in "The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." +Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr. Burlingame may be better qualified +than we are to discriminate between the exultant feelings which each is +calculated to excite in the human breast. But we must remember that the +population, all brought up on a system of universal education, of the +Empire he represents, is greater than the combined population of all the +nations to which he is accredited. Most Bostonians have, or think they +have, a "mission"; but certainly no other Bostonian ever had such a +"mission" as he; for it extends all round the planet, makes him the most +universal Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever saw; +is, in fact, a "mission" from everybody to everybody, and one by which +it is proposed that everybody shall be benefited. To doubt its success +would be to doubt the moral soundness of Christian civilization. It +implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents provided that +Christian nations set a decent example of Christianity. Its virtues +herald the peaceful triumph of reason over prejudice, of justice over +force, of humanity over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of +all over the selfish blindness of each, of the "fraternity" of the great +Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent "liberty" of any of them to +despise, oppress, and rob the rest. + + + * * * * * + + +THE SPHERE OF WOMAN + + [Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the "Ladies' Night" banquet of the + Papyrus Club, Boston, February 15, 1879, in response to a toast in + his honor as "one whose gentle mind, delicate fancy, keen wit, and + profound judgment have made for him a high and secure place among + American authors."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I suppose that one of the most characteristic +follies of young men, unmarried, or in the opinion of prudent mammas, +unmarriageable, is, when they arrive at the age of indiscretion, to +dogmatize on what they call the appropriate sphere of woman. You +remember the thundering retort which came, like a box on the ears, to +one of these philosophers, when he was wisely discoursing vaguely on his +favorite theme. "And pray, my young sir," asked a stern matron of forty, +"will you please to tell us what is the appropriate sphere of woman?" +Thus confronted, he only babbled in reply, "A celestial sphere, madam!" +But the force of this compliment is now abated; for the persons who +above all others are dignified with the title of "Celestials" are the +Chinese; and these the Congress of the United States seems determined to +banish from our soil as unworthy--not only of the right of citizenship +and the right of suffrage, but the right of residing in our democratic +republic. Accordingly, we must find some more appropriate sphere for +women than the Celestial. Nobody, I take it, however bitterly he may be +opposed to what are called the rights of women, objects to their +residing in this country, or to their coming here in vast numbers. +[Applause.] + +Do you remember to what circumstance Chicago owed its fame? When the +spot where a great city now looks out on Lake Michigan was the +habitation of a small number of men only, a steamboat was seen in the +distance, and the report was that it contained a cargo of women, who +were coming to the desolate place for the purpose of being married to +the forlorn men. Every bachelor hastened to the pier, with a telescope +in one hand and a speaking-trumpet in the other. By the aid of the +telescope each lover selected his mate, and by the aid of the +speaking-trumpet each lover made his proposals. In honor of the women +who made the venturesome voyage, the infant city was named "She-Cargo." +[Laughter and applause.] + +Therefore, there is no possibility of a doubt that there is no objection +to women as residents of this country. The only thing to be considered +is, whether or not they shall have the right of voting. I think nobody +present here this evening has conceit enough to suppose that he is more +competent to give an intelligent vote on any public question than the +intelligent ladies who have done the Club the honor to be present on +this occasion. The privilege of voting is simply an opportunity, by +which certain persons legally qualified are allowed to exercise power. +The formal power is so subdivided that each legally qualified person +exercises but little. But where meanwhile is the substance of power? +Certainly in the woman of the household as well as in the man. Indeed, I +recollect that when an objection was raised that to give the right of +suffrage to women would create endless quarrels between husband and +wife, a married woman curtly replied that the wives would see to it that +no such disturbance should really take place. [Applause.] And, as the +question now stands, I pity the man who is so fortunate to be married to +a noble woman, coming home to meet her reproachful glance, when he has +deposited in the ballot-box a vote for a measure which is base and for a +candidate who is equally base. Then, in his humiliation before that +rebuking eye, he must feel that in her is the substance of power, and in +him only the formal expression of power. [Applause.] + +But we have the good fortune to-night to have at the table many women of +letters, who have in an eminent degree exercised the substance of power, +inasmuch as they have domesticated themselves at thousands of firesides +where their faces have never been seen. Their brain-children have been +welcomed and adopted by fathers and mothers, by brothers and sisters, as +members of the family; and their sayings and doings are quoted as though +they were "blood" relations. Two instances recur to my memory. In +lecturing in various portions of the country, I have often been a guest +in private houses. On one occasion I happened to mention Mrs. Whitney as +a lady I had often met; and, instantly, old and young crowded round, +pouring in a storm of questions, demanding to know where the author of +"Faith Gartney" lived, how she looked, and was she so delightful in +society as she was in her books. On another occasion, my importance in a +large family was raised immensely when a chance remark indicated that I +numbered Miss Alcott among my friends. All the little men and all the +little women of the household, all the old men and all the old ladies, +rallied round me, in order that I might tell them all I knew of the +author of "Little Women" and "Little Men." [Applause.] + +Now these are only two examples of the substance of power which +cultivated women already possess. That such women, and all women, can +obtain the formal power of voting at elections is, in the end, sure, if +they really wish to exercise that power; and that the power is withheld +from them is not due to the opposition of men, but is due to the fact +that they are not, by an overwhelming majority, in favor of it +themselves. When the champions of woman's rights get this majority on +their side, I have a profound pity for the men who venture to oppose it. +[Applause.] + + + + +ANDREW DICKSON WHITE + + +COMMERCE AND DIPLOMACY + + [Speech of Andrew D. White at the 111th annual dinner of the New + York Chamber of Commerce, May 13, 1879. The President of the + Chamber, Samuel D. Babcock, introduced Mr. White as follows: "The + next toast is 'Commerce and Diplomacy--twin guardians of the + world--Peace and Prosperity.' [Applause.] The gentleman who is to + respond to the toast is one who is about to represent our country + at the Court of Berlin. I am quite sure there is not a man present + who does not feel that a more creditable representative of the + people of the United States could not be sent abroad. [Applause.] I + hope, gentlemen, you will receive him with all the honors."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--Speaking in this place and at this +time I am seriously embarrassed; for when charges have been made upon +the American people on account of municipal mismanagement in this city, +now happily past, we have constantly heard the statement made that +American institutions are not responsible for it; that New York is not +an American city. [Applause.] I must confess that when very hard pressed +I have myself taken refuge in this statement. + +But now it comes back to plague me, for on looking over the general +instructions furnished me by the State Department I find it laid down +that American Ministers on the way to their posts are strictly forbidden +to make speeches in any foreign city, save in the country to which they +are accredited. You will pardon me, then, if I proceed very slowly and +cautiously in discussing the sentiment allotted to me. + +No one, I think, will dispute the statement that commerce has become a +leading agency among men in the maintenance of peace. [Applause.] +Commercial interests have become so vast that they embrace all the +world, and so minute that they permeate every hamlet of every nation. +War interferes with these interests and thwarts them. Hence commerce +more and more tends to make war difficult. [Applause.] As to the fact +then, involved in your toast, it needs no argument in its support. We +all concede it. Were we to erect a statue of Commerce in the midst of +this great commercial metropolis, we should doubtless place in her hand, +as an emblem, a ship-like shuttle and represent her as weaving a web +between the great nations of the earth tending every day to fasten them +more securely and more permanently in lasting peace. [Applause.] + +Nor, I think, will the other part of the sentiment be disputed by any +thoughtful person. Of course much may be said upon the solemn nothings +which have occupied diplomatists; much historic truth may be adduced to +show that diplomats have often proved to be what Carlyle calls "solemnly +constituted impostors." But after all, I think no one can look over the +history of mankind without feeling that it was a vast step when four +centuries ago the great modern powers began to maintain resident +representatives at the centres of government; and from that day to this +these men have proved themselves, with all their weaknesses, worth far +more than all their cost in warding off or mitigating the horrors of +war, and in increasing the facilities of commerce. Not long since I made +a pilgrimage to that quaint town hall in that old German city of +Munster, where was signed the Treaty of Westphalia. There I saw the same +long table, the same old seats, where once sat the representatives of +the various powers who in 1648 made the treaty which not only ended the +Thirty Years' War, the most dreadful struggle of modern times--but which +has forever put an end to wars of religion. + +I have stood in the midst of grand cathedrals and solemn services, but +never have I sat in any room or in any presence with a greater feeling +of awe than in that old hall where the diplomatists of Europe signed +that world-renowned treaty so fruitful in blessing not only to Germany, +but to all mankind. [Applause.] + +We shall all doubtless concede then that on the whole it is best to have +a diplomatic body, that if it only once in ten, or twenty, or one +hundred years, prevents serious misunderstanding between nations, it +will far more than repay its cost. [Applause.] + +But the point to which I wish to call your attention, in what little I +have to say this evening, is this: That this idea of the value of +commerce and diplomacy in maintaining peace has by no means always been +held as fully as now, nor are commerce and diplomacy and all they +represent at this moment out of danger. Two hundred years ago a really +great practical statesman in France [Colbert], by crude legislation in +behalf, as he thought, of manufactures and commerce, brought his country +into wars which at last led her to ruin. The history of the colonial +policy of England also is fruitful in mistaken legislation on +commercial, political, and social questions, which have produced the +most terrible evils. Indeed, in all nations we have constantly to lament +the short-sighted policies, ill-considered constitutions, crude +legislation, which have dealt fearful blows to the interests of +commerce, of diplomacy, of political and social life, and of peace. + +Nor has our own country been free from these; in our general government +and in all our forty legislatures, there are measures frequently +proposed striking at commercial interests, at financial interests, at +vested rights, to say nothing of great political and social interests, +which, though often thwarted by the common sense of the people, are +sometimes too successful. At this very moment the news comes to us that +a slight majority, led by arrant demagogues, have fastened upon the +great Empire State of the Pacific a crude, ill-digested constitution, +which while it doubtless contains some good features, embodies some of +the most primitive and pernicious notions regarding commerce and +manufactures and the whole political and social fabric of that +Commonwealth. [Applause.] + +So, too, in regard to diplomacy, there is constant danger and loss from +this same crudeness in political thinking. A year or two since, in the +Congress of the United States, efforts were put forth virtually to +cripple the diplomatic service; but what was far worse, to cripple the +whole Consular system of the United States. Although the Consular +service of our country more than pays for itself directly, and pays for +itself a thousand times over indirectly; although its labors are +constantly directed to increasing commerce, to finding new markets, to +sending home valuable information regarding foreign industries, to +enlarging the foreign field for our own manufactures, and, although the +question involved not only financial questions of the highest +importance, but the honor of the country, the matter was argued by many +of our legislators in a way which would have done discredit to a class +of college sophomores. I am glad to say that the best men of both +parties at Washington at last rallied against this monstrous legislation +and that among them were some representing both parties of the State and +City of New York. [Applause.] + +The injury wrought upon this country in its national Legislature and in +its multitude of State Legislatures by want of knowledge is simply +enormous. No one who knows anything of the history of the legislation of +any State will dispute this for a moment. The question now arises, is +such a state of things necessarily connected with a Republican +government? To this I answer decidedly, no. The next question is, is +there any practical means of improving this state of things? To this I +answer decidedly, yes. [Applause.] + +Here comes the practical matter to which I would call your attention. +Recently, in the presence of some of you, I spoke at length on the +necessity of training men in the institutions of higher learning in this +country for the highest duties of citizenship, and especially for +practical leadership. I cannot here go into details as I was able to do +in that paper, but I can at least say that if there is anything to which +a portion of the surplus wealth of men who have been enriched in +commerce and trade may well be devoted, it is to making provision in our +institutions of learning for meeting this lack of young men trained in +history, political and social science, and general jurisprudence--in +those studies which fit men to discuss properly and to lead their +fellow-citizens rightly in the discussion of the main questions relating +to commerce, to diplomacy, and to various political and social subjects. +[Applause.] + +I fully believe that one million dollars distributed between four or +five of our great institutions of learning for this purpose would +eventually produce almost a revolution for good in this country, and +that in a very few years the effect of such endowments would be seen to +be most powerful and most salutary. Provision on the largest scale +should be made for the training of young men in political and social +science, in such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Columbia, +Princeton, Union, Johns Hopkins University, the State Universities of +Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Minnesota, and California, and I trust +that you will permit me to add, Cornell. [Applause.] + +I do not pretend, of course, that this would supersede practical +training--no theoretical training can do this--but it would give young +men, at any rate, a knowledge of the best thoughts of the best thinkers, +on such subjects as taxation, representation, pauperism, crime, +insanity, and a multitude of similar questions; it would remove the +spectacle which so often afflicts us in our National and State +legislatures, of really strong men stumbling under loads of absurdity +and fallacy, long ago exploded by the best and most earnest thought of +the world, and it would teach young men to reason wisely and well on +such subjects, and then, with some practical experience, we should have +in every State a large number of well-trained men ready to reason +powerfully and justly, ready to meet at a moment's warning pernicious +heresies threatening commerce and trade and our best political and +social interests. Had there been scattered through California during the +recent canvass for their new constitution, twenty men really fitted to +show in the press and in the forum the absurdities of that Constitution, +it would never have been established. [Loud applause.] + +Ten thousand dollars to any one of these colleges or universities would +endow a scholarship or fellowship which would enable some talented +graduate to pursue advanced studies in this direction. Ten thousand to +twenty thousand dollars would endow a lectureship which would enable +such a college or university to call some acknowledged authority on +political subjects to deliver a valuable course of lectures. Thirty to +fifty thousand dollars would endow a full professorship--though I must +confess that in subjects like this, I prefer lectureships for brief +terms to life-long professorships--and at any of these institutions the +sum of two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand dollars, under +the management of such men as may be found in any one of them, would +equip nobly a department in which all these subjects may be fully +treated and fitly presented to young men. Such a department would send +out into our journalism, into our various professions, and into our +public affairs, a large number of young men who could not fail to +improve the political condition of the country, and would do much to +ward off such dealings with commerce, with currency, with taxation, and +with the diplomatic and consular service as have cost the world and our +own nation so dear hitherto. [Applause.] + +I can think of no more noble monument which any man of wealth could rear +to himself than a lectureship or professorship or a department of this +kind, at one of our greater institutions of learning, where large +numbers of vigorous and ambitious youths are collected from all parts of +the country; I do not, of course, say that all of these men would be +elected to public office; in the larger cities, they perhaps would not, +at least, at first; in the country, they would be very frequently +chosen, and they could hardly fail to render excellent service. +[Applause.] + +Any man worthy of the name, leaving his country for a long residence +outside its borders, feels more and more impressed with what is needed +to improve it. If I were called upon solemnly at this hour to declare my +conviction as to what can best be done by men blessed with wealth in +this Republic of ours, I would name this very thing to which I have now +called your attention. [Applause.] It has been too long deferred; our +colleges and universities have as a rule only had the means to give a +general literary and scientific education, with very little instruction +fitting men directly for public affairs. But the events of the last few +years show conclusively that we must now begin to prepare the natural +leaders of the people for the work before them, and by something more +than a little primary instruction in political economy and the elements +of history in the last terms of a four years' course. [Applause.] + +The complexity of public affairs is daily becoming greater; more and +more it is necessary that men be trained for them. Not that practical +men, trained practically in public affairs will not always be +wanted--practical men will always be in demand--but we want more and +more a judicious admixture of men trained in the best thought which has +been developed through the ages on all the great questions of government +and of society. [Applause.] + +No country presents a more striking example of the value of this +training than does that great nation with which my duties are shortly to +connect me. [Applause.] Several years since she began to provide in all +her universities for the training of men in political and social +questions, for political life at home and for diplomatic life abroad. +This at first was thought to be another example of German pedantry, but +the events of the last fifteen years have changed that view. We can now +see that it was a part of that great and comprehensive scheme begun by +such men as Stein and Hardenbergh and carried out by such as Bismarck +and his compeers. [Applause.] + +Other nations are beginning to see this. In France, within a few years, +very thoroughly equipped institutions have been established to train men +in the main studies required in public life and in diplomacy; the same +thing is true in England and in Italy. Can there be again, I ask, a more +fitting object for some of the surplus wealth of our merchant princes +than in rendering this great service to our country, in furnishing the +means by which young men can have afforded them a full, thorough, and +systematic instruction in all those matters so valuable to those who are +able to take the lead in public affairs. [Applause.] + +Mr. President, in concluding, allow me to say that in so far as any +efforts of mine may be useful I shall make every endeavor that whatever +diplomatic service I may render may inure to the benefit of commerce, +knowing full well that, in the language of the sentiment, "Commerce and +Diplomacy are the twin guardians of Peace and Prosperity." [Applause.] + +In spite of the present depression of business in Germany and the United +States, there are evidences of returning confidence. The great, sturdy, +vigorous German nation and our own energetic people cannot long be held +back in their career, and in this restoration of business, which is +certain, unless gross mismanagement occurs, I believe that these two +nations, America and Germany, will become more and more friendly; more +and more Commerce will weave her web uniting the two countries, and more +and more let us hope that Diplomacy may go hand in hand with Commerce in +bringing in an era of Peace which shall be lasting, and of Prosperity +which shall be substantial. [Loud applause.] + + + + +HARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY + + +THE IDEAL WOMAN + + [Speech of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley at the banquet of the American + Chemical Society, Washington, D. C, December, 1898. Dr. Wiley + responded to the toast, "Woman."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY:--I +propose to introduce an innovation to after-dinner speaking and stick to +my text. In my opinion, it is too late in the day to question the +Creator's purpose in making Woman. She is an accomplished fact! She is +here! She has come to stay, and we might as well accept her. She has +broken into our Society, which, until within a year or two, has remained +entirely masculine. She has not yet appeared at our annual dinners, but +I am a false prophet if she be not here to speak for herself ere long. +And why not? Chemistry is well suited to engage the attention of the +feminine mind. The jewels woman wears, the paints she uses, the hydrogen +peroxide with which she blondines her hair are all children of +chemistry. The prejudice against female chemists is purely selfish and +unworthy of a great mind. There is only enough work in the world to keep +half of humanity busy. Every time a woman gets employment a man must go +idle. But if the woman will only marry the man, all will be forgiven. + +I think I know why you have called on an old bachelor to respond to this +toast. A married man could not. He would be afraid to give his fancies +full rein. Someone might tell his wife. A young man could see only one +side of the subject--the side his sweetheart is on. But the old bachelor +fears no Caudle lecture, and is free from any romantic bias. He sees +things just as they are. If he be also a true chemist, lovely woman +appeals to him in a truly scientific way. Her charms appear to him in +the crucible and the beaker: + + I know a maiden, charming and true, + With beautiful eyes like the cobalt blue + Of the borax bead, and I guess she'll do + If she hasn't another reaction. + + Her form is no bundle of toilet shams, + Her beauty no boon of arsenical balms, + And she weighs just sixty-two kilograms + To a deci-decimal fraction. + + Her hair is a crown, I can truthfully state + 'Tis a metre long, nor curly nor straight, + And it is as yellow as plumbic chromate + In a slightly acid solution. + + And when she speaks from parlor or stump, + The words which gracefully gambol and jump + Sound sweet like the water in Sprengel's pump + In magnesic phosphate ablution. + + I have bought me a lot, about a hectare, + And have built me a house ten metres square, + And soon, I think, I shall take her there, + My tart little acid radicle. + + Perhaps little sailors on life's deep sea + Will be the salts of this chemistry, + And the lisp of the infantile A, B, C + Be the refrain of this madrigal. + +No one but a scientific man can have any idea of the real nature of +love. The poet may dream, the novelist describe the familiar feeling, +but only the chemist knows just how it is: + + A biochemist loved a maid + In pure actinic ways; + The enzymes of affection made + A ferment of his days. + + The waves emergent from her eyes + Set symphonies afloat, + These undulations simply struck + His fundamental note. + + No longer could he hide his love, + Nor cultures could he make, + And so he screwed his courage up, + And thus to her he spake: + + "Oh, maid of undulations sweet, + Inoculate my veins, + And fill my thirsty arteries up + With amorous ptomaines. + + "In vain I try to break this thrall, + In vain my reason fights, + My inner self tempestuous teems + With microcosmic mites. + + "I cannot offer you a crown + Of gold--I cannot tell + Of terrapin or wine for us, + But rations balanced well. + + "A little fat just now and then, + Some carbohydrates sweet, + And gluten in the bakers' bread, + Are what we'll have to eat. + + "The days will pass in rapture by, + With antitoxine frills, + And on our Guinea-pigs we'll try + The cures for all our ills. + + "O! maiden fair, wilt thou be mine? + Come, give me but one kiss, + And dwell forever blessed with me. + In symbiotic bliss." + + This maiden, modest, up-to-date, + Eschewed domestic strife; + In mocking accents she replied, + "Wat t'ell--not on your life." + +The philosopher and the theologian pretend to understand the origin of +things and the foundation of ethics, but what one of them ever had the +least idea of how love first started? What one of them can tell you a +thing concerning the original osculation--that primary amatory congress +which was the beginning of the beginning?-- + + Bathed in Bathybian bliss + And sunk in the slush of the sea, + Thrilled the first molecular kiss, + The beginning of you and of me. + + The Atom of Oxygen blushed + When it felt fair Hydrogen's breath, + The Atom of Nitrogen rushed + Eager to Life out of Death. + + Through Ocean's murmuring dell + Ran a whisper of rapture Elysian; + Across that Bathybian jell + Ran a crack that whispered of fission. + + Alas! that such things should be, + That cruel unkind separation, + Adown in the depths of the sea + Should follow the first osculation. + + O tender lover and miss, + You cannot remember too well + That the first molecular kiss + Was the first Bathybian sell. + +Not only are women rapidly invading the domain of chemistry, but they +are also the yellow peril of her sister science, pharmacy. A drug-store +without a dimpled damsel is now a fit subject for the sheriff's +hammer.-- + + There in the corner pharmacy, + This lithesome lady lingers, + And potent pills and philters true + Are fashioned by her fingers. + + Her phiz behind the soda fount + May oft be seen in summer; + How sweetly foams the soda fizz, + When you receive it from her. + + While mixing belladonna drops + With tincture of lobelia, + And putting up prescriptions, she + Is fairer than Ophelia. + + Each poison has its proper place, + Each potion in its chalice; + Her dćdal fingers are so deft, + They call her digit-Alice. + +Love has been the theme of every age and of every tongue. It is the test +of youth and of the capability of progress. So long as a man can and +does love, he is young and there is hope for him. Whoever saw a +satisfactory definition of love? No one, simply because the science of +physical chemistry is yet young, and it is only when moulded by the +principles of that science that the definition is complete and +intelligible. Love is the synchronous vibration of two cardiac cells, +both of which, were it not for the ethics of etymology, should begin +with an S. Love is the source of eternal youth, of senile recrudescence. +It is the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the fountain of +flowers. So love changes not--the particular object is not of much +importance. One should never be a bigot in anything and a wise man +changes often. + +The grade of civilization which a nation has reached may be safely +measured by three things. If you want me to tell you where to place a +nation in the scale, don't tell me the name of it, nor the country it +inhabits, nor the religion it professes, nor its form of government. Let +me know how much sugar it uses per head, what the consumption of soap +is, and whether its women have the same rights as its men. That nation +which eats the most sugar, uses the most soap, and regards its women as +having the same rights as its men, will always be at the top. And +nowhere else in the world is more sugar eaten, more soap used, and women +more fully admitted to all the rights of men than in our own United +States and in the American Chemical Society. + +To the chemist, as well as to other scientific men, woman is not only +real but also ideal. From the fragments of the real the ideal is +reconstructed. This ideal is a trinity, a trinity innominate and +incorporeal. She is Pallas, Aphrodite, Artemis, three in one. She is an +incognita and an amorph. I know full well I shall not meet her; neither +in the crowded street of the metropolis nor in the quiet lane of the +country. I know well I shall not find her in the salon of fashion, nor +as a shepherdess with her crook upon the mountain-side. I know full well +that I need not seek her in the bustling tide of travel, nor wandering +by the shady banks of a brook. She is indeed near to my imagination, but +far, infinitely far, beyond my reach. Nevertheless, I may attempt to +describe her as she appears to me. Let me begin with that part of my +ideal which has been inherited from Diana. My ideal woman has a sound +body. She has bone, not brittle sticks of phosphate of lime. She has +muscles, not flabby, slender ribbons of empty sarcolemma. She has blood, +not a thin leucocytic ichor. I have no sympathy with that +pseudo-civilization which apparently has for its object the destruction +of the human race by the production of a race of bodiless women. If I am +to be a pessimist, I will be one out and out, and seek to destroy the +race in a high-handed and manly way. Indoor life, inactivity, lack of +oxygen in the lungs, these are things which in time produce a white +skin, but do it by sacrificing every other attribute of beauty. + +In the second place, my ideal woman is beautiful. I will confess that I +do not know what I mean by this; for what is beauty? It is both +subjective and objective. It depends on taste and education. It has +something to do with habit and experience. I know I shall not be able to +describe this trait, yet when I look up into her eyes--eyes, remember, +which are mere fictions of my imagination--when I look into her face, +when I see her move so statelily into my presence, I recognize there +that portion of her which she has inherited from the Aphrodite of other +days; and this I know is beauty. It is not the beauty of an +hallucination, the halo which a heart diseased casts about the head of +its idol. It is the beauty which is seen by a sober second thought, a +beauty which does not so much dazzle as it delights; a beauty which does +not fade with the passing hour, but stays through the heat and burden of +the day and until the day is done. + +The beauty which my ideal woman inherited from Aphrodite is not a fading +one. It is not simply a youthful freshness which the first decade of +womanhood will wither. It is a beauty which abides; it is a beauty in +which the charm of seventeen becomes a real essence of seventy; it is a +beauty which is not produced by any artificial pose of the head or by +any possible banging of the hair; it is a beauty which the art of +dressing may adorn but can never create; it is a beauty which does not +overwhelm the heart like an avalanche, but which eats it slowly but +surely away as a trickling stream cuts and grooves the solid granite. + +I regard true beauty as the divinest gift which woman has received; and +was not Pandora, the first of mythical women, endowed with every gift? +And was not Eve, the first of orthodox women, the type of every +feminine perfection? Only Protogyna, the first of scientific women, was +poorly and meanly endowed. If I were a woman I would value health and +wealth; I would think kindly of honor and reputation; I would greatly +prize knowledge and truth; but above all I would be beautiful--possessed +of that strange and mighty charm which would lead a crowd of slaves +behind my triumphal car and compel a haughty world to bow in humble +submission at my feet. + +In the third place my ideal woman has inherited the intellect of Pallas. +And this inheritance is necessary in order to secure for her a true +possession of the gifts of Aphrodite. For a woman can never be truly +beautiful who does not possess intelligence. It is a matter of the +utmost indifference to me what studies my ideal has pursued. She may be +a panglot or she may scarcely know her vernacular. If she speak French +and German and read Latin and Greek, it is well. If she know conics and +curves it is well; if she be able to integrate the vanishing function of +a quivering infinitesimal, it is well; if from a disintegrating track +which hardening cosmic mud has fixed and fastened on the present, she be +able to build a majestic, long extinct mammal, it is well. All these +things are marks of learning, but not necessarily of intelligence. A +person may know them all and hundreds of things besides, and yet be the +veriest fool. My ideal, I should prefer to have a good education in +science and letters, but she must have a sound mind. She must have a +mind above petty prejudice and giant bigotry. She must see something in +life beyond a ball or a ribbon. She must have wit and judgment. She must +have the higher wisdom which can see the fitness of things and grasp the +logic of events. It will be seen readily, therefore, that my ideal is +wise rather than learned. But she is not devoid of culture. Without +culture a broad liberality is impossible. But what is culture? True +culture is that knowledge of men and affairs which places every problem +in sociology and politics in its true light. It is that drill and +exercise which place all the faculties at their best and make one +capable of dealing with the real labors of life. Such a culture is not +incompatible with a broad knowledge of books, with a deep insight into +art, with a clear outlook over the field of letters. Indeed it includes +all these and is still something more than they are. + +My ideal then, so regally endowed, is the equal of any man--even if he +be the "ideal man" of the American Chemical Society. + +My ideal stands before me endowed with all the majesty of this long +ancestral line. Proud is she in the consciousness of her own equality. +Her haughty eye looks out upon this teeming sphere and acknowledges only +as her peer the "ideal man," and no one as her superior. Stand forth, O +perfect maiden, sentient with the brain of Pallas, radiant with the +beauty of Venus, quivering with the eager vivacity of Diana! Make, if +possible, thy home on earth. At thy coming the world will rise in an +enthusiasm of delight and crown thee queen. [Long and enthusiastic +applause.] + + + + +WOODROW WILSON + + +OUR ANCESTRAL RESPONSIBILITIES + + [Speech of Woodrow Wilson at the seventeenth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1896. + Stewart L. Woodford, the President of the Society, said, in + introducing the speaker: "The next toast is entitled 'The + Responsibility of having Ancestors,' and will be responded to by + Professor Woodrow Wilson,[13] of Princeton. I know you will give + him such a welcome as will indicate that, while we are mostly Yale + men here, we are not jealous of Princeton."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN:--I am not of your blood; +I am not a Virginia Cavalier, as Dr. Hill [David J. Hill. See Vol. II.] +has suggested. Sometimes I wish I were; I would have more fun. I come, +however, of as good blood as yours; in some respects a better. Because +the Scotch-Irish, though they are just as much in earnest as you are, +have a little bit more gayety and more elasticity than you have. +Moreover they are now forming a Scotch-Irish society, which will, as +fast as human affairs will allow, do exactly what the New England +Societies are doing, viz.: annex the universe. [Laughter.] We believe +with a sincere belief, we believe as sincerely as you do the like, that +we really made this country. Not only that, but we believe that we can +now, in some sort of way, demonstrate the manufacture, because the +country has obviously departed in many respects from the model which you +claim to have set. Not only that, but it seems to me that you yourselves +are becoming a little recreant to the traditions you yearly celebrate. + +It seems to me that you are very much in the position, with reference to +your forefathers, that the little boy was with reference to his +immediate father. The father was a very busy man; he was away at his +work before the children were up in the morning and did not come home +till after they had gone to bed at night. One day this little boy was +greatly incensed, as he said, "to be whipped by that gentleman that +stays here on Sundays." I do not observe that you think about your +ancestors the rest of the week; I do not observe that they are very much +present in your thoughts at any other time save on Sunday, and that then +they are most irritating to you. I have known a great many men descended +from New England ancestors and I do not feel half so hardly toward my +ancestors as they do toward theirs. There is a distant respect about the +relationship which is touching. There is a feeling that these men are +well and safely at a distance, and that they would be indulged under no +other circumstances whatever; and that the beauty of it is to have +descended from them and come so far away. + +Now, there are serious aspects to this subject. I believe that one of +the responsibilities of having ancestors is the necessity of not being +ashamed of them. I believe if you have had persons of this sort as your +forefathers you must really try to represent them in some sort of way. +And you must set yourselves off against the other elements of population +in this country. You know that we have received very many elements which +have nothing of the Puritan about them, which have nothing of New +England about them; and that the chief characteristic of these people is +that they have broken all their traditions. The reason that most +foreigners come to this country is in order to break their traditions, +to drop them. They come to this country because these traditions bind +them to an order of society which they will no longer endure, and they +come to be quit of them. You yourselves will bear me witness that these +men, some of them, stood us in good stead upon a very recent occasion: +in last November. [Applause. "Hear! Hear!"] We should not at all +minimize the vote of the foreign-born population as against the vote of +some of the native-born population on the question of silver and gold. +But you will observe that there are some things that it would be +supposed would belong to any tradition. One would suppose it would +belong to any tradition that it was better to earn a dollar that did not +depreciate, and these men have simply shown that there are some +common-sense elements which are international and not national. + +One of the particulars in which we are drawn away from our traditions is +in respect to the make-up and government of society, and it is in that +respect we should retrace our steps and preserve our traditions; because +we are suffering ourselves to drift away from the old standards, and we +say, with a shrug of the shoulders, that we are not responsible for it; +that we have not changed the age, though the age has changed us. We feel +very much as the Scotchman did who entered the fish market. His dog, +being inquisitive, investigated a basket of lobsters, and while he was +nosing about incautiously one of the lobsters got hold of his tail, +whereupon he went down the street with the lobster as a pendant. Says +the man, "Whustle to your dog, mon." "Nay, nay, mon," quoth the +Scotchman, "You whustle for your lobster." We are very much in the same +position with reference to the age; we say, whistle to the age; we +cannot make it let go; we have got to run. We feel very much like the +little boy in the asylum, standing by the window, forbidden to go out. +He became contemplative, and said, "If God were dead and there were not +any rain, what fun orphan boys would have." We feel very much that way +about these New England traditions. If God were only dead; if it didn't +rain; if the times were only good, what times we would have. + +The present world is not recognizable when put side by side with the +world into which the Puritan came. I am not here to urge a return to the +Puritan life; but have you forgotten that the Puritans came into a new +world? The conditions under which they came were unprecedented +conditions to them. But did they forget the principles on which they +acted because the conditions were unprecedented? Did they not discover +new applications for old principles? Are we to be daunted, therefore, +because the conditions are new? Will not old principles be adaptable to +new conditions, and is it not our business to adapt them to new +conditions? Have we lost the old principle and the old spirit? Are we a +degenerate people? We certainly must admit ourselves to be so if we do +not follow the old principles in the new world, for that is what the +Puritans did. + +Let me say a very practical word. What is the matter now? The matter is, +conceal it as we may, gloss it over as we please, that the currency is +in a sad state of unsuitability to the condition of the country. That is +the fact of the matter; nobody can deny that; but what are we going to +do? We are going to have a new tariff. I have nothing to say with regard +to the policy of the tariff, one way or the other. We have had tariffs, +have we not, every few years, ever since we were born; and has not the +farmer become discontented under these conditions? It was the effort to +remedy them that produced the silver movement. A new tariff may produce +certain economic conditions; I do not care a peppercorn whether it does +or not, but this is a thing which we have been tinkering and dickering +with time out of mind, and in spite of the tinkering and dickering this +situation has arisen. Are we going to cure it by more tinkering? We are +not going to touch it in this way. Now, what are we going to do? It is +neither here nor there whether I am a protectionist, or for a tariff for +revenue, or whatever you choose to call me. The amount you collect in +currency for imports is not going to make any difference. The right +thing to do is to apply old principles to a new condition and get out of +that new condition something that will effect a practical remedy. I do +not pretend to be a doctor with a nostrum. I have no pill against an +earthquake. I do not know how this thing is going to be done, but it is +not going to be done by having stomachs easily turned by the truth; it +is not going to be done by merely blinking the situation. If we blink +the situation I hope we shall have no more celebrations in which we talk +about our Puritan ancestors, because they did not blink the situation, +and it is easy to eat and be happy and proud. A large number of persons +may have square meals by having a properly adjusted currency. + +We are very much in the condition described by the reporter who was +describing the murder of a certain gentleman. He said that the murderer +entered the house, and gave a graphic description of the whole thing. He +said that fortunately the gentleman had put his valuables in the safe +deposit and lost only his life. We are in danger of being equally wise. +We are in danger of managing our policy so that our property will be put +in safe deposit and we will lose only our lives. We will make all the +immediate conditions of the nation perfectly safe and lose only the life +of the nation. This is not a joke, this is a very serious situation. I +should feel ashamed to stand here and not say that this is a subject +which deserves your serious consideration and ought to keep some of you +awake to-night. This is not a simple gratulatory occasion, this is a +place where public duty should be realized and public purposes formed, +because public purpose is a thing for which our Puritan ancestors stood, +yours and mine. If this race should ever lose that capacity, if it +should ever lose the sense of dignity in this regard, we should lose the +great traditions of which we pretend to be proud. [Applause.] + + + + +JOHN WINSLOW + + +THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY + + [Speech of John Winslow, in the capacity of presiding officer, at + the eighth annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of + Brooklyn, December 21, 1887.] + + +GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, GUESTS +AND FRIENDS:--This is the eighth anniversary of our Society and the +two hundred and sixty-seventh of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It +will please you all to learn of the continued growth and prosperity of +our Society. There is in our treasury the sum of $14,506.21, and we have +no debts. [Applause.] This shows an increase of $1,266.26 over last +year. As occasion requires this money is used for charitable purposes +and in other useful ways, as provided by our by-laws. Such a gathering +as we have here to-night is an inspiration. It must be especially so to +the distinguished gentlemen, our guests, who will address you. So it +comes to pass that you are to have to-night the advantage of listening +to inspired men--an advantage not uncommon in the days of the prophets, +but rare in our times. [Laughter and applause.] It is proper and +agreeable to us all just here and now to recognize as with us our friend +and benefactor and president emeritus, the Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman. [A +voice: "Three cheers for that grand old man." The company rising gave +rousing cheers.] He is with us with a young heart and a cheerful mind, +and continues to be what he has been from the beginning--a loyal and +devoted friend of our Society. [Applause.] + +We are here this evening enjoying the sufferings of our Pilgrim Fathers. +[Merriment.] Their heroic work takes in Plymouth Rock, ours takes in +the Saddle Rock. They enjoyed game of their own shooting, we enjoy game +of other's shooting; they drank cold water, because they could no longer +get Holland beer. The fact that they must give up Dutch beer was one of +the considerations (so we are told by one of their Governors) that made +them loath to leave Leyden. [Laughter.] We drink cold water because we +want it and like it. The Pilgrim Fathers went to church armed with +muskets; we go to church with our minds stuffed and demoralized by the +contents of Sunday morning newspapers. [Laughter.] The Pilgrim mothers +went to church dressed in simple attire, because they could afford +nothing elaborate and because they thought they could better catch and +hold the devotional spirit. The Pilgrim mothers of our day go to church +with costly toilets, because they can afford it, and are quite willing +to take the chances as to catching and holding the aforesaid spirit. +[Laughter.] The Pilgrim Fathers, when they made the compact on the +Mayflower, planted the seeds of constitutional freedom; we, their worthy +sons, commemorate their work; try to perpetuate it and enjoy the fruits +thereof. + +It is sometimes said the Pilgrims were a solemn people; that they were +not cheerful. Well, in their severe experience in England and Holland +and at Plymouth, there was much to make a born optimist grave and +thoughtful. But it is a mistake to suppose that they could not rejoice +with those who rejoiced as well as weep with those who wept. Take, for +instance, the first Thanksgiving festival held by the Pilgrims. The +quaint account of this by one of their Governors is always interesting. +This first American Thanksgiving took place at Plymouth in 1621, only +about ten months after the landing. It was like a Jewish festival, +continuing out of doors for a week. The Pilgrim writer, Governor +Winslow, describes it thus: "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor +(meaning Governor Bradford) sent four men out fowling, so that we might, +after a special manner (meaning doubtless a gay and festive manner) +rejoice together after (not counting chickens before they were hatched) +we had gathered the fruit of our labors." Now, listen to this: "They +killed in one day so much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the +company almost a week." What this "little help beside" was, is not +stated. In our day it would mean that the hunter and the fisherman made +heavy drafts upon Fulton Market for meat, fowl, and fish, to supply what +was short. "At which time," says the writer, "among other recreations, +we exercised our arms"--this probably means they shot at a mark +[laughter]--"many of the Indians coming among us"--they were not the +mark, at least this time--"and among the rest, their greatest king, +Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and +feasted." Think of that; feasting ninety Indians three days, and the +whole colony besides. What New England Society has ever made so good a +showing of hospitality and good cheer? [Laughter.] "And they" (the +ninety Indians), "went out and killed five deer." + +Now, I submit, we have here a clear case of the application of the great +principle of honest, even-handed co-operation, no modern device in that +line could surpass it. It is true the Indians were not an incorporated +society, and so there was no receiver appointed to wind them up. +[Laughter.] "Which they brought," says the writer, "to the plantation +and bestowed on our Governor" (meaning Governor Bradford), "our captain, +and others." Governor Bradford, in speaking of this, tells us that among +the fowl brought in "was a great store of turkeys." Thus begins the sad +history in this country of the rise and annual fall on Thanksgiving days +of that exalted biped--the American turkey. After this description of a +Pilgrim festival day who shall ever again say the Pilgrims could not be +merry if they had half a chance to be so. Why, if the Harvard and Yale +football teams had been on hand with their great national game of +banging each others' eyes and breaking bones promiscuously, they could +not have added to the spirit of the day though they might to its variety +of pastime. [Laughter.] + +It is interesting to remember in this connection that in the earlier +years of the colonies, Thanksgiving day did not come every year. It came +at various periods of the year from May to December, and the intervals +between them sometimes four or five years, gradually shortened and then +finally settled into an annual festival on the last Thursday of +November. A few years ago two Governors of Maine ventured to appoint a +day in December for Thanksgiving. Neither of them was re-elected. +[Laughter.] The crowning step in this development, which is now +national, was when the fortunes of our late war were in favor of the +Union, and a proclamation for a national Thanksgiving was issued by our +then President, dear old Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] That the festival +shall hereafter and forever be national is a part of our unwritten law. +[Applause.] It will thus be seen that we, the sons of the Pilgrims, may +fairly and modestly claim that this feature of our national life, like +most of the others that are valuable, proceeded directly from Plymouth +Rock. The New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, will ever honor +the work and the memory of the fathers. As in the sweet lines of Bryant: + + "Till where the sun, with softer fires, + Looks on the vast Pacific's sleep, + The children of the Pilgrim sires + This hallowed day, like us, shall keep." + +[General applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM WINTER + + +TRIBUTE TO JOHN GILBERT + + [Speech of William Winter at a dinner given by the Lotos Club, New + York City, November 30, 1878, to John Gilbert, in honor of the + fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the stage. Whitelaw + Reid presided. William Winter responded to the toast "The Dramatic + Critic."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I thank you very gratefully for +this kind welcome, and I think it a privilege to be allowed to take part +in a festival so delightful as this, and join with you in paying respect +to a name so justly renowned and honored as that of John Gilbert. I +cannot hope adequately to respond to the personal sentiments which have +been so graciously expressed nor adequately celebrate the deeds and the +virtues of your distinguished guest. "I am ill at these numbers ... but +such answer as I can make you shall command." For since first I became +familiar with the stage--in far-away days in old Boston, John Gilbert +has been to me the fulfilment of one of my highest ideals of excellence +in the dramatic art; and it would be hard if I could not now say this, +if not with eloquence at least with fervor. + +I am aware of a certain strangeness, however, in the thought that words +in his presence and to his honor should be spoken by me. The freaks of +time and fortune are indeed strange. I cannot but remember that when +John Gilbert was yet in the full flush of his young manhood and already +crowned with the laurels of success the friend who is now speaking was a +boy at his sports--playing around the old Federal Street Theatre, and +beneath the walls of the Franklin Street Cathedral, and hearing upon the +broad causeways of Pearl Street the rustle and patter of the autumn +leaves as they fell from the chestnuts around the Perkins Institution +and the elms that darkened the sombre, deserted castle of Harris's +Folly. With this sense of strangeness though, comes a sense still more +striking and impressive of the turbulent, active, and brilliant period +through which John Gilbert has lived. Byron had been dead but four years +[1828] and Scott and Wordsworth were still writing when he began to act. +Goethe was still living. The works of Thackeray and Dickens were yet to +be created. Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Halleck, and Percival were the +literary lords of that period. The star of Willis was ascending while +those of Hawthorne and Poe were yet to rise; and the dramas of Talfourd, +Knowles, and Bulwer were yet to be seen by him as fresh contributions to +the literature of the stage. All these great names are written in the +book of death. All that part of old Boston to which I have referred--the +scene equally of Gilbert's birth and youth and first successes and of +his tender retrospection--has been swept away or entirely changed. Gone +is the old Federal Street Theatre. Gone that quaint English alley with +the cosey tobacconist's shop which he used to frequent. Gone the +hospitable Stackpole where many a time at the "latter end of a sea-coal +fire" he heard the bell strike midnight from the spire of the Old South +Church! But, though "the spot where many times he triumphed is +forgot"--his calm and gentle genius and his hale physique have endured +in unabated vigor, so that he has charmed two generations of play-goers, +still happily lives to charm men and women of to-day. Webster, Choate, +Felton, Everett, Rantoul, Shaw, Bartlett, Lunt, Halleck, Starr King, +Bartol, Kirk--these and many more, the old worthies of the bar, bench, +and the pulpit in Boston's better days of intellect and taste:--all saw +him as we see him in the silver-gray elegance and exquisite perfection +with which he illustrates the comedies of England. + +His career has impinged upon the five great cities of Boston, New +Orleans, Philadelphia, London, and New York. It touches at one extreme +the ripe fame of Munden (who died in '32) and--freighted with all the +rich traditions of the stage--it must needs at its other extreme +transmit even into the next century the high mood, the scholar-like wit, +and the pure style of the finest strain of acting that Time has +bestowed upon civilized man. By what qualities it has been distinguished +this brilliant assemblage is full well aware. The dignity which is its +grandeur; the sincerity which is its truth; the thoroughness which is +its massive substance; the sterling principle which is its force; the +virtue which is its purity; the scholarship, mind, humor, taste, +versatile aptitude of simulation, and beautiful grace of method, which +are its so powerful and so delightful faculties and attributes, have all +been brought home to your minds and hearts by the wealth and clear +genius of the man himself! + +I have often lingered in fancy upon the idea of that strange, +diversified, wonderful procession--here the dazzling visage of Garrick, +there the woful face of Mossop; here the glorious eyes of Kean; there +the sparkling loveliness of an Abington or a Jordan--which moves through +the chambers of the memory across almost any old and storied stage. The +thought is endless in its suggestion, and fascinating in its charm. How +often in the chimney-corner of life shall we--whose privilege it has +been to rejoice in the works of this great comedian, and whose happiness +it is to cluster around him to-night in love and admiration--conjure up +and muse upon his stately figure as we have seen it in the group of Sir +Peter and Sir Robert, of Jaques and Wolsey, and Elmore! The ruddy +countenance, the twinkling gray eyes, the silver hair, the kind smile, +the hearty voice, the old-time courtesy of manner--how tenderly will they +be remembered! How dearly are they prized! Scholar!--Actor!--Gentleman! +long may he be spared to dignify and adorn the stage--a soother of our +cares, and comfort to our hearts--exemplar for our lives!--the Edelweiss +of his age and of our affections! [Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO LESTER WALLACK + + [Speech of William Winter at a banquet of the Lotos Club, given to + Lester Wallack, December 17, 1887. Whitelaw Reid, the President of + the Club, occupied the chair. Mr. Winter was called upon to speak + in behalf of the critics.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--You have done me great honor in +asking me to be present on this occasion, and you have conferred upon me +a great privilege in permitting me to participate with you in this +tribute of affection and admiration for John Lester Wallack, your +distinguished and most deservedly honored guest and my personal friend +these many, many years. [Cheers.] + +I thank you for your thoughtful courtesy and for this distinguished mark +of your favor. Being well aware of my defects both as a thinker and a +speaker, I shrink from such emergencies as this, but having known him so +long and having been in a professional way associated with so many of +his labors and his triumphs, I should fail in duty if I were not at +least to try to add my word of love, feeble and inadequate as it may be, +to the noble volume of your sympathy and homage. [Cheers.] + +The presence of this brilliant assemblage, the eloquent words which have +fallen from the lips of your honored president and the speeches of your +orators, they signify some change--I will not say in regard to the +advancement of the stage--but they signify a wonderful advancement in +our times in sympathetic and thoughtful and just appreciation of the +theatre. This was not always so. It is not very long since so wise and +gentle a man as Charles Lamb expressed his mild astonishment that a +person capable of committing to memory and reciting the language of +Shakespeare could for that reason be supposed to possess a mind +congenial with that of the poet. The scorn of Carlyle and the scarcely +less injurious pity of Emerson for the actor are indications that in a +time not remote, thought and philosophy have made but little account of +the stage. + +Something might be said about this by a voice more competent than mine, +for in our time there has been a change in the intelligent spirit of +the age, and I am sure that thought and philosophy now are of the +opinion that the actor is an intellectual and spiritual force; that he +is connected most intimately with the cause of public education; that he +brings something of his own, and that, although the part provides the +soul, it is the actor who must provide the body, and without the soul +and the body, you could not have dramatic representations for the +benefit of them. [Applause.] + +I am not one of those writers who believe that it is the business of the +newspaper to manage the theatres. The question of what to do to please +the public taste, to provide mankind with what they like, or what they +want, or, which is the same thing, with what they think they want, opens +a very complex inquiry. Our dear friend has been puzzled by it himself +more than a little. I should not undertake to instruct him, but as the +observer of his course I have been struck by wonder and admiration of +the way he has carried his theatre through seasons of great competition +and great peril. + +I call to mind one season, now seventeen years ago, I think, when in the +course of a very few months, he produced and presented upward of +thirty-two plays, showing the best points of these plays and showing his +great company to every possible advantage; so have I seen a juggler toss +fifty knives in the air and catch them without cutting his fingers. + +[At the close of his speech Mr. Winter read the following poem.]-- + +LESTER WALLACK + + With a glimmer of plumes and a sparkle of lances, + With blare of the trumpets and neigh of the steed, + At morning they rode where the bright river glances, + And the sweet summer wind ripples over the mead; + The green sod beneath them was ermined with daisies, + Smiling up to green boughs tossing wild in their glee, + While a thousand glad hearts sang their honors and praises, + While the Knights of the Mountain rode down to the sea. + + One rode 'neath the banner whose face was the fairest, + Made royal with deeds that his manhood had done, + And the halo of blessing fell richest and rarest + On his armor that splintered the shafts of the sun; + + So moves o'er the waters the cygnet sedately, + So waits the strong eagle to mount on the wing, + Serene and puissant and simple and stately, + So shines among princes the form of the King. + + With a gay bugle-note when the daylight's last glimmer + Smites crimson and gold on the snow of his crest, + At evening he rides through the shades growing dimmer, + While the banners of sunset stream red in the West; + His comrades of morning are scattered and parted, + The clouds hanging low and the winds making moan, + But smiling and dauntless and brave and true-hearted, + All proudly he rides down the valley alone. + + Sweet gales of the woodland embrace and caress him, + White wings of renown be his comfort and light, + Pale dews of the starbeam encompass and bless him, + With the peace and the balm and the glory of night; + And, Oh! while he wends to the verge of that ocean, + Where the years like a garland shall fall from his brow, + May his glad heart exult in the tender devotion, + The love that encircles and hallows him now. + +[Enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +ROBERT C. WINTHROP + + +THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE + + [Speech of Robert C. Winthrop made at the public dinner given to + Amin Bey by the merchants of Boston, Mass., November 4, 1850.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I am greatly honored by the sentiment just +proposed, and I beg my good friend, the Vice-President [Hon. Benjamin +Seaver], to accept my hearty thanks for the kind and complimentary terms +in which he has presented my name to the company. I am most grateful for +the opportunity of meeting with so large a number of the intelligent and +enterprising merchants of Boston, and of uniting with them in a tender +of deserved hospitality, and in a tribute of just respect, to the +Commissioner of his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan of Turkey. + +And yet, I cannot but reflect, even as I pronounce these words, how +strangely they would have sounded in the ears of our fathers not many +generations back, or even in our own ears not many years ago. A deserved +tender of hospitality, a just tribute of respect, to the Representative +of the Grand Turk! Sir, the country from which your amiable and +distinguished guest has come, was not altogether unknown to some of the +early American discoverers and settlers. John Smith--do not smile too +soon, Mr. President, for though the name has become proverbially generic +in these latter days, it was once identified and individualized as the +name of one of the most gallant navigators and captains which the world +has ever known--that John Smith who first gave the cherished name of New +England to what the Pilgrims of the Mayflower called "these Northern +parts of Virginia"--he, I say, was well acquainted with Turkey; and two +centuries and a half ago, he gave the name of a Turkish lady to one of +the capes of our own Massachusetts Bay. But he knew Turkey as a prison +and a dungeon, and he called what is now Cape Ann, Cape Tragabigzanda, +only to commemorate his affection for one who had soothed the rigors of +a long and loathsome captivity. + +Nor was Turkey an unknown land to at least one of those Winthrops of the +olden time, with whom the Vice-President has so kindly connected me. In +turning over some old family papers since my return home, I have +stumbled on the original autograph of a note from John Winthrop, the +younger, dated "December 26th, 1628, at the Castles of the Hellespont," +whither he had gone, as is supposed, as the Secretary of Sir Peter Wich, +the British Ambassador at Constantinople. The associations of that day, +however, with those remote regions, were by no means agreeable, and I +should hardly dare to dwell longer upon them on this occasion and in +this presence. I rejoice that events have occurred to break the spell of +that hereditary prejudice, which has so long prevailed in the minds of +not a few of us, toward the Ottoman Empire. I rejoice that our +associations with Turkey are no longer those only of the plague and the +bowstring; that we are encouraged and authorized to look to her +hereafter for something better than a little coarse wool for our +blankets, or a few figs for our dessert, or even a little opium or +rhubarb for our medicine-chests; that, in a word, we are encouraged and +warranted to look to her, under the auspices and administration of her +young, gallant, and generous Sultan, for examples of reform, of +toleration, of liberality, of a magnanimous and chivalrous humanity, +which are worthy of the admiration and imitation of all mankind. I +rejoice, especially, that an occasion has been afforded for testifying +the deep sense which is entertained throughout our country, of the noble +conduct of the Sublime Porte in regard to the unfortunate exiles of +Hungary. + +The influence which the Ottoman Empire seems destined to exert over the +relations of Eastern and Western Europe, is of the most interesting and +important character; and, while we all hold steadfastly to the great +principle of neutrality which Washington established and enforced, we +yet cannot suppress our satisfaction that this influence is now in the +hands of one who seems determined to wield it fearlessly for the best +interests of civilization and humanity. + +And now, sir, let us hope that our distinguished friend, Amin Bey, may +return home with some not less favorable impressions of our own land. Of +our enterprise, of our industry, of our immense material production, of +our rapid progress in arts and improvements of every kind, of our vast +territorial extent, he cannot fail to testify. Let us hope that he may +be able to speak also of internal order, of domestic tranquillity, of +wise and just laws, faithfully administered and promptly obeyed, of a +happy, contented, and united people, commending by their practice and +example, as well as by their principles and precepts, the institutions +under which they live. + +The distinguished gentleman who preceded me [Mr. Webster], and whom I +have been under the disadvantage of following in other scenes as well as +here, has spoken of the Union of these States. There is no language so +strong or so emphatic, which even he can use, as to the importance of +preserving that Union, which does not meet with a prompt and cordial +echo in my own bosom. To the eyes of Amin Bey, and to the eyes of all +foreign nations, we are indeed but one country, from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. To them there is no Boston or New York, no Carolina or +Louisiana. Our commerce goes forth under one and the same flag, whether +from the Bay of Massachusetts or from the "Golden Gate" of California. +Under that flag, it has been protected, prospered, and extended beyond +example. Under that flag, new fields are opening to it, and new triumphs +are before it. May our distinguished guest take home with him an +assurance, founded upon all that he has seen and all that he has heard, +of the resolution of us all, that the flag of our Union shall still and +always remain one and the same, from ocean to ocean, untorn and +untarnished, proof alike against everything of foreign assault and +everything of domestic dissension! [Great applause.] + + + + +JOHN SERGEANT WISE + + +CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH + + [Speech of John S. Wise at the eleventh annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 20, 1890. The + President, Willard Bartlett, occupied the chair. He called upon Mr. + Wise to speak to the toast, "Captain John Smith, the Ruler of + Virginia, and Admiral of New England," saying: "It was not without + a purpose that your committee arranged the order of speaking this + evening. I am sure that the gentlemen who have already addressed + you will take it in good part, if I say we knew that, by putting + one name at the end of the programme, we should be sure to hold the + audience here till the doxology. Now a speaker who bears the name + of the first ruler of Virginia I ever knew anything about, will + address you upon Virginia's still earlier ruler, Captain John + Smith."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--It is one of the peculiarities of Americans, +that they attempt to solve the unsolvable problem of successfully mixing +gastronomy and oratory. In chemistry there are things known as +incompatibles, which it is impossible to blend and at the same time +preserve their original characteristics. It is impossible to have as +good a dinner as we have had served to-night, and preserve the +intellectual faculties of your guests so that they may be seen at their +best. I am not unmindful that in the menu the courses grew shorter until +they culminated in the pungent and brief episode of cheese, and so I +take it that as to the oratory here on tap, you desire it to become +gradually more brief and more pungent. + +Now, the task of condensing into a five-minute speech two hundred and +seventy years of the history of America, is something that has been +assigned to me, and I propose to address myself to it without further +delay. [Laughter] + +John Smith was at one time President of Virginia, and afterward Admiral +of New England, and ever since then, until lately, New England and +Virginia have been trying to pull loose from each other, so as not to be +under the same ruler. [Laughter and applause.] John Smith was a godsend +to the American settlers, because he was a plain man in a company of +titled nonentities, and after they had tried and failed in every effort +to make or perpetuate an American colony, plain John Smith, a democrat, +without a title, took the helm and made it a success. [Laughter.] + +Then and there, and ever since, we laid aside the +Reginald-Trebizond-Percys of nobility, and stuck to the plain John +Smiths, honest citizens, of capacity and character. By his example we +learned that "Kind hearts are more than coronets," and simple men of +worth are infinitely better than titled vagabonds of Norman blood. +[Applause.] It is almost three centuries since a tiny vessel, not larger +than a modern fishing-smack, turned her head to the sunset across an +unknown sea, for the land of conjecture. The ship's company, composed of +passengers from England, that wonderful nest of human wanderers, that +splendid source of the best civilization of the world, cast anchor by +chance in a noble bay for which they had not sailed, and settled a +colony; not with any particularly high or noble object, but really in +pursuit of gold, and searching for a South Sea which they never found. +The voyage had been projected without any other object than the +accumulation of wealth, which wealth was to be carried back to the old +country and enjoyed in that England which they loved, and to which their +eyes ever turned backward with affection, reverence, and the hope of +return. This band of younger sons and penniless nobility, attempted to +make a settlement under the charter known as the London charter of +Virginia; and while we find to-day men sneering at John Smith, the fact +remains that he alone was enabled by his strong personality, by his +sterling, individual worth, to resist the savages, to make the lazy +work, to furnish food for the weak and sickly, to re-inspire those who +had lost hope, and to firmly establish a settlement in Virginia. His +reward was what? Sedition in his own camp, ingratitude among his own +followers, misrepresentation to his patrons, disappointment, disease, +and poverty to himself; a return to England and posthumous fame. But his +bulldog fangs, the fangs of that English blood which once sunk in the +throat of a savage land remain forever, were placed upon America, to +mark it as another conquest and another triumph of Anglo-Saxon +colonization. Three years of peace and quiet in England were not to his +taste. His mother's spirit craved new adventures, and he sought them in +sea voyages to the north. Although his task was a much less difficult +one, and not quite so prominent as the task he had accomplished in +Virginia, he prepared the way for the settlement at Plymouth Rock. To +his title of President of Virginia was added the title of Admiral of New +England, because this John Smith, without a pedigree, except such as was +blazoned on his shield by his slaughter of three Turks, turned his +attention from the land to the sea, sailed the colder waters of the +north, located the colonies of New England, named your own Boston, and +the result of his voyages and reports were the Plymouth charter and +settlement. So it is that we have a common founder of the settlements of +this country. Of all the gallants who embarked in the first adventure, +all disappeared save John Smith, who bore the plainest and commonest +name that human imagination can devise. He became the patron saint of +American civilization, as much yours as ours, and as much ours as yours. +[Laughter and applause.] + +Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: We had one founder; we came from one +master-mind; one great spirit was the source of both our settlements; +and this initial fact in our histories has seemed to inspire the +American people through all the centuries with the sentiment that our +union should be eternal in spite of all disturbing circumstances. +[Applause.] When I said, in a light way, that old Virginia and +Massachusetts had sought to rend themselves asunder, it was scarcely +true. They have too much that is glorious in common to be aught but +loving sisters. The men who are before me will not forget that the +settlers of the London colony of Virginia, and settlers of the Plymouth +colony of Massachusetts, have been at the front of every great movement +which has agitated this nation from its birth. When it came to the +question of whether we should dissolve the political ties that bound us +to the British King, Massachusetts Bay and the colony of Virginia were +the first to form their Committees of Safety, exchange their messages +of mutual support, and strengthen the weak among their sister colonies. +[Applause.] When it came to the time that tried men's souls in the +Revolution, it was the men of Virginia and the men of Massachusetts Bay +that furnished the largest quotas of revolutionary soldiers who achieved +the independence of the American colonies. + +When it came to the formation of a federal union, Virginia, with her +Washington, gave the first President, and Massachusetts, with her Adams, +stepped proudly to the front with the first Vice-President and second +President. [Applause.] In later years, when differences came--which +differences need not be discussed--every man here knows what part +Virginia and Massachusetts bore. It was a part which, however much we +may differ with each other, bespoke the origin of the two colonies, and +told that true manhood was there to do and die for what it believed was +right. When that struggle was ended, the first to clasp hands in mutual +friendship and affection were Virginia and Massachusetts. If we were to +blot from the history or geography of the Nation the deeds or territory +of the ancient dominions of John Smith, President of Virginia and +Admiral of New England, a beggarly record of area would be left, in +spite of the glorious records of other sections in recent years. + +The history of America is to me not only of deep and absorbing interest +in its every detail, but it is a romance; it is a fascinating detail of +wonderful development, the like of which cannot be found in the annals +of civilization from the remotest time. We may go back to the time when +the curtain rises on the most ancient civilization of the East, and +there is nothing to compare with it. We may take up not only the real, +but the romantic history of modern European progress, and there is +nothing like American history for myself. Taking up the story of the +Quaker invasion of Massachusetts as early as 1659, I find Lydia Wardell, +daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman of the colony, whipped in Boston, +because she had ceased to be a Puritan and had become a Quakeress. +Turning then to the history of Virginia in 1663, I find Colonel Edmund +Scarburgh riding at the head of the King's troops into the boundaries of +Maryland, placing the broad arrows of the King on the houses of the +Quakers, and punishing them soundly for non-conformity. Upon the +question of who was right and who was wrong in these old feuds, there +are doubtless men who, even to this day, have deep prejudices. Fancy how +conflicting are the sentiments of a man in 1890, as to their merits, +when he reflects, as I do, that Lydia Wardell was his grandmother, and +Colonel Scarburgh his grandfather. [Applause and laughter.] + +How absurd seems any comparison between the Puritan and Cavalier +settlers of America. There they are, with all their faults, and all +their virtues. Others may desire to contrast them. I do not. I stand +ready to do battle against anybody who abuses either. Their conjoint +blood has produced a Nation, the like of which no man living before our +day had ever fancied. Nearly three centuries of intermingling and +intermarrying, has made the traditions and the hopes of either the +heritage and aspiration of us all. Common sufferings, common triumphs, +common pride, make the whole glorious history the property of every +American citizen, and it is provincial folly to glorify either faction +at the expense of the other. + +We stand to-night on the pinnacle of the third Century of American +development. Look back to the very beginning. There stands the grizzled +figure of John Smith, the Pioneer--President of Virginia, and Admiral of +New England. Still united, we look about us and behold a nation blessed +with peace and plenty, crowned with honor, and with boundless +opportunity of future aggrandizement. The seed planted by John Smith +still grows. The voice of John Smith still lives. That voice has been +swelled into the mighty chorus of 60,000,000 Americans singing the song +of United States. We look forward to a future whose possibilities +stagger all conjecture, to a common ruler of John Smith's ancient +dominions; to a common destiny, such as he mapped out for us. And with +devout and heartfelt gratitude to him, a reunited land proclaims, "Whom +God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." [Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE LEGAL PROFESSION + + [Speech of John S. Wise at the annual dinner of the New York State + Bar Association, Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891. Matthew Hale, the + President, introduced Mr. Wise as follows; "The next sentiment in + order was, by mistake, omitted from the printed list of sentiments + which is before you. The next sentiment is 'The Legal Profession,' + and I call upon a gentleman to respond to that toast who, I venture + to say, has practised law in more States of this Union than any + other gentleman present. I allude to the orator of the day, the + Hon. John S. Wise [applause], formerly of Virginia, but now a + member of the Bar Association of the State of New York."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BAR:--It may not be true that +I have practised law in more States of this Union than any one present, +but it is certainly true that I never did as much speaking in the same +length of time, without charging a fee for it, as I have done within the +last twenty-four hours. [Laughter.] At two o'clock this morning I was in +attendance, in the city of New York, upon a ghost dance of the +Confederate veterans; at two o'clock this evening I resolved myself into +a deep, careful, and circumspect lawyer, and now I am with the boys, and +propose to have a good time. [Laughter.] Now, you know, this scene +strikes me as ridiculous--our getting here together and glorifying +ourselves and nobody to pay for it. My opinion is, that the part of +wisdom is to bottle this oratory and keep it on tap at $5 a minute. +[Laughter.] The Legal Profession--why, of course, we are the best +fellows in the world. Who is here to deny it? It reminds me of an +anecdote told by an old politician in Virginia, who said that one day, +with his man, he was riding to Chesterfield court, and they got +discussing the merits of a neighbor, Mr. Beasley, and he says, "Isaac, +what do you think of Mr. Beasley?" "Well," he says, "Marse Frank, I +reckon he is a pretty good man." "Well, there is one thing about Mr. +Beasley, he is always humbling himself." He says, "Marse Frank, you are +right; I don't know how you is, but I always mistrusts a man that runs +hisself down." [Laughter.] He says, "I don't know how you is, Marse +Frank, but I tell you how it is with me: this nigger scarcely ever says +no harm against hisself." So I say it of the legal profession--this +here nigger don't never scarcely say no harm against himself. [Great +laughter.] + +Of course we are the best profession in the world, but if any of our +clients are standing at that door and listening to this oratory, I know +what their reflection is. They are laughing in their sleeves and saying: +"Watch him, watch him; did you ever hear lawyers talk as much for +nothing? Watch them; it is the funniest scene I ever saw. There are a +lot of lawyers with their hands in their own pockets." [Laughter.] + +Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, another thing. We are not fooling with any +judges now. I know who I am talking to and how long I have been doing +it. Sometimes you can fool a judge into letting you have more time than +the rule allows; but with lawyers, enough is enough. We know exactly +when to put on the brakes with each other. We are not now earning fees +by the yard or charging by the minute, and when a man is through with +what he has to say, it is time to sit down, and all I have to say in +conclusion is, that the more I watch the legal profession and observe +it, the more I am convinced that with the great responsibility, with the +great trusts confided to it, with the great issues committed to its +keeping, with the great power it has to direct public feeling and public +sentiment, with the great responsibilities resulting, take it as a +mass--and there are plenty of rascals in it--but take it as a mass, and +measure it up, and God never made a nobler body in these United States. +[Applause.] + + + + +EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT + + +THE BRIGHT LAND TO WESTWARD + + [Speech of Edward O. Wolcott at the eighty-second annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. + The President, ex-Judge Horace Russell, introduced the speaker as + follows: "It was an English lawyer who said that the farther he + went West the more he was convinced that the wise men came from the + East. We may not be so thoroughly convinced of this after we have + heard the response to the next regular toast, 'The Pilgrim in the + West.' I beg to introduce Mr. Edward O. Wolcott, of Colorado."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It was with great diffidence that +I accepted the invitation of your President to respond to a toast +to-night. I realized my incapacity to do justice to the occasion, while +at the same time I recognized the high compliment conveyed. I felt +somewhat as the man did respecting the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy; he +said he didn't know whether Lord Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works or not, +but if he didn't, he missed the greatest opportunity of his life. +[Laughter.] + +The West is only a larger, and in some respects a better, New England. I +speak not of those rose gardens of culture, Missouri and Arkansas, but +otherwise, generally of the States and Territories west of the +Mississippi, and more particularly, because more advisedly, of Colorado, +the youngest and most rugged of the-thirty-eight; almost as large in +area as all New England and New York combined; "with room about her +hearth for all mankind"; with fertile valleys, and with mines so rich +and so plentiful that we occasionally, though reluctantly, dispose of +one to our New York friends. [Laughter.] We have no very rich, no very +poor, and no almshouses; and in the few localities where we are not good +enough, New England Home Missionary Societies are rapidly bringing us +up to the Plymouth Rock standard and making us face the Heavenly music. +[Laughter.] We take annually from our granite hills wealth enough to pay +for the fertilizers your Eastern and Southern soils require to save them +from impoverishment. We have added three hundred millions to the coinage +of the world; and, although you call only for gold, we generously give +you silver, too. [Laughter.] You are not always inclined to appreciate +our efforts to swell the circulation, but none the less are we one with +you in patriotic desire to see the revenues reformed, provided always +that our own peculiar industries are not affected. Our mountains slope +toward either sea, and in their shadowy depths we find not only hidden +wealth, but inspiration and incentive to high thought and noble living, +for Freedom has ever sought the recesses of the mountains for her +stronghold, and her spirit hovers there; their snowy summits and the +long, rolling plains are lightened all day long by the sunshine, and we +are not only Colorado, but Colorado Claro! [Applause.] + +Practically, as little is known of the great West by you of the East as +was known a century ago of New England by our British cousins. Your +interest in us is, unfortunately, largely the interest on our mortgages, +your attitude toward us is somewhat critical, and the New England heart +is rarely aroused respecting the West except when some noble Indian, +after painting himself and everything else within his reach red, is sent +to his happy hunting grounds. [Laughter.] Yet, toward the savage, as in +all things, do not blame us if we follow the Christian example set us by +our forefathers. We read that the Court at Plymouth, more than fifty +years after the colony was founded, ordered "That whosoever shall shoot +off any gun on any unnecessary occasion, or at any game whatsoever, +except an Indian or a wolf, shall forfeit five shillings for every such +shot"; and our pious ancestors popped over many an Indian on their way +to Divine worship. [Laughter.] But when in Colorado, settled less than a +generation ago, the old New England heredity works itself out and an +occasional Indian is peppered, the East raises its hands in horror, and +our offending cowboys could not find admittance even to an Andover +Probation Society. [Laughter.] + +Where we have a chance to work without precedent, we can point with +pride of a certain sort to methods at least peaceful. When Mexico was +conquered, we found ourselves with many thousand Mexicans on hand. I +don't know how they managed it elsewhere, but in Colorado we not only +took them by the hand and taught them our ways, but both political +parties inaugurated a beautiful and generous custom, since more honored +in the breach than in the observance, which gave these vanquished people +an insight into and an interest in the workings of republican +institutions which was marvellous: a custom of presenting to each head +of a household, being a voter, on election day, from one to five dollars +in our native silver. [Great laughter.] + +If Virginia was the mother of Presidents, New England is the mother of +States. Of the population of the Western States born in the United +States, some five per cent, are of New England birth, and of the native +population more than half can trace a New England ancestry. Often one +generation sought a resting-place in Ohio, and its successor in Illinois +or in Iowa, but you will find that the ancestor, less than a century +ago, was a God-fearing Yankee. New England influences everywhere +predominate. I do not mean to say that many men from the South have not, +especially since the war, found homes and citizenship in the West, for +they have; and most of them are now holding Federal offices. [Laughter.] +It is nevertheless true that from New England has come the great, the +overwhelming influence in moulding and controlling Western thought. +[Applause.] + +New England thrift, though a hardy plant, becomes considerably modified +when transplanted to the loam of the prairies; the penny becomes the +dime before it reaches the other ocean; Ruth would find rich gleanings +among our Western sheaves, and the palm of forehandedness opens +sometimes too freely under the wasteful example which Nature sets all +over our broad plains; but because the New England ancestor was +acquisitive, his Western descendant secures first of all his own home. +[Applause.] The austere and serious views of life which our forefathers +cherished have given way to a kindlier charity, and we put more hope and +more interrogation points into our theology than our fathers did; but +the old Puritan teachings, softened by the years and by brighter and +freer skies, still keep our homes Christian and our home life pure. And +more, far more than all else, the blood which flows in our veins, the +blood of the sturdy New Englanders who fought and conquered for an idea, +quickened and kindled by the Civil War, has imbued and impregnated +Western men with a patriotism that overrides and transcends all other +emotions. Pioneers in a new land, laying deep the foundations of the +young commonwealths, they turn the furrows in a virgin soil, and from +the seed which they plant there grows, renewed and strengthened with +each succeeding year, an undying devotion to republican institutions, +which shall nourish their children and their children's children +forever. [Prolonged applause.] + +An earnest people and a generous! The Civil strife made nothing right +that was wrong before, and nothing wrong that was right before; it +simply settled the question of where the greater strength lay. We know +that + + "Who overcomes + By force, hath overcome but half his foe," + +and that if more remains to be done, it must come because the hearts of +men are changed. The war is over; the very subject is hackneyed; it is a +tale that is told, and commerce and enlightened self-interest have +obliterated all lines. And yet you must forgive us if, before the +account is finally closed, and the dead and the woe and the tears are +balanced by all the blessings of a reunited country, some of us still +listen for a voice we have not yet heard; if we wait for some Southern +leader to tell us that renewed participation in the management of the +affairs of this nation carries with it the admission that the question +of the right of secession is settled, not because the South was +vanquished, but because the doctrine was and is wrong, forever wrong. +[Great applause.] + +We are a plain people, too, and live far away. We find all the +excitement we need in the two great political parties, and rather look +upon the talk of anybody in either party being better than his party, as +a sort of cant. The hypercritical faculty has not reached us yet, and +we leave to you of the East the exclusive occupancy of the raised dais +upon which it seems necessary for the independent voter to stand while +he is counted. [Applause and laughter.] + +We are provincial; we have no distinctive literature and no great poets; +our leading personage abroad of late seems to be the Honorable "Buffalo +Bill" [laughter], and we use our adjectives so recklessly that the +polite badinage indulged in toward each other by your New York editors +to us seems tame and spiritless. In mental achievement we may not have +fully acquired the use of the fork, and are "but in the gristle and not +yet hardened into the bone of manhood." We stand toward the East +somewhat as country to city cousins; about as New to Old England, only +we don't feel half so badly about it, and on the whole are rather +pleased with ourselves. [Laughter.] There is not in the whole broad West +a ranch so lonely or so remote that a public school is not within reach +of it. With generous help from the East, Western colleges are elevating +and directing Western thought, and men busy making States yet find time +to live manly lives and to lend a hand. All this may not be ćsthetic, +but it is virile, and it leads up and not down. Great poets, and those +who so touch the hearts of men that the vibration goes down the ages, +must often find their inspiration when wealth brings leisure to a class, +or must have "learned in suffering what they teach in song." We can wait +for our inspired ones; when they come, the work of this generation, +obscure and commonplace, will have paved the way for them; the general +intelligence diffused in this half century will, unknown or forgotten, +yet live in their numbers, and the vivid imaginations of our New England +ancestors, wasted in depicting the joys and torments of the world to +come, will, modified by the years, beautify and ennoble the cares of +this. [Applause.] + +There are some things even more important than the highest culture. The +West is the Almighty's reserve ground, and as the world is filling up. +He is turning even the old arid plains and deserts into fertile acres, +and is sending there the rain as well as the sunshine. A high and +glorious destiny awaits us; soon the balance of population will lie the +other side of the Mississippi, and the millions that are coming must +find waiting for them schools and churches, good government, and a happy +people: + + "Who love the land because it is their own, + And scorn to give aught other reason why; + Would shake hands with a King upon his throne, + And think it kindness to his Majesty." + +We are beginning to realize, however, that the invitation we have been +extending to all the world has been rather too general. So far we have +been able to make American citizens in fact as well as name out of the +foreign-born immigrants. The task was light while we had the honest and +industrious to deal with, but the character of some of the present +immigration has brought a conviction which we hope you share, that the +sacred rights of citizenship should be withheld from a certain class of +aliens in race and language, who seek the protection of this Government, +until they shall have at least learned that the red in our flag is +commingled with the white and blue and the stars. [Great applause.] + +In everything which pertains to progress in the West, the Yankee +reinforcements step rapidly to the front. Every year she needs more of +them, and as the country grows the annual demand becomes greater. +Genuine New Englanders are to be had on tap only in six small States, +and remembering this we feel that we have the right to demand that in +the future even more than in the past, the heads of the New England +households weary not in the good work. [Laughter and applause.] + +In these later days of "booms" and New Souths and Great Wests; when +everybody up North who fired a gun is made to feel that he ought to +apologize for it, and good fellowship everywhere abounds, there is a +sort of tendency to fuse; only big and conspicuous things are much +considered; and New England being small in area and most of her +distinguished people being dead, she is just now somewhat under an +eclipse. But in her past she has undying fame. You of New England and +her borders live always in the atmosphere of her glories; the scenes +which tell of her achievements are ever near at hand, and familiarity +and contact may rob them of their charms, and dim to your eyes their +sacredness. The sons of New England in the West revisit her as men who +make pilgrimage to some holy shrine, and her hills and valleys are still +instinct with noble traditions. In her glories and her history we claim +a common heritage, and we never wander so far away from her that with +each recurring anniversary of this day, our hearts do not turn to her +with renewed love and devotion for our beloved New England; yet-- + + "Not by Eastern windows only, + When daylight comes, comes in the light; + In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, + But Westward, look, the land is bright!" + +[Hearty applause.] + + + + +LORD WOLSELEY + +(GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY) + + +THE ARMY IN THE TRANSVAAL + + [Speech of Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of + the British Army, at a dinner given by the Authors' Club, London, + November 6, 1899. Dr. Conan Doyle presided.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I think that all people who know +anything about the Army should rejoice extremely that our first +experiment in mobilization has been as successful as it has been. +[Cheers.] + +Your Chairman has mentioned the name of one, a most intimate friend of +mine, the present Military Secretary. [Lord Lansdowne.] I think the +nation is very much indebted to him not only for the manner in which +this mobilization has been carried out, but still more so for having +laid the foundation on which our mobilization system is based, and for +making those preparations which led to its complete success. [Cheers.] +There are many other names I might mention, others who have also devoted +themselves for many years past in a very quiet manner, and with all the +ability which now, I am glad to say, so largely permeates the Army, to +making these preparations and to try to bring this curious army of ours +up to the level of the modern armies of the world. [Cheers.] + +Although I say it myself, I think I may claim for myself and for those +who have worked with me a certain meed of praise, for we have worked +under extreme difficulties. Not only under the ordinary difficulties in +dealing with a very complicated arrangement, but we have had to work in +the face of the most dire opposition on the part of a great number of +people who ought to have been the first to help us. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +Chairman has referred to the opposition of the Press; but that has been +nothing to the opposition we have met with in our own profession--the +profession of ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, when great reforms were +begun in the Army by the ablest War Secretary who has ever been in +office--I mean Lord Cardwell. His name is now almost forgotten by the +present generation, and also the names of many other distinguished +officers in their day, whose names were associated with many of the +brightest moments of English victory and English conquest, and who set +their faces honestly against alteration, and firmly believed that the +young men of those days were a set of madmen and a set of Radicals who +were anxious to overturn not only the British Army, but the whole +British Constitution with it. [Laughter.] This prejudice spread into +high places, until at last we were looked upon as a party of faddists +who ought to be banished to the farthest part of our dominions. [Renewed +laughter.] But I am glad to say that the tree we planted then took root, +and there gradually grew up around us a body of young officers, men +highly instructed in their profession, who supported us, carried us +through, and enabled us to arrive at the perfection which, I think, we +have now attained. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +There has been abroad in the Army for a great many years an earnest +desire on the part of a large section, certainly, to make themselves +worthy of the Army and worthy of the nation by whom they were paid, and +for whose good they existed. That feeling has become more intensified +every year, and at the present moment, if you examine the Army List, you +will find that almost all the Staff Officers recently gone out to South +Africa have been educated at the Staff College, established to teach the +higher science of our profession and to educate a body of men who will +be able to conduct the military affairs of the country when it comes to +their turn to do so. Those men are now arriving at the top of the tree, +thank God! while many of those magnificent old soldiers under whom I was +brought up have disappeared from the face of the earth, and others who +are to be seen at the clubs have come round--they have been converted in +their last moments [laughter]; they have the frankness to tell you they +made a mistake. They recognize that they were wrong and that we were +right. [Cheers.] + +I quite endorse what the Chairman says about the success of the +mobilization, and I will slightly glance at the state of affairs as they +at present exist in South Africa. I have the advantage of having spent +some time in South Africa, and of having been--not only General +Commanding, but Governor and High Commissioner, with high-sounding +titles given me by her Majesty. I know, consequently, not only a little +of South Africa, but a good deal of Boer character. During my stay as +Governor of the Transvaal, I had many opportunities of knowing people +whom you have recently seen mentioned as the principal leaders in this +war against us. There are many traits in their character for which I +have the greatest possible admiration. They are a very strongly +conservative people--I do not mean in a political sense at all, but they +were, I found, anxious to preserve and conserve all that was best in the +institutions handed down to them from their forefathers. But of all the +ignorant people in that world that I have ever been brought into contact +with, I will back the Boers of South Africa as the most ignorant. At the +same time they are an honest people. When the last President of the +Transvaal handed over the government to us--and I may say, within +parentheses, that the last thing an Englishman would do under the +circumstances would be to look in the till--there was only 4_s._ 6_d._ +to the credit of the Republic. [Laughter.] Within a few weeks or days of +the hoisting of the British flag in the Transvaal a bill for Ł4 10_s._ +4_d._ came in against the Boer Government, and was dishonored. [Renewed +laughter.] The Boers at that time--perhaps we did not manage them +properly--certainly set their face against us, and things have gone on +from bad to worse, until the aspiration now moving them is that they +should rule not only the Transvaal, but that they should rule the whole +of South Africa. That is the point which I think English people must +keep before them. There's no question about ruling the Transvaal or the +Orange Free State--the one great question that has to be fought out +between the Dutch in South Africa and the English race is, which is to +be the predominant Power--whether it is to be the Boer Republic or the +English Monarchy. [Cheers.] Well, if I at all understand and know the +people of this nation, I can see but one end to it, and it will be the +end that we hope for and have looked for. [Cheers.] + +But I would warn every man who takes an interest in this subject not to +imagine that war can be carried on like a game of chess or some other +game in which the most powerful intellect wins from the first. War is a +game of ups and downs, and you may rest assured that it is impossible to +read in history of any campaign that it has been a march of triumph from +beginning to end. Therefore, if at the present moment we are suffering +from disappointments, believe me, those disappointments are in many ways +useful to us. We have found that the enemy who declared war against +us--for they are the aggressors--are much more powerful and numerous +than we anticipated. But at the same time, believe me, that anything +that may have taken place lately to dishearten the English people has +had a good effect--it has brought us as a nation closer together. The +English-speaking people of the world have put their foot down, and +intend to carry this thing through, no matter what may be the +consequence. [Cheers.] + +I have the greatest possible confidence in British soldiers. I have +lived in their midst many years of my life, and I am quite certain of +this, that wherever their officers lead they will follow. If you look +over the list of our casualties lately, you will find that the British +officer has led them well. Certainly he has not spared himself; he has +not been in the background. [Cheers.] He has suffered unfortunately, and +expects to suffer, and ought to suffer; and I hope most sincerely and +truly, whatever may be in store for us, whatever battles there may be in +this war, that when we read the list of casualties there will be a very +large proportion of officers sufferers as well as men. It would be most +unworthy of our Army and of our nation if our officers did not lead, and +if they lead they must suffer as well as those who follow. I am +extremely obliged to you for the compliment that has been paid to me. It +has been a very great pleasure for me to come here. I had no idea I was +to listen to such an admirable speech from your Chairman. I thank you +sincerely for having listened to me, and hope you will make every +allowance for any defect in a speech which certainly had not been +prepared. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +WU TING-FANG + + +CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES + + [Speech of Wu Ting-Fang, Chinese Minister to the United States, at + the annual dinner of the New York Southern Society, New York City, + February 22, 1899. William M. Polk, the President of the Society, + occupied the chair. Minister Wu responded to the sentiment, "To our + newest and nearest neighbor on our Western border, the most ancient + of Empires, which until now has always been in the Far East, and to + her distinguished diplomatic representative--_persona grata_ to our + Government and to this Society."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--It is never too late to learn, and +since I have been here I have learned that my ancient country, which has +always been known as an Eastern country, has now turned to be a Western +country. I do not regret to hear this, because Western countries have +always been looked on as very powerful nations. [Applause.] In that +sense I would not be sorry to see my own country assume the position +that your Western countries have always taken. I do not know whether you +would wish to have your great Nation become an Eastern country in the +sense in which Eastern countries are popularly known. + +When the invitation to dine with you on this occasion was conveyed to me +I gladly accepted it because the occasion occurred on the anniversary of +the birth of George Washington, who is widely and popularly known as the +Father of your country. Long before I came to the United States as the +representative of my country, even when I was a boy, I had heard of +George Washington, and from what I could learn about him I formed a +profound respect for his name and memory. At this banquet you +appropriately recall to mind the noble character of your Washington, +his great deeds, and his unselfish devotion to his country. + +It is interesting to know that time changes not only the opinions of +individuals and parties, but also the traditional policy of a nation. I +understood when I was a boy that the policy of George Washington was to +confine his attention and his ambition to the country in which he +governed. That policy has been followed by all of his successors up to +very recently. [Laughter and applause.] But the recent momentous events +have necessitated a new departure. You have been driven to a position +that you never dreamed of before. You have entered the path of +Expansion, or, as some call it, Imperialism. + +If I understand your chairman correctly, Imperialism practically means +the power and wisdom to govern. This is not the first time that I have +heard such a definition of imperialism. I once heard an eminent American +divine say that imperialism meant civilization--in an American sense. +[Laughter.] He also added the word liberty, and with your permission I +would like to make a still further addition: that is, fairness, and just +treatment of all classes of persons without distinction of race or +color. [Cheers.] Well, you have the Philippines ceded to you, and you +are hesitating whether to keep them or not. I see in that very fact of +your hesitation an indication of your noble character. Suppose a +precious gift entailing obligations is tendered to a man; he would +accept it without any thought or hesitation if he were wholly lacking in +principle; but you hesitate because of your high moral character, and +your sense of responsibility. I express no opinion as to whether or not +you should keep the Philippines. That is for you to decide. I am +confident that when this question has been thoroughly threshed out, you +will come to the right decision. I will say this: China must have a +neighbor; and it is my humble opinion that it is better to have a good +neighbor than an indifferent one. + +Should your country decide to keep the Philippines, what would be the +consequences? A large trade has been carried on for centuries between +those islands and China. Your trade would be greatly increased and to +your benefit. Aside from this the American trade in China has been +increasing largely in the last few years. I have often been asked +whether we Chinamen are friendly to America. To show you how friendly we +are, I will tell you that we call your nation a "flowery flag" and that +we call your people "handsome." Such phrases clearly show that we are +favorably disposed toward you. If we did not like you, we would not have +given you such nice names. The officials of China, as well as the +people, like Americans, and our relations, officially and commercially, +are cordial. + +There is, however, one disturbing element--one unsatisfactory feature--I +refer to your Chinese Immigration law. Your people do not know and do +not understand my people. You have judged all of my people from the +Chinese in California. Your Chinese exclusion law has now been in +operation for fifteen or sixteen years, but it cannot be said to have +been satisfactory even to yourselves. Those laws were intended to keep +the Chinese cheap labor out of your country, but they have also kept out +the better class of my countrymen whom I am satisfied the laws did not +intend to exclude. I desire to throw no blame on any of your officials +for their zeal in enforcing the laws. They simply do their duty. But I +want to point out to you that those laws do not bring about the results +intended by your legislators. Besides, their existence gives the +impression in our country that your people do not like our people. I +personally know that is not so, but I would like to see this disturbing +element removed by a modification of the laws. Once remove that +disturbing element and our people would welcome your Americans to China +with open arms. + +As to the character of our people I can refer you only to those who have +been in China. I will refer you to the opinion of a man who for a great +many years was in China at the head of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank. +After twenty-five years' service, he resigned, and on the eve of his +departure he was given a banquet by foreigners, not by Chinese, mind; +and in the course of his speech he went out of his way to speak of his +relations with Chinese merchants. As I remember, the substance of his +speech was that during all those years in China, he had had dealings +with Chinese merchants aggregating hundreds of millions of dollars, and +he said that, large as were those dealings, he had never lost a cent +through any Chinese merchant. That testimony was given unsolicited by a +man long resident in China, and shows indisputably the character of our +merchants. + +Now that you have become our neighbor, and if you want to deal with +China, here is the class of people you have to deal with; and if you see +your way clear to modify the only obstacle that now stands in the way of +respectable Chinese coming here, and doing away with the false +impression in the minds of our people, I have no doubt that such a step +would redound to the benefit of both parties. If you look at the returns +furnished by your consuls or by our customs returns, you will find that +your trade in China has increased to a remarkable degree. China is +constructing a railway from north to south, and she is practically an +open door for your trade purposes. There is a great field for you there; +and with all our people favorably disposed toward you, I am sure you +will receive further benefits through the means of still further +increased trade. [Loud applause.] + + + + +WALTER WYMAN + + +SONS OF THE REVOLUTION + + [Speech of Surgeon-General Walter Wyman at the banquet given in + Washington, D. C., February 22, 1900, by the Society of the Sons of + the Revolution in the District of Columbia.] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--In behalf of the Society of the Sons of +the Revolution in the District of Columbia it becomes my pleasant duty +to bid you welcome on this occasion, the anniversary of the birthday of +George Washington, the Father of his country. + +The Society of the Sons of the Revolution was founded in 1883, in New +York, its purpose, as expressed by the Constitution, being "to +perpetuate the memory of the men, who, in the military, naval, and civic +service of the Colonies and of the Continental Congress, by their acts +and counsel achieved the independence of the Country." The New York +Society, to be historically correct, was instituted February 22, 1876, +but was reorganized in 1883, when the General Society was formed. State +Societies were subsequently formed in Alabama, California, Colorado, +Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, +Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, +Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, +State of Washington, and West Virginia, there being, therefore, +thirty-one State Societies, with a total membership of 6,031. The +District of Columbia Society was formed in 1889, and now numbers over +two hundred and fifty members. + +The object of these Societies is not, as some may imagine, to indulge a +pride of ancestry, or to establish exclusive organizations with a +membership dependent upon the deeds of forefathers for its own +distinction, but rather to encourage and stimulate a desire for +knowledge of the problems which were presented to, and the circumstances +which confronted our revolutionary forefathers; to study their courage +and wisdom in council and their valor in war, which resulted in the +establishment of a Republic, the most potent in the history of the +world. + +The illumination of the past is useless unless its rays are made to +penetrate into the present, bestowing guidance and confidence. The +records of our forefathers, therefore, are brought forth and published +to the world, chiefly to stimulate ourselves to like courage and +devotion should occasion arise. + +The patriotism displayed by both the North and the South during the War +of the Rebellion, and the patriotism displayed during the recent +Spanish-American War, are evidences that true American spirit is as +strong to-day as it was in the days which gave birth to our Republic. +The associations now in existence, having their origin in the War of the +Rebellion and the Spanish-American War, are similar in their aim and +objects to the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. This Society seeks +to preserve the records of the founders of the Republic, to cause these +records to be published and preserved in permanent form--not only those +which are to be found in the archives of the Nation and of the States, +but fragmentary facts of vast interest, in the hands of private +individuals, which would otherwise become lost or forgotten. It erects +monuments to commemorate the lives of distinguished men, and mural +tablets to signalize important events; it establishes prize essays for +competition among school children on subjects relating to the American +Revolution, and seeks to inspire respect and affection for the flag of +the Union. + +The numerous celebrations and excursions to points of historical +interest, of the District of Columbia Society, within the past ten +years, must still be fresh in the minds of many among this audience. +Each Fourth of July, each Washington's Birthday, as well as on other +occasions within the past ten years, has this Society indulged in +patriotic celebration. The celebration of to-day is of peculiar +significance. Questions, second only in importance to those which +confronted Washington, are before us. The Nation is entering upon a +career of influence and beneficence which even Washington never dreamed +of. Questions of government, involving the rights of men, the +responsibilities of the strong in their relations to the weak, the +promulgation of freedom without license, are problems facing the +American Congress and the people to-day. The force of events has +extended the responsibility of these United States to Cuba, Porto Rico, +Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa. + +During the events of the past two years every thinking man and woman +must have been impressed by the gravity of the problems with which our +present Chief Executive has been forced to grapple: problems that have +demanded of him many of the great qualities which distinguished our +first President. These problems involved a steady adherence to what is +right, a lofty patriotism sinking the individual in the consideration of +the public good. Firmness before the enemy, buoyancy and strength before +friends, and humility before the Creator who disposes of all things. +These are elements of character which not only distinguished George +Washington, but which I am only echoing public sentiment in saying +likewise have distinguished our present Chief Executive, and inspired an +affection for and a confidence in the name of William McKinley. + +It is peculiarly befitting at this time, therefore, to study those +characteristics of great men which enable them to meet great emergencies +and at the same time preserve their own simplicity and nobility of +character untainted by selfishness. Of the living we may not speak too +freely, but every act and sentiment of him "who by his unwearied +exertions in the cabinet and in the field achieved for us the glorious +revolution," is ours for contemplation and comment. Both time and place +are singularly appropriate. In this city bearing his name, facing the +noble shaft erected to his memory, within the territory which he most +frequented, and almost in sight of his stately home on the Potomac, it +is befitting that we here celebrate his natal day. [Prolonged applause.] + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Robert G. Ingersoll. + +[2] Jay Gould. + +[3] TRANSLATION.--Will you kindly allow me to make my speech in +French? If I address you in a tongue that I do not speak, and that no +one here understands, I must lay the entire blame on that unfortunate +example of Mr. Coudert. What I desire to say is-- + +[4] TRANSLATION.--When the heart is full it overflows, and this +evening my heart is full of France, but-- + +[5] Henry W. Grady. + +[6] Glaucopis. + +[7] Allusion to John T. Hoffman, who occupied the post of Recorder +previous to his election as Mayor. + +[8] Mrs. Ripley. + +[9] Charles Cotesworth Beaman. + +[10] Horace Porter. + +[11] Harriet Beecher Stowe, died July 1, 1896. + +[12] Abraham Lincoln. + +[13] Professor Woodrow Wilson was, at the suggestion of the retiring +president (Francis Landey Patton) of Princeton University, unanimously +elected to fill his place as president, June 9, 1902. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol III, +After-Dinner Speeches P-Z, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + +***** This file should be named 18422-8.txt or 18422-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/2/18422/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 19, 2006 [EBook #18422] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img-decoration.jpg" alt="decoration" title="decoration" /></div> + + +<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img-frontispiece.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" title="Frontispiece" /></div> + +<p class='center'><i>PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN</i></p> + +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. Potts</i></p> + +<p class='center'>An admirable conception of the old story of an early Puritan courtship +famous in song and story, and made use of by many New England orators.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img-title.jpg" alt="Title Page" title="Title Page" /></div> + + + + <h1>MODERN</h1> + + <h1>ELOQUENCE</h1> + + + <h3>EDITOR<br /> + + THOMAS B REED</h3> + + + <h3>ASSOCIATE EDITORS<br /> + JUSTIN McCARTHY · ROSSITER JOHNSON<br /> + + ALBERT ELLERY BERGH<br /></h3> + + + + + + + <h2>VOLUME III<br /> + + After-Dinner<br /> + + Speeches<br /> + + P-Z</h2> + + + <p class='center'>GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO.<br /> + CHICAGO</p> + + +<p class='center'>Copyright, 1903<br /> +JOHN R SHUMAN<br /><br /></p> + +<h3><i>COMMITTEE OF SELECTION</i></h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Everett Hale</span>, Author of "The Man Without a Country."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">John B. Gordon</span>, Former United States Senator.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nathan Haskell Dole</span>, Associate Editor "International Library of +Famous Literature."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">James B. Pond</span>, Manager Lecture Bureau; Author of +"Eccentricities of Genius."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George McLean Harper</span>, Professor of English Literature, +Princeton University.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lorenzo Sears</span>, Professor of English Literature, Brown +University.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edwin M. Bacon</span>, Former Editor "Boston Advertiser" and "Boston +Post."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">J. Walker McSpadden</span>, Managing Editor "Édition Royale" of +Balzac's Works.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">F. Cunliffe Owen</span>, Member Editorial Staff "New York Tribune."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Truman A. DeWeese</span>, Member Editorial Staff "Chicago +Times-Herald."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Champ Clark</span>, Member of Congress from Missouri.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marcus Benjamin</span>, Editor, National Museum, Washington, D. C.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Clark Howell</span>, Editor "Atlanta Constitution."<br /><br /></p> + + +<h3>INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES BY</h3> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES"> +<tr><td align='left'>Thomas B. Reed,</td><td align='left'>Hamilton Wright Mabie,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lorenzo Sears,</td><td align='left'>Jonathan P. Dolliver,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Champ Clark,</td><td align='left'>Edward Everett Hale,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan="2">Albert Ellery Bergh.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.—A large number of the most distinguished speakers of +this country and Great Britain have selected their own best speeches for +this Library. These speakers include Whitelaw Reid, William Jennings +Bryan, Henry van Dyke, Henry M. Stanley, Newell Dwight Hillis, Joseph +Jefferson, Sir Henry Irving, Arthur T. Hadley, John D. Long, David Starr +Jordan, and many others of equal note.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><i>CONTENTS</i></h2> + +<h3>VOLUME III</h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Page, Thomas Nelson</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Torch of Civilization</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_861'><b>861</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palmer, George M.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Lawyer in Politics</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_872'><b>872</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palmerston, Lord (Henry John Temple)</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Illusions Created by Art</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_876'><b>876</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Paxton, John R.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Scotch-Irishman's Views of the Puritan</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_880'><b>880</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Phelps, Edward John</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Farewell Address</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_887'><b>887</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pinero, Arthur Wing</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Drama</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_892'><b>892</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Porter, Horace</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Men of Many Inventions</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_897'><b>897</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">How to Avoid the Subject</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_904'><b>904</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Trip Abroad with Depew</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_908'><b>908</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Woman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_913'><b>913</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Friendliness of the French</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_919'><b>919</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Citizen Soldier</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_924'><b>924</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Many-Sided Puritan</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_928'><b>928</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Abraham Lincoln</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_931'><b>931</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sires and Sons</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_935'><b>935</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Assimilated Dutchman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_939'><b>939</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tribute to General Grant</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_944'><b>944</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Porter, Noah</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Teachings of Science and Religion</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_950'><b>950</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Potter, Henry Codman</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Church</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_955'><b>955</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pryor, Roger Atkinson</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Virginia's Part in American History</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_959'><b>959</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Quincy, Josiah</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Welcome to Dickens</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_964'><b>964</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Raymond, Andrew V. V.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Dutch as Enemies</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_970'><b>970</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Read, Opie P.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Modern Fiction</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_976'><b>976</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Reid, Whitelaw</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Press—Right or Wrong</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_979'><b>979</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_981'><b>981</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Robbins, W. L.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Pulpit and the Bar</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_985'><b>985</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Roche, James Jeffrey</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Press</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_988'><b>988</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Roosa, D. B. St. John</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Salt of the Earth</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_992'><b>992</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Roosevelt, Theodore</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Hollander as an American</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_998'><b>998</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">True Americanism and Expansion</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1002'><b>1002</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rosebery, Lord</span> (<span class="smcap">Archibald Philip Primrose</span>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Portrait and Landscape Painting</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1008'><b>1008</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sala, George Augustus</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Friend and Foe</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1014'><b>1014</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Salisbury, Lord</span> (<span class="smcap">Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil</span>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kitchener in Africa</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1018'><b>1018</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sampson, William Thomas</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Victory in Superior Numbers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1023'><b>1023</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Schenck, Noah Hunt</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Truth and Trade</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1026'><b>1026</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Schley, Winfield Scott</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Navy in Peace and in War</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1031'><b>1031</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Schliemann, Heinrich</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Beginnings of Art</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1034'><b>1034</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Schurz, Carl</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Old World and the New</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1036'><b>1036</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Seward, William H.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Pious Pilgrimage</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1042'><b>1042</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sherman, William Tecumseh</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Army and Navy</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1046'><b>1046</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Reminiscence of the War</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1051'><b>1051</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Smith, Ballard</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Press of the South</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1057'><b>1057</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Smith, Charles Emory</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ireland's Struggles</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1059'><b>1059</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The President's Prelude</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1062'><b>1062</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Spencer, Herbert</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Gospel of Relaxation</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1067'><b>1067</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">America Visited</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1073'><b>1073</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Stanley, Henry Morton</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Through the Dark Continent</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1077'><b>1077</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Stedman, Edmund Clarence</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tribute to Richard Henry Stoddard</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1085'><b>1085</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Stephen, Leslie</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Critic</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1091'><b>1091</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Storrs, Richard Salter</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Victory at Yorktown</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1094'><b>1094</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Stryker, William Scudder</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dutch Heroes of the New World</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1104'><b>1104</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sullivan, Sir Arthur</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Music</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1108'><b>1108</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sumner, Charles</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Intercourse with China</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1110'><b>1110</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Qualities that Win</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1115'><b>1115</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Talmage, Thomas Dewitt</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Behold the American!</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1122'><b>1122</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">What I Know about the Dutch</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1128'><b>1128</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Taylor, Bayard</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tribute to Goethe</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1136'><b>1136</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Thompson, Slason</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Ethics of the Press</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1139'><b>1139</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tilton, Theodore</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Woman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1142'><b>1142</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Twichell, Joseph Hopkins</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yankee Notions</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1147'><b>1147</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Soldier Stamp</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tyndall, John</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Art and Science</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1160'><b>1160</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Van de Water, George Roe</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dutch Traits</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1162'><b>1162</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Verdery, Marion J.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The South in Wall Street</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1168'><b>1168</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wales, Prince of</span> (<span class="smcap">Albert Edward</span>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Colonies</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1175'><b>1175</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wallace, Hugh C.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Southerner in the West</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1178'><b>1178</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ward, Samuel Baldwin</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Medical Profession</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1182'><b>1182</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Warner, Charles Dudley</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Rise of "The Atlantic"</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1186'><b>1186</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Watterson, Henry</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our Wives</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1189'><b>1189</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Puritan, and the Cavalier</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1191'><b>1191</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wayland, Heman Lincoln</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Force of Ideas</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1197'><b>1197</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Causes of Unpopularity</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1201'><b>1201</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Webster, Daniel</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Constitution and the Union</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1210'><b>1210</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wheeler, Joseph</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The American Soldier</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1220'><b>1220</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Whipple, Edwin Percy</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">China Emerging from Her Isolation</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1225'><b>1225</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Sphere of Woman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1229'><b>1229</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">White, Andrew Dickson</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Commerce and Diplomacy</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1232'><b>1232</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wiley, Harvey Washington</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Ideal Woman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1240'><b>1240</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wilson, Woodrow</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our Ancestral Responsibilities</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1248'><b>1248</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Winslow, John</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The First Thanksgiving Day</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1253'><b>1253</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Winter, William</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tribute to John Gilbert</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1257'><b>1257</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tribute to Lester Wallack</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1260'><b>1260</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Winthrop, Robert C.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Ottoman Empire</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1263'><b>1263</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wise, John Sergeant</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Captain John Smith</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1266'><b>1266</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Legal Profession</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1271'><b>1271</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wolcott, Edward Oliver</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Bright Land to Westward</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1273'><b>1273</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wolseley, Lord</span> (<span class="smcap">Garnet Joseph Wolseley</span>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Army in the Transvaal</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1280'><b>1280</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wu Ting-fang</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">China and the United States</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1284'><b>1284</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wyman, Walter</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sons of the Revolution</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1288'><b>1288</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<h3>VOLUME III</h3> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Priscilla and John Alden</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#frontis'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. Potts</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">Law</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href='#law'><b>872</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">panel by Frederick Dielman</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Horace Porter</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#porter'><b>897</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph from life</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Minute Man</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#minuteman'><b>936</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#roosevelt'><b>998</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph from life</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lord Rosebery</span> (<span class="smcap">Archibald Philip Primrose</span>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#rosebery'><b>1008</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph from life</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Henry Watterson</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#watterson'><b>1189</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph from life</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The National Monument To the Forefathers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#nationalmon'><b>1210</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Photogravure after a photograph</span></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_861" id="Page_861">[Pg 861]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THOMAS NELSON PAGE</h2> + + +<h4>THE TORCH OF CIVILIZATION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Thomas Nelson Page at the twentieth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1899. The +President, Frederic A. Ward, said: "In these days of blessed amity, +when there is no longer a united South or a disunited North, when +the boundary of the North is the St. Lawrence and the boundary of +the South the Rio Grande, and Mason and Dixon's Line is forever +blotted from the map of our beloved country, and the nation has +grown color-blind to blue and gray, it is with peculiar pleasure +that we welcome here to-night a distinguished and typical +representative of that noble people who live in that part of the +present North that used to be called Dixie, of whom he has himself +so beautifully and so truly said, 'If they bore themselves +haughtily in their hour of triumph, they bore defeat with splendid +fortitude. Their entire system crumbled and fell around them in +ruins; they remained unmoved; they suffered the greatest +humiliation of modern times; their slaves were put over them; they +reconquered their section and preserved the civilization of the +Anglo-Saxon.' It is not necessary, ladies and gentlemen, that I +should introduce the next speaker to you, for I doubt not that you +all belong to the multitude of mourners, who have wept real tears +with black Sam and Miss Annie beside the coffin of Marse Chan; but +I will call upon our friend, Thomas Nelson Page, to respond to the +next toast, 'The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the Other.'"]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>:—I did not remember that I had written +anything as good as that which my friend has just quoted. It sounded to +me, as he quoted it, very good indeed. At any rate, it is very true, +and, perhaps, that it is true is the reason that you have done me the +honor to invite me here to-night. I have been sitting for an hour in +such a state of tremulousness and fright, facing this audience I was to +address, that the ideas I had carefully gathered together have, I fear, +rather taken flight; but I shall give them to you as they come, though +they may not be in quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_862" id="Page_862">[Pg 862]</a></span> as good order as I should like them. The gift +of after-dinner speaking is one I heard illustrated the other day very +well at a dinner at which my friend, Judge Bartlett and I were present. +A gentleman told a story of an English bishop travelling in a +third-class railway carriage with an individual who was swearing most +tremendously, originally, and picturesquely, till finally the bishop +said to him: "My dear sir, where in the world did you learn to swear in +that extraordinary manner?" And he said, "It can't be learned, it is a +gift." After-dinner speaking is a gift I have often envied, ladies and +gentlemen, and as I have not it I can only promise to tell you what I +really think on the subject which I am here to speak about to-night.</p> + +<p>I feel that in inviting me here as the representative of the South to +speak on this occasion, I could not do you any better honor than to tell +you precisely what I do think and what those, I in a manner represent, +think; and I do not know that our views would differ very materially +from yours. I could not, if I would, undertake merely to be entertaining +to you. I am very much in that respect like an old darky I knew of down +in Virginia, who on one occasion was given by his mistress some +syllabub. It was spiced a little with—perhaps—New England rum, or +something quite as strong that came from the other side of Mason and +Dixon's Line, but still was not very strong. When he got through she +said, "How did you like that?" He said, "If you gwine to gimme foam, +gimme foam; but if you gwine to gimme dram, gimme dram." You do not want +from me syllabub I am sure.</p> + +<p>When I came here I had no idea that I was to address so imposing an +assemblage as this. I had heard about forefathers and knew that there +were foremothers also, but did not know that they were going to grace +this assembly with their presence as they do to-night. When a youngster, +I was told by an old gentleman, before the day of the unhappy +stenographer, "You can go out in the world all right if you have four +speeches. If you have one for the Fourth of July, one for a tournament +address, one to answer the toast to 'Woman,' and the fourth 'to sweep +all creation.'" I thought of bringing with me my Fourth of July speech. +If I had known I was going to address this audience I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_863" id="Page_863">[Pg 863]</a></span> have +brought along the one that answered the toast to "Woman."</p> + +<p>But I do not know any man in the world better prepared to address you on +the subject of my toast, "The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the +Other," than myself, for I married a lady from the North. She +represented in her person the blood both of Virginia and of New England. +Her mother was a Virginian and her father a gentleman from New +Hampshire; consequently, as I have two young daughters, who always +declare themselves Yankees, I am here to speak with due gratitude to +both sections, and with strong feeling for both sections to-night.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that the two sections which we have all heard talked +about so much in the past, have been gradually merging into one, and +Heaven knows I hope there may never be but one again. In the nature of +things it was impossible at first that there could be only one, but of +late the one great wall that divided them has passed away, and, standing +here facing you to-night, I feel precisely as I should if I were +standing facing an audience of my own dear Virginians. There is no +longer division among us. They say that the South became reconciled and +showed its loyalty to the Union first at the time of the war with Spain. +It is not true; the South became reconciled and showed its loyalty to +the Union after Appomattox. When Lee laid down his arms and accepted the +terms of the magnanimous Grant, the South rallied behind him, and he +went to teach peace and amity and union to his scholars at Lexington, to +the sons of his old soldiers. It is my pride that I was one of the +pupils at that university, which bears the doubly-honored names of +Washington and Lee. He taught us only fealty to the Union and to the +flag of the Union. He taught us also that we should never forget the +flag under which our fathers fought during the Civil War. With it are +embalmed the tears, the holy memories that cluster thick around our +hearts, and I should be unworthy to stand and talk to you to-night as an +honorable man if I did not hold in deepest reverence that flag that +represented the spirit that actuated our fathers. It stood for the +principles of liberty, and, strange as it may seem, both sides, though +fighting under different banners, fought for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_864" id="Page_864">[Pg 864]</a></span> same principles seen +from different sides. It has not interfered with our loyalty to the +Union since that flag was furled.</p> + +<p>I do not, however, mean to drift into that line of thought. I do not +think that it is really in place here to-night, but I want you to know +how we feel at the South. Mason and Dixon's Line is laid down on no map +and no longer laid down in the memory of either side. The Mason and +Dixon's Line of to-day is that which circumscribes this great Union, +with all its advantages, all its hopes, and all its aspirations. This is +the Mason and Dixon's Line for us to-day, and as a representative of the +South, I am here to speak to you on that account. We do owe—these two +sections do owe—each other a great deal. But I will tell you what we +owe each other more, perhaps, than anything else. When this country was +settled for us it was with sparsely scattered settlements, ranging along +the Atlantic coast. When the first outside danger threatened it, the two +sections immediately drew together. New England had formed her own +confederation, and at the South the Carolinas and Virginia had a +confederation of their own, though not so compact; but the first thing +formed when danger threatened this country was a committee of safety, +which immediately began correspondence among the several colonies, and +it was the fact that these very colonies stood together in the face of +danger, shoulder to shoulder, and back to back, that enabled us to +achieve what we did achieve.</p> + +<p>Standing here, on this great anniversary at the very end of the century, +facing the new century, it is impossible that one should not look back, +and equally impossible that one should not look forward. We are just at +the close of what we call, and call rightly, a century of great +achievements. We pride ourselves upon the work this country has +accomplished. We point to a government based upon the consent of the +governed, such as the world has never seen; wealth which has been piled +up such as no country has ever attained within that time, or double or +quadruple that time. It is such a condition of life as never existed in +any other country. From Mount Desert to the Golden Gate, yes, from the +islands which Columbus saw, thinking he had found the East Indies, to +the East Indies themselves, where,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_865" id="Page_865">[Pg 865]</a></span> even as I speak, the American flag +is being planted, our possessions and our wealth extend. We have, though +following the arts of peace, an army ready to rise at the sound of the +bugle greater than Rome was ever able to summon behind her golden +eagles. We are right to call it a century of achievement. We pride +ourselves upon it. Now, who achieved that? Not we, personally; our +fathers achieved it; your fathers and my fathers; your fathers, when +they left England and set their prows westward and landed upon the +rock-bound coast; when they drew up their compact of civil government, +which was a new thing in the history of the world. We did our part in +the South, and when the time came they staked all that they had upon the +principle of a government based only upon the consent of the governed.</p> + +<p>We pride ourselves upon the fact that we can worship God according to +the dictates of our own conscience. We speak easily of God, "whose +service is perfect freedom," but it was not we, but our fathers who +achieved that. Our fathers "left us an heritage, and it has brought +forth abundantly."</p> + +<p>I say this to draw clearly the line between mere material wealth and +that which is the real wealth and welfare of a people. We are rich, but +our fathers were poor. How did they achieve it? Not by their wealth, but +by their character—by their devotion to principle. When I was thinking +of the speech I was to make here to-night, I asked the descendant of a +New Englander what he would say was the best thing that the fathers had +left to the country. He thought for a second and made me a wise answer. +He said, "I think it was their character." That is indeed the heritage +they left us; they left us their character. Wealth will not preserve +that which they left us; not wealth, not power, not "dalliance nor wit" +will preserve it; nothing but that which is of the spirit will preserve +it, nothing but character.</p> + +<p>The whole story of civilization speaks this truth with trumpet voice. +One nation rises upon the ruins of another nation. It is when Samson +lies in the lap of Delilah that the enemy steals upon him and ensnares +him and binds him. It was when the great Assyrian king walked through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_866" id="Page_866">[Pg 866]</a></span> +his palace, and looking around him said in his pride, "Is not this great +Babylon that I have built for the honor of the kingdom and for the honor +of my majesty?" that the voice came to him, even while the words were in +the king's mouth (saith the chronicle), "Thy kingdom is departed from +thee." It was when Belshazzar sat feasting in his Babylonian palace, +with his lords and ladies, eating and drinking out of the golden vessels +that had been sacred to the Lord, that the writing came upon the wall, +"Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Not only in the +palace, but all through the great city there was feasting and dancing. +Why should they not feast and why should they not dance? They were +secure, with walls that were 350 feet high, eighty-five feet thick, with +a hundred brazen gates, the city filled with greater wealth than had +ever been brought before within walls. But out in the country a few +hardy mountaineers had been digging ditches for some time. Nobody took +much account of them, yet even that night, in the midst of Belshazzar's +luxury and feasting, the veteran troops of Cyrus were marching silently +under the dripping walls, down the bed of the lowered Euphrates, so that +that which had been the very passageway of Babylon's wealth became the +pathway of her ruin.</p> + +<p>Unless we preserve the character and the institutions our fathers gave +us we will go down as other nations have gone. We may talk and theorize +as much as we please, but this is the law of nature—the stronger pushes +the weaker to the wall and takes its place.</p> + +<p>In the history of civilization first one nation rises and becomes the +torch-bearer, and then another takes the torch as it becomes stronger, +the stronger always pushing the weaker aside and becoming in its turn +the leader. So it has been with the Assyrian, and Babylonian, and +Median, and, coming on down, with the Greek, the Roman, the Frank, and +then came that great race, the Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic race, which seems to +me to-day to be the great torch-bearer for this and for the next coming +time. Each nation that has borne the torch of civilization has followed +some path peculiarly its own. Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, +Frank, all had their ideal of power—order and progress directed under +Supreme authority, main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_867" id="Page_867">[Pg 867]</a></span>tained by armed organization. We bear the torch +of civilization because we possess the principles of civil liberty, and +we have the character, or should have the character, which our fathers +have transmitted to us with which to uphold it. If we have it not, then +be sure that with the certainty of a law of nature some nation—it may +be one or it may be another—it may be Grecian or it may be Slav, +already knocking at our doors, will push us from the way, and take the +torch and bear it onward, and we shall go down.</p> + +<p>But I have no fear of the future. I think, looking around upon the +country at present, that even if it would seem to us at times that there +are gravest perils which confront us, that even though there may be +evidence of weakening in our character, notwithstanding this I say, I +believe the great Anglo-Saxon race, not only on the other side of the +water, but on this side of the water—and when I say the Anglo-Saxon +race I mean the great white, English-speaking race—I use the other term +because there is none more satisfactory to me—contains elements which +alone can continue to be the leaders of civilization, the elements of +fundamental power, abiding virtue, public and private. Wealth will not +preserve a state; it must be the aggregation of individual integrity in +its members, in its citizens, that shall preserve it. That integrity, I +believe, exists, deep-rooted among our people. Sometimes when I read +accounts of vice here and there eating into the heart of the people, I +feel inclined to be pessimistic; but when I come face to face with the +American and see him in his life, as he truly is; when I reflect on the +great body of our people that stretch from one side of this country to +the other, their homes perched on every hill and nestled in every +valley, and recognize the sterling virtue and the kind of character that +sustains it, built on the rock of those principles that our fathers +transmitted to us, my pessimism disappears and I know that not only for +this immediate time but for many long generations to come, with that +reservoir of virtue to draw from, we shall sustain and carry both +ourselves and the whole human race forward.</p> + +<p>There are many problems that confront us which we can only solve by the +exercise of our utmost courage and wisdom. I do not want anything I say +here this evening to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_868" id="Page_868">[Pg 868]</a></span> have in the least degree the complexion of a +political talk. I am like a friend of mine down in Virginia who told me +that he never could talk politics with a man, "Because," he says, "I am +that sort of a blanked fool that thinks if a man disagrees with him in +politics he has insulted him." Consequently, I am not discussing this +matter in any political sense whatever. But I feel quite sure, though I +see many men whose opinion I respect who disagree with me, that yet this +great people of ours is strong enough to carry through any obligations +whatever which they may take up. I have no fear, however it may cause +trouble, or may create difference and complication, of our extending our +flag in the way we have done of late. I know that I differ with a very +considerable section of the people of the South from whom I come, but I +have no question whatever that we possess the strength to maintain any +obligation that we assume, and I feel sure that in the coming years this +great race of ours will have shown strength and resolution enough not +only to preserve itself, to preserve the great heritage our fathers have +given us of civil liberty here, but also to carry it to the isles of the +sea, and, if necessary, to the nations beyond the sea. Of one thing I am +very sure, that had our fathers been called on to solve this problem +they would have solved it, not in the light of a hundred years ago, but +in that of the present.</p> + +<p>Among the problems that confront us we have one great problem, already +alluded to indirectly to-night. You do not have it here in the North as +we have it with us in the South, and yet, I think, it is a problem that +vitally concerns you too. There is no problem that can greatly affect +one section of this country that does not affect the other. As I came +into your city to-night I saw your great structure across the river +here, binding the two great cities together and making them one, and I +remember that as I came the last time into your beautiful bay down +yonder, I saw what seemed to be a mere web of gossamer, a bare hand's +breadth along the horizon. It seemed as if I might have swept it away +with my hand if I could have reached it, so airy and light it was in the +distance, but when I came close to it to-night I found that it was one +of the greatest structures that human intellect has ever devised. I saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_869" id="Page_869">[Pg 869]</a></span> +it thrilling and vibrating with every energy of our pulsating, modern +life. At a distance it looked as if the vessels nearest would strike it, +full head, and carry it away. When I reached it I saw that it was so +high, so vast, that the traffic of your great stream passed easily +backward and forward under it. So it is with some of these problems. +They may appear very small to you, ladies and gentlemen, or to us, when +seen at a distance—as though merely a hand-sweep would get rid of them; +but I tell you they are too vast to be moved easily.</p> + +<p>There is one that with us overshadows all the rest. The great +Anglo-Saxon race in the section of this country containing the +inhabitants of the South understands better than you do the gravity of +that great problem which confronts them. It is "like the pestilence that +walketh in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday." It +confronts us all the day; it is the spectre that ever sits beside our +bed. No doubt we make mistakes about it; no doubt there are outbreaks +growing out of some phases of it that astound, and shock, and stun you, +as they do ourselves. But believe me, the Anglo-Saxon race has set +itself, with all its power, to face it and to overcome it; to solve it +in some way, and in the wisest way. Have patience and it will be solved. +Time is the great solver, and time alone. If you knew the problem as I +do, my words would have more weight with you than they have. I cannot, +perhaps, expect you even to understand entirely what I am saying to you, +but when I tell you that it is the greatest problem that at present +faces the South, as it has done for the last thirty years, I am saying +it to you as an American—one of yourselves, who wants to get at the +right, and get at the truth, and who will get on his knees and thank God +for anyone who will tell him how to solve the problem and meet the +dangers that are therein.</p> + +<p>Those dangers are not only for us, they are for you. The key to it, in +our opinion, is that to which I alluded but just now; that for the +present, at least, the white race is the torch-bearer of civilization, +not only for itself, but for the world. There is only one thing that I +can say assuredly, and that is that never again will that element of the +white race, the white people of the South, any more than you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_870" id="Page_870">[Pg 870]</a></span> of the +North, consent to be dominated by any weaker race whatsoever. And on +this depends your salvation, no less than ours. Some of you may remember +that once, during that great siege of Petersburg, which resulted, in the +beginning of April, 1865, in the capture of the city and the overthrow +of the Confederacy, there was an attempt made to mine the hitherto +impregnable lines of General Lee. Finally, one cold morning, the mine +was sprung, and a space perhaps double the length of one of your squares +was blown up, carrying everything adjacent into the air and making a +breach in the lines. Beside a little stream under the hill in the Union +lines was massed a large force, a section of which, in front, was +composed of negroes. They were hurried forward to rush the breach that +had been created. They were wild with the ardor of battle. As it +happened, a part of the gray line which had held the adjacent trenches, +knowing the peril, had thrown themselves, in the dim dawn of the +morning, across the newly made breach, and when they found the colored +troops rushing in they nerved themselves anew to the contest. I may say +to you calmly, after thirty odd years of experience with the negro race, +that it was well for the town of Petersburg that morning that that +attempt to carry the lines failed. That thin gray line there in the gray +dawn set themselves to meet the on-rushing columns and hold them till +knowledge of the attack spread and succor arrived. You may not agree +with me that what happened at that time is happening now; but I tell you +as one who has stood on the line, that we are not only holding it for +ourselves, but for you. It is the white people of the South that are +standing to-day between you and the dread problem that now confronts us. +They are the thin line of Anglo-Saxons who are holding the broken breach +with all their might till succor comes. And I believe the light will +come, the day will break and you yourselves stand shoulder to shoulder +with us, and then with this united, great American people we can face +not only the colored race at the South, but we can face all other races +of the world. That is what I look for and pray for, and there are many +millions of people who are doing the same to-night.</p> + +<p>Ladies and gentlemen, I am not speaking in any spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_871" id="Page_871">[Pg 871]</a></span> which I think +will challenge your serious criticism. We are ready to do all we can to +accord full justice to that people. I have many, many friends among +them. I know well what we owe to that race in the past. I am their +sincere well-wisher in the present and for the future. They are more +unfortunate than to blame; they have been misdirected, deceived. Not +only the welfare of the white people of the South and the welfare of the +white people of the North, but the salvation of the negro himself +depends upon the carrying out, in a wise way, the things which I have +outlined, very imperfectly, I know. When that shall be done we will find +the African race in America, instead of devoting its energies to the +uncomprehended and futile political efforts which have been its curse in +the past, devoting them to the better arts of peace, and then from that +race will come intellects and intellectual achievements which may +challenge and demand the recognition of the world. Then those intellects +will come up and take their places and be accorded their places, not +only willingly, but gladly. This is already the new line along which +they are advancing, and their best friends can do them no greater +service than to encourage and assist them in it; their worst enemy could +do them no greater injury than to deflect them from it.</p> + +<p>This is a very imperfect way, I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of +presenting the matter, but I hope you will accept it and believe that I +am sincere in it. Accept my assurance of the great pleasure I have had +in coming here this evening.</p> + +<p>I remember, when I was a boy, hearing your great fellow-townsman, Mr. +Beecher, in a lecture in Richmond, speak of this great city as "The +round-house of New York," in which, he said, the machinery that drove +New York and moved the world was cleaned and polished every night. I am +glad to be here, where you have that greatest of American achievements, +the American home and the American spirit. May it always be kept pure +and always at only the right fountains have its strength renewed. +[Prolonged applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_872" id="Page_872">[Pg 872]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GEORGE M. PALMER</h2> + + +<h4>THE LAWYER IN POLITICS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of George M. Palmer at the annual banquet of the New York +State Bar Association, given in Albany, January 18, 1899. President +Walter S. Logan introduced Mr. Palmer in the following words: "The +next speaker is the Hon. George M. Palmer, minority leader of the +Assembly. [Applause.] He is going to speak on 'The Lawyer in +Politics,' and I am very glad to assure you that his politics are +of the right kind."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President And Members of the Bar Association of the State of New +York</span>:—Through the generous impulse of your committee I enjoy the +privilege of responding to this toast. I was informed some four weeks +ago I would be called upon, the committee thinking I would require that +time in preparation, and I have devoted the entire time since in +preparing the address for this occasion. "The Lawyer in Politics." The +first inquiry of the lawyer and politician is, "What is there in it?" +[Laughter.] I mean by that, the lawyer says in a dignified way, "What +principle is involved, and how can I best serve my client, always +forgetting myself?" The politician, and not the statesman, says, "What +is in it?" Not for himself, oh, never. Not the lawyer in politics; but +"What is there in it for the people I represent? How can I best serve +them?"</p> + +<p>You may inquire what is there in this toast for you. Not very much. You +remember the distinguished jurist who once sat down to a course dinner +similar to this. He had been waited on by one servant during two +courses. He had had the soup. Another servant came to him and said, +"Sir, shall I take your order? Will you have some of the chicken soup?" +"No, sir; I have been served with chicken soup, but the chicken proved +an alibi." [Laughter.] A <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_873" id="Page_873">[Pg 873]</a></span>distinguished judge in this presence said he +was much indebted to the Bar. I am very glad to say that the lawyer in +politics formed a resolution on the first day of last January to square +himself with the Bar, and he now stands without any debt. [Laughter.] I +remember a reference made by the distinguished gentleman to a case that +was tried by a young, struggling attorney. I also remember a young judge +who appeared in one of the rural counties, who sat and heard a case very +similar to the one to which reference was made, and I remember the fight +of the giants before him. Points were raised of momentous importance. +They were to affect the policy of the State. One lawyer insisted upon +the correctness of an objection and succeeded. He felt so elated over +that success he in a short time objected again, and the judge ruled +against him, but in his ardor he argued with the court. "Why, I can't +conceive why you make this ruling." "Why," the judge says, "I have just +ruled with you once, I must rule with the other fellow this time." +[Laughter.]<br /><br /></p> + +<blockquote><p class='center'>REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, +WASHINGTON</p> +<p><a name="law" id="law"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img872.jpg" alt="LAW" title="LAW" /></div> + +<h4><i>"LAW"</i></h4> + +<p class='center'><i>Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic panel by Frederick +Dielman</i></p> + +<p>The mosaics by Mr. Dielman are remarkable for their wealth of color and +detail—properties so elusive as to defy the reproducer's art. But the +picture here given preserves the fundamental idea of the artist. "Law" +is typified by the central figure of a woman seated on a marble throne +and holding in one hand the sword of punishment, and in the other the +palm branch of reward. She wears on her breast the Ægis of Minerva. On +the steps of the throne are the scales of Justice, the book of Law and +the white doves of Mercy. On her right are the emblematic figures of +Truth, Peace, and Industry, on her left are Fraud, Discord, and +Violence. "Law" is a companion piece to "History."<br /><br /></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>"The Lawyer in Politics." It is sometimes a question which way the +lawyer will start when he enters politics. I remember reading once of a +distinguished lawyer who had a witness upon the stand. He was +endeavoring to locate the surroundings of a building in which an +accident occurred, and he had put a female witness on the stand. "Now +the location of the door: please give it," and she gave it in a timid +way. "Will you now kindly give the location of the hall in which the +accident occurred?" She gave it. "Now," he says, "we have arrived at the +stairs; will you kindly tell me which way the stairs run?" She became a +little nervous and she says, "I will tell you the best I can; if you are +at the foot of the stairs they run up, and if you are to the top of the +stairs they run down." [Laughter.] So sometimes it is pretty important +to find out which way the lawyer is going when he enters in politics. He +should be tried and tested before being permitted to enter politics, in +my judgment, and while the State is taking upon itself the paternal +control of all our professions and business industries, it seems to me +they should have a civil service examination for the lawyer before he +enters the realm of politics.</p> + +<p>A lawyer that I heard of, coming from a county down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_874" id="Page_874">[Pg 874]</a></span> river—a county +that has produced distinguished judges who have occupied positions on +the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the State—said of a +lawyer there who had been in politics, that he had started with bright +prospects, but had become indebted to the Bar during his period in +politics. He had gone back and had taken up the small cases, and yet in +his sober moments it was said the sparks of genius still exhibited +themselves at times. He was called upon to defend a poor woman at one +time who was arrested by a heartless corporation for stealing a lot of +their coal. He sobered up and squared himself before the jury, conducted +the examination of the case and the trial of it, and in a magnificent +burst of eloquence the case went to the jury. And after the jury +retired, he sat, while they deliberated, by his client. And finally the +jury came in. The foreman rose and said that "The jury find the +defendant not guilty." The distinguished lawyer, in the presence of the +crowd and jury, and justice of the peace, straightened back in his +chair. "My dear Miss Smith, you are again a free woman. No longer the +imputation of this heinous crime rests upon you. You may go from this +court-room as free as the bird that pinions its wings and flies toward +the heavens, to kiss the first ray of the morning sunshine. You may go +as free as that bird, but before you go pay me that $3.00 you owe me on +account." [Laughter.] What I mean to enforce by this is that the lawyer +who is in politics solely for the $3.00 is not a safe man to intrust +with political power.</p> + +<p>Judge Baldwin, of Indiana, it is said, in giving his advice to lawyers +upon one occasion, told them that the course to be pursued by a lawyer +was first to get on, second to get honor, and third to get honest. +[Laughter.] A man who follows that policy in my judgment is not such a +lawyer as should be let loose in politics. Rather, it seems to me, that +the advice to give to lawyers, and the principle to follow is, first to +be honest, second to get on, and third, upon this broad basis, get honor +if you can. [Applause.] It is unnecessary for me at this time to refer +to the distinguished men who have entered politics from the profession +of the law. I could point to those who have occupied the highest +positions in the gift of the people, who have been the chief executives +of this great Nation, and who have stood in the halls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_875" id="Page_875">[Pg 875]</a></span> of Congress, and +in the legislative halls of our various States, and in these important +positions have helped formulate the fundamental principles which to-day +govern us as a free people, and upon which the ark of our freedom rests. +I believe that while in the past opportunities have presented themselves +for lawyers in politics, yet no time was ever more favorable than now, +when it seems to me that the service of the Bar is required in helping +shape the policies and destinies of our country. We are confronted with +new conditions, with new propositions, and it seems to me that the man +who is learned in the law, who, as was once said of the great Peel, that +his entire course in life, in and out of the profession, was guided by +the desire to do right and justice, should aid in our adjustment to +these new conditions.</p> + +<p>Professional men who are superior to the fascination of power, or the +charms of wealth, men who do not employ their power solely for +self-aggrandizement, but devote their energies in favor of the public +weal, are men who should be found in the councils of the State. Ours is +the country and this the occasion when patriotism and legal learning are +at a premium.</p> + +<p>In the settling of the policy of the United States with reference to +territory recently acquired, lawyers are destined to play a leading +part. They are very well fitted to appreciate the fundamental principles +of a free government and of human liberty. It seems the patriotic duty +of the lawyer to give the country the benefit of his study and +experience, not as a mere politician, but as a high-minded and learned +statesman and citizen of our common country.</p> + +<p>This is the time when high-minded, learned, and professional men should +assist to plant and protect the flower of our American policy under our +new conditions so that the fruitage of our system may be naturalized in +new fields as a correct policy.</p> + +<p>Duty, therefore, seems to call the lawyer to the councils of State. Our +Country is his client, her perpetuity will be his retainer, fee, and +compensation. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_876" id="Page_876">[Pg 876]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LORD PALMERSTON</h2> + +<h3>(HENRY JOHN TEMPLE)</h3> + + + +<h4>ILLUSIONS CREATED BY ART</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister +of England 1859-1865, at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, +London, May 2, 1863. Sir Charles Eastlake, the President of the +Royal Academy, said, in introducing Lord Palmerston: "I now have +the honor to propose the health of one who is entitled to the +respect and gratitude of the friends of science and art, the +promoters of education and the upholders of time-honored +institutions. I have the honor to propose the health of Viscount +Palmerston."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Your Royal Highnesses, My Lords, and +Gentlemen</span>:—I need not, I am certain, assure you that nothing can +be more gratifying to the feelings of any man than to receive that +compliment which you have been pleased to propose and which this +distinguished assembly has been kind enough so favorably to entertain in +the toast of his health. It is natural that any man who is engaged in +public life should feel the greatest interest in the promotion of the +fine arts. In fact, without a great cultivation of art no nation has +ever arrived at any point of eminence. We have seen great warlike +exploits performed by nations in a state, I won't say of comparative +barbarism, but wanting comparative civilization; we have seen nations +amassing great wealth, but yet not standing thereby high in the +estimation of the rest of the world; but when great warlike +achievements, great national prosperity, and a high cultivation of the +arts are all combined together, the nation in which those conditions are +found may pride itself on holding that eminent position among the +nations of the world which I am proud to say belongs to this country. +[Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_877" id="Page_877">[Pg 877]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is gratifying to have the honor of being invited to these periodical +meetings where we find assembled within these rooms a greater amount of +cultivation of mind, of natural genius, of everything which constitutes +the development of human intellect than perhaps ever has assembled +within the same space elsewhere. And we have besides the gratification +of seeing that in addition to those living examples of national genius +the walls are covered with proofs that the national genius is capable of +the most active and admirable development. [Cheers.] Upon the present +occasion, Mr. President, every visitor must have seen with the greatest +delight that by the side of the works of those whose names are familiar +to all, there are works of great ability brought hither by men who are +still rising to fame; and, therefore, we have the satisfaction of +feeling that this country will never be wanting in men distinguished in +the practice of the fine arts. [Cheers.] One great merit of this +Exhibition is that whatever may be the turn of a man's mind, whatever +his position in life, he may at least during the period he is within +these walls, indulge the most pleasant illusions applicable to the wants +his mind at that time may feel. A man who comes here shivering in one of +those days which mark the severity of an English summer, may imagine +that he is basking in an African sun and he may feel an imaginary warmth +from the representation of a tropical climate. If, on the other hand, he +is suffering under those exceptional miseries which one of the few hot +days of an English summer is apt to create, he may imagine himself +inhaling the fresh breezes of the seaside; he may suppose himself +reclining in the cool shade of the most luxuriant foliage; he may for a +time, in fancy, feel all the delights which the streets and pavements of +London deny in reality. [Cheers and laughter.] And if he happens to be a +young man, upon what is conventionally said to be his preferment, that +is to say, looking out for a partner in life, he may here study all +kinds and descriptions of female beauty [laughter and cheers]; he may +satisfy his mind whether light hair or dark, blue eyes or black, the +tender or the serious, the gay or the sentimental, are most likely to +contribute to the happiness of his future life. [Cheers.] And without +exposing himself to any of those embarrassing questions as to his +intentions [laughter]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_878" id="Page_878">[Pg 878]</a></span> which sometimes too inquisitive a scrutiny may +bring [much laughter], without creating disappointment or breaking any +hearts, by being referred to any paternal authority, which, he may not +desire to consult, he may go and apply to practical selection those +principles of choice which will result from the study within these +walls.</p> + +<p>Then those of a more serious turn of mind who direct their thoughts to +State affairs, and who wish to know of what that august assembly the +House of Commons is composed, may here [pointing to Phillips's picture +behind the chair], without the trouble of asking an order, without +waiting in Westminster Hall until a seat be vacant, without passing +hours in a hot gallery listening perhaps to dull discourses in an +uninteresting debate—they may here see what kind of thing the House of +Commons is, and go back edified by the sight without being bored by dull +speeches. [Cheers and laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, don't, gentlemen, imagine that I am romancing when I attribute this +virtue to ocular demonstration—don't imagine that that which enters the +eye does not sometimes penetrate to the mind and feelings. I will give +you an instance to the contrary. I remember within these walls seeing +two gentlemen who evidently, from their remarks, were very good judges +of horses, looking with the greatest admiration upon the well-known +picture of Landseer, "The Horseshoeing at the Blacksmith's;" and after +they had looked at it for some time one was approaching nearer, when the +other in an agony of enthusiasm said: "For heaven's sake, don't go too +near, he will kick you." [Cheers and laughter.]</p> + +<p>Well, gentlemen, I said that a public man must take great interest in +art, but I feel that the present Government has an apology to make to +one department of art, and that is to the sculptors; for there is an old +maxim denoting one of the high functions of art which is "<i>Ars est +celare artem</i>." Now there was a cellar in which the art of the most +distinguished sculptors was concealed to the utmost extent of the +application of that saying. We have brought them comparatively into +light; and if the sculptors will excuse us for having departed from that +sage and ancient maxim, I am sure the public will thank us for having +given them an opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_879" id="Page_879">[Pg 879]</a></span> of seeing those beautiful works of men of +which it may be said: "<i>Vivos ducunt de marmore vultus</i>." I trust, +therefore, the sculptors will excuse us for having done, not perhaps the +best they might have wished, but at least for having relieved them a +little from the darkness of that Cimmerian cellar in which their works +were hid. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank you, gentlemen, for the honor +you have done me in drinking my health. [Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_880" id="Page_880">[Pg 880]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOHN R. PAXTON</h2> + + +<h4>A SCOTCH-IRISHMAN'S VIEWS OF THE PURITAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. John R. Paxton, D.D., at the seventy-seventh annual +dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December +22, 1882. Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair. Dr. +Paxton responded for "The Clergy."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—There is no help for it, alas! +now. The Pilgrim or Puritan doth bestride the broad continent like +another Colossus and we Dutch, English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Irish +walk about under his huge legs [laughter]; "we must bend our bodies when +he doth carelessly nod to us." For the Puritan is the pious Joseph of +the land, and to his sheaf all our sheaves must make obeisance. As he +pipes unto us so we dance. He takes the chief seat at every national +feast and compels us highway-and-hedge people, us unfortunate Dutch and +Scotch-Irish, to come in and shout his triumphs and praise at his own +self-glorification meetings. [Laughter and applause.] Of course we all +know it's a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. But it is too late +now to go back to the order of nature or the truth of history. The +Puritan, like another Old Man of the Sea, is astride our shoulders and +won't come down, protest, pray, roll, wriggle as Sindbad may. Why, the +Puritan has imposed his Thanksgiving Day and pumpkin-pie upon South +Carolina, even. [Applause.] He got mad at the old Whig party, on account +of his higher law and abolitionism, and put it to death. When the +Puritan first came to these shores, he made the way to heaven so narrow +that only a tight-rope performer could walk it. [Laughter.] Now, what +with his Concord philosophies, transcendental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_881" id="Page_881">[Pg 881]</a></span>isms, and every heresy, he +has made it so wide that you could drive all Barnum's elephants abreast +upon it and through the strait gate. He compels us to send our sons to +his colleges for his nasal note. He is communicating his dyspepsia to +the whole country by means of codfish-balls and baked beans. He has +encouraged the revolt of women, does our thinking, writes our books, +insists on his standard of culture, defines our God, and, as the +crowning glory of his audacity, has imposed his own sectional, fit, and +distinguishing name upon us all, and swells with gratified pride to hear +all the nations of the earth speak of all Americans as Yankees. +[Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>I would enter a protest, but what use? We simply grace his triumph, and +no images may be hung at this feast but the trophies of the Puritan. For +all that, I mean to say a brief word for my Scotch-Irish race in +America. Mr. President, General Horace Porter, on my left, and I, did +not come over in the Half Moon or the Mayflower. We stayed on in County +Donegal, Ireland, in the loins of our forefathers, content with poteen +and potatoes, stayed on until the Pilgrims had put down the Indians, the +Baptists, and the witches; until the Dutch had got all the furs this +side Lake Erie. [Laughter and applause.] By the way, what hands and feet +those early Knickerbockers had! In trading with the Indians it was fixed +that a Dutchman's hand weighed one pound and his foot two pounds in the +scales. But what puzzled the Indian was that no matter how big his pack +of furs, the Dutchman's foot was its exact weight at the opposite end of +the scale. Enormous feet the first Van—or De—or Stuy—had. [Continued +laughter.]</p> + +<p>But in course of time, after the Pilgrims had come for freedom, the +Dutch for furs, Penn for a frock—a Quaker cut and color—we came, we +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, for what? Perhaps the king oppressed the +presbytery, or potatoes failed, or the tax on whiskey was doubled. +Anyway we came to stay: some of us in New England, some in the valleys +of Virginia, some in the mountains of North Carolina, others in New +York; but the greater part pushed out into Pennsylvania—as far away as +they could get from the Puritans and the Dutch—settled the great +Cumberland Valley; then, crossing the Alleghany Mountains, staked out +their farms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_882" id="Page_882">[Pg 882]</a></span> on the banks of the Monongahela River, set up their stills, +built their meeting-houses, organized the presbytery—and, gentlemen, +the reputation of our Monongahela rye is unsurpassed to this day [long +applause], and our unqualified orthodoxy even now turns the stomach of a +modern Puritan and constrains Colonel Ingersoll<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> not to pray, alas! +but to swear. [Loud laughter.]</p> + +<p>Mr. President, I hope General Porter will join me in claiming some +recognition for the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from these sons of the +Puritans. For do you not know that your own man Bancroft says that the +first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great +Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New +York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians? [Applause.] Therefore, Mr. President, be kind enough to +accept from us the greeting of the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, our +native State—that prolific mother of pig-iron and coal, whose favorite +and greatest sons are still Albert Gallatin, of Switzerland, and +Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>The first son of a Forefather I ever fell in with was a nine-months +Connecticut man at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the spring of '62. Now, +I was a guileless and generous lad of nineteen—all Pennsylvanians are +guileless and generous, for our mountains are so rich in coal, our +valleys so fat with soil, that our living is easy and therefore our wits +are dull, and we are still voting for Jackson. [Great laughter.] The +reason the Yankees are smart is because they have to wrest a precarious +subsistence from a reluctant soil. "What shall I do to make my son get +forward in the world?" asked an English lord of a bishop. "I know of +only one way," replied the bishop; "give him poverty and parts." Well, +that's the reason the sons of the Pilgrims have all got on in the world. +They all started with poverty, and had to exercise their wits on nutmegs +or notions or something to thrive. [Laughter.] Yes, they had "parts." +Why, they have taken New York from the Dutch; they are half of Wall +Street, and only a Jew, or a long-headed Sage, or that surprising and +surpassing genius in finance, Jay,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> can wrestle with them on equal +terms. Ah! these Yankees have "parts"—lean bodies, sterile soil, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_883" id="Page_883">[Pg 883]</a></span>but +such brains that they grew a Webster. [Applause.] Well, this Connecticut +man invited me to his quarters. When I got back to my regiment I had a +shabby overcoat instead of my new one, I had a frying-pan worth twenty +cents, that cost me five dollars, and a recipe for baked beans for which +I had parted with my gold pen and pencil. [Continued laughter.] I was a +sadder and a wiser man that night for that encounter with the +Connecticut Pilgrim.</p> + +<p>But my allotted time is running away, and, preacher-like, I couldn't +begin without an introduction. I am afraid in this case the porch will +be bigger than the house. But now to my toast, "The Clergy." Surely, Mr. +President and gentlemen, you sons of the Pilgrims appreciate the debt +you owe the Puritan divines. What made your section great, dominant, +glorious in the history of our common country? To what class of your +citizens—more than to any other, I think—do you owe the proud memories +of your past, and your strength, achievements, and culture in the +present? Who had the first chance on your destiny, your character, your +development? Why, the Puritan preacher, of course; the man who in every +parish inculcated the fear of God in your fathers' souls, obedience to +law, civil and divine, the dignity of man, the worth of the soul and +right conduct in life. [Applause.] Believe me, gentlemen, the Puritan +clergy did a great work for New England. Our whole country feels yet the +impulse and movement given it by those stern preachers of righteousness, +who had Abrahamic eyes under their foreheads and the stuff of Elijah in +their souls. [Applause.] I know it's the fashion now to poke fun at the +Puritans, to use the "Blue Laws" as a weapon against them, to sneer at +them as hard, narrow, and intolerant. Yes, alas! we do not breathe +through their lungs any more. The wheel has gone round, and we have come +back to the very things the Puritans fled from in hatred and in horror.</p> + +<p>We pride ourselves these days on our "sweetness and light," on our +culture and manners. The soul of the age is hospitable and entertains, +like an inn, "God or the devil on equal terms," as George Eliot says. +Alas! the Puritan chart has failed us in the sea through which we are +passing; the old stars have ceased to shine; too many of us know neither +our course nor destination; "authority is mute;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_884" id="Page_884">[Pg 884]</a></span> the "Thus saith the +Lord" of the Puritan is not enough now for our guidance. For the age is +in all things not one of reason or of faith, but of speculation not only +in the business of the world, but in all moral and spiritual questions +as well. Well, we shall see what we shall see. But for one, I admire +with all my soul a man who knows just what he was put into this world +for, what his chief end in it is, what he believes, must do and must be, +and in the ways thereof is willing to inflict or to suffer death. +[Applause.] The Puritan divine was such a man. He sowed your rocky +coasts and sterile hills with conscience and God. You are living on the +virtue that came out of the hem of his garment; he is our bulwark still +in this land against superstition on the one hand and infidelity on the +other. [Applause.] Grand man he was, the old Puritan; once arrived he +was always arrived; while other men hesitated he acted; while others +debated he declared; fearing God, he was lifted above every other fear; +and though he has passed away for a time—only for a time, remember: the +wheel is still turning, we can't stand on air—he will come back again, +but in the meantime he is still a "preacher of righteousness" to our +souls as effective in death as in life. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>In your presence I greet with my warmest admiration, I salute with my +profound reverence, the old Puritan divines of New England who had a +scorn for all base uses of life, who were true to duty as they saw it, +who had convictions for which they would kill or die, who formed their +characters and guided their lives by the law of righteousness in human +conduct. To these men under God we largely owe our liberties and our +laws in this land. I take off my hat to his ghost, and salute him as +greater than he who has taken a city, for the Puritan divine conquered +himself. He was an Isaac, not an Ishmael; he was a Jacob, not an Esau; a +God-born man who knew what his soul did wear. Great man he was, hard, +stern, and intolerant. Yes, but what would you have, gentlemen? The +Puritan was not a pretty head carved on a cherry-stone, but a Colossus +cut from the rock, huge, grim, but awe-inspiring, fortifying to the soul +if not warming to the heart. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Well, would he know you to-night, I wonder, his own sons, if he came in +upon you now, in circumstances so dif<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_885" id="Page_885">[Pg 885]</a></span>ferent and with manners and +customs so changed? Would he gaze at you with sad, sad eyes, and weep +over you as the degenerate sons of noble sires? [Laughter.] No, no; you +are worthy, I think. The sons will keep what the fathers won. After all, +you are still one with the Puritan in all essential things. [Applause.] +You clasp hands with him in devotion to the same principle, in obedience +to the same God. True, the man between doublet and skin plays many +parts; fashions come and go, never long the same, but "clothe me as you +will I am Sancho Panza still." So you are Puritans still. Back of your +Unitarianism, back of your Episcopalianism, back of your +Transcendentalism, back of all your isms, conceits, vagaries—and there +is no end to them—back of them all there beats in you the Puritan +heart. Blood will tell. Scratch a child of sweetness and light on Beacon +Hill to-day and you will find a Puritan. [Laughter.] Scratch your +Emerson, your Bellows, your Lowell, your Longfellow, your Wendell +Phillips, your Phillips Brooks, and you find the Puritan. [Applause.] In +intellectual conclusions vastly different, in heart, at bottom, you're +all one in love of liberty, in fear of God, contempt for shams, and +scorn of all things base and mean. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>So, ye ghosts of old Puritan divines, ye cannot look down on your sons +to-night with sad and reproachful eyes. For the sons have not wasted +what the fathers gained, nor failed in any critical emergency, nor yet +forsaken the God ye feared so well, though they have modified your +creed. Gentlemen, I cannot think that the blood has run out. Exchange +your evening dress for the belted tunic and cloak; take off the silk hat +and put on the wide brim and the steeple crown, and lo! I see the +Puritan. And twenty years ago I heard him speak and saw him act. "If any +man hauls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Why, Warren in +old Boston did not act more promptly or do a finer thing. Well, what +moved in your splendid Dix when he gave that order? The spirit of the +old Puritan. And I saw the sons of the sires act. Who reddened the +streets of Baltimore with the first Union blood?—Massachusetts. [Loud +applause.] Who to-day are the first to rally to the side of a good +cause, on trial in the community? Who are Still first in colleges and +letters in this land? Who, east or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_886" id="Page_886">[Pg 886]</a></span> west, advocate justice, redress +wrongs, maintain equal rights, support churches, love liberty, and +thrive where others starve? Why, these ubiquitous sons of the Puritans, +of course, who dine me to-night. Gentlemen, I salute you. "If I were not +Miltiades I would be Themistocles;" if I were not a Scotch-Irishman I +would be a Puritan. [Continued applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_887" id="Page_887">[Pg 887]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EDWARD JOHN PHELPS</h2> + + + +<h4>FAREWELL ADDRESS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Edward J. Phelps, Minister to England, on the occasion +of the farewell banquet given to him by the Lord Mayor of London, +James Whitehead, at the Mansion House, London, January 24, 1889. +The Lord Mayor, in proposing the toast of the evening, said, in the +course of his introductory remarks: "It now becomes my pride and +privilege to ask you to join with me in drinking the health of my +distinguished guest, Mr. Phelps. I have invited you here this +evening because I felt it was my duty as Chief Magistrate of the +City of London to take the initiative in giving you an opportunity +to testify to the very high esteem in which Mr. Phelps is held by +all classes of society. It is to me a very sincere satisfaction +that I am able to be the medium of conveying to him, on the eve of +his departure, the fact that his presence here in this country has +been appreciated by the whole British nation. If anything were +required to give force to what I have said, it is the fact that on +this occasion we are honored by the presence of members of +governments past and present, of statesmen without distinction of +party, of members of both Houses of Parliament, and of nearly all +the judges of the land. We have here also the highest +representatives of science, of art, of literature, and of the +press; and we are also honored with the presence of neighbors and +friends in some of the most eminent bankers and merchants of the +city. I am glad to add that all the distinguished Americans that I +know of at present visiting this city have come here to show their +esteem for their fellow-countryman. It may be said that this +remarkable gathering is a proof not only of the fact that our +distinguished guest is personally popular, but also that we are +satisfied that, so far as he could, he has endeavored to do his +duty faithfully and well between the country he represents and the +country to which he is delegated. Mr. Phelps in leaving our shores, +I think, will take with him a feeling that he has been received in +the most cordial spirit, in the most friendly manner in this +country. I think he will feel also—at any rate, I should like to +assure him so far as I am able to observe—that he has greatly +tended, by his manner and by his courteous bearing, to consolidate +those friendly relations which we desire should forever exist +between his country and our own. Those of us who have had the honor +from time to time to meet his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_888" id="Page_888">[Pg 888]</a></span> Excellency, know what high and good +qualities he possesses, and we feel sure he will take with him to +the United States a not unfavorable impression of the old country, +and that so far as he can he will endeavor in the future, as I +believe he has done in the past, to promote those feelings of +peace, of amity between the two countries, the maintenance of which +is one of the objects to be most desired in the interests of the +world at large I give you 'His Excellency, the American Minister, +Mr. Phelps,' and I ask you, if you please, to rise and give the +toast standing, in the usual manner."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord Mayor, my Lords, and Gentlemen</span>:—I am sure you will not be +surprised to be told that the poor words at my command do not enable me +to respond adequately to your most kind greeting, nor the too flattering +words which have fallen from my friend, the Lord Mayor, and from my +distinguished colleague, the Lord Chancellor. But you will do me the +justice to believe that my feelings are not the less sincere and hearty +if I cannot put them into language. I am under a very great obligation +to your Lordship not merely for the honor of meeting this evening an +assembly more distinguished I apprehend than it appears to me has often +assembled under one roof, but especially for the opportunity of meeting +under such pleasant circumstances so many of those to whom I have become +so warmly attached, and from whom I am so sorry to part. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>It is rather a pleasant coincidence to me that about the first +hospitality that was offered me after my arrival in England came from my +friend, the Lord Mayor, who was at the time one of the Sheriffs of +London. I hope it is no disparagement to my countrymen to say that under +existing circumstances the first place that I felt it my duty to visit +was the Old Bailey Criminal Court. [Laughter.] I had there the pleasure +of being entertained by my friend, the Lord Mayor. And it happens also +that it was in this room almost four years ago at a dinner given to Her +Majesty's Judges by my friend Sir Robert Fowler, then Lord Mayor, whose +genial face I see before me, that I appeared for the first time on any +public occasion in England and addressed my first words to an English +company. It seems to me a fortunate propriety that my last public words +should be spoken under the same hospitable roof, the home of the Chief +Magistrate of the city of London. ["Hear!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_889" id="Page_889">[Pg 889]</a></span> Hear!"] Nor can I ever forget +the cordial and generous reception that was then accorded, not to myself +personally, for I was altogether a stranger, but to the representative +of my country. It struck what has proved the keynote of all my relations +here. It indicated to me at the outset how warm and hearty was the +feeling of Englishmen toward America. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>And it gave me to understand, what I was not slow to accept and believe, +that I was accredited not merely from one government to the other, but +from the people of America to the people of England—that the American +Minister was not expected to be merely a diplomatic functionary shrouded +in reticence and retirement, jealously watching over doubtful relations, +and carefully guarding against anticipated dangers; but that he was to +be the guest of his kinsmen—one of themselves—the messenger of the +sympathy and good-will, the mutual and warm regard and esteem that bind +together the two great nations of the same race, and make them one in +all the fair humanities of life. [Cheers.] The suggestion that met me at +the threshold has not proved to be mistaken. The promise then held out +has been generously fulfilled. Ever since and through all my intercourse +here I have received, in all quarters, from all classes with whom I have +come in contact, under all circumstances and in all vicissitudes, a +uniform and widely varied kindness, far beyond what I had personally the +least claim to. And I am glad of this public opportunity to acknowledge +it in the most emphatic manner.</p> + +<p>My relations with the successive governments I have had to do with have +been at all times most fortunate and agreeable, and quite beyond those I +have been happy in feeling always that the English people had a claim +upon the American Minister for all kind and friendly offices in his +power, and upon his presence and voice on all occasions when they could +be thought to further any good work. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>And so I have gone in and out among you these four years and have come +to know you well. I have taken part in many gratifying public functions; +I have been the guest at many homes; and my heart has gone out with +yours in memorable jubilee of that Sovereign Lady whom all Englishmen +love and all Americans honor. I have stood with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_890" id="Page_890">[Pg 890]</a></span> you by some unforgotten +graves; I have shared in many joys; and I have tried as well as I could +through it all, in my small way, to promote constantly a better +understanding, a fuller and more accurate knowledge, a more genuine +sympathy between the people of the two countries. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>And this leads me to say a word on the nature of these relations. The +moral intercourse between the governments is most important to be +maintained, and its value is not to be overlooked or disregarded. But +the real significance of the attitude of nations depends in these days +upon the feelings which the general intelligence of their inhabitants +entertains toward each other. The time has long passed when kings or +rulers can involve their nations in hostilities to gratify their own +ambition or caprice. There can be no war nowadays between civilized +nations, nor any peace that is not hollow and delusive, unless sustained +and backed up by the sentiment of the people who are parties to it. +[Cheers.] Before nations can quarrel, their inhabitants must first +become hostile. Then a cause of quarrel is not far to seek. The men of +our race are not likely to become hostile until they begin to +misunderstand each other. [Cheers.] There are no dragon's teeth so +prolific as mutual misunderstandings. It is in the great and constantly +increasing intercourse between England and America, in its +reciprocities, and its amenities, that the security against +misunderstanding must be found. While that continues, they cannot be +otherwise than friendly. Unlucky incidents may sometimes happen; +interests may conflict; mistakes may be made on one side or on the +other, and sharp words may occasionally be spoken by unguarded or +ignorant tongues. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make +anything. [Cheers and laughter.] The nation that comes to be without +fault will have reached the millennium, and will have little further +concern with the storm-swept geography of this imperfect world. But +these things are all ephemeral; they do not touch the great heart of +either people; they float for a moment on the surface and in the wind, +and then they disappear and are gone—"in the deep bosom of the ocean +buried."</p> + +<p>I do not know, sir, who may be my successor, but I venture to assure you +that he will be an American gentleman, fit by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_891" id="Page_891">[Pg 891]</a></span> character and capacity to +be the medium of communication between our countries; and an American +gentleman, when you come to know him, generally turns out to be a not +very distant kinsman of an English gentleman. [Cheers.] I need not +bespeak for him a kindly reception. I know he will receive it for his +country's sake and his own. ["Hear! Hear!"]</p> + +<p>"Farewell," sir, is a word often lightly uttered and readily forgotten. +But when it marks the rounding-off and completion of a chapter in life, +the severance of ties many and cherished, of the parting with many +friends at once—especially when it is spoken among the lengthening +shadows of the western light—it sticks somewhat in the throat. It +becomes, indeed, "the word that makes us linger." But it does not prompt +many other words. It is best expressed in few. What goes without saying +is better than what is said. Not much can be added to the old English +word "Good-by." You are not sending me away empty-handed or alone. I go +freighted and laden with happy memories—inexhaustible and unalloyed—of +England, its warm-hearted people, and their measureless kindness. +Spirits more than twain will cross with me, messengers of your +good-will. Happy the nation that can thus speed its parting guest! +Fortunate the guest who has found his welcome almost an adoption, and +whose farewell leaves half his heart behind! [Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_892" id="Page_892">[Pg 892]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ARTHUR WING PINERO</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE DRAMA</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Arthur Wing Pinero at the annual banquet of the Royal +Academy, London, May 4, 1895. The toast to the "Drama" was coupled +with that to "Music," to which Sir Alexander Mackenzie responded. +Sir John Millais in proposing the toast said: "I have already +spoken for both music and the drama with my brush. ["Hear! Hear!"] +I have painted Sterndale Bennett, Arthur Sullivan, Irving, and +Hare."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Your Royal Highness, My Lords, and Gentlemen</span>:—There ought to +be at least one strong link of sympathy between certain painters and +certain dramatists, for in the craft of painting as in that of +play-writing, popular success is not always held to be quite creditable. +Not very long ago I met at an exhibition of pictures a friend whose +business it is to comment in the public journals upon painting and the +drama. The exhibition was composed of the works of two artists, and I +found myself in one room praising the pictures of the man who was +exhibiting in the other. My friend promptly took me to task. "Surely," +said he, "you noticed that two-thirds of the works in the next room are +already sold?" I admitted having observed that many of the pictures were +so ticketed. My friend shrugged his shoulders. "But," said I, anxiously, +"do you really regard that circumstance as reflecting disparagingly upon +the man's work in the next room?" His reply was: "Good work rarely +sells." [Laughter.] My lords and gentlemen, if the dictum laid down by +my friend be a sound one, I am placed to-night in a situation of some +embarrassment. For, in representing, as you honor me, by giving me leave +to do, my brother dramatists, I confess I am not in the position to deny +that their wares frequently "sell." [Laughter.] I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_893" id="Page_893">[Pg 893]</a></span> might, of course, +artfully plead in extenuation of this condition of affairs that success +in such a shape is the very last reward the dramatist toils for, or +desires; that when the theatre in which his work is presented is +thronged nightly no one is more surprised, more abashed than himself; +that his modesty is so impenetrable, his artistic absorption so +profound, that the sound of the voices of public approbation reduces him +to a state of shame and dismay. [Laughter.] But did I advance this plea, +I think it would at once be found to be a very shallow plea. For in any +department of life, social, political, or artistic, nothing is more +difficult than to avoid incurring the suspicion that you mean to succeed +in the widest application of that term, if you can. If therefore there +be any truth in the assertion that "good work rarely sells," it would +appear that I must, on behalf of certain of my brother dramatists, +either bow my head in frank humiliation, or strike out some ingenious +line of defence. ["Hear! Hear!"]</p> + +<p>But, my lords and gentlemen, I shall, with your sanction, adopt neither +of those expedients; I shall simply beg leave to acknowledge freely, to +acknowledge without a blush, that what is known as popular success is, I +believe, greatly coveted, sternly fought for, by even the most earnest +of those writers who deal in the commodity labelled "modern British +drama." And I would, moreover, submit that of all the affectations +displayed by artists of any craft, the affectation of despising the +approval and support of the great public is the most mischievous and +misleading. [Cheers.] Speaking at any rate of dramatic art, I believe +that its most substantial claim upon consideration rests in its power of +legitimately interesting a great number of people. I believe this of any +art; I believe it especially of the drama. Whatever distinction the +dramatist may attain in gaining the attention of the so-called select +few, I believe that his finest task is that of giving back to a +multitude their own thoughts and conceptions, illuminated, enlarged, and +if needful, purged, perfected, transfigured. The making of a play that +shall be closely observant in its portrayal of character, moral in +purpose, dignified in expression, stirring in its development, yet not +beyond our possible experience of life; a drama, the unfolding of whose +story shall be watched intently, respon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_894" id="Page_894">[Pg 894]</a></span>sively, night after night by +thousands of men and women, necessarily of diversified temperaments, +aims, and interests, men and women of all classes of society—surely the +writing of that drama, the weaving of that complex fabric, is one of the +most arduous of the tasks which art has set us; surely its successful +accomplishment is one of the highest achievements of which an artist is +capable.</p> + +<p>I cannot claim—it would be immodest to make such a claim in speaking +even of my brother dramatists—I cannot claim that the thorough +achievement of such a task is a common one in this country. It is indeed +a rare one in any country. But I can claim—I do claim for my +fellow-workers that they are not utterly unequal to the demands made +upon them, and that of late there have been signs of the growth of a +thoughtful, serious drama in England. ["Hear! Hear!"] I venture to +think, too, that these signs are not in any sense exotics; I make bold +to say that they do not consist of mere imitations of certain models; I +submit that they are not as a few critics of limited outlook and +exclusive enthusiasm would have us believe—I submit that they are not +mere echoes of foreign voices. I submit that the drama of the present +day is the natural outcome of our own immediate environment, of the life +that closely surrounds us. And, perhaps, it would be only fair to allow +that the reproaches which have been levelled for so long a period at the +British theatre—the most important of these reproaches being that it +possessed no drama at all—perhaps I say we may grant in a spirit of +charity that these reproaches ought not to be wholly laid at the door of +the native playwright. If it be true that he has been in the habit of +producing plays invariably conventional in sentiment, trite in comedy, +wrought on traditional lines, inculcating no philosophy, making no +intellectual appeal whatever, may it not be that the attitude of the +frequenters of the theatre has made it hard for him to do anything else? +If he has until lately evaded in his theatrical work any attempt at a +true criticism of life, if he has ignored the social, religious, and +scientific problems of his day, may we not attribute this to the fact +that the public have not been in the mood for these elements of +seriousness in their theatrical entertainment, have not demanded these +special elements of seriousness either in plays<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_895" id="Page_895">[Pg 895]</a></span> or in novels? But +during recent years, the temper of the times has been changing; it is +now the period of analysis, of general restless inquiry; and as this +spirit creates a demand for freer expression on the part of our writers +of books, so it naturally permits to our writers of plays a wider scope +in the selection of subject, and calls for an accompanying effort of +thought, a large freedom of utterance.</p> + +<p>At this moment, perhaps, the difficulty of the dramatist lies less in +paucity of subject, than in an almost embarrassing wealth of it. The +life around us teems with problems of conduct and character, which may +be said almost to cry aloud for dramatic treatment, and the temptation +that besets the busy playwright of an uneasy, an impatient age, is that +in yielding himself to the allurements of contemporary psychology, he is +apt to forget that fancy and romance have also their immortal rights in +the drama. ["Hear! Hear!"] But when all is claimed for romance, we must +remember that the laws of supply and demand assert themselves in the +domain of dramatic literature as elsewhere. What the people, out of the +advancement of their knowledge, out of the enlightenment of modern +education, want, they will ask for; what they demand, they will have. +And at the present moment the English people appear to be inclined to +grant to the English dramatist the utmost freedom to deal with questions +which have long been thought to be outside the province of the stage. I +do not deplore, I rejoice that this is so, and I rejoice that to the +dramatists of my day—to those at least who care to attempt to discharge +it, falls the duty of striking from the limbs of English drama some of +its shackles. ["Hear! Hear!"] I know that the discharge of this duty is +attended by one great, one special peril. And in thinking particularly +of the younger generation of dramatists, those upon whom the immediate +future of our drama depends, I cannot help expressing the hope that they +will accept this freedom as a privilege to be jealously exercised, a +privilege to be exercised in the spirit which I have been so +presumptuous as to indicate.</p> + +<p>It would be easy by a heedless employment of the latitude allowed us to +destroy its usefulness, indeed to bring about a reaction which would +deprive us of our newly granted liberty altogether. Upon this point the +young, the coming dram<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_896" id="Page_896">[Pg 896]</a></span>atist would perhaps do well to ponder; he would +do well, I think, to realize fully that freedom in art must be guarded +by the eternal unwritten laws of good taste, morality, and beauty, he +would do well to remember always that the real courage of the artist is +in his capacity for restraint. [Cheers.] I am deeply sensible of the +honor which has been done me in the association of my name with this +toast, and I ask your leave to add one word—a word of regret at the +absence to-night of my friend, Mr. Toole, an absence unhappily +occasioned by an illness from which he is but slowly recovering. Mr. +Toole charges me to express his deep disappointment at being prevented +from attending this banquet. He does not, however, instruct me to say +what I do say heartily—that Mr. Toole fitly represents in any +assemblage, his own particular department of the drama; more fitly +represents his department than I do mine. I know of no actor who stands +higher in the esteem, who exists more durably in the affection of those +who know him, than does John Lawrence Toole.<br /><br /></p> +<p><a name="porter" id="porter"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img897.jpg" alt="HORACE PORTER" title="HORACE PORTER" /></div> +<h4><i>HORACE PORTER<br />Photogravure after a photograph from +life</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_897" id="Page_897">[Pg 897]</a></span></h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HORACE PORTER</h2> + + + +<h4>MEN OF MANY INVENTIONS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-second annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The +President, William Borden, said: "Gentlemen, in giving you the next +toast, I will call upon one whom we are always glad to listen to. I +suppose you have been waiting to hear him, and are surprised that +he comes so late in the evening; but I will tell you in confidence, +he is put there at his own request. [Applause.] I give you the +eleventh regular toast: 'Internal Improvements.'—The triumph of +American invention. The modern palace runs on wheels.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'When thy car is loaden with [dead] heads,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Good Porter, turn the key.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>General Horace Porter will respond."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England Society</span>:—I +suppose it was a matter of necessity, calling on some of us from other +States to speak for you to-night, for we have learned from the history +of Priscilla and John Alden, that a New Englander may be too modest to +speak for himself. [Laughter.] But this modesty, like some of the +greater blessings of the war, has been more or less disguised to-night.</p> + +<p>We have heard from the eloquent gentleman [Noah Porter, D.D.] on my left +all about the good-fellowship and the still better fellowships in the +rival universities of Harvard and Yale. We have heard from my sculptor +friend [W. W. Story] upon the extreme right all about Hawthorne's tales, +and all the great Storys that have emanated from Salem; but I am not a +little surprised that in this age, when speeches are made principally by +those running for office, you should call upon one engaged only in +running cars, and more par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_898" id="Page_898">[Pg 898]</a></span>ticularly upon one brought up in the military +service, where the practice of running is not regarded as strictly +professional. [Laughter.] It occurred to me some years ago that the +occupation of moving cars would be fully as congenial as that of +stopping bullets—as a steady business, so when I left Washington I +changed my profession. I know how hard it is to believe that persons +from Washington ever change their professions. [Laughter.] In this regal +age, when every man is his own sovereign, somebody had to provide +palaces, and, as royalty is not supposed to have any permanent abiding +place in a country like this, it was thought best to put these palaces +on wheels; and, since we have been told by reliable authority that +"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," we thought it necessary to +introduce every device to enable those crowned heads to rest as easily +as possible. Of course we cannot be expected to do as much for the +travelling public as the railway companies. They at times put their +passengers to death. We only put them to sleep. We don't pretend that +all the devices, patents, and inventions upon these cars are due to the +genius of the management. Many of the best suggestions have come from +the travellers themselves, especially New England travellers. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Some years ago, when the bedding was not supposed to be as fat as it +ought to be, and the pillows were accused of being constructed upon the +hom[oe]opathic principle, a New Englander got on a car one night. Now, +it is a remarkable fact that a New Englander never goes to sleep in one +of these cars. He lies awake all night, thinking how he can improve upon +every device and patent in sight. [Laughter.] He poked his head out of +the upper berth at midnight, hailed the porter and said, "Say, have you +got such a thing as a corkscrew about you?" "We don't 'low no drinkin' +sperits aboa'd these yer cars, sah," was the reply. "'Tain't that," said +the Yankee, "but I want to get hold onto one of your pillows that has +kind of worked its way into my ear." [Loud laughter.] The pillows have +since been enlarged.</p> + +<p>I notice that, in the general comprehensiveness of the sentiment which +follows this toast, you allude to that large and liberal class of +patrons, active though defunct, known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_899" id="Page_899">[Pg 899]</a></span> as "deadheads." It is said to be +a quotation from Shakespeare. That is a revelation. It proves +conclusively that Shakespeare must at one time have resided in the State +of Missouri. It is well-known that the term was derived from a practice +upon a Missouri railroad, where, by a decision of the courts, the +railroad company had been held liable in heavy damages in case of +accidents where a passenger lost an arm or a leg, but when he was killed +outright his friends seldom sued, and he never did; and the company +never lost any money in such cases. In fact, a grateful mother-in-law +would occasionally pay the company a bonus. The conductors on that +railroad were all armed with hatchets, and in case of an accident they +were instructed to go around and knock every wounded passenger in the +head, thus saving the company large amounts of money; and these were +reported to the general office as "deadheads," and in railway circles +the term has ever since been applied to passengers where no money +consideration is involved. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>One might suppose, from the manifestations around these tables for the +first three hours to-night, that the toast "Internal Improvements" +referred more especially to the benefiting of the true inwardness of the +New England men; but I see that the sentiment which follows contains +much more than human stomachs, and covers much more ground than cars. It +soars into the realms of invention. Unfortunately the genius of +invention is always accompanied by the demon of unrest. A New England +Yankee can never let well enough alone. I have always supposed him to be +the person specially alluded to in Scripture as the man who has found +out many inventions. If he were a Chinese Pagan, he would invent a new +kind of Joss to worship every week. You get married and settle down in +your home. You are delighted with everything about you. You rest in +blissful ignorance of the terrible discomforts that surround you, until +a Yankee friend comes to visit you. He at once tells you you mustn't +build a fire in that chimney-place; that he knows the chimney will +smoke; that if he had been there when it was built he could have shown +you how to give a different sort of flare to the flue. You go to read a +chapter in the family Bible. He tells you to drop that; that he has just +written an enlarged and improved version, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_900" id="Page_900">[Pg 900]</a></span> can just put that old +book to bed. [Laughter.] You think you are at least raising your +children in general uprightness; but he tells you if you don't go out at +once and buy the latest patented article in the way of steel leg-braces +and put on the baby, the baby will grow up bow-legged. [Laughter.] He +intimates, before he leaves, that if he had been around to advise you +before you were married, he could have got you a much better wife. These +are some of the things that reconcile a man to sudden death. [Continued +laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>Such occurrences as these, and the fact of so many New Englanders being +residents of this city and elsewhere, show that New England must be a +good place—to come from.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the war we thought we could shoot people rapidly +enough to satisfy our consciences, with single-loading rifles; but along +came the inventive Yankee and produced revolvers and repeaters, and +Gatling guns, and magazine guns—guns that carried a dozen shots at a +time. I didn't wonder at the curiosity exhibited in this direction by a +backwoods Virginian we captured one night. The first remark he made was, +"I would like to see one of them thar new-fangled weepons of yourn. They +tell me, sah, it's a most remarkable eenstrument. They say, sah, it's a +kind o' repeatable, which you can load it up enough on Sunday to fiah it +off all the rest of the week." [Laughter.] Then there was every sort of +new invention in the way of bayonets. Our distinguished Secretary of +State has expressed an opinion to-night that bayonets are bad things to +sit down on. Well, they are equally bad things to be tossed up on. If he +continues to hold up such terrors to the army, there will have to be +important modifications in the uniform. A soldier won't know where to +wear his breastplate. [Laughter.] But there have not only been +inventions in the way of guns, but important inventions in the way of +firing them. In these days a man drops on his back, coils himself up, +sticks up one foot, and fires off his gun over the top of his great toe. +It changes the whole stage business of battle. It used to be the man who +was shot, but now it is the man who shoots that falls on his back and +turns up his toes. [Laughter and applause.] The consequence is, that the +whole world wants American arms, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_901" id="Page_901">[Pg 901]</a></span> as soon as they get them they go +to war to test them. Russia and Turkey had no sooner bought a supply +than they went to fighting. Greece got a schooner-load, and, although +she has not yet taken a part in the struggle, yet ever since the digging +up of the lost limbs of the Venus of Milo, it has been feared that this +may indicate a disposition on the part of Greece generally to take up +arms. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>But there was one inveterate old inventor that you had to get rid of, +and you put him on to us Pennsylvanians—Benjamin Franklin. [Laughter.] +Instead of stopping in New York, in Wall Street, as such men usually do, +he continued on into Pennsylvania to pursue his kiting operations. He +never could let well enough alone. Instead of allowing the lightning to +occupy the heavens as the sole theatre for its pyrotechnic displays, he +showed it how to get down on to the earth, and then he invented the +lightning-rod to catch it. Houses that had got along perfectly well for +years without any lightning at all, now thought they must have a rod to +catch a portion of it every time it came around. Nearly every house in +the country was equipped with a lightning-rod through Franklin's direct +agency. You, with your superior New England intelligence, succeeded in +ridding yourselves of him; but in Pennsylvania, though we have made a +great many laudable efforts in a similar direction, somehow or other we +have never once succeeded in getting rid of a lightning-rod agent. +[Laughter.] Then the lightning was introduced on the telegraph wires, +and now we have the duplex and quadruplex instruments, by which any +number of messages can be sent from opposite ends of the same wire at +the same time, and they all appear to arrive at the front in good order. +Electricians have not yet told us which messages lies down and which one +steps over it, but they all seem to bring up in the right camp without +confusion. I shouldn't wonder if this principle were introduced before +long in the operating of railroads. We may then see trains running in +opposite directions pass each other on a single-track road. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>There was a New England quartermaster in charge of railroads in +Tennessee, who tried to introduce this principle during the war. The +result was discouraging. He suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_902" id="Page_902">[Pg 902]</a></span>ceeded in telescoping two or three +trains every day. He seemed to think that the easiest way to shorten up +a long train and get it on a short siding was to telescope it. I have +always thought that if that man's attention had been turned in an +astronomical direction, he would have been the first man to telescope +the satellites of Mars. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The latest invention in the application of electricity is the telephone. +By means of it we may be able soon to sit in our houses, and hear all +the speeches, without going to the New England dinner. The telephone +enables an orchestra to keep at a distance of miles away when it plays. +If the instrument can be made to keep hand-organs at a distance, its +popularity will be indescribable. The worst form I have ever known an +invention to take was one that was introduced in a country town, when I +was a boy, by a Yankee of musical turn of mind, who came along and +taught every branch of education by singing. He taught geography by +singing, and to combine accuracy of memory with patriotism, he taught +the multiplication-table to the tune of Yankee Doodle. [Laughter.] This +worked very well as an aid to the memory in school, but when the boys +went into business it often led to inconvenience. When a boy got a +situation in a grocery-store and customers were waiting for their +change, he never could tell the product of two numbers without +commencing at the beginning of the table and singing up till he had +reached those numbers. In case the customer's ears had not received a +proper musical training, this practice often injured the business of the +store. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>It is said that the Yankee has always manifested a disposition for +making money, but he never struck a proper field for the display of his +genius until we got to making paper money. [Laughter.] Then every man +who owned a printing-press wanted to try his hand at it. I remember that +in Washington ten cents' worth of rags picked up in the street would be +converted the next day into thousands of dollars.</p> + +<p>An old mule and cart used to haul up the currency from the Printing +Bureau to the door of the Treasury Department. Every morning, as +regularly as the morning came, that old mule would back up and dump a +cart-load of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_903" id="Page_903">[Pg 903]</a></span> sinews of war at the Treasury. [Laughter.] A patriotic +son of Columbia, who lived opposite, was sitting on the doorstep of his +house one morning, looking mournfully in the direction of the mule. A +friend came along, and seeing that the man did not look as pleasant as +usual, said to him, "What is the matter? It seems to me you look kind of +disconsolate this morning." "I was just thinking," he replied, "what +would become of this government if that old mule was to break down." +[Laughter and applause.] Now they propose to give us a currency which is +brighter and heavier, but not worth quite as much as the rags. Our +financial horizon has been dimmed by it for some time, but there is a +lining of silver to every cloud. We are supposed to take it with 412½ +grains of silver—a great many more grains of allowance. [Laughter.] +Congress seems disposed to pay us in the "dollar of our daddies"—in the +currency which we were familiar with in our childhood. Congress seems +determined to pay us off in something that is "child-like and Bland." +[Laughter and applause.] But I have detained you too long already. +[Cries of "No, no; go on!"]</p> + +<p>Why, the excellent President of your Society has for the last five +minutes been looking at me like a man who might be expected, at any +moment, to break out in the disconsolate language of Bildad the Shuhite +to the patriarch Job, "How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?" +Let me say then, in conclusion, that, coming as I do from the unassuming +State of Pennsylvania, and standing in the presence of the dazzling +genius of New England, I wish to express the same degree of humility +that was expressed by a Dutch Pennsylvania farmer in a railroad car, at +the breaking out of the war. A New Englander came in who had just heard +of the fall of Fort Sumter, and he was describing it to the farmer and +his fellow-passengers. He said that in the fort they had an engineer +from New England, who had constructed the traverses, and the embrasures, +and the parapets in such a manner as to make everybody within the fort +as safe as if he had been at home; and on the other side, the +Southerners had an engineer who had been educated in New England, and he +had, with his scientific attainments, succeeded in making the batteries +of the bombarders as safe as any harvest field, and the bombardment had +raged for two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_904" id="Page_904">[Pg 904]</a></span> whole days, and the fort had been captured, and the +garrison had surrendered, and not a man was hurt on either side. A great +triumph for science, and a proud day for New England education. Said the +farmer, "I suppose dat ish all right, but it vouldn't do to send any of +us Pennsylvany fellers down dare to fight mit does pattles. Like as not +ve vould shoost pe fools enough to kill somepody." [Loud applause and +laughter, and cries of "Go on; go on."]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>HOW TO AVOID THE SUBJECT</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-fifth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1880. "We +have been told here to-night," said the President, James C. Carter, +"that New York has been peopled by pilgrims of various races, and I +propose, as our next toast, 'The Pilgrims of Every Race.' And I +call upon our ever welcome friend, General Horace Porter, for a +response."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—I am here, like the rest of your guests, to-night, in +consequence of these notes of invitation that we have received. I know +it is always more gratifying to an audience for speakers to be able to +assure them, in the outset of their remarks, that they are here without +notes; but such is not my case. I received the following:</p> + +<p>"The Committee of Arrangements of the New England Society respectfully +invite you to be present at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the +Society, and the two hundred and sixtieth of the landing of the Pilgrims +at Metropolitan Concert Hall." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Such is the ignorance of those of us upon whom Providence did not +sufficiently smile to permit us to be born in New England, that I never +knew, until I received that note, anything about the landing of the +Pilgrims at Metropolitan Concert Hall. This certainly will be sad news +to communicate to those pious people who assembled in Brooklyn last +night, and who still rest happy in the belief that the Pilgrims landed +on Plymouth Church. [Laughter.] From the day they have chosen for the +anniversary,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_905" id="Page_905">[Pg 905]</a></span> it seems very evident that the Pilgrims must have landed +somewhere one day before they struck Plymouth Rock. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The poet Longfellow tells us, in one of his short poems, "learn to labor +and to wait." I have labored through about twenty-five courses at this +table, and then I have waited until this hour, in the hope that I might +be spared the inevitable ordeal. But when the last plate had been +removed, and your president, who is a stern man of duty, rapped upon the +table, I saw there was no escape, and the time had come when he was +going to present to you one of the most popular of all dishes at a New +England banquet, tongue garnished with brains. He seems, following the +late teachings of Harvard and Yale, to have invited the guests to enter +for a sort of skull-race. [Laughter.] Now, I suppose that, in calling +first upon those on his right and left, it is a matter of convenience +for himself, and he has acted from the same motives that actuated a +newly fledged dentist who, when his first patient applied, determined to +exercise all that genius and understanding which Boston men generally +exercise in the practice of their profession. The patient, coming from +the country, told him he wanted two back teeth, which he pointed out to +him, pulled. The dentist placed him in a chair, and in a few moments he +had pulled out his two front teeth. The patient left the chair, and it +occurred to him that the circumstance might be deemed of sufficient +importance to call the dentist's attention to it. He said, "I told you +to pull out these two back teeth." "Yes," said the dentist, "so you did; +but I found that the front ones were kind of handier to get at." +[Laughter and applause.] I suppose the reason your president called upon +those of us nearest the platform to-night was because he found us a +little handier to get at. But there is no use in speakers coming here +and pleading want of preparation, because, doubtless, the New Englanders +who expected to take part to-night might have been found at any time +within the last six months sitting under blue glass to enlarge their +ideas. [Laughter.] I ventured to say to the committee that, this being +such a large room, some of your speakers might not have a high enough +tone of voice to be heard at the other end. They looked unutterable +things at me, as much as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_906" id="Page_906">[Pg 906]</a></span> say that at New England dinners I would +find the speakers could not be otherwise than high-toned. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The first New Englander I ever had the pleasure to listen to was a +Pilgrim from Boston, who came out to the town in Pennsylvania, where I +lived, to deliver a lecture. We all went to the lecture. We were told it +was worth twice the price of admission to see that man wipe the corners +of his mouth with his handkerchief before he commenced to speak. Well, +he spoke for about two hours on the subject of the indestructibility of +the absolute in connection with the mutability of mundane affairs. The +pitch and variety of the nasal tones was wonderful, and he had an +amazing command of the longest nouns and adjectives. It was a beautiful +lecture. The town council tried to borrow it and have it set to music. +It was one of those lectures that would pay a man to walk ten miles in +wet feet—to avoid. After he got through, a gentleman in the audience, +thinking it the part of good nature, stepped up and congratulated him +upon his "great effort." The lecturer took it as a matter of course, and +replied, "Oh, yes, you will find the whole atmosphere of Boston +exhilarant with intellectual vitality." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, if there is one thing which modern Pilgrims pride themselves upon +more than another, it is in being the lineal descendants of those who +came over by the Mayflower. To prove this, when you visit their homes, +they bring forth family records in the shape of knives, forks, and +spoons that were taken from the Mayflower. From the number of those +articles I have seen, I have come to the conclusion that the captain of +the Mayflower did not get back to England with a single article +belonging to the ship that was not nailed fast to the deck. Such a dread +have the people of that island of this wide-spread Puritanical +kleptomania attaching to people coming here, that even as late as 1812 +the commander of one of the British frigates took the wise precaution to +nail his flag fast to the mast. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>We have heard that the Pilgrim fathers made amends for their +shortcomings, from the fact of their having determined, after landing, +to fill the meeting-houses and have worship there, and that brave men +were detailed from the congregation to stand sentinels against a +surprise by the Indians. It is even said that during those long and +solemn sermons some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_907" id="Page_907">[Pg 907]</a></span> of the members vied with each other in taking their +chances with the Indians outside. Some of these acts of heroism +re-appear in the race. I have been told that some of the lineal +descendants of these hardy men that paced up and down in front of the +meeting-house have recently been seen pacing up and down all night in +front of the Globe Theatre, in Boston, ready in the morning to take +their chance of the nearest seat for Sara Bernhardt's performance. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, sir, the New Englanders are eminently reformers. I have never seen +anything they did not attempt to reform. They even introduced the +Children of the Sun to the shoe-shops of Lynn, with the alleged purpose +of instructing the Chinese in letters, yet recently in Massachusetts +they themselves showed such lamentable ignorance as not to know a +Chinese letter when they saw it. [Laughter.] But the poor Chinese have +been driven away. They have been driven away from many places by that +formidable weapon—the only weapon which Dennis Kearney has ever been +able to use against them—the Chinese must-get. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I have never seen but one thing the Yankee could not reform, and that +was the line of battle at Bull Run, and I call upon Pilgrim Sherman as a +witness to this. He was there, and knows. Bulls have given as much +trouble to Yankees as to Irishmen. Bulls always seem to be associated +with Yankee defeat, from the time of Bull Run down to Sitting Bull, and +I will call upon Pilgrim Miles as a witness to that.</p> + +<p>Now, gentlemen, let me say that the presence of General Grant to-night +will enable you to settle forever that question which has vexed the New +England mind all the period during which he was making his triumphal +journey round the globe—the question as to whether, in his intercourse +with kings and potentates, he was always sure to keep in sufficient +prominence the merits of the Pilgrim fathers, and more especially of +their descendants. I have no doubt he did. I have no doubt that to those +crowned heads, with numerous recalcitrant subjects constantly raising +Cain in their dominions, the recital of how the Pilgrims went +voluntarily to a distant country to live, where their scalps were in +danger, must have been a pleasant picture. [Laughter.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_908" id="Page_908">[Pg 908]</a></span></p> + +<p>If I am to have any reputation for brevity I must now close these +remarks. I remember a lesson in brevity I once received in a barber's +shop. An Irishman came in, and the unsteady gait with which he +approached the chair showed that he had been imbibing of the produce of +the still run by North Carolina Moonshiners. He wanted his hair cut, and +while the barber was getting him ready, went off into a drunken sleep. +His head got bobbing from one side to the other, and at length the +barber, in making a snip, cut off the lower part of his ear. The barber +jumped about and howled, and a crowd of neighbors rushed in. Finally the +demonstration became so great that it began to attract the attention of +the man in the chair, and he opened one eye and said, "Wh-wh-at's the +matther wid yez?" "Good Lord!" said the barber, "I've cut off the whole +lower part of your ear." "Have yez? Ah, thin, go on wid yer bizness—it +was too long, anyhow!" [Laughter.] If I don't close this speech, some +one of the company will be inclined to remark that it has been too long, +anyhow. [Cheers and laughter.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>A TRIP ABROAD WITH DEPEW</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-seventh annual dinner of +the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1882. +Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair and called upon +General Porter to respond to the toast: "The Embarkation of the +Pilgrims."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—Last summer two pilgrims might have been seen +embarking from the port of New York to visit the land from which the +Pilgrim Fathers once embarked. One was the speaker who just sat down +[Chauncey M. Depew], and the other the speaker who has just arisen. I do +not know why we chose that particular time. Perhaps Mr. Choate, with his +usual disregard of the more accurate bounds of veracity, would have you +believe that we selected that time because it was a season when there +was likely to be a general vacation from dinners here. [Laughter.] Our +hopes of pleasure abroad had not risen to any dizzy height. We did not +expect that the land which so discriminating a band as the Pilgrim +Fathers had deliberately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_909" id="Page_909">[Pg 909]</a></span> abandoned, and preferred New England thereto, +could be a very engaging country. We expected to feel at home there upon +the general principle that the Yankees never appear so much at home as +when they are visiting other people. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I have noticed that Americans have a desire to go to Europe, and I have +observed, especially, that those who have certain ambitions with regard +to public life think that they ought to cross the ocean; that crossing +the water will add to their public reputations, particularly when they +think how it added to the reputation of George Washington even crossing +the Delaware River. [Laughter and applause.] The process is very simple. +You get aboard a steamer, and when you get out of sight of land you +suddenly realize that the ship has taken up seriously its corkscrew +career through the sea. Certain gastronomic uncertainties follow. You +are sailing under the British flag. You always knew that "Britannia +ruled the waves;" but the only trouble with her now is that she don't +appear to rule them straight. [Laughter.] Then you lean up against the +rail; soon you begin to look about as much discouraged as a Brooklyn +Alderman in contempt of court. Your more experienced and sympathizing +friends tell you that it will soon pass over, and it does. You even try +to beguile your misery with pleasant recollections of Shakespeare. The +only line that seems to come to your memory is the advice of Lady +Macbeth—"To bed, to bed!"—and when you are tucked away in your berth +and the ship is rolling at its worst, your more advisory friends look in +upon you, and they give you plenty of that economical advice that was +given to Joseph's brother, not to "fall out by the way." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>For several days you find your stomach is about in the condition of the +tariff question in the present Congress—likely to come up any minute. +This is particularly hard upon those who had been brought up in the +army, whose previous experience in this direction had been confined +entirely to throwing up earthworks. [Laughter.] You begin to realize how +naval officers sometimes have even gone so far as to throw up their +commissions. If Mr. Choate had seen Mr. Depew and myself under these +circumstances he would not have made those disparaging remarks which he +uttered to-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_910" id="Page_910">[Pg 910]</a></span>night about the engorgement of our stomachs. If he had +turned those stomachs wrong side out and gazed upon their inner walls +through that opera-glass with which he has been looking so intently +lately upon Mrs. Langtry, he would have found that there was not even +the undigested corner of a carbuncular potato to stop the pyloric +orifice; he would have found upon those inner walls not a morsel of +those things which perish with using. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But Mr. Choate must have his joke. He is a professional lawyer, and I +have frequently observed that lawyers' jokes are like an undertaker's +griefs—strictly professional. You begin now to sympathize with +everybody that ever went to sea. You think of the Pilgrim Fathers during +the tempestuous voyage in the Mayflower. You reflect how fully their +throats must have been occupied, and you can see how they originated the +practice of speaking through their noses. [Great laughter and applause.] +Why, you will get so nauseated before the trip is over at the very sight +of the white caps that you can't look at the heads of the French nurses +in Paris without feeling seasick. There are the usual "characters" +about. There is the customary foreign spinster of uncertain age that has +been visiting here, who regales you with stories of how in New York she +had twelve men at her feet. Subsequent inquiry proves that they were +chiropodists. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>And then you approach Ireland. You have had enough of the ocean wave, +and you think you will stop there. I have no doubt everybody present, +after hearing from the lips of the distinguished chaplain on my right as +to the character of the men who come from that country, will hereafter +always want to stop there. And when you land at Queenstown you are taken +for an American suspect. They think you are going to join the Fenian +army. They look at you as if you intended to go forth from that ship as +the dove went forth from the ark, in search of some green thing. You +assure them that the only manner in which you can be compared with that +dove is in the general peacefulness of your intentions. Then you go +wandering around by the shores of the Lakes of Killarney and the Gap of +Dunloe, that spot where the Irishman worked all day for the agent of an +absentee landlord on the promise of getting a glass of grog.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_911" id="Page_911">[Pg 911]</a></span> At night +the agent brought out the grog to him, and the Irishman tasted it, and +he said to the agent, "Which did you put in first, the whiskey or the +water?" "Oh," said he, "the whiskey." "Ah, ha! Well, maybe I'll come to +it by and by." [Laughter.] You look around upon the army, the +constabulary, the police, and you begin to think that Ireland is a good +deal like our own city of Troy, where there are two police forces on +duty—that it is governed a great deal. You can't help thinking of the +philosophical remark made by that learned Chinese statesman, Chin Lan +Pin, when he was here at the time Dennis Kearney was having an +unpleasantness with the Orientals. A man said to him, "Your people will +have to get out of here; the Irish carry too much religion around to +associate with Pagans." "Yes," said Chin Lan Pin, "we have determined to +go. Our own country is too overcrowded now, we can't go there, and I +think we'll go to Ireland." Said the man, "To Ireland? You will be +jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire." Said Chin Lan Pin, "I have +travelled in your country and all around a good deal, and I have come to +the conclusion that nowadays Ireland is about the only country that is +not governed by the Irish." [Applause and laughter.]</p> + +<p>Then you go to Scotland. You want to learn from personal observation +whether the allegation is true that the Scotch are a people who are +given to keeping the Sabbath day—and everything else they can lay their +hands on. [Laughter.] You have heard that it is a musical country, and +you immediately find that it is. You hardly land there before you hear +the bag-pipes. You hear that disheartening music, and you sit down and +weep. You know that there is only one other instrument in the world that +will produce such strains, and that is a steam piano on a Mississippi +steamboat when the engineer is drunk. And in this musical country they +tell you in song about the "Lassies Comin' Through the Rye;" but they +never tell you about the rye that goes through the "laddies." And they +will tell you in song about "bodies meeting bodies coming through the +rye," and you tell them that the practice is entirely un-American; that +in America bodies usually are impressed with the solemnity of the +occasion and the general propriety of the thing, and lie quiet until the +arrival of the coroner, but that the cor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_912" id="Page_912">[Pg 912]</a></span>oners are disputing so much in +regard to their jurisdiction, and so many delays occur in issuing burial +permits, that, altogether, they are making the process so tedious and +disagreeable that nowadays in America hardly anybody cares to die. You +tell them this in all seriousness, and you will see from their +expression that they receive it in the same spirit. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Then you go to England. You have seen her colonies forming a belt around +the circle of the earth, on which the sun never sets. And now you have +laid eyes on the mother-country, on which it appears the sun never +rises. Then you begin to compare legislative bodies, Parliament and +Congress. You find that in Parliament the members sit with their hats on +and cough, while in Congress the members sit with their hats off and +spit. I believe that no international tribunal of competent jurisdiction +has yet determined which nation has the advantage over the other in +these little legislative amenities. And, as you cross the English +Channel, the last thing you see is the English soldier with his blue +trousers and red coat, and the first you see on landing in France is the +French soldier with his red trousers and blue coat, and you come to the +conclusion that if you turn an English soldier upside down he is, +uniformly speaking, a Frenchman. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>We could not tarry long in France; it was the ambition of my travelling +companion to go to Holland, and upon his arrival there the boyish antics +that were performed by my travelling companion in disporting himself +upon the ancestral ground were one of the most touching and playful +sights ever witnessed in the open air. [Laughter.] Nobody knows Mr. +Depew who has not seen him among the Dutch. He wanted especially to go +to Holland, because he knew the Pilgrims had gone from there. They did +not start immediately from England to come here. Before taking their +leap across the ocean they stepped back on to Holland to get a good +ready. [Laughter.] It is a country where water mingles with everything +except gin—a country that has been so effectually diked by the natives +and damned by tourists. [Laughter.] There is one peculiar and especial +advantage that you can enjoy in that country in going out to a banquet +like this. It is that rare and peculiar privilege<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_913" id="Page_913">[Pg 913]</a></span> which you cannot +expect to enjoy in a New England Society even when Mr. Choate addresses +you—the privilege of never being able to understand a word that is said +by the speakers after dinner. But we had to hurry home. We were +Republicans, and there was going to be an election in November. We +didn't suppose that our votes would be necessary at all; still it would +look well, you know, to come home and swell the Republican majority. +[Laughter.] Now when you get on that ship to come back, you begin for +the first time to appreciate the advantage of the steam lanes that are +laid down by the steamship company, by which a vessel goes to Europe one +season over one route and comes back another season over another route, +so that a man who goes to Europe one season and comes back another is +treated to another change of scenery along the entire route. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>As I said, we thought it was the thing for Republicans to come home to +vote. At the polls we found it was rather the thing for them to stay +away. But we acted upon that impulse which often seizes upon the human +breast—the desire to come home to die. I never for one moment realized +the overwhelming defeat that we were going to suffer until one day Mr. +Choate confided to me his determination to speak for the Citizens' +candidate. [Loud laughter.] And this left us the day after that election +and left the other members of our party standing around the highways and +byways with that one supplication upon each one's lips: "Lord, be +merciful unto me a Republican and a sinner." [Loud applause and +laughter.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>WOMAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-eighth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1883. The +President, Marvelle W. Cooper, in introducing the speaker, arose, +mentioned the single word "Woman"—and said: "This toast will be +responded to by one whom you know well, General Horace Porter."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—When this toast was proposed to +me, I insisted that it ought to be responded to by a bachelor, by some +one who is known as a ladies' man;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_914" id="Page_914">[Pg 914]</a></span> but in these days of female +proprietorship it is supposed that a married person is more essentially +a ladies' man than anybody else, and it was thought that only one who +had had the courage to address a lady could have the courage, under +these circumstances, to address the New England Society. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The toast, I see, is not in its usual order to-night. At public dinners +this toast is habitually placed last on the list. It seems to be a +benevolent provision of the Committee on Toasts in order to give man in +replying to Woman one chance at least in life of having the last word. +[Laughter.] At the New England dinners, unfortunately the most fruitful +subject of remark regarding woman is not so much her appearance as her +disappearance. I know that this was remedied a few years ago, when this +grand annual gastronomic high carnival was held in the Metropolitan +Concert Hall. There ladies were introduced into the galleries to grace +the scene by their presence; and I am sure the experiment was +sufficiently encouraging to warrant repetition, for it was beautiful to +see the descendants of the Pilgrims sitting with eyes upturned in true +Puritanic sanctity; it was encouraging to see the sons of those pious +sires devoting themselves, at least for one night, to setting their +affections upon "things above." [Applause and laughter.]</p> + +<p>Woman's first home was in the Garden of Eden. There man first married +woman. Strange that the incident should have suggested to Milton the +"Paradise Lost." [Laughter.] Man was placed in a profound sleep, a rib +was taken from his side, a woman was created from it, and she became his +wife. Evil-minded persons constantly tell us that thus man's first sleep +became his last repose. But if woman be given at times to that +contrariety of thought and perversity of mind which sometimes passeth +our understanding, it must be recollected in her favor that she was +created out of the crookedest part of man. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The Rabbins have a different theory regarding creation. They go back to +the time when we were all monkeys. They insist that man was originally +created with a kind of Darwinian tail, and that in the process of +evolution this caudal appendage was removed and created into woman. This +might better account for those Caudle lectures which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_915" id="Page_915">[Pg 915]</a></span> woman is in the +habit of delivering, and some color is given to this theory, from the +fact that husbands even down to the present day seem to inherit a +general disposition to leave their wives behind. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The first woman, finding no other man in that garden except her own +husband, took to flirting even with the Devil. [Laughter.] The race +might have been saved much tribulation if Eden had been located in some +calm and tranquil land—like Ireland. There would at least have been no +snakes there to get into the garden. Now woman in her thirst after +knowledge, showed her true female inquisitiveness in her +cross-examination of the serpent, and, in commemoration of that +circumstance, the serpent seems to have been curled up and used in +nearly all languages as a sign of interrogation. Soon the domestic +troubles of our first parents began. The first woman's favorite son was +killed with a club, and married women even to this day seem to have an +instinctive horror of clubs. The first woman learned that it was Cain +that raised a club. The modern woman has learned it is a club that +raises cain. Yet, I think, I recognize faces here to-night that I see +behind the windows of Fifth Avenue clubs of an afternoon, with their +noses pressed flat against the broad plate glass, and as woman trips +along the sidewalk, I have observed that these gentlemen appear to be +more assiduously engaged than ever was a government scientific +commission in taking observations upon the transit of Venus. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Before those windows passes many a face fairer than that of the +Ludovician Juno or the Venus of Medici. There is the Saxon blonde with +the deep blue eye, whose glances return love for love, whose silken +tresses rest upon her shoulders like a wealth of golden fleece, each +thread of which looks like a ray of the morning sunbeam. There is the +Latin brunette with the deep, black, piercing eye, whose jetty lashes +rest like silken fringe upon the pearly texture of her dainty cheek, +looking like raven's wings spread out upon new-fallen snow.</p> + +<p>And yet the club man is not happy. As the ages roll on woman has +materially elevated herself in the scale of being. Now she stops at +nothing. She soars. She demands the coeducation of the sexes. She thinks +nothing of delving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_916" id="Page_916">[Pg 916]</a></span> into the most abstruse problems of the higher +branches of analytical science. She can cipher out the exact hour of the +night when her husband ought to be home, either according to the old or +the recently adopted method of calculating time. I never knew of but one +married man who gained any decided domestic advantage by this change in +our time. He was an <i>habitué</i> of a club situated next door to his house. +His wife was always upbraiding him for coming home too late at night. +Fortunately, when they made this change of time, they placed one of +those meridians from which our time is calculated right between the club +and his house. [Laughter.] Every time he stepped across that imaginary +line it set him back a whole hour in time. He found that he could then +leave his club at one o'clock and get home to his wife at twelve; and +for the first time in twenty years peace reigned around that +hearthstone.</p> + +<p>Woman now revels even in the more complicated problems of mathematical +astronomy. Give a woman ten minutes and she will describe a heliocentric +parallax of the heavens. Give her twenty minutes and she will find +astronomically the longitude of a place by means of lunar culminations. +Give that same woman an hour and a half, with the present fashions, and +she cannot find the pocket in her dress.</p> + +<p>And yet man's admiration for woman never flags. He will give her half +his fortune; he will give her his whole heart; he seems always willing +to give her everything that he possesses, except his seat in a +horse-car. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Every nation has had its heroines as well as its heroes. England, in her +wars, had a Florence Nightingale; and the soldiers in the expression of +their adoration, used to stoop and kiss the hem of her garment as she +passed. America, in her war, had a Dr. Mary Walker. Nobody ever stooped +to kiss the hem of her garment—because that was not exactly the kind of +garment she wore. [Laughter.] But why should man stand here and attempt +to speak for woman, when she is so abundantly equipped to speak for +herself. I know that is the case in New England; and I am reminded, by +seeing General Grant here to-night, of an incident in proof of it which +occurred when he was making that marvellous tour through New England, +just after the war. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_917" id="Page_917">[Pg 917]</a></span> train stopped at a station in the State of +Maine. The General was standing on the rear platform of the last car. At +that time, as you know, he had a great reputation for silence—for it +was before he had made his series of brilliant speeches before the New +England Society. They spoke of his reticence—a quality which New +Englanders admire so much—in others. [Laughter.] Suddenly there was a +commotion in the crowd, and as it opened a large, tall, gaunt-looking +woman came rushing toward the car, out of breath. Taking her spectacles +off from the top of her head and putting them on her nose, she put her +arms akimbo, and looking up, said: "Well, I've just come down here a +runnin' nigh onto two mile, right on the clean jump, just to get a look +at the man that lets the women do all the talkin'." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The first regular speaker of the evening [William M. Evarts] touched +upon woman, but only incidentally, only in reference to Mormonism and +that sad land of Utah, where a single death may make a dozen widows. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>A speaker at the New England dinner in Brooklyn last night [Henry Ward +Beecher] tried to prove that the Mormons came originally from New +Hampshire and Vermont. I know that a New Englander sometimes in the +course of his life marries several times; but he takes the precaution to +take his wives in their proper order of legal succession. The difference +is that he drives his team of wives tandem, while the Mormon insists +upon driving his abreast. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But even the least serious of us, Mr. President, have some serious +moments in which to contemplate the true nobility of woman's character. +If she were created from a rib, she was made from that part which lies +nearest a man's heart.</p> + +<p>It has been beautifully said that man was fashioned out of the dust of +the earth while woman was created from God's own image. It is our pride +in this land that woman's honor is her own best defence; that here +female virtue is not measured by the vigilance of detective nurses; that +here woman may walk throughout the length and the breadth of this land, +through its highways and its byways, uninsulted, unmolested, clothed in +the invulnerable panoply of her own woman's virtue; that even in places +where crime lurks and vice prevails in the haunts of our great cities, +and in the rude mining gulches of the West, owing to the noble efforts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_918" id="Page_918">[Pg 918]</a></span> +of our women, and the influence of their example, there are raised up, +even there, girls who are good daughters, loyal wives, and faithful +mothers. They seem to rise in those rude surroundings as grows the pond +lily, which is entangled by every species of rank growth, environed by +poison, miasma and corruption, and yet which rises in the beauty of its +purity and lifts its fair face unblushing to the sun.</p> + +<p>No one who has witnessed the heroism of America's daughters in the field +should fail to pay a passing tribute to their worth. I do not speak +alone of those trained Sisters of Charity, who in scenes of misery and +woe seem Heaven's chosen messengers on earth; but I would speak also of +those fair daughters who come forth from the comfortable firesides of +New England and other States, little trained to scenes of suffering, +little used to the rudeness of a life in camp, who gave their all, their +time, their health, and even life itself, as a willing sacrifice in that +cause which then moved the nation's soul. As one of these, with her +graceful form, was seen moving silently through the darkened aisles of +an army hospital, as the motion of her passing dress wafted a breeze +across the face of the wounded, they felt that their parched brows had +been fanned by the wings of the angel of mercy.</p> + +<p>Ah! Mr. President, woman is after all a mystery. It has been well said, +that woman is the great conundrum of the nineteenth century; but if we +cannot guess her, we will never give her up. [Applause.]</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_919" id="Page_919">[Pg 919]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>FRIENDLINESS OF THE FRENCH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet given by the Chamber of +Commerce of the State of New York, June 24, 1885, to the officers +of the French national ship "Isere," which brought over the statue +of "Liberty Enlightening the World." Charles Stewart Smith, +vice-President of the Chamber, proposed the following toast: "The +French Alliance; initiated by noble and sympathetic Frenchmen; +grandly maintained by the blood and treasure of France; now newly +cemented by the spontaneous action of the French people; may it be +perpetuated through all time." In concluding his introduction, the +Chairman said: "We shall hear from our friend, General Porter."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><i>Voulez-vous me permettre de +faire mes remarques en français? Si je m'addresse à vous dans une langue +que je ne parle pas, et que personne ici ne comprends, j'en impute la +faute entièrement à l'example malheureux de Monsieur Coudert. Ce que je +veux dire est que</i>—this is the fault of Coudert. He has been switching +the languages round in every direction, and has done all he could to +sidetrack English.</p> + +<p>What I mean to say is, that if I were to mention in either language one +tithe of the subjects which should be alluded to to-night in connection +with the French Alliance, I should keep you all here until the rising of +another sun, and these military gentlemen around me, from abroad, in +attempting to listen to it, would have to exhibit what Napoleon +considered the highest quality in a soldier: "Two-o'clock-in-the-morning +courage." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>One cannot speak of the French Alliance without recalling the services +of Benjamin Franklin in connection with it. When he was in Paris and was +received in a public assemblage, not understanding anything of the +language, and believing, very properly, that it was a good thing always +to follow the example of the French in society, he vociferously +applauded every time the rest of them applauded, and he did not learn +until it was all over that the applause was, in each instance, elicited +by a reference to his name and distinguished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_920" id="Page_920">[Pg 920]</a></span>public services, and so, +during the eloquent speech of our friend, Mr. Coudert, I could not but +look upon the American members of this assemblage, and notice that they +applauded most vociferously when they supposed that the speaker was +alluding particularly to their arduous services as members of the +Chamber of Commerce. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I congratulate our friends from abroad, who do not understand our +language, upon the very great privilege they enjoy here to-night, a +privilege that is not enjoyed by Americans or by Englishmen who come +among us. It is the rare and precious privilege at an American banquet +of not being expected to pay the slightest attention to the remarks of +the after-dinner speakers. [Laughter.] If there is one thing I feel I +can enjoy more than another, it is standing upon firm land and speaking +to those whose life is on the sea, to these "toilers of the deep." There +is in this a sort of poetic justice, a sentimental retribution; for on +their element I am never able to stand up, and, owing to certain +gastronomic uncertainties, my feelings on that element are just the +reverse of those I experience at the present moment. For in the agonies +of a storm I have so much on my mind that I have nothing whatever on my +stomach. But after this feast to-night I have so much on my stomach that +I fear I have nothing whatever on my mind. And when I next go to sea I +want to go as the great statue of Liberty: first being taken all apart +with the pieces carefully stored amidships. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>While they were building the statue in France, we were preparing slowly +for the pedestal. You cannot hurry constructions of this kind; they must +have time to settle. We long ago prepared the stones for that pedestal, +and we first secured the services of the most useful, most precious +stone of all—the Pasha from Egypt. [Laughter.] We felt that his +services in Egypt had particularly fitted him for this task. There is a +popular belief in this country, which I have never once heard +contradicted, that he took a prominent part in laying the foundations of +the great Pyramids, that he assisted in placing the Egyptian Sphinx in +position, and that he even had something to do with Cleopatra's Needle. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>When Napoleon was in Egypt he said to his people:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_921" id="Page_921">[Pg 921]</a></span> "Forty centuries are +looking down upon you." We say to General Stone, as he stands upon that +pedestal: "Fifty-five millions of people are looking up to you! and some +of them have contributed to the fund." [Laughter.] When we read of the +size of that statue, we were troubled, particularly when we saw the +gigantic dimensions of the Goddess's nose, but our minds were relieved +when we found that that nose was to face southward, and not in the +direction of Hunter's Point. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p><i>Monsieur le President</i>:—<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a><i>Quand le c[oe]ur est plein il deborde, et +ce soir mon c[oe]ur est plein de la France, mais</i>—Oh, there I go, again +wandering with Coudert away from the mother-tongue. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I have no doubt all the gentlemen here to-night of an American turn of +mind wish that the mantle of Elijah of old had fallen upon the shoulders +of Mr. Coudert, for then he might have stood some chance of being +translated. [Laughter.] A few years ago distinguished military men from +abroad came here to participate in the celebration of the 100th +anniversary of the surrender of Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis. They were +invited here by the Government, the descendants of all distinguished +foreigners, to participate in that historical event, except the +descendants of Lord Cornwallis. [Laughter.] And if our French guests had +been here then, and had gone down and seen Yorktown, they would not have +wondered that Cornwallis gave up that place; their only astonishment +would have been that he consented to remain there as long as he did. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, Mr. President, upon a subject fraught with so much interest to us +all, and with so much dignity, let me, before I close, speak a few words +in all seriousness. If we would properly appreciate the depth and the +lasting nature of that traditional friendship between the two nations, +which is the child of the French Alliance, we must consider the +conditions of history at the time that alliance was formed. For years a +desperate war had been waged between the most powerful of nations and +the weakest of peoples, struggling to become a nation. The American +coffers had been drained, the spirit of the people was waning, hope was +fading, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_922" id="Page_922">[Pg 922]</a></span>patriot hearts who had never despaired before were now +bowed in the dust. The trials of the Continental army had never been +matched since the trade of war began. Their sufferings had never been +equalled since the days of the early Christian martyrs. While courage +still animated the hearts of the people, and their leaders never took +counsel of their fears, yet a general gloom had settled down upon the +land. Then we saw a light breaking in upon our eastern horizon, a light +which grew in brilliancy until it became to us a true bow of promise. +That light came from the brave land of France. [Enthusiastic cheering.]</p> + +<p>Then hope raised our standards; then joy brightened our crest; then it +was, that when we saw Gates and Lincoln and Greene and Washington, we +saw standing shoulder to shoulder with them, D'Estaing, De Grasse, +Rochambeau, and that princely hero [pointing to a portrait against the +wall], that man who was the embodiment of gallantry, of liberty, of +chivalry, the immortal Lafayette. [Loud cheers.] Then the two armies +moved hand-in-hand to fight the common foe. They vied nobly with each +other and, by an unselfish emulation and by a generous rivalry, showed +the world that the path of ambition had not become so narrow that two +could not walk it abreast. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and cheers.]</p> + +<p>Two treaties were made; one was military in its terms, and was called +the Defensive Treaty. The other we recall with great interest in the +presence of an assemblage of business men such as this. The second +treaty was called the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. The results of +those treaties have passed into history. That alliance taught many +worthy lessons. It taught that tyranny you may find anywhere; it is a +weed that grows on any soil. But if you want liberty, you must go forth +and fight for it. [Applause.] It taught us those kindly sentiments +between nations which warm the heart, liberalize the mind, and animate +the courage. It taught men that true liberty can turn blind submission +into rational obedience. It taught men, as Hall has said, that true +liberty smothers the voice of kings, dispels the mists of superstition, +and by its magic touch kindles the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of +poetry, the flame of eloquence, pours into our laps opulence and art, +and embel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_923" id="Page_923">[Pg 923]</a></span>lishes life with innumerable institutions and improvements +which make it one grand theatre of wonders. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>And now that this traditional friendship between the two nations is to +be ever cemented by that generous gift of our ally, that colossal +statue, which so nobly typifies the great principle for which our +fathers fought, may the flame which is to arise from its uplifted arm +light the path of liberty to all who follow in its ways, until human +rights and human freedom become the common heritage of mankind.</p> + +<p>Ariosto tells us a pretty story of a gentle fairy, who, by a mysterious +law of her nature, was at certain periods compelled to assume the form +of a serpent and to crawl upon the ground. Those who in the days of her +disguise spurned her and trod upon her were forever debarred from a +participation in those gifts that it was her privilege to bestow, but to +those who, despite her unsightly aspect, comforted her and encouraged +her and aided her, she appeared in the beautiful and celestial form of +her true nature, followed them ever after with outstretched arms, +lavished upon them her gifts, and filled their homes with happiness and +wealth.</p> + +<p>And so, when America lay prostrate upon the ground, after throwing off +the British yoke, yet not having established a government which the +nations of the earth were willing to recognize, then it was that France +sympathized with her, and comforted her, and aided her, and now that +America has arisen in her strength and stands erect before the nations +of the world, in the true majesty and glory of that form in which God +intended she should thenceforth tread the earth, she always stands with +arms outstretched towards France in token of the great gratitude she +bears her. [Applause and cheers.]</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_924" id="Page_924">[Pg 924]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>THE CITIZEN SOLDIER</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the eighth annual dinner of the New +England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1887. The +President, John Winslow, proposed the toast, "The Citizen Soldier," +saying: "The next regular toast is 'The Citizen Soldier.' I have +already referred to the embarrassment which a presiding officer +feels in introducing a well-known and distinguished man. If I refer +to the distinguished gentleman who is to respond to this toast as a +pathetic speaker, you will immediately recall some of his fine +humor; and if I should speak of him as a humorous speaker you will +recall some pathetic sentence; so it is better to let General +Horace Porter speak for himself."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—After General Sherman the deluge. +I am the deluge. It is fortunate for me this evening that I come after +General Sherman only in the order of speech, and not in the order of +dinner, for a person once said in Georgia—and he was a man who knew +regarding the March to the Sea—that anyone who came after General +Sherman wouldn't find much to eat. Having been brought up in +Pennsylvania, I listened with great interest to General Sherman's +reference to the proposed names of the States in the country. He +mentioned one as "Sylvania." That was evidently a dead letter till we +put the Pen(n) to it. [Laughter.] I noticed that President Dwight +listened with equal interest to the statement of that expedition which +went West and carried such a large quantity of whiskey with it, in +consequence of which the first University was founded. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, gentlemen, when I am requested in such an august presence as this +to speak of the "Citizen Soldier," I cannot help feeling like the +citizen soldier of Hibernian extraction who came up, in the streets of +New York, to a general officer and held out his hand for alms, evidently +wanting to put himself temporarily on the General's pay-roll, as it +were. The General said: "Why don't you work?" He said he couldn't on +account of his wounds. The General asked where he was wounded. He said, +"In the retrate at Bull Run." "But whereabouts on your person?" He +replied, "You'll notice the scar here." [Pointing to his face.] "Now, +how could you get wounded in the face while on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_925" id="Page_925">[Pg 925]</a></span> retreat?" "I had the +indiscrition to look back." [Laughter.] "Well," said the General, "that +wouldn't prevent your working." "Ah," answered the man, "the worst wound +is here." [Left breast.] The General said, "Oh, that's all bosh; if the +bullet had gone in there it would have passed through your heart and +killed you." "I beg your pardon, sir, at that moment me heart was in me +mouth!" [Great laughter.] So if I had known that such an early attack +was to be made upon me here to-night, I should have thrown my pickets +farther out to the front, in hopes of getting sufficient information to +beat a hasty retreat; for if there is one lesson better than another +taught by the war, it is that a man may retreat successfully from almost +any position, if he only starts in time. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>In alluding to the Citizen Soldier I desire it to be distinctly +understood that I make no reference to that organization of Home Guards +once formed in Kansas, where the commanding officer tried to pose as one +of the last surviving heroes of the Algerine War, when he had never +drawn a sword but once and that was in a raffle, and where his men had +determined to emulate the immortal example of Lord Nelson. The last +thing that Nelson did was to die for his country, and this was the last +thing they ever intended to do. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I allude to that Citizen Soldier who breathed the spirit of old Miles +Standish, but had the additional advantage of always being able to speak +for himself; who came down to the front with hair close cropped, clean +shaven, newly baptized, freshly vaccinated, pocket in his shirt, musket +on his shoulder, ready to do anything, from squirrel hunting up to +manslaughter in the first degree. He felt that with a single rush he +could carry away two spans of barbed-wire fence without scratching +himself. If too short-sighted to see the enemy, he would go nearer; if +lame, he would make this an excuse to disobey an order to retreat; if he +had but one stocking, he would take it off his foot in wet weather and +wrap it around the lock of his gun; and as to marching, he would keep on +the march as long as he had upper garments enough left to wad a gun or +nether garments enough to flag a train with. [Laughter.] He was the last +man in a retreat, the first man in an enemy's smoke-house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_926" id="Page_926">[Pg 926]</a></span> When he +wanted fuel he took only the top rail of the fence, and kept on taking +the top rail till there was none of that fence left standing. The New +England soldier knew everything that was between the covers of books, +from light infantry tactics to the new version of the Scriptures. One +day, on a forced march in Virginia, a New England man was lagging +behind, when his colonel began stirring him up and telling him he ought +to make better time. He at once started to argue the case with the +colonel, and said: "See here, colonel, I've studied the tactics and hev +learned from 'em how to form double column at half distance, but I hev +never yet learned how to perform double distance on half rations." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, Mr. President, this is a subject which should receive a few serious +words from me before I sit down. It was not until the black war cloud of +rebellion broke upon us that we really appreciated the Citizen Soldier +at his full worth. But when the country was struck we saw, pouring down +from the hill tops, and surging up from the valleys, that magnificent +army of citizen soldiery, at the sight of which all Christendom stood +amazed. They gathered until the streets of every hamlet in the land were +lighted by the glitter of their steel and resounded to the tread of +their marching columns. It seemed that the middle wall of partition was +broken down between all classes, that we were living once more in the +heroic ages, that there had returned to us the brave days of old, when +"none were for a party but all were for the state." [Applause.] And then +that unbroken line swept down to the front. But in that front what +scenes were met! There was the blistering Southern sun; swamps which +bred miasma and death; rivers with impassable approaches; heights to be +scaled, batteries to be captured, the open plain with guns in front and +guns in flank, which swept those devoted columns until human blood +flowed as freely as festal wine; there was the dense forest, the +under-growth barring the passage of man, the upper-growth shutting out +the light of heaven; ammunition-trains exploding, the woods afire, the +dead roasted in the flames, the wounded dragging their mangled limbs +after them to escape its ravages, until it seemed that Christian men had +turned to fiends, and hell itself had usurped the place of earth. +[Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_927" id="Page_927">[Pg 927]</a></span></p> + +<p>And when success perched upon our banners, when the bugle sounded the +glad notes of final and triumphal victory, the disbanding of that army +was even more marvellous than its organization. It disappeared, not as +the flood of waters of the spring, which rend the earth, and leave havoc +and destruction in their course; but rather, as was once eloquently +said, like the snows of winter under a genial sun, leaving the face of +Nature untouched, and the handiwork of man undisturbed; not injuring, +but moistening and fructifying the earth. [Applause.] But the mission of +the Citizen Soldier did not end there, it has not ended yet. We have no +European enemy to dread, it is true; we have on our own continent no +foeman worthy of our steel; for, unlike the lands of Europe, this land +is not cursed by propinquity. But we must look straight in the face the +fact that we have in our midst a discontented class, repudiated alike by +employers and by honest laborers. They come here from the effete +monarchies of the old world, rave about the horrors of tyrannous +governments, and make no distinction between them and the blessings of a +free and independent government. They have, but a little while ago, +created scenes in which mob-law ruled the hour, riot held its sanguinary +sway, and the earth of our streets tasted the blood of our citizens. +When such scenes as these occur, we cannot wait for aid from the crews +of vessels in the offing, we cannot look for succor to the army +garrisons of distant forts; but in our great cities—those plague spots +in the body politic—we want trained militia who can rally as rapidly as +the long roll can be beaten. And I know that all property-owners feel +safer, that all law-abiding citizens breathe freer, when they see a +militia, particularly like that in our own State, go forth in the summer +to be inured to the hardships of the march, to the discipline of +tent-life in the field, exhibiting an <i>esprit de corps</i>, a discipline, a +true touch of the elbow, which is beyond all praise. I love to take off +my hat to their marching column; I love to salute its passing banners. +They will always be the true bulwark of our defence. I know of no man, +and no set of men, who more gladly or more eagerly make this statement +than those who have been reared in the regular army; and I take +particular pride in making this acknowledgment and paying this tribute +in the presence of the senior and the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_928" id="Page_928">[Pg 928]</a></span> illustrious living commander +of our Citizen Soldiery. [Allusion to General Sherman followed by great +applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>THE MANY-SIDED PURITAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-second annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. +Ex-Judge Horace Russell, the President of the Society, in +introducing General Porter, said: "James T. Brady used to say that +a good lawyer imbibed his law rather than read it. [Laughter.] If +that proposition holds true in other regards, the gentleman whom I +am to call to the next toast is one of the very best of New +Englanders—General Horace Porter [applause], who will speak to +'Puritan Influence.'"]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—While you were eating +Forefathers' dinner here a year ago, I happened to be in Mexico, but on +my return I found that the Puritan influence had extended to me, for I +was taken for the distinguished head of this organization, and was in +receipt of no end of letters addressed to General Horace Russell and +Judge Horace Porter and Mr. Horace Russell and Porter, President of the +New England Society, and all begging for a copy of Grady's<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> speech. +Distant communities had got the names of the modern Horatii mixed. +[Laughter.] In replying I had to acknowledge that my nativity barred me +out from the moral realms of this puritanical society, and I could only +coincide with Charles II when he said he always admired virtue, but he +never could imitate it. [Laughter and applause.] When the Puritan +influence spread across the ocean; when it was imported here as part of +the cargo of the Mayflower, the crew of the craft, like sensible men, +steered for the port of New York, but a reliable tradition informs us +that the cook on board that vessel chopped his wood on deck and always +stood with his broadaxe on the starboard side of the binnacle, and that +this mass of ferruginous substance so attracted the needle that the ship +brought up in Plymouth harbor. And the Puritans did not reach New York +harbor for a couple of hundred years thereafter, and then in the persons +of the members of the New England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_929" id="Page_929">[Pg 929]</a></span> Society. It is seen that the same +influences are still at work, for the fact that these Puritans have +brought up in Delmonico's haven of rest is entirely owing to the +attractions of the cook. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>The old Puritan was not the most rollicking, the jolliest, or the most +playful of men. He at times amused himself sadly; he was given to a mild +disregard of the conventionalities. He had suppressed bear-baiting, not, +it is believed, because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave +pleasure to the audience. He found the Indians were the proprietors of +the land, and he felt himself constrained to move against them with his +gun with a view to increasing the number of absentee landlords. +[Laughter and applause.] He found the Indians on one side and the +witches on the other. He was surrounded with troubles. He had to keep +the Indians under fire and the witches over it. These were some of the +things that reconciled that good man to sudden death. He frequently +wanted to set up a mark and swear at it, but his principles would not +permit him. He never let the sun go down upon his wrath, but he, no +doubt, often wished that he was in that region near the pole where the +sun does not go down for six months at a time, and gives wrath a fair +chance to materialize. He was a thoughtful man. He spent his days +inventing snow-ploughs and his evenings in sipping hot rum and +ruminating upon the probable strength of the future Prohibition vote. +Those were times when the wives remonstrated with their husbands +regarding the unfortunate and disappointing results of too much drink, +particularly when it led the men to go out and shoot at Indians—and +miss them. [Long continued laughter.] It is supposed that these men, +like many others, generally began drinking on account of the bite of a +snake, and usually had to quit on account of attacks from the same +reptiles.</p> + +<p>But, Mr. President, if you will allow me a few words of becoming gravity +with which to retract any aspersions which I may have inadvertently cast +upon the sacred person of the ancient Puritan, I assure you I will use +those words with a due sense of the truth of the epigram—that "gravity +is a stratagem invented to conceal the poverty of the mind." That rugged +old Puritan, firm of purpose and stout of heart, had been fittingly +trained by his life in the Old World, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_930" id="Page_930">[Pg 930]</a></span> the conspicuous part he was +to enact in the New. He was acquainted with hardships, inured to trials, +practised in self-abnegation. He had reformed religions, revolutionized +society, and shaken the thrones of tyrants. He had learned that tyranny +you may have anywhere—it is a weed which grows on any soil—but if you +want freedom you must go forth and fight for it. [Long continued +applause.]</p> + +<p>At his very birth he had had breathed into his nostrils the breath of +that true liberty which can turn blind submission into rational +obedience, which, as Hall says, can "smother the voice of kings, +dissipate the mists of superstition, and by its magic touch kindle the +rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, the flames of eloquence." +[Applause.] He had the courage of his convictions, he counselled not +with his fears. He neither looked to the past with regret nor to the +future with apprehension. He might have been a zealot—he was never a +hypocrite; he might have been eccentric—he was never ridiculous. He was +a Hercules rather than an Adonis. In his warfare he fired hot shot; he +did not send in flags of truce; he led forlorn hopes; he did not follow +in the wake of charges. When he went forth with his sledge-hammer logic +and his saw-mill philosophy, all who stood in the path of his righteous +wrath went down before him, with nothing by which to recognize them +except the pieces he had left of them. When he crossed the seas to plant +his banners in the West, when he disembarked upon the bleak shores of +America, the land which was one day to speak with the voice of a mighty +prophet, then the infant just discovered in the bulrushes of the New +World, he came with loins girded and all accoutred for the great work of +founding a race which should create a permanent abiding place for +liberty, and one day dominate the destinies of the world. [Prolonged +applause.] Unlike the Spanish conqueror upon far southern coasts, the +leader did not have to burn his ship to retain his followers, for when +the Mayflower spread her sails for home, not a man of Plymouth Colony +returned on board her.</p> + +<p>The Puritan early saw that in the new land, liberty could not flourish +when subject to the caprices of European Courts; he realized with Burke +that there was "more wisdom and sagacity in American workshops than in +the cabi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_931" id="Page_931">[Pg 931]</a></span>nets of princes." He wanted elbow-room; he was philosophic +enough to recognize the truth of the adage that it is "better to sit on +a pumpkin and have it all to yourself than to be crowded on a velvet +cushion."</p> + +<p>When the struggle for independence came, the Puritan influence played no +small part in the contest. When a separate government had been formed he +showed himself foremost in impressing upon it his principles of broad +and comprehensive liberty. He dignified labor; he believed that as the +banner of the young Republic was composed of and derived its chief +beauty from its different colors, so should its broad folds cover and +protect its citizens of different colors.</p> + +<p>He was a grand character in history. We take off our hats to him. We +salute his memory. In his person were combined the chivalry of +Knighthood, the fervor of the Crusader, the wit of Gascony, and the +courage of Navarre. [Prolonged applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>ABRAHAM LINCOLN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at a dinner given by the Republican Club +in honor of the ninetieth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's +birthday, New York City, February 12, 1889. Mortimer C. Addams, the +newly elected President of the Club, occupied the chair. General +Porter was called upon for a response to the first toast, "Abraham +Lincoln—the fragrant memory of such a life will increase as the +generations succeed each other." General Porter was introduced by +the chairman, as one "whose long acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, +intimate relationship, both official and personal, with our +illustrious chieftain, General Grant, and distinguished career as a +brave defender of his country in the time of her peril, have +eminently fitted him to tell the story of our great War +President."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—I am encumbered with diverse +misgivings in being called upon to rise and cast the first firebrand +into this peaceful assemblage, which has evidently been enjoying itself +so much up to the present time. From the herculean task accomplished by +the Republican party last fall we have come to think of its members<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_932" id="Page_932">[Pg 932]</a></span> as +men of deeds and not of words, except the spellbinders. [Laughter.] I +fear your committee is treating me like one of those toy balloons that +are sent up previous to the main ascension, to test the currents of the +air; but I hope that in this sort of ballooning I may not be interrupted +by the remark that interrupted a Fourth of July orator in the West when +he was tickling the American Eagle under both wings, delivering himself +of no end of platitudes and soaring aloft into the brilliant realms of +fancy when a man in the audience quietly remarked: "If he goes on +throwing out his ballast, in that way, the Lord knows where he will +land." [Laughter.] If I demonstrate to-night that dryness is a quality +not only of the champagne but of the first speech as well, you may +reflect on that remark as Abraham Lincoln did at City Point after he had +been shaken up the night before in his boat in a storm in Chesapeake +Bay. When he complained of the feeling of gastronomic uncertainty which +we suffer on the water, a young staff officer rushed up to him with a +bottle of champagne and said: "This is the cure for that sort of an +ill." Said the President: "No, young man, I have seen too many fellows +seasick ashore from drinking that very article." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln savors more of romance than +reality. It is more like a fable of the ancient days than a story of a +plain American of the nineteenth century. The singular vicissitudes in +the life of our martyred President surround him with an interest which +attaches to few men in history. He sprang from that class which he +always alluded to as the "plain people," and never attempted to disdain +them. He believed that the government was made for the people, not the +people for the government. He felt that true Republicanism is a +torch—the more it is shaken in the hands of the people the brighter it +will burn. He was transcendently fit to be the first successful +standard-bearer of the progressive, aggressive, invincible Republican +party. [Loud applause.] He might well have said to those who chanced to +sneer at his humble origin what a marshal of France raised from the +ranks said to the haughty nobles of Vienna boasting of their long line +of descent, when they refused to associate with him: "I am an ancestor; +you are only descendants!" [Laughter and cheers.] He was never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_933" id="Page_933">[Pg 933]</a></span> guilty +of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish +sentimentality, any of that puppyism so often bred by power, that +dogmatism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity. +[Laughter.] He made no claim to knowledge he did not possess. He felt +with Addison that pedantry and learning are like hypocrisy in +religion—the form of knowledge without the power of it. He had nothing +in common with those men of mental malformation who are educated beyond +their intellects. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The names of Washington and Lincoln are inseparably associated, and yet +as the popular historian would have us believe one spent his entire life +in chopping down acorn trees and the other splitting them up into rails. +Washington could not tell a story. Lincoln always could. [Laughter.] And +Lincoln's stories always possessed the true geometrical requisites, they +were never too long, and never too broad. [Laughter.] He never forgot a +point. A sentinel pacing near the watchfire while Lincoln was once +telling some stories quietly remarked that "He had a mighty powerful +memory, but an awful poor forgettery." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The last time I ever heard him converse, he told one of the stories +which best illustrated his peculiar talent for pointing a moral with an +anecdote. Speaking of England's assistance to the South, and how she +would one day find she had aided it but little and only injured herself, +he said: "Yes, that reminds me of a barber in Sangamon County. He was +about going to bed when a stranger came along and said he must have a +shave. He said he had a few days' beard on his face, and he was going to +a ball, and the barber must cut it off. The barber got up reluctantly, +dressed, and put the stranger in a chair with a low back to it, and +every time he bore down he came near dislocating his patient's neck. He +began by lathering his face, including nose, eyes, and ears, strapped +his razor on his boot, and then made a drive scraping down the right +cheek, carrying away the beard and a pimple and two or three warts. The +man in the chair said: 'You appear to make everything level as you go.' +[Laughter.] The barber said: 'Yes, if this handle don't break, I will +get away with what there is there.' The man's cheeks were so hollow that +the barber could not get down into the valleys with the razor and an +ingenious idea oc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_934" id="Page_934">[Pg 934]</a></span>curred to him to stick his finger in the man's mouth +and press out the cheeks. Finally he cut clean through the cheek and +into his own finger. He pulled the finger out of the man's mouth, and +snapped the blood off it, looked at him, and said: 'There, you +lantern-jawed cuss, you have made me cut my finger.'" [Laughter.] "Now," +said Lincoln, "England will find she has got the South into a pretty bad +scrape from trying to administer to her. In the end she will find she +has only cut her own finger." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But his heart was not always attuned to mirth; its chords were often set +to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost the +courage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by +doubting Thomases, by unbelieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, +his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their +war-horses in order that they might not be affrighted by the din of +battle, so Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all that might have discouraged +him, and exhibited an unwavering faith in the justice of the cause and +the integrity of the Union. [Cries of "Bravo!" and cheers.]</p> + +<p>It is said that for three hundred years after the battle of Thermopylæ +every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from +memory the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the defence of +that Pass. It would be a crowning triumph in patriotic education if +every school child in America could contemplate each day the grand +character and utter the inspiring name of Abraham Lincoln. [Loud +applause.]</p> + +<p>He has passed from our view. We shall not meet him again until he stands +forth to answer to his name at the roll-call when the great of earth are +summoned in the morning of the last great reveille. Till then +[apostrophizing Lincoln's portrait which hung above the President's +head], till then, farewell, gentlest of all spirits, noblest of all +hearts! The child's simplicity was mingled with the majestic grandeur of +your nature. You have handed down unto a grateful people the richest +legacy which man can leave to man—the memory of a good name, the +inheritance of a great example! [Loud and enthusiastic applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_935" id="Page_935">[Pg 935]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>SIRES AND SONS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-sixth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1891. J. +Pierpont Morgan, the President, occupied the chair, and called upon +General Porter to speak on "Sires and Sons."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—All my shortcomings upon this +occasion must be attributed to the fact that I have just come from last +night's New England dinner, in Brooklyn, which occurred largely this +morning. They promised me when I accepted their invitation that I should +get away early, and I did. I am apprehensive that the circumstance may +give rise to statements which may reflect upon my advancing years, and +that I may be pointed out as one who has dined with the early New +Englanders.</p> + +<p>I do not like the fact of Depew's coming into the room so late to-night +and leaving so short an interval between his speech and mine. His +conduct is of a piece with the conduct of so many married men nowadays +who manifest such exceedingly bad taste and want of tact in dying only +such a very short time before the remarriage of their wives.</p> + +<p>I have acquired some useful experience in attending New England Society +dinners in various cities. I dine with New Englanders in Boston; the +rejoicing is marked, but not aggressive. I dine with them in New York; +the hilarity and cheer of mind are increased in large degree. I dine +with them in Philadelphia; the joy is unconfined and measured neither by +metes nor bounds. Indeed, it has become patent to the most casual +observer that the further the New Englander finds himself from New +England the more hilarious is his rejoicing. Whenever we find a son of +New England who has passed beyond the borders of his own section, who +has stepped out into the damp cold fog of a benighted outside world and +has brought up in another State, he seems to take more pride than ever +in his descent—doubtless because he feels that it has been so great. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The New England sire was a stern man on duty and determined to +administer discipline totally regardless of previous acquaintance. He +detested all revolutions in which he had taken no part. If he possessed +too much piety, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_936" id="Page_936">[Pg 936]</a></span> was tempered by religion; while always seeking out +new virtues, he never lost his grip on his vices. [Laughter.] He was +always ambitious to acquire a reputation that would extend into the next +world. But in his own individual case he manifested a decided preference +for the doctrine of damnation without representation.</p> + +<p>When he landed at Plymouth he boldly set about the appalling task of +cultivating the alleged soil. His labors were largely lightened by the +fact that there were no agricultural newspapers to direct his efforts. +By a fiction of speech which could not have been conceived by a less +ingenious mind, he founded a government based upon a common poverty and +called it a commonwealth. He was prompt and eminently practical in his +worldly methods. In the rigors of a New England winter when he found a +witch suffering he brought her in to the fire; when he found an Indian +suffering he went out and covered him with a shotgun. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The discipline of the race, however, is chiefly due to the New England +mother. She could be seen going to church of a Sabbath with the Bible +under one arm and a small boy under the other, and her mind equally +harassed by the tortures of maternity and eternity. When her offspring +were found suffering from spring fever and the laziness which +accompanies it, she braced them up with a heroic dose of brimstone and +molasses. The brimstone given here was a reminder of the discipline +hereafter; the molasses has doubtless been chiefly responsible for the +tendency of the race to stick to everything, especially their opinions. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The New Englanders always take the initiative in great national +movements. At Lexington and Concord they marched out alone without +waiting for the rest of the Colonies, to have their fling at the +red-coats, and a number of the colonists on that occasion succeeded in +interfering with British bullets. It was soon after observed that their +afternoon excursion had attracted the attention of England. They acted +in the spirit of the fly who bit the elephant on the tail. When the fly +was asked whether he expected to kill him he said: "No, but I notice I +made him look round." [Laughter.]<br /><br /></p> +<p><a name="minuteman" id="minuteman"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img936.jpg" alt="THE MINUTE MAN" title="THE MINUTE MAN" /></div> +<blockquote><h4><i>THE MINUTE MAN</i></h4> + +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a photograph</i></p> + + +<p>In commemoration of the famous Revolutionary struggle of the farmers of +Concord, Mass., April 19, 1775, this statue was erected. The sculptor +was Daniel Chester French, a native of Concord. The statue was unveiled +at the centennial celebration of the battle, 1875. It is of bronze, +heroic size, and stands near the town of Concord, by the battlefield, on +the side of the Concord River occupied by the Americans. The position is +described by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his lines which are graven in the +pedestal of the statue:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Here once the embattled farmers stood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And fired the shot heard round the world."</span><br /> +<br /></p></blockquote> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_937" id="Page_937">[Pg 937]</a></span></p> + +<p>Such are the inventive faculty and self-reliance of New Englanders that +they always entertain a profound respect for impossibilities. It has +been largely owing to their influence that we took the negro, who is a +natural agriculturist, and made a soldier of him; took the Indian, who +is a natural warrior, and made an agriculturist of him; took the +American, who is a natural destructionist, and made a protectionist of +him. They are always revolutionizing affairs. Recently a Boston company +equipped with electricity the horse-cars, or rather the mule-cars, in +the streets of Atlanta. When the first electric-motor cars were put into +service an aged "contraband" looked at them from the street corner and +said: "Dem Yankees is a powerful sma't people; furst dey come down h'yar +and freed de niggers, now dey've done freed de mules." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The New Englander is so constantly engaged in creating changes that in +his eyes even variety appears monotonous. When a German subject finds +himself oppressed by his Government he emigrates; when a French citizen +is oppressed he makes the Government emigrate; when Americans find a +portion of their Government trying to emigrate they arm themselves and +spend four years in going after it and bringing it back. [Laughter and +applause.]</p> + +<p>You will find the sons of New England everywhere throughout the world, +and they are always at the fore. I happened to be at a French banquet in +Paris where several of us Americans spoke, employing that form of the +French language which is so often used by Americans in France, and which +is usually so successful in concealing one's ideas from the natives. +There was a young Bostonian there who believed he had successfully +mastered all the most difficult modern languages except that which is +spoken by the brake-men on the elevated railroads. When he spoke French +the only departure from the accent of the Parisian was that <i>nuance</i> of +difference arising from the mere accidental circumstance of one having +learned his French in Paris and the other in Boston. The French give +much praise to Molière for having changed the pronunciation of a great +many French words; but his most successful efforts in that direction +were far surpassed by the Boston young man. When he had finished his +remarks a French gentleman sitting be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_938" id="Page_938">[Pg 938]</a></span>side me inquired: "Where is he +from?" I replied: "From New England." Said he: "I don't see anything +English about him except his French." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>In speaking of the sons of New England sires, I know that one name is +uppermost in all minds here to-night—the name of one who added new +lustre to the fame of his distinguished ancestors. The members of your +Society, like the Nation at large, found themselves within the shadow of +a profound grief, and oppressed by a sense of sadness akin to the sorrow +of a personal bereavement, as they stood with uncovered heads beside the +bier of William T. Sherman; when the echo of his guns gave place to the +tolling of cathedral bells; when the flag of his country, which had +never been lowered in his presence, dropped to half-mast, as if +conscious that his strong arm was no longer there to hold it to the +peak; when he passed from the living here to join the other living, +commonly called the dead. We shall never meet the great soldier again +until he stands forth to answer to his name at roll-call on the morning +of the last great reveille. At this board he was always a thrice welcome +guest. The same blood coursed in his veins which flows in yours. All +hearts warmed to him with the glow of an abiding affection. He was a +many-sided man. He possessed all the characteristics of the successful +soldier: bold in conception, vigorous in execution, and unshrinking +under grave responsibilities. He was singularly self-reliant, +demonstrating by all his acts that "much danger makes great hearts most +resolute." He combined in his temperament the restlessness of a Hotspur +with the patience of a Fabius. Under the magnetism of his presence his +troops rushed to victory with all the dash of Cæsar's Tenth Legion. +Opposing ranks went down before the fierceness of his onsets, never to +rise again. He paused not till he saw the folds of his banners wave +above the strongholds he had wrested from the foe.</p> + +<p>While mankind will always appreciate the practical workings of the mind +of the great strategist, they will also see in his marvellous career +much which savors of romance as well as reality, appeals to the +imagination and excites the fancy. They will picture him as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; as a gen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_939" id="Page_939">[Pg 939]</a></span>eral who could +make a Christmas gift to his President of a great seaboard city; as a +chieftain whose field of military operations covered nearly half a +continent; who had penetrated everglades and bayous; the inspiration of +whose commands forged weaklings into giants; whose orders all spoke with +the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depth to +mountain height, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. No one can +rob him of his laurels; no man can lessen the measure of his fame. His +friends will never cease to sing pæans in his honor, and even the wrath +of his enemies may be counted in his praise. [Prolonged applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>THE ASSIMILATED DUTCHMAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the fourth annual dinner of the +Poughkeepsie District Members of the Holland Society of New York, +October 3, 1893. The banquet was held in commemoration of the +relief of the siege of Leyden, 1574. J. William Beekman, the +President, introduced General Porter as follows: "Gentlemen, we +will now proceed to a toast that we shall all enjoy, I am sure, +after so much has been said about the Dutch. This toast is to be +responded to by a gentleman whom we all know. It is hardly +necessary to introduce him. But I will read the sentiment attached +to this toast: 'The American: Formed of the blendings of the best +strains of Europe, he cannot be worthy of his ancestry without +combining in himself the best qualities of them all.' And I call +upon General Horace Porter to respond."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—We speakers have naturally been a +little embarrassed at the outset this evening, for just as we were about +to break into speech, your President reminded us that the only one +worthy of having a monument built to his memory was William the Silent. +Well, it seemed to carry me back to those ancient days of Greece, when +Pythagoras inaugurated his School of Silence, and called on Damocles to +make the opening speech.</p> + +<p>Your President has shown from the start this evening that he is +determined to enforce discipline, totally regardless of previous +acquaintance. He appears to have been in a Shakespearian mood to-night. +He seemed to be looking at each one of these alleged speakers and saying +of him: "Therefore, I'll watch him till he be dieted to my request<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_940" id="Page_940">[Pg 940]</a></span> and +then I will set upon him." But he must remember that Shakespeare also +said: "Dainty bits make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits."</p> + +<p>I do not know how the rest of you feel, but after these delicious but +somewhat plethoric dinners, I feel very much like Mr. Butterby, when his +lavender-colored trousers were sent to him the night before his wedding, +and he returned them to the tailor with a note saying, "Let them out two +inches around the waist, which will leave a margin for emotion and the +wedding breakfast." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, we speakers to-night cannot expect to be received with any vast +ebullition of boisterous enthusiasm here, for we understand that every +member pays for his own wine. Besides, I am sure that you will not be +likely to get any more ideas from me than you would get lather from a +cake of hotel soap.</p> + +<p>After having wrestled with about thirty dishes at this dinner, and after +all this being called upon to speak, I feel a great sympathy with that +woman in Ireland who had had something of a field-day on hand. She began +by knocking down two somewhat unpopular agents of her absentee landlord, +and was seen, later in the day, dancing a jig on the stomach of the +prostrate form of the Presbyterian minister. One of her friends admired +her prowess in this direction and invited her in, and gave her a good +stiff glass of whiskey. Her friend said, "Shall I pour some water in +your whiskey?" and the woman replied, "For God's sake, haven't I had +trouble enough already to-day?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I am a little at a loss still to know how I got into this company +to-night. I begin to feel like some of those United States Senators who, +after they have reached Washington, look around and wonder how they got +there. The nearest approach to being decorated with a sufficiently +aristocratic epithet to make me worthy of admission to this Society was +when I used to visit outside of my native State and be called a +"Pennsylvania Dutchman." But history tells us that at the beginning of +the Revolution there was a battle fought at Breed's Hill, and it was +called the Battle of Bunker Hill, because it was not fought there; and I +suppose I have been brought into this Dutch Society to-night because I +am not a Dutchman. [Laughter.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_941" id="Page_941">[Pg 941]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have great admiration for these Dutchmen; they always get to the +front. When they appear in New York they are always invited to seats on +the roof; when they go into an orchestra, they are always given one of +the big fiddles to play; and when they march in a procession, they are +always sure to get a little ahead of the band. This Society differs +materially from other so-called foreign societies. When we meet the +English, we invariably refer to the common stock from which we sprang, +but in the Dutch Society the stock is always preferred! and when a +Dutchman dies, why, his funeral is like that funeral of Abel, who was +killed by his brother Cain—no one is allowed to attend unless he +belongs to a first family. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, a Dutchman is only happy when he gets a "Van" attached to the front +of his name, and a "dam" to the rear end of the city from which his +ancestors came. I notice they are all very particular about the "dam." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>There was a lady—a New York young lady—who had been spending several +years in England and had just returned. She had posed awhile as a +professional beauty. Then she attempted to marry into the aristocracy, +but the market for titles was a little dull that year and she came home. +She had lived there long enough to become an Anglomaniac. She met a +Dutchman in New York—I think he was a member of the Holland +Society—and she said: "Everything seems so remarkably commonplace here, +after getting back from England; I am sure you must admit that there is +nothing so romantic here as in England." The Dutchman remarked: "Well, I +don't know about that." She said: "I was stopping at a place in the +country, with one of the members of the aristocracy, and there was a +little piece of water—a sort of miniature lake, as it were—so sweet. +The waters were confined by little rustic walls, so to speak, and that +was called the 'Earl's Oath'; we have nothing so romantic in New York, +I'm sure." Said the Dutchman: "Oh, yes, here we have McComb's Dam." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, Mr. President, I certainly am in earnest sympathy with the +patriotic sentiment expressed in the toast which you have been pleased +to assign to me to-night, saying, in effect, that the American is +composed of the best strains of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_942" id="Page_942">[Pg 942]</a></span> Europe, and the American cannot be +worthy of his ancestors unless he aims to combine within himself the +good qualities of all. America has gained much by being the conglomerate +country that she is, made up of a commingling of the blood of other +races. It is a well-known fact in the crossing of breeds that the best +traits predominate in the result. We in this land, have gained much from +the purity of those bloods; we have suffered little from the taint.</p> + +<p>It is well in this material age, when we are dwelling so much upon +posterity, not to be altogether oblivious to pedigree. It has been well +said that he who does not respect his ancestors will never be likely to +achieve anything for which his descendants will respect him. Man learns +but very little in this world from precept; he learns something from +experience; he learns much from example, and the "best teachers of +humanity are the lives of worthy men."</p> + +<p>We have a great many admirable so-called foreign societies in New York, +and they are all doing good work—good work in collecting interesting +historical data in regard to the ancestors who begat them; in regard to +the lands from which they came—good work in the broad field of charity. +But it is the Holland Society which seems to be a little closer to us +than the others—more <i>our</i> Society, even with those of us who have no +Dutch blood in our veins. We feel that these old Dutch names are really +more closely associated in our minds with the city of New York than with +Holland itself.</p> + +<p>The men from whom you sprang were well calculated to carry on the great +work undertaken by them. In the first place, in that good old land they +had educated the conscience. The conscience never lost its hold upon the +man. He stood as firm in his convictions as the rock to its base. His +religion was a religion of the soul, and not of the senses. He might +have broken the tables of stone on which the laws were written; he never +would have broken those laws themselves. He turned neither to the past +with regret nor to the future with apprehension. He was a man inured to +trials; practised in self-abnegation; educated in the severe school of +adversity; and that little band which set out from Holland to take up +its career in the New World was well calculated to undertake the work +which Providence had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_943" id="Page_943">[Pg 943]</a></span> marked out for them. Those men had had breathed +into their nostrils at their very birth the true spirit of liberty. +Somehow or other liberty seemed to be indigenous in that land. They +imbibed that true spirit of liberty which does not mean unbridled +license of the individual, but that spirit of liberty which can turn +blind submission into rational obedience; that spirit of liberty which +Hall says stifles the voices of kings, dissipates the mists of +superstition, kindles the flames of art, and pours happiness into the +laps of the people. Those men started out boldly upon the ocean; they +paused not until they dipped the fringes of their banners in the waters +of the western seas. They built up this great metropolis. They bore +their full share in building up this great nation and in planting in it +their pure principles. They builded even better than they knew.</p> + +<p>In the past year I think our people have been more inclined than ever +before to pause and contemplate how big with events is the history of +this land. It was developed by people who believed not in the "divine +right of kings," but in the divine right of human liberty. If we may +judge the future progress of this land by its progress in the past, it +does not require that one should be endowed with prophetic vision to +predict that in the near future this young but giant Republic will +dominate the policy of the world. America was not born amidst the +mysteries of barbaric ages; and it is about the only nation which knows +its own birthday. Woven of the stoutest fibres of other lands, nurtured +by a commingling of the best blood of other races, America has now cast +off the swaddling-clothes of infancy, and stands forth erect, clothed in +robes of majesty and power, in which the God who made her intends that +she shall henceforth tread the earth; and to-day she may be seen moving +down the great highways of history, teaching by example; moving at the +head of the procession of the world's events; marching in the van of +civilized and christianized liberty, her manifest destiny to light the +torch of liberty till it illumines the entire pathway of the world, and +till human freedom and human rights become the common heritage of +mankind. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_944" id="Page_944">[Pg 944]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>TRIBUTE TO GENERAL GRANT</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet of the Army of the +Tennessee, upon the occasion of the inauguration of the Grant +Equestrian Statue in Chicago, October 8, 1891.]</p></div> + + +<p>Mr. Chairman:—When a man from the armies of the East finds himself in +the presence of men of the armies of the West, he feels that he cannot +strike their gait. He can only look at them wistfully and say, in the +words of Charles II, "I always admired virtue, but I never could imitate +it." [Laughter.] If I do not in the course of my remarks succeed in +seeing each one of you, it will be because the formation of the Army of +the Tennessee to-night is like its formation in the field, when it won +its matchless victories, the heavy columns in the centre. [An allusion +to the large columns in the room.] [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Almost all the conspicuous characters in history have risen to +prominence by gradual steps, but Ulysses S. Grant seemed to come before +the people with a sudden bound. Almost the first sight they caught of +him was in the flashes of his guns, and the blaze of his camp-fires, +those wintry days and nights in front of Donelson. From that hour until +the closing triumph at Appomattox he was the leader whose name was the +harbinger of victory. From the final sheath of his sword until the +tragedy on Mount McGregor he was the chief citizen of the republic and +the great central figure of the world. [Applause.] The story of his life +savors more of romance than reality. It is more like a fabled tale of +ancient days than the history of an American citizen of the nineteenth +century. As light and shade produce the most attractive effects in a +picture, so the singular contrasts, the strange vicissitudes in his +marvellous career, surround him with an interest which attaches to few +characters in history. His rise from an obscure lieutenancy to the +command of the veteran armies of the republic; his transition from a +frontier post of the untrodden West to the Executive Mansion of the +nation; his sitting at one time in his little store in Galena, not even +known to the Congressman from his own district; at another time striding +through the palaces of the Old World, with the descendants of a line of +Kings rising and standing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_945" id="Page_945">[Pg 945]</a></span> uncovered in his presence [Applause.]—these +are some of the features of his extraordinary career which appeal to the +imagination, excite men's wonder, and fascinate all who read the story +of his life. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>General Grant possessed in a striking degree all the characteristics of +the successful soldier. His methods were all stamped with tenacity of +purpose, with originality and ingenuity. He depended for his success +more upon the powers of invention than of adaptation, and the fact that +he has been compared, at different times, to nearly every great +commander in history is perhaps the best proof that he was like none of +them. He was possessed of a moral and physical courage which was equal +to every emergency in which he was placed: calm amidst excitement, +patient under trials, never unduly elated by victory or depressed by +defeat. While he possessed a sensitive nature and a singularly tender +heart, yet he never allowed his sentiments to interfere with the stern +duties of the soldier. He knew better than to attempt to hew rocks with +a razor. He realized that paper bullets cannot be fired in warfare. He +felt that the hardest blows bring the quickest results; that more men +die from disease in sickly camps than from shot and shell in battle.</p> + +<p>His magnanimity to foes, his generosity to friends, will be talked of as +long as manly qualities are honored. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>You know after Vicksburg had succumbed to him he said in his order: "The +garrison will march out to-morrow. Instruct your commands to be quiet +and orderly as the prisoners pass by, and make no offensive remarks." +After Lee's surrender at Appomattox, when our batteries began to fire +triumphal salutes, he at once suppressed them, saying, in his order: +"The war is over; the rebels are again our countrymen; the best way to +celebrate the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the +field." [Applause.] After the war General Lee and his officers were +indicted in the civil courts of Virginia by directions of a President +who was endeavoring to make treason odious and succeeding in making +nothing so odious as himself. [Applause.] General Lee appealed to his +old antagonist for protection. He did not appeal to that heart in vain. +General Grant at once took up the cudgels in his defence, threatened to +resign his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_946" id="Page_946">[Pg 946]</a></span> office if such officers were indicted while they continued +to obey their paroles, and such was the logic of his argument and the +force of his character that those indictments were soon after quashed. +So that he penned no idle platitude; he fashioned no stilted epigrams; +he spoke the earnest convictions of an honest heart when he said, "Let +us have peace." [Applause.] He never tired of giving unstinted praise to +worthy subordinates for the work they did. Like the chief artists who +weave the Gobelin tapestries, he was content to stand behind the cloth +and let those in front appear to be the chief contributors to the beauty +of the fabric. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>One of the most beautiful chapters in all history is that which records +the generous relations existing between him and Sherman, that great +soldier who for so many years was the honored head of this society, that +great chieftain whom men will always love to picture as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; whose field of military +operations covered nearly half a continent; whose orders always spoke +with the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depths +to mountain heights, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. +[Applause.] Their rivalry manifested itself only in one respect—the +endeavor of each to outdo the other in generosity. With hearts untouched +by jealousy, with souls too great for rivalry, each stood ready to +abandon the path of ambition when it became so narrow that two could not +tread it abreast. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>If there be one single word in all the wealth of the English language +which best describes the predominating trait of General Grant's +character, that word is "loyalty." [Applause.] Loyal to every great +cause and work he was engaged in; loyal to his friends; loyal to his +family; loyal to his country; loyal to his God. [Applause.] This +produced a reciprocal effect in all who came in contact with him. It was +one of the chief reasons why men became so loyally attached to him. It +is true that this trait so dominated his whole character that it led him +to make mistakes; it induced him to continue to stand by men who were no +longer worthy of his confidence; but after all, it was a trait so grand, +so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_947" id="Page_947">[Pg 947]</a></span> noble, we do not stop to count the errors which resulted. +[Applause.] It showed him to be a man who had the courage to be just, to +stand between worthy men and their unworthy slanderers, and to let +kindly sentiments have a voice in an age in which the heart played so +small a part in public life. Many a public man has had hosts of +followers because they fattened on the patronage dispensed at his hands; +many a one has had troops of adherents because they were blind zealots +in a cause he represented, but perhaps no man but General Grant had so +many friends who loved him for his own sake; whose attachment +strengthened only with time; whose affection knew neither variableness, +nor shadow of turning; who stuck to him as closely as the toga to +Nessus, whether he was Captain, General, President, or simply private +citizen. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>General Grant was essentially created for great emergencies; it was the +very magnitude of the task which called forth the powers which mastered +it. In ordinary matters he was an ordinary man. In momentous affairs he +towered as a giant. When he served in a company there was nothing in his +acts to distinguish him from the fellow-officers; but when he wielded +corps and armies the great qualities of the commander flashed forth and +his master strokes of genius placed him at once in the front rank of the +world's great captains. When he hauled wood from his little farm and +sold it in the streets of St. Louis there was nothing in his business or +financial capacity different from that of the small farmers about him; +but when, as President of the Republic, he found it his duty to puncture +the fallacy of the inflationists, to throttle by a veto the attempt of +unwise legislators to tamper with the American credit, he penned a State +paper so logical, so masterly, that it has ever since been the pride, +wonder, and admiration of every lover of an honest currency. [Applause.] +He was made for great things, not for little. He could collect for the +nation $15,000,000 from Great Britain in settlement of the Alabama +claims; he could not protect his own personal savings from the +miscreants who robbed him in Wall Street.</p> + +<p>But General Grant needs no eulogist. His name is indelibly engraved upon +the hearts of his countrymen. His services attest his greatness. He did +his duty and trusted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_948" id="Page_948">[Pg 948]</a></span> to history for his meed of praise. The more +history discusses him, the more brilliant becomes the lustre of his +deeds. His record is like a torch; the more it is shaken, the brighter +it burns. His name will stand imperishable when epitaphs have vanished +utterly, and monuments and statues have crumbled into dust; but the +people of this great city, everywhere renowned for their deeds of +generosity, have covered themselves anew with glory in fashioning in +enduring bronze, in rearing in monumental rock that magnificent tribute +to his worth which was to-day unveiled in the presence of countless +thousands. As I gazed upon its graceful lines and colossal proportions I +was reminded of that child-like simplicity which was mingled with the +majestic grandeur of his nature. The memories clustering about it will +recall the heroic age of the Republic; it will point the path of loyalty +to children yet unborn; its mute eloquence will plead for equal +sacrifice, should war ever again threaten the Nation's life; generations +yet to come will pause to read the inscription which it bears, and the +voices of a grateful people will ascend from the consecrated spot on +which it stands, as incense rises from holy places, invoking blessings +upon the memory of him who had filled to the very full the largest +measure of human greatness and covered the earth with his renown. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>An indescribably touching incident happened which will ever be memorable +and which never can be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed +it. Even at this late date I can scarcely trust my own feelings to +recall it. It was on Decoration Day in the City of New York, the last +one he ever saw on earth. That morning the members of the Grand Army of +the Republic, the veterans in that vicinity, arose earlier than was +their wont. They seemed to spend more time that morning in unfurling the +old battle flags, in burnishing the medals of honor which decorated +their breasts, for on that day they had determined to march by the house +of their dying commander to give him a last marching salute. In the +streets the columns were forming; inside the house on that bed, from +which he was never to rise again, lay the stricken chief. The hand which +had seized the surrendered swords of countless thousands could scarcely +return the pressure of the friendly grasp. The voice which had cheered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_949" id="Page_949">[Pg 949]</a></span> +on to triumphant victory the legions of America's manhood, could no +longer call for the cooling draught which slaked the thirst of a fevered +tongue; and prostrate on that bed of anguish lay the form which in the +New World had ridden at the head of the conquering column, which in the +Old World had been deemed worthy to stand with head covered and feet +sandaled in the presence of princes, kings, and emperors. Now his ear +caught the sound of martial music. Bands were playing the same strains +which had mingled with the echoes of his guns at Vicksburg, the same +quick-steps to which his men had sped in hot haste in pursuit of Lee +through Virginia. And then came the heavy, measured steps of moving +columns, a step which can be acquired only by years of service in the +field. He recognized it all now. It was the tread of his old veterans. +With his little remaining strength he arose and dragged himself to the +window. As he gazed upon those battle-flags dipping to him in salute, +those precious standards bullet-riddled, battle-stained, but remnants of +their former selves, with scarcely enough left of them on which to print +the names of the battles they had seen, his eyes once more kindled with +the flames which had lighted them at Shiloh, on the heights of +Chattanooga, amid the glories of Appomattox; and as those war-scarred +veterans looked with uncovered heads and upturned faces for the last +time upon the pallid features of their old chief, cheeks which had been +bronzed by Southern suns and begrimed with powder, were bathed in the +tears of a manly grief. Soon they saw rising the hand which had so often +pointed out to them the path of victory. He raised it slowly and +painfully to his head in recognition of their salutations. The column +had passed, the hand fell heavily by his side. It was his last military +salute. [Long continued applause and cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_950" id="Page_950">[Pg 950]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>NOAH PORTER</h2> + + +<h4>TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale College, at the +seventy-second anniversary banquet of the New England Society in +the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The President of the +Society, William Borden, occupied the chair. This speech of +President Porter followed a speech of President Eliot of Harvard. +The two Presidents spoke in response to the toast: "Harvard and +Yale, the two elder sisters among the educational institutions of +New England, where generous rivalry has ever promoted patriotism +and learning. Their children have, in peace and war, in life and +death, deserved well of the Republic. Smile, Heaven, upon this fair +conjunction."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England Society</span>:—The +somewhat miscellaneous character of the sentiment which has called me up +embarrasses me not a little as to which of the points I should select as +the subject of my remarks. I am still more embarrassed by the +introduction of additional topics on the part of my friend, the +President of Harvard College. The president knows that it is our custom +to meet once a year, and discuss all the matters to which he has +referred, as often as we meet. [Laughter.] He knows also that he was +providentially prevented, by a very happy occurrence to himself, from +attending our last College Convention; and in consequence of his +absence, for which we all excused and congratulated him, the meeting was +more than usually tame. [Laughter.] Now, I find that all the sentiments +which he had been gathering for a year have been precipitated upon me on +this occasion. [Laughter.] I rejoice that His Excellency, the President +of the United States, and the distinguished Secretary of State +[Rutherford B. Hayes and William M. Evarts], are between us. [Laughter.] +For here is a special occasion for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_951" id="Page_951">[Pg 951]</a></span> the application of the policy of +peace. [Laughter.] I therefore reserve what few remarks I shall make +upon this special theme for a moment later.</p> + +<p>The first point in the sentiment proposed recognizes New England as the +mother of two colleges. I think we should do well also to call to mind, +especially under the circumstances by which we are surrounded this +evening, that New England was not merely the mother of two colleges +which have had some influence in this land, but that New England, with +all its glory and its achievements, was, in a certain sense, the +creation of a college. It would be easy to show that had it not been for +the existence of one or two rather inferior colleges of the University +of Cambridge in England, there never would have been a New England. In +these colleges were gathered and trained not a few of the great leaders +of opinion under whose influence the father of New England became a +great political power in the mother country. It is not to the Pilgrim +Fathers alone who landed at Plymouth on December 22, 1620, that New +England owes its characteristic principles and its splendid renown, but +it is also to the leaders of the great Puritan party in England, who +reinforced that immigration by the subsequent higher and nobler life of +the planters of Massachusetts Bay, conspicuous among whom was the +distinguished and ever-to-be-honored Governor Winthrop. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>It was from these colleges that so many strong-hearted young men went +forth into political public life in England to act the scholar in +politics, and who, as scholars in politics, enunciated those new +principles and new theories of government which made Old England +glorious for a time, and which made New England the power for good which +she afterward became, first at her home in the old States, and in all +their extension westward even to this hour. These scholars sought +emphatically a reform of the civil service in England. That was their +mission. They vindicated their principles upon the scaffold and their +rights upon the field of battle at home, and they transmitted that +spirit to the emigrants who came out from among them before the great +rebellion reached its great crisis and finished its memorable history.</p> + +<p>While, then, we honor the universities of which New Eng<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_952" id="Page_952">[Pg 952]</a></span>land has been +the mother, let us remember that New England owes its being to a +university. In remembering this, we shall be prepared to follow in the +steps of our fathers, and to be mindful of what we ourselves owe to our +own institutions of learning.</p> + +<p>In respect to the rivalry between Yale and Harvard, which was noticed in +the sentiment to which I speak, and in reply to the suggestions which +have been offered by the President of Harvard, I will venture a single +remark. You, sir, who are learned in our New England history, are not +unfamiliar with the saying which was once somewhat current, that when a +man was found in Boston, in the earlier generations, who was a little +too bad to live with, they sent him to Rhode Island [Laughter.]; and +when they found a man who was a little too good to be a comfortable +neighbor, they sent him to Connecticut. [Laughter.] The remainder—the +men of average respectability and worth—were allowed to remain on the +shores of Massachusetts Bay and in Boston. And so it happened that these +people of average goodness, from constantly looking each other in the +face, contracted the habit of always praising one another with especial +emphasis; and the habit has not been altogether outgrown. [Laughter.] +The people of Rhode Island, being such as I have described, found it +necessary to have certain principles of toleration to suit their +peculiar condition, which they denominated the principles of soul +liberty.</p> + +<p>The people of Connecticut, being so very good, could not allow their +goodness to remain at home, and they very soon proceeded on a missionary +errand westward toward the city of New York, and in due time captured +the harbor and the infant city, and the great river of the North. In +this way, New York fell into the hands of those super-excellent +Connecticut Yankees, and with that began the stream of emigration +westward which has made our country what it is. [Laughter and applause.] +Perhaps this piece of history is about as good an explanation of the +jealousy of Yale toward Harvard as the interpretation which has been +given by the President of that honorable university—that Yale College +was founded because of the discontent of the self-righteous Puritans of +Connecticut with the religious opinions of the ruling spirits at +Harvard. [Laughter.] That piece of in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_953" id="Page_953">[Pg 953]</a></span>formation has been amply discussed +and exploded by an able critic, and I will not repeat the arguments +here.</p> + +<p>As to any present rivalry which may exist between those institutions, we +disclaim it altogether. We know no jealousy of Harvard College now. We +acknowledge no rivalry except in the great enterprise of training +upright and intelligent and good-principled men for the service and the +glory of our common land. [Applause, and cries of "Hear! Hear!"] But +there is one means to this end you may be sure we shall always insist +upon—and that is the principle which we have received from our fathers, +that manhood and character are better than knowledge. The training which +our country demands is that which we intend always to give; and it is a +training in manhood of intelligence, in manhood of character, and in a +constant, ever-present faith in the providence and goodness of the +living God. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I deem it proper here to remind you, that Yale College was foremost +among the American colleges in cherishing the taste for physical +science, and that these sciences, in all their forms, have received from +us the most liberal attention and care. If any of you doubt this, we +would like to show you our museum, with its collections, which represent +all that the most recent explorations have been able to gather. In these +well-ordered collections you would find as satisfactory an exhibition of +results as you could ask for. [Applause.] You need not fear, however, +that, because we believe in science, we have learned any more to +disbelieve in the living God. As we stand in the midst of one of the +halls of our splendid museum, and see arrayed before us all the forms of +vertebrate life, from man down to the lowest type, and see how one and +the other suggests the progress—the evolution, if you please—during we +care not how many centuries of advancing life; the more closely we study +these indications, the more distinctly do we see lines of thought, of +intelligence, and goodness reflected from one structure to another, and +all declaring that a divine thought and love has ordered each and all. +[Applause.] Hence we find no inconsistency between the teachings of this +museum on the one corner and the teachings of the college chapel on the +other. [Applause.] We therefore commit ourselves, in the presence of all +these sons of New England, whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_954" id="Page_954">[Pg 954]</a></span> they live in this city of their +habitation and their glory, or whether they are residents of other +cities and States of the North and Northwest, to the solemn declaration, +that we esteem it to be our duty to train our pupils on the one hand in +enlightened science, and on the other in the living power of the +Christian faith. [Applause.] We are certainly not sectarian. It is +enough that I say that we aim to be enlightened Christian believers, and +with those hopes and those aspirations we trust that the next generation +of men whom we shall educate will do their part in upholding this +country in fidelity to its obligations of duty, in fidelity to every +form of integrity, in generous self-sacrifice on the field of contest, +if it be required, and in Christian sympathy with the toleration and +forbearance which should come after the fight. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_955" id="Page_955">[Pg 955]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HENRY CODMAN POTTER</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE CHURCH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of +New York, at the seventy-third annual dinner of the New England +Society in the City of New York, December 23, 1878. Daniel F. +Appleton presided and proposed the toast, "The Church—a fountain +of charity and good works, which is not established, but +establishes itself, by God's blessing, in men's hearts."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—I take up the strain where the distinguished +Senator from Maine [James G. Blaine] has dropped it. I would fain be +with him one of those who should see a typical New England dinner spread +upon a table at which Miles Standish and John Alden sat, and upon which +should be spread viands of which John Alden and Miles Standish and the +rest, two hundred and seventy-three years ago, partook. I would fain see +something more, or rather I would fain hear something more—and that is, +the sentiments of those who gathered about that table, and the measure +in which those sentiments accorded with the sentiments of those who sit +at these tables to-night. [Applause.] Why, Mr. President, the viands of +which John Alden and Miles Standish partook did not differ more +radically from the splendor of this banquet than did the sentiments with +which the Puritans came to these shores differ from the sentiments of +the men who gather in this room to-night. If it had happened to them as +it happened to a distinguished company in New England, where an eminent +New England divine was called upon to lead in prayer, their feelings +would have been as little wounded as those against whom he offered up +his petition; or rather, if I were here to-night to denounce their +sentiments as to religious toleration, in which they did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_956" id="Page_956">[Pg 956]</a></span> not believe; +their sentiments as to the separation of the Church from the State, in +which they did not believe any more than they believed in religious +toleration; their sentiments as to Democracy, in which they did not +believe any more than they believed in religious toleration—those of us +who are here and who do believe in these things would be as little +wounded as the company to which I have referred. The distinguished +divine to whom I have alluded was called upon to offer prayer, some +fifty years ago, in a mixed company, when, in accordance with the custom +of the times, he included in his petition to the Almighty a large +measure of anathema, as "We beseech Thee, O Lord! to overwhelm the +tyrant! We beseech Thee to overwhelm and to pull down the oppressor! We +beseech Thee to overwhelm and pull down the Papist!" And then opening +his eyes, and seeing that a Roman Catholic archbishop and his secretary +were present, he saw he must change the current of his petitions if he +would be courteous to his audience, and said vehemently, "We beseech +Thee, O Lord! we beseech Thee—we beseech Thee—we beseech Thee to pull +down and overwhelm the Hottentot!" Said some one to him when the prayer +was over, "My dear brother, why were you so hard upon the Hottentot?" +"Well," said he, "the fact is, when I opened my eyes and looked around, +between the paragraphs in the prayer, at the assembled guests, I found +that the Hottentots were the only people who had not some friends among +the company." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen of the New England Society, if I were to denounce the views of +the Puritans to-night, they would be like the Hottentots. [Laughter.] +Nay more, if one of their number were to come into this banqueting hall +and sit down at this splendid feast, so unlike what he had been wont to +see, and were to expound his views as to constitutional liberty and as +to religious toleration, or as to the relations of the Church to the +State, I am very much afraid that you and I would be tempted to answer +him as an American answered an English traveller in a railway-carriage +in Belgium. Said this Englishman, whom I happened to meet in Brussels, +and who recognized me as an American citizen: "Your countrymen have a +very strange conception of the English tongue: I never heard any people +who speak the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_957" id="Page_957">[Pg 957]</a></span> English language in such an odd way as the Americans do." +"What do you mean?" I said; "I supposed that in the American States the +educated and cultivated people spoke the English tongue with the utmost +propriety, with the same accuracy and the same classical refinement as +yours." He replied: "I was travelling hither, and found sitting opposite +an intelligent gentleman, who turned out to be an American. I went on to +explain to him my views as to the late unpleasantness in America. I told +him how profoundly I deplored the results of the civil war. That I +believed the interests of good government would have been better +advanced if the South, rather than the North, had triumphed. I showed +him at great length how, if the South had succeeded, you would have been +able to have laid in that land, first, the foundations of an +aristocracy, and then from that would have grown a monarchy; how by the +planters you would have got a noble class, and out of that class you +would have got a king; and after I had drawn this picture I showed to +him what would have been the great and glorious result; and what do you +think was his reply to these views? He turned round, looked me coolly in +the face, and said, 'Why, what a blundering old cuss you are!'" [Great +laughter.] Gentlemen, if one of our New England ancestors were here +to-night, expounding his views to us, I am very much afraid that you and +I would be tempted to turn round and say: "Why, what a blundering old +cuss you are!" [Renewed laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, Mr. President, though all this is true, the seeds of our liberty, +our toleration, our free institutions, our "Church, not established by +law, but establishing itself in the hearts of men," were all in the +simple and single devotion of the truth so far as it was revealed to +them, which was the supreme characteristic of our New England +forefathers. With them religion and the Church meant supremely personal +religion, and obedience to the personal conscience. It meant truth and +righteousness, obedience and purity, reverence and intelligence in the +family, in the shop, in the field, and on the bench. It meant compassion +and charity toward the savages among whom they found themselves, and +good works as the daily outcome of a faith which, if stern, was +steadfast and undaunted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_958" id="Page_958">[Pg 958]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so, Mr. President, however the sentiments and opinions of our +ancestors may seem to have differed from ours, those New England +ancestors did believe in a church that included and incarnated those +ideas of charity and love and brotherhood to which you have referred; +and if, to-day, the Church of New York, whatever name it may bear, is to +be maintained, as one of your distinguished guests has said, not for +ornament but for use, it is because the hard, practical, and yet, when +the occasion demanded, large-minded and open-hearted spirit of the New +England ancestors shall be in it. [Applause.] Said an English swell +footman, with his calves nearly as large as his waist, having been +called upon by the lady of the house to carry a coal-scuttle from the +cellar to the second story, "Madam, ham I for use, or ham I for +hornament?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I believe it to be the mind of the men of New England ancestry who live +in New York to-day, that the Church, if it is to exist here, shall exist +for use, and not for ornament; that it shall exist to make our streets +cleaner, to make our tenement-houses better built and better drained and +better ventilated; to respect the rights of the poor man in regard to +fresh air and light, as well as the rights of the rich man. And in order +that it shall do these things, and that the Church of New York shall +exist not for ornament but for use, I, as one of the descendants of New +England ancestors, ask no better thing for it than that it shall have, +not only among those who fill its pulpits, men of New England ancestry, +but also among those who sit in its pews men of New England brains and +New England sympathies, and New England catholic generosity! [Continued +applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_959" id="Page_959">[Pg 959]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR</h2> + + + + +<h4>VIRGINIA'S PART IN AMERICAN HISTORY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Roger A. Pryor at the annual banquet of the New York +State Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, January 15, +1889. The President, Martin W. Cooke, introduced Justice Pryor in +these words: "The next in order is the benediction. There is no +poetical sentiment accompanying this toast, but if you will bear +with me I promise you learning, poetry, and eloquence. To that end +I call upon General Roger A. Pryor."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman</span>:—I don't know what I am to respond to. I have no +text; I have no topic. What am I to talk about? I am not only unlike +other gentlemen, taken by surprise, but I am absolutely without a +subject, and what am I to say? I don't know but that, as His Excellency +the Governor of this Imperial State expatiated, eloquently and justly, +upon the achievements and glories of New York, it might be pardoned me +in saying something of my own native State.</p> + +<p>What has Virginia done for our common country? What names has she +contributed to your historic roll? She has given you George Washington. +[Applause.] She has given you Patrick Henry, who first sounded the +signal of revolt against Great Britain. She has given you John Marshall, +who so profoundly construed the Constitution formed by Madison and +Hamilton. She has given you Thomas Jefferson, the author of the +Declaration of Independence. [Applause.] She has given you Madison and +Monroe. Where is there such a galaxy of great men known to history? You +talk of the age of Pericles and of Augustus, but remember, gentlemen, +that at that day Virginia had a population of only one-half the +population of the city of Brooklyn to-day, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_960" id="Page_960">[Pg 960]</a></span> yet these are the men +that she then produced to illustrate the glory of Americans.</p> + +<p>And what has Virginia done for our Union? Because sometime a rebel, as I +was, I say now that it is <i>my</i> Union. [Applause.] As I have already said +it was a Virginian—Patrick Henry—kinsman, by the way, of Lord +Brougham, kinsman of Robertson, the historian, not a plebeian as some +would represent, and one nominated by George Washington to be Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States, which nomination was carried to +him by Light-Horse Harry Lee—I mention that because there is a notion +that Patrick Henry was no lawyer. He was a consummate lawyer, else +George Washington would never have proposed him to be Chief Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States; and he was a reading man, too, a +scholar, deeply learned, and he printed at his own expense Soame Jenyns' +work upon the internal evidence of Christianity. He was a profound +student, not of many books, but of a few books and of human nature. He +first challenged Great Britain by his resolutions against the Stamp act +in 1765, and then it was that Virginia, apropos of what you said to-day +in your admirable discourse—I address myself to Judge Cooley—Virginia +was the first free and independent people on earth that formulated a +written complete Constitution. I affirm that the Constitution of +Virginia in 1776 was the first written Constitution known to history +adopted by the people. And the frontispiece and the fundamental +principle of that Constitution, was the Bill of Rights—that Bill of +Rights, drawn by George Mason, you, gentlemen, in your Constitution of +New York, from your first Constitution to your last, have adopted. So +when you expatiate upon the merits of written-over prescriptive +constitutions, and with such eloquence and convincing force, I beg you +to remember that this now forlorn and bereaved Commonwealth was the +first people on earth that ever promulgated a formal, complete, written +Constitution, dividing the functions of government in separate +departments and reposing it for its authority upon the will of the +people. Jefferson gave you the Declaration of Independence in pursuance +of a resolution adopted by the Legislature of Virginia, instructing the +delegates in the Continental Congress to propose a Declaration of +Independence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_961" id="Page_961">[Pg 961]</a></span> The first suggestion of your more perfect union came from +the Legislature of Virginia in January, 1786, and your Federal +Constitution is construed upon the lines laid down by Edmund Randolph, +and proposed in the convention as the basis of the Constitution which +resulted in your now incomparable, as Mr. Gladstone says, incomparable +instrument of government.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, your great Northwest, your States of Ohio and Michigan, +whose jurisprudence Judge Cooley so signally illustrates, Indiana and +others, to whom are you indebted that this vast and fertile and glorious +country is an integral part of our Union? You are indebted to a +Virginian, to Patrick Henry, then the Governor of Virginia, for the +expedition to the Northwest headed by George Rogers Clark, as he was +called, the Hannibal of the New World, who with three hundred untrained +militia conquered for you that vast domain of the Northwest, which +Virginia, in her devotion to the Union gave, a free donation with +magnanimity surpassing that of Lear. She divided her possession with her +associates, and let me add, it has not been requited with the +ingratitude of Lear's daughters, for the disposition and the policy of +this Government toward Virginia at the end of the war, and toward the +people of the South has been characterized by a magnanimity and clemency +unparalleled in the history of the world. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>You must remember that the war commenced, as you gentlemen believe, +without provocation; we believe otherwise. This war so commenced, +costing a million of lives and countless millions of treasure, has not +been expiated by one drop of retributive blood. [Applause.] You must +further remember, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that at the formation of +the Constitution every distinguished Virginian was hostile to slavery +and advocated its abolition. [Applause.] Patrick Henry, George +Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, all without exception, were +the enemies of slavery and desired its extinction, and why it was not +then abolished I leave you gentlemen to determine by consulting history; +it was certainly not the fault of Virginia.</p> + +<p>Now will you pardon me, I have been led into these remarks because you +did not give me a text, and I had to extemporize one, or rather adopt +the suggestion of his Ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_962" id="Page_962">[Pg 962]</a></span>cellency, the Governor of this State. Now, here +we are asked, why did Virginia go into the War of Secession? Let me tell +you as one who was personally cognizant of the events. Twice Virginia in +her convention voted against the ordinance of secession, the deliberate +will of the people of Virginia, expressed under circumstances which did +not coerce their opinion, was that it was her interest and her duty to +remain loyal to the Union, but meanwhile a blow was struck at Sumter, +war, actual war, occurred. What then was the course of Virginia? She +said to herself, I know I am to be the Flanders of this conflict; I know +that my fields are to be ravaged and my sons to be slaughtered and my +homes to be desolated, but war has occurred, the South is my sister and +I will go with her. It was a magnanimous and it was a disinterested +resolution, and if her fault was grievous, grievously hath she answered +it. When this war occurred, she, beyond dispute, occupied the primacy in +the Union; she is to-day the Niobe of nations, veiled and weeping the +loss of her sons, her property confiscated and her homes in ashes. +Perhaps, you may say, the punishment is not disproportionate to her +trespass, but nevertheless there she is, and I say for her, that +Virginia is loyal to the Union. [Applause.] And never more, mark what I +say, never more will you see from Virginia any intimations of hostility +to the Union; she has weighed the alternative of success, and she sees +now, every sensible man in the South sees, that the greatest calamity +that could have befallen the South would have been the ascendency of +this ill-starred Confederacy. [Applause.] Because that Confederacy +carried to the utmost extreme, to the <i>reductio ad absurdum</i>, the right +of secession, carried in its bosom the seed of its own destruction, and +even in the progress of war, welded together as we were under pressure, +some were so recalcitrant, that the president of the Confederacy +recommended the suspension of the <i>habeas corpus</i> act for the +suppression of disaffection, and let me say, rebels as we were, so true +were we to the traditions of Anglo-Saxon liberty that we never would +suspend for a moment that sacred sanction of personal freedom. +[Applause.] And, moreover, we see now, you will be surprised at what I +say, I voice the sentiment of every reflecting man in Virginia, and +woman too. We see now that slavery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_963" id="Page_963">[Pg 963]</a></span> was a material and a moral evil, and +we exult that the black man is emancipated and stands as our equal under +the law.</p> + +<p>Why didn't we see it before? You know the story of the view of the +opposite sides of the shield. We had been educated under slavery, our +preachers had taught us that it had the sanction of the Divine +Scripture, we never saw any other aspect of the question, but now since +it is changed, we look at it and we perceive that slavery is not only +incompatible with the moral principles of government, but is hostile to +the material interests of the country, and I repeat that to-day, if the +people of the South were permitted to vote upon the question to +re-establish African slavery, there would not be a hundred votes in the +entire South, in favor of reshackling the limbs of the liberated negro.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, that is the attitude of old Virginia, the Old Dominion, as we +proudly call her, and as such I am sure you will pardon her, because +when she was in the Union she never failed you in any emergency; when +you were menaced by the invasion of the British, it was Winfield Scott +and the Cockade Corps of Virginia that repelled the enemy from your +shores. Old Virginia has always been true to the Union, if you blot from +her history that recent episode which I say you have blotted generously +from your memory, and she from hers; we stand now with you, and I have +personal testimony of the fact, because coming among you, not only an +utter stranger, and having against me natural prejudices as a rebel, +nevertheless, I have been received in the State of New York with nothing +but courtesy and kindness. Mr. Benjamin, in England, is no parallel +instance, because he went among a people who sympathized with the +Rebellion, and who, if they had dared to strike would have taken sides +with the Rebellion, but I came here to those who naturally would have +repelled me, but instead of rejecting me, they have kindly taken me to +the bosom of their hospitalities and have rewarded me infinitely beyond +my merits; and to them, and especially to my brother lawyers of the +State of New York, I feel the profoundest gratitude, in attestation of +which I trust that when I go, my bones may rest under the green sod of +the Imperial State. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_964" id="Page_964">[Pg 964]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOSIAH QUINCY</h2> + + + + +<h4>WELCOME TO DICKENS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Josiah Quincy, Jr., at the banquet given by the "Young +Men of Boston" at Boston, Mass., February 1, 1842, to Charles +Dickens, upon his first visit to America. Mr. Quincy was the +President of the evening. About two hundred gentlemen sat at the +tables, the brilliant company including George Bancroft, Richard H. +Dana, Sr., Richard H. Dana, Jr., Washington Allston, the painter, +Oliver Wendell Holmes, George S. Hillard, Josiah Quincy, President +of Harvard College, the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the +city, and Thomas C. Grattan, the British Consul.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—The occasion that calls us together is almost +unprecedented in the annals of literature. A young man has crossed the +ocean, with no hereditary title, no military laurels, no princely +fortune, and yet his approach is hailed with pleasure by every age and +condition, and on his arrival he is welcomed as a long-known and highly +valued friend. How shall we account for this reception? Must we not at +the first glance conclude with Falstaff, "If the rascal have not given +me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged: it could not be +else—I have drunk medicines."</p> + +<p>But when reflection leads us to the causes of this universal sentiment, +we cannot but be struck by the power which mind exercises over mind, +even while we are individually separated by time, space, and other +conditions of our present being. Why should we not welcome him as a +friend? Have we not walked with him in every scene of varied life? Have +we not together investigated, with Mr. Pickwick, the theory of +Tittlebats? Have we not ridden together to the "Markis of Granby" with +old Weller on the box, and his son Samivel on the dickey? Have we not +been rook-shoot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_965" id="Page_965">[Pg 965]</a></span>ing with Mr. Winkle, and courting with Mr. Tupman? Have +we not played cribbage with "the Marchioness," and quaffed the rosy with +Dick Swiveller? Tell us not of animal magnetism! We, and thousands of +our countrymen, have for years been eating and talking, riding and +walking, dancing and sliding, drinking and sleeping, with our +distinguished guest, and he never knew of the existence of one of us. Is +it wonderful that we are delighted to see him, and to return in a +measure his unbounded hospitalities? Boz a stranger! Well may we again +exclaim, with Sir John Falstaff, "D'ye think we didn't know ye?—We knew +ye as well as Him that made ye."</p> + +<p>But a jovial fellow is not always the dearest friend; and, although the +pleasure of his society would always recommend the progenitor of Dick +Swiveller, "the perpetual grand of the glorious Appollers," in a scene +like this, yet the respect of grave doctors and of fair ladies proves +that there are higher qualities than those of a pleasant companion to +recommend and attach them to our distinguished guest. What is the charm +that unites so many suffrages? It is that in the lightest hours, and in +the most degraded scenes which he has portrayed, there has been a +reforming object and a moral tone, not formally thrust into the canvas, +but infused into the spirit of the picture, with those natural touches +whose contemplation never tires.</p> + +<p>With what a power of delineation have the abuses of his institutions +been portrayed! How have the poor-house, the jail, the police courts of +justice, passed before his magic mirror, and displayed to us the petty +tyranny of the low-minded official, from the magnificent Mr. Bumble, and +the hard-hearted Mr. Roker, to the authoritative Justice Fang, the +positive Judge Starleigh! And as we contemplate them, how strongly have +we realized the time-worn evils of some of the systems they revealed to +our eyesight, sharpened to detect the deficiencies and malpractices +under our own.</p> + +<p>The genius of chivalry, which had walked with such power among men, was +exorcised by the pen of Cervantes. He did but clothe it with the name +and images of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful Squire, and +ridicule destroyed what argument could not reach.</p> + +<p>This power belongs in an eminent degree to some of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_966" id="Page_966">[Pg 966]</a></span> personifications +of our guest. A short time ago it was discovered that a petty tyrant had +abused the children who had been committed to his care. No long and +elaborate discussion was needed to arouse the public mind. He was +pronounced a perfect Squeers, and eloquence could go no further. Happy +is he who can add a pleasure to the hours of childhood, but far happier +he who, by fixing the attention of the world on their secret sufferings, +can protect or deliver them from their power.</p> + +<p>But it is not only as a portrayer of public wrongs that we are indebted +to our friend. What reflecting mind can contemplate some of those +characters without being made more kind-hearted and charitable? Descend +with him into the very sink of vice—contemplate the mistress of a +robber—the victim of a murderer—disgraced without—polluted +within—and yet when, in better moments, her natural kindness breaks +through the cloud, then she tells you that no word of counsel, no tone +of moral teaching, ever fell upon her ear. When she looks forward from a +life of misery to a death by suicide, you cannot but feel that there is +no condition so degraded as not to be visited by gleams of a higher +nature, and rejoice that He alone will judge the sin who knows also the +temptation. Again, how strongly are the happiness of virtue and the +misery of vice contrasted. The morning scene of Sir Mulberry Hawk and +his pupil brings out in strong relief the night scene of Kit Nubbles and +his mother. The one in affluence and splendor, trying to find an easier +position for his aching head, surrounded with means and trophies of +debauchery, and thinking "there would be nothing so snug and comfortable +as to die at once." The other in the poorest room, earning a precarious +subsistence by her labors at the wash-tub—ugly, and ignorant, and +vulgar, surrounded by poverty, with one child in the cradle, and the +other in the clothes-basket, "whose great round eyes emphatically +declared that he never meant to go to sleep any more, and thus opened a +cheerful prospect to his relations and friends"—and yet in this +situation, with only the comfort that cleanliness and order could +impart, kindness of heart and the determination to be talkative and +agreeable throws a halo round the scene, and as we contemplate it we +cannot but feel that Kit Nubbles attained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_967" id="Page_967">[Pg 967]</a></span> to the summit of philosophy, +when he discovered "there was nothing in the way in which he was made +that called upon him to be a snivelling, solemn, whispering +chap—sneaking about as if he couldn't help it, and expressing himself +in a most unpleasant snuffle—but that it was as natural for him to +laugh as it was for a sheep to bleat, a pig to grunt, or a bird to +sing."</p> + +<p>Or take another example, when wealth is attained, though by different +means and for different purposes. Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride are +industrious and successful; like the vulture, they are ever soaring over +the field that they may pounce on the weak and unprotected. Their +constant employment is grinding the poor and preying upon the rich. What +is the result? Their homes are cold and cheerless—the blessing of him +that is ready to perish comes not to them, and they live in wretchedness +to die in misery. What a contrast have we in the glorious old +twins—brother Charles and brother Ned. They have never been to school, +they eat with their knives (as the Yankees are said to do), and yet what +an elucidation do they present of the truth that it is better to give +than to receive! They acquire their wealth in the honorable pursuits of +business. They expend it to promote the happiness of every one within +their sphere, and their cheerful days and tranquil nights show that +wealth is a blessing or a curse, as it ministers to the higher or lower +propensities of our nature.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"He that hath light within his own clear breast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Himself is his own dungeon."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Such men are powerful preachers of the truth that universal benevolence +is the true panacea of life; and, although it was a pleasant fiction of +brother Charles, "that Tim Linkinwater was born a hundred and fifty +years old, and was gradually coming down to five and twenty," yet he who +habitually cultivates such a sentiment will, as years roll by, attain +more and more to the spirit of a little child; and the hour will come +when that principle shall conduct the possessor to immortal happiness +and eternal youth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_968" id="Page_968">[Pg 968]</a></span></p> + +<p>If, then, our guest is called upon to state what are</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">"The drugs, the charms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The conjuration and the mighty magic,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He's won our daughters with,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>well might he reply, that in endeavoring to relieve the oppressed, to +elevate the poor, and to instruct and edify those of a happier +condition, he had only held "the mirror up to Nature. To show virtue her +own form—scorn her own image." That "this only was the witchcraft he +had used;" and, did he need proof of this, there are many fair girls on +both sides of the water who, though they might not repeat the whole of +Desdemona's speech to a married man, yet could each tell him,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"That if he had a friend that loved her,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He should but teach him how to tell <i>his stories</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And that would win her."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I would, gentlemen, it were in my power to present, as on the mirror in +the Arabian tale, the various scenes in our extended country, where the +master-mind of our guest is at this moment acting. In the empty +school-room, the boy at his evening task has dropped his grammar, that +he may roam with Oliver or Nell. The traveller has forgotten the fumes +of the crowded steamboat, and is far off with our guest, among the green +valleys and hoary hills of old England. The trapper, beyond the Rocky +Mountains, has left his lonely tent, and is unroofing the houses in +London with the more than Mephistopheles at my elbow. And, perhaps, in +some well-lighted hall, the unbidden tear steals from the father's eye, +as the exquisite sketch of the poor schoolmaster and his little scholar +brings back the form of that gifted boy, whose "little hand" worked its +wonders under his guidance, and who, in the dawning of intellect and +warm affections, was summoned from the school-room and the play-ground +forever. Or to some bereaved mother the tender sympathies and womanly +devotion, the touching purity of little Nell, may call up the form where +dwelt that harmonious soul, which uniting in itself God's best gifts, +for a short space shed its celestial light upon her household, and then +vanishing, "turned all hope into memory."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_969" id="Page_969">[Pg 969]</a></span></p> + +<p>But it is not to scenes like these that I would now recall you. I would +that my voice could reach the ear of every admirer of our guest +throughout the land, that with us they might welcome him, on this, his +first public appearance to our shores. Like the rushing of many waters, +the response would come to us from the bleak hills of Canada, from the +savannas of the South, from the prairies of the West, uniting in an +"earthquake voice" in the cheers with which we welcome Charles Dickens +to this new world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_970" id="Page_970">[Pg 970]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ANDREW V. V. RAYMOND</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE DUTCH AS ENEMIES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Andrew V. V. Raymond at the thirteenth annual +dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 12, 1898. The +President, John W. Vrooman, said: "I must now make good a promise, +and permit me to illustrate it by a brief story. A minister about +to perform the last rites for a dying man, a resident of Kentucky, +said to him with solemnity that he hoped he was ready for a better +land. The man instantly rallied and cried out, 'Look here, Mr. +Minister, there ain't no better land than Kentucky!' To secure the +attendance of our genial and eloquent College President I made a +promise to him to state publicly at this time that there is no +better college in the world than Union College; that there is no +better president in the world than the president of old Union; and +I may add that there is no better man than my valued friend, +President Andrew V. V. Raymond, of Union College, who will respond +to the toast: 'The Dutch as Enemies.—Did a person but know the +value of an enemy he would purchase him with fine gold.'"]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—Ladies—to whom now, as always, I look up for +inspiration—and gentlemen of the Holland Society, when one has been +rocked in a Dutch cradle, and baptized with a Dutch name and caressed +with a Dutch slipper, and nursed on Dutch history, and fed on Dutch +theology, he is open to accept an invitation from the Holland Society. +It is now four years since I had the pleasure of speaking my mind freely +about the Dutch, and in the meantime so much mind—or is it only +speech—has accumulated that the present opportunity comes very much +like a merciful interposition of Providence on my behalf. During these +years my residence has been changed, for whereas I used to live in +Albany now I live in Schenectady, which is like moving from The Hague to +Leyden, or in other words, going a little farther into the heart of +Dutchdom, for nowhere else is Dutch spelled with a larger D than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_971" id="Page_971">[Pg 971]</a></span> in the +city of my residence to-day, with Lisha's Kill on one side, and +Rotterdam on another, and Amsterdam on the third, and a real dyke on the +fourth, to say nothing of the canal.</p> + +<p>You do not remember that speech of mine four years ago for you did not +hear it. That was not my fault, however, but your misfortune, of course. +You did not hear it because you were not here. You were asleep in your +own beds, of course, where Dutchmen always go when they are sleepy, +which is perhaps the principal reason why they are not caught napping in +business hours. Unfortunately, however, that speech was printed in full, +or I might repeat it now. One learns from such little experiences what +not to do the next time. But if you do not remember the speech, I do—at +least the subject—which was "The Dutch as Neighbors," and it has seemed +wise to get as far as possible from that subject to-night lest I might +be tempted to plagiarize, and so I propose to talk for a moment only +about "The Dutch as Enemies."</p> + +<p>I do not like the first suggestion of this subject any more than do you. +For to think of a man as an enemy is to think ill of him, and to +intimate that the Dutchman was not and is not perfect is to intimate +something which no one here will believe, and which no one certainly +came to hear. But as a matter of fact, gentlemen, no one can be perfect +without being an enemy any more than he can be perfect without being a +friend. The two things are complementary; the one is the reverse side of +the other. Everything in this universe, except a shadow, has two +sides—unless, perhaps, it may be a political machine whose +one-sidedness is so proverbial as to suggest that it also is a thing +wholly of darkness caused by someone standing in the way of the light. +The Dutchman, however, is not a shadow of anything or of anybody. You +can walk around him, and when you do that you find that he has not only +a kindly face and a warm hand, but something called backbone, and it is +that of which I am to speak to-night, for it suggests about all that I +mean by the Dutchman as an enemy.</p> + +<p>Some people are enemies, or become enemies, because of their spleen; +others because of their total depravity; and others still because they +persist in standing upright when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_972" id="Page_972">[Pg 972]</a></span> someone wants them to lie down and be +stepped on. That is the meaning of backbone, in this world of human +strife, and if, from time to time, it has made an enemy of the +peace-loving Dutchman, it has been the kind of enmity that has gathered +to itself not a little gratitude, for after all it is the kind of enmity +that has made this world more tolerable as a place of temporary abode. If +no one opposes tyrants and thieves and heretics and franchise-grabbers, +city lots fall rapidly in price. It is the Dutchman who keeps up the real +estate market. When I have suggested that it is because of his opposition +that he is regarded as an enemy, I have come to the heart of all that<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I propose to say to-night. As a matter of fact, the Dutchman has never</span><br /> +been very aggressive. He may not be enterprising, but his powers of +resistance are superb, and as this world wags it is often better to hold +fast than it is to be fast.</p> + +<p>If the Dutchman has not been aggressive, he has certainly been +steadfast. He has never become an enemy willingly, but always under +compulsion; willing to let other people alone if they will let him +alone, and if they will not do that, then he makes them do it. Those +dykes tell the whole story. The Dutchman did not want the sea—only the +earth. But when the sea wanted him he took up arms against it. It was so +with those Roman legions. The Dutchman had no quarrel with Rome until +Rome wanted to extend its empire that way, and to acquire him and grow +fat from his tribute money. But the Dutchman had no need of an empire up +his way, and so kept his tribute money, and sent the eagles home hungry. +If Spain had not wanted to whip the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not +have whipped Spain. If England had not wanted a brush with the Dutch, +that broom would never have been nailed to Tromp's masthead. If Jameson +had not tried to raid the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not have +corralled Jameson. From first to last, his battles have been on the +defensive. He has always been ambitious to be a good friend with the +latch-string always on the outside, and has only become an enemy when +somebody has tried to get into his house through the window. That kind +of enmity hurts no one who does not deserve to be hurt.</p> + +<p>As this world goes, it is a great thing to say of a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_973" id="Page_973">[Pg 973]</a></span> that he never +gets down his gun until he sees another gun pointed his way, but it is a +greater thing to say that when he does see that other gun he does not +get under the bed, and that is what can be said of the Dutchman more +than of any other man in the world. He will not run into a fight; he +will not run away from a fight—in fact he has no reputation whatever as +a runner in any direction. But he can take a stand, and when the smoke +has cleared away there he is, still standing. He will not vote himself +an enemy, but if against his will he is voted an enemy, he accepts the +election, and discharges the duties of his office with painstaking +vigilance and care. Now, no one does that, and ever gets re-elected, no +matter what the office. Such is the world. And so the Dutchman has never +been voted an enemy twice by the same people. One term of his vigorous +administration of hostile forces is quite enough, and inasmuch as he +does not care for the office personally, and takes it only from a sense +of duty, he never seeks a re-election. He is always ready to step down +and out, and resume his old occupation of being a good neighbor and a +peace-loving citizen.</p> + +<p>That is perhaps his greatest virtue, and it all grows out of the fact +that his spirit of antagonism is located in his backbone, leaving his +heart free. He does not love strife and he does not hate the man with +whom he fights, and so, in all his battles, he has never been +vindictive, cruel, merciless. When he has had to fight he has fought +like a man and a Christian, for righteousness' sake, and not like a +demon to humiliate and to annihilate his foes. That makes the Dutchman a +rare kind of enemy, and that, more than anything else, I think, has +distinguished his enmity through all the years of his history. He has +gone far toward obeying the precept, "Love your enemies, and bless them +that curse you." If he has not been able to keep men from hating him, +and cursing him, and persecuting him, he has been able to keep himself +from hating and cursing and persecuting in return; and so, while he is +one of the greatest of military heroes in history, he is also one of the +greatest of moral heroes, and that is a greater honor, inasmuch as "He +that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_974" id="Page_974">[Pg 974]</a></span></p> + +<p>I do not claim all glory for the Dutch. It is not given to any one +nation to monopolize virtue. I only assert that the Dutchman's virtue is +of a peculiarly exalted type. The Englishman's virtue is just as real, +only another kind of virtue. If the Dutchman's spirit of hostility or of +antagonism resides in his backbone, the Englishman's spirit of hostility +or antagonism resides in his breastbone. That makes all the difference +between them. The Englishman fights, but he fights aggressively. And as +the heart lies back of the breastbone it never gets into his fighting. +He neither loves his enemies nor hates them. He simply loves England. If +it has been the mission of the Dutch to keep, it has been the mission of +the English to get, and in the getting he has had to do a world of +fighting.</p> + +<p>It comes with ill grace from us, however, to condemn the Englishman when +to-day Uncle Sam is standing on the Pacific Slope expanding his chest +toward Hawaii. But if we cannot condemn with good grace, there is no +need to praise English aggressiveness and acquisitiveness overmuch; what +we do need to praise and cultivate is the Dutch virtue of holding fast +our own. We have institutions and principles, rights and privileges, in +this country which are constantly attacked, and the need of America is +that the backbone which the Dutch have given to this country should +assert itself. Hospitality loses its virtue when it means the +destruction of the Lares and Penates of our own firesides. When a guest +insists on sitting at the head of the table, then it is time for the +host to become <i>hostis</i>. What America needs in this new year of grace is +not less hospitality toward friends but more hostility toward intruders.</p> + +<p>The spirit of this age is iconoclastic. It seeks to destroy sacred +memorials, hallowed associations, holy shrines, everything that tells of +the faith and the worship of a God-fearing past. The spirit of the age +is irreverent, destructive, faithless. Against this and all despoiling +forces we as patriots are called to arms. For what does America stand? +What are the truths that have gone into her blood and made her strong +and beautiful and dominant? The divineness of human rights, the claims +of men superior to the claims of property; popular government—not an +oligarchy; popular government—not a dictatorship; the sacredness of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_975" id="Page_975">[Pg 975]</a></span> home, the holiness of the sanctuary, faith in humanity, faith in +God. These have made America, and without these there can be no America. +And because they are attacked, gentlemen, the need of the hour is a +patriotism that shall breathe forth the spirit of the people who above +all others in history have known how to keep their land, their honor, +and their faith. The mission of little Holland will never be ended so +long as America needs the inspiration of her glorious example, and the +devoted citizenship of her loving sons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_976" id="Page_976">[Pg 976]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>OPIE P. READ</h2> + + + + +<h4>MODERN FICTION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Opie P. Read at the eighty-second dinner of the Sunset +Club, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1895. The general subject of the +evening's discussion was "The Tendency and Influence of Modern +Fiction." The chairman of the evening, Arthur W. Underwood, said in +introducing Mr. Read, "It is very seldom that the Sunset Club +discharges its speakers in batteries of four, but something is due +to the speakers. Four barrels is a light load, I am told, for a +Kentucky colonel, and I have the pleasure of introducing the +original 'Kentucky Colonel,' Mr. Opie P. Read."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—The drift of latter-day fiction +is largely shown by the department store. The selling of books by the +ton proves a return to the extremes of romanticism. People do not jostle +one another in their eagerness to secure even a semblance of the truth. +The taste of to-day is a strong appetite for sadism; and a novel to be +successful must bear the stamp of society rather than the approval of +the critic. The reader has gone slumming, and must be shocked in order +to be amused. Reviewers tell us of a revolt against realism, that we no +longer fawn upon a dull truth, that we crave gauze rather than +substance. In fact, realism was never a fad. Truth has never been +fashionable; no society takes up philosophy as an amusement.</p> + +<p>But after all, popular taste does not make a literature. Strength does +not meet with immediate recognition; originality is more often condemned +than praised. The intense book often dies with one reading, its story is +a wild pigeon of the mind, and sails away to be soon forgotten; but the +novel in which there is even one real character, one man of the soil, +remains with us as a friend. In the minds of thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_977" id="Page_977">[Pg 977]</a></span> people, realism +cannot be supplanted. But by realism, I do not mean the commonplace +details of an uninteresting household, nor the hired man with mud on his +cowhide boots, nor the whining farmer who sits with his feet on the +kitchen-stove, but the glory that we find in nature and the grandeur +that we find in man, his bravery, his honor, his self-sacrifice, his +virtue. Realism does not mean the unattractive. A rose is as real as a +toad. And a realistic novel of the days of Cæsar would be worth more +than Plutarch's Lives.</p> + +<p>Every age sees a literary revolution, but out of that revolution there +may come no great work of art. The best fiction is the unconscious grace +of a cultivated mind, a catching of the quaint humor of men, a soft look +of mercy, a sympathetic tear. And this sort of a book may be neglected +for years, no busy critic may speak a word in its behalf, but there +comes a time when by the merest accident a great mind finds it and +flashes its genius back upon the cloud that has hidden it.</p> + +<p>Yes, there is a return to romanticism, if indeed there was ever a turn +from it. The well-told story has ever found admirers. To the world all +the stories have not been told. The stars show no age, and the sun was +as bright yesterday as it was the morning after creation. But a simple +story without character is not the highest form of fiction. It is a +story that may become a fad, if it be shocking enough, if it has in it +the thrill of delicious wickedness, but it cannot live. The literary +lion of to-day may be the literary ass of to-morrow, but the ass has his +bin full of oats and cannot complain.</p> + +<p>One very striking literary tendency of to-day is the worship of the +English author in America and the hissing of the American author in +London. And this proves that American literature is scarcely more +popular in England than it is at home. But may not American publishers +after awhile take up a London hissing and use it as an advertisement. +Hissing is surely a recognition, and proves that an author has not been +wholly neglected.</p> + +<p>The novel, whether it be of classic form or of faddish type, makes a +mark upon the mind of the public. Fiction is a necessary element of +modern education. A man may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_978" id="Page_978">[Pg 978]</a></span> be a successful physician or a noted lawyer +without having read a novel; but he could not be regarded as a man of +refined culture. A novel is an intellectual luxury, and in the luxuries +of a country we find the refinements of the nation. It was not invention +but fancy that made Greece great. A novel-reading nation is a +progressive nation. At one time the most successful publication in this +country was a weekly paper filled with graceless sensationalism, and it +was not the pulpit nor the lecture-platform that took hold of the public +taste and lifted it above this trash—it was the publication in cheap +form of the English classics. And when the mind of the masses had been +thus improved, the magazine became a success.</p> + +<p>One slow but unmistakable drift of fiction is toward the short story, +and the carefully edited newspaper may hold the fiction of the future.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_979" id="Page_979">[Pg 979]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WHITELAW REID</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE PRESS—RIGHT OR WRONG</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Whitelaw Reid at the 108th annual banquet of the Chamber +of Commerce of the State of New York, May 4, 1876. Samuel D. +Babcock, President of the Chamber, was in the chair, and proposed +the following toast, to which Mr. Reid was called upon for a +response: "The Press—right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; +when wrong, to be set right."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—Lastly, Satan came also, the printer's, if not +the public's devil, <i>in propria persona</i>! [Laughter.] The rest of you +gentlemen have better provided for yourselves. Even the Chamber of +Commerce took the benefit of clergy. The Presidential candidates and the +representatives of the Administration and the leading statesmen who +throng your hospitable board, all put forward as their counsel the +Attorney-General [Alphonso Taft] of the United States. And, as one of +his old clients at my left said a moment ago, "a precious dear old +counsel he was." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The Press is without clergymen or counsel; and you doubtless wish it +were also without voice. At this hour none of you have the least desire +to hear anything or to say anything about the press. There are a number +of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that platform—I utterly +refuse to say whether I refer to Presidential candidates or not—but +there were a number of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that +table, who are very much more anxious to know what the press to-morrow +morning will have to say about them [laughter], and I know it because I +saw the care with which they handed up to the reporters the manuscript +copies of their entirely unprepared and extempore remarks. [Laughter.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_980" id="Page_980">[Pg 980]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gentlemen, the press is a mild-spoken and truly modest institution which +never chants its own praises. Unlike Walt Whitman, it never celebrates +itself. Even if it did become me—one of the youngest of its conductors +in New York—to undertake at this late hour to inflict upon you its +eulogy, there are two circumstances which might well make me pause. It +is an absurdity for me—an absurdity, indeed, for any of us—to assume +to speak for the press of New York at a table where William Cullen +Bryant sits silent. Besides, I have been reminded since I came here, by +Dr. Chapin, that the pithiest eulogy ever pronounced upon the first +editor of America, was pronounced in this very room and from that very +platform by the man who at that time was the first of living editors in +this country, when he said that he honored the memory of Benjamin +Franklin because he was a journeyman printer who did not drink, a +philosopher who wrote common sense, and an office-holder who did not +steal. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>One word only of any seriousness about your toast; it says: "The +Press—right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be +set right." Gentlemen, this is your affair. A stream will not rise +higher than its fountain. The Hudson River will not flow backward over +the Adirondacks. The press of New York is fed and sustained by the +commerce of New York, and the press of New York to-day, bad as it is in +many respects—and I take my full share of the blame it fairly +deserves—is just what the merchants of New York choose to have it. If +you want it better, you can make it better. So long as you are satisfied +with it as it is, sustain it as it is, take it into your families and +into your counting-rooms as it is, and encourage it as it is, it will +remain what it is.</p> + +<p>If, for instance, the venerable leader of your Bar, conspicuous through +a long life for the practice of every virtue that adorns his profession +and his race, is met on his return from the very jaws of the grave, as +he re-enters the Court-room to undertake again the gratuitous +championship of your cause against thieves who robbed you, with the +slander that he is himself a thief of the meanest kind, a robber of +defenceless women—I say if such a man is subject to persistent +repetition of such a calumny in the very city he has honored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_981" id="Page_981">[Pg 981]</a></span> and +served, and at the very end and crown of his life, it is because you do +not choose to object to it and make your objection felt. A score of +similar instances will readily occur to anyone who runs over in his +memory the course of our municipal history for the last dozen years, but +there is no time to repeat or even to refer to them here.</p> + +<p>And so, Mr. President, because this throng of gentlemen, gathered about +the doors, pay me the too great compliment by remaining standing to +listen when they have started to go home—let me come back to the text +you gave me, and the sentiment with which we began: "The Press—right or +wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be set right." +[Applause.] The task in either case is to be performed by the merchants +of New York, who have the power to do it and only need resolve that they +will.</p> + +<p>I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the continued attractions of the +annual entertainment you offer us; above all, I congratulate you on +having given us the great pleasure of meeting once more and seeing +seated together at your table the first four citizens of the metropolis +of the Empire State: Charles O'Conor, Peter Cooper, William Cullen +Bryant, and John A. Dix. I thank you for the courtesy of your +remembrance of the Press; and so to one and all, good-night. [Applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>GLADSTONE, ENGLAND'S GREATEST LEADER</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Whitelaw Reid at a dinner given by the Irish-Americans +to Justin McCarthy, New York City, October 2, 1886. Judge Edward +Browne presided. Mr. Reid was called upon to speak to the toast, +"Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—I am pleased to see that since this toast was sent +me by your committee, it has been proof-read. As it came to me, it +describes Mr. Gladstone as England's greatest Liberal leader. I thought +you might well say that and more. It delights me to find that you have +said more—that you have justly described him as England's greatest +leader. ["Hear! Hear!"] I do not forget that other, always remembered +when Gladstone is mentioned, who edu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_982" id="Page_982">[Pg 982]</a></span>cated his party till it captured +its opponents' place by first disguising and then adopting their +measures. That was in its way as brilliant party leadership as the +century has seen, and it placed an alien adventurer in the British +peerage and enshrined his name in the grateful memory of a great party +that vainly looks for Disraeli's successor. [Applause.] I do not forget +a younger statesman, never to be forgotten henceforth by Irishmen, who +revived an impoverished and exhausted people, stilled their dissensions, +harmonized their conflicting plans, consolidated their chaotic forces, +conducted a peaceful Parliamentary struggle in their behalf with +incomparable pertinacity, coolness, and resources; and through storms +and rough weather has held steadily on till even his enemies see now, in +the very flush of their own temporary success, that in the end the +victory of Parnell is sure. [Loud applause.] Great leaders both; great +historic figures whom our grandchildren will study and analyze and +admire.</p> + +<p>But this man whom your toast honors, after a career that might have +filled any man's ambition, became the head of the Empire whose mourning +drum-beat heralds the rising sun on its journey round the world. That +place he risked and lost, and risked again to give to an ill-treated +powerless section of the Empire, not even friendly to his sway, Church +Reform, Educational Reform, Land Reform, Liberty! [Cheers.] It was no +sudden impulse and it is no short or recent record. It is more than +seventeen years since Mr. Gladstone secured for Ireland the boon of +disestablishment. It is nearly as long since he carried the first bill +recognizing and seriously endeavoring to remedy the evils of Irish land +tenure.</p> + +<p>He has rarely been able to advance as rapidly or as far as he wished; +and more than once he has gone by a way that few of us liked. But if he +was not always right, he has been courageous enough to set himself +right. If he made a mistake in our affairs when he said Jefferson Davis +had founded a nation, he offered reparation when he secured the Geneva +Arbitration, and loyally paid its award. If he made a mistake in Irish +affairs in early attempts at an unwise coercion he more than made amends +when he led that recent magnificent struggle in Parliament and before +the English people, which ended in a defeat, it is true, but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_983" id="Page_983">[Pg 983]</a></span> defeat +more brilliant than many victories and more hopeful for Ireland. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>And over what a length of road has he led the English people! From +rotten boroughs to household suffrage; from a government of classes to a +government more truly popular than any other in the world outside of +Switzerland and the United States. Then consider the advance on Irish +questions. From the iniquitous burden of a gigantic and extravagant +church establishment, imposed upon the people of whom seven-eighths were +of hostile faith, to disestablishment; from the principle stated by Lord +Palmerston with brutal frankness that "tenant-right is landlord's +wrong," to judicial rents and the near prospect of tenant ownership on +fair terms; from the arbitrary arrests of Irish leaders to the alliance +of the Prime Minister and ruling party with the prisoner of Kilmainham +Jail! [Loud cheers.] It has been no holiday parade, the leadership on a +march like that. Long ago Mr. Disraeli flung at him the exultant taunt +that the English people had had enough of his policy of confiscation; +and so it proved for a time, for Mr. Disraeli turned him out. But Mr. +Gladstone knew far better than his great rival did the deep and secret +springs of English action, and he never judged from the temper of the +House or a tour of the London drawing-rooms. Society, indeed, always +disapproved of him, as it did of those kindred spirits, the anti-slavery +leaders of American politics. But the frowns of Fifth Avenue and Beacon +Street have not dimmed the fame of Sumner and Chase; of Seward and +Lincoln [a voice: "And of Wendell Phillips." Cheers]; nor does Belgravia +control the future of Mr. Gladstone's career any more than it has been +able to hinder his past.</p> + +<p>More than any other statesman of his epoch, he has combined practical +skill in the conduct of politics with a steadfast appeal to the highest +moral considerations. To a leader of that sort defeats are only +stepping-stones, and the end is not in doubt. A phrase once famous among +us has sometimes seemed to me fit for English use about Ireland. A great +man, a very great man, whose name sheds lasting honor upon our city said +in an impulsive moment—that he "never wanted to live in a country where +the one-half was pinned to the other by bayonets." If Mr. Gladstone +ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_984" id="Page_984">[Pg 984]</a></span> believed in thus fastening Ireland to England, he has learned a +more excellent way. Like Greeley he would no doubt at the last fight, if +need be, for the territorial integrity of his country. But he has +learned the lesson Charles James Fox taught nearly a hundred years +before: "The more Ireland is under Irish Government, the more she will +be bound to English interests." That precept he has been trying to +reduce to practice. God grant the old statesman life and light to see +the sure end of the work he has begun! [Loud applause.]</p> + +<p>I must not sit down without a word more to express the personal +gratification I feel in seeing an old comrade here as your guest. Twelve +or fourteen years ago he did me the honor to fill for a time an +important place on the staff of my newspaper. With what skill and power +he did his work; with what readiness and ample store of information you +need not be told, for the anonymous editorial writer of those days is +now known to the English-speaking world as the brilliant historian of +"Our Own Times." Those of us who knew him then have seen his sacrifice +of private interests and personal tastes for the stormy life of an Irish +member of Parliament, and have followed with equal interest and +admiration his bold yet prudent and high-minded Parliamentary career. He +has done all that an Irishman ought for his country; he has done it with +as little sympathy or encouragement for the policy of dynamite and +assassination in England as we have had for bomb-throwing in Chicago. +[Loud and prolonged applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_985" id="Page_985">[Pg 985]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>W. L. ROBBINS</h2> + + +<h4>THE PULPIT AND THE BAR</h4> + +<blockquote><p>[Speech of Rev. W. L. Robbins at the annual dinner of the New York State +Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891, +in response to the sentiment, "The Relation of the Pulpit to the Bar." +Matthew Hale presided.]</p></blockquote> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen:</span>—I am so dazed at the temerity +which has ventured to put so soporific a subject as "The Pulpit" at so +late an hour in the evening, that I can only conceive of but one merit +in any response to the present toast, and that is brevity. I had always +supposed that the pulpit was "sleepy" enough in its effect upon men in +the early hours of the day, at least that was my conclusion, in so far +as it has been my privilege to see men present, at pulpit ministrations, +leaving us as they do for the most part to preach to women and children. +Shall I confess that the feeling came over me during the first part of +the evening that I was rather out of place among so many laymen, alone +as a representative of the clergy; but later, I found confidence through +a sense of kinship in suffering, for is it not true that we represent +two of the best abused professions in the world? I do not mean by that, +abuse <i>ab extra</i>. I am told indeed, occasionally, that the pulpit is +effete, that its place has been filled by the press and lecture +platform, that there is no further use for it. But I do not know that I +have heard abuse <i>ab extra</i> of the Bar, unless some ill-natured person +should read it into the broad Scotch pronunciation of an old friend of +mine who used to say to me, "Ah, the lieyers, the lieyers."</p> + +<p>But what we must needs guard against is abuse from within. In the first +place we are a good deal given to self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_986" id="Page_986">[Pg 986]</a></span>congratulation. I use the first +person plural and not the second person; I remember a friend of mine, a +distinguished clergyman in Boston, an Englishman, who once ventured to +preach upon political corruption in the municipal government, and the +next day he had the audacity to drop into the office of one of the +business men of his congregation and say, "What did you think of that +sermon?"—a very dangerous question, by the way, always to ask—and the +reply came promptly, "You had better go and be naturalized so that you +can say 'we sinners,' instead of 'you sinners.'" [Laughter.] Since that +time, from the pulpit or from any other place, I have hesitated to say, +"You sinners," and I will promise to say "we sinners" to-night.</p> + +<p>But truly the pulpit and the Bar, in their ideal, are, as it were, "the +voice of one crying in the wilderness," a witness to the eternal truth. +Are they not? The pulpit is sent forth to herald the love of God, and +the Bar is sent forth to herald the justice of God; but they don't +always succeed. I can speak from experience for the pulpit, that the +position of authority, the claim of a divine mission, is often turned +into the excuse for the airing of a man's individual fads, and is naught +but a cloak for pretentious ignorance. [Applause.] And for the Bar, I +wonder if I might venture to quote the definition of legal practice +which was given me the other night, apropos of this toast, by a +distinguished representative of the New York Bar Association, that it +was "a clever device for frustrating justice, and getting money into the +lawyer's pocket." [Laughter.] But if it be true that we have a mission, +it is equally true that we must join hands if we are going to accomplish +that mission. I am tired of hearing about the Pulpit as the voice of the +public conscience. I do not know why the Bar should not be the voice of +the public conscience quite as much as the Pulpit. If there are laws on +the statute book that are not obeyed, I don't know why the clergy should +make public protest rather than the lawyers, who are representatives of +the law. [Applause.] And if principles of our Constitution are being +subtly invaded to-day under the mask, for instance, of State subsidies +or national subsidies to sectarian institutions either of learning or of +charity, I don't know why the first voice of warning should come from +the Pulpit rather than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_987" id="Page_987">[Pg 987]</a></span> from the Bar. Indeed, when the clergy initiate +reforming movements it always seems to me as though there is need of +rather more ballast in the boat, need of one of those great wheels which +act as a check on the machinery in an engine; and the best fly-wheel is +the layman. The tendency, you know, of the Pulpit is toward an +unpractical sort of idealism. Its theories are all very good, but my +professor in physics used to tell me that the best mathematical theory +is put out of gear by friction when you come to illustrate it in +practical physics, and so with even the best kind of theoretical +philanthropy. The theoretical solution of the problems, social and +economic, which confront us is put "out of gear" by facts, about which, +alas, the clergy are not as careful as they are about their theory; and, +therefore, I plead for a lay enthusiasm. But surely there is no better +lay element than the legal to act as ballast for the clergy in pleading +the cause of philanthropy and piety and righteousness.</p> + +<p>Then I would suggest first of all, that the Pulpit needs to leave the A, +B, C's of morality, about which it has been pottering so long, and begin +to spell words and sometimes have a reading lesson in morals. That is, +that it should apply its principles to practical living issues and +questions of the day. And I plead to the lawyers to come out once in +awhile from the technicalities of practice, and from their worship of +cleverness and success, and look to the mission which is laid on them, +namely, to bear witness to justice and righteousness. [Applause.] My +toast would be "Common sense in the Pulpit and a love of righteousness +at the Bar."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_988" id="Page_988">[Pg 988]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE</h2> + + + +<h4>THE PRESS</h4> + +<blockquote><p>[Speech of James Jeffrey Roche at the banquet of the Friendly Sons of +St. Patrick, New York City, March 17, 1894. John D. Crimmins presided. +Mr. Roche, as editor of the "Boston Pilot," responded for "The Press."]</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons of St. +Patrick:</span>—I am deeply sensible of the honor you have done me in +inviting me to respond to the toast which has just been read.</p> + +<p>The virtues of the Press are so many and so self-evident that they +scarcely need a eulogist. Even the newspapers recognize and admit them. +If you had asked a New York journalist to sing the praises of his craft, +his native and professional modesty would have embarrassed his voice. If +you had asked a Chicagoan, the honorable chairman would have been +compelled to resort to cloture before the orator got through. If you had +asked a Philadelphian, he would have been in bed by this hour.</p> + +<p>Therefore, you wisely went to the city which not only produces all the +virtues—but puts them up in cans, for export to all the world. We do +not claim to know everything, in Boston—but we do know where to find +it. We have an excellent newspaper press, daily and weekly, and should +either or both ever, by any chance, fail to know anything—past, +present, or to come—we have a Monday Lectureship, beside which the +Oracle of Delphi was a last year's almanac. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I met a man, on the train, yesterday—a New York man (he said he +was)—of very agreeable manners. He told me what his business was, and +when I told him my business in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_989" id="Page_989">[Pg 989]</a></span> New York, he surprised me by asking: +"What are you going to say to them in your speech that will be real +sassy, and calculated to make all their pet corns ache?" I told him I +did not know what he meant, that of course I should say nothing but the +most pleasant things I could think of; that, in fact, I intended to read +my speech, lest, in the agitation of the moment, I might overlook some +complimentary impromptu little touch. Then he laughed and said: "Why, +that isn't the way to do at all—in New York. It is easy to see you are +a stranger, and don't read the papers. The correct thing nowadays is for +the guest to criticise his entertainers. Mayor So-and-So always does it. +And only last year—it was at an Irish banquet, too—the speaker of the +evening, a Down-Easter like yourself, just spilled boiling vitriol over +the whole company, and rubbed it in."</p> + +<p>I told him I didn't believe that story, and asked him to tell me the +gentleman's name. And he only answered me, evasively: "I didn't say he +was a gentleman."</p> + +<p>I trust I know better than to say anything uncomplimentary about the +Press of New York, which compiles, or constructs, news for the whole +Continent, not only before our slower communities have heard of the +things chronicled, but often, with commendable enterprise, before they +have happened.</p> + +<p>I admire the Press of New York. There are a great many Boston men on it, +and I have no mission to reform it. In New York, when you have a surplus +of journalistic talent, you export it to London, where it is out of +place—some of it. The feverish race for priority, which kills off so +many American journalists, sometimes, it would seem, almost before their +time (but that is a matter of opinion), is unknown in London. A man who +reads the "London Times," regularly and conscientiously, is guaranteed +forever against insomnia. London "Punch" is a paper which the severest +ascetic may read, all through Lent, without danger to his sobriety of +soul.</p> + +<p>London gets even with you, too. You send her an Astor, and she +retaliates with a Stead. We ought to deal gently with Mr. Stead; for he +says that we are all children of the one "Anglo-Saxon" family—without +regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude. He avers that +England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_990" id="Page_990">[Pg 990]</a></span> looks upon America as a brother, and that may be so. It is not +easy, at this distance of time, to know just how Romulus looked upon +Remus, how Esau looked upon Jacob, how Cain looked upon Abel—but I have +no doubt that it was in about the same light that England looks upon +America—fraternally! But she ought not to afflict us with Mr. Stead. We +have enough to bear without him.</p> + +<p>We know that the Press has its faults and its weaknesses. We can see +them every day, in our miserable contemporaries, and we do not shirk the +painful duty of pointing them out. We know that it has also virtues, +manifold, and we do not deny them, when an appreciative audience +compliments us upon them. A conscientious journalist never shrinks from +the truth, even when it does violence to his modesty. In fact, he tells +the truth under all circumstances, or nearly all. If driven to the +painful alternative of choosing between that which is new and that which +is true, he wisely decides that "truth" is mighty, and will prevail, +whereas news won't keep. Nevertheless, it is a safe rule not to believe +everything that you see in the papers. Advertisers are human, and liable +to err.</p> + +<p>Lamartine predicted, long ago, that before the end of the present +century the Press would be the whole literature of the world. His +prediction is almost verified already. The multiplication and the +magnitude of newspapers present, not a literary, but an economic +problem. The Sunday paper alone has grown, within a decade, from a +modest quarto to a volume of 48, 60, 96, 120 pages, with the stream +steadily rising and threatening the levees on both banks. At a similar +rate of expansion in the next ten years, it will be made up of not less +than 1,000 pages, and the man who undertakes to read it will be liable +to miss First Mass.</p> + +<p>The thoughtful provision of giving away a "farm coupon" with every +number may avert trouble for a time, but it will be only for a time. The +reader will need a farm, on which to spread out and peruse his purchase; +but the world is small, and land has not the self-inflating quality of +paper.</p> + +<p>But to speak more seriously: Is modern journalism, then, nothing but a +reflection of the frivolity of the day, of the passing love of +notoriety? I say no! I believe that the day of sensational journalism, +of the blanket sheet and the fear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_991" id="Page_991">[Pg 991]</a></span>ful woodcut, is already passing away. +Quantity cannot forever overcome quality, in that or any other field. +When we think of the men who have done honor to the newspaper +profession, we do not think so proudly of this or that one who "scooped" +his contemporaries with the first, or "exclusive," report of a murder or +a hanging, but of men like the late George W. Childs, whom all true +journalists honor and lament.</p> + +<p>We think of the heroes of the pen, who carried their lives in their +hands as they went into strange, savage countries, pioneers of +civilization. It would be invidious to mention names, where the roll is +so long and glorious; but I think, at the moment, of O'Donovan, Forbes, +Stanley, Burnaby, Collins, and our own Irish-American, MacGahan, the +great-hearted correspondent, who changed the political map of Eastern +Europe by exposing the Bulgarian atrocities. The instinct which impelled +those men was the same which impelled Columbus.</p> + +<p>I think, in another field, of the noblest man I have ever known, the +truest, most chivalrous gentleman, a newspaper man, an editor—I am +proud to say, an Irish-American editor—the memory of whose honored +name, I well know, is the only excuse for my being here to-night—John +Boyle O'Reilly! You have honored his name more than once here to-night, +and in honoring him you honor the profession which he so adorned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_992" id="Page_992">[Pg 992]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>D. B. ST. JOHN ROOSA</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE SALT OF THE EARTH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, as President of the Holland +Society of New York, at the eleventh annual dinner of the Society, +New York City, January 15, 1896.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen, Members of the Holland Society, and our Honored +Guests</span>:—My first duty is to welcome to our Board the +representatives of the various societies who honor us by their presence: +St. George's, St. Nicholas, New England, St. Andrew's, Colonial Order, +and Colonial Wars, Southern Society, the Holland Society welcomes you +most heartily. I ought to say that the Holland Society, as at present +constituted, could run a Police Board [applause], furnish the Mayors for +two cities, and judges to order, to decide on any kind of a case. As a +matter of fact, when they get hard up down-town for a judge, they just +send up to the man who happens to be President of the Holland Society +and say "Now we want a judge," and we send Van Hoesen, Beekman, Truax, +or Van Wyck. [Applause.] They are all right. They are Dutch, and they +will do. [Laughter.] All the people say it does not make any difference +about their politics, so long as the blood is right.</p> + +<p>Now, gentlemen, seriously, I thank you very sincerely for the honor +which you have conferred upon me—and which I was not able, on account +of circumstances entirely beyond my control, to acknowledge at the +annual meeting of the Society—in making me your President. I do not +think there is any honor in the world that compares with it, and if you +think over the names of the Presidents of this Society you may imagine +that a doctor, especially knowing what the Dutch in South Africa think +of doctors just now [laughter and applause], would have a mighty slim +chance to come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_993" id="Page_993">[Pg 993]</a></span> in against a Van Vorst, a Roosevelt, a Van Hoesen, a +Beekman, a Van Wyck, or a Van Norden. But my name is not Jameson. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, there seems to be an impression that the Holland Society, +because it does not have a Club-house—and it may have a Club-house, +that remains for you to decide; and because it does not have a great +many other things, has no reason for its existence. But, gentlemen, +there is one sufficient reason for the existence of the Hollanders in a +Society. We have eight hundred and forty members, and each one of us has +a function—to teach our neighboring Yankees just exactly what we are, +whence we came, and where we mean to go. [Laughter and applause.] The +colossal ignorance of the ordinary New Englander [laughter and +applause]—I mean in regard to the Dutch [laughter]—is something that I +would delineate were it not for the presence of the President of the +Mayflower Society. [Renewed laughter.] Why, it was only the other night +that at one of these entertainments when I was representing you and +doing the best I could with my medal and my ribbon, that a friend came +up to me and said: "You belong to the Holland Society, don't you?" I +said, "Yes." "Well," he said," you Dutch did lick us on the Excise +question, didn't you?" [Great laughter and applause.] Now what are you +going to do with a people like that? We got the credit of that thing, +anyhow. [Renewed laughter.] There is a Governor of Connecticut here +to-night [P. C. Lounsbury], and I was going to say something about +Governors of Connecticut of years and years ago. A man could not +properly relate the history of New Amsterdam without remarking on the +Governors of Connecticut, but out of respect to the distinguished +gentleman, whom we all delight to honor, I shall draw it very mild. I +shall only tell one or two things that those Governors of Connecticut +used to do. There was one of them, I have forgotten his name and I am +glad I have [laughter], who used to say in all his letters to his +subordinates when they were pushing us to the wall and getting the +English over to help them push: "Don't you say anything to those people, +don't you talk to those people, but always keep crowding the Dutch." +[Laughter.] That is what a Connecticut Governor gave as official advice +years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_994" id="Page_994">[Pg 994]</a></span> ago. And they did crowd us. But Governor Lounsbury told me that +if they really had their rights Manhattan Island would belong to +Connecticut. So you see they are crowding the Dutch still. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, every once in a while, one of these New Englanders that owns the +earth, especially that little stone portion called Plymouth Rock, which +we never begrudged them, gets up at a great dinner and reads a fine +speech and talks about civil and religious liberty which the Puritan +came over to cause to flourish. Why, the poor Puritan did not know any +more about religious liberty than an ordinary horse does about +astronomy. What the Puritan came over here for, was to get a place to do +what he liked, in his own way, without interference from anybody else, +with power to keep everybody out that wanted to do anything the least +bit different from his way. [Great laughter and applause. A voice—"I'm +glad I voted for you."] I never can get elected from New England.</p> + +<p>I want to tell you just a thing or two about this business. The Dutch +tried very hard to teach them civil and religious liberty before they +came over, and then they put the Yankees in a ship and sent them over +from Leyden and Delfshaven, saying: "It is utterly useless; we cannot +teach you." [Great laughter.] But we came over to New Amsterdam and we +had free schools in New York until the English took the city by +treachery when there was only Peter Stuyvesant to fire one gun against +the invaders, and then they abolished free schools and had their church +ones, and they are fighting over that question in England now. Free +schools! New York established them when we were free again, years and +years afterwards, but they are an invention of the Dutch.</p> + +<p>Civil and religious liberty! it was born in Holland, it was nourished by +the valor of the Beggars of the Sea, and finally it began to grow into +the minds of the peoples of the earth, that it was not only right to +enjoy your own religion, but it was also right to let your neighbor +enjoy his. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Then there is another story, that the English conquered Manhattan +Island, and that we are here by the grace of any people on earth except +our own. That is another mistake. Just read Theodore Roosevelt's "Rise +of New York."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_995" id="Page_995">[Pg 995]</a></span> [Great laughter.] Now I am going to tell you this story +because you must go up to Ulster County and up to Dutchess and Albany +Counties, and you must tell every Yankee you meet the truth about this, +and not let him talk any more about the English having subjugated the +Dutch.</p> + +<p>It is true the English captured Manhattan Island, but nine years +afterwards Admiral Evertsen and another Admiral whose name escapes me, +came up the harbor in two frigates with guns well shotted, got beyond +Staten Island, and gave the military authorities of New York notice that +they were going to take that town, and granted them thirty minutes to +make up their minds whether they would give it up or not. When the +thirty minutes elapsed, six hundred Dutch troops were landed just back +of where Trinity Church now is, and New York became New Amsterdam again. +Then how did we lose it? Because the Dutch States-General, which did not +know enough, in deciding between New York and Surinam, to choose New +York, took Surinam, and they have been wishing ever since they never had +been born. Now talk about anybody conquering the Dutch! We generally get +there. They sometimes say: "That is all very well, they were very brave +people and all that, but they don't do anything now." Waterloo, Van +Speyk, Majuba Hill, and the Boers of the Transvaal show what their +courage has been in the later generations. What are the Dutch? Why, we +are the salt of the earth! We do not pretend to be the bread and butter +and the cheese, but we are the salt [laughter], and I think the Boers in +South Africa very lately salted some people I know of. [Great laughter +and applause.]</p> + +<p>If you want to see a city that is well salted, look at New York. Go to +the St. Nicholas Society dinner and see that grand assembly; if there is +ever a society in New York that is well salted with Dutch, that is, and +we are all proud of it. And so it is with every other society, New York +society, but not on the paternal side! [Great laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>But if you want to see a place where the Yankee is salt, pepper, bread, +butter, and everything, go to Boston. It is a great city. That is all +right. But we prefer New York, and we prefer just what God has ordained +us to be—the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_996" id="Page_996">[Pg 996]</a></span> people not always getting the credit of it, but always +accomplishing all the good that is ever accomplished on the face of the +earth! [Laughter and applause.] Now you may think that I have not +whooped it up enough for the Dutch [great laughter], so I will go on, +just for a minute.</p> + +<p>The State of North Carolina is always talking about having had a +Declaration of Independence in Mecklenburg County, about six months +before they had one in Philadelphia. Why, the Dutch farmers up in the +Mamacotting Valley of Ulster County signed a Declaration of Independence +in April, 1775, and they would have signed it six months before if the +New York Council of Safety had given it to them! [Laughter.] This same +New England gentleman to whom I have alluded—I have it rather mixed up +in my mind which gentleman said it—but some one said that the New +Englanders were very unwilling to part from the English, who were +patronizing them with tea and stamps. Why, the liberty boys of New York +had made up their minds many months before the Declaration of +Independence. The Dutch, and notably the Scotch-Irish, had made up their +minds. As I say, up in Ulster County they circulated that Declaration of +Independence a year and three months before it was really signed +in Philadelphia. They knew what they meant. They said, "We shall never +be slaves." If you will excuse the fact that I did have a +great-grandfather—I am happy to say that my great-grandfather signed +that paper and he had a commission in the Continental Army, which I +possess, signed by John Hancock, and he was at Saratoga. He was in the +2d New York Line. The Dutch knew that what we wanted was to be a free +and independent people, even if our friends over there had not made up +their minds. The Dutch are satisfied with a very modest position in the +world—so that they have the goods and control its destinies. [Great +laughter.] Others may call it New York, if they like, or Manhattan, but +we call it Dutch.</p> + +<p>Now this Society, gentlemen, has a great work before it; our President, +who is very much like the President of the French Republic, goes around +with a big ribbon, but he has no authority of any kind whatever. He +might have some at the Board of Trustees meeting, but that is such an +orderly set that there is no use for authority there, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_997" id="Page_997">[Pg 997]</a></span> for the +dinner, Judge Van Hoesen and Mr. Van Schaick manage it very well. But +the President does not wish any authority, and glories in the great +honor, which it seems to him to be one that any one in this Society +might be proud of. We have, however, work to do, and in that your +President, by your grace, as a private member and as a trustee, hopes to +co-operate with you.</p> + +<p>It is a strange thing that this great city of New York has allowed the +Puritans first to commemorate the virtues of their heroic race which we +all admire, and all love to speak of in terms of praise in our serious +moments. It is strange that Central Park is adorned by them with that +beautiful statue, while the Dutch have no monument. I well remember the +day that that silver-tongued orator, George William Curtis, made the +dedication address. But why is it that on this Hudson, which was first +ploughed by a Dutch keel, over which first of all a Dutch flag floated, +along this Hudson which was first discovered and explored and made +habitable by Dutch industry and Dutch thrift, there is no Dutch monument +to which we may proudly point as we pass by. There ought to be a statue +of that great Dutchman, William the Silent, on Riverside Drive. [Great +applause.] Do you ever think of him? Do you ever think of his career, +that of the prototype of our own Washington? At fifteen years of age the +companion of an emperor; at twenty-one years of age, the commander of a +great army, and later giving up wealth and pomp and power, preferring to +be among the people of God, than to dwell at ease in the tents of +wickedness; giving up everything for a life of tedious struggle in the +cold marshes of the Netherlands, finally to die at the hand of an +assassin with a prayer for his country upon his lips as he passed away. +He was the first human being on the face of this earth, who fairly and +fully understood the principles of religious and civic freedom. This +great city, the exemplifier of those principles to which it owes so much +for its prosperity and magnificence, has not yet commemorated that man. +How long shall it be, sons of Hollanders, before William the Silent +shall be there looking out upon the Hudson and lifted on high as an +example for all time? I hope our eyes will see the day! [Great +applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_998" id="Page_998">[Pg 998]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THEODORE ROOSEVELT</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE HOLLANDER AS AN AMERICAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the eleventh annual dinner of the +Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1896. The President, Dr. +D. B. St. John Roosa, said: "The next regular toast is: 'The +Hollander as an American,' and I shall have the pleasure of +introducing a gentleman who is a member of this Society, and, +therefore, descended on the male line [laughter] from some one who +came here before 1675, is it not? [A voice—"That is right; 1675."] +One of the first Roosevelts came very near outstripping Robert +Fulton and inventing the steamboat. He did invent a steamboat, and +you know the Roosevelts have had something of a steamboat in them +ever since. Now there is another thing I want you Dutchmen to teach +the Yankees to do—pronounce his name Rosavelt and not Rusevelt. +And, by the way, mine is pronounced Rosa too. Now Mr. Roosevelt is +a man, evidently, who has the courage of his convictions [A +Voice—"That is right." Applause], and it will be a cold day for +the party to which he belongs if they undertake to turn him down. I +hoped that you all thought so. There was an old darky that used to +say about the Commandments: 'Yes, preacher, they are all right, but +in this here neighborhood the eighth Commandment ought to be taught +with some discreetions.' [Great laughter.] [A Voice: "Which is the +eighth Commandment?"] 'Thou shalt not steal.' Now in New York there +are some people who think there are some commandments that ought to +be taught with some 'discreetions.' But they had better alter their +law if they don't like it, and they had better not put a Dutchman +in office after an oath to enforce the law and then ask him why he +does enforce it. [Great applause.] This gentleman does not need any +introduction, evidently—the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt." [Great +applause. Three cheers were proposed and given for Mr. Roosevelt. A +Voice: "Tiger!"] Mr. Roosevelt: "In the presence of the judiciary, +no!" [Laughter.] There was great cheering when Mr. Roosevelt rose +to respond.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Gentlemen, and Brethren of the Holland +Society</span>:—I am more than touched, if you will permit me to begin +rather seriously, by the way you have greeted me to-night. When I was in +Washington, there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_999" id="Page_999">[Pg 999]</a></span>was a story in reference to a certain President, +who was not popular with some of his own people in a particular Western +State. One of its Senators went to the White House and said he wanted a +friend of his appointed postmaster of Topeka. The President's Private +Secretary said: "I am very sorry, indeed, sir, but the President wants +to appoint a personal friend." Thereupon the Senator said: "Well, for +God's sake, if he has one friend in Kansas, let him appoint him!" [Great +laughter.]<br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="roosevelt" id="roosevelt"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img998.jpg" alt="THEODORE ROOSEVELT" title="THEODORE ROOSEVELT" /></div> + +<h4><i>THEODORE ROOSEVELT</i></h4> + +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a photograph from life</i></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p>There have been periods during which the dissembled eulogies of the able +press and my relations with about every politician of every party and +every faction have made me feel I would like to know whether I had one +friend in New York, and here I feel I have many. [Great applause.] And +more than that, gentlemen, I should think ill of myself and think that I +was a discredit to the stock from which I sprang if I feared to go on +along the path that I deemed right, whether I had few friends or many. +[Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.]</p> + +<p>I am glad to answer to the toast, "The Hollander as an American." The +Hollander was a good American, because the Hollander was fitted to be a +good citizen. There are two branches of government which must be kept on +a high plane, if any nation is to be great. A nation must have laws that +are honestly and fearlessly administered, and a nation must be ready, in +time of need, to fight [applause], and we men of Dutch descent have here +to-night these gentlemen of the same blood as ourselves who represent +New York so worthily on the bench, and a Major-General of the Army of +the United States. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>It seems to me, at times, that the Dutch in America have one or two +lessons to teach. We want to teach the very refined and very cultivated +men who believe it impossible that the United States can ever be right +in a quarrel with another nation—a little of the elementary virtue of +patriotism. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and applause.] And we also wish to +teach our fellow-citizens that laws are put on the statute books to be +enforced [cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause]; and that if it is not +intended they shall be enforced, it is a mistake to put a Dutchman in +office to enforce them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1000" id="Page_1000">[Pg 1000]</a></span></p> + +<p>The lines put on the programme underneath my toast begin: "America! +half-brother of the world!" America, half-brother of the world—and all +Americans full brothers one to the other. That is the way that the line +should be concluded. The prime virtue of the Hollander here in America +and the way in which he has most done credit to his stock as a +Hollander, is that he has ceased to be a Hollander and has become an +American, absolutely. [Great applause.] We are not Dutch-Americans. We +are not "Americans" with a hyphen before it. We are Americans pure and +simple, and we have a right to demand that the other people whose stocks +go to compose our great nation, like ourselves, shall cease to be aught +else and shall become Americans. [Cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause.]</p> + +<p>And further than that, we have another thing to demand, and that is that +if they do honestly and in good faith become Americans, those shall be +regarded as infamous who dare to discriminate against them because of +creed or because of birthplace. When New Amsterdam had but a few hundred +souls, among those few hundred souls no less than eighteen different +race-stocks were represented, and almost as many creeds as there were +race-stocks, and the great contribution that the Hollander gave to the +American people was, as your President has so ably said, the inestimable +lesson of complete civil and religious liberty. It would be honor enough +for this stock to have been the first to put on American soil the public +school, the great engine for grinding out American citizens, the one +institution for which Americans should stand more stiffly than for aught +other. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>Whenever America has demanded of her sons that they should come to her +aid, whether in time of peace or in time of war, the Americans of Dutch +stock have been among the first to spring to the aid of the country. We +earnestly hope that there will not in the future be any war with any +power, but assuredly if there should be such a war one thing may be +taken for certain, and that is that every American of Dutch descent will +be found on the side of the United States. We give the amplest credit, +that some people now, to their shame, grudge to the profession of arms, +which we have here to-night represented by a man, who, when he has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1001" id="Page_1001">[Pg 1001]</a></span> the +title of a Major-General of the Army of the United States [Thomas H. +Ruger], has a title as honorable as any that there is on the wide earth. +[Applause.] We also need to teach the lesson, that the Hollander taught, +of not refusing to do the small things because the day of large things +had not yet come or was in the past; of not waiting until the chance may +come to distinguish ourselves in arms, and meanwhile neglecting the +plain, prosaic duties of citizenship which call upon us every hour, +every day of our lives.</p> + +<p>The Dutch kept their freedom in the great contest with Spain, not merely +because they warred valiantly, but because they did their duty as +burghers in their cities, because they strove according to the light +that was in them to be good citizens and to act as such. And we all here +to-night should strive so to live that we Americans of Dutch descent +shall not seem to have shrunk in this respect, compared to our fathers +who spoke another tongue and lived under other laws beyond the ocean; so +that it shall be acknowledged in the end to be what it is, a discredit +to a man if he does not in times of peace do all that in him lies to +make the government of the city, the government of the country, better +and cleaner by his efforts. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>I spoke of the militant spirit as if it may only be shown in time of +war. I think that if any of you gentlemen, no matter how peaceful you +may naturally be, and I am very peaceful naturally [laughter], if you +would undertake the administration of the Police Department you would +have plenty of fighting on hand before you would get through [renewed +laughter]; and if you are true to your blood you will try to do the best +you can, fighting or not fighting. You will make up your mind that you +will make mistakes, because you won't make anything if you don't make +some mistakes, and you will go forward according to your lights, utterly +heedless of what either politicians or newspapers may say, knowing that +if you act as you feel bound according to your conscience to act, you +will then at least have the right when you go out of office, however +soon [laughter], to feel that you go out without any regret, and to feel +that you have, according to your capacity, warred valiantly for what you +deemed to be the right. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>These, then, are the qualities that I should claim for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1002" id="Page_1002">[Pg 1002]</a></span> Hollander as +an American: In the first place, that he has cast himself without +reservation into the current of American life; that he is an American, +pure and simple, and nothing else. In the next place, that he works hand +in hand and shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Americans, without any +regard to differences of creed or to differences of race and religion, +if only they are good Americans. [Great applause.] In the third place, +that he is willing, when the need shall arise, to fight for his country; +and in the fourth place, and finally, that he recognizes that this is a +country of laws and not men, that it is his duty as an honest citizen to +uphold the laws, to strive for honesty, to strive for a decent +administration, and to do all that in him lies, by incessant, patient +work in our government, municipal or national, to bring about the day +when it shall be taken as a matter of course that every public official +is to execute a law honestly, and that no capacity in a public officer +shall atone if he is personally dishonest. [Tremendous applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>TRUE AMERICANISM AND EXPANSION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the nineteenth annual dinner of +the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1898. +The President, William B. Davenport, in calling upon Theodore +Roosevelt to speak to the toast, "The Day we Celebrate," said: "For +many years we have been celebrating this day and looking at +ourselves through Yankee eyes. To-night it is to be given us to see +ourselves as others see us. We have with us one of whom it may be +said, to paraphrase the epitaph in the Welsh churchyard:—</p> + +<p> +"'A Dutchman born, at Harvard bred,<br /> +In Cuba travelled, but not yet dead.'<br /> +</p> + +<p>In response to this toast, I have the honor of introducing Hon. +Theodore Roosevelt."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen</span>:—The gentleman on my +right, with the unmistakably Puritan name of McKelway, in the issue of +the "Eagle" to-night alluded to me as a Yankeeized Hollander. I am a +middling good Yankee. I always felt that at these dinners of the New +England Society, to which I come a trifle more readily than to any other +like affairs, I and the president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, +who is also invariably in attendance, repre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1003" id="Page_1003">[Pg 1003]</a></span>sent, what you would say, +the victims tied to the wheels of the Roman chariot of triumph. You see +I am half Irish myself, and, as I told a New England Senator with whom I +am intimate, when he remarked that the Dutch had been conquered by the +New Englanders, "the Irish have avenged us."</p> + +<p>I want to say to you seriously, and, singularly enough, right along the +lines of the admirable speech made by your President, a few words on the +day we celebrate and what it means.</p> + +<p>As the years go by, this nation will realize more and more that the year +that has just passed has given to every American the right to hold his +head higher as a citizen of the great Republic, which has taken a long +stride forward toward its proper place among the nations of the world. I +have scant sympathy with this mock humanitarianism, a mock +humanitarianism which is no more alien to the spirit of true religion +than it is to the true spirit of civilization, which would prevent the +great, free, liberty and order-loving races of the earth doing their +duty in the world's waste spaces because there must needs be some rough +surgery at the outset. I do not speak simply of my own country. I hold +that throughout the world every man who strives to be both efficient and +moral—and neither quality is worth anything without the other—that +every man should realize that it is for the interests of mankind to have +the higher supplant the lower life. Small indeed is my sympathy with +those people who bemoan the fact, sometimes in prose, sometimes in even +weaker verse, that the champions of civilization and of righteousness +have overcome the champions of barbarism or of an outworn tyranny, +whether the conflict be fought by the Russian heralds of civilization in +Turkestan, by the English champion of the higher life in the Eastern +world, or by the men who upheld the Stars and Stripes as they freed the +people of the tropic islands of the sea from the mediæval tyranny of +Spain.</p> + +<p>I do not ask that you look at this policy from a merely national +standpoint, although if you are good Americans you must look from the +national standpoint first. I ask that you look at it from the standpoint +of civilization, from the standpoint of righteousness, and realize that +it is better for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1004" id="Page_1004">[Pg 1004]</a></span> the men who are as yet ages behind us in the struggle +upward that they be helped upward, and that it does not cease to be +better for them, merely because it is better for us also. As I say, cast +aside the selfish view. Consider whether or not it is better that the +brutal barbarism of northern Asia should be supplanted by the +civilization of Russia, which has not yet risen to what we of the +Occident are proud to claim as our standard, but which, as it stands, is +tens of centuries in advance of that of the races it supplants. Again, +from the standpoint of the outsider, look at the improvement worked by +the Englishmen in all the islands of the sea and all the places on the +dark continents where the British flag has been planted; seriously +consider the enormous, the incalculable betterment that comes at this +moment to ninety-five per cent. of the people who have been cowering +under the inconceivably inhuman rule of Mahdism in the Sudan because it +has been supplanted by the reign of law and of justice. I ask you to +read the accounts of the Catholic missionary priests, the Austrian +priests who suffered under Mahdism, to read in their words what they +have suffered under conditions that have gone back to the stone age in +the middle of the nineteenth century. Then you will realize that the +Sirdar and his troops were fighting the battle of righteousness as truly +as ever it was fought by your ancestors and mine two or three or four +centuries ago.</p> + +<p>I think you can now understand that I admire what other nations have +done in this regard, and, therefore, that you will believe that I speak +with sincerity when I speak of what we ourselves have done. Thank heaven +that we of this generation, to whom was denied the chance of taking part +in the greatest struggle for righteousness that this century has seen, +the great Civil War, have at least been given the chance to see our +country take part in the world movement that has gone on around about +us. Of course it was partly for our own interest, but it was also +largely a purely disinterested movement. It is a good thing for this +nation that it should be lifted up beyond simply material matters. It is +a good thing for us that we should have interests outside of our own +borders. It is a good thing for us that we must look outward; that we +must consider more than the question of exports and imports; that we +must consider more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1005" id="Page_1005">[Pg 1005]</a></span> than whether or not in one decade we have increased +one and a half per cent. more than the average rate of increase in +wealth or not. It is a good thing that we of this nation should keep in +mind, and should have vividly brought before us the fact to which your +ancestors, Mr. President and members of this Society, owe their +greatness; that while it pays a people to pay heed to material matters, +it pays infinitely better to treat material as absolutely second to +moral considerations. I am glad for the sake of America that we have +seen the American Army and the American Navy driving the Spaniard from +the Western world. I am glad that the descendants of the Puritan and the +Hollander should have completed the work begun, when Drake and Hawkins +and Frobisher singed the beard of the King of Spain, and William the +Silent fought to the death to free Holland. I am glad we did it for our +own sake, but I am infinitely more glad because we did it to free the +people of the islands of the sea and tried to do good to them.</p> + +<p>I have told you why I am glad, because of what we have done. Let me add +my final word as to why I am anxious about it. We have driven out the +Spaniards. This did not prove for this nation a very serious task. Now +we are approaching the really serious task. Now it behooves us to show +that we are capable of doing infinitely better the work which we blame +the Spaniards for doing so badly; and woe to us unless we do show not +merely a slight but a well-nigh immeasurable improvement! We have +assumed heavy burdens, heavy responsibilities. I have no sympathy with +the men who cry out against our assuming them. If this great nation, if +this nation with its wealth, with its continental vastness of domain, +with its glorious history, with its memory of Washington and Lincoln, of +its statesmen and soldiers and sailors, the builders and the wielders of +commonwealths, if this nation is to stand cowering back because it is +afraid to undertake tasks lest they prove too formidable, we may well +suppose that the decadence of our race has begun. No; the tasks are +difficult, and all the more for that reason let us gird up our loins and +go out to do them. But let us meet them, realizing their difficulty; not +in a spirit of levity, but in a spirit of sincere and earnest desire to +do our duty as it is given us to see our duty. Let us not do it in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1006" id="Page_1006">[Pg 1006]</a></span> +spirit of sentimentality, not saying we must at once give universal +suffrage to the people of the Philippines—they are unfit for it. Do not +let us mistake the shadow for the substance. We have got to show the +practical common sense which was combined with the fervent religion of +the Puritan; the combination which gave him the chance to establish here +that little group of commonwealths which more than any others have +shaped the spirit and destiny of this nation; we must show both +qualities.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, if one of the islands which we have acquired is not fit to +govern itself, then we must govern it until it is fit. If you cannot +govern it according to the principles of the New England town +meeting—because the Philippine Islander is not a New Englander—if you +cannot govern it according to these principles, then find out the +principles upon which you can govern it, and apply those principles. +Fortunately, while we can and ought with wisdom to look abroad for +examples, and to profit by the experience of other nations, we are +already producing, even in this brief period, material of the proper +character within our own border, men of our own people, who are showing +us what to do with these islands. A New Englander, a man who would be +entitled to belong to this Society, a man who is in sympathy with all +that is best and most characteristic of the New England spirit, both +because of his attitude in war and of his attitude toward civic morality +in time of peace, is at present giving us a good object lesson in +administering those tropic provinces. I allude to my former commander, +the present Governor-General of Santiago, Major-General Leonard Wood. +General Wood has before him about as difficult a task as man could well +have. He is now intrusted with the supreme government of a province +which has been torn by the most hideously cruel of all possible civil +wars for the last three years, which has been brought down to a +condition of savage anarchy, and from which our armies, when they +expelled the armies of Spain, expelled the last authoritative +representatives of what order there still was in the province. To him +fell the task of keeping order, of preventing the insurgent visiting +upon the Spaniard his own terrible wrongs, of preventing the taking of +that revenge which to his wild nature seemed eminently justifiable, the +preserving of the rights of property, of keeping unharmed the people who +had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1007" id="Page_1007">[Pg 1007]</a></span> been pacific, and yet of gradually giving over the administration +of the island to the people who had fought for its freedom, just as fast +as, and no faster than, they proved that they could be trusted with it. +He has gone about that task, devoted himself to it, body and soul, +spending his strength, his courage, and perseverance, and in the face of +incredible obstacles he has accomplished very, very much.</p> + +<p>Now, if we are going to administer the government of the West Indies +Islands which we have acquired, and the Philippines, in a way that will +be a credit to us and to our institutions, we must see that they are +administered by the General Woods. We have got to make up our minds that +we can only send our best men there; that we must then leave them as +largely unhampered as may be. We must exact good results from them, but +give them a large liberty in the methods of reaching these results. If +we treat those islands as the spoil of the politician, we shall tread +again the path which Spain has trod before, and we shall show ourselves +infinitely more blameworthy than Spain, for we shall sin against the +light, seeing the light.</p> + +<p>The President says that this is New England doctrine. So it is. It is +Dutch doctrine, too. It is the doctrine of sound Americanism, the +doctrine of common sense and common morality. I am an expansionist. I am +glad we have acquired the islands we have acquired. I am not a bit +afraid of the responsibilities which we have incurred; but neither am I +blind to how heavy those responsibilities are. In closing my speech, I +ask each of you to remember that he cannot shove the blame on others +entirely, if things go wrong. This is a government by the people, and +the people are to blame ultimately if they are misrepresented, just +exactly as much as if their worst passions, their worst desires are +represented; for in the one case it is their supineness that is +represented exactly as in the other case it is their vice. Let each man +here strive to make his weight felt on the side of decency and morality. +Let each man here make his weight felt in supporting a truly American +policy, a policy which decrees that we shall be free and shall hold our +own in the face of other nations, but which decrees also that we shall +be just, and that the peoples whose administration we have taken over +shall have their condition made better and not worse by the fact that +they have come under our sway.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1008" id="Page_1008">[Pg 1008]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LORD ROSEBERY</h2> + +<h3>(ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE)</h3> + + + + +<h4>PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAINTING</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Lord Rosebery at the annual banquet of the Royal +Academy, London, May 5, 1894. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of +the Royal Academy, was in the chair, and in proposing "The Health +of Her Majesty's Ministers," to which Lord Rosebery replied, he +said: "No function could be more lofty, no problem is more complex +than the governance of our Empire, so vast and various in land and +folk as that which owns the sceptre of the Queen. No toast, +therefore, claims a more respectful reception than that to which I +now invite your cordial response—the health of the eminent +statesmen in whose hands that problem lies—Her Majesty's +Ministers. And not admiration only for high and various endowments, +but memories also of a most sparkling speech delivered twelve +months ago at this table, sharpens the gratification with which I +call for response on the brilliant statesman who heads Her +Majesty's Government, the Earl of Rosebery."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Your Royal Highness, My Lords, and Gentlemen</span>: No one, I think, +can respond unmoved for the first time in such an assembly as this in +the character in which I now stand before you. You have alluded, sir, to +the speech which I delivered here last year. But I have to confess with +a feeling of melancholy that since that period I have made a change for +the worse. [Laughter.] I have had to exchange all those dreams of +imagination to which I then alluded, which are, I believe, the proper +concomitants of the Foreign Office intelligently wielded, and which, I +have no doubt, my noble friend on my right sees in imagination as I did +then—I have had to exchange all those dreams for the dreary and +immediate prose of life—all the more dreary prose because a great deal +of it is my own.<br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="rosebery" id="rosebery"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img1008.jpg" alt="LORD ROSEBERY" title="LORD ROSEBERY" /></div> +<h4><i>LORD ROSEBERY</i></h4> + +<p class='center'>(<i>ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE</i>)</p> + +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a photograph from life</i></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<p>There is one function, however, which has already de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1009" id="Page_1009">[Pg 1009]</a></span>volved upon me, +and which is not without interest for this Academy. My great +predecessor, much to my regret, left in my hands the appointment of a +successor to Sir Frederick Burton. That has cost me probably more +trouble and travail than any other act of this young administration. +[Laughter.] I have sought, and I have abundantly received, counsels, and +it is after long consideration, and with the most earnest and +conscientious desire to do not what is most agreeable to individuals +themselves, but what is best for art in general, that I have nominated +Mr. Poynter to succeed Sir Frederick Burton. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I have at the same time made a change in the minute relating to the +conditions of that post, which to a greater extent than was formerly the +case associates the trustees of the National Gallery in the work of +selection with the new director. The trustees have been hitherto rather +those flies on the wheel of which we read in ancient fable. It is now +proposed to make them working wheels, and to make them work well and +co-operatively with the new director. ["Hear! Hear!"] I hope that this +arrangement will be satisfactory in its results. But, Mr. President, I +have long thought, as an individual, that the task of a Minister or of a +Government in co-operating with the Royal Academy, and with those who +have art at heart, ought not to end with a mere appointment of this +description. I take a larger view of the responsibilities of my office, +and I should be glad to offer to you with great respect a few +suggestions that have recently occurred to me with regard to the present +position of English art, which I regard with some misgivings.</p> + +<p>There is, first, the subject of portraiture. I am deeply concerned for +the future condition of portrait-painting. It is not, as you may +imagine, with any distrust whatever of those distinguished men who take +a part in that branch of art; it is much more for the subjects that I am +concerned. [Laughter.] And it is not so much with the subjects as with +that important part of the subject which was illustrated in the famous +work "Sartor Resartus," by the great Carlyle, that I chiefly trouble +myself. How can it be that any man should make a decent portrait of his +fellow-man in these days? No one can entertain so vindictive a hatred of +his fellow-creature as to wish to paint him in the costume<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1010" id="Page_1010">[Pg 1010]</a></span> in which I +am now addressing you. [Laughter.] I believe that that costume is +practically dropped for all purposes of portraiture; and if that be so, +in what costume is the Englishman of the present century to descend to +remotest posterity through the vehicle of the gifted artists whom I see +around me? We are not all sufficiently fortunate to be the Chancellor of +the University. [Laughter and cheers.] We have not always even the happy +chance to be a municipal dignitary, with a costume which I will not at +present characterize. [Laughter.] We are not all of us masters of +hounds; and I think that the robes of a peer, unattractive in their +æsthetic aspect, have lost something of their popularity. [Laughter.] +Again, the black velvet coat, with which we are accustomed to associate +deep thought and artistic instincts, has become a little faded. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I am told, and told four or five times every day in speeches delivered +in various parts of the country, that I have no right to offer a +criticism without offering a suggestive remedy. Well, Sir Frederic, I am +prepared to offer my remedy for what it is worth, and for that reason I +ask your co-operation. Why should not a committee of the Royal Academy +gather together in order to find some chaste and interesting national +costume, in which the distinguished men of the nineteenth century might +descend to posterity without the drawbacks which I have pointed out? +Robespierre had such a costume designed, and other great sumptuary +legislators have had the same idea in their minds; and I would not push +the suggestion so far as to imply that we should be compelled to wear +this costume in ordinary life. It might be one kept to gratify the +artistic instincts of those to whom we sit. [Laughter.] And I will make +a practical suggestion by which this costume—when you, sir, have +selected it—might be associated with the ordinary run of life. It might +be made an official costume of a justice of the peace, and in that way +the great mass of our fellow-countrymen, with only a few and +insignificant exceptions, of whom I am one, might descend to remotest +posterity in a graceful, becoming, and official costume. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I pass on from that, because I should not limit myself to portraiture in +a great survey of this kind; and I may say that I am seriously concerned +for the prospects of landscape<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1011" id="Page_1011">[Pg 1011]</a></span> painting in this country. I have of late +been doing a great deal of light travelling in behalf of the respectable +firm which I represent [laughter], and I beg at once to give notice, in +the hearing of the noble marquis who is more to your left [Lord +Salisbury], that I now nail to the counter any proposal to call me a +political bagman as wanting in originality and wit. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But I have been doing a certain amount of light travelling in behalf of +our excellent and creditable firm. The other day, on returning from +Manchester, I was deeply and hideously impressed with the fact that all +along that line of railway which we traversed, the whole of a pleasing +landscape was entirely ruined by appeals to the public to save their +constitutions but ruin their æsthetic senses by a constant application +of a particular form of pill. [Laughter and cheers.]</p> + +<p>Now, Sir Frederic, I view that prospect with the gravest misgiving. What +is to become of our English landscape if it is to be simply a sanitary +or advertising appliance? [Laughter.] I appeal to my right honorable +friend the Chancellor of the Duchy [James Bryce], who sits opposite to +me. His whole heart is bound up in a proposition for obtaining free +access to the mountains of the Highlands. But what advantage will it be +to him, or to those whose case he so justly and eloquently espouses, if +at the top of Schiehallion, or any other mountain which you may have in +your mind's eye, the bewildered climber can only find an advertisement +of some remedy of the description of which I have mentioned [cheers], an +advertisement of a kind common, I am sorry to say, in the United +States—and I speak with reverence in the presence of the ambassador of +that great community—but it would be in the Highlands distressing to +the deer and infinitely perplexing even to the British tourist. +[Laughter and cheers.]</p> + +<p>But I turned my eyes mentally from the land, and I said that, after all, +the great painter of the present may turn to the sea, and there at least +he is safe. There are effects on the ocean which no one can ruin, which +not even a pill can impair. [Laughter.] But I was informed in +confidence—it caused me some distress—that the same enterprising firm +which has placarded our rural recesses, has offered a main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1012" id="Page_1012">[Pg 1012]</a></span>sail free of +expense to every ship that will accept it, on condition that it bears +the same hideous legend upon it to which I have referred. [Laughter.] +Think, Mr. President, of the feelings of the illustrious Turner if he +returned to life to see the luggers and the coasting ships which he has +made so glorious in his paintings, converted into a simple vehicle for +the advertisement of a quack medicine—although I will not say "quack," +because that is actionable [laughter]—I will say of a medicine of which +I do not know the properties. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But I turned my eyes beyond the land and ocean, and I turned them to the +heavens, and I said, "There, at any rate, we are safe." The painter of +the present may turn his eye from the land and ocean, but in the skies +he can always find some great effect which cannot be polluted. At this +moment I looked from the railway-carriage window, and I saw the skeleton +of a gigantic tower arising. It had apparently been abandoned at a lofty +stage, possibly in consequence of the workmen having found that they +spoke different languages at the height at which they had arrived. +[Laughter.] I made inquiries, and I found that it was the enterprise of +a great speculator, who resides himself on a mountain, and who is +equally prepared to bore under the ocean or ascend into the heavens. I +was given to understand that this admirable erection comprised all the +delights of a celestial occupation without any detachment from +terrestrial pursuits. [Laughter.] But I am bound to say that if +buildings of that kind are to cover this country, and if they are to be +joined to the advertising efforts to which I have alluded, neither +earth, nor sea, nor sky in Great Britain will be fit subject for any +painter. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>What, then, is the part of Her Majesty's Government in this critical and +difficult circumstance? We have—no, I will not say we have, because +there would be a protest on the left—but different governments have +added allotments to the attractions of rural neighborhoods. I venture to +think that an allotment is not an unpicturesque thing. Certainly, small +holdings are more picturesque than large holdings, but I do not say that +from the point of view in which Sydney Smith said that the difference +between the picturesque and the beautiful was that the rector's horse +was beautiful, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1013" id="Page_1013">[Pg 1013]</a></span> that the curate's horse was picturesque. [Laughter.] +I simply mean that a small holding is more picturesque than a large +holding, and I think we may hope that the parish councils, if they meet, +as they did in primeval times, under the shade of some large spreading +oak, and not in the public house which we so much fear, as their +headquarters, may yet add a picturesque feature to the rural landscape +of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>But there is one feature at which a government can always aim as adding +to the landscape of Great Britain. In a very famous but too little read +novel, "Pelham," by the late Lord Lytton, there is a passage which +always struck me greatly. It is where Pelham goes to see an uncle from +whom he is to inherit a great estate, and he asks what the uncle has +done to beautify that exquisite spot. The uncle says that he has done +nothing but added the most beautiful feature of landscape, which is +happy faces. Well, the Government in its immediate neighborhood has +little to do with making happy faces. [Laughter.] It certainly does not +make its opponents happy, except on rare occasions when it leaves +office, and it is not always so fortunate as to make its supporters +happy. [Laughter.] But I believe that in this country all governments do +aim in their various ways and methods at making a happy population +around them; and in that respect, in adding happy faces to the +landscape, whether we fail or whether we succeed, we have a good-will in +the work, and I am quite sure we have the hearty encouragement of the +great and brilliant assembly which I address. [Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1014" id="Page_1014">[Pg 1014]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA</h2> + + + + +<h4>FRIEND AND FOE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of George Augustus Sala at a banquet given in his honor by +the Lotos Club, January 10, 1885. The President, Whitelaw Reid, sat +at the centre table, having on his right hand the guest of the +evening. He said, in welcoming Mr. Sala: "The last time we met here +it was my pleasant duty to give your welcome to an old friend. Now +you make it my duty—still a pleasant one—to give your welcome to +an old enemy. ["Hear! Hear!"] Yes; an old enemy! We shall get on +better with the facts by admitting them at the outset. Our guest +was more or less against us in the great struggle twenty years ago +in which everybody now wishes to be thought to have been with us. +He did not believe this nation would down the slaveholders' +rebellion and he did not want it to; and he wrote frankly as he +believed and wished. [Laughter.] He never made any disguise about +it then or since; and for that, at least, we think the better of +him! [Applause.] He came of a slaveholding family; many personal +and social influences drew him toward those of our countrymen who +were on the wrong side; and now that it is all over, we bear no +malice! [Applause.] More than that; we are heartily glad to see +him. The statute of limitations runs in his favor; and his old +opinions are outlawed. He revisited the country long after the +war—and he changed his mind about it. He thought a great deal +better of us; and we in turn found his letters a great deal +pleasanter reading. We like a man who can change his mind +[applause]; and if a bit of international frankness may be +permitted in the good-fellowship of this board, perhaps I may +venture to add that we particularly like to discover that trait in +an Englishman! [Applause and laughter.] We've changed our minds—at +least about some things. We've not only forgiven our countrymen; +whom our guest used to sympathize with; but we have put—and are +getting ready to put—the most of them into office! What we are +most anxious about just now is, whether they are going to forgive +us! Seriously, gentlemen, we are very glad to see Mr. Sala here +again. He was a veteran in the profession in which so many of you +are interested, worthily wearing the laurels won in many fields, +and enjoying the association, esteem, and trust of a great master +whose fame the world holds precious, when the most of us were +fledglings. We all know him as a wit, a man of letters, and a man +of the world. Some of us have known him also in that pleasanter +character of all clubmen described in the old phrase,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1015" id="Page_1015">[Pg 1015]</a></span> 'a jolly +good fellow.' On the other side of the Atlantic the grasp he gives +an American hand is a warm one; and we do not mean that in New York +he shall feel away from home. I give you, gentlemen, 'The health +and prosperity of George Augustus Sala.'"]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Lotos Club</span>: I am under the +deepest feeling of gratitude to Mr. Whitelaw Reid for having torn the +mask from the face of the stealthy conspirator, for having exposed the +wily plotter and insidious libeller, and defied the malignant +Copperhead. [Applause.] I thought that I had long ago been choked with +that venom; but no, it rises still and poisons all that belongs to his +otherwise happy condition. Gentlemen, I am indeed an enemy of the United +States. I am he who has come here to requite your hospitalities with +unfounded calumny and to bite the hand that has fed me. Unfortunately +there are so many hands that have fed me that it will take me from this +time until to-morrow morning to bite all the friendly hands.</p> + +<p>With regard to events that took place twenty years ago and of which I +was an interested spectator, I may say that albeit I was mistaken; but +the mistake was partaken of by many hundred thousands of my +fellow-countrymen, who had not the courage subsequently to avow that +they had been mistaken, but yet set to curry favor with the North by +saying that they had always been their friends. The only apology—if +apology I should choose to make—would be this: that that which I had to +say against you I said while I was in your midst, when I was living at +the Brevoort House; and when my letters came weekly back from England; +and when it was quite in your power to have ridden me out on a rail or +to have inflicted on me any of the ordinary visitations which a +malignant Copperhead was supposed to deserve. But you did not do so, and +I remember that when I left New York, I had quite as many good, kind, +cordial friends on the Union League side as I had on the Democratic +side. I would say further that when I came to publish my letters I found +that there were many statements which I had made, which seemed to me to +have been hasty and inconsiderate, and I did my best to modify them; and +I did not wait until I got home to malign the people from whom I had +received hospitality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1016" id="Page_1016">[Pg 1016]</a></span></p> + +<p>But I have been indeed an enemy to the United States; so much so that +when I came here again in 1879-80 with my wife, the enemy was received +on all sides with the greatest kindness and cordiality. So much am I an +enemy to the United States, that for years while I was connected with +the weekly paper called "The Echo" there was hardly a week when I did +not receive scores of letters from Americans from every part of the +Union—from down South, from the West, the North, and the East—full of +kindly matter and expressions bearing out the idea that I am a friend +rather than an enemy to the United States. And I know perfectly well +that there is no American who comes to London, be he lawyer, +diplomatist, actor, artist, or man of letters, but I am always glad to +see him, and always glad to show him, that, although an enemy, I still +retain some feelings of gratitude toward my friends in the United +States.</p> + +<p>I have seen it stated in one of your remarkably versatile and "Graphic" +journals that I have boasted of having come here with the idea of making +some money in the United States. But bless your hearts and souls, +gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I assure you that I have no such idea! +[Laughter.] I am really speaking to you seriously when I say that it was +by merest accident that upon taking my ticket for Australia, I was told +by my energetic manager that I might see a most interesting and +picturesque country by crossing the Rocky Mountains and embarking at San +Francisco, instead of going by way of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. I +had seen your Rocky Mountains, it is true, but I had seen them in March; +and now I shall see them at the end of January, and that is really one +of the main purposes of my journey. If from time to time in my passage I +do deliver a few incoherent utterances, these utterances will not be +prompted by any desire for pelf. That is far from my thoughts, but still +if anyone wants to pay two dollars, or seventy-five cents, to hear those +incoherent utterances you may be assured that my managers and myself +will do our utmost to devote the funds accruing therefrom to purposes of +mercy and of charity. [Applause.] I am sure you believe every word that +I say; and that Australia is my objective. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, seriously, I only conclude by saying that I do not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1017" id="Page_1017">[Pg 1017]</a></span> believe a word +of what your President has said. He does not believe now that for the +past twenty years I have been and am an enemy of the United States. We +were blinded, many of us, for the time being; we took a wrong lane for +the time, just as many of your tourists and many of your Radicals have +taken the wrong lane in England; but I think that differences of opinion +should never alter friendships. And when we consider the number of years +that have elapsed; when we consider that the wounds which I saw red and +gaping and bleeding are now healed, scarcely leaving a scar, I think +that the enemy might now be regarded as a friend; and that whatever +unkind feelings were begotten in that terrible time should be now buried +in the Red Sea of oblivion. [Applause.] There never before was a time +when it was so expedient for England to say to America: "Don't quarrel!"</p> + +<p>England is surrounded by enemies—by real enemies who hate her. Why? +Because she tries to be honest; and she tries to be free. She is hated +by Germans; and Germany equally hates the institutions of this country, +because she sees the blood and the bone of intelligent Germany coming to +the United States and becoming capable citizens, instead of carrying the +needle-musket at home. She is hated by France, because France has got a +Republic which she calls democratic and social, but which is still a +tyranny—and the worst of all tyrannies, because the tyrant is a mob. I +do not disguise the fact that we are surrounded by foes of every +description; and for that reason and because blood is thicker than +water, I say to Americans that, inasmuch as we have atoned for past +offences (the Alabama and all other difficulties having been settled), +no other difficulty should be permitted to rise; and if there be a place +in all the world where real peace may be secured and perfect freedom +reign, England and America should there join hands as against all the +world in arms. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I have nothing more to say, except to entreat you to pardon my somewhat +serious utterances because of the many painful reminiscences which your +good-natured sarcasm has brought to my lips, although softened by the +kindly and genial terms in which you have received me, and I beg you to +accept the grateful expression of my heartfelt gratitude for this +glorious reception. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1018" id="Page_1018">[Pg 1018]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LORD SALISBURY</h2> + +<h3>(ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOYNE-CECIL)</h3> + + + + +<h4>KITCHENER IN AFRICA</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, at a banquet given +in honor of Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, by the Lord Mayor of +London, Right Hon. Horatio David Davies, at the Mansion House, +London, November 4, 1898.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord Mayor, Your Royal Highness, My Lords, and +Gentlemen</span>:—The task has been placed in my hands of proposing the +toast of the evening: "The Health of the Sirdar." [Loud cheers.] It is +the proud prerogative of this city that, without any mandate from the +Constitution, without any legal sanction it yet has the privilege of +sealing by its approval the reputation and renown of the great men whom +this country produces; and the honors which it confers are as much +valued and as much desired as any which are given in this country. +[Cheers.] It has won that position not because it has been given to it, +but because it has shown discrimination and earnestness and because it +has united the suffrage of the people in the approval of the course that +it has taken and of the honors it has bestowed. [Cheers.] My Lord Mayor, +it is in reference to that function which you have performed to-day and +the most brilliant reception which has been accorded to the Sirdar that +I now do your bidding and propose his health. [Cheers.] But if the task +would be in any circumstances arduous and alarming, it is much more so +because all that can be said in his behalf has already been said by more +eloquent tongues than mine. I have little hope that I can add anything +to the picture that has been already drawn [allusion to previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1019" id="Page_1019">[Pg 1019]</a></span> +speeches made by the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord +Rosebery], but no one can wonder at the vast enthusiasm by which the +career of this great soldier has been received in this city. It is not +merely his own personal qualities that have achieved it. It is also the +strange dramatic interest of the circumstances, and the conditions under +which his laurels have been won. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>It has been a long campaign, the first part of which we do not look back +to with so much pleasure because we had undertaken a fearful task +without a full knowledge of the conditions we had to satisfy or the real +character of the foes to whom we were opposed. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +remembrance of that heroic figure whose virtues and whose death are +impressed so deeply upon the memory of the whole of the present +generation of Englishmen, the vicissitudes of those anxious campaigns in +which the most splendid deeds of gallantry were achieved are yet fresh +in the minds of the English people and Lord Rosebery has not exaggerated +when he has said that the debt was felt deeply in the mind of every +Englishman, however little they might talk of it at the time and when +the opportunity arrived with what eagerness, in spite of any possible +discouragement—with what eagerness the opportunity was seized. +[Cheers.] It was a campaign—the campaign which your gallant guest has +won—it was a campaign marked by circumstances which have seldom marked +a campaign in the history of the world. [Cheers.] I suppose that +wonderful combination of all achievements and discoveries of modern +science, in support of the gallantry and well-tried strategy of a +British leader—I suppose these things have not been seen in our history +before. [Cheers.] But the note of this campaign was that the Sirdar not +only won the battles which he was set to fight, but he furnished himself +the instruments by which they were won, or rather, I should say, he was +the last and perhaps by the nature of the circumstances the most +efficient of a list of distinguished men whose task it has been to +rescue the Egyptian army from inefficiency and contempt in order to put +it on the pinnacle of glory it occupies now. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I remember in our debates during that terrible campaign of 1884-85 a +distinguished member of the Government of that day observing with +respect to Egyptian troops that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1020" id="Page_1020">[Pg 1020]</a></span> were splendid soldiers if only +they would not run away. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>It was a quaint way of putting it, but it was very accurate. They had +splendid physique; they had great fidelity and loyalty to their chiefs; +they had many of the qualities of the soldier, but like men who had been +recruited under the slave whip, and who had been accustomed to the +methods of despotism, they had not that courage which can only be +obtained by freedom and by united military training. [Cheers.] What they +lacked has been supplied to them, and the Egyptian army, as it has +issued from the hands of Sir Evelyn Wood, Sir Francis Grenfell, and the +Sirdar, is a magnificent specimen of the motive power of the English +leader. [Cheers.] We do not reflect on it, yet if we have any interest +in the administrative processes that go on in various parts of the +Empire we cannot help being impressed by the fact that numbers on +numbers of educated young men, who at home, in this country, would show +no very conspicuous qualities except those we are accustomed to look for +in an English gentleman, yet, if thrown on their own resources, and +bidden to govern and control and guide large bodies of men of another +race, they never or hardly ever fall short of the task which has been +given to them; but they will make of that body of promising material +splendid regiments by which the Empire of England is extended and +sustained. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>It is one of the great qualities of the Sirdar that he has been able to +direct the races that are under him, to make them effective and loyal +soldiers, to attach them to himself, and insure their good conduct in +the field of battle. [Cheers.] He has many other qualities upon which I +might dilate if time permitted. Lord Cromer, who I am glad to see Lord +Rosebery noted as one who ought to have his full share in any honors you +confer on those who have built up Egyptian prosperity, who is one of the +finest administrators the British race has ever produced—Lord Cromer is +in the habit of saying that the Sirdar has almost missed his vocation, +and that if he was not one of the first generals in the world, he would +be one of the first Chancellors of the Exchequer. [Laughter and cheers.] +I daresay many people think it a small thing that a soldier should be +able to save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1021" id="Page_1021">[Pg 1021]</a></span> money [laughter], but it is not so if you will only +conceive for yourselves the agony of mind with which in former times the +Chancellors of the Exchequer or financial members of the Council have +received from time to time accounts of brilliant victories, knowing all +the time what a terrible effect upon the ultimate balance of the budget +those victories will entail. [Laughter.] It is a hazardous thing to say, +but I am almost inclined to believe that the Sirdar is the only general +that has fought a campaign for £300,000 less than he originally promised +to do it. [Laughter.] It is a very great quality, and if it existed more +generally, I think that terror which financiers entertain of soldiers, +and that contempt which soldiers entertain for financiers would not be +so frequently felt. ["Hear! Hear!" and laughter.]</p> + +<p>Well, then, the Sirdar has another great quality: he is a splendid +diplomatist. It would require talents of no small acuteness and +development to enable him to carry to so successful a result as he did +that exceedingly delicate mission up the Nile which conducted him into +the presence of Major Marchand. The intercourse of that time has ended +apparently in the deepest affection on both sides [laughter]—certainly +in the most unrestricted and unstinted compliments and expressions of +admiration and approval. I think these things show very much for the +diplomatic talents of the Sirdar. He recently expressed his hope that +the differences which might have arisen from the presence of Major +Marchand would not transcend the powers of diplomacy to adjust. I am +glad to say that up to a certain point he has proved a true prophet. +[Cheers.] I received from the French Ambassador this afternoon the +information that the French Government had come to the conclusion that +the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of value to the French +Republic. [Loud cheers and some laughter.] And they thought that in the +circumstances to persist in an occupation which only cost them money and +did them harm merely because some bad advisers thought it might be +disagreeable to an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom by +which I think the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they +have done what I believe the government of any other country would have +done, in the same position—they have resolved that that occupation must +cease.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1022" id="Page_1022">[Pg 1022]</a></span> [Cheers.] A formal intimation of that fact was made to me this +afternoon and it has been conveyed to the French authorities at Cairo. I +believe that the fact of that extremely difficult juxtaposition between +the Sirdar and Major Marchand has led to a result which is certainly +gratifying and, to some extent, unexpected; and that it is largely due +to the chivalrous character and diplomatic talents which the Sirdar +displayed on that occasion. [Cheers.] I do not wish to be understood as +saying that all causes of controversy are removed by this between the +French Government and ourselves. It is probably not so, and I daresay we +shall have many discussions in the future; but a cause of controversy of +a somewhat acute and dangerous character has been removed and we cannot +but congratulate ourselves upon that. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I will only say that alike in his patient and quiet forethought, lasting +over three years, in his brilliant strategy on the field of battle, in +his fearless undertaking of responsibility and his contempt of danger, +and last but not least in the kindness and consideration which he +displayed for men who were for a moment in a position of antagonism to +himself—in these things he has shown a combination of the noblest +qualities which distinguish the race to which he belongs and by the +exercise of which the high position of England in this generation in the +world and in her great Empire has been won. [Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1023" id="Page_1023">[Pg 1023]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON</h2> + + + + +<h4>VICTORY IN SUPERIOR NUMBERS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson at a banquet given in +his honor by citizens of Boston, Mass., February 6, 1899. Hon. +Richard Olney presided on the occasion.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—I rise to thank you for your most +generous greeting for myself, for my friends, and for all of the Navy +that you have included in the various remarks which have been made. I +want you to understand that I do not take it all to myself, but that +this is divided with all the men; and while with great hesitation I +attempt to make a speech at all, I feel that this is an opportunity +which should not be thrown away. I do not propose to say anything, as +you might expect, about the battle of Santiago, but I would like to say +a few words about the lessons which we have learned, or should learn, +from that battle.</p> + +<p>First, I would say that neither that battle nor any other that I know +of, was won by chance. It requires an adequate means to accomplish such +a result. That battles are not won by chance, you have only to consider +for a moment a few—one or two—of the principal battles of the world. +Not that I mean to class the battle of Santiago as one of the great +battles of the world—but just as an illustration. You will see the +result of adequate means in the case of the battle of Waterloo, for +instance. When we remember that Wellington fought that battle with +130,000 men opposed to Napoleon's 80,000, we are not surprised that it +was Wellington's battle. Take another decisive battle—Sedan. When the +Germans had 125,000 men opposed to 84,000, it does not seem possible +that the result could have been anything else.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1024" id="Page_1024">[Pg 1024]</a></span></p> + +<p>So we might go over a long list. The sea fights furnish many instances +where it was found that the most powerful fleet was the one that was +successful. Nelson was always in favor of overwhelming fleets, though he +did not have them always at his command. Our own war of 1812 furnishes +numerous instances where our victories depended upon the superior force. +It seems unnecessary that such self-evident truths should be stated +before this assemblage of intelligent gentlemen, but we are apt to +forget that a superior force is necessary to win a victory. As I said +before, victory is not due to chance. Had superior force not been our +own case at the battle of Santiago, had it been the reverse, or had it +been materially modified, what turned out to be a victory might have +been a disaster; and that we must not forget.</p> + +<p>The second lesson, if we may call it so, is closely allied, perhaps, to +the first. Shall we learn the lesson which is taught us in this recent +war? Shall we rest on the laurels which we may have won, or shall we +prepare for the future? Shall we not imagine our foe in the future, as +might well be the case, to be superior to the one over which we have +been victorious? It is a question that comes home to us directly. On +July 3d, when Cervera was returned, on board the "Iowa," to the mouth of +the harbor at Santiago, he requested permission to send a telegram +reporting the state of the case to Captain-General Blanco. Of course, no +objection was raised to this, and Cervera wrote out a telegram and sent +it on board the flagship to be scrutinized and forwarded to Blanco. He +stated in this telegram that he obeyed his (General Blanco's) orders and +left the harbor of Santiago at 9.30 Sunday morning, and "now," he said, +"it is with the most profound regret that I have to report that my fleet +has been completely destroyed. We went out to meet the forces of the +enemy, which outnumbered us three to one."</p> + +<p>I had so much sympathy with old Admiral Cervera that I did not have it +in my heart to modify or change in any respect the report which he +proposed to make to Captain-General Blanco. I felt that the truth would +be understood in the course of time, and that while I would not now, or +then, under any circumstances, admit that he was outnum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1025" id="Page_1025">[Pg 1025]</a></span>bered in the +proportion of three to one, I still felt that he should be at liberty to +defend himself in that manner.</p> + +<p>The fleets that were opposed to each other on that Sunday morning were, +as regards the number of the ships, about six to seven. Leaving out the +torpedo-destroyers and the "Gloucester," which may be said not to have +been fighting ships, the proportion was six to four. The fleet of the +Spaniards consisted of four beautiful ships. I think I am stating the +case within bounds when I say that they were—barring their condition at +that time, which, of course, we did not all know, in many respects—that +they were all our imaginations had led us to suppose. We outnumbered +them, but this is only another illustration of the fact which I wish to +bring before you, that it is necessary to have a superior force to make +sure of victory in any case.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that you, gentlemen, who are so influential in +determining and deciding what the Navy of the United States should be, +should bear this emphatically in mind—that we must have more ships, +more guns, and all that goes to constitute an efficient navy. I am not +advocating a large navy. I do not believe that we should support a large +navy, but that it should be much larger than it is at present I think +you will all concede. The increased territory which we have added to our +country will probably produce an increase in our chances for war by at +least one hundred per cent.—not that we need increase the Navy to that +extent—but probably will.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1026" id="Page_1026">[Pg 1026]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NOAH HUNT SCHENCK</h2> + + + + +<h4>TRUTH AND TRADE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Hunt Schenck at the 110th annual banquet +of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, +May 14, 1878. In introducing Dr. Schenck, the President, Samuel D. +Babcock, said: "The loose manner in which the Dinner Committee have +conducted their business is now becoming evident. The chairman has +got considerably mixed on the toasts. You may recollect that the +toast to which Dr. Chapin responded referred to twins [Rev. Dr. +Edwin H. Chapin had spoken to the toast 'Commerce and Capital, twin +forerunners of civilization and philanthropy'], and here is one +that refers to matrimony, and it is very evident that this one +ought to have preceded the other. [Laughter and applause.] Eighth +regular toast, 'Truth and Trade: those whom God hath joined +together, let no man put asunder.'"]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—It were an ambitious effort to +hold the attention of this distinguished body directly after its ears +had been ravished by the eloquent deliverances of the finished orators +who have just preceded me. In fact, I can scarcely imagine why you +enlist another voice from Brooklyn, unless it be to show that there is a +possibility of exhausting Brooklyn, and you would make it my sad office +to afford you the illustration. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The Chairman said at the beginning that the best speeches were to be at +the last. You have already discovered that this was designed for irony, +for thus far the speeches have been incomparable, but mine is to be the +beginning of the end. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>I know that what I say is true when I charge the Chairman with irony, +for do not I feel his iron entering my soul? [Laughter and applause.] It +is an act of considerable temerity, even though the ground has been so +gracefully broken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1027" id="Page_1027">[Pg 1027]</a></span> by the Rev. Dr. Chapin, for a clergyman to rise +before this common-sense body of three hundred business men (unless we +had you in our churches), for you well know that this precious quality +of common sense is supposed to have its habitat almost entirely with +business men, and rarely with the clergy.</p> + +<p>I know full well that the men of the pulpit are held to be wanting in +practical knowledge, and that we know but little of the dark and devious +ways of this naughty world. So that, rising here, I feel as if I were +but a little one among a thousand, and yet I would venture to submit +that the clergy are not wholly unpractical. Nay, I sometimes am led to +think that the men of my cloth are the most practical, common-sense +business men in the world. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>There is certainly no class of men who can make so little go so far, who +can live so comfortably on such small incomes, who can fatten on +pastures where the members of this Chamber of Commerce would starve. +[Applause and laughter.] There is no class of men that go through life +in such large proportion without bankruptcy. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>While 25,000 merchants in the United States during the four years from +1871 to 1875 failed in business, with liabilities amounting to +$800,000,000 (I quote statistics from accepted authority), I do not +believe that one-quarter of that number of clergymen failed [laughter +and applause], or that their liabilities amounted to anything like that +sum. [Laughter and applause.] I have seen the estimate that eighty-five +per cent. of merchants fail within two years after they embark in +business, notwithstanding their common sense, and that only three per +cent, make more money in the long run than is enough for a comfortable +livelihood.</p> + +<p>Having thus attempted to fortify my waning "Dutch courage" by an +off-hand attack upon my hospitable entertainers, and having in some +sense, even though it be Pickwickian, vindicated my cloth, let me go on +for a moment and cut my garment according to it. [Laughter and +applause.]</p> + +<p>I have been asked to say a word upon the wedlock of Truth and Trade, and +advocate the idea that what in the nature of things has been joined +together of God, should not, should never be sundered by man. We know +that Truth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1028" id="Page_1028">[Pg 1028]</a></span> is eternal. Trade, thank God, is not. [Laughter and +applause.] Still, so far as time and earth are concerned, trade endures +from first to last and everywhere. God married it to truth with the fiat +that men should eat bread in the sweat of their faces. From that moment +men have been wrangling in every court of conscience and society to +secure decrees of divorce. How manifold and multitudinous the tricks, +dodges, and evasions to which men have resorted to be rid of the work +which conditions bread. [Laughter and applause.] The great art of life +in the estimate of the general, said a great economist, is to have +others do the face-sweating and themselves the bread-eating. [Laughter +and applause.]</p> + +<p>But all along the line of the centuries the divine utterances have given +forth with clarion clearness that God would have men illustrate morals +and religion in the routine of business life. And so in all the upper +levels of civilization we observe that society points with pride to the +integrity that is proof against the temptations of trade. The men who +have honored sublime relations of business and religion are they whom +the world has delighted to honor. With but rare exceptions trade, +wherever it has been prosperous, has had truth for its wedded partner. +For the most part, wherever men have achieved high success in traffic, +it has been not upon the principle that "Honesty is the best policy," +for honesty is never policy, but upon the basis of fidelity to truth and +right under every possible condition of things. The man who is honest +from motives of policy will be dishonest when policy beckons in that +direction. The men who have illumined the annals of trade are those who +have bought the truth and sold it not, who held it only to dispense it +for the welfare of others.</p> + +<p>We cannot too highly honor the temper of that generation of business men +who half a century ago sternly refused to compromise with any form of +deceit in the details of traffic, visiting with the severest penalties +those who at all impinged upon the well-accepted morals of trade. The +story is told of a young merchant who, beginning business some fifty +years ago, overheard one day a clerk misrepresenting the quality of some +merchandise. He was instantly reprimanded and the article was unsold. +The clerk resigned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1029" id="Page_1029">[Pg 1029]</a></span> his position at once, and told his employer that the +man who did business that way could not last long. But the merchant did +last, and but lately died the possessor of the largest wealth ever +gathered in a single lifetime.</p> + +<p>Permit me another incident and this not from New York, but Philadelphia. +One of the Copes had but just written his check for $50 for some local +charity, when a messenger announced the wreck of an East Indiaman +belonging to the firm, and that the ship and cargo were a total loss. +Another check for $500 was substituted at once, and given to the agent +of the hospital with the remark: "What I have God gave me, and before it +all goes, I had better put some of it where it can never be lost." +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>Such illustrations as these are not infrequent in the biographies of +those noble men who in days gone by as well as in our own times, have +never divorced truth from trade, but have always reverenced the sacred +relations. I dare venture the remark that the prosperity of a nation is +more largely dependent upon the probity of its merchants than upon any +other one class of men. [Applause.] This because of their numbers, their +influence over so many who are subject to them in business, and their +close relation to, and important control over, the financial interests +of the country.</p> + +<p>What a wide area of opportunity is afforded in the counting-room, where +so many students of trade are preparing for the uncertain future! +Accept, I beseech you, the responsibility of moulding the characters of +your young men and so prepare a generation of merchants who shall know +of nothing but honesty and honor, and who will cherish nobility of +sentiment in all their business transactions. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>And can you not help the world abroad as well as at home? I believe that +merchants engaged in commerce with foreign nations, have it within the +scope and purview of their business relations to do as much for the +propagation of Christian truth as the Church itself. If your ventures +are intrusted to the direction of men of character; if your agents are +men who recognize in practice the morals of the religion they profess, +you will not only not negative as now, alas! but too often the efforts +of the Church's envoys, by the frequent violations of Christian law, on +the part of those who pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1030" id="Page_1030">[Pg 1030]</a></span>pose to be governed by it; but through the +illustrations you can send out of Christian consistency—by the living +representatives of our higher civilization, which you can furnish to +remote nations, to say nothing of the voluntary agency in scattering the +printed powers of our faith in all quarters of the globe, how much may +not be accomplished in this and in other ways by your men and your +ships—Trade thus travelling round the world with Truth by her side, +helping each other and healing the nations. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1031" id="Page_1031">[Pg 1031]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE NAVY IN PEACE AND IN WAR</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Winfield S. Schley at the eighteenth annual dinner of +the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, +1898. The President, Stephen W. Dana, presented Admiral Schley in +these words: "Admiral Schley needs no introduction from me—he +speaks for himself."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Gentlemen of the New England Society</span>:—I am very +much in the condition of the gentleman who, being about to be married +and having had his wedding suit brought home a day before the event, +returned it to the tailor with instructions to increase the girth just +two inches. His explanation was that not enough room had been left to +accommodate the wedding breakfast he had to eat or for the emotion that +was to follow the event.</p> + +<p>I am always glad to meet my countrymen anywhere and everywhere. They +stand for all that is representative; they stand for all that is +progressive; they stand for all that represents humanity, and they stand +for all that is fair-minded, high-minded, and honorable. As to those of +us who by the circumstances of our service are obliged to pass the +greater part of our lives away from home, away from kindred, and away +from the flag, it may be difficult to understand how to keep the altar +of one's patriotism burning when we are separated from the sweetest and +kindest influences of life and performing a service and a duty that are +outside of the public observation. But there is a large-heartedness at +home that never forgets us. We are bound to our country by ties that are +not only sweet in their nature, but the circumstances of service +generate a love of home and a patriotism that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1032" id="Page_1032">[Pg 1032]</a></span> are the surest guarantees +of the welfare and the safety of our people.</p> + +<p>The Navy is that arm of the public defence the nature of whose duties is +dual in that they relate to both peace and war. In times of peace the +Navy blazes the way across the trackless deep, maps out and marks the +dangers which lie in the routes of commerce, in order that the peaceful +argosies of trade may pursue safe routes to the distant markets of the +world, there to exchange the varied commodities of commerce. It +penetrates the jungle and the tangle of the inter-tropical regions. It +stands ready to starve to death or to die from exposure. It pushes its +way into the icy fastnesses of the North or of the South, in order that +it may discover new channels of trade. It carries the influence of your +power and the beneficent advantages of your civilization to the secluded +and hermit empires of the Eastern world, and brings them into touch with +our Western civilization and its love of law for the sake of the law +rather than for fear of the law's punishments. It stands guard upon the +outer frontiers of civilization, in pestilential climates, often exposed +to noisome disease, performing duties that are beyond the public +observation but yet which have their happy influence in maintaining the +reputation and character of our country and extending the civilizing +agency of its commerce.</p> + +<p>The bones of the officers and men of the Navy lie in every country in +the world, or along the highways of commerce; they mark the +resting-places of martyrs to a sense of duty that is stronger than any +fear of death. The Navy works and strives and serves, without any +misgivings and without any complaints, only that it may be considered +the chief and best guardian of the interests of this people, of the +prestige of this nation, and of the glory and renown of its flag.</p> + +<p>These are some of the duties of peace, which has its triumphs "no less +renowned than war." But it is the martial side of the Navy that is the +more attractive one to us. It is that side of its duty which presents to +us its characters who have written their names and their fames in fire. +No matter what may be our ideas of civilization or how high our notions +of peace, there is no one of us who has not felt his heart beat a little +bit faster and his blood course a little bit more rapidly when reading +of the daring and thrilling deeds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1033" id="Page_1033">[Pg 1033]</a></span> of such men as John Paul Jones or of +Decatur or of Stewart or of Hull or of Perry or of MacDonald or of +Tatnall or of Ingram or of Cushing or of Porter or of Farragut.</p> + +<p>The war so happily ended has added new names to the galaxy of naval +worthies. New stars are in the firmament. The records indicate that your +naval representatives have been faithful to the lesson of their +traditions, that they have been true to their history, whilst the men of +our Navy have shown that they have lost none of the skill and none of +the tact that they have inherited. But they have proven again that a +generation of men who are able to defend their title to the spurs they +inherited are proper successors to their progenitors. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1034" id="Page_1034">[Pg 1034]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE BEGINNINGS OF ART</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Heinrich Schliemann at the annual banquet of the Royal +Academy, London, May 5, 1877. Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent +architect, took the chair in the absence of Sir Frederick Grant, +the President of the Academy. In introducing Dr. Schliemann, Sir +Gilbert Scott spoke as follows: "There is one gentleman present +among us this evening who has special claims upon an expression of +our thanks. Antiquarian investigation is emphatically a subject of +our own day. More has been discovered of the substantial vestiges +of history in our own than probably in any previous age; and it +only needs the mention of the names of Champollion, Layard, +Rawlinson, and Lipsius to prove that we have in this age obtained a +genuine knowledge of the history of art as practised in all +previous ages. Not only have we obtained a correct understanding of +the arts of our own race as exemplified in our own mediæval +antiquities, but lost buildings of antiquity such as the Egyptian +labyrinth, the palace of Nineveh, the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, +the temple and statues of Olympia, and the temple of Diana at +Ephesus have been re-discovered and disinterred. ["Hear! Hear!"] +There remained, however, one great hiatus. We knew something of the +more archaic periods of Greek art, and we knew that on the gate of +Mycenæ there were evidences of an art far more archaic and +apparently not allied with true Hellenic art, but we knew no more +nor had an idea how the great gulf in art history was to be bridged +over. It still remains a great gulf, but Dr. Schliemann by his +excavations, first on the site of Troy and then of Mycenæ, has +brought to open daylight what, without prejudging questions as yet +<i>sub judice</i>, seem to be the veritable works of the heroes of the +Iliad; and if he has not yet actually solved the mysteries which +shroud that age, he has brought before us a perfect wealth of fact +at the least calculated to sharpen our antiquarian appetite for +more certain knowledge. Knowing that Dr. Schliemann is like one in +old times, who, while longing to tell of the Atrides and of Cadmus, +yet allowed the chords of his heart to vibrate to softer +influences, I will, while proposing his health, conjoin with his +name that of his energetic fellow-explorer, Madame Schliemann."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, My Lords, and Gentlemen</span>:—You have been pleased +to confer upon me two of the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1035" id="Page_1035">[Pg 1035]</a></span> honors which this country can +possibly bestow upon a foreigner—first, by your kind invitation to this +hospitable banquet to meet the most illustrious statesmen, the most +eminent scholars, and the most distinguished artists; and secondly, by +your toast to my health. In warmly thanking you, I feel the greatest +satisfaction to think that for these signal honors, I am solely indebted +to my labors in Troy and Mycenæ. ["Hear! Hear!"]</p> + +<p>In Troy art was only in its first dawn; color was still completely +unknown, and instead of painting, the vases were decorated with incised +patterns filled with white clay. The productions of sculpture were +limited to carving of small flat idols of Minerva [Greek: glaukôpis]<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +of marble, almost in the forms of two discs, which adhered to each +other, and upon which the owl's face is rudely scratched. The Trojan +treasure certainly shows more art, but it is characterized by an absence +of ornamentation. In Mycenæ, on the contrary, the monuments which I have +brought to light show a high state of civilization, and the skill with +which the gold ornaments are made leads us to pre-suppose a school of +domestic artists which had flourished for ages before it reached such +perfection.</p> + +<p>The very great symmetry we see also in the vase-paintings and in the +carvings of spirals and rosettes on stone, whereas representations of +men or animals are exceedingly rude and appear to be the primitive +Mycenean sculptor's first essay. But rude as they are, and childish as +they look, these primitive productions of Greek art are of paramount +interest to science, because we see in them the great-grandfathers of +the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxiteles; they prove to us in the most +certain manner that the artistic genius of the epoch of Pericles did not +come suddenly down from heaven like Minerva from the head of Jove, but +that it was the result of a school of artists, which had gradually +developed in the course of ages.</p> + +<p>Once more, I tender my thanks for the patience with which you have +listened to a stranger. ["Hear! Hear!"]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1036" id="Page_1036">[Pg 1036]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CARL SCHURZ</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Carl Schurz at a banquet given by the Chamber of +Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, November 5, 1881, +in honor of the guests of the Nation, the French diplomatic +representatives in America, and members of the families descended +from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General Lafayette, Count +de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben, and others, who +were present at the centennial celebration of the victory at +Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, Vice-President of the +Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast, "The Old World and the +New," to which Carl Schurz was called upon for a response.]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Chamber of Commerce</span>:—If you +had been called upon to respond to the toast: "The Old World and the +New" as frequently as I have, you would certainly find as much +difficulty as I find in saying anything of the Old World that is new or +of the New World that is not old. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>And the embarrassment grows upon me as I grow older, as it would upon +all of you, except perhaps my good friend, Mr. Evarts, who has +determined never to grow old, and whose witty sayings are always as good +as new. [Laughter.] Still, gentlemen, the scenes which we have been +beholding during the last few weeks have had something of a fresh +inspiration in them. We have been celebrating a great warlike event—not +great in the number of men that were killed in it, but very great in the +number of people it has made happy. It has made happy not only the +people of this country who now count over fifty millions, but it has +made happier than they were before the nations of the Old World, too; +who, combined, count a great many more. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1037" id="Page_1037">[Pg 1037]</a></span></p> + +<p>American Independence was declared at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, by +those who were born upon this soil, but American Independence was +virtually accomplished by that very warlike event I speak of, on the +field of Yorktown, where the Old World lent a helping hand to the New. +[Applause.] To be sure, there was a part of the Old World consisting of +the British, and I am sorry to say, some German soldiers, who strove to +keep down the aspirations of the New, but they were there in obedience +to the command of a power which they were not able to resist, while that +part of the Old World which fought upon the American side was here of +its own free will as volunteers. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>It might be said that most of the regular soldiers of France were here +also by the command of power, but it will not be forgotten that there +was not only Lafayette, led here by his youthful enthusiasm for the +American cause, but there was France herself, the great power of the Old +World appearing as a volunteer on a great scale. [Cheers.] So were there +as volunteers those who brought their individual swords to the service +of the New World. There was the gallant Steuben, the great organizer who +trained the American army to victory, a representative of that great +nation whose monuments stand not only upon hundreds of battle-fields of +arms, but whose prouder monuments stand upon many more battle-fields of +thought. [Cheers.] There was Pulaski, the Pole, and DeKalb who died for +American Independence before it was achieved. And there were many more +Frenchmen, Germans, Swedes, Hollanders, Englishmen even, who did not +obey the behests of power. [Cheers.] And so it may be said that the +cause of the New World was the cause of the volunteers of the Old. And +it has remained the cause of volunteers in peace as well as in war, for +since then we have received millions of them, and they are arriving now +in a steady stream, thousands of them every week; I have the honor to +say, gentlemen, that I am one of them. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Nor is it probable that this volunteering in mass will ever stop, for it +is in fact drawn over here by the excitement of war as much as by the +victories of peace. It was, therefore, natural that the great +celebration of that warlike event should have been turned or rather that +it should have turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1038" id="Page_1038">[Pg 1038]</a></span> itself into a festival of peace on the old field +of Yorktown—peace illustrated by the happy faces of a vast multitude, +and by all the evidence of thrift and prosperity and well-being; peace +illustrated by the very citizen-soldiery who appeared there to ornament +as a pageant, with their brilliant bayonets that peaceful festival; +peace illustrated by the warmth of a grand popular welcome offered to +the honored representatives of the Old World; peace illustrated, still +more, by their friendly meeting upon American soil whatever their +contentions at home may have been; peace glorified by what has already +been so eloquently referred to by Dr. Storrs and Mr. Evarts; that solemn +salute offered to the British flag, to the very emblem of the old +antagonism of a hundred years ago; and that salute, echoing in every +patriotic American heart, to be followed as the telegraph tells us now, +by the carrying of the American flag in honor in the Lord Mayor's +procession in London—all this a cosmopolitan peace festival, in which +the Old World sent its representatives to join in rejoicing over the +prosperity and progress of the New. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>There could hardly have been a happier expression of this spirit of +harmony than was presented in the serenade offered to these +gentlemen—representatives of the honored name of Steuben on the evening +of their arrival in New York, the band playing first "The Watch on the +Rhine," followed by the "Marseillaise" and "God Save the Queen," and +then the martial airs of the Old World resolving themselves into the +peaceful strains of the crowning glory of "Hail, Columbia!" and "Yankee +Doodle." [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>The cordiality of feeling which binds the Old and the New World +together, and which found so touching, so tender, so wonderful an +expression in the universal heartfelt sorrow of all civilized mankind at +the great national bereavement, which recently has befallen us [the +assassination of President Garfield], can hardly fail to be strengthened +by this visit of the Old World guests whom we delight to honor. +[Cheers.]</p> + +<p>They have seen now something of our country, and our people; most of +them, probably, for the first time, and I have no doubt they have +arrived at the conclusion that the country for which Lafayette and +Steuben and Rochambeau<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1039" id="Page_1039">[Pg 1039]</a></span> fought is a good country, inhabited by a good +people [cheers]; a good country and a good people, worthy of being +fought for by the noblest men of the earth; and I trust also when these +gentlemen return to their own homes they will go back with the assurance +that the names of their ancestors who drew their swords for American +liberty stand in the heart of every true American side by side with the +greatest American names, and that, although a century has elapsed since +the surrender of Yorktown, still the gratitude of American hearts is as +young and fresh and warm to-day as it was at the moment when Cornwallis +hauled down his flag. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>It seems to me also, gentlemen, that we have already given some +practical evidence of that gratitude. The independence they helped to +achieve has made the American nation so strong and active and prosperous +that when the Old World runs short of provisions, the New stands always +ready and eager even, to fill the gap, and by and by we may even send +over some products of other industries for their accommodation. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>In fact, we have been so very liberal and generous in that respect, that +some of our friends on the other side of the sea are beginning to think +that there may be a little too much of a good thing, and are talking of +shutting it off by tricks of taxation. [Laughter.] However, we are not +easily baffled. Not content with the contribution of our material +products, we even send them from time to time, some of our wisdom, as, +for instance, a few months ago, our friend, Mr. Evarts, went over there +to tell them about the double standard—all that we knew and a good deal +more. [Laughter.] We might even be willing to send them all the +accumulated stock of our silver, if they will give us their gold for it. +[Cheers.] It is to be apprehended that this kind of generosity will not +be fittingly appreciated and in that respect they may prefer the wisdom +of the Old World to that of the New. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>However, we shall not quarrel about that, for seriously speaking, the +New and the Old World must and will, in the commercial point of view, be +of infinite use one to another as mutual customers, and our commercial +relations will grow more fruitful to both sides from year to year, and +from day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1040" id="Page_1040">[Pg 1040]</a></span> to day, as we remain true to the good old maxim: "Live and let +live." [Cheers.] Nor is there the least speck of danger in the horizon +threatening to disturb the friendliness of an international +understanding between the Old World and the New. That cordial +international understanding rests upon a very simple, natural, and solid +basis. We rejoice with the nations of the Old World in all their +successes, all their prosperity, and all their happiness, and we +profoundly and earnestly sympathize with them whenever a misfortune +overtakes them. But one thing we shall never think of doing, and that +is, interfering in their affairs. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>On the other hand they will give us always their sympathy in good and +evil as they have done heretofore, and we expect that they will never +think of interfering with our affairs on this side of the ocean. [Loud +cheers.] Our limits are very distinctly drawn, and certainly no just or +prudent power will ever think of upsetting them. The Old World and the +New will ever live in harmonious accord as long as we do not try to jump +over their fences and they do not try to jump over ours. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>This being our understanding, nothing will be more natural than +friendship and good-will between the nations of the two sides of the +Atlantic. The only danger ahead of us might be that arising from +altogether too sentimental a fondness for one another which may lead us +into lovers' jealousies and quarrels. Already some of our honored guests +may feel like complaining that we have come very near to killing them +with kindness; at any rate, we are permitted to hope that a hundred +years hence our descendants may assemble again to celebrate the memory +of the feast of cordial friendship which we now enjoy, and when they do +so, they will come to an American Republic of three hundred millions of +people, a city of New York of ten million inhabitants, and to a +Delmonico's ten stories high with a station for airships running between +Europe and America on the top of it [cheers], and then our guests may +even expect to find comfortable hotels and decent accommodations at the +deserted village of Yorktown. [Laughter and cheers.]</p> + +<p>But, in the meantime, I am sure our Old World guests who to-night +delight us with their presence, will never cease<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1041" id="Page_1041">[Pg 1041]</a></span> to be proud of it that +the great names of which they are the honored representatives are +inscribed upon some of the most splendid pages of the New World's +history, and will live forever in the grateful affection of the New +World's heart. [Loud applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1042" id="Page_1042">[Pg 1042]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WILLIAM H. SEWARD</h2> + + + + +<h4>A PIOUS PILGRIMAGE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of William H. Seward at a banquet held at Plymouth, Mass., +December 21, 1855. Preceding this banquet Mr. Seward delivered an +oration on "The Pilgrims and Liberty." The speech here given is his +response to the toast proposed at the banquet, "The Orator of the +Day, eloquent in his tribute to the virtues of the Pilgrims; +faithful, in his life, to the lessons they taught."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>:—The Puritans were Protestants, but they +were not protestants against everybody and everything, right or wrong. +They did not protest indiscriminately against everything they found in +England. On the other hand, we have abundant indications in the works of +genius and art which they left behind them that they had a reverence for +all that is good and true; while they protested against everything that +was false and vicious. They had a reverence for the good taste and the +literature, science, eloquence, and poetry of England, and so I trust it +is with their successors in this once bleak and inhospitable, but now +rich and prosperous land. They could appreciate poetry, as well as good +sense and good taste, and so I call to your recollection the language of +a poet who had not loomed up at the time of the Puritans as he has +since. It was addressed to his steed, after an ill-starred journey to +Islingtontown. The poet said:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'Twas for your pleasure you came here,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You shall go back for mine."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Being a candid and frank man, as one ought to be who addresses the +descendants of the Puritans, I may say that it was not at all for your +pleasure that I came here. Though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1043" id="Page_1043">[Pg 1043]</a></span> I may go back to gratify you, yet I +came here for my own purposes. The time has passed away when I could +make a distant journey from a mild climate to a cold though fair region, +without; inconvenience; but there was one wish, I might almost say there +was only one wish of my heart that I was anxious should be gratified. I +had been favored with many occasions to see the seats of empire in this +western world, and had never omitted occasions to see where the seats of +empire were planted, and how they prospered. I had visited the capital +of my own and of many other American States. I had regarded with +admiration the capital of this great Republic, in whose destinies, in +common with you all, I feel an interest which can never die. I had seen +the capitals of the British Empire, and of many foreign empires, and had +endeavored to study for myself the principles which have prevailed in +the foundation of states and empires. With that view I had beheld a city +standing where a migration from the Netherlands planted an empire on the +bay of New York, at Manhattan, or perhaps more properly at Fort Orange. +They sought to plant a commercial empire, and they did not fail; but in +New York now, although they celebrate the memories and virtues of +fatherland, there is no day dedicated to the colonization of New York by +the original settlers, the immigrants from Holland. I have visited +Wilmington, on Christina Creek, in Delaware, where a colony was planted +by the Swedes, about the time of the settlement of Plymouth, and though +the old church built by the colonists still stands there, I learned that +there did not remain in the whole State a family capable of speaking the +language, or conscious of bearing the name of one of the thirty-one +original colonists.</p> + +<p>I have stood on the spot where a treaty was made by William Penn with +the aborigines of Pennsylvania, where a seat of empire was established +by him, and, although the statue of the good man stands in public +places, and his memory remains in the minds of men, yet there is no day +set apart for the recollection of the time and occasion when civil and +religious liberty were planted in that State. I went still farther +south, and descending the James River, sought the first colony of +Virginia at Jamestown. There remains nothing but the broken, ruined +tower of a poor church built of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1044" id="Page_1044">[Pg 1044]</a></span> brick, in which Pocahontas was married, +and over the ruins of which the ivy now creeps. Not a human being, bond +or free, is to be seen within a mile from the spot, nor a town or city +as numerously populated as Plymouth, on the whole shores of the broad, +beautiful, majestic river, between Richmond at the head, and Norfolk, +where arms and the government have established fortifications. Nowhere +else in America, then, was there left a remembrance by the descendants +of the founders of colonies, of the virtues, the sufferings, the +bravery, the fidelity to truth and freedom of their ancestors; and more +painful still, nowhere in Europe can be found an acknowledgment or even +a memory of these colonists. In Holland, in Spain, in Great Britain, in +France, nowhere is there to be found any remembrance of the men they +sent out to plant liberty on this continent. So on the way to the +Mississippi, I saw where De Soto planted the standard of Spain, and, in +imagination at least, I followed the march of Cortez in Mexico, and +Pizarro in Peru; but their memory has gone out. Civil liberty perishes, +and religious liberty was never known in South America; nor does Spain, +any more than other lands, retain the memory of the apostles she sent +out to convert the new world to a purer faith, and raise the hopes of +mankind for the well-being of the future.</p> + +<p>There was one only place, where a company of outcasts, men despised, +contemned, reproached as malcontents and fanatics, had planted a colony, +and that colony had grown and flourished; and there had never been a day +since it was planted that the very town, and shore, and coast, where it +was planted had not grown and spread in population, wealth, prosperity, +and happiness, richer and stronger continually. It had not only grown +and flourished like a vigorous tree, rejoicing in its own strength, but +had sent out offshoots in all directions. Everywhere the descendants of +these colonists were found engaged in the struggles for civil and +religious liberty, and the rights of man. I had found them by my side, +the champions of humanity, upon whose stalwart arms I might safely rely.</p> + +<p>I came here, then, because the occasion offered, and if I pretermitted +this, it might be the last, and I was unwilling that any friend or any +child, who might lean upon me, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1045" id="Page_1045">[Pg 1045]</a></span> reckoned upon my counsel or advice, +should know that I had been such a truant to the cause of religious +liberty and humanity, as never to have seen the Rock of Plymouth.</p> + +<p>My mission being now accomplished, having shed tears in the first church +of the Puritans, when the heartfelt benediction was pronounced over my +unworthy head by that venerable pastor, I have only to ask that I be +dismissed from further service with your kind wishes. I will hold the +occasion ever dear to my remembrance, for it is here I have found the +solution of the great political problem. Like Archimedes, I have found +the fulcrum by whose aid I may move the world—the moral world—and that +fulcrum is Plymouth Rock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1046" id="Page_1046">[Pg 1046]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE ARMY AND NAVY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of General William T. Sherman at the first annual dinner of +the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. +The President, Benjamin D. Silliman, on announcing the toast, "The +Army and Navy—Great and imperishable names and deeds have +illustrated their history," said: "In response to this toast, I +have the privilege of calling on the great Captain who commands the +armies of the Republic; of whom it has been said, that he combines +the skill and valor of the soldier, with the wisdom of the +statesman, and whose name will ever live in the history of the +nation. We shall have the great satisfaction of listening to +General Sherman."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—While in Washington I was +somewhat embarrassed by receiving invitations from two different New +England societies to dine with them on different days in commemoration +of the same event. I hoped, under cover of that mistake, to escape one +or the other, but I find that each claims its day to be the genuine +anniversary of the landing of their Fathers on Plymouth Rock. I must +leave some of you to settle this controversy, for I don't know whether +it was the 21st or 22d; you here in Brooklyn say the 21st; they in New +York say it was the 22d. Laboring under this serious doubt, when I came +on the stand and found my name enrolled among the orators and statesmen +present, and saw that I was booked to make a speech, I appealed to a +learned and most eloquent attorney to represent me on this occasion. I +even tried to bribe him with an office which I could not give; but he +said that he belonged to that army sometimes described as "invincible in +peace, invisible in war." [Laughter.] He would not respond for me. +Therefore I find myself upon the stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1047" id="Page_1047">[Pg 1047]</a></span> at this moment compelled to +respond, after wars have been abolished by the Honorable Secretary of +State, and men are said to have risen to that level where they are never +to do harm to each other again—with the millennium come, in fact, God +grant it may be so? [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I doubt it. I heard Henry Clay announce the same doctrine long before +our Civil War. I heard also assertions of the same kind uttered on the +floor of our Senate by learned and good men twenty years ago when we +were on the very threshold of one of the most bloody wars which ever +devastated this or any other land. Therefore I have some doubt whether +mankind has attained that eminence where it can look backward upon wars +and rumors of war, and forward to a state of perpetual peace.</p> + +<p>No, my friends, I think man remains the same to-day, as he was in the +beginning. He is not alone a being of reason; he has passions and +feelings which require sometimes to be curbed by force; and all prudent +people ought to be ready and willing to meet strife when it comes. To be +prepared is the best answer to that question. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Now my friends, the toast you have given me to-night to respond to is +somewhat obscure to me. We have heard to-night enumerated the principles +of your society—which are called "New England ideas." They are as +perfect as the catechism. [Applause and laughter.] I have heard them +supplemented by a sort of codicil, to the effect that a large part of +our country—probably one-half—is still disturbed, and that the +Northern man is not welcome there. I know of my own knowledge that +two-thirds of the territory of the United States are not yet settled. I +believe that when our Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, they +began the war of civilization against barbarism, which is not yet ended +in America. The Nation then, as Mr. Beecher has well said, in the strife +begun by our fathers, aimed to reach a higher manhood—a manhood of +virtue, a manhood of courage, a manhood of faith, a manhood that aspires +to approach the attributes of God Himself.</p> + +<p>Whilst granting to every man the highest liberty known on earth, every +Yankee believes that the citizen must be the architect of his own +fortune; must carry the same civilization wherever he goes, building +school-houses and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1048" id="Page_1048">[Pg 1048]</a></span> churches for all alike, and wherever the Yankee has +gone thus far he has carried his principles and has enlarged New England +so that it now embraces probably a third or a half of the settled part +of America. That has been a great achievement, but it is not yet +completed. Your work is not all finished.</p> + +<p>You who sit here in New York, just as your London cousins did two +hundred and fifty years ago, know not the struggle that is beyond. At +this very moment of time there are Miles Standishes, under the cover of +the snow of the Rocky Mountains, doing just what your forefathers did +two hundred and fifty years ago. They have the same hard struggle before +them that your fathers had. You remember they commenced in New England +by building log cabins and fences and tilling the sterile, stony, soil, +which Mr. Beecher describes, and I believe these have been largely +instrumental in the development of the New England character. Had your +ancestors been cast on the fertile shores of the lower Mississippi, you +might not be the same vigorous men you are to-day. Your fathers had to +toil and labor. That was a good thing for you, and it will be good for +your children if you can only keep them in the same tracks. But here in +New York and in Brooklyn, I do not think you now are exactly like your +forefathers, but I can take you where you will see real live Yankees, +very much the same as your fathers were. In New York with wealth and +station, and everything that makes life pleasant, you are not the same +persons physically, though you profess the same principles, yet as +prudent men, you employ more policemen in New York—a larger proportion +to the inhabitants of your city than the whole army of the United States +bears to the people of the United States. You have no Indians here, +though you have "scalpers." [Applause and laughter.] You have no +"road-agents" here, and yet you keep your police; and so does our +Government keep a police force where there are real Indians and real +road-agents, and you, gentlemen, who sit here at this table to-night who +have contributed of your means whereby railroads have been built across +the continent, know well that this little army, which I represent here +to-night, is at this moment guarding these great roadways against +incursions of desperate men who would stop the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1049" id="Page_1049">[Pg 1049]</a></span> cars and interfere with +the mails and travel, which would paralyze the trade and commerce of the +whole civilized world, that now passes safely over the great Pacific +road, leading to San Francisco. Others are building roads north and +south, over which we soldiers pass almost yearly, and there also you +will find the blue-coats to-day, guarding the road, not for their +advantage, or their safety, but for your safety, for the safety of your +capital.</p> + +<p>So long as there is such a thing as money, there will be people trying +to get that money; they will struggle for it, and they will die for it +sometimes. We are a good-enough people, a better people it may be than +those of England, or France, though some doubt it. Still we believe +ourselves a higher race of people than have ever been produced by any +concatenation of events before. [Laughter.] We claim to be, and whether +it be due to the ministers of New England, or to the higher type of +manhood, of which Mr. Beecher speaks—which latter doctrine I prefer to +submit to—I don't care which, there is in human nature a spark of +mischief, a spark of danger, which in the aggregate will make force as +necessary for the government of mankind as the Almighty finds the +electric fluid necessary to clear the atmosphere. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>You speak in your toast of "honored names"; you are more familiar with +the history of your country than I am, and know that the brightest pages +have been written on the battle-field. Is there a New Englander here who +would wipe "Bunker Hill" from his list for any price in Wall Street? Not +one of you! Yet you can go out into Pennsylvania and find a thousand of +bigger hills which you can buy for ten dollars an acre. It is not +because of its money value, but because Warren died there in defence of +your government which makes it so dear to you. Turn to the West. What +man would part with the fame of Harrison and of Perry? They made the +settlement of the great Northwest by your Yankees possible. They opened +that highway to you, and shall no honor be given to them? Had it not +been for the battles on the Thames by Harrison, and by Perry on Lake +Erie, the settlement of the great West would not have occurred by New +England industry and thrift. Therefore I say that there is an eloquence +of thought in those names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1050" id="Page_1050">[Pg 1050]</a></span> as great as ever was heard on the floor of +Congress, or in the courts of New York. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>So I might go on, and take New Orleans, for example, where General +Jackson fought a battle with the assistance of pirates, many of them +black men and slaves, who became free by that act. There the black man +first fought for his freedom, and I believe black men must fight for +their freedom if they expect to get it and hold it secure. Every white +soldier in this land will help him fight for his freedom, but he must +first strike for it himself. "Who would be free, themselves must strike +the blow." [Cheers.] That truth is ripening, and will manifest itself in +due time. I have as much faith in it as I have that the manhood, and +faith, and firmness, and courage of New England has contributed so much +to the wealth, the civilization, the fame, and glory of our country. +There is no danger of this country going backward. The Civil War settled +facts that remain recorded and never will be obliterated. Taken in that +connection I say that these battles were fought after many good and wise +men had declared all war to be a barbarism—a thing of the past. The +fields stained with patriotic blood will be revered by our children and +our children's children, long after we, the actors, may be forgotten. +The world will not stop; it is moving on; and the day will come when all +nations will be equal "brothers all," when the Scotchman and the +Englishman will be as the son of America. We want the universal humanity +and manhood that Mr. Beecher has spoken of so eloquently. You Yankees +don't want to monopolize all the virtues; if you do, you won't get them. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The Germans have an industry and a type of manhood which we may well +imitate. We find them settling now in South America, and in fact they +are heading you Yankees off in the South American trade. It won't do to +sit down here and brag. You must go forth and settle up new lands for +you and your children, as your fathers did. That is what has been going +on since Plymouth Rock, and will to the end. The end is not yet, but +that it will come and that this highest type of manhood will prevail in +the end I believe as firmly as any man who stands on this floor. It will +be done not by us alone, but by all people uniting, each acting his own +part; the merchant, the lawyer, the mechanic, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1051" id="Page_1051">[Pg 1051]</a></span> farmer, and the +soldier. But I contend that so long as man is man there is a necessity +for organized force, to enable us to reach the highest type of manhood +aimed at by our New England ancestors. [Loud applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>A REMINISCENCE OF THE WAR</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of General William T. Sherman at the eighty-first annual +dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December +22, 1886. Judge Horace Russell presided and introduced General +Sherman as a son of New England whom the Society delighted to +honor. The toast proposed was, "Health and Long Life to General +Sherman." The General was visibly affected by the enthusiastic +greeting he received when he rose to respond.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England Society of New +York</span>:—Were I to do the proper thing, I would turn to my friend on +the left [T. DeWitt Talmage] and say, Amen; for he has drawn a glorious +picture of war in language stronger than even I or my friend, General +Schofield, could dare to use. But looking over the Society to-night—so +many young faces here, so many old and loved ones gone—I feel almost as +one of your Forefathers. [Laughter and applause.] Many and many a time +have I been welcomed among you. I came from a bloody Civil War to New +York twenty or twenty-one years ago, when a committee came to me in my +room and dragged me unwillingly before the then New England Society of +New York. They received me with such hearty applause and such kindly +greetings that my heart goes out to you now to-night as their +representatives. [Applause.] God knows I wish you, one and all, the +blessings of life and enjoyment of the good things you now possess, and +others yet in store for you.</p> + +<p>I hope not to occupy more than a few minutes of your time, for last +night I celebrated the same event in Brooklyn, and at about two or three +o'clock this morning I saw this hall filled with lovely ladies waltzing +[laughter], and here again I am to-night. [Renewed laughter. A voice, +"You're a rounder, General."] But I shall ever, ever recur to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1052" id="Page_1052">[Pg 1052]</a></span> early +meetings of the New England Society, in which I shared, with a pride and +satisfaction which words will not express; and I hope the few I now say +will be received in the kindly spirit they are made in, be they what +they may, for the call upon me is sudden and somewhat unexpected.</p> + +<p>I have no toast. I am a rover. [Laughter.] I can choose to say what I +may—not tied by any text or formula. I know when you look upon old +General Sherman, as you seem to call him [Oh, oh!]—pretty young yet, my +friends, not all the devil out of me yet, and I hope still to share with +you many a festive occasion—whenever you may assemble, wherever the +sons of New England may assemble, be it here under this Delmonico roof, +or in Brooklyn, or even in Boston, I will try to be there. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>My friends, I have had many, many experiences, and it always seems to me +easier to recur to some of them when I am on my feet, for they come back +to me like the memory of a dream, pleasant to think of. And now, +to-night, I know the Civil War is uppermost in your minds, although I +would banish it as a thing of trade, something too common to my calling; +yet I know it pleases the audience to refer to little incidents here and +there of the great Civil War, in which I took a humble part. [Applause.] +I remember, one day away down in Georgia, somewhere between, I think, +Milledgeville and Millen, I was riding on a good horse and had some +friends along with me to keep good-fellowship. [Laughter.] A pretty +numerous party, all clever good fellows. [Renewed laughter.] Riding +along, I spied a plantation. I was thirsty, rode up to the gate and +dismounted. One of these men with sabres by their side, called +orderlies, stood by my horse. I walked up on the porch, where there was +an old gentleman, probably sixty years of age, white-haired and very +gentle in his manners—evidently a planter of the higher class. I asked +him if he would be kind enough to give me some water. He called a boy, +and soon he had a bucket of water with a dipper. I then asked for a +chair, and called one or two of my officers. Among them was, I think, +Dr. John Moore, who recently has been made Surgeon-General of the Army, +for which I am very glad—indebted to Mr. Cleveland. [Laughter and +applause.] We sat on the porch, and the old man held the bucket, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1053" id="Page_1053">[Pg 1053]</a></span> +took a long drink of water, and maybe lighted a cigar [laughter], and it +is possible I may have had a little flask of whiskey along. [Renewed +laughter.]</p> + +<p>At all events, I got into a conversation; and the troops drifted along, +passing down the roadway closely by fours, and every regiment had its +banner, regimental or national, sometimes furled and sometimes afloat. +The old gentleman says:—</p> + +<p>"General, what troops are these passing now?"</p> + +<p>As the color-bearer came by, I said: "Throw out your colors. That is the +39th Iowa."</p> + +<p>"The 39th Iowa! 39th Iowa! Iowa! 39th! What do you mean by 39th?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "habitually, a regiment, when organized, amounts to +1,000 men."</p> + +<p>"Do you pretend to say Iowa has sent 39,000 men into this cruel Civil +War?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>"Why, my friend, I think that may be inferred."</p> + +<p>"Well," says he, "where's Iowa?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>"Iowa is a State bounded on the east by the Mississippi, on the south by +Missouri, on the west by unknown country, and on the north by the North +Pole."</p> + +<p>"Well," says he, "39,000 men from Iowa! You must have a million men."</p> + +<p>Says I: "I think about that."</p> + +<p>Presently another regiment came along.</p> + +<p>"What may that be?"</p> + +<p>I called to the color-bearer: "Throw out your colors and let us see," +and it was the 21st or 22d Wisconsin—I have forgotten which.</p> + +<p>"Wisconsin! Northwest Territory! Wisconsin! Is it spelled with an O or a +W?"</p> + +<p>"Why, we spell it now with a W. It used to be spelled Ouis."</p> + +<p>"The 22d! that makes 22,000 men?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think there are a good many more than that. Wisconsin has sent +about 30,000 men into the war."</p> + +<p>Then again came along another regiment from Minnesota.</p> + +<p>"Minnesota! My God! where is Minnesota?" [Laughter.] "Minnesota!"</p> + +<p>"Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1054" id="Page_1054">[Pg 1054]</a></span> River, a +beautiful Territory, too, by the way—a beautiful State."</p> + +<p>"A State?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; has Senators in Congress; good ones, too. They're very fine +men—very fine troops."</p> + +<p>"How many men has she sent to this cruel war?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't exactly know; somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 men, +probably. Don't make any difference—all we want." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>"Well," says he, "now we must have been a set of fools to throw down the +gage of battle to a country we didn't know the geography of!" [Laughter +and applause.] "When I went to school that was the Northwest Territory, +and the Northwest Territory—well," says he, "we looked upon that as +away off, and didn't know anything about it. Fact is, we didn't know +anything at all about it."</p> + +<p>Said I: "My friend, think of it a moment. Down here in Georgia, one of +the original thirteen States which formed the great Union of this +country, you have stood fast. You have stood fast while the great +Northwest has been growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my +friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of +cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more +colleges—more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened +State—than the whole State of Georgia."</p> + +<p>"My God," says the man, "it's awful. I didn't dream of that."</p> + +<p>"Well," says I, "look here, my friend; I was once a banker, and have +some knowledge of notes, indorsements, and so forth. Did you ever have +anything to do with indorsements?"</p> + +<p>Says he: "Yes, I have had my share. I have a factor in Savannah, and I +give my note and he indorses it, and I get the money somehow or other. I +have to pay it in the end out of the crop."</p> + +<p>"Well," says I, "now look here. In 1861 the Southern States had +4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States of Pennsylvania, New +York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so forth, were indorsers. We were on +the bond. Your slaves were protected by the same law which protects land +and other property. Now, you got mad at them because they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1055" id="Page_1055">[Pg 1055]</a></span> didn't think +exactly as you did about religion, and about this thing and t'other +thing; and like a set of fools you first took your bond and drew your +pen through the indorser's names. Do you know what the effect will be? +You will never get paid for those niggers at all." [Laughter.] "They are +gone. They're free men now."</p> + +<p>"Well," says he, "we were the greatest set of fools that ever were in +the world." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State of Georgia before I +left it. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to us, but the +decree came from a higher power. No pen, no statesman, in fact, no +divine could have solved the riddle which bound us at that time; nothing +but the great God of War. And you and your fathers, your ancestors, if +you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had to resort to the +great arbiter of battles, and call upon Jove himself. And now all men in +America, North and South, East and West, stand free before the tribunal +of the Almighty, each man to work out his own destiny according to his +ability, and according to his virtue, and according to his manhood. +[Applause.] I assure you that we who took part in that war were kindly +men. We did not wish to kill. We did not wish to strike a blow. I know +that I grieved as much as any man when I saw pain and sorrow and +affliction among the innocent and distressed, and when I saw burning and +desolation. But these were incidents of war, and were forced upon +us—forced upon us by men influenced by a bad ambition; not by the men +who owned those slaves, but by politicians who used that as a pretext, +and forced you and your fathers and me and others who sit near me, to +take up arms and settle the controversy once and forever. [Cries of +"good," and loud applause.]</p> + +<p>Now, my friends of New England, we all know what your ancestors are +recorded to have been; mine were of the same stock. Both my parents were +from Norwalk, Connecticut. I think and feel like you. I, too, was taught +the alphabet with blows, and all the knowledge I possessed before I went +to West Point was spanked into me by the ferule of those old +schoolmasters. [Laughter.] I learned my lesson well, and I hope that +you, sons of New England, will ever stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1056" id="Page_1056">[Pg 1056]</a></span> by your country and its flag, +glory in the achievements of your ancestors, and forever—and to a day +beyond forever, if necessary, giving you time to make the journey to +your last resting-place—honor your blood, honor your Forefathers, honor +yourselves, and treasure the memories of those who have gone before you. +[Enthusiastic applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1057" id="Page_1057">[Pg 1057]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BALLARD SMITH</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE PRESS OF THE SOUTH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Ballard Smith at the annual banquet given by the +Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1888. John C. Calhoun, +one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, presided. Mr. Smith +spoke to the toast, "The Press of the South."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—The newspaper has always been a +potent factor in the South—for many years almost exclusively political, +but since the war occupying its more proper sphere and assisting more +largely in the material development of the country. I think every +Southern man will agree with me that the change of procession has been +to the very great advantage of our section. The columns of the +ante-bellum newspaper were too often the opportunity for the indulgence +of excited passions, political and social, and I doubt if our people +could not have better spared the newspaper altogether than to have +permitted the license of accusation, political incitement, and personal +rancor which characterized so largely the journals of thirty years ago. +[Applause.] But they were virile hands which held editorial pens in +those days and the faults were doubtless faults of the period rather +than of the men themselves. It was a splendid galaxy—that company which +included George D. Prentiss, Rhett, Forsythe, Hughes, Henry D. Wise, +John Mitchell, and Thomas Ritchie.</p> + +<p>But it is of Southern journalism during these last twenty years of which +I would speak. I have known something of it because my own +apprenticeship was served in one of the most brilliant journals of this +or any other time and of this or any other country. The services of +Henry Watterson to the South and to the country are a part of the +history of our time. [Applause.] His loyalty toward his section could +never have been doubted, and his firmness and broad patriotism served it +at a time of need to a degree which per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1058" id="Page_1058">[Pg 1058]</a></span>haps the firmness and patriotism +of no other man in the South could have equalled. He had for the vehicle +of his eloquent fervor a newspaper which commanded the affection of his +own people and the respect of the North. [Applause.] With the +restoration of order great newspapers—fair rivals to their great +contemporaries in the Eastern and Northern States—have grown to +prosperity in the various centres of the South, and they have acted out +a mission which is in some respects peculiar to themselves.</p> + +<p>More important than politics to the South, more important than the +advocacy of good morals—for of that our people took good care +themselves in city as in country—has been the material development of +our resources. The War left us very poor. The carpet-bag governments +stole a very large part of the little that was left. Injudicious +speculations in cotton during a few years of madness almost completed +our bankruptcy. With fertile fields, cheap labor, extraordinary mineral +resources, our almost undisputed control of one of the great staples of +the world, the year 1876 found us a prostrate people almost beyond +precedent. To this breach came several thoughtful, public-spirited, +eloquent men of the newspaper guild. It was our good fortune that in +Dawson of the "Charleston News and Courier," in Major Burke, Page M. +Baker, and Colonel Nicholson of New Orleans; in Major Belo of Galveston; +in the editors of "The Nashville Banner," "The American," "The Memphis +Appeal," "The Richmond Dispatch and State," and above all, in Henry W. +Grady, of "The Atlanta Constitution" [applause], we had spokesmen who, +day in and day out, in season and out, year after year devoted their +thoughts, their study, and their abilities to showing the world, first, +the sturdy intention of our people to recuperate their lost fortunes; +and second, the extraordinary resources of their section. [Applause.] +Certainly not in the history of my profession and perhaps not in any +history of such endeavor, have men, sinking mere personal interests and +ignoring the allurements of ambition, through a more dramatic exercise +of their talents so devoted themselves to the practical interests of +their people. [Applause.] We saw the results in the awakened curiosity +of the world, and in the speedy influx of capital to aid us in our +recuperation. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1059" id="Page_1059">[Pg 1059]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHARLES EMORY SMITH</h2> + + + + +<h4>IRELAND'S STRUGGLES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the banquet given by the +Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, +1887. Mr. Smith was introduced by the Society's President, John +Field, and called upon to speak to the toast, "The Press."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—These annual dinners of the +Hibernian Society, several of which I have had the honor of attending, +are distinguished by a peculiar association and spirit. The sons of +other nationalities, Englishmen, Welshmen, Scotchmen, Germans, and those +among whom I count myself—the sons of New England—are accustomed to +meet annually on the anniversary of a patron saint or on some great +historic occasion as you do. And those of us who have the opportunity of +going from one to the other will, I am sure, agree with me that nowhere +else do we find the patriotic fire and the deep moving spirit which we +find here. Something of this, Mr. President, is due to the buoyant +quality of blood which flows in every Irishman's veins—a quality which +makes the Irishman, wherever he may be and under all circumstances, +absolutely irrepressible. Something, I say, is due to this buoyant +quality of the Irish blood. Still, some of it is due to the fact that he +is moved by a deep sense of the woes and the wrongs, of the sadness and +the sorrows of his native land. Oppression and injustice only inflame +the spirit of nationality. The heel of the oppressor may crush and tear +the form or reduce the strength, but nothing crushes the inward resolve +of the heart. The Americans were never so American as when they revolted +against England and threw the tea overboard into Boston harbor, and +punished the Red-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1060" id="Page_1060">[Pg 1060]</a></span>Coats at Bunker Hill. The heavy yoke of Austria rested +grievously upon Hungary, but they raised themselves in revolt and fought +fearlessly for their home rule, for their freedom and their rights. And +they were defeated by treason in their camps and by the combined forces +of Austria and Russia. Yet, sir, they persevered until they achieved +home rule—as will Ireland at no distant day.</p> + +<p>The long history of oppression and injustice in Ireland has not only not +extinguished the flame of Irish patriotism and feeling, but has served +to kindle it, to make it more glowing to-day than ever before. For seven +centuries Ireland has wrestled with and been subjected to misrule—to +England's misrule: a rule great and noble in many things, as her +priceless statesman says, but with this one dark, terrible stain upon an +otherwise noble history. Only a day or two ago there reached our shores +the last number of an English periodical, containing an article from the +pen of that great statesman, to whom not only all Ireland, but all the +civilized world is looking to-day to battle for freedom in England. The +article presents, in the most striking form that I have ever seen, +statements of what is properly called Ireland's demands. And I was +struck there with the most extraordinary statement coming from this +great statesman of England, of the character of England's rule, or +rather England's misrule, of Ireland during those seven centuries. For +all those centuries, he says, were centuries not only of subjection, but +of extreme oppression. The fifth century was the century of +confiscation; the sixth was a century of penal laws—penal laws, which, +he says, "we cannot defend and which we must condemn and wash our hands +of the whole proceedings"—a century of penal laws, except from 1778 to +1795, which he calls the golden age of Ireland. And as I stop for a +moment to recollect what had distinguished that period, and as you stop +here to-night and recollect for a single moment what had distinguished +that short period of that century and made it the golden age of Ireland, +you will understand why it was so called. It was the period when Henry +Grattan, the great leader of the first battle for home rule, poured +forth his learned and masterly eloquence; when Curran made his powerful +plea for religious emancipation. The period when Robert Emmet—to whom +such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1061" id="Page_1061">[Pg 1061]</a></span> glorious tribute has been paid here to-night—was learning, in the +bright early morn of that career which promised to be so great and to do +so much, those lessons of patriotism which enabled him, when cut down in +the flower of youth, to meet even his ignominious death with marvellous +nerve and firm confidence, with courage and patriotism.</p> + +<p>And, Gentlemen, I believe that it is one glorious trait of the American +press that during this struggle which has gone on now for years, this +struggle for justice in Ireland, that the press of America has been true +to the best inspirations of liberty; and I unhesitatingly say to England +and to the English ministers, that if they would conform to the judgment +of the civilized world they must abandon their course of intoleration +and oppression, and must do justice to long oppressed Ireland. The +press, the united press of Philadelphia, and of other great cities of +the country, have done their part in promoting that work which has been +going on among our people for the last few years to attain this end.</p> + +<p>The press of Philadelphia aided in raising that magnificent fund of +$50,000 which went from this side; and if it need be, it will put its +hand to the plough and renew work. It was the remark of Mr. Gladstone, +that looking at past events, they [England] could not cite a single +witness in behalf of the cause which they represented. The American +people began their contributions in 1847, to prevent the starvation of +many of those people, and they continued their contributions to stop +evictions, and to pay the landlords; they continued their contributions +to promote that work of freedom and justice and home rule, for which we +stand united, inflexible and immovable until it shall be finally +accomplished. [Applause.]</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1062" id="Page_1062">[Pg 1062]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>THE PRESIDENT'S PRELUDE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the thirteenth annual dinner of +the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, +1893. Mr. Smith, then President of the Society, delivered the usual +introductory address of the presiding officer, immediately after +ex-President Benjamin F. Harrison had spoken.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Honored Guests and Fellow-members</span>:—I am sure that you have +greatly enjoyed the brilliant and witty speech to which you have just +listened—a speech which shows that our distinguished guest is as +felicitous at the dinner-table as he is signally successful in other +fields of oratory. But if you have deluded yourself with the idea that +because of this change in the programme you are to escape the infliction +of the usual address by the President of the Society, it is now my duty +to undeceive you. [Laughter.] Even the keen reflections of General +Harrison respecting the prepared impromptu speeches shall not deter us. +The rest of us who are not as gifted as he is have expended too much +midnight oil and sacrificed too much of the gray matter of the brain to +lose our opportunity. You will see that we have anticipated his +impromptu observations by carefully premeditating our impromptu reply. +[Laughter.] Lord Beaconsfield said that Carlyle had reasons to speak +civilly of Cromwell, for Cromwell would have hanged him. [Laughter.] +General Harrison has been hanging the rest of us—yes, hanging and +quartering us—though this is far from being the only reason for +speaking civilly of him, and yet we must go on with the exhibition.</p> + +<p>You have observed that on the programme, as arranged by the Committee, +the first number is a prelude by the President and the last a hymn by +the Society. The Committee evidently intended to begin and end with +music. What particular solo they expect me to perform I am somewhat +uncertain. But the truth is you have already had a part of the music and +you will have the rest when I am done. For my part is only that of the +leader in the old Puritan choir—to take up the tuning fork and pitch +the key; and I do this when I say that we are assembled for the two +hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1063" id="Page_1063">[Pg 1063]</a></span> and seventy-third time [laughter] to commemorate the landing of +the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. If any one doubts the correctness of that +chronology, let him consult Brothers Shortridge and Lewis and Clark and +Cornish, who have been with us from the beginning. [Laughter.] We have +met to celebrate these fourfathers [laughter], as well as some others, +and to glorify ourselves. If we had any doubts about the duty we owe our +ancestors, we have no scruples about the satisfaction we take in their +posterity. "My idea of first-rate poetry," said Josh Billings, "is the +kind of poetry that I would have writ." So our idea of first-rate +posterity is the kind of posterity we are. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But while not forgetting the posterity, it is not forbidden at these +dinners to make an occasional and casual allusion to the Pilgrim +Fathers. Thackeray tells us of an ardent young lady who had a devotion +of the same sort to "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted instruction, +she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted amusement, she read +"Nicholas Nickleby." When she had leisure, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." +When she was busy, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she was sick, she +read "Nicholas Nickleby," and when she got well, she read "Nicholas +Nickleby" over again. [Laughter.] We return with the same infrequent, +inconstant and uncertain fidelity to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers. +If we seek the light persiflage and airy humor of the after-dinner +spirit, we find an inexhaustible fountain in the quaint customs and odd +conceits of the Pilgrim Fathers. If we seek the enkindling fire and the +moral elevation of high principle and profound conviction and resolute +courage, we find a never-ceasing inspiration in the unfaltering +earnestness and imperishable deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Applause.] +After praying for all the rest of mankind, the good colored preacher +closed up with the invocation "And, finally, O Lord! bless the people of +the uninhabited portions of the globe." [Laughter.] We are sometimes as +comprehensive in our good-will as the colored brother; but to-night we +fix our thoughts upon that more limited portion of mankind which belongs +in nativity or ancestry to that more restricted part of the globe known +as New England.</p> + +<p>We are here to sing the praises of these sturdy people. They, too, +sang—and sang with a fervor that was celebrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1064" id="Page_1064">[Pg 1064]</a></span> in the memorable +inscription on one of the pews of old Salem Church:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Could poor King David but for once</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To Salem Church repair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And hear his Psalms thus warbled out,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Good Lord! how he would swear."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And it was not in Salem Church, either, that the Psalms were sung with +the peculiar variations of which we have record. An enterprising +establishment proposed to furnish all the hymn-books to a congregation +not abundantly blessed with this world's goods, provided it might insert +a little advertisement. The thrifty congregation in turn thought there +would be no harm in binding up any proper announcement with Watt and +Doddridge; but when they assembled on Christmas morning, they started +back aghast as they found themselves singing—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Hark! The herald angels sing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beecham's Pills are just the thing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peace on earth and mercy mild,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Two for man and one for child."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But if the Pilgrim Fathers were not the sweetest warblers, they at least +never wobbled. They always went direct to their mark. As Emerson said of +Napoleon, they would shorten a straight line to get at a point. They +faced the terrors of the New England northeast blast and starved in the +wilderness in order that we might live in freedom. We have literally +turned the tables on them and patiently endure the trying hardships of +this festive board in order that their memories may not die in +forgetfulness.</p> + +<p>We can never forget the hardships which they were forced to endure, but +at the same time we must recognize that they had some advantages over +us. They escaped some of the inflictions to which we have been compelled +to submit. They braved the wintry blast of Plymouth, but they never knew +the everlasting wind of the United States Senate. [Laughter.] They +slumbered under the long sermons of Cotton Mather, but they never +dreamed of the fourteen consecutive hours of Nebraska Allen or Nevada +Stewart. They battled with Armenian dogmas and Antinomian heresies, but +they never experienced the exhilarating delights of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1065" id="Page_1065">[Pg 1065]</a></span> Silver debate +or throbbed under the rapturous and tumultuous emotions of a Tariff +Schedule. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>They had their days of festivity. They observed the annual day of +Thanksgiving with a reverent, and not infrequently with a jocund, +spirit; but advanced as they were in many respects, they never reached +that sublime moral elevation and that high state of civilization which +enable us in our day to see that the only true way to observe +Thanksgiving is to shut up the churches and revel in the spiritual +glories of the flying wedge and the triumphant touchdown. [Laughter.] +Their calendar had three great red-letter days of celebration: +Commencement day, which expressed and emphasized the foremost place they +gave to education in their civil and religious polity; Training or +Muster day, which illustrated the spirit and the skill that gave them +victory over the Indians and made them stand undaunted on Bunker Hill +under Warren and Putnam until above the gleaming column of red-coats +they could look into the whites of the enemies' eyes; and Election day, +upon which, with its election sermon and its solemn choice of rulers, +they acted out their high sense of patriotic duty to the Commonwealth. +We are deeply concerned in these days about the debasement of the +ballot-box. Perhaps we could find a panacea in the practice of our +Pilgrim Fathers. They enacted a law that the right of suffrage should be +limited to church members in good standing. Suppose we had such a law +now, what a mighty revolution it would work either in exterminating +fraud or in promoting piety! "Men and Brethren!" said the colored +parson, "two ways are open before you, the broad and narrow way which +leads to perdition, and the straight and crooked way which leads to +damnation." [Laughter.] We have before us now the two ways of stuffed +ballot-boxes and empty pews, and our problem is to change the stuffing +from the ballot-boxes to the pews. I am not altogether sure which result +would be accomplished; but it is quite clear that if the law of our +Fathers did not destroy corruption in politics, it would at least kindle +a fresh interest in the church. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, it is with honest pride and fresh inspiration that we gather +once a year to revive our enkindling story. The Santa Maria, with its +antique form and its flying pen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1066" id="Page_1066">[Pg 1066]</a></span>nant, contrasting the past with the +present, amid the dazzling and now vanishing splendors of the wondrous +White City, has this year recalled the discovery of America. But the +jewel is more precious than the casket. The speaking picture appeals to +us more than its stately setting. And heroic as was the voyage of the +Santa Maria across a trackless sea to an unknown continent, it was the +nobler mission of the Mayflower to bring the priceless seeds of +principle and liberty which have blossomed in the resplendent +development and progress of our great free Republic. Conscience +incarnate in Brewster and Bradford, in Winthrop and Winslow, smote +Plymouth Rock; and from that hour there has poured forth from its rich +fountain a perennial stream of intellectual and moral force which has +flooded and fertilized a broad continent. The Puritan spirit was duty; +the Puritan creed was conscience; the Puritan principle was individual +freedom; the Puritan demand was organized liberty, guaranteed and +regulated by law. [Applause.] That spirit is for to-day as much as for +two centuries ago. It fired at Lexington the shot heard round the world, +and it thundered down the ages in the Emancipation Proclamation. It +lives for no narrow section and it is limited to no single class. The +soul that accepts God and conscience and equal manhood has the Puritan +spirit, whether he comes from Massachusetts or Virginia, from Vermont or +Indiana; whether you call him Quaker or Catholic, disciple of Saint +Nicholas or follower of Saint George. [Applause.] The Puritan did not +pass away with his early struggles. He has changed his garb and his +speech; he has advanced with the progress of the age; but in his +fidelity to principle and his devotion to duty he lives to-day as truly +as he lived in the days of the Puritan Revolution and the Puritan +Pilgrimage. His spirit shines in the lofty teachings of Channing and in +the unbending principles of Sumner, in the ripened wisdom of Emerson and +in the rhythmical lessons of Longfellow. The courageous John Pym was not +more resolute and penetrating in leading the great struggle in the Long +Parliament than was George F. Edmunds in the Senate of the United +States. And the intrepid and sagacious John Hampden, heroic in battle +and supreme in council, wise, steadfast, and true, was but a prototype +of Benjamin Harrison.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1067" id="Page_1067">[Pg 1067]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HERBERT SPENCER</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE GOSPEL OF RELAXATION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Herbert Spencer at a dinner given in his honor in New +York City, November 9, 1882. William M. Evarts presided.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—Along with your kindness there +comes to me a great unkindness from Fate; for now, that above all times +in my life I need the full command of what powers of speech I possess, +disturbed health so threatens to interfere with them, that I fear I +shall often inadequately express myself. Any failure in my response you +must please ascribe, in part at least, to a greatly disordered nervous +system. Regarding you as representing Americans at large, I feel that +the occasion is one on which arrears of thanks are due. I ought to begin +with the time, some two and twenty years ago, when my highly valued +friend, Professor Youmans, making efforts to diffuse my books here, +interested on their behalf Messrs. Appleton, who have ever treated me so +honorably and so handsomely; and I ought to detail from that time onward +the various marks and acts of sympathy by which I have been encouraged +in a struggle which was for many years disheartening.</p> + +<p>But intimating thus briefly my general indebtedness to my numerous +friends most of them unknown on this side of the Atlantic, I must name +more especially the many attentions and proffered hospitalities met with +during my late tour as well as, lastly and chiefly, this marked +expression of the sympathies and good wishes which many of you have +travelled so far to give at great cost of that time which is so precious +to an American. I believe I may truly say that the better health which +you have so cordially wished me will be in a measure furthered by the +wish; since all pleasur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1068" id="Page_1068">[Pg 1068]</a></span>able emotion is conducive to health, and as you +will fully believe, the remembrance of this evening will ever continue +to be a source of pleasurable emotion exceeded by few if any of my +remembrances.</p> + +<p>And now that I have thanked you sincerely though too briefly, I am going +to find fault with you. Already in some remarks drawn from me respecting +American affairs and American character, I have passed criticisms which +have been accepted far more good-naturedly than I could reasonably have +expected; and it seems strange that I should now again propose to +transgress. However, the fault I have to comment upon is one which most +will scarcely regard as a fault. It seems to me that in one respect +Americans have diverged too widely from savages. I do not mean to say +that they are in general unduly civilized. Throughout large parts of the +population even in long-settled regions there is no excess of those +virtues needed for the maintenance of social harmony. Especially out in +the West men's dealings do not yet betray too much of the "sweetness and +light" which we are told distinguish the cultured man from the +barbarian; nevertheless there is a sense in which my assertion is true.</p> + +<p>You know that the primitive man lacks power of application. Spurred by +hunger, by danger or revenge he can exert himself energetically for a +time, but his energy is spasmodic. Monotonous daily toil is impossible +to him. It is otherwise with the more developed man. The stern +discipline of social life has gradually increased the aptitude for +persistent industry; until among us, and still more among you, work has +become with many a passion. This contrast of nature is another aspect. +The savage thinks only of present satisfactions and leaves future +satisfactions uncared for. Contrariwise the American, eagerly pursuing a +future good almost ignores what good the passing day offers him; and +when the future good is gained, he neglects that while striving for some +still remoter good.</p> + +<p>What I have seen and heard during my stay among you has forced on me the +belief that this slow change from habitual inertness to persistent +activity has reached an extreme from which there must begin a +counter-change—a reaction. Everywhere I have been struck with the +number of faces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1069" id="Page_1069">[Pg 1069]</a></span> which told in strong lines of the burdens that had to +be borne. I have been struck, too, with the large proportion of +gray-haired men; and inquiries have brought out the fact that with you +the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier than with us. +Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had themselves suffered +from nervous collapse due to the stress of business, or named friends +who had either killed themselves by overwork or had been permanently +incapacitated or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health. +I do but echo the opinion of all the observant persons I have spoken to +that immense injury is being done by this high-pressure life—the +physique is being undermined. That subtle thinker and poet whom you have +lately had to mourn—Emerson,—says in his "Essay on the Gentleman," +that the first requisite is that he shall be a good animal. The +requisite is a general one—it extends to man, the father, the citizen. +We hear a great deal about the "vile body"; and many are encouraged by +the phrase to transgress the laws of health. But Nature quietly +suppresses those who treat thus disrespectfully one of her highest +products and leaves the world to be peopled by the descendants of those +who are not so foolish.</p> + +<p>Beyond these immediate mischiefs, there are remoter mischiefs. Exclusive +devotion to work has the result that amusements cease to please; and +when relaxation becomes imperative, life becomes dreary from lack of its +sole interest—the interest in business. The remark current in England +that when the American travels, his aim is to do the greatest amount of +sight-seeing in the shortest time, I find current here also; it is +recognized that the satisfaction of getting on devours nearly all other +satisfactions. When recently at Niagara, which gave us a whole week's +pleasure, I learned from the landlord of the hotel that most Americans +come one day and go away the next. Old Froissart, who said of the +English of his day that "they take their pleasures sadly after their +fashion," would doubtless, if he lived now, say of the Americans that +"they take their pleasures hurriedly after their fashion." In large +measure with us, and still more with you, there is not that abandonment +to the moment which is requisite for full enjoyment; and this +abandonment is prevented by the ever-present sense of mul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1070" id="Page_1070">[Pg 1070]</a></span>titudinous +responsibilities. So that beyond the serious physical mischief caused by +overwork, there is the further mischief that it destroys what value +there would otherwise be in the leisure part of life. Nor do the evils +end here. There is the injury to posterity. Damaged constitutions +re-appear in their children and entail on them far more of ill than +great fortunes yield them of good. When life has been duly rationalized +by science, it will be seen that among a man's duties the care of the +body is imperative not only out of regard for personal welfare, but also +out of regard for descendants. His constitution will be considered as an +entailed estate which he ought to pass on uninjured if not improved to +those who follow; and it will be held that millions bequeathed by him +will not compensate for feeble health and decreased ability to enjoy +life.</p> + +<p>Once more, there is the injury to fellow-citizens taking the shape of +undue regard of competitors. I hear that a great trader among you +deliberately endeavored to crush out everyone whose business competed +with his own; and manifestly the man who, making himself a slave to +accumulation, absorbs an inordinate share of the trade or profession he +is engaged in, makes life harder for all others engaged in it and +excludes from it many who might otherwise gain competencies. Thus, +besides the egoistic motive, there are two altruistic motives which +should deter from this excess in work.</p> + +<p>The truth is there needs a revised ideal of life. Look back through the +past, or look abroad through the present, and we find that the ideal of +life is variable and depends on social conditions. Everyone knows that +to be a successful warrior was the highest aim among all ancient peoples +of note, as it is still among many barbarous peoples. When we remember +that in the Norseman's heaven, the time was to be passed in daily +battles with magical healing of wounds, we see how deeply rooted may +become the conception that fighting is man's proper business and that +industry is fit only for slaves and people of low degree. That is to +say, when the chronic struggles of races necessitate perpetual wars +there is evolved an ideal of life adapted to the requirements. We have +changed all that in modern civilized societies, especially in England +and still more in America. With the decline<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1071" id="Page_1071">[Pg 1071]</a></span> of militant activity and +the growth of industrial activity the occupations once disgraceful have +become honorable. The duty to work has taken the place of the duty to +fight; and in the one case as in the other the ideal of life has become +so well established that scarcely anybody dreams of questioning it. +Practical business has been substituted for war as the purpose of +existence.</p> + +<p>Is this modern ideal to survive throughout the future? I think not. +While all other things undergo continuous change, it is impossible that +ideals should remain fixed. The ancient ideal was appropriate to the +ages of conquest by man over man and spread of the strongest races. The +modern ideal is appropriate to ages in which conquest of the earth and +subjection of the powers of Nature to human use is the predominant need. +But hereafter, when both these ends have in the main been achieved, the +ideal formed will probably differ considerably from the present one. May +we not foresee the nature of the difference? I think we may.</p> + +<p>Some twenty years ago, a good friend of mine and a good friend of yours, +too, though you never saw him, John Stuart Mill, delivered at St. +Andrew's an inaugural address on the occasion of his appointment to the +Lord Rectorship. It contained much to be admired, as did all he wrote; +there ran through it, however, the tacit assumption that life is for +learning and working. I felt at the time that I should have liked to +take up the opposite thesis. I should have liked to contend that life is +not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and working are +for life. The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct +under all circumstances as shall make living complete—all other uses of +knowledge are secondary. It scarcely needs saying that the primary use +of work is that of supplying the materials and aids to living +completely; and that any other uses of work are secondary. But in men's +conceptions the secondary has in great measure usurped the place of the +primary.</p> + +<p>The apostle of culture, as culture is commonly conceived, Mr. Matthew +Arnold, makes little or no reference to the fact that the first use of +knowledge is the right ordering of all actions; and Mr. Carlyle, who is +a good exponent of current ideas about work, insists on its virtues for +quite other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1072" id="Page_1072">[Pg 1072]</a></span> reasons than that it achieves sustentation. We may trace +everywhere in human affairs a tendency to transform the means into the +end. All see that the miser does this when making the accumulation of +money his sole satisfaction; he forgets that money is of value only to +purchase satisfactions. But it is less commonly seen that the like is +true of the work by which the money is accumulated—that industry, too, +bodily or mental, is but a means, and that it is as irrational to pursue +it to the exclusion of that complete living it subserves as it is for +the miser to accumulate money and make no use of it. Hereafter when this +age of active material progress has yielded mankind its benefits there +will, I think, come a better adjustment of labor and enjoyment. Among +reasons for thinking this there is the reason that the processes of +evolution throughout the world at large bring an increasing surplus of +energies that are not absorbed in fulfilling material needs and point to +a still larger surplus for humanity of the future. And there are other +reasons which I must pass over. In brief, I may say that we have had +somewhat too much of the "gospel of work." It is time to preach the +gospel of relaxation.</p> + +<p>This is a very unconventional after-dinner speech. Especially it will be +thought strange that in returning thanks I should deliver something very +much like a homily. But I have thought I could not better convey my +thanks than by the expression of a sympathy which issues in a fear. If, +as I gather, this intemperance in work affects more especially the +Anglo-American part of the population, if there results an undermining +of the physique not only in adults, but also in the young, who as I +learn from your daily journals are also being injured by overwork—if +the ultimate consequence should be a dwindling away of those among you +who are the inheritors of free institutions and best adapted to them, +then there will come a further difficulty in the working out of that +great future which lies before the American nation. To my anxiety on +this account you must please ascribe the unusual character of my +remarks.</p> + +<p>And now I must bid you farewell. When I sail by the Germanic on +Saturday, I shall bear with me pleasant remembrances of my intercourse +with many Americans, joined with regrets that my state of health has +prevented me from seeing a larger number.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1073" id="Page_1073">[Pg 1073]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY</h2> + + + + +<h4>AMERICA VISITED</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, at the +breakfast given by the Century Club, New York City, November 2, +1878.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—The hospitality shown to me has +been no exception to that with which every Englishman meets in this +country, in the endless repetition of kind words and the overwhelming +pressure of genial entertainment which has been thrust upon me. That +famous Englishman, Dr. Johnson, when he went from England to Scotland, +which, at that time, was a more formidable undertaking than is a voyage +from England to America at the present time, met at a reception at St. +Andrew's a young professor who said, breaking the gloomy silence of the +occasion: "I trust you have not been disappointed!" And the famous +Englishman replied: "No; I was told that I should find men of rude +manners and savage tastes, and I have not been disappointed." So, too, +when I set out for your shores I was told that I should meet a kindly +welcome and the most friendly hospitality. I can only say, with Dr. +Johnson, I have not been disappointed.</p> + +<p>But in my vivid though short experience of American life and manners, I +have experienced not only hospitality, but considerate and thoughtful +kindness, for which I must ever be grateful. I can find it in my heart +even to forgive the reporters who have left little of what I have said +or done unnoted, and when they have failed in this, have invented +fabulous histories of things which I never did and sayings which I never +uttered. Sometimes when I have been questioned as to my impressions and +views of America, I have been tempted to say with an Englishman who was +hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1074" id="Page_1074">[Pg 1074]</a></span> pressed by his constituents with absurd solicitations: "Gentlemen, +this is the humblest moment of my life, that you should take me for such +a fool as to answer all your questions." But I know their good +intentions and I forgive them freely.</p> + +<p>The two months which I have spent on these shores seem to me two years +in actual work, or two centuries rather, for in them I have lived +through all American history. In Virginia I saw the era of the earliest +settlers, and I met John Smith and Pocahontas on the shores of the James +River. In Philadelphia I lived with William Penn, but in a splendor +which I fear would have shocked his simple soul. At Salem I encountered +the stern founders of Massachusetts; at Plymouth I watched the Mayflower +threading its way round the shoals and promontories of that intricate +bay. On Lake George and at Quebec I followed the struggle between the +English and the French for the possession of this great continent. At +Boston and Concord I followed the progress of the War of Independence. +At Mount Vernon I enjoyed the felicity of companionship with Washington +and his associates. I pause at this great name, and carry my +recollections no further. But you will understand how long and fruitful +an experience has thus been added to my life, during the few weeks in +which I have moved amongst the scenes of your eventful history.</p> + +<p>And then, leaving the past for the present, a new field opens before me. +There are two impressions which are fixed upon my mind as to the leading +characteristics of the people among whom I have passed, as the almanac +informs me, but two short months. On the one hand I see that everything +seems to be fermenting and growing, changing, perplexing, bewildering. +In that memorable hour—memorable in the life of every man, memorable as +when he sees the first view of the Pyramids, or of the snow-clad range +of the Alps—in the hour when for the first time I stood before the +cataracts of Niagara, I seemed to see a vision of the fears and hopes of +America. It was midnight, the moon was full, and I saw from the +Suspension Bridge the ceaseless contortion, confusion, whirl, and chaos, +which burst forth in clouds of foam from that immense central chasm +which divides the American from the British dominion; and as I looked +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1075" id="Page_1075">[Pg 1075]</a></span> that ever-changing movement, and listened to that everlasting roar, +I saw an emblem of the devouring activity, and ceaseless, restless, +beating whirlpool of existence in the United States. But into the +moonlight sky there rose a cloud of spray twice as high as the Falls +themselves, silent, majestic, immovable. In that silver column, +glittering in the moonlight, I saw an image of the future of American +destiny, of the pillar of light which should emerge from the +distractions of the present—a likeness of the buoyancy and hopefulness +which characterize you both as individuals and as a nation.</p> + +<p>You may remember Wordsworth's fine lines on "Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow +Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited." "America Unvisited"—that is now for +me a vision of the past; that fabulous America, in which, before they +come to your shores, Englishmen believe Pennsylvania to be the capital +of Massachusetts, and Chicago to be a few miles from New York—that has +now passed away from my mind forever. "America Visited"; this, with its +historic scenes and its endless suggestions of thought, has taken the +place of that fictitious region. Whether there will ever be an "America +Revisited" I cannot say; but if there should be, it will then be to me +not the land of the Pilgrim Fathers and Washington, so much as the land +of kindly homes, and enduring friendships, and happy recollections, +which have now endeared it to me. One feature of this visit I fear I +cannot hope to see repeated, yet one without which it could never have +been accomplished. My two friends, to whom such a pleasing reference has +been made by Dr. Adams, who have made the task easy for me which else +would have been impossible; who have lightened every anxiety; who have +watched over me with such vigilant care that I have not been allowed to +touch more than two dollars in the whole course of my journey—they, +perchance, may not share in "America Revisited." But if ever such should +be my own good fortune, I shall remember it as the land which I visited +with them; where, if at first they were welcomed to your homes for my +sake, I have often felt as the days rolled on that I was welcomed for +their sake. And you will remember them. When in after years you read at +the end of some elaborate essay on the history of music or on Biblical +geog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1076" id="Page_1076">[Pg 1076]</a></span>raphy the name of George Grove, you will recall with pleasure the +incessant questionings, the eager desire for knowledge, the wide and +varied capacity for all manner of instruction, which you experienced in +your conversations with him here. And when also hereafter there shall +reach to your shores the fame of the distinguished physician, Dr. +Harper, whether in England or in New Zealand, you will be the more +rejoiced because it will bring before you the memory of the youthful and +blooming student who inspected your hospitals with such keen +appreciation, so impartially sifting the good from the evil.</p> + +<p>I part from you with the conviction that such bonds of kindly +intercourse will cement the union between the two countries even more +than the wonderful cable, on which it is popularly believed in England +that my friend and host, Mr. Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious +existence appearing and reappearing at one and the same moment in London +and in New York. Of that unbroken union there seemed to me a likeness, +when on the beautiful shores of Lake George, the Loch Katrine of +America, I saw a maple and an oak-tree growing together from the same +stem, perhaps from the same root—the brilliant fiery maple, the emblem +of America; the gnarled and twisted oak, the emblem of England. So may +the two nations always rise together, so different each from each, and +representing so distinct a future, yet each springing from the same +ancestral root, each bound together by the same healthful sap, and the +same vigorous growth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1077" id="Page_1077">[Pg 1077]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HENRY MORTON STANLEY</h2> + + + + +<h4>THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Henry M. Stanley at a dinner given in his honor by the +Lotos Club, New York City, November 27, 1886. Whitelaw Reid, +President of the Lotos Club, in welcoming Mr. Stanley, said: "Well, +gentlemen, your alarm of yesterday and last night was needless. The +Atlantic Ocean would not break even a dinner engagement for the man +whom the terrors of the Congo and the Nile could not turn back, and +your guest is here. [Applause.] It is fourteen years since you last +gave him welcome. Then he came to you fresh from the discovery of +Livingstone. The credulity which even doubted the records of that +adventurous march or the reality of his brilliant result had hardly +died out. Our young correspondent, after seeing the war end here +without his having a fair chance to win his spurs, had suddenly +made a wonderful hit out of the expedition which nobody had really +believed in and most people had laughed at. We were proud of him, +and right glad to see him, and a little bit uneasy, but vastly +amused over his peppery dealings with the Royal Geographers. +[Laughter.] In spite of our admiration for his pluck and his luck +we did not take him quite seriously. [Laughter.] In fact we did not +take anything very seriously in those days. The Lotos Club at first +was younger in that hearty enthusiastic reception to Stanley +fourteen years ago in that gay little clubhouse next to the Academy +of Music; we were thinking far more of a hearty greeting to the +comrade of the quill who had been having a hard time but had scored +'a big beat' [laughter] than of adequate recognition to the man +already well launched on a career that ranks him among the foremost +explorers of the century. [Loud cheers.] It is the character in +which you must welcome him now. The Royal Geographical Society has +no further doubt as to the credit to which he is entitled. He +brings its diploma of honorary membership ["Hear! Hear!"], he bears +the gold medal of Victor Emmanuel, the decorations of the Khedive, +the commission of the King of the Belgians. More than any of them +he cherishes another distinction—what American would not prize +it?—the vote of thanks of the Legislature and the recognition of +his work by our Government. The young war-correspondent has led +expeditions of his own—the man who set out merely to find +Livingstone, has himself done a work greater than Livingstone's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1078" id="Page_1078">[Pg 1078]</a></span> +[Applause.] He has explored Equatorial Africa, penetrated the Dark +Continent from side to side, mapped the Nile, and founded the Free +State on the Congo.' [Applause.] All honor to our returning guest! +The years have left their marks upon his frame and their honors +upon his name. Let us make him forget the fevers that have parched +him, the wild beasts and the more savage men that have pursued him. +["Hear! Hear!"] He is once more among the friends of his youth, in +the land of his adoption. Let us make him feel at home. [Applause.] +I give you the health of our friend and comrade."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Lotos Club</span>: One might start a +great many principles and ideas which would require to be illustrated +and drawn out in order to present a picture of my feelings at the +present moment. I am conscious that in my immediate vicinity there are +people who were great when I was little. I remember very well when I was +unknown to anybody, how I was sent to report a lecture by my friend +right opposite, Mr. George Alfred Townsend, and I remember the manner in +which he said: "Galileo said: 'The world moves round,' and the world +does move round," upon the platform of the Mercantile Hall in St. +Louis—one of the grandest things out. [Laughter and applause.] The next +great occasion that I had to come before the public was Mark Twain's +lecture on the Sandwich Islands, which I was sent to report. And when I +look to my left here I see Colonel Anderson, whose very face gives me an +idea that Bennett has got some telegraphic despatch and is just about to +send me to some terrible region for some desperate commission. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>And, of course, you are aware that it was owing to the proprietor and +editor of a newspaper that I dropped the pacific garb of a journalist +and donned the costume of an African traveller. It was not for me, one +of the least in the newspaper corps, to question the newspaper +proprietor's motives. He was an able editor, very rich, desperately +despotic. [Laughter.] He commanded a great army of roving writers, +people of fame in the news-gathering world; men who had been everywhere +and had seen everything from the bottom of the Atlantic to the top of +the very highest mountain; men who were as ready to give their advice to +National Cabinets [laughter] as they were ready to give it to the +smallest police courts in the United States. [Laughter.] I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1079" id="Page_1079">[Pg 1079]</a></span> belonged to +this class of roving writers, and I can truly say that I did my best to +be conspicuously great in it, by an untiring devotion to my duties, an +untiring indefatigability, as though the ordinary rotation of the +universe depended upon my single endeavors. [Laughter.] If, as some of +you suspect, the enterprise of the able editor was only inspired with a +view to obtain the largest circulation, my unyielding and guiding +motive, if I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with all my +might that duty to which according to the English State Church +Catechism, "it had pleased God to call me." [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>He first despatched me to Abyssinia—straight from Missouri to +Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! [Laughter.] People who lived west +of the Missouri River have scarcely, I think, much knowledge of +Abyssinia, and there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that, +but it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, and it seemed to his +agent in London a very ordinary thing indeed, so I of course followed +suit. I took it as a very ordinary thing, and I went to Abyssinia, and +somehow or other good-luck followed me and my telegrams reporting the +fall of Magdala happened to be a week ahead of the British Government's. +The people said I had done right well, though the London papers said I +was an impostor. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The second thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to Crete to run +the blockade, describe the Cretan rebellion from the Cretan side, and +from the Turkish side; and then I was sent to Spain to report from the +Republican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dispassionately. +[Laughter.] And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to Paris. +Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, said: "I want you to go +and find Livingstone." As I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I +dared not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely said: "Go," and +I went. He gave me a glass of champagne and I think that was superb. +[Laughter.] I confessed my duty to him, and I went. And as good-luck +would have it, I found Livingstone. [Loud and continued cheering.] I +returned as a good citizen ought and as a good reporter ought and as a +good correspondent ought, to tell the tale, and arriving at Aden, I +telegraphed a request that I might be permitted to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1080" id="Page_1080">[Pg 1080]</a></span> visit civilization +before I went to China. [Laughter.] I came to civilization, and what do +you think was the result? Why, only to find that all the world +disbelieved my story. [Laughter.] Dear me! If I were proud of anything, +it was that what I said was a fact ["Good!"]; that whatever I said I +would do, I would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many a good +man had done before, as my predecessors had done, to lay my bones +behind. That's all. [Loud cheering.] I was requested in an off-hand +manner—just as any member of the Lotos Club here present would +say—"Would you mind giving us a little résumé of your geographical +work?" I said: "Not in the least, my dear sir; I have not the slightest +objection." And do you know that to make it perfectly geographical and +not in the least sensational, I took particular pains and I wrote a +paper out, and when it was printed, it was just about so long +[indicating an inch]. It contained about a hundred polysyllabic African +words. [Laughter.] And yet "for a' that and a' that" the pundits of the +Geographical Society—Brighton Association—said that they hadn't come +to listen to any sensational stories, but that they had come to listen +to facts. [Laughter.] Well now, a little gentleman, very reverend, full +of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions and cuneiform +characters, wrote to "The Times" stating that it was not Stanley who had +discovered Livingstone but that it was Livingstone who had discovered +Stanley. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>If it had not been for that unbelief, I don't believe I should ever have +visited Africa again; I should have become, or I should have endeavored +to become, with Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the +Lotos Club. [Laughter.] I should have settled down and become as steady +and as stolid as some of these patriots that you have around here, I +should have said nothing offensive. I should have done some "treating." +I should have offered a few cigars and on Saturday night, perhaps, I +would have opened a bottle of champagne and distributed it among my +friends. But that was not to be. I left New York for Spain and then the +Ashantee War broke out and once more my good-luck followed me and I got +the treaty of peace ahead of everybody else, and as I was coming to +England from the Ashantee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my +hands at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1081" id="Page_1081">[Pg 1081]</a></span> Island of St. Vincent, saying that Livingstone was dead. I +said: "What does that mean to me? New Yorkers don't believe in me. How +was I to prove that what I have said is true? By George! I will go and +complete Livingstone's work. I will prove that the discovery of +Livingstone was a mere fleabite. I will prove to them that I am a good +man and true." That is all that I wanted. [Loud cheers.]</p> + +<p>I accompanied Livingstone's remains to Westminster Abbey. I saw those +remains buried which I had left sixteen months before enjoying full life +and abundant hope. The "Daily Telegraph's" proprietor cabled over to +Bennett: "Will you join us in sending Stanley over to complete +Livingstone's explorations?" Bennett received the telegram in New York, +read it, pondered a moment, snatched a blank and wrote: "Yes. Bennett." +That was my commission, and I set out to Africa intending to complete +Livingstone's explorations, also to settle the Nile problem, as to where +the head-waters of the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted +of one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow lakes; to throw +some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, and also to discover the +outlet of Lake Tanganyika, and then to find out what strange, mysterious +river this was which had lured Livingstone on to his death—whether it +was the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of "The +Light of Asia," said: "Do you think you can do all this?" "Don't ask me +such a conundrum as that. Put down the funds and tell me to go. That is +all." ["Hear! Hear!"] And he induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. +The funds were put down, and I went.</p> + +<p>First of all, we settled the problem of the Victoria that it was one +body of water, that instead of being a cluster of shallow lakes or +marshes, it was one body of water, 21,500 square miles in extent. While +endeavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, we +discovered a new lake, a much superior lake to Albert Nyanza—the dead +Locust Lake—and at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to +discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza and he found it to be only +a miserable 140 miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm had stood +on the brow of a high plateau and looking down on the dark blue waters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1082" id="Page_1082">[Pg 1082]</a></span> +of Albert Nyanza, cried romantically: "I see it extending indefinitely +toward the southwest!" Indefinitely is not a geographical expression, +gentlemen. [Laughter.] We found that there was no outlet to the +Tanganyika, although it was a sweet-water lake; we, settling that +problem, day after day as we glided down the strange river that had +lured Livingstone to his death, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone +had been, when he wrote his last letter and said: "I will never be made +black man's meat for anything less than the classic Nile."</p> + +<p>After travelling 400 miles we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond +them, we saw the river deflect from its Nileward course toward the +Northwest. Then it turned west, and then visions of towers and towns and +strange tribes and strange nations broke upon our imagination, and we +wondered what we were going to see, when the river suddenly took a +decided turn toward the southwest and our dreams were put an end to. We +saw then that it was aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had +propitiated some natives whom we encountered, by showing them crimson +beads and polished wire, that had been polished for the occasion, we +said: "This is for your answer. What river is this?" "Why, it is <i>the</i> +river, of course." That was not an answer, and it required some +persuasion before the chief, bit by bit digging into his brain, managed +to roll out sonorously that, "It is the Ko-to-yah Congo." "It is the +river of Congo-land." Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and +Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for the banks of the +river where Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh! This is the +parvenu Congo! Then we glided on and on past strange nations and +cannibals—not past those nations which have their heads under their +arms—for 1,100 miles, until we arrived at the circular extension of the +river and my last remaining companion called it the Stanley Pool, and +then five months after that our journey ended.</p> + +<p>After that I had a very good mind to come back to America, and say, like +the Queen of Uganda: "There, what did I tell you?" But you know, the +fates would not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I landed in +Europe the King of Italy gave me an express train to convey me to +France, and the very moment I descended from it at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1083" id="Page_1083">[Pg 1083]</a></span> Marseilles there +were three ambassadors from the King of the Belgians asked me to go back +to Africa. "What! go back to Africa? Never! [Laughter.] I have come for +civilization; I have come for enjoyment. I have come for love, for life, +for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask some of those people you know who have +never been to Africa before. I have had enough of it." "Well, perhaps, +by and by?" "Ah, I don't know what will happen by and by, but, just now, +never! never! Not for Rothschild's wealth!" [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, and it was then I +began to feel "Well, after all, I have done something, haven't I?" I +felt superb [laughter], but you know I have always considered myself a +Republican. I have those bullet-riddled flags, and those arrow-torn +flags, the Stars and Stripes that I carried in Africa, for the discovery +of Livingstone, and that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. +I have them in London now, jealously guarded in the secret recesses of +my cabinet. I only allow my very best friends to look at them, and if +any of you gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters, I will show them to +you. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>After I had written my book, "Through the Dark Continent," I began to +lecture, using these words: "I have passed through a land watered by the +largest river of the African continent, and that land knows no owner. A +word to the wise is sufficient. You have cloths and hardware and +glassware and gunpowder and these millions of natives have ivory and +gums and rubber and dye-stuffs, and in barter there is good profit." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to that country. My +expedition when we started from the coast numbered 300 colored people +and fourteen Europeans. We returned with 3,000 trained black men and 300 +Europeans. The first sum allowed me was $50,000 a year, but it has ended +at something like $700,000 a year. Thus, you see, the progress of +civilization. We found the Congo, having only canoes. To-day there are +eight steamers. It was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. He +dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa into a confederacy and +called it the Free State, but on February 25, 1885, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1084" id="Page_1084">[Pg 1084]</a></span> Powers of +Europe and America also ratified an act, recognizing the territories +acquired by us to be the free and independent State of the Congo. +Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have reflected a little more +upon the value of what Livingstone and Leopold have been doing, they +will also agree that these men have done their duty in this world and in +the age that they lived, and that their labor has not been in vain on +account of the great sacrifices they have made to the benighted millions +of dark Africa. [Loud and enthusiastic applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1085" id="Page_1085">[Pg 1085]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN</h2> + + + + +<h4>TRIBUTE TO RICHARD HENRY STODDARD</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Edmund Clarence Stedman as chairman of the dinner given +by the Authors' Club to Richard Henry Stoddard, New York City, +March 26, 1897.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—The members of the Authors' Club are closely +associated to-night with many other citizens in a sentiment felt by one +and all—that of love and reverence for the chief guest of the evening. +He has our common pride in his fame. He has what is, I think, of even +more value to him, our entire affection. We have heard something of late +concerning the "banquet habit," and there are banquets which make it +seem to the point. But there are also occasions which transfigure even +custom, and make it honored "in the observance." Nor is this a feast of +the habitual kind, as concerns its givers, its recipient, and the city +in which it is given. The Authors' Club, with many festivals counted in +its private annals, now, for the first time, offers a public tribute to +one of its own number; in this case, one upon whom it long since +conferred a promotion to honorary membership. As for New York, warder of +the gates of the ocean, and by instinct and tradition first to welcome +the nation's visitors, it constantly offers bread and salt—yes, and +speeches—to authors, as to other guests, from older lands, and many of +us often have joined in this function. But we do not remember that it +has been a habit for New York to tender either the oratorical bane or +the gustatory antidote to her own writers. Except within the shade of +their own coverts they have escaped these offerings, unless there has +been something other than literary service to bring them public +recognition. In the latter case, as when men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1086" id="Page_1086">[Pg 1086]</a></span> who are or have been +members of our club become Ambassadors, because they are undeniably +fitted for the missions to Great Britain and France, even authors are +made to sit in state. To-night's gathering, then, is, indeed, +exceptional, being in public honor of an American author here +resident—of "one of our own"—who is not booked for a foreign mission, +nor leaving the country, nor returning, nor doing anything more unusual +than to perform his stint of work, and to sing any song that comes to +him—as he tells us,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Not because he woos it long,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But because it suits its will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tired at last of being still."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Our homage is rendered, with love and enthusiasm, for his service to +"mere literature"—for his indomitable devotion throughout half a +century to the joy and toil of his profession, in which he has so fought +the fight and kept the faith of a working man of letters. It is rendered +to the most distinguished poet, of his country and generation, still +remaining with us and still in full voice. It is rendered to the +comrade—to the man who, with his modesty and fortitude and the absence +of self-seeking—with the quips and quirks that cover his gravest moods, +with his attachment for the city which has given him that which Lamb so +loved, "the sweet security of streets"—it is rendered, I say, to the +man who best preserves for us, in his living presence, the traditions of +all that an English-speaking poet and book-fellow should be to +constitute a satisfying type.</p> + +<p>There is, perhaps, a special fitness in our gathering at this time. I +sometimes have thought upon the possible career of our poet if his life +had been passed in the suburbs of the down-east Athens, among serenities +and mutualities so auspicious to the genius and repute of that shining +group lately gathered to the past. One thing is certain, he would not +have weathered his seventieth birthday, at any season, without receiving +such a tribute as this, nor would a public dinner have reminded him of +days when a poet was glad to get any dinner at all. Through his birth, +Massachusetts claims her share in his distinction. But, having been +brought to New York in childhood, he seems to have reasoned out for +himself the corollary to a certain famous epigram, and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1087" id="Page_1087">[Pg 1087]</a></span> have thought +it just as well to stay in the city which resident Bostonians keep as +the best place to go to while still in the flesh. Probably he had not +then realized the truth, since expressed in his own lines:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Yes, there's a luck in most things, and in none</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More than in being born at the right time!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>His birthday, in fact, comes in midsummer, when New York is more inert +than an analytic novel. This dinner, then, is one of those gifts of love +which are all the more unstinted because by chance deferred.</p> + +<p>It was in the order of things, and no cause for blame, that, after this +town passed from the provincial stage, there was so long a period when +it had to be, as De Quincey said of Oxford Street, a stony-hearted +mother to her bookmen and poets; that she had few posts for them and +little of a market. Even her colleges had not the means, if they had the +will, to utilize their talents and acquirements. We do owe to her +newspapers and magazines, and now and then to the traditional liking of +Uncle Sam for his bookish offspring, that some of them did not fall by +the way, even in that arid time succeeding the Civil War, when we +learned that letters were foregone, not only inter arma, but for a long +while afterward. Those were the days when English went untaught, and +when publishers were more afraid of poetry than they now are of verse. +Yet here is one who was able to live through it all, and now sees a +changed condition, to the evolution of which he contributed his full +share. But he is no more a child of the past than of the present, nor +need he repine like Cato, as one who has to account for himself to a new +generation. He is with us and of us, and in the working ranks, as ever.</p> + +<p>For all this he began long enough ago to have his early poetry refused +by Poe, because it was too good to be the work of an obscure stripling, +and to have had Hawthorne for his sponsor and friend. His youth showed +again how much more inborn tendency has to do with one's life than any +external forces—such as guardianship, means, and what we call +education. The thrush takes to the bough, wheresoever hatched and +fledged. Many waters cannot quench genius, neither can the floods drown +it. The story of Dick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1088" id="Page_1088">[Pg 1088]</a></span>ens's boyhood, as told by himself, is not more +pathetic—nor is its outcome more beautiful—than what we know of our +guest's experiences—his orphanage, his few years' meagre schooling, his +work as a boy in all sorts of shifting occupations, the attempt to make +a learned blacksmith of him, his final apprenticeship to iron-moulding, +at which he worked on the East Side from his eighteenth to his +twenty-first year. As Dr. Griswold put it, he began to mould his +thoughts into the symmetry of verse while he moulded the molten metal +into shapes of grace. Mr. Stoddard, however, says that a knowledge of +foundries was not one of the learned Doctor's strong points. Yet the +young artisan somehow got hold of books, and not only made poetry, but +succeeded in showing it to such magnates as Park Benjamin and Willis. +The kindly Willis said that he had brains enough to make a reputation, +but that "writing was hard work to do, and ill paid when done." But the +youth was bound to take the road to Arcady. He asked for nothing better +than this ill-paid craft. His passion for it, doubtless was strengthened +by his physical toil and uncongenial surroundings. For one I am not +surprised that much of his early verse, which is still retained in his +works, breathes the spirit of Keats, though where and how this strayed +singer came to study that most perfect and delicate of masters none but +himself can tell. The fact remains that he somehow, also, left his +moulding and trusted to his pen. To use his own words, he "set +resolutely to work to learn the only trade for which he seemed +fitted—that of literature." From that time to this, a half century, he +has clung to it. Never in his worst seasons did he stop to think how the +world treated him, or that he was entitled to special providences. He +accepted poverty or good-luck with an equal mind, content with the +reward of being a reader, a writer, and, above all, a poet. He managed +not to loaf, and yet to invite his soul—and his songs are evidence that +the invitation was accepted. If to labor is to pray, his industry has +been a religion, for I doubt if there has been a day in all these fifty +years when, unless disabled bodily, he has not worked at his trade.</p> + +<p>We all know with what results. He has earned a manly living from the +first, and therewithal has steadily contributed a vital portion to the +current, and to the enduring, literature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1089" id="Page_1089">[Pg 1089]</a></span> of his land and language. +There was one thing that characterized the somewhat isolated New York +group of young writers in his early prime—especially himself and his +nearest associates, such as Taylor and Boker, and, later, Aldrich and +Winter. They called themselves squires of poesy, in their romantic way, +but they had neither the arrogance nor the chances for a self-heralding, +more common in these chipper modern days. They seem to have followed +their art because they adored it, quite as much as for what it could do +for them.</p> + +<p>Of Mr. Stoddard it may be said that there have been few important +literary names and enterprises, North or South, but he has "been of the +company." If he found friends in youth, he has abundantly repaid his +debt in helpful counsel to his juniors—among whom I am one of the +eldest and most grateful. But I cannot realize that thirty-seven years +of our close friendship have passed since I showed my first early work +to him, and he took me to a publisher. Just as I found him then, I find +him any evening now, in the same chair, in the same corner of the study, +"under the evening lamp." We still talk of the same themes; his jests +are as frequent as ever, but the black hair is silvered and the active +movements are less alert. I then had never known a mind so stored with +bookish lore, so intimate with the lives of rare poets gone by, yet to +what it then possessed he, with his wonderful memory, has been adding +ever since.</p> + +<p>If his early verse was like Keats, how soon he came to that unmistakable +style of his own—to the utterance of those pure lyrics, "most musical, +most melancholy"—"to the perfection of his matchless songs," and again, +to the mastery of blank verse, that noblest measure, in "The Fisher and +Charon"—to the grace and limpid narrative verse of "The King's Bell," +to the feeling, wisdom—above all, to the imagination—of his loftier +odes, among which that on Lincoln remains unsurpassed. This is not the +place to eulogize such work. But one thing may be noted in the progress +of what in Berkeley's phrase may be called the planting of arts and +letters in America. Mr. Stoddard and his group were the first after Poe +to make poetry—whatever else it might be—the rhythmical creation of +beauty. As an outcome of this, and in distinction from the poetry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1090" id="Page_1090">[Pg 1090]</a></span> of +conviction to which the New England group were so addicted, look at the +"Songs of Summer" which our own poet brought out in 1857. For beauty +pure and simple it still seems to me fresher and more significant than +any single volume produced up to that date by any Eastern poet save +Emerson. It was "poetry or nothing," and though it came out of time in +that stormy period, it had to do with the making of new poets +thereafter.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I am moved to say, very much as I wrote on his seventieth +birthday, that our poet's laborious and nobly independent life, with all +its lights and shadows, has been one to be envied. There is much in +completeness—its rainbow has not been dissevered—it is a perfect arc. +As I know him, it has been the absolute realization of his young desire, +the unhasting, unresting life of a poet and student, beyond that of any +other writer among us. Its compensations have been greater than those of +ease and wealth. Even now he would not change it, though at an age when +one might well have others stay his hands. He had the happiness to win +in youth the one woman he loved, with the power of whose singular and +forceful genius his own is inseparably allied. These wedded poets have +been blessed in their children, in the exquisite memory of the dead, in +the success and loyalty of the living. His comrades have been such as he +pictured to his hope in youth—poets, scholars, artists of the +beautiful, with whom he has "warmed both hands before the fire of life." +None of them has been a more patient worker or more loved his work. To +it he has given his years, whether waxing or waning; he has surrendered +for it the strength of his right hand, he has yielded the light of his +eyes, and complains not, nor need he, "for so were Milton and Mæonides." +What tears this final devotion may have caused to flow, come from other +eyes than his own. And so, with gratulation void of all regrets, let us +drink to the continued years, service, happiness of our strong and +tender-hearted elder comrade, our white-haired minstrel, Richard Henry +Stoddard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1091" id="Page_1091">[Pg 1091]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LESLIE STEPHEN</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE CRITIC</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Leslie Stephen at the annual banquet of the Royal +Academy, London, April 29, 1893, in response to the toast, +"Literature." Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, +spoke of Literature as "that in which is garnered up the heat that +feeds the spiritual life of men." In the vein of personal +compliment he said: "For literature I turn to a distinguished +writer whose acute and fearless mind finds a fit vehicle in clear +and vigorous English and to me seems winged by that vivid air which +plays about the Alpine peaks his feet have in the past so dearly +loved to tread—I mean my friend, Mr. Leslie Stephen."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Your Royal Highness, My Lords, and +Gentlemen</span>:—When a poet or a great imaginative writer has to speak +in this assembly he speaks as to brethren-in-arms, to persons with +congenial tastes and with mutual sympathies, but when, instead of the +creative writer, the Academy asks a critic to speak to them, then +nothing but your proverbial courtesy can conceal the fact that they must +really think they are appealing to a natural enemy. I have the +misfortune to be a critic [laughter], but in this assembly I must say I +am not an art critic. Friends have made a presumptuous attempt to fathom +the depth of my ignorance upon artistic subjects, and they have thought +that in some respects I must be admirably qualified for art criticism. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>As a literary critic I have felt, and I could not say I was surprised to +find how unanimously critics have been condemned by poets and artists of +all generations. I need only quote the words of the greatest authority, +Shakespeare, who in one of his most pathetic sonnets reckons up the +causes of the weariness of life and speaks of the spectacle of—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Art made tongue-tied by authority,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And folly (doctor-like), controlling skill."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1092" id="Page_1092">[Pg 1092]</a></span></p> + +<p>The great poet probably wrote these words after the much misrepresented +interview with Lord Bacon in which the Chancellor explained to the poet +how "Hamlet" should have been written, and from which it has been +inferred that he took credit for having written it himself. [Laughter.] +Shakespeare naturally said what every artist must feel; for what is an +artist? That is hardly a question to be asked in such an assembly, where +I have only to look round to find plenty of people who realize the ideal +artist, persons who are simple, unconventional, spontaneous, +sweet-natured [laughter], who go through the world influenced by +impressions of everything that is beautiful, sublime, and pathetic. +Sometimes they seem to take up impressions of a different kind +[laughter]; but still this is their main purpose—to receive impressions +of images, the reproduction of which may make this world a little better +for us all. For such people a very essential condition is that they +should be spontaneous; that they should look to nothing but telling us +what they feel and how they feel it; that they should obey no external +rules, and only embody those laws which have become a part of their +natural instinct, and that they should think nothing, as of course they +do nothing, for money; though they would not be so hard-hearted as to +refuse to receive the spontaneous homage of the world, even when it came +in that comparatively vulgar form. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But what is a critic? He is a person who enforces rules upon the artist, +like a gardener who snips a tree in order to make it grow into a +preconceived form, or grafts upon it until it develops into a +monstrosity which he considers beautiful. We have made some advance upon +the old savage. The man who went about saying, "This will never do," has +become a thing of the past. The modern critic if he has a fault has +become too genial; he seems not to distinguish between the functions of +a critic and the founder of a new religious sect. [Laughter.] He erects +shrines to his ideals, and he burns upon them good, strong, stupefying +incense. This may be less painful to the artist than the old-fashioned +style; but it may be doubted whether it is not equally corrupting, and +whether it does not stimulate a selfishness equally fatal to spontaneous +production; whether it does not in the attempt to encourage originality +favor a spurious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1093" id="Page_1093">[Pg 1093]</a></span> type which consists merely in setting at defiance real +common sense, and sometimes common decency.</p> + +<p>I hope that critics are becoming better, that they have learned what +impostors they have been, and that their philosophy has been merely the +skilful manipulation of sonorous words, and that on the whole, they must +lay aside their magisterial role and cease to suppose they are persons +enforcing judicial decisions or experts who can speak with authority +about chemical analysis. I hope that critics will learn to lay aside all +pretension and to see only things that a critic really can see, and +express genuine sympathy with human nature; and when they have succeeded +in doing that they will be received as friends in such gatherings as the +banquet of the Royal Academy. [Cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1094" id="Page_1094">[Pg 1094]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>RICHARD SALTER STORRS</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE VICTORY AT YORKTOWN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs at a banquet of the Chamber +of Commerce of the State of New York, given November 5, 1881, in +New York City, in honor of the guests of the nation, the French +diplomatic representatives in America, and members of the families +descended from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General +Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben +and others, who had been present at the centennial celebration of +the victory at Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, vice +President of the Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast to which +Dr. Storrs responded, "The Victory at Yorktown: it has rare +distinction among victories, that the power which seemed humbled by +it looks back to it now without regret, while the peoples who +combined to secure it, after the lapse of a century of years, are +more devoted than ever to the furtherance of the freedom to which +it contributed."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Chamber of Commerce</span>:—It is +always pleasant to respond to your invitations and to join with you on +these festival occasions. You remember the reply of the English lady +[Lady Dufferin] perhaps, when the poet Rogers sent her a note saying: +"Will you do me the favor to breakfast with me to-morrow?" To which she +returned the still more laconic autograph, "Won't I?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Perhaps one might as well have that lithographed as his reply to your +cordial and not infrequent invitations. [Laughter.] I do not know +whether you are aware of it, on this side of the East River—perhaps you +don't read the newspapers much—but in that better part of the great +metropolis in which it is my privilege to live, we think of showing our +appreciation of this Chamber of Commerce by electing for Mayor next +week, one of your younger mem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1095" id="Page_1095">[Pg 1095]</a></span>bers, the son of one of your older and +most distinguished members, my honored friend, Mr. Low. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>It is certainly especially pleasant to be here this evening, Mr. +President and gentlemen, when we meet together, men of commerce, men of +finance, lawyers, journalists, physicians, clergymen, of whatever +occupation, all of us, I am sure, patriotic citizens, to congratulate +each other upon what occurred at Yorktown a hundred years ago, on the +19th of October, 1781, and to express our hearty honor and esteem for +these distinguished descendants or representatives of the gallant men +who then stood with our fathers as their associates and helpers. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>It has always seemed to me one of the most significant and memorable +things connected with our Revolutionary struggle, that it attracted the +attention, elicited the sympathy, inspired the enthusiasm, and drew out +the self-sacrificing co-operation of so many noble spirits, loving +freedom, in different parts of Western and Central Europe. [Applause.] +You remember that Lord Camden testified from his own observation in +1775, about the time of the battle of Concord Bridge, that the +merchants, tradesmen, and common people of England were on the side of +the Colonists, and that only the landed interest really sustained the +Government. So the more distant Poland sent to us Count Pulaski of noble +family, who had been a brilliant leader for liberty at home, who fought +gallantly in our battles, and who poured out his life in our behalf in +the assault upon Savannah. [Cheers.] And it sent another, whose name has +been one to conjure with for freedom from that day to this; who planned +the works on Bemis Heights, against which Burgoyne in vain hurled his +assault; who superintended the works at West Point; who, returning to +his own country, fought for Poland as long as there was a Poland to +fight for; whom the very Empire against which he had so long and so +fiercely contended on behalf of his country, honored and eulogized after +his death—Thaddeus Kosciusko. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Germany sent us Von Steuben; one, but a host, whose services in our war +were of immense and continual aid to our troops; who fought gallantly at +Yorktown; and who, chose afterwards, to finish his life in the country +for which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1096" id="Page_1096">[Pg 1096]</a></span> he had fearlessly drawn his sword. [Applause.] France sent us +Lafayette [loud cheers], young, brilliant, with everything to detain him +at home, who had heard of our struggle, at Metz, you remember, in a +conversation with the Duke of Gloucester, in whom the purpose was there +formed, in a flash, to identify himself with the fortunes of the remote, +poor, unfriended, and almost unknown colonists; who came, against every +opposition, in a ship which he had bought and fitted for the purpose, +and whose name, as has well been said in the sentiment in which we have +already united, will be joined imperishably with that of Washington, as +long as the history of our country continues. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>With him came John DeKalb, the intrepid Alsatian, who, after fighting +gallantly through the war, up to the point of his death, fell at Camden, +pierced at last by many wounds. [Cheers.] With them, or after them, came +others, Gouvion, Duportail—some of their names are hardly now familiar +to us—Duplessis, Duponceau, afterward distinguished in literature and +in law, in the country in which he made his residence. There came great +supplies of military equipment, important, we may say indispensable, +aids of money, clothing, and of all the apparatus of war; and, finally, +came the organized naval and military force, with great captains at the +head, Rochambeau [loud cheers], Chastellux, De Choisy, De Lauzun, St. +Simon, De Grasse—all this force brilliantly representative, as we know, +of our foreign allies, in the victory at Yorktown. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I suppose there has never been a stranger contrast on any field of +victory, than that which was presented, between the worn clothing of the +American troops, soiled with mud, rusted with storm, wet with blood, and +the fresh white uniforms of the French troops, ornamented with colored +trimmings; the poor, plain battle-flags of the Colonists, stained with +smoke and rent with shot, compared with the shining and lofty standards +of the French army, bearing on a ground of brilliant white silk +emblazoned in gold embroidery the Bourbon lilies. [Applause.] Indeed +such a contrast went into everything. The American troops were made up +of men who had been, six years before, mechanics, farmers, merchants, +fishermen, lawyers, teachers, with no more thought of any exploits to be +accomplished by them on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1097" id="Page_1097">[Pg 1097]</a></span> fields of battle than they had of being elected +Czars of all the Russias. They had a few victories to look back to; +Bennington, Stillwater, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the one great +triumph of Saratoga. They had many defeats to remember; Brandywine, +where somebody at the time said that the mixture of the two liquors was +too much for the sober Americans [laughter], Camden, Guilford +Court-house, and others, with one tragic and terrible defeat on the +heights of Long Island. There were men who had been the subjects, and +many of them officers of the very power against which they were +fighting; and some of the older among them might have stood for that +power at Louisbourg or Quebec. On the other hand, the French troops were +part of an army, the lustre of whose splendid history could be traced +back for a thousand years, beyond the Crusaders, beyond Charlemagne. +Their officers had been trained in the best military schools of the +time. They were amply provided with the last and choicest equipments of +war. They had gallantly achieved victory, or as gallantly sustained +defeat on almost every principal battle-field in Europe. They were now +confronting an enemy whom that army had faced in previous centuries on +sea and land; and very likely something of special exhilaration and +animation went into their spirit from thought of this, as they assailed +the English breastworks, swarming into the trenches, capturing the +redoubts, storming the lines with that strange battle-shout, in our +republican American air: "Vive le Roi!" [Applause.]</p> + +<p>A singular combination! Undoubtedly, to unfold the influences which had +led to it would take months instead of minutes, and occupy volumes +rather than sentences. I think however, that we reckon too much on +national rivalry, or national animosity, when we seek to explain it, +although these no doubt had their part in it. Doubtless the eager +efforts of Silas Dean, our first diplomatic representative in +Europe—efforts too eager for courtesy or wisdom—had a part in it; and +the skilful diplomacy of Franklin had, as we know, a large and important +influence upon it. The spirit of adventure, the desire for distinction +upon fresh fields, had something to do with it. But the principal factor +in that great effort was the spirit of freedom—the spirit that looked +to the advancement and the maintenance of popular liberty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1098" id="Page_1098">[Pg 1098]</a></span> among the +peoples of the earth, wherever civilization had gone; that spirit which +was notably expressed by Van der Capellen, the Dutch orator and +statesman, when he vehemently said, in presence of the States-General of +Holland, in reply to an autograph letter of George III soliciting their +aid, that this was a business for hired janissaries rather than for +soldiers of a free State; that it would be, in his judgment, +"superlatively detestable" to aid in any way to overcome the Americans, +whom he regarded as a brave people, righting in a manly, honorable, +religious manner, not for the rights which had come to them, not from +any British legislation but from God Almighty. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>That spirit was native to Holland. But that spirit was also widely in +France. The old temper and enthusiasm for liberty, both civil and +religious, had not passed away. Sixty years and more since the accession +of Louis XV had perhaps only intensified this spirit. It had entered the +higher philosophical minds. They were meditating the questions of the +true social order, with daring disregard of all existing institutions, +and their spirit and instructions found an echo even in our Declaration +of Independence. They made it more theoretical than English state papers +have usually been. Palpably, the same spirit which afterward broke into +fierce exhibition, when the Bastille was stormed in 1789, or when the +First Republic was declared in 1792, was already at work in France, at +work there far more vitally and energetically than was yet recognized by +those in authority; while it wrought perhaps in the field offered by +this country, more eagerly and largely because it was repressed at home. +So it was that so many brilliant Frenchmen came as glad volunteers. It +was because of this electric and vital spirit looking toward freedom. +Travelling was slow. Communication between continents was tardy and +difficult. A sailing ship, dependent upon the wind, hugged the breeze or +was driven before the blast across the stormy North Atlantic. The +steamship was unknown. The telegraph wire was no more imagined than it +was imagined that the Rhine might flow a river of flame or that the +Jungfrau or the Weisshorn might go out on a journey.</p> + +<p>But there was this distributed spirit of freedom, propagating itself by +means which we cannot wholly trace, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1099" id="Page_1099">[Pg 1099]</a></span> to an extent which was scarcely +recognized, which brought volunteers in such numbers to our shores, that +Washington, you know, at one time, expressed himself as embarrassed to +know what to do with them; and there were fervent and high aspirations +going up from multitudes of households and of hearts in Central and in +Western Europe, which found realization in what we claim as the greatest +and most fruitful of American victories. [Applause.] The impulse given +by that victory to the same spirit is one on which we can never look +back without gratitude and gladness. It was an impulse not confined to +one nation but common to all which had had part in the struggle. We know +what an impulse it gave to everything greatest and best in our own +country. The spirit of popular exhilaration, rising from that victory at +Yorktown, was a force which really established and moulded our national +Government. The nation rose to one of those exalted points, those +supreme levels, in its public experience, where it found a grander +wisdom, where it had nobler forecast than perhaps it otherwise could +have reached. In consequence of it, our Government came, which has stood +the storm and stress of a hundred years. We may have to amend its +Constitution in time to come, as it has been amended in the past; but we +have become a nation by means of it. It commands the attention—to some +extent, the admiration—of other people of the earth; at all events, it +is bound to endure upon this continent as long as there remains a +continent here for it to rest upon. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Then came the incessant movement westward: the vast foreign immigration, +the occupation of the immense grainfields, which might almost feed the +hungry world; the multiplication of manufacturers, supplying everything, +nearly, that we need; the uncovering of mines, bringing out the wealth +which has actually disturbed the money standards of the world; the +transforming of territories into States by a process as swift and +magical almost as that by which the turbid mixture of the chemist is +crystallized into its delicate and translucent spars; the building of an +empire on the Western coast, looking out toward the older continent of +Asia. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>We know, too, what an impulse was given to popular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1100" id="Page_1100">[Pg 1100]</a></span> rights and hopes in +England. We rejoice in all the progress of England. That salute fired at +the British flag the other day at Yorktown [cheers] was a stroke of the +hammer on the horologe of time, which marks the coming of a new era, +when national animosities shall be forgotten, and only national +sympathies and good-will shall remain. It might seem, perhaps, to have +in it a tone of the old "diapason of the cannonade"; but on the +thoughtful ear, falls from the thundering voice of those guns, a note of +that supreme music which fell on the ear of Longfellow, when "like a +bell with solemn sweet vibration" he heard "once more the voice of +Christ say: 'Peace!'" [Loud applause.]</p> + +<p>We rejoice in the progress of English manufactures, which extracts every +force from each ounce of coal, and pounds or weaves the English iron +into nearly everything for human use except boots and brown-bread +[laughter]; in the commerce which spreads its sails on all seas; in the +wealth and splendor that are assembled in her cities; but we rejoice +more than all in the constant progress of those liberal ideas to which +such an impulse was given by this victory of Yorktown. [Cheers.] You +remember that Fox is said to have heard of it "with a wild delight"; and +even he may not have anticipated its full future outcome. You remember +the hissing hate with which he was often assailed, as when the tradesman +of Westminster whose vote he had solicited, flung back at him the +answer: "I have nothing for you, sir, but a halter," to which Fox, by +the way, with instant wit and imperturbable good-nature, smilingly +responded: "I could not think, my dear sir, of depriving you of such an +interesting family relic." [Laughter.] Look back to that time and then +see the prodigious advance of liberal ideas in England, the changed +political condition of the workingman. Look at the position of that +great Commoner, who now regulates the English policy, who equals Fox in +his liberal principles and surpasses him in his eloquence—Mr. +Gladstone. [Cheers.] The English troops marched out of Yorktown, after +their surrender, to that singularly appropriate tune, as they thought +it, "The World Turned Upside Down." [Laughter.] But that vast +disturbance of the old equilibrium which had balanced a King against a +Nation, has given to England the treasures of statesmanship, the +treas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1101" id="Page_1101">[Pg 1101]</a></span>ures of eloquence, a vast part of the splendor and the power which +are now collected under the reign of that one royal woman in the world, +to whom every American heart pays its eager and unforced fealty—Queen +Victoria. [Loud applause.]</p> + +<p>We know what an impulse was given to the same spirit in Germany. Mr. +Schurz will tell us of it in eloquent words. But no discourse that he +can utter, however brilliant in rhetoric; no analysis, however lucid; no +clear and comprehensive sweep of his thought, though expressed in words +which ring in our ears and live in our memories, can so fully and +fittingly illustrate it to us as does the man himself, in his character +and career—an Old World citizen of the American Republic whose +marvellous mastery of our tough English tongue is still surpassed by his +more marvellous mastery over the judgments and the hearts of those who +hear him use it. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>What an impulse was given to the same spirit in France we know. At +first, it fell upon a people not altogether prepared to receive it. +There was, therefore, a passionate effervescence, a fierce ebullition +into popular violence and popular outrage which darkened for the time +the world's annals. But we know that the spirit never died; and through +all the winding and bloody paths in which it has marched, it has brought +France the fair consummation of its present power and wealth and renown. +[Cheers.] We rejoice in its multiform manufactures, which weave the +woollen or silken fibre into every form and tissue of fabric; in the +delicate, dainty skill which keeps the time of all creation with its +watchwork and clockwork; which ornaments beauty with its jewelry, and +furnishes science with its finest instruments; we rejoice in the 14,000 +miles of railway there constructed, almost all of it within forty years; +we rejoice in the riches there accumulated; we rejoice in the expansion +of the population from the twenty-three millions of the day of Yorktown +to the thirty-eight millions of the present; but we rejoice more than +all in the liberal spirit evermore there advancing, which has built the +fifteen universities, and gathered the 41,000 students into them; which +builds libraries and higher seminaries, and multiplies common schools: +which gives liberty if not license to the press. [Cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1102" id="Page_1102">[Pg 1102]</a></span></p> + +<p>We rejoice in the universal suffrage which puts the 532 deputies into +the Chamber and which combines the Chamber of Deputies with the Senate +into a National Assembly to elect the President of the Republic. We +rejoice in the rapid political education now and always going on in +France, and that she is to be hereafter a noble leader in Europe, in +illustrating the security and commending the benefits of Republican +institutions. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>France has been foremost in many things; she was foremost in chivalry, +and the most magnificent spectacles and examples which that institution +ever furnished were on her fields. She was foremost in the Crusades and +the volcanic country around Auvergne was not more full of latent fire +than was the spirit of her people at the Council of Clermont or before +the appeal of Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard. She led the march of +philosophical discussion in the Middle Ages. She has been foremost in +many achievements of science and art. She is foremost to-day in piercing +with tunnels the mountain-chains, that the wheels of trade may roll +unobstructed through rocky barriers, and cutting canals through the +great isthmuses that the keels of commerce may sweep unhindered across +the seas. But she has never yet had an office so illustrious as that +which falls to her now—to show Europe how Republican institutions +stimulate industry, guarantee order, promote all progress in enterprise +and in thought, and are the best and surest security for a nation's +grandest advancement.</p> + +<p>That enthusiasm which has led her always to champion ideas, which led +her soldiers to say in the first Revolution: "With bread and iron we +will march to China," entering now into fulfilment of this great office, +will carry her influence to China and beyond it; her peaceful influence +on behalf of the liberty for which she fought with us at Yorktown, and +for which she has bled and struggled with a pathetic and lofty +stubbornness ever since. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I do not look back merely then from this evening; I see illustrated at +Yorktown the lesson of that hour; that colonies maturing into great +commonwealths, and peoples combining for common liberties are the best +pledges of the world's future, but I look forward as well and see France +in Europe, a Republic, the United States on this continent, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1103" id="Page_1103">[Pg 1103]</a></span> Republic, +standing again in the future as before, shoulder to shoulder, expecting +with tranquil and exultant spirit the grander victory yet to come, the +outcome of which shall be liberty to all the peoples of the world, and +that benign and divine peace which is the sure and sovereign fruit of +such a liberty. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1104" id="Page_1104">[Pg 1104]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WILLIAM SCUDDER STRYKER</h2> + + + + +<h4>DUTCH HEROES OF THE NEW WORLD</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of William S. Stryker at the fifth annual dinner of the +Holland Society of New York, January 10, 1890. The vice-President, +Robert B. Roosevelt, presided, and called upon General Stryker to +respond to the toast, "The Dutch Soldier in America."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—As well-born Dutchmen, full, of course, +to-night of the spirit which creates Dutch courage, it is pleasant for +us to look across the seas, to recall the martial life of our +progenitors and to speak of their great deeds for liberty. It is +conducive to our family pride to trace back the source of the blessings +we enjoy to-day through all the brilliant pages of Netherland history to +the time when the soldiers of freedom—the "Beggars"—chose rather to +let in the merciless ocean waves than to surrender to the ruthless +invader. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>We love to say that we can see in the glory of free institutions in this +century the steady outgrowth of that germ of human liberty which was +planted by the sturdy labor, which was watered by the tears and blood, +and fructified by the precious lives of those who fought by land and sea +in the battles of the sixteenth century. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Although we make our boast of the indomitable courage, the many +self-denials, the homely virtues of our forefathers, think you that we +in America are degenerate sons of noble sires? I trow not! [Renewed +applause.]</p> + +<p>That irascible old Governor who stamped his wooden leg on the streets of +New Amsterdam, who ruled with his iron will and his cane the thrifty +burghers of this young city, did he not, when called upon to show a +soldier's courage, wage a successful contest with savage foes, with the +testy Puritans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1105" id="Page_1105">[Pg 1105]</a></span> of Connecticut and with the obdurate Swedes on +Christiana Creek?</p> + +<p>Before the old Dutch church in Millstone on the Raritan River, in the +summer of 1775, a hundred of the young men of the village were drilled +every night. They had on their long smock-frocks, broad-brimmed black +hats, and leggings. Their own firelocks were on their shoulders, +twenty-three cartridges in their cartouches, the worm, the priming-wire, +and twelve flints in their pockets. These were the bold minute-men of +New Jersey, and Frederick Frelinghuysen was their gallant Dutch captain, +who stood ready to march, in case an alarm bonfire burned on Sourland +Mountain, to fight any enemy. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>When fighting under Bradstreet on the Oswego River in the old French +war, when laboring against great odds at Fort Edward, when retarding the +British advance after the evacuation of Ticonderoga, when urging on a +force to the relief of Fort Stanwix, when planning the campaign which +ended in the capture of Burgoyne, and placing laurels, now faded, on the +head of Gates, the character of our own Knickerbocker General, Philip +Schuyler, the pure patriot, the noble soldier, is lustrous with +evidences of his sagacious counsels, his wonderful energy, and his +military skill. [Renewed applause.]</p> + +<p>The good blood of the patroons never flowed purer or brighter than when, +as soldiers, they battled for a nation's rights. In the fight at +Saratoga, Colonel Henry Kiliaen Van Rensselaer greatly distinguished +himself and carried from the field an ounce of British lead, which +remained in his body thirty-five years. Captain Solomon Van Rensselaer +fought most courageously by the side of Mad Anthony Wayne in the Miami +campaign. Being seriously wounded in a brilliant charge, he refused to +be carried off the field on a litter, but insisted that, as a dragoon, +he should be allowed to ride his horse from the battle and, if he +dropped, to die where he fell. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Worn and bleeding were the feet, scant the clothing of our ragged +Continentals, as, turning upon their foe, they recrossed the icy +Delaware on Christmas night, surprised Rall and his revellers in +Trenton's village, punished the left of Cornwallis's column at +Princeton, and then, on their way to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1106" id="Page_1106">[Pg 1106]</a></span> the mountains of Morris County, +fell by the wayside with hunger and wretchedness, perishing with the +intense cold. But, in the darkness of the night, a partisan trooper, +with twenty horsemen, surrounded the baggage-wagons of the British +force, fired into the two hundred soldiers guarding them, and, shouting +like a host of demons, captured the train, and the doughty captain with +my own ancestral name woke up the weary soldiers of Washington's army +with the rumbling of wagons heavily laden with woollen clothing and +supplies, bravely stolen from the enemy. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The poisoned arrows whistled in the Newtown fight as the New York +contingent pressed forward toward Seneca Castle, the great capitol-house +of the Six Nations. The redskins and their Tory allies, under Brant, +tried hard to resist the progress of that awful human wedge that was +driven with relentless fury among the wigwams of those who had burned +the homes in beautiful Wyoming, who had despoiled with the bloody +tomahawk the settlement at German Flats, and had closed the horrid +campaign with the cruel massacre at Cherry Valley. Bold and daring in +this revengeful expedition was Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, a name +honored in all Dutch civil and military history. [Continued applause.]</p> + +<p>As a leader of three thousand cavalrymen the youthful General Bayard +[great cheers], proud of his Dutch descent, fell on the heights of +bloody Fredericksburg. Like the good knight, he was "without fear and +without reproach." Full of zeal for the cause, the bravest of the brave, +his sword flashed always where dangers were the thickest. When a +bursting shell left him dead on the field of honor, his brave men +mourned him and the foe missed him. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>In the leaden tempest which rained around Drury's Bluff, a boyish +officer led a column of riflemen, gallant and daring. His uniform was +soiled with the grim dirt of many a battle, but his bright blue eye took +in every feature of the conflict. The day was just closing when an angry +bullet pierced his throat as he was cheering on his men, and the young +life of my college friend, Abram Zabriskie, of Jersey City, as chivalric +a Dutch colonel as ever drew a blade in battle, was breathed out in the +mighty throes of civil war. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>As we picture to ourselves the appearance of that grand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1107" id="Page_1107">[Pg 1107]</a></span> figure of +William of Orange, as he led his heroic people through and out of scenes +of darkness and hunger and death into the sweet light of freedom; as we +turn the pages of history that recount the deeds of glory of Vander +Werf, the burgomaster of Leyden; of Count Egmont and Count Horn, of de +Ruyter and Van Tromp, let us not forget that the same sturdy stock has +developed in the New World the same zeal for human rights, the same high +resolves of duty, the same devotion to liberty. If ever again this +nation needs brave defenders, your sons and mine will, I trust, be able +to show to the world that the patriotism of Dutchmen, that true Dutch +valor, still fills the breasts of the soldiers of America! [Prolonged +cheering.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1108" id="Page_1108">[Pg 1108]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN</h2> + + + + +<h4>MUSIC</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Sir Arthur Sullivan at the annual banquet of the Royal +Academy, May 2, 1891. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the +Academy, occupied the chair. "In response for Music," said the +President, "I shall call on a man whose brilliant and many-sided +gifts are not honored in his own country alone, and who has +gathered laurels with full hands in every field of musical +achievement—my old friend, Sir Arthur Sullivan."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Your Royal Highness, My Lords and Gentlemen</span>: It is gratifying +to find that at the great representative art-gathering of the year the +sister arts are now receiving at the hands of the painters and sculptors +of the United Kingdom that compliment to which their members are justly +entitled. Art is a commonwealth in which all the component estates hold +an equal position, and it has been reserved for you, sir, under your +distinguished presidency, to give full and honorable recognition to this +important fact. You have done so in those terms of delicate, subtle +compliment, which whilst displaying the touch of the master, also bear +the impress of genuine sympathy, by calling upon my friend Mr. Irving, +and myself, as representatives of the drama and of music, to return +thanks for those branches of art to which our lives' efforts have been +devoted.</p> + +<p>I may add, speaking for my own art, that there is a singular +appropriateness that this compliment to Music should be paid by the +artist whose brain has conceived and whose hand depicted a most +enchanting "Music Lesson." You, sir, have touched with eloquence and +feeling upon some of the tenderer attributes of music; I would with your +permission, call attention to another—namely, its power and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1109" id="Page_1109">[Pg 1109]</a></span>fluence +on popular sentiment; for of all the arts I think Music has the most +mighty, universal, and immediate effect. ["Hear! hear!"] I know there +are many educated and intelligent people who, absorbed in commerce, +politics, and other pursuits, think that music is a mere family +pastime—an ear-gratifying enjoyment. Great popularity has its drawbacks +as well as its advantages, and there is no doubt that the widespread, +instantaneous appreciation and popularity of melody has detracted +somewhat from the proper recognition of the higher and graver attributes +of music. But that music is a power and has influenced humanity with +dynamic force in politics, religion, peace, and war, no one can gainsay. +Who can deny the effect in great crises of the world's history of the +Lutheran Chorale, "Ein' feste Burg," which roused the enthusiasm of +whole towns and cities and caused them to embrace the reformed faith en +masse—of the "Ça ira," with its ghastly association of tumbril and +guillotine, and of the still more powerful "Marseillaise?" These three +tunes alone have been largely instrumental in varying the course of +history. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Amongst our own people, no one who has visited the Greater Britain +beyond the seas but must be alive to the depth of feeling stirred by the +first bar of "God Save the Queen." It is not too much to say that this +air has done more than any other single agency to consolidate the +national sentiment which forms the basis of our world-wide Empire. +[Cheers.] But, sir, my duty is not to deliver a dissertation on music, +my duty is to thank you for the offering and the acceptation of this +toast, which I do most sincerely.</p> + +<p>With regard to the more than generous terms in which you, sir, have +alluded to my humble individuality, I need not say how deeply I feel the +spirit in which they were spoken. This much I would add—that highly as +I value your kindly utterances, I count still more highly the fact that +I should have been selected by you to respond for Music, whose dignity +and whose progress in England are so near and dear to me at heart. +[Cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1110" id="Page_1110">[Pg 1110]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHARLES SUMNER</h2> + + + + +<h4>INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Charles Sumner at the banquet given by the City of +Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his +associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to +the United States and the powers of Europe.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Mayor</span>:—I cannot speak on this interesting occasion without +first declaring the happiness I enjoy at meeting my friend of many years +in the exalted position which he now holds. Besides being my personal +friend, he was also an honored associate in representing the good people +of this community, and in advancing a great cause, which he championed +with memorable eloquence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit +me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the municipal +authorities of Boston, is only a natural expression of the sentiments +which must prevail in this community. Here his labors and triumphs +began. Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he first +tasted of that honor which is now his in such ample measure. He is one +of us, who, going forth into a strange country, has come back with its +highest trusts and dignities. Once the representative of a single +Congressional district, he now represents the most populous nation of +the globe. Once the representative of little more than a third of +Boston, he is now the representative of more than a third part of the +human race. The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hundred +millions; that of China at more than four hundred millions, and +sometimes even at five hundred millions.</p> + +<p>If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1111" id="Page_1111">[Pg 1111]</a></span> there is still +more for gratitude in the unparalleled opportunity which it affords. +What we all ask is opportunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing +scale—to be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best interests of +the Human Family; and, if these are advanced, no nation can suffer. Each +is contained in all. With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule, +and nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there can be no +limits to the immeasurable consequences. For myself, I am less +solicitous with regard to concessions or privileges, than with regard to +that spirit of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces alike +the distant and the near, and, when once established, renders all else +easy.</p> + +<p>The necessary result of the present experiment in diplomacy will be to +make the countries which it visits better known to the Chinese, and also +to make the Chinese better known to them. Each will know the other +better and will better comprehend that condition of mutual dependence +which is the law of humanity. In the relations among nations, as in +common life, this is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the +Chinese are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure that we are +poorly informed with regard to them. We know them through the porcelain +on our tables with its lawless perspective, and the tea-chest with its +unintelligible hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the +literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an impression. +The first is in "Paradise Lost," where Milton, always learned even in +his poetry, represents Satan as descending in his flight,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">... on the barren plains</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Sericana, where <i>Chineses</i> drive,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sails and wind their cany wagons light.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The other is that admirable address on the study of the law of nature +and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh, in words of singular felicity, +alludes to "the tame but ancient and immovable civilization of China." +It will be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the canvas +with life.</p> + +<p>I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest, that he is not +the first stranger who, after sojourning in this distant unknown land, +has come back loaded with its honors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1112" id="Page_1112">[Pg 1112]</a></span> and with messages to the +Christian powers. He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There +is another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the Venetian, +Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as the fables of a +traveller, are now recognized among the sources of history, and +especially of geographical knowledge. Nobody can read them without +feeling their verity. It was in the latter part of the far-away +thirteenth century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company with his +father and uncle, all of them merchants, journeyed from Venice, by the +way of Constantinople, Trebizond, on the Black Sea, and Central Asia, +until they reached first the land of Prester John, and then that golden +country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler, Kubla Khan, treated +them with gracious consideration, and employed young Polo as his +ambassador. This was none other than China, and the great ruler, called +the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its Mongolian dynasty, +having his imperial residence in the immense city of Kambalu, or Peking. +After many years of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his +companions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged with letters +for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian is charged with similar +letters now. There were letters for the Pope, the King of France, the +King of Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear that +England was expressly designated. Her name, so great now, was not at +that time on the visiting list of the distant Emperor. Such are the +contrasts in national life. Marco Polo, with his companions, reached +Venice on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante, in Florence, +was meditating his divine poem, and when Roger Bacon, in England, was +astonishing the age with his knowledge. These were two of his greatest +contemporaries.</p> + +<p>The return of the Venetian to his native city was attended by incidents +which have not occurred among us. Bronzed by long residence under the +sun of the East—wearing the dress of a Tartar—and speaking his native +language with difficulty, it was some time before he could persuade his +friends of his identity. Happily there is no question on the identity of +our returned fellow-citizen; and surely it cannot be said that he speaks +his native language with difficulty. There was a dinner given at Venice, +as now at Boston, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1113" id="Page_1113">[Pg 1113]</a></span> the Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly +five hundred years, still lives in glowing description. On this occasion +Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in long robes of crimson +satin reaching to the floor, which, after the guests had washed their +hands, were changed for other robes of crimson damask, and then again, +after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of crimson velvet, +and at the conclusion of the banquet, for the ordinary dress worn by the +rest of the company. Meanwhile the other costly garments were +distributed in succession among the attendants at the table. In all your +magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no such largess. Then was +brought forward the coarse threadbare clothes in which they had +travelled, when, on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly +jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the eyes of the +company, who for a time were motionless with wonder. Then at last, says +the Italian chronicler, every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied +that these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the house of +Polo. I do not relate this history in order to suggest any such +operation on the dress of our returned fellow-citizen. No such evidence +is needed to assure us of his identity.</p> + +<p>The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From his habit of speaking +of millions of people and millions of money, he was known as <i>millioni</i>, +or the millionnaire, being the earliest instance in history of a +designation so common in our prosperous age. But better than "millions" +was the knowledge he imparted, and the impulse that he gave to that +science, which teaches the configuration of the globe, and the place of +nations on its surface. His travels, as dictated by him, were reproduced +in various languages, and, after the invention of printing, the book was +multiplied in more than fifty editions. Unquestionably it prepared the +way for the two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times, that +of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama, and the New World, by +Christopher Columbus. One of his admirers, a learned German, does not +hesitate to say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the +three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries, have most +contributed to the progress of geography and the knowledge of the globe, +the modest name of the Venetian finds a place in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1114" id="Page_1114">[Pg 1114]</a></span> same line with +Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known that the +imagination of the Genoese navigator was fired by the revelations of the +Venetian, and that, in his mind, all the countries embraced by his +transcendent discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with its +various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish Sovereigns, Cuba was +nothing else than Xipangu, or Japan, as described by the Venetian, and +he thought himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king of +kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not reached Cathay or the Grand +Khan; but he had discovered a new world, destined in the history of +civilization to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to +welcome the ambassador of the grand Khan.</p> + +<p>The Venetian on his return home, journeyed out of the East, westward. +Our Marco Polo on his return home, journeyed out of the west, eastward; +and yet they both came from the same region. Their common starting-point +was Peking. This change is typical of that transcendent revolution under +whose influence the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying +westward, the first welcome is from the nations of Europe. Journeying +eastward, the first welcome is from our Republic. It only remains that +this welcome should be extended until it opens a pathway for the +mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces within the sphere of +American activity that ancient ancestral empire, where population, +industry and education, on an unprecedented scale, create resources and +necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See to it, merchants of the +United States, and you, merchants of Boston, that this opportunity is +not lost.</p> + +<p>And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the treaty, which you invited me to +discuss. But I will not now enter upon this topic. If you did not call +me to order for speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in +another place for undertaking to speak of a treaty which has not yet +been proclaimed by the President. One remark I will make and take the +consequences. The treaty does not propose much; but it is an excellent +beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of our fellow-citizen, +the honored plenipotentiary, will unlock those great Chinese gates which +have been bolted and barred for long centuries. The embassy is more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1115" id="Page_1115">[Pg 1115]</a></span> +than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for further intercourse +and will help that new order of things which is among the promises of +the future.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>THE QUALITIES THAT WIN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Charles Sumner at the sixty-eighth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1873. The +President, Isaac H. Bailey, in proposing the toast, "The Senate of +the United States," said: "We are happy to greet on this occasion +the senior in consecutive service, and the most eminent member of +the Senate, whose early, varied, and distinguished services in the +cause of freedom have made his name a household word throughout the +world—the Honorable Charles Sumner." On rising to respond, Mr. +Sumner was received with loud applause. The members of the Society +rose to their feet, applauded and waved handkerchiefs.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Brothers of New England</span>:—For the first time +in my life I have the good fortune to enjoy this famous anniversary +festival. Though often honored by your most tempting invitation, and +longing to celebrate the day in this goodly company of which all have +heard so much, I could never excuse myself from duties in another place. +If now I yield to well-known attractions, and journey from Washington +for my first holiday during a protracted public service, it is because +all was enhanced by the appeal of your excellent president, to whom I am +bound by the friendship of many years in Boston, in New York, and in a +foreign land. [Applause.] It is much to be a brother of New England, but +it is more to be a friend [applause], and this tie I have pleasure in +confessing to-night.</p> + +<p>It is with much doubt and humility that I venture to answer for the +Senate of the United States, and I believe the least I say on this head +will be the most prudent. [Laughter.] But I shall be entirely safe in +expressing my doubt if there is a single Senator who would not be glad +of a seat at this generous banquet. What is the Senate? It is a +component part of the National Government. But we celebrate to-day more +than any component part of any government. We celebrate an epoch in the +history of mankind—not only never to be forgotten, but to grow in +grandeur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1116" id="Page_1116">[Pg 1116]</a></span> as the world appreciates the elements of true greatness. Of +mankind I say—for the landing on Plymouth Rock, on December 22, 1620, +marks the origin of a new order of ages, by which the whole human family +will be elevated. Then and there was the great beginning.</p> + +<p>Throughout all time, from the dawn of history, men have swarmed to found +new homes in distant lands. The Tyrians, skirting Northern Africa, +stopped at Carthage; Carthaginians dotted Spain and even the distant +coasts of Britain and Ireland; Greeks gemmed Italy and Sicily with +art-loving settlements; Rome carried multitudinous colonies with her +conquering eagles. Saxons, Danes, and Normans violently mingled with the +original Britons. And in more modern times, Venice, Genoa, Portugal, +Spain, France, and England, all sent forth emigrants to people foreign +shores. But in these various expeditions, trade or war was the impelling +motive. Too often commerce and conquest moved hand in hand, and the +colony was incarnadined with blood.</p> + +<p>On the day we celebrate, the sun for the first time in his course looked +down upon a different scene, begun and continued under a different +inspiration. A few conscientious Englishmen, in obedience to the monitor +within, and that they might be free to worship God according to their +own sense of duty, set sail for the unknown wilds of the North American +continent. After a voyage of sixty-four days in the ship Mayflower, with +Liberty at the prow and Conscience at the helm [applause], they sighted +the white sandbanks of Cape Cod, and soon thereafter in the small cabin +framed that brief compact, forever memorable, which is the first written +constitution of government in human history, and the very corner-stone +of the American Republic; and then these Pilgrims landed.</p> + +<p>This compact was not only foremost in time, it was also august in +character, and worthy of perpetual example. Never before had the object +of the "civil body public" been announced as "to enact, constitute, and +frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and +offices from time to time as shall be thought most meet and convenient +for the general good of the colony." How lofty! how true! Undoubtedly, +these were the grandest words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1117" id="Page_1117">[Pg 1117]</a></span> of government with the largest promise of +any at that time uttered.</p> + +<p>If more were needed to illustrate the new epoch, it would be found in +the parting words of the venerable pastor, John Robinson, addressed to +the Pilgrims, as they were about to sail from Delfshaven—words often +quoted, yet never enough. How sweetly and beautifully he says: "And if +God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be as +ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my +ministry; but I am confident that the Lord hath more light and truth yet +to break forth out of his holy word." And then how justly the good +preacher rebukes those who close their souls to truth! "The Lutherans, +for example, cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw, and whatever +part of God's will he hath further imparted to Calvin, they will rather +die than embrace, and so the Calvinists stick where he left them. This +is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were precious, shining +lights in their times, God hath not revealed his whole will to them." +Beyond the merited rebuke, here is a plain recognition of the law of +human progress little discerned at the time, which teaches the sure +advance of the human family, and opens the vista of the ever-broadening, +never-ending future on earth.</p> + +<p>Our Pilgrims were few and poor. The whole outfit of this historic +voyage, including £1,700 of trading stock, was only £2,400, and how +little was required for their succor appears in the experience of the +soldier Captain Miles Standish, who, being sent to England for +assistance—not military, but financial—(God save the mark!) succeeded +in borrowing—how much do you suppose?—£150 sterling. [Laughter.] +Something in the way of help; and the historian adds, "though at fifty +per cent. interest." So much for a valiant soldier on a financial +expedition. [Laughter, in which General Sherman and the company joined.] +A later agent, Allerton, was able to borrow for the colony £200 at a +reduced interest of thirty per cent. Plainly, the money-sharks of our +day may trace an undoubted pedigree to these London merchants. +[Laughter.] But I know not if any son of New England, oppressed by +exorbitant interest, will be consoled by the thought that the Pilgrims +paid the same.</p> + +<p>And yet this small people—so obscure and outcast in con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1118" id="Page_1118">[Pg 1118]</a></span>dition—so +slender in numbers and in means—so entirely unknown to the proud and +great—so absolutely without name in contemporary records—whose +departure from the Old World took little more than the breath of their +bodies—are now illustrious beyond the lot of men; and the Mayflower is +immortal beyond the Grecian Argo, or the stately ship of any victorious +admiral. Though this was little foreseen in their day, it is plain now +how it has come to pass. The highest greatness surviving time and storm +is that which proceeds from the soul of man. [Applause.] Monarchs and +cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of courts and the +circumstance of war, in the gradual lapse of time disappear from sight; +but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose +example elevates human nature and teaches the rights of man, so that +government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not +perish from the earth [great applause], such harbingers can never be +forgotten, and their renown spreads coextensive with the cause they +served.</p> + +<p>I know not if any whom I now have the honor of addressing have thought +to recall the great in rank and power filling the gaze of the world as +the Mayflower with her company fared forth on their adventurous voyage. +The foolish James was yet on the English throne, glorying that he had +"peppered the Puritans." The morose Louis XIII, through whom Richelieu +ruled, was King of France. The imbecile Philip III swayed Spain and the +Indies. The persecuting Ferdinand the Second, tormentor of Protestants, +was Emperor of Germany. Paul V, of the House of Borghese, was Pope of +Rome. In the same princely company and all contemporaries were Christian +IV, King of Denmark, and his son Christian, Prince of Norway; Gustavus +Adolphus, King of Sweden; Sigismund the Third, King of Poland; +Frederick, King of Bohemia, with his wife, the unhappy Elizabeth of +England, progenitor of the house of Hanover; George William, Margrave of +Brandenburg, and ancestor of the Prussian house that has given an +emperor to Germany; Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria; Maurice, landgrave of +Hesse; Christian, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg; John Frederick, Duke +of Würtemberg and Teck; John, Count of Nassau; Henry, Duke of Lorraine; +Isabella, Infanta of Spain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1119" id="Page_1119">[Pg 1119]</a></span> and ruler of the Low Countries; Maurice, +fourth Prince of Orange; Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy and ancestor of +the King of United Italy; Cosmo de' Medici, third Grand Duke of +Florence; Antonio Priuli, ninety-third Doge of Venice, just after the +terrible tragedy commemorated on the English stage as "Venice +Preserved"; Bethlehem Gabor, Prince of Unitarian Transylvania, and +elected King of Hungary, with the countenance of an African; and the +Sultan Mustapha, of Constantinople, twentieth ruler of the Turks.</p> + +<p>Such at that time were the crowned sovereigns of Europe, whose names +were mentioned always with awe, and whose countenances are handed down +by art, so that at this day they are visible to the curious as if they +walked these streets. Mark now the contrast. There was no artist for our +forefathers, nor are their countenances now known to men; but more than +any powerful contemporaries at whose tread the earth trembled is their +memory sacred. [Applause.] Pope, emperor, king, sultan, grand-duke, +duke, doge, margrave, landgrave, count—what are they all by the side of +the humble company that landed on Plymouth Rock? Theirs, indeed, were +the ensigns of worldly power, but our Pilgrims had in themselves that +inborn virtue which was more than all else besides, and their landing +was an epoch.</p> + +<p>Who in the imposing troop of worldly grandeur is now remembered but with +indifference or contempt? If I except Gustavus Adolphus, it is because +he revealed a superior character. Confront the Mayflower and the +Pilgrims with the potentates who occupied such space in the world. The +former are ascending into the firmament, there to shine forever, while +the latter have been long dropping into the darkness of oblivion, to be +brought forth only to point a moral or illustrate the fame of +contemporaries whom they regarded not. [Applause.] Do I err in supposing +this an illustration of the supremacy which belongs to the triumphs of +the moral nature? At first impeded or postponed, they at last prevail. +Theirs is a brightness which, breaking through all clouds, will shine +forth with ever-increasing splendor.</p> + +<p>I have often thought that if I were a preacher, if I had the honor to +occupy the pulpit so grandly filled by my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1120" id="Page_1120">[Pg 1120]</a></span> friend near me [gracefully +inclining toward Mr. Beecher], one of my sermons should be from the +text, "A little leaven shall leaven the whole lump." Nor do I know a +better illustration of these words than the influence exerted by our +Pilgrims. That small band, with the lesson of self-sacrifice, of just +and equal laws, of the government of a majority, of unshrinking loyalty +to principle, is now leavening this whole continent, and in the fulness +of time will leaven the world. [Great applause.] By their example, +republican institutions have been commended, and in proportion as we +imitate them will these institutions be assured. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Liberty, which we so much covet, is not a solitary plant. Always by its +side is Justice. [Applause.] But Justice is nothing but right applied to +human affairs. Do not forget, I entreat you, that with the highest +morality is the highest liberty. A great poet, in one of his inspired +sonnets, speaking of this priceless possession, has said, "But who loves +that must first be wise and good." Therefore do the Pilgrims in their +beautiful example teach liberty, teach republican institutions, as at an +earlier day, Socrates and Plato, in their lessons of wisdom, taught +liberty and helped the idea of the republic. If republican government +has thus far failed in any experiment, as, perhaps, somewhere in Spanish +America, it is because these lessons have been wanting. There have been +no Pilgrims to teach the moral law.</p> + +<p>Mr. President, with these thoughts, which I imperfectly express, I +confess my obligations to the forefathers of New England, and offer to +them the homage of a grateful heart. But not in thanksgiving only would +I celebrate their memory. I would if I could make their example a +universal lesson, and stamp it upon the land. [Applause.] The conscience +which directed them should be the guide for our public councils. The +just and equal laws which they required should be ordained by us, and +the hospitality to truth which was their rule should be ours. Nor would +I forget their courage and steadfastness. Had they turned back or +wavered, I know not what would have been the record of this continent, +but I see clearly that a great example would have been lost. [Applause.] +Had Columbus yielded to his mutinous crew and returned to Spain without +his great discovery; had Washington shrunk away disheartened by Brit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1121" id="Page_1121">[Pg 1121]</a></span>ish +power and the snows of New Jersey, these great instances would have been +wanting for the encouragement of men. But our Pilgrims belong to the +same heroic company, and their example is not less precious. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Only a short time after the landing on Plymouth Rock, the great +republican poet, John Milton, wrote his "Comus," so wonderful for beauty +and truth. His nature was more refined than that of the Pilgrims, and +yet it requires little effort of imagination to catch from one of them, +or at least from their beloved pastor, the exquisite, almost angelic +words at the close—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mortals, who would follow me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Love Virtue; she alone is free;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She can teach ye how to climb</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Higher than the sphery chime.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or if Virtue feeble were,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heaven itself would stoop to her."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[At the conclusion of Senator Sumner's speech the audience arose and +gave cheer upon cheer.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1122" id="Page_1122">[Pg 1122]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THOMAS DEWITT TALMAGE</h2> + + + +<h4>BEHOLD THE AMERICAN!</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the eighty-first annual +dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December +22, 1886. The President of the Society, Judge Horace Russell, +introduced Dr. Talmage to speak to the toast, "Forefathers' Day."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, and all you good New Englanders</span>: If we leave to +the evolutionists to guess where we came from and to the theologians to +prophesy where we are going to, we still have left for consideration the +fact that we are here; and we are here at an interesting time. Of all +the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the +century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this +is the best year, and of all the months of the year this is the best +month, and of all the nights of the month this is the best night. +[Applause and laughter.] Many of these advantages we trace straight back +to Forefathers' Day, about which I am to speak.</p> + +<p>But I must not introduce a new habit into these New England dinners and +confine myself to the one theme. For eighty-one years your speakers have +been accustomed to make the toast announced the point from which they +start, but to which they never return. [Laughter.] So I shall not stick +to my text, but only be particular to have all I say my own, and not +make the mistake of a minister whose sermon was a patchwork from a +variety of authors, to whom he gave no credit. There was an intoxicated +wag in the audience who had read about everything, and he announced the +authors as the minister went on. The clergyman gave an extract without +any credit to the author, and the man in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1123" id="Page_1123">[Pg 1123]</a></span> the audience cried out: +"That's Jeremy Taylor." The speaker went on and gave an extract from +another author without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: +"That is John Wesley." The minister gave an extract from another author +without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: "That is George +Whitefield." When the minister lost his patience and cried out, "Shut +up, you old fool!" the man in the audience replied: "That is your own." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Well, what about this Forefathers' Day? In Brooklyn they say the Landing +of the Pilgrims was December the 21st; in New York you say it was +December the 22d. You are both right. Not through the specious and +artful reasoning you have sometimes indulged in, but by a little +historical incident that seems to have escaped your attention. You see, +the Forefathers landed in the morning of December the 21st, but about +noon that day a pack of hungry wolves swept down the bleak American +beach looking for a New England dinner [laughter], and a band of savages +out for a tomahawk picnic hove in sight, and the Pilgrim Fathers thought +it best for safety and warmth to go on board the Mayflower and pass the +night. [Renewed laughter.] And during the night there came up a strong +wind blowing off shore that swept the Mayflower from its moorings clear +out to sea, and there was a prospect that our Forefathers, having +escaped oppression in foreign lands, would yet go down under an oceanic +tempest. But the next day they fortunately got control of their ship and +steered her in, and the second time the Forefathers stepped ashore.</p> + +<p>Brooklyn celebrated the first landing; New York the second landing. So I +say Hail! Hail! to both celebrations, for one day, anyhow, could not do +justice to such a subject; and I only wish I could have kissed the +blarney stone of America, which is Plymouth Rock, so that I might have +done justice to this subject. [Laughter and applause.] Ah, gentlemen, +that Mayflower was the ark that floated the deluge of oppression, and +Plymouth Rock was the Ararat on which it landed.</p> + +<p>But let me say that these Forefathers were of no more importance than +the Foremothers. [Applause.] As I understand it, there were eight of +them—that is, four fathers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1124" id="Page_1124">[Pg 1124]</a></span> and four mothers—from whom all these +illustrious New Englanders descended. Now I was not born in New England, +though far back my ancestors lived in Connecticut, and then crossed over +to Long Island and there joined the Dutch, and that mixture of Yankee +and Dutch makes royal blood. [Applause.] Neither is perfect without the +other, the Yankee in a man's nature saying "Go ahead!" the Dutch in his +blood saying, "Be prudent while you do go ahead!" Some people do not +understand why Long Island was stretched along parallel with all of the +Connecticut coast. I have no doubt that it was so placed that the Dutch +might watch the Yankees. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But though not born in New England, in my boyhood I had a New England +schoolmaster, whom I shall never forget. He taught us our A, B, C's. +"What is that?" "I don't know, sir." "That's A" [with a slap]. "What is +that?" "I don't know, sir." [With a slap]—"That is B." [Laughter.] I +tell you, a boy that learned his letters in that way never forgot them; +and if the boy was particularly dull, then this New England schoolmaster +would take him over the knee, and then the boy got his information from +both directions. [Renewed laughter.]</p> + +<p>But all these things aside, no one sitting at these tables has higher +admiration for the Pilgrim Fathers than I have—the men who believed in +two great doctrines, which are the foundation of every religion that is +worth anything: namely, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of +Man—these men of backbone and endowed with that great and magnificent +attribute of stick-to-it-iveness. Macaulay said that no one ever sneered +at the Puritans who had met them in halls of debate or crossed swords +with them on the field of battle. [Applause.] They are sometimes defamed +for their rigorous Sabbaths, but our danger is in the opposite direction +of no Sabbaths at all. It is said that they destroyed witches. I wish +that they had cleared them all out, for the world is full of witches +yet, and if at all these tables there is a man who has not sometimes +been bewitched, let him hold up his glass of ice-water. [Laughter.] It +is said that these Forefathers carried religion into everything, and +before a man kissed his wife he asked a blessing, and afterward said: +"Having received another favor from the Lord,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1125" id="Page_1125">[Pg 1125]</a></span> let us return thanks." +[Laughter.] But our great need now is more religion in every-day life.</p> + +<p>I think their plain diet had much to do with their ruggedness of nature. +They had not as many good things to eat as we have, and they had better +digestion. Now, all the evening some of our best men sit with an awful +bad feeling at the pit of their stomach, and the food taken fails to +assimilate, and in the agitated digestive organs the lamb and the cow +lie down together and get up just as they have a mind to. [Laughter.] +After dinner I sat down with my friend to talk. He had for many years +been troubled with indigestion. I felt guilty when I insisted on his +taking that last piece of lemon pie. I knew that pastry always made him +crusty. I said to him: "I never felt better in all my life; how do you +feel?" And putting one hand over one piece of lemon pie and the other +hand over the other piece of lemon pie, he said: "I feel miserable." +Smaller varieties of food had the old Fathers, but it did them more +good.</p> + +<p>Still, take it all in all, I think the descendants of the Pilgrim +Fathers are as good as their ancestors, and in many ways better. +Children are apt to be an echo of their ancestors. We are apt to put a +halo around the Forefathers, but I expect that at our age they were very +much like ourselves. People are not wise when they long for the good old +days. They say: "Just think of the pride of people at this day! Just +look at the ladies' hats!" [Laughter.] Why, there is nothing in the +ladies' hats of to-day equal to the coal-scuttle hats a hundred years +ago. They say: "Just look at the way people dress their hair!" Why, the +extremest style of to-day will not equal the top-knots which our +great-grandmothers wore, put up with high combs that we would have +thought would have made our great-grandfathers die with laughter. The +hair was lifted into a pyramid a foot high. On the top of that tower lay +a white rose. Shoes of bespangled white kid, and heels two or three +inches high. Grandfather went out to meet her on the floor with a coat +of sky-blue silk and vest of white satin embroidered with gold lace, +lace ruffles around his wrist and his hair flung in a queue. The great +George Washington had his horse's hoofs blackened when about to appear +on a parade, and writes to Europe ordering sent for the use of himself +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1126" id="Page_1126">[Pg 1126]</a></span> family, one silver-lace hat, one pair of silver shoe-buckles, a +coat made of fashionable silk, one pair of gold sleeve-buttons, six +pairs of kid gloves, one dozen most fashionable cambric +pocket-handkerchiefs, besides ruffles and tucker. That was George. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Talk about dissipations, ye who have ever seen the old-fashioned +sideboard! Did I not have an old relative who always, when visitors +came, used to go upstairs and take a drink through economical habits, +not offering anything to his visitors? [Laughter.] On the old-fashioned +training days the most sober men were apt to take a day to themselves. +Many of the familiar drinks of to-day were unknown to them, but their +hard cider, mint julep, metheglin, hot toddy, and lemonade in which the +lemon was not at all prominent, sometimes made lively work for the +broad-brimmed hats and silver knee-buckles. Talk of dissipating parties +of to-day and keeping of late hours! Why, did they not have their "bees" +and sausage-stuffings and tea-parties and dances, that for heartiness +and uproar utterly eclipsed all the waltzes, lanciers, redowas, and +breakdowns of the nineteenth century, and they never went home till +morning. And as to the old-time courtships, oh, my! Washington Irving +describes them. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But though your Forefathers may not have been much, if any, better than +yourselves, let us extol them for the fact that they started this +country in the right direction. They laid the foundation for American +manhood. The foundation must be more solid and firm and unyielding than +any other part of the structure. On that Puritanic foundation we can +safely build all nationalities. [Applause.] Let us remember that the +coming American is to be an admixture of all foreign bloods. In about +twenty-five or fifty years the model American will step forth. He will +have the strong brain of the German, the polished manners of the French, +the artistic taste of the Italian, the stanch heart of the English, the +steadfast piety of the Scotch, the lightning wit of the Irish, and when +he steps forth, bone, muscle, nerve, brain entwined with the fibres of +all nationalities, the nations will break out in the cry: "Behold the +American!" [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Columbus discovered only the shell of this country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1127" id="Page_1127">[Pg 1127]</a></span> Agassiz came and +discovered fossiliferous America. Silliman came and discovered +geological America. Audubon came and discovered bird America. Longfellow +came and discovered poetic America; and there are a half-dozen other +Americas yet to be discovered.</p> + +<p>I never realized what this country was and is as on the day when I first +saw some of these gentlemen of the Army and Navy. It was when at the +close of the War our armies came back and marched in review before the +President's stand at Washington. I do not care whether a man was a +Republican or a Democrat, a Northern man or a Southern man, if he had +any emotion of nature, he could not look upon it without weeping. God +knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heaven of cloud and +mist and chill, and sprung the blue sky as the triumphal arch for the +returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring +foliage shook out its welcome, as the hosts came over the hills, and the +sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the +battalions as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable +line passed over. The Capitol never seemed so majestic as that morning: +snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging down, +billow after billow. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the +thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see +dripping from their smoke-blackened flags the blood of our country's +martyrs. For the best part of two days we stood and watched the filing +on of what seemed endless battalions, brigade after brigade, division +after division, host after host, rank beyond rank; ever moving, ever +passing; marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp—thousands after +thousands, battery front, arms shouldered, columns solid, shoulder to +shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril.</p> + +<p>Commanders on horses with their manes entwined with roses, and necks +enchained with garlands, fractious at the shouts that ran along the +line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, +standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferation of +hundreds of thousands of enraptured multitudes, crying "Huzza! Huzza!" +Gleaming muskets, thundering parks of artillery, rumbling pontoon +wagons, ambulances from whose wheels seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1128" id="Page_1128">[Pg 1128]</a></span> sound out the groans of +the crushed and the dying that they had carried. These men came from +balmy Minnesota, those from Illinois prairies. These were often hummed +to sleep by the pines of Oregon, those were New England lumbermen. Those +came out of the coal-shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side in one great +cause, consecrated through fire and storm and darkness, brothers in +peril, on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and +Fredericksburg, in lines that seemed infinite they passed on.</p> + +<p>We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our heads to see if the end +had come, but no! Looking from one end of that long avenue to the other, +we saw them yet in solid column, battery front, host beyond host, wheel +to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril, coming as it were from +under the Capitol. Forward! Forward! Their bayonets, caught in the sun, +glimmered and flashed and blazed, till they seemed like one long river +of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the +procession, no rest for the eyes. We turned our heads from the scene, +unable longer to look. We felt disposed to stop our ears, but still we +heard it, marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp. But hush,—uncover +every head! Here they pass, the remnant of ten men of a full regiment. +Silence! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. But +wheel into line, all ye people! North, South, East, West—all decades, +all centuries, all millenniums! Forward, the whole line! Huzza! Huzza! +[Great applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE DUTCH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the seventh annual dinner +of the Holland Society of New York, January 14, 1892. The President +of the Society, George M. Van Hoesen, said: "The next regular toast +is: 'What I Know about the Dutch,' which will be responded to by a +gentleman who needs no introduction—the Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt +Talmage."]</p></div> + + +<p>Oh, Judge Van Hoesen, this is not the first time we have been side by +side, for we were college boys together; and I remember that there was +this difference between us—you seemed to know about everything, and it +would take a very large library, a library larger than the Vatican, to +tell all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1129" id="Page_1129">[Pg 1129]</a></span> I didn't know. It is good to be here. What a multitude of +delightful people there are in this world! If you and I had been +consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we +could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always +been glad that I got aboard this planet. There are three classes of +people that I especially admire—men, women, and children. I have +enjoyed this banquet very much, for there are two places where I always +have a good appetite—at home and away from home. I have not been +interfered with as were some gentlemen that I heard of at a public +dinner some years ago. A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, +came to the city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who +were showing him the sights: "Who are those gentlemen who are eating so +heartily?" The answer was: "They are the men who pay for the dinner." +"And who are those gentlemen up there on the elevation looking so pale +and frightened and eating nothing?" "Oh," said his friend, "those are +the fellows who make the speeches."</p> + +<p>It is very appropriate that we should celebrate the Hollanders by hearty +eating, for you know the royal house that the Hollanders admire above +any other royal house, is named after one of the most delicious fruits +on this table—the house of Orange. I feel that I have a right to be +here. While I have in my arteries the blood of many nationalities, so +that I am a cosmopolitan and feel at home anywhere, there is in my veins +a strong tide of Dutch blood. My mother was a Van Nest, and I was +baptized in a Dutch church and named after a Dutch Domini, graduated at +a Dutch theological seminary, and was ordained by a Dutch minister, +married a Dutch girl, preached thirteen years in a Dutch church, and +always took a Dutch newspaper; and though I have got off into another +denomination, I am thankful to say that, while nearly all of our +denominations are in hot water, each one of them having on a big +ecclesiastical fight—and you know when ministers do fight, they fight +like sin—I am glad that the old Dutch Church sails on over unruffled +seas, and the flag at her masthead is still inscribed with "Peace and +good-will to men." Departed spirits of John Livingston and Gabriel +Ludlow, and Dr. Van Draken and magnificent Thomas de Witt, from your +thrones witness!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1130" id="Page_1130">[Pg 1130]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gentlemen here to-night have spoken much already in regard to what +Holland did on the other side of the sea; and neither historian's pen, +nor poet's canto, nor painter's pencil nor sculptor's chisel, nor +orator's tongue, can ever tell the full story of the prowess of those +people. Isn't it strange that two of the smallest sections of the earth +should have produced most of the grandest history of the world? +Palestine, only a little over 100 miles in length, yet yielding the most +glorious event of all history; and little Holland, only about one +quarter of the size of the State of New Jersey, achieving wonderful +history and wonderful deeds not only at home, but starting an influence +under which Robert Burns wrote "A man's a man for a' that," and sending +across the Atlantic a thunder of indignation against oppression of which +the American Declaration of Independence, and Yorktown and Bunker Hill, +and Monmouth and Gettysburg, are only the echoes!</p> + +<p>As I look across the ocean to-night, I say: England for manufactories, +Germany for scholarship, France for manners, Italy for pictures—but +Holland for liberty and for God! And leaving to other gentlemen to tell +that story—for they can tell it better than I can—I can to-night get +but little further than our own immediate Dutch ancestors, most of whom +have already taken the sacrament of the dust. Ah, what a glorious race +of old folks they were! May our right hand forget its cunning, and our +tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth, if we forget to honor their +memories! What good advice they gave us; and when they went away +forever—well, our emotions were a little different as we stood over the +silent forms of the two old folks. In one case I think the dominant +emotion was reverence. In the other case I think it was tenderness, and +a wish that we could go with her.—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Make me a child again, just for to-night!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mother, come back from the echoless shore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Take me again to your heart as of yore;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over my slumbers a loving watch keep;—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rock me to sleep, mother—rock me to sleep!"</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1131" id="Page_1131">[Pg 1131]</a></span></p> + +<p>My, my! doesn't the old Dutch home come back to us, and don't we see the +plain cap, and the large round spectacles, and the shoulders that stoop +from carrying our burden! Was there ever any other hand like hers to +wipe away a tear, or to bind up a wound; for when she put the +far-sighted spectacles clear up on her forehead, so that her eyes might +the nearer look at the wound, it felt better right away! And have we +ever since heard any music like that which she hushed us to sleep +with—could any prima donna sing as she could! And could any other face +so fill a room with light and comfort and peace!</p> + +<p>Mr. President, Dutch blood is good blood. We do not propose to +antagonize any other to-night; but at our public dinners, about December +21st, we are very apt to get into the Mayflower and sail around the New +England coast. I think it will be good for us to-night to take another +boat quite as good, and sail around New York harbor in the Half-Moon.</p> + +<p>I heard, years ago, the difference illustrated between the Yankee and +the Dutchman. There was an explosion on a Mississippi River steamboat; +the boiler burst, and the passengers were thrown into the air. After the +accident, the captain came around to inquire in regard to them, and he +found the Dutchman, but not the Yankee; and he said to the Dutchman, +"Did you see anything of that Yankee?" The Dutchman replied, "Oh, yes; +when I vas going up, he vas coming down." Now, the Dutch blood may not +be quite so quick as the Yankee, but it is more apt to be sure it is +right before it goes ahead. Dutch blood means patience, fidelity, and +perseverance. It means faith in God also. Yes, it means generosity. I +hardly ever knew a mean Dutchman. That man who fell down dead in my +native village couldn't have had any Dutch blood in him. He was over +eighty years of age, and had never given a cent to any benevolent object +during his life; but in a moment of weakness, when he saw a face of +distress, he gave a cent to an unfortunate man, and immediately dropped +dead; and the surgeon declared, after the post-mortem examination, that +he died of sudden enlargement of the heart. Neither is there any such +mean man among the Dutch as that man who was so economical in regard to +meat that he cut off a dog's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1132" id="Page_1132">[Pg 1132]</a></span> tail and roasted it and ate the meat, and +then gave the bone back to the dog. Or that other mean man I heard of, +who was so economical that he used a wart on the back of his neck for a +collar-button. I have so much faith in Holland blood, that I declare the +more Hollanders come to this country the better we ought to like it. +Wherever they try to land, let them land on our American soil; for all +this continent is going to be after a while under one government. I +suppose you have noticed how the governments on the southern part of the +continent are gradually melting into our own; and soon the difficulty on +the north between Canada and the United States will be amicably settled +and the time will come when the United States Government will offer hand +and heart in marriage to beautiful and hospitable Canada; and when the +United States shall so offer its hand in marriage, Canada will blush and +look down, and, thinking of her allegiance across the sea, will say, +"Ask mother."</p> + +<p>In a suggestive letter which the chairman of the committee wrote me, +inviting me to take part in this entertainment, he very beautifully and +potently said that the Republic of the Netherlands had given hospitality +in the days that are past to English Puritans and French Huguenots and +Polish refugees and Portuguese Jews, and prospered; and I thought, as I +read that letter, "Why, then, if the Republic of the Netherlands was so +hospitable to other nations, surely we ought to be hospitable to all +nations, especially to Hollanders." Oh, this absurd talk about "America +for Americans!" Why, there isn't a man here to-night that is not +descended from some foreigner, unless he is an Indian. Why, the native +Americans were Modocs, Chippewas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, +and such like. Suppose, when our fathers were trying to come to this +country, the Indians had stood on Plymouth Rock and at the Highlands of +the Navesink, and when the Hollanders and the Pilgrim Fathers attempted +to land, had shouted, "Back with you to Holland and to England; America +for Americans!" Had that watchword been an early and successful cry, +where now stand our cities would have stood Indian wigwams; and canoes +instead of steamers would have tracked the Hudson and the Connecticut; +and, instead of the Mississippi being the main artery of the continent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1133" id="Page_1133">[Pg 1133]</a></span> +it would have been only a trough for deer and antelope and wild pigeons +to drink out of. What makes this cry of "America for the Americans" the +more absurd and the more inhuman is that some in this country, who +themselves arrived here in their boyhood or only one or two generations +back, are joining in the cry. Having escaped themselves into this +beautiful land, they say: "Shut the door of escape for others." Getting +themselves on our shores in the life-boat from the shipwreck, they say: +"Haul up the boat on the beach, and let the rest of the passengers go to +the bottom." Men who have yet on them a Holland, or Scotch, or German, +or English, or Irish brogue, are crying out: "America for the +Americans!" What if the native inhabitants of heaven (I mean the angels, +the cherubim, and the seraphim, for they were born there) should say to +us when we arrive there at last, "Go back. Heaven for the Heavenians!"</p> + +<p>Of course, we do not want foreign nations to make this a convict colony. +We wouldn't let their thieves and anarchists land here, nor even wipe +their feet on the mat of the outside door of this continent. When they +send their criminals here, let us put them in chains and send them back. +This country must not be made the dumping-ground for foreign +vagabondism. But for the hard-working and industrious people who come +here, do not let us build up any wall around New York harbor to keep +them out, or it will after a while fall down with a red-hot thunderburst +of God's indignation. Suppose you are a father, and you have five +children. One is named Philip, and Philip says to his brothers and +sisters: "Now, John, you go and live in the small room at the end of the +hall. George, you go and stay up in the garret. Mary, you go and live in +the cellar, and Fannie, you go and live in the kitchen, and don't any of +you come out. I am Philip, and will occupy the parlor; I like it; I like +the lambrequins at the window, and I like the pictures on the wall. I am +Philip, and, being Philip, the parlor shall only be for the Philipians." +You, the father, come home, and you say: "Fannie, what are you doing in +the kitchen? Come out of there." And you say to Mary, "Mary, come out of +that cellar." And you say to John, "John, don't stay shut up in that +small room. Come out of there." And you say to George, "George, come +down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1134" id="Page_1134">[Pg 1134]</a></span> out of that garret." And you say to the children, "This is my +house. You can go anywhere in it that you want to." And you go and haul +Philip out of the parlor, and you tell him that his brothers and sisters +have just as much right in there as he has, and that they are all to +enjoy it. Now, God is our Father, and this world is a house of several +rooms, and God has at least five children—the North American continent, +the South American continent, the Asiatic continent, the European +continent, and the African continent. The North American continent +sneaks away, and says: "I prefer the parlor. You South Americans, +Asiatics, Europeans, and Africans, you stay in your own rooms; this is +the place for me; I prefer it, and I am going to stay in the parlor; I +like the front windows facing on the Atlantic, and the side windows +facing on the Pacific, and the nice piazza on the south where the sun +shines, and the glorious view from the piazza to the north." And God, +the Father, comes in and sends thunder and lightning through the house, +and says to his son, the American continent: "You are no more my child +than are all these others, and they have just as much right to enjoy +this part of my house as you have."</p> + +<p>It will be a great day for the health of our American atmosphere when +this race prejudice is buried in the earth. Come, bring your spades, and +let us dig a grave for it; and dig it deep down into the heart of the +earth, but not clear through to China, lest the race prejudice should +fasten the prejudice on the other side. Having got this grave deeply +dug, come, let us throw in all the hard things that have been said and +written between Jew and Gentile, between Protestant and Catholic, +between Turk and Russian, between French and English, between Mongolian +and anti-Mongolian, between black and white; and then let us set up a +tombstone and put upon it the epitaph: "Here lies the monster that +cursed the earth for nearly three thousand years. He has departed to go +to perdition, from which he started. No peace to his ashes."</p> + +<p>From this glorious Holland dinner let us go out trying to imitate the +virtues of our ancestors, the men who built the Holland dikes, which are +the only things that ever conquered the sea, slapping it in the face and +making it go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1135" id="Page_1135">[Pg 1135]</a></span> back. There was a young Holland engineer who was to be +married to a maiden living in one of the villages sheltered by these +dikes, and in the evening there was to be a banquet in honor of the +wedding, which was to be given to the coming bridegroom. But all day +long the sea was raging and beating against the dikes. And this engineer +reasoned with himself: "Shall I go to the banquet which is to be given +in my honor, or shall I go and join my workmen down on the dikes?" And +he finally concluded that it was his duty to go and join his workmen on +the dikes, and he went. And when the poor fellows toiling there saw that +their engineer was coming to help them, they set up a cheer. The +engineer had a rope put around him and was lowered down into the surf, +and other men came and had ropes put about them, and they were lowered +down. And after a while the cry was heard: "More mortar and more blocks +of stone!" But there were no more. "Now," said the Holland engineer, +"men, take off your clothes!" and they took them off, and they stopped +up the holes in the dikes. But still the stones were giving way against +the mighty wrath of the strong sea which was beating against them. And +then the Holland engineer said: "We cannot do any more. My men, get on +your knees and pray to God for help." And they got down on their knees +and they prayed; and the wind began to silence, and the sea began to +cease its angry wavings, and the wall was saved; and all the people who +lived in the village went on with the banquet and the dance, for they +did not know their peril, and they were all saved.</p> + +<p>What you and I ought to do is to go out and help build up the dikes +against the ocean of crime and depravity and sin which threatens to +overwhelm this nation. Men of Holland, descend!—to the dikes! to the +dikes! Bring all the faith and all the courage of your ancestors to the +work, and then get down on your knees, and kneel with us on the creaking +wall, and pray to the God of the wind and of the sea that He may hush +the one and silence the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1136" id="Page_1136">[Pg 1136]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BAYARD TAYLOR</h2> + + + + +<h4>TRIBUTE TO GOETHE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Bayard Taylor at a reception given in his honor by the +Goethe Club, New York City, March 20, 1878. The reception was held +in recognition of Mr. Taylor's appointment as United States +Minister to Germany. Dr. A. Ruppaner, President of the Club, +presided.]</p></div> + + +<p>It is difficult for me to respond fitly to what you have done, +fellow-members of the Goethe Club, and what my old friend Parke Godwin +has said. I may take gratefully whatever applies to an already +accomplished work, but I cannot accept any reference to any work yet to +be done without a feeling of doubt and uncertainty. No man can count on +future success without seeming to invoke the evil fates.</p> + +<p>I am somewhat relieved in knowing that this reception, by which I am so +greatly honored, is not wholly owing to the official distinction which +has been conferred upon me by the President. I am informed that it had +been already intended by the Goethe Club as a large and liberal +recognition of my former literary labors, and I will only refer a moment +to the diplomatic post in order that there may be no misconception of my +position in accepting it.</p> + +<p>The fact that for years past I have designed writing a new biography of +the great German master, is generally known; there was no necessity for +keeping it secret; it has been specially mentioned by the press since my +appointment, and I need not hesitate to say that the favor of our +government will give me important facilities in the prosecution of the +work. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But the question has also been asked, here and there—and very +naturally—is a Minister to a foreign Court to be appointed for such a +purpose? I answer, No! The Min<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1137" id="Page_1137">[Pg 1137]</a></span>ister's duty to the government and to the +interests of his fellow-citizens is always paramount. I shall go to +Berlin with the full understanding of the character of the services I +may be expected to render, and the honest determination to fulfil them +to the best of my ability.</p> + +<p>But, as my friends know, I have the power and the habit of doing a great +deal of work; and I think no one will complain if, instead of the +recreation which others allow themselves, I should find my own +recreation in another form of labor.</p> + +<p>I hope to secure at least two hours out of each twenty-four for my own +work, without detriment to my official duties—and if two hours are not +practicable, one must suffice. I shall be in the midst of the material I +most need—I shall be able to make the acquaintance of the men and women +who can give me the best assistance—and without looking forward +positively to the completion of the task, I may safely say that this +opportunity gives me a cheerful hope of being able to complete it.</p> + +<p>I was first led to the study of Goethe's life by the necessity of making +the full meaning of his greatest poem clear to the readers of our +language. I found that he himself was a better guide for me than all his +critics and commentators. I learned to understand the grand +individuality of his nature, and his increasing importance as an +intellectual force in our century. I owe as much to him in the way of +stimulus as to any other poet whatever. Except Shakespeare, no other +poet has ever so thoroughly inculcated the value of breadth, the +advantage of various knowledge, as the chief element of the highest +human culture. Through the form of his creative activity, Shakespeare +could only teach this lesson indirectly. Goethe taught it always in the +most direct and emphatic manner, for it was the governing principle of +his nature. It is not yet fifty years since he died, but he has already +become a permanent elemental power, the operation of which will continue +through many generations to come. The fact that an association bearing +his name exists and flourishes here in New York is a good omen for our +own development.</p> + +<p>We grow, not by questioning or denying great minds—which is a very +prevalent fashion of the day—but by rever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1138" id="Page_1138">[Pg 1138]</a></span>ently accepting whatever they +can give us. The "heir of all the ages" is unworthy of his ancestors if +he throws their legacy away. It is enough for me if this honor to-night +reaches through and far beyond me, to Goethe. It is his name not mine, +which has brought us together. Let me lay upon him—he is able to bear +even that much—whatever of the honor I am not truly worthy to receive, +and to thank you gratefully for what remains. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1139" id="Page_1139">[Pg 1139]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SLASON THOMPSON</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE ETHICS OF THE PRESS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Slason Thompson at the seventy-fourth dinner and fourth +"Ladies' Night" of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill., April 26, 1894. +The Secretary, Alexander A. McCormick, presided. Mr. Thompson spoke +on the general topic of the evening's discussion, "The Ethics of +the Press."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—It would be interesting, I think, +for the gentlemen of the press who are here to-night if they could find +out from what newspaper in Chicago the last speaker [Howard L. Smith] +derives his idea of the press of Chicago. I stand here to say that there +is no such paper printed in this city. There may be one that, perhaps, +comes close down to his ideas of the press of Chicago, but there is only +one—a weekly—and I believe it is printed in New York. The reverend +gentleman who began the discussion to-night started into this subject +very much like a coon, and as we listened, as he went on, we perceived +he came out a porcupine. He was scientific in everything he said in +favor of the press; unscientific in everything against it. He spoke to +you in favor of the suppression of news, which means, I take it, the +dissemination of crime. He spoke to you in favor of the suppression of +sewer-gas. Chicago to-day owes its good health to the fact that we do +discuss sewer-gas. A reverend gentleman once discussing the province of +the press, spoke of its province as the suppression of news. If some +gentlemen knew the facts that come to us, they would wonder at our +lenience to their faults. The question of an anonymous press has been +brought up. If you will glance over the files of the newspapers +throughout the world, you will find in that country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1140" id="Page_1140">[Pg 1140]</a></span> where the articles +are signed the press is most corrupt, weakest, most venal, and has the +least influence of any press in the world. To tell me that a reporter +who writes an article is of more consequence than the editor, is to tell +me a thing I believe you do not believe.</p> + +<p>When Charles A. Dana was asked what was the first essential in +publishing a newspaper, he is said to have replied, "Raise Cain and sell +papers." Whether the story is true or not, his answer comes as near a +general definition of the governing principle in newspaper offices as +you are likely to get.</p> + +<p>Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as ethics of the press. Each +newspaper editor, publisher, or proprietor—whoever is the controlling +spirit behind the types, the man who pockets the profits, or empties his +pockets to make good the losses—his will, his judgment, his conscience, +his hopes, necessities, or ambitions, constitute the ethics of one +newspaper—no more! There is no association of editors, no understanding +or agreement to formulate ethics for the press. And if there were, not +one of the parties to it would live up to it any more than the managers +of railways live up to the agreements over which they spend so much +time.</p> + +<p>The general press prints what the public wants; the specific newspaper +prints what its editor thinks the class of readers to which it caters +wants. If he gauges his public right, he succeeds; if he does not, he +fails. You can no more make the people read a newspaper they do not want +than you can make a horse drink when he is not thirsty. In this respect +the pulpit has the better of the press. It can thrash over old straw and +thunder forth distasteful tenets to its congregations year after year, +and at least be sure of the continued attention of the sexton and the +deacon who circulates the contribution-box.</p> + +<p>What are the ethics of the press of Chicago? They are those of Joseph +Medill, Victor F. Lawson, H. H. Kohlsaat, John R. Walsh, Carter Harrison, +Jr., Washington Hesing, individually, not collectively. As these +gentlemen are personally able, conscientious, fearless for the right, +patriotic, incorruptible, and devoted to the public good, so are their +respective newspapers. If they are otherwise, so are their respective +newspapers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1141" id="Page_1141">[Pg 1141]</a></span></p> + +<p>As I have said before this club on another occasion, the citizens of +Chicago are fortunate above those of any other great city in the United +States in the average high character of their newspapers. They may have +their faults, but who has not? Let him or her who is without fault throw +stones.</p> + +<p>If the newspaper press is as bad as some people always pretend to think, +how comes it that every good cause instinctively seeks its aid with +almost absolute confidence of obtaining it? And how comes it that the +workers of evil just as instinctively aim to fraudulently use it or +silence it, and with such poor success?</p> + +<p>To expose and oppose wrong is an almost involuntary rule among newspaper +workers—from chief to printer's devil. They make mistakes like others, +they are tempted and fall like others, but I testify to a +well-recognized intention of our profession, the rule is to learn the +facts, and print them, too—to know the truth and not hide it under a +bushel. Nine-tenths of the criticisms of the press one hears is the +braying of the galled jades or the crackling of thorns under a pot.</p> + +<p>The press stands for light, not darkness. It is the greatest power in +our modern civilization. Thieves and rascals of high and low degree hate +and malign it, but no honest man has reasonable cause to fear the abuse +of its power. It is a beacon, and not a false light. It casts its +blessed beams into dark places, and while it brings countless crimes to +light, it also reveals to the beneficence of the world the wrongs and +needs of the necessitous. It is the embodiment of energy in the pursuit +of news, for its name is Light, and its aim is Knowledge. Ignorance and +crime flee from before it like mist before the God of Light. It stands +to-day</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"For the truth that lacks assistance,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the wrong that needs resistance,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the future in the distance,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And the good that it can do."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It has no license to do wrong; it has boundless liberty and opportunity +to do good.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1142" id="Page_1142">[Pg 1142]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THEODORE TILTON</h2> + + + + +<h4>WOMAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Theodore Tilton at the sixtieth annual dinner of the New +England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1865. The +Chairman, Joseph H. Choate, gave the following toast, "Woman—the +strong staff and beautiful rod which sustained and comforted our +forefathers during every step of the pilgrims' progress." Theodore +Tilton was called upon to respond.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—It is somewhat to a modest man's embarrassment, on +rising to this toast, to know that it has already been twice partially +spoken to this evening—first by my friend, Senator Lane from Indiana, +and just now, most eloquently, by the mayor-elect of New York [John T. +Hoffman], who could not utter a better word in his own praise than to +tell us that he married a Massachusetts wife. [Applause.] In choosing +the most proper spot on this platform as my standpoint for such remarks +as are appropriate to such a toast, my first impulse was to go to the +other end of the table; for hereafter, Mr. Chairman, when you are in +want of a man to speak for Woman, remember what Hamlet said, "Bring me +the recorder!"<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> [Laughter.] But, on the other hand, here, at this end, +a prior claim was put in from the State of Indiana, whose venerable +Senator [Henry S. Lane] has expressed himself disappointed at finding no +women present. So, as my toast introduces that sex, I feel bound to +stand at the Senator's end of the room—not, however, too near the +Senator's chair, for it may be dangerous to take Woman too near that +"good-looking man." [Laughter and applause.] Therefore, gentlemen, I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1143" id="Page_1143">[Pg 1143]</a></span>stand between these two chairs—the Army on my right [General Hancock], +the Navy on my left [Admiral Farragut]—to hold over their heads a name +that conquers both—Woman! [Applause.] The Chairman has pictured a +vice-admiral tied for a little while to a mast; but it is the spirit of +my sentiment to give you a vice-admiral tied life-long to a master. +[Applause.] In the absence of woman, therefore, from this gilded feast, +I summon her to your golden remembrance. There is an old English +song—older, sir, than the Pilgrims:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"By absence, this good means I gain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That I can catch her</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where none can watch her,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In some close corner of my brain:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There I embrace and kiss her:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And so I both enjoy and miss her!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>You must not forget, Mr. President, in eulogizing the early men of New +England, who are your clients to-night, that it was only through the +help of the early women of New England, who are mine, that your boasted +heroes could ever have earned their title of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Great +laughter.] A health, therefore, to the women in the cabin of the +Mayflower! A cluster of May-flowers themselves, transplanted from summer +in the old world to winter in the new! Counting over those matrons and +maidens, they numbered, all told, just eighteen. Their names are now +written among the heroines of history! For as over the ashes of Cornelia +stood the epitaph "The Mother of the Gracchi," so over these women of +the Pilgrimage we write as proudly "The Mothers of the Republic." +[Applause.] There was good Mistress Bradford, whose feet were not +allowed of God to kiss Plymouth Rock, and who, like Moses, came only +near enough to see but not to enter the Promised Land. She was washed +overboard from the deck—and to this day the sea is her grave and Cape +Cod her monument! [Applause.] There was Mistress Carver, wife of the +first governor, and who, when her husband fell under the stroke of +sudden death, followed him first with heroic grief to the grave, and +then, a fortnight after, followed him with heroic joy up into Heaven! +[Applause.] There was Mistress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1144" id="Page_1144">[Pg 1144]</a></span> White—the mother of the first child +born to the New England Pilgrims on this continent. And it was a good +omen, sir, that this historic babe was brought into the world on board +the Mayflower between the time of the casting of her anchor and the +landing of her passengers—a kind of amphibious prophecy that the +new-born nation was to have a birthright inheritance over the sea and +over the land. [Great applause.] There, also, was Rose Standish, whose +name is a perpetual June fragrance, to mellow and sweeten those December +winds. And there, too, was Mrs. Winslow, whose name is even more than a +fragrance; it is a taste; for, as the advertisements say, "children cry +for it"; it is a soothing syrup. [Great laughter.]</p> + +<p>Then, after the first vessel with these women, there came other +women—loving hearts drawn from the olden land by those silken threads +which afterwards harden into golden chains. For instance, Governor +Bradford, a lonesome widower, went down to the sea-beach, and, facing +the waves, tossed a love-letter over the wide ocean into the lap of +Alice Southworth in old England, who caught it up, and read it, and +said, "Yes, I will go." And she went! And it is said that the governor, +at his second wedding, married his first love! Which, according to the +New Theology, furnishes the providential reason why the first Mrs. +Bradford fell overboard! [Great laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, gentlemen, as you sit to-night in this elegant hall, think of the +houses in which the Mayflower men and women lived in that first winter! +Think of a cabin in the wilderness—where winds whistled—where wolves +howled—where Indians yelled! And yet, within that log-house, burning +like a lamp was the pure flame of Christian faith, love, patience, +fortitude, heroism! As the Star of the East rested over the rude manger +where Christ lay, so—speaking not irreverently—there rested over the +roofs of the Pilgrims a Star of the West—the Star of Empire; and to-day +that empire is the proudest in the world! [Applause.] And if we could +summon up from their graves, and bring hither to-night, that olden +company of long-mouldered men, and they could sit with us at this +feast—in their mortal flesh—and with their stately presence—the whole +world would make a pilgrimage to see those pilgrims! [Applause.] How +quaint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1145" id="Page_1145">[Pg 1145]</a></span> their attire! How grotesque their names! How we treasure every +relic of their day and generation! And of all the heirlooms of the +earlier times in Yankeeland, what household memorial is clustered round +about with more sacred and touching associations than the +spinning-wheel! The industrious mother sat by it doing her work while +she instructed her children! The blushing daughter plied it diligently, +while her sweetheart had a chair very close by. And you remember, too, +another person who used it more than all the rest—that peculiar kind of +maiden, well along in life, who, while she spun her yarn into one "blue +stocking," spun herself into another. [Laughter.] But perhaps my toast +forbids me to touch upon this well-known class of Yankee +women—restricting me, rather, to such women as "comforted" the +Pilgrims. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, my friends, such of the Pilgrim Fathers as found good women to +"comfort" them had, I am sure, their full share of matrimonial thorns in +the flesh. For instance, I know of an early New England epitaph on a +tombstone, in these words: "Obadiah and Sarah Wilkenson—their warfare +is accomplished." [Uproarious laughter.] And among the early statutes of +Connecticut—a State that began with blue laws, and ends with black +[laughter]—there was one which said: "No Gospel minister shall unite +people in marriage; the civil magistrates shall unite people in +marriage; as they may do it with less scandal to the church." [Loud +laughter.] Now, gentlemen, since Yankee clergymen fared so hard for +wedding-fees in those days, is it to be wondered at that so many Yankee +clergymen have escaped out of New England, and are here to-night? +[Laughter.] Dropping their frailties in the graves which cover their +ashes, I hold up anew to your love and respect the Forefathers of New +England! And as the sons of the Pilgrims are worthy of their sires, so +the daughters of the Pilgrims are worthy of their mothers. I hold that +in true womanly worth, in housewifely thrift, in domestic skill, in +every lovable and endearing quality, the present race of Yankee women +are the women of the earth! [Applause.] And I trust that we shall yet +have a Republic which, instead of disfranchising one-half its citizens, +and that too by common consent its "better half," shall ordain the +political equality, not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1146" id="Page_1146">[Pg 1146]</a></span> of both colors, but of both sexes! I +believe in a reconstructed Union wherein every good woman shall have a +wedding-ring on her finger, and a ballot in her hand! [Sensation.]</p> + +<p>And now, to close, let me give you just a bit of good advice. The +cottages of our forefathers had few pictures on the walls, but many +families had a print of "King Charles's Twelve Good Rules," the eleventh +of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and +you will have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your long meal, +you go home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to find? You will +find my toast—"Woman, a beautiful rod!" [Laughter.] Now my advice is, +"Kiss the rod!" [Great laughter, during which Mr. Tilton took his +seat.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1147" id="Page_1147">[Pg 1147]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOSEPH HOPKINS TWICHELL</h2> + + + + +<h4>YANKEE NOTIONS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the +eighty-second annual dinner of the New England Society in the City +of New York, December 22, 1887. The President, Horace Russell, +occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the first toast, +"Forefathers' Day."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—I have heard of an Irishman who, +on being asked by a kind-hearted person if he would have a drink of +whiskey, made no reply at first, but struck an attitude and stood gazing +up into the sky. "What are you looking at, Mike?" inquired his friend. +"Bedad, sir," said Mike, "I thought an angel spoke to me." [Much +laughter.]</p> + +<p>Somewhat so did I feel, Mr. President, when I got your invitation to be +here this evening and speak. I own I was uncommonly pleased by it. I +considered it the biggest compliment of the kind I had ever received in +my life. For that matter it was too big, as I had to acknowledge. That, +however, sir, was your affair; and so, without stopping much to think, +and before I could muster the cowardice to decline, I accepted it. +[Laughter.] But as soon as I began to reflect, especially when I came to +ask myself what in the world I had or could have to say in this august +presence, I was scared to think of what I had done. I was like the man +who while breaking a yoke of steers that he held by a rope, having +occasion to use both his hands in letting down a pair of bars, fetched +the rope a turn around one of his legs. That instant something +frightened the steers, and that unfortunate farmer was tripped up and +snaked off feet first on a wild, erratic excursion, a mile or so, over +rough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1148" id="Page_1148">[Pg 1148]</a></span> ground, as long as the rope lasted, and left in a very lamentable +condition, indeed. His neighbors ran to him and gathered him up and laid +him together, and waited around for him to come to; which, when he did, +one of them inquired of him how he came to do such a thing as hitch a +rope around his leg under such circumstances. "Well," said he, "we +hadn't gone five rods 'fore I see my mistake." [Hearty laughter.]</p> + +<p>But here I am, and the President has passed the tremendous subject of +Forefathers' Day, like a Rugby ball, into my hands—after making elegant +play with it himself—and, frightful as the responsibility is, I realize +that I've got to do something with it—and do it mighty quick. +[Laughter.] This is a festive hour, and even a preacher mustn't be any +more edifying in his remarks, I suppose, than he can help. And I promise +accordingly to use my conscientious endeavors to-night to leave this +worshipful company no better than I found it. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, gentlemen, well intending as one may be to that effect, and lightly +as he may approach the theme of the Forefathers, the minute he sets foot +within its threshold he stops his fooling and gets his hat off at once. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>Those unconscious, pathetic heroes, pulling their shallop ashore on the +Cape yonder in 1620—what reverence can exceed their just merit! What +praise can compass the virtue of that sublime, unconquerable manhood, by +which in the calamitous, woful days that followed, not accepting +deliverance, letting the Mayflower go back empty, they stayed perishing +by the graves of their fallen; rather, stayed fast by the flickering +flame of their living truth, and so invoked and got on their side +forever the force of that great law of the universe, "except a corn of +wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit." How richly and how speedily fruitful that +seed was, we know. It did not wait for any large unfolding of events on +these shores to prove the might of its quickening. "Westward the star of +empire takes its way." Yes, but the first pulse of vital power from the +new State moved eastward. For behold it still in its young infancy—if +it can be said to have had an infancy—stretching a strong hand of help +across the sea to reinforce the cause of that Common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1149" id="Page_1149">[Pg 1149]</a></span>wealth, the rise of +which marks the epoch of England's new birth in liberty. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The pen of New England, fertilized by freedom and marvellously prolific +ere a single generation passed, was indeed the Commonwealth's true +nursing mother. Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Milton, Owen, were disciples +of teachers mostly from this side the Atlantic. Professor Masson, of +Edinburgh University, in his admirable "Life of Milton," enumerates +seventeen New England men whom he describes as "potent" in England in +that period. Numbers went to England in person, twelve of the first +twenty graduates of Harvard College prior to 1646, among them; and +others, not a few representing the leading families of the colonies, who +going over with their breasts full of New England milk, nourished the +heart of the great enterprise; "performed," so Palfrey tells us, "parts +of consequence in the Parliamentary service, and afterward in the +service of the Protectorate." It is not too much to say that on the +fields of Marston Moor and Naseby New England appeared; and that those +names may fairly be written on her banners. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>That, I would observe—and Mr. Grady would freely concede it—was before +there was much mingling anywhere of the Puritan and the Cavalier blood, +save as it ran together between Cromwell's Ironsides and Rupert's +troopers. I would observe also that the propagation eastward inaugurated +in that early day has never ceased. The immigration of populations +hither from Europe, great a factor as it has been in shaping the history +of this continent, has not been so great a factor as the emigration of +ideas the other way has been, and continues to be, in shaping the +history of Europe, and of the mother country most of all. But that +carries me where I did not intend to go.</p> + +<p>An inebriated man who had set out to row a boat across a pond was +observed to pursue a very devious course. On being hailed and asked what +the matter was, he replied that it was the rotundity of the earth that +bothered him; he kept sliding off. So it is the rotundity of my subject +that bothers me. But I do mean to stay on one hemisphere of it if +possible. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The Forefathers were a power on earth from the start<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1150" id="Page_1150">[Pg 1150]</a></span>—and that by the +masterful quality of their mind and spirit. They had endless pluck, +intellectual and moral. They believed that the kingdom in this world was +with ideas. It was, you might say, one of their original Yankee notions +that it was the property of a man to have opinions and to stand by them +to the death. Judged from the standpoint of their times, as any one who +will take the pains to look will discover, they were tolerant men; but +they were fell debaters, and they were no compromisers. They split +hairs, if you will, but they wouldn't split the difference. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>A German professor of theology is reported to have said in lecturing to +his students on the Existence of God, that while the doctrine, no doubt, +was an important one, it was so difficult and perplexed that it was not +advisable to take too certain a position upon it, as many were disposed +to do. There were those, he remarked, who were wont in the most +unqualified way to affirm that there was a God. There were others who, +with equal immoderation, committed themselves to the opposite +proposition—that there was no God. The philosophical mind, he added, +will look for the truth somewhere between these extremes. The +Forefathers had none of that in theirs. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>They were men who employed the great and responsible gift of speech +honestly and straightforwardly. There was a sublime sincerity in their +tongues. They spoke their minds.</p> + +<p>Their sons, I fear, have declined somewhat from their veracity at that +precise point. At times we certainly have, and have had to be brought +back to it by severest pains—as, for example, twenty-six years ago by +the voice of Beauregard's and Sumter's cannon, which was a terrible +voice indeed, but had this vast merit that it told the truth, and set a +whole people free to say what they thought once more. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>Our fathers of the early day were not literary; but they were apt, when +they spoke, to make themselves understood.</p> + +<p>There was in my regiment during the war—I was a chaplain—a certain +corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of whom I was very +fond—with whom on occasion of his recovery from a dangerous sickness I +felt it my duty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1151" id="Page_1151">[Pg 1151]</a></span> to have a serious pastoral talk; and while he +convalesced I watched for an opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the +side of his bed in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what +the campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I told him +that I didn't know. "Well," said he, "I suppose that General McClellan +knows all about it." (This was away back in 1861, not long after we went +to the field.) I answered: "General McClellan has his plans, of course, +but he doesn't know. Things may not turn out as he expects." "But," said +the corporal, "President Lincoln knows, doesn't he?" "No," I said, "he +doesn't know, either. He has his ideas, but he can't see ahead any more +than General McClellan can." "Dear me," said the corporal, "it would be +a great comfort if there was somebody that did know about things"—and I +saw my chance. "True, corporal," I observed, "that's a very natural +feeling; and the blessed fact is there is One who does know everything, +both past and future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows +when we are going to move, and where to, and what's going to happen; +knows the whole thing." "Oh," says the corporal, "you mean old Scott!" +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The Forefathers generally spared people the trouble of guessing what +they were driving at. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>That for which they valued education was that it gave men power to think +and reason and form judgments and communicate and expound the same, and +so capacitated them for valid membership of the Church and of the State. +And that was still another original Yankee notion.</p> + +<p>Not often has the nature and the praise of it been more worthily +expressed, that I am aware of, than in these sentences, which I lately +happened upon, the name of whose author I will, by your leave, reserve +till I have repeated them: "Next to religion they prized education. If +their lot had been cast in some pleasant place of the valley of the +Mississippi, they would have sown wheat and educated their children; but +as it was, they educated their children and planted whatever might grow +and ripen on that scanty soil with which capricious nature had tricked +off and disguised the granite beds beneath. Other colonies would have +brought up some of the people to the school; they, if I may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1152" id="Page_1152">[Pg 1152]</a></span> be allowed +so to express it, let down the school to all the people, not doubting +but by doing so the people and the school would rise of themselves."</p> + +<p>I do not know if Cardinal Gibbons is present; I do not recognize him. If +he is, I am pleased to have had the honor to recite in his hearing and +to commend to his attention these words, so true, so just, so +appreciative, of a distinguished ecclesiastic of his communion; for they +were spoken by the late Archbishop Hughes in a public lecture in this +city in 1852. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I would, however, much rather have recited them in the ears of those +Protestant Americans—alas, that there should be born New Englanders +among them, that is, such according to the flesh, not according to the +spirit—who are wont to betray a strange relish for disparaging both the +principles and the conduct of our great sires in that early day when +they were sowing in weakness what has ever since been rising with power.</p> + +<p>There have always, indeed, been those who were fond of spying the +blemishes of New England, of illustrating human depravity by instances +her sinners contributed. With the open spectacle of armies of +beggars—God's beggars they are; I do not object to them—continually +swarming in across her borders, as bees to their meadows, and returning +not empty, they keep on calling her close-fisted. They even blaspheme +her weather—her warm-hearted summers and her magnificent winters. There +is, to be sure, a time along in March—but let that pass. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I refer to this without the least irritation. I do not complain of it. +On the contrary, I glory in it. I love her for the enemies she has made. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>She is the church member among the communities, and must catch it +accordingly. It is the saints who are always in the wrong. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Elijah troubled Israel. Daniel was a nuisance in Babylon. And long may +New England be such as to make it an object to find fault with her. +[Hearty applause.]</p> + +<p>Such she will be so long as she is true to herself—true to her great +traditions; true to the principles of which her life was begotten; so +long as her public spirit has supreme regard to the higher ranges of the +public interest; so long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1153" id="Page_1153">[Pg 1153]</a></span> as in her ancient glorious way she leaves the +power of the keys in the hands of the people; so long as her patriotism +springs, as in the beginning it sprang, from the consciousness of rights +wedded to the consciousness of duties; so long as by her manifold +institutions of learning, humanity, religion, thickly sown, +multitudinous, universal, she keeps the law of the Forefathers' faith, +that "Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out +of the mouth of God." [Prolonged applause.]</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>THE SOLDIER STAMP</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the +eighty-sixth annual dinner of the New England Society in the city +of New York, December 22, 1891. J. Pierpont Morgan, the President, +occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the toast, +"Forefathers' Day."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England Society</span>:—The +posture of my mind the last fortnight relative to the duty of the +present hour—which, indeed, I was proud to be assigned to, as I ought +to have been, but which has been a black care to me ever since I +undertook it—has a not inapt illustration in the case of the old New +England parson who, when asked why he was going to do a certain thing +that had been laid upon him, yet the thought of which affected him with +extreme timidity, answered: "I wouldn't if I didn't suppose it had been +foreordained from all eternity—and I'm a good mind to not as it is." +[Laughter.] However, I have the undisguised good-will of my audience to +begin with, and that's half the battle. The forefathers, in whose honor +we meet, were men of good-will, profoundly so; but they were, in their +day, more afraid of showing it, in some forms, than their descendants +happily are.</p> + +<p>The first time I ever stood in the pulpit to preach was in the +meeting-house of the ancient Connecticut town where I was brought up. +That was a great day for our folks and all my old neighbors, you may +depend. After benediction, when I passed out into the vestibule, I was +the recipient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1154" id="Page_1154">[Pg 1154]</a></span> there of many congratulatory expressions. Among my +friends in the crowd was an aged deacon, a man in whom survived, to a +rather remarkable degree, the original New England Puritan type, who had +known me from the cradle, and to whom the elevation I had reached was as +gratifying as it could possibly be to anybody. But when he saw the smile +of favor focussed on me there, and me, I dare say, appearing to bask +somewhat in it, the dear old man took alarm. He was apprehensive of the +consequences to that youngster. And so, taking me by the hand and +wrestling down his natural feelings—he was ready to cry for joy—he +said: "Well, Joseph, I hope you'll live to preach a great deal better +than that!" [Laughter.] It was an exceedingly appropriate remark, and a +very tender one if you were at the bottom of it.</p> + +<p>That severe, undemonstrative New England habit, that emotional reserve +and self-suppression, though it lingers here and there, has mostly +passed away and is not to be regretted. As much as could be has been +made of it to our forefathers' discredit, as has been made of everything +capable of being construed unfavorably to them. They to whom what they +call the cant of the Puritan is an offence, themselves have established +and practise a distinct anti-Puritan cant with which we are all +familiar. The very people who find it abhorrent and intolerable that +they were such censors of the private life of their contemporaries, do +not scruple to bring to bear on their private life a search-light that +leaves no accessible nook of it unexplored, and regarding any unpretty +trait espied by that unsparing inquest the rule of judgment persistently +employed—as one is obliged to perceive—tends to be: "No explanation +wanted or admitted but the worst." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the infestive deportment characteristic of the New England +colonist has been extensively interpreted as the indisputable index of +his sour and morose spirit, begotten of his religion. I often wonder +that, in computing the cause of his rigorous manners, so inadequate +account is wont to be made of his situation, as in a principal and +long-continuing aspect substantially military—which it was. The truth +is, his physiognomy was primarily the soldier stamp on him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1155" id="Page_1155">[Pg 1155]</a></span></p> + +<p>If you had been at Gettysburg on the morning of July 2, 1863, as I was, +and had perused the countenance of the First and Eleventh Corps, +exhausted and bleeding with the previous day's losing battle, and the +countenance of the Second, Third, and Twelfth Corps, getting into +position to meet the next onset, which everybody knew was immediately +impending, you would have said that it was a sombre community—that Army +of the Potomac—with a good deal of grimness in the face of it; with a +notable lack of the playful element, and no fiddling or other fine arts +to speak of.</p> + +<p>As sure as you live, gentlemen, that is no unfair representation of how +it was with the founders of the New England commonwealths in their +planting period.</p> + +<p>The Puritan of the seventeenth century lived, moved, and had his being +on the field of an undecided struggle for existence—the New England +Puritan most emphatically so. He was under arms in body much of the +time—in mind all the time. Nothing can be truer than to say that. And +yet people everlastingly pick and poke at him for being stern-featured +and deficient in the softer graces of life.</p> + +<p>It was his beauty that he was so, for it grew out of and was befitting +his circumstances. And I, for one, love to see that austere demeanor so +far as it is yet hereditary on the old soil—and some of it is +left—thinking of its origin. It is the signature of a fighting far more +than of an ascetic ancestry—memorial of a new Pass of Thermopylæ held +by the latest race of Spartans on the shores of a new world. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>It may be doubted if ever in the history of mankind was displayed a +quality of public courage—of pure, indomitable pluck—surpassing that +of the New England plantations in their infant day. No condition of its +extremest proof was lacking. While the Bay Colony, for example, was in +the pinch of its first wrestle with Nature for a living, much as ever +able to furnish its table with a piece of bread—with the hunger-wolf +never far away from the door, and behind that wolf the Narragansett and +the Pequot, at what moment to burst into savagery none could tell—in +the season when mere existence was the purchase of physical toil, +universal and intense, and of watching night and day—there came from +the old country, from the high places of authority, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1156" id="Page_1156">[Pg 1156]</a></span> peremptory +mandate: Send us back that charter! Under the clause of it granting you +the rule of your own affairs, you are claiming more than was intended or +can be allowed. Send it back! And what was the answer? Mind, there were +less than 5,000 souls of them, all told: less than 1,000 grown men. On +the one hand the power of England—on the other that scrap of a new-born +State, sore pressed with difficulties already.</p> + +<p>What was the answer? Why, they got out some old cannon they had and +mounted them, and moulded a stock of bullets, and distributed powder, +and took of every male citizen above the age of sixteen an oath of +allegiance to Massachusetts—and then set their teeth and waited to see +what would happen. And that was their answer. It meant distinctly: Our +charter, which we had of the King's majesty (and therefore came we +hither), is our lawful possession—fair title to the territory we occupy +and the rights we here exercise. And whoever wants it has got to come +and take it. Surrender it we never will! [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Nor was that the only time. Again and again during the Colony's initial +stage, when it was exceedingly little of stature and had enough to do to +keep the breath of life in it, that demand was renewed with rising anger +and with menaces; yet never could those Puritans of the Bay be scared +into making a solitary move of any kind toward compliance with it. David +with his sling daring Goliath in armor is an insufficient figure of that +nerve, that transcendent grit, that superb gallantry. Where will you +look for its parallel? I certainly do not know. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>They used to tell during the war of a colonel who was ordered to assault +a position which his regiment, when they had advanced far enough to get +a good look at it, saw to be so impossible that they fell back and +became immovable. Whereupon (so the story ran) the colonel, who took the +same sense of the situation that his command did, yet must do his duty, +called out in an ostensibly pleading and fervid voice: "Oh, don't give +it up so! Forward again! Forward! Charge! Great heavens, men, do you +want to live forever?" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>How those first New England Puritans we are speaking of were to come off +from their defiance of the crown alive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1157" id="Page_1157">[Pg 1157]</a></span> could scarcely be conjectured. +The only ally they had was distance. The thing they ventured on was the +chance that the Royal Government, which had troubles nearer home, would +have its hands too full to execute its orders 3,000 miles away across +the sea by force. But they accepted all hazards whatsoever of refusing +always to obey those orders. They held on to their charter like grim +death, and they kept it in their time. More than once or twice it seemed +as good as gone; but delay helped them; turns of events helped them; +God's providence delivered them, they thought; anyhow, they kept it; +that intrepid handful against immeasurable odds, mainly because it lay +not in the power of mortal man to intimidate them. And I contend that, +all things considered, no more splendid exhibition of the essential +stuff of manhood stands on human record. They were no hot-heads. All +that while, rash as they appeared, their pulse was calm. The justifying +reasons of their course were ever plain before their eyes. They were of +the kind of men who understood their objects.</p> + +<p>The representative of an English newspaper, sent some time since to +Ireland to move about and learn by personal observation the real +political mind of the people there, reported on his return that he had +been everywhere and talked with all sorts, and that as nearly as he +could make out, the attitude of the Irish might be stated about thus: +"They don't know what they want—and they are bound to have it." +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But those unbending Forefathers well knew what they wanted that charter +for. It was their legal guarantee of the privilege of a spacious +freedom, civil and religious, and all that they did and risked for its +sake is witness of the price at which they held that privilege. It was +not that they had any special objection to the interference in the +province of their domestic administration of the king as a king; for you +find them presently crying "Hands Off!" to the Puritan Parliament as +strenuously as ever they said it to the agents of Charles I. It was +simply and positively the value they set on the self-governing +independence that had been pledged them at the beginning of the +enterprise.</p> + +<p>And who that has a man's heart in him but must own that their +inspiration to such a degree, with such an idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1158" id="Page_1158">[Pg 1158]</a></span> and sentiment in the +time, place, and circumstances in which they stood, was magnificent? Was +the inexorable unrelaxing determination with which they, being so few +and so poor, maintained their point somewhat wrought into their faces? +Very probably. Strange if it had not been. Of course, it was. But if +they were stern-visaged in their day, it was that we in our day, which +in vision they foresaw, might of all communities beneath the sun have +reason for a cheerful countenance. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>They achieved immense great things for us, those Puritan men who were +not smiling enough to suit the critics. The real foundation on which the +structure of American national liberty subsequently rose was laid by +them in those first heroic years.</p> + +<p>And what a marvel it was, when you stop to think, that in conditions so +hard, so utterly prosaic, calculated to clip the wings of generous +thought, they maintained themselves in that elevation of sentiment, that +supreme estimate of the unmaterial, the ideal factors of life that +distinguished them—in such largeness of mind and of spirit altogether. +While confronting at deadly close quarters their own necessities and +perils, their sympathies were wide as the world. To their brethren in +old England, contending with tyranny, every ship that crossed the +Atlantic carried their benediction. Look at the days of thanksgiving and +of fast with which they followed the shifting fortunes of the wars of +Protestantism—which were wars for humanity—on the continent! Look at +the vital consequence they attached to the interest of education; at the +taxes that in their penury, and while for the most part they still lived +in huts, they imposed on themselves to found and to sustain the +institution of the school! [Applause.]</p> + +<p>"Child," said a matron of primitive New England to her young son, "if +God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, thou hast all that +ever thy mother asked for thee." And so saying she spoke like a true +daughter of the Puritans.</p> + +<p>They were poets—those brave, stanch, aspiring souls, whose will was +adamant and who feared none but God. Only, as Charles Kingsley has said, +they did not sing their poetry like birds, but acted it like men. +[Applause.] It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1159" id="Page_1159">[Pg 1159]</a></span> was their high calling to stand by the divine cause of +human progress at a momentous crisis of its evolution, and they were +worthy to be put on duty at that post. Evolution! I hardly dare speak +the word, knowing so little about the thing. It represents a very great +matter, which I am humbly conscious of being about as far from +surrounding as was a simple-minded Irish priest I have been told of, +who, having heard that we were descended from monkeys, yet not quite +grasping the chronology of the business, the next time he visited a +menagerie, gave particular and patient attention to a large cage of our +alleged poor relations on exhibition there. He stood for a long time +intently scrutinizing their human-like motions, gestures, and +expressions. By and by he fancied that the largest of them, an +individual of a singularly grave demeanor, seated at the front of the +cage, gave him a glance of intelligence. The glance was returned. A +palpable wink followed, which also was returned, as were other like +signals; and so it went on until his Reverence, having cast an eye +around to see that nobody was observing him, leaned forward and said, in +a low, confidential tone: "Av ye'll spake one w-u-r-r-d, I'll baptize +ye, begorra!" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>But, deficient as one's knowledge of evolution, scientifically and in +detail, may be, he may have attained to a not unintelligent perception +of the all-embracing creative process called by that name as that in +which, in the whole range of the advancing universal movement of life, +what is ascends from what was, and fulfils it.</p> + +<p>And what I wish to say for my last word is, that whoever of us in +tracing back along the line of its potent and fruitful sources that +which is his noblest heritage as an American and a member of the English +race, leaves out that hard-featured forefather of ours on the shore of +Massachusetts Bay in the seventeenth century, and makes not large +account of the tremendous fight he fought which was reflected in the +face he wore, misses a chief explanation of the fortune to which we and +our children are born. [Loud applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1160" id="Page_1160">[Pg 1160]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOHN TYNDALL</h2> + + + + +<h4>ART AND SCIENCE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Professor John Tyndall at the annual banquet of the +Royal Academy, London, May 5, 1888. The toast to Science was +coupled with that to Literature, to the latter of which William E. +H. Lecky was called upon to respond. In introducing Professor +Tyndall, the President, Sir Frederic Leighton, said: "On behalf of +Science, on whom could I call more fitly than on my old friend +Professor Tyndall. ["Hear! Hear!"] Fervid in imagination, after the +manner of his race, clothing thoughts luminous and full of color in +a sharply chiselled form, he seems to me to be, in very deed, an +artist and our kin; and I, as an artist, rejoice to see that in +this priest within the temple of Science, Knowledge has not clipped +the wings of wonder, and that to him the tint of Heaven is not the +less lovely that he can reproduce its azure in a little phial, nor +does, because Science has been said to unweave it, the rainbow lift +its arc less triumphantly in the sky."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Your Royal Highness, my Lords, and Gentlemen</span>: Faraday, whose +standing in the science of the world needs not to be insisted on, used +to say to me that he knew of only two festivals that gave him real +pleasure. He loved to meet, on Tower Hill, the frank and genial +gentlemen-sailors of the Trinity House; but his crowning enjoyment was +the banquet of the Royal Academy. The feeling thus expressed by Faraday +is a representative feeling: for surely it is a high pleasure to men of +science to mingle annually in this illustrious throng, and it is an +honor and a pleasure to hear the toast of Science so cordially proposed +and so warmly responded to year after year.</p> + +<p>Art and Science in their widest sense cover nearly the whole field of +man's intellectual action. They are the outward and visible expressions +of two distinct and supplementary portions of our complex human +nature—distinct, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1161" id="Page_1161">[Pg 1161]</a></span> not opposed, the one working by the dry light of +the intellect, the other in the warm glow of the emotions; the one ever +seeking to interpret and express the beauty of the universe, the other +ever searching for its truth. One vast personality in the course of +history, and one only, seems to have embraced them both. ["Hear! Hear!"] +That transcendent genius died three days ago plus three hundred and +sixty-nine years—Leonardo da Vinci.</p> + +<p>Emerson describes an artist who could never paint a rock until he had +first understood its geological structure; and the late Lord Houghton +told me that an illustrious living poet once destroyed some exquisite +verses on a flower because on examination he found that his botany was +wrong. This is not saying that all the geology in the world, or all the +botany in the world, could create an artist.</p> + +<p>In illustration of the subtle influences which here come into play, a +late member of this Academy once said to me—"Let Raphael take a crayon +in his hand and sweep a curve; let an engineer take tracing paper and +all other appliances necessary to accurate reproduction, and let him +copy that curve—his line will not be the line of Raphael." In these +matters, through lack of knowledge, I must speak, more or less, as a +fool, leaving it to you, as wise men, to judge what I say. Rules and +principles are profitable and necessary for the guidance of the growing +artist and for the artist full-grown; but rules and principles, I take +it, just as little as geology and botany, can create the artist. +Guidance and rule imply something to be guided and ruled. And that +indefinable something which baffles all analysis, and which when wisely +guided and ruled emerges in supreme excellence, is individual genius, +which, to use familiar language, is "the gift of God." [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>In like manner all the precepts of Bacon, linked together and applied in +one great integration, would fail to produce a complete man of science. +In this respect Art and Science are identical—that to reach their +highest outcome and achievement they must pass beyond knowledge and +culture, which are understood by all, to inspiration and creative power, +which pass the understanding even of him who possesses them in the +highest degree. [Cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1162" id="Page_1162">[Pg 1162]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GEORGE ROE VAN <span class="smcap">DE</span> WATER</h2> + + + + +<h4>DUTCH TRAITS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. George R. Van de Water at the eighth annual +dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1893. The +President, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, said: "The next toast is: +'Holland—a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, and +a sanctuary for the rights of mankind.' This toast will be +responded to by one of the greatest stars in New York's +constellation of the Embassadors of Him on High—Rev. Dr. George R. +Van de Water, rector of St. Andrew's Church, Harlem."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Members of The Holland Society</span>:—One loves to +observe a fitness in things. There is manifest fitness in one coming to +New York from Harlem to speak to the members of the Holland Society and +their friends. There is also manifest fitness in taking the words of +this country's earliest benefactor, the Marquis de Lafayette, and, +removing them from their original association with this fair and favored +land, applying them to that little but lovely, lowly yet lofty, country +of the Netherlands. Geologists tell us that, minor considerations +waived, the character of a stream can be discerned as well anywhere +along its course as at its source. Whether this be true or not, anything +that can be said of the fundamental principles of liberty, upon which +our national fabric has been built, can be said with even increased +emphasis of the free States of the Netherlands.</p> + +<p>From the Dutch our free America has secured the inspiration of her +chartered liberties. Of the Dutch, then, we can appropriately say, as +Lafayette once said of free America, "They are a lesson to oppressors, +an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind."</p> + +<p>We are here to-night to glorify the Dutch. Fortunately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1163" id="Page_1163">[Pg 1163]</a></span> for us, to do +this we have not by the addition of so much as a jot or a tittle to +magnify history. The facts are sufficient to justify our boast and +fortify our pride. We need to detract nothing from other nationalities +that have contributed much to the formation of our modern national +conglomerate, although it is easily seen that the superior qualities of +other nations have had a large infusion of Dutch virtue. All that we +claim is that no nation under the heavens can make such an exhibit of +marvellous success against adverse circumstances as does Holland. From +the days when Julius Cæsar mentions their bravery under the name of +Batavians, to the notable time when, voluntarily assuming the title of +reproach, they became "the beggars of the sea," and for nearly a century +fought for their chartered rights against the most powerful and +unscrupulous of foes, the Dutch have shown the most splendid of human +virtues in most conspicuous light. In doing this they have made a noble +name for themselves, and furnished the worthiest of examples for all the +nations of the earth. This is not the time nor the place to deal with +mere facts of history. Yet I take it that even this jolly assembly will +take pleasure in the mention of the deeds that have now become eternally +historic. Who that knows anything of the son of Charles V, who in 1555 +made promises to Holland that he never meant to keep, and for years +after sought in every way to break; who that has ever read of this +fanatical, heartless, cruel, and despotic Philip II of Spain, or of that +wonderful, pure, magnanimous, noblest Dutchman of all, William of +Orange, or of that fickle and false Margaret of Parma, the wicked sister +in Holland, who lived to execute the will of a wicked brother in Spain, +or of those monsters at the head of Spanish armies, Alva, Requesens, and +Don Juan; who that has been fired by the sieges of Leyden and Haarlem, +by the assassinations concocted in the Council of Blood, by the patient, +faithful, undying patriotism of the Netherlanders in protesting for the +truth of God and the rights of man, will need any response to the toast +"a lesson to oppressors"? A little land, fighting for the right, +succeeded in overcoming the power of the mightiest nation of Europe.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Truth crushed to earth will rise again."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1164" id="Page_1164">[Pg 1164]</a></span></p> + +<p>When once we consider the earnestness for civil and religious liberty, +the record of no nation can stand comparison with that of Holland. Some +of the English Puritans fled across the Atlantic from persecutions very +slight compared with those inflicted upon Dutchmen by Philip, here to +found a New England. Those who did not flee remained in old England, +fought a few battles, and tried to establish a commonwealth, which in +less than fifteen years ended disastrously, because the founders were +unfit for government. But these Puritans of Holland, to their +everlasting praise be it remembered, battled for their homes, lives, and +liberty for eighty years. For four-fifths of a century they faced not +only the best and bravest soldiers of Europe, but they faced, along with +their wives, their children, and their old folk, the flame, the gibbet, +the flood, the siege, the pestilence, the famine, "and all men know, or +dream, or fear of agony," all for one thing—to teach the oppressor that +his cause must fail. It is difficult, sitting around a comfortable board +at a public dinner, to make men realize what their forefathers suffered +that the heritage of priceless liberty should be their children's pride. +But read Motley, or the recent and remarkably well-written volumes of +Douglas Campbell, and you will see that every atrocity that Spanish +hatred, religious intolerance, and mediæval bigotry could invent, every +horror that ever followed in the train of war, swept over and desolated +Holland. And yet, to teach a lesson to oppressors, they endured, they +fought, they suffered, they conquered; and when they conquered, the +whole world was taught the lesson—worth all the Dutchmen's agony to +teach it—that the children of a heavenly Father are born free and +equal, and that it is neither the province of nation or church to coerce +them into any religious belief or doctrine whatsoever.</p> + +<p>The principle of Protestantism was won in the eighty-year war of the +Netherlanders. During all this time the Dutch were notably giving a +lesson to oppressors. But then and afterward they furnished a brilliant +and commendable example to the oppressed. Though they fought the wrong, +they never opposed the truth. They were fierce, but never fanatical. +They loved liberty, but they never encouraged license; they believed in +freedom and the main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1165" id="Page_1165">[Pg 1165]</a></span>tenance of chartered rights, but they never denied +their lawful allegiance to their governor, nor refused scriptural +submission to the powers ordained of God. The public documents +throughout the eighty years of war invariably recognized Philip as +lawful king. Even the University of Leyden, founded as a thanksgiving +offering for their successful resistance to the Spanish siege, observed +the usual legal fiction, and acknowledged the King as ruler of the +realm. And, although the Dutch had abundant reason to be vindictive, +once the opportunity offered, the desire for persecution vanished. +William the Silent, as early as 1556, in a public speech before the +regent and her council, says, "Force can make no impression on one's +conscience." "It is the nature of heresy," he goes on to say (would we +had the spirit of William in our churches to-day)—"it is the nature of +heresy, if it rests it rusts: he that rubs it whets it." His was an age +when religious toleration, except as a political necessity, was unknown. +Holland first practised it, then taught it to the world. No less in her +example to the oppressed than in her warning to oppressors, is Holland +conspicuous, is Holland great. During the reign of William of Orange, +first a Romanist, then a Calvinist, never a bigot, always gentle, at +last a Christian, in Holland and in Zeeland, where for years he was +almost military dictator, these principles of tolerance were put to +severest test. Fortunately for the world, they were sufficiently strong +to stand the strain. The people about him had been the sad victims of a +horrible persecution which had furrowed their soil with graves, and +filled their land with widows and orphans. We know what is human nature. +But Dutch nature is a little more generous than ordinary human nature. A +Dutchman's heart is big, a Dutchman travels on a broad-gauge track; a +Dutchman can forgive and forget an injury; a Dutchman has no fears and +few frowns; a Dutchman is never icebergy, nor sullen, nor revengeful. He +may make mistakes from impulse, he never wounds with intention; he will +never put his foot twice in the same trap, nor will he take any pleasure +in seeing his enemy entrapped. All of a Dutchman's faults come from an +over-indulgence of a Dutchman's virtues. He is not cold, nor +calculating, nor cruel. Generally happy himself, he desires others to be +happy also. If he cannot get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1166" id="Page_1166">[Pg 1166]</a></span> on with people, he lets them alone. He +does not seek to ruin them.</p> + +<p>Such are traits of the Dutch character. When, after driving out the +awful, vindictive, bloodthirsty Spaniards, the Dutch came into power, it +was but natural to think of retaliation: banish the Papists, or +persecute the Anabaptists, suppress their paganism, or crush their +fanaticism, would have been most natural. Against any such ideas the +nation as a whole set its face like a wall of adamant. Very soon the +sober convictions of the people were triumphant. And after the most +atrociously cruel war, in which these men had suffered untold agonies, +they became an example to the oppressed, the like of which the world had +never witnessed since the Son of God and Saviour of men cried out from +his cross, "Father, forgive them: they know not what they do." When the +union was formed between Holland and Zeeland, it was provided that no +inquisition should be made into any man's belief or conscience, nor +should any man by cause thereof suffer injury or hindrance. Toleration +for the oppressor by the oppressed, full forgiveness of enemies by the +victors, became thus the corner-stone of the republic, under which all +sects of Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, Jews, Turks, infidels, +and even heretics, throve and prospered.</p> + +<p>Now, do you need anything said after thus showing Holland to have been +the teacher of a lesson to oppressors, and the example to the oppressed, +to show that she has ever been the sanctuary for the rights of mankind?</p> + +<p>In the nature of things, she could not have been otherwise. The little +country of Holland, that in 1555, on the accession of Philip II to the +sovereignty, was the richest jewel in his crown, and of the five +millions poured annually into his treasury contributed nearly half, +emerged as a republic out of the war with Spain of eighty years' +duration, and remained for two full centuries the greatest republic in +the world. She has been the instructor of the world in art, in music, in +science; has outstripped other nations in the commercial race; had +wealth and luxury, palaces and architectural splendor, when England's +yeomanry lived in huts and never ate a vegetable; discovered +oil-painting, originated portrait and landscape-painting, was foremost +in all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1167" id="Page_1167">[Pg 1167]</a></span> the mechanical arts; invented wood-engraving, printing from +blocks, and gave to the world both telescope and microscope, thus +furnishing the implements to see the largest things of the heavens +above, and the smallest of both earth beneath and waters under the +earth. The corner-stone was liberty, and especially religious liberty +and toleration. As such Holland could not have been other than the +sanctuary for the rights of mankind. The great number of Englishmen in +the Netherlands, and the reciprocal influence of the Netherlands upon +these Englishmen—an influence all too little marked by English +historians—prepared the way for transplanting to this country the seeds +from which has sprung the large tree beneath the bounteous shade of +which nearly seventy millions of people take shelter to-day, and, while +they rest, rejoice in full security of their rights and their freedom.</p> + +<p>Two hundred years ago, the English courtiers about Charles II, +regardless of the fact that the Netherlands had been the guide and the +instructor of England in almost everything which had made her materially +great, regarded the Dutchman as a boor, plain and ill-mannered, and +wanting in taste, because as a republican the Hollander thought it a +disgrace to have his wife or his daughter debauched by king or noble. +From the aristocratic point of view, the Dutchman was not altogether a +gentleman. To-day we have some representatives of the Charles II +courtiers, who affect to ape the English, and would, no doubt, despise +the Dutch. But he who appreciates the genuine meaning of a man, born in +the image and living in the fear of his God, has nothing but direst +disgust for a dude, nothing but the rarest respect for a Dutchman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1168" id="Page_1168">[Pg 1168]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MARION J. VERDERY</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE SOUTH IN WALL STREET</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Marion J. Verdery at the third annual banquet of the +Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1889. The President, +John C. Calhoun, presided, and in introducing Mr. Verdery, said: +"The next toast is 'The South in Wall Street.' What our friend Mr. +Verdery has to say in response to this toast I'm sure I don't know; +but if he proposes to tell us how there is any money for the South +in Wall Street—to give us a straight tip on the market—he may be +sure of a very attentive audience. Now, Mr. Verdery, if you will +tell us what to do to-morrow, we will all of us cheerfully give you +half of what we make—that is, of course, if you will guarantee us +against loss.".]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen</span>:—When Colonel Fellows concluded his +speech and sat down next to me, after he had by his matchless oratory +electrified this audience and had immersed me in the flood of his +eloquence, both literally and figuratively, for in the graceful swing of +his gestures, he turned over a goblet of water in my lap [laughter], I +felt very much as the little boy did who had stood at the head of his +spelling-class for three weeks, and then was stumped by the word +kaleidoscope. He thought for a moment or two, and then seriously said, +"he didn't believe there was a boy on earth who could spell it." I did +not believe, after Colonel Fellows finished, that there was another man +on earth who could follow him. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Mr. Chairman, in the course of my experience I never knew of but one +absolutely straight tip in Wall Street. To that, you and this Society +are perfectly welcome. If you act on it, I will cheerfully guarantee you +against loss, without exacting that you shall divide with me the +profits. It is a point that the late Mr. Travers gave our friend Henry +Grady. [Laughter.] They had been to attend a national<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1169" id="Page_1169">[Pg 1169]</a></span> convention at +Chicago, and on returning were seriously disappointed because of the +failure to have nominated their chosen candidate. As they came across +the ferry in the gray light of the morning, Grady, who was seeking +consolation, said: "Mr. Travers, what is the best thing I can buy in +Wall Street?" The noted wit of the Stock Exchange replied: "The best +thing you can buy is a ticket back to Atlanta." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Two old darkies, lounging on a street corner in Richmond, Va., one day, +were suddenly aroused by a runaway team that came dashing toward them at +breakneck speed. The driver, scared nearly to death, had abandoned his +reins, and was awkwardly climbing out of the wagon at the rear end. One +of the old negroes said: "Brer' Johnson, sure as you born man, de +runaway horse am powerful gran' and a monstrous fine sight to see." +Johnson shook his head doubtfully, and then replied, philosophically, +"Dat 'pends berry much, nigger, on whedder you be standin' on de corner +obsarvin' of him, or be gittin' ober de tail-board ob de waggin." And +likewise, it strikes me that any keen enjoyment to be gotten out of +after-dinner speaking is peculiarly contingent—"'pendin' berry much on +whedder you is standin' off lookin' on, or gittin' ober de tail-board of +de waggin." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>If Wall Street is all that spiteful cynics and ignorant fanatics say of +it—if we are to admit that it is a den of thieves, where only +falsehood, treachery, and iniquitous schemes are propagated; if there is +any ground for believing that all the exchanges are side-shows to hell +[laughter], and their members devils incarnate [laughter], I fail to +appreciate any advantage to the South in being there, and in no place +where her presence could not be counted a credit would I assist in +discovering her.</p> + +<p>But if, on the other hand, we repudiate such wholesale abuse of the +place, and insist, for truth's sake, upon an acknowledgment of facts as +they exist, then the South can well afford to be found in Wall Street, +and if prominent there we may proudly salute her.</p> + +<p>Wall Street is the throbbing heart of America's finance. It is a common +nursery for an infinite variety of enterprises, all over our land. +Innumerable manufactories, North,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1170" id="Page_1170">[Pg 1170]</a></span> South, East, and West, have drawn +their capital from Wall Street. The industrial progress and material +development of our blessed Southland is being pushed forward vigorously +to-day by the monetary backing of Wall Street. The vast fields of the +fertile West, luxurious in the beauty and rich in the promise of +tasselled corn and bearded grain, are tilled and harvested by helpful +loans from Wall Street. Old railroads, run down in their physical +condition and thereby seriously impaired for public service, are +constantly being rehabilitated with Wall Street money, while eight out +of every ten new ones draw the means for their construction and +equipment from this same source of financial supply.</p> + +<p>To all attacks recklessly made on the methods of Wall Street, it seems +to me there is ample answer in this one undeniable fact—the daily +business done there foots up in dollars and cents more than the total +trade of any whole State of the Union, except New York; and, although +the great bulk of transactions are made in the midst of intense +excitement, incident to rapid and sometimes violent fluctuation of +values, and, although gigantic trades are made binding by only a wink or +a nod, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, the +contracting parties stand rigidly by their bargains, prove they good or +bad. [Applause.] So much for the heroic integrity of the so-called bulls +and bears. Out in the broader realm of commercial vocation, and through +the wider fields of pastoral pursuit, it occurs to me this lesson might +be learned without any reduction of existing morality. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>In Wall Street the brainiest financiers are congregated. Vigorous +energy, unremitting industry, clear judgment, and unswerving nerve are +absolutely essential to personal success. In the light of those +requirements, we venture to ask what place has the South taken.</p> + +<p>Honorable Abram S. Hewitt in his speech before this Society one year +ago, said: "If by some inscrutable providence this list of gentlemen +[meaning members of the Southern Society] were suddenly returned to the +homes which I suppose will know them no longer, there would be in this +city what the quack medicine men call 'a sense of goneness,' and I think +we should have to send to the wise men of the East, Dr. Atkinson, for +example, to tell us how to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1171" id="Page_1171">[Pg 1171]</a></span> supply the vacuum." Taking my cue from that +generous compliment, I venture to suggest that if the South should +suddenly withdraw from Wall Street, it would occasion such a contraction +of the currency in that district as would demand even a more liberal +policy than Secretary Fairchild has practised in purchasing Government +bonds. [Applause and laughter.] The aggregate wealth of Southerners in +Wall Street to-day is over $100,000,000 and the great bulk of that vast +amount has been accumulated within the last twenty years. That is to +say, "The South in Wall Street," has made at least $4,000,000 annually +since the war. Under all the circumstances, who will dispute the +magnificence of that showing? It must be remembered that the great +majority of Southern men on entering Wall Street were poor; so poor, +indeed, that they might almost have afforded to begin their career on +the terms that I once heard of a man in South Carolina proposing to some +little negroes. He told them if they would pick wild blackberries from +morning till night he would give them half they gathered. [Laughter.] +The Southerners of Wall Street, with but very few exceptions, entered +that great field of finance with but one consolation, and that was the +calm consciousness of being thoroughly protected against loss from the +simple fact that they had nothing to lose. [Applause and laughter.] A +hundred millions of dollars is no small pile when stacked up +beside—nothing. Of course we are not called upon to analyze this +fortune, nor do I mean to imply that it is evenly divided. Some of us it +must be admitted spoil the average dreadfully, but we all may get the +same satisfaction out of it that the childless man derived, who said +that he and his brother together had three boys and two girls. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The South is a power in Wall Street. She is identified with the +management of many leading financial institutions, and has also founded +private banking-houses and built up other prosperous business +establishments on her own account. It would be in bad taste to mention +names unless I had the roll of honor at hand and could read it off +without exception. The President of the Cotton Exchange and nearly forty +per cent. of its members are Southerners. One of the oldest and +strongest firms on the Produce Exchange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1172" id="Page_1172">[Pg 1172]</a></span> is essentially Southern. That +private banking-house in Wall Street, which has stood longest without +any change in the personnel of its partnership, and which ranks to-day +with the most reputable and successful establishments of its kind, is +Southern in every branch of its membership. Seven of the National Banks +have Southern men for Presidents, and the list of Southern cashiers and +tellers is long and honorable. It was a Southern boy who, ten years ago, +counted himself lucky on getting the humble place of mail carrier in one +of the greatest banking houses of America. That very boy, when not long +since he resigned to enter business on his own account, was filling one +of the most responsible positions and drawing the third largest salary +in that same great establishment.</p> + +<p>Another instance of signal success is told in this short story: Less +than six years ago a young Georgian tacked up a cheap little sign on the +door of a sky-lit room in the "Evening Post" building. To-day his is the +leading name of one of the most conspicuous houses in the Street, and +the rent of his present quarters is more per month than the first office +he occupied cost for a whole year. One of the most famous Southern +leaders in Wall Street to-day [John H. Inman] was so little known when +he first attracted attention there that many people assumed he must in +some way be connected with a certain great ocean steamship line, simply +because he bore the same name. To-day it is just as often supposed that +the steamship line is an offshoot from him, because it bears his name. A +great Italian painter once vitalized a canvas with the expression of his +poetic thought and called it "Aurora." In looking at that masterpiece of +art I have sometimes been reminded of this distinguished Southerner. +Immediately after the war the South was enveloped in darkness. Out of +that gloom this man emerged and came here to the East, where the sun +shines first in the morning. Judging him to-day by the record he has +made, we are warranted in saying that on coming here he adopted +Usefulness as his chariot, and that thereto he harnessed the spirited +steeds of Enterprise, Progress, and Development. To-day we see him +driving that triumphal car through the land of his birth, and making the +sunlight of prosperity to shine there. [Tremendous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1173" id="Page_1173">[Pg 1173]</a></span> applause.] Sharing +with him the honors of their firm name is another Southerner, whose +career of usefulness and record of splendid success suffer nothing by +comparison. Two other Southern representatives, because of admirable +achievements and brilliant strokes of fortune, have recently gained +great distinction and won much applause in Wall Street. If I called +their names it would awake an echo in the temple of history, where an +illustrious ancestor is enshrined in immortal renown. [Applause and +cries of "Calhoun! Calhoun!"]</p> + +<p>It is not only as financiers and railroad magnates that the South ranks +high in Wall Street, but Southern lawyers likewise have established +themselves in this dollar district, and to-day challenge attention and +deserve tribute. Under the brilliant leadership of two commanding +generals, the younger barristers are steadily winning wider reputation +and pressing forward in professional triumph.</p> + +<p>One question, with its answer, and I shall have done: Are these +Southerners in Wall Street divorced in spirit and sympathy from their +old homes? [Cries of "No! No!"] You say "No." Let the record of their +deeds also make reply. One of them had done a thing so unique and +beautiful that I cannot refrain from alluding to it. It touches the +chord of humanity in every true heart and makes it vibrate with sacred +memories. In the cemetery of the little town of Hopkinsville, Ky., there +stands a splendid monument dedicated to "The Unknown Confederate Dead." +There is no inscription that even hints at who erected it. The builder +subordinated his personality to the glory of his purpose, and only the +consummate beauty of the memorial stands forth. The inspiration of his +impulse was only equalled by the modesty of his method. Truth, touched +by the tenderness and beauty of the tribute to those heroes who died +"for conscience sake," has revealed the author, and in him we recognize +a generous surviving comrade. [Applause, and cries of "Latham! Latham! +John Latham!"]</p> + +<p>Turning from this epitome of sentiment, we are confronted by abundant +evidence of the substantial interest taken by Wall Street Southerners in +the material affairs of the South. What they have done to reclaim the +waste places and develop the resources of their native States is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1174" id="Page_1174">[Pg 1174]</a></span> beyond +estimate. They have not only contributed liberally by personal +investment, but they have used every honorable endeavor to influence +other men to do likewise. Loyalty has stimulated their efforts. Their +hearts are in the present and prospective glory of the New South. They +are untiring in their furtherance of legitimate enterprises, and the +fruit of their labor is seen to-day in every Southern State where new +railroads are building, various manufacturing enterprises springing up, +and vast mining interests being developed. The steady flow of capital +into all those channels is greatly due to their influence. There is more +money drifting that way to-day than ever before, and the time will soon +come, if it is not already here, when the sentiment to which I have +responded will admit of transposition, and we can with as much propriety +toast "Wall Street in the South," as to-night we toast "The South in +Wall Street." [Great and long-continued applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1175" id="Page_1175">[Pg 1175]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>KING EDWARD VII.</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE COLONIES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales [Edward VII, crowned King +of England January 23, 1901], at the banquet given at the Mansion +House, London, July 16, 1881, by the Lord Mayor of London [Sir +William McArthur], to the Prince of Wales, as President of the +Colonial Institute, and to a large company of representatives of +the colonies—governors, premiers, and administrators. This speech +was delivered in response to the toast proposed by the Lord Mayor, +"The Health of the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and the +other members of the Royal Family."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord Mayor, Your Majesty, My Lords, and Gentlemen</span>:—For the +kind and remarkably flattering way in which you, my Lord Mayor, have +been good enough to propose this toast, and you, my lords and gentlemen, +for the kind and hearty way in which you have received it, I beg to +offer you my most sincere thanks. It is a peculiar pleasure to me to +come to the City, because I have the honor of being one of its freemen. +But this is, indeed, a very special dinner, one of a kind that I do not +suppose has ever been given before; for we have here this evening +representatives of probably every Colony in the Empire. We have not only +the Secretary of the Colonies, but Governors past and present, +ministers, administrators, and agents, are all I think, to be found here +this evening. I regret that it has not been possible for me to see half +or one-third of the Colonies which it has been the good fortune of my +brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, to visit. In his voyages round the world +he has had opportunities more than once of seeing all our great +Colonies. Though I have not been able personally to see them, or have +seen only a small portion of them, you may rest assured it does not +diminish in any way the interest I take in them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1176" id="Page_1176">[Pg 1176]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is, I am sorry to say, now going on for twenty-one years since I +visited our large North American Colonies. Still, though I was very +young at the time, the remembrance of that visit is as deeply imprinted +upon my memory now as it was at that time. I shall never forget the +public receptions which were accorded to me in Canada, New Brunswick, +Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, and if it were possible for me at +any time to repeat that visit, I need not tell you gentlemen, who now +represent here those great North American Colonies, of the great +pleasure it would give me to do so. It affords me great gratification to +see an old friend, Sir John Macdonald, the Premier of Canada, here this +evening.</p> + +<p>It was a most pressing invitation, certainly, that I received two years +ago to visit the great Australasian Colonies, and though at the time I +was unable to give an answer in the affirmative or in the negative, +still it soon became apparent that my many duties here in England, would +prevent my accomplishing what would have been a long, though a most +interesting voyage. I regret that such has been the case, and that I was +not able to accept the kind invitation I received to visit the +Exhibitions at Sydney and at Melbourne. I am glad, however, to know that +they have proved a great success, as has been testified to me only this +evening by the noble Duke [Manchester] by my side, who has so lately +returned. Though, my lords and gentlemen, I have, as I said before, not +had the opportunity of seeing these great Australasian Colonies, which +every day and every year are making such immense development, still, at +the International Exhibitions of London, Paris, and Vienna, I had not +only an opportunity of seeing their various products there exhibited, +but I had the pleasure of making the personal acquaintance of many +colonists—a fact which has been a matter of great importance and great +benefit to myself.</p> + +<p>It is now thirty years since the first International Exhibition took +place in London, and then for the first time Colonial exhibits were +shown to the world. Since that time, from the Exhibitions which have +followed our first great gathering in 1851, the improvements that have +been made are manifest. That in itself is a clear proof of the way in +which the Colonies have been exerting themselves to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1177" id="Page_1177">[Pg 1177]</a></span> their vast +territories of the great importance that they are at the present moment. +But though, my Lord Mayor, I have not been to Australasia, as you have +mentioned, I have sent my two sons on a visit there; and it has been a +matter of great gratification, not only to myself, but to the Queen, to +hear of the kindly reception they have met with everywhere. They are but +young, but I feel confident that their visit to the Antipodes will do +them an incalculable amount of good. On their way out they visited a +Colony in which, unfortunately, the condition of affairs was not quite +as satisfactory as we could wish, and as a consequence they did not +extend their visits in that part of South Africa quite so far inland as +might otherwise have been the case.</p> + +<p>I must thank you once more, my Lord Mayor, for the kind way in which you +have proposed this toast. I thank you in the name of the Princess and +the other members of the Royal Family, for the kind reception their +names have met with from all here to-night, and I beg again to assure +you most cordially and heartily of the great pleasure it has given me to +be present here among so many distinguished Colonists and gentlemen +connected with the Colonies, and to have had an opportunity of meeting +your distinguished guest, the King of the Sandwich Islands. If your +lordship's visit to his dominions remains impressed on your mind, I +think your lordship's kindly reception of his Majesty here to-night is +not likely soon to be forgotten by him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1178" id="Page_1178">[Pg 1178]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HUGH C. WALLACE</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE SOUTHERNER IN THE WEST</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Hugh C. Wallace at the fifth annual banquet of the New +York Southern Society, February 21, 1891. The President, Hugh R. +Garden, occupied the chair. In introducing Mr. Wallace, he said: +"It was said of old that the Southerner was wanting in that energy +and fixedness of purpose which make a successful American. No +broader field has existed for the exercise of those qualities than +the great region west of the Rocky Mountains. We are fortunate in +the presence of a gentleman whose young life is already a +successful refutation of that opinion, and I turn with confidence +to 'The Southerner of the Pacific Slope,' and invite Mr. Hugh C. +Wallace, of the State of Washington, to respond."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen</span>:—For more than one hundred years +upon this continent a silent army has been marching from the East toward +the West. No silken banners have waved above it, and no blare of trumpet +or beat of drum has heralded its progress. And yet its conquests have +been grander than those of Peru or Mexico, its victories more glorious +than those of Marengo, of Friedland, or of Austerlitz. It has subdued an +empire richer than the Indies without inflicting the cruelties of Clive, +or the exactions of Hastings, and that empire is to-day, Mr. President, +a part of your heritage and mine. [Applause.] For more than thirty years +past the region in which most of those I see around me first saw the +light has lain prostrate, borne down by a Titanic struggle whose +blighting force fell wholly upon her. For more than a generation her +enterprise has seemed exhausted, her strength wasted, and her glory +departed. And yet she has not failed to furnish her full quota to the +grand army of conquest to carry to completion the great work which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1179" id="Page_1179">[Pg 1179]</a></span> +Boone, Crockett, and Houston, all her sons—began, and which her genius +alone made possible. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Turn back with me the pages of time to the beginning of this imposing +march and glance for a moment at its resplendent progress. Its beginning +was in Virginia. Virginians led by that first of Southerners whose natal +day we celebrate to-night and whose fame grows brighter in the +lengthening perspective of the years, conquered the savage and his +little less than savage European ally, and saved for the Nation then +unborn the whole Northwest. The Pinckneys, the Rutledges, and the +Gwinetts forced the hand of Spain from the throat of the Mississippi, +and left the current of trade free to flow to the Gulf unvexed by +foreign influence.</p> + +<p>Another Virginian, illustrious through all time as the great vindicator +of humanity, doubled the area of the national possession of his time by +the Louisiana purchase, and Lewis and Clarke, both sons of the Old +Dominion, in 1804 first trod the vast uninhabited wilds of the far +Northwest to find a land richer in all the precious products of the East +than mortal eyes had yet beheld. So were our borders extended from the +Gulf and the Rio Grande to the 49th parallel and from the Atlantic to +the Pacific—but for Southern enterprise they might have stopped at +Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Niagara. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The empire thus secured remained to be subdued. From the States in which +you and I, gentlemen, were born has come a noble wing of the grand army +of subjugation, all of whose battles have been victories and all of +whose victories have been victories of civilization. Moving first from +the old States of the South it took possession of territory along the +Gulf and of Tennessee and of Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground." Fame +crowned the heroes of these campaigns with the patriot's name, and +glorified them as pioneers. As their advance guards swept across the +Mississippi and took possession of Missouri, Arkansas, and territory +farther north, envy called it invasion, and when their scouts appeared +in Nebraska and Kansas they were repelled amid the passion of the hour. +Meanwhile, a new element, whose quickening power is scarcely yet +appreciated, had joined the grand movement. Early in the forties a South +Carolinian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1180" id="Page_1180">[Pg 1180]</a></span> captain of engineers, the Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, had +marked the way to the far West coast, and added a new realm to the +National domain. [Applause.] It was the domain soon famed for its +delightful climate, its wealth of resources, and its combination of +every natural advantage that human life desires. The gleaming gold soon +after found in the sands of Sutter's Fort spread its fame afar and +attracted to it the superb band of men who came from every State to lay +firm and sure the foundation of the new commonwealth.</p> + +<p>There were only fourteen Southerners in the Constitutional Convention at +Monterey, but their genius for government made them a fair working +majority in the body of forty-eight members. Not content with building a +grand State like this, the united army gathered from the North and South +alike turned its face toward the desert and fastnesses of the eternal +hills and "continuous woods where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound +save his own dashings," and pitched their tents, rolled back the awful +silence that through ages had reigned there; and learned the secrets +that desolation guarded, alluring to them from their fastnesses a +renewed stream of treasure which has resulted in making us the envy of +all other nations.</p> + +<p>In conspicuous contrast to the attitude and sentiment of the South, the +East has never followed to encourage nor sympathize with the West. +Whether it be in legislation or politics or finance, the Western idea +has ever failed to command the earnest attention to which it is +entitled. There is a sentiment which is growing more general and +vigorous every day in the far West, that the time is near at hand when +it will decline to adhere to the fortunes of any leader or body which +recklessly ignores its claims or persistently refuses to it recognition. +It is a very significant fact, Mr. President, that this great region, +containing one-fourth of the National area, one-seventeenth of the +population, and constituting one-seventh of the whole number of States +has had up to this time, but one member of the Cabinet. In the present +Cabinet, fourteen States (east of the Mississippi and North of the old +Mason and Dixon's Line) have seven members and the remaining thirty +States have but one. Those thirty States will see to it in the future +that the party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1181" id="Page_1181">[Pg 1181]</a></span> which succeeds through their support has its +representation their efforts have deserved.</p> + +<p>I cannot close, Mr. President, without giving expression to a sentiment +to which Southerners in the West are peculiarly alive—the sentiment of +sympathy and fraternity which exists between the South and the West. +[Applause.] The course of historical development which I have outlined +of the Western man has wrought a bond of friendship between them, and +that bond is not a reminiscence, but a living, vital, and efficient +fact. Only but yesterday, politicians, thank God not the people, sought +for selfish ends to cast back the South into Stygian gloom from which +she had slowly and laboriously but gloriously emerged, to forge upon her +again hope-killing shackles of a barbarous rule. In that hour of trial +which you and I, sir, know to have been a menace and a reality to whom +did she turn for succor? To this man of the West, and quick and glorious +was the response.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1182" id="Page_1182">[Pg 1182]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SAMUEL BALDWIN WARD</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE MEDICAL PROFESSION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Dr. Samuel B. Ward at the annual banquet of the New York +State Bar Association, in the City of Albany, January 18, 1887.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—That a medical man should be +asked to be in attendance at a banquet such as this was natural, and +when I looked over the list of toasts and found that the clergymen had +been omitted, I took it as an intended though perhaps rather dubious +compliment to my profession, the supposition being that the services of +the clergy would not of course be required. When I was asked to respond +to this toast, in an unguarded moment of good nature, which is +remarkable even in me, I was beguiled into consenting by the persuasive +eloquence of your worthy President and Secretary, and a day or two after +I visited the Executive chamber with the view of endeavoring to make "a +little bargain" with his Excellency. Being myself neither a lawyer, a +politician, nor the editor of a Brooklyn newspaper [laughter], I was +totally unacquainted with such things, but still I am the reader of a +weekly Republican newspaper (that is spelled with two e's and not an a, +and has no reference to the "Albany Evening Journal"), and have +ascertained that among a certain class of men, these "bargains" were +exceedingly common. Respecting the exact nature of the proposition I +shall not reveal? but suffice it to say I failed most ignominiously.</p> + +<p>After leaving the executive chamber I spent a good part of the morning +in reflection as to the cause of the failure. Among other things it +occurred to me that perhaps the newspaper statement, that "bargains" +were so common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1183" id="Page_1183">[Pg 1183]</a></span> among officials was untrue, but when I reflected that my +newspaper was a republican organ and that the Executive was a democratic +official I knew that every word that organ would say about a political +opponent must be absolutely true. It occurred to me that perhaps +inasmuch as I was not a politician, his Excellency might have feared to +trust me, but I recollected to have read of the dire misfortune that +befalls certain politicians in New York from trusting each other. As the +Governor's shrewdness was well-known, I knew that he felt that if he +could trust any one, it would be one of my profession, and therefore +that excuse would not answer. It also occurred to me, that perhaps I was +somewhat green and unwise in consenting to make this bargain in the +presence of witnesses, but when I thought of all the sagacity and +shrewdness and reticence that was concealed behind Colonel Rice's +outspoken countenance, and of the numerous "arrangements" of which he +was cognizant, and in relation to which he had never said a word, I felt +assured that that was not the reason. I finally came to the conclusion +that the Governor was a man to be trusted; that if there still be cynics +who believe that "every man has his price," they would find the +Governor's price far too high for them ever to reach. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>In the play of King Henry VI occurs an expression by Dick, the butcher, +which is so short and so pointed that I may be pardoned for reproducing +it in its completeness. It runs thus: "The first thing we do, let's kill +the lawyers." This is not at all the attitude of our profession toward +yours. On the contrary the most stupid charge that is ever laid to the +door of the medical man is that he intentionally, or ever either by luck +or intention, kills his patients. Ere the coffin-lid closes the doctor's +harvest is reaped, but how different it is with you gentlemen. +[Laughter.] Not more than a few days after the debt of nature has been +paid by the unfortunate patient, your harvest—and especially if he has +had the unusual fortune to make a will—begins, and oh! how we are +sometimes tempted to envy you. Through how many seasons this harvest +will be prolonged no one can foretell. That it will be carefully +garnered to the last we can fully rely upon.</p> + +<p>There is perhaps only one state of circumstances under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1184" id="Page_1184">[Pg 1184]</a></span> which the +medical man is likely to re-echo the sentiment, and that is when he +steps down from the witness-stand, having served as an "expert." You +lawyers have a duty to discharge to your clients which necessitates your +"taking a part." Even though a man be guilty, there may be "extenuating +circumstances," and it is your right, as it is your duty, "to do all +that lies within your power in his behalf." The "medical expert" should +go upon the stand in a purely judicial frame of mind, and as a rule I +believe he does. But by the manner in which questions are propounded to +him, and by the exercise of every little persuasive art incident to your +calling, he is inevitably led into taking "sides." He is surrounded by +circumstances that are to him entirely strange. He is more or less +annoyed and flurried by his surroundings, and then comes the necessity +of making a categorical answer to questions that are put to him more +especially upon the cross-examination, which cannot be correctly +answered categorically. Unfortunately in a profession like ours, in a +science of art like ours, it often is absolutely impossible to answer a +question categorically without conveying an erroneous impression to the +jury.</p> + +<p>In addition to this, we are subjected at the close of the examination to +what you are pleased to term a "hypothetical question." The theory of +this "hypothetical question" is that it embraces or expresses in a few +words, and not always so very few either [laughter], the main features +of the case under consideration. In nine cases out of ten if the expert +makes a direct and unqualified answer to the question he leaves an +absolutely erroneous idea upon the minds of the jury, and this is the +explanation of why so many experts have made answers to questions which +have elicited adverse criticism.</p> + +<p>In my judgment, after a not very long experience I must admit, but a +sorry one, in some instances, there is but one way in which this matter +of expert evidence should be conducted. The judge should appoint three +experts, one of them at the suggestion of the counsel upon either side, +and the third one at his own discretion. These three appointees should +present their report in writing to the court, and the compensation for +the service should be equally divided between the parties interested. In +that way can expert evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1185" id="Page_1185">[Pg 1185]</a></span>dence escape the disrepute now attaching to it, +and the ends of justice be furthered. Now, gentlemen, the hour is +getting late, and I have but one wish to express to you. The medical +profession of the State of New York has an organization very similar to +your own, which has now reached very nearly its ninetieth year, with a +membership of almost 1,000, and with an annual attendance something +double that of your own. I can only hope that your Association may live +on and develop until it reaches as vigorous and flourishing an old age +as that of the medical profession. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1186" id="Page_1186">[Pg 1186]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE RISE OF "THE ATLANTIC"</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Charles Dudley Warner at the "Whittier Dinner" in +celebration of the poet's seventieth birthday and the twentieth +birthday of "The Atlantic Monthly," given by the publishers, +Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., at Boston, Mass., December 17, +1877.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman</span>:—It is impossible to express my gratitude to you +for calling on me. There is but one pleasure in life equal to that of +being called on to make an after-dinner speech, and that is not being +called on. It is such an enjoyment to sit through the courses with this +prospect like a ten-pound weight on your digestive organs! If it were +ever possible to refuse anything in this world, except by the +concurrence of the three branches of government—the executive, the +obstructive, and the destructive, I believe they are called—I should +hope that we might some time have our speeches first, so that we could +eat our dinner without fear or favor.</p> + +<p>I suppose, however, that I am called up not to grumble, but to say that +the establishment of "The Atlantic Monthly" was an era in literature. I +say it cheerfully. I believe, nevertheless, it was not the first era of +the sort. The sanguine generations have been indulging in them all +along, and as "eras" they are apt to flat out, or, as the editor of the +"Atlantic" would say, they "peter out." But the establishment of the +"Atlantic" was the expression of a genuine literary movement. That +movement is the most interesting because it was the most fruitful in our +history. It was nicknamed transcendentalism. It was, in fact, a +recurrence to realism. They who were sitting in Boston saw a great +light. The beauty of this new realism was that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1187" id="Page_1187">[Pg 1187]</a></span> required imagination, +as it always does, to see truth. That was the charm of the Teufelsdröckh +philosophy; it was also poetry. Mr. Emerson puts it in a phrase—the +poet is the Seer. Most of you recall the intellectual stir of that time. +Mr. Carlyle had spread the German world to us. Mr. Emerson lighted his +torch. The horizon of English literature was broken, and it was not +necessary any longer to imitate English models. Criticism began to +assert itself. Mr. Lowell launched that audacious "Fable for Critics"—a +lusty colt, rejoicing in his young energy, had broken into the +old-fashioned garden, and unceremoniously trampled about among the rows +of box, the beds of pinks and sweet-williams, and mullen seed. I +remember how all this excited the imagination of the college where I +was. It was what that great navigator who made the "swellings from the +Atlantic" called "a fresh-water college." Everybody read "Sartor +Resartus." The best writer in college wrote exactly like Carlyle—why, +it was the universal opinion—without Carlyle's obscurity! The rest of +them wrote like Jean Paul Richter and like Emerson, and like Longfellow, +and like Ossian. The poems of our genius you couldn't tell from Ossian. +I believe it turned out that they were Ossian's. [Laughter.] Something +was evidently about to happen. When this tumult had a little settled the +"Atlantic" arose serenely out of Boston Bay—a consummation and a star +of promise as well.</p> + +<p>The promise has been abundantly fulfilled. The magazine has had its fair +share in the total revolution of the character of American literature—I +mean the revolution out of the sentimental period; for the truth of this +I might appeal to the present audience, but for the well-known fact that +writers of books never read any except those they make themselves. +[Laughter.] I distinctly remember the page in that first "Atlantic" that +began with—"If the red slayer thinks he slays—" a famous poem, that +immediately became the target of all the small wits of the country, and +went in with the "Opinions," paragraphs of that Autocratic talk, which +speedily broke the bounds of the "Atlantic," and the Pacific as well, +and went round the world. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Yes, the "Atlantic" has had its triumphs of all sorts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1188" id="Page_1188">[Pg 1188]</a></span> The Government +even was jealous of its power. It repeatedly tried to banish one of its +editors, and finally did send him off to the court of Madrid [James +Russell Lowell]. And I am told that the present editor [William Dean +Howells] might have been snatched away from it, but for his good fortune +in being legally connected with a person who is distantly related to a +very high personage who was at that time reforming the civil service.</p> + +<p>Mr. Chairman, there is no reason why I should not ramble on in this way +all night; but then, there is no reason why I should. There is only one +thing more that I desire to note, and that is, that during the existence +of the "Atlantic," American authors have become very nearly emancipated +from fear or dependence on English criticisms. In comparison with former +days they care now very little what London says. This is an acknowledged +fact. Whether it is the result of a sturdy growth at home or of a +visible deterioration of the quality of the criticism—a want of the +discriminating faculty—the Contributors' Club can, no doubt, point out.</p> + +<p>[In conclusion, Mr. Warner paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the +Quaker poet.]<br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="watterson" id="watterson"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img1189.jpg" alt="HENRY WATTERSON" title="HENRY WATTERSON" /></div> + +<h4><i>HENRY WATTERSON</i></h4> + +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a photograph from life</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1189" id="Page_1189">[Pg 1189]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HENRY WATTERSON</h2> + + + + +<h4>OUR WIVES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Henry Watterson at the dinner held on the anniversary of +General W. T. Sherman's birthday, Washington, D. C., February 8, +1883. Colonel George B. Corkhill presided, and introduced Mr. +Watterson to speak to the toast, "Our Wives."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—When one undertakes to respond to such a sentiment +as you do me the honor to assign me, he knows in advance that he is put, +as it were, upon his good behavior. I recognize the justice of this and +accepted the responsibility with the charge; though I may say that if +General Sherman's wife resembles mine—and I very much suspect she +does—he has a sympathy for me at the present moment. Once upon a festal +occasion, a little late, quite after the hour when Cinderella was bidden +by her godmother to go to bed, I happened to extol the graces and +virtues of the newly wedded wife of a friend of mine, and finally, as a +knockdown argument, I compared her to my own wife. "In this case," said +he, dryly, "you'll catch it when you get home." It is a peculiarity they +all have: not a ray of humor where the husband is concerned; to the best +of them and to the last he must be and must continue to be—a hero!</p> + +<p>Now, I do not wish you to believe, nor to think that I myself believe, +that all women make heroes of their husbands. Women are logical in +nothing. They naturally hate mathematics. So, they would have their +husbands be heroes only to the rest of the world. There is a charming +picture by John Leech, the English satirist, which depicts Jones, who +never looked askance at a woman in his life, sitting demurely at table, +stuck with his nose on his plate, and Mrs. Jones opposite, redundant to +a degree, observing with grati<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1190" id="Page_1190">[Pg 1190]</a></span>fied severity, "Now, Mr. Jones, don't let +me see you ogling those Smith girls again!" She, too, was like the +rest—the good ones, I mean—seeing the world through her husband; no +happiness but his comfort; no vanity but his glory; sacrificing herself +to his wants, and where he proves inadequate putting her imagination out +to service and bringing home a basket of flowers to deck his brow. Of +our sweethearts the humorist hath it:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Where are the Marys and Anns and Elizas,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Lovely and loving of yore?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Look in the columns of old 'Advertisers,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Married and dead by the score."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But "our wives." We don't have far to look to find them; sometimes, I am +told, you army gentlemen have been known to find them turning +unexpectedly up along the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and making +their presence felt even as far as the halls of the Montezumas. Yet how +should we get on without them? Rob mankind of his wife and time could +never become a grandfather. Strange as you may think it our wives are, +in a sense, responsible for our children; and I ask you seriously how +could the world get on if it had no children? It might get on for a +while, I do admit; but I challenge the boldest among you to say how long +it could get on without "our wives." It would not only give out of +children; in a little—a very little—while it would have no +mother-in-law, nor sister-in-law, nor brother-in-law, nor any of those +acquired relatives whom it has learned to love, and who have contributed +so largely to its stock of harmless pleasure.</p> + +<p>But, as this is not exactly a tariff discussion, though a duty, I drop +statistics; let me ask you what would become of the revenues of man if +it were not for "our wives?" We should have no milliners but for "our +wives." But for "our wives" those makers of happiness and furbelows, +those fabricators of smiles and frills, those gentle beings who bias and +scollop and do their sacking at both ends of the bill, and sometimes in +the middle, would be compelled to shut up shop, retire from business, +and return to the good old city of Mantua, whence they came. The world +would grow too rich; albeit, on this promise I do not propose to +con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1191" id="Page_1191">[Pg 1191]</a></span>struct an argument in favor of more wives. One wife is enough, two +is too many, and more than two are an abomination everywhere, except in +Utah and the halls of our national legislature.</p> + +<p>I beg you will forgive me. I do but speak in banter. It has been said +that a good woman, fitly mated, grows doubly good; but how often have we +seen a bad man mated to a good woman turned into a good man? Why, I +myself was not wholly good till I married my wife; and, if the eminent +soldier and gentleman in whose honor we are here—and may he be among us +many and many another anniversary, yet always sixty-three—if he should +tell the story of his life, I am sure he would say that its darkest +hours were cherished, its brightest illuminated by the fair lady of a +noble race, who stepped from the highest social eminence to place her +hand in that of an obscure young subaltern of the line. The world had +not become acquainted with him, but with the prophetic instinct of a +true woman she discovered, as she has since developed, the mine. So it +is with all "our wives." Whatever there is good in us they bring it out; +wherefor may they be forever honored in the myriad of hearts they come +to lighten and to bless. [Loud applause.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>THE PURITAN AND THE CAVALIER</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Henry Watterson at the eighty-ninth anniversary banquet +of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, +1894. Elihu Root, President of the Society, introduced Mr. +Watterson in the following words: "Gentlemen, we are forced to +recognize the truth of the observation that all the people of New +England are not Puritans; we must admit an occasional exception. It +is equally true, I am told, that all the people of the South are +not cavaliers; but there is one cavalier without fear and without +reproach [applause], the splendid courage of whose convictions +shows how close together the highest examples of different types +can be among godlike men—a cavalier of the South, of southern +blood and southern life, who carries in thought and in deed all the +serious purpose and disinterested action that characterized the +Pilgrim Fathers whom we commemorate. He comes from an impressionist +State where the grass is blue [laughter], where the men are either +all white or all black, and where, we are told, quite often the +settlements are painted red. [Laughter.] He is a soldier, a +statesman, a scholar, and, above all, a lover; and among all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1192" id="Page_1192">[Pg 1192]</a></span> the +world which loves a lover the descendants of those who, generation +after generation, with tears and laughter, have sympathized with +John Alden and Priscilla, cannot fail to open their hearts in +sympathy to Henry Watterson and his star-eyed goddess. [Applause.] +I have the honor and great pleasure of introducing him to respond +to the toast of 'The Puritan and the Cavalier.'"]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—Eight years ago, to-night, there +stood where I am standing now a young Georgian, who, not without reason, +recognized the "significance" of his presence here—"the first +southerner to speak at this board"—a circumstance, let me add, not very +creditable to any of us—and in words whose eloquence I cannot hope to +recall, appealed from the New South to New England for a united country.</p> + +<p>He was my disciple, my protege, my friend. He came to me from the +southern schools, where he had perused the arts of oratory and letters, +to get a few hints in journalism, as he said; needing so few, indeed, +that, but a little later, I sent him to one of the foremost journalists +of this foremost city, bearing a letter of introduction, which described +him as "the greatest boy ever born in Dixie, or anywhere else."</p> + +<p>He is gone now. But, short as his life was, its heaven-born mission was +fulfilled; the dream of his childhood was realized; for he had been +appointed by God to carry a message of peace on earth, good-will to men, +and, this done, he vanished from the sight of mortal eyes, even as the +dove from the ark.</p> + +<p>I mean to take up the word where Grady left it off, but I shall continue +the sentence with a somewhat larger confidence, and, perhaps, with a +somewhat fuller meaning; because, notwithstanding the Puritan trappings, +traditions, and associations which surround me—visible illustrations of +the self-denying fortitude of the Puritan character and the sombre +simplicity of the Puritan taste and habit—I never felt less out of +place in all my life.</p> + +<p>To tell you the truth, I am afraid that I have gained access here on +false pretences; for I am no Cavalier at all; just plain Scotch-Irish; +one of those Scotch-Irish southerners who ate no fire in the green leaf +and has eaten no dirt in the brown, and who, accepting, for the moment, +the terms Puritan and Cavalier in the sense an effete sectional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1193" id="Page_1193">[Pg 1193]</a></span>ism once +sought to ascribe to them—descriptive labels at once classifying and +separating North and South—verbal redoubts along that mythical line +called Mason and Dixon, over which there were supposed by the extremists +of other days to be no bridges—I am much disposed to say, "A plague o' +both your houses!"</p> + +<p>Each was good enough and bad enough in its way, whilst they lasted; each +in its turn filled the English-speaking world with mourning; and each, +if either could have resisted the infection of the soil and climate they +found here, would be to-day striving at the sword's point to square life +by the iron rule of Theocracy, or to round it by the dizzy whirl of a +petticoat! It is very pretty to read about the Maypole in Virginia and +very edifying and inspiring to celebrate the deeds of the Pilgrim +Fathers. But there is not Cavalier blood enough left in the Old Dominion +to produce a single crop of first families, whilst out in Nebraska and +Iowa they claim that they have so stripped New England of her Puritan +stock as to spare her hardly enough for farm hands. This I do know, from +personal experience, that it is impossible for the stranger-guest, +sitting beneath a bower of roses in the Palmetto Club at Charleston, or +by a mimic log-heap in the Algonquin Club at Boston, to tell the +assembled company apart, particularly after ten o'clock in the evening! +Why, in that great, final struggle between the Puritans and the +Cavaliers—which we still hear sometimes casually mentioned—although it +ended nearly thirty years ago, there had been such a mixing up of +Puritan babies and Cavalier babies during the two or three generations +preceding it, that the surviving grandmothers of the combatants could +not, except for their uniforms, have picked out their own on any field +of battle!</p> + +<p>Turning to the Cyclopædia of American Biography, I find that Webster had +all the vices that are supposed to have signalized the Cavalier, and +Calhoun all the virtues that are claimed for the Puritan. During twenty +years three statesmen of Puritan origin were the chosen party leaders of +Cavalier Mississippi: Robert J. Walker, born and reared in Pennsylvania; +John A. Quitman, born and reared in New York, and Sargent S. Prentiss, +born and reared in the good old State of Maine. That sturdy Puritan, +John Slidell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1194" id="Page_1194">[Pg 1194]</a></span> never saw Louisiana until he was old enough to vote and +to fight; native here—an alumnus of Columbia College—but sprung from +New England ancestors. Albert Sidney Johnston, the most resplendent of +modern Cavaliers—from tip to toe a type of the species—the very rose +and expectancy of the young Confederacy—did not have a drop of Southern +blood in his veins; Yankee on both sides of the house, though born in +Kentucky a little while after his father and mother arrived there from +Connecticut. The Ambassador who serves our Government near the French +Republic was a gallant Confederate soldier and is a representative +southern statesman; but he owns the estate in Massachusetts where his +father was born, and where his father's fathers lived through many +generations.</p> + +<p>And the Cavaliers, who missed their stirrups, somehow, and got into +Yankee saddles? The woods were full of them. If Custer was not a +Cavalier, Rupert was a Puritan. And Sherwood and Wadsworth and Kearny, +and McPherson and their dashing companions and followers! The one +typical Puritan soldier of the war—mark you!—was a Southern, and not a +Northern, soldier; Stonewall Jackson, of the Virginia line. And, if we +should care to pursue the subject farther back, what about Ethan Allen +and John Stark and Mad Anthony Wayne—Cavaliers each and every one? +Indeed, from Israel Putnam to "Buffalo Bill," it seems to me the +Puritans have had rather the best of it in turning out Cavaliers. So the +least said about the Puritan and the Cavalier—except as blessed +memories or horrid examples—the better for historic accuracy.</p> + +<p>If you wish to get at the bottom facts, I don't mind telling you—in +confidence—that it was we Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you—some +of us in peace—others of us in war—supplying the missing link of +adaptability—the needed ingredient of common sense—the conservative +principle of creed and action, to which this generation of Americans +owes its intellectual and moral emancipation from frivolity and +pharisaism—its rescue from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand—and +its crystallization into a national character and polity, ruling by +force of brains and not by force of arms.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen—Sir—I, too, have been to Boston. Strange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1195" id="Page_1195">[Pg 1195]</a></span> as the admission +may seem, it is true; and I live to tell the tale. I have been to +Boston; and when I declare that I found there many things that suggested +the Cavalier and did not suggest the Puritan, I shall not say I was +sorry. But among other things, I found there a civilization perfect in +its union of the art of living with the grace of life; an Americanism +ideal in its simple strength. Grady told us, and told us truly, of that +typical American who, in Dr. Talmage's mind's eye, was coming, but who, +in Abraham Lincoln's actuality, had already come. In some recent studies +into the career of that great man, I have encountered many startling +confirmations of this judgment; and from that rugged trunk, drawing its +sustenance from gnarled roots, interlocked with Cavalier sprays and +Puritan branches deep beneath the soil, shall spring, is springing, a +shapely tree—symmetric in all its parts—under whose sheltering boughs +this nation shall have the new birth of freedom Lincoln promised it, and +mankind the refuge which was sought by the forefathers when they fled +from oppression. Thank God, the axe, the gibbet, and the stake have had +their day. They have gone, let us hope, to keep company with the lost +arts. It has been demonstrated that great wrongs may be redressed and +great reforms be achieved without the shedding of one drop of human +blood; that vengeance does not purify, but brutalizes; and that +tolerance, which in private transactions is reckoned a virtue, becomes +in public affairs a dogma of the most far-seeing statesmanship. Else how +could this noble city have been redeemed from bondage? It was held like +a castle of the Middle Ages by robber barons, who levied tribute right +and left. Yet have the mounds and dykes of corruption been carried—from +buttress to bell-tower the walls of crime have fallen—without a shot +out of a gun, and still no fires of Smithfield to light the pathway of +the victor, no bloody assizes to vindicate the justice of the cause; nor +need of any.</p> + +<p>So I appeal from the men in silken hose who danced to music made by +slaves—and called it freedom—from the men in bell-crowned hats, who +led Hester Prynne to her shame—and called it religion—to that +Americanism which reaches forth its arms to smite wrong with reason and +truth, secure in the power of both. I appeal from the patriarchs of New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1196" id="Page_1196">[Pg 1196]</a></span> +England to the poets of New England; from Endicott to Lowell; from +Winthrop to Longfellow; from Norton to Holmes; and I appeal in the name +and by the rights of that common citizenship—of that common +origin—back both of the Puritan and the Cavalier—to which all of us +owe our being. Let the dead past, consecrated by the blood of its +martyrs, not by its savage hatreds—darkened alike by kingcraft and +priestcraft—let the dead past bury its dead. Let the present and the +future ring with the song of the singers. Blessed be the lessons they +teach, the laws they make. Blessed be the eye to see, the light to +reveal. Blessed be Tolerance, sitting ever on the right hand of God to +guide the way with loving word, as blessed be all that brings us nearer +the goal of true religion, true Republicanism and true patriotism, +distrust of watchwords and labels, shams and heroes, belief in our +country and ourselves. It was not Cotton Mather, but John Greenleaf +Whittier, who cried:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Dear God and Father of us all,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forgive our faith in cruel lies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forgive the blindness that denies.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Cast down our idols—overturn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our bloody altars—make us see</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thyself in Thy humanity!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[Applause and cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1197" id="Page_1197">[Pg 1197]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HEMAN LINCOLN WAYLAND</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE FORCE OF IDEAS</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the fourth annual dinner of +the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, +1884. Dr. Wayland, as President of the Society, occupied the chair, +and delivered the following address in welcoming the guests.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Fellow New Englanders</span>—Or, in view of our habitual modesty and +self-depreciation, I ought, perhaps, rather to say, Fellow Pharisees +[laughter]—I congratulate you that we are able to show our guests a +little real New England weather—weather that recalls the sleigh-rides, +and crossing the bridges, and the singing-school. You are reminded of +the observation of the British tar, who, after a long cruise in the +Mediterranean, as he came into the eternal fog which surrounds the +"tight little island," exclaimed, "This is weather as is weather; none +of your blasted blue sky for me!" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Let me also apologize to our guests for the extreme plainness and +frugality of the entertainment. They will kindly make allowance, when +they remember that this is washing-day. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I am aware that the occasion is so large as to dwarf all merely personal +considerations; but I cannot omit to return you my thanks for the +unmerited kindness which has placed me in the position I occupy. I must +add that the position is at once the more honorable and the more +onerous, because I am called to follow a gentleman whose administration +of the office has been so superlatively successful.</p> + +<p>In making this allusion to my honored predecessor, I am reminded of an +event in which we all feel a common pride. On the 25th of last June, +amid the hills which overshadow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1198" id="Page_1198">[Pg 1198]</a></span> Dartmouth College, our then president +laid the corner-stone of "Rollins Chapel" for Christian worship, while +on the same day, at the same place, on the grounds traversed in earlier +years by Webster and Choate, another son of New England laid the +corner-stone of the "Wilson Library Building." Thus does intelligent +industry, large-hearted benevolence, and filial piety, plant upon the +granite hills of New England the olive-groves of Academus and the palms +of Judea. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But perhaps there may be here some intelligent stranger who asks me to +define an expression which is now and then heard on these occasions: +"What is this New England of which you speak so seldom and so +reluctantly? Is it a place?" Yes, it is a place; not indeed only a +place, but it is a place; and he cannot know New England who has not +traversed it from Watch Hill to Mount Washington, from Champlain to +Passamaquoddy. In no other wise can one realize how the sterile soil and +the bleak winds and the short summer have been the rugged parents of +that thrift, that industry, that economy, that regard for the small +savings, which have made New England the banker of America. As the +population grew beyond the capacity of the soil, her sons from her +myriad harbors swarmed out upon the sea, an army of occupation, and +annexed the Grand Banks, making them national banks before the days of +Secretary Chase. [Laughter.] When the limits of agriculture were +reached, they enslaved the streams, and clothed the continent. They +gathered hides from Iowa and Texas, and sold them, in the shape of +boots, in Dubuque and Galveston. Sterile New England underlaid the +imperial Northwest with mortgages, and overlaid it with insurance. I +chanced to be in Chicago two or three days after the great fire of 1871. +As I walked among the smoking ruins, if I saw a man with a cheerful air, +I knew that he was a resident of Chicago; if I saw a man with a long +face, I knew that he represented a Hartford insurance company. +[Laughter.] Really, the cheerful resignation with which the Chicago +people endured the losses of New England did honor to human nature. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is well that New England is not yet more sterile, for it +would have owned the whole of the country,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1199" id="Page_1199">[Pg 1199]</a></span> and would have monopolized +all the wealth, as it has confessedly got a corner on all the virtues.</p> + +<p>And while the narrow limit of the season, called by courtesy "summer," +has enforced promptness and rapidity of action, the long winters have +given pause for reflection, have fostered the red school-house, have +engendered reading and discussion, have made her sons and her daughters +thoughtful beings.</p> + +<p>The other day, in reading the life of a New England woman,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> I met with +a letter written when she was seventeen years old: "I have begun reading +Dugald Stewart. How are my sources of enjoyment multiplied. By bringing +into view the various systems of philosophers concerning the origin of +our knowledge, he enlarges the mind, and extends the range of our ideas, +... while clearly distinguishing between proper objects of inquiry and +those that must forever remain inexplicable to man in the present state +of his faculties. Reasonings from induction are delightful." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>I think you will agree with me that only where there was a long winter, +and long winter evenings, would such a letter be written by a girl in +her teens.</p> + +<p>The question has often been asked why there are so many poets in New +England. A traveller passing through Concord inquired, "How do all these +people support themselves?" The answer was, "They all live by writing +poems for 'The Atlantic Monthly.'" [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Now, any one who thinks of it must see that it is the weather which +makes all these poets, or rather the weathers, for there are so many. As +Mr. Choate said: "Cold to-day, hot to-morrow; mercury at eighty in the +morning, with wind at southeast; and in three hours more a sea-turn, +wind at east, a thick fog from the bottom of the ocean, and a fall of +forty degrees; now, so dry as to kill all the beans in New Hampshire; +then, a flood, carrying off the bridges on the Penobscot; snow in +Portsmouth in July, and the next day a man and a yoke of oxen killed by +lightning down in Rhode Island." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The commonplace question: "How is the weather going to be?" gives a +boundless play to the imagination, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1200" id="Page_1200">[Pg 1200]</a></span>makes a man a poet before he +knows it. And then a poet must have grand subjects in nature. And what +does a poet want that he does not find in New England? Wooded glens, +mysterious ravines, inaccessible summits, hurrying rivers; the White +Hills, keeping up, as Starr King said, "a perpetual peak against the +sky"; the Old Man of the Mountains looking down the valley of the +Pemigewasset, and hearing from afar the Ammonoosuc as it breaks into a +hundred cataracts; Katahdin, Kearsarge, setting its back up higher than +ever since that little affair off Cherbourg; the everlasting ocean +inviting to adventure, inspiring to its own wild freedom, and making a +harbor in every front yard, so that the hardy mariner can have his smack +at his own doorstep. [Laughter.] (Need I say I mean his fishing-smack?) +What more can a poet desire?</p> + +<p>And then life in New England, especially New England of the olden time, +has been an epic poem. It was a struggle against obstacles and enemies, +and a triumph over nature in behalf of human welfare.</p> + +<p>What would a poet sing about, I wonder, who lived on the Kankakee Flats? +Of course, the epic poet must have a hero, and an enemy, and a war. The +great enemy in those parts is shakes; so, as Virgil began, "I sing of +arms and the man," the Kankakee poet would open:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I sing the glories of cinchona and the man</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who first invented calomel."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Yes, if the Pilgrims had landed upon the far Western prairies or the +Southern savannas, they would never have made America; they would never +have won a glory beyond that of Columbus, who only discovered America, +whereas these men created it. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But not a place alone. New England is also a race; the race that plants +colonies and makes nations; the race that carries everywhere a free +press, a free pulpit, an open Bible, and that has almost learned to +spell and parse its own language; the race which began the battle for +civil and religious liberty in the time of Elizabeth, which fought the +good fight at Edgehill, which, beside Concord Bridge, "fired the shot +heard round the world," which made a continent secure for liberty at +Appomattox. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1201" id="Page_1201">[Pg 1201]</a></span></p> + +<p>And New England is not alone a place and a race; it is as well an idea, +or a congeries of ideas, so closely joined as properly to be called but +one; and this idea is not the idea of force, but the force of ideas.</p> + +<p>But, gentlemen, I am in danger of forgetting that a marked +characteristic of New Englanders is an unwillingness to talk, and +especially to talk about themselves. And I know that you are eager to +listen to the illustrious men whom we have the honor to gather about our +humble board this evening.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>CAUSES OF UNPOPULARITY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the eighty-fourth annual +dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December +23, 1889. The President, Cornelius N. Bliss, proposed the query for +Dr. Wayland, "Why are New Englanders Unpopular?" enforcing it with +the following quotations: "Do you question me as an honest man +should do for my simple true judgment?" [Much Ado About Nothing, +Act I, Sc. I], and "Merit less solid less despite has bred: the man +that makes a character makes foes" [Edward Young]. Turning to Dr. +Wayland, Mr. Bliss said: "Our sister, the New England Society of +Philadelphia, to-night sends us greeting in the person of her +honored President, whom I have the pleasure of presenting to you." +The eloquence of Dr. Wayland was loudly applauded; and Chauncey M. +Depew declared that he had heard one of the best speeches to which +he had ever listened at a New England dinner.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—That I am here this evening is as +complete a mystery to me as to you. I do not know why your Society, at +whose annual meetings orators are as the sand upon the seashore for +multitude, should call upon Philadelphia, a city in which the acme of +eloquence is attained by a Friends' Yearly Meeting, "sitting under the +canopy of silence." I can only suppose that you designed to relieve the +insufferable brilliancy of your annual festival, that you wished to +dilute the highly-flavored, richly-colored, full-bodied streams of the +Croton with the pure, limpid, colorless (or, at any rate, only +drab-colored) waters of the Schuylkill. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>My first and wiser impulse was to decline the invitation with which you +honored me, or rather the Society of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1202" id="Page_1202">[Pg 1202]</a></span> I am the humblest member. +But I considered the great debt we have been under to you for the loan +of many of your most accomplished speakers: of Curtis, whose diction is +chaste as the snows of his own New England, while his zeal for justice +is as fervid as her July sun; of Depew, who, as I listen to him, makes +me believe that the doctrine of transmigration is true, and that in a +former day his soul occupied the body of one of the Puritan fathers, and +that for some lapse he was compelled to spend a period of time in the +body of a Hollander [laughter]; of Beaman,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> one of the lights of your +bar; of Evarts, who, whether as statesman or as orator, delights in +making historic periods. And this year you have favored us with General +Porter,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> whom we have been trying to capture for our annual dinner, +it seems to me, ever since the Mayflower entered Plymouth Bay.</p> + +<p>We have condoled with these honored guests as they with tears have told +us of their pitiful lot, have narrated to us how, when they might have +been tilling the soil (or what passes for soil) of the New Hampshire +hills, shearing their lambs, manipulating their shares (with the aid of +plough-handles), and watering their stock at the nearest brook, and +might have been on speaking acquaintance with the Ten Commandments and +have indulged a hope of some day going to heaven, and possibly to Boston +[laughter]—on the other hand, a hard fate has compelled them to be +millionaires, living in palaces on Murray Hill, to confine their +agricultural operations to the Swamp, and to eke out a precarious +livelihood by buying what they do not want and selling what they have +not got. [Laughter and applause.] Remembering this debt, I thought that +it was at least due to you that, in recognition of your courtesy, I +should come over and confess judgment, and put you out of suspense by +telling you at once that the assets will not pay for the expenses of +distribution. The best I can do is to make you a preferred creditor. +[Laughter.] I have heard that an Israelite without guile, doing business +down in Chatham Street, called his creditors together, and offered them +in settlement his note for ten per cent, on their claims, payable in +four months. His brother, one of the largest creditors, rather "kicked"; +but the debtor took him aside and said, "Do not make any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1203" id="Page_1203">[Pg 1203]</a></span>objections, +and I will make you a preferred creditor." [Laughter and applause.] So +the proposal was accepted by all. Presently, the preferred brother said, +"Well, I should like what is coming to me." "Oh," was the reply, "you +won't get anything; they won't any of them get anything." "But I thought +I was a preferred creditor." "So you are. These notes will not be paid +when they come due; but it will take them four months to find out that +they are not going to get anything. But you know it now; you see you are +preferred." [Renewed laughter.]</p> + +<p>In casting about for a subject (in case I should unhappily be called on +to occupy your attention for a moment), I had thought on offering a few +observations upon Plymouth Rock; but I was deterred by a weird and lurid +announcement which I saw in your papers, appearing in connection with +the name of an eminent clothing dealer, which led me to apprehend that +Plymouth Rock was getting tired. [Laughter.] The announcement read, +"Plymouth Rock pants!" I presumed that Plymouth Rock was tired in +advance, at the prospect of being trotted out once more, from the Old +Colony down to New Orleans, thence to San Francisco, thence to the +cities of the unsalted seas, and so on back to the point of departure. +[Great laughter.] Upon fuller examination, I found that the legend read, +"Plymouth Rock pants for $3." It seemed to me that, without solicitation +on my part, there ought to be public spirit enough in this audience to +make up this evening the modest sum which would put Plymouth Rock at +ease. [Great laughter.]</p> + +<p>As I look along this board, Mr. President, and gaze upon these faces +radiant with honesty, with industry, with wisdom, with benevolence, with +frugality, and, above all, with a contented and cheerful poverty, I am +led to ask the question, suggested by the topic assigned me in the +programme, "Why are we New Englanders so unpopular?" Why those phrases, +always kept in stock by provincial orators and editors, "the mean +Yankees," "the stingy Yankees," "the close-fisted Yankees," "the +tin-peddling Yankees," and, above all, the terse and condensed +collocation, "those d——d—those blessed Yankees," the blessing being +comprised between two d's, as though conferred by a benevolent doctor of +divinity. [Laughter.] I remember in the olden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1204" id="Page_1204">[Pg 1204]</a></span> time, in the years beyond +the flood, when the Presidential office was vacant and James Buchanan +was drawing the salary, at a period before the recollection of any one +present except myself, although possibly my esteemed friend, your +secretary, Mr. Hubbard, may have heard his grandparents speak of it as a +reminiscence of his youth, there was a poem going about, descriptive of +the feelings of our brethren living between us and the Equator, running +somewhat thus:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'Neath the shade of the gum-tree the Southerner sat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A-twisting the brim of his palmetto hat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And trying to lighten his mind of a'load</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By humming the words of the following ode:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Oh! for a nigger, and oh! for a whip;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh! for a cocktail, and oh! for a nip;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh! for a shot at old Greeley and Beecher;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh! for a crack at a Yankee school-teacher.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And so he kept oh-ing for all he had not,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not contented with owing for all that he'd got."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Why does the world minify our intelligence by depreciating our favorite +article of diet, and express the ultimate extreme of mental pauperism by +saying of him on whose intellect they would heap contempt, "He doesn't +know beans"? [Laughter.] And it is within my recollection that there was +a time when it was proposed to reconstruct the Union of the States, with +New England left out. Why, I repeat it, the intense unpopularity of New +England?</p> + +<p>For one thing, it seems to me, we are hated because of our virtues; we +are ostracized because men are tired of hearing about "New England, the +good." The virtues of New England seem to italicize the moral poverty of +mankind at large. The fact that the very first act of our foremothers, +even before the landing was made, two hundred and sixty-nine years ago, +was to go on shore and do up the household linen, which had suffered +from the voyage of ninety days, is a perpetual reproof to those nations +among whom there is a great opening for soap, who have a great many +saints' days, but no washing day. [Laughter and applause.] When men +nowadays are disposed to steal a million acres from the Indians, it +detracts from their enjoyment to read what Governor Josiah Winslow wrote +in <i>1676</i>: "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1205" id="Page_1205">[Pg 1205]</a></span> think I can clearly say that, before the present troubles +broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this colony +but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian +proprietors." When our fellow-citizens of other States look at their +public buildings, every stone in which tells of unpaid loans; when they +remember how they have scaled and scaled the unfortunate people who were +guilty of the crime of having money to lend, until the creditors might +be considered obnoxious to the Mosaic law, which looked with disfavor +upon scaleless fish, it is naturally aggravating to them to remember +that, at the close of King Philip's war, Plymouth Colony was owing a +debt more than equal to the personal property of the colony, and that +the debt was paid to the last cent [applause]; to remember the time, not +very far gone by, when the Bay State paid the interest on her bonds in +gold, though it cost her two hundred and seventy-six cents on every +dollar to do it, and when it was proposed to commend the bonds of the +United States to the bankers of the world by placing upon them the +indorsement of Massachusetts [applause]; to remember that never has New +England learned to articulate the letters that spell the word +"Repudiation." [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>To those members of the human family who are disposed to entertain too +high an estimate of themselves there is something aggravating in the +extreme humility and sensitive self-depreciation of the real New +Englander.</p> + +<p>And the virtues of New England are all the more offensive because they +are exhibited in such a way as to take from her enemies the comfort that +grows out of a grievance. Said a Chicago wife, "It is real mean for +Charlie to be so good to me; I want to get a divorce and go on the +stage; but he is so kind I cannot help loving him, and that is what +makes me hate him so." When there comes the news that some far-off +region is desolated by fire, or flood, or tempest, or pestilence, the +first thing is a meeting in the metropolis of New England, and the +dispatching of food and funds and physicians and nurses; and the +relieved sufferers are compelled to murmur, "Oh, dear, it is too bad! We +want to hate them, and they won't let us." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>One can manage to put up with goodness, however, if it is not too +obtrusive. The honored daughter of Connecticut,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1206" id="Page_1206">[Pg 1206]</a></span> the author of "Uncle +Tom" and "Dred," now in the peaceful evening of her days,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> has said, +"What is called goodness is often only want of force." A good man, +according to the popular idea, is a man who doesn't get in anybody's +way. But the restless New Englanders not only have virtues, but they +have convictions which are perpetually asserting themselves in the most +embarrassing manner. [Applause.] I pass over the time, two centuries +ago, when Cromwell and Hampden, those New Englanders who have never seen +New England, made themselves exceedingly offensive to Charles I, and +gave him at last a practical lesson touching the continuity of the +spinal column.</p> + +<p>Later, when our fellow-citizens desired to "wallop their own niggers," +and to carry the patriarchal institution wherever the American flag +went, they were naturally irritated at hearing that there was a handful +of meddling fanatics down in Essex County who, in their misguided and +malevolent ingenuity, had invented what they called liberty and human +rights. [Applause.] Presently, when it was proposed (under the +inspiration of a man recently deceased, who will stand in history as a +monument to the clemency and magnanimity of a great and free people) to +break up the Union in order to insure the perpetuity of slavery, then a +man, plain of speech, rude of garb<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> descended from the Lincolns of +Hingham, in Plymouth County, sounded a rally for Union and freedom +[tremendous applause]; and, hark! there is the tramp, tramp of the +fishermen from Marblehead; there are the Connecticut boys from old +Litchfield; and there is the First Rhode Island; and there are the +sailors from Casco Bay; and the farmers' sons from old Coos, and from +along the Onion River, their hearts beating with the enthusiasm of +liberty, while their steps keep pace with the drum-beat that salutes the +national flag. [Applause.] And, see! is that a thunder-cloud in the +North? No, it is the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, made up of American +citizens of African descent, officered by the best blood of Suffolk, and +at their head Robert G. Shaw, going down to die in the trenches before +Fort Wagner. And there is the man whom a kindly Providence yet spares to +us, descended from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1207" id="Page_1207">[Pg 1207]</a></span>Shermans of Connecticut, preparing for the march +that is to cleave the Confederacy in twain. [Cheers for General +Sherman.] And there is the silent man, eight generations removed from +Matthew Grant (who landed at Dorchester in 1630), destined to make the +continent secure for liberty and to inaugurate the New South, dating +from Appomattox, with traditions of freedom, teeming with a prosperity +rivalling that of New England, a prosperity begotten of the marriage of +labor and intelligence. [Continued applause.]</p> + +<p>In times somewhat more recent, when a political campaign was under full +headway, and when politicians were husbanding truth with their wonted +frugality and dispensing fiction with their habitual lavishness, there +sprung up a man removed by only two generations from the Lows of Salem, +who, in the resources of a mind capable of such things, devised what he +was pleased to call "Sunday-school politics"; who has had the further +hardihood to be made president of the college which is the glory of your +metropolis, designing, no doubt, to infuse into the mind of the tender +youth of the New Amsterdam his baleful idea, which, so far as I can make +out, has as its essence the conduct of political affairs on the basis of +the Decalogue.</p> + +<p>The campaign over, when the victors are rolling up their sleeves and are +preparing to dispense the spoils according to the hunger and thirst of +their retainers, to their amazed horror there is heard the voice of a +native of Rhode Island, who has conceived a scheme almost too monstrous +for mention, which he designates "Civil Service Reform," and who with +characteristic effrontery has got up a society, of which he is +president, for the purpose of diffusing his blood-curdling sentiments. +Do we need to look further for a reply to the question, "Why are the New +Englanders unpopular?" Almost any man is unpopular who goes around with +his pockets full of moral dynamite. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But perhaps I have not yet reached the most essential cause of the +odium. Men will forgive a man almost anything if he only fails; but we, +alas! have committed the crime of success. [Laughter and applause.] It +makes people angry when they see New England prospering, influential, +the banker of the country, leading public sentiment, shaping +legislation. Men would not mind so much if this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1208" id="Page_1208">[Pg 1208]</a></span> success were attained +by a happy accident, or were the result of a favoring fortune; but it is +aggravating to see the New Englanders, to whom Providence has given +nothing but rocks and ice and weather—a great deal of it—and a +thermometer [laughter], yet mining gold in Colorado, chasing the walrus +off the Aleutian Islands, building railroads in Dakota, and covering +half the continent with insurance, and underlying it with a mortgage. +Success is the one unpardonable crime. [Renewed laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>It is true, when a man has so far acknowledged his participation in the +common frailty as to die, then men begin to condone his faults; and by +the time he is dead one or two hundred years they find him quite +tolerable. An eminent ecclesiastic in the Anglican Church recently +pronounced the greatest of the Puritans, Oliver Cromwell, "the most +righteous ruler England ever had." A man who is dead is out of the way. +We live in the home which he built, and are not disturbed by the chips +and sawdust and noise, and perhaps the casualties and mistakes, which +attended its building. I will offer a definition (without charge) to the +editors of the magnificent "Century Dictionary": "Saint—a man with +convictions, who has been dead a hundred years; canonized now, +cannonaded then." [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>We are building monuments now to the Abolitionists. It is quite possible +that when a hundred winters shall have shed their snows upon the lonely +grave at North Elba, the Old Dominion will take pride in the fact that +she for a little while gave a home to the latest—I trust not the +last—of the Puritans; and the traveller, in 1959, as he goes through +Harper's Ferry, may see upon the site of the old engine-house, looking +out upon the regenerate Commonwealth, cunningly graven in bronze, copied +perhaps from the bust in your own Union League, the undaunted features +of John Brown. [Applause.] And the South that is to be, standing +uncovered beside the grave of the Union soldier, will say: "It was for +us, too, that he died," and will render beside the tomb in the capital +city of Illinois a reverence akin to that which she pays amid the shades +of Mount Vernon. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>The Czar of to-day honors the memory of John Howard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1209" id="Page_1209">[Pg 1209]</a></span> (who died a hundred +years ago next January), and offers 15,000 roubles for an essay on his +life; but when George Kennan, following in the steps of Howard, draws +back the curtain and shows the shuddering horrors in the prisons of +Siberia, the Czar would willingly offer much more than 15,000 roubles +for a successful essay upon his life. John Howard sleeps in innocuous +silence at Kherson; George Kennan speaks through the everywhere-present +press to the court of last appeal, the civilized world. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>There was not much money, there was not much popularity then, in being a +Puritan, in being a Pilgrim; there is not much profit, there is not much +applause, in being to-day a son of the Puritans, in standing as they did +for great ideas and convictions, for liberty and righteousness, in +holding the same relation to our age that they held to theirs. But let +us be satisfied if, through unpopularity and loneliness and obloquy, we +shall have done our duty as they did theirs, and let us hope that when +another hundred years have passed, and when the ideal of to-day has +become the commonplace of to-morrow, another generation may write over +your grave and mine, "A Son of the Puritans."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1210" id="Page_1210">[Pg 1210]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DANIEL WEBSTER</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Daniel Webster at the dinner of the New England Society +in the City of New York, December 23, 1850. The early published +form of this address is very rare. It bears the following +title-page: "Speech of Mr. Webster at the Celebration of the New +York New England Society, December 23, 1850. Washington: printed by +Gideon & Co., 1851." The presiding officer of the celebration, +Moses H. Grinnell, asked attention of the company to a toast not on +the catalogue. He gave, "The Constitution and the Union, and their +Chief Defender." This sentiment was received with great applause, +which became most tumultuous when Mr. Webster rose to respond.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the New York New England +Society</span>:—Ye sons of New England! Ye brethren of the kindred tie! I +have come hither to-night, not without some inconvenience, that I might +behold a congregation whose faces bear lineaments of a New England +origin, and whose hearts beat with full New England pulsations. +[Cheers.] I willingly make the sacrifice. I am here, to meet this +assembly of the great off-shoot of the Pilgrim Society of Massachusetts, +the Pilgrim Society of New York. And, gentlemen, I shall begin what I +have to say, which is but little, by tendering to you my thanks for the +invitation extended to me, and by wishing you, one and all, every kind +of happiness and prosperity.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, this has been a stormy, a cold, a boisterous and inclement +day. The winds have been harsh, the skies have been severe; and if we +had no houses over our heads; if we had no shelter against this howling +and freezing tempest; if we were wan and worn out; if half of us were +sick and tired, and ready to descend into the grave; if we were on the +bleak coast of Plymouth, houseless, homeless, with nothing over our +heads but the Heavens, and that God who sits above the Heavens; if we +had distressed wives on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1211" id="Page_1211">[Pg 1211]</a></span>our arms, and hungry and shivering children +clinging to our skirts, we should see something, and feel something, of +that scene, which, in the providence of God, was enacted at Plymouth on +December 22, 1620.<br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="nationalmon" id="nationalmon"></a></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p class='center'><i>THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS</i></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img1210.jpg" alt="THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS" title="THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS" /></div> +<p class='center'><i>Photogravure after a photograph</i></p> + +<p>The corner-stone of the National Monument to the Forefathers at +Plymouth, Mass., was laid August 2, 1859. The monument was +completed in October, 1888, and dedicated with appropriate +ceremonies, August 1, 1889. It is built entirely of granite. The +plan of the principal pedestal is octagonal, with four small, and +four large faces; from the small faces project four buttresses. On +the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of Faith, said to be the +largest and finest piece of granite statuary in the world. The +sculptor was Joseph Archie, a Spaniard. Upon the four buttresses +are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the +Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth—Morality, Education, Law, and +Freedom. Each was wrought from a solid block of granite. On the +face of the buttresses, beneath these figures are alto-reliefs in +marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim history. Upon the four +faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. The right +and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the +Mayflower. The rear panel is plain, being reserved for an +inscription at some future day. The front panel is inscribed as +follows: "National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a +grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and +sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty."<br /><br /></p></div> + + +<p>Thanks to Almighty God, who from that distressed, early condition of our +fathers, has raised us to a height of prosperity and of happiness, which +they neither enjoyed, nor could have anticipated! We have learned much +of them; they could have foreseen little of us. Would to God, my +friends, would to God, that when we carry our affections and our +recollections back to that period, we could arm ourselves with something +of the stern virtues which supported them, in that hour of peril, and +exposure, and suffering. Would to God that we possessed that +unconquerable resolution, stronger than bars of brass or iron, which +nerved their hearts; that patience, "sovereign o'er transmuted ill," +and, above all, that faith, that religious faith, which, with eyes fast +fixed upon Heaven, tramples all things earthly beneath her triumphant +feet! [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, the scenes of this world change. What our ancestors saw and +felt, we shall not see nor feel. What they achieved, it is denied to us +even to attempt. The severer duties of life, requiring the exercise of +the stern and unbending virtues, were theirs. They were called upon for +the exhibition of those austere qualities, which, before they came to +the Western wilderness, had made them what they were. Things have +changed. In the progress of society, the fashions, the habits of life, +and all its conditions, have changed. Their rigid sentiments, and their +tenets, apparently harsh and exclusive, we are not called on, in every +respect, to imitate or commend; or rather to imitate, for we should +commend them always, when we consider that state of society in which +they had been adopted, and in which they seemed necessary. Our fathers +had that religious sentiment, that trust in Providence, that +determination to do right, and to seek, through every degree of toil and +suffering, the honor of God, and the preservation of their liberties, +which we shall do well to cherish, to imitate, and to equal, so far as +God may enable us. It may be true, and it is true, that in the progress +of society the milder virtues have come to belong more especially to our +day and our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1212" id="Page_1212">[Pg 1212]</a></span> condition. The Pilgrims had been great sufferers from +intolerance; it was not unnatural that their own faith and practice, as +a consequence, should become somewhat intolerant. This is the common +infirmity of human nature. Man retaliates on man. It is to be hoped, +however, that the greater spread of the benignant principles of +religion, and of the divine charity of Christianity, has, to some +extent, improved the sentiments which prevailed in the world at that +time. No doubt the "first comers," as they were called, were attached to +their own forms of public worship and to their own particular and +strongly cherished religious sentiments. No doubt they esteemed those +sentiments, and the observances which they practised, to be absolutely +binding on all, by the authority of the word of God. It is true, I +think, in the general advancement of human intelligence, that we find +what they do not seem to have found, that a greater toleration of +religious opinion, a more friendly feeling toward all who profess +reverence for God, and obedience to His commands, is not inconsistent +with the great and fundamental principles of religion—I might rather +say is, itself, one of those fundamental principles. So we see in our +day, I think, without any departure from the essential principles of our +fathers, a more enlarged and comprehensive Christian philanthropy. It +seems to be the American destiny, the mission which God has intrusted to +us here on this shore of the Atlantic, the great conception and the +great duty to which we are born, to show that all sects, and all +denominations, professing reverence for the authority of the Author of +our being, and belief in His Revelations, may be safely tolerated +without prejudice either to our religion or to our liberties. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>We are Protestants, generally speaking; but you all know that there +presides at the head of the Supreme Judicature of the United States a +Roman Catholic; and no man, I suppose, through the whole United States, +imagines that the judicature of the country is less safe, that the +administration of public justice is less respectable or less secure, +because the Chief Justice of the United States has been, and is, an +ardent adherent to that religion. And so it is in every department of +society amongst us. In both Houses of Congress, in all public offices, +and all public affairs, we proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1213" id="Page_1213">[Pg 1213]</a></span> on the idea that a man's religious +belief is a matter above human law; that it is a question to be settled +between him and his Maker, because he is responsible to none but his +Maker for adopting or rejecting revealed truth. And here is the great +distinction which is sometimes overlooked, and which I am afraid is now +too often overlooked, in this land, the glorious inheritance of the sons +of the Pilgrims. Men, for their religious sentiments, are accountable to +God, and to God only. Religion is both a communication and a tie between +man and his Maker; and to his own master every man standeth or falleth. +But when men come together in society, establish social relations, and +form governments for the protection of the rights of all, then it is +indispensable that this right of private judgment should in some measure +be relinquished and made subservient to the judgment of the whole. +Religion may exist while every man is left responsible only to God. +Society, civil rule, the civil state, cannot exist, while every man is +responsible to nobody and to nothing but to his own opinion. And our New +England ancestors understood all this quite well. Gentlemen, there is +the "Constitution" which was adopted on board the Mayflower in November, +1620, while that bark of immortal memory was riding at anchor in the +harbor of Cape Cod. What is it? Its authors honored God; they professed +to obey all His commandments, and to live ever and in all things in His +obedience. But they say, nevertheless, that for the establishment of a +civil polity, for the greater security and preservation of their civil +rights and liberties, they agree that the laws and ordinances, and I am +glad they put in the word "constitutions," invoking the name of the +Deity on their resolution; they say, that these laws and ordinances, and +constitutions, which may be established by those they should appoint to +enact them, they, in all due submission and obedience, will support.</p> + +<p>This constitution is not long. I will read it. It invokes a religious +sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations; for it was +no doctrine of theirs that civil obedience was a mere matter of +expediency. Here it is:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the name of God, Amen: We whose names are underwritten, the +loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the +Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, and +De<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1214" id="Page_1214">[Pg 1214]</a></span>fender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of +God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King +and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the heathen +parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in +the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine +ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better +ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, +and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and +equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time +to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the +general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due +submission and obedience."</p></div> + +<p>The right of private judgment in matters between the Creator and +himself, and submission and obedience to the will of the whole, upon +whatsoever respects civil polity and the administration of such affairs +as concerned the colony about to be established, they regarded as +entirely consistent; and the common sense of mankind, lettered and +unlettered, everywhere establishes and confirms this sentiment. Indeed, +all must see, that it is the very ligament, the very tie, which connects +man to man, in the social system; and these sentiments are embodied in +that constitution. Gentlemen, discourse on this topic might be enlarged, +but I pass from it.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, we are now two hundred and thirty years from that great +event. There is the Mayflower [pointing to a small figure of a ship, in +the form of confectionery, that stood before him]. There is a little +resemblance, but a correct one, of the Mayflower. Sons of New England! +there was in ancient times a ship that carried Jason to the acquisition +of the Golden Fleece. There was a flag-ship at the battle of Actium +which made Augustus Cæsar master of the world. In modern times, there +have been flag-ships which have carried Hawkes, and Howe, and Nelson on +the other continent, and Hull, and Decatur, and Stewart, on this, to +triumph. What are they all; what are they all, in the chance of +remembrance among men, to that little bark, the Mayflower, which reached +these shores on December 22, 1620. Yes, brethren of New England, yes! +that Mayflower was a flower destined to be of perpetual bloom! [Cheers.] +Its verdure will stand the sultry blasts of summer, and the chilling +winds of autumn. It will defy winter; it will defy all climate, and all +time, and will continue to spread its petals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1215" id="Page_1215">[Pg 1215]</a></span> to the world, and to +exhale an ever-living odor and fragrance to the last syllable of +recorded time. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, brethren, ye of New England! whom I have come some hundreds +of miles to meet this night, let me present to you one of the most +distinguished of those personages who came hither on the deck of the +Mayflower. Let me fancy that I now see Elder William Brewster entering +the door at the further end of this hall. A tall and erect figure, of +plain dress, of no elegance of manner beyond a respectful bow, mild and +cheerful, but of no merriment that reaches beyond a smile. Let me +suppose that his image stood now before us, or that it was looking in +upon this assembly.</p> + +<p>"Are ye, are ye," he would say, with a voice of exultation, and yet +softened with melancholy, "Are ye our children? Does this scene of +refinement, of elegance, of riches, of luxury, does all this come from +our labors? Is this magnificent city, the like of which we never saw nor +heard of on either continent, is this but an offshoot from Plymouth +Rock?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'... Quis jam locus ...</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"Is this one part of the great reward, for which my brethren and myself +endured lives of toil and of hardship? We had faith and hope. God +granted us the spirit to look forward, and we did look forward. But this +scene we never anticipated. Our hopes were on another life. Of earthly +gratifications we tasted little; for human honors we had little +expectation. Our bones lie on the hill in Plymouth churchyard, obscure, +unmarked, secreted to preserve our graves from the knowledge of savage +foes. No stone tells where we lie. And yet, let me say to you, who are +our descendants, who possess this glorious country, and all it contains, +who enjoy this hour of prosperity, and the thousand blessings showered +upon it by the God of your fathers, we envy you not; we reproach you +not. Be rich, be prosperous, be enlightened. Live in pleasure, if such +be your allotment on earth; but live, also, always to God and to duty. +Spread yourselves and your children over the continent; accomplish the +whole of your great destiny; and if so be, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1216" id="Page_1216">[Pg 1216]</a></span> through the whole you +carry Puritan hearts with you; if you still cherish an undying love of +civil and religious liberty, and mean to enjoy them yourselves, and are +willing to shed your heart's blood to transmit them to your posterity, +then are you worthy descendants of Carver and Allerton and Bradford, and +the rest of those who landed from stormy seas on the rock of Plymouth." +[Loud and prolonged cheers.]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, that little vessel, on December 22, 1620, made her safe +landing on the shore of Plymouth. She had been tossed on a tempestuous +ocean; she approached the New England coast under circumstances of great +distress and trouble; yet amidst all the disasters of her voyage, she +accomplished her end, and she placed the feet of a hundred precious +souls on the shore of the New World.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, let her be considered this night as an emblem of New England, +as New England now is. New England is a ship, stanch, strong, +well-built, and particularly well-manned. She may be occasionally thrown +into the trough of the sea, by the violence of winds and waves, and may +wallow there for a time; but, depend upon it, she will right herself. +She will, ere long, come round to the wind, and will obey her helm. +[Cheers and applause.]</p> + +<p>We have hardly begun, my brethren, to realize the vast importance, on +human society, and on the history and happiness of the world, of the +voyage of that little vessel which brought the love of civil and +religious liberty hither, and the Bible, the Word of God, for the +instruction of the future generations of men. We have hardly begun to +realize the consequences of that voyage. Heretofore the extension of our +race, following our New England ancestry, has crept along the shore. But +now the race has extended. It has crossed the continent. It has not only +transcended the Alleghany, but has capped the Rocky Mountains. It is now +upon the shores of the Pacific; and on this day, or if not on this day, +then this day twelvemonth, descendants of New England will there +celebrate the landing—[A Voice: "To-day; they celebrate to-day."]</p> + +<p>God bless them! Here's to the health and success of the California +Society of Pilgrims assembled on the shores of the Pacific. [Prolonged +applause.] And it shall yet go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1217" id="Page_1217">[Pg 1217]</a></span> hard, if the three hundred millions of +people of China—if they are intelligent enough to understand +anything—shall not one day hear and know something of the Rock of +Plymouth too! [Laughter and cheers.]</p> + +<p>But, gentlemen, I am trespassing too long on your time. [Cries of "No, +no! Go on!"] I am taking too much of what belongs to others. My voice is +neither a new voice, nor is it the voice of a young man. It has been +heard before in this place, and the most that I have thought or felt +concerning New England history and New England principles, has been +before, in the course of my life, said here or elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Your sentiment, Mr. President, which called me up before this meeting, +is of a larger and more comprehensive nature. It speaks of the +Constitution under which we live; of the Union, which for sixty years +has been over us, and made us associates, fellow-citizens of those who +settled at Yorktown and the mouth of the Mississippi and their +descendants, and now, at last, of those who have come from all corners +of the earth and assembled in California. I confess I have had my doubts +whether the republican system under which we live could be so vastly +extended without danger of dissolution. Thus far, I willingly admit, my +apprehensions have not been realized. The distance is immense; the +intervening country is vast. But the principle on which our Government +is established, the representative system, seems to be indefinitely +expansive; and wherever it does extend, it seems to create a strong +attachment to the Union and the Constitution that protects it. I believe +California and New Mexico have had new life inspired into all their +people. They consider themselves subjects of a new being, a new +creation, a new existence. They are not the men they thought themselves +to be, now that they find they are members of this great Government, and +hailed as citizens of the United States of America. I hope, in the +providence of God, as this system of States and representative +governments shall extend, that it will be strengthened. In some respects +the tendency is to strengthen it. Local agitations will disturb it less. +If there has been on the Atlantic coast, somewhere south of the +Potomac—and I will not define further where it is—if there has been +dissatisfaction, that dissatisfaction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1218" id="Page_1218">[Pg 1218]</a></span> has not been felt in California; +it has not been felt that side the Rocky Mountains. It is a localism, +and I am one of those who believe that our system of government is not +to be destroyed by localisms, North or South! [Cheers.] No; we have our +private opinions, State prejudices, local ideas; but over all, +submerging all, drowning all, is that great sentiment, that always, and +nevertheless, we are all Americans. It is as Americans that we are +known, the whole world over. Who asks what State you are from, in +Europe, or in Africa, or in Asia? Is he an American—is he of us? Does +he belong to the flag of the country? Does that flag protect him? Does +he rest under the eagle and the Stars and Stripes? If he does, if he is, +all else is subordinate and worthy of little concern. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Now it is our duty, while we live on the earth, to cherish this +sentiment, to make it prevail over the whole country, even if that +country should spread over the whole continent. It is our duty to carry +English principles—I mean, sir [said Mr. Webster turning to Sir Henry +Bulwer], Anglo-Saxon American principles, over the whole continent—the +great principles of Magna Charta, of the English revolution, and +especially of the American Revolution, and of the English language. Our +children will hear Shakespeare and Milton recited on the shores of the +Pacific. Nay, before that, American ideas, which are essentially and +originally English ideas, will penetrate the Mexican—the Spanish mind; +and Mexicans and Spaniards will thank God that they have been brought to +know something of civil liberty, of the trial by jury, and of security +for personal rights.</p> + +<p>As for the rest, let us take courage. The day-spring from on high has +visited us; the country has been called back, to conscience and to duty. +There is no longer imminent danger of dissolution in these United +States. [Loud and repeated cheers.] We shall live, and not die. We shall +live as united Americans; and those who have supposed that they could +sever us, that they could rend one American heart from another, and that +speculation and hypothesis, that secession and metaphysics, could tear +us asunder, will find themselves dreadfully mistaken. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Let the mind of the sober American people remain sober. Let it not +inflame itself. Let it do justice to all. And the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1219" id="Page_1219">[Pg 1219]</a></span> truest course, and +the surest course, to disappoint those who meditate disunion, is just to +leave them to themselves, and see what they can make of it. No, +gentlemen; the time for meditated secession is past. Americans, North +and South, will be hereafter more and more united. There is a sternness +and severity in the public mind lately aroused. I believe that, North +and South, there has been, in the last year, a renovation of public +sentiment, an animated revival of the spirit of Union, and, more than +all, of attachment to the Constitution, regarding it as indispensably +necessary; and if we would preserve our nationality, it is indispensable +that the spirit of devotion should be still more largely increased. And +who doubts it? If we give up that Constitution, what are we? You are a +Manhattan man; I am a Boston man. Another is a Connecticut, and another +a Rhode Island man. Is it not a great deal better, standing hand to +hand, and clasping hands, that we should remain as we have been for +sixty years—citizens of the same country, members of the same +Government, united all—united now and united forever? That we shall be, +gentlemen. There have been difficulties, contentions, controversies—angry +controversies; but I tell you that, in my judgment,—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"those opposed eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All of one nature, of one substance bred,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did lately meet in th' intestine shock,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">March all one way."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[Mr. Webster, on closing, was greeted with the most hearty, prolonged, +and tumultuous applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1220" id="Page_1220">[Pg 1220]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOSEPH WHEELER</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE AMERICAN SOLDIER</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Joseph Wheeler prepared for the tenth annual banquet of +the Confederate Veteran Camp of New York, New York City, January +19, 1898. Edward Owen, Commander of the Camp, presided. As General +Wheeler was ill and unable to attend the banquet, his speech was +read by J. E. Graybill.]</p></div> + + +<p>History has many heroes whose martial renown has fired the world, whose +daring and wonderful exploits have altered the boundaries of nations and +changed the very face of the earth. To say nothing of the warriors of +biblical history and Homeric verse, as the ages march along every great +nation leaves us the glorious memory of some unique character, such as +Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar. Even the wild hordes of northern Europe and +the barbaric nations of the East had their grand military leaders whose +names will ever live on history's pages, to be eclipsed only by that of +Napoleon, the man of destiny, who, as a military genius, stands alone +and unrivalled: "Grand, gloomy, peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a +sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality."</p> + +<p>The mediæval ages gave us noble examples of devotedness and chivalry; +but it belonged to the American Republic, founded and defended by +Freedom's sons, to give to the world the noblest type of warrior; men in +whom martial renown went hand in hand with the noblest of virtues, men +who united in their own characters the highest military genius with the +loftiest patriotism, the most daring courage with the gentlest courtesy, +the most obstinate endurance with the utmost self-sacrifice, the genius +of a Cæsar with the courage and purity of a Bayard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1221" id="Page_1221">[Pg 1221]</a></span></p> + +<p>Patriotism and love of liberty, the most ennobling motives that can fire +the heart of man, expanding and thriving in the atmosphere of free +America, added a refining touch to the martial enthusiasm of our +forefathers and elevated the character of the American soldier to a +standard never attained by fighting men of any other age or nation.</p> + +<p>To recall their names and recount their deeds would lead me far beyond +the time and space allotted. Volumes would never do justice to the +valorous achievements of George Washington and his compeers, the boys of +'76—of the heroes of 1812 and of 1848; of the men in blue who fought +under Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Farragut; of the men in gray +who followed the lead of Johnston, Jackson, and Lee from 1861 to 1865; +of the intrepid band that sailed with Dewey into Manila Bay, or of the +small but heroic army of 1898 that fought at Las Guasimas, El Caney, and +San Juan, and left the Stars and Stripes floating in triumph over the +last stronghold of Spain in the New World.</p> + +<p>But above the grand heroic names immortalized by historian and poet +shines with an undimmed lustre, all its own, the immortal name of Robert +Edmund Lee.—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Ah, Muse! You dare not claim</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A nobler man than he—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor nobler man hath less of blame,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor blameless man hath purer name,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor purer name hath grander fame,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nor fame—another Lee."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The late Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, in an address delivered at the +time of General Lee's death, thus beautifully describes his character: +"He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier +without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without +murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen +without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without +hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was Cæsar without his ambition; +Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and +Washington without his reward. He was as obedient to authority as a +servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman +in life, and modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1222" id="Page_1222">[Pg 1222]</a></span>ful as a +Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle +as Achilles!"</p> + +<p>Forty-four years ago last June, I found myself in the presence of +Colonel Lee, who was then Superintendent of the Military Academy at West +Point. I have never in all my life seen another form or face which so +impressed me, as embodying dignity, modesty, kindness, and all the +characteristics which indicate purity and nobility. While he was then +only a captain and brevet-colonel, he was so highly regarded by the Army +that it was generally conceded that he was the proper officer to succeed +General Scott.</p> + +<p>His wonderful career as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia, as its +commander, is so familiar to all of you that any comment would seem to +be unnecessary. But to give some of the younger generation an idea of +the magnitude of the struggle in which General Lee was the central and +leading figure, I will call attention to the fact that in the battles of +the Wilderness and Spottsylvania (which really should be called one +battle), the killed and wounded in General Grant's army by the army +under General Lee, was far greater than the aggregate killed and wounded +in all the battles of all the wars fought by the English-speaking people +on this continent since the discovery of America by Columbus.</p> + +<p>To be more explicit: take the killed and wounded in all the battles of +the French and Indian War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the +Revolutionary War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the War of +1812, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the Mexican War, take the +aggregate killed and wounded in all our wars with the Indians, and they +amount to less than the killed and wounded in Grant's army in the +struggle from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania.</p> + +<p>In order further to appreciate the magnitude of the struggle, let us +make a comparison between the losses in some of the great battles of our +Civil War, and those of some of the most famous battles of modern +Europe. The official reports give the following as the losses in killed +and wounded of the Federal Army in seven, out of nearly a thousand +severely contested struggles during the four years' of war: Seven Days +fight, 9,291; Antietam, 11,426; Murfreesboro,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1223" id="Page_1223">[Pg 1223]</a></span> 8,778; Gettysburg, +16,426; Chickamauga, 10,906; Wilderness and Spottsylvania, 24,481.</p> + +<p>In the Battle of Marengo, the French lost in killed and wounded, 4,700, +the Austrians, 6,475. In the Battle of Hohenlinden, the French loss in +killed and wounded was 2,200, the Austrian loss was 5,000; at Austerlitz +the French loss was 9,000; at Waterloo, Wellington lost 9,061 in killed +and wounded, Blucher lost 5,613, making the total loss of the Allies, +14,674.</p> + +<p>I mention these facts because such sanguinary conflicts as those of our +Civil War could only have occurred when the soldiers of both contending +armies were men of superb determination and courage. Such unquestioned +prowess as this should be gratifying to all Americans, showing to the +world as they did that the intrepid fortitude and courage of Americans +have excelled that of any other people upon the earth. And as the world +will extol the exhibition of these qualities by the soldiers that fought +under Grant, the historian will find words inadequate to express his +admiration of the superb heroism of the soldiers led by the intrepid +Lee. Meeting a thoroughly organized, and trebly equipped and appointed +army, they successfully grappled in deadly conflict with these +tremendous odds, while civilization viewed with amazement this climax of +unparalleled and unequal chivalry, surpassing in grandeur of action +anything heretofore portrayed either in story or in song. Whence came +these qualities? They were the product of Southern chivalry, which two +centuries had finally perfected. A chivalry which esteemed stainless +honor as a priceless gem, and a knighthood which sought combat for +honor's sake, generously yielding to an antagonist all possible +advantage; the chivalry which taught Southern youth to esteem life as +nothing when honor was at stake, a chivalry which taught that the +highest, noblest, and most exalted privilege of man was the defence of +woman, family, and country. It was this Southern chivalry that formed +such men as Lee and Stonewall Jackson; they were the central leading +figures, but they were only prototypes of the soldiers whom they led.</p> + +<p>It is this character of men who meet in banquet to-night to honor the +name they revere and the noble life they seek to emulate. I say, God +bless you all, the whole world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1224" id="Page_1224">[Pg 1224]</a></span> breathes blessings upon you. Among the +foremost in these sentiments are the brave soldiers against whom you +were once arrayed in battle, and they, together with seventy million +Americans know that in future perils to our country, you and your +children will be foremost in the battle-line of duty, proud of the +privilege of defending the glory, honor, and prestige of our country, +presenting under the folds of our national ensign an unbroken phalanx of +united hearts—an impregnable bulwark of defence against any power that +may arise against us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1225" id="Page_1225">[Pg 1225]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE</h2> + + + + +<h4>CHINA EMERGING FROM HER ISOLATION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the banquet given by the City of +Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his +associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to +the United States and the European powers. Mr. Whipple responded to +the toast, "The Press."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Mayor</span>:—One cannot attempt to respond here for the Press, +without being reminded that the Press and the Chinese Embassy have been +on singularly good terms from the start. To record the progress, applaud +the object, extend the influence, and cordially eulogize the members of +that Embassy, have been for months no inconsiderable part of the +business of all newspapers; and if China anticipated us, by some five +hundred years, in the invention of printing, our Chinese guests will +still admit that, in the minute account we have given both of what they +have, and of what they have not, said and done, since they arrived in +the country, we have carried the invention to a perfection of which they +never dreamed—having not only invented printing, but invented a great +deal of what we print.</p> + +<p>But, apart from the rich material they have furnished the press in the +way of news, there is something strangely alluring and inspiring to the +editorial imagination in the comprehensive purpose which has prompted +their mission to the civilized nations of the West. That purpose is +doubly peaceful, for it includes a two-fold commerce of material +products and of immaterial ideas. Probably the vastest conception which +ever entered into the mind of a conqueror was that which was profoundly +meditated, and, in its initial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1226" id="Page_1226">[Pg 1226]</a></span> steps, practically carried out, by +Alexander the Great. He was engaged in a clearly defined project of +assimilating the populations of Europe and Asia, when, at the early age +of thirty-three, he was killed—I tremble to state it here—by a too +eager indulgence in an altogether too munificent public dinner! +Alexander's weapon was force, but it was at least the force of genius, +and it was exerted in the service of a magnificent idea. His successors +in modern times have but too often availed themselves of force divested +of all ideas, except the idea of bullying or outwitting the Asiatics in +a trade.</p> + +<p>As to China, this conduct aroused an insurrection of Chinese conceit +against European conceit. The Chinese were guilty of the offence of +calling the representatives of the proudest and most supercilious of all +civilizations, "outside barbarians"; illustrating in this that too +common conservative weakness of human nature, of holding fixedly to an +opinion long after the facts which justified it have changed or passed +away. It certainly cannot be questioned that at a period which, when +compared with the long date of Chinese annals, may be called recent, we +were outside barbarians as contrasted with that highly civilized and +ingenious people. At the time when our European ancestors were squalid, +swinish, wolfish savages, digging with their hands into the earth for +roots to allay the pangs of hunger, without arts, letters, or written +speech, China rejoiced in an old, refined, complicated civilization; was +rich, populous, enlightened, cultivated, humane; was fertile in savants, +poets, moralists, metaphysicians, saints; had invented printing, +gunpowder, the mariner's compass, the Sage's Rule of Life; had, in one +of her three State religions—that of Confucius—presented a code of +morals never become obsolete; and had, in another of her State +religions—that of Buddha—solemnly professed her allegiance to that +equality of men, which Buddha taught twenty-four hundred years before +our Jefferson was born, and had at the same time vigorously grappled +with that problem of existence which our Emerson finds as insolvable now +as it was then.</p> + +<p>Well, sir, after all this had relatively changed, after the Western +nations had made their marvellous advances in civilization, they were +too apt to exhibit to China only their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1227" id="Page_1227">[Pg 1227]</a></span> barbaric side—that is, their +ravenous cupidity backed by their insolent strength. We judge, for +example, of England by the poetry of Shakespeare, the science of Newton, +the ethics of Butler, the religion of Taylor, the philanthropy of +Wilberforce; but what poetry, science, ethics, religion, or philanthropy +was she accustomed to show in her intercourse with China? Did not John +Bull, in his rough methods with the Celestial Empire, sometimes +literally act "like a bull in a China shop"? You remember, sir, that +"intelligent contraband" who, when asked his opinion of an offending +white brother, delicately hinted his distrust by replying: "Sar, if I +was a chicken, and that man was about, I should take care to roost +high." Well, all that we can say of China is, that for a long time she +"roosted high"—withdrew suspiciously into her own civilization to +escape the rough contact with the harsher side of ours.</p> + +<p>But, by a sudden inspiration of almost miraculous confidence, springing +from a faith in the nobler qualities of our Caucasian civilization, she +has changed her policy. She has learned that in the language, and on the +lips, and in the hearts of most members of the English race, there is +such a word as equity, and at the magic of that word she has nearly +emerged from her isolation. And, sir, what we see here to-day reminds me +that, some thirty years ago, Boston confined one of her citizens in a +lunatic asylum, for the offence of being possessed by a too intensified +Boston "notion." He had discovered a new and expeditious way of getting +to China. "All agree," he said, "that the earth revolves daily on its +own axis. If you desire," he therefore contended, "to go to China, all +you have to do is to go up in a balloon, wait till China comes round, +then let off the gas, and drop softly down." Now I will put it to you, +Mr. Mayor, if you are not bound to release that philosopher from +confinement, for has not his conception been realized?—has not China, +to-day, unmistakably come round to us?</p> + +<p>And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gentleman at the head of +the Embassy—a gentleman specially dear to the Press. Judging from the +eagerness with which the position is sought, I am led to believe that +the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a human being is, that he +has once represented Boston in the National House of Repre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1228" id="Page_1228">[Pg 1228]</a></span>sentatives. +After such a distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great, +must still show a sensible decline from political grace. But I trust +that you will all admit, that next to the honor of representing Boston +in the House of Representatives comes the honor of representing the vast +Empire of China in "The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." +Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr. Burlingame may be better qualified +than we are to discriminate between the exultant feelings which each is +calculated to excite in the human breast. But we must remember that the +population, all brought up on a system of universal education, of the +Empire he represents, is greater than the combined population of all the +nations to which he is accredited. Most Bostonians have, or think they +have, a "mission"; but certainly no other Bostonian ever had such a +"mission" as he; for it extends all round the planet, makes him the most +universal Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever saw; +is, in fact, a "mission" from everybody to everybody, and one by which +it is proposed that everybody shall be benefited. To doubt its success +would be to doubt the moral soundness of Christian civilization. It +implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents provided that +Christian nations set a decent example of Christianity. Its virtues +herald the peaceful triumph of reason over prejudice, of justice over +force, of humanity over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of +all over the selfish blindness of each, of the "fraternity" of the great +Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent "liberty" of any of them to +despise, oppress, and rob the rest.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1229" id="Page_1229">[Pg 1229]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>THE SPHERE OF WOMAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the "Ladies' Night" banquet of the +Papyrus Club, Boston, February 15, 1879, in response to a toast in +his honor as "one whose gentle mind, delicate fancy, keen wit, and +profound judgment have made for him a high and secure place among +American authors."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman</span>:—I suppose that one of the most characteristic +follies of young men, unmarried, or in the opinion of prudent mammas, +unmarriageable, is, when they arrive at the age of indiscretion, to +dogmatize on what they call the appropriate sphere of woman. You +remember the thundering retort which came, like a box on the ears, to +one of these philosophers, when he was wisely discoursing vaguely on his +favorite theme. "And pray, my young sir," asked a stern matron of forty, +"will you please to tell us what is the appropriate sphere of woman?" +Thus confronted, he only babbled in reply, "A celestial sphere, madam!" +But the force of this compliment is now abated; for the persons who +above all others are dignified with the title of "Celestials" are the +Chinese; and these the Congress of the United States seems determined to +banish from our soil as unworthy—not only of the right of citizenship +and the right of suffrage, but the right of residing in our democratic +republic. Accordingly, we must find some more appropriate sphere for +women than the Celestial. Nobody, I take it, however bitterly he may be +opposed to what are called the rights of women, objects to their +residing in this country, or to their coming here in vast numbers. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>Do you remember to what circumstance Chicago owed its fame? When the +spot where a great city now looks out on Lake Michigan was the +habitation of a small number of men only, a steamboat was seen in the +distance, and the report was that it contained a cargo of women, who +were coming to the desolate place for the purpose of being married to +the forlorn men. Every bachelor hastened to the pier, with a telescope +in one hand and a speaking-trumpet in the other. By the aid of the +telescope each lover selected his mate, and by the aid of the +speaking-trumpet each lover made his proposals. In honor of the women +who made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1230" id="Page_1230">[Pg 1230]</a></span> venturesome voyage, the infant city was named "She-Cargo." +[Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>Therefore, there is no possibility of a doubt that there is no objection +to women as residents of this country. The only thing to be considered +is, whether or not they shall have the right of voting. I think nobody +present here this evening has conceit enough to suppose that he is more +competent to give an intelligent vote on any public question than the +intelligent ladies who have done the Club the honor to be present on +this occasion. The privilege of voting is simply an opportunity, by +which certain persons legally qualified are allowed to exercise power. +The formal power is so subdivided that each legally qualified person +exercises but little. But where meanwhile is the substance of power? +Certainly in the woman of the household as well as in the man. Indeed, I +recollect that when an objection was raised that to give the right of +suffrage to women would create endless quarrels between husband and +wife, a married woman curtly replied that the wives would see to it that +no such disturbance should really take place. [Applause.] And, as the +question now stands, I pity the man who is so fortunate to be married to +a noble woman, coming home to meet her reproachful glance, when he has +deposited in the ballot-box a vote for a measure which is base and for a +candidate who is equally base. Then, in his humiliation before that +rebuking eye, he must feel that in her is the substance of power, and in +him only the formal expression of power. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But we have the good fortune to-night to have at the table many women of +letters, who have in an eminent degree exercised the substance of power, +inasmuch as they have domesticated themselves at thousands of firesides +where their faces have never been seen. Their brain-children have been +welcomed and adopted by fathers and mothers, by brothers and sisters, as +members of the family; and their sayings and doings are quoted as though +they were "blood" relations. Two instances recur to my memory. In +lecturing in various portions of the country, I have often been a guest +in private houses. On one occasion I happened to mention Mrs. Whitney as +a lady I had often met; and, instantly, old and young crowded round, +pouring in a storm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1231" id="Page_1231">[Pg 1231]</a></span> of questions, demanding to know where the author of +"Faith Gartney" lived, how she looked, and was she so delightful in +society as she was in her books. On another occasion, my importance in a +large family was raised immensely when a chance remark indicated that I +numbered Miss Alcott among my friends. All the little men and all the +little women of the household, all the old men and all the old ladies, +rallied round me, in order that I might tell them all I knew of the +author of "Little Women" and "Little Men." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Now these are only two examples of the substance of power which +cultivated women already possess. That such women, and all women, can +obtain the formal power of voting at elections is, in the end, sure, if +they really wish to exercise that power; and that the power is withheld +from them is not due to the opposition of men, but is due to the fact +that they are not, by an overwhelming majority, in favor of it +themselves. When the champions of woman's rights get this majority on +their side, I have a profound pity for the men who venture to oppose it. +[Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1232" id="Page_1232">[Pg 1232]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ANDREW DICKSON WHITE</h2> + + + + +<h4>COMMERCE AND DIPLOMACY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Andrew D. White at the 111th annual dinner of the New +York Chamber of Commerce, May 13, 1879. The President of the +Chamber, Samuel D. Babcock, introduced Mr. White as follows: "The +next toast is 'Commerce and Diplomacy—twin guardians of the +world—Peace and Prosperity.' [Applause.] The gentleman who is to +respond to the toast is one who is about to represent our country +at the Court of Berlin. I am quite sure there is not a man present +who does not feel that a more creditable representative of the +people of the United States could not be sent abroad. [Applause.] I +hope, gentlemen, you will receive him with all the honors."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen</span>:—Speaking in this place and at this +time I am seriously embarrassed; for when charges have been made upon +the American people on account of municipal mismanagement in this city, +now happily past, we have constantly heard the statement made that +American institutions are not responsible for it; that New York is not +an American city. [Applause.] I must confess that when very hard pressed +I have myself taken refuge in this statement.</p> + +<p>But now it comes back to plague me, for on looking over the general +instructions furnished me by the State Department I find it laid down +that American Ministers on the way to their posts are strictly forbidden +to make speeches in any foreign city, save in the country to which they +are accredited. You will pardon me, then, if I proceed very slowly and +cautiously in discussing the sentiment allotted to me.</p> + +<p>No one, I think, will dispute the statement that commerce has become a +leading agency among men in the maintenance of peace. [Applause.] +Commercial interests have become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1233" id="Page_1233">[Pg 1233]</a></span> so vast that they embrace all the +world, and so minute that they permeate every hamlet of every nation. +War interferes with these interests and thwarts them. Hence commerce +more and more tends to make war difficult. [Applause.] As to the fact +then, involved in your toast, it needs no argument in its support. We +all concede it. Were we to erect a statue of Commerce in the midst of +this great commercial metropolis, we should doubtless place in her hand, +as an emblem, a ship-like shuttle and represent her as weaving a web +between the great nations of the earth tending every day to fasten them +more securely and more permanently in lasting peace. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Nor, I think, will the other part of the sentiment be disputed by any +thoughtful person. Of course much may be said upon the solemn nothings +which have occupied diplomatists; much historic truth may be adduced to +show that diplomats have often proved to be what Carlyle calls "solemnly +constituted impostors." But after all, I think no one can look over the +history of mankind without feeling that it was a vast step when four +centuries ago the great modern powers began to maintain resident +representatives at the centres of government; and from that day to this +these men have proved themselves, with all their weaknesses, worth far +more than all their cost in warding off or mitigating the horrors of +war, and in increasing the facilities of commerce. Not long since I made +a pilgrimage to that quaint town hall in that old German city of +Munster, where was signed the Treaty of Westphalia. There I saw the same +long table, the same old seats, where once sat the representatives of +the various powers who in 1648 made the treaty which not only ended the +Thirty Years' War, the most dreadful struggle of modern times—but which +has forever put an end to wars of religion.</p> + +<p>I have stood in the midst of grand cathedrals and solemn services, but +never have I sat in any room or in any presence with a greater feeling +of awe than in that old hall where the diplomatists of Europe signed +that world-renowned treaty so fruitful in blessing not only to Germany, +but to all mankind. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>We shall all doubtless concede then that on the whole it is best to have +a diplomatic body, that if it only once in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1234" id="Page_1234">[Pg 1234]</a></span> ten, or twenty, or one +hundred years, prevents serious misunderstanding between nations, it +will far more than repay its cost. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>But the point to which I wish to call your attention, in what little I +have to say this evening, is this: That this idea of the value of +commerce and diplomacy in maintaining peace has by no means always been +held as fully as now, nor are commerce and diplomacy and all they +represent at this moment out of danger. Two hundred years ago a really +great practical statesman in France [Colbert], by crude legislation in +behalf, as he thought, of manufactures and commerce, brought his country +into wars which at last led her to ruin. The history of the colonial +policy of England also is fruitful in mistaken legislation on +commercial, political, and social questions, which have produced the +most terrible evils. Indeed, in all nations we have constantly to lament +the short-sighted policies, ill-considered constitutions, crude +legislation, which have dealt fearful blows to the interests of +commerce, of diplomacy, of political and social life, and of peace.</p> + +<p>Nor has our own country been free from these; in our general government +and in all our forty legislatures, there are measures frequently +proposed striking at commercial interests, at financial interests, at +vested rights, to say nothing of great political and social interests, +which, though often thwarted by the common sense of the people, are +sometimes too successful. At this very moment the news comes to us that +a slight majority, led by arrant demagogues, have fastened upon the +great Empire State of the Pacific a crude, ill-digested constitution, +which while it doubtless contains some good features, embodies some of +the most primitive and pernicious notions regarding commerce and +manufactures and the whole political and social fabric of that +Commonwealth. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>So, too, in regard to diplomacy, there is constant danger and loss from +this same crudeness in political thinking. A year or two since, in the +Congress of the United States, efforts were put forth virtually to +cripple the diplomatic service; but what was far worse, to cripple the +whole Consular system of the United States. Although the Consular +service of our country more than pays for itself directly, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1235" id="Page_1235">[Pg 1235]</a></span> pays for +itself a thousand times over indirectly; although its labors are +constantly directed to increasing commerce, to finding new markets, to +sending home valuable information regarding foreign industries, to +enlarging the foreign field for our own manufactures, and, although the +question involved not only financial questions of the highest +importance, but the honor of the country, the matter was argued by many +of our legislators in a way which would have done discredit to a class +of college sophomores. I am glad to say that the best men of both +parties at Washington at last rallied against this monstrous legislation +and that among them were some representing both parties of the State and +City of New York. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The injury wrought upon this country in its national Legislature and in +its multitude of State Legislatures by want of knowledge is simply +enormous. No one who knows anything of the history of the legislation of +any State will dispute this for a moment. The question now arises, is +such a state of things necessarily connected with a Republican +government? To this I answer decidedly, no. The next question is, is +there any practical means of improving this state of things? To this I +answer decidedly, yes. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Here comes the practical matter to which I would call your attention. +Recently, in the presence of some of you, I spoke at length on the +necessity of training men in the institutions of higher learning in this +country for the highest duties of citizenship, and especially for +practical leadership. I cannot here go into details as I was able to do +in that paper, but I can at least say that if there is anything to which +a portion of the surplus wealth of men who have been enriched in +commerce and trade may well be devoted, it is to making provision in our +institutions of learning for meeting this lack of young men trained in +history, political and social science, and general jurisprudence—in +those studies which fit men to discuss properly and to lead their +fellow-citizens rightly in the discussion of the main questions relating +to commerce, to diplomacy, and to various political and social subjects. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>I fully believe that one million dollars distributed between four or +five of our great institutions of learning for this pur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1236" id="Page_1236">[Pg 1236]</a></span>pose would +eventually produce almost a revolution for good in this country, and +that in a very few years the effect of such endowments would be seen to +be most powerful and most salutary. Provision on the largest scale +should be made for the training of young men in political and social +science, in such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Columbia, +Princeton, Union, Johns Hopkins University, the State Universities of +Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Minnesota, and California, and I trust +that you will permit me to add, Cornell. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I do not pretend, of course, that this would supersede practical +training—no theoretical training can do this—but it would give young +men, at any rate, a knowledge of the best thoughts of the best thinkers, +on such subjects as taxation, representation, pauperism, crime, +insanity, and a multitude of similar questions; it would remove the +spectacle which so often afflicts us in our National and State +legislatures, of really strong men stumbling under loads of absurdity +and fallacy, long ago exploded by the best and most earnest thought of +the world, and it would teach young men to reason wisely and well on +such subjects, and then, with some practical experience, we should have +in every State a large number of well-trained men ready to reason +powerfully and justly, ready to meet at a moment's warning pernicious +heresies threatening commerce and trade and our best political and +social interests. Had there been scattered through California during the +recent canvass for their new constitution, twenty men really fitted to +show in the press and in the forum the absurdities of that Constitution, +it would never have been established. [Loud applause.]</p> + +<p>Ten thousand dollars to any one of these colleges or universities would +endow a scholarship or fellowship which would enable some talented +graduate to pursue advanced studies in this direction. Ten thousand to +twenty thousand dollars would endow a lectureship which would enable +such a college or university to call some acknowledged authority on +political subjects to deliver a valuable course of lectures. Thirty to +fifty thousand dollars would endow a full professorship—though I must +confess that in subjects like this, I prefer lectureships for brief +terms to life-long professorships—and at any of these institutions the +sum of two hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1237" id="Page_1237">[Pg 1237]</a></span> thousand or three hundred thousand dollars, under +the management of such men as may be found in any one of them, would +equip nobly a department in which all these subjects may be fully +treated and fitly presented to young men. Such a department would send +out into our journalism, into our various professions, and into our +public affairs, a large number of young men who could not fail to +improve the political condition of the country, and would do much to +ward off such dealings with commerce, with currency, with taxation, and +with the diplomatic and consular service as have cost the world and our +own nation so dear hitherto. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I can think of no more noble monument which any man of wealth could rear +to himself than a lectureship or professorship or a department of this +kind, at one of our greater institutions of learning, where large +numbers of vigorous and ambitious youths are collected from all parts of +the country; I do not, of course, say that all of these men would be +elected to public office; in the larger cities, they perhaps would not, +at least, at first; in the country, they would be very frequently +chosen, and they could hardly fail to render excellent service. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>Any man worthy of the name, leaving his country for a long residence +outside its borders, feels more and more impressed with what is needed +to improve it. If I were called upon solemnly at this hour to declare my +conviction as to what can best be done by men blessed with wealth in +this Republic of ours, I would name this very thing to which I have now +called your attention. [Applause.] It has been too long deferred; our +colleges and universities have as a rule only had the means to give a +general literary and scientific education, with very little instruction +fitting men directly for public affairs. But the events of the last few +years show conclusively that we must now begin to prepare the natural +leaders of the people for the work before them, and by something more +than a little primary instruction in political economy and the elements +of history in the last terms of a four years' course. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>The complexity of public affairs is daily becoming greater; more and +more it is necessary that men be trained for them. Not that practical +men, trained practically in public affairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1238" id="Page_1238">[Pg 1238]</a></span> will not always be +wanted—practical men will always be in demand—but we want more and +more a judicious admixture of men trained in the best thought which has +been developed through the ages on all the great questions of government +and of society. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>No country presents a more striking example of the value of this +training than does that great nation with which my duties are shortly to +connect me. [Applause.] Several years since she began to provide in all +her universities for the training of men in political and social +questions, for political life at home and for diplomatic life abroad. +This at first was thought to be another example of German pedantry, but +the events of the last fifteen years have changed that view. We can now +see that it was a part of that great and comprehensive scheme begun by +such men as Stein and Hardenbergh and carried out by such as Bismarck +and his compeers. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Other nations are beginning to see this. In France, within a few years, +very thoroughly equipped institutions have been established to train men +in the main studies required in public life and in diplomacy; the same +thing is true in England and in Italy. Can there be again, I ask, a more +fitting object for some of the surplus wealth of our merchant princes +than in rendering this great service to our country, in furnishing the +means by which young men can have afforded them a full, thorough, and +systematic instruction in all those matters so valuable to those who are +able to take the lead in public affairs. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Mr. President, in concluding, allow me to say that in so far as any +efforts of mine may be useful I shall make every endeavor that whatever +diplomatic service I may render may inure to the benefit of commerce, +knowing full well that, in the language of the sentiment, "Commerce and +Diplomacy are the twin guardians of Peace and Prosperity." [Applause.]</p> + +<p>In spite of the present depression of business in Germany and the United +States, there are evidences of returning confidence. The great, sturdy, +vigorous German nation and our own energetic people cannot long be held +back in their career, and in this restoration of business, which is +certain, unless gross mismanagement occurs, I believe that these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1239" id="Page_1239">[Pg 1239]</a></span> two +nations, America and Germany, will become more and more friendly; more +and more Commerce will weave her web uniting the two countries, and more +and more let us hope that Diplomacy may go hand in hand with Commerce in +bringing in an era of Peace which shall be lasting, and of Prosperity +which shall be substantial. [Loud applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1240" id="Page_1240">[Pg 1240]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY</h2> + + + +<h4>THE IDEAL WOMAN</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley at the banquet of the American +Chemical Society, Washington, D. C, December, 1898. Dr. Wiley +responded to the toast, "Woman."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Fellow-Members of the Chemical Society</span>:—I +propose to introduce an innovation to after-dinner speaking and stick to +my text. In my opinion, it is too late in the day to question the +Creator's purpose in making Woman. She is an accomplished fact! She is +here! She has come to stay, and we might as well accept her. She has +broken into our Society, which, until within a year or two, has remained +entirely masculine. She has not yet appeared at our annual dinners, but +I am a false prophet if she be not here to speak for herself ere long. +And why not? Chemistry is well suited to engage the attention of the +feminine mind. The jewels woman wears, the paints she uses, the hydrogen +peroxide with which she blondines her hair are all children of +chemistry. The prejudice against female chemists is purely selfish and +unworthy of a great mind. There is only enough work in the world to keep +half of humanity busy. Every time a woman gets employment a man must go +idle. But if the woman will only marry the man, all will be forgiven.</p> + +<p>I think I know why you have called on an old bachelor to respond to this +toast. A married man could not. He would be afraid to give his fancies +full rein. Someone might tell his wife. A young man could see only one +side of the subject—the side his sweetheart is on. But the old bachelor +fears no Caudle lecture, and is free from any romantic bias. He sees +things just as they are. If he be also a true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1241" id="Page_1241">[Pg 1241]</a></span> chemist, lovely woman +appeals to him in a truly scientific way. Her charms appear to him in +the crucible and the beaker:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I know a maiden, charming and true,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With beautiful eyes like the cobalt blue</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the borax bead, and I guess she'll do</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">If she hasn't another reaction.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her form is no bundle of toilet shams,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her beauty no boon of arsenical balms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And she weighs just sixty-two kilograms</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To a deci-decimal fraction.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her hair is a crown, I can truthfully state</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Tis a metre long, nor curly nor straight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And it is as yellow as plumbic chromate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In a slightly acid solution.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when she speaks from parlor or stump,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The words which gracefully gambol and jump</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sound sweet like the water in Sprengel's pump</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In magnesic phosphate ablution.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I have bought me a lot, about a hectare,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And have built me a house ten metres square,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And soon, I think, I shall take her there,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My tart little acid radicle.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perhaps little sailors on life's deep sea</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will be the salts of this chemistry,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the lisp of the infantile A, B, C</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Be the refrain of this madrigal.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>No one but a scientific man can have any idea of the real nature of +love. The poet may dream, the novelist describe the familiar feeling, +but only the chemist knows just how it is:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A biochemist loved a maid</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In pure actinic ways;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The enzymes of affection made</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A ferment of his days.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The waves emergent from her eyes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Set symphonies afloat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These undulations simply struck</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1242" id="Page_1242">[Pg 1242]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">His fundamental note.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No longer could he hide his love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor cultures could he make,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And so he screwed his courage up,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And thus to her he spake:</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Oh, maid of undulations sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Inoculate my veins,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And fill my thirsty arteries up</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With amorous ptomaines.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"In vain I try to break this thrall,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In vain my reason fights,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My inner self tempestuous teems</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With microcosmic mites.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I cannot offer you a crown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of gold—I cannot tell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of terrapin or wine for us,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But rations balanced well.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"A little fat just now and then,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Some carbohydrates sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And gluten in the bakers' bread,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are what we'll have to eat.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The days will pass in rapture by,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With antitoxine frills,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And on our Guinea-pigs we'll try</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The cures for all our ills.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O! maiden fair, wilt thou be mine?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come, give me but one kiss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And dwell forever blessed with me.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In symbiotic bliss."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This maiden, modest, up-to-date,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Eschewed domestic strife;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In mocking accents she replied,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Wat t'ell—not on your life."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The philosopher and the theologian pretend to understand the origin of +things and the foundation of ethics, but what one of them ever had the +least idea of how love first started? What one of them can tell you a +thing concerning the original osculation—that primary amatory congress +which was the beginning of the beginning?—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bathed in Bathybian bliss</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And sunk in the slush of the sea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thrilled the first molecular kiss,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1243" id="Page_1243">[Pg 1243]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The beginning of you and of me.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Atom of Oxygen blushed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When it felt fair Hydrogen's breath,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Atom of Nitrogen rushed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Eager to Life out of Death.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through Ocean's murmuring dell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ran a whisper of rapture Elysian;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Across that Bathybian jell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ran a crack that whispered of fission.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alas! that such things should be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That cruel unkind separation,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Adown in the depths of the sea</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Should follow the first osculation.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O tender lover and miss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You cannot remember too well</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That the first molecular kiss</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Was the first Bathybian sell.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Not only are women rapidly invading the domain of chemistry, but they +are also the yellow peril of her sister science, pharmacy. A drug-store +without a dimpled damsel is now a fit subject for the sheriff's +hammer.—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There in the corner pharmacy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This lithesome lady lingers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And potent pills and philters true</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are fashioned by her fingers.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her phiz behind the soda fount</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">May oft be seen in summer;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How sweetly foams the soda fizz,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When you receive it from her.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While mixing belladonna drops</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With tincture of lobelia,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And putting up prescriptions, she</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is fairer than Ophelia.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Each poison has its proper place,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Each potion in its chalice;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her dædal fingers are so deft,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They call her digit-Alice.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Love has been the theme of every age and of every tongue. It is the test +of youth and of the capability of progress. So long as a man can and +does love, he is young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1244" id="Page_1244">[Pg 1244]</a></span> and there is hope for him. Whoever saw a +satisfactory definition of love? No one, simply because the science of +physical chemistry is yet young, and it is only when moulded by the +principles of that science that the definition is complete and +intelligible. Love is the synchronous vibration of two cardiac cells, +both of which, were it not for the ethics of etymology, should begin +with an S. Love is the source of eternal youth, of senile recrudescence. +It is the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the fountain of +flowers. So love changes not—the particular object is not of much +importance. One should never be a bigot in anything and a wise man +changes often.</p> + +<p>The grade of civilization which a nation has reached may be safely +measured by three things. If you want me to tell you where to place a +nation in the scale, don't tell me the name of it, nor the country it +inhabits, nor the religion it professes, nor its form of government. Let +me know how much sugar it uses per head, what the consumption of soap +is, and whether its women have the same rights as its men. That nation +which eats the most sugar, uses the most soap, and regards its women as +having the same rights as its men, will always be at the top. And +nowhere else in the world is more sugar eaten, more soap used, and women +more fully admitted to all the rights of men than in our own United +States and in the American Chemical Society.</p> + +<p>To the chemist, as well as to other scientific men, woman is not only +real but also ideal. From the fragments of the real the ideal is +reconstructed. This ideal is a trinity, a trinity innominate and +incorporeal. She is Pallas, Aphrodite, Artemis, three in one. She is an +incognita and an amorph. I know full well I shall not meet her; neither +in the crowded street of the metropolis nor in the quiet lane of the +country. I know well I shall not find her in the salon of fashion, nor +as a shepherdess with her crook upon the mountain-side. I know full well +that I need not seek her in the bustling tide of travel, nor wandering +by the shady banks of a brook. She is indeed near to my imagination, but +far, infinitely far, beyond my reach. Nevertheless, I may attempt to +describe her as she appears to me. Let me begin with that part of my +ideal which has been inherited from Diana. My ideal woman has a sound +body. She has bone, not brittle sticks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1245" id="Page_1245">[Pg 1245]</a></span> of phosphate of lime. She has +muscles, not flabby, slender ribbons of empty sarcolemma. She has blood, +not a thin leucocytic ichor. I have no sympathy with that +pseudo-civilization which apparently has for its object the destruction +of the human race by the production of a race of bodiless women. If I am +to be a pessimist, I will be one out and out, and seek to destroy the +race in a high-handed and manly way. Indoor life, inactivity, lack of +oxygen in the lungs, these are things which in time produce a white +skin, but do it by sacrificing every other attribute of beauty.</p> + +<p>In the second place, my ideal woman is beautiful. I will confess that I +do not know what I mean by this; for what is beauty? It is both +subjective and objective. It depends on taste and education. It has +something to do with habit and experience. I know I shall not be able to +describe this trait, yet when I look up into her eyes—eyes, remember, +which are mere fictions of my imagination—when I look into her face, +when I see her move so statelily into my presence, I recognize there +that portion of her which she has inherited from the Aphrodite of other +days; and this I know is beauty. It is not the beauty of an +hallucination, the halo which a heart diseased casts about the head of +its idol. It is the beauty which is seen by a sober second thought, a +beauty which does not so much dazzle as it delights; a beauty which does +not fade with the passing hour, but stays through the heat and burden of +the day and until the day is done.</p> + +<p>The beauty which my ideal woman inherited from Aphrodite is not a fading +one. It is not simply a youthful freshness which the first decade of +womanhood will wither. It is a beauty which abides; it is a beauty in +which the charm of seventeen becomes a real essence of seventy; it is a +beauty which is not produced by any artificial pose of the head or by +any possible banging of the hair; it is a beauty which the art of +dressing may adorn but can never create; it is a beauty which does not +overwhelm the heart like an avalanche, but which eats it slowly but +surely away as a trickling stream cuts and grooves the solid granite.</p> + +<p>I regard true beauty as the divinest gift which woman has received; and +was not Pandora, the first of mythical women, endowed with every gift? +And was not Eve, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1246" id="Page_1246">[Pg 1246]</a></span> first of orthodox women, the type of every +feminine perfection? Only Protogyna, the first of scientific women, was +poorly and meanly endowed. If I were a woman I would value health and +wealth; I would think kindly of honor and reputation; I would greatly +prize knowledge and truth; but above all I would be beautiful—possessed +of that strange and mighty charm which would lead a crowd of slaves +behind my triumphal car and compel a haughty world to bow in humble +submission at my feet.</p> + +<p>In the third place my ideal woman has inherited the intellect of Pallas. +And this inheritance is necessary in order to secure for her a true +possession of the gifts of Aphrodite. For a woman can never be truly +beautiful who does not possess intelligence. It is a matter of the +utmost indifference to me what studies my ideal has pursued. She may be +a panglot or she may scarcely know her vernacular. If she speak French +and German and read Latin and Greek, it is well. If she know conics and +curves it is well; if she be able to integrate the vanishing function of +a quivering infinitesimal, it is well; if from a disintegrating track +which hardening cosmic mud has fixed and fastened on the present, she be +able to build a majestic, long extinct mammal, it is well. All these +things are marks of learning, but not necessarily of intelligence. A +person may know them all and hundreds of things besides, and yet be the +veriest fool. My ideal, I should prefer to have a good education in +science and letters, but she must have a sound mind. She must have a +mind above petty prejudice and giant bigotry. She must see something in +life beyond a ball or a ribbon. She must have wit and judgment. She must +have the higher wisdom which can see the fitness of things and grasp the +logic of events. It will be seen readily, therefore, that my ideal is +wise rather than learned. But she is not devoid of culture. Without +culture a broad liberality is impossible. But what is culture? True +culture is that knowledge of men and affairs which places every problem +in sociology and politics in its true light. It is that drill and +exercise which place all the faculties at their best and make one +capable of dealing with the real labors of life. Such a culture is not +incompatible with a broad knowledge of books, with a deep insight into +art, with a clear outlook over the field<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1247" id="Page_1247">[Pg 1247]</a></span> of letters. Indeed it includes +all these and is still something more than they are.</p> + +<p>My ideal then, so regally endowed, is the equal of any man—even if he +be the "ideal man" of the American Chemical Society.</p> + +<p>My ideal stands before me endowed with all the majesty of this long +ancestral line. Proud is she in the consciousness of her own equality. +Her haughty eye looks out upon this teeming sphere and acknowledges only +as her peer the "ideal man," and no one as her superior. Stand forth, O +perfect maiden, sentient with the brain of Pallas, radiant with the +beauty of Venus, quivering with the eager vivacity of Diana! Make, if +possible, thy home on earth. At thy coming the world will rise in an +enthusiasm of delight and crown thee queen. [Long and enthusiastic +applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1248" id="Page_1248">[Pg 1248]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WOODROW WILSON</h2> + + + +<h4>OUR ANCESTRAL RESPONSIBILITIES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Woodrow Wilson at the seventeenth annual dinner of the +New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1896. +Stewart L. Woodford, the President of the Society, said, in +introducing the speaker: "The next toast is entitled 'The +Responsibility of having Ancestors,' and will be responded to by +Professor Woodrow Wilson,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> of Princeton. I know you will give +him such a welcome as will indicate that, while we are mostly Yale +men here, we are not jealous of Princeton."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen</span>:—I am not of your blood; +I am not a Virginia Cavalier, as Dr. Hill [David J. Hill. See Vol. II.] +has suggested. Sometimes I wish I were; I would have more fun. I come, +however, of as good blood as yours; in some respects a better. Because +the Scotch-Irish, though they are just as much in earnest as you are, +have a little bit more gayety and more elasticity than you have. +Moreover they are now forming a Scotch-Irish society, which will, as +fast as human affairs will allow, do exactly what the New England +Societies are doing, viz.: annex the universe. [Laughter.] We believe +with a sincere belief, we believe as sincerely as you do the like, that +we really made this country. Not only that, but we believe that we can +now, in some sort of way, demonstrate the manufacture, because the +country has obviously departed in many respects from the model which you +claim to have set. Not only that, but it seems to me that you yourselves +are becoming a little recreant to the traditions you yearly celebrate.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that you are very much in the position, with reference to +your forefathers, that the little boy was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1249" id="Page_1249">[Pg 1249]</a></span>with reference to his +immediate father. The father was a very busy man; he was away at his +work before the children were up in the morning and did not come home +till after they had gone to bed at night. One day this little boy was +greatly incensed, as he said, "to be whipped by that gentleman that +stays here on Sundays." I do not observe that you think about your +ancestors the rest of the week; I do not observe that they are very much +present in your thoughts at any other time save on Sunday, and that then +they are most irritating to you. I have known a great many men descended +from New England ancestors and I do not feel half so hardly toward my +ancestors as they do toward theirs. There is a distant respect about the +relationship which is touching. There is a feeling that these men are +well and safely at a distance, and that they would be indulged under no +other circumstances whatever; and that the beauty of it is to have +descended from them and come so far away.</p> + +<p>Now, there are serious aspects to this subject. I believe that one of +the responsibilities of having ancestors is the necessity of not being +ashamed of them. I believe if you have had persons of this sort as your +forefathers you must really try to represent them in some sort of way. +And you must set yourselves off against the other elements of population +in this country. You know that we have received very many elements which +have nothing of the Puritan about them, which have nothing of New +England about them; and that the chief characteristic of these people is +that they have broken all their traditions. The reason that most +foreigners come to this country is in order to break their traditions, +to drop them. They come to this country because these traditions bind +them to an order of society which they will no longer endure, and they +come to be quit of them. You yourselves will bear me witness that these +men, some of them, stood us in good stead upon a very recent occasion: +in last November. [Applause. "Hear! Hear!"] We should not at all +minimize the vote of the foreign-born population as against the vote of +some of the native-born population on the question of silver and gold. +But you will observe that there are some things that it would be +supposed would belong to any tradition. One would suppose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1250" id="Page_1250">[Pg 1250]</a></span> it would +belong to any tradition that it was better to earn a dollar that did not +depreciate, and these men have simply shown that there are some +common-sense elements which are international and not national.</p> + +<p>One of the particulars in which we are drawn away from our traditions is +in respect to the make-up and government of society, and it is in that +respect we should retrace our steps and preserve our traditions; because +we are suffering ourselves to drift away from the old standards, and we +say, with a shrug of the shoulders, that we are not responsible for it; +that we have not changed the age, though the age has changed us. We feel +very much as the Scotchman did who entered the fish market. His dog, +being inquisitive, investigated a basket of lobsters, and while he was +nosing about incautiously one of the lobsters got hold of his tail, +whereupon he went down the street with the lobster as a pendant. Says +the man, "Whustle to your dog, mon." "Nay, nay, mon," quoth the +Scotchman, "You whustle for your lobster." We are very much in the same +position with reference to the age; we say, whistle to the age; we +cannot make it let go; we have got to run. We feel very much like the +little boy in the asylum, standing by the window, forbidden to go out. +He became contemplative, and said, "If God were dead and there were not +any rain, what fun orphan boys would have." We feel very much that way +about these New England traditions. If God were only dead; if it didn't +rain; if the times were only good, what times we would have.</p> + +<p>The present world is not recognizable when put side by side with the +world into which the Puritan came. I am not here to urge a return to the +Puritan life; but have you forgotten that the Puritans came into a new +world? The conditions under which they came were unprecedented +conditions to them. But did they forget the principles on which they +acted because the conditions were unprecedented? Did they not discover +new applications for old principles? Are we to be daunted, therefore, +because the conditions are new? Will not old principles be adaptable to +new conditions, and is it not our business to adapt them to new +conditions? Have we lost the old principle and the old spirit? Are we a +degenerate people? We certainly must admit ourselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1251" id="Page_1251">[Pg 1251]</a></span> to be so if we do +not follow the old principles in the new world, for that is what the +Puritans did.</p> + +<p>Let me say a very practical word. What is the matter now? The matter is, +conceal it as we may, gloss it over as we please, that the currency is +in a sad state of unsuitability to the condition of the country. That is +the fact of the matter; nobody can deny that; but what are we going to +do? We are going to have a new tariff. I have nothing to say with regard +to the policy of the tariff, one way or the other. We have had tariffs, +have we not, every few years, ever since we were born; and has not the +farmer become discontented under these conditions? It was the effort to +remedy them that produced the silver movement. A new tariff may produce +certain economic conditions; I do not care a peppercorn whether it does +or not, but this is a thing which we have been tinkering and dickering +with time out of mind, and in spite of the tinkering and dickering this +situation has arisen. Are we going to cure it by more tinkering? We are +not going to touch it in this way. Now, what are we going to do? It is +neither here nor there whether I am a protectionist, or for a tariff for +revenue, or whatever you choose to call me. The amount you collect in +currency for imports is not going to make any difference. The right +thing to do is to apply old principles to a new condition and get out of +that new condition something that will effect a practical remedy. I do +not pretend to be a doctor with a nostrum. I have no pill against an +earthquake. I do not know how this thing is going to be done, but it is +not going to be done by having stomachs easily turned by the truth; it +is not going to be done by merely blinking the situation. If we blink +the situation I hope we shall have no more celebrations in which we talk +about our Puritan ancestors, because they did not blink the situation, +and it is easy to eat and be happy and proud. A large number of persons +may have square meals by having a properly adjusted currency.</p> + +<p>We are very much in the condition described by the reporter who was +describing the murder of a certain gentleman. He said that the murderer +entered the house, and gave a graphic description of the whole thing. He +said that fortunately the gentleman had put his valuables in the safe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1252" id="Page_1252">[Pg 1252]</a></span> +deposit and lost only his life. We are in danger of being equally wise. +We are in danger of managing our policy so that our property will be put +in safe deposit and we will lose only our lives. We will make all the +immediate conditions of the nation perfectly safe and lose only the life +of the nation. This is not a joke, this is a very serious situation. I +should feel ashamed to stand here and not say that this is a subject +which deserves your serious consideration and ought to keep some of you +awake to-night. This is not a simple gratulatory occasion, this is a +place where public duty should be realized and public purposes formed, +because public purpose is a thing for which our Puritan ancestors stood, +yours and mine. If this race should ever lose that capacity, if it +should ever lose the sense of dignity in this regard, we should lose the +great traditions of which we pretend to be proud. [Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1253" id="Page_1253">[Pg 1253]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOHN WINSLOW</h2> + + + +<h4>THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of John Winslow, in the capacity of presiding officer, at +the eighth annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of +Brooklyn, December 21, 1887.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen of the New England Society of the City of Brooklyn, Guests +and Friends</span>:—This is the eighth anniversary of our Society and the +two hundred and sixty-seventh of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It +will please you all to learn of the continued growth and prosperity of +our Society. There is in our treasury the sum of $14,506.21, and we have +no debts. [Applause.] This shows an increase of $1,266.26 over last +year. As occasion requires this money is used for charitable purposes +and in other useful ways, as provided by our by-laws. Such a gathering +as we have here to-night is an inspiration. It must be especially so to +the distinguished gentlemen, our guests, who will address you. So it +comes to pass that you are to have to-night the advantage of listening +to inspired men—an advantage not uncommon in the days of the prophets, +but rare in our times. [Laughter and applause.] It is proper and +agreeable to us all just here and now to recognize as with us our friend +and benefactor and president emeritus, the Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman. [A +voice: "Three cheers for that grand old man." The company rising gave +rousing cheers.] He is with us with a young heart and a cheerful mind, +and continues to be what he has been from the beginning—a loyal and +devoted friend of our Society. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>We are here this evening enjoying the sufferings of our Pilgrim Fathers. +[Merriment.] Their heroic work takes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1254" id="Page_1254">[Pg 1254]</a></span> in Plymouth Rock, ours takes in +the Saddle Rock. They enjoyed game of their own shooting, we enjoy game +of other's shooting; they drank cold water, because they could no longer +get Holland beer. The fact that they must give up Dutch beer was one of +the considerations (so we are told by one of their Governors) that made +them loath to leave Leyden. [Laughter.] We drink cold water because we +want it and like it. The Pilgrim Fathers went to church armed with +muskets; we go to church with our minds stuffed and demoralized by the +contents of Sunday morning newspapers. [Laughter.] The Pilgrim mothers +went to church dressed in simple attire, because they could afford +nothing elaborate and because they thought they could better catch and +hold the devotional spirit. The Pilgrim mothers of our day go to church +with costly toilets, because they can afford it, and are quite willing +to take the chances as to catching and holding the aforesaid spirit. +[Laughter.] The Pilgrim Fathers, when they made the compact on the +Mayflower, planted the seeds of constitutional freedom; we, their worthy +sons, commemorate their work; try to perpetuate it and enjoy the fruits +thereof.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes said the Pilgrims were a solemn people; that they were +not cheerful. Well, in their severe experience in England and Holland +and at Plymouth, there was much to make a born optimist grave and +thoughtful. But it is a mistake to suppose that they could not rejoice +with those who rejoiced as well as weep with those who wept. Take, for +instance, the first Thanksgiving festival held by the Pilgrims. The +quaint account of this by one of their Governors is always interesting. +This first American Thanksgiving took place at Plymouth in 1621, only +about ten months after the landing. It was like a Jewish festival, +continuing out of doors for a week. The Pilgrim writer, Governor +Winslow, describes it thus: "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor +(meaning Governor Bradford) sent four men out fowling, so that we might, +after a special manner (meaning doubtless a gay and festive manner) +rejoice together after (not counting chickens before they were hatched) +we had gathered the fruit of our labors." Now, listen to this: "They +killed in one day so much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the +company almost a week."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1255" id="Page_1255">[Pg 1255]</a></span> What this "little help beside" was, is not +stated. In our day it would mean that the hunter and the fisherman made +heavy drafts upon Fulton Market for meat, fowl, and fish, to supply what +was short. "At which time," says the writer, "among other recreations, +we exercised our arms"—this probably means they shot at a mark +[laughter]—"many of the Indians coming among us"—they were not the +mark, at least this time—"and among the rest, their greatest king, +Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and +feasted." Think of that; feasting ninety Indians three days, and the +whole colony besides. What New England Society has ever made so good a +showing of hospitality and good cheer? [Laughter.] "And they" (the +ninety Indians), "went out and killed five deer."</p> + +<p>Now, I submit, we have here a clear case of the application of the great +principle of honest, even-handed co-operation, no modern device in that +line could surpass it. It is true the Indians were not an incorporated +society, and so there was no receiver appointed to wind them up. +[Laughter.] "Which they brought," says the writer, "to the plantation +and bestowed on our Governor" (meaning Governor Bradford), "our captain, +and others." Governor Bradford, in speaking of this, tells us that among +the fowl brought in "was a great store of turkeys." Thus begins the sad +history in this country of the rise and annual fall on Thanksgiving days +of that exalted biped—the American turkey. After this description of a +Pilgrim festival day who shall ever again say the Pilgrims could not be +merry if they had half a chance to be so. Why, if the Harvard and Yale +football teams had been on hand with their great national game of +banging each others' eyes and breaking bones promiscuously, they could +not have added to the spirit of the day though they might to its variety +of pastime. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>It is interesting to remember in this connection that in the earlier +years of the colonies, Thanksgiving day did not come every year. It came +at various periods of the year from May to December, and the intervals +between them sometimes four or five years, gradually shortened and then +finally settled into an annual festival on the last Thursday of +November. A few years ago two Governors of Maine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1256" id="Page_1256">[Pg 1256]</a></span> ventured to appoint a +day in December for Thanksgiving. Neither of them was re-elected. +[Laughter.] The crowning step in this development, which is now +national, was when the fortunes of our late war were in favor of the +Union, and a proclamation for a national Thanksgiving was issued by our +then President, dear old Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] That the festival +shall hereafter and forever be national is a part of our unwritten law. +[Applause.] It will thus be seen that we, the sons of the Pilgrims, may +fairly and modestly claim that this feature of our national life, like +most of the others that are valuable, proceeded directly from Plymouth +Rock. The New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, will ever honor +the work and the memory of the fathers. As in the sweet lines of Bryant:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Till where the sun, with softer fires,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Looks on the vast Pacific's sleep,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The children of the Pilgrim sires</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">This hallowed day, like us, shall keep."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[General applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1257" id="Page_1257">[Pg 1257]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WILLIAM WINTER</h2> + + + +<h4>TRIBUTE TO JOHN GILBERT</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of William Winter at a dinner given by the Lotos Club, New +York City, November 30, 1878, to John Gilbert, in honor of the +fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the stage. Whitelaw +Reid presided. William Winter responded to the toast "The Dramatic +Critic."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—I thank you very gratefully for +this kind welcome, and I think it a privilege to be allowed to take part +in a festival so delightful as this, and join with you in paying respect +to a name so justly renowned and honored as that of John Gilbert. I +cannot hope adequately to respond to the personal sentiments which have +been so graciously expressed nor adequately celebrate the deeds and the +virtues of your distinguished guest. "I am ill at these numbers ... but +such answer as I can make you shall command." For since first I became +familiar with the stage—in far-away days in old Boston, John Gilbert +has been to me the fulfilment of one of my highest ideals of excellence +in the dramatic art; and it would be hard if I could not now say this, +if not with eloquence at least with fervor.</p> + +<p>I am aware of a certain strangeness, however, in the thought that words +in his presence and to his honor should be spoken by me. The freaks of +time and fortune are indeed strange. I cannot but remember that when +John Gilbert was yet in the full flush of his young manhood and already +crowned with the laurels of success the friend who is now speaking was a +boy at his sports—playing around the old Federal Street Theatre, and +beneath the walls of the Franklin Street Cathedral, and hearing upon the +broad causeways of Pearl Street the rustle and patter of the autumn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1258" id="Page_1258">[Pg 1258]</a></span> +leaves as they fell from the chestnuts around the Perkins Institution +and the elms that darkened the sombre, deserted castle of Harris's +Folly. With this sense of strangeness though, comes a sense still more +striking and impressive of the turbulent, active, and brilliant period +through which John Gilbert has lived. Byron had been dead but four years +[1828] and Scott and Wordsworth were still writing when he began to act. +Goethe was still living. The works of Thackeray and Dickens were yet to +be created. Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Halleck, and Percival were the +literary lords of that period. The star of Willis was ascending while +those of Hawthorne and Poe were yet to rise; and the dramas of Talfourd, +Knowles, and Bulwer were yet to be seen by him as fresh contributions to +the literature of the stage. All these great names are written in the +book of death. All that part of old Boston to which I have referred—the +scene equally of Gilbert's birth and youth and first successes and of +his tender retrospection—has been swept away or entirely changed. Gone +is the old Federal Street Theatre. Gone that quaint English alley with +the cosey tobacconist's shop which he used to frequent. Gone the +hospitable Stackpole where many a time at the "latter end of a sea-coal +fire" he heard the bell strike midnight from the spire of the Old South +Church! But, though "the spot where many times he triumphed is +forgot"—his calm and gentle genius and his hale physique have endured +in unabated vigor, so that he has charmed two generations of play-goers, +still happily lives to charm men and women of to-day. Webster, Choate, +Felton, Everett, Rantoul, Shaw, Bartlett, Lunt, Halleck, Starr King, +Bartol, Kirk—these and many more, the old worthies of the bar, bench, +and the pulpit in Boston's better days of intellect and taste:—all saw +him as we see him in the silver-gray elegance and exquisite perfection +with which he illustrates the comedies of England.</p> + +<p>His career has impinged upon the five great cities of Boston, New +Orleans, Philadelphia, London, and New York. It touches at one extreme +the ripe fame of Munden (who died in '32) and—freighted with all the +rich traditions of the stage—it must needs at its other extreme +transmit even into the next century the high mood, the scholar-like wit, +and the pure style of the finest strain of acting that Time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1259" id="Page_1259">[Pg 1259]</a></span> has +bestowed upon civilized man. By what qualities it has been distinguished +this brilliant assemblage is full well aware. The dignity which is its +grandeur; the sincerity which is its truth; the thoroughness which is +its massive substance; the sterling principle which is its force; the +virtue which is its purity; the scholarship, mind, humor, taste, +versatile aptitude of simulation, and beautiful grace of method, which +are its so powerful and so delightful faculties and attributes, have all +been brought home to your minds and hearts by the wealth and clear +genius of the man himself!</p> + +<p>I have often lingered in fancy upon the idea of that strange, +diversified, wonderful procession—here the dazzling visage of Garrick, +there the woful face of Mossop; here the glorious eyes of Kean; there +the sparkling loveliness of an Abington or a Jordan—which moves through +the chambers of the memory across almost any old and storied stage. The +thought is endless in its suggestion, and fascinating in its charm. How +often in the chimney-corner of life shall we—whose privilege it has +been to rejoice in the works of this great comedian, and whose happiness +it is to cluster around him to-night in love and admiration—conjure up +and muse upon his stately figure as we have seen it in the group of Sir +Peter and Sir Robert, of Jaques and Wolsey, and Elmore! The ruddy +countenance, the twinkling gray eyes, the silver hair, the kind smile, +the hearty voice, the old-time courtesy of manner—how tenderly will +they be remembered! How dearly are they prized! Scholar!—Actor!—Gentleman! +long may he be spared to dignify and adorn the stage—a soother of our +cares, and comfort to our hearts—exemplar for our lives!—the Edelweiss +of his age and of our affections! [Great applause.]</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1260" id="Page_1260">[Pg 1260]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>TRIBUTE TO LESTER WALLACK</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of William Winter at a banquet of the Lotos Club, given to +Lester Wallack, December 17, 1887. Whitelaw Reid, the President of +the Club, occupied the chair. Mr. Winter was called upon to speak +in behalf of the critics.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—You have done me great honor in +asking me to be present on this occasion, and you have conferred upon me +a great privilege in permitting me to participate with you in this +tribute of affection and admiration for John Lester Wallack, your +distinguished and most deservedly honored guest and my personal friend +these many, many years. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I thank you for your thoughtful courtesy and for this distinguished mark +of your favor. Being well aware of my defects both as a thinker and a +speaker, I shrink from such emergencies as this, but having known him so +long and having been in a professional way associated with so many of +his labors and his triumphs, I should fail in duty if I were not at +least to try to add my word of love, feeble and inadequate as it may be, +to the noble volume of your sympathy and homage. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>The presence of this brilliant assemblage, the eloquent words which have +fallen from the lips of your honored president and the speeches of your +orators, they signify some change—I will not say in regard to the +advancement of the stage—but they signify a wonderful advancement in +our times in sympathetic and thoughtful and just appreciation of the +theatre. This was not always so. It is not very long since so wise and +gentle a man as Charles Lamb expressed his mild astonishment that a +person capable of committing to memory and reciting the language of +Shakespeare could for that reason be supposed to possess a mind +congenial with that of the poet. The scorn of Carlyle and the scarcely +less injurious pity of Emerson for the actor are indications that in a +time not remote, thought and philosophy have made but little account of +the stage.</p> + +<p>Something might be said about this by a voice more competent than mine, +for in our time there has been a change<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1261" id="Page_1261">[Pg 1261]</a></span> in the intelligent spirit of +the age, and I am sure that thought and philosophy now are of the +opinion that the actor is an intellectual and spiritual force; that he +is connected most intimately with the cause of public education; that he +brings something of his own, and that, although the part provides the +soul, it is the actor who must provide the body, and without the soul +and the body, you could not have dramatic representations for the +benefit of them. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>I am not one of those writers who believe that it is the business of the +newspaper to manage the theatres. The question of what to do to please +the public taste, to provide mankind with what they like, or what they +want, or, which is the same thing, with what they think they want, opens +a very complex inquiry. Our dear friend has been puzzled by it himself +more than a little. I should not undertake to instruct him, but as the +observer of his course I have been struck by wonder and admiration of +the way he has carried his theatre through seasons of great competition +and great peril.</p> + +<p>I call to mind one season, now seventeen years ago, I think, when in the +course of a very few months, he produced and presented upward of +thirty-two plays, showing the best points of these plays and showing his +great company to every possible advantage; so have I seen a juggler toss +fifty knives in the air and catch them without cutting his fingers.</p> + +<p>[At the close of his speech Mr. Winter read the following poem.]—</p> + +<p style="margin-top: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 6em;"><b>LESTER WALLACK</b></span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With a glimmer of plumes and a sparkle of lances,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With blare of the trumpets and neigh of the steed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At morning they rode where the bright river glances,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And the sweet summer wind ripples over the mead;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The green sod beneath them was ermined with daisies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Smiling up to green boughs tossing wild in their glee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While a thousand glad hearts sang their honors and praises,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While the Knights of the Mountain rode down to the sea.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One rode 'neath the banner whose face was the fairest,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Made royal with deeds that his manhood had done,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the halo of blessing fell richest and rarest</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1262" id="Page_1262">[Pg 1262]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">On his armor that splintered the shafts of the sun;</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So moves o'er the waters the cygnet sedately,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So waits the strong eagle to mount on the wing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Serene and puissant and simple and stately,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So shines among princes the form of the King.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With a gay bugle-note when the daylight's last glimmer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Smites crimson and gold on the snow of his crest,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At evening he rides through the shades growing dimmer,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While the banners of sunset stream red in the West;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His comrades of morning are scattered and parted,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The clouds hanging low and the winds making moan,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But smiling and dauntless and brave and true-hearted,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">All proudly he rides down the valley alone.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweet gales of the woodland embrace and caress him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">White wings of renown be his comfort and light,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pale dews of the starbeam encompass and bless him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With the peace and the balm and the glory of night;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, Oh! while he wends to the verge of that ocean,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where the years like a garland shall fall from his brow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May his glad heart exult in the tender devotion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The love that encircles and hallows him now.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[Enthusiastic applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1263" id="Page_1263">[Pg 1263]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ROBERT C. WINTHROP</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Robert C. Winthrop made at the public dinner given to +Amin Bey by the merchants of Boston, Mass., November 4, 1850.]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>:—I am greatly honored by the sentiment just +proposed, and I beg my good friend, the Vice-President [Hon. Benjamin +Seaver], to accept my hearty thanks for the kind and complimentary terms +in which he has presented my name to the company. I am most grateful for +the opportunity of meeting with so large a number of the intelligent and +enterprising merchants of Boston, and of uniting with them in a tender +of deserved hospitality, and in a tribute of just respect, to the +Commissioner of his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan of Turkey.</p> + +<p>And yet, I cannot but reflect, even as I pronounce these words, how +strangely they would have sounded in the ears of our fathers not many +generations back, or even in our own ears not many years ago. A deserved +tender of hospitality, a just tribute of respect, to the Representative +of the Grand Turk! Sir, the country from which your amiable and +distinguished guest has come, was not altogether unknown to some of the +early American discoverers and settlers. John Smith—do not smile too +soon, Mr. President, for though the name has become proverbially generic +in these latter days, it was once identified and individualized as the +name of one of the most gallant navigators and captains which the world +has ever known—that John Smith who first gave the cherished name of New +England to what the Pilgrims of the Mayflower called "these Northern +parts of Virginia"—he, I say, was well acquainted with Turkey;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1264" id="Page_1264">[Pg 1264]</a></span> and two +centuries and a half ago, he gave the name of a Turkish lady to one of +the capes of our own Massachusetts Bay. But he knew Turkey as a prison +and a dungeon, and he called what is now Cape Ann, Cape Tragabigzanda, +only to commemorate his affection for one who had soothed the rigors of +a long and loathsome captivity.</p> + +<p>Nor was Turkey an unknown land to at least one of those Winthrops of the +olden time, with whom the Vice-President has so kindly connected me. In +turning over some old family papers since my return home, I have +stumbled on the original autograph of a note from John Winthrop, the +younger, dated "December 26th, 1628, at the Castles of the Hellespont," +whither he had gone, as is supposed, as the Secretary of Sir Peter Wich, +the British Ambassador at Constantinople. The associations of that day, +however, with those remote regions, were by no means agreeable, and I +should hardly dare to dwell longer upon them on this occasion and in +this presence. I rejoice that events have occurred to break the spell of +that hereditary prejudice, which has so long prevailed in the minds of +not a few of us, toward the Ottoman Empire. I rejoice that our +associations with Turkey are no longer those only of the plague and the +bowstring; that we are encouraged and authorized to look to her +hereafter for something better than a little coarse wool for our +blankets, or a few figs for our dessert, or even a little opium or +rhubarb for our medicine-chests; that, in a word, we are encouraged and +warranted to look to her, under the auspices and administration of her +young, gallant, and generous Sultan, for examples of reform, of +toleration, of liberality, of a magnanimous and chivalrous humanity, +which are worthy of the admiration and imitation of all mankind. I +rejoice, especially, that an occasion has been afforded for testifying +the deep sense which is entertained throughout our country, of the noble +conduct of the Sublime Porte in regard to the unfortunate exiles of +Hungary.</p> + +<p>The influence which the Ottoman Empire seems destined to exert over the +relations of Eastern and Western Europe, is of the most interesting and +important character; and, while we all hold steadfastly to the great +principle of neutrality which Washington established and enforced, we +yet cannot suppress our satisfaction that this influence is now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1265" id="Page_1265">[Pg 1265]</a></span> in the +hands of one who seems determined to wield it fearlessly for the best +interests of civilization and humanity.</p> + +<p>And now, sir, let us hope that our distinguished friend, Amin Bey, may +return home with some not less favorable impressions of our own land. Of +our enterprise, of our industry, of our immense material production, of +our rapid progress in arts and improvements of every kind, of our vast +territorial extent, he cannot fail to testify. Let us hope that he may +be able to speak also of internal order, of domestic tranquillity, of +wise and just laws, faithfully administered and promptly obeyed, of a +happy, contented, and united people, commending by their practice and +example, as well as by their principles and precepts, the institutions +under which they live.</p> + +<p>The distinguished gentleman who preceded me [Mr. Webster], and whom I +have been under the disadvantage of following in other scenes as well as +here, has spoken of the Union of these States. There is no language so +strong or so emphatic, which even he can use, as to the importance of +preserving that Union, which does not meet with a prompt and cordial +echo in my own bosom. To the eyes of Amin Bey, and to the eyes of all +foreign nations, we are indeed but one country, from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. To them there is no Boston or New York, no Carolina or +Louisiana. Our commerce goes forth under one and the same flag, whether +from the Bay of Massachusetts or from the "Golden Gate" of California. +Under that flag, it has been protected, prospered, and extended beyond +example. Under that flag, new fields are opening to it, and new triumphs +are before it. May our distinguished guest take home with him an +assurance, founded upon all that he has seen and all that he has heard, +of the resolution of us all, that the flag of our Union shall still and +always remain one and the same, from ocean to ocean, untorn and +untarnished, proof alike against everything of foreign assault and +everything of domestic dissension! [Great applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1266" id="Page_1266">[Pg 1266]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JOHN SERGEANT WISE</h2> + + + + +<h4>CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of John S. Wise at the eleventh annual dinner of the New +England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 20, 1890. The +President, Willard Bartlett, occupied the chair. He called upon Mr. +Wise to speak to the toast, "Captain John Smith, the Ruler of +Virginia, and Admiral of New England," saying: "It was not without +a purpose that your committee arranged the order of speaking this +evening. I am sure that the gentlemen who have already addressed +you will take it in good part, if I say we knew that, by putting +one name at the end of the programme, we should be sure to hold the +audience here till the doxology. Now a speaker who bears the name +of the first ruler of Virginia I ever knew anything about, will +address you upon Virginia's still earlier ruler, Captain John +Smith."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman</span>:—It is one of the peculiarities of Americans, +that they attempt to solve the unsolvable problem of successfully mixing +gastronomy and oratory. In chemistry there are things known as +incompatibles, which it is impossible to blend and at the same time +preserve their original characteristics. It is impossible to have as +good a dinner as we have had served to-night, and preserve the +intellectual faculties of your guests so that they may be seen at their +best. I am not unmindful that in the menu the courses grew shorter until +they culminated in the pungent and brief episode of cheese, and so I +take it that as to the oratory here on tap, you desire it to become +gradually more brief and more pungent.</p> + +<p>Now, the task of condensing into a five-minute speech two hundred and +seventy years of the history of America, is something that has been +assigned to me, and I propose to address myself to it without further +delay. [Laughter]</p> + +<p>John Smith was at one time President of Virginia, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1267" id="Page_1267">[Pg 1267]</a></span> afterward Admiral +of New England, and ever since then, until lately, New England and +Virginia have been trying to pull loose from each other, so as not to be +under the same ruler. [Laughter and applause.] John Smith was a godsend +to the American settlers, because he was a plain man in a company of +titled nonentities, and after they had tried and failed in every effort +to make or perpetuate an American colony, plain John Smith, a democrat, +without a title, took the helm and made it a success. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Then and there, and ever since, we laid aside the +Reginald-Trebizond-Percys of nobility, and stuck to the plain John +Smiths, honest citizens, of capacity and character. By his example we +learned that "Kind hearts are more than coronets," and simple men of +worth are infinitely better than titled vagabonds of Norman blood. +[Applause.] It is almost three centuries since a tiny vessel, not larger +than a modern fishing-smack, turned her head to the sunset across an +unknown sea, for the land of conjecture. The ship's company, composed of +passengers from England, that wonderful nest of human wanderers, that +splendid source of the best civilization of the world, cast anchor by +chance in a noble bay for which they had not sailed, and settled a +colony; not with any particularly high or noble object, but really in +pursuit of gold, and searching for a South Sea which they never found. +The voyage had been projected without any other object than the +accumulation of wealth, which wealth was to be carried back to the old +country and enjoyed in that England which they loved, and to which their +eyes ever turned backward with affection, reverence, and the hope of +return. This band of younger sons and penniless nobility, attempted to +make a settlement under the charter known as the London charter of +Virginia; and while we find to-day men sneering at John Smith, the fact +remains that he alone was enabled by his strong personality, by his +sterling, individual worth, to resist the savages, to make the lazy +work, to furnish food for the weak and sickly, to re-inspire those who +had lost hope, and to firmly establish a settlement in Virginia. His +reward was what? Sedition in his own camp, ingratitude among his own +followers, misrepresentation to his patrons, disappointment, disease, +and poverty to himself; a return to England and posthumous fame. But his +bulldog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1268" id="Page_1268">[Pg 1268]</a></span> fangs, the fangs of that English blood which once sunk in the +throat of a savage land remain forever, were placed upon America, to +mark it as another conquest and another triumph of Anglo-Saxon +colonization. Three years of peace and quiet in England were not to his +taste. His mother's spirit craved new adventures, and he sought them in +sea voyages to the north. Although his task was a much less difficult +one, and not quite so prominent as the task he had accomplished in +Virginia, he prepared the way for the settlement at Plymouth Rock. To +his title of President of Virginia was added the title of Admiral of New +England, because this John Smith, without a pedigree, except such as was +blazoned on his shield by his slaughter of three Turks, turned his +attention from the land to the sea, sailed the colder waters of the +north, located the colonies of New England, named your own Boston, and +the result of his voyages and reports were the Plymouth charter and +settlement. So it is that we have a common founder of the settlements of +this country. Of all the gallants who embarked in the first adventure, +all disappeared save John Smith, who bore the plainest and commonest +name that human imagination can devise. He became the patron saint of +American civilization, as much yours as ours, and as much ours as yours. +[Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: We had one founder; we came from one +master-mind; one great spirit was the source of both our settlements; +and this initial fact in our histories has seemed to inspire the +American people through all the centuries with the sentiment that our +union should be eternal in spite of all disturbing circumstances. +[Applause.] When I said, in a light way, that old Virginia and +Massachusetts had sought to rend themselves asunder, it was scarcely +true. They have too much that is glorious in common to be aught but +loving sisters. The men who are before me will not forget that the +settlers of the London colony of Virginia, and settlers of the Plymouth +colony of Massachusetts, have been at the front of every great movement +which has agitated this nation from its birth. When it came to the +question of whether we should dissolve the political ties that bound us +to the British King, Massachusetts Bay and the colony of Virginia were +the first to form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1269" id="Page_1269">[Pg 1269]</a></span> their Committees of Safety, exchange their messages +of mutual support, and strengthen the weak among their sister colonies. +[Applause.] When it came to the time that tried men's souls in the +Revolution, it was the men of Virginia and the men of Massachusetts Bay +that furnished the largest quotas of revolutionary soldiers who achieved +the independence of the American colonies.</p> + +<p>When it came to the formation of a federal union, Virginia, with her +Washington, gave the first President, and Massachusetts, with her Adams, +stepped proudly to the front with the first Vice-President and second +President. [Applause.] In later years, when differences came—which +differences need not be discussed—every man here knows what part +Virginia and Massachusetts bore. It was a part which, however much we +may differ with each other, bespoke the origin of the two colonies, and +told that true manhood was there to do and die for what it believed was +right. When that struggle was ended, the first to clasp hands in mutual +friendship and affection were Virginia and Massachusetts. If we were to +blot from the history or geography of the Nation the deeds or territory +of the ancient dominions of John Smith, President of Virginia and +Admiral of New England, a beggarly record of area would be left, in +spite of the glorious records of other sections in recent years.</p> + +<p>The history of America is to me not only of deep and absorbing interest +in its every detail, but it is a romance; it is a fascinating detail of +wonderful development, the like of which cannot be found in the annals +of civilization from the remotest time. We may go back to the time when +the curtain rises on the most ancient civilization of the East, and +there is nothing to compare with it. We may take up not only the real, +but the romantic history of modern European progress, and there is +nothing like American history for myself. Taking up the story of the +Quaker invasion of Massachusetts as early as 1659, I find Lydia Wardell, +daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman of the colony, whipped in Boston, +because she had ceased to be a Puritan and had become a Quakeress. +Turning then to the history of Virginia in 1663, I find Colonel Edmund +Scarburgh riding at the head of the King's troops into the boundaries of +Maryland, placing the broad arrows of the King on the houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1270" id="Page_1270">[Pg 1270]</a></span> of the +Quakers, and punishing them soundly for non-conformity. Upon the +question of who was right and who was wrong in these old feuds, there +are doubtless men who, even to this day, have deep prejudices. Fancy how +conflicting are the sentiments of a man in 1890, as to their merits, +when he reflects, as I do, that Lydia Wardell was his grandmother, and +Colonel Scarburgh his grandfather. [Applause and laughter.]</p> + +<p>How absurd seems any comparison between the Puritan and Cavalier +settlers of America. There they are, with all their faults, and all +their virtues. Others may desire to contrast them. I do not. I stand +ready to do battle against anybody who abuses either. Their conjoint +blood has produced a Nation, the like of which no man living before our +day had ever fancied. Nearly three centuries of intermingling and +intermarrying, has made the traditions and the hopes of either the +heritage and aspiration of us all. Common sufferings, common triumphs, +common pride, make the whole glorious history the property of every +American citizen, and it is provincial folly to glorify either faction +at the expense of the other.</p> + +<p>We stand to-night on the pinnacle of the third Century of American +development. Look back to the very beginning. There stands the grizzled +figure of John Smith, the Pioneer—President of Virginia, and Admiral of +New England. Still united, we look about us and behold a nation blessed +with peace and plenty, crowned with honor, and with boundless +opportunity of future aggrandizement. The seed planted by John Smith +still grows. The voice of John Smith still lives. That voice has been +swelled into the mighty chorus of 60,000,000 Americans singing the song +of United States. We look forward to a future whose possibilities +stagger all conjecture, to a common ruler of John Smith's ancient +dominions; to a common destiny, such as he mapped out for us. And with +devout and heartfelt gratitude to him, a reunited land proclaims, "Whom +God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." [Great applause.]</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1271" id="Page_1271">[Pg 1271]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>THE LEGAL PROFESSION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of John S. Wise at the annual dinner of the New York State +Bar Association, Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891. Matthew Hale, the +President, introduced Mr. Wise as follows; "The next sentiment in +order was, by mistake, omitted from the printed list of sentiments +which is before you. The next sentiment is 'The Legal Profession,' +and I call upon a gentleman to respond to that toast who, I venture +to say, has practised law in more States of this Union than any +other gentleman present. I allude to the orator of the day, the +Hon. John S. Wise [applause], formerly of Virginia, but now a +member of the Bar Association of the State of New York."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar</span>:—It may not be true that +I have practised law in more States of this Union than any one present, +but it is certainly true that I never did as much speaking in the same +length of time, without charging a fee for it, as I have done within the +last twenty-four hours. [Laughter.] At two o'clock this morning I was in +attendance, in the city of New York, upon a ghost dance of the +Confederate veterans; at two o'clock this evening I resolved myself into +a deep, careful, and circumspect lawyer, and now I am with the boys, and +propose to have a good time. [Laughter.] Now, you know, this scene +strikes me as ridiculous—our getting here together and glorifying +ourselves and nobody to pay for it. My opinion is, that the part of +wisdom is to bottle this oratory and keep it on tap at $5 a minute. +[Laughter.] The Legal Profession—why, of course, we are the best +fellows in the world. Who is here to deny it? It reminds me of an +anecdote told by an old politician in Virginia, who said that one day, +with his man, he was riding to Chesterfield court, and they got +discussing the merits of a neighbor, Mr. Beasley, and he says, "Isaac, +what do you think of Mr. Beasley?" "Well," he says, "Marse Frank, I +reckon he is a pretty good man." "Well, there is one thing about Mr. +Beasley, he is always humbling himself." He says, "Marse Frank, you are +right; I don't know how you is, but I always mistrusts a man that runs +hisself down." [Laughter.] He says, "I don't know how you is, Marse +Frank, but I tell you how it is with me: this nigger scarcely ever says +no harm against hisself." So I say it of the legal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1272" id="Page_1272">[Pg 1272]</a></span> profession—this +here nigger don't never scarcely say no harm against himself. [Great +laughter.]</p> + +<p>Of course we are the best profession in the world, but if any of our +clients are standing at that door and listening to this oratory, I know +what their reflection is. They are laughing in their sleeves and saying: +"Watch him, watch him; did you ever hear lawyers talk as much for +nothing? Watch them; it is the funniest scene I ever saw. There are a +lot of lawyers with their hands in their own pockets." [Laughter.]</p> + +<p>Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, another thing. We are not fooling with any +judges now. I know who I am talking to and how long I have been doing +it. Sometimes you can fool a judge into letting you have more time than +the rule allows; but with lawyers, enough is enough. We know exactly +when to put on the brakes with each other. We are not now earning fees +by the yard or charging by the minute, and when a man is through with +what he has to say, it is time to sit down, and all I have to say in +conclusion is, that the more I watch the legal profession and observe +it, the more I am convinced that with the great responsibility, with the +great trusts confided to it, with the great issues committed to its +keeping, with the great power it has to direct public feeling and public +sentiment, with the great responsibilities resulting, take it as a +mass—and there are plenty of rascals in it—but take it as a mass, and +measure it up, and God never made a nobler body in these United States. +[Applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1273" id="Page_1273">[Pg 1273]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT</h2> + + + + +<h4>THE BRIGHT LAND TO WESTWARD</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Edward O. Wolcott at the eighty-second annual dinner of +the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. +The President, ex-Judge Horace Russell, introduced the speaker as +follows: "It was an English lawyer who said that the farther he +went West the more he was convinced that the wise men came from the +East. We may not be so thoroughly convinced of this after we have +heard the response to the next regular toast, 'The Pilgrim in the +West.' I beg to introduce Mr. Edward O. Wolcott, of Colorado."]</p></div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President and Gentlemen</span>:—It was with great diffidence that +I accepted the invitation of your President to respond to a toast +to-night. I realized my incapacity to do justice to the occasion, while +at the same time I recognized the high compliment conveyed. I felt +somewhat as the man did respecting the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy; he +said he didn't know whether Lord Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works or not, +but if he didn't, he missed the greatest opportunity of his life. +[Laughter.]</p> + +<p>The West is only a larger, and in some respects a better, New England. I +speak not of those rose gardens of culture, Missouri and Arkansas, but +otherwise, generally of the States and Territories west of the +Mississippi, and more particularly, because more advisedly, of Colorado, +the youngest and most rugged of the-thirty-eight; almost as large in +area as all New England and New York combined; "with room about her +hearth for all mankind"; with fertile valleys, and with mines so rich +and so plentiful that we occasionally, though reluctantly, dispose of +one to our New York friends. [Laughter.] We have no very rich, no very +poor, and no almshouses; and in the few localities where we are not good +enough, New England Home Missionary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1274" id="Page_1274">[Pg 1274]</a></span> Societies are rapidly bringing us +up to the Plymouth Rock standard and making us face the Heavenly music. +[Laughter.] We take annually from our granite hills wealth enough to pay +for the fertilizers your Eastern and Southern soils require to save them +from impoverishment. We have added three hundred millions to the coinage +of the world; and, although you call only for gold, we generously give +you silver, too. [Laughter.] You are not always inclined to appreciate +our efforts to swell the circulation, but none the less are we one with +you in patriotic desire to see the revenues reformed, provided always +that our own peculiar industries are not affected. Our mountains slope +toward either sea, and in their shadowy depths we find not only hidden +wealth, but inspiration and incentive to high thought and noble living, +for Freedom has ever sought the recesses of the mountains for her +stronghold, and her spirit hovers there; their snowy summits and the +long, rolling plains are lightened all day long by the sunshine, and we +are not only Colorado, but Colorado Claro! [Applause.]</p> + +<p>Practically, as little is known of the great West by you of the East as +was known a century ago of New England by our British cousins. Your +interest in us is, unfortunately, largely the interest on our mortgages, +your attitude toward us is somewhat critical, and the New England heart +is rarely aroused respecting the West except when some noble Indian, +after painting himself and everything else within his reach red, is sent +to his happy hunting grounds. [Laughter.] Yet, toward the savage, as in +all things, do not blame us if we follow the Christian example set us by +our forefathers. We read that the Court at Plymouth, more than fifty +years after the colony was founded, ordered "That whosoever shall shoot +off any gun on any unnecessary occasion, or at any game whatsoever, +except an Indian or a wolf, shall forfeit five shillings for every such +shot"; and our pious ancestors popped over many an Indian on their way +to Divine worship. [Laughter.] But when in Colorado, settled less than a +generation ago, the old New England heredity works itself out and an +occasional Indian is peppered, the East raises its hands in horror, and +our offending cowboys could not find admittance even to an Andover +Probation Society. [Laughter.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1275" id="Page_1275">[Pg 1275]</a></span></p> + +<p>Where we have a chance to work without precedent, we can point with +pride of a certain sort to methods at least peaceful. When Mexico was +conquered, we found ourselves with many thousand Mexicans on hand. I +don't know how they managed it elsewhere, but in Colorado we not only +took them by the hand and taught them our ways, but both political +parties inaugurated a beautiful and generous custom, since more honored +in the breach than in the observance, which gave these vanquished people +an insight into and an interest in the workings of republican +institutions which was marvellous: a custom of presenting to each head +of a household, being a voter, on election day, from one to five dollars +in our native silver. [Great laughter.]</p> + +<p>If Virginia was the mother of Presidents, New England is the mother of +States. Of the population of the Western States born in the United +States, some five per cent, are of New England birth, and of the native +population more than half can trace a New England ancestry. Often one +generation sought a resting-place in Ohio, and its successor in Illinois +or in Iowa, but you will find that the ancestor, less than a century +ago, was a God-fearing Yankee. New England influences everywhere +predominate. I do not mean to say that many men from the South have not, +especially since the war, found homes and citizenship in the West, for +they have; and most of them are now holding Federal offices. [Laughter.] +It is nevertheless true that from New England has come the great, the +overwhelming influence in moulding and controlling Western thought. +[Applause.]</p> + +<p>New England thrift, though a hardy plant, becomes considerably modified +when transplanted to the loam of the prairies; the penny becomes the +dime before it reaches the other ocean; Ruth would find rich gleanings +among our Western sheaves, and the palm of forehandedness opens +sometimes too freely under the wasteful example which Nature sets all +over our broad plains; but because the New England ancestor was +acquisitive, his Western descendant secures first of all his own home. +[Applause.] The austere and serious views of life which our forefathers +cherished have given way to a kindlier charity, and we put more hope and +more interrogation points into our theology than our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1276" id="Page_1276">[Pg 1276]</a></span> fathers did; but +the old Puritan teachings, softened by the years and by brighter and +freer skies, still keep our homes Christian and our home life pure. And +more, far more than all else, the blood which flows in our veins, the +blood of the sturdy New Englanders who fought and conquered for an idea, +quickened and kindled by the Civil War, has imbued and impregnated +Western men with a patriotism that overrides and transcends all other +emotions. Pioneers in a new land, laying deep the foundations of the +young commonwealths, they turn the furrows in a virgin soil, and from +the seed which they plant there grows, renewed and strengthened with +each succeeding year, an undying devotion to republican institutions, +which shall nourish their children and their children's children +forever. [Prolonged applause.]</p> + +<p>An earnest people and a generous! The Civil strife made nothing right +that was wrong before, and nothing wrong that was right before; it +simply settled the question of where the greater strength lay. We know +that</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">"Who overcomes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By force, hath overcome but half his foe,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>and that if more remains to be done, it must come because the hearts of +men are changed. The war is over; the very subject is hackneyed; it is a +tale that is told, and commerce and enlightened self-interest have +obliterated all lines. And yet you must forgive us if, before the +account is finally closed, and the dead and the woe and the tears are +balanced by all the blessings of a reunited country, some of us still +listen for a voice we have not yet heard; if we wait for some Southern +leader to tell us that renewed participation in the management of the +affairs of this nation carries with it the admission that the question +of the right of secession is settled, not because the South was +vanquished, but because the doctrine was and is wrong, forever wrong. +[Great applause.]</p> + +<p>We are a plain people, too, and live far away. We find all the +excitement we need in the two great political parties, and rather look +upon the talk of anybody in either party being better than his party, as +a sort of cant. The hyper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1277" id="Page_1277">[Pg 1277]</a></span>critical faculty has not reached us yet, and +we leave to you of the East the exclusive occupancy of the raised dais +upon which it seems necessary for the independent voter to stand while +he is counted. [Applause and laughter.]</p> + +<p>We are provincial; we have no distinctive literature and no great poets; +our leading personage abroad of late seems to be the Honorable "Buffalo +Bill" [laughter], and we use our adjectives so recklessly that the +polite badinage indulged in toward each other by your New York editors +to us seems tame and spiritless. In mental achievement we may not have +fully acquired the use of the fork, and are "but in the gristle and not +yet hardened into the bone of manhood." We stand toward the East +somewhat as country to city cousins; about as New to Old England, only +we don't feel half so badly about it, and on the whole are rather +pleased with ourselves. [Laughter.] There is not in the whole broad West +a ranch so lonely or so remote that a public school is not within reach +of it. With generous help from the East, Western colleges are elevating +and directing Western thought, and men busy making States yet find time +to live manly lives and to lend a hand. All this may not be æsthetic, +but it is virile, and it leads up and not down. Great poets, and those +who so touch the hearts of men that the vibration goes down the ages, +must often find their inspiration when wealth brings leisure to a class, +or must have "learned in suffering what they teach in song." We can wait +for our inspired ones; when they come, the work of this generation, +obscure and commonplace, will have paved the way for them; the general +intelligence diffused in this half century will, unknown or forgotten, +yet live in their numbers, and the vivid imaginations of our New England +ancestors, wasted in depicting the joys and torments of the world to +come, will, modified by the years, beautify and ennoble the cares of +this. [Applause.]</p> + +<p>There are some things even more important than the highest culture. The +West is the Almighty's reserve ground, and as the world is filling up. +He is turning even the old arid plains and deserts into fertile acres, +and is sending there the rain as well as the sunshine. A high and +glorious destiny awaits us; soon the balance of population will lie the +other side of the Mississippi, and the millions that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1278" id="Page_1278">[Pg 1278]</a></span> are coming must +find waiting for them schools and churches, good government, and a happy +people:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Who love the land because it is their own,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And scorn to give aught other reason why;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would shake hands with a King upon his throne,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And think it kindness to his Majesty."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>We are beginning to realize, however, that the invitation we have been +extending to all the world has been rather too general. So far we have +been able to make American citizens in fact as well as name out of the +foreign-born immigrants. The task was light while we had the honest and +industrious to deal with, but the character of some of the present +immigration has brought a conviction which we hope you share, that the +sacred rights of citizenship should be withheld from a certain class of +aliens in race and language, who seek the protection of this Government, +until they shall have at least learned that the red in our flag is +commingled with the white and blue and the stars. [Great applause.]</p> + +<p>In everything which pertains to progress in the West, the Yankee +reinforcements step rapidly to the front. Every year she needs more of +them, and as the country grows the annual demand becomes greater. +Genuine New Englanders are to be had on tap only in six small States, +and remembering this we feel that we have the right to demand that in +the future even more than in the past, the heads of the New England +households weary not in the good work. [Laughter and applause.]</p> + +<p>In these later days of "booms" and New Souths and Great Wests; when +everybody up North who fired a gun is made to feel that he ought to +apologize for it, and good fellowship everywhere abounds, there is a +sort of tendency to fuse; only big and conspicuous things are much +considered; and New England being small in area and most of her +distinguished people being dead, she is just now somewhat under an +eclipse. But in her past she has undying fame. You of New England and +her borders live always in the atmosphere of her glories; the scenes +which tell of her achievements are ever near at hand, and familiarity +and contact may rob them of their charms, and dim to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1279" id="Page_1279">[Pg 1279]</a></span> your eyes their +sacredness. The sons of New England in the West revisit her as men who +make pilgrimage to some holy shrine, and her hills and valleys are still +instinct with noble traditions. In her glories and her history we claim +a common heritage, and we never wander so far away from her that with +each recurring anniversary of this day, our hearts do not turn to her +with renewed love and devotion for our beloved New England; yet—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Not by Eastern windows only,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When daylight comes, comes in the light;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But Westward, look, the land is bright!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>[Hearty applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1280" id="Page_1280">[Pg 1280]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LORD WOLSELEY</h2> + +<h3>(GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY)</h3> + + + + +<h4>THE ARMY IN THE TRANSVAAL</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of +the British Army, at a dinner given by the Authors' Club, London, +November 6, 1899. Dr. Conan Doyle presided.]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen</span>:—I think that all people who know +anything about the Army should rejoice extremely that our first +experiment in mobilization has been as successful as it has been. +[Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Your Chairman has mentioned the name of one, a most intimate friend of +mine, the present Military Secretary. [Lord Lansdowne.] I think the +nation is very much indebted to him not only for the manner in which +this mobilization has been carried out, but still more so for having +laid the foundation on which our mobilization system is based, and for +making those preparations which led to its complete success. [Cheers.] +There are many other names I might mention, others who have also devoted +themselves for many years past in a very quiet manner, and with all the +ability which now, I am glad to say, so largely permeates the Army, to +making these preparations and to try to bring this curious army of ours +up to the level of the modern armies of the world. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>Although I say it myself, I think I may claim for myself and for those +who have worked with me a certain meed of praise, for we have worked +under extreme difficulties. Not only under the ordinary difficulties in +dealing with a very complicated arrangement, but we have had to work in +the face of the most dire opposition on the part of a great number of +people who ought to have been the first to help us. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +Chairman has referred to the op<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1281" id="Page_1281">[Pg 1281]</a></span>position of the Press; but that has been +nothing to the opposition we have met with in our own profession—the +profession of ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, when great reforms were +begun in the Army by the ablest War Secretary who has ever been in +office—I mean Lord Cardwell. His name is now almost forgotten by the +present generation, and also the names of many other distinguished +officers in their day, whose names were associated with many of the +brightest moments of English victory and English conquest, and who set +their faces honestly against alteration, and firmly believed that the +young men of those days were a set of madmen and a set of Radicals who +were anxious to overturn not only the British Army, but the whole +British Constitution with it. [Laughter.] This prejudice spread into +high places, until at last we were looked upon as a party of faddists +who ought to be banished to the farthest part of our dominions. [Renewed +laughter.] But I am glad to say that the tree we planted then took root, +and there gradually grew up around us a body of young officers, men +highly instructed in their profession, who supported us, carried us +through, and enabled us to arrive at the perfection which, I think, we +have now attained. ["Hear! Hear!"]</p> + +<p>There has been abroad in the Army for a great many years an earnest +desire on the part of a large section, certainly, to make themselves +worthy of the Army and worthy of the nation by whom they were paid, and +for whose good they existed. That feeling has become more intensified +every year, and at the present moment, if you examine the Army List, you +will find that almost all the Staff Officers recently gone out to South +Africa have been educated at the Staff College, established to teach the +higher science of our profession and to educate a body of men who will +be able to conduct the military affairs of the country when it comes to +their turn to do so. Those men are now arriving at the top of the tree, +thank God! while many of those magnificent old soldiers under whom I was +brought up have disappeared from the face of the earth, and others who +are to be seen at the clubs have come round—they have been converted in +their last moments [laughter]; they have the frankness to tell you they +made a mistake. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1282" id="Page_1282">[Pg 1282]</a></span> recognize that they were wrong and that we were +right. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I quite endorse what the Chairman says about the success of the +mobilization, and I will slightly glance at the state of affairs as they +at present exist in South Africa. I have the advantage of having spent +some time in South Africa, and of having been—not only General +Commanding, but Governor and High Commissioner, with high-sounding +titles given me by her Majesty. I know, consequently, not only a little +of South Africa, but a good deal of Boer character. During my stay as +Governor of the Transvaal, I had many opportunities of knowing people +whom you have recently seen mentioned as the principal leaders in this +war against us. There are many traits in their character for which I +have the greatest possible admiration. They are a very strongly +conservative people—I do not mean in a political sense at all, but they +were, I found, anxious to preserve and conserve all that was best in the +institutions handed down to them from their forefathers. But of all the +ignorant people in that world that I have ever been brought into contact +with, I will back the Boers of South Africa as the most ignorant. At the +same time they are an honest people. When the last President of the +Transvaal handed over the government to us—and I may say, within +parentheses, that the last thing an Englishman would do under the +circumstances would be to look in the till—there was only 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> +to the credit of the Republic. [Laughter.] Within a few weeks or days of +the hoisting of the British flag in the Transvaal a bill for £4 10<i>s.</i> +4<i>d.</i> came in against the Boer Government, and was dishonored. [Renewed +laughter.] The Boers at that time—perhaps we did not manage them +properly—certainly set their face against us, and things have gone on +from bad to worse, until the aspiration now moving them is that they +should rule not only the Transvaal, but that they should rule the whole +of South Africa. That is the point which I think English people must +keep before them. There's no question about ruling the Transvaal or the +Orange Free State—the one great question that has to be fought out +between the Dutch in South Africa and the English race is, which is to +be the predominant Power—whether it is to be the Boer Republic or the +English Monarchy. [Cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1283" id="Page_1283">[Pg 1283]</a></span> Well, if I at all understand and know the +people of this nation, I can see but one end to it, and it will be the +end that we hope for and have looked for. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>But I would warn every man who takes an interest in this subject not to +imagine that war can be carried on like a game of chess or some other +game in which the most powerful intellect wins from the first. War is a +game of ups and downs, and you may rest assured that it is impossible to +read in history of any campaign that it has been a march of triumph from +beginning to end. Therefore, if at the present moment we are suffering +from disappointments, believe me, those disappointments are in many ways +useful to us. We have found that the enemy who declared war against +us—for they are the aggressors—are much more powerful and numerous +than we anticipated. But at the same time, believe me, that anything +that may have taken place lately to dishearten the English people has +had a good effect—it has brought us as a nation closer together. The +English-speaking people of the world have put their foot down, and +intend to carry this thing through, no matter what may be the +consequence. [Cheers.]</p> + +<p>I have the greatest possible confidence in British soldiers. I have +lived in their midst many years of my life, and I am quite certain of +this, that wherever their officers lead they will follow. If you look +over the list of our casualties lately, you will find that the British +officer has led them well. Certainly he has not spared himself; he has +not been in the background. [Cheers.] He has suffered unfortunately, and +expects to suffer, and ought to suffer; and I hope most sincerely and +truly, whatever may be in store for us, whatever battles there may be in +this war, that when we read the list of casualties there will be a very +large proportion of officers sufferers as well as men. It would be most +unworthy of our Army and of our nation if our officers did not lead, and +if they lead they must suffer as well as those who follow. I am +extremely obliged to you for the compliment that has been paid to me. It +has been a very great pleasure for me to come here. I had no idea I was +to listen to such an admirable speech from your Chairman. I thank you +sincerely for having listened to me, and hope you will make every +allowance for any defect in a speech which certainly had not been +prepared. [Loud cheers.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1284" id="Page_1284">[Pg 1284]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WU TING-FANG</h2> + + + + +<h4>CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Wu Ting-Fang, Chinese Minister to the United States, at +the annual dinner of the New York Southern Society, New York City, +February 22, 1899. William M. Polk, the President of the Society, +occupied the chair. Minister Wu responded to the sentiment, "To our +newest and nearest neighbor on our Western border, the most ancient +of Empires, which until now has always been in the Far East, and to +her distinguished diplomatic representative—<i>persona grata</i> to our +Government and to this Society."]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen</span>:—It is never too late to learn, and +since I have been here I have learned that my ancient country, which has +always been known as an Eastern country, has now turned to be a Western +country. I do not regret to hear this, because Western countries have +always been looked on as very powerful nations. [Applause.] In that +sense I would not be sorry to see my own country assume the position +that your Western countries have always taken. I do not know whether you +would wish to have your great Nation become an Eastern country in the +sense in which Eastern countries are popularly known.</p> + +<p>When the invitation to dine with you on this occasion was conveyed to me +I gladly accepted it because the occasion occurred on the anniversary of +the birth of George Washington, who is widely and popularly known as the +Father of your country. Long before I came to the United States as the +representative of my country, even when I was a boy, I had heard of +George Washington, and from what I could learn about him I formed a +profound respect for his name and memory. At this banquet you +appropriately recall to mind the noble character of your Wash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1285" id="Page_1285">[Pg 1285]</a></span>ington, +his great deeds, and his unselfish devotion to his country.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to know that time changes not only the opinions of +individuals and parties, but also the traditional policy of a nation. I +understood when I was a boy that the policy of George Washington was to +confine his attention and his ambition to the country in which he +governed. That policy has been followed by all of his successors up to +very recently. [Laughter and applause.] But the recent momentous events +have necessitated a new departure. You have been driven to a position +that you never dreamed of before. You have entered the path of +Expansion, or, as some call it, Imperialism.</p> + +<p>If I understand your chairman correctly, Imperialism practically means +the power and wisdom to govern. This is not the first time that I have +heard such a definition of imperialism. I once heard an eminent American +divine say that imperialism meant civilization—in an American sense. +[Laughter.] He also added the word liberty, and with your permission I +would like to make a still further addition: that is, fairness, and just +treatment of all classes of persons without distinction of race or +color. [Cheers.] Well, you have the Philippines ceded to you, and you +are hesitating whether to keep them or not. I see in that very fact of +your hesitation an indication of your noble character. Suppose a +precious gift entailing obligations is tendered to a man; he would +accept it without any thought or hesitation if he were wholly lacking in +principle; but you hesitate because of your high moral character, and +your sense of responsibility. I express no opinion as to whether or not +you should keep the Philippines. That is for you to decide. I am +confident that when this question has been thoroughly threshed out, you +will come to the right decision. I will say this: China must have a +neighbor; and it is my humble opinion that it is better to have a good +neighbor than an indifferent one.</p> + +<p>Should your country decide to keep the Philippines, what would be the +consequences? A large trade has been carried on for centuries between +those islands and China. Your trade would be greatly increased and to +your benefit. Aside from this the American trade in China has been +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1286" id="Page_1286">[Pg 1286]</a></span>creasing largely in the last few years. I have often been asked +whether we Chinamen are friendly to America. To show you how friendly we +are, I will tell you that we call your nation a "flowery flag" and that +we call your people "handsome." Such phrases clearly show that we are +favorably disposed toward you. If we did not like you, we would not have +given you such nice names. The officials of China, as well as the +people, like Americans, and our relations, officially and commercially, +are cordial.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one disturbing element—one unsatisfactory feature—I +refer to your Chinese Immigration law. Your people do not know and do +not understand my people. You have judged all of my people from the +Chinese in California. Your Chinese exclusion law has now been in +operation for fifteen or sixteen years, but it cannot be said to have +been satisfactory even to yourselves. Those laws were intended to keep +the Chinese cheap labor out of your country, but they have also kept out +the better class of my countrymen whom I am satisfied the laws did not +intend to exclude. I desire to throw no blame on any of your officials +for their zeal in enforcing the laws. They simply do their duty. But I +want to point out to you that those laws do not bring about the results +intended by your legislators. Besides, their existence gives the +impression in our country that your people do not like our people. I +personally know that is not so, but I would like to see this disturbing +element removed by a modification of the laws. Once remove that +disturbing element and our people would welcome your Americans to China +with open arms.</p> + +<p>As to the character of our people I can refer you only to those who have +been in China. I will refer you to the opinion of a man who for a great +many years was in China at the head of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank. +After twenty-five years' service, he resigned, and on the eve of his +departure he was given a banquet by foreigners, not by Chinese, mind; +and in the course of his speech he went out of his way to speak of his +relations with Chinese merchants. As I remember, the substance of his +speech was that during all those years in China, he had had dealings +with Chinese merchants aggregating hundreds of millions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1287" id="Page_1287">[Pg 1287]</a></span> of dollars, and +he said that, large as were those dealings, he had never lost a cent +through any Chinese merchant. That testimony was given unsolicited by a +man long resident in China, and shows indisputably the character of our +merchants.</p> + +<p>Now that you have become our neighbor, and if you want to deal with +China, here is the class of people you have to deal with; and if you see +your way clear to modify the only obstacle that now stands in the way of +respectable Chinese coming here, and doing away with the false +impression in the minds of our people, I have no doubt that such a step +would redound to the benefit of both parties. If you look at the returns +furnished by your consuls or by our customs returns, you will find that +your trade in China has increased to a remarkable degree. China is +constructing a railway from north to south, and she is practically an +open door for your trade purposes. There is a great field for you there; +and with all our people favorably disposed toward you, I am sure you +will receive further benefits through the means of still further +increased trade. [Loud applause.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1288" id="Page_1288">[Pg 1288]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WALTER WYMAN</h2> + + +<h4>SONS OF THE REVOLUTION</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Speech of Surgeon-General Walter Wyman at the banquet given in +Washington, D. C., February 22, 1900, by the Society of the Sons of +the Revolution in the District of Columbia.]</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>:—In behalf of the Society of the Sons of +the Revolution in the District of Columbia it becomes my pleasant duty +to bid you welcome on this occasion, the anniversary of the birthday of +George Washington, the Father of his country.</p> + +<p>The Society of the Sons of the Revolution was founded in 1883, in New +York, its purpose, as expressed by the Constitution, being "to +perpetuate the memory of the men, who, in the military, naval, and civic +service of the Colonies and of the Continental Congress, by their acts +and counsel achieved the independence of the Country." The New York +Society, to be historically correct, was instituted February 22, 1876, +but was reorganized in 1883, when the General Society was formed. State +Societies were subsequently formed in Alabama, California, Colorado, +Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, +Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, +Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, +State of Washington, and West Virginia, there being, therefore, +thirty-one State Societies, with a total membership of 6,031. The +District of Columbia Society was formed in 1889, and now numbers over +two hundred and fifty members.</p> + +<p>The object of these Societies is not, as some may im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1289" id="Page_1289">[Pg 1289]</a></span>agine, to indulge a +pride of ancestry, or to establish exclusive organizations with a +membership dependent upon the deeds of forefathers for its own +distinction, but rather to encourage and stimulate a desire for +knowledge of the problems which were presented to, and the circumstances +which confronted our revolutionary forefathers; to study their courage +and wisdom in council and their valor in war, which resulted in the +establishment of a Republic, the most potent in the history of the +world.</p> + +<p>The illumination of the past is useless unless its rays are made to +penetrate into the present, bestowing guidance and confidence. The +records of our forefathers, therefore, are brought forth and published +to the world, chiefly to stimulate ourselves to like courage and +devotion should occasion arise.</p> + +<p>The patriotism displayed by both the North and the South during the War +of the Rebellion, and the patriotism displayed during the recent +Spanish-American War, are evidences that true American spirit is as +strong to-day as it was in the days which gave birth to our Republic. +The associations now in existence, having their origin in the War of the +Rebellion and the Spanish-American War, are similar in their aim and +objects to the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. This Society seeks +to preserve the records of the founders of the Republic, to cause these +records to be published and preserved in permanent form—not only those +which are to be found in the archives of the Nation and of the States, +but fragmentary facts of vast interest, in the hands of private +individuals, which would otherwise become lost or forgotten. It erects +monuments to commemorate the lives of distinguished men, and mural +tablets to signalize important events; it establishes prize essays for +competition among school children on subjects relating to the American +Revolution, and seeks to inspire respect and affection for the flag of +the Union.</p> + +<p>The numerous celebrations and excursions to points of historical +interest, of the District of Columbia Society, within the past ten +years, must still be fresh in the minds of many among this audience. +Each Fourth of July, each Washington's Birthday, as well as on other +occasions within the past ten years, has this Society indulged in +patriotic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1290" id="Page_1290">[Pg 1290]</a></span> celebration. The celebration of to-day is of peculiar +significance. Questions, second only in importance to those which +confronted Washington, are before us. The Nation is entering upon a +career of influence and beneficence which even Washington never dreamed +of. Questions of government, involving the rights of men, the +responsibilities of the strong in their relations to the weak, the +promulgation of freedom without license, are problems facing the +American Congress and the people to-day. The force of events has +extended the responsibility of these United States to Cuba, Porto Rico, +Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa.</p> + +<p>During the events of the past two years every thinking man and woman +must have been impressed by the gravity of the problems with which our +present Chief Executive has been forced to grapple: problems that have +demanded of him many of the great qualities which distinguished our +first President. These problems involved a steady adherence to what is +right, a lofty patriotism sinking the individual in the consideration of +the public good. Firmness before the enemy, buoyancy and strength before +friends, and humility before the Creator who disposes of all things. +These are elements of character which not only distinguished George +Washington, but which I am only echoing public sentiment in saying +likewise have distinguished our present Chief Executive, and inspired an +affection for and a confidence in the name of William McKinley.</p> + +<p>It is peculiarly befitting at this time, therefore, to study those +characteristics of great men which enable them to meet great emergencies +and at the same time preserve their own simplicity and nobility of +character untainted by selfishness. Of the living we may not speak too +freely, but every act and sentiment of him "who by his unwearied +exertions in the cabinet and in the field achieved for us the glorious +revolution," is ours for contemplation and comment. Both time and place +are singularly appropriate. In this city bearing his name, facing the +noble shaft erected to his memory, within the territory which he most +frequented, and almost in sight of his stately home on the Potomac, it +is befitting that we here celebrate his natal day. [Prolonged applause.]</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Robert G. Ingersoll.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Jay Gould.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Translation</span>.—Will you kindly allow me to make my +speech in French? If I address you in a tongue that I do not speak, and +that no one here understands, I must lay the entire blame on that +unfortunate example of Mr. Coudert. What I desire to say is—</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Translation</span>.—When the heart is full it overflows, +and this evening my heart is full of France, but—</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Henry W. Grady.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Glaucopis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Allusion to John T. Hoffman, who occupied the post of +Recorder previous to his election as Mayor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Mrs. Ripley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Charles Cotesworth Beaman.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Horace Porter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Harriet Beecher Stowe, died July 1, 1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Abraham Lincoln.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Professor Woodrow Wilson was, at the suggestion of the +retiring president (Francis Landey Patton) of Princeton University, +unanimously elected to fill his place as president, June 9, 1902.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol III, +After-Dinner Speeches P-Z, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + +***** This file should be named 18422-h.htm or 18422-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/2/18422/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 19, 2006 [EBook #18422] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + MODERN ELOQUENCE + + + LIBRARY OF + + AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, LECTURES + + OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES + + + + + [Illustration: _PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN_ + + _Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. Potts_ + + An admirable conception of the old story of an early Puritan courtship + famous in song and story, and made use of by many New England orators.] + + + + + MODERN + + ELOQUENCE + + + EDITOR + + THOMAS B REED + + JUSTIN McCARTHY . ROSSITER JOHNSON + + ALBERT ELLERY BERGH + + + ASSOCIATE EDITORS + + + + VOLUME III + + After-Dinner + + Speeches + + P-Z + + + GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO. + CHICAGO + Copyright, 1903 + JOHN R SHUMAN + + + + + _COMMITTEE OF SELECTION_ + + + EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Author of "The Man Without a Country." + + JOHN B. GORDON, Former United States Senator. + + NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, Associate Editor "International Library of + Famous Literature." + + JAMES B. POND, Manager Lecture Bureau; Author of "Eccentricities of + Genius." + + GEORGE McLEAN HARPER, Professor of English Literature, Princeton + University. + + LORENZO SEARS, Professor of English Literature, Brown University. + + EDWIN M. BACON, Former Editor "Boston Advertiser" and "Boston Post." + + J. WALKER McSPADDEN, Managing Editor "Edition Royale" of Balzac's + Works. + + F. CUNLIFFE OWEN, Member Editorial Staff "New York Tribune." + + TRUMAN A. DEWEESE, Member Editorial Staff "Chicago Times-Herald." + + CHAMP CLARK, Member of Congress from Missouri. + + MARCUS BENJAMIN, Editor, National Museum, Washington, D. C. + + CLARK HOWELL, Editor "Atlanta Constitution." + + + INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES BY + + THOMAS B. REED, + LORENZO SEARS, + CHAMP CLARK, + HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, + JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER, + EDWARD EVERETT HALE, + ALBERT ELLERY BERGH. + + NOTE.--A large number of the most distinguished speakers of + this country and Great Britain have selected their own best speeches for + this Library. These speakers include Whitelaw Reid, William Jennings + Bryan, Henry van Dyke, Henry M. Stanley, Newell Dwight Hillis, Joseph + Jefferson, Sir Henry Irving, Arthur T. Hadley, John D. Long, David Starr + Jordan, and many others of equal note. + + + + + _CONTENTS_ + + VOLUME III + + + PAGE + PAGE, THOMAS NELSON + The Torch of Civilization 861 + + PALMER, GEORGE M. + The Lawyer in Politics 872 + + PALMERSTON, LORD (HENRY JOHN TEMPLE) + Illusions Created by Art 876 + + PAXTON, JOHN R. + A Scotch-Irishman's Views of the Puritan 880 + + PHELPS, EDWARD JOHN + Farewell Address 887 + + PINERO, ARTHUR WING + The Drama 892 + + PORTER, HORACE + Men of Many Inventions 897 + How to Avoid the Subject 904 + A Trip Abroad with Depew 908 + Woman 913 + Friendliness of the French 919 + The Citizen Soldier 924 + The Many-Sided Puritan 928 + Abraham Lincoln 931 + Sires and Sons 935 + The Assimilated Dutchman 939 + Tribute to General Grant 944 + + PORTER, NOAH + Teachings of Science and Religion 950 + + POTTER, HENRY CODMAN + The Church 955 + + PRYOR, ROGER ATKINSON + Virginia's Part in American History 959 + + QUINCY, JOSIAH + Welcome to Dickens 964 + + RAYMOND, ANDREW V. V. + The Dutch as Enemies 970 + + READ, OPIE P. + Modern Fiction 976 + + REID, WHITELAW + The Press--Right or Wrong 979 + Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader 981 + + ROBBINS, W. L. + The Pulpit and the Bar 985 + + ROCHE, JAMES JEFFREY + The Press 988 + + ROOSA, D. B. ST. JOHN + The Salt of the Earth 992 + + ROOSEVELT, THEODORE + The Hollander as an American 998 + True Americanism and Expansion 1002 + + ROSEBERY, LORD (ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) + Portrait and Landscape Painting 1008 + + SALA, GEORGE AUGUSTUS + Friend and Foe 1014 + + SALISBURY, LORD + (ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOYNE-CECIL) + Kitchener in Africa 1018 + + SAMPSON, WILLIAM THOMAS + Victory in Superior Numbers 1023 + + SCHENCK, NOAH HUNT + Truth and Trade 1026 + + SCHLEY, WINFIELD SCOTT + The Navy in Peace and in War 1031 + + SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH + The Beginnings of Art 1034 + + SCHURZ, CARL + The Old World and the New 1036 + + SEWARD, WILLIAM H. + A Pious Pilgrimage 1042 + + SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH + The Army and Navy 1046 + A Reminiscence of the War 1051 + + SMITH, BALLARD + The Press of the South 1057 + + SMITH, CHARLES EMORY + Ireland's Struggles 1059 + The President's Prelude 1062 + + SPENCER, HERBERT + The Gospel of Relaxation 1067 + + STANLEY, ARTHUR PENRHYN + America Visited 1073 + + STANLEY, HENRY MORTON + Through the Dark Continent 1077 + + STEDMAN, EDMUND CLARENCE + Tribute to Richard Henry Stoddard 1085 + + STEPHEN, LESLIE + The Critic 1091 + + STORRS, RICHARD SALTER + The Victory at Yorktown 1094 + + STRYKER, WILLIAM SCUDDER + Dutch Heroes of the New World 1104 + + SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR + Music 1108 + + SUMNER, CHARLES + Intercourse with China 1110 + The Qualities that Win 1115 + + TALMAGE, THOMAS DEWITT + Behold the American! 1122 + What I Know about the Dutch 1128 + + TAYLOR, BAYARD + Tribute to Goethe 1136 + + THOMPSON, SLASON + The Ethics of the Press 1139 + + TILTON, THEODORE + Woman 1142 + + TWICHELL, JOSEPH HOPKINS + Yankee Notions 1147 + The Soldier Stamp 1153 + + TYNDALL, JOHN + Art and Science 1160 + + VAN DE WATER, GEORGE ROE + Dutch Traits 1162 + + VERDERY, MARION J. + The South in Wall Street 1168 + + WALES, PRINCE OF (ALBERT EDWARD) + The Colonies 1175 + + WALLACE, HUGH C. + The Southerner in the West 1178 + + WARD, SAMUEL BALDWIN + The Medical Profession 1182 + + WARNER, CHARLES DUDLEY + The Rise of "The Atlantic" 1186 + + WATTERSON, HENRY + Our Wives 1189 + The Puritan, and the Cavalier 1191 + + WAYLAND, HEMAN LINCOLN + The Force of Ideas 1197 + Causes of Unpopularity 1201 + + WEBSTER, DANIEL + The Constitution and the Union 1210 + + WHEELER, JOSEPH + The American Soldier 1220 + + WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY + China Emerging from Her Isolation 1225 + The Sphere of Woman 1229 + + WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON + Commerce and Diplomacy 1232 + + WILEY, HARVEY WASHINGTON + The Ideal Woman 1240 + + WILSON, WOODROW + Our Ancestral Responsibilities 1248 + + WINSLOW, JOHN + The First Thanksgiving Day 1253 + + WINTER, WILLIAM + Tribute to John Gilbert 1257 + Tribute to Lester Wallack 1260 + + WINTHROP, ROBERT C. + The Ottoman Empire 1263 + + WISE, JOHN SERGEANT + Captain John Smith 1266 + The Legal Profession 1271 + + WOLCOTT, EDWARD OLIVER + The Bright Land to Westward 1273 + + WOLSELEY, LORD (GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY) + The Army in the Transvaal 1280 + + WU TING-FANG + China and the United States 1284 + + WYMAN, WALTER + Sons of the Revolution 1288 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + VOLUME III + + PAGE + + PRISCILLA AND JOHN ALDEN _Frontispiece_ + Photogravure after a painting by Lasalett J. + Potts + + "LAW" 872 + Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic + panel by Frederick Dielman + + HORACE PORTER 897 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + THE MINUTE MAN 936 + Photogravure after a photograph + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT 998 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + LORD ROSEBERY (ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) 1008 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + HENRY WATTERSON 1189 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS 1210 + Photogravure after a photograph + + + + +THOMAS NELSON PAGE + + +THE TORCH OF CIVILIZATION + + [Speech of Thomas Nelson Page at the twentieth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1899. The + President, Frederic A. Ward, said: "In these days of blessed amity, + when there is no longer a united South or a disunited North, when + the boundary of the North is the St. Lawrence and the boundary of + the South the Rio Grande, and Mason and Dixon's Line is forever + blotted from the map of our beloved country, and the nation has + grown color-blind to blue and gray, it is with peculiar pleasure + that we welcome here to-night a distinguished and typical + representative of that noble people who live in that part of the + present North that used to be called Dixie, of whom he has himself + so beautifully and so truly said, 'If they bore themselves + haughtily in their hour of triumph, they bore defeat with splendid + fortitude. Their entire system crumbled and fell around them in + ruins; they remained unmoved; they suffered the greatest + humiliation of modern times; their slaves were put over them; they + reconquered their section and preserved the civilization of the + Anglo-Saxon.' It is not necessary, ladies and gentlemen, that I + should introduce the next speaker to you, for I doubt not that you + all belong to the multitude of mourners, who have wept real tears + with black Sam and Miss Annie beside the coffin of Marse Chan; but + I will call upon our friend, Thomas Nelson Page, to respond to the + next toast, 'The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the Other.'"] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I did not remember that I had written +anything as good as that which my friend has just quoted. It sounded to +me, as he quoted it, very good indeed. At any rate, it is very true, +and, perhaps, that it is true is the reason that you have done me the +honor to invite me here to-night. I have been sitting for an hour in +such a state of tremulousness and fright, facing this audience I was to +address, that the ideas I had carefully gathered together have, I fear, +rather taken flight; but I shall give them to you as they come, though +they may not be in quite as good order as I should like them. The gift +of after-dinner speaking is one I heard illustrated the other day very +well at a dinner at which my friend, Judge Bartlett and I were present. +A gentleman told a story of an English bishop travelling in a +third-class railway carriage with an individual who was swearing most +tremendously, originally, and picturesquely, till finally the bishop +said to him: "My dear sir, where in the world did you learn to swear in +that extraordinary manner?" And he said, "It can't be learned, it is a +gift." After-dinner speaking is a gift I have often envied, ladies and +gentlemen, and as I have not it I can only promise to tell you what I +really think on the subject which I am here to speak about to-night. + +I feel that in inviting me here as the representative of the South to +speak on this occasion, I could not do you any better honor than to tell +you precisely what I do think and what those, I in a manner represent, +think; and I do not know that our views would differ very materially +from yours. I could not, if I would, undertake merely to be entertaining +to you. I am very much in that respect like an old darky I knew of down +in Virginia, who on one occasion was given by his mistress some +syllabub. It was spiced a little with--perhaps--New England rum, or +something quite as strong that came from the other side of Mason and +Dixon's Line, but still was not very strong. When he got through she +said, "How did you like that?" He said, "If you gwine to gimme foam, +gimme foam; but if you gwine to gimme dram, gimme dram." You do not want +from me syllabub I am sure. + +When I came here I had no idea that I was to address so imposing an +assemblage as this. I had heard about forefathers and knew that there +were foremothers also, but did not know that they were going to grace +this assembly with their presence as they do to-night. When a youngster, +I was told by an old gentleman, before the day of the unhappy +stenographer, "You can go out in the world all right if you have four +speeches. If you have one for the Fourth of July, one for a tournament +address, one to answer the toast to 'Woman,' and the fourth 'to sweep +all creation.'" I thought of bringing with me my Fourth of July speech. +If I had known I was going to address this audience I would have +brought along the one that answered the toast to "Woman." + +But I do not know any man in the world better prepared to address you on +the subject of my toast, "The Debt Each Part of the Country Owes the +Other," than myself, for I married a lady from the North. She +represented in her person the blood both of Virginia and of New England. +Her mother was a Virginian and her father a gentleman from New +Hampshire; consequently, as I have two young daughters, who always +declare themselves Yankees, I am here to speak with due gratitude to +both sections, and with strong feeling for both sections to-night. + +It seems to me that the two sections which we have all heard talked +about so much in the past, have been gradually merging into one, and +Heaven knows I hope there may never be but one again. In the nature of +things it was impossible at first that there could be only one, but of +late the one great wall that divided them has passed away, and, standing +here facing you to-night, I feel precisely as I should if I were +standing facing an audience of my own dear Virginians. There is no +longer division among us. They say that the South became reconciled and +showed its loyalty to the Union first at the time of the war with Spain. +It is not true; the South became reconciled and showed its loyalty to +the Union after Appomattox. When Lee laid down his arms and accepted the +terms of the magnanimous Grant, the South rallied behind him, and he +went to teach peace and amity and union to his scholars at Lexington, to +the sons of his old soldiers. It is my pride that I was one of the +pupils at that university, which bears the doubly-honored names of +Washington and Lee. He taught us only fealty to the Union and to the +flag of the Union. He taught us also that we should never forget the +flag under which our fathers fought during the Civil War. With it are +embalmed the tears, the holy memories that cluster thick around our +hearts, and I should be unworthy to stand and talk to you to-night as an +honorable man if I did not hold in deepest reverence that flag that +represented the spirit that actuated our fathers. It stood for the +principles of liberty, and, strange as it may seem, both sides, though +fighting under different banners, fought for the same principles seen +from different sides. It has not interfered with our loyalty to the +Union since that flag was furled. + +I do not, however, mean to drift into that line of thought. I do not +think that it is really in place here to-night, but I want you to know +how we feel at the South. Mason and Dixon's Line is laid down on no map +and no longer laid down in the memory of either side. The Mason and +Dixon's Line of to-day is that which circumscribes this great Union, +with all its advantages, all its hopes, and all its aspirations. This is +the Mason and Dixon's Line for us to-day, and as a representative of the +South, I am here to speak to you on that account. We do owe--these two +sections do owe--each other a great deal. But I will tell you what we +owe each other more, perhaps, than anything else. When this country was +settled for us it was with sparsely scattered settlements, ranging along +the Atlantic coast. When the first outside danger threatened it, the two +sections immediately drew together. New England had formed her own +confederation, and at the South the Carolinas and Virginia had a +confederation of their own, though not so compact; but the first thing +formed when danger threatened this country was a committee of safety, +which immediately began correspondence among the several colonies, and +it was the fact that these very colonies stood together in the face of +danger, shoulder to shoulder, and back to back, that enabled us to +achieve what we did achieve. + +Standing here, on this great anniversary at the very end of the century, +facing the new century, it is impossible that one should not look back, +and equally impossible that one should not look forward. We are just at +the close of what we call, and call rightly, a century of great +achievements. We pride ourselves upon the work this country has +accomplished. We point to a government based upon the consent of the +governed, such as the world has never seen; wealth which has been piled +up such as no country has ever attained within that time, or double or +quadruple that time. It is such a condition of life as never existed in +any other country. From Mount Desert to the Golden Gate, yes, from the +islands which Columbus saw, thinking he had found the East Indies, to +the East Indies themselves, where, even as I speak, the American flag +is being planted, our possessions and our wealth extend. We have, though +following the arts of peace, an army ready to rise at the sound of the +bugle greater than Rome was ever able to summon behind her golden +eagles. We are right to call it a century of achievement. We pride +ourselves upon it. Now, who achieved that? Not we, personally; our +fathers achieved it; your fathers and my fathers; your fathers, when +they left England and set their prows westward and landed upon the +rock-bound coast; when they drew up their compact of civil government, +which was a new thing in the history of the world. We did our part in +the South, and when the time came they staked all that they had upon the +principle of a government based only upon the consent of the governed. + +We pride ourselves upon the fact that we can worship God according to +the dictates of our own conscience. We speak easily of God, "whose +service is perfect freedom," but it was not we, but our fathers who +achieved that. Our fathers "left us an heritage, and it has brought +forth abundantly." + +I say this to draw clearly the line between mere material wealth and +that which is the real wealth and welfare of a people. We are rich, but +our fathers were poor. How did they achieve it? Not by their wealth, but +by their character--by their devotion to principle. When I was thinking +of the speech I was to make here to-night, I asked the descendant of a +New Englander what he would say was the best thing that the fathers had +left to the country. He thought for a second and made me a wise answer. +He said, "I think it was their character." That is indeed the heritage +they left us; they left us their character. Wealth will not preserve +that which they left us; not wealth, not power, not "dalliance nor wit" +will preserve it; nothing but that which is of the spirit will preserve +it, nothing but character. + +The whole story of civilization speaks this truth with trumpet voice. +One nation rises upon the ruins of another nation. It is when Samson +lies in the lap of Delilah that the enemy steals upon him and ensnares +him and binds him. It was when the great Assyrian king walked through +his palace, and looking around him said in his pride, "Is not this great +Babylon that I have built for the honor of the kingdom and for the honor +of my majesty?" that the voice came to him, even while the words were in +the king's mouth (saith the chronicle), "Thy kingdom is departed from +thee." It was when Belshazzar sat feasting in his Babylonian palace, +with his lords and ladies, eating and drinking out of the golden vessels +that had been sacred to the Lord, that the writing came upon the wall, +"Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Not only in the +palace, but all through the great city there was feasting and dancing. +Why should they not feast and why should they not dance? They were +secure, with walls that were 350 feet high, eighty-five feet thick, with +a hundred brazen gates, the city filled with greater wealth than had +ever been brought before within walls. But out in the country a few +hardy mountaineers had been digging ditches for some time. Nobody took +much account of them, yet even that night, in the midst of Belshazzar's +luxury and feasting, the veteran troops of Cyrus were marching silently +under the dripping walls, down the bed of the lowered Euphrates, so that +that which had been the very passageway of Babylon's wealth became the +pathway of her ruin. + +Unless we preserve the character and the institutions our fathers gave +us we will go down as other nations have gone. We may talk and theorize +as much as we please, but this is the law of nature--the stronger pushes +the weaker to the wall and takes its place. + +In the history of civilization first one nation rises and becomes the +torch-bearer, and then another takes the torch as it becomes stronger, +the stronger always pushing the weaker aside and becoming in its turn +the leader. So it has been with the Assyrian, and Babylonian, and +Median, and, coming on down, with the Greek, the Roman, the Frank, and +then came that great race, the Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic race, which seems to +me to-day to be the great torch-bearer for this and for the next coming +time. Each nation that has borne the torch of civilization has followed +some path peculiarly its own. Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, +Frank, all had their ideal of power--order and progress directed under +Supreme authority, maintained by armed organization. We bear the torch +of civilization because we possess the principles of civil liberty, and +we have the character, or should have the character, which our fathers +have transmitted to us with which to uphold it. If we have it not, then +be sure that with the certainty of a law of nature some nation--it may +be one or it may be another--it may be Grecian or it may be Slav, +already knocking at our doors, will push us from the way, and take the +torch and bear it onward, and we shall go down. + +But I have no fear of the future. I think, looking around upon the +country at present, that even if it would seem to us at times that there +are gravest perils which confront us, that even though there may be +evidence of weakening in our character, notwithstanding this I say, I +believe the great Anglo-Saxon race, not only on the other side of the +water, but on this side of the water--and when I say the Anglo-Saxon +race I mean the great white, English-speaking race--I use the other term +because there is none more satisfactory to me--contains elements which +alone can continue to be the leaders of civilization, the elements of +fundamental power, abiding virtue, public and private. Wealth will not +preserve a state; it must be the aggregation of individual integrity in +its members, in its citizens, that shall preserve it. That integrity, I +believe, exists, deep-rooted among our people. Sometimes when I read +accounts of vice here and there eating into the heart of the people, I +feel inclined to be pessimistic; but when I come face to face with the +American and see him in his life, as he truly is; when I reflect on the +great body of our people that stretch from one side of this country to +the other, their homes perched on every hill and nestled in every +valley, and recognize the sterling virtue and the kind of character that +sustains it, built on the rock of those principles that our fathers +transmitted to us, my pessimism disappears and I know that not only for +this immediate time but for many long generations to come, with that +reservoir of virtue to draw from, we shall sustain and carry both +ourselves and the whole human race forward. + +There are many problems that confront us which we can only solve by the +exercise of our utmost courage and wisdom. I do not want anything I say +here this evening to have in the least degree the complexion of a +political talk. I am like a friend of mine down in Virginia who told me +that he never could talk politics with a man, "Because," he says, "I am +that sort of a blanked fool that thinks if a man disagrees with him in +politics he has insulted him." Consequently, I am not discussing this +matter in any political sense whatever. But I feel quite sure, though I +see many men whose opinion I respect who disagree with me, that yet this +great people of ours is strong enough to carry through any obligations +whatever which they may take up. I have no fear, however it may cause +trouble, or may create difference and complication, of our extending our +flag in the way we have done of late. I know that I differ with a very +considerable section of the people of the South from whom I come, but I +have no question whatever that we possess the strength to maintain any +obligation that we assume, and I feel sure that in the coming years this +great race of ours will have shown strength and resolution enough not +only to preserve itself, to preserve the great heritage our fathers have +given us of civil liberty here, but also to carry it to the isles of the +sea, and, if necessary, to the nations beyond the sea. Of one thing I am +very sure, that had our fathers been called on to solve this problem +they would have solved it, not in the light of a hundred years ago, but +in that of the present. + +Among the problems that confront us we have one great problem, already +alluded to indirectly to-night. You do not have it here in the North as +we have it with us in the South, and yet, I think, it is a problem that +vitally concerns you too. There is no problem that can greatly affect +one section of this country that does not affect the other. As I came +into your city to-night I saw your great structure across the river +here, binding the two great cities together and making them one, and I +remember that as I came the last time into your beautiful bay down +yonder, I saw what seemed to be a mere web of gossamer, a bare hand's +breadth along the horizon. It seemed as if I might have swept it away +with my hand if I could have reached it, so airy and light it was in the +distance, but when I came close to it to-night I found that it was one +of the greatest structures that human intellect has ever devised. I saw +it thrilling and vibrating with every energy of our pulsating, modern +life. At a distance it looked as if the vessels nearest would strike it, +full head, and carry it away. When I reached it I saw that it was so +high, so vast, that the traffic of your great stream passed easily +backward and forward under it. So it is with some of these problems. +They may appear very small to you, ladies and gentlemen, or to us, when +seen at a distance--as though merely a hand-sweep would get rid of them; +but I tell you they are too vast to be moved easily. + +There is one that with us overshadows all the rest. The great +Anglo-Saxon race in the section of this country containing the +inhabitants of the South understands better than you do the gravity of +that great problem which confronts them. It is "like the pestilence that +walketh in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday." It +confronts us all the day; it is the spectre that ever sits beside our +bed. No doubt we make mistakes about it; no doubt there are outbreaks +growing out of some phases of it that astound, and shock, and stun you, +as they do ourselves. But believe me, the Anglo-Saxon race has set +itself, with all its power, to face it and to overcome it; to solve it +in some way, and in the wisest way. Have patience and it will be solved. +Time is the great solver, and time alone. If you knew the problem as I +do, my words would have more weight with you than they have. I cannot, +perhaps, expect you even to understand entirely what I am saying to you, +but when I tell you that it is the greatest problem that at present +faces the South, as it has done for the last thirty years, I am saying +it to you as an American--one of yourselves, who wants to get at the +right, and get at the truth, and who will get on his knees and thank God +for anyone who will tell him how to solve the problem and meet the +dangers that are therein. + +Those dangers are not only for us, they are for you. The key to it, in +our opinion, is that to which I alluded but just now; that for the +present, at least, the white race is the torch-bearer of civilization, +not only for itself, but for the world. There is only one thing that I +can say assuredly, and that is that never again will that element of the +white race, the white people of the South, any more than you of the +North, consent to be dominated by any weaker race whatsoever. And on +this depends your salvation, no less than ours. Some of you may remember +that once, during that great siege of Petersburg, which resulted, in the +beginning of April, 1865, in the capture of the city and the overthrow +of the Confederacy, there was an attempt made to mine the hitherto +impregnable lines of General Lee. Finally, one cold morning, the mine +was sprung, and a space perhaps double the length of one of your squares +was blown up, carrying everything adjacent into the air and making a +breach in the lines. Beside a little stream under the hill in the Union +lines was massed a large force, a section of which, in front, was +composed of negroes. They were hurried forward to rush the breach that +had been created. They were wild with the ardor of battle. As it +happened, a part of the gray line which had held the adjacent trenches, +knowing the peril, had thrown themselves, in the dim dawn of the +morning, across the newly made breach, and when they found the colored +troops rushing in they nerved themselves anew to the contest. I may say +to you calmly, after thirty odd years of experience with the negro race, +that it was well for the town of Petersburg that morning that that +attempt to carry the lines failed. That thin gray line there in the gray +dawn set themselves to meet the on-rushing columns and hold them till +knowledge of the attack spread and succor arrived. You may not agree +with me that what happened at that time is happening now; but I tell you +as one who has stood on the line, that we are not only holding it for +ourselves, but for you. It is the white people of the South that are +standing to-day between you and the dread problem that now confronts us. +They are the thin line of Anglo-Saxons who are holding the broken breach +with all their might till succor comes. And I believe the light will +come, the day will break and you yourselves stand shoulder to shoulder +with us, and then with this united, great American people we can face +not only the colored race at the South, but we can face all other races +of the world. That is what I look for and pray for, and there are many +millions of people who are doing the same to-night. + +Ladies and gentlemen, I am not speaking in any spirit which I think +will challenge your serious criticism. We are ready to do all we can to +accord full justice to that people. I have many, many friends among +them. I know well what we owe to that race in the past. I am their +sincere well-wisher in the present and for the future. They are more +unfortunate than to blame; they have been misdirected, deceived. Not +only the welfare of the white people of the South and the welfare of the +white people of the North, but the salvation of the negro himself +depends upon the carrying out, in a wise way, the things which I have +outlined, very imperfectly, I know. When that shall be done we will find +the African race in America, instead of devoting its energies to the +uncomprehended and futile political efforts which have been its curse in +the past, devoting them to the better arts of peace, and then from that +race will come intellects and intellectual achievements which may +challenge and demand the recognition of the world. Then those intellects +will come up and take their places and be accorded their places, not +only willingly, but gladly. This is already the new line along which +they are advancing, and their best friends can do them no greater +service than to encourage and assist them in it; their worst enemy could +do them no greater injury than to deflect them from it. + +This is a very imperfect way, I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of +presenting the matter, but I hope you will accept it and believe that I +am sincere in it. Accept my assurance of the great pleasure I have had +in coming here this evening. + +I remember, when I was a boy, hearing your great fellow-townsman, Mr. +Beecher, in a lecture in Richmond, speak of this great city as "The +round-house of New York," in which, he said, the machinery that drove +New York and moved the world was cleaned and polished every night. I am +glad to be here, where you have that greatest of American achievements, +the American home and the American spirit. May it always be kept pure +and always at only the right fountains have its strength renewed. +[Prolonged applause.] + + + + +GEORGE M. PALMER + + +THE LAWYER IN POLITICS + + [Speech of George M. Palmer at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, given in Albany, January 18, 1899. President + Walter S. Logan introduced Mr. Palmer in the following words: "The + next speaker is the Hon. George M. Palmer, minority leader of the + Assembly. [Applause.] He is going to speak on 'The Lawyer in + Politics,' and I am very glad to assure you that his politics are + of the right kind."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW +YORK:--Through the generous impulse of your committee I enjoy the +privilege of responding to this toast. I was informed some four weeks +ago I would be called upon, the committee thinking I would require that +time in preparation, and I have devoted the entire time since in +preparing the address for this occasion. "The Lawyer in Politics." The +first inquiry of the lawyer and politician is, "What is there in it?" +[Laughter.] I mean by that, the lawyer says in a dignified way, "What +principle is involved, and how can I best serve my client, always +forgetting myself?" The politician, and not the statesman, says, "What +is in it?" Not for himself, oh, never. Not the lawyer in politics; but +"What is there in it for the people I represent? How can I best serve +them?" + +You may inquire what is there in this toast for you. Not very much. You +remember the distinguished jurist who once sat down to a course dinner +similar to this. He had been waited on by one servant during two +courses. He had had the soup. Another servant came to him and said, +"Sir, shall I take your order? Will you have some of the chicken soup?" +"No, sir; I have been served with chicken soup, but the chicken proved +an alibi." [Laughter.] A distinguished judge in this presence said he +was much indebted to the Bar. I am very glad to say that the lawyer in +politics formed a resolution on the first day of last January to square +himself with the Bar, and he now stands without any debt. [Laughter.] I +remember a reference made by the distinguished gentleman to a case that +was tried by a young, struggling attorney. I also remember a young judge +who appeared in one of the rural counties, who sat and heard a case very +similar to the one to which reference was made, and I remember the fight +of the giants before him. Points were raised of momentous importance. +They were to affect the policy of the State. One lawyer insisted upon +the correctness of an objection and succeeded. He felt so elated over +that success he in a short time objected again, and the judge ruled +against him, but in his ardor he argued with the court. "Why, I can't +conceive why you make this ruling." "Why," the judge says, "I have just +ruled with you once, I must rule with the other fellow this time." +[Laughter.] + + +[Illustration: REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE LIBRARY OF +CONGRESS, WASHINGTON + + +_"LAW"_ + +_Photo-engraving in colors after the original mosaic panel by Frederick +Dielman_ + + +The mosaics by Mr. Dielman are remarkable for their wealth of color and +detail--properties so elusive as to defy the reproducer's art. But the +picture here given preserves the fundamental idea of the artist. "Law" +is typified by the central figure of a woman seated on a marble throne +and holding in one hand the sword of punishment, and in the other the +palm branch of reward. She wears on her breast the AEgis of Minerva. On +the steps of the throne are the scales of Justice, the book of Law and +the white doves of Mercy. On her right are the emblematic figures of +Truth, Peace, and Industry, on her left are Fraud, Discord, and +Violence. "Law" is a companion piece to "History."] + + + +"The Lawyer in Politics." It is sometimes a question which way the +lawyer will start when he enters politics. I remember reading once of a +distinguished lawyer who had a witness upon the stand. He was +endeavoring to locate the surroundings of a building in which an +accident occurred, and he had put a female witness on the stand. "Now +the location of the door: please give it," and she gave it in a timid +way. "Will you now kindly give the location of the hall in which the +accident occurred?" She gave it. "Now," he says, "we have arrived at the +stairs; will you kindly tell me which way the stairs run?" She became a +little nervous and she says, "I will tell you the best I can; if you are +at the foot of the stairs they run up, and if you are to the top of the +stairs they run down." [Laughter.] So sometimes it is pretty important +to find out which way the lawyer is going when he enters in politics. He +should be tried and tested before being permitted to enter politics, in +my judgment, and while the State is taking upon itself the paternal +control of all our professions and business industries, it seems to me +they should have a civil service examination for the lawyer before he +enters the realm of politics. + +A lawyer that I heard of, coming from a county down the river--a county +that has produced distinguished judges who have occupied positions on +the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the State--said of a +lawyer there who had been in politics, that he had started with bright +prospects, but had become indebted to the Bar during his period in +politics. He had gone back and had taken up the small cases, and yet in +his sober moments it was said the sparks of genius still exhibited +themselves at times. He was called upon to defend a poor woman at one +time who was arrested by a heartless corporation for stealing a lot of +their coal. He sobered up and squared himself before the jury, conducted +the examination of the case and the trial of it, and in a magnificent +burst of eloquence the case went to the jury. And after the jury +retired, he sat, while they deliberated, by his client. And finally the +jury came in. The foreman rose and said that "The jury find the +defendant not guilty." The distinguished lawyer, in the presence of the +crowd and jury, and justice of the peace, straightened back in his +chair. "My dear Miss Smith, you are again a free woman. No longer the +imputation of this heinous crime rests upon you. You may go from this +court-room as free as the bird that pinions its wings and flies toward +the heavens, to kiss the first ray of the morning sunshine. You may go +as free as that bird, but before you go pay me that $3.00 you owe me on +account." [Laughter.] What I mean to enforce by this is that the lawyer +who is in politics solely for the $3.00 is not a safe man to intrust +with political power. + +Judge Baldwin, of Indiana, it is said, in giving his advice to lawyers +upon one occasion, told them that the course to be pursued by a lawyer +was first to get on, second to get honor, and third to get honest. +[Laughter.] A man who follows that policy in my judgment is not such a +lawyer as should be let loose in politics. Rather, it seems to me, that +the advice to give to lawyers, and the principle to follow is, first to +be honest, second to get on, and third, upon this broad basis, get honor +if you can. [Applause.] It is unnecessary for me at this time to refer +to the distinguished men who have entered politics from the profession +of the law. I could point to those who have occupied the highest +positions in the gift of the people, who have been the chief executives +of this great Nation, and who have stood in the halls of Congress, and +in the legislative halls of our various States, and in these important +positions have helped formulate the fundamental principles which to-day +govern us as a free people, and upon which the ark of our freedom rests. +I believe that while in the past opportunities have presented themselves +for lawyers in politics, yet no time was ever more favorable than now, +when it seems to me that the service of the Bar is required in helping +shape the policies and destinies of our country. We are confronted with +new conditions, with new propositions, and it seems to me that the man +who is learned in the law, who, as was once said of the great Peel, that +his entire course in life, in and out of the profession, was guided by +the desire to do right and justice, should aid in our adjustment to +these new conditions. + +Professional men who are superior to the fascination of power, or the +charms of wealth, men who do not employ their power solely for +self-aggrandizement, but devote their energies in favor of the public +weal, are men who should be found in the councils of the State. Ours is +the country and this the occasion when patriotism and legal learning are +at a premium. + +In the settling of the policy of the United States with reference to +territory recently acquired, lawyers are destined to play a leading +part. They are very well fitted to appreciate the fundamental principles +of a free government and of human liberty. It seems the patriotic duty +of the lawyer to give the country the benefit of his study and +experience, not as a mere politician, but as a high-minded and learned +statesman and citizen of our common country. + +This is the time when high-minded, learned, and professional men should +assist to plant and protect the flower of our American policy under our +new conditions so that the fruitage of our system may be naturalized in +new fields as a correct policy. + +Duty, therefore, seems to call the lawyer to the councils of State. Our +Country is his client, her perpetuity will be his retainer, fee, and +compensation. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD PALMERSTON + +(HENRY JOHN TEMPLE) + + +ILLUSIONS CREATED BY ART + + [Speech of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister + of England 1859-1865, at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, + London, May 2, 1863. Sir Charles Eastlake, the President of the + Royal Academy, said, in introducing Lord Palmerston: "I now have + the honor to propose the health of one who is entitled to the + respect and gratitude of the friends of science and art, the + promoters of education and the upholders of time-honored + institutions. I have the honor to propose the health of Viscount + Palmerston."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--I need not, I am certain, assure you that nothing can +be more gratifying to the feelings of any man than to receive that +compliment which you have been pleased to propose and which this +distinguished assembly has been kind enough so favorably to entertain in +the toast of his health. It is natural that any man who is engaged in +public life should feel the greatest interest in the promotion of the +fine arts. In fact, without a great cultivation of art no nation has +ever arrived at any point of eminence. We have seen great warlike +exploits performed by nations in a state, I won't say of comparative +barbarism, but wanting comparative civilization; we have seen nations +amassing great wealth, but yet not standing thereby high in the +estimation of the rest of the world; but when great warlike +achievements, great national prosperity, and a high cultivation of the +arts are all combined together, the nation in which those conditions are +found may pride itself on holding that eminent position among the +nations of the world which I am proud to say belongs to this country. +[Loud cheers.] + +It is gratifying to have the honor of being invited to these periodical +meetings where we find assembled within these rooms a greater amount of +cultivation of mind, of natural genius, of everything which constitutes +the development of human intellect than perhaps ever has assembled +within the same space elsewhere. And we have besides the gratification +of seeing that in addition to those living examples of national genius +the walls are covered with proofs that the national genius is capable of +the most active and admirable development. [Cheers.] Upon the present +occasion, Mr. President, every visitor must have seen with the greatest +delight that by the side of the works of those whose names are familiar +to all, there are works of great ability brought hither by men who are +still rising to fame; and, therefore, we have the satisfaction of +feeling that this country will never be wanting in men distinguished in +the practice of the fine arts. [Cheers.] One great merit of this +Exhibition is that whatever may be the turn of a man's mind, whatever +his position in life, he may at least during the period he is within +these walls, indulge the most pleasant illusions applicable to the wants +his mind at that time may feel. A man who comes here shivering in one of +those days which mark the severity of an English summer, may imagine +that he is basking in an African sun and he may feel an imaginary warmth +from the representation of a tropical climate. If, on the other hand, he +is suffering under those exceptional miseries which one of the few hot +days of an English summer is apt to create, he may imagine himself +inhaling the fresh breezes of the seaside; he may suppose himself +reclining in the cool shade of the most luxuriant foliage; he may for a +time, in fancy, feel all the delights which the streets and pavements of +London deny in reality. [Cheers and laughter.] And if he happens to be a +young man, upon what is conventionally said to be his preferment, that +is to say, looking out for a partner in life, he may here study all +kinds and descriptions of female beauty [laughter and cheers]; he may +satisfy his mind whether light hair or dark, blue eyes or black, the +tender or the serious, the gay or the sentimental, are most likely to +contribute to the happiness of his future life. [Cheers.] And without +exposing himself to any of those embarrassing questions as to his +intentions [laughter] which sometimes too inquisitive a scrutiny may +bring [much laughter], without creating disappointment or breaking any +hearts, by being referred to any paternal authority, which, he may not +desire to consult, he may go and apply to practical selection those +principles of choice which will result from the study within these +walls. + +Then those of a more serious turn of mind who direct their thoughts to +State affairs, and who wish to know of what that august assembly the +House of Commons is composed, may here [pointing to Phillips's picture +behind the chair], without the trouble of asking an order, without +waiting in Westminster Hall until a seat be vacant, without passing +hours in a hot gallery listening perhaps to dull discourses in an +uninteresting debate--they may here see what kind of thing the House of +Commons is, and go back edified by the sight without being bored by dull +speeches. [Cheers and laughter.] + +Now, don't, gentlemen, imagine that I am romancing when I attribute this +virtue to ocular demonstration--don't imagine that that which enters the +eye does not sometimes penetrate to the mind and feelings. I will give +you an instance to the contrary. I remember within these walls seeing +two gentlemen who evidently, from their remarks, were very good judges +of horses, looking with the greatest admiration upon the well-known +picture of Landseer, "The Horseshoeing at the Blacksmith's;" and after +they had looked at it for some time one was approaching nearer, when the +other in an agony of enthusiasm said: "For heaven's sake, don't go too +near, he will kick you." [Cheers and laughter.] + +Well, gentlemen, I said that a public man must take great interest in +art, but I feel that the present Government has an apology to make to +one department of art, and that is to the sculptors; for there is an old +maxim denoting one of the high functions of art which is "_Ars est +celare artem_." Now there was a cellar in which the art of the most +distinguished sculptors was concealed to the utmost extent of the +application of that saying. We have brought them comparatively into +light; and if the sculptors will excuse us for having departed from that +sage and ancient maxim, I am sure the public will thank us for having +given them an opportunity of seeing those beautiful works of men of +which it may be said: "_Vivos ducunt de marmore vultus_." I trust, +therefore, the sculptors will excuse us for having done, not perhaps the +best they might have wished, but at least for having relieved them a +little from the darkness of that Cimmerian cellar in which their works +were hid. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank you, gentlemen, for the honor +you have done me in drinking my health. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +JOHN R. PAXTON + + +A SCOTCH-IRISHMAN'S VIEWS OF THE PURITAN + + [Speech of Rev. John R. Paxton, D.D., at the seventy-seventh annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1882. Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair. Dr. + Paxton responded for "The Clergy."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--There is no help for it, alas! +now. The Pilgrim or Puritan doth bestride the broad continent like +another Colossus and we Dutch, English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Irish +walk about under his huge legs [laughter]; "we must bend our bodies when +he doth carelessly nod to us." For the Puritan is the pious Joseph of +the land, and to his sheaf all our sheaves must make obeisance. As he +pipes unto us so we dance. He takes the chief seat at every national +feast and compels us highway-and-hedge people, us unfortunate Dutch and +Scotch-Irish, to come in and shout his triumphs and praise at his own +self-glorification meetings. [Laughter and applause.] Of course we all +know it's a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. But it is too late +now to go back to the order of nature or the truth of history. The +Puritan, like another Old Man of the Sea, is astride our shoulders and +won't come down, protest, pray, roll, wriggle as Sindbad may. Why, the +Puritan has imposed his Thanksgiving Day and pumpkin-pie upon South +Carolina, even. [Applause.] He got mad at the old Whig party, on account +of his higher law and abolitionism, and put it to death. When the +Puritan first came to these shores, he made the way to heaven so narrow +that only a tight-rope performer could walk it. [Laughter.] Now, what +with his Concord philosophies, transcendentalisms, and every heresy, he +has made it so wide that you could drive all Barnum's elephants abreast +upon it and through the strait gate. He compels us to send our sons to +his colleges for his nasal note. He is communicating his dyspepsia to +the whole country by means of codfish-balls and baked beans. He has +encouraged the revolt of women, does our thinking, writes our books, +insists on his standard of culture, defines our God, and, as the +crowning glory of his audacity, has imposed his own sectional, fit, and +distinguishing name upon us all, and swells with gratified pride to hear +all the nations of the earth speak of all Americans as Yankees. +[Laughter and applause.] + +I would enter a protest, but what use? We simply grace his triumph, and +no images may be hung at this feast but the trophies of the Puritan. For +all that, I mean to say a brief word for my Scotch-Irish race in +America. Mr. President, General Horace Porter, on my left, and I, did +not come over in the Half Moon or the Mayflower. We stayed on in County +Donegal, Ireland, in the loins of our forefathers, content with poteen +and potatoes, stayed on until the Pilgrims had put down the Indians, the +Baptists, and the witches; until the Dutch had got all the furs this +side Lake Erie. [Laughter and applause.] By the way, what hands and feet +those early Knickerbockers had! In trading with the Indians it was fixed +that a Dutchman's hand weighed one pound and his foot two pounds in the +scales. But what puzzled the Indian was that no matter how big his pack +of furs, the Dutchman's foot was its exact weight at the opposite end of +the scale. Enormous feet the first Van--or De--or Stuy--had. [Continued +laughter.] + +But in course of time, after the Pilgrims had come for freedom, the +Dutch for furs, Penn for a frock--a Quaker cut and color--we came, we +Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, for what? Perhaps the king oppressed the +presbytery, or potatoes failed, or the tax on whiskey was doubled. +Anyway we came to stay: some of us in New England, some in the valleys +of Virginia, some in the mountains of North Carolina, others in New +York; but the greater part pushed out into Pennsylvania--as far away as +they could get from the Puritans and the Dutch--settled the great +Cumberland Valley; then, crossing the Alleghany Mountains, staked out +their farms on the banks of the Monongahela River, set up their stills, +built their meeting-houses, organized the presbytery--and, gentlemen, +the reputation of our Monongahela rye is unsurpassed to this day [long +applause], and our unqualified orthodoxy even now turns the stomach of a +modern Puritan and constrains Colonel Ingersoll[1] not to pray, alas! +but to swear. [Loud laughter.] + +Mr. President, I hope General Porter will join me in claiming some +recognition for the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from these sons of the +Puritans. For do you not know that your own man Bancroft says that the +first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great +Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New +York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians? [Applause.] Therefore, Mr. President, be kind enough to +accept from us the greeting of the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, our +native State--that prolific mother of pig-iron and coal, whose favorite +and greatest sons are still Albert Gallatin, of Switzerland, and +Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts. [Laughter and applause.] + +The first son of a Forefather I ever fell in with was a nine-months +Connecticut man at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the spring of '62. Now, +I was a guileless and generous lad of nineteen--all Pennsylvanians are +guileless and generous, for our mountains are so rich in coal, our +valleys so fat with soil, that our living is easy and therefore our wits +are dull, and we are still voting for Jackson. [Great laughter.] The +reason the Yankees are smart is because they have to wrest a precarious +subsistence from a reluctant soil. "What shall I do to make my son get +forward in the world?" asked an English lord of a bishop. "I know of +only one way," replied the bishop; "give him poverty and parts." Well, +that's the reason the sons of the Pilgrims have all got on in the world. +They all started with poverty, and had to exercise their wits on nutmegs +or notions or something to thrive. [Laughter.] Yes, they had "parts." +Why, they have taken New York from the Dutch; they are half of Wall +Street, and only a Jew, or a long-headed Sage, or that surprising and +surpassing genius in finance, Jay,[2] can wrestle with them on equal +terms. Ah! these Yankees have "parts"--lean bodies, sterile soil, but +such brains that they grew a Webster. [Applause.] Well, this Connecticut +man invited me to his quarters. When I got back to my regiment I had a +shabby overcoat instead of my new one, I had a frying-pan worth twenty +cents, that cost me five dollars, and a recipe for baked beans for which +I had parted with my gold pen and pencil. [Continued laughter.] I was a +sadder and a wiser man that night for that encounter with the +Connecticut Pilgrim. + +But my allotted time is running away, and, preacher-like, I couldn't +begin without an introduction. I am afraid in this case the porch will +be bigger than the house. But now to my toast, "The Clergy." Surely, Mr. +President and gentlemen, you sons of the Pilgrims appreciate the debt +you owe the Puritan divines. What made your section great, dominant, +glorious in the history of our common country? To what class of your +citizens--more than to any other, I think--do you owe the proud memories +of your past, and your strength, achievements, and culture in the +present? Who had the first chance on your destiny, your character, your +development? Why, the Puritan preacher, of course; the man who in every +parish inculcated the fear of God in your fathers' souls, obedience to +law, civil and divine, the dignity of man, the worth of the soul and +right conduct in life. [Applause.] Believe me, gentlemen, the Puritan +clergy did a great work for New England. Our whole country feels yet the +impulse and movement given it by those stern preachers of righteousness, +who had Abrahamic eyes under their foreheads and the stuff of Elijah in +their souls. [Applause.] I know it's the fashion now to poke fun at the +Puritans, to use the "Blue Laws" as a weapon against them, to sneer at +them as hard, narrow, and intolerant. Yes, alas! we do not breathe +through their lungs any more. The wheel has gone round, and we have come +back to the very things the Puritans fled from in hatred and in horror. + +We pride ourselves these days on our "sweetness and light," on our +culture and manners. The soul of the age is hospitable and entertains, +like an inn, "God or the devil on equal terms," as George Eliot says. +Alas! the Puritan chart has failed us in the sea through which we are +passing; the old stars have ceased to shine; too many of us know neither +our course nor destination; "authority is mute;" the "Thus saith the +Lord" of the Puritan is not enough now for our guidance. For the age is +in all things not one of reason or of faith, but of speculation not only +in the business of the world, but in all moral and spiritual questions +as well. Well, we shall see what we shall see. But for one, I admire +with all my soul a man who knows just what he was put into this world +for, what his chief end in it is, what he believes, must do and must be, +and in the ways thereof is willing to inflict or to suffer death. +[Applause.] The Puritan divine was such a man. He sowed your rocky +coasts and sterile hills with conscience and God. You are living on the +virtue that came out of the hem of his garment; he is our bulwark still +in this land against superstition on the one hand and infidelity on the +other. [Applause.] Grand man he was, the old Puritan; once arrived he +was always arrived; while other men hesitated he acted; while others +debated he declared; fearing God, he was lifted above every other fear; +and though he has passed away for a time--only for a time, remember: the +wheel is still turning, we can't stand on air--he will come back again, +but in the meantime he is still a "preacher of righteousness" to our +souls as effective in death as in life. [Applause.] + +In your presence I greet with my warmest admiration, I salute with my +profound reverence, the old Puritan divines of New England who had a +scorn for all base uses of life, who were true to duty as they saw it, +who had convictions for which they would kill or die, who formed their +characters and guided their lives by the law of righteousness in human +conduct. To these men under God we largely owe our liberties and our +laws in this land. I take off my hat to his ghost, and salute him as +greater than he who has taken a city, for the Puritan divine conquered +himself. He was an Isaac, not an Ishmael; he was a Jacob, not an Esau; a +God-born man who knew what his soul did wear. Great man he was, hard, +stern, and intolerant. Yes, but what would you have, gentlemen? The +Puritan was not a pretty head carved on a cherry-stone, but a Colossus +cut from the rock, huge, grim, but awe-inspiring, fortifying to the soul +if not warming to the heart. [Applause.] + +Well, would he know you to-night, I wonder, his own sons, if he came in +upon you now, in circumstances so different and with manners and +customs so changed? Would he gaze at you with sad, sad eyes, and weep +over you as the degenerate sons of noble sires? [Laughter.] No, no; you +are worthy, I think. The sons will keep what the fathers won. After all, +you are still one with the Puritan in all essential things. [Applause.] +You clasp hands with him in devotion to the same principle, in obedience +to the same God. True, the man between doublet and skin plays many +parts; fashions come and go, never long the same, but "clothe me as you +will I am Sancho Panza still." So you are Puritans still. Back of your +Unitarianism, back of your Episcopalianism, back of your +Transcendentalism, back of all your isms, conceits, vagaries--and there +is no end to them--back of them all there beats in you the Puritan +heart. Blood will tell. Scratch a child of sweetness and light on Beacon +Hill to-day and you will find a Puritan. [Laughter.] Scratch your +Emerson, your Bellows, your Lowell, your Longfellow, your Wendell +Phillips, your Phillips Brooks, and you find the Puritan. [Applause.] In +intellectual conclusions vastly different, in heart, at bottom, you're +all one in love of liberty, in fear of God, contempt for shams, and +scorn of all things base and mean. [Applause.] + +So, ye ghosts of old Puritan divines, ye cannot look down on your sons +to-night with sad and reproachful eyes. For the sons have not wasted +what the fathers gained, nor failed in any critical emergency, nor yet +forsaken the God ye feared so well, though they have modified your +creed. Gentlemen, I cannot think that the blood has run out. Exchange +your evening dress for the belted tunic and cloak; take off the silk hat +and put on the wide brim and the steeple crown, and lo! I see the +Puritan. And twenty years ago I heard him speak and saw him act. "If any +man hauls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Why, Warren in +old Boston did not act more promptly or do a finer thing. Well, what +moved in your splendid Dix when he gave that order? The spirit of the +old Puritan. And I saw the sons of the sires act. Who reddened the +streets of Baltimore with the first Union blood?--Massachusetts. [Loud +applause.] Who to-day are the first to rally to the side of a good +cause, on trial in the community? Who are Still first in colleges and +letters in this land? Who, east or west, advocate justice, redress +wrongs, maintain equal rights, support churches, love liberty, and +thrive where others starve? Why, these ubiquitous sons of the Puritans, +of course, who dine me to-night. Gentlemen, I salute you. "If I were not +Miltiades I would be Themistocles;" if I were not a Scotch-Irishman I +would be a Puritan. [Continued applause.] + + + + +EDWARD JOHN PHELPS + + +FAREWELL ADDRESS + + [Speech of Edward J. Phelps, Minister to England, on the occasion + of the farewell banquet given to him by the Lord Mayor of London, + James Whitehead, at the Mansion House, London, January 24, 1889. + The Lord Mayor, in proposing the toast of the evening, said, in the + course of his introductory remarks: "It now becomes my pride and + privilege to ask you to join with me in drinking the health of my + distinguished guest, Mr. Phelps. I have invited you here this + evening because I felt it was my duty as Chief Magistrate of the + City of London to take the initiative in giving you an opportunity + to testify to the very high esteem in which Mr. Phelps is held by + all classes of society. It is to me a very sincere satisfaction + that I am able to be the medium of conveying to him, on the eve of + his departure, the fact that his presence here in this country has + been appreciated by the whole British nation. If anything were + required to give force to what I have said, it is the fact that on + this occasion we are honored by the presence of members of + governments past and present, of statesmen without distinction of + party, of members of both Houses of Parliament, and of nearly all + the judges of the land. We have here also the highest + representatives of science, of art, of literature, and of the + press; and we are also honored with the presence of neighbors and + friends in some of the most eminent bankers and merchants of the + city. I am glad to add that all the distinguished Americans that I + know of at present visiting this city have come here to show their + esteem for their fellow-countryman. It may be said that this + remarkable gathering is a proof not only of the fact that our + distinguished guest is personally popular, but also that we are + satisfied that, so far as he could, he has endeavored to do his + duty faithfully and well between the country he represents and the + country to which he is delegated. Mr. Phelps in leaving our shores, + I think, will take with him a feeling that he has been received in + the most cordial spirit, in the most friendly manner in this + country. I think he will feel also--at any rate, I should like to + assure him so far as I am able to observe--that he has greatly + tended, by his manner and by his courteous bearing, to consolidate + those friendly relations which we desire should forever exist + between his country and our own. Those of us who have had the honor + from time to time to meet his Excellency, know what high and good + qualities he possesses, and we feel sure he will take with him to + the United States a not unfavorable impression of the old country, + and that so far as he can he will endeavor in the future, as I + believe he has done in the past, to promote those feelings of + peace, of amity between the two countries, the maintenance of which + is one of the objects to be most desired in the interests of the + world at large. I give you 'His Excellency, the American Minister, + Mr. Phelps,' and I ask you, if you please, to rise and give the + toast standing, in the usual manner."] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--I am sure you will not be +surprised to be told that the poor words at my command do not enable me +to respond adequately to your most kind greeting, nor the too flattering +words which have fallen from my friend, the Lord Mayor, and from my +distinguished colleague, the Lord Chancellor. But you will do me the +justice to believe that my feelings are not the less sincere and hearty +if I cannot put them into language. I am under a very great obligation +to your Lordship not merely for the honor of meeting this evening an +assembly more distinguished I apprehend than it appears to me has often +assembled under one roof, but especially for the opportunity of meeting +under such pleasant circumstances so many of those to whom I have become +so warmly attached, and from whom I am so sorry to part. [Cheers.] + +It is rather a pleasant coincidence to me that about the first +hospitality that was offered me after my arrival in England came from my +friend, the Lord Mayor, who was at the time one of the Sheriffs of +London. I hope it is no disparagement to my countrymen to say that under +existing circumstances the first place that I felt it my duty to visit +was the Old Bailey Criminal Court. [Laughter.] I had there the pleasure +of being entertained by my friend, the Lord Mayor. And it happens also +that it was in this room almost four years ago at a dinner given to Her +Majesty's Judges by my friend Sir Robert Fowler, then Lord Mayor, whose +genial face I see before me, that I appeared for the first time on any +public occasion in England and addressed my first words to an English +company. It seems to me a fortunate propriety that my last public words +should be spoken under the same hospitable roof, the home of the Chief +Magistrate of the city of London. ["Hear! Hear!"] Nor can I ever forget +the cordial and generous reception that was then accorded, not to myself +personally, for I was altogether a stranger, but to the representative +of my country. It struck what has proved the keynote of all my relations +here. It indicated to me at the outset how warm and hearty was the +feeling of Englishmen toward America. [Cheers.] + +And it gave me to understand, what I was not slow to accept and believe, +that I was accredited not merely from one government to the other, but +from the people of America to the people of England--that the American +Minister was not expected to be merely a diplomatic functionary shrouded +in reticence and retirement, jealously watching over doubtful relations, +and carefully guarding against anticipated dangers; but that he was to +be the guest of his kinsmen--one of themselves--the messenger of the +sympathy and good-will, the mutual and warm regard and esteem that bind +together the two great nations of the same race, and make them one in +all the fair humanities of life. [Cheers.] The suggestion that met me at +the threshold has not proved to be mistaken. The promise then held out +has been generously fulfilled. Ever since and through all my intercourse +here I have received, in all quarters, from all classes with whom I have +come in contact, under all circumstances and in all vicissitudes, a +uniform and widely varied kindness, far beyond what I had personally the +least claim to. And I am glad of this public opportunity to acknowledge +it in the most emphatic manner. + +My relations with the successive governments I have had to do with have +been at all times most fortunate and agreeable, and quite beyond those I +have been happy in feeling always that the English people had a claim +upon the American Minister for all kind and friendly offices in his +power, and upon his presence and voice on all occasions when they could +be thought to further any good work. [Cheers.] + +And so I have gone in and out among you these four years and have come +to know you well. I have taken part in many gratifying public functions; +I have been the guest at many homes; and my heart has gone out with +yours in memorable jubilee of that Sovereign Lady whom all Englishmen +love and all Americans honor. I have stood with you by some unforgotten +graves; I have shared in many joys; and I have tried as well as I could +through it all, in my small way, to promote constantly a better +understanding, a fuller and more accurate knowledge, a more genuine +sympathy between the people of the two countries. [Cheers.] + +And this leads me to say a word on the nature of these relations. The +moral intercourse between the governments is most important to be +maintained, and its value is not to be overlooked or disregarded. But +the real significance of the attitude of nations depends in these days +upon the feelings which the general intelligence of their inhabitants +entertains toward each other. The time has long passed when kings or +rulers can involve their nations in hostilities to gratify their own +ambition or caprice. There can be no war nowadays between civilized +nations, nor any peace that is not hollow and delusive, unless sustained +and backed up by the sentiment of the people who are parties to it. +[Cheers.] Before nations can quarrel, their inhabitants must first +become hostile. Then a cause of quarrel is not far to seek. The men of +our race are not likely to become hostile until they begin to +misunderstand each other. [Cheers.] There are no dragon's teeth so +prolific as mutual misunderstandings. It is in the great and constantly +increasing intercourse between England and America, in its +reciprocities, and its amenities, that the security against +misunderstanding must be found. While that continues, they cannot be +otherwise than friendly. Unlucky incidents may sometimes happen; +interests may conflict; mistakes may be made on one side or on the +other, and sharp words may occasionally be spoken by unguarded or +ignorant tongues. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make +anything. [Cheers and laughter.] The nation that comes to be without +fault will have reached the millennium, and will have little further +concern with the storm-swept geography of this imperfect world. But +these things are all ephemeral; they do not touch the great heart of +either people; they float for a moment on the surface and in the wind, +and then they disappear and are gone--"in the deep bosom of the ocean +buried." + +I do not know, sir, who may be my successor, but I venture to assure you +that he will be an American gentleman, fit by character and capacity to +be the medium of communication between our countries; and an American +gentleman, when you come to know him, generally turns out to be a not +very distant kinsman of an English gentleman. [Cheers.] I need not +bespeak for him a kindly reception. I know he will receive it for his +country's sake and his own. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +"Farewell," sir, is a word often lightly uttered and readily forgotten. +But when it marks the rounding-off and completion of a chapter in life, +the severance of ties many and cherished, of the parting with many +friends at once--especially when it is spoken among the lengthening +shadows of the western light--it sticks somewhat in the throat. It +becomes, indeed, "the word that makes us linger." But it does not prompt +many other words. It is best expressed in few. What goes without saying +is better than what is said. Not much can be added to the old English +word "Good-by." You are not sending me away empty-handed or alone. I go +freighted and laden with happy memories--inexhaustible and unalloyed--of +England, its warm-hearted people, and their measureless kindness. +Spirits more than twain will cross with me, messengers of your +good-will. Happy the nation that can thus speed its parting guest! +Fortunate the guest who has found his welcome almost an adoption, and +whose farewell leaves half his heart behind! [Loud cheers.] + + + + +ARTHUR WING PINERO + + +THE DRAMA + + [Speech of Arthur Wing Pinero at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 4, 1895. The toast to the "Drama" was coupled + with that to "Music," to which Sir Alexander Mackenzie responded. + Sir John Millais in proposing the toast said: "I have already + spoken for both music and the drama with my brush. ["Hear! Hear!"] + I have painted Sterndale Bennett, Arthur Sullivan, Irving, and + Hare."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--There ought to +be at least one strong link of sympathy between certain painters and +certain dramatists, for in the craft of painting as in that of +play-writing, popular success is not always held to be quite creditable. +Not very long ago I met at an exhibition of pictures a friend whose +business it is to comment in the public journals upon painting and the +drama. The exhibition was composed of the works of two artists, and I +found myself in one room praising the pictures of the man who was +exhibiting in the other. My friend promptly took me to task. "Surely," +said he, "you noticed that two-thirds of the works in the next room are +already sold?" I admitted having observed that many of the pictures were +so ticketed. My friend shrugged his shoulders. "But," said I, anxiously, +"do you really regard that circumstance as reflecting disparagingly upon +the man's work in the next room?" His reply was: "Good work rarely +sells." [Laughter.] My lords and gentlemen, if the dictum laid down by +my friend be a sound one, I am placed to-night in a situation of some +embarrassment. For, in representing, as you honor me, by giving me leave +to do, my brother dramatists, I confess I am not in the position to deny +that their wares frequently "sell." [Laughter.] I might, of course, +artfully plead in extenuation of this condition of affairs that success +in such a shape is the very last reward the dramatist toils for, or +desires; that when the theatre in which his work is presented is +thronged nightly no one is more surprised, more abashed than himself; +that his modesty is so impenetrable, his artistic absorption so +profound, that the sound of the voices of public approbation reduces him +to a state of shame and dismay. [Laughter.] But did I advance this plea, +I think it would at once be found to be a very shallow plea. For in any +department of life, social, political, or artistic, nothing is more +difficult than to avoid incurring the suspicion that you mean to succeed +in the widest application of that term, if you can. If therefore there +be any truth in the assertion that "good work rarely sells," it would +appear that I must, on behalf of certain of my brother dramatists, +either bow my head in frank humiliation, or strike out some ingenious +line of defence. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +But, my lords and gentlemen, I shall, with your sanction, adopt neither +of those expedients; I shall simply beg leave to acknowledge freely, to +acknowledge without a blush, that what is known as popular success is, I +believe, greatly coveted, sternly fought for, by even the most earnest +of those writers who deal in the commodity labelled "modern British +drama." And I would, moreover, submit that of all the affectations +displayed by artists of any craft, the affectation of despising the +approval and support of the great public is the most mischievous and +misleading. [Cheers.] Speaking at any rate of dramatic art, I believe +that its most substantial claim upon consideration rests in its power of +legitimately interesting a great number of people. I believe this of any +art; I believe it especially of the drama. Whatever distinction the +dramatist may attain in gaining the attention of the so-called select +few, I believe that his finest task is that of giving back to a +multitude their own thoughts and conceptions, illuminated, enlarged, and +if needful, purged, perfected, transfigured. The making of a play that +shall be closely observant in its portrayal of character, moral in +purpose, dignified in expression, stirring in its development, yet not +beyond our possible experience of life; a drama, the unfolding of whose +story shall be watched intently, responsively, night after night by +thousands of men and women, necessarily of diversified temperaments, +aims, and interests, men and women of all classes of society--surely the +writing of that drama, the weaving of that complex fabric, is one of the +most arduous of the tasks which art has set us; surely its successful +accomplishment is one of the highest achievements of which an artist is +capable. + +I cannot claim--it would be immodest to make such a claim in speaking +even of my brother dramatists--I cannot claim that the thorough +achievement of such a task is a common one in this country. It is indeed +a rare one in any country. But I can claim--I do claim for my +fellow-workers that they are not utterly unequal to the demands made +upon them, and that of late there have been signs of the growth of a +thoughtful, serious drama in England. ["Hear! Hear!"] I venture to +think, too, that these signs are not in any sense exotics; I make bold +to say that they do not consist of mere imitations of certain models; I +submit that they are not as a few critics of limited outlook and +exclusive enthusiasm would have us believe--I submit that they are not +mere echoes of foreign voices. I submit that the drama of the present +day is the natural outcome of our own immediate environment, of the life +that closely surrounds us. And, perhaps, it would be only fair to allow +that the reproaches which have been levelled for so long a period at the +British theatre--the most important of these reproaches being that it +possessed no drama at all--perhaps I say we may grant in a spirit of +charity that these reproaches ought not to be wholly laid at the door of +the native playwright. If it be true that he has been in the habit of +producing plays invariably conventional in sentiment, trite in comedy, +wrought on traditional lines, inculcating no philosophy, making no +intellectual appeal whatever, may it not be that the attitude of the +frequenters of the theatre has made it hard for him to do anything else? +If he has until lately evaded in his theatrical work any attempt at a +true criticism of life, if he has ignored the social, religious, and +scientific problems of his day, may we not attribute this to the fact +that the public have not been in the mood for these elements of +seriousness in their theatrical entertainment, have not demanded these +special elements of seriousness either in plays or in novels? But +during recent years, the temper of the times has been changing; it is +now the period of analysis, of general restless inquiry; and as this +spirit creates a demand for freer expression on the part of our writers +of books, so it naturally permits to our writers of plays a wider scope +in the selection of subject, and calls for an accompanying effort of +thought, a large freedom of utterance. + +At this moment, perhaps, the difficulty of the dramatist lies less in +paucity of subject, than in an almost embarrassing wealth of it. The +life around us teems with problems of conduct and character, which may +be said almost to cry aloud for dramatic treatment, and the temptation +that besets the busy playwright of an uneasy, an impatient age, is that +in yielding himself to the allurements of contemporary psychology, he is +apt to forget that fancy and romance have also their immortal rights in +the drama. ["Hear! Hear!"] But when all is claimed for romance, we must +remember that the laws of supply and demand assert themselves in the +domain of dramatic literature as elsewhere. What the people, out of the +advancement of their knowledge, out of the enlightenment of modern +education, want, they will ask for; what they demand, they will have. +And at the present moment the English people appear to be inclined to +grant to the English dramatist the utmost freedom to deal with questions +which have long been thought to be outside the province of the stage. I +do not deplore, I rejoice that this is so, and I rejoice that to the +dramatists of my day--to those at least who care to attempt to discharge +it, falls the duty of striking from the limbs of English drama some of +its shackles. ["Hear! Hear!"] I know that the discharge of this duty is +attended by one great, one special peril. And in thinking particularly +of the younger generation of dramatists, those upon whom the immediate +future of our drama depends, I cannot help expressing the hope that they +will accept this freedom as a privilege to be jealously exercised, a +privilege to be exercised in the spirit which I have been so +presumptuous as to indicate. + +It would be easy by a heedless employment of the latitude allowed us to +destroy its usefulness, indeed to bring about a reaction which would +deprive us of our newly granted liberty altogether. Upon this point the +young, the coming dramatist would perhaps do well to ponder; he would +do well, I think, to realize fully that freedom in art must be guarded +by the eternal unwritten laws of good taste, morality, and beauty, he +would do well to remember always that the real courage of the artist is +in his capacity for restraint. [Cheers.] I am deeply sensible of the +honor which has been done me in the association of my name with this +toast, and I ask your leave to add one word--a word of regret at the +absence to-night of my friend, Mr. Toole, an absence unhappily +occasioned by an illness from which he is but slowly recovering. Mr. +Toole charges me to express his deep disappointment at being prevented +from attending this banquet. He does not, however, instruct me to say +what I do say heartily--that Mr. Toole fitly represents in any +assemblage, his own particular department of the drama; more fitly +represents his department than I do mine. I know of no actor who stands +higher in the esteem, who exists more durably in the affection of those +who know him, than does John Lawrence Toole. + + +[Illustration: _HORACE PORTER_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + + + +HORACE PORTER + + +MEN OF MANY INVENTIONS + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-second annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The + President, William Borden, said: "Gentlemen, in giving you the next + toast, I will call upon one whom we are always glad to listen to. I + suppose you have been waiting to hear him, and are surprised that + he comes so late in the evening; but I will tell you in confidence, + he is put there at his own request. [Applause.] I give you the + eleventh regular toast: 'Internal Improvements.'--The triumph of + American invention. The modern palace runs on wheels. + + 'When thy car is loaden with [dead] heads, + Good Porter, turn the key.' + + General Horace Porter will respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I +suppose it was a matter of necessity, calling on some of us from other +States to speak for you to-night, for we have learned from the history +of Priscilla and John Alden, that a New Englander may be too modest to +speak for himself. [Laughter.] But this modesty, like some of the +greater blessings of the war, has been more or less disguised to-night. + +We have heard from the eloquent gentleman [Noah Porter, D.D.] on my left +all about the good-fellowship and the still better fellowships in the +rival universities of Harvard and Yale. We have heard from my sculptor +friend [W. W. Story] upon the extreme right all about Hawthorne's tales, +and all the great Storys that have emanated from Salem; but I am not a +little surprised that in this age, when speeches are made principally by +those running for office, you should call upon one engaged only in +running cars, and more particularly upon one brought up in the military +service, where the practice of running is not regarded as strictly +professional. [Laughter.] It occurred to me some years ago that the +occupation of moving cars would be fully as congenial as that of +stopping bullets--as a steady business, so when I left Washington I +changed my profession. I know how hard it is to believe that persons +from Washington ever change their professions. [Laughter.] In this regal +age, when every man is his own sovereign, somebody had to provide +palaces, and, as royalty is not supposed to have any permanent abiding +place in a country like this, it was thought best to put these palaces +on wheels; and, since we have been told by reliable authority that +"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," we thought it necessary to +introduce every device to enable those crowned heads to rest as easily +as possible. Of course we cannot be expected to do as much for the +travelling public as the railway companies. They at times put their +passengers to death. We only put them to sleep. We don't pretend that +all the devices, patents, and inventions upon these cars are due to the +genius of the management. Many of the best suggestions have come from +the travellers themselves, especially New England travellers. +[Laughter.] + +Some years ago, when the bedding was not supposed to be as fat as it +ought to be, and the pillows were accused of being constructed upon the +homoeopathic principle, a New Englander got on a car one night. Now, +it is a remarkable fact that a New Englander never goes to sleep in one +of these cars. He lies awake all night, thinking how he can improve upon +every device and patent in sight. [Laughter.] He poked his head out of +the upper berth at midnight, hailed the porter and said, "Say, have you +got such a thing as a corkscrew about you?" "We don't 'low no drinkin' +sperits aboa'd these yer cars, sah," was the reply. "'Tain't that," said +the Yankee, "but I want to get hold onto one of your pillows that has +kind of worked its way into my ear." [Loud laughter.] The pillows have +since been enlarged. + +I notice that, in the general comprehensiveness of the sentiment which +follows this toast, you allude to that large and liberal class of +patrons, active though defunct, known as "deadheads." It is said to be +a quotation from Shakespeare. That is a revelation. It proves +conclusively that Shakespeare must at one time have resided in the State +of Missouri. It is well-known that the term was derived from a practice +upon a Missouri railroad, where, by a decision of the courts, the +railroad company had been held liable in heavy damages in case of +accidents where a passenger lost an arm or a leg, but when he was killed +outright his friends seldom sued, and he never did; and the company +never lost any money in such cases. In fact, a grateful mother-in-law +would occasionally pay the company a bonus. The conductors on that +railroad were all armed with hatchets, and in case of an accident they +were instructed to go around and knock every wounded passenger in the +head, thus saving the company large amounts of money; and these were +reported to the general office as "deadheads," and in railway circles +the term has ever since been applied to passengers where no money +consideration is involved. [Laughter.] + +One might suppose, from the manifestations around these tables for the +first three hours to-night, that the toast "Internal Improvements" +referred more especially to the benefiting of the true inwardness of the +New England men; but I see that the sentiment which follows contains +much more than human stomachs, and covers much more ground than cars. It +soars into the realms of invention. Unfortunately the genius of +invention is always accompanied by the demon of unrest. A New England +Yankee can never let well enough alone. I have always supposed him to be +the person specially alluded to in Scripture as the man who has found +out many inventions. If he were a Chinese Pagan, he would invent a new +kind of Joss to worship every week. You get married and settle down in +your home. You are delighted with everything about you. You rest in +blissful ignorance of the terrible discomforts that surround you, until +a Yankee friend comes to visit you. He at once tells you you mustn't +build a fire in that chimney-place; that he knows the chimney will +smoke; that if he had been there when it was built he could have shown +you how to give a different sort of flare to the flue. You go to read a +chapter in the family Bible. He tells you to drop that; that he has just +written an enlarged and improved version, that can just put that old +book to bed. [Laughter.] You think you are at least raising your +children in general uprightness; but he tells you if you don't go out at +once and buy the latest patented article in the way of steel leg-braces +and put on the baby, the baby will grow up bow-legged. [Laughter.] He +intimates, before he leaves, that if he had been around to advise you +before you were married, he could have got you a much better wife. These +are some of the things that reconcile a man to sudden death. [Continued +laughter and applause.] + +Such occurrences as these, and the fact of so many New Englanders being +residents of this city and elsewhere, show that New England must be a +good place--to come from. + +At the beginning of the war we thought we could shoot people rapidly +enough to satisfy our consciences, with single-loading rifles; but along +came the inventive Yankee and produced revolvers and repeaters, and +Gatling guns, and magazine guns--guns that carried a dozen shots at a +time. I didn't wonder at the curiosity exhibited in this direction by a +backwoods Virginian we captured one night. The first remark he made was, +"I would like to see one of them thar new-fangled weepons of yourn. They +tell me, sah, it's a most remarkable eenstrument. They say, sah, it's a +kind o' repeatable, which you can load it up enough on Sunday to fiah it +off all the rest of the week." [Laughter.] Then there was every sort of +new invention in the way of bayonets. Our distinguished Secretary of +State has expressed an opinion to-night that bayonets are bad things to +sit down on. Well, they are equally bad things to be tossed up on. If he +continues to hold up such terrors to the army, there will have to be +important modifications in the uniform. A soldier won't know where to +wear his breastplate. [Laughter.] But there have not only been +inventions in the way of guns, but important inventions in the way of +firing them. In these days a man drops on his back, coils himself up, +sticks up one foot, and fires off his gun over the top of his great toe. +It changes the whole stage business of battle. It used to be the man who +was shot, but now it is the man who shoots that falls on his back and +turns up his toes. [Laughter and applause.] The consequence is, that the +whole world wants American arms, and as soon as they get them they go +to war to test them. Russia and Turkey had no sooner bought a supply +than they went to fighting. Greece got a schooner-load, and, although +she has not yet taken a part in the struggle, yet ever since the digging +up of the lost limbs of the Venus of Milo, it has been feared that this +may indicate a disposition on the part of Greece generally to take up +arms. [Laughter and applause.] + +But there was one inveterate old inventor that you had to get rid of, +and you put him on to us Pennsylvanians--Benjamin Franklin. [Laughter.] +Instead of stopping in New York, in Wall Street, as such men usually do, +he continued on into Pennsylvania to pursue his kiting operations. He +never could let well enough alone. Instead of allowing the lightning to +occupy the heavens as the sole theatre for its pyrotechnic displays, he +showed it how to get down on to the earth, and then he invented the +lightning-rod to catch it. Houses that had got along perfectly well for +years without any lightning at all, now thought they must have a rod to +catch a portion of it every time it came around. Nearly every house in +the country was equipped with a lightning-rod through Franklin's direct +agency. You, with your superior New England intelligence, succeeded in +ridding yourselves of him; but in Pennsylvania, though we have made a +great many laudable efforts in a similar direction, somehow or other we +have never once succeeded in getting rid of a lightning-rod agent. +[Laughter.] Then the lightning was introduced on the telegraph wires, +and now we have the duplex and quadruplex instruments, by which any +number of messages can be sent from opposite ends of the same wire at +the same time, and they all appear to arrive at the front in good order. +Electricians have not yet told us which messages lies down and which one +steps over it, but they all seem to bring up in the right camp without +confusion. I shouldn't wonder if this principle were introduced before +long in the operating of railroads. We may then see trains running in +opposite directions pass each other on a single-track road. [Laughter.] + +There was a New England quartermaster in charge of railroads in +Tennessee, who tried to introduce this principle during the war. The +result was discouraging. He succeeded in telescoping two or three +trains every day. He seemed to think that the easiest way to shorten up +a long train and get it on a short siding was to telescope it. I have +always thought that if that man's attention had been turned in an +astronomical direction, he would have been the first man to telescope +the satellites of Mars. [Laughter.] + +The latest invention in the application of electricity is the telephone. +By means of it we may be able soon to sit in our houses, and hear all +the speeches, without going to the New England dinner. The telephone +enables an orchestra to keep at a distance of miles away when it plays. +If the instrument can be made to keep hand-organs at a distance, its +popularity will be indescribable. The worst form I have ever known an +invention to take was one that was introduced in a country town, when I +was a boy, by a Yankee of musical turn of mind, who came along and +taught every branch of education by singing. He taught geography by +singing, and to combine accuracy of memory with patriotism, he taught +the multiplication-table to the tune of Yankee Doodle. [Laughter.] This +worked very well as an aid to the memory in school, but when the boys +went into business it often led to inconvenience. When a boy got a +situation in a grocery-store and customers were waiting for their +change, he never could tell the product of two numbers without +commencing at the beginning of the table and singing up till he had +reached those numbers. In case the customer's ears had not received a +proper musical training, this practice often injured the business of the +store. [Laughter.] + +It is said that the Yankee has always manifested a disposition for +making money, but he never struck a proper field for the display of his +genius until we got to making paper money. [Laughter.] Then every man +who owned a printing-press wanted to try his hand at it. I remember that +in Washington ten cents' worth of rags picked up in the street would be +converted the next day into thousands of dollars. + +An old mule and cart used to haul up the currency from the Printing +Bureau to the door of the Treasury Department. Every morning, as +regularly as the morning came, that old mule would back up and dump a +cart-load of the sinews of war at the Treasury. [Laughter.] A patriotic +son of Columbia, who lived opposite, was sitting on the doorstep of his +house one morning, looking mournfully in the direction of the mule. A +friend came along, and seeing that the man did not look as pleasant as +usual, said to him, "What is the matter? It seems to me you look kind of +disconsolate this morning." "I was just thinking," he replied, "what +would become of this government if that old mule was to break down." +[Laughter and applause.] Now they propose to give us a currency which is +brighter and heavier, but not worth quite as much as the rags. Our +financial horizon has been dimmed by it for some time, but there is a +lining of silver to every cloud. We are supposed to take it with 4121/2 +grains of silver--a great many more grains of allowance. [Laughter.] +Congress seems disposed to pay us in the "dollar of our daddies"--in the +currency which we were familiar with in our childhood. Congress seems +determined to pay us off in something that is "child-like and Bland." +[Laughter and applause.] But I have detained you too long already. +[Cries of "No, no; go on!"] + +Why, the excellent President of your Society has for the last five +minutes been looking at me like a man who might be expected, at any +moment, to break out in the disconsolate language of Bildad the Shuhite +to the patriarch Job, "How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?" +Let me say then, in conclusion, that, coming as I do from the unassuming +State of Pennsylvania, and standing in the presence of the dazzling +genius of New England, I wish to express the same degree of humility +that was expressed by a Dutch Pennsylvania farmer in a railroad car, at +the breaking out of the war. A New Englander came in who had just heard +of the fall of Fort Sumter, and he was describing it to the farmer and +his fellow-passengers. He said that in the fort they had an engineer +from New England, who had constructed the traverses, and the embrasures, +and the parapets in such a manner as to make everybody within the fort +as safe as if he had been at home; and on the other side, the +Southerners had an engineer who had been educated in New England, and he +had, with his scientific attainments, succeeded in making the batteries +of the bombarders as safe as any harvest field, and the bombardment had +raged for two whole days, and the fort had been captured, and the +garrison had surrendered, and not a man was hurt on either side. A great +triumph for science, and a proud day for New England education. Said the +farmer, "I suppose dat ish all right, but it vouldn't do to send any of +us Pennsylvany fellers down dare to fight mit does pattles. Like as not +ve vould shoost pe fools enough to kill somepody." [Loud applause and +laughter, and cries of "Go on; go on."] + + + * * * * * + + +HOW TO AVOID THE SUBJECT + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-fifth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1880. "We + have been told here to-night," said the President, James C. Carter, + "that New York has been peopled by pilgrims of various races, and I + propose, as our next toast, 'The Pilgrims of Every Race.' And I + call upon our ever welcome friend, General Horace Porter, for a + response."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I am here, like the rest of your guests, to-night, in +consequence of these notes of invitation that we have received. I know +it is always more gratifying to an audience for speakers to be able to +assure them, in the outset of their remarks, that they are here without +notes; but such is not my case. I received the following: + +"The Committee of Arrangements of the New England Society respectfully +invite you to be present at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the +Society, and the two hundred and sixtieth of the landing of the Pilgrims +at Metropolitan Concert Hall." [Laughter.] + +Such is the ignorance of those of us upon whom Providence did not +sufficiently smile to permit us to be born in New England, that I never +knew, until I received that note, anything about the landing of the +Pilgrims at Metropolitan Concert Hall. This certainly will be sad news +to communicate to those pious people who assembled in Brooklyn last +night, and who still rest happy in the belief that the Pilgrims landed +on Plymouth Church. [Laughter.] From the day they have chosen for the +anniversary, it seems very evident that the Pilgrims must have landed +somewhere one day before they struck Plymouth Rock. [Laughter.] + +The poet Longfellow tells us, in one of his short poems, "learn to labor +and to wait." I have labored through about twenty-five courses at this +table, and then I have waited until this hour, in the hope that I might +be spared the inevitable ordeal. But when the last plate had been +removed, and your president, who is a stern man of duty, rapped upon the +table, I saw there was no escape, and the time had come when he was +going to present to you one of the most popular of all dishes at a New +England banquet, tongue garnished with brains. He seems, following the +late teachings of Harvard and Yale, to have invited the guests to enter +for a sort of skull-race. [Laughter.] Now, I suppose that, in calling +first upon those on his right and left, it is a matter of convenience +for himself, and he has acted from the same motives that actuated a +newly fledged dentist who, when his first patient applied, determined to +exercise all that genius and understanding which Boston men generally +exercise in the practice of their profession. The patient, coming from +the country, told him he wanted two back teeth, which he pointed out to +him, pulled. The dentist placed him in a chair, and in a few moments he +had pulled out his two front teeth. The patient left the chair, and it +occurred to him that the circumstance might be deemed of sufficient +importance to call the dentist's attention to it. He said, "I told you +to pull out these two back teeth." "Yes," said the dentist, "so you did; +but I found that the front ones were kind of handier to get at." +[Laughter and applause.] I suppose the reason your president called upon +those of us nearest the platform to-night was because he found us a +little handier to get at. But there is no use in speakers coming here +and pleading want of preparation, because, doubtless, the New Englanders +who expected to take part to-night might have been found at any time +within the last six months sitting under blue glass to enlarge their +ideas. [Laughter.] I ventured to say to the committee that, this being +such a large room, some of your speakers might not have a high enough +tone of voice to be heard at the other end. They looked unutterable +things at me, as much as to say that at New England dinners I would +find the speakers could not be otherwise than high-toned. [Laughter.] + +The first New Englander I ever had the pleasure to listen to was a +Pilgrim from Boston, who came out to the town in Pennsylvania, where I +lived, to deliver a lecture. We all went to the lecture. We were told it +was worth twice the price of admission to see that man wipe the corners +of his mouth with his handkerchief before he commenced to speak. Well, +he spoke for about two hours on the subject of the indestructibility of +the absolute in connection with the mutability of mundane affairs. The +pitch and variety of the nasal tones was wonderful, and he had an +amazing command of the longest nouns and adjectives. It was a beautiful +lecture. The town council tried to borrow it and have it set to music. +It was one of those lectures that would pay a man to walk ten miles in +wet feet--to avoid. After he got through, a gentleman in the audience, +thinking it the part of good nature, stepped up and congratulated him +upon his "great effort." The lecturer took it as a matter of course, and +replied, "Oh, yes, you will find the whole atmosphere of Boston +exhilarant with intellectual vitality." [Laughter.] + +Now, if there is one thing which modern Pilgrims pride themselves upon +more than another, it is in being the lineal descendants of those who +came over by the Mayflower. To prove this, when you visit their homes, +they bring forth family records in the shape of knives, forks, and +spoons that were taken from the Mayflower. From the number of those +articles I have seen, I have come to the conclusion that the captain of +the Mayflower did not get back to England with a single article +belonging to the ship that was not nailed fast to the deck. Such a dread +have the people of that island of this widespread Puritanical +kleptomania attaching to people coming here, that even as late as 1812 +the commander of one of the British frigates took the wise precaution to +nail his flag fast to the mast. [Laughter.] + +We have heard that the Pilgrim fathers made amends for their +shortcomings, from the fact of their having determined, after landing, +to fill the meeting-houses and have worship there, and that brave men +were detailed from the congregation to stand sentinels against a +surprise by the Indians. It is even said that during those long and +solemn sermons some of the members vied with each other in taking their +chances with the Indians outside. Some of these acts of heroism +re-appear in the race. I have been told that some of the lineal +descendants of these hardy men that paced up and down in front of the +meeting-house have recently been seen pacing up and down all night in +front of the Globe Theatre, in Boston, ready in the morning to take +their chance of the nearest seat for Sara Bernhardt's performance. +[Laughter.] + +Now, sir, the New Englanders are eminently reformers. I have never seen +anything they did not attempt to reform. They even introduced the +Children of the Sun to the shoe-shops of Lynn, with the alleged purpose +of instructing the Chinese in letters, yet recently in Massachusetts +they themselves showed such lamentable ignorance as not to know a +Chinese letter when they saw it. [Laughter.] But the poor Chinese have +been driven away. They have been driven away from many places by that +formidable weapon--the only weapon which Dennis Kearney has ever been +able to use against them--the Chinese must-get. [Laughter.] + +I have never seen but one thing the Yankee could not reform, and that +was the line of battle at Bull Run, and I call upon Pilgrim Sherman as a +witness to this. He was there, and knows. Bulls have given as much +trouble to Yankees as to Irishmen. Bulls always seem to be associated +with Yankee defeat, from the time of Bull Run down to Sitting Bull, and +I will call upon Pilgrim Miles as a witness to that. + +Now, gentlemen, let me say that the presence of General Grant to-night +will enable you to settle forever that question which has vexed the New +England mind all the period during which he was making his triumphal +journey round the globe--the question as to whether, in his intercourse +with kings and potentates, he was always sure to keep in sufficient +prominence the merits of the Pilgrim fathers, and more especially of +their descendants. I have no doubt he did. I have no doubt that to those +crowned heads, with numerous recalcitrant subjects constantly raising +Cain in their dominions, the recital of how the Pilgrims went +voluntarily to a distant country to live, where their scalps were in +danger, must have been a pleasant picture. [Laughter.] + +If I am to have any reputation for brevity I must now close these +remarks. I remember a lesson in brevity I once received in a barber's +shop. An Irishman came in, and the unsteady gait with which he +approached the chair showed that he had been imbibing of the produce of +the still run by North Carolina Moonshiners. He wanted his hair cut, and +while the barber was getting him ready, went off into a drunken sleep. +His head got bobbing from one side to the other, and at length the +barber, in making a snip, cut off the lower part of his ear. The barber +jumped about and howled, and a crowd of neighbors rushed in. Finally the +demonstration became so great that it began to attract the attention of +the man in the chair, and he opened one eye and said, "Wh-wh-at's the +matther wid yez?" "Good Lord!" said the barber, "I've cut off the whole +lower part of your ear." "Have yez? Ah, thin, go on wid yer bizness--it +was too long, anyhow!" [Laughter.] If I don't close this speech, some +one of the company will be inclined to remark that it has been too long, +anyhow. [Cheers and laughter.] + + + * * * * * + + +A TRIP ABROAD WITH DEPEW + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-seventh annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1882. + Josiah M. Fiske, the President, occupied the chair and called upon + General Porter to respond to the toast: "The Embarkation of the + Pilgrims."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--Last summer two pilgrims might have been seen +embarking from the port of New York to visit the land from which the +Pilgrim Fathers once embarked. One was the speaker who just sat down +[Chauncey M. Depew], and the other the speaker who has just arisen. I do +not know why we chose that particular time. Perhaps Mr. Choate, with his +usual disregard of the more accurate bounds of veracity, would have you +believe that we selected that time because it was a season when there +was likely to be a general vacation from dinners here. [Laughter.] Our +hopes of pleasure abroad had not risen to any dizzy height. We did not +expect that the land which so discriminating a band as the Pilgrim +Fathers had deliberately abandoned, and preferred New England thereto, +could be a very engaging country. We expected to feel at home there upon +the general principle that the Yankees never appear so much at home as +when they are visiting other people. [Laughter.] + +I have noticed that Americans have a desire to go to Europe, and I have +observed, especially, that those who have certain ambitions with regard +to public life think that they ought to cross the ocean; that crossing +the water will add to their public reputations, particularly when they +think how it added to the reputation of George Washington even crossing +the Delaware River. [Laughter and applause.] The process is very simple. +You get aboard a steamer, and when you get out of sight of land you +suddenly realize that the ship has taken up seriously its corkscrew +career through the sea. Certain gastronomic uncertainties follow. You +are sailing under the British flag. You always knew that "Britannia +ruled the waves;" but the only trouble with her now is that she don't +appear to rule them straight. [Laughter.] Then you lean up against the +rail; soon you begin to look about as much discouraged as a Brooklyn +Alderman in contempt of court. Your more experienced and sympathizing +friends tell you that it will soon pass over, and it does. You even try +to beguile your misery with pleasant recollections of Shakespeare. The +only line that seems to come to your memory is the advice of Lady +Macbeth--"To bed, to bed!"--and when you are tucked away in your berth +and the ship is rolling at its worst, your more advisory friends look in +upon you, and they give you plenty of that economical advice that was +given to Joseph's brother, not to "fall out by the way." [Laughter.] + +For several days you find your stomach is about in the condition of the +tariff question in the present Congress--likely to come up any minute. +This is particularly hard upon those who had been brought up in the +army, whose previous experience in this direction had been confined +entirely to throwing up earthworks. [Laughter.] You begin to realize how +naval officers sometimes have even gone so far as to throw up their +commissions. If Mr. Choate had seen Mr. Depew and myself under these +circumstances he would not have made those disparaging remarks which he +uttered to-night about the engorgement of our stomachs. If he had +turned those stomachs wrong side out and gazed upon their inner walls +through that opera-glass with which he has been looking so intently +lately upon Mrs. Langtry, he would have found that there was not even +the undigested corner of a carbuncular potato to stop the pyloric +orifice; he would have found upon those inner walls not a morsel of +those things which perish with using. [Laughter.] + +But Mr. Choate must have his joke. He is a professional lawyer, and I +have frequently observed that lawyers' jokes are like an undertaker's +griefs--strictly professional. You begin now to sympathize with +everybody that ever went to sea. You think of the Pilgrim Fathers during +the tempestuous voyage in the Mayflower. You reflect how fully their +throats must have been occupied, and you can see how they originated the +practice of speaking through their noses. [Great laughter and applause.] +Why, you will get so nauseated before the trip is over at the very sight +of the white caps that you can't look at the heads of the French nurses +in Paris without feeling seasick. There are the usual "characters" +about. There is the customary foreign spinster of uncertain age that has +been visiting here, who regales you with stories of how in New York she +had twelve men at her feet. Subsequent inquiry proves that they were +chiropodists. [Laughter.] + +And then you approach Ireland. You have had enough of the ocean wave, +and you think you will stop there. I have no doubt everybody present, +after hearing from the lips of the distinguished chaplain on my right as +to the character of the men who come from that country, will hereafter +always want to stop there. And when you land at Queenstown you are taken +for an American suspect. They think you are going to join the Fenian +army. They look at you as if you intended to go forth from that ship as +the dove went forth from the ark, in search of some green thing. You +assure them that the only manner in which you can be compared with that +dove is in the general peacefulness of your intentions. Then you go +wandering around by the shores of the Lakes of Killarney and the Gap of +Dunloe, that spot where the Irishman worked all day for the agent of an +absentee landlord on the promise of getting a glass of grog. At night +the agent brought out the grog to him, and the Irishman tasted it, and +he said to the agent, "Which did you put in first, the whiskey or the +water?" "Oh," said he, "the whiskey." "Ah, ha! Well, maybe I'll come to +it by and by." [Laughter.] You look around upon the army, the +constabulary, the police, and you begin to think that Ireland is a good +deal like our own city of Troy, where there are two police forces on +duty--that it is governed a great deal. You can't help thinking of the +philosophical remark made by that learned Chinese statesman, Chin Lan +Pin, when he was here at the time Dennis Kearney was having an +unpleasantness with the Orientals. A man said to him, "Your people will +have to get out of here; the Irish carry too much religion around to +associate with Pagans." "Yes," said Chin Lan Pin, "we have determined to +go. Our own country is too overcrowded now, we can't go there, and I +think we'll go to Ireland." Said the man, "To Ireland? You will be +jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire." Said Chin Lan Pin, "I have +travelled in your country and all around a good deal, and I have come to +the conclusion that nowadays Ireland is about the only country that is +not governed by the Irish." [Applause and laughter.] + +Then you go to Scotland. You want to learn from personal observation +whether the allegation is true that the Scotch are a people who are +given to keeping the Sabbath day--and everything else they can lay their +hands on. [Laughter.] You have heard that it is a musical country, and +you immediately find that it is. You hardly land there before you hear +the bag-pipes. You hear that disheartening music, and you sit down and +weep. You know that there is only one other instrument in the world that +will produce such strains, and that is a steam piano on a Mississippi +steamboat when the engineer is drunk. And in this musical country they +tell you in song about the "Lassies Comin' Through the Rye;" but they +never tell you about the rye that goes through the "laddies." And they +will tell you in song about "bodies meeting bodies coming through the +rye," and you tell them that the practice is entirely un-American; that +in America bodies usually are impressed with the solemnity of the +occasion and the general propriety of the thing, and lie quiet until the +arrival of the coroner, but that the coroners are disputing so much in +regard to their jurisdiction, and so many delays occur in issuing burial +permits, that, altogether, they are making the process so tedious and +disagreeable that nowadays in America hardly anybody cares to die. You +tell them this in all seriousness, and you will see from their +expression that they receive it in the same spirit. [Laughter.] + +Then you go to England. You have seen her colonies forming a belt around +the circle of the earth, on which the sun never sets. And now you have +laid eyes on the mother-country, on which it appears the sun never +rises. Then you begin to compare legislative bodies, Parliament and +Congress. You find that in Parliament the members sit with their hats on +and cough, while in Congress the members sit with their hats off and +spit. I believe that no international tribunal of competent jurisdiction +has yet determined which nation has the advantage over the other in +these little legislative amenities. And, as you cross the English +Channel, the last thing you see is the English soldier with his blue +trousers and red coat, and the first you see on landing in France is the +French soldier with his red trousers and blue coat, and you come to the +conclusion that if you turn an English soldier upside down he is, +uniformly speaking, a Frenchman. [Laughter.] + +We could not tarry long in France; it was the ambition of my travelling +companion to go to Holland, and upon his arrival there the boyish antics +that were performed by my travelling companion in disporting himself +upon the ancestral ground were one of the most touching and playful +sights ever witnessed in the open air. [Laughter.] Nobody knows Mr. +Depew who has not seen him among the Dutch. He wanted especially to go +to Holland, because he knew the Pilgrims had gone from there. They did +not start immediately from England to come here. Before taking their +leap across the ocean they stepped back on to Holland to get a good +ready. [Laughter.] It is a country where water mingles with everything +except gin--a country that has been so effectually diked by the natives +and damned by tourists. [Laughter.] There is one peculiar and especial +advantage that you can enjoy in that country in going out to a banquet +like this. It is that rare and peculiar privilege which you cannot +expect to enjoy in a New England Society even when Mr. Choate addresses +you--the privilege of never being able to understand a word that is said +by the speakers after dinner. But we had to hurry home. We were +Republicans, and there was going to be an election in November. We +didn't suppose that our votes would be necessary at all; still it would +look well, you know, to come home and swell the Republican majority. +[Laughter.] Now when you get on that ship to come back, you begin for +the first time to appreciate the advantage of the steam lanes that are +laid down by the steamship company, by which a vessel goes to Europe one +season over one route and comes back another season over another route, +so that a man who goes to Europe one season and comes back another is +treated to another change of scenery along the entire route. [Laughter.] + +As I said, we thought it was the thing for Republicans to come home to +vote. At the polls we found it was rather the thing for them to stay +away. But we acted upon that impulse which often seizes upon the human +breast--the desire to come home to die. I never for one moment realized +the overwhelming defeat that we were going to suffer until one day Mr. +Choate confided to me his determination to speak for the Citizens' +candidate. [Loud laughter.] And this left us the day after that election +and left the other members of our party standing around the highways and +byways with that one supplication upon each one's lips: "Lord, be +merciful unto me a Republican and a sinner." [Loud applause and +laughter.] + + + * * * * * + + +WOMAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the seventy-eighth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1883. The + President, Marvelle W. Cooper, in introducing the speaker, arose, + mentioned the single word "Woman"--and said: "This toast will be + responded to by one whom you know well, General Horace Porter."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--When this toast was proposed to +me, I insisted that it ought to be responded to by a bachelor, by some +one who is known as a ladies' man; but in these days of female +proprietorship it is supposed that a married person is more essentially +a ladies' man than anybody else, and it was thought that only one who +had had the courage to address a lady could have the courage, under +these circumstances, to address the New England Society. [Laughter.] + +The toast, I see, is not in its usual order to-night. At public dinners +this toast is habitually placed last on the list. It seems to be a +benevolent provision of the Committee on Toasts in order to give man in +replying to Woman one chance at least in life of having the last word. +[Laughter.] At the New England dinners, unfortunately the most fruitful +subject of remark regarding woman is not so much her appearance as her +disappearance. I know that this was remedied a few years ago, when this +grand annual gastronomic high carnival was held in the Metropolitan +Concert Hall. There ladies were introduced into the galleries to grace +the scene by their presence; and I am sure the experiment was +sufficiently encouraging to warrant repetition, for it was beautiful to +see the descendants of the Pilgrims sitting with eyes upturned in true +Puritanic sanctity; it was encouraging to see the sons of those pious +sires devoting themselves, at least for one night, to setting their +affections upon "things above." [Applause and laughter.] + +Woman's first home was in the Garden of Eden. There man first married +woman. Strange that the incident should have suggested to Milton the +"Paradise Lost." [Laughter.] Man was placed in a profound sleep, a rib +was taken from his side, a woman was created from it, and she became his +wife. Evil-minded persons constantly tell us that thus man's first sleep +became his last repose. But if woman be given at times to that +contrariety of thought and perversity of mind which sometimes passeth +our understanding, it must be recollected in her favor that she was +created out of the crookedest part of man. [Laughter.] + +The Rabbins have a different theory regarding creation. They go back to +the time when we were all monkeys. They insist that man was originally +created with a kind of Darwinian tail, and that in the process of +evolution this caudal appendage was removed and created into woman. This +might better account for those Caudle lectures which woman is in the +habit of delivering, and some color is given to this theory, from the +fact that husbands even down to the present day seem to inherit a +general disposition to leave their wives behind. [Laughter.] + +The first woman, finding no other man in that garden except her own +husband, took to flirting even with the Devil. [Laughter.] The race +might have been saved much tribulation if Eden had been located in some +calm and tranquil land--like Ireland. There would at least have been no +snakes there to get into the garden. Now woman in her thirst after +knowledge, showed her true female inquisitiveness in her +cross-examination of the serpent, and, in commemoration of that +circumstance, the serpent seems to have been curled up and used in +nearly all languages as a sign of interrogation. Soon the domestic +troubles of our first parents began. The first woman's favorite son was +killed with a club, and married women even to this day seem to have an +instinctive horror of clubs. The first woman learned that it was Cain +that raised a club. The modern woman has learned it is a club that +raises cain. Yet, I think, I recognize faces here to-night that I see +behind the windows of Fifth Avenue clubs of an afternoon, with their +noses pressed flat against the broad plate glass, and as woman trips +along the sidewalk, I have observed that these gentlemen appear to be +more assiduously engaged than ever was a government scientific +commission in taking observations upon the transit of Venus. [Laughter.] + +Before those windows passes many a face fairer than that of the +Ludovician Juno or the Venus of Medici. There is the Saxon blonde with +the deep blue eye, whose glances return love for love, whose silken +tresses rest upon her shoulders like a wealth of golden fleece, each +thread of which looks like a ray of the morning sunbeam. There is the +Latin brunette with the deep, black, piercing eye, whose jetty lashes +rest like silken fringe upon the pearly texture of her dainty cheek, +looking like raven's wings spread out upon new-fallen snow. + +And yet the club man is not happy. As the ages roll on woman has +materially elevated herself in the scale of being. Now she stops at +nothing. She soars. She demands the coeducation of the sexes. She thinks +nothing of delving into the most abstruse problems of the higher +branches of analytical science. She can cipher out the exact hour of the +night when her husband ought to be home, either according to the old or +the recently adopted method of calculating time. I never knew of but one +married man who gained any decided domestic advantage by this change in +our time. He was an _habitue_ of a club situated next door to his house. +His wife was always upbraiding him for coming home too late at night. +Fortunately, when they made this change of time, they placed one of +those meridians from which our time is calculated right between the club +and his house. [Laughter.] Every time he stepped across that imaginary +line it set him back a whole hour in time. He found that he could then +leave his club at one o'clock and get home to his wife at twelve; and +for the first time in twenty years peace reigned around that +hearthstone. + +Woman now revels even in the more complicated problems of mathematical +astronomy. Give a woman ten minutes and she will describe a heliocentric +parallax of the heavens. Give her twenty minutes and she will find +astronomically the longitude of a place by means of lunar culminations. +Give that same woman an hour and a half, with the present fashions, and +she cannot find the pocket in her dress. + +And yet man's admiration for woman never flags. He will give her half +his fortune; he will give her his whole heart; he seems always willing +to give her everything that he possesses, except his seat in a +horse-car. [Laughter.] + +Every nation has had its heroines as well as its heroes. England, in her +wars, had a Florence Nightingale; and the soldiers in the expression of +their adoration, used to stoop and kiss the hem of her garment as she +passed. America, in her war, had a Dr. Mary Walker. Nobody ever stooped +to kiss the hem of her garment--because that was not exactly the kind of +garment she wore. [Laughter.] But why should man stand here and attempt +to speak for woman, when she is so abundantly equipped to speak for +herself. I know that is the case in New England; and I am reminded, by +seeing General Grant here to-night, of an incident in proof of it which +occurred when he was making that marvellous tour through New England, +just after the war. The train stopped at a station in the State of +Maine. The General was standing on the rear platform of the last car. At +that time, as you know, he had a great reputation for silence--for it +was before he had made his series of brilliant speeches before the New +England Society. They spoke of his reticence--a quality which New +Englanders admire so much--in others. [Laughter.] Suddenly there was a +commotion in the crowd, and as it opened a large, tall, gaunt-looking +woman came rushing toward the car, out of breath. Taking her spectacles +off from the top of her head and putting them on her nose, she put her +arms akimbo, and looking up, said: "Well, I've just come down here a +runnin' nigh onto two mile, right on the clean jump, just to get a look +at the man that lets the women do all the talkin'." [Laughter.] + +The first regular speaker of the evening [William M. Evarts] touched +upon woman, but only incidentally, only in reference to Mormonism and +that sad land of Utah, where a single death may make a dozen widows. +[Laughter.] + +A speaker at the New England dinner in Brooklyn last night [Henry Ward +Beecher] tried to prove that the Mormons came originally from New +Hampshire and Vermont. I know that a New Englander sometimes in the +course of his life marries several times; but he takes the precaution to +take his wives in their proper order of legal succession. The difference +is that he drives his team of wives tandem, while the Mormon insists +upon driving his abreast. [Laughter.] + +But even the least serious of us, Mr. President, have some serious +moments in which to contemplate the true nobility of woman's character. +If she were created from a rib, she was made from that part which lies +nearest a man's heart. + +It has been beautifully said that man was fashioned out of the dust of +the earth while woman was created from God's own image. It is our pride +in this land that woman's honor is her own best defence; that here +female virtue is not measured by the vigilance of detective nurses; that +here woman may walk throughout the length and the breadth of this land, +through its highways and its byways, uninsulted, unmolested, clothed in +the invulnerable panoply of her own woman's virtue; that even in places +where crime lurks and vice prevails in the haunts of our great cities, +and in the rude mining gulches of the West, owing to the noble efforts +of our women, and the influence of their example, there are raised up, +even there, girls who are good daughters, loyal wives, and faithful +mothers. They seem to rise in those rude surroundings as grows the pond +lily, which is entangled by every species of rank growth, environed by +poison, miasma and corruption, and yet which rises in the beauty of its +purity and lifts its fair face unblushing to the sun. + +No one who has witnessed the heroism of America's daughters in the field +should fail to pay a passing tribute to their worth. I do not speak +alone of those trained Sisters of Charity, who in scenes of misery and +woe seem Heaven's chosen messengers on earth; but I would speak also of +those fair daughters who come forth from the comfortable firesides of +New England and other States, little trained to scenes of suffering, +little used to the rudeness of a life in camp, who gave their all, their +time, their health, and even life itself, as a willing sacrifice in that +cause which then moved the nation's soul. As one of these, with her +graceful form, was seen moving silently through the darkened aisles of +an army hospital, as the motion of her passing dress wafted a breeze +across the face of the wounded, they felt that their parched brows had +been fanned by the wings of the angel of mercy. + +Ah! Mr. President, woman is after all a mystery. It has been well said, +that woman is the great conundrum of the nineteenth century; but if we +cannot guess her, we will never give her up. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +FRIENDLINESS OF THE FRENCH + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet given by the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, June 24, 1885, to the officers + of the French national ship "Isere," which brought over the statue + of "Liberty Enlightening the World." Charles Stewart Smith, + vice-President of the Chamber, proposed the following toast: "The + French Alliance; initiated by noble and sympathetic Frenchmen; + grandly maintained by the blood and treasure of France; now newly + cemented by the spontaneous action of the French people; may it be + perpetuated through all time." In concluding his introduction, the + Chairman said: "We shall hear from our friend, General Porter."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--[3]_Voulez-vous me permettre de +faire mes remarques en francais? Si je m'addresse a vous dans une langue +que je ne parle pas, et que personne ici ne comprends, j'en impute la +faute entierement a l'example malheureux de Monsieur Coudert. Ce que je +veux dire est que_--this is the fault of Coudert. He has been switching +the languages round in every direction, and has done all he could to +sidetrack English. + +What I mean to say is, that if I were to mention in either language one +tithe of the subjects which should be alluded to to-night in connection +with the French Alliance, I should keep you all here until the rising of +another sun, and these military gentlemen around me, from abroad, in +attempting to listen to it, would have to exhibit what Napoleon +considered the highest quality in a soldier: "Two-o'clock-in-the-morning +courage." [Applause.] + +One cannot speak of the French Alliance without recalling the services +of Benjamin Franklin in connection with it. When he was in Paris and was +received in a public assemblage, not understanding anything of the +language, and believing, very properly, that it was a good thing always +to follow the example of the French in society, he vociferously +applauded every time the rest of them applauded, and he did not learn +until it was all over that the applause was, in each instance, elicited +by a reference to his name and distinguished public services, and so, +during the eloquent speech of our friend, Mr. Coudert, I could not but +look upon the American members of this assemblage, and notice that they +applauded most vociferously when they supposed that the speaker was +alluding particularly to their arduous services as members of the +Chamber of Commerce. [Laughter.] + +I congratulate our friends from abroad, who do not understand our +language, upon the very great privilege they enjoy here to-night, a +privilege that is not enjoyed by Americans or by Englishmen who come +among us. It is the rare and precious privilege at an American banquet +of not being expected to pay the slightest attention to the remarks of +the after-dinner speakers. [Laughter.] If there is one thing I feel I +can enjoy more than another, it is standing upon firm land and speaking +to those whose life is on the sea, to these "toilers of the deep." There +is in this a sort of poetic justice, a sentimental retribution; for on +their element I am never able to stand up, and, owing to certain +gastronomic uncertainties, my feelings on that element are just the +reverse of those I experience at the present moment. For in the agonies +of a storm I have so much on my mind that I have nothing whatever on my +stomach. But after this feast to-night I have so much on my stomach that +I fear I have nothing whatever on my mind. And when I next go to sea I +want to go as the great statue of Liberty: first being taken all apart +with the pieces carefully stored amidships. [Laughter.] + +While they were building the statue in France, we were preparing slowly +for the pedestal. You cannot hurry constructions of this kind; they must +have time to settle. We long ago prepared the stones for that pedestal, +and we first secured the services of the most useful, most precious +stone of all--the Pasha from Egypt. [Laughter.] We felt that his +services in Egypt had particularly fitted him for this task. There is a +popular belief in this country, which I have never once heard +contradicted, that he took a prominent part in laying the foundations of +the great Pyramids, that he assisted in placing the Egyptian Sphinx in +position, and that he even had something to do with Cleopatra's Needle. +[Laughter.] + +When Napoleon was in Egypt he said to his people: "Forty centuries are +looking down upon you." We say to General Stone, as he stands upon that +pedestal: "Fifty-five millions of people are looking up to you! and some +of them have contributed to the fund." [Laughter.] When we read of the +size of that statue, we were troubled, particularly when we saw the +gigantic dimensions of the Goddess's nose, but our minds were relieved +when we found that that nose was to face southward, and not in the +direction of Hunter's Point. [Laughter and applause.] + +_Monsieur le President_:--[4]_Quand le coeur est plein il deborde, et +ce soir mon coeur est plein de la France, mais_--Oh, there I go, again +wandering with Coudert away from the mother-tongue. [Laughter.] + +I have no doubt all the gentlemen here to-night of an American turn of +mind wish that the mantle of Elijah of old had fallen upon the shoulders +of Mr. Coudert, for then he might have stood some chance of being +translated. [Laughter.] A few years ago distinguished military men from +abroad came here to participate in the celebration of the 100th +anniversary of the surrender of Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis. They were +invited here by the Government, the descendants of all distinguished +foreigners, to participate in that historical event, except the +descendants of Lord Cornwallis. [Laughter.] And if our French guests had +been here then, and had gone down and seen Yorktown, they would not have +wondered that Cornwallis gave up that place; their only astonishment +would have been that he consented to remain there as long as he did. +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, upon a subject fraught with so much interest to us +all, and with so much dignity, let me, before I close, speak a few words +in all seriousness. If we would properly appreciate the depth and the +lasting nature of that traditional friendship between the two nations, +which is the child of the French Alliance, we must consider the +conditions of history at the time that alliance was formed. For years a +desperate war had been waged between the most powerful of nations and +the weakest of peoples, struggling to become a nation. The American +coffers had been drained, the spirit of the people was waning, hope was +fading, and patriot hearts who had never despaired before were now +bowed in the dust. The trials of the Continental army had never been +matched since the trade of war began. Their sufferings had never been +equalled since the days of the early Christian martyrs. While courage +still animated the hearts of the people, and their leaders never took +counsel of their fears, yet a general gloom had settled down upon the +land. Then we saw a light breaking in upon our eastern horizon, a light +which grew in brilliancy until it became to us a true bow of promise. +That light came from the brave land of France. [Enthusiastic cheering.] + +Then hope raised our standards; then joy brightened our crest; then it +was, that when we saw Gates and Lincoln and Greene and Washington, we +saw standing shoulder to shoulder with them, D'Estaing, De Grasse, +Rochambeau, and that princely hero [pointing to a portrait against the +wall], that man who was the embodiment of gallantry, of liberty, of +chivalry, the immortal Lafayette. [Loud cheers.] Then the two armies +moved hand-in-hand to fight the common foe. They vied nobly with each +other and, by an unselfish emulation and by a generous rivalry, showed +the world that the path of ambition had not become so narrow that two +could not walk it abreast. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and cheers.] + +Two treaties were made; one was military in its terms, and was called +the Defensive Treaty. The other we recall with great interest in the +presence of an assemblage of business men such as this. The second +treaty was called the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. The results of +those treaties have passed into history. That alliance taught many +worthy lessons. It taught that tyranny you may find anywhere; it is a +weed that grows on any soil. But if you want liberty, you must go forth +and fight for it. [Applause.] It taught us those kindly sentiments +between nations which warm the heart, liberalize the mind, and animate +the courage. It taught men that true liberty can turn blind submission +into rational obedience. It taught men, as Hall has said, that true +liberty smothers the voice of kings, dispels the mists of superstition, +and by its magic touch kindles the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of +poetry, the flame of eloquence, pours into our laps opulence and art, +and embellishes life with innumerable institutions and improvements +which make it one grand theatre of wonders. [Cheers.] + +And now that this traditional friendship between the two nations is to +be ever cemented by that generous gift of our ally, that colossal +statue, which so nobly typifies the great principle for which our +fathers fought, may the flame which is to arise from its uplifted arm +light the path of liberty to all who follow in its ways, until human +rights and human freedom become the common heritage of mankind. + +Ariosto tells us a pretty story of a gentle fairy, who, by a mysterious +law of her nature, was at certain periods compelled to assume the form +of a serpent and to crawl upon the ground. Those who in the days of her +disguise spurned her and trod upon her were forever debarred from a +participation in those gifts that it was her privilege to bestow, but to +those who, despite her unsightly aspect, comforted her and encouraged +her and aided her, she appeared in the beautiful and celestial form of +her true nature, followed them ever after with outstretched arms, +lavished upon them her gifts, and filled their homes with happiness and +wealth. + +And so, when America lay prostrate upon the ground, after throwing off +the British yoke, yet not having established a government which the +nations of the earth were willing to recognize, then it was that France +sympathized with her, and comforted her, and aided her, and now that +America has arisen in her strength and stands erect before the nations +of the world, in the true majesty and glory of that form in which God +intended she should thenceforth tread the earth, she always stands with +arms outstretched towards France in token of the great gratitude she +bears her. [Applause and cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE CITIZEN SOLDIER + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighth annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1887. The + President, John Winslow, proposed the toast, "The Citizen Soldier," + saying: "The next regular toast is 'The Citizen Soldier.' I have + already referred to the embarrassment which a presiding officer + feels in introducing a well-known and distinguished man. If I refer + to the distinguished gentleman who is to respond to this toast as a + pathetic speaker, you will immediately recall some of his fine + humor; and if I should speak of him as a humorous speaker you will + recall some pathetic sentence; so it is better to let General + Horace Porter speak for himself."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--After General Sherman the deluge. +I am the deluge. It is fortunate for me this evening that I come after +General Sherman only in the order of speech, and not in the order of +dinner, for a person once said in Georgia--and he was a man who knew +regarding the March to the Sea--that anyone who came after General +Sherman wouldn't find much to eat. Having been brought up in +Pennsylvania, I listened with great interest to General Sherman's +reference to the proposed names of the States in the country. He +mentioned one as "Sylvania." That was evidently a dead letter till we +put the Pen(n) to it. [Laughter.] I noticed that President Dwight +listened with equal interest to the statement of that expedition which +went West and carried such a large quantity of whiskey with it, in +consequence of which the first University was founded. [Laughter.] + +But, gentlemen, when I am requested in such an august presence as this +to speak of the "Citizen Soldier," I cannot help feeling like the +citizen soldier of Hibernian extraction who came up, in the streets of +New York, to a general officer and held out his hand for alms, evidently +wanting to put himself temporarily on the General's pay-roll, as it +were. The General said: "Why don't you work?" He said he couldn't on +account of his wounds. The General asked where he was wounded. He said, +"In the retrate at Bull Run." "But whereabouts on your person?" He +replied, "You'll notice the scar here." [Pointing to his face.] "Now, +how could you get wounded in the face while on the retreat?" "I had the +indiscrition to look back." [Laughter.] "Well," said the General, "that +wouldn't prevent your working." "Ah," answered the man, "the worst wound +is here." [Left breast.] The General said, "Oh, that's all bosh; if the +bullet had gone in there it would have passed through your heart and +killed you." "I beg your pardon, sir, at that moment me heart was in me +mouth!" [Great laughter.] So if I had known that such an early attack +was to be made upon me here to-night, I should have thrown my pickets +farther out to the front, in hopes of getting sufficient information to +beat a hasty retreat; for if there is one lesson better than another +taught by the war, it is that a man may retreat successfully from almost +any position, if he only starts in time. [Laughter.] + +In alluding to the Citizen Soldier I desire it to be distinctly +understood that I make no reference to that organization of Home Guards +once formed in Kansas, where the commanding officer tried to pose as one +of the last surviving heroes of the Algerine War, when he had never +drawn a sword but once and that was in a raffle, and where his men had +determined to emulate the immortal example of Lord Nelson. The last +thing that Nelson did was to die for his country, and this was the last +thing they ever intended to do. [Laughter.] + +I allude to that Citizen Soldier who breathed the spirit of old Miles +Standish, but had the additional advantage of always being able to speak +for himself; who came down to the front with hair close cropped, clean +shaven, newly baptized, freshly vaccinated, pocket in his shirt, musket +on his shoulder, ready to do anything, from squirrel hunting up to +manslaughter in the first degree. He felt that with a single rush he +could carry away two spans of barbed-wire fence without scratching +himself. If too short-sighted to see the enemy, he would go nearer; if +lame, he would make this an excuse to disobey an order to retreat; if he +had but one stocking, he would take it off his foot in wet weather and +wrap it around the lock of his gun; and as to marching, he would keep on +the march as long as he had upper garments enough left to wad a gun or +nether garments enough to flag a train with. [Laughter.] He was the last +man in a retreat, the first man in an enemy's smoke-house. When he +wanted fuel he took only the top rail of the fence, and kept on taking +the top rail till there was none of that fence left standing. The New +England soldier knew everything that was between the covers of books, +from light infantry tactics to the new version of the Scriptures. One +day, on a forced march in Virginia, a New England man was lagging +behind, when his colonel began stirring him up and telling him he ought +to make better time. He at once started to argue the case with the +colonel, and said: "See here, colonel, I've studied the tactics and hev +learned from 'em how to form double column at half distance, but I hev +never yet learned how to perform double distance on half rations." +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, this is a subject which should receive a few serious +words from me before I sit down. It was not until the black war cloud of +rebellion broke upon us that we really appreciated the Citizen Soldier +at his full worth. But when the country was struck we saw, pouring down +from the hill tops, and surging up from the valleys, that magnificent +army of citizen soldiery, at the sight of which all Christendom stood +amazed. They gathered until the streets of every hamlet in the land were +lighted by the glitter of their steel and resounded to the tread of +their marching columns. It seemed that the middle wall of partition was +broken down between all classes, that we were living once more in the +heroic ages, that there had returned to us the brave days of old, when +"none were for a party but all were for the state." [Applause.] And then +that unbroken line swept down to the front. But in that front what +scenes were met! There was the blistering Southern sun; swamps which +bred miasma and death; rivers with impassable approaches; heights to be +scaled, batteries to be captured, the open plain with guns in front and +guns in flank, which swept those devoted columns until human blood +flowed as freely as festal wine; there was the dense forest, the +under-growth barring the passage of man, the upper-growth shutting out +the light of heaven; ammunition-trains exploding, the woods afire, the +dead roasted in the flames, the wounded dragging their mangled limbs +after them to escape its ravages, until it seemed that Christian men had +turned to fiends, and hell itself had usurped the place of earth. +[Applause.] + +And when success perched upon our banners, when the bugle sounded the +glad notes of final and triumphal victory, the disbanding of that army +was even more marvellous than its organization. It disappeared, not as +the flood of waters of the spring, which rend the earth, and leave havoc +and destruction in their course; but rather, as was once eloquently +said, like the snows of winter under a genial sun, leaving the face of +Nature untouched, and the handiwork of man undisturbed; not injuring, +but moistening and fructifying the earth. [Applause.] But the mission of +the Citizen Soldier did not end there, it has not ended yet. We have no +European enemy to dread, it is true; we have on our own continent no +foeman worthy of our steel; for, unlike the lands of Europe, this land +is not cursed by propinquity. But we must look straight in the face the +fact that we have in our midst a discontented class, repudiated alike by +employers and by honest laborers. They come here from the effete +monarchies of the old world, rave about the horrors of tyrannous +governments, and make no distinction between them and the blessings of a +free and independent government. They have, but a little while ago, +created scenes in which mob-law ruled the hour, riot held its sanguinary +sway, and the earth of our streets tasted the blood of our citizens. +When such scenes as these occur, we cannot wait for aid from the crews +of vessels in the offing, we cannot look for succor to the army +garrisons of distant forts; but in our great cities--those plague spots +in the body politic--we want trained militia who can rally as rapidly as +the long roll can be beaten. And I know that all property-owners feel +safer, that all law-abiding citizens breathe freer, when they see a +militia, particularly like that in our own State, go forth in the summer +to be inured to the hardships of the march, to the discipline of +tent-life in the field, exhibiting an _esprit de corps_, a discipline, a +true touch of the elbow, which is beyond all praise. I love to take off +my hat to their marching column; I love to salute its passing banners. +They will always be the true bulwark of our defence. I know of no man, +and no set of men, who more gladly or more eagerly make this statement +than those who have been reared in the regular army; and I take +particular pride in making this acknowledgment and paying this tribute +in the presence of the senior and the most illustrious living commander +of our Citizen Soldiery. [Allusion to General Sherman followed by great +applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE MANY-SIDED PURITAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-second annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. + Ex-Judge Horace Russell, the President of the Society, in + introducing General Porter, said: "James T. Brady used to say that + a good lawyer imbibed his law rather than read it. [Laughter.] If + that proposition holds true in other regards, the gentleman whom I + am to call to the next toast is one of the very best of New + Englanders--General Horace Porter [applause], who will speak to + 'Puritan Influence.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--While you were eating +Forefathers' dinner here a year ago, I happened to be in Mexico, but on +my return I found that the Puritan influence had extended to me, for I +was taken for the distinguished head of this organization, and was in +receipt of no end of letters addressed to General Horace Russell and +Judge Horace Porter and Mr. Horace Russell and Porter, President of the +New England Society, and all begging for a copy of Grady's[5] speech. +Distant communities had got the names of the modern Horatii mixed. +[Laughter.] In replying I had to acknowledge that my nativity barred me +out from the moral realms of this puritanical society, and I could only +coincide with Charles II when he said he always admired virtue, but he +never could imitate it. [Laughter and applause.] When the Puritan +influence spread across the ocean; when it was imported here as part of +the cargo of the Mayflower, the crew of the craft, like sensible men, +steered for the port of New York, but a reliable tradition informs us +that the cook on board that vessel chopped his wood on deck and always +stood with his broadaxe on the starboard side of the binnacle, and that +this mass of ferruginous substance so attracted the needle that the ship +brought up in Plymouth harbor. And the Puritans did not reach New York +harbor for a couple of hundred years thereafter, and then in the persons +of the members of the New England Society. It is seen that the same +influences are still at work, for the fact that these Puritans have +brought up in Delmonico's haven of rest is entirely owing to the +attractions of the cook. [Laughter and applause.] + +The old Puritan was not the most rollicking, the jolliest, or the most +playful of men. He at times amused himself sadly; he was given to a mild +disregard of the conventionalities. He had suppressed bear-baiting, not, +it is believed, because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave +pleasure to the audience. He found the Indians were the proprietors of +the land, and he felt himself constrained to move against them with his +gun with a view to increasing the number of absentee landlords. +[Laughter and applause.] He found the Indians on one side and the +witches on the other. He was surrounded with troubles. He had to keep +the Indians under fire and the witches over it. These were some of the +things that reconciled that good man to sudden death. He frequently +wanted to set up a mark and swear at it, but his principles would not +permit him. He never let the sun go down upon his wrath, but he, no +doubt, often wished that he was in that region near the pole where the +sun does not go down for six months at a time, and gives wrath a fair +chance to materialize. He was a thoughtful man. He spent his days +inventing snow-ploughs and his evenings in sipping hot rum and +ruminating upon the probable strength of the future Prohibition vote. +Those were times when the wives remonstrated with their husbands +regarding the unfortunate and disappointing results of too much drink, +particularly when it led the men to go out and shoot at Indians--and +miss them. [Long continued laughter.] It is supposed that these men, +like many others, generally began drinking on account of the bite of a +snake, and usually had to quit on account of attacks from the same +reptiles. + +But, Mr. President, if you will allow me a few words of becoming gravity +with which to retract any aspersions which I may have inadvertently cast +upon the sacred person of the ancient Puritan, I assure you I will use +those words with a due sense of the truth of the epigram--that "gravity +is a stratagem invented to conceal the poverty of the mind." That rugged +old Puritan, firm of purpose and stout of heart, had been fittingly +trained by his life in the Old World, for the conspicuous part he was +to enact in the New. He was acquainted with hardships, inured to trials, +practised in self-abnegation. He had reformed religions, revolutionized +society, and shaken the thrones of tyrants. He had learned that tyranny +you may have anywhere--it is a weed which grows on any soil--but if you +want freedom you must go forth and fight for it. [Long continued +applause.] + +At his very birth he had had breathed into his nostrils the breath of +that true liberty which can turn blind submission into rational +obedience, which, as Hall says, can "smother the voice of kings, +dissipate the mists of superstition, and by its magic touch kindle the +rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, the flames of eloquence." +[Applause.] He had the courage of his convictions, he counselled not +with his fears. He neither looked to the past with regret nor to the +future with apprehension. He might have been a zealot--he was never a +hypocrite; he might have been eccentric--he was never ridiculous. He was +a Hercules rather than an Adonis. In his warfare he fired hot shot; he +did not send in flags of truce; he led forlorn hopes; he did not follow +in the wake of charges. When he went forth with his sledge-hammer logic +and his saw-mill philosophy, all who stood in the path of his righteous +wrath went down before him, with nothing by which to recognize them +except the pieces he had left of them. When he crossed the seas to plant +his banners in the West, when he disembarked upon the bleak shores of +America, the land which was one day to speak with the voice of a mighty +prophet, then the infant just discovered in the bulrushes of the New +World, he came with loins girded and all accoutred for the great work of +founding a race which should create a permanent abiding place for +liberty, and one day dominate the destinies of the world. [Prolonged +applause.] Unlike the Spanish conqueror upon far southern coasts, the +leader did not have to burn his ship to retain his followers, for when +the Mayflower spread her sails for home, not a man of Plymouth Colony +returned on board her. + +The Puritan early saw that in the new land, liberty could not flourish +when subject to the caprices of European Courts; he realized with Burke +that there was "more wisdom and sagacity in American workshops than in +the cabinets of princes." He wanted elbow-room; he was philosophic +enough to recognize the truth of the adage that it is "better to sit on +a pumpkin and have it all to yourself than to be crowded on a velvet +cushion." + +When the struggle for independence came, the Puritan influence played no +small part in the contest. When a separate government had been formed he +showed himself foremost in impressing upon it his principles of broad +and comprehensive liberty. He dignified labor; he believed that as the +banner of the young Republic was composed of and derived its chief +beauty from its different colors, so should its broad folds cover and +protect its citizens of different colors. + +He was a grand character in history. We take off our hats to him. We +salute his memory. In his person were combined the chivalry of +Knighthood, the fervor of the Crusader, the wit of Gascony, and the +courage of Navarre. [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at a dinner given by the Republican Club + in honor of the ninetieth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's + birthday, New York City, February 12, 1889. Mortimer C. Addams, the + newly elected President of the Club, occupied the chair. General + Porter was called upon for a response to the first toast, "Abraham + Lincoln--the fragrant memory of such a life will increase as the + generations succeed each other." General Porter was introduced by + the chairman, as one "whose long acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, + intimate relationship, both official and personal, with our + illustrious chieftain, General Grant, and distinguished career as a + brave defender of his country in the time of her peril, have + eminently fitted him to tell the story of our great War + President."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am encumbered with diverse +misgivings in being called upon to rise and cast the first firebrand +into this peaceful assemblage, which has evidently been enjoying itself +so much up to the present time. From the herculean task accomplished by +the Republican party last fall we have come to think of its members as +men of deeds and not of words, except the spellbinders. [Laughter.] I +fear your committee is treating me like one of those toy balloons that +are sent up previous to the main ascension, to test the currents of the +air; but I hope that in this sort of ballooning I may not be interrupted +by the remark that interrupted a Fourth of July orator in the West when +he was tickling the American Eagle under both wings, delivering himself +of no end of platitudes and soaring aloft into the brilliant realms of +fancy when a man in the audience quietly remarked: "If he goes on +throwing out his ballast, in that way, the Lord knows where he will +land." [Laughter.] If I demonstrate to-night that dryness is a quality +not only of the champagne but of the first speech as well, you may +reflect on that remark as Abraham Lincoln did at City Point after he had +been shaken up the night before in his boat in a storm in Chesapeake +Bay. When he complained of the feeling of gastronomic uncertainty which +we suffer on the water, a young staff officer rushed up to him with a +bottle of champagne and said: "This is the cure for that sort of an +ill." Said the President: "No, young man, I have seen too many fellows +seasick ashore from drinking that very article." [Laughter.] + +The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln savors more of romance than +reality. It is more like a fable of the ancient days than a story of a +plain American of the nineteenth century. The singular vicissitudes in +the life of our martyred President surround him with an interest which +attaches to few men in history. He sprang from that class which he +always alluded to as the "plain people," and never attempted to disdain +them. He believed that the government was made for the people, not the +people for the government. He felt that true Republicanism is a +torch--the more it is shaken in the hands of the people the brighter it +will burn. He was transcendently fit to be the first successful +standard-bearer of the progressive, aggressive, invincible Republican +party. [Loud applause.] He might well have said to those who chanced to +sneer at his humble origin what a marshal of France raised from the +ranks said to the haughty nobles of Vienna boasting of their long line +of descent, when they refused to associate with him: "I am an ancestor; +you are only descendants!" [Laughter and cheers.] He was never guilty +of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish +sentimentality, any of that puppyism so often bred by power, that +dogmatism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity. +[Laughter.] He made no claim to knowledge he did not possess. He felt +with Addison that pedantry and learning are like hypocrisy in +religion--the form of knowledge without the power of it. He had nothing +in common with those men of mental malformation who are educated beyond +their intellects. [Laughter.] + +The names of Washington and Lincoln are inseparably associated, and yet +as the popular historian would have us believe one spent his entire life +in chopping down acorn trees and the other splitting them up into rails. +Washington could not tell a story. Lincoln always could. [Laughter.] And +Lincoln's stories always possessed the true geometrical requisites, they +were never too long, and never too broad. [Laughter.] He never forgot a +point. A sentinel pacing near the watchfire while Lincoln was once +telling some stories quietly remarked that "He had a mighty powerful +memory, but an awful poor forgettery." [Laughter.] + +The last time I ever heard him converse, he told one of the stories +which best illustrated his peculiar talent for pointing a moral with an +anecdote. Speaking of England's assistance to the South, and how she +would one day find she had aided it but little and only injured herself, +he said: "Yes, that reminds me of a barber in Sangamon County. He was +about going to bed when a stranger came along and said he must have a +shave. He said he had a few days' beard on his face, and he was going to +a ball, and the barber must cut it off. The barber got up reluctantly, +dressed, and put the stranger in a chair with a low back to it, and +every time he bore down he came near dislocating his patient's neck. He +began by lathering his face, including nose, eyes, and ears, strapped +his razor on his boot, and then made a drive scraping down the right +cheek, carrying away the beard and a pimple and two or three warts. The +man in the chair said: 'You appear to make everything level as you go.' +[Laughter.] The barber said: 'Yes, if this handle don't break, I will +get away with what there is there.' The man's cheeks were so hollow that +the barber could not get down into the valleys with the razor and an +ingenious idea occurred to him to stick his finger in the man's mouth +and press out the cheeks. Finally he cut clean through the cheek and +into his own finger. He pulled the finger out of the man's mouth, and +snapped the blood off it, looked at him, and said: 'There, you +lantern-jawed cuss, you have made me cut my finger.'" [Laughter.] "Now," +said Lincoln, "England will find she has got the South into a pretty bad +scrape from trying to administer to her. In the end she will find she +has only cut her own finger." [Applause.] + +But his heart was not always attuned to mirth; its chords were often set +to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost the +courage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by +doubting Thomases, by unbelieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, +his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their +war-horses in order that they might not be affrighted by the din of +battle, so Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all that might have discouraged +him, and exhibited an unwavering faith in the justice of the cause and +the integrity of the Union. [Cries of "Bravo!" and cheers.] + +It is said that for three hundred years after the battle of Thermopylae +every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from +memory the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the defence of +that Pass. It would be a crowning triumph in patriotic education if +every school child in America could contemplate each day the grand +character and utter the inspiring name of Abraham Lincoln. [Loud +applause.] + +He has passed from our view. We shall not meet him again until he stands +forth to answer to his name at the roll-call when the great of earth are +summoned in the morning of the last great reveille. Till then +[apostrophizing Lincoln's portrait which hung above the President's +head], till then, farewell, gentlest of all spirits, noblest of all +hearts! The child's simplicity was mingled with the majestic grandeur of +your nature. You have handed down unto a grateful people the richest +legacy which man can leave to man--the memory of a good name, the +inheritance of a great example! [Loud and enthusiastic applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +SIRES AND SONS + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the eighty-sixth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1891. J. + Pierpont Morgan, the President, occupied the chair, and called upon + General Porter to speak on "Sires and Sons."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--All my shortcomings upon this +occasion must be attributed to the fact that I have just come from last +night's New England dinner, in Brooklyn, which occurred largely this +morning. They promised me when I accepted their invitation that I should +get away early, and I did. I am apprehensive that the circumstance may +give rise to statements which may reflect upon my advancing years, and +that I may be pointed out as one who has dined with the early New +Englanders. + +I do not like the fact of Depew's coming into the room so late to-night +and leaving so short an interval between his speech and mine. His +conduct is of a piece with the conduct of so many married men nowadays +who manifest such exceedingly bad taste and want of tact in dying only +such a very short time before the remarriage of their wives. + +I have acquired some useful experience in attending New England Society +dinners in various cities. I dine with New Englanders in Boston; the +rejoicing is marked, but not aggressive. I dine with them in New York; +the hilarity and cheer of mind are increased in large degree. I dine +with them in Philadelphia; the joy is unconfined and measured neither by +metes nor bounds. Indeed, it has become patent to the most casual +observer that the further the New Englander finds himself from New +England the more hilarious is his rejoicing. Whenever we find a son of +New England who has passed beyond the borders of his own section, who +has stepped out into the damp cold fog of a benighted outside world and +has brought up in another State, he seems to take more pride than ever +in his descent--doubtless because he feels that it has been so great. +[Laughter.] + +The New England sire was a stern man on duty and determined to +administer discipline totally regardless of previous acquaintance. He +detested all revolutions in which he had taken no part. If he possessed +too much piety, it was tempered by religion; while always seeking out +new virtues, he never lost his grip on his vices. [Laughter.] He was +always ambitious to acquire a reputation that would extend into the next +world. But in his own individual case he manifested a decided preference +for the doctrine of damnation without representation. + +When he landed at Plymouth he boldly set about the appalling task of +cultivating the alleged soil. His labors were largely lightened by the +fact that there were no agricultural newspapers to direct his efforts. +By a fiction of speech which could not have been conceived by a less +ingenious mind, he founded a government based upon a common poverty and +called it a commonwealth. He was prompt and eminently practical in his +worldly methods. In the rigors of a New England winter when he found a +witch suffering he brought her in to the fire; when he found an Indian +suffering he went out and covered him with a shotgun. [Laughter.] + +The discipline of the race, however, is chiefly due to the New England +mother. She could be seen going to church of a Sabbath with the Bible +under one arm and a small boy under the other, and her mind equally +harassed by the tortures of maternity and eternity. When her offspring +were found suffering from spring fever and the laziness which +accompanies it, she braced them up with a heroic dose of brimstone and +molasses. The brimstone given here was a reminder of the discipline +hereafter; the molasses has doubtless been chiefly responsible for the +tendency of the race to stick to everything, especially their opinions. +[Laughter.] + +The New Englanders always take the initiative in great national +movements. At Lexington and Concord they marched out alone without +waiting for the rest of the Colonies, to have their fling at the +red-coats, and a number of the colonists on that occasion succeeded in +interfering with British bullets. It was soon after observed that their +afternoon excursion had attracted the attention of England. They acted +in the spirit of the fly who bit the elephant on the tail. When the fly +was asked whether he expected to kill him he said: "No, but I notice I +made him look round." [Laughter.] + + +[Illustration: _THE MINUTE MAN_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph_ + + +In commemoration of the famous Revolutionary struggle of the farmers of +Concord, Mass., April 19, 1775, this statue was erected. The sculptor +was Daniel Chester French, a native of Concord. The statue was unveiled +at the centennial celebration of the battle, 1875. It is of bronze, +heroic size, and stands near the town of Concord, by the battlefield, on +the side of the Concord River occupied by the Americans. The position is +described by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his lines which are graven in the +pedestal of the statue: + + "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, + Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, + Here once the embattled farmers stood, + And fired the shot heard round the world."] + + +Such are the inventive faculty and self-reliance of New Englanders that +they always entertain a profound respect for impossibilities. It has +been largely owing to their influence that we took the negro, who is a +natural agriculturist, and made a soldier of him; took the Indian, who +is a natural warrior, and made an agriculturist of him; took the +American, who is a natural destructionist, and made a protectionist of +him. They are always revolutionizing affairs. Recently a Boston company +equipped with electricity the horse-cars, or rather the mule-cars, in +the streets of Atlanta. When the first electric-motor cars were put into +service an aged "contraband" looked at them from the street corner and +said: "Dem Yankees is a powerful sma't people; furst dey come down h'yar +and freed de niggers, now dey've done freed de mules." [Laughter.] + +The New Englander is so constantly engaged in creating changes that in +his eyes even variety appears monotonous. When a German subject finds +himself oppressed by his Government he emigrates; when a French citizen +is oppressed he makes the Government emigrate; when Americans find a +portion of their Government trying to emigrate they arm themselves and +spend four years in going after it and bringing it back. [Laughter and +applause.] + +You will find the sons of New England everywhere throughout the world, +and they are always at the fore. I happened to be at a French banquet in +Paris where several of us Americans spoke, employing that form of the +French language which is so often used by Americans in France, and which +is usually so successful in concealing one's ideas from the natives. +There was a young Bostonian there who believed he had successfully +mastered all the most difficult modern languages except that which is +spoken by the brake-men on the elevated railroads. When he spoke French +the only departure from the accent of the Parisian was that _nuance_ of +difference arising from the mere accidental circumstance of one having +learned his French in Paris and the other in Boston. The French give +much praise to Moliere for having changed the pronunciation of a great +many French words; but his most successful efforts in that direction +were far surpassed by the Boston young man. When he had finished his +remarks a French gentleman sitting beside me inquired: "Where is he +from?" I replied: "From New England." Said he: "I don't see anything +English about him except his French." [Laughter.] + +In speaking of the sons of New England sires, I know that one name is +uppermost in all minds here to-night--the name of one who added new +lustre to the fame of his distinguished ancestors. The members of your +Society, like the Nation at large, found themselves within the shadow of +a profound grief, and oppressed by a sense of sadness akin to the sorrow +of a personal bereavement, as they stood with uncovered heads beside the +bier of William T. Sherman; when the echo of his guns gave place to the +tolling of cathedral bells; when the flag of his country, which had +never been lowered in his presence, dropped to half-mast, as if +conscious that his strong arm was no longer there to hold it to the +peak; when he passed from the living here to join the other living, +commonly called the dead. We shall never meet the great soldier again +until he stands forth to answer to his name at roll-call on the morning +of the last great reveille. At this board he was always a thrice welcome +guest. The same blood coursed in his veins which flows in yours. All +hearts warmed to him with the glow of an abiding affection. He was a +many-sided man. He possessed all the characteristics of the successful +soldier: bold in conception, vigorous in execution, and unshrinking +under grave responsibilities. He was singularly self-reliant, +demonstrating by all his acts that "much danger makes great hearts most +resolute." He combined in his temperament the restlessness of a Hotspur +with the patience of a Fabius. Under the magnetism of his presence his +troops rushed to victory with all the dash of Caesar's Tenth Legion. +Opposing ranks went down before the fierceness of his onsets, never to +rise again. He paused not till he saw the folds of his banners wave +above the strongholds he had wrested from the foe. + +While mankind will always appreciate the practical workings of the mind +of the great strategist, they will also see in his marvellous career +much which savors of romance as well as reality, appeals to the +imagination and excites the fancy. They will picture him as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; as a general who could +make a Christmas gift to his President of a great seaboard city; as a +chieftain whose field of military operations covered nearly half a +continent; who had penetrated everglades and bayous; the inspiration of +whose commands forged weaklings into giants; whose orders all spoke with +the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depth to +mountain height, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. No one can +rob him of his laurels; no man can lessen the measure of his fame. His +friends will never cease to sing paeans in his honor, and even the wrath +of his enemies may be counted in his praise. [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE ASSIMILATED DUTCHMAN + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the fourth annual dinner of the + Poughkeepsie District Members of the Holland Society of New York, + October 3, 1893. The banquet was held in commemoration of the + relief of the siege of Leyden, 1574. J. William Beekman, the + President, introduced General Porter as follows: "Gentlemen, we + will now proceed to a toast that we shall all enjoy, I am sure, + after so much has been said about the Dutch. This toast is to be + responded to by a gentleman whom we all know. It is hardly + necessary to introduce him. But I will read the sentiment attached + to this toast: 'The American: Formed of the blendings of the best + strains of Europe, he cannot be worthy of his ancestry without + combining in himself the best qualities of them all.' And I call + upon General Horace Porter to respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--We speakers have naturally been a +little embarrassed at the outset this evening, for just as we were about +to break into speech, your President reminded us that the only one +worthy of having a monument built to his memory was William the Silent. +Well, it seemed to carry me back to those ancient days of Greece, when +Pythagoras inaugurated his School of Silence, and called on Damocles to +make the opening speech. + +Your President has shown from the start this evening that he is +determined to enforce discipline, totally regardless of previous +acquaintance. He appears to have been in a Shakespearian mood to-night. +He seemed to be looking at each one of these alleged speakers and saying +of him: "Therefore, I'll watch him till he be dieted to my request and +then I will set upon him." But he must remember that Shakespeare also +said: "Dainty bits make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits." + +I do not know how the rest of you feel, but after these delicious but +somewhat plethoric dinners, I feel very much like Mr. Butterby, when his +lavender-colored trousers were sent to him the night before his wedding, +and he returned them to the tailor with a note saying, "Let them out two +inches around the waist, which will leave a margin for emotion and the +wedding breakfast." [Laughter.] + +Now, we speakers to-night cannot expect to be received with any vast +ebullition of boisterous enthusiasm here, for we understand that every +member pays for his own wine. Besides, I am sure that you will not be +likely to get any more ideas from me than you would get lather from a +cake of hotel soap. + +After having wrestled with about thirty dishes at this dinner, and after +all this being called upon to speak, I feel a great sympathy with that +woman in Ireland who had had something of a field-day on hand. She began +by knocking down two somewhat unpopular agents of her absentee landlord, +and was seen, later in the day, dancing a jig on the stomach of the +prostrate form of the Presbyterian minister. One of her friends admired +her prowess in this direction and invited her in, and gave her a good +stiff glass of whiskey. Her friend said, "Shall I pour some water in +your whiskey?" and the woman replied, "For God's sake, haven't I had +trouble enough already to-day?" [Laughter.] + +I am a little at a loss still to know how I got into this company +to-night. I begin to feel like some of those United States Senators who, +after they have reached Washington, look around and wonder how they got +there. The nearest approach to being decorated with a sufficiently +aristocratic epithet to make me worthy of admission to this Society was +when I used to visit outside of my native State and be called a +"Pennsylvania Dutchman." But history tells us that at the beginning of +the Revolution there was a battle fought at Breed's Hill, and it was +called the Battle of Bunker Hill, because it was not fought there; and I +suppose I have been brought into this Dutch Society to-night because I +am not a Dutchman. [Laughter.] + +I have great admiration for these Dutchmen; they always get to the +front. When they appear in New York they are always invited to seats on +the roof; when they go into an orchestra, they are always given one of +the big fiddles to play; and when they march in a procession, they are +always sure to get a little ahead of the band. This Society differs +materially from other so-called foreign societies. When we meet the +English, we invariably refer to the common stock from which we sprang, +but in the Dutch Society the stock is always preferred! and when a +Dutchman dies, why, his funeral is like that funeral of Abel, who was +killed by his brother Cain--no one is allowed to attend unless he +belongs to a first family. [Laughter.] + +Now, a Dutchman is only happy when he gets a "Van" attached to the front +of his name, and a "dam" to the rear end of the city from which his +ancestors came. I notice they are all very particular about the "dam." +[Laughter.] + +There was a lady--a New York young lady--who had been spending several +years in England and had just returned. She had posed awhile as a +professional beauty. Then she attempted to marry into the aristocracy, +but the market for titles was a little dull that year and she came home. +She had lived there long enough to become an Anglomaniac. She met a +Dutchman in New York--I think he was a member of the Holland +Society--and she said: "Everything seems so remarkably commonplace here, +after getting back from England; I am sure you must admit that there is +nothing so romantic here as in England." The Dutchman remarked: "Well, I +don't know about that." She said: "I was stopping at a place in the +country, with one of the members of the aristocracy, and there was a +little piece of water--a sort of miniature lake, as it were--so sweet. +The waters were confined by little rustic walls, so to speak, and that +was called the 'Earl's Oath'; we have nothing so romantic in New York, +I'm sure." Said the Dutchman: "Oh, yes, here we have McComb's Dam." +[Laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, I certainly am in earnest sympathy with the +patriotic sentiment expressed in the toast which you have been pleased +to assign to me to-night, saying, in effect, that the American is +composed of the best strains of Europe, and the American cannot be +worthy of his ancestors unless he aims to combine within himself the +good qualities of all. America has gained much by being the conglomerate +country that she is, made up of a commingling of the blood of other +races. It is a well-known fact in the crossing of breeds that the best +traits predominate in the result. We in this land, have gained much from +the purity of those bloods; we have suffered little from the taint. + +It is well in this material age, when we are dwelling so much upon +posterity, not to be altogether oblivious to pedigree. It has been well +said that he who does not respect his ancestors will never be likely to +achieve anything for which his descendants will respect him. Man learns +but very little in this world from precept; he learns something from +experience; he learns much from example, and the "best teachers of +humanity are the lives of worthy men." + +We have a great many admirable so-called foreign societies in New York, +and they are all doing good work--good work in collecting interesting +historical data in regard to the ancestors who begat them; in regard to +the lands from which they came--good work in the broad field of charity. +But it is the Holland Society which seems to be a little closer to us +than the others--more _our_ Society, even with those of us who have no +Dutch blood in our veins. We feel that these old Dutch names are really +more closely associated in our minds with the city of New York than with +Holland itself. + +The men from whom you sprang were well calculated to carry on the great +work undertaken by them. In the first place, in that good old land they +had educated the conscience. The conscience never lost its hold upon the +man. He stood as firm in his convictions as the rock to its base. His +religion was a religion of the soul, and not of the senses. He might +have broken the tables of stone on which the laws were written; he never +would have broken those laws themselves. He turned neither to the past +with regret nor to the future with apprehension. He was a man inured to +trials; practised in self-abnegation; educated in the severe school of +adversity; and that little band which set out from Holland to take up +its career in the New World was well calculated to undertake the work +which Providence had marked out for them. Those men had had breathed +into their nostrils at their very birth the true spirit of liberty. +Somehow or other liberty seemed to be indigenous in that land. They +imbibed that true spirit of liberty which does not mean unbridled +license of the individual, but that spirit of liberty which can turn +blind submission into rational obedience; that spirit of liberty which +Hall says stifles the voices of kings, dissipates the mists of +superstition, kindles the flames of art, and pours happiness into the +laps of the people. Those men started out boldly upon the ocean; they +paused not until they dipped the fringes of their banners in the waters +of the western seas. They built up this great metropolis. They bore +their full share in building up this great nation and in planting in it +their pure principles. They builded even better than they knew. + +In the past year I think our people have been more inclined than ever +before to pause and contemplate how big with events is the history of +this land. It was developed by people who believed not in the "divine +right of kings," but in the divine right of human liberty. If we may +judge the future progress of this land by its progress in the past, it +does not require that one should be endowed with prophetic vision to +predict that in the near future this young but giant Republic will +dominate the policy of the world. America was not born amidst the +mysteries of barbaric ages; and it is about the only nation which knows +its own birthday. Woven of the stoutest fibres of other lands, nurtured +by a commingling of the best blood of other races, America has now cast +off the swaddling-clothes of infancy, and stands forth erect, clothed in +robes of majesty and power, in which the God who made her intends that +she shall henceforth tread the earth; and to-day she may be seen moving +down the great highways of history, teaching by example; moving at the +head of the procession of the world's events; marching in the van of +civilized and christianized liberty, her manifest destiny to light the +torch of liberty till it illumines the entire pathway of the world, and +till human freedom and human rights become the common heritage of +mankind. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO GENERAL GRANT + + [Speech of Horace Porter at the banquet of the Army of the + Tennessee, upon the occasion of the inauguration of the Grant + Equestrian Statue in Chicago, October 8, 1891.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--When a man from the armies of the East finds himself in +the presence of men of the armies of the West, he feels that he cannot +strike their gait. He can only look at them wistfully and say, in the +words of Charles II, "I always admired virtue, but I never could imitate +it." [Laughter.] If I do not in the course of my remarks succeed in +seeing each one of you, it will be because the formation of the Army of +the Tennessee to-night is like its formation in the field, when it won +its matchless victories, the heavy columns in the centre. [An allusion +to the large columns in the room.] [Laughter.] + +Almost all the conspicuous characters in history have risen to +prominence by gradual steps, but Ulysses S. Grant seemed to come before +the people with a sudden bound. Almost the first sight they caught of +him was in the flashes of his guns, and the blaze of his camp-fires, +those wintry days and nights in front of Donelson. From that hour until +the closing triumph at Appomattox he was the leader whose name was the +harbinger of victory. From the final sheath of his sword until the +tragedy on Mount McGregor he was the chief citizen of the republic and +the great central figure of the world. [Applause.] The story of his life +savors more of romance than reality. It is more like a fabled tale of +ancient days than the history of an American citizen of the nineteenth +century. As light and shade produce the most attractive effects in a +picture, so the singular contrasts, the strange vicissitudes in his +marvellous career, surround him with an interest which attaches to few +characters in history. His rise from an obscure lieutenancy to the +command of the veteran armies of the republic; his transition from a +frontier post of the untrodden West to the Executive Mansion of the +nation; his sitting at one time in his little store in Galena, not even +known to the Congressman from his own district; at another time striding +through the palaces of the Old World, with the descendants of a line of +Kings rising and standing uncovered in his presence [Applause.]--these +are some of the features of his extraordinary career which appeal to the +imagination, excite men's wonder, and fascinate all who read the story +of his life. [Applause.] + +General Grant possessed in a striking degree all the characteristics of +the successful soldier. His methods were all stamped with tenacity of +purpose, with originality and ingenuity. He depended for his success +more upon the powers of invention than of adaptation, and the fact that +he has been compared, at different times, to nearly every great +commander in history is perhaps the best proof that he was like none of +them. He was possessed of a moral and physical courage which was equal +to every emergency in which he was placed: calm amidst excitement, +patient under trials, never unduly elated by victory or depressed by +defeat. While he possessed a sensitive nature and a singularly tender +heart, yet he never allowed his sentiments to interfere with the stern +duties of the soldier. He knew better than to attempt to hew rocks with +a razor. He realized that paper bullets cannot be fired in warfare. He +felt that the hardest blows bring the quickest results; that more men +die from disease in sickly camps than from shot and shell in battle. + +His magnanimity to foes, his generosity to friends, will be talked of as +long as manly qualities are honored. [Applause.] + +You know after Vicksburg had succumbed to him he said in his order: "The +garrison will march out to-morrow. Instruct your commands to be quiet +and orderly as the prisoners pass by, and make no offensive remarks." +After Lee's surrender at Appomattox, when our batteries began to fire +triumphal salutes, he at once suppressed them, saying, in his order: +"The war is over; the rebels are again our countrymen; the best way to +celebrate the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the +field." [Applause.] After the war General Lee and his officers were +indicted in the civil courts of Virginia by directions of a President +who was endeavoring to make treason odious and succeeding in making +nothing so odious as himself. [Applause.] General Lee appealed to his +old antagonist for protection. He did not appeal to that heart in vain. +General Grant at once took up the cudgels in his defence, threatened to +resign his office if such officers were indicted while they continued +to obey their paroles, and such was the logic of his argument and the +force of his character that those indictments were soon after quashed. +So that he penned no idle platitude; he fashioned no stilted epigrams; +he spoke the earnest convictions of an honest heart when he said, "Let +us have peace." [Applause.] He never tired of giving unstinted praise to +worthy subordinates for the work they did. Like the chief artists who +weave the Gobelin tapestries, he was content to stand behind the cloth +and let those in front appear to be the chief contributors to the beauty +of the fabric. [Applause.] + +One of the most beautiful chapters in all history is that which records +the generous relations existing between him and Sherman, that great +soldier who for so many years was the honored head of this society, that +great chieftain whom men will always love to picture as a legendary +knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were +measured not by single miles, but by thousands; whose field of military +operations covered nearly half a continent; whose orders always spoke +with the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depths +to mountain heights, and marched from inland rivers to the sea. +[Applause.] Their rivalry manifested itself only in one respect--the +endeavor of each to outdo the other in generosity. With hearts untouched +by jealousy, with souls too great for rivalry, each stood ready to +abandon the path of ambition when it became so narrow that two could not +tread it abreast. [Applause.] + +If there be one single word in all the wealth of the English language +which best describes the predominating trait of General Grant's +character, that word is "loyalty." [Applause.] Loyal to every great +cause and work he was engaged in; loyal to his friends; loyal to his +family; loyal to his country; loyal to his God. [Applause.] This +produced a reciprocal effect in all who came in contact with him. It was +one of the chief reasons why men became so loyally attached to him. It +is true that this trait so dominated his whole character that it led him +to make mistakes; it induced him to continue to stand by men who were no +longer worthy of his confidence; but after all, it was a trait so grand, +so noble, we do not stop to count the errors which resulted. +[Applause.] It showed him to be a man who had the courage to be just, to +stand between worthy men and their unworthy slanderers, and to let +kindly sentiments have a voice in an age in which the heart played so +small a part in public life. Many a public man has had hosts of +followers because they fattened on the patronage dispensed at his hands; +many a one has had troops of adherents because they were blind zealots +in a cause he represented, but perhaps no man but General Grant had so +many friends who loved him for his own sake; whose attachment +strengthened only with time; whose affection knew neither variableness, +nor shadow of turning; who stuck to him as closely as the toga to +Nessus, whether he was Captain, General, President, or simply private +citizen. [Great applause.] + +General Grant was essentially created for great emergencies; it was the +very magnitude of the task which called forth the powers which mastered +it. In ordinary matters he was an ordinary man. In momentous affairs he +towered as a giant. When he served in a company there was nothing in his +acts to distinguish him from the fellow-officers; but when he wielded +corps and armies the great qualities of the commander flashed forth and +his master strokes of genius placed him at once in the front rank of the +world's great captains. When he hauled wood from his little farm and +sold it in the streets of St. Louis there was nothing in his business or +financial capacity different from that of the small farmers about him; +but when, as President of the Republic, he found it his duty to puncture +the fallacy of the inflationists, to throttle by a veto the attempt of +unwise legislators to tamper with the American credit, he penned a State +paper so logical, so masterly, that it has ever since been the pride, +wonder, and admiration of every lover of an honest currency. [Applause.] +He was made for great things, not for little. He could collect for the +nation $15,000,000 from Great Britain in settlement of the Alabama +claims; he could not protect his own personal savings from the +miscreants who robbed him in Wall Street. + +But General Grant needs no eulogist. His name is indelibly engraved upon +the hearts of his countrymen. His services attest his greatness. He did +his duty and trusted to history for his meed of praise. The more +history discusses him, the more brilliant becomes the lustre of his +deeds. His record is like a torch; the more it is shaken, the brighter +it burns. His name will stand imperishable when epitaphs have vanished +utterly, and monuments and statues have crumbled into dust; but the +people of this great city, everywhere renowned for their deeds of +generosity, have covered themselves anew with glory in fashioning in +enduring bronze, in rearing in monumental rock that magnificent tribute +to his worth which was to-day unveiled in the presence of countless +thousands. As I gazed upon its graceful lines and colossal proportions I +was reminded of that child-like simplicity which was mingled with the +majestic grandeur of his nature. The memories clustering about it will +recall the heroic age of the Republic; it will point the path of loyalty +to children yet unborn; its mute eloquence will plead for equal +sacrifice, should war ever again threaten the Nation's life; generations +yet to come will pause to read the inscription which it bears, and the +voices of a grateful people will ascend from the consecrated spot on +which it stands, as incense rises from holy places, invoking blessings +upon the memory of him who had filled to the very full the largest +measure of human greatness and covered the earth with his renown. +[Applause.] + +An indescribably touching incident happened which will ever be memorable +and which never can be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed +it. Even at this late date I can scarcely trust my own feelings to +recall it. It was on Decoration Day in the City of New York, the last +one he ever saw on earth. That morning the members of the Grand Army of +the Republic, the veterans in that vicinity, arose earlier than was +their wont. They seemed to spend more time that morning in unfurling the +old battle flags, in burnishing the medals of honor which decorated +their breasts, for on that day they had determined to march by the house +of their dying commander to give him a last marching salute. In the +streets the columns were forming; inside the house on that bed, from +which he was never to rise again, lay the stricken chief. The hand which +had seized the surrendered swords of countless thousands could scarcely +return the pressure of the friendly grasp. The voice which had cheered +on to triumphant victory the legions of America's manhood, could no +longer call for the cooling draught which slaked the thirst of a fevered +tongue; and prostrate on that bed of anguish lay the form which in the +New World had ridden at the head of the conquering column, which in the +Old World had been deemed worthy to stand with head covered and feet +sandaled in the presence of princes, kings, and emperors. Now his ear +caught the sound of martial music. Bands were playing the same strains +which had mingled with the echoes of his guns at Vicksburg, the same +quick-steps to which his men had sped in hot haste in pursuit of Lee +through Virginia. And then came the heavy, measured steps of moving +columns, a step which can be acquired only by years of service in the +field. He recognized it all now. It was the tread of his old veterans. +With his little remaining strength he arose and dragged himself to the +window. As he gazed upon those battle-flags dipping to him in salute, +those precious standards bullet-riddled, battle-stained, but remnants of +their former selves, with scarcely enough left of them on which to print +the names of the battles they had seen, his eyes once more kindled with +the flames which had lighted them at Shiloh, on the heights of +Chattanooga, amid the glories of Appomattox; and as those war-scarred +veterans looked with uncovered heads and upturned faces for the last +time upon the pallid features of their old chief, cheeks which had been +bronzed by Southern suns and begrimed with powder, were bathed in the +tears of a manly grief. Soon they saw rising the hand which had so often +pointed out to them the path of victory. He raised it slowly and +painfully to his head in recognition of their salutations. The column +had passed, the hand fell heavily by his side. It was his last military +salute. [Long continued applause and cheers.] + + + + +NOAH PORTER + + +TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale College, at the + seventy-second anniversary banquet of the New England Society in + the City of New York, December 22, 1877. The President of the + Society, William Borden, occupied the chair. This speech of + President Porter followed a speech of President Eliot of Harvard. + The two Presidents spoke in response to the toast: "Harvard and + Yale, the two elder sisters among the educational institutions of + New England, where generous rivalry has ever promoted patriotism + and learning. Their children have, in peace and war, in life and + death, deserved well of the Republic. Smile, Heaven, upon this fair + conjunction."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--The +somewhat miscellaneous character of the sentiment which has called me up +embarrasses me not a little as to which of the points I should select as +the subject of my remarks. I am still more embarrassed by the +introduction of additional topics on the part of my friend, the +President of Harvard College. The president knows that it is our custom +to meet once a year, and discuss all the matters to which he has +referred, as often as we meet. [Laughter.] He knows also that he was +providentially prevented, by a very happy occurrence to himself, from +attending our last College Convention; and in consequence of his +absence, for which we all excused and congratulated him, the meeting was +more than usually tame. [Laughter.] Now, I find that all the sentiments +which he had been gathering for a year have been precipitated upon me on +this occasion. [Laughter.] I rejoice that His Excellency, the President +of the United States, and the distinguished Secretary of State +[Rutherford B. Hayes and William M. Evarts], are between us. [Laughter.] +For here is a special occasion for the application of the policy of +peace. [Laughter.] I therefore reserve what few remarks I shall make +upon this special theme for a moment later. + +The first point in the sentiment proposed recognizes New England as the +mother of two colleges. I think we should do well also to call to mind, +especially under the circumstances by which we are surrounded this +evening, that New England was not merely the mother of two colleges +which have had some influence in this land, but that New England, with +all its glory and its achievements, was, in a certain sense, the +creation of a college. It would be easy to show that had it not been for +the existence of one or two rather inferior colleges of the University +of Cambridge in England, there never would have been a New England. In +these colleges were gathered and trained not a few of the great leaders +of opinion under whose influence the father of New England became a +great political power in the mother country. It is not to the Pilgrim +Fathers alone who landed at Plymouth on December 22, 1620, that New +England owes its characteristic principles and its splendid renown, but +it is also to the leaders of the great Puritan party in England, who +reinforced that immigration by the subsequent higher and nobler life of +the planters of Massachusetts Bay, conspicuous among whom was the +distinguished and ever-to-be-honored Governor Winthrop. [Applause.] + +It was from these colleges that so many strong-hearted young men went +forth into political public life in England to act the scholar in +politics, and who, as scholars in politics, enunciated those new +principles and new theories of government which made Old England +glorious for a time, and which made New England the power for good which +she afterward became, first at her home in the old States, and in all +their extension westward even to this hour. These scholars sought +emphatically a reform of the civil service in England. That was their +mission. They vindicated their principles upon the scaffold and their +rights upon the field of battle at home, and they transmitted that +spirit to the emigrants who came out from among them before the great +rebellion reached its great crisis and finished its memorable history. + +While, then, we honor the universities of which New England has been +the mother, let us remember that New England owes its being to a +university. In remembering this, we shall be prepared to follow in the +steps of our fathers, and to be mindful of what we ourselves owe to our +own institutions of learning. + +In respect to the rivalry between Yale and Harvard, which was noticed in +the sentiment to which I speak, and in reply to the suggestions which +have been offered by the President of Harvard, I will venture a single +remark. You, sir, who are learned in our New England history, are not +unfamiliar with the saying which was once somewhat current, that when a +man was found in Boston, in the earlier generations, who was a little +too bad to live with, they sent him to Rhode Island [Laughter.]; and +when they found a man who was a little too good to be a comfortable +neighbor, they sent him to Connecticut. [Laughter.] The remainder--the +men of average respectability and worth--were allowed to remain on the +shores of Massachusetts Bay and in Boston. And so it happened that these +people of average goodness, from constantly looking each other in the +face, contracted the habit of always praising one another with especial +emphasis; and the habit has not been altogether outgrown. [Laughter.] +The people of Rhode Island, being such as I have described, found it +necessary to have certain principles of toleration to suit their +peculiar condition, which they denominated the principles of soul +liberty. + +The people of Connecticut, being so very good, could not allow their +goodness to remain at home, and they very soon proceeded on a missionary +errand westward toward the city of New York, and in due time captured +the harbor and the infant city, and the great river of the North. In +this way, New York fell into the hands of those super-excellent +Connecticut Yankees, and with that began the stream of emigration +westward which has made our country what it is. [Laughter and applause.] +Perhaps this piece of history is about as good an explanation of the +jealousy of Yale toward Harvard as the interpretation which has been +given by the President of that honorable university--that Yale College +was founded because of the discontent of the self-righteous Puritans of +Connecticut with the religious opinions of the ruling spirits at +Harvard. [Laughter.] That piece of information has been amply discussed +and exploded by an able critic, and I will not repeat the arguments +here. + +As to any present rivalry which may exist between those institutions, we +disclaim it altogether. We know no jealousy of Harvard College now. We +acknowledge no rivalry except in the great enterprise of training +upright and intelligent and good-principled men for the service and the +glory of our common land. [Applause, and cries of "Hear! Hear!"] But +there is one means to this end you may be sure we shall always insist +upon--and that is the principle which we have received from our fathers, +that manhood and character are better than knowledge. The training which +our country demands is that which we intend always to give; and it is a +training in manhood of intelligence, in manhood of character, and in a +constant, ever-present faith in the providence and goodness of the +living God. [Applause.] + +I deem it proper here to remind you, that Yale College was foremost +among the American colleges in cherishing the taste for physical +science, and that these sciences, in all their forms, have received from +us the most liberal attention and care. If any of you doubt this, we +would like to show you our museum, with its collections, which represent +all that the most recent explorations have been able to gather. In these +well-ordered collections you would find as satisfactory an exhibition of +results as you could ask for. [Applause.] You need not fear, however, +that, because we believe in science, we have learned any more to +disbelieve in the living God. As we stand in the midst of one of the +halls of our splendid museum, and see arrayed before us all the forms of +vertebrate life, from man down to the lowest type, and see how one and +the other suggests the progress--the evolution, if you please--during we +care not how many centuries of advancing life; the more closely we study +these indications, the more distinctly do we see lines of thought, of +intelligence, and goodness reflected from one structure to another, and +all declaring that a divine thought and love has ordered each and all. +[Applause.] Hence we find no inconsistency between the teachings of this +museum on the one corner and the teachings of the college chapel on the +other. [Applause.] We therefore commit ourselves, in the presence of all +these sons of New England, whether they live in this city of their +habitation and their glory, or whether they are residents of other +cities and States of the North and Northwest, to the solemn declaration, +that we esteem it to be our duty to train our pupils on the one hand in +enlightened science, and on the other in the living power of the +Christian faith. [Applause.] We are certainly not sectarian. It is +enough that I say that we aim to be enlightened Christian believers, and +with those hopes and those aspirations we trust that the next generation +of men whom we shall educate will do their part in upholding this +country in fidelity to its obligations of duty, in fidelity to every +form of integrity, in generous self-sacrifice on the field of contest, +if it be required, and in Christian sympathy with the toleration and +forbearance which should come after the fight. [Applause.] + + + + +HENRY CODMAN POTTER + + +THE CHURCH + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of + New York, at the seventy-third annual dinner of the New England + Society in the City of New York, December 23, 1878. Daniel F. + Appleton presided and proposed the toast, "The Church--a fountain + of charity and good works, which is not established, but + establishes itself, by God's blessing, in men's hearts."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I take up the strain where the distinguished +Senator from Maine [James G. Blaine] has dropped it. I would fain be +with him one of those who should see a typical New England dinner spread +upon a table at which Miles Standish and John Alden sat, and upon which +should be spread viands of which John Alden and Miles Standish and the +rest, two hundred and seventy-three years ago, partook. I would fain see +something more, or rather I would fain hear something more--and that is, +the sentiments of those who gathered about that table, and the measure +in which those sentiments accorded with the sentiments of those who sit +at these tables to-night. [Applause.] Why, Mr. President, the viands of +which John Alden and Miles Standish partook did not differ more +radically from the splendor of this banquet than did the sentiments with +which the Puritans came to these shores differ from the sentiments of +the men who gather in this room to-night. If it had happened to them as +it happened to a distinguished company in New England, where an eminent +New England divine was called upon to lead in prayer, their feelings +would have been as little wounded as those against whom he offered up +his petition; or rather, if I were here to-night to denounce their +sentiments as to religious toleration, in which they did not believe; +their sentiments as to the separation of the Church from the State, in +which they did not believe any more than they believed in religious +toleration; their sentiments as to Democracy, in which they did not +believe any more than they believed in religious toleration--those of us +who are here and who do believe in these things would be as little +wounded as the company to which I have referred. The distinguished +divine to whom I have alluded was called upon to offer prayer, some +fifty years ago, in a mixed company, when, in accordance with the custom +of the times, he included in his petition to the Almighty a large +measure of anathema, as "We beseech Thee, O Lord! to overwhelm the +tyrant! We beseech Thee to overwhelm and to pull down the oppressor! We +beseech Thee to overwhelm and pull down the Papist!" And then opening +his eyes, and seeing that a Roman Catholic archbishop and his secretary +were present, he saw he must change the current of his petitions if he +would be courteous to his audience, and said vehemently, "We beseech +Thee, O Lord! we beseech Thee--we beseech Thee--we beseech Thee to pull +down and overwhelm the Hottentot!" Said some one to him when the prayer +was over, "My dear brother, why were you so hard upon the Hottentot?" +"Well," said he, "the fact is, when I opened my eyes and looked around, +between the paragraphs in the prayer, at the assembled guests, I found +that the Hottentots were the only people who had not some friends among +the company." [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen of the New England Society, if I were to denounce the views of +the Puritans to-night, they would be like the Hottentots. [Laughter.] +Nay more, if one of their number were to come into this banqueting hall +and sit down at this splendid feast, so unlike what he had been wont to +see, and were to expound his views as to constitutional liberty and as +to religious toleration, or as to the relations of the Church to the +State, I am very much afraid that you and I would be tempted to answer +him as an American answered an English traveller in a railway-carriage +in Belgium. Said this Englishman, whom I happened to meet in Brussels, +and who recognized me as an American citizen: "Your countrymen have a +very strange conception of the English tongue: I never heard any people +who speak the English language in such an odd way as the Americans do." +"What do you mean?" I said; "I supposed that in the American States the +educated and cultivated people spoke the English tongue with the utmost +propriety, with the same accuracy and the same classical refinement as +yours." He replied: "I was travelling hither, and found sitting opposite +an intelligent gentleman, who turned out to be an American. I went on to +explain to him my views as to the late unpleasantness in America. I told +him how profoundly I deplored the results of the civil war. That I +believed the interests of good government would have been better +advanced if the South, rather than the North, had triumphed. I showed +him at great length how, if the South had succeeded, you would have been +able to have laid in that land, first, the foundations of an +aristocracy, and then from that would have grown a monarchy; how by the +planters you would have got a noble class, and out of that class you +would have got a king; and after I had drawn this picture I showed to +him what would have been the great and glorious result; and what do you +think was his reply to these views? He turned round, looked me coolly in +the face, and said, 'Why, what a blundering old cuss you are!'" [Great +laughter.] Gentlemen, if one of our New England ancestors were here +to-night, expounding his views to us, I am very much afraid that you and +I would be tempted to turn round and say: "Why, what a blundering old +cuss you are!" [Renewed laughter.] + +But, Mr. President, though all this is true, the seeds of our liberty, +our toleration, our free institutions, our "Church, not established by +law, but establishing itself in the hearts of men," were all in the +simple and single devotion of the truth so far as it was revealed to +them, which was the supreme characteristic of our New England +forefathers. With them religion and the Church meant supremely personal +religion, and obedience to the personal conscience. It meant truth and +righteousness, obedience and purity, reverence and intelligence in the +family, in the shop, in the field, and on the bench. It meant compassion +and charity toward the savages among whom they found themselves, and +good works as the daily outcome of a faith which, if stern, was +steadfast and undaunted. + +And so, Mr. President, however the sentiments and opinions of our +ancestors may seem to have differed from ours, those New England +ancestors did believe in a church that included and incarnated those +ideas of charity and love and brotherhood to which you have referred; +and if, to-day, the Church of New York, whatever name it may bear, is to +be maintained, as one of your distinguished guests has said, not for +ornament but for use, it is because the hard, practical, and yet, when +the occasion demanded, large-minded and open-hearted spirit of the New +England ancestors shall be in it. [Applause.] Said an English swell +footman, with his calves nearly as large as his waist, having been +called upon by the lady of the house to carry a coal-scuttle from the +cellar to the second story, "Madam, ham I for use, or ham I for +hornament?" [Laughter.] + +I believe it to be the mind of the men of New England ancestry who live +in New York to-day, that the Church, if it is to exist here, shall exist +for use, and not for ornament; that it shall exist to make our streets +cleaner, to make our tenement-houses better built and better drained and +better ventilated; to respect the rights of the poor man in regard to +fresh air and light, as well as the rights of the rich man. And in order +that it shall do these things, and that the Church of New York shall +exist not for ornament but for use, I, as one of the descendants of New +England ancestors, ask no better thing for it than that it shall have, +not only among those who fill its pulpits, men of New England ancestry, +but also among those who sit in its pews men of New England brains and +New England sympathies, and New England catholic generosity! [Continued +applause.] + + + + +ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR + + +VIRGINIA'S PART IN AMERICAN HISTORY + + [Speech of Roger A. Pryor at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, January 15, + 1889. The President, Martin W. Cooke, introduced Justice Pryor in + these words: "The next in order is the benediction. There is no + poetical sentiment accompanying this toast, but if you will bear + with me I promise you learning, poetry, and eloquence. To that end + I call upon General Roger A. Pryor."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I don't know what I am to respond to. I have no +text; I have no topic. What am I to talk about? I am not only unlike +other gentlemen, taken by surprise, but I am absolutely without a +subject, and what am I to say? I don't know but that, as His Excellency +the Governor of this Imperial State expatiated, eloquently and justly, +upon the achievements and glories of New York, it might be pardoned me +in saying something of my own native State. + +What has Virginia done for our common country? What names has she +contributed to your historic roll? She has given you George Washington. +[Applause.] She has given you Patrick Henry, who first sounded the +signal of revolt against Great Britain. She has given you John Marshall, +who so profoundly construed the Constitution formed by Madison and +Hamilton. She has given you Thomas Jefferson, the author of the +Declaration of Independence. [Applause.] She has given you Madison and +Monroe. Where is there such a galaxy of great men known to history? You +talk of the age of Pericles and of Augustus, but remember, gentlemen, +that at that day Virginia had a population of only one-half the +population of the city of Brooklyn to-day, and yet these are the men +that she then produced to illustrate the glory of Americans. + +And what has Virginia done for our Union? Because sometime a rebel, as I +was, I say now that it is _my_ Union. [Applause.] As I have already said +it was a Virginian--Patrick Henry--kinsman, by the way, of Lord +Brougham, kinsman of Robertson, the historian, not a plebeian as some +would represent, and one nominated by George Washington to be Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States, which nomination was carried to +him by Light-Horse Harry Lee--I mention that because there is a notion +that Patrick Henry was no lawyer. He was a consummate lawyer, else +George Washington would never have proposed him to be Chief Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States; and he was a reading man, too, a +scholar, deeply learned, and he printed at his own expense Soame Jenyns' +work upon the internal evidence of Christianity. He was a profound +student, not of many books, but of a few books and of human nature. He +first challenged Great Britain by his resolutions against the Stamp act +in 1765, and then it was that Virginia, apropos of what you said to-day +in your admirable discourse--I address myself to Judge Cooley--Virginia +was the first free and independent people on earth that formulated a +written complete Constitution. I affirm that the Constitution of +Virginia in 1776 was the first written Constitution known to history +adopted by the people. And the frontispiece and the fundamental +principle of that Constitution, was the Bill of Rights--that Bill of +Rights, drawn by George Mason, you, gentlemen, in your Constitution of +New York, from your first Constitution to your last, have adopted. So +when you expatiate upon the merits of written-over prescriptive +constitutions, and with such eloquence and convincing force, I beg you +to remember that this now forlorn and bereaved Commonwealth was the +first people on earth that ever promulgated a formal, complete, written +Constitution, dividing the functions of government in separate +departments and reposing it for its authority upon the will of the +people. Jefferson gave you the Declaration of Independence in pursuance +of a resolution adopted by the Legislature of Virginia, instructing the +delegates in the Continental Congress to propose a Declaration of +Independence. The first suggestion of your more perfect union came from +the Legislature of Virginia in January, 1786, and your Federal +Constitution is construed upon the lines laid down by Edmund Randolph, +and proposed in the convention as the basis of the Constitution which +resulted in your now incomparable, as Mr. Gladstone says, incomparable +instrument of government. + +Furthermore, your great Northwest, your States of Ohio and Michigan, +whose jurisprudence Judge Cooley so signally illustrates, Indiana and +others, to whom are you indebted that this vast and fertile and glorious +country is an integral part of our Union? You are indebted to a +Virginian, to Patrick Henry, then the Governor of Virginia, for the +expedition to the Northwest headed by George Rogers Clark, as he was +called, the Hannibal of the New World, who with three hundred untrained +militia conquered for you that vast domain of the Northwest, which +Virginia, in her devotion to the Union gave, a free donation with +magnanimity surpassing that of Lear. She divided her possession with her +associates, and let me add, it has not been requited with the +ingratitude of Lear's daughters, for the disposition and the policy of +this Government toward Virginia at the end of the war, and toward the +people of the South has been characterized by a magnanimity and clemency +unparalleled in the history of the world. [Applause.] + +You must remember that the war commenced, as you gentlemen believe, +without provocation; we believe otherwise. This war so commenced, +costing a million of lives and countless millions of treasure, has not +been expiated by one drop of retributive blood. [Applause.] You must +further remember, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that at the formation of +the Constitution every distinguished Virginian was hostile to slavery +and advocated its abolition. [Applause.] Patrick Henry, George +Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, all without exception, were +the enemies of slavery and desired its extinction, and why it was not +then abolished I leave you gentlemen to determine by consulting history; +it was certainly not the fault of Virginia. + +Now will you pardon me, I have been led into these remarks because you +did not give me a text, and I had to extemporize one, or rather adopt +the suggestion of his Excellency, the Governor of this State. Now, here +we are asked, why did Virginia go into the War of Secession? Let me tell +you as one who was personally cognizant of the events. Twice Virginia in +her convention voted against the ordinance of secession, the deliberate +will of the people of Virginia, expressed under circumstances which did +not coerce their opinion, was that it was her interest and her duty to +remain loyal to the Union, but meanwhile a blow was struck at Sumter, +war, actual war, occurred. What then was the course of Virginia? She +said to herself, I know I am to be the Flanders of this conflict; I know +that my fields are to be ravaged and my sons to be slaughtered and my +homes to be desolated, but war has occurred, the South is my sister and +I will go with her. It was a magnanimous and it was a disinterested +resolution, and if her fault was grievous, grievously hath she answered +it. When this war occurred, she, beyond dispute, occupied the primacy in +the Union; she is to-day the Niobe of nations, veiled and weeping the +loss of her sons, her property confiscated and her homes in ashes. +Perhaps, you may say, the punishment is not disproportionate to her +trespass, but nevertheless there she is, and I say for her, that +Virginia is loyal to the Union. [Applause.] And never more, mark what I +say, never more will you see from Virginia any intimations of hostility +to the Union; she has weighed the alternative of success, and she sees +now, every sensible man in the South sees, that the greatest calamity +that could have befallen the South would have been the ascendency of +this ill-starred Confederacy. [Applause.] Because that Confederacy +carried to the utmost extreme, to the _reductio ad absurdum_, the right +of secession, carried in its bosom the seed of its own destruction, and +even in the progress of war, welded together as we were under pressure, +some were so recalcitrant, that the president of the Confederacy +recommended the suspension of the _habeas corpus_ act for the +suppression of disaffection, and let me say, rebels as we were, so true +were we to the traditions of Anglo-Saxon liberty that we never would +suspend for a moment that sacred sanction of personal freedom. +[Applause.] And, moreover, we see now, you will be surprised at what I +say, I voice the sentiment of every reflecting man in Virginia, and +woman too. We see now that slavery was a material and a moral evil, and +we exult that the black man is emancipated and stands as our equal under +the law. + +Why didn't we see it before? You know the story of the view of the +opposite sides of the shield. We had been educated under slavery, our +preachers had taught us that it had the sanction of the Divine +Scripture, we never saw any other aspect of the question, but now since +it is changed, we look at it and we perceive that slavery is not only +incompatible with the moral principles of government, but is hostile to +the material interests of the country, and I repeat that to-day, if the +people of the South were permitted to vote upon the question to +re-establish African slavery, there would not be a hundred votes in the +entire South, in favor of reshackling the limbs of the liberated negro. + +Gentlemen, that is the attitude of old Virginia, the Old Dominion, as we +proudly call her, and as such I am sure you will pardon her, because +when she was in the Union she never failed you in any emergency; when +you were menaced by the invasion of the British, it was Winfield Scott +and the Cockade Corps of Virginia that repelled the enemy from your +shores. Old Virginia has always been true to the Union, if you blot from +her history that recent episode which I say you have blotted generously +from your memory, and she from hers; we stand now with you, and I have +personal testimony of the fact, because coming among you, not only an +utter stranger, and having against me natural prejudices as a rebel, +nevertheless, I have been received in the State of New York with nothing +but courtesy and kindness. Mr. Benjamin, in England, is no parallel +instance, because he went among a people who sympathized with the +Rebellion, and who, if they had dared to strike would have taken sides +with the Rebellion, but I came here to those who naturally would have +repelled me, but instead of rejecting me, they have kindly taken me to +the bosom of their hospitalities and have rewarded me infinitely beyond +my merits; and to them, and especially to my brother lawyers of the +State of New York, I feel the profoundest gratitude, in attestation of +which I trust that when I go, my bones may rest under the green sod of +the Imperial State. [Applause.] + + + + +JOSIAH QUINCY + + +WELCOME TO DICKENS + + [Speech of Josiah Quincy, Jr., at the banquet given by the "Young + Men of Boston" at Boston, Mass., February 1, 1842, to Charles + Dickens, upon his first visit to America. Mr. Quincy was the + President of the evening. About two hundred gentlemen sat at the + tables, the brilliant company including George Bancroft, Richard H. + Dana, Sr., Richard H. Dana, Jr., Washington Allston, the painter, + Oliver Wendell Holmes, George S. Hillard, Josiah Quincy, President + of Harvard College, the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the + city, and Thomas C. Grattan, the British Consul.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--The occasion that calls us together is almost +unprecedented in the annals of literature. A young man has crossed the +ocean, with no hereditary title, no military laurels, no princely +fortune, and yet his approach is hailed with pleasure by every age and +condition, and on his arrival he is welcomed as a long-known and highly +valued friend. How shall we account for this reception? Must we not at +the first glance conclude with Falstaff, "If the rascal have not given +me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged: it could not be +else--I have drunk medicines." + +But when reflection leads us to the causes of this universal sentiment, +we cannot but be struck by the power which mind exercises over mind, +even while we are individually separated by time, space, and other +conditions of our present being. Why should we not welcome him as a +friend? Have we not walked with him in every scene of varied life? Have +we not together investigated, with Mr. Pickwick, the theory of +Tittlebats? Have we not ridden together to the "Markis of Granby" with +old Weller on the box, and his son Samivel on the dickey? Have we not +been rook-shooting with Mr. Winkle, and courting with Mr. Tupman? Have +we not played cribbage with "the Marchioness," and quaffed the rosy with +Dick Swiveller? Tell us not of animal magnetism! We, and thousands of +our countrymen, have for years been eating and talking, riding and +walking, dancing and sliding, drinking and sleeping, with our +distinguished guest, and he never knew of the existence of one of us. Is +it wonderful that we are delighted to see him, and to return in a +measure his unbounded hospitalities? Boz a stranger! Well may we again +exclaim, with Sir John Falstaff, "D'ye think we didn't know ye?--We knew +ye as well as Him that made ye." + +But a jovial fellow is not always the dearest friend; and, although the +pleasure of his society would always recommend the progenitor of Dick +Swiveller, "the perpetual grand of the glorious Appollers," in a scene +like this, yet the respect of grave doctors and of fair ladies proves +that there are higher qualities than those of a pleasant companion to +recommend and attach them to our distinguished guest. What is the charm +that unites so many suffrages? It is that in the lightest hours, and in +the most degraded scenes which he has portrayed, there has been a +reforming object and a moral tone, not formally thrust into the canvas, +but infused into the spirit of the picture, with those natural touches +whose contemplation never tires. + +With what a power of delineation have the abuses of his institutions +been portrayed! How have the poor-house, the jail, the police courts of +justice, passed before his magic mirror, and displayed to us the petty +tyranny of the low-minded official, from the magnificent Mr. Bumble, and +the hard-hearted Mr. Roker, to the authoritative Justice Fang, the +positive Judge Starleigh! And as we contemplate them, how strongly have +we realized the time-worn evils of some of the systems they revealed to +our eyesight, sharpened to detect the deficiencies and malpractices +under our own. + +The genius of chivalry, which had walked with such power among men, was +exorcised by the pen of Cervantes. He did but clothe it with the name +and images of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful Squire, and +ridicule destroyed what argument could not reach. + +This power belongs in an eminent degree to some of the personifications +of our guest. A short time ago it was discovered that a petty tyrant had +abused the children who had been committed to his care. No long and +elaborate discussion was needed to arouse the public mind. He was +pronounced a perfect Squeers, and eloquence could go no further. Happy +is he who can add a pleasure to the hours of childhood, but far happier +he who, by fixing the attention of the world on their secret sufferings, +can protect or deliver them from their power. + +But it is not only as a portrayer of public wrongs that we are indebted +to our friend. What reflecting mind can contemplate some of those +characters without being made more kind-hearted and charitable? Descend +with him into the very sink of vice--contemplate the mistress of a +robber--the victim of a murderer--disgraced without--polluted +within--and yet when, in better moments, her natural kindness breaks +through the cloud, then she tells you that no word of counsel, no tone +of moral teaching, ever fell upon her ear. When she looks forward from a +life of misery to a death by suicide, you cannot but feel that there is +no condition so degraded as not to be visited by gleams of a higher +nature, and rejoice that He alone will judge the sin who knows also the +temptation. Again, how strongly are the happiness of virtue and the +misery of vice contrasted. The morning scene of Sir Mulberry Hawk and +his pupil brings out in strong relief the night scene of Kit Nubbles and +his mother. The one in affluence and splendor, trying to find an easier +position for his aching head, surrounded with means and trophies of +debauchery, and thinking "there would be nothing so snug and comfortable +as to die at once." The other in the poorest room, earning a precarious +subsistence by her labors at the wash-tub--ugly, and ignorant, and +vulgar, surrounded by poverty, with one child in the cradle, and the +other in the clothes-basket, "whose great round eyes emphatically +declared that he never meant to go to sleep any more, and thus opened a +cheerful prospect to his relations and friends"--and yet in this +situation, with only the comfort that cleanliness and order could +impart, kindness of heart and the determination to be talkative and +agreeable throws a halo round the scene, and as we contemplate it we +cannot but feel that Kit Nubbles attained to the summit of philosophy, +when he discovered "there was nothing in the way in which he was made +that called upon him to be a snivelling, solemn, whispering +chap--sneaking about as if he couldn't help it, and expressing himself +in a most unpleasant snuffle--but that it was as natural for him to +laugh as it was for a sheep to bleat, a pig to grunt, or a bird to +sing." + +Or take another example, when wealth is attained, though by different +means and for different purposes. Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride are +industrious and successful; like the vulture, they are ever soaring over +the field that they may pounce on the weak and unprotected. Their +constant employment is grinding the poor and preying upon the rich. What +is the result? Their homes are cold and cheerless--the blessing of him +that is ready to perish comes not to them, and they live in wretchedness +to die in misery. What a contrast have we in the glorious old +twins--brother Charles and brother Ned. They have never been to school, +they eat with their knives (as the Yankees are said to do), and yet what +an elucidation do they present of the truth that it is better to give +than to receive! They acquire their wealth in the honorable pursuits of +business. They expend it to promote the happiness of every one within +their sphere, and their cheerful days and tranquil nights show that +wealth is a blessing or a curse, as it ministers to the higher or lower +propensities of our nature. + + "He that hath light within his own clear breast, + May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day; + But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon." + +Such men are powerful preachers of the truth that universal benevolence +is the true panacea of life; and, although it was a pleasant fiction of +brother Charles, "that Tim Linkinwater was born a hundred and fifty +years old, and was gradually coming down to five and twenty," yet he who +habitually cultivates such a sentiment will, as years roll by, attain +more and more to the spirit of a little child; and the hour will come +when that principle shall conduct the possessor to immortal happiness +and eternal youth. + +If, then, our guest is called upon to state what are + + "The drugs, the charms, + The conjuration and the mighty magic, + He's won our daughters with," + +well might he reply, that in endeavoring to relieve the oppressed, to +elevate the poor, and to instruct and edify those of a happier +condition, he had only held "the mirror up to Nature. To show virtue her +own form--scorn her own image." That "this only was the witchcraft he +had used;" and, did he need proof of this, there are many fair girls on +both sides of the water who, though they might not repeat the whole of +Desdemona's speech to a married man, yet could each tell him, + + "That if he had a friend that loved her, + He should but teach him how to tell _his stories_, + And that would win her." + +I would, gentlemen, it were in my power to present, as on the mirror in +the Arabian tale, the various scenes in our extended country, where the +master-mind of our guest is at this moment acting. In the empty +school-room, the boy at his evening task has dropped his grammar, that +he may roam with Oliver or Nell. The traveller has forgotten the fumes +of the crowded steamboat, and is far off with our guest, among the green +valleys and hoary hills of old England. The trapper, beyond the Rocky +Mountains, has left his lonely tent, and is unroofing the houses in +London with the more than Mephistopheles at my elbow. And, perhaps, in +some well-lighted hall, the unbidden tear steals from the father's eye, +as the exquisite sketch of the poor schoolmaster and his little scholar +brings back the form of that gifted boy, whose "little hand" worked its +wonders under his guidance, and who, in the dawning of intellect and +warm affections, was summoned from the school-room and the play-ground +forever. Or to some bereaved mother the tender sympathies and womanly +devotion, the touching purity of little Nell, may call up the form where +dwelt that harmonious soul, which uniting in itself God's best gifts, +for a short space shed its celestial light upon her household, and then +vanishing, "turned all hope into memory." + +But it is not to scenes like these that I would now recall you. I would +that my voice could reach the ear of every admirer of our guest +throughout the land, that with us they might welcome him, on this, his +first public appearance to our shores. Like the rushing of many waters, +the response would come to us from the bleak hills of Canada, from the +savannas of the South, from the prairies of the West, uniting in an +"earthquake voice" in the cheers with which we welcome Charles Dickens +to this new world. + + + + +ANDREW V. V. RAYMOND + + +THE DUTCH AS ENEMIES + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Andrew V. V. Raymond at the thirteenth annual + dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 12, 1898. The + President, John W. Vrooman, said: "I must now make good a promise, + and permit me to illustrate it by a brief story. A minister about + to perform the last rites for a dying man, a resident of Kentucky, + said to him with solemnity that he hoped he was ready for a better + land. The man instantly rallied and cried out, 'Look here, Mr. + Minister, there ain't no better land than Kentucky!' To secure the + attendance of our genial and eloquent College President I made a + promise to him to state publicly at this time that there is no + better college in the world than Union College; that there is no + better president in the world than the president of old Union; and + I may add that there is no better man than my valued friend, + President Andrew V. V. Raymond, of Union College, who will respond + to the toast: 'The Dutch as Enemies.--Did a person but know the + value of an enemy he would purchase him with fine gold.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Ladies--to whom now, as always, I look up for +inspiration--and gentlemen of the Holland Society, when one has been +rocked in a Dutch cradle, and baptized with a Dutch name and caressed +with a Dutch slipper, and nursed on Dutch history, and fed on Dutch +theology, he is open to accept an invitation from the Holland Society. +It is now four years since I had the pleasure of speaking my mind freely +about the Dutch, and in the meantime so much mind--or is it only +speech--has accumulated that the present opportunity comes very much +like a merciful interposition of Providence on my behalf. During these +years my residence has been changed, for whereas I used to live in +Albany now I live in Schenectady, which is like moving from The Hague to +Leyden, or in other words, going a little farther into the heart of +Dutchdom, for nowhere else is Dutch spelled with a larger D than in the +city of my residence to-day, with Lisha's Kill on one side, and +Rotterdam on another, and Amsterdam on the third, and a real dyke on the +fourth, to say nothing of the canal. + +You do not remember that speech of mine four years ago for you did not +hear it. That was not my fault, however, but your misfortune, of course. +You did not hear it because you were not here. You were asleep in your +own beds, of course, where Dutchmen always go when they are sleepy, +which is perhaps the principal reason why they are not caught napping in +business hours. Unfortunately, however, that speech was printed in full, +or I might repeat it now. One learns from such little experiences what +not to do the next time. But if you do not remember the speech, I do--at +least the subject--which was "The Dutch as Neighbors," and it has seemed +wise to get as far as possible from that subject to-night lest I might +be tempted to plagiarize, and so I propose to talk for a moment only +about "The Dutch as Enemies." + +I do not like the first suggestion of this subject any more than do you. +For to think of a man as an enemy is to think ill of him, and to +intimate that the Dutchman was not and is not perfect is to intimate +something which no one here will believe, and which no one certainly +came to hear. But as a matter of fact, gentlemen, no one can be perfect +without being an enemy any more than he can be perfect without being a +friend. The two things are complementary; the one is the reverse side of +the other. Everything in this universe, except a shadow, has two +sides--unless, perhaps, it may be a political machine whose +one-sidedness is so proverbial as to suggest that it also is a thing +wholly of darkness caused by someone standing in the way of the light. +The Dutchman, however, is not a shadow of anything or of anybody. You +can walk around him, and when you do that you find that he has not only +a kindly face and a warm hand, but something called backbone, and it is +that of which I am to speak to-night, for it suggests about all that I +mean by the Dutchman as an enemy. + +Some people are enemies, or become enemies, because of their spleen; +others because of their total depravity; and others still because they +persist in standing upright when someone wants them to lie down and be +stepped on. That is the meaning of backbone, in this world of human +strife, and if, from time to time, it has made an enemy of the +peace-loving Dutchman, it has been the kind of enmity that has gathered +to itself not a little gratitude, for after all it is the kind of enmity +that has made this world more tolerable as a place of temporary abode. If +no one opposes tyrants and thieves and heretics and franchise-grabbers, +city lots fall rapidly in price. It is the Dutchman who keeps up the real +estate market. When I have suggested that it is because of his opposition +that he is regarded as an enemy, I have come to the heart of all that + I propose to say to-night. As a matter of fact, the Dutchman has never +been very aggressive. He may not be enterprising, but his powers of +resistance are superb, and as this world wags it is often better to hold +fast than it is to be fast. + +If the Dutchman has not been aggressive, he has certainly been +steadfast. He has never become an enemy willingly, but always under +compulsion; willing to let other people alone if they will let him +alone, and if they will not do that, then he makes them do it. Those +dykes tell the whole story. The Dutchman did not want the sea--only the +earth. But when the sea wanted him he took up arms against it. It was so +with those Roman legions. The Dutchman had no quarrel with Rome until +Rome wanted to extend its empire that way, and to acquire him and grow +fat from his tribute money. But the Dutchman had no need of an empire up +his way, and so kept his tribute money, and sent the eagles home hungry. +If Spain had not wanted to whip the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not +have whipped Spain. If England had not wanted a brush with the Dutch, +that broom would never have been nailed to Tromp's masthead. If Jameson +had not tried to raid the Dutchman, the Dutchman would not have +corralled Jameson. From first to last, his battles have been on the +defensive. He has always been ambitious to be a good friend with the +latch-string always on the outside, and has only become an enemy when +somebody has tried to get into his house through the window. That kind +of enmity hurts no one who does not deserve to be hurt. + +As this world goes, it is a great thing to say of a man that he never +gets down his gun until he sees another gun pointed his way, but it is a +greater thing to say that when he does see that other gun he does not +get under the bed, and that is what can be said of the Dutchman more +than of any other man in the world. He will not run into a fight; he +will not run away from a fight--in fact he has no reputation whatever as +a runner in any direction. But he can take a stand, and when the smoke +has cleared away there he is, still standing. He will not vote himself +an enemy, but if against his will he is voted an enemy, he accepts the +election, and discharges the duties of his office with painstaking +vigilance and care. Now, no one does that, and ever gets re-elected, no +matter what the office. Such is the world. And so the Dutchman has never +been voted an enemy twice by the same people. One term of his vigorous +administration of hostile forces is quite enough, and inasmuch as he +does not care for the office personally, and takes it only from a sense +of duty, he never seeks a re-election. He is always ready to step down +and out, and resume his old occupation of being a good neighbor and a +peace-loving citizen. + +That is perhaps his greatest virtue, and it all grows out of the fact +that his spirit of antagonism is located in his backbone, leaving his +heart free. He does not love strife and he does not hate the man with +whom he fights, and so, in all his battles, he has never been +vindictive, cruel, merciless. When he has had to fight he has fought +like a man and a Christian, for righteousness' sake, and not like a +demon to humiliate and to annihilate his foes. That makes the Dutchman a +rare kind of enemy, and that, more than anything else, I think, has +distinguished his enmity through all the years of his history. He has +gone far toward obeying the precept, "Love your enemies, and bless them +that curse you." If he has not been able to keep men from hating him, +and cursing him, and persecuting him, he has been able to keep himself +from hating and cursing and persecuting in return; and so, while he is +one of the greatest of military heroes in history, he is also one of the +greatest of moral heroes, and that is a greater honor, inasmuch as "He +that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." + +I do not claim all glory for the Dutch. It is not given to any one +nation to monopolize virtue. I only assert that the Dutchman's virtue is +of a peculiarly exalted type. The Englishman's virtue is just as real, +only another kind of virtue. If the Dutchman's spirit of hostility or of +antagonism resides in his backbone, the Englishman's spirit of hostility +or antagonism resides in his breastbone. That makes all the difference +between them. The Englishman fights, but he fights aggressively. And as +the heart lies back of the breastbone it never gets into his fighting. +He neither loves his enemies nor hates them. He simply loves England. If +it has been the mission of the Dutch to keep, it has been the mission of +the English to get, and in the getting he has had to do a world of +fighting. + +It comes with ill grace from us, however, to condemn the Englishman when +to-day Uncle Sam is standing on the Pacific Slope expanding his chest +toward Hawaii. But if we cannot condemn with good grace, there is no +need to praise English aggressiveness and acquisitiveness overmuch; what +we do need to praise and cultivate is the Dutch virtue of holding fast +our own. We have institutions and principles, rights and privileges, in +this country which are constantly attacked, and the need of America is +that the backbone which the Dutch have given to this country should +assert itself. Hospitality loses its virtue when it means the +destruction of the Lares and Penates of our own firesides. When a guest +insists on sitting at the head of the table, then it is time for the +host to become _hostis_. What America needs in this new year of grace is +not less hospitality toward friends but more hostility toward intruders. + +The spirit of this age is iconoclastic. It seeks to destroy sacred +memorials, hallowed associations, holy shrines, everything that tells of +the faith and the worship of a God-fearing past. The spirit of the age +is irreverent, destructive, faithless. Against this and all despoiling +forces we as patriots are called to arms. For what does America stand? +What are the truths that have gone into her blood and made her strong +and beautiful and dominant? The divineness of human rights, the claims +of men superior to the claims of property; popular government--not an +oligarchy; popular government--not a dictatorship; the sacredness of +the home, the holiness of the sanctuary, faith in humanity, faith in +God. These have made America, and without these there can be no America. +And because they are attacked, gentlemen, the need of the hour is a +patriotism that shall breathe forth the spirit of the people who above +all others in history have known how to keep their land, their honor, +and their faith. The mission of little Holland will never be ended so +long as America needs the inspiration of her glorious example, and the +devoted citizenship of her loving sons. + + + + +OPIE P. READ + + +MODERN FICTION + + [Speech of Opie P. Read at the eighty-second dinner of the Sunset + Club, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1895. The general subject of the + evening's discussion was "The Tendency and Influence of Modern + Fiction." The chairman of the evening, Arthur W. Underwood, said in + introducing Mr. Read, "It is very seldom that the Sunset Club + discharges its speakers in batteries of four, but something is due + to the speakers. Four barrels is a light load, I am told, for a + Kentucky colonel, and I have the pleasure of introducing the + original 'Kentucky Colonel,' Mr. Opie P. Read."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The drift of latter-day fiction +is largely shown by the department store. The selling of books by the +ton proves a return to the extremes of romanticism. People do not jostle +one another in their eagerness to secure even a semblance of the truth. +The taste of to-day is a strong appetite for sadism; and a novel to be +successful must bear the stamp of society rather than the approval of +the critic. The reader has gone slumming, and must be shocked in order +to be amused. Reviewers tell us of a revolt against realism, that we no +longer fawn upon a dull truth, that we crave gauze rather than +substance. In fact, realism was never a fad. Truth has never been +fashionable; no society takes up philosophy as an amusement. + +But after all, popular taste does not make a literature. Strength does +not meet with immediate recognition; originality is more often condemned +than praised. The intense book often dies with one reading, its story is +a wild pigeon of the mind, and sails away to be soon forgotten; but the +novel in which there is even one real character, one man of the soil, +remains with us as a friend. In the minds of thinking people, realism +cannot be supplanted. But by realism, I do not mean the commonplace +details of an uninteresting household, nor the hired man with mud on his +cowhide boots, nor the whining farmer who sits with his feet on the +kitchen-stove, but the glory that we find in nature and the grandeur +that we find in man, his bravery, his honor, his self-sacrifice, his +virtue. Realism does not mean the unattractive. A rose is as real as a +toad. And a realistic novel of the days of Caesar would be worth more +than Plutarch's Lives. + +Every age sees a literary revolution, but out of that revolution there +may come no great work of art. The best fiction is the unconscious grace +of a cultivated mind, a catching of the quaint humor of men, a soft look +of mercy, a sympathetic tear. And this sort of a book may be neglected +for years, no busy critic may speak a word in its behalf, but there +comes a time when by the merest accident a great mind finds it and +flashes its genius back upon the cloud that has hidden it. + +Yes, there is a return to romanticism, if indeed there was ever a turn +from it. The well-told story has ever found admirers. To the world all +the stories have not been told. The stars show no age, and the sun was +as bright yesterday as it was the morning after creation. But a simple +story without character is not the highest form of fiction. It is a +story that may become a fad, if it be shocking enough, if it has in it +the thrill of delicious wickedness, but it cannot live. The literary +lion of to-day may be the literary ass of to-morrow, but the ass has his +bin full of oats and cannot complain. + +One very striking literary tendency of to-day is the worship of the +English author in America and the hissing of the American author in +London. And this proves that American literature is scarcely more +popular in England than it is at home. But may not American publishers +after awhile take up a London hissing and use it as an advertisement. +Hissing is surely a recognition, and proves that an author has not been +wholly neglected. + +The novel, whether it be of classic form or of faddish type, makes a +mark upon the mind of the public. Fiction is a necessary element of +modern education. A man may be a successful physician or a noted lawyer +without having read a novel; but he could not be regarded as a man of +refined culture. A novel is an intellectual luxury, and in the luxuries +of a country we find the refinements of the nation. It was not invention +but fancy that made Greece great. A novel-reading nation is a +progressive nation. At one time the most successful publication in this +country was a weekly paper filled with graceless sensationalism, and it +was not the pulpit nor the lecture-platform that took hold of the public +taste and lifted it above this trash--it was the publication in cheap +form of the English classics. And when the mind of the masses had been +thus improved, the magazine became a success. + +One slow but unmistakable drift of fiction is toward the short story, +and the carefully edited newspaper may hold the fiction of the future. + + + + +WHITELAW REID + + +THE PRESS--RIGHT OR WRONG + + [Speech of Whitelaw Reid at the 108th annual banquet of the Chamber + of Commerce of the State of New York, May 4, 1876. Samuel D. + Babcock, President of the Chamber, was in the chair, and proposed + the following toast, to which Mr. Reid was called upon for a + response: "The Press--right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; + when wrong, to be set right."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Lastly, Satan came also, the printer's, if not +the public's devil, _in propria persona_! [Laughter.] The rest of you +gentlemen have better provided for yourselves. Even the Chamber of +Commerce took the benefit of clergy. The Presidential candidates and the +representatives of the Administration and the leading statesmen who +throng your hospitable board, all put forward as their counsel the +Attorney-General [Alphonso Taft] of the United States. And, as one of +his old clients at my left said a moment ago, "a precious dear old +counsel he was." [Laughter.] + +The Press is without clergymen or counsel; and you doubtless wish it +were also without voice. At this hour none of you have the least desire +to hear anything or to say anything about the press. There are a number +of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that platform--I utterly +refuse to say whether I refer to Presidential candidates or not--but +there were a number of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that +table, who are very much more anxious to know what the press to-morrow +morning will have to say about them [laughter], and I know it because I +saw the care with which they handed up to the reporters the manuscript +copies of their entirely unprepared and extempore remarks. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, the press is a mild-spoken and truly modest institution which +never chants its own praises. Unlike Walt Whitman, it never celebrates +itself. Even if it did become me--one of the youngest of its conductors +in New York--to undertake at this late hour to inflict upon you its +eulogy, there are two circumstances which might well make me pause. It +is an absurdity for me--an absurdity, indeed, for any of us--to assume +to speak for the press of New York at a table where William Cullen +Bryant sits silent. Besides, I have been reminded since I came here, by +Dr. Chapin, that the pithiest eulogy ever pronounced upon the first +editor of America, was pronounced in this very room and from that very +platform by the man who at that time was the first of living editors in +this country, when he said that he honored the memory of Benjamin +Franklin because he was a journeyman printer who did not drink, a +philosopher who wrote common sense, and an office-holder who did not +steal. [Applause.] + +One word only of any seriousness about your toast; it says: "The +Press--right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be +set right." Gentlemen, this is your affair. A stream will not rise +higher than its fountain. The Hudson River will not flow backward over +the Adirondacks. The press of New York is fed and sustained by the +commerce of New York, and the press of New York to-day, bad as it is in +many respects--and I take my full share of the blame it fairly +deserves--is just what the merchants of New York choose to have it. If +you want it better, you can make it better. So long as you are satisfied +with it as it is, sustain it as it is, take it into your families and +into your counting-rooms as it is, and encourage it as it is, it will +remain what it is. + +If, for instance, the venerable leader of your Bar, conspicuous through +a long life for the practice of every virtue that adorns his profession +and his race, is met on his return from the very jaws of the grave, as +he re-enters the Court-room to undertake again the gratuitous +championship of your cause against thieves who robbed you, with the +slander that he is himself a thief of the meanest kind, a robber of +defenceless women--I say if such a man is subject to persistent +repetition of such a calumny in the very city he has honored and +served, and at the very end and crown of his life, it is because you do +not choose to object to it and make your objection felt. A score of +similar instances will readily occur to anyone who runs over in his +memory the course of our municipal history for the last dozen years, but +there is no time to repeat or even to refer to them here. + +And so, Mr. President, because this throng of gentlemen, gathered about +the doors, pay me the too great compliment by remaining standing to +listen when they have started to go home--let me come back to the text +you gave me, and the sentiment with which we began: "The Press--right or +wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be set right." +[Applause.] The task in either case is to be performed by the merchants +of New York, who have the power to do it and only need resolve that they +will. + +I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the continued attractions of the +annual entertainment you offer us; above all, I congratulate you on +having given us the great pleasure of meeting once more and seeing +seated together at your table the first four citizens of the metropolis +of the Empire State: Charles O'Conor, Peter Cooper, William Cullen +Bryant, and John A. Dix. I thank you for the courtesy of your +remembrance of the Press; and so to one and all, good-night. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +GLADSTONE, ENGLAND'S GREATEST LEADER + + [Speech of Whitelaw Reid at a dinner given by the Irish-Americans + to Justin McCarthy, New York City, October 2, 1886. Judge Edward + Browne presided. Mr. Reid was called upon to speak to the toast, + "Gladstone, England's Greatest Leader."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I am pleased to see that since this toast was sent +me by your committee, it has been proof-read. As it came to me, it +describes Mr. Gladstone as England's greatest Liberal leader. I thought +you might well say that and more. It delights me to find that you have +said more--that you have justly described him as England's greatest +leader. ["Hear! Hear!"] I do not forget that other, always remembered +when Gladstone is mentioned, who educated his party till it captured +its opponents' place by first disguising and then adopting their +measures. That was in its way as brilliant party leadership as the +century has seen, and it placed an alien adventurer in the British +peerage and enshrined his name in the grateful memory of a great party +that vainly looks for Disraeli's successor. [Applause.] I do not forget +a younger statesman, never to be forgotten henceforth by Irishmen, who +revived an impoverished and exhausted people, stilled their dissensions, +harmonized their conflicting plans, consolidated their chaotic forces, +conducted a peaceful Parliamentary struggle in their behalf with +incomparable pertinacity, coolness, and resources; and through storms +and rough weather has held steadily on till even his enemies see now, in +the very flush of their own temporary success, that in the end the +victory of Parnell is sure. [Loud applause.] Great leaders both; great +historic figures whom our grandchildren will study and analyze and +admire. + +But this man whom your toast honors, after a career that might have +filled any man's ambition, became the head of the Empire whose mourning +drum-beat heralds the rising sun on its journey round the world. That +place he risked and lost, and risked again to give to an ill-treated +powerless section of the Empire, not even friendly to his sway, Church +Reform, Educational Reform, Land Reform, Liberty! [Cheers.] It was no +sudden impulse and it is no short or recent record. It is more than +seventeen years since Mr. Gladstone secured for Ireland the boon of +disestablishment. It is nearly as long since he carried the first bill +recognizing and seriously endeavoring to remedy the evils of Irish land +tenure. + +He has rarely been able to advance as rapidly or as far as he wished; +and more than once he has gone by a way that few of us liked. But if he +was not always right, he has been courageous enough to set himself +right. If he made a mistake in our affairs when he said Jefferson Davis +had founded a nation, he offered reparation when he secured the Geneva +Arbitration, and loyally paid its award. If he made a mistake in Irish +affairs in early attempts at an unwise coercion he more than made amends +when he led that recent magnificent struggle in Parliament and before +the English people, which ended in a defeat, it is true, but a defeat +more brilliant than many victories and more hopeful for Ireland. +[Applause.] + +And over what a length of road has he led the English people! From +rotten boroughs to household suffrage; from a government of classes to a +government more truly popular than any other in the world outside of +Switzerland and the United States. Then consider the advance on Irish +questions. From the iniquitous burden of a gigantic and extravagant +church establishment, imposed upon the people of whom seven-eighths were +of hostile faith, to disestablishment; from the principle stated by Lord +Palmerston with brutal frankness that "tenant-right is landlord's +wrong," to judicial rents and the near prospect of tenant ownership on +fair terms; from the arbitrary arrests of Irish leaders to the alliance +of the Prime Minister and ruling party with the prisoner of Kilmainham +Jail! [Loud cheers.] It has been no holiday parade, the leadership on a +march like that. Long ago Mr. Disraeli flung at him the exultant taunt +that the English people had had enough of his policy of confiscation; +and so it proved for a time, for Mr. Disraeli turned him out. But Mr. +Gladstone knew far better than his great rival did the deep and secret +springs of English action, and he never judged from the temper of the +House or a tour of the London drawing-rooms. Society, indeed, always +disapproved of him, as it did of those kindred spirits, the anti-slavery +leaders of American politics. But the frowns of Fifth Avenue and Beacon +Street have not dimmed the fame of Sumner and Chase; of Seward and +Lincoln [a voice: "And of Wendell Phillips." Cheers]; nor does Belgravia +control the future of Mr. Gladstone's career any more than it has been +able to hinder his past. + +More than any other statesman of his epoch, he has combined practical +skill in the conduct of politics with a steadfast appeal to the highest +moral considerations. To a leader of that sort defeats are only +stepping-stones, and the end is not in doubt. A phrase once famous among +us has sometimes seemed to me fit for English use about Ireland. A great +man, a very great man, whose name sheds lasting honor upon our city said +in an impulsive moment--that he "never wanted to live in a country where +the one-half was pinned to the other by bayonets." If Mr. Gladstone +ever believed in thus fastening Ireland to England, he has learned a +more excellent way. Like Greeley he would no doubt at the last fight, if +need be, for the territorial integrity of his country. But he has +learned the lesson Charles James Fox taught nearly a hundred years +before: "The more Ireland is under Irish Government, the more she will +be bound to English interests." That precept he has been trying to +reduce to practice. God grant the old statesman life and light to see +the sure end of the work he has begun! [Loud applause.] + +I must not sit down without a word more to express the personal +gratification I feel in seeing an old comrade here as your guest. Twelve +or fourteen years ago he did me the honor to fill for a time an +important place on the staff of my newspaper. With what skill and power +he did his work; with what readiness and ample store of information you +need not be told, for the anonymous editorial writer of those days is +now known to the English-speaking world as the brilliant historian of +"Our Own Times." Those of us who knew him then have seen his sacrifice +of private interests and personal tastes for the stormy life of an Irish +member of Parliament, and have followed with equal interest and +admiration his bold yet prudent and high-minded Parliamentary career. He +has done all that an Irishman ought for his country; he has done it with +as little sympathy or encouragement for the policy of dynamite and +assassination in England as we have had for bomb-throwing in Chicago. +[Loud and prolonged applause.] + + + + +W. L. ROBBINS + + +THE PULPIT AND THE BAR + +[Speech of Rev. W. L. Robbins at the annual dinner of the New York State +Bar Association, given in the City of Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891, +in response to the sentiment, "The Relation of the Pulpit to the Bar." +Matthew Hale presided.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am so dazed at the temerity +which has ventured to put so soporific a subject as "The Pulpit" at so +late an hour in the evening, that I can only conceive of but one merit +in any response to the present toast, and that is brevity. I had always +supposed that the pulpit was "sleepy" enough in its effect upon men in +the early hours of the day, at least that was my conclusion, in so far +as it has been my privilege to see men present, at pulpit ministrations, +leaving us as they do for the most part to preach to women and children. +Shall I confess that the feeling came over me during the first part of +the evening that I was rather out of place among so many laymen, alone +as a representative of the clergy; but later, I found confidence through +a sense of kinship in suffering, for is it not true that we represent +two of the best abused professions in the world? I do not mean by that, +abuse _ab extra_. I am told indeed, occasionally, that the pulpit is +effete, that its place has been filled by the press and lecture +platform, that there is no further use for it. But I do not know that I +have heard abuse _ab extra_ of the Bar, unless some ill-natured person +should read it into the broad Scotch pronunciation of an old friend of +mine who used to say to me, "Ah, the lieyers, the lieyers." + +But what we must needs guard against is abuse from within. In the first +place we are a good deal given to self-congratulation. I use the first +person plural and not the second person; I remember a friend of mine, a +distinguished clergyman in Boston, an Englishman, who once ventured to +preach upon political corruption in the municipal government, and the +next day he had the audacity to drop into the office of one of the +business men of his congregation and say, "What did you think of that +sermon?"--a very dangerous question, by the way, always to ask--and the +reply came promptly, "You had better go and be naturalized so that you +can say 'we sinners,' instead of 'you sinners.'" [Laughter.] Since that +time, from the pulpit or from any other place, I have hesitated to say, +"You sinners," and I will promise to say "we sinners" to-night. + +But truly the pulpit and the Bar, in their ideal, are, as it were, "the +voice of one crying in the wilderness," a witness to the eternal truth. +Are they not? The pulpit is sent forth to herald the love of God, and +the Bar is sent forth to herald the justice of God; but they don't +always succeed. I can speak from experience for the pulpit, that the +position of authority, the claim of a divine mission, is often turned +into the excuse for the airing of a man's individual fads, and is naught +but a cloak for pretentious ignorance. [Applause.] And for the Bar, I +wonder if I might venture to quote the definition of legal practice +which was given me the other night, apropos of this toast, by a +distinguished representative of the New York Bar Association, that it +was "a clever device for frustrating justice, and getting money into the +lawyer's pocket." [Laughter.] But if it be true that we have a mission, +it is equally true that we must join hands if we are going to accomplish +that mission. I am tired of hearing about the Pulpit as the voice of the +public conscience. I do not know why the Bar should not be the voice of +the public conscience quite as much as the Pulpit. If there are laws on +the statute book that are not obeyed, I don't know why the clergy should +make public protest rather than the lawyers, who are representatives of +the law. [Applause.] And if principles of our Constitution are being +subtly invaded to-day under the mask, for instance, of State subsidies +or national subsidies to sectarian institutions either of learning or of +charity, I don't know why the first voice of warning should come from +the Pulpit rather than from the Bar. Indeed, when the clergy initiate +reforming movements it always seems to me as though there is need of +rather more ballast in the boat, need of one of those great wheels which +act as a check on the machinery in an engine; and the best fly-wheel is +the layman. The tendency, you know, of the Pulpit is toward an +unpractical sort of idealism. Its theories are all very good, but my +professor in physics used to tell me that the best mathematical theory +is put out of gear by friction when you come to illustrate it in +practical physics, and so with even the best kind of theoretical +philanthropy. The theoretical solution of the problems, social and +economic, which confront us is put "out of gear" by facts, about which, +alas, the clergy are not as careful as they are about their theory; and, +therefore, I plead for a lay enthusiasm. But surely there is no better +lay element than the legal to act as ballast for the clergy in pleading +the cause of philanthropy and piety and righteousness. + +Then I would suggest first of all, that the Pulpit needs to leave the A, +B, C's of morality, about which it has been pottering so long, and begin +to spell words and sometimes have a reading lesson in morals. That is, +that it should apply its principles to practical living issues and +questions of the day. And I plead to the lawyers to come out once in +awhile from the technicalities of practice, and from their worship of +cleverness and success, and look to the mission which is laid on them, +namely, to bear witness to justice and righteousness. [Applause.] My +toast would be "Common sense in the Pulpit and a love of righteousness +at the Bar." + + + + +JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE + + +THE PRESS + +[Speech of James Jeffrey Roche at the banquet of the Friendly Sons of +St. Patrick, New York City, March 17, 1894. John D. Crimmins presided. +Mr. Roche, as editor of the "Boston Pilot," responded for "The Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE FRIENDLY SONS OF ST. +PATRICK:--I am deeply sensible of the honor you have done me in +inviting me to respond to the toast which has just been read. + +The virtues of the Press are so many and so self-evident that they +scarcely need a eulogist. Even the newspapers recognize and admit them. +If you had asked a New York journalist to sing the praises of his craft, +his native and professional modesty would have embarrassed his voice. If +you had asked a Chicagoan, the honorable chairman would have been +compelled to resort to cloture before the orator got through. If you had +asked a Philadelphian, he would have been in bed by this hour. + +Therefore, you wisely went to the city which not only produces all the +virtues--but puts them up in cans, for export to all the world. We do +not claim to know everything, in Boston--but we do know where to find +it. We have an excellent newspaper press, daily and weekly, and should +either or both ever, by any chance, fail to know anything--past, +present, or to come--we have a Monday Lectureship, beside which the +Oracle of Delphi was a last year's almanac. [Applause.] + +I met a man, on the train, yesterday--a New York man (he said he +was)--of very agreeable manners. He told me what his business was, and +when I told him my business in New York, he surprised me by asking: +"What are you going to say to them in your speech that will be real +sassy, and calculated to make all their pet corns ache?" I told him I +did not know what he meant, that of course I should say nothing but the +most pleasant things I could think of; that, in fact, I intended to read +my speech, lest, in the agitation of the moment, I might overlook some +complimentary impromptu little touch. Then he laughed and said: "Why, +that isn't the way to do at all--in New York. It is easy to see you are +a stranger, and don't read the papers. The correct thing nowadays is for +the guest to criticise his entertainers. Mayor So-and-So always does it. +And only last year--it was at an Irish banquet, too--the speaker of the +evening, a Down-Easter like yourself, just spilled boiling vitriol over +the whole company, and rubbed it in." + +I told him I didn't believe that story, and asked him to tell me the +gentleman's name. And he only answered me, evasively: "I didn't say he +was a gentleman." + +I trust I know better than to say anything uncomplimentary about the +Press of New York, which compiles, or constructs, news for the whole +Continent, not only before our slower communities have heard of the +things chronicled, but often, with commendable enterprise, before they +have happened. + +I admire the Press of New York. There are a great many Boston men on it, +and I have no mission to reform it. In New York, when you have a surplus +of journalistic talent, you export it to London, where it is out of +place--some of it. The feverish race for priority, which kills off so +many American journalists, sometimes, it would seem, almost before their +time (but that is a matter of opinion), is unknown in London. A man who +reads the "London Times," regularly and conscientiously, is guaranteed +forever against insomnia. London "Punch" is a paper which the severest +ascetic may read, all through Lent, without danger to his sobriety of +soul. + +London gets even with you, too. You send her an Astor, and she +retaliates with a Stead. We ought to deal gently with Mr. Stead; for he +says that we are all children of the one "Anglo-Saxon" family--without +regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude. He avers that +England looks upon America as a brother, and that may be so. It is not +easy, at this distance of time, to know just how Romulus looked upon +Remus, how Esau looked upon Jacob, how Cain looked upon Abel--but I have +no doubt that it was in about the same light that England looks upon +America--fraternally! But she ought not to afflict us with Mr. Stead. We +have enough to bear without him. + +We know that the Press has its faults and its weaknesses. We can see +them every day, in our miserable contemporaries, and we do not shirk the +painful duty of pointing them out. We know that it has also virtues, +manifold, and we do not deny them, when an appreciative audience +compliments us upon them. A conscientious journalist never shrinks from +the truth, even when it does violence to his modesty. In fact, he tells +the truth under all circumstances, or nearly all. If driven to the +painful alternative of choosing between that which is new and that which +is true, he wisely decides that "truth" is mighty, and will prevail, +whereas news won't keep. Nevertheless, it is a safe rule not to believe +everything that you see in the papers. Advertisers are human, and liable +to err. + +Lamartine predicted, long ago, that before the end of the present +century the Press would be the whole literature of the world. His +prediction is almost verified already. The multiplication and the +magnitude of newspapers present, not a literary, but an economic +problem. The Sunday paper alone has grown, within a decade, from a +modest quarto to a volume of 48, 60, 96, 120 pages, with the stream +steadily rising and threatening the levees on both banks. At a similar +rate of expansion in the next ten years, it will be made up of not less +than 1,000 pages, and the man who undertakes to read it will be liable +to miss First Mass. + +The thoughtful provision of giving away a "farm coupon" with every +number may avert trouble for a time, but it will be only for a time. The +reader will need a farm, on which to spread out and peruse his purchase; +but the world is small, and land has not the self-inflating quality of +paper. + +But to speak more seriously: Is modern journalism, then, nothing but a +reflection of the frivolity of the day, of the passing love of +notoriety? I say no! I believe that the day of sensational journalism, +of the blanket sheet and the fearful woodcut, is already passing away. +Quantity cannot forever overcome quality, in that or any other field. +When we think of the men who have done honor to the newspaper +profession, we do not think so proudly of this or that one who "scooped" +his contemporaries with the first, or "exclusive," report of a murder or +a hanging, but of men like the late George W. Childs, whom all true +journalists honor and lament. + +We think of the heroes of the pen, who carried their lives in their +hands as they went into strange, savage countries, pioneers of +civilization. It would be invidious to mention names, where the roll is +so long and glorious; but I think, at the moment, of O'Donovan, Forbes, +Stanley, Burnaby, Collins, and our own Irish-American, MacGahan, the +great-hearted correspondent, who changed the political map of Eastern +Europe by exposing the Bulgarian atrocities. The instinct which impelled +those men was the same which impelled Columbus. + +I think, in another field, of the noblest man I have ever known, the +truest, most chivalrous gentleman, a newspaper man, an editor--I am +proud to say, an Irish-American editor--the memory of whose honored +name, I well know, is the only excuse for my being here to-night--John +Boyle O'Reilly! You have honored his name more than once here to-night, +and in honoring him you honor the profession which he so adorned. + + + + +D. B. ST. JOHN ROOSA + + +THE SALT OF THE EARTH + + [Speech of Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, as President of the Holland + Society of New York, at the eleventh annual dinner of the Society, + New York City, January 15, 1896.] + + +GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY, AND OUR HONORED GUESTS:--My +first duty is to welcome to our Board the representatives of the various +societies who honor us by their presence: St. George's, St. Nicholas, +New England, St. Andrew's, Colonial Order, and Colonial Wars, Southern +Society, the Holland Society welcomes you most heartily. I ought to say +that the Holland Society, as at present constituted, could run a Police +Board [applause], furnish the Mayors for two cities, and judges to +order, to decide on any kind of a case. As a matter of fact, when they +get hard up down-town for a judge, they just send up to the man who +happens to be President of the Holland Society and say "Now we want a +judge," and we send Van Hoesen, Beekman, Truax, or Van Wyck. [Applause.] +They are all right. They are Dutch, and they will do. [Laughter.] All +the people say it does not make any difference about their politics, so +long as the blood is right. + +Now, gentlemen, seriously, I thank you very sincerely for the honor +which you have conferred upon me--and which I was not able, on account +of circumstances entirely beyond my control, to acknowledge at the +annual meeting of the Society--in making me your President. I do not +think there is any honor in the world that compares with it, and if you +think over the names of the Presidents of this Society you may imagine +that a doctor, especially knowing what the Dutch in South Africa think +of doctors just now [laughter and applause], would have a mighty slim +chance to come in against a Van Vorst, a Roosevelt, a Van Hoesen, a +Beekman, a Van Wyck, or a Van Norden. But my name is not Jameson. +[Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, there seems to be an impression that the Holland Society, +because it does not have a Club-house--and it may have a Club-house, +that remains for you to decide; and because it does not have a great +many other things, has no reason for its existence. But, gentlemen, +there is one sufficient reason for the existence of the Hollanders in a +Society. We have eight hundred and forty members, and each one of us has +a function--to teach our neighboring Yankees just exactly what we are, +whence we came, and where we mean to go. [Laughter and applause.] The +colossal ignorance of the ordinary New Englander [laughter and +applause]--I mean in regard to the Dutch [laughter]--is something that I +would delineate were it not for the presence of the President of the +Mayflower Society. [Renewed laughter.] Why, it was only the other night +that at one of these entertainments when I was representing you and +doing the best I could with my medal and my ribbon, that a friend came +up to me and said: "You belong to the Holland Society, don't you?" I +said, "Yes." "Well," he said, "you Dutch did lick us on the Excise +question, didn't you?" [Great laughter and applause.] Now what are you +going to do with a people like that? We got the credit of that thing, +anyhow. [Renewed laughter.] There is a Governor of Connecticut here +to-night [P. C. Lounsbury], and I was going to say something about +Governors of Connecticut of years and years ago. A man could not +properly relate the history of New Amsterdam without remarking on the +Governors of Connecticut, but out of respect to the distinguished +gentleman, whom we all delight to honor, I shall draw it very mild. I +shall only tell one or two things that those Governors of Connecticut +used to do. There was one of them, I have forgotten his name and I am +glad I have [laughter], who used to say in all his letters to his +subordinates when they were pushing us to the wall and getting the +English over to help them push: "Don't you say anything to those people, +don't you talk to those people, but always keep crowding the Dutch." +[Laughter.] That is what a Connecticut Governor gave as official advice +years ago. And they did crowd us. But Governor Lounsbury told me that +if they really had their rights Manhattan Island would belong to +Connecticut. So you see they are crowding the Dutch still. [Laughter.] + +Now, every once in a while, one of these New Englanders that owns the +earth, especially that little stone portion called Plymouth Rock, which +we never begrudged them, gets up at a great dinner and reads a fine +speech and talks about civil and religious liberty which the Puritan +came over to cause to flourish. Why, the poor Puritan did not know any +more about religious liberty than an ordinary horse does about +astronomy. What the Puritan came over here for, was to get a place to do +what he liked, in his own way, without interference from anybody else, +with power to keep everybody out that wanted to do anything the least +bit different from his way. [Great laughter and applause. A voice--"I'm +glad I voted for you."] I never can get elected from New England. + +I want to tell you just a thing or two about this business. The Dutch +tried very hard to teach them civil and religious liberty before they +came over, and then they put the Yankees in a ship and sent them over +from Leyden and Delfshaven, saying: "It is utterly useless; we cannot +teach you." [Great laughter.] But we came over to New Amsterdam and we +had free schools in New York until the English took the city by +treachery when there was only Peter Stuyvesant to fire one gun against +the invaders, and then they abolished free schools and had their church +ones, and they are fighting over that question in England now. Free +schools! New York established them when we were free again, years and +years afterwards, but they are an invention of the Dutch. + +Civil and religious liberty! it was born in Holland, it was nourished by +the valor of the Beggars of the Sea, and finally it began to grow into +the minds of the peoples of the earth, that it was not only right to +enjoy your own religion, but it was also right to let your neighbor +enjoy his. [Applause.] + +Then there is another story, that the English conquered Manhattan +Island, and that we are here by the grace of any people on earth except +our own. That is another mistake. Just read Theodore Roosevelt's "Rise +of New York." [Great laughter.] Now I am going to tell you this story +because you must go up to Ulster County and up to Dutchess and Albany +Counties, and you must tell every Yankee you meet the truth about this, +and not let him talk any more about the English having subjugated the +Dutch. + +It is true the English captured Manhattan Island, but nine years +afterwards Admiral Evertsen and another Admiral whose name escapes me, +came up the harbor in two frigates with guns well shotted, got beyond +Staten Island, and gave the military authorities of New York notice that +they were going to take that town, and granted them thirty minutes to +make up their minds whether they would give it up or not. When the +thirty minutes elapsed, six hundred Dutch troops were landed just back +of where Trinity Church now is, and New York became New Amsterdam again. +Then how did we lose it? Because the Dutch States-General, which did not +know enough, in deciding between New York and Surinam, to choose New +York, took Surinam, and they have been wishing ever since they never had +been born. Now talk about anybody conquering the Dutch! We generally get +there. They sometimes say: "That is all very well, they were very brave +people and all that, but they don't do anything now." Waterloo, Van +Speyk, Majuba Hill, and the Boers of the Transvaal show what their +courage has been in the later generations. What are the Dutch? Why, we +are the salt of the earth! We do not pretend to be the bread and butter +and the cheese, but we are the salt [laughter], and I think the Boers in +South Africa very lately salted some people I know of. [Great laughter +and applause.] + +If you want to see a city that is well salted, look at New York. Go to +the St. Nicholas Society dinner and see that grand assembly; if there is +ever a society in New York that is well salted with Dutch, that is, and +we are all proud of it. And so it is with every other society, New York +society, but not on the paternal side! [Great laughter and applause.] + +But if you want to see a place where the Yankee is salt, pepper, bread, +butter, and everything, go to Boston. It is a great city. That is all +right. But we prefer New York, and we prefer just what God has ordained +us to be--the people not always getting the credit of it, but always +accomplishing all the good that is ever accomplished on the face of the +earth! [Laughter and applause.] Now you may think that I have not +whooped it up enough for the Dutch [great laughter], so I will go on, +just for a minute. + +The State of North Carolina is always talking about having had a +Declaration of Independence in Mecklenburg County, about six months +before they had one in Philadelphia. Why, the Dutch farmers up in the +Mamacotting Valley of Ulster County signed a Declaration of Independence +in April, 1775, and they would have signed it six months before if the +New York Council of Safety had given it to them! [Laughter.] This same +New England gentleman to whom I have alluded--I have it rather mixed up +in my mind which gentleman said it--but some one said that the New +Englanders were very unwilling to part from the English, who were +patronizing them with tea and stamps. Why, the liberty boys of New York +had made up their minds many months before the Declaration of +Independence. The Dutch, and notably the Scotch-Irish, had made up their +minds. As I say, up in Ulster County they circulated that Declaration of +Independence a year and three months before it was really signed +in Philadelphia. They knew what they meant. They said, "We shall never +be slaves." If you will excuse the fact that I did have a +great-grandfather--I am happy to say that my great-grandfather signed +that paper and he had a commission in the Continental Army, which I +possess, signed by John Hancock, and he was at Saratoga. He was in the +2d New York Line. The Dutch knew that what we wanted was to be a free +and independent people, even if our friends over there had not made up +their minds. The Dutch are satisfied with a very modest position in the +world--so that they have the goods and control its destinies. [Great +laughter.] Others may call it New York, if they like, or Manhattan, but +we call it Dutch. + +Now this Society, gentlemen, has a great work before it; our President, +who is very much like the President of the French Republic, goes around +with a big ribbon, but he has no authority of any kind whatever. He +might have some at the Board of Trustees meeting, but that is such an +orderly set that there is no use for authority there, and as for the +dinner, Judge Van Hoesen and Mr. Van Schaick manage it very well. But +the President does not wish any authority, and glories in the great +honor, which it seems to him to be one that any one in this Society +might be proud of. We have, however, work to do, and in that your +President, by your grace, as a private member and as a trustee, hopes to +co-operate with you. + +It is a strange thing that this great city of New York has allowed the +Puritans first to commemorate the virtues of their heroic race which we +all admire, and all love to speak of in terms of praise in our serious +moments. It is strange that Central Park is adorned by them with that +beautiful statue, while the Dutch have no monument. I well remember the +day that that silver-tongued orator, George William Curtis, made the +dedication address. But why is it that on this Hudson, which was first +ploughed by a Dutch keel, over which first of all a Dutch flag floated, +along this Hudson which was first discovered and explored and made +habitable by Dutch industry and Dutch thrift, there is no Dutch monument +to which we may proudly point as we pass by. There ought to be a statue +of that great Dutchman, William the Silent, on Riverside Drive. [Great +applause.] Do you ever think of him? Do you ever think of his career, +that of the prototype of our own Washington? At fifteen years of age the +companion of an emperor; at twenty-one years of age, the commander of a +great army, and later giving up wealth and pomp and power, preferring to +be among the people of God, than to dwell at ease in the tents of +wickedness; giving up everything for a life of tedious struggle in the +cold marshes of the Netherlands, finally to die at the hand of an +assassin with a prayer for his country upon his lips as he passed away. +He was the first human being on the face of this earth, who fairly and +fully understood the principles of religious and civic freedom. This +great city, the exemplifier of those principles to which it owes so much +for its prosperity and magnificence, has not yet commemorated that man. +How long shall it be, sons of Hollanders, before William the Silent +shall be there looking out upon the Hudson and lifted on high as an +example for all time? I hope our eyes will see the day! [Great +applause.] + + + + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + +THE HOLLANDER AS AN AMERICAN + + [Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the eleventh annual dinner of the + Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1896. The President, Dr. + D. B. St. John Roosa, said: "The next regular toast is: 'The + Hollander as an American,' and I shall have the pleasure of + introducing a gentleman who is a member of this Society, and, + therefore, descended on the male line [laughter] from some one who + came here before 1675, is it not? [A voice--"That is right; 1675."] + One of the first Roosevelts came very near outstripping Robert + Fulton and inventing the steamboat. He did invent a steamboat, and + you know the Roosevelts have had something of a steamboat in them + ever since. Now there is another thing I want you Dutchmen to teach + the Yankees to do--pronounce his name Rosavelt and not Rusevelt. + And, by the way, mine is pronounced Rosa too. Now Mr. Roosevelt is + a man, evidently, who has the courage of his convictions [A + Voice--"That is right." Applause], and it will be a cold day for + the party to which he belongs if they undertake to turn him down. I + hoped that you all thought so. There was an old darky that used to + say about the Commandments: 'Yes, preacher, they are all right, but + in this here neighborhood the eighth Commandment ought to be taught + with some discreetions.' [Great laughter.] [A Voice: "Which is the + eighth Commandment?"] 'Thou shalt not steal.' Now in New York there + are some people who think there are some commandments that ought to + be taught with some 'discreetions.' But they had better alter their + law if they don't like it, and they had better not put a Dutchman + in office after an oath to enforce the law and then ask him why he + does enforce it. [Great applause.] This gentleman does not need any + introduction, evidently--the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt." [Great + applause. Three cheers were proposed and given for Mr. Roosevelt. A + Voice: "Tiger!"] Mr. Roosevelt: "In the presence of the judiciary, + no!" [Laughter.] There was great cheering when Mr. Roosevelt rose + to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN, AND BRETHREN OF THE HOLLAND +SOCIETY:--I am more than touched, if you will permit me to begin +rather seriously, by the way you have greeted me to-night. When I was in +Washington, there was a story in reference to a certain President, +who was not popular with some of his own people in a particular Western +State. One of its Senators went to the White House and said he wanted a +friend of his appointed postmaster of Topeka. The President's Private +Secretary said: "I am very sorry, indeed, sir, but the President wants +to appoint a personal friend." Thereupon the Senator said: "Well, for +God's sake, if he has one friend in Kansas, let him appoint him!" [Great +laughter.] + + +[Illustration: _THEODORE ROOSEVELT_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +There have been periods during which the dissembled eulogies of the able +press and my relations with about every politician of every party and +every faction have made me feel I would like to know whether I had one +friend in New York, and here I feel I have many. [Great applause.] And +more than that, gentlemen, I should think ill of myself and think that I +was a discredit to the stock from which I sprang if I feared to go on +along the path that I deemed right, whether I had few friends or many. +[Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.] + +I am glad to answer to the toast, "The Hollander as an American." The +Hollander was a good American, because the Hollander was fitted to be a +good citizen. There are two branches of government which must be kept on +a high plane, if any nation is to be great. A nation must have laws that +are honestly and fearlessly administered, and a nation must be ready, in +time of need, to fight [applause], and we men of Dutch descent have here +to-night these gentlemen of the same blood as ourselves who represent +New York so worthily on the bench, and a Major-General of the Army of +the United States. [Applause.] + +It seems to me, at times, that the Dutch in America have one or two +lessons to teach. We want to teach the very refined and very cultivated +men who believe it impossible that the United States can ever be right +in a quarrel with another nation--a little of the elementary virtue of +patriotism. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and applause.] And we also wish to +teach our fellow-citizens that laws are put on the statute books to be +enforced [cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause]; and that if it is not +intended they shall be enforced, it is a mistake to put a Dutchman in +office to enforce them. + +The lines put on the programme underneath my toast begin: "America! +half-brother of the world!" America, half-brother of the world--and all +Americans full brothers one to the other. That is the way that the line +should be concluded. The prime virtue of the Hollander here in America +and the way in which he has most done credit to his stock as a +Hollander, is that he has ceased to be a Hollander and has become an +American, absolutely. [Great applause.] We are not Dutch-Americans. We +are not "Americans" with a hyphen before it. We are Americans pure and +simple, and we have a right to demand that the other people whose stocks +go to compose our great nation, like ourselves, shall cease to be aught +else and shall become Americans. [Cries of "Hear! Hear!" and applause.] + +And further than that, we have another thing to demand, and that is that +if they do honestly and in good faith become Americans, those shall be +regarded as infamous who dare to discriminate against them because of +creed or because of birthplace. When New Amsterdam had but a few hundred +souls, among those few hundred souls no less than eighteen different +race-stocks were represented, and almost as many creeds as there were +race-stocks, and the great contribution that the Hollander gave to the +American people was, as your President has so ably said, the inestimable +lesson of complete civil and religious liberty. It would be honor enough +for this stock to have been the first to put on American soil the public +school, the great engine for grinding out American citizens, the one +institution for which Americans should stand more stiffly than for aught +other. [Great applause.] + +Whenever America has demanded of her sons that they should come to her +aid, whether in time of peace or in time of war, the Americans of Dutch +stock have been among the first to spring to the aid of the country. We +earnestly hope that there will not in the future be any war with any +power, but assuredly if there should be such a war one thing may be +taken for certain, and that is that every American of Dutch descent will +be found on the side of the United States. We give the amplest credit, +that some people now, to their shame, grudge to the profession of arms, +which we have here to-night represented by a man, who, when he has the +title of a Major-General of the Army of the United States [Thomas H. +Ruger], has a title as honorable as any that there is on the wide earth. +[Applause.] We also need to teach the lesson, that the Hollander taught, +of not refusing to do the small things because the day of large things +had not yet come or was in the past; of not waiting until the chance may +come to distinguish ourselves in arms, and meanwhile neglecting the +plain, prosaic duties of citizenship which call upon us every hour, +every day of our lives. + +The Dutch kept their freedom in the great contest with Spain, not merely +because they warred valiantly, but because they did their duty as +burghers in their cities, because they strove according to the light +that was in them to be good citizens and to act as such. And we all here +to-night should strive so to live that we Americans of Dutch descent +shall not seem to have shrunk in this respect, compared to our fathers +who spoke another tongue and lived under other laws beyond the ocean; so +that it shall be acknowledged in the end to be what it is, a discredit +to a man if he does not in times of peace do all that in him lies to +make the government of the city, the government of the country, better +and cleaner by his efforts. [Great applause.] + +I spoke of the militant spirit as if it may only be shown in time of +war. I think that if any of you gentlemen, no matter how peaceful you +may naturally be, and I am very peaceful naturally [laughter], if you +would undertake the administration of the Police Department you would +have plenty of fighting on hand before you would get through [renewed +laughter]; and if you are true to your blood you will try to do the best +you can, fighting or not fighting. You will make up your mind that you +will make mistakes, because you won't make anything if you don't make +some mistakes, and you will go forward according to your lights, utterly +heedless of what either politicians or newspapers may say, knowing that +if you act as you feel bound according to your conscience to act, you +will then at least have the right when you go out of office, however +soon [laughter], to feel that you go out without any regret, and to feel +that you have, according to your capacity, warred valiantly for what you +deemed to be the right. [Great applause.] + +These, then, are the qualities that I should claim for the Hollander as +an American: In the first place, that he has cast himself without +reservation into the current of American life; that he is an American, +pure and simple, and nothing else. In the next place, that he works hand +in hand and shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Americans, without any +regard to differences of creed or to differences of race and religion, +if only they are good Americans. [Great applause.] In the third place, +that he is willing, when the need shall arise, to fight for his country; +and in the fourth place, and finally, that he recognizes that this is a +country of laws and not men, that it is his duty as an honest citizen to +uphold the laws, to strive for honesty, to strive for a decent +administration, and to do all that in him lies, by incessant, patient +work in our government, municipal or national, to bring about the day +when it shall be taken as a matter of course that every public official +is to execute a law honestly, and that no capacity in a public officer +shall atone if he is personally dishonest. [Tremendous applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRUE AMERICANISM AND EXPANSION + + [Speech of Theodore Roosevelt at the nineteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1898. + The President, William B. Davenport, in calling upon Theodore + Roosevelt to speak to the toast, "The Day we Celebrate," said: "For + many years we have been celebrating this day and looking at + ourselves through Yankee eyes. To-night it is to be given us to see + ourselves as others see us. We have with us one of whom it may be + said, to paraphrase the epitaph in the Welsh churchyard:-- + + 'A Dutchman born, at Harvard bred, + In Cuba travelled, but not yet dead.' + + In response to this toast, I have the honor of introducing Hon. + Theodore Roosevelt."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--The gentleman on my +right, with the unmistakably Puritan name of McKelway, in the issue of +the "Eagle" to-night alluded to me as a Yankeeized Hollander. I am a +middling good Yankee. I always felt that at these dinners of the New +England Society, to which I come a trifle more readily than to any other +like affairs, I and the president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, +who is also invariably in attendance, represent, what you would say, +the victims tied to the wheels of the Roman chariot of triumph. You see +I am half Irish myself, and, as I told a New England Senator with whom I +am intimate, when he remarked that the Dutch had been conquered by the +New Englanders, "the Irish have avenged us." + +I want to say to you seriously, and, singularly enough, right along the +lines of the admirable speech made by your President, a few words on the +day we celebrate and what it means. + +As the years go by, this nation will realize more and more that the year +that has just passed has given to every American the right to hold his +head higher as a citizen of the great Republic, which has taken a long +stride forward toward its proper place among the nations of the world. I +have scant sympathy with this mock humanitarianism, a mock +humanitarianism which is no more alien to the spirit of true religion +than it is to the true spirit of civilization, which would prevent the +great, free, liberty and order-loving races of the earth doing their +duty in the world's waste spaces because there must needs be some rough +surgery at the outset. I do not speak simply of my own country. I hold +that throughout the world every man who strives to be both efficient and +moral--and neither quality is worth anything without the other--that +every man should realize that it is for the interests of mankind to have +the higher supplant the lower life. Small indeed is my sympathy with +those people who bemoan the fact, sometimes in prose, sometimes in even +weaker verse, that the champions of civilization and of righteousness +have overcome the champions of barbarism or of an outworn tyranny, +whether the conflict be fought by the Russian heralds of civilization in +Turkestan, by the English champion of the higher life in the Eastern +world, or by the men who upheld the Stars and Stripes as they freed the +people of the tropic islands of the sea from the mediaeval tyranny of +Spain. + +I do not ask that you look at this policy from a merely national +standpoint, although if you are good Americans you must look from the +national standpoint first. I ask that you look at it from the standpoint +of civilization, from the standpoint of righteousness, and realize that +it is better for the men who are as yet ages behind us in the struggle +upward that they be helped upward, and that it does not cease to be +better for them, merely because it is better for us also. As I say, cast +aside the selfish view. Consider whether or not it is better that the +brutal barbarism of northern Asia should be supplanted by the +civilization of Russia, which has not yet risen to what we of the +Occident are proud to claim as our standard, but which, as it stands, is +tens of centuries in advance of that of the races it supplants. Again, +from the standpoint of the outsider, look at the improvement worked by +the Englishmen in all the islands of the sea and all the places on the +dark continents where the British flag has been planted; seriously +consider the enormous, the incalculable betterment that comes at this +moment to ninety-five per cent. of the people who have been cowering +under the inconceivably inhuman rule of Mahdism in the Sudan because it +has been supplanted by the reign of law and of justice. I ask you to +read the accounts of the Catholic missionary priests, the Austrian +priests who suffered under Mahdism, to read in their words what they +have suffered under conditions that have gone back to the stone age in +the middle of the nineteenth century. Then you will realize that the +Sirdar and his troops were fighting the battle of righteousness as truly +as ever it was fought by your ancestors and mine two or three or four +centuries ago. + +I think you can now understand that I admire what other nations have +done in this regard, and, therefore, that you will believe that I speak +with sincerity when I speak of what we ourselves have done. Thank heaven +that we of this generation, to whom was denied the chance of taking part +in the greatest struggle for righteousness that this century has seen, +the great Civil War, have at least been given the chance to see our +country take part in the world movement that has gone on around about +us. Of course it was partly for our own interest, but it was also +largely a purely disinterested movement. It is a good thing for this +nation that it should be lifted up beyond simply material matters. It is +a good thing for us that we should have interests outside of our own +borders. It is a good thing for us that we must look outward; that we +must consider more than the question of exports and imports; that we +must consider more than whether or not in one decade we have increased +one and a half per cent. more than the average rate of increase in +wealth or not. It is a good thing that we of this nation should keep in +mind, and should have vividly brought before us the fact to which your +ancestors, Mr. President and members of this Society, owe their +greatness; that while it pays a people to pay heed to material matters, +it pays infinitely better to treat material as absolutely second to +moral considerations. I am glad for the sake of America that we have +seen the American Army and the American Navy driving the Spaniard from +the Western world. I am glad that the descendants of the Puritan and the +Hollander should have completed the work begun, when Drake and Hawkins +and Frobisher singed the beard of the King of Spain, and William the +Silent fought to the death to free Holland. I am glad we did it for our +own sake, but I am infinitely more glad because we did it to free the +people of the islands of the sea and tried to do good to them. + +I have told you why I am glad, because of what we have done. Let me add +my final word as to why I am anxious about it. We have driven out the +Spaniards. This did not prove for this nation a very serious task. Now +we are approaching the really serious task. Now it behooves us to show +that we are capable of doing infinitely better the work which we blame +the Spaniards for doing so badly; and woe to us unless we do show not +merely a slight but a well-nigh immeasurable improvement! We have +assumed heavy burdens, heavy responsibilities. I have no sympathy with +the men who cry out against our assuming them. If this great nation, if +this nation with its wealth, with its continental vastness of domain, +with its glorious history, with its memory of Washington and Lincoln, of +its statesmen and soldiers and sailors, the builders and the wielders of +commonwealths, if this nation is to stand cowering back because it is +afraid to undertake tasks lest they prove too formidable, we may well +suppose that the decadence of our race has begun. No; the tasks are +difficult, and all the more for that reason let us gird up our loins and +go out to do them. But let us meet them, realizing their difficulty; not +in a spirit of levity, but in a spirit of sincere and earnest desire to +do our duty as it is given us to see our duty. Let us not do it in the +spirit of sentimentality, not saying we must at once give universal +suffrage to the people of the Philippines--they are unfit for it. Do not +let us mistake the shadow for the substance. We have got to show the +practical common sense which was combined with the fervent religion of +the Puritan; the combination which gave him the chance to establish here +that little group of commonwealths which more than any others have +shaped the spirit and destiny of this nation; we must show both +qualities. + +Gentlemen, if one of the islands which we have acquired is not fit to +govern itself, then we must govern it until it is fit. If you cannot +govern it according to the principles of the New England town +meeting--because the Philippine Islander is not a New Englander--if you +cannot govern it according to these principles, then find out the +principles upon which you can govern it, and apply those principles. +Fortunately, while we can and ought with wisdom to look abroad for +examples, and to profit by the experience of other nations, we are +already producing, even in this brief period, material of the proper +character within our own border, men of our own people, who are showing +us what to do with these islands. A New Englander, a man who would be +entitled to belong to this Society, a man who is in sympathy with all +that is best and most characteristic of the New England spirit, both +because of his attitude in war and of his attitude toward civic morality +in time of peace, is at present giving us a good object lesson in +administering those tropic provinces. I allude to my former commander, +the present Governor-General of Santiago, Major-General Leonard Wood. +General Wood has before him about as difficult a task as man could well +have. He is now intrusted with the supreme government of a province +which has been torn by the most hideously cruel of all possible civil +wars for the last three years, which has been brought down to a +condition of savage anarchy, and from which our armies, when they +expelled the armies of Spain, expelled the last authoritative +representatives of what order there still was in the province. To him +fell the task of keeping order, of preventing the insurgent visiting +upon the Spaniard his own terrible wrongs, of preventing the taking of +that revenge which to his wild nature seemed eminently justifiable, the +preserving of the rights of property, of keeping unharmed the people who +had been pacific, and yet of gradually giving over the administration +of the island to the people who had fought for its freedom, just as fast +as, and no faster than, they proved that they could be trusted with it. +He has gone about that task, devoted himself to it, body and soul, +spending his strength, his courage, and perseverance, and in the face of +incredible obstacles he has accomplished very, very much. + +Now, if we are going to administer the government of the West Indies +Islands which we have acquired, and the Philippines, in a way that will +be a credit to us and to our institutions, we must see that they are +administered by the General Woods. We have got to make up our minds that +we can only send our best men there; that we must then leave them as +largely unhampered as may be. We must exact good results from them, but +give them a large liberty in the methods of reaching these results. If +we treat those islands as the spoil of the politician, we shall tread +again the path which Spain has trod before, and we shall show ourselves +infinitely more blameworthy than Spain, for we shall sin against the +light, seeing the light. + +The President says that this is New England doctrine. So it is. It is +Dutch doctrine, too. It is the doctrine of sound Americanism, the +doctrine of common sense and common morality. I am an expansionist. I am +glad we have acquired the islands we have acquired. I am not a bit +afraid of the responsibilities which we have incurred; but neither am I +blind to how heavy those responsibilities are. In closing my speech, I +ask each of you to remember that he cannot shove the blame on others +entirely, if things go wrong. This is a government by the people, and +the people are to blame ultimately if they are misrepresented, just +exactly as much as if their worst passions, their worst desires are +represented; for in the one case it is their supineness that is +represented exactly as in the other case it is their vice. Let each man +here strive to make his weight felt on the side of decency and morality. +Let each man here make his weight felt in supporting a truly American +policy, a policy which decrees that we shall be free and shall hold our +own in the face of other nations, but which decrees also that we shall +be just, and that the peoples whose administration we have taken over +shall have their condition made better and not worse by the fact that +they have come under our sway. + + + + +LORD ROSEBERY + +(ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE) + + +PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAINTING + + [Speech of Lord Rosebery at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 5, 1894. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of + the Royal Academy, was in the chair, and in proposing "The Health + of Her Majesty's Ministers," to which Lord Rosebery replied, he + said: "No function could be more lofty, no problem is more complex + than the governance of our Empire, so vast and various in land and + folk as that which owns the sceptre of the Queen. No toast, + therefore, claims a more respectful reception than that to which I + now invite your cordial response--the health of the eminent + statesmen in whose hands that problem lies--Her Majesty's + Ministers. And not admiration only for high and various endowments, + but memories also of a most sparkling speech delivered twelve + months ago at this table, sharpens the gratification with which I + call for response on the brilliant statesman who heads Her + Majesty's Government, the Earl of Rosebery."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN: No one, I think, +can respond unmoved for the first time in such an assembly as this in +the character in which I now stand before you. You have alluded, sir, to +the speech which I delivered here last year. But I have to confess with +a feeling of melancholy that since that period I have made a change for +the worse. [Laughter.] I have had to exchange all those dreams of +imagination to which I then alluded, which are, I believe, the proper +concomitants of the Foreign Office intelligently wielded, and which, I +have no doubt, my noble friend on my right sees in imagination as I did +then--I have had to exchange all those dreams for the dreary and +immediate prose of life--all the more dreary prose because a great deal +of it is my own. + + +[Illustration: _LORD ROSEBERY_ + +(_ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE_) + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +There is one function, however, which has already devolved upon me, +and which is not without interest for this Academy. My great +predecessor, much to my regret, left in my hands the appointment of a +successor to Sir Frederick Burton. That has cost me probably more +trouble and travail than any other act of this young administration. +[Laughter.] I have sought, and I have abundantly received, counsels, and +it is after long consideration, and with the most earnest and +conscientious desire to do not what is most agreeable to individuals +themselves, but what is best for art in general, that I have nominated +Mr. Poynter to succeed Sir Frederick Burton. [Cheers.] + +I have at the same time made a change in the minute relating to the +conditions of that post, which to a greater extent than was formerly the +case associates the trustees of the National Gallery in the work of +selection with the new director. The trustees have been hitherto rather +those flies on the wheel of which we read in ancient fable. It is now +proposed to make them working wheels, and to make them work well and +co-operatively with the new director. ["Hear! Hear!"] I hope that this +arrangement will be satisfactory in its results. But, Mr. President, I +have long thought, as an individual, that the task of a Minister or of a +Government in co-operating with the Royal Academy, and with those who +have art at heart, ought not to end with a mere appointment of this +description. I take a larger view of the responsibilities of my office, +and I should be glad to offer to you with great respect a few +suggestions that have recently occurred to me with regard to the present +position of English art, which I regard with some misgivings. + +There is, first, the subject of portraiture. I am deeply concerned for +the future condition of portrait-painting. It is not, as you may +imagine, with any distrust whatever of those distinguished men who take +a part in that branch of art; it is much more for the subjects that I am +concerned. [Laughter.] And it is not so much with the subjects as with +that important part of the subject which was illustrated in the famous +work "Sartor Resartus," by the great Carlyle, that I chiefly trouble +myself. How can it be that any man should make a decent portrait of his +fellow-man in these days? No one can entertain so vindictive a hatred of +his fellow-creature as to wish to paint him in the costume in which I +am now addressing you. [Laughter.] I believe that that costume is +practically dropped for all purposes of portraiture; and if that be so, +in what costume is the Englishman of the present century to descend to +remotest posterity through the vehicle of the gifted artists whom I see +around me? We are not all sufficiently fortunate to be the Chancellor of +the University. [Laughter and cheers.] We have not always even the happy +chance to be a municipal dignitary, with a costume which I will not at +present characterize. [Laughter.] We are not all of us masters of +hounds; and I think that the robes of a peer, unattractive in their +aesthetic aspect, have lost something of their popularity. [Laughter.] +Again, the black velvet coat, with which we are accustomed to associate +deep thought and artistic instincts, has become a little faded. +[Laughter.] + +I am told, and told four or five times every day in speeches delivered +in various parts of the country, that I have no right to offer a +criticism without offering a suggestive remedy. Well, Sir Frederic, I am +prepared to offer my remedy for what it is worth, and for that reason I +ask your co-operation. Why should not a committee of the Royal Academy +gather together in order to find some chaste and interesting national +costume, in which the distinguished men of the nineteenth century might +descend to posterity without the drawbacks which I have pointed out? +Robespierre had such a costume designed, and other great sumptuary +legislators have had the same idea in their minds; and I would not push +the suggestion so far as to imply that we should be compelled to wear +this costume in ordinary life. It might be one kept to gratify the +artistic instincts of those to whom we sit. [Laughter.] And I will make +a practical suggestion by which this costume--when you, sir, have +selected it--might be associated with the ordinary run of life. It might +be made an official costume of a justice of the peace, and in that way +the great mass of our fellow-countrymen, with only a few and +insignificant exceptions, of whom I am one, might descend to remotest +posterity in a graceful, becoming, and official costume. [Laughter.] + +I pass on from that, because I should not limit myself to portraiture in +a great survey of this kind; and I may say that I am seriously concerned +for the prospects of landscape painting in this country. I have of late +been doing a great deal of light travelling in behalf of the respectable +firm which I represent [laughter], and I beg at once to give notice, in +the hearing of the noble marquis who is more to your left [Lord +Salisbury], that I now nail to the counter any proposal to call me a +political bagman as wanting in originality and wit. [Laughter.] + +But I have been doing a certain amount of light travelling in behalf of +our excellent and creditable firm. The other day, on returning from +Manchester, I was deeply and hideously impressed with the fact that all +along that line of railway which we traversed, the whole of a pleasing +landscape was entirely ruined by appeals to the public to save their +constitutions but ruin their aesthetic senses by a constant application +of a particular form of pill. [Laughter and cheers.] + +Now, Sir Frederic, I view that prospect with the gravest misgiving. What +is to become of our English landscape if it is to be simply a sanitary +or advertising appliance? [Laughter.] I appeal to my right honorable +friend the Chancellor of the Duchy [James Bryce], who sits opposite to +me. His whole heart is bound up in a proposition for obtaining free +access to the mountains of the Highlands. But what advantage will it be +to him, or to those whose case he so justly and eloquently espouses, if +at the top of Schiehallion, or any other mountain which you may have in +your mind's eye, the bewildered climber can only find an advertisement +of some remedy of the description of which I have mentioned [cheers], an +advertisement of a kind common, I am sorry to say, in the United +States--and I speak with reverence in the presence of the ambassador of +that great community--but it would be in the Highlands distressing to +the deer and infinitely perplexing even to the British tourist. +[Laughter and cheers.] + +But I turned my eyes mentally from the land, and I said that, after all, +the great painter of the present may turn to the sea, and there at least +he is safe. There are effects on the ocean which no one can ruin, which +not even a pill can impair. [Laughter.] But I was informed in +confidence--it caused me some distress--that the same enterprising firm +which has placarded our rural recesses, has offered a mainsail free of +expense to every ship that will accept it, on condition that it bears +the same hideous legend upon it to which I have referred. [Laughter.] +Think, Mr. President, of the feelings of the illustrious Turner if he +returned to life to see the luggers and the coasting ships which he has +made so glorious in his paintings, converted into a simple vehicle for +the advertisement of a quack medicine--although I will not say "quack," +because that is actionable [laughter]--I will say of a medicine of which +I do not know the properties. [Laughter.] + +But I turned my eyes beyond the land and ocean, and I turned them to the +heavens, and I said, "There, at any rate, we are safe." The painter of +the present may turn his eye from the land and ocean, but in the skies +he can always find some great effect which cannot be polluted. At this +moment I looked from the railway-carriage window, and I saw the skeleton +of a gigantic tower arising. It had apparently been abandoned at a lofty +stage, possibly in consequence of the workmen having found that they +spoke different languages at the height at which they had arrived. +[Laughter.] I made inquiries, and I found that it was the enterprise of +a great speculator, who resides himself on a mountain, and who is +equally prepared to bore under the ocean or ascend into the heavens. I +was given to understand that this admirable erection comprised all the +delights of a celestial occupation without any detachment from +terrestrial pursuits. [Laughter.] But I am bound to say that if +buildings of that kind are to cover this country, and if they are to be +joined to the advertising efforts to which I have alluded, neither +earth, nor sea, nor sky in Great Britain will be fit subject for any +painter. [Cheers.] + +What, then, is the part of Her Majesty's Government in this critical and +difficult circumstance? We have--no, I will not say we have, because +there would be a protest on the left--but different governments have +added allotments to the attractions of rural neighborhoods. I venture to +think that an allotment is not an unpicturesque thing. Certainly, small +holdings are more picturesque than large holdings, but I do not say that +from the point of view in which Sydney Smith said that the difference +between the picturesque and the beautiful was that the rector's horse +was beautiful, and that the curate's horse was picturesque. [Laughter.] +I simply mean that a small holding is more picturesque than a large +holding, and I think we may hope that the parish councils, if they meet, +as they did in primeval times, under the shade of some large spreading +oak, and not in the public house which we so much fear, as their +headquarters, may yet add a picturesque feature to the rural landscape +of Great Britain. + +But there is one feature at which a government can always aim as adding +to the landscape of Great Britain. In a very famous but too little read +novel, "Pelham," by the late Lord Lytton, there is a passage which +always struck me greatly. It is where Pelham goes to see an uncle from +whom he is to inherit a great estate, and he asks what the uncle has +done to beautify that exquisite spot. The uncle says that he has done +nothing but added the most beautiful feature of landscape, which is +happy faces. Well, the Government in its immediate neighborhood has +little to do with making happy faces. [Laughter.] It certainly does not +make its opponents happy, except on rare occasions when it leaves +office, and it is not always so fortunate as to make its supporters +happy. [Laughter.] But I believe that in this country all governments do +aim in their various ways and methods at making a happy population +around them; and in that respect, in adding happy faces to the +landscape, whether we fail or whether we succeed, we have a good-will in +the work, and I am quite sure we have the hearty encouragement of the +great and brilliant assembly which I address. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA + + +FRIEND AND FOE + + [Speech of George Augustus Sala at a banquet given in his honor by + the Lotos Club, January 10, 1885. The President, Whitelaw Reid, sat + at the centre table, having on his right hand the guest of the + evening. He said, in welcoming Mr. Sala: "The last time we met here + it was my pleasant duty to give your welcome to an old friend. Now + you make it my duty--still a pleasant one--to give your welcome to + an old enemy. ["Hear! Hear!"] Yes; an old enemy! We shall get on + better with the facts by admitting them at the outset. Our guest + was more or less against us in the great struggle twenty years ago + in which everybody now wishes to be thought to have been with us. + He did not believe this nation would down the slaveholders' + rebellion and he did not want it to; and he wrote frankly as he + believed and wished. [Laughter.] He never made any disguise about + it then or since; and for that, at least, we think the better of + him! [Applause.] He came of a slaveholding family; many personal + and social influences drew him toward those of our countrymen who + were on the wrong side; and now that it is all over, we bear no + malice! [Applause.] More than that; we are heartily glad to see + him. The statute of limitations runs in his favor; and his old + opinions are outlawed. He revisited the country long after the + war--and he changed his mind about it. He thought a great deal + better of us; and we in turn found his letters a great deal + pleasanter reading. We like a man who can change his mind + [applause]; and if a bit of international frankness may be + permitted in the good-fellowship of this board, perhaps I may + venture to add that we particularly like to discover that trait in + an Englishman! [Applause and laughter.] We've changed our minds--at + least about some things. We've not only forgiven our countrymen; + whom our guest used to sympathize with; but we have put--and are + getting ready to put--the most of them into office! What we are + most anxious about just now is, whether they are going to forgive + us! Seriously, gentlemen, we are very glad to see Mr. Sala here + again. He was a veteran in the profession in which so many of you + are interested, worthily wearing the laurels won in many fields, + and enjoying the association, esteem, and trust of a great master + whose fame the world holds precious, when the most of us were + fledglings. We all know him as a wit, a man of letters, and a man + of the world. Some of us have known him also in that pleasanter + character of all clubmen described in the old phrase, 'a jolly + good fellow.' On the other side of the Atlantic the grasp he gives + an American hand is a warm one; and we do not mean that in New York + he shall feel away from home. I give you, gentlemen, 'The health + and prosperity of George Augustus Sala.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LOTOS CLUB: I am under the +deepest feeling of gratitude to Mr. Whitelaw Reid for having torn the +mask from the face of the stealthy conspirator, for having exposed the +wily plotter and insidious libeller, and defied the malignant +Copperhead. [Applause.] I thought that I had long ago been choked with +that venom; but no, it rises still and poisons all that belongs to his +otherwise happy condition. Gentlemen, I am indeed an enemy of the United +States. I am he who has come here to requite your hospitalities with +unfounded calumny and to bite the hand that has fed me. Unfortunately +there are so many hands that have fed me that it will take me from this +time until to-morrow morning to bite all the friendly hands. + +With regard to events that took place twenty years ago and of which I +was an interested spectator, I may say that albeit I was mistaken; but +the mistake was partaken of by many hundred thousands of my +fellow-countrymen, who had not the courage subsequently to avow that +they had been mistaken, but yet set to curry favor with the North by +saying that they had always been their friends. The only apology--if +apology I should choose to make--would be this: that that which I had to +say against you I said while I was in your midst, when I was living at +the Brevoort House; and when my letters came weekly back from England; +and when it was quite in your power to have ridden me out on a rail or +to have inflicted on me any of the ordinary visitations which a +malignant Copperhead was supposed to deserve. But you did not do so, and +I remember that when I left New York, I had quite as many good, kind, +cordial friends on the Union League side as I had on the Democratic +side. I would say further that when I came to publish my letters I found +that there were many statements which I had made, which seemed to me to +have been hasty and inconsiderate, and I did my best to modify them; and +I did not wait until I got home to malign the people from whom I had +received hospitality. + +But I have been indeed an enemy to the United States; so much so that +when I came here again in 1879-80 with my wife, the enemy was received +on all sides with the greatest kindness and cordiality. So much am I an +enemy to the United States, that for years while I was connected with +the weekly paper called "The Echo" there was hardly a week when I did +not receive scores of letters from Americans from every part of the +Union--from down South, from the West, the North, and the East--full of +kindly matter and expressions bearing out the idea that I am a friend +rather than an enemy to the United States. And I know perfectly well +that there is no American who comes to London, be he lawyer, +diplomatist, actor, artist, or man of letters, but I am always glad to +see him, and always glad to show him, that, although an enemy, I still +retain some feelings of gratitude toward my friends in the United +States. + +I have seen it stated in one of your remarkably versatile and "Graphic" +journals that I have boasted of having come here with the idea of making +some money in the United States. But bless your hearts and souls, +gentlemen of the Lotos Club, I assure you that I have no such idea! +[Laughter.] I am really speaking to you seriously when I say that it was +by merest accident that upon taking my ticket for Australia, I was told +by my energetic manager that I might see a most interesting and +picturesque country by crossing the Rocky Mountains and embarking at San +Francisco, instead of going by way of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. I +had seen your Rocky Mountains, it is true, but I had seen them in March; +and now I shall see them at the end of January, and that is really one +of the main purposes of my journey. If from time to time in my passage I +do deliver a few incoherent utterances, these utterances will not be +prompted by any desire for pelf. That is far from my thoughts, but still +if anyone wants to pay two dollars, or seventy-five cents, to hear those +incoherent utterances you may be assured that my managers and myself +will do our utmost to devote the funds accruing therefrom to purposes of +mercy and of charity. [Applause.] I am sure you believe every word that +I say; and that Australia is my objective. [Laughter.] + +But, seriously, I only conclude by saying that I do not believe a word +of what your President has said. He does not believe now that for the +past twenty years I have been and am an enemy of the United States. We +were blinded, many of us, for the time being; we took a wrong lane for +the time, just as many of your tourists and many of your Radicals have +taken the wrong lane in England; but I think that differences of opinion +should never alter friendships. And when we consider the number of years +that have elapsed; when we consider that the wounds which I saw red and +gaping and bleeding are now healed, scarcely leaving a scar, I think +that the enemy might now be regarded as a friend; and that whatever +unkind feelings were begotten in that terrible time should be now buried +in the Red Sea of oblivion. [Applause.] There never before was a time +when it was so expedient for England to say to America: "Don't quarrel!" + +England is surrounded by enemies--by real enemies who hate her. Why? +Because she tries to be honest; and she tries to be free. She is hated +by Germans; and Germany equally hates the institutions of this country, +because she sees the blood and the bone of intelligent Germany coming to +the United States and becoming capable citizens, instead of carrying the +needle-musket at home. She is hated by France, because France has got a +Republic which she calls democratic and social, but which is still a +tyranny--and the worst of all tyrannies, because the tyrant is a mob. I +do not disguise the fact that we are surrounded by foes of every +description; and for that reason and because blood is thicker than +water, I say to Americans that, inasmuch as we have atoned for past +offences (the Alabama and all other difficulties having been settled), +no other difficulty should be permitted to rise; and if there be a place +in all the world where real peace may be secured and perfect freedom +reign, England and America should there join hands as against all the +world in arms. [Applause.] + +I have nothing more to say, except to entreat you to pardon my somewhat +serious utterances because of the many painful reminiscences which your +good-natured sarcasm has brought to my lips, although softened by the +kindly and genial terms in which you have received me, and I beg you to +accept the grateful expression of my heartfelt gratitude for this +glorious reception. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD SALISBURY + +(ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCOYNE-CECIL) + + +KITCHENER IN AFRICA + + [Speech of Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, at a banquet given + in honor of Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, by the Lord Mayor of + London, Right Hon. Horatio David Davies, at the Mansion House, + London, November 4, 1898.] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--The task has been placed in my hands of proposing the +toast of the evening: "The Health of the Sirdar." [Loud cheers.] It is +the proud prerogative of this city that, without any mandate from the +Constitution, without any legal sanction it yet has the privilege of +sealing by its approval the reputation and renown of the great men whom +this country produces; and the honors which it confers are as much +valued and as much desired as any which are given in this country. +[Cheers.] It has won that position not because it has been given to it, +but because it has shown discrimination and earnestness and because it +has united the suffrage of the people in the approval of the course that +it has taken and of the honors it has bestowed. [Cheers.] My Lord Mayor, +it is in reference to that function which you have performed to-day and +the most brilliant reception which has been accorded to the Sirdar that +I now do your bidding and propose his health. [Cheers.] But if the task +would be in any circumstances arduous and alarming, it is much more so +because all that can be said in his behalf has already been said by more +eloquent tongues than mine. I have little hope that I can add anything +to the picture that has been already drawn [allusion to previous +speeches made by the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord +Rosebery], but no one can wonder at the vast enthusiasm by which the +career of this great soldier has been received in this city. It is not +merely his own personal qualities that have achieved it. It is also the +strange dramatic interest of the circumstances, and the conditions under +which his laurels have been won. [Cheers.] + +It has been a long campaign, the first part of which we do not look back +to with so much pleasure because we had undertaken a fearful task +without a full knowledge of the conditions we had to satisfy or the real +character of the foes to whom we were opposed. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +remembrance of that heroic figure whose virtues and whose death are +impressed so deeply upon the memory of the whole of the present +generation of Englishmen, the vicissitudes of those anxious campaigns in +which the most splendid deeds of gallantry were achieved are yet fresh +in the minds of the English people and Lord Rosebery has not exaggerated +when he has said that the debt was felt deeply in the mind of every +Englishman, however little they might talk of it at the time and when +the opportunity arrived with what eagerness, in spite of any possible +discouragement--with what eagerness the opportunity was seized. +[Cheers.] It was a campaign--the campaign which your gallant guest has +won--it was a campaign marked by circumstances which have seldom marked +a campaign in the history of the world. [Cheers.] I suppose that +wonderful combination of all achievements and discoveries of modern +science, in support of the gallantry and well-tried strategy of a +British leader--I suppose these things have not been seen in our history +before. [Cheers.] But the note of this campaign was that the Sirdar not +only won the battles which he was set to fight, but he furnished himself +the instruments by which they were won, or rather, I should say, he was +the last and perhaps by the nature of the circumstances the most +efficient of a list of distinguished men whose task it has been to +rescue the Egyptian army from inefficiency and contempt in order to put +it on the pinnacle of glory it occupies now. [Cheers.] + +I remember in our debates during that terrible campaign of 1884-85 a +distinguished member of the Government of that day observing with +respect to Egyptian troops that they were splendid soldiers if only +they would not run away. [Laughter.] + +It was a quaint way of putting it, but it was very accurate. They had +splendid physique; they had great fidelity and loyalty to their chiefs; +they had many of the qualities of the soldier, but like men who had been +recruited under the slave whip, and who had been accustomed to the +methods of despotism, they had not that courage which can only be +obtained by freedom and by united military training. [Cheers.] What they +lacked has been supplied to them, and the Egyptian army, as it has +issued from the hands of Sir Evelyn Wood, Sir Francis Grenfell, and the +Sirdar, is a magnificent specimen of the motive power of the English +leader. [Cheers.] We do not reflect on it, yet if we have any interest +in the administrative processes that go on in various parts of the +Empire we cannot help being impressed by the fact that numbers on +numbers of educated young men, who at home, in this country, would show +no very conspicuous qualities except those we are accustomed to look for +in an English gentleman, yet, if thrown on their own resources, and +bidden to govern and control and guide large bodies of men of another +race, they never or hardly ever fall short of the task which has been +given to them; but they will make of that body of promising material +splendid regiments by which the Empire of England is extended and +sustained. [Cheers.] + +It is one of the great qualities of the Sirdar that he has been able to +direct the races that are under him, to make them effective and loyal +soldiers, to attach them to himself, and insure their good conduct in +the field of battle. [Cheers.] He has many other qualities upon which I +might dilate if time permitted. Lord Cromer, who I am glad to see Lord +Rosebery noted as one who ought to have his full share in any honors you +confer on those who have built up Egyptian prosperity, who is one of the +finest administrators the British race has ever produced--Lord Cromer is +in the habit of saying that the Sirdar has almost missed his vocation, +and that if he was not one of the first generals in the world, he would +be one of the first Chancellors of the Exchequer. [Laughter and cheers.] +I daresay many people think it a small thing that a soldier should be +able to save money [laughter], but it is not so if you will only +conceive for yourselves the agony of mind with which in former times the +Chancellors of the Exchequer or financial members of the Council have +received from time to time accounts of brilliant victories, knowing all +the time what a terrible effect upon the ultimate balance of the budget +those victories will entail. [Laughter.] It is a hazardous thing to say, +but I am almost inclined to believe that the Sirdar is the only general +that has fought a campaign for L300,000 less than he originally promised +to do it. [Laughter.] It is a very great quality, and if it existed more +generally, I think that terror which financiers entertain of soldiers, +and that contempt which soldiers entertain for financiers would not be +so frequently felt. ["Hear! Hear!" and laughter.] + +Well, then, the Sirdar has another great quality: he is a splendid +diplomatist. It would require talents of no small acuteness and +development to enable him to carry to so successful a result as he did +that exceedingly delicate mission up the Nile which conducted him into +the presence of Major Marchand. The intercourse of that time has ended +apparently in the deepest affection on both sides [laughter]--certainly +in the most unrestricted and unstinted compliments and expressions of +admiration and approval. I think these things show very much for the +diplomatic talents of the Sirdar. He recently expressed his hope that +the differences which might have arisen from the presence of Major +Marchand would not transcend the powers of diplomacy to adjust. I am +glad to say that up to a certain point he has proved a true prophet. +[Cheers.] I received from the French Ambassador this afternoon the +information that the French Government had come to the conclusion that +the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of value to the French +Republic. [Loud cheers and some laughter.] And they thought that in the +circumstances to persist in an occupation which only cost them money and +did them harm merely because some bad advisers thought it might be +disagreeable to an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom by +which I think the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they +have done what I believe the government of any other country would have +done, in the same position--they have resolved that that occupation must +cease. [Cheers.] A formal intimation of that fact was made to me this +afternoon and it has been conveyed to the French authorities at Cairo. I +believe that the fact of that extremely difficult juxtaposition between +the Sirdar and Major Marchand has led to a result which is certainly +gratifying and, to some extent, unexpected; and that it is largely due +to the chivalrous character and diplomatic talents which the Sirdar +displayed on that occasion. [Cheers.] I do not wish to be understood as +saying that all causes of controversy are removed by this between the +French Government and ourselves. It is probably not so, and I daresay we +shall have many discussions in the future; but a cause of controversy of +a somewhat acute and dangerous character has been removed and we cannot +but congratulate ourselves upon that. [Cheers.] + +I will only say that alike in his patient and quiet forethought, lasting +over three years, in his brilliant strategy on the field of battle, in +his fearless undertaking of responsibility and his contempt of danger, +and last but not least in the kindness and consideration which he +displayed for men who were for a moment in a position of antagonism to +himself--in these things he has shown a combination of the noblest +qualities which distinguish the race to which he belongs and by the +exercise of which the high position of England in this generation in the +world and in her great Empire has been won. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON + + +VICTORY IN SUPERIOR NUMBERS + + [Speech of Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson at a banquet given in + his honor by citizens of Boston, Mass., February 6, 1899. Hon. + Richard Olney presided on the occasion.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I rise to thank you for your most +generous greeting for myself, for my friends, and for all of the Navy +that you have included in the various remarks which have been made. I +want you to understand that I do not take it all to myself, but that +this is divided with all the men; and while with great hesitation I +attempt to make a speech at all, I feel that this is an opportunity +which should not be thrown away. I do not propose to say anything, as +you might expect, about the battle of Santiago, but I would like to say +a few words about the lessons which we have learned, or should learn, +from that battle. + +First, I would say that neither that battle nor any other that I know +of, was won by chance. It requires an adequate means to accomplish such +a result. That battles are not won by chance, you have only to consider +for a moment a few--one or two--of the principal battles of the world. +Not that I mean to class the battle of Santiago as one of the great +battles of the world--but just as an illustration. You will see the +result of adequate means in the case of the battle of Waterloo, for +instance. When we remember that Wellington fought that battle with +130,000 men opposed to Napoleon's 80,000, we are not surprised that it +was Wellington's battle. Take another decisive battle--Sedan. When the +Germans had 125,000 men opposed to 84,000, it does not seem possible +that the result could have been anything else. + +So we might go over a long list. The sea fights furnish many instances +where it was found that the most powerful fleet was the one that was +successful. Nelson was always in favor of overwhelming fleets, though he +did not have them always at his command. Our own war of 1812 furnishes +numerous instances where our victories depended upon the superior force. +It seems unnecessary that such self-evident truths should be stated +before this assemblage of intelligent gentlemen, but we are apt to +forget that a superior force is necessary to win a victory. As I said +before, victory is not due to chance. Had superior force not been our +own case at the battle of Santiago, had it been the reverse, or had it +been materially modified, what turned out to be a victory might have +been a disaster; and that we must not forget. + +The second lesson, if we may call it so, is closely allied, perhaps, to +the first. Shall we learn the lesson which is taught us in this recent +war? Shall we rest on the laurels which we may have won, or shall we +prepare for the future? Shall we not imagine our foe in the future, as +might well be the case, to be superior to the one over which we have +been victorious? It is a question that comes home to us directly. On +July 3d, when Cervera was returned, on board the "Iowa," to the mouth of +the harbor at Santiago, he requested permission to send a telegram +reporting the state of the case to Captain-General Blanco. Of course, no +objection was raised to this, and Cervera wrote out a telegram and sent +it on board the flagship to be scrutinized and forwarded to Blanco. He +stated in this telegram that he obeyed his (General Blanco's) orders and +left the harbor of Santiago at 9.30 Sunday morning, and "now," he said, +"it is with the most profound regret that I have to report that my fleet +has been completely destroyed. We went out to meet the forces of the +enemy, which outnumbered us three to one." + +I had so much sympathy with old Admiral Cervera that I did not have it +in my heart to modify or change in any respect the report which he +proposed to make to Captain-General Blanco. I felt that the truth would +be understood in the course of time, and that while I would not now, or +then, under any circumstances, admit that he was outnumbered in the +proportion of three to one, I still felt that he should be at liberty to +defend himself in that manner. + +The fleets that were opposed to each other on that Sunday morning were, +as regards the number of the ships, about six to seven. Leaving out the +torpedo-destroyers and the "Gloucester," which may be said not to have +been fighting ships, the proportion was six to four. The fleet of the +Spaniards consisted of four beautiful ships. I think I am stating the +case within bounds when I say that they were--barring their condition at +that time, which, of course, we did not all know, in many respects--that +they were all our imaginations had led us to suppose. We outnumbered +them, but this is only another illustration of the fact which I wish to +bring before you, that it is necessary to have a superior force to make +sure of victory in any case. + +It seems to me that you, gentlemen, who are so influential in +determining and deciding what the Navy of the United States should be, +should bear this emphatically in mind--that we must have more ships, +more guns, and all that goes to constitute an efficient navy. I am not +advocating a large navy. I do not believe that we should support a large +navy, but that it should be much larger than it is at present I think +you will all concede. The increased territory which we have added to our +country will probably produce an increase in our chances for war by at +least one hundred per cent.--not that we need increase the Navy to that +extent--but probably will. + + + + +NOAH HUNT SCHENCK + + +TRUTH AND TRADE + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Noah Hunt Schenck at the 110th annual banquet + of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, + May 14, 1878. In introducing Dr. Schenck, the President, Samuel D. + Babcock, said: "The loose manner in which the Dinner Committee have + conducted their business is now becoming evident. The chairman has + got considerably mixed on the toasts. You may recollect that the + toast to which Dr. Chapin responded referred to twins [Rev. Dr. + Edwin H. Chapin had spoken to the toast 'Commerce and Capital, twin + forerunners of civilization and philanthropy'], and here is one + that refers to matrimony, and it is very evident that this one + ought to have preceded the other. [Laughter and applause.] Eighth + regular toast, 'Truth and Trade: those whom God hath joined + together, let no man put asunder.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It were an ambitious effort to +hold the attention of this distinguished body directly after its ears +had been ravished by the eloquent deliverances of the finished orators +who have just preceded me. In fact, I can scarcely imagine why you +enlist another voice from Brooklyn, unless it be to show that there is a +possibility of exhausting Brooklyn, and you would make it my sad office +to afford you the illustration. [Applause.] + +The Chairman said at the beginning that the best speeches were to be at +the last. You have already discovered that this was designed for irony, +for thus far the speeches have been incomparable, but mine is to be the +beginning of the end. [Laughter and applause.] + +I know that what I say is true when I charge the Chairman with irony, +for do not I feel his iron entering my soul? [Laughter and applause.] It +is an act of considerable temerity, even though the ground has been so +gracefully broken by the Rev. Dr. Chapin, for a clergyman to rise +before this common-sense body of three hundred business men (unless we +had you in our churches), for you well know that this precious quality +of common sense is supposed to have its habitat almost entirely with +business men, and rarely with the clergy. + +I know full well that the men of the pulpit are held to be wanting in +practical knowledge, and that we know but little of the dark and devious +ways of this naughty world. So that, rising here, I feel as if I were +but a little one among a thousand, and yet I would venture to submit +that the clergy are not wholly unpractical. Nay, I sometimes am led to +think that the men of my cloth are the most practical, common-sense +business men in the world. [Laughter and applause.] + +There is certainly no class of men who can make so little go so far, who +can live so comfortably on such small incomes, who can fatten on +pastures where the members of this Chamber of Commerce would starve. +[Applause and laughter.] There is no class of men that go through life +in such large proportion without bankruptcy. [Laughter and applause.] + +While 25,000 merchants in the United States during the four years from +1871 to 1875 failed in business, with liabilities amounting to +$800,000,000 (I quote statistics from accepted authority), I do not +believe that one-quarter of that number of clergymen failed [laughter +and applause], or that their liabilities amounted to anything like that +sum. [Laughter and applause.] I have seen the estimate that eighty-five +per cent. of merchants fail within two years after they embark in +business, notwithstanding their common sense, and that only three per +cent, make more money in the long run than is enough for a comfortable +livelihood. + +Having thus attempted to fortify my waning "Dutch courage" by an +off-hand attack upon my hospitable entertainers, and having in some +sense, even though it be Pickwickian, vindicated my cloth, let me go on +for a moment and cut my garment according to it. [Laughter and +applause.] + +I have been asked to say a word upon the wedlock of Truth and Trade, and +advocate the idea that what in the nature of things has been joined +together of God, should not, should never be sundered by man. We know +that Truth is eternal. Trade, thank God, is not. [Laughter and +applause.] Still, so far as time and earth are concerned, trade endures +from first to last and everywhere. God married it to truth with the fiat +that men should eat bread in the sweat of their faces. From that moment +men have been wrangling in every court of conscience and society to +secure decrees of divorce. How manifold and multitudinous the tricks, +dodges, and evasions to which men have resorted to be rid of the work +which conditions bread. [Laughter and applause.] The great art of life +in the estimate of the general, said a great economist, is to have +others do the face-sweating and themselves the bread-eating. [Laughter +and applause.] + +But all along the line of the centuries the divine utterances have given +forth with clarion clearness that God would have men illustrate morals +and religion in the routine of business life. And so in all the upper +levels of civilization we observe that society points with pride to the +integrity that is proof against the temptations of trade. The men who +have honored sublime relations of business and religion are they whom +the world has delighted to honor. With but rare exceptions trade, +wherever it has been prosperous, has had truth for its wedded partner. +For the most part, wherever men have achieved high success in traffic, +it has been not upon the principle that "Honesty is the best policy," +for honesty is never policy, but upon the basis of fidelity to truth and +right under every possible condition of things. The man who is honest +from motives of policy will be dishonest when policy beckons in that +direction. The men who have illumined the annals of trade are those who +have bought the truth and sold it not, who held it only to dispense it +for the welfare of others. + +We cannot too highly honor the temper of that generation of business men +who half a century ago sternly refused to compromise with any form of +deceit in the details of traffic, visiting with the severest penalties +those who at all impinged upon the well-accepted morals of trade. The +story is told of a young merchant who, beginning business some fifty +years ago, overheard one day a clerk misrepresenting the quality of some +merchandise. He was instantly reprimanded and the article was unsold. +The clerk resigned his position at once, and told his employer that the +man who did business that way could not last long. But the merchant did +last, and but lately died the possessor of the largest wealth ever +gathered in a single lifetime. + +Permit me another incident and this not from New York, but Philadelphia. +One of the Copes had but just written his check for $50 for some local +charity, when a messenger announced the wreck of an East Indiaman +belonging to the firm, and that the ship and cargo were a total loss. +Another check for $500 was substituted at once, and given to the agent +of the hospital with the remark: "What I have God gave me, and before it +all goes, I had better put some of it where it can never be lost." +[Applause.] + +Such illustrations as these are not infrequent in the biographies of +those noble men who in days gone by as well as in our own times, have +never divorced truth from trade, but have always reverenced the sacred +relations. I dare venture the remark that the prosperity of a nation is +more largely dependent upon the probity of its merchants than upon any +other one class of men. [Applause.] This because of their numbers, their +influence over so many who are subject to them in business, and their +close relation to, and important control over, the financial interests +of the country. + +What a wide area of opportunity is afforded in the counting-room, where +so many students of trade are preparing for the uncertain future! +Accept, I beseech you, the responsibility of moulding the characters of +your young men and so prepare a generation of merchants who shall know +of nothing but honesty and honor, and who will cherish nobility of +sentiment in all their business transactions. [Applause.] + +And can you not help the world abroad as well as at home? I believe that +merchants engaged in commerce with foreign nations, have it within the +scope and purview of their business relations to do as much for the +propagation of Christian truth as the Church itself. If your ventures +are intrusted to the direction of men of character; if your agents are +men who recognize in practice the morals of the religion they profess, +you will not only not negative as now, alas! but too often the efforts +of the Church's envoys, by the frequent violations of Christian law, on +the part of those who propose to be governed by it; but through the +illustrations you can send out of Christian consistency--by the living +representatives of our higher civilization, which you can furnish to +remote nations, to say nothing of the voluntary agency in scattering the +printed powers of our faith in all quarters of the globe, how much may +not be accomplished in this and in other ways by your men and your +ships--Trade thus travelling round the world with Truth by her side, +helping each other and healing the nations. [Applause.] + + + + +WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY + + +THE NAVY IN PEACE AND IN WAR + + [Speech of Winfield S. Schley at the eighteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1898. The President, Stephen W. Dana, presented Admiral Schley in + these words: "Admiral Schley needs no introduction from me--he + speaks for himself."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I am very +much in the condition of the gentleman who, being about to be married +and having had his wedding suit brought home a day before the event, +returned it to the tailor with instructions to increase the girth just +two inches. His explanation was that not enough room had been left to +accommodate the wedding breakfast he had to eat or for the emotion that +was to follow the event. + +I am always glad to meet my countrymen anywhere and everywhere. They +stand for all that is representative; they stand for all that is +progressive; they stand for all that represents humanity, and they stand +for all that is fair-minded, high-minded, and honorable. As to those of +us who by the circumstances of our service are obliged to pass the +greater part of our lives away from home, away from kindred, and away +from the flag, it may be difficult to understand how to keep the altar +of one's patriotism burning when we are separated from the sweetest and +kindest influences of life and performing a service and a duty that are +outside of the public observation. But there is a large-heartedness at +home that never forgets us. We are bound to our country by ties that are +not only sweet in their nature, but the circumstances of service +generate a love of home and a patriotism that are the surest guarantees +of the welfare and the safety of our people. + +The Navy is that arm of the public defence the nature of whose duties is +dual in that they relate to both peace and war. In times of peace the +Navy blazes the way across the trackless deep, maps out and marks the +dangers which lie in the routes of commerce, in order that the peaceful +argosies of trade may pursue safe routes to the distant markets of the +world, there to exchange the varied commodities of commerce. It +penetrates the jungle and the tangle of the inter-tropical regions. It +stands ready to starve to death or to die from exposure. It pushes its +way into the icy fastnesses of the North or of the South, in order that +it may discover new channels of trade. It carries the influence of your +power and the beneficent advantages of your civilization to the secluded +and hermit empires of the Eastern world, and brings them into touch with +our Western civilization and its love of law for the sake of the law +rather than for fear of the law's punishments. It stands guard upon the +outer frontiers of civilization, in pestilential climates, often exposed +to noisome disease, performing duties that are beyond the public +observation but yet which have their happy influence in maintaining the +reputation and character of our country and extending the civilizing +agency of its commerce. + +The bones of the officers and men of the Navy lie in every country in +the world, or along the highways of commerce; they mark the +resting-places of martyrs to a sense of duty that is stronger than any +fear of death. The Navy works and strives and serves, without any +misgivings and without any complaints, only that it may be considered +the chief and best guardian of the interests of this people, of the +prestige of this nation, and of the glory and renown of its flag. + +These are some of the duties of peace, which has its triumphs "no less +renowned than war." But it is the martial side of the Navy that is the +more attractive one to us. It is that side of its duty which presents to +us its characters who have written their names and their fames in fire. +No matter what may be our ideas of civilization or how high our notions +of peace, there is no one of us who has not felt his heart beat a little +bit faster and his blood course a little bit more rapidly when reading +of the daring and thrilling deeds of such men as John Paul Jones or of +Decatur or of Stewart or of Hull or of Perry or of MacDonald or of +Tatnall or of Ingram or of Cushing or of Porter or of Farragut. + +The war so happily ended has added new names to the galaxy of naval +worthies. New stars are in the firmament. The records indicate that your +naval representatives have been faithful to the lesson of their +traditions, that they have been true to their history, whilst the men of +our Navy have shown that they have lost none of the skill and none of +the tact that they have inherited. But they have proven again that a +generation of men who are able to defend their title to the spurs they +inherited are proper successors to their progenitors. [Applause.] + + + + +HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN + + +THE BEGINNINGS OF ART + + [Speech of Heinrich Schliemann at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 5, 1877. Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent + architect, took the chair in the absence of Sir Frederick Grant, + the President of the Academy. In introducing Dr. Schliemann, Sir + Gilbert Scott spoke as follows: "There is one gentleman present + among us this evening who has special claims upon an expression of + our thanks. Antiquarian investigation is emphatically a subject of + our own day. More has been discovered of the substantial vestiges + of history in our own than probably in any previous age; and it + only needs the mention of the names of Champollion, Layard, + Rawlinson, and Lipsius to prove that we have in this age obtained a + genuine knowledge of the history of art as practised in all + previous ages. Not only have we obtained a correct understanding of + the arts of our own race as exemplified in our own mediaeval + antiquities, but lost buildings of antiquity such as the Egyptian + labyrinth, the palace of Nineveh, the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, + the temple and statues of Olympia, and the temple of Diana at + Ephesus have been re-discovered and disinterred. ["Hear! Hear!"] + There remained, however, one great hiatus. We knew something of the + more archaic periods of Greek art, and we knew that on the gate of + Mycenae there were evidences of an art far more archaic and + apparently not allied with true Hellenic art, but we knew no more + nor had an idea how the great gulf in art history was to be bridged + over. It still remains a great gulf, but Dr. Schliemann by his + excavations, first on the site of Troy and then of Mycenae, has + brought to open daylight what, without prejudging questions as yet + _sub judice_, seem to be the veritable works of the heroes of the + Iliad; and if he has not yet actually solved the mysteries which + shroud that age, he has brought before us a perfect wealth of fact + at the least calculated to sharpen our antiquarian appetite for + more certain knowledge. Knowing that Dr. Schliemann is like one in + old times, who, while longing to tell of the Atrides and of Cadmus, + yet allowed the chords of his heart to vibrate to softer + influences, I will, while proposing his health, conjoin with his + name that of his energetic fellow-explorer, Madame Schliemann."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--You have been pleased +to confer upon me two of the greatest honors which this country can +possibly bestow upon a foreigner--first, by your kind invitation to this +hospitable banquet to meet the most illustrious statesmen, the most +eminent scholars, and the most distinguished artists; and secondly, by +your toast to my health. In warmly thanking you, I feel the greatest +satisfaction to think that for these signal honors, I am solely indebted +to my labors in Troy and Mycenae. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +In Troy art was only in its first dawn; color was still completely +unknown, and instead of painting, the vases were decorated with incised +patterns filled with white clay. The productions of sculpture were +limited to carving of small flat idols of Minerva [Greek: glaukopis][6] +of marble, almost in the forms of two discs, which adhered to each +other, and upon which the owl's face is rudely scratched. The Trojan +treasure certainly shows more art, but it is characterized by an absence +of ornamentation. In Mycenae, on the contrary, the monuments which I have +brought to light show a high state of civilization, and the skill with +which the gold ornaments are made leads us to pre-suppose a school of +domestic artists which had flourished for ages before it reached such +perfection. + +The very great symmetry we see also in the vase-paintings and in the +carvings of spirals and rosettes on stone, whereas representations of +men or animals are exceedingly rude and appear to be the primitive +Mycenean sculptor's first essay. But rude as they are, and childish as +they look, these primitive productions of Greek art are of paramount +interest to science, because we see in them the great-grandfathers of +the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxiteles; they prove to us in the most +certain manner that the artistic genius of the epoch of Pericles did not +come suddenly down from heaven like Minerva from the head of Jove, but +that it was the result of a school of artists, which had gradually +developed in the course of ages. + +Once more, I tender my thanks for the patience with which you have +listened to a stranger. ["Hear! Hear!"] + + + + +CARL SCHURZ + + +THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW + + [Speech of Carl Schurz at a banquet given by the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, November 5, 1881, + in honor of the guests of the Nation, the French diplomatic + representatives in America, and members of the families descended + from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General Lafayette, Count + de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben, and others, who + were present at the centennial celebration of the victory at + Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, Vice-President of the + Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast, "The Old World and the + New," to which Carl Schurz was called upon for a response.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--If you +had been called upon to respond to the toast: "The Old World and the +New" as frequently as I have, you would certainly find as much +difficulty as I find in saying anything of the Old World that is new or +of the New World that is not old. [Applause.] + +And the embarrassment grows upon me as I grow older, as it would upon +all of you, except perhaps my good friend, Mr. Evarts, who has +determined never to grow old, and whose witty sayings are always as good +as new. [Laughter.] Still, gentlemen, the scenes which we have been +beholding during the last few weeks have had something of a fresh +inspiration in them. We have been celebrating a great warlike event--not +great in the number of men that were killed in it, but very great in the +number of people it has made happy. It has made happy not only the +people of this country who now count over fifty millions, but it has +made happier than they were before the nations of the Old World, too; +who, combined, count a great many more. [Applause.] + +American Independence was declared at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, by +those who were born upon this soil, but American Independence was +virtually accomplished by that very warlike event I speak of, on the +field of Yorktown, where the Old World lent a helping hand to the New. +[Applause.] To be sure, there was a part of the Old World consisting of +the British, and I am sorry to say, some German soldiers, who strove to +keep down the aspirations of the New, but they were there in obedience +to the command of a power which they were not able to resist, while that +part of the Old World which fought upon the American side was here of +its own free will as volunteers. [Cheers.] + +It might be said that most of the regular soldiers of France were here +also by the command of power, but it will not be forgotten that there +was not only Lafayette, led here by his youthful enthusiasm for the +American cause, but there was France herself, the great power of the Old +World appearing as a volunteer on a great scale. [Cheers.] So were there +as volunteers those who brought their individual swords to the service +of the New World. There was the gallant Steuben, the great organizer who +trained the American army to victory, a representative of that great +nation whose monuments stand not only upon hundreds of battle-fields of +arms, but whose prouder monuments stand upon many more battle-fields of +thought. [Cheers.] There was Pulaski, the Pole, and DeKalb who died for +American Independence before it was achieved. And there were many more +Frenchmen, Germans, Swedes, Hollanders, Englishmen even, who did not +obey the behests of power. [Cheers.] And so it may be said that the +cause of the New World was the cause of the volunteers of the Old. And +it has remained the cause of volunteers in peace as well as in war, for +since then we have received millions of them, and they are arriving now +in a steady stream, thousands of them every week; I have the honor to +say, gentlemen, that I am one of them. [Cheers.] + +Nor is it probable that this volunteering in mass will ever stop, for it +is in fact drawn over here by the excitement of war as much as by the +victories of peace. It was, therefore, natural that the great +celebration of that warlike event should have been turned or rather that +it should have turned itself into a festival of peace on the old field +of Yorktown--peace illustrated by the happy faces of a vast multitude, +and by all the evidence of thrift and prosperity and well-being; peace +illustrated by the very citizen-soldiery who appeared there to ornament +as a pageant, with their brilliant bayonets that peaceful festival; +peace illustrated by the warmth of a grand popular welcome offered to +the honored representatives of the Old World; peace illustrated, still +more, by their friendly meeting upon American soil whatever their +contentions at home may have been; peace glorified by what has already +been so eloquently referred to by Dr. Storrs and Mr. Evarts; that solemn +salute offered to the British flag, to the very emblem of the old +antagonism of a hundred years ago; and that salute, echoing in every +patriotic American heart, to be followed as the telegraph tells us now, +by the carrying of the American flag in honor in the Lord Mayor's +procession in London--all this a cosmopolitan peace festival, in which +the Old World sent its representatives to join in rejoicing over the +prosperity and progress of the New. [Cheers.] + +There could hardly have been a happier expression of this spirit of +harmony than was presented in the serenade offered to these +gentlemen--representatives of the honored name of Steuben on the evening +of their arrival in New York, the band playing first "The Watch on the +Rhine," followed by the "Marseillaise" and "God Save the Queen," and +then the martial airs of the Old World resolving themselves into the +peaceful strains of the crowning glory of "Hail, Columbia!" and "Yankee +Doodle." [Cheers.] + +The cordiality of feeling which binds the Old and the New World +together, and which found so touching, so tender, so wonderful an +expression in the universal heartfelt sorrow of all civilized mankind at +the great national bereavement, which recently has befallen us [the +assassination of President Garfield], can hardly fail to be strengthened +by this visit of the Old World guests whom we delight to honor. +[Cheers.] + +They have seen now something of our country, and our people; most of +them, probably, for the first time, and I have no doubt they have +arrived at the conclusion that the country for which Lafayette and +Steuben and Rochambeau fought is a good country, inhabited by a good +people [cheers]; a good country and a good people, worthy of being +fought for by the noblest men of the earth; and I trust also when these +gentlemen return to their own homes they will go back with the assurance +that the names of their ancestors who drew their swords for American +liberty stand in the heart of every true American side by side with the +greatest American names, and that, although a century has elapsed since +the surrender of Yorktown, still the gratitude of American hearts is as +young and fresh and warm to-day as it was at the moment when Cornwallis +hauled down his flag. [Applause.] + +It seems to me also, gentlemen, that we have already given some +practical evidence of that gratitude. The independence they helped to +achieve has made the American nation so strong and active and prosperous +that when the Old World runs short of provisions, the New stands always +ready and eager even, to fill the gap, and by and by we may even send +over some products of other industries for their accommodation. +[Applause.] + +In fact, we have been so very liberal and generous in that respect, that +some of our friends on the other side of the sea are beginning to think +that there may be a little too much of a good thing, and are talking of +shutting it off by tricks of taxation. [Laughter.] However, we are not +easily baffled. Not content with the contribution of our material +products, we even send them from time to time, some of our wisdom, as, +for instance, a few months ago, our friend, Mr. Evarts, went over there +to tell them about the double standard--all that we knew and a good deal +more. [Laughter.] We might even be willing to send them all the +accumulated stock of our silver, if they will give us their gold for it. +[Cheers.] It is to be apprehended that this kind of generosity will not +be fittingly appreciated and in that respect they may prefer the wisdom +of the Old World to that of the New. [Laughter.] + +However, we shall not quarrel about that, for seriously speaking, the +New and the Old World must and will, in the commercial point of view, be +of infinite use one to another as mutual customers, and our commercial +relations will grow more fruitful to both sides from year to year, and +from day to day, as we remain true to the good old maxim: "Live and let +live." [Cheers.] Nor is there the least speck of danger in the horizon +threatening to disturb the friendliness of an international +understanding between the Old World and the New. That cordial +international understanding rests upon a very simple, natural, and solid +basis. We rejoice with the nations of the Old World in all their +successes, all their prosperity, and all their happiness, and we +profoundly and earnestly sympathize with them whenever a misfortune +overtakes them. But one thing we shall never think of doing, and that +is, interfering in their affairs. [Cheers.] + +On the other hand they will give us always their sympathy in good and +evil as they have done heretofore, and we expect that they will never +think of interfering with our affairs on this side of the ocean. [Loud +cheers.] Our limits are very distinctly drawn, and certainly no just or +prudent power will ever think of upsetting them. The Old World and the +New will ever live in harmonious accord as long as we do not try to jump +over their fences and they do not try to jump over ours. [Cheers.] + +This being our understanding, nothing will be more natural than +friendship and good-will between the nations of the two sides of the +Atlantic. The only danger ahead of us might be that arising from +altogether too sentimental a fondness for one another which may lead us +into lovers' jealousies and quarrels. Already some of our honored guests +may feel like complaining that we have come very near to killing them +with kindness; at any rate, we are permitted to hope that a hundred +years hence our descendants may assemble again to celebrate the memory +of the feast of cordial friendship which we now enjoy, and when they do +so, they will come to an American Republic of three hundred millions of +people, a city of New York of ten million inhabitants, and to a +Delmonico's ten stories high with a station for airships running between +Europe and America on the top of it [cheers], and then our guests may +even expect to find comfortable hotels and decent accommodations at the +deserted village of Yorktown. [Laughter and cheers.] + +But, in the meantime, I am sure our Old World guests who to-night +delight us with their presence, will never cease to be proud of it that +the great names of which they are the honored representatives are +inscribed upon some of the most splendid pages of the New World's +history, and will live forever in the grateful affection of the New +World's heart. [Loud applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD + + +A PIOUS PILGRIMAGE + + [Speech of William H. Seward at a banquet held at Plymouth, Mass., + December 21, 1855. Preceding this banquet Mr. Seward delivered an + oration on "The Pilgrims and Liberty." The speech here given is his + response to the toast proposed at the banquet, "The Orator of the + Day, eloquent in his tribute to the virtues of the Pilgrims; + faithful, in his life, to the lessons they taught."] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--The Puritans were Protestants, but they +were not protestants against everybody and everything, right or wrong. +They did not protest indiscriminately against everything they found in +England. On the other hand, we have abundant indications in the works of +genius and art which they left behind them that they had a reverence for +all that is good and true; while they protested against everything that +was false and vicious. They had a reverence for the good taste and the +literature, science, eloquence, and poetry of England, and so I trust it +is with their successors in this once bleak and inhospitable, but now +rich and prosperous land. They could appreciate poetry, as well as good +sense and good taste, and so I call to your recollection the language of +a poet who had not loomed up at the time of the Puritans as he has +since. It was addressed to his steed, after an ill-starred journey to +Islingtontown. The poet said:-- + + "'Twas for your pleasure you came here, + You shall go back for mine." + +Being a candid and frank man, as one ought to be who addresses the +descendants of the Puritans, I may say that it was not at all for your +pleasure that I came here. Though I may go back to gratify you, yet I +came here for my own purposes. The time has passed away when I could +make a distant journey from a mild climate to a cold though fair region, +without inconvenience; but there was one wish, I might almost say there +was only one wish of my heart that I was anxious should be gratified. I +had been favored with many occasions to see the seats of empire in this +western world, and had never omitted occasions to see where the seats of +empire were planted, and how they prospered. I had visited the capital +of my own and of many other American States. I had regarded with +admiration the capital of this great Republic, in whose destinies, in +common with you all, I feel an interest which can never die. I had seen +the capitals of the British Empire, and of many foreign empires, and had +endeavored to study for myself the principles which have prevailed in +the foundation of states and empires. With that view I had beheld a city +standing where a migration from the Netherlands planted an empire on the +bay of New York, at Manhattan, or perhaps more properly at Fort Orange. +They sought to plant a commercial empire, and they did not fail; but in +New York now, although they celebrate the memories and virtues of +fatherland, there is no day dedicated to the colonization of New York by +the original settlers, the immigrants from Holland. I have visited +Wilmington, on Christina Creek, in Delaware, where a colony was planted +by the Swedes, about the time of the settlement of Plymouth, and though +the old church built by the colonists still stands there, I learned that +there did not remain in the whole State a family capable of speaking the +language, or conscious of bearing the name of one of the thirty-one +original colonists. + +I have stood on the spot where a treaty was made by William Penn with +the aborigines of Pennsylvania, where a seat of empire was established +by him, and, although the statue of the good man stands in public +places, and his memory remains in the minds of men, yet there is no day +set apart for the recollection of the time and occasion when civil and +religious liberty were planted in that State. I went still farther +south, and descending the James River, sought the first colony of +Virginia at Jamestown. There remains nothing but the broken, ruined +tower of a poor church built of brick, in which Pocahontas was married, +and over the ruins of which the ivy now creeps. Not a human being, bond +or free, is to be seen within a mile from the spot, nor a town or city +as numerously populated as Plymouth, on the whole shores of the broad, +beautiful, majestic river, between Richmond at the head, and Norfolk, +where arms and the government have established fortifications. Nowhere +else in America, then, was there left a remembrance by the descendants +of the founders of colonies, of the virtues, the sufferings, the +bravery, the fidelity to truth and freedom of their ancestors; and more +painful still, nowhere in Europe can be found an acknowledgment or even +a memory of these colonists. In Holland, in Spain, in Great Britain, in +France, nowhere is there to be found any remembrance of the men they +sent out to plant liberty on this continent. So on the way to the +Mississippi, I saw where De Soto planted the standard of Spain, and, in +imagination at least, I followed the march of Cortez in Mexico, and +Pizarro in Peru; but their memory has gone out. Civil liberty perishes, +and religious liberty was never known in South America; nor does Spain, +any more than other lands, retain the memory of the apostles she sent +out to convert the new world to a purer faith, and raise the hopes of +mankind for the well-being of the future. + +There was one only place, where a company of outcasts, men despised, +contemned, reproached as malcontents and fanatics, had planted a colony, +and that colony had grown and flourished; and there had never been a day +since it was planted that the very town, and shore, and coast, where it +was planted had not grown and spread in population, wealth, prosperity, +and happiness, richer and stronger continually. It had not only grown +and flourished like a vigorous tree, rejoicing in its own strength, but +had sent out offshoots in all directions. Everywhere the descendants of +these colonists were found engaged in the struggles for civil and +religious liberty, and the rights of man. I had found them by my side, +the champions of humanity, upon whose stalwart arms I might safely rely. + +I came here, then, because the occasion offered, and if I pretermitted +this, it might be the last, and I was unwilling that any friend or any +child, who might lean upon me, who reckoned upon my counsel or advice, +should know that I had been such a truant to the cause of religious +liberty and humanity, as never to have seen the Rock of Plymouth. + +My mission being now accomplished, having shed tears in the first church +of the Puritans, when the heartfelt benediction was pronounced over my +unworthy head by that venerable pastor, I have only to ask that I be +dismissed from further service with your kind wishes. I will hold the +occasion ever dear to my remembrance, for it is here I have found the +solution of the great political problem. Like Archimedes, I have found +the fulcrum by whose aid I may move the world--the moral world--and that +fulcrum is Plymouth Rock. + + + + +WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN + + +THE ARMY AND NAVY + + [Speech of General William T. Sherman at the first annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. + The President, Benjamin D. Silliman, on announcing the toast, "The + Army and Navy--Great and imperishable names and deeds have + illustrated their history," said: "In response to this toast, I + have the privilege of calling on the great Captain who commands the + armies of the Republic; of whom it has been said, that he combines + the skill and valor of the soldier, with the wisdom of the + statesman, and whose name will ever live in the history of the + nation. We shall have the great satisfaction of listening to + General Sherman."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--While in Washington I was +somewhat embarrassed by receiving invitations from two different New +England societies to dine with them on different days in commemoration +of the same event. I hoped, under cover of that mistake, to escape one +or the other, but I find that each claims its day to be the genuine +anniversary of the landing of their Fathers on Plymouth Rock. I must +leave some of you to settle this controversy, for I don't know whether +it was the 21st or 22d; you here in Brooklyn say the 21st; they in New +York say it was the 22d. Laboring under this serious doubt, when I came +on the stand and found my name enrolled among the orators and statesmen +present, and saw that I was booked to make a speech, I appealed to a +learned and most eloquent attorney to represent me on this occasion. I +even tried to bribe him with an office which I could not give; but he +said that he belonged to that army sometimes described as "invincible in +peace, invisible in war." [Laughter.] He would not respond for me. +Therefore I find myself upon the stand at this moment compelled to +respond, after wars have been abolished by the Honorable Secretary of +State, and men are said to have risen to that level where they are never +to do harm to each other again--with the millennium come, in fact, God +grant it may be so? [Applause.] + +I doubt it. I heard Henry Clay announce the same doctrine long before +our Civil War. I heard also assertions of the same kind uttered on the +floor of our Senate by learned and good men twenty years ago when we +were on the very threshold of one of the most bloody wars which ever +devastated this or any other land. Therefore I have some doubt whether +mankind has attained that eminence where it can look backward upon wars +and rumors of war, and forward to a state of perpetual peace. + +No, my friends, I think man remains the same to-day, as he was in the +beginning. He is not alone a being of reason; he has passions and +feelings which require sometimes to be curbed by force; and all prudent +people ought to be ready and willing to meet strife when it comes. To be +prepared is the best answer to that question. [Applause.] + +Now my friends, the toast you have given me to-night to respond to is +somewhat obscure to me. We have heard to-night enumerated the principles +of your society--which are called "New England ideas." They are as +perfect as the catechism. [Applause and laughter.] I have heard them +supplemented by a sort of codicil, to the effect that a large part of +our country--probably one-half--is still disturbed, and that the +Northern man is not welcome there. I know of my own knowledge that +two-thirds of the territory of the United States are not yet settled. I +believe that when our Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, they +began the war of civilization against barbarism, which is not yet ended +in America. The Nation then, as Mr. Beecher has well said, in the strife +begun by our fathers, aimed to reach a higher manhood--a manhood of +virtue, a manhood of courage, a manhood of faith, a manhood that aspires +to approach the attributes of God Himself. + +Whilst granting to every man the highest liberty known on earth, every +Yankee believes that the citizen must be the architect of his own +fortune; must carry the same civilization wherever he goes, building +school-houses and churches for all alike, and wherever the Yankee has +gone thus far he has carried his principles and has enlarged New England +so that it now embraces probably a third or a half of the settled part +of America. That has been a great achievement, but it is not yet +completed. Your work is not all finished. + +You who sit here in New York, just as your London cousins did two +hundred and fifty years ago, know not the struggle that is beyond. At +this very moment of time there are Miles Standishes, under the cover of +the snow of the Rocky Mountains, doing just what your forefathers did +two hundred and fifty years ago. They have the same hard struggle before +them that your fathers had. You remember they commenced in New England +by building log cabins and fences and tilling the sterile, stony, soil, +which Mr. Beecher describes, and I believe these have been largely +instrumental in the development of the New England character. Had your +ancestors been cast on the fertile shores of the lower Mississippi, you +might not be the same vigorous men you are to-day. Your fathers had to +toil and labor. That was a good thing for you, and it will be good for +your children if you can only keep them in the same tracks. But here in +New York and in Brooklyn, I do not think you now are exactly like your +forefathers, but I can take you where you will see real live Yankees, +very much the same as your fathers were. In New York with wealth and +station, and everything that makes life pleasant, you are not the same +persons physically, though you profess the same principles, yet as +prudent men, you employ more policemen in New York--a larger proportion +to the inhabitants of your city than the whole army of the United States +bears to the people of the United States. You have no Indians here, +though you have "scalpers." [Applause and laughter.] You have no +"road-agents" here, and yet you keep your police; and so does our +Government keep a police force where there are real Indians and real +road-agents, and you, gentlemen, who sit here at this table to-night who +have contributed of your means whereby railroads have been built across +the continent, know well that this little army, which I represent here +to-night, is at this moment guarding these great roadways against +incursions of desperate men who would stop the cars and interfere with +the mails and travel, which would paralyze the trade and commerce of the +whole civilized world, that now passes safely over the great Pacific +road, leading to San Francisco. Others are building roads north and +south, over which we soldiers pass almost yearly, and there also you +will find the blue-coats to-day, guarding the road, not for their +advantage, or their safety, but for your safety, for the safety of your +capital. + +So long as there is such a thing as money, there will be people trying +to get that money; they will struggle for it, and they will die for it +sometimes. We are a good-enough people, a better people it may be than +those of England, or France, though some doubt it. Still we believe +ourselves a higher race of people than have ever been produced by any +concatenation of events before. [Laughter.] We claim to be, and whether +it be due to the ministers of New England, or to the higher type of +manhood, of which Mr. Beecher speaks--which latter doctrine I prefer to +submit to--I don't care which, there is in human nature a spark of +mischief, a spark of danger, which in the aggregate will make force as +necessary for the government of mankind as the Almighty finds the +electric fluid necessary to clear the atmosphere. [Applause.] + +You speak in your toast of "honored names"; you are more familiar with +the history of your country than I am, and know that the brightest pages +have been written on the battle-field. Is there a New Englander here who +would wipe "Bunker Hill" from his list for any price in Wall Street? Not +one of you! Yet you can go out into Pennsylvania and find a thousand of +bigger hills which you can buy for ten dollars an acre. It is not +because of its money value, but because Warren died there in defence of +your government which makes it so dear to you. Turn to the West. What +man would part with the fame of Harrison and of Perry? They made the +settlement of the great Northwest by your Yankees possible. They opened +that highway to you, and shall no honor be given to them? Had it not +been for the battles on the Thames by Harrison, and by Perry on Lake +Erie, the settlement of the great West would not have occurred by New +England industry and thrift. Therefore I say that there is an eloquence +of thought in those names as great as ever was heard on the floor of +Congress, or in the courts of New York. [Applause.] + +So I might go on, and take New Orleans, for example, where General +Jackson fought a battle with the assistance of pirates, many of them +black men and slaves, who became free by that act. There the black man +first fought for his freedom, and I believe black men must fight for +their freedom if they expect to get it and hold it secure. Every white +soldier in this land will help him fight for his freedom, but he must +first strike for it himself. "Who would be free, themselves must strike +the blow." [Cheers.] That truth is ripening, and will manifest itself in +due time. I have as much faith in it as I have that the manhood, and +faith, and firmness, and courage of New England has contributed so much +to the wealth, the civilization, the fame, and glory of our country. +There is no danger of this country going backward. The Civil War settled +facts that remain recorded and never will be obliterated. Taken in that +connection I say that these battles were fought after many good and wise +men had declared all war to be a barbarism--a thing of the past. The +fields stained with patriotic blood will be revered by our children and +our children's children, long after we, the actors, may be forgotten. +The world will not stop; it is moving on; and the day will come when all +nations will be equal "brothers all," when the Scotchman and the +Englishman will be as the son of America. We want the universal humanity +and manhood that Mr. Beecher has spoken of so eloquently. You Yankees +don't want to monopolize all the virtues; if you do, you won't get them. +[Laughter.] + +The Germans have an industry and a type of manhood which we may well +imitate. We find them settling now in South America, and in fact they +are heading you Yankees off in the South American trade. It won't do to +sit down here and brag. You must go forth and settle up new lands for +you and your children, as your fathers did. That is what has been going +on since Plymouth Rock, and will to the end. The end is not yet, but +that it will come and that this highest type of manhood will prevail in +the end I believe as firmly as any man who stands on this floor. It will +be done not by us alone, but by all people uniting, each acting his own +part; the merchant, the lawyer, the mechanic, the farmer, and the +soldier. But I contend that so long as man is man there is a necessity +for organized force, to enable us to reach the highest type of manhood +aimed at by our New England ancestors. [Loud applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +A REMINISCENCE OF THE WAR + + [Speech of General William T. Sherman at the eighty-first annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1886. Judge Horace Russell presided and introduced General + Sherman as a son of New England whom the Society delighted to + honor. The toast proposed was, "Health and Long Life to General + Sherman." The General was visibly affected by the enthusiastic + greeting he received when he rose to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF NEW +YORK:--Were I to do the proper thing, I would turn to my friend on +the left [T. DeWitt Talmage] and say, Amen; for he has drawn a glorious +picture of war in language stronger than even I or my friend, General +Schofield, could dare to use. But looking over the Society to-night--so +many young faces here, so many old and loved ones gone--I feel almost as +one of your Forefathers. [Laughter and applause.] Many and many a time +have I been welcomed among you. I came from a bloody Civil War to New +York twenty or twenty-one years ago, when a committee came to me in my +room and dragged me unwillingly before the then New England Society of +New York. They received me with such hearty applause and such kindly +greetings that my heart goes out to you now to-night as their +representatives. [Applause.] God knows I wish you, one and all, the +blessings of life and enjoyment of the good things you now possess, and +others yet in store for you. + +I hope not to occupy more than a few minutes of your time, for last +night I celebrated the same event in Brooklyn, and at about two or three +o'clock this morning I saw this hall filled with lovely ladies waltzing +[laughter], and here again I am to-night. [Renewed laughter. A voice, +"You're a rounder, General."] But I shall ever, ever recur to the early +meetings of the New England Society, in which I shared, with a pride and +satisfaction which words will not express; and I hope the few I now say +will be received in the kindly spirit they are made in, be they what +they may, for the call upon me is sudden and somewhat unexpected. + +I have no toast. I am a rover. [Laughter.] I can choose to say what I +may--not tied by any text or formula. I know when you look upon old +General Sherman, as you seem to call him [Oh, oh!]--pretty young yet, my +friends, not all the devil out of me yet, and I hope still to share with +you many a festive occasion--whenever you may assemble, wherever the +sons of New England may assemble, be it here under this Delmonico roof, +or in Brooklyn, or even in Boston, I will try to be there. [Applause.] + +My friends, I have had many, many experiences, and it always seems to me +easier to recur to some of them when I am on my feet, for they come back +to me like the memory of a dream, pleasant to think of. And now, +to-night, I know the Civil War is uppermost in your minds, although I +would banish it as a thing of trade, something too common to my calling; +yet I know it pleases the audience to refer to little incidents here and +there of the great Civil War, in which I took a humble part. [Applause.] +I remember, one day away down in Georgia, somewhere between, I think, +Milledgeville and Millen, I was riding on a good horse and had some +friends along with me to keep good-fellowship. [Laughter.] A pretty +numerous party, all clever good fellows. [Renewed laughter.] Riding +along, I spied a plantation. I was thirsty, rode up to the gate and +dismounted. One of these men with sabres by their side, called +orderlies, stood by my horse. I walked up on the porch, where there was +an old gentleman, probably sixty years of age, white-haired and very +gentle in his manners--evidently a planter of the higher class. I asked +him if he would be kind enough to give me some water. He called a boy, +and soon he had a bucket of water with a dipper. I then asked for a +chair, and called one or two of my officers. Among them was, I think, +Dr. John Moore, who recently has been made Surgeon-General of the Army, +for which I am very glad--indebted to Mr. Cleveland. [Laughter and +applause.] We sat on the porch, and the old man held the bucket, and I +took a long drink of water, and maybe lighted a cigar [laughter], and it +is possible I may have had a little flask of whiskey along. [Renewed +laughter.] + +At all events, I got into a conversation; and the troops drifted along, +passing down the roadway closely by fours, and every regiment had its +banner, regimental or national, sometimes furled and sometimes afloat. +The old gentleman says:-- + +"General, what troops are these passing now?" + +As the color-bearer came by, I said: "Throw out your colors. That is the +39th Iowa." + +"The 39th Iowa! 39th Iowa! Iowa! 39th! What do you mean by 39th?" + +"Well," said I, "habitually, a regiment, when organized, amounts to +1,000 men." + +"Do you pretend to say Iowa has sent 39,000 men into this cruel Civil +War?" [Laughter.] + +"Why, my friend, I think that may be inferred." + +"Well," says he, "where's Iowa?" [Laughter.] + +"Iowa is a State bounded on the east by the Mississippi, on the south by +Missouri, on the west by unknown country, and on the north by the North +Pole." + +"Well," says he, "39,000 men from Iowa! You must have a million men." + +Says I: "I think about that." + +Presently another regiment came along. + +"What may that be?" + +I called to the color-bearer: "Throw out your colors and let us see," +and it was the 21st or 22d Wisconsin--I have forgotten which. + +"Wisconsin! Northwest Territory! Wisconsin! Is it spelled with an O or a +W?" + +"Why, we spell it now with a W. It used to be spelled Ouis." + +"The 22d! that makes 22,000 men?" + +"Yes, I think there are a good many more than that. Wisconsin has sent +about 30,000 men into the war." + +Then again came along another regiment from Minnesota. + +"Minnesota! My God! where is Minnesota?" [Laughter.] "Minnesota!" + +"Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi River, a +beautiful Territory, too, by the way--a beautiful State." + +"A State?" + +"Yes; has Senators in Congress; good ones, too. They're very fine +men--very fine troops." + +"How many men has she sent to this cruel war?" + +"Well, I don't exactly know; somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 men, +probably. Don't make any difference--all we want." [Laughter.] + +"Well," says he, "now we must have been a set of fools to throw down the +gage of battle to a country we didn't know the geography of!" [Laughter +and applause.] "When I went to school that was the Northwest Territory, +and the Northwest Territory--well," says he, "we looked upon that as +away off, and didn't know anything about it. Fact is, we didn't know +anything at all about it." + +Said I: "My friend, think of it a moment. Down here in Georgia, one of +the original thirteen States which formed the great Union of this +country, you have stood fast. You have stood fast while the great +Northwest has been growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my +friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of +cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more +colleges--more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened +State--than the whole State of Georgia." + +"My God," says the man, "it's awful. I didn't dream of that." + +"Well," says I, "look here, my friend; I was once a banker, and have +some knowledge of notes, indorsements, and so forth. Did you ever have +anything to do with indorsements?" + +Says he: "Yes, I have had my share. I have a factor in Savannah, and I +give my note and he indorses it, and I get the money somehow or other. I +have to pay it in the end out of the crop." + +"Well," says I, "now look here. In 1861 the Southern States had +4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States of Pennsylvania, New +York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so forth, were indorsers. We were on +the bond. Your slaves were protected by the same law which protects land +and other property. Now, you got mad at them because they didn't think +exactly as you did about religion, and about this thing and t'other +thing; and like a set of fools you first took your bond and drew your +pen through the indorser's names. Do you know what the effect will be? +You will never get paid for those niggers at all." [Laughter.] "They are +gone. They're free men now." + +"Well," says he, "we were the greatest set of fools that ever were in +the world." [Laughter.] + +And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State of Georgia before I +left it. [Laughter and applause.] + +Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to us, but the +decree came from a higher power. No pen, no statesman, in fact, no +divine could have solved the riddle which bound us at that time; nothing +but the great God of War. And you and your fathers, your ancestors, if +you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had to resort to the +great arbiter of battles, and call upon Jove himself. And now all men in +America, North and South, East and West, stand free before the tribunal +of the Almighty, each man to work out his own destiny according to his +ability, and according to his virtue, and according to his manhood. +[Applause.] I assure you that we who took part in that war were kindly +men. We did not wish to kill. We did not wish to strike a blow. I know +that I grieved as much as any man when I saw pain and sorrow and +affliction among the innocent and distressed, and when I saw burning and +desolation. But these were incidents of war, and were forced upon +us--forced upon us by men influenced by a bad ambition; not by the men +who owned those slaves, but by politicians who used that as a pretext, +and forced you and your fathers and me and others who sit near me, to +take up arms and settle the controversy once and forever. [Cries of +"good," and loud applause.] + +Now, my friends of New England, we all know what your ancestors are +recorded to have been; mine were of the same stock. Both my parents were +from Norwalk, Connecticut. I think and feel like you. I, too, was taught +the alphabet with blows, and all the knowledge I possessed before I went +to West Point was spanked into me by the ferule of those old +schoolmasters. [Laughter.] I learned my lesson well, and I hope that +you, sons of New England, will ever stand by your country and its flag, +glory in the achievements of your ancestors, and forever--and to a day +beyond forever, if necessary, giving you time to make the journey to +your last resting-place--honor your blood, honor your Forefathers, honor +yourselves, and treasure the memories of those who have gone before you. +[Enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +BALLARD SMITH + + +THE PRESS OF THE SOUTH + + [Speech of Ballard Smith at the annual banquet given by the + Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1888. John C. Calhoun, + one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, presided. Mr. Smith + spoke to the toast, "The Press of the South."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The newspaper has always been a +potent factor in the South--for many years almost exclusively political, +but since the war occupying its more proper sphere and assisting more +largely in the material development of the country. I think every +Southern man will agree with me that the change of procession has been +to the very great advantage of our section. The columns of the +ante-bellum newspaper were too often the opportunity for the indulgence +of excited passions, political and social, and I doubt if our people +could not have better spared the newspaper altogether than to have +permitted the license of accusation, political incitement, and personal +rancor which characterized so largely the journals of thirty years ago. +[Applause.] But they were virile hands which held editorial pens in +those days and the faults were doubtless faults of the period rather +than of the men themselves. It was a splendid galaxy--that company which +included George D. Prentiss, Rhett, Forsythe, Hughes, Henry D. Wise, +John Mitchell, and Thomas Ritchie. + +But it is of Southern journalism during these last twenty years of which +I would speak. I have known something of it because my own +apprenticeship was served in one of the most brilliant journals of this +or any other time and of this or any other country. The services of +Henry Watterson to the South and to the country are a part of the +history of our time. [Applause.] His loyalty toward his section could +never have been doubted, and his firmness and broad patriotism served it +at a time of need to a degree which perhaps the firmness and patriotism +of no other man in the South could have equalled. He had for the vehicle +of his eloquent fervor a newspaper which commanded the affection of his +own people and the respect of the North. [Applause.] With the +restoration of order great newspapers--fair rivals to their great +contemporaries in the Eastern and Northern States--have grown to +prosperity in the various centres of the South, and they have acted out +a mission which is in some respects peculiar to themselves. + +More important than politics to the South, more important than the +advocacy of good morals--for of that our people took good care +themselves in city as in country--has been the material development of +our resources. The War left us very poor. The carpet-bag governments +stole a very large part of the little that was left. Injudicious +speculations in cotton during a few years of madness almost completed +our bankruptcy. With fertile fields, cheap labor, extraordinary mineral +resources, our almost undisputed control of one of the great staples of +the world, the year 1876 found us a prostrate people almost beyond +precedent. To this breach came several thoughtful, public-spirited, +eloquent men of the newspaper guild. It was our good fortune that in +Dawson of the "Charleston News and Courier," in Major Burke, Page M. +Baker, and Colonel Nicholson of New Orleans; in Major Belo of Galveston; +in the editors of "The Nashville Banner," "The American," "The Memphis +Appeal," "The Richmond Dispatch and State," and above all, in Henry W. +Grady, of "The Atlanta Constitution" [applause], we had spokesmen who, +day in and day out, in season and out, year after year devoted their +thoughts, their study, and their abilities to showing the world, first, +the sturdy intention of our people to recuperate their lost fortunes; +and second, the extraordinary resources of their section. [Applause.] +Certainly not in the history of my profession and perhaps not in any +history of such endeavor, have men, sinking mere personal interests and +ignoring the allurements of ambition, through a more dramatic exercise +of their talents so devoted themselves to the practical interests of +their people. [Applause.] We saw the results in the awakened curiosity +of the world, and in the speedy influx of capital to aid us in our +recuperation. [Applause.] + + + + +CHARLES EMORY SMITH + + +IRELAND'S STRUGGLES + + [Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the banquet given by the + Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, + 1887. Mr. Smith was introduced by the Society's President, John + Field, and called upon to speak to the toast, "The Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--These annual dinners of the +Hibernian Society, several of which I have had the honor of attending, +are distinguished by a peculiar association and spirit. The sons of +other nationalities, Englishmen, Welshmen, Scotchmen, Germans, and those +among whom I count myself--the sons of New England--are accustomed to +meet annually on the anniversary of a patron saint or on some great +historic occasion as you do. And those of us who have the opportunity of +going from one to the other will, I am sure, agree with me that nowhere +else do we find the patriotic fire and the deep moving spirit which we +find here. Something of this, Mr. President, is due to the buoyant +quality of blood which flows in every Irishman's veins--a quality which +makes the Irishman, wherever he may be and under all circumstances, +absolutely irrepressible. Something, I say, is due to this buoyant +quality of the Irish blood. Still, some of it is due to the fact that he +is moved by a deep sense of the woes and the wrongs, of the sadness and +the sorrows of his native land. Oppression and injustice only inflame +the spirit of nationality. The heel of the oppressor may crush and tear +the form or reduce the strength, but nothing crushes the inward resolve +of the heart. The Americans were never so American as when they revolted +against England and threw the tea overboard into Boston harbor, and +punished the Red-Coats at Bunker Hill. The heavy yoke of Austria rested +grievously upon Hungary, but they raised themselves in revolt and fought +fearlessly for their home rule, for their freedom and their rights. And +they were defeated by treason in their camps and by the combined forces +of Austria and Russia. Yet, sir, they persevered until they achieved +home rule--as will Ireland at no distant day. + +The long history of oppression and injustice in Ireland has not only not +extinguished the flame of Irish patriotism and feeling, but has served +to kindle it, to make it more glowing to-day than ever before. For seven +centuries Ireland has wrestled with and been subjected to misrule--to +England's misrule: a rule great and noble in many things, as her +priceless statesman says, but with this one dark, terrible stain upon an +otherwise noble history. Only a day or two ago there reached our shores +the last number of an English periodical, containing an article from the +pen of that great statesman, to whom not only all Ireland, but all the +civilized world is looking to-day to battle for freedom in England. The +article presents, in the most striking form that I have ever seen, +statements of what is properly called Ireland's demands. And I was +struck there with the most extraordinary statement coming from this +great statesman of England, of the character of England's rule, or +rather England's misrule, of Ireland during those seven centuries. For +all those centuries, he says, were centuries not only of subjection, but +of extreme oppression. The fifth century was the century of +confiscation; the sixth was a century of penal laws--penal laws, which, +he says, "we cannot defend and which we must condemn and wash our hands +of the whole proceedings"--a century of penal laws, except from 1778 to +1795, which he calls the golden age of Ireland. And as I stop for a +moment to recollect what had distinguished that period, and as you stop +here to-night and recollect for a single moment what had distinguished +that short period of that century and made it the golden age of Ireland, +you will understand why it was so called. It was the period when Henry +Grattan, the great leader of the first battle for home rule, poured +forth his learned and masterly eloquence; when Curran made his powerful +plea for religious emancipation. The period when Robert Emmet--to whom +such glorious tribute has been paid here to-night--was learning, in the +bright early morn of that career which promised to be so great and to do +so much, those lessons of patriotism which enabled him, when cut down in +the flower of youth, to meet even his ignominious death with marvellous +nerve and firm confidence, with courage and patriotism. + +And, Gentlemen, I believe that it is one glorious trait of the American +press that during this struggle which has gone on now for years, this +struggle for justice in Ireland, that the press of America has been true +to the best inspirations of liberty; and I unhesitatingly say to England +and to the English ministers, that if they would conform to the judgment +of the civilized world they must abandon their course of intoleration +and oppression, and must do justice to long oppressed Ireland. The +press, the united press of Philadelphia, and of other great cities of +the country, have done their part in promoting that work which has been +going on among our people for the last few years to attain this end. + +The press of Philadelphia aided in raising that magnificent fund of +$50,000 which went from this side; and if it need be, it will put its +hand to the plough and renew work. It was the remark of Mr. Gladstone, +that looking at past events, they [England] could not cite a single +witness in behalf of the cause which they represented. The American +people began their contributions in 1847, to prevent the starvation of +many of those people, and they continued their contributions to stop +evictions, and to pay the landlords; they continued their contributions +to promote that work of freedom and justice and home rule, for which we +stand united, inflexible and immovable until it shall be finally +accomplished. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE PRESIDENT'S PRELUDE + + [Speech of Charles Emory Smith at the thirteenth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1893. Mr. Smith, then President of the Society, delivered the usual + introductory address of the presiding officer, immediately after + ex-President Benjamin F. Harrison had spoken.] + + +HONORED GUESTS AND FELLOW-MEMBERS:--I am sure that you have +greatly enjoyed the brilliant and witty speech to which you have just +listened--a speech which shows that our distinguished guest is as +felicitous at the dinner-table as he is signally successful in other +fields of oratory. But if you have deluded yourself with the idea that +because of this change in the programme you are to escape the infliction +of the usual address by the President of the Society, it is now my duty +to undeceive you. [Laughter.] Even the keen reflections of General +Harrison respecting the prepared impromptu speeches shall not deter us. +The rest of us who are not as gifted as he is have expended too much +midnight oil and sacrificed too much of the gray matter of the brain to +lose our opportunity. You will see that we have anticipated his +impromptu observations by carefully premeditating our impromptu reply. +[Laughter.] Lord Beaconsfield said that Carlyle had reasons to speak +civilly of Cromwell, for Cromwell would have hanged him. [Laughter.] +General Harrison has been hanging the rest of us--yes, hanging and +quartering us--though this is far from being the only reason for +speaking civilly of him, and yet we must go on with the exhibition. + +You have observed that on the programme, as arranged by the Committee, +the first number is a prelude by the President and the last a hymn by +the Society. The Committee evidently intended to begin and end with +music. What particular solo they expect me to perform I am somewhat +uncertain. But the truth is you have already had a part of the music and +you will have the rest when I am done. For my part is only that of the +leader in the old Puritan choir--to take up the tuning fork and pitch +the key; and I do this when I say that we are assembled for the two +hundred and seventy-third time [laughter] to commemorate the landing of +the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. If any one doubts the correctness of that +chronology, let him consult Brothers Shortridge and Lewis and Clark and +Cornish, who have been with us from the beginning. [Laughter.] We have +met to celebrate these fourfathers [laughter], as well as some others, +and to glorify ourselves. If we had any doubts about the duty we owe our +ancestors, we have no scruples about the satisfaction we take in their +posterity. "My idea of first-rate poetry," said Josh Billings, "is the +kind of poetry that I would have writ." So our idea of first-rate +posterity is the kind of posterity we are. [Laughter.] + +But while not forgetting the posterity, it is not forbidden at these +dinners to make an occasional and casual allusion to the Pilgrim +Fathers. Thackeray tells us of an ardent young lady who had a devotion +of the same sort to "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted instruction, +she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she wanted amusement, she read +"Nicholas Nickleby." When she had leisure, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." +When she was busy, she read "Nicholas Nickleby." When she was sick, she +read "Nicholas Nickleby," and when she got well, she read "Nicholas +Nickleby" over again. [Laughter.] We return with the same infrequent, +inconstant and uncertain fidelity to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers. +If we seek the light persiflage and airy humor of the after-dinner +spirit, we find an inexhaustible fountain in the quaint customs and odd +conceits of the Pilgrim Fathers. If we seek the enkindling fire and the +moral elevation of high principle and profound conviction and resolute +courage, we find a never-ceasing inspiration in the unfaltering +earnestness and imperishable deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Applause.] +After praying for all the rest of mankind, the good colored preacher +closed up with the invocation "And, finally, O Lord! bless the people of +the uninhabited portions of the globe." [Laughter.] We are sometimes as +comprehensive in our good-will as the colored brother; but to-night we +fix our thoughts upon that more limited portion of mankind which belongs +in nativity or ancestry to that more restricted part of the globe known +as New England. + +We are here to sing the praises of these sturdy people. They, too, +sang--and sang with a fervor that was celebrated in the memorable +inscription on one of the pews of old Salem Church:-- + + "Could poor King David but for once + To Salem Church repair, + And hear his Psalms thus warbled out, + Good Lord! how he would swear." + +And it was not in Salem Church, either, that the Psalms were sung with +the peculiar variations of which we have record. An enterprising +establishment proposed to furnish all the hymn-books to a congregation +not abundantly blessed with this world's goods, provided it might insert +a little advertisement. The thrifty congregation in turn thought there +would be no harm in binding up any proper announcement with Watt and +Doddridge; but when they assembled on Christmas morning, they started +back aghast as they found themselves singing-- + + "Hark! The herald angels sing, + Beecham's Pills are just the thing; + Peace on earth and mercy mild, + Two for man and one for child." + +But if the Pilgrim Fathers were not the sweetest warblers, they at least +never wobbled. They always went direct to their mark. As Emerson said of +Napoleon, they would shorten a straight line to get at a point. They +faced the terrors of the New England northeast blast and starved in the +wilderness in order that we might live in freedom. We have literally +turned the tables on them and patiently endure the trying hardships of +this festive board in order that their memories may not die in +forgetfulness. + +We can never forget the hardships which they were forced to endure, but +at the same time we must recognize that they had some advantages over +us. They escaped some of the inflictions to which we have been compelled +to submit. They braved the wintry blast of Plymouth, but they never knew +the everlasting wind of the United States Senate. [Laughter.] They +slumbered under the long sermons of Cotton Mather, but they never +dreamed of the fourteen consecutive hours of Nebraska Allen or Nevada +Stewart. They battled with Armenian dogmas and Antinomian heresies, but +they never experienced the exhilarating delights of the Silver debate +or throbbed under the rapturous and tumultuous emotions of a Tariff +Schedule. [Laughter.] + +They had their days of festivity. They observed the annual day of +Thanksgiving with a reverent, and not infrequently with a jocund, +spirit; but advanced as they were in many respects, they never reached +that sublime moral elevation and that high state of civilization which +enable us in our day to see that the only true way to observe +Thanksgiving is to shut up the churches and revel in the spiritual +glories of the flying wedge and the triumphant touchdown. [Laughter.] +Their calendar had three great red-letter days of celebration: +Commencement day, which expressed and emphasized the foremost place they +gave to education in their civil and religious polity; Training or +Muster day, which illustrated the spirit and the skill that gave them +victory over the Indians and made them stand undaunted on Bunker Hill +under Warren and Putnam until above the gleaming column of red-coats +they could look into the whites of the enemies' eyes; and Election day, +upon which, with its election sermon and its solemn choice of rulers, +they acted out their high sense of patriotic duty to the Commonwealth. +We are deeply concerned in these days about the debasement of the +ballot-box. Perhaps we could find a panacea in the practice of our +Pilgrim Fathers. They enacted a law that the right of suffrage should be +limited to church members in good standing. Suppose we had such a law +now, what a mighty revolution it would work either in exterminating +fraud or in promoting piety! "Men and Brethren!" said the colored +parson, "two ways are open before you, the broad and narrow way which +leads to perdition, and the straight and crooked way which leads to +damnation." [Laughter.] We have before us now the two ways of stuffed +ballot-boxes and empty pews, and our problem is to change the stuffing +from the ballot-boxes to the pews. I am not altogether sure which result +would be accomplished; but it is quite clear that if the law of our +Fathers did not destroy corruption in politics, it would at least kindle +a fresh interest in the church. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, it is with honest pride and fresh inspiration that we gather +once a year to revive our enkindling story. The Santa Maria, with its +antique form and its flying pennant, contrasting the past with the +present, amid the dazzling and now vanishing splendors of the wondrous +White City, has this year recalled the discovery of America. But the +jewel is more precious than the casket. The speaking picture appeals to +us more than its stately setting. And heroic as was the voyage of the +Santa Maria across a trackless sea to an unknown continent, it was the +nobler mission of the Mayflower to bring the priceless seeds of +principle and liberty which have blossomed in the resplendent +development and progress of our great free Republic. Conscience +incarnate in Brewster and Bradford, in Winthrop and Winslow, smote +Plymouth Rock; and from that hour there has poured forth from its rich +fountain a perennial stream of intellectual and moral force which has +flooded and fertilized a broad continent. The Puritan spirit was duty; +the Puritan creed was conscience; the Puritan principle was individual +freedom; the Puritan demand was organized liberty, guaranteed and +regulated by law. [Applause.] That spirit is for to-day as much as for +two centuries ago. It fired at Lexington the shot heard round the world, +and it thundered down the ages in the Emancipation Proclamation. It +lives for no narrow section and it is limited to no single class. The +soul that accepts God and conscience and equal manhood has the Puritan +spirit, whether he comes from Massachusetts or Virginia, from Vermont or +Indiana; whether you call him Quaker or Catholic, disciple of Saint +Nicholas or follower of Saint George. [Applause.] The Puritan did not +pass away with his early struggles. He has changed his garb and his +speech; he has advanced with the progress of the age; but in his +fidelity to principle and his devotion to duty he lives to-day as truly +as he lived in the days of the Puritan Revolution and the Puritan +Pilgrimage. His spirit shines in the lofty teachings of Channing and in +the unbending principles of Sumner, in the ripened wisdom of Emerson and +in the rhythmical lessons of Longfellow. The courageous John Pym was not +more resolute and penetrating in leading the great struggle in the Long +Parliament than was George F. Edmunds in the Senate of the United +States. And the intrepid and sagacious John Hampden, heroic in battle +and supreme in council, wise, steadfast, and true, was but a prototype +of Benjamin Harrison. + + + + +HERBERT SPENCER + + +THE GOSPEL OF RELAXATION + + [Speech of Herbert Spencer at a dinner given in his honor in New + York City, November 9, 1882. William M. Evarts presided.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Along with your kindness there +comes to me a great unkindness from Fate; for now, that above all times +in my life I need the full command of what powers of speech I possess, +disturbed health so threatens to interfere with them, that I fear I +shall often inadequately express myself. Any failure in my response you +must please ascribe, in part at least, to a greatly disordered nervous +system. Regarding you as representing Americans at large, I feel that +the occasion is one on which arrears of thanks are due. I ought to begin +with the time, some two and twenty years ago, when my highly valued +friend, Professor Youmans, making efforts to diffuse my books here, +interested on their behalf Messrs. Appleton, who have ever treated me so +honorably and so handsomely; and I ought to detail from that time onward +the various marks and acts of sympathy by which I have been encouraged +in a struggle which was for many years disheartening. + +But intimating thus briefly my general indebtedness to my numerous +friends most of them unknown on this side of the Atlantic, I must name +more especially the many attentions and proffered hospitalities met with +during my late tour as well as, lastly and chiefly, this marked +expression of the sympathies and good wishes which many of you have +travelled so far to give at great cost of that time which is so precious +to an American. I believe I may truly say that the better health which +you have so cordially wished me will be in a measure furthered by the +wish; since all pleasurable emotion is conducive to health, and as you +will fully believe, the remembrance of this evening will ever continue +to be a source of pleasurable emotion exceeded by few if any of my +remembrances. + +And now that I have thanked you sincerely though too briefly, I am going +to find fault with you. Already in some remarks drawn from me respecting +American affairs and American character, I have passed criticisms which +have been accepted far more good-naturedly than I could reasonably have +expected; and it seems strange that I should now again propose to +transgress. However, the fault I have to comment upon is one which most +will scarcely regard as a fault. It seems to me that in one respect +Americans have diverged too widely from savages. I do not mean to say +that they are in general unduly civilized. Throughout large parts of the +population even in long-settled regions there is no excess of those +virtues needed for the maintenance of social harmony. Especially out in +the West men's dealings do not yet betray too much of the "sweetness and +light" which we are told distinguish the cultured man from the +barbarian; nevertheless there is a sense in which my assertion is true. + +You know that the primitive man lacks power of application. Spurred by +hunger, by danger or revenge he can exert himself energetically for a +time, but his energy is spasmodic. Monotonous daily toil is impossible +to him. It is otherwise with the more developed man. The stern +discipline of social life has gradually increased the aptitude for +persistent industry; until among us, and still more among you, work has +become with many a passion. This contrast of nature is another aspect. +The savage thinks only of present satisfactions and leaves future +satisfactions uncared for. Contrariwise the American, eagerly pursuing a +future good almost ignores what good the passing day offers him; and +when the future good is gained, he neglects that while striving for some +still remoter good. + +What I have seen and heard during my stay among you has forced on me the +belief that this slow change from habitual inertness to persistent +activity has reached an extreme from which there must begin a +counter-change--a reaction. Everywhere I have been struck with the +number of faces which told in strong lines of the burdens that had to +be borne. I have been struck, too, with the large proportion of +gray-haired men; and inquiries have brought out the fact that with you +the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier than with us. +Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had themselves suffered +from nervous collapse due to the stress of business, or named friends +who had either killed themselves by overwork or had been permanently +incapacitated or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health. +I do but echo the opinion of all the observant persons I have spoken to +that immense injury is being done by this high-pressure life--the +physique is being undermined. That subtle thinker and poet whom you have +lately had to mourn--Emerson,--says in his "Essay on the Gentleman," +that the first requisite is that he shall be a good animal. The +requisite is a general one--it extends to man, the father, the citizen. +We hear a great deal about the "vile body"; and many are encouraged by +the phrase to transgress the laws of health. But Nature quietly +suppresses those who treat thus disrespectfully one of her highest +products and leaves the world to be peopled by the descendants of those +who are not so foolish. + +Beyond these immediate mischiefs, there are remoter mischiefs. Exclusive +devotion to work has the result that amusements cease to please; and +when relaxation becomes imperative, life becomes dreary from lack of its +sole interest--the interest in business. The remark current in England +that when the American travels, his aim is to do the greatest amount of +sight-seeing in the shortest time, I find current here also; it is +recognized that the satisfaction of getting on devours nearly all other +satisfactions. When recently at Niagara, which gave us a whole week's +pleasure, I learned from the landlord of the hotel that most Americans +come one day and go away the next. Old Froissart, who said of the +English of his day that "they take their pleasures sadly after their +fashion," would doubtless, if he lived now, say of the Americans that +"they take their pleasures hurriedly after their fashion." In large +measure with us, and still more with you, there is not that abandonment +to the moment which is requisite for full enjoyment; and this +abandonment is prevented by the ever-present sense of multitudinous +responsibilities. So that beyond the serious physical mischief caused by +overwork, there is the further mischief that it destroys what value +there would otherwise be in the leisure part of life. Nor do the evils +end here. There is the injury to posterity. Damaged constitutions +re-appear in their children and entail on them far more of ill than +great fortunes yield them of good. When life has been duly rationalized +by science, it will be seen that among a man's duties the care of the +body is imperative not only out of regard for personal welfare, but also +out of regard for descendants. His constitution will be considered as an +entailed estate which he ought to pass on uninjured if not improved to +those who follow; and it will be held that millions bequeathed by him +will not compensate for feeble health and decreased ability to enjoy +life. + +Once more, there is the injury to fellow-citizens taking the shape of +undue regard of competitors. I hear that a great trader among you +deliberately endeavored to crush out everyone whose business competed +with his own; and manifestly the man who, making himself a slave to +accumulation, absorbs an inordinate share of the trade or profession he +is engaged in, makes life harder for all others engaged in it and +excludes from it many who might otherwise gain competencies. Thus, +besides the egoistic motive, there are two altruistic motives which +should deter from this excess in work. + +The truth is there needs a revised ideal of life. Look back through the +past, or look abroad through the present, and we find that the ideal of +life is variable and depends on social conditions. Everyone knows that +to be a successful warrior was the highest aim among all ancient peoples +of note, as it is still among many barbarous peoples. When we remember +that in the Norseman's heaven, the time was to be passed in daily +battles with magical healing of wounds, we see how deeply rooted may +become the conception that fighting is man's proper business and that +industry is fit only for slaves and people of low degree. That is to +say, when the chronic struggles of races necessitate perpetual wars +there is evolved an ideal of life adapted to the requirements. We have +changed all that in modern civilized societies, especially in England +and still more in America. With the decline of militant activity and +the growth of industrial activity the occupations once disgraceful have +become honorable. The duty to work has taken the place of the duty to +fight; and in the one case as in the other the ideal of life has become +so well established that scarcely anybody dreams of questioning it. +Practical business has been substituted for war as the purpose of +existence. + +Is this modern ideal to survive throughout the future? I think not. +While all other things undergo continuous change, it is impossible that +ideals should remain fixed. The ancient ideal was appropriate to the +ages of conquest by man over man and spread of the strongest races. The +modern ideal is appropriate to ages in which conquest of the earth and +subjection of the powers of Nature to human use is the predominant need. +But hereafter, when both these ends have in the main been achieved, the +ideal formed will probably differ considerably from the present one. May +we not foresee the nature of the difference? I think we may. + +Some twenty years ago, a good friend of mine and a good friend of yours, +too, though you never saw him, John Stuart Mill, delivered at St. +Andrew's an inaugural address on the occasion of his appointment to the +Lord Rectorship. It contained much to be admired, as did all he wrote; +there ran through it, however, the tacit assumption that life is for +learning and working. I felt at the time that I should have liked to +take up the opposite thesis. I should have liked to contend that life is +not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and working are +for life. The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct +under all circumstances as shall make living complete--all other uses of +knowledge are secondary. It scarcely needs saying that the primary use +of work is that of supplying the materials and aids to living +completely; and that any other uses of work are secondary. But in men's +conceptions the secondary has in great measure usurped the place of the +primary. + +The apostle of culture, as culture is commonly conceived, Mr. Matthew +Arnold, makes little or no reference to the fact that the first use of +knowledge is the right ordering of all actions; and Mr. Carlyle, who is +a good exponent of current ideas about work, insists on its virtues for +quite other reasons than that it achieves sustentation. We may trace +everywhere in human affairs a tendency to transform the means into the +end. All see that the miser does this when making the accumulation of +money his sole satisfaction; he forgets that money is of value only to +purchase satisfactions. But it is less commonly seen that the like is +true of the work by which the money is accumulated--that industry, too, +bodily or mental, is but a means, and that it is as irrational to pursue +it to the exclusion of that complete living it subserves as it is for +the miser to accumulate money and make no use of it. Hereafter when this +age of active material progress has yielded mankind its benefits there +will, I think, come a better adjustment of labor and enjoyment. Among +reasons for thinking this there is the reason that the processes of +evolution throughout the world at large bring an increasing surplus of +energies that are not absorbed in fulfilling material needs and point to +a still larger surplus for humanity of the future. And there are other +reasons which I must pass over. In brief, I may say that we have had +somewhat too much of the "gospel of work." It is time to preach the +gospel of relaxation. + +This is a very unconventional after-dinner speech. Especially it will be +thought strange that in returning thanks I should deliver something very +much like a homily. But I have thought I could not better convey my +thanks than by the expression of a sympathy which issues in a fear. If, +as I gather, this intemperance in work affects more especially the +Anglo-American part of the population, if there results an undermining +of the physique not only in adults, but also in the young, who as I +learn from your daily journals are also being injured by overwork--if +the ultimate consequence should be a dwindling away of those among you +who are the inheritors of free institutions and best adapted to them, +then there will come a further difficulty in the working out of that +great future which lies before the American nation. To my anxiety on +this account you must please ascribe the unusual character of my +remarks. + +And now I must bid you farewell. When I sail by the Germanic on +Saturday, I shall bear with me pleasant remembrances of my intercourse +with many Americans, joined with regrets that my state of health has +prevented me from seeing a larger number. + + + + +ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY + + +AMERICA VISITED + + [Speech of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, at the + breakfast given by the Century Club, New York City, November 2, + 1878.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The hospitality shown to me has +been no exception to that with which every Englishman meets in this +country, in the endless repetition of kind words and the overwhelming +pressure of genial entertainment which has been thrust upon me. That +famous Englishman, Dr. Johnson, when he went from England to Scotland, +which, at that time, was a more formidable undertaking than is a voyage +from England to America at the present time, met at a reception at St. +Andrew's a young professor who said, breaking the gloomy silence of the +occasion: "I trust you have not been disappointed!" And the famous +Englishman replied: "No; I was told that I should find men of rude +manners and savage tastes, and I have not been disappointed." So, too, +when I set out for your shores I was told that I should meet a kindly +welcome and the most friendly hospitality. I can only say, with Dr. +Johnson, I have not been disappointed. + +But in my vivid though short experience of American life and manners, I +have experienced not only hospitality, but considerate and thoughtful +kindness, for which I must ever be grateful. I can find it in my heart +even to forgive the reporters who have left little of what I have said +or done unnoted, and when they have failed in this, have invented +fabulous histories of things which I never did and sayings which I never +uttered. Sometimes when I have been questioned as to my impressions and +views of America, I have been tempted to say with an Englishman who was +hard pressed by his constituents with absurd solicitations: "Gentlemen, +this is the humblest moment of my life, that you should take me for such +a fool as to answer all your questions." But I know their good +intentions and I forgive them freely. + +The two months which I have spent on these shores seem to me two years +in actual work, or two centuries rather, for in them I have lived +through all American history. In Virginia I saw the era of the earliest +settlers, and I met John Smith and Pocahontas on the shores of the James +River. In Philadelphia I lived with William Penn, but in a splendor +which I fear would have shocked his simple soul. At Salem I encountered +the stern founders of Massachusetts; at Plymouth I watched the Mayflower +threading its way round the shoals and promontories of that intricate +bay. On Lake George and at Quebec I followed the struggle between the +English and the French for the possession of this great continent. At +Boston and Concord I followed the progress of the War of Independence. +At Mount Vernon I enjoyed the felicity of companionship with Washington +and his associates. I pause at this great name, and carry my +recollections no further. But you will understand how long and fruitful +an experience has thus been added to my life, during the few weeks in +which I have moved amongst the scenes of your eventful history. + +And then, leaving the past for the present, a new field opens before me. +There are two impressions which are fixed upon my mind as to the leading +characteristics of the people among whom I have passed, as the almanac +informs me, but two short months. On the one hand I see that everything +seems to be fermenting and growing, changing, perplexing, bewildering. +In that memorable hour--memorable in the life of every man, memorable as +when he sees the first view of the Pyramids, or of the snow-clad range +of the Alps--in the hour when for the first time I stood before the +cataracts of Niagara, I seemed to see a vision of the fears and hopes of +America. It was midnight, the moon was full, and I saw from the +Suspension Bridge the ceaseless contortion, confusion, whirl, and chaos, +which burst forth in clouds of foam from that immense central chasm +which divides the American from the British dominion; and as I looked +on that ever-changing movement, and listened to that everlasting roar, +I saw an emblem of the devouring activity, and ceaseless, restless, +beating whirlpool of existence in the United States. But into the +moonlight sky there rose a cloud of spray twice as high as the Falls +themselves, silent, majestic, immovable. In that silver column, +glittering in the moonlight, I saw an image of the future of American +destiny, of the pillar of light which should emerge from the +distractions of the present--a likeness of the buoyancy and hopefulness +which characterize you both as individuals and as a nation. + +You may remember Wordsworth's fine lines on "Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow +Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited." "America Unvisited"--that is now for +me a vision of the past; that fabulous America, in which, before they +come to your shores, Englishmen believe Pennsylvania to be the capital +of Massachusetts, and Chicago to be a few miles from New York--that has +now passed away from my mind forever. "America Visited"; this, with its +historic scenes and its endless suggestions of thought, has taken the +place of that fictitious region. Whether there will ever be an "America +Revisited" I cannot say; but if there should be, it will then be to me +not the land of the Pilgrim Fathers and Washington, so much as the land +of kindly homes, and enduring friendships, and happy recollections, +which have now endeared it to me. One feature of this visit I fear I +cannot hope to see repeated, yet one without which it could never have +been accomplished. My two friends, to whom such a pleasing reference has +been made by Dr. Adams, who have made the task easy for me which else +would have been impossible; who have lightened every anxiety; who have +watched over me with such vigilant care that I have not been allowed to +touch more than two dollars in the whole course of my journey--they, +perchance, may not share in "America Revisited." But if ever such should +be my own good fortune, I shall remember it as the land which I visited +with them; where, if at first they were welcomed to your homes for my +sake, I have often felt as the days rolled on that I was welcomed for +their sake. And you will remember them. When in after years you read at +the end of some elaborate essay on the history of music or on Biblical +geography the name of George Grove, you will recall with pleasure the +incessant questionings, the eager desire for knowledge, the wide and +varied capacity for all manner of instruction, which you experienced in +your conversations with him here. And when also hereafter there shall +reach to your shores the fame of the distinguished physician, Dr. +Harper, whether in England or in New Zealand, you will be the more +rejoiced because it will bring before you the memory of the youthful and +blooming student who inspected your hospitals with such keen +appreciation, so impartially sifting the good from the evil. + +I part from you with the conviction that such bonds of kindly +intercourse will cement the union between the two countries even more +than the wonderful cable, on which it is popularly believed in England +that my friend and host, Mr. Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious +existence appearing and reappearing at one and the same moment in London +and in New York. Of that unbroken union there seemed to me a likeness, +when on the beautiful shores of Lake George, the Loch Katrine of +America, I saw a maple and an oak-tree growing together from the same +stem, perhaps from the same root--the brilliant fiery maple, the emblem +of America; the gnarled and twisted oak, the emblem of England. So may +the two nations always rise together, so different each from each, and +representing so distinct a future, yet each springing from the same +ancestral root, each bound together by the same healthful sap, and the +same vigorous growth. + + + + +HENRY MORTON STANLEY + + +THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT + + [Speech of Henry M. Stanley at a dinner given in his honor by the + Lotos Club, New York City, November 27, 1886. Whitelaw Reid, + President of the Lotos Club, in welcoming Mr. Stanley, said: "Well, + gentlemen, your alarm of yesterday and last night was needless. The + Atlantic Ocean would not break even a dinner engagement for the man + whom the terrors of the Congo and the Nile could not turn back, and + your guest is here. [Applause.] It is fourteen years since you last + gave him welcome. Then he came to you fresh from the discovery of + Livingstone. The credulity which even doubted the records of that + adventurous march or the reality of his brilliant result had hardly + died out. Our young correspondent, after seeing the war end here + without his having a fair chance to win his spurs, had suddenly + made a wonderful hit out of the expedition which nobody had really + believed in and most people had laughed at. We were proud of him, + and right glad to see him, and a little bit uneasy, but vastly + amused over his peppery dealings with the Royal Geographers. + [Laughter.] In spite of our admiration for his pluck and his luck + we did not take him quite seriously. [Laughter.] In fact we did not + take anything very seriously in those days. The Lotos Club at first + was younger in that hearty enthusiastic reception to Stanley + fourteen years ago in that gay little clubhouse next to the Academy + of Music; we were thinking far more of a hearty greeting to the + comrade of the quill who had been having a hard time but had scored + 'a big beat' [laughter] than of adequate recognition to the man + already well launched on a career that ranks him among the foremost + explorers of the century. [Loud cheers.] It is the character in + which you must welcome him now. The Royal Geographical Society has + no further doubt as to the credit to which he is entitled. He + brings its diploma of honorary membership ["Hear! Hear!"], he bears + the gold medal of Victor Emmanuel, the decorations of the Khedive, + the commission of the King of the Belgians. More than any of them + he cherishes another distinction--what American would not prize + it?--the vote of thanks of the Legislature and the recognition of + his work by our Government. The young war-correspondent has led + expeditions of his own--the man who set out merely to find + Livingstone, has himself done a work greater than Livingstone's. + [Applause.] He has explored Equatorial Africa, penetrated the Dark + Continent from side to side, mapped the Nile, and founded the Free + State on the Congo.' [Applause.] All honor to our returning guest! + The years have left their marks upon his frame and their honors + upon his name. Let us make him forget the fevers that have parched + him, the wild beasts and the more savage men that have pursued him. + ["Hear! Hear!"] He is once more among the friends of his youth, in + the land of his adoption. Let us make him feel at home. [Applause.] + I give you the health of our friend and comrade."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LOTOS CLUB: One might start a +great many principles and ideas which would require to be illustrated +and drawn out in order to present a picture of my feelings at the +present moment. I am conscious that in my immediate vicinity there are +people who were great when I was little. I remember very well when I was +unknown to anybody, how I was sent to report a lecture by my friend +right opposite, Mr. George Alfred Townsend, and I remember the manner in +which he said: "Galileo said: 'The world moves round,' and the world +does move round," upon the platform of the Mercantile Hall in St. +Louis--one of the grandest things out. [Laughter and applause.] The next +great occasion that I had to come before the public was Mark Twain's +lecture on the Sandwich Islands, which I was sent to report. And when I +look to my left here I see Colonel Anderson, whose very face gives me an +idea that Bennett has got some telegraphic despatch and is just about to +send me to some terrible region for some desperate commission. +[Laughter.] + +And, of course, you are aware that it was owing to the proprietor and +editor of a newspaper that I dropped the pacific garb of a journalist +and donned the costume of an African traveller. It was not for me, one +of the least in the newspaper corps, to question the newspaper +proprietor's motives. He was an able editor, very rich, desperately +despotic. [Laughter.] He commanded a great army of roving writers, +people of fame in the news-gathering world; men who had been everywhere +and had seen everything from the bottom of the Atlantic to the top of +the very highest mountain; men who were as ready to give their advice to +National Cabinets [laughter] as they were ready to give it to the +smallest police courts in the United States. [Laughter.] I belonged to +this class of roving writers, and I can truly say that I did my best to +be conspicuously great in it, by an untiring devotion to my duties, an +untiring indefatigability, as though the ordinary rotation of the +universe depended upon my single endeavors. [Laughter.] If, as some of +you suspect, the enterprise of the able editor was only inspired with a +view to obtain the largest circulation, my unyielding and guiding +motive, if I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with all my +might that duty to which according to the English State Church +Catechism, "it had pleased God to call me." [Laughter and applause.] + +He first despatched me to Abyssinia--straight from Missouri to +Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! [Laughter.] People who lived west +of the Missouri River have scarcely, I think, much knowledge of +Abyssinia, and there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that, +but it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, and it seemed to his +agent in London a very ordinary thing indeed, so I of course followed +suit. I took it as a very ordinary thing, and I went to Abyssinia, and +somehow or other good-luck followed me and my telegrams reporting the +fall of Magdala happened to be a week ahead of the British Government's. +The people said I had done right well, though the London papers said I +was an impostor. [Laughter.] + +The second thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to Crete to run +the blockade, describe the Cretan rebellion from the Cretan side, and +from the Turkish side; and then I was sent to Spain to report from the +Republican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dispassionately. +[Laughter.] And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to Paris. +Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, said: "I want you to go +and find Livingstone." As I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I +dared not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely said: "Go," and +I went. He gave me a glass of champagne and I think that was superb. +[Laughter.] I confessed my duty to him, and I went. And as good-luck +would have it, I found Livingstone. [Loud and continued cheering.] I +returned as a good citizen ought and as a good reporter ought and as a +good correspondent ought, to tell the tale, and arriving at Aden, I +telegraphed a request that I might be permitted to visit civilization +before I went to China. [Laughter.] I came to civilization, and what do +you think was the result? Why, only to find that all the world +disbelieved my story. [Laughter.] Dear me! If I were proud of anything, +it was that what I said was a fact ["Good!"]; that whatever I said I +would do, I would endeavor to do with all my might, or, as many a good +man had done before, as my predecessors had done, to lay my bones +behind. That's all. [Loud cheering.] I was requested in an off-hand +manner--just as any member of the Lotos Club here present would +say--"Would you mind giving us a little resume of your geographical +work?" I said: "Not in the least, my dear sir; I have not the slightest +objection." And do you know that to make it perfectly geographical and +not in the least sensational, I took particular pains and I wrote a +paper out, and when it was printed, it was just about so long +[indicating an inch]. It contained about a hundred polysyllabic African +words. [Laughter.] And yet "for a' that and a' that" the pundits of the +Geographical Society--Brighton Association--said that they hadn't come +to listen to any sensational stories, but that they had come to listen +to facts. [Laughter.] Well now, a little gentleman, very reverend, full +of years and honors, learned in Cufic inscriptions and cuneiform +characters, wrote to "The Times" stating that it was not Stanley who had +discovered Livingstone but that it was Livingstone who had discovered +Stanley. [Laughter.] + +If it had not been for that unbelief, I don't believe I should ever have +visited Africa again; I should have become, or I should have endeavored +to become, with Mr. Reid's permission, a conservative member of the +Lotos Club. [Laughter.] I should have settled down and become as steady +and as stolid as some of these patriots that you have around here, I +should have said nothing offensive. I should have done some "treating." +I should have offered a few cigars and on Saturday night, perhaps, I +would have opened a bottle of champagne and distributed it among my +friends. But that was not to be. I left New York for Spain and then the +Ashantee War broke out and once more my good-luck followed me and I got +the treaty of peace ahead of everybody else, and as I was coming to +England from the Ashantee War a telegraphic despatch was put into my +hands at the Island of St. Vincent, saying that Livingstone was dead. I +said: "What does that mean to me? New Yorkers don't believe in me. How +was I to prove that what I have said is true? By George! I will go and +complete Livingstone's work. I will prove that the discovery of +Livingstone was a mere fleabite. I will prove to them that I am a good +man and true." That is all that I wanted. [Loud cheers.] + +I accompanied Livingstone's remains to Westminster Abbey. I saw those +remains buried which I had left sixteen months before enjoying full life +and abundant hope. The "Daily Telegraph's" proprietor cabled over to +Bennett: "Will you join us in sending Stanley over to complete +Livingstone's explorations?" Bennett received the telegram in New York, +read it, pondered a moment, snatched a blank and wrote: "Yes. Bennett." +That was my commission, and I set out to Africa intending to complete +Livingstone's explorations, also to settle the Nile problem, as to where +the head-waters of the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted +of one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow lakes; to throw +some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, and also to discover the +outlet of Lake Tanganyika, and then to find out what strange, mysterious +river this was which had lured Livingstone on to his death--whether it +was the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of "The +Light of Asia," said: "Do you think you can do all this?" "Don't ask me +such a conundrum as that. Put down the funds and tell me to go. That is +all." ["Hear! Hear!"] And he induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. +The funds were put down, and I went. + +First of all, we settled the problem of the Victoria that it was one +body of water, that instead of being a cluster of shallow lakes or +marshes, it was one body of water, 21,500 square miles in extent. While +endeavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, we +discovered a new lake, a much superior lake to Albert Nyanza--the dead +Locust Lake--and at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to +discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza and he found it to be only +a miserable 140 miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm had stood +on the brow of a high plateau and looking down on the dark blue waters +of Albert Nyanza, cried romantically: "I see it extending indefinitely +toward the southwest!" Indefinitely is not a geographical expression, +gentlemen. [Laughter.] We found that there was no outlet to the +Tanganyika, although it was a sweet-water lake; we, settling that +problem, day after day as we glided down the strange river that had +lured Livingstone to his death, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone +had been, when he wrote his last letter and said: "I will never be made +black man's meat for anything less than the classic Nile." + +After travelling 400 miles we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond +them, we saw the river deflect from its Nileward course toward the +Northwest. Then it turned west, and then visions of towers and towns and +strange tribes and strange nations broke upon our imagination, and we +wondered what we were going to see, when the river suddenly took a +decided turn toward the southwest and our dreams were put an end to. We +saw then that it was aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had +propitiated some natives whom we encountered, by showing them crimson +beads and polished wire, that had been polished for the occasion, we +said: "This is for your answer. What river is this?" "Why, it is _the_ +river, of course." That was not an answer, and it required some +persuasion before the chief, bit by bit digging into his brain, managed +to roll out sonorously that, "It is the Ko-to-yah Congo." "It is the +river of Congo-land." Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and +Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for the banks of the +river where Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh! This is the +parvenu Congo! Then we glided on and on past strange nations and +cannibals--not past those nations which have their heads under their +arms--for 1,100 miles, until we arrived at the circular extension of the +river and my last remaining companion called it the Stanley Pool, and +then five months after that our journey ended. + +After that I had a very good mind to come back to America, and say, like +the Queen of Uganda: "There, what did I tell you?" But you know, the +fates would not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I landed in +Europe the King of Italy gave me an express train to convey me to +France, and the very moment I descended from it at Marseilles there +were three ambassadors from the King of the Belgians asked me to go back +to Africa. "What! go back to Africa? Never! [Laughter.] I have come for +civilization; I have come for enjoyment. I have come for love, for life, +for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask some of those people you know who have +never been to Africa before. I have had enough of it." "Well, perhaps, +by and by?" "Ah, I don't know what will happen by and by, but, just now, +never! never! Not for Rothschild's wealth!" [Laughter and applause.] + +I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, and it was then I +began to feel "Well, after all, I have done something, haven't I?" I +felt superb [laughter], but you know I have always considered myself a +Republican. I have those bullet-riddled flags, and those arrow-torn +flags, the Stars and Stripes that I carried in Africa, for the discovery +of Livingstone, and that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. +I have them in London now, jealously guarded in the secret recesses of +my cabinet. I only allow my very best friends to look at them, and if +any of you gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters, I will show them to +you. [Applause.] + +After I had written my book, "Through the Dark Continent," I began to +lecture, using these words: "I have passed through a land watered by the +largest river of the African continent, and that land knows no owner. A +word to the wise is sufficient. You have cloths and hardware and +glassware and gunpowder and these millions of natives have ivory and +gums and rubber and dye-stuffs, and in barter there is good profit." +[Laughter.] + +The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to that country. My +expedition when we started from the coast numbered 300 colored people +and fourteen Europeans. We returned with 3,000 trained black men and 300 +Europeans. The first sum allowed me was $50,000 a year, but it has ended +at something like $700,000 a year. Thus, you see, the progress of +civilization. We found the Congo, having only canoes. To-day there are +eight steamers. It was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. He +dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa into a confederacy and +called it the Free State, but on February 25, 1885, the Powers of +Europe and America also ratified an act, recognizing the territories +acquired by us to be the free and independent State of the Congo. +Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have reflected a little more +upon the value of what Livingstone and Leopold have been doing, they +will also agree that these men have done their duty in this world and in +the age that they lived, and that their labor has not been in vain on +account of the great sacrifices they have made to the benighted millions +of dark Africa. [Loud and enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN + + +TRIBUTE TO RICHARD HENRY STODDARD + + [Speech of Edmund Clarence Stedman as chairman of the dinner given + by the Authors' Club to Richard Henry Stoddard, New York City, + March 26, 1897.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--The members of the Authors' Club are closely +associated to-night with many other citizens in a sentiment felt by one +and all--that of love and reverence for the chief guest of the evening. +He has our common pride in his fame. He has what is, I think, of even +more value to him, our entire affection. We have heard something of late +concerning the "banquet habit," and there are banquets which make it +seem to the point. But there are also occasions which transfigure even +custom, and make it honored "in the observance." Nor is this a feast of +the habitual kind, as concerns its givers, its recipient, and the city +in which it is given. The Authors' Club, with many festivals counted in +its private annals, now, for the first time, offers a public tribute to +one of its own number; in this case, one upon whom it long since +conferred a promotion to honorary membership. As for New York, warder of +the gates of the ocean, and by instinct and tradition first to welcome +the nation's visitors, it constantly offers bread and salt--yes, and +speeches--to authors, as to other guests, from older lands, and many of +us often have joined in this function. But we do not remember that it +has been a habit for New York to tender either the oratorical bane or +the gustatory antidote to her own writers. Except within the shade of +their own coverts they have escaped these offerings, unless there has +been something other than literary service to bring them public +recognition. In the latter case, as when men who are or have been +members of our club become Ambassadors, because they are undeniably +fitted for the missions to Great Britain and France, even authors are +made to sit in state. To-night's gathering, then, is, indeed, +exceptional, being in public honor of an American author here +resident--of "one of our own"--who is not booked for a foreign mission, +nor leaving the country, nor returning, nor doing anything more unusual +than to perform his stint of work, and to sing any song that comes to +him--as he tells us, + + "Not because he woos it long, + But because it suits its will, + Tired at last of being still." + +Our homage is rendered, with love and enthusiasm, for his service to +"mere literature"--for his indomitable devotion throughout half a +century to the joy and toil of his profession, in which he has so fought +the fight and kept the faith of a working man of letters. It is rendered +to the most distinguished poet, of his country and generation, still +remaining with us and still in full voice. It is rendered to the +comrade--to the man who, with his modesty and fortitude and the absence +of self-seeking--with the quips and quirks that cover his gravest moods, +with his attachment for the city which has given him that which Lamb so +loved, "the sweet security of streets"--it is rendered, I say, to the +man who best preserves for us, in his living presence, the traditions of +all that an English-speaking poet and book-fellow should be to +constitute a satisfying type. + +There is, perhaps, a special fitness in our gathering at this time. I +sometimes have thought upon the possible career of our poet if his life +had been passed in the suburbs of the down-east Athens, among serenities +and mutualities so auspicious to the genius and repute of that shining +group lately gathered to the past. One thing is certain, he would not +have weathered his seventieth birthday, at any season, without receiving +such a tribute as this, nor would a public dinner have reminded him of +days when a poet was glad to get any dinner at all. Through his birth, +Massachusetts claims her share in his distinction. But, having been +brought to New York in childhood, he seems to have reasoned out for +himself the corollary to a certain famous epigram, and to have thought +it just as well to stay in the city which resident Bostonians keep as +the best place to go to while still in the flesh. Probably he had not +then realized the truth, since expressed in his own lines:-- + + "Yes, there's a luck in most things, and in none + More than in being born at the right time!" + +His birthday, in fact, comes in midsummer, when New York is more inert +than an analytic novel. This dinner, then, is one of those gifts of love +which are all the more unstinted because by chance deferred. + +It was in the order of things, and no cause for blame, that, after this +town passed from the provincial stage, there was so long a period when +it had to be, as De Quincey said of Oxford Street, a stony-hearted +mother to her bookmen and poets; that she had few posts for them and +little of a market. Even her colleges had not the means, if they had the +will, to utilize their talents and acquirements. We do owe to her +newspapers and magazines, and now and then to the traditional liking of +Uncle Sam for his bookish offspring, that some of them did not fall by +the way, even in that arid time succeeding the Civil War, when we +learned that letters were foregone, not only inter arma, but for a long +while afterward. Those were the days when English went untaught, and +when publishers were more afraid of poetry than they now are of verse. +Yet here is one who was able to live through it all, and now sees a +changed condition, to the evolution of which he contributed his full +share. But he is no more a child of the past than of the present, nor +need he repine like Cato, as one who has to account for himself to a new +generation. He is with us and of us, and in the working ranks, as ever. + +For all this he began long enough ago to have his early poetry refused +by Poe, because it was too good to be the work of an obscure stripling, +and to have had Hawthorne for his sponsor and friend. His youth showed +again how much more inborn tendency has to do with one's life than any +external forces--such as guardianship, means, and what we call +education. The thrush takes to the bough, wheresoever hatched and +fledged. Many waters cannot quench genius, neither can the floods drown +it. The story of Dickens's boyhood, as told by himself, is not more +pathetic--nor is its outcome more beautiful--than what we know of our +guest's experiences--his orphanage, his few years' meagre schooling, his +work as a boy in all sorts of shifting occupations, the attempt to make +a learned blacksmith of him, his final apprenticeship to iron-moulding, +at which he worked on the East Side from his eighteenth to his +twenty-first year. As Dr. Griswold put it, he began to mould his +thoughts into the symmetry of verse while he moulded the molten metal +into shapes of grace. Mr. Stoddard, however, says that a knowledge of +foundries was not one of the learned Doctor's strong points. Yet the +young artisan somehow got hold of books, and not only made poetry, but +succeeded in showing it to such magnates as Park Benjamin and Willis. +The kindly Willis said that he had brains enough to make a reputation, +but that "writing was hard work to do, and ill paid when done." But the +youth was bound to take the road to Arcady. He asked for nothing better +than this ill-paid craft. His passion for it, doubtless was strengthened +by his physical toil and uncongenial surroundings. For one I am not +surprised that much of his early verse, which is still retained in his +works, breathes the spirit of Keats, though where and how this strayed +singer came to study that most perfect and delicate of masters none but +himself can tell. The fact remains that he somehow, also, left his +moulding and trusted to his pen. To use his own words, he "set +resolutely to work to learn the only trade for which he seemed +fitted--that of literature." From that time to this, a half century, he +has clung to it. Never in his worst seasons did he stop to think how the +world treated him, or that he was entitled to special providences. He +accepted poverty or good-luck with an equal mind, content with the +reward of being a reader, a writer, and, above all, a poet. He managed +not to loaf, and yet to invite his soul--and his songs are evidence that +the invitation was accepted. If to labor is to pray, his industry has +been a religion, for I doubt if there has been a day in all these fifty +years when, unless disabled bodily, he has not worked at his trade. + +We all know with what results. He has earned a manly living from the +first, and therewithal has steadily contributed a vital portion to the +current, and to the enduring, literature of his land and language. +There was one thing that characterized the somewhat isolated New York +group of young writers in his early prime--especially himself and his +nearest associates, such as Taylor and Boker, and, later, Aldrich and +Winter. They called themselves squires of poesy, in their romantic way, +but they had neither the arrogance nor the chances for a self-heralding, +more common in these chipper modern days. They seem to have followed +their art because they adored it, quite as much as for what it could do +for them. + +Of Mr. Stoddard it may be said that there have been few important +literary names and enterprises, North or South, but he has "been of the +company." If he found friends in youth, he has abundantly repaid his +debt in helpful counsel to his juniors--among whom I am one of the +eldest and most grateful. But I cannot realize that thirty-seven years +of our close friendship have passed since I showed my first early work +to him, and he took me to a publisher. Just as I found him then, I find +him any evening now, in the same chair, in the same corner of the study, +"under the evening lamp." We still talk of the same themes; his jests +are as frequent as ever, but the black hair is silvered and the active +movements are less alert. I then had never known a mind so stored with +bookish lore, so intimate with the lives of rare poets gone by, yet to +what it then possessed he, with his wonderful memory, has been adding +ever since. + +If his early verse was like Keats, how soon he came to that unmistakable +style of his own--to the utterance of those pure lyrics, "most musical, +most melancholy"--"to the perfection of his matchless songs," and again, +to the mastery of blank verse, that noblest measure, in "The Fisher and +Charon"--to the grace and limpid narrative verse of "The King's Bell," +to the feeling, wisdom--above all, to the imagination--of his loftier +odes, among which that on Lincoln remains unsurpassed. This is not the +place to eulogize such work. But one thing may be noted in the progress +of what in Berkeley's phrase may be called the planting of arts and +letters in America. Mr. Stoddard and his group were the first after Poe +to make poetry--whatever else it might be--the rhythmical creation of +beauty. As an outcome of this, and in distinction from the poetry of +conviction to which the New England group were so addicted, look at the +"Songs of Summer" which our own poet brought out in 1857. For beauty +pure and simple it still seems to me fresher and more significant than +any single volume produced up to that date by any Eastern poet save +Emerson. It was "poetry or nothing," and though it came out of time in +that stormy period, it had to do with the making of new poets +thereafter. + +In conclusion, I am moved to say, very much as I wrote on his seventieth +birthday, that our poet's laborious and nobly independent life, with all +its lights and shadows, has been one to be envied. There is much in +completeness--its rainbow has not been dissevered--it is a perfect arc. +As I know him, it has been the absolute realization of his young desire, +the unhasting, unresting life of a poet and student, beyond that of any +other writer among us. Its compensations have been greater than those of +ease and wealth. Even now he would not change it, though at an age when +one might well have others stay his hands. He had the happiness to win +in youth the one woman he loved, with the power of whose singular and +forceful genius his own is inseparably allied. These wedded poets have +been blessed in their children, in the exquisite memory of the dead, in +the success and loyalty of the living. His comrades have been such as he +pictured to his hope in youth--poets, scholars, artists of the +beautiful, with whom he has "warmed both hands before the fire of life." +None of them has been a more patient worker or more loved his work. To +it he has given his years, whether waxing or waning; he has surrendered +for it the strength of his right hand, he has yielded the light of his +eyes, and complains not, nor need he, "for so were Milton and Maeonides." +What tears this final devotion may have caused to flow, come from other +eyes than his own. And so, with gratulation void of all regrets, let us +drink to the continued years, service, happiness of our strong and +tender-hearted elder comrade, our white-haired minstrel, Richard Henry +Stoddard. + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN + + +THE CRITIC + + [Speech of Leslie Stephen at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, April 29, 1893, in response to the toast, + "Literature." Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, + spoke of Literature as "that in which is garnered up the heat that + feeds the spiritual life of men." In the vein of personal + compliment he said: "For literature I turn to a distinguished + writer whose acute and fearless mind finds a fit vehicle in clear + and vigorous English and to me seems winged by that vivid air which + plays about the Alpine peaks his feet have in the past so dearly + loved to tread--I mean my friend, Mr. Leslie Stephen."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--When a poet or a great imaginative writer has to speak +in this assembly he speaks as to brethren-in-arms, to persons with +congenial tastes and with mutual sympathies, but when, instead of the +creative writer, the Academy asks a critic to speak to them, then +nothing but your proverbial courtesy can conceal the fact that they must +really think they are appealing to a natural enemy. I have the +misfortune to be a critic [laughter], but in this assembly I must say I +am not an art critic. Friends have made a presumptuous attempt to fathom +the depth of my ignorance upon artistic subjects, and they have thought +that in some respects I must be admirably qualified for art criticism. +[Laughter.] + +As a literary critic I have felt, and I could not say I was surprised to +find how unanimously critics have been condemned by poets and artists of +all generations. I need only quote the words of the greatest authority, +Shakespeare, who in one of his most pathetic sonnets reckons up the +causes of the weariness of life and speaks of the spectacle of-- + + "Art made tongue-tied by authority, + And folly (doctor-like), controlling skill." + +The great poet probably wrote these words after the much misrepresented +interview with Lord Bacon in which the Chancellor explained to the poet +how "Hamlet" should have been written, and from which it has been +inferred that he took credit for having written it himself. [Laughter.] +Shakespeare naturally said what every artist must feel; for what is an +artist? That is hardly a question to be asked in such an assembly, where +I have only to look round to find plenty of people who realize the ideal +artist, persons who are simple, unconventional, spontaneous, +sweet-natured [laughter], who go through the world influenced by +impressions of everything that is beautiful, sublime, and pathetic. +Sometimes they seem to take up impressions of a different kind +[laughter]; but still this is their main purpose--to receive impressions +of images, the reproduction of which may make this world a little better +for us all. For such people a very essential condition is that they +should be spontaneous; that they should look to nothing but telling us +what they feel and how they feel it; that they should obey no external +rules, and only embody those laws which have become a part of their +natural instinct, and that they should think nothing, as of course they +do nothing, for money; though they would not be so hard-hearted as to +refuse to receive the spontaneous homage of the world, even when it came +in that comparatively vulgar form. [Laughter.] + +But what is a critic? He is a person who enforces rules upon the artist, +like a gardener who snips a tree in order to make it grow into a +preconceived form, or grafts upon it until it develops into a +monstrosity which he considers beautiful. We have made some advance upon +the old savage. The man who went about saying, "This will never do," has +become a thing of the past. The modern critic if he has a fault has +become too genial; he seems not to distinguish between the functions of +a critic and the founder of a new religious sect. [Laughter.] He erects +shrines to his ideals, and he burns upon them good, strong, stupefying +incense. This may be less painful to the artist than the old-fashioned +style; but it may be doubted whether it is not equally corrupting, and +whether it does not stimulate a selfishness equally fatal to spontaneous +production; whether it does not in the attempt to encourage originality +favor a spurious type which consists merely in setting at defiance real +common sense, and sometimes common decency. + +I hope that critics are becoming better, that they have learned what +impostors they have been, and that their philosophy has been merely the +skilful manipulation of sonorous words, and that on the whole, they must +lay aside their magisterial role and cease to suppose they are persons +enforcing judicial decisions or experts who can speak with authority +about chemical analysis. I hope that critics will learn to lay aside all +pretension and to see only things that a critic really can see, and +express genuine sympathy with human nature; and when they have succeeded +in doing that they will be received as friends in such gatherings as the +banquet of the Royal Academy. [Cheers.] + + + + +RICHARD SALTER STORRS + + +THE VICTORY AT YORKTOWN + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs at a banquet of the Chamber + of Commerce of the State of New York, given November 5, 1881, in + New York City, in honor of the guests of the nation, the French + diplomatic representatives in America, and members of the families + descended from our foreign sympathizers and helpers, General + Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, Count de Grasse, Baron von Steuben + and others, who had been present at the centennial celebration of + the victory at Yorktown. The chairman, James M. Brown, vice + President of the Chamber of Commerce, proposed the toast to which + Dr. Storrs responded, "The Victory at Yorktown: it has rare + distinction among victories, that the power which seemed humbled by + it looks back to it now without regret, while the peoples who + combined to secure it, after the lapse of a century of years, are + more devoted than ever to the furtherance of the freedom to which + it contributed."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--It is +always pleasant to respond to your invitations and to join with you on +these festival occasions. You remember the reply of the English lady +[Lady Dufferin] perhaps, when the poet Rogers sent her a note saying: +"Will you do me the favor to breakfast with me to-morrow?" To which she +returned the still more laconic autograph, "Won't I?" [Laughter.] + +Perhaps one might as well have that lithographed as his reply to your +cordial and not infrequent invitations. [Laughter.] I do not know +whether you are aware of it, on this side of the East River--perhaps you +don't read the newspapers much--but in that better part of the great +metropolis in which it is my privilege to live, we think of showing our +appreciation of this Chamber of Commerce by electing for Mayor next +week, one of your younger members, the son of one of your older and +most distinguished members, my honored friend, Mr. Low. [Applause.] + +It is certainly especially pleasant to be here this evening, Mr. +President and gentlemen, when we meet together, men of commerce, men of +finance, lawyers, journalists, physicians, clergymen, of whatever +occupation, all of us, I am sure, patriotic citizens, to congratulate +each other upon what occurred at Yorktown a hundred years ago, on the +19th of October, 1781, and to express our hearty honor and esteem for +these distinguished descendants or representatives of the gallant men +who then stood with our fathers as their associates and helpers. +[Applause.] + +It has always seemed to me one of the most significant and memorable +things connected with our Revolutionary struggle, that it attracted the +attention, elicited the sympathy, inspired the enthusiasm, and drew out +the self-sacrificing co-operation of so many noble spirits, loving +freedom, in different parts of Western and Central Europe. [Applause.] +You remember that Lord Camden testified from his own observation in +1775, about the time of the battle of Concord Bridge, that the +merchants, tradesmen, and common people of England were on the side of +the Colonists, and that only the landed interest really sustained the +Government. So the more distant Poland sent to us Count Pulaski of noble +family, who had been a brilliant leader for liberty at home, who fought +gallantly in our battles, and who poured out his life in our behalf in +the assault upon Savannah. [Cheers.] And it sent another, whose name has +been one to conjure with for freedom from that day to this; who planned +the works on Bemis Heights, against which Burgoyne in vain hurled his +assault; who superintended the works at West Point; who, returning to +his own country, fought for Poland as long as there was a Poland to +fight for; whom the very Empire against which he had so long and so +fiercely contended on behalf of his country, honored and eulogized after +his death--Thaddeus Kosciusko. [Cheers.] + +Germany sent us Von Steuben; one, but a host, whose services in our war +were of immense and continual aid to our troops; who fought gallantly at +Yorktown; and who, chose afterwards, to finish his life in the country +for which he had fearlessly drawn his sword. [Applause.] France sent us +Lafayette [loud cheers], young, brilliant, with everything to detain him +at home, who had heard of our struggle, at Metz, you remember, in a +conversation with the Duke of Gloucester, in whom the purpose was there +formed, in a flash, to identify himself with the fortunes of the remote, +poor, unfriended, and almost unknown colonists; who came, against every +opposition, in a ship which he had bought and fitted for the purpose, +and whose name, as has well been said in the sentiment in which we have +already united, will be joined imperishably with that of Washington, as +long as the history of our country continues. [Applause.] + +With him came John DeKalb, the intrepid Alsatian, who, after fighting +gallantly through the war, up to the point of his death, fell at Camden, +pierced at last by many wounds. [Cheers.] With them, or after them, came +others, Gouvion, Duportail--some of their names are hardly now familiar +to us--Duplessis, Duponceau, afterward distinguished in literature and +in law, in the country in which he made his residence. There came great +supplies of military equipment, important, we may say indispensable, +aids of money, clothing, and of all the apparatus of war; and, finally, +came the organized naval and military force, with great captains at the +head, Rochambeau [loud cheers], Chastellux, De Choisy, De Lauzun, St. +Simon, De Grasse--all this force brilliantly representative, as we know, +of our foreign allies, in the victory at Yorktown. [Applause.] + +I suppose there has never been a stranger contrast on any field of +victory, than that which was presented, between the worn clothing of the +American troops, soiled with mud, rusted with storm, wet with blood, and +the fresh white uniforms of the French troops, ornamented with colored +trimmings; the poor, plain battle-flags of the Colonists, stained with +smoke and rent with shot, compared with the shining and lofty standards +of the French army, bearing on a ground of brilliant white silk +emblazoned in gold embroidery the Bourbon lilies. [Applause.] Indeed +such a contrast went into everything. The American troops were made up +of men who had been, six years before, mechanics, farmers, merchants, +fishermen, lawyers, teachers, with no more thought of any exploits to be +accomplished by them on fields of battle than they had of being elected +Czars of all the Russias. They had a few victories to look back to; +Bennington, Stillwater, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the one great +triumph of Saratoga. They had many defeats to remember; Brandywine, +where somebody at the time said that the mixture of the two liquors was +too much for the sober Americans [laughter], Camden, Guilford +Court-house, and others, with one tragic and terrible defeat on the +heights of Long Island. There were men who had been the subjects, and +many of them officers of the very power against which they were +fighting; and some of the older among them might have stood for that +power at Louisbourg or Quebec. On the other hand, the French troops were +part of an army, the lustre of whose splendid history could be traced +back for a thousand years, beyond the Crusaders, beyond Charlemagne. +Their officers had been trained in the best military schools of the +time. They were amply provided with the last and choicest equipments of +war. They had gallantly achieved victory, or as gallantly sustained +defeat on almost every principal battle-field in Europe. They were now +confronting an enemy whom that army had faced in previous centuries on +sea and land; and very likely something of special exhilaration and +animation went into their spirit from thought of this, as they assailed +the English breastworks, swarming into the trenches, capturing the +redoubts, storming the lines with that strange battle-shout, in our +republican American air: "Vive le Roi!" [Applause.] + +A singular combination! Undoubtedly, to unfold the influences which had +led to it would take months instead of minutes, and occupy volumes +rather than sentences. I think however, that we reckon too much on +national rivalry, or national animosity, when we seek to explain it, +although these no doubt had their part in it. Doubtless the eager +efforts of Silas Dean, our first diplomatic representative in +Europe--efforts too eager for courtesy or wisdom--had a part in it; and +the skilful diplomacy of Franklin had, as we know, a large and important +influence upon it. The spirit of adventure, the desire for distinction +upon fresh fields, had something to do with it. But the principal factor +in that great effort was the spirit of freedom--the spirit that looked +to the advancement and the maintenance of popular liberty among the +peoples of the earth, wherever civilization had gone; that spirit which +was notably expressed by Van der Capellen, the Dutch orator and +statesman, when he vehemently said, in presence of the States-General of +Holland, in reply to an autograph letter of George III soliciting their +aid, that this was a business for hired janissaries rather than for +soldiers of a free State; that it would be, in his judgment, +"superlatively detestable" to aid in any way to overcome the Americans, +whom he regarded as a brave people, righting in a manly, honorable, +religious manner, not for the rights which had come to them, not from +any British legislation but from God Almighty. [Applause.] + +That spirit was native to Holland. But that spirit was also widely in +France. The old temper and enthusiasm for liberty, both civil and +religious, had not passed away. Sixty years and more since the accession +of Louis XV had perhaps only intensified this spirit. It had entered the +higher philosophical minds. They were meditating the questions of the +true social order, with daring disregard of all existing institutions, +and their spirit and instructions found an echo even in our Declaration +of Independence. They made it more theoretical than English state papers +have usually been. Palpably, the same spirit which afterward broke into +fierce exhibition, when the Bastille was stormed in 1789, or when the +First Republic was declared in 1792, was already at work in France, at +work there far more vitally and energetically than was yet recognized by +those in authority; while it wrought perhaps in the field offered by +this country, more eagerly and largely because it was repressed at home. +So it was that so many brilliant Frenchmen came as glad volunteers. It +was because of this electric and vital spirit looking toward freedom. +Travelling was slow. Communication between continents was tardy and +difficult. A sailing ship, dependent upon the wind, hugged the breeze or +was driven before the blast across the stormy North Atlantic. The +steamship was unknown. The telegraph wire was no more imagined than it +was imagined that the Rhine might flow a river of flame or that the +Jungfrau or the Weisshorn might go out on a journey. + +But there was this distributed spirit of freedom, propagating itself by +means which we cannot wholly trace, and to an extent which was scarcely +recognized, which brought volunteers in such numbers to our shores, that +Washington, you know, at one time, expressed himself as embarrassed to +know what to do with them; and there were fervent and high aspirations +going up from multitudes of households and of hearts in Central and in +Western Europe, which found realization in what we claim as the greatest +and most fruitful of American victories. [Applause.] The impulse given +by that victory to the same spirit is one on which we can never look +back without gratitude and gladness. It was an impulse not confined to +one nation but common to all which had had part in the struggle. We know +what an impulse it gave to everything greatest and best in our own +country. The spirit of popular exhilaration, rising from that victory at +Yorktown, was a force which really established and moulded our national +Government. The nation rose to one of those exalted points, those +supreme levels, in its public experience, where it found a grander +wisdom, where it had nobler forecast than perhaps it otherwise could +have reached. In consequence of it, our Government came, which has stood +the storm and stress of a hundred years. We may have to amend its +Constitution in time to come, as it has been amended in the past; but we +have become a nation by means of it. It commands the attention--to some +extent, the admiration--of other people of the earth; at all events, it +is bound to endure upon this continent as long as there remains a +continent here for it to rest upon. [Cheers.] + +Then came the incessant movement westward: the vast foreign immigration, +the occupation of the immense grainfields, which might almost feed the +hungry world; the multiplication of manufacturers, supplying everything, +nearly, that we need; the uncovering of mines, bringing out the wealth +which has actually disturbed the money standards of the world; the +transforming of territories into States by a process as swift and +magical almost as that by which the turbid mixture of the chemist is +crystallized into its delicate and translucent spars; the building of an +empire on the Western coast, looking out toward the older continent of +Asia. [Cheers.] + +We know, too, what an impulse was given to popular rights and hopes in +England. We rejoice in all the progress of England. That salute fired at +the British flag the other day at Yorktown [cheers] was a stroke of the +hammer on the horologe of time, which marks the coming of a new era, +when national animosities shall be forgotten, and only national +sympathies and good-will shall remain. It might seem, perhaps, to have +in it a tone of the old "diapason of the cannonade"; but on the +thoughtful ear, falls from the thundering voice of those guns, a note of +that supreme music which fell on the ear of Longfellow, when "like a +bell with solemn sweet vibration" he heard "once more the voice of +Christ say: 'Peace!'" [Loud applause.] + +We rejoice in the progress of English manufactures, which extracts every +force from each ounce of coal, and pounds or weaves the English iron +into nearly everything for human use except boots and brown-bread +[laughter]; in the commerce which spreads its sails on all seas; in the +wealth and splendor that are assembled in her cities; but we rejoice +more than all in the constant progress of those liberal ideas to which +such an impulse was given by this victory of Yorktown. [Cheers.] You +remember that Fox is said to have heard of it "with a wild delight"; and +even he may not have anticipated its full future outcome. You remember +the hissing hate with which he was often assailed, as when the tradesman +of Westminster whose vote he had solicited, flung back at him the +answer: "I have nothing for you, sir, but a halter," to which Fox, by +the way, with instant wit and imperturbable good-nature, smilingly +responded: "I could not think, my dear sir, of depriving you of such an +interesting family relic." [Laughter.] Look back to that time and then +see the prodigious advance of liberal ideas in England, the changed +political condition of the workingman. Look at the position of that +great Commoner, who now regulates the English policy, who equals Fox in +his liberal principles and surpasses him in his eloquence--Mr. +Gladstone. [Cheers.] The English troops marched out of Yorktown, after +their surrender, to that singularly appropriate tune, as they thought +it, "The World Turned Upside Down." [Laughter.] But that vast +disturbance of the old equilibrium which had balanced a King against a +Nation, has given to England the treasures of statesmanship, the +treasures of eloquence, a vast part of the splendor and the power which +are now collected under the reign of that one royal woman in the world, +to whom every American heart pays its eager and unforced fealty--Queen +Victoria. [Loud applause.] + +We know what an impulse was given to the same spirit in Germany. Mr. +Schurz will tell us of it in eloquent words. But no discourse that he +can utter, however brilliant in rhetoric; no analysis, however lucid; no +clear and comprehensive sweep of his thought, though expressed in words +which ring in our ears and live in our memories, can so fully and +fittingly illustrate it to us as does the man himself, in his character +and career--an Old World citizen of the American Republic whose +marvellous mastery of our tough English tongue is still surpassed by his +more marvellous mastery over the judgments and the hearts of those who +hear him use it. [Cheers.] + +What an impulse was given to the same spirit in France we know. At +first, it fell upon a people not altogether prepared to receive it. +There was, therefore, a passionate effervescence, a fierce ebullition +into popular violence and popular outrage which darkened for the time +the world's annals. But we know that the spirit never died; and through +all the winding and bloody paths in which it has marched, it has brought +France the fair consummation of its present power and wealth and renown. +[Cheers.] We rejoice in its multiform manufactures, which weave the +woollen or silken fibre into every form and tissue of fabric; in the +delicate, dainty skill which keeps the time of all creation with its +watchwork and clockwork; which ornaments beauty with its jewelry, and +furnishes science with its finest instruments; we rejoice in the 14,000 +miles of railway there constructed, almost all of it within forty years; +we rejoice in the riches there accumulated; we rejoice in the expansion +of the population from the twenty-three millions of the day of Yorktown +to the thirty-eight millions of the present; but we rejoice more than +all in the liberal spirit evermore there advancing, which has built the +fifteen universities, and gathered the 41,000 students into them; which +builds libraries and higher seminaries, and multiplies common schools: +which gives liberty if not license to the press. [Cheers.] + +We rejoice in the universal suffrage which puts the 532 deputies into +the Chamber and which combines the Chamber of Deputies with the Senate +into a National Assembly to elect the President of the Republic. We +rejoice in the rapid political education now and always going on in +France, and that she is to be hereafter a noble leader in Europe, in +illustrating the security and commending the benefits of Republican +institutions. [Applause.] + +France has been foremost in many things; she was foremost in chivalry, +and the most magnificent spectacles and examples which that institution +ever furnished were on her fields. She was foremost in the Crusades and +the volcanic country around Auvergne was not more full of latent fire +than was the spirit of her people at the Council of Clermont or before +the appeal of Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard. She led the march of +philosophical discussion in the Middle Ages. She has been foremost in +many achievements of science and art. She is foremost to-day in piercing +with tunnels the mountain-chains, that the wheels of trade may roll +unobstructed through rocky barriers, and cutting canals through the +great isthmuses that the keels of commerce may sweep unhindered across +the seas. But she has never yet had an office so illustrious as that +which falls to her now--to show Europe how Republican institutions +stimulate industry, guarantee order, promote all progress in enterprise +and in thought, and are the best and surest security for a nation's +grandest advancement. + +That enthusiasm which has led her always to champion ideas, which led +her soldiers to say in the first Revolution: "With bread and iron we +will march to China," entering now into fulfilment of this great office, +will carry her influence to China and beyond it; her peaceful influence +on behalf of the liberty for which she fought with us at Yorktown, and +for which she has bled and struggled with a pathetic and lofty +stubbornness ever since. [Cheers.] + +I do not look back merely then from this evening; I see illustrated at +Yorktown the lesson of that hour; that colonies maturing into great +commonwealths, and peoples combining for common liberties are the best +pledges of the world's future, but I look forward as well and see France +in Europe, a Republic, the United States on this continent, a Republic, +standing again in the future as before, shoulder to shoulder, expecting +with tranquil and exultant spirit the grander victory yet to come, the +outcome of which shall be liberty to all the peoples of the world, and +that benign and divine peace which is the sure and sovereign fruit of +such a liberty. [Applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM SCUDDER STRYKER + + +DUTCH HEROES OF THE NEW WORLD + + [Speech of William S. Stryker at the fifth annual dinner of the + Holland Society of New York, January 10, 1890. The vice-President, + Robert B. Roosevelt, presided, and called upon General Stryker to + respond to the toast, "The Dutch Soldier in America."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--As well-born Dutchmen, full, of course, +to-night of the spirit which creates Dutch courage, it is pleasant for +us to look across the seas, to recall the martial life of our +progenitors and to speak of their great deeds for liberty. It is +conducive to our family pride to trace back the source of the blessings +we enjoy to-day through all the brilliant pages of Netherland history to +the time when the soldiers of freedom--the "Beggars"--chose rather to +let in the merciless ocean waves than to surrender to the ruthless +invader. [Applause.] + +We love to say that we can see in the glory of free institutions in this +century the steady outgrowth of that germ of human liberty which was +planted by the sturdy labor, which was watered by the tears and blood, +and fructified by the precious lives of those who fought by land and sea +in the battles of the sixteenth century. [Applause.] + +Although we make our boast of the indomitable courage, the many +self-denials, the homely virtues of our forefathers, think you that we +in America are degenerate sons of noble sires? I trow not! [Renewed +applause.] + +That irascible old Governor who stamped his wooden leg on the streets of +New Amsterdam, who ruled with his iron will and his cane the thrifty +burghers of this young city, did he not, when called upon to show a +soldier's courage, wage a successful contest with savage foes, with the +testy Puritans of Connecticut and with the obdurate Swedes on +Christiana Creek? + +Before the old Dutch church in Millstone on the Raritan River, in the +summer of 1775, a hundred of the young men of the village were drilled +every night. They had on their long smock-frocks, broad-brimmed black +hats, and leggings. Their own firelocks were on their shoulders, +twenty-three cartridges in their cartouches, the worm, the priming-wire, +and twelve flints in their pockets. These were the bold minute-men of +New Jersey, and Frederick Frelinghuysen was their gallant Dutch captain, +who stood ready to march, in case an alarm bonfire burned on Sourland +Mountain, to fight any enemy. [Applause.] + +When fighting under Bradstreet on the Oswego River in the old French +war, when laboring against great odds at Fort Edward, when retarding the +British advance after the evacuation of Ticonderoga, when urging on a +force to the relief of Fort Stanwix, when planning the campaign which +ended in the capture of Burgoyne, and placing laurels, now faded, on the +head of Gates, the character of our own Knickerbocker General, Philip +Schuyler, the pure patriot, the noble soldier, is lustrous with +evidences of his sagacious counsels, his wonderful energy, and his +military skill. [Renewed applause.] + +The good blood of the patroons never flowed purer or brighter than when, +as soldiers, they battled for a nation's rights. In the fight at +Saratoga, Colonel Henry Kiliaen Van Rensselaer greatly distinguished +himself and carried from the field an ounce of British lead, which +remained in his body thirty-five years. Captain Solomon Van Rensselaer +fought most courageously by the side of Mad Anthony Wayne in the Miami +campaign. Being seriously wounded in a brilliant charge, he refused to +be carried off the field on a litter, but insisted that, as a dragoon, +he should be allowed to ride his horse from the battle and, if he +dropped, to die where he fell. [Applause.] + +Worn and bleeding were the feet, scant the clothing of our ragged +Continentals, as, turning upon their foe, they recrossed the icy +Delaware on Christmas night, surprised Rall and his revellers in +Trenton's village, punished the left of Cornwallis's column at +Princeton, and then, on their way to the mountains of Morris County, +fell by the wayside with hunger and wretchedness, perishing with the +intense cold. But, in the darkness of the night, a partisan trooper, +with twenty horsemen, surrounded the baggage-wagons of the British +force, fired into the two hundred soldiers guarding them, and, shouting +like a host of demons, captured the train, and the doughty captain with +my own ancestral name woke up the weary soldiers of Washington's army +with the rumbling of wagons heavily laden with woollen clothing and +supplies, bravely stolen from the enemy. [Applause.] + +The poisoned arrows whistled in the Newtown fight as the New York +contingent pressed forward toward Seneca Castle, the great capitol-house +of the Six Nations. The redskins and their Tory allies, under Brant, +tried hard to resist the progress of that awful human wedge that was +driven with relentless fury among the wigwams of those who had burned +the homes in beautiful Wyoming, who had despoiled with the bloody +tomahawk the settlement at German Flats, and had closed the horrid +campaign with the cruel massacre at Cherry Valley. Bold and daring in +this revengeful expedition was Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, a name +honored in all Dutch civil and military history. [Continued applause.] + +As a leader of three thousand cavalrymen the youthful General Bayard +[great cheers], proud of his Dutch descent, fell on the heights of +bloody Fredericksburg. Like the good knight, he was "without fear and +without reproach." Full of zeal for the cause, the bravest of the brave, +his sword flashed always where dangers were the thickest. When a +bursting shell left him dead on the field of honor, his brave men +mourned him and the foe missed him. [Cheers.] + +In the leaden tempest which rained around Drury's Bluff, a boyish +officer led a column of riflemen, gallant and daring. His uniform was +soiled with the grim dirt of many a battle, but his bright blue eye took +in every feature of the conflict. The day was just closing when an angry +bullet pierced his throat as he was cheering on his men, and the young +life of my college friend, Abram Zabriskie, of Jersey City, as chivalric +a Dutch colonel as ever drew a blade in battle, was breathed out in the +mighty throes of civil war. [Applause.] + +As we picture to ourselves the appearance of that grand figure of +William of Orange, as he led his heroic people through and out of scenes +of darkness and hunger and death into the sweet light of freedom; as we +turn the pages of history that recount the deeds of glory of Vander +Werf, the burgomaster of Leyden; of Count Egmont and Count Horn, of de +Ruyter and Van Tromp, let us not forget that the same sturdy stock has +developed in the New World the same zeal for human rights, the same high +resolves of duty, the same devotion to liberty. If ever again this +nation needs brave defenders, your sons and mine will, I trust, be able +to show to the world that the patriotism of Dutchmen, that true Dutch +valor, still fills the breasts of the soldiers of America! [Prolonged +cheering.] + + + + +SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN + + +MUSIC + + [Speech of Sir Arthur Sullivan at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, May 2, 1891. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the + Academy, occupied the chair. "In response for Music," said the + President, "I shall call on a man whose brilliant and many-sided + gifts are not honored in his own country alone, and who has + gathered laurels with full hands in every field of musical + achievement--my old friend, Sir Arthur Sullivan."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN: It is gratifying +to find that at the great representative art-gathering of the year the +sister arts are now receiving at the hands of the painters and sculptors +of the United Kingdom that compliment to which their members are justly +entitled. Art is a commonwealth in which all the component estates hold +an equal position, and it has been reserved for you, sir, under your +distinguished presidency, to give full and honorable recognition to this +important fact. You have done so in those terms of delicate, subtle +compliment, which whilst displaying the touch of the master, also bear +the impress of genuine sympathy, by calling upon my friend Mr. Irving, +and myself, as representatives of the drama and of music, to return +thanks for those branches of art to which our lives' efforts have been +devoted. + +I may add, speaking for my own art, that there is a singular +appropriateness that this compliment to Music should be paid by the +artist whose brain has conceived and whose hand depicted a most +enchanting "Music Lesson." You, sir, have touched with eloquence and +feeling upon some of the tenderer attributes of music; I would with your +permission, call attention to another--namely, its power and influence +on popular sentiment; for of all the arts I think Music has the most +mighty, universal, and immediate effect. ["Hear! hear!"] I know there +are many educated and intelligent people who, absorbed in commerce, +politics, and other pursuits, think that music is a mere family +pastime--an ear-gratifying enjoyment. Great popularity has its drawbacks +as well as its advantages, and there is no doubt that the widespread, +instantaneous appreciation and popularity of melody has detracted +somewhat from the proper recognition of the higher and graver attributes +of music. But that music is a power and has influenced humanity with +dynamic force in politics, religion, peace, and war, no one can gainsay. +Who can deny the effect in great crises of the world's history of the +Lutheran Chorale, "Ein' feste Burg," which roused the enthusiasm of +whole towns and cities and caused them to embrace the reformed faith en +masse--of the "Ca ira," with its ghastly association of tumbril and +guillotine, and of the still more powerful "Marseillaise?" These three +tunes alone have been largely instrumental in varying the course of +history. [Cheers.] + +Amongst our own people, no one who has visited the Greater Britain +beyond the seas but must be alive to the depth of feeling stirred by the +first bar of "God Save the Queen." It is not too much to say that this +air has done more than any other single agency to consolidate the +national sentiment which forms the basis of our world-wide Empire. +[Cheers.] But, sir, my duty is not to deliver a dissertation on music, +my duty is to thank you for the offering and the acceptation of this +toast, which I do most sincerely. + +With regard to the more than generous terms in which you, sir, have +alluded to my humble individuality, I need not say how deeply I feel the +spirit in which they were spoken. This much I would add--that highly as +I value your kindly utterances, I count still more highly the fact that +I should have been selected by you to respond for Music, whose dignity +and whose progress in England are so near and dear to me at heart. +[Cheers.] + + + + +CHARLES SUMNER + + +INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA + + [Speech of Charles Sumner at the banquet given by the City of + Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his + associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to + the United States and the powers of Europe.] + + +MR. MAYOR:--I cannot speak on this interesting occasion without +first declaring the happiness I enjoy at meeting my friend of many years +in the exalted position which he now holds. Besides being my personal +friend, he was also an honored associate in representing the good people +of this community, and in advancing a great cause, which he championed +with memorable eloquence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit +me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the municipal +authorities of Boston, is only a natural expression of the sentiments +which must prevail in this community. Here his labors and triumphs +began. Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he first +tasted of that honor which is now his in such ample measure. He is one +of us, who, going forth into a strange country, has come back with its +highest trusts and dignities. Once the representative of a single +Congressional district, he now represents the most populous nation of +the globe. Once the representative of little more than a third of +Boston, he is now the representative of more than a third part of the +human race. The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hundred +millions; that of China at more than four hundred millions, and +sometimes even at five hundred millions. + +If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder, there is still +more for gratitude in the unparalleled opportunity which it affords. +What we all ask is opportunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing +scale--to be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best interests of +the Human Family; and, if these are advanced, no nation can suffer. Each +is contained in all. With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule, +and nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there can be no +limits to the immeasurable consequences. For myself, I am less +solicitous with regard to concessions or privileges, than with regard to +that spirit of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces alike +the distant and the near, and, when once established, renders all else +easy. + +The necessary result of the present experiment in diplomacy will be to +make the countries which it visits better known to the Chinese, and also +to make the Chinese better known to them. Each will know the other +better and will better comprehend that condition of mutual dependence +which is the law of humanity. In the relations among nations, as in +common life, this is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the +Chinese are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure that we are +poorly informed with regard to them. We know them through the porcelain +on our tables with its lawless perspective, and the tea-chest with its +unintelligible hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the +literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an impression. +The first is in "Paradise Lost," where Milton, always learned even in +his poetry, represents Satan as descending in his flight, + + ... on the barren plains + Of Sericana, where _Chineses_ drive, + With sails and wind their cany wagons light. + +The other is that admirable address on the study of the law of nature +and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh, in words of singular felicity, +alludes to "the tame but ancient and immovable civilization of China." +It will be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the canvas +with life. + +I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest, that he is not +the first stranger who, after sojourning in this distant unknown land, +has come back loaded with its honors, and with messages to the +Christian powers. He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There +is another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the Venetian, +Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as the fables of a +traveller, are now recognized among the sources of history, and +especially of geographical knowledge. Nobody can read them without +feeling their verity. It was in the latter part of the far-away +thirteenth century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company with his +father and uncle, all of them merchants, journeyed from Venice, by the +way of Constantinople, Trebizond, on the Black Sea, and Central Asia, +until they reached first the land of Prester John, and then that golden +country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler, Kubla Khan, treated +them with gracious consideration, and employed young Polo as his +ambassador. This was none other than China, and the great ruler, called +the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its Mongolian dynasty, +having his imperial residence in the immense city of Kambalu, or Peking. +After many years of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his +companions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged with letters +for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian is charged with similar +letters now. There were letters for the Pope, the King of France, the +King of Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear that +England was expressly designated. Her name, so great now, was not at +that time on the visiting list of the distant Emperor. Such are the +contrasts in national life. Marco Polo, with his companions, reached +Venice on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante, in Florence, +was meditating his divine poem, and when Roger Bacon, in England, was +astonishing the age with his knowledge. These were two of his greatest +contemporaries. + +The return of the Venetian to his native city was attended by incidents +which have not occurred among us. Bronzed by long residence under the +sun of the East--wearing the dress of a Tartar--and speaking his native +language with difficulty, it was some time before he could persuade his +friends of his identity. Happily there is no question on the identity of +our returned fellow-citizen; and surely it cannot be said that he speaks +his native language with difficulty. There was a dinner given at Venice, +as now at Boston, and the Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly +five hundred years, still lives in glowing description. On this occasion +Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in long robes of crimson +satin reaching to the floor, which, after the guests had washed their +hands, were changed for other robes of crimson damask, and then again, +after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of crimson velvet, +and at the conclusion of the banquet, for the ordinary dress worn by the +rest of the company. Meanwhile the other costly garments were +distributed in succession among the attendants at the table. In all your +magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no such largess. Then was +brought forward the coarse threadbare clothes in which they had +travelled, when, on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly +jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the eyes of the +company, who for a time were motionless with wonder. Then at last, says +the Italian chronicler, every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied +that these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the house of +Polo. I do not relate this history in order to suggest any such +operation on the dress of our returned fellow-citizen. No such evidence +is needed to assure us of his identity. + +The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From his habit of speaking +of millions of people and millions of money, he was known as _millioni_, +or the millionnaire, being the earliest instance in history of a +designation so common in our prosperous age. But better than "millions" +was the knowledge he imparted, and the impulse that he gave to that +science, which teaches the configuration of the globe, and the place of +nations on its surface. His travels, as dictated by him, were reproduced +in various languages, and, after the invention of printing, the book was +multiplied in more than fifty editions. Unquestionably it prepared the +way for the two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times, that +of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama, and the New World, by +Christopher Columbus. One of his admirers, a learned German, does not +hesitate to say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the +three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries, have most +contributed to the progress of geography and the knowledge of the globe, +the modest name of the Venetian finds a place in the same line with +Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known that the +imagination of the Genoese navigator was fired by the revelations of the +Venetian, and that, in his mind, all the countries embraced by his +transcendent discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with its +various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish Sovereigns, Cuba was +nothing else than Xipangu, or Japan, as described by the Venetian, and +he thought himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king of +kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not reached Cathay or the Grand +Khan; but he had discovered a new world, destined in the history of +civilization to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to +welcome the ambassador of the grand Khan. + +The Venetian on his return home, journeyed out of the East, westward. +Our Marco Polo on his return home, journeyed out of the west, eastward; +and yet they both came from the same region. Their common starting-point +was Peking. This change is typical of that transcendent revolution under +whose influence the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying +westward, the first welcome is from the nations of Europe. Journeying +eastward, the first welcome is from our Republic. It only remains that +this welcome should be extended until it opens a pathway for the +mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces within the sphere of +American activity that ancient ancestral empire, where population, +industry and education, on an unprecedented scale, create resources and +necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See to it, merchants of the +United States, and you, merchants of Boston, that this opportunity is +not lost. + +And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the treaty, which you invited me to +discuss. But I will not now enter upon this topic. If you did not call +me to order for speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in +another place for undertaking to speak of a treaty which has not yet +been proclaimed by the President. One remark I will make and take the +consequences. The treaty does not propose much; but it is an excellent +beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of our fellow-citizen, +the honored plenipotentiary, will unlock those great Chinese gates which +have been bolted and barred for long centuries. The embassy is more +than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for further intercourse +and will help that new order of things which is among the promises of +the future. + + + * * * * * + + +THE QUALITIES THAT WIN + + [Speech of Charles Sumner at the sixty-eighth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1873. The + President, Isaac H. Bailey, in proposing the toast, "The Senate of + the United States," said: "We are happy to greet on this occasion + the senior in consecutive service, and the most eminent member of + the Senate, whose early, varied, and distinguished services in the + cause of freedom have made his name a household word throughout the + world--the Honorable Charles Sumner." On rising to respond, Mr. + Sumner was received with loud applause. The members of the Society + rose to their feet, applauded and waved handkerchiefs.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND BROTHERS OF NEW ENGLAND:--For the first time +in my life I have the good fortune to enjoy this famous anniversary +festival. Though often honored by your most tempting invitation, and +longing to celebrate the day in this goodly company of which all have +heard so much, I could never excuse myself from duties in another place. +If now I yield to well-known attractions, and journey from Washington +for my first holiday during a protracted public service, it is because +all was enhanced by the appeal of your excellent president, to whom I am +bound by the friendship of many years in Boston, in New York, and in a +foreign land. [Applause.] It is much to be a brother of New England, but +it is more to be a friend [applause], and this tie I have pleasure in +confessing to-night. + +It is with much doubt and humility that I venture to answer for the +Senate of the United States, and I believe the least I say on this head +will be the most prudent. [Laughter.] But I shall be entirely safe in +expressing my doubt if there is a single Senator who would not be glad +of a seat at this generous banquet. What is the Senate? It is a +component part of the National Government. But we celebrate to-day more +than any component part of any government. We celebrate an epoch in the +history of mankind--not only never to be forgotten, but to grow in +grandeur as the world appreciates the elements of true greatness. Of +mankind I say--for the landing on Plymouth Rock, on December 22, 1620, +marks the origin of a new order of ages, by which the whole human family +will be elevated. Then and there was the great beginning. + +Throughout all time, from the dawn of history, men have swarmed to found +new homes in distant lands. The Tyrians, skirting Northern Africa, +stopped at Carthage; Carthaginians dotted Spain and even the distant +coasts of Britain and Ireland; Greeks gemmed Italy and Sicily with +art-loving settlements; Rome carried multitudinous colonies with her +conquering eagles. Saxons, Danes, and Normans violently mingled with the +original Britons. And in more modern times, Venice, Genoa, Portugal, +Spain, France, and England, all sent forth emigrants to people foreign +shores. But in these various expeditions, trade or war was the impelling +motive. Too often commerce and conquest moved hand in hand, and the +colony was incarnadined with blood. + +On the day we celebrate, the sun for the first time in his course looked +down upon a different scene, begun and continued under a different +inspiration. A few conscientious Englishmen, in obedience to the monitor +within, and that they might be free to worship God according to their +own sense of duty, set sail for the unknown wilds of the North American +continent. After a voyage of sixty-four days in the ship Mayflower, with +Liberty at the prow and Conscience at the helm [applause], they sighted +the white sandbanks of Cape Cod, and soon thereafter in the small cabin +framed that brief compact, forever memorable, which is the first written +constitution of government in human history, and the very corner-stone +of the American Republic; and then these Pilgrims landed. + +This compact was not only foremost in time, it was also august in +character, and worthy of perpetual example. Never before had the object +of the "civil body public" been announced as "to enact, constitute, and +frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and +offices from time to time as shall be thought most meet and convenient +for the general good of the colony." How lofty! how true! Undoubtedly, +these were the grandest words of government with the largest promise of +any at that time uttered. + +If more were needed to illustrate the new epoch, it would be found in +the parting words of the venerable pastor, John Robinson, addressed to +the Pilgrims, as they were about to sail from Delfshaven--words often +quoted, yet never enough. How sweetly and beautifully he says: "And if +God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be as +ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my +ministry; but I am confident that the Lord hath more light and truth yet +to break forth out of his holy word." And then how justly the good +preacher rebukes those who close their souls to truth! "The Lutherans, +for example, cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw, and whatever +part of God's will he hath further imparted to Calvin, they will rather +die than embrace, and so the Calvinists stick where he left them. This +is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were precious, shining +lights in their times, God hath not revealed his whole will to them." +Beyond the merited rebuke, here is a plain recognition of the law of +human progress little discerned at the time, which teaches the sure +advance of the human family, and opens the vista of the ever-broadening, +never-ending future on earth. + +Our Pilgrims were few and poor. The whole outfit of this historic +voyage, including L1,700 of trading stock, was only L2,400, and how +little was required for their succor appears in the experience of the +soldier Captain Miles Standish, who, being sent to England for +assistance--not military, but financial--(God save the mark!) succeeded +in borrowing--how much do you suppose?--L150 sterling. [Laughter.] +Something in the way of help; and the historian adds, "though at fifty +per cent. interest." So much for a valiant soldier on a financial +expedition. [Laughter, in which General Sherman and the company joined.] +A later agent, Allerton, was able to borrow for the colony L200 at a +reduced interest of thirty per cent. Plainly, the money-sharks of our +day may trace an undoubted pedigree to these London merchants. +[Laughter.] But I know not if any son of New England, oppressed by +exorbitant interest, will be consoled by the thought that the Pilgrims +paid the same. + +And yet this small people--so obscure and outcast in condition--so +slender in numbers and in means--so entirely unknown to the proud and +great--so absolutely without name in contemporary records--whose +departure from the Old World took little more than the breath of their +bodies--are now illustrious beyond the lot of men; and the Mayflower is +immortal beyond the Grecian Argo, or the stately ship of any victorious +admiral. Though this was little foreseen in their day, it is plain now +how it has come to pass. The highest greatness surviving time and storm +is that which proceeds from the soul of man. [Applause.] Monarchs and +cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of courts and the +circumstance of war, in the gradual lapse of time disappear from sight; +but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose +example elevates human nature and teaches the rights of man, so that +government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not +perish from the earth [great applause], such harbingers can never be +forgotten, and their renown spreads coextensive with the cause they +served. + +I know not if any whom I now have the honor of addressing have thought +to recall the great in rank and power filling the gaze of the world as +the Mayflower with her company fared forth on their adventurous voyage. +The foolish James was yet on the English throne, glorying that he had +"peppered the Puritans." The morose Louis XIII, through whom Richelieu +ruled, was King of France. The imbecile Philip III swayed Spain and the +Indies. The persecuting Ferdinand the Second, tormentor of Protestants, +was Emperor of Germany. Paul V, of the House of Borghese, was Pope of +Rome. In the same princely company and all contemporaries were Christian +IV, King of Denmark, and his son Christian, Prince of Norway; Gustavus +Adolphus, King of Sweden; Sigismund the Third, King of Poland; +Frederick, King of Bohemia, with his wife, the unhappy Elizabeth of +England, progenitor of the house of Hanover; George William, Margrave of +Brandenburg, and ancestor of the Prussian house that has given an +emperor to Germany; Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria; Maurice, landgrave of +Hesse; Christian, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg; John Frederick, Duke +of Wuertemberg and Teck; John, Count of Nassau; Henry, Duke of Lorraine; +Isabella, Infanta of Spain and ruler of the Low Countries; Maurice, +fourth Prince of Orange; Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy and ancestor of +the King of United Italy; Cosmo de' Medici, third Grand Duke of +Florence; Antonio Priuli, ninety-third Doge of Venice, just after the +terrible tragedy commemorated on the English stage as "Venice +Preserved"; Bethlehem Gabor, Prince of Unitarian Transylvania, and +elected King of Hungary, with the countenance of an African; and the +Sultan Mustapha, of Constantinople, twentieth ruler of the Turks. + +Such at that time were the crowned sovereigns of Europe, whose names +were mentioned always with awe, and whose countenances are handed down +by art, so that at this day they are visible to the curious as if they +walked these streets. Mark now the contrast. There was no artist for our +forefathers, nor are their countenances now known to men; but more than +any powerful contemporaries at whose tread the earth trembled is their +memory sacred. [Applause.] Pope, emperor, king, sultan, grand-duke, +duke, doge, margrave, landgrave, count--what are they all by the side of +the humble company that landed on Plymouth Rock? Theirs, indeed, were +the ensigns of worldly power, but our Pilgrims had in themselves that +inborn virtue which was more than all else besides, and their landing +was an epoch. + +Who in the imposing troop of worldly grandeur is now remembered but with +indifference or contempt? If I except Gustavus Adolphus, it is because +he revealed a superior character. Confront the Mayflower and the +Pilgrims with the potentates who occupied such space in the world. The +former are ascending into the firmament, there to shine forever, while +the latter have been long dropping into the darkness of oblivion, to be +brought forth only to point a moral or illustrate the fame of +contemporaries whom they regarded not. [Applause.] Do I err in supposing +this an illustration of the supremacy which belongs to the triumphs of +the moral nature? At first impeded or postponed, they at last prevail. +Theirs is a brightness which, breaking through all clouds, will shine +forth with ever-increasing splendor. + +I have often thought that if I were a preacher, if I had the honor to +occupy the pulpit so grandly filled by my friend near me [gracefully +inclining toward Mr. Beecher], one of my sermons should be from the +text, "A little leaven shall leaven the whole lump." Nor do I know a +better illustration of these words than the influence exerted by our +Pilgrims. That small band, with the lesson of self-sacrifice, of just +and equal laws, of the government of a majority, of unshrinking loyalty +to principle, is now leavening this whole continent, and in the fulness +of time will leaven the world. [Great applause.] By their example, +republican institutions have been commended, and in proportion as we +imitate them will these institutions be assured. [Applause.] + +Liberty, which we so much covet, is not a solitary plant. Always by its +side is Justice. [Applause.] But Justice is nothing but right applied to +human affairs. Do not forget, I entreat you, that with the highest +morality is the highest liberty. A great poet, in one of his inspired +sonnets, speaking of this priceless possession, has said, "But who loves +that must first be wise and good." Therefore do the Pilgrims in their +beautiful example teach liberty, teach republican institutions, as at an +earlier day, Socrates and Plato, in their lessons of wisdom, taught +liberty and helped the idea of the republic. If republican government +has thus far failed in any experiment, as, perhaps, somewhere in Spanish +America, it is because these lessons have been wanting. There have been +no Pilgrims to teach the moral law. + +Mr. President, with these thoughts, which I imperfectly express, I +confess my obligations to the forefathers of New England, and offer to +them the homage of a grateful heart. But not in thanksgiving only would +I celebrate their memory. I would if I could make their example a +universal lesson, and stamp it upon the land. [Applause.] The conscience +which directed them should be the guide for our public councils. The +just and equal laws which they required should be ordained by us, and +the hospitality to truth which was their rule should be ours. Nor would +I forget their courage and steadfastness. Had they turned back or +wavered, I know not what would have been the record of this continent, +but I see clearly that a great example would have been lost. [Applause.] +Had Columbus yielded to his mutinous crew and returned to Spain without +his great discovery; had Washington shrunk away disheartened by British +power and the snows of New Jersey, these great instances would have been +wanting for the encouragement of men. But our Pilgrims belong to the +same heroic company, and their example is not less precious. [Applause.] + +Only a short time after the landing on Plymouth Rock, the great +republican poet, John Milton, wrote his "Comus," so wonderful for beauty +and truth. His nature was more refined than that of the Pilgrims, and +yet it requires little effort of imagination to catch from one of them, +or at least from their beloved pastor, the exquisite, almost angelic +words at the close-- + + "Mortals, who would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free; + She can teach ye how to climb + Higher than the sphery chime. + Or if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her." + +[At the conclusion of Senator Sumner's speech the audience arose and +gave cheer upon cheer.] + + + + +THOMAS DEWITT TALMAGE + + +BEHOLD THE AMERICAN! + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the eighty-first annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1886. The President of the Society, Judge Horace Russell, + introduced Dr. Talmage to speak to the toast, "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, AND ALL YOU GOOD NEW ENGLANDERS: If we leave to +the evolutionists to guess where we came from and to the theologians to +prophesy where we are going to, we still have left for consideration the +fact that we are here; and we are here at an interesting time. Of all +the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the +century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this +is the best year, and of all the months of the year this is the best +month, and of all the nights of the month this is the best night. +[Applause and laughter.] Many of these advantages we trace straight back +to Forefathers' Day, about which I am to speak. + +But I must not introduce a new habit into these New England dinners and +confine myself to the one theme. For eighty-one years your speakers have +been accustomed to make the toast announced the point from which they +start, but to which they never return. [Laughter.] So I shall not stick +to my text, but only be particular to have all I say my own, and not +make the mistake of a minister whose sermon was a patchwork from a +variety of authors, to whom he gave no credit. There was an intoxicated +wag in the audience who had read about everything, and he announced the +authors as the minister went on. The clergyman gave an extract without +any credit to the author, and the man in the audience cried out: +"That's Jeremy Taylor." The speaker went on and gave an extract from +another author without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: +"That is John Wesley." The minister gave an extract from another author +without credit for it, and the man in the audience said: "That is George +Whitefield." When the minister lost his patience and cried out, "Shut +up, you old fool!" the man in the audience replied: "That is your own." +[Laughter.] + +Well, what about this Forefathers' Day? In Brooklyn they say the Landing +of the Pilgrims was December the 21st; in New York you say it was +December the 22d. You are both right. Not through the specious and +artful reasoning you have sometimes indulged in, but by a little +historical incident that seems to have escaped your attention. You see, +the Forefathers landed in the morning of December the 21st, but about +noon that day a pack of hungry wolves swept down the bleak American +beach looking for a New England dinner [laughter], and a band of savages +out for a tomahawk picnic hove in sight, and the Pilgrim Fathers thought +it best for safety and warmth to go on board the Mayflower and pass the +night. [Renewed laughter.] And during the night there came up a strong +wind blowing off shore that swept the Mayflower from its moorings clear +out to sea, and there was a prospect that our Forefathers, having +escaped oppression in foreign lands, would yet go down under an oceanic +tempest. But the next day they fortunately got control of their ship and +steered her in, and the second time the Forefathers stepped ashore. + +Brooklyn celebrated the first landing; New York the second landing. So I +say Hail! Hail! to both celebrations, for one day, anyhow, could not do +justice to such a subject; and I only wish I could have kissed the +blarney stone of America, which is Plymouth Rock, so that I might have +done justice to this subject. [Laughter and applause.] Ah, gentlemen, +that Mayflower was the ark that floated the deluge of oppression, and +Plymouth Rock was the Ararat on which it landed. + +But let me say that these Forefathers were of no more importance than +the Foremothers. [Applause.] As I understand it, there were eight of +them--that is, four fathers and four mothers--from whom all these +illustrious New Englanders descended. Now I was not born in New England, +though far back my ancestors lived in Connecticut, and then crossed over +to Long Island and there joined the Dutch, and that mixture of Yankee +and Dutch makes royal blood. [Applause.] Neither is perfect without the +other, the Yankee in a man's nature saying "Go ahead!" the Dutch in his +blood saying, "Be prudent while you do go ahead!" Some people do not +understand why Long Island was stretched along parallel with all of the +Connecticut coast. I have no doubt that it was so placed that the Dutch +might watch the Yankees. [Laughter.] + +But though not born in New England, in my boyhood I had a New England +schoolmaster, whom I shall never forget. He taught us our A, B, C's. +"What is that?" "I don't know, sir." "That's A" [with a slap]. "What is +that?" "I don't know, sir." [With a slap]--"That is B." [Laughter.] I +tell you, a boy that learned his letters in that way never forgot them; +and if the boy was particularly dull, then this New England schoolmaster +would take him over the knee, and then the boy got his information from +both directions. [Renewed laughter.] + +But all these things aside, no one sitting at these tables has higher +admiration for the Pilgrim Fathers than I have--the men who believed in +two great doctrines, which are the foundation of every religion that is +worth anything: namely, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of +Man--these men of backbone and endowed with that great and magnificent +attribute of stick-to-it-iveness. Macaulay said that no one ever sneered +at the Puritans who had met them in halls of debate or crossed swords +with them on the field of battle. [Applause.] They are sometimes defamed +for their rigorous Sabbaths, but our danger is in the opposite direction +of no Sabbaths at all. It is said that they destroyed witches. I wish +that they had cleared them all out, for the world is full of witches +yet, and if at all these tables there is a man who has not sometimes +been bewitched, let him hold up his glass of ice-water. [Laughter.] It +is said that these Forefathers carried religion into everything, and +before a man kissed his wife he asked a blessing, and afterward said: +"Having received another favor from the Lord, let us return thanks." +[Laughter.] But our great need now is more religion in every-day life. + +I think their plain diet had much to do with their ruggedness of nature. +They had not as many good things to eat as we have, and they had better +digestion. Now, all the evening some of our best men sit with an awful +bad feeling at the pit of their stomach, and the food taken fails to +assimilate, and in the agitated digestive organs the lamb and the cow +lie down together and get up just as they have a mind to. [Laughter.] +After dinner I sat down with my friend to talk. He had for many years +been troubled with indigestion. I felt guilty when I insisted on his +taking that last piece of lemon pie. I knew that pastry always made him +crusty. I said to him: "I never felt better in all my life; how do you +feel?" And putting one hand over one piece of lemon pie and the other +hand over the other piece of lemon pie, he said: "I feel miserable." +Smaller varieties of food had the old Fathers, but it did them more +good. + +Still, take it all in all, I think the descendants of the Pilgrim +Fathers are as good as their ancestors, and in many ways better. +Children are apt to be an echo of their ancestors. We are apt to put a +halo around the Forefathers, but I expect that at our age they were very +much like ourselves. People are not wise when they long for the good old +days. They say: "Just think of the pride of people at this day! Just +look at the ladies' hats!" [Laughter.] Why, there is nothing in the +ladies' hats of to-day equal to the coal-scuttle hats a hundred years +ago. They say: "Just look at the way people dress their hair!" Why, the +extremest style of to-day will not equal the top-knots which our +great-grandmothers wore, put up with high combs that we would have +thought would have made our great-grandfathers die with laughter. The +hair was lifted into a pyramid a foot high. On the top of that tower lay +a white rose. Shoes of bespangled white kid, and heels two or three +inches high. Grandfather went out to meet her on the floor with a coat +of sky-blue silk and vest of white satin embroidered with gold lace, +lace ruffles around his wrist and his hair flung in a queue. The great +George Washington had his horse's hoofs blackened when about to appear +on a parade, and writes to Europe ordering sent for the use of himself +and family, one silver-lace hat, one pair of silver shoe-buckles, a +coat made of fashionable silk, one pair of gold sleeve-buttons, six +pairs of kid gloves, one dozen most fashionable cambric +pocket-handkerchiefs, besides ruffles and tucker. That was George. +[Laughter.] + +Talk about dissipations, ye who have ever seen the old-fashioned +sideboard! Did I not have an old relative who always, when visitors +came, used to go upstairs and take a drink through economical habits, +not offering anything to his visitors? [Laughter.] On the old-fashioned +training days the most sober men were apt to take a day to themselves. +Many of the familiar drinks of to-day were unknown to them, but their +hard cider, mint julep, metheglin, hot toddy, and lemonade in which the +lemon was not at all prominent, sometimes made lively work for the +broad-brimmed hats and silver knee-buckles. Talk of dissipating parties +of to-day and keeping of late hours! Why, did they not have their "bees" +and sausage-stuffings and tea-parties and dances, that for heartiness +and uproar utterly eclipsed all the waltzes, lanciers, redowas, and +breakdowns of the nineteenth century, and they never went home till +morning. And as to the old-time courtships, oh, my! Washington Irving +describes them. [Laughter.] + +But though your Forefathers may not have been much, if any, better than +yourselves, let us extol them for the fact that they started this +country in the right direction. They laid the foundation for American +manhood. The foundation must be more solid and firm and unyielding than +any other part of the structure. On that Puritanic foundation we can +safely build all nationalities. [Applause.] Let us remember that the +coming American is to be an admixture of all foreign bloods. In about +twenty-five or fifty years the model American will step forth. He will +have the strong brain of the German, the polished manners of the French, +the artistic taste of the Italian, the stanch heart of the English, the +steadfast piety of the Scotch, the lightning wit of the Irish, and when +he steps forth, bone, muscle, nerve, brain entwined with the fibres of +all nationalities, the nations will break out in the cry: "Behold the +American!" [Applause.] + +Columbus discovered only the shell of this country. Agassiz came and +discovered fossiliferous America. Silliman came and discovered +geological America. Audubon came and discovered bird America. Longfellow +came and discovered poetic America; and there are a half-dozen other +Americas yet to be discovered. + +I never realized what this country was and is as on the day when I first +saw some of these gentlemen of the Army and Navy. It was when at the +close of the War our armies came back and marched in review before the +President's stand at Washington. I do not care whether a man was a +Republican or a Democrat, a Northern man or a Southern man, if he had +any emotion of nature, he could not look upon it without weeping. God +knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heaven of cloud and +mist and chill, and sprung the blue sky as the triumphal arch for the +returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring +foliage shook out its welcome, as the hosts came over the hills, and the +sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the +battalions as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable +line passed over. The Capitol never seemed so majestic as that morning: +snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging down, +billow after billow. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the +thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see +dripping from their smoke-blackened flags the blood of our country's +martyrs. For the best part of two days we stood and watched the filing +on of what seemed endless battalions, brigade after brigade, division +after division, host after host, rank beyond rank; ever moving, ever +passing; marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp--thousands after +thousands, battery front, arms shouldered, columns solid, shoulder to +shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril. + +Commanders on horses with their manes entwined with roses, and necks +enchained with garlands, fractious at the shouts that ran along the +line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, +standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferation of +hundreds of thousands of enraptured multitudes, crying "Huzza! Huzza!" +Gleaming muskets, thundering parks of artillery, rumbling pontoon +wagons, ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out the groans of +the crushed and the dying that they had carried. These men came from +balmy Minnesota, those from Illinois prairies. These were often hummed +to sleep by the pines of Oregon, those were New England lumbermen. Those +came out of the coal-shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side in one great +cause, consecrated through fire and storm and darkness, brothers in +peril, on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and +Fredericksburg, in lines that seemed infinite they passed on. + +We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our heads to see if the end +had come, but no! Looking from one end of that long avenue to the other, +we saw them yet in solid column, battery front, host beyond host, wheel +to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril, coming as it were from +under the Capitol. Forward! Forward! Their bayonets, caught in the sun, +glimmered and flashed and blazed, till they seemed like one long river +of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the +procession, no rest for the eyes. We turned our heads from the scene, +unable longer to look. We felt disposed to stop our ears, but still we +heard it, marching, marching; tramp, tramp, tramp. But hush,--uncover +every head! Here they pass, the remnant of ten men of a full regiment. +Silence! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. But +wheel into line, all ye people! North, South, East, West--all decades, +all centuries, all millenniums! Forward, the whole line! Huzza! Huzza! +[Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE DUTCH + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at the seventh annual dinner + of the Holland Society of New York, January 14, 1892. The President + of the Society, George M. Van Hoesen, said: "The next regular toast + is: 'What I Know about the Dutch,' which will be responded to by a + gentleman who needs no introduction--the Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt + Talmage."] + + +Oh, Judge Van Hoesen, this is not the first time we have been side by +side, for we were college boys together; and I remember that there was +this difference between us--you seemed to know about everything, and it +would take a very large library, a library larger than the Vatican, to +tell all that I didn't know. It is good to be here. What a multitude of +delightful people there are in this world! If you and I had been +consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we +could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always +been glad that I got aboard this planet. There are three classes of +people that I especially admire--men, women, and children. I have +enjoyed this banquet very much, for there are two places where I always +have a good appetite--at home and away from home. I have not been +interfered with as were some gentlemen that I heard of at a public +dinner some years ago. A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, +came to the city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who +were showing him the sights: "Who are those gentlemen who are eating so +heartily?" The answer was: "They are the men who pay for the dinner." +"And who are those gentlemen up there on the elevation looking so pale +and frightened and eating nothing?" "Oh," said his friend, "those are +the fellows who make the speeches." + +It is very appropriate that we should celebrate the Hollanders by hearty +eating, for you know the royal house that the Hollanders admire above +any other royal house, is named after one of the most delicious fruits +on this table--the house of Orange. I feel that I have a right to be +here. While I have in my arteries the blood of many nationalities, so +that I am a cosmopolitan and feel at home anywhere, there is in my veins +a strong tide of Dutch blood. My mother was a Van Nest, and I was +baptized in a Dutch church and named after a Dutch Domini, graduated at +a Dutch theological seminary, and was ordained by a Dutch minister, +married a Dutch girl, preached thirteen years in a Dutch church, and +always took a Dutch newspaper; and though I have got off into another +denomination, I am thankful to say that, while nearly all of our +denominations are in hot water, each one of them having on a big +ecclesiastical fight--and you know when ministers do fight, they fight +like sin--I am glad that the old Dutch Church sails on over unruffled +seas, and the flag at her masthead is still inscribed with "Peace and +good-will to men." Departed spirits of John Livingston and Gabriel +Ludlow, and Dr. Van Draken and magnificent Thomas de Witt, from your +thrones witness! + +Gentlemen here to-night have spoken much already in regard to what +Holland did on the other side of the sea; and neither historian's pen, +nor poet's canto, nor painter's pencil nor sculptor's chisel, nor +orator's tongue, can ever tell the full story of the prowess of those +people. Isn't it strange that two of the smallest sections of the earth +should have produced most of the grandest history of the world? +Palestine, only a little over 100 miles in length, yet yielding the most +glorious event of all history; and little Holland, only about one +quarter of the size of the State of New Jersey, achieving wonderful +history and wonderful deeds not only at home, but starting an influence +under which Robert Burns wrote "A man's a man for a' that," and sending +across the Atlantic a thunder of indignation against oppression of which +the American Declaration of Independence, and Yorktown and Bunker Hill, +and Monmouth and Gettysburg, are only the echoes! + +As I look across the ocean to-night, I say: England for manufactories, +Germany for scholarship, France for manners, Italy for pictures--but +Holland for liberty and for God! And leaving to other gentlemen to tell +that story--for they can tell it better than I can--I can to-night get +but little further than our own immediate Dutch ancestors, most of whom +have already taken the sacrament of the dust. Ah, what a glorious race +of old folks they were! May our right hand forget its cunning, and our +tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth, if we forget to honor their +memories! What good advice they gave us; and when they went away +forever--well, our emotions were a little different as we stood over the +silent forms of the two old folks. In one case I think the dominant +emotion was reverence. In the other case I think it was tenderness, and +a wish that we could go with her.-- + + "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight; + Make me a child again, just for to-night! + Mother, come back from the echoless shore, + Take me again to your heart as of yore; + Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, + Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair; + Over my slumbers a loving watch keep;-- + Rock me to sleep, mother--rock me to sleep!" + +My, my! doesn't the old Dutch home come back to us, and don't we see the +plain cap, and the large round spectacles, and the shoulders that stoop +from carrying our burden! Was there ever any other hand like hers to +wipe away a tear, or to bind up a wound; for when she put the +far-sighted spectacles clear up on her forehead, so that her eyes might +the nearer look at the wound, it felt better right away! And have we +ever since heard any music like that which she hushed us to sleep +with--could any prima donna sing as she could! And could any other face +so fill a room with light and comfort and peace! + +Mr. President, Dutch blood is good blood. We do not propose to +antagonize any other to-night; but at our public dinners, about December +21st, we are very apt to get into the Mayflower and sail around the New +England coast. I think it will be good for us to-night to take another +boat quite as good, and sail around New York harbor in the Half-Moon. + +I heard, years ago, the difference illustrated between the Yankee and +the Dutchman. There was an explosion on a Mississippi River steamboat; +the boiler burst, and the passengers were thrown into the air. After the +accident, the captain came around to inquire in regard to them, and he +found the Dutchman, but not the Yankee; and he said to the Dutchman, +"Did you see anything of that Yankee?" The Dutchman replied, "Oh, yes; +when I vas going up, he vas coming down." Now, the Dutch blood may not +be quite so quick as the Yankee, but it is more apt to be sure it is +right before it goes ahead. Dutch blood means patience, fidelity, and +perseverance. It means faith in God also. Yes, it means generosity. I +hardly ever knew a mean Dutchman. That man who fell down dead in my +native village couldn't have had any Dutch blood in him. He was over +eighty years of age, and had never given a cent to any benevolent object +during his life; but in a moment of weakness, when he saw a face of +distress, he gave a cent to an unfortunate man, and immediately dropped +dead; and the surgeon declared, after the post-mortem examination, that +he died of sudden enlargement of the heart. Neither is there any such +mean man among the Dutch as that man who was so economical in regard to +meat that he cut off a dog's tail and roasted it and ate the meat, and +then gave the bone back to the dog. Or that other mean man I heard of, +who was so economical that he used a wart on the back of his neck for a +collar-button. I have so much faith in Holland blood, that I declare the +more Hollanders come to this country the better we ought to like it. +Wherever they try to land, let them land on our American soil; for all +this continent is going to be after a while under one government. I +suppose you have noticed how the governments on the southern part of the +continent are gradually melting into our own; and soon the difficulty on +the north between Canada and the United States will be amicably settled +and the time will come when the United States Government will offer hand +and heart in marriage to beautiful and hospitable Canada; and when the +United States shall so offer its hand in marriage, Canada will blush and +look down, and, thinking of her allegiance across the sea, will say, +"Ask mother." + +In a suggestive letter which the chairman of the committee wrote me, +inviting me to take part in this entertainment, he very beautifully and +potently said that the Republic of the Netherlands had given hospitality +in the days that are past to English Puritans and French Huguenots and +Polish refugees and Portuguese Jews, and prospered; and I thought, as I +read that letter, "Why, then, if the Republic of the Netherlands was so +hospitable to other nations, surely we ought to be hospitable to all +nations, especially to Hollanders." Oh, this absurd talk about "America +for Americans!" Why, there isn't a man here to-night that is not +descended from some foreigner, unless he is an Indian. Why, the native +Americans were Modocs, Chippewas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, +and such like. Suppose, when our fathers were trying to come to this +country, the Indians had stood on Plymouth Rock and at the Highlands of +the Navesink, and when the Hollanders and the Pilgrim Fathers attempted +to land, had shouted, "Back with you to Holland and to England; America +for Americans!" Had that watchword been an early and successful cry, +where now stand our cities would have stood Indian wigwams; and canoes +instead of steamers would have tracked the Hudson and the Connecticut; +and, instead of the Mississippi being the main artery of the continent, +it would have been only a trough for deer and antelope and wild pigeons +to drink out of. What makes this cry of "America for the Americans" the +more absurd and the more inhuman is that some in this country, who +themselves arrived here in their boyhood or only one or two generations +back, are joining in the cry. Having escaped themselves into this +beautiful land, they say: "Shut the door of escape for others." Getting +themselves on our shores in the life-boat from the shipwreck, they say: +"Haul up the boat on the beach, and let the rest of the passengers go to +the bottom." Men who have yet on them a Holland, or Scotch, or German, +or English, or Irish brogue, are crying out: "America for the +Americans!" What if the native inhabitants of heaven (I mean the angels, +the cherubim, and the seraphim, for they were born there) should say to +us when we arrive there at last, "Go back. Heaven for the Heavenians!" + +Of course, we do not want foreign nations to make this a convict colony. +We wouldn't let their thieves and anarchists land here, nor even wipe +their feet on the mat of the outside door of this continent. When they +send their criminals here, let us put them in chains and send them back. +This country must not be made the dumping-ground for foreign +vagabondism. But for the hard-working and industrious people who come +here, do not let us build up any wall around New York harbor to keep +them out, or it will after a while fall down with a red-hot thunderburst +of God's indignation. Suppose you are a father, and you have five +children. One is named Philip, and Philip says to his brothers and +sisters: "Now, John, you go and live in the small room at the end of the +hall. George, you go and stay up in the garret. Mary, you go and live in +the cellar, and Fannie, you go and live in the kitchen, and don't any of +you come out. I am Philip, and will occupy the parlor; I like it; I like +the lambrequins at the window, and I like the pictures on the wall. I am +Philip, and, being Philip, the parlor shall only be for the Philipians." +You, the father, come home, and you say: "Fannie, what are you doing in +the kitchen? Come out of there." And you say to Mary, "Mary, come out of +that cellar." And you say to John, "John, don't stay shut up in that +small room. Come out of there." And you say to George, "George, come +down out of that garret." And you say to the children, "This is my +house. You can go anywhere in it that you want to." And you go and haul +Philip out of the parlor, and you tell him that his brothers and sisters +have just as much right in there as he has, and that they are all to +enjoy it. Now, God is our Father, and this world is a house of several +rooms, and God has at least five children--the North American continent, +the South American continent, the Asiatic continent, the European +continent, and the African continent. The North American continent +sneaks away, and says: "I prefer the parlor. You South Americans, +Asiatics, Europeans, and Africans, you stay in your own rooms; this is +the place for me; I prefer it, and I am going to stay in the parlor; I +like the front windows facing on the Atlantic, and the side windows +facing on the Pacific, and the nice piazza on the south where the sun +shines, and the glorious view from the piazza to the north." And God, +the Father, comes in and sends thunder and lightning through the house, +and says to his son, the American continent: "You are no more my child +than are all these others, and they have just as much right to enjoy +this part of my house as you have." + +It will be a great day for the health of our American atmosphere when +this race prejudice is buried in the earth. Come, bring your spades, and +let us dig a grave for it; and dig it deep down into the heart of the +earth, but not clear through to China, lest the race prejudice should +fasten the prejudice on the other side. Having got this grave deeply +dug, come, let us throw in all the hard things that have been said and +written between Jew and Gentile, between Protestant and Catholic, +between Turk and Russian, between French and English, between Mongolian +and anti-Mongolian, between black and white; and then let us set up a +tombstone and put upon it the epitaph: "Here lies the monster that +cursed the earth for nearly three thousand years. He has departed to go +to perdition, from which he started. No peace to his ashes." + +From this glorious Holland dinner let us go out trying to imitate the +virtues of our ancestors, the men who built the Holland dikes, which are +the only things that ever conquered the sea, slapping it in the face and +making it go back. There was a young Holland engineer who was to be +married to a maiden living in one of the villages sheltered by these +dikes, and in the evening there was to be a banquet in honor of the +wedding, which was to be given to the coming bridegroom. But all day +long the sea was raging and beating against the dikes. And this engineer +reasoned with himself: "Shall I go to the banquet which is to be given +in my honor, or shall I go and join my workmen down on the dikes?" And +he finally concluded that it was his duty to go and join his workmen on +the dikes, and he went. And when the poor fellows toiling there saw that +their engineer was coming to help them, they set up a cheer. The +engineer had a rope put around him and was lowered down into the surf, +and other men came and had ropes put about them, and they were lowered +down. And after a while the cry was heard: "More mortar and more blocks +of stone!" But there were no more. "Now," said the Holland engineer, +"men, take off your clothes!" and they took them off, and they stopped +up the holes in the dikes. But still the stones were giving way against +the mighty wrath of the strong sea which was beating against them. And +then the Holland engineer said: "We cannot do any more. My men, get on +your knees and pray to God for help." And they got down on their knees +and they prayed; and the wind began to silence, and the sea began to +cease its angry wavings, and the wall was saved; and all the people who +lived in the village went on with the banquet and the dance, for they +did not know their peril, and they were all saved. + +What you and I ought to do is to go out and help build up the dikes +against the ocean of crime and depravity and sin which threatens to +overwhelm this nation. Men of Holland, descend!--to the dikes! to the +dikes! Bring all the faith and all the courage of your ancestors to the +work, and then get down on your knees, and kneel with us on the creaking +wall, and pray to the God of the wind and of the sea that He may hush +the one and silence the other. + + + + +BAYARD TAYLOR + + +TRIBUTE TO GOETHE + + [Speech of Bayard Taylor at a reception given in his honor by the + Goethe Club, New York City, March 20, 1878. The reception was held + in recognition of Mr. Taylor's appointment as United States + Minister to Germany. Dr. A. Ruppaner, President of the Club, + presided.] + + +It is difficult for me to respond fitly to what you have done, +fellow-members of the Goethe Club, and what my old friend Parke Godwin +has said. I may take gratefully whatever applies to an already +accomplished work, but I cannot accept any reference to any work yet to +be done without a feeling of doubt and uncertainty. No man can count on +future success without seeming to invoke the evil fates. + +I am somewhat relieved in knowing that this reception, by which I am so +greatly honored, is not wholly owing to the official distinction which +has been conferred upon me by the President. I am informed that it had +been already intended by the Goethe Club as a large and liberal +recognition of my former literary labors, and I will only refer a moment +to the diplomatic post in order that there may be no misconception of my +position in accepting it. + +The fact that for years past I have designed writing a new biography of +the great German master, is generally known; there was no necessity for +keeping it secret; it has been specially mentioned by the press since my +appointment, and I need not hesitate to say that the favor of our +government will give me important facilities in the prosecution of the +work. [Applause.] + +But the question has also been asked, here and there--and very +naturally--is a Minister to a foreign Court to be appointed for such a +purpose? I answer, No! The Minister's duty to the government and to the +interests of his fellow-citizens is always paramount. I shall go to +Berlin with the full understanding of the character of the services I +may be expected to render, and the honest determination to fulfil them +to the best of my ability. + +But, as my friends know, I have the power and the habit of doing a great +deal of work; and I think no one will complain if, instead of the +recreation which others allow themselves, I should find my own +recreation in another form of labor. + +I hope to secure at least two hours out of each twenty-four for my own +work, without detriment to my official duties--and if two hours are not +practicable, one must suffice. I shall be in the midst of the material I +most need--I shall be able to make the acquaintance of the men and women +who can give me the best assistance--and without looking forward +positively to the completion of the task, I may safely say that this +opportunity gives me a cheerful hope of being able to complete it. + +I was first led to the study of Goethe's life by the necessity of making +the full meaning of his greatest poem clear to the readers of our +language. I found that he himself was a better guide for me than all his +critics and commentators. I learned to understand the grand +individuality of his nature, and his increasing importance as an +intellectual force in our century. I owe as much to him in the way of +stimulus as to any other poet whatever. Except Shakespeare, no other +poet has ever so thoroughly inculcated the value of breadth, the +advantage of various knowledge, as the chief element of the highest +human culture. Through the form of his creative activity, Shakespeare +could only teach this lesson indirectly. Goethe taught it always in the +most direct and emphatic manner, for it was the governing principle of +his nature. It is not yet fifty years since he died, but he has already +become a permanent elemental power, the operation of which will continue +through many generations to come. The fact that an association bearing +his name exists and flourishes here in New York is a good omen for our +own development. + +We grow, not by questioning or denying great minds--which is a very +prevalent fashion of the day--but by reverently accepting whatever they +can give us. The "heir of all the ages" is unworthy of his ancestors if +he throws their legacy away. It is enough for me if this honor to-night +reaches through and far beyond me, to Goethe. It is his name not mine, +which has brought us together. Let me lay upon him--he is able to bear +even that much--whatever of the honor I am not truly worthy to receive, +and to thank you gratefully for what remains. [Applause.] + + + + +SLASON THOMPSON + + +THE ETHICS OF THE PRESS + + [Speech of Slason Thompson at the seventy-fourth dinner and fourth + "Ladies' Night" of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill., April 26, 1894. + The Secretary, Alexander A. McCormick, presided. Mr. Thompson spoke + on the general topic of the evening's discussion, "The Ethics of + the Press."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It would be interesting, I think, +for the gentlemen of the press who are here to-night if they could find +out from what newspaper in Chicago the last speaker [Howard L. Smith] +derives his idea of the press of Chicago. I stand here to say that there +is no such paper printed in this city. There may be one that, perhaps, +comes close down to his ideas of the press of Chicago, but there is only +one--a weekly--and I believe it is printed in New York. The reverend +gentleman who began the discussion to-night started into this subject +very much like a coon, and as we listened, as he went on, we perceived +he came out a porcupine. He was scientific in everything he said in +favor of the press; unscientific in everything against it. He spoke to +you in favor of the suppression of news, which means, I take it, the +dissemination of crime. He spoke to you in favor of the suppression of +sewer-gas. Chicago to-day owes its good health to the fact that we do +discuss sewer-gas. A reverend gentleman once discussing the province of +the press, spoke of its province as the suppression of news. If some +gentlemen knew the facts that come to us, they would wonder at our +lenience to their faults. The question of an anonymous press has been +brought up. If you will glance over the files of the newspapers +throughout the world, you will find in that country where the articles +are signed the press is most corrupt, weakest, most venal, and has the +least influence of any press in the world. To tell me that a reporter +who writes an article is of more consequence than the editor, is to tell +me a thing I believe you do not believe. + +When Charles A. Dana was asked what was the first essential in +publishing a newspaper, he is said to have replied, "Raise Cain and sell +papers." Whether the story is true or not, his answer comes as near a +general definition of the governing principle in newspaper offices as +you are likely to get. + +Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as ethics of the press. Each +newspaper editor, publisher, or proprietor--whoever is the controlling +spirit behind the types, the man who pockets the profits, or empties his +pockets to make good the losses--his will, his judgment, his conscience, +his hopes, necessities, or ambitions, constitute the ethics of one +newspaper--no more! There is no association of editors, no understanding +or agreement to formulate ethics for the press. And if there were, not +one of the parties to it would live up to it any more than the managers +of railways live up to the agreements over which they spend so much +time. + +The general press prints what the public wants; the specific newspaper +prints what its editor thinks the class of readers to which it caters +wants. If he gauges his public right, he succeeds; if he does not, he +fails. You can no more make the people read a newspaper they do not want +than you can make a horse drink when he is not thirsty. In this respect +the pulpit has the better of the press. It can thrash over old straw and +thunder forth distasteful tenets to its congregations year after year, +and at least be sure of the continued attention of the sexton and the +deacon who circulates the contribution-box. + +What are the ethics of the press of Chicago? They are those of Joseph +Medill, Victor F. Lawson, H. H. Kohlsaat, John R. Walsh, Carter Harrison, +Jr., Washington Hesing, individually, not collectively. As these +gentlemen are personally able, conscientious, fearless for the right, +patriotic, incorruptible, and devoted to the public good, so are their +respective newspapers. If they are otherwise, so are their respective +newspapers. + +As I have said before this club on another occasion, the citizens of +Chicago are fortunate above those of any other great city in the United +States in the average high character of their newspapers. They may have +their faults, but who has not? Let him or her who is without fault throw +stones. + +If the newspaper press is as bad as some people always pretend to think, +how comes it that every good cause instinctively seeks its aid with +almost absolute confidence of obtaining it? And how comes it that the +workers of evil just as instinctively aim to fraudulently use it or +silence it, and with such poor success? + +To expose and oppose wrong is an almost involuntary rule among newspaper +workers--from chief to printer's devil. They make mistakes like others, +they are tempted and fall like others, but I testify to a +well-recognized intention of our profession, the rule is to learn the +facts, and print them, too--to know the truth and not hide it under a +bushel. Nine-tenths of the criticisms of the press one hears is the +braying of the galled jades or the crackling of thorns under a pot. + +The press stands for light, not darkness. It is the greatest power in +our modern civilization. Thieves and rascals of high and low degree hate +and malign it, but no honest man has reasonable cause to fear the abuse +of its power. It is a beacon, and not a false light. It casts its +blessed beams into dark places, and while it brings countless crimes to +light, it also reveals to the beneficence of the world the wrongs and +needs of the necessitous. It is the embodiment of energy in the pursuit +of news, for its name is Light, and its aim is Knowledge. Ignorance and +crime flee from before it like mist before the God of Light. It stands +to-day + + "For the truth that lacks assistance, + For the wrong that needs resistance, + For the future in the distance, + And the good that it can do." + +It has no license to do wrong; it has boundless liberty and opportunity +to do good. + + + + +THEODORE TILTON + + +WOMAN + + [Speech of Theodore Tilton at the sixtieth annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1865. The + Chairman, Joseph H. Choate, gave the following toast, "Woman--the + strong staff and beautiful rod which sustained and comforted our + forefathers during every step of the pilgrims' progress." Theodore + Tilton was called upon to respond.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--It is somewhat to a modest man's embarrassment, on +rising to this toast, to know that it has already been twice partially +spoken to this evening--first by my friend, Senator Lane from Indiana, +and just now, most eloquently, by the mayor-elect of New York [John T. +Hoffman], who could not utter a better word in his own praise than to +tell us that he married a Massachusetts wife. [Applause.] In choosing +the most proper spot on this platform as my standpoint for such remarks +as are appropriate to such a toast, my first impulse was to go to the +other end of the table; for hereafter, Mr. Chairman, when you are in +want of a man to speak for Woman, remember what Hamlet said, "Bring me +the recorder!"[7] [Laughter.] But, on the other hand, here, at this end, +a prior claim was put in from the State of Indiana, whose venerable +Senator [Henry S. Lane] has expressed himself disappointed at finding no +women present. So, as my toast introduces that sex, I feel bound to +stand at the Senator's end of the room--not, however, too near the +Senator's chair, for it may be dangerous to take Woman too near that +"good-looking man." [Laughter and applause.] Therefore, gentlemen, I +stand between these two chairs--the Army on my right [General Hancock], +the Navy on my left [Admiral Farragut]--to hold over their heads a name +that conquers both--Woman! [Applause.] The Chairman has pictured a +vice-admiral tied for a little while to a mast; but it is the spirit of +my sentiment to give you a vice-admiral tied life-long to a master. +[Applause.] In the absence of woman, therefore, from this gilded feast, +I summon her to your golden remembrance. There is an old English +song--older, sir, than the Pilgrims:-- + + "By absence, this good means I gain, + That I can catch her + Where none can watch her, + In some close corner of my brain: + There I embrace and kiss her: + And so I both enjoy and miss her!" + +You must not forget, Mr. President, in eulogizing the early men of New +England, who are your clients to-night, that it was only through the +help of the early women of New England, who are mine, that your boasted +heroes could ever have earned their title of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Great +laughter.] A health, therefore, to the women in the cabin of the +Mayflower! A cluster of May-flowers themselves, transplanted from summer +in the old world to winter in the new! Counting over those matrons and +maidens, they numbered, all told, just eighteen. Their names are now +written among the heroines of history! For as over the ashes of Cornelia +stood the epitaph "The Mother of the Gracchi," so over these women of +the Pilgrimage we write as proudly "The Mothers of the Republic." +[Applause.] There was good Mistress Bradford, whose feet were not +allowed of God to kiss Plymouth Rock, and who, like Moses, came only +near enough to see but not to enter the Promised Land. She was washed +overboard from the deck--and to this day the sea is her grave and Cape +Cod her monument! [Applause.] There was Mistress Carver, wife of the +first governor, and who, when her husband fell under the stroke of +sudden death, followed him first with heroic grief to the grave, and +then, a fortnight after, followed him with heroic joy up into Heaven! +[Applause.] There was Mistress White--the mother of the first child +born to the New England Pilgrims on this continent. And it was a good +omen, sir, that this historic babe was brought into the world on board +the Mayflower between the time of the casting of her anchor and the +landing of her passengers--a kind of amphibious prophecy that the +new-born nation was to have a birthright inheritance over the sea and +over the land. [Great applause.] There, also, was Rose Standish, whose +name is a perpetual June fragrance, to mellow and sweeten those December +winds. And there, too, was Mrs. Winslow, whose name is even more than a +fragrance; it is a taste; for, as the advertisements say, "children cry +for it"; it is a soothing syrup. [Great laughter.] + +Then, after the first vessel with these women, there came other +women--loving hearts drawn from the olden land by those silken threads +which afterwards harden into golden chains. For instance, Governor +Bradford, a lonesome widower, went down to the sea-beach, and, facing +the waves, tossed a love-letter over the wide ocean into the lap of +Alice Southworth in old England, who caught it up, and read it, and +said, "Yes, I will go." And she went! And it is said that the governor, +at his second wedding, married his first love! Which, according to the +New Theology, furnishes the providential reason why the first Mrs. +Bradford fell overboard! [Great laughter.] + +Now, gentlemen, as you sit to-night in this elegant hall, think of the +houses in which the Mayflower men and women lived in that first winter! +Think of a cabin in the wilderness--where winds whistled--where wolves +howled--where Indians yelled! And yet, within that log-house, burning +like a lamp was the pure flame of Christian faith, love, patience, +fortitude, heroism! As the Star of the East rested over the rude manger +where Christ lay, so--speaking not irreverently--there rested over the +roofs of the Pilgrims a Star of the West--the Star of Empire; and to-day +that empire is the proudest in the world! [Applause.] And if we could +summon up from their graves, and bring hither to-night, that olden +company of long-mouldered men, and they could sit with us at this +feast--in their mortal flesh--and with their stately presence--the whole +world would make a pilgrimage to see those pilgrims! [Applause.] How +quaint their attire! How grotesque their names! How we treasure every +relic of their day and generation! And of all the heirlooms of the +earlier times in Yankeeland, what household memorial is clustered round +about with more sacred and touching associations than the +spinning-wheel! The industrious mother sat by it doing her work while +she instructed her children! The blushing daughter plied it diligently, +while her sweetheart had a chair very close by. And you remember, too, +another person who used it more than all the rest--that peculiar kind of +maiden, well along in life, who, while she spun her yarn into one "blue +stocking," spun herself into another. [Laughter.] But perhaps my toast +forbids me to touch upon this well-known class of Yankee +women--restricting me, rather, to such women as "comforted" the +Pilgrims. [Laughter.] + +But, my friends, such of the Pilgrim Fathers as found good women to +"comfort" them had, I am sure, their full share of matrimonial thorns in +the flesh. For instance, I know of an early New England epitaph on a +tombstone, in these words: "Obadiah and Sarah Wilkenson--their warfare +is accomplished." [Uproarious laughter.] And among the early statutes of +Connecticut--a State that began with blue laws, and ends with black +[laughter]--there was one which said: "No Gospel minister shall unite +people in marriage; the civil magistrates shall unite people in +marriage; as they may do it with less scandal to the church." [Loud +laughter.] Now, gentlemen, since Yankee clergymen fared so hard for +wedding-fees in those days, is it to be wondered at that so many Yankee +clergymen have escaped out of New England, and are here to-night? +[Laughter.] Dropping their frailties in the graves which cover their +ashes, I hold up anew to your love and respect the Forefathers of New +England! And as the sons of the Pilgrims are worthy of their sires, so +the daughters of the Pilgrims are worthy of their mothers. I hold that +in true womanly worth, in housewifely thrift, in domestic skill, in +every lovable and endearing quality, the present race of Yankee women +are the women of the earth! [Applause.] And I trust that we shall yet +have a Republic which, instead of disfranchising one-half its citizens, +and that too by common consent its "better half," shall ordain the +political equality, not only of both colors, but of both sexes! I +believe in a reconstructed Union wherein every good woman shall have a +wedding-ring on her finger, and a ballot in her hand! [Sensation.] + +And now, to close, let me give you just a bit of good advice. The +cottages of our forefathers had few pictures on the walls, but many +families had a print of "King Charles's Twelve Good Rules," the eleventh +of which was, "Make no long meals." Now King Charles lost his head, and +you will have leave to make a long meal. But when, after your long meal, +you go home in the wee small hours, what do you expect to find? You will +find my toast--"Woman, a beautiful rod!" [Laughter.] Now my advice is, +"Kiss the rod!" [Great laughter, during which Mr. Tilton took his +seat.] + + + + +JOSEPH HOPKINS TWICHELL + + +YANKEE NOTIONS + + [Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the + eighty-second annual dinner of the New England Society in the City + of New York, December 22, 1887. The President, Horace Russell, + occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the first toast, + "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I have heard of an Irishman who, +on being asked by a kind-hearted person if he would have a drink of +whiskey, made no reply at first, but struck an attitude and stood gazing +up into the sky. "What are you looking at, Mike?" inquired his friend. +"Bedad, sir," said Mike, "I thought an angel spoke to me." [Much +laughter.] + +Somewhat so did I feel, Mr. President, when I got your invitation to be +here this evening and speak. I own I was uncommonly pleased by it. I +considered it the biggest compliment of the kind I had ever received in +my life. For that matter it was too big, as I had to acknowledge. That, +however, sir, was your affair; and so, without stopping much to think, +and before I could muster the cowardice to decline, I accepted it. +[Laughter.] But as soon as I began to reflect, especially when I came to +ask myself what in the world I had or could have to say in this august +presence, I was scared to think of what I had done. I was like the man +who while breaking a yoke of steers that he held by a rope, having +occasion to use both his hands in letting down a pair of bars, fetched +the rope a turn around one of his legs. That instant something +frightened the steers, and that unfortunate farmer was tripped up and +snaked off feet first on a wild, erratic excursion, a mile or so, over +rough ground, as long as the rope lasted, and left in a very lamentable +condition, indeed. His neighbors ran to him and gathered him up and laid +him together, and waited around for him to come to; which, when he did, +one of them inquired of him how he came to do such a thing as hitch a +rope around his leg under such circumstances. "Well," said he, "we +hadn't gone five rods 'fore I see my mistake." [Hearty laughter.] + +But here I am, and the President has passed the tremendous subject of +Forefathers' Day, like a Rugby ball, into my hands--after making elegant +play with it himself--and, frightful as the responsibility is, I realize +that I've got to do something with it--and do it mighty quick. +[Laughter.] This is a festive hour, and even a preacher mustn't be any +more edifying in his remarks, I suppose, than he can help. And I promise +accordingly to use my conscientious endeavors to-night to leave this +worshipful company no better than I found it. [Laughter.] + +But, gentlemen, well intending as one may be to that effect, and lightly +as he may approach the theme of the Forefathers, the minute he sets foot +within its threshold he stops his fooling and gets his hat off at once. +[Applause.] + +Those unconscious, pathetic heroes, pulling their shallop ashore on the +Cape yonder in 1620--what reverence can exceed their just merit! What +praise can compass the virtue of that sublime, unconquerable manhood, by +which in the calamitous, woful days that followed, not accepting +deliverance, letting the Mayflower go back empty, they stayed perishing +by the graves of their fallen; rather, stayed fast by the flickering +flame of their living truth, and so invoked and got on their side +forever the force of that great law of the universe, "except a corn of +wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit." How richly and how speedily fruitful that +seed was, we know. It did not wait for any large unfolding of events on +these shores to prove the might of its quickening. "Westward the star of +empire takes its way." Yes, but the first pulse of vital power from the +new State moved eastward. For behold it still in its young infancy--if +it can be said to have had an infancy--stretching a strong hand of help +across the sea to reinforce the cause of that Commonwealth, the rise of +which marks the epoch of England's new birth in liberty. [Applause.] + +The pen of New England, fertilized by freedom and marvellously prolific +ere a single generation passed, was indeed the Commonwealth's true +nursing mother. Cromwell, Hampden, Sidney, Milton, Owen, were disciples +of teachers mostly from this side the Atlantic. Professor Masson, of +Edinburgh University, in his admirable "Life of Milton," enumerates +seventeen New England men whom he describes as "potent" in England in +that period. Numbers went to England in person, twelve of the first +twenty graduates of Harvard College prior to 1646, among them; and +others, not a few representing the leading families of the colonies, who +going over with their breasts full of New England milk, nourished the +heart of the great enterprise; "performed," so Palfrey tells us, "parts +of consequence in the Parliamentary service, and afterward in the +service of the Protectorate." It is not too much to say that on the +fields of Marston Moor and Naseby New England appeared; and that those +names may fairly be written on her banners. [Applause.] + +That, I would observe--and Mr. Grady would freely concede it--was before +there was much mingling anywhere of the Puritan and the Cavalier blood, +save as it ran together between Cromwell's Ironsides and Rupert's +troopers. I would observe also that the propagation eastward inaugurated +in that early day has never ceased. The immigration of populations +hither from Europe, great a factor as it has been in shaping the history +of this continent, has not been so great a factor as the emigration of +ideas the other way has been, and continues to be, in shaping the +history of Europe, and of the mother country most of all. But that +carries me where I did not intend to go. + +An inebriated man who had set out to row a boat across a pond was +observed to pursue a very devious course. On being hailed and asked what +the matter was, he replied that it was the rotundity of the earth that +bothered him; he kept sliding off. So it is the rotundity of my subject +that bothers me. But I do mean to stay on one hemisphere of it if +possible. [Laughter.] + +The Forefathers were a power on earth from the start--and that by the +masterful quality of their mind and spirit. They had endless pluck, +intellectual and moral. They believed that the kingdom in this world was +with ideas. It was, you might say, one of their original Yankee notions +that it was the property of a man to have opinions and to stand by them +to the death. Judged from the standpoint of their times, as any one who +will take the pains to look will discover, they were tolerant men; but +they were fell debaters, and they were no compromisers. They split +hairs, if you will, but they wouldn't split the difference. [Laughter.] + +A German professor of theology is reported to have said in lecturing to +his students on the Existence of God, that while the doctrine, no doubt, +was an important one, it was so difficult and perplexed that it was not +advisable to take too certain a position upon it, as many were disposed +to do. There were those, he remarked, who were wont in the most +unqualified way to affirm that there was a God. There were others who, +with equal immoderation, committed themselves to the opposite +proposition--that there was no God. The philosophical mind, he added, +will look for the truth somewhere between these extremes. The +Forefathers had none of that in theirs. [Laughter and applause.] + +They were men who employed the great and responsible gift of speech +honestly and straightforwardly. There was a sublime sincerity in their +tongues. They spoke their minds. + +Their sons, I fear, have declined somewhat from their veracity at that +precise point. At times we certainly have, and have had to be brought +back to it by severest pains--as, for example, twenty-six years ago by +the voice of Beauregard's and Sumter's cannon, which was a terrible +voice indeed, but had this vast merit that it told the truth, and set a +whole people free to say what they thought once more. [Great applause.] + +Our fathers of the early day were not literary; but they were apt, when +they spoke, to make themselves understood. + +There was in my regiment during the war--I was a chaplain--a certain +corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of whom I was very +fond--with whom on occasion of his recovery from a dangerous sickness I +felt it my duty to have a serious pastoral talk; and while he +convalesced I watched for an opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the +side of his bed in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what +the campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I told him +that I didn't know. "Well," said he, "I suppose that General McClellan +knows all about it." (This was away back in 1861, not long after we went +to the field.) I answered: "General McClellan has his plans, of course, +but he doesn't know. Things may not turn out as he expects." "But," said +the corporal, "President Lincoln knows, doesn't he?" "No," I said, "he +doesn't know, either. He has his ideas, but he can't see ahead any more +than General McClellan can." "Dear me," said the corporal, "it would be +a great comfort if there was somebody that did know about things"--and I +saw my chance. "True, corporal," I observed, "that's a very natural +feeling; and the blessed fact is there is One who does know everything, +both past and future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows +when we are going to move, and where to, and what's going to happen; +knows the whole thing." "Oh," says the corporal, "you mean old Scott!" +[Laughter.] + +The Forefathers generally spared people the trouble of guessing what +they were driving at. [Applause.] + +That for which they valued education was that it gave men power to think +and reason and form judgments and communicate and expound the same, and +so capacitated them for valid membership of the Church and of the State. +And that was still another original Yankee notion. + +Not often has the nature and the praise of it been more worthily +expressed, that I am aware of, than in these sentences, which I lately +happened upon, the name of whose author I will, by your leave, reserve +till I have repeated them: "Next to religion they prized education. If +their lot had been cast in some pleasant place of the valley of the +Mississippi, they would have sown wheat and educated their children; but +as it was, they educated their children and planted whatever might grow +and ripen on that scanty soil with which capricious nature had tricked +off and disguised the granite beds beneath. Other colonies would have +brought up some of the people to the school; they, if I may be allowed +so to express it, let down the school to all the people, not doubting +but by doing so the people and the school would rise of themselves." + +I do not know if Cardinal Gibbons is present; I do not recognize him. If +he is, I am pleased to have had the honor to recite in his hearing and +to commend to his attention these words, so true, so just, so +appreciative, of a distinguished ecclesiastic of his communion; for they +were spoken by the late Archbishop Hughes in a public lecture in this +city in 1852. [Applause.] + +I would, however, much rather have recited them in the ears of those +Protestant Americans--alas, that there should be born New Englanders +among them, that is, such according to the flesh, not according to the +spirit--who are wont to betray a strange relish for disparaging both the +principles and the conduct of our great sires in that early day when +they were sowing in weakness what has ever since been rising with power. + +There have always, indeed, been those who were fond of spying the +blemishes of New England, of illustrating human depravity by instances +her sinners contributed. With the open spectacle of armies of +beggars--God's beggars they are; I do not object to them--continually +swarming in across her borders, as bees to their meadows, and returning +not empty, they keep on calling her close-fisted. They even blaspheme +her weather--her warm-hearted summers and her magnificent winters. There +is, to be sure, a time along in March--but let that pass. [Laughter.] + +I refer to this without the least irritation. I do not complain of it. +On the contrary, I glory in it. I love her for the enemies she has made. +[Laughter.] + +She is the church member among the communities, and must catch it +accordingly. It is the saints who are always in the wrong. [Laughter.] + +Elijah troubled Israel. Daniel was a nuisance in Babylon. And long may +New England be such as to make it an object to find fault with her. +[Hearty applause.] + +Such she will be so long as she is true to herself--true to her great +traditions; true to the principles of which her life was begotten; so +long as her public spirit has supreme regard to the higher ranges of the +public interest; so long as in her ancient glorious way she leaves the +power of the keys in the hands of the people; so long as her patriotism +springs, as in the beginning it sprang, from the consciousness of rights +wedded to the consciousness of duties; so long as by her manifold +institutions of learning, humanity, religion, thickly sown, +multitudinous, universal, she keeps the law of the Forefathers' faith, +that "Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out +of the mouth of God." [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE SOLDIER STAMP + + [Speech of Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Conn., at the + eighty-sixth annual dinner of the New England Society in the city + of New York, December 22, 1891. J. Pierpont Morgan, the President, + occupied the chair. Mr. Twichell responded to the toast, + "Forefathers' Day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--The +posture of my mind the last fortnight relative to the duty of the +present hour--which, indeed, I was proud to be assigned to, as I ought +to have been, but which has been a black care to me ever since I +undertook it--has a not inapt illustration in the case of the old New +England parson who, when asked why he was going to do a certain thing +that had been laid upon him, yet the thought of which affected him with +extreme timidity, answered: "I wouldn't if I didn't suppose it had been +foreordained from all eternity--and I'm a good mind to not as it is." +[Laughter.] However, I have the undisguised good-will of my audience to +begin with, and that's half the battle. The forefathers, in whose honor +we meet, were men of good-will, profoundly so; but they were, in their +day, more afraid of showing it, in some forms, than their descendants +happily are. + +The first time I ever stood in the pulpit to preach was in the +meeting-house of the ancient Connecticut town where I was brought up. +That was a great day for our folks and all my old neighbors, you may +depend. After benediction, when I passed out into the vestibule, I was +the recipient there of many congratulatory expressions. Among my +friends in the crowd was an aged deacon, a man in whom survived, to a +rather remarkable degree, the original New England Puritan type, who had +known me from the cradle, and to whom the elevation I had reached was as +gratifying as it could possibly be to anybody. But when he saw the smile +of favor focussed on me there, and me, I dare say, appearing to bask +somewhat in it, the dear old man took alarm. He was apprehensive of the +consequences to that youngster. And so, taking me by the hand and +wrestling down his natural feelings--he was ready to cry for joy--he +said: "Well, Joseph, I hope you'll live to preach a great deal better +than that!" [Laughter.] It was an exceedingly appropriate remark, and a +very tender one if you were at the bottom of it. + +That severe, undemonstrative New England habit, that emotional reserve +and self-suppression, though it lingers here and there, has mostly +passed away and is not to be regretted. As much as could be has been +made of it to our forefathers' discredit, as has been made of everything +capable of being construed unfavorably to them. They to whom what they +call the cant of the Puritan is an offence, themselves have established +and practise a distinct anti-Puritan cant with which we are all +familiar. The very people who find it abhorrent and intolerable that +they were such censors of the private life of their contemporaries, do +not scruple to bring to bear on their private life a search-light that +leaves no accessible nook of it unexplored, and regarding any unpretty +trait espied by that unsparing inquest the rule of judgment persistently +employed--as one is obliged to perceive--tends to be: "No explanation +wanted or admitted but the worst." [Applause.] + +Accordingly, the infestive deportment characteristic of the New England +colonist has been extensively interpreted as the indisputable index of +his sour and morose spirit, begotten of his religion. I often wonder +that, in computing the cause of his rigorous manners, so inadequate +account is wont to be made of his situation, as in a principal and +long-continuing aspect substantially military--which it was. The truth +is, his physiognomy was primarily the soldier stamp on him. + +If you had been at Gettysburg on the morning of July 2, 1863, as I was, +and had perused the countenance of the First and Eleventh Corps, +exhausted and bleeding with the previous day's losing battle, and the +countenance of the Second, Third, and Twelfth Corps, getting into +position to meet the next onset, which everybody knew was immediately +impending, you would have said that it was a sombre community--that Army +of the Potomac--with a good deal of grimness in the face of it; with a +notable lack of the playful element, and no fiddling or other fine arts +to speak of. + +As sure as you live, gentlemen, that is no unfair representation of how +it was with the founders of the New England commonwealths in their +planting period. + +The Puritan of the seventeenth century lived, moved, and had his being +on the field of an undecided struggle for existence--the New England +Puritan most emphatically so. He was under arms in body much of the +time--in mind all the time. Nothing can be truer than to say that. And +yet people everlastingly pick and poke at him for being stern-featured +and deficient in the softer graces of life. + +It was his beauty that he was so, for it grew out of and was befitting +his circumstances. And I, for one, love to see that austere demeanor so +far as it is yet hereditary on the old soil--and some of it is +left--thinking of its origin. It is the signature of a fighting far more +than of an ascetic ancestry--memorial of a new Pass of Thermopylae held +by the latest race of Spartans on the shores of a new world. [Applause.] + +It may be doubted if ever in the history of mankind was displayed a +quality of public courage--of pure, indomitable pluck--surpassing that +of the New England plantations in their infant day. No condition of its +extremest proof was lacking. While the Bay Colony, for example, was in +the pinch of its first wrestle with Nature for a living, much as ever +able to furnish its table with a piece of bread--with the hunger-wolf +never far away from the door, and behind that wolf the Narragansett and +the Pequot, at what moment to burst into savagery none could tell--in +the season when mere existence was the purchase of physical toil, +universal and intense, and of watching night and day--there came from +the old country, from the high places of authority, the peremptory +mandate: Send us back that charter! Under the clause of it granting you +the rule of your own affairs, you are claiming more than was intended or +can be allowed. Send it back! And what was the answer? Mind, there were +less than 5,000 souls of them, all told: less than 1,000 grown men. On +the one hand the power of England--on the other that scrap of a new-born +State, sore pressed with difficulties already. + +What was the answer? Why, they got out some old cannon they had and +mounted them, and moulded a stock of bullets, and distributed powder, +and took of every male citizen above the age of sixteen an oath of +allegiance to Massachusetts--and then set their teeth and waited to see +what would happen. And that was their answer. It meant distinctly: Our +charter, which we had of the King's majesty (and therefore came we +hither), is our lawful possession--fair title to the territory we occupy +and the rights we here exercise. And whoever wants it has got to come +and take it. Surrender it we never will! [Applause.] + +Nor was that the only time. Again and again during the Colony's initial +stage, when it was exceedingly little of stature and had enough to do to +keep the breath of life in it, that demand was renewed with rising anger +and with menaces; yet never could those Puritans of the Bay be scared +into making a solitary move of any kind toward compliance with it. David +with his sling daring Goliath in armor is an insufficient figure of that +nerve, that transcendent grit, that superb gallantry. Where will you +look for its parallel? I certainly do not know. [Applause.] + +They used to tell during the war of a colonel who was ordered to assault +a position which his regiment, when they had advanced far enough to get +a good look at it, saw to be so impossible that they fell back and +became immovable. Whereupon (so the story ran) the colonel, who took the +same sense of the situation that his command did, yet must do his duty, +called out in an ostensibly pleading and fervid voice: "Oh, don't give +it up so! Forward again! Forward! Charge! Great heavens, men, do you +want to live forever?" [Laughter.] + +How those first New England Puritans we are speaking of were to come off +from their defiance of the crown alive could scarcely be conjectured. +The only ally they had was distance. The thing they ventured on was the +chance that the Royal Government, which had troubles nearer home, would +have its hands too full to execute its orders 3,000 miles away across +the sea by force. But they accepted all hazards whatsoever of refusing +always to obey those orders. They held on to their charter like grim +death, and they kept it in their time. More than once or twice it seemed +as good as gone; but delay helped them; turns of events helped them; +God's providence delivered them, they thought; anyhow, they kept it; +that intrepid handful against immeasurable odds, mainly because it lay +not in the power of mortal man to intimidate them. And I contend that, +all things considered, no more splendid exhibition of the essential +stuff of manhood stands on human record. They were no hot-heads. All +that while, rash as they appeared, their pulse was calm. The justifying +reasons of their course were ever plain before their eyes. They were of +the kind of men who understood their objects. + +The representative of an English newspaper, sent some time since to +Ireland to move about and learn by personal observation the real +political mind of the people there, reported on his return that he had +been everywhere and talked with all sorts, and that as nearly as he +could make out, the attitude of the Irish might be stated about thus: +"They don't know what they want--and they are bound to have it." +[Laughter.] + +But those unbending Forefathers well knew what they wanted that charter +for. It was their legal guarantee of the privilege of a spacious +freedom, civil and religious, and all that they did and risked for its +sake is witness of the price at which they held that privilege. It was +not that they had any special objection to the interference in the +province of their domestic administration of the king as a king; for you +find them presently crying "Hands Off!" to the Puritan Parliament as +strenuously as ever they said it to the agents of Charles I. It was +simply and positively the value they set on the self-governing +independence that had been pledged them at the beginning of the +enterprise. + +And who that has a man's heart in him but must own that their +inspiration to such a degree, with such an idea and sentiment in the +time, place, and circumstances in which they stood, was magnificent? Was +the inexorable unrelaxing determination with which they, being so few +and so poor, maintained their point somewhat wrought into their faces? +Very probably. Strange if it had not been. Of course, it was. But if +they were stern-visaged in their day, it was that we in our day, which +in vision they foresaw, might of all communities beneath the sun have +reason for a cheerful countenance. [Applause.] + +They achieved immense great things for us, those Puritan men who were +not smiling enough to suit the critics. The real foundation on which the +structure of American national liberty subsequently rose was laid by +them in those first heroic years. + +And what a marvel it was, when you stop to think, that in conditions so +hard, so utterly prosaic, calculated to clip the wings of generous +thought, they maintained themselves in that elevation of sentiment, that +supreme estimate of the unmaterial, the ideal factors of life that +distinguished them--in such largeness of mind and of spirit altogether. +While confronting at deadly close quarters their own necessities and +perils, their sympathies were wide as the world. To their brethren in +old England, contending with tyranny, every ship that crossed the +Atlantic carried their benediction. Look at the days of thanksgiving and +of fast with which they followed the shifting fortunes of the wars of +Protestantism--which were wars for humanity--on the continent! Look at +the vital consequence they attached to the interest of education; at the +taxes that in their penury, and while for the most part they still lived +in huts, they imposed on themselves to found and to sustain the +institution of the school! [Applause.] + +"Child," said a matron of primitive New England to her young son, "if +God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, thou hast all that +ever thy mother asked for thee." And so saying she spoke like a true +daughter of the Puritans. + +They were poets--those brave, stanch, aspiring souls, whose will was +adamant and who feared none but God. Only, as Charles Kingsley has said, +they did not sing their poetry like birds, but acted it like men. +[Applause.] It was their high calling to stand by the divine cause of +human progress at a momentous crisis of its evolution, and they were +worthy to be put on duty at that post. Evolution! I hardly dare speak +the word, knowing so little about the thing. It represents a very great +matter, which I am humbly conscious of being about as far from +surrounding as was a simple-minded Irish priest I have been told of, +who, having heard that we were descended from monkeys, yet not quite +grasping the chronology of the business, the next time he visited a +menagerie, gave particular and patient attention to a large cage of our +alleged poor relations on exhibition there. He stood for a long time +intently scrutinizing their human-like motions, gestures, and +expressions. By and by he fancied that the largest of them, an +individual of a singularly grave demeanor, seated at the front of the +cage, gave him a glance of intelligence. The glance was returned. A +palpable wink followed, which also was returned, as were other like +signals; and so it went on until his Reverence, having cast an eye +around to see that nobody was observing him, leaned forward and said, in +a low, confidential tone: "Av ye'll spake one w-u-r-r-d, I'll baptize +ye, begorra!" [Laughter.] + +But, deficient as one's knowledge of evolution, scientifically and in +detail, may be, he may have attained to a not unintelligent perception +of the all-embracing creative process called by that name as that in +which, in the whole range of the advancing universal movement of life, +what is ascends from what was, and fulfils it. + +And what I wish to say for my last word is, that whoever of us in +tracing back along the line of its potent and fruitful sources that +which is his noblest heritage as an American and a member of the English +race, leaves out that hard-featured forefather of ours on the shore of +Massachusetts Bay in the seventeenth century, and makes not large +account of the tremendous fight he fought which was reflected in the +face he wore, misses a chief explanation of the fortune to which we and +our children are born. [Loud applause.] + + + + +JOHN TYNDALL + + +ART AND SCIENCE + + [Speech of Professor John Tyndall at the annual banquet of the + Royal Academy, London, May 5, 1888. The toast to Science was + coupled with that to Literature, to the latter of which William E. + H. Lecky was called upon to respond. In introducing Professor + Tyndall, the President, Sir Frederic Leighton, said: "On behalf of + Science, on whom could I call more fitly than on my old friend + Professor Tyndall. ["Hear! Hear!"] Fervid in imagination, after the + manner of his race, clothing thoughts luminous and full of color in + a sharply chiselled form, he seems to me to be, in very deed, an + artist and our kin; and I, as an artist, rejoice to see that in + this priest within the temple of Science, Knowledge has not clipped + the wings of wonder, and that to him the tint of Heaven is not the + less lovely that he can reproduce its azure in a little phial, nor + does, because Science has been said to unweave it, the rainbow lift + its arc less triumphantly in the sky."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN: Faraday, whose +standing in the science of the world needs not to be insisted on, used +to say to me that he knew of only two festivals that gave him real +pleasure. He loved to meet, on Tower Hill, the frank and genial +gentlemen-sailors of the Trinity House; but his crowning enjoyment was +the banquet of the Royal Academy. The feeling thus expressed by Faraday +is a representative feeling: for surely it is a high pleasure to men of +science to mingle annually in this illustrious throng, and it is an +honor and a pleasure to hear the toast of Science so cordially proposed +and so warmly responded to year after year. + +Art and Science in their widest sense cover nearly the whole field of +man's intellectual action. They are the outward and visible expressions +of two distinct and supplementary portions of our complex human +nature--distinct, but not opposed, the one working by the dry light of +the intellect, the other in the warm glow of the emotions; the one ever +seeking to interpret and express the beauty of the universe, the other +ever searching for its truth. One vast personality in the course of +history, and one only, seems to have embraced them both. ["Hear! Hear!"] +That transcendent genius died three days ago plus three hundred and +sixty-nine years--Leonardo da Vinci. + +Emerson describes an artist who could never paint a rock until he had +first understood its geological structure; and the late Lord Houghton +told me that an illustrious living poet once destroyed some exquisite +verses on a flower because on examination he found that his botany was +wrong. This is not saying that all the geology in the world, or all the +botany in the world, could create an artist. + +In illustration of the subtle influences which here come into play, a +late member of this Academy once said to me--"Let Raphael take a crayon +in his hand and sweep a curve; let an engineer take tracing paper and +all other appliances necessary to accurate reproduction, and let him +copy that curve--his line will not be the line of Raphael." In these +matters, through lack of knowledge, I must speak, more or less, as a +fool, leaving it to you, as wise men, to judge what I say. Rules and +principles are profitable and necessary for the guidance of the growing +artist and for the artist full-grown; but rules and principles, I take +it, just as little as geology and botany, can create the artist. +Guidance and rule imply something to be guided and ruled. And that +indefinable something which baffles all analysis, and which when wisely +guided and ruled emerges in supreme excellence, is individual genius, +which, to use familiar language, is "the gift of God." [Cheers.] + +In like manner all the precepts of Bacon, linked together and applied in +one great integration, would fail to produce a complete man of science. +In this respect Art and Science are identical--that to reach their +highest outcome and achievement they must pass beyond knowledge and +culture, which are understood by all, to inspiration and creative power, +which pass the understanding even of him who possesses them in the +highest degree. [Cheers.] + + + + +GEORGE ROE VAN DE WATER + + +DUTCH TRAITS + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. George R. Van de Water at the eighth annual + dinner of the Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1893. The + President, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, said: "The next toast is: + 'Holland--a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, and + a sanctuary for the rights of mankind.' This toast will be + responded to by one of the greatest stars in New York's + constellation of the Embassadors of Him on High--Rev. Dr. George R. + Van de Water, rector of St. Andrew's Church, Harlem."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY:--One loves to +observe a fitness in things. There is manifest fitness in one coming to +New York from Harlem to speak to the members of the Holland Society and +their friends. There is also manifest fitness in taking the words of +this country's earliest benefactor, the Marquis de Lafayette, and, +removing them from their original association with this fair and favored +land, applying them to that little but lovely, lowly yet lofty, country +of the Netherlands. Geologists tell us that, minor considerations +waived, the character of a stream can be discerned as well anywhere +along its course as at its source. Whether this be true or not, anything +that can be said of the fundamental principles of liberty, upon which +our national fabric has been built, can be said with even increased +emphasis of the free States of the Netherlands. + +From the Dutch our free America has secured the inspiration of her +chartered liberties. Of the Dutch, then, we can appropriately say, as +Lafayette once said of free America, "They are a lesson to oppressors, +an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind." + +We are here to-night to glorify the Dutch. Fortunately for us, to do +this we have not by the addition of so much as a jot or a tittle to +magnify history. The facts are sufficient to justify our boast and +fortify our pride. We need to detract nothing from other nationalities +that have contributed much to the formation of our modern national +conglomerate, although it is easily seen that the superior qualities of +other nations have had a large infusion of Dutch virtue. All that we +claim is that no nation under the heavens can make such an exhibit of +marvellous success against adverse circumstances as does Holland. From +the days when Julius Caesar mentions their bravery under the name of +Batavians, to the notable time when, voluntarily assuming the title of +reproach, they became "the beggars of the sea," and for nearly a century +fought for their chartered rights against the most powerful and +unscrupulous of foes, the Dutch have shown the most splendid of human +virtues in most conspicuous light. In doing this they have made a noble +name for themselves, and furnished the worthiest of examples for all the +nations of the earth. This is not the time nor the place to deal with +mere facts of history. Yet I take it that even this jolly assembly will +take pleasure in the mention of the deeds that have now become eternally +historic. Who that knows anything of the son of Charles V, who in 1555 +made promises to Holland that he never meant to keep, and for years +after sought in every way to break; who that has ever read of this +fanatical, heartless, cruel, and despotic Philip II of Spain, or of that +wonderful, pure, magnanimous, noblest Dutchman of all, William of +Orange, or of that fickle and false Margaret of Parma, the wicked sister +in Holland, who lived to execute the will of a wicked brother in Spain, +or of those monsters at the head of Spanish armies, Alva, Requesens, and +Don Juan; who that has been fired by the sieges of Leyden and Haarlem, +by the assassinations concocted in the Council of Blood, by the patient, +faithful, undying patriotism of the Netherlanders in protesting for the +truth of God and the rights of man, will need any response to the toast +"a lesson to oppressors"? A little land, fighting for the right, +succeeded in overcoming the power of the mightiest nation of Europe. + + "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." + +When once we consider the earnestness for civil and religious liberty, +the record of no nation can stand comparison with that of Holland. Some +of the English Puritans fled across the Atlantic from persecutions very +slight compared with those inflicted upon Dutchmen by Philip, here to +found a New England. Those who did not flee remained in old England, +fought a few battles, and tried to establish a commonwealth, which in +less than fifteen years ended disastrously, because the founders were +unfit for government. But these Puritans of Holland, to their +everlasting praise be it remembered, battled for their homes, lives, and +liberty for eighty years. For four-fifths of a century they faced not +only the best and bravest soldiers of Europe, but they faced, along with +their wives, their children, and their old folk, the flame, the gibbet, +the flood, the siege, the pestilence, the famine, "and all men know, or +dream, or fear of agony," all for one thing--to teach the oppressor that +his cause must fail. It is difficult, sitting around a comfortable board +at a public dinner, to make men realize what their forefathers suffered +that the heritage of priceless liberty should be their children's pride. +But read Motley, or the recent and remarkably well-written volumes of +Douglas Campbell, and you will see that every atrocity that Spanish +hatred, religious intolerance, and mediaeval bigotry could invent, every +horror that ever followed in the train of war, swept over and desolated +Holland. And yet, to teach a lesson to oppressors, they endured, they +fought, they suffered, they conquered; and when they conquered, the +whole world was taught the lesson--worth all the Dutchmen's agony to +teach it--that the children of a heavenly Father are born free and +equal, and that it is neither the province of nation or church to coerce +them into any religious belief or doctrine whatsoever. + +The principle of Protestantism was won in the eighty-year war of the +Netherlanders. During all this time the Dutch were notably giving a +lesson to oppressors. But then and afterward they furnished a brilliant +and commendable example to the oppressed. Though they fought the wrong, +they never opposed the truth. They were fierce, but never fanatical. +They loved liberty, but they never encouraged license; they believed in +freedom and the maintenance of chartered rights, but they never denied +their lawful allegiance to their governor, nor refused scriptural +submission to the powers ordained of God. The public documents +throughout the eighty years of war invariably recognized Philip as +lawful king. Even the University of Leyden, founded as a thanksgiving +offering for their successful resistance to the Spanish siege, observed +the usual legal fiction, and acknowledged the King as ruler of the +realm. And, although the Dutch had abundant reason to be vindictive, +once the opportunity offered, the desire for persecution vanished. +William the Silent, as early as 1556, in a public speech before the +regent and her council, says, "Force can make no impression on one's +conscience." "It is the nature of heresy," he goes on to say (would we +had the spirit of William in our churches to-day)--"it is the nature of +heresy, if it rests it rusts: he that rubs it whets it." His was an age +when religious toleration, except as a political necessity, was unknown. +Holland first practised it, then taught it to the world. No less in her +example to the oppressed than in her warning to oppressors, is Holland +conspicuous, is Holland great. During the reign of William of Orange, +first a Romanist, then a Calvinist, never a bigot, always gentle, at +last a Christian, in Holland and in Zeeland, where for years he was +almost military dictator, these principles of tolerance were put to +severest test. Fortunately for the world, they were sufficiently strong +to stand the strain. The people about him had been the sad victims of a +horrible persecution which had furrowed their soil with graves, and +filled their land with widows and orphans. We know what is human nature. +But Dutch nature is a little more generous than ordinary human nature. A +Dutchman's heart is big, a Dutchman travels on a broad-gauge track; a +Dutchman can forgive and forget an injury; a Dutchman has no fears and +few frowns; a Dutchman is never icebergy, nor sullen, nor revengeful. He +may make mistakes from impulse, he never wounds with intention; he will +never put his foot twice in the same trap, nor will he take any pleasure +in seeing his enemy entrapped. All of a Dutchman's faults come from an +over-indulgence of a Dutchman's virtues. He is not cold, nor +calculating, nor cruel. Generally happy himself, he desires others to be +happy also. If he cannot get on with people, he lets them alone. He +does not seek to ruin them. + +Such are traits of the Dutch character. When, after driving out the +awful, vindictive, bloodthirsty Spaniards, the Dutch came into power, it +was but natural to think of retaliation: banish the Papists, or +persecute the Anabaptists, suppress their paganism, or crush their +fanaticism, would have been most natural. Against any such ideas the +nation as a whole set its face like a wall of adamant. Very soon the +sober convictions of the people were triumphant. And after the most +atrociously cruel war, in which these men had suffered untold agonies, +they became an example to the oppressed, the like of which the world had +never witnessed since the Son of God and Saviour of men cried out from +his cross, "Father, forgive them: they know not what they do." When the +union was formed between Holland and Zeeland, it was provided that no +inquisition should be made into any man's belief or conscience, nor +should any man by cause thereof suffer injury or hindrance. Toleration +for the oppressor by the oppressed, full forgiveness of enemies by the +victors, became thus the corner-stone of the republic, under which all +sects of Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, Jews, Turks, infidels, +and even heretics, throve and prospered. + +Now, do you need anything said after thus showing Holland to have been +the teacher of a lesson to oppressors, and the example to the oppressed, +to show that she has ever been the sanctuary for the rights of mankind? + +In the nature of things, she could not have been otherwise. The little +country of Holland, that in 1555, on the accession of Philip II to the +sovereignty, was the richest jewel in his crown, and of the five +millions poured annually into his treasury contributed nearly half, +emerged as a republic out of the war with Spain of eighty years' +duration, and remained for two full centuries the greatest republic in +the world. She has been the instructor of the world in art, in music, in +science; has outstripped other nations in the commercial race; had +wealth and luxury, palaces and architectural splendor, when England's +yeomanry lived in huts and never ate a vegetable; discovered +oil-painting, originated portrait and landscape-painting, was foremost +in all the mechanical arts; invented wood-engraving, printing from +blocks, and gave to the world both telescope and microscope, thus +furnishing the implements to see the largest things of the heavens +above, and the smallest of both earth beneath and waters under the +earth. The corner-stone was liberty, and especially religious liberty +and toleration. As such Holland could not have been other than the +sanctuary for the rights of mankind. The great number of Englishmen in +the Netherlands, and the reciprocal influence of the Netherlands upon +these Englishmen--an influence all too little marked by English +historians--prepared the way for transplanting to this country the seeds +from which has sprung the large tree beneath the bounteous shade of +which nearly seventy millions of people take shelter to-day, and, while +they rest, rejoice in full security of their rights and their freedom. + +Two hundred years ago, the English courtiers about Charles II, +regardless of the fact that the Netherlands had been the guide and the +instructor of England in almost everything which had made her materially +great, regarded the Dutchman as a boor, plain and ill-mannered, and +wanting in taste, because as a republican the Hollander thought it a +disgrace to have his wife or his daughter debauched by king or noble. +From the aristocratic point of view, the Dutchman was not altogether a +gentleman. To-day we have some representatives of the Charles II +courtiers, who affect to ape the English, and would, no doubt, despise +the Dutch. But he who appreciates the genuine meaning of a man, born in +the image and living in the fear of his God, has nothing but direst +disgust for a dude, nothing but the rarest respect for a Dutchman. + + + + +MARION J. VERDERY + + +THE SOUTH IN WALL STREET + + [Speech of Marion J. Verdery at the third annual banquet of the + Southern Society of New York, February 22, 1889. The President, + John C. Calhoun, presided, and in introducing Mr. Verdery, said: + "The next toast is 'The South in Wall Street.' What our friend Mr. + Verdery has to say in response to this toast I'm sure I don't know; + but if he proposes to tell us how there is any money for the South + in Wall Street--to give us a straight tip on the market--he may be + sure of a very attentive audience. Now, Mr. Verdery, if you will + tell us what to do to-morrow, we will all of us cheerfully give you + half of what we make--that is, of course, if you will guarantee us + against loss.".] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--When Colonel Fellows concluded his +speech and sat down next to me, after he had by his matchless oratory +electrified this audience and had immersed me in the flood of his +eloquence, both literally and figuratively, for in the graceful swing of +his gestures, he turned over a goblet of water in my lap [laughter], I +felt very much as the little boy did who had stood at the head of his +spelling-class for three weeks, and then was stumped by the word +kaleidoscope. He thought for a moment or two, and then seriously said, +"he didn't believe there was a boy on earth who could spell it." I did +not believe, after Colonel Fellows finished, that there was another man +on earth who could follow him. [Applause.] + +Mr. Chairman, in the course of my experience I never knew of but one +absolutely straight tip in Wall Street. To that, you and this Society +are perfectly welcome. If you act on it, I will cheerfully guarantee you +against loss, without exacting that you shall divide with me the +profits. It is a point that the late Mr. Travers gave our friend Henry +Grady. [Laughter.] They had been to attend a national convention at +Chicago, and on returning were seriously disappointed because of the +failure to have nominated their chosen candidate. As they came across +the ferry in the gray light of the morning, Grady, who was seeking +consolation, said: "Mr. Travers, what is the best thing I can buy in +Wall Street?" The noted wit of the Stock Exchange replied: "The best +thing you can buy is a ticket back to Atlanta." [Laughter.] + +Two old darkies, lounging on a street corner in Richmond, Va., one day, +were suddenly aroused by a runaway team that came dashing toward them at +breakneck speed. The driver, scared nearly to death, had abandoned his +reins, and was awkwardly climbing out of the wagon at the rear end. One +of the old negroes said: "Brer' Johnson, sure as you born man, de +runaway horse am powerful gran' and a monstrous fine sight to see." +Johnson shook his head doubtfully, and then replied, philosophically, +"Dat 'pends berry much, nigger, on whedder you be standin' on de corner +obsarvin' of him, or be gittin' ober de tail-board ob de waggin." And +likewise, it strikes me that any keen enjoyment to be gotten out of +after-dinner speaking is peculiarly contingent--"'pendin' berry much on +whedder you is standin' off lookin' on, or gittin' ober de tail-board of +de waggin." [Laughter.] + +If Wall Street is all that spiteful cynics and ignorant fanatics say of +it--if we are to admit that it is a den of thieves, where only +falsehood, treachery, and iniquitous schemes are propagated; if there is +any ground for believing that all the exchanges are side-shows to hell +[laughter], and their members devils incarnate [laughter], I fail to +appreciate any advantage to the South in being there, and in no place +where her presence could not be counted a credit would I assist in +discovering her. + +But if, on the other hand, we repudiate such wholesale abuse of the +place, and insist, for truth's sake, upon an acknowledgment of facts as +they exist, then the South can well afford to be found in Wall Street, +and if prominent there we may proudly salute her. + +Wall Street is the throbbing heart of America's finance. It is a common +nursery for an infinite variety of enterprises, all over our land. +Innumerable manufactories, North, South, East, and West, have drawn +their capital from Wall Street. The industrial progress and material +development of our blessed Southland is being pushed forward vigorously +to-day by the monetary backing of Wall Street. The vast fields of the +fertile West, luxurious in the beauty and rich in the promise of +tasselled corn and bearded grain, are tilled and harvested by helpful +loans from Wall Street. Old railroads, run down in their physical +condition and thereby seriously impaired for public service, are +constantly being rehabilitated with Wall Street money, while eight out +of every ten new ones draw the means for their construction and +equipment from this same source of financial supply. + +To all attacks recklessly made on the methods of Wall Street, it seems +to me there is ample answer in this one undeniable fact--the daily +business done there foots up in dollars and cents more than the total +trade of any whole State of the Union, except New York; and, although +the great bulk of transactions are made in the midst of intense +excitement, incident to rapid and sometimes violent fluctuation of +values, and, although gigantic trades are made binding by only a wink or +a nod, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, the +contracting parties stand rigidly by their bargains, prove they good or +bad. [Applause.] So much for the heroic integrity of the so-called bulls +and bears. Out in the broader realm of commercial vocation, and through +the wider fields of pastoral pursuit, it occurs to me this lesson might +be learned without any reduction of existing morality. [Applause.] + +In Wall Street the brainiest financiers are congregated. Vigorous +energy, unremitting industry, clear judgment, and unswerving nerve are +absolutely essential to personal success. In the light of those +requirements, we venture to ask what place has the South taken. + +Honorable Abram S. Hewitt in his speech before this Society one year +ago, said: "If by some inscrutable providence this list of gentlemen +[meaning members of the Southern Society] were suddenly returned to the +homes which I suppose will know them no longer, there would be in this +city what the quack medicine men call 'a sense of goneness,' and I think +we should have to send to the wise men of the East, Dr. Atkinson, for +example, to tell us how to supply the vacuum." Taking my cue from that +generous compliment, I venture to suggest that if the South should +suddenly withdraw from Wall Street, it would occasion such a contraction +of the currency in that district as would demand even a more liberal +policy than Secretary Fairchild has practised in purchasing Government +bonds. [Applause and laughter.] The aggregate wealth of Southerners in +Wall Street to-day is over $100,000,000 and the great bulk of that vast +amount has been accumulated within the last twenty years. That is to +say, "The South in Wall Street," has made at least $4,000,000 annually +since the war. Under all the circumstances, who will dispute the +magnificence of that showing? It must be remembered that the great +majority of Southern men on entering Wall Street were poor; so poor, +indeed, that they might almost have afforded to begin their career on +the terms that I once heard of a man in South Carolina proposing to some +little negroes. He told them if they would pick wild blackberries from +morning till night he would give them half they gathered. [Laughter.] +The Southerners of Wall Street, with but very few exceptions, entered +that great field of finance with but one consolation, and that was the +calm consciousness of being thoroughly protected against loss from the +simple fact that they had nothing to lose. [Applause and laughter.] A +hundred millions of dollars is no small pile when stacked up +beside--nothing. Of course we are not called upon to analyze this +fortune, nor do I mean to imply that it is evenly divided. Some of us it +must be admitted spoil the average dreadfully, but we all may get the +same satisfaction out of it that the childless man derived, who said +that he and his brother together had three boys and two girls. +[Laughter.] + +The South is a power in Wall Street. She is identified with the +management of many leading financial institutions, and has also founded +private banking-houses and built up other prosperous business +establishments on her own account. It would be in bad taste to mention +names unless I had the roll of honor at hand and could read it off +without exception. The President of the Cotton Exchange and nearly forty +per cent. of its members are Southerners. One of the oldest and +strongest firms on the Produce Exchange is essentially Southern. That +private banking-house in Wall Street, which has stood longest without +any change in the personnel of its partnership, and which ranks to-day +with the most reputable and successful establishments of its kind, is +Southern in every branch of its membership. Seven of the National Banks +have Southern men for Presidents, and the list of Southern cashiers and +tellers is long and honorable. It was a Southern boy who, ten years ago, +counted himself lucky on getting the humble place of mail carrier in one +of the greatest banking houses of America. That very boy, when not long +since he resigned to enter business on his own account, was filling one +of the most responsible positions and drawing the third largest salary +in that same great establishment. + +Another instance of signal success is told in this short story: Less +than six years ago a young Georgian tacked up a cheap little sign on the +door of a sky-lit room in the "Evening Post" building. To-day his is the +leading name of one of the most conspicuous houses in the Street, and +the rent of his present quarters is more per month than the first office +he occupied cost for a whole year. One of the most famous Southern +leaders in Wall Street to-day [John H. Inman] was so little known when +he first attracted attention there that many people assumed he must in +some way be connected with a certain great ocean steamship line, simply +because he bore the same name. To-day it is just as often supposed that +the steamship line is an offshoot from him, because it bears his name. A +great Italian painter once vitalized a canvas with the expression of his +poetic thought and called it "Aurora." In looking at that masterpiece of +art I have sometimes been reminded of this distinguished Southerner. +Immediately after the war the South was enveloped in darkness. Out of +that gloom this man emerged and came here to the East, where the sun +shines first in the morning. Judging him to-day by the record he has +made, we are warranted in saying that on coming here he adopted +Usefulness as his chariot, and that thereto he harnessed the spirited +steeds of Enterprise, Progress, and Development. To-day we see him +driving that triumphal car through the land of his birth, and making the +sunlight of prosperity to shine there. [Tremendous applause.] Sharing +with him the honors of their firm name is another Southerner, whose +career of usefulness and record of splendid success suffer nothing by +comparison. Two other Southern representatives, because of admirable +achievements and brilliant strokes of fortune, have recently gained +great distinction and won much applause in Wall Street. If I called +their names it would awake an echo in the temple of history, where an +illustrious ancestor is enshrined in immortal renown. [Applause and +cries of "Calhoun! Calhoun!"] + +It is not only as financiers and railroad magnates that the South ranks +high in Wall Street, but Southern lawyers likewise have established +themselves in this dollar district, and to-day challenge attention and +deserve tribute. Under the brilliant leadership of two commanding +generals, the younger barristers are steadily winning wider reputation +and pressing forward in professional triumph. + +One question, with its answer, and I shall have done: Are these +Southerners in Wall Street divorced in spirit and sympathy from their +old homes? [Cries of "No! No!"] You say "No." Let the record of their +deeds also make reply. One of them had done a thing so unique and +beautiful that I cannot refrain from alluding to it. It touches the +chord of humanity in every true heart and makes it vibrate with sacred +memories. In the cemetery of the little town of Hopkinsville, Ky., there +stands a splendid monument dedicated to "The Unknown Confederate Dead." +There is no inscription that even hints at who erected it. The builder +subordinated his personality to the glory of his purpose, and only the +consummate beauty of the memorial stands forth. The inspiration of his +impulse was only equalled by the modesty of his method. Truth, touched +by the tenderness and beauty of the tribute to those heroes who died +"for conscience sake," has revealed the author, and in him we recognize +a generous surviving comrade. [Applause, and cries of "Latham! Latham! +John Latham!"] + +Turning from this epitome of sentiment, we are confronted by abundant +evidence of the substantial interest taken by Wall Street Southerners in +the material affairs of the South. What they have done to reclaim the +waste places and develop the resources of their native States is beyond +estimate. They have not only contributed liberally by personal +investment, but they have used every honorable endeavor to influence +other men to do likewise. Loyalty has stimulated their efforts. Their +hearts are in the present and prospective glory of the New South. They +are untiring in their furtherance of legitimate enterprises, and the +fruit of their labor is seen to-day in every Southern State where new +railroads are building, various manufacturing enterprises springing up, +and vast mining interests being developed. The steady flow of capital +into all those channels is greatly due to their influence. There is more +money drifting that way to-day than ever before, and the time will soon +come, if it is not already here, when the sentiment to which I have +responded will admit of transposition, and we can with as much propriety +toast "Wall Street in the South," as to-night we toast "The South in +Wall Street." [Great and long-continued applause.] + + + + +KING EDWARD VII. + + +THE COLONIES + + [Speech of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales [Edward VII, crowned King + of England January 23, 1901], at the banquet given at the Mansion + House, London, July 16, 1881, by the Lord Mayor of London [Sir + William McArthur], to the Prince of Wales, as President of the + Colonial Institute, and to a large company of representatives of + the colonies--governors, premiers, and administrators. This speech + was delivered in response to the toast proposed by the Lord Mayor, + "The Health of the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and the + other members of the Royal Family."] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR MAJESTY, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--For the +kind and remarkably flattering way in which you, my Lord Mayor, have +been good enough to propose this toast, and you, my lords and gentlemen, +for the kind and hearty way in which you have received it, I beg to +offer you my most sincere thanks. It is a peculiar pleasure to me to +come to the City, because I have the honor of being one of its freemen. +But this is, indeed, a very special dinner, one of a kind that I do not +suppose has ever been given before; for we have here this evening +representatives of probably every Colony in the Empire. We have not only +the Secretary of the Colonies, but Governors past and present, +ministers, administrators, and agents, are all I think, to be found here +this evening. I regret that it has not been possible for me to see half +or one-third of the Colonies which it has been the good fortune of my +brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, to visit. In his voyages round the world +he has had opportunities more than once of seeing all our great +Colonies. Though I have not been able personally to see them, or have +seen only a small portion of them, you may rest assured it does not +diminish in any way the interest I take in them. + +It is, I am sorry to say, now going on for twenty-one years since I +visited our large North American Colonies. Still, though I was very +young at the time, the remembrance of that visit is as deeply imprinted +upon my memory now as it was at that time. I shall never forget the +public receptions which were accorded to me in Canada, New Brunswick, +Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, and if it were possible for me at +any time to repeat that visit, I need not tell you gentlemen, who now +represent here those great North American Colonies, of the great +pleasure it would give me to do so. It affords me great gratification to +see an old friend, Sir John Macdonald, the Premier of Canada, here this +evening. + +It was a most pressing invitation, certainly, that I received two years +ago to visit the great Australasian Colonies, and though at the time I +was unable to give an answer in the affirmative or in the negative, +still it soon became apparent that my many duties here in England, would +prevent my accomplishing what would have been a long, though a most +interesting voyage. I regret that such has been the case, and that I was +not able to accept the kind invitation I received to visit the +Exhibitions at Sydney and at Melbourne. I am glad, however, to know that +they have proved a great success, as has been testified to me only this +evening by the noble Duke [Manchester] by my side, who has so lately +returned. Though, my lords and gentlemen, I have, as I said before, not +had the opportunity of seeing these great Australasian Colonies, which +every day and every year are making such immense development, still, at +the International Exhibitions of London, Paris, and Vienna, I had not +only an opportunity of seeing their various products there exhibited, +but I had the pleasure of making the personal acquaintance of many +colonists--a fact which has been a matter of great importance and great +benefit to myself. + +It is now thirty years since the first International Exhibition took +place in London, and then for the first time Colonial exhibits were +shown to the world. Since that time, from the Exhibitions which have +followed our first great gathering in 1851, the improvements that have +been made are manifest. That in itself is a clear proof of the way in +which the Colonies have been exerting themselves to make their vast +territories of the great importance that they are at the present moment. +But though, my Lord Mayor, I have not been to Australasia, as you have +mentioned, I have sent my two sons on a visit there; and it has been a +matter of great gratification, not only to myself, but to the Queen, to +hear of the kindly reception they have met with everywhere. They are but +young, but I feel confident that their visit to the Antipodes will do +them an incalculable amount of good. On their way out they visited a +Colony in which, unfortunately, the condition of affairs was not quite +as satisfactory as we could wish, and as a consequence they did not +extend their visits in that part of South Africa quite so far inland as +might otherwise have been the case. + +I must thank you once more, my Lord Mayor, for the kind way in which you +have proposed this toast. I thank you in the name of the Princess and +the other members of the Royal Family, for the kind reception their +names have met with from all here to-night, and I beg again to assure +you most cordially and heartily of the great pleasure it has given me to +be present here among so many distinguished Colonists and gentlemen +connected with the Colonies, and to have had an opportunity of meeting +your distinguished guest, the King of the Sandwich Islands. If your +lordship's visit to his dominions remains impressed on your mind, I +think your lordship's kindly reception of his Majesty here to-night is +not likely soon to be forgotten by him. + + + + +HUGH C. WALLACE + + +THE SOUTHERNER IN THE WEST + + [Speech of Hugh C. Wallace at the fifth annual banquet of the New + York Southern Society, February 21, 1891. The President, Hugh R. + Garden, occupied the chair. In introducing Mr. Wallace, he said: + "It was said of old that the Southerner was wanting in that energy + and fixedness of purpose which make a successful American. No + broader field has existed for the exercise of those qualities than + the great region west of the Rocky Mountains. We are fortunate in + the presence of a gentleman whose young life is already a + successful refutation of that opinion, and I turn with confidence + to 'The Southerner of the Pacific Slope,' and invite Mr. Hugh C. + Wallace, of the State of Washington, to respond."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--For more than one hundred years +upon this continent a silent army has been marching from the East toward +the West. No silken banners have waved above it, and no blare of trumpet +or beat of drum has heralded its progress. And yet its conquests have +been grander than those of Peru or Mexico, its victories more glorious +than those of Marengo, of Friedland, or of Austerlitz. It has subdued an +empire richer than the Indies without inflicting the cruelties of Clive, +or the exactions of Hastings, and that empire is to-day, Mr. President, +a part of your heritage and mine. [Applause.] For more than thirty years +past the region in which most of those I see around me first saw the +light has lain prostrate, borne down by a Titanic struggle whose +blighting force fell wholly upon her. For more than a generation her +enterprise has seemed exhausted, her strength wasted, and her glory +departed. And yet she has not failed to furnish her full quota to the +grand army of conquest to carry to completion the great work which +Boone, Crockett, and Houston, all her sons--began, and which her genius +alone made possible. [Applause.] + +Turn back with me the pages of time to the beginning of this imposing +march and glance for a moment at its resplendent progress. Its beginning +was in Virginia. Virginians led by that first of Southerners whose natal +day we celebrate to-night and whose fame grows brighter in the +lengthening perspective of the years, conquered the savage and his +little less than savage European ally, and saved for the Nation then +unborn the whole Northwest. The Pinckneys, the Rutledges, and the +Gwinetts forced the hand of Spain from the throat of the Mississippi, +and left the current of trade free to flow to the Gulf unvexed by +foreign influence. + +Another Virginian, illustrious through all time as the great vindicator +of humanity, doubled the area of the national possession of his time by +the Louisiana purchase, and Lewis and Clarke, both sons of the Old +Dominion, in 1804 first trod the vast uninhabited wilds of the far +Northwest to find a land richer in all the precious products of the East +than mortal eyes had yet beheld. So were our borders extended from the +Gulf and the Rio Grande to the 49th parallel and from the Atlantic to +the Pacific--but for Southern enterprise they might have stopped at +Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Niagara. [Applause.] + +The empire thus secured remained to be subdued. From the States in which +you and I, gentlemen, were born has come a noble wing of the grand army +of subjugation, all of whose battles have been victories and all of +whose victories have been victories of civilization. Moving first from +the old States of the South it took possession of territory along the +Gulf and of Tennessee and of Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground." Fame +crowned the heroes of these campaigns with the patriot's name, and +glorified them as pioneers. As their advance guards swept across the +Mississippi and took possession of Missouri, Arkansas, and territory +farther north, envy called it invasion, and when their scouts appeared +in Nebraska and Kansas they were repelled amid the passion of the hour. +Meanwhile, a new element, whose quickening power is scarcely yet +appreciated, had joined the grand movement. Early in the forties a South +Carolinian captain of engineers, the Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, had +marked the way to the far West coast, and added a new realm to the +National domain. [Applause.] It was the domain soon famed for its +delightful climate, its wealth of resources, and its combination of +every natural advantage that human life desires. The gleaming gold soon +after found in the sands of Sutter's Fort spread its fame afar and +attracted to it the superb band of men who came from every State to lay +firm and sure the foundation of the new commonwealth. + +There were only fourteen Southerners in the Constitutional Convention at +Monterey, but their genius for government made them a fair working +majority in the body of forty-eight members. Not content with building a +grand State like this, the united army gathered from the North and South +alike turned its face toward the desert and fastnesses of the eternal +hills and "continuous woods where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound +save his own dashings," and pitched their tents, rolled back the awful +silence that through ages had reigned there; and learned the secrets +that desolation guarded, alluring to them from their fastnesses a +renewed stream of treasure which has resulted in making us the envy of +all other nations. + +In conspicuous contrast to the attitude and sentiment of the South, the +East has never followed to encourage nor sympathize with the West. +Whether it be in legislation or politics or finance, the Western idea +has ever failed to command the earnest attention to which it is +entitled. There is a sentiment which is growing more general and +vigorous every day in the far West, that the time is near at hand when +it will decline to adhere to the fortunes of any leader or body which +recklessly ignores its claims or persistently refuses to it recognition. +It is a very significant fact, Mr. President, that this great region, +containing one-fourth of the National area, one-seventeenth of the +population, and constituting one-seventh of the whole number of States +has had up to this time, but one member of the Cabinet. In the present +Cabinet, fourteen States (east of the Mississippi and North of the old +Mason and Dixon's Line) have seven members and the remaining thirty +States have but one. Those thirty States will see to it in the future +that the party which succeeds through their support has its +representation their efforts have deserved. + +I cannot close, Mr. President, without giving expression to a sentiment +to which Southerners in the West are peculiarly alive--the sentiment of +sympathy and fraternity which exists between the South and the West. +[Applause.] The course of historical development which I have outlined +of the Western man has wrought a bond of friendship between them, and +that bond is not a reminiscence, but a living, vital, and efficient +fact. Only but yesterday, politicians, thank God not the people, sought +for selfish ends to cast back the South into Stygian gloom from which +she had slowly and laboriously but gloriously emerged, to forge upon her +again hope-killing shackles of a barbarous rule. In that hour of trial +which you and I, sir, know to have been a menace and a reality to whom +did she turn for succor? To this man of the West, and quick and glorious +was the response. + + + + +SAMUEL BALDWIN WARD + + +THE MEDICAL PROFESSION + + [Speech of Dr. Samuel B. Ward at the annual banquet of the New York + State Bar Association, in the City of Albany, January 18, 1887.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--That a medical man should be +asked to be in attendance at a banquet such as this was natural, and +when I looked over the list of toasts and found that the clergymen had +been omitted, I took it as an intended though perhaps rather dubious +compliment to my profession, the supposition being that the services of +the clergy would not of course be required. When I was asked to respond +to this toast, in an unguarded moment of good nature, which is +remarkable even in me, I was beguiled into consenting by the persuasive +eloquence of your worthy President and Secretary, and a day or two after +I visited the Executive chamber with the view of endeavoring to make "a +little bargain" with his Excellency. Being myself neither a lawyer, a +politician, nor the editor of a Brooklyn newspaper [laughter], I was +totally unacquainted with such things, but still I am the reader of a +weekly Republican newspaper (that is spelled with two e's and not an a, +and has no reference to the "Albany Evening Journal"), and have +ascertained that among a certain class of men, these "bargains" were +exceedingly common. Respecting the exact nature of the proposition I +shall not reveal? but suffice it to say I failed most ignominiously. + +After leaving the executive chamber I spent a good part of the morning +in reflection as to the cause of the failure. Among other things it +occurred to me that perhaps the newspaper statement, that "bargains" +were so common among officials was untrue, but when I reflected that my +newspaper was a republican organ and that the Executive was a democratic +official I knew that every word that organ would say about a political +opponent must be absolutely true. It occurred to me that perhaps +inasmuch as I was not a politician, his Excellency might have feared to +trust me, but I recollected to have read of the dire misfortune that +befalls certain politicians in New York from trusting each other. As the +Governor's shrewdness was well-known, I knew that he felt that if he +could trust any one, it would be one of my profession, and therefore +that excuse would not answer. It also occurred to me, that perhaps I was +somewhat green and unwise in consenting to make this bargain in the +presence of witnesses, but when I thought of all the sagacity and +shrewdness and reticence that was concealed behind Colonel Rice's +outspoken countenance, and of the numerous "arrangements" of which he +was cognizant, and in relation to which he had never said a word, I felt +assured that that was not the reason. I finally came to the conclusion +that the Governor was a man to be trusted; that if there still be cynics +who believe that "every man has his price," they would find the +Governor's price far too high for them ever to reach. [Applause.] + +In the play of King Henry VI occurs an expression by Dick, the butcher, +which is so short and so pointed that I may be pardoned for reproducing +it in its completeness. It runs thus: "The first thing we do, let's kill +the lawyers." This is not at all the attitude of our profession toward +yours. On the contrary the most stupid charge that is ever laid to the +door of the medical man is that he intentionally, or ever either by luck +or intention, kills his patients. Ere the coffin-lid closes the doctor's +harvest is reaped, but how different it is with you gentlemen. +[Laughter.] Not more than a few days after the debt of nature has been +paid by the unfortunate patient, your harvest--and especially if he has +had the unusual fortune to make a will--begins, and oh! how we are +sometimes tempted to envy you. Through how many seasons this harvest +will be prolonged no one can foretell. That it will be carefully +garnered to the last we can fully rely upon. + +There is perhaps only one state of circumstances under which the +medical man is likely to re-echo the sentiment, and that is when he +steps down from the witness-stand, having served as an "expert." You +lawyers have a duty to discharge to your clients which necessitates your +"taking a part." Even though a man be guilty, there may be "extenuating +circumstances," and it is your right, as it is your duty, "to do all +that lies within your power in his behalf." The "medical expert" should +go upon the stand in a purely judicial frame of mind, and as a rule I +believe he does. But by the manner in which questions are propounded to +him, and by the exercise of every little persuasive art incident to your +calling, he is inevitably led into taking "sides." He is surrounded by +circumstances that are to him entirely strange. He is more or less +annoyed and flurried by his surroundings, and then comes the necessity +of making a categorical answer to questions that are put to him more +especially upon the cross-examination, which cannot be correctly +answered categorically. Unfortunately in a profession like ours, in a +science of art like ours, it often is absolutely impossible to answer a +question categorically without conveying an erroneous impression to the +jury. + +In addition to this, we are subjected at the close of the examination to +what you are pleased to term a "hypothetical question." The theory of +this "hypothetical question" is that it embraces or expresses in a few +words, and not always so very few either [laughter], the main features +of the case under consideration. In nine cases out of ten if the expert +makes a direct and unqualified answer to the question he leaves an +absolutely erroneous idea upon the minds of the jury, and this is the +explanation of why so many experts have made answers to questions which +have elicited adverse criticism. + +In my judgment, after a not very long experience I must admit, but a +sorry one, in some instances, there is but one way in which this matter +of expert evidence should be conducted. The judge should appoint three +experts, one of them at the suggestion of the counsel upon either side, +and the third one at his own discretion. These three appointees should +present their report in writing to the court, and the compensation for +the service should be equally divided between the parties interested. In +that way can expert evidence escape the disrepute now attaching to it, +and the ends of justice be furthered. Now, gentlemen, the hour is +getting late, and I have but one wish to express to you. The medical +profession of the State of New York has an organization very similar to +your own, which has now reached very nearly its ninetieth year, with a +membership of almost 1,000, and with an annual attendance something +double that of your own. I can only hope that your Association may live +on and develop until it reaches as vigorous and flourishing an old age +as that of the medical profession. [Applause.] + + + + +CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +THE RISE OF "THE ATLANTIC" + + [Speech of Charles Dudley Warner at the "Whittier Dinner" in + celebration of the poet's seventieth birthday and the twentieth + birthday of "The Atlantic Monthly," given by the publishers, + Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., at Boston, Mass., December 17, + 1877.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--It is impossible to express my gratitude to you +for calling on me. There is but one pleasure in life equal to that of +being called on to make an after-dinner speech, and that is not being +called on. It is such an enjoyment to sit through the courses with this +prospect like a ten-pound weight on your digestive organs! If it were +ever possible to refuse anything in this world, except by the +concurrence of the three branches of government--the executive, the +obstructive, and the destructive, I believe they are called--I should +hope that we might some time have our speeches first, so that we could +eat our dinner without fear or favor. + +I suppose, however, that I am called up not to grumble, but to say that +the establishment of "The Atlantic Monthly" was an era in literature. I +say it cheerfully. I believe, nevertheless, it was not the first era of +the sort. The sanguine generations have been indulging in them all +along, and as "eras" they are apt to flat out, or, as the editor of the +"Atlantic" would say, they "peter out." But the establishment of the +"Atlantic" was the expression of a genuine literary movement. That +movement is the most interesting because it was the most fruitful in our +history. It was nicknamed transcendentalism. It was, in fact, a +recurrence to realism. They who were sitting in Boston saw a great +light. The beauty of this new realism was that it required imagination, +as it always does, to see truth. That was the charm of the Teufelsdroeckh +philosophy; it was also poetry. Mr. Emerson puts it in a phrase--the +poet is the Seer. Most of you recall the intellectual stir of that time. +Mr. Carlyle had spread the German world to us. Mr. Emerson lighted his +torch. The horizon of English literature was broken, and it was not +necessary any longer to imitate English models. Criticism began to +assert itself. Mr. Lowell launched that audacious "Fable for Critics"--a +lusty colt, rejoicing in his young energy, had broken into the +old-fashioned garden, and unceremoniously trampled about among the rows +of box, the beds of pinks and sweet-williams, and mullen seed. I +remember how all this excited the imagination of the college where I +was. It was what that great navigator who made the "swellings from the +Atlantic" called "a fresh-water college." Everybody read "Sartor +Resartus." The best writer in college wrote exactly like Carlyle--why, +it was the universal opinion--without Carlyle's obscurity! The rest of +them wrote like Jean Paul Richter and like Emerson, and like Longfellow, +and like Ossian. The poems of our genius you couldn't tell from Ossian. +I believe it turned out that they were Ossian's. [Laughter.] Something +was evidently about to happen. When this tumult had a little settled the +"Atlantic" arose serenely out of Boston Bay--a consummation and a star +of promise as well. + +The promise has been abundantly fulfilled. The magazine has had its fair +share in the total revolution of the character of American literature--I +mean the revolution out of the sentimental period; for the truth of this +I might appeal to the present audience, but for the well-known fact that +writers of books never read any except those they make themselves. +[Laughter.] I distinctly remember the page in that first "Atlantic" that +began with--"If the red slayer thinks he slays--" a famous poem, that +immediately became the target of all the small wits of the country, and +went in with the "Opinions," paragraphs of that Autocratic talk, which +speedily broke the bounds of the "Atlantic," and the Pacific as well, +and went round the world. [Applause.] + +Yes, the "Atlantic" has had its triumphs of all sorts. The Government +even was jealous of its power. It repeatedly tried to banish one of its +editors, and finally did send him off to the court of Madrid [James +Russell Lowell]. And I am told that the present editor [William Dean +Howells] might have been snatched away from it, but for his good fortune +in being legally connected with a person who is distantly related to a +very high personage who was at that time reforming the civil service. + +Mr. Chairman, there is no reason why I should not ramble on in this way +all night; but then, there is no reason why I should. There is only one +thing more that I desire to note, and that is, that during the existence +of the "Atlantic," American authors have become very nearly emancipated +from fear or dependence on English criticisms. In comparison with former +days they care now very little what London says. This is an acknowledged +fact. Whether it is the result of a sturdy growth at home or of a +visible deterioration of the quality of the criticism--a want of the +discriminating faculty--the Contributors' Club can, no doubt, point out. + +[In conclusion, Mr. Warner paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the +Quaker poet.] + + + + +[Illustration: _HENRY WATTERSON_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph from life_] + + +HENRY WATTERSON + + +OUR WIVES + + [Speech of Henry Watterson at the dinner held on the anniversary of + General W. T. Sherman's birthday, Washington, D. C., February 8, + 1883. Colonel George B. Corkhill presided, and introduced Mr. + Watterson to speak to the toast, "Our Wives."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--When one undertakes to respond to such a sentiment +as you do me the honor to assign me, he knows in advance that he is put, +as it were, upon his good behavior. I recognize the justice of this and +accepted the responsibility with the charge; though I may say that if +General Sherman's wife resembles mine--and I very much suspect she +does--he has a sympathy for me at the present moment. Once upon a festal +occasion, a little late, quite after the hour when Cinderella was bidden +by her godmother to go to bed, I happened to extol the graces and +virtues of the newly wedded wife of a friend of mine, and finally, as a +knockdown argument, I compared her to my own wife. "In this case," said +he, dryly, "you'll catch it when you get home." It is a peculiarity they +all have: not a ray of humor where the husband is concerned; to the best +of them and to the last he must be and must continue to be--a hero! + +Now, I do not wish you to believe, nor to think that I myself believe, +that all women make heroes of their husbands. Women are logical in +nothing. They naturally hate mathematics. So, they would have their +husbands be heroes only to the rest of the world. There is a charming +picture by John Leech, the English satirist, which depicts Jones, who +never looked askance at a woman in his life, sitting demurely at table, +stuck with his nose on his plate, and Mrs. Jones opposite, redundant to +a degree, observing with gratified severity, "Now, Mr. Jones, don't let +me see you ogling those Smith girls again!" She, too, was like the +rest--the good ones, I mean--seeing the world through her husband; no +happiness but his comfort; no vanity but his glory; sacrificing herself +to his wants, and where he proves inadequate putting her imagination out +to service and bringing home a basket of flowers to deck his brow. Of +our sweethearts the humorist hath it:-- + + "Where are the Marys and Anns and Elizas, + Lovely and loving of yore? + Look in the columns of old 'Advertisers,' + Married and dead by the score." + +But "our wives." We don't have far to look to find them; sometimes, I am +told, you army gentlemen have been known to find them turning +unexpectedly up along the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and making +their presence felt even as far as the halls of the Montezumas. Yet how +should we get on without them? Rob mankind of his wife and time could +never become a grandfather. Strange as you may think it our wives are, +in a sense, responsible for our children; and I ask you seriously how +could the world get on if it had no children? It might get on for a +while, I do admit; but I challenge the boldest among you to say how long +it could get on without "our wives." It would not only give out of +children; in a little--a very little--while it would have no +mother-in-law, nor sister-in-law, nor brother-in-law, nor any of those +acquired relatives whom it has learned to love, and who have contributed +so largely to its stock of harmless pleasure. + +But, as this is not exactly a tariff discussion, though a duty, I drop +statistics; let me ask you what would become of the revenues of man if +it were not for "our wives?" We should have no milliners but for "our +wives." But for "our wives" those makers of happiness and furbelows, +those fabricators of smiles and frills, those gentle beings who bias and +scollop and do their sacking at both ends of the bill, and sometimes in +the middle, would be compelled to shut up shop, retire from business, +and return to the good old city of Mantua, whence they came. The world +would grow too rich; albeit, on this promise I do not propose to +construct an argument in favor of more wives. One wife is enough, two +is too many, and more than two are an abomination everywhere, except in +Utah and the halls of our national legislature. + +I beg you will forgive me. I do but speak in banter. It has been said +that a good woman, fitly mated, grows doubly good; but how often have we +seen a bad man mated to a good woman turned into a good man? Why, I +myself was not wholly good till I married my wife; and, if the eminent +soldier and gentleman in whose honor we are here--and may he be among us +many and many another anniversary, yet always sixty-three--if he should +tell the story of his life, I am sure he would say that its darkest +hours were cherished, its brightest illuminated by the fair lady of a +noble race, who stepped from the highest social eminence to place her +hand in that of an obscure young subaltern of the line. The world had +not become acquainted with him, but with the prophetic instinct of a +true woman she discovered, as she has since developed, the mine. So it +is with all "our wives." Whatever there is good in us they bring it out; +wherefor may they be forever honored in the myriad of hearts they come +to lighten and to bless. [Loud applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE PURITAN AND THE CAVALIER + + [Speech of Henry Watterson at the eighty-ninth anniversary banquet + of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, + 1894. Elihu Root, President of the Society, introduced Mr. + Watterson in the following words: "Gentlemen, we are forced to + recognize the truth of the observation that all the people of New + England are not Puritans; we must admit an occasional exception. It + is equally true, I am told, that all the people of the South are + not cavaliers; but there is one cavalier without fear and without + reproach [applause], the splendid courage of whose convictions + shows how close together the highest examples of different types + can be among godlike men--a cavalier of the South, of southern + blood and southern life, who carries in thought and in deed all the + serious purpose and disinterested action that characterized the + Pilgrim Fathers whom we commemorate. He comes from an impressionist + State where the grass is blue [laughter], where the men are either + all white or all black, and where, we are told, quite often the + settlements are painted red. [Laughter.] He is a soldier, a + statesman, a scholar, and, above all, a lover; and among all the + world which loves a lover the descendants of those who, generation + after generation, with tears and laughter, have sympathized with + John Alden and Priscilla, cannot fail to open their hearts in + sympathy to Henry Watterson and his star-eyed goddess. [Applause.] + I have the honor and great pleasure of introducing him to respond + to the toast of 'The Puritan and the Cavalier.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Eight years ago, to-night, there +stood where I am standing now a young Georgian, who, not without reason, +recognized the "significance" of his presence here--"the first +southerner to speak at this board"--a circumstance, let me add, not very +creditable to any of us--and in words whose eloquence I cannot hope to +recall, appealed from the New South to New England for a united country. + +He was my disciple, my protege, my friend. He came to me from the +southern schools, where he had perused the arts of oratory and letters, +to get a few hints in journalism, as he said; needing so few, indeed, +that, but a little later, I sent him to one of the foremost journalists +of this foremost city, bearing a letter of introduction, which described +him as "the greatest boy ever born in Dixie, or anywhere else." + +He is gone now. But, short as his life was, its heaven-born mission was +fulfilled; the dream of his childhood was realized; for he had been +appointed by God to carry a message of peace on earth, good-will to men, +and, this done, he vanished from the sight of mortal eyes, even as the +dove from the ark. + +I mean to take up the word where Grady left it off, but I shall continue +the sentence with a somewhat larger confidence, and, perhaps, with a +somewhat fuller meaning; because, notwithstanding the Puritan trappings, +traditions, and associations which surround me--visible illustrations of +the self-denying fortitude of the Puritan character and the sombre +simplicity of the Puritan taste and habit--I never felt less out of +place in all my life. + +To tell you the truth, I am afraid that I have gained access here on +false pretences; for I am no Cavalier at all; just plain Scotch-Irish; +one of those Scotch-Irish southerners who ate no fire in the green leaf +and has eaten no dirt in the brown, and who, accepting, for the moment, +the terms Puritan and Cavalier in the sense an effete sectionalism once +sought to ascribe to them--descriptive labels at once classifying and +separating North and South--verbal redoubts along that mythical line +called Mason and Dixon, over which there were supposed by the extremists +of other days to be no bridges--I am much disposed to say, "A plague o' +both your houses!" + +Each was good enough and bad enough in its way, whilst they lasted; each +in its turn filled the English-speaking world with mourning; and each, +if either could have resisted the infection of the soil and climate they +found here, would be to-day striving at the sword's point to square life +by the iron rule of Theocracy, or to round it by the dizzy whirl of a +petticoat! It is very pretty to read about the Maypole in Virginia and +very edifying and inspiring to celebrate the deeds of the Pilgrim +Fathers. But there is not Cavalier blood enough left in the Old Dominion +to produce a single crop of first families, whilst out in Nebraska and +Iowa they claim that they have so stripped New England of her Puritan +stock as to spare her hardly enough for farm hands. This I do know, from +personal experience, that it is impossible for the stranger-guest, +sitting beneath a bower of roses in the Palmetto Club at Charleston, or +by a mimic log-heap in the Algonquin Club at Boston, to tell the +assembled company apart, particularly after ten o'clock in the evening! +Why, in that great, final struggle between the Puritans and the +Cavaliers--which we still hear sometimes casually mentioned--although it +ended nearly thirty years ago, there had been such a mixing up of +Puritan babies and Cavalier babies during the two or three generations +preceding it, that the surviving grandmothers of the combatants could +not, except for their uniforms, have picked out their own on any field +of battle! + +Turning to the Cyclopaedia of American Biography, I find that Webster had +all the vices that are supposed to have signalized the Cavalier, and +Calhoun all the virtues that are claimed for the Puritan. During twenty +years three statesmen of Puritan origin were the chosen party leaders of +Cavalier Mississippi: Robert J. Walker, born and reared in Pennsylvania; +John A. Quitman, born and reared in New York, and Sargent S. Prentiss, +born and reared in the good old State of Maine. That sturdy Puritan, +John Slidell, never saw Louisiana until he was old enough to vote and +to fight; native here--an alumnus of Columbia College--but sprung from +New England ancestors. Albert Sidney Johnston, the most resplendent of +modern Cavaliers--from tip to toe a type of the species--the very rose +and expectancy of the young Confederacy--did not have a drop of Southern +blood in his veins; Yankee on both sides of the house, though born in +Kentucky a little while after his father and mother arrived there from +Connecticut. The Ambassador who serves our Government near the French +Republic was a gallant Confederate soldier and is a representative +southern statesman; but he owns the estate in Massachusetts where his +father was born, and where his father's fathers lived through many +generations. + +And the Cavaliers, who missed their stirrups, somehow, and got into +Yankee saddles? The woods were full of them. If Custer was not a +Cavalier, Rupert was a Puritan. And Sherwood and Wadsworth and Kearny, +and McPherson and their dashing companions and followers! The one +typical Puritan soldier of the war--mark you!--was a Southern, and not a +Northern, soldier; Stonewall Jackson, of the Virginia line. And, if we +should care to pursue the subject farther back, what about Ethan Allen +and John Stark and Mad Anthony Wayne--Cavaliers each and every one? +Indeed, from Israel Putnam to "Buffalo Bill," it seems to me the +Puritans have had rather the best of it in turning out Cavaliers. So the +least said about the Puritan and the Cavalier--except as blessed +memories or horrid examples--the better for historic accuracy. + +If you wish to get at the bottom facts, I don't mind telling you--in +confidence--that it was we Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you--some +of us in peace--others of us in war--supplying the missing link of +adaptability--the needed ingredient of common sense--the conservative +principle of creed and action, to which this generation of Americans +owes its intellectual and moral emancipation from frivolity and +pharisaism--its rescue from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand--and +its crystallization into a national character and polity, ruling by +force of brains and not by force of arms. + +Gentlemen--Sir--I, too, have been to Boston. Strange as the admission +may seem, it is true; and I live to tell the tale. I have been to +Boston; and when I declare that I found there many things that suggested +the Cavalier and did not suggest the Puritan, I shall not say I was +sorry. But among other things, I found there a civilization perfect in +its union of the art of living with the grace of life; an Americanism +ideal in its simple strength. Grady told us, and told us truly, of that +typical American who, in Dr. Talmage's mind's eye, was coming, but who, +in Abraham Lincoln's actuality, had already come. In some recent studies +into the career of that great man, I have encountered many startling +confirmations of this judgment; and from that rugged trunk, drawing its +sustenance from gnarled roots, interlocked with Cavalier sprays and +Puritan branches deep beneath the soil, shall spring, is springing, a +shapely tree--symmetric in all its parts--under whose sheltering boughs +this nation shall have the new birth of freedom Lincoln promised it, and +mankind the refuge which was sought by the forefathers when they fled +from oppression. Thank God, the axe, the gibbet, and the stake have had +their day. They have gone, let us hope, to keep company with the lost +arts. It has been demonstrated that great wrongs may be redressed and +great reforms be achieved without the shedding of one drop of human +blood; that vengeance does not purify, but brutalizes; and that +tolerance, which in private transactions is reckoned a virtue, becomes +in public affairs a dogma of the most far-seeing statesmanship. Else how +could this noble city have been redeemed from bondage? It was held like +a castle of the Middle Ages by robber barons, who levied tribute right +and left. Yet have the mounds and dykes of corruption been carried--from +buttress to bell-tower the walls of crime have fallen--without a shot +out of a gun, and still no fires of Smithfield to light the pathway of +the victor, no bloody assizes to vindicate the justice of the cause; nor +need of any. + +So I appeal from the men in silken hose who danced to music made by +slaves--and called it freedom--from the men in bell-crowned hats, who +led Hester Prynne to her shame--and called it religion--to that +Americanism which reaches forth its arms to smite wrong with reason and +truth, secure in the power of both. I appeal from the patriarchs of New +England to the poets of New England; from Endicott to Lowell; from +Winthrop to Longfellow; from Norton to Holmes; and I appeal in the name +and by the rights of that common citizenship--of that common +origin--back both of the Puritan and the Cavalier--to which all of us +owe our being. Let the dead past, consecrated by the blood of its +martyrs, not by its savage hatreds--darkened alike by kingcraft and +priestcraft--let the dead past bury its dead. Let the present and the +future ring with the song of the singers. Blessed be the lessons they +teach, the laws they make. Blessed be the eye to see, the light to +reveal. Blessed be Tolerance, sitting ever on the right hand of God to +guide the way with loving word, as blessed be all that brings us nearer +the goal of true religion, true Republicanism and true patriotism, +distrust of watchwords and labels, shams and heroes, belief in our +country and ourselves. It was not Cotton Mather, but John Greenleaf +Whittier, who cried: + + "Dear God and Father of us all, + Forgive our faith in cruel lies, + Forgive the blindness that denies. + + "Cast down our idols--overturn + Our bloody altars--make us see + Thyself in Thy humanity!" + +[Applause and cheers.] + + + + +HEMAN LINCOLN WAYLAND + + +THE FORCE OF IDEAS + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the fourth annual dinner of + the New England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, + 1884. Dr. Wayland, as President of the Society, occupied the chair, + and delivered the following address in welcoming the guests.] + + +FELLOW NEW ENGLANDERS--Or, in view of our habitual modesty and +self-depreciation, I ought, perhaps, rather to say, Fellow Pharisees +[laughter]--I congratulate you that we are able to show our guests a +little real New England weather--weather that recalls the sleigh-rides, +and crossing the bridges, and the singing-school. You are reminded of +the observation of the British tar, who, after a long cruise in the +Mediterranean, as he came into the eternal fog which surrounds the +"tight little island," exclaimed, "This is weather as is weather; none +of your blasted blue sky for me!" [Laughter.] + +Let me also apologize to our guests for the extreme plainness and +frugality of the entertainment. They will kindly make allowance, when +they remember that this is washing-day. [Laughter.] + +I am aware that the occasion is so large as to dwarf all merely personal +considerations; but I cannot omit to return you my thanks for the +unmerited kindness which has placed me in the position I occupy. I must +add that the position is at once the more honorable and the more +onerous, because I am called to follow a gentleman whose administration +of the office has been so superlatively successful. + +In making this allusion to my honored predecessor, I am reminded of an +event in which we all feel a common pride. On the 25th of last June, +amid the hills which overshadow Dartmouth College, our then president +laid the corner-stone of "Rollins Chapel" for Christian worship, while +on the same day, at the same place, on the grounds traversed in earlier +years by Webster and Choate, another son of New England laid the +corner-stone of the "Wilson Library Building." Thus does intelligent +industry, large-hearted benevolence, and filial piety, plant upon the +granite hills of New England the olive-groves of Academus and the palms +of Judea. [Applause.] + +But perhaps there may be here some intelligent stranger who asks me to +define an expression which is now and then heard on these occasions: +"What is this New England of which you speak so seldom and so +reluctantly? Is it a place?" Yes, it is a place; not indeed only a +place, but it is a place; and he cannot know New England who has not +traversed it from Watch Hill to Mount Washington, from Champlain to +Passamaquoddy. In no other wise can one realize how the sterile soil and +the bleak winds and the short summer have been the rugged parents of +that thrift, that industry, that economy, that regard for the small +savings, which have made New England the banker of America. As the +population grew beyond the capacity of the soil, her sons from her +myriad harbors swarmed out upon the sea, an army of occupation, and +annexed the Grand Banks, making them national banks before the days of +Secretary Chase. [Laughter.] When the limits of agriculture were +reached, they enslaved the streams, and clothed the continent. They +gathered hides from Iowa and Texas, and sold them, in the shape of +boots, in Dubuque and Galveston. Sterile New England underlaid the +imperial Northwest with mortgages, and overlaid it with insurance. I +chanced to be in Chicago two or three days after the great fire of 1871. +As I walked among the smoking ruins, if I saw a man with a cheerful air, +I knew that he was a resident of Chicago; if I saw a man with a long +face, I knew that he represented a Hartford insurance company. +[Laughter.] Really, the cheerful resignation with which the Chicago +people endured the losses of New England did honor to human nature. +[Laughter.] + +Perhaps it is well that New England is not yet more sterile, for it +would have owned the whole of the country, and would have monopolized +all the wealth, as it has confessedly got a corner on all the virtues. + +And while the narrow limit of the season, called by courtesy "summer," +has enforced promptness and rapidity of action, the long winters have +given pause for reflection, have fostered the red school-house, have +engendered reading and discussion, have made her sons and her daughters +thoughtful beings. + +The other day, in reading the life of a New England woman,[8] I met with +a letter written when she was seventeen years old: "I have begun reading +Dugald Stewart. How are my sources of enjoyment multiplied. By bringing +into view the various systems of philosophers concerning the origin of +our knowledge, he enlarges the mind, and extends the range of our ideas, +... while clearly distinguishing between proper objects of inquiry and +those that must forever remain inexplicable to man in the present state +of his faculties. Reasonings from induction are delightful." [Laughter.] + +I think you will agree with me that only where there was a long winter, +and long winter evenings, would such a letter be written by a girl in +her teens. + +The question has often been asked why there are so many poets in New +England. A traveller passing through Concord inquired, "How do all these +people support themselves?" The answer was, "They all live by writing +poems for 'The Atlantic Monthly.'" [Laughter.] + +Now, any one who thinks of it must see that it is the weather which +makes all these poets, or rather the weathers, for there are so many. As +Mr. Choate said: "Cold to-day, hot to-morrow; mercury at eighty in the +morning, with wind at southeast; and in three hours more a sea-turn, +wind at east, a thick fog from the bottom of the ocean, and a fall of +forty degrees; now, so dry as to kill all the beans in New Hampshire; +then, a flood, carrying off the bridges on the Penobscot; snow in +Portsmouth in July, and the next day a man and a yoke of oxen killed by +lightning down in Rhode Island." [Laughter.] + +The commonplace question: "How is the weather going to be?" gives a +boundless play to the imagination, and makes a man a poet before he +knows it. And then a poet must have grand subjects in nature. And what +does a poet want that he does not find in New England? Wooded glens, +mysterious ravines, inaccessible summits, hurrying rivers; the White +Hills, keeping up, as Starr King said, "a perpetual peak against the +sky"; the Old Man of the Mountains looking down the valley of the +Pemigewasset, and hearing from afar the Ammonoosuc as it breaks into a +hundred cataracts; Katahdin, Kearsarge, setting its back up higher than +ever since that little affair off Cherbourg; the everlasting ocean +inviting to adventure, inspiring to its own wild freedom, and making a +harbor in every front yard, so that the hardy mariner can have his smack +at his own doorstep. [Laughter.] (Need I say I mean his fishing-smack?) +What more can a poet desire? + +And then life in New England, especially New England of the olden time, +has been an epic poem. It was a struggle against obstacles and enemies, +and a triumph over nature in behalf of human welfare. + +What would a poet sing about, I wonder, who lived on the Kankakee Flats? +Of course, the epic poet must have a hero, and an enemy, and a war. The +great enemy in those parts is shakes; so, as Virgil began, "I sing of +arms and the man," the Kankakee poet would open: + + "I sing the glories of cinchona and the man + Who first invented calomel." + +Yes, if the Pilgrims had landed upon the far Western prairies or the +Southern savannas, they would never have made America; they would never +have won a glory beyond that of Columbus, who only discovered America, +whereas these men created it. [Applause.] + +But not a place alone. New England is also a race; the race that plants +colonies and makes nations; the race that carries everywhere a free +press, a free pulpit, an open Bible, and that has almost learned to +spell and parse its own language; the race which began the battle for +civil and religious liberty in the time of Elizabeth, which fought the +good fight at Edgehill, which, beside Concord Bridge, "fired the shot +heard round the world," which made a continent secure for liberty at +Appomattox. [Applause.] + +And New England is not alone a place and a race; it is as well an idea, +or a congeries of ideas, so closely joined as properly to be called but +one; and this idea is not the idea of force, but the force of ideas. + +But, gentlemen, I am in danger of forgetting that a marked +characteristic of New Englanders is an unwillingness to talk, and +especially to talk about themselves. And I know that you are eager to +listen to the illustrious men whom we have the honor to gather about our +humble board this evening. + + + * * * * * + + +CAUSES OF UNPOPULARITY + + [Speech of Rev. Dr. Heman L. Wayland at the eighty-fourth annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 23, 1889. The President, Cornelius N. Bliss, proposed the query for + Dr. Wayland, "Why are New Englanders Unpopular?" enforcing it with + the following quotations: "Do you question me as an honest man + should do for my simple true judgment?" [Much Ado About Nothing, + Act I, Sc. I], and "Merit less solid less despite has bred: the man + that makes a character makes foes" [Edward Young]. Turning to Dr. + Wayland, Mr. Bliss said: "Our sister, the New England Society of + Philadelphia, to-night sends us greeting in the person of her + honored President, whom I have the pleasure of presenting to you." + The eloquence of Dr. Wayland was loudly applauded; and Chauncey M. + Depew declared that he had heard one of the best speeches to which + he had ever listened at a New England dinner.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--That I am here this evening is as +complete a mystery to me as to you. I do not know why your Society, at +whose annual meetings orators are as the sand upon the seashore for +multitude, should call upon Philadelphia, a city in which the acme of +eloquence is attained by a Friends' Yearly Meeting, "sitting under the +canopy of silence." I can only suppose that you designed to relieve the +insufferable brilliancy of your annual festival, that you wished to +dilute the highly-flavored, richly-colored, full-bodied streams of the +Croton with the pure, limpid, colorless (or, at any rate, only +drab-colored) waters of the Schuylkill. [Laughter.] + +My first and wiser impulse was to decline the invitation with which you +honored me, or rather the Society of which I am the humblest member. +But I considered the great debt we have been under to you for the loan +of many of your most accomplished speakers: of Curtis, whose diction is +chaste as the snows of his own New England, while his zeal for justice +is as fervid as her July sun; of Depew, who, as I listen to him, makes +me believe that the doctrine of transmigration is true, and that in a +former day his soul occupied the body of one of the Puritan fathers, and +that for some lapse he was compelled to spend a period of time in the +body of a Hollander [laughter]; of Beaman,[9] one of the lights of your +bar; of Evarts, who, whether as statesman or as orator, delights in +making historic periods. And this year you have favored us with General +Porter,[10] whom we have been trying to capture for our annual dinner, +it seems to me, ever since the Mayflower entered Plymouth Bay. + +We have condoled with these honored guests as they with tears have told +us of their pitiful lot, have narrated to us how, when they might have +been tilling the soil (or what passes for soil) of the New Hampshire +hills, shearing their lambs, manipulating their shares (with the aid of +plough-handles), and watering their stock at the nearest brook, and +might have been on speaking acquaintance with the Ten Commandments and +have indulged a hope of some day going to heaven, and possibly to Boston +[laughter]--on the other hand, a hard fate has compelled them to be +millionaires, living in palaces on Murray Hill, to confine their +agricultural operations to the Swamp, and to eke out a precarious +livelihood by buying what they do not want and selling what they have +not got. [Laughter and applause.] Remembering this debt, I thought that +it was at least due to you that, in recognition of your courtesy, I +should come over and confess judgment, and put you out of suspense by +telling you at once that the assets will not pay for the expenses of +distribution. The best I can do is to make you a preferred creditor. +[Laughter.] I have heard that an Israelite without guile, doing business +down in Chatham Street, called his creditors together, and offered them +in settlement his note for ten per cent, on their claims, payable in +four months. His brother, one of the largest creditors, rather "kicked"; +but the debtor took him aside and said, "Do not make any objections, +and I will make you a preferred creditor." [Laughter and applause.] So +the proposal was accepted by all. Presently, the preferred brother said, +"Well, I should like what is coming to me." "Oh," was the reply, "you +won't get anything; they won't any of them get anything." "But I thought +I was a preferred creditor." "So you are. These notes will not be paid +when they come due; but it will take them four months to find out that +they are not going to get anything. But you know it now; you see you are +preferred." [Renewed laughter.] + +In casting about for a subject (in case I should unhappily be called on +to occupy your attention for a moment), I had thought on offering a few +observations upon Plymouth Rock; but I was deterred by a weird and lurid +announcement which I saw in your papers, appearing in connection with +the name of an eminent clothing dealer, which led me to apprehend that +Plymouth Rock was getting tired. [Laughter.] The announcement read, +"Plymouth Rock pants!" I presumed that Plymouth Rock was tired in +advance, at the prospect of being trotted out once more, from the Old +Colony down to New Orleans, thence to San Francisco, thence to the +cities of the unsalted seas, and so on back to the point of departure. +[Great laughter.] Upon fuller examination, I found that the legend read, +"Plymouth Rock pants for $3." It seemed to me that, without solicitation +on my part, there ought to be public spirit enough in this audience to +make up this evening the modest sum which would put Plymouth Rock at +ease. [Great laughter.] + +As I look along this board, Mr. President, and gaze upon these faces +radiant with honesty, with industry, with wisdom, with benevolence, with +frugality, and, above all, with a contented and cheerful poverty, I am +led to ask the question, suggested by the topic assigned me in the +programme, "Why are we New Englanders so unpopular?" Why those phrases, +always kept in stock by provincial orators and editors, "the mean +Yankees," "the stingy Yankees," "the close-fisted Yankees," "the +tin-peddling Yankees," and, above all, the terse and condensed +collocation, "those d----d--those blessed Yankees," the blessing being +comprised between two d's, as though conferred by a benevolent doctor of +divinity. [Laughter.] I remember in the olden time, in the years beyond +the flood, when the Presidential office was vacant and James Buchanan +was drawing the salary, at a period before the recollection of any one +present except myself, although possibly my esteemed friend, your +secretary, Mr. Hubbard, may have heard his grandparents speak of it as a +reminiscence of his youth, there was a poem going about, descriptive of +the feelings of our brethren living between us and the Equator, running +somewhat thus: + + "'Neath the shade of the gum-tree the Southerner sat, + A-twisting the brim of his palmetto hat, + And trying to lighten his mind of a'load + By humming the words of the following ode: + 'Oh! for a nigger, and oh! for a whip; + Oh! for a cocktail, and oh! for a nip; + Oh! for a shot at old Greeley and Beecher; + Oh! for a crack at a Yankee school-teacher.' + And so he kept oh-ing for all he had not, + Not contented with owing for all that he'd got." + +Why does the world minify our intelligence by depreciating our favorite +article of diet, and express the ultimate extreme of mental pauperism by +saying of him on whose intellect they would heap contempt, "He doesn't +know beans"? [Laughter.] And it is within my recollection that there was +a time when it was proposed to reconstruct the Union of the States, with +New England left out. Why, I repeat it, the intense unpopularity of New +England? + +For one thing, it seems to me, we are hated because of our virtues; we +are ostracized because men are tired of hearing about "New England, the +good." The virtues of New England seem to italicize the moral poverty of +mankind at large. The fact that the very first act of our foremothers, +even before the landing was made, two hundred and sixty-nine years ago, +was to go on shore and do up the household linen, which had suffered +from the voyage of ninety days, is a perpetual reproof to those nations +among whom there is a great opening for soap, who have a great many +saints' days, but no washing day. [Laughter and applause.] When men +nowadays are disposed to steal a million acres from the Indians, it +detracts from their enjoyment to read what Governor Josiah Winslow wrote +in _1676_: "I think I can clearly say that, before the present troubles +broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this colony +but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian +proprietors." When our fellow-citizens of other States look at their +public buildings, every stone in which tells of unpaid loans; when they +remember how they have scaled and scaled the unfortunate people who were +guilty of the crime of having money to lend, until the creditors might +be considered obnoxious to the Mosaic law, which looked with disfavor +upon scaleless fish, it is naturally aggravating to them to remember +that, at the close of King Philip's war, Plymouth Colony was owing a +debt more than equal to the personal property of the colony, and that +the debt was paid to the last cent [applause]; to remember the time, not +very far gone by, when the Bay State paid the interest on her bonds in +gold, though it cost her two hundred and seventy-six cents on every +dollar to do it, and when it was proposed to commend the bonds of the +United States to the bankers of the world by placing upon them the +indorsement of Massachusetts [applause]; to remember that never has New +England learned to articulate the letters that spell the word +"Repudiation." [Great applause.] + +To those members of the human family who are disposed to entertain too +high an estimate of themselves there is something aggravating in the +extreme humility and sensitive self-depreciation of the real New +Englander. + +And the virtues of New England are all the more offensive because they +are exhibited in such a way as to take from her enemies the comfort that +grows out of a grievance. Said a Chicago wife, "It is real mean for +Charlie to be so good to me; I want to get a divorce and go on the +stage; but he is so kind I cannot help loving him, and that is what +makes me hate him so." When there comes the news that some far-off +region is desolated by fire, or flood, or tempest, or pestilence, the +first thing is a meeting in the metropolis of New England, and the +dispatching of food and funds and physicians and nurses; and the +relieved sufferers are compelled to murmur, "Oh, dear, it is too bad! We +want to hate them, and they won't let us." [Applause.] + +One can manage to put up with goodness, however, if it is not too +obtrusive. The honored daughter of Connecticut, the author of "Uncle +Tom" and "Dred," now in the peaceful evening of her days,[11] has said, +"What is called goodness is often only want of force." A good man, +according to the popular idea, is a man who doesn't get in anybody's +way. But the restless New Englanders not only have virtues, but they +have convictions which are perpetually asserting themselves in the most +embarrassing manner. [Applause.] I pass over the time, two centuries +ago, when Cromwell and Hampden, those New Englanders who have never seen +New England, made themselves exceedingly offensive to Charles I, and +gave him at last a practical lesson touching the continuity of the +spinal column. + +Later, when our fellow-citizens desired to "wallop their own niggers," +and to carry the patriarchal institution wherever the American flag +went, they were naturally irritated at hearing that there was a handful +of meddling fanatics down in Essex County who, in their misguided and +malevolent ingenuity, had invented what they called liberty and human +rights. [Applause.] Presently, when it was proposed (under the +inspiration of a man recently deceased, who will stand in history as a +monument to the clemency and magnanimity of a great and free people) to +break up the Union in order to insure the perpetuity of slavery, then a +man, plain of speech, rude of garb[12] descended from the Lincolns of +Hingham, in Plymouth County, sounded a rally for Union and freedom +[tremendous applause]; and, hark! there is the tramp, tramp of the +fishermen from Marblehead; there are the Connecticut boys from old +Litchfield; and there is the First Rhode Island; and there are the +sailors from Casco Bay; and the farmers' sons from old Coos, and from +along the Onion River, their hearts beating with the enthusiasm of +liberty, while their steps keep pace with the drum-beat that salutes the +national flag. [Applause.] And, see! is that a thunder-cloud in the +North? No, it is the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, made up of American +citizens of African descent, officered by the best blood of Suffolk, and +at their head Robert G. Shaw, going down to die in the trenches before +Fort Wagner. And there is the man whom a kindly Providence yet spares to +us, descended from the Shermans of Connecticut, preparing for the march +that is to cleave the Confederacy in twain. [Cheers for General +Sherman.] And there is the silent man, eight generations removed from +Matthew Grant (who landed at Dorchester in 1630), destined to make the +continent secure for liberty and to inaugurate the New South, dating +from Appomattox, with traditions of freedom, teeming with a prosperity +rivalling that of New England, a prosperity begotten of the marriage of +labor and intelligence. [Continued applause.] + +In times somewhat more recent, when a political campaign was under full +headway, and when politicians were husbanding truth with their wonted +frugality and dispensing fiction with their habitual lavishness, there +sprung up a man removed by only two generations from the Lows of Salem, +who, in the resources of a mind capable of such things, devised what he +was pleased to call "Sunday-school politics"; who has had the further +hardihood to be made president of the college which is the glory of your +metropolis, designing, no doubt, to infuse into the mind of the tender +youth of the New Amsterdam his baleful idea, which, so far as I can make +out, has as its essence the conduct of political affairs on the basis of +the Decalogue. + +The campaign over, when the victors are rolling up their sleeves and are +preparing to dispense the spoils according to the hunger and thirst of +their retainers, to their amazed horror there is heard the voice of a +native of Rhode Island, who has conceived a scheme almost too monstrous +for mention, which he designates "Civil Service Reform," and who with +characteristic effrontery has got up a society, of which he is +president, for the purpose of diffusing his blood-curdling sentiments. +Do we need to look further for a reply to the question, "Why are the New +Englanders unpopular?" Almost any man is unpopular who goes around with +his pockets full of moral dynamite. [Applause.] + +But perhaps I have not yet reached the most essential cause of the +odium. Men will forgive a man almost anything if he only fails; but we, +alas! have committed the crime of success. [Laughter and applause.] It +makes people angry when they see New England prospering, influential, +the banker of the country, leading public sentiment, shaping +legislation. Men would not mind so much if this success were attained +by a happy accident, or were the result of a favoring fortune; but it is +aggravating to see the New Englanders, to whom Providence has given +nothing but rocks and ice and weather--a great deal of it--and a +thermometer [laughter], yet mining gold in Colorado, chasing the walrus +off the Aleutian Islands, building railroads in Dakota, and covering +half the continent with insurance, and underlying it with a mortgage. +Success is the one unpardonable crime. [Renewed laughter and applause.] + +It is true, when a man has so far acknowledged his participation in the +common frailty as to die, then men begin to condone his faults; and by +the time he is dead one or two hundred years they find him quite +tolerable. An eminent ecclesiastic in the Anglican Church recently +pronounced the greatest of the Puritans, Oliver Cromwell, "the most +righteous ruler England ever had." A man who is dead is out of the way. +We live in the home which he built, and are not disturbed by the chips +and sawdust and noise, and perhaps the casualties and mistakes, which +attended its building. I will offer a definition (without charge) to the +editors of the magnificent "Century Dictionary": "Saint--a man with +convictions, who has been dead a hundred years; canonized now, +cannonaded then." [Laughter and applause.] + +We are building monuments now to the Abolitionists. It is quite possible +that when a hundred winters shall have shed their snows upon the lonely +grave at North Elba, the Old Dominion will take pride in the fact that +she for a little while gave a home to the latest--I trust not the +last--of the Puritans; and the traveller, in 1959, as he goes through +Harper's Ferry, may see upon the site of the old engine-house, looking +out upon the regenerate Commonwealth, cunningly graven in bronze, copied +perhaps from the bust in your own Union League, the undaunted features +of John Brown. [Applause.] And the South that is to be, standing +uncovered beside the grave of the Union soldier, will say: "It was for +us, too, that he died," and will render beside the tomb in the capital +city of Illinois a reverence akin to that which she pays amid the shades +of Mount Vernon. [Great applause.] + +The Czar of to-day honors the memory of John Howard (who died a hundred +years ago next January), and offers 15,000 roubles for an essay on his +life; but when George Kennan, following in the steps of Howard, draws +back the curtain and shows the shuddering horrors in the prisons of +Siberia, the Czar would willingly offer much more than 15,000 roubles +for a successful essay upon his life. John Howard sleeps in innocuous +silence at Kherson; George Kennan speaks through the everywhere-present +press to the court of last appeal, the civilized world. [Applause.] + +There was not much money, there was not much popularity then, in being a +Puritan, in being a Pilgrim; there is not much profit, there is not much +applause, in being to-day a son of the Puritans, in standing as they did +for great ideas and convictions, for liberty and righteousness, in +holding the same relation to our age that they held to theirs. But let +us be satisfied if, through unpopularity and loneliness and obloquy, we +shall have done our duty as they did theirs, and let us hope that when +another hundred years have passed, and when the ideal of to-day has +become the commonplace of to-morrow, another generation may write over +your grave and mine, "A Son of the Puritans." + + + + +DANIEL WEBSTER + + +THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION + + [Speech of Daniel Webster at the dinner of the New England Society + in the City of New York, December 23, 1850. The early published + form of this address is very rare. It bears the following + title-page: "Speech of Mr. Webster at the Celebration of the New + York New England Society, December 23, 1850. Washington: printed by + Gideon & Co., 1851." The presiding officer of the celebration, + Moses H. Grinnell, asked attention of the company to a toast not on + the catalogue. He gave, "The Constitution and the Union, and their + Chief Defender." This sentiment was received with great applause, + which became most tumultuous when Mr. Webster rose to respond.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW YORK NEW ENGLAND +SOCIETY:--Ye sons of New England! Ye brethren of the kindred tie! I +have come hither to-night, not without some inconvenience, that I might +behold a congregation whose faces bear lineaments of a New England +origin, and whose hearts beat with full New England pulsations. +[Cheers.] I willingly make the sacrifice. I am here, to meet this +assembly of the great off-shoot of the Pilgrim Society of Massachusetts, +the Pilgrim Society of New York. And, gentlemen, I shall begin what I +have to say, which is but little, by tendering to you my thanks for the +invitation extended to me, and by wishing you, one and all, every kind +of happiness and prosperity. + +Gentlemen, this has been a stormy, a cold, a boisterous and inclement +day. The winds have been harsh, the skies have been severe; and if we +had no houses over our heads; if we had no shelter against this howling +and freezing tempest; if we were wan and worn out; if half of us were +sick and tired, and ready to descend into the grave; if we were on the +bleak coast of Plymouth, houseless, homeless, with nothing over our +heads but the Heavens, and that God who sits above the Heavens; if we +had distressed wives on our arms, and hungry and shivering children +clinging to our skirts, we should see something, and feel something, of +that scene, which, in the providence of God, was enacted at Plymouth on +December 22, 1620. + + +[Illustration: _THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph_ + + The corner-stone of the National Monument to the Forefathers at + Plymouth, Mass., was laid August 2, 1859. The monument was + completed in October, 1888, and dedicated with appropriate + ceremonies, August 1, 1889. It is built entirely of granite. The + plan of the principal pedestal is octagonal, with four small, and + four large faces; from the small faces project four buttresses. On + the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of Faith, said to be the + largest and finest piece of granite statuary in the world. The + sculptor was Joseph Archie, a Spaniard. Upon the four buttresses + are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the + Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth--Morality, Education, Law, and + Freedom. Each was wrought from a solid block of granite. On the + face of the buttresses, beneath these figures are alto-reliefs in + marble, representing scenes from Pilgrim history. Upon the four + faces of the main pedestal are large panels for records. The right + and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the + Mayflower. The rear panel is plain, being reserved for an + inscription at some future day. The front panel is inscribed as + follows: "National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a + grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and + sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty."] + + +Thanks to Almighty God, who from that distressed, early condition of our +fathers, has raised us to a height of prosperity and of happiness, which +they neither enjoyed, nor could have anticipated! We have learned much +of them; they could have foreseen little of us. Would to God, my +friends, would to God, that when we carry our affections and our +recollections back to that period, we could arm ourselves with something +of the stern virtues which supported them, in that hour of peril, and +exposure, and suffering. Would to God that we possessed that +unconquerable resolution, stronger than bars of brass or iron, which +nerved their hearts; that patience, "sovereign o'er transmuted ill," +and, above all, that faith, that religious faith, which, with eyes fast +fixed upon Heaven, tramples all things earthly beneath her triumphant +feet! [Applause.] + +Gentlemen, the scenes of this world change. What our ancestors saw and +felt, we shall not see nor feel. What they achieved, it is denied to us +even to attempt. The severer duties of life, requiring the exercise of +the stern and unbending virtues, were theirs. They were called upon for +the exhibition of those austere qualities, which, before they came to +the Western wilderness, had made them what they were. Things have +changed. In the progress of society, the fashions, the habits of life, +and all its conditions, have changed. Their rigid sentiments, and their +tenets, apparently harsh and exclusive, we are not called on, in every +respect, to imitate or commend; or rather to imitate, for we should +commend them always, when we consider that state of society in which +they had been adopted, and in which they seemed necessary. Our fathers +had that religious sentiment, that trust in Providence, that +determination to do right, and to seek, through every degree of toil and +suffering, the honor of God, and the preservation of their liberties, +which we shall do well to cherish, to imitate, and to equal, so far as +God may enable us. It may be true, and it is true, that in the progress +of society the milder virtues have come to belong more especially to our +day and our condition. The Pilgrims had been great sufferers from +intolerance; it was not unnatural that their own faith and practice, as +a consequence, should become somewhat intolerant. This is the common +infirmity of human nature. Man retaliates on man. It is to be hoped, +however, that the greater spread of the benignant principles of +religion, and of the divine charity of Christianity, has, to some +extent, improved the sentiments which prevailed in the world at that +time. No doubt the "first comers," as they were called, were attached to +their own forms of public worship and to their own particular and +strongly cherished religious sentiments. No doubt they esteemed those +sentiments, and the observances which they practised, to be absolutely +binding on all, by the authority of the word of God. It is true, I +think, in the general advancement of human intelligence, that we find +what they do not seem to have found, that a greater toleration of +religious opinion, a more friendly feeling toward all who profess +reverence for God, and obedience to His commands, is not inconsistent +with the great and fundamental principles of religion--I might rather +say is, itself, one of those fundamental principles. So we see in our +day, I think, without any departure from the essential principles of our +fathers, a more enlarged and comprehensive Christian philanthropy. It +seems to be the American destiny, the mission which God has intrusted to +us here on this shore of the Atlantic, the great conception and the +great duty to which we are born, to show that all sects, and all +denominations, professing reverence for the authority of the Author of +our being, and belief in His Revelations, may be safely tolerated +without prejudice either to our religion or to our liberties. [Cheers.] + +We are Protestants, generally speaking; but you all know that there +presides at the head of the Supreme Judicature of the United States a +Roman Catholic; and no man, I suppose, through the whole United States, +imagines that the judicature of the country is less safe, that the +administration of public justice is less respectable or less secure, +because the Chief Justice of the United States has been, and is, an +ardent adherent to that religion. And so it is in every department of +society amongst us. In both Houses of Congress, in all public offices, +and all public affairs, we proceed on the idea that a man's religious +belief is a matter above human law; that it is a question to be settled +between him and his Maker, because he is responsible to none but his +Maker for adopting or rejecting revealed truth. And here is the great +distinction which is sometimes overlooked, and which I am afraid is now +too often overlooked, in this land, the glorious inheritance of the sons +of the Pilgrims. Men, for their religious sentiments, are accountable to +God, and to God only. Religion is both a communication and a tie between +man and his Maker; and to his own master every man standeth or falleth. +But when men come together in society, establish social relations, and +form governments for the protection of the rights of all, then it is +indispensable that this right of private judgment should in some measure +be relinquished and made subservient to the judgment of the whole. +Religion may exist while every man is left responsible only to God. +Society, civil rule, the civil state, cannot exist, while every man is +responsible to nobody and to nothing but to his own opinion. And our New +England ancestors understood all this quite well. Gentlemen, there is +the "Constitution" which was adopted on board the Mayflower in November, +1620, while that bark of immortal memory was riding at anchor in the +harbor of Cape Cod. What is it? Its authors honored God; they professed +to obey all His commandments, and to live ever and in all things in His +obedience. But they say, nevertheless, that for the establishment of a +civil polity, for the greater security and preservation of their civil +rights and liberties, they agree that the laws and ordinances, and I am +glad they put in the word "constitutions," invoking the name of the +Deity on their resolution; they say, that these laws and ordinances, and +constitutions, which may be established by those they should appoint to +enact them, they, in all due submission and obedience, will support. + +This constitution is not long. I will read it. It invokes a religious +sanction and the authority of God on their civil obligations; for it was +no doctrine of theirs that civil obedience was a mere matter of +expediency. Here it is: + + "In the name of God, Amen: We whose names are underwritten, the + loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the + Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, and + Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of + God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King + and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the heathen + parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in + the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine + ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better + ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, + and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and + equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time + to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the + general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due + submission and obedience." + +The right of private judgment in matters between the Creator and +himself, and submission and obedience to the will of the whole, upon +whatsoever respects civil polity and the administration of such affairs +as concerned the colony about to be established, they regarded as +entirely consistent; and the common sense of mankind, lettered and +unlettered, everywhere establishes and confirms this sentiment. Indeed, +all must see, that it is the very ligament, the very tie, which connects +man to man, in the social system; and these sentiments are embodied in +that constitution. Gentlemen, discourse on this topic might be enlarged, +but I pass from it. + +Gentlemen, we are now two hundred and thirty years from that great +event. There is the Mayflower [pointing to a small figure of a ship, in +the form of confectionery, that stood before him]. There is a little +resemblance, but a correct one, of the Mayflower. Sons of New England! +there was in ancient times a ship that carried Jason to the acquisition +of the Golden Fleece. There was a flag-ship at the battle of Actium +which made Augustus Caesar master of the world. In modern times, there +have been flag-ships which have carried Hawkes, and Howe, and Nelson on +the other continent, and Hull, and Decatur, and Stewart, on this, to +triumph. What are they all; what are they all, in the chance of +remembrance among men, to that little bark, the Mayflower, which reached +these shores on December 22, 1620. Yes, brethren of New England, yes! +that Mayflower was a flower destined to be of perpetual bloom! [Cheers.] +Its verdure will stand the sultry blasts of summer, and the chilling +winds of autumn. It will defy winter; it will defy all climate, and all +time, and will continue to spread its petals to the world, and to +exhale an ever-living odor and fragrance to the last syllable of +recorded time. [Cheers.] + +Gentlemen, brethren, ye of New England! whom I have come some hundreds +of miles to meet this night, let me present to you one of the most +distinguished of those personages who came hither on the deck of the +Mayflower. Let me fancy that I now see Elder William Brewster entering +the door at the further end of this hall. A tall and erect figure, of +plain dress, of no elegance of manner beyond a respectful bow, mild and +cheerful, but of no merriment that reaches beyond a smile. Let me +suppose that his image stood now before us, or that it was looking in +upon this assembly. + +"Are ye, are ye," he would say, with a voice of exultation, and yet +softened with melancholy, "Are ye our children? Does this scene of +refinement, of elegance, of riches, of luxury, does all this come from +our labors? Is this magnificent city, the like of which we never saw nor +heard of on either continent, is this but an offshoot from Plymouth +Rock? + + "'... Quis jam locus ... + Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?' + +"Is this one part of the great reward, for which my brethren and myself +endured lives of toil and of hardship? We had faith and hope. God +granted us the spirit to look forward, and we did look forward. But this +scene we never anticipated. Our hopes were on another life. Of earthly +gratifications we tasted little; for human honors we had little +expectation. Our bones lie on the hill in Plymouth churchyard, obscure, +unmarked, secreted to preserve our graves from the knowledge of savage +foes. No stone tells where we lie. And yet, let me say to you, who are +our descendants, who possess this glorious country, and all it contains, +who enjoy this hour of prosperity, and the thousand blessings showered +upon it by the God of your fathers, we envy you not; we reproach you +not. Be rich, be prosperous, be enlightened. Live in pleasure, if such +be your allotment on earth; but live, also, always to God and to duty. +Spread yourselves and your children over the continent; accomplish the +whole of your great destiny; and if so be, that through the whole you +carry Puritan hearts with you; if you still cherish an undying love of +civil and religious liberty, and mean to enjoy them yourselves, and are +willing to shed your heart's blood to transmit them to your posterity, +then are you worthy descendants of Carver and Allerton and Bradford, and +the rest of those who landed from stormy seas on the rock of Plymouth." +[Loud and prolonged cheers.] + +Gentlemen, that little vessel, on December 22, 1620, made her safe +landing on the shore of Plymouth. She had been tossed on a tempestuous +ocean; she approached the New England coast under circumstances of great +distress and trouble; yet amidst all the disasters of her voyage, she +accomplished her end, and she placed the feet of a hundred precious +souls on the shore of the New World. + +Gentlemen, let her be considered this night as an emblem of New England, +as New England now is. New England is a ship, stanch, strong, +well-built, and particularly well-manned. She may be occasionally thrown +into the trough of the sea, by the violence of winds and waves, and may +wallow there for a time; but, depend upon it, she will right herself. +She will, ere long, come round to the wind, and will obey her helm. +[Cheers and applause.] + +We have hardly begun, my brethren, to realize the vast importance, on +human society, and on the history and happiness of the world, of the +voyage of that little vessel which brought the love of civil and +religious liberty hither, and the Bible, the Word of God, for the +instruction of the future generations of men. We have hardly begun to +realize the consequences of that voyage. Heretofore the extension of our +race, following our New England ancestry, has crept along the shore. But +now the race has extended. It has crossed the continent. It has not only +transcended the Alleghany, but has capped the Rocky Mountains. It is now +upon the shores of the Pacific; and on this day, or if not on this day, +then this day twelvemonth, descendants of New England will there +celebrate the landing--[A Voice: "To-day; they celebrate to-day."] + +God bless them! Here's to the health and success of the California +Society of Pilgrims assembled on the shores of the Pacific. [Prolonged +applause.] And it shall yet go hard, if the three hundred millions of +people of China--if they are intelligent enough to understand +anything--shall not one day hear and know something of the Rock of +Plymouth too! [Laughter and cheers.] + +But, gentlemen, I am trespassing too long on your time. [Cries of "No, +no! Go on!"] I am taking too much of what belongs to others. My voice is +neither a new voice, nor is it the voice of a young man. It has been +heard before in this place, and the most that I have thought or felt +concerning New England history and New England principles, has been +before, in the course of my life, said here or elsewhere. + +Your sentiment, Mr. President, which called me up before this meeting, +is of a larger and more comprehensive nature. It speaks of the +Constitution under which we live; of the Union, which for sixty years +has been over us, and made us associates, fellow-citizens of those who +settled at Yorktown and the mouth of the Mississippi and their +descendants, and now, at last, of those who have come from all corners +of the earth and assembled in California. I confess I have had my doubts +whether the republican system under which we live could be so vastly +extended without danger of dissolution. Thus far, I willingly admit, my +apprehensions have not been realized. The distance is immense; the +intervening country is vast. But the principle on which our Government +is established, the representative system, seems to be indefinitely +expansive; and wherever it does extend, it seems to create a strong +attachment to the Union and the Constitution that protects it. I believe +California and New Mexico have had new life inspired into all their +people. They consider themselves subjects of a new being, a new +creation, a new existence. They are not the men they thought themselves +to be, now that they find they are members of this great Government, and +hailed as citizens of the United States of America. I hope, in the +providence of God, as this system of States and representative +governments shall extend, that it will be strengthened. In some respects +the tendency is to strengthen it. Local agitations will disturb it less. +If there has been on the Atlantic coast, somewhere south of the +Potomac--and I will not define further where it is--if there has been +dissatisfaction, that dissatisfaction has not been felt in California; +it has not been felt that side the Rocky Mountains. It is a localism, +and I am one of those who believe that our system of government is not +to be destroyed by localisms, North or South! [Cheers.] No; we have our +private opinions, State prejudices, local ideas; but over all, +submerging all, drowning all, is that great sentiment, that always, and +nevertheless, we are all Americans. It is as Americans that we are +known, the whole world over. Who asks what State you are from, in +Europe, or in Africa, or in Asia? Is he an American--is he of us? Does +he belong to the flag of the country? Does that flag protect him? Does +he rest under the eagle and the Stars and Stripes? If he does, if he is, +all else is subordinate and worthy of little concern. [Cheers.] + +Now it is our duty, while we live on the earth, to cherish this +sentiment, to make it prevail over the whole country, even if that +country should spread over the whole continent. It is our duty to carry +English principles--I mean, sir [said Mr. Webster turning to Sir Henry +Bulwer], Anglo-Saxon American principles, over the whole continent--the +great principles of Magna Charta, of the English revolution, and +especially of the American Revolution, and of the English language. Our +children will hear Shakespeare and Milton recited on the shores of the +Pacific. Nay, before that, American ideas, which are essentially and +originally English ideas, will penetrate the Mexican--the Spanish mind; +and Mexicans and Spaniards will thank God that they have been brought to +know something of civil liberty, of the trial by jury, and of security +for personal rights. + +As for the rest, let us take courage. The day-spring from on high has +visited us; the country has been called back, to conscience and to duty. +There is no longer imminent danger of dissolution in these United +States. [Loud and repeated cheers.] We shall live, and not die. We shall +live as united Americans; and those who have supposed that they could +sever us, that they could rend one American heart from another, and that +speculation and hypothesis, that secession and metaphysics, could tear +us asunder, will find themselves dreadfully mistaken. [Cheers.] + +Let the mind of the sober American people remain sober. Let it not +inflame itself. Let it do justice to all. And the truest course, and +the surest course, to disappoint those who meditate disunion, is just to +leave them to themselves, and see what they can make of it. No, +gentlemen; the time for meditated secession is past. Americans, North +and South, will be hereafter more and more united. There is a sternness +and severity in the public mind lately aroused. I believe that, North +and South, there has been, in the last year, a renovation of public +sentiment, an animated revival of the spirit of Union, and, more than +all, of attachment to the Constitution, regarding it as indispensably +necessary; and if we would preserve our nationality, it is indispensable +that the spirit of devotion should be still more largely increased. And +who doubts it? If we give up that Constitution, what are we? You are a +Manhattan man; I am a Boston man. Another is a Connecticut, and another +a Rhode Island man. Is it not a great deal better, standing hand to +hand, and clasping hands, that we should remain as we have been for +sixty years--citizens of the same country, members of the same +Government, united all--united now and united forever? That we shall be, +gentlemen. There have been difficulties, contentions, controversies--angry +controversies; but I tell you that, in my judgment,-- + + "those opposed eyes, + Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, + All of one nature, of one substance bred, + Did lately meet in th' intestine shock, + Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, + March all one way." + +[Mr. Webster, on closing, was greeted with the most hearty, prolonged, +and tumultuous applause.] + + + + +JOSEPH WHEELER + + +THE AMERICAN SOLDIER + + [Speech of Joseph Wheeler prepared for the tenth annual banquet of + the Confederate Veteran Camp of New York, New York City, January + 19, 1898. Edward Owen, Commander of the Camp, presided. As General + Wheeler was ill and unable to attend the banquet, his speech was + read by J. E. Graybill.] + + +History has many heroes whose martial renown has fired the world, whose +daring and wonderful exploits have altered the boundaries of nations and +changed the very face of the earth. To say nothing of the warriors of +biblical history and Homeric verse, as the ages march along every great +nation leaves us the glorious memory of some unique character, such as +Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar. Even the wild hordes of northern Europe and +the barbaric nations of the East had their grand military leaders whose +names will ever live on history's pages, to be eclipsed only by that of +Napoleon, the man of destiny, who, as a military genius, stands alone +and unrivalled: "Grand, gloomy, peculiar, he sat upon the throne, a +sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his awful originality." + +The mediaeval ages gave us noble examples of devotedness and chivalry; +but it belonged to the American Republic, founded and defended by +Freedom's sons, to give to the world the noblest type of warrior; men in +whom martial renown went hand in hand with the noblest of virtues, men +who united in their own characters the highest military genius with the +loftiest patriotism, the most daring courage with the gentlest courtesy, +the most obstinate endurance with the utmost self-sacrifice, the genius +of a Caesar with the courage and purity of a Bayard. + +Patriotism and love of liberty, the most ennobling motives that can fire +the heart of man, expanding and thriving in the atmosphere of free +America, added a refining touch to the martial enthusiasm of our +forefathers and elevated the character of the American soldier to a +standard never attained by fighting men of any other age or nation. + +To recall their names and recount their deeds would lead me far beyond +the time and space allotted. Volumes would never do justice to the +valorous achievements of George Washington and his compeers, the boys of +'76--of the heroes of 1812 and of 1848; of the men in blue who fought +under Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Farragut; of the men in gray +who followed the lead of Johnston, Jackson, and Lee from 1861 to 1865; +of the intrepid band that sailed with Dewey into Manila Bay, or of the +small but heroic army of 1898 that fought at Las Guasimas, El Caney, and +San Juan, and left the Stars and Stripes floating in triumph over the +last stronghold of Spain in the New World. + +But above the grand heroic names immortalized by historian and poet +shines with an undimmed lustre, all its own, the immortal name of Robert +Edmund Lee.-- + + "Ah, Muse! You dare not claim + A nobler man than he-- + Nor nobler man hath less of blame, + Nor blameless man hath purer name, + Nor purer name hath grander fame, + Nor fame--another Lee." + +The late Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, in an address delivered at the +time of General Lee's death, thus beautifully describes his character: +"He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier +without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without +murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen +without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without +hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was Caesar without his ambition; +Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and +Washington without his reward. He was as obedient to authority as a +servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman +in life, and modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a +Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle +as Achilles!" + +Forty-four years ago last June, I found myself in the presence of +Colonel Lee, who was then Superintendent of the Military Academy at West +Point. I have never in all my life seen another form or face which so +impressed me, as embodying dignity, modesty, kindness, and all the +characteristics which indicate purity and nobility. While he was then +only a captain and brevet-colonel, he was so highly regarded by the Army +that it was generally conceded that he was the proper officer to succeed +General Scott. + +His wonderful career as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia, as its +commander, is so familiar to all of you that any comment would seem to +be unnecessary. But to give some of the younger generation an idea of +the magnitude of the struggle in which General Lee was the central and +leading figure, I will call attention to the fact that in the battles of +the Wilderness and Spottsylvania (which really should be called one +battle), the killed and wounded in General Grant's army by the army +under General Lee, was far greater than the aggregate killed and wounded +in all the battles of all the wars fought by the English-speaking people +on this continent since the discovery of America by Columbus. + +To be more explicit: take the killed and wounded in all the battles of +the French and Indian War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the +Revolutionary War, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the War of +1812, take the aggregate killed and wounded in the Mexican War, take the +aggregate killed and wounded in all our wars with the Indians, and they +amount to less than the killed and wounded in Grant's army in the +struggle from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania. + +In order further to appreciate the magnitude of the struggle, let us +make a comparison between the losses in some of the great battles of our +Civil War, and those of some of the most famous battles of modern +Europe. The official reports give the following as the losses in killed +and wounded of the Federal Army in seven, out of nearly a thousand +severely contested struggles during the four years' of war: Seven Days +fight, 9,291; Antietam, 11,426; Murfreesboro, 8,778; Gettysburg, +16,426; Chickamauga, 10,906; Wilderness and Spottsylvania, 24,481. + +In the Battle of Marengo, the French lost in killed and wounded, 4,700, +the Austrians, 6,475. In the Battle of Hohenlinden, the French loss in +killed and wounded was 2,200, the Austrian loss was 5,000; at Austerlitz +the French loss was 9,000; at Waterloo, Wellington lost 9,061 in killed +and wounded, Blucher lost 5,613, making the total loss of the Allies, +14,674. + +I mention these facts because such sanguinary conflicts as those of our +Civil War could only have occurred when the soldiers of both contending +armies were men of superb determination and courage. Such unquestioned +prowess as this should be gratifying to all Americans, showing to the +world as they did that the intrepid fortitude and courage of Americans +have excelled that of any other people upon the earth. And as the world +will extol the exhibition of these qualities by the soldiers that fought +under Grant, the historian will find words inadequate to express his +admiration of the superb heroism of the soldiers led by the intrepid +Lee. Meeting a thoroughly organized, and trebly equipped and appointed +army, they successfully grappled in deadly conflict with these +tremendous odds, while civilization viewed with amazement this climax of +unparalleled and unequal chivalry, surpassing in grandeur of action +anything heretofore portrayed either in story or in song. Whence came +these qualities? They were the product of Southern chivalry, which two +centuries had finally perfected. A chivalry which esteemed stainless +honor as a priceless gem, and a knighthood which sought combat for +honor's sake, generously yielding to an antagonist all possible +advantage; the chivalry which taught Southern youth to esteem life as +nothing when honor was at stake, a chivalry which taught that the +highest, noblest, and most exalted privilege of man was the defence of +woman, family, and country. It was this Southern chivalry that formed +such men as Lee and Stonewall Jackson; they were the central leading +figures, but they were only prototypes of the soldiers whom they led. + +It is this character of men who meet in banquet to-night to honor the +name they revere and the noble life they seek to emulate. I say, God +bless you all, the whole world breathes blessings upon you. Among the +foremost in these sentiments are the brave soldiers against whom you +were once arrayed in battle, and they, together with seventy million +Americans know that in future perils to our country, you and your +children will be foremost in the battle-line of duty, proud of the +privilege of defending the glory, honor, and prestige of our country, +presenting under the folds of our national ensign an unbroken phalanx of +united hearts--an impregnable bulwark of defence against any power that +may arise against us. + + + + +EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE + + +CHINA EMERGING FROM HER ISOLATION + + [Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the banquet given by the City of + Boston, August 21, 1868, to the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from China, and his + associates, Chih Ta-jin and Sun Ta-jin, of the Chinese Embassy to + the United States and the European powers. Mr. Whipple responded to + the toast, "The Press."] + + +MR. MAYOR:--One cannot attempt to respond here for the Press, +without being reminded that the Press and the Chinese Embassy have been +on singularly good terms from the start. To record the progress, applaud +the object, extend the influence, and cordially eulogize the members of +that Embassy, have been for months no inconsiderable part of the +business of all newspapers; and if China anticipated us, by some five +hundred years, in the invention of printing, our Chinese guests will +still admit that, in the minute account we have given both of what they +have, and of what they have not, said and done, since they arrived in +the country, we have carried the invention to a perfection of which they +never dreamed--having not only invented printing, but invented a great +deal of what we print. + +But, apart from the rich material they have furnished the press in the +way of news, there is something strangely alluring and inspiring to the +editorial imagination in the comprehensive purpose which has prompted +their mission to the civilized nations of the West. That purpose is +doubly peaceful, for it includes a two-fold commerce of material +products and of immaterial ideas. Probably the vastest conception which +ever entered into the mind of a conqueror was that which was profoundly +meditated, and, in its initial steps, practically carried out, by +Alexander the Great. He was engaged in a clearly defined project of +assimilating the populations of Europe and Asia, when, at the early age +of thirty-three, he was killed--I tremble to state it here--by a too +eager indulgence in an altogether too munificent public dinner! +Alexander's weapon was force, but it was at least the force of genius, +and it was exerted in the service of a magnificent idea. His successors +in modern times have but too often availed themselves of force divested +of all ideas, except the idea of bullying or outwitting the Asiatics in +a trade. + +As to China, this conduct aroused an insurrection of Chinese conceit +against European conceit. The Chinese were guilty of the offence of +calling the representatives of the proudest and most supercilious of all +civilizations, "outside barbarians"; illustrating in this that too +common conservative weakness of human nature, of holding fixedly to an +opinion long after the facts which justified it have changed or passed +away. It certainly cannot be questioned that at a period which, when +compared with the long date of Chinese annals, may be called recent, we +were outside barbarians as contrasted with that highly civilized and +ingenious people. At the time when our European ancestors were squalid, +swinish, wolfish savages, digging with their hands into the earth for +roots to allay the pangs of hunger, without arts, letters, or written +speech, China rejoiced in an old, refined, complicated civilization; was +rich, populous, enlightened, cultivated, humane; was fertile in savants, +poets, moralists, metaphysicians, saints; had invented printing, +gunpowder, the mariner's compass, the Sage's Rule of Life; had, in one +of her three State religions--that of Confucius--presented a code of +morals never become obsolete; and had, in another of her State +religions--that of Buddha--solemnly professed her allegiance to that +equality of men, which Buddha taught twenty-four hundred years before +our Jefferson was born, and had at the same time vigorously grappled +with that problem of existence which our Emerson finds as insolvable now +as it was then. + +Well, sir, after all this had relatively changed, after the Western +nations had made their marvellous advances in civilization, they were +too apt to exhibit to China only their barbaric side--that is, their +ravenous cupidity backed by their insolent strength. We judge, for +example, of England by the poetry of Shakespeare, the science of Newton, +the ethics of Butler, the religion of Taylor, the philanthropy of +Wilberforce; but what poetry, science, ethics, religion, or philanthropy +was she accustomed to show in her intercourse with China? Did not John +Bull, in his rough methods with the Celestial Empire, sometimes +literally act "like a bull in a China shop"? You remember, sir, that +"intelligent contraband" who, when asked his opinion of an offending +white brother, delicately hinted his distrust by replying: "Sar, if I +was a chicken, and that man was about, I should take care to roost +high." Well, all that we can say of China is, that for a long time she +"roosted high"--withdrew suspiciously into her own civilization to +escape the rough contact with the harsher side of ours. + +But, by a sudden inspiration of almost miraculous confidence, springing +from a faith in the nobler qualities of our Caucasian civilization, she +has changed her policy. She has learned that in the language, and on the +lips, and in the hearts of most members of the English race, there is +such a word as equity, and at the magic of that word she has nearly +emerged from her isolation. And, sir, what we see here to-day reminds me +that, some thirty years ago, Boston confined one of her citizens in a +lunatic asylum, for the offence of being possessed by a too intensified +Boston "notion." He had discovered a new and expeditious way of getting +to China. "All agree," he said, "that the earth revolves daily on its +own axis. If you desire," he therefore contended, "to go to China, all +you have to do is to go up in a balloon, wait till China comes round, +then let off the gas, and drop softly down." Now I will put it to you, +Mr. Mayor, if you are not bound to release that philosopher from +confinement, for has not his conception been realized?--has not China, +to-day, unmistakably come round to us? + +And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gentleman at the head of +the Embassy--a gentleman specially dear to the Press. Judging from the +eagerness with which the position is sought, I am led to believe that +the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a human being is, that he +has once represented Boston in the National House of Representatives. +After such a distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great, +must still show a sensible decline from political grace. But I trust +that you will all admit, that next to the honor of representing Boston +in the House of Representatives comes the honor of representing the vast +Empire of China in "The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." +Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr. Burlingame may be better qualified +than we are to discriminate between the exultant feelings which each is +calculated to excite in the human breast. But we must remember that the +population, all brought up on a system of universal education, of the +Empire he represents, is greater than the combined population of all the +nations to which he is accredited. Most Bostonians have, or think they +have, a "mission"; but certainly no other Bostonian ever had such a +"mission" as he; for it extends all round the planet, makes him the most +universal Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever saw; +is, in fact, a "mission" from everybody to everybody, and one by which +it is proposed that everybody shall be benefited. To doubt its success +would be to doubt the moral soundness of Christian civilization. It +implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents provided that +Christian nations set a decent example of Christianity. Its virtues +herald the peaceful triumph of reason over prejudice, of justice over +force, of humanity over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of +all over the selfish blindness of each, of the "fraternity" of the great +Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent "liberty" of any of them to +despise, oppress, and rob the rest. + + + * * * * * + + +THE SPHERE OF WOMAN + + [Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the "Ladies' Night" banquet of the + Papyrus Club, Boston, February 15, 1879, in response to a toast in + his honor as "one whose gentle mind, delicate fancy, keen wit, and + profound judgment have made for him a high and secure place among + American authors."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I suppose that one of the most characteristic +follies of young men, unmarried, or in the opinion of prudent mammas, +unmarriageable, is, when they arrive at the age of indiscretion, to +dogmatize on what they call the appropriate sphere of woman. You +remember the thundering retort which came, like a box on the ears, to +one of these philosophers, when he was wisely discoursing vaguely on his +favorite theme. "And pray, my young sir," asked a stern matron of forty, +"will you please to tell us what is the appropriate sphere of woman?" +Thus confronted, he only babbled in reply, "A celestial sphere, madam!" +But the force of this compliment is now abated; for the persons who +above all others are dignified with the title of "Celestials" are the +Chinese; and these the Congress of the United States seems determined to +banish from our soil as unworthy--not only of the right of citizenship +and the right of suffrage, but the right of residing in our democratic +republic. Accordingly, we must find some more appropriate sphere for +women than the Celestial. Nobody, I take it, however bitterly he may be +opposed to what are called the rights of women, objects to their +residing in this country, or to their coming here in vast numbers. +[Applause.] + +Do you remember to what circumstance Chicago owed its fame? When the +spot where a great city now looks out on Lake Michigan was the +habitation of a small number of men only, a steamboat was seen in the +distance, and the report was that it contained a cargo of women, who +were coming to the desolate place for the purpose of being married to +the forlorn men. Every bachelor hastened to the pier, with a telescope +in one hand and a speaking-trumpet in the other. By the aid of the +telescope each lover selected his mate, and by the aid of the +speaking-trumpet each lover made his proposals. In honor of the women +who made the venturesome voyage, the infant city was named "She-Cargo." +[Laughter and applause.] + +Therefore, there is no possibility of a doubt that there is no objection +to women as residents of this country. The only thing to be considered +is, whether or not they shall have the right of voting. I think nobody +present here this evening has conceit enough to suppose that he is more +competent to give an intelligent vote on any public question than the +intelligent ladies who have done the Club the honor to be present on +this occasion. The privilege of voting is simply an opportunity, by +which certain persons legally qualified are allowed to exercise power. +The formal power is so subdivided that each legally qualified person +exercises but little. But where meanwhile is the substance of power? +Certainly in the woman of the household as well as in the man. Indeed, I +recollect that when an objection was raised that to give the right of +suffrage to women would create endless quarrels between husband and +wife, a married woman curtly replied that the wives would see to it that +no such disturbance should really take place. [Applause.] And, as the +question now stands, I pity the man who is so fortunate to be married to +a noble woman, coming home to meet her reproachful glance, when he has +deposited in the ballot-box a vote for a measure which is base and for a +candidate who is equally base. Then, in his humiliation before that +rebuking eye, he must feel that in her is the substance of power, and in +him only the formal expression of power. [Applause.] + +But we have the good fortune to-night to have at the table many women of +letters, who have in an eminent degree exercised the substance of power, +inasmuch as they have domesticated themselves at thousands of firesides +where their faces have never been seen. Their brain-children have been +welcomed and adopted by fathers and mothers, by brothers and sisters, as +members of the family; and their sayings and doings are quoted as though +they were "blood" relations. Two instances recur to my memory. In +lecturing in various portions of the country, I have often been a guest +in private houses. On one occasion I happened to mention Mrs. Whitney as +a lady I had often met; and, instantly, old and young crowded round, +pouring in a storm of questions, demanding to know where the author of +"Faith Gartney" lived, how she looked, and was she so delightful in +society as she was in her books. On another occasion, my importance in a +large family was raised immensely when a chance remark indicated that I +numbered Miss Alcott among my friends. All the little men and all the +little women of the household, all the old men and all the old ladies, +rallied round me, in order that I might tell them all I knew of the +author of "Little Women" and "Little Men." [Applause.] + +Now these are only two examples of the substance of power which +cultivated women already possess. That such women, and all women, can +obtain the formal power of voting at elections is, in the end, sure, if +they really wish to exercise that power; and that the power is withheld +from them is not due to the opposition of men, but is due to the fact +that they are not, by an overwhelming majority, in favor of it +themselves. When the champions of woman's rights get this majority on +their side, I have a profound pity for the men who venture to oppose it. +[Applause.] + + + + +ANDREW DICKSON WHITE + + +COMMERCE AND DIPLOMACY + + [Speech of Andrew D. White at the 111th annual dinner of the New + York Chamber of Commerce, May 13, 1879. The President of the + Chamber, Samuel D. Babcock, introduced Mr. White as follows: "The + next toast is 'Commerce and Diplomacy--twin guardians of the + world--Peace and Prosperity.' [Applause.] The gentleman who is to + respond to the toast is one who is about to represent our country + at the Court of Berlin. I am quite sure there is not a man present + who does not feel that a more creditable representative of the + people of the United States could not be sent abroad. [Applause.] I + hope, gentlemen, you will receive him with all the honors."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--Speaking in this place and at this +time I am seriously embarrassed; for when charges have been made upon +the American people on account of municipal mismanagement in this city, +now happily past, we have constantly heard the statement made that +American institutions are not responsible for it; that New York is not +an American city. [Applause.] I must confess that when very hard pressed +I have myself taken refuge in this statement. + +But now it comes back to plague me, for on looking over the general +instructions furnished me by the State Department I find it laid down +that American Ministers on the way to their posts are strictly forbidden +to make speeches in any foreign city, save in the country to which they +are accredited. You will pardon me, then, if I proceed very slowly and +cautiously in discussing the sentiment allotted to me. + +No one, I think, will dispute the statement that commerce has become a +leading agency among men in the maintenance of peace. [Applause.] +Commercial interests have become so vast that they embrace all the +world, and so minute that they permeate every hamlet of every nation. +War interferes with these interests and thwarts them. Hence commerce +more and more tends to make war difficult. [Applause.] As to the fact +then, involved in your toast, it needs no argument in its support. We +all concede it. Were we to erect a statue of Commerce in the midst of +this great commercial metropolis, we should doubtless place in her hand, +as an emblem, a ship-like shuttle and represent her as weaving a web +between the great nations of the earth tending every day to fasten them +more securely and more permanently in lasting peace. [Applause.] + +Nor, I think, will the other part of the sentiment be disputed by any +thoughtful person. Of course much may be said upon the solemn nothings +which have occupied diplomatists; much historic truth may be adduced to +show that diplomats have often proved to be what Carlyle calls "solemnly +constituted impostors." But after all, I think no one can look over the +history of mankind without feeling that it was a vast step when four +centuries ago the great modern powers began to maintain resident +representatives at the centres of government; and from that day to this +these men have proved themselves, with all their weaknesses, worth far +more than all their cost in warding off or mitigating the horrors of +war, and in increasing the facilities of commerce. Not long since I made +a pilgrimage to that quaint town hall in that old German city of +Munster, where was signed the Treaty of Westphalia. There I saw the same +long table, the same old seats, where once sat the representatives of +the various powers who in 1648 made the treaty which not only ended the +Thirty Years' War, the most dreadful struggle of modern times--but which +has forever put an end to wars of religion. + +I have stood in the midst of grand cathedrals and solemn services, but +never have I sat in any room or in any presence with a greater feeling +of awe than in that old hall where the diplomatists of Europe signed +that world-renowned treaty so fruitful in blessing not only to Germany, +but to all mankind. [Applause.] + +We shall all doubtless concede then that on the whole it is best to have +a diplomatic body, that if it only once in ten, or twenty, or one +hundred years, prevents serious misunderstanding between nations, it +will far more than repay its cost. [Applause.] + +But the point to which I wish to call your attention, in what little I +have to say this evening, is this: That this idea of the value of +commerce and diplomacy in maintaining peace has by no means always been +held as fully as now, nor are commerce and diplomacy and all they +represent at this moment out of danger. Two hundred years ago a really +great practical statesman in France [Colbert], by crude legislation in +behalf, as he thought, of manufactures and commerce, brought his country +into wars which at last led her to ruin. The history of the colonial +policy of England also is fruitful in mistaken legislation on +commercial, political, and social questions, which have produced the +most terrible evils. Indeed, in all nations we have constantly to lament +the short-sighted policies, ill-considered constitutions, crude +legislation, which have dealt fearful blows to the interests of +commerce, of diplomacy, of political and social life, and of peace. + +Nor has our own country been free from these; in our general government +and in all our forty legislatures, there are measures frequently +proposed striking at commercial interests, at financial interests, at +vested rights, to say nothing of great political and social interests, +which, though often thwarted by the common sense of the people, are +sometimes too successful. At this very moment the news comes to us that +a slight majority, led by arrant demagogues, have fastened upon the +great Empire State of the Pacific a crude, ill-digested constitution, +which while it doubtless contains some good features, embodies some of +the most primitive and pernicious notions regarding commerce and +manufactures and the whole political and social fabric of that +Commonwealth. [Applause.] + +So, too, in regard to diplomacy, there is constant danger and loss from +this same crudeness in political thinking. A year or two since, in the +Congress of the United States, efforts were put forth virtually to +cripple the diplomatic service; but what was far worse, to cripple the +whole Consular system of the United States. Although the Consular +service of our country more than pays for itself directly, and pays for +itself a thousand times over indirectly; although its labors are +constantly directed to increasing commerce, to finding new markets, to +sending home valuable information regarding foreign industries, to +enlarging the foreign field for our own manufactures, and, although the +question involved not only financial questions of the highest +importance, but the honor of the country, the matter was argued by many +of our legislators in a way which would have done discredit to a class +of college sophomores. I am glad to say that the best men of both +parties at Washington at last rallied against this monstrous legislation +and that among them were some representing both parties of the State and +City of New York. [Applause.] + +The injury wrought upon this country in its national Legislature and in +its multitude of State Legislatures by want of knowledge is simply +enormous. No one who knows anything of the history of the legislation of +any State will dispute this for a moment. The question now arises, is +such a state of things necessarily connected with a Republican +government? To this I answer decidedly, no. The next question is, is +there any practical means of improving this state of things? To this I +answer decidedly, yes. [Applause.] + +Here comes the practical matter to which I would call your attention. +Recently, in the presence of some of you, I spoke at length on the +necessity of training men in the institutions of higher learning in this +country for the highest duties of citizenship, and especially for +practical leadership. I cannot here go into details as I was able to do +in that paper, but I can at least say that if there is anything to which +a portion of the surplus wealth of men who have been enriched in +commerce and trade may well be devoted, it is to making provision in our +institutions of learning for meeting this lack of young men trained in +history, political and social science, and general jurisprudence--in +those studies which fit men to discuss properly and to lead their +fellow-citizens rightly in the discussion of the main questions relating +to commerce, to diplomacy, and to various political and social subjects. +[Applause.] + +I fully believe that one million dollars distributed between four or +five of our great institutions of learning for this purpose would +eventually produce almost a revolution for good in this country, and +that in a very few years the effect of such endowments would be seen to +be most powerful and most salutary. Provision on the largest scale +should be made for the training of young men in political and social +science, in such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Columbia, +Princeton, Union, Johns Hopkins University, the State Universities of +Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Minnesota, and California, and I trust +that you will permit me to add, Cornell. [Applause.] + +I do not pretend, of course, that this would supersede practical +training--no theoretical training can do this--but it would give young +men, at any rate, a knowledge of the best thoughts of the best thinkers, +on such subjects as taxation, representation, pauperism, crime, +insanity, and a multitude of similar questions; it would remove the +spectacle which so often afflicts us in our National and State +legislatures, of really strong men stumbling under loads of absurdity +and fallacy, long ago exploded by the best and most earnest thought of +the world, and it would teach young men to reason wisely and well on +such subjects, and then, with some practical experience, we should have +in every State a large number of well-trained men ready to reason +powerfully and justly, ready to meet at a moment's warning pernicious +heresies threatening commerce and trade and our best political and +social interests. Had there been scattered through California during the +recent canvass for their new constitution, twenty men really fitted to +show in the press and in the forum the absurdities of that Constitution, +it would never have been established. [Loud applause.] + +Ten thousand dollars to any one of these colleges or universities would +endow a scholarship or fellowship which would enable some talented +graduate to pursue advanced studies in this direction. Ten thousand to +twenty thousand dollars would endow a lectureship which would enable +such a college or university to call some acknowledged authority on +political subjects to deliver a valuable course of lectures. Thirty to +fifty thousand dollars would endow a full professorship--though I must +confess that in subjects like this, I prefer lectureships for brief +terms to life-long professorships--and at any of these institutions the +sum of two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand dollars, under +the management of such men as may be found in any one of them, would +equip nobly a department in which all these subjects may be fully +treated and fitly presented to young men. Such a department would send +out into our journalism, into our various professions, and into our +public affairs, a large number of young men who could not fail to +improve the political condition of the country, and would do much to +ward off such dealings with commerce, with currency, with taxation, and +with the diplomatic and consular service as have cost the world and our +own nation so dear hitherto. [Applause.] + +I can think of no more noble monument which any man of wealth could rear +to himself than a lectureship or professorship or a department of this +kind, at one of our greater institutions of learning, where large +numbers of vigorous and ambitious youths are collected from all parts of +the country; I do not, of course, say that all of these men would be +elected to public office; in the larger cities, they perhaps would not, +at least, at first; in the country, they would be very frequently +chosen, and they could hardly fail to render excellent service. +[Applause.] + +Any man worthy of the name, leaving his country for a long residence +outside its borders, feels more and more impressed with what is needed +to improve it. If I were called upon solemnly at this hour to declare my +conviction as to what can best be done by men blessed with wealth in +this Republic of ours, I would name this very thing to which I have now +called your attention. [Applause.] It has been too long deferred; our +colleges and universities have as a rule only had the means to give a +general literary and scientific education, with very little instruction +fitting men directly for public affairs. But the events of the last few +years show conclusively that we must now begin to prepare the natural +leaders of the people for the work before them, and by something more +than a little primary instruction in political economy and the elements +of history in the last terms of a four years' course. [Applause.] + +The complexity of public affairs is daily becoming greater; more and +more it is necessary that men be trained for them. Not that practical +men, trained practically in public affairs will not always be +wanted--practical men will always be in demand--but we want more and +more a judicious admixture of men trained in the best thought which has +been developed through the ages on all the great questions of government +and of society. [Applause.] + +No country presents a more striking example of the value of this +training than does that great nation with which my duties are shortly to +connect me. [Applause.] Several years since she began to provide in all +her universities for the training of men in political and social +questions, for political life at home and for diplomatic life abroad. +This at first was thought to be another example of German pedantry, but +the events of the last fifteen years have changed that view. We can now +see that it was a part of that great and comprehensive scheme begun by +such men as Stein and Hardenbergh and carried out by such as Bismarck +and his compeers. [Applause.] + +Other nations are beginning to see this. In France, within a few years, +very thoroughly equipped institutions have been established to train men +in the main studies required in public life and in diplomacy; the same +thing is true in England and in Italy. Can there be again, I ask, a more +fitting object for some of the surplus wealth of our merchant princes +than in rendering this great service to our country, in furnishing the +means by which young men can have afforded them a full, thorough, and +systematic instruction in all those matters so valuable to those who are +able to take the lead in public affairs. [Applause.] + +Mr. President, in concluding, allow me to say that in so far as any +efforts of mine may be useful I shall make every endeavor that whatever +diplomatic service I may render may inure to the benefit of commerce, +knowing full well that, in the language of the sentiment, "Commerce and +Diplomacy are the twin guardians of Peace and Prosperity." [Applause.] + +In spite of the present depression of business in Germany and the United +States, there are evidences of returning confidence. The great, sturdy, +vigorous German nation and our own energetic people cannot long be held +back in their career, and in this restoration of business, which is +certain, unless gross mismanagement occurs, I believe that these two +nations, America and Germany, will become more and more friendly; more +and more Commerce will weave her web uniting the two countries, and more +and more let us hope that Diplomacy may go hand in hand with Commerce in +bringing in an era of Peace which shall be lasting, and of Prosperity +which shall be substantial. [Loud applause.] + + + + +HARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY + + +THE IDEAL WOMAN + + [Speech of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley at the banquet of the American + Chemical Society, Washington, D. C, December, 1898. Dr. Wiley + responded to the toast, "Woman."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY:--I +propose to introduce an innovation to after-dinner speaking and stick to +my text. In my opinion, it is too late in the day to question the +Creator's purpose in making Woman. She is an accomplished fact! She is +here! She has come to stay, and we might as well accept her. She has +broken into our Society, which, until within a year or two, has remained +entirely masculine. She has not yet appeared at our annual dinners, but +I am a false prophet if she be not here to speak for herself ere long. +And why not? Chemistry is well suited to engage the attention of the +feminine mind. The jewels woman wears, the paints she uses, the hydrogen +peroxide with which she blondines her hair are all children of +chemistry. The prejudice against female chemists is purely selfish and +unworthy of a great mind. There is only enough work in the world to keep +half of humanity busy. Every time a woman gets employment a man must go +idle. But if the woman will only marry the man, all will be forgiven. + +I think I know why you have called on an old bachelor to respond to this +toast. A married man could not. He would be afraid to give his fancies +full rein. Someone might tell his wife. A young man could see only one +side of the subject--the side his sweetheart is on. But the old bachelor +fears no Caudle lecture, and is free from any romantic bias. He sees +things just as they are. If he be also a true chemist, lovely woman +appeals to him in a truly scientific way. Her charms appear to him in +the crucible and the beaker: + + I know a maiden, charming and true, + With beautiful eyes like the cobalt blue + Of the borax bead, and I guess she'll do + If she hasn't another reaction. + + Her form is no bundle of toilet shams, + Her beauty no boon of arsenical balms, + And she weighs just sixty-two kilograms + To a deci-decimal fraction. + + Her hair is a crown, I can truthfully state + 'Tis a metre long, nor curly nor straight, + And it is as yellow as plumbic chromate + In a slightly acid solution. + + And when she speaks from parlor or stump, + The words which gracefully gambol and jump + Sound sweet like the water in Sprengel's pump + In magnesic phosphate ablution. + + I have bought me a lot, about a hectare, + And have built me a house ten metres square, + And soon, I think, I shall take her there, + My tart little acid radicle. + + Perhaps little sailors on life's deep sea + Will be the salts of this chemistry, + And the lisp of the infantile A, B, C + Be the refrain of this madrigal. + +No one but a scientific man can have any idea of the real nature of +love. The poet may dream, the novelist describe the familiar feeling, +but only the chemist knows just how it is: + + A biochemist loved a maid + In pure actinic ways; + The enzymes of affection made + A ferment of his days. + + The waves emergent from her eyes + Set symphonies afloat, + These undulations simply struck + His fundamental note. + + No longer could he hide his love, + Nor cultures could he make, + And so he screwed his courage up, + And thus to her he spake: + + "Oh, maid of undulations sweet, + Inoculate my veins, + And fill my thirsty arteries up + With amorous ptomaines. + + "In vain I try to break this thrall, + In vain my reason fights, + My inner self tempestuous teems + With microcosmic mites. + + "I cannot offer you a crown + Of gold--I cannot tell + Of terrapin or wine for us, + But rations balanced well. + + "A little fat just now and then, + Some carbohydrates sweet, + And gluten in the bakers' bread, + Are what we'll have to eat. + + "The days will pass in rapture by, + With antitoxine frills, + And on our Guinea-pigs we'll try + The cures for all our ills. + + "O! maiden fair, wilt thou be mine? + Come, give me but one kiss, + And dwell forever blessed with me. + In symbiotic bliss." + + This maiden, modest, up-to-date, + Eschewed domestic strife; + In mocking accents she replied, + "Wat t'ell--not on your life." + +The philosopher and the theologian pretend to understand the origin of +things and the foundation of ethics, but what one of them ever had the +least idea of how love first started? What one of them can tell you a +thing concerning the original osculation--that primary amatory congress +which was the beginning of the beginning?-- + + Bathed in Bathybian bliss + And sunk in the slush of the sea, + Thrilled the first molecular kiss, + The beginning of you and of me. + + The Atom of Oxygen blushed + When it felt fair Hydrogen's breath, + The Atom of Nitrogen rushed + Eager to Life out of Death. + + Through Ocean's murmuring dell + Ran a whisper of rapture Elysian; + Across that Bathybian jell + Ran a crack that whispered of fission. + + Alas! that such things should be, + That cruel unkind separation, + Adown in the depths of the sea + Should follow the first osculation. + + O tender lover and miss, + You cannot remember too well + That the first molecular kiss + Was the first Bathybian sell. + +Not only are women rapidly invading the domain of chemistry, but they +are also the yellow peril of her sister science, pharmacy. A drug-store +without a dimpled damsel is now a fit subject for the sheriff's +hammer.-- + + There in the corner pharmacy, + This lithesome lady lingers, + And potent pills and philters true + Are fashioned by her fingers. + + Her phiz behind the soda fount + May oft be seen in summer; + How sweetly foams the soda fizz, + When you receive it from her. + + While mixing belladonna drops + With tincture of lobelia, + And putting up prescriptions, she + Is fairer than Ophelia. + + Each poison has its proper place, + Each potion in its chalice; + Her daedal fingers are so deft, + They call her digit-Alice. + +Love has been the theme of every age and of every tongue. It is the test +of youth and of the capability of progress. So long as a man can and +does love, he is young and there is hope for him. Whoever saw a +satisfactory definition of love? No one, simply because the science of +physical chemistry is yet young, and it is only when moulded by the +principles of that science that the definition is complete and +intelligible. Love is the synchronous vibration of two cardiac cells, +both of which, were it not for the ethics of etymology, should begin +with an S. Love is the source of eternal youth, of senile recrudescence. +It is the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the fountain of +flowers. So love changes not--the particular object is not of much +importance. One should never be a bigot in anything and a wise man +changes often. + +The grade of civilization which a nation has reached may be safely +measured by three things. If you want me to tell you where to place a +nation in the scale, don't tell me the name of it, nor the country it +inhabits, nor the religion it professes, nor its form of government. Let +me know how much sugar it uses per head, what the consumption of soap +is, and whether its women have the same rights as its men. That nation +which eats the most sugar, uses the most soap, and regards its women as +having the same rights as its men, will always be at the top. And +nowhere else in the world is more sugar eaten, more soap used, and women +more fully admitted to all the rights of men than in our own United +States and in the American Chemical Society. + +To the chemist, as well as to other scientific men, woman is not only +real but also ideal. From the fragments of the real the ideal is +reconstructed. This ideal is a trinity, a trinity innominate and +incorporeal. She is Pallas, Aphrodite, Artemis, three in one. She is an +incognita and an amorph. I know full well I shall not meet her; neither +in the crowded street of the metropolis nor in the quiet lane of the +country. I know well I shall not find her in the salon of fashion, nor +as a shepherdess with her crook upon the mountain-side. I know full well +that I need not seek her in the bustling tide of travel, nor wandering +by the shady banks of a brook. She is indeed near to my imagination, but +far, infinitely far, beyond my reach. Nevertheless, I may attempt to +describe her as she appears to me. Let me begin with that part of my +ideal which has been inherited from Diana. My ideal woman has a sound +body. She has bone, not brittle sticks of phosphate of lime. She has +muscles, not flabby, slender ribbons of empty sarcolemma. She has blood, +not a thin leucocytic ichor. I have no sympathy with that +pseudo-civilization which apparently has for its object the destruction +of the human race by the production of a race of bodiless women. If I am +to be a pessimist, I will be one out and out, and seek to destroy the +race in a high-handed and manly way. Indoor life, inactivity, lack of +oxygen in the lungs, these are things which in time produce a white +skin, but do it by sacrificing every other attribute of beauty. + +In the second place, my ideal woman is beautiful. I will confess that I +do not know what I mean by this; for what is beauty? It is both +subjective and objective. It depends on taste and education. It has +something to do with habit and experience. I know I shall not be able to +describe this trait, yet when I look up into her eyes--eyes, remember, +which are mere fictions of my imagination--when I look into her face, +when I see her move so statelily into my presence, I recognize there +that portion of her which she has inherited from the Aphrodite of other +days; and this I know is beauty. It is not the beauty of an +hallucination, the halo which a heart diseased casts about the head of +its idol. It is the beauty which is seen by a sober second thought, a +beauty which does not so much dazzle as it delights; a beauty which does +not fade with the passing hour, but stays through the heat and burden of +the day and until the day is done. + +The beauty which my ideal woman inherited from Aphrodite is not a fading +one. It is not simply a youthful freshness which the first decade of +womanhood will wither. It is a beauty which abides; it is a beauty in +which the charm of seventeen becomes a real essence of seventy; it is a +beauty which is not produced by any artificial pose of the head or by +any possible banging of the hair; it is a beauty which the art of +dressing may adorn but can never create; it is a beauty which does not +overwhelm the heart like an avalanche, but which eats it slowly but +surely away as a trickling stream cuts and grooves the solid granite. + +I regard true beauty as the divinest gift which woman has received; and +was not Pandora, the first of mythical women, endowed with every gift? +And was not Eve, the first of orthodox women, the type of every +feminine perfection? Only Protogyna, the first of scientific women, was +poorly and meanly endowed. If I were a woman I would value health and +wealth; I would think kindly of honor and reputation; I would greatly +prize knowledge and truth; but above all I would be beautiful--possessed +of that strange and mighty charm which would lead a crowd of slaves +behind my triumphal car and compel a haughty world to bow in humble +submission at my feet. + +In the third place my ideal woman has inherited the intellect of Pallas. +And this inheritance is necessary in order to secure for her a true +possession of the gifts of Aphrodite. For a woman can never be truly +beautiful who does not possess intelligence. It is a matter of the +utmost indifference to me what studies my ideal has pursued. She may be +a panglot or she may scarcely know her vernacular. If she speak French +and German and read Latin and Greek, it is well. If she know conics and +curves it is well; if she be able to integrate the vanishing function of +a quivering infinitesimal, it is well; if from a disintegrating track +which hardening cosmic mud has fixed and fastened on the present, she be +able to build a majestic, long extinct mammal, it is well. All these +things are marks of learning, but not necessarily of intelligence. A +person may know them all and hundreds of things besides, and yet be the +veriest fool. My ideal, I should prefer to have a good education in +science and letters, but she must have a sound mind. She must have a +mind above petty prejudice and giant bigotry. She must see something in +life beyond a ball or a ribbon. She must have wit and judgment. She must +have the higher wisdom which can see the fitness of things and grasp the +logic of events. It will be seen readily, therefore, that my ideal is +wise rather than learned. But she is not devoid of culture. Without +culture a broad liberality is impossible. But what is culture? True +culture is that knowledge of men and affairs which places every problem +in sociology and politics in its true light. It is that drill and +exercise which place all the faculties at their best and make one +capable of dealing with the real labors of life. Such a culture is not +incompatible with a broad knowledge of books, with a deep insight into +art, with a clear outlook over the field of letters. Indeed it includes +all these and is still something more than they are. + +My ideal then, so regally endowed, is the equal of any man--even if he +be the "ideal man" of the American Chemical Society. + +My ideal stands before me endowed with all the majesty of this long +ancestral line. Proud is she in the consciousness of her own equality. +Her haughty eye looks out upon this teeming sphere and acknowledges only +as her peer the "ideal man," and no one as her superior. Stand forth, O +perfect maiden, sentient with the brain of Pallas, radiant with the +beauty of Venus, quivering with the eager vivacity of Diana! Make, if +possible, thy home on earth. At thy coming the world will rise in an +enthusiasm of delight and crown thee queen. [Long and enthusiastic +applause.] + + + + +WOODROW WILSON + + +OUR ANCESTRAL RESPONSIBILITIES + + [Speech of Woodrow Wilson at the seventeenth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1896. + Stewart L. Woodford, the President of the Society, said, in + introducing the speaker: "The next toast is entitled 'The + Responsibility of having Ancestors,' and will be responded to by + Professor Woodrow Wilson,[13] of Princeton. I know you will give + him such a welcome as will indicate that, while we are mostly Yale + men here, we are not jealous of Princeton."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN:--I am not of your blood; +I am not a Virginia Cavalier, as Dr. Hill [David J. Hill. See Vol. II.] +has suggested. Sometimes I wish I were; I would have more fun. I come, +however, of as good blood as yours; in some respects a better. Because +the Scotch-Irish, though they are just as much in earnest as you are, +have a little bit more gayety and more elasticity than you have. +Moreover they are now forming a Scotch-Irish society, which will, as +fast as human affairs will allow, do exactly what the New England +Societies are doing, viz.: annex the universe. [Laughter.] We believe +with a sincere belief, we believe as sincerely as you do the like, that +we really made this country. Not only that, but we believe that we can +now, in some sort of way, demonstrate the manufacture, because the +country has obviously departed in many respects from the model which you +claim to have set. Not only that, but it seems to me that you yourselves +are becoming a little recreant to the traditions you yearly celebrate. + +It seems to me that you are very much in the position, with reference to +your forefathers, that the little boy was with reference to his +immediate father. The father was a very busy man; he was away at his +work before the children were up in the morning and did not come home +till after they had gone to bed at night. One day this little boy was +greatly incensed, as he said, "to be whipped by that gentleman that +stays here on Sundays." I do not observe that you think about your +ancestors the rest of the week; I do not observe that they are very much +present in your thoughts at any other time save on Sunday, and that then +they are most irritating to you. I have known a great many men descended +from New England ancestors and I do not feel half so hardly toward my +ancestors as they do toward theirs. There is a distant respect about the +relationship which is touching. There is a feeling that these men are +well and safely at a distance, and that they would be indulged under no +other circumstances whatever; and that the beauty of it is to have +descended from them and come so far away. + +Now, there are serious aspects to this subject. I believe that one of +the responsibilities of having ancestors is the necessity of not being +ashamed of them. I believe if you have had persons of this sort as your +forefathers you must really try to represent them in some sort of way. +And you must set yourselves off against the other elements of population +in this country. You know that we have received very many elements which +have nothing of the Puritan about them, which have nothing of New +England about them; and that the chief characteristic of these people is +that they have broken all their traditions. The reason that most +foreigners come to this country is in order to break their traditions, +to drop them. They come to this country because these traditions bind +them to an order of society which they will no longer endure, and they +come to be quit of them. You yourselves will bear me witness that these +men, some of them, stood us in good stead upon a very recent occasion: +in last November. [Applause. "Hear! Hear!"] We should not at all +minimize the vote of the foreign-born population as against the vote of +some of the native-born population on the question of silver and gold. +But you will observe that there are some things that it would be +supposed would belong to any tradition. One would suppose it would +belong to any tradition that it was better to earn a dollar that did not +depreciate, and these men have simply shown that there are some +common-sense elements which are international and not national. + +One of the particulars in which we are drawn away from our traditions is +in respect to the make-up and government of society, and it is in that +respect we should retrace our steps and preserve our traditions; because +we are suffering ourselves to drift away from the old standards, and we +say, with a shrug of the shoulders, that we are not responsible for it; +that we have not changed the age, though the age has changed us. We feel +very much as the Scotchman did who entered the fish market. His dog, +being inquisitive, investigated a basket of lobsters, and while he was +nosing about incautiously one of the lobsters got hold of his tail, +whereupon he went down the street with the lobster as a pendant. Says +the man, "Whustle to your dog, mon." "Nay, nay, mon," quoth the +Scotchman, "You whustle for your lobster." We are very much in the same +position with reference to the age; we say, whistle to the age; we +cannot make it let go; we have got to run. We feel very much like the +little boy in the asylum, standing by the window, forbidden to go out. +He became contemplative, and said, "If God were dead and there were not +any rain, what fun orphan boys would have." We feel very much that way +about these New England traditions. If God were only dead; if it didn't +rain; if the times were only good, what times we would have. + +The present world is not recognizable when put side by side with the +world into which the Puritan came. I am not here to urge a return to the +Puritan life; but have you forgotten that the Puritans came into a new +world? The conditions under which they came were unprecedented +conditions to them. But did they forget the principles on which they +acted because the conditions were unprecedented? Did they not discover +new applications for old principles? Are we to be daunted, therefore, +because the conditions are new? Will not old principles be adaptable to +new conditions, and is it not our business to adapt them to new +conditions? Have we lost the old principle and the old spirit? Are we a +degenerate people? We certainly must admit ourselves to be so if we do +not follow the old principles in the new world, for that is what the +Puritans did. + +Let me say a very practical word. What is the matter now? The matter is, +conceal it as we may, gloss it over as we please, that the currency is +in a sad state of unsuitability to the condition of the country. That is +the fact of the matter; nobody can deny that; but what are we going to +do? We are going to have a new tariff. I have nothing to say with regard +to the policy of the tariff, one way or the other. We have had tariffs, +have we not, every few years, ever since we were born; and has not the +farmer become discontented under these conditions? It was the effort to +remedy them that produced the silver movement. A new tariff may produce +certain economic conditions; I do not care a peppercorn whether it does +or not, but this is a thing which we have been tinkering and dickering +with time out of mind, and in spite of the tinkering and dickering this +situation has arisen. Are we going to cure it by more tinkering? We are +not going to touch it in this way. Now, what are we going to do? It is +neither here nor there whether I am a protectionist, or for a tariff for +revenue, or whatever you choose to call me. The amount you collect in +currency for imports is not going to make any difference. The right +thing to do is to apply old principles to a new condition and get out of +that new condition something that will effect a practical remedy. I do +not pretend to be a doctor with a nostrum. I have no pill against an +earthquake. I do not know how this thing is going to be done, but it is +not going to be done by having stomachs easily turned by the truth; it +is not going to be done by merely blinking the situation. If we blink +the situation I hope we shall have no more celebrations in which we talk +about our Puritan ancestors, because they did not blink the situation, +and it is easy to eat and be happy and proud. A large number of persons +may have square meals by having a properly adjusted currency. + +We are very much in the condition described by the reporter who was +describing the murder of a certain gentleman. He said that the murderer +entered the house, and gave a graphic description of the whole thing. He +said that fortunately the gentleman had put his valuables in the safe +deposit and lost only his life. We are in danger of being equally wise. +We are in danger of managing our policy so that our property will be put +in safe deposit and we will lose only our lives. We will make all the +immediate conditions of the nation perfectly safe and lose only the life +of the nation. This is not a joke, this is a very serious situation. I +should feel ashamed to stand here and not say that this is a subject +which deserves your serious consideration and ought to keep some of you +awake to-night. This is not a simple gratulatory occasion, this is a +place where public duty should be realized and public purposes formed, +because public purpose is a thing for which our Puritan ancestors stood, +yours and mine. If this race should ever lose that capacity, if it +should ever lose the sense of dignity in this regard, we should lose the +great traditions of which we pretend to be proud. [Applause.] + + + + +JOHN WINSLOW + + +THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY + + [Speech of John Winslow, in the capacity of presiding officer, at + the eighth annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of + Brooklyn, December 21, 1887.] + + +GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, GUESTS +AND FRIENDS:--This is the eighth anniversary of our Society and the +two hundred and sixty-seventh of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It +will please you all to learn of the continued growth and prosperity of +our Society. There is in our treasury the sum of $14,506.21, and we have +no debts. [Applause.] This shows an increase of $1,266.26 over last +year. As occasion requires this money is used for charitable purposes +and in other useful ways, as provided by our by-laws. Such a gathering +as we have here to-night is an inspiration. It must be especially so to +the distinguished gentlemen, our guests, who will address you. So it +comes to pass that you are to have to-night the advantage of listening +to inspired men--an advantage not uncommon in the days of the prophets, +but rare in our times. [Laughter and applause.] It is proper and +agreeable to us all just here and now to recognize as with us our friend +and benefactor and president emeritus, the Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman. [A +voice: "Three cheers for that grand old man." The company rising gave +rousing cheers.] He is with us with a young heart and a cheerful mind, +and continues to be what he has been from the beginning--a loyal and +devoted friend of our Society. [Applause.] + +We are here this evening enjoying the sufferings of our Pilgrim Fathers. +[Merriment.] Their heroic work takes in Plymouth Rock, ours takes in +the Saddle Rock. They enjoyed game of their own shooting, we enjoy game +of other's shooting; they drank cold water, because they could no longer +get Holland beer. The fact that they must give up Dutch beer was one of +the considerations (so we are told by one of their Governors) that made +them loath to leave Leyden. [Laughter.] We drink cold water because we +want it and like it. The Pilgrim Fathers went to church armed with +muskets; we go to church with our minds stuffed and demoralized by the +contents of Sunday morning newspapers. [Laughter.] The Pilgrim mothers +went to church dressed in simple attire, because they could afford +nothing elaborate and because they thought they could better catch and +hold the devotional spirit. The Pilgrim mothers of our day go to church +with costly toilets, because they can afford it, and are quite willing +to take the chances as to catching and holding the aforesaid spirit. +[Laughter.] The Pilgrim Fathers, when they made the compact on the +Mayflower, planted the seeds of constitutional freedom; we, their worthy +sons, commemorate their work; try to perpetuate it and enjoy the fruits +thereof. + +It is sometimes said the Pilgrims were a solemn people; that they were +not cheerful. Well, in their severe experience in England and Holland +and at Plymouth, there was much to make a born optimist grave and +thoughtful. But it is a mistake to suppose that they could not rejoice +with those who rejoiced as well as weep with those who wept. Take, for +instance, the first Thanksgiving festival held by the Pilgrims. The +quaint account of this by one of their Governors is always interesting. +This first American Thanksgiving took place at Plymouth in 1621, only +about ten months after the landing. It was like a Jewish festival, +continuing out of doors for a week. The Pilgrim writer, Governor +Winslow, describes it thus: "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor +(meaning Governor Bradford) sent four men out fowling, so that we might, +after a special manner (meaning doubtless a gay and festive manner) +rejoice together after (not counting chickens before they were hatched) +we had gathered the fruit of our labors." Now, listen to this: "They +killed in one day so much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the +company almost a week." What this "little help beside" was, is not +stated. In our day it would mean that the hunter and the fisherman made +heavy drafts upon Fulton Market for meat, fowl, and fish, to supply what +was short. "At which time," says the writer, "among other recreations, +we exercised our arms"--this probably means they shot at a mark +[laughter]--"many of the Indians coming among us"--they were not the +mark, at least this time--"and among the rest, their greatest king, +Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and +feasted." Think of that; feasting ninety Indians three days, and the +whole colony besides. What New England Society has ever made so good a +showing of hospitality and good cheer? [Laughter.] "And they" (the +ninety Indians), "went out and killed five deer." + +Now, I submit, we have here a clear case of the application of the great +principle of honest, even-handed co-operation, no modern device in that +line could surpass it. It is true the Indians were not an incorporated +society, and so there was no receiver appointed to wind them up. +[Laughter.] "Which they brought," says the writer, "to the plantation +and bestowed on our Governor" (meaning Governor Bradford), "our captain, +and others." Governor Bradford, in speaking of this, tells us that among +the fowl brought in "was a great store of turkeys." Thus begins the sad +history in this country of the rise and annual fall on Thanksgiving days +of that exalted biped--the American turkey. After this description of a +Pilgrim festival day who shall ever again say the Pilgrims could not be +merry if they had half a chance to be so. Why, if the Harvard and Yale +football teams had been on hand with their great national game of +banging each others' eyes and breaking bones promiscuously, they could +not have added to the spirit of the day though they might to its variety +of pastime. [Laughter.] + +It is interesting to remember in this connection that in the earlier +years of the colonies, Thanksgiving day did not come every year. It came +at various periods of the year from May to December, and the intervals +between them sometimes four or five years, gradually shortened and then +finally settled into an annual festival on the last Thursday of +November. A few years ago two Governors of Maine ventured to appoint a +day in December for Thanksgiving. Neither of them was re-elected. +[Laughter.] The crowning step in this development, which is now +national, was when the fortunes of our late war were in favor of the +Union, and a proclamation for a national Thanksgiving was issued by our +then President, dear old Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] That the festival +shall hereafter and forever be national is a part of our unwritten law. +[Applause.] It will thus be seen that we, the sons of the Pilgrims, may +fairly and modestly claim that this feature of our national life, like +most of the others that are valuable, proceeded directly from Plymouth +Rock. The New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, will ever honor +the work and the memory of the fathers. As in the sweet lines of Bryant: + + "Till where the sun, with softer fires, + Looks on the vast Pacific's sleep, + The children of the Pilgrim sires + This hallowed day, like us, shall keep." + +[General applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM WINTER + + +TRIBUTE TO JOHN GILBERT + + [Speech of William Winter at a dinner given by the Lotos Club, New + York City, November 30, 1878, to John Gilbert, in honor of the + fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the stage. Whitelaw + Reid presided. William Winter responded to the toast "The Dramatic + Critic."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I thank you very gratefully for +this kind welcome, and I think it a privilege to be allowed to take part +in a festival so delightful as this, and join with you in paying respect +to a name so justly renowned and honored as that of John Gilbert. I +cannot hope adequately to respond to the personal sentiments which have +been so graciously expressed nor adequately celebrate the deeds and the +virtues of your distinguished guest. "I am ill at these numbers ... but +such answer as I can make you shall command." For since first I became +familiar with the stage--in far-away days in old Boston, John Gilbert +has been to me the fulfilment of one of my highest ideals of excellence +in the dramatic art; and it would be hard if I could not now say this, +if not with eloquence at least with fervor. + +I am aware of a certain strangeness, however, in the thought that words +in his presence and to his honor should be spoken by me. The freaks of +time and fortune are indeed strange. I cannot but remember that when +John Gilbert was yet in the full flush of his young manhood and already +crowned with the laurels of success the friend who is now speaking was a +boy at his sports--playing around the old Federal Street Theatre, and +beneath the walls of the Franklin Street Cathedral, and hearing upon the +broad causeways of Pearl Street the rustle and patter of the autumn +leaves as they fell from the chestnuts around the Perkins Institution +and the elms that darkened the sombre, deserted castle of Harris's +Folly. With this sense of strangeness though, comes a sense still more +striking and impressive of the turbulent, active, and brilliant period +through which John Gilbert has lived. Byron had been dead but four years +[1828] and Scott and Wordsworth were still writing when he began to act. +Goethe was still living. The works of Thackeray and Dickens were yet to +be created. Cooper, Irving, Bryant, Halleck, and Percival were the +literary lords of that period. The star of Willis was ascending while +those of Hawthorne and Poe were yet to rise; and the dramas of Talfourd, +Knowles, and Bulwer were yet to be seen by him as fresh contributions to +the literature of the stage. All these great names are written in the +book of death. All that part of old Boston to which I have referred--the +scene equally of Gilbert's birth and youth and first successes and of +his tender retrospection--has been swept away or entirely changed. Gone +is the old Federal Street Theatre. Gone that quaint English alley with +the cosey tobacconist's shop which he used to frequent. Gone the +hospitable Stackpole where many a time at the "latter end of a sea-coal +fire" he heard the bell strike midnight from the spire of the Old South +Church! But, though "the spot where many times he triumphed is +forgot"--his calm and gentle genius and his hale physique have endured +in unabated vigor, so that he has charmed two generations of play-goers, +still happily lives to charm men and women of to-day. Webster, Choate, +Felton, Everett, Rantoul, Shaw, Bartlett, Lunt, Halleck, Starr King, +Bartol, Kirk--these and many more, the old worthies of the bar, bench, +and the pulpit in Boston's better days of intellect and taste:--all saw +him as we see him in the silver-gray elegance and exquisite perfection +with which he illustrates the comedies of England. + +His career has impinged upon the five great cities of Boston, New +Orleans, Philadelphia, London, and New York. It touches at one extreme +the ripe fame of Munden (who died in '32) and--freighted with all the +rich traditions of the stage--it must needs at its other extreme +transmit even into the next century the high mood, the scholar-like wit, +and the pure style of the finest strain of acting that Time has +bestowed upon civilized man. By what qualities it has been distinguished +this brilliant assemblage is full well aware. The dignity which is its +grandeur; the sincerity which is its truth; the thoroughness which is +its massive substance; the sterling principle which is its force; the +virtue which is its purity; the scholarship, mind, humor, taste, +versatile aptitude of simulation, and beautiful grace of method, which +are its so powerful and so delightful faculties and attributes, have all +been brought home to your minds and hearts by the wealth and clear +genius of the man himself! + +I have often lingered in fancy upon the idea of that strange, +diversified, wonderful procession--here the dazzling visage of Garrick, +there the woful face of Mossop; here the glorious eyes of Kean; there +the sparkling loveliness of an Abington or a Jordan--which moves through +the chambers of the memory across almost any old and storied stage. The +thought is endless in its suggestion, and fascinating in its charm. How +often in the chimney-corner of life shall we--whose privilege it has +been to rejoice in the works of this great comedian, and whose happiness +it is to cluster around him to-night in love and admiration--conjure up +and muse upon his stately figure as we have seen it in the group of Sir +Peter and Sir Robert, of Jaques and Wolsey, and Elmore! The ruddy +countenance, the twinkling gray eyes, the silver hair, the kind smile, +the hearty voice, the old-time courtesy of manner--how tenderly will they +be remembered! How dearly are they prized! Scholar!--Actor!--Gentleman! +long may he be spared to dignify and adorn the stage--a soother of our +cares, and comfort to our hearts--exemplar for our lives!--the Edelweiss +of his age and of our affections! [Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO LESTER WALLACK + + [Speech of William Winter at a banquet of the Lotos Club, given to + Lester Wallack, December 17, 1887. Whitelaw Reid, the President of + the Club, occupied the chair. Mr. Winter was called upon to speak + in behalf of the critics.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--You have done me great honor in +asking me to be present on this occasion, and you have conferred upon me +a great privilege in permitting me to participate with you in this +tribute of affection and admiration for John Lester Wallack, your +distinguished and most deservedly honored guest and my personal friend +these many, many years. [Cheers.] + +I thank you for your thoughtful courtesy and for this distinguished mark +of your favor. Being well aware of my defects both as a thinker and a +speaker, I shrink from such emergencies as this, but having known him so +long and having been in a professional way associated with so many of +his labors and his triumphs, I should fail in duty if I were not at +least to try to add my word of love, feeble and inadequate as it may be, +to the noble volume of your sympathy and homage. [Cheers.] + +The presence of this brilliant assemblage, the eloquent words which have +fallen from the lips of your honored president and the speeches of your +orators, they signify some change--I will not say in regard to the +advancement of the stage--but they signify a wonderful advancement in +our times in sympathetic and thoughtful and just appreciation of the +theatre. This was not always so. It is not very long since so wise and +gentle a man as Charles Lamb expressed his mild astonishment that a +person capable of committing to memory and reciting the language of +Shakespeare could for that reason be supposed to possess a mind +congenial with that of the poet. The scorn of Carlyle and the scarcely +less injurious pity of Emerson for the actor are indications that in a +time not remote, thought and philosophy have made but little account of +the stage. + +Something might be said about this by a voice more competent than mine, +for in our time there has been a change in the intelligent spirit of +the age, and I am sure that thought and philosophy now are of the +opinion that the actor is an intellectual and spiritual force; that he +is connected most intimately with the cause of public education; that he +brings something of his own, and that, although the part provides the +soul, it is the actor who must provide the body, and without the soul +and the body, you could not have dramatic representations for the +benefit of them. [Applause.] + +I am not one of those writers who believe that it is the business of the +newspaper to manage the theatres. The question of what to do to please +the public taste, to provide mankind with what they like, or what they +want, or, which is the same thing, with what they think they want, opens +a very complex inquiry. Our dear friend has been puzzled by it himself +more than a little. I should not undertake to instruct him, but as the +observer of his course I have been struck by wonder and admiration of +the way he has carried his theatre through seasons of great competition +and great peril. + +I call to mind one season, now seventeen years ago, I think, when in the +course of a very few months, he produced and presented upward of +thirty-two plays, showing the best points of these plays and showing his +great company to every possible advantage; so have I seen a juggler toss +fifty knives in the air and catch them without cutting his fingers. + +[At the close of his speech Mr. Winter read the following poem.]-- + +LESTER WALLACK + + With a glimmer of plumes and a sparkle of lances, + With blare of the trumpets and neigh of the steed, + At morning they rode where the bright river glances, + And the sweet summer wind ripples over the mead; + The green sod beneath them was ermined with daisies, + Smiling up to green boughs tossing wild in their glee, + While a thousand glad hearts sang their honors and praises, + While the Knights of the Mountain rode down to the sea. + + One rode 'neath the banner whose face was the fairest, + Made royal with deeds that his manhood had done, + And the halo of blessing fell richest and rarest + On his armor that splintered the shafts of the sun; + + So moves o'er the waters the cygnet sedately, + So waits the strong eagle to mount on the wing, + Serene and puissant and simple and stately, + So shines among princes the form of the King. + + With a gay bugle-note when the daylight's last glimmer + Smites crimson and gold on the snow of his crest, + At evening he rides through the shades growing dimmer, + While the banners of sunset stream red in the West; + His comrades of morning are scattered and parted, + The clouds hanging low and the winds making moan, + But smiling and dauntless and brave and true-hearted, + All proudly he rides down the valley alone. + + Sweet gales of the woodland embrace and caress him, + White wings of renown be his comfort and light, + Pale dews of the starbeam encompass and bless him, + With the peace and the balm and the glory of night; + And, Oh! while he wends to the verge of that ocean, + Where the years like a garland shall fall from his brow, + May his glad heart exult in the tender devotion, + The love that encircles and hallows him now. + +[Enthusiastic applause.] + + + + +ROBERT C. WINTHROP + + +THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE + + [Speech of Robert C. Winthrop made at the public dinner given to + Amin Bey by the merchants of Boston, Mass., November 4, 1850.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I am greatly honored by the sentiment just +proposed, and I beg my good friend, the Vice-President [Hon. Benjamin +Seaver], to accept my hearty thanks for the kind and complimentary terms +in which he has presented my name to the company. I am most grateful for +the opportunity of meeting with so large a number of the intelligent and +enterprising merchants of Boston, and of uniting with them in a tender +of deserved hospitality, and in a tribute of just respect, to the +Commissioner of his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan of Turkey. + +And yet, I cannot but reflect, even as I pronounce these words, how +strangely they would have sounded in the ears of our fathers not many +generations back, or even in our own ears not many years ago. A deserved +tender of hospitality, a just tribute of respect, to the Representative +of the Grand Turk! Sir, the country from which your amiable and +distinguished guest has come, was not altogether unknown to some of the +early American discoverers and settlers. John Smith--do not smile too +soon, Mr. President, for though the name has become proverbially generic +in these latter days, it was once identified and individualized as the +name of one of the most gallant navigators and captains which the world +has ever known--that John Smith who first gave the cherished name of New +England to what the Pilgrims of the Mayflower called "these Northern +parts of Virginia"--he, I say, was well acquainted with Turkey; and two +centuries and a half ago, he gave the name of a Turkish lady to one of +the capes of our own Massachusetts Bay. But he knew Turkey as a prison +and a dungeon, and he called what is now Cape Ann, Cape Tragabigzanda, +only to commemorate his affection for one who had soothed the rigors of +a long and loathsome captivity. + +Nor was Turkey an unknown land to at least one of those Winthrops of the +olden time, with whom the Vice-President has so kindly connected me. In +turning over some old family papers since my return home, I have +stumbled on the original autograph of a note from John Winthrop, the +younger, dated "December 26th, 1628, at the Castles of the Hellespont," +whither he had gone, as is supposed, as the Secretary of Sir Peter Wich, +the British Ambassador at Constantinople. The associations of that day, +however, with those remote regions, were by no means agreeable, and I +should hardly dare to dwell longer upon them on this occasion and in +this presence. I rejoice that events have occurred to break the spell of +that hereditary prejudice, which has so long prevailed in the minds of +not a few of us, toward the Ottoman Empire. I rejoice that our +associations with Turkey are no longer those only of the plague and the +bowstring; that we are encouraged and authorized to look to her +hereafter for something better than a little coarse wool for our +blankets, or a few figs for our dessert, or even a little opium or +rhubarb for our medicine-chests; that, in a word, we are encouraged and +warranted to look to her, under the auspices and administration of her +young, gallant, and generous Sultan, for examples of reform, of +toleration, of liberality, of a magnanimous and chivalrous humanity, +which are worthy of the admiration and imitation of all mankind. I +rejoice, especially, that an occasion has been afforded for testifying +the deep sense which is entertained throughout our country, of the noble +conduct of the Sublime Porte in regard to the unfortunate exiles of +Hungary. + +The influence which the Ottoman Empire seems destined to exert over the +relations of Eastern and Western Europe, is of the most interesting and +important character; and, while we all hold steadfastly to the great +principle of neutrality which Washington established and enforced, we +yet cannot suppress our satisfaction that this influence is now in the +hands of one who seems determined to wield it fearlessly for the best +interests of civilization and humanity. + +And now, sir, let us hope that our distinguished friend, Amin Bey, may +return home with some not less favorable impressions of our own land. Of +our enterprise, of our industry, of our immense material production, of +our rapid progress in arts and improvements of every kind, of our vast +territorial extent, he cannot fail to testify. Let us hope that he may +be able to speak also of internal order, of domestic tranquillity, of +wise and just laws, faithfully administered and promptly obeyed, of a +happy, contented, and united people, commending by their practice and +example, as well as by their principles and precepts, the institutions +under which they live. + +The distinguished gentleman who preceded me [Mr. Webster], and whom I +have been under the disadvantage of following in other scenes as well as +here, has spoken of the Union of these States. There is no language so +strong or so emphatic, which even he can use, as to the importance of +preserving that Union, which does not meet with a prompt and cordial +echo in my own bosom. To the eyes of Amin Bey, and to the eyes of all +foreign nations, we are indeed but one country, from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. To them there is no Boston or New York, no Carolina or +Louisiana. Our commerce goes forth under one and the same flag, whether +from the Bay of Massachusetts or from the "Golden Gate" of California. +Under that flag, it has been protected, prospered, and extended beyond +example. Under that flag, new fields are opening to it, and new triumphs +are before it. May our distinguished guest take home with him an +assurance, founded upon all that he has seen and all that he has heard, +of the resolution of us all, that the flag of our Union shall still and +always remain one and the same, from ocean to ocean, untorn and +untarnished, proof alike against everything of foreign assault and +everything of domestic dissension! [Great applause.] + + + + +JOHN SERGEANT WISE + + +CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH + + [Speech of John S. Wise at the eleventh annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 20, 1890. The + President, Willard Bartlett, occupied the chair. He called upon Mr. + Wise to speak to the toast, "Captain John Smith, the Ruler of + Virginia, and Admiral of New England," saying: "It was not without + a purpose that your committee arranged the order of speaking this + evening. I am sure that the gentlemen who have already addressed + you will take it in good part, if I say we knew that, by putting + one name at the end of the programme, we should be sure to hold the + audience here till the doxology. Now a speaker who bears the name + of the first ruler of Virginia I ever knew anything about, will + address you upon Virginia's still earlier ruler, Captain John + Smith."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--It is one of the peculiarities of Americans, +that they attempt to solve the unsolvable problem of successfully mixing +gastronomy and oratory. In chemistry there are things known as +incompatibles, which it is impossible to blend and at the same time +preserve their original characteristics. It is impossible to have as +good a dinner as we have had served to-night, and preserve the +intellectual faculties of your guests so that they may be seen at their +best. I am not unmindful that in the menu the courses grew shorter until +they culminated in the pungent and brief episode of cheese, and so I +take it that as to the oratory here on tap, you desire it to become +gradually more brief and more pungent. + +Now, the task of condensing into a five-minute speech two hundred and +seventy years of the history of America, is something that has been +assigned to me, and I propose to address myself to it without further +delay. [Laughter] + +John Smith was at one time President of Virginia, and afterward Admiral +of New England, and ever since then, until lately, New England and +Virginia have been trying to pull loose from each other, so as not to be +under the same ruler. [Laughter and applause.] John Smith was a godsend +to the American settlers, because he was a plain man in a company of +titled nonentities, and after they had tried and failed in every effort +to make or perpetuate an American colony, plain John Smith, a democrat, +without a title, took the helm and made it a success. [Laughter.] + +Then and there, and ever since, we laid aside the +Reginald-Trebizond-Percys of nobility, and stuck to the plain John +Smiths, honest citizens, of capacity and character. By his example we +learned that "Kind hearts are more than coronets," and simple men of +worth are infinitely better than titled vagabonds of Norman blood. +[Applause.] It is almost three centuries since a tiny vessel, not larger +than a modern fishing-smack, turned her head to the sunset across an +unknown sea, for the land of conjecture. The ship's company, composed of +passengers from England, that wonderful nest of human wanderers, that +splendid source of the best civilization of the world, cast anchor by +chance in a noble bay for which they had not sailed, and settled a +colony; not with any particularly high or noble object, but really in +pursuit of gold, and searching for a South Sea which they never found. +The voyage had been projected without any other object than the +accumulation of wealth, which wealth was to be carried back to the old +country and enjoyed in that England which they loved, and to which their +eyes ever turned backward with affection, reverence, and the hope of +return. This band of younger sons and penniless nobility, attempted to +make a settlement under the charter known as the London charter of +Virginia; and while we find to-day men sneering at John Smith, the fact +remains that he alone was enabled by his strong personality, by his +sterling, individual worth, to resist the savages, to make the lazy +work, to furnish food for the weak and sickly, to re-inspire those who +had lost hope, and to firmly establish a settlement in Virginia. His +reward was what? Sedition in his own camp, ingratitude among his own +followers, misrepresentation to his patrons, disappointment, disease, +and poverty to himself; a return to England and posthumous fame. But his +bulldog fangs, the fangs of that English blood which once sunk in the +throat of a savage land remain forever, were placed upon America, to +mark it as another conquest and another triumph of Anglo-Saxon +colonization. Three years of peace and quiet in England were not to his +taste. His mother's spirit craved new adventures, and he sought them in +sea voyages to the north. Although his task was a much less difficult +one, and not quite so prominent as the task he had accomplished in +Virginia, he prepared the way for the settlement at Plymouth Rock. To +his title of President of Virginia was added the title of Admiral of New +England, because this John Smith, without a pedigree, except such as was +blazoned on his shield by his slaughter of three Turks, turned his +attention from the land to the sea, sailed the colder waters of the +north, located the colonies of New England, named your own Boston, and +the result of his voyages and reports were the Plymouth charter and +settlement. So it is that we have a common founder of the settlements of +this country. Of all the gallants who embarked in the first adventure, +all disappeared save John Smith, who bore the plainest and commonest +name that human imagination can devise. He became the patron saint of +American civilization, as much yours as ours, and as much ours as yours. +[Laughter and applause.] + +Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: We had one founder; we came from one +master-mind; one great spirit was the source of both our settlements; +and this initial fact in our histories has seemed to inspire the +American people through all the centuries with the sentiment that our +union should be eternal in spite of all disturbing circumstances. +[Applause.] When I said, in a light way, that old Virginia and +Massachusetts had sought to rend themselves asunder, it was scarcely +true. They have too much that is glorious in common to be aught but +loving sisters. The men who are before me will not forget that the +settlers of the London colony of Virginia, and settlers of the Plymouth +colony of Massachusetts, have been at the front of every great movement +which has agitated this nation from its birth. When it came to the +question of whether we should dissolve the political ties that bound us +to the British King, Massachusetts Bay and the colony of Virginia were +the first to form their Committees of Safety, exchange their messages +of mutual support, and strengthen the weak among their sister colonies. +[Applause.] When it came to the time that tried men's souls in the +Revolution, it was the men of Virginia and the men of Massachusetts Bay +that furnished the largest quotas of revolutionary soldiers who achieved +the independence of the American colonies. + +When it came to the formation of a federal union, Virginia, with her +Washington, gave the first President, and Massachusetts, with her Adams, +stepped proudly to the front with the first Vice-President and second +President. [Applause.] In later years, when differences came--which +differences need not be discussed--every man here knows what part +Virginia and Massachusetts bore. It was a part which, however much we +may differ with each other, bespoke the origin of the two colonies, and +told that true manhood was there to do and die for what it believed was +right. When that struggle was ended, the first to clasp hands in mutual +friendship and affection were Virginia and Massachusetts. If we were to +blot from the history or geography of the Nation the deeds or territory +of the ancient dominions of John Smith, President of Virginia and +Admiral of New England, a beggarly record of area would be left, in +spite of the glorious records of other sections in recent years. + +The history of America is to me not only of deep and absorbing interest +in its every detail, but it is a romance; it is a fascinating detail of +wonderful development, the like of which cannot be found in the annals +of civilization from the remotest time. We may go back to the time when +the curtain rises on the most ancient civilization of the East, and +there is nothing to compare with it. We may take up not only the real, +but the romantic history of modern European progress, and there is +nothing like American history for myself. Taking up the story of the +Quaker invasion of Massachusetts as early as 1659, I find Lydia Wardell, +daughter of Isaac Perkins, a freeman of the colony, whipped in Boston, +because she had ceased to be a Puritan and had become a Quakeress. +Turning then to the history of Virginia in 1663, I find Colonel Edmund +Scarburgh riding at the head of the King's troops into the boundaries of +Maryland, placing the broad arrows of the King on the houses of the +Quakers, and punishing them soundly for non-conformity. Upon the +question of who was right and who was wrong in these old feuds, there +are doubtless men who, even to this day, have deep prejudices. Fancy how +conflicting are the sentiments of a man in 1890, as to their merits, +when he reflects, as I do, that Lydia Wardell was his grandmother, and +Colonel Scarburgh his grandfather. [Applause and laughter.] + +How absurd seems any comparison between the Puritan and Cavalier +settlers of America. There they are, with all their faults, and all +their virtues. Others may desire to contrast them. I do not. I stand +ready to do battle against anybody who abuses either. Their conjoint +blood has produced a Nation, the like of which no man living before our +day had ever fancied. Nearly three centuries of intermingling and +intermarrying, has made the traditions and the hopes of either the +heritage and aspiration of us all. Common sufferings, common triumphs, +common pride, make the whole glorious history the property of every +American citizen, and it is provincial folly to glorify either faction +at the expense of the other. + +We stand to-night on the pinnacle of the third Century of American +development. Look back to the very beginning. There stands the grizzled +figure of John Smith, the Pioneer--President of Virginia, and Admiral of +New England. Still united, we look about us and behold a nation blessed +with peace and plenty, crowned with honor, and with boundless +opportunity of future aggrandizement. The seed planted by John Smith +still grows. The voice of John Smith still lives. That voice has been +swelled into the mighty chorus of 60,000,000 Americans singing the song +of United States. We look forward to a future whose possibilities +stagger all conjecture, to a common ruler of John Smith's ancient +dominions; to a common destiny, such as he mapped out for us. And with +devout and heartfelt gratitude to him, a reunited land proclaims, "Whom +God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." [Great applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE LEGAL PROFESSION + + [Speech of John S. Wise at the annual dinner of the New York State + Bar Association, Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1891. Matthew Hale, the + President, introduced Mr. Wise as follows; "The next sentiment in + order was, by mistake, omitted from the printed list of sentiments + which is before you. The next sentiment is 'The Legal Profession,' + and I call upon a gentleman to respond to that toast who, I venture + to say, has practised law in more States of this Union than any + other gentleman present. I allude to the orator of the day, the + Hon. John S. Wise [applause], formerly of Virginia, but now a + member of the Bar Association of the State of New York."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BAR:--It may not be true that +I have practised law in more States of this Union than any one present, +but it is certainly true that I never did as much speaking in the same +length of time, without charging a fee for it, as I have done within the +last twenty-four hours. [Laughter.] At two o'clock this morning I was in +attendance, in the city of New York, upon a ghost dance of the +Confederate veterans; at two o'clock this evening I resolved myself into +a deep, careful, and circumspect lawyer, and now I am with the boys, and +propose to have a good time. [Laughter.] Now, you know, this scene +strikes me as ridiculous--our getting here together and glorifying +ourselves and nobody to pay for it. My opinion is, that the part of +wisdom is to bottle this oratory and keep it on tap at $5 a minute. +[Laughter.] The Legal Profession--why, of course, we are the best +fellows in the world. Who is here to deny it? It reminds me of an +anecdote told by an old politician in Virginia, who said that one day, +with his man, he was riding to Chesterfield court, and they got +discussing the merits of a neighbor, Mr. Beasley, and he says, "Isaac, +what do you think of Mr. Beasley?" "Well," he says, "Marse Frank, I +reckon he is a pretty good man." "Well, there is one thing about Mr. +Beasley, he is always humbling himself." He says, "Marse Frank, you are +right; I don't know how you is, but I always mistrusts a man that runs +hisself down." [Laughter.] He says, "I don't know how you is, Marse +Frank, but I tell you how it is with me: this nigger scarcely ever says +no harm against hisself." So I say it of the legal profession--this +here nigger don't never scarcely say no harm against himself. [Great +laughter.] + +Of course we are the best profession in the world, but if any of our +clients are standing at that door and listening to this oratory, I know +what their reflection is. They are laughing in their sleeves and saying: +"Watch him, watch him; did you ever hear lawyers talk as much for +nothing? Watch them; it is the funniest scene I ever saw. There are a +lot of lawyers with their hands in their own pockets." [Laughter.] + +Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, another thing. We are not fooling with any +judges now. I know who I am talking to and how long I have been doing +it. Sometimes you can fool a judge into letting you have more time than +the rule allows; but with lawyers, enough is enough. We know exactly +when to put on the brakes with each other. We are not now earning fees +by the yard or charging by the minute, and when a man is through with +what he has to say, it is time to sit down, and all I have to say in +conclusion is, that the more I watch the legal profession and observe +it, the more I am convinced that with the great responsibility, with the +great trusts confided to it, with the great issues committed to its +keeping, with the great power it has to direct public feeling and public +sentiment, with the great responsibilities resulting, take it as a +mass--and there are plenty of rascals in it--but take it as a mass, and +measure it up, and God never made a nobler body in these United States. +[Applause.] + + + + +EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT + + +THE BRIGHT LAND TO WESTWARD + + [Speech of Edward O. Wolcott at the eighty-second annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1887. + The President, ex-Judge Horace Russell, introduced the speaker as + follows: "It was an English lawyer who said that the farther he + went West the more he was convinced that the wise men came from the + East. We may not be so thoroughly convinced of this after we have + heard the response to the next regular toast, 'The Pilgrim in the + West.' I beg to introduce Mr. Edward O. Wolcott, of Colorado."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It was with great diffidence that +I accepted the invitation of your President to respond to a toast +to-night. I realized my incapacity to do justice to the occasion, while +at the same time I recognized the high compliment conveyed. I felt +somewhat as the man did respecting the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy; he +said he didn't know whether Lord Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works or not, +but if he didn't, he missed the greatest opportunity of his life. +[Laughter.] + +The West is only a larger, and in some respects a better, New England. I +speak not of those rose gardens of culture, Missouri and Arkansas, but +otherwise, generally of the States and Territories west of the +Mississippi, and more particularly, because more advisedly, of Colorado, +the youngest and most rugged of the-thirty-eight; almost as large in +area as all New England and New York combined; "with room about her +hearth for all mankind"; with fertile valleys, and with mines so rich +and so plentiful that we occasionally, though reluctantly, dispose of +one to our New York friends. [Laughter.] We have no very rich, no very +poor, and no almshouses; and in the few localities where we are not good +enough, New England Home Missionary Societies are rapidly bringing us +up to the Plymouth Rock standard and making us face the Heavenly music. +[Laughter.] We take annually from our granite hills wealth enough to pay +for the fertilizers your Eastern and Southern soils require to save them +from impoverishment. We have added three hundred millions to the coinage +of the world; and, although you call only for gold, we generously give +you silver, too. [Laughter.] You are not always inclined to appreciate +our efforts to swell the circulation, but none the less are we one with +you in patriotic desire to see the revenues reformed, provided always +that our own peculiar industries are not affected. Our mountains slope +toward either sea, and in their shadowy depths we find not only hidden +wealth, but inspiration and incentive to high thought and noble living, +for Freedom has ever sought the recesses of the mountains for her +stronghold, and her spirit hovers there; their snowy summits and the +long, rolling plains are lightened all day long by the sunshine, and we +are not only Colorado, but Colorado Claro! [Applause.] + +Practically, as little is known of the great West by you of the East as +was known a century ago of New England by our British cousins. Your +interest in us is, unfortunately, largely the interest on our mortgages, +your attitude toward us is somewhat critical, and the New England heart +is rarely aroused respecting the West except when some noble Indian, +after painting himself and everything else within his reach red, is sent +to his happy hunting grounds. [Laughter.] Yet, toward the savage, as in +all things, do not blame us if we follow the Christian example set us by +our forefathers. We read that the Court at Plymouth, more than fifty +years after the colony was founded, ordered "That whosoever shall shoot +off any gun on any unnecessary occasion, or at any game whatsoever, +except an Indian or a wolf, shall forfeit five shillings for every such +shot"; and our pious ancestors popped over many an Indian on their way +to Divine worship. [Laughter.] But when in Colorado, settled less than a +generation ago, the old New England heredity works itself out and an +occasional Indian is peppered, the East raises its hands in horror, and +our offending cowboys could not find admittance even to an Andover +Probation Society. [Laughter.] + +Where we have a chance to work without precedent, we can point with +pride of a certain sort to methods at least peaceful. When Mexico was +conquered, we found ourselves with many thousand Mexicans on hand. I +don't know how they managed it elsewhere, but in Colorado we not only +took them by the hand and taught them our ways, but both political +parties inaugurated a beautiful and generous custom, since more honored +in the breach than in the observance, which gave these vanquished people +an insight into and an interest in the workings of republican +institutions which was marvellous: a custom of presenting to each head +of a household, being a voter, on election day, from one to five dollars +in our native silver. [Great laughter.] + +If Virginia was the mother of Presidents, New England is the mother of +States. Of the population of the Western States born in the United +States, some five per cent, are of New England birth, and of the native +population more than half can trace a New England ancestry. Often one +generation sought a resting-place in Ohio, and its successor in Illinois +or in Iowa, but you will find that the ancestor, less than a century +ago, was a God-fearing Yankee. New England influences everywhere +predominate. I do not mean to say that many men from the South have not, +especially since the war, found homes and citizenship in the West, for +they have; and most of them are now holding Federal offices. [Laughter.] +It is nevertheless true that from New England has come the great, the +overwhelming influence in moulding and controlling Western thought. +[Applause.] + +New England thrift, though a hardy plant, becomes considerably modified +when transplanted to the loam of the prairies; the penny becomes the +dime before it reaches the other ocean; Ruth would find rich gleanings +among our Western sheaves, and the palm of forehandedness opens +sometimes too freely under the wasteful example which Nature sets all +over our broad plains; but because the New England ancestor was +acquisitive, his Western descendant secures first of all his own home. +[Applause.] The austere and serious views of life which our forefathers +cherished have given way to a kindlier charity, and we put more hope and +more interrogation points into our theology than our fathers did; but +the old Puritan teachings, softened by the years and by brighter and +freer skies, still keep our homes Christian and our home life pure. And +more, far more than all else, the blood which flows in our veins, the +blood of the sturdy New Englanders who fought and conquered for an idea, +quickened and kindled by the Civil War, has imbued and impregnated +Western men with a patriotism that overrides and transcends all other +emotions. Pioneers in a new land, laying deep the foundations of the +young commonwealths, they turn the furrows in a virgin soil, and from +the seed which they plant there grows, renewed and strengthened with +each succeeding year, an undying devotion to republican institutions, +which shall nourish their children and their children's children +forever. [Prolonged applause.] + +An earnest people and a generous! The Civil strife made nothing right +that was wrong before, and nothing wrong that was right before; it +simply settled the question of where the greater strength lay. We know +that + + "Who overcomes + By force, hath overcome but half his foe," + +and that if more remains to be done, it must come because the hearts of +men are changed. The war is over; the very subject is hackneyed; it is a +tale that is told, and commerce and enlightened self-interest have +obliterated all lines. And yet you must forgive us if, before the +account is finally closed, and the dead and the woe and the tears are +balanced by all the blessings of a reunited country, some of us still +listen for a voice we have not yet heard; if we wait for some Southern +leader to tell us that renewed participation in the management of the +affairs of this nation carries with it the admission that the question +of the right of secession is settled, not because the South was +vanquished, but because the doctrine was and is wrong, forever wrong. +[Great applause.] + +We are a plain people, too, and live far away. We find all the +excitement we need in the two great political parties, and rather look +upon the talk of anybody in either party being better than his party, as +a sort of cant. The hypercritical faculty has not reached us yet, and +we leave to you of the East the exclusive occupancy of the raised dais +upon which it seems necessary for the independent voter to stand while +he is counted. [Applause and laughter.] + +We are provincial; we have no distinctive literature and no great poets; +our leading personage abroad of late seems to be the Honorable "Buffalo +Bill" [laughter], and we use our adjectives so recklessly that the +polite badinage indulged in toward each other by your New York editors +to us seems tame and spiritless. In mental achievement we may not have +fully acquired the use of the fork, and are "but in the gristle and not +yet hardened into the bone of manhood." We stand toward the East +somewhat as country to city cousins; about as New to Old England, only +we don't feel half so badly about it, and on the whole are rather +pleased with ourselves. [Laughter.] There is not in the whole broad West +a ranch so lonely or so remote that a public school is not within reach +of it. With generous help from the East, Western colleges are elevating +and directing Western thought, and men busy making States yet find time +to live manly lives and to lend a hand. All this may not be aesthetic, +but it is virile, and it leads up and not down. Great poets, and those +who so touch the hearts of men that the vibration goes down the ages, +must often find their inspiration when wealth brings leisure to a class, +or must have "learned in suffering what they teach in song." We can wait +for our inspired ones; when they come, the work of this generation, +obscure and commonplace, will have paved the way for them; the general +intelligence diffused in this half century will, unknown or forgotten, +yet live in their numbers, and the vivid imaginations of our New England +ancestors, wasted in depicting the joys and torments of the world to +come, will, modified by the years, beautify and ennoble the cares of +this. [Applause.] + +There are some things even more important than the highest culture. The +West is the Almighty's reserve ground, and as the world is filling up. +He is turning even the old arid plains and deserts into fertile acres, +and is sending there the rain as well as the sunshine. A high and +glorious destiny awaits us; soon the balance of population will lie the +other side of the Mississippi, and the millions that are coming must +find waiting for them schools and churches, good government, and a happy +people: + + "Who love the land because it is their own, + And scorn to give aught other reason why; + Would shake hands with a King upon his throne, + And think it kindness to his Majesty." + +We are beginning to realize, however, that the invitation we have been +extending to all the world has been rather too general. So far we have +been able to make American citizens in fact as well as name out of the +foreign-born immigrants. The task was light while we had the honest and +industrious to deal with, but the character of some of the present +immigration has brought a conviction which we hope you share, that the +sacred rights of citizenship should be withheld from a certain class of +aliens in race and language, who seek the protection of this Government, +until they shall have at least learned that the red in our flag is +commingled with the white and blue and the stars. [Great applause.] + +In everything which pertains to progress in the West, the Yankee +reinforcements step rapidly to the front. Every year she needs more of +them, and as the country grows the annual demand becomes greater. +Genuine New Englanders are to be had on tap only in six small States, +and remembering this we feel that we have the right to demand that in +the future even more than in the past, the heads of the New England +households weary not in the good work. [Laughter and applause.] + +In these later days of "booms" and New Souths and Great Wests; when +everybody up North who fired a gun is made to feel that he ought to +apologize for it, and good fellowship everywhere abounds, there is a +sort of tendency to fuse; only big and conspicuous things are much +considered; and New England being small in area and most of her +distinguished people being dead, she is just now somewhat under an +eclipse. But in her past she has undying fame. You of New England and +her borders live always in the atmosphere of her glories; the scenes +which tell of her achievements are ever near at hand, and familiarity +and contact may rob them of their charms, and dim to your eyes their +sacredness. The sons of New England in the West revisit her as men who +make pilgrimage to some holy shrine, and her hills and valleys are still +instinct with noble traditions. In her glories and her history we claim +a common heritage, and we never wander so far away from her that with +each recurring anniversary of this day, our hearts do not turn to her +with renewed love and devotion for our beloved New England; yet-- + + "Not by Eastern windows only, + When daylight comes, comes in the light; + In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, + But Westward, look, the land is bright!" + +[Hearty applause.] + + + + +LORD WOLSELEY + +(GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY) + + +THE ARMY IN THE TRANSVAAL + + [Speech of Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of + the British Army, at a dinner given by the Authors' Club, London, + November 6, 1899. Dr. Conan Doyle presided.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I think that all people who know +anything about the Army should rejoice extremely that our first +experiment in mobilization has been as successful as it has been. +[Cheers.] + +Your Chairman has mentioned the name of one, a most intimate friend of +mine, the present Military Secretary. [Lord Lansdowne.] I think the +nation is very much indebted to him not only for the manner in which +this mobilization has been carried out, but still more so for having +laid the foundation on which our mobilization system is based, and for +making those preparations which led to its complete success. [Cheers.] +There are many other names I might mention, others who have also devoted +themselves for many years past in a very quiet manner, and with all the +ability which now, I am glad to say, so largely permeates the Army, to +making these preparations and to try to bring this curious army of ours +up to the level of the modern armies of the world. [Cheers.] + +Although I say it myself, I think I may claim for myself and for those +who have worked with me a certain meed of praise, for we have worked +under extreme difficulties. Not only under the ordinary difficulties in +dealing with a very complicated arrangement, but we have had to work in +the face of the most dire opposition on the part of a great number of +people who ought to have been the first to help us. ["Hear! Hear!"] The +Chairman has referred to the opposition of the Press; but that has been +nothing to the opposition we have met with in our own profession--the +profession of ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, when great reforms were +begun in the Army by the ablest War Secretary who has ever been in +office--I mean Lord Cardwell. His name is now almost forgotten by the +present generation, and also the names of many other distinguished +officers in their day, whose names were associated with many of the +brightest moments of English victory and English conquest, and who set +their faces honestly against alteration, and firmly believed that the +young men of those days were a set of madmen and a set of Radicals who +were anxious to overturn not only the British Army, but the whole +British Constitution with it. [Laughter.] This prejudice spread into +high places, until at last we were looked upon as a party of faddists +who ought to be banished to the farthest part of our dominions. [Renewed +laughter.] But I am glad to say that the tree we planted then took root, +and there gradually grew up around us a body of young officers, men +highly instructed in their profession, who supported us, carried us +through, and enabled us to arrive at the perfection which, I think, we +have now attained. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +There has been abroad in the Army for a great many years an earnest +desire on the part of a large section, certainly, to make themselves +worthy of the Army and worthy of the nation by whom they were paid, and +for whose good they existed. That feeling has become more intensified +every year, and at the present moment, if you examine the Army List, you +will find that almost all the Staff Officers recently gone out to South +Africa have been educated at the Staff College, established to teach the +higher science of our profession and to educate a body of men who will +be able to conduct the military affairs of the country when it comes to +their turn to do so. Those men are now arriving at the top of the tree, +thank God! while many of those magnificent old soldiers under whom I was +brought up have disappeared from the face of the earth, and others who +are to be seen at the clubs have come round--they have been converted in +their last moments [laughter]; they have the frankness to tell you they +made a mistake. They recognize that they were wrong and that we were +right. [Cheers.] + +I quite endorse what the Chairman says about the success of the +mobilization, and I will slightly glance at the state of affairs as they +at present exist in South Africa. I have the advantage of having spent +some time in South Africa, and of having been--not only General +Commanding, but Governor and High Commissioner, with high-sounding +titles given me by her Majesty. I know, consequently, not only a little +of South Africa, but a good deal of Boer character. During my stay as +Governor of the Transvaal, I had many opportunities of knowing people +whom you have recently seen mentioned as the principal leaders in this +war against us. There are many traits in their character for which I +have the greatest possible admiration. They are a very strongly +conservative people--I do not mean in a political sense at all, but they +were, I found, anxious to preserve and conserve all that was best in the +institutions handed down to them from their forefathers. But of all the +ignorant people in that world that I have ever been brought into contact +with, I will back the Boers of South Africa as the most ignorant. At the +same time they are an honest people. When the last President of the +Transvaal handed over the government to us--and I may say, within +parentheses, that the last thing an Englishman would do under the +circumstances would be to look in the till--there was only 4_s._ 6_d._ +to the credit of the Republic. [Laughter.] Within a few weeks or days of +the hoisting of the British flag in the Transvaal a bill for L4 10_s._ +4_d._ came in against the Boer Government, and was dishonored. [Renewed +laughter.] The Boers at that time--perhaps we did not manage them +properly--certainly set their face against us, and things have gone on +from bad to worse, until the aspiration now moving them is that they +should rule not only the Transvaal, but that they should rule the whole +of South Africa. That is the point which I think English people must +keep before them. There's no question about ruling the Transvaal or the +Orange Free State--the one great question that has to be fought out +between the Dutch in South Africa and the English race is, which is to +be the predominant Power--whether it is to be the Boer Republic or the +English Monarchy. [Cheers.] Well, if I at all understand and know the +people of this nation, I can see but one end to it, and it will be the +end that we hope for and have looked for. [Cheers.] + +But I would warn every man who takes an interest in this subject not to +imagine that war can be carried on like a game of chess or some other +game in which the most powerful intellect wins from the first. War is a +game of ups and downs, and you may rest assured that it is impossible to +read in history of any campaign that it has been a march of triumph from +beginning to end. Therefore, if at the present moment we are suffering +from disappointments, believe me, those disappointments are in many ways +useful to us. We have found that the enemy who declared war against +us--for they are the aggressors--are much more powerful and numerous +than we anticipated. But at the same time, believe me, that anything +that may have taken place lately to dishearten the English people has +had a good effect--it has brought us as a nation closer together. The +English-speaking people of the world have put their foot down, and +intend to carry this thing through, no matter what may be the +consequence. [Cheers.] + +I have the greatest possible confidence in British soldiers. I have +lived in their midst many years of my life, and I am quite certain of +this, that wherever their officers lead they will follow. If you look +over the list of our casualties lately, you will find that the British +officer has led them well. Certainly he has not spared himself; he has +not been in the background. [Cheers.] He has suffered unfortunately, and +expects to suffer, and ought to suffer; and I hope most sincerely and +truly, whatever may be in store for us, whatever battles there may be in +this war, that when we read the list of casualties there will be a very +large proportion of officers sufferers as well as men. It would be most +unworthy of our Army and of our nation if our officers did not lead, and +if they lead they must suffer as well as those who follow. I am +extremely obliged to you for the compliment that has been paid to me. It +has been a very great pleasure for me to come here. I had no idea I was +to listen to such an admirable speech from your Chairman. I thank you +sincerely for having listened to me, and hope you will make every +allowance for any defect in a speech which certainly had not been +prepared. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +WU TING-FANG + + +CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES + + [Speech of Wu Ting-Fang, Chinese Minister to the United States, at + the annual dinner of the New York Southern Society, New York City, + February 22, 1899. William M. Polk, the President of the Society, + occupied the chair. Minister Wu responded to the sentiment, "To our + newest and nearest neighbor on our Western border, the most ancient + of Empires, which until now has always been in the Far East, and to + her distinguished diplomatic representative--_persona grata_ to our + Government and to this Society."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--It is never too late to learn, and +since I have been here I have learned that my ancient country, which has +always been known as an Eastern country, has now turned to be a Western +country. I do not regret to hear this, because Western countries have +always been looked on as very powerful nations. [Applause.] In that +sense I would not be sorry to see my own country assume the position +that your Western countries have always taken. I do not know whether you +would wish to have your great Nation become an Eastern country in the +sense in which Eastern countries are popularly known. + +When the invitation to dine with you on this occasion was conveyed to me +I gladly accepted it because the occasion occurred on the anniversary of +the birth of George Washington, who is widely and popularly known as the +Father of your country. Long before I came to the United States as the +representative of my country, even when I was a boy, I had heard of +George Washington, and from what I could learn about him I formed a +profound respect for his name and memory. At this banquet you +appropriately recall to mind the noble character of your Washington, +his great deeds, and his unselfish devotion to his country. + +It is interesting to know that time changes not only the opinions of +individuals and parties, but also the traditional policy of a nation. I +understood when I was a boy that the policy of George Washington was to +confine his attention and his ambition to the country in which he +governed. That policy has been followed by all of his successors up to +very recently. [Laughter and applause.] But the recent momentous events +have necessitated a new departure. You have been driven to a position +that you never dreamed of before. You have entered the path of +Expansion, or, as some call it, Imperialism. + +If I understand your chairman correctly, Imperialism practically means +the power and wisdom to govern. This is not the first time that I have +heard such a definition of imperialism. I once heard an eminent American +divine say that imperialism meant civilization--in an American sense. +[Laughter.] He also added the word liberty, and with your permission I +would like to make a still further addition: that is, fairness, and just +treatment of all classes of persons without distinction of race or +color. [Cheers.] Well, you have the Philippines ceded to you, and you +are hesitating whether to keep them or not. I see in that very fact of +your hesitation an indication of your noble character. Suppose a +precious gift entailing obligations is tendered to a man; he would +accept it without any thought or hesitation if he were wholly lacking in +principle; but you hesitate because of your high moral character, and +your sense of responsibility. I express no opinion as to whether or not +you should keep the Philippines. That is for you to decide. I am +confident that when this question has been thoroughly threshed out, you +will come to the right decision. I will say this: China must have a +neighbor; and it is my humble opinion that it is better to have a good +neighbor than an indifferent one. + +Should your country decide to keep the Philippines, what would be the +consequences? A large trade has been carried on for centuries between +those islands and China. Your trade would be greatly increased and to +your benefit. Aside from this the American trade in China has been +increasing largely in the last few years. I have often been asked +whether we Chinamen are friendly to America. To show you how friendly we +are, I will tell you that we call your nation a "flowery flag" and that +we call your people "handsome." Such phrases clearly show that we are +favorably disposed toward you. If we did not like you, we would not have +given you such nice names. The officials of China, as well as the +people, like Americans, and our relations, officially and commercially, +are cordial. + +There is, however, one disturbing element--one unsatisfactory feature--I +refer to your Chinese Immigration law. Your people do not know and do +not understand my people. You have judged all of my people from the +Chinese in California. Your Chinese exclusion law has now been in +operation for fifteen or sixteen years, but it cannot be said to have +been satisfactory even to yourselves. Those laws were intended to keep +the Chinese cheap labor out of your country, but they have also kept out +the better class of my countrymen whom I am satisfied the laws did not +intend to exclude. I desire to throw no blame on any of your officials +for their zeal in enforcing the laws. They simply do their duty. But I +want to point out to you that those laws do not bring about the results +intended by your legislators. Besides, their existence gives the +impression in our country that your people do not like our people. I +personally know that is not so, but I would like to see this disturbing +element removed by a modification of the laws. Once remove that +disturbing element and our people would welcome your Americans to China +with open arms. + +As to the character of our people I can refer you only to those who have +been in China. I will refer you to the opinion of a man who for a great +many years was in China at the head of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank. +After twenty-five years' service, he resigned, and on the eve of his +departure he was given a banquet by foreigners, not by Chinese, mind; +and in the course of his speech he went out of his way to speak of his +relations with Chinese merchants. As I remember, the substance of his +speech was that during all those years in China, he had had dealings +with Chinese merchants aggregating hundreds of millions of dollars, and +he said that, large as were those dealings, he had never lost a cent +through any Chinese merchant. That testimony was given unsolicited by a +man long resident in China, and shows indisputably the character of our +merchants. + +Now that you have become our neighbor, and if you want to deal with +China, here is the class of people you have to deal with; and if you see +your way clear to modify the only obstacle that now stands in the way of +respectable Chinese coming here, and doing away with the false +impression in the minds of our people, I have no doubt that such a step +would redound to the benefit of both parties. If you look at the returns +furnished by your consuls or by our customs returns, you will find that +your trade in China has increased to a remarkable degree. China is +constructing a railway from north to south, and she is practically an +open door for your trade purposes. There is a great field for you there; +and with all our people favorably disposed toward you, I am sure you +will receive further benefits through the means of still further +increased trade. [Loud applause.] + + + + +WALTER WYMAN + + +SONS OF THE REVOLUTION + + [Speech of Surgeon-General Walter Wyman at the banquet given in + Washington, D. C., February 22, 1900, by the Society of the Sons of + the Revolution in the District of Columbia.] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--In behalf of the Society of the Sons of +the Revolution in the District of Columbia it becomes my pleasant duty +to bid you welcome on this occasion, the anniversary of the birthday of +George Washington, the Father of his country. + +The Society of the Sons of the Revolution was founded in 1883, in New +York, its purpose, as expressed by the Constitution, being "to +perpetuate the memory of the men, who, in the military, naval, and civic +service of the Colonies and of the Continental Congress, by their acts +and counsel achieved the independence of the Country." The New York +Society, to be historically correct, was instituted February 22, 1876, +but was reorganized in 1883, when the General Society was formed. State +Societies were subsequently formed in Alabama, California, Colorado, +Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, +Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, +Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, +State of Washington, and West Virginia, there being, therefore, +thirty-one State Societies, with a total membership of 6,031. The +District of Columbia Society was formed in 1889, and now numbers over +two hundred and fifty members. + +The object of these Societies is not, as some may imagine, to indulge a +pride of ancestry, or to establish exclusive organizations with a +membership dependent upon the deeds of forefathers for its own +distinction, but rather to encourage and stimulate a desire for +knowledge of the problems which were presented to, and the circumstances +which confronted our revolutionary forefathers; to study their courage +and wisdom in council and their valor in war, which resulted in the +establishment of a Republic, the most potent in the history of the +world. + +The illumination of the past is useless unless its rays are made to +penetrate into the present, bestowing guidance and confidence. The +records of our forefathers, therefore, are brought forth and published +to the world, chiefly to stimulate ourselves to like courage and +devotion should occasion arise. + +The patriotism displayed by both the North and the South during the War +of the Rebellion, and the patriotism displayed during the recent +Spanish-American War, are evidences that true American spirit is as +strong to-day as it was in the days which gave birth to our Republic. +The associations now in existence, having their origin in the War of the +Rebellion and the Spanish-American War, are similar in their aim and +objects to the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. This Society seeks +to preserve the records of the founders of the Republic, to cause these +records to be published and preserved in permanent form--not only those +which are to be found in the archives of the Nation and of the States, +but fragmentary facts of vast interest, in the hands of private +individuals, which would otherwise become lost or forgotten. It erects +monuments to commemorate the lives of distinguished men, and mural +tablets to signalize important events; it establishes prize essays for +competition among school children on subjects relating to the American +Revolution, and seeks to inspire respect and affection for the flag of +the Union. + +The numerous celebrations and excursions to points of historical +interest, of the District of Columbia Society, within the past ten +years, must still be fresh in the minds of many among this audience. +Each Fourth of July, each Washington's Birthday, as well as on other +occasions within the past ten years, has this Society indulged in +patriotic celebration. The celebration of to-day is of peculiar +significance. Questions, second only in importance to those which +confronted Washington, are before us. The Nation is entering upon a +career of influence and beneficence which even Washington never dreamed +of. Questions of government, involving the rights of men, the +responsibilities of the strong in their relations to the weak, the +promulgation of freedom without license, are problems facing the +American Congress and the people to-day. The force of events has +extended the responsibility of these United States to Cuba, Porto Rico, +Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa. + +During the events of the past two years every thinking man and woman +must have been impressed by the gravity of the problems with which our +present Chief Executive has been forced to grapple: problems that have +demanded of him many of the great qualities which distinguished our +first President. These problems involved a steady adherence to what is +right, a lofty patriotism sinking the individual in the consideration of +the public good. Firmness before the enemy, buoyancy and strength before +friends, and humility before the Creator who disposes of all things. +These are elements of character which not only distinguished George +Washington, but which I am only echoing public sentiment in saying +likewise have distinguished our present Chief Executive, and inspired an +affection for and a confidence in the name of William McKinley. + +It is peculiarly befitting at this time, therefore, to study those +characteristics of great men which enable them to meet great emergencies +and at the same time preserve their own simplicity and nobility of +character untainted by selfishness. Of the living we may not speak too +freely, but every act and sentiment of him "who by his unwearied +exertions in the cabinet and in the field achieved for us the glorious +revolution," is ours for contemplation and comment. Both time and place +are singularly appropriate. In this city bearing his name, facing the +noble shaft erected to his memory, within the territory which he most +frequented, and almost in sight of his stately home on the Potomac, it +is befitting that we here celebrate his natal day. [Prolonged applause.] + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Robert G. Ingersoll. + +[2] Jay Gould. + +[3] TRANSLATION.--Will you kindly allow me to make my speech in +French? If I address you in a tongue that I do not speak, and that no +one here understands, I must lay the entire blame on that unfortunate +example of Mr. Coudert. What I desire to say is-- + +[4] TRANSLATION.--When the heart is full it overflows, and this +evening my heart is full of France, but-- + +[5] Henry W. Grady. + +[6] Glaucopis. + +[7] Allusion to John T. Hoffman, who occupied the post of Recorder +previous to his election as Mayor. + +[8] Mrs. Ripley. + +[9] Charles Cotesworth Beaman. + +[10] Horace Porter. + +[11] Harriet Beecher Stowe, died July 1, 1896. + +[12] Abraham Lincoln. + +[13] Professor Woodrow Wilson was, at the suggestion of the retiring +president (Francis Landey Patton) of Princeton University, unanimously +elected to fill his place as president, June 9, 1902. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol III, +After-Dinner Speeches P-Z, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL III *** + +***** This file should be named 18422.txt or 18422.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/2/18422/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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