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diff --git a/18823.txt b/18823.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..053be19 --- /dev/null +++ b/18823.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16024 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner +Speeches E-O, 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 II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O + +Author: Various + +Editor: Thomas B. Reed + +Release Date: July 13, 2006 [EBook #18823] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL II *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship, Carolyn +Bottomley and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +MODERN ELOQUENCE + +LIBRARY OF + +AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, LECTURES + +OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES + + + + +[Illustration: REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS + +FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON + + +"_JUSTICE_" + +_Photo-engraving in colors after the original painting by George W. +Maynard_ + +This picture is one of a series of eight panels representing "The +Virtues"--Fortitude, Justice, Patriotism, Courage, Temperance, Prudence, +Industry, and Concord. The number of virtues to be represented was +limited to the number of panels, so the selection was necessarily +somewhat arbitrary. Each figure is about five and a half feet high, clad +in floating classic drapery, and represented to the spectator as +appearing before him in the air, without a support or background other +than the deep red of the wall. "Justice" holds the globe in one hand, +signifying the extent of her sway. In the other hand she holds a naked +sword upright, in token of the terribleness of her punishment.] + + + + +MODERN ELOQUENCE + + +EDITOR + +THOMAS B REED + + +JUSTIN McCARTHY, ROSSITER JOHNSON, ALBERT ELLERY BERGH + +ASSOCIATE EDITORS + + +VOLUME II + +After-Dinner Speeches + +E--O + + +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, HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, + LORENZO SEARS, JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER, + CHAMP CLARK, 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 II + PAGE + + EGGLESTON, GEORGE CARY + Southern Literature 423 + + ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM + Harvard and Yale 427 + + ELIOT, SAMUEL A. + The Source of Song and Story 431 + + EMERSON, RALPH WALDO + England, Mother of Nations 437 + The Memory of Burns 439 + War 442 + The Wisdom of China 445 + + EVARTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL + International Arbitration 448 + The Republic and Its Outlook 452 + The French Alliance 457 + Tribute to Herbert Spencer 462 + The Classics in Education 465 + Liberty Enlightening the World 469 + + EWING, THOMAS C. + Ohio and the Northwest 474 + + FARRAR, FREDERIC WILLIAM + Poet and Painter 479 + + FELLOWS, JOHN R. + North and South 482 + + FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY + The Telegraph 490 + Early Connecticut 493 + + FINCH, FRANCIS M. + The Office of the Law 496 + + FOORD, JOHN + The Land o' Cakes 500 + + FORD, SIMEON + Me and Sir Henry 505 + A Run on the Banker 507 + + FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY + Men of Letters 510 + + FULLER, MELVILLE WESTON + The Supreme Court 513 + + GARLAND, HAMLIN + Realism versus Romanticism 518 + + GILBERT, JOHN + Playing Old Men Parts 522 + + GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENK + Pinafore 524 + + GILMAN, DANIEL COIT + The Era of Universities 528 + + GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART + The Age of Research 530 + + GRADY, HENRY W. + The Race Problem 534 + + GRAND, SARAH + Mere Man 551 + + GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON + A Remarkable Climate 557 + Characteristics of Newspaper Men 559 + The Adopted Citizen 561 + + GRIGGS, JOHN WILLIAM + Social Discontent 564 + + HALE, EDWARD EVERETT + The Mission of Culture 570 + Boston 577 + + HALL, WILLIAM F. + Yarn of the Manager Bold 581 + + HALSTEAD, MURAT + Our New Country 584 + + HARRISON, BENJAMIN + The Union of States 589 + + HAWLEY, JOSEPH ROSWELL + The Press 593 + + HAY, JOHN + Omar Khayyam 598 + + HAYES, RUTHERFORD B. + National Sentiments 601 + + HENDRIX, JOSEPH C. + The Wampum of the Indians 603 + + HERSCHELL, LORD + Great Britain and the United States 609 + + HILLARD, GEORGE STILLMAN + The Influence of Men of Genius 616 + + HOLE, SAMUEL REYNOLDS + With Brains, Sir! 622 + + HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL + Welcome to the Alumni 625 + Dorothy Q. 627 + + HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, JR. + Sons of Harvard Who Fell in Battle 630 + The Joy of Life 645 + + HOUGHTON, LORD (RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES) + Your Speech and Ours 635 + Bonds of National Sympathy 639 + + HOWE, JULIA WARD + Tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes 645 + + HOWELL, CLARK + Our Reunited Country 647 + + HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN + The "Atlantic" and Its Contributors 653 + + HOWLAND, HENRY ELIAS + Russia 657 + Our Ancestors and Ourselves 661 + + HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY + Science and Art 670 + + INGERSOLL, ROBERT GREEN + The Music of Wagner 672 + + IRVING, SIR HENRY + Looking Forward 676 + The Drama 678 + The Function of the Newspaper 681 + + JEBB, RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE + Literature and Art 686 + + JEFFERSON, JOSEPH + My Farm in Jersey 688 + In Memory of Edwin Booth 691 + + KITCHENER, LORD + The Relief of Khartum 694 + + LANG, ANDREW + Problem Novels 698 + + LAURIER, WILFRID + Canada 702 + + LAWRENCE, FRANK R. + The Future of New York 705 + + LECKY, WILLIAM E. H. + The Artistic Side of Literature 708 + + LEE, FITZHUGH + The Flag of the Union Forever 710 + + LEIGHTON, SIR FREDERIC + Variety in British Art 713 + + LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY + Hans Breitmann's Return 717 + + LINCOLN, ABRAHAM + Central Ideas of the Republic 720 + + LODGE, HENRY CABOT + The Blue and the Gray 723 + + LONG, JOHN DAVIS + The Navy 727 + + LOW, SETH + The Chamber of Commerce 731 + + LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL + Harvard Alumni 737 + National Growth of a Century 741 + The Stage 745 + Commerce 748 + After-Dinner Speaking 750 + "The Return of the Native" 753 + Literature 758 + International Copyright 761 + + LOWELL, JOHN + Humors of the Bench 766 + + LYTTON, LORD (SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON) + Macready and the English Stage 769 + Farewell to Charles Dickens 774 + + MABIE, HAMILTON WRIGHT + Spirit of New England Literature 778 + + MACKAY, DONALD SAGE + The Dutch Domine 782 + + MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER C. + Music 787 + + MACREADY, WILLIAM CHARLES + Farewell to the Stage 791 + + McCARTHY, JUSTIN + Ireland's Struggle 795 + + McCLURE, ALEXANDER KELLY + An Editorial Retrospect 799 + + McKELWAY, ST. CLAIR + Smashed Crockery 807 + Tribute to Mark Twain 811 + + McKINLEY, WILLIAM + Our Country 815 + The Future of the Philippines 818 + + MELISH, WILLIAM B. + The Ladies 825 + + MILES, NELSON APPLETON + The Spanish-American War 831 + + MILLER, SAMUEL FREEMAN + Federal Judges 834 + + MORLEY, JOHN + Literature and Politics 838 + + MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP + The Poets' Corner 842 + + NEWMAN, JOHN PHILIP + Commerce 845 + + NORTON, CHARLES ELIOT + Castles in Spain 850 + + OGLESBY, RICHARD + The Royal Corn 853 + + O'REILLY, JOHN BOYLE + Moore, the Bard of Erin 856 + + + + + _ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + + VOLUME II + + + "JUSTICE" _Frontispiece_ + Photo-engraving in colors after an original painting + by George W. Maynard + + HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 534 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 625 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL 672 + Photogravure after a photograph from life + + MENU CARD 676 + Photogravure after a design by Thompson Willing + + FANEUIL HALL 723 + Photogravure after a photograph + + "PATRIOTISM" 815 + Photo-engraving in colors after an original painting + by George W. Maynard + + + + +GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON + + +SOUTHERN LITERATURE + +[Speech of George Cary Eggleston at the first annual banquet of the New + York Southern Society, February 22, 1887. Algernon Sidney Sullivan, + President of the Society, was in the chair. In introducing the speaker + Mr. Sullivan said: "We want to hear a word about 'Southern + Literature,' and we will now call upon Mr. George Cary Eggleston to + respond to that sentiment."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--I have cheered myself so hoarse that I do not +think I can make a speech at all. I will say a word or two if my voice +holds out. It is patriotically hoarse. + +If I manage to make a speech it will be the one speech of the evening +which was most carefully prepared. The preparations were all made, +arrangements were completed and it was perfectly understood that I +should not make it. The name set down under this toast is that of Hon. +John Randolph Tucker, and the wild absurdity of asking a writer who does +not make speeches, to take the place of such an orator as John Randolph +Tucker would seem to be like asking a seasick land-lubber to take the +captain's place upon the bridge of the ocean steamer in a storm, and +there is another reason by which I am peculiarly unfit to speak in +response to the toast--"Southern Literature," and that is, that I am +firmly convinced that there is no Southern Literature; that there never +was a Southern Literature; that there never will be a Southern +Literature, and that there never ought to be a Southern Literature. Some +very great and noble work in literature has been produced by men of +Southern lineage and birth and residence. John Marshall, if he had not +been the greatest of American jurists, would have been counted, because +of his "Life of Washington," the greatest of biographers. I might name +an extended list of workers in this field, all of Southern birth. Sims; +my dead friend, John Esten Cooke; his brother, Philip Cooke; Cable, who +is married to New England; the gifted woman who calls herself Charles +Egbert Craddock; and a host of others including that noble woman now +going blind in Lexington, who has done some of the sweetest work in +American poetry, Margaret J. Preston. [Applause.] I might go further and +claim Howells, every drop of whose blood is Virginian. If it were not +getting personal and becoming a family affair, I might mention the fact +that the author of the "Hoosier Schoolmaster," with whom I used to play +on the hills of Ohio River, was of direct Southern descent; that he was +born as I was, exactly on Mason and Dixon's line, and one of us fell +over on one side and the other on the other when the trouble came. + +Notwithstanding all this, I hold that there can be no such thing as a +Southern Literature, because literature is never provincial, and to say +of any literature that it is Southern or Western or Northern or Eastern +is to say that it is a provincial utterance and not a literature. The +work to which I have referred is American literature. It is work of +which American literature is proud and will ever be proud, whatever is +worthy in literature or in achievement of any kind in any part of the +country goes ultimately in the common fund of American literature or of +American achievement; and that is the joy I have had in being here +to-night, when I ought to have been at home. The joy I have had to-night +has been that this sentiment of Americanism has seemed to be all around +me, and to run through and through everything that has been said here +to-night--a sentiment which was taken out of my mouth, as it were, by +the President this evening, that our first devotion above all is to what +I call the American idea. It seems to me that we are sometimes +forgetting what idea it is that has made this country great; what it is +that has made of it a nation of free men and educated men--a nation in +which the commonest laborer has the school open to him, as well as the +workshop; in which the commonest laborer can sit down three times every +day to a bountiful table. We sometimes forget the idea on which our +country was founded; the idea which prompted Jefferson, as a young man, +to stand up in the legislature of Virginia and fight through three bills +directly affecting mere questions of law, but determining the future of +this country more largely than any other acts,--even the acts of +Washington himself. Those three bills, one providing for the separation +of Church and State, one for the abolition of primogeniture, and the +third for the abolition of entail. The idea that ran through that time +was the idea of equal individual manhood--of the supremacy of the man to +all else, to the State itself, to Government and Society; that the +individual man was the one thing to be taken care of; that it is the +sole business of the Government to give him rights of manhood, to +protect him in his personal freedom, and then to let him alone. + +We have imported of late subtly sophistical advocates of socialism who +would set up in opposition to these American ideas the system of State +paternalism, and assert the doctrine that the State should not let a man +alone to make the best use he can of his abilities and opportunities, +but should guide him and support him and direct him and provide for him +and, in short, make a moral and intellectual cripple of him. That is the +new and un-American idea which has recently been promulgated and which +has found expression in New York in 60,000 votes; it is the idea which +has been seized upon by those persons who have leagued themselves +together to secure to themselves larger profits upon their industry or +investments by taxing the whole people for the benefit of the few, +making the State the pap-giver, taking from the people the taxes that +should be rigidly limited to the needs of the government and turning +them into the pockets of the individual; supporting, helping and making, +as I have said, a cripple of him. That is the idea which has prompted in +large degree disturbances through which we have passed, and to which +reference has been made here to-night. It is the idea that somehow or in +some particular way a man should have some support other than his own +individual exertion, and absolute freedom can provide for him. + +It seems to me that one lesson we here to-night should take most to +heart is that lesson taught by the whole history of our country, that +the American idea--the idea of the individuality and manhood of man, +the idea of a government formed simply to protect man, as individuals in +their rights, and leave them free in their action and mode of +thought--is the idea that has made this country great. It is in +pursuance of that that we have become the nation we are; it is by +adherence to that that we have become a model to all other nations, so +much so that in the German election yesterday, with the aid of friendly +foreign despots, with the aid of a threatened war, with all the aids +that imperialism can call to its assistance, Bismarck was able to carry +his point only by a small majority. This is the idea under which we have +founded our nation and grown great, and it is by that idea that we shall +continue great, if we are so to continue. [Applause.] + + + + +CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT + + +HARVARD AND YALE + +[Speech of Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 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, presided, and said by way of introducing the speaker: + "Gentlemen, I now give you the sixth regular 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.' [Applause.] We are fortunate to-night, gentlemen, in + having with us the representatives of both these institutions, and I + will ask President Eliot, of Harvard, first, to respond." The allusion + made by President Eliot to the words of the Secretary of State refers + to the following remarks which William M. Evarts made in the course of + his address: "New England, I observe, while it retains all its + sterling qualities, is nevertheless moving forward in the direction of + conciliation and peace. I remember when I was a boy, I travelled 240 + miles by stage-coach from Boston to New Haven to avoid going to + Harvard University which was across the Bridge. [Great applause and + laughter.] It was because of the religious animosities which pervaded + the community, and I suppose animated my youthful breast; and now here + I come to a New England Society, and sit between the Presidents of + those renowned universities, who have apparently come here for the + purpose of enjoying themselves, and of exhibiting that proximity is no + longer dangerous to the peace of those universities. [Applause and + laughter.] No doubt there is a considerable warfare going on between + them as to the methods of instruction; but to us who have looked on, + we have seen no more obtrusive manifestation of it than that the + President on my left, of Yale, in dealing with the subjects that have + successively been placed before him, has pursued the methods of that + university, its comprehensive method, that takes in the whole + curriculum; while on my right, the eclectic principle is exercised by + my friend, President Eliot [applause and laughter], and he has + confined himself to the dainty morsels of the repast. I speak of this + to show that, although an amelioration of climate or an obliteration + of virtues is not to be expected in New England, or in New England + men, yet there may be an advancement of the sunshine of the heart, and + that an incorporation of our narrow territory in a great nation, and a + transfusion of our opinions, our ideas, our purposes into the veins + of a nation of forty millions of people, may enlarge and liberalize + even the views, the plans, and the action of New England."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am obliged to my friend Dr. +Clarke [James Freeman Clarke, D.D.] for the complimentary terms in which +he has presented me to you. But I must appeal to your commiseration. +Harvard and Yale! Can any undergraduate of either institution, can any +recent graduate of either institution, imagine a man responding to that +toast? [Laughter.] However, I must make the best of the position, and +speak of some points upon which the two institutions are clearly agreed. +And here I am reminded of a story of a certain New England farmer, who +said that he and 'Squire Jones had more cows between them than all the +rest of the village; and his brag being disputed, he said he could prove +it, for the 'Squire had forty-five cows and he had one, and the village +altogether had not forty-six. [Laughter.] + +We shall all agree that it is for the best interests of this country +that it have sundry universities, of diverse tone, atmosphere, sphere, +representing different opinions and different methods of study to some +extent, and in different trainings, though with the same end. +[Applause.] Holding this view, I have been somewhat concerned to see of +late that the original differences between Harvard and Yale seem to be +rapidly disappearing. For example, a good many years ago, Harvard set +out on what is called the "elective" system, and now I read in the Yale +catalogue a long list of studies called "optional," which strikes me as +bearing a strong resemblance to our elective courses. [Laughter.] Again, +my friend the Secretary of State has done me the honor of alluding to +the reasons which induced his father, I suppose, rather than himself, to +send him on that journey, which we Harvard men all deplore. [Laughter.] + +Now, it is unquestioned, that about the year 1700 a certain number of +Congregationalist clergymen, who belonged to the Established Church (for +we are too apt to forget that Congregationalism was the "Established +Church" of that time, and none other was allowed), thought that Harvard +was getting altogether too latitudinarian, and though they were every +one of them graduates of Harvard, they went off and set up another +college in Connecticut, where a stricter doctrine should be taught. +Harvard men have rather nursed the hope that this distinction between +Harvard and Yale might be permanent. [Laughter.] But I regret to say +that I have lately observed many strong indications that it is wholly +likely to disappear. For example, to come at once to the foundations, I +read in the papers the other day, and I am credibly informed it is true, +that the head of Yale College voted to install a minister whose opinions +upon the vital, pivotal, fundamental doctrine of eternal damnation are +unsound. [Laughter.] Then, again, I look at the annual reports of the +Bureau of Education on this department at Washington, and I read there +for some years that Harvard College was unsectarian; and I knew that it +was right, because I made the return myself. [Laughter.] I read also +that Yale College was a Congregationalist College; and I had no doubt +that that was right, because I supposed Dr. Porter had made the report. +But now we read in that same report that Yale College is unsectarian. +That is a great progress. The fact is, both these universities have +found out that in a country which has no established church and no +dominant sect you cannot build a university on a sect at all--you must +build it upon the nation. [Applause.] + +But, gentlemen, there are some other points, I think, of national +education on which we shall find these two early founded universities to +agree. For example, we have lately read, in the Message of the Chief +Magistrate, that a national university would be a good thing. +[Applause.] Harvard and Yale are of one mind upon that subject, but they +want to have a national university defined. [Laughter.] If it means a +university of national resort, we say amen. If it means a university +where the youth of this land are taught to love their country and to +serve her, we say amen [applause]; and we point, both of us, to our past +in proof that we are national in that sense. [Applause.] But if it means +that the national university is to be a university administered and +managed by the wise Congress of the United States, then we should agree +in taking some slight exceptions. [Laughter.] We should not question for +a moment the capacity of Congress to pick out and appoint the +professors of Latin and Greek, and the ancient languages, because we +find that there is an astonishing number of classical orators in +Congress, and there is manifested there a singular acquaintance with the +legislation of all the Latin races. [Laughter.] But when it should come +to some other humbler professorships we might perhaps entertain a doubt. +For example, we have not entire faith in the trust that Congress has in +the unchangeableness of the laws of arithmetic. [Laughter.] We might +think that their competency to select a professor of history might be +doubted. They seem to have an impression that there is such a thing as +"American" political economy, which can no more be than "American" +chemistry or "American" physics. [Applause.] Finally, gentlemen, we +should a little distrust the selection by Congress of a professor of +ethics. [Laughter.] Of course, we should feel no doubt in regard to the +tenure of office of the professors being entirely suitable, it being the +well-known practice of both branches of Congress to select men solely +for fitness, without regard to locality, and to keep them in office as +long as they are competent and faithful. [Laughter and applause.] + +But, gentlemen, I think we ought to recur for a moment, perhaps, to the +Pilgrim Fathers [laughter], and I desire to say that both Harvard and +Yale recognize the fact that there are some things before which +universities "pale their ineffectual fires." + + "Words are but breath; but where great deeds were done, + A power abides, transferred from sire to son." + +Now, gentlemen, on that sandy, desolate spot of Plymouth great deeds +were done, and we are here to commemorate them. Those were hard times. +It was a terrible voyage, and they were hungry and cold and worn out +with labor, and they took their guns to the church and the field, and +the half of them died in the first winter. They were not prosperous +times that we recall with this hour. Let us take some comfort from that +in the present circumstances of our beloved country. She is in danger of +a terrible disaster, but let us remember that the times which future +generations delight to recall are not those of ease and prosperity, but +those of adversity bravely borne. [Applause.] + + + + +SAMUEL A. ELIOT + + +THE SOURCE OF SONG AND STORY + +[Speech of Rev. Samuel A. Eliot at the fifteenth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1894. The + President of the Society, Robert D. Benedict, presided. In introducing + Mr. Eliot, he said: "I am not aware that there were any poets among + the Pilgrim Fathers. They had something else to do besides versifying. + But poesy has found many a home among the hills of New England. And + many a home, not only in New England, but in Old England also, was + saddened during the year that is gone to hear that the song of one of + the poets of New England was hushed forever. I give you as the next + sentiment: 'The Poets and Poetry of New England,' and I call upon the + Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, of the Church of the Saviour, in this city, to + respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY IN +BROOKLYN:--I have been given to understand, sir, that in these +unpuritanic days lovers keep late hours; and as I listened to the wooing +of fair Brooklyn by the eloquent son[1] of New York I thought we might +be here till papa turned out the gas. Brooklyn is a New England maiden +and a trifle coy, and it may take even more than an hour's pleading and +persuasive wooing to win her. [Applause.] You ask me, sir, to turn our +thoughts back from these considerations of pressing and immediate +problems, from discussion of international and even intercontinental +relations, to the beginnings and the causes of our rejoicings here. I am +glad to do that, for I love to trace the connections and contrasts of +past and present, and to mark the growth and evolution of that New +England genius and character which are illustrated at these tables. + +The early history of New England seems to many minds as dry and +unromantic as it was hard and narrow. No mist of distance softens the +harsh outlines, no mirage of tradition lifts events and characters into +picturesque beauty. There seems a poverty of sentiment. The +transplanting of a people breaks the successions and associations of +history. No memories of conqueror and crusader stir for us poetic fancy. +Instead of the glitter of chivalry there is but the sombre homespun of +Puritan peasants. In place of the "long-drawn aisle and fretted vault" +of Gothic cathedral there is but the rude log meeting-house and +schoolhouse. Instead of Christmas merriment there is only the noise of +axe and hammer or the dreary droning of psalms. It seems a history bleak +and barren of poetic inspiration, at once plebeian and prosaic. + +How is it then that out of the hard soil of the Puritan thought and +character, out of the sterile rocks of the New England conscience, have +sprung the flowers of poetry which you bid me celebrate to-night? From +those songless beginnings have burst, in later generations, melodies +that charm and uplift our land--now a deep organ peal filling the air +with music, now a trumpet blast thrilling the blood of patriotism, now a +drum-beat to which duty delights to march, now a joyous fantasy of the +violin bringing smiles to the lips, now the soft vibrations of the harp +that fill the eyes with tears. What is it in the Puritan heritage, +externally so bare and cold, that make it intrinsically so poetic and +inspiring? + +There is no poetry in the darkness of the Puritan's creed nor in the +rigid rectitude of his morality. His surly boldness, his tough hold on +the real, his austere piety enforce respect, but do not allure +affection. The genial graces cannot bear company with ruthless bigotry +and Hebraic energy. Nor is there any poetry in the mere struggle for +existence, and the mean poverty that marked the outward life. The +Pilgrims were often pinched for food; they suffered in a bitter climate; +they lived in isolation. We think lightly of these things because we +cannot help imagining that they knew that they were founding a mighty +nation. But that knowledge was denied them. Generations of them sank +into nameless graves without any vision of the days when their +descendants should rise up and call them blessed. Nor is there any +inspiration in the measure of their outward success. Judged by their own +ideals, the Puritans failed. They would neither recognize nor approve +the civilization that has sprung from the seeds of their planting. They +tried to establish a theocracy; they stand in history as the heroes of +democracy. Alike in their social and religious aims they ignored +ineradicable elements in human nature. They attempted the impossible. +How then have their deeds become the source of song and story? Why all +the honor that we pay them? It is not because in danger, in sacrifice, +and in failure, they were stout-hearted. Many a freebooter or soldier of +fortune has been that. It is, as one said whose name I bear, "because +they were stout-hearted for an ideal--their ideal, not ours, of civil +and religious liberty. Wherever and whenever resolute men and women +devote themselves, not to material, but to spiritual ends, there the +world's heroes are made," and made to be remembered, and to become the +inspiration of poem and romance and noble daring. + +Scratch a New Englander to-day, it is said, and you find the Puritan. +That is no less true of the poets than of the warriors and the men of +facts and figures. The New England poets derived their nourishment from +the deep earth of that wholesome past, into which the roots of all our +lives go down. The mystical and mediaeval side of Puritanism finds its +embodiment in Hawthorne; its moral ideals shine in Bryant; its +independency is incarnated in Emerson. Emerson is the type of the +nineteenth-century Puritan, in life pure, in temperament saintly, in +spirit detached from the earth, blazing a path for himself through the +wilderness of speculation, seeing things from the centre, working for +the reconstruction of Christian society and the readjustment of the +traditional religion. An enfranchised Puritan is a Puritan still. Of +such is Holmes, who shot his flashing arrows at all shams and +substitutes for reality, and never failed to hit the mark; of such is +Whittier, + + "Whose swelling and vehement heart + Strains the strait-breasted drab of the Quaker apart;" + +of such is Lowell, to whom belongs the supreme distinction of having +written the greatest poem yet produced on this continent. + +We who have undergone the shock of material, intellectual and spiritual +growth too often fail to recognize our debt to the deserted cause. Our +poets remind us that our very freedom is our inheritance from the system +we reject. It was inevitable that our six great poets should have been +in literature, idealists; in politics, abolitionists; in religion, +Unitarians. It was the progressive independency of a Puritan ancestry +declaring itself. Save, perhaps, in Longfellow, no gloss or glamour of +Europe obscures their poetry. No hush of servility rests on it. No +patronage summoned it, and no indifference silenced it. Our poetry is +the genuine utterance of democracy, and betrays in every syllable the +fibre of freemen. + +New England poetry is well nigh as Puritan in its form as in its spirit. +There is in it a true Cromwellian temper. Our poets have been patriots, +firm and prophetic believers in their country's destiny, loving their +country so well that they dared to tell the sometimes unwelcome truth +about her. The Biblical strain is in our poetry. If our English Bible +were lost to us we could reconstruct almost all of its best verses out +of Whittier's poems. The thunders of Sinai still roll in Lowell's fiery +denunciations of smug conventionalities and wickedness in high places. +The music of the psalmist is in Longfellow's meditations, and all the +prophet's vision in Emerson's inspired utterance. The Puritan restraint +is on New England poetry. There is no noisy rhetoric, no tossing about +of big adjectives and stinging epithets, no abuse of our noble English +tongue by cheap exaggerations. Our poets do not need to underscore words +or to use heavy headlines and italics. Their invective has been mighty +because so restrained and so compressed. There is none of the common +cant or the common plausibilities. There is no passing off of +counterfeits for realities, no "pouring of the waters of concession into +the bottomless buckets of expediency." + +Thus do our poets declare their inheritance. But they do not stop there. +To the indomitable power of the Puritan conscience they have added a +wealth of imaginative sympathy. They have made sweetness to be the issue +of strength, and beauty to be the halo of power. They have seen the +vision of the rainbow round the throne. They have touched with divine +light the prosaic story of New England, and found the picturesque in +what seemed commonplace. They have seen the great in the little, and +ennobled the humbler ways of existence with spiritual insight. They have +set to music the homely service and simple enjoyments of common life. +They have touched the chords that speak to the universal heart. The very +provincialism of our poets endears them to us. Their work, as some +foreign critic said, has been done in a corner. We do not deny it. But, +verily we believe, that New England is the corner lot of our national +estate. Our poets have preserved for us in ballads our homespun legends. +They have imaged in verse the beauty of New England's hills and waters. +As we read there comes the whiff of fragrance which transports us to the +hillside pasture where the sweet fern and sorrel grow, or the salt +breeze of the sea blows again on our cheeks, or the rippling Merrimac +sings in our ears, or the heights of Katahdin or Wachusett, lift our +eyes upward. Finally, our poets, in their characters, disprove the +reproach that a democracy can produce only average men. As they wrote, +they were. + +The harp of New England is silent. The master hands sweep the chords no +more. But shall we dare to think that the coming generation will have no +songs and no singers? Shall we build the sepulchre of poetry? Shall we +express ourselves only in histories and criticisms? Shall man no longer +behold God and nature face to face? "Things are in the saddle to-day," +said Emerson; and indeed it may well depress us to see our greatness as +a nation measured by the number of bushels of wheat raised, or the +number of hogs packed. "The value of a country," said Lowell, "is +weighed in scales more delicate than the balance of trade. On a map of +the world you may cover Judea with your thumb, Athens with a finger tip, +and neither of them figures in the prices current, yet they still live +in the thought and action of every civilized man. Material success is +good, but only as the necessary preliminary of better things. The +measure of a nation's true success is the amount it has contributed to +the thought, the moral energy, the intellectual happiness, the +spiritual hope and consolation of mankind." Before we can have a rebirth +of poetry, we must have a fresh infusion of the Puritan devotion to +ideal ends. We must be baptized again into the spirit of non-conformity, +of intellectual and moral honesty, the spirit which does not suffer men +to go with the crowd, when reason and conscience and a living God bid +them go alone. There never was a time when we needed more the background +of Puritanism. We need in our business and our politics a sterner sense +of the fear of God, and in our home life a renewed simplicity. If we are +to build up to the level of our best opportunities, we must build down +to solid foundation on the sense of obligation. We have new times, new +land and new men. Shall we not have new thought, new work and new +worship? [Applause.] + + + + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON + + +ENGLAND, MOTHER OF NATIONS + +[Speech of Ralph Waldo Emerson at the annual banquet of the Manchester + Athenaeum, Manchester, England, November, 1847. Sir Archibald Alison, + the historian, presided] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--It is pleasant to me to meet this +great and brilliant company, and doubly pleasant to see the faces of so +many distinguished persons on this platform. But I have known all these +persons already. When I was at home, they were as near to me as they are +to you. The arguments of the League and its leader are known to all the +friends of free trade. The gaieties and genius, the political, the +social, the parietal wit of "Punch" go duly every fortnight to every boy +and girl in Boston and New York. Sir, when I came to sea, I found the +"History of Europe"[2] on the ship's cabin table, the property of the +captain;--a sort of programme or play-bill to tell the seafaring New +Englander what he shall find on landing here. And as for Dombey, sir, +there is no land where paper exists to print on, where it is not found; +no man who can read, that does not read it, and, if he cannot, he finds +some charitable pair of eyes that can, and hears it. + +But these things are not for me to say; these compliments, though true, +would better come from one who felt and understood these merits more. I +am not here to exchange civilities with you, but rather to speak of that +which I am sure interests these gentlemen more than their own praises; +of that which is good in holidays and working-days, the same in one +century and in another century. That which lures a solitary American in +the woods with the wish to see England, is the moral peculiarity of the +Saxon race,--its commanding sense of right and wrong,--the love and +devotion to that,--this is the imperial trait, which arms them with the +sceptre of the globe. It is this which lies at the foundation of that +aristocratic character, which certainly wanders into strange vagaries, +so that its origin is often lost sight of, but which, if it should lose +this, would find itself paralyzed; and in trade, and in the mechanic's +shop, gives that honesty in performance, that thoroughness and solidity +of work, which is a national characteristic. This conscience is one +element, and the other is that loyal adhesion, that habit of friendship, +that homage of man to man, running through all classes,--the electing of +worthy persons to a certain fraternity, to acts of kindness and warm and +staunch support, from year to year, from youth to age,--which is alike +lovely and honorable to those who render and those who receive +it;--which stands in strong contrast with the superficial attachments of +other races, their excessive courtesy, and short-lived connection. + +You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday though it be, I +have not the smallest interest in any holiday, except as it celebrates +real and not pretended joys; and I think it just, in this time of gloom +and commercial disaster, of affliction and beggary in these districts, +that on these very accounts I speak of, you should not fail to keep your +literary anniversary. I seem to hear you say that, for all that is come +and gone, yet we will not reduce by one chaplet or one oak-leaf the +braveries of our annual feast. For I must tell you, I was given to +understand in my childhood that the British island, from which my +forefathers came, was no lotus-garden, no paradise of serene sky and +roses and music and merriment all the year round, no, but a cold, foggy, +mournful country, where nothing grew well in the open air, but robust +men and virtuous women, and these of a wonderful fibre and endurance; +that their best parts were slowly revealed; their virtues did not come +out until they quarrelled; they did not strike twelve the first time; +good lovers, good haters, and you could know little about them till you +had seen them long, and little good of them till you had seen them in +action; that in prosperity they were moody and dumpish, but in adversity +they were grand. + +Is it not true, sir, that the wise ancients did not praise the ship +parting with flying colors from the port, but only that brave sailor +which came back with torn sheets and battered sides, stript of her +banners, but having ridden out the storm? And so, gentlemen, I feel in +regard to this aged England, with the possessions, honors and trophies, +and also with the infirmities of a thousand years gathering around her, +irretrievably committed as she now is to many old customs which cannot +be suddenly changed; pressed upon by the transitions of trade, and new +and all incalculable modes, fabrics, arts, machines and competing +populations,--I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well remembering +that she has seen dark days before; indeed, with a kind of instinct that +she sees a little better in a cloudy day, and that in storm of battle +and calamity, she has a secret vigor and a pulse like a cannon. I see +her in her old age, not decrepit, but young, and still daring to believe +in her power of endurance and expansion. Seeing this, I say, All hail! +mother of nations, mother of heroes, with strength still equal to the +time; still wise to entertain and swift to execute the policy which the +mind and heart of mankind require in the present hour, and thus only +hospitable to the foreigner, and truly a home to the thoughtful and +generous who are born in the soil. So be it! so let it be! If it be not +so, if the courage of England goes with the chances of a commercial +crisis, I will go back to the capes of Massachusetts, and my own Indian +stream, and say to my countrymen, the old race are all gone, and the +elasticity and hope of mankind must henceforth remain on the Alleghany +ranges, or nowhere. + + + * * * * * + + +THE MEMORY OF BURNS + +[Speech of Ralph Waldo Emerson at the festival of the Boston Burns Club, + at the Parker House, Boston, Mass., January 25, 1859, commemorating + the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Scottish bard. Around + the tables were gathered a company numbering nearly three hundred, + including Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, George S. Hillard, Nathaniel P. + Willis, and others of the literary guild. Among the decorations of the + banqueting-hall was displayed a bust of Burns crowned with a wreath of + roses and bays. Mr. Emerson spoke to the principal toast of the + evening, "The Memory of Burns," and his graceful flights of oratory + were received with cheers, and calls for "More! More!" which the + presiding officer, General John S. Tyler, quieted with the remark: + "Mr. Emerson begs to be excused, not because the well of gushing + waters is exhausted, but because, in the kindness of his heart, he + thinks he ought to leave room for gentlemen who are to succeed him." + Willis, writing later of the festival, said of this speech, "Why, in + that large and convivially excited audience, there was not, while he + spoke, a wandering eye--not a pulse or a breath that was not held + absolutely captive. Wherein lies the wonderful spell?"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I do not know by what untoward +accident it has chanced--and I forbear to inquire--that, in this +accomplished circle, it should fall to me, the worst Scotsman of all, to +receive your commands, and at the latest hour, too, to respond to the +sentiment just offered, and which, indeed, makes the occasion. But I am +told there is no appeal, and I must trust to the inspiration of the +theme to make a fitness which does not otherwise exist. + +Yet, sir, I heartily feel the singular claims of the occasion. At the +first announcement, from I know not whence, that the twenty-fifth of +January was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, a +sudden consent warned the great English race, in all its kingdoms, +colonies and states, all over the world, to keep the festival. We are +here to hold our parliament with love and poesy, as men were wont to do +in the Middle Ages. Those famous parliaments might or might not have had +more stateliness, and better singers than we--though that is yet to be +known--but they could not have better reason. + +I can only explain this singular unanimity in a race which rarely acts +together--but rather after their watchword, each for himself--by the +fact that Robert Burns, the poet of the middle class, represents in the +mind of men to-day that great uprising of the middle class against the +armed and privileged minorities--that uprising which worked politically +in the American and French Revolutions, and which, not in governments so +much as in education and in social order, has changed the face of the +world. In order for this destiny, his birth, breeding and fortune were +low. His organic sentiment was absolute independence, and resting, as it +should, on a life of labor. No man existed who could look down on him. +They that looked into his eyes saw that they might look down the sky as +easily. His muse and teaching was common sense, joyful, aggressive, +irresistible. Not Latimer, nor Luther, struck more telling blows +against false theology than did this brave singer. The "Confession of +Augsburg," the "Declaration of Independence," the French "Rights of +Man," and the "Marseillaise," are not more weighty documents in the +history of freedom than the songs of Burns. His satire has lost none of +its edge. His musical arrows yet sing through the air. He is so +substantially a reformer, that I find his grand, plain sense in close +chain with the greatest masters--Rabelais, Shakespeare in comedy, +Cervantes, Butler, and Burns. If I should add another name, I find it +only in a living countryman of Burns. He is an exceptional genius. The +people who care nothing for literature and poetry care for Burns. It was +indifferent--they thought who saw him--whether he wrote verse or not; he +could have done anything else as well. + +Yet how true a poet is he! And the poet, too, of poor men, of +hodden-gray, and the Guernsey-coat, and the blouse. He has given voice +to all the experiences of common life; he has endeared the farmhouse and +cottage, patches and poverty, beans and barley; ale, the poor man's +wine; hardship, the fear of debt, the dear society of weans and wife, of +brothers and sisters, proud of each other, knowing so few, and finding +amends for want and obscurity in books and thought. What a love of +nature! and--shall I say it?--of middle-class nature. Not great, like +Goethe, in the stars, or like Byron, on the ocean, or Moore, in the +luxurious East, but in the homely landscape which the poor see around +them--bleak leagues of pasture and stubble, ice, and sleet, and rain, +and snow-choked brooks; birds, hares, field-mice, thistles, and heather, +which he daily knew. How many "Bonny Doons," and "John Anderson my +Joes," and "Auld Lang Synes," all around the earth, have his verses been +applied to! And his love songs still woo and melt the youths and maids; +the farm work, the country holiday, the fishing cobble, are still his +debtors to-day. + +And, as he was thus the poet of the poor, anxious, cheerful, working +humanity, so had he the language of low life. He grew up in a rural +district, speaking a patois unintelligible to all but natives, and he +has made that Lowland Scotch a Doric dialect of fame. It is the only +example in history of a language made classic by the genius of a single +man. But more than this. He had that secret of genius to draw from the +bottom of society the strength of its speech, and astonish the ears of +the polite with these artless words, better than art, and filtered of +all offence through his beauty. It seemed odious to Luther that the +devil should have all the best tunes; he would bring them into the +churches; and Burns knew how to take from fairs and gypsies, blacksmiths +and drovers, the speech of the market and street, and clothe it with +melody. + +But I am detaining you too long. The memory of Burns--I am afraid heaven +and earth have taken too good care of it to leave us anything to say. +The west winds are murmuring it. Open the windows behind you, and +hearken for the incoming tide, what the waves say of it. The doves, +perching always on the eaves of the Stone Chapel [King's Chapel] +opposite, may know something about it. Every home in broad Scotland +keeps his fame bright. The memory of Burns--every man's, and boy's, and +girl's head carries snatches of his songs, and can say them by heart, +and, what is strangest of all, never learned them from a book, but from +mouth to mouth. The wind whispers them, the birds whistle them, the +corn, barley, and bulrushes hoarsely rustle them; nay, the music-boxes +at Geneva are framed and toothed to play them; the hand-organs of the +Savoyards in all cities repeat them, and the chimes of bells ring them +in the spires. They are the property and the solace of mankind. +[Cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +WAR + +[Speech of Ralph Waldo Emerson at the dinner of Harvard Alumni at + Cambridge, Mass., July 21, 1865, on the occasion of the commemoration + of the patriot heroes of Harvard College in the Civil War.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--With whatever opinions we come +here, I think it is not in man to see, without a feeling of pride and +pleasure, a tried soldier, the armed defender of the right. I think +that, in these last years, all opinions have been affected by the +magnificent and stupendous spectacle, which Divine Providence has +offered us, of the energies that slept in the children of this +country,--that slept and have awakened. I see thankfully those who are +here; but dim eyes in vain explore for some who are not. They shine the +brighter "in the domain of tender memory." The old Greek, Heraclitus, +said: "War is the father of all things." He said it, no doubt, as +science, but we of this day can repeat it as a political and social +truth. + +War passes the power of all chemical solvents, breaking up the old +cohesions, and allowing the atoms of society to take a new order. It is +not the Government but the war that has appointed the great generals, +sifted out the pedants, put in the new and vigorous blood. [Great +applause.] The war has lifted many other people, besides Grant and +Sherman, into their true places. Even Divine Providence, we may say, +always seems to work after a certain military necessity. Every nation +punishes the general who is not victorious. It is a rule in games of +chance that "the cards beat all the players," and revolutions disconcert +and outwit all the insurgents. The revolutions carry their own points, +sometimes to the ruin of those who set them on foot. The proof that war +also is within the highest right, is a marked benefactor in the hands of +Divine Providence, is its _morale_. The war gave back integrity to the +erring and immoral nation. It charged with power, peaceful, amiable, +men, to whose whole life war and discord were abhorrent. What an +infusion of character went out from this and the other colleges! What an +infusion of character down to the ranks! The experience has been +uniform, that it is the gentle soul that makes the firm hero, after all. +It is easy to recall the mood in which our young men, snatched from +every peaceful pursuit, went to war. Many of them had never handled a +gun. They said, "It is not in me to resist. I go because I must. It is a +duty which I shall never forgive myself if I decline. I do not know that +I can make a soldier. I may be very clumsy; perhaps I shall be timid; +but you can rely on me. Only one thing is certain, I can well die, but I +cannot afford to misbehave." [Loud applause.] + +In fact, the infusion of culture and tender humanity from these scholars +and idealists who went to the war in their own despite,--God knows they +had no fury for killing their old friends and countrymen,--had its +signal and lasting effect. It was found that enthusiasm was a more +potent ally than science and munitions of war without it. "'Tis a +principle of war," said Napoleon--_principe de guerre_--"that when you +can use the thunderbolt, you must prefer it to the cannon." Enthusiasm +was the thunderbolt. Here in this little Massachusetts, in smaller Rhode +Island, in this little nest of New England republics, it flamed out when +that guilty gun was aimed at Sumter. + +Mr. Chairman, standing here in Harvard College, the parent of all the +colleges, in Massachusetts, the mother of all the North, when I consider +her influence on the country as a principal planter of the Western +States, and now by her teachers, preachers, journalists and books, as +well as by traffic and production, the diffuser of religious, literary +and political opinion, and when I see how irresistible the convictions +of Massachusetts are on those swarming populations, I think the little +State bigger than I knew; and when her blood is up, she has a fist that +could knock down an empire. And her blood was roused. [Great applause.] +Scholars exchanged the black coat for the blue. A single company in the +44th Massachusetts contained thirty-five sons of Harvard. You all know +as well as I the story of these dedicated men, who knew well on what +duty they went, whose fathers and mothers said of each slaughtered son, +"We gave him up when he enlisted." One mother said, when her son was +offered the command of the first negro regiment, "If he accepts it, I +shall be as proud as if I had heard that he was shot." [Applause.] These +men, thus tender, thus high-bred, thus peaceable, were always in the +front, and always employed. They might say with their forefathers, the +old Norse Vikings, "We sang the mass of lances from morning until +evening;" and in how many cases it chanced, when the hero had fallen, +they who came by night to his funeral on the morrow returned to his +war-path, to show his slayers the way to death! + +Ah! young brothers, all honor and gratitude to you! you, manly +defenders, Liberty's and Humanity's home guard. We shall not again +disparage America, now that we have seen what men it will bear. We +see--we thank you for it--a new era, worth to mankind all the treasure +and the lives it has cost; yes, worth to the world the lives of all this +generation of American men, if they had been demanded. [Loud applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE WISDOM OF CHINA + +[Speech of Ralph Waldo Emerson 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. Emerson responded to the + toast: "The union of the farthest East and the farthest West."] + + +MR. MAYOR:--I suppose we are all of one opinion on this +remarkable occasion of meeting the Embassy sent from the oldest Empire +in the world to the youngest Republic. All share the surprise and +pleasure when the venerable oriental dynasty, hitherto a romantic legend +to most of us, suddenly steps into the fellowship of nations. This +auspicious event, considered in connection with the late innovations in +Japan, marks a new era, and is an irresistible result of the science +which has given us the power of steam and the electric telegraph. It is +the more welcome for the surprise. We had said of China, as the old +prophet said of Egypt, "Her strength is to sit still." Her people had +such elemental conservatism, that by some wonderful force of race and +national manners the wars and revolutions that occur in her annals +proved but momentary swells or surges on the Pacific Ocean of her +history, leaving no trace. But in its immovability this race has claims. + +China is old not in time only, but in wisdom, which is gray hair to a +nation, or rather, truly seen, is eternal youth. As we know, China had +the magnet centuries before Europe; and block-printing and stereotype, +and lithography, and gunpowder, and vaccination, and canals; had +anticipated Linnaeus's nomenclature of plants; had codes, journals, +clubs, hackney coaches, and, thirty centuries before New York, had the +custom of New-Year's calls of comity and reconciliation. I need not +mention its useful arts,--its pottery, indispensable to the world; the +luxury of silks; and its tea, the cordial of nations. But I must +remember that she had respectable remains of astronomic science, and +historic records of forgotten time, that have supplied important gaps in +the ancient history of the western nations. + +Then she has philosophers who cannot be spared. Confucius has not yet +gathered all his fame. When Socrates heard that the oracle declared that +he was the wisest of men, he said, it must mean that other men held that +they were wise, but that he knew that he knew nothing. Confucius had +already affirmed this of himself: and what we call the Golden Rule of +Jesus, Confucius had uttered in the same terms, five hundred years +before. His morals, though addressed to a state of society utterly +unlike ours, we read with profit to-day. His rare perception appears in +his Golden Mean, his doctrine of Reciprocity, his unerring insight, +putting always the blame of our misfortunes on our selves; as when to +the governor who complained of thieves he said: "If you, sir, were not +covetous, though you should reward them for it, they would not steal." +His ideal of greatness predicts Marcus Antoninus. At the same time, he +abstained from paradox, and met the ingrained prudence of his nation by +saying always: "Bend one cubit to straighten eight." + +China interests us at this moment in a point of politics. I am sure that +gentlemen around me bear in mind the bill which Hon. Mr. Jenckes, of +Rhode Island, has twice attempted to carry through Congress, requiring +that candidates for public offices shall first pass examination on their +literary qualifications for the same. Well, China has preceded us, as +well as England and France, in this essential correction of a reckless +usage; and the like high esteem of education appears in China in social +life, to whose distinctions it is made an indispensable passport. + +It is gratifying to know that the advantages of the new intercourse +between the two countries are daily manifest on the Pacific coast. The +immigrants from Asia come in crowds. Their power of continuous labor, +their versatility in adapting themselves to new conditions, their +stoical economy, are unlooked-for virtues. They send back to their +friends, in China, money, new products of art, new tools, machinery, new +foods, etc., and are thus establishing a commerce without limit. + +I cannot help adding, after what I have heard to-night, that I have read +in the journals a statement from an English source, that Sir Frederic +Bruce attributed to Mr. Burlingame the merit of the happy reform in the +relations of foreign governments to China. I am quite sure that I heard +from Mr. Burlingame in New York, in his last visit to America, that the +whole merit of it belonged to Sir Frederic Bruce. It appears that the +ambassadors were emulous in their magnanimity. It is certainly the best +guaranty for the interests of China and of humanity. + + + + +WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS + + +INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION + +[Speech of William M. Evarts at the sixty-seventh anniversary banquet of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 23, 1872. + The President, Elliot C. Cowden, occupied the chair. Introducing the + speaker, he said: "I now ask your attention to the eighth regular + toast: 'The Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration, a victory of peace, + demonstrating that the statesman's wisdom is mightier than the + warrior's sword.' This sentiment will be responded to by one who has + added a new lustre to a fame already achieved by his consummate + argument in defence of our claims before the late Tribunal of + Arbitration, your honored ex-President, Mr. Evarts."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--It +has, I believe, in the history of our race, never been permitted that a +great nation should pass through the perils of a serious internal +conflict without suffering, in some form or other, an intervention in +its affairs by other nations that would not have been permitted, or been +possible, but for the distraction of its power, or the stress to which +it was exposed by its intestine strifes. And when, in our modern +civilization, a nation so great as ours was pressed by so great a stress +as our Civil War imposed upon us, we could not escape this common fate +in human affairs. It has rarely, in the history of our race, been +permitted to a nation that has suffered this foreign intervention, in +whatever form, to preserve its peace and the peace of the world, and yet +settle its account with the nations which had interposed in its affairs. +[Applause.] + +When the great power of France seized upon the occasion of our Civil War +to renew a European possession upon our boundaries, and when England, +upon the same opportunity, swept the seas of our commerce; properly to +deal with those forms of intervention, when our domestic troubles were +ended by the triumph of our arms, called for the exercise of the highest +statesmanship and the most powerful diplomacy. It was at this juncture +that our great minister of foreign affairs (than whom no greater has +been seen in our country, and than whom no greater has been presented in +the service of any foreign nation) was able, without war, to drive the +French from Mexico, and to establish the _principle_ of arbitration, for +the settlement of our controversy with England. [Applause.] It was +reserved for the present administration to extricate the imperfect work +of the adjustment of the differences between England and the United +States from a difficulty of the gravest character, and to place the +negotiations upon a footing satisfactory to the public sense of our +people by the illustrious work of the Joint High Commission at +Washington. It was reserved for that administration to complete, within +its first term of power, the absolute extinction of all antecedent +causes, occasions or opportunities for future contention between our +nation and the mother country, by the actual result of the Geneva +arbitration. [Applause.] + +And now, gentlemen, I think we may well be proud of that self-contained, +yet adequate, appreciation of our power, of our right, and of our duty, +that could thus, while abating not one jot or tittle of our rights, +compose such grave differences by the wisdom of statesmanship, instead +of renewing the struggles of war. I may, I think, recognize in the +general appreciation by our countrymen of the excellence of this great +adjustment between England and the United States, their satisfaction +with this settlement, which, without in the least abating the dignity or +disturbing the peace of England, has maintained the dignity and made +secure the peace of the United States. [Applause.] I think I may +recognize in this general satisfaction of our countrymen, their +conviction that the result of the Geneva arbitration has secured for us +every point that was important as indemnity for the past, and yet has so +adjusted the difficult question between neutrality and belligerency as +to make it safe for us, in maintaining our natural, and, as we hope, our +perpetual, position in the future, of a neutral, and not a belligerent. + +The gentlemen to whom were entrusted, by the favor of the President of +the United States, the representation of our country in this great +forensic controversy, have been somewhat differently situated from +lawyers, in ordinary lawsuits, charged with the interests of clients. +For, as we all know, the interest of the client and the duty of the +lawyer are, for the most part, limited to success in the particular +controversy that is being agitated, and, therein, the whole power of the +lawyer and all his resources may be properly directed to secure the +completest victory in the particular suit. But, when a nation is a +party, and when the lawsuit is but an incident, in its perpetual duty +and its perpetual interests, in which it must expect to change sides, in +the changing circumstances of human affairs, it is very plainly its +interest, and the duty of those to whom its interests are entrusted, to +see to it, that in the zeal of the particular contest there shall be no +triumph that shall disturb, embarrass, or burden its future relations +with foreign nations. [Applause.] In other words, when our government +was calling to account a neutral which had interfered with our rights as +belligerents, it was of very great importance that we should insist upon +neither a measure of right nor a measure of indemnity, that we could +not, wisely and safely, submit to in the future ourselves. [Applause.] + +While, then, there was a preliminary question of gravest importance to +be determined in this arbitration--this peaceful substitute for +war--"the terrible litigation of States"--no less than this, how widely +and how heavily we should press the question of accountability against a +neutral, and how far the question should be pressed, in the future, +against us, I must congratulate the country for having received, at the +outset of the deliberations at Geneva, a determination from the +Tribunal, upon the general principles of public law, that when peaceful +adjustments in redress of wrongs are attempted between friendly States, +no measure of indemnity can be claimed which at all savors of the +exactions made only by a victorious over a beaten foe. [Applause.] + +And when we come to the final award of this High Tribunal, I think the +country may be congratulated, and the world may be congratulated, that +while we have secured a judgment of able and impartial publicists in +favor of the propositions of international law on which we had +insisted, and have received amends by its judgment for the wrongs we had +suffered from Great Britain, we have also secured great principles in +favor of neutrality in the future, making it easier, instead of harder, +for nations to repress the sympathies, the passions and the enlistments +of their people, and to keep, during the pendency of war, the action of +a neutral State within and subject to the dictates of duty and of law. +For we have there established that the duty of a neutral government to +preserve its subjects from interference with belligerent rights is in +proportion to the magnitude of the evils that will be suffered by the +nation against whom, and at whose cost, the infraction of neutrality is +provoked. We have made it apparent, also, that a powerful nation, in the +advanced civilization of our age, cannot escape from an accountability +upon the rough calculation, upon which so much reliance has doubtless +been placed in the past, upon the unwillingness of the offended and +injured nation, in the correction of its wrongs, to rush into the costs +and sacrifices of war. And we have made it apparent to the proudest +power in the world (and there is none prouder than our own nation,) that +there must be a peaceful accounting for errors and wrongs, in which +justice shall be done without the effusion of blood. [Prolonged +applause.] Practically, too, we have established principles of great +importance in aid of the efforts of every Government to preserve its +neutrality in trying and difficult situations of sympathy. An error long +provided, that if a vessel, in violation of neutrality, should escape to +commit its ravages upon the sea, and should once secure the protection +of a commission from the offending belligerent, that that was an end of +it, and all the nations of the world must bow their heads before these +bastard flags of belligerency. But the tribunal has determined, as the +public law of the world, that a commission from a belligerent gives no +protection to a vessel that owes its power and place upon the seas to a +violation of neutrality. [Applause.] The consequence is, that so far +from our success in this arbitration having exposed us, as a neutral +nation, in the future, to greater difficulties, we have established +principles of law that are to aid our Government, and every other +Government, to restrain our people and every other people, in the +future, from such infractions of neutrality. + +And now, gentlemen, is it too much for us to say that, coming out from a +strife with our own blood and kindred, upon the many hard-fought fields +of our Civil War, with our government confirmed, with the principles of +our confederation made secure forever, we have also come out from this +peaceful contest with a great power of the world, with important +principles established between this nation and our principal rival in +the business affairs of the world, and with an established conviction, +alike prevalent in both countries, that, hereafter, each must do its +duty to the other, and that each must be held accountable for that duty? + +I give you, gentlemen, in conclusion, this sentiment: "The little +Court-room at Geneva--where our royal mother England, and her proud +though untitled daughter, alike bent their heads to the majesty of Law +and accepted Justice as a greater and better arbiter than Power." +[Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE REPUBLIC AND ITS OUTLOOK + +[Speech of William M. Evarts at the first banquet of the New England + Society of the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. Benjamin D. + Silliman, President of the Society, occupied the chair and introduced + Mr. Evarts to speak to the toast, "The Republic and its Outlook," + saying: "He may well speak of the 'Outlook' who is on the watch-tower. + His brethren of the bar would prefer his remaining here but if he will + return to the competitions and collisions of the courts, he will be + welcomed as a brother, however unwelcome he may be as an adversary. + Meantime, that he may tell us of the outlook of the Republic, let us + listen to the Secretary of State, the Honorable William M. Evarts."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF +BROOKLYN:--I have been accustomed to the City of New York, and have +been accustomed to the estimate which the people of New York make of the +people of Brooklyn. [Laughter.] I now come to make some trial of the +estimate which the people of Brooklyn put upon the people of New York. +[Applause.] In one distinct feature of the City of New York--I mean in +its population--and in one distinct feature of the City of Brooklyn--in +its population--you will see the secret of your vast superiority to us. +[Laughter.] In the City of New York there are more Irishmen than there +are in Dublin. [Applause.] In the City of Brooklyn there are more +Bostonians than there are in Boston. [Laughter.] We have always felt it +as a reproach, however little we relish the satire, that our New England +festivals--mean in New York--were little in keeping with the poverty and +frugality, and perhaps with the virtues, of our ancestors. But here I +see exactly such a company, and exactly such a feast, as in the first +years of the emigration, our ancestors would have sat down to. +[Laughter.] We honor our fathers with loud praises, you, by noble and +self-denying example. [Laughter.] + +The Republic, which is the theme I am to speak to, is the Republic which +has grown from the seed that was planted in New England. It has gained +as the oak has gained in its growth, from the soil, and from the air; so +in the body and the strength, and the numbers and the wealth of the +Republic, it has gained by the accretions of other races, and the +incoming population from many shores. But the oak, nevertheless, is an +oak, because the seed which was planted was the seed of an oak. [Loud +applause.] Now, our Pilgrim Fathers seem to have been frustrated by +Providence a good deal, in many of their plans. They came with the +purpose, it is said, of occupying the pleasant seat of all this wealth +and prosperity which these great cities enjoy. But the point was to +plant them in New England, where they might grow, but would never stay. +One of the first letters which I received after taking charge of the +Department over which I preside was an extremely well-written one from a +western State, asking for a Consulate, and beginning in this wise: "I +have no excuse for intruding on your busy occupations except a +pardonable desire to live elsewhere." [Laughter.] Now that has been the +mainspring of New Englanders ever since they were seated by Providence +on its barren shores, a pardonable desire to live elsewhere. [Laughter.] +If they had been planted here--if they had been seated in the luxurious +climate and with the fertile soil of the South, they would have had no +desire, pardonable or otherwise, to live elsewhere. Though they might +have grown and lived they never would have proved the seed that was to +make the Great Republic as it now is. [Applause.] + +There has been an idea that some part of the active, spreading and +increasing influence of the New England people as they moved about the +world, was from a meddlesome disposition to interfere with other people. +There is nothing in that. If there ever was a race that confined itself +strictly to minding its own business, it is the New Englanders; and they +mind it, with great results. The solution of this apparent discord is +simply this: that a New Englander considers everybody else's business +his business. [Loud laughter.] Now these two essential notions of +wishing to live elsewhere, and regarding everybody else's business as +our business, furnish the explanation of the processes by which this +Republic has come to be what it is--great in every form of power, of +strength, of wealth. This dissemination of New England men, and this +permeation through other people's business--of our control of it--have +made the nation what it is. [Applause.] + +The statesmanship of the New England character, was the greatest +statesmanship of the world. It did not undertake to govern by authority, +or by power, but by those ideas and methods which were common to human +nature, and were to make a people great, and able to govern themselves. +[Applause.] The great elements of that State thus developed, were +education, industry and commerce. Education which, as Aristotle says, +"makes one do by choice what others do by force;" industry, which by +occupying and satisfying all the avidities of our nature, leaves to +government only the simple duty of curbing the vicious and punishing the +wicked. Commerce, that, by unfolding to the world the relations of +people with people, makes a system of foreign relations that is greater +and firmer, and more beneficent, than can be brought about by all the +powers of armies, or all the skill of cabinets. [Applause.] + +This being, then, the Republic which has grown up from the seed thus +planted, that has established our relations among ourselves over our +wide heritage, and established our relations with the rest of the world, +what is its outlook to-day? What is it in the sense of material +prosperity? Who can measure it? Who can circumscribe it? Who can, +except by the simple rule of three, which never errs, determine its +progress? As the early settlement of Plymouth is to the United States of +America, as it now is, so is the United States of America to the future +possession and control of the world as they are to be. [Cheering.] This +is to be, not by armies of invasion, nor by navies that are to carry the +thunders of our powers. It is to be by our finding our place in the +moral government of the world, and by the example, and its magnificent +results, of a free people, governed by education, occupied by industry, +and maintaining our connection with the world by commerce. Thus we are +to disarm the armies of Europe, when they dare not disarm them +themselves. [Cheers.] We present to mankind the simple, yet the +wonderful evidence that a peasant in Germany, or France, or Ireland, or +England carrying a soldier on his back, cannot compete in their own +markets with a peasant in America who has no soldier on his back, though +there be 5,000 miles distance between their farms. [Loud applause.] No +doubt wonderful commotions are to take place in the great nations of +Europe, under this example. There is to be overturning, and overturning, +for which we have no responsibility, except, that by this great +instruction, worked out by Providence on this continent, there is to be +a remodelling of society in the ancient countries of the world. +[Applause.] Now you see in the magnitude of the designs of Providence, +how, planting the Puritans where they would desire to spread themselves +abroad, and filling a continent, whence the ideas that they develop +intelligibly to the whole world, are to distribute themselves over the +world, that this is the way in which the redemption of society at home +first, and abroad afterward, is to be accomplished by the power of the +wisdom of God. + +And now for the outlook in other senses than that of material +prosperity, how is it? As difficult and critical junctures have been +reached in the development of the nation, and collisions, as when two +tides meet, have awakened our own fears, and tried our own courage, and +have raised the question whether these true ideas of our Republic were +to triumph or to be checked--has not the issue always shown us, that +faith in God, and faith in man, are a match for all the powers of evil +in our midst and elsewhere? [Cheering.] If there needed to be a march +to the sea, it was to be through the Southern country. [Loud applause.] +If there needed to be a surrender of one portion of this people to the +other, it was to be in and of Virginia, and not in and of New England. +[Applause.] And now what a wonderful spectacle is presented to our +nation, and to the world, when the direst calamities that ever afflict a +people--those of Civil War, had fallen upon us; when the marshalling of +armies, in a nation that tolerated no armies, was greater and more +powerful than the conflicts of the world had ever seen; when the +exhaustion of life, of treasure, of labor, had been such as was +unparalleled; yet, in the brief space of fifteen years, the nation is +more homogeneous, more bound together, more powerful and richer than it +ever could have been but for the triumph of the good over the weak +elements of this Republic. [Applause.] + +And what does all this show but the essential idea that it is man--man +developed as an individual--man developed by thousands, by hundreds of +thousands, by millions, and tens of millions, these make the strength +and the wealth of a nation. These being left us, the nation, the +consumption as by a fire, attacking a city, or ravaging a whole +territory, or sweeping the coffers of the rich, or invading the cottages +of the poor--all this material wealth may easily be repaired. If the +nation remains with its moral and intellectual strength, brighter and +larger and more indestructible possessions than the first will soon +replace them. On the three great pillars of American society--equality +of right, community of interest, and reciprocity of duty, rests this +great Republic. Riches and honor and length of days will mark the nation +which rests on that imperishable basis. [Prolonged applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE FRENCH ALLIANCE + +[Speech of William M. Evarts at a banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of + the State of New York, New York City, November 5, 1881. The banquet + was given 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 following toast: "The French Alliance; the amicable + relations between our two countries founded in 1778, by the Treaty of + Amity and Commerce, between the nation of France and the American + people, cemented in blood in 1781, renewed by this visit of our + distinguished guests, will, we trust, be perpetuated through all + time."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--It is +with great pride, as well as with great pleasure, that I respond to the +call in behalf of the merchants of the United States, as represented by +the merchants of the great city of the United States, through this +ancient guild of the Chamber of Commerce, in paying their tribute of +honor and applause to the French nation, that was present as a nation in +the contest of our Revolution, and is present here as a nation by its +representatives to-day [applause]; and to the great Frenchmen that were +present with their personal heroism in the struggles of the Revolution, +and are present here in their personal descendants, to see the fruits of +that Revolution, and to receive our respectful greeting [applause]; and +to the Germans who were present, where they could not have been spared +in the great trials of our feeble nation in its struggles against the +greatest power in the world, and who are here, by the descendants of +those heroic Germans, to join in this feast of freedom and of glory. +[Applause.] + +But I felt a little doubt, Mr. Chairman, whether the etiquette of this +occasion required me to speak in my own tongue, or in the German or the +French, for I speak French and German equally well [laughter], but I +thought it would be a poor compliment, after all, to talk to these +Frenchmen, or these Germans, in their native tongues. They surely hear +enough of that at home. [Laughter.] + +Well, Mr. President, the French Alliance was one of the noblest +transactions in history. The sixth day of February, 1778, witnessed the +Treaty of Alliance and the accompanying Treaty of Amity and Commerce +which filled out our Declaration of Independence, and made that an +assured triumph, which was until then nothing but a heroic effort on our +part. [Cheers.] I do not know that the sixth of February has anywhere +been honored in any due proportion to the Fourth of July; but for my +part, as an humble individual, from the earliest moment I have done all +in my power to show my homage to that day, for on that day I was born. +[Laughter and applause.] + +Now, we talk the most and must feel the most and with great propriety, +of the presence of our French and of our German aids, and of our own +presence at the battle of Yorktown and the surrender. But what would +that occasion have amounted to, either in the fact of it or in the +celebration of it, if the English had not been there? [Laughter.] You +may remember the composure of the hero that was going to the block and +felt that there was no occasion for hurry or confusion in the attendant +crowd, as nothing important could take place until he got there +[laughter]; and so, in this past history and in the present celebration, +we recognize that it is not a question of personal mortification or of +personal triumph--not even of national mortification or of national +triumph. This was one of the great battles of the world, in which all +the nations engaged, and all other nations had an everlasting interest +and one through which they were to reap an everlasting good. [Applause.] + +And I would like to know if the granddaughter of George III has ever had +from her subjects, British or Indian, any sweeter incense than has just +now been poured out from the hearts of the American people, who freely +give that homage to her virtues as a woman that they deny to her sceptre +and her crown as a queen. [Applause.] Who would not rather be a great +man than a great king? Who would not rather be a great woman than a +great queen? [Applause.] Ah, is there not a wider sovereignty over the +race, and a deeper homage from human nature than ever can come from an +allegiance to power? And for woman, though she be a queen, what personal +power in human affairs can equal that of drawing a throb from every +heart and a tear from every eye, when she spoke to us as a woman in the +distress of our nation? [Applause.] + +It was a very great thing for France to make the Treaty of Alliance and +the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with a nation that, as yet, had +received no acceptance from the powers of the earth. And when we +remember that France, in the contests of a thousand years, had found +England no unequal match in the quarrels that belonged to the two +nations, I must think that human history has shown nothing nobler than +her espousal of this growing struggle between these colonists and the +great power of England. [Applause.] How much nearer France was to +England than we! How much wider her possessions through the world, open +to the thunders of the British navy and the prowess of the British arms! +And when France, in a treaty, the equal terms of which will strike every +reader with wonder, speaks of the "common cause" to be pursued until the +result of our complete independence, governmental and commercial, was +attained, I know nothing in the way of the "bearing the burdens of one +another," enjoined as the Christian spirit, that is greater than this +stupendous action of France. [Applause.] + +The relations of blood and history that make England and us one, as we +always shall be, do not, nevertheless, make it clear that there is not a +closer feeling of attachment, after all, between us and France. It is a +very great compliment, no doubt, in classical phrase, to bespoken of as +"_matre pulchra filia pulchrior"_--the fairer daughter of a fair mother, +but, after all, it is a greater compliment to the daughter than to the +mother. I don't know that maternal affection, the purest sentiment on +earth, is ever quite pleased that the daughter is taller and fairer and +more winning in her ways than the mother is, or ever was [laughter]; and +I do know that there comes a time when the daughter leaves the mother +and cleaves to a closer affection. And here were we, a young, growing, +self-conscious, self-possessed damsel, just peeping from out our +mother's apron, when there comes a gallant and noble friend, who takes +up our cause, and that, too, at a time when it was not quite apparent +whether we should turn out a beauty or a hoyden. [Laughter and +applause.] And that is our relation to France. Nothing can limit, +nothing can disturb it; nothing shall disparage it. It is that we, from +that time and onward, and now finally in the great consummation of two +Republics united together against the world, represent in a new sense +Shakespeare's figure of the "unity and married calm of states." +[Applause.] + +The French people have the advantage of us in a great many things, and I +don't know that we have any real advantage of them, except in a superior +opinion of ourselves. [Laughter.] God forbid that anybody should take +that from us! Great as is our affection and gratitude toward the French +and German nations, there is one thing that we cannot quite put up with +in those nations, and that is, that, but for them, the English and we +should think ourselves the greatest nations in the world. [Laughter.] +So, with all the bonds of amity between us and them, we must admit that +the Frenchmen and Germans make a pretty good show on the field of +history in the past, and, apparently, mean to have a pretty good share +of the future of this world. [Applause.] + +In comparing the Yorktown era with the present day, we find that then a +great many more Frenchmen came here than Germans; but now a great many +more Germans come here than Frenchmen. The original disparity of numbers +seems to have been redressed by the later immigration, and we are +reduced to that puzzling equilibrium of the happy swain whenever we are +obliged to choose sides in the contest between these nations:-- + + "How happy could I be with either, + Were t'other dear charmer away." + +[Laughter.] + +The French are a great people in their conduct toward us in this +respect, that the aid and sympathy and alliance has been all in our +favor; they have done everything for us, and have been strong enough not +to need anything from us. [Applause.] The fault of the French, changing +a little Mr. Canning's memorable lines:-- + + "The fault of the French, unlike the Dutch, + Is asking too little, and giving too much." + +[Laughter and applause.] + +Now, this treaty commences with the very sensible statement that the two +nations being desirous of placing their commerce and correspondence upon +permanent and equitable grounds, His Most Christian Majesty and the +United States of America had thought, to that end, it was best to place +these relations upon perfect equality and reciprocity, without any of +those burdensome preferences which are the source of debate and +misunderstanding and of discontent between nations. In this spirit it +is, no doubt, that we have each pursued toward each other, in commerce, +that most equitable and equal system, by prohibitory duties, of keeping +all of each other's products out of the other that we can. [Laughter.] +Well, the Frenchmen knew, after all, that the Americans can never get +along without their wines, and without their silks, and without their +jewels, and without their art, and without their science, and without +the numberless elegancies which make life even in our backwoods +tolerable. And we know that they cannot very well dispense with our +wheat and corn and the oil from the earth and the cotton to weave into +those delicate tissues with which they clothe the world. [Applause.] So +that, after all, these superficial barriers of customs duties do not +really obstruct our commerce; and even if they have too much of our +pork, as would seem to be the notion at present, we have no desire to +dispense with their wines. [Laughter.] + +But there are some other interchanges between nations besides those of +commerce in the raw material or in the products of industry. If we could +make more of a moral interchange with the French; if we could take some +of the moral sunlight which shines upon that great nation; if we could +be more cheerful, more gay, more debonair, and if they could take from +us some of the superfluous ice which we produce morally as well as +naturally, and some of that cold resistance against the inflammation of +enthusiasm which sometimes raises a conflagration among their citizens +at home, we have no tariff on either side that would interfere in the +blending and intercommunication of the moral resources of both nations, +that shall make us more and more one people, in laws, liberties and +national glory, and in all the passions that guide and animate the +conduct of nations. [Applause.] + +I am happy to announce myself to you, gentlemen, what I am vain enough +to suppose you would not suspect, that I am a contemporary of Lafayette. +As a Boston schoolboy, I stood in the ranks at Boston when Lafayette in +1825 passed with a splendid cortege along the malls of Boston Common. I +had the pleasure, as a descendant of one of his Revolutionary friends, +to be presented to him personally, and to hear him say that he well +remembered his old friend, my grandfather. [Cheers.] This pleasing +courtesy, it may be said, was all French politeness; but I can say to +these Frenchmen that whether they believe one another at home or not, we +always believe them in this country. [Applause.] + +And now your toast desires that this friendship, thus beginning and +continued, shall be perpetual. Who is to stop it? No power but ourselves +and yourselves, sir (turning to the French Minister), can interrupt it. +What motive have you--what motive have we--what sentiment, but that on +either side would be dishonor to the two nations--can ever breathe a +breath to spoil its splendor and its purity? [Applause.] And, sir, your +munificence and your affection is again to be impressed upon the +American people in that noble present you are designing to make to us, +in the great statue of "Liberty enlightening the World," an unexampled +munificence from the private citizens of one nation to the people of +another. We are to furnish the island for its site and the pedestal to +place the statue on. This our people will do with an enthusiasm equal to +your own. But, after all, the obligation will be wholly ours, for it is +to be a lighthouse in our great harbor, a splendid monument to add new +beauty to the glorious Bay of New York. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO HERBERT SPENCER + +[Speech of William M. Evarts at a dinner given to Herbert Spencer, New + York City, November 9, 1882, the day before his return to England. Mr. + Evarts presided, and delivered this speech, in introducing Mr. Spencer + to the company.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--We are here to-night, to show the feeling of +Americans toward our distinguished guest. As no room and no city can +hold all his friends and admirers, it was necessary that a company +should be made up by some method out of the mass, and what so good a +method as that of natural selection [laughter] and the inclusion, within +these walls, of the ladies? It is a little hard upon the rational +instincts and experience of man that we should take up the abstruse +subjects of philosophy and of evolution, of all the great topics that +make up Mr. Spencer's contribution to the learning and the wisdom of his +time, at this end of the dinner. + +The most ancient nations, even in their primitive condition, saw the +folly of this, and when one wished either to be inspired with the +thoughts of others or to be himself a diviner of the thoughts of others, +fasting was necessary, and a people from whom I think a great many +things might be learned for the good of the people of the present time +have a maxim that will commend itself to your common-sense. They say the +continually stuffed body cannot see secret things. [Laughter.] Now, from +my personal knowledge of the men I see at these tables, they are owners +of continually stuffed bodies. [Laughter.] I have addressed them at +public dinners, on all topics and for all purposes, and whatever +sympathy they may have shown with the divers occasions which brought +them together, they come up to this notion of continually stuffed +bodies. In primitive times they had a custom which we only under the +system of differentiation practise now at this dinner. When men wished +to possess themselves of the learning, the wisdom, the philosophy, the +courage, the great traits of any person, they immediately proceeded to +eat him up as soon as he was dead. [Laughter.] Having only this +diversity in that early time, that he should be either roasted or boiled +according as he was fat or thin. [Laughter.] Now, out of that narrow +compass, see how by the process of differentiation and of multiplication +of effects we have come to a dinner of a dozen courses and wines of as +many varieties; and that simple process of appropriating the virtue and +the wisdom of the great man that was brought before the feast is now +diversified into an analysis of all the men here under the cunning +management of many speakers. No doubt, preserving as we do the identity +of all these institutions, it is often considered a great art, or at +least a great delight, to roast our friends and put in hot water those +against whom we have a grudge. [Laughter.] + +Now, Mr. Spencer, we are glad to meet you here. [Applause.] We are glad +to see you and we are glad to have you see us. [Laughter.] We are glad +to see you, for we recognize in the breadth of your knowledge, such +knowledge as is useful to your race, a greater comprehension than any +living man has presented to our generation. [Applause.] We are glad to +see you, because in our judgment you have brought to the analysis and +distribution of this vast knowledge a more penetrating intelligence and +a more thorough insight than any living man has brought even to the +minor topics of his special knowledge. [Applause.] In theology, in +psychology, in natural science, in the knowledge of individual man and +his exposition, and in the knowledge of the world, in the proper sense +of society, which makes up the world, the world worth knowing, the world +worth speaking of, the world worth planning for, the world worth working +for, we acknowledge your labors as surpassing those of any of our kind. +[Applause.] You seem to us to carry away and maintain in the future the +same measure of fame among others that we are told was given in the +Middle Ages to Albertus Magnus, the most learned man of those times, +whose comprehension of theology, of psychology, of natural history, of +politics, of history and of learning comprehended more than any man +since the classic time certainly; and yet it was found of him that his +knowledge was rather an accumulation, and that he had added no new +processes and no new wealth to the learning which he had achieved. + +Now, I have said that we are glad to have you see us. You have already +treated us to a very unique piece of work in this reception, and we are +expecting perhaps that the world may be instructed after you are safely +on the other side of the Atlantic in a more intimate and thorough manner +concerning our merits and our few faults. [Applause and laughter.] This +faculty of laying on a dissecting board an entire nation or an entire +age and finding out all the arteries and veins and pulsations of their +life is an extension beyond any that our own medical schools afford. You +give us that knowledge of man which is practical and useful, and +whatever the claims or the debates may be about your system of the +system of those who agree with you, and however it may be compared with +other competing systems that have preceded it, we must all agree that +it is practical, that it is benevolent, that it is serious, and that it +is reverent; that it aims at the highest results in virtue; that it +treats evil, not as eternal, but as evanescent, and that it expects to +arrive at what is sought through the aid of the millennium--that +condition of affairs in which there is the highest morality and the +greatest happiness. [Applause.] And if we can come to that by these +processes and these instructions it matters little to the race whether +it be called scientific morality and mathematical freedom or by another +less pretentious name. [Applause.] You will please fill your glasses +while we propose the health of our guest, Herbert Spencer. [Continued +applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE CLASSICS IN EDUCATION + +[Speech of William M. Evarts at the Thanksgiving Jubilee of the Yale + Alumni, New York City, December 7, 1883. Chauncey M. Depew presided. + Mr. Evarts responded for the Alumni.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ALUMNI:--I congratulate you, +Mr. President, on having such a noble, such a generous, such a patient, +such an appreciative body to preside over. I congratulate you, +gentlemen, on having a President who combines in himself in a marked +degree these two great traits of a presiding officer:--confidence in +himself [great laughter], and distrust of all who are to come after him. +[Laughter.] I remember forty years ago to have heard a Senator of the +United States, making a stump speech in a quiet town in Vermont, amuse +his audience with a story of a woodsawyer who had worked for him and who +had the habit of accompanying the movement of his saw with talking to +himself. He asked him one day why he did so. "Why," said he, "for two +reasons. The first is, that it is a great pleasure to hear a sensible +man talk, and the second is that it is a great pleasure to talk to a +sensible man." [Laughter.] + +Now, sir, I have but one warning to give you. It is said of Mercutio, +the wittiest creation of Shakespeare, who is despatched very early in +the play, "My sore wound hath served its turn, although it were not as +deep as a well nor as wide as a church door." It is said that if +Shakespeare hadn't killed Mercutio early, Mercutio would have killed +him. If you [turning to the President] are to preside year after year or +to attempt it upon so high and brilliant and bold a key as you have +assumed here to-night, if you don't kill the Alumni dinners, the Alumni +dinners will kill you. [Great laughter.] Yale College, as represented by +its graduates, is not self-conceited nor obtrusive. It is true they have +always felt the magnificent compliment paid to the College by that +greatest of English thinkers and philosophers Lord Bacon, who said in a +famous passage, as you will recall: "Eating makes a full man, drinking a +ready man, but to be an Alumnus of Yale, a wise man." Yet we are modest +and even reverent toward the claims of other universities. We are +satisfied at the humble position which the French bishop took towards +that great berry, the strawberry. "Doubtless," said he, "God Almighty +might have made a better berry than the strawberry, but doubtless He has +not." [Laughter.] That is our opinion of Yale College. [Applause.] + +Now, to be an Alumnus of Yale College, is the object of all those who +enter the college and the object after getting there is to get out. +Sometimes indeed, the four years are spent without that fortunate +result. I remember to have heard of the son of a somewhat conspicuous +gentleman who had desired to give his children the benefit of an +education such as Yale affords, who had spent four years there; but the +entire four years were spent as a member of the Freshman class. +[Laughter.] What a fortunate condition to be continually towering over +more and more of those who are competing with him in scholarship and for +distinction! I know of none greater unless some mode might be +discovered by which one could be a Senior for four years. There is +nothing in human affairs that could equal that happiness! [Laughter.] +Well, college life in my generation--and I certainly had a singular +reminder to-night from you, Mr. President, that I belonged to a +generation that has passed out of memory, for you have excited the +enthusiasm of this company only in the applause that you have drawn +from those who were graduated under Presidents Woolsey and Porter. What +are you to say for us who graduated under President Day? College life, I +was about to say, is a charming life. The best men, we may presume, are +collected from the community, placed under the happiest relations one to +another and under the happiest influences from above and around them. + +The President of the college has spoken to you of the pleasing fact that +there is an endowment of seventy thousand dollars for fellowships. Well, +when I was in college, a very moderate endowment of five dollars +contributed by those who were associated as companions was a very good +endowment for good fellowship. [Laughter.] And now in looking at life as +it is, as we remember it in college and have seen it since, who is there +that would compare mere fellowship with good-fellowship? What is there +that is heartier, what sincerer, what more generous and what more just +than the relations of young men of a liberal spirit toward one another +in college? How many of us as we have gone on in life, prosperous, as we +may have been, with nothing to complain of as to our success or our +situation--how many of us have been disposed to repeat that lament of +AEneas where he was continually baffled in holding closer conversation +with his goddess-mother who was always carried off in a nimbus or her +accents lost in the whisper of the wind:-- + + "cur dextrae jungere dextram + Non datur, ac veras audire et reddere voces?" + +Maybe in the good-fellowship of after-life, you, Mr. President, will not +hesitate to walk down Broadway with your arm over General Jackson's +shoulder and his about your waist, and then all the people shall cry +with applause: "See how Yale men love one another!" + +You will observe, from this little classic allusion that I am on the +side of those who favor in the curriculum the maintenance of the learned +languages. For myself, whether an education in the classic languages and +in the classic literature should or should not be discarded from the +education of the noble youth of the country is the question whether it +is worth while in the advancing and strenuous life of modern times that +men should have a liberal education. For be sure that there is no trait +in that education that entitles it to the name of liberal more sure and +more valuable than this education in the literature, in the history, in +the language of the great men of the ages past. If any boy is put +through what is called a liberal education, and finds when he goes out +from it, that he is not on a level with those who understand and cherish +the Greek language and literature, he will find that he is mistaken in +wishing to dispense with that distinguishing trait. + +I am able to give you a very interesting anecdote, as it seems to me, of +this very point, of how a great man, great in his power, great in his +fame, yet of an ingenuous and simple nature, may look at this +accomplishment. On my return from Europe, when I first visited it, upon +a public errand, while President Lincoln was at the height of his fame +from the assured although not completed success and triumph in the war, +and from the great transaction that had made him one of the famous men +for all ages--the emancipation of the slaves--I had occasion, in a +friendly meeting with him, to express a hope that he would find it in +his power after the cares of State were laid aside to visit Europe and +see the statesmen and great men there whose mouths were full of plaudits +for his assured accomplished fame. Said he: "You are very kind in +thinking I should meet with a reception so gratifying as you have +proposed, and I certainly should enjoy as much as any one the +acquisition and the observation that such a visit would give; but," +added he, "as you know very well my early education was of the +narrowest, and in the society in which I should move I should be +constantly exposed in conversation to have a scrap of Greek or Latin +spoken that I should know nothing about." Certainly that was a very +peculiar statement to be made by this wonderful man, but it struck me at +the moment that his clear mind, his self-poised nature, recognized the +fact that his greatness and his fame did not lie in the direction of an +association with what he regarded as the accomplished men of society and +of public life brought. + +I believe, therefore, that we will stand by the college while it stands +by the Greek and the Latin, and certainly as representatives of the +great mass of graduates we can now talk more of Greek and Latin as a +common accomplishment than the greatest genius and orators of ancient +times, Demosthenes or Cicero, could of English. [Laughter.] + +There are many things, gentlemen, that if I were the President of this +association or the President of the University, I should say and expect +to be listened to, while saying it. But I confess that I have pretty +much exhausted, as I perceive, your patience and my own capacity. I am +now living for the reputation of making short speeches, and I am only +afraid that my life will not be long enough to succeed. But I promise +you that if I get a good forum and a good audience like this I will run +a short speech even if I run it into the mud. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD + +[Speech of William M. Evarts 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 Bartholdi + statue. Charles Stewart Smith, vice-President of the Chamber, presided + at the dinner and introduced the speaker as follows: "Gentlemen, fill + your glasses for the seventh regular toast: 'Liberty Enlightening the + World, a great truth beautifully and majestically expressed by the + unique gift which our guests of to-night have brought safely to our + shores.' The gentleman who will respond to this toast needs no + introduction--Senator William M. Evarts."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I may be permitted at the outset, +to speak a little about the share that we have taken on this side of the +water in this great achievement which in its glorious consummation, now +receives the applause of the world. + +When this great conception of friendship for America, joy at our +triumph, and their own undaunted love of liberty, liberty for France, +liberty for the United States, liberty for the world, arose, then the +French people were set aflame with a desire to bring, as it were, their +gifts of frankincense and myrrh to lay on this altar of liberty, that +its censer might never die out, but forever perfume and ennoble the air +of the world. [Applause.] + +The genius of Art, the patriotism of France, the enthusiasm of its +people, accomplished by contributions drawn from more than one hundred +thousand, perhaps two hundred thousand givers, made up this statue, not +equalled in the history of the world, and not conceived in its genius or +its courage before. [Applause.] + +Then it was for us to say whether we would furnish the pedestal upon +which this great gift and emblem of Liberty should find its secure and +permanent home; without the aid of the Government and by the movement of +our own people in this city, an organization wholly voluntary, and +without pretension or assumption had the faith that the American people +would furnish a home fit for the statue of Liberty, however magnificent +should be the reception, that would comport with its own splendor. +[Cheers.] + +This organization undertook actively its work in 1882, before the statue +was completed, and while it remained somewhat uncertain to many who +doubted whether the great statue would really be brought to its +anticipated prosperity and success. But we went on, and now, within +three years, this work, both of receiving and collecting subscriptions +and of raising the pedestal itself, will have been completed, and I do +not hesitate to say, in the face of all critics and all doubters, that a +work of so great magnitude, either in its magnificence, or in its labor, +has never before been completed in so short a time. [Applause.] + +When we were reasonably assured of adequate funds, we commenced the +concrete base on which this pedestal was to rest; and no structure of +that kind, of that magnitude, of that necessity, of that perfection and +permanence has ever been accomplished in the works of masonry before. +[Cheers.] Commencing on the ninth of October, 1883, it was completed on +the seventeenth day of May, 1884--and then commenced the work of the +structure proper, of the pedestal, and it went on, and it went on, and +it went sure, and it went safe, if it went slow, and there it stands. +[Cheers.] + +And now a word or two about the Committee. An eminent lawyer of our city +was once detected and exposed and applauded for being seen standing with +his hands in his own pockets [laughter], and for about three months, if +you had visited the meetings of this Committee of ours, you would have +seen the whole assembly standing with their hands in their own pockets +[applause], and taking the first step forward asking their +fellow-citizens to follow us, and not for us to follow them. [Cheers.] +And so we went on, and on the tenth of this present month, we had +received in hand $241,000, of which $50,000 came from the grand and +popular movement of a great newspaper--"The World" [three cheers for +"The World"]--fifty thousand dollars! and that made up substantially +what we had announced in advance as what would be required to complete +the pedestal. But where did we miscarry even in that calculation? The +exploration showed us that the concrete mass must go deeper in the +ground, and that cost us alone $85,000, about $30,000 more than we had +counted upon before the exploration; and then the $20,000 more that +makes it up to the $300,000 as our need to complete the pedestal (when +we had counted upon $250,000), is made by such delay and such expenses +as made the general outlay for this immense structure, continuing longer +than would have been necessary, had the promptness of contributions kept +pace with the possibility of completion. + +Now, gentlemen, we have been patient and quiet. Nearly one-fourth of the +contributions of the general citizens came from the pockets of the +Committee. Instead of hearing from enterprising Chicago, and ambitious +Boston, they are talking about the slowness and the dulness of New +York's appreciation, of the delays in its contributions. Let the example +of our patriotism and munificence be an example for them to imitate; and +this city of Boston--let their people there reflect that, when they +built Bunker Hill monument, it cost I am informed scarcely $100,000. +They were twenty years in raising it, although the whole country was +canvassed in its aid. [Laughter.] + +Well, gentlemen, so much for that. And how great is this monument! How +noble! How beautiful! How inspiring for the time that looks upon its +completion and for the ages that shall mark it hereafter! If our country +and France, as we hope, may go on in the enlargement and advancement of +a glorious civilization, we may feel sure that if our descendants shall +overtop us in wealth, in strength, in art, and equal us in love of +liberty, they will not say that this was not a worthy triumph for the +age in which we live [applause]; and if, unhappily, malign influences +shall degrade our civilization and our fame, and travellers and +dwellers here shall find their power has waned, and their love of +liberty declined, if they shall have become a poverty-stricken and +debased people, what will they think of this remaining monument of a +past and lost age, but that it was a creation of the gods and that no +men ever lived. [Cheers.] + +Well, these French gentlemen, the Admiral and the Commandant, how shall +we appreciate the beneficence of their visit, the urbanity of their +attentions to us, and the happy and hearty manner in which they have +accepted our hospitality. Why the Admiral--a greater triumph, let me +say, than he could ever have by the power of his navy--has come here and +carried New York by storm, without firing a gun. [Cheers.] And as for +Commandant De Saune, he has done what in the history of the world--of +our modern world, at least--no nation, no ruler has successfully +attempted: he has kept "Liberty enlightening the World" under the +hatches for thirty days. [Applause.] + +It was tried in England, and "Liberty enlightening the World" cut off +the head of the king. Tried again, it drove the dynasty of the Stuarts +forever from that free island. In France, they tried to suppress it, and +it uprooted the ancient monarchy and scattered the forces which were +expected to repress it. The milder form of a limited monarchy, even, +France would not submit to as a repression of liberty, and again twice +over, under an Imperial government, "Liberty enlightening the World" has +broken out from under the hatches. [Cheers.] + +But Commandant De Saune is not only a bold represser of mutiny on board +his vessel, but he is a great and cunning navigator; he did not tell it, +but he planned it, and how narrow the calculation was. He arrived here +on the seventeenth of June, Bunker Hill day [applause], and missed the +eighteenth, the day of Waterloo. [Laughter and applause.]--It is thus +that this French genius teaches us new lessons, and evokes irrepressible +applause. [Cheers.] + +I imagine that a navigator who could thus seize the golden moment, and +miss the disastrous one, might, if he undertook it, discover the North +Pole. [Laughter.] But I am sure he has better work before him in the +world than that. [Applause.] But if he goes on to that destination, oh, +let us contribute some portion of the cargo that he will put under the +hatches! [Laughter.] + +Well, gentlemen, this is a great event, this great triumph of +civilization is indeed laden with many instructions, and many +illustrations. No doubt "Liberty enlightening the World" in modern +history finds its greatest instance in that torch which was lighted +here; but from the enthusiasm and the inexorable logic of French +philosophy on the "equality of man," was furnished we can never say how +much of the zeal and of the courage that enabled our forefathers to +shape the institutions of equality and liberty here [cheers], and all +can mark the reaction upon France, by which our interests, our +prosperity under them encouraged, ennobled and maintained the struggle +for liberty there which overthrew ancient establishments and raised in +their place new. And now both countries, at least, stand on the same +happy combination of liberty regulated by law, and law enlightened by +liberty. [Cheers.] And this great structure, emblem of so much else, +example of so much else, guide to so much else, yet this emblem, this +example, this guide is of the union between the genius and enthusiasm of +liberty, the graceful statue and the massive and compact pedestal of our +own granite by which it is upheld. [Cheers.] + +Liberty can only be supported by solid and sober institutions, founded +upon law as built upon a rock; and the structure solid and sober which +sustains it, if Liberty has fled, is but a shapeless and unsightly mass +that is no longer worthy of respect as a structure, to be torn apart +until it can be better rebuilt as the home of liberty. [Prolonged +applause.] + + + + +THOMAS C. EWING + + +OHIO AND THE NORTH-WEST + +[Speech of Thomas C. Ewing at the first annual banquet of the New York + Southern Society, February 22, 1887. Algernon S. Sullivan, the + President of the Society, was in the chair, and announced that General + Ewing would respond to the toast "Ohio and the Northwest." General + Ewing was greeted with applause and cheers for Ohio.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Ohio and her four sisters of the +Northwest are always proud and happy to be reminded of the fact of their +kinship to Virginia. It was the valor and the intrepidity of the Old +Dominion which, long before the Confederation was formed, wrested that +great territory from the Frenchmen and the savages. It was her lofty +generosity which gave to the poor young Republic that vast territory out +of which has been formed five of our greatest States, and in which dwell +millions of our people. It was her humane and unselfish statesmanship +which annexed to the gift the condition that neither slavery nor +involuntary servitude, excepting punishment for crime, should ever exist +in that magnificent domain. Thousands of our Revolutionary heroes sleep +in Ohio in land given to them as a recognition of their own priceless +services, and the beautiful district between the Scioto and the Little +Miami is filled with their descendants. Therefore, Mr. President, +whenever Virginia sits at the head of the table, Ohio claims a seat as +one of the family. + +I, too, coming from that great State, and proud of it and its condition, +may join in congratulating you, gentlemen, on the establishment of this +"Southern Society of New York." After the long season of strife and +discontent this is one of the many signs which mark the vernal equinox, +and foretell the coming summer. I believe, notwithstanding the infinite +disasters of the war, the overthrow of slavery, and with it all the +industrial system of the South, and the needless loss and the +humiliations of reconstruction--I believe that there is to-day a kinder +and more cordial fraternity between the North and South than ever +existed since the agitation of the slavery question sixty or seventy +years ago. This society formed, and meeting here in this great centre of +American political and business life, can do much to promote that peace. +We need more social intercourse between the Northern and Southern men, +and we need, above all, a clearer and manlier understanding of each +other, in order that the recollections of the war may cease to check the +growing accord between us. + +Gentlemen, the North craves a living and lasting peace with the South; +it asks no humiliating conditions; it recognizes the fact that the +proximate cause of the war was the constitutional question of the right +of secession--a question which, until it was settled by the war, had +neither a right nor wrong side to it. Our forefathers, in framing the +Constitution purposely left the question unsettled; to have settled it +distinctly in the Constitution would have been to prevent the formation +of the union of the Thirteen States. They, therefore, committed that +question to the future and the war came on and settled it forever. Now, +the Northern people are not so mean, fanatical or foolish as to blame +the South because it believed then and believes now that it had the +right side of that question. How could we respect the South if it were +to say now that it was insincere then, or if it were to pretend that its +convictions on a question of constitutional construction had been +changed by the cuffs and blows of the war? It is enough that the North +and South alike agree that the war settled that question in favor of the +Northern construction finally and forever. + +The North does ask that the settlement of the war as embodied in the +constitutional amendments shall be accepted, and obeyed in the letter +and spirit, as good faith and good citizenship require. There have been +undoubtedly very many instances of violation of the spirit of the +amendments and there will be in the future, but no more than from the +very nature of things was to have been expected; and I have no doubt +that they will decrease in number as time goes on, and will finally +disappear in the breaking-up of the color line in the South; and under +the influence of that great sentiment become more familiar and more +general every year, in favor of equal political rights to every American +citizen. Aside from these questions, there is nothing to perpetuate +alienation between the North and South. The new questions will lead to +new divisions on other lines; already the representatives of Alabama are +getting ready to stand with Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in support +of the tariff on the iron industry; the spinners of the Dan and the Saco +will stand very soon with the spinners of the Willimantic and the +Merrimac in supporting the cotton interests, and now we see the +cotton-growers of the South and the wheat-growers of the Northwest +united in demanding a tariff for revenue only. + +Common political interests, the ministry of social and political +intercourse, and perhaps higher than all, the pride of a common +citizenship are rapidly supplanting sectionalism among our own people +and leading us to stand together and work out our common destiny in +fraternal reunion. It has often occurred to me, as a cause of +thankfulness to Almighty God--and I believe He is guiding this Republic +so as to work out the problem of self-government for all mankind--that +the tremendous fact of the war has caused so little change in our system +of government; constitutional amendments have been so limited by +interpretation by the Supreme Court of the United States that they have +hardly added anything to the powers of the general Government or +impaired the powers of the States. The legislation following the war +when Congress seemed to have run mad with the theory that it could +legislate outside of the Constitution has to a large extent fallen under +the decisions of that high tribunal. One would have supposed that it +could have been certain that, considering the fact that the war was +waged to extend the extremest proposition of State sovereignty, that the +triumph of the Federal theory would have added enormously and +permanently to the powers of the general Government and diminished very +greatly and permanently the powers of the States. It is well for +Republican government that that evil was averted. We have our free State +Government, States still stand as the fortresses of American liberty, +and our Federal government moves in its orb with scarcely a perturbation +to mark the influence of the war upon it. + +Gentlemen, we have successfully worked out the problem of +self-government, and our example will undoubtedly and in due time be +followed by the world. What else is there for this Republic to do? There +is a tremendous question yet unsolved which is now rising unbidden in +this and in every enlightened nation. It is the question of the proper +distribution of the earnings of labor and capital combined. This is a +question that will not down, and we have got to meet it. British +publicists and statesmen from whom we have taken in the past far too +much of our politics have either ignored that question entirely, or have +treated it as practically settled by the apothegm of Ricardo, that the +laborer is entitled out of his earnings to just enough food and clothing +to keep the machine of his body in working order, and that when that +machine becomes disarranged or worn out, he must go to the almshouse. + +In the United States, so far as the question does not lie outside of the +powers of the State or general Government, so far as those powers can be +used fairly to adjust the question, methods of adjustment will fall +within the lines relating to revenue, currency, corporations, police +regulations. The settlement of the intricate problem and of that +immensely important one, will not be added to by flagrant assaults on +public authority, nor by the interference by bodies or individuals with +the free right of every single workingman to work for whatever he +pleases and for whomever he pleases and as many hours as he pleases; nor +by the confiscation of real or personal property. And on the other hand +that question will not be solved nor aided in its solution by police +interference with the right of free assembly and discussion, nor by +police interference with the right to form organizations open or secret, +nor by police interference with the right of laboring men to combine for +their own benefit if they keep within the limits of the law. On the +other hand, I dissent _in toto_ from some of the sentiments expressed in +the letter of Mr. Hewitt. [Abram S. Hewitt, Mayor of the City of New +York.] This question will only be settled by the people at the +ballot-box and by the enactment of such laws as will fairly distribute +the net earnings which labor and capital combine to make. + +Gentlemen, let us who have borne the heat and burden of the Civil War, +commit it and its issues to the past, and join the incoming generation +in settling this great industrial question in such a way as will be just +to all, and best for the masses of the people. The South has always +produced great statesmen. It was her peerless and immortal son whose +love of the people and whose faith in their power of self-government did +most to establish and animate our free institutions. And again let the +New South send forth other statesmen armed with the power and animated +with the spirit of Jefferson, [Applause.] + + + + +FREDERIC WILLIAM FARRAR + + +POET AND PAINTER + +[Speech of Frederic W. Farrar, D.D., at the banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 3, 1884. He was at that time Canon and Archdeacon + of Westminster, and in 1895 became Dean of Canterbury. The President, + Sir Frederic Leighton, in introducing the speaker said: "In literature + as in science a different side of our subject is each year brought + into prominence according to the guest who does us the honor to + respond to it. To-night I have the pleasure to call on an accomplished + and eloquent divine, a writer whose sentences are pictures and his + language rich with color and who is known to you not only by his books + on the most sacred subjects, but also by the valuable chapters which + he has contributed to the study of language, the venerable Archdeacon + Farrar."] + + +MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I have no pretension to be regarded as +an adequate representative of English Literature, but the toast itself +is one which could never be omitted at any banquet of the Royal Academy. +The artist and the man of letters, though they differ in their gifts and +in their methods, are essentially united in feeling and in purpose. They +appeal to the same emotions; they enforce the same lessons; they +illustrate the same truths; they labor for the same objects. The common +aim of both is the emancipation and free development of our spiritual +nature. The humblest artist as he reads the great works written by men +of genius in all ages,--the humblest man of letters as year after year +he has the delight of gazing on these splendidly illuminated walls--may +claim that he belongs to one and the same great brotherhood--the +brotherhood of those who have consistently labored to cheer, to bless +and to elevate mankind. Turner called himself the "author" not the +artist of his pictures; and indeed, writing and painting are but +different forms of that one eternal language of which not even Babel +could confound the significance. There is hardly a single work in this +Exhibition which does not illustrate the close connection between +literature and art. + +Landscape painting has always been the chief glory of our English +school, and what are the great poets of all ages but landscape painters, +and what are the best landscape painters but poets? Alike they reproduce +for us aspects of nature translated into human thoughts and tinged with +human emotion. When Homer shows us bees swarming out of the hollow rock +and hanging in grapelike clusters on the blossoms of spring; when +AEschylus flashes upon us the unnumbered laughter of the sea-waves; when +Virgil in a single line paints for us the silvery Galaesus flowing now +under dark boughs, and now through golden fields; when Dante bids us +gaze on a sky which is of the sweet color of the Eastern sapphire; when +Wordsworth points us to the daffodils tossing in the winds of March +beside the dancing waves of the lake; when Tennyson shows us "the gummy +chestnut buds that glisten in the April blue;" when even in prose Mr. +Ruskin produces scenes and sunsets as gorgeous as those of his own +Turner--what are they but landscape painters. + +Again, how many memorable scenes of history are inseparable in our minds +alike, and almost equally, from the descriptions of the writer or the +conceptions of the artist? Shall we ever think of the execution of Mary +Queen of Scots without recalling Mr. Froude's description of her, as she +stood, a blood-red figure on the black-robed scaffold? Shall we ever +think of Monmouth pleading for his life with James II, without +remembering the picture which hung last year upon these walls? Is there +no affinity between novelist and our many painters of ordinary scenes, +with their kindred endeavor to shed light and beauty on the hopes and +fears, the duties and sorrows of human life? Nay, even if the preacher +and the divine may claim any part in the domain of letters, they, too, +look to the artist for the aid and inspiration which, in their turn, +they lend to him. Which of us can ever read the words, "These are the +wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends," or, +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock," without being helped to realize +their meaning by the pathetic allegories of Mr. Millais and Mr. Holman +Hunt? And if, sir, you will pardon the allusion, the verse, "Oh! had I +the wings of a dove," is in my own mind henceforth inseparably +associated, not only with the melody of Mendelssohn, in which we seem to +see the dove hovering, as it were, in a cloud of golden music, but also +with the picture I saw many years ago in this room, of a weary king +sitting on his palace roof, his hair sable silvered, and his crown laid +humbly upon the parapet beside him, whose eyes wistfully follow the +flight of a flock of doves towards the twilight sky. + +I am sure that I echo the sentiment of every painter, and of every +author here when I say we are brothers in the effort to make the happy +happier, and the sad less miserable, and in the poet's words, "to teach +the young and the gracious of every age to see, to think, to feel, and +therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous." + + "High is our calling, friends! creative art, + (Whether the instruments of words she use + Or pencil pregnant with ethereal hues,) + Demands the service of a mind and heart + Though sensitive, yet in their weakest part + Heroically fashioned--to infuse + Faith in the whispers of the lonely muse, + While the whole world seems adverse to desert + Great is the glory, for the strife was hard." + +[Cheers.] + + + + +JOHN R. FELLOWS + + +NORTH AND SOUTH + +[Speech of Col. John R. Fellows at the third annual banquet of the New + York Southern Society, New York City, February 22, 1889. Col. John C. + Calhoun, President of the Society, said, in introducing him. "Now, + gentlemen, the next toast is: 'The Day We Celebrate.' I have been an + Arkansas traveller. We have here with us to-night as our guest another + who has also been an Arkansas traveller, but he has come on to this + great metropolis and located here, and to-day voices the sentiment of + a vast portion of our population. We now propose to hear from the Hon. + John R. Fellows."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SOUTHERN SOCIETY, AND THEIR +GUESTS:--I have just come from a banquet board, the twenty-second +of February gathering of a society over which for some time past I have +had the honor of presiding, and which, therefore, commanded my first +allegiance to-night. It is not often that I am accustomed to appear in +the attitude of an apologist when called upon to respond to a sentiment +such as you have assigned to me to-night, for it would be but the +affectation of modesty to say that I have been unaccustomed to positions +of this kind; yet I do feel something of reluctance in your presence +to-night, at the first banquet of your society which I have done myself +the honor of attending. I do feel some hesitation in attempting to +respond to a toast which includes so much, and is so large in its scope +as the one your partiality has given to me. It is altogether unexpected, +for I had announced to your committee that my presence here would be of +exceedingly limited duration, as I am compelled to leave your midst to +visit another gathering, where I have other duties to perform to-night. + +Yet I shall not hesitate to say something in response to the toast. He +must be very far less than imbued with sentiments of love for his +country and of a just conception of its greatness, who can fail to have +something of that sentiment awakened upon an occasion like this, or in +the presence of such a toast as you have given me. + +I congratulate you, Mr. President, upon the auspicious character of this +gathering. The youngest of all the societies which have now arisen to +prominence in our midst, you give tokens in your infancy of what your +future greatness is to be. It is exceedingly gratifying to hear a +statement of your prosperity which insures for you so much of the +future, confers so much of hope and promise upon your society as that to +which we have listened to-night. + +Especially is it gratifying to know of your financial condition; "the +society owes nothing." In that respect the society differs radically +from each of its individual members. [Laughter.] It is a Southern +characteristic to owe all you can, to pay if you possibly can. There is +a sentiment of honor about the Southerner that induces him to pay if he +possibly can; but there is a sentiment of chivalry which always actuates +him to contract debts without any reference whatever. [Laughter.] Having +started your society on a basis so different from that which +characterizes the units of the society is an evidence of how you have +become permeated and tinctured with Yankee influences. I am glad to hear +of your financial prosperity. It is a good augury, a hopeful sign of the +success which awaits your efforts. + +You have called upon me to respond to the toast of "The Day we +Celebrate." I should rather have listened to what would be said of that +toast from the lips of the eloquent Virginian who so admirably +represents the State that was the birthplace of Washington, whose +personal character and whose family have given so much of additional +lustre and glory to the State. [Applause and cheers for General Lee.] + +I may not venture, gentlemen, upon a review of the character of +Washington, upon all that his life, and services, and influence meant to +the world. The world, in the language of another, knows that history by +heart. An hundred and fifty-seven years ago, I believe, this day, he was +born. He lived almost the full age allotted to man, but he crowded that +narrow life with deeds that would have rendered illustrious and +immortal the history of a thousand years. He gave to the world an +impetus, he impressed upon it a character and force, he gave it a +conception of new power, of solidity of judgment, of strength of +character, of unbending and unyielding integrity, of high devotion to +principle, of just conception of duty, of patriotism and heroic resolve +in the midst of temptation to wander and be subservient, of +self-abnegation, of sacrifices for the benefit of others, such as would +have adorned and rendered immortal--I repeat--the history of the lives +of ten thousand ordinary men. [Applause.] You claim him for Virginia, +but I speak the universal language when I repeat the eloquent expression +of the most eloquent Irishman--"No country can claim, no age appropriate +him; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and +his residence Creation." [Applause.] Well was it that the English +subject could say (though it was the defeat of their armies and the +disgrace of their policy--even they could bless the convulsion in which +he had his origin), "for if the heavens thundered and the earth rocked +yet when the storm had passed how pure was the atmosphere it cleared, +how bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet it revealed to +earth." An hundred years have passed since Washington, crowned with the +honors of the successful chieftain, having led his country through the +turmoil of seven years of blood and strife, in these streets and under +these skies was crowned with the highest civic triumph this Republic can +bestow upon its citizen. + +And to-night we come to inquire less, perhaps, of Washington's history, +of Washington's influence and character--for every child knows +that--than we do of the country of which Washington was so conspicuous a +part. It seems to me, gentlemen, that the great national holiday we +celebrate, the Fourth of July, is the most significant of all holidays +in the history of all the nations of the world. What does it typify, +sirs? What does it signify to us? Your chairman has said that we have +had an hundred years of national history. It is a little less than an +hundred years since we inaugurated our first President. The Fourth of +July does not celebrate the establishment of the independence of the +United States; it marks but the beginning of the strife instead of its +successful close. It was at the outset of the Revolutionary struggle +that the Colonies threw down that gauge which defied all tradition, +which stamped upon all past history, which mocked at ancient dogmas and +hoary traditions, which introduced upon earth an entirely new and +distinctive doctrine! Before that time men had fought for the +realization of noble purposes and high aims; they had fought to win +succor from distressful conditions; they had fought for relief against +oppression; but they had fought for these only as the gaining of a boon +and a privilege from powers that were; and everywhere it was conceded +that there was upon earth a class of men ordained by Providence to rule, +and that the vassal's obedience was the inheritance of the many. And +when men rose up in their might to fight upon the plains of Runnymede, +in earnest contest, for ancient rights, for ancient privileges, it was +after all only asking something of the grace of the sovereign, and no +one denied his absolute power to withhold or to grant it as he would. +But the colonies threw down this defiance to earth--that there was no +heaven-ordained class to govern men; that man, by virtue of his +existence, by reason of his creation, was a sovereign in his own right; +and that in these latter days all just rights in government were +derived, not from the will of the ruler, but from the consent of the +governed. [Applause.] + +It was a new doctrine, I repeat, and if it could be successfully +maintained there was no foundation strong enough for a throne to rest +securely upon! And so all the startled nations rose up to oppose it, +this innovation of all that had been in the preceding centuries; but +guided by that star, led on by the resolute courage, the steadfast +integrity of Washington, our fathers went on and on in pursuit of this +doctrine, in quest of this precious boon, on through blood and toil, on +when the struggle seemed like the very madness of despair, on and on +when hope seemed to have fled, but patriotism remained; on over +trembling dynasties and crumbling thrones, until they wrested that jewel +of their love from the reluctant hand of a sullen king, and set it to +glitter forever upon the brow of a new-born nation. [Applause.] +Auspicious day, which an hundred years ago proclaimed both civil and +religious liberty to all the populations of the earth! To-day we have +set four other stars in our national heaven. [Applause.] Through all the +years we shall go on adding to the glories of the constellation, each +one with a radiance of its own, each one with an orbit of its own, but +all swinging in delightful harmony in that larger orbit within which we +recognize our common country, our Federal Union. [Applause.] + +What did Washington do for us? Look around you! I cannot but say, as +that monument in St. Paul's says of the architect of that splendid pile, +Sir Christopher Wren. All of him that could die sleeps under the marble, +but above his mouldering ashes there is this inscription: "Here lies the +body of Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's. Reader, would you +see his monument, then look around you." [Applause.] There could be no +higher evidence of the grandeur and greatness, the strength and +character of the man and of his mind, than to point to the works he did. +So we say of Washington. We have had an hundred years of experience in +the form of government that his sword conquered for us, and that his +statesman-like mind fashioned and controlled at the outset. The guidance +he gave us we have never lost; the teachings he inculcated we cherish as +dearly to-day as when they were uttered. Nay! nay! his memory and his +fame grow brighter as the years recede, and as we get away from the +frailties and foibles which attach to the weakness of our common +humanity, even in the person of the strongest. As we get away it is like +moving from some grand mountain peak. As you go away you see its +symmetrical form rise clear in the clouds, with the eternal blue around +the summit, with all its harsh and rugged outlines obliterated by +distance; it is there in its perfect grandeur, in its completeness and +beauty, without any of the weaknesses or foibles which attach to it. + +I think there is no better evidence of the character and influence of +Washington upon the American mind than what has transpired during and +since the war. Look, sir, at the South of which you spoke! She was +largely a lethargic people prior to the war. She lived in luxury; she +was in the midst of a condition which yielded to her abundant support, +and eliminated from her life the necessity of hard labor and earnest +effort. The war came. We were bound around with a cordon we could not +break; we were encircled by fire; we were thrown upon our resources. +What resulted? Ah, sir, at once there leaped into life, with a splendor +and with a giant's strength such as the world, such as ourselves had +never conceived of, the true manhood of the South. Every man became a +laborer, every woman a worker. There was nothing that the necessities of +our life demanded that we did not fashion with our own hands. Deprived +of all support, of all assistance from the outside world, we dug from +our hills, and wrested from our soil, and evoked from resources the +measure and extent of which we had never dreamed before, whatever was +necessary for the support of the loved ones at home and the armies we +maintained in the field. [Applause.] We illustrated a heroism and valor +which is the admiration of the world, which is the highest pride and +admiration of our gallant adversaries. They conquered no ignoble foe; +the field was worthy even of their efforts. And when the war was over, +the terrible strife had ended, while yet the land was filled with +mourning, while every church on every Sunday in this North was crowded +with women wearing the sable garments of woe for sons, for brothers, for +husbands, for the loved of every kind and condition who were sleeping +their last sleep on Southern hillsides--how did the spirit of +Washington, the toleration, the kindness, the generosity, the +magnanimity which in all his life he breathed out toward all exhibit +itself here in the North? They took us by the hand. They lifted us to +our feet again, or assisted in doing so. They gave us the recognition +which one gallant man extends to another whose heroism and courage he +has tested; they wrote the title of American Citizen upon our brows +again, and told us to go on as parts of the Union, with our loves and +hopes bound up in its common destiny. [Applause.] + +The spirit of Washington has never died. The courage of Washington has +never died. This war was a vital necessity--let us recognize it. This +war was an ordination of Providence--let us confess it. There were +issues distracting and dividing this country which no legislation, no +government, and no decrees of courts could settle. At one time or +another they had to be fought to their final conclusion upon the +battle-field. When the contest was ended it eliminated from our national +condition every element of strife, and welded us together in a bond ten +thousandfold stronger and better than we had known before. [Applause.] + +Now, what remains? Ah! so much remains that can never die! There are +Northern soldiers here, there are Southern soldiers here. We stood face +to face through the bitterness of that conflict; we stand heart to heart +now. [Applause.] Whenever this country shall call upon her sons to do +battle against a common foe, when North and South Carolina with +Massachusetts and Vermont, when Georgia and Ohio, when all the South and +all the North march side by side in behalf of Old Glory, then at the +bivouac, then around our council fires, the sons will recall the +valorous deeds their fathers wrought upon either side and under opposing +flags during the civil strife, as the loudest call and the strongest +inspiration to awaken effort in behalf of the rescued and re-united +country. [Applause.] Has it not always been so? If you would awaken a +flame of martial life in the sons of France, appeal to them as those +whose eagles flew in triumph above Wagram, and Austerlitz, and Lodi +Bridge, and bore upon the outstretched wings the glorious destinies of +her favored child of fortune, her thunderbolt of war! If you would +awaken Caledonia to battle, appeal to her sons as descendants of-- + + "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, + Scots whom Bruce has often led," + +and at once, from Loch Lomond, from Ben Nevis, and from the Grampian +Hills, her kilted warriors will troop to death as to a feast, stimulated +by the recollection of the glorious deeds of those from whose loins they +sprang! And hereafter, sir, if eloquence shall want a theme to awaken +her sublimest efforts, or poetry shall seek some shrine at which to +offer its most harmonious numbers, orator and bard will not go back to +the romantic period of Agincourt and Crecy, when Henry V led his armies +to victory, and Douglas poured the vials of his wrath across +Northumbrian plains--no need to go back there--but they will tell of the +deeds of the glorious men who drew their swords at Lee's, or +Johnston's, or Longstreet's bidding, or of those who flamed the demigods +of war where Grant and Sherman and Sheridan led [applause]; of those +whose camp-fires shone out on the dark walls of Blue Ridge, or lit up +with their glow the waters of Gauley and of Shenandoah; of those who +sleep in graves consecrated forevermore, where the starts look down +to-night through shadowy trees in Spottsylvanian woods and Stafford +groves; of the long lines whose musketry rang out their sublime peal in +the early gray of that April morning at Shiloh, whose fierce +battle-shout at Chancellorsville or in the Wilderness mingled with the +farewell sounds that broke on Jackson's and on Sedgwick's ears, sounds +scarcely stilled ere the acclamations of angels woke them to sublimer +greeting. [Applause.] + +We may safely trust the story of the unequalled valor, the peerless +chivalry of those years, on whichever side they fought, to the verdict +which the unprejudiced future will utter. But I know if ever this +country shall ask us again to flock to her standard and to do duty for +her cause, there is no stronger inspiration that can be invoked, there +is no enthusiasm that can be created or awakened that will lead men so +quickly into the ranks of the foe and hold them so steadily in the face +of death as to talk to each other of the deeds their fathers did when +they stood as foes battling for what they thought was right. [Applause.] +Nay! out of our very strife we have grown strong. The magnanimity of the +conquering party has fused and welded us together in one irresistible, +unbreakable party. No internal dissension shall disturb us henceforth; +and the world arrayed in arms against us we do not fear. And all of this +we derive from the teachings, the heroism, the courage, the patience, +the faith, the example of the fathers, at the head of whom stood the +illustrious one in whose behalf we celebrate this day. [Applause and +cheers for Colonel Fellows.] + + + + +DAVID DUDLEY FIELD + + +THE TELEGRAPH + +[Speech of David Dudley Field at the dinner given in honor of Samuel F. + B. Morse, New York City, December 27, 1863.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--In the early days of the electric +telegraph, a proposition was made that it should be called the +Morseograph. I cannot but think that that would have been a distinctive +and appropriate designation; thus, in all future time, when the thing +should be mentioned, recalling the history of its origin. But the name +of the inventor is no secret; and the world will ratify the judgment we +pronounce to-night that, as benefactor and discoverer, his name will be +immortal. + +If we were to measure the future of the telegraph by what it has already +accomplished, we should predict for it an indefinite extension. Less +than twenty years ago, the first line was built in the United States. +Though it extended only from Washington to Baltimore, it was begun in +doubt and completed with difficulty. Thence it stretched itself out +first to Philadelphia and New York, then to other principal cities, and +afterward along the great thoroughfares. On the other side of the sea it +advanced from city to city, and from one market to another. + +At first laid with hesitation underneath the rivers, it was next carried +beneath narrow seas, and at last plunged into the ocean and passed from +continent to continent. Compare its feeble beginning with its +achievement of to-day. Think of the uncertainty with which, after weary +months upon dusty Maryland roads, the last link of that first line was +closed, and then think of the exultation with which great ships in +mid-ocean brought up from the bottom of the sea a cable lost two miles +down, and the problem was forever solved, not only that an +ocean-telegraph cable was possible, but that it could not be so lost as +that it might not be found. + +Standing in the presence of the great inventor, I am constrained to +congratulate him upon the fulness of his triumph as he remembers the +early effort, and contrasts it with the marvels of this night in this +hall. That little instrument, no larger than the clock upon the chamber +mantel, and making as little noise, is yet speaking to both America and +Europe; and what it says will be printed before the dawn, and laid at +morning under the eyes of millions of readers. Did I say before the +dawn? It will meet the dawn in its circuit before it reaches the +confines of eastern Europe. In the opposite quarter, we know that the +message which has just left us for the West will outstrip the day. Even +while I have been speaking, the message has crossed the Mississippi, +passed the workmen laying the farthest rail of the Pacific road, bounded +over the Sierra Nevada, and dashed into the plains of California, as the +last ray of to-day's sun is fading from the shore, and the twilight is +falling upon the Pacific Sea. + +It is, however, not alone its history which justifies us in predicting +for the telegraph indefinite extension. Its essential character must +sooner or later carry it to every part of the habitable globe. Of all +the agencies yet vouchsafed to man, it is the most accessible and the +most potent. While the machinery itself is simple and cheap, the element +from which it is fed is abundant and all-pervading. It is in the heaven +above, in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth. You take +a little cup and pass into it a slender wire, when lo! there comes to it +a spark from air and water, from the cloud and the solid earth, which +the highest mountains cannot stop, nor the deepest seas drown, as it +dashes on its fiery way, indifferent whether its errand be to the next +village or to the antipodes. No other voice can speak to the far and +near at the same time. No other hand can write a message which may be +delivered within the same hour at Quebec and at Moscow. By no other +means may you converse at once with the farmer of Illinois and the +merchant of Amsterdam, with the German on the Danube and the Arab under +his palm. + +To the use of such an instrument there can be no limit but the desire of +man to converse with man. If from this populous and opulent capital you +would speak with any inhabitant of either hemisphere, you have here an +agent which may be brought to do your bidding. If any, however distant, +desire to speak with us, they have these means at their command. How +great will be the effect of all this upon the civilization of the human +race, I do not pretend to foresee. But this I foresee, as all men may, +that the necessities of governments, the thirst for knowledge, and the +restless activity of commerce will make the telegraph girdle the earth +and bind it in a network of electric wire. + +The Atlantic, the most dangerous and difficult of all the seas, has been +crossed. In the Pacific you may pass easily from island to island, till +you reach the shores of Eastern Asia. There an American company will +take it up and extend it from side to side of the central Flowery Land. +And an English company is about to cross the straits which divide +Australia from the elder continent. Indeed, I think that I declare not +only what is possible but what will come to pass within the next decade, +that there will be a telegraph-office wherever there is now a +post-office, and that messages by the telegraph will pass almost as +frequently as messages by the mail. + +Then the different races and nations of men will stand, as it were in +the presence of one another. They will know one another better. They +will act and react upon one another. They may be moved by common +sympathies and swayed by common interests. Thus the electric spark is +the true Promethean fire, which is to kindle human hearts. Then will men +learn that they are brethren, and that it is not less their interest +than their duty to cultivate good-will and peace throughout all the +earth. + + + * * * * * + + +EARLY CONNECTICUT + +[Speech of David Dudley Field at a complimentary dinner given by the + Saturday Night Club to the judges of the Supreme Court, New York City, + April 5, 1890. Clark Bell, President of the Club, said in the course + of his introductory remarks: "It is our grand good fortune to have + with us to-night the Nestor of the American bar, who was born in + Connecticut, and whose useful life has covered nearly all the years of + our present century. His eye has seen much that is far in the past, + and beside that love and affection he bears to his birthplace are the + reminiscences of the men conspicuous in the judicial annals of his + native State, who have been upon the stage of action during the + eventful years of the present century. When we shall have separated, + when this banquet shall be but a memory and a reminiscence, that which + will give us most pleasure, the reminiscence we shall prize among the + highest, will be that of the presence of the Hon. David Dudley Field, + whose illustrious name I will connect with the toast--'Reminiscences + of the Bench and Bar of Connecticut'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--When you did me the honor to invite me to this +banquet, I was quick to accept the invitation, because I expected to +meet the judges of my native State, of which I bear so pleasant a +remembrance. I find, however, representatives from other seats of +justice come to greet the judges of Connecticut. You have here a judge +from the Dominion of Canada, over which shines the mild light of +Arcturus, and on the other side a representative from Texas where glows, +not the Lone Star of other days, but the bright constellation of the +Southern Cross. You have judges from the neighboring State of New +Jersey, from the further State of Pennsylvania, and from Delaware, about +which I may use the language of John Quincy Adams, speaking of Rhode +Island: "She is to be measured, not by the smallness of her stature, but +by the loftiness of her principles." All these eminent judges are here +to join in the salutation to the judges of Connecticut, and to them +therefore our attention is to be chiefly directed. + +I am old enough to remember the judges of Connecticut when they sat +under the authority of the Colonial charter, that charter which was +hidden in the famous oak of Hartford to escape seizure by an emissary of +the King of England. I was present at the trial in Haddam, my native +town, of a man for murder. Trumbull was the judge, that Trumbull who +wrote "McFingal," and who, being elected for a single year, as was +then the rule, was re-elected as long as he lived. He was neatly +dressed, wearing ruffles in the bosom, and at the wrists, and was in +trim knee-breeches. + +I remember this incident of the trial. The crowd was so great that the +court was adjourned from the court house to the church, then called the +meeting-house. The jurors sat in the square pews. One of the jurors, a +respectable farmer of the neighborhood, thinking that he had detected +some mistake of the counsel rose to correct him, when the counsel +retorted that the juror was the one mistaken, and added: "Let him that +thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." The prisoner was convicted +and was hanged at Middletown. I went up to see the execution, and when I +reached the place trained bands were marching through the streets, +playing their music as if for a great festivity. A sermon was preached +to a crowded house, and the prisoner was then taken, dressed in a +shroud, to a hill near by, and in the presence of thousands of +spectators was executed. These scenes were of course impressed strongly +on the memory of a boy. I remember the session of the county court at +Haddam, when the judges, headed by the sheriff, marched in order from +the tavern to the court house. I remember seeing in court David Daggett, +wearing white top boots, and I met Roger Minot Sherman, driving into the +village in a sulky. I remember Staples and Hungerford. The latter went +into court one day with a Bible under his arm, to show from the first +chapter of Genesis, as authority in an insurance case, that the day +began at sunset, "and the evening and the morning were the first day." + +In those days party feeling ran high in Connecticut, between the +Democrats and the Federalists--"Demos" and "Feds," as they were called +for shortness--and contempt as well. Let me recount two anecdotes: The +Rev. Dr. Backus, riding along the highway, stopped at a brook to water +his horse, when another rider came up from the opposite side, and thus +addressed the good man: "Good-morning, Mr. Minister." The latter +replied, "Good-morning, Mr. Democrat. How did you know that I was a +minister?" "By your dress. How did you know that I was a Democrat?" "By +your address." + +At another time Dr. Backus, being prosecuted for a libel upon Mr. +Jefferson, was taken from his home to Hartford to be bailed. The +minister and the marshal rode of course, for that was not the heyday of +vehicles. The minister rode very fast, so fast that the marshal called +out after him: "Dr. Backus, Dr. Backus, you ride as if the devil were +after you." The Doctor turning his head replied, "Just so!" + +Mr. President, Connecticut has been often abused for the frugality and +thrift of its people, and called in derision the Nutmeg State. I +remember hearing that a New Yorker once put into his will an injunction +against any child of his being educated in Connecticut. + +An Episcopal clergyman removing from New York into a Connecticut town +was actually boycotted. The people would not sell him anything to eat, +and I believe he returned for food and shelter to the hither side of +Byram River. I remember such a joke as this current in New York; that +they had a singular habit in Connecticut, when a man cast up his +accounts with his neighbor and gave him a note for the balance, he used +to exclaim: "Thank God, that debt is paid." Some of the people have +singular tastes now and then; as for example there is a hill behind East +Haddam that used to be called "Stagger-all-hill," but inquiring the +other day, I was told its name was now "Mount Parnassus." + +They may say all these things if they please, but Connecticut has no +public debt, or a very small one at most, and her people are +industrious, educated, polite to strangers, jealous of their rights and +brave enough to defend them. I remember hearing Mrs. Fanny Kemble say, +some years ago, of the twelve hundred thousand people then inhabiting +Massachusetts, that, taking them all in all, she thought they were the +foremost twelve hundred thousand people living together in the world, +and I can speak in similar terms of the inhabitants of Connecticut, as +really a part of the same people. + +In conclusion, Mr. President, may I without affectation utter these +words of love for my native State, its scenery and its people. Flow on, +gentle river, shine on, rugged and wooded hills, smile on, green meadows +basking in the sun, and you, brave people, who dwell amid these scenes, +prove yourselves ever worthy of your progenitors, and flaunt high as you +will, the old banner with its hopeful and trustful motto--_qui +transtulit sustinet_. + + + + +FRANCIS M. FINCH + + +THE OFFICE OF THE LAW + +[Speech of Francis M. Finch on assuming the chair of the President of + the New York State Bar Association, at their annual dinner, Albany, + N. Y., January 17, 1900. The ex-President, Walter J. Logan, introduced + him in the following words: "Before I introduce to you Judge Finch, I + want to say just one word for myself. The New York State Bar + Association has treated me with distinguished consideration, and I + shall ever regard every member of the Association as my personal + friend, and among the pleasantest experiences of my life, which I am + only just commencing, that the lawyers of the State of New York + thought me worthy of the position which I am now surrendering. Allow + me to introduce to you Judge Finch. [Applause.] I want to introduce to + you, Judge Finch, the most splendid body of men in the American + nation,--the New York State Bar Association. Judge Finch is now + President."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I regard it as a very great honor to be called upon +to preside over the work of this Association for the coming year. I do +not know of any other temptation which would have drawn me away from the +quiet of my ordinary life into an arena so public and so open to +critical observation. It is entirely natural that one who has crossed +the line of threescore and ten should covet a life of rest, or at least +some restful work which makes no heavy demand upon brain and nerves, but +I have received from the Bar of the State of New York, in the years that +have gone by, and which seem to me now almost like a dream, I have +received at their hands so much kindness and courtesy, so much of that +encouragement and generous approval which makes the hardest work a +pleasure and happiness, that it seemed to me almost ungrateful and +ungracious to refuse the duty which was sought to be imposed upon me, +and so I have surrendered, with such grace as I may, and will endeavor, +to the best of my ability, to push forward the work of this Association. +[Applause.] + +Indeed, gentlemen, I confess, as over our cups confessions are sometimes +excusable and in order--I confess that it is something of a comfort not +to be quite forgotten. [Applause.] It is the lot of the average judge--I +don't mean by that these old associates of mine, sitting by me, who are +a long way above the average [applause]--it is the lot of the average +judge to disappear from the public memory very soon after his work is +done. Occasionally there is one who makes his appearance in the flush of +some new and remarkable era, and fastens his name to its beginning. +Occasionally there are others who do some excellent work, not altogether +judicial, and in that manner keep their memories alive; but the most of +us, when our work is done, step down into the mist and the darkness of a +very swift and prompt oblivion. And if you, gentlemen of the Bar, have +chosen for me to draw back the curtains a little, to dissipate somewhat +the mist and the darkness, it is just like you; it is only another of +those kindly deeds which it is pleasant to remember, and for which I am +grateful, and glad to have the opportunity of saying so. [Applause.] + +I wished to confine what I have to say to-night simply to these words of +acknowledgment, but the thought comes to me, and I think I must give it +expression, that there never was a year in the history of this nation +when the work of the intelligent, of the able and of the scholarly +lawyer was more imperatively demanded in the interest of the nation and +of the race, than this year which now opens before us. [Applause.] I +have long been of the conviction that the law never leads civilization, +but always follows in its wake; that its purpose and its object is to +regulate and control the relations of men with each other, and their +relations to the State; but those relations must first come, must first +be established before there is anything for the law to regulate. +Progress goes on; new inventions are made; new relations between men +occur, and it is the office and the purpose of the law to march behind +them, to regulate and order and systematize them, and produce, if need +be, justice out of injustice; and to-day beyond the questions of +taxation, which are an almost insoluble problem, we have already the +beginnings in the metropolis of the State of an underground railway, +likely to open and introduce questions as difficult and as remarkable +as those which attended the elevated railways. We have a mass of +colossal trusts, as they are called, combinations of capital, in an +extraordinary degree, with which some of you have already been +wrestling, and others of you will be called upon to confront or defend. +Beyond that the student of international law is about to be obliged to +look away from home and reconsider his foundations, to reflect anew upon +the conclusions to which he has come in the application of the questions +of what is contraband and what is not in the light of an extending +commerce. Beyond that, again, and what interested me, perhaps, more than +it may you, I saw the other day in one of our leading city journals, a +statement which I have been able to verify, that the German nation on +the first day of January in this year, set in operation a new Prussian +code, which substituted for the civil law and the Latin doctrine the +Teutonic law of Germany. I myself cannot read the German language; but, +if there are some among you, within the sound of my voice, who are +capable of doing that, I set you the task between now and one year from +to-day of studying and examining that new Prussian code, which must be a +marked departure, and giving us the benefit of your knowledge and your +judgment. And, beyond that still, the nation itself stands to-day at the +parting of the ways; stands to-day upon the verge of a new and most +unexpected and remarkable destiny, and, I repeat, that there never was, +I think, there never will be, gentlemen, another year in which the labor +and the study and the thought of the scholarly and intelligent and +learned lawyer could be more needed or more in demand. [Applause.] + +Let me add one word, not quite so serious, and that, with reference to +my friend who has been your President during the past year, and who, for +his patient industry in your behalf, for the manner in which he has +conducted your affairs and looked after your interests, deserves the +thanks of this Association, which, in your name and behalf, I venture to +give him. [Applause.] What I want to say, however, outside of that, is a +little bit in the line of complaint. He has undertaken to take away from +me my surplus over and above ten millions of dollars [laughter], and +give it to the State of New York. He says in justification that he +thinks and believes that it would be for the best, but, with all +deference to his opinion, I venture to say that I would rather trust my +children to spend that surplus than the average legislature. [Laughter.] +More than that, and the suggestion will relieve my friend somewhat, I do +not intend to have any surplus over his ten millions, not if I know it. +When I reach that happy point, and find that my inventory is running +above it, I propose quietly to take that surplus and hand it over, +first, on one side, and then on the other, to my children, and that +beautiful inheritance law of his will have no application to me +whatever. [Laughter.] Nevertheless, while I disagree with him about +those things, and think I see my way out of the difficulty, I pardon all +of it, because he has promised me faithfully on his honor that until the +close of the festivities he would remain your President, and when in the +end he bade you good-night he would do it for me, as well as for +himself, and wish you each and all a happy journey to your homes and a +safe return to these same tables one year from to-day. [Applause.] + + + + +JOHN FOORD + + +THE LAND O' CAKES + +[Speech of John Foord at the 143d annual banquet of the St. Andrew's + Society of the State of New York, December 1, 1899. The speech was + delivered in response to the toast, "The Land O' Cakes."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, MEMBERS AND GUESTS OF THE ST. ANDREW'S +SOCIETY:--I suppose there are some in this company who would find +it hard to tell the difference between a bear bannock and a pease scone. +For the benefit of such, I may be permitted to say that there was no +suggestion of fancy bread about the "cakes" with which the name of +Scotland has been associated. They were very plain bread, indeed, and +quite as destitute of leaven as that which the Children of Israel were +condemned to eat in the wilderness. The only sweetening they had came +from the fact that they were the fruit of honest toil; and hunger, as +you know, is "gude kitchen." Together with the "hale-some parritch, +chief o' Scotia's food," they formed the staff of life of a people whose +tastes were as simple as their ideals were high. "We cultivate +literature on a little oatmeal," was the motto proposed by Sydney Smith +for the "Edinburgh Review"; and, jocular as was the suggestion, it +touches the keynote of Scottish character and history. For, what have we +not done on a little oatmeal? Our fathers fought on it, worked on it, +thought and studied on it, wrote ballads and preached sermons on it, and +created the Scotland, kinship with which we are all so proud to claim, +on a diet chiefly composed of oat cakes and oatmeal porridge. On such +frugal fare, they subdued a harsh and stubborn soil and made it yield +its yearly toll of harvest; they took tribute of wool and mutton from +the moorland and the hillside, and of hide and beef from the fallow +lea; they levied on loch and sea to support their fisher-folk; and kept +the rock and the reel and the flying shuttle busy to clothe themselves +with homespun, so that the old Arbroath toast became a very epitome of +the vocations of that primitive time: "The life o' man, the death o' +fish, the shuttle, and the plough; corn, horn, linen, yarn, lint, and +tarry 'oo." Nay more, defying the rigors of an ungenial climate, they +set themselves, in their dour and stubborn way, to make flowers grow +where Nature never intended such flowers to be; and they became so +cunning in the mystery of Adam's art that the Scottish gardener took the +place of direction wherever men laid out flower-beds or built +greenhouses throughout the civilized world. + +On such simple lines of industry were laid the foundations of the +material greatness of Scotland--its mines, its furnaces, its machine +shops, its shipyards, its flax and jute mills, and all the other forms +of productive energy that have placed this little country and its few +millions of people in the front rank of the mechanical activity of the +world. But is it because of such triumphs as these that the name of +Scotland appeals so powerfully to the heart and the imagination of men? +I think not. Had our race been distinguished only for its care of the +bawbees, for its indomitable perseverance, its capacity to endure +hardship, its adaptiveness, and its enterprise, I trow that the +passionate pilgrim would not turn so eagerly to Scotland to cull the +flowers of poesy and breathe the air of romance. And remember, our +Scottish people are rather what the country has made them, than the +country is what it has been made by them. I heard Governor Roosevelt say +the other evening that the State of New York was merely another name for +the aggregate of the people in it, and I could not help thinking that +there must be in the Dutch blood a certain deficiency of imagination. +Can you imagine a Scotsman, however matter-of-fact and commonplace, +offering such a definition of his native land? The land of brown heath +and shaggy wood, land of the mountain and the flood, the land of our +sires, must be, indeed, part of ourselves; but it is also something +beyond and above ourselves,--the cradle of memories that will fade only +with our latest breath, the home of traditions, whose spell we could +not, if we would, shake off, the seat of beauty and of grandeur that we +somehow think are finer than the fairest or sublimest scenes that earth +can show. We know the feeling that prompted Byron to say:-- + + "When I see some tall rock lift its head to the sky, + Then I think of the hills that o'ershadow Culbean." + +For, to most of us, in all our intercourse with Nature, the Scottish +mind supplies a Scottish background. There is nothing that affects me +quite so powerfully as a fine sunset; but I confess that, from all the +magnificent sunsets that I have seen between the Palisades and the Rocky +Mountains, I have derived no such emotion as I have felt when, +"gathering his glory for a grand repose," the sun set behind the +Grampians; and the peak of Schehallion, like a spearhead, cleft the +evening sky. Why, the Scottish exile thinks that the sun turns a +kindlier face to his native land than it does to countries less favored, +like the one who sang:-- + + "The sun rises bright in France, + And fair sets he; + But he's tint the blythe blink he had + In my ain countrie." + +We are what we are, gentlemen, because the land of our birth is "Bonnie +Scotland," as well as the "Land o' Cakes." Its beauty has entered into +our blood; its majesty and sublimity have given us a certain elevation +of soul. Thus it came about that, beside the homely kailyard virtues of +our forefathers, and their stern uncompromising religious zeal, there +grew up in all their wild beauty such a profusion of the flowers of +song, of poetry, and of romance that you shall hardly find between +Tweed's silver stream and where the ocean billows break in thunder on +Cape Wrath, ten square miles of Scottish ground which have not been +celebrated in ballad, legend, song or story. Whence, think you, came +that affluence of melody with which every strath and glen and carse of +Scotland was vocal--melody that auld wives crooned at their spinning +wheel: lasses lilted at ewe-milking, before the dawn of day; fiddlers +played at weddings and christenings; and pipers sent echoing among the +hills to inspire the march of the warlike living or sound a lament for +the heroic dead? A long line of nameless Scottish minstrels had lived +and died generations before Burns and Ferguson, Tannahill and Lady +Nairne, and all the rest of our sweet singers took the old tunes and +gave them a form and vesture as immortal as their own fame. We are +called a practical, hard-headed people, and so we are; but the most +enduring part of our literature tells of the romantic ideals that +Scotsmen have cherished and the chivalrous deeds they have done. We are +thought to be severely logical; and if allowance be made for our point +of view, we are that also. But the unsympathetic student of Scottish +history will not get very far with his subject by keeping steadily in +mind our practicalness and our logic. If he thinks of these alone, he +will be apt to pronounce those Scotsmen fools who sacrificed two +centuries of progress for the barren, if glorious, privilege of national +independence; he will think they must have been pure fanatics who spilt +their blood that they might have Christ's Kirk and Covenant regulated in +their own peculiar way; and he will hold them as mere feather-brains who +sacrificed their lands and their lives to an obstinate loyalty to the +House of Stuart. Yet it is of such unreason, if unreason it be, that the +warp and the woof of the historic annals of Scotland have been spun: it +is this defiance of what the utilitarian philosopher calls the rules of +common sense, as applied to human conduct, that has given the Scottish +race their unique position among the tribes of men. + +And, even in this age of steam and electricity, they will still cherish +their romance. It was but the other day that there was pointed out to +the Gordon Highlanders in the Transvaal the expediency of exchanging the +garb of old Gaul for a uniform of khaki: the one would be less of a +shining mark for the enemy than the other, and, its adoption would +probably result in saving many lives. You know their decision. I think I +hear them say, "All this may well be true; but we stand by the kilt and +the tartan." That, a critical world may say, is magnificent, but it is +not war. We say, magnificent or not, it is war; for the kilt and the +tartan are inseparable from the sentiment that makes these men the +redoubtable soldiers they are. Take those away, and you break their +touch with a continuous tradition which transforms every man in the +regiment, be he Scottish, English or Irish, into a Gordon, with all the +dash and vim and dare-devil courage that centre around the name. The +Gordon blood in him helped Byron to understand and express the potency +of the Highland tradition:-- + + "But, with the breath that fills + Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers + With the fierce native daring which instills + The stirring memories of a thousand years. + And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears." + +May there never come a time when the mind of our race will be closed +against such a sentiment as that! Let us go on doing our share, +resolutely, faithfully, conscientiously, of the work of the world; let +us keep well to the front with the same success that we have done of +yore; but let us not forget that we owe the unconquerable spirit in us +to our Auld Mither Scotland, that it is from her breast there has been +drawn the celestial ichor which has nourished genius in the cottage as +generously as in the Hall, and that has made the inheritance of the +ploughman's son more precious than a Dukedom. We shall, as your +President has said, be better, and not worse citizens of this great +Republic; we shall play our part all the more worthily, in public or +private station, if every fibre of our being thrills to an auld Scotch +sang, and we feel in our inmost heart that-- + + "Where the caller breezes sweep + Across the mountain's breast, + Where the free in soul are nurst, + Is the land that we lo'e best." + + + +SIMEON FORD + + +ME AND SIR HENRY + +[Speech of Simeon Ford at a banquet given to Sir Henry Irving by the + Lotos Club, New York City, October 29, 1899. The President, Frank R. + Lawrence, occupied the chair.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I cannot but envy you the intellectual treat in +which you are revelling, in being permitted to listen to the resistless +eloquence of both me and Sir Henry Irving. It is not often that two such +stars as me and Sir Henry will consent to twinkle in the same firmament. +But your gifted President can accomplish wonders. He is what Weber and +Fields[3] call a "hypnotister." + +As the President has said, I am not one of the set speakers. I just blew +in here, and blew in my good money to attend this feast, like the rest +of the rank and file, and now I have to work my passage as well. I am +simply put in as a filler. The President, with his awe-inspiring, +chill-producing gavel, is the "wrapper," and I am the filler; and you, +who smoke, have observed ere this that a mighty fine wrapper is often +associated with a very rank filler. + +If I had had about twenty minutes' warning I could have prepared a +eulogy on Sir Henry, setting forth his virtues as a man and an actor in +such a way that he never would have recognized himself, and with such +eloquence that Dr. Greer [David H. Greer] would have looked like thirty +cents. But I did not get the twenty minutes, so poor Sir Henry must +content himself with the few scant bouquets with which he has already +been bombarded. + +A sober, able-bodied eulogizer with a good address and a boiled shirt +can get a pretty steady winter's job in this Club at board wages. I +have, in my poor, weak way, eulogized several distinguished men in this +historic room, all of whom I am happy to say, are now convalescent. I +eulogized Joe Choate and he got a job at the Court of St. James; I +eulogized Horace Porter, and he is now playing one night stands at the +Moulin Rouge; Dr. Depew, and he not only got sent to Washington, but got +a raise of wages at the Grand Central Depot; yet when I saw him the next +day and delicately intimated that I was yearning to view the scenic +beauty of his great four track system, his reception reminded me of the +lines of Longfellow, beginning-- + + "Try not the pass, the old man said + Dark lowers the tempest overhead." + +and so, instead of resting that night on a beautiful Wagner +hair-mattress, I had to be content with "excelsior." + +The only man who really appreciated my efforts was dear old Joe +Jefferson. When I gave him to understand that I was anxious to see him +in one of his matchless characterizations, he inquired if I had a family +that shared my anxiety, and when informed that I had, he generously +tendered all hands a pass to the family circle. The Lord loves a +cheerful giver, but the Lord help any one who strikes Joe for a free +pass. + +I can understand that the life of an actor must be a trying one, and +success difficult to achieve, and it must be a source of great +gratification to Sir Henry to feel that he has done so much to elevate +the stage as well as the price of admission. But he deserves success, +and the last time I gave up three dollars to behold him, and afterwards, +with a lot of enthusiasts, took his horses from his carriage and dragged +him in triumph two miles to his hotel, I really felt that I had had a +run for my money. + +But if, Sir Henry, in gratitude for this beautiful tribute which I have +just paid you, you should feel tempted to reciprocate by taking my +horses from my carriage and dragging me in triumph through the streets, +I beg that you will restrain yourself for two reasons. The first reason +is--I have no horses; the second is--I have no carriage. + + + * * * * * + + +A RUN ON THE BANKER + +[Speech of Simeon Ford at the Annual dinner of the Manhattan Bankers of + the New York State Bankers' Association, February 7, 1900. The + President, Warner Van Norden, presided.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--As I sat here this evening, listening to the +strains of that fine old Bankers' anthem entitled "When you ain't got no +money, why you needn't come around," I was thinking what a grand idea it +was for you magnates to get together once a year to exchange ideas and +settle among yourselves what shall be done, and who shall be done, and +how you will do them. Personally, I'd prefer to exchange cheques rather +than ideas with many here present; not but what the ideas are all right, +but somehow, when money talks I am always a fascinated listener. + +I did not come here voluntarily, but at the pressing invitation of some +of my most pressing creditors on your committee. They said Secretary +Gage would be here, and Mr. J. P. Morgan, and that without my presence +the affair would seem incomplete, but that if we three got together we +could settle various perplexing financial problems right on the spot. +The committee told me to choose my own subject and they would endorse +anything I would say--without recourse. They delicately intimated, +however, that any playful allusions to the City Bank better be left +unsaid; and so I can only remark:-- + + "And I would that my tongue could utter, + The thoughts that arise in me!" + +and let it go at that. + +I must say, however, that Secretary Gage made one serious mistake. If he +had consulted me (which he never did, although he had abundant +opportunity) I would have advised him to put his money in an institution +I know about where it would have received a rousing welcome and where I +could have taken a fall out of it myself. If the price of the +Custom-House had gotten into my hands, and I'd been given twenty-four +hours' start, I believe I could have given the secretary a run for his +money. But, instead, he placed it in a rich, smooth-running, well-oiled +institution where it was used in averting a panic and straightening out +financial tangles, and greasing the wheels of commerce, and similar +foolishness. + +This is the first opportunity I have had of meeting you Bank Presidents +collectively, and when you are thawed out. I have met most of you, +individually, when you were frozen stiff. I never supposed you could +warm up, as you seem to have done, my previous impressions having been +of the "How'd you like to be the iceman" order. Sometimes I have thought +I'd almost rather go without the money than get a congestive chill in a +Bank President's office, and have him gaze into my eyes, and read the +inmost secrets of my soul, and ask unfeeling questions, and pry rudely +into my past, and throw out wild suggestions about getting Mr. Astor to +endorse for me, and other similar atrocities. And even if I succeed in +deceiving him he leads me, crushed, humiliated and feeling like thirty +cents, to a fly cashier, who, taking advantage of my dazed condition, +includes in my three-months' note, not only Christmas and the Fourth of +July, but St. Patrick's Day, Ash Wednesday and sixteen Sundays, so that, +by the time he has deducted the interest, what's coming to me looks like +a Jaeger undershirt after its first interview with an African +_blanchisseuse_. That's the kind of thing the poet had in mind when he +wrote--"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows." + +I have observed that one's reception at a bank varies somewhat with the +condition of the money market. Go in when money is easy and the +President falls on your neck, calls you by your first name, and +cheerfully loans you large sums on your "Balloon Common" and your "Smoke +Preferred," and you go on your way rejoicing. The next day, news having +arrived that a Gordon Highlander has strained a tendon in his leg while +sprinting away from a Dutchman near Ladysmith, or an Irish lady _chef_ +has sent home two pounds sterling to her family, money goes up to one +hundred and eighty per cent. a minute, and you get a note requesting you +to remove your "Balloon Common" and your "Smoke Preferred" and +substitute Government Bonds therefor. And still you wonder at crime. + +But if you really want to know the meaning of the terms "Marble Heart" +and "Icy Eye" go into one of these refrigerating plants for a loan when +money is tight. It is prudent at such times to wear ear-muffs and red +mittens fastened together by tape so they can't be lost, for you will +need 'em. + +As soon as you reach the outer air--which will be in about a second--run +home and plunge the extremities in hot water, and place a porous plaster +on what remains of your self-esteem. + +Bankers are too prone to judge a man by his appearance, so that the very +men who need the money most have the hardest work to get it. They are +apt, especially at the City Bank, to discriminate against the "feller" +who looks rocky, in favor of the Rockafeller. Clothes do not make the +man! If they did, Hetty Green wouldn't be where she is and Russell Sage +would be in the Old Ladies' Home. If Uncle Russell had to travel on his +shape, he never would see much of the world. Yet, beneath that ragged +coat there beats a heart which as a beater can't be beat--a heart as +true (so the Standard Gas people say)--as true as "steal." + +But after all, Banks and Trust Companies do a lot of good in a quiet +way, especially to their directors--in a quiet way. See what a +convenience some of our Trust Companies have been to their directors of +late. It would sometimes be mortifying for these directors to have to +attempt to borrow money on certain securities, in institutions with +which they were not connected, because, instead of getting the money, +they might get six months. + +I had intended to touch upon a few vital questions concerning finance +this evening, but the night is waning and I guess you've all been +"touched" sufficiently of late, so I will restrain myself, and give some +other orator a chance to get himself disliked. + + + + +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE + + +MEN OF LETTERS + +[Speech of James A. Froude at the banquet of the Royal Academy, London, + April 29, 1876. The President, Sir Francis Grant, in introducing Mr. + Froude, said: "The next toast is 'The Interests of Literature and + Science.' This toast is always so welcome and so highly appreciated + that it needs no exordium from the chair. I cannot associate with the + interests of literature a name more worthy than that of Mr. Froude, + the scholar and distinguished historian."] + + +SIR FRANCIS GRANT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--While I feel most keenly the honor which you confer +upon me in connecting my name with the interests of literature, I am +embarrassed, in responding, by the nature of my subject. What is +literature, and who are men of letters? From one point of view we are +the most unprofitable of mankind--engaged mostly in blowing +soap-bubbles. [Laughter.] From another point of view we are the most +practical and energetic portion of the community. [Cheers.] If +literature be the art of employing words skillfully in representing +facts, or thoughts, or emotions, you may see excellent specimens of it +every day in the advertisements in our newspapers. Every man who uses a +pen to convey his meaning to others--the man of science, the man of +business, the member of a learned profession--belongs to the community +of letters. Nay, he need not use his pen at all. The speeches of great +orators are among the most treasured features of any national +literature. The orations of Mr. Grattan are the text-books in the +schools of rhetoric in the United States. Mr. Bright, under this aspect +of him, holds a foremost place among the men of letters of England. +[Cheers.] + +Again, sir, every eminent man, be he what he will, be he as unbookish +as he pleases, so he is only eminent enough, so he holds a conspicuous +place in the eyes of his countrymen, potentially belongs to us, and if +not in life, then after he is gone, will be enrolled among us. The +public insist on being admitted to his history, and their curiosity will +not go unsatisfied. [Cheers.] His letters are hunted up, his journals +are sifted; his sayings in conversation, the doggerel which he writes to +his brothers and sisters are collected, and stereotyped in print. +[Laughter.] His fate overtakes him. He cannot escape from it. We cry +out, but it does not appear that men sincerely resist the liberty which +is taken with them. We never hear of them instructing their executors to +burn their papers. [Laughter.] They have enjoyed so much the exhibition +that has been made of their contemporaries that they consent to be +sacrificed themselves. + +Again, sir, when we look for those who have been most distinguished as +men of letters, in the usual sense of the word; where do we find them? +The famous lawyer is found in his chambers, the famous artist is found +in his studio. Our foremost representatives we do not find always in +their libraries; we find them, in the first place, in the service of +their country. ["Hear! Hear!"] Owen Meredith is Viceroy of India, and +all England has applauded the judgment that selected and sent him there. +[Cheers.] The right honorable gentleman [Mr. Gladstone] who three years +ago was conducting the administration of this country with such +brilliant success was first generally known to his countrymen as a +remarkable writer. During forty years of arduous service he never wholly +deserted his original calling. ["Hear! Hear!"] He is employing an +interval of temporary retirement to become the interpreter of Homer to +the English race [cheers], or to break a lance with the most renowned +theologians in defence of spiritual liberty. [Cheers.] + +A great author, whose life we have been all lately reading with delight, +contemplates the year 3000 as a period at which his works may still be +studied. If any man might be led reasonably to form such an anticipation +for himself by the admiration of his contemporaries, Lord Macaulay may +be acquitted of vanity. The year 3000 is far away, much will happen +between now and then; all that we can say with certainty of the year +3000 is that it will be something extremely different from what any one +expects. I will not predict that men will then be reading Lord +Macaulay's "History of England." I will not predict that they will then +be reading "Lothair." [Laughter.] But this I will say, that if any +statesman of the age of Augustus or the Antonines had left us a picture +of patrician society at Rome, drawn with the same skill, and with the +same delicate irony with which Mr. Disraeli has described a part of +English society in "Lothair," no relic of antiquity would now be +devoured with more avidity and interest. [Loud cheers.] Thus, sir, we +are an anomalous body, with very ill-defined limits. But, such as we +are, we are heartily obliged to you for wishing us well, and I give you +our most sincere thanks. [Cheers.] + + + + +MELVILLE WESTON FULLER + + +THE SUPREME COURT + +[Speech of Melville W. Fuller at the fifth annual dinner of the New + England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, 1888. The + President, Heman L. Wayland, D.D., said in introducing Justice + Fuller:--"The reverence of New England for law and her readiness to + make law (a readiness, perhaps our enemies will say, to make them for + other people) naturally suggests the topic which is first on the + programme--'New England in the Supreme Court.' I shall not enlarge + upon the sentiment, lest I should only mar the canvas which will + shortly be illumined by the hand of a master. The case of New England + versus The World has long been in court; the evidence is in; the + learned counsel have been heard; and now, before the case is finally + given to the intelligent jury of the human race, it remains only that + we hear a charge from his honor, the Chief Justice of the United + States."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--I +thank you sincerely for the courtesy which has afforded me the +opportunity of being with you this evening, and am deeply sensible of +the compliment paid in the request to respond to the sentiment just +given. + +We all know--we have heard over and over again--that the "Day We +Celebrate" commemorates an emigration peculiar in its causes. It was not +the desire to acquire wealth or power, nor even the spirit of adventure, +that sent these colonists forth. They did not go to return, but to +abide; and while they sought to make another country theirs, primarily +to enjoy religious independence, they were much too sagacious not to +know that emancipation from the ecclesiastical thraldom, of which they +complained, involved the attainment of political rights and immunities +as well. And so this day commemorates not simply the heroism of struggle +and endurance in silence and apart, for a great cause, not simply the +unfeigned faith which rendered such heroism possible, but the planting +of that germ of local self-government which has borne glorious fruit in +the reconcilement of individual freedom with a national sway of imperial +proportions. + +It commemorates the advent of that first written constitution of civil +government, that first attempt of a people in that form, by self-imposed +fundamental law, to put it out of their own power to work injustice; +that agreement, signed upon the sea, "to enact, constitute and frame +such just and equal laws and ordinances, acts, constitutions and +offices," as should be "thought most meet and convenient for the general +good of the colony," to which all "due submission and obedience" was +promised. And this was followed a few years later in the sister colony +of Massachusetts Bay by that "Body of Liberties" which, it is well said, +may challenge comparison with Magna Charta itself or the latest Bill of +Rights. Instinct with the spirit of common law, though somewhat +ameliorating its rigor, these "rites, privileges and liberties," to be +"impartially and inviolably enjoyed and observed throughout our +jurisdiction forever," commence with the preamble that "the free +fruition of such liberties, Immunities and privileges humanitie, +Civilitie and Christianitie call for as due to every man in his place +and proportion without impeachment and Infringement, hath ever been and +ever will be the tranquillitie and Stabilitie of Churches and +Commonwealths. And the deniall and deprivall thereof, the disturbance. +If not the ruine of both. We hould it therefore our dutie and saftie, +whilst we are about the further establishment of this Government, to +collect and expresse all such freedomes as for present we foresee may +concern us, and our posteritie after us." + +And so they ordain that no man's life or liberty or property can be +taken away, or his honor or good name stained, or his goods or estate in +any way damaged under color of law or countenance of authority, unless +by due process; that every person, inhabitant or foreign, shall enjoy +the same justice and law general to the plantation; that there shall be +no monopolies, except for new inventions profitable to the country, and +for a short time; no imprisonment without bail except for crimes capital +and contempts in open court; freedom of alienation and power to devise; +no primogeniture, no escheats on attainder and execution for felony; +succor to those fleeing from tyranny; full freedom to advise, vote, give +verdict or sentence according to true judgment and conscience; in short, +the expression or the indication of those safeguards to liberty, the +possession of which enables a people to become and to remain free. + +Well may we claim for these documents large influence in forerunning the +organic laws of the several States, and that matchless instrument which +a century ago was framed in this fortunate city, which had been blessed +before as the place where the Declaration put on immortality. + +And now in the latter half of the third century, since the bearers of +the underlying principles of Republican rule placed their feet upon that +rock, whose shadow was to become a solace to the weariness of the +perpetual toils and encounters of the land, we may well hope that what +they sought has been achieved, an enduring Government of laws and not of +men; security to freedom and to justice, "justice, that venerable +virtue, without which," as exclaimed New England's eloquent orator, +"freedom, valor and power are but vulgar things." + +It is delightful to keep these remembrances alive, and while duly +recognizing the rightful claims of all our brothers to their share in +the foundation of the institutions of a common country, to dwell upon +what the forefathers were, what they accomplished and what they still +accomplish through the works that follow them. And as it is not +unnatural that at the same time we should felicitate ourselves upon +whatever of eminence or good fortune has attended the efforts of their +descendants, the reference, Mr. President, you have made in connection +with this toast to the court over which I have the honor to preside +enables me with propriety to indulge in an allusion to those from New +England who have labored in that field. + +On the seventh of April, 1789, a committee was appointed by the Senate +"to bring in a bill for organizing the judiciary of the United States." +Able as were his colleagues, it has been generally conceded that "that +great act was penned" by the chairman of that committee, Oliver +Ellsworth, of Connecticut. On the twenty-fourth of September--the day +upon which the Judiciary Act became a law--President Washington +nominated for the Supreme Court of the United States a chief justice and +five associates, among the latter William Cushing, of Massachusetts, +who, after holding high judicial office under the Crown, but supporting +the cause of his country in the Revolution, becoming the first chief +justice of the State of Massachusetts, passed from that distinguished +station to the Federal bench, as one of his eminent successors has done +in our day, and who was commissioned to, but compelled to decline, the +headship of the court. Then came Ellsworth, whose great services in +framing the Federal Constitution in the Connecticut Convention, in the +United States Senate, in high diplomatic position, were complemented by +those he performed in the discharge of the duties of this exalted +office. + +And so, following the careers of Marshall and Taney, Chase (fresh from +magnificent conduct of the national finances under circumstances of +tremendous difficulty), and Waite, from long and successful practice at +the bar, won enduring fame by deserving and obtaining the commendation +that a place rendered so illustrious by their predecessors had lost +nothing in their hands; men of New England birth, thus dividing in +number the incumbency in succession to Ellsworth, while he who has but +just entered upon that service, proud of the Prairie State from whence +he comes, has never ceased to regard with affection that particular +portion of the Fatherland in which he first saw the light. + +Ellsworth and Waite, Baldwin and Field, and Strong, of Connecticut; +Chase and Woodbury, and Clifford, of New Hampshire; Cushing and Storey, +and Curtis, and Gray, of Massachusetts--these are names written +imperishably upon the records of the Court. But of the five from +Connecticut, Pennsylvania and California and Ohio claim four, and of the +three from New Hampshire, Ohio and Maine two; while the Old Bay State +preserved her hold on hers. + +Surely it is not too much for me to say, that up to the present time New +England has in this sphere of public usefulness vindicated her title to +regard by the exhibition on the part of her sons of that devotion to +duty and that adherence to principle which characterized the men to +whose memory the celebration of this day is dedicated. + +May that memory ever be precious, and reliance upon that Providence +which sustained them under the tribulations of their time, and has +conducted their children in triumphant progress through succeeding +years, never be less. [Applause.] + + + + +HAMLIN GARLAND + + +REALISM VERSUS ROMANTICISM + +[Speech of Hamlin Garland at the eighty-second dinner of the Sunset + Club, Chicago, Ill., January 31, 1895. The chairman of the evening, + Arthur W. Underwood, introduced Mr. Garland to speak in relation to + the general subject of the evening's discussion, "The Tendency and + Influence of Modern Fiction." Mr. Underwood said: "To some of us the + field of modern fiction may have seemed before this evening a + wilderness without a chart. We are fortunate in having with us a man + who has left the 'main travelled roads' of fiction and, to mix + metaphors a little, a man who can tell us whether the 'idols' that are + 'crumbling' are those of the realist or those of the idealist,--Mr. + Hamlin Garland."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--It is very interesting and pleasant to have the +critic come at the problem in his mathematical fashion, but that will +not settle it. I will tell you what will settle it--the human soul of +the creative man; because if he has the creative power and impulse in +him it will make no difference to him whether or not a single person in +the world reads or understands his book, or appreciates and understands +his painting. What could the critic do with Claude Monet thirty-five +years ago? What could the critic do with Robert Browning when he +appeared? What has the critic done thus far with Walt Whitman, the +greatest spiritual democrat this nation has ever produced? This question +is not settled by the schools; it is not settled by critics; it is not +to be settled by a group of realists or a group of veritists, or the +latest group of impressionists. It is to be settled by the creative +impulse of the man, first; and second, and always subordinate to the +real artist, the public. + +Now, I am perfectly willing to admit that there has been for the past +year or two a revival of what might be called the "shilling shocker" in +literature, but it seems to me Professor McClintock entirely +overestimates and exaggerates the influence of the "yore and gore" +fictionists; and even if it were true that they filled the magazines to +the exclusion of Mr. Read [Opie P. Read] and myself-- + +[Mr. Read: Which they don't:] + +Which they don't--and if it were true that the pendulum is swinging +toward the "shilling shocker," it does not follow that it will be a +century before there is a return to the thoughtful study of social life. +This romance can die, and these books be as dead as Hugh Conway's +"Called Back" in less than ten years. I am perfectly willing to admit +all these mutations of taste, but there is something deeper than that. +Do you know, I have a notion that the reign of cheap melodrama and +farce-comedy on our stage and of the "shilling shocker" during the last +two years is due largely to our financial condition. Many of you are +business men, and I know how you talk. I ask you to go to see a serious +play, and you say: "Well, I will tell you; I am pretty well worn out +when business is done, and things are not going just as they should, and +I would rather go to the theatre to laugh these days. I don't care to go +to the theatre to think." + +In precisely the same way, when you are called upon, after a hard day of +business care and worry, to read a book, and I say to you: "Read Israel +Zangwill's 'Children of the Ghetto'; it is one of the greatest studies +of our day," you say: "The fact is, I should go to sleep over it. I must +have something that has fighting in it. I want 'yore and gore' fiction +this year. Later on, when I get over my business difficulties and get +where things are easy with me, I'll try Zangwill's 'Children of the +Ghetto.' I will sit down with my wife and have her read it aloud." There +is great significance in this confession as it appears to me. + +And what is this "yore and gore" fiction when you analyze it? It is +simply a sublimated "dime novel" which, by reason of increased demand +for easy reading, on the part of the tired brain, has been put into a +little better cover, and published by Harpers. Hitherto it was published +by Beadle or some other fellow of that sort. It is current now. The +people are reading it. They will continue to do so for a year or two, +and then it will disappear. I like what Zangwill said of it a while ago. +I cannot quote it exactly, but it was like this: "I had a dream the +other night, wherein I scrambled over the roofs of buildings pursued by +detectives. I lowered myself by drain pipes. I did business in dark +corridors. I retreated up narrow passages with my good broadsword +flaming, and laid scores of men at my feet. I was sealed up in dungeons. +I was snatched out of the deep by the hair of my head. I slew men in +hecatombs; and then, when the morning came and I awoke, there was not a +shred of intellectual wrack left behind on which my mind could take +hold. I had dreamed it all with the cerebellum. It was all organic. Why +didn't I dream a novel by Turgenef, or Bjornsen? It takes brains to +write "Fathers and Sons" or the "Bankrupt," and it takes brains to read +such masterpieces." + +With all due respect to the very calm and fine position taken by +Professor McClintock [Prof. W. D. McClintock had asserted his belief +that the twentieth century would stand for a great revival of romantic +literature], this novel of lust and war does not strike me as being very +high-class art. It may seem good and fine and fresh and inspiring, this +fiction which slays its millions, but I am a good deal of a Quaker. I +would not slay anybody for anything. Therefore, such art does not appear +beautiful to me. I do not believe it is good for our youth to read "yore +and gore" fiction. + +There _are_ romancers--Prof. McClintock named one--who have personal +quality. I don't care what school of fiction a man belongs to if he has +something to say to me which has not been said a thousand times by +somebody else. Such a man is Robert Louis Stevenson. He slew men also, +but he uttered something beside war cries. But this "shilling shocker," +this searching after the dreadful and the unknown which is red with +blood, does not strike me as literature at all. It is all the work of +the cerebellum. It is not the work of the cerebrum. I should put it like +this--If a man can tell us something that has not been told before; if +he can add something to the literature of the world--a real creation--if +he can, like the coral insect, build his own little cell upon the +great underlying mass of English literature, I do not care what you call +him, nor what he calls himself, he is worthy my support. + +It is not safe to always reckon a man's merit by the sale of his books. +The author of "Old Sleuth" measured in that way would be the greatest +American writer, in fact, the greatest writer of any time. You can't +reckon the sale of such books by numbers; you reckon them by tons. It is +easy to make a book sell, but the thing is to produce an original work +of art, to put something forth with the imprint of your own personality +as a creative artist. + +I believe old Walt Whitman stated the whole problem when he said: "All +that the past was not, the future will be." I do not believe that the +future of the world is to be a future of war. I believe it is to be a +future of industrial peace as Professor Pearson [Charles W. Pearson] has +indicated. And I believe that the literature and the art of that future +will not be based upon war; it will be humanitarian, and at its best +always an individual statement of life. In other words, the whole +tendency of modern art is towards the celebration of the individual by +the individual, and you cannot class writers in any hard and fast +division. There is not an artist living who delineates "things as they +are." There is not a writer living holding that for a theory, or who has +that desire for a fundamental impulse. Art is selection, and upon the +individual soul of the creative artist is laid the burden of choice. It +is in the way he chooses his material and in the way he works it out +that he is to be judged. He may be a story-teller like Stevenson, or he +may be a novelist like Zangwill. All I ask of him is just simply +this--he must be an individual creative artist; he must not repeat, must +not imitate for the sake of gain. + + + + +JOHN GILBERT + + +PLAYING "OLD MEN" PARTS + +[Speech of John Gilbert at a banquet given by the Lotos Club in + recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the + stage, New York City, November 30, 1878. The chairman of the dinner + was Whitelaw Reid, President of the Lotos.] + + +"CAESAR, WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU." Such the +gladiator's cry in the arena standing face to face with death. There is +a certain appositeness in the words I have just uttered that probably +may correspond to my position. Understand me, I do not mean to die +theatrically at present. [Laughter.] But when a man has arrived at my +age, he can scarcely look forward to very many years of professional +exertion. When my old friend, John Brougham [Mr. Brougham:--"I am not +going to die just yet."] [laughter], announced to me the honor that the +Lotos Club proffered me, I was flattered and complimented. But I said: +"John, you know I am no speechmaker." He replied, "Say anything." +"Anything," I said, "anything won't do." "Then," said he, "repeat the +first speech of Sir Peter Teazle, 'When an old bachelor marries a young +wife, what is he to expect?'" [Laughter.] Well, I think I can paraphrase +that and say, "When a young man enters the theatrical profession, what +is he to expect?" Well, he may expect a good many things that are never +realized. However, suffice it to say that fifty years ago I made my +debut as an actor in my native city of Boston. I commenced in the +first-class character of Jaffier in Otway's charming tragedy of "Venice +Preserved." The public said it was a success, and I thought it was. +[Laughter.] The manager evidently thought it was, too, for he let me +repeat the character. Well, I suppose it was a success for a young man +with such aspirations as I had. There might have been some inspiration +about it--at least there ought to have been--for the lady who personated +Belvidera was Mrs. Duff, a lovely woman and the most exquisite tragic +actress that I ever saw from that period to the present. + +After this, I acted two or three parts, Mortimer, Shylock, and some of +those little, trifling characters [laughter], with comparative success. +But shortly after, and wisely, I went into the ranks to study my +profession--not to commence at the top and go to the bottom +[laughter]--but to begin at the bottom and go to the top, if possible. +As a young man, I sought for pastures fresh and new. I went to the South +and West, my ambition still being, as is that of all youthful aspirants +for dramatic honors, for tragedy. At last I went to a theatre, and to my +great disgust and indignation I was cast for an old man--at the age of +nineteen. [Laughter.] However, I must do it. There was no alternative +and I did it. I received applause. I played a few more old men +[laughter]; I found at last that it was my point, my forte, and I +followed it up and after this long lapse of years, I still continue in +that department. I went to England and was received with kindness and +cordiality and, returning to my own country in 1862, I was invited to +join Wallack's Theatre by the father of my dear friend here [alluding to +Mr. Lester Wallack], his father whom I am proud to acknowledge as a +friend of mine nearly fifty years ago, and I am also proud to say my +dramatic master. [Applause.] I need not tell you that since that time I +have been under the direction of his son. What my career has been up to +the present time you all know. It requires no comment from me. I am no +longer a young man, but I do not think I am an old man. [Applause and +laughter.] I owe this to a good constitution and moderately prudent +life. [Shouts of laughter.] I may say with Shakespeare's Adam, that + + "In my youth I never did apply + Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood, + Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, + Frosty, but kindly." + +Will you permit me, gentlemen, to thank you for the very high honor you +have conferred upon me this evening and allow me to drink the health and +prosperity and happiness of the Lotos Club? [Cheers.] + + + + +WILLIAM SCHWENK GILBERT + + +PINAFORE + +[Speech of William S. Gilbert at a dinner given to him and to Sir Arthur + Sullivan by the Lotos Club, New York City, November 8, 1879. Whitelaw + Reid, the President, in introducing Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Sullivan, + said: "We do not welcome them as men of genius. It sometimes happens + that men of genius do not deserve welcome. But we do greet them as men + who have used their undoubted genius to increase the happiness of + their kind [applause]; men whose success has extended throughout the + nations and has added bright hours to the life of every man and woman + it has touched. [Applause.] That success has depended on no unworthy + means. Respecting themselves and their art, they have always respected + their audiences. They have so married wit and humor, and a most + delicate fancy, and the best light music of the time, to the public + temper, that we have seen here in New York, for example, their piece + so popular that we hadn't theatres enough in town to hold the people + who simultaneously and unanimously wanted to hear it. I propose first + the health of a gentleman who, not merely in the piece that has so + long been the rage of the town, but in a brilliant series of previous + successes, has always given us wit without dirt [applause]--a drama in + which the hero is not a rake, and the heroine is not perpetually + posing and poising between innocence and adultery."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--As my friend Sullivan and I were +driving to this Club this evening, both of us being very nervous and +very sensitive, and both of us men who are highly conscious of our +oratorical defects and deficiencies, and having before us vividly the +ordeal awaiting us, we cast about for a comparison of our then +condition. We likened ourselves to two authors driving down to a theatre +at which a play of theirs was to be played for the first time. The +thought was somewhat harassing, but we dismissed it, because we +remembered that there was always an even chance of success [laughter], +whereas in the performance in which we were about to take part there was +no prospect of aught but humiliating failure. + +We were rather in the position of prisoners surrendering to their bail, +and we beg of you to extend to us your most merciful consideration. But +it is expected of me, perhaps, that in replying to this toast with which +your chairman has so kindly coupled my name, I shall do so in a tone of +the lightest possible comedy. [Laughter.] I had almost said that I am +sorry to say that I cannot do so; but in truth I am not sorry. A man who +has been welcomed as we have been here by the leaders in literature and +art in this city, a man who could look upon that welcome as a string on +which to hang a series of small jokes would show that he was responding +to an honor to which he was not entitled. For it is no light thing to +come to a country which you have been taught to regard as a foreign +country, and to find ourselves in the best sense of the word "at home" +[applause] among a people whom we are taught to regard as strangers, but +whom we are astonished to find are our intimate friends [applause]; and +that proffered friendship is so dear to us that I am disposed, in behalf +of my collaborateur and myself, to stray somewhat from the beaten paths +of after-dinner oratory, and to endeavor to justify ourselves in respect +to a matter in which we have some reason to feel that we have been +misrepresented. + +I have seen in several London journals well-meant but injudicious +paragraphs saying that we have a grievance against the New York managers +because they have played our pieces and have offered us no share of the +profits. [Laughter.] We have no grievance whatever. Our only complaint +is that there is no international copyright act. [Applause.] The author +of a play in which there is no copyright is very much in the position +of an author or the descendants of an author whose copyright has +expired. I am not aware that our London publishers are in the habit of +seeking the descendants of Sir Walter Scott or Lord Byron, or Captain +Marryat, and offering them a share of the profits on their publications. +[Laughter.] I have yet to learn that our London managers seek out the +living representatives of Oliver Goldsmith, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan +or William Shakespeare, in order to pay them any share of the profits +from the production of "She Stoops to Conquer," or "The Good-Natured +Man," or "The Merchant of Venice." [Laughter.] If they do so, they do +it on the principle that the right hand knows not what the left hand +doeth [laughter], and as we have not heard of it, we presume, therefore, +that they have not done so. And we believe that if those eminent men +were to request a share of the profits, they would be met with the reply +that the copyright on those works had expired. + +And so if we should suggest it to the managers of this country, they +would perhaps reply with at least equal justice: "Gentlemen, your +copyright never existed." That it has never existed is due entirely to +our own fault. + +We consulted a New York lawyer, and were informed that, although an +alien author has no right in his works, yet so long as they remain +unpublished, we held the real title in them, and there was no process +necessary to make them our own. We, therefore, thought we would keep it +in unpublished form, and make more profit from the sale of the +pianoforte score and the words of the songs at the theatres and at the +music publishers. + +We imagined that the allusions in the piece were so purely British in +their character, so insular in fact, that they would be of no interest +on this side; but events have shown that in that conclusion we were +mistaken. At all events, we have also arrived at the conclusion that we +have nobody to blame but ourselves. As it is, we have realized by the +sale of the book and the piano score in London about $7,500 apiece, and +under those circumstances I do not think we need to be pitied. +[Laughter.] For myself, I certainly do not pose as an object of +compassion. [Laughter.] + +We propose to open here on the first of December at the Fifth Avenue +Theatre with a performance of "Pinafore." I will not add the prefixing +initials, because I have no desire to offend your republican sympathies. +[Laughter.] I may say, however, that I have read in some journals that +we have come over here to show you how that piece should be played, but +that I disclaim, both for myself and my collaborateur. We came here to +teach nothing--we have nothing to teach--and perhaps we should have no +pupils if we did. [Laughter.] But apart from the fact that we have no +copyright, and are not yet managers in the United States, we see no +reason why we should be the only ones who are not to be permitted to +play this piece here. [Laughter and applause.] + +I think you will admit that we have a legitimate object in opening with +it. We have no means of knowing how it has been played in this country, +but we are informed that it has been played more broadly than in the old +country--and you know that may be better or worse. [Laughter.] + +Afterward we propose to produce another piece, and in the fulness of +time the longer it is delayed perhaps the better for us [laughter], and +we propose to present it to an audience [laughter] in the same spirit in +which we presented "Pinafore"--in a most serious spirit--not to permit +the audience to see by anything that occurs on the stage that the actors +are conscious of the really absurd things they are doing. Whether right +or not, that is the way in which it was presented in London. We open +with "Pinafore," not to show how that ought to be played, but to show +how the piece that succeeds is about to be played, and to prepare the +audiences for the reception of our new and highly preposterous story. +[Applause.] + +The kindness with which we have been received this evening emboldens me +to believe that perhaps you will not consider this explanation +altogether indecent or ill-timed. I have nothing more, gentlemen, to +say, except to thank you most heartily for the complimentary manner in +which you proposed our health, and to assure you that it is a compliment +which is to me personally as delightful as it is undeserved. +[Applause.] + + + + +DANIEL COIT GILMAN + + +THE ERA OF UNIVERSITIES + +[Speech of Daniel C. Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins University at + the Harvard Alumni dinner, at Cambridge, Mass., June 29, 1881.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--There are so many in this room to +whom this scene is familiar and so many whose voices have been heard +within these walls, that you can hardly understand how one feels who for +the first time stands and endeavors to make his voice reach over this +large assembly. It is not merely the sea of upturned faces, this noble +company of noblemen, this regiment of brigadiers, as it might be called, +it is not alone these pictures and busts, the devices and mottoes which +adorn this edifice, nor is it alone the recollection of all the +illustrious teachers who have been here brought together or the +consciousness that we stand among museums and cabinets and laboratories +unrivalled on this continent,--all this is noble and worthy of noble +men. But there is one thing that seems to me more impressive than all +this. It is the power which Harvard College has had throughout all the +land and throughout all its history. [Applause.] + +I have had the opportunity of seeing on the shores of the Pacific how +every act of the corporation of Harvard College, every new measure +adopted by the faculty, every additional gift to its treasury, was +watched as men look toward the east and watch the rising sun, rejoicing +in its boundless store and radiant energy. [Applause.] And I have stood +on the shores of a Southern river and have seen the development of a +young college on the banks of the Patapsco, and I can truly say that if +there had not been a John Harvard, there never would have been a Johns +Hopkins [applause]; if there had never been a university in Cambridge, +there never would have been a university in Baltimore; and if there is +any merit in the plans adopted in that distant city, if there is any +hope to be derived from the experiment which is there in vogue, it is +largely due--and I rejoice in an opportunity of saying so in this public +way--it is largely due to the kindly sympathy, the wise counsel, the +generous help and the noble example of Harvard College. [Applause.] To +the President of this university, to his associates in the corporation +and in the faculty, to many of its alumni the plans adopted in Baltimore +owe a most generous and hearty acknowledgment. + +The speaker who preceded me characterized Harvard College as the Alma +Mater of Colleges, and well he did so. But, gentlemen, you can hardly +fail to observe that in the progress of education in this country we are +getting beyond the college period and we are entering the period of +universities. What they are to be, none of us are wise enough to tell, +but whatever they are will largely depend upon what you make of Harvard +University. [Applause.] Many years ago I received a lesson from one +whose name I can never mention without respect and honor, the late +Benjamin Pierce. He said, in speaking of the formation of a university, +"It will never succeed without eminent professors. They will tell you +that great professors make poor teachers, but I will tell you it is only +the eagle that is fit to teach the eaglets. Let the barn-door fowl take +care of themselves." And so I say here, let there be a staff of +professors the most eminent, the most earnest, the most free in their +work that Harvard can bring together, and all the rest goes with it. +[Applause.] + +I trust, then, that as the years roll on, as the era of universities in +this country is developed from the period of college instruction, we +shall find that the same wisdom that has governed the councils of our +learned bodies, the same adherence to right principles, the same love of +truth, will ever be present, and that Harvard College and all its +younger sisters as they go on will repeat the lesson which they have +taught from the beginning, and which they still teach, whether we turn +our eyes to the depths of the sea or the boundless regions of space, +that beyond the things which are seen and temporal are the things which +are unseen and eternal. [Applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE + + +THE AGE OF RESEARCH + +[Speech of William B. Gladstone at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, May 5, 1877. Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Academy, + being indisposed, Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent architect, took the + chair at the special request of the President. In introducing Mr. + Gladstone, he said: "The next toast is, 'The Interests of Literature.' + I have been somewhat perplexed myself to think why the custom of the + Academy places Science before Literature. I see, however, that it is + quite right, for Literature is a member of our own family--our sister. + [Cheers.] I am old enough to recollect that when Sir Morton Archer + Shee, who united Art with Poetry, was elected President of the + Academy, this epigram appeared in the 'Times': + + "'So Painting crowns her sister Poesie, + The world is all astonished, so is She (e).' + + Many present will remember in more recent times how Charles Dickens, + when returning thanks for this toast, expressed the same sentiment of + relationship by altering some words of Rob Roy's and saying that when + at our Academy he felt so much at home, as to be inclined to exclaim: + 'My foot is on my native heath, although my name is not Macgregor.' + Next to religion, literature in very many of its phases supplies the + noblest subjects for Art. History, Biography, and works of fiction all + contribute their share; while poetry enjoys the cumulative privilege + of uniting in itself the incentives to Art which are commanded by all + other branches of Literature as well as the ennobling sentiments + inspired by religion, patriotism and other affections of the human + heart. An elevating mission, indeed, be it only directed in a worthy + course. Frivolity and license are alike the bane of literature and + art. Earnestness of purpose and severity of moral tone are the stamina + of both. Shorn of these, both alike find their strength is gone from + them. It is consoling to reflect that notwithstanding the laborious + turmoil of politics we have had three, and I think successive, Prime + Ministers who have made Literature the solace of their scanty leisure + and delighted the world by their writings on subjects extraneous to + State politics. I give you the 'Interests of Literature,' and I have + the honor to connect the toast with the name of one of that + distinguished trio, the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I +think no question can be raised as to the just claims of literature to +stand upon the list of toasts at the Royal Academy, and the sentiment is +one to which, upon any one of the numerous occasions of my attendance at +your hospitable board, I have always listened with the greatest +satisfaction until the present day arrived, when I am bound to say that +that satisfaction is extremely qualified by the arrangement less +felicitous, I think, than any which preceded it that refers to me the +duty of returning thanks for Literature. [Cheers and laughter.] However, +obedience is the principle upon which we must proceed, and I have at +least the qualification for discharging the duty you have been pleased +to place in my hands--that no one has a deeper or more profound sense of +the vital importance of the active and constant cultivation of letters +as an essential condition of real progress and of the happiness of +mankind [cheers], and here every one at once perceives that that +sisterhood of which the poet spoke, whom you have quoted, is a real +sisterhood, for literature and art are alike the votaries of beauty. Of +these votaries I may thankfully say that as regards art I trace around +me no signs of decay, and none in that estimation in which the Academy +is held, unless to be sure, in the circumstance of your poverty of +choice of one to reply to this toast. [Cheers.] + +During the present century the artists of this country have gallantly +and nobly endeavored to maintain and to elevate their standard [cheers], +and have not perhaps in that great task always received that assistance +which could be desired from the public taste which prevails around them. +But no one can examine even superficially the works which adorn these +walls without perceiving that British art retains all its fertility of +invention [cheers], and this year as much as in any year that I can +remember, exhibits in the department of landscape, that fundamental +condition of all excellence, intimate and profound sympathy with nature. +[Cheers.] + +As regards literature one who is now beginning at any rate to descend +the hill of life naturally looks backwards as well as forwards, and we +must be becoming conscious that the early part of this century has +witnessed in this and other countries what will be remembered in future +times as a splendid literary age. [Cheers.] The elder among us have +lived in the lifetime of many great men who have passed to their +rest--the younger have heard them familiarly spoken of and still have +their works in their hands as I trust they will continue to be in the +hands of all generations. [Cheers.] I am afraid we cannot hope for +literature--it would be contrary to all the experience of former times +were we to hope that it should be equally sustained at that +extraordinarily high level which belongs, speaking roughly, to the first +fifty years after the peace of 1815. That was a great period--a great +period in England, a great period in Germany, a great period in France, +and a great period, too, in Italy. [Cheers.] + +As I have said, I think we can hardly hope that it should continue on a +perfect level at so high an elevation. Undoubtedly the cultivation of +literature will ever be dear to the people of this country; but we must +remember what is literature, and what is not. In the first place, we +should be all agreed that bookmaking is not literature. ["Hear!"] The +business of bookmaking I have no doubt may thrive and will be continued +upon a constantly extending scale from year to year. But that we may put +aside. For my own part if I am to look a little forward, what I +anticipate for the remainder of the century is an age not so much of +literature proper--not so much of great, permanent and splendid +additions to those works in which beauty is embodied as an essential +condition of production, but I rather look forward to an age of +research. [Cheers.] This is an age of great research--of great research +in science, great research in history--an age of research in all the +branches of inquiry that throw light upon the former condition whether +of our race, or of the world which it inhabits [cheers]; and it may be +hoped that, even if the remaining years of the century be not so +brilliant as some of its former periods, in the production of works +great in themselves, and immortal,--still they may add largely to the +knowledge of mankind; and if they make such additions to the knowledge +of mankind, they will be preparing the materials of a new tone and of +new splendors in the realm of literature. There is a sunrise and sunset. +There is a transition from the light of the sun to the gentler light of +the moon. There is a rest in nature which seems necessary in all her +great operations. And so with all the great operations of the human +mind. But do not let us despond if we seem to see a diminished efficacy +in the production of what is essentially and immortally great. Our sun +if hidden is hidden only for a moment. He is like the day star of +Milton:-- + + "Which anon repairs his drooping head + And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore, + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky." + +[Cheers.] + +I rejoice in an occasion like this which draws the attention of the +world to topics which illustrate the union of art with literature and of +literature with science, because you have a hard race to run, you have a +severe competition against the attraction of external pursuits, whether +those pursuits take the form of business or pleasure. It is given to you +to teach lessons of the utmost importance to mankind, in maintaining the +principle that no progress can be real which is not equable, which is +not proportionate, which does not develop all the faculties belonging to +our nature. [Cheers.] If a great increase of wealth in a country takes +place, and with that increase of wealth a powerful stimulus to the +invention of mere luxury, that, if it stands alone, is not, never can +be, progress. It is only that one-sided development which is but one +side of deformity. I hope we shall have no one-sided development. One +mode of avoiding it is to teach the doctrine of that sisterhood you have +asserted to-day, and confident I am that the good wishes you have +expressed on behalf of literature will be re-echoed in behalf of art +wherever men of letters are found. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +HENRY W. GRADY + + +THE RACE PROBLEM + +[Speech of Henry W. Grady at the annual banquet of the Boston + Merchants' Association, at Boston, Mass., December 12, 1889. Mr. Grady + was introduced by the President of the Association, Jonathan A. Lane, + as the spokesman for the South on the subject he was to treat. His + speech electrified his hearers, and was the feature of the occasion.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Bidden by your invitation to a discussion of +the race problem--forbidden by occasion to make a political speech--I +appreciate, in trying to reconcile orders with propriety, the perplexity +of the little maid, who, bidden to learn to swim, was yet adjured, "Now +go, my darling, hang your clothes on a hickory limb and don't go near +the water." + +The stoutest apostle of the Church, they say, is the missionary, and the +missionary wherever he unfurls his flag, will never find himself in +deeper need of unction and address than I, bidden to-night to plant the +standard of a Southern Democrat in Boston's banquet hall, and to discuss +the problem of the races in the home of Phillips and of Sumner. But, Mr. +President, if a purpose to speak in perfect frankness and sincerity; if +earnest understanding of the vast interests involved; if a consecrating +sense of what disaster may follow further misunderstanding and +estrangement; if these may be counted to steady undisciplined speech and +to strengthen an untried arm--then, sir, I shall find the courage to +proceed. + +Happy am I that this mission has brought my feet at last to press New +England's historic soil and my eyes to the knowledge of her beauty and +her thrift. Here within touch of Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill--where +Webster thundered and Longfellow sang, Emerson thought and Channing +preached--here in the cradle of American letters and almost of American +liberty, I hasten to make the obeisance that every American owes New +England when first he stands uncovered in her mighty presence. Strange +apparition! This stern and unique figure--carved from the ocean and the +wilderness--its majesty kindling and growing amid the storms of winter +and of wars--until at last the gloom was broken, its beauty disclosed in +the sunshine, and the heroic workers rested at its base--while startled +kings and emperors gazed and marvelled that from the rude touch of this +handful cast on a bleak and unknown shore, should have come the embodied +genius of human government and the perfected model of human liberty! God +bless the memory of those immortal workers, and prosper the fortunes of +their living sons--and perpetuate the inspiration of their handiwork. + +[Illustration: _HENRY WOODFIN GRADY Photogravure after a photograph +from life_ ] + +Two years ago, sir, I spoke some words in New York that caught the +attention of the North. As I stand here to reiterate, as I have done +everywhere, every word I then uttered--to declare that the sentiments I +then avowed were universally approved in the South--I realize that the +confidence begotten by that speech is largely responsible for my +presence here to-night. I should dishonor myself if I betrayed that +confidence by uttering one insincere word, or by withholding one +essential element of the truth. Apropos of this last, let me confess, +Mr. President, before the praise of New England has died on my lips, +that I believe the best product of her present life is the procession of +17,000 Vermont Democrats that for twenty-two years, undiminished by +death, unrecruited by birth or conversion, have marched over their +rugged hills, cast their Democratic ballots and gone back home to pray +for their unregenerate neighbors, and awake to read the record of 26,000 +Republican majority. May the God of the helpless and the heroic help +them, and may their sturdy tribe increase. + +Far to the South, Mr. President, separated from this section by a +line--once defined in irrepressible difference, once traced in +fratricidal blood, and now, thank God, but a vanishing shadow--lies the +fairest and richest domain of this earth. It is the home of a brave and +hospitable people. There is centred all that can please or prosper +humankind. A perfect climate above a fertile soil yields to the +husbandman every product of the temperate zone. There, by night the +cotton whitens beneath the stars, and by day the wheat locks the +sunshine in its bearded sheaf. In the same field the clover steals the +fragrance of the wind, and the tobacco catches the quick aroma of the +rains. There are mountains stored with exhaustless treasures; +forests--vast and primeval; and rivers that, tumbling or loitering, +run wanton to the sea. Of the three essential items of all +industries--cotton, iron and wood--that region has easy control. In +cotton, a fixed monopoly--in iron, proven supremacy--in timber, the +reserve supply of the Republic. From this assured and permanent +advantage, against which artificial conditions cannot much longer +prevail, has grown an amazing system of industries. Not maintained by +human contrivance of tariff or capital, afar off from the fullest and +cheapest source of supply, but resting in divine assurance, within touch +of field and mine and forest--not set amid costly farms from which +competition has driven the farmer in despair, but amid cheap and sunny +lands, rich with agriculture, to which neither season nor soil has set a +limit--this system of industries is mounting to a splendor that shall +dazzle and illumine the world. That, sir, is the picture and the promise +of my home--a land better and fairer than I have told you, and yet but +fit setting in its material excellence for the loyal and gentle quality +of its citizenship. Against that, sir, we have New England, recruiting +the Republic from its sturdy loins, shaking from its overcrowded hives +new swarms of workers, and touching this land all over with its energy +and its courage. And yet--while in the Eldorado of which I have told you +but fifteen per cent. of its lands are cultivated, its mines scarcely +touched, and its population so scant that, were it set equidistant, the +sound of the human voice could not be heard from Virginia to +Texas--while on the threshold of nearly every house in New England +stands a son, seeking, with troubled eyes, some new land in which to +carry his modest patrimony, the strange fact remains that in 1880 the +South had fewer northern-born citizens than she had in 1870--fewer in +'70 than in '60. Why is this? Why is it, sir, though the sectional line +be now but a mist that the breath may dispel, fewer men of the North +have crossed it over to the South, than when it was crimson with the +best blood of the Republic, or even when the slaveholder stood guard +every inch of its way? + +There can be but one answer. It is the very problem we are now to +consider. The key that opens that problem will unlock to the world the +fairest half of this Republic, and free the halted feet of thousands +whose eyes are already kindling with its beauty. Better than this, it +will open the hearts of brothers for thirty years estranged, and clasp +in lasting comradeship a million hands now withheld in doubt. Nothing, +sir, but this problem and the suspicions it breeds, hinders a clear +understanding and a perfect union. Nothing else stands between us and +such love as bound Georgia and Massachusetts at Valley Forge and +Yorktown, chastened by the sacrifices of Manassas and Gettysburg, and +illumined with the coming of better work and a nobler destiny than was +ever wrought with the sword or sought at the cannon's mouth. + +If this does not invite your patient hearing to-night--hear one thing +more. My people, your brothers in the South--brothers in blood, in +destiny, in all that is best in our past and future--are so beset with +this problem that their very existence depends on its right solution. +Nor are they wholly to blame for its presence. The slave-ships of the +Republic sailed from your ports, the slaves worked in our fields. You +will not defend the traffic, nor I the institution. But I do here +declare that in its wise and humane administration in lifting the slave +to heights of which he had not dreamed in his savage home, and giving +him a happiness he has not yet found in freedom, our fathers left their +sons a saving and excellent heritage. In the storm of war this +institution was lost. I thank God as heartily as you do that human +slavery is gone forever from American soil. But the free man remains. +With him a problem without precedent or parallel. Note its appalling +conditions. Two utterly dissimilar races on the same soil--with equal +political and civil rights--almost equal in numbers, but terribly +unequal in intelligence and responsibility--each pledged against +fusion--one for a century in servitude to the other, and freed at last +by a desolating war, the experiment sought by neither but approached by +both with doubt--these are the conditions. Under these, adverse at +every point, we are required to carry these two races in peace and honor +to the end. + +Never, sir, has such a task been given to mortal stewardship. Never +before in this Republic has the white race divided on the rights of an +alien race. The red man was cut down as a weed, because he hindered the +way of the American citizen. The yellow man was shut out of this +Republic because he is an alien, and inferior. The red man was owner of +the land--the yellow man highly civilized and assimilable--but they +hindered both sections, and are gone! But the black man, affecting but +one section, is clothed with every privilege of government and pinned to +the soil, and my people commanded to make good at any hazard, and at any +cost, his full and equal heirship of American privilege and prosperity. +It matters not that every other race has been routed or excluded without +rhyme or reason. It matters not that wherever the whites and the blacks +have touched, in any era or in any clime, there has been an +irreconcilable violence. It matters not that no two races, however +similar, have lived anywhere, at any time, on the same soil with equal +rights in peace! In spite of these things we are commanded to make good +this change of American policy which has not perhaps changed American +prejudice--to make certain here what has elsewhere been impossible +between whites and blacks--and to reverse, under the very worst +conditions, the universal verdict of racial history. And driven, sir, to +this superhuman task with an impatience that brooks no delay--a rigor +that accepts no excuse--and a suspicion that discourages frankness and +sincerity. We do not shrink from this trial. It is so interwoven with +our industrial fabric that we cannot disentangle it if we would--so +bound up in our honorable obligation to the world, that we would not if +we could. Can we solve it? The God who gave it into our hands, He alone +can know. But this the weakest and wisest of us do know; we cannot solve +it with less than your tolerant and patient sympathy--with less than the +knowledge that the blood that runs in your veins is our blood--and that, +when we have done our best, whether the issue be lost or won, we shall +feel your strong arms about us and hear the beating of your approving +hearts! + +The resolute, clear-headed, broad-minded men of the South--the men +whose genius made glorious every page of the first seventy years of +American history--whose courage and fortitude you tested in five years +of the fiercest war--whose energy has made bricks without straw and +spread splendor amid the ashes of their war-wasted homes--these men wear +this problem in their hearts and brains, by day and by night. They +realize, as you cannot, what this problem means--what they owe to this +kindly and dependent race--the measure of their debt to the world in +whose despite they defended and maintained slavery. And though their +feet are hindered in its undergrowth, and their march cumbered with its +burdens, they have lost neither the patience from which comes clearness, +nor the faith from which comes courage. Nor, sir, when in passionate +moments is disclosed to them that vague and awful shadow, with its lurid +abysses and its crimson stains, into which I pray God they may never go, +are they struck with more of apprehension than is needed to complete +their consecration! + +Such is the temper of my people. But what of the problem itself? Mr. +President, we need not go one step further unless you concede right here +that the people I speak for are as honest, as sensible and as just as +your people, seeking as earnestly as you would in their place to rightly +solve the problem that touches them at every vital point. If you insist +that they are ruffians, blindly striving with bludgeon and shotgun to +plunder and oppress a race, then I shall sacrifice my self-respect and +tax your patience in vain. But admit that they are men of common sense +and common honesty, wisely modifying an environment they cannot wholly +disregard--guiding and controlling as best they can the vicious and +irresponsible of either race--compensating error with frankness, and +retrieving in patience what they lose in passion--and conscious all the +time that wrong means ruin--admit this, and we may reach an +understanding to-night. + +The President of the United States, in his late message to Congress, +discussing the plea that the South should be left to solve this problem, +asks: "Are they at work upon it? What solution do they offer? When will +the black man cast a free ballot? When will he have the civil rights +that are his?" I shall not here protest against a partisanry that, for +the first time in our history, in time of peace, has stamped with the +great seal of our government a stigma upon the people of a great and +loyal section; though I gratefully remember that the great dead soldier, +who held the helm of State for the eight stormiest years of +reconstruction, never found need for such a step; and though there is no +personal sacrifice I would not make to remove this cruel and unjust +imputation on my people from the archives of my country! But, sir, +backed by a record, on every page of which is progress, I venture to +make earnest and respectful answer to the questions that are asked. We +give to the world this year a crop of 7,500,000 bales of cotton, worth, +$450,000,000, and its cash equivalent in grain, grasses, and fruit. This +enormous crop could not have come from the hands of sullen and +discontented labor. It comes from peaceful fields, in which laughter and +gossip rise above the hum of industry, and contentment runs with the +singing plough. It is claimed that this ignorant labor is defrauded of +its just hire. I present the tax books of Georgia which show that the +negro, twenty-five years ago a slave, has in Georgia alone $10,000,000 +of assessed property, worth twice that much. Does not that record honor +him, and vindicate his neighbors? + +What people, penniless, illiterate, has done so well? For every +Afro-American agitator, stirring the strife in which alone he prospers, +I can show you a thousand negroes, happy in their cabin homes, tilling +their own land by day, and at night taking from the lips of their +children the helpful message their State sends them from the schoolhouse +door. And the schoolhouse itself bears testimony. In Georgia we added +last year $250,000 to the school fund, making a total of more than +$1,000,000,--and this in the face of prejudice not yet conquered--of the +fact that the whites are assessed for $368,000,000, the blacks for +$10,000,000, and yet forty-nine per cent. of the beneficiaries are black +children; and in the doubt of many wise men if education helps, or can +help, our problem. Charleston, with her taxable values cut half in two +since 1860, pays more in proportion for public schools than Boston. +Although it is easier to give much out of much than little out of little +the South, with one-seventh of the taxable property of the country, with +relatively larger debt, having received only one-twelfth as much of +public lands, and having back of its tax books none of the $500,000,000 +of bonds that enrich the North--and though it pays annually $26,000,000 +to your section as pensions--yet gives nearly one-sixth to the public +school fund. The South, since 1865, has spent $122,000,000 in education, +and this year is pledged to $32,000,000 more for State and city schools, +although the blacks, paying one-thirtieth of the taxes, get nearly +one-half of the fund. Go into our fields and see whites and blacks +working side by side. On our buildings in the same squad. In our shops +at the same forge. Often the blacks crowd the whites from work, or lower +wages by their greater need and simpler habits, and yet are permitted, +because we want to bar them from no avenue in which their feet are +fitted to tread. They could not there be elected orators of white +universities, as they have been here, but they do enter there a hundred +useful trades that are closed against them here. We hold it better and +wiser to tend the weeds in the garden than to water the exotic in the +window. + +In the South there are negro lawyers, teachers, editors, dentists, +doctors, preachers, multiplying with the increasing ability of their +race to support them. In villages and towns they have their military +companies equipped from the armories of the State, their churches and +societies built and supported largely by their neighbors. What is the +testimony of the courts? In penal legislation we have steadily reduced +felonies to misdemeanors, and have led the world in mitigating +punishment for crime, that we might save, as far as possible, this +dependent race from its own weakness. In our penitentiary record sixty +per cent. of the prosecutors are negroes, and in every court the negro +criminal strikes the colored juror, that white men may judge his case. + +In the North, one negro in every 185 is in jail--in the South only one +in 446. In the North the percentage of negro prisoners is six times as +great as that of native whites, in the South, only four times as great. +If prejudice wrongs him in Southern courts, the record shows it to be +deeper in Northern courts. I assert here, and a bar as intelligent and +upright as the bar of Massachusetts will solemnly indorse my assertion, +that in the Southern courts, from highest to lowest, pleading for life, +liberty or property, the negro has distinct advantage because he is a +negro, apt to be over-reached, oppressed--and that this advantage +reaches from the juror in making his verdict to the judge in measuring +his sentence. + +Now, Mr. President, can it be seriously maintained that we are +terrorizing the people from whose willing hands comes every year +$1,000,000,000 of farm crops? Or have robbed a people who, twenty-five +years from unrewarded slavery, have amassed in one State $20,000,000 of +property? Or that we intend to oppress the people we are arming every +day? Or deceive them, when we are educating them to the utmost limit of +our ability? Or outlaw them when we work side by side with them? Or +re-enslave them under legal forms, when for their benefit we have even +imprudently narrowed the limit of felonies and mitigated the severity of +law? My fellow-countrymen, as you yourselves may sometimes have to +appeal at the bar of human judgment for justice and for right, give to +my people to-night the fair and unanswerable conclusion of these +incontestable facts. + +But it is claimed that under this fair seeming there is disorder and +violence. This, I admit. And there will be until there is one ideal +community on earth after which we may pattern. But how widely is it +misjudged. It is hard to measure with exactness whatever touches the +negro. His helplessness, his isolation, his century of servitude, these +dispose us to emphasize and magnify his wrongs. This disposition +inflamed by prejudice and partisanry has led to injustice and delusion. +Lawless men may ravage a county in Iowa and it is accepted as an +incident--in the South a drunken row is declared to be the fixed habit +of the community. Regulators may whip vagabonds in Indiana by platoons +and it scarcely arrests attention--a chance collision in the South among +relatively the same classes is gravely accepted as evidence that one +race is destroying the other. We might as well claim that the Union was +ungrateful to the colored soldiers who followed its flag because a Grand +Army post in Connecticut closed its doors to a negro veteran as for you +to give racial significance to every incident in the South, or to accept +exceptional grounds as the rule of our society. I am not one of those +who becloud American honor with the parade of the outrages of either +sections, and belie American character by declaring them to be +significant and representative. I prefer to maintain that they are +neither, and stand for nothing but the passion and sin of our poor +fallen humanity. If society, like a machine, were no stronger than its +weakest part, I should despair of both sections. But, knowing that +society, sentient and responsible in every fibre, can mend and repair +until the whole has the strength of the best, I despair of neither. +These gentlemen who come with me here, knit into Georgia's busy life as +they are, never saw, I dare assert, an outrage committed on a negro! And +if they did, no one of you would be swifter to prevent or punish. It is +through them, and the men who think with them--making nine-tenths of +every southern community--that these two races have been carried thus +far with less of violence than would have been possible anywhere else on +earth. And in their fairness and courage and steadfastness--more than +in all the laws that can be passed, or all the bayonets that can be +mustered--is the hope of our future. + +When will the blacks cast a free ballot? When ignorance anywhere is not +dominated by the will of the intelligent. When the laborer anywhere +casts a vote unhindered by his boss. When the vote of the poor anywhere +is not influenced by the power of the rich. When the strong and the +steadfast do not everywhere control the suffrage of the weak and +shiftless--then, and not till then, will the ballot of the negro be +free. The white people of the South are banded, Mr. President, not in +prejudice against the blacks--not in sectional estrangement--not in the +hope of political dominion--but in a deep and abiding necessity. Here is +this vast ignorant and purchasable vote--clannish, credulous, impulsive +and passionate--tempting every art of the demagogue, but insensible to +the appeal of the statesman. Wrongly started, in that it was led into +alienation from its neighbor and taught to rely on the protection of an +outside force, it cannot be merged and lost in the two great parties +through logical currents, for it lacks political conviction and even +that information on which conviction must be based. It must remain a +faction--strong enough in every community to control on the slightest +division of the whites. Under that division it becomes the prey of the +cunning and unscrupulous of both parties. Its credulity is imposed upon, +its patience inflamed, its cupidity tempted, its impulses +misdirected--and even its superstition made to play its part in a +campaign in which every interest of society is jeopardized and every +approach to the ballot-box debauched. It is against such campaigns as +this--the folly and the bitterness and the danger of which every +southern community has drunk deeply--that the white people of the South +are banded together. Just as you in Massachusetts would be banded if +300,000 men, not one in a hundred able to read his ballot--banded in +race instinct holding against you the memory of a century of slavery, +taught by your late conquerors to distrust and oppose you, had already +travestied legislation from your State House, and in every species of +folly or villainy had wasted your substance and exhausted your credit. + +But admitting the right of the whites to unite against this tremendous +menace, we are challenged with the smallness of our vote. This has long +been flippantly charged to be evidence and has now been solemnly and +officially declared to be proof of political turpitude and baseness on +our part. Let us see. Virginia--a State now under fierce assault for +this alleged crime--cast in 1888 seventy-five per cent. of her vote, +Massachusetts, the State in which I speak, sixty per cent. of her vote. +Was it suppression in Virginia and natural causes in Massachusetts? Last +month Virginia cast sixty-nine per cent. of her vote, and Massachusetts, +fighting in every district, cast only forty-nine per cent. of hers. If +Virginia is condemned because thirty-one per cent. of her vote was +silent, how shall this State escape in which fifty-one per cent. was +dumb? Let us enlarge this comparison. The sixteen Southern States in '88 +cast sixty-seven per cent. of their total vote--the six New England +States but sixty-three per cent. of theirs. By what fair rule shall the +stigma be put upon one section, while the other escapes? A congressional +election in New York last week, with the polling place in touch of every +voter, brought out only 6,000 votes of 28,000--and the lack of +opposition is assigned as the natural cause. In a district in my State, +in which an opposition speech has not been heard in ten years and the +polling places are miles apart--under the unfair reasoning of which my +section has been a constant victim--the small vote is charged to be +proof of forcible suppression. In Virginia an average majority of +12,000, under hopeless division of the minority, was raised to 42,000; +in Iowa, in the same election, a majority of 32,000 was wiped out and an +opposition majority of 8,000 was established. The change of 40,000 votes +in Iowa is accepted as political revolution--in Virginia an increase of +30,000 on a safe majority is declared to be proof of political fraud. + +It is deplorable, sir, that in both sections a larger percentage of the +vote is not regularly cast. But more inexplicable that this should be so +in New England, than in the South. What invites the negro to the +ballot-box? He knows that of all men it has promised him most and +yielded him least. His first appeal to suffrage was the promise of +"forty acres and a mule." His second, the threat that Democratic success +meant his re-enslavement. Both have been proved false in his experience. +He looked for a home, and he got the Freedman's Bank. He fought under +promise of the loaf, and in victory was denied the crumbs. Discouraged +and deceived, he has realized at last that his best friends are his +neighbors with whom his lot is cast, and whose prosperity is bound up in +his--and that he has gained nothing in politics to compensate the loss +of their confidence and sympathy, that is at last his best and enduring +hope. And so, without leaders or organization--and lacking the resolute +heroism of my party friends in Vermont that make their hopeless march +over the hills a high and inspiring pilgrimage--he shrewdly measures the +occasional agitator, balances his little account with politics, touches +up his mule, and jogs down the furrow letting the mad world wag as it +will! + +The negro vote can never control in the South, and it would be well if +partisans at the North would understand this. I have seen the white +people of a State set about by black hosts until their fate seemed +sealed. But, sir, some brave man, banding them together, would rise, as +Elisha rose in beleaguered Samaria, and, touching their eyes with faith, +bid them look abroad to see the very air "filled with the chariots of +Israel and the horsemen thereof." If there is any human force that +cannot be withstood, it is the power of the banded intelligence and +responsibility of a free community. Against it, numbers and corruption +cannot prevail. It cannot be forbidden in the law, or divorced in force. +It is the inalienable right of every free community--the just and +righteous safeguard against an ignorant or corrupt suffrage. It is on +this, sir, that we rely in the South. Not the cowardly menace of mask or +shotgun, but the peaceful majesty of intelligence and responsibility, +massed and unified for the protection of its homes and the preservation +of its liberty. That, sir, is our reliance and our hope, and against it +all the powers of earth shall not prevail. It was just as certain that +Virginia would come back to the unchallenged control of her white +race--that before the moral and material power of her people once more +unified, opposition would crumble until its last desperate leader was +left alone, vainly striving to rally his disordered hosts--as that night +should fade in the kindling glory of the sun. You may pass force bills, +but they will not avail. You may surrender your own liberties to federal +election law, you may submit, in fear of a necessity that does not +exist, that the very form of this government may be changed, you may +invite federal interference with the New England town meeting, that has +been for a hundred years the guarantee of local government in +America--this old State which holds in its charter the boast that it "is +a free and independent commonwealth"--it may deliver its election +machinery into the hands of the government it helped to create--but +never, sir, will a single State of this Union, North or South, be +delivered again to the control of an ignorant and inferior race. We +wrested our State governments from negro supremacy when the Federal +drum-beat rolled closer to the ballot-box, and Federal bayonets hedged +it deeper about than will ever again be permitted in this free +government. But, sir, though the cannon of this Republic thundered in +every voting district of the South, we still should find in the mercy of +God the means and the courage to prevent its re-establishment. I regret, +sir, that my section, hindered with this problem, stands in seeming +estrangement to the North. If, sir, any man will point out to me a path +down which the white people of the South, divided, may walk in peace and +honor, I will take that path though I take it alone--for at its end, and +nowhere else, I fear, is to be found the full prosperity of my section +and the full restoration of this Union. But, sir, if the negro had not +been enfranchised, the South would have been divided and the republic +united. His enfranchisement--against which I enter no protest--holds +the South united and compact. What solution, then, can we offer for the +problem? Time alone can disclose it to us. We simply report progress, +and ask your patience. If the problem be solved at all--and I firmly +believe it will, though nowhere else has it been--it will be solved by +the people most deeply bound in interest, most deeply pledged in honor +to its solution. I had rather see my people render back this question +rightly solved than to see them gather all the spoils over which faction +has contended since Catiline conspired and Caesar fought. Meantime we +treat the negro fairly, measuring to him justice in the fulness the +strong should give to the weak, and leading him in the steadfast ways of +citizenship that he may no longer be the prey of the unscrupulous and +the sport of the thoughtless. We open to him every pursuit in which he +can prosper, and seek to broaden his training and capacity. We seek to +hold his confidence and friendship--and to pin him to the soil with +ownership, that he may catch in the fire of his own hearthstone that +sense of responsibility the shiftless can never know. And we gather him +into that alliance of intelligence and responsibility, that, though it +now runs close to racial lines, welcomes the responsible and intelligent +of any race. By this course, confirmed in our judgment, and justified in +the progress already made, we hope to progress slowly but surely to the +end. + +The love we feel for that race, you cannot measure nor comprehend. As I +attest it here, the spirit of my old black mammy, from her home up +there, looks down to bless, and through the tumult of this night steals +the sweet music of her croonings as thirty years ago she held me in her +black arms and led me smiling to sleep. This scene vanishes as I speak, +and I catch a vision of an old Southern home with its lofty pillars and +its white pigeons fluttering down through the golden air. I see women +with strained and anxious faces, and children alert yet helpless. I see +night come down with its dangers and its apprehensions, and in a big +homely room I feel on my tired head the touch of loving hands--now worn +and wrinkled, but fairer to me yet than the hands of mortal woman, and +stronger yet to lead me than the hands of mortal man--as they lay a +mother's blessing there, while at her knees--the truest altar I yet +have found--I thank God that she is safe in her sanctuary, because her +slaves, sentinel in the silent cabin, or guard at her chamber door, puts +a black man's loyalty between her and danger. + +I catch another vision. The crisis of battle--a soldier struck, +staggering, fallen. I see a slave, scuffling through the smoke, winding +his black arms about the fallen form, reckless of hurtling +death--bending his trusty face to catch the words that tremble on the +stricken lips, so wrestling meantime with agony that he would lay down +his life in his master's stead. I see him by the weary bedside, +ministering with uncomplaining patience, praying with all his humble +heart that God will lift his master up, until death comes in mercy and +in honor to still the soldier's agony and seal the soldier's life. I see +him by the open grave, mute, motionless, uncovered, suffering for the +death of him who in life fought against his freedom. I see him, when the +mould is heaped and the great drama of his life is closed, turn away and +with downcast eyes and uncertain step start out into new and strange +fields, faltering, struggling, but moving on, until his shambling figure +is lost in the light of this better and brighter day. And from the grave +comes a voice saying, "Follow him! put your arms about him in his need, +even as he put his about me. Be his friend as he was mine." And out into +this new world--strange to me as to him, dazzling, bewildering both--I +follow! And may God forget my people--when they forget these! + +Whatever the future may hold for them, whether they plod along in the +servitude from which they have never been lifted since the Cyrenian was +laid hold upon by the Roman soldiers, and made to bear the cross of the +fainting Christ--whether they find homes again in Africa, and thus +hasten the prophecy of the psalmist, who said: "And suddenly Ethiopia +shall hold out her hands unto God"--whether for ever dislocated and +separate, they remain a weak people, beset by stronger, and exist, as +the Turk, who lives in the jealousy rather than in the conscience of +Europe--or whether in this miraculous Republic they break through the +caste of twenty centuries, and, belying universal history, reach the +full stature of citizenship, and in peace maintain it--we shall give +them uttermost justice and abiding friendship. And whatever we do, into +whatever seeming estrangement we may be driven, nothing shall disturb +the love we bear this Republic, or mitigate our consecration to its +service. I stand here, Mr. President, to profess no new loyalty. When +General Lee, whose heart was the temple of our hopes, and whose arm was +clothed with our strength, renewed his allegiance to this government at +Appomattox, he spoke from a heart too great to be false, and he spoke +for every honest man from Maryland to Texas. From that day to this +Hamilcar has nowhere in the South sworn young Hannibal to hatred and +vengeance, but everywhere to loyalty and to love. Witness the veteran +standing at the base of a Confederate monument, above the graves of his +comrades, his empty sleeve tossing in the April wind, adjuring the young +men about him to serve as earnest and loyal citizens the government +against which their fathers fought. This message, delivered from that +sacred presence, has gone home to the hearts of my fellows! And, sir, I +declare here, if physical courage be always equal to human aspiration, +that they would die, sir, if need be, to restore this Republic their +fathers fought to dissolve! + +Such, Mr. President, is this problem as we see it, such is the temper in +which we approach it, such the progress made. What do we ask of you? +First, patience; out of this alone can come perfect work. Second, +confidence; in this alone can you judge fairly. Third, sympathy; in this +you can help us best. Fourth, give us your sons as hostages. When you +plant your capital in millions, send your sons that they may know how +true are our hearts and may help to swell the Caucasian current until it +can carry without danger this black infusion. Fifth, loyalty to the +Republic--for there is sectionalism in loyalty as in estrangement. This +hour little needs the loyalty that is loyal to one section and yet holds +the other in enduring suspicion and estrangement. Give us the broad and +perfect loyalty that loves and trusts Georgia alike with +Massachusetts--that knows no South, no North, no East, no West, but +endears with equal and patriotic love every foot of our soil, every +State of our Union. + +A mighty duty, sir, and a mighty inspiration impels every one of us +to-night to lose in patriotic consecration whatever estranges, whatever +divides. We, sir, are Americans--and we stand for human liberty! The +uplifting force of the American idea is under every throne on earth. +France, Brazil--these are our victories. To redeem the earth from +kingcraft and oppression--this is our mission! And we shall not fail. +God has sown in our soil the seed of His millennial harvest, and He will +not lay the sickle to the ripening crop until His full and perfect day +has come. Our history, sir, has been a constant and expanding miracle +from Plymouth Rock and Jamestown all the way--aye, even from the hour +when, from the voiceless and traceless ocean, a new world rose to the +sight of the inspired sailor. As we approach the fourth centennial of +that stupendous day--when the old world will come to marvel and to learn +amid our gathered treasures--let us resolve to crown the miracles of our +past with the spectacle of a Republic, compact, united, indissoluble in +the bonds of love--loving from the lakes to the gulf--the wounds of war +healed in every heart as on every hill, serene and resplendent at the +summit of human achievement and earthly glory, blazing out the path and +making clear the way up which all the nations of the earth must come in +God's appointed time! [Great applause.] + + + + +SARAH GRAND + + +MERE MAN + +[Speech of Sarah Grand [Mrs. M'Fall] at the annual ladies' banquet of + the Whitefriars Club, London, May 4, 1900. Max O'Rell [Paul Blouet] + acted as chairman. L. F. Austin, who spoke earlier than Madame Grand, + said, turning to Max O'Rell: "It used to be said of certain + politicians by way of odium that they mumbled the dry bones of + political economy; but you, sir, who sit trembling in that chair + [laughter]--you are trying not to look it, but you are trembling with + apprehension of the delicately anointed barb with which Madame Sarah. + Grand will presently transfix you [laughter]; you must feel that we + shall not very long be permitted even to mumble the barren epigrams of + a vanished ascendancy."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I have the honor to propose the toast of "Mere +Man" [laughter], but why "Mere Man," I want to know? After all that has +been said this evening so truthfully on the subject of "Sovran Woman," +it is impossible for me to use such an epithet without feeling myself in +an invidious position, in the position of the dog that bites the hand +which has just caressed it--or rather I should feel myself in that +position if I were in any way responsible for the use of the ungracious +word. I beg most emphatically to state that I am not in any way +responsible for it. I decline to be identified with such an expression: +I decline to be accused of calling man any names [laughter], any names +that I have not already called him. [Laughter.] I do not decline out of +consideration for mere man altogether, but in self-defence. To use such +an expression deprives me of any dignity which I might myself derive +from the dignity of my subject. Besides, the words in my mouth, were I +to be identified with them, would be used against me as a bomb by a +whole section of the press, to blow me up. [Laughter.] I object to be +blown up for nothing by a whole section of the press. [Laughter.] That +is the sort of thing which almost ruffles my equanimity. My comfort is, +that no one can accuse me of having originated such an expression, +because it is well known no woman ever originated anything. [Laughter.] +I assure you I have seen it so stated in print; and in one article I +read on the subject the perturbation of the writer, lest there should be +any mistake about it, so agitated his grammar that it was impossible to +parse it. I should like to know who was responsible in the first place +for the expression which has been imposed upon me. It seems to me there +is strong presumptive evidence that it was by man himself that man was +dubbed mere man. If the lords of creation choose to masquerade sometimes +as mere man by all means let them. + +The saying is, "In small things, liberty; in great things, unity; in all +things, charity," but when you meet a man who describes himself as a +mere man, you would always do well to ask what he wants, because, since +man first swung himself from his bough in the forest primeval and stood +upright on two legs, he has never assumed that position for nothing. +[Laughter.] My own private opinion, which I confide to you, knowing it +will go no further, is that he assumes that tone, as a rule, to draw +sovran woman. [Laughter.] Mere man is a paradoxical creature--it is not +always possible to distinguish between his sober earnest and his +leg-pulling exercises. [Laughter.] One has to be on one's guard, and woe +be to the woman who in these days displays that absence of the sense of +humor which is such a prominent characteristic of our comic papers. +[Laughter.] I do not mean to say for a moment that man assumes his +"mere man" tone for unpleasant purposes. On the contrary, he assumes it +for party purposes as a rule--for dinner party purposes. [Laughter.] +When man is in his mere man mood sovran woman would do well to ask for +anything that she wants--for it is then that he holds the sceptre out to +her. [Laughter.] Unfortunately, the mood does not last; if it did he +would have given us the suffrage ages ago. Sovran woman is the Uitlander +of civilization--and man is her Boer. [Laughter.] It seems to me that +sovran woman is very much in the position of Queen Esther; she has her +crown, and her kingdom, and her royal robes, but she is liable to have +her head snapped off at any moment. [Laughter.] On the other hand, +there are hundreds of men who have their heads snapped off every day. +[Laughter.] Mere man has his faults, no doubt, but sovran woman also can +be a rasping sort of creature, especially if she does not cultivate +sympathy with cigarettes as she gets older. [Laughter.] Let us be fair +to mere man. Mere man has always treated me with exemplary fairness, and +I certainly have never maintained that the blockhead majority is +entirely composed of men; neither have I ever insinuated that it is man +that makes all the misery. + +Personally, and speaking as a woman whose guiding principle through life +has been never to do anything for herself that she can get a nice man to +do for her [laughter], a principle which I have found entirely +successful, and which I strongly recommend to every other +woman--personally I have always found mere man an excellent comrade. +[Applause.] He has stood by me loyally, and held out an honest hand to +me, and lent me his strength when mine was failing, and helped me +gallantly over many an awkward bit of the way, and that, too, at times +when sovran woman, whom I had so respected and admired and championed, +had nothing for me but bonnet-pins. [Laughter.] It does upset one's +ideas and unsettle one's principles when sovran woman has nothing for +one but bonnet-pins. [Laughter.] The sharp points of those pins have +made me a little doubtful about sovran woman at times--a little apt to +suspect that in private life her name is Mrs. Harris [laughter], but I +must be careful about what I say in this connection lest it should be +supposed that I have been perverted. + +In the great republic of letters to which I have the honor to belong--in +the distinguished position of the letter "Z"--my experience is that +woman suffers no indignity at the hands of man on account of her sex. +That is the sort of experience which creates a prejudice. It is apt to +color the whole of one's subsequent opinions. It gives one a sort of +idea that there are men in the world who would stand by a woman on +occasion; and I must confess that I began life with a very strong +prejudice of that kind. For a woman to have had a good father is to have +been born an heiress. If you had asked me as a child who ran to help me +when I fell, I should have answered, "My daddy." When a woman begins +life with a prejudice of this kind she never gets over it. The prejudice +of a man for his mother is feeble in comparison with the prejudice of a +woman for her father, when she has had a man for her father and not one +of what Shelley called, those-- + + "Things whose trade is over ladies + To lean and flirt and stare and simper, + Till all that is divine in woman + Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman, + Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper."' + +Whatever that woman has to suffer she never loses her faith in man. +Remembering what her father was, she always believes there are good men +and true in the world somewhere. The recollection of her father becomes +a buffer between that woman and the shocks and jars of her after life; +because of him, there is nothing distorted in her point of view, and she +remains sane. It rather spoils a woman in some ways to have a good +husband as well as a good father, because then she is so sure that + + "God's in His heaven, + All's well with the world," + +that she becomes utterly selfish, and cares for nothing that is outside +her own little circle. But the thing to guard against is loss of faith. +Men and women who have lost faith in each other never rise above the +world again--one wing is broken, and they cannot soar. It has been said +that the best way to manage man is to feed the brute [laughter], but +sovran woman never made that discovery for herself--I believe it was a +man in his mere man mood who first confided the secret to some young +wife in distress--somebody else's young wife. [Laughter.] Feed him and +flatter him. Why not? Is there anything more delightful in this world +than to be flattered and fed? Let us do as we would be done by. It seems +to me sometimes that it is impossible in reviewing our social relations +ever to be wholly in earnest. One's opinions do wobble so. [Laughter.] +If one would earn a reputation for consistency one must be like that +great judge who declined to hear more than one side of the case because +he found that hearing the other side only confused him. [Laughter.] + +The thing about mere man which impresses me most, which fills me with +the greatest respect, is not his courage in the face of death, but the +courage with which he faces life. The way in which we face death is not +necessarily more heroic than the way in which we face life. The +probability is that you never think less about yourself than you do at +the moment when you and eternity are face to face. When you are sick +unto death you are too sick to care whether you live or die. In some +great convulsion of nature, a great typhoon, for instance, when the wind +in its fury lashes the walls of the house till they writhe, and there +are the shrieks of people in dire distress, and fire, and the crash of +giant waves, and all that makes for horror, the shock of these brute +irresponsible forces of nature is too tremendous for fear to obtrude. +Thought is suspended--you are in an ecstasy of awful emotion, emotion +made perfect by the very strength of it. + +But when it comes to facing life day after day, and day after day, as so +many men have to face it, the workingmen, in all classes of society, +upon whom the home depends, men whose days are only too often a weary +effort, and whose nights are an ache of anxiety, lest the strength +should give out which means bread, when one thinks of the lives these +men live, and the way in which they live them, the brave, uncomplaining +way in which they fight to the death for those dear to them, when one +considers mere man from this point of view, one is moved to enthusiasm, +and one is fain to confess that "sovran woman" on a pedestal is a poor +sort of creature compared with this kind of mere man in that so often +she not only fails to help and cheer him in his heroic efforts, but to +appreciate that he is making any effort at all. I positively refuse to +subscribe to the assertion, "How poor a thing is man!" [Laughter.] It +takes more genius to be a man than manhood to be a genius. [Applause.] +As to the differences between men and women, I believe that when finally +their accounts have been properly balanced it will be found that it has +been a case of six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, both in the +matter of sovereignty and of mereness [laughter], and, therefore, without +prejudice, I propose that the sixes to which I belong shall rise and +cordially drink to the health of the other half dozens, our kind and +generous hosts of to-night. [Applause.] + + + + +ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT + + +A REMARKABLE CLIMATE + +[Speech of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the seventy-fifth annual dinner of + the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1880. + The President, James C. Carter, in introducing General Grant, said: + "Gentlemen, it is our good fortune to have with us to-night as a guest + an illustrious fellow citizen, who in a great and fortunate career has + been enabled to render signal service to his country and to achieve a + just renown for himself. [Applause.] Long may he live! But however + long, he cannot outlive the regard or the affection of the sons of New + England. I give you, gentlemen, 'The Health of General Grant.'" The + announcement of the toast was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers, + the company standing.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF THE CITY +OF NEW YORK:--I suppose on an occasion of this sort that you will +expect me to say something about this Society and the people of New +England and the pilgrims who first landed on Plymouth Rock. It was my +fortune last night to attend a banquet of this sort in the principal +city on New York harbor. [Applause and laughter.] I did not know until I +went there [Brooklyn] that it was the principal city [laughter]--the +principal city of the harbor of New York, a city whose overflow has +settled up Manhattan Island, which has built up fine houses, business +streets, and shown many evidences of prosperity for a suburb, with a +waste of people flowing across the North River that forms a third if not +one-half the population of a neighboring state. [Applause.] As I say, it +was my good fortune to attend a banquet of this sort of the parent +society [laughter], and to which all the societies known, even including +the one which is now celebrating its first anniversary in Las Vegas, New +Mexico, owe their origin. [Laughter.] I made a few remarks there, in +which I tried to say what I thought were the characteristics of the +people who have descended from the Pilgrims. I thought they were a +people of great frugality, great personal courage, great industry, and +possessed within themselves of qualities which built up this New England +population which has spread out over so much of this land and given so +much character, prosperity, and success to us as a people and a nation. +[Applause.] I retain yet some of the views I then expressed [peals of +laughter], and should have remained convinced that my judgment was +entirely right if it were not that some speakers came after me who have +a better title to speak for the people of New England than myself, and +who dispelled some of those views. [Renewed laughter.] + +It is too many generations back for me to claim to be a New Englander. +Those gentlemen who spoke are themselves New Englanders who have, since +their manhood, emigrated to this great city that I speak of. They +informed me that there was nothing at all in the Pilgrim fathers to give +them the distinguishing characteristics which we attribute to them +[laughter], and that it was all entirely dependent upon the poverty of +the soil and the inclemency of the climate where they landed. [Shouts of +laughter.] They fell upon an ungenial climate, where there were nine +months of winter and three months of cold weather [laughter], and that +had called out the best energies of the men and of the women, too, to +get a mere subsistence out of the soil, with such a climate. In their +efforts to do that they cultivated industry and frugality at the same +time, which is the real foundation of the greatness of the Pilgrims. +[Laughter.] It was even suggested by some that if they had fallen upon a +more genial climate and more fertile soil, they would have been there +yet, in poverty and without industry. [Laughter.] I shall continue to +believe better of them myself, and I believe the Rev. Dr. Storrs, who +spoke here, will agree with me that my first judgment of them was +probably nearly correct. + +However, all jesting aside, we are proud in my section of the country of +the New Englanders and of their descendants. We hope to see them spread +over all this land, and carry with them the principles inculcated in +their own sterile soil from which they sprang. [Applause.] We want to +see them take their independence of character, their self-reliance, +their free schools, their learning, and their industry, and we want to +see them prosper and teach others among whom they settle how to be +prosperous. [Applause.] I am very much obliged to the gentlemen of the +infant New England Society [laughter] for the reception which they have +accorded to me and the other guests of this evening. I shall remember it +with great pleasure, and hope that some day you will invite me again. +[Long-continued applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF NEWSPAPER MEN + +[Speech of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the eighth annual dinner of the New + York Press Club, January 6, 1881. John C. Hennessy, President of the + Press Club, was in the chair, and read the third toast: "The + Republic's Honored ex-President." General Grant, on being introduced + to respond to this toast, was received with a tumult of applause.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW YORK PRESS CLUB:--I confess +to a little embarrassment this evening in being called upon unexpectedly +to say a word to a set of such different men as compose not only the +Press Club, but those associated with the Press of the country. I +thought this was an evening that I was going to spend where all would be +quiet and good order [laughter]; where nobody would have anything to +say. We all know the characteristic modesty of the people associated +with the Press [laughter], they never want to inquire into anybody's +affairs, [laughter], to know where they are going, what they are going +to do, what they are going to say when they get there. [Uproarious +laughter.] I really thought that you would excuse me this evening, but I +suppose you will expect me to say something about the Press--the Press +of New York, the Press of the United States, the Press of the world. It +would take a good deal to tell what is possible for the Press to do. I +confess that, at some periods of my life when I have read what they had +to say about me, I have lost all faith and all hope. [Great laughter.] +But since a young editor has spoken of the Press, and has fixed the +lifetime, the generation of newspaper men at about twelve years +[laughter], I have a growing hope within me that in the future the Press +may be able to do some of the great good which we all admit is possible +for it to do. [Laughter.] I have been somewhat of a reader of the +newspapers for forty years--I could read very well when I was eight +years of age. [Laughter.] It has given me forty years of observation of +the Press; and there is one peculiarity that I have observed from +reading it, and that is, in all of the walks of life outside of the +Press, people have entirely mistaken their profession, their occupation. +[Laughter.] I never knew the Mayor of a city, or even a Councilman in +any city, any public officer, any government official--I never knew a +member of Congress, a Senator or a President of the United States, who +could not be enlightened in his duties by the youngest member of the +profession. [Great laughter and applause.] I never knew a general of the +Army to command a brigade, a division, a corps of the Army who could +begin to do it as well as men far away in their sanctums. [Renewed +laughter.] I was very glad to see that the newspaper fraternity were +ready to take with perfect confidence any office that might be tendered +to them, from President to Mayor [laughter], and I have often been +astonished that the citizens have not done so, because then all these +offices would have been well and properly filled. [Laughter and +applause.] + +Well, gentlemen, I am very happy to have been here with you, and I hope +when a new generation, about twelve years hence, comes on, that I shall +again dine with the Press Club of New York City, and that I shall see +that those of this generation who were so well fitted to fill all of the +civil offices have all been chosen, and that there will be nothing left +for them to criticise. [Peals of laughter.] Thank you, gentlemen. [Great +applause, with "Three cheers" for General Grant.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE ADOPTED CITIZEN + +[Speech of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the 115th annual banquet of the + Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, May 8, 1883. George W. + Lane, President of the Chamber of Commerce, presided, and announced as + the first regular toast: "The United States--the great modern + Republic--the home of a new cosmopolitan race; may those who seek the + blessings of its free institutions and the protection of its flag + remember the obligations they impose." The orchestra played "The + Star-Spangled Banner," and General Grant, who was called upon to + respond to this toast, was received with great enthusiasm.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND +GUESTS:--I am very much obliged to your President for calling upon +me first, because the agony will soon be over and I shall enjoy the +misery of the rest of you. [Laughter.] + +The first part of this toast--The United States--would be a voluminous +one to respond to on a single occasion. Bancroft commenced to publish +his notes on the History of the United States, starting even before +President Lane established this Chamber, which I think was something +over one hundred years ago. [Laughter.] Bancroft, I say, commenced +earlier, and I am not prepared to dispute his word if he should say that +he had kept an accurate journal from the time he commenced to write +about the country to the present, because there has been no period of +time when I have been alive that I have not heard of Bancroft, and I +should be equally credulous if President Lane should tell me that he was +here at the founding of this Institution. [Laughter.] But instead of +bringing those volumes of Bancroft's here, and reading them to you on +this occasion, I will let the reporters publish them as the prelude to +what I am going to say. [Laughter.] + +I think Bancroft has finished up to a little after the time that +President Lane established this Chamber of Commerce, and I will let you +take the records of what he [Lane] has written and what he has said in +their monthly meetings and publish them as the second chapter of my +speech. And, gentlemen, those two chapters you will find the longest; +they will not amount to much more than what I have to say taking up the +subject at the present time. [Laughter.] + +But in speaking of the United States, we who are native-born have a +country of which we may well be proud. Those of us who have been abroad +are better able, perhaps, to make the comparison of our enjoyments and +our comforts than those who have always stayed at home. [Applause.] It +has been the fortune, I presume, of the majority here to compare the +life and the circumstances of the average people abroad with ours here. +We have here a country that affords room for all and room for every +enterprise. We have institutions which encourage every man who has +industry and ability to rise from the position in which he may find +himself to any position in the land. [Applause.] It is hardly worth my +while to dwell upon the subject, but there is one point which I notice +in the toast, that I would like to say a word about--"May those who +seek the blessings of its free institutions and the protection of its +flag remember the obligations they impose." I think there is a text that +my friend Mr. Beecher,[4] on the left, or my friend Dr. Newman,[5] on +the right, might well preach a long sermon upon. I shall say only a few +words. + +We offer an asylum to every man of foreign birth who chooses to come +here and settle upon our soil; we make of him, after a few years' +residence only, a citizen endowed with all the rights that any of us +have, except perhaps the single one of being elected to the Presidency +of the United States. There is no other privilege that a native, no +matter what he has done for the country, has that the adopted citizen of +five years' standing has not got. [Applause.] I contend that that places +upon him an obligation which, I am sorry to say, many of them do not +seem to feel. [Applause,] + +We have witnessed on many occasions here the foreign, the adopted, +citizen claiming many rights and privileges because he was an adopted +citizen. That is all wrong. Let him come here and enjoy all the +privileges that we enjoy, but let him fulfil all the obligations that we +are expected to fulfil. [Loud applause.] After he has adopted it, let +this be his country--a country that he will fight for, and die for, if +necessary. I am glad to say that the great majority of them do it, but +some of them who mingle in politics seem to bank largely on the fact +that they are adopted citizens; and that class I am opposed to as much +as I am opposed to many other things that I see are popular now. +[Applause.] + +I know that other speakers will come forward, and when Mr. Beecher and +Dr. Newman speak, I hope they will say a few words on the text which I +read. [Applause.] + + + + +JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS + + +SOCIAL DISCONTENT + +[Speech of John William Griggs, ex-Governor of New Jersey, at the 128th + annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, + November 17, 1896. Alexander E. Orr, President of the Chamber, + presided. In 1897 ex-Governor Griggs succeeded Joseph McKenna as + Attorney-General in the Cabinet of President McKinley.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I did not know this was +Thanksgiving day. [Laughter.] I did not know that there were any +discontents till I got over here to-night. When I arrive at this period +on an occasion like this, and see you sitting in comfortable +expectation, with your cigars lighted, and your intellects also lighted +by the contact of such a flame as we have received from the +distinguished Postmaster-General [William L. Wilson], I always think +that the composition of the boy on Sir Walter Raleigh is applicable. He +wrote a composition, and it was like this: "Sir Walter Raleigh was a +very great man; he took a voyage and discovered America, and then he +took another voyage and discovered Virginia, and when he had discovered +Virginia he discovered the potato; and when he had discovered the +potato, he discovered tobacco. And when he had done so, he called his +associates about him, and said: 'My friends, be of good cheer; for we +have this day lighted in England a flame which, by God's grace, shall +never be quenched.'" [Laughter.] + +New Jersey greets to-night the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New +York. [Applause.] We are your friends and your neighbors. We have +furnished you a candidate in this election, who represents in the person +of Garret A. Hobart [applause] the sympathies and the sentiments of such +men as I see gathered here. We take much of our inspiration from New +York; not all of it. [Laughter.] We have some kinds of inspiration +peculiar to ourselves, of which we are always glad to invite our New +York friends to partake in moderation and properly diluted. [Laughter.] + +Our citizens mingle with yours in all the daily walks of life. We read +the same newspapers. We dress as you do, only not so well; and we vote +the same ticket, by a large majority. [Applause.] This similarity is not +always apparent. The impressions of the traveller through New Jersey are +generally of salt marsh and sand banks and long monotonous stretches of +landscape, and, where the railroad pierces some shabby neighborhood, the +weather-boards bear shining invitations to take various brands of liver +pills [laughter], to chew "Virgin leaf," or to "give the baby Castoria;" +but we have green meadows bright with shining brooks; we have high +mountains and pleasant valleys as well as marsh and sand dunes; and, +instead of liver-pills and Castoria, by a large majority, we are for the +gold cure. [Great applause.] + +I cannot let this opportunity pass without referring to the great work +which this Chamber has wrought for the state and city whose name it +bears and for the country at large. It is a long interval since these +dinners were held at Fraunce's tavern, but during all that period, this +institution has stood as the pilot, the guide, the director, and pioneer +in all wise policies of commerce and trade and patriotism. [Applause.] +You have bestowed not only wisdom and enlightenment and courage on the +world of commerce, but millions of dollars upon the unfortunate victims +of fire and flood and fever. You have been the promoters of good fortune +and the comforters of misfortune. I wish that the people of this land +could understand how much true and loyal patriotism, how much +disinterested devotion to the highest interests of the country are found +among just such men as compose the Chamber of Commerce of the State of +New York. [Applause.] + +During your corporate life you have seen a great country grow into +independence; you have seen it advance and extend along all the lines of +progress and prosperity until the seven wonders of the world, of which +we learned in our youth, have been lost sight of and forgotten in the +thousand greater wonders of this industrial age. You have seen +education become the common provision of every State for every child of +the Republic. You have seen intelligence increase; you have seen reason +and reasonableness, the ability to take right views of things, become +more universal among this people than among the people of any other +land. [Applause.] You have seen the average of comfort and prosperity +higher among all classes in this country than could be found at any +other age of the world and any other land upon the surface of the earth. +[Applause.] + +And yet there are complainings, there are discontents, and there are +dissatisfactions, and gloomy minds think they see, in these, evidences +and signs that there is coming a social revolution, an overturning of +our system of popular government, and the substitution for it of some +plan whereby, by legal enactments, all the citizens of the Republic can +be made comfortable and rich without regard to fortune or ability or +frugality or merit. + +In one sense discontent is a good thing. It is the opposite of +self-satisfaction. [Laughter.] It is a good thing to appreciate that we +have not done our best, and then try to do it. It is a good thing to +understand that we have not made the most of our opportunities. In this +sense, discontent is the spur of ambition, the incentive to better work, +the mountain of progress up which, from height to height, civilization +has climbed to where now with shining face she stands still pointing +upward to heights unknown. [Applause.] + +But there is another kind of discontent, born of ignorant and jealous +envy, that seeks not to repair its mistakes nor to profit by its +failures, not to build up, but to tear down. There is in many a sense of +hopelessness over hopeless misfortune; and with these it is more to +pity than to blame. But, withal, in these discontents there is a menace +to the Republic. They afford the opportunity for the demagogue and the +cheap candidate for public office. [Laughter and applause.] Glory to the +American people! They cannot be fooled all the time, nor some of the +time. They are too level-headed, too intelligent, too patriotic to be +caught by appeals of the demagogue and the social revolutionist, to the +dictates and sentiments of envy, hatred and malice. + +May I venture to suggest that there are some ways by which it is +possible for us to minimize the danger we find in these discontents? The +American people, as I have said, have not up to date been fooled. They +are the nation's court; they deserve a better certificate of character +than a certain colored man who, when he was about to leave his master's +employ because of the mysterious disappearance of certain small articles +about the house, asked for a certificate of character to take to his +next employer, and his employer said: "Well, 'Rastus, I can give you a +good certificate for energy and ability, but I cannot say much about +your honesty." "Tell you what, boss," says 'Rastus, after a moment's +reflection: "can't you put it in that I am just as honest as my +instincts will let me be?" [Laughter.] + +The first remedy I would suggest, and it is one that is to be ever +applied, is education. Reduce the percentage of illiteracy. Let the +public schools teach not only reading and writing, but let public +schools teach all the principles of American popular government. +[Applause.] Let us go back to the days in which I was taught to write, +when the copybook bore a text taken from Poor Richard--"Industry and +frugality lead to wealth," or "Who by the plough would thrive, himself +must either hold or drive,"--there was not anything said in those days +about legislating a boy into wealth or comfort or ease, especially at +the expense of anybody else. [Applause.] + +The next remedy I would speak of is to cast out the demagogue. They are +the fellows that are the curse of both and of all political parties. We +have had them from the days of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony down to +date. [Laughter.] These smooth, sleek, mellifluous-tongued fellows that +always have the same blood-stained garment to hold up before the +populace, and some forged will to read, whereby the people were to get +great legacies which they never could collect, let us cast them out. Let +us frown upon them in both parties, so that they never have a standing +on any political platform. [Applause.] Why, it makes the blood of an +honest, straightforward, intelligent, American citizen boil to see the +impudence, the hypocrisy, of men of this kind,--and they belong to both +parties. I heard a story of one who used, when Long Branch was more +popular than it is now, to go down there for a summer outing. One day +he went out in the surf to bathe. He was strong and vigorous and bold, +and he swam out beyond the breakers; he was heading strongly and +fearlessly for the European shore. All at once, a shark, a man-eater, +was coming the other way, and swam up squarely in front of him. They +eyed each other for a moment, and then the shark blushed and swam out. +[Laughter and applause.] + +Then, let us have more mutual sympathy and confidence between all +classes and conditions of men. The man who works for wages, day by day, +is our equal in right and our equal at the ballot-box. Very often he +has, generally he has, as high instincts, as loyal and true a heart, as +his employer. [Applause.] There is no reason why his employer or the +candidate for office or anybody else should make friends with him only +about election-time. Be his friend all the year round. Show him that you +sympathize with him as a fellow-citizen. This is not condescension. It +is his right. It is not altruism. You understand what that is. The +teacher told her class in Sunday-school: "Now, my children, you know an +altruist is one who sacrifices his own interests to the interests of his +fellows." "Oh! yes," says one boy, "I know; a fellow who makes his +sacrifice hit." [Laughter.] + +But let there be confidence between the men that earn wages and the men +that pay wages. Let them meet together on a plane of political equality, +and they will learn to respect the employer, and the employer, take my +word for it, will learn to respect them. [Applause.] + +And then, let us stop making citizens out of unworthy material. +[Applause.] We welcome all those that come from over the sea, men of +merit and worth and proper instincts who want to build and work among +us. We do not want those who only come here to tear down and destroy. We +have had the gates wide open. They have been coming--all sorts and all +conditions and all beliefs. Let us shut those gates, and open them +hereafter only to men of merit with right instincts. [Applause.] The law +of the land declares that no subject of any foreign government shall be +naturalized unless he can prove to the satisfaction of the court that he +has been well attached to the principles of the Constitution of the +United States. How that provision has been mocked! Why, we have taken +into citizenship with us thousands of men who not only were not attached +to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, who not only +did not know what those principles are, but who held principles +diametrically opposed to it. Now, let us see that America suffers no +longer from indigestion [laughter], from a surfeited feast of foreign +anarchists and socialists and revolutionists; give us good men and true, +who will not impede our digestion, and keep out those that tend to +indigestion. [Applause.] + +And then, let every citizen go into politics. [Laughter.] Oh, not for +what is in it, but for the good of his country, to speak, write, +organize, lead processions and keep it up. Rally round the flag, and +keep on rallying! [Applause.] Do not let your enthusiasm and your +patriotism evaporate and die away in the shouts that follow one +triumphant campaign. Keep them up the whole year round--the four years +round. You have heard from two sources, to-night, how important it is +that we should always be vigilant and alert to defend, to educate and +scatter knowledge and the spirit of intelligence among all the people. +It is a very old saying but can never be too often repeated, that +"eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." + + "O freedom! thou art not, as poets dream, + A fair young girl with light and delicate limbs, + And wavy tresses gushing from the cap + With which the Roman master crowned his slave, + When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, + Arm'd to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand + Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow, + Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarr'd + With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs + Are strong with struggling.... Oh! not yet, + Mayst thou unbrace thy corselet nor lay by + Thy sword; nor yet, O Freedom! close thy lids + In slumber; for thine enemy never sleeps, + And thou must watch and combat till the day + Of the new earth and heaven." + +[Great applause.] + + + + +EDWARD EVERETT HALE + + +THE MISSION OF CULTURE + +[Speech of Edward Everett Hale, D.D., at the seventy-first annual + dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December + 22, 1876. The President, William Borden, gave the fifth regular toast, + to which Dr. Hale responded, as follows: "New England Culture--the + open secret of her greatness." + + "Yet on her rocks, and on her sands, + And wintry hills the school-house stands, + And what her rugged soil denies, + The harvest of the mind supplies. + The riches of the Commonwealth + Are free strong minds and hearts of health + And, more to her than gold or grain + The cunning hand and cultured brain."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--You seem to have a very frank way +of talking about each other among yourselves here. I observe that I am +the first stranger who has crossed the river which, I recollect Edward +Winslow says, divides the Continent of New England from the Continent of +America [laughter], and, as a stranger, it is my pleasure and duty at +once to express the thanks and congratulations of the invited guest here +for the distinguished care which has been taken on this occasion +outdoors to make us feel entirely at home. [Laughter.] As I came down in +the snow-storm, I could not help feeling that Elder Brewster, and +William Bradford, and Carver, and Winslow could not have done better +than this in Plymouth; and indeed, as I ate my pork and beans just now, +I felt that the Gospel of New England is extending beyond the +Connecticut to other nations, and that what is good to eat and drink in +Boston is good to eat and drink even here on this benighted point at +Delmonico's. [Laughter.] + +When you talk to us about "culture," that is rather a dangerous word. I +am always a little afraid of the word "culture." I recollect the very +brightest squib that I read in the late election campaign--and as the +President says, gentlemen, I am going to respect the proprieties of the +occasion. It was sent to one of the journals from the Western Reserve; +and the writer, who, if I have rightly guessed his name, is one of the +most brilliant of our younger poets, was descanting on the Chinook +vocabulary, in which a Chinook calls an Englishman a Chinchog to this +day, in memory of King George. And this writer says that when they have +a young chief whose war-paint is very perfect, whose blanket is +thoroughly embroidered, whose leggins are tied up with exactly the right +colors, and who has the right kind of star upon his forehead and cheeks, +but who never took a scalp, never fired an arrow, and never smelled +powder, but was always found at home in the lodges whenever there was +anything that scented of war--he says the Chinooks called that man by +the name of "Boston Cultus." [Applause and laughter.] Well, now, +gentlemen, what are you laughing at? Why do you laugh? Some of you had +Boston fathers, and more of you had Boston mothers. Why do you laugh? +Ah! you have seen these people, as I have seen them, as everybody has +seen them--people who sat in Parker's and discussed every movement of +the campaign in the late war, and told us that it was all wrong, that we +were going to the bad, but who never shouldered a musket. They are +people who tell us that the emigration, that the Pope of Rome, or the +German element, or the Irish element, is going to play the dogs with our +social system, and yet they never met an emigrant on the wharf or had a +word of comfort to say to a foreigner. We have those people in Boston. +You may not have them in New York, and I am very glad if you have not; +but if you are so fortunate, it is the only place on God's earth where I +have not found such people. [Laughter and applause.] But there is +another kind of culture which began even before there was any +Boston--for there was such a day as that. [Laughter.] There were ten +years in the history of this worlds ten long years, too, before Boston +existed, and those are the years between Plymouth Rock and the day when +some unfortunate men, not able to get to Plymouth Rock, stopped and +founded that city. [Laughter.] This earlier culture is a culture not of +the schoolhouse, or of the tract, but a culture as well of the church, +of history, of the town-meeting, as John Adams says; that nobler culture +to which my friend on the right has alluded when he says that it is born +of the Spirit of God--the culture which has made New England, which is +born of God, and which it is our mission to carry over the world. +[Applause.] + +In the very heart of that culture--representing it, as I think, in a +very striking way, half-way back to the day we celebrate--Ezra Styles, +one of the old Connecticut men, published a semi-centennial address. It +seems strange that they should have centennials then, but they had. He +published a semi-centennial address in the middle of the last century, +on the condition of New England, and the prospects before her. He +prophesied what New England was to be in the year 1852. He calculated +the population descending from the twenty thousand men who emigrated in +the beginning, and he calculated it with great accuracy. He said, "There +will be seven million men, women, and children, descended from the men +who came over with Winslow and with Winthrop," and it proved that he was +perfectly right. He went on to sketch the future of New England when +these seven million should crowd her hillsides, her valleys, her farms, +and her shops all over the four States of New England. For it didn't +occur to him, as he looked forward, that one man of them all would ever +go west of Connecticut, or west of Massachusetts. [Applause.] He cast +his horoscope for a population of seven million people living in the old +New England States, in the midst of this century. He did not read, as my +friend here does, the missionary spirit of New England. He did not know +that they would be willing to go across the arm of the ocean which +separated the Continent of New England from the Continent of America. +[Laughter.] All the same, gentlemen, seven million people are somewhere, +and they have not forgotten the true lessons which make New England what +she is. They tell me there are more men of New England descent in San +Francisco than in Boston to-day. All those carried with them their +mothers' lessons, and they mean their mothers' lessons shall bear fruit +away out in Oregon, in California, in South Carolina, in Louisiana. +[Applause.] They have those mothers' lessons to teach them to do +something of what we are trying to do at home in this matter. +[Applause.] We have been so fortunate in New England in this Centennial +year that we are able to dedicate a noble monument of the past to the +eternal memory of the Pilgrim principle. We have been so fortunate that +we are able to consecrate the old South Meeting-House in Boston to the +cause of fostering this Pilgrim principle [applause], that it may be +from this time forward a monument, not of one branch of the Christian +religion, not of one sect or another, but of that universal religion, +that universal patriotism, which has made America, and which shall +maintain America. [Applause.] For myself, I count it providential that +in this Centennial year of years this venerable monument, that monument +whose bricks and rafters are all eloquent of religion and liberty, that +that monument has passed from the possession of one sect and one State +to belong to the whole nation, to be consecrated to American liberty, +and to nothing but American liberty. [Applause.] I need not say--for it +is taken for granted when such things are spoken of--that when it was +necessary for New England to act at once for the security of this great +monument, we had the active aid and hearty assistance of the people of +New York, who came to us and helped us and carried that thing right +through. [Applause.] I am surrounded here with the people who had to do +with the preservation of that great monument for the benefit of the +history of this country for ever. + +Let me say, in one word, what purposes it is proposed this great +monument shall serve, for I think they are entirely in line with what we +are to consider to-night. We propose to establish here what I might +fairly call a university for the study of the true history of this +country. And we propose, in the first place, to make that monument of +the past a great Santa Croce, containing the statues and portraits of +the men who have made this country what it is. Then we propose to +establish an institute for the people of America from Maine to San +Francisco, the people of every nationality and every name; and we hope +that such societies as this, and all others interested in the progress +and preservation of the interest of our country, will aid us in the +work. [Applause.] For we believe that the great necessity of this hour +is that higher education in which this people shall know God's work with +man. We hope that the Forefathers' societies, the Sam Adams clubs, the +Centennial clubs over the land, shall make the State more proud of its +fathers, and more sure of the lessons which they lived. We mean by the +spoken voice and by the most popular printed word, circulated +everywhere, to instil into this land that old lesson of New England +culture. We stand by the side of those of you who believe in compulsory +education. We desire, in looking to the future, that the determination +shall be made here by us, as it has been in England, that every child +born on American soil shall learn to read and write. [Applause.] + +But there is a great deal more to be taught than that. There is a great +deal which the common school does not teach and cannot teach, when it +teaches men to read. We not only want to teach them to read, but we want +to teach them what is worth reading. And we want to instil the +principles by which the nation lives. We have got to create in those who +came from the other side of the water the same loyalty to the whole of +American principles that each man feels to his native country. + +What is this Constitution for which we have been fighting, and which +must be preserved? It is a most delicate mutual adjustment of the powers +and rights of a nation, among and because of the powers and rights of +thirty or forty States. It exists because they exist. That it may stand, +you need all their mutual rivalries, you need every sentiment of local +pride, you need every symbol and laurel of their old victories and +honors. You need just this homestead feeling which to-night we are +cherishing. + +But that balance is lost, that whole system is thrown out of gear, if +the seven million people of foreign parentage here are indifferent to +the record of New York as they are to that of Illinois, to that of +Illinois as to that of Louisiana, to that of Louisiana as to that of +Maine; if they have no local pride; if to them the names of Montgomery, +of John Hancock, of Samuel Adams, have no meaning, no association with +the past. [Applause.] Unless they also acquire this local feeling, +unless they share the pride and reverence of the native American for the +State in which he is born, for the history which is his glory, all these +delicate balances and combinations are worthless, all your revolving +planets fall into your sun! It is the national education in the +patriotism of the Fathers, an education addressing itself to every man, +woman, and child from Katahdin to the Golden Gate--it is this, and only +this, which will insure the perpetuity of your republic. [Applause.] + +Now, gentlemen, if you would like to try an experiment in this matter, +go into one of your public schools, next week, and ask what Saratoga +was, and you will be told it is a great watering-place where people go +to spend money. You will find there is not one in ten who will be able +to tell you that there the Hessian was crushed, and foreign bayonets +forever driven from the soil of New York. [Applause.] Ask about +Brandywine, the place where Lafayette shed his young blood, where a +little handful of American troops were defeated, yet, although they were +defeated, broke the force of the English army for one critical year. Put +the word Brandywine in one of your public schools, and you will see that +the pupils laugh at the funny conjunction of the words "brandy" and +"wine," but they can tell you nothing about the history which made the +name famous. It seems to me it is dangerous to have your children +growing up in such ignorance of the past. [Applause.] How much did they +know here about the day when, a short time since, you celebrated the +battle of Haarlem Heights, where the British were shown that to land on +American soil was not everything? Is it quite safe for your children to +grow up in ignorance of your past, while you are looking down upon the +century of the future? The great institution we are hoping for in the +future is to carry this New England culture above the mere mathematics +of life, and to incorporate into all education that nobler culture which +made the men who made the Revolution, which made the men who have +sustained this country. [Applause.] We shall ask for the solid +assistance of all the Forefathers' stock in the country to carry out +this great work of national education, and I am quite sure, from what I +have seen here to-night, that we shall not ask in vain. [Applause.] + +I ought to apologize for speaking so long. I am conscious of the fact +that I am a fraud, and I am nothing but a fraud. [Laughter.] The truth +is, gentlemen (I say this as I am sitting down), I have no business to +be here at all. I am not a Pilgrim, nor the son of a Pilgrim, nor the +grandson of a Pilgrim; there is not one drop of Pilgrim blood in my +veins. I am a "forefather" myself (for I have six children), but I am +not the son of a forefather. I had one father; most men have [laughter]; +I have two grandfathers, I have four great-grandfathers, but I have not +four-fathers. [Laughter.] I want to explain, now, how all this happened, +because something is due to me before you put me out of the room. Like +most men, I had eight great-great-grandfathers--so have you; so have +you. If you run it up, I have got sixty-four great-grandfathers +of the grandfathers of my grandfathers, and I have sixty-four +great-grandmothers of the grandmothers of my grandmothers. There were +one hundred and twenty-eight of these people the day the "Mayflower" +sailed. There were one hundred and twenty-eight of them in England eager +to come over here, looking forward to this moment, gentlemen, when we +meet here at Delmonico's, and they were hoping and praying, every man of +them and every woman of them, that I might be here at this table +to-night [laughter], and they meant me to be; and every one of them +would have come here in the "Mayflower" but for Miles Standish, as I +will explain. The "Mayflower," you know, started from Holland. They had +to go to Holland first to learn the Dutch language. [Laughter.] They +started from Holland, and they came along the English Channel and +stopped at Plymouth in England. They stopped there to get the last +edition of the London "Times" for that day, in order that they might +bring over early copies to the New York "Tribune" and New York "World". +These ancestors of mine, the legend says, were all on the dock at +Plymouth waiting for them. It was a bad night, a very bad night. It +fogged as it can only fog in England. [Laughter.] They waited on the +wharf there two hours, as you wait at the Brooklyn and Jersey ferries, +for the "Mayflower" to come along. Methinks I see her now, the +"Mayflower" of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospect of a fertile +State and bound across an unknown sea. Her dark and weather-beaten form +looms wearily from the deep, when the pilot brings her up at the +Plymouth dock, and a hundred and twenty-eight of my ancestors press +forward. They were handsome men and fair women. When they all pressed +forward, Miles Standish was on hand and met them. He was on board and +looked at them. He went back to the governor, and said, "Here are one +hundred and twenty-eight of as fine emigrants as I ever saw." "Well," +Governor Carver said, "the capacity of the vessel, as prescribed in the +emigrant act, is already exceeded." Miles Standish said, "I think we +could let them in." The Governor said, "No, they cannot come in." Miles +Standish went back to the gangway, and said, "You are handsome men, but +you can't come in;" and they had to stand there, every man and every +woman of them. [Laughter.] + +That is the unfortunate reason why I had no ancestors at the landing of +the Pilgrims. [Laughter.] But my ancestors looked westward still. They +stayed in England, praying that they might come, and when Winthrop, ten +years afterwards, sailed, he took them all on board, and if the little +State of Massachusetts has done anything to carry out the principles of +the men who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, why, some little part of +the credit is due to my humble ancestry. [Laughter and applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +BOSTON + +[Speech of Edward Everett Hale, D.D., at the first annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. The + President, Benjamin D. Silliman, in proposing the toast, "Boston," + said: "We are favored with the company of a typical and eloquent + Bostonian, identified with all that is learned and benevolent in that + ancient home of the Puritans, and familiar with all its notions. In + response to the toast, we call on the Rev. Edward Everett Hale."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I am sure that there is not a +Boston boy who hears me to-night who does not recollect that when he +went out to his first Pilgrim dinner, or to see Fanny Kemble or to any +other evening dissipation of fifty years ago, the last admonition of his +mother was, "We will leave the candle burning for you, John, but you +must be sure and be home before twelve o'clock!" I am sure that the +memory of this admonition is lingering among our friends now, that we +are entering on the small hours, and that I must only acknowledge your +courtesy and sit down. I feel, indeed, all along in your talk of hoar +antiquity, that I owe my place here only to your extreme hospitality. In +these aged cities you may well say to me, "You Bostonians are children. +You are of yesterday," as the Egyptians said to the Greek traveller. For +we are still stumbling along like little children, in the anniversaries +of our quarter-millennium; but we understand perfectly well that the +foundations of this city were laid in dim antiquity. I know that nobody +knows when Brooklyn was founded. Your commerce began so long ago that +nobody can remember it, but I know that there was a beaver trap on every +brook in Kings County, while Boston was still a howling wilderness. +These noble ancestors of yours had made themselves at home on Plymouth +Rock before we had built a flat-boat on any river in Massachusetts Bay. +[Applause.] + +It is only as the youngest daughter, quite as a Cinderella, that we of +Boston have any claim on your matchless hospitality. But, as Cinderella +should, we have done our best at home to make ready our sisters when +they should go to the ball. When my brother Beecher, just now, closed +his speech with a Latin quotation, I took some satisfaction in +remembering that we taught him his Latin at the Boston Latin school. And +I could not but remember when I listened with such delight to the +address of Mr. Secretary Evarts, which you have just now been cheering, +that the first time I heard this persuasive and convincing orator, was +when he took the prize for elocution, a boy of thirteen, on the platform +in the great hall in our old schoolhouse in School Street. Nay, I +confess also, to a little feeling of local as well as national pride, +when the President of the United States [Rutherford B. Hayes] was +speaking. Just as he closes this remarkable administration, which is +going to stand out in history, distinguished indeed among all +administrations from the beginning, so pure has it been, so honorable +and so successful--just as he closes this administration he makes here +this statement of the principles on which are based the success of an +American statesman, in a few fit words so epigrammatic that they will be +cited as proverbs by our children and our children's children. I heard +that masterly definition of the laws which have governed the New +Englander, I took pride in remembering that the President also was a +graduate of our law school. These three are the little contributions +which Cinderella has been preparing in the last half-century, for the +first dinner-party of the Brooklyn Pilgrim Society. [Applause.] + +I read in a New York newspaper in Washington the other day that +something done in Boston lately was done with the "usual Boston +intensity." I believe the remark was not intended to be a compliment, +but we shall take it as one, and are quite willing to accept the phrase. +I think it is true in the past, I hope it will be true in the future, +that we go at the things which we have to do with a certain intensity, +which I suppose we owe to these Puritan Fathers whom to-night we are +celebrating. Certainly we have gone at this business of emigration with +that intensity. It is perfectly true that there are in Brooklyn to-day +more people than there are in Boston, who were born in Boston from the +old New England blood. Not that Brooklyn has been any special favorite. +When I met last year in Kansas, a mass meeting of twenty-five thousand +of the old settlers and their children, my daughter said to me: "Papa, I +am glad to see so many of our own countrymen." She certainly had never +seen so many before, without intermixture of people of foreign races. +Now it is certainly our wish to carry that intensity into everything. If +the thing is worth doing at all it is worth doing thoroughly. What we do +we mean to do it for everybody. You have seen the result. We try, for +instance, if we open a Latin school at all, to have it the best Latin +school in the world. And then we throw it open to everybody, to native +and heathen, to Jew and to Greek, to white and black and red, and we +advise you to go and do likewise. [Applause.] + +You recollect the old joke, I think it began with Preston of South +Carolina, that Boston exported no articles of native growth but granite +and ice. That was true then, but we have improved since, and to these +exports we have added roses and cabbages. Mr. President, they are good +roses, and good cabbages, and I assure you that the granite is excellent +hard granite, and the ice is very cold ice. [Laughter and applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM F. HALL + + +YARN OF THE MANAGER BOLD + +[Speech of William P. Hall (popularly known by his pen name, "Biff" + Hall) at the fortieth dinner of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill., + January 7, 1892. The Secretary, Joseph B. Mann, acted as Chairman. The + general subject of the evening's discussion was, "The Modern Stage; + its Mission and Influence."] + + +GENTLEMEN.:--I must confess that I have never regarded the +drama in a very serious light. As to its purpose and mission, if I was +trying to find out, I should consult the pleasant-faced young man who +sits in the box-office. He knows how these things stand with the public. +Perhaps the reason I do so regard the matter may be found in my early +experiences. The first theatrical performance I ever saw was in this +city twenty-five years ago, and one of the prominent features was our +old friend, Billy Rice.[6] Billy Rice never gives rise to a serious +thought on any occasion. Why, the other night I went to hear Billy Rice, +and I heard him tell that same old story that he told in the same old +way twenty-five years ago. It really gave me the idea that the drama is +not progressive. [Laughter.] + +I consider that the theatre and the newspaper are brother and sister; +they are always together. Wherever two or three are gathered together in +the wilderness some venturesome individual starts a newspaper, and then +immediately through its columns induces some other equally venturesome +individual to build an opera-house. The people who act there are called +turkey actors, for the reason that they hibernate during most of the +year and only appear when the turkey is ripe for plucking in holiday +time. They then go out and depredate the country. They have a wonderful +repertoire, from Howard's "Shenandoah" to Hood's "Sarsaparilla." They +play everywhere; it is called the kerosene circuit. If there is nothing +else available they let the water out of the water-tank at the station +and play in that. [Laughter.] Gentlemen, these are the pioneers of the +drama. They convey to the rural mind what knowledge it has of real +fire-engines and the triumphs of the scenic artist, and I think we +should give to them the credit of spreading through this land those +beautiful dramas, "Jim the Westerner," and "The Scout of the Rockies." I +do not know what their influence may be; I don't care to touch upon that +part of the subject; but I think I cannot better illustrate the straits +they are in sometimes than by reciting a little parody on W. S. +Gilbert's Bab Ballad, the "Yarn of the Nancy Bell." It is entitled:-- + + + THE YARN OF THE MANAGER BOLD + + It was near the town they call Detroit, + In the State of Mich-i-gan, + That I met on the rocks, with a property-box, + A gloomy theatrical man. + His o. p. heel was quite worn off, + And weary and sad was he, + And I saw this "fake" give himself a shake, + As he croaked in a guttural key: + "Oh, I am the star and the manager bold, + And the leading and juvenile man, + And the comedy pet, and the pert soubrette, + And the boss of the box-sheet plan." + + He wiped his eye on a three-sheet bill, + 'Twas lettered in blue and red, + He cursed the fates and the open dates, + And I spoke to him, and said: + "'Tis little I know of the mimic show, + But if you will explain to me-- + I'll eat my vest if I can digest + How you can possibly be, + At once a star, and a manager bold, + And a leading and juvenile man, + And a comedy pet, and a pert soubrette, + And a boss of a box-sheet plan." + + He ran his hand through his dusty hair, + And pulled down a brunette cuff, + And on the rocks, with his property-box, + He told me his story tough: + "It was in the year of eighty-three, + When a party of six and me + Went on the road with a show that's knowed + As a 'musical com-i-dee.' + I writ it myself--it knocked 'em cold-- + It made 'em shriek and roar; + But we struck a reef and came to grief, + On the west of the Michigan shore. + Each night it rained, or snowed or blowed, + And when the weather was clear + They'd say: 'It's sad your house is bad. + But wait till you come next year.' + We travelled along from town to town + A-tryin' to change our luck-- + With nothin' to taste but bill-board paste + An' the 'property' canvas duck. + At last we got to Kankakee, + All travel-stained and sore, + When the star got mad and shook us bad + For a job in a dry-goods store-- + And then the leading heavy man + Informed me with a frown + He was going away the very next day + With a circus then in town; + And the comedy pet and the pert soubrette + Engaged as cook and waiter-- + They are still doing well in a small hotel + Near the Kankakee the-ay-ter. + Then only the 'comic' and me remained, + For to leave he hadn't the heart; + Each laugh was a drop of blood to him, + And he loved that comedy part. + We played one night to a right good house, + Eight dollars and a half; + But to my ill-luck in my lines I stuck + And I queered the comedian's laugh. + He fell down dead of a broken heart-- + The coroner, old and sage, + Said his brain was cracked with a bad attackt + Of the centre of the stage. + I played that part all by myself + For a week in Kankakee; + O'er rails and rocks with this property-box + I've walked to where I be. + I never say an actor's good, + I always damn a play; + I always croak, and a single joke + I have, which is to say: + That I am the star, and the manager bold, + And the leading and juvenile man + And the comedy pet, and the pert soubrette, + And the boss of the box-sheet plan." + +[Laughter and applause.] + + + + +MURAT HALSTEAD + + +OUR NEW COUNTRY + +[Speech of Murat Halstead at the 126th annual banquet of the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, November 20, 1894. Alexander B. + Orr, President of the Chamber, in proposing this toast, said: "I now + have the honor of introducing to you that eminent journalist, the Hon. + Murat Halstead, who will respond to the toast, 'Our New Country.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--In the Orkney Islands there is a cathedral +described by the guide as of two parts--the old and the new. The story +is glibly told that when it had stood for five hundred years a storm +beat down the tower and did other damage, making reconstruction +necessary; and that tempest was six hundred years ago. On the road from +Geneva to Chamouni there is a point of which Baedeker says: "The rocks +on the left are seven thousand feet high." In the Orkneys a tower six +hundred years old is new, and in the Alps a precipice seven thousand +feet high is a moderate bit of scenery. The standards of the measurement +of time and space may be exact, and yet are comparative, affected by the +atmosphere of history and the scale of landscapes. + +In that portion of this country which was the West a generation ago, a +farm was old when the stumps had rotted in the fields, and the land was +improved when the trees were cut. New ground was that which had not been +ploughed. Once a man of varied experiences accounted to a pious woman +for an unhappy bit of profanity by saying that when a boy he had +ploughed new ground, and the plough caught in the roots, and the horses +balked, and his feet were torn with splinters and thorns, and the +handles of the plough kicked and hurt him, until depravity was +developed. The lady said she would pray for his forgiveness, if he +never would do so any more, and he promised, and I am told he did not +keep that promise. + +Daniel Boone's new country, when he lived on the Yadkin, in North +Carolina, was Kentucky, and afterward it was Missouri. Washington's new +country was first Ohio, and then Indiana. Lincoln's new country, when he +was a child, was Indiana, and then Illinois. Beyond the Alleghany +Mountains was the land of promise of the original States; beyond the +Mississippi was the new world of those who moved west in wagons, before +the Mexican war and the railroads broadened our dominions, and we were +bounded east and west by the oceans. It was for the new country of their +ages that Columbus and the Puritans and Captain John Smith set sail. In +the new country there is always, at least, the dream of liberty and the +hope that the earth we inherit may be generous in the bounties it yields +to toil. + +The march of manhood westward has reached the shores of the seas that +look out on ancient Asia. We have realized the vision of the +Genoese--finding in the sunset the footsteps of Marco Polo. We have +crossed the mountain ranges and followed the majestic rivers, have +traced the borders of the great lakes, whitened by the sails and +darkened by the smoke of a commerce that competes in magnitude with that +of the salted sea; and Texas, our France, confronts the Mediterranean of +our hemisphere. + +We have crushed the rocks and sifted the sand that yielded silver and +gold, and the soil is ours that is richer than gold mines, whether we +offer in evidence South Carolina, whose Sea-Island cotton surpasses the +long staple of Egypt; or the Dakotas, matchless for wheat; or the lands +of the cornstalk in the Mississippi Valley, that could feed all the +tribes of Asia; or Nebraska, whose beets are sweeter with sugar than +those that were the gift of Napoleon to Germany. + +We have found the springs that yield immortal youth, not in bubbling +waters in a flowery wilderness, but in the harvests of the fields and +the stored energies of inexhaustible mines, not for the passing person +who perishes when his work is done, but for the imperishable race. + +All this in our country, "rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," but with +the clothing of life on the ribs, and new in the evolution of +conditions by the works of man that make the nations of the earth a +family--achievements wonderful in scope, splendid in promise, marvellous +in the renown that is of peace; in the fame of the genius that is labor, +the spell-binder that gathers and builds, creates and glorifies. + +Within the historic record of this Chamber of Commerce of New York, the +waters of Lake Erie have been carried through our canals and rivers to +the Atlantic, making the Hudson River what Henry Hudson thought it was +when he sailed through the beautiful gate of the incomparable +continent--the road from the east to the west around the world; and the +statue of Thomas Benton points westward from the great cross of the +rivers in the heart of the continent--the Ohio, Missouri and +Mississippi--and the inscription reads: "There is the road to India." + +How familiar is the construction of the Pacific railroad; of the +telegraph lines across the continent and through the oceans; the record +of steamers of ten thousand tons, five hundred knots a day; the +miraculous telephone; the trolley, that is with us to stay and to +conquer, introducing all the villages to the magic of rapid transit, +promoting, with the incessant application of a new force, the American +homogeneity of our vast and various population--blending them for one +destiny. One is not venturing upon disputed ground--there is no +prohibited politics in it to say that slavery is gone--for all classes +and sections of our common country will agree it is well. The earth has +grown both small and great for us. Its gigantic mysteries are no more. +Its circumnavigation is commonplace. The kinetoscope comes to aid the +phonograph to make pictures of action and lasting records of music and +of speech. The people of coming generations are to hear the voices that +have charmed or awed, persuaded, bewitched or commanded, in departed +centuries. There will be libraries of rolls, storing for all time these +treasures; rolls not unlike those cylinders preserved in the Babylonish +deserts. Photography is bringing to us, as on parchment leaves painted +with sunlight, the secrets of the depths of the seas and the skies; it +is finding new stars, and with the telescopic camera likenesses may be +snatched across spaces impenetrable by the naked eye. The aristocracy of +intelligence becomes a democracy for the diffusion of the knowledge of +the history of the day, which is the most important chapter that has +been written, impartial, instantaneous, and is becoming universal. + +This is more than a new country; it is a new world. Our own farmers are +in competition with those of Egypt, India, Russia and Argentina. +Australia with her wool and beef and mutton, Egypt and India with cotton +and wheat, South America, Africa and Asia, made fruitful with resources, +seek the same markets with our producers; and the mills of Old England +are within a few cents and hours, in cost of transportation and time, as +cheap and nigh as those of New England to New York. Once, a war between +Japan and China would have been so remote that, as they say in the +newspapers, there could have been no news in it; but it means matter of +business for us now. With the novel conditions, there come upon us new +and enormous problems for solution, and responsibilities that cannot be +evaded. Once, we were an isolated nation. There was no trouble about +becoming involved in the "entangling alliances" that were the cause of +alarm to the Father of his Country. Now, the ends of the earth are in +our neighborhood, and we touch elbows with all the races of mankind, and +all the continents and the islands are a federation. The newspapers are, +to continue the poetic prophecy, "the parliament of man." + +The drift of human experience is to increased aggregations, to +concentration and to centralization. This mighty city, in her material +grandeur, and, we may trust, her moral redemption, stands for forty-six +indestructible States and one indivisible nation. Her lofty structures +far surpass already the palaces of the merchant princes of Tyre and +Venice and Liverpool, and we behold, in these imperial towers, the types +of the magnificence of the coming time. There never was so fair and +superb, ample and opulent a bride as she, in the wholesome arms of the +ocean that embrace these islands, adorned with the trophies of the +wealth of the world, and whose rulers, the slavery of crime abolished, +are the sovereign millions. These are new developments of authority, new +growths of responsibility. + +The Congress, forty years ago, was a body insignificant in its relations +with the masses of the people, in comparison with what it is to-day. It +grapples, of necessity, with the new conditions, and the character of +the public service is of enlarged consequence, for it is to all the +communities and commonwealths far more comprehensive and penetrating in +its influence than in other days; and it is well the citizens of the +Republic are aroused to appreciation of their added requirements in the +care that public life must give the general welfare. + +During the recent popular experience of Christian science applied to +practical politics, that resulted, among other things, in the intimacy +of representative men of the Bowery and the Fifth Avenue, that allows +the citizens of each locality to walk into the other locality at bedtime +and select their sleeping-rooms, without asking whether the folks are at +home, and to depart with or without leaving their P. P. C. cards, one of +the speakers, noting in his audience evidences of dissent, said: "If I +am speaking in a way that is prerogatory, while I want to go on, I am +willing to quit." He honored his nativity by his modesty, and was +allowed to go on; but he preferred to sit down, though his theme seemed +to him to expand under treatment, and with his new word he retired. I +quote him as a precedent and example for immediate imitation. It is more +than a joke, though, that Fifth Avenue and the Bowery have got together, +and we may hope they will work well for the good of this new country. +[Prolonged applause.] + + + + +BENJAMIN HARRISON + + +THE UNION OF STATES + +[Speech of Benjamin Harrison at the thirteenth annual dinner of the New + England Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 22, 1893. In + proposing the first toast, "The President of the United States," the + Chairman, Charles Emory Smith, said: "Gentlemen, my first duty is to + give a welcome to our honored guests and a greeting to our worthy + members. My second duty is to make an immediate change of the + programme. Among the distinguished guests who honor us by their + presence to-night is the illustrious patriot and statesman who has + filled--yes, filled, not rattled around in--the great dignity of the + Presidency of the United States. [Applause.] In his career he has won + the admiration of the country not merely by his transcendent abilities + as a statesman, but by his noble qualities as a man. Among other + characteristics, his love of children has touched the heart of the + country. He has promised the little children who are gathered in his + distant home that he will join them in preparing and sharing the joys + of Christmas. It is imperative not that he shall leave us at this + moment but that he shall terminate the three days of cordial and + perhaps somewhat burdensome hospitality which he has enjoyed in + Philadelphia, at a later stage of this evening. In order that he may + be entirely free, and because the first word should be spoken by the + first man at the table, I ask you to join me, at this time, in + drinking a toast to the health of the illustrious patriot, who is as + greatly respected and honored in private life as he was in the + Presidency--General Benjamin Harrison, whom I now have the pleasure of + presenting to you."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF +PENNSYLVANIA:--When my good friend and your good neighbor and +President, Mr. Charles Emory Smith, invited me to be present to-night, I +felt a special demand upon me to yield to his request. I thought I owed +him some reparation for appointing him to an office the emoluments of +which did not pay his expenses. [Merriment.] Your cordial welcome +to-night crowns three days of most pleasurable stay in this good City of +Philadelphia. The days have been a little crowded; I think there have +been what our friends of The Four Hundred would probably call "eight +distinct functions;" but your cordiality and the kind words of your +presiding officer quite relieve my fatigue and suggest to me that I +shall rightly repay your kindness by making a very short speech. ["No, +no!"] It is my opinion that these members of the New England Society are +very creditable descendants of the Forefathers. I'm not quite sure that +the Forefathers would share this opinion if they were here; but that +would be by reason of the fact that, notwithstanding the load of +substantial virtues, which they carried through life, their taste had +not been highly cultivated. [Laughter.] + +I dread this function which I am now attempting to discharge more than +any other that confronts me in life. The after-dinner speaker, unlike +the poet, is not born,--he is made. I am frequently compelled to meet in +disastrous competition about some dinner-table gentlemen who have +already had their speeches set up in the newspaper offices. They are +given to you as if they were fresh from the lip; you are served with +what they would have you believe to be "impromptu boned turkey;" and +yet, if you could see into the recesses of their intellectual kitchen, +you would see the days of careful preparation which have been given to +these spontaneous utterances. The after-dinner speaker needs to find +somewhere some unworked joker's quarry, where some jokes have been left +without a label on them; he needs to acquire the art of seeming to +pluck, as he goes along in the progress of his speech, as by the +wayside, some flower of rhetoric. He seems to have passed it and to have +plucked it casually,--but it is a boutonniere with tin foil round it. +[Laughter.] You can see, upon close inspection, the mark of the planer +on his well-turned sentences. Now, the competition with gentlemen who +are so cultivated is severe upon one who must speak absolutely upon the +impulse of the occasion. It is either incapacity or downright laziness +that has kept me from competing in the field I have described. + +It occurred to me to-day to inquire why you had to associate six States +in order to get up a respectable Society. My friend Halstead [Murat +Halstead] and I have no such trouble. We are Ohio-born, and we do not +need to associate any other State in order to get up a good Society, +wherever there is a civil list of the Government. If you would adopt the +liberal charter method of the Ohio Society, I have no doubt you could +subdivide yourselves into six good societies. The Ohio Society admits to +membership everybody who has lived voluntarily six months in Ohio. No +involuntary resident is permitted to come in. [Laughter.] + +But the association of these States and the name "New England" is a part +of an old classification of the States which we used to find in the +geography, and all of that classification has gone except New England +and the South. "The West" has disappeared and "the Middle States" cannot +be identified. Where is "the West"? Why, just now it is at the point of +that long chain of islands that puts off from the Alaska coast; and, if +I am to credit what I read (for I have no sources of information now +except the not absolutely reliable newspaper press), there are some who +believe there are wicked men who want to hitch the end of that chain +into an island farther out in the sea. [Applause.] If that is to be +done, the West would become the East, for I think the Orient has +generally been counted to be the East. + +I would not, however, suggest a division of the New England Society. It +is well enough to keep up an association that is one, not only of +neighborhood and of historical association, but of sentiment. Let the +New England Society live, and I fancy it will not be long until you +enjoy the distinction of being the only great subdivision of the States; +for, my fellow-citizens, whatever barriers prejudice may raise, whatever +obstruction the interests of men may interpose, whatever may be the +outrages of cruelty to stay the march of men, that which made the +subdivision called "the Southern States," and all that separated them +from the States of the West and of the North, will be obliterated. +[Cheering.] + +I am not sure, though the story runs so, that I have a New England +strain. The fact is that I have recently come to the conclusion that my +family was a little overweighted with ancestry, and I have been looking +after posterity. [Merriment.] + +One serious word, gentlemen. The New England character and the +influence of New England men and women have made their impress upon the +whole country; for, even in the South, during the time of slavery, +educated men and women from New England were the tutors and instructors +of the youth of the South in the plantation home. The love of education, +the resolve that it should be general, the love of home with all the +pure and sacred influences that cluster about it, are elements in the +New England character that have a saving force which is incalculable in +this great nation in which we live. Your civil institutions have been +free, high and clean. From the old town-meeting days till now, New +England has believed in and practised the Free Election and the Fair +Count. But, gentlemen, I cannot enumerate all of your virtues--time is +brief, the catalogue long. Will you permit me to thank you and your +honored President for your gracious reception of me to-night? +[Long-continued cheering.] + + + + +JOSEPH ROSWELL HAWLEY + + +THE PRESS + +[Speech of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley at the seventieth annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1875. The + President, Isaac H. Bailey, said by way of introduction: "Gentlemen, I + will now give you the tenth regular toast: 'The Press.' This toast, + gentlemen, will be responded to by a member of the press who has + always adorned his profession--General Hawley, of Connecticut."] + + +GENTLEMEN:--Our distinguished President paid the very highest +compliment to the Press to-night; for, while he has given at least a +fortnight's notice to every other gentleman, he only told me to-night +that I had to respond to the toast of "The Press." But as I have +attended a good many dinners of the New England Society, and never knew +"The Press" to be called upon before midnight, I felt entirely safe. +[Laughter.] Now, sir, I have spent an evening--some six hours--here, +enjoying all the festivities and hospitalities of this occasion to the +utmost, and at last I am called upon, at an hour when we are all full of +jollity and mirth, to respond to a toast that in reality calls upon me +for my most serious effort. [Applause.] I assure you that, had I known +that I was to speak upon this subject to-night, I would, contrary to my +usual custom, have been deliberately prepared [laughter]; for I, in +reality, have a great deal to say upon that matter; and permit me to add +that I have a somewhat peculiar qualification, for I have been a man +within the press, "a chiel amang ye takin' notes, an' prentin' them;" +and I have been again a man altogether outside of the press, not writing +for months to his own people, and subject to receive all the gibes and +criticisms and attacks of the press. [Applause.] "I know how it is +myself." [Laughter.] + +"The Press of the Republic" is a text worthy of the noblest oration. It +has a great, a high, and a holy duty. It is at once the leader and +educator, and, on the other hand, the representative of the people. I +can only touch on some points that I have in my mind, upon this +occasion. It seems to me that we are passing through a period of +peculiar importance regarding the value and influence of the press of +the American Republic. There are times when I join with them in the most +indignant denunciation, in the warmest appeal. There are times when I +feel the cutting, cruel, stinging injustice of the American press. +[Applause.] It is the duty of an editor, sitting, as he does, as a +judge--and I mean all that the word implies--upon all that goes on about +him in public life--it is his duty to hear both sides, and all sides, as +deliberately and calmly as he may, and to pronounce a judgment that, so +far as he knows, may be the judgment of posterity. [Applause.] It is +true that he has two duties. We know that it is his duty to condemn the +bad. When it is made perfectly clear that the bad man is really a bad +man, a corrupter of youth, make him drink the hemlock, expel him, punish +him, crush him. [Applause.] + +But there is another duty imposed upon the American press, quite as +great. If there be a man who loves the Republic, who would work for it, +who would talk for it, who would fight for it, who would die for +it--there are millions of them, thank God!--it is the duty of the +American press to uphold him, and to praise him when the time comes, in +the proper place, on the proper occasion. [Applause.] The press is to +deal not alone in censure of the bad, but in praise of the good. I like +the phrase, "The independent press." [Applause.] I am an editor myself. +I love my calling. I think it is growing to be one of the great +professions of the day. I claim, as an editor (and that is my chief +pursuit in life), to be a gentleman also. [Applause, and cries of "Good! +Good!"] If I see or know anything to be wrong in the land, high or low, +I will say so. If it be in my own party, I will take special pains to +say so [applause]; for I suppose it to be true of both parties that we +have a very high, a very glorious, a very beautiful, a very lovable idea +of the future American Republic. [Applause.] + +So I will condemn, I say, whatever may be wrong. I hold myself to be an +independent journalist. [Cries of "Good!"] + +But, my friends, I hope you will excuse the phrase--I am going to follow +it by another--at the same time I do freely avow that I am a _partisan_; +for I never knew anything good, from Moses down to John Brown, that was +not carried through by partisanship. [Applause.] If you believe in +anything, say so; work for it, fight for it. There are always two sides +in the world. The good fight is always going on. The bad men are always +working; the devil is always busy. And again, on the other side you have +your high idea of whatever is beautiful and good and true in the world; +and God is always working also. The man who stands between them--who +says: "This is somewhat good, and that is somewhat good; I stand between +them"--permit me to say, is a man for whom I have very little respect. +[Applause.] Some men say there is a God; some men say there is no God. +Some of the independents say that the truth lies between them. +[Laughter.] I cannot find it between them. Every man has a God. If you +believe in your God,--he may be another God from mine--if you are a man, +I want you to fight for him, and I may have to fight against you, but do +you fight for the God that you believe in. [Applause.] + +I do sincerely think (and I wish that this was a congregation of my +fellow-editors of the whole land, for my heart is in reality full of +this thing)--I do sincerely think that there is something of a danger +that our eloquent, ready, powerful, versatile, indefatigable, vigorous, +omnipresent, omniscient men of the press may drive out of public +life--and they will ridicule that phrase--may drive out of public life, +not all, but a very considerable class of sensitive, high-minded, +honorable, ambitious gentlemen. [Applause.] Now, I do not say anything +about the future for myself. I have got a "free lance," I have got a +newspaper, and I can fight with the rest of them; but I will give you a +bit of my experience in public life. I tell you, my friends of the New +England Society, that one of the sorest things that a man in public life +has to bear is the reckless, unreasonable censure of members of the +press whom individually he respects. [Applause.] That large-hearted man, +whom personally I love, with whom I could shake hands, with whom I did +shake hands, with whom I sat at the social board time and again, grossly +misinterprets my public actions; intimates all manner of dishonorable +things, which I would fight at two paces rather than be guilty of; and +it would be useless for me to write a public letter to explain or +contradict. [Applause.] + +Now, I am only one of hundreds. I can stand still and wait the result, +in the confidence that, if not all, yet some, men believe me to be +honorable and true; if they do not, God and I know it, and I would +"fight it out on that line." [Applause.] + +Gentlemen, it is rather my habit to talk in earnest. Next to the evil of +having all public men in this land corrupt; next to the evil of having +all our governmental affairs in the hands of men venal and weak and +narrow, debauching public life and carrying it down to destruction, is +the calamity of having all the young men believe it is so, whether it be +so or not. [Applause.] Teach all the boys to believe that every man who +goes into public life has his price; teach all the boys to believe that +there is no man who enters public life anywhere that does not look out +for his own, and is not always scheming to do something for himself or +his friends, and seeking to prolong his power; teach every young man who +has a desire to go into political life, to think--because you have told +him so--that the way to succeed is to follow such arts, and by that kind +of talk you may ruin your country. [Applause.] + +Now, gentlemen, as I have said, this is a matter for an evening oration. +I have barely touched some of the points. I have said the press has a +twofold duty and fortune: it is the leader, the educator, the director +of the people. It is, at the same time, the reflector of the people. I +could spend an hour upon the theme. + +I cannot cease, however, without thanking the President of the St. +Patrick's Society [Denis MacMahon], the only gentleman who has mentioned +the word "centennial." When I was leaving Philadelphia, my wife warned +me not to use that word, knowing to what it might lead me [laughter]; +and so I shall simply ask you all to come to Philadelphia next year, and +join in the great national exhibition, where you will have an +opportunity of seeing the progress which this nation has made under the +ideas of liberty, government, industry, and thrift which were instilled +by the Pilgrim Fathers. [Applause.] + + + + +JOHN HAY + + +OMAR KHAYYAM + +[Speech of John Hay, American Ambassador to Great Britain, at a dinner + of the Omar Khayyam Club, London, December 8, 1897. Henry Norman, + President of the Club, took the chair and in introducing Colonel Hay, + as the guest of the evening, spoke of him as soldier, diplomatist, + scholar, poet and Omarian.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I cannot sufficiently thank you for the high and +unmerited honor you have done me to-night. I feel keenly that on such an +occasion, with such company, my place is below the salt, but as you +kindly invited me it was not in human nature for me to refuse. Although +in knowledge and comprehension of the two great poets whom you are met +to commemorate I am the least among them, there is no one who regards +them with greater admiration, or reads them with more enjoyment than +myself. I can never forget my emotions when I first saw Fitzgerald's +translation of the Quatrains. Keats, in his sublime ode on Chapman's +Homer, has described the sensation once for all:-- + + "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies, + When a new planet swims into his ken." + +The exquisite beauty, the faultless form, the singular grace of those +amazing stanzas, were not more wonderful than the depth and breadth of +their profound philosophy, their knowledge of life, their dauntless +courage, their serene facing of the ultimate problems of life and of +death. + +Of course the doubt did not spare me, which has assailed many as +ignorant as I was of the literature of the East, whether it was the poet +or his translator to whom was due this splendid result. Was it, in fact, +a reproduction of a new song, or a mystification of a great modern, +careless of fame and scornful of his time? Could it be possible that in +the eleventh century, so far away as Khorassan, so accomplished a man of +letters lived, with such distinction, such breadth, such insight, such +calm disillusion, such cheerful and jocund despair? Was this +Weltschmerz, which we thought a malady of our day, endemic in Persia in +1100? My doubt lasted only till I came upon a literal translation of the +Rubaiyat, and I saw that not the least remarkable quality of +Fitzgerald's was its fidelity to the original. In short, Omar was a +Fitzgerald before the latter, or Fitzgerald was a reincarnation of Omar. +It is not to the disadvantage of the later poet that he followed so +closely in the footsteps of the earlier. A man of extraordinary genius +had appeared in the world; had sung a song of incomparable beauty and +power in an environment no longer worthy of him, in a language of narrow +range; for many generations the song was virtually lost; then by a +miracle of creation, a poet, a twin-brother in the spirit to the first, +was born, who took up the forgotten poem and sung it anew with all its +original melody and force, and all the accumulated refinement of ages of +art. [Cheers.] + +It seems to me idle to ask which was the greater master; each seems +greater than his work. The song is like an instrument of precious +workmanship and marvellous tone, which is worthless in common hands, but +when it falls, at long intervals, into the hands of the supreme master, +it yields a melody of transcendent enchantment to all that have ears to +hear. If we look at the sphere of influence of the two poets there is no +longer any comparison. Omar sang to a half barbarous province; +Fitzgerald to the world. Wherever the English speech is spoken or read, +the Rubaiyat have taken their place as a classic. There is not a +hill-post in India, nor a village in England, where there is not a +coterie to whom Omar Khayyam is a familiar friend and a bond of union. +In America he has an equal following, in many regions and conditions. In +the Eastern States his adepts form an esoteric sect; the beautiful +volume of drawings by Mr. Vedder is a centre of delight and suggestion +wherever it exists. In the cities of the West you will find the +Quatrains one of the most thoroughly read books in every Club Library. +I heard Omar quoted once in one of the most lovely and desolate spots of +the High Rockies. We had been camping on the Great Divide, our "roof of +the world," where in the space of a few feet you may see two springs, +one sending its water to the Polar solitudes, the other to the eternal +Carib summer. One morning at sunrise as we were breaking camp, I was +startled to hear one of our party, a frontiersman born, intoning these +words of sombre majesty:-- + + "'Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest + A Sultan to the realm of death addressed. + The Sultan rises and the dark Ferrash + Strikes, and prepares it for another guest." + +I thought that sublime setting of primeval forest and pouring canon was +worthy of the lines; I am sure the dewless, crystalline air never +vibrated to strains of more solemn music. + +Certainly our poet can never be numbered among the great popular writers +of all times. He has told no story; he has never unpacked his heart in +public; he has never thrown the reins on the neck of the winged horse, +and let his imagination carry him where it listed. "Ah! the crowd must +have emphatic warrant." Its suffrages are not for the cool, collected +observer, whose eye no glitter can ever dazzle, no mist suffuse. The +many cannot but resent that air of lofty intelligence, that pale and +subtle smile. But he will hold a place forever among that limited number +who, like Lucretius and Epicurus--without rage or defiance, even without +unbecoming mirth--look deep into the tangled mysteries of things; refuse +credence to the absurd, and allegiance to the arrogant authority, +sufficiently conscious of fallibility to be tolerant of all opinions; +with a faith too wide for doctrine and a benevolence untrammelled by +creed, too wise to be wholly poets, and yet too surely poets to be +implacably wise. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +RUTHERFORD B. HAYES + + +NATIONAL SENTIMENTS + +[Speech of Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, at the + first annual banquet of the New England Society in the City of + Brooklyn, December 21, 1880. The President of the Society, Benjamin D. + Silliman, in introducing him, said: "Gentlemen, we are honored this + evening by the presence of an illustrious descendant of New England, + the Chief Magistrate of the Nation. [Cheers.] He is about retiring + from his high position, with the respect, admiration and the gratitude + of the people for the great wisdom, the pure purpose, the steady will + and the unwavering firmness with which he has administered the + government, preserved its honor and secured its property. [Loud + cheers.] I propose to you, as our first toast, 'The President of the + United States.'"] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--We have often heard, we often +hear, the phrase "New England ideas." It is said, and I think said +truly, that these ideas have a large and growing influence in shaping +the affairs of the people of the United States. It is not meant, I +suppose, that the principles referred to in this phrase, are peculiar to +New England, but merely that in New England they are generally accepted, +and that perhaps there they had their first practical illustration. +These ideas, these principles generally termed New England ideas, and +New England principles, it seems to me, have had much to do with that +prosperity which we are now enjoying, and about which we are perhaps apt +to be too boastful, but for which it is certain we cannot be too +grateful. [Applause.] + +The subject, New England ideas, is altogether too large a one for me, or +anybody, to discuss this evening. If it were to be done at length, in +protracted speaking, we have our friends here, able and with a +reputation for capacity in that way. Our friend, Mr. Evarts, for example +[applause], Mr. Beecher [applause], and I am confident that I shall be +excused for naming in this connection, above all, our friend General +Grant. [Loud applause.] + +Leaving then to them the discussion of the larger topic, I must content +myself with the humbler duty of merely naming the New England ideas to +which I refer. + +New England believes that every man and woman, under the law ought to +have an equal chance and an equal hope with every other man and woman +[applause], and believes that in a country where that is secured +individuals and society will have their highest development and the +largest allotment of human happiness. [Applause.] New England believes +that equal rights can be best secured in a country where every child is +provided freely with the means of education. [Applause.] New England +believes that the road--the only road, the sure road--to unquestioned +credit and a sound financial condition is the exact and punctual +fulfilment of every pecuniary obligation, public and private [applause], +according to its letter and spirit. [Applause.] New England believes in +the home, and in the virtues that make home happy [cries of "Good!"], +and New England will tolerate, so far as depends on her, no institutions +and no practices in any state or territory which are inconsistent with +the sacredness of the family relation. [Cries of "Good!"] New England +cherishes the sentiment of nationality and believes in a general +government strong enough to maintain its authority, to enforce the laws +and to preserve and to perpetuate the Union. [Applause.] + +Now, with these New England ideas everywhere accepted and prevailing--to +repeat, with just and equal laws, administered under the watchful eyes +of educated voters; with honesty in all moneyed transactions; with the +New England home and the New England family as the foundation of +society; with national sentiments prevailing everywhere in the country; +we shall not lack that remaining crowning merit of New England life +which lends to every peopled landscape its chief interest and glory, the +spires pointing heavenward that tell to every man who sees them that the +descendants of the Pilgrims still hold to and cherish, and love that +which brought their fathers to this continent, which they here sought +and here found--freedom to worship God. [Long-continued applause.] + + + + +JOSEPH C. HENDRIX + + +THE WAMPUM OF THE INDIANS + +[Speech of Joseph C. Hendrix at the fifteenth annual dinner of the New + England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1894. The + President, Robert D. Benedict, introducing the speaker, said: "I do + not remember ever to have heard at any of the New England festivals + which I have attended any discussion of the currency questions which + plagued the Pilgrims. We cannot doubt that they had such questions for + such questions must arise where there are different currencies. But + the attention of our committee this year has naturally been drawn in + that direction, and they have selected as the next subject one of the + currencies with which the Pilgrims had to deal: 'The Wampum of the + Indians.' Upon this subject they have invited the Hon. Joseph C. + Hendrix to speak. Doubtless he may draw from that subject lessons that + will be of interest and of use for the present day."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--While +your poetic souls are attuned to the sweet music of the last speech, I +must chide the Fates which compel me to so suddenly precipitate upon you +a discussion of a practical nature, especially when at the very outset I +must begin to talk about clams. [Laughter.] For when we begin to +consider wampum we have to begin to consider the familiar hard-shell +clam of daily use, which was the basis of wampum. At this stage of the +feast, after the confections contained in that eulogium passed upon you +by the Governor of Massachusetts [Frederick T. Greenhalge], and after +that private parlor-car, canvas-back-duck, cold-champagne view of +consolidation taken by the great trunk-line president [Chauncey M. +Depew] [laughter], can you endure anything savoring of the clam? Would +you not prefer to go home and sleep upon what you already have? Yet +every loyal son of Long Island ought to be partial to clams. The Mayor +[Charles A. Schieren], who typifies what a German head can do in a +contest with an Irish appetite, should love them because they reside +within the city limits, and have ceased to vote in Gravesend. You, Mr. +Chairman, as a lawyer, ought to tolerate the clam, for there are two +sides to the case, and there's meat inside. Our friend the preacher +[Rev. Samuel A. Eliot] knows that they are as good every day in the week +as they are on Sunday. Dr. Johnson [Dr. J. G. Johnson] there favors them +as part of his internal revenue system. The Mugwumps cannot object to +them, because they change from side to side so easily. The Democrats +ought to like anything that is always digging a hole for itself, and the +Republicans cannot but be patient with what comes on top at the change +of the tide. [Laughter.] So, gentlemen, I present to you the clam. +Professor Hooper [Franklin W. Hooper] tells me to call it the _Venus +Mercenaria_, but we shall have to wait for our free public library +before venturing so far. + +You remember, when you were children, looking over the old story-book +handed down to you by the Puritan fathers, that one of the conundrums +with which the gayety of their times was illustrated was, "Who was the +shortest man in the Bible?" The answer was, "Bildad, the Shuhite;" but +now, in the revised text it is Peter, because Peter said: "Silver and +gold have I none," and no one could be shorter than that. The North +American Indian was no better off than Peter in his gold reserve or +silver supply; but he managed to get along with the quahog clam. That +was the money substance out of which he made the wampum, and the +shell-heaps scattered over the island are mute monuments to an industry +which was blasted by the demonetization of the hard-shell clam. Wampum +was a good money in the Indian civilization. It was the product of human +labor as difficult and tedious as the labor of the gold-miner of to-day. +It had intrinsic value, for it was redeemable in anything the Indian had +to give, from his skill in the chase to his squaw. It took time, +patience, endurance and skill to make a thing of beauty out of a clam, +even in the eyes of an Indian, but when the squaws and the old men had +ground down the tough end of the shell to the size of a wheat straw, and +had bored it with a sliver of flint, and strung it upon a thew of +deerskin, and tested its smoothness on the noses, they had an article +which had as much power over an Indian mind as a grain of gold to-day +has over us. There were two kinds of wampum, the blue and the white. The +Montauks to this day know that there is a difference between the two. +The blue came from our clam. The white, which was the product of the +periwinkle, did not need so much labor to fit it for use as wampum, and +it was cheaper. The blue was the gold; the white was the silver. One +blue bead was worth two white ones. The Indians did not try to keep up +any parity of the beads. They let each kind go for just what it was +worth. The Puritans used to restring the beads and keep the blue ones. +Then the Indians strung their scalps. + +Why was wampum good money in its time? The supply was limited. It took a +day to make four or five beads. It was in itself a thing of value to the +Indian for ornament. It was easily carried about from place to place. It +was practically indestructible. It was always alike. It was divisible. +The value attached to it did not vary. It was not easily counterfeited. +So it was that it became the money of the colonists; a legal tender in +Massachusetts and the tool of the primitive commerce of this continent. +The Puritan took it for firewater and gave it back for furs. Long Island +was the great mint for this pastoral coinage. It was called the "Mine of +the New Netherlands." The Indian walked the beach at Rockaway, dug his +toes in the sand, turned up a clam, and after swallowing the contents +carried the shells to the mint. Gold and silver at the mouth of a mine +obtain their chief value from the labor it takes to get the metals; +wampum was the refinement by labor of a money substance free to all. The +redemption of wampum was perfect. To the Indians it was a seal to +treaties, an amulet in danger, an affidavit, small change, a savings' +bank, a wedding ring and a dress suit. To this day the belt of wampum is +the storehouse of Indian treasure. In the Six Nations, when a big chief +made an assertion in council, he laid down a belt of wampum, as though +to say, "Money talks." The Iroquois sent a belt of it to the King of +England when they asked his protection. William Penn got a strip when he +made his treaty. The Indians braided rude pictures into it, which +recorded great events. They talked their ideas into it, as we do into a +phonograph. They sent messages in it. White beads between a row of dark +ones represented a path of peace, as though to say: "Big chief no longer +got Congress on his hands." A string of dark beads was a message of war +or of the death of a chief, and a string of white beads rolled in mud +was equivalent to saying that there was crape on the door of Tammany +Hall. So you see that it was a combined post-office, telegraph, +telephone, phonograph and newspaper. + +The Iroquois had a keeper of wampum--a sort of secretary of the treasury +without the task of keeping nine different kinds of money on a parity. +This old Indian financier had simple and correct principles. No one +could persuade him to issue birch-bark promises to pay and delude +himself with the belief that he could thus create money. He certainly +would have called them a debt, and would have paid them off as fast as +he could. Nor can we imagine him trying to sustain the value of the +white wampum after the Puritans started in to make it out of oyster +shells by machinery. Nor would he have bought it, not needing it, and +have issued against it his promises to pay in good wampum as fast and as +often as they were presented. + +It was said that wampum was so cunningly made that neither Jew nor Devil +could counterfeit it. Nevertheless a Connecticut Yankee rigged up a +machine that so disturbed the market value of the beads that in a short +time the Long Island mints were closed to the free coinage of clams. +Wampum was demonetized through counterfeit, overproduction and +imitation; but when this occurred the gentle Puritan didn't have enough +of it left to supply the museums. The Indian had parted with his lands +and his furs, had redeemed all the outstanding wampum with his labor, +and when he went to market to get firewater, he was taught that he must +have gold and silver to get it. Then he wanted to ride in blood up to +his horse's bridles. Commerce had found a better tool than wampum had +become. The buccaneers and the pirates had brought in silver and that +defied the Connecticut man's machinery or the Dutchman's imitations. The +years pass by and commerce finds that silver, because of overproduction, +becomes uncertain and erratic in value, and with the same instinct it +chooses gold as a standard of value. A coin of unsteady value is like a +knife of uncertain sharpness. It is thrown aside for one that can do all +that is expected of it. Gold is such a tool. It is the standard of all +first-class nations. It is to-day, and it will remain, the standard of +this Republic. + +The value of the gold dollar is not in the pictures on it. It is in the +grains of gold in it. Smash it and melt it, and it buys one hundred +cents' worth the world over. Deface a silver dollar and fifty cents of +its value goes off yonder among the silent stars. Free coinage means +that the silver miner may make fifty cents' worth of silver cancel a +dollar's worth of debts. This is a greenback doctrine in a silver +capsule. Bimetallism is a diplomatic term for international use. +Monometallism with silver as the metal is the dream of the Populist and +of the poor deluded Democratic grasshoppers who dance by the moonshine +until they get frost-bitten. + +The free-silver heresy is about dead. It has cost this country, at +to-day's price for silver, $170,000,000. The few saddened priests of +this unhappy fetich who remain active find their disciples all rallying +round the standard of currency reform. The report of the Secretary of +the Treasury is a confession of national financial sins, and a +profession of faith in sound money doctrines. Every business man will +watch with keen interest the progress of a plan for the reform in our +currency. You all know that the straight road is the retirement of the +greenback and the Treasury note, and the withdrawal of the Government +from the banking business, and you will naturally distrust any makeshift +measures. The greenback is a war debt, and a debt that is now +troublesome. We are funding and refunding it in gold daily, and are +still paying it out as currency to come back after gold. Any scheme to +sequestrate, to hide it under a bushel, or to put it under lock and key, +is a shallow device. The way to retire it is to retire it. It has served +its full purpose, and there never was a better time than now to call it +in. + +In twelve years all our Government debt matures. The national banking +system based upon it must expire with it, unless existing laws are +changed. This system has served the nation well. No one has ever lost a +dollar by a national bank note. The system is worth preserving, and +with a little more liberal treatment it can be made to serve until a +currency based upon commercial credits and linked to a safety fund, a +system which works so admirably in Canada, can be engrafted upon it. +There is a great hurry to create such a system now on a basis of the +partial sequestration of the greenback and the Treasury note, but the +bottom principle is wrong. The Government should discourage a commercial +credit currency based upon a public credit currency, which, in turn, +rests upon a slender gold deposit, exposed to every holder of a +Government demand note. A credit currency is a double-edged tool, and +needs to be handled with great care. We have had so much crazy-quilt +finance that I am sure that we want no more of it. We have been sorely +punished for our financial sins in the past, and now that we are +repentant, we want to get everything right before we go ahead with our +full native energy. We have suffered from the distrust of the world, and +then from our own distrust. In retracing our steps let us be sure that +we are on solid ground, and make our "wampum" as good as the best there +is in the world. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD HERSCHELL + + +GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES + +[Speech of Lord Farrer Herschell at the 130th annual banquet of the + Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, November 15, 1898. Lord + Herschell was present in this country as President of the Joint High + Commission appointed to arbitrate the dispute between Canada and the + United States relative to the Bering Sea seal fisheries. Alexander E. + Orr, President of the Chamber, proposed the toast to which Lord + Herschell spoke: "The Future Relations between Great Britain and the + United States--a determined union of heart and purpose will carry the + forces of justice and humanity the world over."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--I +assure you that I am most deeply sensible of the warm welcome that you +have extended to me, and grateful for the manner in which you have +received the words which were uttered introducing me to you. But I can +assure you that I rejoiced to hear the cheers with which this toast was +greeted, not merely because they were a compliment to myself, but +because I was satisfied that you were regarding me rather in the +character of a representative of my country, and that there rang in +those cheers sentiments of good will to the country that I have the +honor to represent to-night. [Applause.] And I heard in them something +more than that--they indicated to me a conviction that in the +continuance of good relations between your country and mine, there were +involved blessings, priceless blessings, to the countries we love so +well. [Applause.] + +I can assure you that all my countrymen reciprocate the feeling which +has been expressed; that they desire, as you do, that the cordial +relationship should continue, and that they have toward the United +States of America nothing but feelings of good will and a desire for its +welfare and progress. [Applause.] I have said--all my countrymen. I +ought, perhaps, not to have been so bold. There are some fools in all +lands. [Laughter.] They are the product of every soil. No nation has a +monopoly of them. [Laughter.] But with these exceptions, I can speak, I +think, for all my countrymen. The echoes of those now distant events of +a century and a quarter ago, which left much soreness behind them, have +died away in England. [Applause.] We can rejoice as much as you rejoice +to-day, in the fact that you are one of the leading nations of the +world. [Applause.] And there is to me a peculiar interest in the fact +that I, who have had the honor to fill the office of Lord Chancellor, +should be here as the representative of my country engaged in +negotiations between Great Britain and the United States. A century and +a quarter ago or more, a predecessor of mine in that high office made a +most unfortunately foolish prediction. He said, with reference to these +(at that time) colonies: "If they withdraw their allegiance, we shall +withdraw our protection; and then they will soon be overrun by the +little States of Genoa and San Marino." [Laughter.] I am happy to say--I +must say it for the credit of the office--that there was even then a +distinguished lawyer who was to succeed the Lord Chancellor to whom I +have referred, who made a speech at which to-day neither I nor any one +else need blush. But I could not help thinking of those words when I +reflected that I was here negotiating with the representatives of a +mighty nation of seventy millions of people, who have not been overrun +by the little Republics of Genoa and San Marino [laughter], although +undoubtedly, in a sense very different from that which the speaker +intended, you may have been overrun by the natives of some of the +Italian towns. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, there is to-day in my country, as in yours, a pride in the +United States. We cannot forget that if you won your independence, if +you achieved your liberties, if you laid the foundations of your +constitution, if you prepared for such a nation as exists here to-day, +you were at that time colonists of Great Britain. The men who laid the +foundation stones of the United States, in which you to-day glory, were +those who had gone out from amongst us, who had in the country of my +birth imbibed for the most part their traditions of liberty, and their +desire and determination to achieve it; and, therefore, with no +misgiving, with nothing but a feeling of pride, we may rejoice in your +success and in your progress. We long ago admitted the follies and the +wrong-doings of those times, as freely as you could insist upon them +yourselves. [Applause.] + +I am not going to dwell upon that aspect of the case to-night, because I +am quite aware that sometimes the ready admission of wrong-doing is +rather irritating than soothing. [Laughter.] I remember once hearing a +learned counsel, who was conducting the trial of a case before a judge +of great ability but not of the best of tempers, put a question of a +character such as to shock any one accustomed to be guided by the rigid +rules of evidence. Strictly in confidence, I don't think he had the +least idea that it was a wrong question, but the learned judge +interposed and said: "That was an improper question, Mr. so and so." +"Yes, my Lord, it was very improper." "Yes," said the judge, "you ought +not to have put the question,--a most improper question." "Yes, sir; I +ought not to have put it, a more improper question never was." And the +more the judge reproached him the more submissive he became, until he +drove the judge nearly mad. [Laughter.] + +Gentlemen, there has been a great deal of discussion lately as to the +exact nature of the bond which united Great Britain and the United +States. Some one says blood is thicker than water, whereupon another +with perverse ingenuity begins at once to analyze the blood and +discovers that the elements are not, when resolved, precisely the same. +That, it is said, is the bond of the Anglo-Saxon race; whereupon a +Scotchman insists, or a Welshman insists, that it is not all +Anglo-Saxon, that there is something Celtic in its constitution, and +that to speak of it as the Anglo-Saxon race, either in my country or in +yours, is not in strictness historically accurate. Another finds that +they are the great English-speaking peoples, whereupon an ingenious man +points out that there are people in Great Britain and its dependencies +to whom the English language is not the most natural means of +communication, and that not every inhabitant of the United States is a +perfect master of the English tongue. [Laughter.] + +Well, then, I saw an ingenious argument the other day to prove that it +is a gross impropriety to speak of England as the mother country; that +the two countries were really in the relation of sisters, and that we +ought to call them sister countries, and not speak of them as mother and +daughter. I am not going to enter into any of this controversy to-night. +The probability is that none of these suggested explanations is a +completely adequate explanation of the bond that binds the two nations +together, but that in each of them is to be found some element of truth. +I am not going to dwell on them to-night; I prefer a practical rather +than a theoretical view of any subject, and they all agree in this: a +tacit assertion of the fact that there is a bond which unites Great +Britain and the United States such as unites no two other nations +[applause and cheers]; and they express a realization of the fact that +there is a very close relationship between the two countries. Now, +undoubtedly we have at times said nasty things of one another +[laughter]; but then that is not proof that we are not near relations. +[Laughter.] Indeed, it might, perhaps, be cited by some as evidence the +other way. We have sometimes seemed to be very near serious--what shall +I say?--attacks upon one another. But, again, that is no proof that a +close relationship does not exist between us. It is not impossible that +at some future time, when we are either of us menaced by the +intervention of some third party which seriously threatens our existence +or our prosperity, we may find that, whatever differences arise amongst +ourselves from time to time, we shall be ready to unite in defence of +each other against a stranger. [Applause and cheers.] A friend of mine +who is a great champion of woman's rights, and a man of the most +chivalrous disposition, when walking home one night, found a man and a +woman, husband and wife, in serious controversy, and the man was just +about to strike his wife. With his usual chivalry he intervened between +them. In a moment they were both upon him [laughter], and he had much +ado to withdraw himself from their clutches. May not that, perhaps, be +an indication of the kind of action which relations may show who are not +always perfectly peaceably disposed toward one another? + +Gentlemen, I rejoice to think that I am here to take part in an +endeavor to compose such differences as exist at present between the two +nations. There is another bond of union beyond the natural one to which +I have alluded, and that is the commercial interests of the two +countries. I know there are some who think that no country can gain in +commercial prosperity or make real progress in commerce except at the +expense of some other. I believe that to be a profound mistake. I do +not, of course, deny that a particular interest here or there--perhaps +many interests--may suffer from the stress of international competition, +but I think we take too narrow a view when in gazing on the industrial +world we fix our eyes upon this local spot or that, and consider how +this or that particular place may be affected. Our interests are more +widespread, strike deeper roots, roots in more different directions than +we are at all times ready to admit or to conceive. And of this I am +perfectly certain, that where two nations are so closely bound up in +commercial intercourse as we are, neither of those nations can possibly +progress in commercial prosperity, without a reflection of that +commercial prosperity upon the other nation with which it deals. +[Applause.] + +Gentlemen, many of the events which to-day bulk largely in our eyes will +look strangely insignificant when seen through the vista of time; but of +this I feel satisfied, that if the men of to-day by their actions can do +anything to put upon a permanent basis cordial, friendly relations and +co-operation between your Republic and the British Empire, these actions +will grow in men's estimation larger rather than smaller, and +generations to come will rise to call those blessed who put the +relations of the two countries upon a sound and satisfactory footing. +[Applause.] + +Gentlemen, however successful we may be, as I trust we shall be +successful, in composing such differences as now exist--in the nature of +things it is impossible but that difficulties from time to time will +arise--in the future, how are we going to treat them? In what spirit +shall we meet them as they arise? It sometimes seems to me strange that +nations which, after all, are but collections of individuals should deal +with their differences in a manner in which sensible men as individuals +never would dream of treating them. [Applause.] We seem, somehow, when +once we have taken up a position, to feel as if it were impossible to +withdraw from it. We must adhere to it, whether originally we took it up +wisely or unwisely, whether it was sound or unsound. We lash ourselves +into a white heat over the differences that arise, although the +relations that they bear to our national life and our national interests +may be of comparative insignificance. If an individual were to deal in +that way, always to stand out in every case for his strict rights, +always to be prepared to contest everything, to adhere always to what he +claims as his right, to get into a rage with his neighbor because he +would not see as he saw himself--well, we should call that man an +intolerably quarrelsome fellow who was not fit for civilized human +society [cheers]; and yet, as nations, apparently there seems nothing +strange in our doing that which, as individuals, we should be the last +to dream of doing. + +A friend, a former colleague of mine--now, alas! no more,--told me that +he was, many years ago, travelling up to London with an owner of race +horses who was accompanied by his trainer. When they arrived at the +station near the metropolis where the tickets are collected, the +ticket-collector came, and my friend said, "My servant has my ticket in +the next carriage." The ticket-collector retired and presently came back +rather angry and said, "I cannot find him." My friend said, "he is in +the next carriage--or the next carriage but one; he is there." As soon +as the ticket-collector retired for the second time the trainer leaned +forward and said, "Stick to it, my Lord, you will tire him out." +[Laughter and cheers.] Is not that sometimes a little indicative of the +spirit in which we are inclined to act nationally when we have taken up +any position, even though it be a false one? + +Gentlemen, it seems to me that these questions of our future relations +with one another are questions of special moment just now. You are at a +parting of the ways. It would be presumptuous, as it would be unwise, in +me to forecast or to attempt to forecast the decision at which you will +arrive on questions that have yet to be solved. But, putting these +questions that remain for solution aside, and dealing only with the +events as they are now known and fixed, it is impossible not to feel +that this year marks an epoch in the history of the United States, and +the relation which the United States is to bear to Great Britain, and +the relation which Great Britain is to bear to the United States; and +the spirit which is to animate those two peoples becomes of more +importance than it ever has been before. I rejoice to see those flags +joined as they are around this room to-night. [Applause.] God grant that +they may never be flaunted in defiance of one another. [Applause.] I +rejoice to see them united in concord, not in any spirit of arrogance +toward other peoples, not as desiring to infringe the rights of any +other power, but because I see in that union a real safeguard for the +maintenance of peace in the world [applause], and because I see more +than that--I see the surest guaranty of an extended reign of liberty and +justice. [Prolonged applause.] + + + + +GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD + + +THE INFLUENCE OF MEN OF GENIUS + +[Speech of George S. Hillard at the banquet given to Charles Dickens by + the "Young Men of Boston," February 1, 1842. The company consisted of + about two hundred, among whom were George Bancroft, Washington Allston + and Oliver Wendell Holmes.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT:--Our meeting together this evening is one of the +agreeable results of the sympathy established between two great and +distant nations by a common language and a common literature. We are +paying our cheerful tribute of gratitude and admiration to one who, +though heretofore a stranger to us in person, has made his image a +familiar presence in innumerable hearts, who has brightened the sunshine +of many a happy, and cheered the gloom of many a desponding breast, +whose works have been companions to the solitary and a cordial in the +sick man's chamber, and whose natural pathos and thoughtful humor, +flowing from a genius as healthy as it is inventive, have drawn more +closely the ties which bind man to his brother man, and have given us a +new sense of the wickedness of injustice, the deformity of selfishness, +the beauty of self-sacrifice, the dignity of humble virtue, and the +strength of that love which is found in "huts where poor men lie." + +The new harvest of applause which is gathered by the gifted minds of +England, in a country separated from their own by three thousand miles +of ocean, is a privilege peculiar to them, and one to which no author, +however rich in golden opinion won at home, can feel himself +indifferent. No brow can be so thickly shaded with indigenous laurels, +as not to wear, with emotion, those which are the growth of a foreign +soil. There is no homage so true and unquestionable as that which the +stranger offers. At home the popularity of an author may, during his own +life at least, be greatly increased by circumstances not at all +affecting the intrinsic value of his writings. The caprice of fashion, +the accident of high rank or distinguished social position, the zeal of +a literary faction or a political party, may invest some "Cynthia of the +minute" with a brief notoriety, which resembles true fame only as the +meteor resembles the star. But popularity of this kind is of too flimsy +and delicate a texture to bear transportation. It is only merit of a +solid and durable fabric which can survive a voyage across the Atlantic. +It has been said, with as much truth as point, that a foreign nation is +a sort of contemporaneous posterity. Its judgment resembles the calm, +unbiased voice of future ages. It has no infusion of personal feeling; +it is a serene and unimpassioned verdict, neither won by favor, nor +withheld from prejudice. The admiration which comes from afar off is +valuable in the direct ratio of its distance, as there is the same +degree of assurance that it springs from no secondary cause, but is a +spontaneous and unbought tribute. An English author might see with +comparative unconcern his book upon a drawing-room table in London, but +should he chance to meet a well-thumbed copy of it in a log-house beyond +our western mountains, would not his heart swell with just pride at the +thought of the wide space through which his name was diffused and his +influence felt, and would not his lips almost unconsciously utter the +expression of the wandering Trojan:-- + + "_Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?_" + +It is also probably true that, in our country, English authors find +their warmest and most impassioned admirers. It is as true of the mind +as of the eye, that distance lends enchantment to the view. There are no +hues so soft and delicate as those with which the imagination invests +that which is unseen or faintly discerned. Remoteness in space has the +same idealizing effect as remoteness of time. The voice that comes to us +from the dim distance is like that which comes to us from the dim past. +We know, but we do not feel, the interval which separates Shakespeare +from Scott, Milton from Wordsworth, Hume from Hallam. We know them only +by those airy creations of the brain which speak to us through the +printed page. Solitude, and silence too, are the nurses of deep and +strong feeling. That imaginative element which exalts the love of Dante +for Beatrice, and of Burns for his "Mary in Heaven," deepens the fervor +of admiration with which the pale, enthusiastic scholar, in some lonely +farmhouse in New England, hangs over a favorite author, who, though +perhaps a living contemporary, is recognized only as an absolute essence +of genius, wisdom or truth. The minds of men whom we see face to face +appear to shine upon us darkly through the infirmities of a mortal +frame. Their faculties are touched by weariness or pain, or some +humiliating weakness or unhandsome passion thrusts its eclipsing shadow +between us and the light of their genius. Not so with those to whom they +speak only through the medium of books. In these we see the products of +those golden hours, when all that was low is elevated, when all that was +dark is illumined, and all that was earthly is transfigured. Books have +no touch of personal infirmity--theirs is undying bloom, immortal youth, +perennial fragrance. Age cannot wrinkle, disease cannot blight, death +cannot pierce them. The personal image of the author is quite as likely +to be a hindrance as a help to his book. The actor who played with +Shakespeare in his own "Hamlet" probably did but imperfect justice to +that wonderful play, and the next-door neighbor of a popular author will +be very likely to read his books with a carping, censorious spirit, +unknown to him who has seen his vision only in his mind. + +Mr. President, I dwell with pleasure on the considerations to which an +occasion like this gives birth. It is good for us to be here. Whatever +has a tendency to make two great nations forget those things in which +they differ, and remember those only in which they have a common +interest, is a benefit to them both. Whatever makes the hearts of two +countries beat in unison, makes them more enamored of harmony, more +sensitive to discord. Honor to the men of genius who made two +hemispheres thrill to the same electric touch, who at the same time, and +with the same potent spell, are ruling the hearts of men in the +mountains of Scotland, the forests of Canada, the hillsides of New +England, the prairies of Illinois, and the burning plains of India. +Their influence, so far as it extends, is a peaceful and a humanizing +one. When you have instructed two men with the same wisdom, and charmed +them with the same wit, you have established between them a bond of +sympathy, however slight, and made it so much the more difficult to set +them at variance. When I remember the history of England, how much she +has done for law, liberty, virtue and religion--for all that beautifies +and dignifies life--when I realize how much that is most valuable and +characteristic in our own institutions is borrowed from her--when I +recall our obligations to her matchless literature, I feel a throb of +gratitude that "Chatham's language is my mother-tongue," and my heart +warms to the land of my fathers. I embrace with peculiar satisfaction +every consideration that tends to give us an unity of spirit in the bond +of peace--to make us blind to each other's faults, and kind to each +other's virtues. I feel all the force of the fine lines of one whom we +have the honor to receive as a guest this evening:-- + + "Though ages long have passed + Since our fathers left their home, + Their pilot in the blast, + O'er untravelled seas to roam, + Yet lives the blood of England in our veins. + And shall we not proclaim + That blood of honest fame, + Which no tyranny can tame + By its chains? + + "While the manners, while the arts + That mould a nation's soul, + Still cling around our hearts,-- + Between, let ocean roll, + Our joint communion breaking with the sun. + Yet still from either beach + The voice of blood shall reach, + More audible than speech-- + We are one." + +It is now more than sixty-seven years since the rapid growth of our +country was sketched by Mr. Burke, in the course of his speech on +conciliation with America, in a passage whose picturesque beauty has +made it one of the commonplaces of literature, in which he represents +the angel of Lord Bathurst drawing up the curtain of futurity, +unfolding the rising glories of England, and pointing out to him +America, a little speck scarce visible in the mass of the national +interest, yet which was destined before he tasted of death to show +itself equal to the whole of that commerce which then attracted the +admiration of the world. There are many now living whose lives extend +over the whole of this period--and during that space, what memorable +changes have taken place in the relations of the two countries! Let us +imagine the angel of that illustrious author and statesman, when the +last words of that profound and beautiful speech were dying upon the +air, withdrawing him from the congratulations of his friends, and +unfolding to him the future progress of that country, whose growth up to +that period he had so felicitously sketched:--"There is that America, +whose interests you have so well understood and so eloquently +maintained, which, at this moment, is taking measures to withdraw from +the protection and defy the power of the mother country. But mourn not +that this bright jewel is destined to fall from your country's crown. It +is an obedience to the same law of Providence which sends the +full-fledged bird from the nest, and the man from his father's house. +Man shall not be able to sever what the immutable laws of Providence +have joined together. The chafing chains of colonial dependence shall be +exchanged for ties light as air, yet strong as steel. The peaceful and +profitable interchange of commerce--the same language--a common +literature--similar laws, and kindred institutions shall bind you +together with cords which neither cold-blooded policy, nor grasping +selfishness, nor fratricidal war, shall be able to snap. Discoveries in +science and improvements in art shall be constantly contracting the +ocean which separates you, and the genius of steam shall link your +shores together with a chain of iron and flame. A new heritage of glory +shall await your men of genius in those now unpeopled solitudes. The +grand and lovely creations of your myriad-minded Shakespeare--the +majestic line of Milton--the stately energy of Dryden, and the compact +elegance of Pope, shall form and train the minds of uncounted multitudes +yet slumbering in the womb of the future. Her gifted and educated sons +shall come over to your shores with a feeling akin to that which sends +the Mussulman to Mecca. Your St. Paul's shall kindle their devotion; +your Westminster Abbey shall warm their patriotism; your +Stratford-on-Avon and Abbotsford shall awaken in their bosoms a depth of +emotion in which your own countrymen shall hardly be able to sympathize. +Extraordinary physical advantages and the influence of genial +institutions shall there give to the human race a rate of increase +hitherto unparalleled; but the stream, however much it be widened and +prolonged, shall retain the character of the fountain from which it +first flowed. Every wave of population that gains upon that vast green +wilderness shall bear with it the blood, the speech, and the books of +England, and aid in transmitting to the generations that come after it, +her arts, her literature, and her laws." If this had been revealed to +him, would it not have required all the glow of his imagination and all +the strength of his judgment to believe it? Let us who are seeing the +fulfilment of this vision, utter the fervent prayer that no sullen +clouds of coldness or estrangement may ever obscure these fair +relations, and that the madness of man may never mar the benevolent +purposes of God. + + + + +SAMUEL REYNOLDS HOLE + + +WITH BRAINS, SIR! + +[Speech of Samuel Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester Cathedral, at a + banquet given in his honor by the Lotos Club, New York City, October + 27, 1894. Frank R. Lawrence, the President of the Club, in introducing + Dean Hole recalled the fact that the Club had had the honor of + receiving Dean Stanley and Charles Kingsley.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I can assure you that when I received your +invitation, having heard so much of the literary, artistic and social +amenities of your famous Club, I resembled in feelings, not in feature, +the beautiful bride of Burleigh, when-- + + "A trouble weighed upon her, + And perplexed her, night and morn, + With the burthen of an honor + Unto which she was not born." + +I could have quoted the words of the mate in Hood's "Up the Rhine," when +during a storm at sea a titled lady sent for him, and asked him if he +could swim. "Yes, my lady," says he, "like a duck." "That being the +case," says she, "I shall condescend to lay hold of your arm all night." +"Too great an honor for the likes of me," says the mate. [Laughter.] + +Even when I came into this building--though I am not a shy man, having +been educated at Brazenose College, and preposterously flattered +throughout my life, most probably on account of my size,--I had not lost +this sense of unworthiness; but your gracious reception has not only +reassured me, but has induced the delicious hallucination that, at some +period forgotten, in some unconscious condition, I have said something +or done something, or written something, which really deserved your +approbation. [Applause.] To be serious, I am, of course, aware why this +great privilege has been conferred upon me. It is because you have +associated me with those great men with whom I was in happy intercourse, +that you have made my heart glad to-night. + +It has ever been my ambition to blend my life, as the great painter does +his colors, "with brains, sir;" and I venture to think that such a +yearning is a magnificent proof that we are not wholly destitute of this +article, as when the poor wounded soldier exclaimed, on hearing the +doctor say that he could see his brains: "Oh, please write home and tell +father, for he has always said I never had any." [Laughter.] Be that as +it may, my appreciation of my superiors has evoked from them a +marvellous sympathy, has led to the formation of very precious +friendships, and has been my elevator unto the higher abodes of +brightness and freshness, as it is to-night. + +Yes, my brothers, it is delightful to dwell "with brains, sir," +condensed in books in that glorious world, a library--a world which we +can traverse without being sick at sea or footsore on land; in which we +can reach heights of science without leaving our easy-chair, hear the +nightingales, the poets, with no risk of catarrh, survey the great +battle-fields of the world unscathed; a world in which we are surrounded +by those who, whatever their temporal rank may have been, are its true +kings and real nobility, and which places within our reach a wealth more +precious than rubies, "for all things thou canst desire are not to be +compared with it." In this happy world I met Washington Irving, Fenimore +Cooper, Hawthorne, Willis, Longfellow, Whittier and all your great +American authors, historical, poetical, pathetic, humorous; and ever +since I have rejoiced to hold converse with them. Nevertheless, it is +with our living companions, with our fellow-men who love books as we do, +that this fruition is complete, and so it comes to pass in the words of +one whose name I speak with a full heart, Oliver Wendell Holmes, that "a +dinner-table made up of such material as this is the last triumph of +civilization over barbarism." [Applause.] + +We feel as our witty Bishop (afterward Archbishop) Magee described +himself, when he said: "I am just now in such a sweet, genial +disposition, that even a curate might play with me." [Great laughter.] +We are bold to state with Artemus Ward, of his regiment composed +exclusively of major-generals, that "we will rest muskets with anybody." + + "Linger, I cried, O radiant Time, thy pow'r + Hath nothing else to give; life is complete, + Let but the happy present, hour by hour. + Itself remember and itself repeat." + +And yet one more quotation we are glad to make, wherewith to make some +amends for the stupidity of him who quotes lines most appropriate, by +Tennyson, from the "Lotos-Eaters," and repeated by one who has just +crossed the Atlantic:-- + + "We have had enough of action, and of motion we, + Rolled to starboard, rolled to larboard, when the surge was seething free + Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea. + Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, + In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined + On the hills, like gods together, careless of mankind." + +Now, gentlemen, let me give, "evermore thanks, the exchequer of the +poor." [Long applause.] + +[Illustration] + +_OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Photogravure after a photograph from life_ + + + + +OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + + +WELCOME TO THE ALUMNI + +[Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes as President of the day, at the annual + dinner of the Harvard Alumni Association, in Cambridge, July 19, 1860, + inaugurating the practice of public speaking at the "Harvard Dinners." + That year also took place the inauguration of President C. Felton, an + event to which the speaker alludes in his graceful reference to the + "goodly armful of scholarship, experience and fidelity" once more + filling the "old chair of office."] + + +BROTHERS, BY THE SIDE OF HER WHO IS MOTHER OF US ALL, AND FRIENDS, +WHOM SHE WELCOMES AS HER OWN CHILDREN:--The older sons of our +common parent who should have greeted you from this chair of office, +being for different reasons absent, it has become my duty to half fill +the place of these honored, but truant, children to the best of my +ability--a most grateful office, so far as the expression of kind +feeling is concerned; an undesired duty, if I look to the comparisons +you must draw between the government of the association existing _de +jure_, and its government _de facto_. Your President [Robert C. +Winthrop] so graces every assembly which he visits, by his presence, his +dignity, his suavity, his art of ruling, whether it be the council of a +nation, the legislature of a State, or the lively democracy of a +dinner-table, that when he enters a meeting like this, it seems as if +the chairs stood back of their own will to let him pass to the head of +the board, and the table itself, that most intelligent of quadrupeds, +the half reasoning mahogany, tipped him a spontaneous welcome to its +highest seat, and of itself rapped the assembly to order. [Applause.] + +Your first Vice-President [Charles Francis Adams], whose name and +growing fame you know so much better than his bodily presentment, has +not been able to gratify your eyes and ears by showing you the +lineaments and stirring you with the tones inherited from men who made +their country or shaped its destinies. [Applause.] You and I have no +choice therefore, and I must submit to stand in this place of eminence +as a speaker, instead of sitting a happy listener with my friends and +classmates on the broader platform beneath. Through my lips must flow +the gracious welcome of this auspicious day, which brings us all +together in this family temple under the benignant smile of our +household divinities, around the ancient altar fragrant with the incense +of our grateful memories. + +This festival is always a joyous occasion. It resembles a scattered +family without making any distinction except that which age establishes, +an aristocracy of silver hairs which all inherit in their turn, and none +is too eager to anticipate. In the great world outside there are and +must be differences of lot and position; one has been fortunate, +another, toiling as nobly perhaps, has fallen in with adverse currents; +one has become famous, his name stares in great letters from the +hand-bills of the drama of his generation; another lurks in small type +among the supernumeraries. But here we stand in one unbroken row of +brotherhood. No symbol establishes a hierarchy that divides one from +another; every name which has passed into our golden book, the triennial +catalogue, is illuminated and emblazoned in our remembrance and +affection with the purple and sunshine of our common Mother's hallowed +past and hopeful future. + +We have at this time a twofold reason for welcoming the return of our +day of festive meeting. The old chair of office, against whose uneasy +knobs have rested so many well-compacted spines, whose uncushioned arms +have embraced so many stately forms, over whose inheritance of cares and +toils have ached so many ample brows, is filled once more with a goodly +armful of scholarship, experience and fidelity. The President never +dies. Our precious Mother must not be left too long a widow, for the +most urgent of reasons. We talk so much about her maternity that we are +apt to overlook the fact that a responsible _Father_ is as necessary to +the good name of a well-ordered college as to that of a well-regulated +household. As children of the College, our thoughts naturally centre on +the fact that she has this day put off the weeds of her nominal +widowhood, and stands before us radiant in the adornment of her new +espousals. You will not murmur, that, without debating questions of +precedence, we turn our eyes upon the new head of the family, to whom +our younger brothers are to look as their guide and counsellor as we +hope and trust through many long and prosperous years. + +Brothers of the Association of the Alumini! Our own existence as a +society is so bound up with that of the College whose seal is upon our +foreheads, that every blessing we invoke on our parent's head returns +like the dew from Heaven upon our own. So closely is the welfare of our +beloved Mother knitted to that of her chief counsellor and official +consort, that in honoring him we honor her under whose roof we are +gathered, at whose breast we have been nurtured, whose fair fame is our +glory, whose prosperity is our success, whose lease of long life is the +charter of our own perpetuity. + +I propose the health of the President of Harvard University: We greet +our brother as the happy father of a long line of future alumni. + + + * * * * * + + +DOROTHY Q. + +[Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes at the banquet of the Boston + Merchants' Association at Boston, Mass., May 23, 1884, in honor of the + Hon. John Lowell.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--It was my intention, when I +accepted the public invitation to be with you this evening, to excuse +myself from saying a word. I am a professor emeritus, which means pretty +nearly the same thing as a tired-out or a worn-out instructor. And I do +seriously desire that, having during the last fifty years done my share +of work at public entertainments, I may hereafter be permitted, as a +post-prandial emeritus, to look on and listen in silence at the +festivals to which I may have the honor of being invited--unless, +indeed, I may happen to wish to be heard. [Applause.] In that case I +trust I may be indulged, as an unspoken speech and an unread poem are +apt to "strike in," as some complaints are said to, and cause inward +commotions. [Applause.] Judge Lowell's eulogy will be on every one's +lips this evening. His soundness, his fairness, his learning, his +devotion to duty, his urbanity,--these are the qualities which have +commended him to universal esteem and honor. [Applause.] I will not say +more of the living; I wish to speak of the dead. + +In respectfully proposing the memory of his great-great-grandmother +[laughter], I am speaking of one whom few if any of you can remember. +[Laughter.] Yet her face is as familiar to me as that of any member of +my household. She looks upon me as I sit at my writing-table; she does +not smile, she does not speak; even the green parrot on her hand has +never opened his beak; but there she is, calm, unchanging, in her +immortal youth, as when the untutored artist fixed her features on the +canvas. To think that one little word from the lips of Dorothy Quincy, +your great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother, decided the question +whether you and I should be here to-night [laughter], in fact whether we +should be anywhere [laughter] at all, or remain two bodiless dreams of +nature! But it was Dorothy Quincy's "Yes" or "No" to Edward Jackson +which was to settle that important matter--important to both of us, +certainly--yes, Your Honor; and I can say truly, as I look at you and +remember your career, important to this and the whole American +community. [Applause.] + +The picture I referred to is but a rude one, and yet I was not ashamed +of it when I wrote a copy of verses about it, three or four of which +this audience will listen to for the sake of Dorothy's great-grandson. I +must alter the pronouns a little, for this occasion only:-- + + Look not on her with eyes of scorn-- + Dorothy Q. was a lady born; + Ay! since the galloping Normans came + England's annals have known her name; + And still to the three-hilled rebel town + Dear is that ancient name's renown, + For many a civic wreath they won, + The youthful sire and the gray-haired son. + + O damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q.! + Strange is the gift (we) owe to you! + Such a gift as never a king + Save to daughter or son might bring-- + All (our) tenure of heart and hand, + All (our) title to house and land; + Mother and sister and child and wife + And joy and sorrow and death and life! + + What if a hundred years ago + Those close-shut lips had answered "No!" + When forth the tremulous question came + That cost the maiden her Norman name, + And under the folds that look so still + The bodice swelled with the bosom's thrill-- + Should (we) be (we), or could it be + One-tenth (two others) and nine-tenths (we)? + + Soft is the breath of a maiden's Yes: + Not the light gossamer stirs with less; + But never a cable that holds so fast + Through all the battles of wave and blast, + And never an echo of speech or song + That lives in the babbling air so long! + There were tones in the voice that whispered then + You may hear to-day in a hundred men. + + O lady and lover, now faint and far + Your images hover--and here we are, + Solid and stirring in flesh and bone-- + Edwards and Dorothys--all their own-- + A goodly record for time to show + Of a syllable whispered so long ago. + +[Applause prolonged.] + +I give you: "The memory of Dorothy Jackson, born Dorothy Quincy, to +whose choice of the right monosyllable we owe the presence of our +honored guest and all that his life has achieved for the welfare of the +community." [Great applause and cheers.] + + + + +OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. + + +SONS OF HARVARD WHO FELL IN BATTLE + +[Speech of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the "Autocrat," at the + Harvard Alumni Dinner, at Cambridge, June 25, 1884.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ALUMNI:--Another day than +this has been consecrated to the memories of the war. On that day we +think not of the children of the university or the city, hardly, even, +of the children whom the State has lost, but of a mighty brotherhood +whose parent was our common country. To-day the college is the centre of +all our feeling, and if we refer to the war it is in connection with the +college, and not for its own sake that we do so. What then did the +college do to justify our speaking of the war now? She sent a few +gentlemen into the field, who died there becomingly. I know of nothing +more. The great forces which ensured the North success would have been +at work even if those men had been absent. Our means of raising money +and troops would not have been less, I dare say. The great qualities of +the race, too, would still have been there. The greatest qualities, +after all, are those of a man, not those of a gentleman, and neither +North nor South needed colleges to learn them. + +And yet--and yet I think we all feel that, to us, at least, the war +would seem less beautiful and inspiring, if those few gentlemen had not +died as they did. Look at yonder portrait[7] and yonder bust[8] and tell +me if stories such as they commemorate do not add a glory to the bare +fact that the strongest legions prevailed. So it has been since wars +began. After history has done its best to fix men's thoughts upon +strategy and finance, their eyes have turned and rested on some single +romantic figure--some Sidney, some Falkland, some Wolfe, some Montcalm, +some Shaw. This is that little touch of the superfluous which is +necessary. Necessary as art is necessary, and knowledge which serves no +mechanical end. Superfluous only as glory is superfluous, or a bit of +red ribbon that a man would die to win. + +It has been one merit of Harvard College that it has never quite sunk to +believing that its only function was to carry a body of specialists +through the first stage of their preparation. About these halls there +has always been an aroma of high feeling not to be found or lost in +science or Greek--not to be fixed, yet all-pervading. And the warrant of +Harvard College for writing the names of its dead graduates upon its +tablets is not in the mathematics, the chemistry, the political economy +which it taught them, but that, in ways not to be discovered, by +traditions not to be written down, it helped men of lofty natures to +make good their faculties. I hope and I believe that it will long give +such help to its children. I hope and I believe that long after our +tears for the dead have been forgotten, this monument to their memory +will still give such help to generations to whom it is only a symbol--a +symbol of man's destiny and power for duty, but a symbol also of that +something more by which duty is swallowed up in generosity, that +something more which led men like Shaw to toss life and hope like a +flower before the feet of their country and their cause. [Cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE JOY OF LIFE + +[Speech of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, at a banquet in his honor + given by the Suffolk Bar Association, Boston, March 7, 1900, upon his + elevation to the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Judicial Court of + Massachusetts. Justice Holmes, upon rising to the toast of the + presiding officer, was received with cheers, the entire company + rising.] + + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SUFFOLK BAR:--The kindness of this reception +almost unmans me, and it shakes me the more when taken with a kind of +seriousness which the moment has for me. As with a drowning man, the +past is telescoped into a minute, and the stages are all here at once in +my mind. The day before yesterday I was at the law school, fresh from +the army, arguing cases in a little club with Goulding and Beaman and +Peter Olney, and laying the dust of pleading by certain sprinklings +which Huntington Jackson, another ex-soldier, and I managed to contrive +together. A little later in the day, in Bob Morse's, I saw a real writ, +acquired a practical conviction of the difference between assumpsit and +trover, and marvelled open-mouthed at the swift certainty with which a +master of his business turned it off. + +Yesterday I was at the law school again, in the chair instead of on the +benches, when my dear partner, Shattuck, came out and told me that in +one hour the Governor would submit my name to the council for a +judgeship, if notified of my assent. It was a stroke of lightning which +changed the whole course of my life. + +And the day before yesterday, gentlemen, was thirty-five years, and +yesterday was more than eighteen years, ago. I have gone on feeling +young, but I have noticed that I have met fewer of the old to whom to +show my deference, and recently I was startled by being told that ours +is an old bench. Well, I accept the fact, although I find it hard to +realize, and I ask myself, what is there to show for this half lifetime +that has passed? I look into my book in which I keep a docket of the +decisions of the full court which fall to me to write, and find about a +thousand cases. A thousand cases, many of them upon trifling or +transitory matters, to represent nearly half a lifetime! A thousand +cases, when one would have liked to study to the bottom and to say his +say on every question which the law ever has presented, and then to go +on and invent new problems which should be the test of doctrine, and +then to generalize it all and write it in continuous, logical, +philosophic exposition, setting forth the whole corpus with its roots in +history and its justifications of expedience, real or supposed! + +Alas, gentlemen, that is life. I often imagine Shakespeare or Napoleon +summing himself up and thinking: "Yes, I have written five thousand +lines of solid gold, and a good deal of padding--I, who have covered the +milky way with words which outshine the stars!" "Yes, I beat the +Austrians in Italy and elsewhere; I made a few brilliant campaigns, and +I ended in middle life in a _cul-de-sac_--I who had dreamed of a world +monarchy and of Asiatic power!" We cannot live in our dreams. We are +lucky enough if we can give a sample of our best, and if in our hearts +we can feel that it has been nobly done. + +Some changes come about in the process: changes not necessarily so much +in the nature as in the emphasis of our interest. I do not mean in our +wish to make a living and to succeed--of course, we all want those +things--but I mean in our ulterior intellectual or spiritual interests, +in the ideal part, without which we are but snails or tigers. + +One begins with a search for a general point of view. After a time he +finds one, and then for a while he is absorbed in testing it, in trying +to satisfy himself whether it is true. But after many experiments or +investigations, all have come out one way, and his theory is confirmed +and settled in his mind; he knows in advance that the next case will be +but another verification, and the stimulus of anxious curiosity is gone. +He realizes that his branch of knowledge only presents more +illustrations of the universal principle; he sees it all as another case +of the same old ennui, or the same sublime mystery--for it does not +matter what epithets you apply to the whole of things, they are merely +judgments of yourself. At this stage the pleasure is no less, perhaps, +but it is the pure pleasure of doing the work, irrespective of further +aims, and when you reach that stage you reach, as it seems to me, the +triune formula of the joy, the duty and the end of life. + +It was of this that Malebranche was thinking when he said that, if God +held in one hand truth and in the other the pursuit of truth, he would +say: "Lord, the truth is for thee alone; give me the pursuit." The joy +of life is to put out one's power in some natural and useful or harmless +way. There is no other. And the real misery is not to do this. The hell +of the old world's literature is to be taxed beyond one's powers. This +country has expressed in story--I suppose because it has experienced it +in life--a deeper abyss of intellectual asphyxia or vital ennui, when +powers conscious of themselves are denied their chance. + +The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one. I confess that +altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. +With all humility, I think "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with +thy might," infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love +one's neighbor as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing, +you must have all your will in a focus, you must not be thinking about +yourself, and, equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor; +you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird +on the wing. + +The joy, the duty, and, I venture to add, the end of life. I speak only +of this world, of course, and of the teachings of this world. I do not +seek to trench upon the province of spiritual guides. But from the point +of view of the world the end of life is life. Life is action, the use of +one's powers. As to use them to their height is our joy and duty, so it +is the one end that justifies itself. Until lately the best thing that I +was able to think of in favor of civilization, apart from blind +acceptance of the order of the universe, was that it made possible the +artist, the poet, the philosopher, and the man of science. But I think +that is not the greatest thing. Now I believe that the greatest thing is +a matter that comes directly home to us all. When it is said that we are +too much occupied with the means of living to live, I answer that the +chief work of civilization is just that it makes the means of living +more complex; that it calls for great and combined intellectual +efforts, instead of simple, uncoordinated ones, in order that the crowd +may be fed and clothed and housed and moved from place to place. Because +more complex and intense intellectual efforts mean a fuller and richer +life. They mean more life. Life is an end in itself, and the only +question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of +it. + +I will add but a word. We are all very near despair. The sheathing that +floats us over its waves is compounded of hope, faith in the +unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort, and the deep, +sub-conscious content which comes from the exercise of our powers. In +the words of a touching negro song: "sometimes I's up, sometimes I's +down, sometimes I's almost to the groun'," but these thoughts have +carried me, as I hope they will carry the young men who hear me, through +long years of doubt, self-distrust and solitude. They do now, for, +although it might seem that the day of trial was over, in fact it is +renewed each day. The kindness which you have shown me makes me bold in +happy moments to believe that the long and passionate struggle has not +been quite in vain. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD HOUGHTON + +(RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES) + + +YOUR SPEECH AND OURS + +[Speech of Lord Houghton, in response to William Cullen Bryant, at a + breakfast given in his honor at the Century Club, New York, October + 17, 1875. William Cullen Bryant, President of the Club, presided, and + said in part: "Our guest, Lord Houghton, was not born a lord, but he + was born a poet, which I take to be something better. Some forty years + ago, I think it was, he wandered in Switzerland, Italy and Greece, and + the impressions made upon his mind are woven into his beautiful series + of poems published under the title of 'Memorials of Many Scenes.' At a + later period, perhaps ten years afterward, he traveled in Egypt and + the western coast of Asia, and returned, bringing with him a sheaf of + 'Palm-Leaves,' a series of charming poems, inspired by the remarkable + places which he visited, and by the incidents of his journey. These + 'palm-leaves,' let me say, have a perennial verdure, they are yet as + green as when they were gathered and still breathe Sabaean odors--the + spicy perfume of the Orient--what the old poet Donne calls 'the + almighty balm of the early East.' He is now a traveler in our + territory, a region almost without antiquities, but of sufficient + interest to attract his steps hither. He will doubtless see faults in + our social and political condition--the eyes of a stranger are quicker + to discern them than our own can be--but let us hope that he will + carry back to his native land the recollections of a cordial reception + among our people, such as I hope we are ever ready to accord to + personal worth, to genius, and to services rendered to the human race. + The only time I ever saw Dr. Bowring, which was some thirty years + since, when he was a member of Parliament, of the party called + Radical, is memorable with me on account of the eulogy of our guest, + which he uttered with much warmth and enthusiasm. He praised the + generosity of his sentiments and the largeness of his sympathies. 'At + his table,' he added, 'you meet with men of various differing + opinions; the only title to his hospitality and esteem is personal + merit.' The same rule of preference which he applied to the + individuals whom he admitted to his friendship, had governed him + throughout a long public life in the measures which he had supported. + His co-operation and efficient aid have been given to proceedings and + measures which contemplate the well-being of the people--to useful and + beneficial reforms. In their favor he steadily gave his vote and + raised his voice. In honoring him we, therefore, honor not only the + poet, but the philanthropist and the statesman. I propose, therefore, + the health of Lord Houghton."] + + +MR. BRYANT AND GENTLEMEN:--In finding myself here now for the +first time, I am agitated by conflicting emotions, by my pleasure in +being among you, and by my regret at not having been here before. + +In alluding to my poetic experience, Mr. Bryant mentioned that I had +passed many years of my early life in Italy, and while he was so doing +there arose in my memory a little incident not inapplicable to my +present position. I passed some time at Venice; and one summer evening, +on the Piazza di San Marco, my attention was attracted by an old man, +who walked up and down with a mingled air of wonder and delight, and +who, after I had observed him for some moments, came and asked me in the +Venetian dialect what streets he was to take toward a certain remote +portion of the city. I said I was a foreigner, and that he, being a +native of the place, must know its geography better than I could. He +then told me that he was there for the first time. He had passed all his +life in his own distinct world, there earning his daily bread, and +occupied by its little local interests. At last a friend had told him +that he must see the Place and Church of San Marco before he died, and +put him in a boat and landed him there, and now he wanted to find his +way home, charmed and contented. + +Gentlemen, I am in the position of that Venetian veteran, and shall +return to my country, happy that I have at last found my way to this +great place and habitation--the civitas of English-speaking people. Not +that I have ever failed to regard this country in many senses as my own, +from the time when I took moral comfort from the flight of Mr. Bryant's +"Wild Fowl" across the ocean, and took the best lesson of life from the +Psalm of Longfellow. Since then I have ever been with you in all your +intellectual progress, and in the necessarily checkered course of your +constitutional history, and never more than in the late solemn years, in +all the national difficulties which you have so energetically, so +persistently, and so humanely surmounted. + +In looking back to my impressions of those times, I sometimes think that +my sympathy with you was not wholly unselfish, but that I felt that, if +I had ever written anything which has a chance of a prolonged existence, +I should wish it to be read, not by any distracted and impotent +communities of British race, but by America, one and indivisible. And, +gentlemen, this is not unnatural, for amid all the divisions or +distractions of your history, your literature has ever been patriotic +and national. Literature, in truth, has been to you a good and faithful +emigrant, reproductive not only of all intellectual growth, but of the +sympathies--the largest sympathies--which bind together man to man. It +has settled among you every classic writer of British origin, and from +the Continent it has brought to you Goethe, Schiller, and Heinrich +Heine. It is also noticeable that by the side of these great +colonizations of thought you have not refused to receive and to pass to +your furthest Territories the humblest addition, the single volume of +verse, the chance felicitous expression of combined thought and feeling, +even some accidental refrain of song that had pleasantly caught the ear +and gone to the heart of man. + +And this brings me to say to you one professional word respecting that +art and the nature of poetry that you have been kind enough to connect +with my name. The greater part of the verses I have written were that +product of the lyrical period of youth which is by no means uncommon in +modern civilization. It exhibits itself sometimes in the strangest +manner, without connection with other culture, or even the most common +intellectual opportunities. Of this I happen to have given to the world +a signal instance in the volume I published of the poems of David Gray, +a Scotch weaver-boy, who, without one advantage beyond the common +education of his class, described all the nature within his ken in the +highest poetic perfection, and passed away, leaving a most pathetic +record of a short life of imaginative sensibility. You can contrast this +simple and wayside flower of a faculty with such rich and complete +cultivation as it can assume in the efflorescence of Tennyson or +Swinburne; but in whatever form you find it, do not the less value the +faculty itself. Permit me to say that in no condition of society can it +be encouraged and fertilized more usefully than among yourselves. For +not only will it bring with it calm and comfort amid all the +superabundant activities, ambitions, and confusions of daily life, but +it has also the regulative powers teaching men to divide the sphere of +the imagination from that of practical life, and thus obviating the +dangers that so often arise from the want of this distinction. + +There is no better preservative than the exercise of the poetic faculty +from religious hallucinations, from political delusions, and I would say +even from financial extravagances. Therefore, through the whole vast +range of this new world, be on the watch to look out for and to +encourage this great gift to man. Do not be too hard with any +imperfections or absence of refinement which may accompany its +exhibition. Do not treat it too critically or with too much scholastic +censure. Recognize also its value on another ground--the extension and +the perpetuation of our great common language--an interest not less dear +to every one of us here present than to the future welfare of mankind:-- + + "Beyond the vague Atlantic deep, + Far as the farthest prairies sweep, + Where mountain wastes the sense appall + Where burns the radiant Western Fall, + One duty lies on old and young-- + With filial piety to guard, + As on its greenest native sward, + The glory of the English tongue! + + "That ample speech, that subtle speech, + Apt for the needs of all in each, + Strong to endure, yet prompt to bend + Wherever human feelings tend, + Preserve its force, expand its powers, + And through the maze of civil life, + In letters, commerce, e'en in strife, + Remember, it is yours and ours!" + + + * * * * * + + +BONDS OF NATIONAL SYMPATHY + +[Response of Lord Houghton to the address of Joseph H. Choate at the + farewell reception given in honor of Lord Houghton by the Union League + Club, New York City, November 23, 1875.] + + +MR. CHOATE AND GENTLEMEN:--Before you spoke I had much +difficulty to interpret to myself the meaning of my reception here. So +unimportant as I know myself to have been before, in political and +social life, I have been surprised at the manner in which I have been +received in the United States of America. You, sir, have given an +explanation of that problem which I am very thankful to receive. The +habit of Americans to welcome Englishmen, whatever may be their +position, in itself proves to me that you regard us as something above +individuals, and that, somehow or other, you connect us in every way by +imagination, if no other, as present with that great country over the +Atlantic which was your mother, and which it has been the habit of many +of your ancestors to call their home. [Applause.] Mr. Choate has alluded +to certain events in my political life, which he says fully justify your +kindness and remarkable sympathy of to-day, and on that matter, if there +are to be any relations between myself and the Americans, upon that +point I can say that I deserve credit. I do not say this with any +affectation, because I understand fully your feelings upon that matter. +I fully recognize, I completely comprehend, as man to man, that in that +day of your greatest trouble, even the small voice that came over the +great Atlantic was listened to with extreme pleasure and unexaggerated +sympathy. + +But when I look to myself, I am bound to say I find extremely little +merit in the matter. There was one ground of sympathy between you and +the English people, which you had the holiest right to believe would +have been absolute and overpowering. The English nation had put itself +forward as the great opponent of slavery in the world. [Applause.] It +had stated at the Congress of Vienna that the one point which England +required as the _sine qua non_ was the abolition of the slave trade. For +that purpose England not only asserted itself, but interfered up to the +utmost limit, perhaps beyond the limits of the law of nations, with all +the powers of the world. Therefore, you had a perfect right to believe, +to suppose, that in a question, in a matter in which we were not only +internationally but morally interested, the questions would be fully +considered. + +Well, gentlemen, I cannot say that it was so. As an individual I have +not the right to reproach my country upon that point. That was not my +first feeling in the matter. I felt, I knew, slavery was doomed from the +civilized world. My heart, my instincts, my sense of the well-being of +every civilized state was against the continuance of that institution. +[Applause.] I knew, though it was possible--aye, I would fain say +probable--that the condition of the slave, under many conditions, under +many circumstances, might be better than that of the free laborer of the +world, that the condition of the slave owner was incompatible with the +highest form of moral culture and highest ambition. I always think that +question had political as well as moral and religious considerations, +and that, through the unhappy condition of this continent, the question +of slavery got so intermixed with the question of property that, however +humane, however wise men were, yet nevertheless it would bring with it +an incidental condition of cruelty abhorrent to mankind, and that, +therefore, that institution could not continue to the end. [Applause.] + +But, making a clean breast of it, that was not the bottom of my +sympathy. My sympathy with you comes, as Mr. Choate has said, by "an +instinct unawares," and this was confirmed by any reasoning and any +deductions I might have had. From the imagination of my earliest youth, +from the sympathy of the most vivid time, and from the most logical look +at the situation in my mature life, I came to the conclusion that the +destiny of the present and the future world rests with great and +undivided empires. [Applause.] I had lived to see Italy, out of its +confusion of States, growing up into a great integrity, renewing the +promises of the wonderful classic times and the glory of Rome renovated +into a new and prosperous nation. I have lived to see, we have all lived +to see, the same process taking place in Germany. In Germany, +notwithstanding the greatest division, the most peculiar separation of +religion and even of races, yet nevertheless that great German empire is +coming forward as a monument of the civilization of the future world, +and as the centre of all Europe against any form of Oriental barbarism. +And I knew from the history of my own country that that was no new +principle, but one we had always maintained. England never at any moment +thought of giving up the principle of the integrity of its empire. You +yourselves are the evidences of the energy with which we sustained it. +[Prolonged applause.] And we had at our doors, we had within us, another +nation, in many points alien to ourselves; of a different race largely, +of a different religion almost generally; a nation which we had treated +sometimes with kindness, sometimes with harshness, sometimes with +justice, and many other times with injustice; but always on the +principle of the integrity of the empire. [Applause.] And I could not +see how an intelligent man could see what Italy was growing to, prophesy +what Germany would become, and, knowing the difficulties of the present +Ireland, how that man could wish to destroy the integrity of the United +States. Fact and history were against him, and in addition to that I +felt that--in favoring or in sustaining your separation, in allowing +special and local sympathy to act upon me, instead of the great logic of +historical truths--if I could have allowed myself to act in that line of +sympathy which would have bound me to my countrymen, I should have felt +I had belied the truth of history as well as, I believe, the foundation +of general morality. [Great applause.] + +Therefore, gentlemen, I have little individual merit for whatever I may +have said upon that matter. I tell you that that was the calculation, +the best calculation of my own mind, that it was the simple result of +the deduction of my own reasoning [applause], and if you have shown me +gratitude on this matter I will not say that I have not felt in a +certain sense it was not deserved, from the motives I have alluded to. +And if, as some cynic has said, gratitude is nothing whatever but the +means of securing favors to come, I can assure you that you have +accomplished your object [laughter and applause], and if you have +desired that, in any means which Providence has placed in my power, in +any influence direct or indirect which I may exert, I shall speak as I +have spoken and think as I have thought of the United States of America, +you may be well sure that I will do so. [Applause.] + +On another occasion when I have been kindly received, I have spoken of +my literary sympathy with this country. Every Englishman rightly looks +to this country as he would with a sense of appeal to posterity. He +feels that if he has said anything, if he has written anything, if he +has touched any chord, if he has struck even any verbal assurance that +pleases mankind, if you take it up you pass it on; it does not go from +tongue to tongue in the little distant Anglia of Europe. + +I recognize that I have met in this country men whom I shall be glad to +meet anywhere and with whose familiarity I have been honored. And I +might say this, that if I were to compare the best men that I have met +here with the best men that I have known in Europe, I should say simply +this, that the men that I have found here seem to me as equal to the +circumstances in which they have been placed, as intelligent in all +their relations of life, as noble in their innermost impulses, as just +in their expressions, as any I have ever met with in my intercourse with +people in Europe. [Applause.] I have been honored with the familiarity +of many distinguished men, I have been received with great kindness by +your intelligent and able President. I had the fortune, the other day, +to sit by the deathbed of that amiable, honest man, your Vice-President +[Henry Wilson], in the Capitol at Washington, dying under the portrait +of Jefferson. I have seen some of your able men with whom I have been +intimate in Europe, and one whom you will allow me to mention above all +others, a man whose career I witnessed during the great and stormy times +of your troubles in England--Charles Francis Adams [long +applause]--whose maintenance of your dignity was concurrent with a sense +of the importance of good relations between England and America. + +Gentlemen, next year you will celebrate your Centennial, and I have been +kindly asked by every person who wished me good-bye to come back to this +Centennial. [Laughter.] As for the Centennial itself, I have no +particular inclination to come back. I think it is quite right you +should have your Centennial, but I do not quite see what an Englishman +has to do with it. [Long laughter and applause.] It is a thing which a +philosopher might almost make the foundation of a theory, that you who +are going to have this magnificent celebration of the one hundredth year +of your liberation from the horrible rule of England, at the same time +accompany it with the warmest feelings toward the British nation. +[Laughter and applause.] Now, if you will clearly understand that this +Centennial is to be your last celebration of this kind, and that from +that moment you become part of the great community of Europe, then I say +it will be a very useful celebration and one which all the world will be +ready to honor. Celebrating your independence, you call it. A very noble +act at a very noble time! Your repulsion was fully justified by the +folly and the stupidity and the ignorance of England. + +The causes of England and America are not different, but common to both. +You have your own local difficulties, just as we have. You have your own +religious difficulties, just as we have. Take a single instance. The +question of local taxation--a very serious question with you, a question +agitated in the great States. That question is one of the greatest +importance that we are at this moment discussing in politics. It is a +matter of great interest to us whether local taxation should be +entrusted and commissioned to a body of persons specially appointed for +that purpose by the Crown, or whether it should be entrusted to certain +persons selected by the people. That will be one of the most important +questions we shall have to consider in the next session or two of +Parliament. It is said that there is great profusion, great waste, in +our present arrangement of those matters, and that if our local +expenditure were conducted by persons specially appointed for that +purpose, it would be cheaper. I don't say more honestly, but more +economically managed. This is a question that you are agitating at the +present moment, and one that affects the politics of your great cities. + +Take again railroads. It is a question whether the railroad should be in +the hands of the State or of private companies. We are talking about it +every day. Our interest in rapid transit has been very much the same as +yours. Our rapid transit has not only gone over certain unfortunate +persons who stood in the way, but it has gone over ruined hopes and +prostrated energies. There is hardly a question that I see agitated in +American newspapers that, in one form or another, is not agitated with +us. The act of Parliament which restored to England specie payments was +met with exactly the same argument, exactly the same controversy, +exactly the same speciousness as meet you in this country. We have +followed you on the matter of popular education. You have been our +teachers in that branch. We are at present following in your footsteps. +[Applause.] + + + + +JULIA WARD HOWE + + +TRIBUTE TO OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + +[Speech of Julia Ward Howe at the breakfast in celebration of the + seventieth birthday of Oliver Wendell Holmes, given by the publishers + of the "Atlantic Monthly," Boston, Mass., December 3, 1879. Mrs. Howe + sat at the right of Mr. Howells, then the editor of the "Atlantic," + who presided at one end of the tables, with Mr. Emerson on his left. + Dr. Holmes sat on the right of Mr. Houghton, who presided at the other + end of the table, with Mrs. Stowe on his left. Mrs. Howe was called up + by the toast, "The girls we have not left behind us."] + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--One word in courtesy I must say in +replying to so kind a mention as that which is made, not only of me, but +of those of my sex who are so happy as to be present here to-day. I +think, in looking on this scene, of a certain congress which took place +in Paris more than a year ago, and it was called a congress of literary +people, _gens de lettres_. When I heard that this was to take place I +immediately bestirred myself to attend its sittings and went at once to +the headquarters to find how I might do so. I then learned to my great +astonishment that no women were to be included among these _gens de +lettres_, that is, literary people. [Laughter.] Now, we have thought it +a very modest phrase sometimes to plead that, whatever women may not be, +they are people. [Laughter and applause.] And it would seem to-day that +they are recognized as literary people, and I am very glad that you +gentlemen have found room for the sisterhood to-day, and have found room +to place them so numerously here, and I must say that to my eyes the +banquet looks very much more cheerful than it would without them. +[Applause.] It looks to me as though it had all blossomed out under a +new social influence, and beside each dark stem I see a rose. [Laughter +and applause.] But I must say at once that I came here entirely +unprovided with a speech, and, not dreaming of one, yet I came provided +with something. I considered myself invited as a sort of +grandmother--indeed, I am, and I know a grandmother is usually expected +to have something in her pocket. [Laughter and applause.] And I have a +very modest tribute to the illustrious person whom we are met to-day to +honor. With your leave I will read it. [Applause.] + + Thou metamorphic god! + Who mak'st the straight Olympus thy abode, + Hermes to subtle laughter moving, + Apollo with serener loving, + Thou demi-god also! + Who dost all the powers of healing know; + Thou hero who dost wield + The golden sword and shield,-- + Shield of a comprehensive mind, + And sword to wound the foes of human kind; + + Thou man of noble mould! + Whose metal grows not cold + Beneath the hammer of the hurrying years; + A fiery breath doth blow + Across its fervid glow, + And still its resonance delights our ears; + + Loved of thy brilliant mates, + Relinquished to the fates, + Whose spirit music used to chime with thine, + Transfigured in our sight, + Not quenched in death's dark night, + They hold thee in companionship divine. + + O autocratic muse! + Soul-rainbow of all hues, + Packed full of service are thy bygone years; + Thy winged steed doth fly + Across the starry sky, + Bearing the lowly burthens of thy tears. + + I try this little leap, + Wishing that from the deep, + I might some pearl of song adventurous bring. + Despairing, here I stop, + And my poor offering drop,-- + Why stammer I when thou art here to sing? + + + + +CLARK HOWELL + + +OUR REUNITED COUNTRY + +[Speech of Clark Howell at the Peace Jubilee Banquet in Chicago, October + 19, 1898, in response to the toast, "Our Reunited Country: North and + South."] + + +MR. TOASTMASTER, AND MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN:--In the mountains of +my State, in a county remote from the quickening touch of commerce, and +railroads and telegraphs--so far removed that the sincerity of its +rugged people flows unpolluted from the spring of nature--two +vine-covered mounds, nestling in the solemn silence of a country +churchyard, suggest the text of my response to the sentiment to which I +am to speak to-night. A serious text, Mr. Toastmaster, for an occasion +like this, and yet out of it there is life and peace and hope and +prosperity, for in the solemn sacrifice of the voiceless grave can the +chiefest lesson of the Republic be learned, and the destiny of its real +mission be unfolded. So bear with me while I lead you to the +rust-stained slab, which for a third of a century--since +Chickamauga--has been kissed by the sun as it peeped over the Blue +Ridge, melting the tears with which the mourning night had bedewed the +inscription:-- + + "Here lies a Confederate soldier. + He died for his country." + +The September day which brought the body of this mountain hero to that +home among the hills which had smiled upon his infancy, been gladdened +by his youth, and strengthened by his manhood, was an ever memorable one +with the sorrowing concourse of friends and neighbors who followed his +shot-riddled body to the grave. And of that number no man gainsaid the +honor of his death, lacked full loyalty to the flag for which he fought, +or doubted the justice of the cause for which he gave his life. + +Thirty-five years have passed; another war has called its roll of +martyrs; again the old bell tolls from the crude latticed tower of the +settlement church; another great pouring of sympathetic humanity, and +this time the body of a son, wrapped in the stars and stripes, is +lowered to its everlasting rest beside that of the father who sleeps in +the stars and bars. + +There were those there who stood by the grave of the Confederate hero +years before, and the children of those were there, and of those present +no one gainsaid the honor of the death of this hero of El Caney, and +none were there but loved, as patriots alone can love, the glorious flag +that enshrines the people of a common country as it enshrouds the form +that will sleep forever in its blessed folds. And on this tomb will be +written:-- + + "Here lies the son of a Confederate soldier. + He died for his country." + +And so it is that between the making of these two graves human hands and +human hearts have reached a solution of the vexed problem that has +baffled human will and human thought for three decades. Sturdy sons of +the South have said to their brothers of the North that the people of +the South had long since accepted the arbitrament of the sword to which +they had appealed. And likewise the oft-repeated message has come back +from the North that peace and good will reigned, and that the wounds of +civil dissension were but as sacred memories. Good fellowship was wafted +on the wings of commerce and development from those who had worn the +blue to those who had worn the gray. Nor were these messages delivered +in vain, for they served to pave the way for the complete and absolute +elimination of the line of sectional differences by the only process by +which such a result was possible. The sentiment of the great majority of +the people of the South was rightly spoken in the message of the +immortal Hill, and in the burning eloquence of Henry Grady--both +Georgians--the record of whose blessed work for the restoration of peace +between the sections becomes a national heritage, and whose names are +stamped in enduring impress upon the affection of the people of the +Republic. + +And yet there were still those among us who believed your course was +polite, but insincere, and those among you who assumed that our +professed attitude was sentimental and unreal. Bitterness had departed, +and sectional hate was no more, but there were those who feared, even if +they did not believe, that between the great sections of our greater +government there was not the perfect faith and trust and love that both +professed; that there was want of the faith that made the American +Revolution a successful possibility; that there was want of the trust +that crystallized our States into the original Union; that there was +lack of the love that bound in unassailable strength the united +sisterhood of States that withstood the shock of Civil War. It is true +this doubt existed to a greater degree abroad than at home. But to-day +the mist of uncertainty has been swept away by the sunlight of events, +and there, where doubt obscured before stands in bold relief, commanding +the admiration of the whole world, the most glorious type of united +strength and sentiment and loyalty known to the history of nations. + +Out of the chaos of that civil war had risen a new nation, mighty in the +vastness of its limitless resources, the realities within its reach +surpassing the dreams of fiction, and eclipsing the fancy of fable--a +new nation, yet rosy in the flesh, with the bloom of youth upon its +cheeks and the gleam of morning in its eyes. No one questioned that +commercial and geographic union had been effected. So had Rome re-united +its faltering provinces, maintaining the limit of its imperial +jurisdiction by the power of commercial bonds and the majesty of the +sword, until in its very vastness it collapsed. The heart of its people +did not beat in unison. Nations may be made by the joining of hands, but +the measure of their real strength and vitality, like that of the human +body, is in the heart. Show me the country whose people are not at heart +in sympathy with its institutions, and the fervor of whose patriotism is +not bespoken in its flag, and I will show you a ship of state which is +sailing in shallow waters, toward unseen eddies of uncertainty, if not +to the open rocks of dismemberment. + +Whence was the proof to come, to ourselves as well as to the world, that +we were being moved once again by a common impulse, and by the same +heart that inspired and gave strength to the hands that smote the +British in the days of the Revolution, and again at New Orleans; that +made our ships the masters of the seas; that placed our flag on +Chapultepec, and widened our domain from ocean to ocean? How was the +world to know that the burning fires of patriotism, so essential to +national glory and achievement, had not been quenched by the blood +spilled by the heroes of both sides of the most desperate struggle known +in the history of civil wars? How was the doubt that stood, all +unwilling, between outstretched hands and sympathetic hearts, to be, in +fact, dispelled? + +If from out the caldron of conflict there arose this doubt, only from +the crucible of war could come the answer. And, thank God, that answer +has been made in the record of the war, the peaceful termination of +which we celebrate to-night. Read it in every page of its history; read +it in the obliteration of party and sectional lines in the congressional +action which called the nation to arms in the defence of prostrate +liberty, and for the extension of the sphere of human freedom; read it +in the conduct of the distinguished Federal soldier who, as the chief +executive of this great Republic,[9] honors this occasion by his +presence to-night, and whose appointments in the first commissions +issued after war had been declared made manifest the sincerity of his +often repeated utterances of complete sectional reconciliation and the +elimination of sectional lines in the affairs of government. Differing +with him, as I do, on party issues, utterly at variance with the views +of his party on economic problems, I sanction with all my heart the +obligation that rests on every patriotic citizen to make party second to +country, and in the measure that he has been actuated by this broad and +patriotic policy he will receive the plaudits of the whole people: "Well +done, good and faithful servant." + +Portentous indeed have been the developments of the past six months; the +national domain has been extended far into the Caribbean Sea on the +south, and to the west it is so near the mainland of Asia that we can +hear grating of the process which is grinding the ancient celestial +empire into pulp for the machinery of civilization and of progress. + +In a very short while the last page of this war will have been written, +except for the effect it will have on the future. Our flag now floats +over Porto Rico, a part of Cuba, and Manila. It must soon bespeak our +sovereignty over the island of Luzon, or possibly over the whole +Philippine group. It will, ere long, from the staff on Havana's Morro, +cast its shadow on the sunken and twisted frame of the Maine--a grim +reminder of the vengeance that awaits any nation that lays unholy hands +on an American citizen or violates any sacred American right. It has +drawn from an admiring world unstinted applause for the invincible army, +that under tropic suns, despite privations and disease, untrained but +undismayed, has swept out of their own trenches and routed from their +own battlements, like chaff before the wind, the trained forces of a +formidable power. It has bodily stripped the past of lustre and +defiantly challenged the possibilities of the future in the +accomplishment of a matchless navy, whose deeds have struck the universe +with consternation and with wonder. + +But speaking as a Southerner and an American, I say that this has been +as naught compared to the greatest good this war has accomplished. +Drawing alike from all sections of the Union for her heroes and her +martyrs, depending alike upon north, south, east and west for her +glorious victories, and weeping with sympathy with the widows and the +stricken mothers wherever they may be, America, incarnated spirit of +liberty, stands again to-day the holy emblem of a household in which the +children abide in unity, equality, love and peace. The iron sledge of +war that rent asunder the links of loyalty and love has welded them +together again. Ears that were deaf to loving appeals for the burial of +sectional strife have listened and believed when the muster guns have +spoken. Hearts that were cold to calls for trust and sympathy have +awakened to loving confidence in the baptism of their blood. + +Drawing inspiration from the flag of our country, the South has shared +not only the dangers, but the glories of the war. In the death of brave +young Bagley at Cardenas, North Carolina furnished the first blood in +the tragedy. It was Victor Blue of South Carolina, who, like the Swamp +Fox of the Revolution, crossed the fiery path of the enemy at his +pleasure, and brought the first official tidings of the situation as it +existed in Cuba. It was Brumby, a Georgia boy, the flag lieutenant of +Dewey, who first raised the stars and stripes over Manila. It was +Alabama that furnished Hobson--glorious Hobson--who accomplished two +things the Spanish navy never yet has done--sunk an American ship, and +made a Spanish man-of-war securely float. + +The South answered the call to arms with its heart, and its heart goes +out with that of the North in rejoicing at the result. The demonstration +lacking to give the touch of life to the picture has been made. The open +sesame that was needed to give insight into the true and loyal hearts +both North and South has been spoken. Divided by war, we are united as +never before by the same agency, and the union is of hearts as well as +hands. + +The doubter may scoff, and the pessimist may croak, but even they must +take hope at the picture presented in the simple and touching incident +of eight Grand Army veterans, with their silvery heads bowed in +sympathy, escorting the lifeless body of the Daughter of the Confederacy +from Narragansett to its last, long rest at Richmond. + +When that great and generous soldier, U. S. Grant, gave back to Lee, +crushed, but ever glorious, the sword he had surrendered at Appomattox, +that magnanimous deed said to the people of the South: "You are our +brothers." But when the present ruler of our grand republic on awakening +to the condition of war that confronted him, with his first commission +placed the leader's sword in the hands of those gallant confederate +commanders, Joe Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee, he wrote between the lines in +living letters of everlasting light the words: "There is but one people +of this Union, one flag alone for all." + +The South, Mr. Toastmaster, will feel that her sons have been well +given, that her blood has been well spilled, if that sentiment is to be +indeed the true inspiration of our nation's future. God grant it may be +as I believe it will. + + + + +WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS + + +THE "ATLANTIC" AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS + +[Speech of William Dean Howells, as editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," at + the dinner given to John Greenleaf Whittier, at Boston, Mass., + December 17, 1877, in celebration of the poet's seventieth birthday, + and in celebration also of the twentieth year of the magazine.] + + +GENTLEMEN, CONTRIBUTORS AND FRIENDS OF THE "ATLANTIC +MONTHLY":--The serious moment has approached which sooner or later +arrives at most banquets of the dinner-giving Anglo-Saxon race--a moment +when each commensal, like the pampered sacrifice of the Aztecs, suddenly +feels that the joys which have flattered him into forgetfulness of his +fate are at an end, and that he must now gird himself for expiation. It +is ordinarily a moment when the unprepared guest abandons himself to +despair, and when even the more prophetic spirit finds memory forsaking +it, or the treacherous ideas committed to paper withering away till the +manuscript in the breast-pocket rustles sere and sad as the leaves of +autumn. But let no one at this table be under a fearful apprehension. +This were to little purpose an image of the great republic of letters, +if the mind of any citizen might be invaded, and his right to hold his +peace denied. Any gentleman being called upon and having nothing to say, +can make his silent bow and sit down again without disfavor; he may even +do so with a reasonable hope of applause. Reluctant orators, therefore, +who are chafing under the dread of being summoned to stand and deliver +an extorted eloquence, and who have already begun to meditate reprisals +upon the person or the literature of the present speaker, may safely +suspend their preparations; it shall not be his odious duty to molest +them. + +We are met, gentlemen, upon the seventieth birthday of a man and poet +whose fame is dear to us all, but whose modesty at first feared too much +the ordeal by praise, to consent to his meeting with us. But he must +soon have felt the futility of trying to stay away, of endeavoring to +class himself with the absent, who are always wrong. There are renowns +to which absence is impossible, and whether he would or no, Whittier +must still have been in every heart. Therefore he is here in person, to +the unbounded pleasure of those assembled to celebrate this day. I will +leave him to the greetings of others, and for my own part will invite +the goldenest silence of his sect to muse a fitting tribute to the verse +in which a brave and beautiful and lofty life is enshrined. + +As to the periodical which unites us all, without rivalry, without +jealousy, the publisher has already spoken, and where there is so much +for the editor to say he cannot, perhaps, say too little. For twenty +years it has represented, and may almost be said to have embodied, +American letters. With scarcely an exception, every name known in our +literature has won fame from its pages, or has added lustre to them; and +an intellectual movement, full of a generous life and of a high ideal, +finds its record there in vastly greater measure than in any or all +other places. Its career is not only distinguished among American +periodicals, but upon the whole is unique. It would not be possible, I +think, to point to any other publication of its sort, which so long +retained the allegiance of its great founders, and has added so +constantly so many names of growing repute to its list of writers. Those +who made its renown, as well as those whose renown it has made or is +making, are still its frequent contributors, and even in its latest +years have done some of their best work in it. If from time to time a +valued "Atlantic" writer ceases to appear, he is sure, finally, to +reappear; he cannot even die without leaving it a rich legacy of +manuscript. All young writers are eager to ally their names with the +great memories and presences on its roll of fame; its stamp gives a new +contributor immediate currency; it introduces him immediately into the +best public, the best company, the company of those Boston authors who +first inspired it with the life so vigorous yet. It was not given us all +to be born in Boston, but when we find ourselves in the "Atlantic" we +all seem to suffer a sea-change, an aesthetic renaissance; a livelier +literary conscience stirs in us; we have its fame at heart; we must do +our best for Maga's name as well as for our own hope; we are naturalized +Bostonians in the finest and highest sense. With greater reverence and +affection than we can express, we younger and youngest writers for the +Atlantic regard the early contributors whom we are so proud and glad to +meet here, and it is with a peculiar sense of my own unworthiness that I +salute them, and join the publishers in welcoming them to this board. + +I know very well the difference between an author whom the "Atlantic" +has floated and an author who has floated the "Atlantic," and confronted +with this disparity I have only an official courage in turning to invoke +the poet, the wit, the savant whose invention gave the "Atlantic" its +name, and whose genius has prospered an adventurous enterprise. If I did +not name him I am sure the common consciousness would summon Dr. Holmes +to his feet. I have felt authorized to hail the perpetual autocrat of +all the "Breakfast Tables" as the chief author of the "Atlantic's" +success, by often hearing the first editor of the magazine assert the +fact. This generous praise of his friend--when in a good cause was his +praise ever stinted?--might be spoken without fear that his own part +would be forgotten. His catholic taste, his subtle sense of beauty, his +hearty sympathy and sterling weight of character gave the magazine an +impress which it has been the highest care to his successors to keep +clear and bright. He imparted to it above all that purpose which I hope +is forever inseparable from it, when in his cordial love of good +literature he stretched a welcoming grasp of recognition to every young +writer, East, West, North, or South, who gave promise of good work. +Remembering his kindness in those days to one young writer, very +obscure, very remote (whose promise still waits fulfilment), I must not +attempt to praise him, lest grateful memories lead me into forbidden +paths of autobiography; but when I name Mr. Lowell I am sure you will +all look for some response to Mr. Charles Eliot Norton, a contributor +whose work gave peculiar quality and worth to the numbers of the +magazine, and whose presence here is a grateful reminder of one with +whom he has been so long bound in close ties of amity. + + + + +HENRY ELIAS HOWLAND + + +RUSSIA + +[Speech of Henry E. Howland at a banquet given by the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, April 28, 1893, to the Officers of + foreign and United States vessels escorting the Spanish caravels to + the harbor of New York City. The President of the Chamber of Commerce, + Alexander E. Orr, in introducing Judge Howland, said: "Gentlemen, our + next toast is 'Russia' and will be responded to by the Hon. Henry E. + Howland."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--The pleasing duty is assigned me +of recognizing the largest and one of the famous powers of Europe, +accompanied by the suggestion that my time is limited. The situation is +like that of the clergyman who was sent for in great haste by a man who +was very ill, and thought the end was approaching. He said to the +minister, when he arrived: "I have been a great sinner, I am pretty +sick, and I am afraid my time is short, and I want you to pray with me. +You must be brief but fervent." [Laughter.] + +Most of us who sit at this table, judging from the opportunities I have +had of hearing them discourse, fulfil the requirement of Mr. Disraeli's +great traveller in that they have seen more than they have remembered +and remembered more than they have seen. [Laughter.] But I doubt if in +all their experiences they ever sat in a more genial and attractive +company than this. We have here in this year of peace the chosen +representatives of ten nations, with all the romance of the sea, the +splendid histories and traditions of their countries, and their own +personal distinction and fame to make them welcome and interesting. + +Already have you conquered the land, and from the time you effected a +lodgment at Fortress Monroe until you are hull down on the horizon, on +your homeward voyages, your progress will prove to have been a +triumphant march into the hearts and homes of the people. [Applause.] +You have stores of wisdom and most agreeable experiences to accumulate. +Judging from press reports you may have thought you met a fair type of +the girls of America at Hampton Roads. [Laughter.] Wait till the +wonderful resources of this country in this its richest and unparalleled +product are spread before you. [Laughter.] Then you will not wonder at +the mysterious power of Helen of Troy, who set nations by the ears, or +the fascination of the Queen of the Nile, who made heroes forget their +duty and their homes. If you should take any for themselves, alone, we +should commend your choice, and though parting with them reluctantly, +should wish you God-speed. But if their money should be your object we +are just now objecting to the exportation of gold and trying to maintain +our reserves. [Laughter.] + +Whatever your nationality, you will find a large and prosperous +contingent of it in this city, the majority of whose municipal officers, +however, belong to that race which looks to Mr. Gladstone as its +saviour, and believes that when an Irishman dies it's because there is +an angel short. [Great laughter.] You will find here a wonderful power +of brag which develops as you seek the setting sun. Some inquiring +spirits will be moved to ask you what you think of this country, and, if +you visit the World's Fair some adventurous person may ask your opinion +of Chicago. It is needless to say that a favorable opinion cannot be too +highly colored, and if tinted with vermilion, will conduce to the +pleasure of your stay. [Laughter.] You will have little opportunity to +admire the wonders of our natural scenery save at Niagara. You will be +able to appreciate the reply of an American Naval officer to an English +friend in Italy when each had been maintaining the superiority of his +own country. Finally the grand spectacle of Mount Vesuvius in eruption, +throwing its brilliant rays across the Bay of Naples, burst upon their +astonished gaze. + +"Now, look at that," said the Englishman. "You haven't got anything in +America that comes anywhere near that." + +"No," replied the Yankee, "we haven't got Vesuvius, but we have got a +waterfall that could put that thing out in less than five minutes." +[Laughter.] + +At Chicago your professional instinct will lead you to admire the +magnificent turreted battleship which, in consequence of a convention +with England that neither shall maintain a fleet upon the Great Lakes, +is built upon piles, and of such substantial material that there are +fears it cannot withstand the atmospheric concussion from the fire of +the big Krupp gun. But I need not rehearse the experiences to come. You +would weary in their telling. We shall keep you as long as possible and +be loath to part with you. And if we have our way, your experience will +be like that of the old lady, who was travelling on the underground +railroad in London. Just as they were approaching a station, she said to +a gentleman, in the compartment with her: "Will you assist me to alight +at this station, sir? I am, as you see, rather stout, and I have a +physical infirmity which makes it necessary for me to step out +backwards, and every time I try to get out the guard bundles me back +into the car, shouts 'All aboard,' shuts the door, and I have gone +around this line three times already." [Great laughter.] + +At this gate of the continent we begin the pageant of the Columbian +Exposition. By the cruel irony of fate the promoters and sponsor of this +great display cannot have any hand in the Fair. The Spaniards have a +proverb that you can't at the same time ring the bell and be in the +procession [laughter]; and although you can make Chicago a seaport by +Act of Congress, you cannot get a fleet of six thousand ton ironclads +over 1,000 miles of land, even on the Chicago Limited, or the Empire +Express. [Laughter.] And so we New Yorkers appropriate this as our +private, peculiar, particular Exhibition; as Touchstone says, "A poor +thing, sir, but our own." + +It is not given to many men in their experience to see such a sight as +is now spread before us on the waters of the harbor of New York. The +might and majesty of the great nations of the earth are here represented +in their fleets which typify the country afloat, as the valor, the +ability and the distinction of their officers represent that of their +peoples. Former antagonists here float side by side; peace broods over +the armored sides of battleships and the feverish lips of their guns +speak only salutes of friendship and courtesy. It is a pity that it is +not always so. + +Among the flags that float from the mastheads of the fleet in yonder +harbor there is one--the blue St. Andrew's Cross--that represents an +empire of over 8,000,000 square miles, of more diversified races than +any other in Europe; that reaches from the Baltic to the Pacific--from +the Arctic to the Black Sea; that receives the allegiance of 103,000,000 +of people, and from its great white throne on the shores of the Gulf of +Finland directs the destinies of its subjects and shapes the policy of +Europe. [Applause.] + +That flag is not unfamiliar in these waters. In the battle summer of +1863--thirty years ago--while we were engaged in a life-and-death +struggle for national existence and the preservation of the Union, it +floated over the fleet of Admiral Lissoffski in this harbor--a signal of +friendship, encouragement and protection against foreign interference, +pending the settlement of the issues of our Civil War. No diplomatic +declaration was made, no threat was uttered, no sign was given; we only +knew the flag was there, and if it meant anything, that the power of one +of the mightiest nations of Europe was behind it. We now know from what +it saved us:-- + + "When darkness hid the starry skies, + In war's long winter night, + One ray still cheered our straining eyes, + The far-off Northern Light." + +No American who loves his country can forget that incident in our hour +of agony, nor the friendly significance of that flag. It was an American +captain who used the expression which has become historic, when he went +to the relief of his English brother-in-arms at the storming of the +Pei-Ho forts, that "blood is thicker than water," and while it courses +in the veins of a loyal American, he will remember with grateful +appreciation the sympathy and the moral support, more powerful than +armed battalions or cruisers, of Alexander II, who, like our Lincoln, +freed his serfs, and like him, while serving his people, fell by the +hand of an assassin. + +Gentlemen, who serve His Imperial Majesty the Czar, we salute you and +your flag under whatever skies or on whatever sea it floats. We remind +you that we are not ungrateful. The best we have is yours; the Nation +presents arms as you pass in review, and as our borders approach each +other in the frozen zone so when we meet you here:-- + + "Though our hearts were dry as the shell on the sand, + They would fill like the goblet I hold in my hand." + + "Bleak are our shores in the blast of December, + Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow, + Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember + Who was our friend when the world was our foe. + + "Fires of the North, in eternal communion + Blend your broad flashes with evening's bright star, + God bless the Empire that loves our great Union! + Strength to her people! Long life to the Czar!" + + + * * * * * + + +OUR ANCESTORS AND OURSELVES + +[Speech of Henry E. Howland, President of the New England Society in the + City of New York, at their ninety-fourth annual dinner, New York, + December 22, 1899.] + + +FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY:--It is my agreeable +duty to receive this weary, way-worn band of Pilgrims upon the occasion +of their 279th landing upon these bleak and arid shores, and, like +Samoset on the occasion of your first arrival, to welcome you to the +scanty fare and the privations and sufferings that are incident to this +ledge of the old Plymouth Rock. [Applause.] + +The traditions of the early entertainment of Massasoit and his warriors +at Plymouth, lasting several days, to cement a friendship which was +never broken, when heavy drafts were made upon the little stock of New +England rum, imported Hollands, bear's meat and Indian corn, have here +been renewed to such an extent that, like them, we doubtless feel that +the "earth is ours and the fulness thereof." [Laughter.] Though, if +Plymouth Rock and the Waldorf-Astoria are synonymous terms for fulness, +we should think that the latter was the more synonymous of the two. +[Laughter.] The surroundings of the two occasions may differ--velvet +carpets, groaning tables, genial temperature and electric lights are an +excellent substitute for log floors, a restricted larder, the icy chill +and the winter stars. The grim, stern Pilgrim with the austere face and +peaked hat, and the lean, wild, loping Indian are here supplanted by a +company whose well-rounded figures and genial faces reflect the +assurance of the possession of sky-scraping buildings, pipe lines, +through lines, warehouses, well-stuffed deposit vaults and comfortable +bank accounts [laughter], upon whom smile from the boxes the blessings +which, like those of Providence, come from above [applause] and cause us +to echo the sentiment unconsciously expressed by the lady who was +distributing tracts in the streets of London. She handed one to a +cabman; he glanced at it, handed it back, touched his hat and politely +said: "Thank you, lady, I am a married man." [Laughter.] She looked +nervously at the title, which was, "Abide with me" [laughter], and +hurriedly departed. Under this inspiration we agree with the proverb of +the Eastern sage: "To be constant in love to one is good; to be constant +to many is great." [Laughter.] But we must remember, while the critical +eyes of our households are upon us, that our halos will never be too +small for our heads. [Laughter.] + +Under these favoring conditions we celebrate the glories of our +ancestors, the unparalleled results of their achievements, and +ourselves. I hope you will find that the only defect in my perfunctory +remarks as the presiding officer will be their brevity. + +Remembering some past occurrences on occasions like this, we agree with +the pupil who was asked by his teacher, "What is the meaning of +elocution?" and he answered: "It is the way people are put to death in +some States." [Laughter.] But with this array of speakers before you, +full of unwonted possibilities, you will not wonder if I feel like the +undertaker in Sixth Avenue who displayed a sign in his window: "It is a +pleasure to show goods." [Laughter.] + +The Society has shared in the all-pervading prosperity which illumines +the land with a prospect of its indefinite continuance. It numbers 1,504 +members, and its invested funds aggregate the sum of $108,750. It has +been liberal in its charitable contributions; it has resisted all +attempts like those made against some of our large life insurance +companies to compel it to distribute its surplus [laughter], and, +refuting the statement of Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, who said that +the "chief duty of trustees was to commit judicious breaches of trust," +it has imitated the stern integrity of that bank cashier who upon a warm +day sat down on the neighborly side of a sheet of postage stamps, and +had to go home and make a change of clothing before he could get his +books to balance. [Laughter.] And, taking warning from the slogan of the +Bryanized Democracy, which caused a quotation from a message of one of +our modern statesmen that "a public office is a public trust," to be met +with the cry "Down with the trusts," our treasurer carefully avoids +handling United States nickels, for they bear the motto "In God We +Trust," and the Society might be met with the same attack and come into +disrepute on that account. [Laughter.] + +In these days, when the Populist, fusionist, and demagogue is +endeavoring, like Mrs. Partington, to sweep back the ocean tide of +prosperity with a broom, clogging the wheels of industry and seeking by +legislative enactment to reverse the laws of nature and of political +economy, which are immutable by Divine decree, we can commend to them +the answer of an examiner of a young man who applied for admission to +the bar. He failed utterly in questions upon contracts, partnership, +corporation law, commercial paper and real estate, and was told so. +"Well," he said, "won't you try me on the statutes? I am pretty strong +on them." "Well, what's the use," the examiner replied, "when some d--n +fool Legislature may repeal all you know." [Laughter and applause.] + +Forty-seven members have died during the year. The list is entirely made +up of men distinguished in all the pursuits of life--who wrote their +names in bright characters upon the history of the City and State, and +whose memory will always remain as a precious legacy and an example to +those who succeed them. Fourteen had passed the Psalmist's limit of +life, and nine had passed their eightieth year. In it are enrolled the +names of William H. Appleton, the honored head of the great publishing +firm known wherever the English language is spoken, to whose reputation +he contributed so much by his clear intelligence, breadth of views and +spotless character. + +Isaac H. Bailey, for several years the President of this Society, an +honorable merchant and a trusted public officer. + +William Dowd, the treasurer of the Society for fifteen years; +distinguished in finance and the management of large corporate +interests, and endeared to a host of friends by the charm of his genial +nature. + +Gen. George S. Greene, the oldest living graduate of the West Point +Military Academy, who rendered valiant and distinguished service on many +battle-fields of the Civil War, who was the faithful and efficient head +of the Croton Aqueduct Board for many years; was represented in the +military service of his country by several distinguished sons and, until +his death, in his ninety-eighth year, retained all his faculties +undimmed--a soldier and a citizen of whom his country was justly proud. +[Applause.] + +Roswell P. Flower, an honored Governor of this State, eminent as a +philanthropist and financier, a leader among strong men. + +William H. Webb, a pioneer shipbuilder, with a name famous wherever +American commerce extended, a rugged, iron man who stood four square to +all the winds of heaven, generous and tender-hearted as a child, who for +forty-five years never failed in his attendance at the dinners of this +Society, and who left a reputation for philanthropy and public spirit +unsurpassed in this city of generous giving. + +John G. Moore, John Brooks, Edward H. R. Lyman, Edward A. Quintard, Dr. +Charles Inslee Pardee, and all the others to whom the limit of time will +not allow a tribute worthy of their honorable lives and work. + +We do well to recall upon such occasions as this, as an inspiration, the +story of the emigration of our Pilgrim ancestors to America, involving, +as it does, the whole modern development, diffusion and organization of +English liberty, which lives and breathes and burns in legend and in +song. It is unparalleled in the annals of the world, in the majesty of +its purpose and the poverty of its means, the weakness of the beginning +and the grandeur of the result. It is unparalleled in classic or modern +history, in its exhibition of courage, patience, persistence, +steadfastness in devotion to principle. Beginning with the hasty flight +from Lincolnshire to Holland, the peaceful life in exile, the perilous +ocean voyage in a crazy craft in mid-winter, the frail settlement at +Plymouth--a shred of the most tenacious life in Europe--floating over +the waste of waters and clinging on the bleakest edge of America, beset +by Indians, wild beasts and disease, starving, frozen and dying, remote +from succor and beyond the knowledge of their kin, like a seed from the +Old World floated to the New by ocean currents, containing the elements +which, like the mustard seed, should yield a hundred fold and overspread +and dominate a continent, until the prophecy familiar to the Pilgrims +should be fulfilled: "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, +a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a great nation." +[Applause.] + +The Archbishop and Ministers of King James, who drove these men and the +26,000 who followed them, the flower of the English Puritans, from +England, like Louis XIV, when he sent the Huguenots into exile by the +revocation of the Edict of Nantes, furnished an example to that master +of the school where the Eton system of flogging prevailed. On a Saturday +morning the delinquents were called up to be flogged. One of the boys +inquired, "What am I to be punished for, sir?" "I don't know, but your +name is down on the list, and I shall have to go through with it," and +the flogging was administered. The boy made such a fuss that the master +looked over the list on his return to his rooms, to see whether he had +made a mistake, and found that he had whipped the confirmation class. +[Laughter.] + +They brought the foundation of a free people, they converted the +wilderness of a continent, they established the New England home, rich +only in piety, education, liberty, industry and character, from which +has gone out the best inspiration of the Republic they forecast. + +There have been times in the later history of the country when the +Puritan was not altogether popular, and the feeling entertained toward +him and his descendants was expressed like that at a Liberal meeting in +Scotland, where the proceedings were being opened by prayer, and the +reverend gentleman prayed fervently that "the Liberals might hang a' +thegither." He was interrupted by a loud and irreverent "Amen" from the +back of the hall. "Not, O Lord," went on the clergyman, "in the sense +which that profane scoffer would have ye to understand, but that they +may hang thegither in accord and concord." "I dinna care so much what +kind of a cord it is," struck in the voice, "sae lang as it is a strong +cord." [Laughter.] + +Fortunately for them, and perhaps for the world, opinions differed +enough to give them a chance. "You can't always tell," said a man, at +the end of a discussion, "what one's neighbors think of him." "I came +mighty near knowing once," said a citizen, with a reminiscent look, "but +the jury disagreed." [Laughter.] But with the Puritans, when discussion +ceased and other arguments began, the result was like that when the lady +said to her clergyman, who was paying her an afternoon call, of her +little boy, who bore the marks of a struggle: "Johnny has been a bad +little boy to-day; he has been fighting and has got a black eye." "So I +see," said the clergyman. "Come into the next room with me, Johnny, and +I will pray with you." "You had better go home and pray with your own +little boy, he has got two black eyes." [Laughter.] + +The forty-one families who came in the "Mayflower," and the thousand of +English Puritans who came in the next decade, are not entitled to all +the credit for the development of the country, for there were others of +their kind in Virginia, and, unlike the Boers of the Transvaal, they +gave later comers a show. [Laughter and applause.] The process of +appropriation by one people of a country, even if they are the first +settlers, can be carried too far even for advantage to them or to +inspire credulity in its possibility. A returned traveller, relating his +adventures, said: "The most remarkable experience I ever had occurred a +short time ago in Russia. I was sleighing on the Steppes, miles from my +destination, when, to my horror, I found I was pursued by a pack of +wolves; I fired blindly into the pack, killing one of them, and, to my +relief, saw the others stop to devour him; after doing this, however, +they still came on. I repeated the shot, with the same result, and each +shot gave me an opportunity to whip up my horses. Finally there was only +one wolf left, yet on it came with its fierce eyes glaring in +anticipation of a good hot supper." "Hold on, there," said a man who had +been listening, "by your way of reckoning, that last wolf must have had +the rest of the pack inside of him." [Laughter.] "Well," said the +traveller, "now I remember it, he did wobble a bit." [Laughter.] + +It was wise in our forefathers to welcome those who, like them, were +pioneers in the wilderness, to give them equal rights and to assimilate +them into American citizenship. The qualities of which we boast in our +Pilgrim ancestors still linger with their descendants, though among +75,000,000 of people there may not be enough to go around. The +expectation of it would be what Dr. Johnson said of a man who had +married his third wife, as the "triumph of hope over experience." +[Laughter.] But we must, on occasions like this, make some assumptions, +like the lady of whom a friend said: "She puts on a good deal of style +now she has a box at the opera." "Good gracious," said the other lady, +"the woman must put on something when she goes to the opera." +[Laughter.] + +Too many, it is true, deserve to be under the suspicion expressed by the +market-man who was exhibiting his _array_ of "newly-laid eggs, fresh +eggs, and plain eggs," to a young housekeeper, who finally asked, as to +the latter: "Are these eggs really fresh?" "Well, madam," he replied, +"we call them Saturday night eggs; they've tried all the week to be +good." [Laughter.] And we are so compromising and tender in dealing with +doubtful subjects that we follow the advice given to a man who asked how +to tell a bad egg: Well, if you have anything to tell to a bad egg you +had better break it gently. [Laughter.] Some have that kind of a +conscience which was described by a small boy as the thing that makes +you feel sorry when you get found out, and their idea of commercial +integrity was expressed by the man who said, proudly, "At last I can +look the world in the face as an honest man. I owe no one anything; the +last claim against me is outlawed." Some aim high, but from the result +they must have shut their eyes when they fired, and although as a Nation +we pride ourselves upon our common sense, so that we can truly say not +every man is made a fool of, the observer of men and things might say +every man has the raw material in him. [Laughter.] + +But seriously speaking, we abate in no degree the claim that the best +traditions of our forefathers have not degenerated in these modern days. +Our hearts beat with a quicker throb at the recollection of the +achievements of these last pregnant years; the eye lights with +enthusiasm at the sight of the flag whose fluttering folds have +witnessed such scenes of danger and inspired such daring deeds, and our +voices shout in unison of acclaim the achievements of what a wondering +African called "the angry Saxon race." [Applause.] + +The people have stood for humanity, honesty, order and progress. Its +representatives in civil life have obeyed their behests. The American +Regular has shown in his stern resolve, his self-control, his obedience +to orders, his contempt of danger, that while he leads a forlorn hope in +war, he is the advance guard of liberty and justice, law and order, +peace and happiness. [Applause.] + + "No State'll call him noble son, + He ain't no lady's pet; + But let a row start anyhow, + They'll send for him, you bet. + He packs his little knapsack up + And starts off in the van, + To start the fight, and start it right, + The Regular Army man." + +[Applause.] + +The gallant officers who, true to the spirit of the service, stood up on +the firing line in Cuba and the Philippines, charging heights, wading +rivers and storming the trenches at the head of their men, have shed new +glory upon the American Army, and none more illustriously than that +splendid soldier, Major-General Henry W. Lawton [prolonged applause], +who, after a distinguished and brilliant service of nearly forty years +in two wars, and continuous Indian fighting, has received the soldier's +summons on the field of battle, and given with his life his last pledge +of devotion to his country. The flag that covers him never shrouded a +finer soldier or a more typical American. [Applause.] + + "Close his eyes; his work is done! + What to him is friend or foeman, + Rise of moon or set of sun, + Hand of man or kiss of woman? + + "As man may he fought his fight, + Proved his truth by his endeavor-- + Let him sleep in solemn night, + Sleep forever and forever." + +Such men have their counterparts in the very pink and flower of the +chivalry of England, who face their foe standing, and are now charging +full front and fearlessly into the storm of shot and shell that awaits +them, deeming it, in the language of young Hubert Hervey, "a grand thing +to die for the expansion of the Empire." [Applause.] + +The pride of England in its navy, is justly matched by that of every +American in his own. [Applause.] Its record, from the days of John Paul +Jones to those of Dewey and Sampson [applause and cheers], is +unsurpassed in the history of the world. During these hundred glorious +years, its whole personnel, from Admiral to blue-jacket, has left upon +the pages of history a shining story, stainless, brilliant and undying, +of honor, skill, devotion and daring that stirs the heart because +inspiring and ennobling. The English poet might justly say:-- + + "The spirit of our fathers + Shall start from every wave; + For the deck it was their field of fame, + And ocean was their grave." + +And the American can as justly reply:-- + + "Know that thy highest dwells at home, there art + And loyal inspiration spring; + If thou would'st touch the universal heart, + Of thine own country sing." + +Remembering its glorious past, its happy, peaceful, prosperous +present--for it is the happiest land the sun shines upon--and the +auspicious omens for the bright opening future, I ask you to pledge with +me its representative head, the Commander-in-Chief of its Army and Navy, +the President of the United States. [Toast drunk standing.] + + + + +THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY + + +SCIENCE AND ART + +[Speech of Thomas H. Huxley at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, + London, May 5, 1883. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, + said in introducing him: "With science I couple the name under which + we know one of the most fearless, keen and lucid intellects which have + ever in this country grappled with the problems of natural science and + set them solved before us, the name of Professor Huxley [cheers], a + name known far and wide wherever the pregnant science of biology is + studied, and through the vehicle of other tongues besides that strong + and trenchant English with which he is wont to strike his thoughts so + vigorously home."] + + +SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS AND +GENTLEMEN:--I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and +appreciative manner in which you have received the toast of Science. It +is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of +this kind, because I have noticed of late years a great and growing +tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born in a +pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive +force, which if it had its own way would oust from the universe all +other pursuits. I think there are many persons who look upon this new +birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern +thought with the purpose of devouring the Andromeda of art. And now and +then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready +writer, with the cap of invisibility of the editorial article, and it +may be with the Medusa-head of vituperation, shows himself ready to try +conclusions with the scientific dragon. Sir, I hope that Perseus will +think better of it [laughter]; first, for his own sake, because the +creature is hard of head, strong of jaw, and for some time past has +shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his +way; and secondly, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own +personal knowledge that if left alone, the creature is a very debonair +and gentle monster. [Laughter.] As for the Andromeda of art, he has the +tenderest respect for that lady, and desires nothing more than to see +her happily settled and annually producing a flock of such charming +children as those we see about us. [Cheers.] + +But putting parables aside, I am unable to understand how anyone with a +knowledge of mankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten +the development of art in any of its forms. If I understand the matter +at all, science and art are the obverse and reverse of Nature's medal, +the one expressing the eternal order of things, in terms of feeling, the +other in terms of thought. When men no longer love nor hate; when +suffering causes no pity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill, +when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed +than Solomon in all his glory, and the awe has vanished from the +snow-capped peak and deep ravine, then indeed science may have the world +to itself, but it will not be because the monster has devoured art, but +because one side of human nature is dead, and because men have lost the +half of their ancient and present attributes. [Cheers.] + + + + +ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL + + +THE MUSIC OF WAGNER + +[Speech of Robert G. Ingersoll at the banquet given in New York City, + April 2, 1891, by the Liederkranz Society to Edmund C. Stanton, + director of German Opera in New York, and Anton Seidl, orchestral + conductor. William Steinway presided, and called upon Robert Ingersoll + to speak to the toast, "Music, Noblest of the Arts."] + + +MR. TOAST-MASTER:--It is probable that I was selected to speak +about music, because, not knowing one note from another, I have no +prejudice on the subject. All I can say is, that I know what I like, +and, to tell the truth, I like every kind, enjoy it all, from the +hand-organ to the orchestra. + +Knowing nothing of the science of music, I am not always looking for +defects, or listening for discords. As the young robin cheerfully +swallows whatever comes, I hear with gladness all that is played. + +Music has been, I suppose, a gradual growth, subject to the law of +evolution; as nearly everything, with the possible exception of +theology, has been and is under this law. + +Music may be divided into three kinds: First, the music of simple time, +without any particular emphasis--and this may be called the music of the +heels; second, music in which time is varied, in which there is the +eager haste and the delicious delay, that is, the fast and slow, in +accordance with our feelings, with our emotions--and this may be called +the music of the heart; third, the music that includes time and +emphasis, the hastening and the delay, and something in addition, that +produces not only states of feeling, but states of thought. This may be +called the music of the head,--the music of the brain. + +Music expresses feeling and thought, without language. It was below and +before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. Beneath the +waves is the sea--above the clouds is the sky. + +_ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL Photogravure after a photograph from life_ + +[Illustration] + +Before man found a name for any thought, or thing, he had hopes and +fears and passions, and these were rudely expressed in tones. + +Of one thing, however, I am certain, and that is, that Music was born of +love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have +been uttered a strain of music. Possibly some mother, looking in the +eyes of her babe, gave the first melody to the enraptured air. + +Language is not subtle enough, tender enough, to express all that we +feel; and when language fails, the highest and deepest longings are +translated into music. Music is the sunshine--the climate--of the soul, +and it floods the heart with a perfect June. + +I am also satisfied that the greatest music is the most marvellous +mingling of Love and Death. Love is the greatest of all passions, and +Death is its shadow. Death gets all its terror from Love, and Love gets +its intensity, its radiance, its glory and its rapture from the darkness +of Death. Love is a flower that grows on the edge of the grave. + +The old music, for the most part, expresses emotion, or feeling, through +time and emphasis, and what is known as melody. Most of the old operas +consist of a few melodies connected by unmeaning recitative. There +should be no unmeaning music. It is as though a writer should suddenly +leave his subject and write a paragraph consisting of nothing but a +repetition of one word like "the," "the," "the," or "if," "if," "if," +varying the repetition of these words, but without meaning,--and then +resume the subject of his article. + +I am not saying that great music was not produced before Wagner but I am +simply endeavoring to show the steps that have been taken. It was +necessary that all the music should have been written, in order that the +greatest might be produced. The same is true of the drama. Thousands and +thousands prepared the way for the supreme dramatist, as millions +prepared the way for the supreme composer. + +When I read Shakespeare, I am astonished that he has expressed so much +with common words, to which he gives new meaning; and so when I hear +Wagner, I exclaim: Is it possible that all this is done with common +air? + +In Wagner's music there is a touch of chaos that suggests the infinite. +The melodies seem strange and changing forms, like summer clouds, and +weird harmonies come like sounds from the sea brought by fitful winds, +and others moan like waves on desolate shores, and mingled with these, +are shouts of joy, with sighs and sobs and ripples of laughter, and the +wondrous voices of eternal love. + +Wagner is the Shakespeare of Music. + +The funeral march for Siegfried is the funeral music for all the dead. +Should all the gods die, this music would be perfectly appropriate. It +is elemental, universal, eternal. + +The love-music in Tristan and Isolde is, like Romeo and Juliet an +expression of the human heart for all time. So the love-duet in "The +Flying Dutchman" has in it the consecration, the infinite self-denial, +of love. The whole heart is given; every note has wings, and rises and +poises like an eagle in the heaven of sound. + +When I listen to the music of Wagner, I see pictures, forms, glimpses of +the perfect, the swell of a hip, the wave of a breast, the glance of an +eye. I am in the midst of great galleries. Before me are passing the +endless panoramas. I see vast landscapes with valleys of verdure and +vine with soaring crags, snow-crowned. I am on the wide seas, where +countless billows burst into the whitecaps of joy. I am in the depths of +caverns roofed with mighty crags, while through some rent I see the +eternal stars. In a moment the music becomes a river of melody, flowing +through some wondrous land; suddenly it falls in strange chasms, and the +mighty cataract is changed to seven-hued foam. + +Great music is always sad, because it tells us of the perfect; and such +is the difference between what we are and that which music suggests, +that even in the vase of joy we find some tears. + +The music of Wagner has color, and when I hear the violins, the morning +seems to slowly come. A horn puts a star above the horizon. The night, +in the purple hum of the bass, wanders away like some enormous bee +across wide fields of dead clover. The light grows whiter as the violins +increase. Colors come from other instruments, and then the full +orchestra floods the world with day. + +Wagner seems not only to have given us new tones, new combinations, but +the moment the orchestra begins to play his music, all the instruments +are transfigured. They seem to utter the sounds that they have been +longing to utter. The horns run riot; the drums and cymbals join in the +general joy; the old bass viols are alive with passion; the 'cellos +throb with love; the violins are seized with a divine fury, and the +notes rush out as eager for the air as pardoned prisoners for the roads +and fields. + +The music of Wagner is filled with landscapes. There are some strains, +like midnight, thick with constellations, and there are harmonies like +islands in the far seas, and others like palms on the desert's edge. His +music satisfies the heart and brain. It is not only for memory; not only +for the present, but for prophecy. + +Wagner was a sculptor, a painter in sound. When he died, the greatest +fountain of melody that ever enchanted the world, ceased. His music will +instruct and refine forever. + +All that I know about the operas of Wagner I have learned from Anton +Seidl. I believe that he is the noblest, tenderest and most artistic +interpreter of the great composer that has ever lived. + + + + +SIR HENRY IRVING + + +LOOKING FORWARD + +[Speech of Henry Irving[10] at a banquet given in his honor, London, + July 4, 1883, in view of his impending departure for a professional + tour of America. The Lord Chief Justice of England, John Duke + Coleridge, occupied the chair.] + + [Illustration: _MENU CARD Photogravure after a design by Thompson + Willing_ + + Through the courtesy of the Lotus Club, we are enabled to reproduce + this typical dinner card, especially drawn and engraved for a + complimentary banquet to Sir Henry Irving. The original card is + about three times the size of this reproduction. + + + DINNER TO + + SIR HENRY IRVING + + GIVEN BY THE + + LOTOS CLUB + + SATURDAY OCT 28 + + MDCCCXCIX] + + + +MY LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I cannot +conceive a greater honor entering into the life of any man than the +honor you have paid me by assembling here to-night. To look around this +room and scan the faces of my distinguished hosts, would stir to its +depths a colder nature than mine. It is not in my power, my lords and +gentlemen, to thank you for the compliment you have to-night paid me. + + "The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, + Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel." + +Never before have I so strongly felt the magic of those words; but you +will remember it is also said in the same sentence, "Give thy thoughts +no tongue." [Laughter.] And gladly, had it been possible, would I have +obeyed that wise injunction to-night. [Renewed laughter.] + +The actor is profoundly influenced by precedent, and I cannot forget +that many of my predecessors have been nerved by farewell banquets for +the honor which awaited them on the other side of the Atlantic; but this +occasion I regard as much more than a compliment to myself: I regard it +as a tribute to the art which I am proud to serve and I believe that +feeling will be shared by the profession to which you have assembled to +do honor. [Cheers.] The time has long gone by when there was any need to +apologize for the actor's calling. ["Hear! Hear!"] The world can no +more exist without the drama than it can without its sister art, music. +The stage gives the readiest response to the demand of human nature to +be transported out of itself into the realms of the ideal--not that all +our ideals on the stage are realized--none but the artist knows how +immeasurably he may fall short of his aim or his conception,--but to +have an ideal in art and to strive through one's life to embody it, may +be a passion to the actor as it may be to the poet. + +Your lordship has spoken most eloquently of my career. Possessed of a +generous mind and a high judicial faculty, your lordship has been +to-night, I fear, more generous than judicial. But if I have in any way +deserved commendation, I am proud that it was as an actor that I won it. +As the director of a theatre my experience has been short, but as an +actor I have been before the London public for seventeen years; and on +one thing I am sure you will all agree--that no actor or manager has +ever received from that public more generous and ungrudging +encouragement and support. [Cheers.] + +Concerning our visit to America, I need hardly say that I am looking +forward to it with no common pleasure. It has often been an ambition +with English actors to gain the good-will of the English-speaking race, +a good-will which is right heartily reciprocated towards our American +fellow-workers, when they gratify us by sojourning here. Your God-speed +would alone assure me a hearty welcome in any land. But I am not going +amongst strangers; I am going amongst friends, and when I, for the first +time, touch American ground, I shall receive many a grip of the hand +from men whose friendship I am proud to possess. [Cheers.] Concerning +our expedition the American people will no doubt exercise an independent +judgment--a prejudice of theirs and a habit of long standing [laughter], +as your lordship has reminded us, by the fact that to-day is the fourth +of July, an anniversary rapidly becoming an English institution. Your +lordship is doubtless aware, as to-night has so happily proved, that the +stage has reckoned amongst its staunchest supporters many great and +distinguished lawyers. There are many lawyers, I am told, in America, +and as I am sure that they all deserve to be judges, I am in hopes that +they will materially help me to gain a favorable verdict from the +American people. [Cheers and laughter.] + +I have given but poor expression to my sense of the honor you have +conferred upon me, and upon the comrades associated with me in this our +enterprise--an enterprise which, I hope, will favorably show the method +and discipline of a company of English actors. On their behalf I thank +you, and I also thank you on behalf of the lady who has so adorned the +Lyceum stage, and to whose rare gifts your lordship has paid so just and +gracious a tribute. The climax of the favor extended to me by my +countrymen has been reached to-night. You have set upon me a burden of +responsibility, a burden which I gladly and proudly bear. The memory of +to-night will be to me a sacred thing, a memory which will, throughout +my life, be ever treasured, a memory which will stimulate me to further +endeavor, and encourage me to loftier aim. [Loud and continued cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE DRAMA + +[Speech of Sir Henry Irving at the fourteenth annual dinner of the + Playgoer's Club, London, February 14, 1898. The toast of "The Drama" + was proposed by B. W. Findon, and Sir Henry Irving was called upon to + respond.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--It is five years since I had the +pleasure of sitting at your hospitable board and listening to that +delightfully soothing and digestive eloquence with which we medicine one +another after dinner. [Laughter.] In the course of those five years I +daresay we have had many differences of opinion. The playgoer does not +always agree with the player, still less with that unfortunate object, +the poor actor-manager. But whatever you may have said of me in this +interval, and in terms less dulcet, perhaps, than those which your +chairman has so generously employed, it is a great satisfaction to me to +feel that I still retain your esteem and good-will. In a certain sense +you are the manager's constituents. You cannot eject him from the +office, perhaps, with that directness which distinguishes the +Parliamentary operations. But you can stay away from the theatre, and so +eject his play. [Laughter.] On the whole that is a more disconcerting +process than the fiercest criticism. One can always argue with the +critics, though on the actor's part I know that is gross presumption. +[Laughter.] But you cannot argue with the playgoer who stays away. + +I am not making any specific accusations--only remarking that it is +staying-power which impresses the importance of the Playgoer's Club upon +the managerial mind. Moreover, to meet you like this has the effect of a +useful tonic. I can strongly recommend it to some gentlemen who write to +the newspapers. [Laughter.] In one journal there was a long +correspondence--the sort of thing we generally get at one season of the +year--about the condition of the stage, and a well-known writer who, I +believe, combines the function of a dramatic critic with the +responsibility of a watch-dog to the Navy, informed his readers that the +sad decadence of the British Drama was due to the evils of party +government. That is certainly an original idea; but I fancy that if the +author were to unfold it to this company, he would be told that he had +mistaken the Playgoer's Club for the War Office or the Admiralty. Still +we ought to be grateful to the man who reveals a perfectly fresh reason +for the eternal decline of the drama, though we may not, perhaps, +anticipate any revolution in theatrical amusements even from the most +thorough-going reform of the British Constitution. + +In the public correspondence to which I have referred, a good deal was +said about the need for a dramatic conservatoire. If such an institution +could be rooted in this country, I have no doubt that it might yield +many advantages. Years ago I ventured to suggest that the municipal +system might be applied to the theatre, as it is on the Continent, +though I do not observe that this is yet a burning question in the +county council politics, or that any reforming administrator has +discovered that the drama ought to be laid on, like gas or water. +[Laughter.] With all our genius for local government we have not yet +found, like some Continental peoples, that the municipal theatre is as +much a part of the healthy life of the community as the municipal +library or museum. ["Hear! hear!"] Whether that development is in store +for us I do not know, but I can imagine certain social benefits that +would accrue from the municipal incorporation of a dramatic +conservatoire. It might check the rush of incompetent persons into the +theatrical profession. Some persons who were intended by Nature to adorn +an inviolable privacy are thrust upon us by paragraphers and +interviewers, whose existence is a dubious blessing--[laughter]--until +it is assumed by censors of the stage that this business is part and +parcel of theatrical advertisement. + +Columns of this rubbish are printed every week, and many an actor is +pestered to death for tit-bits about his ox and his ass and everything +that is his. [Laughter.] Occasionally you may read solemn articles about +the insatiable vanity of the actor, which must be gratified at any cost, +as if vanity were peculiar to any section of humanity. But what this +organized gossip really advertises is the industry of the gentlemen who +collect it, and the smartness of the papers in which it is circulated. +"We learn this," "We have reason to believe"--such forms of intolerable +assurance give currency too often to scandalous and lying rumors which I +am sure responsible journalism would wish to discourage. But this, I +fear, is difficult, for contradiction makes another desirable paragraph, +and it is all looked upon as desirable copy. [Laughter.] + +Of course, gentlemen, the drama is declining--it always has been +declining since the time of Roscius and beyond the palmy days when the +famous Elephant Raja was "starred" over the head of W. C. Macready, and +the real water tank in the Cataract of the Ganges helped to increase the +attractions of John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. But we ourselves are +evidently in a parlous state at the present day, when actors vainly +endeavor to struggle through twenty lines of blank verse--when we are +told mechanical effects and vast armies of supers make up the production +of historical plays--when pathological details, we are told, are always +well received--when the "psychonosological" (whatever that may +be)--[laughter], is invariably successful--and when Pinero and Grundy's +plays do not appeal to men of advanced thought, as I read the other day. + +In all the lament about the decline of the drama there is one recurring +note: the disastrous influence of long runs. If the manager were not a +grossly material person, incapable of ideals, he would take off a +successful piece at the height of its popularity and start a fresh +experiment. [Laughter.] But he is sunk in the base commercialism of the +age, and, sad to relate, he has the sympathies of the dramatic author, +who wants to see his piece run say a hundred nights, instead of twenty. +I don't know how this spirit of greed is to be subdued, though with the +multiplication of Play-houses, long runs may tend to become rare. A +municipal subsidy or an obliging millionaire might enable a manager to +vary his bill with comparative frequency, when he has persuaded the +dramatic author that the run of a play till the crack of doom is +incompatible with the interest of art. [Laughter.] I cannot help +suspecting that the chief difficulty of a manager, under even the most +artistic and least commercial conditions, will always be, not to check +the inordinate proportions of success, but to secure plays which may +succeed at all. + +I hope you will not accuse me of taking a too despondent view of the +drama, for believe me, I do not. To be sure, we sometimes hear that +Shakespeare is to be annihilated, and that the poet's intellect has been +overrated. And lately a reverend gentleman at Hampstead announced his +intention of putting down the stage altogether. [Laughter.] The +atmosphere of Hampstead seems to be intellectually intoxicating; at any +rate it has a rather stimulating effect on a certain kind of dogmatic +mind. This intolerance has been very eloquently rebuked by a +distinguished man who is an ornament of the Church of England. It is +Dean Farrar who says that these pharisaical attacks on the stage are +inspired only by "concentrated malice." Well, the periodical +misunderstanding to which the stage is exposed need cause but little +disquiet. I have no doubt it will survive its many adventures, and that +it will owe not a little of its tenacious vitality to your unflagging +sympathy and hearty and generous encouragement. [Cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE FUNCTION OF THE NEWSPAPER + +[Speech of Sir Henry Irving, as Chairman, at the thirty-fifth + anniversary dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund, London, May 21, 1898.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--When I received the great compliment of an +invitation to occupy this chair, I was conscious of a certain ironical +fitness in my position. The politician and the actor divide between +them the distinction of supplying the most constant material for the +most intimate and searching vigilance of the newspaper press. +[Laughter.] So when this great corporation of the newspaper press fund +gives its annual dinner, what more natural and fitting than a politician +or an actor in the chair, who illustrates in his person and in his own +fortunes both the appreciation and the discipline which it is the +function of the press so liberally to bestow? I can imagine that when +such a chairman happens to be a pretty old stager like myself, there may +be journalists in such a distinguished company as this who will look at +him with the moistened eye of emotional reminiscence and murmur: "Ah, it +was upon that man I fleshed my maiden pen!" [Laughter.] Thoughts like +these shed the mellowing influence of time over the volumes of press +cuttings which no actor's library is without. I have heard of public men +who say they never read the newspapers. That remark has been attributed +to a bishop, and perhaps there are kinds of abstinence quite easy to +bishops but difficult to other mortals. [Laughter.] If it were possible +for a man whose doings are considered worthy of public notice to avoid +the newspaper, he could scarcely hope to make his friends practice the +same denial. Even a bishop who is not inquisitive must occasionally meet +deans and chapters who are. [Laughter.] There's the rub. You may not +read the newspapers, but as soon as you scent the morning air you know +whether those proverbial little birds who spread the news with such +alacrity, are chirping about yourself, and the first feathered +acquaintance that you hit upon is generously eager to share with you the +crumb picked from a newspaper with a special flavor for your own palate. + +Gentlemen, I mention this, not by way of complaint, but simply to +illustrate the futility of that philosophy which fondly imagines that +the newspaper can be ignored. But I am chiefly conscious to-night of the +debt of gratitude we all owe to the press. The newspaper--say what you +will of it--is the immediate recorder and interpreter of life. Morning +and evening it offers us that perpetual stimulus which makes the zest of +living. Be your interests what they may, though you abstract your mind +from the tumult of affairs and devote it to art or science, you cannot +open a newspaper without the sensation of laying your hand upon the +throbbing pulse of the world. And it has throbbed within but a few days, +throbbed with a widespread grief at the passing of a great man [Mr. +Gladstone], a great statesman, a great and noble figure in productive +and national life, who for more than half a century has helped largely +to mould the destinies of the nation and the world. [Loud cheers.] +Gentlemen, in a newspaper, at a glance, you are in touch with the +elemental forces of nature--war, pestilence and famine; you are +transported by this printed sheet, as it were the fairy carpet of the +Arabian, from capital to capital, from the exultation of one people to +the bitter resentment and chagrin of another. You behold on every scale +every quality of humanity, everything that piques the sense of mystery, +everything that inspires pity, dread, or anger. It is a vast and +ever-changing panorama of the raw material of art and literature. +[Cheers.] + +Well, there are some complaints, gentlemen, that the raw material is +more generally interesting than the artistic product. The newspaper is a +dangerous competitor of books, and those of us who write plays and +produce them may wish that the circulation of a great daily journal +would repeat itself at the box-office. [Laughter.] But it is no use +protesting against rivalry, if it be the rivalry of life, and the +gentlemen of the press who are engaged in stage-managing and drama +which, after all, is the real article, must always command more +spectators than the humble artists who seek truth in the garb of +illusion. I cannot sufficiently admire the enterprise of these great +newspapers which keep the diary of mankind. In time of war their +representatives are in the thick of danger; and though he may subscribe +to the _dictum_, so familiar to playgoers, that the pen is mightier than +the sword, the war correspondent is always ready to give lessons to the +enemy with the less majestic weapon. ["Hear! hear!"] In our own military +annals no little glory shines on the names of civilians who, in the +faithful discharge of duty to a multitude of readers, gave their lives +as truly for their country as if they had died in the Queen's uniform. +There are veteran campaigners of the press still amongst us, one of the +most distinguished of whom is my old and valued friend, Sir William +Russell [cheers], the vice-president of this fund, by whom I have the +pleasure of being seated to-night. I say there are many veterans of the +press whose services to the British Army will not be forgotten, though +they never set a squadron in the field. I have heard it said that in +diplomacy the press is sometimes indiscreetly ahead of events +[laughter], but you must remember that nothing is so characteristic of +the modern spirit as the art of publishing things before they happen. +Nowadays all the world is on tiptoe, and the soul of journalism must be +prophetic, because it has to do for a curious and wide-eyed public what +was done for a much simpler generation by the alchemists and the +astrologer. We ought to be thankful that this somewhat perilous business +is conducted, on the whole, with so much discretion and breadth of mind. +We have no less admiration, gentlemen, for the judgment of our press +than for the enterprise which is born of competition, and, although that +judgment has often to be framed under conditions which demand almost +breathless rapidity, it does not always bear unfavorable comparison with +the protracted meditation of the philosophic recluse. [Cheers.] + +But there is one thing which the ubiquitous energies of the press cannot +command, and that is immunity for its members from the chances of evil +fortune, from sickness and decay. ["Hear! Hear!"] I suppose there is no +profession which makes such heavy calls upon the bodily and mental vigor +of its servants as the profession of the journalist. Whoever nods, he +must be always fresh and alert. Whoever is content with the ideas of +yesterday, the journalist must be equipped with the ideas of to-morrow. +In the course of my life it has been my privilege to number many +brilliant journalists amongst my dearest friends, and I sorrowfully call +to mind now more than one undaunted spirit who has suffered the +penalties of overtaxed strength. It is in these cases that this fund +should be of special benefit. It is in your power to give that timely +help which saves the exhausted brain and restores the broken nerve. I +stand to-night in a place which has been occupied by many distinguished +advocates of this fund--advocates who have spoken with eloquence to +which I can make no pretension. But I would earnestly impress upon you +this thought, than which no plea can be more eloquent--remember that +whatever you may give out of goodness of heart, from the memories of old +comradeship, from the thousand and one associations which bind together +fellow-workers in various arts and callings, remember that it may be the +means some day of snatching from the last despond some one whose hand +you have pressed in friendship, and whose voice has an echo in your +hearts. I ask you to drink "Prosperity to the Newspaper Press Fund." +[Loud cheers.] + + + + +RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE JEBB + + +LITERATURE AND ART + +[Speech of Richard Claverhouse Jebb, professor in the University of + Cambridge, in responding to the toast, "The Interests of Literature," + coupled, according to custom, with "The Interests of Science," at the + banquet of the Royal Academy, London, May 4, 1885. Sir Frederic + Leighton, President of the Academy, said in introducing him: "I invite + you to join me in a tribute, never wanting at this table, to science + and to letters. With literature I connect the name of a guest whom his + grateful country has brought from the far banks of the Clyde to our + table to-night--one among the very foremost and most elegant of our + scholars; and a speaker on whose lips we trace, though Latin has been + the chief vehicle of his oratory, a savor of those Attic orators with + whom his name is associated in our minds--Professor Jebb."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND +GENTLEMEN:--In responding for the second part of the toast, which +has been so eloquently proposed and so graciously received, I trust that +I shall have the indulgence of this distinguished company if the words +in which the response is tendered are simple and few. It is now just a +hundred years since the earliest occupant of the presidential chair +which Sir Frederic Leighton so brilliantly adorns, in addressing the +students of the Royal Academy, counseled them to practice "the +comparison of art with art, and of all arts with the nature of man." + +Among the various fields in which literature works, there is none, +perhaps, in which the reciprocal influence of art and literature can be +more vividly apprehended than in the province of classical study, and +especially in the domain of those pursuits which are conversant with the +life and thought of ancient Greece. The inheritor of a shapeless +mythology and a rude tradition, Homer emerges as the first artist in +European poetry, giving clear outline and beautiful form to types of +godhead and heroism. The successor to schools which had rather combated +than conquered their material, Phidias, is recalled as the first poet in +European art, creating a visible embodiment for the Homeric vision of +those imperial brows which made Olympus to tremble at their nod. + +England has no Academy of Letters. All the more, perhaps, is it +desirable that our literature should be penetrated by those regulative +lessons of form, those suggestions of a spiritual harmony, which emanate +from an Academy such as this ["Hear! Hear!"]--from a true and noble +Academy of arts. It has never been better with art, it has never been +better with literature than when each has been most willing to receive +the highest teachings of the other, acknowledging the bond of an eternal +sisterhood in that Hellenic message for which Keats has found an English +voice,--"Beauty is truth, truth beauty." [Cheers.] + + + + +JOSEPH JEFFERSON + + +MY FARM IN JERSEY + +[Speech of Joseph Jefferson at a dinner given by the Authors' Club, in + honor of the tenth anniversary of its founding, New York, February 28, + 1893. Edward Eggleston acted as chairman. On rising to speak, Mr. + Jefferson received an enthusiastic greeting.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I need not say how I thank you for this generous +greeting. I am very glad that your worthy chairman has defined my +position. I knew I was a guest, but I did not know I was an +author--however, I will begin my remarks here because I think it is +appropriate at an Authors' Club to quote from so able and so lovely a +man as Charles Lamb. Charles Lamb has said that the world is divided +into two classes, those who are born to borrow and those who are born to +lend, and if you happen to be of the latter class, why, do it +cheerfully. Now the world seems to be divided into two other classes, +those who are always anxious to make speeches and those who are not. If +of the latter one, you are rather uncertain of yourself, as I am now, +and you have to make a speech, why, do it cheerfully. [Applause.] + +Making a speech cheerfully and making a cheerful speech are two very +different matters. [Laughter and applause.] You know how dangerous it is +for any man to wander away from the legitimate paths of his profession. +I fear I have been over-impertinent; I have even been rude enough to +exhibit my pictures, impertinent enough to write a book. I have become +an author of one book and the authors have kindly admitted me and +invited me to their board. To-morrow night, or after to-morrow night, I +presume that the orators will invite me to their board. [Applause.] I am +almost ashamed of my presumption, and it would serve me very right if I +failed to-morrow night. That will teach me better and I shall extend the +field of my operation no further, I assure you. + +But it is curious that there is one path in which the actor always +wanders--he always likes to be a land-owner. It is a curious thing that +the actors of England and--of course in the olden times you must +remember that we had none but English actors in this country,--and as +soon as they came here, they wanted to own land. They could not do it in +England. The elder Booth owned a farm at Bellaire. Thomas Cooper, the +celebrated English tragedian, bought a farm near Philadelphia, and it is +a positive fact that he is the first man who ever owned a fast trotting +horse in America. He used to drive from the farm to rehearsal at the +theatre, and I believe has been known on some occasions, when in +convivial company, even to drive out at night afterwards. [Laughter.] +Following and emulating the example of my illustrious predecessors I +became a farmer. I will not allude to my plantation in Louisiana; my +overseer takes care of that. I have not heard from him lately but I am +told he takes very good care of it. [Laughter.] I trust there was no +expression of distrust on my part. But I allude to my farm in New +Jersey. I have not been so successful as Mr. Burroughs, but I was +attracted by a townsman and I bought a farm in New Jersey. I went out +first to examine the soil. I told the honest farmer who was about to +sell me this place that I thought the soil looked rather thin; there was +a good deal of gravel. He told me that the gravel was the finest thing +for drainage in the world. I told him I had heard that, but I had always +presumed that if the gravel was underneath it would answer the purpose +better. He said: "Not at all; this soil is of that character that it +will drain both ways," by what he termed I think catepillary attraction. +[Laughter.] I bought the farm and set myself to work to increase the +breadth of my shoulders, to help my appetite, and so forth, about work +of a farm. I even went so far as to emulate the example set by Mr. +Burroughs, and split the wood. I did not succeed at that. Of course, as +Mr. Burroughs wisely remarks, the heat comes at both ends; it comes when +you split the wood and again when you burn it. But as I only lived at my +farm during the summer time, it became quite unnecessary in New Jersey +to split wood in July, and my farming operations were not successful. + +We bought an immense quantity of chickens and they all turned out to be +roosters [laughter]; but I resolved--I presume as William Nye says about +the farm--to carry it on; I would _carry_ on that farm as long as my +wife's money lasted. [Laughter.] A great mishap was when my Alderney +bull got into the greenhouse. There was nothing to stop him but the +cactus. He tossed the flower-pots right and left. Talk about the flowers +that bloom in the spring,--why, I never saw such a wreck, and I am fully +convinced that there is nothing that will stop a thoroughly well-bred +bull but a full-bred South American cactus. [Laughter.] I went down to +look at the ruins and the devastation that this animal had made, and I +found him quietly eating black Hamburg grapes. I don't know anything +finer than black Hamburg grapes for Alderney bulls. A friend of mine, +who was chaffing me for my farming proclivities, said: "I see you have +got in some confusion here. It looks to me from seeing that gentleman +there--that stranger in the greenhouse--that you are trying to raise +early bulls under glass." [Laughter.] + +Well, I will not tire you with these experiences. I can only +congratulate Mr. Burroughs upon his success, and I beg that you will +sympathize with me upon my failure; and now then allow me to conclude my +crude remarks by thanking you for the very kind manner in which you have +listened to my remarks and my experiences. I assure you--they are all of +them true. And I thank you, sir, for your kind introduction, which I am +afraid I do not deserve. And so, gentlemen, I wish you success and +happiness, and long life to your honorable Club. [Long-continued +applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +IN MEMORY OF EDWIN BOOTH + +[Speech of Joseph Jefferson at the annual banquet held on Founders' + Night at the Players' Club, New York City, December 30, 1893. This was + the first time that Mr. Jefferson, the newly-elected President, spoke + to his fellow-players in his official capacity.] + + +FELLOW-PLAYERS:--Founders' Night should be of joy, unshaded by +the slightest tinge of gloom. I know this, but how can I speak to-night +without a loving reference to the one whose gift we now hold--a gift in +which our children and theirs for many generations will take pride, +delight and comfort. It would be a twice-told tale to rehearse the +career of Edwin Booth. You are as familiar with it as I am. But there +are incidents in his early life that may interest you, and possibly that +no one but myself could tell you. + +An early remembrance of the stage brings before me the figure of the +elder Booth. When I was but five years of age I acted the Duke of York +to his Richard III. You may think it strange that I remember this +circumstance; but even a child as young as I was could not have stood in +the presence of this superb and magnetic actor without being indelibly +impressed with the scene. His son, Edwin, was then just born. We first +met when he was a handsome youth of sixteen. A lithe and graceful +figure, buoyant in spirits, and with the loveliest eyes I ever looked +upon. We were friends from the first, and it is a comfort to me to know +that our friendship lasted nearly half a century, unbroken by a single +act or word. His early performances upon the stage did not give much +promise, and there were grave fears that he had not inherited the genius +of his father. But after the death of that father young Booth's friends +and the public were suddenly startled by the news from across the +Continent that a new star had arisen, not in the East, but in the West, +and was wending its way homeward. + +In 1854 I became the stage manager for Henry C. Jarrett in Baltimore. +That gentleman is a member of our Club and now stands before me. He one +day brought a young girl who had been given to his care and placed her +in mine--a beautiful child, but fifteen years of age. Her family, a most +estimable one, had met with some reverse, and she had decided to go upon +the stage to relieve them from the burden of her support, and possibly +to contribute to the comfort of her father. This loving duty she +faithfully performed. She lived in my family as the companion of my wife +for three years, and during that time became one of the leading +actresses of the stage. One morning I said to her: "To-morrow you are to +rehearse Juliet to the Romeo of our new and rising young tragedian." At +this distance I can scarcely say whether I had or had not a premonition +of the future, but I knew at the conclusion of that rehearsal that Edwin +Booth and Mary Devlin would soon be man and wife; and so it came about, +for at the end of the week he came to me in the green-room, with his +affianced bride by the hand, and with a quaint smile they fell upon +their knees in a mock-heroic manner, as though acting a scene in the +play, and said: "Father, your blessing," to which I replied in the same +mock-heroic vein, extending my hands like the old Friar: "Bless you, my +children!" Shortly they were married. We know that his life was filled +with histrionic triumphs and domestic bereavements. + +May I not speak here of this gift of the Players? It is comparatively +easy for those who are rocked in a golden cradle, and who at their birth +are endowed with great wealth, to dispense their bounty. I do not desire +to disparage the generosity of the rich. Those of our land have done +much good, are now freely dispensing their wealth, and will continue to +do so; but we must remember that the fortune of Edwin was not inherited. +The walls within which we stand, the art, the library, and the comforts +that surround us, represent a life of toil and travel, sleepless nights, +tedious journeys and weary work; so that when he bestowed upon us this +Club it was not his wealth only, but it was himself that he gave. + +But a few years ago he was (though rich in genius) poor in pocket. He +had been wealthy, and had seen the grand dramatic structure he had +reared taken from him and devastated. His reverse of fortune was from no +fault of his own, but from a confiding nature. When he again, by +arduous toil, accumulated wealth, one would have supposed that the +thoughts of his former reverses would have startled him and that he +would have clutched his newly-acquired gold and garnered it to himself, +fearful lest another stroke of ill-fortune should fall upon him. But +instead of making him a coward it gave him courage. It did not warp his +mind or steel his heart against humanity. No sterility settled upon him. +His wrongs seemed to have fertilized his generosity, and here we behold +the fruit. + +When the stranger comes here and asks us for the monument of Edwin Booth +we can say: "Look around you." For some time past he had looked forward +calmly to his dissolution. One year ago to-night in this room, and at +this very hour, he said to me the memorable words: "They drink to my +health to-night, Joe. When they meet again, it will be to my memory." + +Two years ago last autumn, we walked on the sea beach together, and with +a strange and prophetic kind of poetry, he likened the scene to his own +failing health, the falling leaves, the withered sea-weed, the dying +grass upon the shore, and the ebbing tide that was fast receding from +us. He told me that he felt prepared to go, for he had forgiven his +enemies, and could even rejoice in their happiness. Surely this was a +grand condition in which to step from this world across the threshold to +the next! + + + + +LORD KITCHENER + + +THE RELIEF OF KHARTUM + +[Speech of Horatio Herbert, Lord Kitchener, at a banquet given by the + Lord Mayor of London, at the Mansion House, London, November 4, 1898, + in celebration of the campaign in the Sudan and the successful + recovery of Khartum from the Dervishes, thereby avenging the death of + General Gordon. Lord Salisbury, in a brilliant speech, proposed the + health of Lord Kitchener, to which the latter replied with the speech + that follows.] + + +MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS AND +GENTLEMEN:--It is not easy for me to find words to express the +gratitude I feel for the manner in which the toast proposed by Lord +Salisbury has been received by this magnificent audience, or for the too +kind and too flattering words in which it has been recommended to your +notice. Such a recognition by such an audience is more than sufficient +recompense for any services which it may have been my good fortune to +render. But, my lords and gentlemen, I am fully aware that it is not in +my individual capacity but as representing the Anglo-Egyptian army that +this great honor has been done me. [Cheers.] It is to the excellent and +devoted services of the troops that the success of the campaign is due. +A general would have been indeed incapable who failed to lead such men +to victory; for it was not only, nor even principally, on the day of +battle, that the great qualities of these troops were displayed. The +cheerful endurance and soldier-like spirit with which they bore long +delay during the Sudan summer, between the battle of Atbara and the +advance on Omdurman, was as high a test of discipline and efficiency as +the endurance exhibited in the long marches, or the courage shown at +the trenches at Atbara or on the plains of Omdurman. [Cheers.] + +A man may be proud indeed whose good fortune has placed him in command +of troops capable of deeds like these. And remember, my lords and +gentlemen, I include in this not merely the British army but the +Egyptian army also. [Loud cheers.] For, proud as I may well be of having +commanded the British troops in the Sudan, I am no less proud of having +as Sirdar led the Egyptian and Sudanese troops to victory, side by side +with men of my own race and blood. It is on behalf of those and the +combined forces that are absent as well as those that are present that I +desire to tender you our sincere thanks for the great honor you have +done us. It has been contended and in former days with some +plausibility, that the material from which the Egyptian army is +recruited is not capable of being made into good soldiers, but we in the +Egyptian army never held that view; we felt confidence in our men, and +that confidence has been justified. We tested them at Gemeizeh, Tokar, +Toski, Ferkeh, and Abu Hamed, and were not disappointed; and under the +circumstances, perhaps the most competent military critics, the +Dervishes [laughter] showed no disposition to underrate the fighting +power of our men. And when the _role_ was changed and from the defensive +we were able to take the offensive they soon acquired that respect for +the Egyptian soldiers that all good troops engender in the minds of +their opponents. [Cheers.] + +I had to give the Egyptian army arduous work. They had to construct the +railway; they had to build gunboats, and sailing craft through the +dangerous cataracts, they had to be on incessant fatigues, moving stores +and cutting wood for the steamers. It may be fairly said that had it not +been for the work of the Egyptian army the British troops could not have +reached Omdurman without far greater suffering and loss of life, and it +was not only in these pioneer duties that the Egyptian army +distinguished themselves, for when they came in contact with the enemy +their discipline, steadiness and courage were prominently displayed. At +Ferkeh, and at Abu Hamed, they, with the Sudanese troops, turned the +Dervishes out of their positions. At Atbara, they were not behind their +British comrades, and at Omdurman, when Macdonald's brigade repulsed the +fierce and determined attacks that were brought against them, I am sure +that the thought occurred to the mind of every officer in the British +brigades, who saw it: "We might have done it as well; we could not have +done it better." ["Hear! Hear!"] And how was this obtained? By good +training, good discipline and mutual confidence between officers and +men. It was on these lines that the army was formed and organized under +Sir Evelyn Wood and Sir Francis Grenfell, and I, with the assistance of +the finest body of officers that the British army can produce, have +merely followed in their footsteps, and developed the principles that +they had already laid down. + +There is one other point to which I would like to refer before bringing +a speech which may have already been too long ["No! No!"] to a +conclusion. In this great commercial centre it may be of interest if I +allude to the financial side of the campaign. Although the accounts have +not yet been absolutely closed, you may take it as very nearly accurate +that during the two and a half years' campaign, extra military credits +to the amount of two and a half millions have been expended. In this sum +I have included the recent grant that has been made for the extension of +the railway from Atbara to Khartum, the work on which is already on +hand. Well, against this large expenditure we have some assets to show. +We have, or shall have, 760 miles of railway, properly equipped with +engines, rolling stock, and a track with bridges in good order. I must +admit that the railway stations and waiting-rooms are somewhat +primitive, but then we do not wait long in the Sudan. [Laughter.] Well, +for this running concern I do not think that L3,000 a mile will be +considered too high a value. This represents two and a half millions out +of the money granted, and for the other quarter of a million, we have +2,000 miles of telegraph lines, six new gunboats, besides barges and +sailing craft, and--the Sudan. [Laughter and cheers.] + +Of course the railway did not cost me L3,000 a mile to construct, and +many other heavy charges for warlike stores, supplies and transport on +our long line of communication, including sea transports of troops from +England and elsewhere had to be made; but however it was done the +result remains the same. We have freed the vast territories of the Sudan +from the most cruel tyranny the world has ever known, and we have +hoisted the Egyptian and British flags at Khartum, never, I hope, to be +hauled down. I have again to thank you, my Lord Mayor, for the great +honor done us on this occasion. I have only one regret which, I feel +sure, is shared by all present, and which has been given expression to +by Lord Rosebery and Lord Salisbury, and that is, that Lord Cromer, who +has supported me during the last two and a half years, is not here to +support me to-night and to receive in person the thanks to which he is +so justly entitled, and which, I am sure, you would willingly have +given. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +ANDREW LANG + + +PROBLEM NOVELS + +[Speech of Andrew Lang at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, + London, May 6, 1894. This speech on some of the aspects of modern + fiction was delivered by Mr. Lang in response to the toast "The + Interests of Literature," regularly proposed on these occasions. The + President of the Academy, Sir Frederic Leighton, said in introducing + Mr. Lang: "Your Royal Highness, My Lords and Gentlemen: Let us drink + to the honor of science and of letters. If of the latter it may be + affirmed without fear that few things are more often misapprehended + than their true relation to art, it is not less certain that no body + of men are more than artists responsive to their stimulating force. + How closely science, which is knowledge, is interwoven on many sides + with art, it is needless here to say. In the name of letters I have to + call upon one of the most versatile of their votaries, a man whose + nimble intellect plays with luminous ease round many and various + subjects; delicate as a poet, acute and picturesque as a critic, a + sparkling journalist, no one has pursued with more earnest and more + fruitful zeal the graver study of the birth and evolution of natural + myths than Mr. Andrew Lang, to whom I turn for response."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MR. PRESIDENT, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--He +to whom it falls or rather on whom falls the task of replying for +English literature may well feel ground to dust by the ponderous honor. +Who can be the representative of such a Parnassian constituency of +divine poets, philosophers, romancers, historians, from Beowulf to the +last new novel? The consciousness is crushing. The momentary +representative feels himself to be like Mr. Chevy Slyme "the most +littery fellow in the world," who is over-borne like the bride of the +Lord of Burleigh-- + + "By the burden of an honor + Unto which she was not born." + +Naturally he flies to thoughts which whisper of humility. He finds them +easily. In the first place literature is but a very insignificant flake +on the foam of the wave of the world. As Mr. Pepys reminds us, most +people please themselves "with easy delights of the world, eating, +drinking, dancing, hunting, fencing," and not with book learning. Easy +he calls them! I wish they were:-- + + "I cannot eat but little meat, + My stomach is not good." + +Still less can I dance or hunt. Yet to the general public these things +come easier than reading; and their good-humored contempt keeps us poor +"littery gents" in our proper place and frame of mind. I have lately +read somewhere about a man of letters who conceived himself to be the +idol of the great and good-natured American people. They sent him the +kindest letters, they invited him to lecture, but ah! when his +publishers' accounts came in, he found there "To American sales: six and +twopence!" [Laughter.] Here is matter for mortification! + +Again, one is not so much to speak for English literature as to speak +about it; one is not a representative but a reporter; we critics are but +the cagots or despised pariah class in the world of letters. If we ever +give in to the belief that we might attempt something creative, we, like +the insects celebrated by the poet, "have lesser" critics upon our backs +to bite us [laughter] and to remind us of our limitations. Our function +in the game is like that of the scorers and umpires at Lords or the +Oval; men of accurate intellectual habit, and incorruptible integrity +from whom not much is to be expected with bat or ball. We are not to do +anything "off our own bats." For these reasons I only talk humbly of +literature as an interested professional observer. When the philosopher +Square spoke of religion, he meant the true religion, and when he said +the true religion he indicated the Protestant religion, and by the +Protestant religion he meant the religion of the Church of England. In +the same way if I venture a few remarks on English literature I mean +modern English literature, and by modern English literature I mean +modern English novels. + +We are indeed quite destitute of poets. As Henry V is said by a French +chronicler to have ennobled all his army on the eve of Agincourt, so +perhaps it might be well to make all our poets poets-laureate +[laughter]--there must be a sip for each of them in the butt of malmsey +or sack. But when the general public says "literature" the general +public means fiction. + +Now, though I have some optimistic remarks to end with, it does appear +to myself that the British novel suffers from diverse banes or curses. +The first is the spread of elementary education. Too many naturally +non-literary people of all ranks are now goaded into acquiring a +knowledge of the invention of Cadmus. When nobody could read, except +people whose own literary nature impelled them to learn, better books +were written, because the public, if relatively few, was absolutely fit. +Secondly, these new educated people insist on our national cursed +"actuality." They live solely in the distracted moment, whereas true +literature lives in the absolute; in the past that perhaps never was +present, and that is eternal; "lives in fantasy." + +Shakespeare did not write plays about contemporary problems. The Greek +dramatists deliberately chose their topics in the tales of Troy and +Thebes and Atreus's line. The very Fijians, as Mr. Paisley Thomson +informs us, "will tell of gods and giants and canoes greater than +mountains and of women fairer than the women of these days, and of +doings so strange that the jaws of the listeners fall apart." They do +not deal with "problems" about the propriety of cannibalism or the +casuistry of polygamy [Laughter.] The Athenians fined for his +_modernite_ the author of a play on the fall of Miletus because he +reminded them of their misfortunes. But many of our novelists do nothing +but remind us of our misfortunes. Novels are becoming tracts on parish +councils, free love and other inflammatory topics [laughter], and the +reason of this ruin is that the vast and the naturally non-literary +majority can now read, and of course can only read about the actual, +about the noisy wrangling moment. This is the bane of the actual. + +Of course I do not maintain that contemporary life is tabooed against +novelists, but if novels of contemporary life are to be literature, are +to be permanent, that life must either be treated in the spirit of +romance and fantasy as by Balzac and the colossally fantastic Zola; or +in the spirit of humor as by Charles de Bernard, Fielding, Thackeray, +Dickens. The thrifty plan of giving us sermons, politics, fiction, all +in one stodgy sandwich [laughter] produces no permanent literature, +produces but temporary "Tracts for the Times." + +Fortunately we have among us many novelists--young ones luckily--who are +true to the primitive and eternal Fijian canons of fiction. [Laughter.] +We have Oriental romance from the author of "Plain Tales from the +Hills." We have the humor and tenderness--certainly not Fijian I +admit--which produced the masterpiece, "A Window in Thrums." We have the +adventurous fancy that gives us "A Gentleman of France," "The Master of +Ballantrae," "Micah Clarke," "The Raiders," "The Prisoner of Zenda," and +the truly primeval or troglodyte imagination which, as we read of a +fight between a knob-nosed Kaffir dwarf and a sacred crocodile, brings +us in touch with the first hearers of Heracles's or Beowulf's or +Grettir's deeds, "so strange that the jaws of the listeners fall apart." +Thus we possess outlets for escape from ourselves and from to-day. We +can still dwell now and then in the same air of pleasure as our fathers +have breathed since the days of Homer. + +Such are the rather intolerant ideas of a bookworm who by no means +grudges the pleasure which other readers receive from what does not +please him to enthusiasm. And pleasure, not edification, is the end of +all art. We are all pleased when we write; the public of one enthusiast +every author enjoys, and the literary men who depreciate the joys of +their own art or profession may not be consciously uncandid, but they +are decidedly perverse. [Laughter and applause.] + + + + +WILFRID LAURIER + + +CANADA + +[Speech of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of Canada, at a banquet given by + the Imperial Institute to the Colonial Premiers, London, June 18, + 1897, on the occasion of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee. The Prince of + Wales presided. In introducing Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he said: + "Gentlemen, this is not the time nor is it necessary to allude to the + loyalty of our great colonies. We have heard what has been spoken here + to-night, and we shall hear still more. We know that our colonies look + toward the mother country with affection; and in the hour of need and + danger I feel convinced that they will always come forward to our + assistance. [Cheers.] During the remarkable record reign of Her + Majesty the Queen great changes have occurred. When she came to the + throne, there were only thirty-two colonies; now there are sixty-five. + [Cheers.] As Lord Lansdowne has said we have met here in times of + peace. God grant that it may last, but should the occasion come when + our national flag is endangered I have but little doubt, gentlemen, + that the colonies will unite like one man to maintain what exists and + what I hope will remain forever as integral parts of the British + Empire. It is now my pleasant duty to propose the toast of the + evening: 'Our Guests the Colonial Premiers.' We welcome them as + ourselves. We hope that their stay here may not be made in any way + irksome to them. I feel sure that no one will be more grateful than + the Queen herself to see that these gentlemen have come here on the + invitation of the Colonial Office to do honor to a great epoch in our + history. This toast we connect with the health of the Hon. Wilfrid + Laurier. I now beg you with all the honors to drink this toast--'Our + Guests, I may say, our friends, the Colonial Premiers.'"] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--The toast which +your Royal Highness has just proposed in such graceful terms is one +which is important at all times and opens a subject which at the present +time perhaps more than at any other engrosses and absorbs the minds of +all thinking men. ["Hear! Hear!"] During the few days in which my +colleagues and myself have had the privilege to be in England, we have +had hourly evidences that the Colonies at the present moment occupied no +small part in the affections of the people of England. [Cheers.] Sir, +Colonies were born to become nations. In my own country, and perhaps +also in England, it has been observed that Canada has a population which +in some instances exceeds, in many others, rivals the populations of +independent nations, and it has been said that perhaps the time might +come when Canada might become a nation of itself. My answer is this +simply: Canada is a nation. [Cheers.] Canada is free, and freedom is its +nationality. Although Canada acknowledges the suzerainty of a Sovereign +Power, I am here to say that independence can give us no more rights +than we have at present. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +Lord Lansdowne has spoken of a day when perhaps our Empire might be in +danger. England has proved at all times that she can fight her own +battles, but if a day were ever to come when England was in danger, let +the bugle sound, let the fires be lit, on the hills and in all parts of +the Colonies, though we might not be able to do much, whatever we can do +shall be done by the Colonies to help her. [Cheers.] From all parts of +this country since I have been here, both in conversation and in +letters, I have been asked if the sentiments of the French population of +Canada were characterized by absolute loyalty towards the British +Empire. I have been reminded that feuds of race are long and hard to +die, and that the feuds of France--the land of my ancestors--with +England have lasted during many generations. Let me say at once that +though it be true that the wars of France and England have their place +in history, it was the privilege of the men of our generation to see the +banners of France and England entwined together victoriously on the +banks of the Alma, on the heights of Inkerman, and on the walls of +Sebastopol. [Cheers.] + +It is true that during the last century and the century before, a long +war, a long duel, I might call it, was waged between England and France +for the possession of North America, but in the last battle that took +place on the plains of Abraham, both generals, the one who won and the +one who failed, fell. If you go to the city of Quebec, you will see a +monument erected in commemoration of that battle. What is the character +of that monument? Monuments to record victories are not scarce in +England or in France; but such a monument as this which is in Quebec, I +do not think you will find in any other part of the world, for it is a +monument not only to him who won but also to him who failed. [Cheers.] +It is a monument dedicated to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm, and the +dedication, which is one of the noblest and best of the kind, not only +for the sentiments which it records but also as a literary expression, +is as follows: "_Mortem virtus communem famam historia monumentum +posteritas dedit_." Here is a monument to the two races equal in fame, +courage, and glory, and that equality exists at the present time in +Canada. In this you have the sentiments of my countrymen--we are equal +to-day with those who won on the battle-field on the plains of Abraham. +It is by such acts that England has won the hearts of my +fellow-countrymen; it is by such acts that she can ever claim our +loyalty. Your Royal Highness, let me now thank you from the bottom of my +heart for the kind words you have just spoken. Your Royal Highness has +been kind enough to remind us that at one time in its earlier day you +visited Canada. Many changes have taken place since that time, but let +me assure your Royal Highness there has been no change in the loyalty of +the people of Canada. [Cheers.] + + + + +FRANK R. LAWRENCE + + +THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK + +[Speech of Frank R. Lawrence at the fourth annual dinner given by 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 of the + Holland Society, said: "Gentlemen, we will now proceed to the next + regular toast. It is of interest to all: 'New York, the child of New + Amsterdam--Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.' I call upon + Mr. Frank R. Lawrence, President of the Lotos Club, to respond to that + toast."] + + +GENTLEMEN OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY:--Under any circumstances it +would be difficult to follow the distinguished master of the art [Horace +Porter] who has just taken his seat, but when to his glowing words is +added the diffidence inspired by this illustrious company, the +difficulty of the succeeding speaker is great indeed. + +Mr. President, I am like the needy knife-grinder, when asked for his +tale: "Story--God bless you, I have none to tell, sir,"--and must beg +you to accept from me a few disjointed sentences instead of a more +formal speech. Indeed, it is not entirely clear to me which side of the +question suggested by the text I am to take; I do not entirely know +whether I am expected to prove the truth or to expose the falsehood of +the old proverb which adorns your menu, and it is commonly the case with +sayings that are supposed to represent the wisdom of the ages, that the +one may as readily be established as the other. It might be suggested by +one of sceptical mind that the saying that "as the twig is bent the +tree's inclined," may not be literally true as applied to this company +and this occasion; on the contrary, might it not be true that if your +early Dutch ancestors could come back and gaze for a moment upon this +sumptuous banquet and these gorgeous surroundings, their first impulse, +in accordance with the frugal simplicity of their lives and their +habits, would be to repudiate it, and repudiate their descendants, with +reprehension and with horror? [Laughter.] And would they not straightway +proceed, had they the power, to enact such sumptuary laws as should +confine you all henceforth and for evermore, to the same simple fare +upon which they and their children throve a couple of centuries ago? + +Yet, Mr. President, by whatever strange process of evolution the simple +festivities of the first settlers upon this island may have grown into +an occasion so distinguished as this, I conceive that, after all, the +adage which you quote is well applied and has a serious meaning; for +despite the lapse of time and the introduction of new races of men, New +York is the child of Nieuw Amsterdam--and how the child has outgrown the +parent! + +I believe it to be true, sir, that New York to-day bears more traces of +the less than fifty years of Dutch government than of the more than one +hundred years of British rule which followed. New York is, indeed, +erected upon the foundation of Nieuw Amsterdam; yet how impossible to +compare the New York of to-day with the original settlement established +by your forefathers. As well might we compare the great gathering of the +navies of the world which occurred in the Hudson River a year ago with +the first expedition sent hither by their High Mightinesses the +States-General two hundred and fifty years before. New York to-day, +grown up from the Nieuw Amsterdam of a former generation, is a great +emporium and a mighty city. To appreciate the greatness and the +swiftness of its growth, we must recall that since this century began +its population has increased more than twenty-fold. When this city and +its vicinity shall once more have doubled their inhabitants, the result +will be the formation of almost the largest mass of people congregated +upon the globe. [Applause.] + +Contemplating these marvellous changes, past and to come, our +reflections are not all pleasant. Often do we regret with Washington +living the passing away of the Arcadian simplicity which once prevailed +upon this island. Often do we recall his plaintive words, applied to +this very community: "Let no man congratulate himself when he beholds +the child of his bosom or the city of his birth increasing in magnitude +and importance." Yet mournful reflections over the passing away of +childhood's days have small place in the ceaseless activity of modern +life. New York can no more again become the happy village whose +departure Irving laments, than the river which nears the ocean can turn +back and again become a tiny stream. Like a man approaching his prime, +it must go forward to its destiny--and what a destiny seems to await our +city! As the nineteenth century--greatest of periods known to man--draws +to a close, and opens the way for its successor which we expect will be +rich with broader and greater and higher achievements still than the +century of our birth, what a future seems to await our city of New York! +Is it not manifest destiny that old Nieuw Amsterdam, the present New +York, should become a greater city than any on the earth to-day? And it +seems to me, sir, that it is in a very large measure, indeed, to the +rugged industry--to the sturdy honesty--to the indomitable will of your +Dutch ancestors,--to the spirit which animated William the Silent, to +the spirit and the qualities which sustained the early Dutch settlers +upon this island, Wouter Van Twiller and Peter Stuyvesant and the men of +their generation, that we and our children must look, to maintain civic +virtue, to foster commercial enterprise, and to make the city of New +York in the twentieth century the metropolis of the civilized world. +[Applause.] + + + + +WILLIAM E. H. LECKY + + +THE ARTISTIC SIDE OF LITERATURE + +[Speech of William B. H. Lecky at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 5, 1888. Sir Frederic Leighton, the President of + the Academy, said in introducing him: "In connection with 'Letters,' I + turn to yet another son of that many-gifted sister island [This toast + was coupled with that of "Science," to which John Tyndall was called + upon to respond.] on which all Englishmen must heartily invoke the + blessings of prosperity and of peace restored [cheers], to a man whose + subtle and well-balanced mind has delighted, now in tracing through + the centuries the growth of the spirit of Rationalism, now in + following the history of morals in Europe, through the first eight + centuries of our era, and more lately in illuminating the great page + of English history in the century which precedes our own, Mr. William + Edward Lecky."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN: I cannot but +remember that the last time I heard this toast proposed in this room the +task which now devolves upon me was discharged by that true poet and +great critic whose recent loss all England is deploring. In few respects +did Mr. Arnold render a greater service to Literature than by the stress +he always placed upon the importance of its artistic side--upon that +"grand style," as he loved to call it, which the very last words he +uttered in public were employed in extolling. It was not without a +sound, critical instinct that he dwelt on it, for it is, I think, on +this side, that contemporary literature is apt to be weakest. A great +wave of German influence has swept over English literature, and however +admirable may be the German intellect in its industry and its +thoroughness, in its many-sided sympathies, and in its noble love for +truth, it will hardly be claimed for it, even by its greatest admirers, +that it is equally distinguished for its sense of the beauty of form or +for the great art of perspective or proportion. [Cheers.] + +Whether it be owing to this cause, or to the reaction from the +brilliantly pictorial literature of Macaulay and his contemporaries, or +to the excessive predominance of the critical spirit, or to some other +more subtle or far-reaching cause, I know not; but I cannot but think +that we find in contemporary literature some want of the freshness, the +simplicity, or the directness of the great literatures of the past. +History is apt to resolve itself into archeology or politics. In poetry +or fiction we find more traces of the mind that dissects and analyzes +than of the mind that embodies and creates. Passion itself assumes the +aspects or affects the subtleties of metaphysics, and much of our modern +literary art bears a strong resemblance to a school of painting which +seems very popular beyond the Channel, in which all definite forms and +outlines seem lost under vague masses of luminous but almost unorganized +color. + +And yet, though this be true of a large part of our literature, we have +still great painters among us. It would be idle, it would be, perhaps, +invidious, for me to mention names, many of which will rise unbidden to +your minds; but it is not, I think, out of place to remind you that it +is since the doors of the last Academy exhibition closed that the +illustrious historian [Kinglake] of the Crimean war has completed that +noble historic gallery, hung with battlepieces as glowing and as +animated, with portraits as vivid and as powerful, as any that have +adorned these walls. And if it be said that this great master of +picturesque English was reared in the traditions of a more artistic age, +I would venture to point to a poem which has been but a few weeks in the +world, but which is destined, if I am not much mistaken, to take a more +prominent place in the literature of its time--poem which among many +other beauties contains pictures of the old Greek mythology that are +worthy to compare even with those with which you, Mr. President, have so +often delighted us. I refer to "The City of Dreams," by Robert Buchanan. +["Hear! Hear!"] While such works are produced in England, it cannot, I +think, be said that the artistic spirit in English literature is very +seriously decayed. [Cheers.] + + + + +FITZHUGH LEE + + +THE FLAG OF THE UNION FOREVER + +[Speech of General Fitzhugh Lee at a dinner given by the Friendly Sons + of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, at the city + of Philadelphia, September 17, 1887. The occasion of the dinner was + the one hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of + the United States. General Lee, then Governor of Virginia, was the + guest of Governor Beaver at the dinner. The Chairman, Hon. Andrew G. + Curtin [Pennsylvania's war governor], in introducing General Lee said: + "We have here to-day a gentleman whom I am glad to call my friend, + though during the war he was in dangerous and unpleasant proximity to + me. He once threatened the Capitol of this great State. I did not wish + him to come in, and was very glad when he went away. He was then my + enemy and I was his. But, thank God, that is past; and in the + enjoyment of the rights and interests common to all as American + citizens, I am his friend and he is my friend. I introduce to you, + Governor Fitzhugh Lee."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY:--I am very +glad, indeed, to have the honor of being present in this Society once +more; as it was my good fortune to enjoy a most pleasant visit here and +an acquaintance with the members of your Society last year. My +engagements were such to-day that I could not get here earlier; and just +as I was coming in Governor Beaver was making his excuses because, as he +said, he had to go to pick up a visitor whom he was to escort to the +entertainment to be given this evening at the Academy of Music. I am the +visitor whom Governor Beaver is looking for. He could not capture me +during the war, but he has captured me now. I am a Virginian and used to +ride a pretty fast horse, and he could not get close enough to me. +[Laughter.] + +By the way, you have all heard of "George Washington and his little +hatchet." The other day I heard a story that was a little variation +upon the original, and I am going to take up your time for a minute by +repeating it to you. It was to this effect: Old Mr. Washington and Mrs. +Washington, the parents of George, found on one occasion that their +supply of soap for the use of the family at Westmoreland had been +exhausted, and so they decided to make some family soap. They made the +necessary arrangements and gave the requisite instructions to the family +servant. After an hour or so the servant returned and reported to them +that he could not make that soap. "Why not," he was asked, "haven't you +all the materials?" "Yes," he replied, "but there is something wrong." +The old folks proceeded to investigate, and they found they had actually +got the ashes of the little cherry tree that George had cut down with +his hatchet, and there was no lye in it. [Laughter.] + +Now, I assure you, there is no "lie" in what I say to you this +afternoon, and that is, that I thank God for the sun of the Union which, +once obscured, is now again in the full stage of its glory; and that its +light is shining over Virginia as well as over the rest of this country. +We have had our differences. I do not see, upon reading history, how +they could well have been avoided, because they resulted from different +constructions of the Constitution, which was the helm of the ship of the +Republic. Virginia construed it one way. Pennsylvania construed it in +another, and they could not settle their differences; so they went to +war, and Pennsylvania, I think, probably got a little the best of it. +[General laughter.] + +The sword, at any rate, settled the controversy. But that is behind us. +We have now a great and glorious future in front of us, and it is +Virginia's duty to do all that she can to promote the honor and glory of +this country. We fought to the best of our ability for four years; and +it would be a great mistake to assume that you could bring men from +their cabins, from their ploughs, from their houses and from their +families to make them fight as they fought in that contest unless they +were fighting for a belief. Those men believed that they had the right +construction of the Constitution, and that a State that voluntarily +entered the Union could voluntarily withdraw from it. They did not fight +for Confederate money. It was not worth ten cents a yard. They did not +fight for Confederate rations--you would have had to curtail the demands +of your appetite to make it correspond with the size and quality of +those rations. They fought for what they thought was a proper +construction of the Constitution. They were defeated. They acknowledged +their defeat. They came back to their father's house, and there they are +going to stay. But if we are to continue prosperous, if this country, +stretching from the Gulf to the lakes and from ocean to ocean, is to be +mindful of its own best interests, in the future, we will have to make +concessions and compliances, we will have to bear with each other and to +respect each other's opinions. Then we will find that that harmony will +be secured which is as necessary for the welfare of States, as it is for +the welfare of individuals. [Applause.] + +I have become acquainted with Governor Beaver--I met him in Richmond. +You could not make me fight him now. If I had known him before the war, +perhaps we would not have got at it. If all the Governors had known each +other, and if all the people of different sections had been known to +each other, or had been thrown together in business or social +communication, the fact would have been recognized at the outset, as it +is to-day, that there are just as good men in Maine as there are in +Texas, and just as good men in Texas as there are in Maine. Human nature +is everywhere the same; and when intestine strifes occur, we will +doubtless always be able by a conservative, pacific course to pass +smoothly over the rugged, rocky edges, and the old Ship of State will be +brought into a safe, commodious, Constitutional harbor with the flag of +the Union flying over her, and there it will remain. [Applause.] + + + + +SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON + + +VARIETY IN BRITISH ART + +[Speech of Sir Frederic Leighton, as President of the Royal Academy, at + the banquet held by that society, May 5, 1894. This speech followed + upon that of Dr. Mandell Creighton, Bishop of Peterborough, who had + proposed the "Prosperity of the Royal Academy," and the health of the + President.] + + +MY LORD BISHOP:--I thank you for the appreciative tone in which +you have spoken of art in general and of English art in particular. The +kind terms in which you have commended this institution and its work to +this distinguished assembly must have gratified my colleagues as much as +it has gratified me, and we thank you most warmly. I would also +gratefully acknowledge the lenient words you have addressed to the +occupant of this chair. More fortunate than last year at this season, I +have to note to-day the loss of one only among the acting members of +this body--that of a sculptor of much repute, whose first steps in art +were taken under the stimulating guidance of a powerful artist, whose +name is a just boast to the green island which gave him birth--John +Henry Foley. Less vigorous, no doubt, than his eminent master, Charles +Bell Birch, he yet imparted to his works great life and spirit, and the +charm of a facile and picturesque execution, and, even in this day of +renovation and growing strength in the practice of that stately art, +sculpture in this country will miss him in its ranks. ["Hear! Hear!"] +From amongst the honorary retired Associates of this body another +sculptor, W. F. Woodington, has been removed by death--an artist whom, +for many years, age and infirmity had withdrawn altogether from public +ken. The work of his vigorous prime may still be appreciated on the base +of the Nelson column of Trafalgar Square. + +But whilst our active ranks have suffered diminution by one death only +within the year, two justly conspicuous men have fallen in the wider +field of English art, both of them men of marked and distinctive +personality--both painters, both, to me, deeply interesting. One of +them, Albert Moore, an unbending upholder of the sufficiency in art of +whatever is nobly decorative, was a devoted student of the severer +graces of Hellenic art, and married in his works spontaneous and supple +gesture with forms of chaste sobriety, clothing them in delicately +harmonious tones, of which the studied arrangement announced to the +first glance the refined idiosyncrasy of his artistic temper. ["Hear! +Hear!"] + +How great a psychological contrast is offered to the placid charm of +these works by the fervor of those of the artist whom I have next to +name, an artist of strong intellectual bent and steeped in human +sympathies, the originator of the movement which startled humdrum people +forty or more years ago, and produced a most interesting phase of +English art! I speak of Ford Madox Brown, who recently passed away in +the fulness of respected years and in the unabated intensity of his +convictions. I am not here to defend in every point the nature of those +convictions; I am not wholly at one with them. Ardently admired by many, +stimulating and highly interesting to a still larger circle of the +intelligent, who did not, perhaps, wholly follow his doctrine, he was +not altogether acceptable to the wider and less cultured public, which +so largely influences the creation of that empty and fickle thing called +popularity; for there was that in his work which was apt to rouse the +uneasy dread of the not usual, which mostly marks the middling mind. But +this, I fearlessly affirm, apart from his technical endowments and rare +vividness of dramatic vision, in the work of no English hand burns a +more ardent sympathy with human emotion or is revealed a more subtle +observation of the outward signs and gestures by which these emotions +are conveyed. [Cheers.] + +The artistic memories which associate themselves in our mind with Madox +Brown and his concentrated energies, bring vividly before us, as we look +upon the walls of this exhibition, or glance in thought over the wide +area of contemporary production in England, the changes which two-score +years have wrought in the character and tendencies of art in this +country. As we wander through these--I rejoice to say, more than ever +catholic and hospitable--galleries, within which the still young unfold, +this year, so much vitality and promise--and, gentlemen, to us, the old, +there is, believe me, no gladder sight or one more full of comfort--we +are struck, not with a concentration of aim or purpose in the school, +but rather with a radiation and scattering of effort in innumerable +directions. No one, I think, can fail to observe the extraordinary +differences of mood and manner shown in the works which have found equal +shelter on these walls, and the wide multiplicity of individual +personalities which they proclaim. In the range of figure painting, for +instance, what variety of subject as well as of temper meets us! We see, +not historic or domestic scenes alone; not alone scenes in which the +rhythmic dream of beauty and of style is aimed at; but works also, not a +few, of purely imaginative character--fanciful, mythological, +allegorical, symbolic--amongst which latter, one especially, I think, is +dominant in its powerful originality and the weird charm of its +decorative pomp. In the region of landscape, no less, every mood is +touched, and every association evoked, from the infinite solemnity of +the silent Arctic solitudes to the infinite sweetness of a Surrey +homestead nestling within its sheltered nook, or the laughter of the +flower-fields of the Alps in June. What various temperament, too, we +note in the expressional use of tone and color--here vivid and +vibratory; there grave and soberly subdued. + +In sculpture, again, though the display is numerically small, there are +amongst various good works some that are salient. I will name one by a +late alumnus of these schools, which has passed into the hands of the +nation, and, in another room, the dazzling sketch of a monument deeply +pathetic in its occasion, and of which this country will, I believe, be +justly and lastingly proud. On all hands then, in sum, we are conscious +of Life. With it, we are aware in much of the art of the day of a +certain feverish tentativeness, groping, as it were, sometimes after a +new spirit, sometimes after a repristination of the old in a modern +form; but everywhere, I repeat, we see Life. And, gentlemen, to those +who, like myself, believe in the necessary triumph of the high over the +less high, in the eventual sure survival of the wholesome and the +strong, and in the falling away and withering of the vicious or the +morbid, this sign is the most welcome, the most inspiriting, and the +most hopeful sign of all. [Loud cheers.] + + + + +CHARLES GODFREY LELAND + + +HANS BREITMANN'S RETURN + +[Speech of Charles G. Leland at a dinner given in his honor by the Lotos + Club, New York, January 31, 1880. Mr. Leland had just returned from a + sojourn of eleven years abroad. Whitelaw Reid, the President of the + Club, introduced Mr. Leland, and said in part: "Well, his long exile + is over. With a true Philadelphian's fear of envious and jealous New + York, he stayed abroad till they started a Pennsylvania line of + steamers for him, and so smuggled him past Manhattan Island and into + the Quaker City direct. Captured as he is to-night, I will not abuse + his modesty by eulogy, yet this much I venture to say, and it is the + eulogy the true humorist and the true man of letters will most highly + prize. He deserves all the grateful honor we can pay him because he + has made substantial additions to the sum of human enjoyment in the + world. I give you the health of Mr. Leland, and with it our best + wishes for his long life and prosperity to the end."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I have been asked several times +since my return what struck me most, after an eleven years' absence, and +I should say it is the fact that I am remembered. It has never struck me +so forcibly as this evening. I have been for eleven years over the sea; +I have returned like the proverbial story, somewhat worn, perhaps, but +still accepted, and I am very much gratified that it is so. Time passes +so rapidly, and especially here in New York, that to be remembered after +so long an absence is especially gratifying. + +I met in Europe a Mr. Boyd, whose family two centuries before had +resided in Ireland. Mr. Boyd thought one day that he would go back and +visit his relatives, and so he went back and met with an Irish cousin. +"Ah, Cousin Boyd," said his relative, "I am glad to see you, and though +you have not been here for more than two hundred years, still I can +easily trace the illegant resemblance." [Laughter.] Gentlemen, you seem +inclined to trace the resemblance. I am still known, and that has +touched me more than anything. + +But I am not altogether so great a stranger to New York. To be sure, I +was born in Philadelphia; that cannot be denied; but I have also lived +in New York. I was a long time in New York, and, indeed, was a +freeholder of the city. I once owned a piece of property here, on which +a Dutchman planted his cabbages but never paid any rent--and I never +asked him for any; finally I gave a man eighty dollars to take the +property off my hands altogether. I also voted in New York; and in this +I fared better than in freeholding, for I voted for Abraham Lincoln at +his first election. [Applause.] + +I have also been a business man in New York. I started "Vanity Fair," +with Charles Browne [Artemus Ward] as an assistant, and I remember how I +used to suggest the subjects to him, and how he used to write out the +series of articles which have since become so widely known. The "Revue +des Deux Mondes" recently gave a detailed account of the manner in +which I brought out Artemus Ward, in which by far too much credit was +given to me and too little to him. But this was all done in New York, +and you will give me some credit for having aided such a man as Artemus +Ward. But I am growing gossipy. I say all this, however, just to show +that I have some claim to call myself a New Yorker. I was here for a +long time, and here some of my best work was done. But what can I say to +thank you for the kind manner in which you have received me? + +Before I left London a gentleman said to me: "The two greatest honors of +your country are to get a degree from Harvard, and to be a guest of the +Lotos Club;" for you must know that they talk a great deal about you. +[Laughter.] This was said to me by an English gentleman of letters, for, +as I said, you are extremely well known over there, and your hospitality +is so celebrated that to have received the stamp of it is to be +distinguished. + +I said it was very strange, but the last thing that happened to me +before leaving America was to receive the degree of A. M. from +Cambridge, but I did not venture to aspire to the other one. And now the +first thing that happens to me on my return is to receive your +invitation. Gentlemen, ambition can no further go. [Laughter.] As Horace +says, a man may change his skies, but not his disposition, and I wish to +show you that I have not forgotten my manners while abroad; and, in this +connection, that a good speech should have a short answer. A very +excellent speech preceded mine. I have made my answer altogether too +long. Thanking you from my heart, for your courteous kindness, I now take +my seat. [Applause.] + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + +CENTRAL IDEAS OF THE REPUBLIC + +[Fragment of a speech of Abraham Lincoln at the Republican banquet in + Chicago, December 10, 1856. The rest of this speech, if it was ever + reported, is presumably no longer extant, as it is not published in + any collection of Lincoln's speeches.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--We have another annual presidential message. Like a +rejected lover making merry at the wedding of his rival, the President +felicitates himself hugely over the late presidential election. He +considers the result a signal triumph of good principles and good men, +and a very pointed rebuke of bad ones. He says the people did it. He +forgets that the "people," as he complacently calls only those who voted +for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by about four +hundred thousand votes--one full tenth of all the votes. Remembering +this, he might perceive that the "rebuke" may not be quite as durable as +he seems to think--that the majority may not choose to remain +permanently rebuked by that minority. + +The President thinks the great body of us Fremonters, being ardently +attached to liberty, in the abstract, were duped by a few wicked and +designing men. There is a slight difference of opinion on this. We think +he, being ardently attached to the hope of a second term, in the +concrete, was duped by men who hate liberty every way. He is the +cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts from the fire for others to +eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, and he is thrown aside as +unfit for further use. As the fool said of King Lear, when his daughters +had turned him out of doors, "He's a shelled peascod." + +So far as the President charges us with a desire to "change the +domestic institutions of existing States," and of "doing everything in +our power to deprive the Constitution and the laws of moral authority," +for the whole party on belief, and for myself on knowledge, I pronounce +the charge an unmixed and unmitigated falsehood. + +Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public +opinion can change the government practically just so much. Public +opinion, on any subject, always has a central idea, from which all its +minor thoughts radiate. That central idea in our political public +opinion at the beginning was, and until recently has continued to be, +the equality of men. And although it has always submitted patiently to +whatever of inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity, +its constant working has been a steady progress toward the practical +equality of all men. The late presidential election was a struggle by +one party to discard that central idea and to substitute for it the +opposite idea that slavery is right in the abstract, the workings of +which as a central idea may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its +extension to all countries and colors. Less than a year ago the Richmond +"Enquirer," an avowed advocate of slavery regardless of color, in order +to favor his views, invented the phrase "State equality," and now the +President, in his message, adopts the "Enquirer's" catch-phrase, telling +us the people "have asserted the constitutional equality of each and all +the States of the Union as States." The President flatters himself that +the new central idea is completely inaugurated; and so indeed it is, so +far as the mere fact of a presidential election can inaugurate it. To us +it is left to know that the majority of the people have not yet declared +for it, and to hope that they never will. All of us who did not vote for +Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand. +But in the late contest we were divided between Fremont and Fillmore. +Can we not come together for the future? Let every one who really +believes, and is resolved, that free society is not and shall not be a +failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he +has done only what he thought best--let every such one have charity to +believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be +bygones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the +real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old central ideas of the +Republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us: God is with us. We +shall again be able not to declare that "all States as States are +equal," nor yet that "all citizens as citizens are equal," but to renew +the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, +"that all men are created equal." [Applause.] + +[Illustration: _FANEUIL HALL_ + +_Photogravure after a photograph_ + +This historic "Cradle of Liberty" yields to no building in America, save +perhaps Independence Hall, in interest. Faneuil Hall, in Boston, was +built in 1740, by Peter Faneuil, a wealthy merchant, and presented to +the town for a town-hall and market uses, to which it has been devoted +ever since. In 1761 it was injured by fire, but was rebuilt by the town +in the following year. In 1805 it was considerably enlarged and +improved. During the troublous times which preceded the Revolution, it +was the scene of most exciting public meetings; and the great patriot +orators of that day sounded from this platform the stirring notes that +gave the chief impulse of patriotism to the whole country.] + + + + +HENRY CABOT LODGE + + +THE BLUE AND THE GRAY + +[Speech of Henry Cabot Lodge, delivered at a banquet complimentary to + the Robert E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, Va., + given in Faneuil Hall, Boston, June 17, 1887. The Southerners were + visiting Boston as the special guests of the John A. Andrew Post 15, + Department of Massachusetts, Grand Army of the Republic. At the + banquet Commander William B. Daley, of Post 15, presided. On either + side of the presiding officer were seated, Col. A. L. Phillips, + commander of the visiting camp, ex-Solicitor Gen. Goode of Virginia, + the Hon. George D. Wise of Virginia, Governor Ames of Massachusetts. + Mr. Lodge [now United States Senator from Massachusetts] responded to + the toast, "The Blue and the Gray."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--To such a toast, sir, it would seem perhaps most +fitting that one of those should respond who was a part of the great +event which it recalls. Yet, after all, on an occasion like this, it may +not be amiss to call upon one who belongs to a generation to whom the +Rebellion is little more than history, and who, however insufficiently, +represents the feelings of that and the succeeding generations as to our +great Civil War. I was a boy ten years old when the troops marched away +to defend Washington, and my personal knowledge of that time is confined +to a few broken but vivid memories. I saw the troops, month after month, +pour through the streets of Boston. I saw Shaw go forth at the head of +his black regiment, and Bartlett, shattered in body but dauntless in +soul, ride by to carry what was left of him once more to the +battle-fields of the Republic. I saw Andrew, standing bareheaded on the +steps of the State House, bid the men God-speed. I cannot remember the +words he said, but I can never forget the fervid eloquence which brought +tears to the eyes and fire to the hearts of all who listened. I +understood but dimly the awful meaning of these events. To my boyish +mind one thing alone was clear, that the soldiers as they marched past +were all, in that supreme hour, heroes and patriots. Amid many changes +that simple belief of boyhood has never altered. The gratitude which I +felt then I confess to to-day more strongly than ever. But other +feelings have in the progress of time altered much. I have learned, and +others of my generation as they came to man's estate have learned, what +the war really meant, and they have also learned to know and to do +justice to the men who fought the war upon the other side. + +I do not stand up in this presence to indulge in any mock +sentimentality. You brave men who wore the gray would be the first to +hold me or any other son of the North in just contempt if I should say +that, now it was all over, I thought the North was wrong and the result +of the war a mistake, and that I was prepared to suppress my political +opinions. I believe most profoundly that the war on our side was +eternally right, that our victory was the salvation of the country, and +that the results of the war were of infinite benefit to both North and +South. But however we differed, or still differ, as to the causes for +which we fought then, we accept them as settled, commit them to history, +and fight over them no more. To the men who fought the battles of the +Confederacy we hold out our hands freely, frankly, and gladly. To +courage and faith wherever shown we bow in homage with uncovered heads. +We respect and honor the gallantry and valor of the brave men who fought +against us, and who gave their lives and shed their blood in defence of +what they believed to be right. We rejoice that the famous general whose +name is borne upon your banner was one of the greatest soldiers of +modern times, because he, too, was an American. We have no bitter +memories to revive, no reproaches to utter. Reconciliation is not to be +sought, because it exists already. Differ in politics and in a thousand +other ways we must and shall in all good-nature, but let us never differ +with each other on sectional or State lines, by race or creed. + +We welcome you, soldiers of Virginia, as others more eloquent than I +have said, to New England. We welcome you to old Massachusetts. We +welcome you to Boston and to Faneuil Hall. In your presence here, and at +the sound of your voices beneath this historic roof, the years roll +back and we see the figure and hear again the ringing tones of your +great orator, Patrick Henry, declaring to the first Continental +Congress, "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New +Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an +American." A distinguished Frenchman, as he stood among the graves at +Arlington, said, "Only a great people is capable of a great civil war." +Let us add with thankful hearts that only a great people is capable of a +great reconciliation. Side by side, Virginia and Massachusetts led the +colonies into the War for Independence. Side by side they founded the +government of the United States. Morgan and Greene, Lee and Knox, +Moultrie and Prescott, men of the South and men of the North, fought +shoulder to shoulder, and wore the same uniform of buff and blue--the +uniform of Washington. + +Your presence here brings back their noble memories, it breathes the +spirit of concord, and unites with so many other voices in the +irrevocable message of union and good-will. Mere sentiment all this, +some may say. But it is sentiment, true sentiment, that has moved the +world. Sentiment fought the war, and sentiment has re-united us. When +the war closed, it was proposed in the newspapers and elsewhere to give +Governor Andrew, who had sacrificed health and strength and property in +his public duties, some immediately lucrative office, like the +collectorship of the port of Boston. A friend asked him if he would take +such a place. "No," said he; "I have stood as high priest between the +horns of the altar, and I have poured out upon it the best blood of +Massachusetts, and I cannot take money for that." Mere sentiment, truly, +but the sentiment which ennobles and uplifts mankind. It is sentiment +which so hallows a bit of torn, stained bunting, that men go gladly to +their deaths to save it. So I say that the sentiment manifested by your +presence here, brethren of Virginia, sitting side by side with those who +wore the blue, has a far-reaching and gracious influence, of more value +than many practical things. It tells us that these two grand old +commonwealths, parted in the shock of the Civil War, are once more side +by side as in the days of the Revolution, never to part again. It tells +us that the sons of Virginia and Massachusetts, if war should break +again upon the country, will, as in the olden days, stand once more +shoulder to shoulder, with no distinction in the colors that they wear. +It is fraught with tidings of peace on earth and you may read its +meaning in the words on yonder picture, "Liberty and Union, now and +forever, one and inseparable." + + + + +JOHN DAVIS LONG + + +THE NAVY + +[Speech of John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, at the banquet of the + Fall Festival Celebration, Chicago, October 9, 1899. The Secretary was + introduced by the toast-master, Hon. Melville E. Stone, to speak in + response to the toast, "The Navy."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--Your toast to the Navy is all the +more a compliment because you are a thousand miles from the sea. It +signifies the place that the Navy has in the hearts of all the people +and how much they all alike share its glories. It has always been dear +to the American heart, and has contributed some of the most brilliant +pages in American history; but its exploits during the recent war have +given it a stronger and broader hold than ever before. Besides, it is +not a department which pertains to any section of the country nor to any +class among the people; it is one of the fundamental elements of +American popular growth. It is as much the product of our schools, our +homes, and common life, as is the shop of the mechanic, the warehouse of +the merchant, the harvest of the farmer. Jack hails from the inland +hamlet as well as from the seaport town. + +The Admiral commanding one of our great squadrons, winning a victory +unprecedented in naval history, is the son of a prominent financial +business man; another, the son of an Irish laborer, working in a ditch +by his father's side, went from it to the Naval academy. Every +congressional district in the Union is represented there by its cadet. + +The result is that the splendid body of naval officers who to-day so +highly command the confidence and admiration of the people are +themselves the immediate representatives of the people, and of their +common intelligence, spirit and standards. Our late antagonist had +officers and men of undoubted bravery. But in education, versatility, +ability to plan and do, and to meet emergencies: in short, in what Mrs. +Stowe called "faculty," our superiority was such that the battle was won +the moment it began. + +In this connection I remind myself that in Congress the Naval Committees +of the Senate and House are made up also of men from all parts of our +common country. That great branch of our government which nurses the +Navy and provides for it is also representative of all the people. +Indeed, your own great city, with all its tremendous commercial and +industrial interests, has contributed a member of that committee, who +has put his heart into our naval development, rendered signal service in +that behalf, and by his recent voluntary study of naval affairs abroad +has prepared himself for still more valuable work--your able +representative in Congress, and my good friend, George Edmund Foss. + +I can the more properly, gentlemen, join with you in your appreciation +of the Navy because, although its head, I am yet only temporarily +connected with it and can look at it from the outside. I sometimes +think, however, that the great public, applauding the salient merits, +overlook others which are quite as deserving. + +You cheer for the men behind the guns; you give swords and banquets here +and there to an Admiral--and both most richly deserve the tribute--but +remember that all up and down the line there are individuals whose names +never got to your ears--or, if so, are already half forgotten--who have +earned unfading laurels. No man in the Navy has rendered such service, +however great, that others were not ready to fill the place and do as +well. The Navy is full of heroes unknown to fame. Its great merit is the +professional spirit which runs through it; the high sense of duty, the +lofty standards of service to which its hearts are loyal and which make +them all equal to any duty. + +Who sings the praises of the chiefs of the naval stations and bureaus of +the Navy department, who wept that there were no battles and glory for +them; and who, remaining at their departmental posts, made such +provision for the fitting out, the arming, the supplying, the feeding, +the coaling, the equipping of your fleets that the commanding officer +on the deck had only to direct and use the forces which these, his +brothers, had put in his hands? + +Who repeats the names of the young officers who pleaded for Hobson's +chance to risk his life in the hull and hell of the Merrimac? Who +mentions the scores of seamen who begged to be of the immortal seven who +were his companions in that forlorn hope? + +In the long watch before Santiago the terror of our great battleships +was the two Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers, those swift, fiendish +sharks of the sea, engines of death and destruction, and yet, when the +great battle came, it was the unprotected Gloucester, a converted yacht, +the former plaything and pleasure-boat of a summer vacation, which, +without hesitation or turning, attacked these demons of the sea and sunk +them both. I have always thought it the most heroic and gallant +individual instance of fighting daring in the war. It was as if some +light-clad youth, with no defence but his sword, threw himself into the +arena with armored gladiators and by his dash and spirit laid them low. +And yet who has given a sword or spread a feast to that purest flame of +chivalrous heroism, Richard Wainwright? + +Who recalls all the still more varied services of our Navy--its exploits +and researches in the interest of science, its stimulus to international +commerce, its surveys in foreign harbors, its charting of the sea and +marking of the pathway of the merchant marine, its study of the stars, +its contributions--in short, to all the interests of an enlightened and +progressive country? + +May I suggest, therefore, that with this broader view of our Navy, as +not an outside conception of our institutions, but an integral part of +them, it is a partial conception that criticises its recent development +and its continued developments in the future? It has not only given +dignity and variety of service and strength to your government, but +think how it is linked in with all your industrial interests, with the +employment of large bodies of labor, with the consumption of all sorts +of material stimulating marine construction, building docks, and +contributing to this business activity and prosperity which are the +features of this thrifty town. It is not too much to predict that the +development of our navy is the beginning also of a new era of our +merchant marine, in maritime construction, and, hence, in maritime +transportation, of the American bottom carrying the American flag again +on all the oceans of the globe. + +In the war with Spain our fleet was ordered to Manila because there was +a Spanish fleet there, and every military interest demanded its capture +or destruction. When that was done, every military interest required, +not that our fleet be withdrawn, but that our hand on the enemy's throat +should there remain until his surrender. When that surrender came, and +with it the transfer of the sovereignty of those islands from Spain to +the United States, every consideration demanded that the President +should hold them up, not toss them into the caldron of anarchy, and when +violence began should restore order, yet stretching out always in his +hands the tender and opportunity for peace and beneficent government +until Congress in its wisdom shall determine what their future status +shall be. What more, or what less, should he do and do his duty? +[Applause.] + + + + +SETH LOW + + +THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE + +[Speech of Seth Low at the 112th annual banquet of the Chamber of + Commerce of the State of New York, May 11, 1880. George W. Lane, the + second vice-President of the Chamber, presided, and called upon Mr. + Low to respond to the tenth regular toast: "The Chamber of Commerce of + the State of New York--its Past, Present, and Future."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:--If the +historian wished to convey to your minds some idea of the antiquity of +this Chamber, he would scarcely do it, I think, by saying it was founded +in 1768. So few besides the reporters would personally recollect those +times. He would rather tell you that it dates back to an epoch when each +absentee from the annual dinner was fined five shillings sterling for +the offence. Think of that! How eloquently it seems to tell us that +there was no Delmonico in those days. I can understand how a people that +punished such a slight to commerce in such a way, would rebel at stamp +acts and other burdens of the sort. The Revolution itself seems to get a +new interpretation from this early custom of the Chamber. [Laughter.] + +But, perhaps, a better way of making vivid to this generation the age of +this body, would be to say that it dates back to a time when New York +actually had a foreign commerce of its own, carried on chiefly under the +American flag. It sounds like a fairy tale to one who counts the ensigns +in our harbor now, to be told that tradition speaks of a day when the +Stars and Stripes floated over a larger fleet of common carriers on the +highways of the world--at least, so far as American business was +concerned--than even that omnipresent banner of St. George. Strange, is +it not, that a nation which surpasses all others in its use of machinery +on the land, should have been content to yield up the sea, almost +without a struggle, to the steamships of the older world? Events over +which we have had no control have had much to do with it, I know; but is +a single misused subsidy to keep us off the sea forever, or so long as +the dominion of the steamship lasts? Are we to wait until England can +build our steamers for us, and hear her say, as we run up the Stars and +Stripes to the mast-head of the ship which she has built: "See, Brother +Jonathan, how cheap these subsidies which I have given all these years +enable me now to build for you!" It may be we must wait for this, but +let us hope for a happier consummation. Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, this +Chamber does date back to the time when we had a commerce of our own. +[Applause.] + +In glancing over our old records, it is interesting to see what a +perennial source of discussion in this body have been the pilots of the +port. They have been mentioned, I think, even the past year. The first +formal reference to the pilots appears in 1791, and the minutes ever +since teem with memorials, protests, bills, measures, conferences and +the like. + +A story is told of a Chinese pilot, who boarded the vessel of a captain +who had never been on the China coast before, and who asked the captain +one hundred dollars for his fee. The captain demurred, and the +discussion waxed warm, until the white head of an old China merchant +appeared in the companion-way, and caught the pilot's eye, when he cut +the dispute short by crying out: "Hi-ya! G'long olo Foxee! ten dollar +can do!" [Laughter and applause.] + +I apprehend there is much wisdom in this appeal. In the olden days, the +complaint against our pilotage system was not only that it was costly, +but that it was inefficient; and so even more costly in the losses of +vessels and cargoes than in fees. But, after half a century of contest, +the present system was reached in 1853, and it is, beyond dispute, +acknowledged by underwriters and by merchants that, as a system, it has +worked well--uncommonly well. If, therefore, the present dispute between +the merchants and the pilots be, as I understand that it is, in all its +vital points a dispute as to fees, I recommend to the merchants and to +the pilots the Chinese method of adjustment--by compromise. Do not let +us expose to the hazard of legislative interference a system which is +not likely to be bettered, and which gives us certainly efficient +pilotage, because we cannot all at once get by compromise a reduction in +our favor quite equal to what we think our due. [Applause.] + +But what can I say, Mr. Chairman, of the Chamber of to-day? The subject +is full, very full, of interest and of other good things. "May good +digestion wait on appetite, and health on both." It is curious to see, +all along the history of the Chamber, how coming events have cast their +shadows before. In 1837 the Chamber petitioned Congress to improve the +navigation at Hell Gate; in 1846 they approved a report suggesting as +feasible a railroad across the continent to the Pacific; and in 1852 +they asked Congress to remove the mint from Philadelphia, intimating +pretty plainly that Philadelphia was too insignificant a place to enjoy +so great a luxury. The first two achievements have been accomplished. +The mint is almost due in Wall Street. Let Philadelphia hear and +tremble. [Applause.] + +When I think, Mr. Chairman, of the influence the Chamber wields, and of +the influence it ought to wield, it seems to me one thing of all others +should be avoided. The Chamber ought never to be put upon record in an +important matter until full discussion upon fair notice has preceded +action, whenever this is possible. Sometimes I have thought the action +of the Chamber was somewhat the result of chance, even with reference to +questions of great importance. If the Chamber is to continue free, as in +the main it has been free, from being used for personal ends, and at the +same time is to exert an influence at all commensurate with its power as +a representative of commercial New York, the action of the Chamber ought +to be the result of intelligent discussion. I would only suggest one +definite thing. Why might not the notice of each monthly meeting state +the items of unfinished business that may come up, and also give notice, +so far as possible, of the matters to be submitted by the Executive +Committee? The attendance at our meetings would be better, I am sure, if +men knew when matters of interest to them were to be discussed. + +Glancing towards our future, I seem to see the day when Judge Fancher +shall sit in a telephone exchange and receive his testimony in ghastly +whispers from unseen mouths when the president of the Chamber shall +take the ayes and nays of a meeting whose component parts are sitting in +a thousand counting rooms in this city. But I never can seem to see the +day when the annual dinner can be conducted by the members except +face-to-face. At all events, we can wait till Edison perfects the +electric light, before asking him to make a dinner available with +Delmonico fifteen miles away. [Laughter and cheers.] + +In 1861 the Pacific Mail Steamship Line was petitioned for, or, at +least, a mail line on the Pacific, between the United States and the +Orient world, and that, while the nation was engaged in a mighty +struggle for its life. The Pacific Mail Line to the East, the Pacific +Railroad across the continent, the superb government buildings at +Washington,--all constructed, in whole or in part, while the nation +seemed to be strained to its utmost by the demands of a civil +war,--these things are to me among the mightiest evidences of the faith +of the men of those days who, while the present seemed to be surcharged +with duties and burdens for their hands, still laid hold upon the future +with such powerful grasp. Are we, of the Chamber of Commerce, worthy of +the blessings that have come down to us out of the glorious past? If we +wish to be, we must live partly for the future as did they. + +We need a building of our own, commodious, and in some way proportioned +to the great interests we represent. We need a fire-proof building for +the safe-keeping of our records. Once already in our history our seal +has been returned to us from an obscure shop in London. Our Charter was +rescued from an old trunk in the Walton house on Pearl Street, and our +historic paintings were only discovered after long loss, as the result +of the fire of 1835. The Chamber of Commerce is standing now at the door +of Congress, and asks them to sell at public auction the site of the old +Post Office, for not less than three hundred thousand dollars and to pay +to the Chamber from the proceeds of the sale the sum of fifty thousand +dollars, originally subscribed, in the main, by members of the Chamber +when that site was purchased from the General Government a few years +ago. It is the purpose of the Chamber to buy this plot, and to build +there a building worthy of itself and of this great city. [Applause.] +But so far we ask in vain. + +The House Committee of Ways and Means has reported our bill favorably, +but Congress does nothing. The Chamber wants this plot, not so much +because of the fifty thousand dollars it has of _quasi_ interest in it, +but because of its eligibility. The Chamber believes it deserves well of +this community and of the nation, and, so believing, it asks of Congress +the passage of this bill. + +I look back over the past twenty years, and I find the Chamber of +Commerce has been always alive to encourage gallantry, to reward +conspicuous service, and to relieve distress. Eighteen hundred thousand +dollars--almost two millions of dollars--has been given by this Chamber +in these twenty years. The money has not all come from members of the +Chamber, but the Chamber has always been recognized as the fitting +leader and minister in this city in deeds of public spirit. [Cheers.] + +In 1858 it celebrated the completion of the first Atlantic cable, by +giving medals of gold, with generous impartiality, to the officers of +the British ship "Agamemnon" and the American ship "Niagara" alike. And +in 1866 it feasted the distinguished and persevering American citizen +whose pluck and courage, with reference to this cable, no disaster and +no faint-heartedness anywhere could dismay. + +In 1861, in token of gratitude and of patriotic admiration, the Chamber +placed a medal of bronze upon the breast of every officer and private +who sustained the national honor in the defense of Fort Sumter and Fort +Pickens. + +In 1862 it sprang to the relief of famished Lancashire; in 1865 our own +sufferers in East Tennessee and in Savannah partook of its bounty; and +in 1871 the bread cast upon the waters by Rochambeau and Lafayette, a +hundred years before, returned through the ministry of the Chamber in an +abundant harvest to the war-stricken plains of unhappy France. + +In 1865 the Chamber honored itself by giving testimonials to the +officers and crew of the "Kearsarge." + +In 1866 it presented to the widow of a Southern officer in the United +States Navy several historic swords, sending with them a purse, "in +recognition of the valuable services rendered to our country by the +father and son, and as a token that gratitude for fidelity to the flag +of the Union is an abiding sentiment with the citizens of New York, +descending from generation to generation." + +The cities of Troy, Portland, Richmond, Chicago, three of them when +swept by fire, and Richmond when cast into gloom by the fall of the +State Capitol, all in turn have realized, through the prompt action of +the Chamber, the large brotherliness of commercial New York. + +And, finally, in 1876, at Savannah, and in 1878, through the whole +southwestern district of the country, and again in 1879 at Memphis, the +contributions made through the Chamber of Commerce gave substantial +relief to the distressed victims of yellow fever. Thus has the Chamber +contributed to promote a union of hearts throughout the broad expanse of +this great Union of States. Thus has the Chamber done what it could to +show that the spirit of commerce is a large and a liberal spirit, too +large to be bounded by the lines that divide nations. Thus has the +Chamber shown itself not unworthy of the Empire State of the New World. +May the future of the Chamber be in every respect worthy of the past. +[Loud applause,] + + + + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL + + +HARVARD ALUMNI + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the Harvard Alumni dinner at + Cambridge, Mass., June 30, 1875. Mr. Lowell was the presiding + officer.] + + +BRETHREN OF THE ALUMNI:--It is, I think, one of the greatest +privileges conferred upon us by our degree that we can meet together +once a year in this really majestic hall [Memorial Hall], commemorative +of our proudest sorrows, suggestive only of our least sordid ambitions; +that we can meet here to renew our pledge of fealty to the ancient +mother who did so much for the generations that have gone before us, and +who will be as benign to those who, by-and-by, shall look back and call +us fathers. The tie that binds us to our college is one of the purest, +since it is that which unites us also with our youth; it is one of the +happiest, for it binds us to the days when we looked forward and not +backward, for in hope there is nothing to regret, while in retrospect +there is a touch of autumn and a premonition of winter. + +In this year of centennials, when none of us would be surprised if a +century plant should blossom in our back yard [laughter], when I myself +am matured, as I look to complete my second centennial on Saturday +afternoon [laughter and applause], there is a kind of repose, as it +seems to me, in coming back here to sit in the lap of this dear old +nurse who is well on toward her three hundred, and who will certainly +never ask any of us to celebrate her centennial either in prose or +verse. To this college our Revolution which we are celebrating this year +is modern. And I think also one of the great privileges which she +confers upon us is that she gives us a claim of kindred still with the +mother country--a claim purely intellectual and safe from the +embitterment of war or the jealousies of trade. It was an offshoot of +Cambridge and Oxford that was planted on the banks of the Charles, and +by men from Cambridge and Oxford; and when I visited those renowned +nurseries of piety, scholarship, and manliness of thought, my keenest +pleasure in the kindness I received was the feeling that I owed the +greater part of it to my connection with Harvard, whom they were pleased +to acknowledge as a plant not unworthy of the parent stock. [Applause.] + +In their halls I could not feel myself a stranger, and I resented the +imputation of being a foreigner when I looked round upon the old +portraits, all of whom were my countrymen as well as theirs, and some of +whom had been among our founders and benefactors. In this year of +reconciliations and atonements, too, the influence of college +associations is of no secondary importance as a bond of union. On this +day, in every State of our more than ever to be united country, there +are men whose memories turn back tenderly and regretfully to those +haunts of their early manhood. Our college also, stretching back as it +does toward the past, and forward to an ever-expanding future, gives a +sense of continuity which is some atonement for the brevity of life. +These portraits that hang about us seem to make us contemporaries with +generations that are gone, and the services we render her will make us +in turn familiar to those who shall succeed us here. There is no way so +cheap of buying what I may call a kind of mitigated immortality,--mean +by that an immortality without the pains and penalty attached commonly +to it, of being dug up once in fifty years to have your claims +reconsidered [laughter]--as in giving something to the college. +[Applause.] Nay, I will say in parenthesis, that even an intention to +give it secures that place of which I have spoken. [Laughter.] I find in +the records of the college an ancestor of my own recorded as having +intended to give a piece of land. He remains there forever with his +beneficent intention. It is not certain that he didn't carry it out. The +land certainly never came to me, or I should make restitution. [Laughter +and applause.] + +Consider, for example, William Pennoyer; how long ago would he have sunk +in the tenacious ooze of oblivion, not leaving rack nor even rumor of +himself behind. No portrait of him exists, and no living descendant, so +far as I know, and yet his name is familiar with all of us who are +familiar with the records of the college, and he always presents himself +to our imaginations in the gracious attitude of putting his hand into +his pocket. [Laughter.] And tell me, if you please, what widow of a +London alderman ever insured her life with so sure return or perdurable +interest as Madame Holden. Even the bodiless society, _pro propaganda +fide,_ is reincorporated forever in the perpetuity of our gratitude. It +is the genteelest of immortalities, as the auctioneer would call it, the +immortality of perfect seclusion. + +The value of such an association as this as a spur to honorable exertion +is also, as it seems to me, no small part of its benefit. Leigh Hunt, +says, somewhere, that when he was writing an essay he always thought of +certain persons and said to himself, "A will like this, B will rub his +hands at that"; and it is safe to say that any graduate of this college +would prefer the suffrages of his brethren here to those of any other +public. And when any of the sons of Harvard who has done her honor and +his country upright service, meets us here on this day, it is not only a +fitting recognition, but a powerful incentive, that he receives in the +"Well done" of our plaudits. I had hoped that we should have heard +to-day the voice of one graduate of Harvard who sits almost immediately +upon my right. [Charles Francis Adams.] I will not press upon his +modesty, but I will ask you to bear witness once more that Peace hath +her victories, and more renowned than war [long continued applause]; and +honor with me those truly durable years of service and that of victory, +which if it hath not so loud an echo as that of the battle-field, will +be seen to have a longer one. [Renewed and loud applause.] It appears to +me that there is nothing more grateful to the human heart than this +appreciation of cultivated men. If it be not the echo of posterity, it +was something more solid and well-pleasing. But better and more +wholesome than even this must it be, I should think, for men spending +their lives in the dusty glare of public life, to come back once a year +to our quiet shades and be, as Dr. Holmes has so delightfully sung, +plain Bill and Joe again. It must renew and revive in them the early +sweetness of their nature, the frank delight in simple things which +makes so large a part of the better happiness of life. + +But, gentlemen, I will not longer detain you with the inevitable +suggestions of the occasion. These sentimentalities are apt to slip from +under him who would embark on them, like a birch canoe under the clumsy +foot of a cockney, and leave him floundering in retributive commonplace. +I had a kind of hope, indeed, from what I had heard, that I should be +unable to fill this voice-devouring hall. I had hoped to sit serenely +here with a tablet in the wall before me inscribed: _Guilielmo Roberto +Ware, Henrico Van Brunt, optime de Academia meritis, eo quod facundiam +postprandialem irritam fecerunt._ I hope you understood my Latin +[laughter], and I hope you will forgive me the antiquity of my +pronunciation [laughter]; but it is simply because I cannot help it. +Then on a blackboard behind me I could have written in large letters the +names of our guests who should make some brief dumb show of +acknowledgment. You, at least, with your united applause, could make +yourselves heard. If brevity ever needed an excuse, I might claim one in +the fact that I have consented at short notice to be one of the +performers in our domestic centennial next Saturday, and poetry is not a +thing to be delivered on demand without an exhausting wear upon the +nerves. When I wrote to Dr. Holmes and begged for a little poem, I got +the following answer, which I shall take the liberty of reading. I don't +see the Doctor himself in the hall, which encourages me to go on:-- + + "MY DEAR JAMES:--Somebody has written a note in your name + requesting me to furnish a few verses for some occasion which he + professed to be interested in. I am satisfied, of course, that it + is a forgery. I know you would not do such a thing as to ask a + brother rhymer, utterly exhausted by his centennial efforts, to + endanger his health and compromise his reputation by any damnable + iteration of spasmodic squeezing. [Laughter.] So I give you warning + that some dangerous person is using your name, and taking advantage + of the great love I bear you, to play upon my feelings. Don't think + for a moment that I hold you in any way responsible for this note, + looking so nearly like your own handwriting as for a single instant + to deceive me, and suggest the idea that I would take a passage for + Europe in season to avoid all the college anniversaries." + +I readily excused him, and I am sure you will be kind enough to be +charitable to me, gentlemen. + +I know that one of the things which the graduates of the college look +forward to with the most confident expectation and pleasure is the +report of the President of the University. [Applause.] I remember that +when I was in the habit of attending the meetings of the faculty, some +fourteen or fifteen years ago, I was very much struck by the fact that +almost every matter of business that required particular ability was +sure to gravitate into the hands of a young professor of chemistry. The +fact made so deep an impression upon me that I remember that I used to +feel, when our war broke out, that this young professor might have to +take the care of one of our regiments, and I know that he would have led +it to victory. And when I heard that the same professor was nominated +for President, I had no doubt of the result which all of us have seen to +follow. I give you, gentlemen, the health of President Eliot of Harvard +College. [Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +NATIONAL GROWTH OF A CENTURY + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the Harvard Alumni dinner at + Cambridge, Mass., June 28, 1876. Mr. Lowell, as President of the + Alumni Association, occupied the chair.] + + +BRETHREN:--Though perhaps there be nothing in a hundredth year +to make it more emphatic than those years which precede it and which +follow it, and though the celebration of centennials be a superstitious +survival from the time when to count ten upon the fingers was a great +achievement in arithmetic, and to find the square of that number carried +with it something of the awe and solemnity which invests the higher +mathematics to us of the laity, yet I think no wise man can be +indifferent to any sentiment which so profoundly and powerfully affects +the imagination of the mass of his fellows. The common consent of +civilized mankind seems to have settled on the centennial commemoration +of great events as leaving an interval spacious enough to be impressive, +and having a roundness of completion in its period. We, the youngest of +nations, the centuries to us are not yet grown so cheap and commonplace +as to Napoleon when he saw forty of them looking in undisguised +admiration upon his army, bronzed from their triumphs in Italy. For my +own part I think the scrutiny of one age is quite enough to bear without +calling in thirty-nine others to its assistance. [Applause.] + +It is quite true that a hundred years are but as a day in the life of a +nation, are but as a tick of the clock to the long-drawn aeons in which +this planet hardened itself for the habitation of man, and man +accommodated himself to his habitation; but they are all we have, and we +must make the best of them. Perhaps, after all, it is no such great +misfortune to be young, especially if we are conscious at the time that +youth means opportunity, and not accomplishment. I think that, after +all, when we look back upon a hundred years through which the country +has passed, the vista is not so disheartening as to the indigestive +fancy it might at first appear. If we have lost something of that +Arcadian simplicity which the French travellers of a hundred years ago +found here,--perhaps because they looked for it, perhaps because of +their impenetrability by the English tongue,--we have lost something +also of that self-sufficiency which is the mark as well of provincials +as of barbarians, and which is the great hindrance to all true +advancement. It is a wholesome symptom, I think, if we are beginning to +show some of that talent for grumbling which is the undoubted heirloom +of the race to which most of us belong. [Laughter and applause.] Even +the Fourth-of-July oration is edging round into a lecture on our +national shortcomings, and the proud eagle himself is beginning to have +no little misgiving at the amplitude between the tips of his wings. +[Laughter.] + +But while it may be admitted that our government was more decorously +administered one hundred years ago, if our national housekeeping of +to-day is further removed from honest business principles, and therefore +is more costly, both morally and financially, than that of any other +Christian nation, it is no less true that the hundredth year of our +existence finds us in the mass very greatly advanced in the refinement +and culture and comfort that are most operative in making a country +civilized and in keeping it so. [Applause.] When we talk of decline of +public and private virtue I think that we forget that that better former +day was a day of small communities and of uneasy locomotion, when public +opinion acted more directly and more sharply, was brought to bear more +convincingly upon the individual than is possible now. But grant that +though the dread of what is said and thought be but a poor substitute +and makeshift for conscience,--that austere and sleepless safeguard of +character, which, if not an instinct, acquires all the attributes of an +instinct, and whose repeated warnings make duty at least an unconscious +habitude,--after all, this outside substitute is the strongest motive +for well-doing in the majority of our race, and men of thought and +culture should waste no opportunity to reinforce it by frankness in +speaking out invidious truths, by reproof and by warning. I, for one, +greatly doubt whether our national standard of right and wrong has been +really so much debased as we are sometimes tempted to think [applause]; +and whether the soft money of a sentimental sort of promises to pay has +altogether driven out the sterling coin of upright purpose and +self-denying fulfilment. [Applause.] I could wish that this belief, +almost, provided it did not mislead us into prophesying smooth things, +were more general among our cultivated class; for the very acceptance of +such a belief tends in large measure toward its accomplishment. No finer +sentence has come down to us from antiquity, no higher witness was ever +borne to the quality of a nation, than in that signal of Nelson's: +"England expects every man to do his duty." [Applause.] + +Brethren, I thought on this occasion of the centennial celebration of +our independence it was fit that some expression should go forth from us +that should in some measure give contradiction to the impression that +the graduates of Harvard College take a pessimistic view of their +country and its institutions. [Applause.] Certainly I know that it is +not true, and I wish to have that sentiment expressed here. Our college +takes no official part in celebrating the nation's first completed +century; she who is already half-way through her third has become too +grave for these youthful elations. [Laughter.] But she does not forget +that in Samuel and John Adams, Otis, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and John +Hancock, she did her full share toward making such a commemoration +possible. [Applause.] As in 1776, so in 1876, we have sent John Adams to +represent us at Philadelphia, and, perhaps with some prescience of what +the next century is to effect, we have sent with him Madame Boylston as +his colleague [applause]; and it may be that Alma Mater in this has +possibly shown a little feminine malice, for it is to a silent congress +that she is made her deputy. [Laughter and applause.] And in the hundred +years since we asserted for ourselves a separate place and proper name +among the nations, our college has been no palsied or atrophied limb in +the national organization. To the jurisprudence, to the legislation, the +diplomacy, the science, the literature, the art of the country, her +contribution has certainly not fallen short of its due proportion. Our +triennial catalogue is hung thick with our trophies from many fields. I +may say in parenthesis, gentlemen, brethren of the alumni, that I am +glad the July number of the "North American Review" is not yet +published. In the January number there was so disheartening a report of +everything--I am glad to say our religion is excepted, we have grown +perhaps in grace--but we had no science, we had none of this and none of +the other. + +Brethren, we whom these dumb faces on the wall make in imagination the +contemporaries of eight generations of men, let us remember, and let us +inculcate on those who are to fill the places that so soon shall know us +no more, let us remember, I say, that if man seem to survive himself and +to be mutely perpetuated in these fragile semblances, it is only the +stamp of the soul that is eternally operative; it is only the image of +ourselves that we have left in some sphere of intellectual or moral +achievement, that is indelible, that becomes a part of the memory of +mankind, reproductive and beneficent, inspiring and admonitory. + +But, brethren, as Charles Lamb said of Coleridge's motto, _Sermoni +propriori_, this is more proper for a sermon than for a dinner-table. +But birthdays, after all, gentlemen, are serious things; and as the +chance of many more of them becomes precarious, and the approaching +birthday of the nation begets in all of us, I should hope, something of +a grave and meditative mood, it would be an indecorum to break in upon +it too suddenly with the licensed levity of festival. You are waiting to +hear other voices, and I trust my example of gravity may act rather as a +warning than as precedent to those who are to follow me. + +Brethren, at our table there is always one toast, that by custom and +propriety takes precedence of all others. It is, I admit, rather an +arduous task to pay the most many-sided man a different compliment year +after year, and the President of the University must pardon me for +saying that he gives a good deal of trouble to the President of the +Alumni, as he is apt to do in the case of inefficient persons generally. +[Laughter and applause.] One eminent quality, however, I can illustrate +in a familiar Latin quotation, which, with your permission, I will put +in two ways, thus securing, I should hope, the understanding of the +older and younger among you: "_Justum et tenacem propositi virum_." [Mr. +Lowell evoked considerable laughter by pronouncing the Latin according +to the continental method.] I give you the health of President Eliot. + + + * * * * * + + +THE STAGE + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at a breakfast given to American actors + at the Savage Club, London, August, 1880. Charles Dickens [the son of + the novelist] occupied the post of chairman and called upon Mr. Lowell + to respond to the toast proposed in his honor: "The Health of the + American Minister."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--In listening to the kind words and +still more in hearing the name of the gentleman who was kind enough to +propose the toast to which I am replying, I cannot help recalling the +words of one of your English poets:-- + + "Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, + And the sound of a voice that is still!" + +I was honored with the acquaintance, in some sort, I may say, with the +friendship of the father of the gentleman who proposed my name, and +before saying anything further you will allow me to remark that my +countrymen are always ready to recognize the hereditary claims when +based upon hereditary merit. ["Hear! Hear!"] + +Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to me to be here, but in some sense I +regard it also as a kind of duty to be present on any occasion when the +star-spangled banner and the red cross of England hang opposite each +other, in friendly converse. May they never hang opposite each other in +any other spirit. [Cheers.] I say so because I think it is the duty of +any man who in any sense represents one of the English-speaking races, +to be present on an occasion which indicates, as this does, that we are +one in all those great principles which lie at the basis of civilized +society--never mind what the form of government may be. + +As I sat here, gentlemen, endeavoring to collect my thoughts and finding +it, I may say, as difficult as to make a collection for any other +charitable occasion [laughter], I could not help thinking that the +Anglo-Saxon race--if you will allow me to use an expression which is +sometimes criticised--that the Anglo-Saxon race has misinterpreted a +familiar text of Scripture and reads it: "Out of the fulness of the +mouth the heart speaketh." I confess that if Alexander, who once offered +a reward for a new pleasure, were to come again upon earth, I should +become one of the competitors for the prize, and I should offer for his +consideration a festival at which there were no speeches. [Laughter.] +The gentlemen of your profession have in one sense a great advantage +over the rest of us. Your speeches are prepared for you by the cleverest +men of your time or by the great geniuses for all time. You can be witty +or wise at much less expense than those of us who are obliged to fall +back upon our own resources. Now I admit that there is a great deal in +the spur of the moment, but that depends very much upon the flank of the +animal into which you dig it. There is also a great deal in that +self-possessed extemporaneousness which a man carries in his pocket on a +sheet of paper. It reminds one of the compliment which the Irishman paid +to his own weapon, the shillalah, when he said: "It's a weapon which +never misses fire." But then it may be said that it applies itself more +directly to the head than to the heart. I think I have a very capital +theory of what an after-dinner speech should be; we have had some +examples this afternoon and I have made a great many excellent ones +myself; but they were always on the way home, and after I had made a +very poor one when I was on my legs. [Laughter.] My cabman has been the +confidant of an amount of humor and apt quotations and clever sayings +which you will never know, and which you will never guess. But something +in what has been said by one of my countrymen recalls to my mind a +matter of graver character. As a man who has lived all his life in the +country, to my shame be it said I have not been an habitual +theatre-goer. I came too late for the elder Kean. My theatrical +experience began with Fanny Kemble--I forget how many years ago, but +more than I care to remember--and I recollect the impression made upon +me by her and by her father. I was too young to be critical; I was young +enough to enjoy; but I remember that what remained with me and what +remains with me still of what I heard and saw, and especially with +regard to Charles Kemble, was the perfection of his art. It was not his +individual characteristics--though of course I remember those--it was +the perfection of his art. My countryman has alluded to the fact that at +one time it was difficult for an actor to get a breakfast, much more to +have one offered to him; and that recalls to my mind the touching words +of the great master of your art, Shakespeare, who in one of his sonnets +said:-- + + "O for my sake do you with Fortune chide, + The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, + That did not better for my life provide + Than public means, which public manners breeds: + Thence comes it that my name receives a brand; + And almost thence my nature is subdu'd + To what it works in, like the dyer's hand." + +Certainly the consideration in which the theatrical profession is held +has risen greatly even within my own recollection. It has risen greatly +since the time when Adrienne Lecouvreur was denied burial in that +consecrated ground where rakes and demireps could complete the +corruption they had begun on earth; and this is due to the fact that it +is now looked upon not only by the public in general but by the members +of your profession as a fine art. It is perfectly true that the stage +has often lent itself, I will not say to the demoralization of the +public, but to things which I think none of us would altogether approve. +This, however, I think has been due, more to the fact that it not only +holds up the mirror to nature, but that the stage is a mirror in which +the public itself is reflected. And the public itself is to blame if the +stage is ever degraded. [Cheers.] + +It has been to men of my profession, perhaps, that the degradation has +been due, more than to those who represent their plays. They have +interpreted, perhaps in too literal a sense, the famous saying of Dryden +that + + "He who lives to write, must write to live." + +But I began with the Irishman's weapon and I shall not forget that among +its other virtues is its brevity, and as in the list of toasts which are +to follow I caught the name of a son of him who was certainly the +greatest poet, though he wrote in prose, and who perhaps possessed the +most original mind that America has given to the world, I shall, I am +sure, with your entire approbation make way for the next speaker. +[Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +COMMERCE + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the second annual dinner of the + London Chamber of Commerce, January 29, 1883. H. C. E. Childers, + Chancellor of the Exchequer, was in the chair. The company included + representatives of the English-speaking race in every part of the + world. On the chairman's left sat James Russell Lowell, United States + Minister. In proposing "The Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom + and of the Whole World," he delivered the following speech.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I was a few moments ago +discussing with my excellent friend upon the left what a diplomatist +might be permitted to say, and I think the result of the discussion was +that he was left to his choice between saying nothing that had any +meaning or saying something that had several [laughter]; and as one of +those diplomatists to whom the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs +alluded a short time ago, I should rather choose the latter course, +because it gives one afterwards a selection when the time for +explanation comes round. [Laughter.] + +I shall not detain you long, for I know that there are speakers both on +the right and on the left of me who are impatient to burst the bud; and +I know that I have not been selected for the pleasant duty that has been +assigned to me for any merits of my own. [Cries of dissent.] You will +allow me to choose my own reason, gentlemen. I repeat, I have not been +chosen so much for my own merits as for the opportunity afforded you of +giving expression to your kindness and good feeling towards the country +I represent--a country which exemplifies what the colonies of England +may come to if they are not wisely treated. [Laughter and cheers.] +Speaking for myself and for one or two of my compatriots whom I see here +present, I should certainly say that that was no unpleasant destiny in +itself. But I do not, nor do my countrymen, desire that those great +commonwealths which are now joined to England by so many filial ties +should ever be separated from her. + +I am asked to-night to propose the "Chambers of Commerce of the United +Kingdom and of the World," and I might, if the clock did not warn me +against it--["Go on!"] if my own temperament did not stand a little in +the way--I might say to you something very solemn on the subject of +commerce. I might say how commerce, if not a great civilizer in itself, +had always been a great intermediary and vehicle of civilization. I +might say that all the great commercial States have been centres of +civilization, and centres of those forces which keep civilization from +becoming stupid. I do not say which is the _post_ and which the _propter_ +in this inference; but I do say that the two things have been almost +invariably associated. + +One word as to commerce in another relation which touches me more +nearly. Commerce and the rights and advantages of commerce, ill +understood and ignorantly interpreted, have often been the cause of +animosities between nations. But commerce rightly understood is a great +pacificator; it brings men face to face for barter. It is the great +corrector of the eccentricities and enormities of nature and of the +seasons, so that a bad harvest and a bad season in England is a good +season for Minnesota, Kansas, and Manitoba. + +But, gentlemen, I will not detain you longer. It gives me great pleasure +to propose, as the representative of the United States, the toast of +"The Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom and of the Whole World," +with which I associate the names of Mr. C. M. Norwood, M. P., +vice-president of the Associated Chambers of the United Kingdom, and the +Hon. F. Strutt, president of the Derby Chamber. [Cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at a banquet given to Sir Henry Irving, + London, July 4, 1883, in view of his impending departure for a + professional tour of America. Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of + England, occupied the chair. The toast, "Literature, Science, and + Art," was proposed by Viscount Bury, and Mr. Lowell was called upon to + respond for Literature. Professor Tyndall replied on behalf of + Science, and Alma Tadema for Art.] + + +MY LORD COLERIDGE, MY LORDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I confess +that my mind was a little relieved when I found that the toast to which +I am to respond rolled three gentlemen, Cerberus-like, into one +[laughter], and when I saw Science pulling impatiently at the leash on +my left, and Art on my right, and that therefore the responsibility of +only a third part of the acknowledgment has fallen to me. You, my lord, +have alluded to the difficulties of after-dinner oratory. I must say +that I am one of those who feel them more keenly the more after-dinner +speeches I make. [Laughter.] There are a great many difficulties in the +way, and there are three principal ones, I think. The first is the +having too much to say, so that the words, hurrying to escape, bear down +and trample out the life of each other. The second is when, having +nothing to say, we are expected to fill a void in the minds of our +hearers. And I think the third, and most formidable, is the necessity of +following a speaker who is sure to say all the things you meant to say, +and better than you, so that we are tempted to exclaim, with the old +grammarian, "Hang these fellows, who have said all our good things +before us!" [Laughter.] + +Now the fourth of July has several times been alluded to, and I believe +it is generally thought that on that anniversary the spirit of a certain +bird known to heraldic ornithologists--and I believe to them alone--as +the spread eagle, enters into every American's breast, and compels him, +whether he will or no, to pour forth a flood of national self-laudation. +[Laughter and cheers.] This, I say, is the general superstition, and I +hope that a few words of mine may serve in some sort to correct it. I +ask you, if there is any other people who have confined their national +self-laudation to one day in the year. [Laughter.] I may be allowed to +make one remark as to a personal experience. Fortune has willed it that +I should see as many--perhaps more--cities and manners of men as +Ulysses; and I have observed one general fact, and that is, that the +adjectival epithet which is prefixed to all the virtues is invariably +the epithet which geographically describes the country that I am in. For +instance, not to take any real name, if I am in the kingdom of Lilliput, +I hear of the Lilliputian virtues. I hear courage, I hear common sense, +and I hear political wisdom called by that name. If I cross to the +neighboring Republic Blefusca--for since Swift's time it has become a +Republic--I hear all these virtues suddenly qualified as Blefuscan. +[Laughter.] + +I am very glad to be able to thank Lord Coleridge for having, I believe +for the first time, coupled the name of the President of the United +States with that of her Majesty on an occasion like this. I was struck, +both in what he said, and in what our distinguished guest of this +evening said, with the frequent recurrence of an adjective which is +comparatively new--I mean the word "English-speaking." We continually +hear nowadays of the "English-speaking race," of the "English-speaking +population." I think this implies, not that we are to forget, not that +it would be well for us to forget, that national emulation and that +national pride which is implied in the words "Englishman" and +"American," but the word implies that there are certain perennial and +abiding sympathies between all men of a common descent and a common +language. [Cheers.] I am sure, my lord, that all you said with regard to +the welcome which our distinguished guest will receive in America is +true. His eminent talents as an actor, the dignified--I may say the +illustrious--manner in which he has sustained the traditions of that +succession of great actors who, from the time of Burbage to his own, +have illustrated the English stage, will be as highly appreciated there +as here. [Cheers.] + +And I am sure that I may also say that the chief magistrate of England +will be welcomed by the bar of the United States, of which I am an +unworthy member, and perhaps will be all the more warmly welcomed that +he does not come among them to practise. He will find American law +administered--and I think he will agree with me in saying ably +administered--by judges who, I am sorry to say, sit without the +traditional wig of England. [Laughter.] I have heard since I came here +friends of mine gravely lament this as something prophetic of the decay +which was sure to follow so serious an innovation. I answered with a +little story which I remember hearing from my father. He remembered the +last clergyman in New England who still continued to wear the wig. At +first it became a singularity and at last a monstrosity; and the good +doctor concluded to leave it off. But there was one poor woman among his +parishioners who lamented this sadly, and waylaying the clergyman as he +came out of church she said, "Oh, dear doctor, I have always listened to +your sermon with the greatest edification and comfort, but now that the +wig is gone all is gone." [Laughter.] I have thought I have seen some +signs of encouragement in the faces of my English friends after I have +consoled them with this little story. + +But I must not allow myself to indulge in any further remarks. There is +one virtue, I am sure, in after-dinner oratory, and that is brevity; and +as to that I am reminded of a story. [Laughter.] The Lord Chief Justice +has told you what are the ingredients of after-dinner oratory. They are +the joke, the quotation, and the platitude; and the successful +platitude, in my judgment, requires a very high order of genius. I +believe that I have not given you a quotation, but I am reminded of +something which I heard when very young--the story of a Methodist +clergyman in America. He was preaching at a camp meeting, and he was +preaching upon the miracle of Joshua, and he began his sermon with this +sentence: "My hearers, there are three motions of the sun. The first is +the straightforward or direct motion of the sun; the second is the +retrograde or backward motion of the sun; and the third is the motion +mentioned in our text--'the sun stood still.'" [Laughter.] + +Now, gentlemen, I don't know whether you see the application of the +story--I hope you do. The after-dinner orator at first begins and goes +straight forward--that is the straightforward motion of the sun. Next he +goes back and begins to repeat himself--that is the backward motion of +the sun. At last he has the good sense to bring himself to the end, and +that is the motion mentioned in our text, as the sun stood still. [Great +laughter, in the midst of which Mr. Lowell resumed his seat.] + + + * * * * * + + +"THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE" + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the annual Ashfield Dinner at + Ashfield, Mass., August 27, 1885,--the harvest-time festival in behalf + of Sanderson Academy, given for several years under the leadership of + Charles Eliot Norton and George William Curtis, long summer residents + in this country town. Mr. Lowell had recently returned from his post + as Minister to England; and he was presented to the literary gathering + by Professor Norton, President of the day. Professor Norton closed his + eloquent words of introduction as follows: "On our futile laurels he + looks down, himself our highest crown.--Ashfield speaks to you to-day, + and the welcome is your own to New England."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I cannot easily escape +from some strength of emotion in listening to the words of my friend who +has just sat down, unless I receive it on the shield which has generally +been my protection against many of the sorrows and some of the hardships +of life. I mean the shield of humor, and I shall, therefore, take less +seriously than playfully the portrait that he has been kind enough to +draw of me. It reminds me of a story I once heard of a young poet, who +published his volume of verses and prefixed to it his own portrait drawn +by a friendly artist. The endeavor of his life from that time forward +was to look like the portrait that his friend had drawn. [Applause.] I +shall make the same endeavor. + +It is a great pleasure to me to come here to-day, not only because I +have met some of the oldest friends of my life, but also that after +having looked in the eyes of so many old English audiences I see face to +face a new English one, and when I looked at them I was reminded of a +family likeness and of that kinship of blood which unites us. When I +look at you I see many faces that remind me of faces I saw on the other +side of the water, and I feel that whether I speak there or here I am +essentially speaking to one people. I am not going to talk about myself, +and I am not going to make a speech. I have spoken so often for you on +the other side of the water that I feel as though I had a certain claim, +at least, to be put on the retired list. But I could not fail to observe +a certain distrust of America that has peeped out in remarks made, +sometimes in the newspapers, sometimes to myself, as to whether a man +could live eight years out of America, without really preferring Europe. +It seems to me to imply what I should call a very unworthy distrust in +the powers of America to inspire affection. I feel to-day, in looking in +your faces, somewhat as I did when I took my first walk over the hills +after my return, and the tears came into my eyes as I was welcomed by +the familiar wayside flowers, the trees, the birds that had been my +earliest friends. + +It seems to me that those who take such a view quite miscalculate the +force of the affection that a man feels for his country. It is something +deeper than a sentiment. If there were anything deeper, I should say it +was something deeper than an instinct. It is that feeling of +self-renunciation and of identification with another which Ruth +expressed when she said: "Entreat me not to leave thee nor to depart +from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go: where thou +livest I will live, and where thou diest there will I die also." That, +it seems to me, is the instinctive feeling that a man has. At the same +time, this does not exclude the having clear eyes to see the faults of +one's country. I think that, as an old President of Harvard College said +once to a person who was remonstrating with him: "But charity, doctor, +charity." "Yes, I know; but charity has eyes and ears and won't be made +a fool of." [Laughter.] + +I notice a good many changes in coming home, a few of which I may, +perhaps, be allowed to touch upon. I notice a great growth in luxury, +inevitable, I suppose, and which may have good in it--more good, +perhaps, than I can see. I notice, also, one change that has impressed +me profoundly, and when I hear that New England is drawing away, I +cannot help thinking to myself how much more prosperous the farms look +than they did when I was young; how much more neat is the farming, how +much greater the attention to what will please the eye about the farm, +as the planting of flowers and trimming the grass, which seems to me a +very good sign. I had an opportunity, by a strange accident, of becoming +very intimate with the outward appearance of New England during my youth +by going about when a little boy with my father when he went on +exchanges. He always went in his own vehicle, and he sometimes drove as +far west as Northampton. I do not wish to detain you on this point, +except as it interested me and is now first in my mind. + +While I was in England I had occasion once to address them on the +subject of Democracy, and I could not help thinking when I came up here +that I was coming to one of its original sources, for certain it is that +in the village community of New England, in its "plain living and high +thinking," began that social equality which afterwards developed on the +political side into what we call Democracy. And Democracy--while surely +we cannot claim for it that it is perfect--yet Democracy, it seems to +me, is the best expedient hitherto invented by mankind, not for +annihilating distinctions and equalities, for that is impossible, but, +so far as it is humanly possible, for compensating them. Here in our +little towns in the last century, people met without thinking of it on a +high table-land of common manhood. There was no sense of presumption +from below, there was no possibility of condescension from above, +because there was no above and below in the community. Learning was +always respected in the clergyman, in the doctor, in the squire, the +justice of the peace, and the rest of the community. This made no +artificial distinction. + +I observe, also, that our people are getting over their very bad habit +with regard to politics, for Democracy, you must remember, lays a +heavier burden on the individual conscience than any other form of +government; and I have been glad to observe that we have been getting +over that habit of thinking that our institutions will go of +themselves. Now it seems to me that there is no machine of human +construction, or into which the wit of man has entered, that can go of +itself without supervision, without oiling; that there are no wheels +which will revolve without our help, except the great wheel of the +constellations or that great circle of the sun's which has its hand upon +the dial plate, and which was made by a hand much less fallible than +ours. + +It also pleases me very much to see a friend whose constancy, whose +faith, and whose courage have done so much more than any other man's to +bring about that reform [great applause], though when I speak of civil +service reform the friend who stands at our elbow on all these occasions +will suggest to me a certain parallel, that is, that as Mr. Curtis is +here to-day and I am here to-day, it reminds one of the temperance +lecturer who used to go about carrying with him an unhappy person as the +awful example [great laughter], and it may have flickered before some of +your minds that I was the "awful example" of the very reform I had +preached. However, I say that it is to me a very refreshing thing to +find that this old happy-go-lucky feeling about our institutions has a +very good chance of passing away. + +One thing which always impressed me on the other side of the water as an +admirable one, and as one which gave them a certain advantage over us, +is the number of men who train themselves specifically for politics, for +government. We are apt to forget, over here, that the art of governing +men, as it is the highest, so it is the most difficult, of all arts. We +are particular how our boots are made, but about our constitutions we +"trust in the Lord," without even, as Cromwell advised, keeping our +powder dry. We commit the highest destinies of this Republic, which some +of us hope bears the hope of the world in her womb--to whom? Certainly +not always to those who are most fit on any principle of natural +selection: certainly, sometimes to those who are most unfit on any +principle of selection,--and this is a very serious matter, for if you +will allow me to speak with absolute plainness, no country that allows +itself to be governed for a moment by its blackguards is safe. +[Applause.] That was written before the United States of America +existed. It is one of the truths of human nature and of destiny. If I +were a man who had any political aspiration,--which, thank Heaven, I +have not,--if I had any official aspiration--which, thank Heaven, also, +I have not,--I should come home here, and when I first met an American +audience I should say to them: My friends, America can learn nothing of +Europe; Europe must come to school here. You have the tallest monument, +you have the biggest waterfall, you have the highest tariff of any +country in the world. [Great laughter and applause.] I would tell you +that the last census showed that you had gained so many millions, as if +the rabbits did not beat us in that way of multiplication, as if it +counted for anything! It seems to me that what we make of our several +millions is the vital question for us. + +I was very much interested in what Prof. Stanley Hall said. I am heretic +enough to have doubted whether our common schools are the panacea we +have been inclined to think them. I was exceedingly interested in what +he said about the education which a boy gained on the hills here. It +seems to me we are going to fall back into the easy belief that because +our common schools teach more than they used--and in my opinion much +more than they ought--we can dispense with the training of the +household. When Mr. Harrison [J. P. Harrison, author of "Some Dangerous +Tendencies in American Life," one of the preceding speakers] was telling +us of the men who were obliged to labor without hope from one end of the +day to the other, and one end of the year to the other, he added, what +is quite true--that, perhaps, after all, they are happier than that very +large class of men who have leisure without culture, and whose sole +occupation is either the killing of game or the killing of time--that is +the killing of the most valuable possession that we have. + +But I will not detain you any longer for, as I did say, I did not come +here to make a speech, and I did not know what I was going to say when I +came. I generally, on such occasions, trust to the spur of the moment, +and sometimes the moment forgets its spur. [Laughter and applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +LITERATURE + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 1, 1886, in response to the toast, "The Interests + of Literature." The President of the Academy, Sir Frederic Leighton, + said, in introducing Mr. Lowell: "In the name of letters, of English + letters, in the broadest sense, I rejoice to turn, not for the first + time at this table, to one who counts among the very foremost of their + representatives. As a poet richly endowed, as a critic most subtle and + penetrating, among humorists the most genial, as a speaker not + surpassed--who shall more fittingly rise in the name of Literature + than Mr. Russell Lowell, whom I welcome once more to this country, as + one not led to it to-day by mere hap and chance of diplomatic need, + but drawn, I would fain believe, as by the memory of many friends."] + + +YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--I think that I +can explain who the artist might have been who painted the reversed +rainbow of which the Professor[11] has just spoken. I think, after +hearing the too friendly remarks made about myself, that he was probably +some artist who was to answer for his art at a dinner of the Royal +Society; and, naturally, instead of painting the bow of hope, he painted +the reverse, the bow of despair. [Laughter.] When I received your +invitation, Mr. President, to answer for "Literature," I was too well +aware of the difficulties of your position not to know that your choice +of speakers must be guided much more by the necessities of the occasion +than by the laws of natural selection. [Laughter and cheers.] I +remembered that the dictionaries give a secondary meaning to the phrase +"to answer for," and that is the meaning which implies some expedient +for an immediate necessity, as, for example, when one takes shelter +under a tree from shower he is said to make the tree answer for shelter. +[Laughter.] I think even an umbrella in the form of a tree has certainly +one very great advantage over its artificial namesake--viz., that it +cannot be borrowed, not even for the exigencies for which the instrument +made of twilled silk is made use of, as those certainly will admit who +have ever tried it during one of those passionate paroxysms of weather +to which the Italian climate is unhappily subject. [Laughter.] + +I shall not attempt to answer for Literature, for it appears to me that +Literature, of all other things, is the one which most naturally is +expected to answer for itself. It seems to me that the old English +phrase with regard to a man in difficulties, which asks: "What is he +going to do about it?" perhaps should be replaced in this period of +ours, when the foundations of everything are being sapped by universal +discussion, with the more pertinent question: "What is he going to say +about it?" ["Hear! Hear!" and laughter.] I suppose that every man sent +into the world with something to say to his fellow-men could say it +better than anyone else if he could only find out what it was. I am sure +that the ideal after-dinner speech is waiting for me somewhere with my +address upon it, if I could only be so lucky as to come across it. I +confess that hard necessity, or, perhaps I may say, too soft good +nature, has compelled me to make so many unideal ones that I have almost +exhausted my natural stock of universally applicable sentiment and my +acquired provision of anecdote and allusion. I find myself somewhat in +the position of Heine, who had prepared an elaborate oration for his +first interview with Goethe, and when the awful moment arrived could +only stammer out that the cherries on the road to Weimar were uncommonly +fine. [Laughter.] + +But, fortunately, the duty which is given to me to-night is not so +onerous as might be implied in the sentiment that has called me up. I am +consoled, not only by the lexicographer as to the meaning of the phrase +"to answer for," but also by an observation of mine, which is, that +speakers on an occasion like this are not always expected to allude +except in distant and vague terms to the subject on which they are +specially supposed to talk. + +Now, I have a more pleasing and personal duty, it appears to me, on this +my first appearance before an English audience on my return to England. +It gives me great pleasure to think that, in calling upon me, you call +upon me as representing two things which are exceedingly dear to me, and +which are very near to my heart. One is that I represent in some sense +the unity of English literature under whatever sky it may be produced; +and the other is that I represent also that friendliness of feeling, +based on a better understanding of each other, which is growing up +between the two branches of the British stock. [Cheers.] I could wish +that my excellent successor here as American Minister could fill my +place to-night, for I am sure that he is as fully inspired as I ever was +with a desire to draw closer the ties of friendship between the mother +and the daughter, and could express it in a more eloquent and more +emphatic manner than even I myself could do--at any rate in a more +authoritative manner. + +For myself, I have only to say that I come back from my native land +confirmed in my love of it and in my faith in it. I come back also full +of warm gratitude for the feeling that I find in England; I find in the +old home a guest-chamber prepared for me, and a warm welcome. [Cheers.] +Repeating what his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief has said, that +every man is bound in duty, if he were not bound in affection and +loyalty, to put his own country first, I may be allowed to steal a leaf +out of the book of my adopted fellow-citizens in America; and while I +love my native country first, as is natural, I may be allowed to say I +love the country next best which I cannot say has adopted me, but which, +I will say, has treated me with such kindness, where I have met with +such universal kindness from all classes and degrees of people, that I +must put that country at least next in my affection. + +I will not detain you longer. I know that the essence of speaking here +is to be brief, but I trust that I shall not lay myself open to the +reproach that in my desire to be brief I have resulted in making myself +obscure. [Laughter.] I hope I have expressed myself explicitly enough; +but I would venture to give another translation of Horace's words, and +say that I desire to be brief, and therefore I efface myself. [Laughter +and cheers.] + + + * * * * * + + +INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT + +[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the dinner of the Incorporated + Society of Authors, London, July 25, 1888, given to the "American Men + and Women of Letters" who happened to be in London on that date.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I confess that I rise +under a certain oppression. There was a time when I went to make an +after-dinner speech with a light heart, and when on my way to the dinner +I could think over my exordium in my cab and trust to the spur of the +moment for the rest of my speech. But I find as I grow older a certain +aphasia overtakes me, a certain inability to find the right word +precisely when I want it; and I find also that my flank becomes less +sensitive to the exhilarating influences of that spur to which I have +just alluded. I had pretty well made up my mind not to make any more +after-dinner speeches. I had an impression that I had made quite enough +of them for a wise man to speak, and perhaps more than it was profitable +for other wise men to listen to. [Laughter.] I confess that it was with +some reluctance that I consented to speak at all to-night. I had been +bethinking me of the old proverb of the pitcher and the well which is +mentioned, as you remember, in the proverb; and it was not altogether a +consolation to me to think that that pitcher, which goes once too often +to the well, belongs to the class which is taxed by another proverb with +too great length of ears. [Laughter.] But I could not resist. I +certainly felt that it was my duty not to refuse myself to an occasion +like this--an occasion which deliberately emphasizes, as well as +expresses, that good feeling between our two countries which, I think, +every good man in both of them is desirous to deepen and to increase. If +I look back to anything in my life with satisfaction, it is to the fact +that I myself have, in some degree, contributed--and I hope I may +believe the saying to be true--to this good feeling. [Applause.] + +You alluded, Mr. Chairman, to a date which gave me, I must confess, what +we call on the other side of the water "a rather large contract." I am +to reply, I am to answer to Literature, and I must confess that a +person like myself, who first appeared in print fifty years ago, would +hardly wish to be answerable for all his own literature, not to speak of +the literature of other people. But your allusion to sixty years ago +reminded me of something which struck me as I looked down these tables. + +Sixty years ago the two authors you mentioned, Irving and Cooper, were +the only two American authors of whom anything was known in Europe, and +the knowledge of them in Europe was mainly confined to England. It is +true that Bryant's "Water-Fowl" had already begun its flight in immortal +air, but these were the only two American authors that could be said to +be known in England. And what is even more remarkable, they were the +only American authors at that time--there were, and had been, others +known to us at home--who were capable of earning their bread by their +pens. Another singular change is suggested to me as I look down these +tables, and that is the singular contrast they afford between the time +when Johnson wrote his famous lines about those ills that assail the +life of the scholar, and by the scholar he meant the author-- + + "Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the gaol." + +And I confess when I remember that verse it strikes me as a singular +contrast that I should meet with a body of authors who are able to offer +a dinner instead of begging one; that I have sat here and seen "forty +feeding like one," when one hundred years ago the one fed like forty +when he had the chance. [Laughter.] + +You have alluded also, in terms which I shall not qualify, to my own +merits. You have made me feel a little as if I were a ghost revisiting +the pale glimpses of the moon, and reading with considerable wonder my +own epitaph. But you have done me more than justice in attributing so +much to me with regard to International Copyright. You are quite right +in alluding to Mr. Putnam, who, I think, wrote the best pamphlet that +has been written on the subject; and there are others you did not name +who also deserve far more than I do for the labor they have expended and +the zeal they have shown on behalf of International Copyright, +particularly the secretaries of our international society--Mr. Lathrop +and Mr. G. W. Green. And since I could not very well avoid touching upon +the subject of International Copyright, I must say that all American +authors without exception have been in favor of it on the moral ground, +on the ground of simple justice to English authors. But there were a +great many local, topical considerations, as our ancestors used to call +them, that we were obliged to take into account, and which, perhaps, you +do not feel as keenly here as we did. But I think we may say that the +almost unanimous conclusion of American authors latterly has been that +we should be thankful to get any bill that recognized the principle of +international copyright, being confident that its practical application +would so recommend it to the American people that we should get +afterwards, if not every amendment of it that we desire, at least every +one that is humanly possible. I think that perhaps a little injustice +has been done to our side of the question; I think a little more heat +has been imported into it than was altogether wise. I am not so sure +that our American publishers were so much more wicked than their English +brethren would have been if they had had the chance. [Laughter.] I +cannot, I confess, accept with patience any imputation that implies that +there is anything in our climate or in our form of government that tends +to produce a lower standard of morality than in other countries. The +fact is that it has been partly due to a certain--may I speak of our +ancestors as having been qualified by a certain dulness? I mean no +disrespect, but I think it is due to the stupidity of our ancestors in +making a distinction between literary property and other property. That +has been at the root of the whole evil. + +I, of course understand, as everybody understands, that all property is +the creature of municipal law. But you must remember that it is the +conquest of civilization, that when property passes beyond the +boundaries of that _municipium_ it is still sacred. It is not even yet +sacred in all respects and conditions. Literature, the property in an +idea, has been something that it is very difficult for the average man +to comprehend. It is not difficult for the average man to comprehend +that there may be property in a form which genius or talent gives to an +idea. He can see it. It is visible and palpable, this property in an +idea when it is exemplified in a machine, but it is hardly so +apprehensible when it is subtly interfused in literature. Books have +always been looked on somewhat as _ferae naturae_, and if you have ever +preserved pheasants you know that when they fly over your neighbor's +boundaries he may take a pot shot at them. I remember that something +more than thirty years ago Longfellow, my friend and neighbor, asked me +to come and eat a game pie with him. Longfellow's books had been sold in +England by the tens of thousands, and that game pie--and you will +observe the felicity of its being a game pie, _ferae naturae_ always you +see--was the only honorarium he had ever received from this country for +reprinting his works. + +I cannot help feeling as I stand here that there is something especially--I +might almost use a cant word and say monumentally--interesting in a meeting +like this. It is the first time that English and American authors, so +far as I know, have come together in any numbers, I was going to say +to fraternize, when I remembered that I ought perhaps to add to +"sororize." We, of course, have no desire, no sensible man in +England or America has any desire, to enforce this fraternization at the +point of the bayonet. Let us go on criticising each other; it is good for +both of us. We Americans have been sometimes charged with being a little +too sensitive; but perhaps a little indulgence may be due to those who +always have their faults told to them, and the reference to whose virtues +perhaps is sometimes conveyed in a foot-note in small print. I think that +both countries have a sufficiently good opinion of themselves to have a +fairly good opinion of each other. They can afford it; and if difficulties +arise between the two countries, as they unhappily may,--and when you +alluded just now to what De Tocqueville said in 1828 you must remember that +it was only thirteen years after our war,--you must remember how long it +has been to get in the thin end of the wedge of International Copyright; +you must remember it took our diplomacy nearly one hundred years to enforce +its generous principle of the alienable allegiance, and that the greater +part of the bitterness which De Tocqueville found in 1828 was due to the +impressment of American seamen, of whom something like fifteen hundred +were serving on board English ships when at last they were delivered. +These things should be remembered, not with resentment but for +enlightenment. But whatever difficulties occurred between the two +countries, and there may be difficulties that are serious, I do not +think there will be any which good sense and good feeling cannot settle. +[Applause.] + +I think I have been told often enough to remember that my countrymen are +apt to think that they are in the right, that they are always in the +right; that they are apt to look at their side of the question only. +Now, this conduces certainly to peace of mind and imperturbability of +judgment, whatever other merits it may have. I am sure I do not know +where we got it. Do you? I also sympathize most heartily with what has +been said by the chairman with regard to the increasing love for England +among my countrymen. I find on inquiry that they stop longer and in +greater numbers every year in the old home, and feel more deeply its +manifold charms. They also are beginning to feel that London is the +centre of the races that speak English, very much in the sense that Rome +was the centre of the ancient world. And I confess that I never think of +London, which I also confess that I love, without thinking of that +palace which David built, sitting in hearing of a hundred +streams--streams of thought, of intelligence, of activity. And one other +thing about London, if I may be allowed to refer to myself, impresses me +beyond any other sound I have ever heard, and that is the low, unceasing +roar that one hears always in the air. It is not a mere accident, like +the tempest or the cataract, but it is impressive because it always +indicates human will and impulse and conscious movement, and I confess +that when I hear it I almost feel that I am listening to the roaring +loom of time. A few words more. I will only say this, that we, as well +as you, have inherited a common trust in the noble language which, in +its subtle compositiveness, is perhaps the most admirable instrument of +human thought and human feeling and cunning that has ever been +unconsciously devised by man. May our rivalries be in fidelity to that +trust. We have also inherited certain traditions, political and moral, +and in doing our duty towards these it seems to me that we shall find +quite enough occupation for our united thought and feeling. +[Long-continued applause.] + + + + +JOHN LOWELL + + +HUMORS OF THE BENCH + +[Speech of Judge John Lowell at a banquet given by the Boston Merchants' + Association in Boston, May 23, 1884, in his honor, upon his retirement + from the bench of the United States Circuit Court.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--I hardly know why I am here. I suppose I must have +decided some case in favor of our honored chairman. But, then, if every +one in whose favor I have decided a case should give me a dinner I +should have some thousands to eat, if I could live long enough. + +I observe that in your invitation to me you say very little, if +anything, about any judicial qualities which I may have displayed in +office, but you do mention my courtesy and patience. You are right. +There are better judges here to-night than I ever was; but in courtesy +and consideration, which I learned at my mother's knee, I hope I have +not been surpassed. I have received several compliments of the same +kind. I will tell you one story about that. + +I was sitting one day up in court. The jury had just gone out, when a +very nice looking young man came up. His hair was a little short, I +believe, but I didn't notice it particularly. Said he, "Good-morning, +Jedge." "Good morning." "You don't remember me?" he said. "Your +countenance is familiar to me," I said, "but it does not impress itself +on my memory." Said he: "Four years ago to-day you sentenced me to four +years' imprisonment in the State prison." I suppose it ought to have +been five, I don't know. He said: "I got out to-day, and I thought I +would make my first call on you." [Laughter. A voice: "That was his +courtesy."] True; and mine then came in. Said I: "Many happy returns of +the day." [Great laughter and applause.] He took it very kindly and +went off. I haven't seen him since. + +I might have resigned some time ago. I was waiting to be turned out. +[Laughter.] I got tired of waiting. I will tell you how that is now. My +great-grandfather was judge of the District Court, appointed by +Washington; then he was made circuit judge by Adams. Well, Adams made a +good many circuit judges, and they were all Federalists; and when the +Democrats--they called themselves Republicans--all the same, you know +[laughter]--when the Republicans came in they abolished the court to get +rid of the judges. They made a circuit court here about nineteen years +ago, and they appointed my friend Shepley the first judge. I told him if +the Democrats only got in soon enough he would go the way of my +grandfather. He admitted it. When I was appointed I expected the same +thing. In fact, some of our prominent Democrats told me so. I said, "All +right, bring on your bear. Bring on your Democratic President." So I +waited for that Democratic President about eight years. I got tired of +waiting. That is the only reason I resign now. [Laughter and applause.] + +You take things so good-naturedly I will tell you one or two more +stories. One of the principal difficulties we have is in serving on the +jury. The members of the Merchants' Association always presented me with +a certificate showing that they were members of the Ancient and +Honorable Artillery Company.[12] [Laughter.] But a man who was not a +house guard came into my private office one day just as the jury was +about to be impanelled. Said he: "Judge, I hear you live out of town." +Said I: "Yes." Said he: "I guess you burn kerosene. You don't have +electric lights or anything of that kind? Well," said he, "if you will +let me off this jury I will give you the darnedest nice can of kerosene +ever you see." Said I: "Young man, I see in your mind the exact virtues +which would be most useful,--a justice and probity which will make you +serve the country most admirably as a juryman." So he served. I don't +know but that if it had been a barrel it might have been different. +[Great laughter.] + +Another tried the intimidation dodge. He says: "Jedge, I have been +exposed to the small-pox, and expect it to break out every minute." Said +I: "Break!" [Laughter.] He broke into the jury box and served his +country well, and had no incapacitating disease that I ever heard of. + +I don't know that there is much of anything else, except that I would +give some advice. I am going to draw up some rules for my successor, and +the first one will be: "Always decide in favor of the Merchants' +Association." When there are two Merchants' Associations together, in +different interests, then you must do like that jury in Kennebec county. +There was a jury there which was very prompt and satisfactory. When they +got through, the judge said: "Gentlemen, I thank you very much for the +very satisfactory character of your verdicts, for the great promptness +with which they have been rendered, without a single disagreement." The +foreman returned thanks for the compliment, and said that the jury had +escaped the delays and disagreements to which his Honor had referred, by +always tossing up a copper as soon as they had retired, and abiding by +the result of the throw. + +One word in a more serious vein. I wish to express, in closing, my +profound gratification that my efforts to do my duty simply and +industriously should have met with your approval, and my gratitude for +its public and spontaneous expression. [Applause.] + + + + +LORD LYTTON + +(SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON) + + +MACREADY AND THE ENGLISH STAGE + +[Speech of Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton at a public dinner given to William + C. Macready, London, March 1, 1851, on the occasion of the tragedian's + withdrawal from the stage. Lord Lytton, in proposing the toast of the + evening, delivered the following speech.] + + +GENTLEMEN:--When I glance through this vast hall, and feel how +weak and indistinct is my voice, I feel that I must frankly throw myself +upon your indulgence, and entreat your most patient and courteous +attention while I approach that subject which unites to-day an assembly +so remarkable for the numbers and distinction of those who compose it. +We are met to do honor to an eminent man, who retires into private life +after those services to the public which are most felt at the moment we +are about to lose them. There are many among you far better qualified +than I am to speak critically of the merits of Mr. Macready as an actor, +but placed as I am in this chair, I feel that I should justly disappoint +you if I did not seek to give some utterance to those sentiments of +admiration of which you have made me the representative. + +Gentlemen, this morning I read in one of the literary journals, some +qualifying remarks as to the degree of Mr. Macready's genius; and now, +as I recognize here many who are devoted to literature and art, I will +ask them if I am not right in this doctrine--that the true measure of +the genius of an artist is the degree of excellence to which he brings +the art that he cultivates. Judge of Mr. Macready by this test, and how +great is that genius that will delight us no more; for it is because it +has so achieved what I will call the symmetry of art that its height and +its breadth have been often forgotten. We know that it is the uneven +and irregular surface that strikes us as the largest, and the dimensions +of a genius, like those of a building, are lost in the justness of its +proportions; and therefore it is that in recalling the surpassing +excellence of our guest as an artistical performer, one is really at a +loss to say in what line of character he has excelled the most. The +Titanic grandeur of Lear, the human debasement of Werner, the frank +vivacity of Henry V, the gloomy and timorous guilt of King John, or +that--his last--personation of Macbeth, in which it seemed to me that he +conveyed a more correct notion of what Shakespeare designed than I can +recollect to have read in the most profound of the German critics; for I +take it, what Shakespeare meant to represent in Macbeth was the kind of +character which is most liable to be influenced by a belief in +supernatural agencies--a man who is acutely sensitive to all +impressions, who has a restless imagination more powerful than his will, +who sees daggers in the air and ghosts in the banquet-hall, who has +moral weakness and physical courage, and who--as our guest represented +him--alternates perpetually between terror and daring--a trembler when +oppressed by his conscience, and a warrior when defied by his foe. But +in this and in all that numberless crowd of characters which is too +fresh in your memories for me to enumerate, we don't so much say "How +well this was spoken," or "How finely that was acted," but we feel +within ourselves how true was the personation of the whole. + +Gentlemen, there is a word that is often applied to artists and to +authors, and I think we always apply it improperly when we speak of a +superior intellect--I mean the word "versatile." Now, I think the proper +word is "comprehensive." The man of genius does not vary and change, +which is the meaning of the word versatile, but he has a mind +sufficiently expanded to comprehend variety and change. If I can succeed +in describing the circle, I can draw as many lines as I please from the +centre straight to the circumference, but it must be upon the +condition--for that is the mathematical law--that all these lines shall +be equal, one to the other, or it is not a circle that I describe. Now, +I do not say our guest is versatile; I say that he is comprehensive; and +the proof that he has mastered the most perfect form of the +comprehensive faculty is this--that all the lines he has created within +the range of his art are equal the one to the other. And this, +gentlemen, explains to us that originality which even his detractors +have conceded to him. + +Every great actor has his manner as every great writer has his style. +But the originality of our guest does not consist in his manner alone, +but in his singular depth of thought. He has not only accomplished the +obvious and essential graces of the actor--the look, the gesture, the +intonation, the stage play--but he has placed his study far deeper. He +has sought to penetrate into the subtlest intentions of the poet, and +made poetry itself the golden key to the secrets of the human heart. He +was original because he never sought to be original but to be truthful; +because, in a word, he was as conscientious in his art as he is in his +actions. Gentlemen, there is one merit of our guest as an actor upon +which, if I were silent, I should be indeed ungrateful. Many a great +performer may attain to a high reputation if he restrains his talents to +acting Shakespeare and the great writers of the past; but it is +perfectly clear that in so doing he does not advance one inch the +literature of his time. It has been the merit of our guest to recognize +the truth that the actor has it in his power to assist in creating the +writer. He has identified himself with the living drama of his period, +and by so doing, he has half created it. Who does not recollect the +rough and manly vigor of Tell, the simple grandeur of Virginius or the +exquisite sweetness and dignity and pathos with which he invested the +self-sacrifice of Ion; and who does not feel that but for him, these +great plays might never have obtained their hold upon the stage, or +ranked among those masterpieces which this age will leave to posterity? +And what charm and what grace, not their own, he has given to the lesser +works of an inferior writer, it is not for me to say. + +But, gentlemen, all this, in which he has sought to rally round him the +dramatic writers of his time, brings me at once from the merits of the +actor to those of the manager. I recall, gentlemen, that brief but +glorious time when the drama of England appeared suddenly to revive and +to promise a future that should be worthy of its past; when by a union +of all kindred arts, and the exercise of a taste that was at once +gorgeous and severe, we saw the genius of Shakespeare properly embodied +upon our stage, though I maintain that the ornament was never superior +to the work. Just remember the manner in which the supernatural agency +of the weird sisters was made apparent to our eye, in which the magic +Isle of Prospero rose before us in its mysterious and haunted beauty, +and in which the knightly character of the hero of Agincourt received +its true interpretation from the pomp of the feudal age, and you will +own you could not strip the scene of these effects without stripping +Shakespeare himself of half the richness and depth of his conceptions. +But that was the least merit of that glorious management. Mr. Macready +not only enriched the scene, but he purified the audience; and for the +first time since the reign of Charles II, a father might have taken his +daughters to a public theatre with as much safety from all that could +shock decorum as if he had taken them to the house of a friend. And for +this reason the late lamented Bishop of Norwich made it a point to form +the personal acquaintance of Mr. Macready, that he might thank him, as a +prelate of the Church, for the good he had done to society. + +Gentlemen, I cannot recall that period without a sharp pang of indignant +regret, for if that management had lasted some ten or twelve years, I +know that we would have established a permanent school for actors--a +fresh and enduring field for dramatic poetry and wit--while we should +have educated an audience up to feel that dramatic performances in their +highest point of excellence had become an intellectual want that could +no more be dispensed with than the newspaper or review. And all this to +be checked or put back for ages to come! Why? Because the public did not +appreciate the experiment! Mr. Macready has told us that the public +supported him nobly, and that his houses overflowed. Why then? Because +of the enormous rent and exactions, for a theatre which even in the most +prosperous seasons, make the exact difference between profit and loss. +Gentlemen, it is not now the occasion to speak of remedies for that +state of things. Remedies there are, but they are for legislation to +effect. They involve considerations with regard to those patents which +are secured to certain houses for the purpose of maintaining in this +metropolis the legitimate drama, and which I fear, have proved the main +obstacle to its success. + +But these recollections belong to the past. The actor--the manager--are +no more. Whom have we with us to-day? Something grander than actor, or +manager: to-day we have with us the man. Gentlemen, to speak of those +virtues which adorn a home, and are only known in secret, has always +appeared to me to be out of place upon public occasions; but there are +some virtues which cannot be called private, which accompany a man +everywhere, which are the essential part of his public character, and of +these it becomes us to speak, for it is to these that we are met to do +homage. I mean integrity, devotion to pure ends, a high ambition, manly +independence, and honor that never knew a stain. Why should we disguise +from ourselves that there are great prejudices to the profession of an +actor? Who does not know that our noble guest has lived down every one +such prejudice, not falling into the old weakness of the actor, and for +which Garrick could not escape the sarcasm of Johnson, of hankering +after the society and patronage of the great? The great may have sought +in him the accomplished gentleman, but he has never stooped his bold +front as an Englishman to court any patronage meaner than the public, or +to sue for the smile with which fashion humiliates the genius it +condescends to flatter. And therefore it is that he has so lifted up +that profession to which he belongs into its proper rank amid the +liberal arts; and therefore it is, that in glancing over the list of our +stewards we find every element of that aristocracy upon which he has +never fawned uniting to render him its tribute of respect. The ministers +of foreign nations--men among the noblest of the peers of +England--veterans of those professions of which honor is the +lifespring--the chiefs of literature and science and art--ministers of +the Church, sensible of the benefits he has bestowed upon society in +banishing from the stage what had drawn upon it the censure of the +pulpit--all are here and all unite to enforce the truth, the great +truth, which he leaves to those who come after him--that let a man but +honor his calling, and the calling will soon be the honor of the man. + +Gentlemen, I cannot better sum up all I would say than by the words +which the Roman orator applied to the actor of his day; and I ask you if +I may not say of our guest as Cicero said of Roscius--"He is a man who +unites yet more of virtues than of talents, yet more of truth than of +art, and who, having dignified the scene by the various portraitures of +human life, dignifies yet more this assembly by the example of his own." + +Gentlemen, the toast I am about to propose to you is connected with many +sad associations but not to-day. Later and longer will be cherished +whatever may be sad of these mingled feelings that accompany this +farewell--later, when night after night we shall miss from the play-bill +the old familiar name, and feel that one source of elevated delight is +lost to us forever. To-day let us rejoice that he whom we prize and +admire is no worn-out veteran retiring to a rest he can no longer +enjoy--that he leaves us in the prime of his powers, with many years to +come, in the course of nature, of that dignified leisure for which every +public man must have sighed in the midst of his triumphs, and though we +cannot say of him that his "way of life is fall'n into the sere, the +yellow leaf," yet we can say that he has prematurely obtained "that +which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of +friends;" and postponing for this night all selfish regret, not thinking +of the darkness that is to follow, but of the brightness of the sun that +is to set, I call upon you to drink with full glasses and full hearts, +"Health, happiness and long life to William Macready." + + + * * * * * + + +FAREWELL TO CHARLES DICKENS + +[Speech of Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton at a farewell banquet given to + Charles Dickens, London, November 2, 1867, prior to his departure on a + reading tour in the United States. In giving the toast of the evening, + Lord Lytton, the chairman, delivered the following speech.] + + +MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I now approach the toast which is +special to the occasion that has brought together a meeting so numerous +and so singularly distinguished. You have paid the customary honors to +our beloved sovereign, due not only to her personal virtues, but to that +principle of constitutional monarchy in which the communities of Europe +recognize the happiest mode of uniting liberty with order, and giving to +the aspirations for the future a definite starting-point in the +experience and the habits of the past. You are now invited to do honor +to a different kind of royalty, which is seldom peacefully acknowledged +until he who wins and adorns it ceases to exist in the body, and is no +longer conscious of the empire which his thoughts bequeath to his name. +Happy is the man who makes clear his title-deeds to the royalty of +genius while he yet lives to enjoy the gratitude and reverence of those +whom he has subjected to his sway. Though it is by conquest that he +achieves his throne, he at least is a conqueror whom the conquered +bless; and the more despotically he enthralls, the dearer he becomes to +the hearts of men. + +Seldom, I say, has that kind of royalty been quietly conceded to any man +of genius until his tomb becomes his throne, and yet there is not one of +us now present who thinks it strange that it is granted without a murmur +to the guest whom we receive to-night. It has been said by a Roman poet +that Nature, designing to distinguish the human race from the inferior +animals by that faculty of social progress which makes each combine with +each for the aid and defence of all, gave to men _mollissima +corda_,--hearts the most accessible to sympathy with their fellow kind; +and hence tears,--and permit me to add, and hence laughter,--became the +special and the noblest attributes of humanity. Therefore it is humanity +itself which obeys an irresistible instinct when it renders homage to +one who refines it by tears that never enfeeble, and by a laughter that +never degrades. + +You know that we are about to intrust our honored countryman to the +hospitality of those kindred shores in which his writings are as much +"household words" as they are in the homes of England. And if I may +presume to speak as a politician, I should say that no time could be +more happily chosen for his visit; because our American kinsfolk have +conceived, rightly or wrongfully, that they have some cause of complaint +against ourselves, and out of all England we could not have selected an +envoy more calculated to allay irritation and to propitiate good-will. + +In the matter of good-will there is a distinction between us English and +the Americans which may for a time operate to our disadvantage; for we +English insist upon claiming all Americans as belonging to our race, and +springing from the same ancestry as ourselves, and hence the idea of any +actual hostility between them and us shocks our sense of relationship; +and yet in reality a large and very active proportion of the American +people derives its origin from other races besides the Anglo-Saxon. +German and Dutch and Celtic forefathers combine to form the giant family +of the United States; but there is one cause forever at work to cement +all these varieties of origin, and to compel the American people, as a +whole, to be proud as we are of their affinity with the English race. +What is that cause? What is that agency? Is it not that of one language +in common between the two nations? It is in the same mother tongue that +their poets must sing, that their philosophers must reason, that their +orators must argue upon truth or contend for power. + +I see before me a distinguished guest, distinguished for the manner in +which he has brought together all that is most modern in sentiment with +all that is most scholastic in thought and language; permit me to say, +Mr. Matthew Arnold. I appeal to him if I am not right when I say that it +is by a language in common that all differences of origin sooner or +later we are welded together--that Etruscans, and Sabines, and Oscans, +and Romans, became one family as Latins once, as Italians now? Before +that agency of one language in common have not all differences of +ancestral origin in England between Britons, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, +melted away; and must not all similar differences equally melt away in +the nurseries of American mothers, extracting the earliest lessons of +their children from our own English Bible, or in the schools of +preceptors who must resort to the same models of language whenever they +bid their pupils rival the prose of Macaulay and Prescott, or emulate +the verse of Tennyson and Longfellow? Now, it seems to me that nothing +can more quicken the sense of that relationship which a language in +common creates, than the presence and voice of a writer equally honored +and beloved in the old world and in the new; and I cannot but think that +where-ever our American kinsfolk welcome that presence, or hang +spell-bound on that voice, they will feel irresistibly how much of +fellowship and unison there is between the hearts of America and +England. So that when our countrymen quits their shores he will leave +behind him many a new friend to the old fatherland which greets them +through him so cordially in the accents of the mother tongue. And in +those accents what a sense of priceless obligations--obligations +personal to him and through him to the land he represents--must steal +over his American audience! How many hours in which pain and sickness +have changed into cheerfulness and mirth beneath the wand of this +enchanter! How many a combatant beaten down in the battle of life--and +nowhere is the battle of life more sharply waged than in the +commonwealth of America--has caught new hope, new courage, new force +from the manly lessons of this unobtrusive teacher! + +Gentlemen, it is no wonder that the rising generation of people who have +learned to think and to feel in our language, should eagerly desire to +see face to face the man to whose genius, from their very childhood, +they have turned for warmth and for light as instinctively as young +plants turn to the sun. But I must not forget that it is not I whom you +have come to hear; and all I might say, if I had to vindicate the fame +of our guest from disparagement or cavil, would seem but tedious and +commonplace when addressed to those who know that his career has passed +beyond the ordeal of contemporaneous criticism, and that in the applause +of foreign nations it has found a foretaste of the judgment of +posterity. I feel as if every word that I have already said had too long +delayed the toast which I now propose: "A prosperous voyage, health and +long life, to our illustrious guest and countryman, Charles Dickens." + + + + +HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE + + +SPIRIT OF NEW ENGLAND LITERATURE + +[Speech of Hamilton W. Mabie at the ninety-first annual dinner of the + New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1896. Henry + E. Howland, vice-President of the Society, presided and introduced the + speaker as follows: "There is no person better qualified to speak upon + any literary subject than the editor of a great paper. He scans the + whole horizon of literature, and his motto is: 'Where the bee sups + there sup I.' As a gentleman eminently fitted to speak upon the + literature of New England or any kindred subject, I have the pleasure + of introducing to you Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, of 'The Outlook.'"] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--When one has the army and navy +behind him, he is impelled to be brief. And when one has a subject which +needs no interpreter, when one has a theme the very recital of the +details of which recalls the most splendid chapter in our intellectual +history, one feels that any words would be impertinent. We are indebted +to New England, in the first place, for giving us a literature. I know +it has been questioned in Congress, why anybody should want a +literature; but if the spiritual rank of a people is to be determined by +depth and richness of life, and if the register of this life of a people +is its art, and especially its art in books, then no country is +reputable among the nobler countries unless it has produced a +literature; and we are, therefore, indebted to New England for +literature. Not the greatest we shall produce, but a literature +continuous from the first settlement of the colonies. It is a very +significant fact that the three men before the Revolution whom we may +call literary men were men born in New England--Benjamin Franklin, who +is too well known to all of you for comment; John Woolman, of whose work +Charles Lamb said: "Woolman's writings should be learned by heart;" and +that great theologian, who wrote in a stately style, Jonathan Edwards. +After the Revolution I have but to call the roll of those names which +are the glory of New England--Hawthorne, the man of finest literary gift +who has yet appeared upon this continent; Longfellow, with his tender +touch; Holmes, with his three o'clock wit, as some one has called it, +the man who was always awake; Lowell, with his rich culture and his +passionate loyalty to all that was best in life and art; and the +historians of the country, Motley, Prescott, Bancroft, and Francis +Parkman, with his splendid record of patient and tireless energy. And +then we have the New England writers of the second generation in Edmund +Clarence Stedman, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, +Charles Dudley Warner, John Fiske, and Henry James; and we have also a +third generation. + +The most striking characteristic of the older, as of the younger, New +England literature is its deep and beautiful humanism, the closeness of +its touch upon experience, the warmth of its sympathy with men and women +in contact with the great movement of life. Growing out of such a soil, +it could hardly have been otherwise, for New England represents, not an +abstraction, but a commanding faith in personality, the clear +self-realization of a man whose obligation goes straight to God, and to +whom God's word travels like an arrow's flight. In one form or another, +all the New England writers deal with this theme; they are concerned, +not with abstractions, but with the hopes and fears and temptations of +man. Hawthorne is absorbed in the problem of the return of a man's deed, +or of his ancestors' deed upon himself; Lowell cares supremely for +nobility and freedom of impulse, act and deed; Whittier for truth and +spiritual fellowship; Emerson, for the reality of spiritual force and +meaning in common duties and ordinary relations; Longfellow, for the +tenderness and purity of childhood, the sweetness and fragrance of +family relations, the charm of historic association; Holmes, for the +endless paradox and surprise which are in human thought and conduct; +Brooks, for the abundance of man's life and the fulness of its spiritual +possibilities; Curtis, for a public life at once pure, free, rich and +stable. For all these writers organization and institutions had great +interest, but they cared primarily for the men whose history these +institutions represent. The quays at Geneva are massive and shine at +night like a constellation; but our interest centres in the river which +rushes between them from the Alps to the sea. This is a democratic note, +but there is another quite as distinct and characteristic--the note of +buoyant cheerfulness, faith in God and man. + +There is a ringing tone in the literature of New England which is not +only a protest against any form of oppression, but a challenge to fate. +That courage came from faith in the divine order of life. And that +buoyant courage and cheerfulness were possible because these writers +kept life and art in harmony. There was no schism between ideal and +action in them. They not only followed the vision in spirit; they lived +in the light of it. They illustrated that unity of life without which +there is no God. They kept in the way of growth and truth and +inspiration because they lived wisely. We do not half value their +splendid sanity. A manly and noble moral health was theirs. They rang +true to every moral appeal. They were not only men of letters, but they +were also gentlemen, and they have associated literature in the thought +of the country with dignity, culture and beauty of life--Emerson's +unworldliness, Lowell's loyalty to truth, and Curtis's splendid +rectitude, as enduring as the granite, are of lasting value to the +higher life of the nation. + +Their courage and buoyancy were of higher value than we yet understand. +Faith is absolutely essential in a great democratic society. When we +cease to believe in God we cease to believe in man, and when our faith +in man goes, democracy becomes a vast, irrational engine of tyranny and +corruption. In the last analysis democracy rests in the belief that +there is something of the divine in every man, and that through every +life there shines a glimpse of the eternal order. For Government rests, +not in the will of the majority, but on the will of God; and democracy +is but a vaster surface upon which to discover the play of that will. It +follows from these characteristics that the real significance of the New +England writers lies not in what they did, but in what they +unconsciously predicted. Clear and ringing as are the notes they struck, +these notes are prelusive; they suggest the great _motifs_, but they do +not completely unfold them; they could not, for the time was not yet +ripe; they announced the principle of individuality, and they sang the +great idea of nationality; but the depth and richness of national life +was not theirs to express. That vast life rises more and more into the +national consciousness, but its Homer or Dante or Shakespeare has not +appeared--probably cannot appear for a long time to come. That life is +too wide and still too inharmonious for clear expression. Its very +richness postpones the day of its ultimate expression; but when the hour +is ripe it will embody an ideal as significant as any in history, with +illustration more varied and vital. We are still the victims of our +continent; we shall one day be its masters. + +One of the oldest drawings in the world is on the side of a cave in +France, and represents a man fleeing naked and defenceless from a great +serpent--man still in bondage to material conditions. One of the most +stirring of modern scenes is that in which Siegfried waits at the mouth +of the cavern--leaves rustling, light shimmering, birds singing about +him. The glory of youth is on him and the beauty of the world about him; +but he cannot understand what the sounds mean. Then comes the struggle, +the victory, the revelation of song and light; and the hero passes +swiftly up the heights, where, encircled with flame, sleeps the soul of +his strength. In some other day, when the continent is tamed and we have +struck to the heart that materialism which is our only real foe, we, +too, shall climb the heights of achievement, and we shall stand face to +face with that ideal which is now so dim and remote. Then comes the poet +of the real new world--the world of opportunity, of sacrifice, of +unselfish freedom of the larger art and diviner life. And when that day +comes and the great poet sings and the great writer speaks, we shall +hear faint and far the sounds of those old voices of New England; not so +vast as the later music, but as pure and harmonious and true. We shall +understand how they made the later music possible; how they have made +possible the fulfilment of the prediction of one of their own number: +between Shakespeare in the cradle and Shakespeare in "Hamlet" there was +needed but an interval of time, and the same sublime condition is all +that lies between the America of toil and the America of art. +[Applause.] + + + + +DONALD SAGE MACKAY + + +THE DUTCH DOMINE + +[Speech of Rev. Dr. D. Sage Mackay at the eleventh annual dinner of the + Holland Society of New York, January 15, 1896. The President, Dr. D. + B. St. John Roosa, said in introducing the speaker: "Before I announce + the next toast I want to remark that one of our distinguished + speakers, a Huguenot, said at the St. Nicholas dinner, that it was + such a particularly good dinner, that there were such particularly + good speeches, and that very few of them had been made by Dutchmen. + But now we shall have a gentleman who represents the profession we all + delight to honor, and who will delineate the next regular toast:-- + + 'The Dutch. Domine: guide, philosopher, and friend, + A man he was to all the country dear.' + +"I have the pleasure of introducing a gentleman who wishes he had been +born a Dutchman but who is not entitled, I suppose, to that great honor, +as he is to many others deservedly showered upon him--the Rev. Dr. D. +Sage Mackay."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I will confess, at the outset +here to-night, that when by the courtesy of your Committee I was asked +to respond to this sentiment, which so poetically and yet so truly +enshrines the memory of the old Dutch Domine, that I felt somewhat in +the condition in which a member of the Glasgow Fire Brigade found +himself some years ago. One night, being on duty, he had the misfortune +to fall asleep, and to insure his comfort before doing so he had +divested himself of his heavy overalls. About midnight the alarm bell +rang. He staggered to his feet, and in the condition of a man suddenly +aroused from sleep drew on the overalls so that back was front and front +was back. In the excitement of the moment he forgot all about his +abnormal condition. Coming down the staircase of the burning building he +had the misfortune to slip and fall heavily to the ground, in a heap of +cinders. His companions eagerly asked him if he was hurt. "No," he +replied, with true Scotch canniness. "No, chaps, I canna' say I am +hurt, but eh, sirs, I maun hae got an awfu' twist." [Laughter.] And so, +sir, when I, unfortunately to-night, a Scotchman born and bred, was +asked to reply to the toast "The Dutch Domine," I felt that in the +arrangements of the evening there was something of a twist. [Laughter.] +And yet, if twist it may be called, it was only on the surface. + +After a happy experience in the Dutch ministry, and after enjoying for a +second time the hospitality of this honorable Society, I know nowhere +where a Scotchman can feel himself so at home as in the genial +influences of Dutch custom and Dutch tradition. [Applause.] We gladly +echo all these patriotic and inspiring sentiments which have fallen from +the lips of the speakers to-night. We believe that Dutch influences have +salted America, but we Scotchmen have got the idea somehow that Scotland +was leavening if not salting Holland for a hundred years before that +exodus to these shores took place. [Laughter.] + +General Morgan, on one occasion, in discussing the fighting qualities of +the soldiers of different nations, came to the conclusion that in many +respects they were about the same, with one notable exception. "After +all," he said, "for the possession of the ideal quality of the soldier, +for the grand essential, give me the Dutchman--he starves well." +[Laughter.] And, no doubt, when provisions are scarce, no man can afford +to starve better than he, for the simple reason that when provisions are +plentiful no man can manage to eat better. [Laughter.] + +I feel like mentioning as the first quality of the Dutch Domine to-night +the possession of a good digestion. I myself have fared so well on Dutch +fare for these last two or three years that I feel I could almost claim +to be a Dutchman, very much as a man once claimed to be a native of a +certain parish in Scotland. He was being examined by counsel. Counsel +asked him, "Were you born here?" "Maistly, your honor," was the reply. +"What do you mean by 'maistly'? Did you come here when you were a +child?" "Na, I didna' cam here when I was a chiel," he replied. "Then +what do you mean by 'maistly,' if you have not lived here most of your +life?" counsel asked. "Weel, when I cam here I weighed eighty pun, and +now I weigh three hundred, so that I maun be maistly a native." +[Laughter.] So, perhaps, that "maistly" may be the claim to be a +Dutchman which some of us may make, if we go on. + +The sentiment to which I have been asked to respond is one which I doubt +not will strike a responsive chord in the memories of most of you +Hollanders here to-night. Across the vanished years will come back the +picture of the old Dutch village, nestling in some sheltered nook behind +the Hudson, and there in the old-fashioned pulpit arises the quaint, +once well-loved face and form of the Domine, with big, dome-shaped head, +full mouth and nose, marked with lines of humor, the fringe of white +whiskers, and underneath, around the throat, the voluminous folds of the +white choker, a kind of a combination of a swaddling-band and a +winding-sheet, suggestive of birth or death, as the occasion demanded. +[Laughter.] So he appeared an almost essential feature in the landscape, +as year in and out he ministered in unassuming faithfulness to the needs +of his people. By the bedside of the dying, or in the home of the widow, +a comforter and friend; in the stirring days of revolutionary struggle, +a leader and patriot, and sometimes a martyr too; in the social +gatherings around the great open fireplace in the long dark nights, pipe +in hand, a genial companion, so in every walk of life, in scenes +gladsome or sad, the old Domine was a constant presence, an influence +for righteousness, moulding his people in that simplicity of life and +independence of spirit, which in all times have been preeminent as +features in the Dutch character. Into the homespun of common life, he +wove the threads of gold, revealing by life and precept that type of +religion which is not "too bright and good for human nature's daily +food." + +What were some of the distinctive features in the character of the old +Domine? Pre-eminently, we remember him for his wide and genial humanity, +as a man strong in his convictions yet generous in his sympathies, +faithful in his denunciation of sin yet holding outstretched hands of +brotherhood to the weak and tempted. In a parish near by to where my +grandfather was settled, there had been three ministers, one after the +other in quick succession. The old beadle compared them to a friend +something after this fashion: "The first yin was a mon, but he was na' a +meenister; the second yin was a meenister, but he was na' a mon; but the +third was neither a mon nor a meenister." [Great laughter.] But the +Dutch Domine was at once a man and a minister. The official never +overshadowed the man, neither did the humanity of the man degrade the +sacred office. All strong character is the union of two opposite +qualities, and in the Dutch minister I trace the harmonious presence of +two elements not often found in one personality. On the one hand there +was a rigid adherence to his own church and creed, so that to the +orthodox Dutch mind, whatever may happen elsewhere, heaven will be +peopled by Reformed Dutchmen, and in the celestial hymn-book an appendix +will be found for the Heidelberg Catechism and liturgical forms of the +Dutch Church [laughter]; but on the other hand, with this loyalty to his +own creed, there was a generous tolerance towards the view of others, a +broad-minded charity, expressed in thought and life, towards those whose +standpoint in religion differed from his own. In reality, your old +Domine had, and I venture to say, has, little sympathy with that narrow +ecclesiasticism, which in effect claims a monopoly in religion and would +practically hand over the salvation of the race to the hands of a close +corporation. Now, whence did it come; where did he learn this +steadfastness to his own principles, yet this generosity towards the +convictions of other men, which has been so eloquently dwelt on to-night +as a cardinal feature of the American character through the leavening +power of Dutch influence? It came, gentlemen, as part of his birthright. +We have been told that to study and appreciate Dutch character and Dutch +history we must keep in view what has been called the geographical +factor, that constant war with the elements, which trained the Dutchman +to patience, to endurance, and to self-mastery. So, in studying the +Dutch Domine, you must keep in view the historic factor out of which he +and his church have come. I make no extravagant claim for the old Dutch +Church of New Amsterdam and New York, when I say she stands to-day for a +great and a splendid tradition in American life. She enshrines within +her history facts and forces which have been woven into the texture of +her most enduring institutions. Out of the darkness of persecution she +came, bearing to these shores the precious casket of civil and religious +liberty. When with prophetic vision she gazed across the Western sea, +and saw the red dawn of a new day glow upon the waters, that dawn but +reflected the red blood that dripped like sacramental wine from her +robes--the blood of martyrdom poured forth for that sacred trophy of +liberty of conscience which it is your privilege and mine to hand on to +the generations yet to come. For full forty years, the Dutch Church was +the only religious institution on this island, and who in these early +times, when the great ideas for which America stands to-day were in +their formative stage, guided in the light of truth the young country to +a larger conception of her destiny? Not only from the standpoint of +religion, but from the standpoint of education, the Dutch Church and her +clergy were a mighty factor in the evolution of the great twin truths of +civil and religious liberty. To the Dutch Church we owe it, that +liberty, in the reaction from old-world despotism, was not allowed to +degenerate into license. To them we owe it that freedom of conscience +was impressed not merely as a right to be claimed, but as a duty to be +safe-guarded, and, need I say?--this sense of personal duty and +responsibility in respect of the rights of conscience is the note above +all others that we have to strike in our nation's life to-day. +[Applause.] + +Gentlemen, in the old country, among others, I have looked at the +monument of your noble old Dutch Admiral, Tromp, and there it says, +"Unconquered by the English, he ceased to triumph only when he ceased to +live," and I take these words, the epitaph of the old hero, not indeed +as the epitaph of Dutch influence--that will never die--but as the ideal +of Dutch character in this country in the years to come. Let it cease to +triumph only when it ceases to live; let it seek to lead onward and +upward to a diviner freedom this country, whose history is the evolution +of the great God-given idea--civil and religious liberty. [Applause.] + + + + +ALEXANDER C. MACKENZIE + + +MUSIC + +[Speech of Sir Alexander C. Mackenzie at the annual banquet of the Royal + Academy, London, May 4, 1895. The toast to "Music," to which Sir + Alexander C. Mackenzie responded, was coupled with that of the "Drama" + for which Arthur W. Pinero spoke. Sir John Millais, who proposed the + toast, said: "I have already spoken for both Music and the Drama with + my brush. I have painted Sterndale Bennett, Arthur Sullivan, Irving, + and Hare."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN:--I +am aware that there are some of my most distinguished colleagues now +present whose claims to the honor of replying to your amiable words far +exceed my own. But I also know that they will not grudge me that +distinction and none of them would appreciate it more than myself, whom +you have elected to mention in connection with your toast. I only hope +that my companion, the brilliant representative of the Drama, may be +inclined to forgive me for taking precedence of him, for his art had +already attained a state of perfection while ours was still lisping on a +feeble tibia to the ill-balanced accompaniment of some more sonorous +instrument of percussion. It was all we had to offer at the time, but I +am sure that since then we have steadily improved. But even then we were +accustomed to ring up the curtain, and so I look upon myself as a mere +overture or prelude to the good thing, the word-painting, which will +follow. ["Hear! Hear!"] Let me assure him that the composer knows no +greater delight than when he is called upon to combine his art with that +of the dramatic author, even should our most divinely-inspired moments +be but faintly conveyed to the audience through the medium of +the--otherwise excellent but still metropolitan--under ground +orchestras at our disposal. My only regret is that none of us were +permitted to accompany the fascinating heroine of his latest work +through the play. Some correspondingly alluring music has doubtless been +lost to the world. + +On the last occasion that the toast of Music was responded to in this +room, it was remarked that popularity was not without its drawbacks. I +fear, sir, there are not many of us who are actually groaning under the +oppressive weight of over-popularity--at least not to any very alarming +extent. [Cheers.] But I may permit myself to say that while the +popularity of music itself is undeniable, it is not so equally obvious +that the fact is an absolutely unmixed blessing; perhaps the very +familiarity which it undoubtedly enjoys subjects it more than any other +art to the fitful temper of fashion--to rash and hastily-formed +judgments--as well as to the humors of self-complacent guides whose +dicta all too frequently prove the dangerous possession of a very small +allowance of real knowledge. + +"Academic" is, I believe, sir, the winged word in daily use to mark +those of us who may still cling to the effete and obsolete belief that +music remains a science, difficult of acquirement and not either a toy +art, or a mere nerve titillater. We are not, sir, by any means ashamed +to bear the stigma of being academic; on the contrary, we feel it a +genuine compliment--gratifying because, although perhaps unintentionally +it implies that we have acquired the possession of "that one thing" +which (as Wilhelm Meister was informed by the venerable Three) "no child +brings into the world with him,"--that is, "reverence"--reverence for +our great past as well as, I hope, a due estimation of the vigorous +activity of the present. So our sweet-natured muse smiles benignly upon +the impish gambols of the "new boy" who has the supreme advantage of not +having been to school, for any appreciable length of time at least, and +who seems to derive considerable satisfaction from his endeavors to +improve the education of those who have never left it. [Laughter.] + +We are sometimes instructed that English Purcell (whose glorious memory +our musicians mean to honor in a few months), that German Bach ought to +be considerably touched up to suit the altered requirements of the day, +and that the rich hues of romantic Weber--nay, even of his giantship the +great Beethoven himself--are fading visibly and rapidly. Far be it from +the academics to undervalue the great significance of "modernity." Our +musical palette, the orchestra, has in our own time been enriched by the +addition of many brilliant colors. Music has become, if possible, still +more closely allied with and indebted for inspiration to each and all of +the sister arts: while the peremptory and ever-increasing demand upon +the dexterity as well as the intellectual grasp of the executant has +brought into the field such an array of splendid artist interpreters as +possibly the world has never before seen. ["Hear! Hear!"] What the +effect produced by audible performance of the works of the great +past-masters in music may be upon the ricketty understandings is +difficult even to guess at. The healthily trained student, however, to +whom the preservation of the history of his art is still of some +consequence, shows that the word "perishable" has positively no meaning +to him so long as tough paper and honest leather hold together. To him +those noble scores can never become dumb, sealed, or silent books; he +has only to reach them down and, reading, hear them speak--each master +in the language of his own time--in living notes, as glowing now as when +they were first penned. + +It is not without some diffidence, sir, that I allude before sitting +down to that time when our own English music had a high and most +honorable place among the arts of the nations--because, alas! that +recollection necessarily compels the remembrance of a subsequent and too +prolonged period of decayed fortunes. But I must allow myself to say a +few words in recognition of the efforts of the three of our native +contemporary composers, who never tire in the endeavor to reclaim the +lost ground. For, within very recent years, much has been achieved which +has been helpful towards the recapture of the position, towards the +recovery of the old-time renown. That "artist corps" may perhaps not be +a very numerous company and besides it is without doubt, in the words of +a popular lyrical humorist, a somewhat "nervous, shy, low-spoken" little +band, which is content to wait and work incessantly in the service of +its national music. Generous in acknowledgment of the efforts of all +who assist its onward progress, it has already done much, can and will +do more. I said advisedly "national music" because its members, hailing +as they do from all the subdivisions of this country, are no doubt, with +so many widely differing musical characteristics by birthright, that it +is not at all unreasonable even for the most modest among them--and this +virtue still attaches to some, I should say, to all, of them--build +great hopes of a definitely distinct British music, such as you, Sir +John [Millais], doubtless had in your mind when you honored our art by +proposing this toast; such our very best painters would willingly hail +and acknowledge; such as your own Academy would welcome in that genial +manner which for many years past it has so generously taught us to +expect. [Cheers.] + + + + +WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY + + +FAREWELL TO THE STAGE + +[Speech of William C. Macready at a farewell banquet given in his honor, + London, March 1, 1851, on the occasion of his retirement from the + stage. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton acted as chairman. He said: + "Gentlemen, I cannot better sum up all I would say than by the words + which the Roman orator applied to the actor of his day, and I ask you + if I may not say of our guest as Cicero said of Roscius, 'He is a man + who unites yet more of virtues than of talents, yet more of truth than + of art, and who, having dignified the scene by various portraitures of + human life, dignifies yet more this assembly by the example of his + own.' [Great applause.] Gentlemen, the toast I am about to propose to + you is connected with many sad associations, but not to-day. Later and + long will be cherished whatever may be sad of these mingled feelings + that accompany this farewell,--later when night after night we shall + miss from the play-bill the old familiar name, and feel that one + source of elevated delight is lost to us forever. ["Hear! Hear!"] + To-day let us only rejoice that he whom we so prize and admire is no + worn-out veteran retiring to a rest he can no longer enjoy + [cheers]--that he leaves us in the prime of his powers, with many + years to come, in the course of nature, of that dignified leisure for + which every public man must have sighed in the midst of his triumphs; + and though we cannot say of him that his 'way of life is fall'n with + the sere, the yellow leaf,' yet we can say that he has prematurely + obtained 'that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, + obedience, troops of friends'--[cheers]--and postponing for this night + all selfish regrets, not thinking of the darkness that is to follow, + but of the brightness of the sun that is to set, I call upon you to + drink with full glasses and full hearts, health, happiness, and long + life to William Macready."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I rise to thank you, I should say +to attempt to thank you, for I feel the task is far beyond my power. +What can I say in reply to all that the kindly feeling of my friend has +dictated? I have not the skill to arrange and address in attractive +language the thoughts that press upon me, and my incompetency may +perhaps appear like a want of sensibility to your kindness, for we are +taught to believe that out of the heart's fulness the mouth speaks. But +my difficulty, let me assure you, is a contradiction to this moral. +[Cheers.] I have to thank my friend, your distinguished chairman, for +proposing my health to you and for the eloquence--may I not add the +brilliant fancy, with which he has enriched and graced his subject. But +that we may readily expect from him, who in the wide and discursive +range of his genius touches nothing that he does not adorn. ["Hear!" and +cheers.] I have to thank you for the cordiality and--if I may without +presumption say so,--the enthusiasm with which the compliment proposed +has been received, and for the honor--never to be forgotten--that you +have conferred on me, by making me your guest to-day. + +Never before have I been so oppressed with a sense of my deficiency as +at this moment, looking on this assemblage of sympathizing friends +crowded here to offer me a spontaneous testimony of their regard. I +observe among you many who for years have been the encouraging +companions of my course; and there are present too those who have +cheered even my very earliest efforts. To all who have united in this +crowning tribute, so far beyond my dues or expectations--my old friends, +friends of many years, who welcomed me with hopeful greeting in the +morning of my professional life, and to younger ones who now gather +round to shed more brightness on my setting, I should wish to pour forth +the abundant expression of my gratitude. [Loud cheers.] You are not, I +think, aware of the full extent of my obligations to you. Independent of +the substantial benefits due to the liberal appreciation of my +exertions, my very position in society is determined by the stamp which +your approbation has set upon my humble efforts. [Cheers.] And let me +unhesitatingly affirm that without undervaluing the accident of birth or +titular distinction, I would not exchange the grateful pride of your +good opinion which you have given me the right to cherish, for any favor +or advancement that the more privileged in station could receive. [Great +cheering.] + +I really am too much oppressed, too much overcome to attempt to detain +you long; but with the reflection and under the conviction that our +drama, the noblest in the world, can never lose its place from our +stage while the English language lasts, I will venture to express one +parting hope--that the rising actors may keep the loftiest look, may +hold the most elevated views of the duties of their calling. ["Hear! +Hear!" and cheers.] I would also hope that they will strive to elevate +their art, and also to raise themselves above the level of the player's +easy life, to public regard and distinction by a faithful ministry to +the genius of our incomparable Shakespeare. [Cheers.] To effect this +creditable purpose, they must bring resolute energy and unfaltering +labor to their work; they must be content "to scorn delights, and live +laborious days;" they must remember that whate'er is excellent in art +must spring from labor and endurance:-- + + "Deep the oak, + Must sink in stubborn earth its roots obscure + That hopes to lift its branches to the sky." + +This, gentlemen, I can assure you, was the doctrine of our own Siddons, +and of the great Talma; and this is the faith I have ever held as one of +their humblest disciples. [Applause.] + +Of my direction of the two patent theatres on which my friend has so +kindly dilated, I wish to say but little. The preamble of their patents +recites as a condition of their grant, that the theatres shall be +instituted for the promotion of virtue and to be instructive to the +human race. I think those are the words. I can only say that it was my +ambition to the best of my ability to obey that injunction ["Hear! +Hear!"] and believing in the principle that property has its duties as +well as its rights, I conceived that the proprietors should co-operate +with me. [General cries of "Hear!"] They thought otherwise, and I was +reluctantly compelled to relinquish on disadvantageous terms my +half-achieved enterprise. Others will take up this uncompleted work, and +if inquiry were set on foot for one best qualified to undertake the task +I should seek him in the theatre which, by eight years' labor, he has +from the most degraded condition raised high in public estimation, not +only as regards the intelligence and respectability of his audiences, +but by the learned and tasteful spirit of his productions. [Cheers.] + +Gentlemen, I shall not detain you longer. All that I could desire and +far more than I ever could expect you have conferred upon me in the +honor you have done me to-day. It will be a memory that must remain as +an actual possession to me and mine, which nothing in life can take from +us. The repetition of thanks adds little to their force, and therefore, +deeply as I am already obliged to you, I must draw still further on your +indulgence. You have had faith in my zeal for your service; you will, I +am sure, continue that faith in my gratitude, for the value you have set +upon it. With a heart more full than the glass I hold, I return you my +most grateful thanks, and have the honor of drinking all your healths. +[Mr. Macready who had displayed considerable emotion during some +portions of his address, then resumed his seat amid enthusiastic +cheering.] + + + + +JUSTIN McCARTHY + + +IRELAND'S STRUGGLE + +[Speech of Justin McCarthy at a dinner given in his honor, New York + City, October 2, 1886. When the speaking began, Judge Browne, who + presided, asked the audience to drink the health of Justin McCarthy, + the guest of the evening, with this quotation from Thomas Moore:-- + + "Here's the Poet who drinks; here's the warrior who fights; + Here's the statesman who speaks in the cause of men's rights; + Charge! hip, hip, hurrah! hurrah!" + +Continuing, Judge Browne said: "We feel it a proud privilege to be + permitted to gather and do honor to one who has done honor to our name + and nation in a foreign land. When the great leader of the Irish + people was bidding you good-by at the other side of the water, he said + that the aid you had rendered him and his colleagues had largely + helped to advance the interests of Ireland in her onward march to + freedom. Our knowledge of you enables us to indorse that statement. + [Applause.] What you have written in one of our city papers has shown + us step by step the progress of the Home Rule movement. That great + work has been accomplished by the Irish leader there can be no doubt. + I witnessed it personally a few short weeks ago, when standing in the + strangers' gallery in the House of Commons, I saw a handful of Irish + members under the leadership of Parnell withstand the assaults of six + hundred English members. [Applause.] It was an awe-inspiring sight. + When one remembers that within the four walls of that small building + that group of Englishmen were making laws for three hundred millions + of people, and that the representatives of a nation numbering only + five millions were enabled to keep them in check at the bidding of + Parnell, I was struck with astonishment. Not only have the Irish + people Parnell with them now, but they have Gladstone [applause], and + more than half of the English people; and we have in addition Justin + McCarthy [prolonged applause], and with this continuation of moral + force we are certain to win Home Rule for Ireland soon. Gentlemen, I + give you the health of our guest, Justin McCarthy."] + + +GENTLEMEN, FRIENDS, ALL:--I am very sure you will believe that +I speak with the utmost sincerity when I say that, although much in the +habit of addressing public meetings of various kinds, friendly and +hostile, I really do feel somewhat embarrassed in rising to address this +entirely friendly meeting to-night. The warmth and the kindness of your +reception, many of you Irishmen, some of you Americans, does surprise +and does, to a great extent, overpower me. Judge Browne, your chairman, +has regretted the absence of Eugene Kelly. I myself regret his absence +on personal and on public grounds; on personal grounds for his sake, and +still more, as I am rather selfish, for my own sake. [Applause.] For his +sake because ill health keeps him away, and for my own sake because I +have never yet had the chance of meeting him, and had finally hoped that +here to-night I should have the pleasure of making his acquaintance. I +should not complain very much for myself after all, for the worthy +gentleman who fills the place of Mr. Kelly so ably--I mean Judge Browne +[applause]--has said more complimentary things of me than I really +deserve before a gathering so influential and so representative as this. + +Upon the great political questions which interest me, and which interest +you, I shall perhaps have occasion to say a few words, perhaps more than +a few words Monday night, and I hope to see many of the gentlemen who +are now here present then, and if they be wavering on the question of +Home Rule I am nearly certain they will go away stanch disciples of +justice to Ireland, in a legislative sense, at all events. [Applause.] +There may be some among you who do not entirely agree with me upon my +views regarding the relations between England and Ireland. Some may +regard me with more favor as a writer of books than as an expounder of +Home Rule for Ireland. [Cries of "No! No!"] I will therefore regard this +occasion as a welcome given by you to me personally, and shall not go +into any political question whatever. Regarding myself, I may assume +this much, at least, that the question of Home Rule for Ireland is now +universally regarded in America as one of those questions bound up with +the great cause of civilization and of progress, and I entirely agree +with the chairman when he said that the Irish people in this struggle do +not entertain any feelings of hate or enmity for the English people. +[Applause.] I may say sincerely that I would not have joined the +agitation if it had been selfish and merely for the sake of Ireland +alone, and not, as it has been, a movement for the advancement of +freedom and enlightened ideas among other struggling nations of the +earth. [Applause.] + +I have said over and over again, in England as well as in Ireland, that +the cause that I was advocating was one of interest and of the most +vital importance to England as well as to Ireland. [Applause.] Many +years ago I heard Mr. Bright deliver a great speech in the House of +Commons in favor of a French commercial treaty. He wound up that great +speech by saying that the adoption of that treaty would be a policy of +justice to England, and of mercy to France. I call the policy that I and +my colleagues in the English Parliament are identified with, a policy of +justice to Ireland and of mercy to England. [Applause.] I call it a +policy of mercy to England because it is a policy which shall bury +forever the rancor of centuries that has existed between Irishmen and +Englishmen; a policy which will change things so far that Ireland, +instead of being the enemy at the gate shall be the friend at the gate, +who, if need be, can speak with some effect to the enemy from without. +After a long, a very long and a very bitter agitation, we now at last +are within reach of the consummation of our hopes. [Applause.] + +I am glad indeed to receive from an audience in this city, composed as +it is of many nationalities, such a hearty endorsement of the policy +which I and my people have carried out in struggling to give Ireland her +rights. I see here the Irish harp and the American stars and stripes. +Long and forever may these flags wave side by side. [Prolonged +applause.] How shall we distinguish between Irishmen and Americans? Are +the echoes which resound in this hall Irish or American echoes? [Cries +of "Both! Both!"] The voices that speak are Irish certainly, but the +roof, the walls that give back the sound are American. [Applause.] May +we not therefore claim the indistinguishable unity of nationality, of +sentiment, and of feeling? + +I should be ungrateful, indeed, gentlemen, did I not express my warm +acknowledgments for this greeting which you have given me--this hearty +Irish welcome. I shall never forget the words of warmth which you have +spoken to myself personally and the expressions of encouragement which +you have given to my people and my cause. I shall tell my friends when +I go back, that among the best supporters we have upon this side are +Americans and Irish-Americans who believe firmly in the justice of +Ireland's cause and of the determined yet peaceable, strictly peaceable, +character of the struggle which Ireland's representatives are making for +the re-establishment of her Parliament in College Green. [Prolonged +applause.] + + + + +ALEXANDER KELLY McCLURE + + +AN EDITORIAL RETROSPECT + +[Speech of Colonel A. K. McClure, editor of the "Philadelphia Times," + delivered at a banquet at Philadelphia, December 9, 1896, + commemorating the fiftieth year of his connection with the press of + Pennsylvania. Governor Daniel H. Hastings, in introducing the guest of + the evening, concluded by saying: "I said in the beginning that he is + the Nestor of Pennsylvania journalism. Yes, like the King of Pylos, in + Grecian legend of the siege of Troy, he is the oldest of the living + chieftains. Forney, Morton, McMichael and most of the pioneers of our + modern journalism are gone. McClure has been to Pennsylvania what + Horace Greeley was to New York journalism. Dana, of the 'Sun,' and + McClure, of the 'Times,' are the links connecting the present with the + past of American journalism. To-night the roses of friendship and + fraternity are growing upon the walls that separate us in our + life-work, and we are here to join in our congratulations and good + wishes to him in whose honor we meet--Colonel Alexander K. McClure."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN:--I cannot express the measure of my grateful +appreciation of this imposing greeting, so exceptional alike in welcome, +in numbers, and in distinction. I accept it as a tribute to the +matchless progress made by our newspapers during the present generation, +rather than a personal tribute to an humble member of the profession, +whose half century of editorial labor furnishes the occasion for leading +men of State and Nation to pay homage to American journalism, now the +great forum of our free institutions. + +The duties and responsibilities of journalism are largely defined by +their environment, and there may be fitness in this occasion to refer to +the political, business, social and moral conditions under which the +Juniata "Sentinel" was founded fifty years ago, in contrast with the +greatly changed conditions which confront the journals of to-day. The +people of Juniata county were a well-to-do class, adapted to the +primitive conditions in which they lived. The enervating blight of +luxury and the despair of pinching want were strangers in their midst. +They believed in the church, in the school, in the sanctity of home, in +integrity between man and man. Christianity was accepted by them as the +common law, sincerely by many and with a respect akin to reverence by +all; and that beautiful humanity that springs from the mingled +dependence and affection of rural neighborly ties, ever taught that the +bruised reed should not be broken. They had no political convulsions +such as are common in these days. Even a sweeping political revolution +would not vary the party majority over a hundred in the few thousands of +votes they cast, and excepting in the white heat of national contests, +their personal affections often outweighed their duties to party. Public +vices and public wrongs in local administration were rarely known, and +there was little to invite the aggressive features which are so +conspicuous in modern journalism. Ministers mingled freely with the +every-day life of their flocks and were exemplars of simplicity, +frugality and integrity, and the lawyer who hoped to be successful +required first of all to command the confidence of the community in his +honesty. The ballot and the jury-box were regarded as sacred as the +sacrament itself, and the criminal courts had usually little to do +beyond the cases of vagrant offenders. Business was conducted as a rule +without the formality of contracts, and those whose lives justly +provoked scandal were shunned on every side. This community possessed +the only real wealth the world can give--content; and the local +newspaper of that day, even under the direction of a progressive +journalist, could be little more than a commonplace chronicler of +current events. + +The most satisfactory newspaper work I have ever done, I mean the most +satisfactory to myself, was during the first few months after I founded +the "Sentinel." There was pardonable boyish pride in seeing my name +given with studied prominence as editor and proprietor, and the reading +of my own editorials was as soothing as the soft, sweet strains of music +on distant waters in summer evening time. They were to my mind most +exquisite in diction and logic, and it was a source of keen regret that +they were so "cabined, cribbed, and confined" within the narrowest +provincial lines, whereby the world lost so much that it greatly +needed. I knew that there were others, like Chandler, Gales, Greeley, +Ritchie, Prentice, and Kendall, who were more read and heeded, but I was +consoled by the charitable reflection that entirely by reason of +fortuitous circumstance they were known and I was not. Then to me life +was a song with my generously self-admired newspaper as the chorus. +There came rude awakenings, of course, from those blissful dreams as the +shock of editorial conflict gradually taught me that journalism was one +unending lesson in a school that has no vacations. + +I have pleasant memories also of the intimate personal relations between +the village editor and his readers. Most of them were within a radius of +a few miles of the publication office, and all the influences of social +as well as political ties were employed to make them enduring patrons. +With many of them the question of sparing from their scant income three +cents a week for a county paper, was one that called for sober thought +from year to year, and it often required a personal visit and earnest +importunity to hold the hesitating subscriber. I well remember the case +of a frugal farmer of the Dunker persuasion who was sufficiently +public-spirited to subscribe for the "Sentinel" for six months, to get +the paper started, but at the end of that period he had calculated the +heavy expenses of gathering the ripening harvest and decided to stop his +paper for a while. I need not say that he was enthusiastically +confronted with many reasons why a man of his intelligence and influence +should not be without the county newspaper, but he yielded only to the +extent of further considering the matter with his wife. He returned in a +few days and spread sunshine around the editorial chair by saying that +his wife had decided to continue for another six months, as the paper +would be very handy in the fall for tying up her apple-butter crocks. + +A few years after I had settled down in this quiet community to devote +my life to journalism, a shrill, weird voice was heard in the beautiful +valley of the Juniata as the iron horse made his first visit to us with +his train of cars. It was welcome music as it echoed over the foothills +of the Alleghenies, and entirely new to nearly all who heard it. With +the railway came the telegraph, the express, and the advent of the +daily newspaper among the people. In a single year the community was +transformed from its sedate and quiet ways into more energetic, +progressive, and speculative life. It was a new civilization that had +come to disturb the dreams of nearly a century, and it rapidly extended +its new influences until it reached the remotest ends of the little +county, and with this beneficent progress of civilization came also the +vices which ever accompany it, but against which the civilization itself +is ever fortified by the new factors called into requisition to +strengthen its restraining power. While advancing the better attributes +of mankind it has left unrest in the shop, the field, the forest, and +the mine, where there was content in other days, but that unrest is the +inevitable attendant of our matchless strides in the most enlightened +civilization of the age, and it will ever present new problems for our +statesmanship. + +It should be remembered that while Philadelphia had then two journals of +national fame under the direction of such accomplished editorial writers +as Joseph R. Chandler and Morton McMichael, there was not a daily +newspaper in this city, or in the State, that had a circulation of +5,000, excepting only the "Ledger," then a penny journal almost unknown +outside of the city. Even the New York "Tribune" and the New York +"Herald" then relatively quite as distinguished as national journals as +they are to-day, did not have a daily circulation of over 15,000. There +are several daily journals now published in Philadelphia, each of which +circulates more newspapers every day than did all the great dailies of +New York and Pennsylvania combined, fifty years ago. There were then +successful penny papers in New York and Pittsburg as well as +Philadelphia, but the penny journal of that day was only a local +newspaper in its way, and was unfelt as a political factor. + +Contrast the business, political, moral, and social conditions which +confront the journalism of this great city to-day, and none can fail to +appreciate the greatly magnified duties and responsibilities of the +journalist of this age. In this City of Brotherly Love, with the highest +standard of average intelligence in any community of like numbers of the +world, and the only great city to be found on the continent that is +distinctively American in its policy, how sharp is the contrast between +the civilization met by the Juniata "Sentinel" fifty years ago and the +civilization that is met by the Philadelphia journalist of to-day? +Public wrongs ever appear like huge cancers on the body politic, and the +swarms of the idle and vicious, with the studied crimes of those who +would acquire wealth without earning it, are a constant menace to the +social order and the safety of person and property, and demand the +utmost vigilance on the part of the faithful public journal. Continued +political power under all parties becomes corrupt and demoralized, and +it is not uncommon for apparently reputable political leaders of all +parties and organized crime to make common cause for public plunder. The +business and social conditions are also radically changed, and with +these the fearless journalists of to-day must deal with courage and +fidelity. From what was many years ago regarded, and with some reason, +as the license of the public press, has grown up the well-defined duty +of reputable journalism to maintain with dignity and firmness its +mission as public censor, and to-day in Philadelphia, as in all the +leading centres of the country, American journalism is not only the +great educator of the people, but it is the faithful handmaid of law and +order and of public and private morals. Like all great callings, from +which even the sacredness of the pulpit is not exempt, there are those +who bring persistent dishonor upon journalism, and pervert its powers to +ambition and greed; but discounted by all its imperfections, it is +to-day the greatest of our great factors in maintaining the best +attributes of our civilization and preserving social order and the +majesty of law; and the duties of the journalist to-day in our great +cities have reached a standard of dignity and magnitude of which even +the wildest enthusiast of fifty years ago could not have dreamed. + +Such is the revolution wrought in journalism within a single active +lifetime. The newspaper is no longer a luxury. From being confined to +the few, as it was half a century ago, the daily newspaper is now in +almost every home in the great States of the Union, and the grave +responsibility of journalism may be appreciated when it is remembered +that the newspaper to-day is the greatest educator of the people who are +to maintain our free institutions. Widely as our schools have extended +until they are accessible to the humblest of the land, the newspaper as +an educator reaches vastly more people than all the colleges and schools +of the nation. It is read not only by the men and women of mature years, +but it begins its offices as teacher in the home circle as soon as the +child becomes a pupil in the school, and it is constantly although +imperceptibly moulding the minds of millions of our youths of all +classes and all conditions, and it has no vacations in its great work. +It not only aids the more intelligent to a sound exercise of judgment on +questions of public interest, but it is ever quickening the impulses and +shaping the aims of those who are most easily impressed, and during the +important period of life when the character of men and women is formed. + +I have long held that the responsible direction of a widely read and +respected daily newspaper is the highest trust in our free government. I +do not thus speak of it to claim for it honors which may be questioned, +but I speak of it to present the oppressive responsibilities which rest +upon those who are to-day educating a nation of 70,000,000 of people, +under a government where every citizen is a sovereign, and where the +people hold in their own hands the destiny of the greatest Republic of +the world. Presidents, Cabinets, Senators, and Representatives come and +play their parts on the public stage and pass away--the few to be +remembered, the many to be forgotten--and political parties are created +and perish as new necessities and new conditions arise in the progress +of our free institutions. In my own day there have been created four new +political organizations which attained national importance, all of which +have elected Governors in Pennsylvania, and two of which have elected +Presidents of the United States, but three of them exist to-day only in +history. They are the Anti-Masonic, the Whig, the American, and the +Republican parties. Thus while rulers and the parties which call them to +power, come and go in the swift mutations of American politics, the +newspaper survives them all, and continues in its great career +regardless of the success or defeat of men or political organizations. + +To seek promotion in civil trust from the editorial chair of an +influential newspaper, is to sacrifice the grander opportunity and +responsibility for the unsatisfying fame of official distinction. It is +the mission of the newspaper to create Presidents and other rulers; to +judge them when in power; to sustain them when they have been faithful +and efficient in the discharge of public duties, and to defeat them when +they are forgetful of the public welfare. In the discharge of these +important duties the newspaper must, above all, be free from the +suspicion of seeking individual advantage and it can be so only by +accepting its trust as highest of all and more enduring than all. Great +editors have been presumably honored by conferring upon them high +official positions in recognition of party services, but no editor in +the entire history of American journalism who has made his newspaper +secondary to political ambition, has written any other record than +failure as both editor and statesman. + +My brethren of the press need not be reminded of the often painful +duties which come to the fearless editor. They must ever remember that +"faithful are the wounds of a friend," and no class of teachers so +well-known that:-- + + "Forgiveness to the injured does belong, + But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong." + +Few, very few indeed, outside of the editorial sanctum ever learn how +the surges of ambition, in all its varied and fantastic phases from the +noblest to the meanest, assail and often vex journalistic duties. The +public know not of the many gifted men who must thus at times be saved +from themselves, and an editorial retrospect of half a century presents +a sad record of the newspaper work of making bricks without straw. +Justly excepting the comparatively few public men who tower over +mediocrity in public place, journalism gives the position and fashions +the fame of most of them. It is not done arbitrarily nor from choice, as +public and political necessities are often paramount with journalists, +as with others, in awarding public honors; but with all its exactions +and responsibilities, which are ever magnified by the greater +opportunities for usefulness, there is no calling that brings richer +compensation for fidelity to duty. The consciousness that each day the +editor whose readers are numbered by hundreds of thousands, may greatly +aid in making the world better than it was in the passing yesterday, is +a constant inspiration to the best efforts, and it is especially +gratifying that even in the many and at times impassioned conflicts of +journalistic dispute, the rugged and sharp-angled walls which divide us +are ever so beautiful and fragrant with the flowers of good-fellowship, +as is impressively taught by this assembly. + +Thus charged with the highest of civil trusts in the most enlightened +government of the earth, the editor must be honored or dishonored here +by the measure of his fidelity to his exceptional duties, and must be so +judged in the hereafter, when the narrow pathway of life that divides +past and future eternities has been traversed. We come when bidden, we +know not whence; we go when bidden, we know not whither; but each and +all have duties to themselves, to their homes, to their country, and to +the common brotherhood of man, which when performed with the +faithfulness that human infirmities will permit, must greatly brighten +the brief and often fretful journey from the cradle to the grave. +Friends, in this evening twilight of my journalistic work, so sweetly +mellowed by the smiling faces, young and old, about me, I answer your +generous greeting with the gratitude that can perish only when the +gathering shadows shall have settled into the night that comes to purple +the better morn. + + + + +ST. CLAIR McKELWAY + + +SMASHED CROCKERY + +[Speech of St. Clair McKelway before the National Society of China + Importers, New York City, February 6, 1896.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND FRIENDS:--The china I buy abroad is marked +"Fragile" in shipment. That which I buy at home is marked: "Glass--This +Side Up With Care." The foreign word of caution is fact. The American +note of warning is fiction--with a moral motive. The common purpose of +both is protection from freight fractors and baggage smashers. The +European appeals to knowledge. The American addresses the imagination. +The one expresses the truth. The other extends it. Neither is entirely +successful. The skill and care of shippers cannot always victoriously +cope with the innate destructiveness of fallen human nature. There is a +great deal of smashed crockery in the world. + +You who are masters in the art of packing things and we whose vocation +is the art of putting things, both have reason to know that no pains of +placing or of preparation will guarantee freight or phrases, plates or +propositions, china of any kind or principles of any sort, from the +dangers of travel or from the tests of time. Your goods and our wares +have to take their chances in their way across the seas, throughout the +land and around the world. You lose some of yours merely in handling. +The defects of firing cannot be always foreseen. The intrusion of +inferior clay cannot be always prevented. The mere friction of contact +may produce bad nicks. Nor is the fineness nor the excellence of the +product an insurance against mishaps. From your factories or stores your +output is at the mercy of carriers without compunction, and in our +homes it is exposed to the heavy hands of servants without sentiment. +The pleasure of many a dinner is impaired by the fear or the +consciousness that inapt peasants are playing havoc with the treasures +of art on which the courses are served. + +If, however, the ceramic kingdom is strewn with smashed crockery, how +much more so are the worlds of theology, medicine, politics, society, +law, and the like. No finer piece of plate was ever put forth than the +one inscribed: "I will believe only what I know." It was for years +agreeable to the pride and vanity of the race. It made many a fool feel +as if his forehead was lifted as high as the heavens, and that at every +step he knocked out a star. When, however, the discovery was made that +this assumption to displace deity amounted to a failure to comprehend +nature, some disappointment was admitted. He who affected by searching +to find out and to equal God could not explain the power by which a tree +pumps its sap from roots to leaves, or why a baby rabbit rejects the +grasses that would harm it, or why a puling infant divines its mother +among the motley and multitudinous mass of sibilant saints at a sewing +society which is discussing the last wedding and the next divorce. He +"who admits only what he understands" would have to look on himself as a +conundrum and then give the conundrum up. He would have the longest +doubts and the shortest creed on record. Agnosticism is part of the +smashed crockery of the moral universe. + +Nor is the smug and confident contention: "Medicine is a science, one +and indivisible," so impressive and undented as it was. Sir Astley +Cooper in his plain, blunt way is reported to have described his own +idea of his own calling as "a science founded on conjecture and improved +by murder." The State of New York has rudely stepped in and legally and +irrevocably recognized three schools of medicine and will recognize a +fourth or a fifth as soon as it establishes itself by a sufficient +number of cures or in a sufficient number of cemeteries. Medical +intolerance cannot be legislated out of existence, but it has no further +recognition in legislation. A common and considerable degree of general +learning is by the State required of all intending students of medicine. +An equal and extended degree of professional study is required. An +identical measure of final examination with state certification and +state licensure is required. The claim that men and women must die +_secundum artem_ in order to have any permit to live here or to live +hereafter, has gone to the limbo of smashed crockery in the realm of +therapeutics. The arrogant pretension that men must die _secundum artem_ +has been adjourned--_sine die_. And the State which prescribes uniform +qualifications among the schools will yet require uniform consultations +between them in the interest of the people whom they impartially prod +and concurrently purge with diversity of methods, but with parity of +price. + +Other long impressive and long pretty plaques have also been +incontinently smashed. One was lovingly lettered: "Once a Democrat, +always a Democrat." Another was inscribed: "Unconditional +Republicanism." In the white light of to-day the truth that an +invariable partisan is an occasional lunatic becomes impressively +apparent. Party under increasing civilization is a factor, not a fetish. +It is a means, not an end. It is an instrument, not an idol. Man is its +master, not its slave. Not that men will cease to act on party lines. +Party lines are the true divisional boundary between schools of thought. +No commission is needed to discover or to establish those lines. They +have made their own route or course in human nature. The bondage from +which men will free themselves is bondage to party organizations. Those +organizations are combinations for power and spoils. They are feudal in +their form, predatory in their spirit, military in their methods, but +they necessarily bear no more relation to political principles than +Italian banditti do to Italian unity, or the men who hold up railway +trains do to the laws of transportation. Party slavery is a bad and +disappearing form of smashed crockery. + +The smashed crockery of society and of law could also be remarked. Our +fathers' dictum, that it is the only duty of women to be charming, +deserves to be sent into retirement. It is no more their duty to be +charming than it is the duty of the sun to light, or the rose to +perfume, or the trees to cast a friendly shade. A function is not a +duty. In the right sense of the word it is a nature or a habit. It is +the property of women and it is their prerogative to be charming, but if +they made it a duty, the effort would fail, for the intention would be +apparent and the end would impeach the means. Indeed, the whole theory +of the eighteenth century about women has gone to the limbo of smashed +crockery. It has been found that education does not hurt her. It has +been discovered that learning strengthens her like a tonic and becomes +her like a decoration. It has been discovered that she can compete with +men in the domain of lighter labor, in several of the professions, and +in not a few of the useful arts. The impression of her as a pawn, a +property or a plaything, came down from paganism to Christianity and was +too long retained by the Christian world. There is even danger of excess +in the liberality now extended to her. The toast, "Woman, Once Our +Superior and Now Our Equal," is not without satire as well as +significance. There must be a measurable reaction against the ultra +tendency in progress which has evolved the New Woman, as the phrase is. +I never met one and I hope I never shall. The women of the present, the +girls of the period, the sex up-to-date, will more than suffice to +double our joys and to treble our expenses. The new fads, as well as the +old fallacies, can be thrown among the smashed crockery of demolished +and discarded misconceptions. + +I intended to say much about the smashed crockery of the lawyers. I +intended to touch upon the exploded claim that clients are their slaves, +witnesses theirs for vivisection, courts their playthings, and juries +their dupes. More mummery has thrived in law than in even medicine or +theology. The disenchanting and discriminating tendency of a realistic +age has, however, somewhat reformed the bar. Fluency, without force, is +discounted in our courts. The merely smart practitioner finds his +measure quickly taken and that the conscientious members of his calling +hold him at arm's length. Judges are learning that they are not rated +wise when they are obscure, or profound when they are stupid, or +mysterious when they are reserved. Publicity is abating many of the +abuses both of the bench and the bar. It will before long, even in this +judicial department, require both rich and poor to stand equal before +the bar of justice. The conjugal complications of plutocrats will not be +sealed up from general view by sycophantic magistrates, while the +matrimonial infelicities of the less well-to-do are spread broad on the +records. The still continuing scandals of partitioning refereeships +among the family relatives of judges will soon be stopped and the shame +and scandal of damage suits or of libel suits, without cause, maintained +by procured and false testimony and conducted on sheer speculation, will +be brought to an end. The law is full of rare crockery, but it is also +replete with crockery that ought to be smashed. Much bad crockery in it +has been smashed and much more will be, if necessary, by the press, +which is itself not without considerable ceramic material that could be +pulverized with signal benefit to the public and to the fourth estate. + +But why am I talking about smashed crockery when I am told that it is +the very life of your trade? Were crockery imperishable this would be +the last dinner of your association. Your members would be eating cold +victuals at area doors, passed to you on the plates you have made, by +the domestics whose free and easy carelessness is really the foundation +of your fortunes. You want crockery to be smashed, because the more +smash the more crockery and the more crockery the more output, and the +more output the more revenue, and the more revenue the more Waldorf +dinners, and the more Waldorf dinners the more opportunity for you to +make the men of other callings stand and deliver those speeches, which I +like to hear, and in the hope of hearing which I now give way. + + + * * * * * + + +TRIBUTE TO MARK TWAIN + +[Speech of St. Clair McKelway at a dinner given in honor of Samuel L. + Clemens [Mark Twain] by the Lotos Club, New York City, November 2, + 1900. The President of the Lotos, Frank R. Lawrence, introduced Dr. + McKelway as the man whose wondrous use of adjectives has converted to + his opinion many doubters throughout this city and country.] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND FRIENDS:--Years ago we here sought to hold up +Mark Twain's hands. Now we all feel like holding up our own, in +congratulation of him and of ourselves. Of him because his warfare is +accomplished. Of ourselves because he has returned to our company. If it +was a pleasure to know him then, it is a privilege and an honor to know +him now. He has fought the good fight. He has kept the faith. He is +ready to be offered up, but we are not ready to have him offered up. For +we want the Indian summer of his life to be long, and that to be +followed by a genial winter, which, if it be as frosty as his hair, +shall also be as kindly as his heart. [Applause.] + +He has enough excess and versatility of ability to be a genius. He has +enough quality and quantity of virtues to be a saint. But he has +honorably transmuted his genius into work, whereby it has been brought +into relations with literature and with life. And he has preferred warm +fellowship to cold perfection, so that sinners love him and saints are +content to wait for him. May they wait long. [Applause.] + +I think he is entitled to be regarded as the Dean of America's humor; +that he is entitled to the distinction of being the greatest humorist +this nation ever had. I say this with a fair knowledge of the chiefs of +the entire corps, from Francis Hopkinson and the author of "Hasty +Pudding," down to Bill Nye and Dooley. None of them would I depreciate. +I would greatly prefer to honor and hail them all for the singular +fittedness of their gifts to the needs of the nation in their times. +Hopkinson and Joel Barlow lightened the woes of the Revolution by the +touch of nature that makes the whole world grin. Seba Smith relieved the +Yankee sense of tension under the impact of Jacksonian roughness, by +tickling its ribs with a quill. Lieutenant Derby turned the searchlight +of fun on the stiff formalities of army posts, on the raw conditions of +alkali journalism and on the solemn humbugs of frontier politics. James +Russell Lowell used dialect for dynamite to blow the front off hypocrisy +or to shatter the cotton commercialism in which the New England +conscience was encysted. Robert H. Newell, mirth-maker and mystic, +satirized military ignorance and pinchbeck bluster to an immortality of +contempt. Bret Harte in verse and story touched the parallels of tragedy +and of comedy, of pathos, of bathos, and of humor, which love of life +and lust of gold opened up amid the unapprehended grandeurs and the +coveted treasures of primeval nature. Charles F. Browne made "Artemus +Ward" as well known as Abraham Lincoln in the time the two divided the +attention of the world. Bill Nye singed the shams of his day, and Dooley +dissects for Hinnissey the shams of our own. Nor should we forget Eugene +Field, the beatifier of childhood; or Joel Chandler Harris, the fabulist +of the plantation; or Ruth McEnery Stuart, the coronal singer of the +joys and hopes, the loves and the dreams of the images of God in ebony +in the old South, ere it leaped and hardened to the new. + +To these, love and honor. But to this man honor's crown of honor, for he +has made a mark none of the others has reached. Few of them have +diversified the delights to be drawn from their pages of humor. They +have, as humorists, in distinction to the work of moralists, novelists, +orators and poets, in which the rarest among them shine, they have as +humorists, in the main, worked a single vein. And some of them were +humorists for a purpose, a dreary grind that, and some of them were only +humorists for a period as well as for a purpose. The purpose served, the +period passed, the humor that was of their life a thing apart, ceased. +'Tis Clemens' whole existence! [Applause.] + +As Bacon made all learning his province, so Mark Twain has made all life +and history his quarry, from the Jumping Frog to the Yankee at Arthur's +Court; from the inquested petrifaction that died of protracted exposure +to the present parliament of Austria; from the Grave of Adam to the +mysteries of the Adamless Eden known as the league of professional +women; from Mulberry Sellers to Joan of Arc, and from Edward the Sixth +to Puddin'head Wilson, who wanted to kill his half of the deathless dog. + +Nevada is forgiven its decay because he flashed the oddities of its +zenith life on pages that endure. California is worth more than its +gold, because he showed to men the heart under its swagger. He annexed +the Sandwich Islands to the fun of the nation long before they were put +under its flag. Because of him the Missouri and the Mississippi go not +unvexed to the sea, for they ripple with laughter as they recall Tom +Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, poor Jim, and the Duke. Europe, Asia Minor, +and Palestine are open doors to the world, thanks to this Pilgrim's +Progress with his "Innocents Abroad." Purity, piety and pity shine out +from "Prince and Pauper" like the eyes of a wondering deer on a +torch-lighted night from a wooded fringe of mountain and of lake. + +But enough of what I fear is already too much. In expressing my debt to +him, I hope I express somewhat at least of yours. I cannot repay him in +kind any more than I could rival him. None of us can. But we can render +to him a return he would like. With him we can get our way to reality, +and burn off pretence as acid eats its way to the denuded plate of the +engraver. We can strip the veneer of convention from style, and +strengthen our thought in his Anglo-Saxon well of English undefiled. We +can drop seeming for sincerity. We can be relentless toward hypocrisy +and tender to humanity. We can rejoice in the love of laughter, without +ever once letting it lead us to libertinism of fancy. We can reach +through humor the heart of man. We can make exaggeration the scourge of +meanness and the magnifier of truth on the broad screen of life. By +study of him, the nothing new under the sun can be made fresh and +fragrant by the supreme art of putting things. Though none of us can +handle his wand, all of us can be transformed by it into something +different from and finer than our dull selves. That is our delight, that +is our debt, both due to him, and long may he remain with us to +brighten, to broaden and to better our souls with the magic mirth and +with the mirthful magic of his incomparable spell. [Applause.] + +[Illustration: REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS FROM THE LIBRARY +OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON + +"_PATRIOTISM_" + +_Photo-engraving in colors after an original painting by George W. +Maynard_ + + +This is from a series of eight panels, representing "The +Virtues"--Fortitude, Justice, Patriotism, Courage, Temperance, Prudence, +Industry, and Concord. Each figure is about five and a half feet high +clad in drapery, and standing out on a solid red background. The style +is Pompeiian, the general tone is somewhat like marble, but relieved by +a touch of color. "Patriotism" is represented as feeding an eagle, the +emblem of America, from a golden bowl, symbolizing the nourishment given +by this Virtue to the spirit of the nation.] + + + + +WILLIAM McKINLEY + + +OUR COUNTRY + +[Speech of President McKinley, in response to the toast "Our Country," + at the Peace Jubilee banquet in the Auditorium, Chicago, October 19, + 1898. The President was introduced by Hon. Franklin MacVeagh, in the + following words: "Since Washington, with the exception of Lincoln, no + President has carried upon his shoulders such grave responsibilities + or met such heavy demands upon his judgment, forbearance and wisdom as + President McKinley. [Great applause.] And no President, not even + Lincoln, has more willingly endured for his people, or has more + trusted in the people, or has sought more high-mindedly to interpret + and carry out the sober thought and ultimate will of the nation. + [Applause.] He has a reward in the affection and confidence of the + people. [Applause] It is this eminent President and this eminently + patriotic man who will now address you on the subject of 'Our + Country.'" It was several minutes before the cheering had subsided + sufficiently to enable President McKinley to make his voice heard.] + + +MR. TOAST-MASTER AND GENTLEMEN:--It affords me gratification to +meet the people of the city of Chicago and to participate with them in +this patriotic celebration. Upon the suspension of hostilities of a +foreign war, the first in our history for over half a century, we have +met in a spirit of peace, profoundly grateful for the glorious +advancement already made, and earnestly wishing in the final termination +to realize an equally glorious fulfillment. With no feeling of +exultation, but with profound thankfulness, we contemplate the events of +the past five months. They have been too serious to admit of boasting or +vain-glorification. They have been so full of responsibilities, +immediate and prospective, as to admonish the soberest judgment and +counsel the most conservative action. + +This is not the time to fire the imagination, but rather to discover, in +calm reason, the way to truth, and justice, and right, and when +discovered to follow it with fidelity and courage, without fear, +hesitation, or weakness. [Applause.] + +The war has put upon the nation grave responsibilities. Their extent was +not anticipated and could not have been well foreseen. We cannot escape +the obligations of victory. We cannot avoid the serious questions which +have been brought home to us by the achievements of our arms on land and +sea. We are bound in conscience to keep and perform the covenants which +the war has sacredly sealed with mankind. Accepting war for humanity's +sake, we must accept all obligations which the war in duty and honor +imposed upon us. The splendid victories we have achieved would be our +eternal shame and not our everlasting glory if they led to the weakening +of our original lofty purpose or to the desertion of the immortal +principles on which the national government was founded, and in +accordance with whose ennobling spirit it has ever since been faithfully +administered. + +The war with Spain was undertaken not that the United States should +increase its territory, but that oppression at our very doors should be +stopped. This noble sentiment must continue to animate us, and we must +give to the world the full demonstration of the sincerity of our +purpose. Duty determines destiny. Destiny which results from duty +performed may bring anxiety and perils, but never failure and dishonor. +Pursuing duty may not always lead by smooth paths. Another course may +look easier and more attractive, but pursuing duty for duty's sake is +always sure and safe and honorable. It is not within the power of man to +foretell the future and to solve unerringly its mighty problems. +Almighty God has His plans and methods for human progress, and not +infrequently they are shrouded for the time being in impenetrable +mystery. Looking backward we can see how the hand of destiny builded for +us and assigned us tasks whose full meaning was not apprehended even by +the wisest statesmen of their times. + +Our colonial ancestors did not enter upon their war originally for +independence. Abraham Lincoln did not start out to free the slaves, but +to save the Union. The war with Spain was not of our seeking, and some +of its consequences may not be to our liking. Our vision is often +defective. Short-sightedness is a common malady, but the closer we get +to things or they get to us the clearer our view and the less obscure +our duty. Patriotism must be faithful as well as fervent; statesmanship +must be wise as well as fearless--not the statesmanship which will +command the applause of the hour, but the approving judgment of +posterity. [Applause.] + +The progress of a nation can alone prevent degeneration. There must be +new life and purpose, or there will be weakness and decay. There must be +broadening of thought as well as broadening of trade. Territorial +expansion is not alone and always necessary to national advancement. +There must be a constant movement toward a higher and nobler +civilization, a civilization that shall make its conquests without +resort to war and achieve its greatest victories pursuing the arts of +peace. + +In our present situation duty--and duty alone--should prescribe the +boundary of our responsibilities and the scope of our undertakings. The +final determination of our purposes awaits the action of the eminent men +who are charged by the executive with the making of the treaty of peace, +and that of the Senate of the United States, which, by our constitution, +must ratify and confirm it. We all hope and pray that the confirmation +of peace will be as just and humane as the conduct and consummation of +the war. When the work of the treaty-makers is done the work of the +lawmakers will begin. The one will settle the extent of our +responsibilities; the other must provide the legislation to meet them. +The army and navy have nobly and heroically performed their part. May +God give the executive and congress wisdom to perform theirs. +[Applause.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES + +[Speech of William McKinley at the eleventh annual banquet of the Home + Market Club, Boston, Mass., February 16, 1899. William B. Plunkett, + President of the Club, said in introducing the President of the United + States: "Not the Home Market Club, not the city of Boston, not + Massachusetts only, but all New England give you greeting of welcome, + Mr. President. In our retrospective of the year past we would give + full meed of honor and praise to the President who so nobly met and so + faithfully discharged the grave responsibilities of that great office, + and thanksgiving to the Divine Providence that sustained him. In such + hands, under such guidance, we may safely trust the future of our + Republic. I have the great honor to present to you the beloved + President of the United States, William McKinley." The enthusiasm + displayed when the President was introduced was tremendous. In it all + he remained to all appearances calm and collected, as he stood and + silently acknowledged the reception.] + + +MR. TOAST-MASTER AND GENTLEMEN:--I have been deeply and +profoundly moved by this manifestation of your good-will and confidence +and impressed by the expressions of good-will from the Governor of your +great Commonwealth [Roger Wolcott] as well as from the chief executive +[Josiah Quincy] of the capital city of your State. No one stands in this +magnificent presence, listening to the patriotic strains from choir and +band, without knowing what this great audience was thinking about. It +was thinking, it is thinking this moment, of country, because they love +it and have faith in themselves and in its future. I thank the Governor +of Massachusetts, I thank the Mayor of the city of Boston, for their +warm and generous words of welcome, offered in behalf of this people to +me in your presence to-night. + +The years go quickly. It seems not so long, but it is in fact six years +since it was my honor to be a guest of the Home Market Club. Much has +happened in the intervening time. Issues which were then engaging us +have been settled or put aside for larger and more absorbing ones. +Domestic conditions have improved and are generally satisfactory. + +We have made progress in industry and have realized the prosperity for +which we have been striving. We had four long years of adversity, which +taught us some lessons which will never be unlearned and which will be +valuable in guiding our future action. We have not only been successful +in our financial and business affairs, but have been successful in a war +with a foreign power, which has added great glory to American arms and a +new chapter to American history. + +I do not know why in the year 1899 this republic has unexpectedly had +placed before it mighty problems which it must face and meet. They have +come and are here and they could not be kept away. Many who were +impatient for the conflict a year ago, apparently heedless of its larger +results, are the first to cry out against the far-reaching consequences +of their own act. Those of us who dreaded war most and whose every +effort was directed to prevent it, had fears of new and grave problems +which might follow its inauguration. + +The evolution of events which no man could control has brought these +problems upon us. Certain it is that they have not come through any +fault on our own part, but as a high obligation, and we meet them with +clear conscience and unselfish purpose, and with good heart resolve to +undertake their solution. + +War was declared in April, 1898, with practical unanimity by the +Congress, and, once upon us, was sustained by like unanimity among the +people. There had been many who had tried to avert it, as, on the other +hand, there were many who would have precipitated it at an earlier date. +In its prosecution and conclusion the great majority of our countrymen +of every section believed they were fighting in a just cause, and at +home or at sea or in the field they had part in its glorious triumphs. +It was the war of an undivided nation. Every great act in its progress, +from Manila to Santiago, from Guam to Porto Rico, met universal and +hearty commendation. The protocol commanded the practically unanimous +approval of the American people. It was welcomed by every lover of peace +beneath the flag. [Applause.] + +The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were intrusted to our hands +by the war, and to that great trust, under the providence of God and in +the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed. It is a +trust we have not sought; it is a trust from which we will not flinch. +The American people will hold up the hands of their servants at home to +whom they commit its execution, while Dewey and Otis and the brave men +whom they command will have the support of the country in upholding our +flag where it now floats, the symbol and assurance of liberty and +justice. [Applause.] + +What nation was ever able to write an accurate programme of the war upon +which it was entering, much less decree in advance the scope of its +results? Congress can declare war, but a higher power decrees its bounds +and fixes its relations and responsibilities. The President can direct +the movements of soldiers on the field and fleets upon the sea, but he +cannot foresee the close of such movements or prescribe their limits. He +cannot anticipate or avoid the consequences, but he must meet them. No +accurate map of nations engaged in war can be traced until the war is +over, nor can the measure of responsibility be fixed till the last gun +is fired and the verdict embodied in the stipulations of peace. + +We hear no complaint of the relations created by the war between this +Government and the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. There are some, +however, who regard the Philippines as in a different relation; but +whatever variety of views there maybe on this phase of the question, +there is universal agreement that the Philippines shall not be turned +back to Spain. No true American consents to that. Even if unwilling to +accept them ourselves, it would have been a weak evasion of manly duty +to require Spain to transfer them to some other Power or Powers, and +thus shirk our own responsibility. Even if we had had, as we did not +have, the power to compel such a transfer, it could not have been made +without the most serious international complications. Such a course +could not be thought of. And yet had we refused to accept the cession of +them we should have had no power over them, even for their own good. We +could not discharge the responsibilities upon us until these islands +became ours, either by conquest or treaty. There was but one +alternative, and that was either Spain or the United States in the +Philippines. The other suggestions--first, that they should be tossed +into the arena of contention for the strife of nations; or, second, be +left to the anarchy and chaos of no protectorate at all--were too +shameful to be considered. [Applause.] + +The treaty gave them to the United States. Could we have required less +and done our duty? + +Could we, after freeing the Filipinos from the domination of Spain, have +left them without government and without power to protect life or +property or to perform the international obligations essential to an +independent State? Could we have left them in a state of anarchy and +justified ourselves in our own consciences or before the tribunal of +mankind? Could we have done that in the sight of God or man? + +Our concern was not for territory or trade or empire, but for the people +whose interests and destiny, without our willing it, had been put in our +hands. It was with this feeling that from the first day to the last not +one word or line went from the Executive in Washington to our military +and naval commanders at Manila or to our Peace Commissioners at Paris, +that did not put as the sole purpose to be kept in mind, first after the +success of our arms and the maintenance of our own honor, the welfare +and happiness and the rights of the inhabitants of the Philippine +islands. Did we need their consent to perform a great act for humanity? +We had it in every aspiration of their minds, in every hope of their +hearts. Was it necessary to ask their consent to capture Manila, the +capital of their islands? Did we ask their consent to liberate them from +Spanish sovereignty or to enter Manila Bay and destroy the Spanish +sea-power there? We did not ask these; we were obeying a higher moral +obligation which rested on us and which did not require anybody's +consent. We were doing our duty by them, as God gave us the light to see +our duty, with the consent of our own consciences and with the approval +of civilization. Every present obligation has been met and fulfilled in +the expulsion of Spanish sovereignty from their islands, and while the +war that destroyed it was in progress we could not ask their views. Nor +can we now ask their consent. Indeed, can any one tell me in what form +it could be marshaled and ascertained until peace and order, so +necessary to the reign of reason, shall be secured and established? A +reign of terror is not the kind of rule under which right action and +deliberate judgment are possible. It is not a good time for the +liberator to submit important questions concerning liberty and +government to the liberated while they are engaged in shooting down +their rescuers. + +We have now ended the war with Spain. The treaty has been ratified by +the votes of more than two-thirds of the Senate of the United States and +by the judgment of nine-tenths of its people. No nation was ever more +fortunate in war or more honorable in its negotiations in peace. Spain +is now eliminated from the problem. It remains to ask what we shall now +do. I do not intrude upon the duties of Congress or seek to anticipate +or forestall its action. I only say that the treaty of peace, honorably +secured, having been ratified by the United States, and, as we +confidently expect, shortly to be ratified in Spain, Congress will have +the power, and I am sure the purpose, to do what in good morals is right +and just and humane for these peoples in distant seas. + +It is sometimes hard to determine what is best to do, and the best thing +to do is oftentimes the hardest. The prophet of evil would do nothing +because he flinches at sacrifice and effort, and to do nothing is +easiest and involves the least cost. On those who have things to do +there rests a responsibility which is not on those who have no +obligations as doers. If the doubters were in a majority, there would, +it is true, be no labor, no sacrifice, no anxiety, and no burden raised +or carried; no contribution from our ease and purse and comfort to the +welfare of others, or even to the extension of our resources to the +welfare of ourselves. There would be ease, but alas! there would be +nothing done. + +But grave problems come in the life of a nation, however much men may +seek to avoid them. They come without our seeking; why, we do not know, +and it is not always given us to know; but the generation on which they +are forced cannot avoid the responsibility of honestly striving for +their solution. We may not know precisely how to solve them, but we can +make an honest effort to that end, and if made in conscience, justice, +and honor, it will not be in vain. + +The future of the Philippine Islands is now in the hands of the American +people. Until the treaty was ratified or rejected the Executive +department of this government could only preserve the peace and protect +life and property. That treaty now commits the free and enfranchised +Filipinos to the guiding hand and the liberalizing influences, the +generous sympathies, the uplifting education, not of their American +masters, but of their American emancipators. No one can tell to-day what +is best for them or for us. I know no one at this hour who is wise +enough or sufficiently informed to determine what form of government +will best subserve their interests and our interests, their and our +well-being. + +If we knew everything by intuition--and I sometimes think that there are +those who believe that if we do not, they do--we should not need +information; but, unfortunately, most of us are not in that happy state. +This whole subject is now with Congress; and Congress is the voice, the +conscience and the judgment of the American people. Upon their judgment +and conscience can we not rely? I believe in them. I trust them. I know +of no better or safer human tribunal than the people. [Applause.] + +Until Congress shall direct otherwise, it will be the duty of the +Executive to possess and hold the Philippines, giving to the people +thereof peace and order and beneficent government, affording them every +opportunity to prosecute their lawful pursuits, encouraging them in +thrift and industry, making them feel and know that we are their +friends, not their enemies, that their good is our aim, that their +welfare is our welfare, but that neither their aspirations nor ours can +be realized until our authority is acknowledged and unquestioned. + +That the inhabitants of the Philippines will be benefited by this +Republic is my unshaken belief. That they will have a kindlier +government under our guidance, and that they will be aided in every +possible way to be a self-respecting and self-governing people is as +true as that the American people love liberty and have an abiding faith +in their own government and in their own institutions. No imperial +designs lurk in the American mind. They are alien to American sentiment, +thought and purpose. Our priceless principles undergo no change under a +tropical sun. They go with the flag. They are wrought in every one of +its sacred folds and are inextinguishable in its shining stars. + + "Why read ye not the changeless truth, + The free can conquer but to save." + +If we can benefit these remote peoples, who will object? If in the years +of the future they are established in government under law and liberty, +who will regret our perils and sacrifices? Who will not rejoice in our +heroism and humanity? Always perils, and always after them safety; +always darkness and clouds, but always shining through them the light +and the sunshine; always cost and sacrifice, but always after them the +fruition of liberty, education and civilization. + +I have no light or knowledge not common to my countrymen. I do not +prophesy. The present is all-absorbing to me, but I cannot bound my +vision by the blood-stained trenches around Manila, where every red +drop, whether from the veins of an American soldier or a misguided +Filipino, is anguish to my heart; but by the broad range of future +years, when that group of islands, under the impulse of the year just +passed, shall have become the gems and glories of those tropical seas; a +land of plenty and of increasing possibilities; a people redeemed from +savage indolence and habits, devoted to the arts of peace, in touch with +the commerce and trade of all nations, enjoying the blessings of +freedom, of civil and religious liberty, of education and of homes, and +whose children and children's children shall for ages hence bless the +American Republic because it emancipated and redeemed their fatherland +and set them in the pathway of the world's best civilization. +[Long-continued applause and cheers.] + + + + +WILLIAM B. MELISH + + +THE LADIES + +[Speech of William B. Melish at a banquet given in honor of the Grand + Encampment of Knights Templars of the United States, by the Templars + of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg, Pa., 1898. Colonel Melish, of + Cincinnati, Ohio, was assigned the toast, "Our ladies."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--Once in three years it falls to +the lot of a few, a happy few, of us budding blossoms of the official +corps of the Grand Encampment to be discovered by a triennial committee, +and distinguished by having our names printed on the banquet lists, and +told that we are to sit among the elect at the big centre table, and to +respond to certain toasts. With all the vanity of man we gladly accept, +and care little what the toast may be. So, when the Pittsburg Committee +asked me to select my topic, I rashly said "any old thing," and they +told me I was to talk about the ladies. Then I regretted that I had said +"any old thing." [Laughter.] In vain I told them I knew but little of +the subject, delightful though it be, and that what I did know I dare +not tell in this presence. The Chairman unearthed some ancient Templar +landmark of the Crusaders Hopkins and Gobin, about "a Knight's duty is +to obey," hence as the poet says:-- + + "When a woman's in the case, + You know all other things give place." + +Last Sunday when the Grand Master, and all the Grand officers, save +possibly the Grand Prelate, made their _triennial_ appearance in church, +I picked up a book in the pew I was in, and was impressed with the +opening chapters of a story called "The Book of Genesis." It is the +first mention made of one who was entitled to be called the "first +lady in the land." I read that the Creator "saw everything that he had +made and behold it was very good," and he rested. Then He made man and +said He was good--and He rested. He then made woman out of the rib of a +man, but no mention is made of His remarks, or of His resting--in fact +there has been no rest for mankind ever since. [Laughter.] The first +lady was called woman--"because she was taken out of man," and twenty +centuries look down upon us, and we realize that what she has taken out +of man is a plenty. As the poet Moore pleasantly remarks:-- + + "Disguise our bondage as we will + 'Tis woman, woman rules us still." + +For two thousand years the Order of Knighthood has been endeavoring to +ameliorate and elevate the condition of womankind. Among savages they +are beasts of burden, among barbarians and Mohammedans they are toys or +slaves, but among us, thanks to American manhood, they have our love and +respect, they have all our rights, all our money, and, in these days of +tailor-made garments, they have nearly all our clothes; and we smile and +smile, and wonder what next? [Laughter.] + +Is it surprising that a sedate, sober-minded, slightly bald-headed, +middle-aged Templar Knight, "used only to war's alarms [laughter] and +not to woman's charms," should be at a loss what to say on an occasion +like this, or to do justice to such a subject? It is delightful to have +the ladies here. Like Timon of Athens we can truly say:-- + + "You have, fair ladies, + Set a fair fashion to our entertainment, + Which was not half so beautiful and kind." + +In the presence of the bright eyes, rosy cheeks, and warm red lips of +the ladies it might be possible to work up to the proper degree of +enthusiasm in the short time allotted me, if it were not for the stony +glare of one which says "Beware, I am here!" [Laughter.] Now, in my +innocence, I presumed that poets were the fellows who had prepared all +the pretty things to say about the dear girls, but I find a variety of +opinions expressed. That good old Masonic bard, Bobby Burns, says:-- + + "And nature swears, the lovely dears, + Her noblest work she classes, O; + Her 'prentice hand she tried on man + An' then she made the lasses, O." + +But you will note that Dame Nature swears this, and she is not a +competent witness, as she had nothing to do with the little surgical +episode when Brother Adam lost his rib. [Laughter.] Lord Lyttleton gave +our sisters good advice, as follows:-- + + "Seek to be good, but aim not to be great, + A woman's noblest station is Retreat, + Her fairest virtues fly from public sight, + Domestic worth that shuns too strong a light." + +Another English authority named "Howe," in his "Advice to Wives," +says:-- + + "A wife, domestic, good and pure + Like snail should keep within her door, + But not, like snail, with silver track + Place all her wealth upon her back." + +But who in these latter days would preach the heresies of those +old-fashioned fellows to the hundreds of ladies present, plumed in all +the titles and distinctions of the hundred and one woman's clubs of +to-day, which they represent. Perish the thought! + +Woman is being emancipated. She is enthroned in the sun, crowned with +stars, and, trampling beneath her dainty feet the burnt-out moon, emblem +of a vanished despotism that denied her the companionship of her +husband, questioned her immortality, locked her up in the harem, or +harnessed her to the plough. A hundred years from now, if she does a +man's work, she will be paid a man's wages [applause], and some of us +will not have to work for a living, but can go to our clubs in peace, +take our afternoon naps, and be ready in the evening to get Mamma's +slippers ready when she comes home from the office. [Laughter.] + +But the problem for to-night is how to consider the various relations +which women bear to us weak, frail men--as mother or mother-in-law, as +sweetheart or wife. We are somewhat in the predicament of the green +bridegroom at Delmonico's who said: "Waiter, we want dinner for two." +"Will ze lady and ze gentleman haf table d'hote or a la carte?" "Oh, +bring us some of both, with lots of gravy on 'em!" Oh, ye Knights! Take +the advice of the philosopher who is talking to you, and be on the best +of terms with your mother-in-law. [Laughter.] Only get her on your side, +and you have a haven to fly to when all others fail to appreciate you, +and when some one of the others feels appointed a special agent to tell +you about it. Now, it isn't everybody that knows this, and I commend it +to you. [Laughter.] + +Some men are like the two darkies I heard discussing the question of +what a man should do if he were in a boat on a wide river, with his +mother and his wife, and the boat should sink, and he could only save +one woman. "Johnson," said Billy Rice, "who would you save, yo' mudder +or yo' wife?" Johnson thought and said: "Billy! I would save my mudder. +I could get anudder wife, but where under the blue canopy of hebben +could I get anudder dear old mudder?" "But look here, Billy! 'Spose you +was in de boat, in de middle of de river, wid yo' wife and yo' +mudder-in-law?" "Oh, what a cinch!"--said Billy. "And de boat," +continued Johnson, "was to strike a snag and smash to pieces, and +eberybody go into de water, who would you save?" "My wife, dar! my +mudder-in-law dar! and de boat strike a snag?" "Yes!" "I would save de +snag," said Billy. "I could get anudder wife, I might den have anudder +mudder-in-law, but where under de blue canopy of hebben could I find +anudder dear, thoughtful old snag?" [Laughter.] + +It has been well said that "all a woman has to do in this world is +contained within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a +mother." She has sustained at least one of these relations to even the +poorest of us; but I wonder if there is a man here to-night so miserably +abject and forlorn and God-forsaken as not, some time in his life, to +have been able to regard her in the delightful relation of sweetheart? I +hope not. I would rather he had had a dozen, than no sweetheart at all. +The most unselfish devotion we may ever know is that of our mother; a +sweet affection is that of our sisters, a most tender love is that of +our daughters, but the love and affection we all want, and without which +we are never satisfied, is that of the sweethearts who reward our +devotion--out of all proportion to our deserts--by becoming our wives +and the mothers of our daughters. [Applause.] + +It is not less the pleasure than the duty of every man to have a +sweetheart--I was almost tempted to say, the more, the merrier--and the +sooner he makes one of his sweethearts his wife, the better for him. If +he is a "woman-hater," or professes to be (for, as a matter of fact, +there is no such anomaly as a genuine "woman-hater" at liberty in this +great and glorious country), let him beware, as I believe with +Thackeray, that a "woman, with fair opportunities, and without an +absolute hump, may _marry_ whom she likes. [Laughter.] Only let us be +thankful that the darlings are like the beasts of the field, and don't +know their own power." As the poet--what's-his-name--so beautifully and +feelingly and touchingly observes:-- + + "Oh, woman, in our hours of ease, + Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,"-- + "But seen too oft, familiar with her face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +Next to God, we are indebted to woman for life itself, and then for +making it worth living. To describe her, the pen should be dipped in the +humid colors of the rainbow, and the paper dried with the dust gathered +from the wings of a butterfly. There is one in the world who feels for +him who is sad a keener pang than he feels for himself; there is one to +whom reflected joy is better than that which comes direct; there is one +who rejoices in another's honor more than in her own; there is one upon +whom another's transcendent excellence sheds no beam but that of +delight; there is one who hides another's infirmities more faithfully +than her own; there is one who loses all sense of self in the sentiment +of kindness, tenderness, and devotion to another--that one is she who is +honored with the holy name of wife. [Applause.] With the immortal +Shakespeare we may say: + + "Why, man, she is mine own; + And I as rich in having such a jewel, + As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearl, + The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold." + +I can do no greater justice to my subject, the occasion, and myself, +than by closing with the words of Shelley: "Win her and wear her if you +can. She is the most delightful of God's creatures. Heaven's best gift; +man's joy and pride in prosperity; man's support and comfort in +affliction." I drink her health. God bless her. [Prolonged applause.] + + + + +NELSON APPLETON MILES + + +THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR + +[Speech of Major-General Nelson A. Miles at a banquet given in his honor + by more than seven hundred of the most distinguished citizens of New + York City, November 11, 1898. While the last course was being served, + a unique procession made the round of the hall. It was headed by three + figures, one fifer and two drummers, attired to represent the famous + painting called "Spirit of '76." These three were followed by a + procession bearing miniature ships of war manufactured of various + confections. Joseph H. Choate was Chairman of the banquet.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:-- + + "Joyfully dear is the homeward track, + If we are but sure of a welcome back." + +Such a generous reception has been extended to me to-night as few are +permitted to enjoy, and I should be wanting in gratitude did I not +appreciate the sentiment expressed in this cordial greeting. I should be +vain indeed to ascribe it to myself, or for a moment to accept it solely +as a personal tribute. As an expression of appreciation of the gallant +troops which I have the honor to command, it is accepted in behalf of +the living and for them I thank you, as well as for those whose lips are +forever silent and whose heroism and sacrifice I know are here +remembered and revered. + +This reception is to me doubly gratifying, for I am delighted to return +once more to the shores of the Great Republic and also to be welcomed by +the men of the great Empire State and by those associated with them in +this entertainment. For many years New York has seemed like home to me. +I passed down Broadway in 1861, at the age of twenty-one, a lieutenant +in a regiment from my native State; eight months later I was honored by +that great patriot and statesman, Governor Morgan, with a commission as +lieutenant-colonel in one of the New York regiments. From that time +during the great Civil War I was largely identified with the New York +troops, commanding a regiment, a brigade, and, at one time, thirty-two +regiments from the State of New York. Many of my comrades in the field +were from New York, many of my strongest friends are New Yorkers, and I +am honored to-night by such a greeting as would make the heart of any +soldier proud. + +The wars of the past have had their objects, their achievements, and +glorious results. The last war was one in the interest of humanity and +in behalf of a heroic people, who for many years had been struggling +against cruel atrocities, oppression, and the despotism of a decaying +monarchy. It has been most remarkable in many respects. It has presented +one series of victories, without a single disaster or a single defeat. +The flag of the United States has not been lowered in a single instance. +Not a foot of ground has been surrendered, not a soldier, gun or rifle +has been captured by the enemy. The American soldiers and sailors have +been true to the principles and traditions of their fathers, and +maintained the honor and glory of the American arms. One of the great +blessings to the country in this brief but decisive war has been to +unite firmly in bonds of imperishable union all sections of the United +States: North, South, East, and West. Still more, it has given us reason +and opportunity to appreciate our obligations to the mother country for +the dignified and powerful influence of the British Empire in the +maintenance of our principles and rights. + +There are other fields to conquer. The past has gone, and the future +opens the door to greater responsibilities, and I trust to greater +progress and prosperity. We are ascending to a clearer atmosphere, up to +a higher level, where we should take a stronger position than ever +before occupied by our government and people. We can no longer confine +ourselves to the narrow limits that governed us as a people in the past. +Much has been said of what has been the ruling policy of the past. This +much, I think, is apparent to all, that the grave responsibilities of +the nation are too great to be contaminated by personal, partisan, or +sectional interests. Our interests are national in the highest degree. +They embrace two hemispheres. They involve the welfare of a hundred +millions of the human race. We are getting to that time when we shall +require not only the ablest men but many of them, in every department, +to protect and administer the affairs of the Nation. In those impressive +lines of Holland we might exclaim:-- + + "God give us men; a time like this demands + Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands, + Men whom the lust of office does not kill, + Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, + Men who possess opinions and a will, + Men who have honor; men who will not lie." + +The important and great questions that had to be met and that have been +decided during the last few months have had a broadening influence upon +the great mass of our people. It has been uplifting to every community +and every phase of society. It has turned the attention of our people to +the great power and responsibility of our Republic, and institutions, +and true interests as a people and a nation, not only at home, but +through every part of the globe. We have been enabled to give freedom to +millions of the oppressed, and I believe that we shall be able to extend +to them the hand of support and secure for them a full measure of +justice and enlightened government. In behalf of the army and for +myself, I wish to return my most heartfelt thanks for this most cordial +greeting. [Applause.] + + + + +SAMUEL FREEMAN MILLER + + +FEDERAL JUDGES + +[Speech of Samuel F. Miller, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United + States, at the annual dinner of the State Bar Association, Albany, + November 20, 1878. Justice Miller spoke in response to the toast: "The + Supreme Court of the United States." With the toast was associated the + following sentiment from De Tocqueville: "The peace, the prosperity, + and the very existence of the Union are vested in Federal Judges."] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSOCIATION:--I perceive that +in the meeting of this State Bar Association it has devolved upon me to +inaugurate the talking on all occasions. [Laughter.] When I had supposed +last evening that I should hear the eloquent voice of your then +President, Judge Porter, to get up the enthusiasm which was necessary, I +was surprised to find that he was absent, and that the distinguished +gentleman who presided did not feel called upon to fill his place in +that regard, though he did the honors and discharged the duties of the +office very gracefully; and now when your own Governor, and when the +President of the United States are toasted in advance of the body of +which I have the honor to be a member, there is nobody with the +respectful and cordial approval of the Association here to respond to +the sentiments in their honor. But I have had the honor of sitting for a +couple of hours in this body, and to find that although a moderate +speaker myself, I had opened the way for a good deal of disposition to +talk [applause]; and I trust it will be found that there will be a +similar experience this evening, as I find here the Judges of the Court +of Appeals and of the Supreme Court of this State, and others, who know +how to speak, and who, no doubt, will speak in response to toasts. + +The sentiment of De Tocqueville, to which I am in some sense called +upon to respond, is one which those of you who have read his work on +"Democracy in America," written forty-five years ago, must know has +reference to a much smaller body of judges than now existing. Perhaps I +shall entertain you a little by telling you about what are the Federal +judges, and how many of them there are. We have fifty-seven or +fifty-eight district judges who are Federal judges. We have nine judges +of the Circuit Court of the United States; we have five judges of the +District of Columbia; we have five judges of the Court of Claims; and we +have nine judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and these +are all considered and treated as constitutional Federal judges. That is +to say, they enter their offices as officers of the United States, and +hold their offices during life or good behavior. We have, in addition to +these, eight Territories, each of which has three judges, who are +Federal judges, although in a different sense. They are not called +constitutional judges--I do not know that that is a very correct +distinction--and they are only appointed for four years. These are the +Federal judges, the name which De Tocqueville applies to them. + +You will excuse me if I talk for a few minutes about the court of which +I have the honor to be a member--the Supreme Court of the United States. +That court, if it is nothing else, certainly is a hard-working court. It +is a court of which a great deal is required; and it is some solace for +the hard work that we have to do, that we are supposed to be a court of +a good deal of dignity and of a very high character. I hope you all +concur. [Laughter and applause.] Just consider what the jurisdiction of +that court is. There have come before that court often, States--States +which in the old ante-bellum times, we called "Sovereign States"--and +some of them did not come voluntarily. They were brought by the process +of that court. And when one State of the Union has a question of +juridical cognizance against another State of the Union, it must come to +that court. A subpoena is sent, and it is brought into that court just +like an individual, and it must, by the constitution of this country, +submit its rights and territorial jurisdiction, and the right which +accompanies that territorial jurisdiction, to the decision of that +Supreme Court. Except the great court which sat on Mount Olympus, I +know of no other which has ever had the right to decide, and compel +States to submit to its decision. [Applause.] It is within our province +to declare a law of one of these sovereign States, void, absolutely +null, because it may be in conflict with the Constitution and laws of +the United States; and that is a function of daily occurrence. What +other court in the world has that power? To what other court has ever +been submitted such a function as that--to declare the legislation of a +State like New York, with five millions of population, and other States +verging upon the same amount of population and wealth, to declare that +the laws which you have passed in the ordinary discharge of your powers +as legislators, are null and void? + +It is a great power. We not only do that, but we decide that the laws +which the Congress of the United States shall pass are void, if they +conflict with that instrument under which we all live and move and have +our being. Though we approach these subjects with regretful hesitation, +it is a duty from which the court has never shrunk, and from which I +presume it never will shrink as long as that court has its existence. +[Applause.] + +Gentlemen, I have told you about our high prerogatives; but just look at +what we have done! see what it is that we are compelled to know or +supposed to know--but I am very sorry to say we don't know at all. +[Laughter.] We are supposed to take judicial cognizance of all questions +of international law, of treaties, of prize laws, and of the law of +nations generally. We take notice of it without its being specially +pleaded. We take notice of the laws and statutes of every State of these +thirty-eight States of the Union. They are not to be proved in our +courts; they are not brought in issue, but the judge of the Federal +courts, from the lowest one to the highest, is supposed to take judicial +cognizance of all the statute laws, and to know them, of the whole +thirty-eight States of the Union, and of the eight Territories besides. +In addition to that, we are supposed to take notice of the common law of +the country. We take notice of the equity principles, and we apply them +now in separate courts, notwithstanding you have combined them in your +processes in the State courts. We are supposed to understand the civil +law on which Texas and Louisiana have framed their system of laws; and +we are supposed to understand all the other laws, as I said, of the +States, divergent and varied as they are. We do the best we can to +understand them; but, gentlemen, permit me to say that, but for the bar +which practices before us; but for the lawyers who come up from New York +and Pennsylvania, and from the States of the West and of the South, to +tell us what the law is; but for the instruction and aid which they +afford to us, our duties would be but poorly fulfilled. + +I take pleasure in saying, gentlemen, and it is the last thing that I +shall trouble you with, that a bar or set of men superior in +information, in the desire to impart that information to the court, a +set of gentlemen in the legal profession more instructive in their +arguments, could hardly be found in any country in the world. +[Applause.] I doubt whether their equals are found, when you consider +the variety of the knowledge which they must present to us, the topics +which they discuss, the sources from which they derive the matter which +they lay before us. I say that it is with pleasure that the court relies +upon the lawyers of the country to enable it to perform its high +functions. + + + + +JOHN MORLEY + + +LITERATURE AND POLITICS + +[Speech of John Morley at the banquet of the Royal Academy, London, May + 3, 1890. Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, said in + introducing Mr. Morley: "With Literature I associate, not for the + first time, the name of a master of strong and sober English, a man in + whose writings the clear vision of a seeker after truth controls the + generous fervor of an idealist, and of whom every appreciator of a + fine literary temper must earnestly hope that the paths upon which he + has so long trod with growing honor may never become wholly strangers + to his feet--I mean Mr. John Morley."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, LADIES AND +GENTLEMEN:--I feel that I am more unworthy now than I was eight +years ago to figure as the representative of literature before this +brilliant gathering of all the most important intellectual and social +interests of our time. I have not yet been able like the Prime Minister, +to go round this exhibition and see the works of art that glorify your +walls; but I am led by him to expect that I shall see the pictures of +Liberal leaders, including M. Rochefort. [Laughter.] I am not sure +whether M. Rochefort will figure as a man of letters or as a Liberal +leader, but I can understand that his portrait would attract the Prime +Minister because M. Rochefort is a politician who was once a Liberal +leader, and who has now seen occasion to lose his faith in Parliamentary +government. [Laughter and cheers.] Nor have I seen the picture of "The +Flowing Tide," but I shall expect to find in that picture when I do see +it a number of bathing-machines in which, not the younger generation, +but the elder generation are incarcerated. [Laughter.] The younger +generation, as I understand, are waiting confidently--for the arrival of +the "Flowing Tide," and when it arrives, the elderly gentlemen who are +incarcerated in those machines [laughter] will be only too anxious for a +man and a horse to come and deliver them from their imminent peril. +[Laughter and cheers.] + +I thought that I detected in the last words of your speech, in proposing +this toast, Mr. President, an accent of gentle reproach that any one +should desert the high and pleasant ways of literature for the turmoil +and the everlasting contention of public life. I do not suppose that +there has ever been a time in which there was less of divorce between +literature and public life than the present time. ["Hear! Hear!"] There +have been in the reign of the Queen two eminent statesmen who have +thrice had the distinction of being Prime Minister, and oddly enough, +one of those statesmen [Lord Derby] has left behind him a most spirited +version of Homer, while the other eminent statesman [William E. +Gladstone]--happily still among us, still examines the legends and the +significance of Homer. [Cheers.] Then when we come to a period nearer to +ourselves, and look at those gentlemen who have in the last six years +filled the office of Minister for Ireland, we find that no fewer than +three [George Otto Trevelyan, John Morley, and Arthur Balfour] were +authors of books before they engaged in the very ticklish business of +the government of men. ["Hear! Hear!"] And one of these three Ministers +for Ireland embarked upon his literary career--which promised ample +distinction--under the editorial auspices of another of the three. We +possess in one branch of the Legislature the author of the most +fascinating literary biography in our language. We possess also another +writer whose range of knowledge and of intellectual interest is so great +that he has written the most important book upon the Holy Roman Empire +and the most important book upon the American Commonwealth [James +Bryce]. [Cheers.] + +The first canon in literature was announced one hundred years ago by an +eminent Frenchman who said that in literature it is your business to +have preferences but no exclusions. In politics it appears to be our +business to have very stiff and unchangeable preferences, and exclusion +is one of the systematic objects of our life. [Laughter and cheers.] In +literature, according to another canon, you must have a free and open +mind and it has been said: "Never be the prisoner of your own opinions." +In politics you are very lucky if you do not have the still harder +fate--(and I think that the gentlemen on the President's right hand will +assent to that as readily as the gentlemen who sit on his left) of being +the prisoner of other people's opinions. [Laughter.] Of course no one +can doubt for a moment that the great achievements of literature--those +permanent and vital works which we will never let die--require a +devotion as unceasing, as patient, as inexhaustible, as the devotion +that is required for the works that adorn your walls; and we have +luckily in our age--though it may not be a literary age--masters of +prose and masters of verse. No prose more winning has ever been written +than that of Cardinal Newman; no verse finer, more polished, more +melodious has ever been written than that of Lord Tennyson and Mr. +Swinburne. [Cheers.] + +It seems to me that one of the greatest functions of literature at this +moment is not merely to produce great works, but also to protect the +English language--that noble, that most glorious instrument--against +those hosts of invaders which I observe have in these days sprung up. I +suppose that every one here has noticed the extraordinary list of names +suggested lately in order to designate motion by electricity [laughter]; +that list of names only revealed what many of us had been observing for +a long time--namely, the appalling forces that are ready at a moment's +notice to deface and deform our English tongue. [Laughter.] These +strange, fantastic, grotesque, and weird titles open up to my prophetic +vision a most unwelcome prospect. I tremble to see the day approach--and +I am not sure that it is not approaching--when the humorists of the +headlines of American journalism shall pass current as models of +conciseness, energy, and color of style. [Cheers and laughter.] + +Even in our social speech this invasion seems to be taking place in an +alarming degree and I wonder what the Pilgrim Fathers of the seventeenth +century would say if they could hear their pilgrim children of the +nineteenth century who come over here, on various missions, and among +others, "On the make." [Laughter.] This is only one of the thousand such +like expressions which are invading the Puritan simplicity of our +tongue. I will only say that I should like, for my own part, to see in +every library and in every newspaper office that admirable passage in +which Milton, who knew so well how to handle both the great instrument +of prose and the nobler instrument of verse--declared that next to the +man who furnished courage and intrepid counsels against an enemy he +placed the man who should enlist small bands of good authors to resist +that barbarism which invades the minds and the speech of men in methods +and habits of speaking and writing. + +I thank you for having allowed me the honor of saying a word as to the +happiest of all callings and the most imperishable of all arts. [Loud +cheers.] + + + + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY + + +THE POETS' CORNER + +[Speech of John Lothrop Motley, United States Minister to England at the + eighty-fourth annual banquet of the Royal Literary Fund, London, May + 28, 1873. The Right-Hon. William E. Gladstone, First Minister of the + Crown, was chairman. The Bishop of Derry proposed the toast, "The + Literature of the United States, and Mr. Motley," which was loudly + cheered.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I can scarcely find +fitting words to express my gratitude for the warm and genial manner in +which the toast of "American Literature" has been received by this +distinguished assembly. I wish that the honor of responding to it had +been placed in worthier hands. Two at least of our most eminent men of +letters I thought were in England, or near it--one, that most original, +subtle, poetical and graceful of thinkers and essayists, Mr. Emerson +[cheers]; the other, one of our most distinguished poets and +prose-writers, second to none in the highest spheres of imagination and +humor: Mr. Lowell. [Cheers.] I had hoped to meet them both, but I look +in vain for their friendly and familiar faces. In their absence, I +venture to return thanks most sincerely, but briefly, for the eloquent +and sympathetic words with which the distinguished prelate has spoken of +our literature. I do so in behalf of the eminent poets and prose-writers +in every department of literature and science, many of whose names +tremble on my lips, but the long roll-call of which I will not +enumerate, who are the living illustrators of our literature, and who it +is a gratification to know are almost as familiar and highly appreciated +in the old land of our forefathers as they are at home [cheers]; but I +for one like to consider them all as fellow-citizens in the great +English-speaking Republic of letters--where all are brothers, not +strangers to each other. And as an illustration of this, I believe that +it is not long since one of our famous poets whose exquisite works are +familiar in every palace and every cottage all over the world where the +English language is spoken--Mr. Longfellow--was recently requested to +preside at one of your meetings. [Cheers.] + +I can produce nothing new on that great subject, which seems the +inevitable one for an American on such an occasion as this, the +international bond of a common language, a common literature, and +centuries of common history and tradition, which connects those two +great nations, the United Empire and the United Republic. May the +shadows of both never grow less and may that international bond +strengthen its links every year! [Cheers.] What is the first hallowed +spot in the Transatlantic pilgrimage of every true American? What is the +true Mecca of his heart? Not the hoary tombs of the Pharaohs, and the +one hundred gated cities of the Nile. Not the Acropolis and the +Parthenon, the plains of Marathon, the Pass of Thermopylae, thrilling as +they are with heroic and patriotic emotion; not the Forum and the +Coliseum and the triumphal arches of Rome. No; the pious pilgrim from +the Far West seeks a sequestered, old-fashioned little town, in the +heart of the most delicious rural scenery that even old England can +boast; he walks up a quiet, drowsy, almost noiseless street, with quaint +old houses, half brick, half timber, hardly changed of aspect since they +looked out on the Wars of the Roses. He comes to an ancient, ivy-mantled +tower hard by a placid, silvery stream on which a swan is ever sailing; +he passes through a pleached alley under a Gothic gateway of the little +church, and bends in reverence before a solitary tomb, for in that tomb +repose the ashes of Shakespeare. [Cheers.] We claim our share in every +atom of that consecrated dust. Our forefathers, who first planted the +seeds of a noble civilization in New England and Virginia, were +contemporaries and countrymen of the Swan of Avon. So long as we all +have an undivided birthright in that sublimest of human intellects, and +can enjoy, as none others can, those unrivalled masterpieces, Americans +and Englishmen can never be quite foreigners to each other though seas +between as broad have rolled since the day when that precious dust wore +human clothing. [Cheers.] + +And what is the next resting-place in our pilgrim's progress--the +pilgrim of Outre-Mer? Surely that stately and beautiful pile which we +have all seen in our dreams long before we looked upon it with the eyes +of flesh, time-honored Westminster Abbey. I can imagine no purer +intellectual pleasure for an American than when he first wanders through +those storied aisles, especially if he have the privilege which many of +our countrymen have enjoyed, of being guided there by the hand of one +whose exquisite urbanity and kindliness are fit companions to his +learning and his intellect, the successor of the ancient Abbot, the +historian of the Abbey, the present distinguished Dean of Westminster +[Dean Stanley], to whom we have listened with such pleasure to-night. +[Cheers.] And it will be in the Poets' Corner that we shall ever linger +the longest. Those statues, busts and mural inscriptions are prouder +trophies than all the banners from the most ensanguined battle-fields +that the valor of England has ever won, and with what a wealth of +intellect is that nation endowed which after the centuries of immortal +names already enshrined there has had the proud although most melancholy +honor of adding in one decade--scarcely more than ten years--the names +of Macaulay, Grote, Dickens, Thackeray, and Lytton? [Cheers.] They are +our contemporaries, not our countrymen; but we cannot afford to resign +our claim to some portion of their glory as illustrators of our common +language. And I would fain believe that you take a fraternal interest in +the fame of those whom we too have lost, and who were our especial +garland--Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper, Everett, Hawthorne, and +Prescott. + +But I have trespassed far longer upon your attention than I meant to do +when I arose; and I shall therefore only once more thank you for the +great kindness with which you have received the toast of the Literature +of the United States. [Cheers.] + + + + +JOHN PHILIP NEWMAN + + +COMMERCE + +[Speech of Rev. Dr. John P. Newman, at the 115th annual banquet of the + Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, May 8, 1883. The + President, George W. Lane, presided, and said: "Gentlemen, I give you + the fifth regular toast: 'Commerce--distributing to all regions the + productions of each, and, providing for the wants of all, it combines + in friendly intercourse the nations of the earth.' To this toast the + Rev. Dr. Newman will respond."] + + +MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF NEW +YORK:--This is a beautiful toast--beautiful both in structure and +sentiment and would that it were true. [Applause.] It is true in theory +but not in history. It may be the voice of prophecy whose fulfilment +shall be a sublime fact. It is in the highest degree worthy of this +Chamber of Commerce and cannot fail in its peaceful mission among the +nations of the earth. [Applause.] But the ages testify that selfishness +and greed have marked the commercial history of the world. How splendid +have been the achievements of commerce, and how deplorable its failure +to realize its legitimate mission--to unify the human race. "Get all you +can, and keep all you get," were the selfish maxims that influenced the +Dutch merchants in Sumatra, Java, and Ceylon. The renowned merchants of +Portugal planted their commercial colonies on the rich coasts of +Malabar, took possession of the Persian Gulf and transformed the barren +island of Ormus into a paradise of wealth and luxury. But of that +far-famed island Milton sung in these truthful and immortal lines:-- + + "High, on a throne of royal state which far + Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind. + Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand, + Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, + Satan exalted sat." + +There is no less truth than poetry in that last line, for there the +devil sat, and Tom Moore's "Fair Isle of Kisham" has faded from the +visions of the world. [Applause.] + +The Spanish merchants grasped the wealthy States of South America, and +held as captives the affluent Incas of Peru and Bolivia. But Spain has +long since retired from her commercial supremacy and the South American +Provinces are left poor indeed. + +While every Anglo-Saxon is justly proud of England's greatness in art +and learning, in statesmanship and martial prowess, yet her commercial +history does not always reflect credit upon her foreign trade. Rapacity +so characterized her merchants who composed the old East India Company +that the British Government felt compelled to revoke the charter of that +famous monopoly. Influenced by some of her merchants the guns of her +invincible navy opened the treaty ports of China and forced the opium +trade upon the Celestials against their earnest protests, and in that +protest not a few of the best Englishmen joined. + +To-day France and England, Belgium and Holland are contending for +commercial supremacy in the "Dark Continent," which an American explorer +and traveler opened to the foreign trade of all nations [applause]; but, +judging from the past, the sable sons of Africa are yet to learn the +selfishness of commerce. + +Happily for us, the United States has been more fortunate because more +honorable in her commercial intercourse with other lands. [Applause.] By +his justice, by his prudence, by his firmness, Commodore Perry [cheers], +our great sailor diplomatist, not only opened to us Japan, that "Kingdom +of the Rising Sun," but secured for America the friendship and +admiration of the Japanese. And there is to-day, awaiting the action of +our nation, a treaty of amity and commerce, drawn by the wisest of men, +the most sagacious of statesmen, the greatest of living soldiers; and +when that treaty shall have been ratified, the United States and Mexico +will be united in friendly intercourse, sweet and pleasant, like the +love of David and Jonathan. [Applause.] + +It is a great question whether this country shall repeat the commercial +history of the world, or carry to glorious consummation the noble +sentiment of this toast. All the signs of the times seem to indicate +that the commercial sceptre of the world, held by the Phoenicians for +1,000 years, held by the Romans through a whole millennium, held by the +Venetians during five centuries, held by the Portuguese for three +hundred years, and since held by the English--whether that sceptre is +not rapidly to pass into the hands of the American merchant; and when +that is an accomplished fact, we shall hear less of the decline of +American shipping or that the balance of trade is against us. +[Applause.] Our vast domain, our immense resources, our unparalleled +productive capacity, all seem to prophesy that we are largely to feed +and clothe Adam's innumerable family. [Applause.] If so, then any calm +and sagacious mind must realize that our present methods of forming +commercial treaties should be radically changed. If it has been found +necessary to have a Department of Agriculture, a Department of +Education, why not a Department of Commerce, connected with the National +Government, and from which shall come the suggestions, the facts, and +the influence for the formation of commercial treaties, and at the head +of which shall be a wise and prudent merchant conversant with the +products of all lands and familiar with the best interests of our own +country? [Applause.] The science of political economy is so profound, so +complicated, so far-reaching as to transcend the capacity of the average +statesman. It has become a specialty. Congressional committees on +Commerce and on Foreign Relations are hardly adequate to the task. Not a +few of the members of such know more about ward elections than tariff +laws, and know as little about products and trade of foreign lands as of +the geography of other nations. Let us lift the whole subject of +commerce from the arena of partisan politics. [Applause.] + +This toast looks forward to the friendship of nations. The merchant is +the chosen John the Baptist of that better day. The merchant is the true +cosmopolitan--the citizen of the world. Farmers with their products of +the soil, flocks and herds are local; miners with their metallic mines +and mineral mountains are local; manufacturers with their fabrics of +skill are local; inventors with their manifold contrivances to lift the +burden of toil from the shoulders of humanity, are local; artists, with +their canvas that glows and their marble that breathes, are local; +authors, with their mighty thoughts of truth and fiction, are local; +statesmen with their laws, wise and otherwise [laughter], are local; but +the merchant is the cosmopolitan citizen of the world, the friend of +all, the enemy of none, a stranger nowhere, at home everywhere; who +sails all seas, travels all lands, and to whom all come with their fruit +of hand and brain, waiting for a home or a foreign market. [Applause.] + +Commerce should ever be the voice of peace. Aided by science, and +sanctified by religion, it should be the all-powerful stimulant to +universal amity. The honest and honorable merchant is the natural +antagonist of the factious politician, the ambitious statesman, the +glory-seeking warrior. [Applause.] While the merchant is the most ardent +of patriots, commerce is the unifier of nations, whereby is to be +fulfilled the dream of poets and the vision of seers in the brotherhood +of man, in a congress of nations, and a parliament of the world. The old +German Hanseatic League, representing sixty-six maritime cities and +forty-four dependencies, seemed to prophesy an international chamber of +commerce for the peace of the whole earth. If the high interests of our +Christian civilization demand International Congresses of Law, of +Geography, of Peace, how much more an International Congress of +Commerce, to give direction to the relations of peace and trade between +all peoples. This would approach the realization of the dream of a +universal republic. [Applause.] + +It is eminently proper that from this Christian city should go forth the +voice of commercial peace, honesty and honor; give us such Christian +merchants as Peter Cooper [cheers], as William E. Dodge [cheers], as +Governor Morgan [cheers], dealing fairly and honorably with the weaker +States with which we shall trade. [Applause.] For say what you please, +Christianity is the religion of industry, of thrift, of wealth demanding +the comforts of life and enriching all who follow its divine precepts, +and giving to the world that code of higher and better commercial +morality whereby wealth is permanent, and riches are a benediction. +[Applause.] Awakened by this unseen power, it is commercial enterprise +that has transformed our earth into one vast neighborhood, that has made +air and ocean whispering galleries, that has started the iron horse to +stride a continent in seven days and launched the majestic steamer which +touches two continents between two Sundays. [Applause.] + +I confess to you, gentlemen, that I have no fear from the accumulations +of vast mercantile wealth when under the benign constraints of religion. +Wealth is the handmaid of religion. Such wealth has beautified the face +of society, has advanced to this consummation those great philanthropic +enterprises which have delivered the oppressed and saved the Republic, +and which have filled our city with schools of learning, galleries of +art, halls of justice, houses of mercy, and temples of piety. [Continued +applause.] + + + + +CHARLES ELIOT NORTON + + +CASTLES IN SPAIN + +[Speech of Charles Eliot Norton at the "Whittier Dinner," in celebration + of the poet's seventieth birthday, and the twentieth birthday of the + "Atlantic Monthly," given by the publishers of the magazine, Boston, + December 17, 1877. William Dean Howells, then editor of the + "Atlantic," officiated as chairman. Mr. Norton spoke for James Russell + Lowell, the first editor of the "Atlantic," then serving as United + States Minister to Spain.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--We miss to-night one man to whom +many names are equally befitting: the humorist, the wit, the wise +thinker, the poet, the scholar, the worker, the friend--but the man who, +of all others, should be here to do honor to our guest. We miss the +first editor of the "Atlantic," whose comprehensive sympathies, wide as +his vast, broad genius; whose cultivated taste, whose various and +thorough learning gave to our Monthly, from the beginning, first place +among American magazines and secured for it that deserved popularity +which you, sir [Mr. Howells], are doing so much to maintain. The same +qualities which made him eminent as an editor will make him eminent as +the representative abroad of what is best in the social and political +life of our country. No man could more truly exhibit, as comprehending +them in himself, the high spirit, the noble aims, the varied +achievements of a generous and large-minded nation--a nation not always +so careful as it ought to be that its ministers accredited to foreign +powers should be servants creditable to itself. But in the place that he +now fills I cannot but regard him as, in a special sense, the envoy of +the company gathered around this table. I believe that every one of us +has, or at least has had, possessions in Spain that require to be well +looked after; they are possessions of extraordinary, enormous, quite +incalculable value, of which the title deeds are not always as complete +as we could wish. Lowell himself had large estates of this sort:-- + + "When I was a beggarly boy, + I lived in a cellar damp, + I had not a friend, nor a toy, + But I had Aladdin's lamp. + + "When I could not sleep for the cold, + I had fire enough in my brain, + And I built with their roofs of gold + My beautiful castles in Spain." + +And so too, he, the friend of us all, whose presence makes us all glad +to-night, and whom we always greet with all love and honor, has had +possessions in the same fair land:-- + + "How much of my heart, O Spain, + Went out to thee in days of yore! + What dreams romantic filled my brain, + And summoned back to life again + The Paladins of Charlemagne, + The Cid Campeador?" + +How many "castles in Spain not built of stone" has he dwelt in, and with +what delightful hospitality has he welcomed us as guests within their +spacious and splendid halls! And even you, sir, for whose sake we have +met to-night, even you, modest as your retirement has seemed to be in +that quiet home, which you have made dear to the lovers of poetry and +purity and peace, you have privately had your speculations in real +estate in that land of romance, from which you have drawn large +revenues. You will pardon me for reminding you of one of them, where-- + + "On the banks of the Xenil, the dark Spanish maiden + Comes up with fruit of the tangled vine laden." + +I have sometimes fancied that even the Concord River had its springs +somewhere in the snowy Sierras of Estremadura, toward which the windows +of the sage-poet's dwelling were turned, and from whose heaven-reaching +summits he has so often caught the fresh airs of celestial breath. Few +of us, indeed, have had the good fortune to add to their vast real +estates in Spain any substantial articles of personal property, but one +of us, rich in the gifts of Don Quixote's land, has actually a piece of +plate, a silver punch bowl, which at times, when filled, has, I doubt +not, given him assurance of undisputed rights in the most magnificent +castles:-- + + "A Spanish galleon brought the bar--so runs the ancient tale-- + 'Twas hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail." + +And even you and I, Mr. Editor, and all the rest of us, possess, as I +have said, our smaller domains in that distant land, all of them with +castles; but not all the castles, I fear, in good repair or quite +habitable; and some of us would be perplexed to say if they lay in +Granada or Andalusia, La Mancha--or to tell exactly how many turrets +they had, or how large a company they could accommodate with good +entertainment. Now, sir, such being the case, all of us having such +real, but too often, alas! neglected possessions in Spain, I am not +surprised that Lowell writes to me that he finds the Spanish Legation +one of the busiest in Europe. He is to establish our titles, and the +work is not without its difficulties. Let us send him our God-speed. May +he come back to us to assure us, as he better than any other can do, of +the henceforth undisturbed enjoyment of all our castles in Spain. +[Applause.] + + + + +RICHARD OGLESBY + + +THE ROYAL CORN + +[Speech of Ex-Governor Richard Oglesby at the banquet of the Fellowship + Club, Chicago, September 9, 1894, on the occasion of the Harvest-Home + Festival. The Toast-master was Franklin H. Head, and the toast that he + gave to each speaker was, "What I Know About Farming." In the report + by Volney W. Foster, member of the Club, it is recorded that the + Governor rose slowly, after being called upon by the toast-master, and + was seemingly waiting for an inspiration. He looked deliberately upon + the harvest decorations of the room and finally his eyes seemed to + rest upon the magnificent stalks of corn that adorned the walls. He + then slowly and impressively paid the following impromptu tribute to + the corn.] + + +MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--The corn, the corn, the corn, that +in its first beginning and its growth has furnished aptest illustration +of the tragic announcement of the chiefest hope of man. If he die he +shall surely live again. Planted in the friendly but sombre bosom of the +mother earth it dies. Yea, it dies the second death, surrendering up +each trace of form and earthly shape until the outward tide is stopped +by the reacting vital germ which, breaking all the bonds and cerements +of its sad decline, comes bounding, laughing into life and light, the +fittest of all the symbols that make certain promise of the fate of man. +And so it died and then it lived again. And so my people died. By some +unknown, uncertain and unfriendly fate, I found myself making my first +journey into life from conditions as lowly as those surrounding that +awakening, dying, living, infant germ. It was in those days when I, a +simple boy, had wandered from Indiana to Springfield, that I there met +the father of this good man [Joseph Jefferson] whose kind and gentle +words to me were as water to a thirsty soul, as the shadow of a rock to +weary man. I loved his father then, I love the son now. Two full +generations have been taught by his gentleness and smiles, and tears +have quickly answered to the command of his artistic mind. Long may he +live to make us laugh and cry, and cry and laugh by turns as he may +choose to move us. + +But now again my mind turns to the glorious corn. See it! Look on its +ripening, waving field! See how it wears a crown, prouder than monarch +ever wore, sometimes jauntily; and sometimes after the storm the +dignified survivors of the tempest seem to view a field of slaughter and +to pity a fallen foe. And see the pendant caskets of the corn-field +filled with the wine of life, and see the silken fringes that set a form +for fashion and for art. And now the evening comes and something of a +time to rest and listen. The scudding clouds conceal the half and then +reveal the whole of the moonlit beauty of the night, and then the gentle +winds make heavenly harmonies on a thousand-thousand harps that hang +upon the borders and the edges and the middle of the field of ripening +corn, until my very heart seems to beat responsive to the rising and the +falling of the long melodious refrain. The melancholy clouds sometimes +make shadows on the field and hide its aureate wealth, and now they +move, and slowly into sight there comes the golden glow of promise for +an industrious land. Glorious corn, that more than all the sisters of +the field wears tropic garments. Nor on the shore of Nilus or of Ind +does nature dress her forms more splendidly. My God, to live again that +time when for me half the world was good and the other half unknown! And +now again, the corn, that in its kernel holds the strength that shall +(in the body of the man refreshed) subdue the forest and compel response +from every stubborn field, or, shining in the eye of beauty make +blossoms of her cheeks and jewels of her lips and thus make for man the +greatest inspiration to well-doing, the hope of companionship of that +sacred, warm and well-embodied soul, a woman. + +Aye, the corn, the Royal Corn, within whose yellow heart there is of +health and strength for all the nations. The corn triumphant, that with +the aid of man hath made victorious procession across the tufted plain +and laid foundation for the social excellence that is and is to be. This +glorious plant, transmuted by the alchemy of God, sustains the warrior +in battle, the poet in song, and strengthens everywhere the thousand +arms that work the purposes of life. Oh that I had the voice of song, or +skill to translate into tones the harmonies, the symphonies and +oratorios that roll across my soul, when standing sometimes by day and +sometimes by night upon the borders of this verdant sea, I note a world +of promise, and then before one-half the year is gone I view its full +fruition and see its heaped gold await the need of man. Majestic, +fruitful, wondrous plant! Thou greatest among the manifestations of the +wisdom and love of God, that may be seen in all the fields or upon the +hillsides or in the valleys! + + + + +JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY + + +MOORE, THE BARD OF ERIN + +[Speech of John Boyle O'Reilly at a banquet held in Boston, May 27, + 1879, in commemoration of the centenary of Thomas Moore. Mr. O'Reilly, + as chairman of the banquet, sat at the head of the table, with Oliver + Wendell Holmes on his right, and Mayor Frederick O. Prince on his + left. The company numbered more than one hundred, and was a + representative gathering, mostly of Irish-American citizens. The toast + to the memory of Moore, with which Mr. O'Reilly's speech closed, was + drunk by the company standing, the orchestra meanwhile playing "Should + auld acquaintance be forgot?"] + + +GENTLEMEN:--The honorable distinction you have given me in +seating me at the head of your table involves a duty of weight and +delicacy. At such a board as this, where Genius sits smiling at +Geniality, the President becomes a formality, and the burden of his duty +is to make himself a pleasant nobody, yet natural to the position. Like +the apprentice of the armorer, it is my task only to hold the hot iron +on the anvil while the skilled craftsmen strike out the flexible +sword-blade. There is no need for me to praise or analyze the character +or fame of the great poet whose centennial we celebrate. This will be +done presently by abler hands, in eloquent verse and prose. Tom Moore +was a poet of all lands, and it is fitting that his centenary should be +observed in cosmopolitan fashion. But he was particularly the poet of +Ireland, and on this point I may be allowed to say a word, as one proud +to be an Irishman, and prouder still to be an American. + +Not blindly but kindly we lay our wreath of rosemary and immortelles on +the grave of Moore. We do not look to him for the wisdom of the +statesman or the boldness of the popular leader. Neither do we look for +solidity to the rose-bush, nor for strength to the nightingale, yet +each is perfect of its kind. We take Tom Moore as God sent him--not only +the sweetest song-writer of Ireland, but even in this presence I may +say, the first song-writer in the English language, not even excepting +Burns. The harshness of nature or even of human relations found faint +response in his harmonious being. He was born in the darkness of the +penal days; he lived to manhood under the cruel law that bred a terrible +revolution; but he never was a rebel. He was the college companion and +bosom friend of Robert Emmet, who gave his beautiful life on the gibbet +in protest against the degradation of his country; but Moore took only a +fitful part in the stormy political agitation of the time. When all was +done it was clear that he was one thing and no other--neither a +sufferer, a rebel, an agitator, nor a reformer, but wholly and simply a +poet. He did not rebel, and he scarcely protested. But he did his work +as well as the best, in his own way. He sat by the patriot's grave and +sang tearful songs that will make future rebels and patriots. + +It was a hard task for an Irishman, in Moore's day, to win distinction, +unless he achieved it by treason to his own country. In his own bitter +words:-- + + "Unpriz'd are her sons till they've learned to betray; + Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires; + And the torch that would light them thro' dignity's way + Must be caught from the pile where their country expires." + +And yet Moore set out to win distinction, and to win it in the hardest +field. The literary man in those days could only live by the patronage +of the great, and the native nobility of Ireland was dead or banished. A +poet, too, must have an audience; and Moore knew that his audience must +not only be his poor countrymen, but all who spoke the English language. +He lived as an alien in London, and it is hard for an alien to secure +recognition anywhere, and especially an alien poet. The songs he sang, +too, were not English in subject or tone, but Irish. They were filled +with the sadness of his unhappy country. He despaired of the freedom of +Ireland, and bade her:-- + + "Weep on, weep on, your hour is past, + Your dream of pride is o'er;" + +but he did not turn from the ruin to seek renown from strange and +profitable subjects. As the polished Greeks, even in defeat, conquered +their Roman conquerors by their refinement, so this poet sang of +Ireland's sorrow and wrong till England and the world turned to listen. +In one of his melodies, which is full of pathetic apology to his +countrymen for his apparent friendship to England, he sighs in secret +over Erin's ruin:-- + + "For 'tis treason to love her and death to defend." + +He foresaw even then the immortality of his verse and the affection of +future generations for his memory, when he wrote:-- + + "But tho' glory be gone, and tho' hope fade away, + Thy name, loved Erin, shall live in his songs; + Not e'en in the hour when the heart is most gay, + Will he lose the remembrance of thee and thy wrongs. + The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains; + The sigh of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep; + Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, + Shall pause at the song of their captive and weep." + +But this was not his entire work for Ireland and for true literature and +art; nor is it for this sentimental reason that his centenary is +observed throughout the world. In some countries we are able to see the +beginning of the artistic or literary life of the nation; we can even +name the writer or artist who began the beautiful structure; and though +the pioneer work is often crude, it merits and receives the gratitude of +the nation. Though Moore was an original poet of splendid imagination, +he undertook a national work in which his flights were restrained by the +limitations of his task. He set himself to write new words to old music. +He found scattered over Ireland, mainly hidden in the cabins of the +poor, pieces of antique gold, inestimable jewels that were purely Irish. +These were in danger of being lost to the world, or of being malformed, +or stolen from their rightful owners, by strangers who could discover +their value. These jewels were the old Irish airs--those exquisite +fabrics which Moore raised into matchless beauty in his delicious +melodies. This was his great work. He preserved the music of his nation +and made it imperishable. It can never be lost again till English +ceases to be spoken. He struck it out like a golden coin, with Erin's +stamp on it; and it has become current and unquestioned in all civilized +nations. For this we celebrate his centennial. For this, gentlemen, I +call on you to rise--for after one year, or a hundred, or a thousand, we +may pour a libation to a great man--I ask you to rise and drink--"The +memory of Tom Moore." + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Chauncey M. Depew, who, earlier in the evening, had spoken on the +subject of municipal consolidation. + +[2] By Sir Archibald Alison. + +[3] Burlesque Comedians. + +[4] Henry Ward Beecher. + +[5] John P. Newman. + +[6] The Negro minstrel. + +[7] The portrait referred to is that of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, +killed at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, July 18, 1863. + +[8] The bust is that of General Charles Russell Lowell, who died October +20, 1864, of wounds received at Cedar Creek, Va., October 19. + +[9] William McKinley. + +[10] He was not knighted till 1895. + +[11] Professor Stokes, President of the Royal Society. + +[12] Members of this organization are exempted from jury service. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner +Speeches E-O, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ELOQUENCE: VOL II *** + +***** This file should be named 18823.txt or 18823.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/2/18823/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship, Carolyn +Bottomley 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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