REGISTER OF THE CALIFORNIA SOCIETY

OF THE

SONS OF THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION

Reception to President William

McKinley

        During the recent visit of Compatriot President William McKinley to San Francisco, he was tendered a reception by this Society, assisted by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the members of the Loyal Legion.

        The reception took place at the Palace Hotel on Friday afternoon, May 24, 1901. Many distinguished members of the Societies participated, and numerous other citizens of our city and state, together with their families, were in attendance. The arrangements were not surpassed, if equaled, by any other reception given during the presidential visit.

        The opportunity to entertain Compatriot McKinley had been long looked forward to. When it became known, some two years ago, that the Chief Executive of the nation was contemplating a visit to San Francisco, among other things to see the battleship Ohio launched, this Society determined to tender him a reception. A committee consisting of Compatriots John C. Currier, Byron Mauzy, and George W. Spencer was appointed to prepare and forward an invitation to the President, inviting him to be the Society's guest when he visited our coast. In July, 1899, a handsomely engrossed invitation was accordingly sent to the President by the committee. In January of this year, when it became definitely settled that the President would visit this coast, President William H. Jordan telegraphed him an invitation to be the guest of this Society at a reception to be given in his honor. In due time this invitation was accepted in cordial and appreciative terms.

        It was first intended that the entertainment should take the form of a banquet, but it soon became evident that prior engagements of a similar nature would make it impossible for him to attend such a function. The committee in charge of the matter, Compatriots William M. Bunker, George W. Spencer, and John C. Currier, then arranged for a reception to be held in the parlors of the Palace Hotel on the afternoon of May 16, 1901, at  1:30 o'clock. All the plans had been completed for this date, when the sudden illness of Mrs. McKinley made it necessary for the President to cancel his engagements to attend functions of any kind. During the week Mrs. McKinley's health improved so much that out of kindly consideration for those who had done so much for his entertainment, the President signified his willingness to be present at a reception to be held at the Palace Hotel on Friday, May 24, 1901, at 1 : 30 o'clock in the afternoon.

        Escorted by the committee in charge, the President arrived at the Palace Hotel at the appointed time. He was met by President William H. Jordan at the peristyle of the hotel court, and escorted to the reception room. Upon his entry he was most enthusiastically greeted by the assemblage. He was escorted to the platform, where seats had been reserved for him and the members of his Cabinet, and the committees who accompanied him. After they had been seated, President Jordan stepped to the front of the platform and delivered the following address of welcome:—

        " MR. PRESIDENT, SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AND MEMBERS OF THE LOYAL LEGION: Language,

with all its splendors of description and wealth of words, can not express the happiness we feel to-day as, after weeks of expectant waiting, we at last behold in our midst the genial face and beloved form of our great Chief Magistrate, William McKinley [applause], America's foremost citizen, and, as has, been truly said, since the days of Washington, the best loved of all our country's Presidents. [Applause.]

        " We welcome him as the nation's President and as our compatriot, whose wise, conservative, and far-reaching statesmanship, whose fearless and devoted patriotism, and whose kindly nature, have forever enshrined his memory in the hearts of the American people, and henceforth when the historian shall write the names of the four greatest of all Americans, I predict that he will write George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William McKinley. [Great applause.]

        " Mr. President, we, who are the descendants of those men of 1776 who gave to our country its priceless liberties, hewing them with their swords from the proudest and the oldest monarchy of Europe, these of the Loyal Legion, who with you in the evil days of 1861 to 1865 endangered their lives that these liberties might be preserved and that this government, dedicated and hallowed by the blood of so many patriots, might endure, greet you to-day. We welcome you with heart and hand to our common hospitality. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me boundless pleasure to present to you our illustrious compatriot, William McKinley, the President of the United States. [Prolonged applause.]"

        When the President rose to reply, he was greeted with prolonged clapping of hands and waving of handkerchiefs. After the enthusiasm had somewhat subsided, the President made the following response to the address of welcome:

        "MEMBERS OF THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AND MY COMPANIONS OF THE LOYAL LEGION: It gives me peculiar satisfaction and pleasure to be greeted here in the city of San Francisco by the members of these historic associations, and I salute with reverence and affection this chapter, which was the origin and beginning of the now most memorable organization known as the Sons of the American Revolution. [Applause.]

        " It was here that the first order of this great Association was established. It has spread all over the country and is doing magnificent work, not only in preserving the historic relics and caring for the historic battlegrounds, bat is teaching to our children the blessed history of the sacrifices of the American Revolution. This Association links the past with the present.

        " Here to-day are descendants of those who established this free government, and with them to give me welcome are representatives of the men who preserved it in the awful clash of battle from '61 to '65.

        " This Association and the Loyal Legion link the names of Washington and Lincoln inseparably together. Great names they are in American history—the luster lights of their day, the sacrificial giants who cleaved the darkness asunder and beaconed us where we are.

        "And what a glorious heritage we have,—a government resting upon the will and judgment and conscience of all the people, a government that develops human effort and energy and noble purpose, as we believe, better than any government on earth. There is nothing like it anywhere, a nation of 75,000,000 of people stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with possessions now far into the Pacific, and all under the control, not of one man, not of Congress, but of the will of the sovereign people. [Applause.]

        "What this government is is precisely what the people make it, and one historic fact that I love to recall is that the only speech George Washington made as President of the Constitutional Convention in presiding over its deliberations, was in favor of a proposition to increase the power of the people. And the statesmanship that will continue to recognize the people in the affairs of government, the administration that will keep close to the people, the lawmaker that will consult the wisdom and the judgment of the people, will constitute the statesmanship of the future, which will give security for all time to this free government of ours.

        " I thank you for this cordial greeting. I am so glad to meet my companions, the Loyal Legion, those with whom I kept step more than thirty years ago. And the spirit of '61 was the spirit of '76. [Applause.] And the spirit that led our people at the beginning of our recent war to volunteer to the number of 250,000, with a million more behind them waiting to enter the services, the spirit that went to Cuba and freed that oppressed people, and to Puerto Rico and to the Philippines is but the reproduction of the spirit of 1776 and 1861. [Applause.] Let us keep that spirit alive in these associations to-day, and as they pass away let the little children's organization that you have carry on the great work you have commenced. I thank you, and bid you good-afternoon. [Great applause.] "

        The President then spent the remaining time in shaking hands and exchanging greetings with those present. The occasion was one that will long be remembered by those who participated in it.

        The committee in charge of the reception consisted of Colonel A. S. Hubbard, Commodore John W. Moore, U. S. Navy; Major J. Estcourt Sawyer, U. S. Army; Colonel John C. Currier; Honorable Horace Davis, Honorable E. W. McKinstry, Sidney M. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Hunter, Honorable William M. Bunker, Honorable William H. Jordan, George W. Spencer, Charles H. Warner, Edwin Bonnell, William I. Dutton, Roberts Vandercook, Alex. W. Ells, Giles H. Gray, Byron Mauzy, Wallace Everson, and J. W. Farrington.

Resolutions in Memory of President
William McKinley

        At a special meeting of the Board of Managers of this Society held on Wednesday evening, September 1901, at the office of President William H. Jordan, in the Claus Spreckels Building, San Francisco, Cal., the following resolutions, commemorative of the life and services of compatriot William McKinley, were unanimously adopted:—

        " Whereas, The murderous hand of an assassin has ruthlessly cut short the great life of William McKinley, the beloved President of the United States, at a time when, with love for all and offense toward none, his wise counsel and strong statesmanship were being exerted in the administration of our national affairs; and,

        "Whereas, He was an honored member of this Society, whose name sheds luster upon our roster, and. whose distinguished example as a patriot, sincerely devoted to his country, will ever incite not only us but all mankind to a loftier devotion to duty; and,

        " Whereas, As President of the Republic at a period which will ever be known and. recognized as marking a new and glorious era in our national life, he achieved a fame that will live while our Government shall endure, entitling him to rank with the wisest of statesmen, the noblest of patriots, and the greatest of Americans, now therefore be it

        " Resolved, THAT WE, THE CALIFORNIA SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, do hereby give expression to our heartfelt grief at the dreadful calamity that has overtaken the nation in the tragic death of so great and so good a man. As a citizen we honored him; as patriots we followed him, and now, as men, we mourn him.

        " Let ashes mingle with ashes, and dust with dust, for such is the lot of man; but while the tomb shall hold in its unyielding embrace the body of William McKinley, his spirit shall live until the end of time, and to that cause for which his life was sacrificed, we, the sons of Revolutionary sires, do, upon this solemn occasion, reconsecrate our lives."

Celebration of Washington's Birthday
1901

        The California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution celebrated the 169th anniversary of the birth of George Washington by its customary banquet at the Merchants' Club in San Francisco, upon the twenty-second day of February, 1901.

        The Society began to assemble at 6 o' clock, and after half an hour's social intercourse, entered the dining-room at 6:30. Between one and two hundred members and guests were present; the caterers served an excellent menu; the band of stringed instruments discoursed delightful music, which was interspersed by a selection of songs by a trained quartet, and when the repast of music and social converse was over, all sat at ease and listened to addresses, the eloquence of which aroused their patriotism to a high pitch.

        Seldom has the Society enjoyed an evening of such exceptional pleasure.

        The following is a verbatim account of the after-dinner exercises:—

OPENING ADDRESS.

        President William H. Jordan.—Compatriots and Guests: Once again the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution welcomes its friends to its banquet table. In accordance with our ancient custom, we have met for the purpose of celebrating the birthday of George Washington. Prompted by that spirit of patriotism which we have all inherited from our ancestors, we would to-night pay respectful homage to the memory of that great man, soldier, statesman, and world's commoner, whose services upon the tented field, in the councils of the camp, amid the deliberations of the Continental Congress, and in the larger sphere of the nation's first President, more than those of any other man, made possible the independence of our country, and gave form and character to its government. [Applause.]

        The month of February has been eventful in the history of the United States. It was in the month of February that those two greatest of all Americans, Washington, the Father, and Lincoln, the Saviour, of our Union, were born. [Applause.] It was in the month of February, as you will remember, that the first session of the Continental Congress met in the city of Philadelphia; and that the British Parliament declared the American Colonies to be in a state of rebellion against the government of George III. It was in the month of February that the first armed resistance to British authority took place, at the Old Bridge at Salem, Massachusetts. It was in the month of February that the French Government recognized the independence of the United States, and became our ally in the great struggle; and it was in the month of February that John Marshall became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

        It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that whenever this country has had need of a great soul to guide its destiny and control its course, Providence has ever raised up such an one, who has always proved himself equal to the emergency at hand. When, for instance, we have needed generals of preeminent ability to lead our armies and plan our battles, we have had Washington, Wayne, Marion, Jackson, Scott, Sheridan, Sherman, Grant, and Shafter. [Applause.] When we have had need of statesmen to wind and unwind the tangled skeins of diplomacy, we have had Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Seward, and Blaine. [Applause.] When we have needed great jurists to declare those fundamental truths which the world has since accepted as maxims of constitutional and international law, we have had John Marshall, and Story, and Taney. [Applause.] When our national life has been threatened, from within or from without; when dark, dangerous, and forbidding clouds have hung with evil forebodings upon the horizon; when mutterings and rumblings have reverberated through the Union, gathering force and strength from the burning passions of men; when wars have burst as a flame upon the land, and we have had need in the presidential chair of a great man, a wise diplomat, and a true patriot, who, with his hand upon the throttle of events, should guide our course, maintain our honor, and defend our cause, we have had George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and William McKinley. [Applause.]

        But I must not continue in this field of national reminiscences. If I do, I am likely to be guilty of making a speech—a thing which I have strictly promised not to do to-night, lest I might trench upon the province of those distinguished gentlemen whom I shall soon have the pleasure of presenting to you.

        But before we proceed with the speeches of the evening, let me fulfil the promise made to you in the recent circular letter, by advising you of the plans of your new Board of Management for the coming year.

It is very much desired by the Board of Managers that the year now at hand shall become a red-letter year in the history of this Society. And to that end we have concluded to open somewhat the doors of our membership, and, although we now have a roll of some 325 members, to so far extend it as to admit sufficient applicants to bring it up to 500, which will allow a few of your friends to come in.

        Furthermore, as has been announced to you from time to time, the Board is engaged in a preparation of a register or genealogical record of all the members of this Society, together with a history of the Society's organization and its various proceedings down to date. Though we have been engaged upon that work for nearly six months, I am happy to say to you that it is nearly concluded, and in a very few weeks—not more than two or three months at the outside—we will be able to place in the hands of those who have already subscribed, as well as those who shall hereafter subscribe for it, a very neat volume of not less than 300 pages.

        Some time in the month of May, and probably about the 16th or 18th of May, it is anticipated that the President of the United States will be the guest of our city. About two years ago, the Board of Management, hearing that he was coming at that time, sent him a very nicely engrossed invitation to accept of our hospitality on his arrival. When a few weeks ago it was learned that he was to be here to attend the launching of the battleship Ohio, the former invitation was renewed, and I have the pleasure of announcing to you that, through the local Committee of Arrangements, the invitation has been accepted. Of course, it is not positively known yet that the President will be here. There is some talk of an extra session of Congress, which may detain him, and other matters may possibly intervene. But if he shall come it has been arranged that he will be the guest of this Society for at least a part of one afternoon, so that we may give to him and probably to his entire cabinet and visiting friends a reception. We are preparing to do this in a manner fitting the character of our Society and the occasion. We have already engaged quarters for that purpose at the Palace Hotel, and if the President comes, I think I may safely say that you will all have an opportunity both to see and greet him. My good friend, Mr. Scott, who sits at my left, has a good deal to say on that subject, and as he is to speak to you to-night, I want you to treat him very kindly, in order that he may get a good impression of us and help on our program for the reception of the President.

        The quartet will now render for us that great song, the " Battle Hymn of the Republic."

"WASHINGTON: LIBERTY UNDER LAW."

        President Jordan.—To certain classes of people, liberty means license, and the more the license the greater the liberty. Some of these people come to us from abroad, apparently with the idea that as soon as they land upon our shores and obtain their commissions as policemen, they are at liberty to wrap the American flag about them, stick a clover leaf in the bands of their hats, seize a club in the middle, and march through our streets to the music of Yankee Doodle and Erin-Go-Bragh, smashing heads and generally painting the town green. [Laughter.] Such, however, is not American liberty. It is not the liberty for which Washington and our fathers fought; but just what that liberty really is, we shall now be told by our good friend and fellow-citizen, the Honorable Samuel M. Shortridge, who will speak to us upon the subject of "Washington: Liberty under Law." [Applause.]

        Mr. Shortridge.—Mr. President and Gentlemen: All the resources of lofty and loving eloquence have been exhausted in vain attempts to portray the rounded greatness and the genius for war and government of him in commemoration of whose birth we, his countrymen, are assembled here to-night. Oratory has paid its tribute to his civic virtues; poetry has laid its immortal wreath upon his brow; scholarship has sought to sound the depths of his practical wisdom; and patriotism has striven to express its admiration, its gratitude, and its love for the character, the services, and the legacy of George Washington. [Applause.]

        His fame increases; it grows with the flight of years. A century has come and gone since he closed his eyes in eternal sleep; but he lives—lives in the government he founded, lives in the principles he enunciated, lives " first in the hearts of his countrymen," that beat with unutterable emotion at the mention of his sacred name. [Applause.]

        As military leader, history,—the disinterested, the dispassionate judgment of men,—has fixed his place. Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, Wellington—each has his champions, some their idolaters; but, all things considered—the times, the places, the circumstances, the mighty opposing foe, the small resources, difficulties overcome, dangers removed, victory achieved —thus measured, Washington takes his rightful place at the very head of military genius, and there he will remain forever.

        I need not dwell on his military life and achievements. You know them by heart—from Boston to Yorktown—and I would hasten to consider Washington other than as a soldier. But with our minds fixed for a moment on the tragedy and triumph of battle, there is one continuing fact which patriotism loves to mention, and may be pardoned for mentioning, at any time, on any occasion, and that glorious fact is that the flag of our country, first lifted to heaven by Washington, has been carried in victory from the days of the Revolution to this very hour—from Yorktown to Santiago, never knowing defeat, and blessing alike the victor and the vanquished. [Applause.]

        Not only in the camp but elsewhere Washington wrought great deeds and made himself immortal. The battle fought, the victory won, independence acknowledged, the thirteen colonies recognized as free, then came the greater task and the greater problem; the task of perpetuating liberty under law—the problem of maintaining constitutional government. Victory was ours, freedom was ours, but the colonies took their place among the nations of the earth under a form of government which gave promise of neither permanence nor security. Sir, it is easier to gain liberty than to maintain it; it is easier to win a battle than to found a state. To use the thoughtful and beautiful words of Charles Sumner, " Gaining liberty is not an end, but a means only; a means of securing justice and happiness, the real end and aim of states, as of every human heart." The thirteen colonies were in fact one people, and in their international relations one nation. But in other respects—in an interstate constitutional sense, they were so many separate sovereignties.

        The Articles of Confederation, under which the colonists waged successful war when their indignation was roused, and patriotism ran high, and there was generous rivalry as to which should perform the greatest service, make the greatest sacrifice, for the common cause, were soon found to be utterly inadequate in times of peace. These Articles of Confederation were born of imminent danger and pressing necessity for joint action. They were prepared by a Committee of the Continental Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, and reported to that body on July 12, 1776. Amended and debated and temporarily laid aside, it was not until November 15, 1777, that they were agreed to and thereupon transmitted to the Legislatures of the states for ratification. One by one the several "free, sovereign, and independent states" formally ratified these articles, and the cannon in the yard of Independence Hall announced to the world the " glorious compact" on the first day of March, 1781. It was indeed a glorious compact, and gloriously did our fathers triumph under it.

        The treaty of peace was signed at Paris on September 3, 1783. The military duties of Washington were performed. His country was free. In New York, on December 4, 1783, he bade farewell to his officers and repaired to Annapolis, where Congress was then sitting, to return his commission as Commander-in-Chief. This he did on Tuesday, December 23, and in so doing used these memorable words: "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action, and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long, acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life."

        Washington retired to his home at Mt. Vernon, now a shrine to which his countrymen and lovers of liberty make pilgrimage, in the fond expectation of spending the remainder of his days in domestic tranquility and peace.

        War brought liberty; victory was followed by peace; but liberty was not enough; peace was not enough. The condition of the country was deplorable. The nation had incurred an indebtedness of over forty millions of dollars—a small sum now, a colossal amount then; the several states were largely indebted. Congress could not raise money by way of internal tax or by a tariff on imports; to borrow money was almost impossible, for how could Congress guarantee payment? The government's credit at home and abroad was ruined. Congress recommended, but could not enforce its recommendations. The states quarreled; controversies over interstate trade sprung up; conflicting laws as to foreign commerce were enacted; and the discouraging and disheartening fact was that Congress confessedly was powerless to remedy these many and increasing evils. We had assumed international relations, but were unable to carry out our international obligations. We were fast forfeiting the respect of the world, as Congress was losing the respect of the people. The very limited delegation of powers to Congress did not include the elemental power of enacting laws of an essentially national character, binding on all the states. The country was drifting, nay, more, it was rushing into internecine strife. Were we a nation? Was the republic a success?

        A few thoughtful, observant men saw and realized and feared all this and were brave and frank enough to express their views. It was at this critical period of our history, when self-government was rapidly falling into discredit and the young republic was heading toward disaster, that Washington rendered incalculable service to his country and. to mankind. From his retirement at Mt. Vernon he saw the danger. He saw that the precious fruits of the Revolutionary struggle were in peril, and that to save and perpetuate them there must be a change in the form of government. The Confederation was called by him a " half-starved, limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step." " It is as clear to me as A, B, C," he said, " that an extension of federal powers would make us one of the most happy, wealthy, respectable, and powerful nations that ever inhabited the terrestrial globe. Without this, we shall soon be everything which is the direct reverse."

        Other great men shared in these views. Hamilton, Madison, Franklin, Pinckney, Monroe—they recognized the situation, they saw the distressing condition of affairs, and were active in directing and moulding public opinion in the direction of a "more perfect Union." I do not forget or undervalue their great services, but I think it just to say that Washington led in the movement which happily resulted in the formation and ratification of the Constitution under which we have lived a hundred years and become and are what the Father of his Country predicted,—" one of the most happy, wealthy, respectable, and powerful nations that ever inhabited the terrestrial globe." [Applause.]

        You are familiar with the steps taken to reform, recast, reframe the government. You recall that upon motion of Madison the Virginia Assembly passed a resolution calling for a meeting of Commissioners from all the States at Annapolis in September, 1786. You remember that this meeting, made up of Commissioners of but five of the States, prepared an address urging the necessity and suggesting a method for forming a stronger and a better government. Nor will it be forgotten that this historic address was written by Hamilton: Public interest was awakened, the work of the Annapolis meeting was laid before the Congress, and that body passed a resolution calling for a Convention " for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation." Such a Convention assembled in Philadelphia on the 25th of May, 1787, and, judged by its work and its effect on liberty under law, it was the most important Convention that ever met. It met to "revise" the Articles of Confederation, to repair a falling structure; but with a practical wisdom which has elicited the admiration of the world, it erected a new fabric of government—the Constitution under which we live, and to which we owe whatever makes us proud of our country, or great or respected among the nations of the earth.

        However much the world may praise Washington for his military achievements, whatever of imperishable luster his genius shed upon our arms, he rendered a greater and more valuable service to liberty when as presiding officer he guided and controlled in large measure the deliberations of that Convention. But for his conservative views and conciliating nature, but for the confidence the Delegates had in his spotless integrity and self-denying patriotism, but for his calmness, and coolness, and patience, his proved devotion to his country, his practical wisdom and his consequent influence over the minds and hearts of his associates, we now know that the Convention would have dissolved in strife and broken up in quarrel, and that the attempt to form a "more perfect Union" would have ended in lamentable failure. Debate was animated, interests clashed, jealousies existed, and rivalry contended, and all to such an extent that at times the Convention was "scarce held together by the strength of a hair;" but through those four months of doubt and fear Washington sat patient, forbearing, and by the very force of moral grandeur allayed passion and moulded antagonisms into harmony. [Applause.]

        The Convention over, the new Constitution transmitted to the Continental Congress, to be submitted to the several States for ratification, Washington returned to his beloved Mt Vernon, there to remain until again called to the service of his country.

        Do not for a moment suppose that all men believed in the new Constitution. Elbridge Gerry, Edmund Randolph, and George Mason, members of the Convention, had refused to approve it, and twelve others had retired from the Convention before its labors were finished. Violent opposition to it sprang up throughout the country. There was intense excitement, and supporters of the great charter of constitutional government felt the most anxious solicitude as to its fate. The instrument was denounced as the "stepping-stone to tyranny," and as "consolidated tyranny," "inimical to the liberties of a free people." Chief among its opponents stood Patrick Henry, who, though elected a member, had refused to attend or participate in the work of the Philadelphia Convention—Patrick Henry, whose love of liberty was unbounded and unquestioned, whose genius had moved the House of Burgesses to resistance, and whose lofty and fearless appeals had stirred their hearts as they move ours to-day—he opposed the new Constitution with all his power and all his might. Nor could he be reconciled, even with the tacit, if not authoritative, promise that immediately upon its ratification it should be radically amended. Everywhere the civic battle waged. Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Marshall championed the new form of government. The storm gathered and centered in Virginia; upon her action turned the fate of the "more perfect Union." Out from Mt. Vernon went a mighty influence—the influence of Washington; for the first time Virginia refused to follow Patrick Henry; the victory was won!

        How shall we express our gratitude to Washington ? As without his genius our battle for independence would have probably been lost; as without his counsel the Philadelphia Convention never would have agreed upon the Constitution; so without his influence that great instrument of government, of liberty under law, never would have been ratified by the people. To him more than to any other man we owe the formation of our present Union; without him there would have been no common country to live for or to die for; without him the flag of our hearts and hopes—your flag, my flag, the flag of Jackson, Scott, and Grant, of Dewey yonder at Manila, of Shaffer there at Santiago—the flag of unnumbered heroes whose blood has sanctified it—without Washington the flag of this Republic would not be known and respected on every wave, honored and saluted in every port, the symbol of our power, the emblem of liberty under law. [Applause.]

        The hearts of a grateful people again turned to Mt. Vernon, and Washington was unanimously chosen as their Chief Magistrate, with no crown save that of glory, with no scepter save that of law.

        Washington stood, and stands, for constitutional liberty, for regulated liberty, for liberty under "salutary restraint," for liberty under law. He stood, and stands, for regulated liberty under constitutional protections. He knew and taught that without these restraints, these checks, these safeguards, these balances, liberty degenerates into license worse than slavery, into anarchy worse than despotism. Against license with all its suicidal tendencies he uttered his warning; against anarchy in all its frightful and hideous forms he voiced his protest.

        The nation's power and glory do not altogether depend upon the triumph of its arms; they rest upon the righteousness of its people and. the quality of justice which it meets out to all men. The liberty for which Washington stood was the liberty of equality—absolute equality of public burdens, absolute equality of public duties. He believed in a republic of law, a government of order, wherein and where under all men should be protected and secure in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." [Applause.]

        I do not forget that the great Declaration was fought for while men toiled in chains and bent beneath the lash; that the Philadelphia newspaper that gave the first impression of that immortal declaration to the world contained an advertisement of one William Thomas for a lost or stolen slave. Upbraid the patriot fathers? Condemn Washington? Not for the hand I hold before you. He and his compatriots acted according to the light given them. They could not foresee; they could not foresee. It remained, in the providence of God, for Abraham Lincoln—blessed be his sacred name!—to make this nation a Republic in fact as well as in theory. [Applause.]

        Mr. President, Washington and his compatriots were not mere theorists. They were practical men who knew that the liberty they had achieved could only be secured by a government strong enough to protect every man entitled to its care. They strove to embody in constitutional form and thereby perpetuate the principles for which they had fought, and their work was one of lofty and disinterested patriotism, marked by concession and compromise.

        They, the men of New England and Georgia; they, the men of New York and Virginia—Benjamin Franklin, Luther Martin, Rufus King, Robert Morris, and others whose names will occur to you—were men who knew their rights, and "knowing dared maintain." They had been educated in the English common law, and were familiar with history and government. And after a hundred years of trial—years of stress and strain, of internal dangers and foreign menace—how true it is to say that they " builded better than they knew."

        I do not desire on this occasion, when we are assembled to pay loving homage to Washington, to provoke argument or arouse antagonism in your minds; but as for one, in the midst of present dangers, beset by present difficulties, viewed by jealous and envious European powers—I, for one, believe in a strong national government, one that can and one that shall leap to the defense of the flag wherever it is raised, and protect the humblest American citizen wherever he may travel, even though he be in the uttermost parts of the uncivilized world. [Applause.]

        As has been appropriately suggested this evening, whenever in the course of our history the hour of danger has come, an American breast or an American brain has been there to meet and to solve that danger. It was so in the dark days of the Revolution; it was so in the War of 1812; it was so in the Mexican War; it was so in the unhappy strife between the States in the Civil War; and it was gloriously so in our late war with Spain, when Dewey in Manila and Shaffer in Cuba lifted again the flag of Washington—the flag which throughout all our history has stood, and now stands, not for license, not for anarchy, not for impotency, but for constitutional liberty under law.

        Mr. President, and gentlemen, I have presumed too much upon your indulgence. A hundred years have passed since Washington died. "The hero, the patriot, and the sage of America, the man on whom in times of danger every eye was turned and all hopes placed, lives now only in his own great actions." This was true when uttered by the great John Marshall; it is true to-night, when the United States looks into and salutes the twentieth century without a blush and without a fear.

                The father of his Country!

Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven;

No pyramids set off his memories,

But the eternal substance of his greatness,

To which I leave him.

[Applause.]

" THE VICTORIAN ERA."

        President Jordan.—It is always delightful to listen to "Our Sam." Some of us, who have sat under the spell of his oratory and admired the beauty of his diction and the vividness of the imagination with which he is blessed, have deplored the thought that the time was likely to come when the race of " Our Sam " would be run and there would be none to follow him. But those of you who have read the public prints of late can well understand how that source of our sorrow has passed away, for, behold, there has recently arisen above the horizon of life the form of another "Sam," who will carry his father's name long after Samuel M. Shortridge shall have passed away, and to whose inherited oratory some of us may yet listen in the days to come. [Laughter and applause.]

        For sixty-four years and more, Queen Victoria ruled over the destinies of Great Britain. And, though we quarreled with one of her predecessors, and twice were obliged to severely chastise him, yet we never quarreled with her. Her reign has been the most brilliant in all the history of the British realm, and it is a pleasant thought that during the last days of her life there should have occurred that happy circumstance which has knit together the two greatest nations of the world, the refusal of her government to permit any interference with us upon the part of any of the nations of Europe during our war with Spain. [Applause.]

        We had intended to present to you to-night, to respond to the toast, "The Victorian Era," Prof. Thomas R. Bacon, of the University of California. But, unfortunately, a death in the family of Mr. Bacon has rendered it impossible for him to be here. And I now present to you the Rev. Benjamin Fay Mills, of Oakland, who will respond to that toast in his stead. [Applause.]

        Mr. Mills.—Mr. President and Gentlemen: I suppose my selection at this brief notice has been somewhat on the principle of the summons that was sent to a Methodist Conference from a little town where they desired to hear some preaching. The summons ran like this: " We would like to have you send us a bishop to preach at Squashtown Four-Corners. But in case the bishop is not able to come, be sure to send us a sliding elder. If you can't send us a sliding elder, then send us a circus rider. And if you can't get us a circus rider, then send us a locust preacher." I suppose that, as you could not get the Professor of History to speak to you concerning this most important epoch of all history, you will have to be satisfied with the "locust preacher."

        And yet, in discussing this topic, I feel a little like a Moslem preacher called the Hodji, who, on one occasion appeared before his congregation and said, "Moslems, how many of you know what I am going to talk to you about to-day? " " Why," they said, " none of us do." " Well," he said, " who would talk to such a lot of ignoramuses? " and so he turned on his heel and walked away. He came back a little later and said very seriously, " Moslems, how many of you know what I am going to speak to you about to-day? " And they said, enthusiastically, "All of us do." " Then," said he, " what's the use of telling you?" They thought that if he tried that experiment on them again they would be prepared for him. Sure enough, the third time he said, very solemnly, " Moslems, how many of you know what I am going to talk to you. about to-day? " " Well," they said, " some of us do, and some of us don't." He replied, "Then those that do, tell those that don't." [Laughter.]     And I am sure that in response to the question as to what we know about the Victorian Era, we might answer that none of us know, because none can apprehend at such a near distance its full significance; that from another point of view we might answer, "All of us do;" and from still another, remembering the impossibility of one man beginning to know everything about anything in this day of our fulness of knowledge, we could only say, " Some of us do, and some of us don't."

        The Victorian Era has been the time in the world's history when men have begun to see the earth move. It is not so long ago that men were put to death for affirming that the world moved. It used to move like the hand that marks the passing year upon the dock. Then came a movement like the hand that marks the day, and then the hour, and then the minute. Now it moves like the rapidly-fleeting second hand, so that if we stand for even one day and watch, we feel the shiver and we see the world move.

        It was in the year, I think, that Victoria, the maiden, acceded to the throne of England that the statue of Copernicus, by Thorwaldsen, was unveiled in Copenhagen, and at that time the priests and some ministers of the church were forbidden to attend the unveiling of the statue, because Copernicus was supposed to have taught doctrines concerning the earth that, if they were universally believed, it was thought would overthrow the entire Christian system.

        We live in an era that has seen a marvelous increase of wealth. According to Mr. Gladstone, the wealth of the world increased as much in the first fifty years of the century just passed as the aggregate amount of wealth in the world at the commencement of the century; and. in the next twenty-five years the increase was as great as in the preceding fifty years. And I suppose it is safe to say that every twenty years now there is as much wealth added to the world for the comfort and convenience of man as existed in the world at the commencement of the last century. If that rate should hold true for the Victorian Era, this era has produced for the world's comfort and culture three times as much wealth as existed in the entire world at the commencement of the nineteenth century. Alfred Russel Wallace, in his noteworthy book entitled "The Wonderful Century," assumes that the century just passed is equal to at least six hundred centuries before it. He says that the discoveries and inventions of the nineteenth century have been twice as many and twice as great in their importance as all the discoveries and inventions of the preceding centuries; that is, this one century was twice as great in its significance for the human race as all the centuries that preceded it. No wonder we can say the world moves.

        The most striking thing we have discovered is that as the world grows older, the rate of increase of improvement grows. I remember twenty-five years ago when I came to San Francisco as a lad, I went down one of the streets in Oakland on Sunday morning to see the rapid train go by, the marvel of the world, that ran from New York to San Francisco in three and a half days, bringing a theatrical company to San Francisco. It was the common saying that it took two men to see it, one to say, " Here she comes! " and another to say, " There she goes! " But that is about the ordinary time of a train in going from New York to San Francisco in these days.

        The Victorian Era is the time of the invention of almost all the machinery that is known to humanity. It is the time of an entirely new method of getting about the world. For, from the earliest days that man has lived upon this planet until this era, he has depended upon himself, or upon the lower animals, in order that he might transport himself from one place to another. It is this era that has made the world one. The first train that was seen in the United States of America ran its first journey only about ten years before Victoria became queen of England, and the first steamer that crossed the Atlantic and began weaving a web with the marvelous shuttle of commerce, binding the world together—the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean—crossed it in the second year of the reign of Queen Victoria.

        It is an entirely new world, so far as the acquaintanceship of man with man is concerned. It was not until Queen Victoria had been reigning for almost a score of years that the telegraph was perfected, and we learned not only how to use steam for our transportation, but learned also how to use electricity for the rapidity of our communication. I do not know how old the reign was when some of our great inventions came. The sewing-machine, I believe, had come in a very crude form. You remember when you were a boy, even though your hair be no grayer than mine, how many sneered at the idea of a possibility of there being a typewriter by which a man might write his letters in print. And now we not only have a hundred or more varieties of typewriters, but we have six different principles upon which the typewriter is constructed.

        When Queen Victoria took her place upon the throne of Great Britain, the farmer was still a farmer, in the old sense. I would not know what to call him to-day; but if the farmer of the days when Queen Victoria acceded to the throne was a farmer, we ought to have another name for him who carries on the agriculture of to-day. I was reading only the other day of a machine that does almost the entire work of the farm. It not only plows the land, but sows the seed in just the proportions in which it ought to be sowed, it takes care of the cultivation of the land, harvests the crop, threshes the grain, puts it into sacks and ties it up, and puts the sacks upon the wagons ready to go to the mill, or wherever it is destined to go. I suppose it will not be long before the one implement will be able to do not only all of those things, but also to grind the grain, and, let us devoutly hope, without any lack of appreciation of such occasions as this, that before very long it may be able also to cook it and relieve the pressure upon some of our housewives, and to eat it and digest it as well. [Laughter.]

        It would be a very difficult thing for a man of this day, when we have been fairly deluged and more than deluged, when the waters from above have come down and the waters from below have risen to cover us with information concerning the Victorian Era, when we had just learned of the wonders of the nineteenth century as it came to its momentous close, and then, almost before it was fairly closed and before the information had ceased concerning our marvelous progress, to have the last sixty years reviewed in the name of the Victorian Era—it would be almost impossible for one to say anything novel upon this topic. And yet I feel justified in presenting three thoughts, three great characteristics, concerning the Victorian Era.

        For one thing, the Victorian Era has given us the knowledge of the face of the earth. Do you realize that the world, so far as the civilized peoples are concerned, was not more than half discovered sixty years ago? We knew Europe, but we knew practically nothing else. We knew a little strip along the eastern coast of the Americas, but we did not know America. The great lands of Asia, China, Japan, and India were nothing more than great gates of mystery. As for Africa, we knew only that little historic Egypt—that was practically all. The world was not more than one-third known by the people of civilization when Victoria became queen. Now we have only the North Pole left. When we discover that, we will know our earth—at least the outside of it. [Laughter and applause.]

        When Victoria became Queen of England there was no celebration on the shores of San Francisco Bay, by Sons of the American Revolution, of the birthday of George Washington. The Sons of the American Revolution were not here, and if some of them had perchance been here as passers-by, they would not have seen floating the Stars and Stripes. And if they had attempted to have a gathering—a little gathering of one man from here and another from there—men who might perhaps have felt that large patriotism of devotion to a better nation than the nation that was fast vanishing from America and soon to practically vanish as a great nation from the world—if they had tried to engage in some celebration of this great anniversary and had done it upon this spot, I am afraid they would have needed a boat to stand in. San Francisco unknown, California a foreign province, and this nation a few little States on the Atlantic border. And now there are probably men in this room who, when they first saw San Francisco Bay, had been five months making their journey from the Atlantic Ocean, coming with what speed they might from the other shore, until their eyes could look upon the great waters of the Pacific. Now five days is a long trip. It is a long trip, and it is longer than it ought to be; for there are engines that run by electricity that could take us, if the appliances were what they might be, from the Pacific to the Atlantic between the rising and. the setting of the sun. And if the world has now become one city, it will be only as one household in the days that are just before us.

        This has not only been the time when we have discovered the outside of the earth, but when we have tried to find out what the earth was made of. Civilized man never asked this question seriously until after Victoria became Queen of England. That may seem a rather startling statement. There had occasionally been a man, one here and. there, who had asked something about the world. There were practically no chemical laboratories, as we now have chemical laboratories, sixty years ago. It has only been fifty years since such universities as Yale and Harvard installed their chemical laboratories, and such as they then installed were not to be compared with the chemical laboratories that are to be found in some grammar schools of to-day. Man had scarcely begun to ask himself questions concerning the constitution of matter. But now we have analyzed matter, and we have had to give to it a different characterization and a different name. And the work of the scientists in the future is to be entirely distinct from the work of the scientist of the past. Sixty years ago we knew what everything was made of. There were four elements—the earth, air, fire, and water. We had everything down to its lowest possible terms. Now we not only analyze those, but we analyze their constituent parts, and analyze those again, until we ask the physicist—and the very name physicist was scarcely known sixty years ago—of what matter is composed, and he says, " Molecules," and we ask the chemist of what the molecules are composed, and he says, "Atoms," and now we are getting something even finer, for which there has been invented the term " ion," and the physicist and. chemist, when we ask them what these are, say that the atom, or the ion, is probably a form of force. If that be true, what is the scientist to do in the future ? We have come to a place where, if science and religion have not influenced each other, at least the spiritual philosopher and the materialist have become one. There is nothing left for the scientist to investigate but force, and force is the scientific name for spirit. We are living in the day when we come at last to meet the great question of the ages.

        Not only this, but the last sixty years has brought us, as a world, for the first time, to a knowledge of the people that live in it. We did not know the human race sixty years ago. We did not know what kinds of people there were. We did not know what their customs were; we did not know their history; we did not know their religions; we did not know their languages. We knew almost nothing about them. In fact, history is a creation of the last sixty years. There were no historians, in the sense that we have historians now, sixty years ago. There were men who wrote accounts of what had occurred, as they understood what had occurred. They wrote accounts of kings and battles, and of great critical events of the world's history. But since we have learned that the world moves, the historian now must write an account of the world's progress, and show how it moves and why it moves, and something about the great law of cause and effect.  How far back must the historian go in our day to write a history of any people or of all the people? We know how far back he needed to go sixty years ago— six thousand years, that was all we knew all about the history of man. And Bishop Lightfoot tells us with great gravity that man was created 4,004 years before Christ, on the tenth day of October, at 9 o'clock in the morning. [Laughter.] We do not know when man commenced, but we understand now that if we are to read the history of men, we will have to go back to the commencement of the atom, and whereas formerly we talked of the brotherhood of men, men of culture to-day will not limit the idea of consanguinity of man to man, but rather will speak of the unity of all things that exist. And he that writes the history of men or of man is one who will write the history of all things—who will understand the workings of the eternal spirit.

        Sixty years ago, in a country like this, if a man had intimated even what I have intimated to-night, he would have become henceforth a social outcast. Our first great doctrine was that of the fall of man. We now know that man has risen all over the world, in every continent. We have almost seen the development of the brain of man from the time when his head was protuberant at the rear. We know when he began to have a brain and began to think. We know when the power of man's brain began to overcome the power of the mere animal. We know when he used. stones as weapons, and we know when he began to sharpen the stones. We know when he began to use the metals to overcome the brutes and to till the field. We know about his development, and all the way along we see him grow—always growing. A friend of mine went to London awhile ago, and while there he tried to get into the armor of some of the old crusaders that is kept in the Tower of London. He is not a very large man, a little taller than I am, but not as stout, and yet he could not find any armor there that he could get inside of. We can not go back to any period where an ordinary man of to-day can get into the armor of an ordinary man of that period. We have even discovered the missing link, I understand. It is called pithicanthropus erectus, and now I suppose we know all about it

        The most significant picture I ever saw in a newspaper was in one of your San Francisco papers, on New Year's day, as I remember. A number of people said to me, " Do you know what that means? " I studied over it until I thought I did, and I was glad of it. It was the picture of the Sphinx, with a woman, representing the twentieth century, standing with an iron hammer in her hand; and the head of the Sphinx was cracked wide open. That old Sphinx standing through immemorial ages and slaying all who could not answer her question—her fundamental question—is at last to be slain by the twentieth century.

        The nineteenth century has been the century which has not only broken the shackles from the slave, but it has broken the shackles from women. Victoria herself, a young woman of culture in the largest sense, and the Queen of England, could not have been admitted, and could not to-day, by the way, to the greatest universities of England, although we would be glad to welcome her to the great universities of the State of California. The Victorian Era has given the woman to the world, and has practically doubled the possibility for the increase of the world's knowledge and the development of the world's higher faculties and finer forces.

        It has been the age of the child. There was, in the large sense, no sane education of the child sixty years ago. We took the little child, and we crammed his head full of dead men's ideas, and if he did not die, it was because of that marvelous, perpetual miracle that is beyond the understanding and the power of men. We had no faith in him; we were infidels, and we said, "We will have to take the child and cram him full of what people used to think, if we are going to make a man out of him." Now we are going to believe in the child, and we are losing our infidelity. At the top and at the bottom, in the kindergarten and the university, we are saying, "Let us rind out what there is in this child, this man, and let us develop that." That is one reason why we are making such educational progress in our time.

        A little while ago I had been speaking concerning the marvelous material progress of the nineteenth century, and one said to me, " But you can't say anything for the progress of humanity." I said, "Yes, a thousand-fold more. I believe above all other things the Victorian Era is to be noted for the growth of humanity." One who was there said, "Did you ever hear of anything worse than the way England is treating the people of South Africa during this war?" I said, "In my opinion that is bad enough, but I have heard of a great many things that are worse." Just think for a moment. Here comes the one who opposed her in the councils of state, and even practically upon the field. He passes unchallenged until he enters the vessel of a friendly little country, a country so small that England could crush it in her hand, if she could morally do so. He goes on that vessel to within sight of the shores of England, and is received with acclamation by the people of France, and takes up his residence across a narrow sea, and lives there unmolested. What did England do with those who opposed her in 1857 in India, when she had conquered them ? Would she have allowed them to come and be welcomed as honored guests in the little country of Holland ? She blew them out of her cannon. Who could intimate for a moment that we have not made progress in humanity ?

        War, savage at all times, has become notable now especially for its humanity. What impressed me most when I went over to see the Iowa, in the harbor here a little while ago, to speak to the men, was not so much that marvelous instrument of war that has been produced in our day for the protection of our nation, but rather these men, lovers of America and glad to lay down their lives, if need be, for America. And yet, as I looked at them, I could not think so much of the great heroism that they and their comrades had manifested as of this: I could see them going forth after the terrible battle to rescue their wounded enemies, unheeding, sometimes, we are told, the orders of their commanders to return to their vessels, and there by the red-hot vessels, almost looking into eternity, risking their lives once for their country and now for those who had been their country's enemies, that they might bring them to a place of safety. And we took the Admiral from Santiago, and we brought him to Boston, and we honored him, and we feted him, and said the kindest things we knew about him.

        Heroism has become almost commonplace in our day. A man down in the depths of a mine in Arizona, when only certain ones could be saved, said to some of his comrades: "Go up, boys; you have families, most of you, and I haven't. I will stay until the last." We read that a gambler in a hotel that burned down in a southern State saved the lives of servant-girls and lost his own . An elevator boy at the Windsor Hotel risked his life and ran the elevator up, when he had been warned by a policeman that to do so would be death, and came down with a crash with it, and died in the falling ruins. I do not know all of the circumstances, nor do you, of that sad event of this morning—perhaps the saddest in the history of all the vessels that have gone out and come in through our beautiful Golden Gate—but we know this, that when we shall read of the incidents that occurred in those last terrible moments, we shall read of instances of heroism. I saw the headline in a paper as I came here to-night of what the captain said when he knew that there was no hope: " For God's sake, save the women! " [Applause.]

        To me the most significant thing of our day is not our wars. They are mere eddies in the great broad stream of peace. No greater lover of peace is there, perhaps, than this hero here. The last peace conference I attended was presided over by an officer of the United States Army. I read the other day that Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim gun, is a member of the Peace Union, and I understand that Gatling, the inventor, when asked for his favorite text in the Bible, said the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians: "There is only one hope, and that is the increase of the spirit of love among men." [Applause.]

        I believe the most significant event of our time has not been our wars, but rather the gathering of the company at The Hague, representing the great development of this era of peace. Dr. Hale told me that one of his helpers in the underground railway, who had risked his life, his home, his property, everything, for the sake of a slave, was asked by his twelve-year-old boy, " Papa, what is a slave?" Here was the man who had hazarded all that men hold dear for the freeing of the slave, and before the close of that century his own lad did not know the meaning of the word. I believe the day will come when the children, perhaps of some of us, at least their children's children, will look into the faces of their parents and say, " What is war? " And they will have to rack their brains for a description by which to bring to them something of the horrors of that barbarism that we are outgrowing so rapidly in our day. And I could not do better, in speaking of the Victorian Era, than to close with these beautiful words of Edwin Arnold:—

"Peace, beginning to be,

Deep as the sleep of the sea

When the stars their faces find

In its calm tranquillity.

Hearts of men upon earth

Never once still from their birth,

To rest as the waters rest,

With the colors of heaven on their breast

Peace on earth and good will !

Hearts that are gentle and still,

Hear the beginning of this

Far off, infinite bliss."

[Applause.]

" THE GREAT REPUBLIC AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY."

        President Jordan.—The man who invented or manufactured that old motto, " The mills of the gods grind slow," evidently did not know the Rev. Benjamin Fay Mills. [Laughter.] In action he is not so very slow, and we are indeed grateful to him for the grist he has ground out for us to-night. [Applause.]

        When the late lamented century was born, there was but one republic of any moment upon the earth, and that belonged to us. It was then but a weakling. The nations of Europe had very little respect for it, and it had very little influence among them. But times have changed since then, and to-day all the nations of the world respect the influence of the American Republic. [Applause.]

        We are fortunate to-night in having with us a distinguished fellow-citizen, who, as the builder of the Olympia, the Oregon, the Wisconsin, the Monterey, and several other of Uncle Sam's boxing gloves, has helped to teach the lessons of respect which the Old World to-day entertains for this Republic. I am happy now to

present to you the Hon. Irving M. Scott, who will address us upon the subject of "The Great Republic and Its Influence upon the Nineteenth Century." [Applause.]

        Mr. Scott.—Mr. President and Gentlemen: A hasty review of some ancient things is necessary, in order to measure the influence which the great Republic exerted in the nineteenth century.

        In about 1275, Marco Polo visited Kubla Kahn, and wrote his famous story of the immeasurable wealth, splendor, and glory of an empire which was unknown to the people of Europe. It was the enthusiasm of the story of Marco Polo which spurred on the navigators to discover the eastern shore of his cathay. It was that which started Columbus upon his voyage of exploration. When he discovered the coast of America, he supposed it was the eastern coast of Asia, and he died in that belief. It was a hundred years after the discovery of Columbus before the world knew that the American Continent was comparatively unpeopled and undiscovered, including all that portion of which our country is now composed. It was another hundred years before the world ascertained that the Pacific Ocean was yet between the western coast of America and the eastern coast of Marco Polo's cathay, and enterprise after enterprise was pushed to discover and obtain the wealth of Asia supposed to be within the boundary of America. There were other elements at work, and the great colonies of England on the Atlantic Coast, bounded by the Alleghanies upon the west, Canada upon the north, and the possessions of Spain upon the south, were contending for the supremacy of this new empire then being explored.

        England, in that hundred years, had strengthened herself for the supreme battle which was to be fought between the French and the Spanish for supremacy upon this continent. In the formation of this battle and in the lines that were drawn, elements of liberty that had developed in the old Grecian colonies and had been fostered in Geneva were pitted against the old forms of government. When the Parliament of England decided, the night before Charles I was beheaded, that, "under God, all just power comes from the people; " when these patriots had been nurtured in Holland and had finally traversed the mighty ocean and settled on our own shores, they found a field of operation in which to put in successful movement the great thought of human liberty and the great principles of representative government in a land untrammeled by tradition, unruled by kings, and in a government where thought was free, which was to give us truth instead of tradition and fact instead of fiction.

        Our great commander, whose birthday we celebrate to-night, was the genius of that movement. With a wisdom that none hath disputed, he divined that some effort must be made to keep on the Hudson a force sufficient to prevent England from dividing New England from the remaining colonies, thus making her a detached section. So Washington kept his fortress on the Hudson. He eventually maneuvered so well that the capture of Ticonderoga gave him the great guns, and he waited until the winter had frozen the ground, so that with his ox-teams he might haul them and invest Boston, to relieve New England from the presence of the British without firing a shot. Then with that same wisdom divining the policy which they had attempted to carry out, when the British ascended the Delaware, he met them at the Battle of Brandywine, and later at Germantown, and, though he failed to prevent their occupation of the capital of America, he immediately placed himself between Philadelphia and New York, and, by a most masterly movement, forced them to fight the Battle of Monmouth, of Princeton and Trenton, and in a very short campaign our British friends found themselves outside the State of New Jersey, and Washington in charge of New York. Again, the same wisdom had sent his general south to the base of supplies at Savannah, and he induced the British to chase him through the Carolinas and into Virginia, and led them into the trap at Yorktown. And then, with the wisdom that has been so eloquently spoken of to-night by one of the speakers, Washington brought and welded these factions together and formed these United States of America, under which human thought was free to develop itself in every direction. This was the mission and this was the object of the great captain's leadership, the formation of a government in which the representation of each individual should be protected and preserved.

        Having formed this nation upon a basis that has been successful, we can from that date measure its influence upon the nineteenth century. It was the formation of that government that allowed men to examine into and to discover what Mr. Mills has so eloquently told us to-night has been the result of the Victorian Era. For, while our English brethren had the knowledge of human liberty, as expressed in their Parliament, there was no field upon which they could plant the batteries of free thought and free speech, and that man should be permitted to do that which was just within the sight of his Creator and his fellow-man until Washington formed this Government of the United States of America. [Applause.]

        From the confederation that preceded these United States was builded up this great platform (you might say) upon which the principles of freedom could be deployed and massed for the benefit of mankind. And it has been working to that end, not only through the great expounders of the law of the Constitution which made it possible to make a Union from Marshall's definition of the Constitution that it was a union of the States, as against the rights of a single State, that made possible this Union.

        But we had only the United States, and the very element left in our Constitution which Mr. Shortridge so beautifully expressed, that upon the same page with the proclamation of human liberty was the advertisement for a slave. That very contradiction was the one thing that made us a Union impregnable to the assaults of the world, pure and true, under the leadership of that magnificent man of our own growth, born upon our own soil, Abraham Lincoln. Again, the delay of States in joining the Union of States proved the keystone of that Union, for Maryland refused to enter into the Union until Virginia and all the States owning undefined and unexplored territory conveyed their title to the United States for the benefit of the States forming that Union, thus preserving the integrity of the States, as otherwise the territory claimed by Virginia alone would have made it possible for that State to overshadow the other twelve and destroy their individuality. [Applause.]

        The second step was then made in the development of these great Colonies. We were the United States under Washington; under Lincoln we became nationalized, a nation—one that had the power to enforce its laws in every State that was under its flag and to do justice to every man, regardless of color or previous condition of servitude.

        And yet our lesson was but an unfinished one; for there came a time in the development of the mighty thoughts that were springing from the brain of men who were free, under the aegis of our Constitution, under the free thought and untrammeled life that was ours, and under the right of representative government, we having become as it were isolated within our own borders, that we sat down, careless of the lives or conditions of our brother man. We were just as far from filling the mission which the centuries had ordained for us to carry out as we were at the adoption of the Declaration of Independence upon the subject of African slavery then prevailing in half of the States. But again came the genius of human liberty. Again came that splendid forward movement of freemen, whose hearts were beating true to their fellow-men. And, under the magnificent interpretation of our present President, we took our place among the nations and the powers of the earth, there to remain as long as human speech and human sympathy shall be felt by educated free­men. [Applause.] We had no more right to sit down and fold our arms in the peace and plenty of commerce than we had to sit down with half our people holding slaves after the Revolution. But destiny, "which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may," has placed us as the champion of an oppressed and downtrodden people, and that magnificent movement of America united all degrees of politics and all degrees of religion, and has placed us were we belong in the world. Our country put her foot down, and said to Spain, "Let Cuba go," and she did. [Applause.]

        These are mighty thoughts that occupy the human mind and the human intellect We took upon ourselves the burden of that war. Our homes gave to the nation some of our choicest treasures, that a race unable to protect itself should, by the power and support of that flag which said all men shall be free, have an opportunity to form a republican government in their own style, in their own time, and for their own people. And if one thing will tend to measure the influence of this Republic on the nineteenth century it is that, for the first time in human history, I care not where you start, a nation has patriotically undertaken to liberate another race and given it the benefit of that liberation without charge. [Applause.]

        Again, this Republic of ours, which has blossomed with the best brains of the world, when it began in that narrow strip between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic, reaching from Canada to Florida, had opposed to it the great empire which it fought in Cuba, owning every foot of land including Florida and Georgia and Alabama, owning every foot of land west of the Mississippi River, from the boundaries of Canada to the Pacific Ocean, as well as every inch of territory in the Isthmus and in South America. Spain owned all that land. Think of it! The entire South America, the Isthmus, all the land between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River, and Florida and Georgia out to the Atlantic! Under the rule of that nation was maintained a system denying to the brain of man free action, free thought, or to the soul of man free worship.

        Mark the influence, Mr. President, as step by step this Republic rose, the loved instrument of all our people, extending freedom, making the school­house part of the decalogue, making intelligence the law of the land, sweeping fiction, and tradition, and bigotry from its borders. It worked so upon the minds of men of other nations that at the hour I am speaking not a single foot of territory of all that mighty tract of land is under the flag of Spain. If, since Washington was President, emerging from the heroic battles fought by heroic peoples for a noble principle, in the short time that has elapsed, we have freed our continent from the dominion of a narrow-minded nation, what shall be said, and how shall we measure the influence of that mighty principle planted in the center of the archipelagoes in the ocean of the Pacific, whose center reaches more millions of people than we have ever met before? Who shalt measure the beneficent influence that shall carry to those people representative government and, the right to think and to pray as they see fit ? There is nothing to measure it by in the history of the world. Every invention that shapes the destinies of the human race to-day received its impulse from this free government of America, where inventions have touched high-water mark, because the inventor has had a right to what he advised. It has been under this principle of liberal discussion that the politics of the nation have been ameliorated. While there are some vestiges of old governments yet existing, I challenge any one within the hearing of my voice to point to a single government under the sun whose rigor has not been abated since the starry banner first swung over a united, victorious, and resplendent republic of men. [Applause.] There is no nation to-day but what, in some manner, more or less recognizes the individual rights of men. And every autocratic government, however severe, is hedged around by some popular representative of the people, which says, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther."

        The human race are changing the world over. Born in a slave State, fellow-citizens, I have lived to see property in human beings made unlawful, and the world uplifted by that declaration. Wherever man has been in his earlier days, there are traces that he has advanced from a savage to this present civilization. There never was a fall of man. Kent's cave in England, the drift period in France, the remains and objects found in the peat bogs of Denmark, and now in the museum of Copenhagen, the flint implements and rough stone implements found on the banks of the Nile, and in the early homes of every race known, points to the universal, steady advance of man from savage life to the present civilization. If that be true, and. it can be demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt, why should we stop here with our five senses? The race is immortal. The individual may be like the leaf of the tree, but the race goes on forever, upward and onward. What we do to-day, dwell on, and talk about, and glory in, will, a century hence, be looked back to by the dwellers of that time with wonder why such barbarism existed in our day.

In this glorious outlook of the race, ever advancing upward and onward, taking in all races of men, and, as has been so eloquently stated, including also woman, who shall be delivered from her bondage, we shall, side by side, in love and harmony, work out the problems of life, that we may lessen toil, and alleviate pain, and approach nearer to the ideal of the great Father, as we discover the workings of natural law after natural law, of which to-day we are totally ignorant, and yet of which we have some inkling as to fuller development in the future. And we shall see what glorious possibilities were made when America was founded and the government of Washington made permanent through the grand and glorious deeds of Lincoln and McKinley. The world will take courage, and keep on its onward and upward march for the alleviation of humanity. [Applause.]

" OUR RELATIONS TO THE SOUTH AMERICAN
REPUBLICS."

        President Jordan.—I remember that when a student in New Haven we used to think that there was only one really great university in all America, and that was Yale. If there was anything that a Yale man liked better than another, it was to get foul of a Harvard man and teach him a trick or two in boating, baseball, or football. But after we left the college campus, and went out into the world, we found that a Yale man's heart warmed wonderfully as his hand crossed the palm of a Harvard man. So to-night it is a great pleasure for me to present to you Prof. Joseph P. Warren, of Harvard University, whom President Jordan, of Stanford, says has been loaned to this Coast only for a short time, after which he must be returned to the mud-flats of Cambridge. Professor Warren will now address us upon the subject of "Our Relations to the South American Republics." [Applause.]

        Mr. Warren.—Mr. President and Gentlemen: It is hardly necessary for a descendant of Revolutionary stock and a sojourner from the neighborhood of Boston and Concord and Bunker Hill, to express his gratification at meeting a company of Sons of the American Revolution such as this, three thousand miles from the scene of the events which this Society commemorates, and yet within the limits of the nation which those events called into being. I can think of few combinations of circumstances that suggest more inspiring associations to an American citizen. The present circumstances also call to mind and suggest as applicable, in a way, to Sons of the American Revolution some remarks that were made at Plymouth Rock, by the late Governor Greenhalge, of Massachusetts, in regard to the descendants of the Pilgrims. He said that he made it a rule of his life never to number among his acquaintances any but lineal descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers; but that one must not therefore judge that the circle of his acquaintanceship was narrow; on the contrary, the descendants of the Pilgrims seemed as numerous as the army of Xerxes, and much more prosperous, and every ship that came across the Atlantic, which in this case we might change to every train that comes across the continent, brought new claimants. [Laughter.] I am also reminded, in perhaps more homely vein, of the example of the grave digger, who, after digging graves for many years, at last obtained a holiday. They asked him what he intended to do upon his holiday. He said he didn't quite know, but on the whole he was inclined to think he would go over to the next town and see how they dug graves there. [Laughter.] So far as I can judge you are celebrating this holiday with quite as much enthusiasm as it is celebrated even in the very sphere of Washington's activity.

        However, I think you will allow that in the town of Boston we have certain advantages of local, historic, and patriotic association. Even that statement, however, I make with doubt, because of something I learned as I walked along Market Street in your city this afternoon. I was passing a retail establishment, I believe it is called the Emporium, and noticed a patriotic display in the window. Stepping up, naturally, to see what it was, I became acquainted with various bits of information, among them the following fact: that George Washington was President of the United States from the year 1776 to the year 1785. [Laughter.] I have learned many things, gentlemen, since my arrival at the Golden Gate, but no other, I assure you, of such startling significance as that. [Laughter.] And yet, in spite of that important contribution, it still seems to me that we have in Boston, as I suggested, certain advantages of local association. The people of Boston in 1775 knew what it meant, and their descendants are daily reminded what it means, to speak of Washington as "first in war." It was the privilege of the town of Boston to be occupied by an army of ten thousand British troops, and to live under that interesting form of government called martial law. Somebody described it to the effect that a provost marshal was a man who did as he pleased, and martial law was permission for him to do it. [Laughter.] In that situation we looked to George Washington for our deliverance, and we did not look in vain. Washington arrived soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill and took command of the American Army. Alas! did he take command of the American Army under the shade of the Washington elm in Cambridge? It was but recently that that noble tree and its still nobler memories began to languish. I grieve to say that it was a professor in Harvard University who focused upon it the shriveling glare of his scientific spectacles, and when he withdrew his gaze there was nothing left. We have our revenge on the professor, who will go down through history as the Ulmicide [Laughter]; but, alas, we now can only say that very likely Washington took command in the shade of that venerable tree!

        But be that as it may, you all remember well the part he acted in the Siege of Boston. Whenever I meet a man who speaks slightingly of the military ability of George Washington, I always call attention to that Siege. A general who sees his army dissolve and Vanish before his eyes; who has the task of creating a new army out of absolutely raw material, in complete lack of all manner of supplies; who in the meantime keeps a powerful and disciplined enemy closely shut up in a besieged town; and who, after he has created his new army, makes such masterly dispositions that the enemy is forced to decamp without striking a single blow in defense—that general is not a novice in the art of war. That is what was done by Washington before Boston. Finally, as you all know, he took position on Dorchester Heights on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, giving out as watchword, " Remember the fifth of March;" and invited the British to come out and play another round at the game of Bunker Hill. But they had learned the lesson of Bunker Hill at the cost of a thousand men, and politely declined the invitation. So it came to pass that on the 17th of March, like the rats and snakes of Ireland, the British and Tories put out to sea, never to return in hostile guise. We have monuments to Washington in Boston, but we erected the best of all when we changed the names of Orange Street and Newbury Street, over which Washington entered the city in triumph, to "Washington" Street; and now our busiest thoroughfare is witness to our gratitude to Washington for the deliverance he brought us in the Siege of Boston. And every year, on the 17th of March, the anniversary of the evacuation, the bells in Boston ring, morning, noon, and night, in commemoration of that event, though many of our citizens believe the bells that day are ringing, as they are themselves parading, for very different reasons. [Laughter and applause.]

        I must turn, however, from these local associations, so vividly suggested by the day we celebrate, to the more general subject of the toast to which I have the honor to respond,—" Our Relations with the South American Republics." Where shall we go, gentlemen, to find the origin of these relations ? I ask you to go back with me to written words and the public actions of President George Washington. I do not mean, of course, that Washington could treat of the Republics of South America as such. In his day that whole continent, with the exception of Brazil, lay choked and throttled, as it were, by the bands of Spanish colonial regulations. But the new wine of revolution was already working, and in the young Republic to the north Washington was laying the foundation of permanent international relations. The first stone of these foundations he laid in his neutral proclamation of 1793—a proclamation which, by a single word, took the new nation out of the storm-center of European wars, in which the colonies had been involved for a hundred years, and started it on a mission of independent development. The same principle reappeared in Washington's Farewell Address, in which he urged his countrymen, while extending their commercial relations as widely as they might, to have the least possible political connection with European nations. The idea was caught up again by that great coiner of phrases which live in the memory and stir the imagination of the American people, Thomas Jefferson, in his famous first inaugural, in the words, "Honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." Finally, the same thought reappeared in 1823, in the President's message of December 2—the first official declaration of the Monroe Doctrine. That document was written by John Quincy Adams, was advised by ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison, was issued on the authority of President Monroe, and was a direct descendant of the principles of Washington. It therefore embodied the teachings of a larger number of men, whom we call the fathers of American political ideas.

        The Monroe Doctrine declared that the American continents were permanently closed to European colonization, and forbade the extension to this hemisphere of the system of the Holy Alliance—an alliance for the destruction of representative government as inimical to the divine right of kings. Wherein did the doctrine reflect the principles of Washington? Washington warned Americans to take no part in the politics of Europe; the Monroe Doctrine forbade Europeans to interfere in the politics of America. But the Monroe Doctrine did more than reaffirm the teachings of Washington. It established a new principle. It forbade any third party to assist Spain in her hopeless struggle to subdue her rebellious Colonies. It therefore dedicated those Colonies to the principles of liberty, and assumed for this Republic the guarantee that that principle should live.

        That was the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. It has been expanded since. We have expanded it to mean that if an American colony is falling from the feeble grasp of an effete European monarchy, no other European power shall step in and thwart the aspirations of the people. The last great expansion of the doctrine came in 1895. I refer, of course, to the Venezuelan difficulty. We then expanded the Monroe Doctrine to mean that when a great European power and a small American power are engaged in a controversy over a considerable portion of the latter's territory, and the large European power persistently refuses to submit the question to arbitration, that question shall be submitted to arbitration if it is within the power of the United States of America to compel such submission. [Applause.] Some of us objected to that extension of the Monroe Doctrine at the time. I remember that a witty speaker described the situation to the effect that America was defying the whole world and defenseless against any portion of it. He would not utter the latter part of his epigram to-day. And, more than that, the proof of the pudding is the eating, and the extension of the Monroe Doctrine then made it not likely to be relegated now to the limbo of innocuous desuetude. [Laughter.] We may think it was made with a little unnecessary heat. But "God uses the wrath of man to praise Him, and. the remainder of the wrath," which in this case happened to be the much-talked-of British wrath, "does He restrain." It was perhaps a theory that was propounded by Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Olney, but it is a condition that confronts us now, and a condition to which the nations of Europe may well give heed. [Applause.]

        Such are the aspects of the Monroe Doctrine that come to mind on an anniversary like this. It is a long and slightly historical vista down which we look, and, as Sons of the American Revolution, we rejoice that our gaze is carried back to the example and the precept of the Father of his Country.

        We have lately been informed, however, that the Monroe Doctrine is an exploded idea. We are reminded that it had two sides, one of which guaranteed that with existing Colonies in this hemisphere we should not interfere. But we did interfere in Cuba. Therefore, we are told, one-half of the Monroe Doctrine is gone and the rest must be dismissed with it. Gentlemen, what had our intervention in Cuba to do with the Monroe Doctrine ? We went to Cuba to abate a nuisance, to put an end to a situation that had become hateful and intolerable in the eyes of civilization. We abated that nuisance, and the sovereignty of Spain, which was responsible for it, disappeared in the process. But with those Colonies of European powers where the laws of civilization obtain, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. The cause of Cuba, thank God, was quite exceptional, and our intervention there invalidated the Monroe Doctrine in no particular.

        It is objected, however, that we have expanded in the Orient. So we have. Does the fact, however, that we have assumed new responsibilities in one hemisphere relieve us from the defense of liberty in the other hemisphere, when we have assumed the responsibility and have the power to defend it? I contend, gentlemen, that the developments arising from the Spanish-American War have no effect whatever upon the Monroe Doctrine, and that we shall continue to maintain it and shall reaffirm it 'whenever we have occasion so to do. [Applause.]

        Perhaps there was never a moment since the Monroe Doctrine was first announced, when its reaffirmation was more necessary, more timely, than at the present day. [Applause.] I rejoice that the American representatives did reaffirm the Monroe Doctrine in the Peace Conference at The Hague. I rejoice that in establishing our relations with Cuba we shall reaffirm the Monroe Doctrine ourselves, and shall require the Cuban Republic to affirm it likewise, as part of its fundamental law. [Applause.]

        When European immigration, and in particular German immigration, is being so largely and consciously directed towards South America; when a German Minister of Marine speaks openly in the Reichstag in favor of dividing the Imperial Navy into three squadrons, a Chinese squadron, an African squadron, and a South American squadron—at such a moment, gentlemen, the time has come to announce that seventy-five years are but as a day in the life of the great charter of independence throughout the length and the breadth of the American hemisphere. [Applause.]

        There is no country in the world with whom the peoples of South America should have so close commercial relations as with our own. It was old William Wheelwright, of Newburyport, who was the pioneer of industry and commerce in South America, who, more than any other man, took the steps towards making available the wonderful resources of that continent, and who first projected the railroad across the Andes Mountains. But, on the whole, while our country extended great moral assistance to the peoples of South America, England, lagging far behind us in the matter of political generosity, was prudently gathering in the trade. She has continued to do so, and other European powers have done so ever since, so that our commercial relations with South America are far behind what, from geographic situation and from political affinity, should naturally be the case. When we come to look upon the business situation in South America with as much care for details as our European competitors have shown—I suppose those matters have been too trivial for the American imagination, but there is where the trouble lies—when we take goods to South America in a form that can be transported over the Andes Mountains, when we have skilled trade representatives there, as European nations have, then we shall gain our rightful share of the trade of South America, and that is a development which should begin at once.

        There is no nation for which the South American peoples should have such close political friendship as for the United States. I wish the people in the United States retained more of their early enthusiasm for the South American Revolution. I wish that, as we think of that Revolution, we laid less emphasis upon the name of Simon Bolivar, a remarkable but not an unselfish character, and laid more emphasis upon the name of San Martin. San Martin was the real liberator of South America. A leader in the Argentine Revolution, he emancipated Chile and Peru. He met Bolivar, his inferior in services and in ability, recognized that two leaders were impossible, and in the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice, withdrew. He declined presidencies and dictatorships, saying that the man who had led in war was not the man to win the victories of peace, although he, like our own Washington, might have been a worthy exception to that prudent rule. San Martin was the true liberator of South America, a man who, both for achievements and according to the higher test of character, is worthy to be set side by side with the Father of our Country, whose birthday we celebrate to-night. I wish also that the people of South America retained more of their early gratitude for our assistance and our counsel. We recognized the belligerency of the South American Republics from the very start. We recognized their independence in 1822, prior to the .time at which, by a strict interpretation of the rules of international law, we had a right to do so, because a considerable contest was still going on. The leader in the movement to recognize South American independence was that great son of Kentucky, Henry Clay. His name was a household word in South America. His speeches were read to Revolutionary troops to inspire them on going into battle. Such were the relations of political friendship between the peoples of the two continents—relations that naturally and logically should have continued until the present day.

        Now, unfortunately, there has come an estrangement between the people of South America and ourselves. That estrangement, to a large extent, is due to unfortunate circumstances connected with our war with Spain. Blood, they tell us, is thicker than water, and the South American peoples have a fear, apparently, that our activities in the Spanish-American War may possibly lead to aggressions upon them—a fear without foundation, I believe, and yet one which stands in the way of our natural political and commercial relations, and which we should do our utmost to allay. There are two methods immediately in sight, gentlemen, by which that apprehension may be allayed and good relations restored. One of them we are now employing to the full extent of our ability. I refer to the honest discharge of our solemn pledge to the people of the island of Cuba. [Applause.] Live up to your promise to Cuba, and the people of South America will have no fear of military aggressions upon them. The other method is that we should act according to equally high principles in the work that will soon be upon us—the building and operation of the Nicaragua Canal. If in that work we maintain towards the peoples of Central America with whom we have to deal an equally high regard for principles of justice and fair play, that policy, together with the Cuban solution, will permanently remove the estrangement between the peoples of the northern and southern continents of America—peoples who should live in the highest measure of harmony and friendship.

        In saying this, gentlemen, I am not speaking for or against imperialism. On that question there is a division of sentiment among the people of the United States. We are now, so far as the future can at this moment be foreseen, in the Philippine Islands to stay. Whether wisely there or not is a question on which opinions differ, but not a question which it would be fitting to discuss upon an anniversary like this. One thing can be said, however, which no man will question. If the people of the United States are to-day in the Philippine Islands, they are there because they believe that a duty and a responsibility toward those islands was laid upon them, not of their own seeking nor wholly of a selfish nature. Upon that at least we all agree. And while the people and the government maintain that attitude there will no doubt be differences as to policy, but all can unite in the conviction that the foundations of the American Republic still stand firm.

        There are mutterings—nothing more than mutterings, I believe—of a different principle of action towards South America. When a member of Congress, not, I am glad to say, from this State, or from any Western State, publicly proclaims that we must seize the island of Cuba as the basis of the series of wars by which our exports are to be forced upon South America, that Congressman understands neither the true laws of commercial development, nor the principles of justice, honor, and humanity which actuate the American people. [Applause.] It is not a message of military aggression, but a message of political and commercial good will that should go from an assembly such as this, looking back to the precepts of George Washington, to our friends and neighbors in the Spanish-American Republics to the south.

        We are sometimes told that the world is going backward. Wars and rumors of wars have lately vexed the human race. But we can point to three recent policies of the United States which most strikingly accord with three solemn injunctions in Washington's Farewell Address, and go far to refute the prophets of evil that we find among us. Washington said, "Cultivate peace and harmony with all." Our representatives in the Peace Conference at The Hague, by their contribution to the substantial advance there made, put the United States in the front rank of the powers that are honestly striving to bring nearer the ideal of universal peace. Again, Washington advised us to extend our commerce as far as possible, but to avoid political entanglements with other nations. Our present policy in China, where we are seeking legitimate trade expansion, where we demand just satisfaction for the past and reasonable security for the future, but where we desire no ruthless exploitation of an ancient empire and particularly no annexation of territory —that policy is wholly in accord with Washington's bidding to extend our commercial interests but to avoid political entanglements. Finally, Washington said: "It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence." That injunction we are doing our utmost to obey, as a former speaker has most eloquently told us, in our mission to the people of Cuba. These three policies, gentlemen —our contribution at The Hague, our present course in China, and our wholly beneficent work in Cuba—we are not ashamed to attest by the injunctions of Washington, to which we turn to-night. And on the issue of that test we claim that, so far as the United States of America is concerned, the cause of international civilization is moving forward, and not backward, at the dawn of the twentieth century. [Applause.]

        President Jordan.—After the delightful address we have now listened to, it is quite proper that we should close our evening's entertainment by singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

        After the audience had sung this patriotic song with a spirit that evinced that enthusiasm and love of country which only an American can feel, the assembly dispersed with many expressions of delight and mutual congratulations.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.

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