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THE PROMISE OF 
 AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 ADDRESSES AT THE ANNUAIv DINNER OF 
 
 THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 
 
 OF ARCHITECTS 
 
 1905 
 
 COMPILED WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 Br CHARLES MOORE 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER A. I. A. 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 
 
 MCMV 
 
Untrotiuetion 
 
 AREPRKSENTATIVK company gathered at the 
 Arlington Hotel in Washington, January ii, 1905, on 
 the occasion of the annual dinner of the American 
 Institute of Architects. 
 
 Under the direction of Mr. Frank D. Millet, the dining- 
 room was effectively decorated in white, with branches 
 of palms held together by fastenings bearing the names of 
 the Chapters. Festoons of green emphasized the archi- 
 tectural lines of the room. Behind the President's chair 
 was the great seal of the Institute; while at the western end of 
 the room the cipher of the Institute was flanked by the 
 colors of the States of the Union, arranged as trophies. 
 
 The high table extended along three sides of the room. 
 Near the entrance a box was arranged for Mrs. Roosevelt and 
 her guests; and when she and those who attended her entered 
 the hall a quartet of male voices sang, "Hail to the Fairest," 
 and the President of the Institute gave the toast : 
 
 "7(7 the gracious lady whose presence is inspiration, 
 because her thought is ever on the things that are true;" 
 
 which was drank by the guests standing, in recognition of the 
 steadfast sympathy and aid given by Mrs. Roosevelt to the Com- 
 mission in preparing and carrying forward the plans for the 
 
 3 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 improvement of Washington, and particularly in appreciation 
 of her influence in bringing about the restoration of the 
 White House. 
 
 The President entered while the speaking was in progress, 
 the orchestra playing the national anthem; and his coming was 
 greeted with prolonged applause. His address was significant 
 as being the first public utterance pledging the Executive 
 Department of the Government to the execution of the plans of 
 the Senate Park Commission, a promise made good later by the 
 establishment of that Commission, with one additional member 
 (Mr. Bernard R. Green), as a permanent body to be consulted 
 in relation to the construction of all Government buildings to be 
 erected in the District of Columbia under executive supervision. 
 
 Grace was said by the Right Reverend Henry Y. Satterlee, 
 the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. After the tables had 
 been served, the speaking began and was continued until after 
 midnight. The presence of the President and the Secretary of 
 State; the Ambassador of the Republic of France; members of 
 the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme 
 Court; officers of the Army and the Navy ; dignitaries of the 
 Church ; representatives of the Art Societies and of the world 
 of education and letters; and men of the highest standing in 
 railway and financial circles, made the gathering a notable 
 one. The addresses delivered were of unusual variety in the 
 treatment of one general theme — the promise of American 
 architecture. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The significance of the occasion lay not in the fact that it 
 celebrated achievement ; but rather because it anticipated the 
 successful culmination of two great hopes and aims of the 
 Institute. 
 
 At the celebration of the centennial of the removal of the 
 seat of Government to the District of Columbia, in December, 
 1900, the American Institute of Architects placed itself on 
 record in opposition to the prevailing practice of constructing 
 Government buildings without regard either to the original 
 plan of the City of Washington, or to any established order; 
 and particularly to the threatened mutilation of the historic 
 White House. With the eflScient co-operation of the late 
 Senator James McMillan, of Michigan, the Institute secured 
 the appointment of an expert Commission, which reported, in 
 December, 1901, in favor of a return to the I^' Enfant plan for 
 the treatment of the Mall; and not only prepared extensions of 
 that plan to meet the new conditions developed during the past 
 century, but also devised a method of bringing into harmonious 
 arrangement a system of outlying parks and boulevards, mak- 
 ing provision for the entire District of Columbia. 
 
 These extensive plans — looking forward, as they do, 
 through perhaps a century of development — had been attacked 
 with bitterness by influential members of both houses of Con- 
 gress; while the sudden death of the Senator to whom the 
 Commission owed its existence, left the new movement without 
 a leader of commanding influence in Congress. Most happily, 
 
 5 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 however, the plans were of a character to commend them- 
 selves to the people and the press; so that whenever an 
 attack was made upon them, or mutilation was threatened, 
 the peril was averted at least for the time being. 
 
 The chief result of the dinner was to give definite official 
 approval to the idea that the day of unrelated buildings had 
 passed, and that the National Capital should be enlarged, 
 extended and made beautiful in an orderly and systematic 
 manner. It is in the light of these facts that the addresses of 
 the President and of the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives must be read. 
 
 I The second point of significance brought out at the dinner, 
 was the assurance given that the American Academy in Rome 
 was about to be placed on a substantial and adequate foundation. 
 The idea of an American Academy similar in scope and useful- 
 ness to the Roman Academies of France, Germany, Spain and 
 other European nations, grew out of the experience of our 
 architects, painters and sculptors in the construction of the 
 World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893. A school, 
 established soon after the close of that exhibition, has main- 
 tained a precarious existence, the times never having been pro- 
 pitious for securing from private sources an endowment suffi- 
 cient to give to the school that support which its object merited. 
 The artistic success of the Chicago Fair was such as to im- 
 press upon its makers the surpassing advantages to be obtained 
 from a study of classic art; and the fact that the Fathers of the 
 
 6 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Republic resorted to classical models for the chief Govern- 
 ment buildings in "Washington proved beyond question that 
 the greatest need in the way of training the architects, sculp- 
 tors and painters who are to execute the vast amount of public 
 building which must be done in the near future, is the adequate 
 development of the struggling school at Rome. For several 
 years past the Institute, at its annual meetings, has given to 
 this project a large amount of time and thought. 
 
 In order to give the American Academy in Rome official 
 standing with the Italian government, bills to incorporate the 
 school had been introduced in the Senate and twice had been 
 passed by that body, only to fail to receive the approval of the 
 House of Representatives, where the plea was made that the 
 ultimate object of the measure was to obtain a government 
 appropriation. At the time of the dinner, a third bill had 
 passed the Senate and was pending in the House. The 
 announcement made at the dinner, by the Hon. Klihu Root, 
 that an adequate site for the Academy had been secured by the 
 purchase of the Villa Mirafiore, and that Mr. Henry Walters and 
 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan had each given one hundred thousand 
 dollars toward a million-dollar endowment, was regarded as 
 effectually removing the last objection to the bill.* 
 
 Such proved to be the case. During the closing days of 
 the I, VIII. Congress the bill became law. On March 25th 
 
 *Mr. Root's announcement was followed by the passing of the 
 loving-cup, and when Mr. Morgan drank there was great applause. 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome gave a dinner 
 to the Incorporators named in the act of incorporation, at the 
 University Club in New York City. At that time the Presi- 
 dent of the Academy, Mr. Charles F. McKim, announced 
 subscriptions of $100,000 each from Mr. William K. Vanderbilt 
 and Mr. James Stillman, and also the gift of a like sum in the 
 name of Harvard University, through the instrumentality of 
 Col. Henry I,. Higginson and others. The friends of Colum- 
 bia and Yale Universities likewise began subscriptions, which 
 will eventually add the names of those institutions to the list 
 of founders; and there is reason to believe that before many 
 months have passed the entire million dollars needed will be 
 secured. The American school will then have an income at 
 least equal to that of any of the institutions supported by 
 foreign governments. 
 
 The virtual accomplishment of the two purposes which 
 led the American Institute of Architects to plan and carry out 
 their annual dinner on so impressive a scale, has seemed to 
 justify the preparation of the report of that dinner in a manner 
 in keeping, to some extent, with the importance of the event. 
 And the permanent character of the addresses makes them 
 worthy to be preserved as discussions of the substance of things 
 hoped for and the evidence of things as yet not seen. 
 
 Charlks Moore. 
 May 15, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction 3 
 
 Thb Addrbsses : 
 
 The President of the American Institute of Architects 13 
 
 The President of the United States 15 
 
 Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University 19 
 
 The French Ambassador 25 
 
 His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons 31 
 
 Honorable Elihu Root 37 
 
 Mr. John La Farge 47 
 
 Mr. Augustus Saint Gaudens 51 
 
 Mr. Justice Harlan, of the Supreme Court of the United States 53 
 
 The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Cannon 57 
 
 Representative James T. McCleary 65 
 
 LETTERS AND Cablegrams : 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University 73 
 
 Dr. Arthur Twining Hadley, President of Yale University 74 
 
 The Ambassador to Great Britain 74 
 
 The Ambassador to Italy 74 
 
 The Guests 77 
 
THE ADDRESSES 
 
Cl)e Zmtxitmlmtitntt of ZxtWtttsi 
 
 WILLIAM S. EAMES 
 Presidbnt American Institutb op Architbcts 
 
 To live and die in scenes like these. 
 
 — MOORB. 
 
 THIS occasion is a very rare one in the history of the 
 American Institute of Architects. It brings together 
 perhaps a larger number of our members than have ever 
 assembled before on a similar occasion at a banquet, or at a 
 convention, and it adds to our company the people who are 
 most intimately associated with the appreciation of art, the 
 practice of our profession; and the supporters of the highest 
 aims which we claim for ourselves as artists in the broadest 
 sense. It is nothing uncommon for architects to meet and 
 thresh out their personal difficulties. But it is extremely 
 felicitous that we have with us the allied arts, those who sup- 
 port us in every effort that we make toward the creation of 
 something artistic. We have present with us men of emi- 
 nence, as sculptors, painters, illustrators, decorators. We 
 have the representatives of the highest educational institutions 
 of this country, from whom we must derive our inspiration 
 and to whom we must lend our support whenever it is needed. 
 
 13 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 We have represented the Church, perhaps the most conspicu- 
 ous client of our profession in the past thousand years. We 
 have with us the I,aw, and the makers of the law, and we have 
 also those who direct public improvements and who challenge 
 us to furnish them with the very best brains at our command 
 and in our profession. 
 
 Tonight we are to listen to our friends, rather than to do 
 any talking ourselves; and I shall not postpone our enjoyment 
 by further words of my own. 
 
 14 
 
Zxt and tl)e laepublic 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 President of the United States 
 
 The Fathers of the Republic, who established liberty and wise laws, 
 left to us also noble architecture nobly placed. 
 
 IT IS a great pleasure to have the chance of coming 
 here this evening and saying a word of greeting to a 
 body of men who are engaged in doing work for this 
 Republic which is to count not merely in the present 
 generation, but during the life time of many generations to 
 come. We hear a great deal about true Americanism. 
 Now, the real American, the American whom it is worth 
 while to call such, is the man whose belief in and work 
 for America are not merely for the America of today, but 
 for the America of the future. It is a comparatively easy 
 thing to do work when the reward is to come in the 
 present; but every great nation that has ever existed on 
 this globe has been great because its sons had in them the 
 capacity to work for the well-being of generations yet unborn. 
 Such spirit is peculiarly necessary when the work we desire 
 to have done is essentially work of a non-remunerative type — 
 non-remunerative in more than one way, non-remunerative 
 in money, and it may be in fame. 
 
 15 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 We do not know the names of the architects and the 
 builders of the great cathedrals whose magnificent beauty- 
 is an heirloom of civilization. We do not know the names 
 of the builders of the great majority of the works to which 
 every man with an aspiration after beauty naturally turns 
 when he thinks of the past. We owe that beauty, we owe 
 the elevation of thought, the elevation of mind and soul 
 that come from association with and belief in it, to the 
 fact that there were a sufBcient number of men who worked 
 in the spirit that Ruskin prayed in — the spirit of doing the 
 work, not for the sake of the fee, but for the sake of the 
 work itself. 
 
 There are things in a nation's life more important 
 than beauty; but beauty is very important. And in this 
 nation of ours, while there is very much in which we have 
 succeeded marvelously, I do not think that if we look 
 dispassionately at what we have done, we will say that 
 beauty has been exactly the strong point of the nation! It 
 rests largely with gatherings such as this, and with the 
 note that is set by men such as those I am addressing 
 tonight, to determine whether or not this shall be true of 
 the future. 
 
 A very large percentage of the durable work, the work 
 which is lasting and therefore the beauty of which, if it 
 exists, is also lasting, must be done by the Government. 
 Great buildings and beautiful buildings will be erected by 
 
 i6 
 
ART AND THE REPUBIvIC 
 
 private subscriptions; but many of the greatest buildings 
 must necessarily be erected by the Government — Natioual, 
 State or municipal. Those in control of any branch of that 
 government necessarily have but an ephemeral lease of power. 
 Administration succeeds administration ; Congress succeeds 
 Congress; I^egislature succeeds I,egislature ; and even if all 
 of the administration, all of the congresses are actuated (a 
 not necessarily improbable proposition) by an artistic spirit, it 
 would still remain true that there could not be any coherence 
 in their work if they had to rely on themselves alone. 
 The best thing that any administration, that any executive 
 department of the Government can do — and, if I may venture 
 to make any suggestions to a co-ordinate branch, Senator 
 Cockrell — I would say that the best thing that any elective 
 legislative body can do in these matters is to surrender itself 
 within reasonable limits to the guidance of those who really 
 do know what they are talking about. 
 
 The only way in which we can hope to have worthy 
 artistic work done for the Nation, State or municipality is 
 by having such a growth of popular sentiment as will render 
 it incumbent upon successive administrations, or successive 
 legislative bodies, to carry out steadily a plan chosen for 
 them, worked out for them by such a body of men as that 
 gathered here this evening. 
 
 What I have said does not mean that we shall go, here 
 in Washington for instance, into immediate and extravagant 
 
 17 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 expenditures on public buildings. All that it means is that 
 whenever hereafter a public building is provided for and 
 erected, it should be erected in accordance with a carefully- 
 thought-out plan adopted long before, and that it should 
 be not only beautiful in itself, but fitting in its relations to 
 the whole scheme of the public buildings, the parks and the 
 drives of the District. 
 
 Working through municipal improvement commissions, 
 very great progress has already been made in rendering more 
 beautiful our cities from New York to San Francisco. An 
 incredible amount remains to be done. But a beginning has 
 been made and now I most earnestly hope that in the national 
 capital a better beginning will be made than anywhere else; 
 and that can be made only by utilizing to the fullest degree 
 the thought and the disinterested efforts of the architects, 
 the artists, the men of art, who stand foremost in their 
 professions here in the United States, and who ask no other 
 reward save the reward of feeling that they have done their 
 full part to make as beautiful as it should be the capital 
 city of the Great Republic. 
 
 i8 
 
Cl)e i^lace o! 2in in €Mli3ation 
 
 NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, LL.D. 
 
 President of Coi,umbia University 
 
 If eyes were made for seeing, 
 
 Then beauty is its own excuse for being. 
 
 — Emerson. 
 
 IT WAS entirely justifiable to summon a poet to express 
 the pious wish that we may live and die in scenes 
 like this. The scene itself is truly inspiring; the 
 significance of the scene is more imposing still. You have 
 brought here a brilliant representation of the nation's leaders 
 in the public service, in the useful arts, in the fine arts, in 
 science and in letters, and eminent ecclesiastics; and your 
 board is graced by the distinguished ambassador of a great 
 and friendly people and their government — to what end? 
 That we maj^ celebrate beauty — beauty in building, in land- 
 scape architecture, and in decoration ; and that we may exalt 
 and reflect upon art as a mode of expression of human feeling 
 and human aspiration. 
 
 And yet this is not the Athens of Pericles, the Rome 
 of the Caesars or of Innocent, or the Paris of I^uis XIV.; 
 it is the capital city of as practical and as hard-headed a 
 people as have yet lived upon this earth. Are we, then, all 
 dreamers of dreams and men swayed by superficial sentiment; 
 
 19 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 or can it be that beauty has value and that this hard-headed, 
 practical people in their search for value have come upon 
 beauty and fairly measured its worth? I like to think, 
 gentlemen, that the latter is the case, and that as a people 
 we are coming increasingly to see that beauty has value — 
 a value tangible, and a yet greater value intangible. 
 
 What human being was ever attracted by ugliness and 
 squalor? What throngs ever cross the sea to visit scenes 
 of barren and wretched desolation, or to search for the 
 commonplace and the characterless? What nation has built 
 up a foreign commerce by the manufacture of ill-favored 
 wares? Yet there are half-buried temples to forgotten gods 
 in the shifting sands of Egypt, broken marbles of the glory 
 that was Greece on the Acropolis of Athens, and plaintive 
 pillars of the greatness that was Rome, raising their heads 
 above the Forum's dust, which draw the intelligence and high 
 feeling of the civilized world to them like iron to a magnet. 
 
 Still greater is the intangible value of beauty. Words 
 are not verse, colors a painting, or stones a building. The 
 plan, the order, the purpose — in short, the soul — these put 
 upon material things the eternal impress of art. Who among 
 us will venture to set the limit upon the value of the soul 
 of things, or who will exalt the dead clay above the living 
 marble that art has stamped with the image of the ideal ? 
 
 There is a fine and familiar passage in Hawthorne's 
 "Marble Faun," in which that subtle master of his art 
 
 20 
 
THE PLACK OF ART IN CIVII.IZATION 
 
 suggests that the sculptor's task Is not to carve a figure 
 upon the block of marble, but rather, by the magic of his 
 genius, to set free the figure that the stone holds in its cold 
 grasp. May we not, in similar fashion, see in imagination the 
 forms of beauty lurking behind the veil of brick and stone 
 that surrounds us, only waiting the touch of genius to step 
 forth and delight our eyes with their gracefulness and charm. 
 
 It is the part of the architect's art to unite the useful 
 and the beautiful more closely than any other bond can 
 do. Indeed, architecture transforms the useful into the 
 beautiful and thereby makes it still more useful. It is the 
 hut of savage men that becomes the temple of the civilized 
 man's god. There was a time when use and beauty were 
 not dissevered, as the great collections of antique objects 
 that are beautiful, yet made for use, amply testify. It was 
 a loss for art and for refinement of living and of taste 
 when the two grew apart; and it should be one of our tasks 
 of today to follow the good example set by the French 
 and to unite them again in all possible ways. 
 
 We are a young people and art is old. When the 
 curtain of history rises, its ruder forms are already there. 
 Therefore, our first search must be for the classic master- 
 pieces which reveal the eternal principles of the architectural 
 art. To the country of Inigo Jones, and Wren, and Van 
 Brugh we owe much, for it is a country of home-builders of 
 extraordinary excellence and skill. To the great examplars 
 
 21 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 of the Gothic, wherever found, we owe much. To the fine 
 imagination, delicate technique and the broad architectural 
 scholarship of the French, we owe still more. 
 
 But back of all we go, and must always go, to the 
 eternal well-springs that were fed by the genius of Greece 
 and Rome. It was given to them to create the highest 
 standards of excellence alike in architecture, in sculpture 
 and in letters, and to those standards it has been the effort 
 of all intelligence ever since to conform. In this movement 
 France has pointed the way for all of us. It was lyouis 
 XIV., acting upon the suggestion of Colbert, who created 
 an academy for painters and sculptors, and, shortly after, 
 one for architects as well. It was as long ago as 1666 
 that Errard, painter and architect, went to Italy as first 
 director of the French Academy at Rome, established in 
 that year. What an incentive to French artists and to 
 French art the Prix de Rome has been, and what a glorious 
 roll is that which holds the names of Frenchmen who 
 have passed through the Villa Medici! Is it too much to 
 hope that the American Academy in Rome (^a bill for 
 the incorporation of which is now on its way through 
 Congress), following in the footsteps of its French fore- 
 runner, may do a similar uplifting and inspiring service to 
 us? If so, the generosity that has placed at its disposal 
 the beautiful Villa Mirafiori, and by two princely gifts laid the 
 basis for the permanent endowment, will be amply repaid. 
 
 22 
 
THE PI.ACE OF ART IN CIVIUZATION 
 
 The Ecole des Beaux Arts has influenced us mightily. 
 Of our earlier giants, Richard Hunt and Richardson came 
 under its influence,* and the name of those who have followed 
 them is legion. It was a Frenchman who took so large a 
 part in the decoration of the Public Library at Boston, and 
 it was a Frenchman who planned this Capital City with all 
 its infinite possibilities of beauty, and who, at Hamilton's 
 invitation, directed the laying-out of a typical industrial 
 center which national legislation was to foster and build up. 
 
 What could be more fitting, then, than that this senti- 
 ment should be adequately responded to by the official 
 representative of the people to whom modem art, and we 
 Americans, owe so much? And how fortunate it is that 
 that representative is not only an accomplished diplomat, 
 but an artist in letters himself and a sympathetic lover of 
 art of every kind. It is my privilege to present to this 
 company His Excellency, the French Ambassador. 
 
 * A competent critic has furnished this note: "Hunt was the first 
 American student to enter the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Richardson the 
 third. Himt -was the pioneer; the ice-breaker; the dean of our profession. 
 He had been in Paris for years when Richardson arrived. Richardson 
 was a strong and able man, an artist and a man of genius. On leaving 
 Paris, early in life, he quarreled with his classic alma mater; and, being 
 impatient of her methods, which he found too slow and laborious, he 
 coined for himself a style eclectic, personal and romantic — Gothic in 
 spirit, Romanesque in detail — robust, virile, ingenious, but wholly bar- 
 baric: remarkable for its absence of proportion and sense of real beauty; 
 in the hands of his followers lawless, and now happily extinct." 
 
 23 
 
Cfte laiace of 2ixt in Ct^ili5atton 
 
 [CONTINUED] 
 
 His Excellency JULES JUSSERAND 
 
 The French Ambassador 
 
 Beauty is truth, truth beauty— That is all 
 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. 
 
 — KBATS. 
 
 I THINK it may be stated with truth that this banquet 
 is emblematic of two of the most ancient and keenest 
 desires and wants of man — bread and art. Most ancient 
 both, the more ancient of the two being art. We know 
 it is in France; for there we, too, have cave-dwellers. Recent 
 excavations have brought to light the remains, and found 
 among them evidences of what was the art of primitive 
 man and what was his food. 
 
 We found that the art was remarkable; that these men 
 could draw from life animals — elks, mammoths, etc. — to excite 
 the wonder and admiration of even the world's famous 
 sculptors present at this place on this day! And we found 
 what their food was. They could not rise to the height of 
 bread, much less reach the then inaccessible clam; and they 
 had to be satisfied with the snail. Mounds of snail shells 
 were found in the caves; of bread there was as yet no question; 
 of art there was quite a school, and an admirable one. Those 
 traditions have been preserved in France. I do not speak of 
 
 25 
 
THE promise; of AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 the snail, although it continues to be eaten in my country, 
 but of the artistic tradition. 
 
 I do not think there has been a moment in the life 
 of France which has not been associated with art. In the 
 midst, of turmoil and wars art continued alive, and it has 
 survived every storm. And art has grown and bloomed, 
 decking from century to century our land with those mag- 
 nificent buildings to which his Eminence* made an allusion 
 a minute ago — such buildings as that of Mont St. Michel 
 and that of Chartres, to which a splendid volume, full of 
 thought and literary recollections, was recently devoted by 
 one of the most eminent Washingtonians.f 
 
 Throughout the ages, to the Renaissance, to the reign 
 of lyouis XIV. , to the present day, French art has survived 
 unimpaired. Each time I go back to Paris, I find changes 
 and new signs of vitality. It may be said, I think, of 
 French art, that it has all the qualities which the famous 
 mare of Roland had, and one besides — it is alive. It is 
 alive in all its branches, architecture, painting, sculpture, 
 engraving medals, tapestry, pottery. 
 
 One of the last times I went to Paris was in 1900, the 
 year of the Exposition, and there I saw what an architect 
 could do. When I had seen Paris before, a gloomy building 
 called Le Palais de F Industrie obscured the Champs d'Elys- 
 
 •Cardinal Gibbons. See/orf. 
 tMr. Henry Adams. 
 
 26 
 
THK PI,ACE OF ART IN CIVIIylZATlON 
 
 s6es; when I came again the magic wand of the architect 
 had been applied there; the blot had disappeared, and a 
 splendid avenue had taken its place, and a magnificent bridge 
 spanned the Seine; and in the distance was seen the golden 
 dome under which rests one who proved a friend of America, 
 one who was in perfect accord with this which the nation 
 said: "France wanted America to be free as now she wants 
 her to be great." There Napoleon sleeps. 
 
 Why is French art so vital and alive in all its branches ? 
 Because it is alive in all the nation. The thing which is 
 most important, and which, I am sure, you feel and under- 
 stand as well as I do, is that the artists are not enough ; 
 you must have the nation with you. Your efforts would 
 be of no avail if you are not understood by the common 
 people. The common people in France, either by instinct or 
 by tuition or inheritance, are able to be usefully associated 
 with the highest manifestations of all the branches of our 
 arts. 
 
 The French people of the poorer class are asked what 
 they think. No great change is introduced in our archi- 
 tectural arrangements without giving the people an oppor- 
 tunity to see it and express their feelings. When there 
 was a question of changing the Arc de V Etoile by placing 
 a group of statuary on its summit, a model was made at 
 great expense and placed in position for several months in 
 order that the people might see the effect of the proposed 
 
 27 
 
THE PROMISE OP AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 alteration. They thought that it was better to remove the 
 statues, and they were removed. For this cause all our 
 museums, the finest, the most important, the ones where a 
 mishap would be most deplorable, are thrown open to all 
 comers. All are welcome on all days in all seasons; the 
 poorest, if they choose. Many come to warm themselves. 
 Let them come; perhaps they will also look. 
 
 The same is true with our competitions. The exhibition 
 of the competitive work for the Prix de Rome is open to 
 all comers; the award is rendered by the highest authori- 
 ties, members of the Institute; but the people's opinion is 
 of importance. I have often visited museums on festive 
 days when they are most crowded, and have noticed, in a 
 way that was most touching, how even the poorest people 
 could understand the value of a beautiful thing. I visited 
 Versailles one Sunday last summer, and I remained there 
 until the gates were shut, and then went away with the 
 crowd of Parisians who had spent the day there. When 
 I was at the doors I found an humble couple, and they 
 were saying to the keeper: "What a pity the hour has 
 come to go; it was so very beautiful!" 
 
 But is there — some may be tempted to say — any prac- 
 tical use and advantage in such a state of things ? Certainly. 
 Art gives wholesome pleasures, and no effort should be spared 
 to increase the number of wholesome enjoyments accessible 
 to the poorest as well as to the richest; this is equality 
 
 28 
 
THE PLACE OF ART IN CIVII.IZATION 
 
 of the highest order. Art is a great consoler. And what 
 does consolation of this sort mean? A diminution of weak- 
 ness; an increase of strength. 
 
 Another thing I shall say of French art— and I am 
 sure you will agree with me: it is hospitable. All nations 
 are welcome to our schools, and when I received the invi- 
 tation to be present at this grand and charming meeting, 
 I took the liberty of writing to the Secretary of the School 
 (Mr. Jouir), a most excellent seci;etary. I wrote him that 
 I had to address an audience of Americans, and I asked 
 him, as he had seen so many in the school, to say frankly 
 what he thought of them. 
 
 He sent me a letter in which he expresses with perfect 
 freedom, his opinion; and I shall take the liberty of reading 
 to you the judgment of this gentleman about the several 
 generations of Americans whom he has known at the Ecole 
 des Beaux Arts in his day. He writes: 
 
 Of all the foreigners who come to France to practice the art of 
 drawing, the American is the one who penetrates most easily and 
 most deeply the genius of our nation. « * * 
 
 Most American artists known in Europe have studied in Paris and 
 have made long stays in France. Many have settled in France, 
 and consider our land as a second mother-land for them. There is an 
 affinity between the two nations; I suppose because the groundwork 
 of the character in the American, as in the Frenchman, is made 
 up of the same aspiration toward liberty, individual expansion and 
 the hatred of ready-made formula. I include a list of American artists 
 now alive, who have won recompenses at the Paris Exposition, where 
 
 29 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 their work is judged by Frenchmen and in accordance with our tastes 
 and ideas. My list includes: Painters, 260; sculptors, 50; architects, 37; 
 engravers, 9. Total, 356. 
 
 My correspondent adds: "This number needs no com- 
 ment." He reverts then to what America has done for the 
 school. America has endowed our School of Fine Arts with 
 Prix de la Reconnaissance, "The prize of gratitude," which 
 was founded by your architects, former members of this 
 school, and contributes to keep alive your memory in France. 
 
 I shall add only one word: Artistic connections be- 
 tween France and America began long ago, under the 
 happiest auspices. Immediately after the War of Indepen- 
 dence, in 1784, the State of Virginia wanted to have the 
 best possible statue of the Father of his Country, George 
 Washington. After correspondence with Jefferson, it was 
 decided that the greatest sculptor of the day, Houdon, 
 should come over to see Washington and make his statue 
 from life. Houdon came, led by Franklin. He remained 
 some time at Mount Vernon, a guest of the great man, 
 and made the statue, a real masterpiece, which is now 
 to be seen in Richmond. 
 
 My wish is that these connections so happily begun 
 may be continued forever in the same spirit, and that 
 artistic relations between France and America may remain 
 a bond of sympathy and a tie of love and friendship 
 between these two great republics of free men. 
 
 30 
 
:att ant) laeltsion 
 
 His Eminence JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS 
 
 The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
 Wrought in a sad sincerity; 
 Himself from God he could not free; 
 He builded better than he knew; 
 The conscious stone to beauty grew. 
 
 — EmbrSON. 
 
 I SUPPOSE that I received an invitation to this banquet of 
 most distinguished men simply because I represent the 
 ancient Church which has always been the patroness of 
 architecture and the nursing fostermother of the arts and 
 sciences. I must, however, on my part, frankly confess that 
 my knowledge of architecture and sculpture and painting is 
 exceedingly crude and superficial. I can admire a splendid 
 painting, a noble work of art, a fine specimen of sculpture or 
 architecture without at the same time being able, perhaps, to 
 define the intrinsic perfections of this work; just as a crude 
 and uncultivated man might be swayed by the eloquence of 
 the former Secretary of War [Mr. Root], without being able to 
 point out the special excellencies of the oration he had 
 been listening to. 
 
 Architecture and sculpture are among the most enduring 
 creations of human genius ; they survive their distinguished 
 
 31 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 authors by years, by centuries, aye, by cycles of ages. We all 
 are filled with admiration when we contemplate those great 
 mountains of Egypt, the Pyramids, that have now stood for 
 upward of five thousand years upon the sands of the desert and 
 are destined to stand there as long as flows the turbid Nile. But 
 who was the great architect that conceived the plan of the great 
 works ? We know not. The most searching investigations of 
 archaeologists and historians leave us in more or less doubt and 
 conjecture as to who were the architects that designed those 
 imperishable monuments, or who were the kings to whom they 
 were dedicated. 
 
 Religion and architecture have always been inseparably 
 united. They have always been linked together and they 
 have gone down the ages hand in hand, inseparable. And 
 this is true not only of Christian, but even of the pagan 
 architecture. The most noble works of architecture that 
 have come to us from pagan times were consecrated to religion; 
 but, as I have said, the monuments exist and are perpetual, 
 whereas their authors have passed away. 
 
 We gaze in admiration upon the great monuments of 
 religion in France ; and I would appeal to the distinguished 
 French ambassador here for confirmation of the truth of 
 what I say. We cannot but admire that magnificent cathe- 
 dral of Rouen ; and also, I would say to you, as architects, 
 that if you go to Rouen, do not forget to see that noble 
 little Church of St. Ouen, the most graceful and beautiful 
 
 32 
 
ART AND REI.IGION 
 
 work of art perhaps in existence. The Church of St. Ouen 
 bears the same relation to the cathedral that a graceful 
 bride does to a mature matron. We ought to admire the 
 beautiful cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, the cathedrals of 
 Rheims and of Chartres and of all the other cities of France. 
 "We admire the cathedrals of Canterbury and York, and 
 Durham and Salisbury; but, gentlemen, who were the authors 
 of those great monuments that have passed down to us? 
 Who was the author of that great cathedral of Cologne, in 
 my judgment the grandest specimen of architecture in the 
 world. I prefer it to the cathedral of Milan, because its 
 outlines are more sharply and clearly drawn. It has stood 
 for six hundred years, and five and twenty years ago when 
 I was in Cologne, that cathedral was in course of completion. 
 Now, gentlemen, those architects were pious men ; they were 
 men of God. They drew their inspiration from the Great 
 Architect who has conceived and executed the great dome 
 of nature. Theirs was a higher aspiration than human fame. 
 Their ambition was to have their names inscribed in the 
 Book of I/ife. 
 
 While I most earnestly hope that the members of this 
 distinguished gathering will share in the bliss of their 
 prototypes, I trust also that some incense of human fame 
 will be added, and that the wave of oblivion will not pass 
 over you ; that your memories and your good deeds may be 
 recorded in the hearts and afEections of the American people. 
 
 33 
 
the; promise of American architecture 
 
 Sixty years ago the City of Washington was the very 
 modest capital of an inspiring republic ; today the City of 
 "Washington is the fair capital of a great republic ; sixty 
 years from now, through your instrumentality the City of 
 Washington will be the most ornate and the most beautiful 
 capital of the greatest and the most powerful nation of the 
 world. Already, gentlemen, you have done much to make 
 Washington most attractive, and to draw illustrious strangers 
 to the capital. 
 
 There are public buildings and private edifices today in 
 Washington of which any city may be proud. Perhaps 
 there is one exception to which I would refer in a faltering 
 fashion. There is one building that has been very severely 
 criticised ; I believe it is the Pension Office. I know not 
 whether the animadversions have been due to the material 
 of which it is composed, or to the style of the architecture. 
 The story is told that the late General Sheridan was brought 
 over to inspect it carefully, and he said: "That building 
 has only one defect." He was asked what that was, and 
 he said "That it is fireproof." 
 
 In speaking of architects and artists, I deem it my 
 duty to associate with them another class of benefactors to 
 society, and I mean their patrons, some of whom are here 
 tonight. I may mention Mr. Morgan and Mr. Cassatt.* Many 
 
 *Botli Mr. Morgan and Mr. Cassatt were seated near the speaker; 
 and Us reference to them was warmly applauded. 
 
 34 
 
ART AND RELIGION 
 
 a miglity genius would have perished from the earth and 
 his name would have been obliterated today, were it not 
 for the patronage of their munificent patrons. The works 
 of Virgil and Horace might have perished from the earth 
 and the memories of them never have come to us, were 
 it not for the munificent patronage of a Maecenas; and 
 the name of Michelangelo, who designed the grandest 
 cathedral that ever was erected to Almighty God, would 
 have perhaps been lost to fame were it not for the family 
 of the Medici. I would therefore close by paraphrasing a 
 well-known sentence of Webster when I say: " The architect 
 and his patron, one and inseparable, now and forever." 
 
 35 
 
C|)e Simple ILitt 
 
 Honorable ELIHU ROOT 
 
 PoRMERi<Y Secretary op War 
 
 Doctor of Laws ; eminent alike in law and public administration ; 
 the trusted counsellor of two Presidents of the United States; to be remem- 
 bered always in our country's history as foremost in promoting the organ- 
 ization of a sound military system, and increjising the scope and efficiency 
 of military education. Wise, just, and broad, he is a true leader and a 
 conqueror in every field, and has adorned every place he has occupied. 
 It is not too much to say that no person has more ably, steadily and 
 sympathetically assisted our profession toward the highest expression 
 of the architectural ideal. 
 
 THE place in which we are met, and its traditions, 
 are of happy augury for the future of American 
 architecture, which receives a new impulse tonight. 
 Within a hundred feet of this room stands the Church of 
 St. John, which perpetuates the beauty and the simplicity 
 of I^atrobe's design. From the windows of the adjoining 
 room one may look through the trees and catch a glimpse 
 of the white porch of that building, relieved by our 
 President from the stilted title, "Kxecutive Mansion," and 
 brought to its own familiar name, by which it is known 
 among all the American people — "The White House;" that 
 ideal expression of the time when the Fathers of the 
 
 37 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Republic lived; that inheritance of America from the genius 
 of Hoban, selected by Washington to erect as the home 
 of America's chief magistrate, the residence of an American 
 gentleman, upon the banks of the Potomac; that perpetual 
 embodiment of the spirit of the life which gave to the 
 nation Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison, and 
 Marshall, and Randolph — all American gentlemen, on the 
 banks of the Potomac. 
 
 I thank Heaven that the White House has been 
 preserved, restored and protected against all discordant and 
 overwhelming additions and constructions whatsoever; and 
 against all garish display and inconsistent treatment ; 
 preserved as a precious monument of America's past for 
 America's futiure, by the fine and reverent sense of art of 
 that brother of our own, upon whose shoulders fell the 
 mantle of Richard Hunt — Charles McKim.* 
 
 At the foot of the slope, the brow of which we can 
 see from this building, begins that stretch of land set apart 
 by Washington and ly' Enfant for the great avenue of green 
 which was to stretch upon the axis of the Capitol on to 
 the future monument on the shore of the river Washington 
 loved, that avenue as yet not realized, but to be realized in 
 the future, as the reverence of the American people for the 
 past of the Republic and the loyalty of the American 
 
 * The mention of Mr. McKim brought forth rowids of applause. 
 38 
 
THK SIMPI^E I.IFK 
 
 people to the high ideals of art which Washington appre- 
 ciated and strove for, becomes true and effective. 
 
 Tomorrow's sun (which is soon to rise) will cast over 
 the great avenue that leads to this place the shadow of the 
 Capitol wrought out of the work of Thornton, and Hallet, 
 and Bullfinch, and Hadfield, the architects who gathered 
 their inspiration not only from the classic works of art, 
 but from the love of country and the serene natures of 
 Washington and of Jefferson. The place is full of the 
 associations and the traditions of that day far past, a 
 day back to which the people of our country are turning 
 with ever more and more solicitous desire to gather the 
 inspiration of the earlier time. 
 
 Those were great days when the colonies were made 
 into a nation, and they were the beginnings of great days 
 for architecture. From that period the State House in 
 Boston, preserving the genius of Bullfinch, looks down 
 today upon the Shaw Memorial. From that day survive 
 the State Houses at Portsmouth and at Newport. From 
 that day the City Hall in New York, embodying the fine 
 and delicate art of the French Republic, looks up in its purity 
 and its grace upon the Tweed Court House and the skyscrapers 
 of lower New York! From that day there comes to us a 
 message in the Capitol at Richmond, in Monticello, in the 
 University of Virginia, in many a fine old dwelling in 
 Charleston, in many a colonial and Revolutionary structure 
 
 39 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 preserved in quiet corners in the North and in the South; 
 and as our nation looks back to gather renewed inspiration 
 in politics, in social wisdom, in patriotism, it finds also 
 that the Fathers of the Republic had in their souls the 
 conception of beauty. We find that republicanism, that 
 democracy, that the government of the people did not 
 mean to them things unlovely, did not mean squalor or 
 ugliness, or meanness, but meant all that was noble and 
 beautiful in art. 
 
 In the midst of the wealth and luxury of the day, we 
 turn to the simplicity of earlier times. " Jeffersonian 
 simplicity" is much in our mouths in these latter years; 
 but Jeffersonian simplicity was the simplicity of true art. 
 When the State House was to be built at Richmond, 
 Jefferson was asked to secure a plan. Being in Paris he 
 set about it; but, because of the slow communication of 
 the times, before the plan had reached Virginia, the 
 impatient people of Richmond had begun the erection of 
 their capitol; and Jefferson wrote to Madison, a hundred 
 and twenty years ago (in 1785), this letter. 
 
 Paris, September 20, 1785. 
 
 To James Madison. 
 
 Dear Sir: — * * * j received this summer a letter from 
 Messrs. Buchanan and Hay, as Directors of the public buildings, desiring 
 I would have drawn for them plans of sundry buildings, and, in the first 
 place, of a capitol. They fixed for their receiving this plan, a day which 
 
 40 
 
THE SIMPIvE LIFE 
 
 was within about six weeks of that on which their letter came to my 
 hand. I engaged an architect of capital abilities in this business. Much 
 time was requisite, after the external form was agreed on, to make the 
 internal distribution convenient for the three branches of government. 
 This time was much lengthened by my avocations to other objects, which I 
 had no right to neglect. The plan, however, was settled. The gentle- 
 men had sent me one which they had thought of. The one agreed on 
 here is more convenient, more beautiful, gives more room, and will not 
 cost more than two-thirds of what that would. We took for our model 
 what is called the Maison Carr6e, of Nismes, one of the most beautiful, 
 if not the most beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left us by 
 antiquity. 
 
 It was built by Caius and Lucius Csesar, and repaired by Louis XIV., 
 and has the suffrage of all the judges of architecture who have seen it, as 
 yielding to no one of the beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra 
 and Balbed, which late travelers have communicated to us. It is very 
 simple, but it is noble beyond expression, and would have done honor to 
 our country, as presenting to travelers a specimen of taste in our infancy, 
 promising much for our maturer age. 
 
 I have been much mortified with information, which I received two 
 days ago from Virginia, that the first brick of the capitol would be laid in 
 a few days. But surely the delay of this piece of a summer would have 
 been repaired by the savings in the plan preparing here, were we to value 
 its other superiorities as nothing. But how is a taste in this beautiful art 
 to be formed in our countrymen unless we avail ourselves of every occa- 
 sion when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to them 
 models for their study and imitation ? 
 
 Pray try if you can effect the stopping of this work. I have written 
 also to E. R. on the subject. The loss will be only the lajdng of the 
 bricks already laid, or a part of them. The bricks themselves will do 
 again for the interior walls, and one side wall and one end wall may 
 remain, as they will answer equally well for our plan. 
 
 This loss is not to be weighed against the saving of money which will 
 arise, against the comfort of lajdng out the public money for something 
 honorable, the satisfaction of seeing an object and proof of national good 
 taste, and the regret and mortification of erecting a monument of our 
 barbarism, which will be loaded with execrations as long as it shall 
 endure. 
 
 The plans are in good forwardness, and I hope will be ready within 
 three or four weeks. They could not be stopped now but on paying their 
 whole price, which will be considerable. If the undertakers are afraid to 
 
 41 
 
THE PROMISE OP AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 undo what they have done, encourage them to it by a recommendation 
 from the Assembly. 
 
 You see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts, but it is an 
 enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to improve the 
 taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them 
 the respect of the world and procure them its praise. 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 That was the simplicity of the great exemplar of the 
 Simple I/ife of America! 
 
 Since then we have passed through a dreadful period. 
 The stern requirements of conquering a continent, the 
 engrossment of hardened toil, withdrew our people from 
 the consideration of the elegant and the beautiful in life 
 which the Virginia planters were at liberty to cherish. In 
 this period the first acquisition of wealth, bringing a longing 
 for ornament, for something beyond the bare necessities of 
 life, found the people untrained and ignorant of art. Bass- 
 wood castles and sawed scrollwork were the first expression 
 of a desire for the beautiful. A multitude of men calling 
 themselves architects covered the face of the country with 
 horrible objects of ingenious distortion, including a vast 
 number of libels upon that excellent lady whose name has 
 been given to the supposed style of Queen Anne! 
 
 The American idea, that any American can do anything, 
 prevailed in architecture. The simple dignity of the log 
 cabin, bom of its conditions, wedded to its environment, 
 gave place to the meretricious adornment of the confec- 
 tioner. The perfectly appropriate and charming little white 
 
 42 
 
THE SIMPIvE I.IFE 
 
 house with green blinds, with a persistent survival of 
 classical details at the hand of the good, honest carpenter, 
 gave way to wooden towers and arches, and to cheap 
 pretence. 
 
 But a better day has dawned. The myriads of 
 Americans who year after year swarm across the Atlantic 
 and rush through Europe with the guide-book, seeing for 
 ever so short a time fortress and castle, palace and cathedral, 
 tower and arch, the great examples of art in the ancient 
 and modern world, have come back with new standards. 
 Gradually the standard of the people has changed. We 
 have already done enough so that we can afford to be modest; 
 we have already done enough so that we can afford to 
 admit that every American cannot do everything. 
 
 It was reserved for the great city of the middle West, 
 by the example of that fair White City by the Lake, 
 which remains with us as a dream of Ionian seas, to lead 
 our people out of the wilderness of the commonplace to 
 new ideas of architectural beauty and nobility. The lesson 
 of the Chicago Exposition has gone into every city and 
 town and hamlet of America. The architects now for the 
 first time are beginning to have the nation with them. 
 
 The people of America are beginning to see that it is 
 not necessary to be commonplace in order to have common 
 sense. The people of America are no longer content that 
 the multi-millionaire in his palace, the great railroad 
 
 43 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 corporation in its monumental station, the great banks, 
 and insurance companies, and trust companies in their 
 massive business buildings, shall be the sole inheritors of 
 the beauty and the art which our fathers loved. They 
 wish for themselves in the public buildings of municipalities 
 and of States and Nation to have the best results of time and 
 the best attainments of genius. What the people desire, 
 their representatives in State legislature, in municipal body, 
 and in the Congress of the United States, desire for them. 
 The art of our fathers, the art of our private citizens, is 
 to be the art of our people and of our whole people. 
 
 I say a better day has dawned. The reign of Mullet is 
 over already. For our great public buildings architects are 
 consulted, as Washington and Jefferson consulted Thornton 
 and I,' Enfant and Hoban for the Capitol and the White 
 House. We have the inspiring spectacle in this city of 
 the broad-minded management of the greatest of our rail- 
 road corporations, which is represented at this board tonight 
 by President Cassatt,* voluntarily and cheerfully withdraw- 
 ing from the public park of Washington the railway station 
 and the railway terminals, which stood in the way of the 
 realization of the dream of Washington and I,' Enfant; 
 voluntarily sacrificing the material advantages of that 
 
 * At the mention of Mr. Cassatt's name, in connection -with the 
 withdrawal of the Pennsylvania Railroad from the Mall, the guests arose 
 to give hearty cheers. 
 
 44 
 
o S 
 
 & -s-l 
 
THE SIMPI^E I<IFE 
 
 position in the caiter of this great city, in order that art 
 might have its perfect work and the plans of the fathers 
 be wrought out to full fruition. 
 
 Again, besides securing the Villa Mirafiori for the 
 American Academy in Rome, within the week a firm 
 foundation of endowment has been made sure by the 
 munificent gift of one hundred thousand dollars by Mr. 
 Henry Walters, of Baltimore, and one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars by Mr. Pierpont Morgan, of New York. No one can 
 estimate the value to France of the two centuries during which 
 the citizens of that nation were taught in the French Academy 
 in Rome. It was one of Jefferson's cherished ideas that 
 young men of America might become saturated with the 
 ideas of classical art by study in Rome; and now we are 
 beginning the enterprise through which America will no 
 longer be obliged to take her ideas of classic art at second- 
 hand, but will go directly to the fountain source at the 
 home of art, under the direct and cherishing care of an 
 American institution maintained by American munificence. 
 
 My brothers* of the American Institute of Architects, 
 you are no longer to be as one crsdng in the wilderness. 
 The people of America believe that they are building a 
 state which shall endure for all time. They believe that 
 they are building into its structure the best of politics, 
 
 *Mr. Root had just been elected an honorary member of the Insti- 
 tute, and his sally was greeted with laughter and applause. 
 
 45 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 of social science, of patriotism, and of humanity. They 
 believe that the hopes of mankind for the rule of justice 
 and liberty and peace rest largely upon the development 
 of the American Republic. And they already know that 
 as there is a simplicity and nobility in nature which lifts 
 up the spirit of the poorest worshiper, there is a simplicity 
 and a nobility in art which protects the richest of its 
 votaries from the enervating and debasing influence of a 
 purely material life of wealth. 
 
 They would have every expression of American ideals 
 the noblest and the best ; and they would leave to the 
 generations that come after them an expression of their 
 patriotism, of their aspirations, of their faith in humanity 
 and in divinity in structures as truly representative of the 
 greatness and the nobility of the American nation as the 
 cathedrals of the Middle Ages are representative of the 
 aspirations of their builders. 
 
 It is for you to answer the demands of a great 
 people with great ideals, and in answering those demands 
 you will have with you in the future the people whom 
 you serve. 
 
 46 
 
Cl)e iaatnter0 
 
 JOHN LA FAROE 
 
 A man of unswerving elevation of thought and achievement in the 
 great art of painting. A creator: in his windows side by side with the 
 masters of the Middle Ages. A man of letters; a teacher, not merely 
 learned, but born to inspire. 
 
 THE fate which overtakes me is a frequent one. I 
 was to have spoken earlier, but the gentlemen who 
 have spoken before me have said almost all that I 
 could have wished to say, therefore I shall take up the 
 affiliation, if I may so say, of what our ambassador from 
 France has hinted at and has said. My own affiliations, 
 my own trainings, like those of many of us, have been 
 French. Whenever allusion is made to the French artist 
 who scraped on the bones of the cave bear, I feel that 
 he was distinctly my ancestor. 
 
 Through all these thousands and thousands of years 
 I go back and feel that after all only one who has drawn 
 as distinctly and as well, with that firmness of touch, 
 that far-down feeling for nature, is perhaps derived from 
 such an ancestry, although he happens to have been born 
 on the fierce wave-beaten coast of New England; and the 
 
 47 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 only man who has ever drawn exactly upon the lines of 
 the dwellers with the cave bear is a great American 
 painter — as great as any in the world— Winslow Homer. 
 
 The artist away back (the painter) hardly existed 
 except in such a form; he was useless then. To a certain 
 extent he is useless now. That is his great advantage, and 
 that is his great honor. The architect represents in the arts 
 the useful side; his art is that of utility, and all the more 
 honor to him when he blends with that utility the useless- 
 ness of the last and most indefinite of arts, the one I am 
 called upon to represent, the art of painting, which could 
 be of no use in the far-back, except, perhaps, to disguise 
 some man in ambush, who painted his face so as to sur- 
 prise some one else; or to decorate the dress of some savage 
 lady. 
 
 The art of painting comes after all the others; it is 
 based, as we now know, upon the use of the outside 
 world; it is the representation of an idea by an image of 
 the outside world, and consequently it has no end. It has 
 had these vague beginnings, but it has grown with the 
 entire human race. Every acquisition of knowledge, of 
 learning, has gone on with it, and the very last studies 
 of science are used by the painter. 
 
 The architect, therefore, when he calls for help to the 
 painter, has less use for him than he would for almost 
 any other form of art. It is merely to recall the fact that 
 
 48 
 
THE PAINTERS 
 
 there is such a thing as useless beauty, that there is some- 
 thing to elevate you, outside of the ideas of utility, that 
 the painter comes in. He has but few things in connec- 
 tion with the architect. It is true that he always had 
 them. He has the ideas and the representations of space, 
 and of line, and of light and dark and what we call color, 
 and that is all. The rest is entirely outside, and therefore 
 we know that the architect has employed the painter very 
 late, he has so little need of him. 
 
 On that account whenever the painter feels that 
 the fundamental art — the great art of usefulness — can 
 employ him, can help him to say what he has to say, 
 he feels that the end of civilization has come, and that 
 he represents at length, finally, what civilization, what 
 culture means — the cultivation of the useless, the thing 
 that the Greek called the noblest use of the mind, the 
 thing that the great Saint Thomas called "the place pure 
 innocence," the thing which takes us away from the use- 
 fulness of ordinary life. 
 
 Therefore, when the time has come that the architects 
 representing the earliest and the foundation art need for 
 their adornment the painter's work, the time has come to 
 say that the orbit of things has revolved, and that a new 
 departure, a new birth is now impending. We have not, 
 perhaps, the right to say that we are beginning an unprec- 
 edented era in a country where, naturally, I should say, 
 
 49 
 
THE ^PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 every man was from his original tendencies an architect, 
 a constructor of buildings, a manager. Something more than 
 that is needed. 
 
 What we have done in the lines of art has been going 
 on now for over a century, and we have come to a place 
 where we need fear the challenge of no one. We have just 
 been assured of the importance the American has abroad. 
 We are now at this very moment going to add to our 
 aspirations, to the promise in the future, to the glory of 
 the future, to the future charm of life for the artists of 
 all kinds, a connection with Europe in our Academy, which 
 has been wanting hitherto— the placing of our young men in 
 the great city of the past. We are going to be established 
 in Rome. This is in itself a statement that we, too, are 
 rivals of all that has been done, and intend to rival all that 
 shall be done; and we can then feel that the old cycle is 
 closed and that a new one has begun. 
 
 The Institute of Architects represents all this; it is to 
 be the guardian and the helper of the more ornamental side 
 of the arts. It must be connected with what I have spoken 
 of — the beauty of this American ambition, this American 
 hope in the very center of Europe — and we artists feel that 
 with the architects of the United States we are now bound 
 and inseparable. 
 
 50 
 
Clje Sculptors? 
 
 AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS 
 
 Whose works enclose a most sensitive ideal within the extreme pur- 
 suit of nature, which marks our time. In so far he has continued the 
 glories of the past, here in America ; and through him we challenge 
 the world of present art. 
 
 CHARI^KS, the "Charmer," in other words, Charles 
 F. McKim, has assured me that it is essential that 
 I should speak tonight. This is as flattering as it 
 is fallacious; for although I have doubts about many things 
 in life, on one subject I have absolutely none; and that is 
 the utterly hopeless and helpless limitations of my oratory. 
 It is much more calculated to reduce listeners to tears 
 than to contribute to their entertainment or instruction. 
 
 You will therefore understand why I refrain from 
 expressing anything more than my great pleasture at learning 
 of the munificent gifts to what we have so much at heart, 
 the American Academy in Rome; and at being included in 
 a company assembled to honor that which makes for the 
 nobility and elevation of life — the love of beauty, character 
 and dignity in our surroundings, as much in the halls of 
 law and government as in our homes, or wherever we live, 
 move, and have our being. 
 
 51 
 
Mr. Justice HARLAN 
 
 There is a higher law than the Constitution. 
 
 — Sbward. 
 
 I AM asked to say something suggested by the sentiment 
 that "There is a law higher than the Constitution." 
 Precisely what was in the mind of the gentleman 
 who prepared that toast I do not know. It may be that 
 he had in view the scale of fees adopted by the American 
 Institute of Architects, and that he desired to express the 
 thought that such a scale should be taken as a law higher 
 than any constitution! Or, it may be that he had in mind 
 that law of nature which gave Mr. McKim, Mr. Homblower 
 and myself such fine suits of hair as to excite the envy of 
 all architects!* 
 
 The sentiment proposed has in it some dsmamitic 
 elements, and it must therefore be handled carefully. It 
 is not a new one. About fifty years ago a distinguished 
 statesman announced the same sentiment — I think in the 
 same words — as applicable to public affairs. The thought 
 that a public man, in the discharge of his public duties, 
 
 •Justice Harlan's allusion to the bald heads of the distingpaished 
 architects and himseU was highly appreciated. 
 
 53 
 
THK PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 could be properly guided by some law higher than the 
 Constitution which he has sworn to support, stirred the 
 American people from one end of the country to the other, 
 and had, it is supposed, much to do with arousing the 
 excitement and bitterness of feeling which marked the 
 beginning of the Civil War. But I will not assume that 
 the sentiment has any reference to that period in our 
 history. 
 
 StUl I am somewhat puzzled to know why one occu- 
 pying a judicial position should be called on to assert the 
 principle that there is a law higher than the Constitution. 
 For all will remember that each judge, each legislator, and 
 each officer. National and State, in all the land, is under 
 the obligation of an oath to regard the Constitution as the 
 supreme law of the land — supreme over states, supreme 
 over courts, supreme over Congress, supreme over even the 
 American people. We may differ as to what the Consti- 
 tution means, but when its meaning is ascertained and 
 established, that instrument must be respected and its 
 provisions enforced. Upon that foundation rests the safety 
 of our free institutions. We must take care not to disturb 
 or remove the foundation, else the whole superstructure 
 of government may fall. 
 
 But I take it that the sentiment assigned to me has 
 reference to laws other than those ordained by Constitution 
 or by legislative enactments ; to laws existing outside of 
 
 54 
 
THK HIGHKR I. A W 
 
 and independently of governments established for public 
 purposes; laws that cannot be created or destroyed by the 
 power of man— laws of beauty and good taste, of form, 
 of color, of proportion, obedience to which will promote 
 the comfort and happiness of man. That there are such 
 laws all will admit. I,et us stand in front of two houses 
 recently erected. Our eyes, although uneducated in the 
 prmciples of true architecture, at once tell us that some- 
 thing is wanting ; that one building was erected under the 
 supervision of a person who was simply a builder or 
 carpenter, who had no conception of beauty or of proportion 
 or skill in design, but only skill in execution; the other, 
 under the supervision of an architect who knew something 
 of his calling and understood the principles of ornament. 
 
 Perhaps it is inaccurate to speak of architecture as a 
 calling. It is an art — one of the fine arts. Indeed, it has 
 been called the mother of the fine arts, the most ancient 
 of all and holding the relation to the other arts that man 
 holds to the inferior creation. No one of the fine arts 
 ministers more effectively to our mental health and pleasure 
 than architecture. A great writer has written about what, 
 curiously enough, he terms "The Seven I^amps of Archi- 
 tecture" — the I^amp of Sacrifice, the l,amp of Truth, the 
 I^arnp of Power, the I^amp of Beauty, the I^amp of Life, 
 the I/amp of Memory, and, last of all, the I<amp of 
 Obedience. I cannot dwell upon the thoughts suggested 
 
 55 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 by this classification of the objects of architecture, even 
 if I had such knowledge of the language of the art as 
 would enable me to do so. These characteristics may, 
 however, be summed up in the last one named by the 
 author — Obedience. If the architect obeys the laws of 
 beauty, of good taste, of form, of color, of proportion, he 
 will meet with success. These laws are, indeed, higher 
 than any constitution ordained by peoples. They cannot 
 be brought into existence by constitutions nor enforced by 
 legislation. They have had their operation in every age 
 and in every country. The domain throughout which they 
 are supreme is outside of and above any constitution that 
 can be devised by man for the government of society, and, 
 what is important, that which is done pursuant to those 
 laws is permanent and enduring in its influence. Govern- 
 ments have perished and nations have gone into decay; 
 but enough remains of the architecture of all the ages to 
 inform us, in some measure, of the character and condition 
 of the peoples among whom the art was practiced. 
 
 Gentlemen • of the American Institute of Architects, I 
 tender my congratulations that your lives are being devoted 
 to a most elevating and dignified pursuit — one whose 
 tendency is to educate and uplift the better part of human 
 nature; one that is both useful and beautiful; one closely 
 identified with the pleasure and happiness of man. 
 
 56 
 
:arcj)ttecture anti :^ppropriatton0 
 
 The Honorable JOSEPH G. CANNON 
 Speakbr op thb House op Rbprbsentativbs 
 
 A people is but the attempt of many 
 To rise to the completer life of one. 
 
 — Browning. 
 
 IWOUt,D really like to learn some things from the 
 gentlemen present. As I did not hear the toast I 
 am to respond to, I suppose that for a very brief 
 space I may do as we did out West when I was a boy, 
 and we went out hunting for squirrels. We carried a gun 
 full of shot which scattered. We sometimes captured an 
 indolent squirrel. 
 
 I hardly know what to say to architects. I suppose, 
 Mr. Toastmaster, that when you called upon me to supply 
 the place of Senator Wetmore, you must have felt a little 
 bit as the Prohibition orators, who, when they were preach- 
 ing prohibition in the middle West in the villages and little 
 cities, never were fully equipped unless they had a bad 
 example!* 
 
 *Mr. Cannon had so frequently and so vigorously opposed the 
 plans for Washington that the architects had come to regard him as the 
 great stumbling-block in their way. His appearance among the speakers 
 was regarded as a good omen, and when he arose he was greeted with 
 cheers, and the song "For he's a jolly good fellow?" His felicitous 
 speech was greeted with frequent laughter and applause. 
 
 57 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 What I don't know about art and architecture, Mr. 
 Morgan [turning to Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan], would make 
 a library larger than all your wealth could buy. And yet I 
 was born in the United States, am a citizen of the United 
 States, and my life has been spent in trying to earn an 
 honest living. In Illinois, when I was earning an honest 
 living, and later on when, by the good will of a confiding 
 constituency, I was giving my vote for legislation, and it 
 has fallen to my lot for twenty years and over to have 
 given my time — with a little information as to the details 
 of the public service and sometimes with very little infor- 
 mation — to the division of dough among the governmental 
 chickens. 
 
 And after all, I dare say that for a man of forty-seven* I 
 have had about the experience that the average American 
 citizen has had. I don't know that I have an eye for 
 the beautiful, and yet there are certain things, certain 
 buildings, certain paintings, certain frescoes here and there 
 about Washington and about our considerable cities, that 
 I stop to look at as I pass along. In Washington, as my 
 eyes have gazed upon the Monument, it has grown upon 
 me. I don't know whether it is a great monument or 
 not, but it has gradually grown upon me. 
 
 The Capitol of the United States seems to me a great 
 building, and so with some of the great frescoes on the 
 *Mr. Cannon was born in 1836. 
 
 58 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND APPROPRIATIONS 
 
 inside, although they do not appeal to me from the stand- 
 point of utility; yet sometimes as I pass them, my eye 
 catches what must have been the fancy of the artist, and 
 I see in them objects which are beautiful to me, though 
 perhaps they would not appeal to you as artists. 
 
 To show you how little, or how much of an artist 
 I am, there is one fresco — I believe it is a fresco — on 
 the western wall as you ascend the staircase to the 
 landing leading to the House gallery. I never went 
 up there in my life but what I turned and looked 
 at that fresco — ' ' Westward the star of empire takes its 
 way." I forget the artist, but to me it is the greatest 
 work my eyes ever beheld. To you it may not be any- 
 thing; but to me it typifies the development of the Repub- 
 lic, the development of the country in the middle West 
 and in the far West. I never look upon the steer and 
 mule yoked together, the broken wagon wheel, the immi- 
 grant with his rifle and faithful dog, the mother with the 
 child in her arms and at her side the little grave of the 
 child that fell in the emigration — I never look at that 
 picture that the tears don't come to my eyes; because I 
 feel that I was part and parcel of that picture. And so, 
 perhaps, something else might strike the eye of some other 
 individual. 
 
 I am proud of what you architects have accomplished. 
 Sometimes I have said things that many of you did not 
 
 59 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 approve. I have not said half as bad things of architects 
 as the late Secretary of War has said about many of them 
 tonight. ^ have learned to know that there are architects 
 and architects, as there are doctors and doctors, and lawyers 
 and lawyers. All of them are not perfect, and yet progress 
 has been made all along the line. 
 
 I am not an artist, and I am too old ever to learn 
 to be an artist, and I have seen but little of the other 
 side of the ocean; I don't know much about the excellence 
 of those architects in the Middle Ages. Possibly they were 
 ahead of the people; possibly those castles and cathedrals 
 ought not to have been built, considering the income of 
 the municipalities. Possibly there ought to have been a 
 little more of expenditure for the individual good, and a 
 little less in the splendid and magnificent structures. But 
 they are there, and I have no doubt I shall later gaze on 
 them with interest and admiration. 
 
 If we have gone slowly in this country, yet it has 
 been our growth. First there was the lean-to on the 
 Wabash, within my recollection; and then the cabin with 
 one or two rooms; and when the logs were hewed, the 
 man was a plutocrat and an aristocrat. Gradually we have 
 grown with our two hundred thousand miles of railway, 
 with our splendid materials, with our common school sys- 
 tem and our colleges and universities, with our great 
 accumulation of wealth, until today we stand equal to 
 
 60 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND APPROPRIATIONS 
 
 Germany and Great Britain in wealth; and I say it 
 respectfully, because those are great countries and repre- 
 sent great civilizations. But we still grow, and I am not 
 quite sure but that the artists and the architects are keep- 
 ing step fairly well with the progress of this country. 
 
 Since I came here this evening I have received new 
 assurances that you will more than keep step. I was 
 more than gratified, because in the busy life of my own 
 little circle, I had not noticed that two hundred thousand 
 dollars had been subscribed for the creation of an endow- 
 ment for the American Academy in Rome. 
 
 It had been brought to my attention for several years 
 that the Government ought to contribute to such a school 
 and should maintain it. But I said, "nay, nay." From 
 my standpoint, it was not proper to make the grant from 
 the Treasury to found a school across the waters. It then 
 seemed to me not, and it now seems to me not; but I 
 trust eight other gentlemen will be found to give one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars each to endow the American Academy 
 in Rome. I do not doubt that we have a dozen Ameri- 
 cans here tonight with whom we might do as we used to 
 do in Illinois when we dedicated a church. If the church 
 cost ten thousand dollars, they raised about half enough to 
 build it, and then before it was dedicated, they got every- 
 body in the neighborhood to come, and they got one of 
 their best ministers to preach a sermon, and they began 
 
 6i 
 
ARCHITECTURK AND APPROPRIATIONS 
 
 our diplomacy and defend our seacoast, necessarily require 
 large expenditures. So that it is difficult to build the 
 buildings as fast as they are required. It seems to me 
 that sometimes a compromise might be made, that in cer- 
 tain parts of the City of "Washington, here and there — and 
 you gentlemen could locate them better than I — when a 
 public building if built, that it should be a building having 
 utility, and at the same time beauty. Take the New 
 National Museum for instance. I think that will combine 
 utility and beauty, and so will the two office buildings on 
 the Hill.* 
 
 By-and-by there will be a building for the State De- 
 partment, and by-and-by another for the Department of 
 Justice; but I don't think that every building that is 
 erected for practical purposes need necessarily be as orna- 
 mental as the I/ibrary of Congress. Someone has said — 
 and there are always these objectionable people saying 
 things — that it cost ten thousand dollars to house one 
 twelve hundred dollar clerk in a certain building in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 But in proper localities, it seems to me, we want some 
 buildings constructed for office purposes as you, Mr. Mor- 
 gan, construct them; or as anybody else would construct 
 them; and then you could house a good many clerks for 
 ten thousand dollars. I think that, in proper locations, 
 
 *The buildings for the House of Representatives and the Senate. 
 
 63 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 such buildings could be constructed without being eyesores. 
 It is up to you, gentlemen, because you have to lead. I 
 may preach; but when you come and criticise and talk 
 about "sky line," somehow or other you get the people 
 with you, 
 
 I am gratified to have the honor of your invitation 
 to meet the gentlemen assembled here. I bid you God- 
 speed in your specialty. It is a great specialty. Others 
 of us, from necessity, run to our specialty, and in the end 
 each man grows in his specialty until he becomes perfect. 
 We shall have a republic of your sons and daughters which 
 will strive for excellence. I have faith to believe that in 
 time we shall present to the world the strongest and the 
 best people and the highest civilization on earth. 
 
 64 
 
Congress and t|)e 2ixtf^itttt^ 
 
 Representative JAMES T. McCLEARY 
 
 The Congress of the United States: the incarnate expression of the 
 ■will of all the people. 
 
 A BOY once defined "appendix" as "something near 
 the end of a book which it is not necessary to 
 read." At this late hour I feel a good deal like 
 the appendix, and shall cheerfully pardon any who cannot 
 remain to hear me. 
 
 A man who was suddenly and without warning called 
 upon to answer to the toast, "The I^adies," stuttered and 
 stammered and said, "Why, Mr. Toastmaster, I am unac- 
 customed to public speaking, and I don't know why I 
 should be called upon, but any man should be able to say 
 something to such a toast. Women suggest beauty and 
 grace, flowers and poetry. Having no appropriate thoughts 
 of my own, I shall use the thoughts of another who ex- 
 pressed his thoughts in verse: 
 
 'Oh, •woman, in our hours of ease, 
 Uncertain, coy, and hard to please — ' 
 
 and then he forgot and scratched his head and thought. 
 Then his face brightened, and unconsciously changing from 
 Scott to Pope, he added, 
 
 65 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 'But seen too oft, familiar witli its face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace.' " 
 
 On this festive occasion I am called upon to respond 
 to the toast, "The House of Representatives." Though 
 the call has come practically without warning, I feel that 
 a man who has spent weeks trying to convince a patient 
 constituency that the salvation of the nation depended upon 
 returning him again to Congress ought to have at least 
 something to say about the United States House of Rep- 
 resentatives. 
 
 You would think very little of the man who did not 
 understand that behind the material that you architects 
 use within the structure which you plan, is an idea. The 
 first question of Napoleon, when he returned from Elba, 
 to his faithful friend on shore was, ' ' Have the people 
 caught the idea?" Ideas rule the world. 
 
 There were architects some hundred odd years ago 
 who constructed the grandest edifice on this earth, the 
 Republic of the United States. I/ike your creations, that 
 structure contains a central idea. That idea is represen- 
 tation. It is the greatest idea in all this earth. It is the 
 idea that one man can be trusted to stand for the interest 
 and the welfare of others. 
 
 That idea was unknown to the world when imperial 
 Rome sat on her seven hills and ruled the world. Citi- 
 zens of Rome there were in Gaul and in Germany, but 
 
 66 
 
CONGRKSS AND THE ARCHITECTS 
 
 they had no hand in guiding the affairs of the Empire. 
 Only those could vote who went in person to the Imperial 
 City itself. 
 
 In the forests of Germany was born the idea which 
 has made possible this nation of ours, the idea of repre- 
 sentation, the idea of acting through others that you trust 
 with life itself, with your fortunes; for the men sitting 
 on yonder hill can embroil this nation in war and compel 
 you to lay down even life itself and every dollar that you 
 have. That is the central idea embodied in the structure 
 reared by the fathers. 
 
 What is the significance of that idea? What reach 
 has it? What may be the outcome of it? 
 
 On the fourth day of July, 1863, in the city of Paris, 
 France, Americans were assembled at a banquet in honor 
 of the natal day of their country. Toasts were proposed, 
 and one of them was "The United States." The gentle- 
 man proposing it said: "Here's to the United States, 
 bounded on the north by Canada, on the south by the 
 Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic and the west 
 by the Pacific." How much that meant, gentlemen, on 
 the fourth day of July, 1863— how much faith it meant — 
 to say that the United States was still bounded on the 
 south by the Gulf of Mexico! 
 
 To that toast they drank. That man was from New 
 England, and historically correct in all his allegations. 
 
 67 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 A man from farther west said: "Here's to the United 
 States, but when we toast it, let us see it in its full 
 magnitude. Here's to the United States, bounded on the 
 north by the North Pole, on the south by the South Pole, 
 on the east by the rising sun, and on the west by the 
 setting thereof." 
 
 Another man from the farther west, perhaps from the 
 breezy prairies of Southern Minnesota, said: "Gentlemen, 
 when indulging in prophecy, why not see with the eye of 
 a prophet? Here's to the United States, bounded on the 
 north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the procession 
 of Equinoxes, on the east by primeval chaos, and on the 
 west by the day of judgment." 
 
 I have reminded you of that toast for this reason, 
 that although it was given in playful spirit, it yet con- 
 tains a mighty thought; for in my judgment "The United 
 States" is to extend from Pole to Pole, and from the 
 rising to the setting of the sun. What is the spectacle 
 which the United States of America presents to the world 
 today? "What is the real significance of the United States 
 today? Wherein does it differ from all other countries ? 
 It is that we have here, on the choicest ground that the 
 world possesses, forty-five little nations living side by side 
 in peace, each one absolutely self-governing in everything 
 pertaining to itself alone; no fortresses on their frontiers, 
 no standing armies within their borders. 
 
 68 
 
CONGRESS AND THE ARCHITECTS 
 
 That spectacle was never seen before; it was exhibited 
 by this country of ours. It never could have been seen 
 but for the idea that the United States House of Repre- 
 sentatives stand for the idea, the doctrine, the principle of 
 representation. 
 
 How do we settle our disputes on matters that are 
 interstate? Not by going to war. We turn it over to 
 gentlemen sent to a central meeting place, this city of 
 ours, with authority to deal with all such things. That 
 is the model upon which is to be constructed the United 
 States of the World. 
 
 The Dominion of Canada has caught the idea. In 
 Australia they have caught the idea. Germany, though 
 still monarchic, has caught the federal idea. 
 
 How few things has the United States to deal with. 
 The things near and dear to us, the doing of things of 
 importance to us — the education of our children and such 
 things — ^we control within our states. Comparatively few 
 things we give to be controlled by the larger government, 
 the nation. And so very few things indeed would be 
 handled by that Congress of all the Nations. 
 
 Gradually from the United States of America there 
 will come into being the United States of Europe. They 
 must put down their fortresses and disband their armies. 
 In the great commercial battle now on, the nations of 
 Europe must free themselves from such handicaps, and so 
 
 69 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 by gradual evolution will come the result foreseen by the 
 prophets and sung by the poets — "The parliament of war, 
 the federation of the world," each nation retaining its 
 identity and the entire management of its own peculiar 
 affairs, just as the states of our Union do today. And 
 occasionally, once a year, or once in five years, as the 
 occasion arises, we shall have a central Congress of all the 
 Nations. 
 
 Then will come the United States of the World, ex- 
 tending from Pole to Pole, from the rising to the setting 
 of the sun, and thus, through the central idea of this 
 union of States will be realized what He came 1900 years 
 ago to bring, "Peace on earth and good will toward men." 
 
 70 
 
LETTERS AND CABLEGRAMS 
 
5Letter0 anti Cablegrams 
 
 [The President of Harvard University.] 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., January io, 1905. 
 
 Dear Mr. McKim : 
 
 I am very sorry that I am unable to attend the approaching 
 dinner of the American Institute of Architects in Washington, 
 for I should have liked to testify to the strong interest which 
 all universities feel for the worthy development of American 
 architecture. When a country gets rich and strong, industrially 
 and commercially, the first way in which its wealth should be 
 visibly expressed is in its architecture. Noble buildings should 
 rise for public and private uses, and round these buildings parks 
 and gardens should be created. A republic should not remain 
 behind monarchies and empires in this artistic development. 
 On the contrary, it should gain much from the fact that the 
 great mass of the people feels a strong sense in ownership in 
 all the republic's constructions. The great danger of free 
 institutions in this respect is the danger lest the public wealth 
 should increase earlier or faster than the public taste and the 
 public confidence in the real artists. 
 
 I wish for the American Institute of Architects that it may 
 
 have a strong and wise effect to make wealth, public and 
 
 private, serve the arts and the arts serve wealth simultaneously, 
 
 and with results of which many succeeding generations will be 
 
 proud. 
 
 I am, with great regard, 
 
 Charles W. Kwot. 
 Charles F. McKim, Esq. 
 
 73 
 
THE PROMISE OE AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 [The President of Yale University.] 
 
 New Haven, Conn., January io, 1905. 
 
 To the Chairman of the Dinner Committee 
 
 American Institute of Architects : 
 
 It is a matter of great regret to me to be unable to be with 
 you on Wednesday evening. The character of the men who 
 will be gathered makes the occasion a notable one; the object 
 which your profession has in view, of improving the standards 
 of building art in America, makes it yet more notable. I want 
 to assure you of the cordial interest of Yale and all Yale men 
 in your success. With such forces as you have behind you, 
 such associates as you have with you, and such aims as you 
 have before you, I regard that success as assured. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Arthur Twining Hadley. 
 
 [The Ambassador to Great Britain.] 
 
 I/ONDON, January ii, 1905. 
 
 Warmest congratulations upon acquisition of a permanent 
 home for the American Academy in Rome, with its generous 
 endowment. It is a great triumph for the future of Amer- 
 ican art. 
 
 Choate. 
 
 [The Ambassador to Italy.] 
 
 Rome, January ii, 1905. 
 
 Hearty felicitations on purchase of permanent home for 
 American Academy in Rome; also for high prospects of useful 
 future and influence on American art. 
 
 Meyer. 
 74 
 
THE GUESTS 
 
€>fficer0 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 
 
 WECWAM S. EAMBS, VniiVAM A. BORING, 
 
 PresideKt Second Vice-President 
 
 PRANK MII^ES DAY, GI<ENN BROWN, 
 
 First Vice-Fresideni Secretary and Treasurer 
 
 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
 
 Walter Cook Isaac E. Ditmars 
 
 Cass Gilbert Charles P. McKim 
 
 Alfred Stone George B. Post 
 
 Robert S. Peabody R. D. Andrews 
 
 W. B. MnNDiE James G. Hill 
 Joseph C. Horkblower 
 
 COMMITTBE ON THE ANNUAL DINNER 
 
 CHARIiES p. mckim. 
 Chairman 
 GI,ENN BROWN, Washington, 
 Secretary 
 Prank D. Millet William A. Boring 
 
 Charles Moore Robert D. Andrews 
 
 William S. Bakes William B. Mundib 
 
 Frank Miles Day Henry Rdtger? Marshall 
 
 Joseph C. Hornblowbr 
 
 76 
 
%\\t (Quests 
 
 TABLE A 
 
 WII,I,IAM S. HAMBS 
 President American Institute of Architects 
 
 The Frbnch Ambassador 
 
 The Secretary op State 
 
 Mr. Atigustus Saint-Gaudens 
 
 Dr. Nicholas Mdrray Butler 
 President Columbia 
 University 
 
 Mr. A. J. Cassatt, 
 
 President Pennsylvania 
 Railway Co. 
 
 Rt. Rev. H. Y. Satterlbb, 
 Bishop of Washington 
 
 Mr. Henry Sicdons Mowbray, 
 Director American 
 Academy in Rome 
 
 Mr. Edward H. Coates, 
 
 President The Pennsylvania 
 Academy of the Pine Arts 
 
 Senator Cocrrbi.i. 
 
 Mr. George B. Post, 
 
 Past President American 
 Institute of Architects 
 
 Senator Dryden 
 
 I^ieutenant-General Chaffeb, 
 The Chief of Staff, TJ. S. A. 
 
 Prof. Simon Newcomb, U. S. N., 
 President International 
 Congress of Arts and 
 Sciences 
 
 Representative Payne 
 
 Mr. Samtjel D. Warrbn 
 
 James Cardinal Gibbons 
 
 Hon. Elihu Root 
 
 Mr. Justice Harlan 
 
 Mr. John 1,a ParGb, 
 
 President Society of 
 American Artists 
 
 Mr. J. PiBRPONT MORGAN, 
 
 President The Metropolitan 
 Museum, New York 
 
 Prof. Edward MacDowell 
 
 Mr. Edwin H. Blashfibld 
 
 Senator Newlands 
 
 Mr. Robert S. Peabody, 
 
 Past President American 
 Institute of Architects 
 
 Senator Nelson 
 
 Mr. S. P. I,angley, 
 
 Secretary Smithsonian 
 Institution 
 
 Representative McCleary 
 
 Hon. Whitelaw Rbid 
 
 Representative Dalzell 
 
 Mr. W. S. I<obb, 
 
 The Secretary to the 
 President 
 
 77 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Mr. Samuei, Rea, 
 
 Vice-President Pennsyl- 
 vania Railway Co. 
 
 Major-General G. X,. Gillespie, 
 The Assistant Chief of 
 Staff, U. S. A. 
 
 Mr. Daniel C. French, 
 
 President National Sculp- 
 ture Society 
 
 Mr. Frederick Diblman, 
 
 President National Academy 
 of Design 
 
 Mr. William R. Harper, 
 President University of 
 Chicago 
 
 TABLE B 
 
 On the Right of the President 
 
 Mr. Charles Emory Smith, 
 Editor the Philadelphia 
 Press. 
 
 Mr. Theodoke N. Ely, 
 
 Vice-President American 
 Academy in Rome 
 
 Hon. H. B. F. Macfarland, 
 Commissioner District of 
 
 Columbia 
 
 Representative Williams 
 
 Mr. Frank Miles Day, 
 
 First Vice-President Ameri- 
 can Institute of Architects 
 
 Representative Powers 
 
 Mr. William Barclay Parsons, 
 Panama Canal Commis- 
 sioner 
 
 Mr. F. E. I,eupp, 
 
 CommLissioner of Indian 
 Affairs 
 
 Brig.-Gen. Albert 1^. Mills, 
 U.S.A., 
 
 Superintendent U. S. Mili- 
 tary Academy, West Point 
 
 Mr. James Knox Taylor, 
 Supervising Architect 
 Treasury Department 
 
 Mr. William G. Mather, 
 
 President Board of Trade, 
 Cleveland 
 
 TABLE K 
 On the Left of the President 
 
 Mr. FiNLEY Peter Dunne 
 
 Mr. Charles Dana Gibson 
 
 Mr. Thomas Nelson Page 
 
 Mr. Henry James 
 
 Mr. Thomas Newbold 
 
 Mr. Edgerton Winthrop 
 
 Mr. Charles Whitney Warren, 
 President Beaux Arts 
 Society 
 
 Major John Biddle, U. S. A., 
 
 Engineer Commissioner of 
 District of Columbia 
 
 Mr. Samuel Spencer, 
 
 President Southern Railway 
 
 Chas. CnSTis Harrison, i<i,. d., 
 President University of 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Mr. William A. Boring, 
 Second Vice-President 
 A. I. A. 
 
 Representative Bartholdt 
 
 TABLE C 
 
 Mr. lyEVI T. SCOFIELD 
 
 Mr. A. G. Thomson 
 
 Mr. Isaac E. Ditmars, 
 
 Director A. I. A., Brooklyn 
 
 Mr. Frank H. Quinby 
 
 Mr. George W. Rapp 
 
 Mr. F. C. Baldwin, 
 
 Secretary Michigan 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Representative Granger 
 
 Mr. Walter McFarlane 
 
 TABLE W 
 
 Mr. Nathan Wyeth 
 Mr. D. H. Thomas, Jr., 
 Secretary Baltimore 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Herbert D, Hale 
 Mr. Robert I,. O'Brien 
 Boston Transcript 
 Mr. Benj. S. Hubbell 
 Mr. Wm. G. Nolting 
 Mr. Edgar V. Seeler 
 
 President Philadelphia 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. R. C. STnRGis 
 
 TABLE T 
 
 Mr. R. E. Fry 
 Representative Sherman 
 Mr. E. B. Green 
 Mr. F. A. Russell, 
 
 President Pittsburg 
 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 Mr. Wm. I^afan 
 Mr. Alfred Stone 
 
 Director A. I. A., Providence 
 Mr. Edward F. Ely, 
 
 President Rhode Island 
 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 Mr. Chas. W. Knapp 
 
 Editor St. I<ouis Republic 
 
 TABLE X 
 Mr. W. W. Clay 
 Mr. Charles S. Frost 
 Mr. IviNG K. Pond 
 Mr. Herbert West, 
 
 Editor House and Garden 
 Mr. Peter B. Wight 
 
 Secretary Illinois Chapter 
 
 American Institute of 
 
 Architects 
 
 Mr. RoBT. C. Berlin 
 Mr. W. C. Zimmerman 
 Mr. F. W. Crawford, 
 
 Secretary O. A. P. S. P. 
 
 78 
 
THK GUESTS 
 
 TABLE H 
 Mr. Solon S. Beman, 
 
 President lUmois Chapter, 
 A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. W. M. POINDEXTEtt 
 Mr. J. 1,. SMITHMBYE& 
 
 Mr. W. M. EussBi-i. 
 Mr. A. O. BI.ZMBR 
 Mr. John I,. Mauran 
 Mr. AUG, N. Rantoul 
 Mr. Theodore h. Boal 
 
 TABIvE M 
 
 Mr. HtrOH Roberts, 
 
 Secretary New Jersey 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. John F. Capen, 
 
 President New Jersey 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Herman Kreitler 
 Mr. J. H. Freedi-anber 
 Mr. A. F. Rosenheim, 
 
 President I^os Angeles 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Robert D. Kohn 
 Mr. Charles I. Berg. 
 Mr. H. J. Hardenberge 
 
 TABLE D 
 
 Mr. Herbert Poltz 
 Mr. Addison Hutton 
 Mr. Beverly S. Kino 
 Mr. Henby C. Carrel 
 Mr. Geo. F. Nbwton 
 Mr. Ralph A. Cram 
 Mr. C. A. Wallingford 
 Mr. John J. Petit 
 Mr. Washington Hull, 
 President Brooklyn 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Henri Fouchaux 
 Mr. G. O. ToTTEN, Jr. 
 Mr. C. W. HOPKINSON 
 
 TABLE L 
 
 Mr. Geo. H. Clemkncb 
 Mr. I,ccros W. Briogs, 
 Secretary Worcester 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. George Keller 
 
 Mr. S. FORRY IjAUCKS 
 
 Mr. Stephen C. Farle 
 President Worcester 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Wm. a. Swasey 
 
 Mr. T. C. I,INK, 
 
 President St. I.ouis 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. J. A. Dempwolf 
 
 TABLE N 
 
 Mr, G. Atterbury 
 Mr. Silas McBbe, 
 
 Editor of the Churchman 
 Mr. Wm. M. Aiken 
 
 Past Supervising Architect 
 Representative McCall 
 Mr. J. G. Hill 
 Mr. Jos. H. McGuire 
 Mr. Walter Cook 
 
 Director A. I. A., New York 
 
 Mr. Edward I,. Tiltok 
 
 Cor. Secretary New York 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 TABLE P 
 
 Mr. E. I<. Stewardson 
 Mr. A. H. Granger 
 Mr. Albert Kelset 
 Mr. Cass Gilbert, 
 Director A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. JAS. P. JAMIESON 
 
 Rev. Frank Sewall 
 Mr. jAS. R. Marshall 
 Mr. Robert Stead 
 
 TABLE U 
 
 Mr. E. J. Lewis, Jr. 
 Representative Gardner 
 Mr. J. R. CooLiDGB, Jr. 
 
 Secretary Boston Chapter, 
 
 A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. ROLLA Ogdbn, 
 
 Editor New York 
 Evening Post 
 
 Mr. Francis A. Bacon 
 
 Mr. C. K. CCMMINGS 
 
 Mr. Francis R. Allen 
 Mr. Norman Hapgood, 
 
 Editor Collier's Weekly 
 
 TABLE O 
 
 Mr. William A. Bates 
 Mr. D. Everett Waid 
 Mr. A. W. Brunner, 
 
 President Arch. League, 
 
 New York 
 
 Mr. John M. Carrere 
 Mr. Wm. H. Beers 
 Mr. F. B. Pylb, 
 
 Secretary Washington 
 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. A. M. Low, 
 
 London Times 
 Mr. Austin W. Lord 
 
 TABLE R 
 
 Mr. W. L. Plack 
 
 Mr. George B. Page 
 
 Mr. C. Z. Klauder 
 
 Mr. E. W. DONN, Jr. 
 
 Mr. Ernest Greene 
 
 Mr. John R. Pope 
 
 Mr. E. B. Homer, 
 
 Secretary Rhode Island 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. John M. Donn 
 
 79 
 
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 TABLE E 
 
 Mr. F. J. Heer, Jr., 
 
 Secretary Iowa Chapter, 
 A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Paul J. Pelz 
 Mr. T. F. Schneider 
 Mr. Chas. K. Ramsey 
 
 Mr. I,. E. HOLDEN 
 
 Mr. Wm. B. Ittner 
 
 Mr. Joseph Maresh 
 
 Mr. Albert Kahn 
 
 Mr. M. P. McArdle, 
 
 President Architectural 
 league of America 
 
 Mr. I,onis C. SPIERIN& 
 
 Mr. B. D. I<ITCHFIELD 
 
 Mr. J. H. Pierce 
 
 TABLE F 
 
 Mr. J. Pennington 
 Mr. I/EON E. Dessez 
 
 Prof. J. V. VAN PELT 
 
 Mr. C. Edward Vosbury 
 Mr. E. Wheelwright 
 Mr. B. MASauERAY 
 Col. Sdmmerhayes, U. S. a. 
 Mr. C. A. Martin 
 Mr. J. Milton Dyer 
 Mr. Arthur B. Benton 
 Mr. J. B. Noel Wyatt, 
 
 President Baltimore 
 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Dr. Richard Rathbun 
 
 Director National Museum 
 
 TABLE G 
 
 Mr. T. R. Kimball 
 Mr. George Cary 
 Mr. F. B. Wheaton 
 Mr. Wm. M. Ellicott 
 Mr. Wm. H. Boughton 
 
 Mr. J. I. HORNBECK 
 
 Hon. C. F. Manderson 
 Mr. JOHN Scott 
 Mr. J. F. Warner 
 Mr. Henry H. Taylor 
 
 Ed. Architectural Review 
 
 Mr. I,indley Morris 
 Rev. D. J. Stafford 
 
 TABLE V 
 
 Mr. CHARI,ES F. MCKIM 
 Former President American Institute of Architects 
 
 Mr. B. R. Green, 
 
 Superintendent I,ibrary 
 of Congress 
 
 Mr. W. E. Curtis, 
 
 Chicago Record-Herald 
 
 Mr. R. D. ANDREWS, 
 
 Director A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Daniel S, Newhall 
 
 Mr. Thos. Hastings 
 
 Mr. Glenn Brown, 
 
 Secretary American 
 Institute of Architects 
 
 Mr. Wm. R. Mead 
 Gen. M. V. Z. WOODHULL 
 Representative Foss 
 Mr. Wm. B. Mundie, 
 
 Director A. I. A. 
 Major John S. Sewell, 
 
 TJ. S. A. 
 
 Mr, Charles Moore 
 
 Mr. John M. Donaldson 
 Director A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Charles C. Glover 
 
 Mr. Charles l^. Frbbr 
 
 Hon. F. W. Hackktt, 
 
 Past Ass't Secretary 
 of the Navy 
 
 • Mr. Jos. C. HORNBLOWER, 
 
 President Washington 
 Chapter, A. I. A. 
 
 Mr. Stanford White 
 
 Mr. JAS. W. Ellsworth 
 
 Mr. Wm. M. Kendall 
 
 Mr. T. C. Young 
 
 Mr. H. R. Marshall 
 
 Mr. FRANK D. MII<I<ET 
 Secretary American Academy in Rome 
 
 80 
 
Cornell University Library 
 NA 705.M82 
 
 The promise of American architecture; add 
 
 3 1924 015 702 917