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TESTIMONIAL 
 
 tticoprcstoent Xevi p. flftouton, 
 
 UPON HIS RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE OX 
 MARCH 4. 1893. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS AT THE BANQUET 
 Given to tbc Wtce=prcsi&ent 
 
 BY THE 
 
 UNITED STATES SENATORS 
 
 OF THE FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS. 
 AT THE ARLINGTON HOTEL, IN WASHINGTON, 
 
 Monday, February 27, 1893. 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRC 0L A TIOX. 
 
■ <o<\- 
 
 MONITOR PRESS, 
 CONCORD, N. H. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The retirement from office of Vice-President Morton was 
 the occasion of a spontaneous and universal expression 
 of friendship from the senators over whose deliberations 
 lie had for four years presided with impartiality, grace, and 
 dignity. On the 16th of February, 1893, a letter was ad- 
 dressed to him, signed by all the senators, eighty-eight in 
 number, and by the secretary and sergeant-at-arms, ten- 
 dering to him a banquet at the Arlington hotel in Wash- 
 ington, on the evening of Monday. February 27, 1893; — 
 which was attended by most of the senators who had sub- 
 scribed to the testimonial, and by ex-Senator William M. 
 Evarts, ex-Senator Thomas W. Palmer, and a few other 
 invited guests. 
 
 The floral ornaments and other decorations of the hall 
 and table were appropriate in design and arrangement. 
 The sentiments proposed, and the speeches made in re- 
 sponse, have been printed as a permanent memorial of a 
 tribute, alike gratifying to the senators who thus mani- 
 fested their respect and good wishes, and to the vice-pres- 
 ident whom they delighted to honor. 
 
The banquet was attended by the following gentlemen, 
 besides the vice-president: 
 
 Senators Allison, Bate, Berry, Blackburn, Blodgett, 
 Brice, Butler, Call, Camden, Carey. Casey. Chandler, C'ock- 
 rell. Coke. Cullom, Daniel, Davis. Dawes. Dubois, Faulk- 
 ner. Felton, Frye, Gallinger, Gibson, Gorman, Gray, Hale, 
 Hansbrough, Harris, Hawley, Higgins, Hill, Hiscoek, Hoar, 
 Hun ton, Jones of Arkansas, Jones of Nevada, Kyle, Lind- 
 say. McMillan, McPherson, Manderson, Mills, Mitchell. 
 Morrill, Pasco, Peffer, Perkins, Pettigrew, Piatt, Power, 
 Proctor. Pugh, Sawyer, Sherman, Shoup, Squire, Stewart, 
 Stockbridge, Teller, Vance, Vest, Vilas, Warren, White, 
 Wilson, and Wolcott ; ex-Senator Evarts, ex-Senator 
 Thomas W. Palmer, General Russell A. Alger, Messrs. 
 Frank Hatton, H. C. Clarke, P. V. DeCraw, B. Durfee, 
 M. W. Blumenberg, and Secretary McCook and Sergeaut- 
 at-Arms Valentine. 
 
LETTER TENDERING TESTIMONIAL 
 
 UNITED STATES SENATE, 
 
 Washington, February 16, 1893. 
 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton. 
 
 T^ice-JPresident : 
 
 Su; — Tlie discharge of the importanl duties incident to 
 your great office as president of the senate of the United 
 States for the last four years, has brought us in close asso- 
 ciation with you. 
 
 Your constant fairness and signal ability have command- 
 ed our respect and confidence, and your uniform courtesy 
 and unvarying kindness have won our regard and personal 
 affection. 
 
 Desiring to evidence our kindly feeling towards you. we 
 take great pleasure in tendering you a banquet at the 
 Arlington hotel, in this city, on the 27th instant, at eight 
 o'clock. 
 
 Very sincerely your friends, 
 
 Charles F. Manderson. 
 
 Isham <;. Harris. 
 
 Frank Hiscock. 
 
 Justin S. Morrill. 
 
 John Sherman. 
 
 G. G. Vest. 
 
 J. ( '. s. Blackburn. 
 
 David B. Hill. 
 
 M. W. Ransom. 
 
 YV. B. Allison. 
 
 Eugene Hale. 
 
VI LETTER TENDERING TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 Nathan F. Dixon. 
 
 D. W. VOORHEES. 
 M. C. BtTTLER. 
 
 Geo. F. Hoar. 
 
 F. M. COCKRELL. 
 
 A. P. Gorman. 
 Wm. M. Stewart. 
 Chas. J. Faulkner. 
 John H. Mitchell. 
 H. M. Teller. 
 
 Jos. R. Hawley. 
 
 B. W. Perkins. 
 Philetus Sawyer. 
 William Lindsay. 
 Geo. Gray. 
 
 J. R. McPherson. 
 
 James L. Pugh. 
 
 Wm. 1'. Frye. 
 
 s. m. cullom. 
 
 M. S. Quay. 
 
 Wm. E. Chandler. 
 
 Jno. W. Daniel. 
 
 Wm. B. Bate. 
 
 James H. Kyle. 
 
 (). H. Platt. 
 
 W. A. Peffer. 
 
 Francis B. Stockbridge. 
 
 James McMillan. 
 
 Redfield Proctor. 
 
 J. N. Dolph. 
 
 E. C. Walthall. 
 Leland Stanford. 
 
 C. N. Felton. 
 Geo. L. Shoot. 
 R. F. Pettigrew. 
 H. C. Hansbrough. 
 J. N. Camden. 
 
LETTER TENDERING TESTIMONIAL. vii 
 
 S. Pasco. 
 
 Calvin S. Brice. 
 
 E. D. White. 
 
 ('has. H. Gibson. 
 
 J. B. Gordon. 
 
 Wilkinson Call. 
 
 I). Caifery. 
 
 Francis E. Warren. 
 
 Richard Coke. 
 
 •I. I). Cameron. 
 
 Eppa Hunton. 
 
 T. C. Power. 
 
 R. Q. Mills. 
 
 Wm. F. Vilas. 
 
 John M. Palmer. 
 
 J. II. Berry. 
 
 W. D. Washburn. 
 
 Watson C. Squire. 
 
 Edward (). Wolcott. 
 
 II. L. Dawes. 
 
 Z. B. Vance. 
 
 C. K. Davis. 
 Jno. P. Jones. 
 Algernon S. Paddock. 
 John T. Morgan. 
 Joseph M. Carey. 
 Nelson W. Aldrich. 
 Anthony IIiggins. 
 R. Blodgett. 
 J. II. Gallinger. 
 James K. Jones. 
 Fred. T. Dubois. 
 John L. M. Irby. 
 James F. Wilson. 
 David Turpie. 
 J. Z. George. 
 Lyman R. Casey. 
 
Vlll LETTER TENDERING TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 A. H. Colquitt. 
 W. F. Sanders. 
 John B. Allen. 
 Anson G. McCook, 
 
 Secretary U. S. Senate. 
 E. K. Valentine, 
 
 Sergeant-at-Arms, 
 
 U. S. Senate. 
 
TOASTS AND EESPONSES. 
 
 Senator Manderson, president fro tempore of the senate, 
 acted as presiding officer and toast-master, and the toasts 
 were as follows : 
 
 1. The President of the United States. 
 
 Response by Hon. William M. Evarts. 
 
 '2. The Vice-President of the United States, Hon. Levi P. 
 Morton. 
 Responses by Senator Hale and Senator Cockrell. 
 Acknowledgment by the Vice-President. 
 
 3. The Empire State. 
 
 Response by Senator Hiscock. 
 
 4. The North— 
 
 " Deep in the frozen regions of the North, 
 A Goddess violated brought thee forth, 
 Immortal Liberty." 
 
 (Ode ti> Independence — Smollett.) 
 
 Response by Senator Davis. 
 
 5. The South — 
 
 ■• The sweet South 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets 
 Stealing and giving odour." 
 
 (Twelfth Xiijht, Act I, Sc. 1.) 
 
 Response by Senator Butler. 
 
 <i. The East — 
 
 " Here lies the East : 
 Doth not the day break here 1 " 
 
 (Julius Caesar, Act II, Sc. 1.) 
 
 Response by Senator Hoar. 
 
X TOASTS AND RESPONSES. 
 
 7. The West— 
 
 •• T is light translateth night ; 't is inspiration 
 Expounds experience ; 't is the west explains 
 The east." 
 
 (Bailey's Festus.) 
 
 Response by Senator Teller. 
 
 8. The Business Man in Polities. 
 
 Response by Senator Cullom. 
 
 9. The Incoming Administration. 
 
 " Variety 's the very spice of life, 
 That gives it all its flavour." 
 
 (Cowper — The Task:) 
 
 Response by Senator Vilas. 
 
 10. Senator Harris proposed a toast to the health of the 
 presiding officer, Senator Manderson, president 
 pro tempore of the senate. 
 Response by Senator Manderson. 
 
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 
 
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 The Presiding Officer, Senator Maxdkksos. — 
 While the position of toast-master operates as a bar 
 to that which smacks of speech-making, I cannot 
 refrain from congratulating you who surround this 
 beautiful hoard, that this, the first occasion of the 
 kind in the history of the country, has met with such 
 hearty acclaim, has induced such large attendance, 
 and bids fair to be so successful in every respect. 
 I now ask you to pass from labor to refreshment; 
 and who is there at tiiis table who does not feel 
 that there is a season of refreshment to come to 
 him, when he knows that we are again to hear the 
 familiar, charming voice, and the well rounded and 
 delightful, not to say the elongated, sentences of 
 the genial gentleman whom we all love so much, 
 who sits at my left? [Mr. Evarts.] [Applause.] 
 How glad we are to have him with us again! 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The first toast of the evening is that which is 
 always and properly the first sentiment: it is, 
 
 To the President of the Unit* <l Slates. 
 
 | Applause.] It is the custom to drink to this 
 
2 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 toast standing, and in silence. Silence, it should 
 be said, is golden. 
 
 Mr. Pugh. — Silver. 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — Do not, I beg of you, 
 say anything about silver. [Cries of " Stewart ! " 
 Had my brother Stewart been near me, alert to 
 all reference to the precious metals, I might have 
 expected this, but I did not expect it from the sen- 
 ator from Alabama. [Laughter.] We Avill drink 
 to this toast standing, and after we are seated we 
 will hear from Senator Evarts in response to the 
 sentiment, " To the President of the United States." 
 I will not go through the formality of introducing 
 our friend. We all know him so well and love him 
 so dearly that when he stands we simply greet him 
 and wait in respectful attention and delighted anti- 
 cipation. [Applause.] 
 
 RESPONSE OF IIOX. WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 
 
 Mr. President Manderson <m<l Senators: I im- 
 agine that all our friends around the table will 
 allow me, before taking up the more serious topic 
 of my toast, to thank you one and all from the 
 bottom of my heart for the kindness, the cordiality, 
 and the spontaneous prompting that led to the kind 
 invitation you sent me and that has brought me 
 here. You may imagine that nothing, also, could 
 be more grateful to me than the principal matter of 
 the invitation to make a part of this noble demon- 
 stration of interest and respect, and fondness I will 
 say, for the retiring vice-president of the United 
 States [applause], an honorable tribute, equally 
 
RESPONSE OF HON. WILLIAM M. EVAKTS. 3 
 
 « 
 
 gratefi.il to him and to you, well calculated to 
 arouse serious reflections and sincere sentiments of 
 affection and homage on my part to the senate and 
 to the vice-president who wields authority over 
 it. I thank you again for this happiness, which I 
 could not have anticipated or even prefigured to 
 myself. [Applause. | 
 
 And now, Mr. President, you will allow me to 
 thank you personally for having, for the first time 
 in my experience of the senate, arranged those all- 
 concurrent, all-preponderant, all-irresistible motives 
 which keep every senator in his seat while I am 
 speaking. [Laughter and applause.] It has ne\ er 
 happened to me before [laughter], and while, per- 
 haps, well filled stomachs are not the best listeners 
 or the most cheerful in applause, I give you my 
 word I would rather make a dozen speeches to full 
 stomachs than one to empty chairs. [Laughter.] 
 I have had my full share of the oratory of the sen- 
 ate to empty chairs, which your memories will teach 
 you. 
 
 I should have made a very short speech but for a 
 kind suggestion of my neighbor, the senator from 
 Tennessee [Mr. Harris], who, being within ear- 
 shot, when he was told that I was to be the first 
 speaker, and the presiding officer soothed him with 
 the notion that I was to be confined to one sen- 
 tence, exclaimed, " That is the end of all the other 
 speakers!" [Laughter.] But I have a good sensible 
 answer for the senator from Tennessee and for all 
 of you, for there is no sounder maxim of human 
 nature than that which we learned at school and 
 have remembered since — Tot homines, tot sentential 
 
THE MOKTOX TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 (Every man has a right to one sentence) , and if 
 my sentence comes first, why should I not have 
 that -which belongs to every one man? [Applause.] 
 
 I congratulate yon, the presiding officer, and the 
 senators also, upon the immense advance in parlia- 
 mentary arrangements that is shown by this festiv- 
 ity. I am told that the scats are now occupied to 
 the number of eighty-eight persons, and that but 
 very few are occupied by those who are not actively 
 and actually in possession of seats on the floor of 
 the senate. 
 
 What can be a more wonderful, what a more use- 
 ful, what a more promising change in the seme of 
 the senate two years ago as I left it, and that which 
 is presented to me when I come back after only 
 two years of absence? [Laughter.] 
 
 Law-making, wrangling, silver and gold, and all 
 the frumpery of parties and of struggles, melt away 
 before a parliamentary assemblage like this, and 
 this beginning will compass the greatest benefit if 
 it is to prevail. This great good to humanity in 
 parliamentary law, this subversion and submersion 
 of differences among men and among sections must 
 be opposed, this great good must be opposed if at 
 all at the beginning, or it will continue and spread 
 and predominate. What man is there here now 
 who wishes to get up on his feet at the beginning 
 and oppose this first parliamentary session that I 
 am now alluding to? | A pause.] I pause not for 
 a reply : I pause — and the odds are in my favor — I 
 pause for any one who is either able or willing to 
 rise from his seat with an objection. 
 
 The toast of the evening assigned to me may 
 
RESPONSE OB Hon. WILLIAM M. EYARTS. 5 
 
 readily be treated as a formal homage to the greal 
 place and the great incumbent, or have reference to 
 the president now to retire from it, or to the presi- 
 dency in its great relation to the fabric of our gov- 
 ernment and the predominance of the great powers 
 of mind and of will lodged in one man, but there 
 deposited by the suffrage which millions of men 
 exert in the control of our great and always grow- 
 ing affairs. The president retires now in the deep 
 affliction of domestic suffering, in which all have 
 sympathized and felt as heightened by the great- 
 ness and glory of his station. 
 
 A\ e are to contemplate for a moment the admir- 
 able rule of the well equipped and well trained and 
 well tried American citizen, who, after a fit prepa- 
 ration in peace and in war, in the discipline of the 
 great profession to which he belongs, and in the 
 senate of which he was an ornament, assumed his 
 place four years ago. Whatever differences may 
 have shown themselves of either personal or party 
 criticism, of this or that attitude, of this or that cir- 
 cumstance, or this or that incident in the four years, 
 all must agree that his illustrious conduct of our af- 
 fairs has written a famous page in the annals of our 
 government. Of whom can it be more worthily said, 
 Magistrates ostendit virum. Great office shows 
 forth the man. As he retires under the blazing 
 light of all the bending eyes that watched him when 
 he entered upon his office, his countrymen all feel 
 that, with his public qualities better understood and 
 better appreciated, he is even a greater patriot and 
 a greater man than when he entered upon it. | Ap- 
 plause.] Xor is this a trivial circumstance to 
 
6 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 attend the course of a chief magistrate of a people, 
 educated, free, and fearless as we are. 
 
 Look for a moment honestly, quietly, as individ- 
 uals, at the circumstance of a man being - taken 
 from the mass of our great population, and stand- 
 ing for four years to be criticised, to be applauded, 
 to be inveighed against, to be ridiculed, to be ban- 
 tered, to be nattered in this fierce light. If under 
 this stern ordeal it shall appear at the close that 
 he has served the country to the highest point of 
 ability and authority, and that the country feels 
 that no detriment has come to the Republic dur- 
 ing his administration, we need not restrain our 
 applause. 
 
 With this, as I think, entirely honest and simple 
 encomium upon the retiring president of the United 
 States, let me say a word about the presidency and 
 its immense importance in our scheme of govern- 
 ment. All who have looked at our politics, what- 
 ever they may think of the great orators, of the great 
 editors, of the great senators, of the great popular 
 representatives of this great people, of their impor- 
 tance, of the interest of the whole community in 
 them — all, I think, understand, that to the people 
 of the United States the presidency is the favorite 
 office. It is the one that is nearest to them, and the 
 office to which they wish and intend to be the near- 
 est. It is only in that abundant and collective force 
 that the will of the people is to be demonstrated. 
 Here and there they must enforce the change of 
 their feeling for this or that representative, this or 
 that senator, but the people feel when the four years 
 come around, that is their year, that is their day, 
 
RESPONSE OF HON. WILLIAM M. EVA1ITS. I 
 
 and that the stroke of their will prevails by the pre- 
 dominance of judgment for the four years that arc 
 to continue. Xone can talk against it, none can feel 
 that it is not or should not be so. For myself, I 
 affirm and believe in the dignity and the magnitude 
 and the value of that place in our constitution. It 
 is by that will that this country is more held to- 
 gether than by any other form of the will of tin- 
 people or the power of suffrage. It is by the imme- 
 diate and universal concession that the minority, 
 however great, however near to the majority, ac- 
 cepts the president as the chief magistrate of the 
 whole nation and not of a majority alone. It is this 
 which confers that all-prevalent authority by 
 which we intend that when questions are settled by 
 predominance in the actual, practical, and essential 
 conduct of affairs, the people shall obey all exercise 
 of poAver within the constitution and the laws, 
 whether they like or dislike this or that measure 
 or policy. [Applause.] 
 
 If this be so, then how natural, also, in a great 
 body of senators like this, when there comes to 
 be an occasion, especially interesting to them to 
 be sure, that they should exhibit the cordial, real, 
 and spontaneous esteem towards the second officer 
 in the administration of the government of the 
 United States — the vice-president, and show to 
 him and his office the same honor and homage 
 within his sphere which we pay to the president of 
 the United States. 
 
 Xow let me hope that as I cannot participate in 
 the ordinary parliamentary sessions of the senate, I 
 may in the future be permitted to share as now in 
 
O THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 the great extra and superior parliamentary sessions 
 that may be held hereafter [applause] , and let me 
 once more thank you most heartily for the great 
 courtesy of the senators by which I have been 
 invited to enjoy with yon this notable celebration. 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — I have looked in vain 
 through the parliamentary records and social remi- 
 niscences of the senate to find a precedent for the 
 event of this evening. I think that in the history 
 of the country this is the first instance where the 
 vice-president about to retire to private life has 
 been thus complimented by those who have been 
 his associates in the senate of the United States. 
 
 Onr tribute to the genial gentleman who has for 
 four years presided over the senate is not an empty 
 compliment. It is given to him out of the fulness 
 of our affection for him. I do not know whether it 
 shall establish a precedent for coming time; I hope 
 that it may, for this will be a fortunate and happy 
 country if in its future it shall find in all its vice- 
 presidents gentlemen whom we will delight to 
 honor as we now do the man whose health I pro- 
 pose, 
 
 The Vice-President of the United States, Honorable 
 
 Levi P. Morton. 
 
 [Great applause.] I ask the senator from Maine 
 [Mr. Hale] to express more fully our feelings on 
 this occasion. 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR HALF.. 9 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR HALE. 
 
 Mr. President: This room is so large that I 
 have never felt so far away from the majority of 
 the senate as I do to-night, and my consolation 
 about it is, that if I am not heard nobody will miss 
 much. [Laughter.] 
 
 A little more than ninety years ago, Aaron Burr, 
 in the first year of his term as vice-president of 
 the United States, and before the clouds had srath- 
 cicd about his head as they did afterwards, in one 
 of those charming letters which have been preserved 
 for us, and which go so far to redeem his memory 
 from the wreck of his after years, in writing of this 
 great office, said, — 
 
 " Tlie situation is one of great dignity. Its rank 
 and consideration are questioned by no one; its 
 duties are pleasant, and the association that it gives 
 with senators is most delightful." 
 
 In the years that have passed since Colonel Burr 
 so well sketched the scope of the vice-presidency, 
 New York, out of ninety-one years, lias filled the 
 office for thirty-four years, and lias given eight 
 vice-presidents — Burr and Clinton, Tompkins and 
 Tan Buren, Fillmore and Wheeler, Arthur, and 
 now. last and best, Morton. [Applause.] 
 
 I do not think, Mr. President, that, in the range 
 of the duties and services that the vice-president 
 engages in, as described by Mr. Burr, the Repub- 
 lican convention in 1888, whose action was ratified 
 afterwards by the vote of the people, could have 
 made a more happy selection than that of our friend 
 and presiding officer whom we meet to-night to 
 
10 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 honor. In all of the duties which have fallen upon 
 him, not only has he given satisfaction but the 
 highest form of approval has followed his course. 
 A Republican, earnest always, I venture to say 
 there is not a Democrat at this board who will say 
 that either in decision, or in conduct or manner, 
 the vice-president has failed to give him fair, per- 
 sonal consideration. [Applause.] He belongs not 
 to either party, but to all of us. [Applause.] In 
 tlu' regard and respect and affection that is felt for 
 Vice-President Morton, there is no dividing alley 
 between the two parties. But in viewing the role 
 that the vice-president has played so much to our 
 satisfaction, I have always been in the habit of 
 thinking that his chief performance is in being an 
 audience. [Applause. ] 
 
 For us there is relief, but for the vice-president, 
 with the exception of the brief time when he sum- 
 mons some senator to the chair that he may take a 
 hurried luncheon, there is nothing to do but to sit 
 ami take it. To how many of us has he been floor 
 and gallery and press? [Laughter.] A friend of 
 mine from Maine described the situation in a letter 
 which I received from him only a day or two ago, 
 after he had returned home from a visit in Wash- 
 ington. I turned him loose in the gallery, and after 
 listening for something more than an hour to an 
 eloquent speech from the senator from Florida [Mr. 
 Call], he wrote to me that he considered the senate 
 the greatest arena for oratory in all the world, for he 
 said, " There was not a member of the audience who 
 was below the rank of vice-president." [Laughter 
 and applause.] When my friend from Colorado 
 
KESPONSE OF SENATOB HALE. 11 
 
 [ Mr. Wolcott] , who is enjoying my joke upon the 
 senator from Florida, in that modest and hesitating 
 way that characterizes his oratory [laughter], rises 
 in his scat to defend the administration [laughter] 
 and the president of the United States, you, Mr. 
 Vice-President, cannot get away. "We may go to 
 the committee rooms and the lunch-room and out- 
 side, or wherever we will, hut you have to stay. 
 
 "When my friend over there [Mr. Allison], who 
 is enjoying these jokes at the expense of other sen- 
 ators, our great leader of appropriations, in his 
 hahitual way bulldozes the senate on appropriations, 
 and shouts out his yea and nay on the roll-call, it 
 is mainly done, Mr. Vice-President, for your bene- 
 fit. [Laughter.] When my friend opposite, the 
 senator from Missouri [Mr. Cockrell], rises in his 
 place to aid the clerks in passing bills on the calen- 
 dar [laughter], you must feel, Mr. Vice-President, 
 that the close corporation that consists of you and 
 him and the clerks, has its own way. [Laughter.] 
 When the senator from Nevada [Mr. Stewart] 
 makes that last, very last, speech on silver, there 
 is nobody who follows him to the close so com- 
 pletely and so happily as you, Mr. Vice-President. 
 [Laughter.] When my friend from ]S"ew Hamp- 
 shire [Mr. Chandler], who thinks, as I do not, 
 that there is some fun in this, overcomes the char- 
 acteristic reluctance he has to get on his feet, and 
 announces to the senate that there is no branch of 
 the government that he has not taken under his 
 charge, you will never miss him, Mr. Vice-Presi- 
 dent, not once. [Laughter.] Everything is for 
 the benefit of the audience, which is made up of 
 
12 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 the vice-president. The gentle and propitiatory 
 remarks of my friend from Kentucky [Mr. Black- 
 burn], and the still, small voice of my friend from 
 Texas [Mr. Coke], are all for your benefit, Mr. 
 Vice-President. 
 
 I do not speak without personal experience: I 
 know how it is myself. When I have, in a nervous 
 way, before the senate, seen the seats all rapidly 
 emptying - , and when I have hammered away about 
 more ships for the navy, or have been smelling- out 
 a possible electric railway in the District of Col- 
 umbia, and everybody has left, and I have heard 
 behind me the muttered malediction of General 
 Ilawiey, as he escapes to the cloak-room, then I 
 turn with great satisfaction to your chair, and I 
 know I have got you, and I know that in great 
 overabundance you have got me. [Laughter.] 
 And when, beyond all this, I reflect that the 
 vice-president has listened to something more than 
 four hundred and sevent_y-five morning prayers 
 [laughter] and to the unpremeditated art of sev- 
 enty odd funeral eulogies, then I feel, as I have 
 no doubt we all feel, that the vice-president is 
 the worst practised-upon man in the United States; 
 and, moreover, as my friend | Mr. Gray | says, he 
 cannot be paired. 
 
 Our presiding officer, Mr. President, carries with 
 him the warm regard, the respect, the affection, I 
 believe, of every senator. I think in this there is no 
 exception. Whatever may happen to him we shall 
 all turn to the day of his presidency over our body 
 with a sense of satisfaction, and of regret that 
 we parted with him. [Applause.] In all the quali- 
 
RESPONSE OF BENATOE COCKEELL. 13 
 
 ties of a presiding officer that go to make an agree- 
 able and an easy and smooth-running body, none 
 can surpass him. As the years go by and as other 
 actors come upon the scene, as we sit under others 
 who preside, whoever they may be, Ave shall turn 
 affectionately to his memory. We see that calm 
 and stately head that never lias made a mistake, 
 and down below we know that the warm and gen- 
 erous heart lies which ever beats responsive to the 
 best sentiments of human nature. | Applause. | 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — I do not think the 
 bill under consideration can proceed to third read- 
 ing and passage until we have had the report read. 
 We all know who generally insists upon it. 
 [Laughter.] I therefore call upon the senator 
 from Missouri [Mr. Cockrell], who is ever alert 
 and ready. 
 
 response of senator cockrell. 
 
 Mr. President: In the drafting of our national 
 constitution the office of vice-president first appears 
 in the partial report of the committee of eleven, sub- 
 mitted to the convention on the 4th day of Septem- 
 ber, 1787. The third section of that draft contains 
 these words: " The vice-president shall be ex officio 
 president of the senate." This language led to a 
 very animated discussion. Mr. Gerry said, — " We 
 might as well put the president himself at the head 
 of the legislature. The close intimacy that must 
 subsist between the president and vice-president 
 makes it absolutely improper." To this Mr. Morris 
 replied, " The vice-president, then, will be the first 
 
14 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 heir-apparent that ever loved his father." We 
 leave the facts of history to reveal which of these 
 two predictions has proved true. 
 
 In the one hundred and four years of our con- 
 stitutional existence as a nation, we have had twen- 
 ty-six vice-presidential terms, filled by twenty-two 
 distinguished statesmen, whose lives form an at- 
 tractive and unbroken chain in our nation's history 
 and whose names will be honored and revered for 
 generations to come. Of this number, three were 
 elected vice-president for a second term — John 
 Adams, George Clinton, and John C. Calhoun. 
 Of all those, only one failed of an election by the 
 electoral college and was elected by the senate — 
 Richard M. Johnson. Three became president by 
 election — John Adams, Thomas Jelferson, and 
 Martin Van Buren. Four of them — John Tyler, 
 Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester A. 
 Arthur — became president by the death of the presi- 
 dent. Five of these distinguished citizens — George 
 Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, William E. King, Henry 
 Wilson, and Thomas A. Hendricks — died while in 
 office. Only one, John C. Calhoun, resigned his 
 high office. Of these twenty-two vice-presidents, 
 there is to-night surviving one, only one, our hon- 
 ored and distinguished guest, Honorable Levi P. 
 Morton. [Applause.] 
 
 It is no disparagement of any of the twenty-one 
 distinguished vice-presidents who have preceded 
 our worthy guest, for us to inscribe his name in 
 indelible letters upon the pages of our nation's 
 history as their able, worthy, and honorable peer. 
 [Applause.] 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE VICE-PEESEDENT. 1") 
 
 Mr. Vice-President Morton, you were chosen by 
 the votes of the sovereign citizens of the greatest 
 nation in the world to preside for four years over 
 the deliberations of the most important and distin- 
 guished legislative assembly on earth. You have 
 been placed in trying and critical positions; you 
 have discharged your onerous and delicate duties 
 ably, honestly, faithfully, and impartially. [Ap- 
 plause.] We, the senators over whose deliberations 
 you have so kindly and ably presided, have chosen 
 this occasion to show to you a distinguished mark 
 of our sincere esteem and personal friendship. 
 When our official relations shall close at twelve 
 o'clock meridian on March 4, 1893, and we shall 
 separate to meet no more on earth as we meet to- 
 night, we and each of us, irrespective of all party 
 and political feelings, desire you to realize con- 
 sciously, that wherever you may go or your lot be 
 cast, our sincerest and warmest wishes will accom- 
 pany you for the health, the long life, the happi- 
 ness, and the prosperity of yourself, your noble 
 wife, and your beautiful daughters. [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — Gentlemen, I now 
 surrender the chair to the vice-president of the 
 United States, and ask you with me to greet the 
 Honorable Lett P. Morton". [Great applause.] 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: There are events 
 in the life of every man that stand out with such 
 prominence, and make such imprint upon him. that 
 an indelible impression remains while "memory 
 
16 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 holds its seat." This occasion, so flattering to me, 
 the speeches so complimentary, your cordial greet- 
 ing, and the hearty good-will expressed in such 
 pleasing form, shall " ever live within the book 
 and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser mat- 
 ter." 
 
 Four years ago I came, through the suffrages of 
 the citizens of this great Republic, to the high place, 
 the main duty of which is to preside over the delib- 
 erative body recognized as the highest in the 
 world, of which you, the representatives of forty- 
 four sovereign states forming one powerful nation, 
 are members. I brought to the position very limit- 
 ed experience and but little knowledge of parlia- 
 mentary law, for the lines of my life had been cast 
 in places where such knowledge is not acquired. I 
 felt the full force of my shortcomings, but relied 
 with trusting confidence upon that gentle forbear- 
 ance that has ever characterized the senate of the 
 United States. 
 
 Experience has shown that my trust had abun- 
 dant foundation. That I have served the senate 
 acceptably — and I am fain to believe so from the 
 earnest recognition you have given me here and 
 elsewhere — has been because of the generous aid 
 and unselfish support received by me from all mem- 
 bers of the body, without distinction of party and 
 without bias from political affiliations. I would lie 
 lacking in the common sensibilities did I not feel 
 overwhelmed with gratitude, and yet express, in the 
 strongest words that my tongue, too feeble to speak 
 the full emotions of my heart, is capable of forming, 
 the thanks, the sincere and hearty thanks, with 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 17 
 
 which I acknowledge the compliment so generously 
 paid me. I am greatly beholden, also, to the effi- 
 cient officers and employes of the senate, who, 
 smoothing my way, have been the guides along 
 many a parliamentary path by me unexplored, and 
 over many a rugged road to me unknown. 
 
 The distinguished gentleman who will in a very 
 few days succeed me has cause for congratulation, 
 and at the end of his service will have like occasion 
 for satisfaction, that the support and countenance 
 ever accorded to its presiding officer by the senate 
 will be his, rendering the performance of a grave 
 and important duty a pleasant and attractive func- 
 tion. 
 
 It is with great pleasure that I have listened to 
 the eloquent tribute by my long-time friend, the 
 revered and honored ex-senator from the Empire 
 state and ex-secretary of state, Mr. Evarts, to the 
 president of the United States. The theme is well 
 worthy of the rich jewels of speech that drop so 
 bountifully from his lips, for it is in very deed the 
 greatest position on the earth. The man who sat- 
 isfactorily performs its duties for four years has 
 well won a place upon fame's roll of the immortals. 
 In a few days there will pass to private life the 
 man who Avon distinction as a soldier in the period 
 of war, and lasting renown as a civilian in time'of 
 peace. A patriotic citizen, a safe counsellor, a 
 thorough statesman, a Avise ruler, the name of 
 Benjamin Harrison will shine brighter Avith the 
 light that comes with every passing year. 
 
 But I must not detain you from the feast that I 
 feel assured the president pro tempore has in store 
 
18 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 for the delectation of his fellow-senators, and I end 
 as I began, by simply saying- I thank you every 
 one. [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — It is the most natural 
 thing- in the world that we should drink to that 
 great state which is such an important, and is 
 sometimes so unsatisfactory, a factor in our political 
 fortunes or misfortunes, and I propose to you the 
 sentiment, 
 
 The Umpire State. 
 
 I call upon the gentleman who sits directly opposite 
 me, Senator Hiscock, a most distinguished son of 
 New York, to respond to this toast. 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR HISCOCK. 
 
 Mr. President: New York is not more nearly 
 " finished " as a state than she was a hundred years 
 ago, when her undeveloped agricultural resources 
 invited the immigration of the adventurous sons 
 of Northern Europe and New England. From 
 Europe and her sister states there has been a con- 
 stant, continually increasing stream of immigration 
 of their best men and women. In her broad domain 
 are found the grown intellects of the East, the 
 West, the North, and the South — I am speaking 
 of our own geographical divisions — and of North- 
 ern Europe. New Englanders, Northerners, West- 
 erners, and Southerners, Irishmen, Englishmen, 
 Scotchmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Norwegians, and 
 Hebrews meet in the Empire state and contend 
 
RESPONSE OP SENATOR HISCOCK. 19 
 
 for supremacy in commerce, manufacturing, and 
 finance, in the sciences, in literature, and in politics, 
 and, sir, always as citizens of their adopted state 
 and of a great nationality, of which New York is 
 so important a part. [Applause.] Cosmopolitan 
 as her population is, it is homogeneous. The 
 struggles and strifes there are rarely of a race or 
 sectional character, and are productive of state 
 growth and progress. 
 
 New York has drawn largely from the Old 
 World, and the residents of her sister states were 
 attracted to her in their efforts to achieve for them- 
 selves larger profits, higher advancement, and 
 greater distinction in those ways of life they pur- 
 posed to pursue. This Avas true in the early settle- 
 ment of the state. Her forests were not invaded 
 by traditional pot-hunters, trappers, and Indian 
 fighters. The legends of her early settlement, now 
 treasured, are not a story of skill with rifle or knife 
 against animal or savage foe, but of the early trials 
 of brave and hardy fathers and mothers, who cut 
 away the forests and built homes for themselves, 
 erected school-houses, academies, and churches, 
 and created civilized society. The descendants of 
 those early pioneers have been able to impress the 
 spirit of their ancestors upon the new-comers, of 
 whom it is but just to say that they were sympa- 
 thetic rather than antagonistic. 
 
 Mr. President, I have already mentioned the 
 pursuits that invite people to New York, and the 
 promises of reward are as unfailing a cause of state 
 growth and greatness as her rich valleys and water- 
 ways have been. I am led to ask, What would be the 
 
20 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 condition of the world if the foreign population that 
 lias been domiciled in New York in a recent period 
 — " recent " is the proper word when one is speak- 
 ing of the growth of a state — had remained at home? 
 To illustrate: If the immigration to New York had 
 been as scant a stream as it has been to other 
 states we might mention — but I am warned that 
 the cloture you have imposed, contrary to the cus- 
 tom of the senate, where it is the rule that the oc- 
 cupant of the floor shall hold it as long as he has 
 voice if any one desires to speak after him, will not 
 permit me to discuss what the effect would have 
 been upon Germany and Ireland, as well as upon 
 New York, and that I must confine myself to New 
 York and her sister states. But what would be 
 the condition of New York and the eastern states 
 if those distinguished gentlemen, the members of 
 various New England societies now in New York, 
 had remained in those favored states they so glow- 
 ingly speak of annually? Once a year is often 
 enough to thus tax their natures with so great and 
 exhaustive a pleasure. To illustrate again: Im- 
 agine that they and the distinguished gentleman 
 whom we have with us to-night. Mi-. Bvarts, had 
 remained in Massachusetts and contributed to her 
 state progress their great powers and resources, 
 aiding those of her distinguished sons who did re- 
 main at home : Massachusetts would have surely 
 become a bright particular star in our, or some 
 other, planetary system. Imagine that the guest 
 of the evening, the vice-president, had remained 
 all his life in Vermont, — and we recall the names 
 of the great statesmen she has contributed to our 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR HXSCOCK. 21 
 
 country: what of Vermont, if he and they had 
 joined forces'? There is a tradition that New 
 York once claimed dominion over Vermont, but 
 abandoned the claim, not because it -was an unjust 
 • me but because it was unprofitable. If Mr. Mor- 
 ton had remained in the state of his birth, it doubt- 
 less would have resulted, not in the absorption of 
 A'ermont by New York, but of New York by Ver- 
 mont, and the Empire state would now be blotted 
 off the map of the Republic. 
 
 Mr. President, I will carry the illustration to but 
 one other group of states, the Southern states. 
 Imagine that the Southern colony in New York 
 had not immigrated there, to add lustre and re- 
 nown to the state of their adoption and make their 
 contributions to her public virtue and patriotism — 
 we see here those who did remain at home, and if 
 the New York colony are the equals (they are, 
 sir) of those we meet to-night, in statesmanship, 
 eloquence, political sagacity, and, above all, in busi- 
 ness capacity, it is apparent that the New South 
 would have mounted to a place in the starry 
 heavens next to the orbit that would have been 
 occupied by Massachusetts, provided Mr. Evarts 
 had not abandoned her for New York. [Applause.] 
 
 The Puesidixg Officer. — In the senate at the 
 conclusion of morning business, the hour of two 
 o'clock having arrived, the calendar under Rule 8 
 is in order. This means that no man shall speak 
 more than once, and that he shall speak well; that 
 one objection shall carry the bill and the speaker 
 over, and that he shall not exceed five minutes. In 
 
THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 the absence of objection I declare that we are pro- 
 ceeding under Rule 8. The next toast I find upon 
 the paper in front of me is, — 
 
 The North— 
 
 " Beep in the frozen regions of the North, 
 A Goddess violated brought thee forth, 
 Immortal Liberty." 
 
 I call upon the senator from Minnesota [Mr. Davis] , 
 whom we always delight to hear, to respond. 
 
 RESPONSE OE SENATOR DAVIS. 
 
 I felt exceedingly complimented by the assign- 
 ment to the duty imposed upon me, but when I 
 came to contemplate it I found it a very difficult 
 one. To speak in terms of laudation of a great 
 geographical division is very difficult. I think I 
 could, like the man whom Sydney Smith knew, 
 speak disrespectfully of the equator. [Laughter.] 
 I could lampoon the tropic of Capricorn, and ap- 
 proach the Xorth Pole with the highest irreverence. 
 
 But after all, Mr. President, it was exceedingly 
 appropriate to make the sectional divisions of our 
 country the topics of response on an occasion which 
 has been created to honor a guest whom every sec- 
 tion would put forward as its conception of the 
 highest type of the American citizen and gentle- 
 man. [Applause.] With such a harmonious re- 
 lationship, responses can take a range which can- 
 not be perilous to good feeling. 
 
 All men love the region from whence they come 
 with an exaggerated affection, prompt alike of 
 
RESPONSE OF SEKATOE DAVIS. 23 
 
 assertion and resentment. But hero, upon this occa- 
 sion, with such a personal element of tolerance of 
 opinions, expression can be made without reserve. 
 
 The North has existed from the earliest times as 
 the compendious definition of a political element. 
 Then, as now, it was a compound body. It was 
 founded by the Puritan, the Dutchman, the Ger- 
 man, the Scandinavian, and the Scotch-Irish. Free- 
 dom of person, of thought, of conscience, was com- 
 mon to them all. Most of them were refugees from 
 persecution, and in the early history of this country 
 may be found the cause of many of the characteris- 
 tics of the Northern man. These finally consoli- 
 dated into the American of the North as he was 
 thirty years ago. But thirty years ago is not to- 
 day. "We know well what North and South were 
 then. 
 
 What is the North of to-day? Is it the North- 
 eastern states V Surely not. Is it the North-west- 
 ern states'? No. Do the Mountain and Pacific 
 states compose it? Not at all. Most of these 
 taken together are the North in a loose and indis- 
 tinct sense. The North, however, exists. We can 
 perceive it, but cannot, as we once could, accurate- 
 ly define it. It is the region of great enterprise, 
 great wealth, of marvellous progress, of strange 
 and sudden changes of conditions, of independence 
 of thought and action, of loose political discipline 
 [laughter], of sects, combinations, factions, cliques, 
 yet all of which, are merely incidentally discordant, 
 casually warring with each other as they move along 
 together with joint purpose and in general harmony 
 towards the achievement of the greatest social, 
 
24 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 political, and material results ever seen in prophet's 
 vision or bodied forth in poet's dream. 
 
 During the last thirty years immigrants from 
 many foreign lands have swarmed into the North. 
 They have been welcomed. They have built our 
 railroads, worked our mines, opened hundreds of 
 thousands of farms, subdued nature in every way; 
 but they have profoundly changed preexisting 
 conditions. In some states they have overbalanced 
 the native population. The North has thus ceased 
 to be that unit of sentiment that it was thirty years 
 ago, though it has become uncpiestionably a unit of 
 greater power. We hear a Babel of many tongues, 
 yet lapsing audibly into English speech. We see 
 the confluence of many races coalescing - into a new 
 type of humanity, the ultimate American. It is 
 thus that great nations have been made. It took 
 centuries for the Roman, the Scandinavian, the 
 Saxon, and the Norman to produce the English- 
 man. Within fifty years the North has experienced 
 peaceful invasions, exceeding in number and power 
 all that England underwent in twenty generations. 
 No human foresight can adequately estimate the 
 result. That it will be beneficial, no one can doubt. 
 The absorption has been peaceful, and will continue 
 to be so. It is a great process, and such operations 
 are always attended by some disturbance of sta- 
 bility. 
 
 It is well on such occasions as this to see the fact 
 and to speak plainly about it. The typical Ameri- 
 can of thirty years ago, preponderates to-day with 
 unquestioned authority south of the Potomac and 
 the Ohio. He is beset with great problems. Many 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR DAVIS. 25 
 
 of us think that he has not attempted wisely to 
 solve them. This conviction makes one of the 
 political issues of the present day. These questions 
 will in time be settled, and settled wisely. But. 
 speaking from a large view of the future, and in 
 contemplation of a greater North than that of which 
 I have spoken, in the certainty of a perfect Union, 
 rising far above the fleeting yet important political 
 differences of the hour, it is there that a great 
 American conservatism potentially exists. It will be 
 the strangest of political paradoxes, the most beau- 
 tiful retribution ever worked by "Time the Aven- 
 ger." if, in the course of events— when the bitter 
 memories and rumors of past wars will be as foreign 
 to our existence and happiness as the dull murmurs 
 of another world, heard faintly through space on 
 our own — the true conservative forces shall there 
 be found to guard and perhaps to save this nation. 
 I have spoken of the North as limited by the 
 assignment of topics. But what is the North after 
 all? Let us cancel all these cardinal points of the 
 political compass from the chart of our thoughts, 
 and make answer to this question from the lar- 
 gest scope of view. We have reached our limit of 
 Southern extension. We are there in contact with 
 another race, with Spanish-American civilization. 
 But to the north of us is a region nearly as la rue 
 as the United States. A great portion of it can 
 sustain a teeming population. Its people and in- 
 stitutions are homogeneous with our own. Coales- 
 cence will be the certain result. [Applause.] Any 
 prediction of this is not a threat. It is merely 
 the expression of a friendly desire, a recognition 
 
26 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 of elective tendencies towards merger that are 
 stronger than national policies enforced by armies 
 and navies. 
 
 This will be the North, but only part of it, In a 
 great sense the United States is the North. To 
 the world it is the great Northern Republic; to all 
 the republics from our southern line to Cape Horn, 
 it is the great Northern Republic. It is canopied 
 by northern skies. There is not a spot in all our 
 territory on which the North Star does not shine, 
 not one from which the Southern Cross is visible. 
 The great Northern Republic was the founder, by 
 example, of the Mexican, the Central American, 
 and the South American republics. It sustains 
 them. Its commercial relations with them are be- 
 coming most intimate, and in time they will nourish 
 us. In these respects, this nation, all throughout 
 —North, South, East, and West,— is the North, 
 great, indivisible, unconquerable, perpetual. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — Our next toast is, — 
 
 The South— 
 
 " The sweet Smith 
 That breathes upon a lank of violets, 
 Stealing and giving odour" 
 
 and on whom can I better call than on that favorite 
 son of the South, who, while proving himself true 
 to all her interests, is all the same a patriotic citizen 
 of this great Republic, giving her most loyal sup- 
 port, Senator Butler of South Carolina. 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR BUTLER. 27 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR BUTLER. 
 
 Unlike my friend who has just taken his seat 
 after having delivered a most beautiful and finished 
 address, I do not feel complimented by being called 
 upon to respond to the toast which you, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, have just announced; and I say this for the 
 reason that on my right my distinguished friend, 
 the senator from Florida [Mr. Call], has intimated 
 that he thought he ought to have been called upon 
 [laughter] 
 
 Mr. Call.— Oh, no! 
 
 Mr. Butler. — In order that he might submit a 
 few unfinished remarks on the subject of land 
 grants in the state of Florida. [Laughter.] 
 
 I know he will say what he said when the sena- 
 tor from Maine [Mr. Hale] was making his obser- 
 vations, — that he thought he ought to be allowed 
 to do this, and I have no doubt from the murmurs 
 on my right that he thinks so now. 
 
 Mr. President, I have always entertained the 
 kindest personal feeling for you, and until to-night 
 had supposed that my personal relations with every 
 member of the senate were kindly and pleasant. 
 I was assigned this toast by the kindness of the 
 distinguished gentleman who is acting as toast- 
 master to-night, and I was placed at the table by 
 the side of my distinguished friend, the senator 
 from Minnesota, on my left, who has had three 
 chills since he has been sitting here. [Laughter.] 
 He has been suffering the agonies — I will not 
 say of the damned. On his left is the senator from 
 Xew York [Mr. Hiscock], who has also been 
 
28 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 suffering, and on his left is the senator from Wis- 
 consin [Mr. Yilas], who is to follow me, and then 
 there is my friend from Florida on the right. Why 
 I should have been put in this position and ex- 
 pected to make a speech, I cannot explain, for, 
 as my friend General Alger will readily under- 
 stand, a man who is going into battle does not like 
 to be flanked on both sides by people who are 
 demoralizing, and who will have a demoralizing 
 effect on him. [Laughter.] Here I am, expected to 
 make a speech under these circumstances! 
 
 I tell you frankly, Mr. President, that I came 
 here with a very elaborate speech prepared, but 
 when my friend from Maine went back ninety 
 years, I believe, in our history and brought the 
 narrative down to the present time, and my friend 
 from Missouri went back a hundred years and 
 brought the history down to the present time, I 
 concluded I should abandon chronology and not 
 attempt to give a historical narrative of the section 
 of country from which I come. 
 
 I will, therefore, Mr. President, conform, I believe, 
 to the rule which you have laid down, that we shall 
 be limited to five minutes, and say what I can say 
 with absolute verity and sincerity, that all the peo- 
 ple of my section, without regard to caste or politi- 
 cal bias or social condition, entertain for the distin- 
 guished guest of the evening the profoundest sen- 
 timents of respect and regard. [Applause.] They 
 entertain these feelings, Mr. President, because he 
 is a just, fair, honorable man, and because he takes 
 within the range of his action, political and per- 
 sonal, the entire country; because, over and above 
 
RESPONSE OF SKNATol; HOAR. 29 
 
 all else, he is always, under all circumstances, a 
 gentleman. [Applause. | No man is entitled to a 
 higher encomium than this, and no man deserves it 
 more than he. [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — In going around the 
 cardinal points of the compass, we naturally look to 
 the East for the next sentiment, and I give you, — 
 
 The East— 
 
 "Sere lies the East: 
 Doth mil the day /■/■<■<//,■ //,,;.'" 
 
 I call on Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts. 
 
 RESPOXSE OF SENATOR HOAR. 
 
 Mr. President: Certainly there is no east wind 
 blowing this evening to temper our greeting to 
 Mr. Morton. In our expression of honor and good- 
 will to him, as in our love of country, we know no 
 North, no South, no East, no West, no lines of 
 latitude or points of the compass. 
 
 I have had some opportunity in my public life, 
 which is not now a short one, of observing the con- 
 duct of parliamentary bodies. Since I came here, 
 the other house has been presided over by great 
 parliamentary leaders, by Colfax and Blaine, Reed 
 and Kerr, Randall and Carlisle, and the senate by 
 Wilson, Colfax, Arthur. Edmunds, Sherman, 
 Ingalls, and Hendricks; and yet I think every 
 member of the senate will agree that there has 
 been no period of four years when our business 
 lias been conducted so harmoniously, so agreeably, 
 
 ^ 
 
30 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 without a friction or a jar, as during the period of 
 Mr. Morton's presidency. [Applause.] 
 
 I do not know exactly how he has done it. I sup- 
 pose he had not — he says, at any rate, he had not — 
 heen called upon in his life to give any special 
 study to parliamentary law. "Whether it is because 
 he has understood that secret, which some of us do 
 not understand until pretty late in life, and some 
 of us never understand — the secret of government 
 by good nature; or whether it is because the gen- 
 tleman in the senator has responded to the gentle- 
 man in the chair; or whether it is because he has 
 possessed that art which our great Massachusetts 
 philosopher says is the only credential and passport 
 to success — tact, which 
 
 " Clinches the bargain. 
 Sails out of the bay, 
 Gets the vote in the senate, 
 Spite of Webster and Clay," 
 
 I will not undertake to determine or even to 
 speculate. But we all know, and have delighted 
 in the result, that we have certainly had four years 
 under his administration when nothing has hap- 
 pened in the senate which would have been out of 
 place in a lady's drawing-room. I do not believe 
 there has been such a period in the history of the 
 two hundred and fifty parliaments of England or 
 the fifty houses of congress of America. 
 
 It is true that it is an era of good will. There 
 are angry passions enough, and great political con- 
 tests enough, and differences of opinion enough 
 to-day, as there always will be. But I do not 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR HOAR. 31 
 
 believe there has been a time since the organiza- 
 tion of this government when there was such ab- 
 solute harmony and good-will between parties and 
 sections and different political opinions, as now. 
 
 I remember a few } r ears ago, when Mr. Phelps, 
 then our minister to England, was over here, and I 
 sat next to him at a dinner where gentlemen of 
 different parties were gathered, that Mr. Phelps said 
 that it was not possible to have such a dinner in 
 England. I suppose it has been only very recent- 
 ly that it has been possible to have such a dinner 
 as this in the United States. 
 
 Why, we are leaders of great parties with an- 
 tagonistic opinions. We represent them. We be- 
 lieve in them from the bottom of our souls. It is 
 our duty to marshal their hosts, carry their ban- 
 ners, to represent them in the fierce conflict of de- 
 bate. We deal with cpiestions affecting the interests 
 of great political parties, on which the fate of the 
 nation and of states is dependent. Yet the men 
 Avho sit about this table to-night are friends. They 
 are friends without an exception. [Applause.] 
 
 When the eulogies have been delivered in the 
 last few years upon those of different political faith 
 who have gone from us — of the generous, vigor- 
 ous combatant, Beck; of the youthful and strenu- 
 ous Kenna; of the varied accomplishments of Gih- 
 son; of the matchless directing energy of Barbour; 
 of the profound philosophic intellect, of the deep, 
 tender, affectionate, simple heart, of the brave 
 and chivalrous soul of Lamar; — they have come as 
 warmly from the hearts of Republicans as from the 
 hearts of Democrats. [Applause.] 
 
32 THK MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 However Ave may differ or however we may 
 strive, however angrily the blood may rush to the 
 cheeks and the fire of the heart may penetrate 
 the brain, still American senators from every sec- 
 tion, from every state, bred in every way of think- 
 ing, are still, above all, American senators, and in 
 that capacity are brethren and are friends. | Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Now, I do not pretend that I like to see an ad- 
 ministration of my own way of thinking give way to 
 an administration of a different way of thinking. I 
 suppose if I were to live a thousand years the process 
 would never be a pleasant one for me to undergo. 
 But at the same time, I believe from the bottom of 
 my soul that it is a healthy thing for the Republic 
 that this thing should come to pass. I do not be- 
 lieve that it is a good thing — important as I think 
 are the questions about which we differ, and con- 
 fident as I am that I and those who think with 
 me are right, and that you and those who think with 
 you are wrong, — I say I do not think it is a good 
 thing for the Republic, that for more than thirty 
 years one half of the American people should be- 
 lieve that they are excluded from all share in the 
 administration of the government; that one half of 
 the American people should contemplate those 
 things which make its glory, its history, as critics, 
 as opponents, — as transactions in which they have 
 no part. I believe, too, while this occasional change 
 in administration is well for the Republic, that 
 there never has been a better time for it to take 
 place than the present. 
 
 One thing is fortunate, and that is, that the great 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR HOAR. 33 
 
 political questions which are to divide this people 
 for the next four years, are not the political ques- 
 tions about which the political parties are divided. 
 You can not draw a line in finance, in currency, in 
 protection, in the construction of the supreme 
 court, in the division between national and state 
 powers, in foreign relations, between men of dif- 
 ferent ways of thinking, and find all or a very large 
 part of one party upon one side, and the other 
 party upon the other. And I hail that condition 
 of things as a good omen for the Republic. We 
 are to learn, and I hope to discharge well and faith- 
 fully, the duties of a patriotic opposition. We 
 purpose, those of us who think with me, to do what 
 we can and what in us lies, as representing nearly 
 if not quite a majority of the American people, to 
 make it hard for you to do the things which we 
 think are wrong, and to make it easy for you to 
 do the things which are right. We purpose, if Ave 
 can, if human nature will permit, to stand by you 
 when you are doing, what I believe you will do in 
 the main, what is for the honor and the glory and 
 the welfare of the country which we all love alike. 
 [Applause.] You are to have critics, but friendly 
 critics; you are to have opponents, but manly 
 opponents. However we may differ, that difference 
 is to be slight as compared with the supreme agree- 
 ment of men who love with a common and equal 
 love a country which is the mother of us all and 
 the Republic which is alike our honor, our safety, 
 and our glory. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. President, I have nothing else to say except to 
 utter the sentiment which I am sure rises to-night 
 
 4 
 
34 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 to every lip, — Long life and health to Mr. Morton. 
 May his successor he like unto him, and may the 
 senate of 1897, when he goes out of office, come 
 together to pay him as cordial, as hearty, as affec- 
 tionate, a tribute as we pa} - to Mr. Morton. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — Our next toast is, — 
 
 The West— 
 
 "'Tis light translateth night; 'tis inspiration 
 Expounds experience : 7 is the west explains 
 The east:' 
 
 No man can comment better on this toast than the 
 senator from Colorado [Mr. Teller]. 
 
 RESPOXSE OF SENATOR TELLER. 
 
 Mr. President: The senator from Minnesota 
 inquired, ""Where is the North?" I may properly 
 inquire, Where is the West? I have submitted that 
 inquiry to some of my associates, and no one can tell 
 me. Forty years ago, all west of the Alleghanies 
 was the " West." Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
 Illinois were "Far West." I asked the senator from 
 Illinois [Mr. Cullom], who sits at my right, if Illi- 
 nois were in the West, and he said, "No; Illinois 
 is in the great centre." I asked the senator from 
 Wisconsin to-day if Wisconsin were in the West, 
 and he said, " No." It, too, was " in the centre." 
 When I discovered that Wisconsin was represented 
 in the senate by two Vermont men, I made up my 
 mind that it would hardly do to insist upon Wis- 
 consin being in the West. 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR TELLER. 35 
 
 Mr. President, we of the "West do not intend 
 to be driven clear to the Pacific coast. All west 
 of the Mississippi we will claim as onrs ; that is 
 certainly the West. At least that you must con- 
 cede to us, and then we will have from the head- 
 waters of the Mississippi to the Gulf eighteen 
 sovereign states, and with four more certainly to 
 he added within the next two years. 
 
 If the five-minute rule were not in force, I might 
 tell you something of that great and growing 
 country. We who have lived in the West many 
 years, and who have taken an active part in build- 
 ing up these empires, are attached to the West. 
 We love it, Mr. President, because we have helped 
 to make it. We have seen the states grow from 
 disorganized communities, with but little wealth 
 and with no organized society, into great, rich, and 
 influential states. It seems to me that it is fflorv 
 enough for any man to have participated in shap- 
 ing the laws and the character of these great com- 
 monwealths. 
 
 We in the West are sometimes charged with 
 being boastful. We may be, when we have west of 
 the Mississippi river three fifths of all of the terri- 
 tory of the United States, excluding Alaska. We 
 may boast somewhat of what we have done for 
 commerce and trade, when in forty-four years Ave 
 poured into the lap of commerce more than three 
 thousand millions of the precious metals. We may 
 boast somewhat, when we stand on the floor with 
 thirty-six representatives of sovereign states. But 
 notwithstanding we are attached to the West, not- 
 withstanding we are sometimes boastful of our 
 
36 THE MORTOX TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 growth and of our future, we are not unmindful of 
 the fact that we are a part and parcel of this great 
 country. I believe I can say here, and my asso- 
 ciates from that section of the country on the floor 
 of the senate will bear me out when I say, that 
 while we are proud of the West, we have no sec- 
 tional animosities, no sectional partialisms, and that 
 we have endeavored in every way in our legislation 
 to legislate for the interests, not simply of the 
 "West, but of the whole country at large. [Ap- 
 plause.] If sometimes we are restive under what 
 we think is the domination of a section of the coun- 
 try with interests somewhat different from ours, if 
 sometimes we are impatient of control, and impa- 
 tient of policies and principles that do not entirely 
 meet our convictions, it is simply, not that we desire 
 that there shall be legislation for our section of the 
 country that is not proper for all, but because in 
 our judgment the legislation that we endeavor to 
 secure is the legislation that will bring prosperity 
 to all parts of the country alike. 
 
 Mr. President, the West is a theme that no man 
 can speak of on the occasion of a banquet like 
 this and do justice. The great commonwealths of 
 which I have spoken, west of the Mississippi river, 
 extending from the lake region of the north to the 
 tropics of the south, have no interests that are not 
 common to all the people of the United States. 
 We have in the West, I think, as much American- 
 ism as can be found in any other section of the 
 country. I believe the commonwealths beyond the 
 Mississippi are dominated and controlled by Amer- 
 icans to a greater extent than almost any other 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR TELLER. 37 
 
 part of the country. The senator from New York 
 [Mr. Hiscock] spoke of different nationalities in 
 the state of New York. West of that great river 
 yon have on the floor of the senate no less than 
 eight senators born and reared in the state of New 
 York. We are cosmopolitan in our feelings, in all 
 our sentiments. Why should we not be? Of the 
 thirty-six senators representing those states, only 
 four of them were born within the boundaries of 
 those states; all the rest were born east of the 
 Lakes, or in the wonderful state of Kentucky, or 
 in the still more wonderful state of Ohio. 
 
 Xow, I wish to say, leaving the West, that we of 
 the West subscribe to everything that has been 
 said in reference to our presiding officer. We 
 have felt, as it has been said here, that during his 
 whole term of service there have been ability and 
 kindness displayed, and we part with him with 
 regret. Although he is not of us, yet he has en- 
 deared himself to us to such a degree that we shall 
 never forget his service over our great body. 
 [Applause.] We, as Western men, join you as 
 American citizens, in wishing him all good, and 
 endorsing all the good things that have been said 
 of him to-night. [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — The hour fixed for 
 adjournment has not yet arrived, and we have some 
 time before us until midnight. I offer you now a 
 sentiment that I think will be agreeable to all, 
 
 The Business Man in Politics. 
 
 I tried to have several of those in the senate who 
 
38 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 are business men respond to this toast, but with 
 the wisdom that usually characterizes the business 
 man, they preferred to select an attorney to make 
 the argument, and they selected a good advocate 
 in Senator Cullom of Illinois. I call upon him to 
 reply to this sentiment. 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR CULLOM. 
 
 Mr. President : When the presiding officer of this 
 assembly, the president pro tempore, came and sat 
 down by my side in the senate a day or two ago, 
 he asked me if I were a business man. I said, ^N~o. 
 He followed that inquiry by another, saying, " Do 
 you know anything about business?" I said, ~No. 
 Then he said, " You are just the man I am hunting 
 for." [Laughter.] I said, Why? He said, " I want 
 a man who will be entirely impartial to respond to 
 the toast, 'The Business Man in Polities.'" 
 
 Mr. President, politics, in its proper interpreta- 
 tion, is the science of government. Government is 
 a subject that has been considered and discussed 
 by all classes of men in all the ages. The aim of 
 government should be to secure to its citizens pro- 
 tection in their personal, civil, and political rights, 
 and to maintain the national security. These 
 objects are best attained by the encouragement of 
 individual effort, the obliteration of sectional differ- 
 ences, the unification of interests, and the advance- 
 ment of commerce. Power at home, respect abroad, 
 prosperity to all classes, can come only from a 
 homogeneous and harmonious citizenship. I shall 
 not folloAv up that line of thought, further than to 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR CULLOM. 39 
 
 say that the United States looks for its government 
 directly to the people; and from the body of the 
 people men are chosen to guide its course and to 
 shape its destiny. In this country the business 
 man is not overlooked in the selection of public 
 officers. The wisdom of this course has been 
 amply proved, for none are more competent to par- 
 ticipate in the conduct of the affairs of government 
 than those who, waging war against contending 
 forces, succeed in commercial enterprises and be- 
 come recognized as leaders among men. As I 
 stand here this evening and look around this table, 
 I find that many of the very best members of the 
 United States senate are from the walks of busi- 
 ness life. I may with propriety refer to some of 
 them for a minute. 
 
 Take, for instance, my distinguished friend on 
 my left, Senator Sawyer [applause], who, as is well 
 known, is interested in large business enterprises: I 
 speak of him, because when I entered the house in 
 1864 I found him there, and I soon learned that if 
 there was any one man in the house of representa- 
 tives who could come nearer getting all the money 
 out of the treasury for his state than anybody else, 
 it was the representative from Wisconsin ; and that 
 power as a legislator he acquired from the well 
 recognized fact that he never asked for a penny that 
 was not absolutely necessary for some great public 
 purpose in which his constituents were interested 
 and by which the people of the entire country would 
 be benefited. 
 
 Then I may refer to another gentleman who is 
 now at the table, the senator from Michigan [Mv. 
 
•40 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 McMillan]. "We all know that be is engaged in 
 extensive business operations; and I think I can 
 appeal to the senator from Maryland [Mr. Gorman] 
 and to the senator from Maine [Mr. Hale] to bear 
 me witness that the}' feel almost compelled to re- 
 main in the senate every hour of the day, lest Sena- 
 tor McMillan, with an eye single to the advance- 
 ment and the growth of this beautiful city, pass a 
 bill chartering another railroad through the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. [Applause.] 
 
 The senator from Ohio [Mr. Brice] is another 
 business man — able, capable, carrying on vast busi- 
 ness undertakings, and well worthy the honor of 
 representing in part the great state of Ohio. There 
 sits nry distinguished friend Senator Gorman, a 
 business man, vigilant, energetic, able; a brilliant 
 success in business, politics, and statesmanship. 
 
 But I will not speak further of the members of 
 the senate. Let me refer to one or two illustrious 
 persons, formerly occupants of senatorial seats, but 
 now numbered among the countless dead. There 
 
 *e 
 
 was Senator Chandler of Michigan, a great busi- 
 ness man and with it all a great senator. He made 
 his impress upon the legislation and the character 
 of the nation which we to-day in part represent, 
 and his memory is an undying heritage. 
 
 I may refer to another — the lamented senator 
 from New York, Mr. Edwin D. Morgan; gentle, 
 dignified, quiet, yet a man of great power and of 
 great influence. I shall never forget the scene in 
 the memorable struggle in the senate of the United 
 States over the civil rights bill, when that distin- 
 guished senator, true to his business training, keep- 
 
RESPONSE OF SENATOR CULLOM. 41 
 
 ing his own counsels, no one knowing how he was 
 going to cast his vote, rose in his place, and, not- 
 withstanding the veto of the president of the 
 United States, voted aye in favor of the bill. The 
 fate of the measure was dependent upon his vote, 
 and cast in the affirmative, the bill was passed and 
 became a law. 
 
 Mr. President and gentlemen, I might allude to 
 hundreds of the most able and distinguished men 
 in our national history who were business men. I 
 will mention another who has passed away. He 
 may not perhaps have been considered a business 
 man in the narrower sense of the word. I refer to 
 the late James G. Blaine [applause], who was 
 not a lawyer but a business man in the broadest 
 sense, who, when he parted from us and passed to 
 the other world, left a history that is the pride of 
 the country, and the record of a career that is 
 worthy of emulation. 
 
 The senator from Massachusetts has stated prop- 
 erly that the past four years in the senate have 
 been characterized as a period of unusual dignity 
 and propriety, for which much is due to the distin- 
 guished gentleman who has presided over its delib- 
 erations as vice-president. He was a poor boy, 
 the son of a minister, forging his way forward as a 
 business man until two continents have become 
 familiar with his name and regard it to-day as the 
 synonym of integrity and fair dealing among men 
 in business transactions. [Applause.] Our distin- 
 guished guest has not only achieved a name as a 
 business man, but he was twice elected by his con- 
 stituents a member of the house of representatives 
 
42 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 of the national congress, once sent as a representa- 
 tive of the government to the court of France, 
 and finally by the votes of the people elected 
 vice-president. 
 
 It is as vice-president of the United States that 
 we, the senators surrounding this festive board, 
 know him better than in any other capacity. It is 
 not necessary for me to say what has been oft re- 
 peated, that he has brought to his support ability 
 and a determination to alwa}*s decide absolutely 
 fairly, and that he has been uniformly courteous 
 to all with whom he has come in contact. Mr. 
 President, let me say a word in relation to his suc- 
 cessor. AVe come from the same state. I have 
 known Mr. Stevenson, the vice-president-elect, for 
 very many years^ and I can say to the members of 
 the senate that I apprehend and feel sure that he, 
 too, will bring to that chair the same courtesy, the 
 same fairness, and the same ability that have char- 
 acterized the term of our distinguished guest. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Our honored guest has occupied these various 
 positions: he has shown himself able as a business 
 man, able as a politician, and he retires from us in 
 a few days as a most fitting representative of the 
 business man in politics. [Applause.] 
 
 The Presiding Officer. — There is an old-time 
 saying, " Welcome the coming, speed the going 
 guest." That naturally leads me to propose 
 
 The Incoming Administration, 
 as the next and final sentiment; and I do not want 
 
RESPONSE OP SENATOR VILAS. 43 
 
 to be understood as referring- to the complexion of 
 the incoming cabinet when I quote as an appropri- 
 ate saying, that 
 
 " Variety 's the very spice of life. 
 That gives it all its flavour." 
 
 [Laughter.] I ask the senator from Wisconsin 
 [Mr. Yilas] to respond to that sentiment, as he is 
 very largely responsible for the result. 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR VILAS. 
 
 Mr. President: Our evening draws obviously 
 to its close, and in your toast at this hour I recog- 
 nize your respectful obeisance to fate. We have 
 all observed that you have come lingeringly to it, 
 first turning to the north and then to the south, 
 then to the east and to the west, still appealingly, 
 but in the end you face forward and bow graciously 
 to the inevitable. 
 
 Xow at this very time, the fact which you have 
 mentioned concerning the new administration is 
 the most notable, the most interesting to thousands 
 who are gathering in this city, — that it is incoming. 
 [Laughter.] It is the transcendent thought. Va- 
 riety, spice, flavor, life even, seem for the moment 
 to inhere in that expectation. That certainly at 
 this late hour of the evening ought to be enough 
 for us, for regret or for joy, by whatever variety of 
 opinion it may be received, without attempt of 
 mine to spice it more by words. The theme, too, 
 if opened up, is fruitful and suggestive, peculiarly 
 so in a body like the senate, wherein no rule of 
 
44 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 relevancy obtains. It is easy to begin upon it, but 
 who can tell where it will end? As if, perchance, 
 in some unguarded, unsophisticated moment of 
 reckless abandon, mention slip of silver and its 
 struggles. [Laughter.] I perceive your shudder, 
 I feel it, and am sufficiently repressed. 
 
 I know this company has not gathered to hear 
 prophecy- of the time to come, nor, by anticipation, 
 the praises of its actors. It is not for anxious fore- 
 cast that Ave for a brief moment rein in the fleeting 
 hours, but in pleasant retrospect to pass the cup of 
 kindness among them whom separation denounces 
 with its pains, as it dooms every association here 
 below. Let me, too, drop the anxious future and 
 share with you the glowing hour. We grasp one 
 of those happy intervals, all too rare, when the 
 weight of care and duty that sinks the man in the 
 senator is lifted oft', and generous humanity has its 
 way in the genial flow of feeling, the elhow-touch 
 of fellowship, which bless life with fragrant mem- 
 ories and reasons why it is worth the living. In 
 scenes like this we learn how true it is, that among 
 those who strive in civic controversies, not less than 
 on the tented field of arms, 
 
 " The bravest are the tenderest. — 
 The loving are the daring." 
 
 And since you give my voice a license here, 
 I beg also with it to reecho the common senti- 
 ment that rules us all, of respect and affection for 
 the honored gentleman who is our special guest 
 to-night. [Applause.] Though my time with you 
 has been short, it has been amply long to wit- 
 
KKSPOXSE OF SENATOR VILAS. 4o 
 
 ness in liim the attributes which win them both. 
 To have presided four years acceptably over the 
 American senate, gaining- honestly the encomiums 
 Ave have heard to-night, for wisdom, impartiality, 
 and dignity, secures his place of honor among our 
 illustrious names. It is our right and pleasure to 
 add for others and for later times the knowledge — 
 which the official record saith naught concerning — 
 of that pleasing personality which, though unex- 
 celled in cultured urbanity, has given charm to our 
 intercourse the more because his simple graces of 
 demeanor have but reflected, and been SAveetened 
 by, the genuine kindness of a good heart. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 We shall bid him a cheerful farewell when he 
 withdraws to the retirement of his home, because 
 he will go as one who in his high office has borne 
 himself as becomes an American citizen, and who 
 will carry out from it a greater measure of the 
 esteem and honor of his fellow-countrymen than 
 was shown even by his choice to enter into it; and 
 more need no man crave. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. President, I know it will be a satisfaction to 
 him, as it is to all of us, that in the person of his 
 successor the people have chosen one, — as I may 
 avouch upon years of familiar friendship with him — 
 who will worthily exact the consideration and the 
 decent homage which ought ever to be Avon by, 
 and so e\ r er be rendered to, the second officer of 
 the American Republic. More, as his friend, I will 
 not say, except to bespeak for him also, when his 
 official day shall be done, the abundant testimony 
 of impartial AA r itnesses. [Applause.] 
 
46 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 Mr. President, others of this goodly company 
 here present will also soon withdraw, some seeking 
 the repose justly theirs by long and faithful service 
 to their country; others yielding, temporarily no 
 doubt, to the vicissitudes of political fortune which 
 mark the freedom our countrymen enjoy. This, it 
 may be, is the last time we shall all so meet to- 
 gether. !No shame is it, if in the parting hour the 
 heart swell and the eye moisten among men who 
 have carried together great trusts and duties. 
 There will be borne from us laurels which worthily 
 crown the long career of public usefulness ; splendid 
 talents, worn and spent by years of anxious labors 
 for the country's welfare; lives of unsullied integ- 
 rity and civic lustre. There will go from us those 
 who have the gifts of elocpience, of character and 
 power. Others will come indeed, and the senate, 
 in unbroken continuity, will show no outward sign 
 of loss; as none will be seen, God grant it, to the 
 Republic, when all now living shall have passed 
 away. Yet none the less we shall mark their going 
 with the sense of personal loss, and reach out the 
 hand of friendship with the hearty cheer of a fer- 
 vent good-by. And now, while we yet have them 
 with us, let us pledge them once again, in the true 
 friendship which kindles warmer when its joys are 
 threatened, as the fragrance of the flower is richest 
 just ere its petals begin to fall. 
 
 Well, sir, after the calends of March shall have 
 come, the incoming administration will come in. 
 Without the least warrant to represent it, I assume 
 to accept for it, in the spirit of your courtesy, the 
 compliment you would pay by the toast proposed 
 
.-^ 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR VILAS. 47 
 
 on behalf of all this senatorial company. I trust, 
 sir, that it signifies the universal recognition of 
 what is most surely true, that that administration 
 will enter upon its heavy labors with a purpose as 
 sincere, a zeal as fervent, to render them signally 
 useful to the whole country as ever moved a patri- 
 otic breast. It signifies also, I hope, that among 
 all classes of political opinion will prevail a pre- 
 dominating patriotism, which shall rather choose 
 the beneficence to our people of the success of that 
 administration in government than the partisan 
 gain of its failure in any particular. 
 
 It is obvious to every eye that the coming years 
 will be beset by problems severe and exacting, the 
 solution of which without serious injury to our 
 a Hairs will be fortunate indeed; while possibilities 
 which we are not quite willing to contemplate freely, 
 are only too open to occurrence. These conditions 
 ought to secure a consideration as patriotic as just, 
 and a contribution of forbearance, not less than of 
 assistance, on every hand. I will not, sir, presume 
 to enter further upon the future, for it is not com- 
 mitted to me to speak as one having authority. I 
 shall only venture to add my expectant hope — as 
 one wdio has some knowledge of the president who 
 has been and who is to be — that the variety we shall 
 have, and to which you have alluded in the toast. 
 whatever may be its spice, will add far more to the 
 bread of life for the enjoyment of our countrymen. 
 1 Applause.] 
 
48 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 REMARKS OF SENATOR HARRIS. 
 
 I assume the duties of the chair without being 
 regularly called to them, and I do so for the pur- 
 pose of saying that while I have participated with 
 pleasure in doing honor to our distinguished guest, 
 to our retiring presiding officer of the past four 
 years, and have joined in paying fitting tribute to 
 the North, South, East, and "West, yet to the latter 
 four propositions I did not cordially respond, for 
 the reason that I think the time has come when we, 
 as senators and citizens, should forget that there 
 is a North, a South, an East, or a West. [Great 
 applause.] 
 
 We should remember that we are citizens of 
 forty-four sovereign states, united for certain spe- 
 cific purposes looking to the well-being and the pro- 
 tection of all. I think it would have been more 
 fitting to have treated that general subject as one 
 pertaining to the forty-four states united, as we are, 
 and ignoring sections. But I did not rise for the 
 purpose of that suggestion alone, but for the pur- 
 pose of saying that I detract nothing from the com- 
 pliment that we are paying to our distinguished re- 
 tiring vice-president when I propose, in view of the 
 ability, the dignity, the impartiality, and the fair- 
 ness, with which he has, when occasion recpiired it, 
 presided over the deliberations of our body, the 
 health of our distinguished president pro tempore. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 [There were cries of " Manderson! "] 
 
UESl'ONSE OF SENATOR MANDERSON. 49 
 
 RESPONSE OF SENATOR MANDERSOX. 
 
 I fear, gentlemen, that this usurpation by the sen- 
 ator from Tennessee of the duties of the president 
 pro tempore, is merely the establishment of a prec- 
 edent that he proposes shall be followed very 
 shortly by an actual fact that will not be so pleas- 
 ant to some of ns who have been complimented by 
 him. [Laughter and applause.] I thank yon very 
 heartily for your cordial greeting and the warmth 
 of welcome with which you have responded to this 
 unexpected volunteer toast. 
 
 When this honor of election as president pro 
 U mpore came to me nearly two years ago in such 
 unexpected, and 1 may say undeserved, fashion, I 
 was greatly overwhelmed and disconcerted. I felt 
 that I was hardly competent to preside, with the 
 dignity and ability which befits the office, over the 
 senate of the United States during the absence of 
 its constitutional presiding officer, and if I have suc- 
 ceeded to your satisfaction, it has simply been be- 
 cause of your constant forbearance and ever gen- 
 erous courtesy. I think myself extremely fortunate 
 that the duties that have devolved upon me have 
 been so few, because of that unprecedented devotion 
 to duty that has characterized the honored guest 
 we have with us to-night. [Applause.] I can 
 simply extend to you my thanks for your kindness 
 and for your warmth of greeting, and as we have 
 reached an hour past midnight I think it is time we 
 should adjourn. I do not know that I ever heard 
 of a senatorial glee club, and the only time I have 
 heard senators sing was when, under the leadership 
 
50 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 of the then Senator Palmer, Senators Edmunds and 
 Sherman joined with that generous host in the 
 chorus to the song, " The Son of a Grambolier." 
 But why should we not close this friendly gather- 
 ing about this beautiful table by having General 
 Hawley lead for us while we sing " Should auld 
 acquaintance be forgot"? 
 
 Sexator Hawley. — We will sing two verses of 
 "•Auld Lang Syne." 
 
 The company rose and joined in singing "Auld 
 Lang Syne." At the conclusion of the song the 
 gathering dissolved. 
 
^PPE^DIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ADDITIONAL SENATORIAL TRIBUTES TO VICE- 
 PRESIDENT MORTON. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, 60th Congress, 2d Session, Monday, March 4, 1889. 
 
 At 11 o'clock and 58 minutes a. m., the Vice-President-elect of the 
 United States, escorted by Mr. Cuixom, of the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, entered the Senate chamber. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Vice-President-elect of the 
 United States will come forward and receive the oath of office. Hon. 
 Levi P. Mortox, of the state of New York, the Vice-President-elect, 
 advanced to the desk of the President pro tempore, and the oath of 
 office was administered to him. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, 51st Congress, Special Session, Monday, March -I, 
 
 I 989.'] 
 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President of the United States, having 
 taken the oath of office at the close of the Fiftieth Congress, took the 
 
 chair. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. Senators, I shall enter upon the dis- 
 charge of the delicate and high and important duties of the office to 
 which I have been called by the people of the United States without 
 experience as a presiding officer. I therefore bespeak in advance the 
 indulgent consideration which you have always been ready to extend 
 to the occupant of this chair. 
 
 As presiding officer of the Senate, it will be my earnest desire to 
 administer the rules of procedure with entire fairness, and to treat 
 each Senator with the courtesy and consideration due at all times to 
 the representatives of great states in a legislative body. 
 
 I hope that our relations officially and personally will prove mutu- 
 ally agreeable. May I add my confident hope that our duties will be 
 discharged in a manner that will maintain the dignity of the Senate 
 and add to the prosperity and happiness of the people of this great 
 nation ? 
 
 5* 
 
54 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, 51st Congress, 1st Session, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1890 
 THANKS TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. HARRIS. I offer the following resolution, and ask the unani- 
 mous consent of the Senate that it be now considered : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate are hereby tendered to 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President, for the dignified, impartial, and 
 courteous manner with which he has presided over its deliberations 
 during the present session. 
 
 The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Uolph in the chair). Is there 
 objection to the present consideration of the resolution? 
 The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 
 
 FINAL ADJOURNMENT. 
 
 The hour of 6 o'clock having arrived, 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. Senators, before making the announce- 
 ment that will leave you at liberty to return to your homes, I beg to 
 express my most grateful appreciation of the resolution of approval 
 and confidence with which you have honored me. Assuming, as I did, 
 the responsibilities of the chair without previous experience as a pre- 
 siding officer, it is not necessary for me to say that if I have discharged 
 the delicate and important duties of the position in a satisfactory 
 manner, it is due to the indulgent consideration and cordial coopera- 
 tion which I have received from every Senator on this floor. 
 
 I indulge in the earnest hope that I may be permitted, upon the 
 reassembling of Congress, to see every member of this body in his 
 seat in renewed health and strength after a season of rest from the 
 arduous labors of this, the longest continuing session, with one excep- 
 tion, in the history of the government. I feel that I may. with good 
 warrant, congratulate the Senate and the country upon the large 
 number of important measures which have received the careful con- 
 sideration of this body and become laws. 
 
 It only remains for me to declare, as I now do, that the Senate 
 stands adjourned without day. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, Slst Congress, 2d Session, Wednesday, Mar. 4, 1891.1 
 THANKS TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. Ransom submitted the following resolution, which was con- 
 sidered by unanimous consent : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate are hereby tendered to 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President, for the courteous, dignified, 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 and able manner with which he lias presided over its deliberations 
 during the present session. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to 
 the resolution. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 
 
 ******** 
 
 FINAL ADJOURNMENT. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT (at 12 o'clock m., Wednesday, March 4). 
 I am admonished by yonder dial that the life of the Fifty-first Congress 
 is ended, and that the hour of separation and farewell has again 
 arrived. The record is made up and has gone into history. No one 
 of us can be unmindful, as we part, of the fact that all are not with us 
 who answered to the first roll-call of this Congress. Three members of 
 this body, all taken from one side of this Chamber, have answered the 
 last summons, and gone out forever from the haunts of men. They 
 were well worthy of the love we bore them, and will be cherished in 
 the hearts of the people as able and honorable and patriotic public 
 servants. 
 
 Without previous experience as a presiding officer, I came with dis- 
 trust to the discharge of the duty imposed by the Constitution upon 
 the Vice-President in his relation to the Senate, certain, only, of an 
 unfaltering purpose to do right, and of the patience and forbearance 
 of this great body. I acknowledge with grateful sensibility the 
 courtesy and kindness which, even in critical and complicated situa- 
 tions, the members of the Senate have been accustomed to accord to 
 me, and the honor conferred by the resolution just adopted in my 
 absence from the chair. With the earnest hope that each member of 
 this body may be blessed in every relation of life, I now declare that, 
 the constitutional period of the Fifty-first Congress having been com- 
 pleted, the Senate stands adjourned without day. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, B2d Congress, 1st Session, Friday, August 5, 1892.] 
 THANKS TCI THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. HARRIS. Mr. President, I submit a resolution for which I 
 ask the present consideration of the Senate. 
 The resolution was read as follows : 
 
 t Re$0 t ed i, That the thanka of the Sy,iate are hel 'ebY tendered to Hon. 
 Levi 1 . Morton, Vice-President, for the dignified, impartial, and 
 courteous manner with which he has presided over its deliberations 
 during the present session. 
 
 The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the 
 resolution. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 
 
 ******** 
 
56 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 FINAL ADJOURNMENT. 
 
 The hour of 11 o'clock having arrived, 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT said, — Before making the announcement 
 that will terminate the present session, the Chair desires to pay a 
 personal tribute of respect and affection to the memory of the two 
 distinguished members of this body who were present at the first roll- 
 call, but have since passed from the busy walks of earth to the realities 
 of eternal life. 
 
 They will no longer occupy their accustomed places on this floor, 
 but will long be remembered, not only in the Senate, but in other fields 
 of human activity, as conspicuous leaders, as illustrious citizens, and 
 as able, honorable, and patriotic public servants. 
 
 It is my agreeable duty to express my most grateful appreciation of 
 the honor conferred upon me by the resolution unanimously adopted 
 by the Senate during my absence from the chair. If I am entitled to 
 the highly commendatory words of the resolution, it is owing to the 
 uniform courtesy and kindness accorded to me by every Senator on 
 this floor. 
 
 With the earnest hope that, upon the reassembling of Congress, 
 every member of this body may be found in his seat, in renewed health 
 and strength, I now declare that the Senate stands adjourned without 
 day. 
 
 [Proceedings of the Senate, S2d Congress, 2d Session, Friday, March 3, 1S93.\ 
 PRESENTATION TO VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. McPHERSON. I submit a resolution, and ask to have it con- 
 sidered now. 
 
 The resolution was read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the Vice-President is hereby authorized to retain for 
 his personal use the writing set and appendages used by him during- 
 his term of office. 
 
 Mr. McPHERSOX. I ask for the immediate consideration of the 
 resolution. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the present 
 consideration of the resolution? 
 
 The resolution was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to 
 
 [Saturday, March 4, 1893.] 
 THANKS TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Mr. HARRIS. I offer a resolution for which 1 ask present consid- 
 eration. 
 
 The resolution was read, as follows : 
 
APPENDIX. 57 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate are hereby tendered to 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President, for the dignified, impartial. 
 and courteous manner with which he has presided over its deliberations 
 during the present session. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE. 
 
 Mr. GORMAN. Mr. President, I submit a resolution which I ask 
 may be at once considered, and I trust it will be adopted unanimously. 
 
 In presenting the resolution, I desire to say that I think I voice the 
 sentiment of every member of this body when I state that both our 
 presiding officers, the Vice-President and the President pro tempore of 
 the Senate, whose services are about to terminate, have the kindest 
 wishes and the best feeling of every member of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. President, during your term many important questions have 
 been considered by this body, and at times we have had excitements 
 growing out of political questions; but I am happy to say that in the 
 deliberations of the body your kindly, earnest, and fair action has 
 endeared you to every Senator, and we all feel that no presiding officer 
 lias ever discharged the duties of the high office more impartially. 
 
 I ask that the resolution be read. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maryland asks for 
 the present consideration of a resolution, which will be read. 
 
 The resolution was read and unanimously agreed to, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Senate are due and are herebv 
 tendered to Hon. Charles F. M Anderson, President pro tempore of 
 the Senate, for the uniformly able, courteous, and impartial manner 
 in which he has presided over its deliberations. 
 
 SWEARING IN OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 The Vice-President-elect (Hou. Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois) 
 •entered the Chamber, accompanied by Mr. Teller, Mr. Ransom, and 
 Mr. McPhekson. members of the Committee of Arrangements for the 
 inauguration. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. Senators, the time fixed by the Consti- 
 tution for the termination of the Fifty-second Congress has arrived, 
 and I shall soon resign the gavel of the President of the Senate to the 
 honored son of Illinois who has been chosen as my successor. 
 
 I cannot, however, take my leave of this distinguished body without 
 offering my most grateful acknowledgments for the honor conferred by 
 thf- resolution just adopted, declaring your approval of the manner in 
 which I have discharged the duties of the chair, and expressing my 
 
-58 THE MORTON TESTIMONIAL. 
 
 deep sense of the uniform courtesy and kindness, even in critical and 
 complicated situations, extended to me as the presiding officer by 
 every member of this body. 
 
 If I have committed errors, you have refrained from rebuking 
 them, and I have never appealed in vain to your sense of justice, and 
 have ever received your support. 
 
 My association with the representatives of the forty-four States of 
 this great nation in this Chamber will be among the most cherished 
 memories of my life, and I can express no better wish for my successor 
 than that he may enjoy the same relations of mutual regard, and that 
 the same courtesy and kindness that have never been limited by party 
 lines or controlled by political affiliations, and which have so happily 
 marked my intercourse with Senators, may be extended to him. 
 
 And now. Senators and officers of the Senate, from whom I have 
 received so many good offices in the discharge of my duties, accept a 
 feeble expression of my grateful appreciation of your kindness, with 
 my heartfelt wishes for your future welfare and happiness in life. 
 
 The Vice-President-elect is ready to take and subscribe to the oath 
 of office. 
 
 Thereupon Mr. Stevenson took and subscribed the oath prescribed 
 by law, and was conducted to a seat at the right of the Vice-Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Chair declares the Senate adjourned 
 without day. 
 
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