x'^xi ^^ cV ^ . •■ ♦ ♦ ^ .?.> -<^ ^^-n ^ (^ 5) I WSIK^'?^-. V . » ' * **" 'f> <;• 1: 4 it ^ • ♦^•v. *». •.?.?.* ,•> : %.A^ ♦• '• ..f O M « -^0' ,,.^,^ y „»»o^ O, W/!»; ♦ -^^ V > • %. . * ' • 9 « ■^ \«l< ^r^* ^ 5)-^ ^'J?. : "^o v^ ■^ X W UXvJYt plain directions showing liow to make all kinds of TiTPm? ATTmVrQ fancy work, embroideries, needlework, crocheting, JjJLi\j\JJXJ\^l.\Ji\0» knitting, suggestions for ornamenting rooms, dec- orating furniture, curtains, etc. TVrn'TTn^'RQ fi"*i ^^^ portion devoted to them invaluable, and filled with a i".vrJL.*l-J-'-".« wide range of helpful suggestions obtained from practical ex- perience relating to a mother's duties. OCCUPATIONS FOR WOMEN. I!l^If::^l^Z^Xi^ in reference to those things that wives, mothers and single women are doing to earn money, while in all its departments it is the most complete, most readable and Most Fascinating Ladies Paper Publislied. ETIQUETTE at home and abroad, at the table and on the street, at public gatherings, etc. TOILiET.— Recipes and hints for care of liands, face, teeth, eyes, hair, etc., color and harmony in dress, etc DEPORTl^IENT. -Rules, ufcages and ceremonies of good society, letter writing, good manners, the art of con- versing well, accomplishments, home training. So popular have our publications become that more than a million people read them regularly. M.BH.. tw.„p,ape'^^^., LADIES HOME COMPANION, PMladelpUa, Pa. THE GEpEfflAL ORATIOfI DELIVERED BY ^' CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW In front of the Suh-Treasiiry Building, Wall Street, New York, TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1889, ON THE One Hundredth Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States. ALSO THE POEM *'Zhc IDow of Masbington/' BY JOHN G. WHITTIER, Wliich was Mead at the same time. .cV -^- CD/V(3, Copyright, 1889, by J. S. Ogilvie. / ..f-VRiGHT '*^'>S!f %.c •'■•"mimgTv 1 CJ^S: 7 J. S. OGILVIE, PUBLISHER, 57 Rose Street, New York ; 182 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. THE FIRESIDE SERIES. UNIFORM IN STYLE AND PRICE WITH THIS BOOK. 1. The Mohawks, by Miss M. E. Braddon. 2. Lady Val worth's Diamonds, by the Duchess. 3. A House Party, by Ouida. 4. At Bay, by Mrs. Alexander. 5. Adventures of an Old Maid, by Belle C. Greene. 6. Vice Versa, by F. Anstey. 7. In Prison and Out, by Hesba Stretton. 8. A Broken Heart, by author of " DoraThorne." 9. A False Vow, by author of '*Dora Thorne." 10. Nancy Hartshorn at Chautauqua, by Nancy Harts- 11. Beaton's Bargain, by Mrs. Alexander. (horn. 13. Mrs. Hopkins on her Travels, by Mrs. Hopkins. 13. A Guilty River, by Wilkie Colhns. 14. By Woman's Wit, by Mrs. Alexander. 15. " She," by H. Rider Haggard. 16. The Witch's Head, by H. Rider Haggard. 17. King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard. 18. "Jess," by H. Rider Haggard. 19. The Merry Men, by R. L. Stevenson. 20. Miss Jones' Quilting, by Josiah Allen's Wife. 21. Secrets of Success, by J. W. Donovan. 22. Drops of Blood, by Lily Curry. 23. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 24. Dawn, by H. Rider Haggard. 25. "Me." A companion to "She." 26. East Lynne, by Mrs. Henry Wood. 27. Allan Quartermain, by H. Rider Haggard. 28. Brother Agamst Brother, by John R. Musick. 29. A Modern Circe, by the Duchess. 30 As in a Looking- Glass, by F. C. Philips. 31. Paradise Almost lost, by D. B. Shaw. 82. The Duchess, by the Duchess. 33. In Thraldom, by Leon Mead. 34. The Bad Bay and His Sister, by Benjamin Broadaxe. 35. A Tale of Three Lions, by H. Rider Haggard. 36. History of United States, by Emery E. Chiids. 37. Mona's Choice, by Mrs. Alexander. 38. One Traveler Returns, by David Christie Murray. 39. "Cell 13," by Edwin H. Trafton. 40. A Life Interest, by Mrs. Alexander. 41. Natural Law in the Spiritual World, by Prof. H. Drummond. 42. For his Brother's Sake, by the Avithor of "The Original Mr. Jacobs." This is a Double Number. Price, 50 cents. 43. A Woman's Face, by Florence Warden, Author of "House on the Marsh," etc. 378 pages. 44. Blunders of a Bashful Man, by Author of "A Bad Boy's Diary." 45. Ninety -Nine Recitations and Readings, First Series. 46. " " " Second Series. 47. " " ** Third Series. 48. " " " Fourth Series. 49. " «* " Fifth Series. 50. " " " Sixth Series. 51. " " " Seventh Series. 52. A Young Vagabond, by Z. R. Bennett. \ MR. DEPEW'S ORATION. He Reviews the History of the Revolution and Tells the Meaning of the Centennial Cele- bration. Mr. Depew wore a black skull-cap, specta- cles, a tightly-buttoned Prince-Albert coat, striped trousers and patent-leather shoes. His oratory was of a finished and graceful sort, and the theme had inspired him to the production of a literary masterpiece. He was imposing, and swayed the crowd within reach of his voice by his well-turned sentences and the thousands who could not hear by his gestures. The ora- tion was as follows : We celebrate to-day the centenary of our nationality. One hundred years ago the United States began their existence. The powers of government were assumed by the people of the Republic, and they became the sole source of THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. authority. The solemn ceremonial of the first inauguration, the reverent oath of Washington, the acclaim of the multitude greeting their President, marked the most unique event of modern times in the development of free insti- tutions. The occasion was not an accident, but a re- sult. It was the culmination of the working out by mighty forces through many centuries of the problem of self-government. It was not the triumph of a system, the application of a theory, or the reduction to practice of the ab- stractions of philosophy. The time, the coun- try, the heredity and environment of the people, the folly of its enemies and the noble courage of its friends gave to liberty after ages of defeat, of trial, of experiment, of partial success and sub- stantial gains this immortal victory. Henceforth it had a refuge and recruiting- station. The oppressed found free homes in this favored land, and invisible armies marched from it by mail and telegraph, by speech and song, by precept and example, to regenerate the world. Puritans in New England, Dutchmen in New York, Catholics in Maryland, Huguenots in South Carolina had felt the fires of persecution THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. and were wedded to religious liberty. They had been purified in the furnace, and in high debate and on bloody battlefields had learned to sacrifice all material interests and to peril their lives for human rights. The principles of constitutional government had been impressed upon them by hundreds of years of struggle, and for each principle they could point to the grave of an ancestor whose death attested the ferocity of the fight and the value of the concession wrung from arbitrary power. THE BENEFIT OF EXPERIENCE. They knew the limitations of authority, they could pledge their lives and fortunes to resist encroachments upon their rights, but it required the lesson of Indian massacres, the invasion of the armies of France from Canada, the tyranny of the British Crown, the seven years' war of the Revolution, and the five years of chaos of the Confederation to evolve the idea, upon which rest the power and permanency of the Republic, that liberty and union are one and in- separable. The traditions and experience of the colonists had made them alert to discover and quick to b THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. resist any peril to their liberties. Above all things they feared and distrusted power. The town-meeting- and the Colonial Legislature gave them confidence in themselves and courage to check the royal governors. Their interests, hopes and affections were in their several com- monwealths, and each blow by the British Min- istry at their freedom, each attack upon their rights as Englishmen, weakened their love for the mother-land and intensified their hostility to the Crown. But the same causes which broke down their allegiance to the central government increased their confidence in their respective colonies, and their faith in liberty was largely dependent upon the maintenance of the sovereignty of their several States. The farmers' shot at Lex- ington echoed round the world ; the spirit which it awakened from its slumbers could do and dare and die, but it had not yet discovered the secret of the permanence and progress of free institutions. Patrick Henry thundered in the Virginia Convention, James Otis spoke with trumpet tongue and fervid eloquence for united action in Massachusetts; Hamilton, Jay and Clinton pledged New York to respond with men and THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 7 money for the common cause, but their vision only saw a league of independent colonies. The veil was not yet drawn from before the vista of population and power, of empire and liberty, which would open with national union. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. The Continental Congress partially grasped, but completely expressed, the central idea of the American Republic. More fully than any other body which ever assembled did it repre- sent the victories won from arbitrary power for human rights. In the new world it was the conservator of liberties secured through cen- turies of struggle in the old. Among the delegates were the descendants of the men who had stood in that brilliant array upon the field of Runymede, which wrested from King John Magna Charta, that great charter of liberty, to which Hallam in the nineteenth century bears witness " that all which had been since ob- tained is little more than as confirmation or commentary." There were the grandchildren of the states- men who had summoned Charles before Par- liament and compelled his assent to the petition 8 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. of rights, which transferred power from the crown to the Commons and gave representative government to the English speaking race. And there w^ere those who had sprung from the iron soldiers who had fought and charged with Cromwell at Naseby and Dunbar and Marston Moor. Among its members were Huguenots, whose fathers had followed the white plunie of Henry of Navarre, and in an age of bigotry, intolerance and the deification of absolutism, had secured the great edict of religious liberty from, French despotism ; and who had become a people without a country, rather than sur- render their convictions and forswear their consciences. In this Conp-ress were those whose ancestors were the countrymen of William of Orange, the Bep:p-ars of the Sea, who had survived the cruelties of Alva and broken the yoke of proud Philip of Spain, and who had two centuries be- fore made a declaration of independence and formed a federal union which were models of freedom and strength. These men were not revolutionists, they were the heirs and the guardians of the priceless treasures of mankind. The British king and his Ministers were the revolutionists. They THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. were reactionaries, seeking arbitrarily to turn back tlie hands upon the dial of time. A year of doubt and debate, the baptism of blood upon battlefields, where soldiers from every colony fought under a common standard and consolidated the Continental army, gradually lifted the soul and understanding of this im- mortal Congress to the sublime declaration : '' We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." OUR FIRST BRAVE MEN. To this declaration John Hancock, proscribed and threatened with death, affixed a signature which has stood for a century like the pointers to the North Star in the firmament of freedom, and Charles Carroll, taunted that among many Carrolls he, the richest man in America, might escape, added description and identificatioa 1 10 THE CENTENNIAL OBATIONc with " of Carrollton." Benjamin Harrison, a delegate from Virginia, the ancestor of the dis- tinguished statesman and soldier who to-day so worthily fills the chair of Washington, voiced the unalterable determination and defiance of the Congress. He seized John Hancock, upon whose head a price was set, in his arms, and, placing him in the presidential chair, said : '' We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her by making our President a Massa- chusetts man, whom she has excluded from pardon by public proclamation ;" and when they were signing the Declaration, and the slender Elbridge Gerry uttered the grim pleasantry, '' We must hang together or surely we will hang separately," the portly Harrison responded with the more daring humor, '' It will be all over with me in a moment, but you will be kicking in the air half an hour after I am gone." Thus flashed athwart the great Charter, which was to be for its signers a death warrant or a diploma of immortality, as with firm hand, high purpose, and undaunted resolution they subscribed their names, this mockery of fear and the penalties of treason. The grand central idea of the Declaration of Independence was the sovereignty of the people. THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. 11 It relied for original power, not upon States or colonies, or their citizens as such, but recog- nized as the authority for nationality the revo- lutionary rights of the people of the United States. It stated with marvelous clearness the encroachments upon liberties which threatened their suppression and justified revolt, but it was inspired by the very genius of freedom, and the prophetic possibilities of united commonwealths covering the continent in one harmonious re- public, when it made the people of the thirteen colonies all Americans and devolved upon them to administer by themselves and for themselves the prerogatives and powers wrested from Crown and Parliament. It condensed Magna Charta, the petition of rights, the great body of English liberties em- bodied in the common law and accumulated in the decision of the courts, the statutes of the realm, and an undisputed though unwritten constitution ; but this original principle and dynamite force of the people's power sprang from these old seeds planted in the virgin soil of the new world. 12 THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. JEFFERSON S FAITH IN THE PEOPLE. More clearly than any statesman of the pe- riod did Thomas Jefferson grasp and divine possibilities of popular government. He caught and crystallized the spirit of free institu- tions. His philosophical mind was singularly free from the power of precedents or the chains of prejudice. He had an unquestion- ing and abiding faith in the people, which was accepted by but few of his compatriots. Upon his famous axiom, of the equality of all men before the law, he constructed his system. It was the triphammer essential for the emergency to break the links binding the Col- onies to imperial authority, and to pulverize the privileges of caste. It inspired him to write the Declaration of Independence, and persuaded him to doubt the wisdom of the powers concentrated in the Constitution. In his passionate love of liberty he became in- tensely jealous of authority. He destroyed the substance of royal prerogative, but never emerged from its shadow. He would have the States as the guardians of popular rights, and the barriers against centralization ; and he THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 13 saw in the growing power of the nation ever increasing encroachments upon the rights of the people. For the success of the pure democracy which must precede Presidents and Cabinets and Congresses, it was perhaps providential that its apostle never believed a great people could grant and still retain, could give and at will re- claim, could delegate and yet firmly hold the authority which ultimately created the power of their republic and enlarged the scope of their own liberty. Where this master mind halted all stood still. The necessity for a permanent union was apparent, but each State must have hold upon the bowstring which encircled its throat. It was admitted that union gave the machinery required to successfully fight the common en- emy, but yet there was fear that it might be- come a Frankenstein and destroy its creators. Thus patriotism and fear, difficulties of com- munication between distant communities, and the intense growth of provincial pride and in- terest, led this Congress to frame the Articles of Confederation, happily termed the League of Friendship. The result was not a govern- ment, but a ghost. By this scheme the Amer- 14 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. ican people were ignored and the Declaration of Independence reversed. The States, by their Legislatures, elected delegates to Con- gress, and the delegate represented the sover- eignty of his commonwealth. All the States had an equal voice without regard to their size or population. It required the vote of nine States to pass any bill, and five could block the wheels of government. Congress had none of the powers essential to sovereignty. It could neither levy taxes nor impose duties nor collect excise. For the sup- port of the army and navy, for the purposes of war, for the preservation of its own functions, it could only call upon the States, but it pos- sessed no power to enforce its demands. It had no president or executive authority, no Supreme Court with general jurisdiction and no national power. Each of the thirteen States had seaports and levied discriminating duties against the others, and could also tax and thus prohibit interstate commerce across its territory. TBt:fe: CENTEK^NIAL OEATION. 15 HOW FREEDOM WAS GAINED. Had the Confederation been a union instead of a league, it could have raised and equipped three times the number of men contributed by reluctant States, and conquered independence without foreign assistance. This paralyzed government, without strength, because it could not only enforce its decrees ; without credit, because it could pledge nothing for the pay- ment of its debts ; without respect, because without inherent authority ; would, by its fee- ble life and early death, have added to the other historic tragedies which have in many lands marked the suppression of freedom, had it not been saved by the intelligent, inherited and invincible understanding of liberty by the people, and the genius and patriotism of their leaders. But, while the perils of war had given tem- porary strength to the Confederation, peace developed its fatal weakness. It derived no authority from the people, and could not appeal to them. Anarchy threatened its existence at home, and contempt met its representatives abroad. 16 THE CENTENNIAL OEATION. *' Can you fulfill or enforce the obligations of the treaty on your part if we sign one with you?" was the sneer of the courts of the old world to our embassadors. Some States gave a half-hearted support to its demands ; others defied them. The loss of public credit was speedily followed by universal bankruptcy. The wildest fantasies assumed the force of se- rious measures for the relief of the general dis- tress. States passed exclusive and hostile laws against each other, and riot and disorder threatened the disintegration of society. " Our stock is stolen, our houses are plun- dered, our farms are raided," cried a delegate in the Massachusetts convention ; '' despotism is better than anarchy !" To raise $4,000,000 a year was beyond the resources of the govern- ment, and $300,000 was the limit of the loan it could secure from the money lenders of Eu- rope. Even Washington exclaimed in despair : " I see one head gradually changing into thirteen ; I see one army gradually branching into thirteen, which, instead of looking up to Congress as the supreme controlling power, are considering themselves as depending on their respective States." And later, when independ- ence had been won, the impotency of the gov- THE CEJS^TENNIAL OliATION. It ernment wrung from him the exclamation : '' After gloriously and successfully contending against the usurpation of Great Britain, we may fall a prey to our own folly and disputes." THE ARCHITECTS OF FREEDOM. But even through this Cimmerian darkness shot a flame which illumined the coming cent- ury, and j^ept bright the beacon-fires of liberty. The architects of constitutional freedom formed their institutions with wisdom which forecasted the future. They may not have understood at first the whole truth, but, for that which they knew, they had the martyrs' spirit and the cru- saders' enthusiasm. Though the confederation was a government of checks without balances, and of purpose without power, the statesmen who guided it demonstrated often the resistless force of great souls animated by the purest patriotism, and united in judgment and effort to promote the common good, by lofty appeals and high reason- ning, to elevate the masses above local greed and apparent self-interest to their own broad plane. The most significant triumph of these moral IB THE CENTENNIAL OEATIOJ^. and intellectual forces was that which secured the assent of the States to the limitation of their boundaries, to the grant of the wilderness bevond them to the o-eneral o^overnment and to the insertion in the ordinance erecting the Northwest Territories, of the immortal /r^'^^/i-^' prohibiting ''slavery or involuntary servitude" within all that broad domain. The States carved out of this splendid concession were not sovereignties which had successfully rebelled, but they were the children of the Union, born of the covenant and thrilled with its life and liberty. They became the bulwarks of nation- ality and the buttresses of freedom. Their prepondering strength first checked and then broke the slave power, their fervid loyalty halted and held at bay the spirit of State rights and secession for generations ; and when the crisis came, it was with their overwhelming assistance that the nation killed and buried its enemy. The corner-stone of the edifice whose cen- tena.ry we are celebrating was the ordinance of 1787. It was constructed by the feeblest of Congresses, but few enactments of ancient or modern times have had more far-reaching and beneficent influence. It is one of the sub- THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 19 limest paradoxes of history that this weak Confederation of States should have welded the chain against which, after seventy-four years of fretful efforts for release, its own spirit frantically dashed and died. The government of the Republic by a Con- gress of States, a diplomatic convention of the embassadors of petty commonwealths, after seven years' trial, was falling asunder. Threat- ened with civil war among its members, insur- rection and lawlessness rife within the States, foreim commerce ruined and internal trade paralyzed, its currency worthless, its merchants bankrupt, its farms mortgaged, its markets closed, its labor unemployed, it was like a help- less wreck upon the ocean, tossed about by the tides and ready to be engulfed in the storm. UPRISING OF PATRIOTISM. Washington gave the warning and called for action. It was a voice accustomed to com- mand, but now entreating. The veterans of the war and the statesmen of the Revolution stepped to the front. The patriotism which had been misled, but had never faltered, rose above the interests of States and the jealousies 20 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. of jarring confederates to find the basis for union. '* It is clear to me as A, B, C," said Wash- ington, ''that an extension of federal powers would make us one of the most happy, wealthy, respectable and powerful nations that ever in- habited the terrestrial globe. Without them we shall be everything which is the direct re- verse. I predict the worst consequences from a haif-starved, limping government, always moving upon crutches, and tottering at every step." The response of the country was the conven- tion of 1787, at Philadelphia. The Declara- tion of Independence was but the vestibule of the temple which this illustrious assembly erected. With no successful precedents to guide, it auspiciously worked out the problem of constitutional government, and of imperial power and home rule, supplementing each other in promoting the grandeur of the nation, and preserving the liberty of the individual. The deliberations of great councils have vi- tally affected, at different periods, the history of the world and the fate of empires ; but this Congress builded, upon popular sovereignty, institutions broad enough to embrace the con- THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 21 tinent, and elastic enough to fit all conditions of race and traditions. The experience of a hundred years has demonstrated for us the per- fection of the work, for defence against foreign foes, and for self-preservation against domestic insurrection, for limitless expansion in popula- tion and material development, and for steady growth in intellectual freedom and force. Its continuing influence upon the welfare and des- tiny of the human race can only be measured by the capacity of man to cultivate and enjoy the boundless opportunities of liberty and law. The eloquent characterization of Mr. Gladstone condenses its merits : **The American Consti- tution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." The statesmen who composed this great Senate were equal to their trust. Their con- clusions were the results of calm debate and wise concession. Their character and abilities were so pure and great as to command the con- fidence of the country for the reversal of the policy of the independence of the State of the power of the general government, which had hitherto been the invariable practice and almost 2'Z THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. universal opinion, and for the adoption of the idea of the nation and its supremacy. Washington's chief advisers. Towering in majesty and influence above them all stood Washington, their President. Beside him was the venerable Franklin, who, though 8 1 years of age, brought to the delib- erations of the convention the unimpaired vigor and resources of the wisest brain, the most hopeful philosophy and the largest experience of the times ; Oliver Ellsworth, afterward Chief Justice of the United States and the profoundest jurist in the country ; Robert Morris, the wonderful financier of the Revolu- tion, and Gouverneur Morris, the most versatile genius of his period ; Roger Sherman, one of the most eminent of the signers of the Declara- tion of Independence, and John Rutledge, Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry, Edmund Ran- dolph and the Pinckneys, were leaders of un- equalled patriotism, courage, ability, and learn- ing ; while Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, as original thinkers and constructive statesmen, rank among the immortal few whose THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. , 23 opinions have for ages guided Ministers of State and determined the destinies of nations. This great convention keenly felt, and with devout and serene intelligence met, its tre- mendous responsibilities. It had the moral support of the few whose aspirations for liberty had been inspired or renewed by the triumph of the American Revolution and the active hostility of every government in the world. There were no examples to follow, and the experience of its members led part of them to lean toward absolute centralization as the only refuge from the anarchy of the Confederation, while the rest clung to the sovereignty of the States, for fear that the concentration of power would end in the absorption of liberty. The large States did not want to surrender the ad- vantage of their position, and the smaller States saw the danger to their existence. The leagues of the Greek cities had ended in loss of free- dom, tyranny, conquest and destruction. Ro- man conquest and assimilation had strewn the shores of time with the wrecks of empires, and plunged civilization into the perils and horrors of the dark ages. The government of Cromwell was the isolated power of the mightiest man of his age, without popular 24 THE CENTENNIAL OEATION. authority to fill his place or the hereditary principle to protect his successor. The past furnished no light for our State builders ; the present was full of doubt and despair. The future, the experiment of self-government, the perpetuity and development of freedom, almost the destiny of mankind, was in their hands. SUPREME FORCE AND MAJESTIC SENSE. At this crisis the courage and confidence needed to originate a system w^eakened. The temporizing spirit of compromise seized the convention with the alluring proposition of not proceeding faster than the people could be educated to follow. The cry : *' Let us not waste our labor upon conclusions which will not be adopted, but amend and adjourn," was assuming startling unanimity. But the supreme force and majestic sense of Washington brought the assemblage to the lofty plane of its duty and opportunity. He said : *' It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful con- flict is to be sustained. If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can \we afterward defend our work ? Let us raise a Standard to which the wise and honest can re- pair ; the event is in the hands of God." '' I \ THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. 25 am the State," said Louis XIV., but his Hne ended in the grave of absolutism. '' Forty centuries look down upon you," was Napoleon's address to his army in the shadow of the Pyra- mids, but his soldiers saw only the dream of Eastern empire vanish in blood. Statesmen and parliamentary leaders have sunk into ob- livion or led their party to defeat by surrender- ing their convictions to the passing passions of the hour, but Washington in this immortal speech struck the keynote of representative obligation and propounded the fundamental principle of the purity and perpetuity of consti- tutional government. Freed from the limitations of its environment, and the question of the adoption of its work, the convention erected its government upon the eternal foundations of the power of the people. It dismissed the delusive theory of a compact between independent States, and de- rived national power from the people of the United States. It broke up the machinery of the Confederation and put in practical operation the glittering generalities of the Declaration of Independence. From chaos came order, from insecurity came safety, from disintegration and civil war cam.e law and liberty, with the prin- 26 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. ciple proclaimed in the preamble of the great charter, " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general wel- fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- selves and our posterity, do ordain and estab- lish this constitution for the United States." WISDOM INSPIRED BY GOD. With a wisdom inspired of God, to work out upon this continent the liberty of man, they solved the problem of the ages by blend- ing and yet preserving local self-government with national authority, and the rights of the States with the majesty and power of the Republic. The government of the States, under the Articles of Confederation, became bankrupt because it could not raise four mil- lions of dollars ; the government of the Union, under the Constitution of the United States, raised six thousand millions of dollars, its credit growing firmer as its power and re- sources were demonstrated. The Congress of the Confederation fled from a regiment, which it could not pay ; the Congress of the Union THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 2? • reviewed the comrades of a million of its victorious soldiers, saluting as they marched the flag of the nation, whose supremacy they had sustained. The promises of the Confeder- acy were the scoff of its States ; the pledge of the Republic was the honor of its people. The Constitution, which was to be strength- ened by the strain of a century, to be a mighty conqueror without a subject province, to trium- phantly survive the greatest of civil wars without the confiscation of an estate or the execution of a political offender, to create and grant home rule and State sovereignty to twenty-nine additional commonwealths, and yet enlarge its scope and broaden its power, and to make the name of an American citizen a title of honor throughout the world, came complete from this great convention to the people for adoption. As Flancock rose from his seat in the old Congress, eleven years before, to sign the Declaration of Independence, Franklin saw emblazoned on the back of the President's chair the sun partly above the horizon, but it seemed setting in a blood-red sky. During the seven years of the Confederation he had gathered no hope from the glittering emblem, 28 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. but now as with clear vision he beheld fixed upon eternal foundations the enduring struc- ture of constitutional liberty, pointing to the sign, he forgot his 82 years, and with the enthusiasm of youth electrified the convention with the declaration : " Now I know that it is the risinor sun." The pride of the States and the ambition of their leaders, sectional jealousies, and the over- whelming distrust of centralized power, were all arrayed against the adoption of the Consti- tution. North Carolina and Rhode Island refused to join the Union until long after Washington's inauguration. For months New York was debatable ground. Her territory extending from the sea to the lakes made her the keystone of the arch. Had Arnold's treason in the Revolution not been foiled by the capture of Andre, England would have held New York and subjugated the colonies, and in this crisis, unless New York assented, a hostile and powerful commonwealth dividing the States, made the Union impossible. THE Centennial oration. ^9 CAUSES OF SUCCESS. Success was due to confidence in Washing:- ton and the genius of Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson was the inspiration of independence, but Hamilton was the incarnation of the Con- stitution. In no age or country has there appeared a more precocious or amazing in- telligence than Hamilton. At 17 he annihila- ted the president of his college, upon the question of the rights of the Colonies, in a series of anonymous articles which were credited to the ablest men in the country ; at 47, when he died, his briefs had become the law of the land, and his fiscal system was, and after a hundred years remains, the rule and policy of our government. He gave life to the corpse of national credit, and the strength for self-preservation and ag- gressive power to the federal Union. Both as an expounder of the principles and an adminis- trator of the affairs of government he stands supreme and unrivalled in American history. His eloquence was so magnetic, his language so clear, and his reasoning so irresistible, that he swayed with equal ease popular assembhes, '■* THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. grave senates, and learned judges. He cap- tured the people of the whole country for the Constitution by his papers in the Fedei^alist, and conquered the hostile majority in the New York convention by thesplendor of his oratory. But the multitudes whom no argument could convince, who saw in the executive power and centraHzed force of the Constitution, under another name, and dreaded usurpation of king and Ministry, were satisfied only with the assurance, "■ Washington will be President." "Good !" cried John Lamb, the able leader of the Sons of Liberty, as he dropped his opposi- tion '' for to no other mortal would I trust lauthority so enormous." \ "■ Washington will be President," was the battle cry of the Constitution. It quieted alarm and gave confidence to the timid and courage to the weak. The country responded with enthusiastic unanimity, but the chief with t'.ie greatest reluctance. Li the supreme mo- ment of victory when the world expected him to follow the precedents of the past, and per- petuate the power a grateful country would willingly have left in his hands, he had resigned and retired to Mt. Vernon to enjoy in private station his well-earned rest. THE CENTENNIAL OEATION. 31 The convention created by his exertions to prevent, as he said, " the decline of our federal dio^nitv into insis^nificant and wretched fraof- ments of empire," had called him to preside over its deliberations. Its work made possible the realization of his hope that '' we might sur- vive as an independent republic," and 'again he sought the seclusion of his home. But, after the triumph of the war and the formation of the Constitution, came the third and final crisis — the initial movements of government which were to teach the infant State the steadier steps of empire. Washington's modesty. He alone could stay assault and inspire con- fidence while the great and complicated machi- nery of organized government was put in order and set in motion. Doubt existed nowhere except in his modest and unambitious heart. '* My movements to the chair of government," he said, '* w411 be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. So unwilling am I, in the evening of life, nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of 32 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination which are neces- sary to manage the helm." His whole life had been spent in repeated sacrifices for his country's welfare, and he did not hesitate now, though there is an undertone of inexpressible sadness in this entry in his diary on the night of his departure. ''About lo o'clock I bade adieu to Mt. Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express. set out for New York with the best disposition to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its ex- pectations." No conqueror was ever accorded such a tri- umph, no ruler ever received such a welcome. In this memorable march of six days to the capital, it was the pride of States to accompany him with the masses of their people to their borders, that the citizens of the next common- wealth might escort him through its territory. It was the glory of cities to receive him with every civic honor at their gates, and entertain him as the savior of their liberties. He rode under triumphal arches from which children THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 33 lowered laurel wreaths upon his brov/. The roadways were strewn with flowers, and as they were crushed beneath his horse's hoofs, their sweet incense wafted to heaven the ever ascend- ing prayers of his loving countrymen for his life and safety. The swelling anthem of grati- tude and reverence greeted and followed him along the country side and through the crowded streets: '' Long live George Washington! Long live the father of his people!" HIS RECEPTION IN NEW YORK. His entry into New York was worthy of the city and State. He was met by the chief of- ficers of the retiring government of the country, by the Governor of the Commonwealth, and the whole population. This superb harbor was alive with fleets and flags, and the ships of other nations with salutes from their guns and the cheers of their crews added to the joyous ac- claim. But as the captains who had asked the privilege, bending proudly to their oars, rowed the President's barge swiftly through these in- spiring scenes, Washington's mind and heart were full of reminiscence and foreboding. He had visited New York thirty-three years S4 I'HE CENTENNIAL ORATION. before, also in the month of April, in the full perfection of his early manhood, fresh from Braddock's bloody field, and wearing the only laurels of the battle, bearing the prophetic blessing of the venerable President Davies of Princeton College, as: ''That heroic youth,. Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to the country." It was a fair daughter of our State whose smiles allured him here, and whose coy confession that her heart was another's recorded his only failure, and saddened his departure. Twenty years passed, and he stood before the New York Congress, on this very spot, the unanimously chosen commander in chief of the Continental army, urging the people to more vigorous measures, and made painfully aware of the increased desperation of the struggle from the aid to be given to the enemy by domestic sympathizers, when he knew that the same local military company which escorted him was to perform the like service for the British Governor Tryon on his landing on the morrow. Returning for the defence of the city the next summer he executed the retreat from Long THE CENTENNIAL OUATION. 35 Island, which secured from Frederick the Great the opinion that a great commander had appeared, and at Harlem Heights he won the first American victory of the Revolution, which gave that confidence to our raw recruits against the famous veterans of Europe which carried our army triumphantly through the war. Six years more of untold sufferings, of freezing and starving camps, of marches over the snow by bare-footed soldiers to heroic attack and splen- did victory, of despair with an unpaid army and of hope from the generous assistance of France, and peace had come and independence triumphed. MEMORIES OF THE PAST. As the last soldier of the invading enemy embarks, Washington at the head of the patriot host enters the city, receives the welcome and gratitude of its people, and in the tavern which faces us across the way, in silence more elo. quent than speech, and with tears which choke the words, he bids farewell forever to his com- panions in arms. Such were the crowding memories of the past suggested to Washington in I 789 by his approach to Nev/ York. But 36 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. the future had none of the splendor of pre- cedent and brilliance of promise which have since attended the inauguration of our Presi- dents. An untried scheme, adopted mainly because its administration was to be confided to him, was to be put in practice. He knew he was to be met at every step of constitutional progress by factions temporarily hushed into unanimity by the terrific farce of the tidal wave which was bearing him to the President's seat, but fiercely hostile upon questions affecting every power of nationality and the existence of the federal government. Washington was never dramatic, but on great occasions he not only rose to the full ideal of the event, he became himself the event. One hundred years ago to-day the procession of foreign embassadors, of statesmen and generals, of civic societies and military companies, which escorted him, marched from Franklin square to Pearl street, through Pearl to Broad, and up Broad to this spot, but the people saw only Washington, As he stood upon the steps of the old Government building here the thought must have occurred to him that it was a cradle THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. 37 of liberty, and as such giving a bright omen for the future. In these halls in 1735, in the trial of John Zenger, had been established for the first time in its history the liberty of the press. Here the New York Assembly, in 1 764, made the protest against the Stamp act and proposed the gen- eral conference, which was the bemnninof of the united colonial action. In this old State House in 1765 the Stamp Act Congress, the first and the father of American Congresses, assembled and presented to the English Govern- ment that vigorous protest which caused the repeal of the act and checked the first step toward the usurpation which lost the American Colonies to the British Empire. Within these walls the Congress of the Confederation had commissioned its embassadors abroad, and in ineffectual efforts at government had created the necessity for the concentration of federal au- thority, now to be consummated. WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH. The first Consfress of the United States gathered in this ancient temple of liberty, greeted Washington and accompanied him to 38 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. the balcony. The famous men visible about him were Chancellor Livingston, Vice-Presi- dent John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Gov- ernor Clinton, Roger Sherman, Richard Henry Lee, General Knox, and Baron Steuben. But we believe that among the invincible host above him, at this supreme moment of the culmination in permanent triumph of the thousands of years of struggle for self-govern- ment, were the spirits of the soldiers of the I revolution who had died that their countrymen might enjoy this blessed day, and with them were the barons of Runymede and William the Silent, and Sydney and Russell, and Cromwell and Hampden, and the heroes and martyrs of liberty of every race and age. 1 As he came forward the multitude in the \ streets, in the windows and on the roofs sent up such a rapturous shout that Washington sat down overcome with emotion. As he slowly rose and his tall and majestic form again appeared the people, deeply affected, in awed silence viewed the scene. The Chancel- lor solemnly read to him the oath of office and Washington, repeating, said : " I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 39 the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Then he reverently bent low and kissed the Bible, uttering v^ith profound emotion, '' So help me God." The Chancellor waived his robes and shouted: *' It is done; long live George Washington, President of the United States !" '* Long live George Washington, our first President !" was the answering cheer of the people, and from the belfries rang the bells, and from forts and ships thundered the cannon, echoing and repeating the cry with responding acclaim all over the land, " Long live George Washington, President of the United States !" The simple and imposing ceremony over, the inaugural read, the blessing of God prayer- fully petitioned in old St. Paul's, the festivities passed, and Washington stood alone. No one else could take the helm of State, and enthusi- ast and doubter alike trusted only him. The teachings and habits of the past had educated the people to faith in the independence of their States, and for the supreme authority of the new government there stood against the prece- dent of a century and the passions of the hour little besides the arguments of Hamilton, Madi-. 40 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. son and Jay in the Federalist and the judg- ment of Washington. TRIUMPH OF THE REPUBLIC. With the first attempt to exercise national power began the duel to the death l)et\veen State sovereignty claiming the right to nullify federal laws or secede from the Union, and the power of the republic to command the re- sources of the country, to enforce its authority and protect its life. It was the beginning of the sixty years' war for the Constitution of the nation. It seared consciences, degraded poli- tics, destroyed parties, ruined statesmen, and retarded the advance and development of the country; it sacrificed hundreds of thousands of precious lives, and squandered thousands of millions of money ; it desolated the fairest por- tion of the land and carried mourning into every home North and South ; but it ended at Appomattox in the absolute triumph of the republic. Posterity owes to Washington's administra- tion the policy and measures, the force and di- \ rection which made possible this glorious re- \sult. In giving the organization of the De- THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 41 partment of State and foreign relations to Jef- ferson, the Treasury to Hamilton and the Su- preme Court to Jay he selected for his Cabinet and called to his assistance the ablest and most eminent men of his time. Hamilton's marvel- ous versatility and genius designed the armory and the weapons for the promotion of national power and greatness, but Washington's steady support carried them through. Parties crystalized, and party passions were intense, debates were intemperate, and the Union openly threatened and secretly plotted against, as the firm pressure of this mighty per- sonality funded the debt and established credit, assumed the State debts incurred in the war of the Revolution and superseded the local by the national obligation, imposed duties upon im- ports and excise upon spirits and created rev- enue and resources, organized a national bank- ing system for public needs and private business and called out an army to put down by force of arms resistance to the federal laws imposing ^unpopular taxes. / Upon the plan marked out by the Con- stitution this great architect, with unfailing faith and unfaltering courage, builded the re- public. He gave to the government the prin- 42 THE CEN1E^,^?^IAL ORATION. ciples of action and sources of power which carried it successfully through the wars with Great Britain in 1812 and Mexico in 1848, which enabled Jackson to defeat nullification, and recruited and equipped millions of men for Lincoln and justified and sustained his proc- lamation of emancipation. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. The French revolution was the bloody reality of France and the niorhtmare of the civilized world. The tyranny of centuries culminated in frightful reprisals and reckless revenges. As parties rose to power and passed to the guillotine, the frenzy of the revolt against all authority reached every country, and captured the imaginations and enthusiasm of millions in every land, who believed that they saw that the madness of anarchy, the overturning of all in- stitutions, the confiscation and distribution of property, would end in a millennium for the ] masses and the universal brotherhood of man. Enthusiasm for France, our late ally, and the terrible commercial and industrial distress oc- casioned by the failure of the government un- der the Articles of Confederation, aroused ar\ THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 43 almost unanimous cry for the young republic, not yet sure of its own existence, to plunge into the vortex. The ablest and purest statesmen of the time bent to the storm, but Washington was unmoved. lie stood like the rock-ribbed coast of a continent between the surging billows of fanaticism and the child of his love. Order is Heaven's first law, and the mind of Wash- ington was order. The revolution defied God and derided the law. Washington devoutly reverenced the Deity and believed liberty impossible without law. He spoke to the sober judgment of the nation and made clear the danger. He saved the infant government from ruin, and expelled the French Minister who had appealed from him to the people. The whole land seeing safety only in his continuance in office, joined Jefferson in urging him to accept a second term. " North and South," pleaded the Secretary, *' will hang together while they have you to hang to." No man ever stood for so much to his coun- try and mankind as George Washington. Hamilton, Jefferson and Adams, Madison and Jay, each represented some of the elements vvhich formed the Union. Washin2;ton em.- / 44 THE CENTENNIAL OEATION. bodied them all. They fell at times under popular disapproval, were burned in effii^y, were stoned, but he with unerring judgment was always the leader of the people. Milton said of Cromwell that ''war made him great, peace greater." SUPERIORITY OF WASHINGTON'S CHARACTER. The superiority of Washington's character and genius were more conspicuous in the forma- tion of our government and in putting it on in- destructible foundations than in leadingf armies to victory and conquering the independence of his country. " The Union in any event " is the central thought of his farewell address, and all the years of his grand life w^ere devoted to its formation and preservation. He fought as a youth with Braddock and in the capture of Fort Du Quesne for the protection of the whole country. As commander in chief of the Continental army his commission was from the Congress of the United Colonies. He inspired the movement for the republic, was the president and dominant spirit of the convention which framed its Constitution and its President for eight years, and guided its course until satisfied fHE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 45 I that, moving safely along the broad highway of time, it would be surely ascending toward the first place among the nations of the world, the asylum of the oppressed, the home of the free. Do his countrymen exaggerate his virtues ? Listen to Guizot, the historian of civilization : '' Washington did the two greatest things which in politics it is permitted to man to attempt. He maintained by peace the independence of his country which he conquered by war. He founded a free government in the name of the principles of order and by re-establishing their sway." '/ ji^ear Lord Erskine, the most famous of En- glish advocates : " You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence." Remember the tribute of Charles James Fox, the greatest Parliamentary orator who ever swayed the Brit- ish House of Commons : " Illustrious man, before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance." Contemplate the character of Lord Brougham, pre-eminent for two genera- tions in every department of human activity and thought, and then impress upon the memo- ries of your children his deliberate judgment : ** Until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom 46 THE CENTENNIAL 6KATI0N. and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." HOW HE COMPARED WITH OTHER GENERALS. Chatham, who, with CHve, conquered an em- pire in the East, died broken-hearted at the loss of the empire in the West, by follies which even his power and eloquence could not prevent. Pitt saw the vast creations of his diplomacy shattered at Austerlitz, and fell murmuring : ''My country! How I leave my countr)^" Napoleon caused a noble tribute to Washing- ton to be read at the head of his armies, but, unable to rise to Washington's greatness, wit- nessed the vast structure erected by conquest and cemented by blood, to minister to his own ambition and pride, crumble into fragments, and an exile and a prisoner he breathed his last babbling of battlefields and carnage. Washing- ton with his finger upon his pulse, felt the pres- ence of death, and calmly reviewing the past and forecasting the future, answered to the sum- mons of the grim messenger, '' It is well," and as his mighty soul ascended to God, the land was deluged with tears and the world united in his eulogy. Blot out from the page of history the THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 4'i' names of all the great actors of his time in the drama of nations, and preserve the name of Washington, and the century would be re- nowned. We stand to-day upon the dividing line be- tween the hrst and second centuries of constitu- tional Q^overnment. There are no clouds over- head and no convulsions under our feet. We reverently return thanks to Almighty God for the past, and with confident and hopeful prom- ise march upon sure ground toward the future. The simple facts of these hundred years para- lyze the imagination, and we contemplate the vast accumulations of the century with awe and pride. Our population has grown from 4,000,000 to 65,000,000. Its center moving westward 500 miles since i 789 is eloquent with tne foundling of cities and the birth of States. New settlements, clearing the forests and sub- duing the prairies, and adding 4,000,000 to the few thousands of farms which were the support of Washington's republic, create one of the great graneries of the world and open exhaust- less reservoirs of national wealth. 48 THE CENTENNIAL OEATION. GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES AND POPULATION. The infant industries which the first act of our first administration sought to encourage, now give remunerative employment to more people than inhabited the Republic at the be- ginning of Washington's Presidency. The grand total of their annual output of $7,000- 000,000 in value places the United States first among the manufacturing countries of the earth. One half the total mileage of all the railroads and one quarter of all the telegraph lines of the world within our borders, testify to the volume, variety and value of an internal commerce which makes these States, if need be, independ- ent and self-supporting. These hundred years of development under favoring political condi- tions have brought the sum of our national wealth to a figure which has passed the results of a thousand years for the mother-land, herself otherwise the richest of modern empires. During this generation a civil war of un- equalled magnitude caused the expenditure and loss of $8,000,000,000 and killed 600,000 and permanently disabled over 1,000,000 young men, and yet the impetuous progress of the THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 49 North and the marvellous industrial develop- ment of the new and free South have obliter- ated the evidences of destruction, and made the war a memory, and have stimulated pro- duction until our annual surplus nearly equals that of England, France, and Germany com- bined. The teeming millions of Asia till the patient soil and work the shuttle and loom as their fathers have done for ages. Modern Europe has felt the influence and received the benefit of the incalculable multiplication of force by in- ventive genius since the Napoleonic wars, and yet only 269 years after the little band of Pil- grims landed on Plymouth Rock our people, numbering less than one-fifteenth of the inhabi- tants of the globe, do one-third of its mining, one-fourth of its manufacturing, one-fifth of its agriculture, and own one-sixth of its wealth. DANGER AVERTED. This realism of material prosperity, surpass- ing the wildest creations of the romancers who have astonished and delighted mankind, would be full of danger for the present and menace for the future if the virtue, intelligence and in- 50 THE CENTENKIAL 0SATI0I5". dependence of the people were not equal to the wise regulation of its uses and the stern preven- tion of its abuses. But following the growth and power of the great factors, whose aggrega- tion of capital made possible the tremendous pace of the settlement of our national domain, the building of our great cities and the open- ing of the lines of communication which have unified our country and created our resources, have come national and State legislation and supervision. Twenty millions, a vast majority of our people of intelligent age, acknowledging the authority of their several churches, 12,000,000 children in the common schools, 345 universities and colleges for the higher education of men and 200 for women, 450 institutions of learning for science, law, medicine, and theology, are the de- spair of the scoffer and the demagogue and the lirm support of civilization and liberty. Steam and electricity have changed the com- merce not only, they have revolutionized also the governments of the world. They have given to the press its power and brought all races and nationalities into touch and sympathy. They have tested and are trying the strength of all systems to stand the strain and conform to n THE CENTENIJIAL ORATION. 61 the conditions which follow the orerminatino: in- fluences of American democracy. At the time of the inauguration of Washington seven royal families ruled as many kingdoms in Italy, but six of them have seen their thrones overturned and their countries disappear from the map of Europe. Most of the kings, princes, dukes, and mar- graves of Germany who reigned despotically and sold their soldiers for foreign service have passed into history, and their heirs have nei- ther prerogatives nor domain. Spain has gone through many violent changes, and the perma- nency of her present government seems to de- pend upon the feeble life of an infant prince. France, our ancient friend, with repeated and bloody revolutions, has tried the government of Bourbon and convention, of directory and consulate, of empire and citizen king, of hered- itary sovereign and republic, of empire, and again republic. The Hapsburg and the Ho- henzollern, after convulsions which have rocked the foundations of their thrones, have been compelled to concede constitutions to their people and to divide with them the arbi- trary power wielded so autocratically and bril- 52 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. liantly by Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great. The royal will of George III. could crowd the American Colonies into rebellion and wage war upon them until they were lost to his king- dom, but the authority of the Crown has de- volved upon Ministers who hold office subject to the approval of the representatives of the people, and the equal powers of the House of Lords have become vested in the Commons, leaving to the Peers only the shadow of their ancient privileges. FEW CHANGES IN THE GOVERNMENT. But to-day the American people, after all the dazzling developments of the century, are still happily living under the government of Wash- ington. The Constitution during all that period has been amended only upon the lines laid down in the original instrument, and in conformity with the recorded opinions of the fathers. The first orreat addition was the in- corporation of a bill of rights, and the last the imbedding into the Constitution of the immor- tal principle of the Declaration of Independ- ence — of the equality of all men before the THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 53 law. No crisis has been too perilous for its powers, no evolution too rapid for its adapta- tion, and no expansion beyond its easy grasp and administration. It has assimilated diverse nationalities with warring traditions, customs, conditions, and languages, imbued them with its spirit, and won their passionate loyalty and love. The flower of the youth of the nations of continental Europe are conscripted from pro- ductive industries and drilling in camps. Vast armies stand in battle array along the frontiers, and a Kaiser's whim or a Minister's mistake may precipitate the most destructive war of modern times. Both monarchial and repub- lican governments are seeking safety in the repression and suppression of opposition and criticism. The volcanic forces of democratic aspiration and socialistic revolt are rapidly in- creasing, and threaten peace and security. We turn from these gathering storms to the Brit- ish isles and find their people in the throes of a political crisis involving the form and sub- stance of their government, and their states- men far from confident that the enfranchised and unprepared masses will wisely use their power. 54 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. THE SUN OF OUR DESTINY STILL RISING. / But for us no army exhausts our resources or consumes our youth. Our navy must needs increase in order that the protecting flag may follow the expanding commerce, which is to successfully compete in all the markets of the world. The sun of our destiny is still rising, and its rays illume vast territories as yet unoc- cupied and undeveloped, and which are to be the happy homes of millions of people. The questions which affect the powers of govern- ment and the expansion or limitation of the au- thority of the federal Constitution are so com- pletely settled and so unanimously approved that our political divisions produce only the healthy antagonism of parties which is neces- sary for the preservation of liberty. Our insti- tutions furnish the full equipment of shield and spear for the battles of freedom, and absolute protection against every danger which threat- ens the welfare of the people will always be found in the intelligence which appreciates their value, and the courage and morality with which their powers are exercised. The spirit of Washington fills the executive office. Pre^i- THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 55 dents may not rise to the full measure of his greatness, but they must not fall below his standard of public duty and obligation. His life and character, conscientiously studied and thoroughly understood by coming generations, will be for them a liberal education for private life and public station, for citizenship and pa- triotism, for love and devotion to union and liberty. With their inspiring past and splendid present, the people of these United States, heirs of a hundred years, marvellously rich in all which adds to the glory and greatness of a na- tion, with an abiding trust in the stability and elasticity of their Constitution, and an abound- ing faith in themselves, hail the coming cen- tury with hope and joy. As Mr. Depew uttered the last word he bowed gracefully to the great and loudly cheer- ing audience and turned toward his seat. Ere he could reach it Senator Evarts seized his hand, and other friends joined in hearty con- gratulations. 56 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. DISTINGUISHED GUESTS PRESENT. PROMINENT MEN WHO OCCUPIED THE RE- SERVED SEATS ON THE PLATFORM. The distinguished guests who occupied the reserved seats were as follows : President Harrison, Vice-President Morton, Archbishop Corrigan, Dr. R. S. Storrs, Clarence W. Bowen, Stuyvesant Fish, Elbridge T. Gerry, Ex-President Hayes, Ex-President Cleveland, Lieut.-Governor Jones, William Stevens Perry, Bishop of Iowa. Dr. Eliphalet Potter, Rev. W. A. Holbrook, Senator Evarts, Hamilton Fish, Mayor Grant, THE CENTEIST^IAL ORATION. 57 Members of the Supreme Court, save Judge Harlan. Members of the Cabinet, save Secretary Blaine. Senator Shernvian, General Sherman, Ex-Secretary Bayard, Ex-Vice-President Hamlin, Senator Hiscock. Governor D. B. Hill, Admiral Porter, Admiral Jouett, The following Governors of State also had seats of honor : William R. Merriam, Minnesota. Sylvester Pennoyer, Oregon. Miles C. Moore, "Washington Territory. W. B. Webb, District of Columbia. John A. Cooper, Colorado. Russell B. Harrison, special commissioner for S. T. Bauser of Montana. Walker, West Virginia. John M. Thayer, Nebraska. C. C. Luce, Michigan. David H. Francis, Missouri. WiUiam P. Dillingham, Vermont, 06 THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. Simon B. Buckner, Kentucky. E. E. Jackson, Maryland. John P. Richmond, South Carolina. B. T. Biggs, Delaware. James A. Beaver, Pennsylvania. Morgan G. Bulkeley, Connecticut. Oliver Ames, Massachusetts. Daniel Gould Fowle, North Carolina. Royal C. Taft, Rhode Island. Thomas Seay, Alabama. Edwin C. Burleigh, Maine. William Larrabee, Iowa. William D. Hoard, Wisconsin. J. B. Foraker, Ohio. Alvin P. Hovey, Indiana. C. H. Sawyer, New Hampshire. Fitzhugh Lee, Virginia. Robert S. Green, New Jersey. John B. Gordon, Georgia. Among other noted people observed on the platform, were the following : Flenry Dudley, William A. Pierrepont, J. J. O'Donohue, Edwards Pierrepont, Andrew Carnegie, THE CENTENNIAL OKATION. 59 John Cochrane, John D. Crimmins, Major Edgar Sigismund Lasar. James E. Potter, Senator Haines, of Delaware, J. C. Carter, Ex-Collector E. A. Merritt, Ex-Speaker Lewis Barker, of Maine, O. P. Potter, Whitelaw Reid, J. L. N. Hunt, Ed. N. Tailer, Ed. N. Parris, A. C. Rand, Alexander Sullivan, of Chicago, Colonel William Thompson, of Chicago, John E. Gihbens, John B. Pyne, J. P. G. Foster, A. C. Bernheim, Mahlon Chance, Robert B. Porter, H. S. Marlor, Senator Hawley, Carl Schurz, Anthony Higgins, Ex-Superintendent Walling, 60 THE CENTEJTNIiJi ORATION. Judge Benedict, George Wilson, Senator Cullom, of Illinois, Henry C. Bovven, D. O. Mills, Bishop Andrews, of the M. E. Church, President Eliot, of Harvard College, A. M. Scriba, General Isaac S. Catlin, of Brooklyn, G. C. Webb. Colonel Strange of North Carolina, A. F. Telfair, General J. D. Glenn, Colonel F. A. Olds, Colonel W. H. Williams, Colonel C. S. Bryan, Captain R. Percy Gray, Captain W. B. Grimes, Col. Franklin Fairbanks. General P. P. Pitkin, General L. G. Kingsley, Colonel H. J. Brookes, John Jacob Astor, Fred Douglass, Colonel Bourke Cockran, General John Watts Kearny, General R. W. Spencer, THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 61 Colonel Rufus King, Colonel G. B. M. Harvey, Gen. Robert F. Stockton, Courtlandt Parker, Chancellor McGill, Dr. William Pancoast, Rev. James Corrigan, Father McDonald, Senator Allison, Minister Carter of Hawaii, Minister Varas of Chili, Charles Emory Smith, Ex-Senator M. E. Chandler, Walker Blaine, Congressman Chas. O'Neil. The following gentlemen had official charge of the exercises at the platform: Hamilton Fish, president ; Hugh J. Grant, chairman ; Elbridge T. Gerry, chairman Exec- utive Committee ; Clarence W. Bowen, Secre- tary. Platform Committee — Johnston Living- ston de Peyster, Chairman ; Robert R. Liv- ingston, W. E. D. Stokes, G. Creighton Webb, Nicholas Fish, Lispenard Stewart, William Pierson Hamilton, Charles H. Russell, Jr., Alfred R. Conkling, William Cary Sanger, 62 'ruil CENTENNIAL ORATION. John Anthon, Gardiner Sherman, J. Lawrence Aspinvvall, Arthur De Windt, Lewis H. Liv- ingston, Charles W. Bleecker, Thomas Jeffer- son Coolridge, Jr., Brooks Adams, Clermont L. Clarkson ; Frank S. Witherbee, Secretary. THE VOW OF WASHINGTON. BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. The sword was sheatlied: in April's sun Lay green the fields by Freedom won; And severed sections, weary of debates, Joined hands at last and were United States. O City sitting by the Sea! How proud the day that dawned on thee, When the new era, long desired, began, And in its need the hour had found the man! One thought the cannon salvos spoke; The resonant bell-tower's vibrant stroke, The voiceful streets, the plaudit-echoing halls, And prayer and hymn born heavenward from St. Paul's! How felt the land in every part The strong throb of a nation's heart. As its great leader gave with reverent awe His pledge to Union, Liberty, and Law! That pledge the heavens above him heard, That vow the sleep of centuries stirred; In world-wide wonder listening peoples bent Their gaze on Freedom's great experiment. THE CENTENNIAL ORATION. 63 Could it succeed ? Of honor sold And hopes deceived all history told. Above the wrecks that strewed the mournful past, v^/as the long dream of ages true at last ? Thank God! the people's clioice was just, The one man equal to his trust, Wise beyond lore, and without weakness good, Calm in the strength of flawless rectitude! His rule of justice, order, peace. Made possible the world's release; Taught prince and serf that power is but a trust, And rule, alone, which serves the ruled, is just; That Freedom generous is, but strong In hate of fraud and selfish wrong. Pretence that turns her holy truths to lies, And lawless license masking in her guise. Land of his love! with one glad voice Let thy great sisterhood rejoice; A century's suns o'er thee have risen and set, And, God be praised, we are one nation yet. And still, we trust, the years to be Shall prove his hope was destiny. Leaving our flag with all its added stars Unrent by faction and unstained by warsL Lo! where with patient toil he nursed And trained the new-set plant at first, The widening branches of a stately tree Stretch from the sunrise to the sunset sea. 64 THE CEl^TENNlAL OEATION. And in its broad and sheltering shade, Sitting with none to make afraid, Were we now silent, through each mighty limb, Tlie winds of heaven would sing the praise of him. Our first and best! — his ashes lie Beneath liis own Virginian sky. Forgive, forget, O true and just and brave. The storm that swept above thy sacred grave! For, ever in the awful strife And dark hours of the nation's life. Through the fierce tumult pierced his warning word, Their father's voice his erring children heard! The change for which he prayed and sought In that sharp agony was wrought; No partial interest draws its alien line 'Twixt North and South, the cypress and the pine! One people now, all doubt beyond, His name shall be our Union bond; We lift our hands to Heaven, and here and now, Take on our lips the old centennial vow. For rule and trust must needs be ours; Chooser and chosen both are powers Equal in service as in rights; the claim Of Dutv rests on each and all the same. Then let the sovereign millions, where Our banner floats in sun and air. From the warm palm-lands to Alaska's cold, Repeat with us the pledge a century old! ARE YOU THIW KING ABOUT BUILDING A HOUSE? ' If you are, you ought to buy the new book, £*aUiser\^ Aft:*irican Architecture^ or every man a complete builder, prepared by Palliser, Palliser & Co., the well known architects. There is not a Builder or any one intending" to Build or otherwise interested that can afford to be without it. It is a practical work and everybody buys it. The best, cheapest and most popular work ever issued on building. Nearly four hun- dred drawings. A $5 book in size and style, but we have .deter- mined to make it meet the popular demand, to suit the times, so that it can be easily reached by all. This book contains 104 pages 11 x 14 inches in size, and con- sists of large 9x12 plate pages giving plans, elevations, per- spective views, descriptions, owners' names, actual cost of con- struction, no guess ivorh, and instructions How to JBuild 70 Cottages, Villas, Double Houses, Brick Block Houses, suitable for city suburbs, town and country, houses for the farm and workingmen's homes for all sections of the country, and costine: from $800 to $6,500 ; also Barns, Stables, School House, Town Hal], Churches, and other public baildings, together with speci- fications, form of contract, and a large amount of information on the erection of buildings, selection of site, employment of Archi- tects. It is worth $5.00 to any one, but I will send it in paper cover by mail postpaid on receipt of $1.00; bound in cloth, $2.00. Address all orders to J. S. OGILVIE, Publish EK, P. O. Box 2767. 57 Rose St., New York. OgilvJe's Pocket Manual and Universal ASSISTANT. WORTH 15? ♦ CONTAINS One Million Useful Pacts and Figures. IT IS WORTH $5.00 BUT COSTS ONLY 25 CENTS. The times are peculiarly calculated to increase every person's desire to make and save money. New and im- proved management of busi- ness and financial affairs, and economy in daily expen- ses of all kinds, are the uni- versal study. And almost everyone has felt the need— the great find pressing need, sometimes— of a concise and throughly PRACTICAL hand book, calculated to aid him iu his plans of thrift and management. Especially is there a demand for a low- priced volume of this charac- ter, for the self -education of young men and young wo- men for the realities of life on the farm, and in the counting-room, the work- shop, and the household. To meet this great popu- lar want, this valuable work has been prepared. It, is a re- markable book. It contains a larger amount of valuable information on practical matters, in shape for ready use, than can be bought in any other form for $15.00, yet is sold at only 25 cents. It is invaluable to Every Fax-mer, Every Mechanic, Every Workman, Every Book-keeper, Every Tradesman, Every Machinist, Every Clerk, Every Investor, Every Land Owner, Every Housekeeper, Every Professional Man, Every Letter Writer, Every Patentee, Every Author, in fact no person who can read the English language should be without a copy of it. Bound in limp cloth, 25 cents $ heavy silk cloth, 50 cents. Send 25 Cents at once for a sample copy and agents terms. It contains about 2.50 pages and is for sale by every newsdealer and book- seller in the United States, and on all trains, or it will be sent by mail, postpai'l. oia receipt of price, by J. S. OGILVIK, PUBLISHKR, p. O. Box 2767. 57 RM Str^. Kew Yoi-k. ^t't *^. 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