y^ v^ ,^ »o ^^^• 'Jt bV*^ "^0^ H ° A .*'\ ' ^^ .^' r o. Av ... °<^. ^^^ .«o' ^^ '^O" ■oK V" ,^!°^'^ <^ ol'J'" -^ V .^J V 5 ' ^^ /^fe\ "^o^../ :'M/)k^ %.A^ /^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^0^9^ o'^ <^^ '^Trr-^\^^' Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from Tine Library of Congress littp://www.arcliive.org/details/banquettendereddOOclev J o "Uve Liorary oi v^un^Tcoa, from ^(* Dept. of State Q_JIjiaj~PjL(X''^0^ • VAX<-Qe/w:i_ ' j3^j^q^^^^ TENDERED THE DELEOATES ESS, BY THE CITIZENS OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, U. S. A. "THE STILL7«tKN," TUESDHY EiiENING, OCTOBER 15, 1559 UTHORIZED ^ STENOGRKPHIC REPORT. ras\ Ay FfV-0 6 ©to ^anqneU The dinner given at the Stillman on Tuesday evening, October 15, 1889, in honor of the delegates from the Three Americas, will long be remem- bered by those so fortunate as to attend. The vast dining room was con- verted into a charmed palace — a veritable fairy tale. From the walls and arches the colors of the South American States hung in profuse draperies, intertwined with the stars and stripes. Tropical plants abounded, grouped artistically with the hemlock and fern of a more northern latitude, and the magnolia extended its bell-shaped blossoms beside the modest bud of the Northern favorite — the rose. The tables were seven in number, spark- ling with a wealth of silver and cut glass, and loaded down with the choicest viands. Hidden in a plant-covered recess, Professor Faust's Opera House orchestra discoursed the sweetest music, and the soft rays of innumerable incandescent lights in colored globes, reflected from the shimmer of the glass and silver, combined in making a magnificent effect — one that impressed itself upon the beholder. The Committee on Banquet reduced to perfection the system of seat- ing the guests, the assignment of seats being as follows : Hon. D. A. Dangler. Thos. JopHn. H. W. White. H. R. Grofif. C. W. Scofield. S. C. Ford. K. T. Scovill. F. N. Reed. D. B. Chambers H. B. Childs. i-j F. 0. Spencer. Geo. W. Cady. > a C. Morris. H. W. Avery. > C. I.. Pack. A. T. Hubbard. W. P. Rice. N. Polhanius. S. M. Strong. ^ M. Sturtevant. J. D. Selzer. J. C, Weideraan. John Walker, Edwin Cowles, Joaquin Bernardo Calvo. R. H. Jenks. Adolfo G. Calvo. Alcibiades Velarde. Major W. W. Armstrong. S. P. Ely. Col. Wm. Edwards. Major W. C. Overman, U. S. A. Lieut. Peltitt, U. S. A. J. H. Fox. E. H. Perdue. W. M. Day. Lewis Miller. Col. John Hay. Manuel Quintaua. Fayette Brown. Adolfo Mujica y Sayago. Hon. W. J. McKinnie. Richard Villafranca. R. L. Farnham. F. W. Mack. Joaquin Arrieta Rossi. Samuel Valdivieso. J. F. Whitelaw. F. F. Hickox. S. A. Fuller. J. B. Perkins. — 5 — Hon. H. B. Payne. Horacio Guzman. Chas. R. Flint. Hon. Amos Townsend. Jacinto Castellanos. Hermon Bronson. Ernesto Bosch. Hon. C. C. Burnett. Dr. C. R. Gill. Col. Jas. Pickands. Captj J. G. Bourke, U. S. A. Capt. H. S. Wetmore. F. C. C. Zegarra. Gov. J. B. Foraker. Hon. John Sherman. Alberto Nin. Hon. M. A. Hanna. Wm. Bingham. Chas. F. Brush. > Carlos Zanartu. Paulino Alfonso. Domingo Pena Toro. Leander McBride. E. Constantino Fiallos F. G. Pierra. Gen. James Barnett. Carlos Martinez Silva. Hon. Geo. W. Gardner. Rev. S. P. Sprecher, D. D. Hon. M. A. Foran Col. R. C. Parsons. Fernando Cruz. Judge S. Burke. Domingo Estrada. John Newell. Alberto Falcon. Dr. G. M. Sternberg, U. S. A. Dr. G. C. Ashmun. Dr. Martin Armador. Hon. J. C. Covert. Jose Maria Placido Caamano. Hon. A. T. Brinsmaie. — 6 — Col. T. H. Anderson Juan F. Velarde. Geo. W. Stockly. Henry Dauber. Javier A. Arroyo. H. P. Ullibridge. W. G. Pollock. J. H. King-. J. H. Dalliba. E. A. Trescot. O. D. Myer. Daniel Myers. John Tod. Morton D. Mitchell. Ralph D. Williams. G. H. Harries. C. B. Williams. F. H. Taylor. James Clancy. John T. Bourke. E. M. Hood. M. G. Seckendorff. Felix Rosenberg. Hon. M. L. Smyser. E. R. Perkins. W. H. Parkin. Geo. Duckett A. C. Hord. J. F. Isham. J. I/. Hudson. C. Jaster. Guy Gray. J. H. Herrick M. B. Schwab. > J. S. Dickie. F. Muhlhauser. M. B. Clark. ion. Jos. Black. P H. R. Hatch. G. H. Burt. F. A. Sterling N. P. Bowler. O. M. Burke. N. D. Fisher. Geo. Deming. F. H. Glidden. J. G. Hower. T . H. White pJhat ^a0 ^axb. The importance of the occasion and the international character of the addresses to be made, warranted the committee in securing a full steno- graphic report of the proceedings. Senator Henry B. Payne presided, and skillfully conducted the post-prandial proceedings. In introducing the first speaker, he said : SENATOR PAYNE'S ADDRESS. Geni%EMEN : The purpose of this Congress, so called, the object to be attained by it, the motives which inspired it, were all so beautifully ex- pressed in the address of Secretary Blaine to the Congress on its first meeting in Washington, that it renders unnecessary any explanation of its purpose by me. It is declared by the President through the Secretary of State that the object of this excursion is to enable the members of the Congress from the other American States to study and to learn the condition of our government and of our people. A secondary purpose named by the Secretary is that we at our homes, American citizens, might have the pleasure and the privilege of entertaining these gentlemen as guests and becoming acquainted with them. So far as furnishing facilities for study- ing our condition is concerned, there is certainly no concealment and no desire to conceal anything from the view of these intelligent gentlemen. They are statesmen, familiar with what indicates the resources and great- ness of a country ; and they come for the express purpose of learning whether we are worthy in the future to be more intimately associated with them in their government. We invite the most thorough and critical ex- amination of whatever we possess. Speaking for the city of Cleveland, its industries and its men of enterprise, and saying what indeed can be said for the whole American people, we bid them welcome. Enter our shops, our manufactories ; come to our arms and our hearts ; examine everything that we have, and if you find we are not worthy of that association which is contemplated, be kind enough to say so and leave us alone. I will not therefore detain you by any further remarks of my own. The time is so short that the addresses of others must necessarily be very brief, and I am desired by the committee to so express it to those who are to take part in them. The first address will be by Hon. George W. Gardner, Mayor of the city of Cleveland. MAYOR GARDNER'S ADDRESS. Mayor Gardner, arising, addressed the assemblage as follows : My Brother Americans : Because I know that you have been con- tinuously feasted and have not been permitted to fast, and because I know that you have been continuously kept on the wing and not permitted to rest, I shall address you very briefly now, and I give that as a hint to the other speakers. It has been with the liveliest interest that our citizens have kept informed of the formation of the International American Con- gress — the first gathering at Washington of the delegates, the preparations for an extensive journey; and when it was announced that Cleveland stood prominent in the itinerary there came at once an expression of delight that we were to be favored with the presence of a number of distinguished men representing so importantly so many American republics and the Empire of Brazil ; a gathering such as never before have we had and such as will be a mark of memorable occasion in the history of our city. And now that you have safely arrived, it is with the utmost pleasure that we meet and greet you as our guests. ' Since we know that we shall regret your final departure, so do we regret that your visit with us, in our beautiful city of Cleveland, is to be of such short duration that time will not permit us to do as we would like in e>ctending hospitality or showing the extent and im- portance of one of the most progressive and enterprising cities of North America. Fully appreciating the importance of the Congress and of the value of the impressions you may receive from viewing and in reviewing in debate, we are desirous of doing our part in the exhibit of material matter so mu- tually interesting to all good people. As you journey on you may possibly be impressed with the magnitude of the wonderful industrial development, the harmonious social and political system, the public benefits and the manner of living in this North America of ours. That we may add to a favorable impression we desire that you should know that there is scarcely another city in the Union that contains within its municipal limits so va- ried and so many industrial interests, whose people are more energetic, enterprising and progressive, or who more thoroughly believe in the con- servation of the general welfare of all the American States. It is but little more than fifty years since Cleveland's birth as a city, and less than forty years since that great aid to progress — the first railroad — gave us an im- petus, and now, with a population verging on to 300,000 and a territory of thirty square miles, we are the home of the electric light and appliances, and of the Standard Oil Company, whose President thirty years ago was an employe here. We are constructing annuall}- more tonnage in iron, steel and wooden ships than any other city inland or coastwise ; ships that for beauty and stability of lines, relative carrying capacity and speed, are the equals of any built in any part of the world ; and in this connection we are the sellers, receivers, and shippers of many hundreds of thousand of tons of iron ore and coal annually. We have immense forge and blast works, extensive manufactories of sewing machines, tools, drills, and agricultural implements, not excelled ; manufactories of steel screws and steel shovels ; street railway cable and electric motor systems ; manufactories of every manner of railroad construction supplies, and vast steel and iron products of every description; of scientific appliances, in one of which was con- structed but recently the largest telescope in the world; and other manu- facturing interests that at the moment I cannot recall, whose products are — 9 — all of a superior quality. I might mention right here that our young la- dies are especially interested in one, because it is one of the largest manu- factories of chewing gum in the country. "Whether Para gum is a promi- nent ingredient or not I am not informed, but it is certain that Yucatan is the favorite brand, and that the ladies prefer it, as does the proprietor, who in an incredibly short time has accumulated an independent fortune from its sale. We have thousands of happy homes in dwellings of modern architect- ure, owned as they are and occupied by contented mechanics and laborers, for whose children are provided the best school advantages, including manual "training. To such a city we give you a hearty welcome. We enjoy the feeling that social and commercial relations are most de- sirable with all America, and that it is not by forcible conquest that we would secure this, but by relations of the most friendly character. We know that your natural resources are very great, that your ambition is to keep pace with this progressive world, and we desire to go hand in hand with you for our mutual benefit. The opportunity is now a common one, and we have the liveliest anticipation, impressing us with a belief that something permanent of the greatest value to all will result from the con- ference in which you are soon to be engaged. May the highest expecta- tions of the possibilities of future greatness to the Three Americas be fully realized, so that a bond of sympathy may unite them in one grand, har- monious sisterhood of nations ! [Applause]. The Chairman : There seems to be some doubt as to what we are here for. If there is any one present who can answer that question it is certainly our friend, Mr. William Eleroy Curtis. MR. W. E. CURTIS'S ADDRESS. Perhaps it has not occurred to you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that under the folds of these dainty flags sit the representatives of sixteen in- dependent nations; the representatives of one hundred and twenty millions of the fairest women and the bravest men on earth. And what are they here for ? What brings them together ? Sympathy ! Brotherhood ! There are no quarrels to settle ; there are no injuries to repair ; but every man has a common purpose and that purpose the common good. The world never saw an assemblage like this before ; and it. is appro- priate that the world should see it here, on the soil of the greatest of repub- lics, the home of the oldest of the group. I thank you, sir, and the people among whom my boyhood days were passed, for your splendid hospitality and the welcome you have given these distinguished gentlemen. They come from nations founded upon the same idea that caused ours to exist. Men of their race fought with Simon Bolivar, entered upon his almost matchless career; he the founder of five republics who are repre- sented here to-night, visited the tomb of Washington and there conse- crated his life to the cause of human liberty. [Applause.] But, Mr. Chairman, our friends have furnished us examples also. Many years before the emancipation proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln, ever)^ slave in our sister republics was free ; and within the pres- ent year the Empire of Brazil has released the last bondsman on this hemi- sphere. [Applause.] And it was they who inspired this congress. Before you were born, Mr. Chairman, Bolivar proposed it, but the consummation of the purpose was left for Mr. Blaine. [Great applause.] Thus, to-day we and our sister nations stand bound by every tie but that of trade. The fifty millions of people south of the Caribbean and the Rip Grande are engaged in a commerce that reaches a thousand million dollars annually, and has increased 43 per cent, since 1870, but of this vast expansion the United States has had but a trifling share. Our own growth has been amazing. Our population has almost doubled in the last twenty years. The products of our manufactories have leaped from four to eight billions of dollars, and our national wealth from thirty to fifty-six millions. But amid this prodigious development our ex- port trade to Latin America has stood almost still. It has increased but seventeen millions from 1868 to 1888, and the greatest gain has been within the last two years. Our import trade has grown more rapidly, until last year we bought thirty-five per cent, of what the other American nations had to sell, but sold them only fifteen per cent, of what they purchased. This phenomenon is not new and it need not be surprising. It has been exhibited for more than a quarter of a century, and since the close of our late war we have paid these friendly neighbors in the settlement of ac- counts a sum in cash greater than the principal of our public debt. During the last twenty years the balance against us in our trade with Latin America has been nearly three thousand millions of dollars, which we have paid in gold. And they have spent the money in Europe for mer- chandise, seventy per cent, of which might have been purchased here of better quality and at similar prices. Take our trade with Brazil as an illus- tration. During the last thirty years we have purchased more than a billion dollars worth of her produce and have sold to her but two hundred and sixteen millions worth of ours, and have paid in cash to settle this bal- ance, the enormous sum of seven hundred and ninety-eight millions, almost every penny of which has gone into the pockets of English mer- chants and manufacturers. Nor is this all. During these years we have paid British ship-owners at the rate of $10 a ton, twenty-four millions of dollars for carr3ang this produce, and the bankers of London more than eight millions more as exchange. Brazil is not to be blamed for it. It is our own fault. She wants to trade with us, but we refuse to furnish her the facilities. The British and German manufacturers have to forge our trade marks to sell their goods in Brazil, and she gives liberal subsidies to our ships to which we refuse even the meager compensation that is paid the flat boats upon the Ohio river. But for the broad-minded policy of that grand old emperor, whose true throne isin the hearts of his people, we could send no mail to Brazil. It was his enterprise that established the present line of American steam- ships, and his generosity that keeps them afloat. [Applause.] He paid them one hundred thoiisand dollars as a subsidy last year. The United States government offered them$ii,ooo — one thousand dollars less than was paid to the little steamboat that plies six months in the year between Wood's Hole and Nantucket, [laughter,] but they declined it, and said they would rather carry the mails for nothing than accept such paltry pay. To this policy, Mr. Chairman, on the part of our Congress, is due the condition of our foreign trade. We do everything to facilitate commerce iipon land, but nothing to encourage commerce upon the ocean. We leave the ocean freights to the ship owners of other nations, and pay them three hundred million dollars a year for our folly. Years ago our government did something to encourage its merchant marine. In 1858 seventy-one per cent, of our foreign commerce was carried in our own ships. L^ast year they carried fourteen per cent. In 1858 the total cost of our mail service was five millions of dollars, and of this sum $1,589,000 was paid the ships that carried our mails and our flag to Latin America. In 1888 the total cost of our mail service was fifty-six millions of dollars, of which the sum of $48,966, was expended to maintain communication with all the for- eign ports on this hemisphere, or within a few dollars of the amount paid for special mail service between Welden, North Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina, and yet we wonder why we have no trade. [Ivaughter and applause.] Until we resume our former policy ; until we do as other nations do ; unless we afford the same facilities for reaching foreign markets to our merchants that the merchants of other nations enjoy, it is absurd for us to expect any different conditions or to attempt the extension of our trade. Every little hamlet that is born in the West is given a post-office and a mail by rail or stage coach as soon as it is christened, no matter what the cost, but the moment an attempt is made to send a mail to these markets south of us with a commerce of a thousand millions a year, somebody gets up and cries " subsidy!" and our cowardly Congress runs. Do you know, Mr. Chairman, that we are the only people on earth that are afraid of that word ? Do you know that the United States is the only nation that is ashamed to pay its ships decent compensation ? Do you know what other nations pay? Here is a statement showing the amount of money paid last year (1888) by the several nations of the world as boun- ties, subsidies, and other forms of mail compensation to the ships that carry their flags and products upon the sea: — • France, $6,792,778; England, $4,269,874; Italy, $3,503,000 ; Germany, $3,131,000; the Argentine Republic, $3,000,000, [applause]; Brazil, $1,700,- 000, [applause] ; Spain, $1,700,000 ; the Netherlands, $775,000 : Mexico, $758,000, [applause]; Canada, $730,000 ; Japan, $500,000; Russia, $454,000 ; Belgium, $430,000 ; Austria, $363,000 ; the Australian colonies, $280,000 ; Chili, $225,000, [applause] ; Portugal, $108,000 ; the little island of Trinidad, $98,- 000 ; the little island of Barbadoes, $90,000 ; the island of Jamaica, $72,000 ; the other West India Islands, $72,000 ; New Zealand, $56,000 ; Norway and Sweden, $41,000 ; Guatemala, $34,000, [applause]; the little island of To- — a — bago, $25,000 ; San Salvador, $24,000, [applause] ; the Bahama Islands, $18,- 500; Nicaragua, f 16,000, [applause] ; Honduras, $12,500, [applause] ; Costa Rica, $12,000, [applause] ; British Honduras, $7,5oo,-^and the United States, $48,000 ! [Groans and derisive cries.] I will not tax your patience longer than to say that the time will come when the shipping question will not be so deeply involved in our com- merce with Central and South America as it is to-day. The time will come — we may not see it but our children will— when a rolling hotel, like that which brought us here, will pass through Cleveland daily for Buenos Ayres and Valparaiso, with branch lines to other cities on the coasts of either sea, and find its destination at a little city called Puenta Arenas, that lies like a lonely hermit in the Straits of Magellan. And that is what we are here for ! [Prolonged and enthusiastic applause]. The Chairman: The entertainment will be diversified by a little music. " The Miller's Song" will be rendered by the Arion Quartet. [Applause after the singing]. On every occasion of this kind it is proper that the President of the United States should be remembered. The next toast is " The President of the United States." We have here to-night one of his appointees to the Federal Judiciarj', Honorable A. J. Ricks, who will respond to this toast. JUDGE RICKvS'S REMARKS. Whatever differences of opinion may have heretofore existed as to the best form of government for men to adopt, the tendency of the last century has all been toward self-government. As education becomes more gen- eral, the people contend for greater personal rights, and as rapidly as time and circumstances permit, the changes are all in the direction of enlarg- ing those rights and making the authorit}' of the rulers less and less arbitrary. In responding to the toast assigned me to-night, " The Presi- dent of the United States," I speak of an office recognized throughout the world as representing the greatest number who have ever for so long a period demonstrated the success of a government " of the people, for the people, and by the people." If I were to assume for our distinguished guests all the knowledge usually possessed by the most intelligent strangers, as to the extent of our territor}^ the thrift and prosperity of our people, the value and diversity of our productions, and the contentment and comforts of our homes, I would nevertheless be safe in supposing that they have already found their expectations realized and are now prepared for future revelations that will bring surprises and we may hope even amazement. If I am correct in this, I feel sure that they will not wonder if I presume to respond to this toast in the usual spirit of self-satisfaction and pride characteristic of the American citizen when called upon to express his opinion of the dignity, honor and power that belong to the office of our Chief Executive. These — 13 — attributes are the more readily conceded because the office is within the proper ambition and reach of the humblest citizen, and is the pinnacle to which the young are continually directed as representing the sum of all their hope and ambition. You have been invited to meet the representa- tives of the United States and to confer as to the treaties and regulations that may be found necessary to more perfectly facilitate our commercial relations. You have been shown our varried industries, the skill of our artisans and the enterprise of our producers, and all the advantages of the American markets will be put before you in the most attractive way. But we all, I know, conctir in the opinion that with the nation as with the citizen there should be an aspiration higher than to multiply riches and to supply the markets of the world. A nation may control the money trans- actions of a continent and its commerce may whiten every sea, and yet the streets of its chief cities may be crowded with idle working- men and thousands of its homes filled with squalor. We hope you will find here the indications of a better national policy. We hope that your deliberations may result in such legislation and treaties as will prove of mutual good and the upbuilding in this continent of a better civilization than the world ever before enjoyed. We hope for such relations and inter- course between us as will build happy homes in North and South America, where want to the honest laborer shall never be known, and where the de- velopment of thriving industries shall keep pace with the blazing firesides around which gather a contented, educated and christianized people. We hope the light from these homes stretching from the frozen shores of British America to the southernmost shores of Patagonia will be so radiant as to be a beacon to all the down-trodden people of all nations, towards which all may look who strive for happy homes, well-compensated labor and self-government. To attain such grand results is worthy the eff'ort and ambition of a great people ; and we know enough of the past life and high purpose of our present Chief Executive to know that he would pro- mote such aims with all the power and influence of his high office. And how much influence for good a great and wise man in the executive office can exert was illustrated during the war, when one of the noblest and best rulers of all times, during seasons of distress and mistrust, led his people through the valleys of tribulation to the mount of hope and lofty . patriotism, where the fiat of emancipation by the pen and sword was given vitality ; where a race was liberated from servitude and nation delivered from the perils of rebellion. Our political parties make vigorous and aggressive contests for control of the government at the stated election periods, and the partisan controversy is often heated and passes the bounds of proper decorum. The liberty of the press is exercised with so much license that the private lives of candidates are put under a calcium light that brings to the surface all the actual shortcomings that ever existed and makes defects where none were ever suspected. But through the fiery ordeal the candidates pass and when the struggle is ended and the successful contestant comes to assume the duties of office the people accord to him the support and loyal obedience which the law prescribes and the respect which his conduct merits. And I believe I can truthfully — 14 — say to-night that no personally corrupt and profligate man has ever been called by the people to the presidential chair. [Applause], No barter and sale of Presidential favors has ever been made in the White House, and no American citizen has ever been humiliated at the thought that the channels of executive patronage have been polluted and the President made a beneficiary thereb}-. [Applause]. What people can recall the rulers of a century and say so much ? What country can boast of a succession of kings, or queens, or emperors, whose personal characters would bear the test of personal criticism to which an American President is subjected ? I go further, and say that no President personally corrupt would ever be permitted to serve his constitutional term. With daily papers in every community, leveling the electric kodak upon him, no man whose daily life was polluted could withstand the storm of censure, rebuke and indigna- tion that would be showered upon him and survive. He would call upon the mountains to fall upon him and bury him from public view. The White House would be worse than Hades and an uninsulated electric wire would not carry death to him fast enough to relieve him from the fury of an outraged public. We have had Presidents whose political policy has been the subject of severe censure and public trial — one whose failure to enforce the constitution and laws precipitated secession; but severely as history has condemned his want of courage, no one ever assailed his per- sonal integrity or his personal conduct in the White House. A hundred years of executive rule, and yet not one established instance of personal corruption or profligacy in our presidential successions ! This is a reflec- tion in which we may justly feel proud. I point you to it with gratifica- tion to night, and I hope that in the long line of Presidents yet to come. Democrat or Republican, no one will be chosen who will break this unin- terrupted line of honorable conduct. I need not invoke the charit}- of partisan criticism in iinqualified praise of the personal honor, ability, or patriotism of the present incumbent of the presidential chair. This is not the time or place for praise of his official record. But I can safely claim for him all I have said of his predecessors and feel sure in predicting that whenever he may lay aside the duties of his high office he will retire with the undiminished admiration and respect of the American people for the purity of his private life and for the dignity, ability and honor with which he will have discharged the duties of his great trust. This much I might saj' if I differed from him in political sentiment. To say more than men of such belief can concede would trench upon the pro- prieties of the occasion. I beg, therefore, to say in conclusion, and to propose as a sentiment of all assembled : " The Presidents of the United States — a line of rulers whose private and official lives have thus far vindicated the wisdom of the American people in reserving to themselves the right to choose their own Chief Executive." The Chairman then said : We have now reached that point in the programme where it is very proper for this companv to express their opinion of what we are here for, — 15 — It is to meet the distinguished and eminent men who represent our sister republic. The next toast, " Our Sister Republics," will be responded to by the eminent ex-President of Ecuador, Senor Jose M. Placido Caamano, and will be interpreted by Mr. Pierra. S:eNOR CAAMANO'S RESPONSE- Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Being a citizen of a foreign nation, I take the liberty, in this land of freedom, to address you with words in my own language, for although with some effort I might express myself in English, I do not wish on an occasion like this to subordinate my heart to my head, but I feel that I must allow my ideas to flow freely and without obstruction. Moreover, I speak in the language common to forty millions of inhabi- tants, most brilliantly represented here, and among whom are comprised the greater part of the illustrious representatives of the United States of North America and Brazil. It is only recently that I joined this body of gentlemen from the Three Americas, but nevertheless I have already had the opportunity to measure the virilit}^ of this nation, whose power is beyond encomium. The restless and amazing activity, the spirit of con- tinual labor, her great common sense translated into the love of liberty and respect for her institutions ; her enterprising genius, her manufactures, her charitable institutions, her schools, her inventions, her agriculture — all these impress and rouse the enthusiasm and admiration of those who have the opportunity to contemplate them. There is no limit, and there is no obstacle to the carrying out of her aspirations, and, while satisfying them, ever extending them to remoter horizons. [Applause]. It seems as if she is ever attempting to possess herself of all the secrets of nature, and aspiring to realize impossibilities. This charming excursion gives us the opportunity to observe the value of time properly distributed and scientifically improved, and will furnish us with facts which will be factors not to be forgotten by tis when engaged in the con- sideration of the subjects which bring us to this sister republic, whose generous and courteous welcome is fully appreciated by all the representa- tives of Mexico, Central and South America. I desire to speak in behalf of them all, because of having been selected to address you on the occasion of this magnificent banquet offered to us b}' this flourishing city. [Applause]. The Arion Quartet then sang " The Star Spangled Banner," the entire assemblage taking up the chorus. After the applause had subsided. Sen- ator Payne introduced Senator John Sherman, as follows : Wherever veterans of the late war or members of the Grand Army of the Republic meet, there is a cheer and a hurrah for " Tecumseh," the General. So, wherever American civilians are found in any part of our country there is a welcome and an acclaim for John Sherman, the Senator. No person in the executive or congressional departments of our government understands our foreign relations more perfectly than Senator Sherman. He has been for years the distinguished Chairman of the Committee on — i6 — Foreign Relations, and so far as my observations extend he has never made a mistake. You will have the pleasure of listening to Senator Sherman. [Great applause]. SENATOR SHERMAN'S ADDRESS. Mr. Ch.^irman and Gentlemen : I have been called upon to respond to the toast which my colleague has failed to read to you but which I will read, and that is : "The Congress of American States." This toast is but the expression of a hope that has been entertained by many of the greatest statesmen of the United States ever since the other American States renounced their allegiance to foreign powers. We have not, how- ever, alwa3's kept to that faith or to that hope. Henry Clay, as early as 1818, when favoring the recognition of the South American States, declared that the time would come when these states of the American continents would be bound together by ties enduring forever and forever. President Monroe early in our history declared that the United States would never permit a European power to interfere with the autonomy or management of any American State. But we have not lived up to that dogma ; and I must confess now, in the face of the statement made by my young friend here [Mr. Curtis], that the United States has not done its dut}- by the sister American States. We have failed to perform that duty which we owe to them as the elder sister. There is no question upon the statistics that he has given that this is true. But gentlemen from abroad as well as those at home must remember we have had our troubles here in America. We have had our differences as to the nature and form of our government and as to the construction of the powers of the government. We also have had of late years an unpleasantness that I do not care to allude to ; but if it had happened to be settled differently from what it was settled, these United States would have been very uncomfortable neighbors to the South American States, and of no use to them. But thank God and the courage of our people, that time has now passed. [Applause]. All the clouds that lowered upon our house are in the bosom of the ocean buried ; and the United States of America, the first of this sisterhood of nations, is now strong and powerful and free, so that both North and South now unite together ; and I can assure you, gentlemen, all who hear me, that now with- out any division of parties, without any division of sections, by the unani- mous vote of both Senate and House we have invited you here to consider and confer as to what is best to be done for all the American States. [Applause]. And we have arrived at that condition where we are deter- mined to do our part to reverse the record that has been here read against us. And I assure you that from this time forward the United States of America will be willing and anxious, without division of party or section, to do its full part to bring about the sisterhood of states we have been talking about. [Applause]. Now, gentlemen, the conference that is about to meet in Washington is in my judgment the most important political event that has happened on our continent since the Declaration of American Independence. I look — 17 — upon this conference as bearing the same relations to the future of Amer- ica as the conference of 1774 of the delegates from the thirteen British col- onies of America bore to American Independence. That conference led to the Declaration of Independence ; it led to the constitution of the United States ; it led to American independence in all the South American States. But this conference is more important than the conference of 1774, because now it affects the interests of 120 millions of people, and that only affected the interests of three millions of people. This conference affects the in- terests, not of thirteen scattered colonies — a small portion of the Atlantic coast — but the interests of three continents with sixteen Republics and one Empire, all of whom are now bound by ties which will grow stronger and stronger as time goes forward ! [Applause]. And I say to the mem- bers of this conference that if they perform the duties imposed upon them, if they are equal to the occasion, they will confer more blessings upon the people of these continents than any meeting that has ever been held in the ancient or modern times. Now, what are the objects of this conference ? First, we wish to estab- lish the principle of pacific arbitration of all disputes that may arise be- tween any of these American states ; and that is one of the most glorious things that could happen. That is the way to disband armies, to convert naval warfare into pacific commerce. That is the means by which on this continent we may set an example not only to the nations of Europe but to the nations of all future ages in all parts of the habitable globe, that all con- troversies whatever between nations need not be settled by standing armies but may be settled by the pacific arbitration of each with the other, and by kindly settlements without war and without armies. Another thing that they propose to accomplish by this conference is to increase our commerce by land and by sea. It is a disgrace to the Ameri- can people, in speaking of the whole continent of America, that we have to depend upon Europe to carry the produce of Brazil to the United States and the produce of the United States to Brazil. We are able to do this duty ourselves, and one of the great objects of this conference is to pro- mote that free and direct commerce by American vessels on American waters from every part of this continent of ours to every other part. That is one great object. Another is to remove all restrictions upon commerce, every impedi- ment that will impede the free transportation of goods from one country to another, except such regulations as are necessary to protect the revenue laws of each, and to make those as liberal as possible. And I am almost willing to support the doctrine of free trade, when that free trade is con- fined to American states. [Applause]. And that is not all. I want to see not only a commercial union be- tween these sister states, but I want to see a union of hearts, a union of hands, and a union forever between the sister republics, so that peace and plenty and prosperity may prevail, and each working in friendly rivalry may contribute to the prosperity and happiness of the other. Why, mj^ friends, you gentlemen who compose this conference, if you equal the op- portunity that is now presented you will light a torch that will illuminate -i8- 'the whole world, and confer untold blessings upon mankind. You will make of American waters and American sea, not exclusive, not forbidding European vessels to come upon them, but you will make our trade so inti- mate and our relations so constant, that none but American means will be used. Now what can be accomplished ? Sometimes it is said that all this is a dream, and that we are walking in darkness, seeking the light vainly. I do not think so. The difficulties in the way of accomplishing all this are far less than were accomplished by the United States alone in the building of our railroads after the Civil War. One thing we want is a railroad from New York to Buenos Ayre's. ' Let us connect the Argentine Republic with the American Republic. Now, this is a far less difficult task than was done by the Union Pacific Railroad, because the links of this chain have already been largely forged. A railroad runs now to Mexico, and lines are already forming in South America. And whether done as a complete sys- tem or by connecting links, whenever that chain is completed we will then have transportation by rail from one end of this continent to the other, north and south, binding all these nations together, reaching by branch lines to the capital of every country. And I say to you, upon the statement of an eminent engineer, that the difficulties in accomplishing this work from Mexico south through Central America and right on down, will be easily overcome by the energy, the money and the united efforts of these American states, and it will cost less money and less physical la- bor than the work we have already accomplished in twenty years in the United States of America. There is another thing we want; we want the construction of the Nic- aragua Canal, or some other canal. Nature has planted in the Peninsula of Central America a seed, and it is connected by rivers, one to the Atlantic, and by a natural depression made for the very purpose of a road from Nic- aragua west to the Pacific Ocean. And American enterprise is now in- volved in building that canal ; and I say to you that I know that that canal will be built, if Nicaragua and Costa Rica will do their part toward the en- terprise. If there are any other modes of transportation across Central America which are feasible, let them be executed. It has been found that the Panama Canal cannot be executed according to the original scheme, but let us put our shoulder to the wheel and do whatever can be accom- plished. This conference, although so modest and simple now, appears to me more like a grand Amphictyonic council of the ancient Grecians. Theirs was a conference to harmonize the interests of a few small nations ; but this council is to commence the harmony between great and powerful nations, which twenty or fifty years from this time may contain from two hundred to three hundred millions of the freest and happiest people in the world. [Applause]. Now, my countrymen, there is every reason in the world why we in the United States and why the people of these countries should carry out and carry on this magnificent and noble scheme. Our institutions are alike. We all have free institutions, including the Empire of Brazil, at the head of which is an intelligent and able and popular ruler. Our interests — 19 — are of the same basis and the same phm. The difference in language is less on our continent than in any other; in Europe they have a dozen lan- guages; in this country we have three, and I think we will melt them all into one grand American language before we get through with them. [Applause]. We have no old feuds to quarrel over, as in France and Ger- many, where they stand with millions of men in arms ready to destroy each other ; we have no such desire and no such intent. In the United States, where we have more population and wealth than the rest of the American states, we have no desire to acquire any portions of the territory of any other country in America ; we are satisfied with our own. All we want is to help you and to secure the autonomy of your own countries, so that every nation in America may be sure that it has home rule for itself and non-interference from abroad ! [Applause]. Now, I express the hope that this conference — not a congress in itself, because I do not call this a con- gress — but that this conference may lead to a Congress of American States, where chosen representatives from all the nations of America may meet together, take up these various questions, and decide upon them as we do in Congress upon matters affecting the interests of the people of the United States. When that good time comes, then America will be what it ought to be, a landmark and a light for future generations, an example to all the nations of the world; when sixteen Republics and one Empire may sleep together in peace and safety, without armies or war vessels, but only with the arts of modern civilization. [L,ong and enthusiastic applause]. The Chairman: We have had the pleasure of listening to Mr. F. G. Pierra as the translator of another's thoughts. We will now listen to him in his own right, on "The Mercantile Interests of the Spanish-American Nations." MR. F. G. PIERRA'S REMARKS. Mr. Chairman and Genti^Emen : It affords me very great pleasure, and it is an honor that I fully appreciate, to be accorded the privilege of addressing this audience on this subject. But as the hour is so late and I am fatigued I hope you will excuse me to-night, and to-morrow I think I will be able to state to you more clearly and intelligently than I could do now the aims and purposes of the Spanish-American Commercial Union. Meanwhile I ask you to allow me to offer this sentiment instead of the toast to which I was to respond : " The flag which has no lion, no eagle, no beast of prey, but stars which illumine and stripes emblematic of the horizon of hope, freedom and peace — such a flag as we hope we shall soon see waving in all parts of Spanish-America and Brazil." [Applause]. The Chairman: The Governor of the State has courteously con- sented to be present to-night and address us upon the subject : " The State of Ohio — its Resources and Institutions." GOV:eRNOR FORAKER'S RBSPONSE. Governor Foraker, on arising, was greeted with enthusiastic applause and spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman and GentIvEmen : I feel like following the example of the gentleman who has immediately preceded me. The hour is so late and we have heard so many excellent speeches that it seems to me impossible that I can detain you longer with either interest or profit. [Cries of " Go on," " Go on."] I have a hesitation in going on for another reason. You are about to see Ohio; you are about to learn by looking at Ohio of her re- sources and her interests. It seems to me that in that way you are soon to learn better than I can express to you what Ohio has to offer in these particulars. And yet, if I must go on for the five minutes allotted to me, allow me to commence by reminding our distinguished guests of the even- ing that Ohio is the newest of all the States of this Union they have yet visited. We are younger than the New England States, than New York, than Pennsylvania. We are iust one hundred years old. Two hun- dred years or three hundred years after South America was pretty well settled, Ohio was yet but a wilderness. A century ago, our 40,000 square miles of area were inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts. We had here then no great cities, no railroads, no telegraphs, no newspapers, no schools, no colleges, no evidences or monuments of civilization of any kind whatsoever. We had here no law, no civilization. In the short space of one hundred j'ears, however, we have come from that state to the state in which you find us to-day. Where one hundred years ago we had only 40,000 square miles of wilderness, we have to-day 40,000 square miles of area, every acre of which blossoms like the rose. Where one hundred years ago we had no population, we to-day have 4,000,000 of happy, pros- perous, contented, law-abiding, patriotic and liberty-loving American citi- zens. Where one hundred years ago we had no schools we to-day have 13,000 school-houses. Where a hundred years ago we had no wealth, we to- day have five thousand millions of wealth — not all of it on the tax dvipli- cate, I am sorry to say, but we have it all the same. Where we had no in- dustries we to-day have industries of every kind, of every character and of every description known in this great country. We have more than 20,000 manufacturing establishments of various kinds in which the people of this State have invested more than $300,000,000 of capital, — manufactur- ing establishments that produce annually more than $400,000,000 worth of products, most of which, owing to the beneficent system pursued in this country, we sell at home in our own markets, but a liberal portion of which we send out in all the channels of trade and commerce, some to South America, as well as to other portions of the world. In the short space of one hundred years there has been wrought here the greatest transforma- tion ever known in the history of the world. This has been due in large degree to many fortuitous circumstances, if I may use such a word in this connection. In the first place, if you gentlemen who are now visiting here for the first time, will but take the map of the United States and study it, you will find that Ohio is placed at the very center of the great business States of the American Union. New England, New York and Pennsylvania lie to the east of us, while Indiana and Illinois and the mighty West are on the other side. And not only that ; we have this beautiful and great lake on the north, and 450 miles of beautiful Ohio river front on the south. The lake lets us out to the Atlantic, and the river points us down the Missis- sippi, to the Gulf, to Mexico, to the Central and South American states. We have an agreeable climate — not always quite as pleasant as you found it to-day — but it is as good a climate as can be found anywhere within the temperate zone. We have a fertile soil, almost inexhaustible mineral re- sources, and this beautiful city of Cleveland is only one of scores and scores of beautiful and great cities in Ohio. But, my fellow citizens — I have been addressing political meetings lately — I mean to say our distinguished guests of the evening — I would not do justice to Ohio unless I should say to you that Ohio has been more fortunate in other respects. Much as she has been favored with location, with fertility of soil, with great fields and rich valleys and mineral resources, she has been more favored in her pop- ulation than anything else. We have the best people on the face of the earth. And I say that without fear of giving offense to any representative of any other people ; for the people of Ohio contain among themselves the representatives of every other people on the civilized globe. We were so favored from the very beginning. When Ohio came to have her first set- tlement, we had here in the Western Reserve the people of Connecticut ; immediately south, the representatives of Pennsylvania, on what we call the seven ranges. And at Marietta, where the Ohio Company made its first permanent settlement we had the Massachusetts colony, who brought with them the ordinance of 1787, our first organic law, an ordinance that declared as essential to good government that we should have religion, morality, and knowledge, a standard that has ever been upheld ; and I perhaps ought to say, in view of what has been said here to-night, an ordinance that con- tained another provision — the provision that forever consecrated this and all the Northwest territory to human freedom. Going a little farther down the Ohio river we had our French settlements, and a little farther down, the Military Reservation, made for Virginia, and settled by some of the best families of Virginia ; and a little bit farther south, at Cincinnati, we had the New Jersey people, who came with John Cleeves Simms. So at the very beginning we had the best representatives of the best sections and the best people of all the United States at that time. And as they widened and broadened and ran into each other, there came to this State a mass of the representatives of the best countries in the whole civilized world. And so I say we have the best people, because the best commingling of people to be found in any State of this union or in any country on the face of the earth. They are a people who have an intelligent appreciation of this country, and the possibilities not only of North America, but the possibilities of South America also ; they are a people who understand and appreciate the fact that there ought to be in the future between the North American and South American states closer relations of friendship and business than have ever heretofore been enjoyed. The people of Ohio have for twenty-five years been ahead of the Congress of the United States. It has been twenty-five years since Ohio had any fear of that word " sub- sidy " that we heard expressed here to-night. For twenty-five years the people of Ohio, Democrats and Republicans alike, have believed in the protection of our steamship and ocean commerce as they have believed in the protection of our industries. Therefore it is that the people of Ohio, without regard to political differences or differences of any other kind, hailed with delight your coming among us at this time. They ap- preciate the nature, of your visit and the possibilities of good that are to come from it. They trust that you will enjoy your visit to Ohio ; they are ready to meet you with open arms, to extend to you every hospitality that it is possible for one people to extend to another. We trust that your journey may be a safe one and attended only with delights and enjoy- ments, and that this is but the beginning of closer and more sympa- thetic relations in a friendly way, and closer and more sympathetic and more prosperous relations in a business way. [Prolonged applause.] The Chairman : The company is so much interested in any address made to us by these distinguished foreigners that I take the liberty of asking their indulgence to listen to another brief address, by Mr. Zelaya, of Honduras, Central America. His remarks will be interpreted by Mr. Pierro. SENOR ZELAYA'S ADDREISS. The delegates who have come to this country have left their homes to come here to contemplate the wonderful and stupendous progress and the marvelous things that are to be found in this country. Moral greatness predominates here, and the nation extends to all its citizens its bounties and its goodness through her institutions of learning, of charity, and all those institutions that can contribute in any way to the well being of all. Intellectual greatness also appears brilliantl}- in this country and flourishes all over the whole area of the nation. Here also we see the material great- ness, because man, making himself superior to nature, dominates it to sat- isfy his wants and his needs. Here also is seen the political greatness, because of the generous institutions of the country and because here dom- inates the principle of equality, and because there is a wide field for all the aspirations of man. Here also appears the greatness of generosity, be- cause a nation that suffuses to itself, yet offers a generous hand to all those that surround her, and invites them to partake in her well-being and prosperity. [Applause.] L,et us hope that in practice the International American Congress may be what it ought to be — the bond of union through affection and through ties of mutual interest and convenience. We, the delegates of Spanish America and Brazil, should proclaim that the United States are not only the glory of North America, but the glory of all the continents of America. [Applause.] The Chairman : We have present with us an ex-Congressman of the United States, Hon. M. A. Foran, who will respond to the toast, " The Con- gress of the United States," — 23 — EX-CONGRKSSMAN KORAN'S RESPONSE. Mr. Speaker : I thus address you because this is a popular assembly — the popular branch of the International Congress. The Congress of the United States is composed of two co-ordinate branches — in the Senate the rules are not so stringent as iii the House, the popular branch, and as I was a member of the House I will conform to its rules. In fact it has been suggested that I do so. I will assume therefore that we are in committee of the whole and that general debate having closed, we are under the five minute rule. I will not, I assure you, ask unanimous consent to extend my time or ask for leave to print. [L,aughter.] " The Congress of the United States " is too vast a subject to be intel- ligently discussed in five minutes. I will not attempt to do more than to incidentally refer to a few of the salient features of the greatest represent- ative body on this earth — a body that legislates for, shapes and controls the destinies of sixty million of freemen — it is distinctively a representa- tive body ; it feels the touch of public sentiment and responds to the com- mand of the popular will more sensitively and more quickly than does any representative body in the civilized world. It conies fresh from the people every two years and clearly understands the wishes and desires of its constituency. If what Mr. Curtis has just said is true, that Congress runs whenever it hears the word " subsidy," it is because the people run, for Congress only runs in the direction a majority of the people point out. Our distinguished and brilliant governor has just said that Ohio was twenty years in advance of Congress. This cannot be true, for Ohio Con- gressmen represent the present, actual sentiment of the Ohio people, and the native modesty of the Ohio member would, if the facts did not, prevent him from claiming such superiority over his fellows. Whenever the peo- ple of the United States desire free trade or reciprocity of trade with our sister republics, the Congress will quickly act. The same may be said of subsidies or any other policy the people demand, for no body of men that I know of are more sensitive to public opinion than members of Con- gress. The member of the lower House, or the Senator, almost invariably represents the sentiment of the people among whom he lives and to whose suffrages he owes his position in Congress. Being thus essentially repre- sentative, and coming, as I have already remarked, fresh from the people every two years, the Congress not only reflects the opinion and the senti- ment of the citizens whose stifFrages are sought at the time of his election, but in almost every instance, being desirous of being returned, he keeps fully abreast with the constantly changing and fluctuating public senti- ment of the countr}'. The Congress of the United States is the real dominating, governing power of the country. It has encroached in years past and will continue to encroach upon the powers and prerogatives of the Executive ; but in this respect as in all others, it will go no further than the power behind it — the people — will permit or deinand. This wonderful body provides for the collection and disbursement of over $350,000,000.00 annually of the people's nlone}^ Not an ofi&cer of the government can be paid a cent of salary without the sanction and author- — 24 — ity of the Congress ; the acts and policies of every department of the gov- ernment as well as that of the executive itself, is open to the inspection and criticism of the Congress. For this reason the mere routine clerk, as well as the chiefs of divisions, the heads of departments, cabinet officers and the President himself, all bow before the power and authority of this great representative bod}'. The Congress of the United States differs from all other representative bodies. It derives its power and authority from the constitution, it is true, but there are a great many rules and regulations of Congress that are based upon immemorial custom and usage and are as binding upon that body as the authority it receives from the organic law itself The stranger looking from the gallery upon the popular branch of the Congress, sees and hears nothing but confusion worse confounded, and wonders how anything in the shape of legislation can be transacted in so noisy and apparently so disorganized an assembly. Yet beneath all this noise and confusion, those great and powerful organs of the Congress, the standing committees, are working out the will of the American people as accurately as an astronomer predicts the movements of planets. It is at once the most tyrannical, as well as the most liberal representative body in the world. By virtue of the closure rule or the "previous question," it cuts oif debate at any time, and by so doing exercises the most tyrannical power. At the same time any respectable minority of the Congress, by virtue of its rules, which are founded upon immemorial custom, can exer- cise and frequently has exercised a veto power upon the majority. The speaker of the House is invested with almost absolute power, it is true, and yet there have arisen not more than two or three occasions during the century when this great power has been abused by the speaker of the American Congress. And this is because the speaker as well as the indi- vidual member is fully aware and alive to the fact that each and every act of his is subjected to the crucial analysis of public opinion. The Congress is most jealous of its powers and its prerogatives. Ever since Jefferson, in 1801, sent his message to the Congress in writing, no President has attempted to speak before that body in person. Ever since Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, asked the Congress whether it would receive his report or message in person or in writing — and the Congress elected to receive the message in writing — that prece- dent has been strictly followed. The President of the United States is never seen upon the floor of either house of the Congress. Cabinet min- isters never speak before the Congress, and their recommendations are followed or rejected as the Congress sees fit. A great many prominent newspapers, and especiall}- periodicals, occasionally contend that the Congress of the United States does not represent the most intelligent or educated class of the people. It is true that members of Congress are not always professors of colleges or college graduates ; yet Congress repre- sents the highest, the brightest, the most progressive and the sharpest practical intellect of the country ; and we can point with pride to the fact that some of the brightest men of whom America is proud, graduated in this great representative school — such men as Calhoun, Randolph, Web- — us- sier, Clay, Hayne, Stephens, and Sumner in the past, and in the present, such men as Breckenridge, Carlisle, Randall, Reed, and the brilliant Mc- Kinley of our own State, are members of the House. In the Senate — a conservative body, it is true — there are many giant intellects, two of the most distinguished members of the Senate are present with us here this evening. Senators Payne and Sherman. [Ap- plause.] One of these distinguished gentlemen has just addressed you ; being a Democrat myself, yet I desire candidly and freely to say that if it is our misfortune in the future to have another Republican President, there is no one I would like to see in that position so well as the dis- tinguished and talented statesman who represents, in connection with your distinguished chairman here this evening, the State of Ohio in the United States Senate. [Cheers for Senator Sherman and loud applause.] It may, perhaps, be true that some of the brightest and most intellect- ual Americans do not go to Congress. This is perhaps due to the fact that the disappointments, vexations and arduous duties of the member of Con- gress far outweigh the attractions of congressional life and the meager salary attached thereto. [Laughter and applause.] However the people should not complain in this respect, because Congress is their creation, and whatever it is is due directly to them ; if they would raise or elevate its general tone, they can do so by taking a more active interest in the contest by which members of the House and Senate are elected. In con- clusion, permit me to sa}-, that this great representative assembly is not alone doing the work of the present, but that of the future as well. A century from now it will be shaping the destinies and legislating for one- half the people of the civilized world. What mighty intellectual struggles, what interesting debates, what momentous and far-reaching thought will be displayed in the Congress, when the parliaments of the old world will have either sunk into insignificance or crumbled into dust ! When that time comes it is my earnest hope and wish that every American Congress, or the Congress of every republic upon these two continents, will by their wisdom, their power and their prudence, demonstrate that Republican and Democratic institutions are the only ones under which liberty and equality can thrive, and under which all men can in reality be free and equal before the law ! [Great applause.] COIy. PARSONS'S ADDRESS. Hon. R. C. Parsons was called upon to respond to the toast "Brazil," and said : Mr. Pre;side;nt : I greatly regret the absence of the distinguished gentleman who was to answer to this toast this evening. I well remember that great Bmpire of Brazil, lying sotith of the equator, with its 3,000,000, square miles of area, large enough to make seventy States as large as Ohio. The gentlemen may well be proud of their country. It is aland of blue skies and perpetual Summer, a garden of tropical magnificence. It is a land of stately palm-trees, of orange and lemon groves, of birds and flow- ers that put to shame the colors of the rainbow. It has one of the most delicious climates on the globe, and a soil unrivaled in fertility. It is a land of picturesque mountains and valleys, and great rivers. There is the mighty Amazon, i8o miles wide at its mouth, draining an area of 2,500,000 square miles of territory, and having within itself and its tributaries more than 20,000 miles of deep-water navigation. A voyage up the river dis- closes nature revelling in the most boundless profusion. At the Expo- sitio Nationale at Rio in 1861, there were exhibited over 500 different kinds of wood of remarkable beauty from the valley of the Amazon. So prolific is the soil, so dense the growth of vegetation, that in places there is scarcely room for the smallest animal to penetrate. The woods are filled with parrots and birds whose plumage is resplendent in scarlet and gold. The monkeys chatter in the branches and discuss their own state affairs without interruption, while here and there, winding its folds around the trunk of some tree, is the great boa constrictor, waiting for its prey. All writers upon Brazil believe that the time will come when this vast silent valley will be the home of a wealthy and powerful people. Brazil is the land of promising cities — of Para, Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro. The harbor of Rio is the finest in the world. As the voyager enters this spacious enclosure he finds the sugar-loaf mountain towering upon his left, the White Fort on his right, before him a basin 30 miles in length, surrounded by the Organ mountains, which protect it from all dan- gerous winds. Here all the vessels of the world could meet and ride in safety. Brazil is the land of the Southern Cross. At night, when the stars sparkle low in the sky, may be seen this matchless constellation, shining and glittering in unrivaled lustre, every star a world, fastened by the Almighty hand upon the bosom of the universe. Brazil is the home of free mien and free women. In all the length of North and South America there is no room for the footsteps of a slave. [Applause]. Brazil is the home of Dom Pedro, the profound scholar, the wise ruler, the humane magistrate ; among the very ablest as well as the most demo- cratic sovereigns in all the world. [Applause]. Senors from Brazil and South America, " Cum Esta," I bid you a cor- dial welcome to our city. While acting as Consul of the United States at Rio in 1861, under President Lincoln, I came to know that city well. I remember Botafoga, St. Christophel, the Rue D'Ouvidior, TajucaPetropolis. I became greatly interested in the commerce of your country, and anxious that the United States should enjoy a larger share of its growing impor- tance. We want more of yoiir coffee, and sugar, and hides and gold, and diamonds. You want more of our manufactures and cereals, and both of us need the other. Some years after my return home I drafted a bill to estab- lish steam communication between this country and your own, carried it through both Houses of Congress, the Presi'dent signed it, and it became a law. Under it for years Commodore Garrison maintained a line of steam- ers, but finally abandoned the enterprise. Gentlemen, North and South America cover a vast continent. They are girdled on either shore by the same mighty oceans, and connected by — 27 — natural ties from the rest of the world. I hope the time will come when there will be railroad communication directly from New York to Rio Janeiro to our sister Republic. Imagination can only unroll the map of the future and see these great countries populated by hundreds of mill- ions of thriving, intelligent, industrious freemen. We are yet in our infancy as nations. But the history of the past gives splendid hopes for the future. I trust we shall learn to know each other better and keep step to the music of advancing civilization, one in interest and one in fraternal feeling. Senors from South America, I give you a toast: "Your fair countrywomen ! Their velvet eyes shine like the dews of the morning, their cheeks put to shame the pomegranates that grow on the garden wall, and their attractions rival those of their own tropical and beautiful coun- try ! " [Applause]. The Chairman: Mr. John C. Covert, of the Cleveland Leader, y^iW respond to the toast " A Free Press." MR. COVERT'S REMARKS. Mr. Toastmaster and Genti^emen of the Three Americas : It is certainly appropriate that the toast " A Free Press " should receive some consideration from the members of a congress assembled in the interests of peace and to promote the greater development of the arts and industries of a hemisphere. That the press has wielded a mighty power in creating the present advanced state of civilization there can be no doubt. That a free press extends a potent influence in shaping the laws and customs of a people is also beyond dispute. A great British statesman, Sheridan, once said in the House of Commons : " Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the Minister a venal House of Peers, I will give him a corrupt and servile House of Commons, I will give him the full sway of the patronage of office, I will give him the whole host of ministerial influ- ence, I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him to pur- chase up submission and overawe resistance ; and yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him undismayed. I will attack^ the might}' fabric he has reared with that mightier engine; I will shake down from its height corruption and bury it amid the ruins it was meant to shelter." A free press is the slow growth of time. Mephistopheles, while parad- ing under the mantle of Faust, tells the student that " our laws, like our diseases, are inherited." The conditions surrounding, influencing, govern- ing the press, are inherited, but they are constantly undergoing rapid modifications by the opportunities which the press gives the human mind to freely exercise its aspirations for a higher degree of equality and freedom. No better illustration of the effect of tyranny upon the press can be found than in the publications of the Moniteur Officiel of Paris, during the latter part of the First Empire. When Napoleon left Elba the Moniteur — 28 — declared that " the tyrant has escaped." When he reached France it said : " The despot has landed on our shores." As he marched toward the capi- tal it shrieked : " The tiger is coming to seize his prey." The day after he entered Paris it announced : " His Majesty the Emperor of France is at the Tuileries." But the steady, unquenchable aspirations for freedom which find their fullest expression through the press must at last break through the strongest power that despotism can rear. The tyrannical customs handed down by Napoleon the Greedy were active after the restoration and during the reign of Napoleon le Petit. But Constant, Emile de Girardin, Louis Jourdain, Prevot Paradol and other great editors, kept up a persistent assault upon the strongholds of despotism, and in the face of frequent imprisonments, under the bayonets of their tyrant, they laid the founda- tions of the present grand Republic of France. So must despotism everywhere finally bow to the freedom of the press. In this country the press has been absolutely free since the establish- ment of our Federal government. Even during the terrible struggle of the rebellion the liberty of the press was never suspended for a day. Two or three editors were imprisoned and one issue of their papers seized, for publishing forged proclamations attributed to the government or for advo- cating armed opposition to the federal authorities. The full freedom accorded to the most opposite opinions of the war seemed onl}' to strengthen and to intensify the patriotism of the people. As a rule the press of both parties was loyal to the Union. It gave daily public utter- ance to the patriotic spirit of the people, strengthening the hands of the government and creating a public sentiment that demanded a preserva- tion of the Union and the abolition of slavery. Standing in the foremost ranks of progress, with nothing but the nimble lightning between them and the birth of events, the editors of this country have advocated, if they did not originate, every humane policy, every wise law which has occupied the thoughts of our people since the organization of our government. The first paper printed on this continent was called Publick Occur- rences, bearing the date of September 25, 1690. Number 2 of this paper has not yet appeared. The press censors declared its publication wicked, unnecessary, and contrary to public good. At that time press censors were to be found in all the colonies, an office brought to this continent from the old world. During the war of independence, a little over a hun- dred years ago, the press was absolutely free to support the patriot army. A printing press was carried around with the army, and a paper issued as often as possible, encouraging the soldiers in their struggle. During the last century newspapers have multiplied with the growth of the country, and now there are not less than 16,000 papers and periodicals published in the United States. Almost every town of 400 or 500 inhabit- ants has its home journal. If the people are not able to maintain a whole paper, half of it is printed in some large city. Such sheets are called home organs with foreign bowels. In our large cities the papers usually vary in size from four to eight pages, their extra editions frequently running up to 16, 24 and 48 pages. If the whole yearly issue of one of our great New — 29 — York dailies were fastened together in one long sheet and stretched out, it would go three times around the globe. It is calculated by a curious statistician that if all the papers printed in this country in one year were put together on a ten- acre lot, they would make a pile higher than any mountain on the earth. Our newsgatherers are everywhere, and like the English drum-beat, they follow the sun arovind the world. They often manage to get ahead of the sun; for example, if an important event has happened in London or Paris at 2 o'clock this afternoon, it would have been duly chronicled in all our papers at about 11 o'clock this morning. This, of course, is due to the superior enterprise of American editors, and not to the difference in time. I hope that this Congress will result in bringing the Three Americas so closely together in so improving the means of intercommunication, that we will have daily reports of all the important events in the great nations to the south of us. The freedom of the press affords a powerful agency for binding a people together and strengthening the spirit of nationality. Besides giv- ing all the news of the day it must inevitably reflect the best sentiment of a people, and tend to direct that sentiment in the best channels. It is the mirror in which the people can see themselves, the guide to direct their political actions, the volume to which they can look for a record of current history. The tendency of a free press is opposite to war and violence. It aims to secure the sublime victories of peace. Its influence reaches out in every direction, penetrating every home, leaving its impress upon every mind. The freedom of the press has done much for this republic ; may it be equally potent in uniting the people of the Three Americas in the bonds of a common brotherhood! [Applause]. The Chairman : Mr. James H. Hoyt, of the Cleveland Bar, will respond to the toast, " What do you think of the banquet? " MR. HOYT'S REMARKS. Mr. Chairman and Genti^EMEN : I have been both saddened and gladdened by what has been said here to-night by one of the very best Governors the "best people of Ohio" have ever had. Saddened, because when he referred to the mineral resources of this State, I was forcibly re- minded that I myself had lately been connected with an enterprise for the development of those mineral resources, and that we failed to find any ; gladdened, because his statement that a hundred years ago Ohio was a wilderness reminds me of a story which aptly illustrates my own feelings in being thus somewhat unexpectedly called upon, and so I am indebted to him for something to say; but this is not surprising, for I am not the first person to whom Governor Foraker has suggested ideas. The hero of this story was a gentleman who had been selected as the orator at cere- monies celebrating the completion of a town-hall in one of the villages of Ohio. He had carefully prepared himself for the occasion and had com- — 3° — mitted his oration to memory. He began with this sonorous sentence : " Fellow-citizens of this most magnificent village, of this most magnificent State, where this imposing edifice' now stands, was once a howling wilder- ness — " Here words failed him and he ran up against an aching void. After a frantic application of the spur to his reluctant memory he began again : " Allow me to repeat, fellow-citizens of this most magnificent village, of this most magnificent State, where this most imposing edifice now stands, was once a howling wilderness — " Then another pause, and his treacherous memory still refusing to respond, with a dry grating in his parched throat, and with stars dancing before his staring eyes, he de- spairingly repeated: "I cannot sufficiently emphasize this momentous fact, fellow-citizens, allow me to again call it to your attention ; fellow- citizens of this most magnificent village, of this most magnificent State, where this imposing edifice now stands, was once a howling wilderness, — " and then after a ghastly pause, the ideas still refusing to come, he desper- ately added this impromptu but realistic peroration : " And I wish to Heaven it were a howling wilderness now ! " [Ivaughter]. I have been asked by your Toast-Master to tell what kind of a banquet we have been having here to-night. Now, as the body without the soul does not make a man, so viands, however bountiful and toothsome, do not make a banquet without the people who partake of them. The material elements going to make up this banquet you have already discussed. No words of mine can aid your digestion of them, or your appreciation of them. In its material aspect the banquet has been magnificent, but it is also magnifi- cent and indeed unique, by reason of those who have attended it, and it is of these, with your kind permission, that I will speak. It has been sug- gested here, that we who have met together to-night are representatives of different nations. This, of course, is true ; but, is it not also true in a very broad sense, and in a very real sense, that representing different nations as we do, we also represent one common country. There are dif- ferences between us, to be sure. Some have been born under the brilliant skies, in the fragrant atmosphere and amidst the rich vegetation of the Tropics ; others in colder regions less fertile perhaps, and where nature is less bounteous ; others still, on the bleak hillsides farther north, in New England, for example, where vegetation is so meager, that, if rumor be cor- rect, those who dwell there are obliged to file down the noses of the sheep even, in order that they may pick out the scanty blades of grass struggling for light and air between the granite boulders. Some come from the land of Montezuma, some from the land of Peru, the treasure lands of the world ; rich in exhaustless gold and silver, (as I have been told by a Peruvian gentleman sitting beside me,) but richer still in memories of gorgeous, civilizations passed away, and yet, brightened with rapidly maturing promises of grander civilizations coming and to come; while others still have come from virgin regions, the wealth and development of which are prospective ; the history of which is told only by the solemn whisperings of the forest primeval ; written only on the scarred faces of the moun- tains, and upon the swelling bosoms of the trackless plains. Some live lender warm, some under neutral, some i;nder cold skies ; some in climates 31 iequable, constant and favorable ; others in climates capricious, inconstant like that of Cleveland here ; for when the Governor of this commonwealth praised the climate of Ohio, it was because he has not lived on the shores of the Great I^akes. What he said is undoubtedly true of the climate of Columbus or of Cincinnati, but not of Cleveland. Why here, the climate so coquets with the thermometer that it tries to freeze the mercury one minute and boil it the next; of course, it does not succeed, but that is not the fault of the climate, it tries hard enough, and we, who live here, know that it is capable of blowing both hot and cold in the same breath. Some are governed by Presidents, and some by the most sagacious and intelligent of Emperors. Some are Catholic, and some are Protestant. One speaks in vivacious French ; another in liquid Portuguese ; another in the musical Spanish, and yet another in harsh, but vigorous English. Till- ers of the soil ; delvers ia mines ; workers in mills and in factories, all the various pursuits of life, " all sorts and conditions of men " are repre- sented here. Yes, there are truly differences between us ; but these very differences so marked, of soil, of climate, of government, of religion, of language, of pursuit, do not tend to divide or separate us, but to unite us the more closely rather ; since they all help us to realize the vastness of our common domain, the grandeur of a common present, the dazzling pos- sibilities of a common future. They but emphasize the solemn and sig- nificant fact, that we, who are assembled here, and those whom we repre- sent, are joint heirs of half a globe. To paraphrase a familiar quotation a little,— "No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, But the whole boundless continent is ours," except, of course, that comparatively inconsiderable portion lying to the north of us, concerning the manifest destiny of which it would not be diplomatic to speak. But not only are we, who are assembled at this ban- quet, united by marked differences, but marked similarities bind us closely together as well. Whether we come from the South, the Center, the East, the West or the North of our common domain ; by whatever designation we may be known, we are all, thank God, Americans. [Applaiise.] We are mutually interested in making the naine of all America great and respect- ed throughout the globe. And so, as we are children of a common mother, the success of any one member of our great family redounds to the credit and swells the honest pride of all. We of the North need you of the South and Center ; you of the South and Center need us of the North. Our des- tinies are inextricably linked together ; our sympathies are common sym- pathies. When one great American, Abraham Lincoln, struck the shackles from the slave, the shouts of joy that greeted that grand achievement sounded not only within the borders of the United States, but sounded on the shores of the mighty Amazon as well ; and when that other great American, Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, issued his edict of freedom, the snow-crowned summits of the Rocky Mountains joined in the glad acclaim. Yes, in no small measure do the prosperity, the happiness, the welfare of each depend upon the prosperity, the happiness, the welfare of all. But another thought suggests itself to me in thinking of this memor- — 32 — able banquet^- thank God, none but Christian nations are represented here. We differ in creeds, in the forms of worship, to be sure ; but with reverence I say, we all believe in "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;" we all, wondering, worshiping, adoring, humbly kneel at the foot of the cross. And now one other thought about this banquet, and I am done. The welcome which we of the United States are here extending to our honored guests is somehow different from any which we would extend, or could extend, to visitors from across the seas. Warm and hearty as such a wel- come would be, this welcome is, somehow, warmer and heartier. Brothers are welcoming brothers to-night. We are entertaining at this banquet members of a common family, not strangers or aliens. Americans are greeting Americans; and with no unkind feelings toward other nations, and with no desire to disturb proper existing: ..elations, can we not, never- theless, unitedly rejoice in the inspiring t'r jught that in certain emergen- cies and under certain conditions, our pulses would be quickened, our enthusiasm fired, our arms nerved, to united action for all America against the world. [Applause.] ilei£0aie«, ^ecveiavie 4^^ . ^^--^^ vJ» ■? MANCHESTER, I .0^ ^ ^ "■ ' '^ '^^ INDIANA I A-*" .^.J^fefc-