59 HE STATUE f^. HEWITT OF eOMMERCE S BTEWAHT SMITH f'< ^-'^ ^>r ^^e "^K - UNVEILING OF THE STATUE or ABRAM S. HEWITT IN THB CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THB STATE OF NEW-YORK, MAY 11th, 190S. ADDRESS BY CHARLES STEWART SMITH. NEW-TORK : PRESS OP THB CHAMBER OP COMMERCE. 1905. 'Exc'Ldiiiiii} K. Y. Pub. Lib. 12 Je '09 4-1 ADDRESS. This impressive statue of our late member, Abram S. Hewitt, now unveiled, tlie work of William Couper, is worthy of the Chamber and the man. To those of us who have known Mr. Hewitt it will be a reminder of a great character : to our successors it will remain an inspiration for noble and unselfish lives. Abram Stevens Hewitt was born in Haverstraw, N. Y., on July 31, 1822, and died in the City of New- York, Janu- ary 18th, 1903. Mr. Hewitt wrote concerning his ances- tors : "My father was an Englishman, born at Penkridge in Staffordshire. His name was John and his father's name was Thomas. The latter was born in Knutsford, which is on the border of Cheshire, perhaps over the line. They appear to have been of the class known as yeomen, and to have resided at or near Knutsford for several gener- ations, earning an honest living by hard labor. No other member of my father's family ever came to America, and, so far as I know, all his relatives in England have died without leaving any successors." John Hewitt came to this country in 1790, at the age of eighteen, commissioned by an English firm to erect the first stationary steam engine in the United States, at Soho, New- Jersey. He subsequently established in New- York a well known repu- tation for making artistic furniture, and held a certificate himself as a master- workman. A tire destroyed his house and works by which he lost a fortune, considerable for the time. He then retired to a farm in Kockland County, and at the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch he was comparatively poor. On the maternal side the blood was Huguenot. The mother of Abeam S. Hewitt was a descendant of the old and distinguished Garniee family, a member of which, a youth of about sixteen or seventeen, fled from Rochelle, France, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and emigrating to this country, settled on the farm near Haverstraw in this State, which became the family home, and so remained for five generations. A part of this estate, is in possession of the family, and the log house in which Mr. Hewitt was born is still standing, and there he spent his early childhood assisting in farm work, and forming a taste for rural life which he after- wards developed in his fine domain of Ringwood, N. J. "Providence, (says Renan,) when it designs a man for important service, subjects him to early discipline and rigid trials, and the boy is the promise of the man." In order to show character, youthful tendencies, familiar sayings, trifling anecdotes are not insignificant. Mr. Hewitt's youthful struggles were the prophecy of his stout and resolute manhood. At the early age of seven years he entered a public school in the country and afterwards in this City. "When only thirteen years old, (I quote his own words,) I read to Mr. Goodhue four to five hours daily for six months. Amongst other works I remember reading Gib- bons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Plutaech's Lives and Russell's History of Modern Europe." Mr. Hewitt attributed much of his success in after life to the solid foundation laid by this serious reading. "He re- ceived for this service from Mr. Goodhue fifteen dollars ; (his first earnings ;) of this amount twelve and a half dollars was in gold, and the balance five silver half dollars, which latter he gave to his mother, who kept them until her death. 'Twelve and a half dollars he spent later in buying his silk college gown.' " After finishing his preliminary education, standing at the head of his class, he was prepared for college at Dr. Anthon's well known grammar school, and then secured, after public competition, one of the two prizes for free scholarship offered for the first time by Columbia College, where he graduated first in the class of 1842. He took the four gold medals for the four successive years, a unique feat in college life, and delivered the Latin Oration at the Commencement Exercises. During his college course he supported himself as tutor ; among his pupils was the son of Albert Gallatin, whom he instructed in the higher mathematics to the great satisfaction of the father, who became Mr. Hewitt's firm friend. Mr. Hewitt also prepared his own younger brother for a college course. He recognized his obligation to Columbia by founding two free scholarships and received the degree of LL. D. from that University. In after life Mr. Hewitt told a friend, "^-ot one dollar of burden did my education impose upon my parents, who, anxious as they were to give me an education, were too poor to do so." He began the study of law, and, while still an acting professor of math- ematics in Columbia College, was admitted to the New- York bar in 1845. He afterward relinquished this profes- sion in consequence of impaired health and defective 6 eyesight occasioned by his hard work in school and college days. He made his first visit to Europe in 1843, and spent the first thousand dollars of his savings for this purpose. He was accompanied by his life-long friend and classmate, Edward Cooper, afterwards Mayor of New- York City. Upon their return voyage in 1844 they were shipwrecked and barely escaped death. They were rescued after many hours of exposure in a frail boat on the North Atlantic during a dark winter's night. Mr. Hewitt said upon the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of their rescue : "That he felt that Providence preserved his life for a purpose, and at that time he resolved to dedicate himself to work for the benefit of his fellow beings." Shortly after giving up his legal profession the firm of Cooper, Hetvitt & Co. was formed, which existed for more than half a century, and until Mr. Hewitt's death. Peter Cooper, whose only daughter Mr, Hewitt mar- ried, turned over the Trenton Iron Works to the care of the new firm, which became a pioneer in the United States in the iron and steel business, and managed its affairs with conspicuous ability. Cooper, Hewitt & Co. never had a strike ; they never entirely stopped their works, and frequently ran them at large loss amounting in the aggre- gate to five hundred thousand dollars rather than cause distress among their work people. On the occasion of a threatened strike in the Trenton Iron Works, in conse^ quence of a proposed reduction in wages, Mr. Hewitt in- vited a committee of operatives to examine the books of the Company. As a result the works were found to be run- ning at a loss, and the reduction was accepted without a murmur. Mr. Hewitt was almost from his boyhood an advocate and promoter of technical education for wage-earners. He visited the trade and technical schools of Europe, and studied their organization in England, France and Ger- many. His meeting with Peter Cooper, which he has somewhere described as accidental, was fortunate. He was the efficient collaborator of Mr. Cooper in founding Cooper Union, the corner-stone of which was laid in May, 1864, and was up to the time of his death its practical superintendent. He drew the charter, constitution and by-laws of the Cooper Union under the advisement of Peter Cooper. This grand institution has furnished absolutely free education, by means of day and night schools, to thousands of young men and women, which enabled them to become skilled workers in the scientific and decorative branches of industrial arts, in mathematics architecture, chemistry, civics, physics, ethics, etc., etc' The system of free lectures in the Cooper Union which was originated by Mr. Hewitt, became a most v'aluable adjunct to its educational work. Peter Cooper said that ''instruction in the Cooper Union must be as free as light and air." Mr. Hewitt described the purpose of the Union to be " to teach the scientific principles which underlie the arts of the country." When the means of the Union were wanting to pay competent teachers and furnish apparatus in the various branches, Mr. Hewitt's purse and that of his family supplied the deficiency. The grandchildren of Peter Cooper gave up their inheritance from the grandfather's estate to assist in its maintenance and final endowment • Mr. Hewitt's daughters established a Museum for the Arts of Decoration, to which they gave years of de- 8 voted and intelligent work. When the Museum was projected he gave to this object its first start by presenting the entire collection of French casts, which formed its nucleus. The Cooper and Hewitt families have con- tributed to the funds of the Union since its foundation a total of more than $1,500,000, to which Mr. Carnegie added $600,000, and an unknown donor $250,000, making the existing endowment, in addition to the building and its contents, $2,730,488.57, yielding a net annual revenue, exclusive of the rents of the great hall, of $125,000. The children of William Cooper, younger brother of the founder, were among the first to give large sums, amount- ing to three hundred and forty thousand dollars, to the Cooper Union, and it was their gifts which enabled the Trustees to free the building of tenants and to use the space thus added for class rooms. As a student of history, Mr. Hewitt appreciated the ripe experience and accumulated culture of the past, he was, however, above and beyond all other considerations a patriotic American citizen in every fiber of his being. During the storm and stress of our Civil War, in 1862, he was sent by the War Department on a confidential mission to England and France to confer with Ministers Adams and Dayton, then accredited to those governments, and to purchase ordnance supplies for the United States. Mr. Hewitt's international reputation as a learned and scientific student of iron and steel production is well rec- ognized in the interesting address of Sir James Kitson, President of the Iron and Steel Institute of England, on the occasion of the presentation to Mr. Hewitt of the Bessemer Gold Medal in September, 1890. Sir James KiTSON, on his recent visit to New- York, spoke to the speaker of his strong personal regard for Mr. Hewitt, and of the obligation the steel institutes of both countries were under to him. The effort to find an enduring and satisfactory bond of nnion between capital and labor has thus far utterly failed both in the United States and Europe. It is to-day the most important and far reaching question that confronts the world's moral, material and industrial welfare Its solution demands the best thought of the statesman and the patriot. Mr. Hewitt, in an address as President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1890, laid down principles and made suggestions which, if carried out m good faith, would go far towards solving this vital problem. They are worth recalling. They express to-day the last word upon this issue which was never more men- acing to public prosperity than at present. He said : " Under the modern system of industry, commercial operations are conducted on a scale of such magnitude as to require the association of capital in corporate organiza- tions which have almost entirely superseded private Arms and ordinary partnerships. " As a rule the workmen have formed unions for the care of their interests, and especially to secure a satisfac- tory rate of wages. The formation of such unions is alike a right and a duty ; and so long as they confine themselves to the assertion of the rights and the protection of the in- terests of their members they are to be commended and encouraged. The employers, on the other hand, have also various associations for the promotion of their own com mercial interests. " Meanwhile, the severity of the straggle may be greatly 10 mitigated and the final outcome accelerated if certain fun- damental principles which have been established by the experience of mankind are kept steadily in view and rigorously applied as each new complication shall arise. While the propositions which I shall state may be disputed by extremists, I think they will be generally regarded as axioms ingrained in the very constitution of human nature, and, therefore, to be accepted as standards of right and wrong to which all contentions may be referred. " I. Individual liberty consists in the right of each per- son to control his own life and to use the products of his labor in his own way, so long as he does not interfere with the equal rights of any other person. '* II. Individual liberty implies the right of two or more persons to combine together and to use their property and faculties as they may see tit, so long as they do not inter- fere with the equal rights of other individuals or combina- tions of individuals. " III. As population grows there will necessarily be interferences among individuals and combinations of indi- viduals which must be adjusted ; and hence the necessity for government and for tribunals whose judgment must be final. '' IV. In countries where law expresses the will of the majority, and in which it can be amended as often as the majority may desire, there is no justification for resort to private or personal force in order to rectify wrongs, correct abuses and maintain the rights of men. If the courts of justice have not adequate jurisdiction, it is the duty of the Legislature, which represents the public will, to supply it,. 11 and all agitation should be directed to secure such legisla- tion ; and no man or set of men should be allowed to take the law into their own hands, to usurp the functions of the courts of justice, or to forestall the action of the Legis- lature. " Bearing these axioms in mind, the following conclu- sions may be submitted as incontrovertible : "1. It is the equal right of employers and employees to make combinations among themselves respectively, or with each other to advance or reduce wages, or to establish or resist legislation which either or both may regard as essen- tial, desirable or objectionable. " 2. Neither party has the right to coerce the other into submission, except through the action of the courts or tribunals duly constituted to hear and decide upon causes of action submitted to them by either or both parties. "3. The right of workmen to refrain from labor and the right of the employer to cease to employ are correlative rights; but no one has the right to compel any other workman to cease from labor, nor has the emjployer any right to lock out his workmen in order to compel submis- sion to obnoxious rules. " 4. Strikes and lockouts are, therefore, equally inde- fensible on the ground of justice, and can only be tolerated in the absence of provisions for the submission of griev- ances to the adjudication of competent tribunals. " 5. No man has the right to compel another man to combine with him in any organization, and when a man 12 declines to combine it is a violation of right to refuse to work with him and to deny him the means of earning a living. It is equally wrong for employers to blacklist men, so that others will not give them employment. "6. A boycott cannot be defended under any circum- stances whatever. It is in effect a declaration of private war, which is a crime of the Hatfield-McCoy class, to be stamped out by prompt and severe punishment. " 7. The claim of any body of men, that under any cir- cumstances they have the right to stop the operations of business by the issue of an order in the name of organized labor or associated capital cannot be tolerated. When such an order is given in regard to any railway or any other means of communication, it is a direct assault upon the common weal ; and the failure to arrest and punish the offenders thus usuri)ing the executive functions of the State and the judicial power of the courts, is proof of cowardice on the part of the public officials and of degen- eracy in i)ublic opinion, which excuses or permits the violation of the principle of the common law, that ' not even the king can obstruct -the highway.' " And yet we live in a country and under a government professedly of law founded upon public opinion, in which all of these abuses go unpunished. If they continue, dis- orders will increase, and capital will retire from business subject to such outrage and disturbance. *' What we need, therefore, is a recurrence to the well- settled principles of jurisprudence, a higher order of states- niansbip, and the courage on the part of our public men to 13 stand up for the right, though for the time it may involve the sacrifice of personal popularity." In 1867, Mr. Hewitt's report as United States Commis- sioner to the Paris Exposition attracted great attention in Europe, and was declared by experts to be a masterpiece. In his letter of acceptance of the nomination for Mayor in 1886, Mr. Hewitt said : "No pledges to any party or any set of men have been asked. Nor under any circum- stances would I make any other pledge than that which I now fully give, that, if elected, I will discharge the duties according to law to the best of my strength and ability, keeping in view the interest of the whole people without distinction of party and class, and in strict conformity to the legislation affecting the Civil Service and the just demands of the great mass of the people for the removal of abuses which impose taxation without corresponding benefits." The foregoing pledges were fully redeemed at the cost of creating many enemies in his own party ; the seekers of place and patronage were all against him, and did all they could to tie the Mayor's hands in matters of retrenchment and reform. The Mayor at that date had far less power than is lodged under the present charter with the incumbent of that office. A letter and some extracts made from the final report made by Mayor Hewitt to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, throw light upon the manner in which he performed the duties of his office. Mr. Hewitt often expressed to friends his high appreci- ation of the memorable history and traditions of this Chamber, of its value as a leader of public opinion, and of its generous contributions to sufferers by famine, fire or 14 flood. In a late speech he spoke of the initial movement of the Chamber in favor of the Erie Canal ; of its effective promotion of the Croton water system and referred to the Rapid Transit act of the Chamber as its crowning glory. Huntington's picture of the Incorporators of the first Atlantic Cable Company, hanging on yonder wall, will remind you of the prominent part the members of this Chamber took in that great enterprise. Mr. Hewitt once said to me that his friendship for Mr. George Wilson, who has served the Chamber with such conspicuous ability and fidelity for forty-seven years, originated with the fact that Mr. Wilson's father rendered kind service to Mr. Hewitt as monitor during his career in a public school, of which the senior Wilson was for many years afterwards a most efficient Principal. Mr. Hewitt's connection of forty- two years with this Chamber is best illustrated by extracts from its minutes. They will recall important incidents in his career, and the opinion of well qualified judges of a life passed under public observation. At a meeting of the Chamber on April 5th, 1900, the fol- lowing resolution was unanimously adopted : " Resolved, That a gold medal be struck in recognition of the eminent services of the Honorable Abram S. Hewitt in the cause of Civic Rapid Transit under Muni- cipal ownership, and that it be presented to him by the President, with assurances of the admiration, respect and affectionate regard of his fellow members of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New- York." At the same meeting Honorary Membership was con- ferred upon him. 15 Only a few can rise to conspicuous positions in several vocations as did Mr. Hewitt. Most men must select on™ and work like slaves if they aspire to be leaders. He was a recognized leader in his business. His political career rose to the dignity of states.nanship. He was a practical philanthropist; understanding well the trusteeship of wealth. He valued money for the power it gave him to dispense it wisely, and generally without public know- ledge. He was an educator of sound monetary and economic policies, and an orator of rare intelligence who commanded attention by force and clearness of statement He believed that it was the duty of all good citizens to take part in politics. He was a democrat by conviction, but re used to follow his party in theirattempt to dethrone ?190 ''w "'• ""' ""' '" *'" P--d-'ial campaign of 1900, "We are compelled by every consideration of duty and honor to repudiate Brtanism and all that it represents." He voted twice for MoKinlev, in order to emphasize his position on the currency question. In the last two municipal elections he warmly supported Seth Low, and strongly advised Mr. Sh^pard ,o decline the nomination for mayor. He was a strenuous advocate of the theory that party considerations should not influence the voter in municipal elections, and that the Government of a City was a matter of business. He became prominent in City politics in 1871, when, upon the downfall of Tweed, he was made chairman of a committee of influen- nal citizens appointed to reform and reorganize the Democratic party ; his associates were the elder Belmont Green, Cooper, Barlow and John Kelly, with Tilden as their confidential adviser. His twelve years of service in Congress demonstrated by his speeches and actions in 16 Committees that he dared to be in a small minority on the right side. He was confident that the silver heresy then sustained by both political parties could not long survive public examination and discussion. The verdict'of history has already been rendered on that question and has vindi- cated his efforts. He was the author of legislation in Congress, by which the National Bureau of Labor was organized and the Geological Survey created. To him also belongs the credit of originating the unique precedent by which the rapid transit subway system was created with an expense of about fifty millions of dollars, and which, without cost to the taxpayers, becomes, in a term of years, the property of the City. " Paint every wart and wrinkle, or I will not pay you a shilling," said Cromwell to the artist. Carlisle gave similar instructions to his biographer. Mr. Hewitt was broad enough to desire that the lights and shadows of his character should be known. He was accustomed to plain speaking when occasion demanded it. He had a Junius- like mastery of irony and repartee, of ready wit and biting sarcasm, which he used effectively to defend the right, but never from personal motives or to cause unnecessary pain. He was the friend of good men, and hated with honest indignation unworthy ones. He suffered for years with insomnia which at times rendered him momentarily im- patient. Some critics thought his judgment of public men and measures too severe. He was accustomed to criticism and commendation, as he said himself, frequently more of the former than the latter ; he never hesitated to reverse previously expressed opinions when new light, the changes of time and the fluctuations of circumstances required it. He recognized his own limitations. He once remarked to 17 a friend, «« I know my failings, if I had had a good temper I might have been nominated to a high office." Renan said to Taine that the failings of Napoleon contributed to his greatness, and that if " Napoleon had been as cour- teous as my friend, he might have been as commonplace as most of us." John Moeley quotes Dr. Johnson's famous remark : " That a man will please more upon the whole by negative than positive qualities." Mr. Hewitt's qualities were positive. The generation of great English statesmen, orators and writers of the time of Geoege III., included such men as Burke, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Windham, and Grey. Of this brilliant galaxy, the genius of Burke was easily at the head. His speeches and writings will continue to be studied by lovers of English literature for their high ideals of morality and justice and their profound and philosophic enidition. It may be considered presumptions on my part to compare Hewitt with the great Englishman in those qualities, which, by common and historic consent are in- separably connected with the name of Burke. Yet, Mr President and gentlemen, read Mr. Hewitt's address, de- livered at Columbia University, on "Liberty, Learn- ing and Property," and notably his address at the Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, and I think you will agree with me that he more nearly approached the Ideals and spirit of Burke than any man of our generation. The substance if not the text of these remarkable addresses deserve to be taught in our schools as an inspiration and an educational force. Adam Smith, although living in the latter part of the eighteenth century, was the most eminent writer on 18 economic and industrial problems that the English speak- ing race has produced. John Stuart Mill and his school, the French and German critics, acknowledged Adam Smith as original authority upon these questions. He has been quoted by- English statesmen from Pitt to Gladstone. Mr. Hewitt had prominent in his library Smith's " Wealth of Nations," and was a profound student of this work. It is easy to see that Mr. Hewitt's writings and speeches were influenced by that famous economic writer. Mr. Hewitt's ready and magnanimous sympathy for the unfortunate is illustrated by the fact that a man without influential friends, then unknown to him but who after- wards became notorious in the political affairs of this City, was indicted for murder and placed on trial for his life. Mr. Hewitt became convinced, upon reliable evidence brought to him privately, that the man was innocent of the charge. He retained, at his own expense, a prominent lawyer to defend him, and secured his acquittal. John Hats Hammond, an American citizen, a distin- guished member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, was arrested in South Africa in connection with t he Jamieson raid. Mr. Hewitt, believing an innocent man in danger of being shot, used his influence in government circles and secured his release. His love of good books was phenomenal. He was an untiring reader of works of instruction and information, and seldom of those of mere amusement and recreation, although he, like Gladstone, occasionally read and en- joyed the works of the writers of fiction. That he became 19 a profound thinker was largely due to his study of the great masters of thought. A hard working man, if he arrives at old age with his powers, mental and physical, unimpaired, must have an outside hobby as a safety valve and for rest from the hard grind of daily toil ; books and their collection were Mr, Hewitt's hobby. When Mr. Caknegie announced his gift to the City of five millions of dollars for library buildings, Mr. Hewitt promptly offered to furnish two sites for the same. He early formed a library especially rich in books on finance and political economy, which was, unfortunately, de- stroyed by fire. He made a second collection of statistical, reference and illustrated works of such varied and com- prehensive subjects as would interest the student of eco- nomics, the statesman and the man of science and art. He instructed his children to make frequent use of the refer- ence books of the great libraries. He formed scrap-books gathered from domestic and foreign sources, properly in- dexed and easy of reference, which became encyclopedias of useful information His mind was enriched by travel and the study of the great museums and collections, in- cluding the famous historic houses of Europe. His own house showed the cultivation and refinement of its occu- pants. It was a matter of regret to Mr. Hewitt that his fortune was not sufficiently large to enable him to make an important collection of art works without neglecting the more important demands upon his means for the ob- jects to which his life was devoted. Many years ago he built and equipped a school house in Ringwood, where he introduced manual training. He and Mrs. Hewitt subsequently gave five hundred dollars per 20 aanam ; the State of New-Jersey contributing a like amount to cover the expenses of this work. The Ring- wood School was the first country district school in that State where manual training was introduced. He had planned shortly before his death to address the Legislature of the State in order to endeavor to per- suade its members to make manual training a part of the regular district school course, but sickness pre vented this object. On one occasion, when the County Superintendent had closed the school at Stonetown, on account of some absurd technicality, Mr. Hewitt re engaged the teacher and paid her salary and the school was continued as usual. He drew up the first articles for the constitution of the Carnegie Institute at Washington for Original Research. He also prepared the articles of incorporation for the Burke Institute for Con- valescents, the disposition of the entire fortune of four millions having been confided to him for that purpose. He was the originator of the New- Jersey Geological Sur- vey, resulting in the present great collection of topographi- cal maps and tabulated information. He was a Director and Trustee of many financial and industrial organizations, but is more particularly known for his connection with educational institutions. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Insti- tute ; Chairman and Secretary of the Cooper Union ; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Barnard College ; a Trustee of the Museum of Natural History and a mem- ber of the Palisades Commission, and was twice President of the American Institute. Mr. Hewitt seldom made expression of his religious sentiments ; he valued a life more than a creed, and 21 Christian work more than theological dogmas. It is cer- tain that his ideas of good and evil, of right and wrong were regulated by the precepts and example of the founder of Christianity. He was the friend and adviser of men of many denominations. He became early a member of the Episcopal Church, and was for many years a vestryman of Calvary Church, and was much interested in the east side work of that parish. If one's convictions may be judged by acts then it is evident that Mr. Hewitt believed that self-denial for the needs of others is the supreme element in character, and, in the words of Lecky : "It is not even true that the end of man should be to find peace at last, but it should be to do his duty and to tell the truth." In the last year of his life he founded, at the personal cost of thirty thousand dollars, a District School in Mid- vale, N. J., and equipped it with the necessary tools and implements for thorough manual training, and paid the salary of an instructor for one year, to conduct it as an object lesson for that section. He also established in the building hot and cold baths for both sexes, as a means of inculcating sanitary education. Among his instructions to one of his daughters during his last illness was to erect a flag pole at Midvale school house, to put a bell in the building, and to place a tablet in the school room in memory of Col. Robert Erskine and the veterans of the Revolutionary War, with an appropriate inscrip- tion, which he suggested ; he always caused the graves of the Revolutionary heroes buried at Ringwood to be decorated on suitable occasions. A meeting of the friends of Mr. Hewitt was held on February 18th, 1903, to recommend a testimonial in his honor. It was decided that the most fitting monument to 22 liis memory was the further endowment of Cooper Union, 'Ho which, from its inception, he gave his time and effort " most generously of his means, his wonderful talent, his "great ability, and a fund of accurate information, which was almost inexhaustible." The fund for this purpose amounted to $217,420, which was added to the special endowment fund of the Union, Those admitted to the inner circle of Mr. Hewitt's confidence were always charmed by his gracious hos- pitality and keen sympathies for the amenities of home life. Great as were his intellectual qualifications, his heart, more than the brain, often controlled his conduct. Character was his standard of success. He was a worker for humanity, and has made the world better worth living in for those who come after him. He acquired breadth of vision and insight which penetrated beneath the popular opinions and policies of the hour, and advocated principles which are of universal applica- tion in all time. He adopted as his motto, " Be just and fear not." It was the keynote of his character and actions. The example of a long life of intense activity and use- fulness is his legacy to posterity. Cooper Union was to the last the cherished idol of all his enterprises, all per- sonal and private duties and obligations were second to this end. It is impossible to exaggerate the amount of service given by Mr. Hewitt in order to develop this insti- tution in accordance with the wishes of its founder, and it was the dream of his early manhood, that it should be endowed sufficiently, so that it might continue without debt or embarrassment its noble work after his death. After forty years of patient waiting and working, this dream, which at times seemed hopeless, was fully realized. Then, 23 as he had passed the allotted age, he said, with serene contentment, "My life work is finished." The last words of a good man when life's tide is ebbing away are always pathetic. "In his hushed and waiting chamber" he spoke to his wife of the assured position of the Cooper Union ; shortly afterward and conscious to the end he heard the "sunset gun." He could answer "Ready" to the last summons, and the "Readiness is all." Burke said; "Death sanctilies and canonizes a great character." Nature endowed Mr. Hewitt with a brilliant intellect, a fertile imagination, a capacious memory, great capacity for work and conscientious devotion to duty combined with heroic courage to face fearlessly the great problems of the time, regardless of personal considera- tions — all controlled by the highest ideal of rectitude. Within the limits proper to this occasion I have attempted only an inadequate sketch. In summing up the result of my study of Mr. Hewitt's life and character, may I be permitted to do so in the words of Adam Smith concerning his friend Hume : " Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit." Some skilled biographer should relate in detail the story of Mr. Hewitt's life, as an inspiration and example to the rising generation. Mr. President, the Chamber has done well to perjDetuate upon this scene of his important activities the well known 34 form and features of one of the first citizens of the Re- public. Will you permit me in closing to read the fine memorial lines of Richard Watson Gilder, entitled : THE GREAT CITIZEN, ABRAM STEVENS HEWITT, BOKN July 31, 1822. Died January 18, 1903. Mourn for his death, but for his life rejoice, Who was the city's heart, the city's voice. Dauntless in youth, impetuous in age, Weighty in speech, in civic counsel sage ; Talents and wealth to him were but a trust To lift his hapless brother from the dust, — This his chief aim to wake, in every man, The soul to do what only courage can. He saw the evil, as the wise must see, But firm his faith in what the world shall be. Following the truth, he led his fellow men,— Through years and virtues the great citizen By being great, he made the city great, — Serving the city, he upheld the state. So shall the city win a purer fame Led by thf living splendor of his name. APPENDIX. ADDRESS OP SIR JAMES KIT80N, ON TRESENTING TO MR. HEWITT THE BESSEMER GOLD MEDAi. " I have now the duty— the very pleasant duty— to perform ot presenting to the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt the Bessemer gold medal lor distinguished services to the iron and steel trade. When this matter was brought under consideration in London it was well known that, as Mr. Hewitt would be the first to acknowledge, there la more than one man in America upon whom we would gladly have conferred this distinction, and to whom this merit might be justly attributed ; but Mr. Hewitt has been long known to our distinguished members on the other side of the Atlantic as one of the most active minds in the investigation of new methods of manufacture, and one of the most enterprising metallurgists on this side of the Atlantic. Well, gentlemen, we proposed to Mr. Hewitt that he should receive this gold medal, but I think it is quite right, and is his due, that I should state that he at once declined to receive it ; and he declined in a manner which rendered it impossible to any one but very persistent friends and very obstinate Englishmen to refuse. When we heard that our Ameri- can friends had conferred once more upon Mr. Hewitt the distinc- tion of President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and particularly with reference to our contemplated visit and when we heard that he had been elected unanimously to that posi- tion, we felt that we had received the stamp of approval from this side." " Gentlemen, as I said before, Mr. Hewitt has long been known to many of us in England as an advocate of scientific education. A 26 report which he made of the metallurgical products at the Paris Exposition in 1867 was one of the matters which drew very clearly and distinctly the attention of the English iron and steel trade to the necessity of further improvement in our technical education as to iron and steel ; and it was one of those beginnings which led ultimately to the foundation of the Iron and Steel Insti- tute. The development of the ideas which he there investigated undoubtedly led our foremost minds to the foundation of this institute ; and, therefore, it is only a debt of gratitude which we are paying when we present to him this gold medal. But, gentlemen, his services to the iron and steel trade of America are very remark- able. I might take up again the point which Mr. Carnegie gave me yesterday, that this is a year and that this is the country of "firsts ;" for, in 1856, very shortly after the announcement by Sir Henry Bessemer of his invention for the manufacture of steel at Cheltenham, Mr. Hewitt very quickly made inquiries ; and the result of those inquiries was that the first experimental Bessemer converter in America was erected at the works of Messrs. Cooper and Hewitt in 1856. In fact, I believe that, with the usual rapidity of Americans, within sixty days from that announcement, a Bessemer converter was working in the States." " When, then, I find further that Mr. Hewitt was the first to build an open-hearth furnace in the United Statf s. He was concerned with the Martin patents, involving also the use of the Siemen's regenerative furnace, and the open-hearth furnace which he built for the manufacture of steel was the successful " first " of a multi- tude. To him is, therefore, due the initiative of the introduction of that process." " But not content with that, on the announcement of Mr. Snelus's invention for improved basic linings, Mr. Hewitt took an interest in that invention, which was the first step which led him to be associated with the Thomas- Gilchrist basic patents, and through his intervention that process also was first introduced into the United States." I think, gentlemen, that I have given you a record which justifies our distinguishing him, and also ourselves, by enrolling him on the list of the recipients of the Bessemer Medal. Of him, as a man in New-York, it is not for me to speak. His integrity, his public spirit, his self-denial, are well known to you all. I think that 1 27 might rightly use toward him the words of one of your American writers, who says : " You know him well ; no need of praise, Or bonfire from the windy hill To light to loftier paths and ways The world- worn man we honor still." I-ETTER TO MR. SMITH. New-York, January 22, 1901. Deau Mr. Smith :****** I found the enclosed proof sheets of ray final report as Mayor made to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment at the close of my term of oflBce. On looking it over, it seems to me that it pre- sents pretty clearly the nature of the duties of the Mayor, and the manner in which a conscientious executive can perform the duties of the office. In the statement there is nothing exaggerated. The public never understood what was accomplished during the two years of my service, but the chief thing was that when I surrendered the office to my successor every department of the City Government was in an efficient condition and honestly administered. The ^)er cajnta expenses were less than at any previous period in the recent history of New- York. Of course the beginning only was made of the en- terprises which ought to have been continued and completed. The change in administration practically rendered the preparations which had been made of no use until Mayor Strong resumed the consideration of some of the improvements which were suggested. If the matter does not interest you, do not trouble to read the document, which has long since been forgotten. Sincerely yours, Abram S. Hewitt. Chas. Stewart Smith, Esq. extracts from the message of mayor HEWITT TO THE BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND APPORTIONMENT, DECEMBER 3lST, 1888. "On my accession to office on the 1st of January, 1887, I found 28 very grave abuses in nearly every department of the government, which were the subject of general complaint. The heads of de- partment invariably defended themselves against these complaints by the statement that the appropriations were insufficient for the due enforcement of law and the proper discharge of the duties confided to them. The first months of my administration were, therefore, devoted to a careful investigation of the facts, and I was driven to the conclusion that the appropriations made for carrying on the government during the year 1887 were insufficient for its proper conduct." " Nevertheless, with the means at the command of the several departments, very considerable reforms were effected." " The machinery of justice having thus been improved a vigor- ous effort was made to suppress places of evil resort, and particu- larly those known as ' dives.' My personal appeal to the Commis- sioners of Police was met by a hearty response, and the result was that, before the summer of 1887, the most notorious, if not all, of these vicious resorts were closed." "On investigation I discovered that the accommodations pro- vided by the insane asylums were totally inadequate to care for the inmates. The first step was to lease buildings from the Commis- sioners of Emigration, by which five hundred or six hundred lunatics were properly housed. I called upon the State Board of Charities to investigate the condition of the asylums, and their report confirmed all the allegations which had been made, except that there had been any failure of duty on the part of the Com- missioners and the physicians. The whole difficulty was chargeable to want of sufficient appropriations to carry on the institutions in accordance with the requirements of humanity. I therefore re- quested the Commissioners, in their estimates for the year 1888, to include a sum sufficient to remove, as far as practicable, all just grounds of complaint." "In the Health Department the increase was $41,769. This department I found to be in a demoralized condition in conse- quence of the removal of the President of the Board, which had not yet been confirmed by the Governor. As soon as this removal became effective the Board was re-organized, with results which 29 have called forth general commendation. Daring the past year this City has been subjected to the inroad both of cholera and yellow fever. No apprehension was excited in the public mind, nor indeed was there any real danger, because the arrangements made by the Health Department were so complete as to call forth general admiration." " In this connection it is proper to refer to the quarantine estab- lishment, which was found to be in a deplorably dilapidated condi- tion, entirely unable to cope with the dangers of contagion. I made a prompt representation of the facts to the Governor, and, finally, failing to get action, appealed directly to the Legislature, who at length appropriated about $200,000 for the reconstruction and improvement of the sanitary arrangements of the quarantine establishment. This work has been done by a Commission of which the Mayor is a member, and the result has been to make the City comparatively safe from the dangers of disease imported from abroad. The work now in hand will be completed during the coming year, and will then provide the safeguards for which it was designed." " On my accession to office I was met with complaints in regard to the filthy condition of the streets. Prompt steps were taken to change the method and time of collecting ashes and garbage, which had been an offence to all decent people. An additional appropriation of $209,459 was made in order to enable the Com- missioner of Street Cleaning to sweep the streets more frequently, and, although complaints are still rife, it is but right to say that the streets have never, within the memory of its citizens, been as clean as they are at the present time. They never can be properly cleaned, however, until the pavements are put in good order, and the various corporations, which have now the right to tear up the streets, are prohibited from destroying the pavements at their own pleasure." "The sum of $309,079 was added to the tax levy in 1888 more than was paid in 1887. This money was imperatively required to put the school-houses into a proper state of repair and for the erection of one additional school-house pending authority from the Legislature to issue bonds for the construction of other school-houses. The work of repairing the existing buildings is now almost en- tirely completed, and the neglect of past years has been corrected. 30 Provision has been made for the erection of aeventeeu additional Bchool-houses, of which eight are under way and nine more are being prepared for contracts." "At the outset of ray term of oflEice I adopted the principle of calling together the heads of Department to consult as to the legis- lation which might be required for the advantage of the City and the better conduct of its business. Every act proposed was care- fully considered by this conference. One hundred and ninety-one bills directly affecting the City of New- York were passed during the last year. The passage of many objectionable bills was thus defeated, but in some important cases the Legislature acted di- rectly against the recommendations of the City authorities. The Commission for the construction of the electrical subways was thus organized against the unanimous protest of the City officials who had recommended the addition of the Mayor, Comptroller and Com- missioner of the Public Works to the Commission, but the latter two officers were omitted. The consequence has been that the work has gone on in a manner which has been exceedingly destruc- tive to the use of the streets, and the result is believed by many competent experts to be an entire failure. The only consolation is that it is not paid for out of the City treasury. The importance of buying the electrical wires is so great that it is to be hoped that some means may be found of making the existing conduits of use in order that the improvement may not be indefinitely postponed." " A bill was carefully prepared to provide for the construction of a rapid transit route from the Annexed District to the lower end of the island. This bill failed of enactment, but the work of prepara- tion has been made, and the people of this City can get the ad- vantage of it whenever they choose to bring public opinion to bear upon the Legislatui-e in favor of a proposition which, while it in- volves no ultimate outlay of public money, will secure forever to its inhabitants the control and ownership of a structure indispensable to the growth of the City and the increase of its taxable property." "On coming into office I found the dockets of the various Muni- cipal Commissions of which the Mayor is a member greatly en- cumbered with business. This has all been disposed of, so that the new administration veill come into power absolutely free from com- plications arising out of various public questions which had been postponed from year to year." 31 TRIBUTES TO MR. HEWITT AT A MEETING OF THE CHAMBER OF COMilERCE, APRIL 5TH, 1900, WHEN A GOLD MEDAL WAS ORDERED TO BE STRUCK IN RECOGNITION OF MR. HEWITT'S SERVICES IN THE CAUSE OF CIVIC RAPID TRANSIT. REMARKS OF MR. ALEXANDER E. ORR. "In brief, the history is this: In 1888, Abram S. Hewitt, then Mayor of New- York, in his annual message, called the attention of the Board of Aldermen to the pressing need of real rapid transit, and earnestly advocated Municipal construction as the only means of obtaining it effectively. The Board of Aldermen gave little heed to his suggestion. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Hewitt pre- pared a Bill illustrative of his views, and had it introduced at Al- bany. It was referred to the Committee on Cities, and there it was smothered, for it never got back to the Legislature and no results followed. In 1891, another effort was made, but on differ- ent lines than those advocated by Mr. Hewitt. An Act was passed which created a Rapid Transit Commission, with power to lay out routes, adopt methods of construction, etc., and offer the franchise in perpetuity at public auction to private enterprise. But private capital was timid and could not be tempted with even the promise of perpetual ownership, and the result was a failure." " It was then that this Chamber, in 1894, recognizing the dano-er of further delay to the commercial interests of the City, appointed a Committee to investigate and report upon the Rapid Transit situation, and it was then that the transcendant genius and foresight of Mr. Hewitt and the benefits of the previous study he had given to the whole question came into full play. By direction of the Chamber, and under his skillful guidance and assisted by Henry R. Beekman, now Mr. Justice Beekman, as counsel, the Commit- tee prepared amendments to the Act of 1891, and backed by the influence and confidence that the Chamber enjoys, had them intro- duced into the Legislature, and they were finally enacted into law." " Briefly stated the main features of the amendments are these : A new Commission was created composed of eight members, five of whom were named in the Bill, (all being members of this Chamber,) and three were ex officio, (viz.,) the Mayor, the Comptroller and the President of the Chamber of Commerce. The Commission was authorized to lay out routes, prepare plans and specifications, and 32 select motive power, etc. This being done, the right to construct wa.H vested in the City, provided, after open competition, an accept- able lessee was found who would agree, for a certain fixed sum, to construct, equip and operate the road for a period not less than thirty-five or more than fifty years, paying as rent the interest on the bonds to be issued by the City for construction purposes, and a further annual sum of not less than one per cent, towards the crea- tion of a sinking fund, from which the bonds are to be paid at maturity, the lessee meanwhile giving security satisfactory to the Commission for the full performance of his contract and leasehold obligations. The entire credit of inventing these provisions belongs to Mr. Hewitt, and the more critically they are examined the more remarkably advantageous to all parties in interest they ap- pear. The City under them retains its valuable franchise, and at the end of the lease will own the road and hold possession of the key to the rapid transit situation absolutely, without the expendi- ture of a single dollar for construction or interest." EEMABKS OF MR. CHARLES S. SMITH. " Mb. President : I regard it as a privilege to second with great cordiality the resolution offered by my friend, Mr. Orr. During the seven years, sir, in which I occupied your chair, it is only just to say, tliat I was under more obligation to Mr. Hewitt than to any other member for valuable advice and assistance concerning the important subjects that came before the Chamber, and we all know that his voice in the Chamber never failed to carry conviction, be- cause behind the spoken words was the character of the man. Lord Beaconsfield, in his famous tribute to Cobden in the House of Commons said, * There are men who are always members of this House, who are independent of the dissolutions of Parliament, the caprice of constituencies, and the flight of time, and such a man, I think, was Richard Cobden.' You will agree with me, Mr. Presi- dent, that we may well apply this splendid eulogy of Beacons- field to the services which our good friend, Mr. Hewitt has rendered to the City, State and nation, and that they will remain for our successors among the most cherished traditions of the Chamber." " I once heard Mr. Hewitt remark ' that he considered his life to G^a.^^.^/^ 33 have been a failure,' which I interpreted to mean that his highest ideals have not been realized. Mr. Hewitt has never followed the paths nor adopted the methods that ordinarily lead to preferment. He has never sacrificed principle to expediency. It is the man that dares to be ahead of the times that in the end leads the times, and Mr. Hewitt is to-day the acknowledged leader of the men in this great City who value citizenship above partisanship. What- ever may be Mr. Hewitt's personal estimate of his life's work, he is, in his serene old age, reaping the greatest of all earthly rewards in the love and respect of the people among whom he has passed his long and useful life." death OV MR. HEWITT. On February 5th, 1903, Mr. Jesup formally announced the death of Mr. Hewitt, and said : *' Gentlemen : I know that I am anticipating your thoughts and wishes when I announce that the regular business of the day will be deferred, and the hour usually devoted to that purpose will be spent in doing honor to the memory of him who has but recently gone from us." " Abkam S. Hewitt was the most distinguished member of this Chamber. His forty-two years of association as one of its leading members, taking an active part in its work and deliberations, always ready with pen and voice to advance its interest and influ- ence, made him the nestor of the Chamber, and accustomed us all to his leadership as by one mind." '* His unselfish devotion to duty, his sincerity of purpose, his keen and incisive mind, and above all, his accessibility and warm heart made him beloved, respected and honored by us all." " We shall miss him. The City, State and nation will miss him ; and, while he has gone from our sight, in our vision we shall be- hold him, and rejoice that such a life was given us for our inspira- tion and hope." " As you ascend the grand stairway of marble leading to this Hall you will observe spaces waiting to be filled as time passes with the statues of the worthies connected with this Chamber who have lived lives of usefulness and performed great deeds for City and country." 34 " Let us honor ourselves as we seek to honor the long and useful life of him who has gone by placing in the first space a statue of ihe purest marble, representing not only our holiest sentiment of respect and admiration, but the purity, sincerity and unselfish devo- tion to duty of the life of him who has departed." After the passage of appropriate resolutions, Mayor Low said in part : REMARKS OF MAYOR LOW. " Mr. Hewitt so used his business, also, as to broaden himself on every side, so that he met opportunities, the most various, in a way that reflected credit upon himself and upon the commercial life which developed such a man. He visited Constantinople on one occasion and so interested the Sultan that the Sultan presented to him a considerable library of Turkish books. I remember to have heard Gladstone quoted as having said, on one occasion, that he had enjoyed a talk with Mr. Hewitt more than with any other American he had ever met. When he spoke, as Mayor, at the dedication of the statue of Garibaldi, he so delighted the King of Italy that the king wished to confer upon him a decoration, which, however, Mr. Hewitt declined to receive. Such illustrations might be indefinitely multiplied of how he showed himself to be, on all sorts of occasions, a thoroughly well equipped man. A successful merchant or manufacturer of whom this may be saicl, and who, through a long life, has contributed to the industrial welfare of the country, has certainly added to the prestige of this Chamber." REMARKS OF MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE. " It is character and service alone which could draw us together to render this tribute to the man who, whether in wealth or poverty, in victory or defeat, in or out of oflice, was ever of spot- less reputation, notable for abnegation of self, devotion to duty, loyalty to truth, earnest conviction, high ideals, purity of life, a citizen of rare knowledge and wisdom, and of unflagging zeal for the public good." " Amidst many City institutions which benefitted by his labors one stands forth pre-eminent, that to which he devoted his life for forty 35 years, and with the inception of which he had much to do, Coopke Union. I wish all of you, and indeed all of the citizens of New- York, could visit it some night and see more than two thousand students receiving invaluable instruction, the young men and women who spend not only laborious days but laborious nights to lit themselves for greater use. In all my experience I have met with no educational work comparable to this of the Cooper Union and kindred institutions which attract the aspiring youth, he who supports himself by labor through the day and improves himself at night. This is Mr. Hewitt's living monument, no dead pile, but a monument with a soul in it, instinct with vitality, educating the most aspiring, from whom the leaders and benefact-ors of the race are to come." Mr. Alexander E, Orr said in part : *' To this Chamber, and the commercial interests of the City and State which it directly represents, Mr. Hewitt ever proved a loyal and true friend. His eminent services were continuously at our disposition and rendered with a promptness and comprehensiveness of the subject dealt with that seldom failed to bring conviction, and always added to our admiration. Our records sparkle through- out with the brilliancy of his addresses and reports, which, while serving as an incentive to those who are to follow, will keep his memory green and fresh in this Chamber as long as it endures." " If I was asked to put into the shortest sentence possible the dominant attributes of Mr. Hewitt's life I think I should say great achievement of purpose, irreproachable character and continuous service. It is not my privilege or my purpose to elaborate them here. They are National as well as Civic possessions of which all are justly proud, and concerning which much has been and will continue to be said and written. But who can tell of the inner Christian life, the inner philanthropic life ? It is true we know a little of that which, of necessity, appeared on the surface, but the story of the silent forces of his Christian philanthropy, of the warm sympathy of both mind and heart which have helped to make life easier, happier and more righteous to thousands of our fellow creatures, can only be found in that record which mortal eyes are not privileged to read.'' 36 REMARKS OF MR. "WILLIAM E. DODGE. " Mr. President and Gentlemen : In this commercial age, when a prominent man is taken away, we are very apt to say, " What has he left?" The reputation and the influence and the memory of Mr. Hewitt makes the accumulation of money, or fame in literature, or of luxury or expense, seem almost nothing. They are a rich legacy for his friends, and for those of us who loved him. New- York and the Chamber of Commerce have been rich in able, good and distinguished men, who have left a fine impress on the community. But Mr. Hewitt's life was a very unique and peculiar one ; his position differed from almost any man we have ever had with us. It was a long, beautiful, fully rounded out life, covering so many points, touching so many interests, helping us all so greatly, that we had learned to love him and look up to him almost as a father, as a mentor, a wise guide and adviser ; and when any public matter came up we wanted to know what Mr. Hewitt thought of it, and what his impressions were before we decided ourselves. It was a very simple and touching tribute that some one paid to him the other day when he said ' that New-York seemed lonesome without him.' " UEMARKS op the HON. CARL SCHURZ. " Indeed, the best eulogy that could be pronounced upon his life, I might say he would pronounce himself, if he could once more stand among us and speak to us as he so often did upon the affairs and the interests of the City and of the State and of the nation and of the world, illuminating our minds by the brilliant flashes of his high intelligence, fortifying his arguments with the vast resources of his knowledge and his almost unlimited experience. But one thing, I think, must have struck every one that ever came into con- tact with him, and that was the magnificent genuineness of the man. Here was a man of a very high order of ability, of large acquirements, of the gift of brilliancy in a rare degree, and yet that man never made the slightest attempt at false pretence, never the slightest effort to appear anything else than what he was. On the contrary, his instinctive impulse seems always to have been to appear just what he was ; and that was good. In tlie history of 37 the world those who have ever been among the favorite heroes of nations who stood up for the imperilled liberties and rights of the people against the arrogance of despotic princes ; but I think in times like ours — in fact at all times — and in a republic like ours — and in fact in all republics — there is need of men who will not only have the courage of confronting kings, but who have the courage of confronting the people themselves. The flatterer of a king may be simply contemptible ; but the sycophant of the people under a free government is in the highest degree dangerous ; and we may well say of Mr. Hewitt that to serve the cause of right and justice he never hesitated to differ from anybody and to maintain his own convictions ; nay, he dared to differ from the people them- selves for the people's good ; he had the courage to stand alone ; and that is one of the traits of civic heroism which we cannot too highly appreciate. To seek the truth without prejudice and tell the truth without fear is one of the highest principles that a public man in a republic can follow." EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH MADE BY MR. HEWITT ON LIBERTY, LEARN- ING AND PROPERTY, UPON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW BUILDINGS OF THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, MAY 2d, 1896. But whence is the citizen to derive his knowledge of the nature of his rights, and how is he to rise to the full measure of the per- formance of his duties ? Political knowledge is not a natural endowment. It is the growth of painful experience, and the out- come of training through ages of effort and sacrifice. The history of the world is the record of its acquisition. In its range are included the lessons of every age and every nation. Heroes and saints, statesmen and demagogues, tyrants and traitors have alike made their contributions to its evolution. The silent masses of the people have suffered and died in order that humanity might at length achieve freedom. There is not a region on this great globe which has not made its mark upon the final record which we call civilization. ******** If, as I have said, the leaders in the struggle for independence were oollege-bred men, the foundation of the Government and the 88 formation of the Constitution was pre-eminently their work. Of the fifty-five members of the Con8titutional Convention of 1787, nine were graduates of Princeton, four of Yale, three of Harvard, two of Columbia, one of Pennsylvania, seven of William and Mary and six of foreign colleges. The small number from Columbia was due to the fact that New-York sent but three dele- gates to the Convention, but its two sons, Alexander Hamilton and GouvEKNEUR Morris, were with Madison, and afterwards with Jay, in the " Federalist," the very bulwarks of that instrument which is acknowledged to be the most wonderful and successful political achievement ever devised by the wit of man. ******** Liberty was indeed secured by the Constitution just ratified, but science was in its cradle. The principle of gravitation had been discovered, and the composition of air and water had recently been disclosed, but the application of this knowledge had not yet been made in America, Not a single steam engine had been erected on the continent, and beyond the rude application of a few water powers, all forms of industry were still carried on by hand. But the country was a land of unbounded resources, and its inhabitants, animated by individual energy and protected by law, were well prepared to undertake the conquest of a continent, and to develop its possibilities of wealth. The free spirit of the nation was thus loosened at the very juncture when science entered upon the career of discovery and development which has crowded the nineteenth century with great achievements and produced a sum of wealth far exceeding all the results of the eighteen pre- ceding centuries of the Christian era. No pen can describe, no imagination can conceive the material triumphs of which this gen- eration has been the witness and the partaker. The favorable geographical position of New- York gave it the natural primacy in this development, and its sons were not slow to see and to take advantage of its opportunity. DeWitt Clinton, the first graduate of Columbia College after the Revolution, created the Erie Canal, by which the wealth of the great West was opened up and poured into the lap of New- York. Robert R. Livingston (another graduate,) the great Chancellor who administered to Washington the oath of office, recognizing the genius of Fulton, supplied the means which made steam navigation a success. John 39 Stevkxs, an alumnus of Columbia College, gave us the railway and the screw propeller, which have revolutionized transportation by land and by sea and enabled us to feed the teeming millions of Europe. Thus were supplied the stimulus which has made the century now closing a very carnival of enterprise, and an uninter- rupted triumph of science and industry. ******** A nation is not great because it is rich, any more than a man is a hero because he is a millionaire. The question is not how much riches we have accumulated but what we are doing with them. Is this great store of wealth being used merely for the acquisition of more wealth, and for the satisfaction of material wants and pleas- ures, or does a fair share of it go to the gratification of the spiritual needs of humanity and for its elevation into a higher and purer atmosphere ? ******** Foreign immigration, which during the earlier part of the cen- tury was encouraged as a necessary means of development, and which, in fact, has largely contributed to the rapid growth of the country, has become a dangerous element, because much of it is now illiterate and of a character not easily assimilated into the general mass of the people. The magnitude of the danger may be inferred from the fact that we have received 18,000,000 of foreign- ers in the last twenty-five years, too many of whom are not in sympathy with our institutions, and cannot discharge the ordinary duties of the citizen. Again, the franchise has been diluted in the Southern States with illiteracy to such an extent as to compel objectionable methods of interference in order to preserve society from peril, if not from ruin. The rights and duties of the suffrage are, therefore, undergoing a new discussion, the outcome of which is involved in great uncertainty. It may be predicted, however, that if limitations shall be prescribed they are more likely to be imposed upon the rich than upon the poor. ******** The feeling is rapidly spreading that the time has come for a new and nobler civilization. A spiritual wave like that which produced the crusades, erected the cathedrals and the universities in the Middle Ages, or the later movement which culminated in the Renaissance and in the Reformation, is plainly in sight and ready 40 to usher in the advent of the next century, when the question will be, not aa in the eighteenth century, " What are the rights of man," or in the nineteenth century, " How these rights are to be made available for the production of wealth," but rather what is the duty of society in regard to the use of wealth which has thus been created. A city is not great because it contains many dwellings and covers much territory. Its greatness does not consist in mere numbers and in commerce. Its eminence is determined by the character of its civilization and by its provision for the material, intellectual and spiritual wants of its citizens. Life, liberty and property must be secured, order maintained, and the law enforced. The best system and appliances of education must be provided for its children ; there must be adequate means of recreation from infancy to old age ; the young must be trained to habits of obedience and dili- gence ; outlets must be provided for their physical energies, and the spectacle of young men growing up without occupation must be removed from the conscience of the community, which is violated when there is no opportunity to learn menchanical trades — the natural outlet for their physical and mental powers. The population must be properly housed, perfect sanitary conditions must prevail, the standard of living must be raised, and parks and pleasure grounds provided on a scale which will enable every dweller in the city to exclaim : " I care not, Fortune, what you me deny You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace." Schools for commercial and, technical education must be provided at night, so that artisans of talent and ambition may have the op- portunity to develop natural capacity to its full extent ; the evil in- fluence of demoralizing resorts must be counteracted by the opening of museums of art, science, and industry, so that the population may become familiar with the highest types of beauty and the results of genius ; free libraries and reading-rooms must be provided on a scale demanded by the intellectual wants of an intelligent population ; such pi o vision should be made for the sick and poor that there will be no excuse for the presence in its avenues of tramps and beggars ; its streets should 41 be well paved and clean ; transit should be speedy and cheap, and, above all, the churches should be conducted in a spiri*, 80 liberal as not merely to cultivate the religious instincts of men, but to exert a spiritual influence upon the rising generation through social organizations intended to amuse, instruct, and refine. ******** The masses of the people have never demanded equality of for- tune, and indeed understand it to be impossible ; but they have always insisted, and will always insist upon equality of oppor- tunity. With free schools and universal education, with opportuni- ties for the youth of exceptional ability in the ranks of the rich or the poor to secure the benefits of the highest instruction, the approaches of communism need never be feared. Equality of op- portunity insures the ultimate distribution of wealth upon just con- ditions and within reasonable periods of time. If this were not so, society would be justified in demanding a reorganization upon more equitable lines. But this demand will not be made so long as provision exists for the general diffusion of knowledge, and the acquisition of that higher learning which is essential to the stability and development of civil institutions. ******** ADDRESS MADa BY MR. HEWITT ON THE OPENING OF THE NKW- YORK AND BROOKLYN BRIDGE, MAY 24tH, 1883. Two hundred and seventy years ago the good ship " Tiger," commanded by Captain Adraien Block, was burned to the water's edge, as she lay at anchor, just off the southern end of Manhattan Island. Her crew, thus forced into winter quarters, were the first white men who built and occupied a house on the laud where New- York now stands ; " then," to quote the graphic language of Mrs. Lamb, in her history of the City, " in primeval solitude, waiting till commerce should come and claim its own. Nature wore a hardy countenance, as wild and as untamed as the savage landholders. Manhattan's twenty-two thousand acres of rock, lake and rolling table land, rising at places to a height of one hundred and thirty-eight feet, were covered with sombre forests, grassy knolls and dismal swamps. The trees were lofty ; 42 and old, decayed and withered limbs contrasted with the younger growth of branches ; and wild flowers wasted their sweetness among the dead leaves and uncut herbage at their roots. The wanton grape vine swung carelessly from the topmost boughs of the oak and the sycamore ; and blackberry and raspberry bushes, like a picket guard, presented a bold front in all possible avenues of approach. The entire surface of the island was bold and granitic, and in profile resembled the cartilaginous back of the sturgeon." This primeval scene was the product of natural forces working through uncounted periods of time ; the continent slowly rising and falling in the sea like the heaving breast of a world asleep ; glaciers carving patiently through ages the deep estuaries ; season's innumerable clothing the hills with alternate bloom and decay. The same sun shines to-day upon the same earth ; yet how trans- formed ! Could there be a more astounding exhibition of the power of man to change the face of nature than the panoramic view which presents itself to the spectator standing upon the crowning arch of the bridge, whose completion we are here to-day to cele- brate in the honored presence of the President of the United States, with their fifty millions ; of the Governor of the State of New-York, with its five millions ; and of the Mayors of the two cities, aggregating over two million of inhabitants ? In the place of stillness and solitude, the footsteps of these millions of human beings ; instead of the smooth waters " unvexed by any keel," highways of commerce ablaze with the flags of all the nations ; and where once was the green monotony of forested hills, the piled and towering splendors of a vast metropolis, the countless homes of industry, the echoing marts of trade, the gorgeous palaces of luxury, the silent and steadfast spires of worship ! To crown all, the work of separation wrought so surely, yet so slowly, by the hand of time, is now reversed in our own day, and " Manahatta " and "Seawanaka" are joined again, as once they were before the dawn of life in the far azoic ages. " It is done ! Clang of bell and roar of gan Send the tidings up and down, How the belfries rock and reel ! How the great guns, peal on peal, Fling the joy from town to town !" 43 " What hath God wrought !" were the words of wonder, which ushered into being the magnetic telegraph, the greatest marvel of the many marvelous inventions of the present century. It was the natural impulse of the pious maiden who chose this first message of reverence and awe, to look to the Divine Power as the author of a new gospel. For it was the invisible, and not the visible agency, which addressed itself to her perceptions. Neither the bare poles nor the slender wire, nor the magnetic battery, could suggest an adequate explanation of the extinction of time and space which was manifest to her senses, and she could only say, " What hath God wrought !" But when we turn from the unsightly telegraph to the graceful structure at whose portal we stand, and when the airy outline of its curves of beauty, pendant between massive towers suggestive of art alone, is contrasted with the over-reaching vault of heaven above and the ever moving flood of waters beneath, the work of omnipotent power, we are irresistibly moved to exclaim, What hath man wrought ! Man hath indeed wrought far more than strikes the eye in his daring undertaking, by the general judgment of engineers, without a rival among the wonders of human skill. It is not the work of any one man or of any one age. It is the result of the study, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men in many ages. It is not merely a creation ; it is a growth. It stands before us to- day as the sum and epitome of human knowledge ; as the very heir of the ages ; as the latest glory of centuries of patient observation, profound study and accumulated skill, gained, step by step, in the never-ending struggle of man to subdue the forces of nature to his control and use. In no previous period of the world's history could this bridge have been built. Within the last hundred years the greater part of the knowledge necessary for its erection has been gained. Chemistry was not born until 1776, the year when political economy was ushered into the world by Adam Smith, and the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by the Continental Congress, to be maintained at the point of the sword by George Washington. In the same year Watt produced his successful steam engine, and a century has not elapsed since the first specimen of his skill was erected on this continent. The law of gravitation 44 was indeed known a Lundred years ago, but the intricate laws of force, which now control the domain of industry, had not been de- veloped by the study of physical science, and their practical appli- cations have only been effectually accomplished within our own day, and, indeed, some of the most important of them during the building of the bridge. For use in the caissons, the perfecting of the electric light came too late, though happily in season for the illumi- nation of the finished work. This construction has not only employed every abstract con- clusion and formula of mathematics, whether derived from the study of the earth or the heavens, but the whole structure may be said to rest upon a mathematical foundation. The great dis- coveries of chemistry, showing the composition of water, the nature of gases, the properties of metals ; the laws and processes of physics, from the strains and pressures of mighty masses, to the delicate vibrations of molecules, are all recorded here. Every de- partment of human industry is represented, from the quarrying and the cutting of the stones, and mining and smelting of the ores, the conversion of iron into steel by the pneumatic process, to the final shaping of the masses of metal into useful forms, and its re- duction into wire, so as to develop in the high(!st degree, the ten- sile strength which fits it for the work of suspension. Every tool which tlie ingenuity of man has invented, has somewhere, in some special detail, contributed its share in the accomplishment of the final result. " Ah ! what a wondrous thing it is To note how many wheels of toil One word, one thought can set in motion." But without the most recent discoveries of science, which have enabled steel to be substituted for iron — applications made since the original plans of the bridge were devised — we should have had a structure fit, indeed, for use, but of such moderate capacity that we could not have justified the claim which we are now able to make, that the cities of New- York and Brooklyn have constructed, and to-day rejoice in the possession of the crowning glory of an age memorable for great industrial achievements. This is not the proper occasion for describing the details of this undertaking. This grateful task will be performed by the engineer 45 in the final report, with which every great work is properly com- mitted to the judgment of posterity. But there are some lessons to be drawn from the line of thought I have followed, which may encourage and comfort us as to the destiny of man, and the out- come of human progress. What message, then, of hope and cheer does this achievement convey to those who would fain believe that love travels hand in hand with light along the rugged pathway of time ? Have the dis- coveries of science, the triumphs of art, and the progress of civil- ization, which have made its accomplishment a possibility and a reality, promoted the welfare of mankind, and raised the great mass of the people to a higher plane of life ? This question can best be answered by comparing the compensa- tion of the labor employed in the building of this bridge, with the earnings of labor upon works of equal magnitude in ages gone by. The mone}'' expended for the work of construction proper on the bridge, exclusive of land damages and other outlays, such as inter- est, not entering into actual cost, is nine million ($9,000,000) dol- lars. This money has been distributed in numberless channels — for quarrying, for mining, for smelting, for fabricating the metals, for shaping the materials, and erecting the work, employing every kind and form of human labor. The wages paid at the bridge itself may be taken as the fair standard of the wages paid for the work done elsewhere. These wages are : Average. Laborers $1 75 per day. Blacksmiths 3 60 to $4 00 do. Carpenters 3 00 to 3 50 do. Masons and Stonecutters 3 50 to 4 00 do. Riggers 2 00 to 2 50 do. Painters 2 00 to 3 50 do. Taking all these kinds of labor into account, the wages paid for work on the bridge will thus average $2.50 per day. Now, if this work had been done at the time when the Pyramids were built, with the skill, appliances and tools then in use, and if the money available for its execution had been limited to nine million ($9,000,000) dollars, the laborers employed would have re- ceived an average of not more than two cents per day in money of 46 the same purcliasiug power as the coiu of the present era. In other words, the effect of the discoveries of new methods, tools and laws of force, has been to raise the wages of labor more than a hundred fold, in the interval which has elapsed since the Pyramids were built. I shall not weaken the suggestive force of this statement by any comments upon its astounding evidence of progress, beyond the obvious corollary, that such a state of civilization as gave birth to the Pyramids would now be the signal for universal bloodshed, revolution, and anarchy. I do not underestimate the hardships borne by the labor of our time. They are, indeed, grievous, and to lighten them is, as it should be, the chief concern of statesmanship. But this comparison proves that through forty centuries, these hardships have been steadily diminished ; that all the achievements of science, all the discoveries of art, all the inventions of genius, all the progress of civilization, tend by a higher and immutable law to the steady and certain amelioration of the condition of society. It shows that, notwithstanding the apparent growth of great for- tunes, due to an era of unparalleled development, the distribution of the fruits of labor is approaching from age to age to more equitable conditions, and must, at last, reach the plane of absolute justice between man and man. But this is not the only lesson to be drawn from such a com- parison. The Pyramids were built by the sacrifices of the living for the dead. They served no useful purpose, except to make odious to future generations the tyranny which degrades humanity to the level of the brute. In this age of the world such a waste of effort would not be tolerated. To-day the expenditures of com- munities are directed to useful purposes. Except upon works designed for defence in time of war, the wealth of society is now mainly expended in opening channels of communication for the free play of commerce, and the communion of the human race. An analysis of the distribution of the surplus earnings of man after providing food, shelter and raiment, shows that they are chiefly absorbed by railways, canals, ships, bridges and telegraphs. In ancient times these objects of expenditure were scarcely known. Our bridge is one of the most cons])icuous examples of this change in the social condition of the world, and of the feeling of men. In the middle ages cities walled each other out, and the fetters of prejudice and tyranny held the energies of man in hopeless bond- 47 age. To day men and nations seek free intercourse with each other, and much of the force of the intellect and energy of the world is expended in breaking down the barriers established by nature, or created by man, to the solidarity of the human race. And yet, in view of this tendency, the most striking and charac- teristic feature of the nineteenth century, there still are those who believe and teach that obstruction la the creator of wealth ; that the peoples can be made great and free by the erection of artificial barriers to the beneficient action of commerce, and the unrestricted intercourse of men and nations with each other. If they are right, then this bridge is a colossal blunder, and the doctrine which bids us to love our neighbors as ourselves is founded upon a misconcep- tion of the divine purpose. But the bridge is more than an embodiment of the scientific knowledge of physical laws, or a symbol of social tendencies. It is equally a monument to the moral qualities of the human soul. It could never have been built by mere knowledge and scientific skill alone. It required, in addition, the infinite patience and unwearied courage by which great results are achieved. It demanded the endurance of heat and cold, and physical distress. Its constructors have had to face death in its most i-epulsive form. Death, indeed, was the fate of its great projector, and dread disease the heritage of the greater engineer, who has brought it to completion. The faith of the saint, and the courage of the hero, have been combined in the conception, the design and the execution of this work. Let us then record the names of the engineers and foremen who have thus made humanity itself their debtor, for a successful achievement, not the result of accident or of chance, but the fruit of design, and of the consecration of all personal interest to the public weal. They are : John A. Roebling, who conceived the project and formulated the plan of the bridge ; Washington A. RoEBLixG, who, inheriting his fathei''s genius, and more than his father's knowledge and skill, has directed the execution of this great work from its inception to its completion ; aided in the several departments by Charles C. Maetin, Francis Colling- WOOD, William H. Payne, George W. McNultt, Wilheim HiLDERBRAND, Samuel R. Probasco as assistant engineers ; and as foremen by E. F. Farbington, Arthur V. Abbott, William Van deb Bosch, Chables Young and Harry Tupple, who, in 48 apparently subordinate positions, have shown themselves peculiarly fitted to command, because they have known how to serve. But the record would not be complete without reference to the unnamed men by whose unflinching courage, in the depths of the caissons, and upon the suspended wires, the work was carried on amid storms, and accidents, and dangers, sufficient to appall the stoutest heart. To them we can only render the tribute which history accords to those who fight as privates in the battles of freedom, with all the more devotion and patriotism because their names will never be known by the world whose benefactors they are. One name, however, which may find no place in the official records, cannot be passed over here in silence. In ancient times when great works were constructed, a goddess was chosen, to whose tender care they were dedicated. Thus the ruins of the Acropolis to-day recall the name of Pallas Athene to an admiring world. In the Middle Ages the blessing of some saint was invoked to protect from the rude attacks of the barbarians and the destructive hand of time the building erected by man's devotion to the worship of God. So, with this bridge will ever be coupled the thought of one, through the subtle alembic of whose brain, and by whose facile fingers, communication was maintained between the directing power of its construction, and the obedient agencies of its execution. It is thus an everlasting monument to the self-sacrificing devotion of woman, and of her capacity for that higher education from which she has been too long debarred. The name of Mrs. Emily Wareen RoHBLiNG will thus be inseparably associated with all that is ad- mirable in human nature, and with all that is wonderful in the constructive world of art. This tribute to the engineers, however, would not be deserved if there is to be found any evidence of deception on their part in the origin of the work, or any complicity with fraud in its execution and completion. It is this consideration which induced me to accept the unexpected invitation of the trustees to speak for the City of New- York on the present occasion. When they thus honored me they did not know that John A. Roebling addressed to me the letter in which he first suggested (and, so far as I am aware, he was the first engineer to suggest,) the feasibility of a bridge between the two cities, so constructed as to preserve unim- paired the freedom of navigation. This letter, dated June 19, 49 1857, 1 caused to be printed in the New- York Journal of Com- merce, where it attracted great attention because it came from an engineer who had already demonstrated, by successfully building suspension bridges over the Schuylkill, the Ohio and the Niagara rivers, that he spoke with the voice of experience and authority. This letter was the first step towards the construction of the work which, however, came about in a manner different from his expec- tations, and was finally completed on a plan more extensive than he had ventured to describe. It has been charged that the original estimates of cost have been far exceeded by the actual outlay. If this were true, the words of praise which I have uttered for the engineers, who designed and executed this work, ought rather to have been a sentence of censure and condemnation. Hence the invitation, which came to me unsought, seemed rather to be an appeal from the grave for such vindication as it was within my power to make, and which could not come with equal force from any other quarter. Engineers are of two kinds ; the creative and the constructive. The power to conceive great works demands imagination and faith. The creative engineer, like the poet, is born, not made. If to the power to conceive is added the ability to execute, then have we one of those rare geniuses, who not only give a decided impulse to civilization, but add new glory to humanity. Such men were Michael Anqelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Watt, Wedgewood, BuuNEL, Stevenson and Bessemer ; and such a man was John A. RoEBLiNG. It was his striking peculiarity, that while his con- ceptions were bold and original, his execution was always exact, and within the limits of cost which he assigned to the work of his brain. He had made bridges a study, and had declared in favor of the suspension principle for heavy traffic, when the greatest living authorities had condemned it as costly and unsafe. When he undertook to build a suspension bridge for railway use, he did so in the face of the deliberate judgment of the profession, that success would be impossible. Stevenson had condemned the suspension principle and approved the tubular girder for railway traffic. But it was the Nemesis of his fate, that when he came out to approve the location of the great tubular bridge at Montreal, he should pass over the Niagara river in a railway train, on a suspension bridgei which he had declared to be an impracticable undertaking. 50 When RoBBLiNG suggested the bridge over the East river, his ideas were limited to the demands of the time, and controlled by the necessity for a profitable investment. He had no expectation that the two cities would embark in the enterprise. Indeed, in one of his letters so late as April 14, 1860, he says, " As to the corpor- ations of New-York and Brooklyn undertaking the job, no such hope may be entertained in our time." In eight years thereafter these cities had undertaken the task upon a scale of expense far exceeding his original ideas of a structure, to be built exclusively by private capital for the sake of profit. How came this miracle to pass ? The war of the rebellion oc- curred, delaying for a time the further consideration of Roebling's ideas. This war accustomed the nation to expenditures on a scale of which it had no previous conception. It did more than expend large sums of money. Officials became corrupt and organized themselves for plunder. In the City of New-York, especially, the government fell into the hands of a band of thieves, who engaged in a series of great and beneficial public works, not for the good they might do, but for the opportunity which they would afford to rob the public treasury. They erected court-houses and armories ; they opened roads, boulevards and parks ; and they organized two of the grandest devices for transportation which the genius of man has ever conceived : a rapid transit railway for New-York, and a great highway between New-York and Brooklyn. The bridge was commenced, but the ring was driven into exile by the force of public indignation before the rapid transit scheme, since executed on a different route by private capital, was undertaken. The col- lapse of the ring brought the work on the bridge to a standstill. It was a timely event. The patriotic New-Yorker might well have exclaimed, just before this great deliverance, in the words of the Consul of ancient Rome, in Macaulay's stirring poem : " And if they once may win the bridge, What hope to save the town?" Meanwhile, the elder Roebling had died, leaving behind him his estimates and the general plans of the structure, to cost, inde- pendent of land damages and interest, about $7,000,000, This great work which, if not *' conceived in sin," was '* brought forth in iniquity," thus became the object of great suspicion, and of a 51 prejudice which has not been removed to this day. I know that to many I make a startling announcement, when I state the incontro- vertible fact, that no money was ever stolen by the ring from the funds of the bridge ; that the whole money raised has been honestly expended ; that the estimates for construction have not been materially exceeded ; and that the excess of cost over the esti- mate is due to purchases of land which were never included in the estimates, to interest paid on the City subscription ; to the cost of additional height and breadth of the bridge, and the increase in strength rendered necessary by a better comprehension of the volume of traffic between the two cities. The items covered by the original estimate of $7,000,000 have thus been raised to $9,000,000, so that $2,000,000 represents the addition to the original estimates. For this excess, amounting to less than thirty per cent , there is actual value in the bridge in dimension and strength, whereby its working capacity has been greatly increased. The carriage- ways, as originally designed, would have permitted only a single line of vehicles in each direction. The speed of the entire pro- cession, more than a mile long, would therefore have been limited by the rate of the slowest ; and every accident causing stoppage to a single cart, would have stopped everything behind it for an indefinite period. It is not too much to say that the removal of this objection, by widening the carriage-ways, has multiplied mani- fold the practical usefulness of the bridge. The statement I have made is due to the memory not only of John a. Roebling, but also of Henry C. Murphy, that great man, who devoted his last years to this enterprise ; and who hav- ing, like Moses, led the people through the toilsome way, was per- mitted only to look, but not to enter upon the promised land. This testimony is due also to the living trustees and to the en- gineers who have controlled and directed this large expenditure in the public service, the latter, in the conscientious discharge of pro- fessional duty ;.and the former, with no other object than the wel- fare of the public, and without any other possible reward than the good opinion of their fellow citizens. I do not make this statement without a full sense of the respon- sibility which it involves, and I realize that its accuracy will shortly be tested by the report of experts who are now examining the ac- 52 counts. But it will be found that I have spoken the words of truth and soberness. When the ring absconded, I was asked by William C. Havemeyer, then the Mayor of New-York, to become a Trustee, in order to investigate the expenditures, and to report as to the propriety of going on with the work. This duty was performed without fear or favor. The methods by which the ring proposed to benefit themselves were clear enough, but its members fled before they succeeded in reimbursing themselves for the pre- liminary expenses which they had defrayed. With their flight a new era commenced, and during the three years when I acted as a Trustee, I am sure that no fraud was committed, and that none was possible. Since that time the Board has been controlled by Trus- tees, some of whom are thorough experts in bridge building, and tlie others men of such high chararcter that the suggestion of mal- practice is improbable to absurdity. The bridge has not only been honestly built, but it may be safely asserted that it could not now be duplicated at the same cost. Much money might, however, have been saved if the work had not been delayed through want of means, and unnecessary obstacles interposed by mistaken public officials. Moreover, measured by its capacity, and the limitations imposed on its construction by its relation to the interests of traffic and navigation, it is the cheapest structure ever erected by the genius of man. This will be made evident by a single comparison with the Britannia Tubular Bridge erected by Stepuenson over the Menai Straits. He adopted the tubular principle, because he believed that the suspension prin- ciple could not be made practical for railway traffic, although he had to deal with spans not greater than 470 feet. He built a struc- ture that contained 10,640 tons of iron, and cost 601,000 pounds sterling, or about $3,000,000. Fortunately he has left a calculation on record as to the possible extension of the tubular girder, show- ing that it would reach the limits in which it could bear only its own weight (62,000 tons), at 1,570 feet. Now, for a span of 1,595^ feet, the Brooklyn Bridge contains but 6,740 tons of material, and will sustain seven times its own weight. Its cost is $9,000,000, whereas a tubular bridge for the same span would contain ten times the weight of metal, and, though costing twice as much money, would be without the ability to do any useful work. RoEBLiNG, therefore, solved the problem which had defied 53 Stevexson ; and upon his design has been built a successful struc- ture at half the cost of a tubular bridge, that would have fallen when loaded in actual use. It is impossible to furnish any more striking proof of the genius which originated, and of the economy which constructed this triumph of American engineering. We have thus a monument to the public spirit of the two cities, created by an expenditure as honest and as economical as the man- agement which gave us the Erie Canal, the Croton Aqueduct and the Central Park. Otherwise it would have been a monument to the eternal infamy of the trustees and of the engineers under whose supervision it has been erected, and this brings rae to the final consideration which I feel constrained to offer on this point. During all these years of trial and false report a great soul lay in the shadow of death, praying only to stay long enough for the completion of the work to which he had devoted his life. I say a great soul, for in the spring-time of youth, with friends and fortune at his command, he gave himself to his country, and for her sake braved death on many a well-fought battlefield. When restored to civil life his health was sacrificed to the duties which had devolved upon him as the inheritor of his father's fame and the executor of his father's plans. Living only for honor, and freed from the temptations of narrow means, how is it conceivable that such a man — whose approval was necessary to every expenditure — should, by conniving with jobbers, throw away more than the life which was dear to him that he might fulfil his destiny, and leave to his children the heritage of a good name and the gbry of a grand achievement ? Well may this suffering hero quote the words of Hyperion : " Oh, I have looked with wonder upon those, who, in sorrow and privation, and bodily discomfort and sickness, which is the shadow of death, have worked right on to the accomplishment of their great purposes ; toiling much, enduring much, fulfiling much ; and then, with shattered nerves, and sinews all unstrung, have laid themselves down in the grave and slept the sleep of death, and the world talks of them while they sleep ! And as in the sun's eclipse we can behold the great stars shining in the heavens, so in this life-eclipse have these men beheld the lights of the great eternity, burning solemnly and forever I" And now what is to be the outcome of this great expenditure upon the highway which unites the two cities, for which Dr. 64 Storrs and I have the honor to speak to-day ? That Brooklyn will gain in numbers and in wealth with accelerated speed is a foregone conclusion. Whether this gain shall in any wise be at the expense of New-York is a matter in regard to which the great metropolis does not concern herself. Her citizens are content with the knowledge that she exists and grows with the growth of the whole country, of whose progress and prosperity she is but the exponent and the index. Will the Bridge lead, as has been forcibly suggested, and in some quarters hopefully anticipated, to the further union of the two cities under one name and one gov- ernment ? This suggestion is in part sentimental and in part prac- tical. So far as the union in name is concerned it is scarcely worth consideration, for in any comparison which our national or local pride may institute between this metropolis and the other great cities of the world, its environment, whether in Long Island, Staten Island or New-Jersey, will always be included. In considering the population of London, no one ever separates the city proper from the surrounding parts. They are properly regarded as one homo- genous aggregation of human beings. It is only when we come to consider the problem of governing great masses that the serious elements of the question present themselves, and must be determined before a satisfactory answer can be given. The tendency of modern civilization is towards the concentration of population in dense masses. This is due to the higher and more diversified life, which can be secured by associ- ation and co-operation on a large scale, affording not mei'ely greater comfort and often luxury, but actually distributing the fruits of labor on a more equitable basis than is possible in sparsely settled regions and among feeble communities. The great improvements of our day in labor-saving machinery, and its application to agri- culture, enabled the nation to be fed with a less percentage of its total force thus applied, and leave a larger margin of population free to engage in such other pursuits as are best carried on in large cities. The disclosures of the last census prove the truth of this state- ment. At the first census in 1790 the population resident in cities was 3.3 per cent, of the total population. This percentage slowly o-ained at eaeh successive census, until in 1840 it had reached 8.5 per cent. In fifty years it had thus gained a little over five per 55 cent. But in 1850 it rose to 12.5 per cent., in 1860 it was 16.1 per cent., in 1870 it was 20.9 per cent., having in this one decade gained as much as in the first fifty years of our political existence. In 1880 the population resident in cities was 22.5 per cent, of the whole population. With this rapid growth of urban population have grown the contemporaneous complaints of corrupt administration and bad municipal government. The outcry may be said to be universal, for it comes from both sides of the Atlantic ; and the complaints appear to be in direct proportion to the size of cities. It is obvious, . therefore, that the knowledge of the art of local government has not kept pace with the growth of population. I am here by your favor to speak for the City of New-York, and I should be the last person to throw any discredit on its fair fame ; but I think I only give voice to the general feeling when I say that the citizens of New- York are satisfied neither with the structure of its govern- ment nor with its actual administration, even when it is in the hands of intelligent and honest officials. Dissatisfied as we are, no man has been able to devise a system which commends itself to 'the general approval, and it may be asserted that the remedy is not to be found in devices for any special machinery of government. Experiments without number have been tried, and suggestions in infinite variety have been offered, but to-day no man can say that we have approached any nearer to the idea of good government, which is demanded by the intelligence and the wants of the com- munity. If, therefore. New- York has not yet learned to govern itself, how can it be expected to be better governed by adding half a million to its population, and a great territory to its area, unless it be with the idea that a "little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Is Brooklyn that leaven ? If not, and if possibly " the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? " Brooklyn is now struggling with this problem, it remains to be seen with what success ; but mean- while it is idle to consider the idea of getting rid of our common evils by adding them together. Besides it is a fundamental axiom in politics, approved by the experience of older countries as well as of our own, that the sources of power should never be far removed from those who are to feel its exercise. It is the violation of this principle which pro- 56 duces chronic revolution in France, and makes the British rule so obnoxious to the Irish people. This evil is happily avoided when a natural boundary circumscribes administration within narrow limits. While, therefore, we rejoice together at the new bond be- tween New- York and Brooklyn, we ought to rejoice the more that It destroys none of the conditions which permit each city to govern Itself, but rather urges them to a generous rivalry in perfecting each its own government, recognizing the truth, that there is no true liberty without law, and that eternal vigilance, which is the only safeguard of liberty, can best be exercised within limited areas. It would be a most fortunate conclusion, if the completion of this bridge should arouse public attention to the absolute necessity of good municipal government, and recall the only principle upon which it can ever be successfully founded. There is reason to hope that this result will follow, because tlie erection of this struc- ture shows how a problem, analagous to that with which confronts us in regard to the city government, has been met and solved in the domain of physical science. The men who controlled this enterprise at the outset were not all of the best type ; some of them, as we have seen, were public jobbers. But they knew that they could not build a bridge, although they had no doubt of their ability to govern a city. They thereupon proceeded to organize the knowledge which ex- isted as to the construction of bridges ; and they held the organiza- tion thus created responsible for results. Now, we know that it is at least as diflScult to govern a city as to build a bridge, and yet, as citizens, we have deliberately allowed the ignorance of the com- munity to be organized for its government, and we then complain that it is a failure. Until we imitate the example of the ring, and organize the intelligence of the community for its government, our complaint is childish aud unreasonable. But we shall be told that there is no analogy between building a bridge and governing a city. Let us examine this objection. A city is made up of infinite interests. They vary from hour to hour, and conflict is the law of their being. Many of the elements of social life are what mathematicians term " variables of the independent order." The problem is, to reconcile these conflicting interests and variable elements into one organization which shall work without 57 jar, and allow each citizen to pursue his calling, if it be an honest one, in peace and quiet. Now, turn to the bridge. It looks like a motionless mass of masonry and metal ; but, as a matter of fact, it is instinct with motion. There is not a particle of matter in it which is at rest even for the minutest portion of lime. It is an aggregation of un- stable elements, changing with every change in the temperature, and every movement of the heavenly bodies. The problem was, out of these unstable elements, to produce absolute stability; and it was this problem which the engineers, the organized intelli- gence, had to solve, or confess to inglorious failure. The problem has been solved. In the first construction of suspension bridges it was attempted to check, repress and overcome their motion, and failure resulted. It was then seen that motion is the law of exist- ence for suspension bridges, and pi ©vision was made for its free play. Then they became a success. The bridge before us elon- gates and contracts between the extremes of temperature from 14 to 16 inches ; the vertical rise and fall in the centre of the main span ranges between two feet three inches and two feet nine inches ; and before the suspenders were attached to the cable it actually revolved on its own axis through an arc of thirty degrees when exposed to the sun shining upon it on one side. You do not perceive this motion, and you would know nothing about it unless you watched the guages which record its movement. Now, if our political system were guided by organized intelli- gence, it would not seek to repress the free play of human interests and emotions, of human hopes and fears, but would make provision for their development and exercise in accordance with the higher law of liberty and morality. A large portion of our vices and crimes are created either by law or its mal-administration. These laws exist because organized ignorance, like a highwayman with a club, is permitted to stand in the way of wise legislation and honest administration, and to demand satisfaction from the spoils of office and the profits of contracts. Of this state of affairs we complain, and on great occasions the community arises in its wrath, and visits summary punishment on the offenders of the hour, and then relapses into chronic grumbling until grievances sufficiently accumulate to stir it again to action. What is the remedy for this state of affairs ? Shall there be no 68 more political parties, and shall we shatter the political machinery which, bad as it is, is far better than no machinery at all ? Shall we embrace nihilism as our creed because we have practical com- munism forced upon us as the consequence of jobbery and the imposition of unjust taxes ? No, let us rather learn the lesson of the bridge. Instead of at- tempting to restrict suffrage let us try to educate the voters ; instead of disbanding parties, let each citizen within the party always vote, but never for a man who is unfit to hold office. Thus parties, as well as voters, will be organized on the basis of intelli- gence. But what man is fit to hold office ? Only he who regards polit- ical office as a public trust, and not as a private perquisite to be used for the pecuniary advantage of himself or his family, or even his party. Is there intelligence enough in these cities, if thus organized within the parties, to produce the result which we desire? Why, the overthrow of the Tweed ring was conclusive evidence of the preponderance of public virtue in the City of New- York. In no other country in the world, and in no other political sy.stera than one which provides for, and secures universal suffrage, would such a sudden and peaceful revolution have been possible. The demonstration of this fact was richly worth the twenty-five or thirty millions of dollars which the thieves liad stolen. Thereafter, and thenceforth, there could be no doubt whether our city popula- tion, heterogenous as it is, contains within itself sufficient virtue for its own preservation. Let it never be forgotten that the remedy is complete ; that it is ever present ; that no man ought to be deprived of the opportunity of its exercise ; and that, if it be exercised, the will of the community can never be paralyzed. Our safety and our success rest on the ballot in the hands of freemen at the polls, deliberately deposited, never for an unworthy man, but always with a profound sense of the responsibility which should govern every citizen in the exercise of this fundamental right. If the lesson of the bridge, which I have thus sought to enforce, shall revive the confidence of the people in their own power, and induce them to use it practically for the election to office of good men, clothed, as were the engineers, with sufficient authority, and held, as they were, to cori-esponding responsibility for results, then indeed will its completion be a public blessing, worthy of the new r)9 era of industrial development in which it is our fortunate lot to live. Great indeed has been our national progress. Perhaps we, who belong to a commercial community, do not fully realize its significance and promise. We buy and sell stocks without stopping to think that they represent the most astonishing achievements of enterprise and skill in the magical extension of our vast railway system ; we speculate in wheat, without reflecting on the stupendous fact that the plains of Dakota and California are feeding hungry mouths in Europe ; we hear that the Treasury has made a call for bonds, and forget that the rapid extinction of our national debt is a proof of our prosperity and patriotism, as wonderful to the world as was the power we exhibited in the struggle which left that apparently crushing burden upon us. If, then, we deal successfully with the evils which threaten our political life, who can venture to predict the limits of our future wealth and glory — wealth that shall enrich all ; glory that shall be no selfish heritage, but the blessing of man- kind. Beyond all legends of Oriental treasure, beyond all dreams of the golden age, will be the splendor, and majesty, and happiness of the free people dwelling upon this fair domain, when fulfiling the promise of the ages and the hopes of humanity, they shall have learned how to make equitable distribution among themselves of the fruits of their common labor. Then, indeed, will be realized by a waiting world the youthful vision of our own Bryant ; " Here the free spirit of mankind at length, Throws its last fetters off ; and who shall place A limit to the giant's untamed strength, Or curb its swiftness in the forward race I Far, like the comet's way through infinite space, Stretches the long untraveled path of light Into the depths of ages ; we may trace Distant, the brightening glory of its flight, 'Till the receding rays are lost to human sight." At the ocean gateway of such a nation well may stand the stately figure of " Liberty Enlightening the World ;" and, in hope and faith, as well as gratitude, we write upon the towers of our beau- tiful bridge, to be illuminated by her electric ray, the words of exaltation, Firiis coroaat opus. 60 LETTER OF MR. HEWITT TO GOVERNOR ODELL. New- York, January 27, 1902, To the Governor : Sib : I feel warranted in addressing this letter to you, because, in your public utterances and in the discharge of your high func- tions, you have demonstrated your determination to protect the public interest even at the expense of partisan considerations. In other words, you have shown an open mind when criticisms have been made as to your recommendations to the Legislature, and you have not hesitated to change your views when it became apparent that the public welfare would be promoted by a different course of actiou. In your Message to the Legislature you have made recommenda- tions in regard to the management of the Lunatic Asylums and of the State Charities generally which, if carried into effect, will pro- duce a revolution in their administration. Apparently you have been moved to these recommendations because you think from personal investigation that a concentration of management will result in economy to the taxpayers. Apparently you have over- looked other considerations of a humanitarian nature which are far more important than economy in the public expenditure, however desirable. So far as the bill now pending in the Legislature, formulated in accordance with your recommendations as to the Lunatic Asylums is concerned, the co-operation of the Commissions composed of private citizens, who serve without compensation, is terminated, and the whole responsibility for the management of these institu- tions will rest upon the Lunacy Commission, who will have the appointment of the Superintendent of each asylum and the control of the expenditures. As a mere matter of machinery, there is undoubtedly something to be said in favor of this system, but on investigation it will be found to violate the fundamental principles which should govern all public expenditures, of having a check upon the outlays by making the consent of more than one authority essential. Tnere is another grave defect in the transfer of the appointment of the steward from the Superintendent to the Lunacy Commission. Any one who is familiar with the operations of one of the great 61 asylums will readily understand that the steward cannot be made independent of the trained physician who is in charge of the insti- tution without very great confusion in the management, and in the dietary regulations which are essential to the well-being ol the patients. Moreover the superintendent, who is a trained alienist, and is, therefore, not supposed to be an accountant, is charged with the duties of the treasurer, and must audit and pay every account. To a business man there is a manifest incompatibility between these two functions, and it is a great waste of the time and knowledge of the superintendent to impair his efficiency by compelling him to be an accountant. The relative value of these two functions is easily determined by the salaries which are paid for these services respectively. The superintendent would com- mand at least five times as much as an accountant, and yet, under the proposed law, he must devote to the work of the latter the time which is absolutely needed for the work of the former. No business man would make such a mistake. The chief criticism, however, upon the proposed change is in the abolition of the Commission of Laymen, who, heretofore, have had the management of the asylums, subject, of course, to the control of the Lunatic Commission. This subject has been discussed judicially by Judge Henry E. Rowland and Professor George S. C^NFiELD in communications which they have made to the daily papers, and which, doubtless, have been addressed to you. I forbear to take up your time in going over the ground which they have covered far better than I can do, but I venture to enclose their statements in order that I may be sure that they have reached your eye. I can add nothing to the force of their arguments, which, to my mind, are irresistible and incontrovertible. What I desire to do is to state my own experience in reference to the administration of the asylums in this City before they became State institutions. I was Mayor of this City in 1887 and 1888. It was my duty to investigate the municipal charities. I began with the lunatic asylums, which I found to be in a most deplorable condition. The superintendent was a man of the highest position in his pro- fession, Dr. Carlos McDonald. For years he had in vain called the attention of the public authorities to the deficiencies of the institu- tion over which he presided. He could get no hearing because there 62 were no citizens associated with him in the management who could compel public attention. It was my duty, as well as my privilege, to remedy many of these defects, but the chief service which I was able to render was in securing the co-operation of a consider- able number of devoted and self-sacrificing citizens to act as an advisory board and to see that the required reforms were carried into e£fect. The same system was introduced into the other municipal chari- ties. The change produced in two years was marvelous. There is no time here to enter into details, but from being a disgrace to the City of New-York, the charities became a just subject of pride. The improvement was entirely due to the co-operation of the various men and women who were willing to give their time with- out compensation to the relief of suffering humanity. Out of this grew the State Board of Charities and the State Charities Aid Association. In the whole history of the State of New-York I do not think that there is any one feature more to its credit than the introduction of these agencies into the administration of the public charities of the State. The principle was supposed to be imbedded in the amendments to the new Constitution, and I do not think it entered into the mind of any student in the field of charity that the corporation of private citizens would ever be dispensed with on any plea, especi- ally that of economy, when it was notorious that the expenditures of the State for charities had always been too little rather than too much. There is another consideration to which I feel justified in calling your attention. Modern civilization, with all its wonderful triumphs, has developed one peculiarity which fills the lover of his kind with alarm. As population becomes more dense the poverty line, as it is called, rises so that in older countries the per centage of those who are unable to earn a living is a steadily in- creasing quantity. In this country we have not suffered much as yet from this menace, but the same causes which have produced the cancerous growth of poverty in older countries are at work here and will inevitably produce the same results unless they are counteracted by individual effort. The State cannot by any pos- sibility prevent the advance of poverty which in the end under- mines the security of property, and ultimately compels a change in 63 the form of government from freedom to despotism. The only antidote is to be found in the conscience of the individual, which makes him see that he is, in one sense, his brother's keeper, and that he owes a duty to society which can only be discharged by sympathy with the poor and persistent effort to remove the causes of poverty. I am sure that this statement is not exaggerated, and hence I am filled with alarm when it is proposed, on behalf of the State, to di- vorce itself from this individual effort, on which rests the best hopes of humanity. The State is compelled to supervise the public charities, but so far as possible this supervision should be exercised by men and women who feel that they have a duty and a mission in that direction. I hope I do not overstep the bounds of propriety, therefore, when I ask you to review your decision in reference to the pro- posed legislation, and so far from approving or aiding the destruc- tion of the present system, that you will give the weight of your decision and of your personal influence in favor of encouraging private citizens to engage in the management of the public charities of the State. The amendments which have been suggested to the proposed bill do not correct any of the evils to which I have referred, and in some respects only make more clear the fact that the whole system will be reduced to a system of patronage, and, therefore, of party politics as soon as your restraining hand is removed, unless your successor shall be a man of your type, more zealous for the public welfare than the success of his party. Yours respectfully, Abbam S. Hewitt. LBTTEU OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MEN TENDERING A BAN- QUET TO MB. HEWITT. Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, Mayor of the City of New- York : Dear Sir: We, the undersigned, your fellow citizens, irrespec- tive of party, appreciate the personal sacrifice you made two years ago in allowing your name to be used for the ofiice of Mayor ; the 64 fearless and impartial manner in which you have administered its affairs and the broad and comprehensive views you entertain and urge for the improvement of the moral condition of the City and the development of its commercial and industrial interests. Such public services appear to us to call for some appropriate acknow- ledgment on the part of the people. To this end, therefore, it is the earnest request that you shall name a day when it will be most convenient for you to meet your fellow citizens at a banquet at Delmonico's, that they may express personally and in fitting terms their sense of the obligations which the City of New-York owes to you. Very truly yours, (Here follow one hundred and ninety names.) reply of mr, hewitt declining the banquet. Mayor's Office, New- York, December 17, 1888. Gentlemen : I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to meet ray fellow citizens at a banquet proposed to be given in my honor at the close of my term as Mayor of the City of New- York. The names appended to the invitation may be regarded as fairly representative of the intelligence and public spirit of the City, irrespective of differences in politics and religion. The favor- able opinion thus expressed by gentlemen whose authority cannot be impeached is very gratifying at this time, because it affords un- answerable proof that character entrenched in the public confidence cannot be injured by the envy, hatred and malice of "chartered libertines." But I cannot overcome my reluctance to a public demonstration at which I must necessarily be present and become the object of personal compliment, especially as it will not in any way affect the judgment of the people in regard to my motives in accepting the nomination for Mayor, or the manner in which I have performed the duties of that great oflice. It is enough for me to know that you appreciate the sacrifices which in truth I have made, and I am fully rewarded by your recognition of the fact that I have striven 66 to do my duty without fear or favor, according to the full measure of my strength and the obligations of my oath of office. More- over, it becomes a defeated candidate to be modest in his claims for public approbation. But I know that the passing judgment of the day is not the sober verdict of history, and I am well content to leave my record to the impartial test of time and truth. In declining the invitation, therefore, with which you have hon- ored me, let me assure you, that in one respect,at least, no mistake has occurred. You have made it pleasant for me to dwell among my fellow citizens during the remaining years of my life, and you have placed my children under an obligation, which I trust they will be able to repay, in part, by continuing for another generation an unselfish and honest effort for the public good. With a heart full of gratitude for an honor which, so far as I remember, is without a precedent in the municipal history of this City, I am, with great respect, Your friend and fellow citizen, Abram S. Hewitt. To Messrs. (Here follow the names of all the signers to the letter.) 14 ^5rai^«^.4^