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THE HON. JOHN HAY 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE 
 
 An Appreciation 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 BY 
 
 Hiram C. Haydn 
 M 
 
 IN 
 
 THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 July /6, 1905 
 

 U I will make a man more rare than fine 
 gold, even a man than the pure gold of 
 
 Ophir."— Isaiah, xiii. 12. 
 
 "This is one element in the judgment that 
 the prophet sees coming upon the world for 
 its iniquity — at once cause and effect — that 
 men of honor, integrity and faithfulness be- 
 come more rare than fine gold. And there 
 in no calamity like this — the rarity of men 
 in city, State or nation, in places of trust 
 and responsibility, with high ideals of in- 
 tegrity and patriotism and the will to stand 
 by them. Every other sort of calamity af- 
 fecting civic interests can be borne if the 
 right sort of men are found for counsel 
 and for action. They will find a way or 
 make one. 
 
 "The history of our time gives terrible 
 emphasis to the calamitous effect of an 
 awakening to the fact of the rarity of lead- 
 ers, at once capable and honest; fitted by 
 nature and by training for grave responsibil- 
 ities, and also patriotic and trustworthy. 
 
"We have the spectacle of a great nation 
 , floundering like a rudderless ship in stormy 
 seas. Her autocracy and bureaucracy 
 -wrecked the manhood of her leaders and 
 ^her wrecked leaders have made of the na- 
 tion a spoil. Russia struggles with a forlorn 
 hope. How are the mighty fallen! In Rus- 
 sia a man is more rare than the pure gold of 
 Ophir. 
 
 "Here, where democracy boasts its tri- 
 umphs, the revelations of the last year or two 
 have startled and shocked public confidence, 
 as in swift succession men, pilloried for evil 
 doing, have come down from their high 
 places to pay the penalty of their crimes, 
 till leaders with clean hands and pure hearts 
 are more rare than gold. The hideous lust 
 for gold has made men more rare than 
 gold, and the end is nowhere in sight. 
 
 "At such a time, we are called to mourn 
 the loss of a man who combined the rarest 
 gifts, the most varied experiences and en- 
 joyed the richest opportunities which led 
 up to grave responsibilities, to be accepted 
 and met in a large and catholic fashion, un- 
 
 3 
 
til he stood confessed one of the master 
 spirits of the world. 
 
 "This is not the estimate of provincial 
 pride or partiality. It is evidenced by 
 voices speaking the varied tongues of men, 
 of all sects and nationalities, as they face 
 the fact that Secretary of State John Hay is 
 no more of earth. 
 
 "Since this is so, it is grateful to think 
 that he once lived in our city, married into 
 one of the families from early days promi- 
 nent in all that concerned this church and 
 community, that children were born to him 
 here, that he worshipped with us habitually, 
 that his grave is among our graves, and pil- 
 grim feet will turn to the spot where his 
 dust lies, and recall the deeds that gave 
 him fame and honor among men, and turn 
 away to lead better lives. 
 
 "It seems not unfitting, therefore, that 
 in spite of more august assemblies in all 
 lands, where American citizens are found 
 and more elaborate eulogies are uttered, we 
 should devote this morning to his memory — 
 who was not less a Christian than a states- 
 man, not less devout than patriotic, whose 
 
 4 
 
high ideals and law of life were drawn from 
 the New Testament. 
 
 "It is not my thought to sketch his life 
 or catalogue his public deeds, of such far- 
 reaching and international consequence, but 
 to concern myself with the man and the 
 manhood that made his life beautiful and il- 
 lustrious. 
 
 "We have in Secretary John Hay a nature 
 and a temperament sensitively strung, 
 poetic, imaginative, with a keen sense of 
 the beautiful, the true and the good, which 
 fitted him, first of all, for poetry, art and 
 literature, as a form of expression, and rose 
 into the realm of life and conduct in a scorn 
 of the mean and vulgar, and a passion for 
 righteousness and justice between man and 
 man, nation and nation, and then, fitness in 
 worship — reverence, sincerity, humility. 
 
 "Upon a nature thus gifted, home and 
 school and church, nature, travel and con- 
 tact with men, with democracy, and the 
 doings of courts in lands ruled by kings; 
 and, best of all, Abraham Lincoln, laid 
 their fashioning hands to mold the man we 
 
 5 
 
loved, cherished and admired — whose mem- 
 ory is precious. 
 
 "The poetic gift was earliest developed, 
 as was not unnatural — the play of a nature 
 not yet burdened with the cares of life, or 
 a sense of the good and evil bound up 
 in it. 
 
 "He wished, in later life, that these 
 earlier effusions could be effaced. I can- 
 not so wish. None of us could have endured 
 to see him issuing these 'ballads' as Ambas- 
 sador to the court of Queen Victoria, or as 
 Secretary of State; nor, of course, would 
 it have been possible to him, but for the 
 youth, John Hay, it was possible and fit; 
 for, mind you, there is in them the ring 
 of a note that vibrated to the end of his 
 life virile with praise of the brave, daring 
 and true, though clad in the course garb 
 and voiced in the vernacular of rough, un- 
 lovely men. No person of sense will fail 
 to put them in their historic place, nor 
 think of them as the measure of the man. 
 Then, he could not have written the later 
 poems which breathe a lofty faith and are 
 touched and colored by the experiences of a 
 
 6 
 
man who has been long in the school of life, 
 or 'Castilian Days,' born of a sojourn in 
 sunny Spain, or his eloquent tributes to the 
 patriots of this and other lands. 
 
 "He early excelled in literary efforts, and 
 out of them it came to pass that he became 
 consummate master of English speech. 
 Reading, travel, observation, made him a 
 full man, and a retentive memory enabled 
 him to have his resources in command. 
 
 "Familiar with the vast possibilities of 
 the English tongue, both for beauty and 
 strength, his orations, addresses and state 
 papers were always clear, luminous and 
 strong, with ever a hint of poetic color and 
 a virile imagination. Hearing him or read- 
 ing his speeches, no one would imagine 
 him to be the shrinking, reluctant man he 
 was, averse to publicity and exceedingly 
 difficult to bring to a positive engagement 
 to make an address. So easy to us it seemed 
 for him to open his mouth and so impossible 
 for him to be commonplace — to speak with- 
 out enlightening, to plead a great cause 
 without carrying everything before him, in 
 the ardor of his sincerity and the strength of 
 
 7 
 
his convictions, in his scathing denuncia- 
 tions of that which aroused his antagonism ; 
 all this, as well as his remarkable conversa- 
 tional gifts, illustrate what is meant when 
 speaking of him as a master of English 
 speech. 
 
 "I wish next to turn your attention to 
 the providential leadings by which he was 
 prepared for the great work of his life, in 
 which he won the recognition of crowned 
 heads and the masters of the art of diplo- 
 macy as a man, their equal, surpassed by 
 none. 
 
 "There was, of course, school, college 
 and the study of law and then, the rarest 
 school of all, the close intimacy, as private 
 secretary for five years, with one who has 
 been called 'the greatest politician, the great- 
 est statesman, the greatest man of his time,' 
 Abraham Lincoln. No man worthy to be 
 called to such a post could possibly help 
 being saturated by the spirit of this great 
 and good man, nor ever get away from the 
 lofty ideals which controlled him. It is 
 my belief that no one thing ever happened 
 
 8 
 
to Mr. Hay so influential in fitting him for 
 the crowning work of his life. 
 
 "From this association he went forth to 
 a training in diplomacy as seen in Paris, 
 Vienna and Madrid — five years in these 
 great centers of political activity as secretary 
 of legation. Here again was a school of 
 observation — how not to do it. This was 
 an invaluable opportunity for studying Eu- 
 ropean ways of courts, but also of the cur- 
 rent methods and inner spirit of diplomats, 
 'who,' as he wittily put it, 'when they seem 
 coming are going, when they seem going 
 they come.' 
 
 "His work on the editorial staff of the 
 Tribune continued this acquaintance with 
 foreign affairs for as many more years, and 
 thus was he being prepared to deal with 
 them when that responsibility became his. 
 
 "It was near the end of this period, in 
 1874, that he was united in wedlock with a 
 daughter of this church, Miss Clara L. 
 Stone. This was more than an affair of 
 affection between two souls going forth into 
 life, united 'for better, for worse.' It was 
 besides, as we now see it, the opening wide 
 
 9 
 
the door of opportunity to a freedom in 
 work and a following of his bent, free 
 of all concern for the ways and means of 
 livelihood. The attempt to make him a 
 business man, happily, failed. The man 
 who had been the confidant of Lincoln in 
 Washington, and secretary of legations in 
 three great capitals of Europe, and had been 
 on the staff of one of the foremost journals 
 of New York, could not be at home in the 
 routine of a business office. And so it came 
 about that, after being Assistant Secretary 
 of State with Mr. Evarts, years went into 
 the writing of the life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 In so doing, the period of the civil war and 
 all that led up to it; the inside history of 
 the perplexities, difficulties, failures and tri- 
 umphs of the President, were lived over 
 again ; and the man, his motives, his charity, 
 his great-heartedness, his sincerity, his 
 humor, his tears, his faith in God and right- 
 eousness were studied and recorded; and 
 if the years abroad and in New York had 
 in any wise dimmed his impressions of his 
 great master, they were burnished in this 
 
 10 
 
long and painstaking study of the life of the 
 martyred President. 
 
 "A long period thus elapsed, mainly in 
 literary pursuits, before the last eight mem- 
 orable years begin. 
 
 "Thirty-six years from the time he went 
 to Washington with Lincoln he sets out as 
 ambassador of this great republic to the 
 most potent court of Europe and nearest 
 of kin to ourselves. It was a sort of intro- 
 duction to that court of all nations with 
 which he was soon to deal. He was thus 
 brought conspicuously before the world. 
 Friendship with Great Britain was ce- 
 mented ; his talents as a diplomatwere recog- 
 nized, and it came to pass that he was trusted 
 by men of all nations and faiths as few 
 men ever have been. He was of diplomats 
 the great peacemaker. If we ask for the 
 secret of this confidence we shall find it in 
 his ethical soundness, his candor, sincerity 
 and truth, his straightforwardness and fair- 
 ness. He lifted diplomacy out of the sphere 
 of intrigue and falsehood — using words to 
 conceal intentions rather than to convey 
 meanings — into that of candor and frank- 
 
 11 
 
ness. His secretaryship marks a new era 
 in diplomacy and the dealings of nation with 
 nation. He believed that compacts between 
 nations, as with men, were made to be kept; 
 that all conduct should be kept clear of sin- 
 ister designs; that the belated peoples were 
 entitled to consideration and fair dealing 
 from the foremost; and when European 
 powers were rushing forward to partition 
 Asia as they had Africa, he stayed their 
 hand. There came about such an alliance 
 of moral influence — that might be backed 
 by force, if need be — with Great Britain, 
 that the English-speaking world to-day 
 stands with open face towards the greatest 
 continent of earth, and the United States is 
 trusted because of the leadership of John 
 Hay, Secretary of State. 
 
 "That ethical soundness came of an im- 
 plicit faith in the righteousness of the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, as meant for life and 
 conduct. With that deadly heresy that 
 treats the teachings of Christ as an imprac- 
 ticable idealism, good for church but im- 
 possible on the street, he had nothing to 
 do. No taint of this w T as on him. Nothing 
 
 12 
 
of this did he learn from the martyr Presi- 
 dent, nor from the latest. And it is worth 
 while to put emphasis here, in view of the 
 widespread defection in morals that is the 
 curse of the business world of to-day, and 
 especially that part of the business world 
 that deals in big figures and great transac- 
 tions, and unblushingly affirms that a man 
 may be as selfish as he will in business if 
 he only uses his gains beneficently. The 
 Golden Rule is not in all their thoughts. 
 It was ever in John Hay's mind and often 
 on his lips. 
 
 "Doing evil that good may come is not 
 Christian. We are living in the day of 
 warped consciences and debased ethics, and 
 the high places of finance and of politics are 
 full of selfishness and cruelty, of respectable 
 thieves and liars, of professed sanctity and 
 open contempt of righteousness. If this 
 country was as perverse at the middle and 
 at the bottom as it is at the top, I do not see 
 what would save us. 
 
 "It is, therefore, the more necessary that 
 we clearly see and frankly say that the man 
 whom we love and mourn got his vantage 
 
 13 
 
ground by none of these methods, but by 
 cleanness of hands in His eyes, to whom 
 righteousness is precious, by righteousness to 
 rise. Thus are men and nations exalted. 
 Thus Christian faith comes to its own, and 
 pure religion and undefiled is vindicated as 
 'profitable unto all things.' 
 
 "John Hay was not, so far as I know, a 
 member of any church. Once, in conversa- 
 tion with me, he stated his reason. It is 
 characteristic. He said, 'My faith in Christ 
 is implicit. I am a believer. I am in fullest 
 sympathy with all that the church mainly 
 stands for, but I feel that to unite with it 
 formally I should be in full accord with 
 its methods, creeds and aims; and I can- 
 not go that far.' I do not affirm the verbal, 
 but the substantial accuracy of this report. 
 This is in keeping with that candor which 
 insists that a man should be wholly what 
 he seems. But it fails to make room for 
 that difference in unity, which tolerates di- 
 vergent opinions and minor beliefs while 
 holding the essentials in harmony. Any 
 other kind of unity is impossible. Once and 
 again, when the invitation to the Lord's 
 
 14 
 
table left with the communicant the respon- 
 sibility for the act of communion, as a vir- 
 tual confession of Christ, he remained with 
 us. I think this was his habit. 
 
 "Coming upon such words as these fol- 
 lowing, not knowing the author, what should 
 we say of him? 
 
 "'Defend us, Lord, from every ill; 
 Strengthen us, Lord, to do thy will. 
 In all we plan, and all we do 
 Still keep us to thy service true.' 
 
 *fS" *(? y|c *p ^jc •!? /jc yfc *t? 7(? *fr 
 
 "'Thou who art light, shine on each soul; 
 Thou who art truth, each mind control; 
 Open our eyes and make us see 
 The path which leads to heaven and thee.' 
 
 "Do not these stanzas breathe the pure 
 Christian desire? 
 
 "It seems to me not unlikely that this 
 hymn, written by him for the Christian En- 
 deavorers when they met en masse in Wash- 
 ington, translated into many tongues, will 
 carry his name over the world and down 
 the centuries to come when his state papers 
 are forgotten. Confession of Christ takes 
 many forms and voices itself in deed as well 
 
 15 
 
as words. Emptiest of all when in word and 
 not in life. 
 
 "Just here, in the progress of this dis- 
 course, a letter was put into my hands from 
 Dr. James H. Taylor, a classmate of mine 
 in Union, in which I read, 'When has our 
 country produced a finer specimen of hu- 
 manity? To see such is an assurance for 
 the future of our country and our race!' 
 Yes, it is true. Other men are in the arena 
 of life to-day. Others will yet arise, like 
 minded and true, but it ever has been, ever 
 must be, a rare thing to see beauty and 
 strength, feminine delicacy and masculine 
 virility, the wisdom of the serpent and the 
 harmlessness of the dove, poetry and states- 
 manship, culture and righteousness, blended 
 as they were in John Hay, beloved of men, 
 the honored of nations, on whose head the 
 blessings awarded the peacemaker rest. 
 
 "Four years ago a shadow fell across his 
 path in the sudden death of his eldest son. 
 It is my belief that to the last the man in 
 the eye of the world was a man of sorrow. 
 In the parting of the veil the shadow passed 
 away forever." 
 
 16 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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