COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO on. PERRY BELMON SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said " Sver'thing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned book." Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library (&omplxmmtmv$ Mnnzx TO THE on, Perry Belmont, AT §elmomco's, Saturday Evening, December 30th, 1882. Nelson J. Waterbury, Jr., Hermann Oelrichs, Grenville Kane, Robert Townsend, Lewis H. Sayre, M. D., Committee of Arrangements. NEW YORK: Francis & Loutrel, 45 Maiden Lane. 1888. Printed by order of the Committee. The object of this testimonial to Mr. Belmont upon his re-election to Congress from the first district of New York, is briefly expressed in the invitation by which it was tendered. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/complimentarydinOOunse INVITATION. New York, December n, 1882. Hon. Perry Belmont. Dear Sir : — We share in the pleasure which your course in Congress has given to your fellow Democrats. It has aided in producing the great uprising of the people, which has resulted in a signal victory for the nominees of the Democratic party, and in great benefit to the cause of good government. In common with all the younger Democracy of New York, we have been especially gratified by your success, because you are one of our number. It is one of the most hopeful features of the recent triumph, that it was largely produced by the revolt of young men against the abuses and corruption that were signally rebuked by it. As a token of the approbation with which we regard your action, and in the belief that such an expression would increase the present tendency of young men who have not been involved in the political contentions of the past, to range themselves on the side of Democratic principles and of the Constitution, we in- vite you to meet us and other friends at dinner, at as early a day as your Congressional duties will permit. We are, sincerely, your friends and fellow-Democrats. Edward S. Rapallo, F. Neilson, Albert Weber, J. E. Roosevelt, A. Wright Sanford, J. D. Prince, Nelson J. Waterbury, Jr., Cyrus Edson, M. D., Lewis H. Sayre, M. D., Hermann Oelrichs, John Hone, Jr., Robert Townsend, Hamilton B. Tompkins, Henry Marquand, 6 Robert B. Lawrence, Edward Bell, D. Henry Knowlton, Arthur T. Hendricks, F. K. Pendleton, George A. Gunther, G. H. Wynkoop, M. D., J. Marion-Sims, M. D., J. Fred. Kernochan, Charles N. Harris, Thomas Newbold, Lloyd S. Bryce, Henry Stanton, Robert Tyler, Jr.. H. I. Nicholas, F. Potter, John Jeroloman, William McClure, De Lancey Nicoll, Grenville Kane, G. L. Rives, Charles E. Lewis, John Brady Jarvis, Franklin Bartlett, Willis S. Paine, Archibald M. Maclay, Henry Gachard, E. C. La Montagne, A. Butler-Duncan, J. F. O'Shaughnessy, Melville A. Kellogg, E. N. Dickerson, Jr., Alfred Youngs, Douglas Hilger, Lucien Oudin, F. M. Johnson, Edward W. Perry, Arthur Ingraham, Center Hitchcock, J. D. Cheever, William Lummis, Edward H. Schell, Wilmot T. Cox, Charles W. Dayton. H. Duncan Wood, R. Percy Alden, A. Gebhard, J. G. K. Lawrence, George G. DeWitt, Jr., Richard O'Gorman, Jr., W. C. Floyd-Jones, Charles W. Cass, Jno. Gilmer Speed, G. H. Redmond, Paul Dana, P. Loriliard, Jr., R. Maclay Bull, Charles D. Ingersoll, W. E. Curtis, John Travers, H. H. Honorc, Jr., W. D. Stow, Joseph D. Bryant, M. D., John D. Crimmins, John M. Bowers, Augustus H. Vanderpoel, T. A. Maitland. G. M. Speir, Jr.. Eugene Kelly, Jr., Fordham Morris, J. A. Montant, P. C. Hewitt, James B. Livingston, Walter Kobbe, Lucius K. Wilmerding, Charles W. Clinton, Frank Lawrence, Arthur M. Hunter, John F. Adam, W. N. Jackson. REPLY OF MR, BELMONT. House of Representatives, ) Washington, D. C, December 21, 1882. f Gentlemen : I accept with pleasure the kind invitation with which you have honored me, and I hope to meet you on Saturday evening, December 30. Believe me, most gratefully, your obedient servant, PERRY BELMONT. To Frederic Neilson, Edward S. Rapallo, AND OTHERS. / THE DINNER. The signers of the invitation to Mr. Belmont assembled at Delmonico's, in the evening of December 30th, to receive their guests, and an agreeable half hour was spent in congratulations to Mr. Belmont, and an interchange of courtesies among those present. The gratifying results of the fall elections gave life to the occasion, and the entertainment was in every particular of a most delightful character. At 7.20 P. M. the doors of the large dining room were thrown open, and Mr. J. D. Prince, escorting Mr. Belmont, entered the room, followed by the rest of the company. The room was tastefully decorated with flags and shields, and over the Chairman's seat there was a full length portrait of Jefferson, copied from that in the City Hall. Four tables were filled with guests. Mr. J. D. Prince presided, and upon his right were seated, Mr. Belmont, the Rev. Edward Clarke Houghton, Lieutenant-Governor David B. Hill and Mr. C. Bell. On the left of Mr. Prince sat Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury, Jr., Hon. W. U. Hensell, Chairman of the Democratic State Committee of Pennsylvania; Hon. Bayard Stockton, of New Jersey; Hon. Francis H. Woods, of Albany, and Dr. A. E. Macdonald. About one hundred and twenty-five were present. The arrangements for the dinner were in the hands of a Committee consisting of Nelson J. Waterbury, Jr., Hermann Oelrichs, Robert Townsend, Grenville Kane and Dr. Lewis H. Sayre. Among the invited guests were Courtland H. Smith and William L. Royal, of Virginia, Skipwith Gordon, of Baltimore, M. Lewis Clark, of Louisville, Charles DeKay Townsend, of Oyster Bay, Lieut. Thomas H. Barber, U.S.A., Otneil De Forest, Frederick A. Potts, Jr., Delos McCurdy, George W. Campbell, Jr., Russell Hoadley, Randolph Morris, Jefferson M. Levy, Reginald H. Sayre, Archibald W. Speir and Edward P. Doyle. TOASTS AND SPEECHES. At the conclusion of the dinner, the chairman, Mr. Prince, called the assemblage to order, and in proposing the first toast, said : Gentleman: In calling your attention to the object of our meeting this evening, it seems to me proper that I should say one or two things, by way of preface to the toast to which 1 am about to ask you to drink. I think that the prevailing danger of the present age and generation, is, apathy. Men are too apt to be simply negative ; to be content with things as they are; to be ambitious to take life easily. The explanation of this tendency may be found in the fact that life comes more easily, more pleasantly, more smoothly for us, than it did for our predecessors. The result of this, to many, is a tendency to yield to the temptation to do little or nothing for ourselves, and to let others do the thinking and the working for us. There are, however, some among us who are willing to work. In our guest of the evening we have a conspicuous example of one who is willing to overcome this tendency and temptation to apathy, to forego a life of selfish indulgence, luxury and ease, and to devote his time, his talents and his energy to the service of his country. {Applause.) Therefore it is that we regard this occasion as important, and esteem our guest as worthy of recognition and honor ; as being the embodiment of a spirit which we cannot value too highly. It is in sympathy with this sentiment, which I know finds an echo in the mind of each one here to-night, that I ask you to join with me in drinking the health of our guest, the Hon. Perry BELMONT : " For his devotion to duty, his fidelity to principle, and the firmness and courage he has shown, we honor I J him. We hail his success, not only as an incentive to young men, but as a fresh proof that the great Demo- cratic party unites in its service, the vigor of youth with the wisdom of age." After the applause with which Mr. Belmont was received had subsided he spoke, as follows, being listened to throughout with marked attention. SPEECH OF HON. PERRY BELMONT. Mr. President mid Gentlemen : I know I shall not be satisfied with anything I may say in trying to thank you, as I wish I could, for this great kindness to me. Yet, believe me, I appre- ciate the honor you have done me, although I, of course, see in your presence here, not so much a compliment to me — that I feel would be undeserved — as the evidence of your own interest, the deep and active interest, which each and all of you take in political affairs. There is no subject of interest more honora- ble, and there are few more absorbing, more full of opportunity, than American politics. It is true we have a fashion among us of painting our politics black ; printer's ink is black ; criticism is wholesome, but we should fall into error did we not read between the lines of partisan controversy, if we desire to form a correct judgment of public questions, and of public men especially. Some of you, my friends, are connected with the press. You know how you can turn the magnifying lenses upon mediocrity and produce a giant ; how you can reverse the instrument and present a pigmy. None should know better than you how important it is, especially in this period of pro- gress and of reformation, not to be carried from the even balance of justice and fairness. Progress and reformation, after all, are practical matters, only to be accomplished by practical men, and there are no more unsafe guides to them, than the reformers by trade, the envious drones of society, who are heard at such times, with a great beating of drums and sound- ing of trumpets, proclaiming that they are the men, and that wisdom will die with them. To me, one of the cardinal points of attraction about the Democratic party, is its freedom from cant and hypocrisy. {Applause.) Indeed it is this which has 12 enabled our party to survive and triumph in the hearts of the people, who detest and despise shams. Catholic as the Demo- cratic party is, there is no room within it for these. No; the verdict of the people has been pronounced for honesty and sincerity in politics. Let us see to it that the verdict is heeded. And now, my friends, what are some of the issues of the near political future of our country, that are clearly in sight? Not many weeks ago there was given in this very room, a splendid farewell to that greatest of the philosophers of modern times, who, passing from summit to summit of all the siences, has dealt with the phenomena of political organization. Prof. Youmans fitly arranged in New York the triumph of one whose elevation has been so single-minded, whose fame has been so unsullied, and whose bearing in success has been so undisturbed. How complete the triumphal procession was! Mr. Evarts and Mr. Schurz as postillions; Profs. Fiske, Marsh and Sumner as the dashing outriders. Among them all. Herbert Spencer's flaming chariot was so guided as to shave and yet save the altars and the shrines of the Puritans, and exhibit to mankind the emancipated New Englanders of New York as perfect examples of " the survival of the fittest." The utterances on that occasion, of the illustrious man who has done so much to bring the laws and the phenomena of all the sciences into accord, suggest one plainly coining issue in our American poli- tics. In giving a glimpse of the idea which w ill inspire the completion of his quarter of a century's task, when he crowns the " Data of Ethics" with the Principles of Ethics by exhib- iting a better adjustment of labor — individual and political — and a more equitable enjoyment of the results of that labor, Mr. Herbert Spencer, in allusion to this, our day of active industrial progress in America, said something like this : " Every- one knows that to be a successful warrior was the highest aim among all ancient people of note, as it is still among many barbarous peoples. We have changed all that in modern civi- lized societies, especially in England, and still more in America. With the decline of militant activity and the growth of indus- trial activity, the occupations once disgraceful have become honorable. The duty to work has taken the place of the duty to fight ; and in the one case, as in the other, the ideal of life has become so well established that scarcely any dream of T 3 questioning it. Practically, business has been substituted for war as the purpose of existence. The modern ideal is ap- propriate to ages in which conquest of the earth and sub- jection of the powers of nature to human use are the pre- dominant need." Therein, I think we may, if we will but listen, learn the true key-note of that music of the recent election. (Applause?) The issues of the political future of our America are to be the issues formed and shaped, not by passion and by the sword, but by economic forces. What shall be the legal relation of the State to labor, in all its varied departments. When and why shall the government at Washington interfere in matters of individual industry, of production, and the distribution of products among consumers ? When and why shall the state meddle with manufacturers competing for the supply of the market ? Can the state safely and wisely interfere with the conditions under which citizens of differing mental, moral, and physical fibre shall compete with one another in the industrial struggles of life ? The years of civil war, the methods of war, the systems and quantity of taxation enforced by war, the special regulations of war, have for us happily passed, and peace has again come to us. Theories of an omniscient and all-prevailing central military government maybe beneficent, and benevolent, perhaps — though I don't believe it — in Russia or Germany or France, or even in England, now that England seems bent on going into partnership with the great fighting powers of Europe, in the dreary business of military imperialism. Such theories can bring only ruin and misery to democratic America. {Applause?) Instead of increasing the scope of the functions of government, it is the duty and aim, as I understand, of the Democratic party to reduce the number of those functions, which our civil war created and we still keep up. The fireside, town, county, and state rule of the people, must cease to be overridden at Wash- ington or at Albany. {Applause?) An industrial type of society, such as our own is to be, and as free as ours will be from foreign enemies, if our diplomatic affairs are wisely and honestly managed, has little need of the intermeddling of a central government at Washington, excepting so far as it may be necessary to preserve and maintain for each state, and for the people of each state, the right to labor and to enjoy the fruits »4 of their labor, so long as they do not interfere with the similar rights of the people of every other state of the Union. Many of you who are here to-night are lawyers, familiar with the doings of the Federal courts. You have seen the projects that are now before Congress to greatly and immediately enlarge the number of the Federal judges in the several Federal cir- cuits. The project is looked upon by many of the wisest law- yers in each political party as dangerous, not only to the authority, dignity and welfare of the high and important tribu- nal at Washington, but very dangerous to the best interests of the judicial systems of the several States. The existing force of Federal judges may be inadequate for the work which the exigencies of civil war thrust upon them. But, before there is legislation to increase the number of the Federal judges, may it not be well to have a candid and penetrating inquiry in the next Congress, by a Democratic Judiciary Committee of the House, to ascertain whether or not the legislation which has increased the jurisdiction and work of the Federal courts to the disparagement of the courts of the several States, cannot be repealed ? Another issue which is just now, thanks to the action of the Senate, in the minds of all of us, is the civil service reform. {Applause.) The only plausible objection offered to the reform of the civil service, has its root in the enduring necessity of keeping the policy and conduct of the Executive, at Albany as well as at Washington, under the control of public opinion. To that end the executive or the governor, who is chosen by the people, must have and preserve the constitutional right and power to remove from office, at his pleasure, all those high officials who come, by the scope of their offices and their authority, directly into contact, so to speak, with the policy of the Executive. This consideration may seem at first to coun- teract and impede the reform of the civil service. It in fact enforces, as I think, the necessity of a true civil service reform. If changes are to be made suddenly and sharply in the course of the ship of state, under the pressure of the breezes of public opinion, the crew, the boatswains, the petty officers, the seamen, must be trained and experienced men, each man knowing his post, each man familiar with his duty. This is so true that for years the public business has really been done to a very great 15 extent by a sort of unrecognized civil service force, which you don't hear much of in the papers, but the existence and the efficiency of which one soon learns, in practical public life, to recognize. However, my friends I did not rise to give you a political lecture. That would be a curious piece of presumption, and a poor return for your great kindness and good will. I rose only to thank you for showing me how deep and real your interest is in the work which lies before us all. [Applause?) The Chairman. — I now ask you to listen to several letters which the committee has received from prominent Democrats, expressing their regret at not being able to join with us on this festive occasion. Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury, Jr., then read the following letters from gentlemen to whom invitations had been extended : LETTER FROM GOVERNOR CLEVELAND. Buffalo, December 26, 1882. Nelson JV Waterbury, Jr., and others, Committee, &c. Gentlemen : I regret to be obliged to decline the invitation to be present on the 30th inst. at a dinner to be given to Hon. Perry Belmont. My engagements, consequent upon my early assuming the duties of the office of Governor, positively forbid my being present on the occasion referred to in your very complimentary letter. Yours very truly, GROVER CLEVELAND. LETTER FROM GOVERNOR PATTISON. Philadelphia, December 23, 1882. Messrs. N. J. WATERBURY, Jr., HERMANN OELRICHS, GREN- ville Kane, Robert Townsend and Lewis H. Sayre, M. D., Committee. Gentlemen : I have the pleasure to acknowledge your friendly communication, inviting me to join a number of younger Democrats of your city, at a dinner tendered to the Hon. Perry i6 Belmont, at Dclmonico's, Saturday, the 30th inst., at 7 o'clock P. M. Regretting that other engagements will prevent me from being present to respond to the proposed toast to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to pay my respects in person to the gifted and popular gentleman you arc to honor, I remain, believe me, yours very respectfully, ROBERT E. I'ATTISON. LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR BLACK. YORK, December 26, 1882. Gentlemen : Nothing that I can imagine, would give me greater pleasure than to be with you, on the evening of the 30th, to do honor to Mr. Belmont. It is not because Mr. Belmont is a young man, nor yet because he is an able man, that I would especially delight to mingle my applause with yours on that pleasant occasion, but because he is indeed a Democrat, holding fast the pure faith, and neither afraid nor ashamed to proclaim it. Mr. Belmont did some rare good work in Congress — work requiring courage and capacity of a high order — but it was the matter and the manner of his recent canvass which most attracted my admira- tion. Planting himself upon a body of doctrines as pure as if they had been formulated anew by the pen of Jefferson himself, he followed the logic out to legitimate consequences in every direction. This is the way and the life. It is the end of sham and of fraud in American politics. It is high time that we learn again the lesson which our fathers learned so dearly — that it is only in the jealous enforcement of the limitations of the Constitution, that we are to find relief from the abuses of Federalism, from excessive taxation, from class legislation, from monopoly, from ring rule, from the perversion of the civil service and the manifold corruptions of Federalist Republican govern- ment. This old fight, bequeathed from sire to son, Mr. Belmont made again in his district, and that he won it easily, gracefully and overwhelmingly, is even less a testimony to his own manli- ness and political integrity, than it is to the virtue and intelli- gence of the people. We may here see the clear evidence that we have only to be right, that is to be Democratic, in the sense that the fathers of the party were Democratic, to be completely 17 successful. When we find a leader who carries a shield as broad as Jefferson's, we may gather behind it with a perfect assurance that it will cover us in every emergency. I would like also to have spoken in response to the toast which you have kindly set over against my name. Pennsylvania has borne some reproach among her sister commonwealths. But she will bear it no longer. The Democracy of this State is sound to the core. We may point to the man we have elected Governor, and to the stainless record of his previous life, with as much confidence in the future as even you can feel, when you look up to the pure banner which went before your 190,000 majority. You may be sure from the foregoing that only the most imperative engagements prevent my acceptance of your very kind invitation. I remain, gentlemen, very truly yours, CHAUNCEY F. BLACK. To Messrs. Waterbury, Oelrichs, Kane, Townsend and Sayre, Committee, &c. The Chairman. — I now ask you to drink to the following toast : PENNSYLVANIA. — In former years side by side with New York in the battles and triumphs of the Demo- cratic cause : we compete with her in honorable rivalry, and rejoice in her redemption from the wrong and th.alldom of " boss " rule. I have the honor to introduce to you, as the gentleman who will respond to this sentiment, Mr. W. U. HENSEL, the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Mr. Hensel will respond not only for the State of Pennsylvania, but also for the Press ; and we all know what a power in the land the Press is. MR. W. U. HENSEL'S SPEECH. I presume, Mr. Chairman, that you mean the Democratic State of Pennsylvania. (Lang] iter and applause^) On the morning (and very early in the morning) after the election, 2 i8 whose results, in part at least, you celebrate to-night, I met a gentleman with whom I had the pleasure and privilege to be associated in the management of the Democratic campaign. He had a very rueful countenance. I spoke of our triumph, and asked him if he did not feel happy over the 40,000 majority for the State ticket in Pennsylvania, over the election of a dozen Congressmen, and of two dozen majority in the Lower House of our state legislature. He admitted that there \\a* some cause for exultation in it ; but said that when he heard the news of the 190,000 majority for the Democratic ticket in New York, he felt ashamed of the result of the efforts which had been made by the Democracy in Pennsylvania. And I admit, Mr. Chairman, that I went home from the Democratic head- quarters, with somewhat of a feeling of humility, in the presence of the fact that Texas had sent the Democratic banner to the Empire State. (Applause.) Hut the pressing kindness of your invitation, coupled with the fact that you are met here to-night to celebrate the general democratic victory throughout the country, to celebrate the redemption of your state and of mine from corrupt " boss " rule, and to do special honor to your guest of to-night, who most fitly, in the popular branch of the Federal Government, represents the Young Democracy, not only of New York but of the whole country {applause ), is, I assure you, enough to relieve me from my embarrassment. Besides, I may say here and now, the Democracy of Pennsylvania are under special obligations to the guest of this evening; for he, alone, of all the Democrats outside of Pennsylvania, manifested a practical and substantial interest in the success of our candidates {applause) ; and, representing the Democratic organization during that canvass, I feel it no less a duty than a privilege to come here to-night, for the purpose of bearing grateful testi- mony to that fact. {Applause.) It was, as you perhaps know, the privilege of the Democratic party in Pennsylvania to specially illustrate the presence, the force, the significance and the influence of the Young Democracy in the politics of the country. To the accusation made by our opponents, that our candidate for Governor was a young man, we made reply that, in the language of a distinguished English statesman, we neither undertook to palliate nor to deny the atrocious crime which was charged upon him. We were content *9 to answer back that, in every stage of the world's history, it had been left to young men to demonstrate that, in all the activities of life, the vigor of youth was as necessary as the wisdom of old age. (Applause?) We said that our candidate for Governor (like some of your candidates) was no younger than was David when he met and slew the stalwart Philistine " boss " ; that he was little younger than Paul when he preached the doctrine of political reform to the degenerate Philippians ; that he was older than Alexander when he had conquered all the worlds within his reach ; that he was older than Napoleon when he halted his advancing legions in the shadows of the Pyramids ; that he was older than Pitt when he became the Prime Minister of England ; that he was scarcely younger than Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independ- ence ; that he was older than Alexander Hamilton when he became the Secretary of the Treasury ; that he was nearly as old as William Henry Seward when he became the Governor of New York ; that he was older than Webster, Clay and Calhoun when they bounded into the arena of political debate ; that he was older than Perry Belmont " when he marched down the halls of the "American Congress " and gallantly touched his lance upon the shield of his adversary, and the " plumed knight " of Maine was unhorsed [applause) ; that he is six years older than when he began his career as reform Comptroller of the City of Philadelphia ; and he will be four years older than he is now when he will have finished the first term of a reform adminis- tration, which will fall upon the degenerate politics of Pennsyl- vania, as the summer show r er falls upon the parched and perishing flower of the field. (Applause?) Let me not be misunderstood as holding in light esteem the precepts and practices of those illustrious men who, having founded our free institutions, founded the Democratic party to protect and to preserve them. Far be from me any such thought. I have somewhere read that a party can only live on its traditions when it lives up to those traditions. If the Democratic party, under false or misguided leadership, has ever strained the rights of the States, if it has ever denied the just powers of the General Government, if it has ever allowed the liberties of the People to be usurped, it has done it in deroga- tion of the traditions of a pure Democratic faith, which demands 20 that the equilibrium of these three principles shall be maintained, as essential to the preservation of a right political system. < Ap- plause.) If it has ever given countenance to a false and falla- cious financial system, it has done it in depreciation of the Jacksonian standard of hard money and honest money. If it has ever submitted to inquisitorial, oppressive and unjust taxation, it has done it in violation of the traditional Democratic pledge to maintain the simple system of taxation which was established by the fathers of the Republic, who were identical with the fathers of the Democratic party. (Applause.) If it has ever submitted to, endorsed or countenanced wasteful and plundering taxation, it has made a departure from Democratic traditions to which we here to-night pledge anew our fealty. If it has ever favored the pretensions of chartered corporations to be above the fundamental law of the land, governing all else within its borders, it has done it in derogation of the Democratic principle that in the people is lodged all power (applause) ; that the creature cannot be above the creator; and that in politics, as in physics, it is an abnormal condition of affairs in which the stream rises above its fountain head. An ancient wrote upon his breast-plate: u Et AmieoriuuA to show that all that was his, was his friends'. Upon the hilt of its sword, and upon its buckler alike, the Democratic party writes: '7:7 Populi" to show that its cause is the cause of the people. It is Oliver Wendell Holmes, I think, who has said that America has two social ideals: the man on horse-back, and the man in his shirt-sleeves. If that alternative is ever presented to us, then the Democratic party is with the man in his shirt-sleeves. {Applause}) The Democratic party of Pennsylvania, like the Democratic party of New York, and like the Democratic party of the whole country, holds in grateful memory the four generations of illus- trious men who, in the history of this Republic, have illustrated the saving strength of Democratic principles for the preservation of Democratic institutions. Far distant be the day when the Democratic party of New York, the Democratic party of Penn- sylvania, or the Democratic party of the country, shall turn a deaf ear to the philosophic patriotism and the calm conservatism of such men as Horatio Seymour {applause), or belittle the intrepid zeal and heroic abnegation of such men as Samuel J. Tilden. (Applause^) By the side of those cast in that large 21 mold, the Young Democracy may well feel themselves dwarfed, and in their wider experience we Hotspurs may learn to temper our blades for the fight that is before us. But no men better than these and such as they recognize, the quickening impulse, which has been given to the Democratic party, by the advent into its councils of men who have before them a broadening leadership, when they, in the couse of nature, must be gathered to the fathers. I believe, with your Governor-elect, that in the application of traditional Democratic principles to existing political evils, may be found an adequate remedy ; and I believe that, for that application, the people of New York, and of Pennsylvania, and the honest people of all the country, are looking with confidence, and with hope, to the Young Democracy. (Applause?) Right fitly, it seems to me, the Democratic party of this country (which is, and ought to be, and always will be, while it is true to itself, the party of local self-government) is coming into power through the acquisition of control in the various State governments ; and it is in the honest exercise of that control that we may best hope to gain control of our federal affairs. The election of a president is a matter of the states, and not of the nation ; and I repeat that it is by the honest exercise of the control which we have obtained in the states, and by the redemption of the pledges made by us, and by reason of which we have regained power — and by these means alone — that we can hope to carry the country in 1884. If this meeting, this rejoic- ing over the victory won, this anticipation of the victory that is to come, shall secure such a policy as this for your State and for mine, under the Democratic reform administrations now elected, then, in this celebration, On this green bank, by this swift stream, We set to-day, a votive stone, That memory may our deeds redeem, When like our sires, our sons are gone. The Chairman. — I now propose to you our Sister State of Connecticut : Once more in the line of Democratic States, if the party which in 1876 stole the Executive power of the United States, shall repeat the damnable crime within 22 her limits, and install in office those whom the people have rejected, the indignant voice of the American people will consign it to an endless exile from power. It was expected that the Hon. THOMAS M. WALLER, the governor elect of the State of Connecticut, would have responded to this toast ; but by a singular coincidence he is retained at home by the very cause which this toast has alluded to; and I beg you will give your attention to a letter which has just been received from him pertaining thereto. LETTER FROM OOYEKNOR WALLER. NEW LONDON, December 29, 1882. Gentlemen : I hoped until this morning to be able to enjoy the pleasure of meeting you and your guest at the dinner to-morrow, but circumstances have occurred that render my absence from home impossible. I regret this very much, for I desired in person to pay my respects to Mr. Belmont, and to express to him my admiration of the courage and ability he- has shown in his public life. I assure you and your friends of my sympathy with every effort in favor of better political methods. Very truly yours, THOS. M. WALLER; NELSON J. Waterbury, Jr., and others, Committee. The Chairman. —I have the honor to propose to you, as the next toast, the plucky little State of New Jersey: Ever faithful, we honor the gallantry that conquers in spite of the fact that, by iniquitous apportionments, two Republicans are made equal in political power to three Democrats. Her people have again illustrated the proverbial vigor of " Jersey justice." I have the honor to call upon the Hon. Bayard Stockton, who inherits a distinguished right to speak for the Democracy of that State. n REMARKS BY MR. STOCKTON. Mr. Chairman : It has been said that there have been grave doubts whether New Jersey was created for any beneficent purpose. A modern philosopher, however, claims to have found the solution of this problem. He holds that New Jersey is a physical necessity to keep Philadelphia and New York from quarreling. {Laughter?) In this view, my position here to-night is peculiarly important ; and I shall try this evening to perform the duties which may devolve upon me in that connection, with the impartiality which should ever be characteristic of the peace-maker. On occasions like this, when men meet together to testify to honor due to manly courage and straightforward honesty in political life. New Jersey has never neglected an opportunity to add her laurel to the civic wreath ; and in the good old fashioned way she speaks. She has kept the faith, and the traditions of the Democratic party ; and she claims to-night that no higher title can be given to any man, than the name of a consistent Democrat. {Applause?) The young men, too, have always been specially favored in my State. Many of her responsible positions to-day are held by young men ; and in the political contest just ended there was no influence so much felt as that of the young democracy. We Jerseymen are proud of our little state. Small in territory and in population, we are none the less proud of her history, and of her position in the sisterhood of states. We are proud of her rapidly increasing population, of the wealth of her agricultural lands, of the development of her manufac- turing interests. We are still more proud when we feel that justice is secure within her borders ; that the greatest criminal as well as the least, will meet with his just deserts. We are proud of the fact that for thirty years past she has had but three Governors who were not democrats {applause) ; and two of those were elected on Fusion tickets. She is outrageously gerrymandered ; but the popular vote in the Assembly Districts shows, year after year, the old fashioned democratic majority. Year after year, in a steady going way, she has cast her Elec- toral votes for Democrats. In i860 she voted for Douglas. In 1864 she was one of the three sisters who voted for McClellan. In 1868 her choice fell upon that Nestor of American politics, 24 Horatio Seymour. (Applause.) In 1N72 she hesitated long between two Republicans ; she remembered however that Grant had once voted the Democratic ticket, and she gave him her support. {Applause.) In [876 she cast her votes with honest pride for Samuel J. Tilden [applause); and she stood ready, staff in hand, to take what measures seemed best to give her votes their full effect. In 1880 she stood alone, among the Eastern States, in her allegiance to the Hero of Gettysburgh — stemming such a tide of money a- had never before been seen in a political campaign. The Democratic party has this year passed through a hard-fought battle to a great and overwhelm- ing victory; and New Jersey now, as in the past, is in the van. From one end to the other of this broad land rose the cry for reform — the first notes of the passing knell of the Republican party. The voice of the people took up the cry against fraud and corruption ; and the whole heart of the country throbbed in unison with the impulse of a grand idea. But the final victory is not yet won. Pride of place and lust of power are still battling against the life of the Republic ; but through the fight, and when the clash of the strife is over, you will hear us from across the Hudson say, " We speak the same words now as ever." Perhaps it would be proper for me to remind our honored guest that the nearer he approached to Jersey soil, the larger were his majorities. The light which illuminates my side of the Hudson is not confined by a protective tariff. Through such a pathway has the Democratic party led us in the past ; what shall be the future of that party ; and what shall be the future of the whole country? Does not that future rest entirely with the young democracy? Will we not be held re- sponsible for the advancement of our country along the path upon which she has started ? Corruption gangrenes our govern- ment. If the knife be not now applied by us, it may soon be too late. Within a few short hours old 1882 will have passed from our lives, with all its promise gone, and all its achievement recorded. Will not the bells of 1883 take up the tone echoed from the dying year? Will not they — " Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife ; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws ?" -'5 The Chairman, — I have next to propose to you a toast to the Empire State : New York. — Our own love and pride. We rejoice with full hearts in the unparalleled revolution by which her people have shown their inextinguishable devotion to honesty and sound principles. Planting herself upon the strong base of an honest government by honest men, she is there to stay and to revive the glories that she garnered under the lead of Clinton, Livingston and Tompkins ; of Van Buren, Wright and Marcy ; of Seymour, Tilden and Robinson. It is with a feeling of peculiar satisfaction that I have the honor to introduce to you the Hon. David B. Hill, Lieutenant- Governor elect of New York by 196,000 majority. {Cheers and Applause}) SPEECH OF LIEUT.-GOV. HILL. Gentlemen : — Instead of being asked to respond to-night to a toast in behalf of our own great state, I had hoped that the chairman would say to me, as the Irish judge said to a prisoner : " What we want of you, sir, is silence, and very little of it, too," (Laughter.) A young orator, rising to deliver a Fourth- of-July oration somewhere out West, began by saying, in a loud and confident tone, " My friends, this beautiful country that we see all around us to-day, was, a few years ago, part and parcel of a howling wilderness." He then forgot his speech, and stammered over again, " my friends, this beautiful country that we see all around us to-day, was, a few years ago, part and parcel of a howling wilderness." Then he broke down, and abruptly terminated his speech by saying, " and I would to God it had remained so." (Laughter.) Permit me to observe that a few years ago our State of New York was also a howl- ing wilderness, and if one half the bad things that are said about it by the newspapers and by some of the reformers of the day were true, it would be better it had remained so. The original inhabitants of this State were the unlettered Indians of the forest. They roved around the country, without any visible 26 means of support, and engaged in the laudable undertaking of scalping everybody they came across, clad in the same cos- tunic that Mark Twain's African maiden wore — their beautiful complexion ; smoking their long cigarettes, and occasionally hunting in the wilderness for game. Those old tribes have now nearly all passed away to their happy hunting grounds. A few of their successors are still among us. The Tammany tribe have a wigwam in this city with their sachems and chief-, their tomahawks and scalping knives. We have the famous Tuscaroras, of some local repute, and we have the renowned Half-Breeds scattered all over the State of New York. In fact, last month the very woods were full of them. ( Applause.) The Half-Breeds are of a mild and peaceful disposition, while the Tammanyites are usually bold, aggressive and warlike. The Tuscaroras are, I believe, very nearly extinct, although they deny it. The forests in which these Indians used to hunt have been cleared away, and their tents have given place to the abodes of civilization. The game which they used to hunt has disappeared, and the favorite game upon our streets to-day is that of "blind pool" (laughter), which, as I understand, is sometimes disastrous to those who engage in it. In the olden time they used to hunt foxes, bears and deer ; to-day, those have all passed away, although upon our streets there may occasion- ally be seen a few "bulls" and "bears," engaged in active con- tests with one another. In the early history of this state, our fathers were employed in the raising of crops of wheat, corn and potatoes ; the crops that we raise now-a-days, are politicians, telegraph suits and penal codes ; and last fall we began to pro- duce free canals. {Applause.) During the last few years we should have had larger crops except for the droughts, and the only explanation that I know of, for those droughts, is in the fact that all the rain that falls from the heavens, is needed and used by the "bulls" and "bears" of Wall street, in watering the stock of our principal corporations. (Applause. | Some of the peculiarities of the people of the State of New York, are their earnest opposition to making money rapidly, their native modesty, their antipathy to speculation, and above all their unaccountable reverence for the Puritans of New England. Nothing so stirs up the average New Yorker as to hear a Massachusetis man compare the Boston Common with 27 our Central Park. I believe that it was a New Yorker who said to a Boston man, " When my time comes to die I propose to go to your city." " Ah," said the Bostonian, " I am glad to know that you think so well of our city." f * But that is not it," he replied, " what I mean is this, that I prefer Boston, because I know of no city which I can leave with less regret." {Laughter.) Perhaps I ought to speak a word about the future of the great State of New York ; but a distinguished capitalist testified last week that it was dangerous to deal in " futures," and I will therefore forbear. I have somewhere read a legend like this : There once lived an old baron, the battlements of whose castle reared their peaks among Scotia's lofty highlands. The old baron determined to secure for himself rich and peculiar music, which should cheer his lonely hours. For that purpose he obtained some long iron bars, and placed them upon the tops of two adjacent cliffs ; and he hoped that, when the winds should play upon those bars, they would, like a mighty harp, discourse rich and peculiar music. The morning breeze, fragrant with the breath of evening flowers, played upon them, yet they gave forth no sound. The noon-tide air and the evening zephyrs played upon them, yet no sound came back. But when the midnight tempest, in its might and fury, swept down upon the valley and smote the mighty chords, then music, sweet and melodious as that of an yEolian lyre, yet strong and full-voiced as the trumpet of an archangel, came forth from that iron harp. As the old philosopher heard its music, it seemed unto his ravished senses like the music of the spheres. For weary days, and months, and years, did the heroes who survived the American Revolution, labor to place upon our peaks the far extended chords ; fastening their northern extremity upon the snow-capped mountain-tops, and making the lines secure, at the South, upon hills fanned by summer breezes, and fragrant with the perfume of tropical fruits and flowers. In 1789 the instrument with its thirteen chords was completed. Then the swift, free winds of heaven poured over the continent upon our mighty harp, and it gave forth melodies, strange, grand and wonderful. One of those chords represented the grand State of New York, with the motto Excelsior " engraved upon it, — the largest, strongest, best and most enduring of them all ; and that chord remains there still, glistening in the sun, untarnished by the 28 storm, still giving forth its music, at all times, in favor of Law and Justice, Liberty and Union, one and inseparable. [Af- plause.} The growth and grandeur of this great state is a theme worthy of the most gifted pen and the most eloquent tongue. I believe that the state is entering upon a new career of pros- perity. With its large commercial advantages, extending every day; with untold wealth at its command ; with its increasing intelligence and cultivation, and with an honest, just and capable administration of public affairs, such as I believe we shall have under Governor Cleveland -there is nothing to stop its onward progress. The late exciting, but not very close election, was a victory of the people and of principle. It was a victory which seems to give general satisfaction among all parties. It reminds me of that story of the old lady who came to town as a funeral procession was passing by. The dead man had been very unpopular in his lifetime. She asked a by-stander, " What is this?" He replied that such a man was dead. " What was the complaint ? " she asked. He replied, " There is no complaint, everybody is satisfied." < Laughter. \ The victory of a few weeks ago means that the abuses of the past must be reformed ; it means that there must be honesty and fair dealing in political primaries and conventions ; it means that all legis- lation must be in the interest of the people. New York has always taken a conspicuous part in noble deeds, upon the land and upon the sea. Among the contests of the Revolution, the battle of Saratoga was nearly as decisive as that of Yorktown. One of the greatest of our naval victories was that won by Commodore Perry on Lake Erie. I may refer to him to-night with peculiar gratification and propriety, because of a fact known to all of you. It was the march of our own Seventh Regiment to the front, during the last war, which first aroused the enthusiasm of the North ; and thousands of the brave sons of New York lost their lives, and left their bones buried in every Southern State, from the Potomac to the Missis- sippi. It was Governor Seymour, in this state, who first, in a special message to the Legislature, in 1863, declared that the plighted faith of New York must be maintained, and that the interest upon the state bonds must be paid in gold and silver. {Applause?) 2 9 Upon the platform on which the Democratic party now stands, and upon which we won the victory in the late cam- paign, we may hope for future triumphs and for increased pros- perity. As an earnest of the future, I am rejoiced to find that there is an uprising all over the state, of democratic young men, who are coming forward to take an active and honorable interest in public affairs. The young men of the state can make the future what they please, The destinies of the state are in their hands. There is no better field for their efforts, their aspirations and their achievements. New York can boast greater resources, more populous cities, handsomer ladies, more gallant bachelors, and give larger majorities than any other state in the Union. {Applause.) The Chairman. — The next toast will be responded to by Judge FRANCIS H. WOODS. He can speak of Democracy as a true judge of the article. The Future of the Democratic Party. Fi- delity to the principles of its fathers ; faith in the people : honesty in the discharge of every trust, and a steady step with the progress of mankind, are alike the duty of Democrats, and the sure pledges of their triumph. REMARKS BY JUDGE WOODS. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — Governor Hill very wisely said, a few moments ago, that it was dangerous to deal in " Futures." But, inasmuch as I have been engaged in " futures," so far as Democratic successes were concerned, ever since I had the legal right to vote, it may not be regarded as an act of too much temerity for me to-night, to hopefully speculate on the future of our party. Who can cast the horoscope of the future? The only light which can guide our pathway, is that which is cast from " the lamp of experience." We may all indulge in hope — " the dream of the waking." It is in the broad sympathies of the young manhood of our 3Q country,— unbluntcd by intrigue, — unwarped by prejudice ; in what one of the papers calls " the courageous honesty" of the young men of the land, that the radiant hope of the future lies. It is to me, this evening, an especially pleasant thing, to believe- that that hope is justified in the growing and abundant promise of the abilities of the gentleman whom you now honor as your guest [applause) \ one who, as has been said by your chafrman, has cast aside the frivolities and pleasures, which surrounded him, and in which he might have easily indulged, and given his young life to the patient and honest study of grave political questions; who has shown by his speeches, that he is abreast with the most enlightened and progressive lovers of the republic, in the consideration of economic questions, and in the demand for thorough and radical reform in all the ways and methods of taxation, and who has evinced an uncommon aptitude in the discharge of his responsible duties as a member of Committee on Foreign Affairs — an aptitude which, in part at least, he may have inherited from his honored father — who was, save one, the most accomplished minister this country ever sent to the Hague. ( A pplause. ) In this bright gathering of earnest, self-reliant and patriotic young men, let me express the hope that our friend will incar- nate in his representative action, what Rufus Choate described as " the spirit of gay and festive defiance — the spirit of exultant American Nationality." And let me say to him in all candor, and with all respect, in behalf of a portion of our fellow citizens, of which I am probably the sole representative among the speakers here to-night, that it will redound to the strength and glory of the Republic — that it will redound to the success and honor of our party, if our foreign policy shall ever afford an unwavering and inflexible protection, in the sacred right of citizenship, to those who have abjured all fealty to foreign princes and potentates, and solemnly and voluntarily pledged allegiance to our government. {Applause?) My friends, I am a plain man from up the country — an out- spoken rural Democrat — but I can say to you men of New York, that the great commercial interests of the state are in safe hands, when such men as Abraham S. Hewitt. William Dorsheimer, Samuel S. Cox and Perry Belmont are your honored represen- tatives. Be vigilant that your imperial city and its quickly 3i developing vicinage continue to be thus fitly represented, and we of the country will endeavor so to discharge the great trust of the state administration, as to merit the approval of the people for a quarter of a century to come, and to put forward as the custodians of that trust, farmer statesmen of the school and type of Silas Wright. There is great hope of the future of our party, if we but mark and emulate the example of the good old county of Albany, from which I come. For years we spent our strength, not upon the common enemy, but upon one another ; we were torn assunder by internal dissensions — bitter factional fighting, wranglings and contentions, but now, thanks to patriotic counsels and wise and prudent leadership, " in mutual well beseeming ranks we march all one way to victory." Discarding the con- tentions of the past, clasping. hands in brotherhood, the Demo- cracy of Albany County point with pride to the brilliant record of its last three years' labors and triumphs. The young men of the party only want the wine of victory to stimulate them to action — to succeed we must stamp out every where the old feuds and contentions, and let no man stay the march of a great party! The toast to which I speak truly says the hope of the party is based on faith in the people. Faith in the people is the corner stone of the Republic — the corner stone of the Democratic party. With faith in the people, as the final repository of power, limited only by the organic law in the exercise of their will, we only need the audacity of youth to lead us up to greater heights of prosperity, power and grandeur than we have yet attained. It is in fidelity to the principles of the fathers, that we are to solidly establish ourselves in the present, and generously and abundantly provide for the future. Let the immortal sentiment of Jefferson be our animating principle, " Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country better than yourself." A steady adherence to the Jeffersonian idea of a frugal government, which shall restrain one man from injuring another, leaving him free in all things else to regulate his own affairs, nor taking from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned, is what led our party to a long career of success, and our country to great prosperity. (Applause?) 32 I have probably taken more time in tin's response, than is pleasant for you or decorous in me ; in closing, let me express the earnest hope that in this initial gathering of the young men of the Democratic party, w e will resolve to organize, to teach anew the old party faith, to lift aloft the ancient party standards, to banish the spirit of internal dissension and hatred of brethren. Let us covenant to discharge the practical duties of every day politics, in a manly and courageous way. Though you may discourse profoundly as philosophers, and talk with never so eloquent a tongue; though you may pleasantly meet and felicitate one another, till your locks grow gray, if you feel above the people, if you despise popular methods, if you neglect primary elections, if you manifest only a languid interest in the platforms and candidates of your party, you may be assured that you will sit down in the ashes of your hopes and ambitions, and despair forever of accomplishing the lofty and honorable results which your training, your instincts and your hearts prompt you to look hopefully forward to. That, for a time, may be discouraging work, but assuredly if it be worth praising in theory, it must be worth carrying out in practice. (Applause?) The young men of the party gallantly upbore the victorious standards of Grover Cleveland (applause) and David B. Hill. [Applause.) The silent party that casts its votes for the worthi- est, swelled the triumphal march. Let us prove worthy of that magnificient support, and we will find the future gilded with grand successes. Resolutely working for what is right, and true, and manly, and for the best good of our country, let us go on, from this fair beginning, conquering and to couquer. and the one hundred millions of men who will find nourishment on the generous bosom of this great mother land of ours in fifty years from now, will be as free, self-governing men as we are to-day. Like a vigorous tree, the Democratic party strikes its aged roots into the generous American soil, while new buds are blossoming and brightening at the top ; and of our party we are proud to-night to say : " Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, are all with thee." 33 The Chairman. — I have next to propose to you : The delusions of the Republican politicians, sure signs of decay and death : that professions are the same as practice ; that corruption will pass for honesty ; that labor can be deceived by false pretenses, while taxed out of all enjoyment ; that the people will suffer themselves to be beaten by money extorted from their officers to form a fund to buy votes ; and that a party can live solely upon its claims of the past, after all its unsmirched leaders are in their graves. I have the honor of calling upon Dr. MacDonald, an expert in lunacy cases, to respond to this toast. REMARKS BY DR. MAC DONALD. Mr. President and Gentlemen — Young Gentlemen: — There is one right which is invariably reserved to the public speaker — or to the alleged public speaker ; and that is the right to quarrel with his subject. I mention that to-night for your information, because I very much regret to say that the Democrats have not had as much to say lately as they might have had ; because also (I again regret to say) they will probably have a great deal more to say in the future. But, let me commence by quarreling with my toast : I mean with the one that I find assigned to me here to-night. I only got here three or four hours ago (having other gentlemen to attend to) and I had not read my toast till I came ; but upon reading it I was staggered, in the first place, by the partiality of the Toast Committee, in giving eight lines to New Jersey, and only four to New York, which upsets my views of apportionment very much indeed. {Laughter.) In the first place the line of my speech, as indicated to me by my friend Dr. Sayre (and I think indicated to htm by my friend Mr. Oelrichs), was that I should say something such as I was accustomed to say to the sheriff's jury. But, with the Cooper case fresh in my recollection, I should very much prefer to say something which might have more effect upon my auditors, than what I said in that case had upon the sheriff's jury. {Laughter.) As to the delusions of the Republican party, I fear I scarcely have time to-night to even mention them. I know that some of 5 34 you, gentlemen, want to get to a place which was indicated by a previous speaker ; I know that some of you want to be sitting among the ashes on the hearths of your homes ; and so I will not detain you by catalogueing the delusions of the Republican party. And, besides, I never like to talk about a case without first seeing the patient; and although I have been trying ever since the last election, to find a Republican, I have utterly failed to do so. {Applause.) I will, however, remind you, in the first place, that if the Republican party have a great many delusions, and the Democrats have but very few, my expe- rience teaches me that the most curable cases of insanity, are those in which the patient has the most delusions. I think the delusions of the Democratic party may be narrowed down to two : first of all, that when they got into power,' it was through the Democratic party alone; and secondly, that they have nothing now to do but to stay there. I think if they can only get rid of these two delusions, they will, as you all hope to see them do, stay in power for a very long time. < Applause.) I came here to-night, upon the invitation of my friend Dr. Sayre, with the idea that I was to be expected to speak (as all the other speakers were invited to do) to the sentiment indicated in the letter of invitation. I think we were all asked to ranee ourselves upon the side of the "Constitution." I came here prepared to range myself accordingly. I didn't know just what " Constitution " was meant ; but nevertheless, I was prepared to 11 range." I thought that I might get some idea of what was required of me by watching the people about me ; but, to my surprise, I have found that during the three hours I have been sitting here, the gentlemen who were so much concerned about ranging themselves upon the side of the "constitution," have been ranging themselves upon the outside of things which are very detrimental to the constitution. {Laughter. ) It is possible that there is some confusion of terms. The consti- tution with which I have most to do | possibly in the way of undermining it) is the constitution of the human body. Perhaps the Constitution of the United States was alluded to ; or reference might have been intended to another "constitution," which I have seen rather liberally advertised lately, in the announcements upon posters in the streets, that the weight of the mammoth hog " Constitution was to be guessed at in 35 some town on Long Island — I think in Mr. Belmont's district. Yet, since I come to think of it, I recall the fact that the guessing was to be for the benefit of a Sunday school, and therefore I think it could not have been in Mr. Belmont's district. {Laughter.) But names change from time to time ; and the meanings which we attach to them change ; and yet after all there is something in a name ; for I have been informed since I came here to-night, by gentlemen who are upon the inside of political affairs, and therefore supposed to speak with authority, that Mr. Edson owes his election to the office of mayor of the City of New York, to the respect which the people have for his efforts in electric lighting; and that our friend, Surgeon-General Bryant, owes the popular approbation with which his appointment has been received, to the deep-rooted liking which the people have in their hearts, for anybody who is connected with negro minstrelsy. {Laughter.) As I have said, names change, and people also have to change to keep up with the times. That estimable lady whose portrait lends an added pang to the perils and dangers of changing cars at Chatham Square, held for many years a high position in public life, simply as the " Kentucky Bearded Lady ;" but now, in order to keep her place in the popular esteem, she has to add to her former title that of " The Great American Snake Charmer.'' And so it goes all through life. We change our politics. We change even our professions. The diseases which we had to treat years ago we do not have to treat now. When my friend Dr. Sayre is called in, now-a-days, to treat some citizen who has had the temerity to visit some of the down-town streets, he knows that he has either been hit on the head by a hot bolt from the Elevated Railway, or has been blown up by an explosion of the pipes of the Steam Heating Company. {Laughter.) And even in poetry, the thing we would think less subject to change than anything else, see the changes which come over it. Look from our former laureate to our later one ; from Tennyson to Wilde ; from the man who wrote about others, to the man who writes about himself; from the Idyl of the King to the idyl of the entire pack ; from Elaine to Oscar ; from the Lilly Maid of Astolat to the Sunflower Man of Piccadilly; from the "dead steered by the dumb," to the dumb steered by the hungry ! 36 {Laughter.) And so, gentlemen, there arc lots of changes I might refer to, if it were not so late. There is one tiling I would like to say here; a thing I tried to say in the ante-room, but a hundred other members of the party were before me. It is a personal matter, concerning which I would like to speak to Mr. Belmont, and it arises out of a little claim w hich I have : it is a very small one; I made it very small, because I thought that if I made it very small I might have a better chance of getting it all for myself, and feared if I made it too large I might have to share it with too many others. < Laughti r.) As I say, I tried to speak to Mr. Belmont about it before we entered the dining room, but I found that about a hundred and fifty had already begun to speak to him about their little claims, and that the other fifty, being unfortunately prevented from coming here, had taken an opportunity to speak about their claims before he arrived. < Laughter.) Mine is a claim arising from my connection with a late departed but unlamented citizen, Mr. Charles Julius Guiteau. I found myself one of three parties — the United States Government, the hotel keeper, and myself. The United States Government gave me a dollar a day; I had to give the hotel proprietor four dollars a day; and it has dawned upon me that, perhaps, in the many changes that have come over political affairs, the United States Government, the landlord, and myself, may have changed places; and it may be that I shall yet find myself in the position of the hotel keeper, and the United States Government may find itself in the position of myself, and that so all things may be made right. However, I do not wish to unduly impress this upon Mr. Belmont at the present time. I have referred to poetry; may I say to him, in those familiar words — which have I think so much of genuine poetry and pathos in them. " I will see you later." {Laughter.) The Chairman. — There is one very important matter which has been left off the list of toasts: the Influence of the Bar in Public Life. As the Committee have not furnished me with any sentiment connected with the toast, I am just a little at a loss to know which Bar is meant. It might seem invidious, and might possibly hurt the feelings of some one, if I said that the toast referred to any particular bar. I therefore feel com- pelled to defer the solution of the problem to the gentleman 57 whom I am going to call upon to respond to the toast — Mr. Bell, Let us drink to the toast, and then to him. SPEECH OF MR. BELL. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I esteem it a peculiar honor to be called upon to speak to such an assembly as this, of the Bar, and of its influence upon the politics of the country. I can well imagine the doubt which naturally prevades the mind of the average Democratic chairman, at this hour of the evening, in knowing to which Bar allusion was made, when speaking of its influence upon the Democratic party. But, without jesting, the toast (which has been suggested to me since I came in this evening) recalls to my mind, as it must to yours, the names of illustrious men who have been identified with the history and glory of this country ; of some who were taught the principles of democracy by Jefferson ; of others, like Van Buren, Marcy, Silas Wright of the last generation, or like Hoffman and Tilden of our own time, who have been moved by the spirit of those teachings, and have made that influence felt upon the political history of the time. A few years ago I saw in Milan a statue erected by the Italian government, designed to personify, in unimperishable marble, the Spirit of Liberty, and to perpetuate the name of her celebrated statesman — Count Cavour ; but in this country no monument is needed to hand down to posterity the imperishable names of those members of the Bar who are so indissolubly connected with the glory and renown of the Democratic party. The allusion of your chairman to the influence of that other bar, at times so conspicuous in its successes, has suggested to my mind the name of one of the Jeunesse dore'e of the City of New York in his time — the younger Van Buren, to hear whom at a political meeting, I was once taken, when a child, by my father ; and, if you will bear with me a moment, I will tell you a story that John told on that occasion. It was a story of the Tenth Legion of Virginia. It was at the time when the Presi- dential contest for Harry Clay was pending. The Democratic party had then been long in power. A leader of the great Whig party called upon one of the most eloquent men of the time, to go among the Tenth Legion of Virginia and see if something 3« could not be done to arrest the tide of Democratic successes, which had then been unbroken since the days of Jackson, and man)- w ho had voted for Jackson, had been voting for him ever since. This most eloquent man had been taken down there to assist in the canvass ; and, I well recall Van Buren's narrative of what occurred. In a large meeting the speaker had appealed to his hearers by ever)- art which oratory gave him j but lie failed to discover any signs of weakness in the unflinching columns of the Tenth Legion. He finally addressed his remarks particularly to a venerable man in a front seat, hoping thereby to gain at least one recruit. He said, " Sir, if George- Washington, the Father of his country, the great general who had led our army to triumph upon every battle-field of the revolution, should come back again to Virginia, and should run for Congress in your district, — would you vote for him ?" The old man, bowed down with age and leaning upon his staff, rose up and said, — " If he had the regular nomination of the Demo- cratic part)- I would, and if he hadn't I would be damned if I would." The democracy are sharp and shrewd observers of current events. In the political crisis which has just passed, they have selected, to represent them, particularly in this state, (and also, as has been stated, in the adjacent states), three prominent men who are closely identified with the Young Democracy of this state : Grover Cleveland, who has been already named to you ; our guest this evening, and the dis- tinguished member of the bar of the county of Chemung, who now represents the state in the Lieutenant Governor's chair. These gentlemen are all from the younger bar of the state ; and they have each been eminently successful in public affairs. Allusion has been made to the lineage of our guest. If at any time in the future, by reason of one of those party mistakes which have sometimes been made in the past, the Democratic party shall fail to win ; if, at any time hereafter, that good for- tune which in the olden time seemed always to attend the Democratic party, which later may have deserted it, but now seems again to be leading the party on to victory, shall seem to be wavering, let a Belmont stand at the helm, and, in the crisis of the battle for democracy you will have, as I firmly believe, a man who, if his ship goes down, will as his 39 ancestor did on Lake Erie, transfer his flag to another ship, and win ! The Chairman. — I am informed that Col. M. Lewis Clark of Kentucky, is present, and it seems to me that this company should not separate without hearing a word or two from the representative of the Sunny South, and I have no doubt but that, after listening to the flow of eloquence, wit and broad statesmanship, which have shone so conspicuously in the speeches of the evening, he will gratify us with at least a few words. SPEECH OF COL. M. LEWIS CLARK. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I am proud -to say that I desire to express myself in one respect : and that is of my admiration for a wellbred politician. We have an axiom in Kentucky that " Blood will tell ; " and we have here had an illustration of its truth. I am glad to be here to-night as a representative of Kentucky, because it has enabled me to realize, as I never have before, the fact of the obliteration, in cosmo- politan politics, of that imaginary line of Mason and Dixon. The hour is late ; I will not detain you by a speech ; I will only express my gratification in meeting with you in this entertain- ment, in honor of your guest ; and my hope that in the future the Democratic party will be guided by the grand old motto of my State: "United we stand; divided we fall." {Applause.) At the conclusion of Col. Clark's speech the Chairman brought the festivities to a close, and everyone retired, feeling that the victory of 1882, the past glories of the Democracy, and its future hopes, aspirations and prospects, were impressed upon his memory in a most pleasant manner.