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 ' DEC ^^ 
 
 EMARKS OF ELIHU ROOT ON UN- 
 VEILING A MEMORIAL WINDOW TO 
 THE HONORABLE JOHN HAY AT THE 
 KENESETH ISRAEL, PHILADELPHIA, DE- 
 CEMBER 2, 1906. ■§ ^ 9 ^ 
 
 
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 d4 
 
 REMARKS OF ELIHU ROOT ON UN- 
 VEILING A MEMORIAL WINDOW TO 
 THE HONORABLE JOHN HAY AT THE 
 KENESETH ISRAEL, PHILADELPHIA, DE- 
 CEMBER 2, 1906. '9 '9 '9 '9 
 

 Bv Transfer 
 AUG 3 1914 
 
Remarks of Elihu Root on unveiling a memorial 
 window to the Honorable John Hay at The 
 Keneseth Israel, Philadelphia, December 2, 
 1906. 
 
 Sometimes in John Hay^s later years, among 
 the familiar White House scenes of his youth, 
 some incident would evoke a memory of the 
 earlier days and give it to his friends clad in 
 the felicitous and charming expression of which 
 he was a master. 
 
 I remember that once, as we stood by the 
 door of the old Cabinet room, he spoke of the 
 dark and dreadful time when Lincoln was bear- 
 ing the burden of the Civil War and was 
 feeling his way among innumerable obstacles 
 to his great conclusion of emancipation for the 
 slave; and he told how the great President 
 used often in the dead of night to gain relief 
 from sleepless weariness by rising and seeking 
 the chamber of the young assistai:tt private 
 
 3 
 
secretary, and sitting on the edge of the boy's 
 bed reading aloud to him from some favorite 
 book. 
 
 As the story was told we could see the 
 tall, gaunt form in white pacing down the long 
 corridor in which we stood, and the rugged, 
 careworn face, seeking sympathy in thoughts 
 that might lift his soul above the turmoil of 
 the day's doubt and distress. 
 
 Doubtless the cold words on the printed 
 page lacked power to beat back the invading 
 throng of troubling thoughts, and life was given 
 them by the finely sensitive appreciation and 
 responsive sympathy in the noble, ingenuous 
 youth. 
 
 The instinct of Lincoln's genius divined a 
 kindred spirit; and there in the silent watches 
 of the night and in daily companionship was 
 molded and inspired the character of our 
 friend. 
 
 The youth grew in years and in authority. 
 His power of intellect and of heart made him 
 in his turn great among men. He lived the 
 noble life and he fought the good fight as 
 Lincoln would have wished; and through the 
 
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long series of the passing years the spirit of 
 the great Emancipator — the strong, the just, the 
 compassionate — has wrought mightily in the 
 works of his great disciple, for justice and 
 mercy and freedom and peace to the oppressed 
 and forsaken of the earth. 
 
 So, in this temple of our God, who hath 
 made all men in His image, we unveil a 
 memorial set up by grateful hands to the honor 
 of one who also gave his life for his country 
 and for humanity. 
 
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