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DR. FRANCIS' REMARKS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE 
 
 COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED ON BEHALF OF THE 
 
 KANE MONUMENT 
 
 IN NEW YORK 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 JOHN F. TROW, PEINTER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY, 
 
 CORNER OF "WHITE STREET. 
 
 1859. 
 

 LC Control Number 
 
 tmp96 025793 
 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Fellow Members of the Kane Monument Asso- 
 ciation : 
 
 This large and intelligent audience awakens 
 a cheering influence and presents unmistakable to- 
 kens of success. The noble motives which have 
 roused your zeal in furtherance of the patriotic de- 
 sign of erecting some suitable memorial in honor 
 of an illustrious man, give confidence to the Board 
 of Managers that the work which they have lately as- 
 sumed, may, in due season, be perfected, and that the 
 renown which follows great deeds will receive a 
 lasting demonstration of the excellence of your 
 hearts and the lofty purposes of your organization. 
 The appeal which has been made to the enlightened 
 and the liberal in behalf of a national tribute to 
 the memory of the lamented Kane, seems to have 
 been made not in vain, if an inference may be 
 drawn from the expressions of opinion and other 
 proofs of approbation furnished by the inhabi- 
 
tants of this metropolis and by the generous 
 and the benevolent scattered throughout our wide- 
 spread Republic. 
 
 The present occasion does not allow a minute 
 account of the formation of the Kane Monument 
 Association. Suffice to say, that it had its origin 
 with a few distinguished and enlightened citizens 
 of this city, prominent among whom is Sidney 
 Kopman, all actuated by a patriotic and benevo- 
 lent spirit, to hold in commemoration for present and 
 after times the achievements of an individual, who, 
 by his life and services, had conferred signal dis- 
 tinction on his country by his bold and adventur- 
 ous acts, and extended through both hemispheres his 
 mighty renown. Some two years have now elapsed 
 since the project first enlisted notice, but the com- 
 mittee, after full deliberation, have only recently 
 ventured to introduce the subject for public consid- 
 eration, and now only have invited your approba- 
 tion and countenance to the undertaking. The 
 act of incorporation by the Legislature of New 
 York, bears date April 5, 1859. Circumstances 
 must control their future action ; but the Board have 
 the strongest assurances from numerous quarters 
 that their hopes will be realized ; for they dare not 
 doubt that the American people, with their enlarged 
 benevolence and wonted patriotism, will sustain the 
 measure. I need hardly give you assurance that my 
 own feelings are deeply involved in the great de- 
 sign. 
 
 I have already implied that popular feeling is 
 enlisted in behalf of the erection of the contemplat- 
 ed monument to the late Dr. Kane, and that I be- 
 
lieve public liberality will accomplish the under- 
 taking. The grounds of this confidence are mani- 
 fest. The life and adventures of the illustrious ex- 
 plorer are of a nature which have secured the atten- 
 tion of the philosophic world, and led to a perusal 
 of his narrative, more widely than, perhaps, has 
 ever fallen to the lot of any other work of a simi- 
 lar denomination ; while the character of the man in 
 the several relations of life is so pregnant with re- 
 markable traits, so beautiful, so consistent, so com- 
 prehensive, and so attractive, as an example of ex- 
 alted worth, as to have stamped his name indelibly 
 on the historic page of illustrious men. And all 
 this is very natural. Who is there so abject in the 
 scale of humanity, as not to admire that extraordi- 
 nary capacity, which, amid numerous adverse cir- 
 cumstances, attained to the mastery of so wide, so 
 copious, so accurate a knowledge, that by almost 
 self-instruction, his disciplined intellect was found 
 adequate to every emergency, in a life so varied and 
 so checkered ? Who, amidst the most trying priva- 
 tions, conquered his own wants and became the 
 generous benefactor to the indigent and the desti- 
 tute pressing on every side, when his perishing 
 companions would not believe that less than a mir- 
 acle could interpose in their behalf for salvation ? 
 And what disciple of the Christian faith can be in- 
 different in contemplating that holy confidence that 
 inspired him — that cherished, with unwavering hope, 
 the divine thought that these demonstrations of 
 sovereign power were in reality no more nor less 
 than the wonder-workings of Providence in behalf 
 of himself and his forlorn crew? Yet such was the 
 
6 
 
 man, and such his religion. The God of the Bible, 
 of the Ocean, and the Storm, was the Maker of man. 
 Can biography furnish us a more instructive ex- 
 ample than these words of such an individual ? 
 
 Look then at the narrative of his exploring tour 
 which he himself penned : consult, with minute care, 
 the story which he has given us in such purity of 
 diction, in such fulness of incident, with such hon- 
 est purpose, with such unaffected simplicity and 
 truth ; and who is there, within this assembly, who 
 has not profited by the perusal of his precious vol- 
 umes ? The Old and the New World have pro- 
 nounced their verdict on the merits of his literary 
 labors, as well as on his heroic and marvellous ex- 
 ploits, and he stands before us, when we review his 
 services, as among the rarest, the most able and the 
 most instructive of navigators. But are there no 
 other traits of character unfolded by his actions in 
 critical conditions that shall further enhance our 
 love and esteem for the intrepid sailor ? Have you 
 -a, recollection of more promptitude in emergencies 
 than he displayed? Does he not profitably remind 
 you, in his readiness for action, of the renowned 
 Ledyard, the African adventurer? Ever ready, was 
 Kane's signal Have you found more humanity 
 than his, in those recorded ministrations to the sick 
 which he has given ? Have you in memory one 
 more fertile in resources in a perplexing combina- 
 tion of affairs? Have you read of one whose mellif- 
 luous words carried more consolation to the afflicted 
 bosom? Have you proofs more convincing of the 
 power of a robust heart to summon order and re- 
 store discipline — to command with the energy and 
 
the success of an autocrat ? Nowhere have you more 
 forcible and illustrative proofs of the courageous 
 heart, the penetrating forethought, the balanced 
 mind. He was enriched with varied knowledge, 
 but of modest utterance ; his capacity for acquisi- 
 tion was rare, yet his cultivated taste and chastened 
 discipline rendered him a congenial and instructive 
 associate for the most refined circles; and by a 
 happy adaptation he yielded delight to the prattling 
 child or the astute philosopher. He won the 
 most grateful acknowledgments from Lady Frank- 
 lin, in his brief interviews with her, prior to 
 his departure for Havana, where, shortly after, 
 his marvellous life terminated its earthly existence. 
 A sound intellect and a fearless and exalted moral 
 principle, was the armor he wore ; mind was 
 his controlling agent ; for, believe it who may, his 
 physical frame, though symmetrical, was small and 
 attenuated ; his height somewhat over five feet, and, 
 as he assured me from his own lips, his weight, at 
 its greatest bulk, not 110 pounds ; while it was some- 
 times reduced as light as 97, as when he left New 
 York on his last arctic expedition, as his friend and 
 noble patron, Henry Grinnell, reported to me. 
 
 There was no stagnant blood resting in the 
 veins of Commander Kane ; his big heart acted with 
 freedom and with force ; the vital principle abound- 
 ed, and every pulsation of his frame beat for discov- 
 ery and philanthropy. 
 
 I am ready to concede the fact, that there is 
 something in the accounts of voyages and travels 
 that yields to us an almost inexpressible delight, in- 
 dependent of the merits of the literary ability with 
 
which they are drawn up, and the character of the 
 narrative itself; and hence the popularity of writ- 
 ings of that nature, even when the productions of in- 
 ferior pens. This circumstance, it is but justice to ad- 
 mit. Notwithstanding the high merits of Dr. Kane as 
 an author, such voyages as he conducted and such 
 occurrences as he has described, would have proved 
 instructive and captivating, even if recorded with 
 less of that finished taste and descriptive powers, 
 so largely a characteristic of his intellectual capaci- 
 ty. Our gratitude to him is consequently en- 
 hanced, when we have confirmatory proofs that the 
 severe application and close confinement to which 
 he subjected himself, after his last return voyage, 
 in order to prepare for the press, within a limited 
 period, his classical volumes, wrought more injury 
 to his delicate frame than he sustained in encoun- 
 tering the hardships of navigation. We conse- 
 quently love his volumes the more when we reflect 
 upon the cost at which they were prepared : they 
 received their last revision with almost his latest 
 breath. Funeral honors of a high order were ren 
 dered upon his death, and his body now lies by the 
 side of his distinguished father, Judge Kane, in the 
 Laurel Hill cemetery, near Philadelphia. 
 
 But I will trespass no longer on your kindness. 
 I believe that the feelings of gratitude which dwell 
 within the American bosom will prompt to success- 
 ful efforts to the erection of a suitable memorial to 
 the chivalrous and noble-hearted explorer. 
 
 I have the pleasure to introduce as the orator of 
 the evening:, the Honorable Mr. "Fkmfr s, tthc illu3- 
 n- of Massachusetts—^ — 
 

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