iPEECHES DELIVERED ON THE 
 OCCASION OF A DINNER, TO 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JULESCAMBON 
 
LIB:E^.A-I^"5r 
 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
 
 Class 
 
Df 
 
 DINNER TO 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JULES CAMBON 
 
 AMBASSADOE OF FRANCE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
One Thousand Copies 
 printed in February, 1903, hy 
 
 The Grafton Press, 
 70 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
DINNER TO 
 
 His excellency JULES CAMBON 
 
 AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BY 
 
 Mr. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 Mr. JAMES H. HYDE 
 
 AT SHERRY'S 
 
 NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH 
 
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THE SPEAKERS 
 
 4* 
 
 SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 MR. JAMES H. HYDE 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JULES CAMBON 
 
 HON. ELIHU ROOT 
 
 PRESIDENT CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT 
 
 ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 
 
MR. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
SPEECH OF 
 
 SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 MR. HYDE and myself are most happy 
 to greet you this evening. We are de- 
 hghted that for a cordial good-by and 
 God-speed to the French Ambassador there should 
 be present such a representative company of Amer- 
 icans. 
 
 There are represented here to-night the Execu- 
 tive Department, the Legislative Department, and 
 the Judicial Department of our nation, and the 
 country's literature, journalism, law, finance, and 
 Church. 
 
 The relations between France and the United 
 States have been picturesque for a hundred and 
 fifty years. The most romantic chapters of the 
 history of the early settlement of our country are 
 the voyages of Champlain, La Salle, Marquette, 
 and the other Frenchmen whose adventure, skill, 
 and genius discovered and mapped out the lakes 
 and rivers which have made possible the vast in- 
 ternal commerce of the country. Later, at the 
 most critical period of the Revolutionary War, 
 when the prospects of success were darkest, France 
 recognized the independence of our country and 
 formed an alliance with us for its maintenance. 
 Second only to Washington in our affections is the 
 
 [9] 
 
brilliant young Frenchman who cast his lot with 
 us in the beginning and remained true to our cause 
 until the hour of triumph — Lafayette. Next to 
 him is that great soldier, Rochambeau, whose splen- 
 did army and whose cordial co-operation with 
 General Washington brought about the surrender 
 of the British at Yorktown and the independence 
 of the United States. Since then, the relations be- 
 tween the two countries have been of courtesy and 
 friendship rather than of trade and commerce. We 
 are to celebrate next year the acquisition from 
 France of the Louisiana territory, which has been 
 of such incalculable benefit to our country. The 
 exposition which is to commemorate this purchase, 
 the terms of which made the conveyance practically 
 a gift from France, is to be the most important 
 and significant of the long line of industrial fairs 
 which have originated in the desire to celebrate the 
 discovery and development of the country. It is 
 desirable that among the first in welcome as well as 
 in display at this great exposition at St. Louis shall 
 be the generous nation from whose transfer has 
 come to us so large a measure of the power, wealth, 
 and happiness of the country. 
 
 The current of diplomacy from the time of the 
 Louisiana purchase followed smoothly on until the 
 breaking out of the Spanish War. It was a mat- 
 ter of vital moment to us that Europe should re- 
 [10] 
 
main neutral. Hundreds of years of neighbor- 
 hood, of intimate relations, of common inter- 
 changes, extensive commerce and financial obliga- 
 tions, had created the closest ties between Spain and 
 France. Happily, France had at Washington a 
 statesman and a diplomat whose intimate knowl- 
 edge of our country and of our situation enabled 
 him to keep his government so perfectly informed 
 that official France remained absolutely neutral in 
 the contest. 
 
 It is very difficult for a representative of a for- 
 eign power whose people speak a diff*erent lan- 
 guage and whose traditions are also diff^erent from 
 those of the country to which he is accredited to 
 be more than the mere Ambassador of his Govern- 
 ment. It is thus that the capable ministers of 
 France who were sent to us for a hundred years 
 past had their relations mainly, if not solely, with 
 the State Department and with the President. 
 But the distinguished statesman and diplomat who 
 is our guest to-night extended his activities. He 
 learned our language, absorbed the genius of our 
 institutions, and was touched by the spirit of our 
 people. He visited our great educational institu- 
 tions, and spoke acceptably and significantly for 
 the promotion of that study of languages which 
 should bring closer together the people of his 
 country and our own. He appeared before our 
 [11] 
 
great commercial bodies and gave information 
 upon which to found a closer and more intimate 
 commercial relationship between our two countries. 
 He has been a welcome contributor to our journals, 
 and always in a way most instructive and beneficial. 
 If the task of learning our language was difficult, 
 he has performed a much more difficult one — he 
 has won our hearts. 
 
 Now, gentlem.en, one of the hosts here to-night 
 is the President of the Federation of the Alliance 
 Fran9aise, a society which has done much and is 
 doing much all the while to promote the best of re- 
 lations between France and the United States. I 
 have the pleasure of introducing a gentleman who 
 has done very much in his own person to promote 
 these relations and to extend the usefulness of the 
 Alliance Fran9aise — Mr. James H. Hyde. (Ap- 
 plause. ) 
 
 [12] 
 
MR. JAMES H. HYDE 
 
SPEECH OF 
 
 MR. JAMES H. HYDE 
 
 R. DEPE,W, Your Excellency, and 
 Gentlemen : In view of the fact that Mr. 
 Depew has already so well expressed 
 what His Excellency the French Ambassador has 
 done in every possible way to unite the two great 
 sister Republics and to make them better under- 
 stand each other, I shall merely, as one of the rep- 
 resentatives of the educational and university side 
 of the Ambassador's work, assume the great honor 
 and privilege of proposing, first, the health of His 
 Excellency, Monsieur Loubet, the President of the 
 French Republic. (Toast drunk standing.) 
 
 Secondly, for I know that it will be most agree- 
 able to Monsieur Cambon, I shall propose the 
 health of the President of the United States. 
 (Toast drunk standing.) And, last, gentlemen, 
 but not least, the health of His Excellency the 
 French Ambassador, whom I hope we may call our 
 common good friend. (Applause.) (Toast drunk 
 standing.) Allow me, in closing, to thank you all 
 for having come, some of you from a great dis- 
 tance, to testify, in what I consider such a repre- 
 sentative body, to our admiration for France and 
 its able representative. (Applause.) 
 
 [15] 
 
MONSIEUR CAMBON 
 
SPEECH OF 
 MONSIEUR CAMBON 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I cannot express to you 
 how much I am impressed by your splen- 
 did reception. I cannot express how much 
 I thank Senator Depew and my friend, Mr. Hyde, 
 and I thank you, also, gentlemen, the flower of 
 America, for your kindness. And my thanks are 
 a little mixed with melancholy because I leave 
 America and my American friends. With your 
 permission, although I am sure those of you at this 
 banquet who speak French are very numerous, I 
 will continue in French. (Applause.) 
 
 Speaking in French, the Ambassador went on : 
 Senator Depew said a short while ago, in very 
 kind words, that I had succeeded in entering here 
 into your various American circles, and that per- 
 haps I had somewhat modified the opinion of my 
 country which existed in the American mind. I 
 am very thankful to Mr. Depew for these words. 
 There is nothing I could more appreciate than his 
 assurances of the friendship which I leave behind 
 me in the United States. 
 
 But, gentlemen, no matter what may be the 
 measure of the kind remarks which are addressed 
 to me, I have a very good sense that in the actions 
 of an Ambassador nothing has real value, nothing 
 
 [19] 
 
has real importance but that which is a true ex- 
 pression of the sentiments of the people of his 
 country. And allow me to say it, of all this kind- 
 ness, of all this applause which greeted Senator 
 Depew's too flattering remarks, I desire to keep in 
 remembrance only that part which was intended for 
 France, for I have, myself, never done anything 
 but to represent her sentiments, her sympathies, 
 and her friendship for the United States. 
 
 Senator Depew has rapidly reviewed the part 
 which France has played in your history since those 
 very first and arduous days when she sent her vol- 
 unteers and her regulars to aid General Washing- 
 ton in the great War of Independence. He re- 
 called the act by which France ceded to your 
 country the great territory of Louisiana, then com- 
 prising the whole of the Mississippi and the West. 
 He recalled again the more recent circumstances 
 during which France was found once more side by 
 side with America when the latter, obeying the 
 voice of her people, undertook to extend its influ- 
 ence beyond this continent and across the seas. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, if at all these solemn periods 
 of your history you have found France more or less 
 associated with you and in sympathy with the ends 
 that you pursued, think not that it has been due to 
 mere coincidence. If on all these occasions the two 
 peoples have gone on hand in hand, without ever a 
 [20] 
 
serious misunderstanding, it has been owing to 
 something more, too, than mere political interests. 
 It was because of the bond, the relationship, which 
 certainly exists between our two histories. 
 
 I have had the feeling that this was the case, 
 and, being convinced that there exists to-day be- 
 tween our peoples something which is not political 
 or commercial interest, but which is to be found in 
 the community of institutions by which the two 
 Republics are following the same end of govern- 
 ment of the people by the people and for the peo- 
 ple ; and, perceiving that this created a tie different 
 from the ties which unite other nations to one an- 
 other, I held it my greatest duty to study and to 
 make known this community of inspiration, this 
 community of purpose, which, indeed, exists solely 
 between French and American democracy. 
 
 That is why you have seen me traversing the 
 country from north to south and from east to west, 
 instead of quietly remaining at Washington; that 
 is why you have seen me visiting in particular the 
 universities where your great American democracy 
 is being fostered. 
 
 If I have succeeded in my earnest endeavor the 
 honor is due to my country, to the sentiments of 
 my countrymen ; the thanks are due to you, to the 
 sympathies which you have manifested before me; 
 and these latter, I am well aware, rise far above the 
 [21] 
 
personality of the man now about to leave you, 
 who, after all, has been but the mere interpreter of 
 France. These sympathies are the dearest remem- 
 brances that I shall carry away with me. Once 
 more I thank you for them. May there never be 
 a cloud between your counti-y and mine. (Loud 
 applause. ) 
 
 Mr. Depew : I am happy to be informed by M. 
 Cambon that he is satisfied that most of the au- 
 dience understand French. (Laughter.) 
 
 We have not with us this evening, I am sorry to 
 say, the President of the United States, because he 
 is shooting bears in Mississippi. The Bears are 
 never all in Wall Street. (Laughter.) While we 
 are deprived of the pleasure of having our Presi- 
 dent, we have with us two members of the Cabinet, 
 and I have the pleasure of introducing our own 
 distinguished citizen of our own State, the Secre- 
 tary of War. 
 
 [22] 
 
MR. ROOT 
 
SPEECH OF 
 
 HON. ELIHU ROOT 
 
 MR. SENATOR, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Ambas- 
 sador, and Gentlemen: It is a melan- 
 choly duty to help you, sirs, in speeding 
 this parting guest. Monsieur Cambon has been an 
 ideal Ambassador. (Applause.) He has not 
 merely defended, maintained, promoted the inter- 
 ests of his own country, but he has illustrated and 
 made attractive and charming to the people to 
 whom he was accredited all that was noblest and 
 best in the people of his own country. (Applause.) 
 In our modern days, where peace and not war is 
 the normal condition of man, the victories of peace 
 consist not in wresting territory from a hostile peo- 
 ple, nor in carrying away from their capitals their 
 works of art, pictures or statues, or their wealth, 
 but in gathering, the world over, all that is best in 
 the lessons of national life and in the influences of 
 national character, to help build up, more fully 
 develop, completely round a competent national 
 character. 
 
 The Teutonic race has characterized and marked 
 the development of this great new world to a de- 
 gree which leads us often to forget how much we 
 owe and how much we can derive from the great 
 Latin race, which has given so much toward the 
 [25] 
 
development of civilization, and which can give so 
 much that we lack toward our own progress, 
 toward the perfection of national and personal life 
 of which we dream. (Applause.) 
 
 Monsieur Cambon has illustrated to us all that 
 was best in the Latin world. I have been sorry that 
 he learned to speak English. I understand him 
 better, but the grace, the beauties of his French al- 
 ways seem to me to raise a picture of the golden 
 fields of grain of his country spangled with bluets 
 and coquelicots, always seem to bring into our 
 rougher and ruder Teutonic civilization something 
 of the infinite grace and beauty and taste with 
 which the French people are endowing civilization. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 How much we owe to it ! Go back over the long 
 history, from those early and stormy days when 
 the Plantagenets went forth from their castles on 
 the Loire across the seas to the conquest of Eng- 
 land ; to the War of the Hundred Years ; to Louis 
 XL, with his leaden saints, beating down the 
 aristocracy of France ; to Henry IV., the beau- 
 ideal of chivalric knighthood, to whom a race of 
 kings unequalled in human history looked back 
 with honor and pride and reverence ; to the great, 
 the greatest of warriors, who with the power of 
 that single nation withstood the armies of the 
 world and gave the death-blow to the hide-bound 
 [26] 
 
institutions which, for centuries, dwarfed and 
 bound the developing powers of civihzation ; to the 
 new RepubKc, whose footsteps we have all followed 
 with hopes and prayers for its success and its per- 
 manency, as, during these thirty years, it was 
 proving itself a most important, most significant 
 stronghold of popular rights, of popular sover- 
 eignty, and of hopes for the future of the peoples 
 of the earth — of the plain peoples of the earth in 
 Europe. Through all the long course of the cen- 
 turies, under the Plantagenets of Anjou, under 
 Louis XI., under the great Louis XIV., under 
 Napoleon the great soldier, under the new Repub- 
 lic, the French people have been doing, with pain, 
 with travail, with infinite labor and sacrifice, the 
 work of civilization and of liberty. (Applause.) 
 
 Through it all the sunshine of La Belle France 
 has caused to blossom on the sour and stern soil of 
 feudalism, not merely royalty, and aristocratic 
 privilege, but the germs of chivalry and grace and 
 beauty, and the beneficence of art— abundant bless- 
 ings to mankind which soften and sweeten and en- 
 noble and dignify humanity. (Applause.) All 
 this Monsieur Cambon represents to us. (Ap- 
 plause. ) 
 
 It is not the least of his claims to our affection 
 that in those dark days for Spain, when the hard 
 and unbending decrees of fate required that this 
 
 [27] 
 
great Republic should put an end to Spain's 
 dominion in the Western hemisphere, when that 
 people whose dignity, whose personal worth, whose 
 abounding and estimable qualities we all recognize, 
 was compelled to yield to overwhelming power, he 
 was their fitting and sympathetic representative 
 and defender. (Applause.) I hope that when 
 Monsieur Cambon goes to his new mission in Madrid 
 he will be able with certainty to say to the gentle- 
 men of Spain that he left behind him in America 
 nothing but respect and esteem and admiration for 
 them. (Applause.) I hope he will tell them that 
 his advocacy of their cause, to which he brought all 
 the subtlety of intellect, all the ability of the trained 
 diplomatist of France, has but raised him in our 
 esteem, and given him an added title to our respect. 
 (Applause.) And it is delightful to know that this, 
 our friend, whom we have learned to esteem so 
 highly, is going among those whose gratitude he 
 has earned and whose affection he must have. (Ap- 
 plause.) Our best and warmest hopes go with him 
 for his success and his promotion of blessings and 
 prosperity for the people of Spain and the people 
 of France alike. Success and glory to him in his 
 new field! Who knows what he may accomplish .? 
 Who knows what this virile, acute, and discriminat- 
 ing mind may do in the Iberian Peninsula.'' (Ap- 
 plause. ) Who knows but he may lead to the union 
 [28] 
 
of the Gaul and the Visigoth? Who knows but 
 from liis agency may come sometime a great Latin 
 repubHcan empire on the continent of Europe? 
 
 Our best wishes go with you, sir. We shall fol- 
 low your pathway with interest and affection. We 
 hope for great things for you ; we wish great bless- 
 ings for your country and the country to which 
 you go. We bid you good-by, we bid you God- 
 speed, and above all we say to you " Au revoir, 
 Monsieur Cambon! " (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Depew : In the manifold relations in which 
 M. Cambon has appeared in American life there 
 is none which has been more significant or charm- 
 ing or instructive than his presence in our univer- 
 sities. There have come here to-night the presi- 
 dents of many of them, including those of all the 
 old universities, for the purpose of extending to 
 him this cordial farewell. I have the pleasure of 
 introducing the president of the oldest and the most 
 reverenced college of them all. President Eliot, of 
 Harvard. 
 
 [29] 
 
PRESIDENT ELIOT 
 
SPEECH OF 
 PRESIDENT ELIOT 
 
 MR. SENATOR, Mr. Hyde, Gentlemen: 
 We are all glad to acknowledge how 
 much we are capable of learning from a 
 courteous, friendly, distinguished Frenchman. But 
 Ave should like to testify on this occasion (we have 
 already testified on this occasion how much we owe 
 to France), we should like to testify to the joy 
 that all Americans have in the establishment in 
 Europe of a firm Republic. We have rejoiced to 
 see the French Republic dealing strongly and suc- 
 cessfully with some of the most difficult problems 
 that governments have to deal with, — with grave 
 educational problems, with grave religious prob- 
 lems, and with industrial problems graver still. In 
 these achievements of the new France we recognize 
 the fact that a new democracy has founded itself 
 sohdly in the heart of Europe; and we democrats 
 rejoice in that fact, and we beg our distinguished 
 guest to tell his compatriots that this Republic 
 heartily rejoices in the firm, assured existence of 
 the French Republic. (Great applause.) We 
 are specially glad for the strength that the Re- 
 public exhibits. There has been a theory in the 
 world that only Empires can be strong. We have 
 given a demonstration to the contrary. Now 
 [33] 
 
France is giving another, a new demonstration. 
 We came from Teutonic stock, France from the 
 Latin. The first settlers in this country were 
 Protestants in every sense. France is CathoHc. 
 This is a new demonstration, gentlemen, that a 
 democracy can be firm, strong, and supreme. 
 
 We have lately, to be sure, felt some hesitation 
 whether there were not in our own country powers 
 stronger than our Government. We have had oc- 
 casion to observe that combined capital seemed to 
 regard the Government of our country as a sec- 
 ondary power. We have also observed that com- 
 bined labor seemed to regard the Government of 
 our country as a secondary power. But it is not 
 so, gentlemen, and the coming years are going to 
 demonstrate that the American democracy has the 
 supreme authority in the continent it occupies. 
 (Great applause.) (Renewed.) Two or three of 
 the preceding speakers have spoken of obligations 
 of our country to France. These obligations are 
 great and various. They are military, political, 
 educational, and artistic. I have sometimes thought 
 that the object of supreme interest in France was 
 the skilled artisan, the artistic artisan, the artistic 
 craftsman. How different are our industries from 
 the French. Ours are of the rudest sort — the in- 
 dustries of agriculture and mining. Theirs of the 
 most artistic sort. I read to-day a statement that 
 [34] 
 
France produced the luxuries of life. It certainly 
 produces the beauties of life, the delights of life. 
 (Applause.) We possess only the raw material of 
 prosperity. 
 
 But now, gentlemen, in view of the heavy obli- 
 gations of all sorts that we owe to France the 
 Beautiful, what sort of a message should we like 
 to have our distinguished friend here present con- 
 vey to his countrymen on his return .? Should we 
 not all be glad to have him say : " America recog- 
 nizes its obligations to France." What does a 
 man do who recognizes his obligations to a friend .^ 
 Does not the man try to do something in return, 
 something to testify to his gratitude and his ad- 
 miration? Now, we can do something for France. 
 We can do, out of our wealth, something that 
 France would like to have us do to promote the wel 
 fare of France. May we not all hope together that 
 our people, that our Government, will do that thing .^ 
 May there not be friendliness, sympathy, admira- 
 tion and gratitude in the relation of one nation to 
 another? Must we always think of our own 
 interests only? We all know that this rich, 
 strong, powerful nation can do much to promote 
 the material interests and artistic interests of 
 France. 
 
 I wish our guest of the evening could say on his 
 return : " Those Americans are going to do some- 
 [35] 
 
thing for France, just because France wants it, 
 just because France would like it." (Applause.) 
 
 Now, Monsieur Cambon alluded to a certain 
 melancholy which he felt in withdrawing from 
 service in our country, and two or three of the other 
 speakers have echoed that thought. I do not sym- 
 pathize with those sentiments of regret. Mon- 
 sieur Cambon has had a noble career here. (Ap- 
 plause.) He goes back to further honorable ser- 
 vice of his country in his chosen profession. His 
 career goes on. We hope he will come back to see 
 us again. (Applause.) But we want to-night to 
 congratulate him on his career in this country, to 
 give him joy of it, and to express the hope that it 
 will always be to him a happy memory. (Applause.) 
 
 Senator Depew: Gentlemen, I shall ask, not 
 a benediction, but a farewell, from a gentleman 
 who, eminent as he is in all the world as an ec- 
 clesiastic, nevertheless is first and foremost always 
 as an American citizen ; who, by his eloquence and 
 attitude toward capital and labor, and by the 
 words that he has eloquenth^ and wisely spoken 
 for the peace of all of the classes of the United 
 States, has endeared his personality to all the peo- 
 ple of the United States. That word of farewell 
 will be spoken by Archbishop Ireland. 
 
 [36] 
 
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 
 
SPEECH OF 
 ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 
 
 MONSIEUR CAMBON : Is it not plain to 
 you this evening that America makes will- 
 ing recognition of the work done by you 
 while you tarried with her, of the regard and the 
 aif ection for herself and her institutions that char- 
 acterized your career as France's representative at 
 her capital? This evening it will not be said that 
 republics are ungrateful. Certainly toward you 
 America is not ungrateful. 
 
 The country hails you. The guests gathered 
 within this banquet-hall are not the citizens of New 
 York. They are the citizens of New York, and, 
 also, the citizens of Boston, of Philadelphia, of St. 
 Louis, of Chicago, of New Orleans: they are the 
 spokesmen of the whole country. Together, one 
 and all, they salute you and proffer you their hom- 
 age. Officially, too, the nation speaks: the Chief 
 Executive of the Republic has sent by letter his 
 cordial greetings; so, too, his Secretary of State; 
 and present with us is his Secretary of War to 
 greet you by living word, to toast you as the warm 
 friend of America. 
 
 Monsieur Cambon, long will your name live in 
 the memory of America. (Applause.) Americans, 
 Monsieur Cambon deserves our gratitude and our 
 [39] 
 
affection. You all have known his courtesy and 
 his regard toward America while he has been in 
 America. I have been able, in a particular manner, 
 to observe throughout France the effects upon that 
 country of his love for America. Wherever he went 
 when revisiting France he spoke admiringly of the 
 Republic of the West; he spoke affectionately of 
 the American people. (Applause.) He labored 
 with energy and with success to uproot any senti- 
 ment of mistrust that might have been lingering in 
 the minds of any class of Frenchmen toward 
 America. As our honored Chairman has well re- 
 marked, very much is due to Monsieur Cambon for 
 the position which the Government of France took 
 toward us during the late American-Spanish War, 
 which I know (and this was said to me again 
 and again by our Ambassador, Mr. Horace Porter) 
 was not only that of neutrality, but of neutrality 
 the most considerate, the most kindly. 
 
 Monsieur Cambon, you have decidedly estab- 
 lished between America and France reciprocity of 
 friendship. (Applause.) It would have taken but 
 very little further effort on your part to have es- 
 tablished reciprocity of commerce. (Applause.) 
 Hearts, after all, are potent guides, even in the 
 commercial affairs of nations. When men meet 
 who esteem one another, who love one another, 
 things are said and done which would not have been 
 [40] 
 
said and done, had it been theirs only to hsten to 
 the cold calculations of interests. 
 
 M. Cambon, we thank you. In you we see 
 your great country, La Grande France; through 
 you we thank France. 
 
 You have said it, gallant, chivalrous as you are 
 — in your regard and affection toward America, 
 you represented France. I accept your words. I 
 confirm them as most true. I have travelled through 
 France ; I have spent years within her frontiers ; I 
 know France; I know her statesmen; I know her 
 people; I know her heart. And that is my testi- 
 mony of France (I am glad to speak it openly in 
 a representative assembly of Americans such as 
 that which I am now addressing)— in the bosom of 
 France there is an abiding friendship, beautiful 
 and strong, for America. 
 
 Frenchmen have not forgotten that French 
 blood did flow in union with American blood to 
 establish the Republic of the West. When they 
 behold the Stars and Stripes, they feel that they 
 have a proprietorship of honor in the noble flag; 
 and anxious they are for its glory. The glory of 
 America is the continuation of the glory of France. 
 To-day throughout France, families recall with 
 pride that ancestors of theirs fought with Lafay- 
 ette and Rochambeau. It is an envied honor in 
 France to be the descendant of an old American 
 [41] 
 
soldier. Frenchmen will ever remember that once 
 on battle-fields, where a cause most precious was at 
 stake, they were "freres-d'armes" with the sons of 
 America, and together with those they will ever 
 love the victorious embodiment of that cause — the 
 Republic of the United States. 
 
 In their turn Americans do not forget that, in 
 their hour of need, help — help most generous, most 
 effective — came to them from France, that without 
 France's soldiers, without Lafayette and Rocham- 
 beau, the Declaration of Independence of 1776 
 would have been, at the time, nothing more than a 
 sublime, but vain, appeal to liberty and to jus- 
 tice. 
 
 They know, furthermore, that the spirit of the 
 Declaration of Independence is the self-same spirit 
 that to-day animates the political institutions of 
 France. 
 
 Our heai'ts go out to the Republic of France. 
 We pray that she may endure. The destruction or 
 the weakening of the Republic of France would be 
 the weakening of democracy ; we ourselves should 
 feel the wound. So long as democracy is borne 
 aloft by America and France, we have in it confi- 
 dence unbounded. America and France are uncon- 
 querable; institutions upheld by America and 
 France are imperishable. (Applause.) 
 
 It is well for the better and stronger life of both 
 [ 42 ] 
 
countries that there does exist this spirit of union 
 and of friendship between America and France. 
 Each one has much by which the other may profit. 
 Americans have many great and good things to 
 their credit. Ours is a continent the hke of which, 
 according to de Tocqueville, Providence never gave 
 to a people, so fertile in soil, so health-giving in 
 climate, so inexhaustible in resources. We have 
 grown in numbers from three millions to nearly 
 one hundred millions. We are growing so fast 
 that Ave are dazed as we look forward to what we 
 shall be a century hence. We have grown in com- 
 mercial power, through the fertility of our soil, 
 the skill of our workmen, the acute mind of our 
 capitalists and our leaders of industry. With our 
 commercial activities we are invading the world. 
 We are everywhere with the fruits of our farms, 
 the products of our workshops, the marvels of our 
 genius for invention. In this, certainly, we have 
 no reason to envy France, to envy whatever nation 
 upon the face of the globe. But business enter- 
 prise and commercial conquest do not exhaust the 
 aspirations of a people, do not suffice for their 
 social completeness. There are other things that 
 we need, and for those we may look to France, to 
 draw with profit to ourselves from the abundance 
 of her storehouses. Heretofore in America we 
 have had but little time to bring into our lives the 
 [43] 
 
culture of civilization, the sweetness of art, the ele- 
 gance of all that is best in idealism. We have been 
 so much occupied with the realities of life that we 
 have not yet sufficiently concentrated our thoughts 
 on the higher regions which are the native home of 
 the better and the greater man. Well, of poetry, 
 of idealism, of sweetness of culture, of rich elevated 
 thought, France is the chosen land : we shall extend 
 the hand toward her, and receive from her some 
 of her riches to beautify therewith our beloved 
 America, to make therewith America not only the 
 greatest commercial nation, but at the same time, 
 the sweetest and the best among the civilized people 
 of the earth. (Applause.) 
 
 And while receiving from France what we need, 
 may we not be giving to France that which, per- 
 haps. Monsieur Cambon, she needs.'' It is said 
 that France, in her soarings toward the ideal, for- 
 gets somewhat the solid ground upon which her feet 
 should rest. To be, nowadays at least, a great 
 nation, to remain a great nation, a country, while 
 fully mindful of the ideal, must see that the mate- 
 rial is within its reach. The material is the foot- 
 stool upon which we stand, from which alone we 
 can safely lift ourselves toward the skies. Well, 
 let France see and know America and learn from 
 her. Steadfastness of purpose, activity of labor, 
 economy of strength, vastness of conceptions and 
 [ 44- ] 
 
 LofC. 
 
unbending resolve to realize them — these are Amer- 
 ica's treasures, and these her gifts to nations that 
 come into closest contact with her. 
 
 The real and the ideal — ^America and France ! 
 Let the one give to the other; let the one receive 
 from the other ; let the two go hand in hand : and 
 they rise amid nations the wonderment of the civil- 
 ized world. (Applause.) 
 
 And so, Monsieur Cambon, in re-crossing the 
 Atlantic, take with you, we pray you, the kindliest 
 remembrance of America. Forget us not; be our 
 representative to the peoples of Europe; when 
 among them you hear mention made of America 
 say to them that you have known her, and that 
 you are her friend. We shall not forget you. 
 Your name will long remain with us, as that of one 
 who sought sincerely to know us, who understood 
 us, who mingled as one of ourselves in our national 
 commemorations and our social joys, who, we be- 
 lieved, while going from us leaves in America no 
 small part of his heart's affections. 
 
 And so, too, Monsieur Cambon, as you set foot 
 on your native soil, give to France our cordial 
 salute. Speak to her our wishes for her peace, her 
 welfare, her glory. A great nation she has been; 
 such she still is ; such may she ever be. Say to her 
 that magnificent historic traditions bind vitally 
 America to her. Friends they are, those two noble 
 [45] 
 
nations — America and France ; friends be they for 
 ever ! (Applause.) 
 
 Senator Depew: My friends, this closes the 
 formal part of our farewell to Monsieur Cambon. 
 I trust, however, that the informal part, that of 
 the meeting and greeting so many gentlemen, ac- 
 quaintances, and friends, who have been brought 
 from all parts of the country for this purpose, may 
 continue indefinitely ; and in closing the formal 
 part, I think we may all rise and wish bon voyage, 
 God-speed, long life, health, happiness, and the 
 gratification of all his ambitions to Ambassador 
 Cambon. (Applause.) 
 
 [46] 
 
Rcor Admiral Alliert 
 Jacob H 
 Mo 
 Hon. Whilclaw 1 
 I'rcBidcnt ^Nicholufl Murrny But 
 I'reaidcnt William 'Kalncy llurpci 
 lion. Tliomas C. Plutt 
 Archbishop IrchuiU 
 Prcnitlcnt Clinrlci Willinm HIiut 
 Jncnci II. Hyde 
 ,nla Qxccllcncy Jules Cambon 
 CImunccy M. Dcpew 
 Hon. llciijnmin B. Odcll, Jr. 
 Hon. Ellhu Root 
 J. I'icrpont Morgan l7 
 Hon, I'hihindcr C. Kni 
 Major General Henry C. Corbin 
 
 Melville E. Stone \ 4 
 I'reiiidenl Arthur TwininK Hndlcy 
 
 Hon. Alton DrookH Parker 
 
 Jnincs W. Alexnndc; 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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