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 tIBRARV 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 Rev. James Freeman Clarke, 
 
 AT 
 
 TREMONT TEMPLE, 
 
 OCTOBER I, 18S4. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Friends^ — We meet here as Republicans, and as Independent Repub- 
 licans. Once, to be a Republican meant to be independent ; it meant to 
 follow principle rather than party, and to refuse our votes to any man 
 whom we deemed unfit for an office, no matter how popular he might be or 
 what influences he might combine in his support. But now, unfortunately, 
 men may be Republicans, and not thus independent ; and, therefore, we 
 must add this qualifying term, in order to define our position. We mean, 
 then, to say that we belong to that class of Republicans who in 1876, in 
 1880, and in this very year 1884 opposed the nomination of Mr. Blaine, 
 throwing the vote and influence of Massachusetts against him in three 
 national conventions. Returning from the convention which met in Cin- 
 cinnati in 1876, I heard some delegates from Pennsylvania who had voted 
 for Mr. Blaine complaining that the moral influence of Massachusetts had 
 at that time prevented his nomination. " For," said they, " when the con- 
 vention saw the Massachusetts delegation passing by an eminent citizen of 
 a neighboring State in New England and voting for Mr. Bristow, of Ken- 
 tucky, they said, ' There must be something morally wi-ong about Mr. 
 Blaine.' " And I recollect that, in our State convention at Worcester in 
 1880, Mr. Boutwell, who now is an ardent advocate of Mr. Blaine's elec. 
 tion, was so sure of the repugnance felt to him by Massachusetts, that his 
 strongest argument to induce us to favor the renomination of Gen. Grant 
 was this : that, if Grant did not receive the nomination, it would certainly 
 be captured by Blaine. And Blaine himself felt so deeply this opposition 
 that he uttered some bitter words in the Senate against the character and 
 history of Massachusetts, — so bitter that our Senator, Mr. Hoar, felt called 
 on to reply with considerable severity. We also stand where the Repub- 
 licans of Massachusetts stood in the convention at Worcester, when Gen. 
 B^l;ler — then seeking a Republican nomination — moved that a delegate 
 had no right to sit in that convention who had said that, if Butler were 
 nominated, he would not vote for him. Massachusetts Republicans then 
 decided that they and their delegates were just as free after the convention 
 as they were before, and always had a right to bolt a bad nomination. In- 
 deed, these arguments were so stringent that they seem even to have con- 
 
vinced and converted Butler himself to our view ; for now, having been a 
 delegate to the Democratic convention at Chicago, he has bolted its nom- 
 ination, and is running on his own ticket. 
 
 Finally, we stand where the Republicans of Massachusetts stood in 
 1875, when they passed the following resolution, reported by H. L. Dawes, 
 our Massachusetts senator. It is in the platform of the Republican State 
 convention of 1875, of which H. L. Dawes was chairman of the committee 
 on resolutions : — 
 
 "It is therefore declared by the Republicans of Massachusetts that they 
 will support no man for official position whose character is not an absolute 
 guarantee of fidelity to every public trust ; and they invoke the condemna- 
 tion of the ballot box upon any candidate [or office who fails of this test, 
 whatever be his party name or association," 
 
 Where the Republicans of Massachusetts stood in 1876, in 1880, and in 
 the present year, we stand to-day. We cannot see why a man who was 
 opposed by Massachusetts as unfit to be a candidate for the Presidency then, 
 should be regarded as fit to be elected to the Presidency now. What, then 
 are our objections to Mr. Blaine? They fall into two classes, — his course 
 in Congress, which showed that he did not understand the duties of a legis- 
 lator ; and his course since, in Garfield's cabinet, which proved him unfit for 
 the duties of an executive office. I have been accused of having a per- 
 sonal hostility or pique against Mr. Blaine. Far from it. My personal 
 intercourse with him, though slight, has been pleasant. I regard him as 
 an able, agreeable, and polished gentleman. My objections to him are 
 wholly on public grounds. I have carefully studied the Congressional 
 Record of the investigation made in 1876, and the so-called Mulligan 
 betters. I think that, whatever else may be implied and suggested by 
 ^4hem, this at least is certain : That Mr. Blaine, during the time that he 
 cWas a member of Congress and Speaker of the House, was earnestly en- 
 ^^ged in buying and selling the stocks of railroads, — accumulating wealth 
 and deriving special advantages from these roads on account of his official 
 {^position and influence ; that on one occasion he urged again and again 
 3hat he should receive pecuniary favors, because as Speaker of the House 
 3ie had helped a railroad by his decision ; that these railroads from which 
 sought and obtained such advantages were those which were receiving 
 Hhrelp by acts of Congressional legislation. It is not necessary to go into 
 ^aetails. I only say what is plain on the face of these transactions : that 
 <Mr. Blaine was using his public position and influence to accumulate a 
 «tertune ; that he was receiving great pecuniary advantages from moneyed 
 Corporations, which could only be accounted for by his possessing that 
 "political position and official influence. Now, we have seen as honest a 
 man as ever went from Massachusetts to Washington censured by Con- 
 
 868059 
 
gress for doing what was not a tenth part as bad as what Mr. Blaine evi- 
 dently did. He was censured for mixing up his private business with his 
 public duties. And yet his motive was the public service, — to gain help in 
 carrying through a great national enterprise ; and, more than all, he prac- 
 tised no disguise, but, like a man of truth, told the whole story when called 
 upon, though, while he told it, reputations were dropping around him like 
 soldiers in battle. Here comes the misery of it ! Mr. Blaine concealed 
 the truth, denied the facts, and falsified the record. That is the bitterness 
 of it. Oh ! if he had only come forward manfully in that investigation, and 
 said : " Yes, I admit that I did what I ought not. I see now that it was 
 wrong. I wish I had not done it. But, at all events, I will not deny the 
 facts." If he had done that, I believe we should all of us have forgiven 
 him. I, for one, would vote for him for the Presidency. 
 
 With these documents before us, the Congressional Record and the Mul- 
 ligan letters, — documents the authenticity of which is not denied, — we are 
 sorrowfully brought to the conclusion that the present candidate of the 
 Republican party is an unfit, discreditable, and unsafe person to be Presi- 
 dent of this nation. He is unfit, because he has used public office and 
 position for private gain and personal emolument ; discreditable, because 
 he has disguised and concealed those transactions by constant duplicity ; 
 and unsafe, because, during his brief term of office in an executive depart- 
 ment, he has interfered without justice or reason in the affairs of other 
 republics, and prostituted in the service of private interests the power 
 confided to him for public ends. No doubt, he has upright and honorable 
 men among his supporters, — some who, like Mr. Hoar, support him 
 eagerly, — some who, like Mr. Roosevelt, support him languidly, and others, 
 like Mr. Edmunds, who maintain their place in their party, but cannot 
 make up their mind to say a single word in his defence. It was certainly 
 an event without a parallel in the history of politics, when the presiding 
 officer of a meeting called to confirm the nomination of a Presidential 
 candidate did not allude to him at all in the course of his whole speech. 
 It was like what Tacitus says of the absence of the statues of Brutus and 
 Cassius from the funeral of Junia, — " they were all the more conspicuous 
 because they were not there." But the pity of it is that the former leaders 
 of the Republican party have now become the followers. The leaders now 
 are those who skilfully combine politics and personal gain, men who 
 belong to rings, men who sneer at civil service reform, as one of Mr, 
 Blaine's chief wire-pullers has lately done, as " namby-pamby politics, cant, 
 and babyism." The real leaders of the party now are such as we scarcely 
 care to name. The only policy which Mr. Blaine seems earnestly to have 
 adopted is that of keeping the tariff as high as possible, so as to satisfy at 
 once the manufacturers of New England and New York, the iron masters 
 
5 
 
 of Pennsylvania, and the wool-growers of Ohio. The only policy of which 
 he is the exponent is to continue to compel the people to pay in taxes 
 $100,000,000 more than is needed for the expenses of the nation, and then 
 to distribute it among the States. It seems to me that nothing could be 
 more dangerous than four years of an administration like this. One pretty 
 sure result would be the destruction of the Republican party. Four years 
 of Blaine's administration would bury it in a dishonored grave. Indeed, 
 Mr. Chairman, I think that the only hope for the Republican party itself 
 is the defeat of Blaine. Going out of power for a while, it would recover 
 something of its former quality, and return to its better traditions. We 
 do not cease to be Republicans, because we vote for once by the side of 
 our opponents. When the best Republicans of Buffalo united with the 
 Democrats in choosing Cleveland their mayor, they did not cease to be 
 Republicans. When the Republicans of the State of New York united 
 with the Democrats in electing Cleveland their governor by 190,000 
 majority, they did not cease to be Republicans. Nor should we cease to 
 be Republicans, if we joined the better class of Democrats in electing 
 Cleveland to the Presidency. We should only show that we prefer our 
 country to party, and the safety of the nation to the temporary triumph of 
 so-called Republicanism. Those who are so carried away by party spirit 
 and the influence of a name that they think the party which supports 
 Mr. Blaine is the same with that which elected Abraham Lincoln, because 
 both are called Republicans, show that they are cheated by words and 
 mistake appearance for reality. Such loyalty to party is disloyalty to the 
 country ; and to those who act thus we may apply the poet's words, and 
 say,— 
 
 " Their honor rooted in dishonor stands, 
 And faith unfaithful makes them falsely true." 
 
 I well remember how, years ago, when Daniel Webster made his famous 
 seventh of March speech, the leaders of his party in Boston seemed for a time 
 struck dumb with astonishment, anger, and . grief. But soon the power of 
 party reasserted itself, and before long a meeting was held, in which these 
 same men thanked him for what he had said. The same power of party 
 shows itself again to-day. With scarce an exception, the leading Repub- 
 lican public men in this State have opposed Blaine until he was nominated ; 
 with scarce an exception, they have since come round to excuse, to defend, 
 to admire, and finally to put him by the side of Washington and Lincoln. 
 Does not this remind us of our copybook lines, — " First endure, next pity, 
 then embrace " ? Some of my friends cannot bear the idea of a Democratic 
 success, because the Democrats were so bad forty years ago. To such an 
 argument, what statute of limitations can be applied ? The Democrats to- 
 day are not those who began the war twenty-three years ago, not those who 
 
defended slavery before that time. Let us follow Mr. Hale's good advice, 
 and "look forward, not backward." Let us remember that "new occasions 
 teach new duties," and not attempt, as Lowell says, to open the portals of 
 the future with the blood-rusted key of the past. Mr. Chairman, when a 
 citizen of a vast nation like this is to perform the serious duty of voting for 
 its chief magistrate, he should first ask : " What is a President most needed 
 for at the present time ? What are the most imminent dangers which he 
 must avert by the power of his magistracy, the principal evils of the hour 
 which he must subdue by the influence of his authority ? And who is the 
 man the best fitted for this work?" To me, Mr. Chairman, the chief evils 
 which endanger our nation and public life to-day seem those so forcibly de- 
 scribed by our Massachusetts Senator, Mr. Hoar, many years ago. They 
 have not diminished since that time. We have since then seen the rob- 
 beries of the public treasury by whiskey rings and Star- Route rings, which 
 the government has found itself unable to punish. Strange that Mr. Hoar, 
 who brings this terrible indictment against the national honor, should 
 accuse President Eliot of teaching our youth to be ashamed of their own 
 history. Both President Eliot and Senator Hoar do the State service, when 
 they plainly point out these public crimes and public dangers. Each is 
 seeking to teach the young men how to help to make better history. 
 
 "My own public life," said Mr. Hoar, in May, 1876, "has been a very 
 brief and insignificant one, extending little beyond the duration of a 
 single term of senatorial ofiice ; but, in that brief period, I have seen five 
 judges of a high court of the United States driven from office by threats 
 of impeachment for corruption or maladministration. I have heard the 
 taunt from friendliest lips that, when the United States presented herself 
 in the East to take part with the civilized world in generous competition 
 in the arts of life, the only product of her institutions in which she sur- 
 passed all others beyond question was her corruption. I have seen in the 
 State in the Union foremost in power and wealth four judges of her courts 
 impeached for corruption, and the political administration of her chief city 
 become a disgrace and by-word throughout the world. I have seen the 
 chairman of the committee on military affairs in the House, now a distin- 
 guished member of this court, rise in his place and demand the expulsion 
 of four of his associates for making sale of their official privilege of select- 
 ing the youths to be educated at our great military school. When the great- 
 est railroad of the world, binding together the continent, and uniting the 
 two great seas which wash our shores, was finished, I have seen our na- 
 tional triumph and exultation turned to bitterness and shame by the unani- 
 mous reports of three committees of Congress — two of the House and one 
 here — that every step of that mighty enterprise had been taken in fraud. 
 I have heard in higher places the shameless doctrine avowed by men 
 
7 
 
 grown old in public office that the true way by which power should be 
 gained in the republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for 
 their service, and the true end for which it should be used, when gained, is 
 the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratification of personal revenge . 
 I have heard that suspicion haunts the footsteps of the trusted companions 
 of the President. 
 
 " These things have passed into history. The Hallam, or the Tacitus, or 
 the Sismondi, or the Macaulay who writes the annals of our time will re- 
 cord them with his inexorable pen. And now, when a high cabinet officer, 
 the constitutional adviser of the executive, flees from office before charges 
 of corruption, shall the historian add that the Senate treated the demand of 
 the people for its judgment of condemnation as a farce, and laid down its 
 high functions before the sophistries and jeers of the criminal lawyer.? 
 Shall he speculate about the petty political calculations as to the efi^ect on 
 one party or the other which induced his judges to connive at the escape of 
 the great public criminal ? Or, on the other hand, shall he close the chap- 
 ter by narrating how these things were detected, reformed, and punished by 
 constitutional processes which the wisdom of our fathers devised for us, 
 and the virtue and purity of the people found their vindication in the justice 
 of the Senate ? " 
 
 This is the great evil which threatens the virtue of the community. It 
 is the mad desire for great fortunes which causes the defalcations taking 
 place every day, — of presidents and cashiers of banks, of town and city 
 treasurers, of trustees holding the estates of widows and orphans, and 
 forces them to finish lives begun in usefulness in exile, death, and dishonor. 
 The rings and lobbies which infest the halls of Congress and dictate legis- 
 lation make those halls the places round which the infection mostly rages ; 
 and, to check it, we need, most of all, a man as President honest and firm, 
 belonging to the older type of magistrates, who has the courage to defy 
 bad men in his own party and to check assaults on the treasury when 
 made by his own friends. And such a man we have in Grover Cleveland. 
 First, as mayor of Buffalo, he delivered the city from the plunderers who 
 were laying it waste, and received the cordial thanks of the best men of 
 both parties. Next, as Governor of New York, he has supported, as my 
 friend Dorman B. Eaton and others assure me, every measure tending to 
 protect the people from official plunderers. Because he has plucked the 
 prey from the jaws ofCthe wicked, the baser elements of his party have 
 combined with bitter hatred against him. This itself is a proof that he is 
 the man needed now to execute justice on a still higher platform. For he 
 had, evidently, only to concede, a little, to give way a little, to make a few 
 promises to these Democratic leaders, bribe them with a few offices, to 
 have their support, as he now has their determined and unconcealed and 
 inveterate hostility. 
 
" But what," it will be said, " shall we support an immoral and de- 
 praved man for President, — a man whose life is stained with debauchery 
 and vice ? " No. No such man shall ever have my vote ; for, no matter 
 what his other qualities might be, he never could fulfil his public duties 
 right. A depraved man could never have the moral strength to resist evil. 
 But I do not believe Cleveland to be such a man, and I will give my rea- 
 sons for this conviction. 
 
 First. — If he were so, why did the best citizens of Buffalo, who knew 
 him well, support and elect him triumphantly for the office of mayor ? 
 Why was not this charge made against him then by those who knew him ? 
 Why did such an eminent man as Sherman S. Rogers lead the Republican 
 party to his side ? And why were these charges not brought forward, when 
 he was candidate for Governor ? The apparent reason is that there were 
 people enough in Buffalo and New York who knew that such charges were 
 false, and only when his candidacy extends to States where he is not 
 known are the accusations made against him. 
 
 Secoftd. — These charges originated in one Buffalo newspaper, of which 
 hundreds of thousands of copies have been circulated, which accused him 
 of " beastly drunkenness," " habitual immorality with women," of being 
 found in a drunken fight in a saloon, of seduction, and of being a notorious 
 libertine. Thereupon, Rev. Dr. Twining, one of the editors of the New 
 York Independent^ was sent to Buffalo to investigate the facts. This is his 
 report : — 
 
 There remain the worst and damning charges of general libertinism and 
 drunkenness. I say distinctly, after abundant inquiry, they are false. They are, 
 I believe, the product of the imagination of the stews. Every attempt to trace 
 them led back into the merest gossip of saloons and brothels. On the other hand, 
 my inquiry of the noblest Christian men in this city, especially in the legal pro- 
 fession, men above all reproach, men who will vote for him, and men who will 
 vote and speak against him for political reasons, men who know Cleveland most 
 intimately, who have been his partners in business or his nearest neighbors, men 
 who know him by day and by night, bring the unanimous reply that it is utterly 
 impossible that such reports can be true. He is a man of true and kind heart, 
 frank and open, so intensely devoted to his business duties that it is impossible 
 that he should be a debauchee. He has the heartiest respect of the best families 
 in the city, who only regret that he keeps himself so much out of the society to 
 which he would be welcome. There are some severe prejudices against Mr. 
 Cleveland in Buffalo. They have their chief seat in the saloons, against whose 
 tyranny his election to the mayoralty was the protest of all good citizens of both 
 parties. They have not forgiven him for their defeat. From the best sources of 
 information, I received testimony of the strongest character that Mr. Cleveland 
 is a born ruler of men, of the greatest independence and honesty of character, a 
 man who believes in reform to the bottom of his soul, and has the independence 
 
9 
 
 to carry it out, and a man on whom the responsibilities of office have rested with 
 a serious and solemn weight. The men are very few who could have received 
 such testimonials to their efficiency and conscientiousness and independence in 
 public duties as I heard given to Mr. Cleveland from the most influential and 
 trusjtworthy citizens of Buffalo. 
 
 Third. — A committee of sixteen Buffalo gentlemen were appointed to 
 search this matter to the bottom, and this is the substance of their report : 
 
 We have, therefore, through a committee appointed from our number for 
 that purpose, carefully and deliberately made such an investigation ; and we have 
 taken every available means to ascertain the precise facts in each case. The 
 general charges of drunkenness and gross immorality which are made against 
 Gov. Cleveland are absolutely false. His reputation for morality has been good. 
 There is no foundation for any statement to the contrary. He was sought out 
 and nominated for the mayoralty against his will, and was supported for that 
 position by the larger portion of the educated, intelligent, and moral citizens 
 of Buffalo without regard to politics and on purely personal grounds. We are 
 able to speak from personal knowledge, as his acquaintances of long standing, 
 and to say that his general private life has been that of a quiet, orderly, self- 
 respecting, and always highly respected citizen. Since he assumed his present 
 office, his visits to Buffalo have been few and of short duration. It is susceptible 
 of absolute proof, and has been proved to us, that upon no one of these visits has 
 anything occurred to justify the statements which have been made by his de- 
 tractors. The charge that he has recently taken part in a drunken and licentious 
 debauch in Buffalo, on the occasion of such a visit, is entirely false. 
 
 Fourth. — One of the signers of this paper, Josiah G. Munro, is a gen- 
 tleman whom I know well. I wrote to him personally, and received the 
 following answer, which I will read to you : — 
 
 Buffalo, N.Y., Sept. 6, 1884. 
 
 Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Magnolia, Mass. : 
 
 My dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge your valued letter of the 5th. During 
 the ten years I have lived in Buffalo, Mr. Cleveland has been my own trusted 
 legal adviser as well as that of the Boston corporation whose interests I represent. 
 I have never seen anything in Mr. Cleveland which would lead me to think he was 
 a licentious man or one who would associate with dissolute or abandoned charac- 
 ters. His associates, whom I know, are men of high standing in the community, — 
 most of them of the highest standing. He would be welcomed into my own 
 household, and I do not think anything has kept him out of Buffalo society 
 but his own modesty and retiring habits. It is impossible to answer a general 
 a:cusation except in a general way. Wherever our committee could find a specific 
 charge, they followed it to the source and absolutely disproved it. I agree in 
 thinking that this failure to substantiate specific charges is good proof that the 
 general charge is false. The whole tone of Mr. Cleveland's daily life and conver- 
 sation, as I have seen it in private life, is so high, his faithfulness in the discharge 
 
of duty is so marked, and the controlling principle o£ his public life is so grand and 
 yet so simple that it would be impossible for me to believe he was either a profli- 
 gate or licentious man, unless the charge was supported by strong and convincing 
 proofs. Believe me, sir, very truly yours, 
 
 JOSIAH G. MUNRO. 
 
 % 
 
 Fifth. — A few days since, I met at Saratoga Dr. Putnam, of Brooklyn, 
 N.Y., who told me that he had within a few weeks been at the seaside with 
 an eminent and well-known citizen of Buffalo, Mr. E. Carlton Sprague, who 
 told him he had known Cleveland intimately for many years, and that, 
 though he was a Republican himself, and should probably vote the Repub- 
 lican ticket, yet that, " if any one was not prevented by political reasons from 
 voting for Cleveland, he need not be prevented by moral reasons." 
 
 Sixth. — I recently visited Gov. Cleveland in Albany, and spent an hour 
 with him alone in his private room. He talked with simplicity and 
 freedom, with a manner which carried conviction of his truthfulness. He 
 did not pretend that he had not done wrong, he did not wish me to think of 
 him as better than he was ; but he thought he had a right to say that, since he 
 had been in public office, and for the last eight or ten years, no man could 
 truthfully accuse him of having done anything to disgrace himself or to offend 
 his friends. From what he said, I was satisfied that no one had suffered 
 more than himself from his past errors, and I was convinced that he had 
 left them behind. But I gathered this, not from any formal confession or 
 profession, but from the depth of conviction with which he spoke. 
 
 The one sin which he committed, and which neither he nor his friends 
 disguise or excuse, is that he lived, some ten years ago, with a widow as his 
 wife, without being married to her. This was an offence which no one will 
 defend ; but he has grievously suffered for it, and shown his repentance in 
 the truest way, by a change of life, and by doing good and useful work 
 " meet for repentance." I agree with my old friend. Bishop Huntington, 
 of New Vork, that Cleveland, having risen above these past errors and left 
 them behind him, is not, if we follow the principles of the gospel of Christ, 
 to be prevented from rising to any height of usefulness. He has shown 
 his repentance in the true way, by doing works meet for repentance. It is 
 only a hard and narrow bigotry which would condemn a man forever for a 
 past ill deed. 
 
 " But," you may say, " will you reward a man with the Presidency who 
 has committed this offence against social morals ? " No : public office is 
 not a reward, but a duty. If we make him, or any other man, our Presi- 
 dent, it is because he is well fitted for the work of a President. He was 
 not rewarded by the people of Buffalo for this offence (though they knew 
 it perfectly), when they made him mayor. They took him, because they 
 needed him to do a work ; and he did it honorably and well. The people 
 
1 1 
 
 of the State did not reward him, when he was chosen governor. He was 
 taken, because he was the right man in the right place. If elected Presi- 
 dent, it will not be as a reward of merit, but as selected to do the work 
 because he has the power. If the nation needs him for that work, he 
 must not be excused from doing it because of any sin committed in the 
 past. This great people have a right to the best service they can find, 
 anywhere and in any man. The difference between Mr. Blaine and Cleve- 
 land as candidates is not merely that the offences of one belong to 
 private life, and of the other to public alfairs, though that distinction is 
 important, but chiefly this : that the offence of Mr. Cleveland is not dis- 
 guised nor excused nor defended, but that of Mr. Blaine is denied or ex- 
 cused or defended. The great harm to morality does not come so much 
 from the wrong action as from its being defended, palliated, and called 
 right. This great injury to the public morals is now being done by Mr. 
 Blaine's advocates. They are putting evil for good and good for evil, 
 darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for 
 bitter. No young man, who has seen what an awful burden Gov. Cleve- 
 land has had to carry in consequence of this one offence, can possibly be 
 tempted by his example to any like iniquity. But, when a man who has 
 devoted himself to making money out of office is defended for doing so by 
 oar best men, when asking to be paid for doing justice in a high judicial 
 position is treated as a mere accident, when asking a man to perjure him- 
 self by writing a letter prepared for him full of falsehoods is considered as 
 something not worth speaking of, then the morals of society are being can- 
 kered at their heart. Oh, it grieves me to see how men, whom I have 
 honored, and honor still, can allow themselves to be thus misled by the 
 spirit of party ! It is the saddest fact in the story of our time ; and I say, 
 " Oh for an hour of Charles Sumner, or for one burning speech from John 
 Andrew ! " 
 
 " One blast upon his bugle horn 
 Were worth a thousand men." 
 
 But the " knights are dust, and their good swords rust." Instead of the 
 upright soul of Sumner,' we have a bronze statue of him in the Public 
 Garden, probably erected by the help of the Republicans who assisted in 
 removing him from his place as chairman of the committee on foreign 
 affairs to please Gen. Grant, or who passed a vote of censure on him in the 
 Massachusetts Legislature because they thought it would be popular. In- 
 stead of John Andrew, I am glad to say that we have a son who inherits his 
 father's spirit, and will not become a slave of party in order to go to Con- 
 gress. And I see around me young men full of the energy and hope of 
 youth who will yet redeem the Republican party, and set it in a better way. 
 
1 
 
 12 
 
 I saw its rise, and I may live to see its fall ; but, if it falls, something better 
 will take its place. For this Independent movement has come to stay. 
 Some of the Republican orators who have come from a distance to instruct 
 us have been disposed to jeer at this Independent movement as a very 
 trifling affair. So, I remember, men jeered at the humble beginnings of 
 the Liberty party, and the Free Soil party, and at the whole anti-slavery 
 movement. They laughed and made merry as that great storm was com- 
 ing up the sky, as the people did in the days of Noah, and knew nothing till 
 the flood came and swept them all away. 
 
 Gentlemen, if you will, permit me to close this serious speech with a 
 light anecdote. I remember my friend, the late James T. Fields, once told 
 me he was crossing the Common one night, when a partially inebriated 
 man stopped him, and, pointing to the sky, said, " Why does not that 
 rocket come down ? " " Rocket ! " said Fields : " that's not a rocket, that's 
 a star ! " " Oh ! I beg your pardon," said the other: " I am a stranger in 
 these parts." Those who think the Independent movement is only a rocket, 
 and that it is about to fall, are, I think, straijgers in these parts. They do 
 not know the motives nor the men nor the sjfrit nor the power of this move- 
 ment. It has come to work, and it has come to stay. 
 
9 
 
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