.4

¦jT*

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

WELCOME

TO

GOLDWIN SMITH,

BY

Citizens of New York.

WELCOME
TO
PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH,

CITIZENS OF NEW YORK.

¦4' ?? ¦»

A Complimentary Breakfast was given to Professor
Goldwin Smith, at the Eooms of the Union League Club,
on Union Square, New York, on Saturday Morning, the
12tli November.
The following Gentlemen joined in the Invitation :
Chables Butlee,
John C. Hamhton,

¦Wm. Curtis Notes, LL. D.,
Hon. Horace Ueeeley,
Editor of tbfl New York Trilittrte,
Hon. H. J. Eatmond,
Editor of the Nino Y,>rf; TiiMS,
Rey. H. W. Bellows, D. D.,
Preat. of U. S. Sanitary Cammissioli,-
Fkancis Liebbr, LL. D.,
Prof, History Columbia College,
Pr. "V^iNCENZo Botta, Ph. D.,
Elliot C. Cowdin,
Col. James McKate,
Wm. H. "Webb,
Geo. 0. Ward,
Isaac Ferris, D. D.,
Chancellor of the University,
Wm. Allen Butler,
Hon. Sam'l B. Ruggles, LL. D.
Hon. "Wm. E. Dodge,
Wm. H. Osborn,
A. Graclb King,
C. A. Beisted,
Cyrus W. Field,
T. B. Coddinqton,
Wm. j. Hoppm,
Charles H. Marshall,
Alfred Pell,

Jonathan Stuhges,
President Union League Club, New York,
Horace Webster, LL. D.,
Principal of the Free Academy,
John Jat,
Wm. Cullen Beyant,
Wm. M. Evarts,
Parke Godwin,
Editor of the Ev^iihig Post,
F. A. P. Barnard, LL. D.,
President of Columbia College,
W. T. Blodqett,
Geo. Griswold,
Hon. Chas. P. Kirkland, ,
James Browtsi,
John E. Williams,
A. A. Low,
President of tbo Chamber of Commerce,
John Austin Stevens, Jr.,
Secretary of tbo Chamber of Commerce,
George T. Strong,
John C. Geeen,
Richard M. Hunt,
George W. Blunt,
John A. Weeks,
Otis D. Swan,
Col. L. G. B. Cannon,
Theodore Roosevelt,
C. E. Detmold.

Among the distinguished guests invited to ineet Professor Goldwin
Smith, the following gentlemen were present :

Rev. Dr. Thompson,
John A. Stevens,
Professor John W. Draper,
Maj.-Gen. B. F. Butler, U. S. A.
M. AUGUSTE LaUGEL, of France,
Hon. Geo. Bancroft,
Geo. p. Putnam,
Dr. Willaed Paekee,
Rev. S. Osgood, D.D.,
Hon. E. D. Morgan,
Rev. H. Ward Beecher,
Rev. A. P. Putnam,

Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.
A.Bsistant Bishop elect of the Western
Diocese of New York,
Professor H. B. Smith, D. D.
Pro. Sys. Theol., Union Theological
Seminary, N. Y.,
Chas. King, LL. D.,
Peter Cooper, Founder of the Cooper Union,
G. W. Curtis,
Geo. L. Schuyler,
Prof. Trnso. W. Dwight, LL. D.
Law Profeasor Columbia College,
Rev. G. L. Prentiss, D. D.

Letters of regret were received from others of the invited guests,
most of which are given.
The guests assembled in the libraiy, and at half-past ten took their
seats at the breakfast table, which was set in the form of a double T, in
the richly-decorated suite of rooms on the western side of the Club House.
Mr. Charles Butler, who presided on the occasion, was seated at the
centre of the table in the middle room, with Professor Goldwin Smith,
of England, M. Augusts Laugel, of France, and Professor Vincbnzo
BoTTA, of Italy, on his right, and Major-General Butler, Rev.. Dr.
Ferris, of the University, on his left, with Mr. Jonathan Sturges, the
President of the Club, immediately opposite. The Vice-Presidents who
presided at the table were Wm. M. Evahts, Esq., and George Griswold,
Esq. The table was appropriately ornamented vnth flowers in great pro
fusion, and gracefully disjjlayed. A wreath of laurel lay near the place of
Professor Goldwin Smith, and the word " Welcome " greeted him in flow
ers of white, red and blue, while the names of "Cobdbn" and "Bright"
were conspicuous in the floral ornaments before the Vice-Presidents. Two
gun-boats and a cutter, with the name of our young hero, " Cushing," who
so daringly destroyed the Albermale, represented the " Navy "; an army
shield in flowers, the "Army"; a wheel-barrow of flowers, "Agriculture";
and other similar displays, with a choice selection of American fruits, in
which unusually flue clusters of grapes were conspicuous, added to the
beauty of the table. The blessing was asked by the Rev. Dr. Ferris,
Chancellor of the University. The breakfast was well served by M.
lauch, the restaurateur of the Club.

At the conclusion of the breakfast, the Chau-man, Mr. Butlee, rose
and said:
No one of the distinguished men of England, who have
advocated our national cause in that country, has done so
with greater effect than Professor Goldwin Smith, whom we
now have the honor to entertain.
Looking, from his stand-point, at the great conflict now
raging here, — observing it in the light of his profound investi
gations into the philosophy of history, — he could not fail to
see that the supreme issue involved the great problem of the
capacity of the people for self-government, and that the cause
of humanity and civilization, in all countries, was staked
on the result.
His interest in these great questions brought him to our
shores, that he might be nearer the scene of action, and a
witness particularly of the grand crisis of the late national
election, through which we have so triumphantly passed ; and
he has seen, as we all have, how nobly our Ship of State has
borne up under the strain.
With what anxious yet hopeful interest he surveyed the
prospect, and with what appreciation he hailed the result,
the following expressions may serve to show :
In a letter to a friend, dated Boston, November 7th, he
says : " To-morrow will be one of the most eventful days in
the history of the world, and, I trust, one of the brightest."
After the great bloodless conflict between the sunrise and
sunset of that day, on whieh the destinies of a mighty nation
hung, he remarked : " It passed off with all the quiet of an
Englisli Sunday."
Under these happy circumstances we greet him, this
morning, with sincere cordiality, and desire to exchange with
him sympathies and congratulations.
I therefore give place to Mr. Jat, to whom has been
assigned the duty of expressing, more at length, the senti
ments we entertain for our distinguished guest ; after which
other gentlemen present will have opportunity to make such
expression of their individual views as are befitting the oc
casion.

Mr. Jay, who on rising was cordially received, then delivered
THE ADDRESS OF "WELCOME.
Peofessoe Goldwin Smith :
On behalf of the gentlemen here assembled, representing
in some degree the Eeligion and Law, the Science and Arts,
the Commerce and industry of America, I have the honour
to offer you a cordial welcome to New York.
Tou have come, Sir, to view our country and its institu
tions, at the most critical period of our history. "Whatever
doubts may have been entertained at the commencement of
our struggle— and doubts were entertained by others than
yourself on both sides of the Atlantic — -in regard to the issue
it involved, those doubts are in a great measure solved. The
fact that the United States have become the battle-ground of
freedom for the world, is now recognized by enlightened and
generous minds on both continents, and the advocates every
where of exclusive privilege have arrayed themselves on the
side of the Slave Power.
In England your eminent co-labourers — Cobden and
Bright (loud cheers), Cairnes and Mill and Foster (applause)
— have all spoken as became the countrymen of John Milton.
In France the names of Laboulaye, (cheers) de Gasparin, (loud
cheers) Henri Martin, Augustin Cochin, and Anguste Laugel
(cheers) — and M. Laugel's presence to-day adds interest to this
Festival in your honour (warm applause) — ^will be remembered
among those, who with the philosophic spirit of De Tocque-
ville, have read aright the American problem.
But no publicist of England or of the Continent, has in
this contest met and refuted more antagonists than yourself,
when, in your letter to a Whig member of the Southern In
dependence Association, you exposed the hoUowness of
the grounds on which the influential noblemen, gentlemen
and traders, thus associated together, were attempting to
make " England an accomplice," to quote your own words,
" in the creation of a great Slave Empire, and in its future
extension, from the grave of Washington to the Halls of Mon
tezuma." (Loud cheers.)
It is an auspicious omen for England, that wise counsels at
such a moment should have come from the University of

Oxford, which for eight hundred years has exerted so marked
an influence upon the character of British statesmen, and
through them upon the destinies of Europe ; that ancient and
honourable University, which flourished centuries before
Columbus discovered America, or Las Casas, in his blind
benevolence, inaugurated the system of slavery, whose
dying agonies now convulse this continent and send a
shudder through the heart of Christendom. In coming
ages the students of Oxford will remember with pride that it
was her " Eegius Professor of Modern History," who, amid
the strife of parties and the anarchy of morals, reminded the
English people of the lessons taught thern by the past — re
calling maxims of law which her judges had forgotten, prin
ciples of justice which her statesmen had ignored, and interna
tional duties upon which sympathizers with slavery-propagan
dists had been -allowed to trample. They will I'emembcr that he
warned those gentlemen of the Nemesis that would avenge
the outrages they meditated on a friendly people, and thus
assisted to prevent England fi'om rushing into a war which, for
the depth of its infamy, would have had no parallel in history.
(Cheers.) While your country is saved from so grefit a calam
ity, and in that regard the honour of your government is
maintained, and the peace of two nations who ought to be fast
friends, is preserved unbroken, you have assured us, and we
hail the assurance with satisfaction, that " the malignity which
finds its organ in the London Times was that of a party, and
not of the English people."
In return we can assure you, that the sympathy with
slavery and rebellion which you find in New York, however
disguised under the name of Democracy, now allied to the
enemies of Eeform in England, soliciting from Lord Lyons
foreign intervention, to assist in the dismemberment of our
country, and venturing to insinuate at home that we may
be glad to exchange a popular Government for the " accept
able refuge " of " an imperial despotism," — we can assure
you that these are the sentiments of a faction which has been
repudiated by the American people. (Cheers.) But you need
not our assurance on this point. You already appreciate the
fact that this war is no strife between different sections, nor

differing peoples, nor a struggle merely for National life, how
ever pre-eminent is that great issue ; but that it is a struggle
of antagonistic forces — of the defenders of Freedom against
the upholders of Slavery^ — of popular government against
military and aristocratic despotism. (Applause.)
The alliance between the Democratic allies of the slave
power in America, and its aristocratic allies iu Europe, was
conspicuous ih the recent Presidential canvass. That election,
occurring in so vast a territory, amid a civil war without a
precedent or a parallel, will teach the world that the strength
of a government which is based upon the will of an intel
ligent and free people, has hitherto been underrated, even by
its friends. It will teach them that no weak desire for re
pose, no unmanly shrinking from any sacrifice of life or
treasure, demanded by truth, and honour, and justice, will
ever permit the American people to offer concession or com
promise to enemies, who seek by violence and fraud to sub
vert our Constitution, to divide our country, and to overthrow
our liberties. It will make them understand at once, that
this nation has resolved that the war is just, and that it shall
be prosecuted to the end, for national unity and popular sove
reignty, with the near prospect of universal freedom. (Loud
cheers.) The significance of this resolve will be felt in every
Cabinet of Europe, and by every philosophic statesman, and
we doubt not that your associates and yourself will make its
meaning clear to the people of Great Britain : and that all
thought of the possibility of destroying the sentiment of
American nationality, or of inducing the nation to consent to
the dismemberment of the Eepublic, will be forthwith and
forever abandoned. (Cheers.)
You have rightly estimated American institutions as
giving to labour its true dignity, and its just reward, in
ducing an unprecedented foreign emigration, even in the
midst of war ; an emigration which the allies of slavery in
Europe and New York are in vain endeavoring to arrest.
You have referred to our institutions as illustrating the fact,
and what you have seen during the present week will not
impair your argument, that society may repose on liberty as

9
a sure foundation, and that au educated and free people will
reverence the laws they themselves have made, and will, when
the occasion requires, combine with calm dignity and moral
strength, a colossal military and naval power.
You can judge aright how far the charges of vindictive-
ness and revenge made against the American people are
justified by the conduct of the Government, or the acts and
utterances of their victorious Generals. I need not repeat
the reply of Major-General Sherman to the Mayor of Atlanta,
combining so touchingly the sternness of a soldier with the
tenderness of a woman : nor ask whether, in spite of the bar
barous treatment of the Union prisoners by the rebel author
ities, as established by the report of the Sanitary Commission,
a war against rebels was ever conducted with so resolved a pur
pose to conquer, and so kind a spirit to the conquered. (Ap
plause.) Indeed, among the chief causes for our rejoicing at our
Presidential triumph, is the belief that it will ensure the early
Emancipation of our Southern Countrymen from the Eieh-
mond Tyranny, which ruthlessly tramples, not alone on the
National Constitution, but yet more, if possible, on the
rights of the Southern States and the liberties of the South
ern people. (Loud cheers.)
Europe need not fear that, when this rebellion is suppressed
and slavery extinguished, the American people, desirous as
they are to return to the industrial pursuits of peace, will
retain their great armies in the field, unless European govern
ments, by further intermeddling with our affairs, shall compel
us to continue the struggle. (Cheers.) In that case, which, may
God forbid, we shall still be assured, using your own eloquent
words, that " this great community of labour bears in it, with
all its faults, something not uncared for in the counsels of
Providence, and which Providence will not let die." (Loud
cheers.) Touching the future relations of America and Europe,
while the freedom of the one and the feudalism of the other
present features of antagonism that can never perhaj)s be
entirely harmonized, there have been furnished on our part,
some grave causes of prejudice and dislike which will vanish
with the extinction of slavery and the lust of dominion which
2

10
it naturally engenders. (Cheers.) Apart from the insolence
and arrogance of the slave power, which have at times marred
alike our domestic legislation and our foreign diplomacy, the
growing jealousy in Europe of our transatlantic Eepublic has
arisen less from the extent of its territory, or from the magni
tude of its army and navy, which were both inadequately
small, than from the power of its principles, the marvel of
its prosperity and thc force of its example.
In view of these, they seemed to fear that the Eepublic of
Washington in its youth might sway the world, as did Eome
in its age : Non ratione imperii sed imjyerio rationis.
Closing these remarks, I beg leave to observe that we do
not welcome you, sir, to America merely as the Eegius Pro
fessor of Modern History at Oxford, nor even for what England
and America already owe you, nor for what they confidently
expect from you, but we cordially greet you as a friend,
and as an associate of the friends of liberty throughout the
world. (Prolonged applause.)

At the conclusion of the address of Mr. Jay, Professor Smith responded.
Before he began, the company rose to theu- feet and gave liim an impres
sive welcome.

ANSWER OF PROFESSOR SMITH.
Gentlemen : I received your invitation to this entertain
ment, as I have received all the kindness which has welcomed
me here, with feelings at once of pleasure and embarrass
ment ; of pleasure, at finding that an Englishman who, like
you, loves liberty and social justice, has in America a second
home ; of embarrassment, and almost of shame, when I think
how little I can possibly have done to merit such attentions.
If a mere writer could ever have been led, by this kind
welcome, to overestimate his own services, such feelings would
have been banished from my mind wlien I was present at a
soldier's funeral, and saw borne past me the body of one who
had given to this cause, not mere words of sympathy, but a
young, promising and happy life.
I was not even among the first to perceive the claims of

11

your cause upon our sympathies ; though from the time when
it came clear out of the mists which at first surrounded it, as
the cause not only of your territorial greatness but of hu
manity and civilization, and brought out the nobler part of
the national character, which to the eye of distant spectators
had been at first obscured, it has received the deep and un
wavering allegiance of my heart.
On all grounds, then, I accept this honor, not for myself,
but for the great party in England of which I am an adherent,
and which has followed you with its good wishes through this
great struggle. Would that Cobden or Beight were here in
-mj place, to represent your English friends more worthily,
and to acknowledge this tribute in better words than my un-
practiced tongue can command.
In truth, little gratitude is due from you to any English
liberal who has raised his voice in support of this cause. It
is our cause as well as yours. Our hopes of political progress
have sunk with your calamities. They will revive with your
victories. They will revive with your victories over your
enemies in the field. They will revive still more Avith your
moral victories at home.
The tidings are now on their Avay to England, for which
English Liberals have been waiting with intense anxiety, and
which will fill their hearts with gratitude, joy and renewed
hope. This great triumph — this great ratification of the prin
ciples for which you have done and suftered so much, and on
which your commonwealth is founded — will cause almost as
much exultation in England as it is causing here.
I came here partly in pursuance of my vocation as a stu
dent of history, to verify the theory which I had formed. I
came to see Avhether the progress of humanity, which I had
learnt to trace through all the ages, and believed to be per
petual, had been arrested here. I shall return convinced that
it has not been arrested. I was told that my visit to America
Avould modify my liberal opinions. In a certain sense I own
they have been modified. Till I came here I was — not a rev
olutionist, for no man can more heartily abhor violent revolu
tions — but somewhat imjsatient of political evils, and anxious
for vehement effort and for immediate change. I shall return

12
with my impatience allayed by a calm assurance of the future.
You will succeed in your great experiment, and we shall in
the end feel, in the solution of our political problems, the be
neficent efforts of your success.
I came also to see a great political crisis. Would that all
those who love, and all those who mistrust free institutions,
could have seen it also ! Would that they could have wit
nessed as I have the majestic calmness with which, under cir
cumstances the most perilous and exciting, the national de
cision has been pronounced. Here is no anarchy, no military
dictatorship. In the midst of civil war, a civilian is re-elected
as President, by a constitutional process as tranquil as an
English Sabbath day. And no king is more secure in the
allegiance of his subjects than is the President in the allegiance
of all — even those who voted against him — beneath his elect
ive rule.
I would, too, that the English people could witness, as I
witness, the spirit of humanity which retains its power over
all the passions of civil war, notwithstanding the greatest
provocations ; and the absence, which has most forcibly struck
me during my residence here, of any bloodthirsty sentiment,
or any feeling of malignant hatred, towards those who are now
your antagonists in a civil war, but whom, when they shall
have submitted to the law, you will again eagerly welcome
as fellow-citizens, and receive back into the full communion
of the free. Many a prejudice, many an error would be dis
pelled, many a harsh judgment would be canceled, many a
bitter word recalled, if only my countrymen could behold
with their own eyes what I have beheld and now behold.
I will not on this occasion dwell on the present state of
feeling in England towards this country. You know by this
time that we are not, as a section of our press would represent
us to be, united in sympathy with your enemies, but that in
this, as on other political questions, we are divided among
ourselves, and that the mass of our people are on your side.
Mr. Waed Beechee, Avho is here present, must have sufiiciently
assured you of this fact. But I cannot omit on any occasion,
least of all on this occasion and in this city, to protest, that all
Englishmen who have any regard for the honor of England, or

13
even for her real interest as a commercial nation, reprobate
and abhor the conduct of those shipbuilders and merchants of
Liverpool, whose ignoble cupidity, regardless alike of public
morality and of the welfare of their country, has brought the
two nations to the verge of a desolating war.
No part of the address, which Mr. Jat has made, flnds a
more cordial response in my heart, or will find a more cordial
response in the hearts of my friends, than that which promises
future good-will and peace between England and America.
One great cause of our transient estrangement has been re
moved, as Mr. Jat has most truly remarked, since the slave
owner has ceased to fill your councils with his tyrannical
spirit, and to inflame the animosity of your people against a
nation which, with all her shortcomings and with all her
faults, has been the sincere, constant and active enemy of
slavery. In the councils of England, too, — at least in the
general sentiments of our nation, — a change favorable to the
continuance of friendly relations with your country will not
fail to ensue when, the alien form of slavery having disap
peared, your institutions shall stand forth in their true linea
ments and native character, as tlie first attempt in the history
of the world, to found a great community on the principles,
on which alone a community worthy of the name can bo
founded, of common interest and equal right.
Your cause, as I said before, is ours ; it is thc cause of the
whole human race. That all the sacrifices you have made for
it may be abundantly repaid, that speedy victory may attend
your arms, that victory may be followed by perfect reconcilia
tion, and the healing of all the Avounds Avhich civil war has
made, and that you may be guided by the spirit of Avisdom
and of patriotism, through the work of reconstruction, and all
the difficulties and problems Avhich remain, is the earnest
prayer of thousands and tens of thousands of English hearts,
and of none more than of mine.
Professor Goldwin Smith's remarks elicited fi-equent and enthusiastic
applause, and were heard throughout with the deepest attention.

14
The following letter from President Lincoln was then read :
Executive Mansion,
WAsmNGTON, Nov. 9, 1864.
My deae Sir : I have received your letter of the Bth November, and beg to
express my regret that it will not be possible to avail myself of yonr courteous
invitation. Praying that you will present to your distinguished guest the assurance of
my high regard, I am, very truly,
Tour obedient servant, A. LINCOLN.
Charles Butlek, Esq., 13 East 14th St., N. Y.
After the reading of this letter, the company rose and gave three
hearty cheers for the President.
The following letter from the Secretary of the Ti-easmy was then read :
WAsmNGTOs, Nov. 10, 1864.
Gentlemen : Cordially uniting with you in the " desire to do honor to Prof.
Goldwin Smith," whose high character and eminent services to the cause of
constitutional liberty I aclmowledge and appreciate, it would gratify me to be
present at your proposed entertainment, and to pai-ticipate with you in extending
to him that grateful welcome he so eminently deserves.
I am, however, reluctantly compelled to forego the pleasure, as the great
pressure of official duties leaves me no time for personal indulgence.
Yours, respectfully and truly,
W. P. FESSENDEN.
To Messrs. Chakles Butlee, and others, Committee.
The Chairman then stated that this entertainment was designed to be
cordial rather than ceremonious ; that no formal list of toasts or sentiments
had been jjrepared, nor any particular order of speaking proposed, but so
far as possible the friends present would spontaneously give expression to
their feelings.
Tlie Chairman would, however, to give an impulse to such " spon
taneity," call on the distinguished gentleman at the head of the table,
at his right, for some expression.
REMARKS OF MR. EVARTS.
Ml'. Evarts made some pleasant remarks about an injunction he had
received to say little himself, but to bring out the gentlemen around him,
but thus called upon, he begged to be permitted to say a word concerning
the relations of England to our great struggle, now approaching its tri
umph. Nothing could have been more useful to us, or more grateful, than
the voice of the thinking men of England, of which Professor Smith was
to the company the honored presence to-day (applause), and nothing could
have been more useful to this nation, and to the English nation, than the
response which the man of the English people had made to that voice.
It was the courage and constancy of the common people of England,
in bearing their heavy share of the evils and burdens of tliis conflict be
tween an aristocracy, and the party of equal rights, that had j)reserved the
peace of England at home, and that had tended to maintain it, and had

15

thus far maintained it with us. (Renewed applause.) The same courage
and constancy, which arc to be the support of England in all her rightful
and just struggles with foreign nations, had preserved her government
from the unjust participation in om- civil war, to which the ruling class of
England were desirous of committing it.
Mr. Evarts remarked, that, when we saw the inteUigent interest mani
fested by the common people of England in the cause of liberty and equal
rights under this government, they having so little enjoyment, or hope of
enjoyment, of those rights themselves, we might visit with higher and
heartier indignation those public men — those orators, those editors, those
writers, those voters in our own country, who have whined and whim
pered over the sufierings they tell us we have endm'ed in this struggle.
(Loud applause.)
One Lancashire spinner, Mr. Evarts continued, has suffered more from
this controversy about rights in regard to Avhich he had but a remote pos
sibility of having an interest for his posterity, than all these false leaders of
our own people in our midst. (Renewed applause.) There had been, it seemed
to Mr. Evarts, no sublimer instance of human faith since, in the presence
of the Great Master, when the feast was richly spread for the enjoyment of
others, there was a patient waiting for thc crumbs that might fall from the
table. Mr. Evarts said that while the English people, in then- substance and
in their strength, have this virtue, there need be no fear that the two
nations would come into unjust controversy. He alluded to the position
taken by some English statesmen in regard to the right of suffrage, Avliich
he said the people of whom he had spoken Averc so well prepared to as
sume ; and in conclusion, he spoke of the influence which the masses of
England must exert on their government— an influence Avhich could not
be long resisted. (Great applause.)
Mr. Butlek then read the following letter from Major-General
Halleck : AV,»shington, Nov. 9, 1SB4.
Messrs. Charles Bi'tler, AA'. C. Bryant, and others. Committee, &e.
Gentlemen : I thanlc you for your polite invitation to an entertainment pro
posed to be given to Prof. Goldwin Ssuth, on the 12th inst.
Did not ray engagements prevent, it would give mo great pleasure to unite in
this compliment to one who has so ably defended the right, and combated the
wrong, in his own country ; who has discussed in such masterly style, and with
irrefi'agable arguments, the great questions of international law, upon which we
have had so much reason to complain of the action of Ids own government, and
who has so thoroughly studied and clearly set forth the questions of humanity,
freedom and civil rights involved in the result of our present war. Prof Smith
has examined this contest with an unprejudiced eye, and pointed out and dis
cussed the great principles at stake, with an honesty of purpose and force of
language, for which he deserves and will receive the thanks, not only of this
country, but of the friends of freedom throughout the world.
Very respectfully.
Your ob'dt servant,
H. W. HALLECK, Major-Gen. U. S. A.

16

After the reading of this letter Major-General Butler was called on
to speak for the Army. General Butler, on rising, was received with
great applause, and nine cheers for Gen. Butler and the army were
given by the whole company standing.
SPEECH OF GENERAL BUTLER.
General Butler said, that before paying that respect and the kindness
of feeling which he was sure he could represent from the army of the
United States to the distinguished guest, he would accept, not for himself,
the kind greeting wliich the company had ofiered. [Applause.]
Our army, the General continued, of all those that have ever gone from
home to battle for the right, is essentially a reading and thinking army
[loud applause], and the fact that the men in the halls of science and
learning are carefully examining the course of events, and are approving
and sustaining the army in that detennined conflict, which it believed and
is now sure is for the rights of mankind, adds new courage to the heart,
new strength to the arm. [Enthusiastic applause.] And, therefore, he
said, he could well give his thanks, as the representative of the soldiers in
the field, to our distinguished friend (Professor Smith), who was among
the few in England that seem to bid them Godspeed. [Renewed ap
plause.] General Butler added his assurance, that if the Professor before leaAfing
the country would, as they say in the army, come dovm to the fi'ont, he
would there be greeted with cheers, to which those of the present company
were but faint murmurs — [loud applause] — mm'mm-s in comparison with
the grand chorus which should speak.
In a few weeks, or a few months, the General continued, there would
remain, as visible marks of om- great conflict, a few green mounds, a few
long unsightly lines of earth. But all would not have passed away. The
heroism, the bright example of our glorious dead, would forever fm-nish
new teachings of right to coming generations.
General Butler, in conclusion, renewed Hs invitation to Professor
Smith to visit the army, speaking of his own early return, and took his
seat amid prolonged cheering.
The Chairman next read the following letter from the Honorable
Edward Bates, Attorney-General of the United States :
Attorney-General's Office,
Washington, Nov. 11, 1864.
Charles Butler, Esq.,
Chairman, New York.
Sir: Your letter of the 5th instant, by some accident doubtless, did not
reach me until just now, and now I fear it is too late for me to have the pleasure to
accept your kmd invitation to meet " Prof Goldwin Smith, of Oxford," at the
rooms of the Union League, on Saturday, the 12th of November instant, at ten
o'clock.

17

Few things could give me greater pleasure than to meet that distinguished
gentleman — dietinguished alike in the walks of literature and iu the science of
civil liberty, so to speak, and especially in such excellent company ; but the short
ness of the time does not allow me to make any arrangement of my official busi
ness so as to brook the absence of a single day. I am, therefore, compelled. Sir,
to forego the pleasure of your meeting, so promising of the best enjoyments
of mind and heart.
I can only say, in concluding, that the moral and political sympathy of such
men as Smith and Cobden, aud Bright, and their kindred spirits in England, at
such a time as this, cannot fail to be indelibly impressed on the American heart.
Most respectfully. Sir,
Your obedient servant, EDWARD BATES.
Mr. Griswold, the Vice-President at the left of the table, being called
upon by the Chair to introduce a sjieaker from that pait of the company,
said, that to his great regret the Rev. Henrv Ward Beecher,* from whom
they had hoped to hear, and who had been Avith them until a few minutes
before, had been called aAvay by peremptoi-y parochial duty, but that he
had great pleasure in introducing to them the Rev. Dr. Coxe.
REV. A. CLEVELAND COXE'S REMARKS.
Though I find myself so sincerely in harmony with the spirit of this
festivity ttiat I cannot refuse your invitation and that of my old classmate,
Mr. Grisavold, to say a few words of cordial response to thc address ;
I yet feel that my flrst words should be those of explanation. I cannot
speak as a politician, for I have never been such, even so far as to vote.
Nor if a thorough sympathy Avith the Liberal pai-ty in England be a qual
ification to pay honour to your distinguished guest, am I entitled even to
sit at this table. Candour compels me to say this, in Adew of the more
acceptable expressions which have fallen from others. I can only speak
from the deep interest I feel in yom- guest as a friend of my afflicted coun
try, as an eminent scholar and an ornament to a venerable University, and
as the worthy representative of a great and glorious nation.
But it is just because I do not happen to sympathize, in all respects,
Avith the political views of him we delight to honour, this day, that I am
the rather glad of an opportunity to pay him my tribute of respect. He
has had the sagacity to identify himself with the cause of right in Amer
ican afi'airs ; and I grieve to say that othera from whom whom we ex
pected the same course, as the only consistent course for an Englishman,
have bitterly disappointed us.
It does not seem true, to me at least, that any party or any country is
the monopolist of all truth. As I am an American of the Americans,
from principle and from instinct, so I doubt not, had I been bom in
England, I should have been found, as a Churchman, laboiu-ing Avith thc
illustrious Bishop of Oxford, and with such men as Mr. Gladstone,
against some of the measures to which the Liberal party are committed,
* A letter from Mr. Beechek will be found at the close of the proceedings.
3

18

as respects the Church and the University. But sure I am that nothing
could have identified me with any school, or party, of which the conserv
atism is bat-like, and which refuses to learn anything from the men of
progress and the changes of times. As an American churchman, there
fore, I desire to bear Avitness before our English friend, that avc lament the
course which so many of those to whom we have looked for examples, in
England, have chosen to pursue with respect to America. Their course
has been retrograde and reactionary ! They have severed themselves
ft-om the bright names of "William Wilberforce and of the son of
Archbishop Sharp. They have become the allies, if not the champions of
Slavery ; and they have left us to maintain the traditional loyalty of our
religion, uncheered and unsupported by those Avho are the natural
successors of the judicious Hooker, that grand expounder, from whom
the whole English-speaking race have learned so much about the
sanctity of law, and the Avorthlessness of any liberty Avhich laAv does
not regulate and restrain from running into license. Thank God !
since last Tuesday (the Presidential election) we have fresh encourage
ment to believe that such is not the liberty which om- coimti-ymen
intend to propagate. I am thankful, too, that so intelligent an observer
as yonr guest is among us, Avhose testimony Avill be that of his own
eyesight, and who will record, no doubt, Avith AA'hat sabbath-like order
our great election proceeded, and Avitli AA'hat majesty its result has been
proclaimed and accepted, amid all the confusions of war, and while the
most hopeful of us is full of anxieties for the future of the land. Such
an event is inspiring, and is of importance to the world ; and there is
another event which our friend has been here to note and to chronicle, to
which I shall be pardoned for referring. I remember to have heard that
some of his early academic triumphs were connected Avith Magdalen
College, in Oxford; a dear old college where I was once hospitably
entertained, and where, on a May-morning, I listened to the Latin hymn
which its white-robed choristers are accustomed to sing, every year, to
the Giver of all good. Standing with them on the top of the tower of
Magdalen, at the early daAvn, I heard the chimes of Oxford announce the
moment when the singing should begin ; and in the enthusiasm of the
occasion I felt that I should never again hear the clock strike Avith so
much exhilaration. But I have lived, to hear the clock sound more
melodiously ; it was on the night of the 31st of October, Avhen the hour
of twelve was tolled, and Avhen at every stroke, I seemed to hear the
chains fall, from thousands of hereditary slaves, in the good old State of
Maryland. It is a State in the happmess of which I feel the most grateful
interest, for there many yeai-s of my life have been spent, and there my
. forefathers were dwellers in colonial times. Its rapid progress, and its
introduction to a new era of freedom and prosperity are full of historic
significance, and no page which our ft-iend shall indite for posterity Avill
be more sure, perhaps, of being read and pondered, than that in which

19
he shall record that he was present, in America, when Maryland, in
one quiet hight, while thousands slept, passed through so great a revo
lution, and in the morning was truly free.
We are happier, then, than the brave men who lived before Agamem
non, in having a historian among us at such a time. If it be asked why
the historians who preceded Herodotus have not come down to us, per
haps the true answer is that they were mere fabulists and compilers of
old tales, while the father of history was a traveler, and went to see for
himself the things about which he meant to write. Your distinguished
guest has honom-ed us with a visit, which Avill invest his views of Amer
ican affairs with genuine worth and interest. May he live to give us the
benefit of his impressions, and to tell his countrymen the truths they need
to know. We aU love England, though the formula in which we might
just noAV express it, must be borrowed from her oavu jDoet —
"England, vifJi all (liy faufts, I love thee still."
Herbert said religion was on tiptoe to pass from England to America ;
but Ave would not have it literally true, even with respect to a religious
love of liberty. Our friend Avill tell this to Englishmen, and tell them,
too, that we mean to be worthy of our sires. He sees us here, to-day,
animated Avith this resolve ; but, I must remind liim that he sees a rem
nant only : as was once said to me in a beautiful New England village —
" Ah, sir ! the best of us are under ground." We hope to labour as we
can for a country which has been preserved to us by so much of the best
blood of the Nation ; but, we must never forget that they are the nobler
and truer Americans who have gone into the field, under a solemn sense of
duty, and devoted their young lives and all that men hold dear on earth,
in behalf of liberty, in support of law, and for the good of the human
race. Dr. Coxe's remarks were received throughout Avitli cordial applause.
The Chair then, in a few appropriate remarks, introduced Mr. Ban
croft, late American Minister to England, and the eminent historian of
America. HON. j\IR. BANCROFT'S SPEECH.
Mr. Bancroft spoke of the conditions under which more than formally
friendly relations betAveen England and America were possible. If, in
Britain, there are classes so attached to institutions that have outlived
their time, or classes so swayed by transient interests, as to be unable to esti
mate calmly the gi-eat movement that is going forward on this continent,-
we must remember that there are some British statesmen and British
scholars whose judgment has been purified by their sincere love of justice
and of truth, and who have penetrated, with faultless sagacity, the nature

20
of our contest. We cannot see undivided enmity in a country which pro
duces men like Bright, and Mills, and Cobden, and their compeers —
men to whom England Avill hereafter look with gratitude, as to the public
men who saved her fi-om a perilous and an unprincipled war.
There is an obvious antagonism between some of the still continuing
institutions of England and om- oAvn. There, land is engrossed by a few
OAvners ; here, it is the policy to multiply the homesteads of the fi-ee, and
we think we act Avisely in giving a quarter section of our public land to
any one who will live on it. There, religion is connected Avith the state ;
the church, in so far as it is an establishment, is subordinate to the laity
as represented in parliament ; here, by its separation fi'om the state, it rises
superior to human enactments, and sufiers no intervention of the state be
tween God and the soul. These two systems are so all-pervading in their
influence, and so directly in contrast vsdth each other, that there is but one
way for the fi-iends of peace between the two nations to avoid an angi-y
conflict ; it is to rise into a higher sj)here, and ponder upon the two sys
tems with hearts devoted to the advancement of humanity; to fret no
more at the antagonisms, but to inquire reverently, which avUI best work
out good for the race. When this manner of studying the differing phe
nomena is agreed to, we may all, on both sides the water, calmly ask
whether a multitudinous body of fi-eeholders or a small and ever-diminish
ing number of proprietaries best promotes a healthy, creative, and contin
uous nationality ? Whether a parliamentry church, or a voluntary system,
varied and yet one, springing from the minds of the free, without inter
ference fi-om the state, is most conducive to vital religion and the inward
experience of divine truth ? When it is once agreed to consider these
questions calmly, with an honest view to the general good, all bitterness
passes away, and room is opened for the community of language to exer
cise its natural influence. The peoples who speak the same English tongue,
which is the richest and most varied, the most poetical and the most exact
that was ever employed by man, are naturally drawn together. In the
war of our revolution, French statesmen were led to contrast the frailty
of the Spanish alliance, founded on a family compact of kings, vsdth the
jirobable certainty of an abiding compact of the English and American
peoples, kindred in origin and one in speech. The ruling statesmen of
England, much to our loss, and, as I believe, still more to the loss of Eng
land, have not been vrilling to welcome such an idea ; and, instead of look
ing upon us with just sentiments of affection and hope, have watched our
advancement with distrust and fear. Let us strive to believe that, from
our OAVii regeneration, and a greater infusion of popular influence into the
British ruling classes, a better day is coming, and a way is soon to be
opened, not for an entangling alliance, but for a reciprocity of good-Avill
from the purer and more lasting federation of the kindred peoples, which
springs from joy in each other — prosperity and the reciprocity of good-
Avill. '

21

Mr. Bancroft was interrupted by applause, and concluded amid loud
cheers. Mr. Evarts, the Vice-President on the right, then calUed upon Mr.
Curtis, as a representative, alike of American literature and of the best
school of American politics, whose services in the cause of fl-eedom have
been of late so conspicuous. SPEECH OP GEORGE W. CURTIS.
Mr. Curtis said he was reminded by some remarks which had been
made of the novel written by the countryman of the guest of the company,
Mr. Disraeli — " Sybil ; or. The Two Nations.'' England, said the
speaker, is two nations. We are two nations. Every nation in the
world is divided in two. There was the England of John Hampden and
the England of John Bull. [Laughter.] There was the America of
George Washington and the America of John C. Calhoun.
Our ecclesiastical fiiend, Mr. Curtis continued, at the other end of the
room (Rev. Dr. Cox), says there is an English Church. There is also an
American Church — a church of patriotism and nationality; and if his
Ecclesiastical Church holds fast to I-Iooker of England, let him be as
sured that the American Church of undying patriotism holds fast to the
Joe Hooker of America. [Loud laughter and cheers.]
Mr. Curtis continued, refeiTing to the typical England, which had
changed, to the impersonated England of the early period, represented by
Sir Philip Sidney ; to the true England of John Milton ; to the Eng
land which, in the person of our guest, sympathizes with us, and hand to
hand and heart to heart, will go down the ages blessing and to bless.
Mr. Curtis, in conclusion, spoke of the many messages Avith which Pro
fessor Smith would be charged when he should return across the sea to
his home. His eyes had seen the mom-nful spectacle which our own eyes
have so often beheld. Let him say that the hearts that this war breaks
are pledged more than ever to the cause that this war defends. [Great
cheering.] Let him say in those England homes, that standing on the
graves of our young, of our dear, of our beautiful, here in America, we
know that after the agony comes the salvation, after the crucifixion comes
the resurrection, and those eyes that at this moment weep, those hearts
that evei-y day break, see above all the storm, above all the blood and
turmoil of the war, our countiy as she was to be, as she is to be, in her
right hand justice, in her left hand law, and burning forever in her eyes
the light of universal liberty, in Avhich this land and all other lands shall
have etemal peace. [Warm and continued cheering.]
The Chair next introduced M. Auguste Laugel, of France, whose
admii-able and philosophic essays on the American question, in the JRevue
des deux Mondes, had done so much to enlighten the thinking men of

22

Europe. M. Laugel, he was sure, would receive a cordial welcome at
their hands, and throughout the country, not alone for what he had him
self done, but as the associate and co-labourer of Laboulaye, De Gas
parin, Cochin, Bbrrter, and their eminent compatriots in the cause of
liberty and civilization. SPEECH OF M. LAUGEL.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen :
Never before did I address an audience in another language but my
OAvn, but I feel that I must answer in a few words the remarks which have
been made, and thank you for the manner in which you have received
them. There is nothing for me to add to the high and well-deserved
tribute which has been paid to your distinguished guest ; you may well
say of him what our great heroine Joan of Arc said of the oriflamme at
the coronation of her king : " As it has been with me in battle let it be
Avith me at the hour of triumph." For this is an hour of triumph ; you
have shown to the world that the North is united and in earnest, that
your people are determined not only to re-establish the Union, but to ex
tirpate that only germ of disunion among you, slavery. You have shown
that your institutions can bear the most severe test, I mean the renovariou
of the Executive in times of civil war and under conditions of uncon
trolled liberty. Leaving these topics, I must beg permission fi-om your
distinguished guest and from yourselves, gentlemen, to turn a moment to
my own position among you. It is not often that a Frenchman has occa
sion to address an American audience. Allow me to seize this opportu
nity and to explain to you, in a few words, what I consider to be the feel
ings of my people in regard to the great struggle in which you are
engaged. Let me first draw a distinction between the French govei-nment
and the French people. I will not here open an attack against the gov
ernment of my country, but this I may say, because it is a mere fact, that
goveniment, especially in what concei-ns its foreign relations, is armed with
an uncontrolled authority. I have not always been satisfied Avith its pol
icy. I have deeply deplored the unnecessary haste Avith which it recog
nized the rebels of the South as belligerents ; but that being once done, I
owe it to justice, and I think you owe it to justice, to acknowledge that,
whatever may have been its sympathies, it has adhered to the rules of
neutrality. Leaving the government, I tum to the people. ECere I feel
more at home, and I am happy to assure you that the sympathies of my
countrymen are almost unanimously on your side. Ask a hundred French
men if they believe in the restoration of the Union, and one in the num
ber, I will admit it, Avill tell you that he does not ; but ask these unbeliev
ers if they desire the disruption of your Union, and all will tell you
"No." Your cause has had that singular privilege among us, to unite people

23

of the most conflicting parties ; it has enlisted legitimists, who remember
that the last glorious act of the dynasty they still adhere to has been to
help you in the conquest for your independence ; it has enlisted Catholics,
who see the Catholic chm-ches flourishing among your tolerant people and
under the protection of your laws ; it has enlisted all the liberals, Orlean-
ists or Republicans; it has enlisted such men as Laboulaye, Gasparin,
Cochin, Berry er, our greatest orator; Pi-evost-Paradol, Forcade, Lanfrey,
our best journalists; Henri Martin, our popular historian, and how many
others could I not name ? Though the forms of govemment cannot, and,
therefore, ought not to be everywhere the same, we all know how much we
could borrow with advantage fi-om your institutions, being ourselves a
democratic people. We all admire your habits of self-government ; we
admii-e your powerful organization of parties, founded on that principle,
and which, in the absence of an aristocratic class, are your means of trans
mitting great political traditions ; we admire your public schools, your
municipal institutions ; Ave admire the ingenuity of your people in all
branches of industry and agriculture.
Having so much to borrow from you, let me say that we have also
something to give in return. Traveling over your great country, I have
been sm-prised to find sometimes traces of French influence where I had
least expected to find them. In the far West, I have seen a new house-
roof built after the fashion of our great architect Mansard. Enteiing your
houses, I see everywhere reminiscenses of French art, of French fashion —
that kind of art which we call industrial art, aud in which I may say,
without false pride, that my countrymen excel, is peculiarly well adapted
to the wants and habits of a good democratic community like yours. Let
us not despise those humble efforts to bring an aesthetic influence into the
channels of daily life. But, if I go to a higher sphere, I will say also that
it gave me great pleasiu'e to see hoAV those of your literary and scientific
men, with whom it has been my good fortune to associate, are well ac
quainted Avith the works of our writers ; of our philosophers ; of our his
torians. Well, may all communication, personal, scientific, literary, com
mercial, become day and day more numerous; may soon the Atlantic
sAvarm Avith vessels going fi-om your shores to the shores of my beautiful
country; may, above all, our tricolor flag and your stars and stripes always
meet, as always they have met, to bring tidmgs of peace and good-Avill !
M. Laugel, who Avas greeted vrith the warmest applause, and con
stantly interrupted Avith cheers, closed amid loud iDlaudits.
The Chairman remarked that among those assembled to do honour to
their English guest, were representatives of France aud Italy. France
had spoken eloquently in thefr fiiend, M. Laugel. He would noAv call
on Prof. BoTTA, late Professor of Philosophy in the colleges of Sardinia
and member of the Sardinian Parliament, and the author of an eloquent
memofr of that great statesman of his country, Count Cavour. Prof.

24:

BoTTA bore a name familiar to all in connection Avitli American history,
and has, as a contributor to the Rmistct. Conlemporanea and thc cor
respondent of the Opinione of Turin, clone his part towards securing a
correct appreciation, by Italians, of the history we are noAV making.

SPEECH OF PROF. V. BOTTA.
Mr. Chairman : Having had the honor of signing the invitation to
om- distinguished guest, and, in common with the other gentlemen, hav
ing delegated to our fiiend Mr. Jay the pleasant duty of extending to
him our cordial welcome, I did not expect to be called on to occupy even
a moment of thc time, to Avhich so much interest could be given by the
eloquent speakers by whom I see myself surrounded. But, as an Italian,
I cannot refuse to avail myself of the opportunity thus offered to me to
present ray thanks to the illustrious Professor from Oxford, for the good
services he has not only rendered to the American cause, but also for the
sympathy which he, and the liberal party of England, to which he belongs,
have shown for my OAvn beloved country.
Italy and America are alike struggling for national unity, the one to
achieve, the other to maintain it. Both designed to be great national
individualities, having their immutable charters in their natural boun
daries, and in the identical ethnographic character of their people, they
each find themselves threatened by like destructive forces. From the Middle
Ages to om- own time, the idea of State sovereignty has been the great ob
stacle to Italian nationality, and the fertile cause of the evils which have
for so long desolated the peninsula. It has armed province against prov
ince, city against city, and opened the way to foreign invasion and dom
ination. In America, we behold the same doctrine bearing the same fruits
of civil war, and tending to reduce this free country, the advanced guard
in the march of civilization, to the condition of Italy in the Middle Ages.
But the parallel between the two countries does not stop here. Be
sides the disintegrating principle of State rights, we find in both similar
institutions, alike antagonistic to the national life — two heads of the same
monster — the jpapacy in Italy, and slavery in America.
The pajjacy has, for centuries, fomented the jealousies and the prejudices
of the Italian cities ; it has made state sovereignty the instrument of its
intrigues and ambition. Even to-day it shuts out the nation fi-om her an
cient Capital, and remains the greatest obstacle to the completion of
Italian unity. On the other hand, the influence of the slave power in the
United States finds its illustration in thc Titanic war, which it has in
augurated. Born of the same parent — the despotism of man over man —
these tAVO institutions, however useful they may have been in other ages,
have now become fatal to the progress of general civilization, and a stand
ing menace to the existence of those countries where they have taken root.

25

It is only by blotting them out, vidthout compromise, that Italy and
America can secure their liberty and national life.
The identity of the iii-iiiciples involved in the two contests was early seen
by that great statesman to whom Italy chiefly owes her resurrection, and
who was too soon removed from his elevated sphere of action. Only a
few days before his death, in his instructions to the Italian Minister at
Washington in regard to the rebellion just then began, Count Cavour
expressed himself in the foUowing terms : " Y'^ou will continue to hold
Avitli the Government of the Union those fidendly relations, to which they
have acquired a ncAV title by their prompt and generous recognition of the
kingdom of Italy. You will omit no occasion to manifest our sympathies
for the triumph of the Northern States ; for tlieu- cause is the cause not
only of constitutional liberty, but of all humanity. Christian Europe
cannot Avish success to a party which bears on its standards the preserva
tion and extension of slavery, and which, re-establishing letters of marque
and privateering, calls into its service a principle condemned alike by
human conscience and modern civilization."
In accordance with these noble sentiments, the successors of Cavour
in the Italian government have been true to the high ideas involved in
the American struggle, and I should be unjust to myself were I not to con
fess that, as an Italian, I feel pride in thc thought that the Southern Cati-
lines have never been able to obtain from Italy any one of thc many favors
which other nations, less faithful to their mission, under the mask of an
insolent neutrality, have too often bestowed upon them. No diplomatic
dispatches, conveying menaces of intei-vention, have ever been issued from
the government of Victor Emanuel ; no word has ever fallen from the
ministerial benches or from those of the opposition in the Italian Parliament,
which could be construed into a want of respect or sympathy for the Ameri
can people ; no Alabama has ever been let loose from Italian ports to de
vastate American commerce ; no ambassador from the so- called Confederacy
has ever been admitted, even by the back door, to the Italian com-t ; and
no Italian pajier of note has ever had the baseness to seize the moment
Avhen a great nation is struggling for life, to attack it by AvUlful and ma
lignant misrepresentations.
Since, then, the cause of Italy is identical with that of fi-ee America
it is natural that the liberal party of England, represented by om- distin
guished guest and his illustrious co-laborers, Cobden, Bright and Mills
should have given its support to both countries vrith equal earnestness
and zeal. Equally entitled to the gratitude of the two nations, I rejoice
to see that their services to the cause of liberty and nationality are equally
appreciated in the new and in the old world.
Professor Botta's remarks were fi-equently interrupted by apjilause.
The Chair then introduced the Rev. Dr. Thompson, known in Eng
land as well as America, not only as an eminent divine, and an eloquent
and cai-nest advocate of om- national cause, — as the cause of trath, right-
4

26

eousness and freedom, — but as connected Avith that noble organization, the
Christian Commission, in which capacity he Avould call on Dr. Thojipson
to say a few words on this occasion. Dr. Thompson, on rising to resiioud,
was received with cordial applause.
SPEECH OF REV. DR. JOS. P. THOMPSON.
I know not upon Avhat ground I am asked to reiirescnt the Chi-istian
Commission, in which I have no official responsibility, except as a servant
is permitted to speak the praises of an institution whose capacity for effi
cient and beneficent action he has i:)roved in the most trying circumstances.
It was the service of the Commission that led me to Gen. Sherman's army
with gifts and messages of Christian love, that Avere dispensed upon the
field of Resaca ; where the tide of battle Avas turned from the Avatersthat
flow into the Mississippi to Avatere that floAv into the Gulf, and the con
quest of the South was definitely assured. The ministry of the Christian
Commission to our soldiers in the field, is an exponent of the relation of
our Christianity to the Avar ; and our distinguished guest can carry home
Avith him no fact concerning our struggle more significant or more sug
gestive than this : that from the very beginning of the Avar, on through
every day and every hour of the conflict, as it Avill do also to the end, our
Christian faith has accepted the issue of arms as the issue of moral ideas,
and has clung to the cause of the nation as the cause of religion, of
humanity, the cause of God.
The devout Christian people of the nation, the vast majority of them,
are heart and soul with the Government m the prosecution of the war ;
and knowing well its fearful costs and pains, and feeling these as Christian
hearts feel them, these religious men uphold the Avar by their gifts and
their sacrifices, by their votes and by their prayers. Yes, let Christian
England know that Ave have laid the cause of our nation upon the altar of
God ; that avc consecrate it each Sabbath in the prayers of the sanctuary ;
that we consecrate it every Avcck in the church meetings for social prayer ;
that AVC hallow it more tenderly at ten thousands of family altars, moi-ning
and evening ; that we give to it a consecration holier and tenderer still,
the holiest of aU, AAdieii Ave lay our dearest and best in the soldier's grave.
I have asked friends in England to Avcigh the significance of this fact.
Why are the Christian people of the Unitci 1 States so unanimous and so
earnest in support of the war ? Are they as a body ignorant and mis
guided ? No intelligent Englishman would say that. Arc they blinded
by political zeal or by the fiinaticism of party ? That will not be charged.
Are they bloodthirsty and revengeful, delighting iu Avar and vindictive
toAvard enemies ? None dare so accuse them. They stand for the war
because tbey see in it a struggle for all that is dear to humanity and sacred
to religion ; they stand by thc Union and thc Government, because they
see that the interests of Freedom and of Justice, and the hopes of Chi-istian

27

civilization in this westei-n world depend upon maintaining these in their
integrity. I am happy that we have Avith us a Christian philosopher who
can rightly estimate this aspect of our conflict, and can rightly interpret it
to his countrymen.
As I have been sitting at this social table, Mr. President, in the calm
unconsciousness of being one of your intended victims, I have enjoyed the
contrast of this Avitli a breakfast in London, where I chanced to be the
only American in a circle of intelligent and educated English gentlemen.
The contrast reverses our ideas of the characteristics of the two nations.
I had supposed myself to belong to an inquisitive and talkative people,
and my hosts the most reserved and reticent of mortals. But their
inquisitiveness about America kept me upon the stand for two hours,
hearing and answering questions, and their catechism upon topics of
religion and theology was as liberal as our friend could desire for a non-
subscribing clergy. Here, we come to listen to the opinions of our guest.
Asking no questions, we listen with a predisposing deference to what he
has to say to us, and of us. And there is a certain reason in this contrast.
We grow up from childhood with a traditional reverence for England.
Pier past is ours ; her history still flows in our veins ; her literature is our
school-boy task, and the refreshment and rejoicing of our riper yeara ; she
is our England in thought and ideal, though not in possession ; from her
we derive the germs of our national life, and of civil and religious freedom ;
from her came that institutional liberty which is the basis and the strength
of all liberty in the State. We must study England, and in studying
must revere all that is gi-eat and good in her.
But an Englishman has no such motive for knowing and revering us.
His eyes are, or have been, directed toward tjie European continent, whose
politics so nearly concern him, and to the affairs of Turkey, of India and
the further East. He has known us only to trade Avith us. When, there
fore, this nation began to challenge notice, first by a growth without a
precedent, and then by a war Avithout a parallel, it was natural that
Englishmen should grow inquisitive regarding America, should seek to
know our society, our iustitutions and our government. I am thankful, as
we all are, that this inquisition, at this momentous crisis of our Govern
ment, has now been conducted by a gentleman of Avide historical research,
of a broad, catholic, scholarly spirit, and of philosophical sagacity, who
can master this grand and solemn occasion, and can interpret it to the
people of England. He will render rightly our verdict of Tuesday.* It is
that we are, and are resolved to be a nation, vsdth one organic unity, and
one historic life, never again to go back to that old federation of States,
which the fathers repudiated in order to a more perfect Union. That
verdict means that we are resolved to maintain our Union and our
sovereignty in their integrity, as the only way of keeping the nation.
That verdict means that the proclamation of emancipation, thcarmino- of
* The national election for President.

28
negroes, all the steps to which the President has been led in the providen
tial march of freedom, are approved by the people, and will be carried out
to the end. That is the message that we send forth to the world by the
majestic determination of Tuesday ; a verdict for freedom, for order, for
justice, for humanity, for a true Christian civilization.
I cannot sit down, Mr. President, Avithout expressing for myself, and
for the interests of theological thought, our obligations to Professor Gold-
win Smith for his able contributions to the defense of religious freedom,
and of the use of reason in theology. Mansel's doctrine of limitations
would make it impossible that we should convince ourselves that we have
received a book from God, or that there is a God; and on the other hand,
Ecclesiasticism would foster infidelity through the Aveakness of opposmg
it by church authority. Our distinguished guest would liberate reason
from the trammels of a false philosophy, and would liberate the church
from the trammels of traditionalism and of dogmatism. Himself honoring
that church which, Avith all its defects, has been so great an honour to the
English name, he yet vindicates free inqmry in religion against eccle
siastical control. Perhaps his observation of religious ideas and institu
tions in this country Avill serve to illustrate, if not to confirm, his positions
at home. To live and grow in a free land, Christianity itself must be fi-ee.
It must not shrink from discussion ; it must not fear philosophy or science ;
it must use reason and liberty for its OAvn high ends. And rejoicing as I
do in the conviction that freedom gives strength to religion, I thank our
honoured guest for giving new weight of philosophical judgment to the
principles which we in this land are practically demonstrating for the
benefit of England and of the whole Christian world.
Dr. Thompson's remarks were frequently interrupted by applause.
The Chair next introduced the Rev. Dr. Bellows, well known to
them in other capacities, but whom he now called upon as the President
of the Sanitary Commission. That national institution Avhicli had en
listed the sympathies of our people, and compelled the homage of Europe,
should not be unrepresented on an occasion like the present, for no insti
tution more truly reflected the patriotism, the humanity, and the adaptive
genius of the American people, systematically pursuing their labour of
love amid the perils of the battle-field.
DR. BELLOWS' SPEECH.
Mr. Ciiairaian : I .Hud myself invited to address this company gathered
round our distinguished guest — to whom I delight to pay all honor — in
niA' character of President of the Sanitary Commission. But it seems to
me more appropriate, on an occasion like this, to speak simply in the
character of an American citizen. We are all, it is true, engaged in a great
national sanitary work, purging the body politic of the perilous stuff in
its blood, cleansing the Constitution of its only malady, and even adding

29

enough surgery to extirpate the foulest cancer that ever lay near the heart
of a great nation. To that work, I am far more deeply pledged than to
my duties as head of the Sanitary Commission, which, dear as it is to me,
and the chief honor of my life to represent it, I count after all of very
small consequence when compared Avith that sublime undertaking which
now engages every loyal citizen — the work of saving our National Life and
Unity ! Sooner than withdraw my hand or my vote from that cause, I
would see the Sanitary Commission, with all its mercies, sunk in the sea ;
for there are none so sick or so wounded as our Counti-y, and in saving her
life we minister to the sorrows and heal the diseases of countless genera
tions ! I have none of the clerical scruples which one of our respected
friends at this board has expressed, either about campaigning, or fighting,
or voting. I believe we are forbidden, as Christians, to attempt the prop
agation of our religion by Adolence; but He who said, "If my kingdom
were of this world, then would my disciples fight," recognized that the
ciAdl kingdom — the kingdom of this world — was entitled to the protection
of the sword ; and as citizens we have duties to the political security and
order of our earthly govemment, for the time being, even more urgent
than those which we always owe as Cliristians to the peaceful kingdom of
heaven. I have not only no scruples therefore about "preaching politics"
or voting, but none about fighting ; and, whenever the moment comes
that the country needs my arm in the ranks, or my life in the field, God
knows I am ready ! [Applause.]
I rejoice, Mi-. Chaixman, in the academic character of this occasion !
We are paying our homage to an Oxford Professor wlio, out 'of the
cloistered recesses of that ancient and honored University, has, with a
scholar's ]3en, moved the hearts of tAvo nations, and aided in shaping the
policy of two governments. It is a tribute to the force of ideas. The pen
is indeed mightier than the sword. It is a subject of just pride to
Americans that, as a people, they are under the dominion of ideas, and,
contrary to the judgment of many foreign critics, highly sensitive to
abstract and impersonal considerations. In that respect they resemble far
more their French cousins than their English brethren. Our distinguished
Parisian guest, Auguste Laugel, has noticed our American taste for French
fashions, French architecture, and French fabrics. I wonder he did not
draw attention to the taste for generalization, for great ideas, and for
abstract and ideal objects, which allies the Gallic and the American mind.
England produces gi-eat thinkers, perhaps all the greater because they
straggle up against a general distaste for abstract ideas in the English
people ; but Prance is the land not only of iihilosophers and savans, but
of a people easily fired with absolute ideas, and disposed to find generali
zations. The English laughed at our enthusiasm when the Atlantic cable
was laid. We felt, as a whole people, the vast symbolism of an event
which foreshadowed the union of the hemispheres and the unity of the
race, and expressed om-selves with the fervor due to so grand a suggestion.

30

[Cheers.] Tlie English, neither as a peoj)le nor by thefr higher class,
seemed to have any perception of an idea which captivated the humblest
American heart, and brought all our people into a lofty sympathy. The
war has taken hold of our jieople in the same way, not as a matter of
calculation, nor even as a matter of feeling, but as a matter involving great
principles and the future of a common Humanity. And all the educated
and moralized classes, the iirofessions, and the thinking and guiding minds,
have shown an unanimity of feeling truly wonderful. Indeed, whatever is
honest and of good report in America is for the war and its unwavering
support. The national pulpit has with prodigious agreement sustained it,
and the gentle hearts of women, forgetting thefr own domestic desolations
and risks, have beaten steadily Avith the step of our soldiers. Our colleges,
too, it is proper to say in the presence of our guest — a college Professor —
have been eminently patriotic and loyal to the Government. Hai-vard
projioses to erect a famous monument in honor of her OAvn students — many
of them her noblest and most promising alumni — who have fallen on the
battle-field, while one of her professors is a general in the service. The
other American colleges have been decimated by the number of students
rushing to arms, and in the West some have almost been broken up. It
is fit the world should kno<v that the scholarship, the philosophy, the
conscience, the educated youth of America, are with the war, heart and
soul. And we have here in our guest an illustrious evidence that history
and scholarship lift men above jjopular prejudices, and that universities
are, indeed, great lights in the pathway of nations. I recollect when Mr.
Everett — the most imperturbable and exact of orators, whose name
should never be mentioned without honour, not only for his services
to literature and scholarshij), but most of all for his devoted and ener
getic patriotism, his continuous and stintless labors in the National cause
and the promotion of the war — in a speech at Cambridge, tripped so far
as to call those " twin seminaries of learning," Oxford and Cambridge,
"¦ tvfin cemeteries.''^ I think those who most enjoyed the significant but
most unintentional blunder at the time, would concede that in our guest
one of those " cemeteries " had felt the virtue of a tremendous resurrection.
Mr. Chairman, Professor Smith has given us, in his writings on
American aff'airs, as on all other subjects of his pten, an illustration of the
finest union of intellectual with moral qualities. His strength of judg
ment is only equaled by his delicacy of jjerception. I-Iis solid mind has
the base of a pyramid, and is brought to a point as sharp as a needle.
With such powers pledged to that common cause, the historic progress,
and political and moral elevation of our race, which makes our present
conflict sacred and universal in his eyes, we do not regret to see in his
friendship the omen of our certain triumph over foreign prejudices and
domestic foes !
Before sitting doAvn, it is my duty to call up a distinguished scholar
of our OAVU, a true peer of our guest, aud, wiat is strange and pleasant,

31

bearing the same family name, I mean Professor H. B. Smith. It Avas
said in a memorable toast at a celebration of General Washington's birth
day, many years ago, " Providence made him childless, that he might be
the Father of his country.'' Of our guest I may say. Providence named
him "Smith" that the largest number of the human race might flatter
themselves Avith some relationship to him. I am very sure the Oxford
Professor Avill never be ashamed of his American cousin om- Ncav York
Professor of the same great family of Smiths.
Dr. Bellows Avas frequently interruj)tecl by clioors, and when he
closed, Prof Smith, to Avhom he had alluded Avas, on rising to resiiond,
received Avitli cordial applause.
SPEECH OF PROP. HENRY' B. SMITH, D. D.
Mr. Chairman : The tribute which I offer upon this occasion, though
it may be slight, is sincere ; it is that Avhich a student gives to one fi-om
whose writings he has received a quickening impulse. The great histo
rians are those Avho so read the past as to catch proijhctic glimpses of thc
future : the historian himself has been described as a prophet Avith his
face turned backwai-d. In the mfrror of the past he sees also the sliadoAvy
forms of coming times. And thus he is able in some degree to anticipate the
great ends which histoi-y is destined to realize. Thus is it in the Avi-itings
of the Oxford Professor of History, to Avhom Ave extend a cordial welcome.
He is animated by the belief that the great moral ends of human society
shall one day be more fully realized. And thus has he attracted to him
self those Avho also Relieve in the reality of human progress, under the
guidance of Divine Providence.
And he has also rendered to scholars another service, to which allusion
has not yet been made. For Avlien the lawfiil rights and authority of hu
man reason and conscience were assailed in the noted Bampton Lectures
of Professor Maksel, when it was formally denied that reason can have
any positive ideas of the Infinite and Absolute, and when it was main
tained that there might be an essential difference between morality as
vicAved by God, and as viewed by man : then our honored guest vindi
cated thc claims of reason and conscience in a criticism and correspond
ence, which attest his polemic skill and philosophic insight, and which
have earned for him the gratitude of all who Avould not see the basis of
theology and of ethics swept away.
Nor is the connection fortuitous between his opinions on these philo
sophical questions and his noble advocacy of our National cause in thc
present juncture and crisis. It will occur to every one, that those in Eu
rope who have most ably defended our country have generally been men
of deep moral or religious convictions ; men who believe that, under the
guidance of Providence, public reason and conscience will at last triumph
in human aflFairs. Those that rely upon mere authority and expediency
have not been Avith us.

H'-J

After what has been said, I need hardly add a word upon the general
attitude of England towards our momentous contest. Whatever may be
the sympathies, the passions, and thc interests of the passing hour, we can
at least confidently appeal from tiie England of to-day to the England of
the seventeenth century ; to the England that spake by the mouth of John
]Milton, Avho in prophetic vision suav that great future commouAvealth wc
arc striving to realize. "Milton ! Thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of tliee."
And not only to the England of the pa,st may avo appeal, but also to the
England of the futuro, Avhen the noble cause to Avhicli our guest is de
voted shall lie triumphant ; for then these two great, free, Protestant
countries, working in ^leacetul rivalry for a common object, united in the
love of human rights and righteousness, shall again clasp inseparable
hands, and together girdle the earth.
Thc Chair then called on A. A. Loav, Esq., Presidcni; of thc Chamber
of Commerce, to sjieak for the merchants of Ncav Y'ork. Mr. Loav, on
rising, Avas received with thc heartiest applause from every part of the
tallk^ MK. LOW'S SPEECH.
Mr. Chaihaian and Gektleaien : I thank you for the encouragement
you afford me. I need it all. I accept in advance thc applause, A\-hich is
not likely to foUoAV anything that I may have to say. Indeed, I am not
sure that Commerce has not done its proper jiart in supplying the sub
stantial elements of your repast, and in bringing to your side oiu- honored
guest. But the presence of the gentleman Avho now sits before me makes
a demand on our gi-atitude which, for myself, and in behalf of the mer
chants of our city and country, I would fain acknoAvledge. At the same
time I am aAvarc hoAV little is expected of me, and how much of others, on
this occasion. With your permission I will, nevertheless, endeavor to illus
trate, in a few Avords, the cause of our deep-felt gratitude.
For four years past, America, loyal America, has had but one thought,
one idea, one anxiety ; and this anxiety has been an ever-present bm-den
on our hearts. With our early Avaking, and as Ave have retired to rest at
night, our first and last thought has been about our country, rent, con
vulsed, devastated, by civil Avar !
To unite the States by ties of mutual interest, Commerce laid bands of
iron along all the courses of our expanding trade, and North and South,
from one end of the land to the other, stretched the electric wfre, that
friend might respond to friend with instantaneous throb, as heart beats to
heart Avith reciprocating warmth.
It is no reproach to Commerce that, having done this and more, it

33

failed to preserve the iDcace we so much loved ; for all the claims of civili
zation were disregarded, the ties of consanguinity failed, and the hopes
and bonds of our holy religion proved equally unavailing; and I say,
again, it is no reproach to Commerce that it could not effect more than all
of these. Mr. Chairman, we are not at a loss to understand the causes of the war ;
nor is it difHcult to trace them to their source. We know what brought
it on, and 7ww it was brought on. Bitter words, too freely sjjoken, caused
aversion; aversion culminated in hate (openly avowed on the part of the
South, but disoAvned at the North), and hate eventuated in civil war.
Now, sfr, I will frankly OAvn, that when we turned to England, at the
outbreak of the war, and looked for sympathy, we were disappointed. We
expected both encouragement and sympathy, not from one class only, but
from all classes, and we got neither. By the press of England, or an influ-,
ential portion of it, by the aristocracy of England, and by the mercantile
class generally, we were treated rather vsdth abuse.
When the Alabama issued from the port of Liverpool, and commenced
her career against our shipping, the Chamber of Commerce remonstrated,
in a series of resolutions, expressing the belief that a repetition of the act
— of the fittmg out vessels like the Alabama fi-om the ports of Great Bri
tain for the destruction of our commerce, would cause widespread ex
asperation. But the Chamber took care to connect with this warning an
expression of the sincere desire of the merchants of our country "to
cherish sentiments of amity Avith the people of Great Britain, to maintain
the cordial relations Avhich have led to profitable intercourse, and to
strengthen the ties that knit them together in mutual courtesy and re
spect." To these friendly sentiments they got no response.
It was reserved to the distinguished gentieman who is to-day Avith us,
and to a few others of kindred heart and thought, true noblemen aU, to
send us the words of good cheer for which we are profoundly grateful.
So, too, at a later period, when the passions of the American people
were much excited by the destruction of thefr ships at sea, and the two
rams building on the Mersey by the very firm that fitted out the Alabama,
were almost ready to launch their iron peaks against our blockading
squadi-on, how imminent was the peiH! It was then that the eloquent
voice of our friend, rising above the teachings of History, burst forth in
the language of an earnest but dispassionate protest. Wlio will undertake
to measure the value of this fervid utterance of the scholar and patriot
in averting a Avar between the two countries ?
And now, sir, since we have seen how difficult it is to preserve peace
between communities bound together by the strongest ties of interest and
how the tenderest relations, social and religious, may be sundered through
pernicious teachings, can we not discern the danger of indulging m the
language of unjust aspersion, of severe invective, when so much depends
5

34

on the preservation of good relations between England and the United
States? _
Praise be to those filling responsible places in either land, whose words
are temperate, just, and Avise, and make for peace !
For ourselves we will honour all such; and when we speak of Old Eng
land, as we love to speak of Old England, we vsdll not take to our lij)s the
names of her titled Lords, nor of British statesmen, as a class, or even of
Livei-pool merchants ; but we will repeat, again and again, the names of
Cobden, Bright, and Foster, and last, not least, of Goldwin Smith ;
and we will bed them in our hearts as we plant choicest flowers in our
gardens, to sjiring uj) ever with new fragrance and new beauty ; not like
the transient flowers to pass aAvay, but to remain an abiding, perennial,
imperishable treasure.
Sir, it is related of Napoleon, that when in Egypt, standing by the
pyramids that rise above the sands of the desert, he said to his soldiers,
" From yonder pyramids forty centuries look dovsm upon you," forty cen
turies speaking from the tombs and graves of all that was once great in
the days of Egyptian grandeur.
It is not so here. We are surrounded by the monuments that com
merce has created ; Avhere literature, science, and art have garnered their
richest stores ; and in this city of living souls, a single century loo'ks up,
appealing to those gifted of speech, the good and great of every land, to
speak in behalf of human progress, civilization, and Christianity.
As our friend retfres from this scene, so full of promise, and returning
to his native land, canies with him the assurance of our Avarm regard, we
beg that he Avill take to those other friends of our country, of whom hon
ourable mention has just been made, the expression of our sincere and
grateful homage. And may all continue to speak and write, so as to help
on the cause of good government in our land, and thus uphold the vast
interests of mankind, that are connected with and depend upon it.
Mr. Low was frsquently interrupted with applause and cheers.
The Chair here called upon Dr. King, the late President of Columbia
(formerly King's) College, as he was about leaving the room, and said that
he could not, in justice to the company, consent to his retiring until they
had had the pleasure of hearing from him a parting word. Dr. King,
amid cordial cheers, retraced his steps, and resj)onded :

DR. KING'S SPEECH.

I did not expect, Mr. President, to take any other part in this
gratifying reunion, than that of silently bearing the testimony of one
more loyal citizen, to the eminent service rendered to our cause by our
honoured guest, and of respect for his high character and scholarly at
tainments. For this purpose, I have come up from my countiy retreat,

35

and rejoice to meet such a gathering in behalf of such a man, and at such
a moment, too, when the stern and almost fierce emotions of the great con
flict through wliich we have just passed are still paliiitating.
At such a moment it is a gratiflcation to meet and have the opjior-
ttmity of rendering our hearty thanks to the distinguished scholar who,
faithftil to the teachings of History, which in the time-honored University
of Oxford, it is Ms province and privilege to illustrate ; and, true to the
instincts and traditions of a free-born Englishman — early detected the
true cause and aim of the atrocious rebellion we are fighting, and disdain
ing the clamors of prejudice, and all selfish calculations, lifted up his voice
on high to proclaim to his countrymen, and to thc world, that Humanity,
Liberty, and Civilization, were all on our side, and that Oppression, Bar
barism, and Slavei-y, Averc the cause of the rebellion. That voice found an
echo in all loyal hearts,' and stirred them to yet greater efforts in behalf of
a cause thus advocated from afar, and presented to the conscience and un
derstanding of Europe by a disinterested and most qualified interpreter,
as the common cause of Christian freemen, and as appealing, in the name
of the age, and of countless generations yet to come, to the good wishes
and moral support— Ave sought and desfred no other — of all peoples and
civilizations. After all that has been so well and eloquently said here already, I shall
not trespass upon your patience. I came to hear and see and not to speak,
and in truth the reaction consequent upon the intense and long-continued
strain of the yet palpitating conflict, finds me little capable of any exer
tion. Confidence, indeed, in our success, I never lost, for I have faith that
the Great Being who made for our fathers a path through the sea to the
new world, and has sustained and so wonderfully fostered this people, had
not worked such mfracles in vain ; that it could not enter into his design
that a God-fearing and a God-led nation should be obliterated ere yet it
had reached its prime, and trodden under foot by the barbarian hosts of
slavery. In this firm faith, in my limited sphere, I worked zealously — not,
indeed, without human misgivings, as now and then old associates of hon
oured names dropped away from us, reappearing in the opposing hosts—
not " all thefr- original brightness lost," yet, alas ! how changed and hoAV
associated !
But the conflict and its agonies have passed ! and we have triumphed
—how gloriously, how ftilly, how peacefully ! It is a delight to knoAV that
our honoured guest and fiiend had the opportunity of personally witnessing
the conflict and the triumph. It is indeed a spectacle for good men and for
angels to behold— that which we have witnessed and are witnessing.
Millions of iflen, fi-ee as men in nations can possibly be in the midst of a
desolating and fierce civil Avar, calmly, lawfully, orderly, casting little bits
of paper— each for himself— soldiers in their camps, equally Avith civilians
at thefr quiet homes— frito a ballot-box— and then retfring in imdoubtmg
confidence, to await the result ; and that result, once proclaimed, meets uni-

36
versal acquiescence— no threats, and scarcely a murmur— and the whole
coiu-se of social, civil, and political life resumes its calm and equable tenor
as though no storm had passed by.
This is a chapter of modern history which our honoured fi-iend, the
Regius Professor in the Univei-sity of Oxford, will know how to illustrate,
and the record which he will bear of Avhat he saAV, wiU not be open to
doubt or question ; and that voice which, by its manly utterance and ring
ing eloquence encouraged us to heroic bearing in the battle, Avill again be
heard throughout Christendom, proclaiming that Right has triumphed
over Wrong ; that there is a Future in this chosen land for the sorrowful
and down-trodden of the old Avorld — that there is a God in History.
Dr. King's remarks were warmly applauded tlu-oughout.
The Chairman then desfred to introduce Mr. Sajiuel B. Ruggles,
Representative of the United States at the recent International Statistical
Congress at Berlin, and to hear something from him in regard to om-
national condition. REMARKS OF SIR. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES.
When the history of the literature of our nineteenth century shall come
to be written, it wUl record the fact, that in the year 1864, a leai-ned and
conscientious scholar, eminent for his love alike of truth and of fi-eedom,
left his tranquil abode and quiet academic pursuits, in the venerable Uni
versity of Oxford, to cross the Avide Atlantic, — to behold and study a
continent convulsed and heaving Avith the most Avidespread and bloody
rebellion recorded in the annals of man. Like Thucydides of old, who
personally saw the events Avliich his classic pen recorded, our modern
student has deemed it necessary to visit the scene of our great American
conflict, and, as an eye-Avitness, to survey the giant features of a struggle
so far transcending, both in details and results, the war which the Greek
historian has embalmed for the instruction of posterity.
It was not alone the array of numerous armies, Avith the potent and
varied appliances of modern Avarfarc, nor yet the skillful and energetic
movement of fleets and legions throughout a continent, — nor even the dis
play, on a scale so vast, of physical courage and patriotic endurance, —
which our intelligent and Avelcome visitor has come out to survey and
record. His piMosophic intellect, Avarmed by a generous nature, has
sought for and found a higher and nobler field of study and reflection.
The calm but sympathetic words just fallen from Ms lips, assure ns that
his head and heart have been engrossed in the contemjilation of a scene
far more elevating and instructive ; that his inmost soul has been filled
by the mighty, moral spectacle, of a continental host of free and intelli
gent, unarmed and unawed electors, numbered not by myriads but by
millions, quietly assembling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and, by
then- peaceful ballots, fii-mly and irrevocably determining the character
and the destiny of thefr Government for countless ages.

37
We congratulate ourselves, and still more do we congratulate the
lovers of historical truth throughout the world, that a witness so com
petent and so impartial, was here to liehold the immense array ; to carry
back to Europe and into history, a political picture so continental, so
multitudinous, and yet so simple and majestic. In behalf, moreover, of
enlightened national government, the great necessity of modem times,
we also rejoice that a judge so upright was present at the trial of the
mighty issue, so distinctly presented, between order and disorder, between
settled government and endless anarchy ; to hear and to welcome thc
solemn verdict reverberating from ocean to ocean; to enter up and re
cord the sublime and final adjudication which proclaims to the civilized
world, that the People of the United States of America are a Nation,
and not a League of States or Nations; that, by their oAvn inherent
power, they indestructibly created and constituted a Government, — a
political unit, one and indivisible, — the creature, not of a compact, but
of a Constitution, — a living, growing organism, not to be dismembered,
emasculated or enfeebled, but permanently to remain on earth, a great
and beneficent Continental PoAver, in the full and undisputed exercise
of its laAvfully established authority.
Nor is it strange, that the far-reaching consequences of the Great Elec
tion of the eighth of November, worthy to be forever kept as a national an
niversary, should engage the profound attention of our enlightened visitor,
accustomed, as he is, by academic studies, " to trace the progress of hu
manity through all the ages." His range of vision, SAveeping backward
and forward through the centuries, discerns at once thc parallel, not only
in the past, but in the future, between the two great nations of the globe,
Avhose fortune and whose privilege it is to speak the English tongue. For
who can tell more truly than the Regius Professor, Avhom we have met to
welcome, the stoi-y of the birth of his OAvn old England a thousand years
ago, amid the throes of the dying- Heptarchy ? Who can estimate more
justly the political insignificance of that miserable group of jarring and
discordant States, some of them no larger than om- OAvn little Delaware,
but each claiming to be " sovereign ;" Avliose petty bickerings and Lillipu
tian Avars, during the darkness of four long centuries, are stigmatized by
Milton, as no more worthy of historic narrative than " the skirmishes of
kites and crows?" "Wlio can prize more MgMy than our guest the states
manship of Egbert, or of Alfred, in gathering up and fusing into a
solid mass, those Avretched scraps of " sovereignty," re-issued to the world
as the single, undivided realm of " England," and sent doAvn into history
to play a part so commanding in the great drama of European progress ?
But what was the union of the Heptarchy, what was the genesis of that
powerful kingdom, but the prototype and prefiguration of that trans
cendent event in American histoi-y, that great and signal act of states
manship which evoked thc American Union from a jarring, incoherent
and rickctty "Confederation" just crumbling into anarchy and ruin?

38

What were Egbert and Alfred, as political arcMtects, but precursors
of our OAvn consummate Hamilton and his patriotic associates, framers
of the Constitution which called into being the Continental Republic
of the Western world, to march side by side with England down the
coming ages ?
The striking parallel in the growth and development of the two great
germs of continental poAver, thus planted by the British race on the east
ern anil Avestern shores of thc Atlantic, are obvious to every philosophical
observer ; but who can delineate more accurately than the scholar now
before us the steady expansion of the England of Alfred, — the very
root of the British Empire, — not only pushing out and entwining its
shoots around the British Islands, but grasping every salient point ui the
Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the far-off Indian Ocean ? Who
can behold Avith more honest pride than himself, the royal banner of the
United Kingdom floating over the broad expanse of British America, tlie
majestic basins of the Indus and the Ganges, and her OAvn undivided
Anglo- Australian continent beyond the equator, — the mighty links in that
continental chain, separated by intervening oceans, yet practically united
in one Avorld-encu-cling empire, by the omnipresent power of her impe
rial navy ?
With possessions so vast, fruits of a national life so vigorous, is it
for England to propose or even to desire the dismemberment of the
American Union, the work of her lineal offspring in this Western Hemis
phere ? What if the narroAV fringe along the Atlantic occupied by the
Thirteen States of our infant nation, has widened into a continental zone,
studded with six and thfrty stars, glittering from ocean to ocean, — have we
done aught but follow the parental example ? With thc blood of old
England fiowing in our veins, Avill she not permit us to prepare the Avil
derness she gave us for an inheritance, as a receptacle and asylum for
at least her oavu over-crowded millions ? Will she not consent, to
spare us yet a little, that we may uncover the mountains of'gold and silver
gamered uji by Providence to meet the cost of saving our Nation's life 2
Isolated as Ave are between two oceans and confined to a single continent,
hoAv can we endanger the safety or the peace of the world ? Can we
become more dangerous or aggressive Avithin om- single continental belt
of little more than twenty degrees of latitude, than imperial England
Avith territory stretching nearly from Pole to Pole ? Lot us say to
our friend and guest, and let him assure Ms countrymen that we, the
Peoiile of this Republic, — united and indestructible, — seek only to put to
its proper use the portion of the earth which the Great Architect of
nations has committed to our care ; that we propose to make it the per
manent abode of civilization, humanity and freedom ; that we know the
work which we are set to do, and, by God's grace, intend honestly and
fully to do it.
We cannot, and Avill not, think it possible that the upright and en-

39

lightened portion of the people of England would willingly behold the dis
memberment of a co-equal and kindred Power, of their own lineage and
tongue, aiming at ends so grand and beneficent, still less that they would
openly seek to destroy our national life by re-establishing the sovereignty
of our separate States — burying a continent for ages in anarchy and misery
so far exceeding all that was suffered by our parent land under her ancient
Heptarchy. But where, let us ask, would have been the civilization, the
progress, the glory of England, if that petty cluster of independent States
had continued to exist ? Could little Essex, or Sussex, or Kent, or even
Bast Anglia, or North-Hnmberiand, have singly won the fields of Agin-
court, or Waterloo ? Which of them could have emancipated from bond
age a single slave in the smallest of the British West India Islands ?
Our valued fiiend has fi-ankly told us that his sympathies for our cause
in the conflict he is here to record, are due not to our " territorial great
ness," but to the " consequences to humanity and freedom" which it in
volves ; — in a word, that our primary object in suppressing this rebellion,
should be the abolition of slavery, leaving the preservation of our nation
ality to be subordinate and secondai-y. With all possible respect, we beg
to assure him that such is not the sentiment of the American people, nor
such the verdict pronounced on the eventful eighth of November. On
the contrai-y, thefr- judgment was and is, that the Nation and its Govern
ment must first be saved, as an indispensable pre-requisite to any effort to
rid the Republic of African slavery. That great preliminary work, by
the blessing of Heaven, is now virtually accomplished. The necessary
exertion of the military and naval force of the Union may not be fully
ended, but the moral victory, establishing its national sovereignty, is com
plete ; and it only remains for the Government, by a discreet but ener
getic exercise of the powers it lawfully enjoys, or may soon acquire under
the Constitution, effectually to prevent the revival, by eradicating the
cause, of the fearful struggle which has so deeply interested our honoured
guest and the friends of freedom and humanity throughout the Avorld.
Mr. Ruggles' remarks were listened to Avith great interest, and he was
repeatedly interrupted by applause.
Tlie Rev. Dr. Putnam, of Brooklyn, was next called upon.
RE1VLA.RKS OF REV. A. P. PUTNAM.
Mr. Chairman : It is indeed a peculiar delight to be present on an
occasion like this to do honour to the distinguished friend of our country
whom we see before us, and whom it has been our pleasure and privilege
to hear. No one has proved himself a truer friend of America and of
American institutions than he, and no one has more intelligently under
stood and more ably presented the issues which are involved in the great
Struggle in wMch as a nation we are engaged. Indeed when at home I
have read the writings of these trans-atlantic friends of ours, or abroad

40
have listened to their eloquent voices, I have sometimes thought that they
seemed to apprehend the natm-e and appreciate the sacredness of our
cause, even better than we are wont to do ourselves. The service which
they have rendered us has been of vast importance. From personal
observation and experience on other shores, I can myself testify to the
immense numbers of peoiile whom their words have there reached and
rescued from hurtful error. One meets them everywhere in England.
" Oh, sir," said to me one day at Southampton an English lady who had
been instructed by the words of your eminent guest, " Oh, sfr, it is a holy
war that you are waging, and whatever may be the course which our
government and our nobility may pursue, there are thousands of hearts
and homes, here in the old coimtry, from which fervent prayei-s daOy
ascend to God that He may grant you the victory." Generally speaking,
those who are well infoi-med about our affairs prove to be our friends.
The intelligence of our friends is matched only by the ignorance of our
enemies. Professor Smith has been charged by the speakers who have preceded
me with various messages to his countrymen. There is one, however,
which seems to have been omitted, and Avliich it might be Avell for them
to receive. It is a most gratifying circumstance that the Avar has had the effect to
educate us as a nation to a most Avonderful degree, in all that constitutes
manly character and independent spirit. It must indeed be acknowledged
that, at the outset, and for some time after the struggle commenced, we
were altogether too sensitive to the criticisms and aspersions of our for
eign foes. It was a weakness that can no longer be laid to our charge.
Disciplined in the severe school of adversity we have become strong and
self-reliant. The nation's countenance is now stern and grim. We under
stand very well what we are about, and our pui-pose is as changeless as
fate. Henceforth, Avhile we are grateful for the good opinion and the
friendly services of all who think well of us, we are equally indifferent to
the bad imiDressions and the base attacks of those who think ill of us.
Let him say, then, to all who would fain injure us, by word or deed, that,
conscious of the high destiny to which we are called, we shall pursue it
with steady and unfaltering devotion, while we neither covet their favor
nor fear thefr power. [Warm applause.]
Our noble friend, as he sails from our shores, A\dll boar Avith him the
blessings of multitudes of our people with whom his name has already
become a familiar household word. The names of Goldavin Smith, and of
those who have been so eminently and honorably associated Avith him in
the advocacy of our cause in other lands, are henceforth identified with
the history of our great national conflict for the rights of man, and in the
long ftiture of union, liberty and peace which is in reserve for our now
afflicted country, they will never cease to be held by Americans in grateful
and loving remembrance. [Loud cheers.]

41

The Chair next introduced Mr. Peter Cooper, the venerable founder
of the admirable institution that bears his name ; an institution whose
vast benefits in popular education and art instruction, not to speak of its
well-fumished reading-room, have already been enjoyed by thousands of
our citizens. [Hearty applause.]
MR. PETER COOPER'S SPEECH.
I fear, Mr. President, that it vsdll be like presumption in one Avho has
lived a long life devoted to mechanical labor, with only time to observe
passing events, to attempt to interest you after all the eloquent siicechcs to
which Ave have listened with so much pleasure.
It will be, Mr. President, exceedingly difficult for us to overestimate
the value of the services rendered by our distinguished friend in this time
of our nation's struggle for life, Avith the terrible heresy of secession and
the fearful despotism of slavery — a despotism the most vile and unrelent
ing that ever spread death and desolation over a country.
In the midst of all our suffeiings as a nation we have rejoiced to find
the voice of om- honoured guest, in comiection with other noble spirits in
foreign lands, speaking boldly in defense of the great cause of human
rights. The able manner m which our guest has advocated those democratic re
publican principles on the successful application of which we must forever
depend for the proper dignity of labor, Avith all the rights and interests of
a common humanity. His able defense of these great principles entitle
him to the love and gratitude of every American freeman.
The trying condition of our country, and the occasion for which we
have assembled, brought to my mind those lines of the celebrated Dr.
Young, when he says that wisdom is not the growth of action, but of re
flection on the actions of life. He then says that the man who reflects not,
never reaps ; has no harvest ; carries thc burden of age Avithout the wages
of experience, and knows himself older only by the parish register and
the contempt of mankind.
The scenes through which our country has successfully passed, and is
noAv passing, opens up one of the richest fields from which to gather
Avisdom by reflecting upon the history and the experience of the past, that
Avas ever offered to the contemplation of the patriot, the statesman, or
philosopher. In this open field of the past can be found all those encroachments
upon the rights of a noble race of men which brought on the revolution-
aiy war, with all those scenes and incidents that resulted in secm-ing for a
great nation a union of States, with all the inestimable rights of individ
uals to frfc, liberty and the pm-suit of happiness.
It is to maintain and defend these rights that we are now endmdng the
untold sufferings brought upon our counti-y by that fatal heresy of seces-
6

42
sion, — a heresy the very mother of anarchy, that has afready buried hun
dreds of thousands of brave Americans, Avho have nobly died battling to
defend our glorious constitutional government, — a govemment formed and
founded by our fathers expressly to promote the general welfare by a sys
tem intended to embody, in the forms of law, the Mghest wisdom, virtue
and intelligence of a whole people bound together in a perf'ect union of
States never to be broken.
For such a government our fathers might avcU pledge their lives, thefr-
fortunes, and thefr sacred honor, to rescue from opiiression a great lacople,
who had braved the dangers of an unknoAvn ocean and a wilderness life
in the hope of working out for themselves and their posterity a great and
glorious destiny among the nations of the earth.
We may well again say, with the poet, that it is greatly wise to talk
with our past hours, and to ask of them what report tbey bring, what ad
vice they give to guide us in the future. Our fathers had gathered wisdom
sufficient by reflecting on the history and experience of the past to see
frorSr what small beginnings of error in principle great national calamities
had arisen.
We may well learn a lesson of wisdom from an ancient fable that will
illustrate the cause of all the horrors through which our country is now
passing. That ancient fable describes a ferocious animal that was in the
habit of laying its eggs in the sands of a southern shore, where a child
could destroy them. These eggs, AA'hen allowed to hatch under the power
and influence of a southern sun, would soon groAV into terrific monsters
sufficiently powerful to drive whole communities from their homes. Un
fortunately for our country aud the Avorld, avc have allowed the egg of
slavery to hatch and grow into strength sufficient to require the whole
power of the nation to overcome it. Slavery, like every other species of
cruelty and injustice, must forever bring wretchedness and ruin in its
train. We may well gather an additional lesson of wisdom fi-om an occurrence
in the early settlement of New Orleans. At that time a war broke out
betAs-een the French settlers and the Indians. The prisoners then taken
by the French Avere sent to St. Domingo, and sold as slaA^es. The blood of
those Indians soon mingled with the blacks on that island, carrying with
it the Indian ideas of justice by which they are taught to wreak their
vengeance upon those who willfully injure them Avithout a cause.
These ideas of justice, handed doAvii from father to son Avith a recollec
tion of the cruel bondage in which they were then held — a bondage fi-om
which there seemed no way of escape, but by the entire destruction of the
race that then held them as slaves.
Let us indulge the hope that a kind Providence is preparing the Avay
to liberate the slaves of our country by showing to their masters how
much they can better thefr condition by hiring them as men instead of
holding them as slaves, and thus save our country fi-om such hoiTors as
fell to the lot of the French settlers in St. Domingo.

43

For one, I find it out of my power to express the gratitude I feel for
our honoured guest, and aU the noble band of foreign patriots who are
aiding us by word or deed in our battle to defend those eternal principles
of truth and justice on the application of which we must forever depend
for all future improvement in the condition of mankind. [Applause.]
Dr. Osgood was then called upon, and received with cheers.
DR. OSGOOD'S REMARKS.
It is somewhat late in the day for a speaker to expect a patient hearing,
yet I cannot but say a word of sympathy and honor for our guest, as a
representative of that broad and free Christian thought that is now mak
ing an era in the Church of England. It is most comforting to find that
so large and worthy a body of men, who accept a supei-natm-al revelation
and a historical church, are such champions of Liberal ideas, and do not
shrink from claiming a place for all generous culture and true humanity
Avithin the kingdom of God and the fold of Christ. They find much
affinity Avith our best American scholars, as has been manifest ui our
proceedings here, especially in the tribute of our New York master of
philosophy. Prof. Henry B. Smith to Prof Goldwin Smith, of Oxford,
for vindicating the rectitude of the human reason against the skepticism of
Mansbll and othere. Oxford is not smely altogether a piece of antiqua
rian dignity and dust ; and the school of history to which our guest be
longs not only records the events and ideas of the past, but presents the
men and the motiAces of the great heroic ages as abiding and living forces
in modern society, or as parts of the life of our race.
We are glad to belong to that generous historical school here, and not
only to welcome to our fellowship this gifted and trathful scholar, but also
to receive as our oAvn all noble Englishmen who have helped onward the
cause of civilization. MttTON's name has been spoken here to-day, and
Wordsworth's sonnet has been quoted : i
" Milton ! thou shou'dst be living at this hour."
Why not beheve the poet's wish granted, and trust that the great liberty
man of England is stUl at work in the free mind of Englishmen every
where, and stimng the heart as well as molding the speech of all who
speak the English tongue. If I am not mistaken, last Tuesday, November
Sth, was the anniversary of Milton's death — the date of his passing from
a light of earth to a star of heaven. The American people Avere not think
ing of commemorating a poet's genius, or his life or death, on that day ;
yet they did unconscious honor to his name; and the liberty of thought
and action, Avhich Milton so nobly defended, never took a gi-eate;- stride
forward than on that noted Tuesday, that marked the triumph of our
national life, and the virtual doAvnfall of the slave oligarchy.

44
The name of Alfred, too, has been mentioned to-day, and a fit illus
tration of the worth of our Union has been drawn from his service in
biinging to unity the jarring elements of the old Saxon Heptarchy. In
honouring an Oxford isrofessor, it is well to remember what a hand that
great king had in founding the literature of England, even if it cannot be
proved that he founded the University of Oxford. If you will excuse me,
as head of the Library Committee of our Club, for throwing a scrap of
book-learning upon your genial table, I may say, that in a copy of a
German almanac which came to hand last week, the name of Alfred the
Great was affixed to October 39th, as of a sacred person whose life may be
meditated upon by the Christians of Gemiany with more edification than
the Spaniard St. Narcissus, whose ghostly honors had been made to
yield to the glory of the English monarch, hero, and man of letters. It
is well to remember him now, and to wish that England had been always,
and especially of late, true to the spirit of his reign. He was her great
Unionist; and Avitli what face can the peoiole who live in an empire
whose sections Avere united by his arms and counsels, ask us to consent to
have our coimtry broken into fragments, and our national life lost by the
mutilation of its members, the scattering of its limbs. Alfred subdued
GoDRUN, the Dane, to Ms sceptre and religion, and gave him the counties
of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge for his domain. What would Eng
land say, if those counties now set up the banner of Secession, and claimed
the old license of freebooting and Paganism ? What people'on earth are
such sticklers for the unity of the realm as the English, eten in the case
of colonies over which they have not the claim of vicinity, blood, and
language. Had all Englishmen been as true to the spirit of Alfi-ed as our
guest, the rebellion would long since have lost its most powerful ally,
peace Avould have opened the hearts and the markets of our North and
South to each other, and the weavers of Lancashire Avould be of good
cheer. The language and literature of England are with us in the genius of
the great king. Liberty and law are incoi-porated into the vocabulary,
and the slave oligarchy is obliged to expunge the best words from the
English dictionary, and the best thoughts from the great masters, and
have a press and an art of its own. Alfi-ed's jury and Alfred's Bible are
alike out of place under the rebellion flag, and the sentence written in his
Testament, " The English ought to be as free as thefr thoughts," needs
careful qualification among those who insult the English blood by forcing
us who have it in our veuis to live under the black code that sanctions the
sale of men and women, and sets up the law of the lash and the chain, the
gag and the blood-hound.
Alfi-ed founded the navy of England, and tliis fii-st lord of the seas
allied the naval power with laws, Avith letters, and humamty. He who
revived and fixed the right of trial by jury, gave his kingdom her fii-^trule
of the ocean. His service is not forgotten, aud Victoria has an Alfred

45

among her sons, and has placed him in her royal navy. May thc name be
well wom, as it is well won. Some of the high admirals may profitably
meditate upon the early and the latter clays of their craft, and revise their
principles and policy in respect to the commerce of our free America.
Then the outrage may cease that arrays so much of the wealth and pride
of England against us on the seas, and belies old English ideas, to pamper
the new avarice and caste.
Thank God that the true spirit is not lost, and such friends as our
guest side Avith our loyal navy, and not with the pirates who steal their
flag to insult our oavu. Thank God for the great conflict in the English
seas, that gave om- flag its due in the eyes of the nations. If kings still
haunt thefr realms, and Alfred hovers over the waters that his fleets once
ruled, there can be little doubt where he belonged in that sea-fight. Not
with that pirate craft, Alabama, that went down near the pit so congenial
Avith her infamous career; not with that yacht of Nicholson, that played
the part of second, or pander, to that pfrate and crew; but with the stout
and ioyal Kearsarge, and with our noble Winsloav, the great sea-king-
would have taken his stand, and rejoiced in every gun that carried sound
Anglo-Saxon principles as Avell as iron balls from its muzzle into the
corsair's hull.
But why dwell more upon these illustrations of the idea with which I
started — that true histoiy is the record of the kfrigdom of God and hu
manity, and not only truths but moral powers live and move in its pages ?
My closing sentiment is this :
"The tme navy of Christendom; not the ally of pirates, and man-
hunters, and covenant breakers, but the champion of laAV and letters,
humanity and religion. As it Avas in the beginning, so let it be in the
end." Rev. Dr. Osgood was repeatedly interrupted with applause, and sat
down amid cheei-s.
The Chair next called upon Mr. Dodge, not alone as an eminent
representative of the merchants of New York, but as one of the standard
bearers of the national party of freedom in the late contest, in Avhich he
was supported for election to the next Congress of the United States.
[Wai-m applause.] HON. WM. E. DODGE'S SPEECH.
Mr. President and Gentlemen : At this late hour I AAdll detain you
Avith only a word.
We have been for a long time sun-ounded, both at home and abroad,
Avith an atmosphere so depressing that, in spite of all our efforts, we have
at times found it hard to rise to the appreciation of the fact that we were
not, as the opponents of the Govei-nment would fain have it, a ruined
people.

46
I am sure our respected friend, as he has passed through our country
from city to city, has seen no evidence of such ruin ; but that, on the con
trary, he has witnessed everywhere the evidence of our rapid growth and
increasing prosperity ; and I beg him to understand, and bear Avith Mm
across the water the fact that in no three years of our history have we
increased so much in material prosperity, as in the last three. In the
midst of a great civil war, our imports and exports are a wonder to our
selves (the former being as great as when in fonner years cotton formed
two thirds of our exports) ; our internal traffic has been beyond all
precedent ; the receipts of om- railroads have more than doubled, and our
merchants, as they look at thefr- business and thefr balance-sheets, know
that they are not ruined.
We beg our friend to bear these facts Avith Mm on his return home,
and to tell them to the merchants of Liverpool, and other English cities ;
but he can at the same time say to them that while the American mer
chants have not been ruined, they would Avillingly submit to even that, if
it should be necessai-y for them to do so in order to save our Union. [Loud
cheers.] Mr. Parke Godwin, the accomplished author of a history of Prance,
and editor of the Evening Post, was then called on to speak for the Press.

SPEECH OF MR. GODWIN.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I came to listen, not to speak, and I
have listened so delightedly that I really have nothuig to speak. Never
theless, as the men of the press are summoned always towards the ends of
occasions, they have in them very much of the spirit of that little pow
der-boy who was on board the Varuna in the great battle of Farragut at
the mouths of the Mississippi. When the vessel, haAdng passed through
the flames of the iu-e-ships, was about to sink, Captain Boggs made his
way to the shore, where he found his little gunner standing with his hand
to his hat, saying, " Captain, ready for duty." So it is that we of the
joui-nals who are not leaders, perhaps, but A\'ho certainly fui-nish a good
deal of poAvder— [Laughter and applause] — must be alwaj's " ready for
duty." Being ordered to the work, I shall flre my gun, and retire for the
next man.
Most of those present know that I have lately had a personal experience,
which a man seldom passes through more than once in his life. I have been
upon a raifroad [laughter]. (Mr. G. was exposed to the accident on the
New Haven Railroad, on the 10th of October.) Somebody asked me how
I felt in that supreme moment, when I was face to face with death. I
answered that the feeling was too supreme to admit of expression. But
afterwards, my ffrst thought was one of thankfulness to God who had

47

preserved thefr- lives ; the second was of my immediate family, and the
thfrd of my friends. Now our country had passed through a somewhat
similar experience. [Applause.] It had been passing through " the valley
of the shadow of death." But every true American, when we emerged
fi-om it, as we did so gloriously by the election of Tuesday last, thought
first that he should fall doAvn on Ms knees and thank Almighty God for
the deliverance. His second thought must have been for his family —
those brothei-s of ours who have gone down to the front ; and how the
news must have cheered them on thefr lonely picket-stands, and hoAv, as
the cold rain was falling upon thefr- unprotected bodies, these words of
cheer would warm them into a new glow. They were the men who had
given to thc country, as our good President said at Gettysburg, not words,
as we do, which will be scarcely remembered, if heard of at all hereafter,
but deeds that Avill never be forgotten. [Loud applause] In the third
place, he thought of our more distant friends, those who are not by con
sanguinity of our family, but are yet our friends, — of those dear ones
abroad, — of that good De Gasparin, who, in his prayers to God, never
forgets to implore a blessing for the cause of liberty and Union in the ucav
world [great applause] ; of the generous, intrepid, persuasive Laboulaye,
whose essays were models, alike for the statesman and the scholar ; of that
accomplished, Avarm-hearted Henri Martin, the historian of France, Avho,
amid the grandest scenes of revolution in his own country, feels that a
mightier revolution than France ever experienced is going on now and
here, and one in AA'hich he is more deeply interested than in any of the
contests of his ancestors. [Renewed applause.]
He thought, too, Mr. Godwin said, of our friends in England, of that
just and noble man Cobden. small in stature but gigantic in intellect, —
[cheers] — who, Avhen he enters the House of Commons, after having heard
the news of our election, will stand, both mentally and physically, at least
twelve inches higher. [Laughter and cheers.] He thought, also, how
that most eloquent and fearless of modern Englishmen, John Bright,
would flash Ms electric eloquence around the heads of the aristocracy with
a rekindled biilliancy and a double vigor. He thought, too, how the
neAvs of the election, so immense in its issues, so mighty in all its bearfrigs,
so tranquil in the manner of it, would go frito the homes of the common
people, to gladden thefr- hearts in the new hopes for humanity; how it
\vonld penetrate the cheerless cabins of freland ; how the eager people of
Italy, struggling for national umty, would feel that thefr cause has re
ceived a powerful reinforcement ; how in Hnngaiy they would welcome
the glad tidings ; and how in free SAvitzerland, from the tops of the Alps,
they would shout it to the answering chofr-s of the very heavens. [Loud
and long continued cheers.]
The Chair remarked that, assembled as they were, in the rooms of the
Union League Club, there was a peculiar propriety in their hearing from
its patriotic President, Mr. Sturges, before closing their festivities.

48

REMARKS OP MB. JONATHAN STURGES.
Mr. Chairman : Perhaps it Avould not tie precisely in order for me to
address our distinguished friend as the guest of the Union League Club ;
yet, as you have called upon me as the President of the Club, I will take
the liberty to repeat what I have said on a previous occasion.
It is our duty and privilege to extend our hospitalities to those eminent
men Avho render great services to our comitry, Avhether in civil or military
positions ; nor let us forget those lovers of the human race Avho visit our
shores from foreign countries. To such men as Milnor Gibson, Cobden,
Bright. Goldavin Smith, Thiers, Gasparin, and other statesmen, sol
diers and literary men avIio love freedom aud do justice to our country, let
our doors be throAvn wide open— [loud cheers] ; — and I uoav extend to
Professor Sahth, on behalf of the Union League Club, its hospitalities,
and assure him that nowhere in America Avill he, at all times, receive a
more cordial and appreciative welcome. [Hearty applause.]
The Chair called upon Ihe Vice-President at his right, Mr. Evarts,
to close the festivities of this interesting occasion with a few parting
words, a call to which that gentleman thus responded :
Jm. EVARTS' CONCLUDING REMARKS.
It only remains, Mr. President, that, under your authority, I should
bring to a close this festive reception in the same spirit in which it Avas
conceived, and, in the cordial co-operation of this company, has been car-
lied out.
To greet Goldavin Smith, — to ijay the homage of our respect and
gratitude for the great aid to the cause of our country, Avliich, before all
England and against all odds, he and his noble companions among the
Liberals of Great Britaui, have so generously given, to raise, if it might
be, some new interest and even Avarmor sympathy for us, in the minds and
hearts of these, our friends, by the personal impressions which such occa
sions are suited to convey ; — these were the motives AvMch brought us
together, in this free and hearty interchange of thought and feeling. I
am sure Ave shall part Avitli the assurance that none of these objects have
been disapiiointed.
As Ave separate — our guest so soon to regain the shores of his happy
country, and avc to the unspent labors which this afflicted nation yet
demands from all its loyal strength — let us carry with us one great lesson
of peace and good-AAdll between us and that people, from whom so much
that makes up our life is drawn. Mother of our religion and our law, of
our literature aud our science, of our language aud of our blood, the im
perishable laws of human society insure an intimacy of relations betAveen
England and the United States, which casual and temporary estrange
ments cannot long obscure, and can never destroy.

49

In the progress of human affairs, Mr. President, Ave have passed that
period when the family compacts of kings, the curdiale entente of cabi
nets, the written stipulations of treaties, even, could wdioUy or greatly
determine the relations between nations. Community of purpose and
consent as to the true ends and aims of advancing civilization, an univer
sal transfusion of intelligence and of ideas, these produce an intermingling
of the pulses of the heart betAA'een nations, compared Avith which the
formal aids or obstacles to peace between them are trivial and contempt
ible. May Goldwin Smith, then, as he brought with him thc happiest offer
ings of good-Avill to us from thc sober thought and manhood of England,
oan-y back an equal, nay, an abounding promise that these ties of our
obligation to the jieople of his country shall never be forgotten.

The following letters received from gentlemen Avho had been invited
to meet Prof Goldavin Saiith were announced, and in part read by the
Chaib ;
LETTERS.
From the Hon. S. P. Chase, late Bec^y Treasury, U. 8.
Ci>xraN'ATi, Novembtr 10, 1864.
Dear Sir ; Your note of the 5th instant, inviting ms in behalf of a Commit
tee of citizens of New York, to an entertainment to be given to Professor Gold-
avis Smith, on the 1 2th, was only received this morning.
I am sorry that it is not in my power to accept your invitation.
Just in proportion to the dissatisfaction with which loyal Ameiicans most
regard the practical sympathy of the British Government with the slaveholders'
rebellion against the IJnion, should be the esteem and honor in which they hold
those noble Enghshmen in and out of Parliament, and of every class whose
more magnanimous aud disinterested sympathy has been with the Union against
that rebellion.
On this roll of honor, among the highest names with those of John Bright
and RicHAKD Cobdes, Americans will delight to record that cf Goldavin Smith.
Yours, very truly, S. P. CHASE.
Charles Butler, Esq.

From Prof. Tayler Lewis.
Union College, Schencctadj', Nov. 10, 1864.
De.\r Sir: It is a grief to rae that very poor health prevents me from having
the high pleasure of meeting- Prof Goldwin Smith on the occasion to which you
refer. There is no man in England or America whom I should be more glad to
see, or take by the hand.
During our sore troubles, the thing I found it hardest to bear, has been the
attitude of England towards us, as exhibited by so many of her leading men,
political, ecclesiastical, and literary. It has been made more severe by the
thought that, with all then- claim to antiquity and a higher culture, they were
still our near kindred, who, on that account, should have sympathized with us
in the day of our calamity ; in view of this there has often come to mind the
language of the Psalmist against those, in like kindred relation, who showed a,
1

50
similar desire for the destruction of the Jewish nationality : " Remember, 0
Lord, the children of Edora, in the day of Jerusalem, who said. Raze it. Raze
it, even to the foundation thereof"
But the feeling is gone at once when I think of friends like Prof Smith and
the other strong men whom he represents on the other side of the ocean.
For their sakes we will love England still,— the England that now is with
all its apparent unfriendliness ; and the England to coraewhen such men shall
have the place that belongs to them in her political organization.
" Peace be within her walls and prosperity within her palaces." For these,
"our brethren and companions' sake, will we say, Peace be within thee;" because
of our common Christianity, and our. common freedom ; " because of the house
of the Lord our God, we will seek thy good."
God be llitinked for such men as Prof. Smith and Bright, and others that
come immediately to mind in connection with them. " Their names are like
ointment poured forth." Their remembrances will be like oil upon the troubled
A\-aters. The thought of them will quiet every revengeful feeling that might
otherwise arise out of our past and present relations.
AV'ith great respect. Yours truly,

TAYLER LEWIS.

Charles Butler, Esq.

From the Ilua. W. JI. Merali/Ji.
PHILADELnilA, loth Nov., 1864.
Sir ; 1 have the honor to acknowledge your letter inviting me, on behalf of
the Committee of the Union League of iS'cw York, to be present at an entertain
ment to be given to Prof. Goldwin Smith, of Oxford.
I deeply regret that the state of my health prevents me from accepting this
invitation. The service which Prof Smith has rendered to the cause of Free
Government everywhere, by his spirited and judicious publications, cannot be
overestimated. To hiin, and to Messrs. Cobden and Bright, wc are especially
indebted for their efforls to enlighten the public mind of England on the true
merits and vital importance of the contest which is now raging among us. The
people of the loyal States are unalterably resoh'ed to put this rebellion down,
effectually and permanently, and in the hour of their great struggle they cannot
be insensible to the sympathy of liberal and generous foreigners, like him whom
3'ou are now about to honor.
I am, sir, with gi-eat esteem,
Your ob'dt friend and serv't,
AV. M. MEREDITH,
President of Umon Lcayuc of Phila.
CiiAKLE.s Butler, Et'q.

From Prof. OUcer W. Holmes.
'11 Ch.vrles Street, Boston, Nov. 11, 1864.
Dear Sir and Gentlemen: 1 regret that I cannot renew the pleasure I have
had in meeting Professor Goldwin Smith, by accepting your kind invitation.
It would not only have delighted me to enjoy your company and that of your
guest, but I feel that none of us can express too strongly, too warmly, or too
often, the obligations we are under to that noble man; better worthy of honor
ihan most of those who impair the significance of these two words by joining
them. I ain, gentlemen. Yours, very truly, 0. AY. HOLMES.

Friini, the Hon. Edward EverctC. Boston, 10 Nov., 1864.
Gentlemen ; I have received your obliging invitation to be present at an

51
entertainment to be given by you to Professor Goldwin Smith, of the University
of Oxford, on the 12th inst.
No one can more highly honor the character or appreciate the services of
Mr. Smith, than I do.
He was among the first to discern the true nature of the unprovoked war
carried on by ambitious men against the mildest and most beneficent of gov
ernments, and he has been among the ablest of the able and eloquent writers
and speakers who have defended our cause in England. He has been received
in this neighborhood with the respectful attentions due to thc noble stand he
has taken at home, and I rejoice to see tliat the citizens of New York are pre
paring to pay him the same well-deserved honor.
Deeply regretting that my engagements in Boston put it out of my power
to accept your kind invitation, I remain, gentlemen,
Very respectfully yours, ED"WARD EVERETT.
To Ch.^rles Butlee and the Gentlemen of the Committee.

From Dr. McClintocle. 289 4th Avenue, 11 November.
Charles Butlee, Esquire, Chairman, <fec.,
Dear Sir: I regret that I cannot venture to accept the invitation to meet
Professor Goldv/in Smith at breakfast^ on Saturday. I am too unwell to endure
even so pleasant an excitement as this gathering will afford.
Your distinguished guest deserves this honor, and all others we can give
him. He is a " light in a benighted land." Thank God that he and others
have helped to save our old mother England from going into total darkness
and moral eclipse in this great day of decision, which tests so trulj' the moral
stamina of men and nations. Very truly yours, JOHN McCLlNTOCK.

From Major-General Dt.v.
Headquarters, Depaetaient of the East, (
New York City, 11 Nov., 1864. )'
My dear Sir : Your note of invitation to the breakfast to be given to Pro
fessor Goldwin Smith, did not reach me till last evening. I very much regret
that it will not be in my power to meet him and bear testimony, as I should be
very much gratified to do, to his high character, and his friendliness to the
cause of stable government in the United States.
I ara very trulj' yours, JOHN A. DIX.
Chas. Butlee, Esq.

From the Hon. Horace Oreeley.
Office of -the Teiddne,
New York, Nov. 11, 1864.
Dear Sir : I deeply regret that ill health, and the duty of going to-night to
my long deserted country home, -will prevent my attendance at the breakfast to
Professor Goldwin Smith to-morrow morning. I wish it were other-wise ; but
I am completely worn out with the labors and anxieties of the canvass. I de
sire to add, that, in honouring Professor Smith, you honour the dear old cause of
Freedom and Justice, the cause of Right and of Humanity.
Yours, HORACE GREELEY.
Richard M. Hunt, Esq., Sec. Com., &c.

i>•^

From tlie Hon. Senator Harris. Albany, November 11, 1864.
My dear Sir : I am but now in receipt of your favor of the 5th instant, in
viting me to be present at an entertainment to be given to-morrow morning, at
the rooms of the Union League Club, to Prof Goldwin Smith, of Oxford.
I rejoice that it is in the hearts of our friends in New York thus to honour
one who deserves so much at the hands of patriotic Americans. Rising aboA^e
the jealousies and prejudices which have marked the conduct of so many of his
countrymen, Prof Smith has steadily and nobly maintained the justice of our
cause, and our right to preserve our national existence.
I regret that I am obliged to deny myself the pleasure of meeting the gentle
men who will be present on the occasion, and uniting with them in the well-
merited tribute of respect which they propose to pay this distinguished English
man. The object commends itself to the warm approbation of every loj'al
heart. ' Yours, with esteem, IRA HARRIS.
The Hon. Charles Butler,
Chairman, etc., dr.

From the Hon. Senator Sumner. Boston, 11th Nov., 1864.
Dear Sir: I wish that I could be with you in the well-deserved honors you
propose to Prof. Goldwin Smith, but I cannot.
He is one of those valued English friends who have been ' friends indeed.
At a time when jealousy .ind hate seemed about to prevail against us, he
stood forth in our behalf. He saw the wickedness of an attempt to carve a slave
empire out of this Republic, and protested against the support which was given
to the crime. The help which he gave at the time was decisive.
But, in this good service to our Republic, he served his own country, which
was happily arrested in its plunge tOAvards infinite baseness. It would be diffi
cult to say whether lie had done most for the honour of England or for the good
of the United States. Believe me, dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
CHARLES SUMNER.
Charles Bitlee, Esq.

From Eear-Ailmirul Paiddlng,
Navy Yakd, New York, Nov. lith, 18C4.
Gentlemen: I have the honor to express my sincere thanks for your invita
tion to be present at the reception of our distinguished visitor, Professor Gold-
win Smith, who has so consistently, and with the high tone of character that
belongs to his class of generous Englishmen, alwaj'S faithful to the sentiments
of justice and magnanimity, upheld the cause of humanity, in sustaining the
efforts made by this country, to suppress a rebellion that has no parallel for
infamy, in all the outrages that have been committed upon mankind.
I should be most happy to participate in the welcome to your noble guest,
and regret that my public duties and responsibilities here will prevent mj'
being present on an occasion that has my warmest sympathy.
I am. Gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Ii. PAULDING, Rear Admiral U. S. Navy.
To Charles Butler, Wm. M. Evarts, Jonathan Sturges, etc.

53
From the President of the N. T. Historical Society.
76 University Place, Nov. 10th, 1864.
To Charles Butlee, Esq., Chairman Committee of the Union League Club.
My deae Sie : I am favored with your invitation to meet Professor Goldwin
Smith at breakfast, at 10 o'clock, on the 12th inst. It would afford me peculiar
pleasure to be present on that interesting occasion, to unite in doing honour to
this friend of our country, who has so nobly and eloquently upheld om- national
cause, amidst the evil reports and perverted judgments of his own countrymen.
But an engagement which I have in vain sought to postpone, from the ap
prehended loss to a trust fund, compels me to decline the compliment paid to
the Society which I have the honour to represent.
AA'ith great respect, I am your and the Committee's
obhged and obedient servant,
FREDERIC DE PEYSTER, Prest. N. Y. His. Soe'y.

From Professor Dioight, of Golnmlna College Laic School.
Clinton, Oneida Co.
New Yoek, Nov. 10, 1864.
Deae Sir : Owing to the death of a near relative, I was unexpectedly called
out of town yesterday, and shall consequently be deprived of the privilege of
breakfasting with Professor Goldwin Smith on Saturday next. I regret this
extremely, both because of the positive pleasure which I should receive, and be
cause I should be glad to pay a tribute of respect to Prof SanrH, for his learning
and sagacity, as Avell as for his firmness and moral heroism, in unflinchingly
maintaining, in England, our unpopular cause.
With great respect,
Yours, very sincerely,
THEO. W. DWIGHT.
Charles Butlee, Esq., Chairman, &c.

From the Hon. Henry Winter Dams, of Maryland.
Charles Butler, Esq.,
Sir : I regret very much my inability to join you in doing honor to Pro
fessor Goldwin Smi™, to whom all Americans are under so many obligations.
But I was prevented by complications at home which threatened to deprive
us of many of the most important fruits of our free constitution. I was thus so
entirely engi-ossed as to render my acceptance of your polite invitation impos
sible ; and it was received at so late a day that I was unhappily unable to reply
before the day fixed for the entertainment.
I trust we shall find the benefits of his visit in the influence he must exert
on English opinion, hitherto so perverse and inimical.
Very respectfully. Your obedient serA'ant,
Baltimore, Nov. 17, 1864. H. AA'INTER DAVIS.

The following letter from Rev. Henry "Ward Beecher is in response
to the call made upon him by Professor Goldavin Smith in his reply to
the address of welcome : Brooklyn, Nov. 30, 1864.
Mr. Chaeles Butler,
Deae Sie : At your suggestion I very gladly corroborate by my pen the
statements of Prof Goldwin Smith, to which he asked my -witness respecting

54
English feehng toward America. I was sorry that imperative engagements
obliged me to -withdraw as soon as he had done speaking.
My own feelings and judgment underwent a great change while I was in
England. Coming from home aglow with patriotic enthusiasm, I was chilled
and shocked at the coldness toward the North which I everywhere met, and
the sympathetic prejudices in favor of the South. And yet, everybody was
alike condemning slavery and praising liberty !
I soon perceived my first error Avas in supposing that Great Britain ivas
an impartial spectator. In fact, she was morally an actor in the conflict.
Such were the antagonistic influences at work in her own midst, and the di
vision of parties, that, in judging American affairs she could not help lending
sanction to one or the other side of her own internal conflicts. England was
not, then, a judge, sitting calmly on the bench to decide without bias ; the ease
brought before her was her own, in principle, and in interest. In taking sides
with the North, the common people of Great Britain and the laboring class
took sides with themselves in their struggle for reformation ; while the wealthy
and the privileged classes found a reason in their o-wn political parties and jjln-
losophies why they should not be too eager for the legitimate government and
nation of the United States.
All classes who, at home, were seeking the elevation and political enfran
chisement of the common people, were with us. All who studied the preserva
tion of the State in its present unequal distribution of political privileges, sided
with that section in America that were doing the same thing.
We ought not to be surprised nor angry that men should maintain aristo
cratic doctrines which they believe in fully as sincerely, and more consistently,
than we, or many among us do, in democratic doctrines.
AA^e of all people ought to understand how a government can be cold or semi-
hostile, while the people are friendly to us. For thirty years the American
Government, in the hands, or under the influence of Southern statesmen, has
been in a threatening attitude to Europe, and actually in disgraceful conflict
with all the weak neighboring powers. Texas, Mexico, Central America and
Cuba are witnesses. Yet the great body of our people in the Middle and
Northern States were strongly opposed to all such tendencies.
I look upon the lasting peace and cordial union of Great Britain and the
United States, as indispensable to the highest prosperity of each, and as of vital
interest to the progress of that form of Christianity which enlightens and em
powers the common people of the world. The co-operation of Great Britain
and the United States insures a glorious future : their rupture and hostilitj',
e\il to both of them, would reserve its worst results to be poured ujion the
already overmatched common people of Europe.
I hear God's Providence saying, in solemn warning and persuasion, " Blessed
are the Peace-makers." I am, m}' dear sir,
A'erv trulj' j'ours,
H. AV. BEECHER.

Notes of regret were also received from
Rear-Admiral Breeze.
The Hon. Charles G. Lohtng, of Boston.
Brigadier-General Geo. W. Cdi^loai, Superintendent of the Military
Academy at "West Point.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Esq., of :\Ias9achusef ts.
Daniel Huntington, President Academy of Artists.
Hon. S. R. Betts, Judge U. S. Dist. Court.
Hou. Murray Hopfaian.
Robert Lenox Kennedy, Esq.

PRESENTATION OF AMERICAN BOOKS

PROFESSOR GOLD"WIN SMITH.

No sooner Avas thc idea suggested of a partuig gift of American books
to our English guest, than it met Avith a prompt and liberal response on
the part of authors, pubUshers and friends, who cordially seized the
opportunity of such a donation, not only as an approiiriate compliment,
but as a desu-able means of reference at Oxford.
Harper & Brothers, of Ncav York, contributed the Historical '\Yritings
of Hildreth, Draper, Brodhead, Geo. T. Curtis, Lossing and Baird, the
Cyclopedia of Commerce, wdth many smaller volumes of local or biograjih-
ical interest ; D. Appleton & Co. , thefr- valuable New American Cyclopedia ;
Little, Brown & Co., of Boston, the histories of "Winthrop, Bancroft,
Palfi-ey, and Parkman, the series of American Biographies, edited by
Sparks, with Ms "Writings of Washington, etc., the Works of Pisher
Ames, Chief Justice Story, Daniel Webster, Bartlett's Dictionary of Amer
icanisms, and several important Law Treatises; from Charles Scribner
Avere received two masterly volumes on the English Language, by the
Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, and Ins recent treatise entitled " Nature and Man,''
Woolsey's International Law, Smith's Chronological Tables, America and
her Commentators, etc. ; from Geo. P. Putnam, frving's Life of Washing
ton, thc Life and Letters of Washington Irving, The World's Progress,
Lyrics of the War, the Rebellion Record, Character and Portraits of
Washington, etc. ; from Widdleton, au elegant edition of Poe's Writings,
Chapman's American DraAving Book, etc. ; from Derby & Miller, the Por
trait Gallery of the War, etc. ; from Edward Walker, the American
Statesman's Manual, in four elegant octavo volumes; from Miller tt
MattheAvs, " Old New York," by Dr. Prancis ; fi-om Geo. W. Childs, of
PhUadelpMa, AUibone's Dictionary of Authors, the National Almanac.
Kane's Arctic Expecfrtion, etc. ; from J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadel
phia, Rush's Writings, the Pederalist, Blodgett's Climatology of the United
States, the Univei-sal Gazeteer, Rhee's Manual of the Libraries and Insti
tutions of thc United States, and a series of Scientific and Economical
Works, Avith several in the department of Belles-lettres; fi-om the Smith
sonian Institute, a valuable series of works relating to the Patent Office,
the Resources of the United States, the History of Legislation, etc. ; from
Ticknor & Pields, of Boston, copies of tliefr choice publications, including
Eiueraon, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow, "WMttier, Lowell, Winthrop,
Boker, HoAve, Ticknor, Higginson, etc., in many instances the gift of thc
authors; fi-om Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. John P. Kennedy, P. O. C.
Darley, Hon. S. B. Ruggles, W. T. Blodgett, John Jay, J. Lorimer

56
Graham, Jr., G. AV. Curtis, H. T. Tuckornian, Bayard Taylor, W. C.
Bryant, D. T. Valentine, and many other various and interesting Avoi-ks.
When coniiilcted this collection of American books will form an adequate
library of reference, and prove, when the catalogue is made out, a most
creditalde and interesting illustration of the frterary development of the
country. LETTER TO GOLDWIN SiAIITH. New York, Dec. 5, 1864.
Dear Sir : It is Avith great pleasure that, in behalf of our authors, pub
lishers and others, — who have witnessed, with grateful admiration, your
candid and eloquent exposition of our national cause, — I ask your acceptance
of a limited but choice collection of American books, as a pleasant memorial
of your visit to our country, and a desirable means of reference at the venera
ble University with which you are so eminently associated. From the out
break of the Rebellion, it has been a subject of extreme regret among intelli
gent and liberal men, on both sides of the Atlantic, that the sources of popular
information in regard to the United States are so inadequate in England. The
absence of an international copyright law renders the distribution of books un
equal and precarious ; those which contain the essential historical and econom
ical facts, and illustrate the social and political development of the Rejjublic,
arc comparatively unknown in Great Britain, as the re-publication of American
books is chiefly confined to those of general and popular literature. "If our
people have misconstrued you," you observe, " let me conjure you to make due
allowance for our ignorance, — an ignorance which, in many cases, is as dark as
night, but which the progress of events begins gloriously to dispel." As a
means of promoting this desirable enlightenment, the History, Biography, Po
litical annals and indigenous Literature of the nation will serve an excellent
purpose ; and to uo one can the records thereof be more appropriately con
signed than to you, who have so earnestly labored to disseminate truth and
awaken a just spirit of humanitj'. I am, dear sir, very truly yours,
HENR"r T. TUCKERMAN.
Professor Goldavin Smith. REPLY. New A" ork. Dee. 8, 1864.
Dear Sir: My most hearty thanks are due to you, and to all those who
have united with you, in this act of courtesy and kindness tOAvards your Eng
lish guest.
No gift could be more welcome to one so deeply interested as I am, in all
that relates to American history, intellect and character. I shall regard these
books partly as a trust placed, by you and your friends, in my keeping : on my
shelves they will be open to all who may wish to consult them ; and I shall be
most happy if they are the means, in my hands, of difl'using a better knowledge
of America than, to the misfortune of both nations, but especially of mine, has
hitherto been possessed by most English critics of American affairs.
My visit to America is now drawing to a close ; and this pleasant gift
crowns three of the happiest and most instructive months of my life. I shall
bear with me to England the memory of great enjoyment, a most grateful
sense of the overflowing kindness which has everywhere surrounded me, and a
desire stronger, if possible, than ever to see friendship reign between the be
loved land of my birth and the almost equally beloved land which I am now
leaving. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, GOLDWIN SMITH.
Henry T. Tuckerm.vn, Esq.

ERRATA.

Pa,e 4 7th line from bottom, tor '¦ Albermale" read AlbenyM-le.
Paee 14 5th line from bottom, for " man " read mflss
Pa'e 11 11th line from top, for " great struggle " read to»ff, &c.
Page 12, 4th line from top, for " efforts " reaf effects
PagelBSd Une from top, for"regardless"read«cto..

Syracuse, N. T.
Stockton, Calif.

'.^ r