Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After Dinner Speeches E O

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MODERN ELOQUENCE

LIBRARY OF

AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES, LECTURES

OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES

[Illustration: REPRODUCTIONS OF MURAL DECORATIONS

FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON

"_JUSTICE_"

_Photo-engraving in colors after the original painting by George W.
Maynard_

This picture is one of a series of eight panels representing "The
Virtues"--Fortitude, Justice, Patriotism, Courage, Temperance, Prudence,
Industry, and Concord. The number of virtues to be represented was
limited to the number of panels, so the selection was necessarily
somewhat arbitrary. Each figure is about five and a half feet high, clad
in floating classic drapery, and represented to the spectator as
appearing before him in the air, without a support or background other
than the deep red of the wall. "Justice" holds the globe in one hand,
signifying the extent of her sway. In the other hand she holds a naked
sword upright, in token of the terribleness of her punishment.]

MODERN ELOQUENCE

EDITOR

THOMAS B REED

JUSTIN McCARTHY, ROSSITER JOHNSON, ALBERT ELLERY BERGH

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

VOLUME II

After-Dinner Speeches

E--O

GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO.
CHICAGO
Copyright, 1903
JOHN R. SHUMAN

_COMMITTEE OF SELECTION_

EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Author of "The Man Without a
Country."

JOHN B. GORDON, Former United States Senator.

NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, Associate Editor "International
Library of Famous Literature."

JAMES B. POND, Manager Lecture Bureau; Author of "Eccentricities
of Genius."

GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER, Professor of English Literature,
Princeton University.

LORENZO SEARS, Professor of English Literature, Brown University.

EDWIN M. BACON, Former Editor "Boston Advertiser" and
"Boston Post."

J. WALKER MCSPADDEN, Managing Editor "Edition Royale"
of Balzac's Works.

F. CUNLIFFE OWEN, Member Editorial Staff "New York
Tribune."

TRUMAN A. DEWEESE, Member Editorial Staff "Chicago
Times-Herald."

CHAMP CLARK, Member of Congress from Missouri.

MARCUS BENJAMIN, Editor, National Museum, Washington,
D. C.

CLARK HOWELL, Editor "Atlanta Constitution."

INTRODUCTIONS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES BY

THOMAS B. REED, HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE,
LORENZO SEARS, JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER,
CHAMP CLARK, EDWARD EVERETT HALE,
ALBERT ELLERY BERGH.

NOTE--A large number of the most distinguished speakers of this country
and Great Britain have selected their own best speeches for this
Library. These speakers include Whitelaw Reid, William Jennings Bryan,
Henry van Dyke, Henry M Stanley, Newell Dwight Hillis, Joseph Jefferson,
Sir Henry Irving, Arthur T. Hadley, John D. Long, David Starr Jordan,
and many others of equal note.

CONTENTS

VOLUME II
PAGE

EGGLESTON, GEORGE CARY
Southern Literature 423

ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM
Harvard and Yale 427

ELIOT, SAMUEL A.
The Source of Song and Story 431

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO
England, Mother of Nations 437
The Memory of Burns 439
War 442
The Wisdom of China 445

EVARTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL
International Arbitration 448
The Republic and Its Outlook 452
The French Alliance 457
Tribute to Herbert Spencer 462
The Classics in Education 465
Liberty Enlightening the World 469

EWING, THOMAS C.
Ohio and the Northwest 474

FARRAR, FREDERIC WILLIAM
Poet and Painter 479

FELLOWS, JOHN R.
North and South 482

FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY
The Telegraph 490
Early Connecticut 493

FINCH, FRANCIS M.
The Office of the Law 496

FOORD, JOHN
The Land o' Cakes 500

FORD, SIMEON
Me and Sir Henry 505
A Run on the Banker 507

FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY
Men of Letters 510

FULLER, MELVILLE WESTON
The Supreme Court 513

GARLAND, HAMLIN
Realism versus Romanticism 518

GILBERT, JOHN
Playing Old Men Parts 522

GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENK
Pinafore 524

GILMAN, DANIEL COIT
The Era of Universities 528

GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART
The Age of Research 530

GRADY, HENRY W.
The Race Problem 534

GRAND, SARAH
Mere Man 551

GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON
A Remarkable Climate 557
Characteristics of Newspaper Men 559
The Adopted Citizen 561

GRIGGS, JOHN WILLIAM
Social Discontent 564

HALE, EDWARD EVERETT
The Mission of Culture 570
Boston 577

HALL, WILLIAM F.
Yarn of the Manager Bold 581

HALSTEAD, MURAT
Our New Country 584

HARRISON, BENJAMIN
The Union of States 589

HAWLEY, JOSEPH ROSWELL
The Press 593

HAY, JOHN
Omar Khayyam 598

HAYES, RUTHERFORD B.
National Sentiments 601

HENDRIX, JOSEPH C.
The Wampum of the Indians 603

HERSCHELL, LORD
Great Britain and the United States 609

HILLARD, GEORGE STILLMAN
The Influence of Men of Genius 616

HOLE, SAMUEL REYNOLDS
With Brains, Sir! 622

HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL
Welcome to the Alumni 625
Dorothy Q. 627

HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, JR.
Sons of Harvard Who Fell in Battle 630
The Joy of Life 645

HOUGHTON, LORD (RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES)
Your Speech and Ours 635
Bonds of National Sympathy 639

HOWE, JULIA WARD
Tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes 645

HOWELL, CLARK
Our Reunited Country 647

HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN
The "Atlantic" and Its Contributors 653

HOWLAND, HENRY ELIAS
Russia 657
Our Ancestors and Ourselves 661

HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY
Science and Art 670

INGERSOLL, ROBERT GREEN
The Music of Wagner 672

IRVING, SIR HENRY
Looking Forward 676
The Drama 678
The Function of the Newspaper 681

JEBB, RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE
Literature and Art 686

JEFFERSON, JOSEPH
My Farm in Jersey 688
In Memory of Edwin Booth 691

KITCHENER, LORD
The Relief of Khartum 694

LANG, ANDREW
Problem Novels 698

LAURIER, WILFRID
Canada 702

LAWRENCE, FRANK R.
The Future of New York 705

LECKY, WILLIAM E. H.
The Artistic Side of Literature 708

LEE, FITZHUGH
The Flag of the Union Forever 710

LEIGHTON, SIR FREDERIC
Variety in British Art 713

LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY
Hans Breitmann's Return 717

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM
Central Ideas of the Republic 720

LODGE, HENRY CABOT
The Blue and the Gray 723

LONG, JOHN DAVIS
The Navy 727

LOW, SETH
The Chamber of Commerce 731

LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL
Harvard Alumni 737
National Growth of a Century 741
The Stage 745
Commerce 748
After-Dinner Speaking 750
"The Return of the Native" 753
Literature 758
International Copyright 761

LOWELL, JOHN
Humors of the Bench 766

LYTTON, LORD (SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON)
Macready and the English Stage 769
Farewell to Charles Dickens 774

MABIE, HAMILTON WRIGHT
Spirit of New England Literature 778

MACKAY, DONALD SAGE
The Dutch Domine 782

MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER C.
Music 787

MACREADY, WILLIAM CHARLES
Farewell to the Stage 791

McCARTHY, JUSTIN
Ireland's Struggle 795

McCLURE, ALEXANDER KELLY
An Editorial Retrospect 799

McKELWAY, ST. CLAIR
Smashed Crockery 807
Tribute to Mark Twain 811

McKINLEY, WILLIAM
Our Country 815
The Future of the Philippines 818

MELISH, WILLIAM B.
The Ladies 825

MILES, NELSON APPLETON
The Spanish-American War 831

MILLER, SAMUEL FREEMAN
Federal Judges 834

MORLEY, JOHN
Literature and Politics 838

MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP
The Poets' Corner 842

NEWMAN, JOHN PHILIP
Commerce 845

NORTON, CHARLES ELIOT
Castles in Spain 850

OGLESBY, RICHARD
The Royal Corn 853

O'REILLY, JOHN BOYLE
Moore, the Bard of Erin 856

_ILLUSTRATIONS_

VOLUME II

"JUSTICE" _Frontispiece_
Photo-engraving in colors after an original painting
by George W. Maynard

HENRY WOODFIN GRADY 534
Photogravure after a photograph from life

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 625
Photogravure after a photograph from life

ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL 672
Photogravure after a photograph from life

MENU CARD 676
Photogravure after a design by Thompson Willing

FANEUIL HALL 723
Photogravure after a photograph

"PATRIOTISM" 815
Photo-engraving in colors after an original painting
by George W. Maynard

GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON

SOUTHERN LITERATURE

[Speech of George Cary Eggleston at the first annual banquet of the New
York Southern Society, February 22, 1887. Algernon Sidney Sullivan,
President of the Society, was in the chair. In introducing the speaker
Mr. Sullivan said: "We want to hear a word about 'Southern
Literature,' and we will now call upon Mr. George Cary Eggleston to
respond to that sentiment."]

MR. PRESIDENT:--I have cheered myself so hoarse that I do not
think I can make a speech at all. I will say a word or two if my voice
holds out. It is patriotically hoarse.

If I manage to make a speech it will be the one speech of the evening
which was most carefully prepared. The preparations were all made,
arrangements were completed and it was perfectly understood that I
should not make it. The name set down under this toast is that of Hon.
John Randolph Tucker, and the wild absurdity of asking a writer who does
not make speeches, to take the place of such an orator as John Randolph
Tucker would seem to be like asking a seasick land-lubber to take the
captain's place upon the bridge of the ocean steamer in a storm, and
there is another reason by which I am peculiarly unfit to speak in
response to the toast--"Southern Literature," and that is, that I am
firmly convinced that there is no Southern Literature; that there never
was a Southern Literature; that there never will be a Southern
Literature, and that there never ought to be a Southern Literature. Some
very great and noble work in literature has been produced by men of
Southern lineage and birth and residence. John Marshall, if he had not
been the greatest of American jurists, would have been counted, because
of his "Life of Washington," the greatest of biographers. I might name
an extended list of workers in this field, all of Southern birth. Sims;
my dead friend, John Esten Cooke; his brother, Philip Cooke; Cable, who
is married to New England; the gifted woman who calls herself Charles
Egbert Craddock; and a host of others including that noble woman now
going blind in Lexington, who has done some of the sweetest work in
American poetry, Margaret J. Preston. [Applause.] I might go further and
claim Howells, every drop of whose blood is Virginian. If it were not
getting personal and becoming a family affair, I might mention the fact
that the author of the "Hoosier Schoolmaster," with whom I used to play
on the hills of Ohio River, was of direct Southern descent; that he was
born as I was, exactly on Mason and Dixon's line, and one of us fell
over on one side and the other on the other when the trouble came.

Notwithstanding all this, I hold that there can be no such thing as a
Southern Literature, because literature is never provincial, and to say
of any literature that it is Southern or Western or Northern or Eastern
is to say that it is a provincial utterance and not a literature. The
work to which I have referred is American literature. It is work of
which American literature is proud and will ever be proud, whatever is
worthy in literature or in achievement of any kind in any part of the
country goes ultimately in the common fund of American literature or of
American achievement; and that is the joy I have had in being here
to-night, when I ought to have been at home. The joy I have had to-night
has been that this sentiment of Americanism has seemed to be all around
me, and to run through and through everything that has been said here
to-night--a sentiment which was taken out of my mouth, as it were, by
the President this evening, that our first devotion above all is to what
I call the American idea. It seems to me that we are sometimes
forgetting what idea it is that has made this country great; what it is
that has made of it a nation of free men and educated men--a nation in
which the commonest laborer has the school open to him, as well as the
workshop; in which the commonest laborer can sit down three times every
day to a bountiful table. We sometimes forget the idea on which our
country was founded; the idea which prompted Jefferson, as a young man,
to stand up in the legislature of Virginia and fight through three bills
directly affecting mere questions of law, but determining the future of
this country more largely than any other acts,--even the acts of
Washington himself. Those three bills, one providing for the separation
of Church and State, one for the abolition of primogeniture, and the
third for the abolition of entail. The idea that ran through that time
was the idea of equal individual manhood--of the supremacy of the man to
all else, to the State itself, to Government and Society; that the
individual man was the one thing to be taken care of; that it is the
sole business of the Government to give him rights of manhood, to
protect him in his personal freedom, and then to let him alone.

We have imported of late subtly sophistical advocates of socialism who
would set up in opposition to these American ideas the system of State
paternalism, and assert the doctrine that the State should not let a man
alone to make the best use he can of his abilities and opportunities,
but should guide him and support him and direct him and provide for him
and, in short, make a moral and intellectual cripple of him. That is the
new and un-American idea which has recently been promulgated and which
has found expression in New York in 60,000 votes; it is the idea which
has been seized upon by those persons who have leagued themselves
together to secure to themselves larger profits upon their industry or
investments by taxing the whole people for the benefit of the few,
making the State the pap-giver, taking from the people the taxes that
should be rigidly limited to the needs of the government and turning
them into the pockets of the individual; supporting, helping and making,
as I have said, a cripple of him. That is the idea which has prompted in
large degree disturbances through which we have passed, and to which
reference has been made here to-night. It is the idea that somehow or in
some particular way a man should have some support other than his own
individual exertion, and absolute freedom can provide for him.

It seems to me that one lesson we here to-night should take most to
heart is that lesson taught by the whole history of our country, that
the American idea--the idea of the individuality and manhood of man,
the idea of a government formed simply to protect man, as individuals in
their rights, and leave them free in their action and mode of
thought--is the idea that has made this country great. It is in
pursuance of that that we have become the nation we are; it is by
adherence to that that we have become a model to all other nations, so
much so that in the German election yesterday, with the aid of friendly
foreign despots, with the aid of a threatened war, with all the aids
that imperialism can call to its assistance, Bismarck was able to carry
his point only by a small majority. This is the idea under which we have
founded our nation and grown great, and it is by that idea that we shall
continue great, if we are so to continue. [Applause.]

CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT

HARVARD AND YALE

[Speech of Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, at the
seventy-second anniversary banquet of the New England Society in the
City of New York, December 22, 1877. The President of the Society,
William Borden, presided, and said by way of introducing the speaker:
"Gentlemen, I now give you the sixth regular toast: 'Harvard and Yale,
the two elder sisters among the educational institutions of New
England, where generous rivalry has ever promoted patriotism and
learning. Their children have, in peace and war, in life and death,
deserved well of the Republic. Smile, Heaven, upon this fair
conjunction.' [Applause.] We are fortunate to-night, gentlemen, in
having with us the representatives of both these institutions, and I
will ask President Eliot, of Harvard, first, to respond." The allusion
made by President Eliot to the words of the Secretary of State refers
to the following remarks which William M. Evarts made in the course of
his address: "New England, I observe, while it retains all its
sterling qualities, is nevertheless moving forward in the direction of
conciliation and peace. I remember when I was a boy, I travelled 240
miles by stage-coach from Boston to New Haven to avoid going to
Harvard University which was across the Bridge. [Great applause and
laughter.] It was because of the religious animosities which pervaded
the community, and I suppose animated my youthful breast; and now here
I come to a New England Society, and sit between the Presidents of
those renowned universities, who have apparently come here for the
purpose of enjoying themselves, and of exhibiting that proximity is no
longer dangerous to the peace of those universities. [Applause and
laughter.] No doubt there is a considerable warfare going on between
them as to the methods of instruction; but to us who have looked on,
we have seen no more obtrusive manifestation of it than that the
President on my left, of Yale, in dealing with the subjects that have
successively been placed before him, has pursued the methods of that
university, its comprehensive method, that takes in the whole
curriculum; while on my right, the eclectic principle is exercised by
my friend, President Eliot [applause and laughter], and he has
confined himself to the dainty morsels of the repast. I speak of this
to show that, although an amelioration of climate or an obliteration
of virtues is not to be expected in New England, or in New England
men, yet there may be an advancement of the sunshine of the heart, and
that an incorporation of our narrow territory in a great nation, and a
transfusion of our opinions, our ideas, our purposes into the veins
of a nation of forty millions of people, may enlarge and liberalize
even the views, the plans, and the action of New England."]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--I am obliged to my friend Dr.
Clarke [James Freeman Clarke, D.D.] for the complimentary terms in which
he has presented me to you. But I must appeal to your commiseration.
Harvard and Yale! Can any undergraduate of either institution, can any
recent graduate of either institution, imagine a man responding to that
toast? [Laughter.] However, I must make the best of the position, and
speak of some points upon which the two institutions are clearly agreed.
And here I am reminded of a story of a certain New England farmer, who
said that he and 'Squire Jones had more cows between them than all the
rest of the village; and his brag being disputed, he said he could prove
it, for the 'Squire had forty-five cows and he had one, and the village
altogether had not forty-six. [Laughter.]

We shall all agree that it is for the best interests of this country
that it have sundry universities, of diverse tone, atmosphere, sphere,
representing different opinions and different methods of study to some
extent, and in different trainings, though with the same end.
[Applause.] Holding this view, I have been somewhat concerned to see of
late that the original differences between Harvard and Yale seem to be
rapidly disappearing. For example, a good many years ago, Harvard set
out on what is called the "elective" system, and now I read in the Yale
catalogue a long list of studies called "optional," which strikes me as
bearing a strong resemblance to our elective courses. [Laughter.] Again,
my friend the Secretary of State has done me the honor of alluding to
the reasons which induced his father, I suppose, rather than himself, to
send him on that journey, which we Harvard men all deplore. [Laughter.]

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