ADDRESS OF SECRETARY CHARLES FOSTER.

THE PRESIDENT:

Gentlemen: Our idea of the Solar System is that there should be a central sun, and planets revolving around it; all nearly of equal brilliancy. We had such a system formed in 1888, when our present Administration, consisting of our distinguished President and Cabinet officers assembled in Washington. We were not accustomed then to hear of Cabinet Portfolios being peddled around the country like tinware. (Applause.) We cannot say just what sort of Cabinet, we shall have on the 5th day of March; possibly it may be a moon with a few long tailed comets revolving around it; but one thing is certain, for the last four years we have enjoyed a great and as nearly perfect administration as has ever been in this country. (Cries of "Good!" "Good!" Mr. Harrison placed in his Cabinet at the head of his Department of State that great Secretary who within the last few days has passed to his rest. He called to the chair of another department that distinguished financier who fell here in this room in speaking to some of us upon a like occasion. He was succeeded by another great minister of finance who has carried on the Treasury under difficulties, and probably under circumstances which have tested his strength to the utmost. He is here to-night. (Applause.) And I will ask you to drink the next regular toast, "The Administration." It has added New Lustre to the Party that created it, and will stand in the light of History uneclipsed by any of its predecessors; and the present Secretary of the Treasury will stand in history uneclipsed by any of his predecessors. I now have the great honor of introducing the Honorable Charles Foster, ex-Governor of the State of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury. (Cheers.)

THE ADMINISTRATION:

It has added new lustre to the Party that created it, and will stand in the light of history uneclipsed by any of its predecessors.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB.

I think it is asking a good deal of a modest Ohio man (cheers) to undertake to eulogize an administration of which he is a part. I came here to-night wholly unprepared, depending upon the inspiration of the occasion, and if I fail in making a fairly good speech, I am sure it will not be for want of inspiration. You Republicans, here in New York, I really think, from your actions to-night, feel better than if you had won. (Cries of “Oh, No!") Certainly, you are ready at once to renew the battle. (Cries of Sure! Sure!")

The Administration, Fellow Republicans, represents the Republican Party. The Republican Party never yet met a responsibility, a problem so difficult, so troublesome, so embarrassing, that it was not able to successfully solve. (Applause.) This Administration, like all the Republican Administrations that have preceded it, has successfully solved every embarrassing problem that has been brought before it. (Applause.)

I apprehend, my fellow citizens, that some of us may think that President Harrison (Applause and cheers), is possessed of some of the solemnity that has just been derided by our distinguished orator, Col. Ingersoll. I am about to give an illustration to show that this is not true of him-that he is full of humor and of good nature; and the story I am about to tell illustrative of this point, I beg of the reporters not to print. I have a good reason for asking that, for the gentleman who is the victim of the joke, grand old Jerry Rusk, who has performed his duty with the greatest possible credit and value to the country (applause), said he would murder me if I ever told it. When the Cabinet assembled just prior to Thanksgiving, the President read to us his Thanksgiving Proclamation. It was quite a gem, as you know, if you read it; and I first thought the reading was for the purpose of showing how eloquent he could be, and how nicely he could prepare a thing of that kind, because it was an unusual proceeding. He said, after reading it, "Gentlemen, I have read this proclamation to you, for the reason that I desired to take your judgment upon a certain matter in relation to it.

Since I prepared it, I have received the report of the Secretary of Agriculture, and I am not quite sure, but what I ought to include him with the Almighty. (Laughter.)

I think the country concedes now that the great office of President is filled by perhaps as able a man as ever sat in the Presidential Chair. (Applause.) He possesses many of the traits described by Col. Ingersoll of Abraham Lincoln. He never did a thing in the world that he did not think was right. (Applause.) A more thoroughly conscientious man never sat in that place. (Applause.) All the cajoling of his Cabinet and friends cannot induce him to make a bad appointment, if he knows it. Headed by such a man, gentlemen, it is not surprising that his administration and that his cabinet ministers have been perhaps an unusual success. Beginning with our State Department, headed as it was in the beginning by that peerless statesman, who is now gone to his long rest (cries of "Blaine!" "Blaine!"), the country has been given a position and a character in the matter of its diplomacy that it never had before; as thoroughly courageous in dealing with Great Britain, as it was in dealing with Chili or Italy. It may yet in the last three weeks of its administration, and probably will, I am not telling Cabinet secrets-add another lustre to its fame, by annexing the Hawaiian Islands. (Applause.) By the way, at the Gridiron Dinner, the other evening, one of these commissioners, I have forgotten his name, in accounting for the name of the Sandwich Islands, said that in the early days when the people could not pronounce Hawaii,they called it Sandwich Islands. That is a little bit of history I want to give you as I go along.

The Treasury Department is always troublesome. Thirtynine great divisions; thirty-nine different subjects, with hundreds of branches for a Secretary to handle. Financial matters for the past two years have been a little troublesome, and are not in the pleasantest condition just now; but they form, after all, but a very small part of the attention of that great office. In the four years of President Harrison's administration it has collected from the people nearly fifteen hundred millions of dollars and disbursed it all, and our Democratic friends say some more, without the loss of a penny, either in collecting or in the disbursing. Our Democratic friends, for the past two years have had a great deal to say about the bankruptcy of the Treasury, and have said it in

such a way as to make me feel, at least, that if there were any two things in God's world that would give comfort to the soul of a Democrat, it would be that the people of this country should fail to make tin, and that the Treasury should become bankrupt. (Laughter and applause.)

Two years ago we heard a great deal about a Billion Dollar Congress, and our Democratic friends have found out by this time that this is a Billion Dollar Country. (Applause.) The Treasury is not bankrupt; it will not be bankrupt (cries of "Good! Good!"), unless Democratic mismanagement in the future makes it so. (Laughter.) We have a little trouble on the gold question just now; people seem to be alarmed lest we might go on to silver payments or that some undefinable thing is likely to happen. It has been the proud boast of the Republican Party in its financial legislation and administration to secure for this people a currency, consisting of paper, silver and gold each dollar of which was equal to any other dollar. (Applause.) That has been the policy of the Republican Party. It has succeeded in achieving these conditions, and I have not an earthly doubt, were it to continue in power that these happy conditions would continue to prevail. (Cries of "Bravo.")

I am not here to-night, to say what the action of the Secretary of the Treasury is to be in the next three weeks, but I am here to say that all the power he possesses, if necessary, will be used to preserve gold payments to the end of his term (applause), and the present Secretary trusts in God that the new administration, the new President and the new Secretary may be as successful in this regard as President Harrison's administration has been. (Applause.) Good Lord! my Republican friends, what are we to expect from this crazy-quilt Democracy, that is now in power. My best wishes go with them. I have my fears as to whether now they will develop a capacity for affairs, they never have developed heretofore.

I do not care to take up the different departments of government; they have all been well handled, and the country under this administration exhibits a prosperity in all respects never before enjoyed by this people; labor better employed and better paid; business more prosperous; money good; less failures, and yet, I do not want to say that our people are stupid, but they did deliberately put this Republican Party out of power when these

conditions prevailed, and took the chances with Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party.

I said a number of times in my speeches that if the people of this country could believe that the Democratic Party would do what they said they would do, there would be no question about President Harrison's election. The people took Bourke Cockran's idea of a platform as their guide. He said a platform is made to get in on, and not to stand on. (Laughter.)

Now, my fellow Republicans, I am very glad of this opportunity of meeting this honorable and renowned Republican Club of New York. Your boast is that you have no Mugwumps among you (applause), no Tammany attachees; you are straight, true-blue Republicans, and I am glad to know that you are ready for the fight again.

When four years roll around I imagine that the people of this country will come to the conclusion that they better put back into power this Republican Party that has been so successful in its legislation, and its administration of the great affairs of this country and Republican triumph in 1896, with the help of this great Republican Club will certainly follow. (Great Applause.) (Three cheers were then given for Secretary Foster.)