of the world, and such it is to-day. (Applause.) It pledged itself to repair the losses and devastations of civil war, to bring prosperity to the land, to provide the industries which should take care of the rising generation, and absorb the half a million of immigrants who come here every year; and the fulfillment of the pledge is evidenced in every hamlet and town and city of the country. Have the Democracy fulfilled their pledges? They have been out of power for a generation, because they gave no pledges. The people always want something positive. Negations have no place in the success of life, whether they are human ciphers or fruitless policies.

The Democracy have simply denounced Republican principles and criticised all Republican measures. Now, however, they are facing the responsibilities of clear and unmistakable pledges. Will they be redeemed? The most explicit pledge and promise of the Democratic platform was to repeal the purchasing clause of the Sherman Silver Act; but yesterday there appeared in Washington, armed with imperial mandate from the chosen leader of the party, two gentlemen-one representing the interior and the other the exterior-calling upon the Democratic House of Representatives, which has a two-thirds majority, to fulfill this plank in the Democratic platform. A majority of the Democratic representatives voted "No;" and Mr. Bland, their leader, sent back the defiant message: "If Mr. Cleveland attempts to carry out those promises of Chicago, we, the majority of his party, will split the organization and wreck his administration." The Democratic majority are appealing to us to help them fulfill their pledges against the wishes of a majority of themselves. It is sound finance; it is good business as well as the fulfillment of party pledges, to repeal the compulsory silver purchase clause at the earliest possible moment. At whatever cost, at whatever sacrifice, the National Treasury of the richest country of the world must be able to redeem its pledges in gold or in a currency which is the equivalent of gold. (Applause.)

With the temporary abdication of power which has resulted from the elections of 1892, the first chapter of the history of the Republican party is closed. Every page is illumined with the story of heroic deeds, beneficent measures and mighty men. It opens with the life and career of that immortal genius and plain man, whose memory we celebrate to-night, Abraham Lincoln.

It closes with the death of that magnetic personality, that brilliant statesman, that unequaled party leader, that loved tribune of the people, whose death we mourned but yesterday, James G. Blaine. It is an object lesson for all future times of the possibilities from poverty to distinction under American liberty.

Lincoln, the rail splitter; Grant, from the crossroads country store in the wilderness; Garfield, ragged and barefooted, from the towpath of the canal; Blaine, from the rural printing officethey claimed the homage of the world and the devoted affection and admiration of their countrymen. (Applause.)

The Roman mother, when asked what she had done for her country, pointed to her sons. The Republican party when asked what it has done for the Republic, points to the Republic itself.

ADDRESS OF SENATOR EDWARD O. WOLCOTT.

THE PRESIDENT :

We had expected that there would be with us to-night a distinguished Senator from Wyoming, who lives way up in the clouds, where he looks right over Chicago, as he ought to do, down into New York (laughter), but, unfortunately, sickness detains him, and he has sent us a letter, instead of responding to the toast of the "Great West", as we had anticipated. I will ask you to drink with me the next toast, "The Great West. No man ever grew up in the agricultural regions of the West, where a house raising, or even a corn husking, is a matter of common interest and hopefulness, with any other feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence." Mr. Henry Melville, the Secretary of the Dinner Committee, will read the letter. Mr. Melville then read Senator Carey's letter.

THE PRESIDENT:

In all the years the Republican Club has celebrated the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, no name has ever been received in this hall on such occasions as this with greater genuine enthusiasm than that of James G. Blaine. His eulogy was begun at the National Convention, last June, and we have very profitably asked the same gentleman who commenced that speech on that occasion to continue it this evening. I think that you will agree with me that no one can do it so well as he. I will ask you to drink with me the next toast, and I will ask you to rise when you drink that toast.

OUR DEPARTED LEADER:

"The historian and the biographer may fail to do him justice, but the instinct of mankind will not fail."-LODGE.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:

At first thought it might not appear seemly that a banquet should furnish occasion for a eulogy on a great man, gone but a few days ago, leaving a grief which still chokes our utterance when we speak of him.

We meet, however, a party and partisan organization devoted to principles to the embellishment of which his life was given, continuing the work which was for a generation the labor of his hands, and heart, and brain; and there could be nothing more fitting, as we close up the ranks, than to recount his glories, recall the splendid cheer his life and example have given us, and renew our allegiance to the party he did so much to establish and maintain. He is dead, but the example and lesson of his life bring to us only joy and hope for our glorious country, and new courage for the future.

"Death is life's high meed,"

certain and blessed, and when it comes to crown a finished life our grief is merged in the pleasure we feel that such a man lived with us and was of us.

These have been busy days with the Reaper, and Mr. Blaine did not start alone on his long journey. The judiciary has suffered great loss, and in all the walks of life strong men and great men have departed from us.

Like clouds that rake the mountain summits,

Or waves that own no curbing hand,

How fast has brother followed brother,
From sunshine to the sunless land!

The last of the Republican ex-Presidents went quietly to the other side but a few days ago.

There will always be differ

ences of opinion in the other great political party respecting his title to his high office, and in ours as to the wisdom of the policy which inaugurated his administration. No man, however, of purer life, and cleaner thought, or higher character, ever filled public station. His administration was progressive and healing; his Cabinet, which included Evarts and Devens, was

characterized by marked ability. No taint ever touched his stewardship, and when, in later times, the history of this country comes to be written, the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes will be mentioned with respect, and the recognition of his pure and blameless life will be grateful and universal.

Mr. Blaine was a descendant of men who fought in the war of independence, and the Americanism which permeated him came through birth, descent, and tradition. His youth and younger manhood were typical of the young American, independent and self-sustaining. He early had the public for his audience through the columns of a newspaper which he owned and edited. Destined for a public career, he served first in the Legislature of his adopted State, then in Congress, where for three terms he was Speaker of the House, afterward in the Senate of the United States, and was twice Secretary of State. He was once a candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency, and he has written a political history of his time which will live as a standard and a final authority. This is the bare, cold summary of his official career, and serves only as the frame for the life which, for nearly thirty years, was the chief controlling influence in American politics.

He seemed young when he died, for you know "We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count." Yet his life was rounded, and was complete, and filled with achievement. Fullness of accomplishment, if not fullness of years. was his. His lot was cast in turbulent times, and his indomitable will and splendid body carried him through more of struggle than any man of his generation had endured.

From the commencement of his career, even during the clouded days preceding the war, he cast his fortunes on the side of human freedom, and he never wavered. There are few

men of upward of sixty years, active in political affairs, who in the kaleidocopic changes of the period have not found themselves in positions which subsequently proved untenable. From boyhood until his death Mr. Blaine saw with vision unclouded and certain. He was a delegate to the convention of 1856, and from Fremont to Harrison he never wavered, and his Republicanism knew no variableness or shadow of turning. We who sometimes air our petty personal grievances, and fancy that if we are slighted there is something wrong in the