fabric of government, may well take lesson and rebuke from him who had more to forgive his party than any member of it, who bore its burdens and shaped its policy, yet who never sulked and never hesitated in advocacy of its principles.

To three-fourths of us the days of reconstruction bring no personal meaning, and stand as a remote epoch interesting only as history. To the participants in the legislation of that period the days were crammed with interest and excitement. The central figure was Blaine. He realized as few of his party did that the eventual re-establishment of the Union must include the states lately in rebellion. A party man and a partisan, he rose above the fevered passions of the hour; above the influences of resentments which followed a bloody conflict, and, facing the opposition within his party of men who believed that those who had appealed to the sword should pay the penalty usually exacted of a conquered foe, he stood like a rock against an extended military occupation of the South. It was through his efforts that a defeated people were permitted to resume participation in political affairs upon the adoption of the fourteenth amendment. More than that, while he foresaw the suppression of the negro vote of the South, yet because of its essential unfairness he successfully resisted the attempt to make representation dependent upon the vote and not upon population. He was a Republican-no truer or better one ever lived but he was first a statesman, and the reuniting and knitting together of a once dismembered Union, until to-day one equal patriotism pervades the land, was accomplished largely because of his wisdom and judgment. And, when he laid down the gavel as Speaker, he received the deserved and equal applause of the members of both the great political parties.

It was during this period, and when his greatness began to overshadow the ambitions of other men, that his calumniators commenced their work. He was a shining mark, courageous and open as the day. Conscious of rectitude, he was careless of the appearance of things, and every assault that slander could devise or infamy suggest was leveled against him. The attacks were continued, because year after year he grew stronger in the hearts of the people, and calumny seemed the only weapon which could poison reputation. How pitiful these charges seem to-day. Printed word and speech and caricature

He was labeled the

were alike brought into requisition. "tattooed man," with the result that his name was tattooed in all our hearts in living letters that will never fade while those hearts beat. The charges, false and unwarranted, faded away and vanished into the sewer from which they came. They injured only the people who made them, illustrating,

"What all experience serves to show,

No mud can soil us but the mud we throw."

To the American people who love fair play and an open foe, each year of public service brought added trust and confidence. He was our leader, the embodiment to us of all that was verile and vital and forceful in our party polity, our ideal of true and lofty American patriotism. No mention was needed of these old and almost forgotten attacks, but now that he is gone, it is worth while to recall them, if only to illustrate the brief and ignoble life which is accorded to calumny and slander, and the character of attack to which men of this Republic are subjected who stand in the glare of public life and in the way of others' aspirations.

The far-seeing and distinguished ability which Mr. Blaine brought to the administration of the State Department has reflected a luster upon our relations with foreign countries gratifying to every American citizen. Tenacious to our rights, animated with a profound conviction of the splendid destiny of the Republic, he strengthened everywhere the respect of foreign nations for our flag. During his administrations no American had reason to blush for his country, or to doubt that her honor would be everywhere maintained.

Mr. Blaine was intensely American, and the limits of America which he believed should exist under free institutions were bounded by the two oceans, by Hudson's Bay and the Straits of Magellan. No grander view ever dawned upon the eye of faith than opened to his prophetic vision. Separated by a protecting ocean from old forms, and castes and crumbling traditions, he looked forward with confidence to the time when Republics only should occupy these continents, hating kingcraft and tyrany, consecrated to freedom, and living in terms of closest intimacy with their sister governments. In furtherance of the accomplishment of this design he gathered together

the Pan-American Congress, and devised that grand and beneficent policy of reciprocity which has already largely increased our commerce with these countries, and which will, if followed, prove of inestimable value to us and to them.

The vision which Blaine saw was not fanciful or unreal. We may not all of us live to see its realization, but largely because of the impetus he gave to the movement, the day will come when the two Americas will join hands in closest friendship, allied for mutual protection against encroachments from abroad, and furnishing to the oppressed and liberty loving of the old world a home where throughout the length and breadth of the continent they may share in the blessings of free and enlightened self-government.

The personal side of Mr. Blaine's character and life was bright with sunshine. He never cared for the Presidency save when in 1876, in the prime of his manhood, he was defeated before the convention, and those who have pictured him as personally ambitious and cankered by disappointment know little of the man. To him life was bright and happy, and his home was a sanctuary where politics and bitterness never entered. The swift-following bereavements which fell upon that devoted household broke his heart and spirit; political reverses never touched even the surface of his buoyant nature. The sorrow within his home is sacred; the widow of the great statesman, who sits sadly in that quiet house, must bear the burden of her bereavement alone, but the respectful and affectionate sympathy of a nation surrounds her, and the good will and devotion of millions of loving hearts attend her.

It is not critical of other men in political life to say that for many years Mr. Blaine had been the overshadowing presence in the Republican party. His hand guided, his brain directed. The fierce strife that beat about him prevented his receiving the high recognition which the homage of the rank and file of his party sought to pay him; but no Republican administration commanded public confidence in which his brain or the policy which he had outlined did not control or direct. He cherished no animosities. For himself, as I have said, he cared nothing; for his party, everything. And not his party alone engrossed his thoughts. Like a woman in the warmth of affections, no friend ever called for aid and counsel

ADDRESS OF SENATOR EDWARD O. WOLCOTT.

37

and left him without them. No man ever came close to him who was not forever after his friend. They called it magnetism, but it defied definition. He was the most human of men. Quick in impulse, and warm of heart, he seemed to us as well our ideal as our chief, our captain. The memory of him will ever abide with us, recalled with every instinct of patriotism and revived with every aspiration for the future glory of the Republic.

When such a figure passes from us, it is as if some lighthouse that for a generation had marked the course from the open sea to the haven of safety; which showed the rocks, the shallows, the treacherous lee shore, and pointed the channel, should suddenly and forever go out in darkness. Men, however, are born to die, and the great principles to which he devoted his life still live, and will endure as long as men value free institutions.

The recent defeat marks no sign of decadence of the party, nor does it indicate that its usefulness has departed. The reasons which impelled the voters of the country to again depose the Republican party from power were many and complex. We might not agree as to them, and discussion on the subject would be useless. But we may agree with Solomon, who tells us: "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider." And there is no doubt that at this particular crisis in the affairs of the party it is rather more incumbent on us to "consider" than to be "joyful.”

That wise old man, however, again reminds us, that if we faint in the day of adversity our strength is small. No party can in these stirring and progressive days rest on the laurels of a glorious past. The party to which we give allegiance has stood for thirty years the embodiment of all that has lifted up this Nation, and made it free, and the history of the party is the history of the growth and development of our country. All this is delightful to recall, but if the party is to live and grow and dominate, then, as the play says, "We will not anticipate the past; our retrospection should be all in the future."

Old questions assume new importance; new questions arise and must be answered; and true to its instincts, its traditions, and its principles, the Republican party will answer them on the side of progress and humanity.

We meet to-night undaunted and undismayed in the face of temporary defeat, to take each other by the hand, to give token, as brother to brother, that our loins are girded about and our lights burning, and to pledge each other anew to the principles of our beloved party.

As the years come and go, our trusted bearers of the standard, to whom we looked for cheer and for guidance, are called from us. No tribute of words avail us

"The silent organ loudest chants

The Master's requiem;"

and the highest homage we can pay them is in pressing forward along the path they cleared, and in renewed devotion to the principles their lives illumined.

And so, my friends, we pledge each other to the memory of our departed leader. Brave, sincere, patriotic, gallant, magnanimous, and intrepid. Rarely, since men have been born, has so lovable and true a soul, a "fairer spirit, or more welcome shade,' " been ferried over the river. The world is better because he was of it; we are better for the inspiration of his presence, and the stimulus of his example. He will shine for us, and for those who come after us, as "The star of the unconquered will." When the rancours and the political animosities of this generation shall have passed away, patriotic men of all parties will pay their full tribute of respect and admiration to the memory of James Gillespie Blaine.

We who knew him, and have come under the charm of his presence, and felt the fires of patriotic devotion which he kindled, will mourn him because we loved him. If

"To live in hearts we leave behind

Is not to die,"

he is still of us, and with us; still shares our aspirations for the future of our common country, though his soul,

'Like a star,

Beacons from the abode where the eternal are."