I have received the invitation forwarded by you, to attend the Lincoln dinner, to be given by the Republican Club on the evening of the 11th inst. It will not be possible for me to attend, for reasons that will occur to you. I cannot enter into any discussion of political questions, but beg to extend to you and your associates of the Republican Club my sincere thanks for faithful and energetic party work and to express my hope that the faith and courage of the Club will find in defeat stimulus, not discouragement. It cannot be denied that under Republican legisiation and, as we believe, by it the country has been brought to the highest prosperity. No period in our history can be indicated when the National fame and influence and the prosperity of the people were greater than now. If the Democratic party will put into law its platform declarations our people will be able to bring the discussion to a test of a near contrast; and from that test Republicans do not shrink.

Very sincerely yours,

BENJ. HARRISON,

720 PLAZA HOTEL,

NEW YORK, FEB. 6, 1893.

HON. JAMES A. BLANCHARD,

New York,

My Dear Mr. Blanchard:

It is a matter of much regret to me that a stubborn throat trouble, which will not permit me to be out doors in the night, will prevent my acceptance of your kind invitation to attend the Lincoln dinner of the Republican Club of the City of New York, on the evening of the 11th inst.

By the demonstration of large ability and skillful and faithful party work, your Club has won a place in National estimation as one of the main factors and more potential forces in American politics. It affords the only place in New York City, of which I know, where a wayfaring Republican may find ready entrance and cordial welcome. It has given something like one open

door, in this National centre, where a Republican stranger may find evidence of party fellowship, and a feeling something like that of home.

While older and more pretentious clubs have lagged in party work, or been merely spasmodic in party duty, this Club has labored with equal diligence and fidelity for the good of Republicanism, and set a splendid example in the past year or two, especially in the campaign it has made for the party in the open field, and on the tribune of public controversy and contest.

It would be a pleasure and an honor to me to meet with its members when they dedicate an evening to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the first of all Republicans, and, in my judgment, the first of all Americans, whose serene and lofty fame has now become the cherished possession of the world.

The habit of giving honor to the birthdays of the greater leaders of the Republican party may well be applauded and encouraged.

No other political party in the history of the world has given so many men to the homage of contemporaneous mankind, and to immortality in history, as the Republican party has given in a few short years-in Lincoln and Grant and Blaine.

No other party, in American history at least, has ever developed Lincolns, and Grants and Blaines, for the reason that no other party has espoused the principles and made the heroic struggles for human welfare, in which alone it is possible for such men to be developed.

At every stage in their careers they had to meet and overcome the opposition and bear the constant and unpitying malice of the Democratic party. But now Democrats vie with Republicans in expressing pride of country in them as Americans in whom all Americans claim common interest and honor.

How much there is, then, to reassure Republicans in the truth and greatness of their party and its principles, when, even in this early day of their own generation, Democrats are claiming, in the name of the greatness of America, a common share in the glory of the names of Lincoln, Grant and Blaine.

The power of contrast will but add to the majesty of the fact, when the Democratic party is asked to give the names of its leaders, in any generation, who have also won the homage of the world, or the common applause of their own countrymen.

The Republican party can do nothing more wise in a party sense, or more patriotic in a public sense, than to adopt, very generally, social celebrations of the birthdays of these three greater leaders of their greater contests.

In the lives of all of them, and particularly in two of them, ran the quality of pathos, and a vein of deep human feeling, as with all men who have suffered and served for their fellowmen. The struggling millions in the ages to come will find in this peculiar fact in their careers, that touch of sympathy which, equally with greatness and fame, wins immortality and the love of the world.

With you, and with all the gallant members of the Republican Club of the City of New York, I salute, with the reverence of an American, and the pride of a Republican, the memory of this great trinity of our party leaders.

Sincerely yours,

JAMES S. CLARKSON.

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE,

UNITED STATES SENATE, FEB. 3, 1893.

MR. HENRY MELVILLE, Secretary of the Republican Club,

I thank the Republican Club very heartily for the invitation to attend the Seventh Annual Dinner in commemoration of Lincoln's birthday, to be given Saturday, February 11th, 1893. I remember with infinite satisfaction a similar occasion some years ago, and would derive great pleasure from a repetition of the experience. Unfortunately a prior engagement for the same night prevents me from accepting your kind invitation.

Let there be no "funeral baked meats" at your banquet. The Republican party is not dead even in the State of David B. Hill, sometimes called New York. It will exist so long as the memory of Lincoln shall prompt Americans to patriotic endeavor.

Truly yours,

(Signed) CHARLES F. MANDERSON.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U. S.

WASHINGTON, D. C., FEB. 8, 1893.

C. H. DENISON, ESQ., of Committee,

My Dear Sir:

I regret that I shall be unable to accept the very cordial invitation to attend the Seventh Annual "Lincoln Dinner" of the Republican Club, of the City of New York on the 11th inst.

Be sure that my thoughts and sympathies will be with you on that occasion, and please express to your officers and members my thanks for their remembrance, and my best wishes for the continued prosperity and usefulness of their splendid organization.

Such stalwart and indomitable associations of the best men of the party must prove the citadels around which Republicanism will rally from its recent disasters, to move in irresistible line of battle as of old in the greater contests of the near future.

Although I cannot share your generous festivities this season, whenever I can strike a blow for "The Cause" under your banner, you need only sound the call for

Yours truly,

(Signed) C. A. BOUTELLE.

U. S. SENATE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., FEB. 10, 1893.

HON. JAMES A. BLANCHARD,

My Dear Sir:

New York City, N. Y.

It was with deep regret that I telegraphed Secretary Melville, that owing to sickness it would be impossible for me to attend the "Lincoln Dinner”, Saturday evening.

Nothing could be more appropriate on a Lincoln Anniversary than a sentiment to and a response from the West. Mr. Lincoln was a child of the West. He discovered in the valley of the Mississippi the silent Grant, the greatest general of the greatest war.

The coming of Mr. Lincoln, the plain country lawyer of Illinois, to the City of New York in 1859, to deliver an address at the Cooper Institute marks a new period in the history of the West. It seems to have been destined from that moment that he was to become the leader of the Republican party, a party which should for a generation control and successfully direct the affairs of the government. He had scarcely been inaugurated President before he recognized the importance of organizing new territories and creating new states, which should become allied to the liberty-loving and patriotic portions of this country, then struggling to maintain and perpetuate the union of States. From the date of his inauguration to the present time, the development, growth and population, and increase of wealth in the Trans-Mississippi country has been unprecedented. That the West is truly great is largely due to Lincoln, and the principles he represented.

Very respectfully,

JOSEPH M. CAREY.