intelligent plan, the undaunted courage, and the heroic selfabandonment, whether of victor or vanquished, which exercise the perennial charm and in their justification of humanity form the spell of ballad and of story.

We are rich in such memories. To-day two such heroes have their appropriate recognition in this temple of the illustrious. The one, who exhibited his extraordinary military capacity in the war that saved the nation; the other, who dazzled the world with daring exploit in the war which made the nation possible. When John Paul Jones lashed the jib-boom of the Serapis to the mizzen mast of the Bon Homme Richard and with his motley crew engaged the disciplined British in one of the most deadly conflicts recorded in naval annals, he magnificently exhibited the spirit which won the War of Independence. It was not the physical results but the moral effect of a victory achieved under extraordinary conditions and through rare personal valor which gave it historical significance.

But more and more clearly do we understand that what we should prize most is not the occasional revelation of noble qualities of manhood in bloody warfare, but in their cultivation for purposes of peace and their manifestation in the every-day activities of an industrious people. Our attention is fixed upon the ideals of a peaceful society. And to-day we honor not alone the heroos of conquest, but also the framers of our governmental edifice, and the scientist, the author and the teacher-men and women notably influential in the development of our national life viewed in its broadest aspect. Among these are three men in the first. rank of American statesmanship. It is impossible in the brief word now permitted to attempt a just appreciation of their character and services. Two of them, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, are identified with that initial period of our national history when the Constitution was in the making. It has been well said that the years immediately following the successful ending of the War of Independence were the most critical in our history. The struggle which for want of effective union had been unnecessarily prolonged, left thirteen independent republics with mutual jealousies and aversions and with discordant views and antagonistic ambitions. There was wanting a national conscious

ness. And the great victory won in the War of Independence seemed to promise little more than the establishment of a number of petty governments arrayed against each other. But powerful as were the apparent forces driving the States apart, still more powerful was the pressure of common interests too long imperfectly recognized which were destined to bring them into an indissoluble union.

Finally in 1787 the Federal Convention met at Philadelphia. Among the men of distinguished merit who composed it Washington, Franklin, Hamilton and Madison were pre-eminent. Perhaps no assembly ever sat to deliberate upon the problems of government with four men who could be called their equals. Hamilton and Madison were young, the one thirty and the other thirty-six. To these two, more than to others, we owe our Federal Constitution. The one has been justly described as its "principal author," and the other as its "most brilliant advocate."

Hamilton was full of national spirit. He was the apostle of centralization and of national strength. Years before, when only twenty-three, he had set forth with rare lucidity and force the need of a "stronger government" with "an administration distinct from Congress." His was a master mind, acute in analysis, ready in construction, powerful in reasoning, capable in exccution. But he lacked confidence in the people and in popular government. Nevertheless as a true statesman, he sprang to the defense of the work of the Convention, which had failed in large measure to meet his views, and by the lucidity, force and persuasiveness of his arguments broke down the opposition and prepared the way for the triumph of the Constitution.

But great as was this service, even greater were his labors in establishing a system of government under the Constitution and in the constructive work of administration. As the first head of the Treasury Department, through his luminous reports and constructive financial measures, he insured at a critical time governmental stability and gave vigor to the national life. Under forms different from those which he preferred, the supreme objects of national strength and adequacy for which he mightily strove have been secured, and no one has more deeply impressed himself upon our national thought or infused into the workings of our Constitution a larger measure of his spirit and purpose.

James Madison, the Virginian, took the leading part in the work of the Convention of 1787. When Edmund Randolph presented to the Federal Convention the Virginia plan it was no secret that the work was largely that of Madison. He was a profound student of political history and by his leadership in the Convention won the title of the "Father of the Constitution." It is to this work and to the papers which he contributed to the "Federalist" that he owes his transcendent fame. Later he served the country in Congress, as Secretary of State and as President. But in his long carcer he never showed to the same advantage as when he brought his rare talents and the constructive skill of the student of government to the task of framing our fundamental law. The statesman was largely lost in party polities, and as President he was called to tasks foreign to his abilities. But his service to the nation in connection with the work of formulating its scheme of government will keep his fame imperishable.

It was this feeling which prompted the sentiment uttered by John Quincy Adams, the third American statesman whose tablet is unveiled to-day, on the death of Madison in 1836. "Of the band of benefactors of the human race, the founders of the Constitution of the United States, James Madison is the last who has gone to his reward. They have transmitted the precious bond of union to us, now entirely a succeeding generation to them. May it never cease to be a voice of admonition to us, of our duty to transmit the inheritance unimpaired to our children of the rising age."

Few careers in our history have been so distinguished for variety of important public service as that of John Quincy Adams.

Only ten years the junior of Hamilton, he lived until 1848. Under Washington he was Minister to The Hague, to Portugal and to Prussia. Later he was State Senator and United States Senator. After an eventful mission abroad as Minister to Russia and as one of the Commissioners in the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Ghent, he became Secretary of State under President Monroe, whom he succeeded as Chief Magistrate. Retiring at the age of sixty-two, he subsequently entered upon the most

important part of his career as Member of Congress, serving for about sixteen years, until he received the death stroke on the floor of the House.

To Mr. Adams must be attributed the first suggestions of what has come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. In 1823 he informed the Russian Minister "that we should contest the rights of Russia to any territorial establishments on this continent and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." This was the precursor of the famous declaration in President Monroe's message.

Ever characterized by independence and devotion to what he believed to be the right, his old age was devoted in no small part to the contest against slavery. With an indomitable spirit and extraordinary power in debate, strong in his absolute conviction of the righteousness of his cause, he was willing to stand alone, unterrified and unconquerable. His chief title to fame rests not upon official honors nor upon his holding the highest office in the nation's gift, but upon his service as the well-equipped and dauntless champion of human rights in our national assembly.

On an occasion like this we are vividly impressed with the fact that monuments may perpetuate names and form imperishable records, but they cannot confer fame or make enduring the respect of mankind. To serve their appropriate purpose they must record what is already written in the hearts of the people and stand as tribute to the continued esteem which alone they are powerless to perpetuate. In the review of our nation's history, short as it is, the petty schemes of political manipulators, the inconsequential victories in conflicts for the spoils of office, and ignoble efforts of selfishness appear in their true proportions. The nation is a sound critic and it pays its final homage to those who with inflexible purpose and fidelity to conscience have devoted their talents unreservedly to the service of the people. The trickster, the intriguer, and those who seek to win by strategy what public confidence will not bestow, quickly pass out of the notoriety which they may temporarily achieve, unless by reason of exceptional ability they may live to point a contrast. The nation is jealous of its ideals, and it never has been more insist

ent upon the straightforward conduct of public affairs than it is to-day. It demands of its representatives single-minded devotion to public duty and a knightly sense of honor in the administration of public office. We should lose no opportunity to enforce the lessons which may be drawn from the lives of those illustrious Americans by whom we as a people have been so richly served. And from their labors, of which these exercises are a fitting recognition, we may draw inspiration which will enable us to go forward undismayed to meet the problems thrust upon us by our rapidly extending activities.

When Governor Hughes ceased speaking, the Seventh Regiment Band played the "Star Spangled Banner," the whole assembly standing.

Address by Governor Guild.

The Chancellor, in introducing the second speaker, said:

A national tribunal called to designate famous Americans has made choice among forty names of fifteen who were born in Massachusetts. Of the eleven names inscribed to-day no less than five were natives of that State. This striking fact combined with another significant fact, namely: that to-day Massachusetts presents to the world as her chief magistrate a citizen who has sustained the traditions of the past, whether in war or in peace, convinced our Senate that no one in the nation could be more welcome as a speaker in the Hall of Fame at the present time than his Excellency, Curtis Guild, Jr., Governor of Massachusetts.

Governor Guild spoke as follows, his theme being "The Author and Teacher as Builders of a Republic:"

This is Memorial Day. Its beautiful rites consecrate it especially to those who have died for their country in war. The children are taken to Grant's magnificent monument on the heights above the Hudson and to the living bronze on Beacon Hill where Shaw at the head of his brave black soldiers "rides forever, forever rides." And this is well, for if greater love hath no man than this that he will lay down his life for his friend, surely greater patriotism hath no man than this that he will lay down his life for his country.