burns. His name will stand imperishable when epitaphs have vanished utterly, and monuments and statues have crumbled into dust; but the people of this great city, everywhere renowned for their deeds of generosity, have covered it anew with glory in fashioning in enduring bronze, in rearing in monumental rock 5 that magnificent tribute to his worth which was to-day unveiled in the presence of countless thousands. As I gazed upon its graceful lines and colossal proportions I was reminded of that childlike simplicity which was mingled with the majestic grandeur of his nature. The memories clustering about it will 10 recall the heroic age of the Republic; it will point the path of loyalty to children yet unborn; its mute eloquence will plead for equal sacrifice, should war ever again threaten the nation's life; generations yet to come will pause to read the inscription which it bears, and the voices of a grateful people 15 will ascend from the consecrated spot on which it stands, as incense rises from holy places, invoking blessings upon the memory of him who had filled to the very full the largest measure of human greatness and covered the earth with his

renown.

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8. During his last illness an indescribably touching incident happened which will ever be memorable and which never can be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed it. Even at this late date I can scarcely trust my own feelings to recall it. It was on Decoration Day in the city of New York, the last 25 one he ever saw on earth. That morning the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans in that vicinity, arose earlier than was their wont. They seemed to spend more time that morning in unfurling the old battle flags, in burnishing the medals of honor which decorated their breasts, 30 for on that day they had determined to march by the house of their dying commander to give him a last marching salute. In the streets the columns were forming; inside the house, on that bed from which he was never to rise again, lay the stricken

chief. The hand which had seized the surrendered swords of countless thousands could scarcely return the pressure of the friendly grasp. The voice which had cheered on to triumphant victory the legions of America's manhood could no longer 5 call for the cooling draught which slaked the thirst of a fevered tongue; and prostrate on that bed of anguish lay the form which in the New World had ridden at the head of conquering columns, which in the Old World had been deemed worthy to stand with head covered and feet sandaled in the presence of 10 princes, kings, and emperors. Now his ear caught the sound of martial music. Bands were playing the same strains which had mingled with the echoes of his guns at Vicksburg, the same quicksteps to which his men had sped in hot haste in pursuit of Lee through Virginia. And then came the heavy, 15 measured steps of moving columns, a step which can be acquired only by years of service in the field. He recognized it all now. It was the tread of his old veterans. With his little remaining strength he arose and dragged himself to the window. As he gazed upon those battle flags dipping to him 20 in salute, those precious standards bullet-riddled, battle-stained, but remnants of their former selves, with scarcely enough left of them on which to print the names of the battles they had seen, his eyes once more kindled with the flames which had lighted them at Shiloh, on the heights of Chattanooga, amid 25 the glories of Appomattox, and as those war-scarred veterans looked with uncovered heads and upturned faces for the last time upon the pallid features of their old chief, cheeks which had been bronzed by Southern suns and begrimed with powder were bathed in tears of manly grief. Soon they saw rising the 30 hand which had so often pointed out to them the path of victory. He raised it slowly and painfully to his head in recognition of their salutations. The last of the columns had passed, the hand fell heavily by his side. It was his last military salute.

THE IMMORTALITY OF GOOD

DEEDS

THOMAS BRACKETT REED

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE SEMICENTENNIAL OF GIRARD COLLEGE, JANUARY 3, 1898.

INTRODUCTION

Thomas Brackett Reed, lawyer and statesman, “Czar” of the House of Representatives from 1889 to 1899, was born in Portland, Maine, October 18, 1839. He worked his way through college, graduating from Bowdoin in 1860 with high honors both for scholarship and literary talent. He taught school, acted as paymaster in the navy for a year during the Civil War, studied law, began practice at Portland, but soon entered politics, and after holding several State offices was elected to Congress in 1876 on the Republican ticket. His subsequent career is chiefly remembered for the part he played as member, and particularly as Speaker, of the House of Representatives. Here he at once became a power because of his readiness in debate, his easy mastery of important political issues, and his remarkable executive ability in managing and controlling men and factions. Elected Speaker of the House in the Fifty-first Congress, the vigor of his administration at once attracted widespread attention. His rulings became widely famous. One of his methods was to complete a quorum by ordering recorded as present on the roll call the names of Democrats present who did not answer to the roll call, thereby reversing the practice of the House. The resulting assaults upon him as "Czar," which were essentially just, did not in the slightest degree disturb his equanimity, and he lived to see his rulings justified in popular approval, since they stopped the dangerous blocking

5

of the public work. On April 20, 1899, Mr. Reed announced his retirement from political life, ending his speakership with the close of the Fifty-fifth Congress. After a brief period of renewed law practice in New York City he died, December 7, 1902.

With the allaying of the party strife engendered during his political career, Mr. Reed has come to be generally regarded as one of the nation's strong men. Strength, intellectual and moral, was his most pronounced characteristic. For twenty-two years consecutively he was leader of his party in Congress, either on the floor of the House or in the Speaker's chair. This long lease of power was rendered possible not alone because of superior intellectual qualities for leadership, but also because of strong moral qualities. It was Mr. Reed's moral force which enabled him to eventually maintain his revolutionary rulings, for his integrity and sense of honor were beyond the question of his political adversaries, even when their animosities were most bitter and passionate. Honorable Joseph G. Cannon says of him, “Thomas B. Reed was the strongest intellectual force, crossed on the best courage, among all men in public life whom I have known."

For the most part Mr. Reed's public speaking was of course in the field of political oratory. Herein he stood preeminent. His epigrams were frequently used with more effect by campaign managers than other men's whole speeches. Mr. Reed had at least a theoretical dislike for mere oratory. He is reported to have thanked Heaven that the House of Representatives was not a deliberative body. He also disliked long speeches. He thought that a man ought to be able to say all that was worth saying in a short speech. This predilection for brevity, the lawyer's instinct for seizing upon the strong points of a case, and also skill in oratory proper - - elevation of sentiment and adequacy of expresare well illustrated in the following oration.

sion

1. Six hundred and fifty or seventy years ago, England, which, during the following period of nearly seven centuries, has been the richest nation on the face of the globe, began to establish the two great universities which, from the banks of the Cam and the Isis, have sent forth great scholars and priests and statesmen whose fame is the history of their own

country, and whose deeds have been part of the history of every land and sea. During all that long period, reaching back two hundred and fifty years before it was ever dreamed that this great hemisphere existed, before the world knew that it was swinging in the air and rolling about the sun, kings and 5 cardinals, nobles and great churchmen, the learned and the pious, began bestowing upon those abodes of scholars their gifts of land and money, and they have continued their benefactions down to our time. What those universities, with all their colleges and halls teeming with scholars for six hundred 10 years, have done for the progress of civilization and the good of man, this whole evening could not begin to tell. Even your imaginations cannot, at this moment, create the surprising picture. Nevertheless, the institution at which most of you are, or have been, pupils is at the beginning of a career 15 with which those great universities and their great history may struggle in vain for the palm of the greatest usefulness to the race of man. One single fact will make it evident that this possibility is not the creation of imagination or the product of that boastfulness which America will some day feel herself too great 20 to cherish, but a simple and plain possibility which has the sanction of mathematics as well as hope.

2. Although more than six centuries of regal, princely, and pious donations have been poured into the purses of these venerable aids to learning, the munificence of one American 25 citizen to-day affords an endowment income equal to that of each university, and when the full century has completed his work, will afford an income superior to the income of both. When Time has done his perfect work, Stephen Girard, mariner and merchant, may be found to have come nearer immor- 30 tality than the long procession of kings and cardinals, nobles and statesmen, whose power was mighty in their own days, but who are only on their way to oblivion. I am well aware that this college of orphans, wherein the wisdom of the founder