JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE Joseph Hodges Choate was born at Salem, Mass., January 24, 1832. By both parents he is descended from colonial stock, the original representative of the family having been John Choate, of Groton Boxford, Colchester, England. He began his education at the public school of Salem, thence he passed to Harvard, where he was graduated in 1852. He was graduated from the Cambridge Law School in 1854, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Shortly afterwards he went to New York and connected himself with several law firms in succession, and finally with that of William M. Evarts, in 1859, which henceforth was known as Evarts, Southway and Choate. Mr. Choate soon proved his superior ability as a trial lawyer. He vindicated the authenticity of the Cypriote antiquities in the trial of Feuardent versus di Cesnola, and appeared in many other famous cases. He combines brilliant eloquence with a remarkable power of concentration and breadth of view. Despite these special qualifications Mr. Choate has never sought public office, although he has always been active in Republican politics. Once he became an independent candidate for a United States senatorship, in 1895, but excepting as president of the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1894, he has never until recently been called away from private life and the work of his profession. In 1899 President McKinley appointed him to succeed John Hay as Ambassador to Great Britain, a post for which he is eminently qualified by his birth, culture, education, and experience. He arrived in London on March 8, 1899, and was warmly received by the press and people of the country. Choate's polished eloquence and suavity of address have gained for him a wide reputation as a speaker at public celebrations. His speech delivered at the unveiling of the Farragut statue is a stirring eulogy of the dead Admiral. ORATION ON FARRAGUT Delivered at the unveiling of the Saint-Gaudens statue of Farragut, New York, May 25, 1881 THE HE fame of naval heroes has always captivated and charmed the imaginations of men. The romance of the sea that hangs about them, their picturesque and dramatic achievements, the deadly perils that surround them, their loyalty to the flag that floats over them, their triumphs snatched from the jaws of defeat, and death in the hour of victory, inspire a warmer enthusiasm and a livelier sympathy than is awarded to equal deeds on land. Who can read with dry eyes the story of Nelson, in the supreme moment of victory at Trafalgar, dying in the cock-pit of his flagship, embracing his beloved comrade with, " Kiss me, Hardy! Thank God I have done my duty," on his fainting lips, bidding the world good-night, and turning over like a tired child to sleep and wake no more? What American heart has not been touched by that kindred picture of Lawrence, expiring in the cabin of the beaten Chesapeake, with "Don't give up the ship" on his dying lips? What schoolboy has not treasured up in his memory the bloody fight of Paul Jones with the Serapis, the gallant exploits of Perry on Lake Erie, of McDonough on Lake Champlain, and the other bright deeds which have illuminated the brief annals of the American navy? We come together to-day to recall the memory and to crown the statue of one of the dearest of these idols of mankind of one who has done more for us than all of them combined—of one whose name will ever stir, like a trumpet, the hearts of his grateful countrymen. In the first year of the century-at the very time when the great English admiral was wearing fresh laurels for winning in defiance of orders the once lost battle of the Baltic, the bloodiest picture in the book of naval warfare-there was born on a humble farm in the unexplored wilderness of Tennessee, a child who was sixty years afterwards to do for Americans what England's idol had just then done for her to rescue her in an hour of supreme peril, and to win a renown which should not fade or be dim in comparison with that of the most famous of the sea-kings of the Old World. For though there were many great admirals before Farragut, it will be hard to find one whose life and fortunes combine more of those elements which command the enduring admiration and approval of his fellowmen. He was as good as he was great; as game as he was mild, and as mild as he was game; as skilful as he was successful; as full of human sympathy and kindness as he was of manly wisdom, and as unselfish as he was patriotic. So long as the republic which he served and helped to save shall endure, his memory must be dear to every lover of his country; and so long as this great city continues to be the gateway of the nation and the centre of its commerce, it must preserve and honor his statue, which to-day we dedicate to the coming generations. To trace the career of Farragut is to go back to the very infancy of the nation. His father, a brave soldier of the Revolution, was not of the Anglo-Saxon race for which we are wont to assert a monopoly of the manly virtues, but of that Spanish race, which in all times has produced good fighters on sea and land. His mother must have been a woman fit to bear and suckle heroes, for his earliest recollection of her was upon the occasion when, axe in hand, in the absence of her husband, she defended her cottage and her helpless brood of little ones against an attack of marauding Indians who were seeking their scalps. Like all heroes then, he was born brave, and got his courage from his father's loins and his mother's milk. The death of the mother and the removal of the father to New Orleans, where he was placed by the government in command of the naval station, introduced the boy to the very scenes where, more than half a century afterward, some of the brightest of his proud laurels were to be won, and led him, by a singular providence, to the final choice of a profession at an age when children generally are just beginning their schooling. The father of the renowned Commodore David Porter hap pened to fall ill and die under the roof of Farragut's father, and his illustrious son, whose heart overflowed with gratitude for the hospitable kindness which had welcomed his dying father, announced his intention to adopt a child of that house and to train him up in his own profession. That happy conjunction of great merit with good fortune which attended the future admiral through his whole life was nowhere more signally marked than in the circumstance which thus threw together the veteran naval commander, already famous and soon to win a world-wide fame for skill and dar-, ing and enterprise, and the boy who in his own last years was destined to eclipse the glory of his patron and to enchant the world with still more brilliant exploits. The influence of such a spirit and character as Porter's on that of a dutiful, ardent, and ambitious boy like Farragut, cannot be overestimated. It was not a mere nominal adoption. Porter took him from his home and became his second father, and with him the boy lived and studied and cruised and fought. Having thus ever before him an example worthy of himself, no wonder that he aspired to place himself, at last, at the head of the profession into which his introduction had been under such auspices! Behold him, then, at the tender age of nine years the happy recipient of a midshipman's warrant in the United States Navy, bearing date December 17, 1810; and two years later, at the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, making his first cruise with his noble patron, who, as Captain Porter, now took command of the Essex, whose name he was to render immortal by his achievements under her flag. It was in this severe school of active and important service that Midshipmen Farragut learned, almost in infancy, those first lessons in seamanship and war which he afterwards turned to practical account in wider fields and more dangerous enterprises. His faithful study of all the details of his profession, guided and inspired by that ever-present sense of duty, which was the most marked characteristic of his life, prepared him step by step for any service in the line of that profession which time or chance might happen to bring, and when at last in March, 1814, the gallant little frigate met her fate in that spirited and bloody encounter with the British frigate Phebe and the sloop-of-war Cherub, off the port of Valparaiso (a conVOL. II.-25 |