to-night, in the presence of her citizens, to do more than touch upon a few things that mark a long and honorable life, which has been a potent influence in the creation of our Constitution and a priceless contribution to the progress of our country. First, she has given to the country the sturdiness of character, the courage, and the piety which distinguished her Puritan founders. That was the fibre which was to be wrought into the fabric of our Republic to make it great and permanent. Note their wisdom and foresight, and see how much we owe to them. They seemed to foresee the full result of their work, and to know that out of it was to come a great Nation of intelligent, liberty-loving, and Godfearing people. So in education, religion, and self-government they laid its foundation deep and strong. In the midst of the wilderness they established the public-school system, set up the printing-press, printed the Bible, and, out of their poverty, founded a great university. And this, the work of their day, has come down. through the generations and spread throughout the land.

The courage, patriotism, and public spirit of her founders have ever been present and potent in the life of Massachusetts, making her foremost in every great agitation for freedom and humanity. Four generations. after her founding she was uttering in town-meetings her formal protests against the tyranny of the mother country, and, under Adams and Hancock, arousing the conscience of her people to assert their rights and declare their independence.

So, too, a short century after, when there came again a struggle for liberty, Massachusetts, foremost in the great agitation which was to wipe out the curse of human slavery, is again ready to do battle for the principles which have distinguished her glorious life.

I have touched upon the heroic, martial side of the

life of Massachusetts. No one questions its value as a powerful factor in achieving our independence, establishing liberty, and making our Republic a permanent and indestructible Union. Had I the time, I should love to follow her life as it has been seen and felt in other fields of usefulness; show her prominence in every religious movement for greater freedom of conscience and liberty of thought; her leadership in education, establishing schools, colleges, and libraries, freely giving her citizens advantages unequalled by any state or nation in the world. Then I would point out how much she has done by wise laws and popular agitation to advance the interests of labor and to benefit the great masses of her people; and then her grand work through noble men and women in the manifold charities; and last, but not least, how she has sent forth her sons to every portion of our country, taking with them her principles and teaching, to build up by their courage and enterprise everywhere centres of activity which should stamp her ideas and influence deep into our national life.

But here in Chicago, in the midst of this great World's Exposition and competition, Massachusetts speaks for herself more forcibly than by any words of mine. She has built here a home characteristic of her life. Its name and history tell of her patriotism and statesmanship. Let the stranger who would know what she has done for the world enter its door and gaze upon its walls. He will find there little of ostentation, little to remind him of her wealth, industries, prosperity, her material life; but as he looks upon the pictures hanging there, he will hear her speaking to him through generations of great men who have moulded the literature, the laws and institutions of our country. Massachusetts speaks there to the world through Lowell and

Longfellow, Whittier and Boyle O'Reilly, Holmes and Lucy Larcom, whose poetry has become household words, and who, singing the songs of liberty, have carried education out into the life of the people to do its great and perfect work. Hawthorne and Emerson, Thoreau, Higginson, and Louisa Alcott, will remind him how much. our country, through Massachusetts, has done in the field of letters; while Motley and Prescott, Parkman and Bancroft, testify to her prominence in the field of history; Pierce, Agassiz, Bowditch, Maria Mitchell, and Hitchcock remind us of her triumphs in science; Parsons and Story, Curtis and Shaw, of her leadership in law; Edwards and Channing, Parker and Clarke, Brooks and Peabody, are men who have led great theological. movements, whose influence has been felt throughoutthe land. Horace Mann, a host in himself, represents and personifies more than any American, free education, its growth and development.

Then, if we turn to another phase of her life, and ask what public service Massachusetts has rendered, what a full and glorious answer comes from the walls of our Hancock building, with its long line of orators. and reformers, statesmen and soldiers. There are found the men and women who have led the great movements for the uplifting of a people, - Garrison and Phillips, Mann, Sumner, and Parker, all foremost and of commanding influence in great causes; Julia Ward Howe, whose "Battle Hymn" has become the martial music of the Republic; Everett and Choate, whose classic oratory charmed the Nation, and Webster, whose unrivalled intellect laid the constitutional basis of permanent freedom when through agitation and war came union and liberty; Winthrop, Hancock, Adams, Otis, and Andrew suggest the influence and power which Massachusetts, through many great names and patriotic lives, has

names

recall

wielded in the field of statesmanship; Sumner and Hooker, Shaw and Bartlett, Devens and Miles, fresh in the minds of the present generation, how willingly Massachusetts men, when agitation ripened into action, answered their country's summons, and gave themselves to her on the field of battle; while Dorothea Dix, Howe, and Peabody, with scores of noble men and women, will speak forever of Massachusetts' work for charity, humanity, and philanthropy.

These are a few of the faces which speak to us from the walls of our State building. The list is almost endless. As I read in their lives of the power and grandeur of the Commonwealth, and of their influence not only on their day and generation but upon the generations yet unborn, I recall a thought expressed by Phillips in his plea for the preservation of the Old South Meeting-house. True, he said, its form is plain, it is not sightly to the eye; but when the soldiers of Massachusetts went forth in 1861 to fight for freedom and their country, as they passed the homely old building there was something within its walls which spoke to them, and reverently they lifted their caps and passed on, braver, truer men. It was the voice of the fathers and the soul of the Commonwealth which spoke, recalling the grandeur of the past, and inspiring them to meet nobly the duties set before them.

So Massachusetts here, not to her sons only but to the world, is speaking through these lives, which have blessed mankind; and the world is better and nobler because of her work and her message.

A health, then, to the grand old Commonwealth! God save her and bless her, and keep us true to her teaching, steadfast in her service, and constant in our love and loyalty!

SPEECH

AT THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE HARVARD ALUMNI AT CAMBRIDGE, COMMENCEMENT DAY, JUNE 28, 1893.

WITH picturesque ceremony, and in accordance with

an old and worthy custom, the University and Commonwealth meet to-day to interchange their greetings. With a deep sense of personal obligation to both, I welcome the privilege of being the messenger who brings to Alma Mater, with the love of a devoted son, the blessing of her mother State. Hand in hand, in mutual support and confidence, these twain have walked together from the early days of common poverty and suffering till the present full development of their prosperity and power.

If the growing strength of the University has made her less dependent upon the protecting arm of the Commonwealth, it has also made more clear and potent. their closer union of heart and thought and action. I will not to-day weary you with the familiar story of their dependent and interwoven lives, both so full of great men and worthy deeds. But upon this last occasion when I may express to you the thought and sentiment of a great people, permit me to speak of the future rather than the past,-not of what Harvard and university education have done, but a little of their opportunity and power in our advancing civilization and prosperity.

I know it is a pleasant fancy but a common error to believe that we are always entering upon a new era of