I am grateful for the assurances that have been received. Let there be a demonstration that we are a party of the people and that the interest of all citizens is safe in our keeping.

Let us put an end to graft and to favors to special interests. Let organization be skilful and leaders be masterful, but let all seek to secure an administration of which all the people may be proud, and the party which has given the nation Lincoln, Grant, McKinley, and Roosevelt need not fear defeat.

II.

Speech at the National Arbitration and Peace Congress, New York City, April 15, 1907.

It is not my function to deliver a formal address upon any of the topics which will engage your attention, but rather in the name of the State of New York to bid you a hearty welcome. It is my pleasant duty to express the gratification of our citizens at the meeting of this Congress and their appreciation of the important influences which must radiate from such a representative assemblage.

It is fitting that this meeting should be held in a State representing in so conspicuous a degree the varied activities of peace, and in a metropolis which focusses the energies of a people who, in beneficent concord, without desire of conquest or lust of power, are working out their destiny inspired by national ideals of equality and justice. and justice. As a New Yorker, and as one representing the State in an official capacity, I find it agreeable to recall the names

of its distinguished sons who have contributed in a marked manner to achievements in the interest of the peace of the world. You will not think it amiss if I claim for this rôle of honor the foremost citizen of the Nation, whose Federal activities have not obscured his relationship to his native State, and the lustre of whose fame as President of the Republic has been heightened by his service as pacificator. And New York has also given to the Nation the eminent public servant who has addressed you, the keeper of our foreign interests, in whose wise diplomacy every citizen is assured of the astute and jealous defence of our peaceful policies. We may also claim by right of his adoption the presiding genius of this Congress, whose personal interest and generous benefactions have contributed so notably to the progress of this world

movement.

When the first Peace Congress met at The Hague, three of the six representatives of the United States were New Yorkers,-Andrew D. White, the scholar and veteran diplomatist; that eminent citizen of this metropolis, Seth Low; and the lamented Frederick William Holls, the versatile secretary of the American Commission and the historian of the work of

the conference. New York also should take special pride in the intelligent service in the cause of international arbitration which, long in advance of the meeting of that conference, was rendered by the lawyers of this State.

In January, 1896, following an address delivered before it by the Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, the New York State Bar Association appointed a committee to consider the subject of international arbitration, and to devise and submit to it a plan for the organization of a tribunal to which international questions might be submitted. In April of the same year, after careful deliberation, the committee made its report, recommending the establishment of an International Court of Arbitration, to be composed of members selected by the agreeing nations and to be open at all times for the submission of controversies. The plan was laid before the President of the United States, and later, as Secretary Foster states in his recent work, it became the basis of the instructions of the American delegates to The Hague Conference, and in accordance with this plan are found to be the essential features of the Permanent Court now in existence at The Hague. It is gratifying to trace this preliminary and influential

activity of our public-spirited fellow citizens, and we of the State of New York welcome the members of this Congress with a cordiality emphasized by our long and sincere interest in the questions you are to consider.

There are few, if any, to plead the cause of war in general, however it may be defended in particular. Statesmen and soldiers alike condemn it, and against its monstrous cruelties and wastefulness, commerce and sentiment are allied. The necessity of war as a last defence of liberty and honor is admitted only to be deprecated, and in the desire to prevent armed strife there is almost complete unanimity. There may still be those who believe in the beneficent effects of the discipline of war, and who shrink from contemplating a society enervated by exclusive devotion to the pursuits of peace. Undoubtedly benefits have been conferred by war. Against the dark background of ruin, desolation, and death, the elemental virtues of humanity have stood out in bold relief. And aside from the important and beneficial results of certain wars, the world has largely learned its lessons of courage and fortitude, of the supremacy of duty and the sacred obligations of honor from those who, in fierce but heroic struggle, have revealed the noblest qualities of

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