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Short  Addresses 


By 


James  S.  Ewing 


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JAMES  S.   EWING 


During  the  course  of  a  long  pro- 
fessional life,  I  have  had  occasion  to 
deliver  quite  a  number  of  addresses  on 
a  variety  of  subjects.  From  this  num- 
ber, I  have  selected  a  few  which  are 
contained  in  this  little  book.  It  is 
intended  for  private  distribution.  My 
excuse  for  this  modest  attempt  at 
authorship  is  the  natural  wish  that, 
if  I  have  said  anything  worth  re- 
membering, it  may  have  a  chance  to 
live  for  a  time,  and  that,  amongst  the 
people  I  love  best. 

JAMES  S.  EWING 


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AN  ADDRESS  ON  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


At  the  State  Convention  of  School  Teachers  Held  in  Bloomington, 
Illinois,  February  12,  A.  D.  1909 


REMINISCENCE. 

During  the  years  1844  and  1845  my  father,  Mr. 
John  W.  Ewing,  was  the  proprietor  of  the  old  Na- 
tional Hotel  on  Front  Street  in  this  city. 

At  that  time  Circuit  Courts  were  held  in  McLean 
County  twice  a  year  and  there  were  a  number  of  law- 
yers from  other  counties  who  usually  attended  these 
terms. 

Amongst  those  whom  I  especially  remember  as 
coming  from  Springfield  and  who  were  guests  at  my 
father's  house,  were  Mr.  James  McDougal,  Mr.  John 
T.  Stuart  and  Mr.  Lincoln. 

I  thus  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln  and  I 
continued  to  know  him,  as  a  boy  knows  a  distinguished 
man  whom  he  often  meets,  until  i860  when  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  fond  of  children,  at  least  he 
knew  many  of  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  village,  the 
children  of  his  older  friends,  and  often  talked  to  them 
and  expressed  an  interest  in  their  welfare.  They  liked 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  most  of  the  boys  in  the  town  knew 
him  and  many  of  them  talked  to  him,  as  we  all 
thought,  on  most  intimate  terms. 

In  1844,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
in  the  very  prime  of  his  younger  manhood,  and  dur- 


6  ADDRESSES 

ing  the  following  fifteen  years  (except  one  term  of 
service  in  Congress)  he  "traveled  the  Circuit,"  devot- 
ing most  of  his  time  to  the  practice  of  the  law. 

When  I  first  knew  anything  of  Courts,  Hon. 
Samuel  H.  Treat  was  the  presiding  Judge  of  this  Cir- 
cuit. He  was  appointed  to  the  Federal  bench  and  the 
Hon.  David  Davis  became  his  successor  and  continued 
as  the  Circuit  Judge  until  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
as  an  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  then  the  habit  for  such  lawyers 
as  possessed  sufficient  experience  and  ability  to  attract 
a  clientage,  to  follow  the  Court  around  the  Circuit. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  of  this  number  and  more  than  per- 
haps any  other,  was  most  constant  and  unremitting 
in  his  attendance. 

During  these  fifteen  years,  I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln 
try  a  great  many  law  suits.  The  suits  themselves  often 
dealt  with  trivial  matters,  but  great  men  were  en- 
gaged in  them.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  engaged  in  most 
suits  of  any  importance.  He  was  wonderfully  suc- 
cessful. He  was  a  master  in  all  that  went  to  make 
up  what  is  called  a  "jury  lawyer."  His  wonderful 
power  of  clear  and  logical  statement  seemed  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end  of  the  case.  After  his  statement 
of  the  law  and  the  facts  in  any  particular  case,  we 
wondered  either  how  the  plaintiff  came  to  bring  such  a 
suit,  or  how  the  defendant  could  be  such  a  fool  as  to 
defend  it. 

By  the  time  the  jury  was  selected,  each  member  of 
it  felt  that  the  great  lawyer  was  his  friend  and  was 
relying  upon  him,  as  a  juror,  to  see  that  no  injustice 
was  done.  Mr.  Lincoln's  ready,  homely,  but  always 
pertinent  illustrations,  incidents  and  anecdotes,  could 
not  be  resisted. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


Few  men  ever  lived  who  knew,  as  he  did,  the  main 
springs  of  action,  secret  motives,  the  passions,  prej- 
udices and  inclinations  which  inspired  the  actions  of 
men  and  he  played  on  the  human  heart  as  a  master  on 
an  instrument. 

This  power  over  a  jury  was,  however,  the  least 
of  his  claims  to  be  entitled  a  good  lawyer.  He  was 
masterful  in  a  legal  argument  before  the  Court.  His 
knowledge  of  the  general  principles  of  the  law  was  ex- 
tensive and  accurate,  and  his  mind  was  so  clear  and 
logical  that  he  seldom  made  a  mistake  in  their  appli- 
cation. 

Courteous  to  the  court,  fair  to  his  opponent  and 
modest  in  his  assertions,  he  was  certainly  the  model 
lawyer. 

As  for  myself,  I  decided  I  would  be  a  lawyer;  and 
that  I  would  be  just  such  a  lawyer  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
was.  Well!  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  didn't  become  just 
such  a  lawyer.  My  failure  in  that  regard,  to  my 
friends  was  a  regret  rather  than  a  surprise. 

I  was  like  my  friend,  Mr.  Ed  Gridley,  who  had 
been  to  hear  Bishop  Spalding  preach,  and  inspired  by 
the  eloquence  of  the  great  preacher,  imparted  to  me  in 
confidence,  that  "if  he  had  his  life  to  live  over,  he 
would  be  a  bishop." 

While  my  great  ambition  fell  so  far  short  of  realiz- 
ation, yet  of  one  thing  I  am  sure,  success  was  very 
much  nearer  by  reason  of  the  high  ideal.  I  believe 
that  every  young  lawyer  then  at  the  Bloomington  bar 
became  a  better  lawyer  because  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
example. 

I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  make  a  number  of  political 
speeches.  I  heard  his  speech  in  the  old  Court  House 
in  1854  on  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill  in  answer  to 


8  ADDRESSES 

Mr.  Douglas  on  the  same  subject  a  few  days  before. 

In  this  speech  what  impressed  me  most  was  that 
same  wonderful  power  of  statement  to  which  I  have 
before  referred.  I  can  never  forget  the  manner  in 
which  he  stated  the  causes  and  events  which  led  up 
to  the  enactment  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  just 
what  it  was  and  how  it  affected  the  question  of  slavery ; 
the  history  of  the  events  and  causes  which  led  to  the 
passage  of  the  Compromise  of  1850,  its  constituent 
elements;  just  what  the  south  got  and  just  what  the 
north  got  by  it  and  how  it  was  affected  by  the  repeal 
of  the  other  Compromise  bill. 

It  seems  to  me  I  could  almost  repeat  those  state- 
ments today  after  a  half  century,  so  vivid  was  their 
impression. 

I  heard  his  speech  in  the  Major  Hall  Convention 
in  May,  1856,  spoken  of  sometimes  as  the  "lost 
speech."  But  this  speech  did  not  impress  me  as  the 
one  of  two  years  before,  possibly  because  it  was  only 
one  of  several  great  speeches  by  other  great  orators : 
Owen  Lovejoy,  O.  H.  Browning,  John  M.  Palmer, 
Archibald  Williams,  T.  Lysle  Dickey,  Norton,  Grid- 
ley,  Farnsworth,  and  others,  who  took  an  active  part  in 
that  historic  convention. 

In  1854,  Judge  Stephen  A.  Douglas  came  to  Bloom- 
ington  to  make  a  speech  defending  the  principles  of 
the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill. 

Judge  Lawrence  Weldon,  who  was  then  a  young 
lawyer  at  Clinton,  and  who  had  come  up  to  hear  the 
speech,  went  with  Mr.  Stevenson  and  myself  to  call 
upon  and  pay  our  respects  to  the  "Little  Giant.' '  We 
were  presented  to  Judge  Douglas  by  Mr.  Anzi  Mc- 
Williams,  then  a  prominent  Democratic  lawyer  of  this 
city. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


After  we  had  been  in  Mr.  Douglas'  room  a  few 
minutes,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  in  and  the  Senator  and  he 
greeted  each  other  most  cordially  as  old  friends,  and 
then  Mr.  Douglas  introduced  Mr.  Lincoln  to  Judge 
Weldon.  He  said :  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  want  to  introduce 
you  to  Mr.  Weldon,  a  young  lawyer  who  has  come  to 
Illinois  from  Ohio  and  has  located  at  Clinton."  Mr, 
Lincoln  said,  "Well,  I'm  glad  of  that.  I  go  to  Clin- 
ton sometimes  myself  and  we  will  get  acquainted." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  an  acquaintance  which 
ripened  into  a  strong  friendship  and  which,  founded 
on  mutual  admiration  and  respect,  grew  and  strength- 
ened as  the  years  passed,  and  ended  only  in  death. 
They  met  again  at  Clinton,  a  sort  of  local  partnership 
was  formed,  they  tried  law  suits  and  rode  the  Circuit 
together.  Judge  Weldon  was  the  active  promoter  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  political  interests,  and  was  an  elector  in 
the  campaign  of  i860.  I  doubt  if  any  man  living 
knew  Mr.  Lincoln  better,  or  had  in  a  greater  degree 
his  confidence  than  our  distinguished  friend  and  citi- 
zen. Judge  Lawrence  Weldon. 

In  view  of  the  recent  controversy  as  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's temperance  principles,  as  to  whether  he  was  a 
"wine  bibber"  or  the  "president  of  a  temperance  so- 
ciety," the  following  incident  may  be  of  interest. 

At  this  same  meeting,  I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  de- 
fine his  position  on  the  liquor  question.  This  is  au- 
thentic as  coming  from  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  and  ought 
to  settle  this  question  forever,  but  it  won't.  The  con- 
troversy will  go  on  like  the  brook  "forever"  until  each 
side  convinces  itself.  This  meeting  I  am  speaking  of, 
being  a  Democratic  meeting,  the  committee  had  placed 
on  the  sideboard  of  Judge  Douglas'  room  (probably 
without  his    knowledge)   a  pitcher    of  water,    some 


lo  ADDRESSES 

glasses  and  a  decanter  of  red  liquor.  As  visitors 
called,  they  were  invited  to  partake,  most  of  the  Dem- 
ocrats declining. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  arose  to  go,  Mr.  Douglas  said, 
"Mr.  Lincoln,  won^t  you  take  something?"  Mr.  Lin- 
coln said,  "No,  I  think  not."  Mr.  Douglas  said, 
"What,  are  you  a  member  of  the  Temperance  So- 
ciety?" "No,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  am  not  a  member 
of  any  temperance  society,  but  I  am  temperate,  in 
this,  that  I  don't  drink  anything." 

At  the  same  meeting  another  incident  occurred 
which  I  wish  to  relate. 

One  of  the  visitors  who  came  in  to  call  on  Senator 
Douglas  was  the  Hon.  Jesse  W.  Fell.  He  was  an  old 
friend  and  had  known  Douglas  when  he  first  came  to 
the  state.  I  remember  very  well  their  cordial  meet- 
ing and  recall  clearly  a  part  of  their  conversation. 
After  talking  a  while  of  old  times  and  mutual  friends, 
Mr.  Fell  said,  "Judge  Douglas,  many  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
friends  would  be  greatly  pleased  to  hear  a  joint  dis- 
cussion between  you  and  him  on  these  new  and  im- 
portant questions  now  interesting  the  people,  and  I 
would  be  glad  if  such  a  discussion  could  be  arranged." 

Mr.  Douglas  seemed  annoyed,  and  after  hesitating 
a  moment,  said,  "No!  I  won't  do  it!  I  come  to  Chi- 
cago, I  am  met  by  an  old  line  Abolitionist;  I  come 
down  to  the  center  of  the  state  and  I  am  met  by  an 
old  line  Whig;  I  go  to  the  south  end  of  the  state  and 
I  am  met  by  a  pro-Slavery  Democrat;  I  can't  hold 
the  Abolitionist  responsible  for  what  the  Whig  says! 
I  can't  hold  the  Whig  responsible  for  what  the  Aboli- 
tionist says,  and  I  can't  hold  either  responsible  for 
what  the  Democrat  says;  it  looks  like  dogging  a  man 
over  the  state." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


"This  is  my  meeting,  the  people  have  come  to  hear 
me  and  I  want  to  talk  to  them."  Mr.  Fell  said,  "Well, 
Judge,  you  may  be  right,  perhaps  some  other  time  it 
can  be  arranged." 

I  have  told  this  incident  for  a  purpose. 

Mr.  Fell  never  gave  up  this  idea  of  a  joint  dis- 
cussion. He  was  the  first  man  to  suggest  it.  From 
1854  to  1858  he  continued  to  urge  it  and  to  Mr,  Jesse 
W,  Fell,  more  than  to  any  other  man,  is  due  the  credit 
of  suggesting  and  bringing  about  those  great  debates, 
the  influence  of  which  upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  fortunes, 
the  events  of  history  and  the  fate  of  the  nation,  no 
man  is  wise  enough  to  know. 

Mr.  Fell  was  the  intimate,  devoted  and  zvise  friend 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  speak  with  some  knowledge  and 
with  perfect  sincerity  when  I  say  that  with  the  possi- 
ble exception  of  the  Hon.  David  Davis,  Mr.  Fell  did 
more  than  any  other  man,  now  living  or  dead,  to  secure 
the  nomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency. 

Mr.  Fell  was  one  of  our  citizens.  He  was  Bloom- 
ington's  first  lawyer.  His  life  was  a  benefaction  to 
this  community.  I  am  pleased  to  take  advantage  of 
this  opportunity  to  connect  his  name  with  the  name 
of  the  man  he  helped  and  to  pay  a  modest  tribute  to 
one  of  the  best  men  who  ever  lived. 

In  the  late  fall  of  i860,  I  met  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the 
sidewalk  in  front  of  the  old  Court  House.  He  had 
come  from  Springfield  to  arrange  some  old  suits  in 
view  of  his  departure  for  Washington.  He  shook 
hands  with  me  and  said,  "Well,  you  have  gotten  to 
be  a  lawyer ;  let  me  give  you  some  advice.  Don't  med- 
dle with  politics,  stick  to  the  law." 

I  replied,  "Mr.  President,  I  fear  your  example 
may  prove  more  alluring  than  your  advice." 


12  ADDRESSES 

"No!  No!"  said  he.  "That  was  an  accident."  He 
passed  into  the  Court  House  and  that  was  the  last 
time  I  ever  saw  him. 

Personal  reminiscence  must  be  confined  to  a  time 
prior  to  i860.  The  four  years  following,  belong  to  the 
history  of  the  world. 

THE  ROMANCERS. 

This  is  the  time  of  the  making  of  many  books,  the 
writing  of  many  histories,  biographies,  short  and  long 
sketches  in  magazines  and  newspapers,  critiques  and 
tributes,  memoirs,  stories,  anecdotes  and  lies  about  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

There  are  books  by  "His  Private  Secretary,"  by 
the  "Man  Who  Knew  Lincoln,"  by  lots  of  men  and 
women  "Who  Didn't  Know  Him,"  by  a  "Member  of 
the  New  York  Bar,"  by  members  of  other  bars,  by 
editors,  school  masters  and  preachers,  by  "Butchers 
Bakers  and  Candle-stick  Makers,"  by  "Old  Neighbors," 
and  by  "Old  Clients."  About  "Lincoln,  as  a  Boy," 
"Lincoln  the  Man,"  "Lincoln,  the  Soldier,"  "Lincoln, 
the  Lawyer,"  "Lincoln,  the  Story  Teller,"  "Lincoln, 
the  Lover,"  "Lincoln  the  Dreamer,"  "Lincoln,  the 
Farmer,"  the  "Wood  Chopper"  and  the  "Foot  Racer." 

There  will  be  delivered  this  12th  day  of  February, 
1909,  more  than  fifty  thousand  speeches,  addresses, 
orations  and  memorials  which  will  help  to  swell  this 
Lincolnian  literary  melange  to  the  proportions  of  an 
Alexandrian  library. 

It  would  be  strange  indeed,  in  view  of  the  many 
authors,  the  variety  of  publications  and  the  character 
of  the  subjects,  if  there  should  not  be  found  an  im- 
mense amount  of  misrepresentation,  false  history,  in- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  13 

accurate  estimates,  false  narratives,  tiresome  repeti- 
tions, sentimental  pathos,  and  silly  white  lies. 

Old  Dr.  Johnson,  when  Boswell  told  him  he  "in- 
tended to  write  his  life,'^  said,  "If  I  believed  you,  / 
would  take  yours." 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  told  what  some  of  his 
friends  intended  to  do,  he  would  have  said  with  David, 
"Oh !  that  mine  enemy  would  write  a  book." 

The  trouble  is  that  men  who  never  saw  Mr.  Lin- 
coln and  who  have  no  adequate  conception  of  his  life 
and  character,  have  revived  old  stories,  incidents,  tra- 
ditions, second-hand  anecdotes  and  have  rushed  into 
print  to  make  history. 

Others  even  manufacture  goody-goody  lies  to  in- 
crease his  reputation.  Others  write  of  him  as  a 
slouch,  a  buffoon,  an  uneducated  gawk,  to  increase 
the  wonder  of  his  career.  Others  tell  of  artful  prac- 
tices and  doubtful  tricks,  to  demonstrate  his  shrewd- 
ness. Others  recite  sentimental  and  impossible  rescues 
and  charities,  which  put  old  Santa  Claus  to  shame. 

One  old  citizen  tells  of  a  wonderful  conversation  he 
had  with  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the  time  of  the  Douglas  and 
Lincoln  debate  at  Bloomington,  a  debate  which  never 
took  place. 

A  reverend  gentleman  tells  how  an  actor  friend  of 
his  was  invited  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  "stay  all  night"  with 
him  at  the  White  House  during  the  war;  how  they 
talked  until  midnight  and  how  Mr.  Lincoln  told  him 
all  the  secrets  of  the  war;  how  when  they  had  retired, 
the  actor  heard  some  one  apparently  in  great  distress ; 
how  he  got  up  and  wandered  about  the  halls  until  he 
found  Mr.  Lincoln's  private  bedroom,  and  looking 
through  the  keyhole,  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  on  his  knees, 
agonizing  in  prayer,  etc.     I  suppose  this  preacher  be- 


14  ADDRESSES 

lieved  that  proving  Mr.  Lincoln  a  saint,  justified  him  in 
proving  his  friend  a  liar  and  a  sneak. 

Another  one  of  these  stories  is  how  Mr.  Lincoln 
manufactured  an  almanac  and  introduced  it  in  evidence 
to  confound  a  witness  who  had  sworn  that  a  certain 
night  was  moonlight  when  the  manufactured  almanac 
showed  it  was  the  dark  of  the  moon,  thus  saving  his 
client's  life. 

This  story  is  repeated  in  Mr.  Churchill's  book, 
*'The  Crisis, "  and  even  in  school  books.  No  one  who 
knew  Mr.  Lincoln  could  think  of  him  perpetrating  a 
forgery  and  practicing  upon  the  court  a  trick  of  which 
only  a  pettifogger  could  conceive. 

Another  "friend"  of  Mr.  Lincoln  tells  how  he  ac- 
companied him  to  Washington  from  Springfield  in 
1 86 1  and  how  the  President  "kept  the  entire  company 
in  constant  roars  of  laughter"  by  telling  questionable 
stories  and  jokes.  It  is  probable  this  fellow  was  not 
on  the  train  at  all. 

I  think  there  have  been  more  lies  told  about  Mr. 
Lincoln  than  about  Santa  Claus.  A  curious  thing  is 
that  they  are  not  usually  malicious,  but  mostly  told  by 
mistaken  friends  and  for  good  purposes.  They  are 
^'white  lies,"  but  I  fear  unlike  that  of  Uncle  Toby  and 
the  loving  lie  of  Desdemona,  they  will  never  be  blotted 
out  by  the  tears  of  the  Recording  Angel. 

You  and  I  can  do  little  to  stem  this  literary  flood, 
but  we  can  thank  God  that  the  subject  of  it  is  safe  in 
the  Pantheon,  beyond  the  domain  of  human  praise, 
blame  or  stupidity. 

NO  BUFI^GON. 

Mr.  Lincoln  dressed  as  well  as  the  average  law- 
yer of  his  day.    I  do  not  think  he  gave  much  time  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  15 

the  tying  of  his  necktie  and  he  could  not  have  been 
said,  by  his  best  friend,  to  have  been  much  of  a  dude, 
but  he  was  always  respectably  clothed. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  "story  teller"  in  the  sense 
of  "swapping  stories,"  or  telling  a  story  for  the  story 
itself.  He  was  possessed  of  great  humor  and  a  won- 
derfully acute  sense  of  the  ridculous,  that  marvelous 
"gift  of  the  gods"  which  we  sometimes  call  the  "sixth 
sense."  Unexpected  situations,  curious  expressions, 
odd  sayings,  unusual  appearances  and  humorous  ac- 
tions made  an  impression  on  him.  He  remembered 
and  often  used  them  as  illustrations.  He  seldom,  if 
ever,  told  a  story  except  to  illustrate  his  speech  or 
argument.  And  in  this  kind  of  illustration,  no  man 
was  more  apt.  A  few  minutes  after  the  voting  in  the 
Legislature  in  1858,  when  Mr.  Douglas  was  elected 
Senator,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  asked  by  a  friend,  "How  do 
you  feel  ?"  Said  he,  "I  feel  like  the  boy  who  stumped 
his  toe;  I  am  too  big  to  cry,  and  too  badly  hurt  to 
laugh !" 

Hon.  Ezra  M.  Prince  told  the  following  story : 

After  the  adjournment  of  the  Major  Hall  conven- 
tion, the  Republican  editors  of  Illinois  met  in  con- 
vention at  Bloomington.  Mr.  Lincoln  attended  and 
was  invited  to  address  the  meeting.  He  said  he  "was 
afraid  he  was  out  of  his  place.  He  was  not  an  editor 
and  had  no  business  there.  In  fact  he  was  an  inter- 
loper." 

He  said,  "I  feel  like  I  once  did  when  I  met  a 
woman  riding  horseback  in  the  woods.  As  I  stopped 
to  let  her  pass,  she  also  stopped  and  looking  at  me  in- 
tently, said,  "I  do  believe  you  are  the  ugliest  man  I 
ever  saw !"     Said  I,  'Madam !  you  are  probably  right. 


i6  ADDRESSES 

but  I  can't  help  it!'  *No!'  said  she,  'you  can't  help  it! 
But  you  might  stay  at  home!'  " 

Hon.  John  B.  Henderson  (who  was  a  Senator 
from  Missouri  during  the  war),  told  the  following 
story  as  showing  how  Mr.  Lincoln  could  illustrate  a 
situation  by  an  incident. 

He  said  he  was  at  the  White  House  talking  with 
Mr.  Lincoln,  It  was  at  a  time  when  great  pressure 
was  being  brought  upon  the  President  by  certain  radi- 
cal members  to  induce  him  to  issue  an  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  telling  Mr.  Hen- 
derson of  his  troubles  in  that  regard.  He  did  not 
think  the  time  was  ripe  and  was  very  much  annoyed 
at  the  persistence  of  three  men  whom  he  named — 
Senators  Wade,  Sumner  and  Stevens.  All  at  once 
Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "Henderson!"  "did  you  ever  attend 
an  old  field  school  ?"  "Yes !"  said  the  senator.  "Well, " 
said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  did,  and  a  funny  thing  occurred 
one  day." 

"You  know  we  had  no  reading  books  and  we  read 
out  of  the  Bible.  The  class  would  stand  up  in  a  row, 
the  teacher  in  front  of  them  and  read  verses  turn  about. 

"This  day  we  were  reading  about  the  Hebrew 
children.  As  none  of  us  were  very  good  readers,  we 
were  in  the  habit  of  counting  ahead  and  each  one 
practicing  on  his  particular  verse.  Standing  next  to 
me  was  a  red-headed,  freckled-faced  boy,  who  was  the 
poorest  reader  in  the  class.  It  so  fell  out  that  the 
names  of  the  Hebrew  children  appeared  in  his  verse. 
He  managed  to  worry  through  Meschac,  fell  down  at 
Shadrach,  and  went  all  to  pieces  at  Ahednego.  The 
reading  went  on  and  in  due  course  of  time  came  round 
again,  but  when  the  turn  came  near  enough  for  the 
boy  to  see  his  verse,  he  pointed  to  it  in  great  consterna- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  17 

tion,  and  whispered  to  me,  'Look !   There's  them  three 
d — d  fellows  again.' 

"And  there,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln  (pointing  out  of  the 
window),  come  those  three  same  fellows."  And  sure 
enough,  there  were  Wade,  Stevens  and  Sumner  com- 
ing up  the  walk. 

Mr.  Henderson  added,  "As  I  arose  to  take  my  de- 
parture, and  the  other  gentlemen  entered,  there  was  a 
smile  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  face,  as  if  his  thoughts  had 
flown  away,  over  all  the  years,  from  war  and  trouble, 
to  the  old  field  school  in  the  forests  of  Indiana." 

No  one  called  Mr.  Lincoln  "Abe,"  Judge  Davis, 
General  Gridley,  Mr,  Isaac  Funk,  Mr,  Fell,  Leonard 
Swett,  Gen.  William  Ward  Orme,  Lawrence  Weldon, 
William  McCullough,  Judge  Treat,  John  T.  Stuart, 
OwenT.  Reeves,  Reuben  M.  Benjamin  and  Wm.  H. 
Hanna,  all  of  them  Mr.  Lincoln's  early  friends  and 
associates,  and  all  of  them  elegant  and  dignified  gen- 
tlemen, invariably  addressed  him  as  "Mr.  Lincoln." 
It  was  always  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Lincoln. 

NOT  A  NEW  MAN. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  think  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  an  or- 
dinary man  even  from  the  first. 

In  1844  he  was  a  lawyer  of  state  reputation,  nine 
years  before  he  was  in  the  legislature  where  he  met 
such  men  as  Douglas,  McClernard,  Browning,  Eben- 
ezar  Peck,  Robert  Blackwell,  Joseph  Gillespie  and 
Judge  Purple ;  these  were  great  men  and  he  was  never 
dwarfed  in  their  presence.  I  have  spoken  of  the  men 
with  whom  he  associated  and  acted  in  our  city.  He 
was  always  easily  the  leader,  he  was  the  talker.  Every- 
body deferred  to  Mr.  Lincoln ;  he  had  the  center  of  the 
stage  by  common  consent. 


18  ADDRESSES 

He  knew  more  of  the  matter  in  hand.  He  thought 
more,  he  was  a  better  talker  and  was  a  natural  leader 

When  elected  to  the  Presidency,  he  did  not  select 
for  his  advisor  his  private  secretary  and  other  un- 
known men,  but  William  H.  Seward,  Edward  Bates, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  all  of  whom  had  been  prominent 
candidates  in  the  Republican  party  for  the  Presiden- 
tial nomination,  and  to  these  were  added  other  dis- 
tinguished and  leading  men  who  constituted  his  cab- 
inet. He  did  not  fear  to  be  overshadowed,  and  he 
w,as  not. 

From  the  first  he  was  the  equal  of  any  of  them 
and  in  Washington  as  in  Bloomington  he  was  inter 
pares  primus. 

EDUCATION. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  think  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  an  un- 
educated man.  The  "Kindergarten"  and  "Primary" 
courses  were  taken  in  a  Kentucky  cabin  with  his 
mother  as  "principal."  Possibly  he  never  learned  at 
this  school  to  make  mats,  but  he  did  learn  "Manners 
and  Morals." 

THE  ACADEMY. 

At  the  age  of  nine,  he  entered  the  Academy  to 
prepare  for  College.  This  "School  of  Learning"  was 
located  in  a  "clearing"  on  his  father's  farm,  a  "little 
house  in  the  woods,"  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  Here 
his  attention  was  first  directed  to  "physical  culture." 
This  study  he  was  not  permitted  to  neglect. 

"The  Gymnasium"  was  well  furnished  with  "appar- 
atus," axes,  wedges,  mauls,  log  chains,  cross  bars 
swinging  saplings  etc. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


Then  came  "Nature  Studies."  Out  on  the 
"Campus"  he  found  spring  beauties  and  sweet  wil- 
Hams,  May  apples  and  purple  grapes,  and  out  beyond, 
the  prairie  grasses  and  the  wild  rose.  From  these, 
from  tree,  shrub  and  plant,  from  form,  color  and  per- 
fume, came  that  sense  of  beauty  embodied  in  those 
exquisite  prose  poems  which  we  so  much  love  to  read. 
This  branch  of  study  included  zoology. 

He  learned  the  names  of  animals,  their  nature, 
habits,  instincts,  history  and  language.  He  knew  when 
the  birds  mated  and  how  they  builded  their  homes. 
And  he  learned  well  the  only  lesson  worth  learning 
from  this  science — to  be  kind  and  gentle  to  all  animal 
nature. 

He  had  lessons  in  "Political  Economy,"  the  value 
of  money ;  supply  and  demand ;  the  virtue  of  economy ; 
the  proper  sources  of  wealth,  the  lessons  of  necessity 
and  the  value  of  labor. 

He  closed  his  academic  course  at  the  age  of  21, 
with  the  honors  of  his  class,  and  entered  the  univer- 
sity. 

He  studied  mathematics,  became  a  surveyor  and 
a  naval  architect.  He  became  a  great  linguist  and  his 
success  was  all  the  greater  in  that  he  confined  himself 
to  one  language. 

He  devoted  himself  so  diligently  to  the  study  of 
history  that  he  learned  how  to  make  history. 

He  was  a  past  master  in  the  department  of  belles- 
lettres.  He  read  the  great  epics  of  Homer,  Virgil, 
Tasso  and  Milton.  He  read  and  re-read  Shakespeare 
and  Burns.  He  studied  the  best  English  classics  and 
that  wonderful  volume  of  Hebrew  literature,  the  Bible. 

The  result  of  these  "Language  Studies"  is  the 
purest  English  ever  written. 


20  ADDRESSES 

Rhetoric  and  Logic  came  easy.  He  was  a  philoso- 
pher by  nature.  "Civil  Government' '  he  learned  under 
Jefferson,  Madison  and  Hamilton. 

He  took  a  post  graduate  course  in  the  law  under 
Professors  Blackstone  and  Chitty  and  from  this  de- 
partment, as  from  the  University  and  the  Academy, 
he  carried  away  all  honors  and  was  the  Valedictorian 
of  his  class. 

And  yet  there  are  pseudo  historians  and  pretentious 
literati  who  speak  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  illiterate  and  un- 
educated. 

I  say,  "He  was  the  best  educated  man  of  his  day, 
if  the  best  education  means  the  best  equipment  for  the 
duties  of  life." 

NGN  FILIUS  DEI. 

There  are  a  great  many  good  Americans  who  are 
not  exactly  satisfied  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  ancestry.  They 
can  stand  his  poverty  alright,  that  could  be  remedied, 
but  a  great  man  ought  to  have  not  only  a  father  and 
a  mother  but  several  grandfathers.  In  that  marvelous 
transition  from  poverty  to  affluence,  from  a  cabin  to 
the  White  House,  from  obscurity  to  fame,  the  aching 
void  is  the  want  of  ancestry. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  Autobiography,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  his  family : 

"I  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky.  My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia  of 
undistinguished  families,  second  families,  perhaps,  I 
should  say.  My  mother,  who  died  in  my  tenth  year, 
was  of  a  family  of  the  name  of  Hanks,  some  of  whom 
now  reside  in  Adams,  and  others  in  Macon  County, 
Illinois.  My  paternal  grandfather,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
emigrated  from  Rockington  County,  Virginia,  to  Ken- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  21 

tucky,  about  1781  or  1782,  where,  a  year  or  two  later, 
he  was  killed  by  Indians,  not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth, 
when  he  was  laboring  to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest. 
His  ancestors,  who  were  Quakers,  went  to  Virginia 
from  Berk's  County,  Pennsylvania.  An  effort  to 
identify  them  with  the  New  England  family  of  the 
same  name  ended  in  nothing  more  definite  than  a 
similarity  of  Christian  names  in  both  families." 

But  this  modest  account,  splendid  in  its  simplicity, 
is  by  no  means  satisfying  to  the  inquirers  after  a 
nobler  lineage. 

Since  we  have  known  anything  of  the  history  of 
the  human  race  there  has  been  traceable  a  disposition 
to  make  of  the  hero  a  demigod.  Achilles,  the  son  of 
Pelias,  was  also  the  son  of  Thetis.  Alexander,  after 
he  had  conquered  a  world,  was  the  son  of  Hercules. 
Julius  Caesar  became  a  descendant  of  Aeneas,  who  had 
a  goddess  for  his  mother.  Moses  no  longer  has  a 
Hebrew  mother,  but  is  the  son  of  the  Pharos.  This 
is  only  the  symbolism  of  that  disposition  of  human  na- 
ture to  account  for  great  men  and  great  achievements 
by  greatness  of  birth. 

But  there  is  hope!  I  bring  you  good. news!  Mr. 
Lincoln's  ancestors  have  been  discovered! 

Two  "distinguished  genealogists,"  one  an  Ameri- 
can and  one  an  Englishman,  have  for  years  been  col- 
laborating to  trace  the  ancestry  of  the  great  President 
to  his  English  forbears,  through  colleges  of  heraldry 
and  the  records  of  Courts  of  Chancery  for  many  gen- 
erations. They  have  made  many  wonderful  discover- 
ies. 

The  result  of  these  genealogical  labors  is  a  book 
(I  quote  from  the  publishers)  "which  is  a  fine  example 
of  sound  genealogical  research,  and  is  now  offered  at 


22  ADDRESSES 

this  centenary  of  Lincoln's  birth"  to  a  waiting  pub- 
lic; "with  elaborate  tables,  copious  appendices,  richly 
illustrated  and  including  ''A  Defense  of  Thomas  Lin- 
coln" in  one  octavo  volume  at  $10.00  net." 

Mr.  Lincoln  has  written  it  all  in  twelve  lines. 

These  "distinguished  genealogists  require  an  oc- 
tavo volume." 

Which  do  you  like  the  better? 

Seriously,  is  it  not  strange  and  is  it  not  deplorable 
that  an  intelligent  American  could  believe  that  Saxon 
or  Norman  lineage  could  add  anything  to  the  fame  of 
a  man  whose  presence  already  fills  the  world? 

If  his  birth  was  lowly,  his  deeds  are  royal  in  that 
land  which  men  call  fame. 

We  are  all  hero  worshippers,  and  often  when  our 
heroes  are  above  the  clouds,  we  build  unto  ourselves 
graven  images.  Sometimes,  their  crowns  are  only 
of  tinsel,  and  are  so  easily  tarnished.  Sometimes  their 
halos  are  only  of  paper  and  are  so  fragile. 

Men  will  differ  as  to  the  chief  foundation  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  fame  but  there  will  be  no  difference  as  to 
its  being  real  and  lasting.  Some  day  the  true  his- 
torian will  appear.  Some  day  out  of  all  this  rubbish 
and  jungle  of  inconsistencies  the  true  history  will  be 
written. 

Some  day,  when  the  rugged  proportions  of  this 
great  historic  figure  by  time  and  distance  have  been 
rounded  into  form,  the  real  man  will  be  known. 

Then,  I  think,  we  will  come  to  realize  that  in  the 
history  of  a  great  man,  chance  is  not  sO'  much  a  fac- 
tor as  Providence. 

Then  we  will  understand  better  and  appreciate 
more  how  priceless  was  our  heritage,  and  although 
given  to  the  ages,  "it  was  not  taken  from  us." 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY' 


On  the  Occasion  of  the  Celebration  of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of 

the  Organization  of  Bloomington,  Illinois,  into  a  City. 

Delivered  Thursday,  May  10,  1900 

Saint  Paul,  in  Jerusalem,  was  accused  by  certain 
of  the  Jews.  They  said,  "he  was  a  pestilent  fellow, 
a  stirrer-up  of  sedition,  a  ring-leader  of  the  sect  of 
the  Nazarenes,  a  follower  of  one  Jesus,  who  is  now 
dead,  but  he  says  he  is  alive."  The  Chief  Captain 
seemed  to  recognize  him  as  an  Egyptian  murderer; 
but  Paul  said,  "I  am  a  Jew,  of  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia, 
"A  Citizen  of  no  Mean  City." 

This  claim  of  citizenship  did  not  seem  to  be  suffi- 
cient, for  they  bound  him,  and  ordered  him  to  be 
scourged.  But  Paul  said  to  a  Centurion  that  stood  by, 
"Is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  man  that  is  a  Roman, 
and  uncondemned  " 

When  the  Centurion  heard  that,  he  went  unto  the 
Chief  Captain,  and  said,  "Take  heed  what  thou  doest; 
for  this  man  is  a  Roman!'' 

Then  the  following  conversation  took  place: 

"Tell  me!  art  thou  a  Roman?"  Paul  said,  "Yes." 
And  the  Chief  Captain  answered,  "With  a  great  sum 
obtained  I  this  freedom;"  but  Paul  said,  "I  was  free 
bom!" 

The  Chief  Captain  decided  he  had  no  jurisdiction, 
and  that  a  Roman  citizen  could  not  be  tried  under  the 
Jewish  law.  So  he  sent  Paul  to  Csesarea,  to  be  tried 
by  a  Roman  Governor. 

And  between  Paul  and  this  Roman  Governor  oc- 
curred another  remarkable  conversation. 


24  ADDRESSES 

Paul  said,  "Neither  against  the  law,  neither  against 
the  temple,  nor  yet  against  Caesar  have  I  offended 
anything  at  all." 

Festus  said,  "Wilt  thou  then  go  up  to  Jerusalem, 
there  to  be  judged  of  these  things?" 

Then  said  Paul,  "I  stand  at  Caesar's  judgment  seat, 
where  I  ought  to  be  judged.     I  appeal  unto  Caesar." 

And  when  the  Jews  again  demanded  the  death  of 
Paul,  this  Governor  said : 

"It  is  not  the  manner  of  the  Romans  to  deliver 
any  man  to  die,  before  that  he  which  is  accused  have 
the  accusers  face  to  face,  and  have  license  to  answer 
for  himself  concerning  the  crime  laid  against  him." 

Rome  had  been  a  republic  for  500  years,  and  her 
liberties  had  not  yet  been  lost  in  the  glory  of  her  con- 
quests; but  from  the  Clyde  to  the  Euphrates,  and  in 
all  her  provinces  on  either  side  of  the  Mediterranean, 
as  well  in  Tarsus  as  at  Rome,  the  aegis  of  her  laws 
covered  and  protected  her  citizens. 

This  was  a  marvelous  inheritance!  Paul  had  not 
"bought  it  with  a  great  sum,"  but  it  came  to  him  as  a 
birthright ;  and  we  do  not  wonder  that  with  pride  and 
confidence  he  declared  he  "Was  a  Citizen  of  No 
Mean  City.'' 

Many  things  have  happened  in  the  nineteen  cen- 
turies since  this  exultant  declaration  of  citizenship. 
Kingdoms  and  Empires  have  risen  and  fallen ;  Repub- 
lics have  been  born,  baptized  in  blood,  and  gone  down 
to  death  in  their  greed  for  gold  and  glory.  Revolu- 
tions have  swept  over  the  earth  and  chaos  reigned  for 
a  thousand  years.  And  yet,  through  all  this  long 
night,  through  all  these  plots  and  counterplots,  the 
spirit  of  human  liberty  has  survived,  and  somehow 
bridging  over  the  waste  places  of  history,  enables  us  to 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  25 

say  tonight,  with  the  same  pride  and  the  same  con- 
fidence as  did  Paul  in  Csesarea,  "I  am  a  Citizen  oe 
No  Mean  City." 

This  citizenship  is  our  inheritance!  not  "bought 
with  a  great  sum,"  but  a  free  gift  from  our  fathers 
who  say  to  us  in  spirit,  tonight,  "Take  it !  and  be 
thankful." 

The  city  of  Bloomington  is  fifty  years  old  today. 
But  there  is  a  decade  prior  to  our  entrance  into  city 
life,  with  which  I  am  quite  familiar,  and  about  which 
I  prefer  to  speak.  To  me,  Bloomington  from  1840 
to  1850  is  much  more  interesting  than  Bloomington 
from  1850  to  1900. 

To  know  a  man  or  a  woman  well,  you  must  know 
something  of  his,  or  her  youth;  and  to  know  a  city, 
you  must  know  who  were  its  builders,  what  were  its 
youthful  surroundings,  and  under  what  conditions  did 
it  find  its  municipal  life? 

When  we  are  young  our  minds  are  easily  moved  to 
joy  or  sadness  by  the  chords,  or  discords  of  our  own 
dreaming,  and  imagination  plays  a  large  part  in  fill- 
ing waste  places  with  things  of  beauty,  and  often  casts 
a  glamour  over  events  which,  possibly,  are  quite  real- 
istic. 

Therefore,  if  some  things  I  may  say  should  seem  to 
be  somewhat  fanciful,  you  will  remember  this  is  a 
reminiscence,  rather  than  a  history. 

Bloomington  in  1840  was  a  picture  of  "Sweet  Au- 
burn." Try  to  think  of  it,  as  it  nestled  in  the  sun- 
shine on  the  border  of  the  grove.  Great  oaks  standing 
like  mailed  sentinels  for  its  protection.  No  landscape 
garden ;  no  flower  bordered  park ;  no  well  shaven  lawn, 
or  artificial  lake,  was  half  so  wonderful  as  that  Bloom- 
ing Grove! 


26  ADDRESSES 

Oaks,  elms,  hackberry  and  linden,  ash,  hickory, 
maple  and  walnut;  open  glassy  glades  and  leafy  dells; 
natural  bowers,  trellised  with  wild  grape  vines,  car- 
peted with  violets  and  sweetwilliams,  perfumed  with 
flowers  and  resonant  with  the  music  of  singing  birds. 

This  wonderful  grove,  full  of  animal  life,  fed  at 
nature's  bountiful  table;  a  thousand  flowers,  ranging 
from  the  spring  violet  to  the  golden-rod;  the  May  ap- 
ple, the  paw-paw,  and  the  purple  grape ;  from  budding 
spring  to  fading  autumn,  for  the  delight  of  man,  ar- 
rayed herself  in  her  changing  garments  of  beauty. 

And  the  prairie  to  the  north  of  it  more  wonderful 
than  the  grove,  waving  and  undulating  like  a  sea  in 
motion,  was  an  endless  landscape  of  grasses  and  flow- 
ers, where  the  wild  rose  blossomed  and  the  red  deer 
wandered. 

"Wonderful  land,  where  the  loam  and  the  sand 
Burst  into  bloom  at  the  touch  of  a  hand." 

And  so,  between  the  grove  and  the  prairie,  with 
their  "orchard,  and  meadow,  and  deep  tangled  wild- 
wood,"  lay  this  pretty  village  like  a  sleeping  child  in 
the  sunshine  and  the  shade. 

And  this  is  what  the  dreamer  saw  : 

"Seas  of  grain  and  of  answer  to  the  prayer  of  man- 
kind 
And  the  rose  in  blossom  making  a  bride  of  the  wind. 
And  the  prairie  flowers   shining  like  a  scripture   in 

bloom. 
And  the  bees  abroad  with  their  blunder  and  boom, 
Never  blunder  amiss,  for  there  is  something  to  kiss, 
Where  the  flowers  out  of  doors  smile  in  all  weather, 
And  bud,   blossom  and   fruit  graced  the  garden  to- 
gether." 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  27 

I  hold  that  the  men  who  build  a  city,  who  lay 
its  foundation  and  nourish  it  into  life,  impress  their 
characteristics  upon  it  for  generations  to  come.  And 
it  is  to  the  founders  and  pioneer  citizens  of  Blooming- 
ton,  who  laid  its  foundations  in  soberness  and  right- 
eousness, in  intelligence,  integrity  and  honor,  that  we 
owe  the  high  reputation  of  our  city,  and  the  pride  with 
which  we  say  today,  "We  are  Citizens  of  No  Mean 
City/^ 

And  when  I  mention  the  names  of  these  gentle- 
men, I  am  calling  a  roll  of  honor. 

THE  VILLAGE  SCHOOL! 

for  four  years,  or  more,  was  taught  by  Dr.  Wm.  C. 
Hobbs.  There  were  other  school  teachers  before  and 
after.  Mr.  Bragg,  Mr.  S.  S.  Luce,  Mr.  George  W. 
Mincer,  Mr.  Peter  Folsom,  but  the  village  school 
teacher  proper,  par  excellence,  was  Dr.  Hobbs.  A  sin- 
gular and  remarkable  man !  He  came  from  Louis- 
ville, Ky.,  I  think  in  1838.  He  was  the  dentist,  school 
teacher,  and  the  social  arbiter  elegantarhim  of  the  vil- 
lage. He  was  a  large,  handsome  and  elegant  gentle- 
man. While  most  other  citizens  dressed  in  blue  jeans, 
towe  linen  and  linsey  wolsey,  he  wore  broadcloth,  silk 
hats,  immaculate  Hnen  and  silk  lined  cloaks.  He  was 
afterwards  a  merchant,  and  for  many  years  the  county 
clerk.  He  died  leaving  no  enemies,  a  good  many 
debts,  and  twenty-seven  satin  vests. 

I  recall  the  following  names  of  persons  now  living 
in  Bloomington  who  attended  this  school :  Adam  and 
Peter  Guthrie,  William  Newton  and  James  Hodge, 
Jonathan  H.  Cheney,  Thomas  J.  Bunn,  Richard  Lan- 
der, John  T.  Walton,  James  and  William  Depew,  Ed- 


28  ADDRESSES 

ward  Hardy,  Dr.  Wm.  M.  T.  Miller,  James  S.  Ewing, 
Lewis  B.  Thomas. 

Miss  Virginia  Hayden,  now  Mrs.  Lynus  Graves. 

Miss  Louisa  Depew,  now  Mrs.  Dr.  Grothers. 

Miss  Harriet  Hardy,  now  Mrs.  I.  W.  Wilmuth. 

Miss  Margaret  Hawks,  now  Mrs.  Richard  Lander. 

Miss  Nannie  McGulloch,  now  Mrs.  D.  S.  Dyson. 

Miss  Lydia  McKisson,  now  Mrs.  Edward  Hardy. 

Miss  Mary  Hawks,  now  Mrs.  O.  T.  Reeves. 

THE  DOCTORS. 

When  I  first  remember  Bloomington,  the  block 
north  of  the  court  house  was  owned  and  occupied  as 
a  residence  by  Dr.  John  F.  Henry.  He  came  from 
Hopkins ville,  Ky. ;  was  a  descendant  of  Patrick 
Henry;  a  brother  of  the  Hon.  Gustavus  Henry,  one 
of  the  great  orators  of  Tennessee. 

Dr.  Henry  was  a  most  elegant  and  accomplished 
gentleman,  as  well  as  an  able  physician.  He  improved 
the  farm  east  of  the  city  now  owned  by  Mr.  George 
P.  Davis,  and  did  much  to  give  tone,  character  and 
culture  to  the  new  community. 

The  block  east  of  the  court  house  was  owned  and 
occupied  by  another  physician.  Dr.  John  Anderson. 
He  was  the  father  of  Mrs.  Jonathan  H.  Cheney.  He 
was  a  gentleman  of  means  for  that  day;  a  learned 
physician,  of  great  dignity  of  character  and  of  superior 
intelligence.  He  died  in  early  manhood,  but  was  long 
remembered  in  the  village  for  his  kindness  and  real 
worth. 

Dr.  Colboune  was  another  of  our  early  doctors  who 
was  very  much  loved  and  respected.  He  removed  to 
Peoria,  where  he  died  many  years  after.     His  son  is 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  29 

now  one  of  the  leading  physicians  and  surgeons  of 
that  city.  There  were  others  who  came  a  Httle  later; 
the  ones  I  most  particularly  remember  were  Dr.  A.  H. 
Luce,  Dr.  Ezekiel  Thomas,  Dr.  E.  K.  Crothers,  Dr. 
Geo.  W.  Stipp,  Dr.  Chas.  R.  Parke,  and  Dr.  Thos.  F. 
Worrell. 

THE  LAWYERS. 

were  David  Davis,  General  Gridley,  Wells  Coulton, 
and  Kersey  H.  Fell.  Afterwards,  but  while  Bloom- 
ington  was  yet  a  village,  and  almost  at  the  same  time, 
came  a  number  of  young  lawyers  who  well  supple- 
mented the  fathers  of  this  bar,  and  continued  it,  what 
it  always  had  been  and  what  it  has  remained  to  this 
day,  one  of  the  ablest  in  the  state:  Leonard  Swett, 
Ward  W.  Orme,  John  H.  Wickizer,  W.  H.  Hanna 
and  John  M.  Scott. 

There  were  other  distinguished  lawyers  who,  while 
they  were  not  residents  of  Bloomington,  yet  practiced 
at  the  McLean  county  bar,  and  we  may  claim  some- 
thing of  their  fame  as  a  possession. 

AN    INCIDENT. 

In  the  early  history  of  this  county,  two  boys,  one 
day,  went  into  the  old  court  house  to  hear  a  lawsuit 
tried.  There  were  assembled  eight  young  lawyers — 
not  all  of  them  engaged  in  the  trial,  but  giving  strict 
attention  to  the  proceeding.  It  was  not  a  suit  of  great 
importance.  Some  one  had  permitted  his  cattle  to 
stray  into  his  neighbor's  cornfield ;  the  neighbor  set 
his  dog  on  the  cattle,  and  a  suit  in  trespass  followed. 
It  was  really  a  suit  between  the  dog  and  the  steers, 
and  involved  their  respective  characters  for  quietness 


30  ADDRESSES 

and  good  deportment  in  the  neighborhood.  But  en- 
gaged, or  interested,  in  that  suit,  were  eight  young 
lawyers.  I  doubt  if  any  one  of  them  were  over  26  or 
Q.'j  years  old;  certainly  not  over  30,  and  some  much 
younger.  The  court  was  presided  over  by  Samuel  H. 
Treat,  who  afterwards  became  a  United  States  district 
judge,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  and 
jurists  in  the  state.  One  of  the  lawyers  was  General 
Asahel  Gridley,  our  townsman,  and  a  well  known 
citizen  of  the  state. 

David  Davis,  first  a  noted  lawyer,  then  a  circuit 
judge;  then  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  court  of  the 
United  States ;  then  a  United  States  senator  and  acting 
vice-president  of  the  nation ;  a  citizen  of  state  and  na- 
tional fame,  whom  the  people  of  Bloomington  loved 
and  delighted  to  honor. 

Another  was  John  T.  Stewart,  a  brilliant  lawyer, 
several  times  a  member  of  congress  and  one  of  the 
most  lovable  of  men. 

Another  one  was  David  Campbell,  then  the  prose- 
cuting attorney,  and  afterwards  a  prominent  lawyer 
and  citizen  of  Springfield. 

Another  was  Edward  D.  Baker,  who  was  after- 
wards a  United  States  senator  from  Oregon ;  a  famous 
orator,  who  immortalized  himself  by  his  marvelous 
oration  over  David  Broderick. 

Another  was  James  McDougal,  a  brilliant  Irish- 
man, afterwards  a  United  States  senator  from  the  state 
of  California. 

And  Abraham  Lincoln !  who  has  passed  beyond  the 
domain  of  human  praise  into  the  pantheon  of  unusual 
history. 

I  might  add  that  one  of  those  boys  afterwards  be- 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  3 1 

came  the  vice-president  of  the  United  States ;  and  the 
other  is  your  speaker. 

Speaking  to  any  audience  in  America,  and  I  might 
say  in  the  world,  I  doubt  if  such  an  incident  could  be 
truthfully  related  of  any  other  gathering. 


We  had  political  parties  in  those  days,  and  the 
country  was  lost  and  saved  as  often  then  as  now. 

The  leading  Whigs  were  David  Davis,  Wm.  Mc- 
Cullough,  Allen  Withers,  Jesse  W.  Fell,  Isaac  Funk, 
General  Gridley,  Wm.  Thomas,  Wm.  H.  Temple,  Wm. 
Hodge,  James  Miller. 

The  leading  Democrats  were  Merrit  L.  Covel, 
Abram  Brokaw,  Henry  I.  Miller,  Joseph  C.  Duncan, 
John  W.  Ewing,  H.  P.  Merriman,  Albert  Dodd,  John 
Moore,  Geo.  D.  Mcllhiney. 

There  was  a  third  party — not  a  Greenback,  Popu- 
list or  Prohibition  party.  It  was  called  the  Abolition 
party!  It  was  a  small  and  very  much  abused  party. 
In  Bloomington  it  numbered  six  members.  Thomas 
Hardy,  Wm.  Wallis,  J.  N.  Ward,  Deacon  Tompkins, 
Geo.  Dietrich,  Silas  Hays. 

Abolitionism  was  then  a  term  of  reproach.  And 
those  who  openly  professed  the  faith  were  bitterly 
denounced  as  fanatics,  "pestilent  fellows,"  "stirrers-up 
of  sedition,"  and  enemies  of  their  country.  They  de- 
nied this  charge.  They  said,  "We  love  our  country, 
and  therefore  dare  we  not  keep  silence  concerning 
her  sin.'^ 

Whigs  and  Democrats  proclaimed  the  vital,  "para- 
mount" and  all  important  questions  were  about  Inter- 
nal Improvements,  U.  S.  Bank,  the  Tariff,  the  Mexican 
War.     These  six  men  said,  "nothing  is  important  but 


32  ADDRESSES 

human  liberty."  "A  free  people  cannot  have  slaves." 
"It  is  on  our  consciences,  we  must  talk." 

The  Whigs  and  Democrats  said,  "You  are  agi- 
tators; you  must  not  agitate,  you  will  ruin  the  coun- 
try." 

They  said,  "Not  till  the  country  divorces  herself 
from  her  sin  can  her  bells  ring  peace." 

And  now,  in  the  white  light  of  history,  we  know 
that  theirs  was,  "The  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
make  straight  the  paths  of  the  Lord ! " 

Now  we  know  that  those  six  men,  and  they  only, 
were  right,  and  all  the  others  were  wrong.  Now  we 
know  that  in  politics  questions  of  arithmetic,  questions 
of  finance,  questions  of  economics  are  never  of  su- 
preme importance. 

Now  we  know  that  in  the  presence  of  a  question 
of  human  liberty,  a  question  of  preserving  the  republic 
on  the  true  principle  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, all  other  questions  must  veil  their  faces,  and, 
for  the  time  being,  sink  into  insignificance. 

THE   BUSINESS   INTERESTS. 

of  the  village  were  well  represented.  The  market  was 
largely  local,  but  almost  every  demand  was  supplied 
by  some  local  industry. 

Mr.  Matthew  Hawks  operated  an  oil  mill. 

Mr.  John  N.  Larimore  manufactured  hats, 

Mr.  Daniel  Dryer  had  a  pottery. 

Wm.  Flagg  and  John  W.  Ewing,  as  Flagg  &  Ew- 
ing,  operated  a  saw  mill,  machine  shop  and  foundry, 
and  manufactured  furniture. 

David  Haggard  made  half  bushels. 

Lewis  Bunn  and  Oliver  Ellsworth  were  the  black- 
smiths. 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  33 

Gillespie  and  Adolph  were  tailors. 

John  Dawson  was  the  shoemaker. 

Goodman  and  Lyman  Ferre  were  the  wagon 
makers. 

James  Walton  and  Joshua  Harlan  were  saddlers 
and  harness  makers. 

John  Myers  and  S.  B.  Brown  ran  the  flour  mill. 

Jacob  Myers  had  a  woolen  mill. 

Ebenezer  Peck  and  William  Brewer  each  owned 
tan  yards. 

George  Deitrich  was  the  tinner. 

Noah  Stine,  Benjamin  Harrison,  and  John  Rock- 
hold  were  coopers. 

Allen  Withers,  Wm.  Temple,  Wm.  H.  Allen,  James 
H.  Robinson,  and  A.  J.  Merriman  were  our  merchants. 

Joel  Depew  was  a  cabinet  maker. 

J.  N.  Ward  manufactured  chairs. 

Crevan  Bosley  was  the  house  painter,  and 

John  L.  Wolcott  was  the  undertaker. 

You  see  how  diversified  were  these  industries.  How 
everything  that  was  wanted  was  manufactured  at 
home.  Every  one  did  well,  made  a  good  living,  and 
was  well  content  that  his  neighbor  should  prosper. 
There  was  then  no  selfish  spirit  of  competition  which 
sought  to  drive  all  others  out  of  business  and  gather 
all  the  golden  sheaves  into  one  barn. 

Remember,  that  in  this  village  were  only  500  or 
600  people.  Ministers,  doctors,  lawyers,  manufactur- 
ers, handicraftsmen,  and  day  laborers  worked  together 
for  the  good  of  the  community  and  of  each  other.  All 
whose  names  I  have  mentioned  in  any  connection  were 
high-minded,  honorable  men.  Self-respecting  and  re- 
spected, many  of  them  were  remarkable  men ;  and  all 
of  them  would  have  been  marked  men  in  any  com- 

-2 


34  ADDRESSES 

munity.  They  respected  each  other's  rights  while  they 
maintained  their  own. 

Between  these  men  there  were  strong  attachments 
and  warm  friendships,  which  lasted  through  life,  and 
in  many  cases  extended  to  their  descendants.  There 
were  no  rich  men,  and  few  poor  ones. 

I  have  often  expressed  a  doubt  if  any  other  village 
of  equal  size  ever  contained  as  many  men  of  such 
peculiar  and  marked  characteristics  what  might  be 
called  "characters,"  or  "types." 

There  are  many  of  my  hearers  who  will  understand 
exactly  what  I  mean  when  I  call  to  their  recollection : 
Zera  Patterson,  Capt.  Furgason,  John  Rockhold, 
James  Allen,  General  Gridley,  John  Dietrich,  William 
Flagg,  Wm.  C.  Hobbs,  Isaac  Baker,  Dr.  Lindley, 
Bailey  Coffee,  Greenberry  Larrison,  Dr.  Espy,  Wm. 
McCullough,  Jesse  W.  Fell,  Willett  Gray,  Wm.  Tem- 
pie.  Strongly  marked  characters,  and  utterly  unlike 
any  one  but  themselves. 

There  were  no  railroads  in  those  days,  no  tele- 
graphs nor  telephones,  no  sewing  machines,  no  gas 
lights,  no  pavements,  few  sidewalks,  no  daily  paper, 
no  city  council,  no  mayor!  and  yet  people  were  happy ! 

I  love  to  think  of  this  little  community,  with  its 
simple  and  healthy  habits,  its  splendid  men  and  women, 
its  bright  lads  and  pretty  maidens  as  something  ideal. 
There  was  not  the  elegance,  fashion  and  culture  of 
today ;  but  there  was  honesty,  kindness  and  good  will. 

There  were  not  the  fine  residences  which  now  adorn 
our  beautiful  city.  Their  homes  were  mostly  cottages 
and  cabins ;  but  the  honeysuckle  and  the  morning-glory 
climbed  over  their  doorways  and  the  songs  of  birds 
wakened  them  from  slumber. 

These  were  some  of  the  men  and  women  who  laid 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  35 

the  foundation  and  built  our  city.  The  builders  are 
dead,  but  their  city  remains,  and  this  celebration  to- 
day is  in  honor  of  their  memory. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  village  became  a  city.  In  that 
fifty  years  zuhat  marvelous  changes  have  taken  place ! 
The  railroads  came,  the  sidewalks  and  pavements  were 
built;  our  churches  have  increased  in  size  and  num- 
ber, and  our  colleges  and  schools,  our  court  house  and 
fine  public  buildings,  our  library,  our  water  works, 
our  fire  department,  our  beautiful  shaded  streets,  our 
literary  and  musical  societies  have  all  combined  to  more 
than  fulfill  the  promise  of  our  youth.  In  all  this  ma- 
terial prosperity  and  improvement  we  rejoice. 

But  there  is  something  more  to  a  city  than  its 
streets  and  houses;  something,  if  not  so  tangible,  yet 
quite  as  real.     It  is  what  the  French  call 

l'esprit  de  la  ville. 

Paris  is  not  simply  a  great  fashionable  city  which 
is  to  have  an  exposition  this  year.  It  is  the  city  of 
Charlemagne,  of  Louis  the  XIV,  of  Rosseau  and  Robe- 
pierre,  of  Marie  Antoinette,  of  the  Revolution,  the  Bas- 
tile,  and  the  Commune.  It  is  where  kings  and  emper- 
ors have  reigned,  loved  and  died;  and  which  a  thou- 
sand tragedies  have  embalmed  in  story  and  in  song. 

When  an  American  visits  London,  the  first  places 
he  inquires  after  and  wants  most  to  see  are  London 
Bridge,  Drury  Lane,  and  Primrose  Hill,  immortalized 
in  the  wonderful  poems  of  Mother  Goose.  Then  he 
wants  to  find  the  "Old  Curiosity  Shop,"  and  a  hundred 
other  places  made  so  real  by  the  genius  of  Charles 
Dickens. 

I  once  stopped  over  a  day  in  a  little  town  in  Italy 


36  ADDRESSES 

to  visit  the  grave  of  a  sixteen-year-old  girl  who  died 
400  years  ago  (or  rather  who  never  lived  at  all),  sim- 
ply because  the  greatest  poet  who  ever  lived  had  told 
how  passionately  she  loved,  and  how  sadly  she  died. 
The  genius  of  the  poet  hallowed  the  spot  and  changed 
the  mystic  ideal  into  things  rare  and  real. 

A  hundred  thousand  tourists  annually  visit  a  lit- 
tle town  in  Germany  (not  larger  than  Le  Roy),  be- 
cause a  poet  wrote  the  little  love  song  of  "Bingen  on 
the  Rhine." 

The  houses,  streets  and  alleys  are  the  "outward 
and  visible  signs  of  the  inward  and  spiritual"  life  and 
character  of  a  city  which  is,  after  all,  the  most  real. 
Whenever  you  feel  the  touch  of  humanity,  wherever 
you  connect  the  scenes  with  the  deeds  of  men,  who 
have  lived,  and  loved,  and  suffered,  the  chain  is  be- 
yond the  breaking.  Hence  these  celebrations  affect 
our  hearts.  They  bring  to  us  the  memory  of  those 
whose  lives  and  works  have  made  life  easier  for  us. 
They  recall  whatever  there  may  be  of  noble  action, 
self-sacrifice  or  act  of  heroism.  This  celebration  will 
make  more  real  to  us  these  intangible  certitudes.  If 
we  love  our  city,  that  love  will  be  anchored  in  its  mem- 
ories, tragedies,  and  traditions. 

The  moral  tone  of  a  city,  its  intelligence,  its  public 
spirit,  its  culture,  its  patriotism,  its  traditions,  its 
citizenship ;  what  it  has  done,  and  what  it  has  produced, 
determine  its  certitudes.  Considered  from  this  point 
of  view,  I  think,  we  may  also  say,  "We  are  Citizens 
OF  NO  Mean  City.'  ^ 

Bloomington  is  a  patriotic  city!  She  sent  soldiers 
and  officers  to  the  Black  Hawk  War.  She  sent  a  com- 
pany to  the  Mexican  War.  She  sent  a  regiment  to 
the  war  of  the  Rebellion.     She  sent  a  company  to  the 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  37 

war  with  Spain.  We  have  Harvey,  Howell,  Hogg, 
Orme  and  McCulloug-h  who  gave  up  their  lives  for 
their  country.  They,  with  many  others,  are  our 
heroes,  whom  we  delight  to  honor. 

Bloomington  has  also  furnished  her  full  quota  to 
the  civil  service  of  her  country.  Two  vice-presidents, 
one  United  States  senator,  a  judge  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  court ;  a  judge  of  the  court  of  claims ; 
six  members  of  congress;  two  governors,  and  one 
chief  justice  of  the  state  of  Illinois. 

And  without  any  disposition  to  exaggerate,  and 
in  all  modesty,  I  think  I  may  say,  that  we  are  prepared 
to  duplicate  this  record  at  any  time  the  country  may  be 
in  need  of  jurists  and  statesmen. 

Bloomington  is  a  moral  city!  It  is  full  of  beauti- 
ful houses ;  its  yards,  gardens  and  lawns  are  clean  and 
well  kept.  It  is  full  of  churches  and  schools,  and  its 
streets  are  lined,  adorned  and  beautified  with  shade 
trees  (except  where  the  spaces  are  needed  for  tele- 
graph poles.) 

We  challenge  comparison  with  any  city,  as  to  the 
moral  tone,  intelligence,  public  spirit,  culture  and  so- 
cial qualities  of  our  citizens.  And,  subjectively  con- 
sidered, we  may  well  say,  "We  are  Citizens  of  no 
Mean  City." 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  of  the  past.  But  what  may 
we  reasonably  expect  of 

THE    FUTURE? 

I  think  Bloomington  will  never  be  a  very  large 
city ;  and  I  am  glad  of  that.  It  will  never  be  a  boom 
city ;  and  I  am  glad  of  that.  It  will  never  be  a  manu- 
facturing city,  and  I  am  glad  of  that.     It  will  never 


38  ADDRESSES 

be  the  capital  of  the  state ;  and  I  am  glad  of  that.  It 
will  never  be  a  city  like  Chicago,  and  I  am  glad  of  that. 

Bloomington  will  continue  its  steady,  conserva- 
tive, healthy  growth  towards  the  fulfillment  of  its 
manifest  destiny;  which  is,  to  become  the  ideal  resi- 
dence city  of  the  west. 

It  will  not  be  long  until  all  of  our  streets  will  be 
paved;  thus  saving  the  annual  expense  of  taking  care 
of  dirt  roads,  and  the  enormous  additional  expense  of 
cleaning  the  pavements  already  built.  This  will  be 
done  just  as  soon  as  it  can  be  realized  that  it  will  cost 
no  more  to  do  it  all  in  one  year  than  to  spread  it  over 
twenty. 

Continuing  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  I  will  say, 
the  time  is  coming  when,  following  the  suggestion  of 
one  of  our  most  public  spirited  citizens,  our  school 
house  yards  and  our  unique  little  strip  lawns  will  be 
turned  over  to  our  park  commissioners,  who  will  see 
that  they  are  well  covered  with  grass,  their  shade 
trees  trimmed  and  guarded  (and  wherever  the  tele- 
graph, electric  light,  and  telephone  companies  permit), 
new  trees  planted  wherever  they  are  needed. 

We  need,  and  will  have  established  here,  a  first- 
class  female  college,  a  fit  mate  for  our  universities, 
where  our  young  girls  can  secure  a  finished  educa- 
tion, while  at  the  same  time  enjoying  the  benefits  of 
home  culture  and  protection.  When  we  have  the 
schools,  our  city  will  be  sought  as  a  place  of  residence 
by  people  of  means  and  refinement,  for  purposes  of 
education  and  the  benefits  to  be  derived  therefrom.  If 
we  have  any  money  to  give  away,  let  us  give  it  for 
this  purpose,  and  not  to  buggy  factories  and  cereal 
mills,  et  cetera! 

In  this  ideal  city  of  the  future,  we  will  have  clean 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  39 

streets.  There  has  been  wonderful  improvement  in 
the  last  year.  Just  as  soon  as  our  city  council  learns 
that  there  is  no  money  the  citizen  pays  so  willingly 
as  that  used  in  cleaning  the  streets,  this  service  will  be 
improved.  There  is  another  thing !  Some  day,  it  will 
dawn  upon  the  street  commissioner,  that  it  costs  no 
more  to  clean  off  the  crossings  within  an  hour  after 
a  rain  than  it  does  four  days  after.  And  then,  won't 
we  all  be  happy? 

We  may  none  of  us  live  to  see  the  blessed  time, 
but  some  time  "in  the  sweet  bye  and  bye"  the  long 
rows  of  great  ugly,  black,  dirty  poles,  which  mar,  dis- 
figure, and  disgrace  many  of  our  most  beautiful  aven- 
ues, will  be  removed,  and  the  rusty  wires  which  adorn 
them  will  be  buried  out  of  sight.  Do  not  think  I  am 
imposing  upon  your  credulity,  or  desire  to  create  false 
hopes.  In  this  wonderful  century  of  material  progress 
more  wonderful  things  have  happened,  and  even  if 
our  eyes  may  not  see  this  glory,  we  may  leave  it  as  a 
hope  and  aspiration  to  our  posterity. 

There  is  a  beautiful  little  city  to  the  north  of  us, 
built  up  around  our  state  university.  I  am  in  favor  of 
annexing  Normal.  It  is  not  at  all  certain  that  the  in- 
habitants of  that  city  are  capable  of  self-government. 
In  all  the  years  they  have  been  trying  the  experiment, 
they  haven't  established  a  single  saloon,  and  but  one 
law  office.  Annexation  would  be  of  great  financial  ad- 
vantage to  us.  It  would  open  up  a  great  missionary 
field,  and  a  new  area  of  enterprise  for  our  surplus 
lawyers,  real  estate  men,  insurance  agents  and  book 
peddlers.  I  do  not  favor,  however,  forcible  annexa- 
tion (if  it  can  be  avoided.)  I  believe  the  "constitution 
follows  the  flag,"  and  favor  a  policy  that  would  give 
these  "insurgents"   the  benefit  of  home  government, 


40  ADDRESSES 

under  our  direction,  and  the  rights  of  citizenship ;  pro- 
vided they  accept  our  notions  of  citizenship. 

If  Normal  will  allow  us  to  retain  a  few  saloons, 
and  the  city  railway  company  will  agree  to  run  enough 
cars  after  the  theater,  the  matter  can  be  easily  ar- 
ranged. 

Then  by  a  judicious  system  of  tariff  duties,  or  by 
special  assessment,  we  might  compel  these  new  citi- 
zens to  build  hard  roads  and  pavements  connecting  us 
with  our  "new  possessions." 

By  the  establishment  of  a  coaling  station  at  the 
university,  we  could  easily  extend  our  trade  to  the 
Soldiers'  Home,  Hudson,  Kerrick,  and  Kappa.  The 
possibilities  are  enormous. 

More  seriously  speaking,  there  is  a  growing  con- 
viction that  a  union  of  these  cities,  under  just  and 
proper  conditions,  will  be  mutually  beneficial  in  very 
many  ways.  There  are  visions  of  hard  roads,  paved 
streets,  shaded  drives,  and  intervening  parks;  of  a 
larger  and  more  beautiful  city,  cheaper  taxation,  more 
influence  for  good,  and  brighter  prospects  for  the  fu- 
ture. 

Our  little  neighbor  is  somewhat  coy,  and  must  be 
wooed  as  a  bride;  the  union  must  be  a  marriage,  and 
added  to  its  material  advantages,  must  be  added  a 
dowry  of  love  and  affection. 

One  other  hope  allow  me  to  express.  In  the  old 
city  cemetery  sleep  many  of  our  city  builders,  with  the 
ones  they  loved.  This  consecrated  property  is  owned 
by  the  city.  Is  not  this  an  appropriate  occasion  to  sug- 
gest the  caring  for  and  beautifying  of  this  long  ne- 
glected city  of  our  dead?  It  would  be  but  the  grate- 
ful performance  of  a  sacred  duty.  I  am  sure  I  express 
the  unanimous  sentiment  of  every  citizen  of  Bloom- 


"A  CITIZEN  OF  NO  MEAN  CITY"  41 

ington,  when  I  say  to  our  city  council  that  any  rea- 
sonable expenditure  of  money  for  this  purpose  would 
meet  with  their  cordial  approval. 

A  city  is  a  part  of  the  state  and  the  nation.  As  we 
are  "Citizens  of  No  Mean  City,"  in  a  far  higher 
sense  we  are  citizens  of  a  great  free  Republic. 

As  we  gather  up  the  memories  and  traditions  of 
our  little  city,  that  our  love  and  patriotism  may  grow 
into  fellowship  with  them,  we  will  not  forget  the 
broader  and  more  sacred  obligations  we  owe  to  our 
entire  country.  We  will  remember  with  renewed 
thankfulness  our  unpaid  debt  of  gratitude  to  its  found- 
ers and  builders. 

If  I  remind  you,  it  is  not  because  you  have  for- 
gotten, how  they  laid  its  foundations  on  the  solid  rock 
of  absolute  political  and  legal  equality,  and  then  ce- 
mented them  with  their  blood;  how  they  gave  us  a 
government  without  king,  or  caste,  or  pride  of  birth, 
where  we  call  no  man  master ;  where  there  is  no  royal 
road  to  distinction,  and  where  honest  worth  is  better 
than  coronet  or  patent  of  nobility;  how  they  left  us 
rich  legacies  in  their  words  of  wisdom  for  our  guid- 
ance. 

This  great  legacy  is  ours,  not  bought  with  a  price, 
but  a  free  gift.  What  we  will  do  with  it,  and  how 
we  will  execute  our  trust,  remains  to  be  written.  If 
we  are  true  to  our  trust,  true  to  our  fathers,  true  to 
the  institutions  they  founded,  our  country  will  go  on 
from  prosperity  to  prosperity,  and  find  its  fruition  in 
power,  and  safety  and  peace.  But,  if  faithless,  we 
relax  public  vigilance,  and  are  seduced  into  yielding 
to  the  rash  impulses  of  the  hour,  and  permit  our  coun- 
try to  be  dragged  into  the  vortex  of  foreign  strife, 


42  ADDRESSES 

we  may  make  shipwreck  of  the  noblest  bark  that  was 
ever  launched  on  the  tide  of  time. 

The  God  of  Nations,  who  inspired  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  who  gave  us  Jefferson  and  Lincoln, 
who  camped  with  our  armies  at  Valley  Forge  and  on 
a  hundred  battlefields  of  civil  strife,  who  has  safe- 
guarded us  in  all  our  trials,  will  not  forsake  us  in 
our  present  temptation.  But  out  of  it  all,  as  purified 
by  fire,  will  come  a  renewed  patriotism,  a  purer  love 
of  liberty,  a  more  unselfish  public  service,  and  a  more 
stainless  public  honor,  which  will  enable  us,  and  our 
children's  children,  to  say,  with  exultation  and  pride, 
not  only,  are  we  "Citizens  of  No  Mean  City  !"  but 
of  the  great  free  American  Republic. 


THE  GREAT  LAWYER 


Delivered  before  the  State  Bar  Association  at  Springfield,  Illinois 

Fifteen  hundred  and  seventy-one  years  before 
Christ,  there  was  born  in  the  capital  of  Egypt  the  most 
remarkable  man  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Whether 
born  in  a  palace  or  fished  from  the  bulrushes  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  is  an  inquiry  which  does  not  enter 
into  this  discussion,  nor  does  our  conclusion  of  that 
question,  the  one  way  or  the  other,  increase  or  dimin- 
ish our  estimate  of  the  marvelous  genius  of  the  great- 
est lawyer  of  any  age. 

Reared  in  a  royal  palace,  graced  by  the  most  ele- 
gant and  cultured  court;  taught  by  the  most  learned 
doctors;  a  member  of  the  college  of  priests;  initiated 
into  the  most  abstruse  of  Egyptian  mysteries;  a  mas- 
ter of  the  learning  and  culture  of  his  time;  the  fa- 
miliar companion  of  kings,  at  the  age  of  forty  years 
he  found  himself,  by  a  law  of  the  kingdom,  cut  off 
from  its  inheritance.  Either  on  account  of  his  ille- 
gitimacy, or  on  account  of  his  supposed  Hebrew  origin, 
he  found  himself  an  object  of  suspicion  and  hatred 
to  the  new  dynasty.  He  determined  to  found  a  new 
nation  out  of  the  "children  of  bondage."  Two  mil- 
lions of  slaves,  the  bond-men  and  bond-women  for 
many  generations,  were  the  materials  he  found  scat- 
tered through  Egypt.  He  found  an  Egyptian  maltreat- 
ing a  Hebrew  and  slew  him,  and  this  was  the  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  his  alliance  with  the  slave,  and  a  de- 
claration of  war  against  the  master.  Then  followed 
forty  years  of  exile  and  solitude  in  that  land  of  deso- 


44  ADDRESSES 

lation  to  the  east  of  the  Red  Sea.  This  "land  of 
Midian,"  with  its  subhmity  of  rocky  cHff  and  moun- 
tain gorge ;  with  its  rocks  and  sand ;  its  sterile  soil  and 
scattered  pastoral  people,  was  a  fit  university  for  that 
preparation  necessary  to  his  wonderful  career.  All 
the  learning  of  the  schools  of  Egypt ;  all  the  knowledge 
and  skill  he  had  acquired  from  the  sages  and  doctors 
of  the  royal  court;  all  the  insight  he  had  into  the  sci- 
entific mysteries  of  the  colleges  of  the  priests — all 
went  for  nothing.  But  in  these  dreamy  solitudes  of 
desert  waste,  without  books,  companionship  or  teacher, 
communing  only  with  nature  and  his  own  soul  upon 
the  problems  of  government  and  law,  he  evolved,  cod- 
ified and  perfected  a  great  system  of  jurisprudence, 
which  has  been  and  will  be  to  the  end  of  time,  the  won- 
der of  the  world. 

It  may  be  doubted  if  any  man  ever  impressed  his 
genius  upon  his  race  to  any  considerable  extent,  who 
did  not  find  his  preparatory  school  in  the  solitude  of 
a  desert,  or  the  dreariness  of  a  mountain.  It  was  so 
with  Brahma,  with  Moses,  with  Zoroaster,  and  with 
Jesus.  Consider  what  this  man  did !  He  returned 
to  Egypt,  gathered  together  a  scattered  mass  of  two 
million  of  slaves ;  compelled  their  task-masters  to  let 
them  go ;  and  kept  them  forty  years  in  a  wildnerness. 
He  found  them  ignorant,  idolatrous,  selfish,  sensuous, 
and  cruel.  He  left  them  a  united  nation,  a  virtuous. 
God-fearing  people,  the  subjects  of  government  and 
law;  organized  into  conquering  armies;  with  an  es- 
tablished priesthood  and  recognizing  to  the  fullest 
extent  the  obligations  of  citizenship,  the  sacredness  of 
the  family,  the  purity  of  woman,  the  ownership  of 
property,  and  glowing  with  the  pride  of  nationality ;  a 
unified   and   wonderful   nation   which   maintained   its 


THE  GREAT  LAWYER  45 

ascendency  in  western  Asia  for  a  thousand  years,  cul- 
minating in  the  magnificence  and  glory  of  David  and 
Solomon.  And  more  wonderful  still,  after  thirty  and 
a  half  centuries  this  same  people,  scattered  over  the 
whole  earth  in  every  city,  village  and  hamlet,  preserv- 
ing their  unity  of  blood  and  race,  and  their  grandeur 
of  worship  and  faith,  exemplify  the  laws  and  institu- 
tions of  this  sage  of  the  wilderness.  He  did  this  for 
the  Hebrew  race;  and  for  himself,  linked  his  name 
with  all  subsequent  ages  and  impressed  his  genius 
upon  the  human  race  for  all  time  to  come. 

I  do  not  see  in  this  wonderful  history,  the  "won- 
der working  rod,"  the  smitten  rock  of  Horeb;  the 
miraculous  manna,  the  "pillar  of  cloud,"  nor  the 
"fires  of  Sinai;"  but  a  more  marvelous  miracle,  the 
presence  amongst  men  of  a  genius  so  transcendently 
superior  as  to  impress  the  conviction  that  God  does 
care  for  his  children,  by  raising  up  at  proper  times 
for  them,  teacher,  prophet,  priest,  and  law-giver,  to 
lead  them  along  paths  of  ascent  to  plains  of  higher 
civilization  and  better  living. 

"It  is  a  terrible  thing,"  says  Carlisle,  "when  God 
lets  loose  a  thinker  upon  the  earth!"  Terrible,  be- 
cause in  their  wake  follow  transitions  from  lower  to 
higher  plans ;  the  crashing  of  idols,  the  overthrow  of 
intellectual  and  religious  systems,  and  the  tearing 
down  and  building  up  of  kingdoms. 

This  was  true  of  Moses  in  Egypt  and  of  Brahma 
in  India;  it  was  true  five  hundred  years  later  of  Gau- 
tama, the  founder  of  Buddhism  in  Hindustan ;  it  was 
true  one  thousand  years  later  of  Confucius  in  China, 
and  Zoroaster  in  Persia;  and  it  was  true  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  later  of  Jesus  in  Judea.  It  is  not  of 
Moses  "the  man  of  God,"  the  "inspired  historian," 


46  ADDRESSES 

the  "holy  prophet,"  the  "divine  Hberator,"  but  of 
Moses  the  lawyer,  I  desire  to  speak. 

The  ordinances  of  the  Mosaic  code  are  of  two 
kinds:  ist.  The  enunciation  of  great  fundamental 
truths,  as  rules  of  civil  conduct,  applicable  to  all  peo- 
ple and  to  all  times.  2nd.  Such  as  pertain  prima- 
rily and  principally  to  the  government  of  the  Jews  in 
their  then  condition.  Many  of  these  latter  laws,  ordi- 
nances and  regulations  are  justly  considered  by  law- 
yers as  unnecessarily  tedious,  sometimes  concerned 
about  trifling  details,  often  involved  and  unmeaning, 
and  oftener  cruel  and  unjust.  If  we  study  this  code 
in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  peculiar  people 
for  whom  it  was  intended,  at  the  same  time  keeping 
in  mind  the  purposes  of  the  law  maker,  many  of  these 
criticisms  cease  to  be  valid.  The  aim  and  purpose  of 
Moses  concerning  the  Jews  was,  first,  to  wean  them 
from  the  debasing  sin  and  practice  of  idolatry;  and, 
second,  to  create  and  preserve  them  a  united  and  for- 
ever a  "peculiar  people." 

For  these  purposes  he  created  Jehovah!  Not  the 
Elohim  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  who  was  the 
creator  of  the  universe  and  the  loving  father  of  all 
men,  but  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Jews;  their  ruler; 
their  protector ;  their  avenger ;  the  divine  head  of  their 
theocracy.  They  were  his  chosen  people.  He  led 
them  out  of  bondage ;  opened  the  sea  for  their  deliver- 
ance ;  fed  them  with  manna ;  guided  them  by  cloud  and 
fire,  and  gave  them  victory  over  their  enemies !  He  was 
a  jealous  God.  Visiting  the  sins  of  the  parents  upon 
their  children,  executing  the  lex  talionis — an  eye  for 
an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth;  and  for  every  Jewish 
■"male  child"  the  "first  born"  of  every  Egyptian  house- 
liold.     The  necessities  of  the  case  required  Jehovah! 


THE  GREAT  LAWYER  47 

To  accomplish  the  same  purposes,  Moses  estabhshed 
a  priesthood;  built  the  tabernacle;  instituted  festivals 
and  forms  of  worship.  All  communion  and  trade  re- 
lations with  the  surrounding  pagan  nations  were 
strictly  prohibited.  Reasoning  from  effect  to  cause, 
we  can  readily  see  how  this  idea  of  Jehovah,  so  im- 
pressed, became  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  Jewish  char- 
acter. He  saw  the  end  of  the  beginning!  The  unifi- 
cation was  complete.  From  the  end  of  the  Exodus  to 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  idea  became  more  and 
more  intensified.  The  tabernacle  became  a  temple ;  the 
simple,  ceremonies  of  the  wilderness  expanded  into  the 
gorgeous  liturgy  of  Solomon.  And  today  the  scat- 
tered tribes  of  Jacob,  in  every  land  under  the  sun,  pre- 
serve the  purity  of  their  blood;  are  one  people,  with 
one  God  and  one  worship.  The  rabbis  administer  the 
the  same  ordinances  Levi  administered  at  the  foot  of 
Sinai.  The  people  keep  the  same  feasts ;  sing  the  songs 
of  triumph  Miriam  sang,  and  the  sweet  psalms  that 
David  wrote.  Even  amongst  these  local  institutions 
and  laws  suited  to  and  intended  for,  an  isolated  and 
theocratic  people,  there  are  found  many  of  great  value 
and  applicable  to  all  people  in  their  highest  conditions 
of  development.  The  institution  of  the  Sabbath;  the 
setting  aside  of  every  seventh  day  as  a  day  of  rest, 
was  the  special  work  of  Moses.  No  other  govern- 
ment commanded  and  no  other  people  practiced  it. 
This  was  a  sanitary,  and  not  a  religious  institution. 

He  was  not  a  religious  teacher.  His  aim,  like  that 
of  all  great  leaders  and  legislators,  was  to  establish  a 
high  moral  standard  for  the  conduct  of  his  people. 
There  is  not  a  word  in  all  his  writings  about  a  future 
state.  All  his  ordinances  and  rules  were  directed  to 
the  physical  improvement  of  the  people;  to  their  intel- 


48  ADDRESSES 

lectual  and  moral  advancement,  and  to  their  national 
success  and  glory.  However  men  may  differ  as  to 
the  proper  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  all  agree  as  to  its 
necessity  and  beneficence.  Moses  believed  in  the  sa- 
credness  of  the  human  body;  and  many  of  his  ordi- 
nances are  directed  to  personal  cleanliness  and  to  pro- 
viding punishments  for  personal  injuries  and  abuses. 
He  held  that  chastity  was  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
purity  of  the  family  and  the  glory  of  the  nation.  All 
offenses  against  female  chastity  were  severely  pun- 
ished. He  taught  reverence  to  parental  authority. 
"Honor  thy  father  and  mother"  (not  for  some  future 
reward  but)  "that  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land." 
These  principles,  the  sacredness  of  the  human  body; 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath ;  the  chastity  of  woman ; 
reverence  for  parental  authority,  impressed  by  the  laws 
and  inspired  by  the  genius  of  their  Great  Law-giver, 
produced  effects  upon  the  Hebrew  people,  in  their  do- 
mestic relations,  as  marvelous  as  the  idea  of  Jehovah 
upon  their  tribal  unity. 

It  now  seems  desirable  to  speak  of  those  immutable 
legal  principles,  suited  to  all  times,  to  all  countries, 
conditions  and  peoples ;  those  great  distinctive  enuncia- 
tions of  the  Mosaic  jurisprudence  which  are  the  glori- 
ous monuments  of  their  author's  fame,  and  of  which 
Christ  spake  when  he  said  of  them,  "not  one  jot  or 
tittle  shall  pass  away."  They  have  not  passed  away; 
but  have  found  their  way  into  all  Hebrew  literature, 
and  after  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  into  the 
jurisprudence  of  every  Christian  country.  In  the 
codes  of  Justinian,  of  Theodosius,  of  Chalemagne,  and 
of  Alfred,  are  found  the  laws  of  Moses.  Their  pains- 
taking compiled,  but  his  genius  created  them.  It  is 
only  permitted  us  to  glance  at  a  few  of  these  principles 


THE  GREAT  LAWYER  49 

to  illustrate  our  meaning.  The  only  object  of  law  or 
government  is,  protection  to  life,  liberty,  property  and 
reputation.  To  subserve  and  accomplish  this  object, 
governments  are  instituted,  laws  enacted,  offices  created 
and  taxes  imposed.  A  few  short  sentences  embody  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Mosaic  code,  and  em- 
brace the  entire  object  of  law,  i.  e.,  protection  to  life, 
liberty,  property  and  reputation.  "Thou  shalt  not 
kill."  Here  is  the  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of  the 
human  body,  the  seat  and  temple  of  life.  Here  is  indi- 
vidualism; the  right  of  self-defense,  personal  dignity 
of  character,  and  the  protected  right  to  all  the  sweet 
joys  of  living.  "Thou  shalt  not  steal."  The  right  to 
the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  property  is  recog- 
nized, enforced  and  protected.  Covetousness,  which 
leads  to  theft,  is  prohibited.  "Thou  shalt  not  covet 
anything  which  is  thy  neighbor's,"  is  an  injunction 
intended  to  sap  the  foundation  of  the  common  sin 
against  property  rights.  "Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness  against  thy  neighbor."  Reputation,  which 
should  be  as  sacred  as  property  or  life,  is  a  sacredly 
protected. 

All  these  objects  of  legislation  are  fully  and  per- 
fectly protected  by  a  complete  and  minute  code  of  re- 
wards and  punishments.  All  the  reciprocal  obliga- 
tions and  duties  of  master  and  servant,  husband  and 
wife,  parent  and  child,  of  guardian  and  ward,  are  spe- 
cifically provided  for  and  clearly  defined  in  this  great 
scheme  of  jurisprudence,  now  thirty  centuries  old. 
The  world  has  not  much  improved  upon  it.  It  was 
composed  for  one  people,  but  it  has  become  the  inheri- 
tance of  all  nations  of  the  earth.  It  was  inscribed 
upon  tablets  of  stone,  and  shrined  in  the  tabernacle, 
but  neither  tabernacle  nor  temple  could  contain  it,  and 


50  ADDRESSES 

its  precepts  have  become  rules  of  civil  conduct  in  the 
lives  of  all  civilized  men. 

Its  author  was  not  permitted  to  enter  the  "prom- 
ised land,"  but  he  lives  immortal  in  that  land  which 
men  call  fame.  He  went  up  from  the  plains  of  Moab 
to  the  heights  of  Beth-peor  to  die,  and  "no  man  know- 
eth  his  grave  to  this  day;"  but  we  know  it  is  above 
the  clouds,  and  that  the  sunshine  of  eternal  glory  has 
settled  upon  it. 

This  was  the  bravest  warrior 

That  ever  buckled  sword ; 
This  the  most  gifted  poet 

That  ever  breathed  a  word ; 
And  never  earth's  philosopher 

Traced  with  his  golden  pen 
On  the  deathless  page,  truths  half  so  sage 

As  he  wrote  down  for  men. 


JUDGE  LAWRENCE  WELDON 


Delivered  at  a  Meeting  of  the  McLean  County  Bar,  AprU  13,  1903, 
on  the  Death  of  Lawrence  Weldon 

Mr.  Chairman: 

I  became  acquainted  with  Judge  Weldon  in  Clin- 
ton, in  the  summer  of  1854.  It  was  within  a  few 
months  after  his  location,  as  a  lawyer,  in  that  place, 

A  few  weeks  later  I  was  present  in  the  "Old  Na- 
tional Hotel,"  in  this  city,  and  heard  Senator  Douglas 
introduce  Weldon  to  Lincoln.  Judge  Douglas  said, 
"Mr.  Lincoln,  here  is  a  young  lawyer  who  has  come 
from  Ohio  and  located  in  Clinton."  Mr,  Lincoln 
said,  "Is  that  so?  Well,  I  am  glad  of  it;  I  go  to 
Clinton  sometimes  myself  and  perhaps  we  will  meet 
and  get  acquainted."  This  was  the  beginning  of  an 
acquaintance  and  a  friendship  fraught  with  varied  con- 
sequences to  the  young  lawyer. 

Lawrence  Weldon  was  then  twenty-five  years  old. 
He  came  to  Illinois  well  equipped  for  the  coming  con- 
tests. The  time  of  preparation  was  past  and  in  the 
full  flush  of  young  manhood,  he  entered  the  lists  for 
the  favors  of  fortune. 

The  struggles  of  boyhood  and  youth  were  ended. 
Acquaintances,  friends  and  kindred,  he  had  left  be- 
hind, and  new  friends,  new  acquaintances,  and  new 
interests  were  to  be  acquired.  He  had  come  to  the 
unknown  land. 

Looking  backward  over  the  half  century  of  mar- 
velous events  in  which  this  young  lawyer  acted  no 
mean  part,  it  is  interesting  to  think  what  he  saw  as 


52  ADDRESSES 

his  gaze  sought  to  pierce  the  future  which  held  his  for- 
tunes. What  were  his  ambitions,  his  hopes,  and  ex- 
pectations? And  did  the  evening  fulfill  the  promise 
of  the  morning? 

He  practiced  law  in  Clinton  from  1854  to  1862, 
when  he  was  appointed  United  States  District  Attor- 
ney for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois,  which  office 
he  held  for  about  four  years. 

In  Clinton  he  met,  in  the  beginning  of  his  practice, 
such  men  as  Clifton  H.  Moore  and  Henry  S.  Greene 
of  the  local  bar,  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  came  from  Spring- 
field, Leonard  Swett,  who  went  from  Bloomington  and 
Richard  J.  Oglesby  of  Decatur.  And  when  he  went 
to  Springfield  he  came  in  conflict  with  such  men  as 
Milton  Hay,  Benjamin  F.  Edwards,  John  T.  Stuart, 
John  M.  Palmer,  James  Robinson,  Anthony  Knapp 
and  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  and  from  time  to  time  all  the 
ablest  lawyers  of  Central  Illinois, 

This  was  great  training,  and  when  he  came  to 
Bloomington  in  1867  he  was  a  legal  gladiator,  well 
armed  and  equipped  for  the  hundreds  of  contests 
which  awaited  him. 

For  sixteen  years  in  the  prime  of  his  splendid  man- 
hood, he  practiced  his  profession  as  a  member  of  this 
bar.  At  that  time  I  think  I  can  say  with  truth,  the 
McLean  county  bar  was  as  able  as  any  in  the  State, 
numbers  considered. 

Hamilton  Spencer,  Robert  E.  Williams,  William 
H.  Hanna,  Owen  T.  Reeves,  Thomas  F.  Tipton,  E.  M. 
Prince,  and  Reuben  M.  Benjamin  were  of  the  older  set 
who  had  already  won  their  spurs. 

There  was  a  younger  set,  the  members  of  which 
were  then  striving  for  the  high  places :  J.  H.  Rowell, 
A.  E.  Stevenson,  Joseph  W.  Fifer,  Thomas  C.  Ker- 


LAWRENCE  WELDON  53 

rick,  Isaac  N.  Phillips,  William  E.  Hughes,  John  E. 
Pollock  and  John  M.  Hamilton. 

It  was  with  such  antagonists,  this  newcomer  was 
to  wage  battle  in  the  rough  and  tumble  law  practice 
of  a  country  town.  And  to  say  of  him  that  he  took 
high  rank  amongst  them  as  a  lawyer,  that  he  held  his 
own,  that  he  was  the  equal  of  any  of  them  as  a  trial 
lawyer  and  probably  the  superior  of  any  of  them  as  an 
advocate,  is  indeed  high  honor. 

And  when,  from  the  weariness  and  strife  of  these 
many  contests,  the  call  came  to  "come  up  higher"  there 
was  no  regret,  no  envy,  no  heart-burnings,  and  no  voice 
that  did  not  say,  "He  is  worthy  of  all  honor.' ' 

For  twenty-one  years  he  was  a  judge  in  the  high 
court  at  the  National  Capitol.  And  the  same  great 
qualities  of  learning,  courage  and  courtesy  which 
gained  for  him  fame  as  a  lawyer,  made  him  a  great 
judge. 

And  in  the  calmer  atmosphere  of  the  bench  his 
patient  industry,  and  love  of  justice  supplemented  and 
crowned  with  new  luster,  the  fame  he  had  won  at  the 
bar. 

To  say  that  Judge  Weldon  was  a  great  lawyer  and 
a  just  judge,  is  to  say  all.  No  words  can  add  to  this 
tribute. 

When  I  say  I  knew  this  man  for  fifty  years  and 
that  for  the  greater  part  of  that  time  he  was  my  friend 
"faithful  and  true  to  me,"  I  do  not  arrogate  to  myself 
any  special  claim,  or  assert  a  right  to  more  than  a  fair 
share  in  a  common  heritage. 

There  is  not  one  here  today  who  was  not  his 
friend.  Unlike  most  men,  with  him  every  acquaint- 
ance was  a  friend.  His  heart  was  so  full  of  human 
kindness,  that  there  was  room  in  it  for  all. 


54  ADDRESSES 

His  death  came  to  so  many  as  a  personal  sorrow. 
There  is  not  a  member  of  this  bar  who  would  not 
gladly  speak  words  of  kindness  as  a  tribute  to  his 
memory. 

What,  out  of  the  abundant  riches  of  his  good  will, 
he  gave  to  me,  he  gave  also  to  many  others,  and  I 
gladly  share  with  them  the  rich  legacy  of  his  friend- 
ship; for  like  the  quality  of  mercy,  to  receive  it  en- 
riches, but  to  share  it  with  others  does  not  impoverish. 

I  count  it  an  honor  that  the  proprieties  of  this  oc- 
casion permit  me  to  express  my  appreciation  of  this 
character  and  to  pay  a  tribute  of  affection  to  his 
memory. 

The  Romans  had  a  god  whom  they  called  Fortu- 
natus.  To  him  they  appointed  a  service  and  builded 
a  temple.  Those  favored  by  this  deity  were  said  to  be 
fortunate. 

He  was  fortunate  in  that  he  was  a  poor  boy.  I  do 
not  mean  that  poverty  which  is  the  subject  of  charity, 
but  that  poverty  which  necessitates  work ;  that  kind  of 
poverty  which  he  shared  with  Jackson,  Clay,  Lincoln, 
Garfield,  Seward  and  Blaine;  that  poverty  which  re- 
moved temptation,  dignified  labor  and  stimulated  am- 
bition. What  he  had  was  won  by  himself,  and  this 
added  to  his  future  success  the  joy  of  ownership. 

In  this  school  he  learned  there  was  no  royal  road 
to  distinction;  that  he  must  build  his  own  monument. 

The  Greeks  accused  Phideas  of  having  engraved 
his  own  features  on  the  statue  he  made  to  Jupiter. 
If  the  accusation  were  true,  it  was  a  weakness,  for  the 
statue  is  lost  and  the  god  himself  has  become  a  myth, 
while  the  man  who  wrought  and  chiseled  has  become 
immortal. 

Pericles  said  to  the  Athenians,  who  accused  him 


LAWRENCE  WELDON  55 

of  extravagance,  "Place  my  name  on  these  buildings 
and  I  will  pay  the  entire  cost."  But  crumbling  ruins 
bear  witness  that  it  was  not  in  the  splendor  of  the 
Parthenon,  nor  in  the  architectural  beauty  of  the 
Acropolis,  he  was  to  find  an  immortality  of  fame. 

In  this  day  of  cheap  heroes  and  newspaper  repu- 
tations, it  is  well  to  learn  this  lesson  which  our  friend 
so  well  understood  and  so  well  exemplified  in  his  life. 
He  hated  shams.  He  claimed  only  his  own  and  gave 
without  regret,  the  just  meed  of  praise  to  others. 

He  was  fortunate  in  the  lady  whom  he  wooed  and 
won  for  a  life  companion  and  to  whom  he  brought  the 
rich  dowry  of  his  young  manhood,  his  honest  love  and 
the  promise  of  future  success,  and  who  returned  it  all 
in  rich  measure  by  a  lifetime  of  devotion  to  his  inter- 
ests; in  the  children  who  received,  and  deserved,  his 
love  and  affection ;  he  was  fortunate  in  being  neither 
rich  nor  poor;  that  as  he  accumulated  an  abundance, 
he  did  not  acquire  a  love  for  riches;  that  he  did  not 
prostitute  his  great  talents  in  the  accumulation  of 
wealth;    that  he  retained  his  better  ideals. 

Is  it  not  fortunate  that  he  so  lived  and  labored,  that 
he  could  bequeath,  not  only  to  his  heirs,  but  to  this 
entire  community,  the  rich  legacy  of  this  beautiful  and 
spotless  reputation? 

Lawrence  Weldon  lived  through  a  period  which 
produced  great  events  and  great  men.  He  lived  and 
acted  with  great  men,  and  was  not  dwarfed  in  their 
presence. 

Consider  the  effect  of  intimate  comradeship  under 
many  trying  circumstances,  with  such  men  as  David 
Davis ;  the  privilege  of  sitting  at  the  feet  of  and  learn- 
ing political  wisdom  from  Abraham  Lincoln ;  of  famil- 
iar, friendly  talks  with  Robert  Ingersoll;  of  twenty- 


56  ADDRESSES 

one  years'  association  with  able  judges  of  an  able 
court;  of  communion  in  the  bonds  of  faithful  friend- 
ship with  hundreds  of  the  prominent  men  in  the  min- 
istry, the  state  and  at  the  bar,  of  the  whole  country. 

Consider  what  these  things  meant  to  a  mind  capable 
of  appreciating;  a  nature  sensitive  to  the  best  impulses 
and  to  perceptions  quick  to  assimilate  impressions. 

I  say  he  was  fortunate  in  his  friends  and  he  re-paid 
their  gifts  with  faithfulness  and  loyalty. 

While  retaining  his  own  original  characteristics, 
these  varied  influences  served  to  broaden  and  deepen, 
to  round  out  and  complete,  a  personality,  which  was 
the  object  of  sincerest  admiration. 

Nature  was  kind  to  him.  She  gave  him  a  hand- 
some person,  graces  of  manner  and  dignity  of  carriage 
which  at  once  won  confidence  and  challenged  respect. 

She  gave  him  that  acute  sense  of  humor  which, 
with  his  thoughtfulness  of  purpose  and  his  poetic  tem- 
perament, formed  a  trinity  rarely  blended  in  one  man. 

This  sixth  sense,  so  lavishly  bestowed,  enabled  him 
to  see  things  beautiful,  smoothed  many  rough  places, 
let  in  the  sunshine  often  when  the  clouds  were  round 
about  him  and  on  the  serious  and  seamy  side  of  life, 
reflected  the  starlight  of  cheerfulness. 

This  "gift  of  the  gods"  was  one  of  the  qualities 
which  made  him  a  delightful  companion  and  always 
the  welcome  visitor. 

Nature  gave  him  fine  mental  qualities,  quick  per- 
ceptions, a  retentive  memory,  a  vivid  imagination  and 
sound  judgment,  and  all  these  he  trained,  quickened, 
and  strengthened  by  study  and  culture. 

I  do  not  know  what  it  is  exactly  to  be  an  educated 
man.  Judge  Weldon,  I  think,  was  not  a  graduate  of 
any  college.     I  think  he  did  not  know  Latin  or  Greek. 


LAWRENCE  WELDON  57 

I  doubt  if  he  would  have  been  better  educated  if  he 
had. 

He  was  a  thorough  student  of  the  EngHsh  lan- 
guage. He  knew  its  philosophy  and  its  derivation. 
He  was  well  read  in  the  history  of  the  world.  He 
knew  its  great  epochs.  He  had  read  the  best  literature 
of  the  world.  He  was  a  master  of  belles  lettres  and  an 
excellent  grammarian.  He  knew  men — and  human 
nature.  He  was  a  lawyer.  He  knew  the  nature  of 
Governmental  power.  He  was  familiar  with  the  prin- 
ciples that  organize  society,  protect  property  and  regu- 
late all  the  relations  of  life. 

He  read  and  loved  poetry  and  his  mind  was  stored 
with  the  rich  imagery  of  Hebrew  literature.  He  read 
biography  and  was  familiar  with  the  lives  of  great 
men  and  women. 

He  thought  deeply  on  political  and  economic  ques- 
tions. He  knew  much  of  the  different  schools  of 
philosophy  and  while  his  mind  was  not  metaphysical, 
he  appreciated  their  respective  influences  on  the  world 
of  thought  and  action.  These  treasures  of  learning 
were  the  resultant  of  hours  of  application  almost  stolen 
from  laborious  days  of  an  active  and  busy  life,  these 
garnered  golden  moments  which  most  of  us  recklessly 
squander. 

We  all  know  how  gentle  and  courteous  he  was, 
to  the  court  and  to  the  members  of  the  bar.  Never 
a  word  that  stung,  or  an  action  that  was  unkind  He 
was  careful  of  the  feelings  of  others  and  always 
mindful  of  social  obligations. 

He  hated  cruelty  and  could  not  hear  without  pain 
a  tale  of  suffering.  He  would  not  trample  a  blade  of 
grass  in  unkindness. 

But  this  gentleness  was  not  born  of  timidity.     He 


58  ADDRESSES 

was  the  possessor  of  high  courage.  He  never  feared 
mortal  man  No  suitor  in  court  ever  had  a  truer 
defender  of  his  rights  and  I  have  seen  him  display  as 
splendid  courage  as  that  of  any  soldier  who  ever  rode 
down  a  line  of  battle. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  the  gifts  was  a  great  heart 
full  of  loving  kindness.  Greater  than  hope,  greater 
than  faith,  was  the  charity  in  him,  which  "covered  a 
multitude,"  not  of  his  own  but  of  the  sins  of  his  fel- 
lowmen. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  acquaintance  with  great  men, 
but  his  friendships  were  by  no  means  confided  to 
these.  He  numbered  as  his  friends,  of  the  lowly  and 
less  fortunate. 

He  was  himself  pure  in  his  life.  He  hated  mean- 
ness and  despised  cruelty,  but  the  faults  and  foibles 
of  others  did  not  prevent  him  from  seeing  their  good 
qualities  or  from  enjoying  their  bright  ones. 

Most  of  us,  if  we  detect,  or  think  we  detect  a  fault 
or  a  weakness  in  a  neighbor,  are  too  ready  to  obey  the 
command  "from  such  withdraw  thyself."  It  was  not 
so  with  him.  He  did  not  reject  the  good  because  he 
disliked  the  bad. 

He  saw  good  in  everyone.  It  was  like  pouring 
water  through  a  sieve,  the  water  passed  through  the 
meshes,  but  the  pearls  of  price  remained. 

Of  him  it  might  have  been  said,  as  it  was  said  of 
the  master,  "he  eateth  with  sinners,"  but  if  he  ate 
with  them  he  partook  only  of  the  feast  and  in  the 
abundance  of  his  charity  did  not  include  the  sinner  in 
his  detestation  of  the  sin. 

He  admired  to  the  utmost  the  genius  of  the  great- 
est orator  and  poet  this  land  has  ever  produced.  But 
he  kept  the  simple  faith  of  his  fathers.     This  was  his 


LAWRENCE  WELDON  59 

optimism  which  saw  only  the  good  and  filled  a  lifetime 
with  acts  of  generous  kindness. 

No  heart  ever  beat  more  responsive  to  the  claims 
of  charity. 

If  "true  religion  and  undefiled"  is  visiting  the 
widow  and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction,  he  was  a 
true  Christian.  And  if  the  doing  of  good  acts  is  the 
right  way  to  "lay  up  treasures  in  heaven,"  there  was 
for  him  a  crown  sparkling  with  gems  and  jewels,  in 
his  Father's  house. 

Like  all  the  sons  of  men  he  had  his  days  of  gloom. 
Sometimes  the  sky  was  overcast.  The  road  was  not 
always  smooth;  sometimes  it  lay  through  the  valley, 
but  almost  always  there  was  sunlight  on  the  moun- 
tain. 

Expressive   of   his   philosophy   of   life,    he   often 
quoted,  and  loved  to  quote,  the  language  of  the  great 
Cardinal  to  the  King: 
My  Liege — 
"Through  plot  and  counter-plot; 
Through  gain  and  loss ; 
Through  glory  and  disgrace, 
Along  the  plain  where  passionate 
Discord  rears  eternal  babel. 
The  holy  stream  of  human  happiness  glides  on." 

We  ought  not  to  mourn  for  him.  He  lived  a  full 
measure  of  life;  with  courage  he  met  every  obliga- 
tion. He  ran  the  course.  He  fought  a  good  fight. 
He  kept  the  faith.  His  life-work  completely  finished, 
with  honors  clustering  thick  about  him,  he  has  "rested 
from  his  labors." 

And  now  we  say  au  revoir  but  not  adieu,  and  close 
this  imperfect  tribute  to  his  memory,  in  words  spoken 
by  Carlisle  of  Robert  Burns : 


6o  ADDRESSES 

"He  was  indeed  of  nature's  own  and  most  cunning 
workmanship.  In  affectionate  admiration  he  lies  en- 
shrined in  all  our  hearts,  in  a  far  nobler  mausoleum 
than  one  of  marble." 


S>^E}  publish  the  following  carefully  prepared 
^^  address,  delivered  by  the  Hon.  James  S. 
Ewing-  on  Saturday,  July  4,  1885,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  Ivitta  monument.  It  expresses  the 
sentiment  of  our  people  in  such  admirable 
terms  that  it  leaves  little  to  be  added. 

Mr.  Ewinff  spoke  from  a  stand  erected  a  little 
to  the  southeast  of  the  monument,  and  his  au- 
ditors, estimated  at  over  three  thousand  people, 
gave  such  close  attention,  that  it  was  entirely 
evident  they  were  in  accord  with  his  senti- 
ments. The  whole  bearing  of  those  present 
was  remarkably  quiet  and  respectful,  almost 
devotional. 

— Bloomington  Pantagraph,  July  6, 1885. 


ADDRESS  BY  HON.  DAVID  DAVIS 


Friends:  We  have  come  together  today  not  to 
honor  the  memory  of  a  soldier,  a  statesman,  a  scien- 
tist, or  any  distinguished  civihan.  As  neighbors  and 
friends  we  are  gathered  here  to  set  apart  this  monu- 
ment in  remembrance  of  one  who  was  famiHar  at  our 
firesides  in  her  hfetime,  who  grew  to  distinction  in  the 
calhng  which  she  adopted;  whose  whole  career,  from 
humble  beginning  to  deserved  fame,  was  an  example, 
and  whose  life  may  be  said  to  have  been  sacrficed  to 
a  noble  sense  of  duty. 

To  Litta,  the  woman,  first,  whose  virtues  shine 
out  with  luster  on  her  sex,  and  to  Litta,  the  artist, 
second,  whose  eminence  is  our  local  legacy,  we  are 
here  to  offer  the  tribute  of  our  respect,  of  our  admira- 
tion, and  of  our  affection. 

Mothers  may  point  to  this  memorial  as  a  cheering 
encouragement  for  their  daughters,  and  we  may  all 
feel  proud  of  the  fame  of  this  child  of  Bloomington, 
whose  presence  warmed  our  hearts  when  living,  and 
whose  memory  is  consecrated  in  the  monument  erected 
by  the  generous  offerings  of  our  people. 

It  is  my  pleasant  function  to  present  to  this  assem- 
blage the  orator,  who  has  been  fitly  chosen  to  do  justice 
to  the  name  and  character  of  Litta. 


ADDRESS     BY    MR.    EWING 


MARIE  EUGENIA  VON  ELSNER 
Was  Born  June  1,  1856,  and  Died  July  7,  1883 


She  Was  Known  to  the  Musical  World  as 
MARIE  LITTA 

This  is  an  epitomized  history  of  a  remarkable  life. 
It  tells  of  birth,  of  death,  and  of  fame.  Because  they 
would  not  willingly  let  her  memory  die;  because  she 
loved  her  native  city  and  reflected  her  fame  upon  it; 
because  they  would  do  something  for  her  who  did  so 
much  for  them ;  because  she  was  true  to  the  great  pur- 
pose of  her  life;  because  she  was  heroic  and  faithful, 
and  because  she  was  loving  and  gentle  and  winsome  in 
her  character;    freely,  generously,  and  lovingly, 

"this  monument 

was  erected  by  the  citizens  of  bloomington, 

to  the  memory 

of  her  who  won  fame  for  herself 

and  reflected  it  upon  the  city  of  her  birth." 

It  was  a  graceful  thing  to  do.  The  task  has  been 
a  labor  of  love.  The  response  of  those  who  gave  of 
their  abundance  and  those  who  gave  their  mite  was 
of  itself  a  beautiful  tribute  to  her  memory.  In  no 
case  a  refusal ;  but  gladly  and  with  thanksgiving  were 
those  contributions  made  by  rich  and  poor,  as  if  they 
would  cover  her  with  perfume,  that  thus  she  might 
enter  upon  her  dreamless  sleep. 


64  ADDRESSES 

You  remember  the  blue-eyed,  flaxen-haired  girl 
who  sang  her  wonderful  songs  in  the  days  of  her 
childhood,  not  very  long  ago;  you  knew  something 
of  her  struggle  with  adverse  fortune,  but  you  did 
not  know  then  of  her  high  resolves,  her  consciousness 
of  genius,  her  daring  ambition,  and  the  force  of  char- 
acter which  assured  success. 

You  remember  how,  when  a  mere  girl,  she  went 
to  a  distant  city  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  training 
for  that  high  calling  in  which  she  was  to  achieve  suc- 
cessful recognition ;  you  do  not  know,  perhaps,  how  for 
four  long  years  she  labored  and  studied,  and  agonized 
over  the  difficulties  and  mysteries  of  that  most  difficult 
of  all  arts. 

You  remember  how  she  crossed  the  ocean  into  a 
strange  land,  alone  among  strangers  whose  very  lan- 
guage she  did  not  know,  to  find  the  great  masters  of 
music ;  you  do  not  know  the  heart-burnings,  the  home- 
sickness, the  weary  hours  of  tireless,  patient  labor,  the 
temptations  and  discouragements,  all  of  which  she  met 
and  conquered  during  those  four  years  of  self -exile. 
Her  brave  heart  never  faltered.  Before  her  indomit- 
able will  every  obstacle  gave  way.  She  thought  not 
of  these  things.  There  was  one  before  her  who,  tread- 
ing the  wine-press  alone,  triumphed  over  it,  and  made 
it  holy  for  her  and  all  who  suffer.  It  was  thus  with 
her;  first  a  cross  and  then  a  crown. 

You  had  almost  forgotten  the  young  songstress, 
when  across  the  waters  there  came  the  tidings  of  her 
triumph.  Like  a  new  star  in  the  firmament  of  music, 
she  was  dazzling  and  bewildering  the  musical  world. 
You  heard  of  her  triumphs  in  the  great  capitals  of  the 
old  world,  the  plaudits  of  welcome  which  greeted  her 
in  the  cities  of  the  new,  and  of  her  triumphal  return 


MARIE  LITTA  65 

to  the  home  of  her  childhood.  Her  fame  must  have 
been  sweet  to  her  then.  She  had  been  true  to  her 
mission  through  shadow  and  sunshine,  and  now  she 
had  come  up  from  the  valley  of  tribulation  to  the 
mount  of  triumph.  How  we  rejoiced  ,at  her  success; 
how  we  appropriated  her  fame  as  the  days  and  months 
went  by! 

She  came  again;  but  what  tongue  shall  tell  the 
sorrow  of  that  coming.  The  Angel  of  Death  touched 
her  life  and  she  faded  as  a  flower.  Oh,  it  was  pitiful! 
We  could  not  understand  it.  It  came  to  each  of  us 
as  a  personal  sorrow.  I  have  often  tried  to  analyze 
the  significance  of  that  memorable  funeral  service, 
when  for  hours  grieif-stricken  mourners  passed  by 
her  bier — young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  the  lofty  and 
the  lowly — all  tearful  and  silent  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  sorrow.  Others  covered  with  honors  have  died 
in  our  midst;  others  young  and  beautiful  have  passed 
from  among  us ;  many,  very  many  times  we  have  gone 
to  the  house  of  mourning;  but  who,  like  this  young 
girl,  won  every  heart  to  love  her,  and  a  whole  com- 
munity to  feel  that  the  world  was  lonesome  without 
her? 

"But,  oh,  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still!" 

Expressive  of  this  thought,  we  have  chiseled  in 
marble : 

"A  flower  is  dead!  A  star  has  fallen!  A  bird 
singing  the  richest  and  rarest  melody  has  gone  from 
the  groves  of  time.  A  woman,  splendid  and  heroic 
in  all  the  better  qualities  of  life,  has  closed  her  eyes 
in  death,  and  the  voice  which  caught  the  highest  sym- 


66  ADDRESSES 

phonies  of  nature  has  joined  in  the  chorus  of  the 
infinite." 

THE   FAME   SHE  WON   WAS   REAL. 

It  was  in  the  realm  of  high  art.  In  every  cul- 
tured community,  all  over  the  music-loving  world, 
there  were  the  sons  and  daughters  of  genius  striving 
for  the  high  places.  "Many,  indeed,  were  called,  but 
few  chosen."  You  can  count  on  your  fingers  the  truly 
great  singers  of  half  a  century.  It  was  amongst  this 
number  she  resolved  to  stand.  The  prize  was  a  shining 
crown,  and  she  determined  to  win  it. 

From  the  wreck  of  man's  primal  fall  there  have 
been  saved  many  hints  of  the  Lost  Paradise,  which 
was  perfect  beauty.  Every  manifestation  of  art  is 
but  the  expression  of  beauty;  and  the  greatest  artist 
is  the  one  who  gives  expression  to  the  highest  form 
of  the  beautiful.  In  the  mythology  of  Greece,  the 
highest  of  all  arts  was  presided  over  by  the  Muses, 
and  hence  is  called  music.  The  most  cultured  lovers 
of  beauty  gave  it  a  god,  and  built  a  temple  for  its 
service.  What  is  music?  What  is  a  note?  A  tone? 
What  is  tune?  A  sonata?  A  symphony?  What  are 
the  properties,  relations,  and  dependencies  of  sound? 
What  does  the  composer  do  when  he  writes  music? 
Does  he  simply  produce  a  succession  of  sounds  so 
modulated  as  to  please  the  ear?  Does  he  simply  ar- 
range a  combination  of  sounds  in  accordance  or  har- 
mony? Or  does  he  express  ideas,  tell  a  tale,  write  a 
poem,  or  paint  a  picture  in  melody?  She  sought  to 
solve  these  questions  and  become  a  priestess  in  the 
temple.  She  talked  face  to  face  with  the  oracle,  she 
did  not  linger  in  the  portico,  but  passed  swiftly  along 


MARIE  LITTA  ^7 


the  columned  arches  up  into  the  chancel,  and  saluting 
the  white-robed  ones  close  to  the  altar,  unveiled  its 
mysteries  and  translated  its  glories  by  the  matchless 
sweetness  of  her  marvelous  voice.  To  accomplish 
this  required  consciousness  of  genius,  singleness  of 
purpose,  and 

INDOMITABLE    ENERGY. 

I  have  been  told  that  after  two  years  of  hard  study 
in  Paris  she  went  to  London  to  commence  her  pro- 
fessional career,  but  her  debut  was  not  such  as  to 
satisfy  either  herself  or  her  friends.  Disappointed, 
but  not  discouraged,  she  returned  to  her  teachers  to 
take  up  again  her  life  of  daily  toil.  For  two  years 
more  she  studied,  trained,  and  labored.  Thinking  of 
this  incident  in  her  life  brings  to  memory  the  poetic 
words  of  cheer,  spoken  by  Thackeray,  to  the  young 
maiden  to  whom  "love's  young  dream"  had  brought 
the  first  heart-ache. 

"Hop  back,  little  bird,  to  your  perch;  it  is  some- 
times better  to  be  roosting  than  singing.  The  light 
that  awaked  you  was  false  dawn;  anon  will  come  the 
morning,  and  the  whole  sky  will  be  reddened  with  its 
light.  Then  you  shall  soar  up  into  it  and  salute  the 
sun  with  your  music." 

The  morning  did  come  for  her,  and  the  sky  was 
red  with  its  light,  when,  in  the  great  cities  of  the  old 
and  new  world,  with  magnificent  surroundings,  in  the 
presence  of  beauty  and  culture,  in  splendid  temples  of 
art,  she  did  "salute  the  sun  with  her  music,"  and 
was  crowned  by  its  loyal  lovers  the  queen  of  song. 

Any  analysis  of  her  character  which  ignored 


68  ADDRESSES 

HER  LOVING  AND   KINDLY   NATURE, 

would  be  like  taking  away  the  rich  coloring  from  a 
beautiful  picture.  She  was  generous  and  charitable, 
and  kind.  She  shared  everything  she  had  with  those 
she  loved.  The  first  fruits  of  the  harvest  she  laid  with 
thanksgiving  upon  the  altar  of  filial  affection.  Even 
the  praise  and  admiration  she  won  she  sought  to  divide 
with  those  who  were  dear  to  her.  She  spoke  kindly 
of  all.  She  was  mindful  of  favors  and  grateful  for 
kindnesses.  She  had  no  false  pride.  When  the  noon 
had  more  than  fulfilled  the  promise  of  the  morning, 
she  was  the  same  gentle,  modest  and  winsome  woman. 
And  so  we  have  written  on  this  monument : 

"She  was  loved  most  for  her  pure  and  gentle  life, 
and  loving  hands  weave  roses  with  the  laurel  in  the 
chaplet  of  her  fame." 

HER   LIFE   WAS    HEROIC. 

We  are  all  hero-worshippers.  Heroism,  more  than 
any  other  element  in  character,  attracts  the  attention 
and  challenges  the  admiration  of  mankind.  Often- 
times a  single  act  of  heroic  devotion  to  duty  has  won 
for  the  actor  immortality  in  that  life  which  men  call 
fame.  Ruth,  the  "queen  of  the  harvest  field,"  when 
she  said,  "Whither  thou  goest  I  will  go;"  Leonidas, 
at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae;  Catherine  Douglas,  when 
she  interposed  her  white  arm  as  a  bolt  between  assas- 
sins and  her  royal  master ;  Arnold  Winkelried,  gather- 
ing Austrian  spears  into  his  own  breast  to  "make  way 
for  liberty;"  Grace  Darling,  looking  at  death  in  every 
foam-capped  billow  as  she  sped  on  her  life-saving  mis- 
sion; Florence  Nightingale,  the  "Angel  of  the  Cri- 
mea;" Mary  Stephenson,  in  the  fever-stricken  city  of 


MARIE  LITTA  69 

Memphis ;  Kate  Shelly,  a  girl  of  fifteen  years,  rushing 
through  storm  and  darkness  to  save  human  life — these, 
and  thousands  of  other  pictures  of  heroic  devotion  to 
duty,  appearing  all  along  the  shining  pathway  of  hu- 
man history,  like  stars  framed  in  diamonds,  we  hang 
in  the  halls  of  memory.  They  are  our  art  treasures, 
which  we  would  not  exchange  for  all  the  Madonnas 
in  the  world.  Such  lives  we  embalm  in  romance, 
poetry  and  song.  We  write  them  in  school  books,  and 
tell  them  to  our  children  that  they  may  come  to  ad- 
mire and  imitate  the  principles  of  devotion,  of  honor, 
of  self-sacrifice,  of  generosity,  and  of  nobility.  The 
whole  life  of  Marie  von  Eisner  was  heroic,  and  I 
believe  she  laid  it  down  as  a  loving  sacrifice  to  duty. 

HER  LIFE  WAS  SHORT. 

Many  who  hear  me  were  men  and  women  when 
she  was  born,  and  it  seems  an  age  since  she  died. 
But  days  and  months  are  but  poor  meters  with  which 
to  measure  a  human  life.  The  true  question  is:  What 
were  its  results?  She  always  felt  that  she  had  a  mis- 
sion, and  that  she  "must  be  about  her  Father's  busi- 
ness." She  lost  no  time.  She  had  no  childhood.  She 
knew  that  "art  was  long,"  and  worked  while  she  could. 
And  who  shall  tell  what  good  she  did  ?  Who  has  kept 
the  history  of  the  good  impulses  inspired  by  her  songs  ? 
What  record  has  been  kept  of  the  good  resolves  and 
better  aspirations  she  inspired?  What  was  her  part 
in  the  grand  advance  toward  the  realization  of  a  higher 
and  a  more  artistic  life?  And  what  prophet  shall  fore- 
tell the  influence  of  her  example,  as  it  circles  through 
the  coming  years? 

She  lived  long  enough  and  well  enough  to  be  wel- 


70  ADDRESSES 

corned  to  the  first  ranks  o£  her  profession.  She  lived 
long  enough  to  die  universally  regretted,  and  in  pos- 
session of  a  real  and  lasting  fame.  How  few  of  the 
millions  of  earth  have  done  so  much!  There  is  no 
occasion  to  mourn  for  her. 

"Nay,  grieve  not  for  the  dead,  alone 

Whose  song  has  told  their  heart's  sad  story, 

Weep  for  the  voiceless  who  have  known 

The  cross,  without  the  crown,  of  glory." 

Her  life  was  no  exception  to  the  great  law  of  com- 
pensation. If  she  had  her  sorrows,  she  also  had  her 
joys.  If  there  was  shadow,  there  was  also  the  sun- 
shine. If  her  way  led  through  the  valley,  it  also  led 
up  to  the  mountain.  If  the  flower  is  faded,  surely  it 
will  bloom  again.  If  her  sweet  voice  is  no  longer 
heard  by  mortal  ears,  listening  faith  catches  a  sweeter 
song  as  it  floats  out  from  the  palm  groves  of  the 
"Beautiful  City."  This  modest  monument,  erected  by 
loving  hands,  we  dedicate  to  her  memory.  We  have 
chiseled  some  poor  words  upon  it  to  mark  our  esti- 
mation of  her  character. 

We  feel  that  she  was  of  "Nature's  own  and  most 
cunning  workmanship,"  and  what  we  have  done  is 
very  inadequate.  "In  pitying  admiration  she  lies  en- 
shrined in  all  our  hearts  in  a  far  nobler  mausoleum 
than  this  one  of  marble."  When  we  make  pilgrimages 
here  it  should  be  in  the  sunshine  and  with  flowers, 
cherishing  more  than  a  Jewish  faith  in  this  sweet  gos- 
pel of  cheer  and  hope : 

"When  death  strikes  down  the  innocent  and  young, 
from  every  fragile  form  which  he  sets  the  panting 
spirit  free,  a  hundred  virtues  rise  in  shapes  of  mercy, 
charity,  and  love  to  walk  the  earth  and  bless  it. 


MARIE  LITTA  71 

"Of  every  tear  that  sorrowing  mortals  shed  over 
such  green  graves,  some  good  is  born,  some  gentler 
nature  comes." 

"In  the  Destroyer's  steps  there  spring  up  bright 
creations  that  defy  his  power,  and  his  dark  path  be- 
comes a  way  of  light  to  heaven." 


IDEALISM   IN   EDUCATION  AND   CULTURE 


This  Address  Was  Delivered  before  the  Young  Ladies  of  St.  Mary's 
School  at  Knoxville,  Illinois 

Ladies:  I  wish  to  speak  tonight  of  ''Ideahsm  in 
Education  and  Culture."  This  I  think  is  a  current 
topic  and  I  hope  what  I  may  say  may  not  be  inap- 
propriate to  this  interesting  occasion. 

The  cuhured  American  girl  is,  by  all  odds,  the 
most  interesting,  the  most  attractive,  the  most  grace- 
ful, the  brightest,  the  best-mannered  and  the  most  win- 
some girl  in  the  world. 

At  sixteen  she  compares  favorably  with  the  French 
girl  of  twenty  or  the  English  girl  of  twenty-five. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  American 
girls  are  sought  after  by  titled  Europeans  only  for 
their  money  or  their  fathers  money;  it  is  very  often 
for  themselves  alone. 

At  the  coronation  of  the  late  English  king,  thir- 
teen American  girls  took  their  places,  by  legal  right 
in  the  ranks  of  English  nobility. 

The  wife  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  the  late  leader 
of  the  Liberal  party,  and  one  of  the  four  men  who 
controlled  the  destinies  of  the  English  Empire,  was 
the  daughter  of  the  historian,  John  Lothrop  Motley. 

Miss  Mary  Endicott,  an  American  girl  without  for- 
tune, became  the  wife  of  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the 
great  English  statesman,  the  Secretary  for  the  Col- 
onies, and  the  man  who,  for  a  time,  exercised  more 
power  than  any  other  in  the  world. 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  73 

Mary  Leiter,  a  Chicago  girl,  as  the  wife  of  Lord 
Curzon  of  Kedleston,  was  the  vice-regal  representative 
of  the  Queen  in  India,  and  by  her  splendid  talents  and 
character  justified  the  choice  of  her  distinguished  hus- 
band. 

When  I  was  in  Brussels,  I  was  pleased  to  meet  in 
the  wives  of  the  English  minister  of  the  first  and  sec- 
ond secretaries  of  legation,  three  American  ladies,  all 
of  whom  came  to  their  husbands  as  brides  dowered 
only  by  their  beauty  and  accomplishments. 

In  France  and  in  Italy  I  made  the  acquaintance  of 
American  ladies  holding  high  places  in  official  and 
court  circles  and  who  did  not  belong  to  that  much 
larger  throng  of  American  women  who  had  exchanged 
surplus  millions  for  worthless  titles  of  nobility. 

I  do  not  speak  of  that  long  list  of  parties  to  "les 
mariages  de  convenance,"  who  have  no  claim  to  praise 
or  respect;    they  do  not  illustrate  my  argument. 

You  will  note  I  said  the  "cultured  American  girl," 
not  the  "educated  American  girl;"  there  is  a  vast  dif- 
ference between  culture  and  education.  The  one  in- 
cludes the  other  but  comprehends  much  more. 

To  the  training  which  education  gives  to  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  mind,  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  and 
the  accimiulation  of  facts,  culture  super-adds  refine- 
ment of  manners,  the  subjective  study  of  the  certi- 
tudes of  life,  and  the  development  of  what  is  best  in 
one's  nature. 

Its  fruitage  is  gentleness,  kindness,  unselfishness, 
good  taste,  love  of  beauty  and  a  conception  of  what  is 
best  in  the  world. 

Matthew  Arnold  says,  "Culture  is  the  acquainting 
ourselves  with  the  best  that  has  been  known  and  said 


74  ADDRESSES 

in  the  world,  and  thus,  with  the  history  of  the  human 
heart." 

I  take  it  this  means  the  training  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  nature,  the  enshrining  of  higher  ideals,  and 
a  better  understanding  of  the  problems  of  life. 

Education,  in  its  true  sense,  includes  not  only  the 
imparting  or  acquisition  of  knowledge,  but  moral 
training  also.  Yet  it  has  come  to  be  used  in 
a  much  narrower  sense  as  furnishing  such  mental 
training  as  fits  a  person  for  success  in  life,  in  the  pro- 
fession or  business  which  may  be  selected. 

We  hear  much  in  these  days  of  the  "higher  edu- 
cation of  women." 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  know  exactly  just  what  the 
friends  and  advocates  of  this  kind  of  education  mean 
by  the  term  but  I  take  it  they  mean  that  young  women 
should  pursue  such  academic  courses  as  will  enable 
them  tO'  compete  with  men  in  all  the  vocations  and 
enterprises  of  life  possible,  or  which  may  become  pos- 
sible, to  women. 

They  probably  mean  the  training  of  the  intellect 
by  forcing  processes,  an  acquaintance  with  the  physical 
sciences,  history,  politics,  civil  government  and  every 
thing  that  can  be  learned  by  man  or  woman  by  years 
of  study. 

Young  ladies  are  taught,  especially  and  impres- 
sively, that  they  must  cultivate  a  spirit  of  independ- 
ence, must  depend  on  themselves  and  fit  themselves  to 
fight  the  battles  of  life  alone. 

They  are  told  that  the  prizes  in  the  lottery  are  for 
them  as  well  as  for  men,  that  in  the  great  enterprises 
of  this  marvelous  age  they  may  engage,  and  hope  to 
win;  that  new  avocations  are  open  to  women;  that 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  75 

every  woman  should  have  a  mission,  and  assert  her 
individuaHty,  live  her  own  life,  take  her  place  in  the 
march  of  progress,  and  share  in  its  glory. 

These  are  some  of  the  catch  words  or  phrases  of 
the  *'new  philosophy."  It  is  very  fascinating,  very  ex- 
citing and  very  enticing  to  youth,  as  it  takes  its  first 
views  and  forms  its  first  judgments  of  the  problems 
of  life. 

When  one  begins  to  inquire  seriously.  What  is  this 
life  ?  What  am  I  to  do  with  mine  ?  What  are  its  duties 
and  obligations  ?  and  what  are  its  promises  and  prizes  ? 

And  I  do  not  wonder  that  one  entering  upon  active 
life  at  the  beginning  of  this  Twentieth  Century  should 
wish  to  be  an  actor  in  its  scenes,  to  witness  its  tri- 
umphs, to  feel  the  presence,  realize  the  significance  and 
keep  step  in  the  march  of  this  great  transition  period; 
to  see  a  beautiful  country  grow  in  a  lifetime  from 
wilderness  and  prairie  to  garden  and  city;  to  see  the 
occult  elements  of  nature  kiss  the  hand  of  science  and 
crown  with  glory  the  genius  of  man. 

High  honor  it  will  be,  indeed,  to  witness  and  take 
part  in  all  these  things. 

Nevertheless,  these  catch  words  and  phrases,  as  I 
have  called  them,  speak  a  false  and  poisonous  philoso- 
phy and  appeal  to  a  false  ambition. 

It  tends  to 

MATERIALISM. 

In  the  last  seventy-five  years,  objectively  consid- 
ered, the  world  has  made  marvelous  progress  in  every- 
thing material,  in  the  invention  of  all  kinds  of  tools 
with  which  to  manufacture,  in  the  control  of  natural 
forces,  in  the  discovery  of  natural  laws,  in  the  applica- 
tion of  mechanical  principles  to  new  purposes  and  new 


le  ADDRESSES 

combinations,  and  in  the  increase  of  general  intelli- 
gence we  recognize  the  march  of  the  human  mind  to 
heights  never  before  attained. 

Yet  the  conservative  mind  pauses  in  this  wild  prog- 
ress to  inquire  if  it  is  all  good?  if  it  is  more  than  half 
good? 

Civilization  is  the  highest  development  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  nature;  and  civilization  is  per- 
fected in  exact  proportion  to  the  growth  of  intellec- 
tual and  moral  culture. 

No  one  doubts  the  general  growth  and  spread  of 
intelligence.     Has  moral  culture  kept  pace? 

I  am  not  speaking  of  religion,  but  of  morals.  I 
am  speaking  of  honesty,  of  unselfishness,  of  justice, 
of  the  hatred  of  oppression,  of  the  love  of  liberty,  of 
kindness,  of  sympathy,  love  of  peace,  hatred  of  war, 
of  philanthropy,  and  of  individual  and  national  con- 
scientiousness. 

And  I  assert  as  to  these  things  there  has  been  no 
progress  in  a  thousand  years;  more  than  this,  I  assert 
there  has  been  retrogression. 

The  universal  establishment  of  the  competitive  sys- 
tem in  commerce  which  drives  the  chariot  wheels  of 
the  strong  over  the  bowed  necks  of  the  weak;  the 
grasping  of  more  than  princely  fortunes  in  the  hands 
of  the  few  by  methods  little  less  than  criminal;  the 
unjust  division  of  wealth,  the  universal  greed  for  gold, 
special  legislation  in  the  interest  of  power;  the  de- 
cadence of  the  national  conscience,  which  in  the  inter- 
est of  commercial  prosperity  and  national  expansion, 
calls  wrong  right  and  justifies  public  robbery — are 
some  of  the  evidences  of  the  truth  of  my  assertion, 
which  no  individual  or  accidental  charity  can  refute. 

Within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  Christian  Eu- 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  n 

rope  has  partitioned  the  continent  of  Africa.  "Oriental 
possessions"  are  paving  the  way  (if  only  they  can 
agree  among  themselves  as  to  the  division  of  the 
spoils),  for  additional  robberies.  The  right  to  buy  sov- 
ereignty, to  take  by  force,  lands  and  revenues,  to  im- 
pose government  without  consent  is  called  "expansion'* 
and  the  republic  is  justified  in  its  conscience. 

The  republic  which  sympathized  with  Greece, 
voted  resolutions  to  encourage  Poland,  cheered  Hun- 
gary, and  aided  Ireland  in  their  struggles  for  liberty, 
refuses  a  word  of  sympathy  to  sister  republics  en- 
gaged in  the  death  struggle  for  national  life,  because 
she  is  herself  engaged  in  the  most  gigantic  robbery  of 
the  century. 

What  of  all  this?  Nothing — except  that  it  shows 
the  materialistic  tendencies  and  character  of  the  age; 
and  out  of  it  and  ministering  to  it  is  this  educational 
fallacy  about  which  I  am  speaking. 

It  is  worse  because  it  applies  to  and  effects  the  best 
part  of  humanity. 

Having  spoken  to  you  of  its  inciting  cause,  let  me 
now  speak,  delicately,  as  it  appears  to  me,  of  its 

EFFECTS. 

What  is  the  product?  There  are  grades — conceded. 
There  are  degrees — admitted.  There  are  exceptions 
— that  is  also  admitted.  But  the  average  product  is  not 
good. 

Masculine,  loud-voiced,  assertive,  argumentative, 
careless  of  dress,  the  woman  who  imbibes  and  whose 
life  is  governed  by  these  ideas  loses  interest  in  things 
purely  womanly. 

She  becomes  restless  and  dissatisfied  with  her  en- 
vironment; believes  in  a  "mission;"   seeks  a  "career." 


78  ADDRESSES 

She  organizes  clubs,  conventions  and  assemblies; 
studies  parliamentary  rules  and  learns  to  preside. 

She  becomes  a  politician  and  plays  at  holding  cau- 
cuses and  conventions  after  the  manner  of  men.  She 
may  not  neglect  her  home,  but  she  loses  interest  in 
it  and  becomes  less  interesting  to  the  home. 

She  builds  club  houses  (with  her  husband's 
money),  travels  alone  (or  with  others  like  minded)  to 
distant  cities,  to  caucus,  make  speeches,  organize  and 
presides. 

She  lectures,  delivers  addresses  and  debates;  she 
demands  her  rights,  wishes  to  vote,  to  be  manly  and 
independent.     This  is  the  effect  on  herself. 

The  effect  upon  men  is  to  blunt  their  fine  sense  of 
chivalry,  to  send  them  to  the  clubs  and  worse  places. 
There  is  a  severance  of  joint  interests,  also  of  com- 
radeship, a  weakening  of  home  ties,  a  restlessness,  a 
hopelessness,  as  the  color  fades  from  the  flower  and 
life  poems  change  to  prose  tales. 

The  effect  upon  the  children  and  the  generation  to 
come,  some  one  wiser  than  I  must  tell.  But  there  is 
a  more  practical  effect  this  spirit  of  independence  is 
producing  upon   entire  communities. 

Will  you  think  for  a  minute  of  the  industrial  po- 
sitions today  filled  by  women  to  the  entire  or  partial 
exclusion  of  men. 

1.  Stenography — an  art  of  recent  growth;  steno- 
graphers and  typewriters  in  every  counting  house  and 
office,  numbered  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  all 
filled  by  girls  or  women. 

2.  Clerks  in  stores  are  almost  universally  sales- 
women. 

3.  Out  of  900,000  school  teachers  in  the  common 
schools  90  per  cent  are  women- 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  79 

4.  The  immense  number  of  domestic  servants  are 
mostly  women. 

5.  The  great  and  important  business  of  feeding 
people  in  boarding-houses,  cafes,  dining-rooms — the 
employes  are  all  women — cooks,  waitresses,  and  maids 
of  the  chamber. 

6.  And  if  this  is  true  of  "what  shall  we  eat?" 
it  is  also  true  with  "wherewithal  shall  be  clothed" — 
90  per  cent  women. 

7.  Time  fails  to  tell  of  trained  nursing,  the  vari- 
ous kinds  of  clerkships,  agencies  and  money-making 
employments  from  which  women  have  excluded  the 
weaker  sex, 

8.  And  now  they  are  knocking  at  the  doors  of 
the  professions,  they  invade  lecture  platforms,  the 
missionary  fields;  they  have  gained  admission  to  the 
medical  and  legal  professions  and  are  petitioning  as- 
semblies, conventions  and  conferences  for  admission 
to  the  sacred  ministry. 

There  is  nothing  much  left  for  young  men  to  do 
except  on  the  railroad  and  on  the  farm.  The  question 
now  is  what  will  our  girls  do  with  our  boys  ? — 400,000 
young  men  in  the  United  States,  between  the  ages  of 
twelve  and  twenty-three,  out  of  employment. 

Isn't  it  a  little  pathetic?  And  what  can  they  do? 
The  professions  are  many  times  overcrowded ;  the  girls 
have  all  the  other  places. 

I  would  not  be  misunderstood.  I  find  no  fault 
with  any  girl  or  woman  when  it  is  necessary  to  earn 
money,  who  seeks  and  finds  employment,  and  I  honor 
and  respect  her  all  the  more  and  I  rejoice  with  her 
that  so  many  avenues  of  industry  are  open  to  her. 

I  do  find  fault  with  the  young  woman  who  has 
a  natural  protector  in  father,  brother  or  husband,  who 


8o  ADDRESSES 

for  the  sake  of  a  false  sense  of  independence,  unnec- 
essarily seeks  these,  to  her,  unnatural  employments. 

And  I  do  find  fault  with  that  system  of  education 
that  teaches  a  false  notion  of  independence.  Will  you 
think  for  a  minute  what  must  be  the  result  of  these 
industrial  conditions?  When  daughters,  sisters  and 
wives  cease  to  depend  on  fathers,  brothers  and  hus- 
bands and  take  their  place  as  bread-winners.  Then 
what?  Then  natural  conditions  are  exchanged — the 
woman  must  support  and  the  man  must  depend. 

It  means  loss  of  manhood  and  the  fading  of  the 
bloom  from  womanhood. 

These  facts  and  conclusions  will  not  seem  exag- 
gerated to  the  observer  who  has  seen  from  day  to  day, 
in  the  past  years,  boys  and  young  men,  in  continually 
increasing  groups,  standing  idle  all  the  day  in  all  vil- 
lages, towns  and  cities,  and  who  has  tried  to  answer 
anxious  inquiry  of  father  and  mother,  "What  can  my 
boy  get  to  do?" 

Now  the  grumbler  should  always  be  able  to  sug- 
gest a  remedy  or  a  better  way.  It  may  not  be  much  of 
a  way,  but  it  should  at  least  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a 
suggestion. 

If  I  were  an  educator,  I  would  not  say  to  a  boy, 
'Tf  you  are  a  good  boy,  if  you  study  hard,  are  indus- 
trious and  obedient  you  may  become  President  of  the 
United  States. 

I  would  say  to  him,  be  ever  so  good,  industrious 
and  obedient,  the  chances  are  20,000,000  to  one  you 
will  not  be  the  President,  even  of  a  railroad.  But  you 
can  be  an  honest,  honorable  man  and  a  cultured  gen- 
tleman; this  is  within  your  power,  not  subject  to  a 
single  chance. 

I  would  not  say  to  a  young  girl,  if  you  study  hard, 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION 


if  you  improve  your  opportunities  and  attain  the  higher 
education,  there  are  a  thousand  avenues  open  to  earn 
your  own  way,  to  be  independent,  to  assert  your  in- 
dividuahty,  to  take  part  in  great  enterprises,  to  make  a 
name,  to  win  fame  and  to  enjoy  the  beating  pulsations 
which  come  to  the  winner  of  the  prizes  of  life. 

I  would  say  to  her,  "You  cannot  do  these  things 
and  be  justified  in  your  conscience."  I  would  teach  her 
that  there  is  a  loyal  dependence  on  the  love  of  a  father, 
brother  or  husband,  sweeter  and  nobler  than  any  per- 
sonality ;  that  the  sweetest  and  most  winsome  thing  in 
the  world  was  womanly  dependence  upon,  and  faith 
in,  love. 

I  would  teach  her  that  it  is  better  to  be  queen  of 
the  household  than  president  of  a  convention;  that  to 
be  a  cultured,  gentle  and  loving  woman  is  to  be  the 
very  best  thing  on  earth. 

That  gentleness,  kindness,  sympathy  and  unselfish- 
ness are  better  than  jewels. 

I  would  teach  her  that  to  beautify  and  cheer  the 
home  with  a  kindly  presence  as  a  daughter,  to  be  the 
honored  wife  of  an  honorable  man  and  the  mother  of 
beautiful  children,  is  the  perfect  fulfilling  of  all  ob- 
ligations. 

I  would  tell  her  to  study  "Mother  Goose  melodies" 
instead  of  Jefferson's  Manual,  and  that  to  preside  at 
her  husband's  tea  table  is  higher  honor  than  to  pre- 
side over  a  woman's  congress. 

There  are  those  who  are  always  wishing  to  ad- 
vance progress. 

We  call  these  people  "reformers."  There  are  those 
who  want  to  think  before  acting  and  investigate  before 
agreeing.    We  call  these  people  "conservatives."  When 


82  ADDRESSES 

we  are  not  very  polite  we  call  them  "grumblers"  or 
"kickers," 

Nevertheless  the  world  of  humanity  will  always 
be  divided  into  these  two  classes. 

There  are  some  people  who  believe  that  "two  and 
two  makes  four."  This  they  seriously  believe.  They 
consider  it  a  proposition  which  cannot  be  successfully 
contradicted.  They  would  not  go  to  the  stake  to 
vindicate  its  truth  because  materialists  are  never  mar- 
tyrs; but  they  would  feel  personally  aggrieved  if  any- 
one should  dispute  the  proposition,  or  fail  to  duly  ap- 
preciate its  importance. 

There  are  others  who  are  not  entirely  convinced 
that  "two  and  two  makes  four;"  they  have  never  seri- 
ously considered  the  question,  they  have  never  at- 
tached so  very  much  importance  to  the  matter,  and  to 
tell  the  truth  they  don't  care  very  much;  it  wouldn't 
make  any  great  difference  to  them  if  "two  and  two" 
should  happen  to  make  five. 

To  them,  the  consequence  of  this  infraction  of  a 
mathematical  law  would  not  be  half  so  serious  as  a 
variance  in  a  curved  line  of  beauty  or  the  brushing 
of  the  bloom  from  a  single  flower. 

Between  the  two  my  sympathies  are  with  the 
"dreamer."  If  Matthew  Arnold  is  right  that  culture 
is  to  "learn  the  history  of  the  human  heart,"  we  can 
see  how  this  subjective  principle  enters  into  every 
phase  of  life  and  its  study 

THE  STUDY  OF  HISTORY 

let  us  take  for  example.  What  is  the  object  of  the 
study  of  history  ?  "To  learn  what  the  human  race  has 
done  in  the  past."  This  is  the  answer  of  the  material- 
ist. 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  83 

The  idealist  says :  To  produce  culture  we  must 
"know  the  history  of  the  human  heart"  and,  there- 
fore, not  only  what  the  human  race  has  done,  but 
what  it  has  thought  and  believed  and  felt;  what  were 
its  emotions,  ambitions  and  hopes;  what  were  its  as- 
pirations, its  imaginings,  its  loves  and  hates,  its  com- 
edies and  tragedies ;  in  all  its  varying  stages  of  pro- 
gress or  retrogression. 

And  how  and  where  are  we  to  learn  all  these 
things  ?  From  the  partial  and  doubtful  records  of  bat- 
tles won  and  lost? 

In  the  lives  of  long  lines  of  kings  and  military 
heroes  who  have  for  the  most  part  disgraced  instead 
of  governing  mankind?  In  the  accounts  of  kingdoms 
reared  and  torn  down,  of  governments  instituted  and 
destroyed?  What  do  these  things  teach  of  the  "his- 
tory of  the  human  heart  ?" 

Rather  in  poems,  in  love  stories,  in  fragments  of 
song;  in  monuments,  in  sculptured  stone;  in  mytholo- 
gies and  traditions ;  in  sagas  and  myths ;  in  the  gods 
who  were  worshipped  and  feared ;  in  the  heroes  deified 
and  debased,  can  we  hope  to  trace  from  faint  begin- 
nings the  evolution  of  a  race  from  barbarism  to  the 
higher  planes  of  civilization. 

And  so,  you  see,  it  enters  into  the  study  of 

LITERATURE 

What  would  the  world  literature  be  but  for  the  un- 
known geniuses  who  created  the  Persian,  Grecian  and 
Roman  mythologies?  whose  "gods  hallowed  the 
heights,"  whose  messengers  of  wisdom  and  queens  of 
love  watched  over  the  destinies  of  men;  who  peo- 
pled spring  and  stream  with  Naiads;  every  tree  and 


84  ADDRESSES 

leafy  dell  with  Dryads  and  the  air  and  water  with 
fairy  and  nymph ! 

As  the  divine  teacher  taught  spiritual  truths  by 
fable,  parable  and  allegory,  so  we  learn  from  this 
cosmogony  of  gods  and  heroes  what  were  the  early 
views  of  religion,  what  the  early  ideas  respecting  the 
origin  of  things,  of  the  powers  of  nature,  the  rise  of 
institutions,  the  history  of  races  and  communities,  and 
thus  of  "the  history  of  the  human  heart." 

What  would  the  world's  literature  be  without  the 
siege  of  Troy  and  the  wanderings  of  Ulysses  ? 

Are  the  creations  of  Homer  less  real  than  those  of 
Gibbon  ? 

Are  Ajax,  Achilles  and  Priam  less  real  than  Alaric, 
Genseric  and  Tamerlain? 

Are  Helen  and  Penelope  less  real  and  less  lovable 
than  the  Queen  of  Scots  or  Marie  Antoinette? 

The  creations  of  genius  move  us  strongly  by  the 
chords  and  discords  of  our  dreaming  and  so  far  as 
they  are  true  to  human  nature,  we  may  weave  from 
these,  mystic  ideals,  forms  rare  and  real. 

This  subjective  principle,  or  idealism,  has  its  ef- 
fects in  the  culture  which  comes  from 


It  is  very  curious  to  observe  what  different  things 
different  people  see  in  visiting  and  observing  the  same 
things,  and  what  different  things  they  desire  to  see 
and  observe  in  the  same  place. 

Dr.  Franklin  observed  that  currents  of  electricity 
in  Paris  differed  curiously  from  those  in  Philadelphia. 

Audubon  observed  that  in  Paris  the  pigeons  pre- 
ferred to  fly  north;  Robert  Fulton  observed  that  the 
Seine  was  narrower  than  the  Hudson. 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION 


Mr.  Barnum  thought  the  CoHseum  would  be  a  good 
place  for  a  circus,  but  observed  it  had  no  roof,  which 
would  be  bad  in  case  of  rain. 

A  young  Catholic  lady  who  traveled  with  Mrs. 
Ewing  and  me  in  Italy  said  the  thing  she  desired  most 
to  see  in  Rome  was  the  picture  painted  by  the  Virgin 
Mary. 

Another  American  lady  confided  to  me  that  she 
"liked  Rome  because  it  was  like  New  York."  She 
said  it  was  true  there  were  a  good  many  old  ruins 
there  yet,  but  she  thought  they  would  soon  disappear 
and  the  lots  would  be  built  up  with  fine  houses. 

Brussels  is  a  city  of  800,000  people  and  the  most 
artistic  city  in  Europe. 

The  places  visitors  want  most  to  see  are  the  houses 
in  which  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  gave  the  ball  where 
"Belgium's  capital  had  gathered  its  beauty  and  its 
chivalry,"  on  the  night  before  the  battle  of  Waterloo, 
so  graphically  described  by  Lord  Byron. 

And  the  little  schoolhouse  where  Charlotte  Bronte 
taught  her  classes  and  wrote  her  love  stories. 

In  Geneva  the  most  interesting  thing  is  the  church 
in  which  John  Calvin  preached,  and  the  house  in 
which  he  wrote  his  "Institutes." 

In  Prague  they  show  you,  first  of  all,  the  church 
of  John  Huss,  who  in  Bohemia  preached  his  reforma- 
tion a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Luther  was  born. 

In  Edinburgh  it  is  the  old  pulpit  which  John  Knox 
hammered  as  he  hurled  his  anathemas  against  the 
wicked  Catholic  queen. 

The  culture  which  comes  from  travel  is  to  feel 
the  touch  of  humanity  as  you  connect  scenes  with  the 
deeds  of  men  who  have  lived  and  loved  and  suffered. 

By  imbibing  the  spirit  and  calling  to  memory  what- 


86  ADDRESSES 

ever  there  may  be  of  noble  action,  self-sacrifice  or  act 
of  heroism  of  those  who  have  made  the  city  famous. 

This  principle  holds  good  in  the  study  of  the  phys- 
ical sciences. 

In  the  study  of 


for  instance,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  learn  of  genera  and 
species,  the  various  and  complicated  classifications  of 
trees,  shrubs  and  plants,  and  commit  to  memory  long 
Latin  names. 

This  is  knowledge  but  it  is  not  culture.  A  flower 
considered  with  reference  to  the  number  of  its  stamens 
and  petals,  the  formation  of  its  leaves  and  the  bril- 
liancy of  its  color,  does  not  compare  with  the  "glory 
of  Solomon." 

Let  us  take  a  very  common  illustration.  Go  into 
the  cornfield  when  it  is  in  tassel  and  silk. 

You  have  studied  enough  to  know  that  unless  the 
pollen  comes  in  contact  with  the  seed  there  can  be  no 
ripening  or  reproduction. 

Ordinarily,  the  pollen  is  very  near  the  seed  and 
just  above  it  and  there  is  little  apparent  difficulty  in 
their  coming  together. 

But  in  this  instance  the  flower  is  away  above  the 
ear  of  corn,  and,  moreover,  the  grains  are  wrapped 
about  by  thick  layers  of  husks  to  safeguard  and  pro- 
tect them. 

The  problem  is  to  bring  the  generating  principle 
in  contact  with  each  one  of  these  golden  grains. 

Unwrap  these  husks  and  you  will  find  embedded 
in  the  crevices  between  the  rows,  strands  of  little  silken 
threads,  each  one  attached  to  a  single  grain  of  corn, 
all  coming  out  of  the  end  of  the  shuck  encasement 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  87 

and  forming-  a  beautiful  silken  pendant  to  the  growing 
ear  of  corn. 

Each  one  of  these  threads  is  hollow.  When  the 
mating  time  is  come  the  wind  blows  over  the  field; 
little  particles  of  golden  dust  are  shaken  from  the 
flower ;  the  air  is  laden  with  its  golden  glory ;  these  lit- 
tle particles  light  on  the  end  of  those  wonderful  con- 
ductors and  are  drawn  by  capillary  attraction  to  the 
waiting  grain ;  a  million  marriages  take  place ;  the  act 
of  germination  is  accomplished ;  the  seed  is  vivified  and 
capable  of  reproducing  a  thousand  other  of  its  kind. 

This  is  a  marvelous  process.  Henceforth  the  corn- 
field is  no  longer  common  but  "holy  ground,"  for  you 
stand  in  the  presence  of  a  continually  occurring  mir- 
acle. 

Now  "consider  the  lilies  hozu  they  grow."  Thus 
"considered,"  we  know  that  "Solomon  in  all  his  glory 
could  not  be  arrayed  like  one  of  these." 

Let  me  take  another  illustration  from  the  science  of 

ANATOMY   AND   PHYSIOLOGY 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  learn  the  number  of  bones, 
their  location  and  names,  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
the  nerve  centers ;  the  location,  names  and  articula- 
tions of  the  muscles,  the  offices  of  all  and  their  con- 
nections and  relations. 

You  must  go  deeper.  There  is  much  beyond.  This 
is  knowledge  but  not  culture. 

Let  me  take  again  a  very  simple  and  common  in- 
stance. A  bone  is  broken.  The  surgeon  places  the 
ends  of  the  fractured  bone  in  apposition,  secures  them 
by  proper  bandages  and  splints.  That  is  the  extent  of 
his  power.  In  a  thousand  years  the  most  learned  and 
scientific  of  his  profession  could  not  cause  a  cure. 


88  ADDRESSES 

But  nature  has  a  laboratory  into  which  no  human 
scientist  can  enter,  a  process  of  heahng  absolutely- 
perfect. 

Almost  immediately  there  flows  out  from  the  lacer- 
ated tissues  surrounding  the  fracture  a  liquid  which 
washes  away  blood  clots,  impurities  and  particles  of 
bone. 

In  a  few  days  there  flows  in  and  surrounds  the 
fractured  ends  a  kind  of  lymph  which  allays  the  fever, 
fills  up  all  the  interstices  and  lays  the  foundation  for 
the  cure. 

In  another  few  days  this  lymph  changes  to  car- 
tilage, then  in  another  few  days  out  into  and  through 
this  cartilagenous  mass  shoot  little  nerves  and  blood- 
vessels, through  which  are  transmitted,  from  the  blood, 
particles  of  ossific  matter,  which  hardens  into  bone. 

The  union  from  cartilagenous  becomes  ossific. 
Then  again  nature  forms  around  and  about  the  frac- 
ture a  band  to  hold  the  wounded  parts  in  safety,  which 
again  in  its  turn  is  absorbed  and  carried  away  by  the 
blood,  leaving  a  smooth,  sound,  cured  and  perfect 
bone. 

Science  stands  abashed  in  the  presence  of  such  a 
cure.  It  is  wonderful,  as  all  the  works  of  God  are 
wonderful.  In  the  working  of  the  wonder  is  mani- 
fest both  intelligence  and  beneficence;  and  the  heart 
answers  the  inquiry  of  the  Hebrew  prophet.  There 
''is  balm  in  Gilead;  there  is  a  physician  there." 

I  have  tried  to  show  the  influence  of  idealism  in 
producing  culture,  in  the  ordinary  methods  of  edu- 
cation, in  the  study  of  history,  in  literature  and  in  the 
physical  sciences. 

But  there  is  still  outside  of  the  books  and  beyond 
the  schools   broad  fields    for  study  and   rich   oppor- 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION 


tunities  for  culture.  There  are  lessons  which  nature 
teaches  in  all  the  languages. 

There  are  problems  of  life  to  be  solved  more  in- 
tricate than  differential  or  integral  calculus. 

The  great  book  of  the  human  heart  is  to  be  learned 
chapter  by  chapter  and  page  by  page. 

We  may  not  all  become  post-graduates  in  these 
studies,  but  we  may  learn  much  if  only  we  pursue  the 
right  methods. 

To  these  studies,  also,  the  subjective  methods  are 
best. 

Men  and  women  create  their  own  ideals.  And  it 
is  not  paradoxical  to  say  in  turn  their  ideals  shape 
their  own  characters  and  views  of  life. 

Our  ideals  sometimes  become  heroes  and  some- 
times idols. 

We  are  all 

HERO   WORSHIPPERS 

and  hero  worship  is  not  bad,  if  only  we  worship  the 
right  kind  of  heroes. 

Humanity  is  peculiar;  it  builds  more  monuments 
to  its  butchers  than  to  its  benefactors.  In  the  long, 
dark  history  of  the  race  the  popular  hero  has  been  the 
man  who  kills,  rather  than  the  man  who  heals. 

We  still  have  schools  in  which  we  educate  to  kill, 
and  teach  the  science  of  slaughter. 

There  is,  and  there  can  be,  no  such  thing  as  a 
military  hero.     To  worship  such  is  false  idolatry. 

We  often,  when  our  highest  ideal  is  up  in  the 
clouds,  make  unto  ourselves  golden  calves,  and  often 
they  are  not  even  of  gold. 

Our  late  war  with  Spain  developed  numbers  of 
false  heroes  for  public  worship.     A  naval  officer  sue- 


90  ADDRESSES 

ceeded  in  shooting-  to  pieces  some  rotten  Spanish 
ships ;  the  newspapers  made  him  a  hero. 

His  admirers  presented  him  with  a  fine  house, 
which  he  immediately  deeded  to  his  recent  and  rich 
wife.     And  his  glory  faded  as  a  flower. 

Another  naval  officer  was  supposed  to  fight  another 
great  naval  battle  in  which  the  remainder  of  the  Span- 
ish ships  were  destroyed.    He  became  a  hero. 

Congress  gave  him  a  vote  of  thanks;  the  courts 
awarded  prize  money;  then  it  transpired  that  he  was 
not  at  the  battle  at  all,  and  this  idol  was  dethroned. 

A  young  gentleman,  still  another  naval  officer, 
undertook  to  sink  a  coal  barge  in  the  wrong  place,  and 
did  not  succeed  even  in  doing  a  wrong  thing;  still  it 
was  a  brave  act  and  he  became  the  hero  of  an  hour. 

Some  young  ladies  kissed  away  his  halo  and  his 
monument  fell,  not,  as  I  love  to  think,  on  account  of 
the  kisses,  but  on  account  of  the  beanstalk  nature  of 
the  monument. 

A  Kansas  colonel  captured  the  leader  of  the  Fili- 
pinos by  strategy,  it  was  said,  and  he  became  a  hero 
and  came  8,000  miles  to  personally  receive  the  grateful 
praises  of  his  countrymen. 

It  transpired  again  that  this  valiant  hero  had  forged 
letters,  dressed  American  soldiers  in  the  enemy's  uni- 
form and,  while  partaking  of  the  enemy's  hospitality, 
shot  down  and  murdered  his  guard,  and  made  him 
prisoner  in  violation  of  the  rules  of  war  and  of  the 
most  sacred  rules  of  hospitality. 

And  now  the  most  ardent  lovers  of  war  can  find  in 
these  transactions  no  elements  of  heroism. 

Let  us  believe  that  the  whole  world  is  full  of  men 
and  women  in  high  and  low  stations  who  sacrifice  their 


IDEALISM  IN  EDUCATION  91 


pleasures,  their  comforts,  their  ambitions  and  their 
lives  to  round  out  the  lives  of  others. 

We  may  never  know  their  names,  but  in  our  hearts 
we  can  build  an  altar  to  the  "unknown  hero." 

And  when  we  read  or  hear  of  some  brave  act,  some 
kind  action,  some  unselfish  devotion,  some  self-sacri- 
fice, some  thoughtful  kindness,  some  duty  heroically 
performed,  we  can  there  bring  our  garlands  of  sym- 
pathy and  appreciation. 

Against  the  materialism  of  the  restless  Marthas 
who  are  "troubled  about  so  many  things,"  I  would 
oppose  the  idealism  of  Mary,  who  found  her  highest 
spiritual  beauty  and  her  grandest  ideals  in  the  love 
of  the  Master. 

I  speak  not  of  your  religious  life;  of  those  holy 
relationships  I  may  not  enquire,  but  of  that  idealism 
which  will  enable  you  to  see  clearly  and  like  Mary 
"choose  the  better  part." 

Not  in  high  station,  not  in  great  wealth  nor  in  the 
praises  of  men,  nor  in  the  possession  of  power  is  to 
be  found  the  greatest  good;  nor  are  they  the  objects  of 
highest  ambition — weigh  them  all  over  against  the  un- 
selfish love  of  a  single  human  being,  against  the  con- 
sciousness of  some  good  deed  well  done,  against  a 
pure  life,  against  obligations  fulfilled  and  duties  per- 
formed; and  which  are  the  certitudes  of  life? 

From  this  idealism  will  come  the  charity  which  will 
fill  your  life  with  good  deeds  and  lay  up  for  you  treas- 
ures incorruptible  and  enduring. 

From  it  will  come  that  kindness  which  will  enshrine 
your  life  in  loving  remembrance. 

From  it  will  come  that  love  of  nature  in  her  gentler 
moods ;  which  plants  shade  trees  along  the  dusty  high- 


92  ADDRESSES 

ways  and  fills  the  waste  places  with  forms  of  grace 
and  beauty. 

From  it  will  come  philanthropy  (the  rarest  of  all 
the  virtues)  which  seeks  the  highest  good  for  the 
generations  to  live  hereafter  on  the  earth. 

And  from  it  will  come  that  unselfishness  which 
forgetful  of  benefits  to  self,  seeks  in  good  done  for 
others  its  crown  of  rejoicing. 


EXPLANATORY 


The  following  argument  was  made  in  the  case  of 
Caverly  vs.  Canfield,  commenced  in  the  January  term, 
1 88 1,  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  La  Salle  County,  Illi- 
nois, The  trial  commenced  June  24,  1881,  and  lasted 
twelve  days.  The  case  grew  out  of  the  following 
facts :  On  May  10,  1880,  a  young  lady  residing  in  Ot- 
tawa, 111.,  of  good  family,  independent  means,  unex- 
ceptional character  and  high  social  standing,  was  de- 
livered of  an  illegitimate  child,  which  lived  but  a  few 
hours.  The  event  created  more  than  the  usual  amount 
of  surprise,  gossip  and  scandal.  She  claimed  she  was 
never  conscious  of  a  wrong  act,  that  a  great  wrong 
had  been  done  her  while  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness. 
It  was  to  prove  this  contention  and  vindicate  herself 
this  suit  was  brought. 

The  lawyers  for  the  plaintiff  were  Mr.  Bull,  of  Ot- 
tawa, Hon.  A.  E.  Stevenson  and  myself;  for  the  de- 
fendant. Judge  Leland  and  Hiram  Gilbert.  The  argu- 
ment following  is  by  no  means  the  best  one  made  in 
that  unique  case,  but  happened  to  be  the  only  one  taken 
down  by  the  stenographic  reporter. 

THE  RESULT 

of  the  case  was  a  verdict  of  $50,000  for  the  plaintiff. 
The  young  lady  remained  for  some  years  in  Ottawa 
and  then  removed  to  Chicago  where  she  married  a 
reputable  business  man  and  is  now  the  mother  of  two 
daughters,  highly  reputed  and  cultured  young  ladies. 
The  defendat  lost  his  practice,  took  to  drink  and  in 
less  than  a  year  died  on  the  street  in  a  fit  of  delirium 
tremens. 


ARGUMENT  BY  MR.  EWING 


Gentlemen  of  the  Jury  : 

Since  I  have  been  in  your  beautiful  city,  during  the 
progress  of  this  remarkable  trial  I  have  been  so  en- 
gaged with  the  preparation  and  prosecution  of  the  case 
that  there  has  been  little  time  to  extend  an  acquaint- 
ance which,  I  can  but  regret,  is  so  limited.  But,  by 
those  whom  I  have  met,  my  reception  has  been  so 
cordial  and  sincere  that  I  have  ceased  to  regard  myself 
as  a  stranger  amongst  you.  From  his  Honor  on  the 
bench,  from  the  members  of  this  bar,  from  gentlemen 
of  the  press,  and  from  yourselves,  I  have  met  with  the 
kindest  greeting. 

In  opening  the  argument  in  this,  the  most  remark- 
able and  interesting  case  I  have  ever  known,  I  wish 
to  deal  honestly  with  you.  It  is  the  province  of  coun- 
sel to  analyze  the  testimony  and  assist,  by  legitimate 
suggestions,  the  jury  in  arriving  at  a  proper  conclu- 
sion, and  to  decide  properly  the  issue  presented  to 
them.  Anything  more  than  this  cometh  of  evil.  And 
I  desire  to  state  in  the  outset  that  many  things  which 
I  may  say  should  be  taken  with  many  grains  of  allow- 
ance. I  am  not  a  disinterested  spectator  of  these  pro- 
ceedings. I  have  much  more  than  the  ordinary  inter- 
est of  the  lawyer  in  the  result  of  this  case.  Pecuniary 
reward  and  professional  pride  are  dwarfed  into  insig- 
nificance in  the  presence  of  a  personal  interest  so  in- 
tense. Gentlemen,  in  the  course  of  some  twenty  years' 
practice  at  the  bar,  many  times,  in  many  ways  I  have 
trembled,  as  I  do  now,  when  I  realized  the  responsibili- 
ties of  my  position,  with  such  vast  interests  committed 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  95 

to  my  keeping-.  But  I  say  to  you  today,  in  all  truth- 
fulness, that  the  sum  of  all  the  interest  which  I  have 
felt  in  all  other  cases  does  not -equal  the  intensity  of 
that  which  I  now  feel  in  the  cause  of  this  orphan  girl. 

For  ten  days  you  have  listened  to  its  details  with  a 
kind  attention  I  have  never  seen  equalled.  For  this  I 
thank  you.  This  young  lady  is  much  more  to  me  than 
a  client,  intimate  and  sacred  as  that  relation  is.  I 
have  known  her  intimately  from  childhood.  She  has 
been  a  visitor  in  my  family.  I  know  her  sunshiny  dis- 
position; her  superior  intellectual  qualities;  her  cul- 
tured manners ;  her  generous  nature ;  her  perfect  purity 
in  word,  act  and  thought.  I  know  her  orphaned  and 
lonely  condition;  I  know  how  tenderly  she  has  been 
cared  for  in  a  virtuous  and  loving  home.  I  know  her 
honored  ancestry;  I  know  her  life's  history  all  along 
its  pathway  of  shadow  and  sunshine,  and  hence  more 
than  any  one,  except  the  plaintiff  herself,  I  realize  to 
its  fullest  extent  the  infernal  cruelty  of  the  outrage 
she  has  suffered.  Therefore  if,  in  seeking  to  picture 
this  case  to  you  so  that  you  may  see  it  in  all  its  pe- 
culiar phases,  I  should  seem  to  exaggerate,  charge  it 
not  against  her  or  her  cause. 

I  rejoice,  gentlemen,  that  my  client's  cause  is  to  be 
submitted  to  such  a  jury,  and  I  congratulate  her  that 
it  is  so;  I  congratulate  her  that  when  you  have  ren- 
dered your  verdict  you  will  not  go  upon  the  corners  of 
the  streets,  to  the  slums  of  the  city,  to  the  abodes  of 
vice,  to  render  an  account  of  your  high  trust  in  co- 
teries, where  the  honor  of  man  and  the  virtue  of  wo- 
man are  alike  mythical.  But  I  rejoice  that  you  will 
return  to  virtuous  homes,  to  loving  wives  and 
daughters,  to  the  contemplation  of  that  virtue  which 
sanctifies  every  Christian  household.     I  say  I  rejoice 


96  ADDRESSES 

in  this  because  I  wish  you  to  rise  to  the  high  plain  of 
a  perfect  faith  in  the  innate  purity  of  woman.  There 
are  moral  monstrosities  who  do  not  believe  in  the 
honor  of  man  or  the  virtue  of  woman,  I  envy  them 
not.  I  detest  and  loathe  the  sentiment  which  would 
detract  so  much  as  a  mite  from  the  high  estimate 
placed  by  all  honorable  men  upon  that  crown  of  a  wo- 
man's life  which  glorifies  her  womanhood. 

Naturalists  tell  us  of  a  small  animal  called  the  er- 
mine. It  is  covered  with  a  delicate  white  fur,  which 
is  used  to  adorn  and  beautify  the  gowns  of  judges 
who  sit  in  the  high  places  of  justice,  and  the  corona- 
tion robes  of  kings.  It  is  an  emblem  of  purity.  We 
speak  of  the  judicial  ermine,  to  typify  the  incorrupti- 
ble purity  of  justice.  It  is  said  that  hunters  entrap 
these  little  animals  by  smearing  the  ground  about 
their  homes  with  pitch  and  dirt,  knowing  they  will 
lie  down  and  be  taken,  preferring  to  die  rather  than 
defile  themselves.  So  it  is  with  every  true  woman. 
And  no  man  is  fit  to  be  an  arbiter  in  this  case  who 
does  not  bring  to  the  discharge  of  his  high  duties  an 
abiding  faith  in  the  virtue  of  the  mothers  and 
daughters  of  our  home-blessed  land.  That  life's  mis- 
fortunes, man's  deceit,  cruel  want,  or  a  thousand 
causes  growing  out  of  a  vicious  life,  have  and  will 
forever  create  exceptional  cases  of  female  depravity, 
we  all  admit  and  regret.  But  there  is  a  royal  virtue 
implanted  in  the  pure  hearts  of  good  women,  which 
shuns  contact  with  vice;  shrinks  from  whatever  is  un- 
chaste and  indelicate;  avoids  the  very  appearance  of 
evil;  and  blushes  like  a  camelia  at  the  impure  touch 
of  passion.  I  say  this  to  you  because  I  intend  to  throw 
into  the  scale  which  holds  the  fortunes  of  this  plaintiff 
this  honorable  sentiment.     I  intend  to  invoke  it,  as  I 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANEIELD  97 

have  a  right  to  do  in  her  case,  and  ask  you  to  hesitate 
before  you  decide,  as  the  unthinking  and  uncharitable 
have  done,  that  a  young  lady  delicately  and  tenderly 
reared  by  a  virtuous  mother,  graduating  from  the  Sab- 
bath school,  breathing  always  the  atmosphere  of  hon- 
est home  life,  cheered  by  the  example  of  cultured 
loving  friends,  cherishing  the  proud  memory  of  an 
honored  parentage,,  having  all  her  life,  through  child- 
hood to  mature  womanhood,  lived  a  blameless  life, 
without  scandal  and  without  reproach — that  such  a 
one  would,  in  mere  wantonness  of  passion,  throw  away 
the  pearl  of  great  price  and  make  of  her  life  a  moral 
wreck. 

Again,  I  wish  you  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  this 
great  occasion.  There  never  has  been  such  a  lawsuit 
tried  in  this  court.  His  Honor,  who  has  adorned  his 
profession  by  a  long  and  honorable  service  at  the  bar 
and  on  the  bench,  never  has  tried,  and  probably  never 
will,  another  such.  The  inquiry  it  necessitates  enters 
into  some  of  the  most  intricate  and  interesting  prob- 
lems of  medical  science,  into  the  very  mysteries  of 
the  origin  of  life,  into  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist, 
into  the  laws  of  circumstantial  evidence,  into  the  laws 
of  human  motives  and  conduct.  Involving  in  its 
scope  and  range  every  emotion  and  passion,  it  lays 
bare  before  you  the  innermost  secrets  of  a  human  life, 
with  its  cloud  and  sunshine,  its-  loves  and  hates,  its 
agony  and  rejoicing,  its  past  disgrace  and  coming 
triumph. 

I  ask  you  as  you  go  with  me  over  the  history  of 
this  life,  to  bring  with  you  your  quickened  intelli- 
gence, all  your  human  sjonpathy;  all  your  love  of  jus- 
tice and  scorn  of  wrong;  that  manhood  which  detests 
a  cowardly  act,  and  that  chivalry  which  would  throw 


98  ADDRESSES 

its  strong  arm  around  the  defenseless.  It  will  be  a 
pathway  of  sorrow  such  as  wearied  feet  have  seldom 
trod.  There  will  be  something  of  sunshine;  a  few 
flowery  by-paths ;  here  and  there  a  sweet  resting  place ; 
but  for  the  most  part  it  will  be  over  broken  rocks, 
with  bleeding  feet.  There  will  be  stations  where  I  will 
invite  you  to  rest  and  look  upon  some  pictures  graphic- 
ally drawn  by  the  witnesses  in  this  case,  and  doubtless 
indelibly  imprinted  upon  your  memory.  It  will  be  a 
profitable  if  not  a  pleasant  journey,  and  we  will  re- 
turn from  it  as  men  from  a  house  of  mourning,  with 
better  hearts  and  purer  aspirations. 

You  are  told  you  must  decide  the  case  as  you 
would  between  two  men!  You  cannot  do  it;  simply 
because  it  is  not  a  case  between  two  men.  You  are 
not  required,  when  you  enter  this  court  room,  to  leave 
your  human  hearts  at  the  doorway.  There  is  no  dan- 
ger of  erring  through  sympathy,  because  if  tiie  plaint- 
ijff  is  the  vile  creature  they  claim  she  is,  you  can  have 
no  sympathy  with  her  or  her  cause.  And,  so  on  the 
other  hand,  if  she  has  been  wronged,  as  we  claim  she 
has  been,  kindness  to  her  is  a  virtue,  and  human  sym- 
pathy is  transmuted  into  eternal  justice.  I  ask  no  ver- 
dict at  your  hands  through  pity,  prejudice,  or  passion. 
We  will  not  accept  a  verdict  on  such  terms.  We  are 
trying  this  case  not  only  before  this  jury  and  this 
court,  but  before  this  community;  before  the  vast  con- 
course who  come  here  from  day  to  day  to  witness  its 
proceedings.  A  verdict  which  is  not  based  upon  in- 
disputable evidence  will  do  her  no  good.  She  seeks, 
through  this  trial  and  your  verdict,  a  vindication,  full, 
complete  and  perfect,  in  the  eyes  of  the  community 
in  which  she  has  always  lived;  and  it  must  have  a 
foundation  as  solid  as  the  rock.     For  eieihteen  months 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  99 

the  case  of  Fanny  Caverly  has  been  on  trial — in  the 
newspapers,  on  the  streets,  at  church  meetings,  in 
saloons,  and  worse  places.  In  none  of  these  trials 
has  her  voice  been  heard.  The  evidence  has  been  ex 
parte;  the  juries  have  been  packed;  there  was  no  cross- 
examination;  she  was  allowed  no  counsel,  and  the 
courts  were  organized  to  convict.  But,  thank  God! 
after  weary,  weary  months  of  waiting,  through  dreary 
days  and  sleepness  nights,  her  cause  is  tried  in  a  court 
where  her  voice  has  been  heard  and  where  his  voice 
has  been  silent.^ 

WHO  IS  THE  PLAINTIFF? 

Gentlemen,  I  have  said  to  you  this  is  a  remarkable 
case.  The  plaintiff  herself  is  no  ordinary  person. 
Fanny  L,  Caverly  was  born  in  this  city ;  she  has  grown 
to  womanhood  in  the  midst  of  this  community.  Up 
to  the  day  when  the  daily  papers  heralded  to  the  world, 
with  cruel  headlines,  that  little  paragraph  which  caused 
pain  to  so  many  loving  hearts,  her  reputation  was  as 
spotless  as  that  of  any  maiden  in  the  land.  Up  to  that 
moment  the  tongue  of  slander  had  spoken  no  word 
of  suspicion  against  her  fair  name.  Moving  in  the 
first  circles  of  an  elegant  and  cultured  society,  here 
and  in  other  cities,  where  she  was  always  a  welcome 
guest  in  the  purest  homes,  she  was  respected,  ad- 
mired and  loved.  The  cruel  shaft  which  struck  her 
down  found  indeed  a  shining  mark.  Her  father  died 
when  she  was  a  child.  She  never  knew  that  strong, 
manly,  fatherly  love  which  would  have  been  a  shield 
and  buckler  for  her  defense.     God  pity  the  orphaned 

*The  defendant,  Campfield,  did  not  testify  in  his  own 
behalf. 


lOo  ADDRESSES 

condition  of  the  girl  who  starts  out  upon  her  Hfe  jour- 
ney without  companionship  and  protection!  She  was 
too  young  to  reahze  this,  and  her  great  loss  was  in 
many  ways  made  up  to  her  by  the  loving,  tender,  watch- 
ful care  of  an  idolized  mother,  who  devoted  her  pure 
and  unselfish  life  to  the  education  and  care  of  her  only 
child.  Most  of  us  have  been  called,  some  time  in 
our  lives,  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  a  great  sorrow. 
In  the  death  of  a  friend,  a  father,  a  mother,  a  child, 
we  have  felt  the  gloom  settling  down  upon  us,  and 
how  lonely  the  world  was.  She  stood  by  the  grave  of 
her  mother  and  heard  the  sound  of  the  clods  falling 
upon  the  coffin  lid,  echoing  the  throb  of  a  broken  heart. 
This  was  her  second  great  sorrow.  But  time,  the 
great  healer,  deadened  her  pain,  soothed  her  anguish 
and  brought  to  her  "beauty  for  ashes  and  the  oil  of 
joy  for  mourning,"  In  the  buoyancy  of  youth  and 
hope  the  world  was  clothed  again  with  verdure.  She 
had  scarcely  laid  away  the  garments  of  mourning 
when  death  took  from  her  her  aged  grandfather.  This 
was  her  third  great  sorrow. 

Alfred  W.  Caverly  was  one  of  those  great  pioneer 
lawyers  to  whom  this  great  commonwealth  owes  so 
much.  The  compeer  of  Lincoln,  Douglas,  Lockwood, 
and  Breese,  he  impressed  his  character  upon  his  age 
and  generation.  A  man  of  strict  integrity  and  com- 
manding ability,  he  wrote  his  name  upon  the  legisla- 
tive and  judicial  history  of  his  adopted  state.  He 
lived  to  a  ripe  old  age,  and,  spanning  an  age  of  medi- 
ocrity, seemed  to  connect  the  intellectual  glories  of  the 
past  with  the  coming  glories  of  the  future.  In  his 
old  age  he  took  his  orphaned  grandchild  to  his  bosom, 
and  this  great  love  was  the  sunshine  of  his  declining 
day.     Now  she  was  almost  alone  in  the  world,  only 


C A VERLY  vs.  C ANEIELD  i  o  i 

the  old  grandmother  who  has  stood  by  her  so  bravely 
in  these  terrible  days,  and  whose  sad  face  you  have 
seen  from  day  to  day  during  this  long  trial.  It  does 
seem  there  had  been  pressed  into  this  young  life  suf- 
ficient of  sorrow.  Will  not  some  good  angel  turn 
away  the  bitter  cup? 

Again  the  clouds  cleared  away  and  the  sunshine 
came  into  her  heart.  You  have  heard,  from  the  testi- 
mony, that  for  nearly  three  years,  and  until  the  6th 
day  of  August,  1879,  an  engagement  of  marriage  ex- 
isted between  the  plaintiff  and  Mr.  Metcalfe.  He  was 
a  young  lawyer  residing  in  St.  Louis;  he  came  to 
Ottawa  bringing  a  letter  of  introduction  to  her  grand- 
mother from  a  mutual  friend.  In  time  he  offered  her 
his  hand  in  honorable  marriage  and  was  accepted.  It 
was  the  old  story.  There  were  happy  meetings ;  there 
were  walks  by  the  rivef ;  there  were  rides  by  moonlight ; 
there  were  music  and  flowers ;  there  was  the  love-light 
in  the  eye  at  that  one  time  which  comes  to  most  men 
and  women,  when  heaven  comes  dovv^n  near  the  earth. 
Then  there  was  the  parting.  I  have  told  you  that 
her's  was  not  an  ordinary  character.  When  she  came 
to  believe,  as  she  did  believe,  that  there  was  not  the 
perfect  love  "which  casteth  out  all  fear"  from  a 
woman's  heart,  in  the  splendor  of  a  courage  which  has 
won  your  respect  and  admiration,  she  tore  this  hope 
from  her  heart  and  gave  back  the  remnant  of  love,  the 
whole  of  which  she  felt  she  did  not  possess.  And  so 
this  dream  was  over,  and  she  went  back  to  the  old  life. 
The  sacrifice  was  made,  and  she  was  justified  in  her 
conscience. 

This  is  strange  talk  in  a  court  house,  but  we  are 
dealing  with  human  passions,  and  a  broken  heart  has 
been  laid  bare  before  you.     It  is  only  through  this 


I02  ADDRESSES 

sacrificial  offering  her  peace  can  come ;  it  is  only  in  the 
blood  of  a  bleeding  heart  she  can  wash  her  robes  and 
make  them  white, 

THE  TREATMENTS 

In  May,  according  to  her  letter  to  Dr.  Byford;  in 
March,  according  to  her  present  memory;  in  April, 
as  her  grandmother  remembers  (the  date  is  not  mate- 
rial), she  went  to  the  defendant  for  treatment.  He 
was  then,  so  far  as  the  people  knew,  a  reputable  phy- 
sician. He  had  attended  her  grandfather  in  his  last  ill- 
ness. He  treated  her  at  home  during  the  summer 
months  for  what  he  told  her  was  falling  of  the  womb. 
In  August  he  suggested  to  her  the  propriety  of  com- 
ing to  his  office  for  treatment.  He  said  :  "There  were 
all  the  conveniences  for  treatment;  it  would  be  much 
more  convenient  for  him;  less  expensive  to  her;  that 
she  could  come  with  perfect  propriety."  And  why 
should  she  not?  I  say  it  was  perfectly  proper.  He 
was  a  member  of  an  honorable  profession.  This  was 
a  guaranty  to  her  that  she  was  as  safe  from  insult  and 
wrong  as  she  would  be  in  the  presence  of  a  priest  and 
under  the  solemn  sanction  of  the  confessional.  At  the 
time  of  a  visit  made  about  the  25th  of  September  he 
gave  her  wine,  as  he  said,  to  "quiet  her  nerves;"  its 
taste  was  peculiar ;  but  not  unpleasant ;  it  was  a  sweet 
and  pungent  taste;  its  effect  was  peculiar,  as  she  now 
remembers.  A  countryman  came  to  the  office  just  at 
this  moment  and  was  rudely  dismissed.  She  said  to 
the  defendant,  "Do  I  look  cross-eyed?"  He  said,  "I 
think  you  are  ready  for  the  operating  room."  This  is 
all  she  remembers  until  she  found  herself  in  a  dazed 
condition,  having  undergone,  as  she  supposed,  the  usual 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  103 

treatment,  but  remembering  nothing"  of  having  been 
unconscious.  It  had  never  been  necessary  to  admin- 
ister wine  before.  It  was  highly  improper  to  admin- 
ister it  under  the  circumstances.  We  charge  that  the 
defendant  at  that  time  took  advantage  of  her  helpless- 
ness, and  while  in  a  state  of  insensibility,  produced  by 
some  hellish  drug,  without  her  consent  or  knowledge, 
had  sexual  intercourse  with  her,  which  resulted  in  her 
after  pregnancy  and  the  birth  of  her  child.  This 
charge  we  have  proven  by  an  array  of  testimony  which 
left  nothing  for  its  completeness  except  the  final  silent 
confession  of  the  defendant  himself.  To  the  discus- 
sion of  that  evidence  I  now  invite  your  attention. 

These  wine  treatments  were  repeated  three  times — 
twice  in  October  and  once  in  November.  What  drug 
was  used  we  do  not  know.  It  is  not  material  that  we 
should  know.  It  is  sufficient  that  we  have  shown  to 
you  by  the  testimony  of  five  reputable  physicians  that 
there  are  various  drugs  known  to  medical  science 
which  might  have  been  used.  Much  has  been  said  as 
to  the  properties  and  effects  of  narcotics,  intoxicants 
and  anaesthetics.  You  must  form  your  own  judgment 
from  the  testimony.  We  have  surmised  that  the  drug 
used  was  acetic  ether.  We  find  from  books  and  from 
experiments  that  it  possesses  all  the  properties  and 
produces  the  effects  necessary. 

First — It  possesses  about  four  times  the  intoxicat- 
ing properties  of  alcohol. 

Second — It  excites  the  erotic  or  amatory  passion 
to  a  high  degree. 

Third — It  remains  from  five  to  six  minutes  in  solu- 
tion with  white  wine. 

Fourth — It  produces  insensibility  rapidly,  and  its 
effects  pass  away  as  rapidly. 


I04  ADDRESSES 

We  do  not  pretend  to  say  this  was  the  drug  used. 
It  is  sufficient  that  we  have  found  a  drug  that  might 
have  been  used.  From  the  last  one  of  these  treat- 
ments, which  was  in  November,  she  returned  home 
suffering  so  much  that  she  determined  to  receive  no 
more.  A  few  weeks  afterward  she  so  informed  the 
defendant,  stating  at  the  same  time  that  she  was  going 
to  Bloomington  and  would  take  treatment  from  Dr. 
White.  Permit  me,  gentlemen,  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  conduct  of  the  defendant  at  that  time.  He  was 
excited;  told  her  she  should  not  go;  she  would  rue  it 
if  she  went;  and  used  language  to  her  which  she  then 
regarded  as  almost  insulting;  so  much  so  that  she  felt 
indignant  and  left  the  office. 

Defendant's  witnesses  say  he  told  her,  "If  she  was 
a  married  woman  he  could  tell  her  what  was  the  mat- 
ter with  her,"  etc.  Plaintiff  says  she  does  not  re- 
member these  words,  but  that  he  used  language  in- 
tending to  convey  the  same  idea.  Why  did  he  object 
to  her  going  to  Bloomington?  How  did  he  know  in 
November  that  she  was  pregnant  ?  How  did  he  know  ? 
This  was  in  November;  her  menses  were  regular  in 
August  and  September.  It  was  less  than  two  months 
since  the  act  of  coition.  No  other  living  being  knew 
she  was  pregnant.  She  was  as  innocent  of  such  knowl- 
edge as  a  vestal  virgin.  Dr.  White  failed  to  discover 
it  in  January ;  Dr.  Stout  did  not  suspect  it  in  February ; 
Dr.  Byford  was  not  certain  in  March;  Dr.  Hathaway 
pronounced  her  trouble  a  tumor  on  the  5th  of  April; 
and  not  until  the  15th  of  April  did  any  one  of  all  these 
physicians  discover  the  foetal  circulation.  But  this 
man  knew  it  in  November.  There  was  the  cessation 
of  the  menstrual  flow  and  the  slight  bloating  which 
might  arise  from  a  thousand  causes  consistent  with  a 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  105 

pure  life.  And  yet  he  knew  she  was  pregnant.  I  sub- 
mit to  his  learned  counsel  this  question  for  their  con- 
sideration :  Was  it  superior  medical  skill,  or  was  it 
superior  knowledge  of  a  cause?  This  significant  fact 
is  susceptible  of  but  one  construction.  He  knew  of 
her  pregnancy  because  of  his  guilty  knowledge  of  the 
cause. 

SHE  WENT  TO  BLOOMINGTON 

You  saw  Mrs.  Dr.  White  on  the  witness  stand,  and 
in  the  court  room  sitting  by  the  plaintiff.  You  saw 
her  daughter,  who  was  also  an  important  witness  in 
this  case,  and  I  need  not  tell  you  into  what  a  home  this 
plaintiff  went  with  her  burden  of  shame.  To  the  life- 
long friend  of  her  sainted  mother;  to  the  pure  pres- 
ence of  her  young  companions ;  to  the  scrutinizing  gaze 
of  one  of  the  ablest  physicians  of  this  or  any  other 
state;  to  the  familiar  companionship  of  friends  and 
acquaintances ;  to  the  criticising  inquiry  of  strangers, 
she  went,  I  say,  with  her  burden  of  shame.  Not  only 
this,  but  she  freely  discussed  her  condition  and  invited 
a  medical  exmination.  Upon  what  possible  hypothesis 
can  this  conduct  be  explained,  save  that  of  innocence? 
Think  you,  if  she  had  been  conscious  of  her  real  con- 
dition, or  of  its  possibility,  she  would  have  done  this? 
If  she  were  the  abandoned  creature  defendant's  counsel 
claim  to  believe  her,  she  could  not  have  done  it. 

Would  she  not  have  fled,  like  a  guilty  thing,  across 
continents  and  oceans  rather?  Would  she  not  have 
sought  solitude  and  a  home  amongst  strangers?  Can 
a  sinner,  bearing  the  scarlet  letter  of  her  burning  sin, 
stand  unabashed  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  Para- 
dise? Answer  these  questions  out  of  your  own  hearts, 
gentlemen.     I  saw  her  on  that  bright  New  Year's  day, 


io6  ADDRESSES 

beautiful  as  the  morning,  the  sweetest,  brightest,  most 
winsome  face  in  all  that  bright  and  happy  throng. 
I  said  to  her,  "I  wish  you  a  happy  New  Year.  From 
my  heart,  my  dear  little  friend,  I  wish  you  a  happy 
New  Year."  She  seemed  so  bright,  so  full  of  enjoy- 
ment, so  happy.  If  I  could  for  a  moment  have  lifted  the 
veil  which  obscured  the  future,  and  have  realized  never 
so  slightly,  the  terrible  agony  and  suffering  through 
which  she  must  pass  during  the  next  four  months; 
if  the  scenes  which  you  and  I  have  heard  so  graphically 
described  could  for  one  moment  have  passed  in  pano- 
ramic pictures  before  me  there,  I  would  have  wished 
her  dead  at  my  feet.  And  it  would  have  been  a  God's 
mercy  to  her.  Death  is  not  the  worst  thing  which  can 
come  to  a  man  or  woman. 

Let  this  New  Year's  scene  linger  in  your  memory. 
It  is  the  last  one  in  all  the  long  picture  gallery  which 
has  anything  of  sunshine  in  it. 

The  loth  of  February  she  returned  to  Ottawa. 
The  defendant  was  again  consulted.  He  came  to  her 
house,  made  an  examination,  and  said  he  wanted  coun- 
sel ;  would  like  to  have  Dr.  Stout. 

Defendant's  counsel  tell  you  that  Dr.  Stout  is  a 
simple  hearted,  confiding  sort  of  a  man,  full  of  faith, 
and  easily  influenced  and  deceived.  It  may  be  so. 
Either  he  has,  in  these  nefarious  transactions,  been  the 
defendant's  dupe  or  accomplice,  and  it  suits  our  pur- 
pose that  you  may  consider  him  the  one  or  the  other. 
They  tell  you  "he  was  misled  and  deceived  by  this 
young  girl."  If  you  are  to  believe  what  they  say  of 
our  client,  how  you  must  be  filled  with  wonder  at  her 
capabilities.  Just  think  of  it!  Here  is  a  young  girl 
who  was  never  in  a  court  room  in  her  life  before ;  who 
has  absolutely  conceived  and  carried  to  completion  a 


CAVERLY  vs.  C ANFIELD  1 07 

deeply  laid  conspiracy,  involving  innumerable  details, 
extending  to  three  cities,  covering  a  great  many  times, 
relating  to  many  conversations  with  many  persons, 
asserting  unusual  scientific  conclusions,  weaving  phys- 
ical facts  in  the  woof  of  human  testimony,  producing 
a  senseless  garment  of  circumstantial  evidences,  in 
which  experienced  legal  acumen  has  failed  to  find  a 
rent.  To  carry  out  this  conspiracy  she  has  deceived 
or  suborned  five  of  the  first  physicians  of  your  city  to 
support  her  theory.  She  has  not  only  deceived  her 
own  counsel,  but  has  dumfounded  the  defendant  him- 
self. Still,  this  you  must  believe  if  you  believe  she 
deceived  Dr.  Stout.  Gentlemen,  Dr.  Stout  may  have 
been  deceived,  but  not  by  her.  He  may  be  a  dupe,  but 
he  is  the  dupe  of  a  man  who  induced  him  to  do  things 
which  no  reputable  physician  would  do,  and  to  swear 
to  a  fact  which  five  reputable  physicians  tell  you  could 
not  exist.  I  have  no  hard  words  for  this  poor  old 
doctor;  I  care  nothing  for  him.  His  testimony,  con- 
tradicted as  it  is,  by  himself,  by  other  witnesses,  and 
by  all  the  circumstances  of  this  case,  you  can  not  be- 
lieve! For  the  part  he  has  played  in  shielding,  or 
trying  to  shield,  this  defendant  from  the  consequences 
of  his  crime,  I  leave  to  him  the  consciousness  that 
twelve  men  will  say  by  their  verdict  they  do  not  be- 
lieve one  word  he  has  said ;  that  this  whole  community 
despises  him;  that  decent  women  will  hereafter  shun 
him ;  and  that  his  insignificant  name  will,  for  the  brief 
remainder  of  his  life,  be  joined  in  infamy  with  that 
of  this  nefarious  defendant. 

THE  ATTEMPTED  ABORTION 

Gentlemen,  go  with  me  in  imagination  to  the  home 
of  this  plaintiff.     It  is  the  third  day  of  March.     The 


io8  ADDRESSES 

defendant  is  there.  Dr.  Stout  is  there.  The  old  grand- 
mother is  there.  You  have  never  witnessed  such  a 
scene.  The  defendant  removes  his  coat;  the  warm 
water  and  the  sponge  have  been  prepared,  and  the  poor 
girl,  as  innocent  as  a  lamb,  is  laid  like  a  sacrificial 
o£fering  upon  the  couch.  I  can  not  describe  what 
followed.  The  defendant,  with  his  arm  about  her 
shoulder,  and  his  ear  to  her  person  listening  for  the 
first  sign  of  the  foetal  life  they  were  about  to  destroy; 
how  the  sound  was  used  to  lacerate  the  tender  mem- 
branes; how  they  cut  away  a  piece  of  her  quivering 
flesh  to  carry  out  their  cruel  deception;  how  the  pro- 
bang  was  introduced  into  the  mouth  of  the  womb  to 
make  sure  of  their  murderous  work.  How  could  they 
do  this  cruel  deed?  Was  there  no  pity?  It  would 
seem  to  me  a  heart  of  stone  would  have  melted.  Why 
did  they  do  it? 

Dr.  Dyer,  Dr.  McArthur,  Dr.  Hathaway,  Dr. 
Hard,  and  Dr.  Curtis,  all  tell  you  that  the  "natural 
effect  of  these  instrumentalities  would  be  to  produce 
an  abortion ;"  that  there  could  be  but  one  purpose  sub- 
served. What  was  their  object?  The  act  they  at- 
tempted under  the  laws  of  Illinois  was  a  felony.  In 
the  lower  walks  of  the  medical  profession  are  found 
those  who,  for  great  reward,  will  take  the  risks  of 
infanticide;  but  there  is  not  a  recorded  instance  of 
such  an  attempt  without  the  request  of  the  patient  or 
any  of  her  friends.  And  they  did  it.  Why?  Why? 
is  the  still  recurring  question.  I  will  tell  you  why  they 
did  it.  The  man  who  could  perpetrate  the  first  infamy 
would  not  hesitate  at  a  less  crime  to  shield  himself.  If 
he  succeeded  in  killing  the  child,  the  mother  would, 
for  her  self -protection,  carry  the  secret  to  the  grave. 
If,   in  murdering  the   child,   they  killed  the  mother 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  109 

also,  the  mother,  the  babe,  and  the  secret  would  be 
buried  in  a  common  grave.  Again  her  innocence  pro- 
tected her  and  another  of  the  guilty  indices  of  crime 
points  to  the  defendant.  And  you  see,  gentlemen  of 
the  jury,  how  one  by  one  these  proofs  of  guilt  are 
linking  themselves  into  a  chain,  which  no  logic,  no 
legal  ingenuity,  and  no  perjury  can  break.  Let  us 
pass  on  to  the  fifteenth  of  April. 

Dr.  Dyer  has  described,  in  language,  a  scene  which 
neither  you  nor  I  will  ever  forget.  I  saw  the  tears 
come  to  your  eyes  when  he  told  you  of  this  scene: 
"I  went  with  Dr.  Hathaway  at  the  request  of  the 
plaintiff  to  make  an  examination  and  consult  as  to 
her  condition.  She  met  me  with  a  cheerful  smile  and 
laughingly  said :  'Doctor  I  am  getting  alarmed  at  my 
condition;  just  see  how  large  I  am;  I  am  determined 
to  know  what  is  the  matter  with  me  if  it  takes  all  the 
doctors  in  the  city.'  We  made  the  examination;  I 
almost  immediately  discovered  the  foetal  circulation, 
and  told  her  what  was  the  matter.  She  said,  'Oh !  no, 
you  are  mistaken ;  that's  what  Byford  said ;'  but  I  con- 
vinced her,  and  then  I  never  witnessed  such  a  scene. 
It  has  been  my  business  for  thirty  years  to  stand  by 
death-beds,  and  I  have  witnessed  many  scenes  of  sor- 
row, but  never  such  agony  as  this.  She  was  perfectly 
raving ;  she  called  on  God  to  witness  that  she  was  inno- 
cent. She  said :  'Oh !  my  Heavenly  Father !  what 
have  I  done  that  this  should  come  upon  me!'  "  Gen- 
tlemen, you  will  live  many  years  before  you  can  for- 
get this  language;  it  will  burn  itself  into  your  mem- 
ories and  you  cannot  forget  it  if  you  would.  It  was 
on  that  terrible  fifteenth  of  April  when  she  knew  for 
the  first  time  her  condition.  Then  the  iron  entered  into 
her  soul.    Hitherto  she  had  suffered  much,  such  as  few 


no  ADDRESSES 

of  the  daughters  of  earth  have  ever  suffered ;  but  then 
mingled  with  her  sufferings  was  nothing  which  comes 
of  disgrace.  Poignant  grief  and  almost  every  depth 
of  mental  agony  she  had  known,  but  hitherto  no 
shadow  of  shame  had  fallen  across  her  pathway. 
Physical  suffering  she  had  borne  as  other  delicate 
women  have  done  oftentimes  before;  but,  who,  like 
her,  in  history,  fiction,  or  song,  have  you  ever  known, 
who  has  been  called  to  bear  the  burden  of  another's 
sin  ?  And  in  such  a  way  ?  Oh !  gentlemen,  your  tears 
are  no  disgrace  to  you;  they  are  the  evidence  of  a 
noble  manhood  and  do  you  honor. 

THE  BIRTH 

of  her  child  on  the  tenth  day  of  May  brings  us  to  an- 
other scene  of  agony.  How  swiftly  they  follow  one 
after  another. 

"  So  disasters  come  not  singly ; 
But  as  if  they  watched  and  waited, 
Scanning  one  another's  motions, 
When  the  first  descends,  the  others 
Follow,  follow,  gathering  flockwise. 
Round  their  victim  sick  and  wounded, 
First  a  shadow,  then  a  sorrow. 
Till  the  air  is  dark  with  anguish." 

On  that  dark,  dreary,  rainy  Saturday  night,  all 
through  its  sleepless  hours  in  her  sick  chamber  this 
young  girl  lay  waiting,  waiting  for  the  morning, 
which  to  her  could  bring  no  joy;  the  very  heavens 
weeping  for  the  sorrow  which  no  tears  could  soothe. 
Most  of  you  have  stood  by  the  bedside  of  a  loved  wife, 
in  that  supreme  hour  of  martyrdom,  when,   for  the 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 1 1 

first  time  she  feels  the  agony  of  birth,  and  you  remem- 
ber how  you  wanted  to  take  her  in  your  strong  arms 
and  suffer  for  her  some  of  that  agony.  To  any  woman 
who  goes  down  to  the  very  verge  of  death  to  give 
another  Hfe,  there  is  pain  and  suffering  such  as  man 
never  feels;  and  this,  too,  when  she  knows  the  morn- 
ing will  come  with  the  joy  of  motherhood.  But  think 
of  her  about  to  become  a  mother  and  not  yet  a  wife! 
Add  to  the  combined  agonies  of  death  and  birth  the 
anguish  of  shame  and  disgrace,  and  you  can  realize, 
to  some  slight  extent,  the  fearful  darkness  of  the 
waters  through  which  she  has  passed.  I  told  you  she 
had  suffered  as  few  had  suffered  in  this  life.  She  has, 
indeed,  walked  through  the  furnace  seven  times 
heated ;  but,  thank  God !  the  Angel  of  Innocence  was 
by  her  side,  and  there  is  not  the  smell  of  fire  upon  her 
garments !  In  the  light  of  the  perfect  vindication  of 
herself  from  fault,  v/hat  reparation  can  these  Chris- 
tian ladies  make  to  her  for  the  desertion  of  an  unfor- 
tunate sister?  What  will  the  church  do?  What  will 
the  Minister  of  Christ  who  refused  to  visit  this  father- 
less girl  in  her  affliction,  do?  What  will  those  honor- 
able gentlemen,  who  for  eighteen  months  have  stared 
at  her  and  insulted  her  upon  the  streets,  do?  I  will 
tell  you  what  they  ought  to  do;  they  should  make 
haste  to  get  down  on  their  knees  and  ask  her  pardon ; 
they  should  uncover  their  heads  in  respectful  rever- 
ence when  she  passes;  they  should  seek  to  redress  the 
wrong  they  have  done  to  one,  the  hem  of  whose  gar- 
ments they  are  not  worthy  to  touch. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  evidence  of  Dr. 
Dyer  as  to  the  declaration  of  the  plaintiff  on  the  fif- 
teenth of  April.  He  says,  when  she  had  become  some- 
what calmer,  he  asked  her  who  could  have  so  wronged 


112  ADDRESSES 

her.  She  said:  "There  never  had  been  the  oppor- 
tunity to  any  man,  except  it  might  be  Dr.  Canfield, 
when  he  administered  wine  to  me  in  his  office,"  and 
this  same  story,  without  variableness  or  shadow  of 
turning,  she  has  maintained  ever  since,  asserting  it  at 
all  times,  in  all  places,  and  under  all  circumstances. 
Do  you  remember  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Hathaway  as 
to  what  she  said  just  before  the  birth  of  the  child? 
He  said  to  her,  between  those  terrible  spasms  of  pain 
he  so  graphically  described:  "Fanny!  women  some- 
times die  in  this  sickness,  tell  me  who  is  the  father  of 
this  child?"  and  then  in  the  very  shadow  of  death  and 
under  the  solemn  sanction  of  its  presence,  she  called 
God  to  witness  that  the  only  one  who  could  have  done 
her  this  wrong  was  the  defendant.  Gentlemen,  in  all 
lands,  and  under  every  codes  of  law,  ante-mortem 
statements  have  been  received  in  Courts  as  crowned 
with  the  sanction  of  an  oath.  Fortunately  for  it,  for- 
tunately for  her,  and  for  all,  death  claimed  this  little 
waif  in  a  few  hours,  and  she  was  left  alone  with  her 
misery  and  shame. 

Alone  in  the  world;  something  she  must  do,  but 
what?  You  cannot  properly  try  this  case  unless  you 
put  yourself  in  her  place.  The  first  thing  she  did  was 
a  wrong  thing;  she  realizes  it  now;  realized  it  soon. 
The  advice  she  received  was  bad  advice;  it  was  not 
disinterested  advice;  it  was  given  in  his  interest,  not 
hers.  Dr.  Stout  was  her  physician.  He  told  her, 
"Nobody  knew  it;  she  could  save  her  good  name." 
"Get  up,  paint  her  face,  go  out  and  visit  the  neigh- 
bors." "Give  the  lie  to  any  report  and  all  would  be 
well."  She  followed  his  advice  as  Eve  followed  the 
advice  of  the  serpent  in  the  Garden;  as  confiding 
women   have  followed  bad  advice  in  all  ages;  and 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 1 3 

came  to  grief  as  all  men  and  women  will  do  who  de- 
part from  the  straight  path.  She  admits  her  error. 
She  tells  you  that  in  the  deepness  of  her  distress  she 
was  willing  to  shield  him  in  order  to  save  herself. 
Before  you  condemn  her  as  her  good  christian  neigh- 
bors did,  I  say  again,  "Put  yourself  in  her  place." 
Much  has  been  said  to  you  about  the  sin  of  lying;  and 
these  learned  legal  gentlemen  who  do  not  hesitate  to 
denounce  and  insult  this  poor  defenseless  orphan  girl 
in  your  presence,  and  to  play  the  blackguard  for  the 
amusement  of  blear-eyed  debauchees,  deliver  to  her 
their  hypocritical  homilies  on  the  beauties  of  truthful- 
ness.   Let  us  see  about  this  thing  of 

LYING 

Is  every  untruth  a  lie?  Is  an  untruth  told  with 
the  intent  to  deceive,  but  not  injure,  a  lie?  Then 
every  Christian  mother  who  for  two  thousand  years 
has  told  her  child  of  Santa  Claus,  and  how  he  brings 
gifts  to  good  children,  is  a  liar.  Why,  the  entire  sci- 
ence of  war  is  founded  on  the  art  of  deceiving;  it  is 
one  form  of  self-defence;  that  divine  law  which  comes 
down  from  God  and  impresses  itself  upon  all  animate 
nature.  Is  an  untruth  never  justified?  If  you  meet  a 
friend  and  say,  "How  well  you  are  looking,"  when 
you  know  he  is  not  looking  well  at  all ;  if  you  say  to  a 
fleshy  man  you  are  growing  thinner ;  or  to  a  thin  man 
you  are  growing  fat,  is  it  a  lie  ?  Would  you  exchange 
all  the  little  complimentary  untruths  which  hurt  no- 
body and  make  people  feel  pleasant,  for  that  "get-to- 
heaven"  truthfulness,  which  would  destroy  all  society 
in  twenty-four  hours?  These  are  questions  in  meta- 
physics, in  morals,  and  manners,  which  may  or  may 


114  ADDRESSES 

not  be  profitable  for  you  to  solve.  I  commend  them  to 
the  prayerful  consideration  of  defendant's  counsel  as 
they  say  their  prayers  to-night.  But  what  of  all  this? 
Because  out  of  this  conduct  of  the  plaintiff  has  come 
the  great  impeachment.  To  these  ladies  whose  little 
wounded  vanity  is  soothed  by  coming  into  court  to 
impeach  her  character  for  veracity,  I  felt  like  saying, 
"Which  of  you  is  without  sin  ?"  They  all  agree,  how- 
ever, that  up  to  the  time  when  she  attempted  to  de- 
ceive them,  her  reputation  was  pure  and  spotless.  I 
pass  by  this  attempt  to  add  insult  to  injury.  This  jury 
will  say  by  their  verdict  she  is  worthy  of  all  belief, 
and  these  ladies  will  live  to  regret  that  they  have  in 
any  way  laid  one  straw  upon  the  burden  she  has  borne, 
in  the  interest  of  a  man  whom  they  will  hereafter  shun 
as  they  would  a  pestilence. 

THE  TRIAL 

She  made  no  mistake  the  second  time  she  deter- 
mined to  vindicate  her  character.  If  it  had  been  your 
daughter  or  your  sister  there  would  have  been  no 
trial.  The  unwritten  law  of  the  land  justifies  the  aven- 
ger of  his  daughter's  disgrace,  and  holds  the  outraged 
husband  guiltless  who  takes  the  life  of  the  despoiler 
of  his  honor.  But  she  was  an  orphan  girl,  and  she 
determined  to  seek  that  temple  which,  in  theory  at 
least,  is  always  open  to  the  orphan.  The  people  of 
this  country  are  now  erecting  a  magnificent  temple  of 
justice,  which  will  stand  for  many  generations  as  a 
memorial  of  their  appreciation  of  a  government  of 
law — that  law  which  protects  the  property,  the  reputa- 
tion, the  liberty,  and  the  life  of  the  humblest  citizen. 
For  a  thousand  years,  wherever  the  English  language 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 1 5 

is  spoken,  orphans  have  been  the  wards  of  the  Court. 
She  sent  for  Esquire  Fisher,  who  had  been  a  friend 
of  her  grandfather;  had  been  a  Justice  of  the  Peace. 
She  supposed  he  knew  whatever  was  worth  knowing 
of  the  law,  and  that  he  would  advise  her  as  to  her 
rights.  Rights  she  knew  she  had.  Wronged  she 
knew  she  had  been.  Innocent  she  knew  she  was.  That 
the  law  would  furnish  her  a  remedy  she  believed.  You . 
will  pardon  her  impatience  when  she  found  this  old 
ignoramus  was  not  only  an  old  Dogberry  in  his  igno- 
rance, but  insulted  her  in  her  helplessness.  "Better 
let  it  drop!  There  is  but  one  way;  the  natural  way! 
The  defendant  will  deny  it,  and  nobody  will  believe 
you !"  Well,  old  Dogberry  was  just  this  far  mistaken. 
The  defendant  didn't  deny  it,  and  everybody  believes 
her.  And  now,  the  vicious  old  curmudgeon  comes 
into  court  and  swears  against  the  orphan  grandchild 
of  his  life-long  friend,  with  a  growl  and  a  snap  that 
would  be  worthy  of  a  toothless  old  dog.  She  was  not 
discouraged,  and  was  more  fortunate  in  her  next  ef- 
fort. She  found  a  man  to  advise  her  whose  advice  was 
worth  something.  This  suit  was  commenced  by  my 
associate,  Mr.  Bull,  and  with  sleepless  diligence  and 
untiring  purpose,  with  wonderful  ability  and  undoubt- 
ing  faith  in  its  justness,  he  has  prepared  it  for  trial. 
And  I  say  to  you  he  can  never  do  anything  that  will 
forfeit  the  respect  and  gratitude  I  feel  towards  him 
for  his  efforts  in  her  behalf.  There  has  never  been 
one  moment  when  this  plaintiff  faltered  in  her  perfect 
faith  in  the  result  of  this  suit.  No  obstacles  have  been 
sufficient  to  create  a  doubt.  She  has  waited  and 
watched  for  this  day,  when  she  could  tell  her  story 
and  compel  a  hearing.  She  has  not  shrunk  from  any 
necessary  thing,  but  with  a  courage  as  sublime  as  was 


ii6  ADDRESSES 

ever  shown  on  a  battle  field,  she  has  laid  bare  her  whole 
heart  to  you.  Compelled  to  talk  of  things  the  most 
delicate,  of  relationship  the  most  sacred,  she  has  not 
hesitated.  It  was  necessary  to  her  perfect  vindica- 
tion, and  she  has  had  the  courage  to  do  it.  She  was 
on  that  witness  stand  for  eight  mortal  hours;  she 
underwent  a  cross-examination  which  for  length  and 
persistency  I  have  never  heard  equalled.  And,  gen- 
tlemen, you  never  heard  and  never  will  hear  another 
such  witness.  Never  in  a  court  before,  she  was  calm, 
self-possessed,  earnest,  accurate  in  all  details,  explain- 
ing everything,  never  hesitating  for  one  instant,  reply- 
ing to  defendant's  counsel  just  as  willingly,  pleasantly, 
and  politely  as  to  us;  never  crossing  herself;  using 
language  perfectly  elegant  and  chaste,  and  with  such 
perfect  truthfulness  that  she  forced  conviction  into 
every  heart.  You  heard  her  story.  You  looked  into 
her  beautiful  face  and  saw  the  signet  which  the  Al- 
mighty has  set  upon  truth,  and  you  believed.  Her 
case  has  not  rested  upon  her  own  testimony,  but  has 
been  corroborated  in  every  particular  by  witness  after 
witness,  by  circumstances  and  physical  facts,  until  it 
has  culminated  into  a  perfect  demonstration. 

THE    BLACK    FLAG 

We  were  met  in  the  outset  of  this  case  with  the 
most  remarkable  statement  I  have  ever  heard  in  a 
court  of  justice.  The  gentleman  who  opened  the  case 
for  the  defendant  stated  to  you  that  "this  was  a 
case  in  which  they  would  grant  no  mercy;  in  which 
they  would  neither  grant  quarter  nor  ask  for  it."  In 
the  course  of  a  somewhat  varied  law  practice,  extend- 
ing over  a  period  of  more  than  twenty  years,  it  has 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 1 7 

been  my  fortune  to  try,  or  assist  in  the  trial  of,  some 
important  causes — causes  involving  large  amounts  of 
property;  involving  reputation,  liberty,  and  even  hu- 
man life.  I  have  heard  hardened  criminals  tried  for 
infamous  crimes,  but  I  never  before  heard  it  said, 
"that  no  mercy  would  be  shown ;  that  no  quarter  would 
be  granted."  Who  has  authorized  him  to  hang  out 
the  black  flag?  Why,  gentlemen,  in  all  honorable 
warfare,  amongst  all  honorable  men,  the  white  flag  is 
recognized  as  a  signal  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities. 
The  savage  Modoc  of  the  lava  beds  will  not  strike  a 
foe  under  a  flag  of  truce.  It  is  only  the  assassin  and  the 
pirate  who  nail  the  black  flag  to  the  mast  and  murder 
their  victims  while  crying  for  quarter.  Whence  orig- 
inated this  sentiment?  Not  from  the  senior  counsel 
for  defendant.  His  long  and  honorable  service  as  a 
representative  of  justice  forbids  us  to  believe  it.  Not 
from  his  mild  blue-eyed  associate;  "as  mild  a  man- 
nered man  as  ever  scuttled  ship  or  cut  a  throat."  It 
emanated  from  the  man  who  has  shown  her  no  mercy. 
Well,  be  it  so !  In  the  name  of  this  orphan  girl  I  take 
up  this  gage  of  battle  and  say  to  him : 

"  Walk  blindfold  on !     Behind  thee  stalks  the  heads- 
man! 
Lose  not  a  trick — by  this  same  hour  to-morrow 
Thou  shalt  have  France,  or  I  thy  head!" 

We  understand  well  the  character  of  this  foe;  we 
understand  well  the  nature  of  this  contest.  It  is  war 
to  the  knife;  and  the  knife  to  the  hilt.  One  or  the 
other  of  these  parties  must  go  down.  It  is  a  sharp 
issue.  Either  she  will  go  out  of  this  court  vindicated 
in  the  eyes  of  this  community,  or  he  will  triumph  and 


ii8  ADDRESSES 

she  will  go  into  exile.  Either  he  will  be  completely 
vindicated  or  we  will  hang  a  scarlet  letter  about  his 
neck,  and  write  on  his  office  door  the  words  of  Dante : 
"Let  her  who  enters  here  leave  hope  behind." 

WHAT   IS   THE  DEFENSE 

to  this  action?  Absolutely  nothing!  Whatever  there 
was  of  confidence  in  their  cause  in  the  opening,  has 
given  place  to  desperation.  All  there  is  left  of  their 
valorous  defense,  so  confidently  proclaimed,  is  the  be- 
lief that,  like  the  blind  Samson,  with  locks  shorn  and 
strength  departed,  they  may  pull  down  the  pillars  of 
the  temple  upon  their  enemies.  Do  you  recall  how 
sneeringly  the  learned  counsel  spoke  of  the  absurdity 
of  a  woman  becoming  pregnant  while  in  a  state  of 
unconsciousness?  How  he  told  you  very  irreverently, 
as  I  then  thought,  that  for  eighteen  hundred  years 
there  had  been  but  one  instance  of  immaculate  concep- 
tion. And  yet  what  have  you  seen  and  heard  ?  That 
self-same  gentleman  rising  in  his  place  and  saying  to 
us  and  the  Court,  "It  is  unnecessary  to  introduce  any 
more  evidence  upon  that  point ;  we  concede  it !"  When 
they  find  the  books  are  full  of  such  cases;  when  they 
find  case  after  case  reported ;  when  doctor  after  doctor 
comes  upon  the  witness  stand  and  testifies  to  you  that 
generation  is  the  result  of  physical  contact;  that  the 
will  or  consciousness  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
it,  they  concede  what  has  been  so  abundantly  proven, 
and  say,  "You  need  not  introduce  more  witnesses ;  we 
concede  it." 

But  if  they  cannot  defeat  her  suit,  they  can  at 
least  blacken  her  character.  She  is  followed  by  spies 
and  informers;  every  little  innocent  act  or  speech  is 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 19 

distorted  and  twisted  into  a  semblance  of  sin.  Every- 
thing- that  money  and  mahce  could  do  against  her  has 
been  done.  From  the  stone  quarry  to  the  home  of  the 
harlot,  the  defendant's  feet  have  been  swift  on  the 
track  of  perjured  testimony,  and  witnesses  have  come 
flocking  to  his  call.  There  was  Barbara  Ellen  Mor- 
gan with  her  wonderful  lie.  Did  you  observe  her? 
What  a  figure  to  throw  into  the  witness  box !  Did  you 
ever  hear  such  a  voice?  Did  you  notice  her  graceful 
manner  as  she  was  escorted  to  the  witness  stand  by  the 
Honorable  Judge?  The  arrangement  of  drapery  was 
superb.  Did  you  notice  the  sweetness  of  her  voice  and 
the  beauty  of  her  manner  while  answering  the  cross- 
examination  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Bull?  It  was  evident 
they  were  not  congenial.  Did  you  wonder  how  old 
she  was?  Had  she  a  father  or  a  mother?  Had  she 
ever  loved?  Gentlemen,  I  will  not  insult  your  intelli- 
gence or  sense  of  decency  by  alluding  to  the  sickening 
lie  with  which  she  polluted  this  court  room  and  your 
presence,  and  stained  still  deeper  her  vicious  soul  with 
perjury.  I  will,  as  defendant's  counsel  have  done,  in 
charity,  cover  it  with  a  veil  of  silence.  Before  her  tale 
was  half  told  she  was  self-impeached  and  self-con- 
victed, and  it  needed  not  the  impeaching  witnesses 
from  Utica  and  Ottawa  to  tell  of  her  life  of  shame 
and  crime  to  cover  her  with  disgrace  and  infamy.  I 
can  by  no  words  of  mine  add  to  the  contempt  and 
loathing  you  feel  for  her.  But  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  mian  who  conceived  this  monstrous  lie,  and  brought 
this  miserable  creature  into  your  presence  to  poison 
with  her  polluting  breath  the  atmosphere  of  a  court  of 
justice  ? 

Then  came  the  young  man  from  the  stone  quarry, 
who  told  you  a  pretty  tale  of  a  walk  by  the  riverside, 


I20  ADDRESSES 

and  what  he  saw.  He  was  discharged  from  the  stone 
quarry  on  the  fifth  of  August.  This  he  knew  from  a 
memorandum.  It  was  five  days  after  this  he  saw  the 
plaintiff  and  Mr.  Metcalfe;  in  about  a  week  after  this 
he  saw  them  again  riding  out.  Now  Metcalfe  left 
here  on  the  eighth  of  August,  just  two  days  before  this 
fellow  pretends  to  have  seen  them,  and  so  this  self- 
confessed  spy  and  sneak,  with  his  little  lie,  only  half 
sworn  to,  goes  down. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  Griffith,  the  shoemaker, 
who  ran  a  booth  at  the  fair  in  September  ?  He  swears 
that  returning  one  beautiful  moonlight  night,  in  Sep- 
tember, from  his  duties  at  the  fair  ground,  at  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  night  time,  he  saw,  or  thought  he  saw, 
the  plaintiff  and  Metcalfe  "sitting  on  a  stile."  But 
Metcalfe  wasn't  there  after  the  eighth  of  August,  and 
the  plaintiff  was  entertaining  the  young  ladies  who 
were  visiting  her  during  the  fair;  and  so  this  liar 
makes  his  exit. 

Then  comes  Mrs.  Nettie  Nash,  the  irate  neighbor, 
who  confesses  that  she  had  for  four  long  years  car- 
ried locked  up  in  the  innermost  recesses  of  her  heart 
the  blood-curdling  and  heart-harrowing  secret  of  what 
she  had  witnessed  with  her  own  eyes,  to-wit :  that  the 
plaintiff  had  been  seen  four  years  ago,  at  nine  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  on  the  porch  of  her  own  house,  sitting 
on  the  lap  of  one  Dr.  Waters.  Gentlemen,  I  have 
read  of  a  man  who  had  committed  a  terrible  murder, 
and  with  his  guilty  secret  locked  in  his  breast  he  wan- 
dered over  the  entire  earth  seeking  to  separate  himself 
from  it.  But  in  vain;  for  everywhere  he  went  it  was 
always  present.  In  every  moaning  wind  he  heard  the 
voice  of  the  murdered  man,  and  in  every  foam-capped 
billow  of  the  sea  he  saw  the  face  of  his  victim.     But 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD 


compare,  if  you  can,  such  a  secret  with  the  one  with 
which  for  four  long  years  this  witness  burdened  her 
soul  until  at  last  it  found  utterance,  and  she  found 
relief  on  the  witness  stand.  It  is  true  that  during  all 
these  years  she  had  continued  to  visit  the  plaintiff  and 
to  receive  her  visits — never  considered  herself  scandal- 
ized by  the  friendly  companionship;  and  after  all  it 
wasn't  true,  for  the  doctor  came  all  the  way  from 
Chicago  to  tell  you  that  the  plaintiff  did  not  set  on  his 
lap  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  the  porch,  nor  at 
any  other  time  or  place.  He  tells  you  also  that  he  had 
known  the  plaintiff  from  childhood;  that  they  had 
grown  up  together;  that  the  families  had  been  on  the 
most  intimate  terms;  that  her  conduct  towards  him 
had  at  all  times  been  the  most  dehcate  and  lady-like. 
The  plaintiff  also  denies  in  most  explicit  terms  the 
reflection  upon  her  modesty  of  demeanor.  And  so, 
according  to  every  rule  of  evidence,  this  witness,  who 
confesses  that  she  was  acting  the  spy  over  her  neigh- 
bor's house,  must  take  her  place  with  the  other  less 
respectable  witnesses  who  precede  and  succeed  her. 

Then  there  was  the  clerk  at  the  news  stand,  who 
saw  the  plaintiff  and  Metcalfe  walking  on  the  street 
together  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  It  turns  out  that 
they  had  been  to  the  theatre  and  were  walking  home. 
This  young  man  may  not  be  a  liar,  but  he  is  swift  to 
distort  facts  in  the  interest  of  falsehood,  and  is  but  a 
shade  of  a  shadow  better  than  a  liar.  Then  there  was 
Gibson,  who  tells  you  how  he  was  once  invited  to  a 
party;  that  the  plaintiff  was  there;  that  the  night  was 
warm;  that  the  yard  was  lighted  up  with  Chinese 
lanterns ;  that  most  of  the  guests  were  out  doors ;  that 
the  plaintiff  sat  in  a  hammock  with  another  young 
lady  and  gentleman,  who  turns  out  to  be  our  modest 


122  ADDRESSES 

friend,  Dr.  Lester  Strawn,  and  the  other  young  lady 
his  sister.  Great  God!  gentlemen,  can  such  things 
be  and  not  "overcome  us  like  a  summer  cloud?"  What 
a  step  f  rom^Barbara  to  Gibson ! 

I  now  introduce  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  to 
the  superannuated  old  dressmaker,  with  her  chalky  face 
and  'little  nighty."  With  her,  marriage  is  neither  a 
reminiscence  nor  an  aspiration;  waxing  old  in  years; 
without  pride  of  ancestry  or  hope  of  posterity.  Look- 
ing back  through  the  long  vista  of  time,  she  recalled 
the  recollection  of  some  fond  dream  of  the  past,  gets 
it  confused  with  some  saying  of  the  plaintiff,  and 
comes  with  her  little  offering  of  slander  against  the 
young  lady,  who  for  fifteen  years  had  been  her  kind 
patron.  She  "thought  it  was  a  foolish  little  thing  at 
the  time,"  and  although  the  age  of  Methuselah  is  past, 
she  may  live  long  enough  to  realize  how  foolish  and 
wicked  it  was  to  come  here  and  testify  to  a  "foolish 
little  thing,"  which,  if  true,  had  no  materiality  to  this 
case,  and  could  only  result  in  wounding  the  feelings  of 
one  who  had  never  injured  her,  but  from  whom  she 
had  received  many  kindnesses. 

This  ends  the  first  chapter,  and  do  you  not  see, 
gentlemen,  how,  all  along  this  dusty  road,  where  pas- 
sion and  malice  have  reared  eternal  discord,  the  Angel 
of  the  Lord  has  camped  around  about  His  child? 
How,  from  Barbara  Morgan,  with  her  monstrous  big 
lie,  down  to  Tarbor  Sansburg,  with  her  foolish  little 
lie,  they  have  fallen  into  the  pit  which  they  have  them- 
selves digged?  Have  you  not  seen,  in  every  instance, 
how  some  facts  or  circumstances  have  appeared  to  give 
the  lie  to  these  officious  slanderers?  Truth  is  con- 
sistent. Things  that  are  true  stand  together,  and  this 
plaintiff,   strong  in  her  truthfulness,   has   not   feared 


CAVERLY  vs.  C ANFIELD  1 2  3 

what  might  be  said  about  her  conduct.  This  effort  at 
special  impeachment  has.  as  signally  failed  as  did  the 
effort  to  impeach  her  general  reputation  for  truth  and 
veracity.  They  have  alike  shown  the  harmless  malice 
of  this  defense.  There  is  no  other  foundation  for  an 
impeachment  than  what  she  has  freely  confessed  be- 
fore you.  She  did  attempt  to  deceive  in  order  to  pro- 
tect her  good  name,  and  most  grievously  hath  she  paid 
the  penalty.  But  who  shall  rebuke  her?  Who  shall 
cast  the  first  stone  at  her  ?  Surely  not  the  defendant ! 
You  could  not  appreciate  a  sermon  on  the  ninth  com- 
mandment from  him.  Talk  of  Satan  rebuking  sin! 
Did  he  not  cruelly  wrong  and  deceive  her  when  he 
professed  to  be  an  honorable  member  of  an  honorable 
profession  ?  Did  he  not  cruelly  wrong  and  deceive  her 
when  he  told  her  she  could  come  to  his  office  with  pro- 
priety? Did  he  not  cruelly  wrong  and  deceive  her 
when  he  cut  and  lacerated  her  quivering  flesh  to  carry 
out  another  cruel  deceit?  Did  he  not  cruelly  wrong 
and  deceive  her,  when  he,  by  fraud  and  false  repre- 
sentations, induced  her  to  write  a  letter  to  Dr.  Byford, 
and  then  added  to  his  other  crime  the  contemptible 
crimie  of  larceny?  And  yet  this  miserable  wretch, 
whose  life  has  been  a  living  lie — who  is,  himself,  the 
incarnation  of  deceit  and  fraud — presumes,  through 
his  feed  attorneys,  to  lecture  the  plaintiff  on  the  "ex- 
ceeding sinfulness  of  sin."  A  lecture  on  any  of  the 
virtues  comes  with  a  bad  grace  from  such  a  source. 

What  else  is  there  of  this  defense?  We  are  told 
that  her  letter  to  Dr.  Byford  contradicts  her  own 
sworn  statement  as  to  dates.  In  order  to  understand 
and  construe  any  written  instrument  we  must  under- 
stand first  the  intention  and  object  of  the  writer. 
What  was  the  object  of  this  letter?    To  get  informa- 


124  ADDRESSES 

tion.  Information  of  what?  Of  her  condition.  Re- 
member she  was  not  suffering  from  the  old  trouble. 
It  was  not  about  that;  she  desired  medical  advice. 
She  knew  all  about  that.  That  was  a  local  trouble, 
and  had  been  cured.  The  visits  with  reference  to  that 
trouble  and  the  treatment  she  had  received  were  not 
present  to  her  mind.  What  she  wanted  information 
about  was  the  stopping  of  her  menses  and  the  bloating 
of  her  person,  and  it  was  concerning  these  things  she 
was  trying  to  recall  her  symptoms.  Remember  this 
letter  was  written  at  the  dictation  of  the  defendant. 
True,  she  mentions  a  treatment  in  May,  but  she  men- 
tions that,  as  she  tells  you,  at  the  particular  suggestion 
of  the  defendant.  She  was  asked  "if  her  memory  was 
better  now  than  when  she  wrote  that  letter,"  and  she 
said  it  was,  and  when  asked  to  explain  how  that  could 
be,  she  replied,  "I  have  not  thought  of  anything  else." 
Was  not  this  perfectly  consistent?  Memory  is  but 
the  power  to  revivify  and  recreate  impressions  once 
made  upon  the  mind.  There  is  a  theory  in  mental 
philosophy  that  no  impression  ever  made  upon  the 
mind  is  entirely  effaced;  that  nothing  is  entirely  for- 
gotten; but  that  memory  will,  if  sufficiently  exerted, 
recreate  and  renew  the  picture.  This  may  be,  to  some 
extent,  fanciful,  but  we  all  know  the  rejuvenating 
power  of  recollection.  Have  you  ever  tried  to  recall 
the  lines  of  a  poem  or  a  hymn  which  has  almost  faded 
from  your  memory?  It  may  have  been  a  little  poem 
learned  in  childhood,  or  a  love  song  which  you  have 
not  had  occasion  to  repeat  in  years.  When  you  first 
made  the  effort  you  could  scarce  repeat  a  line,  but  by 
repeated  efforts  of  memory  you  recalled  first  a  word, 
then  a  line,  then  a  couplet,  then  a  verse,  until  the  entire 
poem  glowed  in  your  memory  as  fresh  and  beautiful 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  125 

as  when  you  first  learned  it.  This  is  the  revivifying 
and  recreating  power  of  memory.  It  is  wonderful; 
as  all  the  qualities  of  the  human  mind  are  wonderful ; 
as  all  of  God's  works  are  wonderful.  She  had  dwelt 
upon  every  little  incident  of  these  strange  events. 
Through  weary  sleepless  nights  and  joyless  days  they 
burned  themselves  into  her  memory.  They  were  pres- 
ent in  every  troubled  dream  and  waking  thought,  until 
they  came  to  be  a  part  of  memory  itself.  And  so, 
when  you  come  to  understand  these  things,  you  no 
longer  wonder  that  her  memory  is  better  now  than 
when  she  wrote  the  Byford  letter.  They  are  welcome 
to  any  comfort  they  get  from  a  mistake  in  dates.  This 
lawsuit  will  not  be  determined  by  a  mistake  in  dates. 

But  what  will  the  defendant  say  as  to  his  connec- 
tion with  this  Byford  letter?  What  explanation  has 
he  given  you?  Why  did  he  procure  it  to  be  written? 
Why  did  he  request  it  sent  to  him?  When  it  was 
written  why  did  he  not  send  it  to  Byford  as  he  had 
promised  to  do  ?  Why  did  he,  in  violation  of  the  most 
sacred  confidence,  show  it  on  the  streets  to  whosoever 
would  listen  to  his  lying  slanders?  Why  did  he  com- 
mit the  crime  of  larceny  in  order  to  hedge  against  a 
criminal  charge  which  had  not  been  made  against  him, 
and  of  which  he  had  not  been  suspected?  These  are 
questions  more  interesting  to  you  than  questions  of 
dates.  This  transaction  is  one  of  the  indices  of  crime, 
pointing  with  unerring  finger  to  the  guilty  criminal 
who  "flees  when  no  man  pursues."  When  he  has  sat- 
isfactorily explained  his  lying  and  cowardly  conduct 
in  connection  with  this  letter,  it  will  be  time  enough  for 
him  and  his  counsel  to  complain  of  mistakes  in  dates. 

What  further  is  there  of  this  remarkable  defense? 
With  a  chivalry  which  would  have  honored  a  Knight 


126  ADDRESSES 

of  the  Round  Table,  defendant's  counsel  taunt  this 
plaintiff  with  what  he  is  pleased  to  assert  as  a  fact; 
that  she  has  been  deserted  by  her  friends,  and  especially 
the  respectable  ladies  of  Ottawa.  Why,  he  asks :  "Is 
it  necessary  for  her  to  go  to  other  cities  for  friends  to 
sit  by  her  side  during  this  trial?  Where,"  continued 
the  orator,  "are  the  lady  friends  she  once  had? 
Where  is  the  minister  of  her  church  and  his  wife,  and 
the  other  good,  respectable  ladies  who  have  so  often 
visited  her  home  and  partaken  of  her  hospitality?" 
And  so  this  defendant,  as  a  defense,  through  his  coun- 
sel, taunts  her  with  the  result  of  his  infernal  rascality. 
"She  has  been  deserted,  and  therefore  she  is  guilty  and 
he  is  innocent."  This  is  the  sublime  argument.  She 
has  been  deserted — cruelly  and  senselessly  deserted. 
It  was  natural,  as  the  world  goes,  that  women  should 
desert  her.  It  has  been,  and  probably  always  will  be 
so.  Two  persons  commit  the  crime  of  adultery.  The 
woman  must  bear  the  bitter  fruits  of  indiscretion  in 
her  own  person.  She  may  be  the  least  guilty,  she  may 
not  be  guilty  at  all,  but  henceforth  she  is  an  outcast. 
Her  wedding  garment  is  taken  away  and  her  sisters 
preserve  their  own  respectability  by  abusing  her.  For 
him  there  are  no  words  of  reproach.  He  is  received 
into  society,  introduced  to  wives  and  daughters,  and 
left  free  to  select  another  victim. 

This  is  man's  justice.  It  is  because  it  is  so;  it  is 
because  of  this  desertion  we  brought  this  suit.  It  is 
to  regain  these  lost  friends — such  of  them  as  are  worth 
regaining — that  we  appeal  to  the  law ;  it  is  because  the 
priest  and  the  Levite  pass  by  on  the  other  side;  it  is 
because  the  preacher  refuses  to  visit  her  in  her  deep 
distress  that  we  would  restore  her  to  respectability,  so 
that  his  pure  priestly  robes  may  not  be  soiled  by  her 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  127 

presence;  so  that  he  can,  without  fear  of  losing  his 
respectabiHty,  obey  his  Divine  Master's  injunction  "to 
visit  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction;" 
it  was  because  we  wished  to  show  by  evidence,  "strong 
as  proofs  of  holy  writ,"  that  all  these  misfortunes  had 
come  upon  her  without  any  fault  of  hers,  and  this 
desertion  had  been  causeless  and  wicked;  it  was  be- 
cause we  wished  to  show  this  community  was  harbor- 
ing a  fiend  in  human  shape,  compared  with  whose  pres- 
ence a  pestilence  is  a  benediction;  it  was  because  we 
desired  to  prove  to  these  respectable  Christian  ladies, 
who  have  so  uncharitably  misjudged  their  sister;  that 
they  have  done  so  in  the  interest  of  a  thief,  a  liar,  a 
suspected  murderer,  a  despoiler  of  female  honor,  and  a 
miserable  coward,  who  shrunk  from  an  examination 
into  his  crime-stained  record;  it  is  because  we  desired 
to  bar  their  doors  against  a  man  in  whose  presence 
neither  their  own  nor  their  daughters'  honor  is  safe 
for  a  moment;  that  we  have  brought  this  suit.  Yes, 
she  was  deserted,  and  that  by  friends  who  had  received 
nothing  but  kindness  from  her.  But  we  are  not  ask- 
ing any  additional  damages  on  account  of  this  loss. 
She  will  try  to  bear  it,  as  she  has  greater  afflictions, 
with  pious  resignation.  One  of  the  rewards  of  a  life 
of  sorrow  is  the  building  up  of  a  strong  character 
which  can  correctly  estimate  the  motives  and  value  of 
human  friendship.  "Night  brings  out  the  stars."  She 
will  exchange  some  colored  glass  for  real  jewels.  They 
will  be  less  in  number  but  of  greater  value. 

But  where  is  the  real  defense  to  this  action?  Did 
the  defendant  do  what  we  say  he  did?  All  that  has 
gone  before  does  not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  an  attempt 
at  a  defense.  There  has  been  an  attempt  made  to  con- 
nect Mr.   Metcalfe  with  this  case,  and  this  attempt 


128  ADDRESSES 

creates  the  necessity  of  an  examination  into  the  foetal 
age  of  the  child  at  birth. 

To  this  point  much  of  the  testimony  has  been  di- 
rected. The  importance  of  this  inquiry  will  readily 
suggest  itself  to  you.  There  is  no  pretense  that  any 
other  person  is  in  any  way  connected  with  this  plain- 
tiff. After  the  breaking  of  her  engagement  with  Mr. 
Metcalfe,  as  was  very  natural,  other  young  gentle- 
men, knowing  nothing  of  this  fact,  did  not  visit  her,  at 
least  intimately.  Bear  in  mind,  from  the  8th  of 
August  to  the  28th  of  September  was  short.  Her  life 
during  that  period  has  been  open  to  investigation.  If 
any  one  was  in  any  way  connected  with  her  during 
those  six  weeks,  the  spies  and  informers  of  this  de- 
fendant would  have  found  his  home  and  pronounced 
his  name.  But  they  have  breathed  the  name  of  no  one. 
So  it  is  again  a  single  issue.  Metcalfe  left  Ottawa  on 
the  8th  day  of  August,  and  this  plaintiff  never  saw 
him  until  she  saw  him  to-day  on  the  witness  stand. 
The  child  was  born  on  the  loth  day  of  May,  1880, 
making  a  period  of  227  days. 

It  was  a  seven-months'  child.  What  are  the  evi- 
dences ? 

1,  Mrs.  Cavarly,  Fanny,  and  another  swear  to  a 
physical  fact,  which,  if  true,  makes  it  absolutely  true 
that  it  could  not  have  been  older.  And  no  one  dis- 
putes this  fact. 

2.  Dr.  Dyer  and  Dr.  Hathaway  testify  to  certain 
physical  indications,  which  they  discovered  before  the 
birth  of  the  child,  which  all  the  medical  testimony  in 
the  case  assures  you  are  infallible  indications  of  the 
foetal  age  of  an  unborn  child;  and  these  facts,  if  true, 
show  conclusively  the  child  was  a  seven-months'  child 
at  birth.     Nobody  contradicts  this  testimony. 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  129 

3.  Dr.  Hathaway  and  Mrs.  Cavarly  testify  as  to 
physical  indications  of  age  after  birth. 

(a)  It  was  twelve  inches  in  length. 

(b)  It  weighed  three  pounds. 

(c)  Papillary  membrane  was  just  commencing  to 
open. 

(d)  Finger  nails  were  but  partially  grown. 

(e)  The  bones  of  the  head  were  open  and  flexible. 

(f)  Life  feeble  and  languishing;  and  all  the  other 
indications  of  a  seven-months'  child. 

4.  The  positive  testimony  of  Mr.  Metcalfe  and 
the  plaintiff.  And  who  contradicts  or  questions  this 
array  of  proof?  Dr.  Stout!  He  says  it  was  a  nine- 
months'  child. 

But  he  is  directly  contradicted  by  Mrs.  Cavarly,  the 
plaintiff,  and  Dr.  Hathaway,  to  whom  he  stated  at  the 
time  of  the  birth  that  the  child  was  a  seven-months' 
child;  by  Dr.  Dyer,  to  whom  he  stated  within  a  few 
days  after  its  birth  that  it  was  a  seven-months'  child ; 
by  Dr.  Hard,  to  whom  he  made  the  same  statement ;  by 
his  criminal  connection  with  the  defendant  either  as 
his  dupe  or  accomplice.  And  yet  it  is  insisted  that 
this  one  witness,  who  changes  his  statements  as  soon 
as  he  learns  their  significance,  is  to  weigh  down  wit- 
ness after  witness,  circumstance  after  circumstance, 
and  physical  fact  after  physical  fact.  And  upon  the 
sole  testimony  of  this  contradicted  and  impeached  wit- 
ness hangs  every  hope  of  this  defense. 

As  to  the  main  fact  upon  which  our  case  is  based 
there  is  absolutely  no  evidence  for  the  defense. 

The  defendant  does  not  deny  the  statement  of  the 
plaintiff.  He  does  not  dare  to  deny  it,  for  it  was 
God's  truth,  and  the  doors  of  the  penitentiary  were 
opening  to  receive  him  if  he  denied  it.     Why  did  he 


I30  ADDRESSES 

not  go  upon  the  witness  stand  and  deny  that  he  had 
been  guilty  of  the  charge  we  make?  He  knew  whether 
she  was  telHng  the  truth  or  not.  He  is  the  only  living 
human  being,  except  the  plaintiff,  who  does  know  with 
absolute  certainty. 

He  could  have  told  you,  and  he  did  not.  He  could 
have  explained,  and  he  did  not.  He  could  have  pro- 
nounced her  testimony  false,  and  he  did  not.  He  could 
have  said,  "I  am  not  guilty  of  this  great  transgres- 
sion," and  he  did  not.  He  could  have  denied  she  was 
at  his  office  when  she  says  she  was,  and  he  did  not. 
He  could  have  denied  that  he  attempted  the  crime  of 
infanticide,  and  he  did  not.  He  could  have  denied  that 
he  administered  to  her  the  infernal  drug  we  say  he 
did,  and  he  did  not.  He  could  have  denied  that  he 
committed  larceny  to  shield  himself  from  the  conse- 
quences of  a  greater  crime,  and  he  did  not.  These 
sins  of  omission  must  be  visited  upon  him. 

Why,  gentlemen,  I  want  you  to  consider  the  brazen 
impudence  of  this  defendant  and  what  he  asks  of  you. 

You  have  sworn  that  you  would  try  this  case  ac- 
cording to  the  evidence.  You  are  acting  under  the 
solemn  sanction  of  an  oath.  You  are  responsible  to 
God  and  your  own  conscience  for  your  action  in  this 
case.  Now  he  asks  you  under  your  oaths,  to  say  zvJtat 
he  dared  not  say  under  his  oath;  to  do  for  him  what  he 
dared  not  do  for  himself.  You  may  be  induced  to  do 
this,  but  I  do  not  believe  it. 

Here  sat  the  defendant  within  six  feet  of  the  wit- 
ness stand.  The  law  gives  him  the  right  to  testify  in 
his  own  behalf.  He  did  not  see  fit  to  do  it.  Why  did 
he  not  dO'  it?  It  was  a  confession  of  guilt  and  you 
will  take  it  as  such.  What  explanation  is  vouchsafed 
by  his  counsel?    The  gentlemen  do  not  agree.    We  are 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  1 3 1 

told  by  the  one  that  the  "defendant  has  a  contempt  for 
this  plaintiff  and  her  case,"  and  that  he  was  acting 
under  their  advice  in  not  testifying.  This  was  very 
satisfactory  until  you  heard  the  other  counsel  rise  and 
explain.  He  tells  us  the  defendant  refused  to  go  upon 
the  stand  against  his  advice,  and  this  is  followed  by 
the  most  remarkable  statement  I  ever  heard  in  a  court. 
Judge  Leland  says  his  client  would  not  testify  because 
plaintiff's  counsel  had  been  looking  up  his  record; 
that  they  would  ask  him  "if  he  did  not  murder  his 
wife.  If  he  did  not  commit  another  murder  in  Phila- 
delphia. If  he  was  not  living  tmder  an  assumed 
name.  If  he  did  not  commit  a  similar  outrage  upon 
another  orphan  and  friendless  girl — giving  names,  and 
places,  and  dates."  And  then  he  stated  that  "every 
household  has  its  skeleton."  What  a  statement  for  a 
counsel  to  make  about  his  client!  These  gentlemen 
should  have  had  a  consultation.  When  statements  do 
not  agree  they  are  in  a  bad  fix.  They  are  required  to 
apologize  for  introducing  the  witness,  Barbara,  and 
for  not  introducing  their  client. 

Gentlemen,  what  would  you  think  of  this  plaintiff, 
if  after  having  brought  this  suit,  she  had  refused  to 
testify  to  the  facts  she  charged  in  her  declaration?  If 
she  sat  mute,  and  confessed  by  her  silence  that  the 
charge  was  an  infamous  fabrication?  I  ask  for  him 
the  same  even-handed  justice  you  would  have  meted 
out  to  her,  under  the  same  circumstances.  I  do  not 
accept  either  explanation.  Suppose  one  of  you  was 
charged  with  the  commission  of  an  infamous  crime — 
a  crime  which,  if  proven  upon  you,  would  render  you 
infamous  for  life;  would  destroy  your  business;  dis- 
grace your  wife  and  children,  and  close  the  door  of 
every  virtuous  household  against  you.     Suppose  you 


132  ADDRESSES 

were  innocent  of  this  charge.  Suppose,  farther,  you 
had  an  opportunity  to  deny  it  under  oath.  Suppose, 
farther,  that  your  salvation  depended  upon  your  testi- 
fying. Would  you  do  it?  I  will  risk  this  case  upon 
the  decision  of  this  question.  He  did  not  swear,  be- 
cause he  did  not  dare  do  it.  I  believe  he  would  have 
committed  perjury.  I  believe  him  to  have  committed 
greater  crimes,  but  I  believe  him  to  be  a  base  coward 
who  does  not  dare  to  face  the  consequences  of  his 
crimes.  If  he  has  a  contempt  for  this  plaintiff,  what 
must  be  the  contempt  you  feel  for  him ! 

Now,  gentlemen,  I've  said  all  that  I  desire  to  say ; 
you  have  listened  to  me  with  the  kindest  attention.  I 
thank  you  for  myself,  but  much  more  for  this  orphan 
girl  whose  cause  I  have  so  imperfectly  presented.  You 
will  not  visit  upon  her  any  of  my  imperfections.  She 
has  spoken  for  herself  much  more  eloquently  than  I 
have  or  can  speak  for  her.  The  defendant  has  also 
been  eloquent  in  his  silence.  A  great  change  has  come 
over  the  public  sentiment  of  this  community.  The 
gentleman  tells  you  he  has  a  contempt  for  this 
"crowd."  Since  when?  He  expressed  no  contempt 
for  this  same  "crowd"  when  in  the  commencement  of 
this  trial  it  cheered  his  indelicate  and  brutal  assault 
upon  the  plaintiff.  But  he  has  seen,  as  you  have,  the 
tear  in  the  eye  of  sympathy.  He  has  seen  the  "hand- 
writing on  the  wall" — hence  his  contempt.  But  you 
have  no  such  contempt  for  the  plaintiff  or  her  cause. 
She  is  worthy  of  all  honor,  and  her  cause  is  the  cause 
of  outraged  innocence.  Into  your  kind  keeping  I  com- 
mit everything  dear  to  her  without  a  fear  of  the  result. 

In  her  name;  in  the  name  of  Innocence,  wherever 
it  may  be;  in  the  name  of  your  own  wives,  daughters, 
and  sisters ;  in  the  name  of  her  sainted  mother,  whose 


CAVERLY  vs.  CANFIELD  133 

invisible  presence  I  believe  hallows  this  scene,  I  ask  you 
for  a  full,  perfect,  and  complete  vindication  of  my 
client. 

The  morning  cometh,  and  the  night  of  her  sorrow 
shall  be  swallowed  up  in  the  light  of  a  perfect  day. 
Her  sun,  which  rose  through  clouds  in  the  morning, 
and  was  obscured  at  noonday,  shall  have  a  cloudless 
setting.  She  shall  go  from  this  temple  out  of  the 
clouds  into  the  sunshine;  she  shall  walk  the  streets 
like  a  queen,  and  there  shall  not  be,  in  all  this  beautiful 
city,  a  true  man  who  has  heard  of  this  case,  or  who 
shall  hereafter  hear  of  it,  who  will  not  resent  even  a 
look  which  threatens  her  with  insult. 


Pantagraph  Ptg.  &  Sta.  Co. 
bloomington,  illinois 


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