CHAPTER XV

SPEECHES OF ACCEPTANCE

§ 81

ACCEPTANCE OF THE BATTLE FLAGS

By John Albion Andrew

(Address delivered in response to Major-General Couch, upon delivering the flags of the hundred Massachusetts regiments and batteries, December 22, 1865, by Governor Andrew.)

GENERAL: This pageant, so full of pathos and of glory, forms the concluding scene in the long series of visible actions and events in which Massachusetts has borne a part for the overthrow of rebellion and the vindication of the Union.

These banners return to the government of the Commonwealth through welcome hands. Borne, one by one, out of this Capitol during more than four years of civil war as the symbols of the nation and the Commonwealth, under which the battalions of Massachusetts departed to the field, they come back again, borne hither by surviving representatives of the same heroic regiments and companies to which they were intrusted.

At the hands, General, of yourself, the ranking officer of the volunteers of the Commonwealth (one of the earliest who accepted a regimental command under appointment of the governor of Massachusetts) and of this grand column of scarred and heroic veterans who guard them home, they are returned with honors becoming relics so venerable, soldiers so brave, and citizens so beloved.

Proud memories of many a field; sweet memories alike of valor and friendship; sad memories of fraternal strife; tender memories of our fallen brothers and sons, whose dying eyes looked last upon their flaming folds; grand memories of heroic virtues sublimed by grief; exultant memories of the great and final victory of our country, our Union, and the righteous cause; thankful memories of a deliverance wrought out

JOHN ALBION ANDREW. Born at Windham, Me., May 31, 1818; died at Boston Mass., October 30, 1867; admitted to the bar in 1840; Massachusetts State Senator, 1858-60; Governor of Massachusetts, 1860-1866.

for human nature itself, unexampled by any former achievement of arms-immortal memories with immortal honors blended, twine around these splintered staves, weave themselves along the warp and woof of these familiar flags, war-worn, begrimed, and baptized with blood. Let "the brave heart, the trusty heart, the deep, unfathomable heart," in words of more than mortal eloquence, uttered though unexpressed, speak the emotions of grateful veneration for which these lips of mine are alike too feeble and unworthy.

General, I accept these relics in behalf of the people and the government. They will be preserved and cherished amid all the vicissitudes of the future as mementoes of brave men and noble actions.

§ 82

ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHENEY-IVES GATEWAY

By Arthur Twining Hadley

(Speech at the Yale bicentennial celebration, 1901.)

Of all the memorials which are offered to a university by the gratitude of her sons, there are none which serve so closely and fully the purposes of her life as those monuments which commemorate her dead heroes. The most important part of the teaching of a place like Yale is found in the lessons of public spirit and devotion to high ideals which it gives. These things can in some measure be learned in books of poetry and of history. They can in some measure be learned from the daily life of the college and the sentiments which it inculcates. But they are most solemnly and vividly brought home by visible signs, such as this gateway furnishes, that the spirit of ancient heroism is not dead, and that its highest lessons are not lost.

It seems as if the bravest and best in your class, as well as in others. had been sacrificed to the cruel exigencies of war. But they are not sacrificed. It is through their death that their spirit remains immortal. It is through men like those whom we have loved, and whom we here commemorate, that the life of the republic is kept alive. As we have learned. lessons of heroism from the men who went forth to die in the Civil War, so will our children and our children's children learn the same lesson from the heroes who have a little while lived with us and then entered into an immortality of glory.

See page 672.

§ 83

ACCEPTING A CHAIR

By William Ewart Gladstone

(Speech delivered in accepting a chair from the Liberals of the borough of Greenwich, August, 1881.)

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: I am sure you will think I shall best discharge my duty if upon this occasion I confine myself to the briefest expression of thanks for this last and newest favor which the constituency of Greenwich has conferred upon me. The former favors have not been, and cannot be, forgotten; and, although our political connection as constituency and representative has been dissolved, yet you may rely upon it that my interest in your welfare, which was enhanced by that connection, can never disappear. I thank you greatly for this new mark of your enduring kindness. I accept it with peculiar joy and pleasure on this auspicious day, in the presence of Lord Granville, Lord Hartington, and all those colleagues to whose powerful coöperation it is that I owe my being able to appear before you with the conviction that I have not disgraced the functions with which, in common with them, I am charged.

The events of the session hardly form a fitting topic for me to dwell upon. They have been remarkable in many respects. They have been remarkable, perhaps, for the difficulty in the midst of which our duties have been discharged; but they have been remarkable above all things, perhaps, for this, that they have brought into view a new and great necessity—a necessity in which the people of England will feel the keenest interest—the necessity of restoring the House of Commons to its position as the great security for your liberties and for enabling legislation to be carried on in its full efficiency. That duty, gentlemen, is one which is indeed for a future year, but, you may rely upon it, it is one to which we shall address ourselves when the opportunity arisesI will not say with all the power which it demands, but at any rate with all the zeal and earnestness which so great a cause can inspire. Great WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. Born at Liverpool, England, December 29, 1809; died at Hawarden Castle, Wales, May 19, 1898; educated at Eton and Oxford, where he graduated in 1831; entered Parliament in 1833; in 1845 became Secretary of State for the Colonies; in 1847 changed from the Conservative to the Liberal party; in 1865 became Chancellor of the Exchequer; held various important government positions; Prime Minister, 1869-1873, 1880-1885, 1893-94.

is the interest connected with separate subjects of legislation, but greater still, and paramount, is the interest which must be awakened in your minds by a matter which touches vitally the condition of the great organ of all our legislation-that noble representative assembly which has served as a pattern to the representative assemblies of the world, and which has done more than any of them, perhaps more than all of them, to cherish the aspirations of freedom and to maintain the traditions of law and order among the whole of civilized mankind.

Gentlemen, permit me to offer you my most grateful thanks for this renewed token of your kindness, and to express the hope that until I deliver over into other and worthier hands the charge that now rests upon me, I may do nothing to forfeit your favor, or betray the confidence which you have been pleased to repose in me..

§ 84

ACCEPTING A PORTFOLIO

By William Cullen Bryant

(Accepting a portfolio on his seventieth birthday, November 3, 1864.)

Allow me, through you, as one of their representatives, to return to the artists of the "Century" my best acknowledgments for the superb gift they have made me. I have no title to it but their generosity, yet I rejoice to possess it, and shall endeavor to preserve it as long as I live.

Among the artists of the country are some of my oldest and best friends. In their conversation I have taken great delight, and derived from it much instruction. In them the love and the study of nature tend to preserve the native simplicity of character, to make them frank and ingenuous, and divert their attention from selfish interests. I shall prize this gift, therefore, not only as a memorial of the genius of our artists, in which respect alone it possesses a high value, but also as a token of the good-will of a class of men for whom I cherish a particular regard and esteem.

See page 664.