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 Reception tendered to George H. Boker. m 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022013241 
 
RECEPTION 
 
 TENDERED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 
 UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 GEORGE H. BOKER, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE UNITED STATES TO TURKEY. 
 
 Friday Evening, December 22, 1871. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 
 
 1872. 
 } 
 
/\.\MS"'E,^ 
 
Believing that every gentleman who participated in 
 the Eeception tendered by the Members of the Union 
 League of Philadelphia to George H. Bokee, on the 
 evening of December 22, 1871, would take pleasure in 
 preserving a record of the incidents of that occasion, the 
 Committee have decided to devote to the publication of 
 this pamphlet, prepared from a phonographic report, the 
 funds remaining in their possession. 
 
THE PRELIMINARIES. 
 
ME. GEORGE H. BOXER'S appointment by 
 the President of the United States to the 
 distinguished position of Minister to Turkey was 
 everywhere recognized as a most well merited com- 
 pliment, and the public announcement was received 
 with unqualified approval. Among the members of 
 the Union League, whose faithful ofiS^cer he had been 
 since the inception of the organization, the desire 
 was universal to demonstrate in some formal manner 
 the satisfaction felt at the honor conferred upon 
 him, and at the same time to testify to the high 
 personal esteem in which he was , held by all asso- 
 ciated with him. With this view numerous projects 
 were discussed; and it was finally decided to tender 
 to Mr. BoKEK an Evening Reception, the privilege 
 of subscribing thereto being limited to members of 
 the Union Xieague; and the elegant quarters of the 
 Association being selected as the proper place for 
 the event. 
 
 A Committee was then appointed to superintend 
 the necessary details, and their first duty was to 
 
8 
 
 formally notify Mr. Bokbe of the proposed compli- 
 ment. His consent having been obtained, and his 
 convenience consulted in the selection of the date, 
 the members of the League were briefly informed, 
 by printed circular, of the affair in progress. The 
 response was immediate and general, and, in the few 
 days intervening between the issue of the circular 
 and the closing of the list, two hundred and sixty- 
 three voluntary subscriptions were received by the 
 Treasurer of the Committee. This large number 
 would have been still greater but for the fact that 
 the Philadelphia Club, of which organization Mr. 
 BoKEE was at that time President, had chosen for 
 a similar entertainment, the idea having suggested 
 itself in the two bodies about the same time, the 
 evening of the 20th of December; anticipating the 
 League in the execution of its compliment, and 
 leading some gentlemen who were members of both 
 associations to choose that, because it was an earlier 
 opportunity of showing their desire to do honor to 
 Mr. BoKEE. 
 
 The evening of Friday, December 22d, 1871, 
 having been fixed upon for the Reception, the 
 League Club House, for that occasion, was placed 
 entirely under the control of the gentlemen having 
 that matter in charge, and upon them devolved the 
 duty of making the affair as attractive as the means 
 in their possession would permit; and to this end 
 their energies were directed, they being actuated. 
 
9 
 
 at the same time, by the desu'e to interfere as little 
 as possible with the ordinary daily routine of the 
 establishment. As a formal reminder, a hand- 
 somely engraved invitation, simple, chaste, and free 
 from elaborate ornament of any kind, was forwarded 
 to each subscriber, inclosing a card to be presented 
 to the ushers as a means of entrance to the 
 Banquet Room. Every effort was made to provide 
 in anticipation for the convenience of those taldng 
 part; including the provision by the Committee of 
 a number of carriages, which, from midnight until 
 the last light was extinguished, were at the com- 
 mand of the participants to convey them to their 
 several homes. 
 
THE EVENT. 
 
SOOIS" after half-past seven o'clock o\\ the evening 
 of the 22d of December, the gentlemen who 
 had united in the compliment to Mr. Geoege H. 
 BoKER began to assemble at the Union League 
 House. For the purposes of the Reception the 
 entire north side of the main floor was set apart. 
 The grand suite of rooms from the Drawing Room 
 on the east to the small Dining Room on the west 
 were thrown open and brilliantly illuminated. In 
 the latter apartment was stationed the Germania 
 Orchestra in such full force that the strains of 
 delicious music were continuous. The doors cus- 
 tomarily opening from this suite into the great 
 Hall were kept closed, and servants were stationed 
 to direct all comers to pass directly to the passage 
 way leading to the rooms of the Publication Com- 
 mittee, which were temporarily converted into toilet 
 and cloak rooms. From this point, after removing 
 their wrappings, those participating were escorted 
 through the several minor rooms of the suite — 
 which in addition to their usual furniture were pro- 
 
14 
 
 fusely filled with living tropical plants, and hand- 
 some designs in sweet scented flowers — ^to the 
 Drawing Room. In this apartment no change had 
 been made, the Committee being confident that any 
 elaborate decoration would detract from the effect 
 of the beautiful paintings, the elegant marbles, the 
 superb bronzes, and the exquisite upholstery usual 
 to the room. Here Mr. Boker received his 
 friends, and grouped about him, in addition to 
 those present as his hosts, were a few distinguished 
 guests, present by special invitation. Among these 
 were the Hon. George M. Robeson, Secretary of 
 the I^avy; the Hon. Simon Cameron, Ex-Secretary 
 of "War, and present Senator of the United States 
 from Pennsylvania ; the Hon. John Scott, United 
 States Senator from Pennsylvania; the Hon, John 
 W, Forney, Collector of the Port of Philadelphia ; 
 the Hon. Daniel M. Fox, Mayor of the City of 
 Philadelphia; the Hon. "Wayne MacYeagh, recent 
 United States Minister to Turkey; Mr. Bayard 
 Taylor, the distinguished author and poet; Mr. 
 Albert "W. Bacon, U. S. I*^avy ; Col. George Boker, 
 of the Governor's stafij the son of the honored 
 guest of the hour, and Dr. Charles S. Boker, his 
 brother. 
 
 At half-past nine o'clock, the musicians having 
 been previously removed to the head of the great 
 staircase, the combined orchestras pealed forth the 
 strains of a beautiful march arranged especially for 
 
15 
 
 the occasion; one of the hall doors commimieating 
 with the Reception Suite was thrown open, and 
 through an avenue of silken cord the assembled 
 party passed to the supper rooms above; the 
 President of the League leading the way with 
 Mr. BoKER, and the invited guests being escorted 
 by different members of the Board of Directors. 
 The whole of the second floor was arranged for 
 this more material portion of the entertainment; 
 the Reading Room and Library were converted 
 into coffee rooms, while the Banquet Room pre- 
 sented a scene of bounteous splendor which has 
 probably never been equalled in Philadelphia. 
 Suspended above each of the exquisite paintings 
 adorning the walls were silken flags embracing in 
 their devices the insignia of the Republic, the 
 Commonwealth, and the City ; with here and there 
 the colors of the Union League harmoniously 
 blended. The mantels and window-seats were 
 filled with plants and freshly plucked flowers. 
 Pendant from the central chandelier hung a huge 
 ball of rose buds and scarlet fuchsias, while 
 beneath upon the supper table was an elegant 
 plateau of choicest exotics; at equal distances from 
 this and nearer the ends of the board were other 
 floral devices arranged with consummate skill: 
 gratifying the eye by their beauty and the inner 
 sense by the sweet fragrance they exhaled. Hand- 
 some vases loaded with luscious fruits filled appro- 
 
16 
 
 priate places, and two immense blocks of transparent, 
 crystal ice, carved and shaped as though cast by 
 l^ature in this elaborate mould, served as receivers 
 for toothsome bivalves fresh from their watery bed. 
 At one end of the table a large "Wild Turkey 
 cooked to suit the most epicurean taste, yet lacking 
 not a feather of its briUiant plumage, sat as though 
 proud of its martyrdom for such an occasion; at 
 the other extreme a pair of English Pheasants, 
 similarly arrayed in their native many-hued gar- 
 ments, and equally ready for the palate, invited 
 the destruction which awaited them. Between 
 these were spread dishes of every sort, elaborately 
 ornamented by the greatest art of confectioner 
 and cook. Puzzling with which to satisfy their 
 appetites, toying first with this delicacy and then 
 with that, the party occupied some time in dispos- 
 ing of the varied biU of fare. 
 
 A sufficient time having elapsed for the ample 
 enjoyment of the feast, which was supplemented 
 with a liberal supply of the I'arest wines, the 
 attention of the company was secured by Mr. J. 
 Gillingham Fell, who requested that those present 
 would at once come to order. 
 
 The perfect silence thus attained was broken by 
 the Hon. Mortok McMichael, Pi-esident of the 
 Union League of Philadelphia, who said: — 
 
17 
 
 We are here to-night for a threefold purpose: 
 First, as members of the Union League, to render 
 thanks to one who has served us long and well; 
 next, as loyal citizens, to testify by our presence 
 and praises our high sense of an earnest dedication 
 of rare gifts to the needs of the country when those 
 needs were most urgent ; and again, as companions, 
 on the eve of separation from a valued associate 
 near and dear to our affections, to bid liim "God 
 speed" and farewell. It is right that such an occa- 
 sion should be marked by significant demonstra- 
 tions. It is right, in view of such objects, that we 
 should throng these spacious halls, which have so 
 often echoed his eloquent voice, so often witnessed 
 his disinterested labors; and, while memories of 
 the eventful past and anticipations of the promising 
 future mingle with the excitements of the joyful 
 present, here, amid the harmonies of enlivening 
 music, the blaze of festal lights, the rustle of glis- 
 tening draperies, the fragrance of blooming flowers, 
 the cheer of abundant hospitality, by the quick 
 glance of the eye, by the fervid grasp of the hand, 
 by the grateful utterance of the tongue, by look 
 and sign and word, proclaim our respect and ad- 
 miration for George H. Bokek. 
 
 Almost a decade has passed since our organiza- 
 tion was founded. Those were dark days when it 
 was brought into being, and darker days followed. 
 ISTor was the task it set itself to accompUsh a hght 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 one. At a time when the pillars of our political 
 fabric were shaken by violent assaults, in a commu- 
 nity where the reputed leaders of society were 
 hostile, it had to purify an unwholesome social at- 
 mosphere; and, among a people many of whom 
 were bound by ties of kinship and intercourse to 
 the militant apostles of a false creed and their mis- 
 guided followers, it had to sever those attachments 
 and replace them with bands of national obligation. 
 It had, moreover, to overleap the barriers of ancient 
 prejudice ; to carry the torch of truth into the dim 
 recesses of error, and thus dispel long-cherished 
 illusions ; to reinvigorate principles enfeebled by 
 neglect, and restore practices forgotten through dis- 
 use ; to encourage the timid and fortify the bold ; 
 to bring together those who had been widely sepa- 
 rated, and to blend into concord antagonistic ele- 
 ments ; and, by help of instrumentalities like these, 
 to produce a compact, solid mass of patriotic 
 opinion, which, when developed into action, should 
 prove, as it did prove, supreme and irresistible. 
 That the Union League, within its sphere, achieved 
 this result no one disputes — that it was able to 
 achieve it is, in a large measure, due to those who, 
 combining at the outset, clung each to the others 
 through all subsequent vicissitudes, never losing 
 faith, never relaxing effort, never counting the cost, 
 never pausing to think of personal consequences, 
 but keeping steadfastly and unfalteringly on until 
 
19 
 
 the good work they had commenced was success- 
 fully completed. And foremost among these was 
 Mr. BoKER. Elected Secretary at the first meet- 
 ing of the Institution he assisted to create, from 
 that hour to this, while participating in all the 
 counsels and co-operating in all the movements of 
 his colleagues, he has filled his oneroufe and respon- 
 sible post with unflagging zeal, with untiring 
 energy, with unsparing industry, and with an in- 
 telligence and skill that could not be surpassed. 
 You, who year after year have listened to and 
 read his excellent annual reports, know with what 
 a graceful and vigorous pen he has recorded our 
 proceedings ; with what force of logic and fervor of 
 rhetoric he has enunciated our opinions; with what 
 clear insight he has comprehended and expounded 
 our policy ; but you may not sufficiently appreciate 
 the large consumption of his time and the repeated 
 exercise of his talents, which a voluminous corre- 
 spondence and the unavoidable details and acces- 
 sories of his office demanded, though knowing the 
 man, as you do, you will readily believe that what- 
 ever he has done, however it might have chafed 
 and fretted others, has been done by him with an 
 unaffected cheerfulness which added tenfold to its 
 value. And it is for this service — for these services 
 — and for his constant, vigilant, and patient super- 
 vision of our household affairs, that we are here to 
 thank him. 
 
20 
 
 If, as is often asserted, he who writes the songs 
 of a nation, even in the tranquil periods of peace, 
 touches more deeply its inner nature than do they 
 who make its laws — surely when that nation, 
 startled and alarmed by parricidal attempts on its 
 life, is roused to keenest sensibiUty and, anxiously 
 looking in all directions for succor, is prompt to 
 discern and eager to receive every expression of 
 sympathetic aid — surely, surely, in such an emo- 
 tional condition, the thoughts that breathe and the 
 words that burn in the inspirations of the faithful 
 poet, by subtle processes of transmutation, incorpo- 
 rate themselves into its very fibre, circulate through 
 all its veins and arteries, stimulate it in every 
 muscle and joint and limb and function, and so 
 nerve it with fresh courage, and strengthen and 
 sustain and support it in all the means and methods 
 to which it has resort for self-preservation. If this 
 be true, or only partially true, who shall venture to 
 prescribe limits to the influence for good which 
 Mr. BoKEB exerted during the recent rebellion. 
 Endowed by the Almighty, beyond most of his 
 compeers, with the vision and the faculty divine, 
 in the intervals of the occupations to which I 
 have adverted, he sent forth from the fertile forge 
 of his glowing brain lyric after lyric in rapid suc- 
 cession : now sounding a trumpet call to duty that 
 made the echoes ring on shore and sea: now stir- 
 ring the pulses of his hearers by a grand recital 
 
21 
 
 of how our gallant soldiers, amid the thunders 
 of belching cannon and through the rattle of sul- 
 phurous hail, with superb disdain of danger, leaped 
 from crag to crag along the precipitous sides 
 of Lookout Mountain and sought and fought and 
 conquered the foe far up among the rolling clouds ; 
 now causing all breasts to throb and all eyes to 
 moisten as he told the piteous tale of our brave 
 sailors who went down in the sinking Cumberland, 
 carrying with them and still waving as they sunk 
 the flag for which they knew they were about to 
 die, and gurgling a solemn huzza as the deep 
 waters silenced them forever; now chanting in 
 tones of tenderest sadness a plaintive requiem over 
 the fallen; and then, when the conflict was ended 
 and the Union re-estabhshed, flinging on the winds, 
 that they might sweep with it around the borders 
 of the land, a jubilant psean of triumph, and lifting 
 through the o'erarching skies a hymn of humble 
 thankfulness to the good God who, in our sorest 
 travail, vouchsafed us His blessing and protection. 
 This is not the place for more than a passing 
 aUusion to this topic, fruitful as it is, but I will not 
 forbear to say that among the poems of the war, 
 brilHant and admirable as many of them are, I 
 know of none which, considering the wisdom of its 
 design, the singular fehcity of its execution, the 
 opportune moment at which it appeared, the instant 
 and immense effect it had on men's minds and 
 
22 
 
 consciences, can claim higher rank than the noble 
 and generous appeal, shining all over with the 
 lustre of a broad humanity, which Mr. Boker 
 embodied in his famous "Black Regiment." And 
 for this, and for these, and for kindred contributions, 
 we are here to praise him. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, speaking for you, not less 
 than for myself, I come to that which is at once 
 pleasant and painful. Pleasant it is to know that 
 our honored Chief Magistrate, certainly in this 
 wisely discreet, has selected Mr. Boker for an 
 important foreign mission, in which two of our 
 fellow-members, happily now present, have earned 
 just distinction. Pleasant it is to feel that in this 
 selection, while the President has done credit to his 
 own sagacity, he has, also, conferred a benefit on 
 the government which he administers. For, regard 
 Mr. Boker in whatever aspect we may, whether as 
 a staunch defender of the Union when to be so 
 meant something more than cheap profession, and 
 an able advocate now of the doctrines on which 
 alone it can be maintained; or as a citizen of 
 recognized worth and deservings ; or as a scholar 
 in whom superior natural abilities have been assidu- 
 ously cultivated; or as a close observer and sound 
 thinker, versed in the facts and philosophies of his- 
 tory, familiar with public affairs and competent to 
 deal with them; or as a well-ordered, well-balanced, 
 well-provided man, dignified in his deportment, 
 
23 
 
 courteous in his manner, persuasive in his address, 
 and bountifully furnished with all good grace to 
 grace a gentleman ; it cannot be gainsaid that he is 
 pre-eminently fitted. But, while it is pleasant to 
 know and feel all this, it is painful to know and feel 
 that by reason of this very selection he is soon to 
 part from us. In a httle while his seat at our 
 council board wiU be vacant; in our daily and our 
 nightly reunions we shall miss the greeting of his 
 beaming smile ; his manly form will disappear from 
 among us. For all of us, such is the universal 
 good-will he has won, this will be a serious regret : 
 for many of us, with whom intimate relations have 
 ripened acquaintanceship into esteem, it will be a 
 sincere son'ow. For myself, congeniality of tastes 
 and, in many things, similarity of pursuits have 
 drawn me into so close a connection with Mr. 
 BoKER that there has grown between us such 
 mutual confidence, and — I think I do not overesti- 
 mate his sentiments, as I am sure I do not over- 
 state my own, when I add — such cordial and 
 fraternal regard that his absence will take many — 
 very many — happy hours out of my coming days. 
 But I console myself with the trust that that 
 absence will be for a brief season; and that, while 
 it lasts, wherever he may go he will carry with him 
 kindly remembrances of us all; and wherever he 
 may be as he recalls this scene there will come 
 with it the consciousness that though the palaces 
 
24 
 
 of crowned kings may offer more dazzling splendors, 
 in none of them all, no, not in all the world beside, 
 can he find hearts so warm or friends so true as 
 surround him here to-night. 
 
 Before the applause which followed the remarks 
 of Mr. McMiehael had subsided, the Hon. "Wayne 
 MaoYeagh, the immediate predecessor of Mr. 
 BoKER in the position of Minister to Turkey, 
 stepped forward and said: — 
 
 You know, gentlemen, that I would not intrade 
 between you and the guest of the evening if I felt 
 that I could forbear to do so, and you know it is 
 no idle phrase I use, when I assure you from my 
 heart that I am always very glad to meet my 
 brethren of the Union League. And it is not as 
 the predecessor of Mr. Boker in the honorable 
 mission whose duties he goes to discharge, but 
 simply as a member of the Union League of 
 Philadelphia, that I beg you to listen to me for a 
 moment before you listen to him. I ought always 
 to be glad to be here; for, from my first coming 
 among you until now, I have met nothing but 
 kindness at your hands and at his. And, though 
 all the faces are not here to-night that we used to 
 meet when I first knew Mr. Bokek as your 
 Secretary, I am sure we cherish with tender recol- 
 
25 
 
 lections the memories of those who have gone 
 before ns, and I, at least, onght never to forget Mr. 
 Binney and Mr. Orne. And of the living, I should 
 never forget Messrs. McMichael, Claghorn, Carey, 
 Borie, Lindley Smyth, and Fell, and many, many 
 others who are around me now. From them all I 
 have received unvarying kindness. 
 
 Seeing Mr. Boker here to-night, and these 
 familiar faces, carries me back in memory to our 
 more modest home on Chestnut Street and the 
 dark days of the war. I remember very well how 
 heartily we all rejoiced in every success, and how 
 like brothers we sorrowed in every disaster. I 
 remember how our hearts were heavy with gloom 
 when Burnside lost Fredericksburg. I remember 
 how our hearts leaped with strange joy when we 
 believed Hooker had won Chancellorville. And 
 those were the days which tested the vitality and 
 the utility of the Union League of Philadelphia. 
 
 It is not now when American Democracy has 
 been sustained, and a triumphant party admin- 
 isters the government in the interest of the cause 
 which was won on the field of battle; but then, 
 when Lee was marching on Philadelphia; when 
 McClellan was thrown back from Eichmond, and 
 when defeat and darkness prevailed everywhere; 
 then was tried the virtue of the men who founded 
 the Union League of Philadelphia. And the 
 obligations then incurred to Mr. Boker have 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 never yet been properly recognized. In those 
 days I was privileged to see much of the friend 
 whose going from us we are met to deplore to- 
 night. Whoever else faltered, whoever else hesi- 
 tated, we all know in our heart of heart that no 
 man ever met with Mr. Boker without having 
 his loyalty invigorated. To him we are all more 
 indebted, and we associate him more vividly and 
 more distinctly with the Union League of Phila- 
 delphia than any other of its members. I have 
 already said I owe large debts of gratitude to 
 them all — the living and the dead. I shall never 
 forget the great good it did me when Horace 
 Binney did me the honor to print, at his own 
 expense, twenty-five thousand copies of my address 
 to the Republicans of Pennsylvania. I shall never 
 forget the kindness and support which Lindley 
 Smyth rendered me. And yet the oldest or 
 youngest member of this League, if he should 
 name the one man before all others whom he 
 associates with its history, whom he identifies with 
 its triumphs, who is at once its embodiment and 
 representative, would name Mr. Bokee. I con- 
 gratulate the President on his Minister. He has 
 made a fit selection. He has done honor to us; for 
 to the Union League Mr. Bokek's broad and 
 sound culture, his gracious manners, and, above all, 
 his unfailing courage, have never been wanting. 
 And we can congratulate to-night, not only the 
 
27 
 
 President on his Minister, but I am sure we can, 
 with equal propriety, congratulate the Minister 
 upon his Chief. Speaking not in the name, for I 
 have no authority to speak for them, but speaking 
 what I believe to be the sentiments of the young 
 Republicans of Pennsylvania, I venture to declare 
 they will Usten to the criticisms of honest men and 
 will profit by them, even if they criticize the Presi- 
 dent. They will endeavor to reform and ennoble 
 our public life in America, and make it worthy of 
 the best government in the world. 
 
 But they listen with great impatience to the 
 
 criticisms of dishonest and bad men upon the 
 
 stainless character of the President, and they will 
 
 resolve in the future, as in the past, to save the 
 
 nation, and to do the good they propose to do, 
 
 through the instrumentality of the Republican 
 
 party. Indeed it is because of his unswerving 
 
 fidelity to that party, in good and evil report, that 
 
 we honor Mr. Boker especially to-night, because 
 
 he believes with us that the party which saved the 
 
 Republic, which freed the slave, which renominated 
 
 and re-elected Abraham Lincoln, will renominate 
 
 and re-elect Ulysses S. Grant. Therefore, while 
 
 we congratulate the President upon his Minister, 
 
 we congratulate the Minister upon his President. 
 
 I am also privileged, I know, in the name of the 
 
 distinguished and erudite gentleman who held that 
 
 post before me, as well as in my own name, to 
 
28 
 
 congratulate Mr. Bokee upon the mission to 
 which the President has accredited him, because 
 he goes to a delightful climate, a most interesting 
 country, and a people who, in spite of a false 
 religious creed and a false social system, gather 
 into themselves some of the best elements of a 
 good manhood. We predict for him unalloyed 
 happiness. And for ourselves we predict even 
 higher and brighter flights of the Muse by the 
 shores of the Bosphorus than have ever been realized 
 by the banks of the Schuylldll and the Delaware. 
 We congratulate him because he goes to a place of 
 great beauty and increasing interest, where nature 
 presents all that is delightful, and all enhanced by 
 the associations of history, poetry, and mythology. 
 While therefore we are sorry to see him go, we are 
 rejoiced to know that he goes so honorably and to 
 such pleasure as is before him. With full hearts 
 and in all sincerity, we call him patriot, poet, 
 friend, and say, Grod bless you, and farewell. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh having concluded, the Hon. 
 Edward Joy Moeeis, the representative of the 
 United States at Constantinople for some years 
 pi'eceding the term of Mr. MacVeagh, claimed 
 attention for a few moments, and continued: — 
 
 I feel myself honored in being permitted to 
 address the members of this patriotic organization 
 
29 
 
 — a body which was called into existence by the 
 dangers which menaced the Mfe of the Republic — 
 and whose members throughout the struggle for 
 the salvation of the Union devoted themselves with 
 a zeal that never flagged, and that hesitated at no 
 personal sacrifices, to the noble mission which they 
 had undertaken. 
 
 The Union League of Philadelphia has gained 
 an honorable reputation in our future annals. The 
 history of the Civil War cannot be written without 
 recording the invaluable services rendered to the 
 government during that memorable struggle by 
 this Association. You roused the public mind to a 
 true sense of the situation; you formed a patriotic 
 centre around which the friends of the country 
 could rally; you upheld the flag of the Union in a 
 divided community; you kept alive the flame of 
 loyalty to a common country; and you systematized 
 and rendered doubly efiective the efibrts of masses 
 and individuals. Without such a combination, the 
 government would have been deprived of that 
 concentrated popular sympathy and support, which 
 was indispensably necessary to it in the crisis to 
 which it was exposed. 
 
 Called to the service of the government abroad, 
 I was not in the country during the war, but I was 
 an anxious spectator of the action of organizations 
 and individuals, and I watched with interest the 
 development of the power and influence of this 
 
30 
 
 League, until it culminated into a position which 
 placed it in the foreground of all such associations. 
 ISTo disasters discouraged you. When the prospect 
 was the gloomiest, your zeal seemed to he enkindled 
 to more earnest efforts to stimulate the spirit of 
 resistance — you. sent regiment after regiment into 
 the field, more than any other similar body, and 
 you repaired from time to time the shattered ranks 
 of that glorious army, so often led to victory by the 
 illustrious commander whom a grateful people has 
 since so justly called to the Presidency of the 
 Repvihlic, which his genius and valor saved from 
 destruction. 
 
 It is fitting that he who was best acquainted with 
 the valtie of the services of this League, should 
 bestow upon it some special mark of his apprecia- 
 tion. In selecting your honored Secretary, Mr. 
 BoKER, as the recipient of his favor, the President 
 pays a merited compliment to both the League and 
 to one of its most efficient officers — a gentleman 
 distinguished for rare qualities of mind and heart, 
 and who, as your Secretary during the war, won 
 himself great credit by the services he rendered to 
 the Union cause. As a gentleman and a scholar, 
 and as an American whose patriotism has been 
 tested in the sternest period of trial, we know that 
 he will do honor to the govenament he is to 
 represent, that he will uphold the national name 
 and character, and will prove himself faithful to the 
 
31 
 
 generous instincts of the Association, with wliich 
 he has so long heen connected. I cordially wish 
 him God-speed in the important and responsible 
 field of duty to which he has been assigned by the 
 President. 
 
 Mr. Morris was immediately followed by the Hon. 
 John" W. Foenet, Collector of the Port of Phila- 
 delphia, who said : — 
 
 What I have to say shall be briefly said. I 
 cannot find words in the midst of the rushing 
 memories of the past — that past in which our 
 friend and brother bore so conspicuous a part. If 
 I may be permitted to refer for a moment to 
 myself, I will say that in all those years of war and 
 death; in that decade of tragic history, this brave 
 spirit never came to me without hopeful, heartful 
 counsel and support. JS^o calamity demoralized, 
 no treachery appalled, no responsibility weakened 
 him. In that dark hour, when the sun seemed to 
 have fallen from the skies, when our beloved leader 
 fell, it was Bokek who hymned the national 
 sorrow over the bier of the martyr Lincoln; and in 
 that moment when timid men feared to give the 
 ballot to the colored man, who had so nobly borne 
 the musket, it was Boker who articulated the 
 
32 
 
 nation's gratitude, and in his great epic framed at 
 once an inspiration and an argument. 
 
 Tlie administration honors itself more than it 
 does the League by calHng him to a position in the 
 foreign service. He would fill a higher place with 
 the highest ability. We only lend him to the 
 government. We shall wait and watch for his 
 return. Sad hearts will bid him good-bye; warm 
 hearts will bid him God-speed ; grateful hearts will 
 welcome him back. Farewell, Bokee! 
 
 At the close of Mr. Forney's remarks, the 
 President of the League, Mr. McMichael, stated 
 that there was present a warm personal friend of 
 Mr. BoKER, from whom it was desired something 
 should be heard. Thus appealed to Mr. Bayaed 
 Tayloe, the eminent poet, answered: — 
 
 Gentlemen of the Union League — I am not a 
 professional, not even an habitual speaker, as I 
 hope you all know. I always rather shrink from 
 than court an opportunity to present myself in that - 
 character. I am, however, more than willing to- 
 night, — I am heartily glad to join with all the 
 friends of Geoege H. Bokee in this parting testi- 
 monial of the esteem in which they hold him. It 
 does not always happen in our country that otficial 
 distinction falls on the head which merits it. We 
 
r>i> 
 
 o.> 
 
 in Pennsylvania have been fortunate in forming an 
 exception to that fact. We have furnished the 
 country with a representative in Turkey for a 
 number of years past, and always worthily and 
 well. I have had a great many chances of personal 
 observation, under various administrations, and 
 have noticed the rather random way in which 
 some of our diplomatic appointments are made, 
 under our system of selecting according to geo- 
 graphical claims or merely partisan services, with- 
 out considering special qualifications for the post. 
 I consider it a subject of congratulation for all 
 parties — for the whole people, when the repre- 
 sentative of a great nation in a foreign land is so 
 fortunately chosen as now. As a Republican, as a 
 Pennsylvanian, as one who has devoted nearly his 
 whole life to literature, I have the closest relations 
 of sympathy with Mr. Boker. It has also been 
 my good fortune to claim him for a personal friend 
 for nearly twenty-four years. Perhaps there could 
 be no better illustration of his character than by 
 stating how this acquaintance began. 
 
 When I went to 'New York, as a young adven- 
 turer in the field of letters, almost the very first 
 duty given to me to perform was a review of Mi\ 
 Boker's first volume of poetry. I was ordered by 
 my superior at the time to take the book and — to 
 abuse it; especially to point out what he gave me 
 to understand were its crudities and imitations, 
 
34 
 
 although they were Hot so apparent to my own 
 mind. Under the circumstances, I had no alterna- 
 tive, and felt myself bound to obey his orders 
 strictly. I can easily imagine the rage of the 
 author when he came to read my article. A month 
 or two afterward I made his personal acquaintance, 
 and shortly afterward — it was not long, for I had 
 an immediate instinct of the breadth and liberality 
 of his nature — I unburdened my conscience by 
 confessing to him the wrong I had been compelled 
 to do him. 
 
 About six months subsequently my own first 
 volume of poetry was published. Here there was 
 a splendid chance for retribution, and of the most 
 tremendous character. Do you suppose he availed 
 himself of it? Just the reverse. He wrote a 
 review, in which all my faults and imperfections 
 and the crudities of which I really was guilty were 
 buried fathoms deep, and whatever point might be 
 interpreted as a merit was lifted into a sort of 
 mountain peak, high above all the tides of time. 
 He really made me believe that — bu.t, no: I need 
 only say that it was very much more than I 
 believe of myself, now. From that time to this, 
 whether in the inevitable struggles of life, in the 
 time which tried the life of the nation, or in the 
 discouragements of following literature in an un- 
 literary age (as this seems to be, in our country), 
 I have always turned to him for new help and 
 
35 
 
 fresh courage. I know the brave and steadfast 
 spirit displayed by him in other than literary work 
 for so many years, and with the results of which 
 you are all more familiar than I. I know the 
 ripeness and soundness of his mind, the fine 
 balance of his intellectual qualities, and the devo- 
 tion which has made those qualities the servants 
 of his country's will and his country's good. But 
 it is not in this character that I shall miss his 
 presence among us. I shall miss the faithful 
 literary counsellor, the sympathizing and encourag- 
 ing friend, and I must beg you to let me in my 
 own way — in his way — in the way of the young 
 authors of the country, whom to-night, I venture 
 to represent — read my farewell. 
 
 Give to the patriot heart your warm "God-sioeed!" 
 Let every wish his parting sails impel, 
 
 Honor the eager will, the ready deed, 
 But to the poet let me bid farewell ! 
 
 You know how wisely and how nobly he 
 The nation's faith and power will represent; 
 
 How true and frank the Orient will see 
 In him the features of the Occident. 
 
 Hail, then, the statesman, the diplomatist, 
 Who the safe steward of your trust shall be! 
 
 I see his mission through the golden mist 
 Of song, and so must sing it as I see. 
 
36 
 
 I know how clear the crescent sickle sets, 
 
 How flushed with roses broadens there the morn 
 
 O'er Stamboul's ridge of reedy minarets, 
 And o'er the waters of the Golden Horn. 
 
 I know what lustrous eyes are sometimes seen 
 Through garden leaves and latticed window-bars, 
 
 And fear some twin Circassian stars may wean 
 His fealty from our seven-and-thirty stars. 
 
 I know how tall, how strong and light of limb 
 The men of Islam in their own domain ; 
 
 But they must have a care, lest, seeing him. 
 The girls of Damar find Prince Adeb plain 1 
 
 And when some turban'd Shekh shall him behold, 
 The flight of ages he may well forget. 
 
 And think him Saladin, or Hatem old, 
 
 Or dream that Haroun reigns in Bagdad j'ct. 
 
 The Moor Calaynos there may pass him by, 
 Nor guess what hand for us his portrait drew; 
 
 Our poet shall not find an alien sky, 
 Nor other lives than he already knew. 
 
 His fancy long ago prefigured all 
 
 He there may see, and seeing, haply sing ; 
 
 But I shall bid some tender memory call 
 His home's old music from the newer string. 
 
 When he, returning from the Sick Man's door. 
 Climbs Pera's hill, an idle hour to drearn, 
 
 His eyes shall see, o'er Marmora's azure floor, 
 The white Olympus of Bithynia gleam. 
 
37 
 
 If not Jove's mount, its Asian counterpart, 
 A symbol of the steep his youth assailed. 
 
 Of those who climbed "with his courageous heart, 
 And those who midway to the summit failed. 
 
 Still may it shine for him, our Mount of Song! 
 
 Recalling still his brothers in the West, 
 Who, knowing him as man and poet long, 
 
 As man and poet claim to love him best! 
 
 When Mr. Taylor finished reading his poem, 
 which was received with great enthusiasm, Mr. 
 BoKEE was loudly called for, and upon stepping 
 forward was received with round after round of 
 cheers. Quiet having at last been attained, he 
 commenced his acknowledgments, saying: — 
 
 You cannot imagine my feelings, gentlemen, 
 upon this occasion, for the manner in which you 
 have received me. If I should open my mind, 
 what could I return to you but thanks — thanks — 
 thanks for the honor which you have done me? 
 I feel the weight and importance of this reception. 
 I do not come here with a prepared speech. I 
 must trust to the influences of the moment. I 
 thought it would have been a heartless thing, in 
 cold blood, in my study, to have based a proble- 
 matical reply upon a possible address. Of course 
 I did not know the substance of the remarks which 
 were to be made by my friends here. 
 
38 
 
 I wish to say a few words regarding my connec- 
 tion with this Institution — the Union League. A 
 great deal of credit has been given to me to-night 
 for my personal relations with the League — for the 
 work which I have done for it. After all I have 
 only represented you in all that I have done. I 
 happen to have a sympathetic mind, and I under- 
 stood the feeling and will of the League and the 
 mind of the League — how it thought and felt — and 
 having that instinct, I represented you in a way to 
 be approved. It was not because I did it inde- 
 pendently. I knew well the course I was taking 
 was the course which I was desired to take. I was 
 the mere exponent of the League. According to 
 the best of my abilities, I have done my duty here, 
 and it has been simply my duty. 
 
 You all know that I began life as a Democrat. 
 I have upon my conscience the fact that my first 
 vote was cast for James Buchanan. When I 
 saw the manner in which the South was disposed 
 to press us, I took the first step from the party 
 with Stephen A. Douglass. After that, when the 
 matter became a serious one, and the sword was 
 drawn, it struck me that politics had vanished 
 entirely from the scene — that no more politics 
 remained — that it was a mere question of patriotism 
 or disloyalty. Then I ranged myself on the side 
 on which I am now found; and I know that the 
 Republican party, in persevering with its policy, 
 
39 
 
 is carrying out to its logical issue the policy under 
 which it conducted the war. 
 
 Gentlemen, you must feel for me in the embar- 
 rassing position in which I am placed to-night. 
 This celebration I know is of a personal nature. I 
 feel it from the bottom of my soul. I know 
 everything done here to-night has been done for 
 me personally, as a friend and as an old officer of 
 the League who is about to leave you and sees 
 you now together possibly for the last time. There- 
 fore my situation here is a very embarrassing one. 
 It is not as though I were firing away at the 
 reputation of another. I think I could be eloquent 
 if I were talking about Mr. McMichael or some 
 other well-known and highly respected gentleman ; 
 but it is impossible for me to talk about myself. 
 
 I therefore, gentlemen, simply Avish to repeat 
 again my thanks to you on this occasion, which I 
 shall never forget, God knows, as long as I live. 
 When I am far away on the shores of the Bosphorus, 
 I shall often think of this happy meeting. In 
 regard to certain situations in which I may be 
 placed, as stated in moving verse by my friend 
 Taylor, I can but say that his experience has 
 preceded mine. He was also a much younger man 
 than I shall be when I reach there. I shall, 
 however, promise to do the best I can for the 
 disconsolate damsels whom he left behind him. 
 
40 
 
 Let me once more offer my sincere thanks, and 
 wish you a cordial farewell. 
 
 The applause which followed the conclusion of 
 Mr. Boker's address and the emotion it excited 
 were as hearty and as genuine as that with which 
 he was received. A succession of toasts to his 
 health and prosperity having been drunk, the 
 chairman, Mr. McMichael, announced that a distin- 
 guished member of the Cabinet of the President of 
 the United States was present, as were also two 
 most eminent Senators ; declining to enter into any 
 eulogy of these gentlemen, he proposed the health 
 of General George M. Robeson, Secretary of the 
 IN^avy. Thus introduced the Secretary said : — 
 
 My friends and fellow members of the Union 
 League, of Philadelphia — I thank you for the 
 kindness of the sentiment which your President 
 has given, and for the manner in which you have 
 received it. Representing here to-night, in some 
 sort, the Executive of our !N^ation, who is at once 
 the representative of our principles and the chief 
 and leader of our party, I am proud to say, as an 
 original member of the Union League, that the 
 appointment of our friend, whom we are assembled 
 to honor, richly deserved and nobly achieved as it 
 has been by personal character and patriotic 
 
41 
 
 service, was conferred also as a public recognition 
 of the patriotic, national, and American spirit of 
 your organization, an organization as valuable in 
 action and in influence as any our country has ever 
 known. In response to whatever was personal to 
 myself in the allusions of your President, I have 
 nothing to say, since whatever I have done in the 
 past has been only as a member of that great army 
 of which we are all soldiers, and whatever any of 
 us may achieve in the future must depend upon 
 the success of those principles, which uniting us in 
 a common cause have bou,nd us together in a 
 common destiny. The appreciation of good men, 
 however, is always pleasant; and in these days 
 when personal character is never safe from the 
 assault of persistent slander; when whatever is 
 most sacred in private life is the daily prey of the 
 jackals who minister to a prurient appetite; when 
 the largest successes are depreciated, and, as far as 
 may be, defeated by a pretentious scejDticism, which 
 aspires to regulate, to its own mould, the morals, 
 the manners, and the development of our American 
 government and people; when the fugitive repre- 
 sentatives of foreign demagogism come up with the 
 insolent ambition to command us and our children, 
 then it is certainly a satisfaction to be assured of 
 the support of disinterested men, and to receive the 
 approbation of representative Americans for public 
 conduct, and the principles and policy which we 
 
42 
 
 represent. But I care not to dwell upon either 
 personal or official questions; for you know I 
 belong to an administration which believes in the 
 eloquence of action rather than of profession; and 
 serve under a chief whose whole public life, military 
 and civil, has been spent in answering adverse 
 criticism by uniform good conduct, accusation by 
 achievement, depreciation by devotion, sneers by 
 successes, until in the review of the last ten years, 
 among the most solemn and eventful of history, he 
 stands before the world, and will stand on the 
 pages of history, a central living figure around 
 which are grouped the great events of the decade. 
 I will not in these days of self-assertion attempt to 
 define the qualities of greatness, but it seems to me 
 that great results are the tests of great qualities ; 
 and that he who has been in peace and war the 
 pivot and the master of the greatest events of great 
 times, fulfils some of the conditions, and exhibits 
 some of the qualities of greatness. 
 
 But, my friends, if he of whom I speak has 
 achieved any greatness it has been as a representa- 
 tive of the American people; himself a most marked 
 embodiment of our American idea, a pure represen- 
 tative of the general results of American character-, 
 intellect, and action. The secret of American 
 success in the past, and its assurance for the future, 
 is to be found in the spirit. of American character, 
 and the impress of American ideas upon the spirit 
 
43 
 
 of our popular government, and the daily life of our 
 people. Let me not be misunderstood. I seek not 
 to depreciate and repel our brethren from beyond 
 the sea. It is the very spirit of our government to 
 attract the liberty loving of every language and of 
 every land; but I desire that they shall not seek to 
 absorb and assimilate us, but will be themselves 
 absorbed and assimilated by us. This is the 
 natural and necessary result, truer for vis and better 
 for them and for humanity, for the principles of 
 American progress are the principles of progress 
 and humanity throughout the world, and the con- 
 ditions of such a success as is here witnessed are 
 only to be found in those principles which unite 
 the destinies of the republic with the hopes of 
 civilization and humanity. Our nation is new 
 among the communities of the world, but it 
 assumes its place of leadership by virtue of a new 
 and special creation, conferred upon the field of 
 battle and in the presence of attendant peoples. A 
 nation gathered from the vitality of every land, and 
 uniting in one community the progressive energies 
 of every race, with a continent as a heritage, and 
 freedom as a birthright, it is fit that we should be 
 the champion as well as the exponent of the world's 
 progress for ourselves not only, but for all the 
 peoples of the earth. 
 
 The results of these conditions are beginning to 
 be felt and realized throughout the world. The 
 
44 
 
 impress and effect of American character and 
 principles are felt through all the avenues of 
 personal and political influence, in peace as well as 
 war, in the schools of diplomacy as on the field of 
 battle — may I be permitted in this connection to 
 repeat an allusion which I have before had occasion 
 to make upon this very subject of American man- 
 hood as exhibited in our diplomacy abroad. 
 
 In the capital of Imperial France, gorgeous with 
 the grandeur and the gold of historic ages, were 
 gathered, eighteen months ago, the selected repre- 
 sentatives of every enlightened government of the 
 earth. Their roll glittered with historic names, 
 and was rich with the blazonry of arms and orders. 
 They embodied the ideas, were clothed with the 
 dignity, charged with the duties, and invested with 
 the powers of the civilized world. 
 
 Among them all, perhaps, neither the simple 
 name nor the unpretending person of the American 
 representative wou.ld at that time attract the 
 attention of the thoughtless or the proud. But 
 during the period which has since passed, France 
 has been the theatre of scenes calculated to try the 
 qualities of all who witnessed or had part in them. 
 Read to-day the record of the stirring months. 
 On that lofty roll but one name seems written in 
 letters of living light, and of all that glittering 
 throng but one figure stands boldly out to challenge 
 
45 
 
 the attention and command the respect of the 
 world. 
 
 The exponent of the hberal views of our govern- 
 ment, and of the comprehensive civiUzation of our 
 people, oin- American representative was, throughout 
 the varying struggle, at once the representative of 
 progress and of law, of freedom and of civilization ; 
 and in the fierce convulsions amid which were dis- 
 solved and lost, together with the influences of 
 human reason, the securities of civil government 
 and the bonds of civil society, he remained the sole 
 representative, guardian, and protector of religion 
 and humanity. The traditions, the forms, the 
 courtesies, the securities of diplomatic intercourse 
 were swept away amid the wild confusion, but he 
 supplied traditions by ideas, forms by actions, 
 courtesies by kindness, securities by courage, till 
 he seemed to stand before the nations, amid the 
 wreck of governments and the ruins of society, as 
 the sole representative of Christian civilization, 
 while the elite of European diplomacy were dwarfed 
 and belittled before the life-size stature of Ameri- 
 can manhood. 
 
 I^ow, my friends, what I rejoice in most to-night, 
 and congratulate myself and you most sincerely 
 upon, in the appointment I mean of our friend, is 
 the American quality of his character and mind ! 
 Looking for the moment beyond the strong personal 
 feelings which grow out of long friendship and 
 
46 
 
 kindly association, beyond my high appreciation of 
 his qu.alities of head and heart, beyond the noble 
 record of his patriotic service and influence, I 
 rejoice in him to-night, and bid him God-speed, 
 as a i-epresentative of American manhood and 
 character. 
 
 President McMichael proposed three cheers for 
 Minister "VVashburne, to whom the speaker referred 
 in his address. The proposition was responded to 
 in su-ch a manner as clearly to show the high 
 appreciation by the gentlemen present of the work 
 of our Minister to France. 
 
 The Hon. Simoit Cambeon, United States 
 Senator from Pennsylvania, was then introduced. 
 
 Gen. Cameron spoke as follows : — 
 
 Gentlemen — It is somewhat unkind to ask me to 
 address this company after those gifted in speech 
 have spoken so eloquently; but your greeting to 
 me is so kind that I cannot refuse to say a few 
 words. Old men love to look backwards. They 
 may act their part in the afiairs of to-day, but 
 when the hours of rest on the occasions of festivity 
 come they have more to do with memories than 
 projects. And so it is with me to-night when we 
 are assembled to honor George H. Bokek. Even 
 now I have a vivid remembrance of another of the 
 
47 
 
 name, Charles Boker, and I recall him as the man 
 who did a noble thing at a critical time. When a 
 fearful financial tornado swept the banks of the 
 country into ruin, and everything seemed to be in 
 danger of destruction; when panic-stricken men 
 felt themselves paralyzed by the great desolation ; 
 then this Boker of whom I speak — in heaven long- 
 years ago — and another brave man whom I saw 
 here in the early hours of this evening, William D. 
 Lewis, took charge of the currency and credit of 
 this city, and saved us all from destruction. We 
 have met to-night to bid farewell and God-speed 
 to Charles Boker's son, and I honor him for the 
 provid name he has earned. But I honor him also 
 for the metal that is in him. I honor him as the 
 son of that brave man whom panic could not craze, 
 nor disaster appal. And I have an especial 
 pleasure in the feeling of pride I experienced when 
 the President paid my old friend's son the deserved 
 compliment of choosing him to represent our 
 country at the court of a great nation, and before 
 the oldest dynasty in Europe. The new Minister 
 to the SubUme Porte is especially fitted to fulfil the 
 high duties laid upon him, and the President has 
 chosen wisely in laying these duties on so capable 
 a citizen, so excellent a gentleman. 
 
 Looking backward yet, I remember how this 
 Union League came into existence. In those 
 days it was not considered "genteel" to be a 
 
48 
 
 Eepviblican. All who had a terror of social 
 influence, of society as it is called, had found 
 refuge in a party which had become the champion 
 of caste, and died in the base service of its master. 
 When the war began between caste on the one 
 hand and liberty on the other, a very considerable 
 proportion of those who loved to call themselves 
 "genteel," many gentlemen of fortune, old Feder- 
 alists already in good society, and a myriad of 
 snobs, who wanted to get into that circle, joined 
 the Democratic party. It had become a sort of 
 social maxim, when Mr. Buchanan ran for the 
 Presidency, that Democracy and Aristocracy, by 
 some occult influence, had become one and the 
 same thing. And it followed that an attempt was 
 made to tramp out every one who refused to 
 worship the Image of Slavery and "Democracy." 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding this, some gentlemen 
 withstood these would-be masters sternly. George 
 H. BoKER, Lindley Smyth, and James H. Orne — 
 and more formed of the same stuff — undertook to 
 organize an opposition to this exclusive coterie, 
 and began the combination of their forces. This 
 Union League of Philadelphia, known all over the 
 land, and in many foreign lands, is the I'esult. Mr. 
 BoKER — as I happen to know — being handsome, 
 (for which he should not be held to too strict a 
 responsibility) and young (he is getting bravely 
 over that) ; and being also gifted with the powers 
 
49 
 
 of organizing, became its secretary, and soon 
 became the master spirit of the enterprise. I 
 remember during the political campaign which 
 ended in the second election of Mr. Lincoln — I 
 had accepted the thankless place of Chairman 
 of the Republican State Committee — it became 
 necessary to invite the Union League to advance 
 money to carry on the campaign. Invitations of 
 this character were not generally responded to b}' 
 those to whom they were addressed. But the 
 League did respond, and responded so generously 
 that when the battle was over I handed them back 
 a surplus of some eight thousand dollars; and, to 
 their everlasting praise be it known, this sum, with 
 much more, was used in recruiting regiments to 
 enable Lincoln to carry out the verdict of the 
 people, rendered in his triumphant re-election. I 
 think an act like this should be noticed far more 
 prominently than it ever has been. I believe this 
 Union League, under God, did more than any 
 civil organization in America to put down the 
 Rebellion. To it must praise be ascribed for doing 
 much to enable the great leader of our armies to 
 win those victories which redeemed our country, 
 and raised him to the position he now holds, as the 
 chief magistrate of our nation and the first soldier 
 of the world. He has done well to honor the 
 Union League by choosing the guest of this 
 evening for honorable political employment, and 
 
50 
 
 with such representatives of his administration as 
 our friend, success is sure. 
 
 And now a word concerning the President. He 
 assumed the duties of his great office at a time 
 when the country was just emerging from a mighty 
 war. The opportunity, open three years previously, 
 for a I'estoration of harmony had been strangely, 
 wickedly thrown away. The defeated rebels, 
 charmed and amazed at Grant's quiet and manly 
 desire to shield them from persecution, were ready 
 to do anything when Lee surrendered. They were 
 astounded at the magnanimity of their conqueror. 
 But in an evil hour — so far as men may judge — 
 a demagogue became the President of the United 
 States. This restless, this unwise, petulant man, 
 aiming at notoriety and popularity, and being 
 unable to grasp the great events, which by a 
 strange providence exalted him, adopted a policy 
 which re-inspired the crushed rebellion and re- 
 manded the South to political chaos. The country 
 turned to Grant, as to a saviour, to bring order out 
 of confusion, and the terrible duty he was called on 
 to perform was thus aggravated to the last pitch of 
 difficulty. But the same steady hand, the same 
 unfaltering courage, the same relentless firmness 
 which put down armed resistance to the laws, 
 grappled with the subtler and more dangerous 
 opposition of a revengeful public opinion, and secret 
 organization controlled by malevolence alone — with 
 
51 
 
 the Rebellion restored while our armies were 
 scattered. How he has met this trying situation 
 we all know. And it would be well for his critics, 
 and his maligners, to bear this always in remem- 
 brance : that Grant's administration inherits the 
 curse generated by the misrule of his predecessor. 
 The public morals always suffer from the effects of 
 war. The political integrity of the country became 
 submerged in the scandalous administration which 
 followed the return of peace. And now all good 
 men see, all good men approve, the course of this 
 able general, this upright magistrate. When dis- 
 order rears its head, he puts it down with a strong 
 hand. When a public officer is proven a defaulter, 
 swift punishment follows. And, in addition to this, 
 the present administration has earned the eternal 
 gratitude of the country by paying off more of our 
 national burthens since it has managed our affairs, 
 ten times over, than has ever been paid by any 
 government on the face of the earth in the same 
 period of time. 
 
 If I have spoken longer than I intended — and I 
 feel that I have — I must lay the blame on the broad 
 shoulders of Boker and of Grant, and I therefore 
 close by a renewal of best wishes for the future of 
 both. 
 
52 
 
 The Hon. John Scott, United States Senator 
 from Pennsylvania, was tlien presented, and said: — 
 
 Gentlemen of the Union League — I came here, 
 this evening, to do honor to your Secretary, now 
 made Minister to Turkey. You have already heard 
 from the President of your Association, from the 
 predecessors of Mr. Bokee in that mission, from 
 poets, and from others, and I do not come, at this 
 late hour, to speak at any length to you. I shall 
 join in honor to your guest, by addressing the few 
 words I have to say in conclusion to him. 
 
 The society of which you are an esteemed 
 member and an officer was one of the great instru- 
 mentalities in successfully resisting the rebellion. 
 Since its close, sir, the great spectacle has been 
 presented of the oldest nation on the earth, claiming 
 at least to be such, sending its embassy to us, 
 headed by a citizen of our own land, starting out 
 to visit all the nations of the earth, and coming 
 first to this, the youngest of the nations, I may 
 say, to pay us reverence. You go now, the 
 representative of this nation, to take your post on 
 the dividing line between Europe and Asia. You 
 go, sir, from this city, within whose limits was 
 made, as has often been said, the only treaty never 
 ratified by an oath and never broken. As you go, 
 poet-diplomatist, passing the land of Machiavel 
 
53 
 
 and under the shadow of Parnassus, may a new 
 inspiration light upon your patriotic muse, and 
 your words come back to us from those sliores, as 
 they have come to us in our own land, words of 
 cheer atid hope. But I feel too I am justified in 
 saying that you go from this spot to say to those 
 nations for us that truth is the best diplomacy, 
 and that the sacred observance of national faith 
 with citizen and foreigner, with civilized as well 
 as savage men, is the strongest bond of national 
 peace. Hold this as the policy of our government, 
 and carrying it with you, I say to you, farewell, 
 and Grod-speed. 
 
 The final address of the evening was made by 
 Mr. Daniel Doughekt y, who said : — 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Brothers of the League — In 
 the presence of so many distinguished citizens from 
 abroad, and of most of our prominent members, I 
 had supposed until this moment that I who since 
 the close of the war rarely visit you, would have 
 remained a silent, though an earnest sharer in this 
 joyous scene — joyous scene it is, though tinged 
 with sweet sorrow in parting from a friend. 
 
 At your summons I rise with no prepared 
 thoughts, no studied sentences. The inspiration 
 
54 
 
 of these surroundings, the emotions of this heart, 
 will prompt the few words that I may speak of 
 him to whom we are about to bid farewell. 
 
 The world knows him as the accomplished 
 scholar, the sterling patriot, the illustrious Ameri- 
 can. We know him as the genial companion, the 
 true friend, the upright man. Eyery sentiment 
 uttered to-night — glowingly, feverently uttered — 
 found an echo, a double echo, in my heart. We 
 are proud of him as a Pennsylvanian, aye, as a 
 Philadelphian ; and this feeling of pride in our own 
 city, this feeling that in recent years has died 
 away, should be recreated, encouraged, and culti- 
 vated. There are some things of which we are 
 ashamed — yet more, many more, that we have 
 cause to be proud of. We never will exert the 
 influence we should, here and among our sister 
 cities, until we fully realize the importance of 
 Philadelphia. Then all true Philadelphians will 
 strive to make her pre-eminent, rejoice in her 
 prosperity, glory in her renown, and this very 
 feeling will drive into deserved obscurity the low 
 fellows who too often aspire to prominence, and 
 bring forward the men whose virtues commend 
 them to the community, and whose learning, tal- 
 ents, and genius should be part of the common 
 fame of the ]Sration. And Bokee is among our 
 best. His lyre has rapturously sung sweet strains 
 
55 
 
 of love, liberty, and loyalty — aye loyalty. It is 
 the fashion of late with some to sneer at this word. 
 It means not adherence to party, but devotion to 
 country. The pen of our Poet consecrated to fame 
 those who were true, and consigned to infamy 
 those who were false, to the nation in her hour of 
 extremest peril. 
 
 I own that I would have preferred to have seen 
 this tribute to our friend freed from all party ties. 
 There are hundreds, aye thousands, in this city 
 who differing on State and National questions, yet 
 who have known him all the days of his life, and 
 would most heartily have shared in showering 
 honors on Gbokge H. Bokek. 
 
 As you expect to sail within two weeks, I hope 
 this night a month hence you will have safely 
 landed in Europe. Though you will be far from 
 Philadelphia; though this Institution, identified 
 with you since its formation, will miss your 
 valuable services ; though your intimates will lose 
 you in joyous hou.rs of festivity; though new 
 scenes and associations will crowd upon and 
 around you; though Royalty with its splendor 
 may greet, it cannot dazzle you, or make you for a 
 moment forget the friends you leave behind. 
 
 And rest assured, you will not be forgotten by 
 us. Philadelphia will glory in her absent son. 
 These walls will hear unceasingly the mention of 
 
56 
 
 your name; in our social hours we will fondly 
 think of you; and thousands will joyfully greet 
 you on your return, as now all speak in sadness, 
 through me, these last farewell words. Good-bye, 
 dear Boker, and God bless you, wherever you 
 may be ! 
 
DURI!N^Gr the evening letters were read, express- 
 ing regret at their inabihty to be present, from 
 the President of tlie United States and from the 
 Members of his Cabinet, excepting the Secretary 
 of the ^avy, whose presence has been referred to ; 
 from the Governor of Pennsylvania, and also the 
 following : — 
 
 From William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Xew York, December 16, 1871. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 It would give me particular pleasure to 
 attend the reception about to be given by the 
 Union League of Philadelphia to a gentleman of 
 such high personal and literary merit as Mr. 
 BoKER, but I have engagements here which put it 
 out of my power. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, with great regard, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. C. BRYANT. 
 
58 
 
 From James T. Fi^ds. 
 
 Boston, December 16, 1811. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 I am greatly annoyed that the 22d. of this 
 month must find me, if I am living, some three 
 hundred miles East instead of South, as I have 
 heen engaged to speak in Maine that evening, 
 and cannot be allowed to hunt up a substitute. 
 Otherwise I should be with you all at the glorious 
 League, and add my voice to the cheers that will 
 go up for ou.r dear friend Boker. I have long 
 known him as a poet, and a ripe and good one; 
 now we are to honor him as a statesman also, for 
 he has won that high name by admii-able service 
 to his country in her days of sorest need. Let me 
 send, as I cannot bring it myself, to your table of 
 good fellowship at the League, a sentiment which 
 Pope was kind enough to put into verse for me 
 before any of us were born : 
 
 Health and Happiness to George H. Bokee; 
 
 "Statesman yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, 
 In action faithful, and in honor clear ; 
 Who broke no promise, served no private end. 
 Who gained no title and who lost no friend." 
 
 With sincere regard, 
 
 JAMES T. FIELDS. 
 
59 
 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Boston, December 17, 18*71. 
 
 Deae Sir — 
 
 I regret very sincerely that my engagements 
 render it impossible for me to be present at the 
 reception tendered by the members of the Union 
 League of Philadelphia to their distinguished fellow- 
 citizen, Mr. George H. Boker. Had it been in 
 my power I should have been most happy to meet 
 Mr. Boker and his friends on an occasion which 
 must prove so full of interest. We all remember 
 the signal services he rendered to our common 
 country during its terrible years of trial. His 
 public spirit made itself felt in many ways — in 
 none more effectively than in writing those spirited 
 lyrics which cheered so many hearts in the darkest 
 hours. 
 
 He will be followed to the scene of his new 
 duties by the best wishes of all who have known 
 him, and all who have known his patriotic zeal and 
 devotion. I should have been better pleased to 
 take his hand and wish him a speedy voyage, a 
 prosperous mission, and a safe return ; but I must 
 content myself with saying-, through this colder 
 channel of expression, that I fully share all the 
 
60 
 
 kind feeling which will gather aronnd him a great 
 cluster of friends to bid him farewell and God- 
 speed. 
 
 Believe me, dear Sirs, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 O. W. HOLMES. 
 
 From Richard H. Stoddard. 
 
 t5 East Tenth Street, 
 New Yokk, December 18, 1871. 
 
 My Dear Sirs — 
 
 You do me honor by inviting me to the 
 reception of my good friend Boker, and it is with 
 sincere regret that I cannot be present. I have 
 known Mr. Boker, man and boy, more years than 
 I can remember, and there is no one for whom I 
 have more respect and admiration. 
 
 I am glad that he is to represent our country 
 abroad, as far as he is concerned, but I am sorry 
 on my own account. I shall so miss his handsome 
 face and his thinning curls. Shake his hand for 
 me, on his reception night, and believe me, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 R. H. STODDARD. 
 
Gl 
 
 From James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 I regret very much that my engagements 
 will not permit me to accept the very agreeable 
 invitation of the Union League. It would have 
 given me great pleasure to have thrown my old 
 shoe with the rest after one who will represent us 
 so favorably abroad. 
 
 Yery truly yours, 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 Elmwood, 18th Dec. 187L 
 
 From Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 Cambridge, December 18, 1871. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 I have had the honor of receiving your 
 kind invitation to be present at the reception of 
 Mr. BoKEE, by the Union League of Philadelphia, 
 and regret extremely that my engagements here 
 prevent me from accepting it. 
 
 I highly esteem Mr. Boker both as a poet and 
 as a man, and should be glad to show it in this 
 way if it were possible for me to do it. 
 
62 
 
 Begging you to accept my thanks and my 
 regrets, I am, gentlemen. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Prom E. P. Whipple. 
 
 Boston, December 18, 18tL 
 
 GrENTLEMEN 
 
 I regret that I shall be unable to be in 
 Philadelphia on the 22d inst., to join in the 
 reception given to our friend Mr. Boker. His 
 first "mission" was literature; and for the last ten 
 years he has subordinated it to patriotism without 
 being untrue to its essential spirit and inspiration. 
 He has learned statesmanship in the school where 
 it is best taught — in the school which teaches the 
 duty of hard and earnest and ardent work for the 
 cause of country and liberty. Boston joins Phila- 
 delphia in wishing him success and happiness in 
 his new career of diplomacy. Of one thing we are 
 all confidently assured, that the Minister will do 
 nothing unworthy the Minstrel. 
 
 Yery sincerely yours, 
 
 E. P. WHIPPLE. 
 
63 
 
 From Thomas B. Aldrich. 
 
 Boston, Mass., December 19, 1811. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 I find the duties very disagreeable which 
 prevent me from being present at the reception to 
 be given to Mr. Bokee by the Union League of 
 Philadelphia. It is pleasant to see Philadelphia 
 treating one of her own distinguished Men of 
 Letters as if he were a distinguished Man of 
 Letters from somewhere else ! We are grimly told 
 that " a prophet is not without honor save in his 
 own country and in his own house." This piece of 
 cynicism is happily at fault in Bokek's case. He 
 is valued most by those who know him best, among 
 whom is, 
 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 T. B. ALDRICH. 
 
 From George W. Curtis. 
 
 Washington, D. C, 20tli Dec. 1871. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 I am sincerely sorry that I cannot accept 
 your kind invitation to the reception in honor of 
 Mr. Bokee, who goes to continue the good service 
 of his fellow Peamsylvanians, Mr. Morris and Mr. 
 
64 
 
 MacYeagh, not only in guarding the national 
 interest and honor, but in showing to the East the 
 character and accomplishments of an American 
 gentleman. 
 
 There will be no one at your feast whose God- 
 speed to our friend will be heartier than that of, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 From Edmund C. Steadman. 
 
 New Yoek, January 9, 1872. 
 
 Gentleme^st — 
 
 It is with me a matter of sincere regret that 
 your invitation to be present at the reception to 
 Geokge H. Bokek failed to reach me by mail or 
 otherwise. I should deem it a privilege to assist 
 in any formal recognition of the genius and 
 patriotism of one whom I have so long loved as a 
 comrade, admired as our foremost dramatic poet, 
 and honored for his superb manhood and his 
 unswerving devotion to the Union cause throughout 
 our Civil War. 
 
 The services which Mr. Boker rendered to his 
 country are not alone to be measured by his 
 inseparable connection with the history of your 
 renowned Union Leagu.e, but were potent wherever 
 the hearts of the people were reached — and where 
 
65 
 
 were they not? — by such noble lyrics as "On 
 Board the Cumberland," " The Black Reghiient," 
 and " The Ballad of New Orleans." In common 
 with the entire brotherhood of American authors, 
 I feel that his appointment to a foreign mission is 
 a tribute to letters and poesy; and that in imitating 
 the example of the greatest nations of ancient and 
 modern times, and conferring honors upon those 
 who " make the songs of a people," our country 
 honors herself, and strengthens the devotion of 
 her most earnest and unselfish sons. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 EDMUND C. STEADMAN. 
 
OOI^TEIBUTOES. 
 
 Clayton Macmichael, 
 M. Hall Stanton, 
 Joseph Harrison, Jr., 
 Charles K. Ide, 
 Robert S. Sturgis, 
 Gibson Peacock, 
 Edward S. Mawson, 
 George Plitt, 
 Xavier Bazin, 
 James H. Campbell, 
 James V. Watson, 
 George Whitney, 
 Joseph Frailey Smith, 
 Cornelius A. Walborn, 
 Joseph Wm. Bates, 
 Bloomfield H. Moore, 
 George J. Gross, 
 Walter McMichael, 
 Morton McMichael, 
 William P. Brock, 
 Francis S. HoiFman, 
 John L. Shoemaker, 
 Alexander Biddle, 
 Thomas S. Ellis, 
 
 William Cadwalader, 
 William P. Cresson, 
 John E. Cope, 
 James PI. Castle, 
 William D. Lewis, 
 Franklin A. Comly, 
 William Wister, 
 Thomas Fitzgerald, 
 Joshua B. Lippincott, 
 Augustus R. Hall, 
 Junius E. Kingsley, 
 Benjamin G. Godfrey, 
 Charles ISTorris, 
 James L. Claghorn, 
 Strickland Kneass, 
 George F. Tyler, 
 Charles S. Lewis, 
 Francis Wells, 
 Charles J. Stiil6, 
 James Milliken, 
 Joseph H. Schenck, 
 Joseph Wm. Miller, 
 George S. Fox, 
 Charles A. Besson, 
 
68 
 
 J. Morgan Jennison, 
 Samuel S. White, 
 William S. Yaux, 
 Joshua T. Heald, 
 Thomas Sparks, 
 Clayton French, 
 Eobert Wood, 
 Abraham Barker, 
 Philip E. Freas, 
 G-eorge W. Childs, 
 Francis W. Lewis, M.D., 
 James S. Mason, 
 William J. Caner, 
 Francis L. Bodine, 
 Joseph Gr. Mitchell, 
 William J. Jenks, 
 Robert P. Gillingham, 
 William Sellers, 
 John Sellers, 
 William B. Bement, 
 Henry C. Lea, 
 John F. Graff, 
 Lewis Audenried, 
 Thomas A. Biddle, 
 Edward S. Clarke, 
 Annesley E,. G-ovett, 
 E. Joy Morris, 
 George W. Farr, Jr., 
 Edward Browning, 
 William H. Kern, 
 George E. Hoffman, 
 Ferdinand J. Dreer, 
 
 William H. Sowers, 
 William K. Park, 
 Abraham Hart, 
 Hugh Davids, 
 Gustavus S. Benson, 
 J. Raymond Claghorn, 
 Edward Wharton, 
 John J. Thomas, 
 R. Dale Benson, 
 Edward P. Kershaw, 
 Edwin M. Lewis, 
 Joseph Trimble, 
 William H. Lippincott, 
 John A. Houseman, 
 Joseph Wharton, 
 Joseph Lea, 
 J. Frederick List, 
 William H. Kemble, 
 William M. Farr, 
 Benjamin C. Tilghman, 
 Horatio N. Burroughs, 
 Matthew H. Messchert, 
 Lindley Smyth, 
 Ira E. Walraven, 
 Charles O'Neill, 
 Sanderson R. Martin, 
 Thomas M. Coleman, 
 John W. Lockwood, 
 Robert H. Gratz, 
 Henry C. Howell, 
 Samuel B. Thomas, 
 Charles S. Wurts, M.D., 
 
69 
 
 Joseph H. Eoach, 
 George Thompson, 
 George M. Stroud, 
 David S. Brown, 
 George R. Wood, 
 Clarence H. Clark, 
 Alexander G. Cattell, 
 Stephen Flanagan, 
 James M. Flanagan, 
 Jay Cooke, 
 J. Bernard "Wilson, 
 P. Frazer Smith, 
 Virtue C. Sweatman, 
 George J. Richardson, 
 Charles H. Graff, 
 John Crump, 
 John S. Gerhard, 
 Alexander K. McClure, 
 William H. Allen, 
 Horatio G. Sickel, 
 Edward B. Edwards, 
 Thomas T. Tasker, Jr., 
 Edwin L. Reakirt, 
 Aaron V. Gibbs, 
 J. Rodman Paul, 
 John Clayton, 
 James Forney, 
 Benjamin Stevenson, 
 Edward Roberts, Jr., 
 George Cadwalader, 
 John Rice, 
 Henry Blanchard, 
 
 Edwin L. Davenport, 
 Clement Biddle, 
 Archibald Mclntyre, 
 G. Dawson Coleman, 
 Cadwalader Biddle, 
 H. Pratt McKean, 
 Adolph E. Borie, 
 Charles Lennig, 
 Nicholas Lennig, 
 J. G. L. Brown, 
 Edward Penington, Jr., 
 John M. Read, 
 James Spear, 
 Charles Macalester, 
 William Wetherill, 
 Fairman Rogers, 
 J. Gillingham Fell, 
 Joseph H. Trotter, 
 William R. Leeds, 
 George J. Weaver, 
 John K. Valentine, 
 Aaron A. Hurley, 
 Edward C. Knight, 
 P. S. P. Conner, 
 Henry Lewis, 
 Samuel Bell, 
 Seth I. Comly, 
 John Culin, 
 W. Henry Rawle, 
 Charles W. Trotter, 
 James E. Caldwell, 
 John Wagner, 
 
70 
 
 Frederick Graft", 
 H. Earnest Goodman, 
 Edward Shippen, 
 Samuel C. Perkins, 
 E. W. Bailey, 
 Joseph W. Bullock, 
 Dell. IToblit, 
 Thomas Birch, 
 Stephen A. Caldwell, 
 John B. Kenney, 
 Henry A. Stiles, 
 Henry D. Landis, 
 Charles Gilpin, 
 Thomas Cadwalader, 
 Israel Maule, 
 "William Ward, 
 Henry H. Bingham, 
 Peter E. Rothermel, 
 Henry C. Baird, 
 John P. Verree, 
 James T- Mitchell, 
 Charles S. Ogden, 
 Thomas George Morton, 
 Charles E. Smith, 
 John A. Hiestand, 
 Louis A. Godey, 
 Harry Godey, 
 Evan Pandolph, 
 Augustus Heaton, 
 George T). Wetherill, • 
 Gouverneur Emerson, M.D 
 Henry Davis, 
 
 Henry G. Morris, 
 William B. Elliott, 
 Hamilton Disston, 
 William E. Littleton, 
 William E.. Lejee, 
 Marshall Henszey, 
 Howard Kirk, 
 Thomas Wood, 
 Alan Wood, Jr., 
 J. Edgar Thomson, 
 William Elliott, 
 George S. Strawbridge, 
 Albert H. Smith, 
 Charles Gibbons, 
 James B. Agnew, 
 Richard P. Campion, 
 Andrew M. Eastwick, 
 Henry C. Gibson, 
 Campbell Tucker, 
 William W. Ifevin, 
 Elwood Wilson, 
 John L. Lawson, 
 Henry C. Carey, 
 John J. Pinkerton, 
 Saunders Lewis, 
 Thomas Smith, 
 Anthony J. Antelo, 
 J. I. C. Hare, 
 Peter A. B. Wiedner, 
 Thomas McEuen, M.D., 
 , Lewis Wain Smith, 
 A. Boyd Cummings, 
 
71 
 
 Adolphus Lippe, M.D., 
 Edward Samuel, 
 Hector Tyndale, 
 Morton McMichael, Jr., 
 John Price Wether ill, 
 Edward Lafourcade, 
 George Cuthbert, 
 John H. Micheuer, 
 Henry P. Muirheid, 
 Thomas Webster, 
 William H. Eisenbrey, 
 Robert B. Cabeen, 
 
 Daniel Dougherty, 
 Richard Wood, 
 Andrew Wheeler, 
 Edwin ]Sr. Benson, 
 Samuel L. Smedley, 
 Frederick W. Fotterall, 
 James Pollock, 
 Lorin Blodget, 
 Samuel E. Stokes, 
 Richard Wright, 
 Benjamin T. Tredick. 
 
wg* 1 i? 
 
 
 ■iitSmmiii