.*48.

YALE i'^'^'
JUL 3 192i
UBRM ^

Speech by
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew
On His Ninetieth Birthday at the
Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
April 26th, 1924, Being the
33d Annual Dinner
Given Him by
This Club

/ ^ 4

/06

intermted ia seeing the doaiBient, '¦hi^ trill he hroo^t
to his attention immediately xcpaa his retnrs*
Veaty truly youra,
secretary to tiie l^aeideat*

Sfey 27, 1924,
H(»i, Ohaaao^ M. Depeisr,
^: 27 Weet 54t}i street,
^ -- Sew^Iorlt eitgr.
:Deax* 3^« Bepi'eers* Following an illness of th© past fe^ weeks.
PresM«ait Jiagoll has gon© ssray for a brief rest hefore
resBffling hia Uniirersity dattea* I am therefore
writing to thank yon for yoar feind thim^t fulness in
sending hia a copy of yonr addreas on the oooasiou of

Speech by
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew
On His Ninetieth Birthday at the
Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
April 26th, 1924, Being the
33d Annual Dinner
Given Him by
This Club

Speech by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew on His
Ninetieth Birthday at the Montauk Club, Brook
lyn, N. Y., April 26, 1924, Being the 33rd
Annual Dinner Given Him by This Club.
Mt Friends : The outlook upon life at ninety is
necessarily influenced by the past. There are
periods, epochs and crises in a career which seriously
affect one's life or powers of observation. The dis
puted theory of evolution is a demonstrated fact
as an influence of the years upon character and
mind. To the pessimist this is an entirely different
world from what it seems to an optimist. I began
Ufe with an inherited tendency to look on the dark
side and to worry. I persistently practised a culti
vation of humor and have thus overcome this
tendency. Looking Back for Eighty-Six Years
My memory goes back for eighty-six years, and
the whole of that period, with its experiences and
contacts, has been an education. Mr. Sinclair
Lewis' illuminating novel "Main Street" has been
widely accepted as an accurate picture of village
life in the younger settlements of the country, but
it has no semblance of the conditions in the older
communities of the East. My village, Peekskill-
on-the-Hudson, had passed the pioneer period long
before the Revolutionary War. It was peopled by
famihes who had traditions and ancestors. The boy
or girl, on reaching the period of intelhgence, en
tered at once into educational and social conditions
which were the result of its growth and stabiUzing
3

characteristics. In the absence of the trained
assistants of modern days, it was universally neigh
borly to help where necessary in the care of the sick
or to watch over the dead. The effect of such
surroundings and experiences during the formative
years created a very democratic apprehension of
one's position and duties to his neighbors. Without
any lowering of self-respect, or rather the enhancing
on it, without any loss of position or suggestion of
it, there was universal exchange and interchange,
and yet a recognition of the position and power
which came from success and intellectual superiority.
There was no great wealth and no extreme poverty.
Acquaintance was practically universal. Prom al
most infancy to old age, aU went to church. The
gatherings there for Sunday services, the Sunday
school, the weekly prayer-meetings and the social
service work were periods of intense community
interest. Through them the joy or happiness of an
individual or family were participated in by every
body, and a real sympathy which came from rather
intimate acquaintance, characteristics and condi
tions led to practical sympathy for those who re
quired it in the administration of the material side
of hfe.
The familiar head hnes in the papers were "Three
days later from Europe," and that was due to the
arrival of steamers which had been at least ten days
on the ocean. It meant that three days had elapsed
since the last steamer. It would cause a revolution
now to be for that period cut off from the world.
We had no European problems and our interests
were largely local, except when the time came for
4

a general election. Then party feelings ran high,
national and state issues were thoroughly discussed.
The population was ahnost wholly of descent from
England, Ireland and Scotland and Wales, except a
few families of French Huguenots. I received the
other day a list of children now taking part on the
playground in Depew Park, and a majority of them
have names indicating immigrants from Continental
Europe. At first we gave asylum to those fleeing from
persecution for political or religious liberty; after
wards an intensive propaganda was inaugurated to
increase the population on our farms, to build up
towns, to extend our manufactory facOities, to open
our mines, cut down our forests and promote real
estate enterprises, until by inviting and urging the
world to share in our most wonderful heritage and
our almost exhaustless resources we have given them
away. We are now raising the bars against immi
gration but whoUy on economic- and labor considera
tions. The hectic development of our country has
permitted a few generations to participate in the
opportunities of a rapid development. The ques
tions arising out of these conditions are no longer
practical but interesting academic studies.
Macaulay's Gruesome Prophecy
Macaulay made the gruesome prophecy that
when we had a crowded population and our pubhc
lands were exhausted, our form of government could
not survive the strain of the struggling milhons,
and chaos and anarchy would follow. But our
people are better off in every way and are enjoying
5

the more cultural results of democracy, as well as
material benefits, than were possible when Macaulay
became a prophet of disaster. Still it is an interest
ing inquiry if our present immigration laws had
been in force seventy years ago and never hberal-
ized, what would have been the influence of the
ahnost exhaustless wealth of our land? Austraha,
with about the same area, has so restricted immigra
tion that she can provide homes for the million and
a half of the unemployed of Great Britain and still
have farms for many miUions for generations to
come. The Educational Influence of Writers
The educational influence of a few great writers
on their generations continued through life. We
wonder and cannot explain why these authors of
rare genius have no successors of equal power now.
The whole English speaking world felt the force
of Walter Scott, Dickens and Thackeray, and also
in a lesser but stUl potential way of Victor Hugo.
A novel or story by Dickens was an event. The
characters became parts of our family Ufe. We
visualized them among our neighbors. Micawber
was weU known in every community, and many
others appeared at parties or at church. Women
writers were welcomed when we had so worn off the
prejudices of centuries that we could judge her work
without thinking she had endangered the home by
neglecting her mission of the children, the church
and the kitchen. So, Miss Bronte came into her
place, and "Jane Eyre" thrilled us, and we welcomed
the charm of George Eliot. The field now is both
6

narrowed and enlarged. Our vision encircles the
globe and we are in daily contact with events which
dwarf our early experiences, and out of which the
genius of the past evolved their masterpieces. We
are hungry for a master in literature and art, but he
fails to materiaUze. We wander enviously and ad
miringly through the great periods of Queen Eliza
beth and Queen Victoria, and wonder if the six
teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are to
have no successors.
The Age of Merciless Criticism
I enter fuUy into the appreciation and praise of
the wonders of the nineteenth century. Steam is
foUowed by electricity, by radio and radium, and
discovery reveals the secrets of nature and overcomes
the handicaps on health and longevity imtil the
brain becomes fatigued to understand it aU, but the
soul starves. The foundations of faith are shaken,
and readers of the creed who deny its teachings, and
preachers who want their independence and weaken
reverence by denying the divinity of Christ, fiU the
newspapers and empty the churches. The numb
ness caused by the appalUng tragedies of the Great
War and of poUtical revolutions among historic
peoples do not require assaults on faith to wake up
and interest people, but a revival of the simpler life
and comforting behef of normal times. We carry
criticism too far and the analytic spirit is rampant.
We are Uke children who dissect that with which
they are happy until the sawdust pours out of the
doU, or it fails to work when the machinery is
wrecked. The age is merciless with its idols and
7

with the revered notables of the past, I was far
happier with the authors of the eighteenth century
biographies who ideaUzed their heroes. We were
very well satisfied and felt an elevation, unusual
now, in the Uves and achievements of the great
characters of our Revolution and the framers of
our Constitution. Our blood circulated with de
lightful rapidity as we read of Washington at the
battle of Monmouth, raging at Lee for his treason
and cowardice, or at VaUey Forge, keeping aUve the
spirit of his suffering army. Lafayette figured large
in our eyes and imagination and gave us an infinite
pleasure far different from our feelings as we read
the historical surgical operations which diminish his
greatness. I know that Franklin was very human, but I dis
like to be told of his frailties. The wise and genial
philosopher, the able and farsighted statesman, the
accomplished diplomat, the scientist opening the
roads for modern developments, is of infinite inspi
ration and encouragement. I like to read of
Hamilton as the greatest constructive genius in
govemment of his time, and resent the suggestion
that if he had to deal with the more complex prob
lems of today, he would fail. Jefferson had faults
so grave and in some respect so mean that they
seriously affect our admiration, but I like to see him
only as the author of the Declaration of Independ
ence and the founder of the University of Virginia.
Our country owes much of its present power, pros
perity and devotion to liberty to the way that for
generations the leaders of the Revolution and of the
constitutional period have been ideaUzed.
8

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria reigned for sixty years. During
that period the British empire came into working
efficiency and power. The influence of this con
federation of free States belting the globe upon the
destinies of the world, and the growth of Uberal
civilization cannot be over-estimated. The Victorian
era was distinguished by rare scholarship and high
contributions to literature and science. The Victo
rians have a permanent place in the temple of fame.
But a cult has arisen whose mission and labors are to
ridicule the time, its authors, its statesmen and its
men and women of distinction. To be classed as
of the Victorian period is a term of reproach. No
woman sovereign or citizen was ever held in more
reverent esteem among her contemporaries, than
Queen Victoria. She was an example and an inspi
ration in the virtues of the wife, the mother and the
woman, and received a world tribute as a sovereign.
But she has become a helpless victim to this (aitical
age. Mr. Strachey, a writer of rare genius, of pic
turesque analysis, of fascinating mental and spirit
ual surgery, has so dissected her as an administrator
and a woman, that the ruler in one of the most
briUiant periods in human history is revealed as a
skeleton, who in her Ufe was a weak and silly woman
and the plumed and fashioned effigy of a Queen.
The people laugh, and an outstanding figure of
grace, beauty and majesty disappears; one of the
inspirations for the school, for society, for the
church, for good conduct and good manners in aU
9

the relations of life, becomes largely a mockery.
This is not the result of any new facts but a skilful
allocution of old ones for the amusement of the
gallery. All these destructive efforts are said to be in the
interest of truth. The modernist in religion takes
away from Christ his divinity and also claims it is
to advance truth. He brings to his creed, if it is a
creed, not a single item beyond the revelations of
the New Testament and the faith of the early
fathers, but says he does not see the story that way
and glories in smashing the faith, the ideals, the
comforting and saving graces which have carried
unnumbered mUlions through happy Uves to a death
of confidence and hope. I can understand why a
communist or an anarchist wants to destroy reUgion
and distort the memory of the Saviour of mankind.
They claim that only by confiscating all the accumu
lated wisdom and treasures of the past can they
estabUsh their state.
None can count, none can portray, it is difficult
to imagine the power of Washington and Lincoln as
sjrmbols in the continuance of American citizenship.
In a lesser but stiU important degree came the fifty-
five remarkable men who in secret sessions worked
for eighty-one days, and then produced the Con
stitution of the United States, which Gladstone de
clared the greatest work ever struck off at a given
time by the brain and purpose of man, and which
alone of the govemments of the world has stood the
strain of administrative, territorial and economic
expansion for one hundred and thirty-seven years,
with no change in its fundamental principles. For
10

generations the great triumvirate, Webster, Clay
and Calhoun, educated statesmen and aroused
patriotism which in the supreme crises of its fate
saved the Union.
What Do the Iconoclasts Get?
In the analysis of Ufe, it is judged by the happi
ness it enjoys and gives. This being true, it sur
passes imagination to conceive what worth whUe
the iconoclasts get from their efforts. They surely
cannot enjoy the crumbUng of their faith. They
must be grieved, notwithstanding their stoicism, by
the distress and despair of the weaker brethren
whose standards they undermine. They substitute
inteUectual pride for the fundamentals on which
the great mass of people rely, and only while sus
tained by mistaking notoriety for applause can
there be solid satisfaction.
Bunyan and MUton had an eternity of joy in the
flesh and carried mUUons into an atmosphere of
faith and hope. That brilhant EngUshman, Lord
Birkenhead, has incurred the severest criticism of
the clergy and educators in Great Britain by a rec
torial address to the students of the University of
Glasgow. In this elaborate and interesting speech
he warns of renewal of wars by Ulustrating that in
aU ages of the past, the fighting instinct in man has
won empires and then destroyed them. He sees the
same motives, which have made aU history a ghastly
chronicle, only waiting for an opportunity. He
finds no barriers in leagues and covenants and reck
lessness of the wreck of civUization and ultimate
11

chaos. It is the strongest presentation yet made of
the hopelessness of the world's future.
1923-1924
1923, you are far enough from the close of the
most frightful tragedy of the ages to testify to the
hope of recovery, what say you? An hesitant and
yet confident 1924 awaits your message of hope or
despair. Never since the dawn of history has there been
such a universal prostration as six years ago, at
the time of the armistice. For the few years foUow
ing, conditions became worse. The new nations
carved out of old empires, could not adjust them
selves to the antagonism and life within their nar
row territories; hostile customs barriers and restric
tions invited fresh worry, and craving for neighbor
ing provinces inspired preparation and animosity.
The old govemments which had thus been ampu
tated found it difficult to exist. Economic activities
essential to health and growth were so paralyzed
that Ustless hunger or savage revolution threatened
civilization. 1923 witnessed most hopeful recoveries. Thirty
miUions starving Russians were fed by the generos
ity of the United States, and communism, despairing
because of the ruin caused by its policies, appealed
for help to capitaUsm abroad and restored capitalism
at home, that is the oppwrtunity and reward for the
individual in business. Austria was put on its feet
and found it could walk. Germany is Ulustrating
an industrial Ufe and activity that only needs pa
tience, prudence and forbearance for resumption of
12

prosperity. France is cultivating her devastated
fields and rebuilding her ruined villages, and flowers
are blooming on ihe graves of the heroic dead who
gave their Uves for civiUzation and liberty. England
has so pluckily and nobly bome her staggering bur
dens that she has balanced her budget and begun
payments on her debts. Her self-governing colonies
are demonstrating the boundless energy and hope
fulness of youth in the development of their re
sources. For the United States, 1923 is g, banner
year. Industry conquered unemplosonent. The
railroads, the arteries of the country's commerce and
the barometer of its trade, have had their most
prosperous year. A section of our farming terri
tories is suffering from the depression due to the loss
of foreign markets and overproduction, but that
situation is improving. The savings banks have
record breaking deposits. The colleges are over
crowded with eager, ambitious and hopeful youths.
Controversies in the churches and unrest in poUtical
parties are growing pains. For the first time since
the close of the war, conditions have so improved
that the people with unusual unanimity are demand
ing the adoption of the scheme of the Secretary of
the Treasury for the reduction of taxes and the wise
utUization of our resources for general and indi
vidual prosperity.
Views qf the Present and the Future
One's views of the present and future are so
governed by individual experience, prosperity or
misfortune, by surrounding and temperament that
it is difficult to be comprehensive and impartial.
13

At different periods in the past, there have been
times of exaltation and depression. The Roman
poet Horace sang that with Emperor Augustus had
come the golden age, and after would be decline.
Gloom and hopelessness foUowed the faU of the
Roman empire, to be succeeded by the most spirit
ual and intellectual revival.
We lived for over fifty years in fear of the disso
lution of the Union and national chaos, to enjoy
after severe trials a better, stronger and more pros
perous Republic. I have a letter written by my
great-grandfather, a successful man of his day, a
State Senator and a Judge, telling one of his chU
dren that with the election of Jefferson we were on
the verge of a repetition of the French revolution
in our govemment and of atheism and agnosticism
in our reUgion. I hope the spirit of the old gentle
man is in touch with the infinitely greater, happier
and better country enjoyed by his descendants.
A protecting Providence has so far tumed the
apparent calamities of today into blessings to
morrow. To prevent the increasingly constricting
power of FederaUsm from checking or smothering
our proper development, we required the advanced
Uberalism of Thomas Jefferson. To save us from
reactionary and revolutionary conditions, came the
constitutional barriers erected by Chief Justice
MarshaU. Blessings so great and so many that they
can neither be classified nor numbered were the
final fruitage of our CivU War.

14

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
That wise and genial philosopher. Dr. Oliver Wen-
deU Holmes, kept cheerful and hopeful by making
Dr. Samuel Johnson of the previous century his
guide. Each month Dr. Hohnes would tum to
BosweU's invaluable biography and find what John
son was doing that month in the preceding century
which could be dupUcated in the succeeding one.
So, Dr. Holmes better than any, visualized at the
ten year gatherings of his coUege class the outlook
at each decade. But, unfortunately, he closed the
record at the fiftieth anniversary when the class
mates were in their seventies. Dr. Osier advised
chloroform at forty, and most writers and psychol
ogists put sixty as the Umit of useful activity. But
the best work of many who have Uved properly and
encouraged their ambitions has been done after
three score. Milton's Third Wife
The third wife of John MUton, the famous poet,
was a young woman of beauty, education and
chann. She married Milton who was past middle
age, bUnd and exceedingly difficult. She did every
thing in her power to make him happy and con
tented, and assisted him in his very exacting literary
work. He left her six hundred pounds, or three
thousand doUars in American money. With a skUl,
thrift and economy unknown in our age, she made
this smaU fortune carry her for fifty-three years,
and when she died she had about two hundred
doUars left. She devoted part of this money to pur-
15

chase a tombstone and engraved upon it this simple
inscription: "Elizabeth, the third and best wife of
John MUton, the poet." Evidently, the ambition
of her Ufe was to identify herself and pass her name
dowri to posterity in this connection with the great
author of "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained."
I sometimes think Milton's first wife was a shrew
and a termagant, and that it was because of her that
MUibon wrote "Paradise Lost," and it was the charm
of his third wife which led him to compose "Paradise
Regained." The MUtonic age was rich in its contri
butions to the advancement of civUization and lit
erature. With all there was of this age and aU her
experiences in the ninety years of her life, it was
nothing to her. It was sufficient that she was the
third and best wife of the great poet.
1834^1924
My ninety years from 1834 to 1924 have no
paraUel in recorded time. Its inventions and dis
coveries and achievements have revolutionized the
whole world.' In this period, the railroads have
made possible the settlement of continents and the
creation of cities and viUages and the multipUcation
of happy homes. Steam and its wonders belong to
this age. The steamship has conquered the ocean
and brought aU shores in quick and easy communi
cation. The telegraph and the cable have anni
hilated space and time. The wireless and radio have
brought the air to the service of mankind. The
elevator has made possible the skyscraper, and the
airplane provided new and rapid method of com
munication. It has been an era of preventive
16

medicine which has redeemed vast areas from
disease to health and happy populations. The
one work which speciaUy designates the age is
emancipation. In no period of history has there been such con
tributions to freedom. When Christ began his
mission more than half the world was reduced to
slavery. In these ninety years, emancipation in the
United States released from bondage a whole race
and made the Declaration of Independence true in
fact as in spirit. The serf was Uberated in Russia,
but the greatest achievements of emancipation have
been in govemment. Divine right has disappeared
and with it inherited tjranny of the ruUng famUies
of the Romanoffs, the Hapsburgs, the HohenzoUems
and the Bourbons.
By the sacrifice of fifty miUions of lives and the
accumulated treasures of a thousand years, the
world was made safe for democracy. That the op
portunity was not generally improved was because
large sections of the population of the globe were
unable to grasp the significance and the opportunity
which had come to them. In Russia, a new tyranny,
more drastic and more terrible than the old, was sub
stituted for the czars'. It is said that the hew era
has sacrificed nearly three miUions of Uves to ex
terminate aU who disagreed or couid not be brought
into subjection to the few who had seized upon all
power and confiscated all property. In Italy the
people have tumed for safety to a dictator, and also
in Spain. France has risen with marvelous energy
and genius to the understanding and enjojonent of
her opportunities. Austria has been saved, and with
17

it her culture and civiUzation. Germany is rapidly
reaching the position which belongs to such a highly
developed and cultured people. The traditions, the
education and the experience of the EngUsh-speak-
ing peoples have made them the chief custodians,
saviours and defenders of liberty and civiUzation.
St. Paul's Formula for Happiness
St. Paul gave the formula for human happiness in
"Faith, Hope and Charity, and the greatest of aU
is Charity." The word for charity and its practices
were unknown when Christ began his mission and
in international affairs undreamed of. But charity
in its widest and most generous application has
saved within the last few years over fifty millions
from starvation and has placed them upon the road
of self-support and contribution to the world's
necessities. Building Up and Tearing Down
During the first half of the period we are dis
cussing, every effort of right-minded people and
every sacrifice were made for the increase of liberal
ism in govemment, in reUgion and in thought. This
having gained in a marvelous degree freedom for
the people, the progressive of to-day has reversed
his tactics and his thought and efforts are to
place restrictions upon freedom. He made it pos
sible for the raUways to reach their present develop
ment and with their expansion to benefit in wonder
ful measure the whole country. Now his theory
about the railroads is to cripple and destroy their
credit and aU possibiUties of their eaming means
18

for the expansion required for the development of
our industries and our resources. In the same way,
the progressive and the radical looks with distrust
upon the exercise of the freedom which his prede
cessors have secured.
No Fears for the Present or the Future
I have no fears, however, for the present or the
future. On the contrary, I beUeve that the next
ninety years wUl experience a peace among nations,
a mutual helpfulness, a revival of industry and
intemational commerce beyond anything known in
the past. I am not disturbed by the relipous ex
citement or controversy which is shaking the land.
It all leads to discussion, discussion leads to light
and light leads to truth. Publicity is the solvent of
most ills. I am still prejudiced, however, if that is
the proper feeling, in favor of the Senate, so rev
erenced in my boyhood of Webster, Clay, Calhoun
and almost equal associates, rather than our present
"greatest deliberative body on earth."
"God Reigns and the Republic Still Lives"
I remember, as one of the most dramatic scenes
I ever witnessed, the mob which swept me down
Wall Street on the moming when it was announced
that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. It
was a large crowd intent on the murder of all who
opposed Mr. Lincoln and the destmction of their
property. There suddenly appeared on the balcony
of the Custom House a magnificent figure. He at
once arrested the attention of the crowd and stilled
its shoutings. Then, with a voice of marvelous
19

power, he restored calmness and sanity by this senti
ment, "God reigns and the Republic stUl Uves."
The orator was General Garfield.
God reigns to-day in a way He never did before.
In the earUer years of our country. He was almi^ty
but He was distant. To-day, He is familiar. This
very discussion brings Him into our Uves in
both a divine and human way as never before. The
spirit which enabled our fathers to successfuUy fight
the Revolution and create our wonderful Constitu
tion, which carried us successfuUy throughout the
War of the States and saved the Union and emanci
pated the slaves, had aU its primitive ardor and
patriotism when four millions of our boys eagerly
accepted the call to arms and carried on heroic
service on foreign soil and were the principal factor
in the winning of that great victory for civiUzation
and liberty.
Our inspiration for to-day and the future is:
"God reigns and the RepubUc stiU Uves."

20

LIB
SPEECH BY THE
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew
ON HIS
EIGHTY-SECOND BIRTHDAY
at the
MONTAUK CLUB OF BROOKLYN
April 29, 1916

Being the Twenty-fifth Annual Dinner Given Him hy this Club.