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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Senate and Assembly

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK

ON THE

LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

ROSWELL P. FLOWER

ALBANY, APRIL 3, 1 900

ALBANY

JAMES B. LYON, STATE PRINTER I9OO

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THE NEW Y«RK

PUB»C U»ABY

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B 1951 L

COMMITTEES OF THE LEGISLATURE

On the Part of the Senate

ELON R. BROWN HENRY J. COGGESHALL

THOMAS F. DONNELLY

On the Part of the Assembly

MORGAN BRYAN CHARLES O. ROBERTS IRA C. MILES

PATRICK H. ROCHE JULIUS HARBURGER

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Legislature of the State of New York

RELATIVE TO THE

LIFE AND SERVICES

OF

Roswell P. Flower

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ROSWELL P. FLOWER

PROCEEDINGS

Assembly Chamber,

Albany, April 3, 1900.

The Legislature having met in joint session in the Assembly Chamber, in pursuance of a joint resolution of the Senate and Assembly, Senator Elon R. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Committee, called the meeting to order.

The proceedings were opened with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Walton W. Battershall, of Albany, as follows:

Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we beseech thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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O Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life; in whom who- soever believeth, shall live, though he die; and whoso- ever liveth. and believeth in him, shall not die eternally; who also hath taught us, by his holy Apostle Saint Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for those who sleep in him; We humbly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteous- ness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him ; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all who love and fear thee, saying, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death didst take away the sting of death; Grant unto us thy servants so to follow in faith where thou hast led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in thee, and awake up after thy likeness; through thy mercy, who livest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

In introducing Governor Theodore Roosevelt as the presiding officer of the evening. Senator Brown spoke as follows:

Pursuant to a joint resolution of the Senate and Assembly, the members of the Senate and Assembly

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and the general public, have convened here to take suit- able action in memory of the life and public services of the late Governor Roswell P. Flower.

Governor Roosevelt, upon taking- the chair, said:

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Senate and Assembly. Fellow Citizens:

We have met together to-night, most appropri- ately in this hall of the popular branch of the Legisla- ture at the capital of the State, to pay honor to the memory of a man who held for three years the highest State office in the gift of the people. A man who, in his life, peculiarly represented much we have come to regard as typical of an American. A man of great means, whose ambition it was that success should mean more than merely the success of money making; a success comprehended in the phrase " having rendered service to the people." It will be an evil day for the State and Nation when we regard purely material suc- cess as the highest type of achievement. Had Ros- well P. Flower died merely as a rich man, none save those next of kin would have remembered he had ever lived. To Mr. Flower it was given to hold high office, both here and in Washington, and, while loyally serv- ing his party, to yet keep first in his mind his duty to the people and the State. It was his fortune to belong to the class where wealth is but an incident to a large success, and to win a renown disconnected with what his means were and wholly dependent on what he could actually accomplish. It is fitting we should honor his memory; that we should be called to order by the rep- resentative in the Senate of that beautiful city whence

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Governor Flower came; and that I should have the honor of introducing to you to deliver the formal eulogy the gentleman who led in this chamber with such conspicuous success the members of the party to which Governor Flower belonged — the Hon. John B. Stanchfield, of Elmira.

ADDRESS BY HON. J. B. STANCHFIELD

Hon. John B. Stanchfield then delivered the fol- lowing memorial address:

Be it said to the credit of our nature, we gladly obey that impulse which prompts us to pay tribute to the distinguished dead. A sweeping retrospect of history will disclose but few names to whom public honor has been tendered. Now and again in the going years some name, lustrous and bright with benefactions to humanity, will sparkle for a period in the horizon of the day, and then fade away until nothing but a remem- brance is left us. Alas! how few are they! Time has softened the poignancy of grief the sudden death of Governor Flower inspired, and in the light of candor and impartiality we are enabled to see with discerning eye the major events of his career. Unstinted and lav- ish eulogium is not praise.

' Paint me as I am." said Cromwell to young Lely, while sitting for his portrait; " if you leave out a line or a wrinkle, I will not pay you one shilling."

The ethics of eulogy would seem to require that we

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inscribe upon tablets of enduring marble, the virtues of our subject, and leave to the play of the waters upon the sand his faults, be they never so glaring. We pur- pose to make an innovation. Cromwell's brusque re- mark shall be our talisman! Did Governor Flower leave upon the State and its people an impress that renders this occasion fitting? What has he done to ameliorate the conditions that surrounded his era? What brilliant act of his glitters in the horizon of the past, that we should transcribe his deeds to posterity? Had he never done anything worthy of this memorial, and were we not in harmony with this custom, crystal- lized into precedent, the ceremonies of to-night were far better honored in the breach than the observ- ance. Come! Legislators! Citizens! Friends! As- semble round this circle while we portray upon the canvas of the future Roswell Pettibone Flower as he was.

A critic, looking upon Leonardo da Vinci's painting of " The Last Supper," noted a cup gleaming like sil- ver; whereupon the artist expunged it with one stroke of his brush, with the remark that he wanted nothing to obscure the central thought of Christ. So here, if my pencil shall shade with too heavy a stroke some luminous act or word, blot it from the whole, for we would leave behind us no thought that clouds the cen- tral idea of my picture — an honest man.

The child of our loins, looking out with the adventur- ous eye of youth, sees four pathways to success in life, from which to choose — War. Politics, Literature, and Finance! To-night I sing the praises of civic success. The glory of the battlefield throws no halo around my theme. The pen won for him no undying place in the

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sacred portals of literature. With Governor Flower politics was a pastime; yet, upon that alluring and en- ticing field he earned a place that will commend his career to the young and future aspirant. A monarch of finance was the ambitious goal toward which he al- ways looked forward. Now and then Mother Nature is delivered of a child who will from the narrowest en- vironment open and expand into the most liberal and broadest of men. We deal with this in a perfectly human way. He loved money not for itself, but for what it would do. Avarice and greed were unknown to Governor Flower. His rugged honesty never al- lowed him to advise a venture upon a scheme in which he was not himself willing to embark. That love of money which condoles while it seeks to overreach, which sympathizes that it may master, and which pros- titutes the finer sentiments of our nature to selfish and personal ends, was an alien force to him. He loved candor, simplicity and sincerity. His utter and com- plete disregard of the conventionalities of life in his interviews with his fellowmen gained him a place far asunder from his like in the paths of finance.

Audley, the Croesus of the days of Charles the First, being asked the value of a new office he had purchased in the court of wards, replied: ' It might be worth some thousands of pounds to him who, after his death, would go instantly to Heaven ; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory, and nobody knows what to him who would adventure to go to hell."

Governor Flower's first thought was, " How many friends will this increment to my fortune enable me to lift out of the mire of adversity? What new enterprise of intrinsic worth struggling to free itself from the

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wrappings of infancy, can we place upon its feet? What charity born of the thought of some enthusiast can we embark upon the sea of life? "

The fourth son and the sixth child of parents who had battled with poverty to glean the necessities of life, his life's story has many bonds of similarity to the biographies of so-called self-made men. Our infant nation, with its inexhaustible supply of uncultivated lands, furnished unusual opportunities for men to win success by manual toil. Orphaned on the father's side when he was but eight years of age, family exigencies put him to picking wool eight hours on and eight hours off for many months in the vear. At odd times, book in hand, he was picking up the rudi- ments of an education.

His clothes showed the tailoring of a mother's hand, and he was compelled to wear the cast-off suits of his elder brothers that passed on, never seeming to wear out, from son to son. Many a younger son who has touched elbows with necessity in the days of his boy- hood, will recall the bitter and salty tears that were shed over these " hand-me-downs."

While working upon the family farm one day in hay- ing season, having a pair of twin oxen to drive, he [looked up the nigh ox on the off side, and the mild- mannered, gentle-eyed oxen became uncontrollable *and commenced to bellow. A farmer passing by began to laugh, and called to young Flower to change the oxen, and at once they proceeded along. While in political life, the Governor used to relate this incident of his boyhood with great glee, saying he had seen the principle exemplified many times, and, unless the nigh ox is on the nigh side, the best efforts of men may often

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be defeated. He toiled and grappled with every op- portunity that enabled him to earn a dollar for the sus- tenance and support of the family. He sawed wood by the half cord, and carried it upstairs, that he might earn the customary quarter. He toiled from early dawn to late at night, driving stags round and round in a brickyard treading out clay, for which he was paid in those days the magnificent compensation of a dollar and a half per week.

The great men, the manly men, the self-made men of the first half century of our nation's history, have with singular unanimity started upon their career by teaching the country school. Young Flower was no exception to the rule, and he boarded from house to house in the district while teaching the vouth in the elementary studies of the times. One may not leave this aspect of his life without the assertion that he. too, had his " inning " with the bulky, husky bully of the place. I do not remember to have read of an instance where the teacher has not come out victorious in these legendary combats. It might detract from the sym- metry of one's thought for a misfortune of this kind to have occurred. Be that as it may, a " spelling bee ': was on of a winter night, and the hour had come when the strong and combative youth who domineered over his fellow scholars thought to vanquish the teacher. He refused to spell when his turn came, and young Flower, alive to the emergencv and necessity of the moment, said to him it was spell or leave. The brag- gart vowed he would do neither. The short and de- cisive struggle that ensued found him in the street. He soon returned with physical assistance in the per- son of an idler of a neighboring hotel, with the avowed

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intention of " doing " the teacher. Young Flower ex- plained the situation, and said to his visitor that the boy must either spell or again leave. It were superfluous to add that when his turn came he spelled like a little man, and his herculean friend remarked that he would have thrashed him himself had he refused at that time!

This encounter placed him in good repute among those who admired courage. Old Solon Comstock, the country superintendent, gave him a certificate of a competence as a teacher, and thirty years later Gov- ernor Flower, running across him in the decrepitude of old age, presented him with a fitting reminder of the event. When the schools had closed he looked for other openings. He tackled the meadow, and held his own with the scythe. He dabbled in trade. By ex- treme thrift'iness he acquired a watch that cost him fifty dollars. The instinct of barter was strong in him, and he sold it to a young physician going West to grow up with the country for fifty-three dollars and took his note for it. Later he framed the note and kept it forever as a monument to his confiding credulity.

In a small way fortune smiled upon him. If there be such a thing as luck, Governor Flower was of the lucky kind. We would in no degree derogate or de- tract from the industry and perseverance that charac- terized his entire career, but the sentiment of the ages voiced in the expression " It is better to be born lucky than rich " obtained pre-eminently with him.

In following the ambition of his life, he moved to the city of New York. I know of no better illustration of the pugnacious, combative, indomitable perseverance of the man than the following incident would furnish. He suffered from an illness in the early seventies, and

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for many a day the fragile thread that holds in unison body and spirit was nigh unto breaking. Upon his convalescence, he was advised by his physicians to keep in the open air as much as possible, and indulge freely in physical exercise. He took up the gun and acquired fame as a nimrod. He clung to the pastime with such assiduity that he succeeded in defeating a large field at the city of Syracuse, and carried off the winner's prize — a suit of corduroy. He was always proud of this achievement, and held fast the product of his skill to the day of his decease. But few men who have ac- quired prominence possessed in a larger or more gener- ous degree the faculty of perseverance. When once engaged upon an undertaking, he never looked back- ward until the desired result had been accomplished. He fought in the open, single-handed and alone.

When Thoreau expressed the sentiment " I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion. If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes," he sounded the keynote of Governor Flower's success.

In the bright and sunny days of youth. Governor Flower developed the essentials of a personal popular- ity. He read enough of law to lose himself in the labyrinthian intricacies of Blackstone. He ran with the machine in the days when steam fire engines were not, and fought for his company's prestige. He be- came an ardent Mason, and served an apprenticeship in the various branches of the order. He toyed with politics before he started upon his career of finance. The chairmanship of the Jefferson County Committee gave him an opportunity to augment his acquaintance, and extend the sphere of his personal influence. It is

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political history that Governor Flower's perspicacity and political acumen gave birth to the famous Tilden organization that for so long a period of years main- tained the Democracy in power.

Governor Flower was a strong and vigorous cam- paigner. Few men have been accorded more signal and striking success than followed him when a candi- date for elective office. He had scarcely served a polit- ical apprenticeship in the city of New York when he w7as asked to stand as a candidate for Congress against William Waldorf Astor, to fill the unexpired portion of a term for which Governor Morton had been elected by upwards of four thousand Republican majority. Governor Flower made his own platform. It con- tained one plank, " I will not purchase a vote to secure the election." The sentiment was a catchy one, and Governor Flower succeeded by upwards of three thou- sand majority- " It was in this campaign that, clad in the negligent attire most to his liking, he said to his constituents gathered around him: ' My opponent counts his rents by the million, while I have none — save the rents in my clothes!' We can only touch with deft and rapid finger upon the salient points of his political career.

The same dogged industry that carried him to the front in whatever enterprise he chose made him master, while in congressional halls, of the living issues of his day. In the world of politics, as in the domain of finance, posterity will learn from his career a practical demonstration of the truth of an old adage, " It pays to be honest."

Desirous of aiding his party in a political campaign by going upon the stump, he searched the bookstores

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of his city in a vain endeavor to find a copy of the United States Constitution. A gray and grizzled cob- bler, pegging away at shoes and politics, with equal impartiality, furnished him a copy. This incident caused him upon one occasion in Congress to have printed, in lieu of a speech, and so disseminated through the country a copy of the Constitution.

He was intensely and earnestly loyal to the State and the constituency that gave him political prefer- ment. In the rivalry that occurred between the East and the West over the selection of a site for the World's Fair. Governor Flower became so earnest in his advo- cacy of the great city of New York that he offered to float in the markets of finance the entix'e issue of bonds necessary to insure the success of the undertaking.

His championship of the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy, his reputation for successful leadership, and the cleanliness of his political record made him " available " for the gubernatorial chair in '91. The event justified the wisdom of the convention's action. During his incumbency of the executive chair many knotty problems came before him for solution. He met them with the courage, frankness and candor of a man who had but one interest to subserve, and that the people's will. When the city of New York was suffering from the hideous nightmare of cholera, and a place was desired to relieve our homecomers from across the sea, in the hot and sultry days of August, '92, he purchased Fire Island upon his own responsi- bility as a place of quarantine. The lips of political cowardice whispered in his ear, " Governor, you will lose votes by this transaction, owing to the opposition of the inhabitants of Long Island." His characteristic

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replv was " Damn the votes; I am thinking of my duty toward those unfortunate people." His conduct at this time is an index to his every act as Governor. The appeal of the imprisoned inmates upon the incoming ocean liners induced him to act. Having once started upon a path of action he had outlined, no power could deter him. He called out the National Guard to en- force his purpose, and used Fire Island for purposes of quarantine. With characteristic energy, he trampled upon and throttled every obstacle. When the health officer of the port of New York telegraphed him that the owners of Fire Island demanded two hundred and ten thousand dollars as the purchase price of the prop- erty, fifty thousand of which should be paid in cash, he replied at once, "Agree to their terms; draw on Flower & Company for fifty thousand cash, and I will be responsible for the balance " — as heroic and cour- ageous in the world of finance and in the cause of suf- fering humanity, and as thoroughly and intensely elo- quent of the man, as the well-worn sentiments that have been attributed to heroes upon the battlefield. He feared neither State nor individual. ' Why," said he, " did cholera reach the port of New York last sum- mer? Because of the failure of the Federal quaran- tine. Why did not cholera get beyond the gates of our harbor? Because of the efficiency of the State quarantine." He was a bitter opponent of the contem- plated domination of the Federal quarantine and the transfer to national supervision of the port of New York in the matter of the public health. It violated the old doctrine of Home Rule.

As a Governor he was always interested in the enactment of such legislation as would benefit the great

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masses of the people. It was under his humane guid- ance that the great project of caring for the insane as wards of the State was brought into successful play. Had he done naught else worthy of comment, this sin- gle achievement would serve to distinguish his admin- istration. He waged tenacious battle in behalf of good roads, and conquered upon his own domain the uncom- promising opposition of the short-sighted and over- thrifty man. He wished to continue New York's proud supremacy in the Union of the States. He was an insistent and pertinacious advocate of low taxes, and the smallest quantum of government consistent with the welfare and safety of the State as a whole. He was as careful of the credit of the State as if it had sustained to him the relation of a business enterprise! When he shook off the cares of office he turned over a treasury not only free from debt but with a surplus to inaugu- rate the coming year! Such public measures as con- duced to the benefit of the many, and favored no class, as against the whole, had his sincerest support. He, more than any other, set in motion the machinery that resulted in the acquirement and preservation of the vast forests of our State. He was enough of an altru- ist to impose upon the present generation a tax. that posterity might enjoy those portions of the State that the hand of avarice was fast despoiling. His messages and public papers not only reveal the hand of a hard worker, but they display deep and profound study. He was a most voluminous writer, and no bills went to the executive morgue unsigned, without a reason — that advocate and public might place the responsibility where it belonged.

He had faults — he was a man. He committed

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errors, and made mistakes — he was thoroughly and in- tensely human. Let him who is sinless among- us, with sycophantic speech parade the faults and mistakes of his fellows. It is so refreshing to meet now and then one of those perfect men who never harbor a wrong thought, nor commit a conscious mistake. Out upon those canting hypocrites! Give me those men to em- brace within the mystic circle of friendship who make clean confession of the errors of the time that environs them, and yet who live according to the light that is given them. " Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent," says Swift. All who ac- quire prominence in the multifarious pathways of life must pass through the fiery ordeal of persecution. There is no remedy but obscurity; no redress but ob- livion. Better a shining target for every arrow than be ignored. Friction with city life never wore away the habits and manners of rural life. He used tobacco, in both forms, in the luxurious surroundings of his banking office in New York, or the Executive Chamber at Albany, with the same abandon as if he were enter- taining a coterie of admirers with some humorous story in Watertown. With Governor Flower the apparel did not proclaim the man.

George Clinton and Dix brought to the executive chair civic service illumined by the glamour thrown from the battlefield! Tompkins, Marcy and Tilden wore the mantle of statecraft! Jay and Seward had shone in the arena of the law! \\"ri^ht. Seymour and Van Buren touched elbows with the absorbing issues of their times, and won well-earned preferment as the advocates of enlarged liberties for the people. De Witt Clinton, facile princeps in point of learning, stood

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sponsor for the onward march of great public improve- ments. These great names are but a memory! Pos- terities yet unborn, when writing the political history of the closing decade of the nineteenth century, will say of Governor Flower — he was the great champion ot a safe, prudent and economical administration of the affairs of the State! His judgment was as clear and lucid as the waters on which he cast his fly. He was not impulsive, neither was he impetuous — he was sim- ply safe! The one great problem, by the side of which all others dwindle into nothingness, that confronts men of all parties to-day in State and Nation is — How shall we meet the ever-increasing expenses of the gov- ernment without oppressing the people? From whence are to come the golden showers that will enable us to round out and complete our great plans for the betterment of our citizens — the advancement of civil- ization and the forward trend of events? Legislators of to-day! solve me this riddle and with glad acclaim we will herald you the discoverers of a new world!

With the acquirement of high political place, and the possession of millions, he remained the same affable, congenial, approachable man as of old. The latch- string was always open. In the rural localities of the State, his social intimates called him " Ros," with the same familiarity that had been used when he was a boy. No one was ever denied the right of access to him. His bright and cheery nature loved the sunlight. In the woods with gun and corduroy, by the brookside angling for the fugacious trout, on the golf links chas- ing the erratic, maddening sphere, he was the arche- type of genial good fellowship.

The atmosphere of political life was not a congenial

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one. He left the gubernatorial chair to follow a ca- reer of finance, the dream and the aim of his life. The men who composed his entourage and garnered wealth under his banner are numberless. His hand touched upon complex and varied industries in every State in the Union. He won his financial battles by the appli- cation of the same principles that had governed his po- litical career. He once said. " We are not advertising our work. This is a big political fight, and the day is past when you can win any kind of battle with a brass band. They say the other side is spending money lav- ishly. I do not care if they spend three times as much as reported. Give me a good fighting issue, let our opponents use money as they will, and I will take the chances with the electors."

His advice was sought upon all matters of finance by the vast following he had gathered around him, and the phenomenal and meteoric success that crowned his efforts. Not in the annals of finance, scintillating with instances of individual good fortune, looms there up a career as brilliant, successful and at the same time highly esteemed as that of Roswell P. Flower.

He chanced to be traveling abroad at the inception of the Spanish War. The clear financial brain that was always with him under any and all circumstances fore- saw the result. He knew that the old and decrepit Spanish monarchy, honeycombed with the abuse and corruption of centuries, could not withstand the on- slaught of the vigorous republic of the western hemi- sphere. When the news flashed 'round the world that the " Maine " had been blown up by Spanish treachery, his banking-house, under his leadership, espoused the bull side of the market. In the wild and feverish days

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of speculation that ensued the army of investors of high and low degree that followed the leadership of Gover- nor Flower, earned untold wealth.

His success, running over the years immediately pre- ceding his death, in financing vast business ventures, gained and won for him by common consent, the title of the " Wall Street King." A high honor attains the man who becomes Governor of the Empire State. A monument that will endure honors the man that Wall street once regarded as its master. Surrounded with the glamour of success, the possessor of a fortune vast bevond one's calculation, he was an extremelv eener- ous man. Not that ostentatious almsgiving, which so strongly savors of snobbishness and parades its benevo- lence in the public eye under the mask of charity. He gave where none might herald his kindness. His bounty reached out to those who suffered in silence awaiting the coming of the end. Who that has read will ever forget the. picture of the widow Cullom: In a blast of wind and snow, illy clad and shivering with cold and fear she stepped into David Harum's office and regained the home she had thought to renounce. It was a bright and cheery Christmas for the widow and the banker! The counties of Jefferson and St. Lawrence are eloquent of the generous deeds that, un- asked and unknown, save to the beneficiary, have light- ened with pleasure many an unfortunate home! One hears from the lips of the struggling and the oppressed the words of a single refrain: Governor Flower was a good man!

He. essayed to accomplish by a lavish distribution of his wealth much good among the poorer classes. Over upon the East Side, so-called, in the city of New York,

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the child of penury and want will long carry in grateful remembrance the generous hand that built the Flower Hospital, as a monument to the son that had gone be- fore him. Did a church require financial aid to lift a debt, or repair its edifice, Governor Flower was among the first to come to its rescue. Flis charities were as broad and wide as his principles. If a warm heart and kindly hand, honest intentions, and a noble use of one's means in those directions that make for the betterment of the human race, are factors that one may reckon on in the uncertain future, Governor Flower will reap the fruits thereof.

Few men give credit unstinted and unshackled to the woman, who ofttimes contributes no inconsiderable share to the domestic partnership. In this regard, Governor Flower stands forth as a memorable excep- tion. No disturbing question, that caused him anxiety and annoyance, was determined unless the womanly tact and wifely discretion of Mrs. Flower was brought into the consultation-room. The vast throngs of peo- ple who invaded, without let or hindrance, the precincts of the Executive Mansion, will remember the unfailing courtesy and deep-seated, innate politeness of the woman who presided over the Governor's home! Brothers he had, who, from the time he sprang into conspicuity, were as loyal and faithful to his interests as was he to theirs in the old days of toil when he con- tributed his share to the family purse.

While pacing to and fro upon the deck of a man-oft war Napoleon chanced to hear his officers engaged in fierce debate as to whether or no there was ;i God. Pointing to the star-studded Heavens, with sweeping gesture, he said, " Gentlemen, you may talk as long as

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you please, but who made all that? ' We once heard Governor Flower in similar strain respond to some scoffer, There is a God; there is a future," and he epitomized in a sentence much of practical religious belief.

As the sudden death of some great captain upon the field of war throws his troops into confusion, disorder and chaos, so the announcement on the floor of the Stock Exchange, " Flower is dead! " entailed a scene of wild and lurid excitement. The sustaining hand was pulseless; the generous friend who "carried" many a margin for friend and foe was gone forever. The rivals of yesterday, alert, cold and implacable, were the friends of to-day, and from the coffers of the wealthy came aid without stint, to maintain the probity of a stainless name. No greater, grander tribute was ever paid to private life than the magnates of finance paid to Gov- ernor Flower. The carping critic cries " Self-interest; what of it? " It is a mighty tribute to have the rivals of one's entire career pay homage to his ashes.

Fathomless are the ways of Providence. Not yet has brain conceived the ultimate possibilities of human life. He is gone. The warm, impulsive heart beats no more. In the swirl of active business life, he left us. Could all the people to whom he has extended a helping hand gather together in battle array, what an army we should have!

He entered upon his career in the financial world un- heralded and unknown; he departed without a spot to blur the brilliant name he transmitted to posterity. We can frame for the monument that time shall erect

to his memory, no more fitting epitaph than Wall

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street's terse and epigrammatic verdict: " His advice was honest; he never lied."

' This is the gospel of labor, ring ye the bells of the kirk.

The Lord of Love came down from above to live with the men who work.

This is the rose he planted — here in this thorn-cursed soil.

Heaven is blest with perfect rest — the bless- ing of earth is toil."

The Rev. A. Randolph B. Hegeman pronounced the following benediction:

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make

His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you. and give

you peace both now and evermore. Amen.

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Ikrswjell W. Wlomtx

<S>* ^

PROCLAMATION

ON THE

DEATH OF EX-GOVERNOR ROSWELL P. FLOWER

PROCLAMATION

State of New York,

Executive Chamber. On May thirteenth the people of the State of New York learned with profound sorrow of the death of

Roswell P. Flower.

At one time Governor of this State, he was known to all the people as a conscientious and painstaking Executive whose labors were devoted to what he deemed the best interests of all our citizens. During his long and conspicuous career he was brought in con- tact with very many private enterprises in which his cool and discriminating judgment and insistent and careful examination of detail rendered him peculiarly fitted for the arduous services which he rendered to his associates. In his private life he was beloved by all who knew him. In his business enterprises he was esteemed for his integrity and worth. In his public capacity he was honored as a conscientious and pains- taking Executive. In every station which he was called upon to fill he was esteemed for his fidelity to the trust imposed upon him.

It would seem proper therefore that the Executive of the State, in the absence of the Legislature, should express on behalf of the people the respect due to his public spirit and well-known integrity.

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Now therefore I, Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of the State of New York, as a fitting tribute to the respect, character and public services of the deceased, do request that the flags upon all the public buildings of the State, including the armories and arsenals, be displayed at half-mast up to and including Wednesday the seventeenth day of May, and that the citizens of the State unite in appropriate remarks of respect to his memory.

Given under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State at the Capitol in the city of [l. s.] Albany this fourteenth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-nine.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the Governor:

Wm. J. Youngs,

Secretary to the Governor. 34

APPENDIX

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Legislature of the State of New York

RELATIVE TO THE DEATH OF

Hon. Roswell P. Flower

PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATURE

In Senate, May 23, 1899.

Mr. Brown offered the following:

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That a committee of three Senators be appointed by the President of the Senate, and a committee of five members of the Assem- bly be appointed by the Speaker of the House, to be a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly for the purpose of preparing a suitable memorial of the Legis- lature to the late Roswell P. Flower, ex-Governor of the State of New York.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative.

Ordered, That the Clerk deliver said resolution to the Assembly, and request their concurrence therein.

In Assembly, May 24. 1899.

The Senate sent for concurrence a resolution in the words following:

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That a committee of three Senators be appointed by the President of the

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Senate, and a committee of five members of the Assem- bly be appointed by the Speaker of the House, to be a joint committee of the Senate and Assembly, for the purpose of preparing a suitable memorial of the Legis- lature to the late Roswell P. Flower, ex-Governor of the State of New York.

Mr. Speaker put the question whether the House would agree to said resolution, and it was determined in the affirmative.

Mr. Speaker announced as such committee on the part of the Assembly, Messrs. Bryan, Roberts. Miles, Roche and Harburerer.

t>

Ordered, That the Clerk return said resolution to the Senate, with a message that the Assembly have con- curred in the passage of the same, and of the appoint- ment of said committee on the part of the House.

In Senate, May 25, 1899.

The Assembly returned the concurrent resolution relative to memorial services for the late Roswell P. Flower, with a message that they have concurred in the passage of the same, and have appointed Messrs. Bryan, Roberts, Miles, Roche and Harburger as such committee on the part of the House.

The President appointed Messrs. Brown, Coggeshall

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ilosweH W. 27loiucv

and Donnelly as such committee on the part of the Senate.

Ordered, That the Clerk return said resolution to the Assembly, with a message that the Senate have ap- pointed such a committee on the part of the Senate.

In Assembly, May 25, 1899.

The Senate returned the concurrent resolution for the appointment of a joint committee to prepare a me- morial on the late Roswell P. Flower, with a message that they have appointed as such committee on the part of the Senate, Messrs. Brown, Coggeshall and Donnelly.

Ordered, That the Clerk return said resolution to the Senate.

In Senate, May 25, 1899.

Mr. Brown presented the following report:

The Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly ap- pointed to arrange for a suitable memorial to the late ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower, respectfully report that when the Legislature now convened in extraordi-

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Jn IttcmovUim

nary session adjourns, it adjourn out of respect to the memory of ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower, and that upon the convening of the Senate and Assembly at the next regular session of the Legislature, a day be set apart for the presentation of a suitable memorial of his life and public services.

ELOX R. BROWN. H. J. COGGESHALL, THOMAS J. DOXXELLY,

Of the Senate.

MORGAN BRYAX, CHARLES O. ROBERTS, IRA C. MILES,

P. H. ROCHE, JULIUS HARBURGER,

Of the Assembly.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to the adoption of said report and it was decided in the affirmative, unanimously, by a rising vote.

The hour of 5:30 having arrived, the President de- clared that, pursuant to concurrent resolution hereto- fore adopted, and out of respect to the memory of the late Roswell P. Flower, the Senate was adjourned sine die.

In Assembly, May 25, 1899.

Mr. Bryan, from the Special Joint Committee of

the Senate and Assembly, appointed to prepare a me-

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2ftosiucU % Floiucv

morial to the late Governor Flower, presented the fol- lowing:

The Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly appointed to arrange for a suitable memorial to the late ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower, respectfully report that they recommend that when the Legislature now convened in extraordinary session adjourns, it adjourn out of respect to the memory of ex-Governor Flower, and that, upon the convening of the Senate and Assem- bly at the next session of the Legislature, a day be set apart for the presentation of a suitable memorial of his life and public services.

ELON R. BROWN, H. J. COGGESHALL, THOMAS F. DONNELLY,

Of the Senate.

MORGAN BRYAN, CHARLES O. ROBERTS, IRA C. MILES. P. H. ROCHE, JULIUS HARBURGER.

Of the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker put the question whether the House would agree to said report, and it was determined in the affirmative unanimously, by a rising vote.

Mr. Speaker. — Gentlemen, pursuant to a joint res olution of the Senate and Assembly, it is moved that, as a tribute of respect to the late Governor Flower,

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In IttcmovUun

this Legislature do now adjourn without day. The question upon the motion to adjourn will be taken by a rising vote. It is unanimous. Now, by the power vested in me, as the presiding officer of this body, I hereby declare the Assembly of 1899 adjourned without date.

In Senate, March 26, 1900.

Mr. Brown offered the following resolution:

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That the Legis- lature meet in joint assembly in the Assembly Cham- ber, on Tuesday, April 3d, at 8 o'clock, p. m., to attend memorial services in honor of ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative.

Ordered, That the Clerk deliver said resolution to the Assembly, and request their concurrence therein.

In Assembly, March 27, 1900.

The Senate sent for concurrence a resolution in the words following:

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That the Legis- lature meet in joint assembly in the Assembly Cham- ber, on Tuesday, April 3d, at 8 o'clock, p. m., to attend memorial services in honor of ex-Governor Roswell P.

Flower.

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iRosiucll % J7\oxocx

Mr. Speaker put the question whether the House would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative.

Ordered, That the Clerk return said resolution to the Senate, with a message that the Assembly have con- curred in the passage of the same.

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MAY 2 8 1952