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It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  lost  such  a  man. 

It  is  much  greater  to  have  had  such  a  man  to  lose. 

He  was  the  child  of  the  people  : 

He  was  the  type  of  the  people. 

From  Mr.  Robinson' s  Eulogy  on  General  Grant. 

I  would  the  great  world  grew  like  thee, 
Who  grewest  not  alone  in  power 
And  knowledge,  but  by  year  and  hour 
In  reverence  and  charity. 

Tennyson. 

Heart-affluence  in  discursive  talk 
From  household  fountains  never  dry; 
The  critic  clearness  of  an  eye 
That  saw  through  all  the  Muses'  walk ; 

Seraphic  intellect  and  force 
To  seize  and  throw  the  doubts  of  man  ; 
Impassioned  logic,  which  outran 
The  hearer  in  its  fiery  course ; 

And  manhood  fused  with  female  grace 
In  such  a  sort,  the  child  would  twine 
A  trustful  hand,  unasked,  in  thine, 
And  find  his  comfort  in  thy  face  ; 

All  these  have  been,  and  thee  mine  eyes 
Have  looked  on  :  if  they  looked  in  vain, 
My  shame  is  greater  who  remain, 
Nor  let  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise. 

Tennyson. 


The  Hartford  Times  of  Wednesday,  February  14,  1900,  con- 
tained the  following  announcement : 

The  Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson  died  at  his  home,  No.  420 
Main  street,  at  a  quarter  before  six  o'clock  this  morning.  All 
the  members  of  his  family  were  present  at  the  final  hour,  and 
his  death  occurred  in  the  midst  of  the  group  that  held  the  ten- 
derest  and  most  affectionate  of  places  in  his  heart. 

In  the  same  edition  of  the  Hartford  Times  which  an- 
nounced his  decease,  the  following  editorial  article  ap- 
peared : 

A  genial  and  kindly  presence  was  ex-Mayor  Henry  C.  Rob- 
inson's, whose  death  occurred  this  morning.  The  full  account 
of  his  useful  and  honorable  life  will  be  read  with  interest  tinged 
with  sadness,  for  his  death  will  be  felt  to  be  a  real  loss  to  the 
community  which  he  loved  and  helped.  It  seems  hard  to  real- 
ize that  his  pleasant  greeting  on  the  street  will  be  heard  no 
more. 

Mr.  Robinson  had  the  gift  of  conciliating  personal  friend- 
ship, and  the  ability  to  impress  respect  for  his  ability  on  all 
who  came  in  contact  with  him.  The  important  part  he  played 
in  Connecticut  affairs  is  of  itself  abundant  proof  of  this,  for  it 
began  early  in  his  life,  and  it  continued  to  the  end.  In  law  he 
was  accustomed  to  take  the  broader  view  of  a  case,  and  his  ar- 
guments were  constantly  marked  by  this  quality,  whether  at 
the  bar  or  before  a  legislative  committee.  His  ability  was  mul- 
tiform. As  a  lawyer  he  stood  very  high,  but  as  counsel  for  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  road  he  was  as  valuable 
as  an  adviser  in  business  affairs  as  for  his  opinion  on  any  legal 
point,  or  on  the  conduct  of  a  case  at  law.  He  was  almost  as 
well  known  as  a  writer  and  speaker  in  two  or  three  other  de- 
partments as  for  his  legal  and  political  addresses,  and  in  his 
Bible  class  in  the  South  church  he  was  always  listened  to  with 


interest,  and  almost  always  gave  his  hearers  something  that 
struck  them  forcibly  and  lingered  in  their  memories. 

He  was  a  man  much  loved  by  his  family  and  friends,  and 
when  this  is  true  it  speaks  volumes  for  the  kindliness  and  lova- 
bleness  of  a  man.  He  was  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and  in  all 
these  ways  he  confirmed  his  claim  to  regard,  and  set  a  whole- 
some example  to  others. 

The  graves  grow  thicker,  and  life's  ways  more  bare, 

As  years  on  years  go  by  ; 
Nay,  thou  hast  more  green  gardens  in  thy  care 

And  more  stars  in  thy  sky. 

The  Hartford  Courant  of  Thursday,  February  15th,  con- 
tained a  variety  of  articles  concerning  Mr.  Robinson,  which, 
by  permission,  are  here  reprinted  ;  and  first,  the  following 
sketch  of  his  personal  history  and  public  relations : 

Henry  Cornelius  Robinson,  LL.D.,  was  born  in  this  city 
August  28,  1832.  He  was  a  younger  son  of  David  Franklin 
Robinson  and  Anne  Seymour  Robinson,  and  through  them  was 
descended  from  the  first  Puritan  settlers  of  New  England.  He 
traced  his  ancestry  on  the  paternal  side  to  Thomas  Robinson, 
who  was,  probably,  a  kinsman  of  the  Rev.  John  Robinson,  the 
pastor  of  the  Mayflower  pilgrims,  and  who  came  from  England 
among  the  earlier  arrivals  and  settled  at  Guilford,  in  1667. 
His  mother,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Elizabeth  Denison,  wife  of 
Asa  Seymour  of  this  city,  was  a  descendant  in  a  direct  line  from 
Elder  William  Brewster,  who  was  born  in  Nottinghamshire, 
England,  and  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  those  who  came  over  in 
the  Mayflower,  and  the  ruling  elder  of  Plymouth  colony. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  educated  at  the  Hartford  Grammar 
School  and  at  the  Hartford  Public  High  School  after  its  con- 
solidation with  the  Grammar  School.  He  was  graduated  from 
the  latter  in  the  class  of  1849,  and  immediately  entered  Yale 
College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  with  high  honors  in  the 
"famous  class  of  1853."  Among  the  members  of  this  class, 
which  was  one  of  much  distinction,  were  the  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White,  ex-president  of  Cornell  University  and  ambassador  to 
Germany,  Bishop  Davies  of  Michigan,  Dr.  Charlton  T.  Lewis 
and  Dr.  James  M.  Whiton  of  New  York,  the  late  Isaac  H. 
Bromley,  George  W.  Smalley,  Washington  correspondent  of 
the  London  Times,  for  many  years  the  London  correspondent  of 

6 


the  New  York  Tribune,  United  States  Senator  R.  L.  Gibson, 
the  Hon.  B.  K.  Phelps,  E.  C.  Stedman  of  New  York,  the  poet, 
the  late  S.  M.  Capron,  Julius  Catlin,  General  Edward  Harland 
of  Norwich,  Dr.  William  M.  Hudson,  Wayne  MacVeagh,  the 
late  Judge  Edward  W.  Seymour  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Judge 
Shiras  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  Dr.  Henry  P. 
Stearns,  the  late  George  H.  Watrous,  formerly  president  of  the 
"  Consolidated  "  road,  and  a  number  of  others  who  have  attained 
distinction  in  law,  medicine,  politics,  and  the  arts  and  sciences. 

After  graduation,  Mr.  Robinson  studied  law  in  the  office  of 
his  elder  brother,  Lucius  F.  Robinson,  and  after  three  years  of 
practice  by  himself  became  a  partner  of  his  brother.  This 
partnership  was  severed  by  the  death  of  the  elder  brother  in 
1861,  and  Mr.  Robinson  continued  in  business  alone  until  18S8, 
when  his  eldest  son,  Lucius  F.  Robinson,  became  a  member  of 
the  firm.  Recently,  John  T.  Robinson,  the  youngest  son,  was 
admitted  to  the  firm,  the  style  of  which  is  Robinson  &  Robin- 
son. The  firm  is  easily  one  of  the  most  prominent  in  the  Con- 
necticut bar  and  is  widely  known  throughout  this  section  of 
the  country.  The  firm  has  charge  of  a  great  many  corporation 
interests,  besides  Mr.  Robinson's  well-known  connection  as  one 
of  the  leading  counsel  of  the  "Consolidated"  road  of  which  he 
was  for  many  years  a  leading  director  and  a  member  of  the 
standing  committee. 

Mr.  Robinson  all  through  his  life  was  a  disciple  of  Izaak 
Walton,  and  delighted  especially  in  trout  fishing,  taking  fre- 
quently days  of  relaxation  from  the  duties  of  his  profession 
during  the  season.  He  was,  also,  in  his  earlier  days  fond  of 
hunting  and  gained  a  large  knowledge  of  the  surrounding 
country  in  his  trips,  thus  developing  his  innate  love  for  the 
beautiful  in  nature.  Early  in  his  professional  career  he  became 
interested  in  the  science  of  pisciculture,  considering  it  from  its 
important  bearing  on  the  food  supply.  In  1866,  General  Haw- 
ley,  then  governor  of  the  state,  appointed  Mr.  Robinson  a  fish 
commissioner.  He  accepted  the  appointment  and  at  once 
bent  his  efforts  towards  the  development  of  the  fish  industry 
in  the  state.  He  advanced  fish  culture  by  legislative  enact- 
ments preventing  pound-fishing  in  the  Connecticut  River,  and 
by  experiments  in  hatching.  Wise  legislation  in  this  direction 
was  repealed  before  it  had  become  fully  operative,  owing  to 
adverse  influences  of  a  partisan  character.     The  first  artificial 


hatching  of  shad  was  made  under  Mr.  Robinson's  direction  as 
fish  commissioner,  associated  with  the  late  F.  W.  Russell  of 
this  city.  Mr.  Robinson's  methods  and  theories  had  the  full 
approval  of  the  late  eminent  naturalist,  Professor  Agassiz,  who 
was  deeply  interested  in  the  experiments  and  the  legislation  on 
the  subject. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  elected  mayor  of  his  native  city  in  1872, 
overcoming  a  large  democratic  majority  by  the  personal  popu- 
larity he  enjoyed  and  the  confidence  felt  in  him  by  the  commu- 
nity generally.     He   served  one   term  and   gave  the  city  an 
administration  notable  for  efficiency.     Municipal    affairs  were 
conducted  on  business  principles  and  there  was  an  economical 
administration  of  affairs.     During  his  administration,  Hartford 
became  the  sole  capital  of  the  state,  in  which  movement  Mr. 
Robinson  took  a  large  part.     He  was  the  instigating  force  in 
the  establishment  of  several  of  the  city  commissions.     In  1879 
Mr.  Robinson  was  elected  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly, 
having  for  his  colleague  General  Lucius  A.  Barbour.    His  prom- 
inence in  public  affairs  and  his  legal  knowledge  and  brilliant 
eloquence  made  him  chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee  and 
leader   of  the   House.     He   was   successful   in   procuring   the 
enactment  of  several  important  matters  of  legislation   which 
included  the  change  in  legal  procedure.     Always  a  republican 
in  politics  from  the  formation  of  the  party,  Mr.  Robinson  con- 
tinued to  support  its  principles  all  through  life,  and  his  influ- 
ence in  party  politics  was  always  felt.     He  received  the  repub- 
lican nomination  for  governor  three  times,  in   the  spring   of 
1876,  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  and  again  in  187S  at  the  cele- 
brated convention  in  Allyn  Hall,  when  he  declined  and  Gov- 
ernor Andrews  was  nominated  and  was  subsequently  elected  by 
the  General  Assembly,  the  greenback  defection  from  the  dem- 
ocratic party  throwing  the  election  into  the  Legislature.     Each 
nomination  Mr.  Robinson   received  was  by  acclamation.     He 
was  a  member  of  the  national  republican  convention  at  Chi- 
cago in   1880  as   one  of  the  delegates  from  this  state,  which 
nominated  Garfield  and  Arthur,  and  he  drafted  a  large  portion 
of  the  platform  which  was  finally  adopted. 

Mr.  Robinson's  large  law  practice  prevented  him  from 
accepting  many  appointments  which  were  tendered  him.  He 
was  counsel  for  many  leading  corporations  in  the  state,  and  in  the 
the  contest  for  the  governorship  growing  out  of  the  dead-lock 

8 


of  1 89 1-3,  and  the  quo  warranto  proceedings  which  followed, 
was  the  senior  counsel  for  the  republican  party.  Mr.  Robinson, 
besides  his  position  as  a  leading  director  of  the  New  York,  New 
Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  was  a  director  of  the 
Connecticut  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  the  Connecticut 
Fire  Insurance  Company,  the  Hartford  Steam  Boiler  Inspection 
and  Insurance  Company,  a  trustee  of  the  Connecticut  Trust  & 
Safe  Deposit  Company,  a  member  of  the  Hartford  Board  of 
Trade,  and  was  for  several  years  president  of  the  Republican 
Club  of  Hartford.  Mr.  Robinson  was  also  a  charter  member 
and  president  of  the  City  Missionary  Society  for  several  years, 
president  of  the  Henry  C.  Robinson  Troop,  a  campaign  organi- 
zation, a  director  of  the  Hartford  Hospital,  American  trustee 
for  the  Scottish  Union  Insurance  Company,  trustee  of  the 
Wadsworth  Atheneum,  and  an  original  member  of  the  Monday 
Evening  (Literary)  Club. 

Mr.  Robinson  had  been  for  over  fifty  years  a  member  of 
the  South  Church  and  one  of  Dr.  Parker's  warmest  friends. 
He  was  always  very  influential  in  church  matters  and  had  been 
a  member  of  the  church  and  the  society  committees,  besides 
being  for  several  years  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school. 

Mr.  Robinson's  well-known  sympathy  with  philanthropic, 
charitable,  religious,  and  educational  movements  led  to  his 
active  participation  with  many  enterprises  of  that  character, 
his  counsel  being  frequently  sought  in  matters  of  that  kind,  as 
that  which  could  be  implicitly  relied  upon.  For  many  years  he 
served  on  committees,  boards  of  directors,  and  ecclesiastical 
associations  throughout  the  state,  doing  a  large  amount  of  work 
in  these  lines.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Hartford  Tract  Society, 
a  trustee  of  the  Wadsworth  Atheneum  of  this  city,  a  trustee  of 
the  Hartford  Grammar  school,  vice-president  of  the  Bar  Asso- 
ciation of  Connecticut  and  of  that  of  Hartford  county,  the  third 
president  of  the  Yale  Alumni  Association  of  this  city,  following 
Judge  Shipman  and  Mr.  Twichell,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution, his  title  in  the  latter  being  gained  from  the  service  of 
his  great-grandfather,  Colonel  Timothy  Robinson,  who  served 
in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Mr.  Robinson's  pre-eminent  position  in  the  practice  of  the 
law  was  gained  by  great  natural  gifts  of  oratory,  diligent  study, 
and  much  arduous  toil  and  a  large  practice  of  much  variety. 


He  had  professional  attainments  of  a  high  degree  of  scholarship 
added  to  which  was  high  personal  character.  Few  excelled 
him  in  brilliant  eloquence,  and  his  efforts  in  that  line  have  been 
marked  by  a  broad  grasp  of  his  subject  and  a  full  and  sincere 
patriotism.  His  great  gifts  in  this  direction  found  expression 
in  many  addresses  breathing  patriotism,  loyalty,  and  devotion  to 
the  broad  interests  of  humanity  and  the  interests  of  his  country 
and  his  native  city.  Among  his  most  prominent  addresses, 
some  of  which  commanded  the  attention  of  thousands  at  the 
time,  were  his  oration  at  the  dedication  of  the  Putnam  eques- 
trian statue  at  Brooklyn,  Conn.;  the  Hartford  services  at  the 
deaths  of  President  Garfield  and  General  Grant ;  the  semi- 
centennial of  the  Hartford  Public  High  School  ;  the  nomi- 
nating speech  for  Colonel  Frank  W.  Cheney  in  the  republican 
state  convention  in  Foot  Guard  Armory ;  the  address  at  the 
first  banquet  of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution  at  the  Allyn  House,  where  he  presided  ; 
and  the  address  at  the  celebration  of  the  400th  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  Martin  Luther,  at  the  Park  Church.  Especially 
interesting  as  models  of  eloquent  oratory,  fine  diction,  and  fer- 
vent patriotism,  were  his  many  addresses  on  Memorial  Day 
before  members  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  He  was 
also  the  orator  at  the  dedication  of  the  Putnam  statue  on  Bush- 
nell  Park,  and  at  the  celebration  of  the  250th  anniversary  of 
the  General  Assembly. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  for  many  years  lecturer  at  Yale  on  the 
ethics  of  the  legal  profession.  He  has  written  extensively  for 
magazines,  principally  for  the  New  Englander  and  the  Yale  Law 
Journal.  The  most  ambitious  of  his  more  recent  writings  was 
the  "Constitutional  History  of  Connecticut,"  lately  published 
in  "  Hurd's  New  England  States."  The  public  bath-house, 
which  has  proved  of  so  much  benefit,  was  one  of  Mr.  Robin- 
son's ideas  which  found  expression  in  his  message  as  mayor, 
and  was  established  during  his  administration.  He  was  also 
an  earnest  advocate  of  a  public  market  for  this  city.  Mr.  Rob- 
inson was  tendered  the  appointment  of  minister  to  Spain  by 
President  Harrison,  which  he  declined,  and  was  also  tendered 
the  presidency  of  the  "  Consolidated  "  road  several  years  ago. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  married  August  28,  1862,  on  his  thirtieth 
birthday,  to  Miss  Eliza  Niles  Trumbull,  daughter  of  John  F. 
Trumbull  of  Stonington.     Mrs.  Robinson  and  five  children  sur- 


vive  him.  The  children  are  Lucius  F.  Robinson  and  John  T. 
Robinson,  law  partners  of  their  father,  Henry  S.  Robinson,  sec- 
retary of  the  Connecticut  Trust  &  Safe  Deposit  Company, 
Lucy  T.,  the  wife  of  Sidney  T.  Miller  of  Detroit,  and  Miss  Mary 
S.  Robinson  of  this  city.  Mr.  Robinson  also  leaves  four  grand- 
children, who  are,  Elizabeth  Trumbull  and  Sidney  Trowbridge 
Miller,  children  of  Mrs.  Miller,  and  Lucius  Franklin  and  Bar- 
clay Robinson,  children  of  Lucius  F.  Robinson.  Two  sisters 
survive  Mr.  Robinson,  Mrs.  Sarah  A.  Trumbull,  widow  of  Dr. 
J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  and  Mrs.  Shipman,  the  wife  of  Judge 
Nathaniel  Shipman. 

Mr.  Robinson's  office  has  always  been  a  school  for  lawyers, 
some  of  whom  have  attained  eminence  in  the  bar  and  in  other 
pursuits.  Among  those  who  studied  law  in  Mr.  Robinson's 
office  are  the  following  :  Sylvester  C.  Dunham,  vice-president 
of  the  Travelers  Insurance  Company,  Judge  W.  F.  Henney, 
James  A.  Barnes  of  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  Henry  C.  Gussman  of 
New  Britain,  Daniel  J.  Griffin,  now  dead,  George  P.  McLean 
and  Austin  Brainard,  members  of  the  firm  of  Sperry,  McLean 
&  Brainard,  Andrew  F.  Gates,  T.  Dwight  Merwin  of  New 
York,  and  a  son  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Barnard,  now  dead. 

The  Courant,  in  an  editorial  article,  also  said : 
The  death  of  Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson  brings  a  sense  of 
loss,  not  only  to  this  community,  but  to  the  whole  State.  His 
was  a  unique  figure  in  our  Connecticut  life ;  the  place  he  occu- 
pied was  all  his  own.  As  an  orator,  he  stood  foremost  in  the 
State  ;  as  a  politician,  he  was  a  leading  republican  from  the 
early  days  of  that  party  ;  as  a  lawyer,  he  was  at  the  head  of  the 
profession  ;  as  a  citizen,  he  was  full  of  patriotic  impulse  and 
public  spirit ;  and,  as  a  friend,  he  was  sympathetic,  cordial,  and 
demonstrative  in  a  way  that  bound  others  to  him  by  a  peculiar 
affection. 

In  the  widespread  grief  that  followed  the  first  announce- 
ments of  his  critical  illness,  there  were,  of  course,  many  allu- 
sions to  the  large  outside  successes  of  his  life.  But  always  the 
uppermost  thought  was  of  the  man's  great  heart,  of  his  kind 
and  affectionate  disposition,  of  the  wide  range  and  the  wit  and 
brilliancy  of  his  conversation,  of  the  charm  of  his  sympathetic 
companionship  —  of  the  greatest  of  all  his  successes,  his  hold 
upon  the  hearts  of  those  who  were  admitted  to  the  privilege  of 


his  abundant  friendship.  His  encouraging  way  with  young 
men  has  especially  endeared  him  to  many,  now  no  longer 
young,  who  remember  with  gratitude  his  helpful  friendliness 
in  the  days  of  their  early  struggles. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  elements  of  Mr.  Robinson's  na- 
ture was  his  great  enthusiasm.  He  was  of  an  emotional  tem- 
perament and  easily  moved,  sometimes  even  to  tears,  by  a  ten- 
der strain  of  music  or  a  burst  of  eloquence.  His  feeling  was 
intense,  and  in  his  large  and  many  sympathies  he  was  always 
abounding  in  enthusiasm,  whether  for  friends,  for  books,  for 
music,  or  for  art.  He  was  a  genuine  and  devoted  lover  of  na- 
ture, with  the  spirit  of  the  true  poet  in  him.  He  was  fond  of 
outdoor  life,  and,  so  long  as  he  had  the  strength,  was  a  devoted 
fisherman  and  hunter.  No  one  knew  better  than  he  the  brooks 
and  fields  of  this  county,  or  the  delight  of  communion  with 
them.  A  few  years  ago  he  fell  down  the  steps  that  lead  to  his 
office,  and  the  injuries  then  incurred  incapacitated  him  for  out- 
door exercise  and  undoubtedly  in  that  way  shortened  his  life. 

He  was  one  of  the  founders  and  most  enthusiastic  members 
of  the  Monday  Evening  Club  of  this  city,  and  his  essays  there 
were  of  a  choice  literary  quality  and  were  often  enjoyed  later 
by  the  public  as  Kent  Club  lectures,  and  at  other  occasions. 

Of  his  lovely  home  life  it  is  not  for  a  newspaper  to  speak, 
but  none  who  enjoyed  his  hospitality  need  be  reminded  of  the 
pleasure  it  gave  them,  or  the  sweetness  of  the  atmosphere 
which  pervaded  the  household  as  it  was  revealed  to  them.  Mr. 
Robinson,  in  his  more  than  sixty  years  of  life  here,  had  come 
to  be  an  essential  part  of  Hartford.  He  will  be  missed  in  many 
ways,  and  mourned  by  very  many  outside  the  immediate  circle 
of  his  intimate  friends. 

The  following  tributes  from  some  of  Mr.  Robinson's  per- 
sonal friends  are  taken  also  from  the  Courant  of  February 
1 5th :  — 

from  Ris  pastor,  Dr.  Parker. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Courant : 

In  the  great  sorrow,  and  in  the  shock  and  confusion  of 
thought  and  feeling  caused  by  the  death  of  my  dear  friend  and 
brother,  how  can  I  write  what  I  would  and  should,  concerning 
him  ? 


Love  sees  him  through  a  mist  of  tears, 
Transfigured  in  a  new,  strange  light, 
Wherein  each  virtue  shines  so  bright, 

That  every  frailty  disappears. 

For  more  than  forty  years  we  have  walked  together  in  an 
uninterrupted  companionship  of  mutual  confidence  and  affec- 
tion. I  have  looked  to  him,  and  never  in  vain.  I  have  leaned 
upon  him,  nor  ever  found  him  wanting  or  weak.  I  have  de- 
rived wisdom,  strength,  comfort,  and  courage  from  him  at 
every  stage  of  the  long  way.  We  have  taken  sweet  counsel  to- 
gether. No  man  ever  had  a  more  loyal,  steadfast,  and  faithful 
friend  than  he  has  been  to  me. 

And  he  has  gone  ! 

This  complaint  of  personal  feeling  might  be  unsuitable  for 
publication,  but  for  the  fact  that  it  probably  voices  the  feeling 
of  many  others  in  this  community  and  elsewhere.  Mr.  Robin- 
son had  a  host  of  friends,  in  all  classes  and  conditions,  for  he 
showed  himself  friendly  and  made  and  kept  friends. 

There  is  but  one  feeling  concerning  him  in  this  community 
—  the  feeling  of  bereavement.  It  is  literally  true  that  "the 
mourners  go  about  the  streets."  Hartford  mourns  not  only 
the  loss  of  a  distinguished  citizen  of  whom  she  was  justly 
proud,  but  of  a  good  man  of  whom  she  was  justly  fond.  No 
one  of  her  sons  loved  her  more  or  served  her  more  devotedly 
and  efficiently.  No  one  of  them  was  more  intimately  associ- 
ated with  her  best  traditions  and  interests.  No  one  of  them 
was  a  truer  or  more  typical  representative  of  her  social,  civic, 
and  religious  life.  He  seemed  builded,  as  a  living  stone,  into 
the  very  structure  of  her  commonwealth.  Universally  and  al- 
most familiarly  known,  he  was  universally  respected,  honored, 
admired,  and  beloved.  Omitting  all  consideration  of  his  strictly 
professional  qualifications,  services,  and  successes,  of  which  his 
legal  brethren  may  more  suitably  testify,  we  recall  the  diver- 
sity of  intellectual  gifts  which  he  possessed,  and  his  culture  and 
employment  of  the  same,  by  which  he  achieved  singular  dis- 
tinction, and  rendered  highly  important  service  in  the  elucida- 
tion of  public  questions  and  concerns.  His  naturally  vigorous 
and  fertile  mind  was  subjected  to  the  discipline  of  hard  study 
and  close  thought.  A  wide  range  of  good  reading  in  all  depart- 
ments of  literature  enriched  him  with  the  materials  of  apt  illus- 
tration for  his  own  discourse.     He  had  imagination,  and  the 

13 


vision  of  it,  and  the  poetic  temperament.  He  had  the  logical 
faculty,  and  reasoned  cogently,  though  not  in  supreme  respect 
of  logical  terms  and  forms.  His  command  of  language  was  re- 
markable, and  his  use  of  it,  in  writing  or  speaking,  was  alike 
forcible  and  felicitous. 

He  seldom  spoke  without  careful  preparation,  although  the 
ease  and  grace  of  his  speech  seemed  spontaneous  and  unpre- 
meditated. The  rhetorical  efflorescence  of  earlier  years  proved 
to  be  only  the  condition  and  harbinger  of  that  fruitfulness,  both 
of  thought  and  expression,  which  characterized  the  public  utter- 
ances of  his  riper  age. 

We  had  come  to  regard  him  as  our  "chief  speaker,"  the  one 
to  be  brought  forward  on  important  public  occasions.  He  was 
capable  of  eloquence.  He  had  the  oratorical  art  and  power. 
Since  Richard  D.  Hubbard  died,  no  man  among  us  surpassed 
him  in  these  respects. 

Mr.  Robinson  had  in  his  nature  an  interesting  commixture 
of  conservative  and  progressive  elements.  He  liked  and  clung 
to  old  ways,  old  forms,  old  customs,  old  traditions,  yet  not  with- 
standing reasonable  innovations.  But  no  one  was  more  hospi- 
table to  new  ideas,  to  new  interpretations  of  truth,  to  new  light 
from  any  quarter. 

He  welcomed  the  investigations  of  sober  scholars.  He 
would  not  muzzle  criticism.  He  was  not  afraid  of  new  depart- 
ures in  theology,  but  would  bid  them  depart  in  peace.  His 
Christian  sympathies  were  catholic  because  his  human-hearted- 
ness  was  so  large  and  warm. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  radically  and  unalterably  democratic  in 
principle  and  spirit.  He  believed  in  men,  in  the  common  peo- 
ple. He  trusted  them,  and  had  no  respect  for  aristocracy  in 
Church  or  State.  I  have  never  known  a  man  who  had  more 
faith  in  his  fellowmen,  and  this,  conjoined  with  a  faith  in  God, 
made  him  an  optimist.  I  have  never  known  a  man  who  ex- 
ceeded him  in  respect  of  charity  towards  men.  Those  clear, 
keen  eyes  of  his  searched  out  and  saw  through  shams  and  in- 
sincerities and  lies,  and  made  them  blench.  But  those  same 
eyes  were  ever  detecting  the  better  things  in  weak  and  erring 
mortals.  His  excuses  and  apologies  for  human  faults  and  frail- 
ties were  often  as  ingenious  as  they  always  were  ingenuous. 
Out  of  the  loving-kindness  of  his  heart,  he  was  a  strength  to 
the  poor  and  to  the  needy  in  their  distress.     The  thing  he  most 

14 


hated  was  inhumanity.  Mr.  Robinson  had  a  practical  Christian 
philosophy  of  human  life  as  related  both  to  nature  and  to  God, 
as  conditioned  by  infirmity  and  mortality  and  yet  embraced  in 
some  good  purpose  of  Divine  Love,  which  enabled  him  to  en- 
counter and  sustain  great  trials  and  sorrows  with  singular  for- 
titude and  serenity  of  mind. 

He  was  splendidly  courageous  and  hopeful.  This,  with  his 
loyalty,  made  him  a  most  helpful  friend. 

He  bore  up  and  fared  on  so  heartily,  so  cheerily,  so 
bravely !  Weakness  found  strength,  discouragement  found 
courage  in  his  presence  and  counsel.  Somehow  he  contrived 
to  turn  the  edge  of  complaints,  and  to  divert  the  currents  of 
despondency,  and  to  set  one  in  a  higher  and  brighter  and  bet- 
ter course  of  thought  and  feeling.  Minor  music  was  not  to  his 
taste.     Mr.  Despondency  was  not  his  type  of  a  Christian. 

He  had  a  good,  sound  judgment,  a  rich  and  saving  common 
sense,  underneath  all  the  more  brilliant  gifts  which  delighted 
men's  eyes.  He  was  a  great  believer  in  human  freedom, —  in 
freedom  of  thought  and  speech  and  action.  Within  the  sphere 
of  his  liberty  as  a  conscientious  and  Christian  man,  he  moved 
freely  as  he  would,  and  thought  others  should  do  likewise,  with- 
out overmuch  regard  to  criticism.  It  was  of  great  importance 
to  him  that  people  should  diligently  and  religiously  mind  their 
own  business.  Virtue  by  repression  and  compulsion  seemed 
impracticable  to  his  mind. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  a  very  high-minded,  as  well  as  a  strong- 
minded  man  ;  a  great  and  pure-hearted  man  ;  a  just,  kind,  gen- 
erous, affectionate  man  ;  and,  I  may  add,  a  profoundly  religious 
man.  He  worked  no  ill,  spoke  no  ill,  thought  no  ill  of  his  neigh- 
bor. He  had  less  reason  than  most  of  us  to  pray  for  deliver- 
ance from  "all  uncharitableness."  He  was  a  bright  and  shin- 
ing light  in  this  city.  He  was  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  church 
of  God  here. 

It  was  pathetic  to  see  this  man  who,  only  a  few  years  since, 
rejoiced  in  almost  perfect  health  of  body,  and  exulted  in  ath- 
letic recreations  by  stream  or  wood  or  shore,  cast  down  in  griev- 
ous physical  disabilities  and  pains,  but  it  was  beautiful  to  see 
his  patient  acceptance  of  his  lot,  and  his  fine  exemplification  of 
his  own  philosophy. 

A  friend  who  visited  him  one  day  said  to  me,  speaking  of 
his  protracted  and  severe  sufferings,  "  He  bears  them  like  an 
early  Christian  ! " 

15 


Another  man,  of  humble  occupation,  spoke  the  truth,  who 
said  to  me  but  yesterday,  "  I  suppose  there  was  no  man  in  Hart- 
ford so  well  known,  and  who  will  be  so  much  missed  by  every- 
body, as  Mr.  Robinson."  On  the  whole,  what  a  fortunate,  suc- 
cessful, happy,  useful,  and  honorable  life  his  has  been  !  God 
be  thanked  for  it.     But  what  shall  we  do  without  him  ? 

E.  P.  P. 

from  president  Greene  of  the  Connecticut  Mutual* 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Courant : 

For  thirty  years  I  have  had  a  double  relation  with  Mr.  Rob- 
inson. He  has  been  my  business  associate  and  my  friend.  In 
both  relations  he  had  a  distinctive  and  characteristic  value. 

As  a  director  in  the  corporation  of  which  we  were  mem- 
bers, and  in  which  he  was  for  many  years  the  senior  director, 
he  took  an  enthusiastic  interest  in  both  the  scientific  and  the 
practical  side  of  its  problems  and  affairs.  His  acute  and  clear 
intelligence,  his  zeal,  his  tact,  his  courage,  his  experience,  his 
wide  knowledge  of  men  and  of  affairs  of  moment,  as  well  as  his 
great  professional  acquirements,  made  him  a  counselor  of  unu- 
sual value.  Like  every  man  of  power,  he  made  his  own  place, 
which  another  may  never  wholly  take.  The  sense  of  his  loss 
will  never  pass  from  the  minds  of  those  who  were  associated 
with  him. 

But  who  can  describe  his  friend  :  the  man  who  brought  to 
every  day's  intercourse  the  cheerful  face,  the  hearty  voice,  the 
personal  interest,  the  intelligent  sympathy,  the  helpful  consid- 
eration, and  the  high  spirit,  that  made  an  atmosphere  of  hope 
and  strength  wherever  he  moved.  No  picture  of  the  man  can 
be  made  by  a  recitation  of  the  powers  of  his  brilliant  mind,  his 
wit,  the  charm  of  his  cultivated  gifts  of  imagination  and  expres- 
sion. It  was  their  summation  and  blending  in  his  personality, 
and  made  vital  with  his  broad  human  sympathy  and  his  strong, 
warm,  sunny  nature,  that  made  the  man  who  won  the  personal 
affection  of  all  who  touched  him,  and  whose  memory  will  re- 
main to  every  such  a  distinct  and  precious  possession. 

Jacob  L.  Greene. 

from  ex-President  Dwigbt  of  ^ale. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Courant : 

May  I   ask   the  privilege  of   saying  a  few  words  in  your 

16 


columns  in  testimony  of  my  high  esteem  and  warm  friendship 
for  the  Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson,  the  tidings  of  whose  death 
will  bring  sorrow  to  a  very  wide  circle  of  friends  who  respected 
and  loved  him.  My  first  meeting  with  him  was  at  a  time  when 
I  was  called  into  the  service  of  our  college  as  a  teacher  for  a 
short  period,  about  four  months  after  my  graduation  in  1849, 
and  in  the  early  part  of  his  freshman  year.  In  common  with 
his  classmates  he  opened  his  heart  kindly  towards  me  in  those 
days  of  our  first  acquaintance,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the 
friendship  of  a  life-time  was  begun.  The  class  of  1853  has  had 
a  very  honorable  record  in  the  history  of  the  half-century 
which  has  passed  since  they  entered  upon  their  course  as 
students  at  Yale,  but  the  happiest  part  of  their  record,  as 
related  to  my  own  personal  life,  is  connected  with  the  friendly 
association  in  which  I  have  been  permitted  by  them  to  share. 

Henry  Robinson  —  for  so  I  like  to  speak  of  him  —  was  in 
his  college  days  what  he  has  been  in  the  long  years  that  have 
followed  them.  In  his  case,  the  boy  was  truly  father  of  the 
man.  He  had  the  same  generous  spirit,  the  same  kindness  of 
heart,  the  same  enthusiasm,  the  same  readiness  of  thought  and 
of  speech,  the  same  manly  character,  the  same  truthful  life,  the 
same  warm  affection.  Those  days  were,  indeed,  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  were  far  distant  from  the  end.  But  the  beginning 
for  him  was  the  beginning  of  growth,  and  the  end  was  but  the 
richness  and  ripeness  of  the  fruitage.  I  am  glad  that  I  saw  the 
progress  and  development  of  the  years  and  knew,  in  their 
passing  onward,  the  fulfillment  of  the  youthful  promise. 

I  think  of  him  now  —  as  I  have  often  thought  of  him 
before  —  as  having  had  a  unique  and  a  very  happy  career.  It 
was  his  good  fortune  to  pass  through  his  whole  life  in  the 
home  of  his  childhood  —  in  the  city  which  he  loved  and  of 
which  he  became,  as  he  moved  on  in  his  manhood,  no  unim- 
portant part.  He  had  the  best  elements  of  the  old  Hartford 
character,  and  he  carried  in  himself  those  elements  of  goodness 
and  of  strength  in  all  his  living.  He  had,  from  the  beginning, 
a  delightful  home  and  gave  to  it,  out  of  his  own  generous  love 
and  devotion,  a  large  measure  of  its  joy.  No  one  could  see 
him,  or  think  of  him,  without  knowing  that  his  children  must 
love  him  as  one  of  the  kindliest  of  fathers.  No  one  could  enter 
the  circle  of  his  friendship  without  realizing  yet  more  fully 
what  he  must  be  to  those  to  whom  he  was  bound  by  still  closer 


ties.  The  company  of  his  friends  was  a  large  one  —  made  up 
of  younger  men,  as  well  as  older.  The  younger  ones  were 
happy  in  the  youthfulness  of  his  affection.  The  older  ones 
renewed  their  youth  as  they  met  him  and  talked  with  him.  In 
his  professional  and  public  life  he  had  most  gratifying  and 
most  honorable  success  —  that  success  which  comes  from 
ability  and  worth,  from  right  principle  and  from  true  devotion 
to  the  welfare  of  others.  In  his  Christian  living  he  was  large- 
minded,  generous,  full  of  love  and  good  works,  a  disciple  of  the 
Master,  who  had  received  much  of  the  Master's  spirit.  As  life 
was  advancing  he  gained  more  and  more  of  that  which  makes 
the  later  years  full  of  satisfaction  and  of  peaceful  enjoyment, 
and  became  more  joyfully  prepared  for  the  future.  He  has 
died  in  the  fullness  of  his  ripe  and  complete  manhood.  Surely 
we  may  say  that  his  career  has  been  a  happy  one,  ordered 
in  loving  kindness  by  the  Divine  Father.  Surely  we  may 
follow  him  in  our  thoughts  into  the  life  beyond  with  much 
thankfulness  for  the  past,  and  with  great  and  blessed  hopes  for 
the  future. 

I  know  that  his  friends  in  his  own  city,  who  have  been  so 
long  and  so  intimately  acquainted  with  him,  will  say  to  one 
another,  in  these  passing  days,  what  is  more  worthy  of  him  and 
more  justly  appreciative  than  I  have  said.  But,  as  we  bid  him 
farewell,  I  hope  that  the  words  of  a  friend  who,  though  living 
elsewhere,  recalls  in  pleasant  memory  the  earlier  days  and  the 
later  ones,  may  be  allowed  a  place  among  the  testimonies  of 
friendship  and  of  affection. 

Timothy  Dwight. 

New  Haven,  February  14,  1900. 

from  president  Perkins  of  the  County  Bar, 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Courant : 

Death  has  removed  from  us  the  most  shining  ornament  of 
the  bar  of  this  county,  if  not  of  the  state.  As  one  who  has 
known  him  as  long  and  perhaps  as  well  as  any  one  not  of  his 
own  family,  allow  me  to  say  a  few  words. 

We  were  born  within  a  few  months  of  each  other  and 
attended  school  together  from  the  time  we  were  old  enough 
till  1849,  when  we  both  went  to  college.  We  studied  law 
almost  together  —  I  with  my  father  and  he  with  his  brother 
Lucius,  were  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  same  year,  and  have 

18 


since  practiced  law  together.  His  kindness  of  heart  and  sweet- 
ness of  temper  were  such  that,  during-  all  that  period,  there  has 
never  been  an  unpleasant  word,  or,  as  I  believe,  an  unkind 
thought  between  us,  and  this  is  perhaps  the  more  remarkable 
as  to  the  best  of  my  remembrance  we  were  never  engaged 
together  in  a  case,  but  were  always  on  opposite  sides,  where  it 
so  often  happens  that  hasty  words  are  spoken  in  the  excitement 
of  a  trial. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  speak  of  his  abilities  as  a  lawyer,  an 
orator,  or  in  any  other  of  the  many  positions  which  he  so  well 
and  ably  filled.  I  know  of  no  other  man  in  the  state  who 
could  fill  his  place.  His  death  is  a  loss  to  the  state,  to  his 
family,  and  his  friends,  and  especially  to  the  few  remaining 
members  of  the  bar,  like  myself,  who  have  known,  loved,  hon- 
ored, and  respected  him  all  our  lives. 

Charles  E.  Perkins. 

from  the  F)on.  George  p.  McLean. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  C our  ant : 

As  one  of  Mr.  Robinson's  students  and  as  one  of  his  younger 
friends  for  twenty- two  years,  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say 
that  I  learned  to  love  him,  and  it  is  impossible  for  me  to 
express  the  deep  sorrow  that  comes  to  me  in  the  announcement 
of  his  death. 

I  came  to  his  office  in  1879,  having  with  me  a  letter  of 
introduction  from  a  friend  whom  he  knew.  Mr.  Robinson 
told  me  that,  as  he  already  had  three  students  in  his  office,  I 
could  remain  there  only  until  he  could  find  another  place  for 
me.  Daily  after  that  I  expected  the  dreaded  change,  but  it  did 
not  come. 

I  had  heard  much  of  his  eloquence  and  learning  before  I 
met  him.  I  had  not  been  in  his  office  a  month  before  I  knew 
that  his  heart  was  as  sympathetic  as  a  mother's.  During  the 
eight  years  that  I  occupied  the  room  next  to  his,  his  strong 
and  generous  hand  always  seemed  to  be  in  mine.  No  matter 
what  I  did  or  how  I  did  it,  he  not  only  excused  but  defended 
it.  He  did  for  me  what  my  father  could  not  do,  and  some- 
times I  felt  that  he  helped  me  to  the  disadvantage  of  his  own 
sons. 

When  I  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  he  had 
many  important  interests  to  protect,  but  he  never  allowed  him- 

19 


self  to  discuss  any  of  them  in  my  presence.  One  day  I  went 
into  his  room  and  called  his  attention  to  this  fact.  His  reply 
was,  "  My  boy,  I  want  you  to  look  into  both  sides  of  my  bills 
and  do  as  you  think  right  without  a  suggestion  from  me,  and 
remember,  vote  as  you  want  to."  It  was  then  I  realized  that 
his  sense  of  honor  was  absolute  and  his  friendships  uncon- 
ditional. I  always  saw  in  him  that  safe,  sure  poise  of  the 
qualities  that  make  the  highest  order  of  citizenship.  In  the 
home,  in  the  office,  in  the  court-room,  in  the  capitol,  on  the 
platform,  in  the  forest,  on  the  ball  ground,  in  the  parlor,  he 
was  always  the  same  cultured,  brilliant,  fearless,  upright  man 
and  friend. 

The  world  to  him  was  beautiful,  full  of  good  men  and 
women  and  noble  purposes.  He  loved  truth  and  family  and 
his  fellowmen  better  than  position  or  wealth.  Life  to  him  was 
a  precious  link  in  the  bright  chain  of  eternity.  If  he  had 
faults  they  were  as  the  dust  invisible,  in  a  book  full  of  sweet 
poetry,  sound  philosophy,  charity,  courage,  and  hope. 

George  P.  McLean. 

The  Hartford  Times  of  February  14th  said  : 

Mr.  Robinson  was  a  foremost  figure  in  New  England  Con- 
gregationalism. He  was  known  as  a  leader  in  notable  assem- 
blages of  the  denomination.  Last  fall  he  was  a  member  of  the 
international  council  which  met  in  Boston,  and  was  an  active 
participant  in  its  deliberations. 

His  writings  were  voluminous,  covering  wide  and  distinct 
fields  of  research.  His  paper  on  the  "  Constitutional  History 
of  Connecticut "  was  one  of  the  best  efforts  from  his  pen,  and 
will  be  of  unquestioned  authority  in  the  deliberations  on  that 
subject  which  are  to  take  place  hereafter  in  legal  and  legislative 
halls.  His  public  addresses  and  orations  were  of  the  most 
brilliant  literary  merit.  The  oration  delivered  at  the  unveiling 
of  the  Putnam  equestrian  statue  in  Brooklyn  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  specimens  of  oratory  that  have  been  produced 
in  Connecticut. 

One  of  the  most  eloquent  expressions  of  patriotism  that  the 
veterans  of  the  Civil  War  have  listened  to  in  this  state  came 
from  his  lips,  May  30,  1S85.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Grand 
Army  in  this  city,  he  was  the  Memorial  Day  orator. 

In   this   oration,  the   memory  of  which  still  lingers  in  the 


hearts  and  minds  of  its  hearers,  Mr.  Robinson  laid  down  the  con- 
viction that :  "  There  is  such  a  thing  as  Christian  thought  in  states- 
manship, and  it  is  consistent  with  the  highest,  truest  manliness." 
In  the  memorial  address  delivered  in  Rockville  in  1897,  Mr. 
Robinson  spoke  with  the  old  enthusiasm  of  Connecticut's  ser- 
vices in  the  country's  behalf. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  kindly  and  generous  at  all  times  in  his 
dealings  with  men.  His  cheery  word  of  "  comrade,"  as  he  met 
them  in  the  street  and  in  the  office,  had  a  tonic  that  could  not 
be  forgotten  in  the  duties  and  exactions  of  daily  life.  Mr. 
Robinson  was  the  enthusiastic  friend  of  out-door  games  and 
athletics,  taking  an  increasing  pleasure  as  the  years  advanced 
in  the  athletic  life  at  Yale.  And  here  it  may  be  said  that  he 
was  the  typical  Yale  man,  loving  the  university  with  the  loy- 
alty of  a  son,  and  counting  its  progress  and  history  as  of  the 
greatest  value.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Hartford  Yale 
Alumni  Association,  and  was  one  of  its  first  presidents. 

Most  of  all,  Mr.  Robinson  was  a  man  of  Christian  belief  and 
character.  He  was  a  member  of  the  South  Congregational 
church,  and  his  religious  life  was  exemplified  in  that  body  and 
in  the  home  of  rare  interest  and  charm  which  was  dignified  by 
his  presence  and  spirit.  The  catholicity  of  his  faith  was  appar- 
ent in  every  act  and  thought  of  his  life.  Religion  presented  no 
narrowing  influences  in  his  examples  of  citizenship  and  neigh- 
borly courtesies.  His  faith  bore  fruit  that  cannot  be  thought 
of  except  with  thankfulness  that  so  good  a  man  has  lived  and 
worked  and  been  an  example  to  be  imitated  in  the  community 
which  he  loved  and  honored  so  much. 

6eneral  F)awk/s  tribute  to  Mi*.  Robinson. 

Special  to  the  Coura?it  : 

Washington,  February  14.      / 

On  hearing  of  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinsoii 
to-day,  Senators  Hawley  said  :  "  One  more  old  friend  gone  — 
during  the  nearW  fifty  years  of  our  acquaintance,  I  never  met 
him  when  his  kind  soul  failed  to  show  itself  in  a  pleasant  smile 
and  a  cordial  grip  of  the  hand,  and  his  bearing  toward  all  was 
that  of  a  friend.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  honor,  able  in  his 
profession,  a  lover  of  his  country,  public  spirited,  and  sound  in 
judgment.  His  private  life  was  stainless.  His  departure  will 
be  sadly  mourned  by  a  great  circle  of  friends  and  relatives." 


New  Haven  Journal  and  Courier  : 

Henry  C.  Robinson,  who  died  in  Hartford  yesterday,  was  a 
good  lawyer,  a  good  business  man,  a  good  speaker  and  writer, 
and  a  good  citizen.  Indeed,  he  was  capable  and  efficient  in 
whatever  he  undertook,  and  the  range  of  his  activities  was 
wide.  During  a  large  part  of  his  life  he  was  prominent  in 
politics  and  public  affairs,  and  his  state  and  city  have  profited 
by  his  public  spirit,  his  sagacity,  and  his  skill.  He  was  wise 
and  tactful  in  his  dealings  with  his  fellowmen,  kindly  in  spirit, 
and  given  to  good  works.  The  Congregational  church  and  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  have 
long  felt  the  influence  of  his  zeal  and  wisdom.  He  will  be 
greatly  missed  by  many  who  have  been  accustomed  to  rely  on 
his  counsel,  and  he  will  be  long  and  sincerely  mourned  by 
many  who  have  been  accustomed  to  rely  on  his  friendliness 
and  good  will.  In  his  death,  his  family,  his  friends,  his  church, 
his  profession,  his  business  associates,  his  city  and  his  state 
have  met  with  a  great  loss. 

New  Haven  Register : 

To  lose  such  a  man  is  to  reflect  the  more  seriously  and 
fondly  upon  those  who  are  left  behind,  and  who  are  still  in  the 
turmoil  and  battle  of  life  which  so  often  compel  us  to  put  off 
appreciation  of  what  is,  in  human  character  and  association, 
until  its  influence  and  radiance  are  stilled.  It  was  a  pleasure 
to  meet  Mr.  Robinson  ;  it  was  an  honor  to  know  him. 

Springfield  Republican  : 

Death  came  to  Henry  C.  Robinson  of  Hartford,  yesterday 
morning,  and  in  his  departure  that  city  and  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut lose  much.  His  ability  as  a  lawyer  was  commanding 
and  his  position  at  the  bar  long  sustained,  while  as  an  influ- 
ential personality  in  legislation  and  affairs  he  took  rank  among 
the  strongest  men  his  state  has  produced.  In  literary  acquire- 
ment and  eloquent  speech  the  same  rank  was  his,  and  he  was  a 
leader  among  the  Congregational  laymen  of  New  England. 
He  thus  measured  large  in  many  lines. 

New  York  Evening  Post  : 

Mr.  Robinson  was  very  prominent  in  Congregational  church 
matters.     As  a  corporate  member  of  the  American  Board  of 


Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  he  took  a  leading  part  as 
a  liberal  in  the  series  of  "great  debates"  on  the  question  of 
orthodox  qualifications  for  missionaries.  It  was  in  one  of  those 
debates  that  he  coined  the  phrase,  famous  at  the  time,  about 
"  venerable  incorporators  who  elect  venerable  successors  to  the 
venerable  dead." 

New  York  Tribune  : 

His  grace  and  power  as  an  orator  caused  him  to  be  fre- 
quently called  upon  to  make  memorial,  welcome,  and  dedica- 
tion addresses.  He  was  the  memorial  orator  at  the  Hartford 
obsequies  of  President  Garfield  and  General  Grant,  and  he 
delivered  eulogies  upon  many  prominent  members  of  the 
bar. 

From  the  Hartford  Post  of  February  14th  :  - 
Henry  C.  Robinson,  who  died  this  morning  at  the  age  of  68, 
united  character  with  capacity,  courage  with  courtesy,  and 
strength  with  sympathy,  and  he  was  at  once  a  student  and  a 
man  of  affairs.  His  death,  not  unexpected,  removes  from  this 
community  a  great  personal  force,  and  the  regret  which  his  loss 
will  beget  will  not  be  confined  to  Hartford  or  bounded  by  Con- 
necticut. 

Mr.  Robinson  represented  an  original  type  of  mind,  and  he 
didn't  waste  any  time  loitering  around  stores  which  dealt  in  sec- 
ond-hand intellectual  furniture.  He  was  not  disposed  to  take 
things  for  granted,  and  with  a  faculty  for  mastery,  he  loved  to 
go  to  the  bottom  of  matters  and  find  out  for  himself.  This 
habit  of  thoroughness  made  him  a  recognized  authority  within 
the  range  of  his  specialties,  and  gave  to  his  views  and  utter- 
ances an  influence  which  a  shallow  intellect  might  envy  but 
could  not  achieve.  Upon  the  constitutional  and  ecclesiastical 
history  of  Connecticut  he  was  an  expert,  and  in  delving  into 
this  subject  with  his  industrious  shovel  he  spent  many  happy 
hours.  The  breadth  of  his  activities  and  the  range  of  his  sym- 
pathies and  of  his  scholarship  may  be  indicated  by  the  state- 
ment that  he  could  address  a  religious  gathering  on  Sunday, 
deliver  a  talk  before  a  historical  society  on  Monday,  act  as  coun- 
sel in  some  technical  and  complex  case  on  Tuesday,  be  a  felt 
force  in  a  railroad  conference  on  Wednesday,  and  so  on  through- 
out the  week.     The  State  has  developed  few  men  who  have 

23 


had  a  greater  fund  of  basic  information  on  a  larger  class  of 
subjects  than  Mr.  Robinson.  He  was  never  inclined,  even  for 
the  sake  of  temporary  advantage,  to  permit  a  point  to  get  the 
better  of  a  principle,  and  in  his  intellectual  outfit  no  love  for 
professional  trickery  was  listed  and  no  fondness  for  double- 
dealing  was  found.  His  robust  character  was  a  personal  as 
well  as  a  public  asset,  and  it  enhanced  his  influence  in  courts  of 
justice  as  well  as  in  the  community. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  a  man  of  eminent  public  spirit,  and  his 
ten  talents  and  much  of  his  time  were  at  the  disposal  of  the 
public,  although  upon  him  a  large  private  business  made  many 
and  constant  demands.  The  things  which  concerned  the  prog- 
ress and  upbuilding  of  the  community  concerned  him,  and  for 
any  cause  which  promoted  the  general  welfare  he  had  a  prompt 
and  helping  hand.  With  numerous  philanthropic  and  religious 
enterprises  has  his  name  been  officially  linked.  His  judgment 
was  keen,  and  to  it  all  accorded  an  attentive  ear,  and  upon  it 
many  were  wont  to  rely.  He  knew  Hartford  and  loved  it 
cordially.  He  knew  Connecticut  and  was  proud  of  it.  He 
knew  his  country  and  admired  it.  He  was  familiar  with  out- 
door life,  and  in  green  fields,  in  the  singing  of  birds,  and  in  the 
study  of  wild  animals  he  found  delight  and  recreation. 

In  the  larger  and  better  sense  Mr.  Robinson  was  a  politi- 
cian, and  although  he  never  cultivated  the  practice  of  shaking 
the  plum-tree,  he  was  many  times  honored  by  positions  of  pub- 
lic trust,  and  he  never  violated  the  confidence  which  his  fellow- 
citizens  reposed  in  him.  With  legislation  and  with  legislatures 
he  had  much  to  do,  but  for  what  he  did  on  Capitol  hill,  even  in 
the  stormiest  times,  no  apology  was  ever  necessary  and  upon  it 
no  shadow  of  suspicion  was  cast.  The  literary  style  with  which 
he  clothed  his  utterances,  oral  and  written,  was  incisive  and 
forceful,  and  his  words  were  as  direct  as  his  statements  were 
lucid. 

Mr.  Robinson  represented  the  best  type  of  Connecticut  citi- 
zenship—  and  no  citizenship  is  better  than  the  best  Connecticut 
citizenship.  Hartford  is  fortunate  in  having  had  such  a  man, 
and  is  unfortunate  in  losing  him  forever,  although  the  work 
that  he  did  and  the  influence  which  he  exerted  are  not  per- 
ishable products. 


24 


&$r.  ftobht£on'£  funeral. 

The  funeral  services  were  held  on  Friday  forenoon,  Febru- 
ary 1 6th,  at  eleven  o'clock,  in  the  Second  Church  of  Christ 
in  Hartford,  where  Mr.  Robinson  had  been  so  many  years  a 
regular  attendant  upon  public  worship.  The  last  service  he 
attended  in  that  place  most  dear  to  him,  was  on  Sunday 
evening,  December  31st,  to  hear  the  beautiful  midnight  ser- 
vice for  New  Year's  Eve,  composed  by  his  honored  towns- 
man and  dear  friend,  Dudley  Buck.  The  ensuing  report  of 
the  funeral  services  is  taken,  with  slight  alterations,  from 
the  columns  of  the  Hartford  C our  ant : 

Simple  but  deeply  impressive  were  the  funeral  services  for 
the  late  Henry  Cornelius  Robinson,  ex-Mayor  of  Hartford,  at 
the  South  church  yesterday  morning.  The  church  was  crowded 
to  the  doors  with  a  representative  gathering  of  business  and 
professional  men,  those  connected  with  Mr.  Robinson  in  the 
various  enterprises  with  which  he  was  identified,  clients  and 
friends  all  testifying  by  their  presence  to  the  regard  and  esteem 
they  felt  for  the  distinguished  lawyer  and  citizen.  In  the  con- 
gregation were  clergymen,  lawyers,  judges,  merchants,  and 
business  men  from  all  ranks,  with  a  large  number  of  railroad 
officials  and  others  from  out  of  town.  A  corps  of  ushers  seated 
the  people  as  they  arrived,  seats  in  the  body  of  the  church 
being  reserved  for  the  various  organizations  with  which  Mr. 
Robinson  was  identified.  The  ushers  were  George  H.  Gilman, 
Francis  R.  Cooley,  Austin  Brainard,  Robert  P.  Parker,  Arthur 
Day,  Andrew  F.  Gates,  Robert  W.  Huntington,  Jr.,  and  Col. 
Francis  Parsons.  The  bearers  were  Lucius  F.  Robinson,  Henry 
S.  Robinson,  and  John  T.  Robinson,  sons  ;  the  Rev.  Frank  R. 
Shipman  of  Andover,  Mass.,  and  Arthur  L.  Shipman  of  this 
city,  nephews  ;  Sidney  T.  Miller  of  Detroit,  son-in-law  ;  Henry 
Robinson  Palmer  of  the  Providence  Journal,  a  nephew,  and 
Major  Louis  R.  Cheney,  a  nephew  by  marriage. 

4  25 


The  pulpit  platform  was  banked  with  a  wealth  of  floral 
pieces  composed  of  roses,  violets,  lilies-of-the  valley,  palms, 
orchids,  and  other  blossoms  arranged  in  wreaths,  placques, 
sprays,  and  bouquets,  all  from  organizations  with  which  Mr. 
Robinson  was  identified,  and  personal  friends. 

The  services  were  conducted  by  Mr.  Robinson's  friend  and 
pastor,  the  Rev.  Edwin  P.  Parker,  D.D.,  assisted  by  the  Rev. 
Joseph  H.  Twichell,  ex-President  D wight  of  Yale  University 
also  occupying  a  seat  in  the  pulpit.  The  choir  of  the  church, 
under  Mr.  John  M.  Gallup's  leadership,  sang  the  evensong  Re- 
sponses, Newman's  "  Lead,  Kindly  Light,"  "  How  Gentle  God's 
Commands  "  to  Dr.  Parker's  tune,  "  Dawn,"  which  Mr.  Robin- 
son loved  to  hear,  and  the  "Nunc  Dimittis"  set  to  music  by 
Mr.  Robinson's  old  friend,  Henry  Wilson.  There  was  no  ad- 
dress, but  only  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture,  prayers,  and  sweet 
music.  Just  before  the  closing  prayer  and  Responses,  Dr. 
Parker  read  the  verses  composed  by  him  and  read  at  the 
funeral,  in  the  same  place,  of  Richard  D.  Hubbard,  prefacing 
the  recital  by  saying  that  the  verses  had  much  interested  Mr. 
Robinson  at  the  time  of  their  dear  friend's  funeral  service,  and 
that  they  seemed  no  less  pertinent  to  this  than  to  that  occasion. 

The  interment  was  in  Cedar  Hill  Cemetery. 

For  the  reasons  given  above,  and  because  the  verses  are 
a  link  of  love  between  the  souls  of  three  very  dear  friends, 
the  following  In  Memoriam,  read  at  Mr.  Hubbard's  funeral, 
was  also  read  at  that  of  Mr.  Robinson  : 

The  lips  are  silent  which  alone  could  pay 
His  worthy  tribute.     We  can  only  lay 

The  laurel  on  his  breast, 

And  bear  him  to  his  rest, 
And  say,  farewell,  dear  soul,  till  break  of  day. 

Amid  the  fickle  and  faint-hearted  throng, 

His  heart  was  ever  steadfast,  brave,  and  strong. 

His  counsel  gave  us  light, 

His  courage  gave  us  might  — 
To  see  the  right,  to  wrestle  with  the  wrong. 

That  sturdy,  stalwart  presence  was  a  tower 
Of  strength  and  hope,  in  many  a  trying  hour. 

In  friendship  warm  and  wise, 

In  large  self-sacrifice, 
In  countless  kindnesses  we  proved  his  power. 

26 


Dear  brother-soul  !  within  that  realm  unknown 
Where  thy  good  spirit  now  from  us  hath  flown, 

Canst  thou  look  back  and  see 

How  lonely,  without  thee, 
And  how  impoverished  our  world  has  grown? 

In  purer  light  dost  thou  now  clearly  scan 
The  lines  of  truth  so  dim  to  mortal  man? 

Dost  see,  amid  our  gloom, 

The  beauty  and  the  bloom 
Of  some  inclusive  and  unfolding  plan  ? 

Are  mysteries  disclosed?    Misgivings  stilled? 

Dark  doubts  disproved?     Hope's  prophecies  fulfilled? 

We  only  hear  our  cries 

Re-echoed  from  the  skies, 
In  the  vast,  awful  silence  God  has  willed. 

Oh,  brother  sweet !    What  would'st  thou  have  me  say  ? 
Sleep  well,  fare  well ;  the  night  is  for  the  day 

And  not  the  day  for  night ! 

Sleep  well,  till  morning  light 
Shall  break  thy  rest,  then  rise  and  go  thy  way. 


27 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Hartford  County  Bar,  held  on  Friday, 
February  15th,  a  committee,  consisting  of  Judge  William 
Hamersley,  Judge  David  S.  Calhoun,  and  Hon.  William 
Waldo  Hyde,  was  appointed  to  draft  resolutions  on  the 
death  of  Mr.  Robinson,  and  to  report  the  same  at  an  ad- 
journed meeting.  On  the  forenoon  of  Monday,  February 
19th,  the  adjourned  meeting  was  held  in  the  superior  court 
room.  President  Charles  E.  Perkins  presided,  and  opened 
the  meeting  with  a  few  introductory  remarks.  Judge  Ham- 
ersley presented  the  Report  of  the  Committee,  as  follows  : 

"  On  behalf  of  the  committee  appointed  at  our  last  meeting, 
I  present  for  your  consideration  a  minute  upon  the  death  of 
Mr.  Robinson,  and  move  its  adoption." 

Report  of  Resolutions  Committee. 

The  Hartford  County  Bar  places  upon  record  this  minute  in 
memory  of  Henry  C.  Robinson,  who  died  Feb.  14,  1900. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1855.  He  became 
at  once  engaged  in  practice,  which  soon  increased  in  extent  and 
importance.  For  the  past  thirty  years  and  more  he  has  been 
one  of  the  few  foremost  lawyers  whose  ability  and  character 
have  influenced  and  distinguished  the  State  bar.  In  consulta- 
tion he  was  suggestive  and  resourceful,  in  preparation  thorough, 
in  the  combats  of  trials  equipped  with  all  the  weapons  of  a  sin- 
gularly clear  and  alert  mind,  directed  with  the  force  of  a  com- 
bative and  intense  earnestness.  In  addressing  a  jury  he  was 
eloquent,  forceful,  and  persuasive  ;  in  the  discussion  of  pure 
questions  of  law  he  sought  above  all  to  discover  the  controlling 
principle  of  law,  and  had  a  clearness  of  statement  and  wealth 
of  illustration  in  its  presentation  that  made  his  arguments  ever 
attractive  and  powerful. 

His  strong  personality  produced  a  marked  influence  peculiar 

28 


to  himself,  not  only  in  the  profession,  but  in  all  the  relations 
of  life.  In  the  church  with  which  he  was  associated  he  was  a 
power  for  good  from  his  earliest  years.  As  a  citizen  he  was 
progressive  and  patriotic,  urging  with  his  ardent  insistence 
whatever  seemed  to  him  for  the  public  good.  The  highest 
honors  of  public  life  in  the  State  and  nation  were  within  his 
reach,  but  had  not  the  power  to  draw  him  from  his  chosen  pro- 
fession. He  twice  accepted  the  nomination  for  the  chief  mag- 
istracy of  his  native  State,  when  defeat  was  probable,  and  de- 
clined it  when  election  followed  nomination.  He  put  aside  the 
offer  of  an  important  foreign  mission  pressed  upon  him  with 
flattering  urgency.  But  his  eloquence  of  speech  and  pen  were 
always  at  the  service  of  the  public.  The  field  of  literature  was 
most  attractive  to  him,  and  his  efforts  in  this  direction  indicate 
the  success  he  might  have  won  as  an  author.  As  friend  and 
companion  his  charm  was  of  a  rare  quality  ;  it  was  all  his  own  ; 
the  mingling  of  cordiality,  humor,  thoughtfulness,  and  enthu- 
siasm. 

His  long  career  as  a  member  of  this  bar  has  been  marked 
by  continuous  work  which  has  aided  in  raising  the  standard  of 
the  profession,  in  developing  a  sound  jurisprudence,  in  increas- 
ing the  respect  for  justice,  and  which  will  always  associate  his 
memory  with  our  most  treasured  traditions. 

Judge  Hamersley,  in  speaking  to  the  resolutions,  said :  — 

In  taking  this  action  I  assume  for  the  time  being  my  place 
as  an  active  member  of  this  bar.  I  join  once  more  the  circle 
most  dear  to  me,  which  has  marked  the  limits  during  a  lifetime 
of  my  work  and  aspirations  and  closest  friendships  ;  and  I  ask 
the  privilege  of  saying  a  few  words  of  our  late  associate  from 
an  open  heart  —  as  brother  speaks  to  brother. 

Very  soon  after  my  admission  to  the  bar,  my  office  joined 
that  of  Lucius  and  Henry  Robinson.  It  was  at  Henry's  sug- 
gestion that  Lucius,  whose  brilliant  capacity  had  already  won 
for  him  a  high  place  as  leader,  asked  me,  a  boy  of  21,  to  appear 
with  him  in  a  case  of  some  importance  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Errors.  The  following  year  the  death  of  his  brother 
left  to  Henry  the  unexpected  preparation  of  several  cases  for 
the  next  term  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  he  associated  me  with 
him  in  those  cases.  The  opportunity  thus  given  was  largely 
influential  in  further  advancement.     There  are  many  others  at 

29 


this  bar  who  are  deeply  indebted  for  their  early  progress  to 
friendly  aid  from  Mr.  Robinson.  I  dwell  on  this  because  it 
furnishes,  in  some  degree,  a  key  to  the  character  of  the  man. 
He  had,  not  as  an  occasional  impulse,  but  as  an  ever-present 
motive,  a  certain  instinct  of  helpfulness  which  dominated  often- 
times unconsciously  his  whole  life.  There  are  some  lives  that 
are  like  a  smooth  sheet  of  water,  which  changes  not,  except  as 
it  reflects  with  pleasing  faithfulness  its  surroundings.  The  life 
of  Mr.  Robinson  was  far  from  such  as  this ;  it  was  more  like  a 
cluster  of  springs,  each  different  from  the  other,  and  sparkling 
with  the  freshness  of  youth,  uniting  in  unexpected  combi- 
nations, but  moving  on  in  obedience  to  an  unseen  and  unceas- 
ing force  in  a  mission  of  wholesome  service.  It  was  this  vari- 
ety of  characteristics,  some  seemingly  contradictory,  all  bub- 
bling with  the  spirit  of  irrepressible  youth,  that  was  his  great- 
est charm  ;  and  it  was  the  ceaseless  motive  behind  all,  the  con- 
stant pervading  purpose  of  helpfulness  and  right  doing,  that 
was  his  greatest  power.  His  was  a  very  human  nature,  full  of 
impulse,  enjoying  the  manly  excitement  of  strife,  swift  to  in- 
dignant repelling  of  wrongful  attack,  most  responsive  to  healthy 
merriment ;  but  backed  by  a  tender  and  true  conscience  that 
sooner  or  later  impressed  its  soft  controlling  influence  on  all  his 
impulses  and  purposes.  He  had  an  intense  repugnance  to  in- 
justice and  wrong  that  would  seek  expressions  in  vigorous  de- 
nunciation and  opposition  ;  but  he  was  tolerant,  most  tolerant 
of  the  unhappy  wrong-doer.  He  loved  to  help  his  friends,  but 
more  than  all  he  loved  to  help.  His  heart  was  catholic.  Is  it 
strange  that  such  a  man,  in  the  many  diverse  relations  of  life 
which  he  has  been  called  to  fill,  has  found  in  each  a  host  of 
warm  personal  friends  ?  Is  it  strange  that  such  a  character, 
when  united  with  the  highest  intellectual  gifts,  should  have  left 
those  results  of  faithful  work  that  compel  us  to  honor  his  mem- 
ory, and  which  form  for  his  children  a  legacy  beyond  value  ? 

In  asking  the  adoption  of  this  minute  I  represent  your  com- 
mittee and  the  whole  bar  ;  but  in  doing  so,  I  wish  also  to  ex- 
press for  two  friends  of  more  than  fifty  years,  my  own  heartfelt 
tribute  of  admiration,  respect,  and  love. 

Olbat  ludgc  Calhoun  Said. 

Judge  David  S.  Calhoun  spoke  as  follows : 
The  death  shaft  which  struck  down  Henry  C.  Robinson  has 

30 


wounded  me  sorely.  Not  only  did  it  despoil  the  little  travel- 
marked  company  of  us,  the  elders  of  this  bar,  of  our  brightest 
and  most  hopeful  companion,  but  for  me  it  ended,  except  in 
memory,  an  exceptional  and  valued  friendship  of  more  than 
forty  years. 

I  have  known  Mr.  Robinson  since,  in  the  ardor  of  youth,  he 
commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  his  gifted  brother. 
I  have  watched  his  intellectual  and  professional  growth  and  his 
so  expanding  influence,  that  in  his  later  life  he  seemed  to  be 
an  almost  omnipresent  and  necessary  force  in  every  important 
public  movement  in  this  community.  And  I  have  gladly  seen 
him  reaping  from  his  wide  labors  abundant  harvests  of  success 
and  honor. 

And  now  that  this  strong  and  manful  brother  and  stanch 
friend  has  gone,  it  would  seem  that  words  of  just  estimate 
and  loving  tribute  would  come  easily.  But  his  death  was  to 
me  so  unexpected,  so  startling  and  remindful,  that  as  yet  a 
voiceless  feeling  demands  the  first  place. 

Still  I  would  not  come  empty-handed  into  this  gathering  of 
his  generous  brothers  of  the  bar.  With  the  other  more  fitting 
tributes  to  his  memory  I  will  offer  a  brief  and  simple  one. 

Mr.  Robinson's  position  and  influence  did  not  rest  on  his 
professional  ability  alone  ;  that,  though  of  the  first  rank,  was 
only  a  block  in  the  structure. 

We  of  the  bar  are  naturally  given  to  estimate  each  other  by 
a  purely  professional  standard  ;  which,  in  a  sense,  seems  a 
measurement  of  comparative  height  rather  than  of  dimensions. 
In  thus  saying  I  would  in  no  wise  depreciate  the  attainments  or 
the  honors  of  the  great  lawyer.  They  are  worthy  of  any  man's 
best  efforts,  and  are  generally  satisfying. 

But  occasionally  one  comes  whose  gifts  and  ambitions  are 
so  manifold  that  they  cannot  be  hemmed  within  the  usual 
bounds  of  a  professional  path,  but  they  break  out  into  other 
fields  of  thought  and  labor  for  their  full  expression  and 
achievement. 

And  such  a  rare  man  was  Mr.  Robinson.  His  mind  was  so 
versatile — his  tastes  so  varied  —  his  enthusiasm  so  pervading, 
and  his  activity  so  restless,  that  the  law,  in  which  he  was 
eminent,  did  not  give  him  "  ample  room  and  verge  enough." 

Exacting  as  were  his  professional  labors,  he  was  yet  a  care- 
ful and  loving  observer  of  nature  ;    he  shared  with  men  of 

31 


business  the  direction  of  great  enterprises  ;  as  a  citizen,  or  a 
trusted  magistrate,  his  keen  interest  in  public  affairs  and  his 
thorough  study  of  the  true  principles  of  wise  government  were 
conspicuous ;  his  admirable  essays  on  various  subjects,  and 
given  to  the  public,  show  how  wide  was  the  range  of  his 
research  and  thought ;  he  gathered  and  assimilated  the  best  of 
general  literature,  and  he  was  ever  earnestly  and  intelligently 
helpful  in  the  higher  work  of  Christian  benevolence. 

Whatever  he  did  was  with  a  fervid  impulse  ;  and  controlling 
and  inspiring  the  whole  man  was  his  generous  and  sympathetic 
heart. 

He  was  indeed  a  man  of  many  parts  ;  each  so  strong  and 
attractive  that  together  they  showed  a  rare  and  finely  com- 
posite character. 

One  referring  to  him  can  add  no  limiting  appellation  —  it 
must  be  only  as  Henry  C.  Robinson. 

Perhaps  as  little  as  any  lawyer  I  have  known,  did  he  carry 
the  impress  of  the  office  or  the  court  room. 

But  doubtless  the  many  will  most  vividly  recall  him  as  a 
public  speaker,  whose  addresses  on  widely  different  subjects 
and  occasions  showed  a  store  and  variety  of  knowledge,  a  style 
clear  and  vigorous,  yet  enriched  by  illustration  and  imagery,  a 
masterly  perception  of  the  power,  beauty,  and  refinement  of 
our  mother-tongue,  and  greater  than  all,  the  uplifting  senti- 
ment and  the  strong  and  sincere  feeling  without  which  words 
are  vain. 

No  wonder  that  with  such  ability,  to  instruct,  and  charm, 
and  move,  he  became,  as  so  well  expressed  by  his  pastor,  "  Our 
'  chief  speaker.'  "     But  — 

The  silver  trumpet's  sound  is  still. 

Sdbat  RKUtam  SCJatdo  f)yde  Said. 

Ex-Mayor  William  Waldo  Hyde  said  : 

Mr.  President :  I  do  not  feel  that  I  can  remain  silent  on 
this  occasion,  although  I  know  how  ill-fitted  I  am  to  speak  of 
the  life  of  our  deceased  friend  and  leader.  For  thirty-five 
years  I  have  felt  the  good  influence  of  the  strong  friendship 
which  he  ever  showed  to  four  generations  of  my  immediate 
family.  From  my  grandfather  to  my  children  —  we  have  all 
felt  the  benefit  of  his  love   and   good  will,  and,  representing 

32 


those  who  have  gone  before,  I  most  gladly  testify  to  the  rever- 
ence and  love  which  I  feel  toward  our  departed  friend.  As  I 
look  back  on  the  long  period  which  has  passed,  every  event  of 
special  joy  and  every  occasion  of  especial  trial  has  in  some  way 
a  sweet  association  with  Mr.  Robinson.  He  was  always  ready 
with  his  love  and  approbation  to  make  happier  those  things 
which  we  could  enjoy,  and  in  time  of  sorrow  his  sympathy  did 
much  to  lighten  oiir  grief.  His  hearty  handgrasp  and  strong 
words  of  encouragement  were  always  ready,  and  he  little 
realized  how  much  we  had  learned  to  depend  on  him. 

The  great  dominating  feeling  in  our  hearts  to-day  is  one  of 
wonder  as  to  how  we  shall  get  on  now.  It  seems  impossible  to 
think  of  Hartford  without  him.  To  speak  of  his  great  ability  is 
a  needless  task  for  me.  Others  older  and  better  equipped  can 
do  that  more  happily  than  I. 

I  have  always,  however,  felt  that  in  him  was  evidenced  a  far 
greater  share  of  those  gifts  which  belong  to  greatness  than 
most  men  possess.  Jealousy,  which  belittles  so  many  natures, 
was  absent  from  him.  He  loved  to  see  others  succeed.  He 
was  ready  to  help  on  those  less  fortunate  than  himself  and  let 
them  get  the  credit  of  many  things  which  but  for  him  they 
would  never  have  thought  of.  The  results  of  his  ministering 
love  can  be  found  in  many  younger  men  who  have  grown  up 
under  his  influence,  and  who  to-day  shed  their  tears  at  his 
grave.  He  had  another  quality  which  seems  to  me  pertains  to 
all  the  great  men  of  our  profession.  He  could  fight  as  hard  as 
the  hardest,  and  yet,  after  the  battle  was  over,  the  sting  was 
never  left  to  rankle.  He  was  of  that  large  family  of  lawyers 
who  could  give  and  take  without  afterwards  either  remember- 
ing the  wounds  he  had  received  or  glorying  in  those  he  had 
given.  Our  admiration  has  often  been  awakened  by  his  ability 
in  getting  at  the  important  point  and  driving  it  home  so  as  to 
convince  the  court  or  the  jury. 

It  sometimes  seems  as  if  the  lawyers  of  the  old  school  had 
more  of  these  qualities  than  have  we  to-day.  We  all  feel,  I 
think,  that  there  are  two  distinct  classes  of  lawyers  recognized 
throughout  the  profession  :  the  lawyer  who  is  feared  for  his 
ability,  and,  while  taking  no  undue  advantage  nor  resorting  to 
underhanded  methods  or  acts,  is  sure  to  prove  no  mean  antag- 
onist. And  then  there  is  that  other  class  of  lawyers  —  happily 
not  numerous,  but  that  they  do  exist  we  must  all  admit  —  who 

5  33 


are  feared  not  for  their  ability  but  rather  for  the  methods  and 
means  which  they  are  willing  to  employ. 

I  sometimes  wonder  whether  the  times  are  changing  and 
the  spirit  pervading  the  bar  is  different,  or  whether  it  is 
because  with  increasing  years  the  ranks  of  those  whom  we 
have  made  our  examples  and  whom  we  have  learned  to  respect 
and  to  love,  are  constantly  growing  less,  that  it  seems  difficult 
for  us  to  believe  that  there  is  to-day  in  the  bar  the  same 
strength  and  the  same  devotion  to  law  for  its  own  sake  which 
were  taught  by  those  older  men  as  the  foundation  of  true 
success  in  the  profession.  Doubtless  it  is  because  of  the  latter 
rather  than  the  former  reason  that  such  a  question  is  some- 
times raised. 

As  one  by  one  those  strong  men  have  passed  away  and  the 
question  is  presented  to  us  whether  it  has  paid  for  them  to 
live  and  work  and  then  die  and  be  forgotten  except  by  those 
who  have  known  them  intimately,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is 
only  one  answer  which  can  be  given.  It  has  been  their  privi- 
lege to  give  to  us  ideals,  which,  if  we  can  but  realize,  will 
make  us  in  our  day  as  worthy  of  remembrance  as  were  they  in 
theirs  ;  and  to  us  on  our  part,  how  inestimable  is  the  advantage 
simply  to  be  able  to  remember  them,  to  have  known  them,  and 
that  we  have  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  their  successes. 
Surely,  when  a  man  has  lived  and  gone  through  all  the  vicissi- 
tudes which  pertain  to  the  successful  lawyer's  career,  most  of 
his  time  being  given  to  the  aid  of  others,  and  but  little  time  to 
think  solely  of  himself,  it  is  a  great  reward,  if,  when  he  has 
passed  away,  others  may  feel  the  effect  of  his  influence  and 
good  works  and  try  in  the  days  to  follow  to  imitate  his  course. 
This  is  about  all  there  is  left  to  us  when  death  removes  a  shin- 
ing member  of  our  profession. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  enough  should  it  be  our  fortune  to 
occupy  such  a  position  at  the  end  as  our  friend  does  to-day. 

Remarks  by  ludgc  Dwigbt  Loomis. 

Judge  Dwight  Loomis  spoke  as  follows  : 

I  think  such  a  remarkable  character  as  that  of  Mr.  Robin- 
son, in  order  to  do  justice  to  his  memory,  requires  some  pre- 
sentation, some  careful  anatysis,  of  that  remarkable  character  ; 
but  I  concur  in  all  that  has  been  said  most  heartily.     No  one 

34 


could  have  had  greater  admiration  or  respect  for  Mr.  Robinson 
than  myself.  His  well-rounded  character  in  every  respect  was 
most  remarkable.  He  was  a  practical  business  man,  and  yet  he 
had  a  most  aesthetic  taste  ;  he  was  practical,  and  yet  he  was 
ideal  —  idealic  in  his  aspirations  ;  no  man  was  ever  more  so. 
And  it  is  most  remarkable  that  he  touched  so  many  sides  in  a 
most  eminent  degree  ;  he  was  gifted  as  an  orator,  gifted  in  the 
use  of  elegant  language  and  rhetoric,  and  yet  he  was  gifted  in 
his  logical  power.  But,  as  I  say,  I  feel  as  if  were  I  to  continue 
with  unpremeditated  remarks  I  should  fail  to  do  justice  to  his 
memory.  I  feel  his  loss  keenly,  as  I  have  felt  keenly  the  loss 
of  many  eminent  lawyers  that  have  taken  their  departure. 
When  you  come  to  think  of  it,  what  a  long  procession  of  emi- 
nent men  have  departed  from  us. 

Remarks  of  ^wdgc  8.  O.  prentice. 

Judge  Samuel  O.  Prentice  said  : 

Mr.  President :  I  feel  quite  as  Judge  Loomis  has  expressed 
the  matter,  that  this,  of  all  occasions,  is  the  one  most  unfitted 
for  unpremeditated  remarks.  I  came  here  this  morning  with- 
out knowing  that  this  meeting  was  to  be  held,  and  consequently 
have  thought  of  nothing  to  say,  and  I  feel  it  would  be  worse 
than  folly,  for  me  at  least,  to  attempt  to  express  my  feelings 
without  any  premeditation  whatever. 

When  I  came  to  the  bar  twenty-five  years  ago,  I  found  here 
a  coterie  of  men  who  had  won  their  honors  at  the  bar,  and 
among  them  was  Mr.  Robinson,  in  the  full  panoply  of  his  mid- 
life hours.  During  all  my  professional  and  judicial  career  until 
now  he  has  remained,  in  my  thoughts  at  least,  and  in  fact,  one 
of  the  leaders  of  the  bar  of  this  county  and  this  State  —  one  of 
the  men  to  whom  I  have  been  wont,  as  long  as  I  have  thoughts 
of  law  at  all,  to  look  up  to  as  a  man  to  imitate  and  emulate.  It 
was  not  my  privilege  to  be  thrown  with  him  especially  inti- 
mately, as  has  been  the  privilege  of  some  men,  but  it  was  my 
privilege  to  be  thrown  with  him  with  some  degree  of  intimacy  ; 
and  added  to  the  respect  and  honor  which  I  paid  him  as  man 
and  lawyer,  there  came  to  me  a  love  for  his  manly  qualities,  for 
the  heart  side  of  him,  which  has  endeared  him  to  me  and  made 
him  represent  to  me  not  only  one  of  the  leaders  of  our  profes- 
sion but  one  of  the  leaders  we  may  well  cherish  with  honor, 

35 


love,  and  affection.  So  that  I  feel  to-day  as  if  we  had  lost  not 
only  one  of  our  foremost  but  one  of  our  best.  I  wish  that  I  had 
thought  of  speaking  further  to-day,  but  not  having  done  so  I 
think  I  will  say  no  more. 

3udge  Rentiers  Remarks. 

Judge  William  F.  Henney  spoke  as  follows : 

As  one  of  the  older  graduates  of  Mr.  Robinson's  office,  it  has 
been  thought  appropriate  that  I  should  say  a  word  in  favor  of 
these  most  fitting  resolutions.  But  the  performance  of  a  task 
demanded  by  every  consideration  of  gratitude  and  friendship  is 
rendered  well-nigh  impossible  by  the  shock  of  personal  loss. 
As  I  stand  here  to-day  thronged  upon  by  the  memories  of  a 
thousand  kindnesses,  surrounded,  as  it  were,  by  so  great  a  cloud 
of  witnesses  to  his  loyalty  and  love,  it  were  idle  for  me  to 
attempt  analysis. 

It  must  suffice  to  call  attention  briefly  to  a  few  of  the  char- 
acteristics, professional  and  personal,  which  most  sensibly  im- 
pressed me  through  twenty-five  years  of  happy  intimacy. 

Like  truth,  our  friend  was  many-sided,  and  presented  from 
whatever  point  of  view  a  unique  and  charming  personality.  In 
the  forty-five  years  he  practiced  his  profession  he  enriched  the 
jurisprudence  of  the  State.  In  the  great  causes  that  were  liti- 
gated during  that  period  he  bore  a  prominent  part. 

His  death,  as  it  seems  to  me,  marks  the  closing  of  an  epoch 
in  the  professional  life  of  the  State.  Hitherto  professional  abil- 
ity was  one  thing  and  business  capacity  quite  another.  To-day 
the  commercial  spirit  is  predominant,  and  great  interests 
are  looking  to  the  bar  not  so  much  for  legal  attainments  as  for 
competent  business  sagacity,  the  ability  to  bring  things  to  pass. 

Busy  commercialism  with  its  demands  upon  the  profession 
may  produce  lawyers  of  comprehensive  business  grasp,  of 
shrewd  financial  forecast,  of  large  administrative  capacity  ;  but 
never  will  it  bestow  upon  a  grateful  community  a  Hubbard  or 
a  Robinson.  They  belong  to  an  epoch  when  law  was  a  science 
and  the  practice  of  it  a  profession.  Prevailing  influences  at  no 
distant  day  will  make  of  the  law  a  trade  and  of  the  law  office  a 
shop.  Mr.  Robinson  saw  this  tendency  and  deplored  it.  He 
wanted  no  one  in  the  profession  who  had  not  a  genuine  zeal  for 
the  law,  or  who  followed  it  only  for  what  there  was  in  it.     His 

36 


arguments  always  bore  testimony  to  his  legal  acumen  and 
scholarship,  and  his  brief  was  invariably  an  elegant  epitome  of 
legal  principles. 

In  any  forum  he  was  a  dangerous  antagonist ;  for  his  intense 
earnestness,  his  facility  of  illustration,  his  incisive  logic,  his 
fervid  delivery,  his  ready  and  sparkling  wit,  above  all  the  hon- 
esty and  candor  of  his  argument,  armed  him  with  hypnotic 
power.  He  looked  with  distrust  on  novel  and  multiplying  rules 
of  practice,  on  technical  pleadings  and  fattening  files.  The 
technical  controversies  of  the  short  calendar  had  no  charms  for 
him. 

In  his  professional  relations  he  was  ever  generous  and  con- 
siderate of  others.  The  gratification  afforded  by  his  forensic 
triumphs  was  always  chastened  by  a  manly  sympathy  for  his 
fallen  antagonist.  His  knowledge  of  Constitutions,  federal  and 
State,  was  acute  and  ample,  and  the  discussion  of  constitutional 
questions  called  into  fullest  exercise  his  marvelous  powers.  He 
had  an  instinct  for  legal  principle  that  was  unerring,  and  a  mind 
quick  to  grasp  and  to  analyze.  In  a  search  for  authorities  he 
would  seem  to  digest  a  library  while  less  gifted  counsel  was 
conning  a  book. 

Viewed  from  other  standpoints  Mr.  Robinson  was  still  inter- 
esting and  attractive.  He  loved  simplicity.  Ceremonies,  pa- 
geants, and  liveries  were  all  distasteful  to  him  as  so  many  out- 
croppings  of  aggressive  vanity.  He  indulged  a  hearty  con- 
tempt for  all  things  tainted  with  sham  or  insincerity ;  and  yet, 
over  the  multitude  of  human  foibles,  many  of  them  amusing, 
not  a  few  distressing,  he  spread  the  generous  mantle  of  a 
matchless  charity.  He  was  mindful  in  all  his  public  utterances 
of  the  warning  of  Scripture,  "  Though  I  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  noth- 
ing." 

In  his  judgment  of  his  fellows  I  never  knew  him  —  I  ven- 
ture to  say  none  in  this  presence  ever  knew  him  —  assign  to 
conduct  an  unworthy  motive  when  explainable  on  any  other 
ground. 

Mr.  Robinson's  instincts  and  aspirations  were  all  scholarly. 
He  reveled  in  the  domain  of  letters.  The  most  grateful  tri- 
umph of  his  literary  career  was  the  graceful  act  of  the  univer- 
sity he  loved  in  conferring  on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 
He  was  a  teacher  in  the  best  sense  of  that  term,  and  preferred 

37 


example  to  precept.     He  saw  truth  clearly  ;  and  in  his  life  and 
conversation,  it  found  abundant  and  adequate  expression. 

It  is  this  teacher  element  in  a  man  that  lasts  longest  and 
rings  truest.  Were  the  influence  of  attainments  and  charac- 
ter limited  to  the  narrow  span  of  the  individual  life,  its  sphere 
of  usefulness  were  pitifully  contracted.  Not  for  the  day  and 
hour  only  did  the  supreme  intelligence  mould,  build  up,  and 
develop  this  splendid  personality.  Untold  generations  have 
each  contributed  their  just  proportion  to  the  make-up  of  this 
masterful  manhood,  and  the  myriad  generations  that  follow 
shall  know  his  potent  manifestations  in  ever  widening  circles  of 
influence  and  power. 

It  was  a  sense  of  this  truth,  as  it  always  seemed  to  me,  that 
inspired  his  well-known  views  of  the  dignity  and  responsibility 
of  life.  He  felt  that  his  influence  for  good  or  ill  was  an  influ- 
ence forever,  and  to  this  view  may  be  attributed  his  moral 
power.  It  was  from  this  fountain  that  he  drew  the  intensity  of 
thought  and  expression  which  constituted  his  real  charm  as  an 
orator.  His  elegant  rhetoric  was  but  the  result  of  a  desire  to 
present  his  convictions  becomingly  dressed.  But  the  most  in- 
teresting side  of  Mr.  Robinson's  character  was  the  spiritual. 
Once  in  touch  with  that,  you  saw  the  man  himself.  He  con- 
fronted one  with  a  prodigal  splendor  of  moral  excellences.  He 
was  above  all  things  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and  saw  in  the  stress 
of  present  evil  but  the  transient  shadow  beclouding  the  infinite 
love.  There  was  no  tinge  of  agnosticism  in  his  make-up.  In 
him  faith  was  knowledge,  and  the  trust  breathing  lines  of  Whit- 
tier  were  dear  to  his  heart.  His  views  of  nature  and  of  his  rela- 
tions to  it  were  vast  and  comprehensive.  He  realized  instinct- 
ively the  oneness  of  the  universe,  and  recognized  the  same 
supreme  intelligence  regulating  the  beatings  of  his  own  heart, 
prompting  the  aspirations  of  his  own  spirit,  pulsing  through 
limitless  spaces,  and  guiding  the  remotest  star. 

For  the  cynic  and  the  pessimist  his  heart  went  out  in  pity. 
He  shared  the  sentiment  so  beautifully  expressed  in  the  verses  : 

Alas  !  for  him  who  never  sees 

The  stars  shine  through  his  cypress  trees  ; 

Who,  hopeless,  lays  his  dead  away 

Nor  looks  to  see  the  rising  day 

Across  the  mournful  marbles  play. 

Who  has  not  learned,  in  hours  of  faith 

38 


The  truth  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown, 
That  Life  is  ever  lord  of  Death, 
And  Love  can  never  lose  his  own. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  upborne  by  the  unflagging  faith 
that  was  in  him  he  attained  a  nobler  eminence  on  "  life's 
rugged  mountain  side,"  than  it  is  given  most  of  us  to  know, 
commanding  from  day  to  day,  through  a  widening  horizon, 
ever  broader  expanses  and  sublimer  realities  of  ineffable  good- 
ness and  power. 

Looking  backward  over  his  fifty  years  of  industry  and 
endeavor,  so  large,  so  various,  so  brilliant,  and  above  all  else, 
so  honest,  who  shall  assign  limitations  to  the  activities  of  that 
lofty  spirit  ?  By  what  means  shall  we  estimate  the  values  of 
the  lessons  of  that  instructive  tongue  ! 

Such  are  some  of  the  aspects  of  this  remarkable  and  gifted 
man  as  I  knew  him  in  the  seclusion  of  his  study  and  in  the 
varying  phases  of  his  public  life.  What  he  was,  what  he  must 
have  been,  to  those  endeared  to  him  in  the  intimacies  of  the 
family  circle,  we  partly  may  conjecture,  but  they  alone  can 
know. 

And  now  in  this  hour  of  sadness,  when  silent  is  the  voice  so 
often  lifted  in  generous  eulogy  of  others,  when  dumb  and 
speechless  are  the  lips  whose  loftiest  eloquence  alone  could  do 
him  justice,  we  are  cheered  by  the  reflection  that  that  intense 
and  inspiring  personality  shall  continue  to  permeate  the  hearts 
and  homes  of  the  community  he  loved,  with  the  myriad  influ- 
ences of  a  beautiful  life  and  the  fragrance  of  a  blessed  memory. 

Remarks  by  fdr.  Hustin  Brainavd. 

Mr.  Austin  Brainard  spoke  as  follows : 

Having  attained  pre-eminence  in  the  esteem  of  the  bar  of 
this  state,  Henry  C.  Robinson  has  passed  into  wider  activities 
and  fields  of  greater  usefulness  and  greater  peace. 

So  many  members  of  the  Hartford  county  bar  have  seldom 
been  together  as  when  they  joined  in  the  simple  and  harmoni- 
ous services  of  Friday  last.  All  felt  that  the  law  had  lost  an 
eminent  disciple,  the  state  a  useful  citizen,  and  each  and  all  of 
us  a  friend. 

As  mayor  of  this  beautiful  and  typical  American  city  he 
anticipated  in  fact  if  not  in  words  the  dictum  that  "  Public 

39 


Office  is  a  Public  Trust,"  and  put  into  the  commonplace  of 
everyday  administration  the  most  advanced  theories  of  official 
integrity.  His  motto  was  always  "  I  serve,"  and  no  finer  motto 
has  ever  graced  the  shield  of  chivalry. 

As  a  private  citizen  he  was  always  with  the  forces  of 
progress,  no  good  cause  lacked  his  support,  no  evil  cause  but 
felt  the  weight  of  his  condemnation. 

As  a  friend  his  counsel  was  wise  and  his  sympathies 
catholic.  As  a  counselor  in  matters  professional  his  advice 
was  daily  sought  by  young  members  of  the  bar.  Generously 
given,  it  was  helpful,  forceful,  and  invaluable. 

As  was  said  on  the  death  of  Lowell  :  "  Intellectual  excel- 
lence, noble  character,  public  probity,  lofty  ideals,  art,  litera- 
ture, honest  politics,  righteous  laws,  conscientious  labor,  public 
spirit,  social  justice,  the  stern,  self-criticising  patriotism  which 
fosters  only  what  is  worthy  of  an  enlightened  people,  not  what 
is  unworthy  —  such  qualities  and  achievements,  and  such  alone, 
measure  the  greatness  of  a  state,  and  those  who  illustrate  them 
are  great  citizens.  They  are  the  men  whose  lives  are  a  glorious 
service,  and  whose  memories  are  a  benediction." 

Remarks  of  Charles  €.  Perkins. 

President  Perkins,  being  asked  by  Mr.  Hungerford  to 
speak,  said  : 

I  do  not  feel,  gentlemen,  like  speaking  on  this  subject.  Too 
many  sensations  would  come  over  me,  and  I  would  hardly  be 
able  to  trust  myself.  We  all  know  what  Mr.  Robinson  was. 
We  all  know  that  everything  that  has  been  said  here  is,  if  any- 
thing, less  than  the  truth  ;  and  it  is  entirely  unnecessary  for 
me  to  retail  again  his  abilities,  his  capacities,  his  kindness, 
goodness,  and  all  his  qualities  ;  and  I  could  not  trust  myself  to 
speak  to  you  on  the  subject.  I  should  not  desire,  in  the  pres- 
sence  of  this  meeting,  to  be  unable  to  speak,  and  I  think  I 
should  be  if  I  should  try. 

Remarks  of  Joseph  L.  Barbour. 

The  Hon.  Joseph  L.  Barbour  said : 

I  did  not  mean  to  say  a  word,  but  I  have  very  great  affec- 
tion for  Mr.  Robinson  —  very  great  affection  from  the  time 
when  I  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  when  I  was  beginning,  when  I 

40 


was  feeling  my  way  —  as  for  a  while  we  all  are.  From  the 
first,  whenever  I  wanted  to  ask  a  question,  whenever  I  wanted 
advice,  and  found  my  way  to  Mr.  Robinson's  office — and  I 
did  often  —  I  shall  never  forget  the  quickness  with  which 
he  would  abandon  whatever  he  was  doing,  and  devote  himself 
earnestly  to  the  service  I  asked.  It  is  one  of  the  things  a 
young  man,  starting  out,  appreciates.  One  of  the  lessons  we, 
growing  older,  might  learn  from  his  life  is  to  extend  a  helpful 
hand  to  the  young  men  beginning,  and  not  to  ride  roughshod 
over  them  when  we  get  a  chance.  If  we  can  learn  that  lesson 
from  him,  it  will  be  a  good  thing  for  us. 

While  Brother  Henney  was  speaking,  what  he  said  suggested 
to  me  as  singularly  appropriate  some  lines  that  have  been  float- 
ing in  my  mind  ever  since  Mr.  Robinson's  death,  running  some- 
thing like  this  : 

"  Were  a  star  quenched  on  high, 
For  ages  would  its  light, 
Still  traveling  downward  from  the  sky, 

Shine  on  our  mortal  sight. 
So  when  a  great  man  dies, 

For  years  beyond  our  ken 
The  light  he  leaves  behind  him  lies 
Upon  the  paths  of  men. " 

It  seems  to  me  that  is  an  apt  simile.  And  another  quotation 
I  found  in  reading,  the  other  night,  a  translation  of  a  funeral 
oration  by  Georgius,  an  old  Grecian  orator,  and  which  seemed 
particularly  applicable  to  Mr.  Robinson  :  "  For  what  was  there 
lacking  in  this  man  which  good  men  ought  to  possess  ?  And 
what  qualities  did  he  possess  which  men  ought  not  to  possess  ? " 

The  resolutions  were  then  passed  unanimously  and  the 
meeting  adjourned. 


41 


In  almost  all  the  newspapers  of  Connecticut,  and  in  a  great 
many  of  other  States,  far  and  near,  the  tidings  of  Mr.  Rob- 
inson's departure  was  noted  with  tender  tributes  to  his 
memory,  and  often  with  appreciative  and  felicitous  com- 
ments upon  his  personal  character  and  public  services. 
From  these  numerous  and  varied  notices  the  following  are 
selected  for  reproduction  here :  — 

From  Colonel  Norris  G.  Osborn's  Letter  to  the  New 
York  Sunday  Herald : 

Connecticut  is  constantly  called  upon  to  bear  the  loss  of  ser- 
vices of  some  man  who  has  added  materially  to  her  honor,  and 
at  the  same  time  been  jealous  of  her  good  men.  I  have  been 
called  upon  to  review  the  life  and  career  of  several  within  the 
few  years  the  Connecticut  edition  of  the  Herald  has  enjoyed  its 
existence,  and  it  is  always  a  task  made  heavy  by  the  realization 
that  the  loss  to  the  State  was  a  real  one. 

Every  man  who  has  reached  the  age  of  middle  life  has  had 
occasion  to  see  good  men  and  noble  women  drop  by  the 
wayside,  causing  a  real  vacuum  in  particular  places,  but  that 
the  great  human  procession  moves  on  without  delay.  This  ob- 
servation has  brought  to  many  a  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous, 
and  straightway  made  of  them  cynics.  To  others  it  has  un- 
folded the  well-ordained  purposes  of  Providence,  and  put  upon 
them  that  great  sense  of  duty  which  reveals  itself  in  a  cheerful, 
industrious,  helpful,  and  useful  life. 

Henry  C.  Robinson  was  a  splendid  representative  of  the  lat- 
ter class.  I  recall  him  by  the  graveside  of  the  late  Isaac  H. 
Bromley,  his  classmate,  to  whom  he  was  an  appreciative  and 
devoted  friend.  The  body  had  been  lowered  and  the  services 
concluded.  A  tear  stole  down  his  cheek  as  he  remarked  to  me, 
"  Dear  old  Ike  has  gone.  It  is  for  us  to  go  back  to  our  work 
more  determined  than  ever.     That  is  the  righteous  law  of  life." 

42 


Mr.  Robinson  occupied  a  solid  and  at  the  same  time  a  char- 
acteristic place  in  the  life  of  Connecticut.  He  had  seen  some- 
thing of  public  office,  but  more  of  public  men.  What  he  saw 
of  the  former  was  due  more  to  the  recognition,  by  others,  in 
him  of  superior  worth  and  honesty  than  to  any  fancy  on  his 
part  for  office.  He  would  have  been  a  power  in  Congress,  the 
nomination  for  which  he  could  have  had  for  the  asking,  but  it 
seemed  to  be  his  fate  in  life  to  let  his  own  sense  of  usefulness 
have  full  sway  and  lead  him  where  it  would. 

There  is  little  sordid  ambition  in  such  a  nature,  no  pluming 
of  self  over  neighbor,  and  no  suspicion  of  undervalued  worth. 
He  was  sunniness  and  warmth  itself,  and  when  surrounded  by 
those  of  whom  he  was  fond  or  in  whom  he  felt  a  confidence,  his 
reserve  burst  its  iron  bounds  and  expressed  in  the  most 
genial  ways  the  delicious  sense  of  humor  and  philosophy  that 
was  his. 

Mr.  Robinson  was  best  known  to  the  people  of  Connecticut 
as  a  lawyer  and  orator.  As  the  years  rolled  by  and  his  ascent 
up  the  professional  ladder  continued  without  a  break,  his  name 
was  mentioned  early  by  men  who  were  at  the  moment  naming 
the  leading  lawyers  of  the  State.  If  there  was  a  dignified  pub- 
lic oration  to  be  delivered,  his  services  were  first  sought ;  if  the 
gathering  were  a  Yale  one  it  was  his  democratic  utterance  and 
charming  imagery  that  brought  the  men  to  their  feet  with 
cheers  and  laughter. 

I  have  always  been  accustomed,  without  a  good  reason  other 
than  my  desire,  to  regard  him  as  I  did  Bromley,  as  belonging 
to  the  people  generally,  as  distinguished  from  the  man  or  men 
who  are  forever  posing  as  the  conservator  of  one  idea  or  one 
philosophy. 

He  was  strong  in  his  religious  and  political  faith,  but  his 
heart  was  open  and  his  sympathies  at  the  disposal  of  men  who, 
though  equally  intent  upon  their  beliefs,  were  charitable  and 
liberal-minded.  A  lover  of  nature  and  a  creature  of  the  soil, 
he  was  a  hater  of  shams  and  humbug,  and  could  be  found  fight- 
ing them  wherever  exposed. 

Such  a  career  as  Mr.  Robinson's  was  suggests  to  those  who 
see  value  and  example  in  it  how  much  more  substantial  the 
legacy  is  he  leaves  to  his  family  and  friends  than  that  left  in 
immense  piles  of  gold.  The  usefulness  of  the  producing  mil- 
lionaire is  by  no  means  to  be  underestimated,  for  he  employs 

43 


labor  and  stimulates  industry,  but,  after  all,  the  man  who  does 
his  work  well  and  honorably,  as  did  Mr.  Robinson,  and  leaves  a 
name  which  is  synonymous  with  charitable  work,  with  genial 
accomplishments,  modest  wants,  and  true  friendship,  has  done 
more  to  my  fancy  and  imagination. 

From  the  Yale  Alumni  Weekly :  — 

Of  all  the  older  Yale  men  one  could  hardly  be  selected 
whose  death  meant  a  personal  loss  to  so  many,  both  young  and 
old,  as  does  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson  of  Hart- 
ford. It  was  not  because  of  his  public  positions  and  public  ap- 
pearances, although  the  former  were  many  and  honorable,  and 
although  the  latter  won  hearts  as  well  as  applause.  Mr.  Rob- 
inson is  missed  and  mourned  in  the  Yale  family  because  he  was 
such  a  good  friend  to  so  many  —  and  particularly  to  so  many 
young  men.  It  was  often  a  wonder  to  those  of  us  who  were 
given,  from  time  to  time,  evidence  of  his  thoughtful  friendli- 
ness, that  our  affairs  and  hopes  were  a  matter  of  concern  to  one 
whose  mind  and  heart  were  so  crowded  with  great  interests 
and  close  intimacies. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that,  as  senior  member  of  the  Advis- 
ory Board  of  this  paper,  he  was  always  ready  to  give  its  plans 
and  its  problems  his  disinterested  thought.  How  much  of  a  dif- 
ference his  presence  made  at  Yale  meetings  at  Hartford  and 
Yale  meetings  in  other  places  ;  and  indeed  everywhere.  How 
interested  he  was  in  everything  that  went  on  here,  and  how 
sanely  and  helpfully  he  viewed  things  and  advised  men.  He 
was  a  good  and  helpful  friend  and  supporter  of  Yale,  just  as  he 
was  of  very  many  men  of  Yale. 

From  the  Hartford  Courant  : 

The  death  of  Henry  C.  Robinson  is,  to  me,  an  irreparable 
loss  ;  I  have  not  seen  him  in  ten  years —  but  what  of  that?  The 
influence  of  Christian  manhood  upon  the  human  soul  is  not 
measured  by  years  but  by  the  "  power  of  an  endless  life "  ; 
Henry  Robinson  was  a  Christian  optimist ;  he  could  not  have 
been  otherwise  ;  his  inherited  tendencies  were  Christian,  and 
with  his  cheery  temper  and  wealth  of  affection,  love  of  God  and 
love  of  man  were  most  natural  and  easy.  During  my  five 
years'  residence  in  Hartford  (1853-1858)  I  saw  him  almost  daily 
and  deeply  loved  him.     His  power  with  young  men  was  won- 

44 


derful  —  a  tower  of  strength  both  to  him  and  to  them  ;  during 
the  great  religious  awakening  of  1857  no  man  could  have  re- 
placed Mr.  Robinson  in  his  peculiar  Christian  service  with  the 
young, —  tactful,  generous,  manly,  affectionate,  frank,  sincere, 
gracious,  resourceful,  and  free  as  a  child  from  cant,  his  service 
was  most  beautiful  and  rewarding ;  while  Bushnell  (single 
handed)  was  strangling  Edwards's  death-doom  theology,  Rob- 
inson (Bushnell  taught)  was  singing  of  the  boundless  mercy  of 
God  and  the  pitying  love  of  the  Man  Divine. 

I  am  quite  aware,  Mr.  Editor,  that  I  am  unveiling  sacred 
things,  but  as  no  man  liveth  to  himself  so  no  man  dieth  to  him- 
self, and  what  Henry  Robinson  was,  as  mirrored  in  what  he 
did,  though  a  sacred  possession,  compels  one  to  break  silence, 
even  in  sorrow,  and  in  joyful  memory  of  the  past,  to  bid  him 
"  Hail  and  Farewell." 

Others  may  speak  of  Mr.  Robinson  as  orator,  lawyer,  states- 
man, man  of  letters  or  of  business,  but  I  prefer  to  speak  of  him 
as  manhood  Christianized,  for  every  work  of  his  life,  sacred  or 
secular,  testifies  to  his  enthusiastic  devotion  to  noble  ends. 

Imperfect  ?  —  yes,  thank  God  for  that ;  but  why  tarry  upon 
imperfections  which  are  incident  to  all  human  life,  when  we 
have  found  the  run  of  the  river  which  has  already  borne  our 
brother  into  the  city  of  God. 

He  was 

One  who  never  turned  his  back,  but  marched  breast  forward, 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 

Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph. 

S.    L.    WOODHOUSE, 

February  16th.  809  President  St.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


45 


®$tnute£  an&  ftc£olution£ 

ADOPTED    BY     DIFFERENT     ORGANIZATIONS     WITH    WHICH     MR. 
ROBINSON  WAS  INTIMATELY  ASSOCIATED. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Hartford  Republican  Club, 
Dr.  William  M.  Hudson,  in  behalf  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Club,  offered  the  following  minute  regarding 
the  death  of  Mr.  Robinson,  the  first  President  of  the  Club, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

The  members  of  the  Republican  Club,  assembled  at  their 
annual  meeting,  place  on  record  this  minute  of  their  apprecia- 
tion of  its  first  president,  Henry  C.  Robinson,  who  died  on  the 
14th  day  of  February,  1900.  How  much  of  the  success  of  the 
organization  is  due  to  the  genial  presence,  kindly  manners,  and 
administrative  ability  of  its  first  presiding  officer  it  is  difficult 
to  estimate  or  express  ;  but  it  is  fully  realized  by  all  who  have 
known  the  grasp  of  his  friendly  hand  and  the  sound  of  his  wel- 
coming voice.  While  his  enthusiasm,  energy,  and  judgment 
made  the  success  of  the  association  a  certainty,  his  devotion  to 
clean  politics,  gentlemanly  methods  and  sound  manners  made  it 
a  power  for  good  in  the  community. 

As  scholar,  lawyer,  and  legislator  the  state  is  deeply  his 
debtor.  To  him  as  its  chief  magistrate  the  city  owes  many  of 
its  most  useful  institutions  and  wholesome  regulations  ;  and 
much  of  his  thoughtful  suggestion  is  engraven  in  its  organic 
law.  As  a  member  of  this  organization  his  social  qualities  were 
pre-eminent,  endearing  him  to  all  who  were  privileged  to  know 
him  as  a  charming  companion  and  friend. 

Sharing  with  the  city  and  state  that  he  loved  the  rich  legacy 
of  his  attainments  and  character,  we  spread  upon  our  records, 
in  memory  of  him,  this  tribute  of  esteem  and  affection. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  Hartford  Steam 
Boiler  Inspection  and  Insurance  Company,  held  in  their 
office  March  9,  1900,  the  following  minutes  upon  the  death 

46 


of  Henry  C.  Robinson  was  adopted,  and  it  was  voted  to 
spread  it  upon  the  records  of  the  company : 

It  is  with  profound  sorrow  that  we  record  the  death  of 
Henry  C.  Robinson,  who  has  been  a  member  of  this  Board  for 
nineteen  years,  having  been  elected  February  15,  1881,  and  its 
legal  adviser  from  its  early  beginnings.  His  wide  experience 
in  insurance  and  financial  matters  rendered  his  counsel  and 
advice  invaluable.  As  an  associate  he  was  generous  and  con- 
siderate of  the  opinions  of  others,  kindly  in  his  bearing,  sympa- 
thetic and  courteous  to  all.  His  life  and  character  have  made 
an  enduring  impression  upon  those  who  were  brought  into  inti- 
mate official  and  personal  relations  with  him.  We  shall  sadly 
miss  his  kindly  greetings,  cheery  words,  and  wise  counsel.  A 
sense  of  loneliness  pervades  the  atmosphere  of  our  meetings  as 
we  look  upon  the  vacant  chair.  We  record  this  minute  as  a 
tribute  to  his  memory  and  as  a  mark  of  our  high  esteem  for  his 
life  and  character.  Attest, 

J.  B.  Pierce,  Secretary. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  The  Connec- 
ticut Fire  Insurance  Company  held  at  the  office  of  the  Com- 
pany the  fourteenth  day  of  February,  1900,  the  following 
minute  was  on  motion  adopted,  viz. : 

The  loss  which  has  fallen  on  the  city  in  the  death  of  Henry 
C.  Robinson  bears  with  peculiar  weight  upon  this  Company  and 
each  one  of  its  directors.  For  nearly  thirty  years  he  had  as  a 
member  of  its  Board  given  it  the  support  and  advice  of  an 
earnest  nature  and  a  brilliant  mind.  In  the  varied  experiences 
of  those  years  his  courage  never  failed  in  adversity  and  his  ap- 
plause was  never  withheld  in  prosperity.  His  financial  experi- 
ence and  legal  attainments  have  played  an  important  part  in 
the  success  which  has  attended  the  Company,  and  the  directors 
are  doing  but  justice  in  paying  this  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Of  the  qualities  which  made  him  beloved  his  business  friends 
also  may  speak.  Successful  effort  won  his  unstinted  praise, 
and  he  was  more  reluctant  to  criticise  others  than  himself.  He 
never  lost  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  wit 
was  not  tinged  with  malice  or  unkindness.  His  associates  will 
never  forget  his  loyalty,  the  unrestrained  and  generous  cora- 

47 


mendation  of  his  broad  and  great  nature,  and  the  charm  of  his 
most  interesting  personality. 

A  true  copy  from  the  minutes.         Attest, 

Charles  R.  Burt,  Secretary. 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  Hartford 
Hospital,  held  at  noon  on  February  17,  1900,  at  Number  815 
Main  street,  Dr.  Russell  presented  the  following  minute, 
which  the  secretary  was  requested  to  spread  upon  the  rec- 
ords, and  to  send  a  copy  of  the  same  to  the  family  of  Mr. 
Robinson  : 

It  is  fitting  that  we  should  notice  the  death  of  Mr.  Henry  C. 
Robinson,  who  for  many  years  was  a  Director  in  this  Hospital. 
While  we  join  in  the  universal  regret  at  his  death,  we  may  ex- 
press our  own  views  at  the  great  loss  we  have  specially  sus- 
tained. He  gave  to  us  at  various  times  such  good  counsel,  that 
he  ought  to  be  particularly  remembered.  In  whatever  he  was 
interested,  he  gave  his  full  thought,  and  that  was  considerate 
and  wise  ;  he  was  seldom  absent  from  our  meetings,  and  real- 
ized that  his  duty  as  a  good  citizen  was  to  support  thoroughly 
this  institution.  The  claims  made  upon  his  time  for  this  and 
other  benevolent  objects  were  cheerfully  granted,  not  grudg- 
ingly, but  as  a  part  of  the  duty  which  we  all  owe  to  the  public. 
The  claim  fell  upon  him  because  he  recognized  this  duty,  and 
thus  proved  himself  a  true  friend  of  humanity. 

He  was  genial,  frank,  honest.  To  his  high  professional 
attainments  he  added  a  sense  of  right  and  goodness,  that  is 
commendable  in  any  man,  which  brought  to  him  universal 
esteem.  His  reputation  as  a  good  citizen  will  long  live  after 
him,  and  will  be  a  bright  example  for  those  who  follow. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Connecticut  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company,  held  February  23,  1900,  the  following  minute  and 
resolution  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

Henry  C.  Robinson  was  elected  a  Director  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Mutual  in  March,  1864.  His  associate  directors  at  that  time 
were  James  Goodwin,  president  ;  Zephaniah  Preston,  vice-pres- 
ident ;  Guy  R.  Phelps,  secretary  ;  John  C.  Palmer,  E.  B.  Wat- 
kinson,  Edwin  D.  Tiffany,  General  Nathan  M.  Waterman,  Ed- 
ward W.  Parsons,  Judge  George  S.  Gilman,  Marcus  F.  Hodges, 

48 


of  New  York,  and  Charles  Lowell  Thayer  of  Boston.  By  death  or 
resignation  these  one  by  one  have  passed  out  of  the  directorate 
until  in  1894  Mr.  Robinson  alone  remained  of  their  number. 

The  humane  purpose  of  life  insurance  appealed  strongly  to 
his  sympathetic  nature  ;  its  technical  and  business  problems  and 
relations  enlisted  his  intellectual  interest,  and  he  familiarized 
himself  with  them  to  a  greater  degree  than  is  usual  in  one  not 
holding  an  executive  position.  He  acted  throughout  as  the  legal 
adviser  of  the  company,  and  made  a  thorough  and  special  study 
of  insurance  law.  By  natural  endowment,  by  intellectual  acu- 
men and  broad  grasp,  by  sympathetic  interest,  by  study  and 
discipline,  by  great  acquirements  and  unusual  skill,  he  was  a 
strongly-equipped  director.  During  the  thirty-six  years  of  his 
service  many  important  questions  of  policy  and  practice  had  the 
action  of  the  directors,  and  to  them  all  he  gave  careful  and  in- 
telligent attention.  Most  prominent,  perhaps,  among  these 
were  the  changes  made  in  the  basis  and  methods  of  distributing 
surplus  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  board,  and  the  change  in 
the  interest  assumption  in  18S2.  To  the  consideration  of  all 
questions  he  brought  with  his  strong  powers  of  clear  analysis 
and  close  reasoning  a  quick  apprehension  of  what  was  progress- 
ive and  developmental,  and  its  natural  accompaniment,  an  en- 
thusiastic courage  ;  but  he  also  saw  clearly  what  was  funda- 
mental and  vital  and  must  be  conserved  as  such  in  existing 
plans  and  methods.  While  the  legal  point  of  view  was  habit- 
ual, it  was  tempered  and  held  in  balance  by  his  humane  and 
generous  nature,  and  the  question  of  essential  equity  was  never 
out  of  sight.  To  his  intellectual,  business,  and  professional  val- 
ues, Mr.  Robinson  added  that  personal  charm  which  made  offi- 
cial association  a  pleasure  and  a  privilege  ;  and  the  directors 
desire  to  place  upon  record  their  high  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  his  long  and  faithful  service,  their  deep  sense  of  official  and 
personal  bereavement,  and  the  expression  of  their  profound 
sympathy  for  his  sorrowing  household. 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  minute  be  spread  upon  the 
records  of  the  Company  and  that  a  copy  thereof  be  transmitted 
to  the  family  of  the  deceased.  Attest : 

Herbert  H.  White,  Secretary. 

A  Resolution  adopted  at  a  Special  Meeting  of  the  Board 
of  Managers  of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution,  held  at  New  Haven,  April  13,  1900 :  — 

In  the  removal,  by  death,  of  our  late  associate,  Henry  Cor- 
nelius Robinson,  our  Society  suffers  one  of  the  most  serious 
losses  which  it  has  ever  experienced. 

7  49 


The  influence  of  his  wise  counsel  and  eloquent  utterances 
has  stamped  upon  our  organization  an  impress  of  dignity  and 
fidelity  to  its  purposes  to  which  we  owe,  in  large  measure,  the 
standing  which  we  have  held  among  the  State  societies  of  our 
order.  The  memory  of  his  rare  personal  character  will  ever 
remain  with  us  as  a  shining  example  of  patriotic  citizenship 
and  Christian  manliness. 

This  feeble  tribute  to  his  memory  is  recorded  with  a  pro- 
found sense  of  personal  loss  which  finds  no  utterance  in  words, 
but  finds  a  compensation  in  the  reflection  that  our  Society  is 
better  because  he  was  our  fellow-member,  and  that  the  world 
is  better  because  he  lived  in  it. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  The  New 
York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  held 
pursuant  to  legal  notice  at  the  office  of  the  company  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  on  Saturday,  March  10,  1900,  the  follow- 
ing minute  was  adopted  :  — 

"  With  the  deepest  regret  this  Board  minutes  the  death  of 
Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson,  our  late  associate,  who  died  on  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1900.  Elected  a  Director  of  the  Hartford  and  New 
Haven  Railroad  Company  in  1865,  he  served  as  a  Director  of 
that  company  until  its  consolidation  with  this  Company  in  1872, 
and  thereafter  continuously  as  a  member  of  this  Board.  A 
man  of  stalwart  integrity,  broad  culture,  gifted  with  rare  ora- 
torical ability  and  intellectual  vigor,  he  brought  honesty,  cour- 
age, and  wisdom  to  all  his  duties.  He  has  served  as  a  member 
of  all  the  important  committees  appointed  by  the  Board,  and 
has  long  been  identified  with  the  activity,  progress,  and  success 
of  this  Company.  His  long  service,  experience,  and  ability, 
made  him  a  conspicuous  member  of-  this  Board,  and  his  enthu- 
siastic devotion  to  the  interests  and  usefulness  of  the  Company 
have  been  of  inestimable  value.  Endowed  with  the  most 
charming  social  qualities  and  gifted  with  brilliant  conversa- 
tional powers,  he  was  always  welcome  at  our  meetings.  We 
shall  miss  his  genial  courtesy  not  less  than  his  sound  advice. 
This  corporation,  to  whose  development  he  gave  the  benefit  of 
his  ripe  experience,  his  great  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  and 
his  loyal  service,  has  lost  a  most  valuable  officer. 

"  The  Board  directs  that  this  minute  be  entered  upon  its 
records  and  a  certified  copy  thereof  be  forwarded  to  his  imme- 
diate family." 

A  true  copy  from  the  records.     Attest : 

Wm,   D.  Bishop,  Secretary. 
50 


Zfyt  pipe  anti  tjje  p£altcrp  mafce  gtoeet  meiofcip;  but 
a  pleasant  tongue  i£  afcotoe  tjem  fcotj), 

Mr.  Robinson's  unremitting  industry,  well  known  to  all 
who  were  familiar  with  his  habits  of  study  and  work,  is 
attested  by  the  number  and  diversity  of  discourses,  essays, 
lectures,  reviews,  and  other  papers,  which,  in  addition  to 
his  professional  work,  he  was  called  or  moved  to  prepare, 
most  of  which  were  printed  in  the  newspapers,  or  in 
periodicals,  or  in  pamphlets.  In  all  this  extra-professional 
labor,  not  only  his  industry,  but  the  fruitfulness  of  his 
mind,  the  versatility  of  his  intellectual  gifts,  and  the  breadth 
of  his  thoughts  and  sympathies  were  also  manifested.  He 
was  deeply  interested  in  all  that  pertains  to  human  culture 
and  welfare,  and  his  voice  and  pen  were  freely  employed 
for  the  elucidation  and  advocacy  of  those  things  which 
make  for  the  illumination  and  improvement  of  human  life. 
The  range  of  topics  which,  from  time  to  time,  he  discussed 
was  a  wide  one,  and  his  treatment  of  the  subjects  which 
engaged  his  attention  was  always  intelligent  and  luminous. 
Whether  he  spoke  or  wrote,  or  whether  his  subject  was 
legal,  political,  historical,  religious,  literary,  educational, 
civic,  or  artistic  in  its  nature,  his  discourse  or  essay  was 
marked  by  careful  study,  original  thought,  apt  illustration, 
and  a  peculiarly  felicitous  and  often  eloquent  form  of 
expression.  His  strictly  extemporaneous  talks  were  always 
suggestive  and  often  brilliant.  He  had,  as  his  mother 
before  him  also  had,  the  poetic  temperament,  and  could,  and 
did,  on  occasion,  write  graceful  verse.  Under  the  title  of 
"  Hartford  Authors,"  he  wrote,  many  years  ago,  a  series  of 
papers  which  appeared  in  one  of  the  city  newspapers,  and 
were  marked  by  a  distinct  literary  discrimination  and  del- 
icacy.    When  Mr.  Dudley  Buck's  "  Forty-sixth  Psalm"  was 

51 


first  produced  here,  in  his  native  town,  the  most  appreciative 
review  of  it  came  from  Mr.  Robinson's  pen.  When  Parepa 
sang  here  in  oratorio,  his  "  Few  Thoughts  about  Parepa," 
published  in  the  Courant,  were  recognized  by  many  as  the 
thoughts  which  had  arisen  in  their  minds,  but  which  they 
could  not  utter.  When,  later,  Nilsson  came,  he  rendered  a 
similar  service.  His  obituary  notices  of  prominent  persons, 
published  from  time  to  time  in  our  city  papers,  were  not 
only  tender  tributes  of  friendship  and  affection,  but  admi- 
rable specimens  of  fine  character-portraiture.  He  could  find 
time  to  write  an  elaborate  review  of  a  new  collection  of 
hymns  and  music,  ora"  Word  about  the  Lobby,"  or  a  criti- 
cism of  the  Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  or  an  essay  on  Fish 
Culture,  or  a  paper  on  "  The  Significance  of  Dome  and 
Tower,"  or  a  review  of  "  Doctor  Bushnell  on  Progress,"  or 
an  article  on  the  "  Reduction  of  Railway  Fares  and 
Freights,"  or  a  series  of  sparkling  letters  to  the  New  Haven 
Palladium.  One  of  the  best  of  his  earlier  diversions  was  a 
lecture  in  the  old  Hartford  Seminary  course  on,  "  Art  as  a 
Flower";  and  another  thoughtful  and  scholarly  discourse 
on  a  kindred  subject  was  delivered  by  him  before  the 
Hartford  Art  Association. 

Meanwhile  his  political  speeches  and  writings  were 
frequent.  When  Mr.  Capron,  of  beloved  memory,  was 
taken  from  this  scene  of  his  most  valuable  services  as  Prin- 
cipal of  the  High  School,  Mr.  Robinson  delivered  an 
address  which  deeply  moved  all  hearts,  and  revealed  him 
to  Hartford  people  as  their  eloquent  orator.  His  frequent 
addresses  at  the  High  School,  on  different  occasions,  are 
well  remembered.  His  oration  on  the  unveilins:  of  Ward's 
statue  of  Putnam,  and  his  later  and  more  elaborate  oration 
at  the  dedication  of  the  monument  to  Putnam,  were  every- 
where applauded  as  singularly  forcible,  thoughtful,  and 
graceful  works  of  genuine  eloquence. 

The  pages  of  the  New  Englander  were  enriched  by  his 
brilliant  review  of  Arnold's  "  Light  of  Asia,"  by  his  argu- 
ment for  a  "  Liberal  Construction  of  Creeds,"  drawn  from 
the  usage  of  law,  and  by  other  articles  as  well. 

Many  still  remember  his  noble  address  on  the  death  of 

52 


President  Garfield,  spoken  in  the  Second  Church  of  Hart- 
ford, and  that  on  Luther,  spoken  in  the  Park  Church. 

His  lectures,  earlier  and  later,  before  the  Law  School  in 
New  Haven,  and  those  before  the  Kent  Club  in  the 
same  city,  were  received  with  unusual  favor. 

His  Decoration  Day  orations,  at  Hartford,  at  South 
Manchester,  and  at  Rockville,  and  his  oration  on  Robert 
Burns,  are  comparatively  fresh  in  the  remembrance  of  our 
citizens,  and  are  cherished  with  equal  gratitude  and  pride. 

At  the  Legislative  Reunion,  1886,  he  was  the  orator  of 
the  day,  and  his  historical  address  on  that  occasion  was 
described  as  "  a  compendium  of  colonial  and  state  legis- 
lative history." 

At  the  General  Conference  of  Congregational  Churches 
at  Norwalk,  1892,  his  address  on  "  What  shall  We  Do  with 
the  First  Day  of  the  Week  "  was  a  most  timely  and  sug- 
gestive discussion  of  the  "  Sunday  Question."  Mention 
may  be  made  of  his  address  on  "  Medicine  and  Law  "  at  the 
centennial  celebration  of  the  Hartford  Medical  Society ;  of 
his  eulogy  on  General  Grant ;  of  his  discourse  on  Christian 
Unity,  at  the  Memorial  Church  in  Springfield ;  of  his  talk 
to  the  Hartford  ministers  on  the  "  Temperance  Question  as 
Viewed  from  a  Legal  Standpoint  " ;  of  his  lecture  in  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  course  on  "  Representative  Government  "  ;  of 
his  Letter  to  the  Courant  on  "  Towns  and  Representation  "  ; 
and  of  his  article  in  the  Yale  Law  Journal  in  favor  of  "  Con- 
stitutional Reform  in  Connecticut."  Many  important 
papers  of  his  are  not  even  mentioned  here.  His  strictly 
political  speeches  are  not  noticed,  nor  the  frequent  talks  on 
various  subjects,  which  he  freely  gave  at  request  at 
banquets,  conferences,  and  festival  occasions,  nor  the  many 
delightful  papers  which  he  read,  from  time  to  time,  at  dif- 
ferent clubs. 

The  purpose  of  this  sketch  is  simply  to  indicate  how 
versatile  were  his  gifts,  how  broad  was  his  culture,  how 
catholic  were  his  intellectual  and  moral  sympathies,  and 
how  freely  and  generously  he  poured  out  from  the  treasures 
of  his  fruitful  mind  things  of  delight  and  refreshment  for 
his  fellowmen.     This  sort  of  work,  enough  for  most  men, 

53 


seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  recreation  with  him,  and  yet  it  all 
came  out,  naturally  enough,  from  the  wide  range  of  his 
professional  studies  and  interests.  During  his  last  illness  he 
told  the  writer  how  he  had  meditated  and  purposed  to  write 
out  a  paper  for  the  comparison  and  estimation  of  Drs. 
Horace  Bushnell  and  Samuel  Harris,  whom  he  regarded  as 
the  two  greatest  theologians  of  our  country  in  recent  times. 
In  another  conversation  he  spoke  at  length  and  most  inter- 
estingly of  "  The  Old  Jeflersonians  "  of  Hartford,  naming 
and  describing  many  of  them,  and  speaking  fondly  of  "  the 
last,  but  not  the  least  of  them,"  Mr.  Alfred  E.  Burr,  and 
saying  that  he  would  like  to  write  an  article  about  them. 
One  of  the  last  things  which  he  wrote,  and  the  last  that  was 
printed  was  a  brief,  tender  note  to  the  son  of  Mr.  Burr,  in 
which  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he  was  unable  to  pay  the 
tribute  to  his  old  friend  which  it  was  in  his  heart  to  do. 
The  last  note  which  he  penned  or  dictated  was  a  brief 
message,  unique  and  precious,  to  his  old  friend  and  Pastor. 

From  the  mass  of  miscellaneous  discourses,  essays,  and 
other  papers  by  Mr.  Robinson  which  fortunately  have  been 
preserved,  a  few  selections  have  been  made,  and  are  herein 
appended,  as  fairly  showing,  perhaps,  the  quality  of  his 
thought,  and  the  diverse  phases  of  his  meditations  and 
expressions  of  truth.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  repro- 
duce his  forensic  speeches,  or  even  to  present  any  illustra- 
tions of  them.  Nor  has  it  seemed  wise  to  dismember  his 
more  solid  and  substantial  historical  papers  and  addresses, 
for  the  sake  of  taking  fragments  from  them. 

In  justice  to  his  comprehensive  grasp  of  constitutional 
and  political  principles,  to  his  powers  of  argumentation,  to 
his  lore  as  a  scholar,  and  to  his  best  literary  gifts,  it  should 
be  said  that  quite  a  different  selection  might  have  been 
made,  which  would  have  seemed  not  less  suggestive  and 
instructive  than  that  which  has  been  made.  But  such  a 
selection  must  of  necessity  have  been  far  more  extensive 
and  less  varied  than  was  deemed  suitable  for  the  purposes 
of  this  memorial. 

Edwin  P.  Parker. 

54 


Sortie  £eIectiott$ 

PROM   VARIOUS  DISCOURSES  AND   PAPERS  BY  MR.  ROBINSON. 

"^ut  of),  for  tbe  toucb  of  a  toanijsljcb  franb, 
nnit  lf)C  jsounb  of  a  rioice  tbat  i£  £tifl." 

From  the  oration  at  the  unveiling  of  Ward's  statue  of 
Gen.  Putnam :  — 

The  lifted  veil  has  just  disclosed  to  us  the  first  entrance  of 
art  into  our  places  absolutely  public.  I  cannot  pass  such  an 
event  without  expressing  congratulations  in  it.  No  beautiful 
thing  comes  to  society  without  beautifying  it.  Good  and  true 
works  of  art  made  free  to  the  people  must  instruct  and  refine 
the  people.  All  such  plantings  yield  a  fruitage  of  culture  and 
liberal  thought  and  elevated  taste.  The  very  sight  of  choice 
things  in  art  develops  the  love  of  the  beautiful  which  it  charms. 
Our  cities  centralize  intelligence  and  industry  and  enterprise 
and  wealth  and  enthusiasm  and  benevolence.  Into  these  cen- 
ters let  art  pour  her  refining  influences.  Let  her  reproduce  in 
color  the  crises  of  history.  Let  her  repeat  in  marble  and  bronze 
the  forms  and  features  of  heroes  and  benefactors.  Let  her 
teach  the  people  the  lessons  which  the  face  of  a  good  man  may 
teach,  recalling  the  good  man's  deeds,  and  the  good  fights 
which  he  fought,  and  the  good  discoveries  which  he  made,  and 

the  sweet  charities  which  he  perfected 

Let  me  express  the  hope  that  this  day  shall  not  complete  the 
memorials  of  our  great  men.  Of  this  charity,  of  this  consecra- 
tion to  art,  and  of  this  unveiling  of  patriotism,  let  us  say  "  tran- 
seant  in  exemplum."  Connecticut's  history  is  rich,  almost  beyond 
a  rival.  A  century  before  Bunker  Hill,  Connecticut  produced  a 
hero  who  dared  to  brave  the  haughtiness  of  oppression  to  save 
our  charter  from  tyranny  —  the  intrepid  Wads  worth.  The  brav- 
est, gentlest  soldier  of  the  Mexican  War  was  from  Connecticut, 
and  rests  in  yonder  cemetery  —  Col.  Thomas  H.  Seymour.  We 
have  not  yet  any  memorial,  in  statue  or  column  or  chapel,  of 
the  heroes  of  our  great  war  for  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  upon 

55 


whose  graves  the  flowers  of  Decoration  Day  have  just  withered. 
In  the  War  of  the  Revolution  and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion, 
Connecticut  was  most  justly  proud  of  the  patriotism  and  execu- 
tive excellence  of  her  governors,  Trumbull  and  Buckingham. 
Here  in  the  capital  of  our  State,  by  its  legislative  halls,  now  ris- 
ing in  white  beauty,  should  these  and  other  representative  men, 
creators  and  benefactors,  authors,  orators,  inventors,  artists, 
and  philanthropists  be  honored  and  memorialized. 

From  the  address  before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the 
High  School:  — 

The  high  school,  as  included  in  the  system  of  public  schools, 
is  free.  I  shall  not  enlarge  upon  the  importance,  almost  su- 
preme, to  our  republic  of  free  popular  education.  Let  me  sim- 
ply say  that  in  making  this  fontal  blessing  free,  a  nation  follows 
the  laws  of  the  Great  Ruler  himself.  In  the  world  of  nature 
the  best  blessings  are  free.  There  can  be  no  patent  in  the  blue 
sky,  nor  monopoly  of  the  pure  air,  and  the  sharpest  land  title 
to  green  fields  cannot  prevent  the  whole  community  of  rich 
and  poor  from  their  enjoyment.  The  pure  water,  the  warm 
sunshine,  the  glitter  of  stars,  the  tides  of  ocean,  the  rustle  of 
leaves,  the  murmur  of  waves,  the  ripple  of  brooks,  and  the 
crimson  of  clouds  can  be  controlled  by  no  human  fiat,  nor  be 
locked  in  by  any  miser's  key.  Such  blessings  in  nature  are  too 
great  for  any  exclusive  use.  In  the  spiritual  world,  too,  the 
best  gifts  are  open  to  the  whole  race  of  spiritual  beings.  The 
true  light  lightens  every  man.  The  true  way  is  for  all.  The 
fountain  of  waters  is  at  every  thirsty  man's  right  hand.  And 
so  the  nation  which  offers  to  all  its  people  free  education  makes 
gift  of  its  best  possibilities. 

From  the  Historical  Address  at  the  first  Legislative 
Reunion  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  May  6, 


Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  and  a  few  days  ago,  on  April 
26,  1636,  Roger  Ludlow  and  four  associates,  representing  Hart- 
ford, Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  (then  called  Newtown),  Water- 
town,  and  Dorchester,  met  in  Hartford,  as  a  General  Court,  for 
the  government  of  the  first  planters  of  Connecticut.  This  body 
passed  a  law  forbidding  the  sale  of  firearms  to  the  Indians,  con- 

56 


of  New  York,  and  Charles  Lowell  Thayer  of  Boston.  By  death  or 
resignation  these  one  by  one  have  passed  out  of  the  directorate 
until  in  1894  Mr.  Robinson  alone  remained  of  their  number. 

The  humane  purpose  of  life  insurance  appealed  strongly  to 
his  sympathetic  nature  ;  its  technical  and  business  problems  and 
relations  enlisted  his  intellectual  interest,  and  he  familiarized 
himself  with  them  to  a  greater  degree  than  is  usual  in  one  not 
holding  an  executive  position.  He  acted  throughout  as  the  legal 
adviser  of  the  company,  and  made  a  thorough  and  special  study 
of  insurance  law.  By  natural  endowment,  by  intellectual  acu- 
men and  broad  grasp,  by  sympathetic  interest,  by  study  and 
discipline,  by  great  acquirements  and  unusual  skill,  he  was  a 
strongly-equipped  director.  During  the  thirty-six  years  of  his 
service  many  important  questions  of  policy  and  practice  had  the 
action  of  the  directors,  and  to  them  all  he  gave  careful  and  in- 
telligent attention.  Most  prominent,  perhaps,  among  these 
were  the  changes  made  in  the  basis  and  methods  of  distributing 
surplus  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  board,  and  the  change  in 
the  interest  assumption  in  1882.  To  the  consideration  of  all 
questions  he  brought  with  his  strong  powers  of  clear  analysis 
and  close  reasoning  a  quick  apprehension  of  what  was  progress- 
ive and  developmental,  and  its  natural  accompaniment,  an  en- 
thusiastic courage  ;  but  he  also  saw  clearly  what  was  funda- 
mental and  vital  and  must  be  conserved  as  such  in  existing 
plans  and  methods.  While  the  legal  point  of  view  was  habit- 
ual, it  was  tempered  and  held  in  balance  by  his  humane  and 
generous  nature,  and  the  question  of  essential  equity  was  never 
out  of  sight.  To  his  intellectual,  business,  and  professional  val- 
ues, Mr.  Robinson  added  that  personal  charm  which  made  offi- 
cial association  a  pleasure  and  a  privilege  ;  and  the  directors 
desire  to  place  upon  record  their  high  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  his  long  and  faithful  service,  their  deep  sense  of  official  and 
personal  bereavement,  and  the  expression  of  their  profound 
sympathy  for  his  sorrowing  household. 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  minute  be  spread  upon  the 
records  of  the  Company  and  that  a  copy  thereof  be  transmitted 
to  the  family  of  the  deceased.  Attest : 

Herbert  H.  White,  Secretary. 

A  Resolution  adopted  at  a  Special  Meeting  of  the  Board 
of  Managers  of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution,  held  at  New  Haven,  April  13,  1900 :  — 

In  the  removal,  by  death,  of  our  late  associate,  Henry  Cor- 
nelius Robinson,  our  Society  suffers  one  of   the  most  serious 
losses  which  it  has  ever  experienced. 
7  49 


The  influence  of  his  wise  counsel  and  eloquent  utterances 
has  stamped  upon  our  organization  an  impress  of  dignity  and 
fidelity  to  its  purposes  to  which  we  owe,  in  large  measure,  the 
standing  which  we  have  held  among  the  State  societies  of  our 
order.  The  memory  of  his  rare  personal  character  will  ever 
remain  with  us  as  a  shining  example  of  patriotic  citizenship 
and  Christian  manliness. 

This  feeble  tribute  to  his  memory  is  recorded  with  a  pro- 
found sense  of  personal  loss  which  finds  no  utterance  in  words, 
but  finds  a  compensation  in  the  reflection  that  our  Society  is 
better  because  he  was  our  fellow-member,  and  that  the  world 
is  better  because  he  lived  in  it. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  The  New 
York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  held 
pursuant  to  legal  notice  at  the  office  of  the  company  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  on  Saturday,  March  10,  1900,  the  follow- 
ing minute  was  adopted :  — 

"  With  the  deepest  regret  this  Board  minutes  the  death  of 
Hon.  Henry  C.  Robinson,  our  late  associate,  who  died  on  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1900.  Elected  a  Director  of  the  Hartford  and  New 
Haven  Railroad  Company  in  1865,  he  served  as  a  Director  of 
that  compan}?-  until  its  consolidation  with  this  Company  in  1872, 
and  thereafter  continuously  as  a  member  of  this  Board.  A 
man  of  stalwart  integrity,  broad  culture,  gifted  with  rare  ora- 
torical ability  and  intellectual  vigor,  he  brought  honesty,  cour- 
age, and  wisdom  to  all  his  duties.  He  has  served  as  a  member 
of  all  the  important  committees  appointed  by  the  Board,  and 
has  long  been  identified  with  the  activity,  progress,  and  success 
of  this  Company.  His  long  service,  experience,  and  ability, 
made  him  a  conspicuous  member  of  this  Board,  and  his  enthu- 
siastic devotion  to  the  interests  and  usefulness  of  the  Company 
have  been  of  inestimable  value.  Endowed  with  the  most 
charming  social  qualities  and  gifted  with  brilliant  conversa- 
tional powers,  he  was  always  welcome  at  our  meetings.  We 
shall  miss  his  genial  courtesy  not  less  than  his  sound  advice. 
This  corporation,  to  whose  development  he  gave  the  benefit  of 
his  ripe  experience,  his  great  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  and 
his  loyal  service,  has  lost  a  most  valuable  officer. 

"  The  Board  directs  that  this  minute  be  entered  upon  its 
records  and  a  certified  copy  thereof  be  forwarded  to  his  imme- 
diate family." 

A  true  copy  from  the  records.     Attest : 

Wm.  D.  Bishop,  Secretary. 
50 


€{)e  pipe  anti  tfje  p^alterp  mafee  £toeet  meloop;  but 
a  pleasant  tongue  i$  afcotoe  tfjem  cotf), 

Mr.  Robinson's  unremitting  industry,  well  known  to  all 
who  were  familiar  with  his  habits  of  study  and  work,  is 
attested  by  the  number  and  diversity  of  discourses,  essays, 
lectures,  reviews,  and  other  papers,  which,  in  addition  to 
his  professional  work,  he  was  called  or  moved  to  prepare, 
most  of  which  were  printed  in  the  newspapers,  or  in 
periodicals,  or  in  pamphlets.  In  all  this  extra-professional 
labor,  not  only  his  industry,  but  the  fruitfulness  of  his 
mind,  the  versatility  of  his  intellectual  gifts,  and  the  breadth 
of  his  thoughts  and  sympathies  were  also  manifested.  He 
was  deeply  interested  in  all  that  pertains  to  human  culture 
and  welfare,  and  his  voice  and  pen  were  freely  employed 
for  the  elucidation  and  advocacy  of  those  things  which 
make  for  the  illumination  and  improvement  of  human  life. 
The  range  of  topics  which,  from  time  to  time,  he  discussed 
was  a  wide  one,  and  his  treatment  of  the  subjects  which 
engaged  his  attention  was  always  intelligent  and  luminous. 
Whether  he  spoke  or  wrote,  or  whether  his  subject  was 
legal,  political,  historical,  religious,  literary,  educational, 
civic,  or  artistic  in  its  nature,  his  discourse  or  essay  was 
marked  by  careful  study,  original  thought,  apt  illustration, 
and  a  peculiarly  felicitous  and  often  eloquent  form  of 
expression.  His  strictly  extemporaneous  talks  were  always 
suggestive  and  often  brilliant.  He  had,  as  his  mother 
before  him  also  had,  the  poetic  temperament,  and  could,  and 
did,  on  occasion,  write  graceful  verse.  Under  the  title  of 
"  Hartford  Authors,"  he  wrote,  many  years  ago,  a  series  of 
papers  which  appeared  in  one  of  the  city  newspapers,  and 
were  marked  by  a  distinct  literary  discrimination  and  del- 
icacy.    When  Mr.  Dudley  Buck's  "  Forty-sixth  Psalm"  was 

51 


first  produced  here,  in  his  native  town,  the  most  appreciative 
review  of  it  came  from  Mr.  Robinson's  pen.  When  Parepa 
sang  here  in  oratorio,  his  "  Few  Thoughts  about  Parepa," 
published  in  the  Courant,  were  recognized  by  many  as  the 
thoughts  which  had  arisen  in  their  minds,  but  which  they 
could  not  utter.  When,  later,  Nilsson  came,  he  rendered  a 
similar  service.  His  obituary  notices  of  prominent  persons, 
published  from  time  to  time  in  our  city  papers,  were  not 
only  tender  tributes  of  friendship  and  affection,  but  admi- 
rable specimens  of  fine  character-portraiture.  He  could  find 
time  to  write  an  elaborate  review  of  a  new  collection  of 
hymns  and  music,  or  a  "  Word  about  the  Lobby,"  or  a  criti- 
cism of  the  Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  or  an  essay  on  Fish 
Culture,  or  a  paper  on  "  The  Significance  of  Dome  and 
Tower,"  or  a  review  of  "  Doctor  Bushnell  on  Progress,"  or 
an  article  on  the  "  Reduction  of  Railway  Fares  and 
Freights,"  or  a  series  of  sparkling  letters  to  the  New  Haven 
Palladium.  One  of  the  best  of  his  earlier  diversions  was  a 
lecture  in  the  old  Hartford  Seminary  course  on,  "  Art  as  a 
Flower  " ;  and  another  thoughtful  and  scholarly  discourse 
on  a  kindred  subject  was  delivered  by  him  before  the 
Hartford  Art  Association. 

Meanwhile  his  political  speeches  and  writings  were 
frequent.  When  Mr.  Capron,  of  beloved  memory,  was 
taken  from  this  scene  of  his  most  valuable  services  as  Prin- 
cipal of  the  High  School,  Mr.  Robinson  delivered  an 
address  which  deeply  moved  all  hearts,  and  revealed  him 
to  Hartford  people  as  their  eloquent  orator.  His  frequent 
addresses  at  the  High  School,  on  different  occasions,  are 
well  remembered.  His  oration  on  the  unveiling  of  Ward's 
statue  of  Putnam,  and  his  later  and  more  elaborate  oration 
at  the  dedication  of  the  monument  to  Putnam,  were  every- 
where applauded  as  singularly  forcible,  thoughtful,  and 
graceful  works  of  genuine  eloquence. 

The  pages  of  the  New  Englander  were  enriched  by  his 
brilliant  review  of  Arnold's  "  Light  of  Asia,"  by  his  argu- 
ment for  a  "  Liberal  Construction  of  Creeds,"  drawn  from 
the  usage  of  law,  and  by  other  articles  as  well. 

Many  still  remember  his  noble  address  on  the  death  of 

52 


President  Garfield,  spoken  in  the  Second  Church  of  Hart- 
ford, and  that  on  Ltither,  spoken  in  the  Park  Church. 

His  lectures,  earlier  and  later,  before  the  Law  School  in 
New  Haven,  and  those  before  the  Kent  Club  in  the 
same  city,  were  received  with  unusual  favor. 

His  Decoration  Day  orations,  at  Hartford,  at  South 
Manchester,  and  at  Rockville,  and  his  oration  on  Robert 
Burns,  are  comparatively  fresh  in  the  remembrance  of  our 
citizens,  and  are  cherished  with  equal  gratitude  and  pride. 

At  the  Legislative  Reunion,  1 886,  he  was  the  orator  of 
the  day,  and  his  historical  address  on  that  occasion  was 
described  as  "a  compendium  of  colonial  and  state  legis- 
lative history." 

At  the  General  Conference  of  Congregational  Churches 
at  Norwalk,  1892,  his  address  on  "  What  shall  We  Do  with 
the  First  Day  of  the  Week  "  was  a  most  timely  and  sug- 
gestive discussion  of  the  "  Sunday  Question."  Mention 
may  be  made  of  his  address  on  "  Medicine  and  Law  "  at  the 
centennial  celebration  of  the  Hartford  Medical  Societ}^ ;  of 
his  eulogy  on  General  Grant ;  of  his  discourse  on  Christian 
Unity,  at  the  Memorial  Church  in  Springfield ;  of  his  talk 
to  the  Hartford  ministers  on  the  "  Temperance  Question  as 
Viewed  from  a  Legal  Standpoint  "  ;  of  his  lecture  in  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  course  on  "  Representative  Government  "  ;  of 
his  Letter  to  the  Courant  on  "  Towns  and  Representation  "  ; 
and  of  his  article  in  the  Yale  Law  Journal  in  favor  of  "  Con- 
stitutional Reform  in  Connecticut."  Many  important 
papers  of  his  are  not  even  mentioned  here.  His  strictly 
political  speeches  are  not  noticed,  nor  the  frequent  talks  on 
various  subjects,  which  he  freely  gave  at  request  at 
banquets,  conferences,  and  festival  occasions,  nor  the  many 
delightful  papers  which  he  read,  from  time  to  time,  at  dif- 
ferent clubs. 

The  purpose  of  this  sketch  is  simply  to  indicate  how 
versatile  were  his  gifts,  how  broad  was  his  culture,  how 
catholic  were  his  intellectual  and  moral  sympathies,  and 
how  freely  and  generously  he  poured  out  from  the  treasures 
of  his  fruitful  mind  things  of  delight  and  refreshment  for 
his  fellowmen.     This  sort  of  work,  enough  for  most  men, 

53 


seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  recreation  with  him,  and  yet  it  all 
came  out,  naturally  enough,  from  the  wide  range  of  his 
professional  studies  and  interests.  During  his  last  illness  he 
told  the  writer  how  he  had  meditated  and  purposed  to  write 
out  a  paper  for  the  comparison  and  estimation  of  Drs. 
Horace  Bushnell  and  Samuel  Harris,  whom  he  regarded  as 
the  two  greatest  theologians  of  our  country  in  recent  times. 
In  another  conversation  he  spoke  at  length  and  most  inter- 
estingly of  "  The  Old  Jeffersonians  "  of  Hartford,  naming 
and  describing  many  of  them,  and  speaking  fondly  of  "  the 
last,  but  not  the  least  of  them,"  Mr.  Alfred  E.  Burr,  and 
saying  that  he  would  like  to  write  an  article  about  them. 
One  of  the  last  things  which  he  wrote,  and  the  last  that  was 
printed  was  a  brief,  tender  note  to  the  son  of  Mr.  Burr,  in 
which  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he  was  unable  to  pay  the 
tribute  to  his  old  friend  which  it  was  in  his  heart  to  do. 
The  last  note  which  he  penned  or  dictated  was  a  brief 
message,  unique  and  precious,  to  his  old  friend  and  Pastor. 

From  the  mass  of  miscellaneous  discourses,  essays,  and 
other  papers  by  Mr.  Robinson  which  fortunately  have  been 
preserved,  a  few  selections  have  been  made,  and  are  herein 
appended,  as  fairly  showing,  perhaps,  the  quality  of  his 
thought,  and  the  diverse  phases  of  his  meditations  and 
expressions  of  truth.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  repro- 
duce his  forensic  speeches,  or  even  to  present  any  illustra- 
tions of  them.  Nor  has  it  seemed  wise  to  dismember  his 
more  solid  and  substantial  historical  papers  and  addresses, 
for  the  sake  of  taking  fragments  from  them. 

In  justice  to  his  comprehensive  grasp  of  constitutional 
and  political  principles,  to  his  powers  of  argumentation,  to 
his  lore  as  a  scholar,  and  to  his  best  literary  gifts,  it  should 
be  said  that  quite  a  different  selection  might  have  been 
made,  which  would  have  seemed  not  less  suggestive  and 
instructive  than  that  which  has  been  made.  But  such  a 
selection  must  of  necessity  have  been  far  more  extensive 
and  less  varied  than  was  deemed  suitable  for  the  purposes 
of  this  memorial. 

Edwin  P.  Parker. 

54 


FROM   VARIOUS  DISCOURSES  AND   PAPERS  BY  MR.  ROBINSON. 

"^ut  ol),  for  tftc  toucb  of  a  toanisfocb  foano, 
Knb  (be  ?ounD  of  a  tioice  tfrat  \$  jstin." 

From  the  oration  at  the  unveiling  of  Ward's  statue  of 
Gen.  Putnam :  — 

The  lifted  veil  has  just  disclosed  to  us  the  first  entrance  of 
art  into  our  places  absolutely  public.  I  cannot  pass  such  an 
event  without  expressing  congratulations  in  it.  No  beautiful 
thing  comes  to  society  without  beautifying  it.  Good  and  true 
works  of  art  made  free  to  the  people  must  instruct  and  refine 
the  people.  All  such  plantings  yield  a  fruitage  of  culture  and 
liberal  thought  and  elevated  taste.  The  very  sight  of  choice 
things  in  art  develops  the  love  of  the  beautiful  which  it  charms. 
Our  cities  centralize  intelligence  and  industry  and  enterprise 
and  wealth  and  enthusiasm  and  benevolence.  Into  these  cen- 
ters let  art  pour  her  refining  influences.  Let  her  reproduce  in 
color  the  crises  of  history.  Let  her  repeat  in  marble  and  bronze 
the  forms  and  features  of  heroes  and  benefactors.  Let  her 
teach  the  people  the  lessons  which  the  face  of  a  good  man  may 
teach,  recalling  the  good  man's  deeds,  and  the  good  fights 
which  he  fought,  and  the  good  discoveries  which  he  made,  and 

the  sweet  charities  which  he  perfected 

Let  me  express  the  hope  that  this  day  shall  not  complete  the 
memorials  of  our  great  men.  Of  this  charity,  of  this  consecra- 
tion to  art,  and  of  this  unveiling  of  patriotism,  let  us  say  "  tran- 
seant  in  exemplum"  Connecticut's  history  is  rich,  almost  beyond 
a  rival.  A  century  before  Bunker  Hill,  Connecticut  produced  a 
hero  who  dared  to  brave  the  haughtiness  of  oppression  to  save 
our  charter  from  tyranny  —  the  intrepid  Wadsworth.  The  brav- 
est, gentlest  soldier  of  the  Mexican  War  was  from  Connecticut, 
and  rests  in  yonder  cemetery  —  Col.  Thomas  H.  Seymour.  We 
have  not  yet  any  memorial,  in  statue  or  column  or  chapel,  of 
the  heroes  of  our  great  war  for  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  upon 

55 


whose  graves  the  flowers  of  Decoration  Day  have  just  withered. 
In  the  War  of  the  Revolution  and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion, 
Connecticut  was  most  justly  proud  of  the  patriotism  and  execu- 
tive excellence  of  her  governors,  Trumbull  and  Buckingham. 
Here  in  the  capital  of  our  State,  by  its  legislative  halls,  now  ris- 
ing in  white  beauty,  should  these  and  other  representative  men, 
creators  and  benefactors,  authors,  orators,  inventors,  artists, 
and  philanthropists  be  honored  and  memorialized. 

From  the  address  before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the 
High  School :  — 

The  high  school,  as  included  in  the  system  of  public  schools, 
is  free.  I  shall  not  enlarge  upon  the  importance,  almost  su- 
preme, to  our  republic  of  free  popular  education.  Let  me  sim- 
ply say  that  in  making  this  fontal  blessing  free,  a  nation  follows 
the  laws  of  the  Great  Ruler  himself.  In  the  world  of  nature 
the  best  blessings  are  free.  There  can  be  no  patent  in  the  blue 
sky,  nor  monopoly  of  the  pure  air,  and  the  sharpest  land  title 
to  green  fields  cannot  prevent  the  whole  community  of  rich 
and  poor  from  their  enjoyment.  The  pure  water,  the  warm 
sunshine,  the  glitter  of  stars,  the  tides  of  ocean,  the  rustle  of 
leaves,  the  murmur  of  waves,  the  ripple  of  brooks,  and  the 
crimson  of  clouds  can  be  controlled  by  no  human  fiat,  nor  be 
locked  in  by  any  miser's  key.  Such  blessings  in  nature  are  too 
great  for  any  exclusive  use.  In  the  spiritual  world,  too,  the 
best  gifts  are  open  to  the  whole  race  of  spiritual  beings.  The 
true  light  lightens  every  man.  The  true  way  is  for  all.  The 
fountain  of  waters  is  at  every  thirsty  man's  right  hand.  And 
so  the  nation  which  offers  to  all  its  people  free  education  makes 
gift  of  its  best  possibilities. 

From  the  Historical  Address  at  the  first  Legislative 
Reunion  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  May  6, 


Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  and  a  few  days  ago,  on  April 
26,  1636,  Roger  Ludlow  and  four  associates,  representing  Hart- 
ford, Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  (then  called  Newtown),  Water- 
town,  and  Dorchester,  met  in  Hartford,  as  a  General  Court,  for 
the  government  of  the  first  planters  of  Connecticut.  This  body 
passed  a  law  forbidding  the  sale  of  firearms  to  the  Indians,  con- 

56 


demned  Henry  Stiles  for  trading  a  "  peece  "  for  corn,  ordered 
him  to  "  regaine  the  saide  peece  from  the  saide  Indians  in  a 
faire  and  legall  waye  or  els  this  Corte  will  take  it  into  further 
consideracon  ;  "  selected  and  qualified  a  constable  for  each  of 
the  three  settlements,  made  orders  relative  to  "  divers  strange 
swine,"  and  ratified  the  formation  of  the  earliest  church  in  this 
valley. 

In  this  little  gathering  was  the  beginning  of  Connecticut's 
legislature  and  court.  By  what  method  of  appointment  the 
magistrates,  who  constituted  this  court,  arrived  at  their  office,  it 
is  not  certain  ;  but  of  the  fact  that  they  acted  with  the  consent 
if  not  by  the  express  choice,  of  the  planters,  there  can  be  no 
doubt. 

One  year  later,  May  i,  1637,  when  the  court,  which  had  held 
several  intermediate  sessions,  was  convened  to  consider  the  im- 
portant subject  of  a  war  with  the  Pequots,  the  several  towns 
sent  their  committees  to  participate  with  the  magistrates  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Assembly.  There  is  somewhere  in  the  mount- 
ain ridge  that  divides  the  watersheds,  whose  rainfall  ultimately 
reaches  northerly  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  southerly  to 
Long  Island  Sound,  a  single  spring,  farthest  away  of  all  which 
feed  the  latter  sea  ;  perhaps  no  investigation  has  yet  traced  it, 
but  it  is  there,  and  if  we  could  to-day  go  to  it,  taste  it,  analyze 
it,  and  bathe  in  it,  we  should  find  that  it  is  of  the  same  pure 
stream  which,  for  uncounted  centuries,  through  four  hundred 
miles  of  mountain  and  meadow,  in  waterfall,  cascade,  ripple, 
and  lake,  has  made  the  beautiful  river  in  whose  baptismal 
waters  our  commonwealth  found  its  name.  And  so  the  legisla- 
tive gatherings  of  our  State  for  two  and  a  half  centuries  find 
their  type  in  this  gathering  of  1637.  It  was  a  supreme,  law- 
making body,  representing  the  people  and  the  towns  of  the  col- 
ony. A  year  later  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  in  his  discourse 
before  the  General  Court,  at  Hartford,  May  31,  1638,  declared 
for  doctrine  :  "  That  the  choice  of  public  magistrates  belongs 
unto  the  people  by  God's  own  allowance,"  and  "  that  they  who 
have  power  to  appoint  officers  and  magistrates,  it  is  in  their 
power  also  to  set  the  bounds  and  limitations  of  the  power  and 
place  unto  which  they  call  them,"  and  for  reasons  of  this  doc- 
trine he  urged,  first,  "  Because  the  foundation  of  authority  is 
laid  firstly  in  the  free  consent  of  the  people  ;  "  second,  "  Because 
of  a  free  choice  the  hearts  of  the  people  will  be  more  inclined 

8  57 


to  the  love  of  the  persons  chosen  and  more  ready  to  yield 
obedience." 

His  lesson  of  exhortation  was,  "  To  persuade  us,  as  God  has 
given  us  liberty,  to  take  it." 

One  year  later,  on  the  14th  of  January,  1639,  all  the  free 
planters  of  the  colony  convened  at  Hartford  and  prepared  the 
first  American  constitution,  and  it  may  fairly  be  called  the  first 
written  constitution  of  history  which  was  adopted  by  a  people. 
We  can  do  no  less  than  pause  a  moment  and  do  homage  to  this 
great  historical  event.  We  honor  the  limitations  upon  despot- 
ism which  were  written  on  the  twelve  tables  ;  the  repressions 
of  monarchial  power  in  magna  charta,  in  the  bill  of  rights,  and 
in  that  whole  undefinable  creation,  as  invisible  and  intangible 
as  the  atmosphere,  but,  like  it,  full  of  oxygen  and  electricity, 
which  we  call  the  British  constitution.  But  in  this,  our  Con- 
necticut constitution,  we  find  no  limitations  upon  monarchy,  for 
monarchy  is  unrecognized  ;  the  limitations  are  upon  the  legis- 
lature, the  courts,  and  the  executive.  It  is  pure  democracy 
acting  through  representatives  and  imposing  organic  limita- 
tions. Even  the  suffrage  qualification  of  church  membership, 
which  was  required  by  our  older  sister  colony  of  Massachusetts, 
was  omitted.  Six  hundred  years  before,  the  head  of  the  Christian 
church  had  said  that  he  had  "power  to  depose  emperors,  and 
absolve  the  subjects  of  wicked  princes  from  their  allegiance." 
The  "grand  monarch  "  of  France  declared,  "I  am  the  State." 
The  civilizations  of  the  Orient  had  been  the  history  of  despo- 
tism and  monarchy  and  nobilities.  Law  was  the  rule  of  civil 
conduct,  made  by  the  supreme  power,  commanding  what  was 
right  and  forbidding  what  was  wrong  ;  but  the  supreme  power 
had  been  an  individual.  The  Mosaic  code  was  a  long  string  of 
"  Thou  shalts,"  and  a  longer  string  of  "  Thou  shalt  nots."  The 
Roman  Senate  was  the  legislature  and  the  Roman  Senators 
were  nobles.  If  a  plebiscite  made  a  new  law,  it  was  the  voice 
of  a  mob  in  the  comitia.  Here,  in  a  New  England  wilderness, 
in  the  heart  of  winter,  a  few  pilgrims  of  the  Pilgrims,  alive  to 
the  inspirations  of  the  common  law  and  of  the  British  constitu- 
tion, so  full  of  Christianity  that  they  felt  the  great  throb  of  its 
heart  of  human  brotherhood,  and  so  full  of  Judaism  that  they 
believed  themselves  in  some  special  sense  the  people  of  God, 
made  a  written  constitution  to  be  a  supreme  and  organic  law 
for  their  State. 

58 


Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed,  and  despotism  is 
hiding  in  corners,  while  constitutional  law  is  flooding  the  world 
with  its  light  and  bathing  it  in  its  peace. 

From  an  address  on  Luther  : 

This  man  stands,  in  my  thoughts,  as  a  great  emancipator  of 
his  race.  It  is  difficult  for  us  of  to-day,  girt  with  freedom  as  by 
an  atmosphere,  and  protected  by  the  majesties  of  constitutional 
law,  to  appreciate,  even  when  we  read  of  them,  the  chains  and 
oppressions  of  that  other  day,  tied  upon  human  hands  and 
human  minds  and  human  hearts.  The  assumptions  of  imperial 
princes  and  imperial  pontiffs  were  unlimited,  and  were  only 
endurable  because  of  their  jealousies  of  each  other.  The  eman- 
cipating movement,  of  which  Luther  was  the  hero,  was  fol- 
lowed by  others  in  England  where  a  king  went  to  the  scaffold, 
and  in  France  where  liberty  ran  riot,  until,  at  the  extreme  west, 
and  over  unknown  seas,  a  purer  free  state  was  founded,  to  be 
forever  separate  from  ecclesiastical  government.  .  .  .  It  is 
a  narrow  vision,  indeed,  which  limits  this  influence  of  Luther, 
as  a  moral  reformer,  to  the  new  churches.  The  old  church  felt 
it  deeply,  and  confessed  it.  The  old  church  listened  to  Luther's 
outcries  for  the  decencies,  and  admitted  their  justice.  His 
ecclesiastical  and  doctrinal  variations  from  the  old  standards  of 
tradition  and  decree  were  heresies  to  be  stamped  out  with  fire 
and  sword,  but  his  demands  for  a  purer  life  found  welcome. 
But  thirty-five  years  after  the  Diet  of  Worms,  a  Roman  pontiff,  in 
his  first  bull  upon  taking  his  sacred  office,  said :  "  We  do  prom- 
ise and  swear  to  make  it  our  first  care  that  the  reform  of  the 
universal  church  and  of  the  Roman  court  be  at  once  entered 
upon." 

Where  was  the  great  personal  power  of  this  man  ? 

Let  me  give  but  one  of  the  many  answers.  It  was  because 
he  was  in  all  respects  a  man.  He  was  full  to  the  brim  of  human 
nature.  Man  is  naturally  patriotic,  because  he  is  born  into  gov- 
ernment, and  it  is  so  within  the  universal  consciousness.  Luther 
was  a  patriot  of  patriots.  Dominion  of  Germany  by  Italy  or 
Spain  or  France  was  to  him  intolerable.  Man  is  naturally  do- 
mestic, he  is  born  into  the  family.  Luther  was  intensely  domes- 
tic, and  sang  the  sweetest  songs  of  home.  Man  is  naturally 
religious,  for  he  is  born  with  a  spiritual  and  trustful  nature. 
Luther  carried  his  reverence  and  obedience  to  the  throne  of  the 

59 


Infinite,  and  walked  under  His  shadow  in  the  burning  sun,  and 
in  His  light  by  night,  and  his  courage  and  faith  and  enthusi- 
asm and  sociality  and  love  of  music  were  manly.  Luther's 
grandeur  is  in  his  being  a  great,  rough,  noble  specimen  of 
humanity. 

From  an  article  in  New  Engla?ider,  on  "  Assent  to 
Creeds" : 

There  have  always  been  two  methods  of  construing  things 
written  or  spoken,  be  they  constitutions,  charters,  public  stat- 
utes, wills,  contracts,  symbols,  creeds,  or  statements.  One 
method  is  broad,  catholic,  liberal.  It  reaches  the  underlying 
principles  of  the  instrument.  It  notes  relations.  It  does  not 
destroy  the  dial,  because  the  shadows  which  were  written  on 
its  west  side  in  the  morning  are  missing  at  noon,  and  have  gone 
over  to  the  east  in  the  afternoon.  It  notes  fallibility  in  every- 
thing human,  and  sees  that  all  human  utterances  are  more  or 
less  imbued  with  inconsistency,  want  of  harmony,  and  imper- 
fection. But  it  still  trusts  human  nature  and  human  achieve- 
ment, and  the  Divine  inspirations  in  man.  It  sees  spots  on  the 
sun,  but  continues  to  plant,  relying  upon  the  source  of  heat, 
and  to  open  its  eyes  for  vision,  relying  upon  the  source  of  light. 

The  other  method  is  strict,  narrow,  literal,  petty,  sticks 
always  in  the  bark,  yellows  in  dust,  and  glories  in  punctuation 
and  syntax.  It  sees  things  only  by  the  light  which  struggles  in 
through  a  single  window.  Universal  light  makes  it  blind.  At 
night  its  torch  must  still  be  a  tallow  dip.  Electricity  would  be 
impious. 

The  former  method  contemplates  systems,  is  comparative, 
analogical,  feels  outward  facts  and  forces  of  which  all  things 
are  more  or  less  resultants.  To  it  the  moon  is  a  satellite  of  a 
moving  planet,  that  planet  a  single  member  of  a  solar  system, 
and  that  system  an  integral  part  of  a  universe,  each  with  rela- 
tions and  changing  relations  to  the  rest. 

To  the  other  method  the  moon  is  ever  only  itself,  a  cold, 
blackened,  worn  out,  uninhabitable  lump  of  matter,  answerable 
only  to  some  laws  of  chemistry  and  philosophy,  which  are  sup- 
posed to  be  unchangeable.  But  the  moon  itself  is  too  far  away 
for  the  latter  method.  While  the  former  finds  daily  and  nightly 
use  for  the  telescope,  the  eye  of  the  latter  is  always  at  the 
microscope. 

60 


The  broad  physician  studies  the  whole  physical  system  of 
man  and  searches  the  universe  for  analogies,  and  treats  his 
patients  constitutionally  ;  the  narrow  one  feeds  his  own  hobby  ; 
sees  in  each  patient  a  disordered  liver,  if  that  is  his  specialty, 
and  indulges  only  in  local  treatment.  The  strict  construction- 
ist in  our  Lord's  time  swore  by  the  temple  and  said  his  oath  was 
nothing  ;  but  bowed  in  reverence  before  his  oath  if  he  had 
only  sworn  by  the  gold  within  it.  Shylock  was  a  strict  con- 
structionist, and  Portia  gave  his  philosophy  homoeopathic  treat- 
ment by  fighting  the  fire  of  his  strict  construction  with  the  fire 
of  her  own.  The  difference  was  that  Shylock  believed  in  his 
strict  method  of  construction,  while  Portia  redeemed  hers  by 
the  broad  charity  and  decency  which  inspired  it.  The  Phari- 
sees were  strict  constructionists,  they  were  scrupulously  partic- 
ular to  tithe  cheap  herbs,  and  were  immaculate  in  their  vest- 
ments. And,  whoever  else,  in  the  progress  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, have  disappeared  through  an  indefinite  failure  of  issue, 
these  strict  constructionists  have  never  lacked  for  lineal  de- 
scendants in  the  governments,  and  churches,  and  theological 
schools  of  the  world. 

The  argument  of  this  article  claims  : 

i.  That  a  liberal  construction  of  instruments  is  wiser  and 
better  than  a  strict  one. 

2.  That  creeds  and  symbols  afford  no  exception  to  this  rule. 

3.  That  reasonable  liberty  of  construction  should  be  allowed 
to  the  undertaker  of  a  trust. 

(And  incidentally)  4.  That  the  limitation  of  the  use  of 
property  to  the  progagation  of  unalterable  opinion  is  an  offen- 
sive form  of  entail  and  against  public  policy. 

From  an  address  at  the  Memorial  Church,  Springfield, 
Mass.,  December,  1888: 

It  is  a  time  of  agitation,  but  agitation  means  life.  It  is  a  day 
of  sincerity  ;  the  messages  are  direct  and  practical.  It  is  a  day 
of  decency  ;  the  barbarities  which  have  clung  to  historic  Chris- 
tianity have  been  buried  in  a  soundless  sea. 

It  is  a  day  of  search  for  pure  truth.  Christian  men,  simple 
men  and  scholars  alike,  are  going  back  to  the  shores  of  Galilee, 
to  find  the  words  of  absolute  truth  and  the  life  of  absolute 
holiness.  They  are  thirsting  to  find  the  pure  waters  of  life  at 
the  fountain. 

61 


It  is  the  day  of  toleration  and  consideration.  Ancient 
Oxford,  home  of  much  learning  and  patriotism,  home,  too,  of 
some  bigotry  and  subservience  to  authority,  delivers  her 
highest  degree  to  James  Martineau.  The  gates  of  the  uni- 
versities have  swung  open  to  dissenters. 

The  revival  of  learning  and  architecture  three  centuries 
ago  was  closely  associated  with  a  reformation  in  religion  which 
created  a  new  church  and  purified  an  old  one.  The  intense 
zeal  of  science  to-day  has  improved  and  quickened  the  religious 
world  into  a  new  devotion  to  truth,  into  new  tolerations,  and 
into  purer  worship  of  the  one  God  and  Father,  Creator  of  all 
things  visible  and  invisible,  ruling  material  nature,  and,  as 
well  his  children,  the  sons  of  men  in  social  life,  in  organized 
government,  and  in  the  renewal  and  inspiration  of  their  spirit- 
ual nature,  by  the  majestic  girdings  and  ongoings  of  supreme 
law.  And  in  discovering  our  own  growth  and  progress,  in 
seeing  that  yesterday's  wisdom  is  so  often  to-day's  folly,  man- 
kind is  learning  modesty  and  reverence.  Few  men  now  fancy 
that  their  garments  inclose  infallibility,  or  that  their  fathers' 
did.  The  large-minded,  great-souled  men  hesitate  at  attempts 
to  measure  the  being  of  the  Infinite  with  their  petty  calipers. 
In  a  life  where  we  can  know  only  in  part,  we  learn  the  immense 
value  of  probabilities  and  working  hypotheses.  The  verities 
which  may  be  demonstrated  by  mathematical  science  or  math- 
ematical logic  are  few.  Science  has  sought  for  centuries  for  a 
standard  of  measurement.  It  has  asked  the  eternal  rocks  for 
assistance,  has  appealed  to  the  law  of  gravity  in  the  swing  of 
the  pendulum,  has  summoned  frost  and  fire  to  give  a  possible 
unbroken  temperature,  has  called  on  the  densities  of  the  ores, 
has  invoked  the  vibrations  of  light,  and  to-day,  after  expend- 
itures most  lavish,  and  fret  of  mind  most  subtle,  science  blushes 
to  tell  us  that  she  cannot  give  us  a  perfect  yard-stick.  And 
shall  we  ask  for  demonstrations  of  things  invisible  ?  Demon- 
strations are  not  the  law  of  our  being.  The  day  sky  is  blue, 
but  it  is  not  cloudless. 

And  while  the  sincere  Christian  thinker  has  no  hesitation  in 
admitting  that  there  are  clouds  and  shadows  in  the  day,  he  yet 
rejoices  in  the  sun  in  its  course,  for  when  he  goes  away  from 
the  region  which  sustains  and  guides  and  controls  him,  he  goes 
out  into  night.  Our  blessed  religion  answers  the  tremendous 
inquiries  which  have  always  thrilled  humanity.     Is  there  a  first 

62 


cause  ?  Christianity  points  to  the  eternal  Creator.  What  is 
his  being  ?  A  loving  father.  What  of  my  own  weakness  and 
wrong  ?  He  wants  to  forgive  them.  What  means  the 
grave  ?  Behold  the  empty  tomb  of  Joseph,  and  hear  of  the 
mansions  in  the  Father's  house.  What  of  history's  long  story 
of  tyranny  and  crime  ?  Every  son  of  man  is  a  son  of  God,  and 
the  hairs  of  his  head  are  numbered.  What  of  the  emptiness  of 
circumstance  and  power  ?  The  Son  of  Man  came  to  minister. 
What  of  the  struggles  and  defeats  and  the  injustices  and 
inequalities  of  this  troubled  world  ?  Out  of  them  comes  char- 
acter, manly  faith  the  corner-stone  of  the  temple,  its  crowning 
arch  built  into  a  keystone  of  love,  which  fills  a  world  of  sorrow 
with  music,  and  makes  the  dry  land  sweet  with  the  lily  of  the 
valley.  Into  the  service  of  our  inspired  and  inspiring  religion, 
here  in  this  goodly  spot,  we  welcome  this  minister  of  good 
things. 

From  the  Oration  on  Burns : 

It  is  the  poets  who  move  the  world's  thought.  The  con- 
querors make  territorial  lines,  preserve  and  confuse  races,  and 
fill  the  largest  pages  in  the  histories.  The  statesmen  build 
governments,  and  frame  constitutions  and  laws.  The  scholars 
select  and  save  from  the  wreck  of  time  the  fittest  of  human 
efforts.  The  speculative  philosophers  work  away  at  the 
insoluble  problems  which  constantly  roll  back  upon  them,  like 
Sisyphus'  stone,  and  their  lectures  and  treatises  engage  the 
attention  of  a  select  few,  to  their  improvement  chiefly  by  way  of 
intellectual  gymnastics.  But  the  poets,  and  they  do  not  all  write 
in  rhyme,  see  the  invisibles,  which  are  the  realities,  and  report 
them  to  our  souls.  They  sing  the  songs  of  our  noblest  nature  ; 
they  deal  with  the  themes  which  in  individual  and  social  and 
organized  life  are  the  great  and  eternal  things  ;  their  methods 
are  unhampered  by  chop  logic,  they  move  by  intuitions  ;  they 
are  limited  by  no  narrow  curtains  of  "  pure  reason,"  so-called, 
they  scan  and  traverse  the  boundless  realm  of  imagination  ; 
they  wait  not  at  the  finite,  they  compass  the  infinite  ;  they 
measure  not  with  the  limited  span  of  fingers  and  hands,  they 
take  in  the  spaces  open  to  human  vision  with  the  eye  of 
body  and  the  eye  of  soul ;  they  walk  not  with  feet  in  the  dusty 
roads,  they  fly  with  wings  in  the  upper  air. 

When  the   human  mind  is   shut  up  in  the  conclusions  of 

63 


demonstration,  it  is  shut  into  a  prison.  It  is  at  its  best  when  it 
is  aflame  with  enthusiasm  and  inspired  with  imagination. 
Then  it  makes  report,  not  from  tables  of  logarithms  and  verbal 
results  drawn  from  major  and  minor  premises  of  statement ; 
but  it  draws  down,  as  light  from  the  sun,  flashes  of  intuitive 
truth,  and  sounds  into  human  ears  the  universal  things  which 
the  past  of  human  experience  suggests  and  the  future  of  human 
development  assures. 

I  know  of  nothing  in  the  history  of  our  western  Christian 
civilization  which  is  more  disgraceful  to  it  than  its  treatment 
of  the  Jews.  For  centuries  the  Christian  nations  denied  them 
citizenship,  denied  them  even  a  domicile,  denied  them  domestic 
peace,  hung  badges  of  dishonor  upon  their  persons,  and  hunted 
them  like  wild  beasts  to  the  hills.  Even  enlightened  England, 
not  so  enlightened  then,  drove  them  out  and  forbade  them  to 
touch  her  borders.  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  greatest  of  England's 
rulers,  partially  wiped  out  the  disgrace.  And  now,  after 
having  thrown  upon  the  Semitic  people  every  political  oppres- 
sion and  every  social  obloquy  open  to  ingenuity  for  centuries, 
and  just  as  the  Christian  world  has  come  into  decency  in  the 
matter,  a  revival  of  the  old  hate  is  agitated.  And  what  is  this 
race  that  is  treated  to  such  persecution  ?  The  toughest,  most 
sinewy,  most  elastic  race  in  history.  Centuries  of  infamous 
oppression  have  not  chilled  their  manhood,  and  now,  after  all 
these  ages  of  persecution,  the  fomenters  of  this  strife  are 
enraged  because,  they  say,  a  race  of  seven  millions  of  people  is 
usurping  positions  of  influence  and  power.  What  a  tribute  to 
their  royalty  these  bitter  pens  are  unconsciously  making  ! 
And  what  has  this  race  done  for  humanity  ?  Look  at  its  great- 
ness. Its  sacred  literature  is  held  by  the  Christian  world  in 
reverence,  and  by  much  of  it  even  in  idolatry.  Think  of  its 
long  roll  of  law-givers  and  leaders,  of  poets,  prophets,  and 
philanthropists,  its  service  for  learning  and  scholarship  and 
literature  and  art. 

The  men  who  lift  up  the  lowly,  who  exalt  the  valleys,  who 
scatter  broadcast  the  blessings  of  education  and  health  and 
music  and  flowers  and  green  trees  and  babbling  brooks  and 
the  story  of  the  stars  and  the  sweet  comforts  of  home  and  the 
enlightenment  of  a  pure  and  free  press,  who  emphasize  man's 
right  to  life  and  liberty  and  self-government,  who  call  us  to 

64 


the  Heavenly  Father,  who  substitute  service  for  attention 
and  glory,  peace  for  war,  love  for  selfishness,  law  for  imperial 
decree,  the  uplift  of  the  many  for  the  supremacy  of  the  few, 
democracy  for  despotism,  are  the  great  men,  for  they  are  the 
men  of  humanity,  the  universal  men. 

From  the  Eulogy  of  General  Grant :  — 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  lost  such  a  man  ;  it  is  much 
greater  to  have  had  such  a  man  to  lose.  He  was  a  child  of  the 
people,  he  was  a  type  of  the  people,  and  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple are  keeping  sad  time  to  the  funeral  march  of  twenty  thou- 
sand soldiers.  The  nation  pauses  in  its  activities.  The  reaper 
and  the  loom  are  at  rest,  and  even  the  money-changers  have 
locked  their  vaults.  Upon  the  billows  of  every  sea  and  in  the 
repose  of  every  harbor  drooping  halliards  have  compelled  the 
flags  of  all  nations  to  tell  a  story  of  death.  The  courts  of 
Europe  and  kings'  houses  in  the  Orient  wear  symbols  of  sor- 
row. The  gates  of  the  great  Abbey  have  swung  open,  and  in 
the  company  of  buried  soldiers  and  statesmen  and  poets  and 
kings  the  chief  singers  and  organists  and  orators  have  ex- 
pressed England's  unaffected  grief.  Millions  of  moistened  eyes 
are  turned  to  the  new  tomb  upon  the  Hudson. 

Is  it  all  for  the  sword  which  he  wore  to  victory?  Is  it  that 
he  planned  campaigns  with  the  skill  of  Csesar,  waited  with  the 
wisdom  of  Scipio,  pounded  with  the  sledge-hammer  of  Welling- 
ton, charged  with  the  thunderbolts  of  Napoleon  ?  Is  it  that 
he  surveyed  the  whole  vast  field,  friends  and  enemies,  in  for- 
tresses, camps,  and  battle-lines,  with  the  eye  of  an  eagle  in  the 
sky  ?  Is  it  that  military  success  never  betrayed  him  into  care- 
lessness, nor  repulse  led  him  into  discouragement  ?  Is  it  that 
while  some  of  his  associates  and  antagonists  were  chivalrous, 
some  prudent,  some  tenacious,  some  brilliant,  he  was  all  of 
these  ?  Man  has  always  admired  and  idolized  the  martial 
heroes.  Dominion,  power,  civilizations,  have  moved  on  in  the 
track  of  the  conquerors,  and  have  crowned  them.  But  there 
have  been  heroes  and  heroes.  Heroes  there  have  been  whose 
genius  waited  as  a  slave  upon  the  lust  of  power,  and  heroes 
who  bowed  in  their  service  only  to  the  nobilities,  patriotism, 
freedom,  and  righteousness.  Admiration,  wonder,  and  subser- 
vience are  attendants  upon  the  obsequies  of  the  former  ;  around 
the  graves  of  the  latter  are  the  hush  of  devotion,  the  tears  of 

9  65 


gratitude,  the  tides  of  love,  and  the  exultation  of  human  broth- 
erhood. 

These  heroes,  with  supreme  purpose,  unshaken  by  tempta- 
tion, to  bless  man  and  to  obey  God,  are  the  flowers  and  types 
of  humanity  in  its  great  success.  The  genius  of  our  hero  has 
already  had  much  discriminating  eulogy  —  nothing  has  yet  been 
said  finer  than  the  words  of  his  tent  comrade  of  so  many  cam- 
paigns :  "  He  was  the  manliest  man."  Such  a  character  is  an 
inspiration  to  the  race.  For  the  world  grows  truest  and  best, 
not  in  its  books,  but  in  its  characters.  We  learn  in  them  what 
man  can  be.  By  what  our  hero  was,  and  even  more  by  what 
he  was  not,  he  has  put  high  honors  upon  human  nature.  A 
soldier  who  sought  not  paeans  or  pageants,  a  statesman  who 
yielded  no  single  span  to  the  tugs  of  injustice  and  the  mad 
thunders  of  the  hour.  Unskilled  in  the  ways  of  political  life, 
untrained  in  the  philosophies  of  statesmanship,  he  yet  dared  to 
lift  that  strong  arm,  and  that  voice  which  was  often  so  mightily 
silent,  to  scatter  the  tempest  which  urged  the  inflation  bill, 
when  politicians  and  statesmen  retired  to  their  chambers.  For 
the  Indian,  so  many  times  a  victim  of  fraud  and  bad  faith,  he 
had  counsels  and  measures  of  protection  and  defense.  When 
an  un-American  insanity  raged  and  chafed  against  an  Oriental 
race,  and  political  leader  after  political  leader  bowed  before  it, 
his  lips,  so  often  closed,  opened  to  condemn  it.  When  a  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  asked  him,  it  is  said  commanded  him, 
to  stain  his  soldierly  honor,  his  quick  response  of  firm  refusal 
and  the  unconcealed  hilt  of  his  invincible  sword  assured  the 
mistaken  executive  that  he  was  endeavoring  to  command  the 
impossible.  Higher  than  all  men,  higher  than  the  President, 
yes,  even  than  himself,  were  those  invisible  forces  of  right  and 
truth  and  honor  and  patriotism,  whose  power  to  him  was  as  ex- 
acting as  are  the  attractions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  to  the  sea. 
And  like  the  other  great  leaders,  like  Washington  and  Caesar, 
Cromwell  and  Napoleon,  Mahomet  and  Joan  of  Arc,  he  believed 
with  more  than  an  intellectual  assent,  even  with  the  belief  of 
his  whole  nature,  in  an  individual  force  behind  all  things,  visi- 
ble and  invisible,  in  whose  guidance  his  own  career  was  held. 
Napoleon  called  it  fate.  Grant  saw  in  it  an  infinite  personal 
God,  whom  he  reverently  worshiped. 

And  what  demonstrations  has  our  history  given  of  the  pos- 
sible purity  of  free  government  by  the  lives  of  two  men  ?    Once 

66 


our  country,  delivered  from  colonial  dependence,  was  ushered 
into  a  course  of  national  history,  and  its  warrior  leader  forbore 
to  be  a  conqueror  or  to  build  up  a  throne  for  a  family.  And 
then  the  nation  was  rent  by  disunion  and  rebellion,  and  its  life 
hung  in  the  issues,  long-  contested,  of  war  vast  beyond  prece- 
dent, and  its  warrior-deliverer  laid  aside  his  sword  and  com- 
pelled the  restoration  of  peace  and  industry.  Can  records, 
other  than  the  pages  of  our  history,  show  two  such  soldier- 
patriots  as  Washington  and  Grant  ?  They  teach  us  that  man 
is  greater  than  thrones,  than  traditions,  than  institutions  ;  and 
this  is  democracy. 

Under  God,  Grant  saved  a  nation  by  the  victories  of  war ; 
saved  it  from  disunion,  discord,  broken  life,  and  a  future  of 
endless  jealousy  and  battle  ;  saved  it  for  freedom  ;  saved  it  for 
peace.  He  believed  in  peace.  His  wise  interventions,  coming 
like  a  gospel  from  the  west,  scattered  the  clouds  of  war  that 
overhung  the  lands  of  China  and  Japan.  He  believed  in  his 
country.  He  was  an  American  in  every  atom  of  his  being 
and  in  every  throb  of  his  heart.  Alive  to  the  good  things  in 
other  people's,  he  loved  his  own  matchless  land  more  than  the 
rest. 

And,  as  if  his  mission  was  not  fulfilled  when  he  laid  aside 
his  stars,  nor  when  he  surrendered  the  executive  chair,  nor 
when  he  called  forth  in  his  trip  around  the  world  such  honors 
from  prince  and  peasant  as  had  never  been  yielded  to  an  Amer- 
ican, in  these  last  days  of  suffering  and  sickness,  while  he  has 
fought  his  fight  against  pain  and  weariness,  with  no  word  of 
complaint  nor  sigh  of  selfishness,  his  heart  has  gone  out,  like 
the  blessing  of  a  sunset,  to  the  whole  people  whom  he  loved 
and  saved.  It  has  been  like  the  holy  words  of  benediction, 
spoken  again  and  again  by  the  prophet  of  Patmos  in  the  last 
days  of  his  century  life.  He  must  be  deaf,  indeed, —  deaf  as 
the  granite  ledge,  which  hears  not  the  everlasting  anthem  of 
the  billows  which  beat  upon  it, —  who  hears  no  command  to 
national  peace  and  love  in  those  dying  messages  spoken  to  the 
battalions  who  called  him  chief  and  to  the  battalions  who  called 
him  foe. 

When  his  last  will  and  testament  is  offered  to  the  courts  of 
law,  it  may  dispose  of  few  acres,  few  bonds  and  shares,  little 
which  political  economy  calls  wealth,  but  to  every  American 
he   bequeathed  a   legacy  better  than   lands  or  jewels,  as  he 

67 


breathed    out    upon    them    from    his    chamber    of    death   his 
moritumus  saluto. 

Right  life  !     And  in  the  hour  when  life  is  ending 
With  mind  set  fast  and  truthful  piety, 
Drawing  still  breath  beneath  calm  brows  unbending 
In  happy  peace  that  faithful  one  doth  die. 

From  the  Decoration  Day  address,  at  Hartford,  1885  :  — 

For  seventeen  years  the  members  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  have  added  new  charms  to  these  hours,  already  charm- 
ing in  the  calendar  of  nature,  by  setting-  them  apart  for  a  sac- 
rament of  soldierly  love.  Seventeen  years  ago,  with  strong 
arms  and  in  the  full  vigor  of  manhood,  to  the  music  which  then 
seemed  an  echo  from  yesterday's  battlefields,  in  long  lines,  you 
bore  to  these  sacred  acres  bunches- and  wreaths  and  crowns  of 
spring  flowers  to  ninety-three  graves.  To-day,  with  closer 
ranks  and  fewer  battalions,  and  with  many  a  ripple  of  silver 
locks  below  your  caps,  you  are  decorating  the  mounds  of  four 
hundred  and  eighteen  graves. 

By  these  rites  of  beauty  which  you  have  established,  all  the 
more  impressive  because  they  are  expressed  in  no  mystic  words, 
but  only  in  the  language  of  love,  and  wear  no  vestments  but 
the  wreaths  of  Nature,  you  have  been  educating  the  youth  of 
our  land  in  lessons  most  sweet  and  sacred.  For  what  is  indi- 
vidual or  social  life  without  sentiment  ?  Without  it  let  us  go  to 
the  caves.  If  there  is  nothing  for  us  here  but  to  chase  a  dollar 
in  mines  and  shops  and  stores  and  fields,  with  no  thought  of  the 
unmaterial  joys  of  home  and  country,  then  is  your  march  to-day 
a  waste  of  muscle,  and  the  incense  of  these  roses  is  a  mockery. 
But  man  is  man,  and  not  alone  an  animal,  hungering  and  thirst- 
ing and  sleeping.  He  is  born  into  the  family  and  into  society  ; 
his  are  all  the  manifold  possibilities  of  development  in  social 
life.  As  well  say  that  a  man's  hands  and  feet  have  no  use,  as 
to  say  that  his  sentiments  and  affections  and  virtues  are  use- 
less. Your  memorial  marches  and  songs  and  flower  chaplets 
are  teaching  the  people  lessons  of  love  and  reverence  for  the 
martyrs,  and  of  devotion  to  the  nation  which  they  died  to  save. 

The  web  of  the  stars  and  stripes  is  but  a  creature  of  the 
shuttle,  and  the  old  bell  in  the  tower  of  Independence  Hall 
only  broke  the  atmosphere  into  certain  vibrations,  but  the  col- 

68 


ors  of  the  one  will  last  as  long  as  the  hues  of  nature,  and  the 
music  of  the  other  is  as  undying  as  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

And  it  is  here,  noble  veterans,  survivors  of  this  brave  band 
of  heroes,  that  you  have  strange  power  above  the  power  of 
other  men.  It  is  the  consummate  power  of  tragedy.  From 
these  graves  which  you  are  honoring,  and  from  your  own 
graves  which  will  be  honored  to-morrow,  voices  are  speaking 
and  will  speak,  which  must  find  a  hearing ;  for  the  struggles 
and  sufferings  of  man  are  universal  in  their  sway,  and  so,  as 
tragedy  is  the  ultimate  of  struggle  and  suffering,  its  power  over 
human  hearts  is  universal  and  measureless.  The  leaves  which 
are  stained  with  blood  are  the  text-books  of  human  life. 

Veterans,  to-day  we  bow  before  you  in  gratitude  ;  with  you 
we  bend  before  these  graves  in  reverence  and  love.  Yonder 
sleeps  one  whose  burial  wrote  a  long  page  of  life  to  many  of 
us.  We  had  witnessed  military  funerals  before,  but  his  was 
the  first  burial  of  real  war, —  a  noble  soldier,  slain  by  the  red 
hand  of  treason  and  the  first-fruits  of  the  patriot  martyrs,  to  be 
laid  to  sleep  in  these  sacred  fields.  He  fell  on  the  deck  of  the 
Freeborn  in  the  last  of  June,  1861.  A  few  days  before  the  coun- 
try was  in  tears  by  the  dead  body  of  the  young  and  heroic  The- 
odore Winthrop.  He  was  carried  to  the  New  Haven  cemetery 
on  the  same  howitzer  on  which  he  leaned  a  few  weeks  before  on 
his  way  to  the  front,  and  followed  by  soldiers  and  friends,  and  by 
the  students  of  the  old  Yale  which  he  had  loved  and  honored. 
It  was  the  3d  day  of  July  when  yonder  sod  was  broken  to  re- 
ceive the  body  of  Captain  Ward.  It  had  lain  in  state  in  the  old 
capitol,  and  thence  was  brought  to  this  sacred  resting-place. 
How  the  hearts  of  this  community  were  thrilled  and  their  eyes 
glistened  as  that  body,  wounded  to  death  for  our  country,  was 
borne  through  the  streets  wrapped  in  red,  white,  and  blue. 
The  minute-guns,  the  tolling  bells,  the  muffled  drums,  the  re- 
versed arms,  the  orchestral  dead  march,  the  body-guard  of  ma- 
rines, the  long  battalions  of  soldiers  in  escort,  some  of  them  our 
home  companies  and  some  of  them  volunteers  waiting  for  the 
field,  the  burst  of  sympathy,  the  resolve  of  patriotism  and  holy 
vengeance  girding  all,  like  a  uniform,  the  halo-crown  of  mar- 
tyrdom hovering,  as  a  presence  almost  visible,  above  the  dead, 
made  a  scene  altogether  strange,  and  lifted  the  curtain  upon 

69 


the  realities  of  war,  the  wickedness  of  rebellion,  and  the  beauty 
of  sacrifice.  How  little  did  we  then  know  that  a  half  million 
more  of  noble  lives  must  be  given  to  establish  peace  upon  right- 
eousness !  Not  all  that  precious  dust  was  to  be  gathered,  like 
his,  to  its  final  rest  in  the  outburst  of  sympathy  from  loving 
friends,  but  whether  at  home  or  on  the  bloody  field,  in  the 
shadow  of  night  and  by  the  wearied  hands  of  comrades,  or  under 
the  waters  of  the  deep,  the  bodies  of  those  martyrs  shall  sleep 
forever  in  the  benedictions  of  patriotism  and  in  the  guardian- 
ship of  angels. 

Your  wreaths  of  flowers,  like  the  sacred  dust  they  honor, 
will  be  lost  in  the  atoms  of  nature,  but  the  light  from  these 
graves  will  shine  as  long  as  the  stars  shall  burn  in  the  belt  of 
Orion. 

From  a  Speech  delivered  at  a  New  York  Yale  Alumni 
Banquet : 

When  we  drop  our  knives  and  forks  we  turn  from  things 
material  to  things  invisible.  And  after  all,  in  spite  of  the  ma- 
terialist, the  invisibles  are  our  largest  realities.  First  in  order 
we  drink  to  Alma  Mater,  but  our  eyes  may  not  find  her  shelter- 
ing arms,  and  her  fostering  bosom  we  cannot  touch.  And  then 
we  drink  again  to  this  sentiment  to  which  you  have  asked  me 
to  respond,  the  Yale  Spirit.  Where  is  the  camera  which  shall 
shadow  a  likeness  of  the  Yale  Spirit,  and  where  is  the  brush 
and  what  are  the  pigments  which  shall  paint  its  portrait  ? 
How  and  where  shall  we  find  it  ?  We  may  go  to  the  old  fence 
and  whittle  its  fibers,  and  we  are  taught  again  the  old  lesson 
that  no  golden  eggs  are  discovered  by  dissecting  the  goose. 
We  go  to  Chapel,  sit  'neath  the  elms,  walk  around  the  relics  of 
the  old  Brick  Row,  but  neither  mensuration,  nor  chemistry,  nor 
optics  will  reward  our  search.  We  watch  the  blue  blades  of  the 
crew,  as  they  dip  into  the  waves  and  rise  to  the  sunlight  with  the 
accuracy  of  the  pendulum  and  the  power  of  the  driving-wheel  ; 
we  look  at  the  blue  stockings  and  blue  "  Y  "s  on  the  breasts  of 
the  boys,  as  the  team  trots  down  the  field  ;  we  see  the  flutter 
of  a  thousand  blue  flags,  and  hear  the  rifle  crack  of  a  thousand 
'rahs,  and  the  sonorous  choruses  of  Brek-ke-ke-kex  Ko-ax-ko-ax 
and  the  oceanic  roar  of  ten  thousand  Ya-a-les,  as  the  ball  sails 
through  the  goal  post  winging  its  flight  to  victory  ;  but  all  these 
things  material  and  sensational  report  to  us  that  until  we  have 

70 


added  the  invisible  sentiments  to  the  sensations  we  cannot  find 
the  Yale  Spirit.  Electricity  is  not  locked  in  the  dynamo  —  the 
dynamo  only  sets  free  the  subtle  and  invisible  power.  The 
spirit  of  '76  is  not  in  the  Bunker  Hill  monument,  nor  in  the 
bronze  statues  of  Washington  and  Putnam,  but  in  the  patriot- 
ism and  self-sacrifice  of  the  men  who  fought  by  the  rail  fence 
with  Putnam,  or  crossed  the  Delaware,  bled  and  starved  at 
Valley  Forge,  and  triumphed  at  Yorktown  with  Washington. 

Where  and  what  then  is  the  Yale  Spirit  ?  Pick  up  the  seal 
of  dear  old  Alma  Mater  and  read  its  legend,  Lux  et  Veritas.  In 
the  invisible  sentiments  which  these  words  enshrine,  the  Yale 
Spirit  has  its  inmost  home. 

Light  !  At  daybreak  the  Yale  Spirit  waits  for  high  noon, 
and  at  sunset  it  looks  for  another  sunburst  "  with  new  spangled 
ore"  to  "flame  in  the  forehead  of"  another  "  morning  sky," 
and  in  hours  of  midnight  darkness  it  cries  to  the  watchman, 
"  Watchman,  what  of  the  night,"  and  listens  in  undoubting 
faith  for  the  reply,  "  The  morning  cometh." 

Truth  !  The  Yale  Spirit  waits  by  the  everlasting  rocks  of 
Truth,  upon  which  billows  of  lies  and  bigotry  and  selfishness 
and  despotisms  and  wars  and  anarchies  and  chaos  break  in 
froth  and  foam.  It  hears  truth  —  harmonies  in  law  —  the  laws 
of  science  and  religion  and  progress  and  civilization.  And  to 
the  final  judgments  of  truth  uttered  after  full  and  fair  trial,  it 
yields  obedience  —  no  matter  at  what  cost  of  prejudice  and 
bias,  no  matter  what  record  of  semi-sacred  traditions  and  phi- 
losophies are  tumbled  into  the  waste  basket. 

But  the  Yale  Spirit  is  not  complete  in  the  motto  of  the  seal. 
To  the  foundation  words,  Lux  et  Veritas,  it  adds  " et  fortitudo" 
which  translated  for  the  benefit  of  the  fading  memories  and 
incomplete  scholarships  of  the  alumni  brethren  means  "sand." 
This  is  the  quality  which  wins  debates  after  many  a  defeat, — 
a  quality  in  this  regard  incarnated  in  many  an  undergraduate, 
and  conspicuously  in  that  accomplished  professor,  scholar,  and 
loyal  son  of  Yale,  Arthur  T.  Hadley.  This  is  the  quality  which 
carries  the  batsman  to  the  winning  run  when  two  men  are 
out  and  when  two  strikes  are  called  in  the  ninth  inning  ;  it 
scatters  flying  wedges  and  guards  back  formations  on  the  grid- 
iron, and  it  has  carried  the  blue  to  the  front  in  so  many  a 
fight,  moral,  intellectual,  and  physical,  and  so  many  times  in 
face  of  so  many  odds. 

71 


We  have  now  added  fortitudo  to  our  Lux  et  Veritas.  We 
must  add  one  more  word,  "  lux  et  Veritas  et  fortitudo  et  fraterni- 
tas."  This  last  is  after  all  the  supreme  characteristic  of  Yale. 
On  the  campus  brother  meets  brother  and  man  meets  man. 
As  the  sum  of  ethics  is  found  in  that  combination  of  love  and 
justice,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  so  Yale  is  stronger  than  the 
strongest  in  her  recognition  of  worth  and  nobility  in  her  men, 
without  criticism  of  their  antecedents  of  lineage  or  wealth,  and 
in  her  sons  standing  together  as  brothers  in  peace  and  as  a 
phalanx  in  strife. 

Among  the  latest  absurdities  of  our  rage  for  societies  whose 
membership  relates  only  to  the  past,  I  observed  a  society  whose 
membership  is  limited  to  Americans  who  may  rightfully  claim 
for  some  buried  ancestor  a  coat  of  arms.  Fraternity  needs 
stronger  cords  than  that.  When  a  maniac  upon  that  subject 
once  asked  the  late  President  Pierce  what  was  his  coat  of  arms, 
the  President  replied,  "  My  father's  shirt  sleeves  at  Bunker 
Hill." 

Last  fall  a  football  trophy  was  in  peril  and  it  almost  seemed 
a  certainty  that  the  tradition  that  Yale  is  never  beaten  twice 
by  the  same  team  would  be  broken.  This  Yale  spirit  of  broth- 
erhood, which  we  find  added  in  the  quartet  to  light,  and  truth, 
and  sand,  seized  the  bugle  and  rang  an  alarm  like  Robin 
Hood's  through  Sherwood  Forest.  And  from  the  East  and  the 
West  and  the  North  and  the  South  the  heroes  of  many  victories, 
football  experts  beyond  compare,  came  in  troops  to  the  athletic 
field  to  save  the  blue  flag,  and  to  keep  the  old  motto  from  breach. 
I  should  like  to  name  this  loyal  legion  from  Walter  Camp, 
facile  princeps  !  to  Captain  Butterworth,  honor  to  him  !  Yale 
enthusiasts  all,  coming  to  help  as  plucky  a  captain  and 
plucky  a  team  as  ever  honored  Yale  at  football,  but  Brother 
Twichell  will  do  that  thing  better  than  I  can.  But  that 
spirit  of  Yale  brotherhood  was  invincible,  and  another  victory 
over  brave  and  stalwart  Princeton  was  added  to  the  long 
catalogue. 

It  is  this  element  of  Yale  Spirit  which  has  led  so  many  of 
our  loved  professors,  Brush  and  Sumner,  and  Lounsbury,  and 
Brewer,  and  Gibbs,  and  Chittenden,  and  others,  to  reject  many 
an  offer  of  a  higher  salary  and  a  more  pretentious  title.  Like 
Moses  of  old,  in  the  language  of  one  of  my  old  deacons  who 
had  a  way  of  mixing  scriptural  phrases,  "  preferring  rather  to 

72 


suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God  than  to  be  called  the 
son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter."  It  was  this  sense  of  loyal  broth- 
erhood which  led  that  remarkable  specimen  of  mathematics, 
angles,  and  learning,  our  old  friend  Prof.  Loomis,  to  give  so 
much  of  his  private  fortune  to  the  University.  Recently  it 
has  led  that  professor,  easily  first  of  all  Americans,  perhaps 
of  all  living  men,  in  his  special  science,  Professor  Marsh,  to 
give  his  valuable  private  archaeological  collection  to  Peabody 
museum. 

This  then,  in  brief,  for  we  have  many  voices  to  hear,  is  the 
Yale  Spirit  —  light  and  truth  and  courage  and  brotherhood. 
And  why  do  we  rejoice  in  it  ?  Not  alone  nor  chiefly  because  it 
makes  a  fine  ideal,  but  because  it  adds  to  the  best  resources  of 
individual  manhood.  It  makes  us  as  lawyers  better,  as  clergy- 
men better,  as  journalists  better,  as  merchants,  farmers,  rail- 
road men,  all  better  and  stronger  and  braver  and  purer.  And 
more,  it  makes  us  better  Americans.  And  what  a  privilege, 
what  a  duty  to  be  a  true  American  !  What  legacies  of  honor 
and  bravery  and  patriotism  !  What  traditions  of  freedom  and 
independence  and  minding  our  own  business  is  his  heritage  ! 
While  yielding  to  no  one  in  admiration  of  the  English  com- 
mon law  and  English  literature,  I  pity  the  man  with  an  Amer- 
ican birthright  who  is  a  modern  anglomaniac  paying  his  devo- 
tions to  the  weaknesses  of  the  English  aristocracy,  waving 
palm  branches  and  weaving  halo  crowns  for  Charles  I.  as  a 
martyr,  sending  messages  of  congratulation  to  that  highly  re- 
spectable woman  who  by  the  accident  of  birth  is  queen  of 
England  upon  New  York's  relations  to  her  ancestor,  George 
III.    You  remember  the  lines  written  or  quoted  by  Thackeray  : 

George  the  ist  was  very  vile, 
George  the  2d  viler, 
And  no  mortal  ever  heard 
Any  good  of  George  the  3d. 
When  the  4th  to  hell  descended, 
Praise  to  God  the  Georges  ended. 

It  is  often  and  truly  said  that  the  life  of  the  scholar  is  an- 
tagonistic to  the  life  of  the  soldier.  But  the  scholar  has  no 
antagonism  to  the  patriot,  and  when  patriotism  calls  to  arms, 
the  scholar's  ear  is  quick  to  catch  the  sound.  In  1774  Yale's 
President  Stiles  said  :  "  We  are  to  have  another  Runnymede  in 

10  73 


America,"  and  in  1775  he  was  busy  in  camp.  In  1779  old  ex- 
President  Naphtali  Daggett,  with  his  fowling  piece  blazing  at 
British  regulars,  made  one  of  the  most  striking  pictures  of  the 
Revolution,  and  a  greater  man  than  either  of  these  presidents, 
a  tutor  at  College,  and  a  brigade  chaplain  in  the  Army,  edu- 
cated the  youth  of  Yale,  and  everybody  else  in  the  reach  of  his 
influence,  in  the  burning  lessons  of  American  independence, 
Timothy  D wight,  grandfather  of  our  own  loved  Timothy. 
Don't  forget  that  from  her  small  number  of  alumni,  less  than 
one  thousand  in  all,  Yale  sent  234  officers  and  soldiers  to  active 
service  in  the  Revolution.  What  seat  of  learning  can  tell  a 
better  story  of  devotion  ?  And  when  our  country  again  called 
to  arms  in  1861,  Yale  sent  758  of  her  alumni  to  defend  the 
Union.  And  what  a  catalogue  of  heroes  these  earlier  and  later 
wars  made  for  Yale  !  We  may  not  name  them  —  let  us  rather 
remember  the  "  glorious  milky  way  of  their  multitude."  But, 
as  to  young  Lycidas,  dead  ere  his  prime,  let  us  drop  one  leaf, 
be  it  Judge  Finch's  "  fame  leaf  or  angel  leaf,"  to  that  incarna- 
tion of  the  Yale  Sprit,  Nathan  Hale. 

May  the  breath  of  the  old  Simon  Pure  triple  X  Yale  Spirit 
never  forsake  the  Campus,  nor  the  bosoms  of  the  alumni,  nor 
the  activities  of  the  nation  !  May  it  long  live  in  its  purity  and 
power  to  make  good  students  in  the  republic  of  letters,  good 
citizens  of  the  republic  of  Old  Glory,  and  good  men  in  the 
brotherhood  of  humanity  ! 

An  Address  at  a  New  York  city  Banquet  of  the  Sons  of 
the  American  Revolution,  in  1 892  :  — 

The  distinguished  president  of  the  New  York  society,  who 
fails  to  fulfill  his  destiny  unless  he  secures  seven  oratorical  tri- 
umphs a  week,  in  his  characteristic  opening  address  told  us  we 
had  no  politics  and  all  kinds  of  politics  here.  His  words  and 
this  company  of  eminent  statesmen  upon  my  left  suggest  to 
me  possibilities.  Perhaps  the  Sons  may  be  called  to  larger 
political  duties  in  the  coming  nominating  conventions  than  we 
suspect. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  our  friends  at  Chicago  may  fall  into 
confusion  and  anxieties  for  a  fresh  candidate.  What  more 
seemly  thing  could  they  do  than  to  come  to  the  Sons  and  drop 
their  honors  on  the  head  of  him  who  sits  by  my  side  ?   Our  pres- 

74 


ident  says  that  he  is  always  young.     Let  him  be  the  young 
men's  candidate  of  the  Sons  ! 

The  heart,  the  heart  is  the  heritage 
That  keeps  the  old  man  young. 

(Turning  to  Mr.  Dana  and  bowing.) 

And  if  our  other  friends  at  Minneapolis  become  confused 
and  anxious  for  a  new  candidate  (it  is  understood  that  New 
York  State  has  none  as  yet),  what  better  could  they  do  than  to 
come  for  one  whose  thorough  agricultural  experience  at  Peeks- 
kill  will  insure  him  the  support  of  the  Alliance,  and  whose  nine- 
teenth-century railroad  experience  will  gain  him  the  votes  of 
the  rest  of  the  country,  and  whose  brain  is  large  enough  to  fill 
out  any  grandfather's  hat  in  the  National  Museum,  and  who  sits 
to-night  at  the  head  of  our  table. 

Let  me  congratulate  the  society  upon  to-day's  work  of  the 
convention  in  its  important  step  toward  a  union  with  our  sister 
organization.  This  separation  should  not  be  continued.  Two 
associations  with  kindred  inspirations,  banners,  and  legends, 
but  living  in  different  tents,  are  yet  separated  by  the  narrowest 
kind  of  a  stream,  and  one  so  easily  bridged.  God  send  that  the 
bridge  be  built  at  once  ! 

You  have  introduced  me  as  hailing  from  Connecticut ;  it  is 
the  best  place  to  hail  from.  We  point  to  our  roll  and  its  650 
members  with  honest  pride,  but  with  larger  pride  for  the  rea- 
son of  it.  The  Connecticut  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
are  many  because  the  Connecticut  fathers  in  the  Revolution 
were  many. 

Connecticut's  territory  was  seldom  the  scene  of  battle.  Her 
zeal  was  more  than  the  zeal  of  self-defense  and  the  protection 
of  farm  and  home.  There  was  no  border-line  between  Connect- 
icut  and  Bunker  Hill,  and  Connecticut  and  Trenton.  Enjoying 
as  we  do  to-night  the  princely  hospitality  of  the  New  York 
Sons,  the  close  ties  that  bound  Connecticut  to  New  York  in  the 
Revolution  rise  to  our  thoughts.  There  is  Fort  Washington, 
and  we  recall  the  heroic  defense  of  it  by  the  colonists  from 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  and  Connecticut  against  the  over- 
whelming assault  of  British  grenadiers,  infantry,  and  Hes- 
sian hirelings,  and  we  see  watching  the  conflict,  and  with  un- 
checked tears  in  their  eyes  as  they  saw  the  bloody  bayonets 
driven  into  the  hearts  of  the  garrison,  side  by  side,  George 

75 


Washington  and  Israel  Putnam,  and  with  them  Gen.  Greene 
and  Col.  Knox. 

There  was  Bowling  Green  with  its  gilded  leaden  statue  of 
George  the  Third,  torn  down  and  sent  to  the  hills  of  Litchfield, 
where  the  brave  women  of  Connecticut  melted  it  into  bullets 
and  loaded  them  into  40,000  cartridges  to  replenish  our  slender 
stores  of  ammunition. 

I  think  of  yonder  Long  Island, —  Long  Island  which  you 
stole  from  us,  as  well  as  several  other  Islands,  not  to  mention 
the  east  banks  of  the  Hudson,  including  Peekskill  and  all  the 
then  unguessed  greatness  which  has  since  come  out  of  it.  Long 
Island  —  to  it  we  sent  our  most  charming  sacrifice  —  bright 
with  the  light  of  youth  and  hope,  purest  of  soul,  and  noblest  of 
purpose,  willing  to  die  as  a  spy  for  a  cause  which  held  his 
heart.  And  if  we  gave  Nathan  Hale  to  Long  Island,  Long 
Island  gave  to  Connecticut  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  the  most 
effective  of  the  Revolutionary  dragoons,  the  pet  of  Washing- 
ton ;  and  the  tie  which  then  bound  Connecticut  and  New  York 
in  that  noble  colonel  has  bound  us  together  ever  since  in  his 
worthy  descendants. 

In  the  winter  of  '76  Washington  sent  for  cavalry  to  Colonel 
Sheldon's  regiment  at  Wethersfield.  To  Colonel  (then  captain) 
Tallmadge  was  committed  the  charge  of  four  companies.  They 
crossed  Connecticut  and  the  Hudson  and  down  to  the  headquar- 
ters at  Morristown.  The  horses  of  Captain  Tallmadge's  own 
company  were  dapple-gray  and  accoutred  in  black  leather. 
They  reached  Litchfield  on  Saturday  and  spent  the  Lord's  day 
there.  Connecticut  people  went  to  church  on  Sunday  then,  and 
they  do  now,  although  it  looks  as  if  those  of  us  who  are  with 
you  to-night  would  have  to  worship  in  New  York  this  time. 

It  was  a  striking  scene  in  the  old  church  upon  the  Green. 
Cornwallis's  fleet  was  almost  at  our  shores,  and  rumor  had  an- 
nounced it  and  added  to  its  size.  In  the  old  pews  were  the  vil- 
lagers and  the  patriotic  troops  ;  in  the  pulpit  was  the  Rev. 
Judah  Champion. 

To  refresh  your  memories  of  the  inspirations  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary church  militant  in  New  England,  and  to  remind  you  of 
the  oratorical  powers  of  the  Reverend  father,  let  me  read  you 
his  prayer  at  morning  service  : 

O  Lord,  we  view  with  terror  the  approach  of  the  enemies  of  Thy  holy 
religion.     Wilt  Thou  send  storm  and  tempest  to  toss  them  upon  the  sea  and 

76 


to  overwhelm  them  upon  the  mighty  deep,  or  to  scatter  them  to  the  utter 
most  parts  of  the  earth.  But,  peradventure,  should  any  escape  Thy  ven- 
geance, collect  them  together  again,  O  Lord,  as  in  the  hollow  of  Thy  hand, 
and  let  Thy  lightnings  play  upon  them.  We  beseech  Thee,  moreover,  that 
Thou  do  gird  up  the  loins  of  these  Thy  servants  who  are  going  forth  to  fight 
Thy  battles.  Make  them  strong  men,  that  "one  shall  chase  a  thousand, 
and  two  shall  put  ten  thousand  to  flight."  Hold  before  them  the  shield  with 
which  Thou  wast  wont  in  the  old  time  to  protect  Thy  chosen  people.  Give 
them  swift  feet  that  they  may  pursue  their  enemies,  and  swords  terrible  as 
that  of  Thy  Destroying  Angel,  that  they  may  cleave  them  down  when  they 
have  overtaken  them.  Preserve  these  servants  of  Thine,  Almighty  God,  and 
bring  them  once  more  to  their  homes  and  friends,  if  Thou  canst  do  it  con- 
sistently with  Thine  high  purposes.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  Thou  hast  de- 
creed that  they  shall  die  in  battle,  let  Thy  spirit  be  present  with  them  and 
breathe  upon  them,  that  they  may  go  up  as  a  sweet  sacrifice  into  the  courts 
of  Thy  temple,  where  are  habitations  prepared  for  them  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world. 

And  now  a  word  or  two  of  the  duties  of  our  society. 

We  have  learned  by  the  hardest  of  lessons  that  we  are  a 
nation  with  a  nationality,  an  indestructible  nation  beyond  the 
assault  of  secession  and  division  —  that  the  Declaration  was  by 
the  people,  and  that  the  Constitution  was  by  the  people.  This 
elemental  truth  on  which  our  life  depends  must  never  again  be 
questioned. 

When  it  is  yielded,  it  will  be  time  to  go  again  to  Riverside, 
where  the  cornerstone  of  our  great  soldier's  tomb  was  laid  a 
few  hours  ago  with  the  earnest  words  of  the  president  of  our 
national  society,  and  the  memorial  eloquence  of  our  chairman 
of  this  evening,  and  to  pull  down  the  pile  and  to  scatter  ashes 
over  the  sacred  acres.  It  will  be  time  to  tear  the  name  of  Lin- 
coln from  our  histories. 

But  there  is  another  truth  which  we  must  never  forget  and 
which  our  society  may  well  memorialize. 

If  the  Declaration  was  made  by  the  people,  it  was  made  by 
the  colonies  struggling  to  Statehood.  If  the  Constitution  is  an 
organic  law  by  the  people,  it  is  also  a  treaty  between  newly- 
born  sovereignties.  If  we  are  a  Nation,  we  are  also  a  Union. 
Ours  is  the  Nation  of  the  United  States.  Our  early  legend  was 
"  E  Pluribus  Unum"  When  the  fathers  lighted  up  the  sky  for 
their  descendants  and  for  humanity,  it  was  not  by  a  single  sun, 
it  was  by  a  constellation,  whose  song  was  as  joyful  as  the  song 
of  the  morning  stars  at  the  birth  of  creation. 

And  the  best  future  of  the  republic  calls  upon  us  to  keep 

77 


alive  the  flavors  and  traditions  of  the  several  communities.  It 
would  be  dull  indeed  if  we  were  fused  into  a  uniform  manhood 
like  that  bastard  of  art  —  a  composite  photograph. 

Geography  forbids  it ;  nature  forbids  it.  The  hills,  the  prai- 
ries, the  seas,  the  lakes,  the  rivers,  the  mountain  laurels,  the 
golden-rod,  the  arbutus,  the  violets,  the  daisies,  the  roses,  the 
fruits,  the  trees,  the  climates,  all  tell  us  that  our  enormous  power 
is  in  our  diversity  in  unity.  Keep  up  the  local  histories.  Tell 
and  tell  again  the  old  tales  of  the  East  and  the  West  and  the 
North  and  the  South,  and  let  the  local  treasures  of  character 
and  industry  and  wisdom  and  love  come  in  to  carry  us  on  far- 
ther in  growth  and  development. 

Another  thought  for  the  society.  Pardon  me  for  saying  it 
is  not  unimportant. 

Our  duties  to  the  fathers,  of  filial  reverence  and  affection, 
are  sacred.  Our  sonship  is  also  a  precious  gift.  But  if  our  son- 
ship  stands  only  in  the  written  disclosures  of  a  genealogical 
tree,  it  is  but  a  mockery. 

The  pedigree  of  honey  does  not  concern  the  bee, 
A  clover  any  time  to  him  is  aristocracy. 

For  us  the  question  is  one  of  honey  and  not  of  stalk. 

My  reverend  and  honored  friend  upon  my  right,  a  bishop  of 
the  Church,  I  am  sure  will  assent  to  my  proposition  that  the 
best  Apostolical  succession  is  the  one  which  succeeds  to  the 
qualities  of  the  Apostles. 

If  we  would  be  worthy  sons  of  the  fathers,  let  us  not  rest 
our  credentials  upon  entries  in  the  family  Bibles.  Let  us  in- 
herit their  virtues  —  their  faith,  no  night  was  too  dark  for  them 
to  see  the  stars  ;  their  hope,  no  night  was  too  long  for  them  to 
wait  for  the  coming,  from  below  the  horizon,  of  the  sun  ;  their 
courage,  which  no  snows  of  New  England  or  floating  ice  in  the 
Delaware  could  chill,  which  hunger  and  thirst  and  nakedness 
could  not  cast  down  ;  their  patriotism,  which  tolerated  no  per- 
sonal ambitions  nor  selfishness,  but  which  suffered  and  strug- 
gled on  and  on,  by  day  and  night,  in  winter  and  summer,  to 
build  a  republic,  whose  banner  —  may  it  float  forever  !  —  shines 
with  the  stars  of  "  old  glory." 


78 


An  Essay  on  Christian  Missions,  read  at  the  Monday 
Evening  Club  in  Hartford: 

The  question  suggested  for  our  discussion  to-night  is  girt 
with  difficulties  on  every  hand,  and  the  little  stock  of  wisdom 
which  the  essayist  has  been  able  to  bring  to  its  consideration 
has  only  made  it  clear  to  his  mind  that  in  this  matter  we  are 
walking  as  yet  only  in  twilight ;  but  it  is  the  twilight  of  a  ris- 
ing and  not  a  setting  sun. 

This  essay,  which  is  intended  as  a  suggestion  to  bring  out 
the  wisdom  of  the  club,  moves  from  the  standpoint  of  enthusi- 
astic adherence  to  a  pure  Christianity  as  declared  and  inaugu- 
rated by  its  founder,  whose  Lordship  and  mastery  it  unquali- 
fiedly admits.  This  Christianity  is  assumed  to  be  the  complete 
system  of  religious  life  and  truth  open  to  man.  While  on  the 
one  hand  the  claims  of  many  of  its  adherents  that  all  other  re- 
ligions excepting  the  Hebrew  religion  are  false  and  abomina- 
ble, are  not  supported  by  the  words  or  life  or  principles  of  the 
Master,  who  claims  for  himself  a  fulfilling  and  not  a  destructive 
mission,  on  the  other  hand,  the  suggestion  now  not  infre- 
quently made  that  Christianity  is  to  be  succeeded  by  something 
better  in  future  larger  development  of  the  race,  is  rejected. 

It  is  true  that  historic  Christianity  is  constantly  changing, 
swinging  now  nearer  to  and  now  farther  from  its  pure  original, 
as  it  conforms  more  or  less  to  the  composite  elements  which 
have  come  into  the  chemistries  of  its  constitution,  or  obeys 
more  or  less  the  extrinsic  forces  which  have  rushed  in,  like  a 
flood,  upon  it.  And  doubtless  it  is  true  that  the  Christianity  of 
the  future  must  and  will  come  back  more  and  more  to  its  sim- 
ple sublime  original  thoughts  and  purposes  —  the  dross  of  all 
kinds  which  encompasses  the  pure  ore,  the  chaff  of  all  kinds, 
wood,  hay,  and  stubble  in  which  the  solid  grain  is  found,  must 
all  be  burned. 

There  are  a  thousand  things  which  are  and  have  been  of 
this  historic  Christianity,  many  of  which  have  already  dropped 
away  and  many  more  of  which  will  drop  away,  while  the  most 
fitting  of  them  will  survive.  Thus,  while  our  Lord  was  par- 
ticular to  avoid  all  ecclesiastical  establishments,  His  church 
has  taken  on,  as  it  must  have  done  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  all 
kinds  of  methods  and  incidents  of  ecclesiasticism,  as  Popes, 
and  Priests,  and  Prelates,  and  Princes,  and  Presbyteries,  and 

79 


Metropolitans,  and  Councils,  and  Synods,  and  Convocations. 
And  while  our  Lord  founded  no  school  of  philosophy,  His 
church  has  assumed  all  kinds  of  philosophy  —  Augustinianism, 
Calvinism,  Scholasticism,  Neo-Platonism,  Nominalism,  Real- 
ism, and  countless  other  "isms." 

Savageries,  too,  have  attached  to  the  church,  as  inquisitions, 
the  sword  of  the  crusader,  excommunications,  and  heresy  hunt- 
ing. Most  of  these  have  dropped  altogether  out  of  church  his- 
tory, and  the  rest  are  only  lingering  for  a  few  days  in  the  sere 
leaf. 

But  despite  all  the  occasional  tyrannies  and  violence  of  its 
ecclesiasticism,  the  occasional  subtleties  and  absurdities  of  its 
philosophy,  Christianity  has  gone  forward  to  elevate  and  civil- 
ize mankind,  and  there  has  been  no  period  so  dark  but  in  many 
hearts  there  burned  the  pure  fire  of  Christian  life,  and  in  many 
minds  there  reigned  in  purity  the  unutterably  great  truths  of 
Christianity. 

And  this  last  thought  is  our  first  point  in  discussing  the 
subject  of  Christian  Missions. 

Christianity  is  essentially  an  aggressive  and  pervasive  thing, 
and  that  universally.  It  is  tied  to  no  nation,  is  controlled  by 
no  climate,  is  bound  up  in  no  single  age  or  aeon,  is  chained  to 
no  dynasty  nor  family.  Its  field  is  the  human  heart,  its  family 
the  human  race,  its  scene,  time  and  eternity.  Its  Divine  mas- 
ter charged  his  friends  and  disciples  to  preach  the  gospel  — 
good  news  —  to  every  creature. 

From  his  own  lips  the  assurance  came  that  He  incarnated 
the  everlasting  love  of  God ;  that  he  came  to  save  men's  lives, 
not  to  destroy  them ;  that  he  was  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life ;  that  he  died  to  attract  a  world,  and  his  last  legacies  were 
peace  of  soul  and  the  promise  of  his  own  everlasting  presence. 

This  gospel  was  to  be  preached  to  every  creature.  He 
compared  its  nature  to  the  most  rapid  upspringing  and  growth 
of  vegetable  life,  from  the  tiniest  seed  to  the  measureless  fruit, 
from  the  dying  kernel  to  the  diffusive  leaven,  elevating  the 
material  of  the  single  human  heart  and  of  the  heart  of  society, 
and  making  them  healthful. 

He  fulfilled  the  righteousness  of  Judaism ;  He  took  gifts 
from  the  learned  men  of  the  Orient ;  He  talked  with  the  Greeks 
before  his  tragic  death ;  He  pictured  his  Kingdom  here  and 
hereafter  as  flooded  with  incomers  from  the  East  and  the  West 

80 


and  the  North  and  the  South.  His  picture  of  the  crisis  of  souls 
revealed  all  the  nations  parting  to  the  right  hand  and  to  the 
left  in  the  discriminations  of  character. 

The  Christian  system  has  prevailed  nearly  nineteen  centu- 
ries, but  the  world,  counting  by  heads,  is  still  pervaded  by  the 
leaven  of  his  Kingdom,  to  less  than  one-half  of  its  population. 

The  work  must  go  on,  and  it  falls  to  our  generation,  as  it 
has  to  its  predecessors,  to  carry  it  forward. 

And  we  ought  to  come  to  the  duty  with  no  less  devotion 
and  with  more  wisdom  and  power  than  did  the  fathers.  True, 
we  have  not  the  accident  of  the  great  Roman  Empire  reaching 
out  over  all  the  world  as  at  the  first ;  but  we  have  much  greater 
elements  of  power  in  our  modern  inventions  and  the  processes 
of  modern  civilization.  For  the  first  time  in  history  we  know 
who  and  what  the  so-called  heathen  are. 

Our  missions  have  largely  aimed  at  the  conversion  of  savage 
tribes.  We  are  discovering  in  worlds  only  yesterday  almost 
unknown  great  strength  of  civilization  and  intellectual  culture 
and  moral  goodness. 

And,  as  significant  of  the  immense  assistance  given  to  Chris- 
tianity by  our  modern  inventions,  remember  that  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years  in  which  the  English  have  introduced  rail- 
roads and  telegraphs  and  canals  and  education  into  India,  the 
pervasion  of  Christianity  has  been  greater  than  in  all  the  pre- 
vious history  of  missions  there. 

One  fact  which  has  hitherto  been  a  great  hindrance  to 
missions  is  likely,  by  and  by,  to  be  a  great  advantage.  I 
refer  to  the  differences  of  view  in  Christian  philosophy  and 
in  church  organizations,  as  marked  by  differing  sects  and 
religious  bodies,  and  which  have  heretofore  been  the  subject  of 
jealousy,  quarrel,  hate,  strife,  and  often  even  of  bloodshed. 
These  differences  are  to  become  a  source  of  missionary  strength. 
The  idea  of  Christian  Unity  is  taking  on  a  more  rational  form. 
It  is  getting  to  be  conceded  that  men  will  not  think  alike  until 
they  look  alike  —  the  analogy  of  differing  features  in  human 
faces  —  of  differing  trees  and  flowers  and  rocks  and  hills  and 
streams  and  clouds  in  nature  are  absolutely  significant  of  intel- 
lectual distinctions  which  will  never  fuse,  and  ought  never  to 
fuse,  into  a  monotony.  Unity  is  to  be  sought  in  a  common 
obedience  to  God,  a  common  discipleship  to  His  sublime  Rep- 
resentative, a  common  love  to  man.     The  common  meeting  of 

ii  81 


Christian  disciples  will  soon  be  at  the  Lord's  table,  and  not  at 
man's  table,  furnished  by  men,  with  tickets  of  invitation  issued 
by  men  only  to  other  men  who  have  certain  antecedent  outfits 
of  philosophical  opinion  or  ecclesiastical  degrees.  And  when 
Christian  unity  stands  in  Christian  character,  with  no  surrender 
of  individual  or  denominational  views,  except  as  they  interfere 
with  that  mutual  respect  for  and  charity  to  our  neighbors 
which  the  gospel  requires,  and  which  in  all  other  matters  but 
religion  the  present  tolerant  age  requires,  then  the  separation 
into  sects,  which  is  both  natural  and  wise,  will  give  the  really 
United  Christian  Church  a  power  of  extension  never  before 
known.  For  as  there  are  and  will  be  sectarian  differences  in 
Christendom  as  it  is,  they  must  also  exist  in  extended  Christen- 
dom as  it  will  be. 

These  well-known  facts  can  be  used  in  the  true  economy  of 
missions.  The  African  will  be  left  to  his  natural  preferences — 
to  the  fervors  of  Methodism  or  even  of  the  Salvation  Army,  to 
the  comprehensive  and  complete  ablutions  of  Anabaptism,  and 
to  the  gorgeous  tinsel  and  gorgeous  beauties  of  the  Roman 
Ritual.  The  Buddhists  and  Theosophists  will  naturally  come 
to  Christianity  through  the  most  highly  cultivated  and  thought- 
ful and  broad  communions. 

The  benighted  heathen,  in  many  places  where  Rome  and 
the  Greek  Church  and  the  Abyssinian  and  Coptic  Churches 
have  nominal  power,  would  be  best  set  right  by  the  beautiful 
decencies,  and  by  the  respect  for  historic  office  and  authority 
of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Communions,  and  doubtless  that 
austere  and  chilling  philosophy,  which  has  done  so  much  for 
civilization  from  the  time  of  Augustine  to  Calvin,  and  from 
Calvin  to  the  present  century,  but  which  now  seems  to  be 
everywhere  yielding  in  Christendom  to  more  reasonable  and 
wholesome  views  of  God  and  man,  will  still  have  a  part  to  play 
in  lands  whose  culture  and  development  is  behind  that  of  the 
United  States  and  England  and  Germany. 

Intellectual  and  temperamental  distinctions  will  be  recog- 
nized and  the  form  of  Christianity  which  best  fits  the  place  and 
the  man  will  be  not  only  given  the  field,  but  assisted  in  the 
field  by  other  Christians.  This  is  already  conceded  in  litera- 
ture and  education  of  the  mind,  and  why  not  in  religious  edu- 
cation ? 

This  mutual  respect  involves   no   surrender  of  individual 

82 


belief,  partiality,  or  love.  I  may  fancy  the  social  life  and 
ways  of  my  own  household,  but  I  may  not  treat  with  disrespect 
the  conscientious  views  of  my  neighbor  who  sits  up  an  hour 
later  at  night,  dines  at  noon,  and  wears  full  dress  at  family 
table. 

Society  is  broad  enough  for  great  differences  in  the  pres- 
ence of  underlying  principles  of  courtesy  and  refinement. 

And  the  immense  advantage  of  sectarian  differences,  in 
presence  of  individual  charity  and  respect,  must  be  apparent 
to  any  student  of  history.  The  Roman  Catholic  Missions, 
which  at  times  have  been  distinguished  by  great  success,  have 
usually  treated  Protestant  churches  as  heretical,  and  the  paths 
of  heresy  and  heathenism  as  only  two  highways  to  a  common 
hell. 

Much  has  been  already  accomplished.  I  know  that  it  is 
easy  to  show  that  in  some  quarters,  particularly  in  savage 
lands,  the  relapses  of  so-called  converts  have  been  very 
marked.  Usually  these  men  have  been  induced  to  submit  to 
baptism  as  an  escape  from  a  flaming  hell,  or  to  assent  to  some 
statements  of  which  their  ideas  were  as  clear  as  the  clouds  of 
chaos  (if  there  were  clouds  in  chaos),  and  their  relapse,  if  made, 
has  not  been  very  large  ;  but  without  counting  so-called  con- 
verts, the  influence  of  our  missions  has  been  grand  and  good. 
And  that  at  least  in  these  two  regards  :  first,  by  giving  to  other 
nations  our  Scriptures  ;  and  second,  by  giving  them  our  edu- 
cational methods.  Whatever  one  may  think  about  the  unity  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  dishonor  which  superstition  has  often 
placed  and  does  now  often  place  upon  our  sacred  literature  by 
idolizing  it,  it  is  submitted  without  fear  of  dispute  by  fair  men, 
that  it  is  better  and  truer  and  more  highly  inspired,  and  when 
we  include  in  it,  as  we  may  and  must,  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
incomparably  better  and  truer  than  any  other  literature  that  is 
or  has  been. 

And  it  is  quite  possible  that  portions  of  the  old  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  which  have  been  more  or  less  of  a  hindrance  and 
stumbling  block  to  pure  Christian  souls,  by  reason  of  bad  edu- 
cation as  to  what  they  were  and  wherein  they  were  profitable, 
may  be  even  an  element  of  great  power  in  Christianizing  some 
of  the  old  nations. 

Doubtless  Old  Testament  history  helped  Mahomet,  as  doubt- 
less the  apostolic  misapprehension  of  our  Lord's  second  advent 

83 


and  of  the  end  of  the  world  helped  the  early  church  to  great 
success. 

The  oriental  mind  has  no  apprehension  of  the  value  of  time, 
of  individual  rights,  or  of  the  beautiful  mission  of  woman  — 
absolutely  elemental  things  in  Christianity. 

Given  now  our  methods  of  education,  our  advances  in  the 
sciences,  our  railroads  and  steamboats  and  telegraphs  and  in- 
credibly ingenious  machinery  telling  the  story  of  the  value  of 
time  and  the  worth  of  industry,  and  our  democratic  ideas  of 
the  rights  of  the  individual  under  constitutional  law,  and  the 
dignity  which  we  give  to  woman,  Christianity  has  got  a  civili- 
zation to  carry  it  along,  her  own  civilization  too,  so  certain  to 
supersede  the  inferior  civilizations  of  the  East,  that  it  must 
ultimately  leaven  the  whole  lump  of  humanity.  And  while,  if 
we  look  only  at  the  square  miles  where  Christianity  is  the  dom- 
inant religion,  and  count  only  the  number  of  faces  which  are  up- 
lifted to  the  highest  ideal  of  God,  we  must  admit  that  the  harvest 
seems  to  be  afar  off,  yet,  if  we  look  beneath  the  surface  to  the 
civilization  which  has  been  already  wrought  in  these  peoples 
by  our  education  and  by  the  inspirations  of  our  Scriptures,  we 
shall  see  that  in  spite  of  untoward  agencies  made  by  the  greed 
of  Christian  folks,  as  by  the  opium  trade  and  rum  trade,  and 
by  bodily  lust,  India,  and  Japan,  and  China  are  becoming  per- 
vaded with  the  Kingdom  whose  real  coming  is  not  with  obser- 
vation, as  of  processions  and  drums  and  banners  and  cannon. 

It  is  a  fair  question  whether  certain  things  in  Scripture 
which  have  been  interpreted  to  mean  that  Christianity  must 
first  triumph  in  the  hearts  of  the  unlettered  have  not  been 
pressed  too  far.  Passages  like  "  The  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing," "  Not  many  wise,  not  many  mighty,"  "  Out  of  the  mouths 
of  babes,"  etc.,  have  been  often  quoted  as  somehow  forbidding 
us  to  hope  for  progress  in  the  schools  of  other  philosophies 
than  ours.  When  we  look  at  the  culture  of  India  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  ripeness  of  its  intellectual  life  must  be  a  ripeness  for 
intellectual  truth. 

While  Christianity  always  weakens  when  it  aims  at  conflicts, 
it  cannot  weaken  while  anywhere  engaged  in  honest  contest  for 
truth,  and  an  intelligent  and  courteous  and  loving  effort  to 
bring  the  philosophy  of  life  declared  by  our  Lord  into  the 
thought  of  the  great  and  good  men  of  India,  and  Japan,  and 
China  must  be  successful. 

84 


A  word  now  about  statistics.  I  have  not  gone  into  the 
history  of  missions,  it  would  take  too  long  ;  nearly  all  branches 
of  the  church,  and  all  Christian  nations  have  attempted  to 
carry  them  forward  ;  on  the  whole,  our  American  people  have 
done  their  fair  share,  and  as  well  as  the  others,  and  better  than 
most.  But  our  doing  is,  after  all,  not  over  large.  England 
spends  $5,000,000  a  year  in  foreign  missions.  The  United 
States  perhaps  one-half  that  amount. 

It  is  doubtful  if  over  $20,000,000  to  $25,000,000  is  spent  by 
the  whole  of  Christendom  upon  foreign  missions,  and  yet  the 
United  States  spends  $900,000,000  a  year  upon  ardent  spirits, 
wine,  and  beer. 

Our  American  people  spend  for  this  investment,  which  on 
the  whole  is  a  horrible  one,  forty  times  as  much  as  the  Christian 
world  spends  directly  to  carry  on  this  work.  But  as  has  been 
before  referred  to,  this  Kingdom  of  Heaven  comes  not  by 
observation,  and  the  agencies  of  our  century  are  radiating 
Christianity  as  never  before  in  ways  which  do  not  appear  in 
the  books  of  religious  statistics. 

This  age  with  its  justice  to  history,  its  critical  interpreta- 
tions, its  scholarship,  its  new  science  of  comparative  religion,  is 
gradually  discovering  as  the  real  stars  in  our  sky  at  night  and  the 
sun  in  our  sky  at  day,  the  elemental  truths  of  Christianity.  A 
personal  God,  and  He  a  loving,  forgiving  Father,  maker  of 
heaven  and  earth  and  all  things  visible  and  invisible,  a  perfect 
life  in  humanity  bringing  us  back  to  His  love  and  revealing  to 
us  in  the  supreme  of  moral  character  the  true  being  of  the 
Invisible  God,  man  His  child  with  a  divine  nature  and  a  per- 
sonal immortality,  good  character  the  condition  of  eternal  life 
and  bad  character  the  condition  of  eternal  death,  the  everlast- 
ing distinctions  between  right  and  wrong,  the  brotherhood  of 
the  human  race,  the  greatness  of  the  individual  soul,  the  beauty 
of  self-sacrifice,  righteousness  the  foundation  and  love  the 
consummation  of  moral  being,  the  ugliness  of  selfishness,  the 
charm  of  ministration,  the  beastliness  of  aggrandizement  and 
greed,  the  worth  of  sincerity,  the  hollowness  of  sham  and 
hypocrisy,  the  rewards  of  charity  and  consideration,  and  the 
hideousness  of  intolerance  and  bigotry. 

In  the  presence  of  such  immortal  living  truths  as  these, 
catholic  facts  for  the  experience  of  human  life,  how  petty  do 
our  sectarian  distinctions,  to  which  we  are  so  much  attached, 

85 


appear  !     Let  our  missionaries  be  equipped  with  these  things, 
no  matter  what  their  names  may  be. 

And  if  we  could  only  complement  the  good  words  and 
good  works  of  our  missionaries  with  good  lives  in  business  and 
society  of  our  sailors  and  merchants  and  visiting  midshipmen, 
and  our  East  India  Bombay  companies  and  our  horse  railway 
companies,  the  triumphs  of  our  missionary  labors  would  be 
immensely  increased.  The  gospel  was  radiated  from  Jerusa- 
lem. Let  us  go  there  to-day.  At  what  is  supposed  to  be  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  representatives  of  two  large  communions,  each 
claiming  to  be  the  only  orthodox  and  the  only  catholic  church 
of  Christ,  celebrate  religious  ceremonies.  They  are  preserved 
from  violence  and  personal  conflict  by  the  scimitar  of  the 
Musselman  soldier,  who  keeps  the  peace  between  them. 
Greek,  Roman,  and  Armenian  Christians  look  at  each  other  in 
disdain  and  hate.  Is  that  all  there  is  of  Christianity  in  Jeru- 
salem ?  Oh,  no,  there  is  lineal  succession  of  the  Master  in 
spiritual  things  there.  I  read  only  a  few  weeks  ago  in  a  letter 
which  sketched  in  a  graphic  way  the  idolatries  and  mummeries 
and  quarrels  at  the  sepulchre,  of  a  little  band  of  American 
young  men  taught  of  an  American  layman  in  their  own  coun- 
try, who  passed  in  and  out  on  missions  of  love  and  charity  and 
mercy  and  education,  and  were  cordially  welcomed  by  Moslem 
and  Armenian,  and  were  honoring  and  promoting  a  living 
Christianity. 

Doubtless  the  gentlemen  in  brilliant  wardrobe,  quarreling 
at  the  tomb,  consider  these  young  men  to  be  uncommissioned 
adventurers  and  schismatical  heretics. 

We  sometimes  wonder  that  Buddhism  numbers  more  ad- 
herents than  Christianity,  that  Mohammedism  contests  with  us 
in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  this,  two  thousand  years  after  the  Res- 
urrection. 

But  the  world  was  many  thousand  years  old  before  the  Sun 
dawned,  and  it  is  yet  only  morning.  The  world  was  full  of 
individual  despotisms  entrenched  in  force  and  in  the  forms  of 
law.  Where  is  personal  despotism  now  ?  Human  slavery  is  of 
the  past.  The  nobility  of  woman  has  been  discovered.  The 
infinite  capacity  and  value  of  each  individual  man  and  his 
rights  and  wrongs — human  ability  for  self-government  — 
education  becoming  universal  —  superstition  and  idolatry  dis- 
appearing —  the  insane  no  more  hunted  to  the  hills  —  the  sick 

86 


and  the  sad  the  objects  of  tender  ministration  —  rank  and 
heritage  and  accidental  superiority  yielding-  to  virtue  and 
worth  —  these,  and  how  much  more  has  Christianity  wrought ! 
And  now  we  are  discovering  the  merits  and  demerits  of  other 
religions,  and  of  their  sacred  books,  and  the  many  precious 
things  which  we  hold  in  common  with  them,  the  demerits, 
too,  in  our  own  historic  religion,  for  demerits  it  has  none  in  its 
original  purity.  We  have  learned  that  one  seer  is  worth  to  his 
age  a  dozen  fore-seers,  one  benefaction  worth  a  hundred  wink- 
ing images,  that  the  Son  of  man  and  all  true  sons  of  men  "  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  "  ;  that  the  Almighty 
Father  has  written  every  law  in  love,  that  truth  is  harmonious, 
that  there  can  be  no  warfare  between  science  which  discovers 
laws  of  God,  and  the  study  of  invisible  things  which  discovers 
other  laws  of  the  same  Infinite  Being. 

And  in  this  regeneration  of  an  imperfect  humanity,  know- 
ing in  part  and  easily  drifting  to  selfishness  and  to  the  engross- 
ing pursuit  of  things  which  are  seen,  Christianity  has  wrought 
greatly,  in  spite  of  fightings  and  fears  without  and  within,  and 
has  even  greater  works  to  appear  in  the  coming  centuries. 

Decoration  Day  Address  at  Rockville,  1897,  to  Burpee 
Post,  G.  A.  R.: 

Our  holidays  seem  to  be  few  when  we  look  abroad  to  some 
other  nations  and  back  to  other  ages.  To  the  pious  fathers  the 
word  itself  was  significant  of  idleness  and  superstition.  It  was 
entered  into  the  statute-book  by  indirection,  but  it  is  there  now, 
and  is  not  a  bad  word.  Of  the  few  days  which  our  calendar 
calls  holidays,  none  is  so  tender  in  its  sentiment  as  Decoration 
day.  It  comes  when  the  brook  of  May's  budding  life  meets  the 
river  of  June's  mantle  of  luxuriant  verdure.  Its  symbols  are 
not  the  ripe  grain  of  Thanksgiving  nor  the  evergreens  and 
holly  berries  of  Christmas,  but  the  unfolding  blossoms  of  roses 
and  honeysuckle  and  laurel. 

Twenty-nine  years  ago  you  instituted  this  sacrament  of  love 
for  your  comrades  —  a  sacrament  whose  visible  elements  are 
pure  and  sweet  flowers,  and  whose  inspirations  are  patriotism 
and  fellowship.  A  great  nation  uncovers  before  you  in  your 
march,  salutes  you  in  reverence  and  gratitude,  and,  as  you  leave 
your  garlands  upon  the  graves  of  the  dead,  kneels  with  you  in 
benediction.     The  friends  of  law  and  free  government  all  over 

87 


the  round  globe  beat  time  to  the  music  of  your  tread.  Thirty- 
six  years  ago  the  first  cannon-ball  broke  the  masonry  of  Sum- 
ter ;  thirty-two  years  ago  the  clouds  of  war  rolled  away  at  Ap- 
pomattox. A  new  generation  of  men  has  been  born,  new  tides 
of  immigration  have  poured  upon  our  shores,  new  inventions 
have  been  made,  distances  have  been  beaten  down,  the  nations 
are  in  close  touch,  and  there  is  no  isolation  in  the  peoples  of  the 
earth.  The  children  who  listened  in  wonder  to  your  stories 
of  battles  are  men  and  women  now,  and  are  studying  the  news 
from  Cuba  and  Thessaly.  Your  column  is  smaller  by  the  birth 
of  each  new  spring,  and  the  majority,  which  is  at  rest,  is  grow- 
ing larger  and  larger. 

It  is  an  honor  to  contribute  to  the  services  of  the  hour  words 
of  sympathy  and  gratitude  —  to  meet  with  this  vigorous  Post 
and  to  salute  it  —  to  recall  the  noble  officer  whose  name  is  hon- 
ored by  your  selection,  and  which  honors  you  by  its  use.  He 
was  a  typical  Connecticut  soldier  ;  clean,  pure,  unselfish,  brave, 
and  patriotic.  His  career,  from  his  enlistment  in  the  Four- 
teenth to  his  mortal  wound  at  Cold  Harbor,  won  him  a  high 
place  in  the  long  catalogue  of  heroes  who  died  to  preserve  un- 
broken the  union  of  the  States.  He  left  us  in  the  morning  of 
life,  but  he  had  finished  a  work  of  devotion  and  sacrifice.  And 
who  shall  say  that  the  stream  of  his  young  life,  lost  to  our  sight, 
like  the  sunken  river  Humboldt,  has  not  somewhere  already 
reappeared  and  found  fairer  banks  and  bluer  skies  than  ours  ? 
What  son  of  Connecticut,  though  his  tongue  stammers  and  his 
voice  is  feeble,  can  speak  of  the  Connecticut  soldier  but  in  words 
of  enthusiasm  ?  Her  contributions  of  men  and  means  in  the 
colonial  wars,  in  the  war  for  independence,  and  in  the  war  for 
freedom  and  the  preservation  of  the  nation,  have  given  our 
commonwealth  an  enviable  eminence.  And  yet  no  hostile 
camp  has  been  pitched  within  her  borders.  Her  soldiers,  un- 
disciplined and  untrained,  but  hardy  and  tough,  under  Putnam 
and  Knowlton,  at  first  recruits,  but  later  veterans,  under  Terry 
and  Birge,  Hawley  and  Harland,  Foote  and  Burpee,  and  the 
other  leaders,  left  friends  and  homes  for  the  common  causes  of 
the  colonies  and  the  nation. 

And  what  pages  of  history  show  such  an  army  of  volunteers 
as  rallied  around  Old  Glory  from  '61  to  '65  ?  It  was  an  army  of 
the  youth  of  the  North  stirred  by  conscience  and  honor  and 
duty-call.     The  adventurer  was  an  exception.     The  rank  and 

88 


file  were  patriots.  They  loved  home,  they  loved  law,  they  loved 
education,  they  loved  liberty,  they  loved  the  flag,  and  for  these 
sanctities  they  were  ready  to  offer  themselves  for  service  and 
suffering  and  death.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  signal  suc- 
cesses of  the  German  army  in  '66  and  '70  were  due  less  to  Ger- 
man generals  than  to  German  schoolmasters.  It  is  equally  true 
of  the  success  of  the  Army  of  the  Republic.  They  went  to  the 
front  not  as  conscripts  or  hirelings,  but  as  volunteers,  whose 
minds  have  been  educated  in  the  school,  whose  hearts  were 
warm  with  love  of  country,  and  whose  souls  burned  with  devo- 
tion to  God  and  duty.  For  them  it  was  a  short  step  from  the 
awkward-squad  stage  of  the  recruit  to  the  easy  swing  and  cool 
courage  of  the  veteran,  not  only,  or  chiefly,  for  their  tough 
fibers  of  muscle  and  nerve,  but  for  the  intelligence  and  con- 
science which  were  inclosed  in  the  folds,  and  under  the  caps,  of 
blue. 

We  look  to  our  books,  and  the  stories  of  wars  are  chiefly  of 
generals  and  officers,  whose  names  are  written  in  capitals  —  the 
private  soldier  is  unnamed,  though  his  bravery  is  recorded. 
Rarely  does  his  name  appear  in  the  newspapers.  By  and  by, 
when  he  dies,  it  is  carved  upon  a  headstone  or  written  upon  a 
wooden  slab.  But  where  would  the  record  of  the  brave  officers 
appear  but  for  the  valor  of  the  unnamed  hosts  ?  You  did  not 
enlist  to  get  your  individual  records  into  print,  but  to  save  your 
country  and  to  fulfill  your  own  sublime  sense  of  duty.  Who 
can  tell  me  the  name  of  anyone  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans 
or  the  seven  hundred  Thespians  who  fell  with  Leonidas  at 
Thermopylae  ?  Who  can  give  us  the  name  of  any  one  of  the 
six  hundred  and  seventy  cavalrymen  of  the  Light  Brigade  who 
rode  into  the  "  Valley  of  Death  "  at  Balaklava  under  Lord  Car- 
digan ?  And  is  the  substance  of  their  immortality  lost  because 
these  heroes  have  left  on  the  pages  of  literature  no  "  shadow  of 
a  name  "  ? 

We  are  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  patriots  and  founders 
by  many  organizations.  The  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  of 
the  founders,  and  the  Colonial  warriors,  of  the  Revolutionary 
soldiers,  and  the  sons  of  Grand  Army  sires,  are  forming  associ- 
ations to  honor  their  distinguished  and  patriotic  predecessors. 
Sisters  and  daughters  and  wives  join  the  movement.  It  is  well, 
and  more  than  well ;  and  organizations  to  honor  you  and  your 
devotion  will  and  should  multiply.     These  organizations  are 

12  89 


wholesome.  They  develop  sentiment,  and  what  is  life  without 
sentiment  ?  They  induce  historical  study  ;  they  bring  out  local 
traditions  and  the  lessons  of  good  individual  lives.  They  bind 
us  closer  to  our  native  land.  But  they  bring  also  new  dangers. 
We  have  no  classes  in  our  country,  and  need  none.  Lincoln 
split  rails,  Grant  worked  in  a  tanyard,  Cleveland  was  a  sheriff. 
If  our  patriotic  societies  stand  upon  gold  badges  and  insignia 
and  only  the  glory  of  the  fathers,  they  will  develop  snobbery 
and  pride.  If  they  keep  alive  the  virtues  of  the  fathers,  and 
educate  the  people  in  lessons  of  liberty  and  law  and  education 
and  religion  and  American  principles  and  Connecticut  tradi- 
tions, they  will  add  to  the  strength  and  progress  and  best  de- 
velopment of  the  nation.     So  may  they  always  do  ! 

This  year  abounds  in  memorials.  The  City  of  Brotherly 
Love,  the  home  of  the  Liberty  Bell,  and  the  birthplace  of  the 
Constitution  has  added  to  the  memorials  of  the  Father  of  his 
Country  a  statue  of  noble  proportions  and  commanding  form. 
And  with  fitting  words  the  President  of  the  United  States  has 
delivered  to  the  commercial  metropolis  the  memorial  tomb 
at  Riverside,  where  shall  rest,  side  by  side  with  the  companion 
of  his  struggles  and  his  glories,  the  great  captain  of  the  armies 
of  the  Republic.  The  magazines  and  journals,  after  peppering 
us  for  a  year  and  a  half  with  endless  charges  of  birdshot  in 
the  cause  of  realistic  fiction,  and  until  our  skins  were  full  and 
our  blood  tainted  with  Trilby,  opened  upon  us  with  Napoleon, 
and  for  months  and  months  cannonaded  us  with  Napoleon  by 
hot  shot  and  bombshell.  At  last  they  have  given  us  a  welcome 
rest  from  exploiting  his  career,  and  have  refreshed  us  with 
stories  of  Grant.  What  a  blessed  change  !  These  two  generals 
had  a  community  of  skill  in  the  art  of  war.  Napoleon,  by  what 
is  called  genius,  carried  the  so-called  science  of  war  to  large  re- 
sults. Grant,  by  getting  up  earlier  than  the  enemy,  by  staying 
longer  on  the  battlefield,  by  renewing  an  attack  when  his  op- 
ponents and  most  of  his  associates  fancied  he  was  whipped,  by 
hammering  away  at  anything  and  everything  in  front  of  him 
with  the  power  and  persistence  of  the  storm-waves  of  ocean,  by 
never  for  a  moment  losing  his  presence  of  mind,  or  dropping 
from  his  thoughts  any  part  of  his  own  army  and  its  necessities, 
and  the  enemy's  as  well,  gave  the  students  of  the  art  of  war 
food  for  thought.  But,  if  these  two  eminent  personages  had  in 
common   the   distinction   of  military   eminence,  as  men   they 

90 


were  antipodes.  One  incarnated  selfishness,  the  other  patriot- 
ism ;  one  reveled  in  glitter  and  glory,  the  modesty  of  the  other 
was  only  equaled  by  his  graceful  simplicity  ;  one  loved  and 
worshiped  himself,  the  other  loved  his  fellow  men  and  wor- 
shiped his  God  ;  one  studied  the  heavens  to  find  the  star  of 
his  own  bloody  destiny,  the  other  looked  for  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness arising  with  healing  wings  upon  a  day  of  peace  and  a 
re-united  country  ;  one  thirsted  only  with  zeal  to  draw  his 
sword,  the  other  hastened  to  return  his  to  its  sheath  ;  one  hes- 
itated before  no  cruelties  and  lies,  the  other  sought  only  mer- 
cies and  truth  ;  one  cared  for  no  promise  nor  regarded  any,  the 
other  kept  his  word  in  the  keeping  of  a  white  soul  and  an  in- 
vincible courage.  The  sufferings  of  his  troops  were  nothing 
to  one,  the  galled  flesh  of  an  artillery  horse  touched  the  com- 
passion of  the  other ;  to  one  his  country  was  a  desirable  scaf- 
folding to  use  in  building  for  himself  and  his  a  throne  and  a 
dynasty,  to  the  other  his  country  was  a  supreme  object  for  ser- 
vice and  consecration.  Humiliation  of  a  conquered  foe  was 
sweet  to  the  Corsican  ;  there  was  no  room  in  the  hand  of  Grant 
for  the  hilt  of  Lee's  sword,  and  the  cavalry  horses  surrendered 
to  him  by  the  men  whom  he  had  fought  for  four  years  were 
returned  to  them  for  the  peaceful  services  of  agriculture.  Na- 
poleon was  a  great  soldier  by  the  standards  of  death  and  destruc- 
tion, but  when  his  soul  was  weighed  against  truth  and  honor, 
and  chivalry  and  sympathy  and  the  charity  of  St.  Paul's  epistle 
his  scale  flew  into  the  air  like  a  balloon.  Grant  was  a  great 
soldier,  perhaps  the  greatest  captain  of  his  age,  but  when  the 
scales  which  weigh  character  are  brought  forth  (how  trivial 
now  are  swords  and  shoulder  straps  !)  and  righteousness,  sin- 
cerity, purity,  magnanimity  and  modesty  are  the  weights,  we 
have  a  standard  of  human  excellence  on  hand  rarely  surpassed 
in  the  world's  list  of  military  heroes,  not  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
not  by  Joan  of  Arc,  hardly  even  by  Washington.  The  mag- 
nificence of  the  demonstrations  which  surrounded  the  last  com- 
mittal of  his  sacred  dust  to  its  tomb  by  the  Hudson  was  less  in 
real  power  than  the  silent  tribute  of  love  and  gratitude  which 
moved  from  the  hearts  of  millions  and  was  eloquent  above  the 
roar  of  cannon.  The  tears  of  the  boys  in  blue  mingled  with 
the  tears  of  brave  men  in  gray,  the  children  of  the  heroes  of 
the  Grand  Army  marched  side  by  side  with  the  children  of 
Confederates.    Stern  soldiers  kept  guard  by  Napoleon's  coffin 

91 


when  it  was  laid  down  in  the  Paris  chapel.  Armies  and  navies 
honored  the  burial  of  Grant,  but  more,  a  civilized  world  wept 
at  his  tomb.  The  magnificent  tribute  to  the  silent  soldier  was 
deserved.  The  tribute  to  the  unique  character  and  nobility  of 
the  man  was  even  better. 

And  what  are  you  telling  us  to-day,  survivors  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  and  what  are  we  saying  to  you  ?  To 
you  blessings  and  honors  and  grateful  hymns  !  You  risked 
life  for  us,  and  for  yourselves,  and  for  the  generations  to  come. 
The  best  we  can  say,  the  best  we  can  do,  is  all  too  little  for 
you.  The  greater  rewards  of  your  own  consciousness  of  duty 
nobly  done,  of  a  nation  saved,  of  humanity  advanced,  of  liberty 
and  self-government  re-established,  will  ring  as  bells  in  your 
heart  as  you  go  down  the  "  slopes  of  sunset,"  led,  may  it  be,  by 
the  Father's  hand,  and  till  you  go  to  rest,  one  by  one,  with  the 
bugle  call  sounding  "good  night." 

And  what  are  you  saying  to  us  by  your  memorial  services 
to-day  ?  You  are  bidding  us  look  up  to  the  hills  from  whence 
came  your  strength  and  to  join  in  your  doxologies  and  alleluias 
to  the  God  of  our  fathers.  You  are  bidding  us  look  about  us  and 
see  this  fair  land,  with  its  vast  resources  of  commerce  and  agri- 
culture, with  its  factories  and  farms  and  schools  and  colleges 
and  churches,  with  its  manifold  and  many  peoples,  all  covered 
by  the  protections  of  its  Constitution  and  laws,  and  to  love  it. 
You  are  bidding  us  look  forward  to  its  inestimable  future  of 
greatness  and  progress.  You  are  bidding  us  remember  that 
there  are  other  enemies  than  the  bayonets  of  armed  resistance 
to  law  ;  enemies  less  conspicuous,  but  no  less  dangerous  —  cor- 
rupt morals,  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  degeneracy, 
snobbery  and  pride,  irreverence  for  law,  breaches  of  faith  and 
denials  of  human  rights,  oppressions  on  this  side  and  license  on 
that.  You  are  bidding  us  hold  the  Stars  and  Stripes  in  love 
and  reverence,  and  to  let  them  never  be  waved  and  tossed 
about  at  the  hands  of  demagogic  adventurers  nor  blatant  jin- 
goes. You  are  telling  us  that  our  country  is  large  enough  for 
our  best  activities  and  statesmanship,  and  that  the  government 
of  the  world  has  not  yet  been  confided  to  us.  You  are  bidding 
us  sympathize  with  every  righteous  struggle  for  freedom  and 
self-government.  You  are  bidding  us  bury  all  bitterness  of  the 
past  in  the  onward  and  friendly  activities  of  the  Republic  in 
all  its  climes  and  latitudes.     You  are  bidding  us  to  be  kind  to 

92 


our  neighbors  and  to  be  strong  in  the  strength  of  minding  our 
own  measureless  business.  You  bid  us  be  true  to  our  tradi- 
tions, jealous  of  our  history,  enthusiastic  for  our  advance  ;  to 
rejoice  in  the  old  pillars  of  fire  and  cloud,  and  to  look  for  new 
light  and  shade  to  guide  and  protect  our  future.  You  are  tell- 
ing us  of  the  manliness  and  success  of  a  life  which  you  con- 
secrated to  your  country's  service  in  the  days  of  battle,  that 
so  you  might  make  a  highway  for  the  feet  of  the  blessed  mes- 
sengers who  are  bringing  in  the  gospel  of  peace,  a  peace  that 
endures.  If  we  would  learn  the  bitterness  of  war  and  the  in- 
finite mercies  of  peace,  we  go  to  you  whose  scars  and  empty 
sleeves  are  your  credentials.  To  you,  in  this  regard,  would  we 
commend  the  loud-mouthed  orators  who  breathe  fire  and  flame 
from  their  tongues,  and  shake  swagger  from  their  arms,  in 
the  protection  of  the  chamber  walls  of  the  United  States 
Senate. 

March  on,  veterans,  to  the  city  of  the  dead!  Lay  your  fresh 
flowers  upon  the  dust  of  your  comrades  !  Their  voices  call  to 
you  from  tent  and  battle  front. 

The  picket-line  in  Virginia,  the  camp-fire  in  Carolina,  the 
mine,  the  trench,  the  hospital,  the  storm  of  battle,  the  bayonet 
charge,  the  thirst,  the  wounds,  the  martyr's  death,  the  victory, 
are  in  your  souls  to-day,  as  flashed  from  the  lenses  of  a  bio- 
graph. 

Ring  out  again  the  old  chorus,  "  Marching  thro'  Georgia," 
shout  again  the  "  Battle-cry  of  freedom."  The  voices  of  your 
sleeping  comrades  may  be  in  the  harmony,  though  you  may 
not  hear  them  ;  their  forms,  clad  again  in  blue,  may  be  by 
your  side,  though  you  may  not  see  them. 


93 


Two  Carols  by  Mr.  Robinson  from  a  volume  of  "  Christ- 
mas Carols  "  prepared  and  published  by  the  "  Union  for 
Home  Work,"  of  Hartford,  1876  : 

Exult,  ye  sons  of  men, 

'Tis  clearest  morn! 
Exult,  ye  sons  of  men, 

The  child  is  born  ! 
Born  into  human  life, 

O  Light  Divine  ! 
Through  clouded  human  life 
Forever  shine. 

Chorus  :  Glory,  peace,  good- will, 
To  God,  to  men; 
Glory,  peace,  good-will, 
To  God,  to  men. 

Carol  sweetly,  children, 

The  Holy  Child  ! 
Carol  gently,  children, 

The  mother  mild  ! 
Carol  in  the  twilight 

Of  matin  gray ; 
Carol  in  the  twilight 

Of  closing  day. 
Glory,  etc. 

O  Jesu,  fill  the  mountain, 

And  fill  the  grove  ; 
Fill  prairie,  sea,  and  mountain 

With  thy  sweet  love. 
Ye  sons  of  men  acclaim  Him, 

The  Holy  Child  ! 
The  Son  of  God,  acclaim  Him, 

And  Mary  mild. 
Glory,  etc. 
94 


BETHLEHEM   STAR. 

When  Bethlehem's  star  upon  the  sky 

Its  light  of  glory  flamed, 
The  Orient  sages  caught  its  ray, 

Its  heavenly  guidance  claimed; 
Obedient  to  its  holy  charm, 

Rich  gifts  of  love  they  bore, 
Prostrate  at  gentle  Mary's  feet 

The  Saviour-child  to  adore. 

From  manger  birth,  through  life  of  toil, 

To  waving  palm  from  scorn, 
From  palm  to  cross,  from  cross  to  crown, 

Thy  path,  O  Woman-born  ! 
And  heavenly  star,  and  halo-wreath, 

And  light  white  robe  were  Thine  ; 
And  thunder  voice  and  resting  Dove 

Declared  Thy  life  Divine. 

O  Bethlehem's  star!  bright  morning  star! 

Guide  us  to  Jesus'  feet! 
Our  souls  to  love,  our  lips  to  praise, 

Our  hearts  with  His  to  beat! 
From  sin  to  penitential  tears 

To  purify  our  night ; 
Through  tears  to  faith,  in  faith  to  peace, 

In  peace  to  purest  light. 


95 


H.  C.  R. 

The  gracious  heart  that  overflowed 

At  every  suffering  human  call ; 
The  pity  without  drop  of  gall, 

The  sympathy  that  warmed  and  glowed ; 
The  kindly  eyes  not  keen  of  sight 

For  wrongs  that  weaker  brothers  wrought, 
But  through  the  fog  of  folly  caught 

A  flash  of  something  that  was  bright ; 
The  soul  that  throbbed  in  quick  response 

To  deed  of  flame  and  winged  word, 
That  bathed  in  Nature's  healing  fonts, 

And  sought  the  flower  and  loved  the  bird ; 
The  brain  of  power,  the  speech  of  grace  — 

Whose  tones  for  truth  and  honor  fell  — 
The  faith  that  saw  Redemption's  face, 

And  heard  the  whisper,  "All  is  well." 


Here  in  this  world  they  told  of  Thee, 
Lord,  didst  Thou  need  them  more  than  we  ? 

Atinic  Eliot  Trumbull. 


H   289   85 


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^     APR  85 

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