Proceedings of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York on the life, character and public services of Roswell P. Flower : Albany, April 3, 1900

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Senate and Assembly

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK

ON THE

LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

ROSWELL P. FLOWER

ALBANY, APRIL 3, 1 900

ALBANY

JAMES B. LYON, STATE PRINTER
I9OO

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THE NEW Y«RK

PUB»C U»ABY

602697H

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TILDEN FftOftBAHMB

B 1951 L

COMMITTEES OF THE LEGISLATURE

On the Part of the Senate

ELON R. BROWN HENRY J. COGGESHALL

THOMAS F. DONNELLY

On the Part of the Assembly

MORGAN BRYAN CHARLES O. ROBERTS IRA C. MILES

PATRICK H. ROCHE JULIUS HARBURGER

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Legislature of the State of New York

RELATIVE TO THE

LIFE AND SERVICES

OF

Roswell P. Flower

%n l^lemavinm

ROSWELL P. FLOWER

PROCEEDINGS

Assembly Chamber,

Albany, April 3, 1900.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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JtosiueU 2\ Floxucv

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

Governor Roosevelt, upon taking- the chair, said:

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

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

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

ADDRESS BY HON. J. B. STANCHFIELD

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

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

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

The ethics of eulogy would seem to require that we

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

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

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

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

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

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

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iRosiuell % VXoxotx

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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iftosiucll g. Floiucv

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

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

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

He had faults — he was a man. He committed

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

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

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

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

The atmosphere of political life was not a congenial

24

iftosiuelt W. 27lmucv

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

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

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

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

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

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

26

iRosiucU % Floxucv

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

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

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

27

%\\ gttcmovtam

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

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

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

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

to his memory, no more fitting epitaph than Wall

28

■»!

2t05U>cU g. ffloiUCV

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make

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

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you. and give

you peace both now and evermore. Amen.

29

Ikrswjell W. Wlomtx

<S>* ^

PROCLAMATION

ON THE

DEATH OF EX-GOVERNOR ROSWELL P. FLOWER

PROCLAMATION

State of New York,

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

Roswell P. Flower.

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

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

33

in IttcmovUim

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

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

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the Governor:

Wm. J. Youngs,

Secretary to the Governor.
34

APPENDIX

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Legislature of the State of New York

RELATIVE TO THE DEATH OF

Hon. Roswell P. Flower

PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATURE

In Senate, May 23, 1899.

Mr. Brown offered the following:

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

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

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

In Assembly, May 24. 1899.

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

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

37

|u IJfcemoviitw

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

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

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

t>

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

In Senate, May 25, 1899.

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

The President appointed Messrs. Brown, Coggeshall

38

ilosweH W. 27loiucv

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

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

In Assembly, May 25, 1899.

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

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

In Senate, May 25, 1899.

Mr. Brown presented the following report:

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

39

602697li

Jn IttcmovUim

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

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

Of the Senate.

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

P. H. ROCHE,
JULIUS HARBURGER,

Of the Assembly.

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

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

In Assembly, May 25, 1899.

Mr. Bryan, from the Special Joint Committee of

the Senate and Assembly, appointed to prepare a me-

40

2ftosiucU % Floiucv

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

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

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

Of the Senate.

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

Of the Assembly.

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

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

41

In IttcmovUun

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

In Senate, March 26, 1900.

Mr. Brown offered the following resolution:

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

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

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

In Assembly, March 27, 1900.

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

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

Flower.

42

iRosiucll % J7\oxocx

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

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

43

MAY 2 8 1952