President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., upon
being introduced, stated that among his ancestors was a Mary Hennessy of
Limerick, Ireland. He then went on to say that:
The three characteristics of the Irish race, which are most to be
commended when rightly directed, are, first, their heartiness,
geniality, enjoyment of life, a nameless quality made of the best
elements of the German gemuth and the French esprit. This is the
temperament of genius, it is the conserved youth which makes the
Irishman an adolescent at whatever age, and is strongly contrasted
with the sternness and reserve of the Puritan. This temperament,
too, is connected with the fecundity of the race, also in contrast
with the Puritan New Englanders, who even in Boston may ere long
have to hail the Irish race with _morituri salutamus_ with a new
meaning in it.
Second, the Irishman, like other men, is not always a man of peace.
His blood is warmer on occasion and his interpretation of the
strenuous life, which makes men loved for the enemies they make, is
another quality which, when rightly trained and directed, is one of
the greatest powers for good in the world. To be angry aright is
almost one of the definitions of education.
Third, the Irishman has a veritable genius for politics, which had
no scope in the earlier formative days of Irish history, but which
finds its legitimate sphere in this republican land. He is also a
patriot, a superb soldier. Politics culminates in statesmanship, and
I cannot forbear here a word which I believe will appeal to every
heart which keeps a warm corner for Burke, Emmet or O’Connell.
My conception of statesmanship is higher than that of politics. The
first of all conditions of success in its purer realm is utter
disinterestedness. Within the last few days, this country has
witnessed the rare spectacle of a senator,[1] unusually devoted to
the party at whose birth he assisted, and to a president whom he has
long loved, placing his convictions, matured by long experience and
ripe knowledge, above both. To no temperament could the personal
sacrifices have been greater than for him to give us this modern
version of Aristotle’s “_Plato amicus sed major amicus veritas_.”
Bound by family lineage, many and long friendships, historical and
literary associations, with England, his devotion to our national
muse of liberty which inspired the constitution and the declaration
of independence impelled him to openly declare sympathy toward the
struggling patriots in the Transvaal, as in his long life he has had
occasion to do for Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cuba and Ireland.
Gentlemen, there is a higher plane than that of the traditions,
current methods and policies of organizing colonial dependencies. It
is to believe that every growing race and ethnic stock has higher
possibilities in it; to hold that the diverse ways of civilization
are not all exhausted yet, and that instead of forcing other races
to take up the white man’s, or the Englishman’s burden, our policy
should be to keep off, where practicable, alien interference,
including our own, and to develop a new policy of protection and
thus to foster new and independent centers of social and political
development.
To my mind the tragedy of history is the perversion, repression or
destruction of budding nationalities of species, and perhaps genera,
different from our own, and the threatened uniformitization of the
entire world by civilization as we define and understand it. This is
the method of what, I think, we may call the higher anthropology. It
would be, I think, the statesmanship of the superman, who may
sometime exist, and who would be a citizen of all times and a
spectator of all events. To steer the ship of state in this
direction is to keep it true to the pole of human destiny. It is the
work of the heavenborn pilot, who keeps his tiller true, and not of
the star gazer.
These moments are big with destiny. Statesmanship is approaching the
time when it must take a cosmic view of human life as a whole, and I
have heard no note that rings so clear and pure to my ear with such
a true flavor of conviction as the plea for a larger ken by the
political nestor of this state and nation, who has grown not rich
but poor from a quarter century’s service for his state; who makes
no bid for the support of other parties, while speaking as many of
his colleagues in both parties privately declare they would do if
they spoke for themselves rather than for their constituency; a man
competent to-day to fill any one of three if not four
professorships; whose years admonish us that any such utterance may
be his last, and whom, as in the case of no other public man, his
political enemies vie with his friends to honor.
President Hall was followed by President Capen of Tufts College who also
delivered an entertaining address.
The historical paper of the evening was by Thomas F. O’Malley, of
Somerville, Mass., whose subject was “Hugh Cargill,” a patriot who took
part in the events of April 19, 1775. The paper displayed close
research.
There were also addresses during the evening by John E. Milholland,
Joseph Smith and E. O’Meagher Condon.
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