the best type; some of them, as we have seen, were public jobbers. But
they knew that they could not build a bridge, although they had no
doubt of their ability to govern a city. They thereupon proceeded to
organize the knowledge which existed as to the construction of
bridges; and they held the organization thus created responsible for
results. Now, we know that it is at least as difficult to govern a
city as to build a bridge, and yet, as citizens, we have deliberately
allowed the ignorance of the community to be organized for its
government, and we then complain that it is a failure. Until we
imitate the example of the Ring, and organize the intelligence of the
community for its government, our complaint is childish and
unreasonable. But we shall be told that there is no analogy between
building a bridge and governing a city. Let us examine this objection.
A city is made up of infinite interests. They vary from hour to hour,
and conflict is the law of their being. Many of the elements of social
life are what mathematicians term "variables of the independent
order." The problem is, to reconcile these conflicting interests and
variable elements into one organization which shall work without jar,
and allow each citizen to pursue his calling, if it be an honest one,
in peace and quiet.
Now, turn to the Bridge. It looks like a motionless mass of masonry
and metal; but, as a matter of fact, it is instinct with motion. There
is not a particle of matter in it which is at rest even for the
minutest portion of time. It is an aggregation of unstable elements,
changing with every change in the temperature, and every movement of
the heavenly bodies. The problem was, out of these unstable elements,
to produce absolute stability; and it was this problem which the
engineers, the organized intelligence, had to solve, or confess to
inglorious failure. The problem has been solved. In the first
construction of suspension bridges it was attempted to check, repress
and overcome their motion, and failure resulted. It was then seen that
motion is the law of existence for suspension bridges, and provision
was made for its free play. Then they became a success. The Bridge
before us elongates and contracts between the extremes of temperature
from 14 to 16 inches; the vertical rise and fall in the centre of the
main span ranges between 2 ft. 3 in. and 2 ft. 9 in.; and before the
suspenders were attached to the cable it actually revolved on its own
axis through an arc of thirty degrees, when exposed to the sun shining
upon it on one side. You do not perceive this motion, and you would
know nothing about it unless you watched the gauges which record its
movement.
Now if our political system were guided by organized intelligence, it
would not seek to repress the free play of human interests and
emotions, of human hopes and fears, but would make provision for their
development and exercise, in accordance with the higher law of
liberty and morality. A large portion of our vices and crimes are
created either by law, or its maladministration. These laws exist
because organized ignorance, like a highwayman with a club, is
permitted to stand in the way of wise legislation and honest
administration, and to demand satisfaction from the spoils of office,
and the profits of contracts. Of this state of affairs we complain,
and on great occasions the community arises in its wrath, and visits
summary punishment on the offenders of the hour, and then relapses
into chronic grumbling until grievances sufficiently accumulate to
stir it again to action.
What is the remedy for this state of affairs? Shall there be no more
political parties, and shall we shatter the political machinery which,
bad as it is, is far better than no machinery at all? Shall we embrace
nihilism as our creed, because we have practical communism forced upon
us as the consequence of jobbery, and the imposition of unjust taxes?
No, let us rather learn the lesson of the Bridge. Instead of
attempting to restrict suffrage, let us try to educate the voters;
instead of disbanding parties, let each citizen within the party
always vote, but never for a man who is unfit to hold office. Thus
parties, as well as voters, will be organized on the basis of
intelligence.
But what man is fit to hold office? Only he who regards political
office as a public trust, and not as a private perquisite to be used
for the pecuniary advantage of himself or his family, or even his
party. Is there intelligence enough in these cities, if thus organized
within the parties, to produce the result which we desire? Why, the
overthrow of the Tweed Ring was conclusive evidence of the
preponderance of public virtue in the city of New York. In no other
country in the world, and in no other political system than one which
provides for and secures universal suffrage, would such a sudden and
peaceful revolution have been possible. The demonstration of this fact
was richly worth the twenty-five or thirty millions of dollars which
the thieves had stolen. Thereafter, and thenceforth, there could be no
doubt whether our city population, heterogeneous as it is, contains
within itself sufficient virtue for its own preservation. Let it never
be forgotten that the remedy is complete; that it is ever present;
that no man ought to be deprived of the opportunity of its exercise;
and that, if it be exercised, the will of the community can never be
paralyzed. Our safety and our success rest on the ballot in the hands
of freemen at the polls, deliberately deposited, never for an unworthy
man, but always with a profound sense of the responsibility which
should govern every citizen in the exercise of this fundamental right.
If the lesson of the Bridge, which I have thus sought to enforce,
shall revive the confidence of the people in their own power, and
induce them to use it practically for the election to office of good
men, clothed, as were the engineers, with sufficient authority, and
held, as they were, to corresponding responsibility for results, then,
indeed, will its completion be a public blessing, worthy of the new
era of industrial development in which it is our fortunate lot to
live.
Great, indeed, has been our national progress. Perhaps we, who belong
to a commercial community, do not fully realize its significance and
promise. We buy and sell stocks, without stopping to think that they
represent the most astonishing achievements of enterprise and skill in
the magical extension of our vast railway system; we speculate in
wheat, without reflecting on the stupendous fact that the plains of
Dakota and California are feeding hungry mouths in Europe; we hear
that the Treasury has made a call for bonds, and forget that the rapid
extinction of our national debt is a proof of our prosperity and
patriotism, as wonderful to the world as was the power we exhibited in
the struggle which left that apparently crushing burden upon us. If,
then, we deal successfully with the evils which threaten our political
life, who can venture to predict the limits of our future wealth and
glory--wealth that shall enrich all; glory that shall be no selfish
heritage, but the blessing of mankind? Beyond all legends of oriental
treasure, beyond all dreams of the golden age, will be the splendor,
and majesty, and happiness of the free people dwelling upon this fair
domain, when fulfilling the promise of the ages and the hopes of
humanity they shall have learned how to make equitable distribution
among themselves of the fruits of their common labor. Then, indeed,
will be realized by a waiting world the youthful vision of our own
Bryant:
"Here the free spirit of mankind at length
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's untamed strength,
Or curb its swiftness in the forward race?
Far, like the comet's way through infinite space,
Stretches the long untraveled path of light
Into the depths of ages; we may trace
Distant, the brightening glory of its flight,
Till the receding rays are lost to human sight."
At the ocean gateway of such a nation well may stand the stately
figure of "Liberty enlightening the World;" and, in hope and faith, as
well as gratitude, we write upon the towers of our beautiful Bridge,
to be illuminated by her electric ray, the words of exultation,
"_Finis coronat opus_."
ORATION
OF
RICHARD S. STORRS, D.D., LL.D.
MR. CHAIRMAN--FELLOW-CITIZENS: It can surprise no one that we
celebrate the completion of this great work, in which lines of
delicate and aerial grace are combined with a strength more enduring
than of marbles, and the woven wires prolong to these heights the
metropolitan avenues. After delays which have often disturbed the
popular patience, and have oftener disappointed the hopes of the
builders, we gratefully welcome this superb consummation: rejoicing to
know that "the silver streak" which so long has divided this city from
the continent, is conquered, henceforth, by the silver band stretching
above it, careless alike of wind and tide, of ice and fog, of current
and of calm.
To the mind which, for fourteen years, has watched, guided, and
governed the work, looking out upon it through physical organs almost
fatally smitten in its prosecution, we bring our eager and unanimous
tribute of honor and applause. He who took up, elaborated, and has
brought to fulfillment the plans of the father whose own life had been
sacrificed in their furtherance, has builded to both the noblest
memorial. He may with truth have said, heretofore, as the furnaces
have glowed from which this welded network has come, in the words of
Schiller's "Lay of the Bell:"
"Deep hid within the nether cell
What Force with Fire is moulding thus,
In yonder airy towers shall dwell,
And witness wide and far of us."
He may, at this hour, add for himself the lines which the poet hears
from the lips of his House-Master:
"My house is built upon a rock,
And sees unmoved the stormy shock
Of waves that fret below."
It must be a superlative moment in life when one stands on a
structure as majestic as this which was at first a mere thought in the
brain, which was afterward a plan on the paper, and which has been
transported hither, from quarry and mine, from wood-yard and workshop,
on the point of his pencil.
He would be the first to acknowledge also, if he were speaking, the
intelligent, faithful, indefatigable service rendered in execution of
his plans by those who have been associated with him, as assistant
engineers, as master mechanics, or as trained, trusted, and
experienced workmen. On their knowledge and vigilance, their practiced
skill and patient fidelity, the work has of necessity largely depended
for its completed grace and strength. They have wrought the zealous
labor of years into all parts of it; and it will bear to them
hereafter, as it does to-day, most honorable witness.
Some of our honored fellow-citizens, who have borne a distinguished
part in this enterprise, are no more here to share our festivities.
Mr. John H. Prentice, for years the Treasurer of the Board, wise in
counsel, of a liberal yet a watchful economy, of incorruptible
integrity, passed from the earth two years ago; but to those who knew
him his memory is as fresh as the verdure above his grave at
Greenwood. More lately, one who had been from the outset associated
with what to many appeared this visionary plan, to whose capacity and
experience, his legal skill, his legislative influence, his social
distinction, the work has been always largely indebted, and who was
for years the President of the Board, has followed into the silent
land. It is a grief to all who knew him that he is not here to see the
consummation of labors and plans which for years had occupied his
life. But his face and figure are before us, almost as distinctly as
if he were present; and it will be only the dullest forgetfulness
which can ever cease to connect with this Bridge the name of the
accomplished scholar, the experienced diplomatist, the untiring
worker, the cordial and ever-helpful friend, Mr. Henry C. Murphy.
But others remain to whom the work has brought its burdens, of labor,
care, and long solicitude, sometimes, no doubt, of a public criticism
whose imperious sharpness they may have felt, but who have followed
their plans to completion, without wavering or pause; who have,
indeed, expanded those plans as the progress of the work has suggested
enlargement; and who, to-day, enter the reward which belongs to those
who, after promoting a magnificent enterprise, see it accomplished.
Among them are two who were associated with it at the beginning, and
who have continued so associated from that day to this--Mr. William C.
Kingsley, Mr. James S.T. Stranahan. The judgment cannot be mistaken
which affirms that to these men, more than to any other citizens
remaining among us, the prosecution of this work to its crowning
success is properly ascribed. They are the true orators of the hour.
We may praise, but they have builded. On the tenacity of their
purpose, of which that of these combining wires only presents the
physical image,--on the lift of their wills, stronger than of these
consenting cables,--the immense structure has risen to its place. No
grander work has it been given to men to do for the city, which will
feel the unfailing impulse of their foresight and courage, their
wisdom in counsel, and their resolute service, to the end of its
history!
Mr. William Marshall, Gen. Henry W. Slocum, were also connected with
the work at the outset, and, with intervals in the period of their
service, have given it important assistance to the end; while others
are with us who have joined with intelligence, enthusiasm, and
helpfulness in the councils of the Board at different times. We
rejoice in the presence of all those who, earlier or later, have taken
part in the plans, at once vast and minute, which now are realized. We
offer them the tribute of our admiring and grateful esteem. We trust
that their remembrance of the work they have accomplished, and their
personal experience of its manifold benefits, may continue through
many happy years. And we congratulate ourselves, as well as them, that
the city will keep the memorial of them, not in yonder tablets alone,
but in the great fabric above which those stand, while stone and steel
retain their strength.
But, after all, the real builder of this surpassing and significant
structure has been the people: whose watchfulness of its progress has
been constant, whose desire for its benefits has been the incentive
behind its plans, by whom its treasury has been supplied, whose
exultant gladness now welcomes its success. The people of New York
have illustrated anew their magnanimous spirit in cheerfully supplying
their share of the cost, though not anticipating from such large
outlay direct reliefs and signal advantages. The people of Brooklyn
have shown at least an intelligent, intrepid, and far-sighted
sagacity, in readily accepting the immediate burdens in expectation of
future returns.
Such a popular achievement is one to be proud of. St. Petersburg could
be commenced 180 years ago--almost to a day, on May 27th, 1703--and
could afterward be built, by the will of an autocrat, to give him a
new centre of empire, with a nearer outlook over Europe; its palaces
rising on artificial foundations, which it cost, it is said, 100,000
lives in the first year to lay. Paris could be reconstructed,
twenty-five years ago, by the mandate of an emperor, determined to
make it more beautiful than before, to open new avenues for guns and
troops, to give to its laborers, who might become troublesome, desired
occupation. But not only have these cities of ours been founded,
built, reconstructed by the people, but this charming and mighty
avenue in the air, by which they are henceforth rebuilt into one, is
to the people's honor and praise. It shows what multitudes,
democratically organized, can do if they will. It will show, to those
who shall succeed us, to what largeness of enterprise, what patience
of purpose, what liberal wisdom, the populations now ruling these
associated cities were competent in their time. It takes the aspect,
as so regarded, of a durable monument to Democracy itself.
We congratulate the Mayors of both the cities, with their associates
in the government of them, on the public spirit manifested by both, on
the ampler opportunities offered to each, and on those intimate
alliances between them which are a source of happiness to both, and
which are almost certainly prophetic of an organic union to be
realized hereafter. And we trust that the crosses, encircled by the
laurel wreath, on the original seal of New Amsterdam, with the Dutch
legend of this city, "Union makes Strength," may continue to describe
them, whether or not stamped upon parchments and blazoned on banners,
as long as human eyes shall see them.
The work now completed is of interest to both cities, and its enduring
and multiplying benefits will be found, we are confident, to be
common, not local.
We who have made and steadfastly kept our homes in Brooklyn, and who
are fond and proud of the city--for its fresh, bracing, and healthful
air, and the brilliant outstretch of sea and land which opens from its
Heights; for its scores of thousands of prosperous homes; for its
unsurpassed schools, its co-operating churches, the social temper
which pervades it, the independence and enterprise of its journals,
and the local enthusiasms which they fruitfully foster; for its
general liberality, and the occasional splendid examples of individual
munificence which have given it fame; for its recent but energetic
institutions, of literature, art, and a noble philanthropy; and for
the stimulating enterprise and culture of the young life which is
coming to command in it--we have obvious reason to rejoice in the work
which brings us into nearer connection with all that is delightful and
all that is enriching in the metropolis, and with that diverging
system of railways, overspreading the continent, which has in the
commercial capital its natural centre of radiation.
We have no word of criticism to speak, only words of most hearty
admiration, for the safe and speedy water-service on the lines of the
ferries which has given us heretofore such easy transportation from
city to city, without delays that were not unavoidable, and with
remarkable exemption from disaster. So far as human carefulness and
skill could assure safety and speed, in the midst of conditions
unfriendly to both, the management of these ferries has been peerless,
their success unsurpassed. To them is due, in largest measure, the
rapid growth already here realized. They have formed the indispensable
arteries, of supply and transmission, through which the circulating
life-blood has flowed, and their ministry to this city has been
constant and vital. But we confess ourselves glad to reach, with
surer certainty and a greater rapidity, the libraries and galleries,
the churches and the homes, as well as the resorts of business and of
pleasure, with which we are now in instant connection; and the horizon
widens around us as we touch with more immediate contact the lines of
travel which open hence to the edges of the continent.
If we have not as much to offer in immediate return, we have, at
least, a broad expanse of uncovered acres within the city, for the
easy occupation of those who wish homes, either modest or splendid, or
who shall wish such as the growth of the metropolis multiplies its
population into the millions, crowds its roofs higher toward the
stars, and makes a productive silver mine of each several house-lot.
And to those who visit us but at intervals we can open not only yonder
park, set like an emerald in the great circular sweep of our
boundaries from the waters of the Narrows to the waters of the Sound,
but also their readiest approach to the ocean. The capital and the sea
are henceforth brought to nearer neighborhood. Long Island bays, and
brooks, and beaches, are within readier reach of the town. The winds
that have touched no other land this side of Cuba are more accessible
to those who seek their tonic breath. The long roll of the surf on the
shore breaks closer than before to office and mansion, and to tenement
chamber.
The benefits will, therefore, be reciprocal, which pass back and forth
across this solid and stately frame-work; and both cities will
rejoice, we gladly hope, in the patience and labor, the disciplined
skill, the large expenditure, of which it is the trophy and fruit. New
York has now the unique opportunity to widen its boundaries to the
sea, and around its brilliant civic shield, more stately and manifold
than that of Achilles, by the aid of those who have wrought already
these twisted bracelets and clasping cables, to set the glowing margin
of the Ocean-stream.
This work is important, too, we cannot but feel, in wider relations;
for what it signifies, as for what it secures, and for all that it
promises. Itself a representative product and part of the new
civilization, one standing on it finds an outlook from it of larger
circumference than that of these cities.
Every enterprise like this, successfully accomplished, becomes an
incentive to others like it. It leads on to such, and supplies
incessant encouragement to them. We may not know, or probably
conjecture, what these are to be, in the city or the State, in the
years that shall come. But, whatever they may be, for the more
complete equipment of either with conditions of happiness and the
instruments of progress, they will all take an impulse from that which
here has been accomplished. Such a trophy of triumph over an original
obstacle of Nature will not contribute to sleep in others; and
whatever is needed of material improvement, throughout the State of
which it is our pride to be citizens, will be only more surely and
speedily supplied because of this impressive success.
It is, therefore, most fitting to our festival that we are permitted
to welcome to it the Chief Magistrate of the State, with those
representing its different regions in the legislative councils. We
rejoice to remember that the work before us has been assisted by the
favoring action of those heretofore in authority in the State; and we
trust that to those now holding high offices in it, who are present
to-day, the occasion will be one of pleasant experience, and of
enlarged and reinforced expectation.
Indeed, it is not extravagant to say that the future of the country
opens before us, as we see what skill and will can do to overleap
obstacles, and make nature subservient to human designs. So we gladly
welcome these eminent men from other States; while the presence of the
Executive Head of the Nation, and of some of the members of his
Cabinet, is appropriate to the time, as it is an occasion of sincere
and profound gratification to us all. Without the concurrence of the
National Government, this structure, though primarily of local
relations, as reaching across these navigable waters, could not have
been built. We feel assured that those honorably representing that
Government, who favor its completion with their attendance, and in
whose presence political differences are forgotten, will share with
us in the joyful pride with which we regard it, and in the inspiring
anticipation that the physical apparatus of civilization in the land
is to take fresh impulse, not impediment or hindrance, from that which
here has been effected. The day seems brought distinctly nearer when
the Nation, equipped with the latest implements furnished by science,
shall master and use as never before its rich domain.
Not only the modern spirit is here, even in eminence, which dares
great effort for great advantage; but the chiefest of modern
instruments is here, which is the ancient untractable iron,
transfigured into steel.
It was a sign, and even a measure, of ancient degeneracy, when the age
of Gold was followed if not forgotten by one of Iron. Decadence of
arts, of learning and laws, of society itself, was implied in the
fact. The more intrepid intelligence, the more versatile energy, amid
which we live, have achieved the success of combining the two: so that
while it is true now, as of old, that "no mattock plunges a golden
edge into the ground, and no nail drives a silver point into the
plank," it is also true that, under the stimulus of the larger
expenditure which the added supplies of gold make possible, the duller
metal has taken a fineness, a brightness and hardness, with a tensile
strength, before unfamiliar.