I come forward to second the resolutions moved by my friend Mr. Rice,
and to express my hope that they may be adopted unanimously, and then
acted upon vigorously.
Fellow-Citizens, I had expected to be elsewhere to-day; but, thinking
of the distress of distant friends and countrymen, my heart was too
full for anything else, and, putting aside other things, I have come
to Faneuil Hall, as a simple volunteer, to help swell this movement of
sympathy and beneficence.
This is a meeting for action; but are we not told that eloquence
is _action, action, action_? And most true is it now. Help for the
suffering is the highest eloquence. The best speech is a subscription.
And he is the orator whose charity is largest.
“Thrice he gives who quickly gives.” This is a familiar saying from
the olden time. Never was it more applicable than now. Destruction
has been swift; let your gifts be swift also. If the Angel Charity
is not as quick of wing as the Fire-Fiend, yet it is more mighty and
far-reaching. Against the Fire-Fiend I put the Angel Charity.
According to another saying handed down by ancient philosophy, that is
the best government where a wrong to a single individual is resented as
an injury to all. This sentiment is worthy of careful meditation. It
implies the solidarity of the community, and the duty of coöperation.
There is no wrong now, but an immense calamity, in which individuals
suffer. Be it our duty to treat this calamity of individuals as the
calamity of all.
Who does not know Chicago? Most have visited it, and seen it with the
eye; but all know its pivotal position, making a great centre, and also
its immense growth and development. In a few years, beginning as late
as 1833, it has become a great city; and now it is called to endure
one of those visitations which in times past have descended upon great
cities. Much as it suffers, it is not alone. The catalogue discloses
companions in the past.
The fire of London, in September, 1666, raged from Sunday to Thursday,
with the wind blowing a gale, reducing two-thirds of the city to
ashes. Thirteen thousand two hundred houses were consumed, and
eighty-nine churches, including St. Paul’s, covering three hundred
and seventy-three acres within and sixty-three without the walls. The
value of buildings and property burned was estimated at between ten and
twelve millions sterling, which, making allowance for difference of
values, now would be more than one hundred million dollars. I doubt if
the population of London then was larger than that of Chicago. And yet
an English historian, recounting this event, says, “Though severe at
the time, this visitation contributed materially to the improvement of
the city.”[129]
Ancient Rome had her terrible conflagration, hardly less sweeping, when
populous quarters were devoured by the irresistible flame; and history
records that out of this destruction sprang a new life.
Is there not in these examples a lesson of encouragement for Chicago
sitting now in ashes? A great fire in other days was worse than a
great fire now; for then it was borne in solitude by the place where
it occurred; now the whole country rushes forward to bear it, making
common cause with the sufferers. I cannot doubt that out of this great
calamity, which we justly deplore, will spring improvement. Everything
will be bettered. The city thus far has been a growth; it will become
at once a creation. But future magnificence, filling the imagination,
will not feed the hungry and clothe the naked, nor will it provide
homes for the destitute. The future cannot take care of the present.
This is our duty, and it is all expressed in Charity.
Other speakers followed. The resolutions were adopted, and a
subscription was commenced at once.