gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of
recent origin and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor
and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the
Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel,
nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a
message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a
treaty of peace had been signed. How different now!

We reached General Miles in Puerto Rico by cable, and he was able,
through the military telegraph, to stop his army on the firing line with
the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol
suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots
fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces
was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation.
The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic
harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift
destruction that followed was announced immediately through the
wonderful medium of telegraphy.

So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands
that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss
and inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and
awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent from Pekin,
and the diplomatic representatives of the nations in China, cut off
from all communication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were
surrounded by an angry and misguided mob that threatened their lives;
nor the joy that filled the world when a single message from the
Government of the United States brought through our minister the first
news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam
railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make its circuit
many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have
a vast mileage traversing all lands and seas. God and man have linked
the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other.
And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less
occasion there is for misunderstandings and the stronger the
disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of
arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settlement of
international disputes.

My fellow citizens, tr