ng chain of islands that puts off from the Alaska coast; and, if
I am to credit what I read (for I have no sources of information now
except the not absolutely reliable newspaper press), there are some who
believe there are wicked men who want to hitch the end of that chain
into an island farther out in the sea. [Applause.] If that is to be
done, the West would become the East, for I think the Orient has
generally been counted to be the East.

I would not, however, suggest a division of the New England Society. It
is well enough to keep up an association that is one, not only of
neighborhood and of historical association, but of sentiment. Let the
New England Society live, and I fancy it will not be long until you
enjoy the distinction of being the only great subdivision of the States;
for, my fellow-citizens, whatever barriers prejudice may raise, whatever
obstruction the interests of men may interpose, whatever may be the
outrages of cruelty to stay the march of men, that which made the
subdivision called "the Southern States," and all that separated them
from the States of the West and of the North, will be obliterated.
[Cheering.]

I am not sure, though the story runs so, that I have a New England
strain. The fact is that I have recently come to the conclusion that my
family was a little overweighted with ancestry, and I have been looking
after posterity. [Merriment.]

One serious word, gentlemen. The New England character and the
influence of New England men and women have made their impress upon the
whole country; for, even in the South, during the time of slavery,
educated men and women from New England were the tutors and instructors
of the youth of the South in the plantation home. The love of education,
the resolve that it should be general, the love of home with all the
pure and sacred influences that cluster about it, are elements in the
New England character that have a saving force which is incalculable in
this great nation in which we live. Your civil institutions have been
free, high and clean. From the old town-meeting days till now, New
England has believed in and practised the Free Election and the Fair
Count. But, gentlemen, I cannot enumerate all of your virtues--time is
brief, the catalogue long. Will you permit me to thank you and your
honored President for your gracious reception of me to-night?
[Long-continued cheering.]

JOSEPH ROSWELL HAWLEY

THE PRESS

[Speech of Gen. Joseph R