e hundred thousand dollars and to pay
to the Chamber from the proceeds of the sale the sum of fifty thousand
dollars, originally subscribed, in the main, by members of the Chamber
when that site was purchased from the General Government a few years
ago. It is the purpose of the Chamber to buy this plot, and to build
there a building worthy of itself and of this great city. [Applause.]
But so far we ask in vain.

The House Committee of Ways and Means has reported our bill favorably,
but Congress does nothing. The Chamber wants this plot, not so much
because of the fifty thousand dollars it has of _quasi_ interest in it,
but because of its eligibility. The Chamber believes it deserves well of
this community and of the nation, and, so believing, it asks of Congress
the passage of this bill.

I look back over the past twenty years, and I find the Chamber of
Commerce has been always alive to encourage gallantry, to reward
conspicuous service, and to relieve distress. Eighteen hundred thousand
dollars--almost two millions of dollars--has been given by this Chamber
in these twenty years. The money has not all come from members of the
Chamber, but the Chamber has always been recognized as the fitting
leader and minister in this city in deeds of public spirit. [Cheers.]

In 1858 it celebrated the completion of the first Atlantic cable, by
giving medals of gold, with generous impartiality, to the officers of
the British ship "Agamemnon" and the American ship "Niagara" alike. And
in 1866 it feasted the distinguished and persevering American citizen
whose pluck and courage, with reference to this cable, no disaster and
no faint-heartedness anywhere could dismay.

In 1861, in token of gratitude and of patriotic admiration, the Chamber
placed a medal of bronze upon the breast of every officer and private
who sustained the national honor in the defense of Fort Sumter and Fort
Pickens.

In 1862 it sprang to the relief of famished Lancashire; in 1865 our own
sufferers in East Tennessee and in Savannah partook of its bounty; and
in 1871 the bread cast upon the waters by Rochambeau and Lafayette, a
hundred years before, returned through the ministry of the Chamber in an
abundant harvest to the war-stricken plains of unhappy France.

In 1865 the Chamber honored itself by giving testimonials to the
officers and crew of the "Kearsarge."

In 1866 it presented to the widow of a Southern officer in the United
States Navy several histori