c swords, sending with them a purse, "in
recognition of the valuable services rendered to our country by the
father and son, and as a token that gratitude for fidelity to the flag
of the Union is an abiding sentiment with the citizens of New York,
descending from generation to generation."

The cities of Troy, Portland, Richmond, Chicago, three of them when
swept by fire, and Richmond when cast into gloom by the fall of the
State Capitol, all in turn have realized, through the prompt action of
the Chamber, the large brotherliness of commercial New York.

And, finally, in 1876, at Savannah, and in 1878, through the whole
southwestern district of the country, and again in 1879 at Memphis, the
contributions made through the Chamber of Commerce gave substantial
relief to the distressed victims of yellow fever. Thus has the Chamber
contributed to promote a union of hearts throughout the broad expanse of
this great Union of States. Thus has the Chamber done what it could to
show that the spirit of commerce is a large and a liberal spirit, too
large to be bounded by the lines that divide nations. Thus has the
Chamber shown itself not unworthy of the Empire State of the New World.
May the future of the Chamber be in every respect worthy of the past.
[Loud applause,]

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

HARVARD ALUMNI

[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the Harvard Alumni dinner at
Cambridge, Mass., June 30, 1875. Mr. Lowell was the presiding
officer.]

BRETHREN OF THE ALUMNI:--It is, I think, one of the greatest
privileges conferred upon us by our degree that we can meet together
once a year in this really majestic hall [Memorial Hall], commemorative
of our proudest sorrows, suggestive only of our least sordid ambitions;
that we can meet here to renew our pledge of fealty to the ancient
mother who did so much for the generations that have gone before us, and
who will be as benign to those who, by-and-by, shall look back and call
us fathers. The tie that binds us to our college is one of the purest,
since it is that which unites us also with our youth; it is one of the
happiest, for it binds us to the days when we looked forward and not
backward, for in hope there is nothing to regret, while in retrospect
there is a touch of autumn and a premonition of winter.

In this year of centennials, when none of us would be surprised if a
century plant should blossom in our back yard [laughter], when I myself
am matured, as I loo