Second, the Irishman, like other men, is not always a man of peace. His blood is warmer on occasion and his interpretation of the strenuous life, which makes men loved for the enemies they make, is another quality which, when rightly trained and directed, is one of the greatest powers for good in the world. To be angry aright is almost one of the definitions of education.
Third, the Irishman has a veritable genius for politics, which had no scope in the earlier formative days of Irish history, but which finds its legitimate sphere in this republican land. He is also a patriot, a superb soldier. Politics culminates in statesmanship, and I cannot forbear here a word which I believe will appeal to every heart which keeps a warm corner for Burke, Emmet or O’Connell.
My conception of statesmanship is higher than that of politics. The first of all conditions of success in its purer realm is utter disinterestedness. Within the last few days, this country has witnessed the rare spectacle of a senator,[[1]] unusually devoted to the party at whose birth he assisted, and to a president whom he has long loved, placing his convictions, matured by long experience and ripe knowledge, above both. To no temperament could the personal sacrifices have been greater than for him to give us this modern version of Aristotle’s “Plato amicus sed major amicus veritas.”
Bound by family lineage, many and long friendships, historical and literary associations, with England, his devotion to our national muse of liberty which inspired the constitution and the declaration of independence impelled him to openly declare sympathy toward the struggling patriots in the Transvaal, as in his long life he has had occasion to do for Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cuba and Ireland.
Gentlemen, there is a higher plane than that of the traditions, current methods and policies of organizing colonial dependencies. It is to believe that every growing race and ethnic stock has higher possibilities in it; to hold that the diverse ways of civilization are not all exhausted yet, and that instead of forcing other races to take up the white man’s, or the Englishman’s burden, our policy should be to keep off, where practicable, alien interference, including our own, and to develop a new policy of protection and thus to foster new and independent centers of social and political development.
To my mind the tragedy of history is the perversion, repression or destruction of budding nationalities of species, and perhaps genera, different from our own, and the threatened uniformitization of the entire world by civilization as we define and understand it. This is the method of what, I think, we may call the higher anthropology. It would be, I think, the statesmanship of the superman, who may sometime exist, and who would be a citizen of all times and a spectator of all events. To steer the ship of state in this direction is to keep it true to the pole of human destiny. It is the work of the heavenborn pilot, who keeps his tiller true, and not of the star gazer.
These moments are big with destiny. Statesmanship is approaching the time when it must take a cosmic view of human life as a whole, and I have heard no note that rings so clear and pure to my ear with such a true flavor of conviction as the plea for a larger ken by the political nestor of this state and nation, who has grown not rich but poor from a quarter century’s service for his state; who makes no bid for the support of other parties, while speaking as many of his colleagues in both parties privately declare they would do if they spoke for themselves rather than for their constituency; a man competent to-day to fill any one of three if not four professorships; whose years admonish us that any such utterance may be his last, and whom, as in the case of no other public man, his political enemies vie with his friends to honor.
President Hall was followed by President Capen of Tufts College who also delivered an entertaining address.
The historical paper of the evening was by Thomas F. O’Malley, of Somerville, Mass., whose subject was “Hugh Cargill,” a patriot who took part in the events of April 19, 1775. The paper displayed close research.
There were also addresses during the evening by John E. Milholland, Joseph Smith and E. O’Meagher Condon.