RICHARD OGLESBY

THE ROYAL CORN

Speech of ex-Governor Richard Oglesby at the banquet of the Fellowship Club, Chicago, September 9, 1894, on the occasion of the Harvest-Home Festival. The toastmaster was Franklin H. Head, and the toast that he gave to each speaker was, "What I Know About Farming." In the report by Volney W. Foster, member of the club, it is recorded that the Governor rose slowly, after being called upon by the toastmaster, and was seemingly waiting for an inspiration. He looked deliberately upon the harvest decorations of the room and finally seemed to rest upon the magnificent stalks of corn that adorned the walls. He then slowly and impressively paid the following impromptu tribute to the corn.

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:-The corn, the corn, the corn, that in its first beginning and its growth has furnished aptest illustration of the tragic announcement of the chiefest hope of man. If he die he shall surely live again. Planted in the friendly but somber bosom of the mother earth it dies. Yea, it dies the second death, surrendering up each trace of form and earthly shape until the outward tide is stopped by the reacting vital germ which, breaking all the bonds and cerements of its sad decline, comes bounding, laughing into life and light, the fittest of all the symbols that make certain promise of the fate of man. And so it died and then it lived again. And so my people died. By some unknown, uncertain and unfriendly fate, I found myself making my first journey into life from conditions as lowly as those surrounding that awakening, dying, living, infant germ. It was in those days when I, a simple boy, had wandered from Indiana to Springfield, that I there met the father of this good man [Joseph Jefferson] whose kind and gentle words to me were as water to a thirsty soul, as the shadow of a rock to weary man. I loved his father then, I

love the son now. Two full generations have been taught by his gentleness, and smiles and tears have quickly answered to the command of his artistic mind. Long may he live to make us laugh and cry, and cry and laugh by turns as he may choose

to move us.

But now again my mind turns to the glorious corn. See it! Look on its ripening, waving field! See how it wears a crown, prouder than monarch ever wore, sometimes jauntily; and sometimes after the storm the dignified survivors of the tempest seem to view a field of slaughter and to pity a fallen foe. And see the pendant caskets of the corn-field filled with the wine of life, and see the silken fringes that set a form for fashion and for art. And now the evening comes and something of a time to rest and listen. The scudding clouds conceal the half and then reveal the whole of the moonlit beauty of the night, and then the gentle winds make heavenly harmonies on a thousandthousand harps that hang upon the borders and the edges and the middle of the field of ripening corn, until my very heart seems to beat responsive to the rising and the falling of the long melodious refrain. The melancholy clouds sometimes make shadows on the field and hide its aureate wealth, and now they move, and slowly into sight there comes the golden glow of promise for an industrious land. Glorious corn, that more than all the sisters of the field wears tropic garments. Nor on the shore of Nilus or of Ind does Nature dress her forms more splendidly. My God, to live again that time when for me half the world was good and the other half unknown! And now again, the corn, that in its kernel holds the strength that shall (in the body of the man refreshed) subdue the forest and compel response from every stubborn field, or, shining in the eye of beauty make blossoms of her cheeks and jewels of her lips and thus make for man the greatest inspiration to welldoing, the hope of companionship of that sacred, warm and well-embodied soul, a woman.

Aye, the corn, the Royal Corn, within whose yellow heart there is of health and strength for all the nations. The corn triumphant, that with the aid of man hath made victorious procession across the tufted plain and laid foundation for the social excellence that is and is to be. This glorious plant, trans

muted by the alchemy of God, sustains the warrior in battle, the poet in song, and strengthens everywhere the thousand arms that work the purposes of life. Oh that I had the voice of song, or skill to translate into tones the harmonies, the symphonies and oratorios that roll across my soul, when standing sometimes by day and sometimes by night upon the borders of this verdant sea, I note a world of promise, and then before one-half the year is gone I view its full fruition and see its heaped gold await the need of man. Majestic, fruitful, wondrous plant! Thou greatest among the manifestations of the wisdom and love of God that may be seen in all the fields or upon the hillsides or in the valleys!

RICHARD OLNEY

COMMERCE AND ITS RELATIONS TO THE LAW

This address was delivered at the one hundred and thirty-sixth annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, held at Delmonico's, November 15, 1904. Richard Olney, born 1835, died 1917, eminent lawyer and statesman, was Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Cleveland. eulogy of John Marshall is printed in Volume IX.

His

I AM obliged to you, Mr. President, for your complimentary introduction, and highly appreciate the cordial greeting of this distinguished gathering.

I have been informed by the president that I am desired to speak to the sentiment, "Commerce in its Relations to the Law." The subject is so large a one that you naturally hear the statement of it with some alarm. I hasten to allay your fears by assuring you that I propose to emulate George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, neither of whom, Mr. Morley says he is informed, ever made a speech of more than ten minutes' length. In that time, of course, only one or two phases of the great theme assigned me can possibly be touched upon.

It is almost superfluous to premise that law is the very life blood of commerce, although it may be equally pertinent to add that without commerce-commerce in the largest sense, and comprising all pacific dealings between men-the law would perish from inanition-and my friend on my left (Mr. Shaw) would undoubtedly say that the lawyers also would share the same fate. Commerce and the law are, in truth, interdependent, and the question which is to be deemed the first in time and importance is like the old insoluble conundrum-whether the egg precedes the hen or the hen precedes the egg. [Laughter.]

If the intimate connection between commerce and the law everywhere and always is too plain to be overlooked the most

superficial student cannot fail to be struck with the vital part both have played in American history. In differences over commercial relations with the mother country originated American discontent with British rule, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the final severance of the American colonies from the British crown. That done, we made ourselves into a nation under a written constitution of government. What were the guiding motives of its authors? What were the two great ends they had in view? One of course was protection and defense as against foreign aggression. But the other was the regulation of the national commerce, that is, of all commerce, foreign and domestic, not limited by State lines. Could there be a greater tribute to commerce than that it was thus and then recognized as one of the two great objects of the creation of a national government? And could there be a greater tribute to law than that, embodied in its highest form in the national constitution, it was thus and then recognized as the next friend and best guardian of commerce? The wisdom of the men of 1789 has been fully vindicated by the course of events, and to-day it may almost, if not quite, be asserted that the controversies arising under the national commerce power and adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the United States exceed in number and interest and importance all the other controversies that great arbitral tribunal is called upon to determine.

The term "arbitral" suggests another feature of the relations between commerce and the law of the first importance. The law not only supplies the rule by which commerce is regulated and the machinery by which the rule is given effect. It is also the substitute in the affairs of civilized men for the domination of brute force, and it conserves and stimulates commerce by promoting international peace. Commerce thrives and grows only in the atmosphere of peace, and the American people have always given all efforts for arbitral treaties between the United States and foreign countries the strongest approval. They observe, I am sure, with the greatest satisfaction, everything the Washington government is now doing in that direction. But what in essence are such treaties, and what, if effective, do they really accomplish? They simply put the rule of law in the place of