liberties which without offense may be taken by an older man with one so much younger.
To conclude, for fifty years I have loved him and been proud of him as a man of science of whom I know how learned, how conscientious, how indefatigable, how helpful and how justly renowned he is; as a citizen of whom I know how patriotic, how courageous, how unselfish and how public spirited he is; and as a friend whose nobility of heart only those can cherish and esteem as it deserves who know him best. And I can hardly describe how profoundly happy I am to be permitted to take part in this tribute which so many of the best men of the country are here assembled to pay to such genuine, sterling and eminent worth.
TO EDWIN BURRITT SMITH
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Bolton Landing, Lake George, N. Y., |
I received your letter of the 5th with the call for the “Liberty Congress” [at Indianapolis], last night. I think the call is well expressed as it stands.
To judge from what I read in the papers and in my correspondence, and from what I hear in conversation, the action of the Democratic Convention has produced the worst possible impression. The fight about the free-coinage plank in the Committee and the subsequent adoption of it has pushed the silver question into the foreground again and given it much more prominence than it would have had, if the resolution had not been discussed at all. I think if the election were to take place within a week, McKinley would have an overwhelming success. Friends of mine right here, who had reconciled themselves to the support of Bryan on the ground that imperialism could not be defeated in any other way, are now as profoundly disgusted with the Democrats as they were in 1896. I have
