"Some letters have been filed, and I beg leave to call attention to them. In the first place, permit me to say that this enterprise has been strongly recommended by the National Congress of the Sons of the American Revolution, at which there were representatives from 40 States, consisting of exmembers of Congress, ex-judges, ex-army and ex-navy officers, and many prominent and influential citizens. A resolution commending it to the support of the National and State Governments was unanimously adopted on a rising vote. It has been cordially indorsed by the District Society of the Sons of the American Revolution in this city, composed of 600 men, the most intelligent, perhaps, and influential— certainly as much so-as those of any other city. Many governors of the States having written strong letters of commendation, and I file here a letter from our accomplished Secretary of the Navy, Hon. W. H. Moody, strongly indorsing it. I file also a letter from President Roosevelt, whose prominent characteristics are his intense Americanism and ardent love of country, and who sees in this occasion a rare opportunity to strengthen the bonds of the American Union, to cultivate a broad catholic spirit of American patriotism, and to furnish an object lesson for the study and contemplation of the young men of the country.

"I file also a letter from ex-President Grover Cleveland, who has gone into history as one of the greatest Chief Magistrates who ever occupied the Executive chair. Also a letter from his eminence Cardinal Gibbons, not only beloved by his own people but by all Christian denominations in this country. And, sir, the voice of McKinley comes up from the grave at Canton to assure us of his sympathy and encouragement. A few hours before our martyred Presidentwhose greatness was only equaled by his goodness—was stricken down by the cruel hand of a cowardly assassin he delivered an address at Buffalo, in the State of New York, in which he said:

Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement; they quicken the human genius; they stimulate the enterprise, industry, and intellect of the people; they enter into the daily homes; they broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. Every

exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is educational and as such it instructs the brain and the hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows and thus is furnished a spur to useful improvement and an inspiration to high endeavor.

"Pardon me, Mr. Chairman, I must forbear. Permit me to say that when Louis Kossuth, the great Hungarian orator, came to this country to plead the cause of his downtrodden and oppressed people, he electrified his audiences everywhere and on one occasion, after a great speech, a gentleman arose and offered a resolution of sympathy. Then Kossuth rose and cried out, 'Oh, friends, friends, what my afflicted, oppressed country needs is material aid and operative sympathy!'

"That is what the marine and naval exposition needs today. We want material aid, operative sympathy, and I have no doubt about the result. Why, to entertain a doubt would be to impeach the patriotism of the American Congress.

"The exhibition will be held, and it will be a great and grand and glorious success. The creations of American genius will be there; the products of American industry will be there; the American Navy will be there; the navies of the world will be there; the American Army will be there; our gallant citizen soldiery will be there; the Senate and the House of Representatives will be there; the Supreme Court will be there; the President and his Cabinet will be there; the foreign ambassadors and ministers will be there; the orator and the poet will be there; the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution will be there; the American people will be there, and as they gather from the North and from the South, from the East and from the West, and look down the far-reaching slope of the three centuries that have gone and look forward with exulting pride in contemplation of the grandeur and glory of the Republic as it shall move forward over the bright track of progress and look out upon the flag of our common country, the proud ensign of the Republic, as it shall float over a people, united, prosperous, free, they will exclaim with one heart and with one voice:

"Float out, oh flag, and float on every sea;

Float out, oh flag, and blaze in every clime;

Float out, oh flag, and float till time and space themselves shall cease to be.'

"I thank you." [Prolonged applause.]

CHAPTER XVII

Commodore Matthew F. Maury-His true greatness-The great debt due to him by the General Government-Descent and birth-First voyage and beginning of his treatise on navigation-His marriageGreat services to science-"Physical Geography of the Sea"-Addresses before agricultural societies-Urged to take up his residence abroad after resigning from United States Navy-Goes to Mexico after the war-Return to his native State-His last request to his wife.

The greatest man in many respects whom I have ever met was the renowned Matthew F. Maury. It was my good fortune to meet him many years ago at the Yellow Sulphur Springs in Virginia, to sit at the same table with him, and to listen to the words of wisdom that fell from his lips. Like all other great men, he was as simple and unaffected as a little child. It is said that the records at the Navy Department at Washington contain an entry to the effect that he was dismissed from the service in 1861 on account of treason. If this be true, I submit, in view of his great services to the country and to mankind, the entry should not only be expunged, but the Congress of the United States should provide for the erection of a magnificent monument to his memory at the Rip-Raps in Hampton Roads, upon whose great possibilities he delighted so much to dwell. It may perhaps be of interest to the reader, and especially to the young men, to furnish a brief sketch of his eventful and wonderful career.

He was descended from a Huguenot family on the father's side, while his maternal ancestor, Mr. Minor, was an English gentleman, who received a grant of land in Virginia from King Charles II. He was born January 14, 1806, in Spottsylvania, that noble old county so rich in traditions and around which so many historic glories cluster. When he was in his fifth year, he emigrated with his father's family to the State of Tennessee, where he worked on a farm in the days

of his early boyhood, and received such elementary instruction as the Old Field schools in that new country could afford.

In 1825 he was appointed a midshipman in the Navy of the United States by Samuel Houston, then a member of Congress from Tennessee. His pay as midshipman was only twenty dollars per month, but he sent half of it regularly to a widowed sister.

His first voyage was in the frigate Brandywine, when she was sent to carry General Lafayette to France. Notwithstanding the discomforts and difficulties which he experienced in his narrow quarters, he determined to master the theory and practise of his profession. While pacing to and fro as a watch on the quarter-deck, he would calk diagrams in spherical trigonometry on the round shot, and with no other text-book but an old Spanish work, he commenced his new treatise on navigation which he completed a few years later.

In 1831 he became engaged to his cousin Ann Herndon, and when about to sail on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean he gave her a little seal, only to be used in writing to him, with the simple inscription of "Mizpah"-"The Lord watch between thee and me when we are absent one from the other." After his return to the United States in 1834, he married his cousin, and paid to the clergyman, as his fee for performing the ceremony, the last ten dollars he had in the world. In this prosaic and unsentimental age, when the only object of life with most people seems to be to put money in the purse, it may be said by some that in entering into matrimony under such circumstances this young naval officer committed a very rash act. But I stand ready to maintain against all comers and goers that in this, as in every other act of life, he proved himself to be a wise man and a true philosopher. He could not possibly have made a better investment of the ten dollars. No greater blessing can be vouchsafed by a benignant Providence to any young man in the beginning of his career than a union of heart and hand with a pure-minded and lovely woman. The wisest of men has said, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in