Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-01-07

lon. leo. +. Sewail, Hon. A. I. Gouiu anu
many other able men we're members of the
House. In the Senate among others were
| Hon John A. Peters and Hon. n. A. Far
veil. Over the House presided Hon. j. G.
Blaine. The experience to be gained in a
legislature composed of such able men as
these was valuable. The questions to be
met at that time were not those of ordinary
legislation, but questions of the life and
death of the nation. 1t was q session which
he could never forget, and il was a pleasure
to him to meet TO day some of those who sat
in these halls at that time. During the wears
he had served in the legislature he had formed
the friendships of men now scattered through
out the Union, friendships which had not only
continued but strengthened and increased as
the years had gone by No friendships
formed in the ordinary relations of life are
stronger or more lasting than those formed in
legislative halls. Nothing would have de-
TERED him, except actual necessity. from be-
ing present to day. He thanked those who
had conceived the project of a reunion and
made il so successful.
Hon. David Dudley.
Hon David Dudley said that certain
strange noises had been heard through the
State recently and upon investigation they had
been found 10 arise from ex members prac
spSSCuts uSlOES tuSiE thiI
rors. Laughter and spplause,l OF course
all of the speeches were impromptu. The
currency in his county had been cedar
shingles, until of late years, when il had be-
come potatoes He hadn't seen his way clear
81 come 10 the reunion, but potatoes uueX-
pectedly took rise. and when that occurred
he also took rise and rose with the occasion.
| Laughter and applause. He had then said,
Sink or swim" he would come to Augusta.
He had been troubled to know what he should
do if called upon to speak. He might be like
the lrishmin who, when very sick, was
asked by his wife if he WAS dying, replied.
mo, but | am speeches." Laughter. ]
He then referred IN a feeling manner to the
ex-members who had been removed by death,
aud taking up the question of legislation and
its effects argued that equal justice should
be melted out to the rich as well ~ the poor,
the strong as well as the weak, which, he
claimed. is not the case to-day.
Hon. Josiah Crosby.
Hon. Josiah Crosby related "Reminiscences
of the Senate OF 81 He had endeavored to
have passed bill removing the prohi-
bition of marriage between white and colored
people. The bill passed the Senate but
failed in the House, both democrats
and republicans opposing it. In after
wears the matter was taken up and
carried through without dissenting
voice. such had been the progress Of public
opinion. He claimed for himself little
credit for having started that bill He claimed
to be good temperance man and did not now
remember of ever having drunk a glass OF
liquor. Considerable had been said about
Gen. Grants invtstion here and the liquor
bill. He would saw if Gen Grant and his
staff had come to his house and wanted glass
Nf 10. h., 4 II.
found in the State of Maine. His wife might
make row if disposed, but it would make
no difference with him.
Hon. Harrison Hume.
Hon. Harrison Hume, formerly of Cherry
field, now of Boston, was the next speaker.
He referred to his pleasant recollections of
the legislature of which ne was once a men,
Der, and of Hon. A. Pike, Hon. Lewis
Barker, Hon. James VI Stone, Hon. Chas.
r. Whidden, and many others, who were an
honor to that body. He related an instance
in the House in which he was opposing an
appeal for an appropriation for the agricul-
tural college, and in his speech he had boast
ed that he was raised upon farm; that he
was raised between two rows Of corn. when
his friend Barker exclaimed, Pumpkin b.
thunder!' Great laughter and applause
The speaker also related other instances of
the session, and said that while he was not
now resident OF Maine, he had
| o. cssion at all times to be proud
of his native State, proud of her hills,
her valleys and her rock-bound coast ::
proud of the men she has given to literature,
for it was upon her soil that Americas most
gilt poet was born; proud of the men she
has contributed to the craftsmanship of the
nation, one of whom we have seen to-day in
the flesh, and the other by the aid of
the painters art, the noblest creation
of God. an honest man, Hon. Hannibal Ham
lin and Hon. Lot NJ. Morrill, applause1. He
was proud to have been member of the
Legislature of Maine; a body that has con
tanned such men as George Evans, who, in
years gone by, measured swords With no less
IA man than Daniel Webster: proud to have
been member of a body that contained such
men as William Pitt Fessenlen, whom he
remembered when he left this State and en-
tered the L. S, Senate and took the oath of
Office the very night when the great debate in
the Kansas and Nebraska bill was on in full
force, and how he Immediately entered into
that debate with power that surprised every
one, and how, at the earnest solicitation of
President Lincoln. Mr. Fessenden assumed
the duties OF Secretary of the Treasury He
was proud, too, to have been \ member of a
body which contained man whose name has
become a household word throughout the
land man better loved and more firmly
hated than anv man since the time of Henry
CLAY, the Hon. James G. Blaine Great APP
plause. He was proud of the men who to-
day represent us in the Congress of the Unit
ted States, who began their careers in this
hall proud that we have sent to the Congress
of the United States the bralnest man in that
body, the Hon. Thomas B. Reed applause. I
man who is able, at any time, to
lead the House Of Representatives
and who does lead it; and equally proud of
our Senators The other day at the mer-
chants dinner in Boston, they wanted man
who had the courage of his convictions, and
who dared to say what ne believed they
called upon the Hon VIM p FRYE In all his
experiences and observations with legislators
he had seen none that compared more favor
ably than the legislators of Maine in point of
honest action, ztal, non-partisanship and re-
gard for the public veal.
| Hon. a. =. Stocking
Hon. A. S. Stocking of Massachusetts, was
then called upon, and responded in brief
and pertinent speech. The speaker said he
was member of the Main egisatu Just a
quarter of a century ago. ami it seemed Ia
him that this must be the silver wedding, and
for Senator Hamln the golden wedding. Tie
spoke of his pleasant experiences "a mem.
Der, and said that he was proud of Maine,
his native State, her grand history, her grea,
men and noble deeds