The Washington critic., 1888-01-20
EX.SPEAKERS PORTRAITS.
CEREMONIES OF PRESERVATION IN
THE HOUSE YESTERDAY.
Kentucky's Glowing Tribute to the Old
Hay State.

When THE CRTrc's report closed yes
terday Mr.. Long of Massachusetts had
just finished his speech in which he pre-
sented to the House the portraits of Theo-
dore Sedgwick, Joseph b. Varnum and
Nathaniel 2. Banks, all ex-Speakers Of the
House of Representatives.
These portraits were the gifts of the
State of Massachusetts, and will serve rs
an incentive to other States to do like
wise. Mr.. Long did not refer to the ex-
Speakers, but he extolled the greatness
and grandness of the old Bay Common
wealth so charmingly and Interestingly
that the opinion was expressed that he
had left nothing for the gentlemen to say
who were TO follow him. But the opinion
was erroneous. Mr.. Rockwell of Massa-
chusetts, in his remarks on ex-Speaker
Sedgwick, was listened TO attentiveIy, and
his effort loudly applauded, as were also
the remarks of Messrs. Allen on ex-
Speaker Varnum, Collins and Lodge on
ex-Speaker Winthrop and Hayden on OK
Speaker Banks.
When the Massachusetts, delegation had
finished Mr.. Randall offered the resolu-
ton accepting the portraits He made a
few well-chosen remarks, in which he
said that, in his opinion, the Speakership
was the highest Office that an American
citizen could hold.
The speech that captured the House.
however, and evoked the widest enthu
sasm of its hearers, was the closing one
by Hon. w. Q. =. Breckenridge of Ken
tucky.
At the close of Mr. Randalps remarks,
and the reading of the resolution accept
ing the portraits, Mr.. Breckenridge arose
and said: "Mr. Speaker, l rise to second
the resolution He then continued by
saying that 'it might not be altogether
improperthat the person selected for tins
duty should be n representative from the
State of Kentucky"
He did not propose to say one word i'm
honor of his beloved State, but II was not
unbecoming to say that in her history
there was no more glorious page than that
on which were written the name and the
deeds of her sons who had filled the
Speakers chair, and he took advantage
OF the .absence of one of her sons to say
that in impartiality and intellectually
that son who now filled ii never had u
superior.
He drew q striking picture of the time
when Mr.. Sedgwick was born and the
events that have since transpired in our
history, and said that if any one standing
beside the cradle of Sedgwick could have
glanced down the corridors of time and
foretold this glorious event the people
dreamer. Yet such a triumph was in
store for the children of the future.
When he commented on the impress
Massachusetts had made on the page of
history he said
1 do not exaggeratc, Mr.. Speaker, think.
when say that from 1855 to1S75-whether IL
was for veal or for woe whether 1t was wisely
or unwisely done, men may differ and his
torians may dispute-but as a matter of fact
Massachusetts led America and led her with
an audacity and an aggressiveness, with skill
and an eloquence, with power and force
that have never been surpassed in all the tide
of time in the leadership of great people.
| lApplause.l
He closed with the following powerful
pEBoRATIoN:
Mr.. Speaker, Is this all of Il? Is this the
end of the chapterY Is this ceremonial about
the past all that is to be said and all that is
| to enter our hearts on this early day of new
year9 In some other hail. when the assem-
| bled representatives Of many more millions
are met together to accept the picture of some
other Speaker, some Speaker as earnest as
| dutiful, as resolute as these, some
| Speaker such as the eminent gentle
man who has just preceded me mfr. IRAN
DAHL whose name honors the list of Espeak
| ers general applausel- some one
standing as l stand to-day, seconds the mo
tion then to be made as do the motion sub
| mitted to-day, may he not with more eloquent
tongue felicitate himself and his country
upon the added triumphs that he and his en-
| Joy that will have come down from this even
| ing TO that day?
AS we go away to-day from this scene the
| thought which In my heart is uppermost has
| tinge Of envy In It. / envy the little boy
| who, careless to-day Of this transaction, may
| llve,to see the development OF the next seventy
| years. | feel toward him certain degree Of
jealousy that he will see so much more thar
we have seen. I am glad Mr.. Speaker, die
not live when Washington lived; ] am glad
lived not when Warren fell at Bunker Hill;
am glad that have lived in later day. amid
other generations that thereby became the
inheritor of all the accumulated glory, all tn,
aggregated heroism, all the namelcss and in
DESERT able sacrifices that man has put fortl
from that day to this; and as | project myse
into the future do not accept the oliv,
branch that my friend from Massachusetts
has held out to me, but, lovingly waving II
aside, / take with outstretched hand his out
stretched hand and challenge Massachusetts
TO n nobler rivalry for higher purposes in that
glorious future which pray God TO give thost
! we love. Loud and long-continued applause.
When the applause had subsided Mr.
Mr.. Breckenridge for the next ten MINUTES
was busy receiving congratulations upoI
all sides.