New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-15
THANKSGIVING IN LONDON
The american ambassadors Speech
at the american Festiual.

-, make but one word OF reply to the too
.--sro,,s speech 10 which you have just listened
..aIl try, as IN my poor capacity may lie, TO
-. ,,n to what has been said of me- and for the
1-ssen4 with aI my heart I thank you.
~. occasion which calls us together is Pc
..,,orIv the family festival among our national
s.asevs We gladly welcome here the dis
s.-,,she6 English guests, including the highest
sr-sctrsl and financial authorities of this great
=. end our friend. the Solicitor General Of
-s,ssa- Their presence is most agreeable: they
SIR 10 completes the family reunion (Cheers)
3 they should chance TO observe that in the
.-,herance Of the hour the American eagle occa-
-s.,sI1y flaps his wings. we hope they will think
:, the better Of the bird for that We hope.
=, they will understand that. on our part. we
:. oerfectly well aware the British lion is also
:, his post. and. IN the language of the Western
.svarsisements. is stu carrying On business at
:. old stand daughter and cheers.)
an not going to indulge, however. in any
.,ovv Of either bird or beast. Qaughter.) In
49, have been thinking of the story told by
arr oountryman, Mr.. Carnegie, OF his fellow
c,o,ohnlan's favorite prayer 20 Lord. gle us a
-o,6 couceit O. oursels." When Mr.. Carnegis
IN. the story he Is apt to add that. to the
hast of his knowledge and BELIEF, the prayer has
bs.n fully ansWered-both in the land of his
.santion and in the land OF his nativity. Q4augh-
tsr and cheers.l
certainly, at any rate. the thought uppermost
!, every American mind tonight, and particu-
isrly in the minds of those Americans piously
.lshrating the family festival in this or in other
gzast centres of the worlds activity-in Europe,
ssia- Africs. or tbs islands of the seattle
.ho1eht uppermost, I say. IN all these scattered
.-.unz of our countrymen around their Thanks
living tables tonight is one of satisfaction and
.sse in the present condition Of their country,
- prosperity at home, its renown abroad. We
ssank God coliAOtively tonight for many things,
sut arst OF al that we Americans (Cheers-l
Won. however Mr.. Chairman have done some
ming to cast a gloom over my personal feelings.
+, response to my request to be shown what the
american Society did and expected On Thanks
y,ang Day. you sent me q report Of your pro-
esedtngs on this day year ago. Therein l
-sa6 from brilliant and eminent leader OF the
English bar, that it was quite wrong for US TO
ean ourselves Americans, and especially wrong
70 describe the high Office which am honored
m Being permitted to hold. as the American
Fnhassv This explained the inspiration of re-
-aarks had heard once or twice from estimapIe
ana evidently impressionahle countryTnen tnat
ne really ought not to take a title bigger IMAM
our deserts. and that 1t was unbecoming IA Us
and unfair TO others to describe ourselves oy q
name that could belong only 10 the Wnole OF
the three Americas. Now Mr.. Chairman, after
having thus set me in my place by this endur-
ing record of last years censure, you have nope
iessly compromised me by hagrantly introducing
again Tonight the American Ambassador.
Well sir, this seems 10 put me upon my oe-
fence; 10 put most of you also on your deIence
In this emergency I shall resort 10 q nigh tegai
authority. l cite, in all humility and with al
due respect, the well known case OF Baroell vs..
pickwfck Ulaughter.) Those of you whose legal
edaeztion has not been neglected viii remember
that In that famous case, the hlShest aoVlce
recommended q t'hallibL" That is our defence,
sf; sc plead an alibi. We weren't there when
re crime was committed In fact, II was done
bsore we were born! (Laughter9
was not in the present century, or even IN
be last but away back in the century before
M that a person called Edmund Burke SAID
m > very n1l1Iic occasion. you can never sub
aus the Americans" 1t was another culprit the
first William Pitt, Lord Chatham, who began
IN impassioned outburst on another quite puoLc
occasion with the words, IF were an AInerl-
can, as ! an an Englishman. and so on There
was another inpenitent offender, one Charles
James Fox, who remarked at a critical moment,
America must be conquered IN france. May
cite only one more criminal TO the bar? on an
occasion also somewhat public certain Da1lei
Webster said at Bunker Hill, Il was porn an
American, I live an American, shall ole an
American"
The Indictment against US at the Thanks
giving dinner last year seemed 70 pc lnat We
were assuming a new name for ourselves; ano
tat this robbed or affronted the Canadians and
Mexicans and Central and South Americans,
who had as good & right to it as we. Wen, you
hsve seer that the name isn't new; that We
didn't first apply it-tbat in fact we've been
known by IT in three centuries. NOW, does any
body suppose the others want it;-that the
Mexicans would like to have their representa-
tive heEs caiied the American Minister;-or the
chiliens or the Venezuelans would like TO use
that name instead OF their own?
5ut Some one says, at any rate, the name as
re il is not sufficiently exact. Wen, take
The clumsy alternative, the United States Am
bsssa5or I. that anv more exact? There is
United States Of Brazil-why might not the
phrase mean its representative? There IS a
United States Of Colombia most interesting
country. Why isn't its representative just as
vel entitled to call himself the United States
Ambassador?
Well then what is there left? If you are
going TO insist on a name that shall be abso-
lutey exact, and must, therefore, be neWi-if
you are going to reject the name sanctioned by
generations of use and embedded in the best
literature on both sides Of the Atlantfc;-n you
think the language of LORD Chatham and Ed
mund Burke and Daniel Webster no longer gooa
enough for this generation, then only TWO exact
names are suggested. One is this fine mouth
Hing title. the United States of America Am
oassador." The other is that mlsDegotIen ana
appalling appellation offered you so insidiously
lSst year the Unsonan Ambassador" Oaugh-
Away with both Of them to the limbo of VIOLA
PIX and EsperantoI daughter and cheers.)
LEI ne commend instead TO the great lawyer
*no addressed you last year, In reprehenslon OF
our innocent practice. the words OF an oder
lawyer. Leave said Edmund Burke, In his
Speech entitled American Taxation, leave
americans as they anciently stood, and all these
unhappy distinctions viii die out" Usage in
snree centuries still gives in England. pre-
Eunle to think a title that viii hold, so long as
grass grows and water runs. {Cheers.)
: We may venture then to say again that the
saeIght uppermost in the minds Of our people
eVeryBhere at their gatherings tonight is one
@ pE1de that they are Americans. May not go
iaraher and say that their next feeling is one
q pride In their President? 1t is pride con-
aned to no section. II is as intense in the old
secession States or in the remote but vital and
goStng West as it is in the city of his birth
NE pride, not Of party but OF patriots in all
parties, that the mutations OF our politics have
thought to the front and kept st the front such
q type Of American as the world knows in
theodore Roosevelt Cloud cheers. } And, If
nnf,. s,,4a~ FaoF