two great parties,
and every mayor of Boston, Republican and Democrat alike,
Pierce, Gaston and Green, have fairly and honorably discharged
their duty. It is one of the most important trusts that can
be imposed upon a public official, to guard the purity of
the vote of their fellow citizens. The Republican Committee
this year submitted its lists and the names upon them were
changed, and other men substituted, Butler men, Democrats
and criminals, all charged to the Republican account. Our
neighbor, Judge Nelson, a few years ago, tried at the bar
of his court a man whom Governor Butler defended. He was
convicted, sentenced and went to jail. He is now out of prison,
and has been substituted for a Republican, probably by the
influence of his former counsel, to count the ballots of the
citizens of Boston. You have heard of such proceedings in
other States, but never in Massachusetts. Unless the people
of this Commonwealth rise in their might and crush out this
attempted fraud, they will have at the mouth of the Charles
River another New York, with its frauds, Tweed rings and scandals."

He answered that by an attack on the memory of my father who
had died more than twenty-five years before. Thereupon the
controversy, so far as it had anything personal in it, ended.

It happened that the year when General Butler was Governor
I was elected President of the Harvard Alumni Association.
It was the custom of the College to invite the Governor to
the dinner of the Alumni on Commencement day as the guest
of the University and to confer upon him the degree of Doctor
of Laws. It would have been my duty to preside at the dinner
and to walk with him at the head of the procession, to have
him seated by my side at the table, and to extend to him the
courtesies of the University. I hardly knew what I ought
to do. I must either walk with him and sit by his side in
silence or with a formal and constrained courtesy which would
in itself be almost an affront, or on the other hand, I must
take his hand, salute him with cordiality as becomes a host
on a great occasion in dealing with a distinguished guest,
and converse with him as I should have conversed with other
persons occupying his high place. It did not seem to me that
I ought to do either, especially in the case of a man whose
offence had not been merely against me, but who had made a
gross and unfounded attack upon the memory of my father, and
of whose personal and publ