, April 5, 1899, in honor of Captain Charles E.
Clark, U. S. N., late Commander of the battleship "Oregon."

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE UNION LEAGUE:--It was my good
fortune, some eighteen months ago, to be in the city of Seattle, when
the "Monterey" was lying in the harbor under the command of Captain
Clark. At the time of my visit clear skies, placid waters and silent
guns gave little indication of the awful responsibility that was soon to
be imposed upon the gallant commander. My boys, having met him, were,
like myself, intensely interested in the outcome of his voyage; and I
can say to him that the pulsations of the engines which drove the
_Oregon_ through fourteen thousand miles of tropic seas were accompanied
by the sympathetic beatings of hearts which had learned to love and
respect this great captain as he richly deserved.

The American Navy! The most concise tribute that I ever heard paid to
the sailors of the United States was contained in the answer of a man
from Indiana, who was an applicant for office under General Grant, just
after the Civil Service rules had gone into operation. The applicant was
apprehensive as to his ability to respond to the questions, but one of
his answers captured the board of examiners as well as the president,
and he secured the place. The question was, "How many sailors did Great
Britain send here, during the war of the Revolution, for the purpose of
subduing us?" and the answer was, "More by a----sight than ever got
back."

When Louis XIV, in order to check what he perceived to be the growing
supremacy of England upon the seas, determined to establish a navy, he
sent for his minister Colbert, and said to him, "I wish a navy--how can
I create it!" Colbert replied, "Make as many galley slaves as you can."
Thereupon every Huguenot who refused to doff his bonnet on the street as
the king passed by, every boy of seventeen who could give no account of
himself, every vagrant without an occupation, was seized, convicted, and
sent to the galleys. Could a navy of heroes be made of galley slaves!
The history of the Anglo-Saxon race says "No."

On the twenty-second day of December, 1775, the navy of the United
States was born on the waters of our Delaware. On that day Esek Hopkins,
of Rhode Island, was placed in command of a little fleet of eight
vessels--two of them ships, two of them brigs, the others very much
smaller. The English officers sneered in derision at "the fl