d editors have read able papers or delivered
instructive addresses on that ever burning problem of how to turn swords
into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks.

I especially sympathize with the spirit of this Arbitration conference,
not only because I abominate war _per se_, but because I firmly believe
that among the grievous perils that confront our nation is the mania for
enormous and costly military and naval armament--and also the policy of
extending our territory by foreign conquests. The high mission of our
Republic is to maintain the fundamental principles initiated in our
Declaration of Independence--that all true government rests on the
consent of the governed. It is an impious profanation of our flag of
freedom to make it the symbol of absolutism on any soil. In the conflict
now waging for true American principles, I heartily concur in the views
of the late Benjamin Harrison, who was one of the most clear-sighted
and patriotic of our Presidents. Just before his death I addressed to
that noble Christian statesman a letter of heartfelt thanks for the
position he was taking. With the following gratifying reply which I
received, I conclude my chapter on peace-loving "Smiley-land":

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec 26, 1900

_My dear Dr. Cuyler_.

I can hardly tell you how grateful your letter was to me, or how
highly I value your approval. My soul has been in revolt against
the doctrine of Congressional Absolutism. I want to save my
veneration for the men who made us a nation, and organized the
nation under the Constitution. This will be impossible if I am to
believe that they organized a government to exercise from their
place that absolutism which they rejected for themselves. The
newspaper reports of my Ann Arbor address were most horribly
mangled, but the address will appear in the January number of the
_North American Review_. Allow me, my dear friend, to extend to you
the heartiest thanks, not only for your kind words, but for the
noble life which gives them value.

With all good wishes of the Christmastide,

Most sincerely your friend,

BENJAMIN HARRISON.

CHAPTER XVI

A RETROSPECT.

When I entered upon the Christian ministry fifty-six years ago, there
was no probability that I would live to see four-score. My father had
died at the early age of twenty-eight, and several of his brothers and
sisters had succumbe