the full measure of a noble citizenship. By the
providence of God we are here, and are here to stay. We are producers of
wealth and the conservators of peace. Therefore, encourage us by the
exercise of justice and magnanimity, that we can say to you, as Ruth to
Naomi in Holy Writ: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou
lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;
where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so
to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

Very truly yours, etc.,

Monuments are the mute mile stones, the connecting links between a
finished effort, and an inspiration for continued struggle. But
monuments are not created after the death of those they commemorate,
although they may seem to be; they are but memorials of the structure
already built, the solidity of whose base and symmetry of whose lines
were projected and fashioned by intensity of conviction and the
unswerving courage of their prototypes in ameliorating conditions while
they lived. Bereft of this, "monuments themselves memorials need."

Having administered the office of Register of United States land by
appointments from Presidents Hayes and Arthur, my last service in the
Interior Department was under an appointment from President Harrison,
who, in 1889, placed me as Receiver of Public Moneys at Little Rock,
Ark., Land District. It was during this term that the Department ordered
and appointed Special Commissioners to conduct the sale of unsold lots
on the Hot Springs Reservation at auction. As one of the Commissioners
and Receiver of Public Moneys, I was required and gave a qualified bond
for $100,000 for the faithful performance of the trust, and with
Register Raleigh proceeded and discharged the duties thereto. Harrison's
term ended a career of twelve years in the land office. If in
retrospective moments amid the many beneficent things you might have
done, but left undone, you catch here and there glimpses of unselfish
ambition or benefit you have conferred, it does much to abate regret,
for the recollection to me is a source of pleasure that during those
terms by personal convass and unofficial publication I contributed in
inducing thousands of immigrants and others to homestead the virgin soil
of Arkansas, who have now good homes, comprising 40, 80 or 160 acres of
land, besides assisting