The millennial nations, and the

the speedy fruition of that philanthropic hope. period has not yet arrived for individuals or sword, and not civil law, however it may be dignified, still continues to be, and must, we fear, for an indefinite period, remain the ultimate arbiter of the destinies of all peoples.

War is always to be regretted. When accepting an invitation to review the German army, General Grant said to Chancellor Bismarck, "The truth is, I am more of a farmer than a soldier. I take little or no interest in military affairs, and although I entered the army 35 years ago and have been in two wars,-in Mexico as a young lieutenant, and later-I never went into the army without regret, and never retired without pleasure."

Yet war is not an unmixed evil. In the life of nations have and will come periods when war's arbitrament must and of right ought to be accepted fearlessly and without hesitation. Fortune, life, liberty and sacred honor have been and will yet again be justly placed as a sacrificial offering on the altars of the inalienable rights of men. Who does not now honor and justify the American revolutionists for their grand struggle in maintenance of their declaration of rights, and for the blessings conferred by them. through eight years of war in the creation of the wisest constitution and the best government the world ever saw?

The war of 1812-15 again crystallized and enforced the rights of freedom, and the assumed right of search and seizure of alleged British seamen on the decks of American vessels has been forever abandoned, and again the world approves and justifies.

By far the greatest and most destructive struggle for many decades in the world's history, and that too between brethren of a common country and a common ancestry, finally led through a baptism of blood for four years, to the annihilation of the great crime of American slavery, and to the full and complete restoration of the authority of the national government, and the emblem of its sovereignty, the Stars and Stripes, with no star lost, proudly waves over a country one and undivided, and as we fondly hope,

in a bond of union indissoluble forever; and again the world approves and justifies.

By the old French and Indian war, happily closed by the Treaty of Peace signed in Paris in 1763, the Feudal doctrine of the French king who declared "I am the state," was forever annihilated in this country by the triumph of the Anglo Saxon over the Latin race. The historian Ridpath, in speaking of the blessings of that war, says: "By the sweeping provisions of the treaty the French king lost his entire possessions in the new world. Thus closed the French and Indian war, one of the most important in the history of mankind. By this conflict it was decided that the decaying institutions of the Middle Ages should not prevail in the West, and that the powerful language, laws and liberties of the English race should be planted forever in the vast domains of the New World."

Has Spain any higher or better claims to dominion on the North American continent than had France? Has her colonial policy on this hemisphere commanded the admiration or respect of the civilization of the age? Has it not rather been marked everywhere and at all times by that same avarice, cruelty and barbarity which has ever characterized her unrelenting repression of human rights, and every aspiration for liberty and knowledge among her unfortunate subjects? With base ingratitude and gross injustice she sent her great Genoese discoverer of a New World, in chains, to penury and a dungeon, and continued her exactions and oppressions over her vast territory here, until most of her possessions in this hemisphere have been forever lost to her. And now, in the advancing light of the closing years of the 19th century she still clings to her ancient exactions and oppressions by the same cruel and barbarous methods. She has evidenced and emphasized this fact by the greatest crime of the century against humanity. She deliberately planned and calmly executed, as a war measure, the concentration of all non-combatants in the Island of Cuba-men, women and children—and by hundreds of thousands tortured and starved them to death, as a means of

repressing Cuban patriotism and compelling those in revolt to the infamous government of Spain to lay down their arms. The enormities and horrors attending this so-called war measure far exceeded in refinement of cruelty and in the number of its helpless victims, the atrocities inflicted but a short time ago by the relentless Turk upon his Armenian subjects, and which called forth effective threats of immediate armed intervention in the cause of humanity from the powers of Europe, and which intervention was earnestly demanded by all Christian nations. On that occasion the immortal Gladstone came from his retirement, and, with flashing eye and resonant voice, as if addressing the Ottoman Empire, said: "Never again as the years roll in their course, so far as it is in our power to determine, never again shall the hand of violence be raised by you, never again shall the flood gate of lust be open to you, never again shall the dire refinements of cruelty be devised by you for the sake of making mankind miserable."

This great Republic, in obedience to her historic interest in the cause of universal freedom and suffering humanity, heard the cry of perishing thousands upon her immediate borders, and officially said to Spain: "Your barbarities must cease in Cuba and never again be repeated."

Our demand was practically and treacherously answered by the blowing up of the Maine, in a time of peace, and the cowardly destruction of 260 United States seamen.

Then came from an aroused and indignant nation a Declaration of War. Dewey was heard from at Manilla, and Sampson and Schley and Shafter from Santiago.

It is sometimes somewhat sacrilegiously said that the God of battles usually fights on the side of the strongest battalions. However that may be, He has in the present war, in a marvelous and mysterious way, protected the American army and navy. In this preservation, in our splendid victories and in the complete unification of the North and South, we have already realized blessings which demand the grateful acknowledgement of this people.

Our own historian, Bancroft, writes: "On the discovery of

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the New Hemisphere, the tradition was widely spread throughout the Old that it conceals a fountain whose ever flowing waters have power to reanimate age and restore its prime. The tradition was true, but the youth to be renewed was the youth of society; the life to bloom afresh was the life of the race."

If, from its flowing fountains of freedom and humanity, this invigorated, renewed and powerful American life shall now drive from this continent the last vestige of the long period of misrule and tyranny, of an effete and medieval monarchy; who shall say that, under the providence of that God who rules the destinies of all nations, justice and American duty and destiny have not been fulfilled? The United States have pledged to Cuba its freedom and an independent government. And I have no doubt that its growth and immigration thither from these States will in the near future make self-government there entirely practical.

I hazard no opinion as to the future of the other possessions of Spain which have or may come under the domination of these States; as to those, the exigencies and events of war will doubtless soon determine; and while I still believe that the farewell advice of Washington to his countrymen, viz: "that all entangling alliances with foreign countries and on distant shores, should be studiously avoided," yet no one, as I think, ought to regret it. If the alleged prophecy of Napoleon be now fulfilled, viz.: "that Spain would lose all her colonies and finally unite with Portugal in the government of the Peninsula."

My friends, if in my remarks of today I have somewhat departed from the old, and briefly discussed the living issue of war, it is because I remember that the distinguished Dr. Channing once said in his old age, that he was always young for freedom; and because I know that you, too, are always young and vigorous in freedom's cause, and that your hearts will ever beat responsive to a patriotic love of country and the cause of humanity, and because I also know that your ever present and paramount thought of the hour goes out in sympathy and love for our brave boys in blue, on land and sea, who are so gloriously and triumphantly sustaining the honor and majesty of our Country's cause.

REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

To the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County:

A. J. Williams, Chairman of the Executive Committee, then read the following report:

Your Executive Committee respectfully reports as follows:Since your meeting in 1897 a severe blow has befallen the Association in the death of its Marshal, Hiram M. Addison. Mr. Addison was not only the pioneer who first suggested the organization of the Association, but was foremost in effecting that organization. From that 'me to his final departure he was constant and efficient in his labors to carry it on and in making it a great success. By his death the Association has sustained an irreparable loss.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee held June 18th the following preamble and resolutions offered by Mr. Kerruish, were unanimously adopted:

Whereas, Since our last annual meeting there has passed from our midst over to the silent majority one of our oldest and best known members-the late H. M. Addison-one who was principally concerned in the organization and establishment of this Association, and for many years served as its Marshal, and until his death was an active and energetic promoter of its interests, therefore

Be it Resolved, That, as expressive of our appreciation of the worth of our late Marshal, H. M. Addison, we hereby record our sense of his generous nature, of his unselfish enthusiasm, of his cheerful and unfailing devotion to the objects and purposes of this Association, and we do further testify to our respect for his memory, and our sincere sorrow for his loss.

Resolved Further, That we extend to the re'atives of Mr. Addison our profound condolence and sympathy.

Resolved, That the Secretary cause these resolutions to be spread upon the records of this Association, and published in the annals for the year 1898.