life pleasant, you are not the same persons physically, though you profess the same principles, yet as prudent men, you employ more policemen in New York—­a larger proportion to the inhabitants of your city than the whole army of the United States bears to the people of the United States.  You have no Indians here, though you have “scalpers.” [Applause and laughter.] You have no “road-agents” here, and yet you keep your police; and so does our Government keep a police force where there are real Indians and real road-agents, and you, gentlemen, who sit here at this table to-night who have contributed of your means whereby railroads have been built across the continent, know well that this little army, which I represent here to-night, is at this moment guarding these great roadways against incursions of desperate men who would stop the cars and interfere with the mails and travel, which would paralyze the trade and commerce of the whole civilized world, that now passes safely over the great Pacific road, leading to San Francisco.  Others are building roads north and south, over which we soldiers pass almost yearly, and there also you will find the blue-coats to-day, guarding the road, not for their advantage, or their safety, but for your safety, for the safety of your capital.

So long as there is such a thing as money, there will be people trying to get that money; they will struggle for it, and they will die for it sometimes.  We are a good-enough people, a better people it may be than those of England, or France, though some doubt it.  Still we believe ourselves a higher race of people than have ever been produced by any concatenation of events before. [Laughter.] We claim to be, and whether it be due to the ministers of New England, or to the higher type of manhood, of which Mr. Beecher speaks—­which latter doctrine I prefer to submit to—­I don’t care which, there is in human nature a spark of mischief, a spark of danger, which in the aggregate will make force as necessary for the government of mankind as the Almighty finds the electric fluid necessary to clear the atmosphere. [Applause.]

You speak in your toast of “honored names”; you are more familiar with the history of your country than I am, and know that the brightest pages have been written on the battle-field.  Is there a New Englander here who would wipe “Bunker Hill” from his list for any price in Wall Street?  Not one of you!  Yet you can go out into Pennsylvania and find a thousand of bigger hills which you can buy for ten dollars an acre.  It is not because of its money value, but because Warren died there in defence of your government which makes it so dear to you.  Turn to the West.  What man would part with the fame of Harrison and of Perry?  They made the settlement of the great Northwest by your Yankees possible.  They opened that highway to you, and shall no honor be given to them?  Had it not been for the battles on the Thames by Harrison, and by Perry on Lake Erie, the settlement of the great West would not have occurred by New England industry and thrift.  Therefore I say that there is an eloquence of thought in those names as great as ever was heard on the floor of Congress, or in the courts of New York. [Applause.]