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CABLE ANNIVERSARY.

Remarks at a reception given by Mr. Cyrus W. Field, on the 10th of March, 1879, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the first company ever formed for laying an ocean-cable. The host made a short address of welcome, and, at its close, turned to his brother, saying that he, "as the counsel and adviser of the company through all these years, had had occasion to speak for it many times and in many places," and requested him to add a few remarks. The latter responded to the request as follows:

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"THEN" and " "now are the words which best indicate the current of thought of one who was an actor in the transaction we are commemorating and the events which followed it. Then, as we have been told, there was not a submarine telegraph in the world, excepting three from England to the adjacent Continent, none of which lay more than fifty fathoms deep; now, there are cables at the bottom of every ocean, except the Pacific. Then, whatever took place in Ireland, the nearest land, could be known to us only after eight or ten days; now, we read at our breakfasttables news of what has happened a few hours before in Ireland and in England, in France and Spain, in Constantinople and Cairo, in Delhi and Melbourne. When I look at this ceiling and these walls, all unchanged, and think of the group, small in number but great in heart, that then gathered around this table, and of what they set on foot, I feel that the achievements of our days have surpassed the marvels of fable and romance. Peter Cooper has written his name on walls of stone and iron; Moses Taylor has heaped up "riches and honor"; Marshall O. Roberts has plowed either ocean with his swift ships; and yet nothing that these men have done has wrought half so much for the world as that which they began that night. The part which my brother took you all know. Of the other two, one, Mr. Chandler White, my friend of many years, fell by the wayside, long before the end of the tedious journey which the others had before them. Mr. Wilson G. Hunt took his place, and journeyed with them resolutely to the end. No one knows better than I the obstacles which these gentlemen had to overcome, the disappointments to suffer, the delays to sustain, the obloquy to withstand; and no one can

bear stronger testimony than I can to their patience, their perseverance, their courage, and the deserved honor of their final triumph. The flag, American and English wrought into one, which hangs over these windows, is the sign of their constancy in defeat, as of their victory. That united flag floated at the mast-head of the Niagara in the disastrous expedition of 1857, and the partially successful one of 1858; it was run up again at the fore of the Great Eastern, for the voyage, when she failed in 1865; and was kept streaming in the wind, until it floated over a victorious ship and a great work accomplished.

Though we then knew something of what we were doing, we did not know all. Events have outrun the imagination. Little did I dream that, within twenty years, I should stand beneath the Southern Cross and send from Australasia a message to my northern home, which, almost while I stood, passed over half the globe, darting with the speed of thought across the nearly two thousand miles of Australian desert, through the Arafura Sea, past the "Isles of Ternate and Tidore," across the Bay of Bengal and the Sea of Arabia, along the Red Sea coast, under the Mediterranean and Biscay's sleepless bay, and finally beneath our own Atlantic to this island city, "situate at the entry of the sea.”

Seeing that so much has been accomplished in the quartercentury past, what may we not expect in the quarter-century to come? The completion of the world-encircling girdle, by forging the remaining link between the Occident and the Orient, is but a part of what you may witness. There will be new instruments for handling the electric current, as there are new places to reach. Then, when every part of the earth shall be visited each day by the electric spark, with its messages from the peoples of many lands, we may hope to see that better understanding among all the sons of men which is sure to teach them that the ways of peace are the ways of prosperity and honor.

ARGUMENT BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT OF

THE UNITED STATES, ON BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, IN THE CASE OF THIS STATE AGAINST THE STATE OF LOUISIANA AND OTHERS, APRIL, 1882.

IF THE COURT PLEASE:

This cause has already occupied so much time, and so many topics have been gone into, and so little time remains to me, that I shall be obliged to pass rapidly over some parts of the case, which I would have gladly discussed more fully.

The first point to be considered is the nature and scope of this suit of the State of New York which I am advocating. They are to be gathered from the record, from which I desire to show you what is the primary and what is the secondary object. You will find on pages 3 and 4, after a statement of the statute of Louisiana and the corresponding provisions of the Constitution of that State, this allegation respecting the consolidated bonds of the State: That such consolidated bonds were duly executed and issued to the amount of twelve millions of dollars, or thereabout, many of which were issued to citizens of New York, who now hold them to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another allegation is that the plaintiff is, moreover, the owner and holder of coupons from some of these bonds. Then it is shown that Louisiana has repudiated in effect both bonds and coupons. The relief sought is a judgment, that the bonds with the coupons and the statute and Constitution constituted a valid contract between the State of Louisiana and the holders which can not be impaired by any act of the State, that the defendants be enjoined from diverting designated funds to other purposes, and that the coupons held by New York and the bonds held by her citizens be paid as they become due.

You will perceive, then, that the State of New York comes here, not merely or chiefly as the assignee of a certain number of coupons, but as sovereign and trustee for her five millions of

people, many of whom have bought in her markets and now hold the obligations of the State of Louisiana, which they took upon the faith of that State. The transfer of the coupons is a mere incident of the case.

The cause is one in which New York comes to assert her claims under the law of nations, in the form provided by the Constitution of the land. It is for you to determine whether, under this Constitution, New York can assert the rights which, under the old law, she had, and which she avers that she has never lost.

Who are the persons for whom she intervenes ?

Mr. CAMPBELL: Speculators.

Mr. FIELD: Speculators! Bloated bondholders, I expected to hear, for that is usually the language of defaulters and repudiators, who have seduced capitalists into lending them money.

The first witness examined on behalf of New York was Mr. Justice Rapallo, an eminent judge of our Court of Appeals, who invested $25,000 in the bonds of this State of Louisiana. There are other holders-banks-that were induced to lend money on the pledge of the bonds, and have been obliged to hold them for years. This citizen and judge, with other citizens, and this bank with other banks, not speculators but investors or pledgees, ask New York, which created the corporations and which protects her corporations and citizens alike, to intervene on their behalf, and as their guardian, trustee, and sovereign, to come into this court and make the claim which can be made nowhere else, and which, if lost here, is lost forever.

Promises to pay,

What are these obligations of Louisiana? made with all the deliberation and solemnity with which a sovereign State can pledge her faith and bind her honor. Whether it was to feed hungering and plundering political adventurers, or to defray the expenses of public improvements, real or fancied, the State had previous to 1874 contracted-or, at least, there was contracted in her name and apparently by her authority—a large debt, amounting to $18,000,000. This debt she undertook to compromise. She published in the markets of New York and London, of Paris and Amsterdam, this proposal: If you will surrender your present claims, we will give you new bonds for 60 per cent of their face, payable in forty years, bearing interest at 7 per cent, and these bonds we will fortify with all the safeguards that ingenuity can devise. We will provide machinery

for levying a tax of five and a half mills on the dollar, sufficient for the payment of the bonds, principal and interest, and we will designate the officers who are to collect the tax and pay the bonds. So enacted the Legislative Assembly.

This was not all. The people of Louisiana in their sovereign capacity adopted a constitutional ordinance ratifying the statute, and declaring that the issue of these consolidated bonds created a valid contract between the State and every holder of the bonds, which the State should "by no means and in no wise impair"; that no court should enjoin the payment of the principal or interest or the levy or collection of the tax, and that, to secure such levy, collection, and payment, the judicial power should be exercised when necessary.

This compromise proposed by Louisiana to her creditors was accepted by them, and 40 per cent of her debt was extinguished. What then happened? What could have been expected to happen? Why, that the people of the State, grateful for the lightening of their burden by nearly half, and pleased with the confidence reposed in their honor, went on to keep their promises! Not at all.

Within five years, almost before the ink was dry upon some of these bonds, they adopted another constitutional ordinance, which proposed to remit the interest due the 1st of January, 1880, and to provide that for five years thereafter the State should pay interest at 2 per cent, for three years afterward at 3 per cent, and for all the years following at 4 per cent; or the debtors might, if they liked it better, take instead new bonds for seventy-five cents on the dollar, with interest at 4 per cent-forgetting that the new bonds would be no better than the old, and that, if the faith of Louisiana was not already bound, it never could be bound. Here was the culmination of repudiation-culmination I say, because never before in this land has there been repudiation like it. In Mississippi the pretense was that bonds had been fraudulently issued; in Minnesota, some other pretense; in Tennessee the same; and in Virginia the same; but that which was done in Louisiana was done without a pretense of taint in the existing obligations; it was done in a time of profound peace, without stress of poverty, without any excuse whatever.

If poverty had been the reason, the State would have said, "We will pay as much as we can at present, and the balance shall be paid at a future time." But the State is able to pay.

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