uance of the nation it symbolizes. This day we wonder not that great men, as well as good, loved our Union and spoke in strains of eloquence in its behalf; that it might not become broken and dissevered, discordant, belligerent. Webster, in his great speech, tells us how much we are indebted to this Union which our flag represents, and prays that his "eyes' last feeble glance may see the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still high advanced; its arms and trophies streaming in the original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?' or those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterward;' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over sea and over the land, and in every wind under the heaven, that other sentiment, dear to every American heart, 'Liberty and Union; now and forever, one and inseparable.'"

But, alas, how near our Union came to be broken, dissevered, and our flag robbed of half of its lustre and brightness! Let the firing upon Fort Sumter tell. I will not weary you with a recital of the wrongs and abuses that were heaped upon it, for the scenes and memories of those days are still fresh to us all. But we may say that the thundering upon our flag at Sumter rallied the patriots of this land, and they flocked together around it to protect it or die. The struggle was long and vigorous; we were of one blood. "Greek met Greek," and war in all its fury spread over our fair land. Years rolled by and the war continued. At last, thanks to the patriotic boys in blue, and the steady hand of our own immortal Lincoln, our Union was preserved and our flag triumphant. Yes, thanks I say to our boys in blue, some of whom sacrificed life, others the comforts of home, endured hardships and privations, many of them in prisons and prison pens, suffering beyond the power of man to describe. But at length conquerors they were, and the stars and stripes instead of an

other flag waved over its rightful possessions. Then it was that we "rallied around the flag, boys, rallied once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom."

And to-day we would express our gratitude to the Great Ruler of nations for the triumph of our flag and its well earned victories over those who would destroy it and plant another in its place. But now the old flag waves all the brighter. Freedom means more to-day than before the struggle. For

"No slave is here, our unchained feet

Walk freely as the waves that beat off our coast."

Then on this anniversary, commemorative of the 109th year of our flag's existence, let us pledge anew our devotion to it and the nation it represents. May we love the old flag more and more, as time rolls on; then glory and brightness will surround it, and its dazzling beauty and effulgence will more than equal the auroral light or the splendor of the morning sun. Then it will continue to be the flag of our children and our children's children, as in early times it was the flag of our fathers. It is the

Flag of the free heart's only home;

By angels' hands to valor given,

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born of heaven.

Forever float our standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,

With freedom's soil beneath our feet

And freedom's banner waving o'er us.

PROF. S. E. BALDWIN'S ADDRESS.

ADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I think you have some right to be surprised to see so many New Haveners upon the stage. But in the venerable volume with which your president opened the meeting, by reading your charter you may have noticed that in the original incorporation of the town, a committee was appointed to set out to Hamden her due proportion of the poor of New Haven. It has been the general belief of our town, that they did not set off quite enough, and our selectmen are here to-day, to bring the rest. And this is the rule in New Haven, that all able bodied paupers must earn their meals if they get them at the town's expense. You have heard my friend, Mr. Sperry, earning his, and now I am earning mine.

In his history of the American flag, he only made one mistake, and that was in regard to the State Flag that General Putnam carried with him to Bunker Hill. He did not tell us why it was red. General Putnam knew what kind of a flag the auctioneers used in Connecticut, and he was going to sell out all the interest of King George the Third, in this country.

We New Haveners have felt more at home here, since we heard from one of our party, Mr. Goodyear, that he and his family have owned this lot we meet on for two hundred years.

As we stand here on land that to-day belongs to Hamden, and one hundred years ago was in the jurisdiction of New Haven, no one can congratulate you on your century of independent existence more than the citizens of the mother town. The true source, as his Excellency, the Governor has hinted, the true source of all the strength of American Institutions, lies in the number of its selfgoverning political communities. Whether you call them

towns, counties or states, the principle is the same: But, nonsense aside, it is local self-government. It is the right of every considerable body of men, living together, to tax themselves, and to regulate, as they best please, the general order of their lives and their relations to each other.

Hamden left New Haven in 1786, because her inhabitants thought they were better able to manage their local affairs themselves, than if they had the interference of voters on the edge of Branford. That they were right, your prosperity and our prosperity in New Haven alike testify: There can be no effectual government by town meeting, unless it is held within easy distance of every voter. And this lesson the older towns of Connecticut learned early. It has made Connecticut the land of steady habits and strong local attachments.

We love the town we live in, and it is a sentiment always to be encouraged. We love our town as we love our state, our native land, each loved and all loved, because they make us as free as we are strong; because they make it possible for a people to grow great without ceasing to be able to govern themselves. This is the lesson that England is learning from centuries of Irish misrule, and I hope that Mr. Gladstone will make her see that the only remedy is Home Rule.

We have taught England the good of the public school, let her take next our American theory of local self-government.

The Reform Bill of 1832, and the recent extensions of Parliamentary suffrage have swept away almost the last vestige of royal authority from England. France, within the century, has changed from a democracy to an empire, and then to a kingdom, then back to an empire, and then to a republic. The Empire of Germany has swallowed up nearly the whole of Central Europe. The Kingdoms of Italy, Greece and Spain, are all new.

Among all these changes stands the United States of America unchanged, just as she was when she adopted her National Constitution in 1789.

We have a history to be proud of as Americans, and we here in Connecticut have a longer history of our own to be proud of. Although our State may be a small one, it has always been found ready to do its duty; in the wars of King Philip, in the siege of Louisburg, in the struggles of the Revolution, in the shock of the civil war, her regiments have always been at the front; her leaders true; her people firm. And these institutions for which our fathers lived, and, if need be, died, we do well to commemorate on days like this. A hundred years of growing population and spreading industry, a hundred years of honest government, a hundred years during which no invading army has touched this soil; these things make up for Hamden a history that may not be a dramatic or brilliant one, but it is something better.

It speaks of happy homes, of busy mill wheels, of self-supporting churches, of schools open to the poorest at the expense of all. This is the history of Hamden for a hundred years, and anniversaries like these teach us to recognize the blessings that we possess.

Let the day serve to remind us all that we have received from our fathers a great inheritance in institutions that are worth more than property-institutions on which all property depends-and this inheritance it is our business to transmit to our children.

One hundred years from to-day this anniversary will be celebrated on this spot before a new audience, by a generation yet unborn. Let it be ours to do what we can to leave to future times unimpaired the heritage of freedom and self-government which is the ancient glory of the towns of Connecticut.