Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/433

Rh enough Southern white Republicans to control him. Others, with some doubting, thought that he would soon learn. Others expected that his vote would always be so valuable to either side that he would be courted by both. Others thought that he would maintain his newly conferred rights only so' long as supported by force. All predictions proved wrong except these last. The reasons why the Republicans had acquiesced in the recent situation were, first, that they had concluded that the dangers apprehended by Stevens were imaginary; secondly, because of the decay of the old-fashioned liberalism, of the belief in equal rights and abstract rights generally, and the substitution of an evolutionary philanthropy for that based on the earlier doctrines.

With this ended the sessions devoted to papers. If any general criticism were to be ventured, it would be that too many of the writers ignored that wholesome rule of the Association, printed conspicuously upon the programme, which limited papers to twenty minutes, and discussions to ten minutes for each speaker. Deliberately to prepare and read a paper forty minutes long is an act without excuse; nor can much be said in defense of "brief remarks" extending to fifteen or twenty minutes. The kindly gentlemen who presided, not being presidents, were evidently reluctant, clothed in a little brief authority, to apply the cloture; but many hearers would fain have seen them truculent and remorseless. Another evil, deserving correction in future meetings, is the substitution, for fresh and real discussion of the longer papers, of cut-and-dried short papers. The "liberty of prophesying" which prevailed in the earlier meetings of the Association had its evils; but a Rhadamanthine president can avert them.

At noon the two associations partook together of a subscription luncheon at the Russell House. President Angell, to everyone's enjoyment, acted as toastmaster, and talked entertainingly of the growth of the historical and economic professions since the time when he was at college. Mr. Henry Russel, attorney of the Michigan Central Railroad, read in honor of Hon. Peter White a humorous dialect poem entitled "Pierre Le Blanc." Professor Ely, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites of Madison, Professor W. Z. Ripley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor Hart also spoke.

The business session, on Saturday afternoon, was unusually well attended, and there was evidence of warm interest in the many important tasks which the Association has entrusted, or proposed to entrust, to its committees. It was reported that there were 1,626 members of the Association, representing a gain of 215 over last