COMMEMORATION ADDRESS 67 
given the city of New York something far superior either to the publicly 
administered institutions of foreign cities or to the privately owned and 
privately administered institutions of other great American cities. The 
essence of this charter and constitution is that from the beginning the city 
officials as the elective representatives of the people undertake to give the 
land, the building, the maintenance; the Trustees volunteer to give their 
best ability and their valuable time to administration, their means and that 
of others to fillmg the building with collections. 
The agreement has been kept on both sides in the best spirit. ‘lo the 
honor of the City of New York be it said that her rulers have never withheld 
funds from education, nor have her citizens been lacking in generosity. 
Owing to this pecuharly American and altogether ideal union of public and 
private endeavor, we discover that at the end of forty-one years the amount 
which the people of the city of New York have contributed through their 
government to this Museum is balanced by an equal amount given by officers, 
trustees and other friends. 
I have therefore great pleasure in introducing as the orator of the day the 
Honorable Joseph H. Choate, Founder, Trustee and author of the laws of 
our being. 
COMMEMORATION ADDRESS 
By tart HonoraBLteE JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
A FouNDER AND TRUSTEE OF THE MUSEUM 
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away, and a lapse 
of forty years sweeps off a whole generation and more. After their forty 
years’ wandering in the wilderness, when the children of Israel came again 
to be numbered on the plains of Moab, Caleb and Joshua alone survived 
of all who had escaped out of the house of bondage in Egypt; and so Mr. 
Morgan and J alone survive of those who founded this great Museum in 1869. 
We have accompanied its progress through mazes of doubts and difficulties 
until it has come at last within sight at least of a land flowing with milk and 
honey. I am sure that he will heartily join with me in this tribute te our 
departed associates, that this marvellous growth and development are to be 
attributed to their fidelity and courage, their public spirit and their un- 
bounded generosity; and when I read their names you will realize how near 
they come to our hearts and homes, and how much richer and better New 
York is for their having lived in it: 
