I02 BANQUET TO THE 



Hon. Marshall P. Wilder. My recollections of his 

 mercantile prominence, his probity, his ever active 

 public spirit, his patriotism, and his peaj^s, run back 

 to my juvenile days. And I especially regret my 

 absence as I recall his agreeable personality during 

 fifteen years of my own active business life, when with 

 a small suburban coterie, who were compelled regu- 

 larly to dine in town, through hard times and through 

 war-times, he presided at the table spread for us, 

 always entertaining, always happy, and all-ways Chris- 

 tian, " with kindness for all, with malice towards 

 none." Nine of these years we met at the old 

 Bromfield House, and six of them at the Tremont. 

 Franklin Pierce, John A. Andrew, Isaac O. Barnes, 

 George S. Hillard, Caleb Cushing, David Nevins, 

 James T. Fields, Waldo Maynard, Selden Crockett, 

 who have passed beyond the curtain, and many 

 others as well known, both of the living and the 

 dead, were then sometimes there with us ; and at 

 your table to-morrow the pleasant aroma of those 

 memories will surely mingle with that of your flow- 

 ers and your laurels. I beg to offer my best wishes 

 for the occasion, and invoke for our venerable guest 

 still many years of felicity, unclouded by infirmity or 

 by sorrow. 



Faithfully yours, 



M. P. Kennard. 



C. H. B. Breck, Esq., Chairman. 



