No. L] ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR BATES. 157 



ingliaiii Board of Trade and of its citizens. You have visited 

 us many times as a militiaman and as Commander-in-Chief; 

 we greet you to-day as a peace man. There are others who 

 will also greet you, and I will not take further time ; only 

 this please allow me to say : the veriest school boy and 

 school girl remembers those classic words of Henry Clay, 

 "I had rather be right than President." We greet you, 

 Your Excellency, as a man who dared and preferred to do 

 what you thought was right, rather than be Governor of the 

 Conmionwealth of Massachusetts. 



The Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me the honor 

 of introducing to you the Governor of the Commonwealth 

 of Massachusetts, Hon. John L. Bates. 



ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR BATES. 



I was just going to call the Chair " ]Mr. President," but 

 I am reminded that I am the president of the Massachu- 

 setts kState Board of Agriculture, and I feel just a little as 

 though, in being called upon, some one was usurping my 

 rights, and that I should be calling on some one else to 

 speak ; and that, if any one was going to do the dictating 

 on this occasion, I should be the one, for since the Board of 

 Agriculture was first organized the Governor of the Com- 

 monwealth has been ex officio president of it, and is still 

 president of it. But there have been so many years since 

 he has been the active president, that I am not surprised 

 that the vice-president this evening takes the chair and 

 issues his orders to the president. 



I very much appreciate the words of Dr. Palmer. I feel 

 as though I was not entitled to all that he sa3^s, and at the 

 same time I find much cause for gratification in his generous 

 sentiments. 



The pride of the town is well founded, and no one could 

 listen to his remarks without recognizing that fact. As he 

 spoke of Avhat there is here, I could hut think that here 

 we see the (\>iiMn()ii\v('alth in miniature. 



lie s))()k(' of the ])ublic school system, which began away 

 back in the wilderness, and has always been identified with 

 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, We o-ave to the 



