A native of Scotland, a distinguished citizen of the United States of America, a man of the widest sympathy with every movement having for its object the moral and intellectual advancement of the people, and as being in an especial manner associated with the establishment of a free public library in Edinburgh.
"Gentlemen, I would almost as soon leave a curse as I would leave excessive wealth to a child. In America this sentiment is shared by large numbers of the most thoughtful men of wealth, and hundreds of institutions are scattered along the length and breadth of the Republic, testifying to the growing conviction that the surplus wealth which a man accumulates in a community is only a sacred trust to be administered for the good of the community in which it was accumulated.
I find in this country that the same ideas are permeating your people. You have notable instances of that in Edinburgh. Mr. Chambers during his lifetime devoted a great part of his fortune to public ends; you have Mr. Nelson and Mr. McEwan, and no doubt you have others of whose great and good works during their lifetime I have not heard. And in this connection allow me to say that we are all delighted to see here today the Liberal Scottish Leader who told you here in Edinburgh that the part of the true democracy was to lead the people in every effort, as it was to aid them in all their aspirations to obtain full and complete mastery over the institutions under which they lived."