The political nominations of 1882 involved no great principles.  In New York State this was significant, because it brought before the nation Mr. Grover Cleveland as a candidate for Governor against Mr. Folger.  The general opinion of these two men in the unbiassed public mind was excellent.  They were men of talent and integrity.  They were not merely actors in the political play.  I have buried professional politicians, and the most of them made a very bad funeral for a Christian minister to speak at.  I always wanted, at such a time, an Episcopal prayer book, which is made for all eases, and may not be taken either as invidious or too assuring.

There was another contest, non-political, that interested the nation in 1882.  It was the Sullivan-Ryan prize-fight.  I had no great objection to find with it, as did so many other ministers.  It suggested a far better symbol of arbitration between two differing opinions than war.  If Mr. Disraeli had gone out and met a distinguished Zulu on the field of English battle, and fought their national troubles out, as Sullivan and Ryan did, what a saving of life and money!  How many lives could have been saved if Napoleon and Wellington, or Moltke and McMahon had emulated the spirit of the Sullivan-Ryan prize fight!  I saw no reasonable cause why the law should interfere between two men who desired to pound one another in public; I stood alone almost among my brethren in this conclusion.

The persecution of the Jews in Russia, which came to us at this time with all its details of cruelty and horror, was the beginning of an important chapter in American history.  Dr. Adler, in London, had appealed for a million pounds to transport the Jews who were driven out of Russia to the United States.  It seemed more important that civilisation should unite in an effort to secure protection for them in their own homes, than compel them to obey the will of Russia.  This was no Christian remedy.  We might as well abuse the Jews in America, and then take up a collection to send them to England or Australia.  The Jews were entitled to their own rights of property and personal liberty and religion, whether they lived in New York, or Brooklyn, or London, or Paris, or Warsaw, or Moscow, or St. Petersburg.  And yet we were constantly hearing of the friendly feeling between Russia and the United States.

In after years I was privileged personally to address the Czar and his family, in a private audience, and questions of the Russian problem were discussed; but the Jews flocked to America, and we welcomed them, and they learned to be Americans very rapidly.  Their immigration to this country was a matter of religious conscience, in which Russia had no interest.