For Committee on Foreign Commerce and the Revenue Laws. DAVID DOWS, JAMES W. ELWELL, Chairman. WILLIAM H. GUION, SOLON HUMPHREYS, GUSTAV SCHWAB. For Committee on Internal Trade and Improvements. JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON, Chairman. MORRIS K. JESUP, ALEXANDER M. WHITE,. CHARLES BUTLER, ABRAM S. HEWITT. For Committee on the Harbor and Shipping. EDWARD HINCKEN, Chairman. GEORGE W. BLUNT, JAMES S. T. STRANAHAN, JAMES H. FROTHINGHAM, FRANCIS B. THURBER. For Commissioner for Licensing Sailors' Boarding Houses or Hotels, in behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. CHARLES C. DUNCAN. For Council of the Nautical School, established by Act of the Legislature, passed April 24th, 1873. CHARLES H. MARSHALL, Chairman. J. SANFORD BARNES, THOMAS P. BALL. For Special Committee on a New Building for the Chamber of For Delegates to attend the Meetings of the National Board of Trade. JAMES S. T. STRANAHAN, SIMEON B. CHITTENDEN, WILLIAM E. DODGE, OLIVER HOYT. For Special Committee on International Coinage. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, Chairman. The foregoing nominations are respectfully submitted for the approval and action of the Chamber. (Signed,) GEO. T. HOPE, HENRY HAVEMEYER, Special Committee on CHARLES S. SMITH, On motion, the report was unanimously accepted. MR. BENJAMIN H. FIELD moved that the Chamber proceed to elect officers for the ensuing year. This motion was unanimously adopted. The President then vacated the Chair in favor of Mr. WILLIAM E. DODGE. On motion of Mr. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, the Chairman was authorized to appoint two members of the Chamber to act as tellers. The Chairman thereupon appointed Messrs. SOLON HUMPHREYS and THOMAS B. CODDINGTON. A ballot was then taken, after which the tellers reported that twenty-eight votes had been cast, all of which were for the candidates reported by the Nominating Committee. These gentlemen were then declared to have been unanimously elected the officers of the Chamber for the ensuing year. The President then resumed the chair, and thanked the Chamber for the honor conferred in electing him to preside over its de liberations for another year. He stated that the Annual Banquet, commemorating the One Hundred and Ninth Anniversary, had been postponed by the Committee having it in charge until the 14th instant. The Chamber would then be honored by the presence of the President of the United States and several members of his Cabinet. The Chamber then adjourned. ANNUAL BANQUET, MAY 14TH, 1877. The One Hundred and Ninth Anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York was celebrated by a Banquet at Delmonico's, Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth street, on the evening of Monday, May 14th, 1877. The occasion was specially signalized by the presence of the President of the United States, attended by several members of his Cabinet. The assemblage embraced a large body of the prominent merchants of the City,members of the Chamber and distinguished guests, representing the Federal, State and Municipal governments, and others eminent in the leading professions. MR. SAMUEL D. BABCOCK, President of the Chamber, occupied the Chair, supported by the following guests: On his right. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, Secretary of State of U. S Attorney General of U. S. Secretary of the Interior. Hon. HUGH MCCULLOCH, On his left. General WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, Mayor of New-York. Ex-Gov. EDWIN D. MORGAN, Comptroller of the Currency. Other invited guests occupied seats with the members of the Chamber. Grace was said by the Rev. WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D. After the removal of the cloth, the President of the Chamber inaugurated the proceedings by the following speech: SPEECH OF MR. SAMUEL D. BABCOCK, PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER. GENTLEMEN:-We meet to commemorate the One Hundred and Ninth Anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York. Those of us who are its members may congratulate ourselves upon the presence here to-night of so large a representation of distinguished public and professional men, and we may well thank our honored guests for coming here in the face of such warnings as they have received from the press of the perils they would encounter in meeting with us. [Laughter.] Let me assure the gentlemen, that to secure their safety we have a strong delegation from the clergy, the bench, the bar and the army, and we have also a prominent member of the medical profession, who has his implements with him, and is ready to practice upon any body who may require his services. [Laughter and applause.] Our friends, as they look upon the members who surround these tables, will fail to notice any signs of extreme age or decrepitude, still less will they perceive any indications of depression or embarrassment; but I feel bound to say, that at no previous period in the history of the last thirty years has the business of the country been more depressed and unsatisfactory than at the present time. Twelve years have passed since the termination of our civil war, and while it resulted in releasing from bonds four millions of human beings, it inflicted upon us a system of financial measures which has since put under bonds forty millions of people. Human ingenuity has been taxed to the uttermost to furnish titles for the numberless descriptions of these securities. Take first the Government issues. There have been the greenback, and its promise made but never kept, the war loans and the Pacific loans, the short 6's and the long 6's, the 7ths, the 's, the 's, the 44's and 5's, and if Secretary SHERMAN has his way, after awhile will come the 4's and the 's. Then turn to State securities; if you require something which approximates at least in the rate of interest to the English Consols, take Alabama 2's, and from them you can rise by easy stages to Nevada 10's. [Laughter.] I will not dwell upon the attractive assortment of County and Municipal issues, whose name is legion, but will pass to the wonderful variety and inexhaustible supply of Corporation Bonds which our country affords; here you can find a first, second, third, fourth or fifth mortgage, or a guaranteed bond which sometimes proves to be an undertaking on the part of one company, that if another company fails, nobody else can be found to pay the debt; then there is the Income Bond, too often depriving the investor of the very income which it purports to give him; then comes the Land Grant Bond, which might, in some cases, be termed more properly the Land Grab; of all the varieties, however, the Consolidated is the most captivating; its very name breathes of security; it is often made payable at the pleasure of the payer after twenty or thirty years, but not unfrequently it ceases to be a pleasure even to pay the interest. [Laughter and applause.] It is only just to say, that the policy under which most of these various securities were put in circulation was not selfish or exclusive; on the contrary, we have generously allowed the people of other countries to share with our own the privilege of obtaining investments which make up in permanency what they lack in security. I call to mind that at a banquet given not many years ago to the late lamented ANSON BURLINGAME, after a statement in his speech on the occasion, that the Chinese Government owed nothing, one of our distinguished honorary members, who sits close by on my right, in response to a toast to our Government, of which I think he was then a member, with a magnanimity which did him credit, offered to let China have one-half, or, if insisted upon, the whole of our national debt; but that great nation, possibly because there would not have been enough to go round amongst its four hundred millions, did not accept Mr. EVARTS' offer, and still obstinately requires from other nations payment in hard money. [Laughter.] Now, is it strange, gentlemen, that under this huge pile of indebtedness, with the oppressive taxation to which it has given rise, amounting in the aggregate to nearly seven hundred millions annually, and with the unsound and extravagant management of public affairs and private interests which it has caused-is it strange, I say, that our commerce and our great industrial interests are crippled and languishing? [Applause.] If we fully realize these evils, we cannot fail to see that no permanent relief can be found until such as remain of the monstrous and wild speculations of the past have reached their inevitable conclusion, and until, upon a safe and sound foundation of frugality and thrift, our natural elements of recuperation and growth may expand into a sure and healthy progress, and life and prosperity shall be restored to all the varied interests of every section of this great country. [Applause.] One word more. I have often of late had occasion to state that the Chamber of Commerce is not a political organization, but that it comprised men of different nationalities and of all shades of opinions; but if you will hold yourselves in patience until we get through the programme of toasts, you will admit that we fully recognise the "powers that be," and that we regard "woman as one of them. [Laughter.] Let us hope that all, whether exercising authority in Washington, in Albany, in our City Hall, or in our homes, will do it with moderation and discretion, to the end that every department of government may be purified and reformed, and that the people may rise up and call their rulers blessed. [Applause.] THE PRESIDENT.-The first regular toast is one that is always placed at the head of our list, but we have never before had the satisfaction of having it responded to by the incumbent of the office. I take great pleasure in giving you this toast: |
