"
He answered that by an attack on the memory of my father who
had died more than twenty-five years before. Thereupon the
controversy, so far as it had anything personal in it, ended.
It happened that the year when General Butler was Governor
I was elected President of the Harvard Alumni Association.
It was the custom of the College to invite the Governor to
the dinner of the Alumni on Commencement day as the guest
of the University and to confer upon him the degree of Doctor
of Laws. It would have been my duty to preside at the dinner
and to walk with him at the head of the procession, to have
him seated by my side at the table, and to extend to him the
courtesies of the University. I hardly knew what I ought
to do. I must either walk with him and sit by his side in
silence or with a formal and constrained courtesy which would
in itself be almost an affront, or on the other hand, I must
take his hand, salute him with cordiality as becomes a host
on a great occasion in dealing with a distinguished guest,
and converse with him as I should have conversed with other
persons occupying his high place.
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