Chauncey M. Depew

Chicago, Feb. 23.- The Union League Club ceiebrated tl.e 15Gth í.nniversary of tbe birth of Washington yesierday afternoon. Central Musió Hall was selected as the place, and Chauncey M. Depow, of New York, was the orator. The subject chosen by the eminent speaker ww " The Politlcal Mission of the United States," and hebegan with the statement that the pohtical mission of the country thus f ar has been brought out by individual and territorial eonditioaa The " individúale." in Mr. Depew's estimation, who have been conspicuous in this work are Hamilton, Jefferson, Webster and Lincoln. The iufluence of Hamilton in organizing the centralizeJ power oL the Government and making the people the souroe of authority; that of Jefferson in opposing centralization and setting up tbe reserved power of the States; that of Webster In breaking the spell of supreme loyalty to the State; and that of Lincoln, who represented the West, in its resistance to slavery and itt? assertion of the National idea, and made it impossible that tha authority of the Nation should ever be questioneii again, were traced in a happy manner. From this point the speaker sketched the remarkable growth of the country and the part which the abolition of slavery and tha extensión of commerce have played in weldinj the variouR Commonwealths into one compact and indivisible wholo, Mr. Depew's estímate of tho principal needs ui tbe country includes a one-term Presidency, the President to have a lite pension at the expiration of his term; the develorment oí Americanisiii; the increase of educational facilities and the enforcement of law to overeóme the dangers of Socialism and Anarohy; and the protection of the ballot by the State. On the question of free traUc versus protection the speaker took strong grounds in favor of protection, reviewing ths blrth of the tarift systóm, its workings, and conclnding with the statement that protection was the country's best investmenb.