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Mr. President, Ladies, and
Gentlemen: The Scotch-Irish have stamped an imperishable impression upon
Georgia. For those homely virtues of thrift, industry, and economy which
have caused the people of this state to be termed the Yankees of the
South; for that dauntless and invincible courage which has immortalized
the conduct of her soldiers upon the fields of battle; for all those
splendid qualities which enabled her people to erect the fabric of pure
and honest government out of the corrupting chaos of reconstruction, and
to move forward so rapidly and successfully in the march of progress as to
justly win for her the proud rank of the "Empire State of the South,"
Georgia is deeply indebted to that noble race in whose history, traced
through their career here, and their earlier settlements in the Carolinas,
Virginia, and Pennsylvania, back to old Ulster, and further still to the
lowlands and craggy highlands of Scotland, the electric search light of
the nineteenth century discloses not a single page blurred by servile
submission to native wrong or foreign yoke. [Applause.]
How deep is this debt is
not readily apparent. The youngest of the colonies, Georgia, has drawn her
population largely from her older sisters. The blood of several races
mingles in the veins of her people. Intensely American in their lives,
their characteristics and their habits of thought, they trace their
ancestry back to one of the older states that fought with England for the
liberty of this now great and powerful Union. And they could afford to
stop there. For what princeling in all Europe has so good a title to that
true nobility which should characterize a man as those whose ancestors
fought for liberty at Lexington and Concord, Trenton or Monmouth, King's
Mountain or Cowpens? The brilliant glory of the American revolution, by
the shadow it cast upon antecedent events, veils from view the earlier
ancestry of our people. But long before America was even discovered the
Scotch-Irish blood which poured out so freely in the battles of the
Revolution flowed in the veins of hardy and brave ancestors, who, from
prehistoric days, transmitted the power and the strength to their
descendants to withstand all forms of oppression.
For that ancestral pride
which rests supinely upon the greatness and the glories of the past, there
are no words but those of contempt; but in that ancestral pride, which
sees in the great deeds of past generations the incentive to purer lives,
higher purposes, and loftier ambitions, we have the strongest guarantee
for the perpetuation of our institutions. To-morrow will rise upon a Union
more homogeneous, and with less cause for sectional division, than ever
existed in the past. May I digress to add: May the great Protestant
Churches, which are now divided, become as indissolubly united as the
states! [Applause.] But below the surface there are evils which are
likely, in the not distant future, to grow to grave dangers; and there is
no such antidote for the poison lurking in the body politic as to drink
deep at the fountain of inspiration flowing from the noble lives and the
great deeds of the race to which we have the honor to belong. [Applause.]
With these sentiments I enter upon the pleasant task assigned me to-night.
It would be impossible to
give the number of Scotch-Irishmen in Georgia who have reached distinction
in every walk of life. My friend, Col. George Adair, read to you yesterday
a list of a few who have helped to build Atlanta. To read to you a list of
those who have contributed to the greatness of the state would more than
consume the session of our Convention. The limitations of the occasion
necessarily confine me to a few general remarks upon the part the
Scotch-Irish have played in the settlement and development of the state;
their contribution to its population; their influence upon its
civilization; and an observation or two pertinent to the facts presented,
and just a word in regard to the duty we owe the present and the future.
The illustrious character
and philanthropic motives of Oglethorpe threw a luster about the colony he
planted at Savannah. McMaster justly classes him as the most interesting
of all the men who led colonists to America. His fame shines resplendent
even by the side of the gifted Raleigh's. He was the associate of great
men. He lived in the public gaze. Heralded in advance by royal command,
every detail in the history of his colony was recorded by polished pens.
We can see the good ship "Annie" as she cast anchor off the bar of
Charleston on January 13, 1733, and the distinguished reception accorded
Oglethorpe by the authorities of South Carolina. We follow the colonists
to Beaufort; we note Oglethorpe's visit to Tomo-chi-chi; and we watch him
mark out the site of Savannah. We return with him to Beaufort and reembark
with the colonists. We stop with them on the way to regale ourselves with
the plentiful supply of venison awaiting their coming. The next day when
they cast anchor off the bluffs of Yammacraw, we hear the joyous words of
hope uttered by the destitute men who had been weighed down with
misfortune in crowded old England, as they set foot on unpeopled Georgia.
In what striking contrast
was the advent of the hardy pioneers who had left home and fireside, for
conscience sake, to seek liberty and freedom in the wildernesses of
America! They wrote their history with the rifle and the ax, the sword and
the plow! [Applause.] There was no herald of their coming save the splash
of the pole as they pushed the rude ferryboat across the upper waters of
the Savannah, or the crack of the whip as they urged their tired beasts
drawing primitive wagons over rough mountain roads. The record of their
coming was lost as the ripples of the river sunk back into its current, or
the echoes of the mountain died away in its silence. We know neither the
day nor the month nor the year when thousands came. But the fact that they
had come was attested by the falling of the trees. Cabins rose and
fruitful farms appeared where forests grew and Indians roamed. And not far
off the church—the house at once of worship and instruction. What man
reared in the country does not recall the old schoolhouse with its
backless wooden benches and the Sabbath morn at the country church! The
whole community gathered there. Some came on foot, some on horseback, the
better to do in wagons and old-fashioned carriages. With what reverence
they entered the old church! with what devotion listened to the minister!
And after church came the kindly greetings, the words of sympathy and
cheer. The highest and the lowest met on terms of equality. Such
communities knew not the much talked of aristocracy of the South. No-purer
democracy ever existed in the world.
Before my mind rises the
picture of an old stone church built in the last century, surrounded by a
beautiful grove of oak and hickory; and near by, the old graveyard, with
its fence crumbling to decay, and its rude stones mouldering in the dust
of time, marking in more than one instance the final resting place of men
of national reputation. Statesmen worshiped there; plain Scotch-Irishmen,
who helped to mold and sway the destinies of the nation.
Oglethorpe's colony
encountered many privations. It was threatened by Spaniards, it fought
with Indians, and it languished under restrictions more crushing than
either. Dark clouds gathered o'er its fated head, rent only here and there
by the arrival of fresh emigrants. Most noted among these were the brave
Scotch colonists, who, when told at Savannah that at the place chosen for
their settlement the Spaniards could fire on them from their fort,
replied: "Very well, we will take the fort and find homes already built."
[Applause.]
As I have said, I cannot
individualize, but who can speak of that colony without mentioning the
immortal name of Mcintosh. [Applause.] Who could fail to recall Gen.
Lachlan Mcintosh as he took charge of the first regiment in Georgia raised
to fight for American independence; or the reply of Col. John Mcintosh to
the English colonel 'who demanded the surrender of Sunbury under a threat
of destroying the town, "Come and take it" [applause]; or the gallant
James Mcintosh who fell at the head of his columns at Moleno del Rey.
In 1752 the trustees of the
Georgia colony, harassed by complaints, beset by difficulties, and unable
to maintain the colony, surrendered their privileges to the king. A year
later the entire white population is estimated to have been only 2,381. In
the language of McMaster, Oglethorpe's noble charity "had failed;" and in
the language of Bancroft, Georgia was indeed "the home of misfortune." But
English policy and English folly, operating in distant fields,
uninfluenced by the broad principles of philanthropy, but governed alone
by the narrow lines of bigotry and intolerance which would force men's
consciences to conform to the dogmas of an established Church, were then,
and had been for more than half a century, laying the foundation for the
independence of America and the greatness of this state. Thirty-eight
years later the site of old Ebenezer, the town of the Salzburger
settlement, was a cow pen; New Ebenezer scarcely more than a name.
[McMaster, Vol. II., p. 3.] Frederica was in ruins; Sunbury, which the New
England colonist had built with so much hope, had fallen to decay; the
Medway no longer bore upon its bosom the proud ship of commerce; and
Sunbury's docks slowly rotted away. And yet Georgia was a sovereign state,
a free compeer among the sisters of an independent republic, and its
population had grown to eighty-two thousand, fifty-two thousand of whom
were whites. Forty-seven thousand of these lived in the counties of Burke,
Franklin, Greene, Richmond, Washington, and Wilkes.
Whence came these people?
Chiefly from the mountain and Piedmont regions of the Carolinas and
Virginia. And whence came their ancestors? The answer to that question
tells the part the Scotch and Irish have played in the settlement of
Georgia. To answer it properly we must take a brief view of the conditions
of the English colonies in America in 1689, the year after the revolution
that placed William and Mary on the throne of England. Here and there
along the seacoast from New England to South Carolina were scattered small
settlements. The total white population of the entire country was only
180,000. Of these the Scotch and Irish had already contributed a part.
Before that date, Froude says, began "that fatal emigration of
nonconformist Protestants from Ireland to New England, which, enduring for
more than a century, drained Ireland of its soundest Protestant blood, and
assisted in raising beyond the Atlantic the power and the spirit which, by
and by, paid England home for the madness which had driven them hither."
From 1689 the emigration from the North of Ireland assumed important
proportions. It is estimated that 100,000 emigrants left Ireland
immediately after the revolution. Three thousand males left yearly for
America. t And yet in 1702 the total white population of the colonies only
reached 270,000; and in 1715, with this emigration from Ireland steadily
going on, it only reached 375,000. At this latter date the total white
population in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina—the colonies in which the Scotch and Irish principally
settled—was only 129,000.+
But it was not until some
years later that the Scotch-Irish emigration reached its flood; coming,
says Froude, from that character of people who were best calculated to
make Ireland great, "the young, the courageous, the energetic, the
earnest." "And the worst of it is," he adds, "that it carries off only
Protestants, and reigns chiefly in the north." Froude speaks of this
emigration as "an exodus," and it seemed destined to depopulate the North
of Ireland. * Ships came crowded to Charleston and to Philadelphia. In
1729 5,655 Irish emigrants arrived at the port of Philadelphia, and only
267 English, 43 Scotch, and 343 Germans. Ramsey states that Ireland
contributed most to the population of South Carolina; Williamson tells us
that the larger portion of the population of North Carolina came from
Ireland; and all historians agree that the great bulk of the Irish
emigration went into Pennsylvania, and thence to Maryland, Virginia, and
the South. This emigration continued for more than a century. And yet
after a century of emigration and a century of growth, the white
population of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia was only
1,285,000. * These early settlers were vigorous and long-lived. Their
families were large. They multiplied with rapidity. t A striking proof of
this is found in the present population of the Southeast, to which there
has been practically no foreign emigration for a century. In 1880 the
white population of Georgia was 816,000, and 323,000 persons born in the
state resided in other portions of the country. The increase in the
Carolinas and Virginia and the number of persons contributed by them to
other states is equally striking.
From the Scotch and Irish
settlements in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, flowed for more than
a century two streams of emigration: one along the west side of the
mountains through Tennessee and Kentucky to Alabama and the Ohio Valley;
the other down the east side of the mountains into the Carolinas, where it
met and mingled with the
current which had flowed in through Charleston and the Southern ports, and
pushed its way on into Georgia and across the mountains also into
Tennessee.
Thus it is established that
the Scotch and Irish from the North of Ireland largely predominated among
the early settlers of the mountain and Piedmont regions of the Southeast.
They and their descendants began to move into Georgia about 1773. In that
year Gov. Wright purchased from the Indians that portion of Middle*
Georgia lying between the Oconee and the Savannah. He at once took steps
to secure its settlement, and the liberal inducements then offered, which
were increased later, proved very attractive to the enterprising sons of
Virginia and the Carolinas. These emigrants, coming chiefly from the
highlands of the older states, settled almost exclusively in Middle
Georgia. As late as 1820 they were confined to that portion of the state
bounded on the east by the Savannah River, on the west by the Ocmulgee, on
the south by a line drawn from Macon east to the Savannah, and on the
north by a northeast and southwest line a little south of the Atlanta and
Charlotte road. Nearly the whole territory west of the Ocmulgee was still
in the possession of the Indians. In the next decade the emigration from
the Carolinas and Virginia, now greatly increased by that from Georgia
itself, moved on in a southwest direction to the Chattahoochee. In 1830 it
only extended to that river. By that date the other current of emigration,
moving down the west side of the mountains, had passed onward through
Tennessee into Alabama. Thus in 1830 a large area in the possession of the
Creeks in Alabama, extending from the Chattahoochee, below Columbus, to
the northern limits of that state, and a large territory in Georgia
contiguous to it, lying between the Alabama line and the west bank of the
Chattahoochee, in the possession of the Cherokees, was wedged in between
the currents of white emigration. Around three sides of it the
Scotch-Irish had already settled. When it was opened to settlement
emigrants entered from all sides, but chiefly from Georgia itself and the
Scotch-Irish settlements in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee.
The great current of
emigration from the Northeast to the Southwest left its deepest impression
in Middle Georgia. In 1850 the bulk of the population in the state was
between two lines: one drawn from a point on the Chattahoochee a little
below Columbus, to Macon, and thence east to the Savannah River; the other
from the Chattahoochee about West Point, along the lines of the Atlanta
and West Point and the Atlanta and Charlotte roads to the Tugalo River.
The same lines extended to the northeast would have included the majority
of the population of the Carolinas. By this date three-fourths of the
white population of the state was native born, but there was still a large
emigration from Virginia and the Carolinas. Tennessee, too, had begun to
add a goodly number. In 1850 there were 560,000 white people in the state.
One hundred and nineteen thousand of them were born in other states. One
hundred and four thousand of that number were contributed by the states
just named * South Carolina, whose up country population was
overwhelmingly Scotch-Irish, has nearly doubled every other state in the
number of emigrants she has contributed to Georgia. t
Having demonstrated, I
trust, that the mass of the people of the state have Scotch and Irish
blood in their veins, let us next consider the effect of the Scotch-Irish
upon its civilization. This has been produced by causes partly external,
partly internal. We cannot correctly estimate it without considering the
character of the race.
From the time when the
Scots left the North of Ireland to the period when the Ulster plantation
was settled in 1609 Scotland was one constant theater of war. The
sterility of the country, the clannish life its people led, the constant
dangers to which they were exposed, the frugal manner in which their
surroundings compelled them to live—all contributed to produce a brave and
hardy race. Alone frequently in the mountains, forced to rely purely upon
their own powers, there was developed in a marked degree not only physical
courage, but that high moral courage and self-reliance which
has so distinguished the
race and enabled it under all circumstances to stand so unswervingly for
what it believed to be right and made it ready to sacrifice home, family,
hope of emolument, life itself, for the dictates of conscience.
[Applause.] Love of individual liberty, devotion to homo and family ties,
the habit of reflection, promptness and decision in action, deep religious
convictions, belief in self-government, and a readiness to resist the
central power in the interest of the clan were characteristics naturally
growing out of the environment of the Scots. They were frequently overrun
by stronger and more numerous forces, but they were never conquered. The
sturdiness, endurance, and persistency of the race enabled them to
surmount every form of conquest and oppression. The moment the pressure of
superior power was removed the rebound occurred, and Scotland was again in
arms fighting for her rights. The indomitable courage of the Scots was
invincible. Their natural characteristics could not be destroyed, even by
merger with other races. The Dane, the Saxon, and the Norman settled in
Scotland, and their blood is liberally intermingled in the veins of the
Scotch, but the. virility of the Scotch blood has preserved its
distinctive national traits. Not even centuries of union with England
could destroy these. The Scots were stronger for their life in Scotland,
better for the blood of the Pict, the Dane, the Saxon, and the Norman.
When they returned to the North of Ireland, they found nothing there to
weaken or enervate, but much to temper and to strengthen. Transplanted to
the wilderness of America, their environment was as well calculated to
develop their courage, independence, and sturdiness of character as the
lives their ancestors had led in Scotland. They were the pioneers of
civilization, and stood for more than half a century as the guards and
protectors of the colonists nearer the coast. To the hardships of the
frontier and the wilderness was added the daily fear of Indian attacks.
And then the war school of the Revolution! Is it a wonder that with the
numbers the Scotch and Irish had contributed to the population of the
colonies —is it a wonder that with the character stamped by the action of
centuries upon their lives they should have played an important part in
that great historical drama? Is it a wonder that Froude gives to them the
credit of having won independence for America, and goes so far as to
suggest that even Bunker Hill was borrowed from Ireland? [Applause.] It
was these people and their descendants who, pouring into Middle and Upper
Georgia, gave direction to its civilization.
But before we pass to the
consideration of the part they have played in local affairs we should note
a few general events of far-reaching importance. In the cabinet of
Washington a "West Indian Scotchman, Hamilton, a Virginia Scotch-Irishman,
Jefferson, laid the foundation of political divisions which have run
through all party lines from that day to this. In the days of
nullification two Scotch-Irishmen, born near each other in South Carolina,
led opposing forces, impressed their distinctive views upon all sections,
and created wide political differences and stanch followers in this state
and throughout the country. When it came to the sad civil war, it was a
Scotch-Irishman whose mother was a Georgian the Confederacy chose as her
leader; and it was a Scotch-Irishman, I believe, from the place where he
was born, the Virginia county from which his father moved, and all his
surroundings—his personal appearance, his traits of character—who, from
the Presidential chair, controlled the sentiment of the North, and carried
her victoriously through the struggle of their respective sections. Both
men typical in the highest degree of the two civilizations.
Is it a wonder that the
Scotch-Irish, prominent in these stirring political events, should have
made an impression upon the history of this state?
Leaving the political
field, let us consider a moment the material development of the century.
Here too the Scotch-Irish have had an influence extending throughout the
whole country. The first steamship that crossed the ocean sailed from the
port of Savannah. A Scotch-Irish boy rendered that possible. Who can
estimate the influence of Pulton's invention upon the civilization of the
century? Go look at the ocean racer and answer that question.
The telegraph wires cover
continents, underlie oceans, and outstrip time in the transmission of
intelligence. A Scotch-Irish brain conceived telegraphy. Whether Henry or
Morse is entitled to the credit does not matter. Both were of this race.
But to the Scotch-Irish Morse the country has given the credit.
[Applause.] Prof. Morse was the great grandson of the Scotch-Irishman,
William Finley, who was driven from New Haven as a vagrant because he
preached without special authority, to become later the President of
Princeton College.
Although separated hundreds
of miles, we converse with ease and recognize distinctly the voice of him
with whom we talk. Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland. We have no
right to claim him as a Scotch-Irishman, but as Scotch-Irishmen we have a
right to claim close kindship with the race from which he sprung.
Thomas A. Edison—go listen
to his phonograph reproduce the human voice or the sweet symphonies of
music, and remember, when you do, that he too, on his mother's side, is a
Scotch-Irishman. [Applause.]
In politics, in the
development of the world, in giving this great government with its
beneficent institutions to mankind, in the control of those forces which
have revolutionized modern civilization, Scotch-Irishmen have led.
[Applause.]
We cannot overestimate the
effect of these external influences created by the brains and directed by
the hands of Scotch-Irishmen upon the development and civilization of the
state.
Within the state the race
has been equally potential in molding its destinies. Most notable among
the earlier settlements in upper Georgia were two on the Broad and
Savannah Rivers. From Virginia came the Gilmers, Lewises, Strothers,
Harvies, Mathews, Mer-iwethers, Bibbs, Johnsons, Crawfords, Barnetts,
Andrews, and McGhees; from North Carolina the Clarks, Dooleys, Murrays,
Waltons, Campbells, Gilberts, Jacks, Longs, Cummings, Cobbs, and
Dougherties. For years those colonists dominated Georgia. They gave tone
to its civilization. They gave direction to its politics. Their
descendants are scattered over the state and over the South. While we
cannot claim all of them as members of our race, it predominated.
It would be invidious,
where there have been so many great men, to specify any particular one,
but there are Georgians who believe that William H. Crawford should head
the list. [Applause.] Gov. Clark and Gov. Troup led the opposing parties
for years. Troup had the gallant Scotch blood of Mcintosh in his veins,
and it showed itself when he proclaimed: "The argument is exhausted; we
stand by our arms." And Clark was a Scotch-Irishman from North Carolina.
Later, during the exciting
political period that immediately antedated the war, we find the matchless
Benjamin H. Hill speaking for the nation. [Applause.] We also find that
sharp, shrill voice of one who showed the race from which he sprung, when
he declared that in politics he "toted his own skillet," raised for the
Union. No man was more independent in character, and no man has left a
greater impression upon the history of the state than Alexander II.
Stephens. [Applause.] Governor, speaker, cabinet officer, general, Howell
Cobb was the equal of any man in the Union. [Applause.] The peer of either
in intellectual ability, nearer even to the people of that day than his
great rivals, was the Scotch-Irish boy who had driven his wagon from South
Carolina into Georgia: Joseph E. Brown. [Applause.] When the war came on
and men buckled on the sword, what two soldiers on either side fought
harder, more bravely, or more gloriously than Longstreet and Gordon.
[Applause.]
And since the war, "in the
piping times of peace," who have contributed more to the material
development of the state than the plain Scotch-Irish citizens; who, when
the war was over, settled quietly down to work? [Applause.] They have
written their history in their achievements.
We cannot estimate the
influence of the Scotch and Irish upon the civilization of the state
without giving special consideration to the part men of that blood have
played in educating the people and directing their religious convictions.
Who can estimate the influence of such men as Bishop Elliott and Bishop
Pierce and Moses Waddell, and hundreds of others whom I wish I had time to
mention—among them the noble Scotch-Irish ministers of this city of ours
who have contributed so much to elevate its morals and advance its
civilization? Nor have I time to mention the names of the eminent
Scotch-Irishmen who have presided over our schools and colleges, but it is
interesting to note the number of men of Scotch-Irish descent who have
been trustees of the State University. The first four Presidents were
Scotch-Irishmen: Joseph Meigs, John Brown, Robert Findley, and Moses
Waddell. From 1801 to 1827 Scotch-Irishmen presided over that institution;
and to Moses Waddell specially is due the education of many of the men of
this state who have attained national reputations.
In every field of labor and
of thought the Scotch-Irish of the state have distinguished themselves.
The field of individual effort and success offers a rich mine for the
Scotch-Irish historian of the state. But I must content myself with the
statement that at the bar and on the bench, in medicine and in surgery, in
the pulpit and and in the press, in business of every character, men with
Scotch-Irish blood in their veins have taken foremost places. They have
furnished the majority of the Governors of the state since 1786. [The
following Governors are said to have been of Scotch and Irish descent:
John Houston, George Walton, Stephen Heard, George Matthews, John Milledge,
David B. Mitchell, Peter Early, George M. Troup, John Clarke, George R.
Gilmer, Wilson Lumpkin, Charles J. McDonald, George W. Crawford, George W.
Townes, Howell Cobb, Joseph E. Brown, Charles J. Jenkins, Alexander H.
Stephens, Henry McDaniel, John B. Gordon, William J. Northen.] At present,
with that characteristic of taking no more than they can get, they fill
nearly every Statehouse office. The Governor, the Treasurer, the Secretary
of State, the Commissioner of Education, . the Chairman of the Railroad
Commission, the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Librarian, the Adjutant
General, and a majority of the members of the Supreme Court, the final
custodian of our rights, have Scotch-Irish blood in their veins.
From the facts presented it
is clear that the white population occupying the mountain and highlands of
this state and the Southeast are entirely homogeneous. This entire section
is inhabited by men of English, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish blood, who,
descended from revolutionary ancestors, naturally have the clearest
conception of the genius and spirit of our institutions and the most
ardent love of individual liberty and local self-government. Schooled for
generations by hardship and adversity, they retain in the highest degree
the vigor of the races from which they sprung.
I know it is sometimes
thought, and sometimes said, that the Southern people are not active,
energetic, and enterprising; that they have lost the vigor of the old
stock. This is a mistake. Let the hard-fought battles of the civil war and
the history of this state for the last quarter of a century, with all its
splendid achievements and the rapidity with which these people have
rebuilt the waste places bear testimony. Let the activity, enterprise, and
progress of this beautiful city testify. Col. Adair called attention
yesterday to the fact that in a canvass made by Mr. Grady it was
discovered that most of her prominent men were natives of this or
adjoining states. Let me give you another proof: In the census of 1880
there were 37,000 people in Atlanta. All but 1,400 were born in America,
and all but 2,400 more were born in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and
Tennessee. [Applause.]
There is another fact which
should be borne in mind. The Scotch-Irish carried with them to "Ulster,
when they were plain Scotchmen, the art of manufacturing. They caused
"Ulster to flourish with factories. Much of the same skill and the same
ingenuity to be found in the population of this whole section is now
wasted. Remember the great inventors to whom I have alluded, and then
remember that the Scotch-Irish race of Georgia and the surrounding states
is capable of the highest skill. Utilize it, and one day the Southeast
will reach the highest rank throughout the world in manufacturing.
[Applause.] You know your natural advantages; the present points to the
races to which you come, and says: "No people are capable of higher
attainments. Open the doors of future greatness."
But the duty of our race is
higher than that of developing the mere material prosperity of the
country. The preservation of the great principles for which our
forefathers fought is our noblest duty. They were brave and courageous,
they were noble and true. In the contests of the future let us emulate
their example. Upon the purity, simplicity, and temperance of our lives we
must rely for the transmission to unborn generations of the physical
strength required to withstand the fierce competition that will exist in
this state and country when hundreds shall have become thousands, and
thousands millions. Upon the church and the schoolhouse and the college we
must rely for the deep moral conviction and the high mental endowment
which will enable posterity to meet and solve the problems of the future.
Upon strict adherence to principle and courageous defense of right we must
rely for the maintenance of those institutions which give to the central
government all the powers necessary for the general welfare, and reserve
to states and communities the exercise of that local self-government
absolutely essential to individual freedom. May each succeeding generation
through distant ages bless their fathers for the transmission of these
traits of character and the preservation of this priceless form of
government [Prolonged applause.] |
