Ohio History Journal

OHIO DAY AT THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. On October 6, 1904, the Buckeyes from all parts of the United States celebrated Ohio Day upon the grounds of the Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri. The exercises were held in the afternoon and evening in the beautiful Ohio Building. The Ohio Commission, appointed by Governor Nash under authority of an act passed by the 75th General Assembly, consisted of Hon. William F. Burdell, President, Columbus, life member of the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society; Hon. L. E. Holden, Vice-President, Cleveland; Hon. D. H. Moore, Athens; Hon. Edwin Hagenbuch, Urbana; Hon. M. K. Gantz, Troy; Hon. New- ell K. Kennon, St. Clairsville; Hon. David Friedman, Caldwell. Hon. S. S. Rankin, South Charleston, was the Executive Commis- sioner having personal charge of the building and the affairs of the commission during the period of the exposition. After an opening selection by the Philippino Band, Reverend Naphtali Luccock, President of the Ohio Society of St. Louis, (101)

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102      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. was introduced by Mr. Burdell and asked to invoke the Divine blessing. REVEREND NAPHTALI LUCCOCK: "Our Father's God from out whose hand, The centuries fall like grains of sand," We stand in this sunlit hour of privilege with grateful hearts for the splendid inheritance thou hast given us in the midst of the years. We thank thee for the happy memories which crowd our hearts, and for the great opportunities which open before us. Put thy blessing upon the commonwealth which we honor this day, and upon all the commonwealths of our Nation! The bless- ing of the Lord our God be upon us and the work of our hands establish thou it, through Christ! Amen. OPENING ADDRESS DELIVERED BY WILLIAM F. BURDELL, PRESIDENT OHIO COMMISSION. Ladies and Gentlemen - On behalf of the Ohio Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition I bid you welcome to these

Ohio day exercises. We are justly proud of our state and we like to get together and talk about her. The Ohio Commission with limited re- sources has done the best it could to provide a comfortable and hospitable meeting place for Ohio people visiting the Fair. I am delighted that such a goodly number of Ohioans lend their appreciative presence to this superb effort of this most progressive city. To mass the products of the whole world in one comprehensive grouping -to search the globe and find its rarest treasures - to place beside the

best gifts of an indulgent Providence, the best efforts of intel- lectual man, is a work of stupendous magnitude. St. Louis has done this and has done it well. We look upon the world's eighth

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wonder, and the people of Ohio congratulate you of St. Louis

upon your splendid success.

There is much in this land and much in our time that should

make us grateful contemporaries. To live in an age of accumu-

lated genius - to have the work of man transcend man and

approach the unknowable - to see spread out before us this grand

panorama of man's accomplishment, is a privilege we do not fully

appreciate. By some propitious accident of time, we rather than

our fathers, behold civilization's supremest triumph. I do not

believe that those of our day will witness a duplication of this

magnificent exposition. You, fortunate men and women, who

visit St. Louis in this year 1904, see with your own eyes and feel

with human senses this impressive revelation of man's highest

attainment.

Ohio has had some share in the great national development

which this exposition reflects. Ohio and her sons have not been in

the rear of this splendid procession. She and they have been

making records for political and industrial America. Some pages

in our country's history belong to her. Even now the tiller of

the Ship of State is warm with the hand of that beloved and gentle

McKinley - of that masterful, yet humane, Napoleon of modern

politics, Hanna - of that wise pilot of our blackest night of finan-

cial stress, John Sherman -with the hand of Hay, who makes

precedent for the whole world's diplomacy, and Taft, who built

out of chaos a government for the Philippine Islands.

Yes, Ohio has been and is conspicuous in the larger affairs

of our country. There were times when she seemed to dominate

and control them. Her sons were forceful leaders, their eloquence

was persuasive, their judgment sound and stable. If, in the grow-

ing power of this great West -in the mutation of our national

life -if, in the future, the man and the issues of another state

should seem ascendent in the councils of the nation - if other

men of other states nearer the great heart and brain of this grand

republic, should seem better fitted for the responsibilities of gov-

ernment, there will be in Ohio no resentment - no heart burnings.

We will sustain and strengthen them, will follow on with them,

the splendid highway of our common glory. And, in the tri-

umphal march of which this exposition is but a halting place, the

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East and the West, the North and the South, proud of each other's

attainments, glorying in each other's triumphs, will go on together

in that undying love of a common country which, in surpassing

goodness, justice and power, is the central sun of this western

hemisphere.

We will go on together, not content with this splendid expo-

sition that seems today the acme of human achievement, but with

the unsatisfied longing, the unquenchable desire for better things,

with faces towards the light, with hands ever guided by righteous

hearts, will raise stone upon stone--a mighty monument of

national greatness.

I have alluded to the glories of this great exposition. I now

have the pleasure of introducing to you the man who, more than

all others, is responsible for the success of this fair -the Honor-

able David R. Francis, President of the Louisiana Purchase

Exposition.

 

HONORABLE DAVID R. FRANCIS:

Mr. President, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen -

The exposition management is more than pleased to see this repre-

sentative outpouring of Ohioans on Ohio Day. You know, the

Government at Washington has not been able to run for years

without Ohio's assistance; consequently, no great exposition could

be successfully held without the participation of Ohio. We are,

therefore, deeply grateful to the Buckeye State for the assistance

rendered to this international or universal exposition.

Ohio has a history of which every citizen of the state should

be proud. There are many links which bind Ohio to the Louisiana

Territory, and there are many reasons why Ohio should participate

in this exposition; why the people of the Louisiana Purchase

should feel grateful to Ohio. I believe it was the same La Salle

who discovered the Ohio River and went down that stream before

he went down the Mississippi and reared the cross near the mouth

of the Father of Waters and named the territory "Louisiana" in

honor of his King of France. From that time on the hardy

pioneers who blazed the way in that country have constantly forged

their way westward. They were instrumental in bringing about

the purchase of this Louisiana Territory and have been very

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  105

 

potential agents in building it up from the time it was brought

under the dominion of the United States Government.

I believe that Ohio's organization, as a state, was about con-

temporaneous with the coming of the Louisiana Territory under

the control of the United States Government. I remember that

when this movement for the celebration of this purchase was first

thought of, at the inception of the plan, it was said that Ohio was

also preparing for a centennial celebration commemorating the

one hundredth anniversary of the admission of Ohio into the

Union. I think this was planned to be held in Toledo.

The people of that state, with marked and memorable mag-

nanimity, when they heard of the plans made to commemorate

this Louisiana Purchase, abandoned their plans for a centennial

at Toledo, and most generously united with the people of the

Louisiana Purchase territory to commemorate its transfer from

France to the United States Government. That is additional

cause for gratitude for which the exposition management cannot

make too frequent acknowledgement.

Not only that, but the management of this exposition well

remembers the very efficient aid given to this movement by a

lamented son of Ohio, whose influence was potent in the national

councils, and who, from the time this celebration was first men-

tioned, gave it encouragement. Upon every occasion, whether

in the Senate of the United States or in the councils of the State

of Ohio, he spoke a good word for this exposition. We joined

with the people of Ohio in lamenting his untimely taking off,

and upon this occasion, we desire again to pay our tribute of

respect and affection to the memory of MARCUS A. HANNA!

The other Senator from Ohio was likewise friendly to this

exposition movement -I refer to Senator Foraker - from the

time the suggestion was first made in the National Congress. In

fact, all of the representatives of your great state, if I remember

rightly, have given their support, in critical times, to this work

as it progressed.

The Chief Executive of your commonwealth, who favors us

with his presence today, and whose acquaintance and friendship

I have been proud to claim for a longer period than he has been

your Governor, has ever been a friend to this Exposition from the

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beginning of his administration. His presence here to-day is the

second or third visit he has made. He manifests what we trust

he cherishes, and what we would like to see on the part of the

Executives of all the states, a proprietary interest in this great

Exposition. It does not belong to one state alone, but every mem-

ber of the sisterhood has contributed to this international cele-

bration.

Here Ohio has erected a home in which her sons and daugh-

ters feel as much "at home" as they could if they were upon the

soil of Ohio.

Furthermore, many of the sons and daughters of Ohio who

left the state of their nativity and came West years ago have been

associated in the organization of this celebration. They are repre-

sented on its Board of Directors, and as I stated in the begin-

ning, no movement of a national character in this country can be

successful without the aid of Ohio!

The exhibits of your state in our Exhibit Palaces demonstrate

more forcefully than I can explain, the resources of Ohio and the

progress that your state has made in wealth, in culture, and in

everything that goes to make a great commonwealth!

Your state has contributed Presidents to the United States !

There is a long line of distinguished sons of Ohio to which every

citizen of the state can point with pride! Their descendants are

still exerting their influence throughout the land! They are rep-

resentatives of that composite American character which has made

this country what it is.  And this Exposition, which brings

together people of Ohio and people of Texas, the people of Wash-

ington with those of Maine, serves but to make our Union the

stronger.

It is a beautiful sight to contemplate, looking at these state

buildings, forty odd of them, erected upon these grounds, the loca-

tions here bearing no relation to the locations of the states in

the country. Here, as you observe, is Ohio, further south than Mis-

souri. It is but a step from Ohio to Mississippi! The strains of

the music participating in the ceremonies of dedication on these

sites reminded us of the fact that no differences exist between

the various sections of our country. The strains of "Dixie" had

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  107

 

hardly died out on the Mississippi site when we were saluted with

the familiar notes of "John Brown's Body Lies Mould'ring in the

Grave" from the Kansas site. This Exposition belongs to the

people, and to the entire people! When the "Star Spangled Ban-

ner" is played upon these grounds every man within reach of the

sound rises and doffs his hat! It is such practices as these which

deepen and quicken the patriotism of the American people!

The educational advantages of this Exposition are not con-

fined to any one section. I am glad to say that your state has

been so generously represented here. We ask you to remain with

us as long as your affairs will permit; to give the exhibits in these

palaces as thorough an inspection as your time will allow; and

upon your return home to say to those whom you left behind that

there is installed in St. Louis an Exposition, held in celebra-

tion of a great event in our country's history, which every Ameri-

can should patronize and which will be of great benefit to all who

visit it because it here brings together within a small area the best

products of all the civilized countries of the globe; because it is the

occasion of the assembling here of representatives of all the primi-

tive races, and because it will be, in the judgment of most men,

the last universal exposition which this generation will see! The

only criticism has been that it is too big for any one individual to

properly inspect or comprehend! But that should be no reason

why people should not visit it. When the American people plan

to hold an exposition, they take no second place in expositions,

as they take no second place in any other line!

Furthermore, the great event which we are commemorating,

and which was the greatest transfer of territory in the history

of the world by peaceful negotiations, could not be properly cele-

brated by an exposition second to any which had ever been held!

There will be expositions in the future, but, in my judgment,

they will be expositions along special lines.

Permit me to thank you again for your attendance here; and

on behalf of the Exposition management, I desire to make

acknowledgement to the Chief Executive of Ohio, for the very

able and faithful labors performed by his Commission.

This characteristic structure has not only been a home for

the sons and daughters of Ohio, but here has always been dis-

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108      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. pensed that genuine Ohio hospitality without which it would be a misnomer to call it the Ohio building. The exhibits installed by the Commission in our Exhibit Pal- aces speak for themselves. This Exposition, if it did nothing more than to inculcate into the people connected with it,-not only the local management but the people here representing the differ- ent states of the Union,-if it did nothing more than inculcate in them that patriotic spirit, that sense of national duty which prompts them to sacrifice personal interest, personal convenience, and also personal means, to promote the interests of our common country, that, indeed, would be compensation enough for all of the time, for all of the labor, all of the means, all of the sacrifice, which this International Exposition has entailed. I thank you for your attention. MR. BURDELL: Ladies and Gentlemen - It is with the greatest pleasure that I introduce the Honorable Myron T. Herrick, Governor of Ohio. GOVERNOR HERRICK: My Fellow-Citizens, Sons and Daughters of Ohio, and Gov- ernor Francis - I want first of all to express the appreciation

of this audience, made up largely of Ohio people, for the kind words Gov- ernor Francis has said of Ohio. We are, indeed, proud of the history of Ohio - prouder than we dare to say to you, Governor Francis! This is Ohio Day at the greatest of all expositions. We are assembled to add our testimony to the success of this wonderful exhibit, and to express our appreciation and devotion to the great event it is intended to signalize; and to pay tribute to the genius, energy, and superb nerve of the men and women of St. Louis who have

made this the greatest of all expositions. Surely, there never

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was gathered in one place such an array of proof of the

world's progress, such amazing omens of the triumphs of peace,

as are seen on these beautiful grounds. The ancient civilization of

the East is here in touch with the modern life of the West.

Strange people from strange lands, mingle and view each other's

advancement with amazement and mutual benefit.

President McKinley designated these expositions as "mile

stones to mark a nation's progress!" The men of St. Louis

have laid this "mile stone" to the everlasting credit of their

country and themselves. We Ohioans extend to you our felici-

tations upon this splendid realization which is possible only for

our country, and for few cities beside St. Louis.

The evolution of the race toward higher planes of life is here

pictured in stronger lines than the imagination of artist or writer

can portray. Who can view the Philippine exhibit of its people

and its products without a better understanding of, and a greater

pride in, our most humane work in the Orient? We gaze into

each other's faces with hope and surprise when we look over the

magnificent display of the arts of peace, and recognize the victories

of intelligence, skill, and purpose that characterize every advance.

A scene like this marks the trend of a fairer destiny. It is a

promoter of optimism. It extends the horizon wherein human

genius does its real work. Think of the former days of crude

endeavor in all fields of human effort, and then of this exposi-

tion of inventive genius, and mark how far advanced are the

standards of life. Each of us absorbed in his own "day's work,"

awakes in amazement here to find that the dream of yesterday

is the realization of to-day, the hope of to-day is the fact of to-

morrow.

Progress is harnessing the forces of nature and adapting

them to the desires of men. The air, the sea, the earth, are filled

with energies, that are utilized for the comfort and joy of the race.

These forces are taken from their primeval relation, ordained by

a wise Providence, and fitted to the service of home, of shop, of

farm and every avenue of human activity. "Behold what God

hath wrought!" heralded the first message of electricity, and

now again behold. There in the laboratory, there the engine,

the telephone, the trolley cars, the phonograph, these Alladin

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palaces, blazing at night with electric lights, everywhere, a step

forward, and a promise of loftier triumphs still to come, and

one exclaims: "Behold what God hath wrought," and again

behold what Governor Francis and his valiant men have wrought.

This exposition is not only a realization, but an inspiration.

Who can look on this scene and not catch the harmony which the

Eternal Goodness has reposed in all things, or fail to recognize

the potencies with which He has invested all matter. Here one

sees them put into service, so perfectly, so grandly, that one is

sure to ascribe it all to a Divine purpose from the very beginning.

Such an illustration of human progress as we have here is

a fit demonstration to celebrate the event for which it was so

happily conceived, and that event, the Louisiana Purchase, was

the crowning work and glory of a great Democratic administra-

tion, presided over by a great Democrat. It was men like him,

whose clear vision saw that an untrammeled democracy was abso-

lutely essential to the first development of this empire of freedom,

and who thus laid the firm foundation for this Republic's future

greatness.

Within a century an empire has arisen from a wilderness.

The tomahawk and scalping knife have given way to the steam

plow and self-binder. Where the wigwam stood the schoolhouse

stands. The free citizen of the town and farm has taken the

place of the red man of the chase. No area on this planet has

taken up the march of civilization with a steadier tread than that

within the compass of the Louisiana Purchase. In civic attain-

ment, in agricultural advancement, in educational outlook, in

whatever adorns life with honor and duty, this populous region

has stood in the forefront of the republic in its onward march.

If there could be a miracle in the evolution of natural destiny,

this great transition would be one.

When one looks into the future, and extends the progress

of the past century forward, his mind fails to comprehend that

were he to appear at the two hundredth anniversary of the

Louisiana Purchase it would be with all the bewilderment of Rip

Van Winkle. Here is the center of the republic, and it will be

the center of civilization whence mechanics, invention, science,

art and philosophy will abide for countless years.

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The fact that there are one million eight hundred thousand

square miles of arable land west of the Missisippi, and eight hun-

dred thousand square miles east of the Mississippi, tells us that

when these lands which are becoming so rapidly populated are

occupied, the center of the voting power of the nation will be

on this side of the Father of Waters. And what we see all about

us is an earnest that those foundation principles of the Republic

will nowhere hold happier sway than in this region beyond the

Mississippi.

Ohio has not the honor of belonging to that grand galaxy

of states born of the Louisiana Purchase, but it comes to rejoice

with them in the achievement of a national spirit, which has made

them the pride of the Union. We do not come as a neighbor, but

as a member of the family, to exult over our own good fortune

as well as yours. First-born of the Northwest Territory, dedi-

cated to freedom by the Ordinance of 1787, imbued with the first

fresh impulse of the Republic's highest hope and devotion to the

task of transforming a wilderness into a commonwealth, Ohio

comes to you proud of her past and inspired by a memory that

inaugurated this drama of national glory.

Ohio is the most cosmopolitan of states. It indulges in no

provincial whims. It is proud of itself for the same reason that

it is proud of the other states. Its population began with a vigor-

ous blend of Puritan and Cavalier, happily modified by the Con-

necticut Bourbon and Pennsylvania Dutchman, a composite that

embraced the elements of sterling manhood, and formed the basis

of self-reliant and aggressive citizenship. Thus endowed, and

occupying the center of the Union, and being the highway between

the East and the West, Ohio knows no section, only a common

country, the principles of whose government respond to all the

legitimate aspirations of mankind.

It is not surprising that in all this magnificent empire build-

ing Ohio should look on with a feeling of pride and kinship? I

say kinship, for Ohio is the mother - and a mighty mother is she,

of this great middle west. Why, my friends, do you know that

there are living in Indiana more than one hundred and sixty thou-

sand Ohio born people, more than one hundred and forty thousand

in Illinois, ninety thousand in Iowa, ninety thousand in Kansas,

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and more than seventy thousand in this great state of Missouri!

So, when I claim this maternal relationship with the West, I speak

of recorded facts. I have no fear of contradiction when I say

that there are living now in the great valley of the Mississippi,

more than three-quarters of a million Americans, who first saw

the light of day in my grand old State of Ohio. Our unusual

diversity of resources has trained Ohio men in a broad, catholic

university of life. She has sent her sons out into the world, not

trained in narrow lines, nor with the idea that any particular

staple is king, but that all the bounties of kind Providence are

given to man for his benefit and for the benefit of his fellew men.

Nearly two centuries ago John Law located here his visions

of wealth. It was a mirage of the brain spreading over the

horizon far beyond. Modern spirit has pushed through that

mirage to the solid shores, and changed that vaporous scheme into

a glorious achievement. No longer do those wild and desolate

scenes appeal to a laggard faith. What was then a daring vision

is now a civilization, as lasting as the earth, a civilization rich with

the resources of the soil, with the victories of commerce, with the

growth of cities, with the increase of schools and churches, and

with the happiness of homes.

Not with material blessings only is this mighty progress

attended. Here, with jocund spirit of aggression that animates

the western heart, will be solved, as nearly as this virile pro-

gressive race is capable of solving, those social problems that rest

on the bosom of society like a frightful dream. It is to be the

land of liberty, of opportunity, and of brotherhood. We philoso-

phically accept, with the characteristic of light-hearted Americans,

conditions as we find them, and with the instruments which we

have we strive earnestly to improve them. There is so much in

American life of materialism mingled with our higher ideals that

inequalities will continue to exist. Periods of depression and

discouragement will come in the future as in the past, when our

patriotism will be severely taxed and the obligations of citizen-

ship will rest heavily upon us; but the man of today gives promise

that his progeny, like himself and his ancestors, will be equal to

the strain; and this nation will not, therefore, die of material

opulence, as did Greece and Rome. These sentiments of equality

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  113

 

and justice, these ideals of opportunity and fraternity, will more

strongly direct the new evolution, and make rights and duties

inseparable.

This great Jeffersonian expansion carried with it more than

an increase of territory; more, too, than the conversion of a bar-

barism into a civilization. The aggressive spirit of the republic

required an outing ground, a breathing place, where, free from

dogma and social bondage of the Orient, it could exploit itself

along the lines of ultimate ideals. Horace Greeley's advice to

the young man, "Go West," was given in a spirit of true philoso-

phy-go west, grow, evolve, differentiate, and there, upon the

broad plains, along the shining rivers, and on the liberty-loving

mountains, set up the standards of a true, self-reliant, American

manhood. That is the doctrine of the West. That is the secret

of its wonderful development.

This is the first centennial in honor of the dedication of this

vast domain to the cause of American liberty. The whole world

comes here to lay down its tribute to the progress of a century.

Our theory of government, instead of repelling any people, has

won the respect, if not the admiration, of all nations. This has

been the accomplishment of the century that has just passed.

The rich gifts brought here from all lands testify to an alert-

ness of brain and a deftness of hand that is marvelous, and we

rightly pride ourselves on these things; but they have a deeper

meaning--they tell of the kinship of nations, of the sympathy

among them, of a generous rivalry in those things that raise the

standard of living; and they tell us that, in different ways, we

are reaching out toward one object: the happiness and elevation of

the race. This quest, involving the exercise of the brightest intel-

lects and the warmest hearts, moves along the path of peace, which

it ever proclaims as the trend of national duty. That is one lesson

of this grand demonstration; and while we may consistently boast

of our own advancement, we do not forget that the world moves

with us and rejoices in our splendid development.

The mission of every wheel, fibre, energy, tint, and form,

that betters itself in the evolution now going on, increases the

lustre of national life, and promotes peace among nations. There

is a moral advancement in every triumph of mind over matter,

Vol. XIV- 8

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114      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and its influence is felt in commerce, industry, politics, social and

domestic life. This exhibit that now awakens our wonder is a

protest against Goldwin Smith's prediction of gloom and ruin

for American institutions. Our problem may not be completely

worked out, but the omens along our path, like those we see all

around us, fill our hearts with faith and hope that the happiest

and grandest days of this republic are yet to come. To that faith

our lives are devoted; in that hope we press on.

And to you, men of Missouri and of the Sunny South, at

whose portals we are standing, speaking for the great mother

heart of our dear old state, which lies but a day's journey beyond

your great river- speaking for her, and for these Ohioans gath-

ered here today - I tell you that not only have all the old wounds

healed, but that the scars have been obliterated. We meet today

in this border state of that gigantic disagreement, not as friends

merely, but in a closer, holier kinship, under that flag that waves

above us; and we thank God that it represents a united sisterhood

of states, standing as it does, for the fairest opportunity that the

world has ever known.

 

MR. BURDELL:

During the panic times of '93 and '94, there was one thing

that always flourished in the West -The Ohio Society! They

tell me that no severity of weather, no discouraging condition of

crops or business, could prevent an Ohio Society from flourishing.

I have the honor of presenting to you, a representative of the

Ohio Society of St. Louis, a man who has rendered distinguished

service to his country in both civic and military life. I name the

distinguished and honored son of Ohio, the Honorable John

W. Noble, of Saint Louis.

HON. JOHN W. NOBLE:

Ladies and Gentlemen - The purposes for which this man-

sion was erected by the State of Ohio are being satisfactorily met

in all ways, but its use at no time will be more important or

interesting than today. The presence of Ohio's chief magistrate,

his staff, its civil officers and multitudes of its people mark this

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  115 event as one gratifying to its pride and destined to be remem- bered in its annals. When in 1901 the Auxiliary Committee of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, which was composed of members

of the Ohio Society of St. Louis, was invited by the legislature to Columbus, to address it upon the proposition of making an appropriation for such building, the opportunity was gladly accepted.  The money was voted. Governor Nash favored the measure, and the present beautiful house is the result. The site is also fortunately good and is due in great measure to the earnestness and judgment of the Ohio Executive Commissioner and his associates who demanded an advanced and prominent location. Indeed Ohio has received from the President, archi-

tect and officers of the Exposition Company as to its buildings worthy consideration at all times. The suggestions made at the time the appropriation was urged, that seemed to be most germane to the subject and persua- sive, and which are now being proven correct, were, that this Exposition, universal in name, would certainly prove to be all the name implied, and here would be exhibited the products of land and sea, and of every state and all nations; that here would come in vast multitudes the people of all sections and every clime, and among them all there would be none prouder of the land of their birth, because of its origin, of its progress and of its worth and power than the sons of Ohio; and none who would more enjoy meeting together on Ohio's ground, as it were, and there renew- ing old ties of affection and loyalty to her and our common coun- try; that Ohio could not have become the great commonwealth she has grown to be, but by having bred a race which could not all be content to remain within her borders, but many by force of character had to seek and find place for their energy and intel-

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ligence elsewhere; that natives of Ohio were numerous in almost

every other state, and nowhere were more abundant, proportion-

ately to population, than in Missouri, the locality of the Exposi-

tion and the states adjacent thereto; that they would be all coming

to the fair and quite as much to see what Ohio was doing or had

to show and to say, as for any other pleasure. It was also appar-

ent, it was urged, that a great commercial state would find it

worth while to secure such world-wide notice as could be here

obtained for the products of her fields and factories; and that

such an enlightened and generous people, who had received much

from the early pioneers who had come to plant the state and sus-

tain it in its infancy and growth, would gladly give a hand to

Ohio's sons and daughters struggling elsewhere with less advan-

tage; and that she would be pleased to set forth her accomplish-

ments in the arts, in her educational system and her scholarship;

and present her worthy and ever increasing roll of men and

women, distinguished, and many pre-eminent as statesmen, as

teachers, as authors, as soldiers, as merchants and as farmers,

and in every vocation and station of life.

These were the purposes advocated for the establishment of

this beautiful house, the Ohio headquarters. Are they not being

most gratifyingly fulfilled? What Ohioan can pass from the

palaces of this Exposition with Ohio's exhibits of her manufac-

tories, varied industries and the liberal arts; of her mines, of her

electrical appliances, machinery, agricultural products and fine

arts, and of her educational system; or view the names of the

presidents, statesmen and soldiers in the United States Govern-

ment Building, and not turn at last proudly to this central place,

to this high seat from which Ohio seems to preside over all the

world besides, and where she smilingly welcomes them, as she

does, today, and not here gladly join in her praise, whether he

resides in Ohio yet, or dwells in some other state? We feel that

"our state" holds a high place throughout this great Exposition

and one worthy of her history and her fame.

It is also peculiarly appropriate that we should have set apart

a day for these exercises. The history of Ohio and that of the

domain in the Louisiana Purchase are closely and interestingly

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  117

 

related, and indeed the settlement of Ohio and the northwest

caused our acquisition of the Louisiana territory.

The expeditions to, and conquests of, Kaskaskia, near St.

Louis, and the British post of Vincennes, by George Rogers Clark,

aided by Governor Patrick Henry, gave, at the negotiations for

the treaty of peace at the close of the Revolutionary War, the

support necessary to the claim of the United States, through the

charters of Virginia, and of the other colonies, to obtain the

relinquishment by the English Crown of all right to the domain

west of the Ohio River. By the Ordinance of 1787 this was

organized into the Northwest Territory extending to the Missis-

sippi River. Upon the adoption of that ordinance the settlement

begun at the mouth of the Muskingum, ("The River of the Elk's

eyes"), and its junction with the Ohio, ("the beautiful river"),

on April 7th, 1788, was so rapid that the wilderness soon was

peopled to such degree, that the state with its present bound-

aries was admitted to the Union in 1802. Its people, with those

of the other portions of the Territory bordering on the Ohio

River and partly on the Missisippi, was of the stock of those who

carried to a successful issue the war of Independence. An outlet

for their products by the great waterways was essential to their

prosperity, and they demanded in unmistakable terms that the

National Government should free from foreign control the mouth

of the Mississippi, or they would resort to any means within her

power to remove all barriers there and enforce their natural

claims to untrammeled intercourse with all parts of their own

country and with other nations. There was no one more con-

versant with the needs of these people or more sympathetic with

their sacrifices, or more appreciative of the justice of these claims,

nor any more desirous, both from principle and the necessities

of the young Republic to avoid war, than the then President of

the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Washington had in his

early military career been engaged west of the Alleghanies, and

comprehended as well as, if not better than, any of his fellow citi-

zens and made widely known the beauty and exhaustless resources

of the great region so secured by the treaty of 1783. Jefferson

had himself formulated, in great part, the Ordinance of 1787,

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118      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

which was only second to the Declaration of Independence in its

announcement of principles essential to good government and

to the peace and progress of a free people. And although the reso-

lutions first adopted were enlarged and advocated by Nathan

Dane, and the ordinance was passed while Jefferson was absent

abroad in the service of the country, its principles had his hearty

approval; and he was eager upon his return to cooperate in their

support and extension by all means within his control. And when

he became President and the West demanded free navigation of

the rivers, commissioners were sent to France to negotiate for the

free passage of the Mississippi, and succeeded, even beyond their

expectations, in obtaining title to the vast region of which that

great river formed the eastern border.

As the success of George Rogers Clark, the pioneer soldier,

wrought out by such apparently insufficient means had secured

to our country the great Northwest, so now the necessities of the

greatest commander of European armies, Napoleon, led him to

grant to the United States for a comparatively small pecuniary

consideration the Louisiana Purchase. Thus the behest of the

flatboatmen of the Ohio found result in the acquisition of the

farther west, reaching from the Father Waters to the Rocky

Mountains. The Northwest was to the purchase as cause to effect.

The homogeneous particles of the whole gathered into coherence,

solidity and strength as a star, a world, from nebulae. The fiat

of the divinity that shapes our ends, brought the two great regions

of the west together at the Mississippi, that divides but does not

separate them, and here today we feel the heart of the nation pul-

sating; beating in mighty rhythm, with the force of daily increas-

ing health and strength. Ohio comes to this celebration with

the consciousness of having with the purchase an almost coin-

cident birthday, and certainly a united interest and common des-

tiny with the states that have arisen and the one that is soon to

come from this vast domain.

Ohio headed the column when the young Republic began

its forward march to broader fields and greater endeavor. On

each day's advance her force has been effective to clear the way

to win the battles for the right. At each night's bivouac her pre-

sence has given assurance of response and safety, and her bugles

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Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  119

 

send forth today no uncertain signals of her purpose to keep the

faith of her own deliverance, and still higher advance for all men

the principles of public education, religion, liberty and justice to

which she even before her birth was dedicated by the wisdom and

virtue of the fathers.

The history of the realms of the Northwest and of the Louis-

iana Purchase is replete with adventure, romance, sacrifice and

success. The one whose soil was from the beginning by the votes

of the southern states themselves, ordained to be free from slavery,

has so supported the cause of human freedom that the other now

likewise enjoys it; and all the states rejoice that they are united

in heart and hand, and stand among the strongest and most influ-

ential of the nations.

We are one people, from New England, Virginia or Florida,

the State of Louisiana and Texas to the Pacific, and Alaska and

the lakes. Each succeeding territory that has been formed, each

state as it has been admitted to the Union, from the days of the

Colonies to this hour, has been inhabited and filled substantially

with the same stock of American people. The Territorial Acts

and the State Constitutions have each been molded and made in

all essential particulars the same as those of the earliest ones.

And the means of communication enable the Governor of Ohio or

of the State of Washington to visit and participate in services such

as these of today with as much convenience almost as to go from

his own home to the capital of, or any other city within his state.

Alike in language, in the constitutions, the laws and the pursuits

of business, the customs of home, and the love of our common

country, when now a new territory is suddenly thrown open as

was Oklahoma, sixteen years ago, or the other great states

admitted from 1889 to 1903, the population begins its career, it is

true, with hardships and sacrifices, but with the immense advan-

tages of rapid transportation; the postoffice at hand, the tele-

graph from the former home, and all the aid that an advanced

experience and all the help that vast improvements in the means

of living and a more abundant facility of education can bestow;

and above all with the protection and support of our National Gov-

ernment, so generous and so powerful.

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120       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

As a citizen of Missouri and of St. Louis it is a great per-

sonal pleasure for me to be associated with the representatives

and people of Ohio this day. Missouri welcomes Ohio as sister,

yes, even as mother.   The memories of my life embrace an

acquaintance with many who were the pioneers of these now great

commonwealths, Ohio the fourth and Missouri the fifth in the

Union in population. Let us not now forget our obligation to

those brave patriotic men.

The pioneer, as has been written of the greatest of them all,

* * * went forth to battle, on the side

That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's, * * *

* * The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,

The iron bark that turns the lumb'rer's axe,

The rapid that o'erbears the boatman's toil,

The prairie hiding the mazed wander's tracks,

The ambushed Indian and the prowling bear,

Such were the needs that helped his youthful train:

Rough culture, but such trees large fruit may bear,

If but their stocks be of right girth and grain."

 

The march by states from the west coming successively into

the line of the Union is about complete and the advance into the

field where nations are contending has begun, not for war, nor

with jealousy, nor with greed for wealth, dominion or power, but

for the advocacy of the liberty of the individual, the practice of

humanity, the elevation of the people of all the world to greater

comfort and higher thought, and to hold high to view and vindi-

cate the principles of our American Christian Republic. Let us

rejoice that to the duties of the past Ohio has been ever true, and

resolve that to the demand of the future she will bring like full

measure of morality, loyalty and justice.

• 20