Ohio History Journal

THE WEST IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

 

JOHN LEE WEBSTER,

President Nebraska Historical Society.

 

History is to a nation what the faculty of memory is to

individuals * *  * the basis of all our experience, and by

means of experience, the source of all improvement. * * *

History knows all things, contains all things, teaches all things;

not in winged words which strike the ear without impressing the

mind, but in great and striking actions. * * * The spirit

of the world itself is but a great and unending tale repeated

from age to age, the poem of God, the source of human in-

spiration. Such is a condensed statement of the expressions

of Lamartine, the French scholar and historian.

Prof. Van Dyke, in speaking of the footprints of a desert

deer found in the petrified rocks upon a mountain top, said:

"How many thousands of years ago was that impression stamped

upon the stone? * * * And while it remains quite perfect

today, the vagrant hoof mark of a desert deer, what has become

of the once carefully guarded footprints of the Sargons, the

Pharaohs, and the Caesars?"

I take these two excerpts from distinguished writers as a

thought from which to deliver a discourse upon the great West,

its place in American history, past, present and prospective

future, and the urgent necessity, as well as the expediency of

preserving its history.

Columbus, gifted by genius, was inspired with the belief

that the world had lost one of its hemispheres. With him it

was to be the discovery and bringing back to world relationship,

not the Atlantic sea coast, but the entire American continent.

Yet, when the Bostonians threw the tea into Boston Harbor

they did not know of any land west of the Alleghenies. John

Adams, the gifted advocate and fire brand for independence,

knew nothing of lands westward from the colonies and their

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The West in American History.            171

 

tributary territory. Madison and Wilson and their associate

co-workers in framing the Federal Constitution were only acting

as the representatives of the original thirteen states. The far

seeing George Washington looked westward only into the regions

bordering on the Ohio River. Thomas Jefferson did not dream

of the Louisiana Purchase until he learned of the importance of

the Mississippi as an outlet of commerce at New Orleans, and

that the missionary and the Spaniards were establishing habi-

tations upon the Pacific coast. It was not until half a century

later that the Kansas and Nebraska Territorial Bills in Con-

gress began to attract public attention.

Kansas and Nebraska are a part of that vast plain between

the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains which, in an

ancient geological period, was the bottom of an inland sea which

extended from the Gulf of Mexico on the South to the lake

regions on the North. In the climatic conditions which took

place as the ages rolled along, this plain had its tropical period,

when there were forms of vegetation and animal life which in

this day can only be found in Africa and South America, and

others which belonged to the medieval world and are entirely

extinct. In the rotation of time, other changes took place, and

the regions of Arctic cold came where the tropical zone had

been. The glaciers came down from the North and spread their

deposits all over the vast plain from the mountains to the Mis-

souri River. Following these geological and climatic changes

there afterwards came the Great American Desert, when little

sand dunes were seen everywhere, and the parching sun dried

up the vegetation.

Lieutenant Pike, in his report of two government ex-

plorations into these western regions, said that these immense

prairies "were incapable of cultivation" and would have to be

left to the "wandering and uncivilized aborigines of the country."

Major Long, in a report to the United States of his explorations

into these regions, said of the prairies that they "bear a re-

semblance to the Desert of Siberia."

Washington Irving the historian of John Jacob Astor's

western enterprise, indulging in the elegance of a romance

writer, said of the American Desert, "It spreads forth into

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undulating and treeless plains, and desolate sandy wastes, weari-

some to the eye from their extent and monotony, and which are

supposed by geologists to have formed the ancient floor of the

ocean, countless ages since, when its primeval waves beat against

the granite bases of the Rocky Mountains." A United States

senator, in opposing the admission of Kansas into the Union

as a state, under the Wyandotte Constitution, said, "After we

pass west of the Missouri River, except upon a few streams,

there is no territory fit for settlement or habitation. It is un-

productive. It is like a barren waste."

But since the days of Adams, and Madison, and Washing-

ton, and within a little more than a half century, the nation

stretched out its hand into this desert region and created a

fertile soil, and peopled it with America's noble men and

women, who have constructed homes and school houses and

churches, and built towns and cities, and established marts, and

built railroads as commercial arteries, until these prairies have

become the granaries of the world and gardens of beauty.

We, the whitemen, are repeating in our age the same old

story. Historians tell us that the glories of antiquity were

highest in the lands of the desert. It was so in old Egypt

and Palestine. It was so in Arabia, Persia and Northern India.

It was so in the lands of the Carthagenians and of the Moors.

As these desert lands were once the heart of the world, we are

making the west the heart of the best grazing and the best

producing harvest lands of the American Continent. The old

worlds lost, not because of their lands, but because of want

of mental and physical energy in their people. Our experiment

will permanently endure because it is the home of the golden

period of our manhood. It is this Kansas which is celebrating

this anniversary of its history.

The changing geological conditions from the time when this

land arose up from the bottom of the sea, to become again

buried under the glacial deposits, are no less wonderful than

the transition of the American Desert to this paradise of states

extending from the Missouri River to the Pacific, which has

come about within the memory of some of those who are here

participating in this celebration.

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The West in American History.           173

This reaching out of the land of the nation into this desert

brings to our minds the awakening of the great west from its

primeval sleep of countless ages, to welcome and receive the

pioneer and the emigrant; the time when the Great Spirit of

the Indian tribes, their God Manitou, was to give way to the

influence of the missionary priest with the cross in his hand,

and the Christian religion, and the white man's God.

Again, the nation is stretching its hand out into these desert

regions, and irrigation is changing arid plains into farms, and

orchards, and gardens. Again we see, as the sea receded, as the

glaciers melted, the desert passes, and verdure and trees come

to cover the land as the conquering heroes of old were adorned

with chaplets of flowers. Water! Water! has become the master

King of the desert.

New England had her Pilgrims and her Puritans who

occupy abundant space in the pages of her history. Virginia

had her Cavaliers to whom is traced much of her chivalry and

aristocracy. The great West had its Pioneers whose lives a

century hence will be no less interesting to us than are the lives

of the Pilgrims and the Puritans to New England, or of the

Cavaliers to Virginia.

These Pioneers were daring and intrepid men; men in whose

life currents there flowed in modified and enlightened form the

elements of that spirit of old that led the Macedonian chieftain

in his conquering career into Asia, and won him the title of

Alexander the Great; that dwelt in Rome and marched with

Caesar's armies through the forests of Germany and the valleys

of Gaul; that went with the Black Prince of Normandy when

he crossed the North Sea and vanquished the armies of Harold,

and gave him the realm of England for a throne, and the

name in history's page of William the Conqueror; that spirit of

old that led Columbus across the trackless ocean to find a new

continent that the world might move onward, and without

which America would have remained unknown.

The Norwegian Americans, who make up a great part of the

inhabitants of the northwest, and are strong factors in our

national character, can trace their American foundations back

beyond the discovery of Columbus to the days of the Vikings,

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174       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

when they sailed the waters of the far north as pioneers of

the sea.

Such were the men who laid the solid foundations of the

West, that West, where, in our day, evidences of refinement

are seen everywhere; that West, which is moving the center

of the country's social, commercial and political gravity farther

westward every year, and represents untold possibilities for the

future.

The control of the government has already passed away

from the original thirteen states. The form of the national

government is the same. It is exercised under the same con-

stitution, but its administration has been transferred largely to

the states of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and in a period

of time it will be transferred to the states west of the Mis-

souri River. In like migration the keeping of human rights

and human liberty on this continent is being transferred into

the hands of the people of this new West, and to maintain it

they must be firm, and bold, and patriotic.

For more than a hundred years the planters of Virginia

and the Puritans of New England were European sentinels

standing guard over the Atlantic seaboard for Old England.

Our pioneers began as empire builders and in less than a

hundred years have brought nineteen new states into the Union.

They were as the Star of Bethlehem, leading and lighting the

way for the twenty millions of people who are the citizens of

these new states, and all under the American flag.

The Pioneers have made the desert an epitaph on the tomb-

stone of time. Steam and electric forces are now ruling the

West as they rule the East. With us the present is living history.

The United States in this, the twentieth century, is flashing the

light of its liberty and national supremacy over the world.

It is confessedly true that the fundamental principle of the

United States government is human liberty. But today there is

a more lively spirit of individual manhood and personal inde-

pendence and of human liberty in the states west of the Mis-

souri River than exists anywhere else. It has a broader scope

and meaning than the phraseology of Jefferson in the Declaration

of Independence that "All men are created equal and have

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The West in American History.            175

 

certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness," for that declaration has always been con-

strued with some limitations.

The St. Gaudens statue of "The Puritan" standing with a

staff in one hand, and a Bible under his arm, typifies the spirit

in which New England was peopled. It is like the glory of the

fire that came down from heaven to make itself the living coal

on the altar. Some day the state of Kansas will take just pride

in placing in the Hall of Fame at Washington a heroic sized

statue of John Brown. His voice was like unto the voice of one

crying in the wilderness, and what he said was true. It is the

spirit of John Brown which has worked out into reality and

living truth the statement often spoken by Frederick Douglas

that "Man belongs to himself. His feet are his; his hands are

his; the hairs on his head are his. It always has been so, and it

always will be so, until tyrants shall storm the citadel of Heaven

and wrest from the bosom of God man's title deed to himself."

It has been said that it is the happiest of all fates to be born

in New England and live in the West. Yet it is true that we

have only "crossed the threshold of our new epoch." The men

who plow, and plant, and cultivate are writing history on the

imperishable earth. The prosperity of Kansas and Nebraska

springs from the soil and the seasons, and the industry of their

citizens. The farmers plant in faith; they cultivate in hope;

they reap in grace. They are the uncrowned kings of the

day.

It is interesting to contemplate the white man's invasion of

this great West. What millions of men have been employed

in this warfare of settlement and of migration; what billions

of money have been employed by way of improvements, and in

rewarding the processes of development; what farming districts

have been created, and what workshops, and what railroads

have been constructed in the wilderness; what cities, with their

busy thousands of inhabitants, have been built in what was once

the solitude of these primeval lands; what states have been

carved out of the prairies and mountains extending from the

Missouri to the Pacific; what undreamed of commerce is trans-

ported by land, and then sent forth in the holds of ocean going

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steamships that whiten what was at that time the unexplored

Pacific ocean. It is a subject which I have not time to elaborate.

When properly told it will fill volumes of history and should be

written by a pen not less brilliant to that of a Parkman, a

Prescott or a Macaulay.

As citizens of the West we have but a limited appreciation

and but a partial comprehension of the extent of its territory,

of its present or future possibilities. Kansas and Nebraska are

each equal in area to ten states like Vermont, to fifteen states

like Connecticut, to thirty-eight states like Delaware, and to

seventy states like Rhode Island. All of England and Scotland,

and Ireland, and Belgium, and the Netherlands could be put

within the boundaries of the Dakotas. We could put these

same European countries within the states of Oregon, Wash-

ington and Idaho and have more land left than there is in all

the New England states. If Texas was an inland sea and the

Republic of France was dropped within it, it would form an

island, the vision of whose inhabitants would not span the

surrounding waters.

What is this great West doing for the world today? There

are illustrations which beggar description. It has been said that

American energy sweeps the decks of the world's commerce.

That energy comes from the West. It has been said the

cradle of today is rocking elements that will startle the world

of tomorrow. Their discoveries are being made in the West.

It has been said "electric words from the land shores jump

into wireless aerial chariots, and, in the twinkling of an eye

dance upon the decks of ships hundreds of miles out at sea."

It is from the West that there comes the products of the soil,

and of the mines, and of the ranges, and the forests, the

material that laden these ships that makes wireless telegraphy

a useful instrumentality in the world's commerce.

The number of vigorous, energetic and industrious free

men in this great West, is six times as great as the population

of the thirteen colonies when the Declaration of Independence

was signed, and when the battles of the Revolution were fought;

five times as great as the population of all the states at the

time when the Federal Constitution was adopted. It is a popu-

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The West in American History.           177

 

lation greater than that of England when she carried her banner

to victory over the chivalrous hosts of France at Crecy and

Agincourt. It is a population greater than that of Greece when

she won her separation from the dominion of the Turk. A

population nearly as great as that of Sicily and Naples, and of

Italy when Garibaldi started the revolution that created the

federation of the Kingdom of Italy under Victor Emanuel.

A population nearly as great as that of France at the time of her

Revolution or when Napoleon began his career as her Emperor.

Visions of our future population and of wealth "sweep

across the horizon of historical possibilities." The wave of popu-

lation from Europe westward across the Atlantic began only two

centuries ago, yet in the United States alone we have nearly

one hundred millions of people. The overflow from Italy, and

Austria, and Germany, and Belgium, and Holland, and Norway,

and Sweden, and England, and Scotland and Ireland is still going

on, and will continue to go on as long as the races of the world

continue to increase in numbers. Putnam Weale, who has

achieved much distinction by his books dealing with the Far

East, and the world's future, estimates that the existing popu-

lation of the earth will double in numbers by the end of the cen-

tury. Where will these vast millions of people go? Will not

the white men follow the tide of migration to North and

South America? But of these continents our great Northwest

offers the better opportunities and the more inviting prospects.

The same writer has estimated that by the end of the century

the United States will have a population of three hundred

millions of people. Mr. Carnegie, no less thoughtful or intelli-

gent, and not an unreasonable enthusiast, has said that the

United States will ultimately have a population of five hundred

million, every one an American, and all boasting a common

citizenship. Should that day come, more than two hundred

million of them will live west of the Missouri River.

We have said it is within the range of possibilities. Ne-

braska and Kansas, when compared to Holland, which sustains

a population of four hundred and fifty people per square mile

upon a soil which has been lifted up out of the sea, an artificial

creation, can sustain a population of seventy millions. The arable

Vol. XXIV - 12.

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178      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

land of Egypt, surrounded by desert and dependent upon irriga-

tion coming from the overflow of the Nile, has a much larger pro-

portionate population; nine hundred and fifty per square mile.

Might not these two states sustain one hundred and fifty mil-

lions of people like the Egyptians?

But we are not dependent upon our agricultural lands for

the capability of sustaining a vast population. There is more

water power in the rivers that flow from the slopes of the Rocky

and Sierra Mountains than there is in all New England. These

rushing mountain streams of the West are awaiting the coming

of the mill owner to make the capital of the investor become

profitable. There is more lumber in Washington and Oregon

and more extensive forests on the western slopes than there ever

were in Maine and Michigan. There is more coal in Wyoming

and Colorado than there ever was in Pennsylvania. There are

more outcroppings of iron on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains

than there are in all the states east of the Mississippi. The

great manufacturing country of England, with her commerce

that encircles the globe, goes to Africa with an enormous outlay

of capital, and maintains a protective army, to get the supply of

gold to maintain her money standard. The United States for a

century has been taking her gold and silver from her own west-

ern mountains, which, for ages, have been lying sleeping there,

awaiting the coming of the pioneer and the gold digger, and for

the improved machinery and appliances of these modern times.

We can have every species of industry in the West because it

offers possibilities of every sort.

I am not wholly without support if I speculate upon the

possibility of the Pacific Coast ultimately having larger cities

than New York, or Boston, or Baltimore. The scholarly and

wide visioned, Charles Sumner, once said the world shall see

in that far clime the streets of a wealthier New York; the homes

of a more cultured Boston; the halls of a more learned Harvard;

the workshop of a busier Worcester.

All this territory of the great West came to the original

United States by acquisitions either by purchase, or treaty. The

boundaries and limits of the republic have already become so ex-

tended that they greet the morning sunrise, at Porto Rico; and

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The West in American History.           179

 

the southern sun when it reaches the tropics, at Panama; and

when it sends its glancing rays into the polar circle, from the

northern regions of Alaska; and now when he sets in the far

western ocean we bid him good night from Hawaii and the

Philippines.

Notwithstanding this unlimited dominion, we have the same

form of government that was administered when we had less

than five millions of people. The same constitution has answered

our demands, although we have today one hundred millions of

people, and why may it not satisfy our necessities should we

perchance in time have five hundred millions? If our public

and private virtues shall be preserved, our government will

live through all times, no matter how extensive its territory

and magnificent its worldly institutions, as surely as our material

progress is destined to indefinite continuance.

It is believed that there is a Destiny which has forever

been guiding the course of the human race. That same Destiny

which carried the Christian religion, and civilization, and learn-

ing, and literature, and the arts from the banks of the Nile

and the shores of the Adriatic, across the continent of Europe

to Paris and London, later carried it across the Atlantic. That

same Destiny is now shedding its bright effulgence all the ad-

vantages of culture and mental adornments over the great

West.

But my speculations for the future are more than dreams

of imagination or hopes of the fancy. From the American

Desert until now, and from now to a century hence is the march

of progress under the hand of God. It is the American Republic

coming into her own, the ruling power, the mistress of the world.

We recur again to the value of this history and how it shall

be preserved. History does not consist alone in the frigid recital

of cold facts. There is that in history which appeals to the

imagination. It is the romance of the lives of men who engaged

in the stirring events of the period in which they lived. It is the

recital of the transactions and creations of men and peoples and

nations. It is the condensation into general declarations of the

materials found in the thousands of biographies.

History lies at the bottom of all knowledge. It is the first

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starting point of all learning and of all literature. Our national

government is founded on principles gathered from centuries of

history.

Our epic poems and our literature are varied and inspired

expressions of the stirring events in history which have appealed

most to the imagination. Had it not been for the historic events

that made the siege of Troy memorable we would not remember

Homer, and the literary world could not have had the enjoyment

that has come to it through the long time of centuries from the

reading of the Iliad.

Without the historical traditions of the old Italian cities and

without the histories of the wars between the Kings of England

and France, Shakespeare would have been obliged to depend

upon the invention of his poetic genius for his fame.

Other poets who have put forth in melodious phrase the

thoughts that have come to them by the inspired muse, have

been indebted to incidents of history. This is true from Virgil

to Milton, from Byron to Tennyson, and from Longfellow to

Whittier.

The history of our country, as well as that of other coun-

tries, will live in its poetry. "Every great event, every historic

episode, every critical moment in the annals of the nation is

immortalized by the rhythm that thrills the hearts of the people

down through the generations."

History has been the field from which novelists have gath-

ered the material for their romances. Without the history of

England and Scotland we would not have had those beautiful

pen pictures that run through the historical novels of that genius

of Scotland, Sir Walter Scott, romances which have furnished

abundant instruction and made millions of people happy while

reading them.

Had it not been for the recorded pages of history of the

old Roman Empire we would not have had Bulwer's brilliant

historic romance, Rienzi, The Last of the Tribunes. Had it not

been for the archaeologist and the historian, Bulwer could not

have given to us the Last Days of Pompeii. Had it not been for

the recording of the exciting and tumultuous scenes of English

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The West in American History.           181

 

history we would not have had Bulwer's masterpiece, The Last

of The Barons.

The thousands of biographies of soldiers, of statesmen, and

of men eminent in various walks of life have been written by

their admiring friends to perpetuate the memory of their actions

and deeds and achievements to future generations. The primary

purpose of biographies is a standing protest against oblivion and

a contest to perpetuate the lives of these men in the pages of

history.

Go into any library and take down from the shelves all its

volumes of history, and all its poems, and all its romances, and

all its biographies, and all other volumes that deal in a general

or specific way with the events of history, or appeal to the inci-

dents of history to support their recitals, or contentions in argu-

ment, and commit all these to the flames, and the library shelves

will become vacant. When all these are gone the colleges must

go, the universities must go, and civilization will go back to a

period of ignorance greater than that of the dark ages. Then

we would have to begin again as the world did centuries ago to

build up a new education, and a new civilization, and pass

through a long line of centuries to reach a bright and exalted

period equal to that of the present age. Aye, more than all that;

when all these go the Bible must go, because, whether treated as

a book of inspiration or as a great literature, it is a history of

ancient Kings, and of Nations, and of Peoples, of the Jews,

Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, and of the Prince of

Peace. Strip the world of the benefits of history and the world

would not be worth living in.

Without history we would not have our common country.

Without a familiarity with the Magna Charta, and with the

English Bill of Rights, and the liberty of the individual man

under the unwritten English Constitution, Thomas Jefferson

could not have written the Declaration of Independence. With-

out that knowledge of the rights of Englishmen which were

transplanted to the American Colonies, Washington could not

have successfully carried on the War of the Revolution.

Without a full and complete knowledge of the history of the

conflicting contests between freedom and oppression, which pre-

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vailed through the long evolutionary periods from ancient Greece

to the Federation of the Colonies, Madison and Hamilton and

Wilson and their associates could not have framed the federal

Constitution, and its supporters and advocates could not have

secured its approval by the American people.

Patriotism is the life and support of every nation and with-

out history patriotism would be unknown for patriotism has its

birth-right in the spirit of history. Patriotism is a sentiment

that has its inception in a reverence for the old historic begin-

nings. With America it goes back in memory to the landing of

the Cavaliers at Jamestown, and of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

It is cultivated and increased by its reverence for the memories

of Washington and his associate revolutionary heroes, and its

recollection of all the bright pages in history that record the de-

velopment of the country from its birth to its present great and

majestic proportions. Blot from memory the history of our

early beginning, the memories of our battles from Yorktown to

the Spanish War, and the memories of the lives of the great

men that have brought this country up to its present standard of

supremacy of a world power, and we would not know the

meaning of the word patriotism.

Hence, confidently we may assert that without the benefits

of history constitutional government could not be created and

governments of laws and equality could not exist. Blot out

history and organized governments would dissolve and society

would lose the bonds of fraternal unity, and the only ruling

power that man would know would be the power of force, as

exercised by a chief of a savage tribe, or a conquering warrior

like a Tamerlane or an Alexander.

State historical societies collect and preserve the historical

incidents and records which are the wells from which spring

forth the intellectual and spiritual growth of our people, just as

sculpture and art are the culmination of historical sequences.

The interests which these societies represent are the foundation

upon which the States rest and the Nation is maintained. A

reverence for the valuable materials gathered by these historical

societies is one of the strongest moral influences that can be in-

culcated in our people. Upon an appreciation of what shall be

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gathered there, rests the spirit, the loyalty and the patriotism of

the generations. Historical knowledge is a positive force in

moulding public opinion and is now, as it ever has been, the

source of precedents for our institutions of justice.

As the air we breathe is drawn from the great depositories

of nature, and the light which illumines the day comes from a

central sun millions of miles distant, so the knowledge which we

possess in our age is drawn from great depositories of history,

and our advancement and development is traceable to the historic

precedents of the measureless past.

The older nations of the Continent of Europe, such as

France, Germany, and Italy, long since learned the wisdom of

bringing home to the understanding of the common people an

appreciation of the memorable events in their national histories

by means of works of art. The great historic truths which the

mind can take in while the eye is resting upon a dream of beauty,

either in the wonderful work produced by the sculptor's chisel,

or in figures of beauty dressed in robes of color by the artist's

brush, are lasting and persuasive. It is a happier method of

instruction than the wearisome labor of searching through the

store-house of archives. America, too, is fast learning this

method of teaching history and within the last few years her

history is being immortalized in marble and bronze and painting.

The National greatness of the Republic is being symbolized in

memorials on its public buildings. Our monuments in figures

of bronze and in chiseled marble are daily reminders of our

achievements in war and in peace.

The statues of Grant, and Sherman, and Farragut, and

Hancock and others that adorn the parks and circles in Wash-

ington City, and soldier memorials in all the states, tell of the

victories in the Civil War which gave to the country nationality.

The statues of Lincoln, simple and unadorned though they may

be, recall the Proclamation of Emancipation more vividly than

it can be retold by any historian.

The lovers of our national history have sought the aid of

the painter's brush to keep fresh and vivid the biographic

memories and personages of the founders of the Republic. The

painted portraits of Adams, and Hancock, and Franklin, and

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184       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Hamilton, and Jefferson, and of Generals Warren and Stark,

and Lincoln, and Knox, and Gates, and Green, and Washington

convey to us a deeper and more lasting impression of their char-

acters and of their successes as statesmen, or as soldiers, than

do the printed pages found in their biographies, or the histories

of the times in which they lived.

The large paintings of the battle-fields from Lexington and

Bunker Hill and Germantown to the surrender of Cornwallis at

Yorktown are a brilliant condensation of all the history of the

War of the Revolution, just as the picture of the "Signing

of the Declaration of Independence" tells the history of the be-

ginning of our Republic. It has been said that the true history

of a people is written in its art. It is the genius of the sculptor

that has fashioned in marble the exquisite conceptions of the life,

of music, of art, of learning, and of science in America. These

conceptions represent some deep philosophical truth in life as it

is interpreted from historical records found in the archives of

State historical societies.

Art is as true a record of a nation's progress as a scroll,

and pictorial impressions are oftentimes greater than the written

word. The older civilization of the old world is represented in

her priceless masterpieces, and such are more influential upon

the national spirit and character than speeches and books.

State Historical Society Buildings and Memorial Halls are

treasure houses of history. Their interior walls should be deco-

rated with mural paintings, as is the Congressional Library,

representing the history of the State. These buildings should

have bronze entrance doors representing "Knowledge" and

"Wisdom" and "Memory." I believe that a State Historical

Society Building should be more than a store-house for a museum

and a hiding place for archives. To the contrary, it should

represent in bronze, in sculpture, and in art, all that makes for

history, culture, beauty, scholarship, and higher civilization.

The West is passing through a phase of history to which

can be found no parallel except in the remote ages of the

buried past. Centuries upon centuries ago there were empires

which exist no longer. Cities were builded which have been

depopulated and crumbled into decay. In those ancient times

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The West in American History.           185

 

there were people who spoke languages that are no longer spoken

and which are known to us only as they are taught by linguists

in colleges or universities. We are in a state of bewilderment

when we read of these ancient people whose empires and king-

doms and languages have disappeared. We ask ourselves how

could these things transpire?

It is unthinkable to us that New York and Boston and Phila-

delphia at some future time should crumble into ruins; that

the United States government should fall into decay; that the

American people should become extinct; and that a new race

of people, speaking a new language, should in our stead tread the

soil of the American Continent. Yet we know that such a period

of transition from one nation to another, and from one people

to another, and from one language to another has actually taken

place in western Asia and in southeastern Europe.

We, of the West, are today witnessing the disappearance of

a race of people. The Indian tribes that once possessed this

entire country have been driven to the western frontier and we

are the observers of their gradual extinction. Here in the

West we can see, and we can feel, going on around and about us,

a transition in history almost as remarkable and wonderful as

that of the preceding ages which I have mentioned. There is

in it a pathos that appeals to our sentimentality and a foun-

dation for a romance in history which can be furnished by no

other continent.

But while to us one race of people is becoming extinct,

there is a counterpart in the beginning of the creation of a new

race of people, which is the composite of all races and all classes

who make up our western population-an amalgamation of Nor-

wegians, of Swedes, of Danes, of Irishmen, of Germans, of

Frenchmen, and of Englishmen into the new American man of

the West. In that new man be found the mental and physical

characteristics of all these different peoples.

In him may be traces of the nervous energy and versatility

of the Frenchman, of the progressive push of the German, of the

strong will power of the Scotchman, and the conquering spirit

and energy of the Englishman. As the Frenchman has super-

seded the Gaul, as the Englisman has superseded the Briton,

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186       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

as the Anglo-Saxon has peopled America, this new man of the

West has already succeeded our Puritan ancestors. These new

western men will exercise a dominating influence in the govern-

ment of States and in the affairs of the Nation.

The States of the West owe it to themselves to preserve in

the archives of their historical societies the traditions of adven-

ture and the records of the conquests of the prairies and the

uplands and mountains by these daring and courageous pioneers.

They owe it to themselves to preserve in substantial form the

historical romance of the disappearance of one race of people

before the advancing progress of American civilization. The

States owe it to themselves to collect and preserve in unperish-

able form all the material necessary to convey to the people in the

generations, yes, even in the centuries to come, a comprehensive

understanding of what the wilderness was before the hand of

man had transformed it into a granary of wealth and a garden

of beauty, and what were the racial characteristics of the people

that are to form the new composite man of the great West.

The lives and history of our pioneers, our scholars, our

statesmen and soldiers should be preserved by our Historical

Societies and in our Memorial Halls through the countless ages,

as are preserved the hoof print of the vagrant desert deer of Van

Dyke, for they are of more value to the future of our public

than the history of the Sargons, the Pharaohs and the Caesars.

• 17