Ohio History Journal

Monument to General Anthony Wayne Unveiled      591

tried paths; the kind of courage by which we can main-

tain our self-respect after it is restored, and by which

we can defend it from behind the walls of a new Fort

Defiance.

Sustained by such courage we can go on and on in-

vincible against whatever evil may be lurking in a new

Fallen Timbers.

Let us then accept this bronze figure which you are

soon to see, as a symbol of civic courage--this figure of

Anthony Wayne--Mad Anthony if you must have it

so--

Hero of Stony Point

Hero of Fallen Timbers

Man of action

Glorious American.

 

[H. C. Shetrone, chairman of the occasion, after felicitating the people

of Ohio on the consummation of the project and expressing the appreciation

of the Society for the generous manner in which Walter J. Sherman, his

committee and the residents of Toledo and vicinity had co-operated in the

undertaking.]

ADDRESS OF H. C. SHETRONE,

Director of Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The atmosphere of this impressive occasion is dis-

tinctly historic and military in its importance. You

will hear much that is interesting, instructive and enter-

taining this afternoon and this evening from historians

and military experts. Seeking for an anthropological

lesson in this rich historic complex, I find myself asking

the question "Just what does this ceremony mean, and

why are we observing it?" I venture to assume that

the answer lies in the fact that we, as a state and as a

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592     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications people have achieved a historic background--a back- ground of human experience which we are using as a yardstick for measuring and interpreting the present and for anticipating the future. Looking back through the ages of human development, we envision a time when

human beings were savages, with only the vestige or germ of culture. We see the beginnings of cultural and esthetic accomplishments and trace them through sav- agery and barbarism to civilization. By thus compar- ing the present status of civilization with that remote time when it was non-existent, rather than with the com-

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Monument to General Anthony Wayne Unveiled  593

monly accepted ideal perfection and the assumed decline

thereof, we get an encouraging picture making for ap-

preciation of human advancement and of the blessings

which we enjoy today. Everything that human beings

have thought, said or done may be regarded as a con-

tributing factor to human culture; the study of the men

and women who have participated in human activities

is the most natural and the most worth-while thing in

the world, and the degree of enlightenment of a com-

munity, a state or a nation may be gauged by the inter-

est and support which it accords its history.

The discovery of America and its peopling; the con-

quest of the great Northwest Territory and the subjuga-

tion of its native inhabitants; the exploits of George

Rogers Clark, General Anthony Wayne and others, are

landmarks in our historic background. England had

her Magna Charta; the American colonists their Decla-

ration of Independence, and the Northwest Territory

its Treaty of Greenville--our greatest document, made

possible by the valor of General Anthony Wayne. Little

wonder, then, that we are gathered here today to pay

him homage.

I take the liberty of citing, on this occasion, what to

me appears one of history's greatest contrasts; a con-

trast which bears directly upon this occasion and upon

the territory where we are standing. Today, the great

states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon-

sin, carved from this same Northwest Territory and rep-

resenting approximately one-twelfth of its area, boast

at least one-fifth the nation's total population and about

the same percentage of its total wealth. Yet less than a

decade preceding the notable Battle of Fallen Timbers,

Vol. XXXVIII-38.

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594       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

at the time when, following the close of the Revolution,

all eyes were turned toward the country north and west

of the Ohio river as a haven for weary and impover-

ished patriots, no less a personage than the illustrious

James Monroe submitted to Thomas Jefferson the fol-

lowing prediction regarding the area under considera-

tion:

A great part of the territory is miserably poor, especially that

near lakes Michigan & Erie; & that upon the Mississippi & the

Illinois (our present great corn belt) consists of extensive plains

wh. have not had from appearances & will not have a single bush

on them, for ages. The districts therefore within wh. these fall

will never contain a sufficient number of Inhabitants to entitle

them to membership in the confederacy (of states) and in the

meantime the people who may settle within them will be govd by

the resolutions of Congress in wh. they will not be represented.

The contrast here afforded is, I think, sufficiently

evident. One wonders what the attitude of the great

thinkers and doers of the times of Jefferson and Monroe

might be toward the great questions of today. But the

lesson to be had from this pioneer political prediction is,

I think, that the advancement of the states carved from

the Northwest Territory, within the century to come,

may be proportionately as great as those witnessed by

the something more than a century which has elapsed

since Monroe's prophecy.

The importance of Anthony Wayne's achievements,

as historic occurrences, is being accorded ready ac-

ceptance, and properly so. I wonder, however, if we are

giving adequate credit and appreciation to those "First

Ohioans," the Indians, erstwhile proud possessors of

 

* Letter of James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, dated at New York,

January 19, 1786. From Writings of James Monroe (1898 ed.) Vol. I, pp.

117-118.

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Monument to General Anthony Wayne Unveiled  595 what is now "our land"; to the Tecumsehs, the Red Jackets, the Cornstalks, the Logans and the Tarhes who were so valiant as to fight for "their land" to the bitter end? Shall we not remember that they, like ourselves, were the sons of man, with all his vices and many of his

(Left to right), William Wayne, great-great-grandson of Major- General Anthony Wayne; James W. Good, Secretary of War; W. T. Jackson, Mayor of Toledo. virtues; that they differed from ourselves only in that they had not yet achieved the background of cumulative experience which makes for so-called civilization? The transfer of title to this great land from native Indian to invading white man is not of itself a matter

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596      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

for regret, nor yet a wrongful act, although the methods

employed were not always beyond reproach. It was not

in the scheme of things that such a vast and fertile

country should remain the abode of a handful of savages

-- perhaps never more than 50,000 in number; the ad-

vance of civilization demanded the change, and the In-

dian gave way to civilization and today. But he was

an Ohioan, just the same, who lived, loved, fought and

died on Ohio soil, even as we. Let us give him belated

recognition.

 

[H. Ross Ake, Treasurer of State, brought the greetings of Governor

Myers Y. Cooper who was unavoidably absent because of a previous en-

gagement. Mr. Ake concluded his brief remarks with an original poem

"In Memory of General Wayne at Fallen Timbers."]

 

ADDRESS OF H. ROSS AKE,

Treasurer of State

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:

It is indeed a great privilege to be present on this

interesting occasion, marking the successful conclusion

of your effort to write into imperishable bronze and in-

delibly into the minds and hearts of the citizenry so im-

portant a part of the history of the Great Northwest.

I am sure that you regret -- as do I -- that the Gov-

ernor of our great State could not be present at the cel-

ebration of this historic event, but it is my privilege and

honor to assure you that he joins none the less sincerely

with us in our humble effort to express in part, our ap-

preciation of the sacred heritage which comes down to

us through the years, from our common benefactors.

May I be permitted to pay this bit of humble tribute

to him in whose honor we have here assembled?

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