LETTER OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
READ AT THE CELEBRATION BY R. R. DAWES.
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 5, 1888.
SIR: I have been requested by His
Excellency, Gov.
ernor Ames, of Massachusetts, to
represent that Common-
wealth at the Centennial Celebration of
the first settlement
of the Northwest Territory, under the
Ordinance of 1787,
at Marietta, Ohio. I regret exceedingly
that at a late hour
I am compelled to deny myself the
pleasure of being
present on the occasion. I feel it to
be my duty, however,
to express the interest Massachusetts
feels in the event
you celebrate, and in the prosperity and welfare of the
community occupying this spot, on which
her citizens
found an opportunity for the exercise
of their heroism,
their wisdom, and their Christian
philanthropy.
It is evident to us, who can look back
over the eventful
years which have passed since Marietta
was settled, that
upon the principles incorporated in the
State and society
then founded, depended the fate and fortune
of the Republic
just then coming into existence. The
people who had
achieved the independence of their
country by the Revo-
lutionary war were destined to occupy
almost the entire
continent, of which their territory
formed but a small part.
The strip of land between the
Alleghanies and the Atlan-
tic was entirely unequal to their
purposes, and the govern-
ment they had founded was so vigorous
in its character,
so broad in its design, so peculiar in
its construction, that
it was not to be confined to a narrow
and limited section
of the continent on which it was
planted. To extend the
limits of its territory and to extend
its jurisdiction over all
the land and waters, which were
important to its existence
and power, was the early work of the
founders of the
Republic. By purchase and treaty this
was accomplished
until the title to the vast territory
of the Northwest was
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