Ohio History Journal

Ohio Day at the Jamestown Exposition.    175   thusiastic way which ever distinguishes Southern hosts in re- ceiving their guests. Governor Swanson's remarks, entirely ex- temporaneous, were among the most brilliant and eloquent which the writer has ever heard upon a similar occasion. The Gov- ernor dwelt at some length upon the respective histories of Ohio and Virginia, their ties of relationship, Ohio being practically the first born child of Virginia, and in periods of most glowing rhetoric he pictured the loyalty of the Ohio troops and the Vir- ginia soldiers in the late Civil War, closing with glowing trib- utes to the character and nobility of each of the two great leaders in that war, Grant and Lee. Following Governor Swanson, Governor Harris was intro- duced and responded to Virginia's welcome in the name of Ohio and her people. Governor Harris' address is herewith given, but it is a source of great regret that we are unable to include his splendid introductory remarks or to give a proper idea of the fine spirit of dignity, manliness and Americanism which capti- vated his audience. ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR HARRIS. We are frequently reminded that we are passing through the com- memorative period of our national history. Since we arrived on the

scene of action too late to participate in colonial and revolutionary events, we may consider ourselves fortunate to have lived with the generation whose patriotic privil- ege it is to celebrate these sacred and inspiring anniversaries. They teach their lesson. They light the path along which we have traveled from humble beginnings to our present high estate. They help us to appreciate more fully what our free institutions have cost and what they are worth. The way has not been uniformly smooth nor has there at all times been unity of sentiment and action with refer- ence to moral, social and industrial prob- lems. Differences of opinion on minor questions will, perhaps, continue to exist, but Americans, and, indeed, the readers of history in every clime agree as to the

prime importance to the event that this exposition commemorates.

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176        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

The men who formed the first permanent English settlement on this

continent will ever stand forth in bold outline on the pages of history.

For months, through stormy seas, they sought the land of promise, and

declared, when they had found it, that "heaven and earth had never agreed

better to frame a place for man's habitation." There was much of truth

in the estimate, but the conditions under which the first settlers began life

in the new world changed this seeming paradise into a vanishing illusion.

The story of their struggles and sacrifices at Jamestown, their varied and

romantic relations with the primitive inhabitants, their heroic suffering

through "the starving time" and their ultimate success in opening up the

way for the westward course of Anglo-Saxon civilization will live in

legend and song for all time. It would be superfluous indeed, to dwell

upon it here. It belongs to the elementary history of our country.

The introduction of slavery in 1619 and the institution of represen-

tative government in the same year were momentous events in our colonial

annals. Under the providence of God, the former passed away and the

latter became universal in America. The little legislative assembly in

Jamestown became the forum in which Patrick Henry bade defiance to

George the Third of England. It later expanded into the Republic of

today. Modern representative government began in the Old Dominion.

It is her never-failing tribute to the nation and the world.

If the greatest gifts of a state are its illustrious men, Virginia will

ever have valid claim to preeminence. In later years Ohio has justly

claimed that to her has descended the honorable title of "mother of

presidents." Of the seven men elected to that high office in the last 40

years, five were born in Ohio. We have presidential timber for the

immediate future, and we believe that the supply will not be exhausted

for at least forty years to come. And Ohio is proud of the names that

she has given to history; but the eminence of Virginia is secure. No other

commonwealth can point to a George Washington, the Father of his

country, or a Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Inde-

pendence and the expounder of the constitution, or a Patrick Henry, who

made the stirring appeal: "Give me liberty or give me death!"

In this ter-centennial year, Ohio reads with special interest and

pride the history of the Old Dominion, the parent commonwealth of the

Buckeye State.  In the French and Indian War, Washington, then a

young colonel, with a commission from Virginia, rendered distinguished

service in aiding to wrest the Ohio Valley from the French. In the

Revolution, George Rogers Clark, by his daring and brilliant expedition,

overthrew the British and secured to Virginia and, through her, to the

nation, the extensive and fertile territory beyond the mountains. As

one of your statesmen has well and truly said: "This man was not acting

in the conquest of the Northwest under the Continental Congress. He

was not in the service of the United States. He conducted his own ex-

peditions under a commission from Patrick Henry, the first American

governor of the Old Dominion. His soldiers were Virginians, enlisted and

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Ohio Day at the Jamestown Exposition.             177

 

paid by the State of Virginia-the only one of all the states that con-

ducted war on her own account and at the same time joined her sister

colonies in paying attention to her British brethren."

Our debt of gratitude does not end here. After Virginia generously

yielded her claims to this vast domain beyond the Ohio, her maternal

interest did not cease. In framing the Ordinance of 1787, the magna

charta of liberty in the Northwest, her early statesmen rendered distin-

guished and salutary service. In that famous compact occurs this clause

that has figured prominently in our history:

"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said

Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party

shall have been duly convicted."

This section of the Ordinance, with a slight verbal change, later

became a part of the Constitution and made liberty universal in America.

While there is still some controversy as to its authorship, there is no

question in regard to Virginia's attitude. She gave it her most cordial

support. As the mists that float between the early and the later days of

our history pass away and we see in clearer perspective the long line of

events that connect the present and the past, Ohioans will appreciate more

fully their obligation to the parent state for the fundamental act that

made the Old Northwest, from the hour of its organized existence, the

abode of civil and religious liberty. Nor shall we forget that in later

years when an effort was made to modify the compact and nullify the

provision for universal freedom, that it was an eloquent senator from

Virginia, John Randolph of Roanoke, who came at the head of a Con-

gressional committee to its defense and declared:

"The rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces that

the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement

of that region. * * * The committee deem it highly dangerous and

inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the hap-

piness and prosperity of the northwestern country, and to give strength

and security to that extensive frontier."

The most cursory review of the relations of the two states would

be incomplete without references to the great civil conflict that for a time

separated them and arrayed them in contending armies. It is gratifying

to realize, however, before a generation has passed away, while those

who fought on either side are still living, that we have entered upon a

new era of "more perfect union" and are today, as never before in our

history, "one and inseparable."  On the graves of the departed, we lay

the tribute of peace and unity.

 

No more shall the war cry sever,

Or the winding rivers be red;

They banish our anger forever

When they laurel the graves of our dead!

Vol. XVII. 12.

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178        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment day;

Love and tears for the Blue,

Tears and love for the Gray.

 

With no bitterness, with pride and gratitude and love rather, we

recall that what was the Old Dominion and now is Virginia and Ohio,

gave to history that modest soldier, that resolute leader, that silent man

or destiny, that "Wellington of American army," Ulysses S. Grant, and

that it also gave that manly man, that intrepid soul, that military genius,

that lion-hearted son of chivalry, Robert E. Lee. At Appomattox, Ohio

and Virginia, incarnate in these two brave men, brought to an end the

saguinary struggle and arranged the terms of an enduring peace.

I cannot refrain, in this connection, from repeating the words of your

eloquent statesman, Senator Daniel:

"And now in contemplating that subject, the rise, the fall and the

obliteration of slavery, and the permanent establishment of the Union, it

comes before my mind like the figure of some slender sapling into whose

side is driven a wedge. When the war ended that wedge had been with-

drawn. The sides of the young tree sprang together, the sap formed a new

bark around it and now it rises over us and for us all, a stately oak

which extends its roots deep down into the earth and waves its leaves

among the stars of heaven."

And we knew that what the Senator said was true, when we sud-

denly found ourselves face to face with the armaments of Spain,--when

we saw the Daniels and the Grants and the Lees don the blue and take

their places under the flag to do battle for the American ideals of

humanity, liberty and independence.

With the partiality and filial devotion of an elder child, we con-

gratulate the parent commonwealth upon the achievements of the past

and the bright prospect with which she enters upon a new century.

Nature blessed her with rich gifts, the extent of which even yet is not fully

realized. What a variety of scene and soil and climate and products and

resources from the mountains to the sea! The broken counties of the

west are rich in coal. Iron abounds. The mineral industries of the state

are still in their infancy. What has been brought to the surface is most

certainly but a prophecy of the wealth stowed away in the mountains.

The growing scarcity of timber has multiplied the value of the forests.

The valleys and arable uplands are growing, in increasing abundance,

cereal and orchard products. Tobacco is no longer king. The scepter

has passed to corn. The cultivation of vegetables and smaller fruits has

made the favored section around us the garden of the Republic.

The rivers, as they descend in their swift course to the lowlands and

the sea, are constant sources of power that is yet to be harnessed for

the service of man. Add to this the coal fields, and who can measure the

energy that this grand old commonwealth is to contribute to the produc-

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Ohio Day at the Jamestown Exposition.             179

 

tive and beneficient agencies of civilization. In every fiber she feels a thrill

that revives and animates the New South.

The Yankee is coming with his machine. If in the past he has

been somewhat troublesome at long range, he will be found a thrifty,

agreeable and useful neighbor. He appreciates the natural advantages of

the sunny southland. You have here in close proximity the raw ma-

terials and the power to convert them into finished products. The appli-

cation of capital and Yankee ingenuity is yet to light in greater numbers

throughout the state the forge and furnace fires and set in motion the

"whirling spindles and turning wheels." Commerce by rail and inland

waters and the sea is to receive a new impetus. Virginia is to find new

strength in the diversified industries that have made her daughter, Ohio,

pre-eminent among the states of the Middle West. And from no other

section in this broad land will come a more hearty God speed on this

prosperous career than from the loyal sons and daughters of the Buckeye

State.

In this message of good will from my state I bear the greeting of

many native Virginians who are now Ohioans by adoption. It is a fact

that while Ohio today includes in her population natives from each of the

New England states, and the Atlantic and Gulf states from North Caro-

lina to Texas, she has a larger number of Virginian birth than she has

natives from all of those states combined.

In conclusion, I wish to thank the Ohio Commissioners for the fidel-

ity with which, under circumstances at times somewhat discouraging, you

have administered the trust imposed by the joint-resolution under which

you were appointed. You were early on the ground. Your promptness

is to be commended. Your exhibits in the departments of archaeology and

education and agriculture and mines and other industries are highly

creditable. Your state building is a faithful copy of historic Adena, the

home of Thomas Worthington, by birth a Virginian, and by choice and

the favor of his fellow-citizens a distinguished pioneer statesman of Ohio.

Your memorial is happily chosen and full of appropriate suggestion.

In the name of Ohio, a "state most largely composed of territory

ceded to the United States by Virginia," I wish you and the entire man-

agement a larger measure of patronage and success through the remaining

days of this "Ter-Centennial Exposition."

 

After Governor Harris had concluded his address Mrs.

Blanche Armstrong Weinschenck, formerly of Ohio, rendered

the hymn "Lead Kindly Light." Her sweet tones, wonderful

range and absolute knowledge of her beautiful art and the

fact that she stood near the bust of McKinley before which was

a bouquet of his favorite carnations, brought home to the au-

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