Ohio History Journal

THE MACGAHAN MONUMENT.

 

 

A DEDICATION AT NEW LEXINGTON.

[MacGahan was preparing to attend and write up the International

Congress at Berlin, when, declining to abandon a sick friend at Con-

stantinople, he was himself attacked with the malignant fever that had

prostrated his friend, and died after a few days' illness, June 9, 1878.

In the year 1884, his remains at Constantinople were disinterred and

brought by the United States steamer "Powhatan" to this country. In

New York city the remains lay in state for a day in the city hall, where

thousands paid tribute to the honored dead. The remains were sub-

sequently brought to Columbus, Ohio, where again for a day they lay

in state in the rotunda of the Capitol building. His funeral was held

September 12, 1884, at New Lexington, Ohio. The religious exercises

were conducted at St. Rose Church by Bishop John A. Watterson,

who delivered an eloquent address upon the "Power and Responsibility of

the Newspaper Press."

The body was borne to the grave, in the little cemetery just outside

of the village, attended by thousands of interested spectators and some

sixty distinguished journalists, representing all parts of the state. At

the grave, after military honors and the usual religious rites, a eulogy

on the life and character of J. A. MacGahan was pronounced by E. S.

Colborn, a poem was read by Col. William A. Taylor and an address

delivered by Hon. Silas H. Wright, on "The Office of a Newspaper

Correspondent." - EDITOR.]

 

At New Lexington, Perry County, on Monday, July 4, 1911,

a monument was unveiled with imposing and interesting cere-

monies to the memory of Januarius A. MacGahan, whose body

lies buried at the spot marked by the monument. Besides being the

day of the National Independence, it was the first day of sev-

eral which were set aside by the good people of New Lexington,

as a home coming celebration of former residents of Perry

County. It was known as Old Home Week, and began on the

previous Saturday, July 2nd. The City was gaily decorated

with flags and banners and hundreds of the former residents of

Perry county gathered from the most distant parts of the country.

For several days prior to the opening day the townspeople of

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216      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. New Lexington, the merchants, members of secret orders, civic societies and religious bodies indulged in friendly rivalry in the matter of decorations for their business houses and residences. The result was a beautiful town. Everywhere the glad hand was extended and everybody seemed to have given up the week to the entertainment of those who came to visit the scenes of former days. On Sunday, July 3d, home-coming services were held in the various churches with a special public meeting in the City Hall in the evening, at which time Reverend George H. L. Bee-

man of Greencastle, Indiana, a former Perry County boy, preached the sermon. Monday morning as the journals of the town state, the "Sleepless week" was of- ficially ushered in by the blowing of whistles, ringing of bells, and booming of can- non. All day visitors contin- ued to arrive until the hotels were filled and almost every residence in town was filled with guests. The program of the day was opened in the morning in the City Hall, where the meeting was called to order by the Chairman of the Home-Coming Commis- sion, Mr. C. E. French. Af-

ter invocation by the Rev. I. E. Moody, Mayor R. B. Gue pre- sented the keys of the city to Chairman French, who in turn handed them to attorney James B. Yaw, of Columbus, who re- sponded in a very gracefully worded speech on behalf of the home-coming visitors. Judge Charles E. Spencer, after appropriate preliminary re- marks read the home-coming poem of which he was the author. It was entitled "Old Perry" and was as follows:

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The MacGahan Monument.                    217

 

Thy hills, thy fields, thy woods have been,

Since boyhood days, my own blood-kin,

And long my soul and the soul of thee

Are blent as one for eternity.

In infant eyes thy mother-face

Poured deep the wine of mystic grace,

And now to me thy voice and spell

Speak high as heaven and deep as hell.

 

To breathe of thee, all I have known

Or dreamed, beloved and my own,

Were to assail a sacred lore

But thine and mine forevermore.

Thus much, howe'er, I may impart,

That, in all seasons, night and day,

We lived and loved with linked heart

The sweet Hellenic life alway.

Thou took'st my hand--didst vouch for me

To cloud and moon and humble-bee

(Free things divinely wise and good):-

The brook, -the flowers of hill and lea, -

The dim-seen forms of deepest wood,

All birds that sing on wing or tree.

 

Thou taught'st me somewhat of the tongue

God-spoken when fading stars were young;-

In which thy hills, with shaggy crest,

The earliest blaze of morning greet;-

The same the wood-thrush on her nest

Sings to the sumach and the wheat.

And oft in hours of sad unrest,

If I did tramp thy wood and glen

And cast me on thy patient breast,

Some benediction of the blessed

Consoled and made me man again.

 

Other exercises added to the interest of this meeting; Miss

Ada Cotterman, of Somerset, sang Prof. Murdock's "Perry

County Home Sweet Home" in a most delightful manner.

Hon. Joseph Simpson, of Columbus, spoke most entertain-

ingly on the campaign of 1840 in New Lexington and Perry

County.

The exercises of the morning were concluded by enjoyable

musical selections by Miss Jessie Moodie of Shawnee and the

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218      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. Kintz mandolin orchestra of Somerset, an organization com- posed of "Little Folks". The afternoon session at city hall was addressed by Col. W. A. Taylor and Dr. P. A. Gordon and musical numbers were contributed by Mrs. Frank Randolph and Mrs. Emma B. Bow- man. A recitation by Mrs. Bess Comly-Cary was also greatly enjoyed. THE BANQUET. One of the most enjoyable and brilliant events of the week was the banquet at the Armory Monday evening, given in honor of the home-comers.  Several hundred were present. Judge Maurice H. Donahue presided as toastmaster. Responses were made by Mayor Geo. S. Marshall of Columbus, Col. W. A. Tay- lor, Prof. Rollo W. Brown of Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., and Randolph W. Walton of Columbus which were of a

very high order and were interesting and entertaining. Excellent music se- lections were furnished by Prof. J. K, Murdock, Mrs. Bowman, Mr. S. A. Roach and the Clark-Dillow orches- tra.  Despite  the   intensely  hot weather, the banquet was a great suc- cess.   ADDRESS OF JUDGE DONAHUE. I know it is in very bad taste for a toastmaster to inflict a speech upon the guests. The instruments of tor- ture have been carefully selected, and the toastmaster performs his full duty

when he trains these gatling guns of oratory in your direction, to work your discomfiture at their own sweet will, without adding any further burdens to those you are already fated to bear. This occasion is one, however, that might justify a "few remarks." I know that a "few remarks" by a toastmaster is a species of tort for which there is no adequate remedy at law. In the language of the law they are damnum absque injuria. How-

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The MacGahan Monument.                 219

 

ever, I promise in advance not to offend too seriously against the

ethics of my position.

This home-coming of which this delightful function is but a

small part has a dual purpose. First, that all former residents of

this City and County may visit their old home at one and the

same time, thereby affording each an opportunity to meet all their

former friends and neighbors, not only those still residing here,

but also those who have wandered to distant places and have

heard and answered the kindly message of recall that Perry

County has sent out to all her absent sons and daughters.

To the right-minded individual the word "home" has a tender

significance, because with that word is associated all that is

nearest and dearest to him in life. The home of his youth may

have given place to one of his own building, of his own making,

yet deep down in his affection he cherishes the imperishable

memory of the home of his childhood. The home that nurtured

him in infancy; the home that protected and directed him aright

in boyhood, that home, the holy influences of which has entered

into his being and shaped and moulded, not only his character,

but his destiny as well.

"Those first affections

"Those earlier recollections

"That be they what they may

"Are yet the fountain light of all our day

"The master light of all our seeing."

Dr. Samuel Johnson has said: "To be happy at home is the

ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise

and labor trends and of which every desire prompts the prosecu-

tion. It is indeed, at home that every man must be known by

those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or

felicity, for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional and the

mind is often dressed for show in painted honour and fictitious

benevolence."

In the marts of trade there is selfishness and brutality. In

the political arena there is hypocrisy and treachery; in the social

circle there is deceit and insincerity, but in the temple of the home

there is love and truth and loyalty. There is found relief and

respite from the malice and the meanness of the world. A home

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220       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

established upon right lines, a home where "Love is Law" and

unselfishness the cornerstone of the structure is the nearest ap-

proach to Heaven that old mother earth can ever know. Loyalty

to our homes is one of the elemental virtues of good citizenship,

and without such loyalty patriotism is impossible. That you men

and women have left your present homes, some in distant states,

and traveled many miles to visit the home of your youth, the

places in which your childhood was spent, clearly evidences not

only your loyalty to grand old Perry County, but also evidences

the fact that you are worthy to be her sons and daughters.

In behalf of all here tonight, I welcome each and every guest

to this festal board, and invite you to the fullest participation in

the social joys, not only of the evening, but of the entire week.

The second purpose of this week's celebration is to honor one

of Perry County's most illustrious sons. A young man born on

the hills of Perry, educated in the school of adversity, yet over-

coming all obstacles, has, by his heroism and his genius, written

his name, not only high in the halls of fame, but deep in the

hearts of a grateful people.

If on the 4th of June, 1844, a message had been sent to the

Turk whose domain then extended not only to the banks of the

Danube, but whose suzerainty stretched to the Carpathians, that

a little child had been born in the hills of Ohio who would some

day change the map of his empire, he would have scorned the

prophecy and challenged its fulfillment, but such a message would

have been true, for on that day the child was born, whose mission

it was to travel far into the Orient and strike from the limbs of

Bulgarians the shackles of their Turkish masters. This man

traveled to Bulgaria, not as a conquering hero, not as a general

at the head of a devastating army, but rather as a humble jour-

nalist, a mere war correspondent of the daily press.

At his second coming he was hailed a liberator and deliverer,

a grateful people paying him higher honor than was ever paid to

monarch, kissing even the boots he wore as an evidence of their

love and gratitude to him.

Mr. Archibald Forbes, who was also a war correspondent

and was with him a large portion of the time that he was in Bul-

garia said of him: "The man whose voice rang out clear through

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The MacGahan Monument.                221

 

the nations with its burden of wrong and shame and deviltry, was

no illustrious statesman, no famed litterateur, but just a young

American from off the little farm in Perry County, Ohio." He

went forth from the hills of Perry County a manly young fellow,

full of life, spirit and enthusiasm, filled with love of liberty and

hate of tyranny and oppression. He witnessed with his own eyes

the damnable brutality of the Turk inflicted upon an innocent but

conquered race, and his great heart and vigorous brain united in

guiding the pen that wrote the messages that startled all Christen-

dom by the vividness of his description of the awful saturnalia of

innocent blood upon which the brutal Turk was feasting. He

wrote not to catch the passing fancy, or to attract momentary at-

tention, but rather to force upon the attention of all the nations

of the earth the terrific crimes that were desolating a country and

destroying an innocent race of people. Every line evidenced not

only the honesty of the author but the truth of the tales of brutal

butchery he so graphically described so that no man who read

dared to disbelieve. In the hands of MacGahan

"The pen was mightier than the sword."

His work accomplished, his great soul returned to Him who

gave it. His body now rests almost in sight of the beloved spot

where his eyes first opened to the light of day.

Tomorrow a monument of marble marking his last resting

place will be unveiled, but he has erected a monument to himself

in the hearts of a grateful people far better, and far lovelier than

the costliest shaft of cold and emotionless granite that money

could buy. Our own native poet, Col. William A. Taylor, reared

also in the hills of Perry County and within a few miles of the

boyhood home of MacGahan has embalmed in deathless verse the

splendid story of this man's life and service to humanity. The

tale cannot be better told than in these verses from the pen of

this soldier, statesman and author, whose genial presence adds to

the pleasure of this occasion and, therefore, I crave his permis-

sion to quote these few lines therefrom:

"Bulgaria in the wine press of the Turk,

Gave blood and tears and groaned upon the rack,

Until his mighty thunders 'gainst the wrong

Rocked Europe to its base, unloosed the slave

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222        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   And set the sun of freedom o'er the hills Where serfs had groped through ages of eclipse. And then, where Stamboul, standing by the sea Looks through the spicy gateways of the East- Youth on his brow and summer on his lips, Crowned more than conqueror and more than king- Dreaming of these green hills, a mother's love, Of wife and babe and kindred's loving touch, With all the world before him, his great soul Ascended to the Infinite, and mankind Are better for this hero having lived."     Tuesday carried off the honors for attendance for the week for it was the largest crowd that has ever gathered at the county capital within its history. It is estimated that fully 10,000 people

were there and assisted in the cele- bration of the birthday of our Na- tional independence. Sleepers were awakened at 5 o'clock by a salute of thirteen guns commem- orating the thirteen original states and from that hour until late in the night, there was a continual succession of interesting events. At 8 o'clock the Seventh Regi- ment and Perry county concert bands rendered splendid special programs in the city park. At 9 o'clock Auditor Geo. T. Drake opened the speaking program from the speaker's stand, in- troducing Hon. Randolph Walton of

Columbus, whose oratory and patriotic utterances delighted the large crowd which had congregated around the stand. He was followed by Judge 0. W. H. Wright of Logan, whose remarks were appropriate to the occasion. At 10 o'clock the military and automobile parade formed on Main St. The military section was composed of companies of the 7th regiment from Zanesville, including the regimental band, from Somerset, Logan and New Lexington, under command of

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The MacGahan Monument.                223   Major Tom 0. Crossan. With Major Crossan rode Col. Harry Knox of Marietta, and Majors E. P. Walser of Somerset, Chas. H. Bell and Dr. J. H. Wright of New Lexington At 1 o'clock occurred the ceremonies incident to the unveil- ing of the monument erected to the memory of Januarius A. Mac- Gahan, the Bulgarian Liberator, which had been erected by the MacGahan Club. The same military formation was made as in the morning, leaving Main St. for the cemetery where the cere- monies incident to the unveiling occurred. Attorney James B. Yaw of Columbus, presided over the occasion. On behalf of the MacGahan club, J. Donald Hynus, president of the organiza-

tion, presented the memorial in a brief speech. Paul MacGahan pulled the ribbon, which unveiled the tablet honoring his famous father. Col. W. A. Taylor of Columbus, read letters of tribute from President Taft and Governor Harmon and also read an original poem and eulogium; Hon. Allen Albert, editor of the Columbus News, spoke on behalf of the press and Dr. Vacil D. Bozovosky of Dunkirk, N. Y., spoke on behalf of the Bulgarian people. A paper written by Mr. Svetozar Tonjoroff, editor of the Providence, R. I., Journal, was also read. Rev. A. A. Cush, pastor of St. Rose church, offered prayer and benediction at the opening and close of the meeting. On the

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224      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   speaker's stand were also seated Judge M. H. Donahue of the Ohio Supreme court, and Hon. Randolph W. Walton and Mrs. Paul MacGahan. The veil which consisted of a Bulgarian and American flag was presented to Dr. Bozovosky and Paul Mac- Gahan. The detachment of O. N. G. formed a guard of honor about the grave and the famous Seventh regiment band dis- coursed several appropriate selections.     REMARKS OF JAMES B. YAW. J. A. MacGahan, a son of Perry County, lies buried here. We have set apart this time to speak of him and to unveil a monument erected to his memory. This day, July 4th, and the event we have met here to cele- brate, are appropriately and happily joined together. The one,

no less than the other, symbolizes progress in the history of man, the re- pression of tyranny, the freedom of a nation. The heroic deeds of our fore- fathers, fighting and dying for home and liberty, have been perpetuated in stone and poetry and in the hearts of our countrymen. Throughout the world and among all people, there ex- ists a common sympathy and feeling of indignation whenever the inalien- able rights of man are denied and persecution takes the place of protec- tion.  As members of the great Brotherhood of Man, we meet here

to honor the memory of one who immolated his strength, his ability, his genius for others. One, who in the short span of years given him brought smiles to the faces of thousands where before there had been only tears and long drawn lines of suffer- ing. We meet here, also, as fellow country-men of MacGahan and in that capacity, we unveil the stone that stands at his grave. I say this because the monument erected here is only of

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The MacGahan Monument.               225

 

local significance. It can not honor MacGahan in Europe or

American. It can not honor him anywhere nor in the memory

of any person. The stone can do this, and this only: that when

his countrymen or strangers pass this way, they will be reminded

that this is sacred ground, that one greater than a king lies

here, that to this spot, is due more deference than to a king's

mausoleum.

I have often thought of the career of MacGahan. It is a

wonderful story. From the log cabin in the backwoods of our

county to the Liberator of a people, is a long road. At an

early age, poverty forced him to leave home. You can see him

struggling, alone and unaided. At last, his worth not to be

hidden by adverse conditions, aroused the interest of a great

journalist. Then it was that his great heart began to come into

its own. With keen perceptions and undaunted courage he

wrote.

Whether he was suffering the hardship of the polar regions

in order to paint the words, the glories of nature, or in Paris,

during the Commune where the terrors of a guillotine sentence

were laid upon him it was always that same devotion to truth

and principle that lead him on.

It was to the people of the war-swept Balkan region that

MacGahan rendered his greatest service and made his final sac-

rifice. To these down-trodden simple people his heart went out

and in his letters to London, he put his whole soul. They seemed

to be written in blood and stained with the tears of the people

whose wrongs he pictured. Although not a citizen of Europe,

without money or position, yet MacGahan forced the Nations

of The Old World to heed the cry of humanity.

It is somewhat strange that our country, one of the young-

est of the family of nations; that one of the youngest states

of this country, and even yet one of the youngest counties of

that state, should send a man, not west, nor north, nor south, but

back over the path of progress to light the torch of liberty

where civilization had failed to nourish that sacred flame.

 

 

Vol. XXI- 15.

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226      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

JANUARIUS ALOYSIUS MACGAHAN.

Eulogy by William A. Taylor.

Many years ago, when a boy attending Dist. No. 6 school

in Harrison township, I was deeply, but not then favorably, im-

pressed by this sentence in Kirkham's Grammar: "The evil that

men do lives after them; the good is often interred with their

bones," which I was called on to parse, analyse and expatiate on

generally, by my teacher Philander H. Binckley, student, phil-

osopher, literary writer and profound scholar, well-known to

many, and heard of by all of you.

For a long it seemed to me that this assigned greater prom-

inence and power to evil than to good. Else why should evil

survive uninterruptedly, and good be buried at least for a great

portion of the time, with the bones of the doers?

But the lapse of time and a continuity of observation, con-

vinced me that the ancient axiom-maker was not mistaken, that

the evil that men do lives after them, not to honor their memory

but to reproach it, and warn the oncoming generations not to

erect their monuments of misshapen deeds of evil, crowned with

stinging thistles and rankling brambles. True enough, the good

that men do is often buried with them, but "often" is only a

small fraction of "always," and it is the surviving good that

not only stands as a monument of approbation, but borders the

highways, on the right and the left, with glorious flowers and

stately palms, cooling springs, winnowing zephyrs, whispering of

both the past and the yet to be, and crowning all the beckoning

vistas of the far beyond -the Ultima Thule of life and effort

and activity and self-abnegation. To attain this high altitude,

is, as it should be, the true aim of life, in whatever sphere of

activity our mission and our labors lie. None are too exalted

to fire our ambition; none too humble to deserve our fullest ef-

fort. This was the spirit which animated the men whose name

and fame and achievements are here to commemorate and dedi-

cate to posterity, the predestined custodian of terrestrial fame.

Here among the rugged and versatile beauties of his native

county, he was the child of nature and the student of that history,

which marks the alternating eras of progress and decadence of

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The MacGahan Monument.               227 humanity and human achievement, across the broad parchment of time. With this mission accomplished, wearied and resting from his more than Herculean labors, gazing through the gateway of the Orient, with the white sails on the Sea of Marmora flitting like ghosts before his dimming eyes, he stepped from the Here into the Hereafter leaving behind him only those good deeds which were wrought for the cause of man and the betterment

of civilization. The feigned achievement of the classic heroes and demigods furnished forth in the poetic garniture of Homer and other contemporaneous poets, are outshone by the plain nar- ration of the achievements of our Perry county boy, student, teacher, journalist, hero and liberator. Remember that what he did are but the plain narration of deeds achieved in accordance with natural laws over natural impediments. Not as in the cases of the classic heroes, demigods and myths,

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228      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

by assumed super and supra-natural means, but in accordance

with the laws which govern in the every day world of to-day.

The twelve labors of Hercules were not more onerous, nor more

beset with impending perils, than were his efforts in the council

chambers of chancellories and the closets of cabinets, none the

less along nervous lines of gathering armies, in his task of arous-

ing supine Europe to the point of stamping out the nameless

atrocities being heaped upon the people of a helpless principality.

His unattained and interdicted ride from the headquarters

of the Russian army to Khiva, in open defiance of the orders

of the grim commander, with drumhead court martial and sum-

mary execution, as the alternative of disobedience, has no par-

allel in classic literature, where poetic imagination supplies every

gap in the continuity of events.

The final rounding out of his life's mission, the deliverance

of the Principality of Bulgaria from the merciless hand of the

Moslem Spoiler, is one of the established facts in the nineteenth

century history, more heroic, more knightly, more god-like, in

every respect than the fabled achievement of Perseus in rescuing

Andromeda, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, from the

greedy jaws of the Sea Monster.

Our Perry county Knight was indeed a hero; one, without

fear and without reproach.

 

 

A BULGARIAN'S TRIBUTE TO MACGAHAN.

By Svetozar Tonjoroff.

To a Bulgarian the name of MacGahan is fraught with

memories that stir the soul and send the blood coursing faster

through the veins. For MacGahan was the first champion of

an oppressed people before the world's tribunal. It was MacGa-

han who, in the Bulgarian revolution against savage tyranny in

1876, closed the lying mouths of British diplomats and British

bondholders, thirsty for the payment of maturing Turkish cou-

pons, by placing the damning facts of Turkish misrule before

the collective conscience of the English-speaking races. It was

a service which the Bulgarians will never forget so long as

history lasts.

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The MacGahan Monument.                229

 

My countrymen first saw the famous son of New Lexington

in 1876. In that year Turkish bestialities had reached such a

pitch of ferocity in the province of Bulgaria that a people of

infinite patience had been goaded into open revolt. There are

moments in the lives of nations, as in the lives of individuals,

when death is preferable to the continued torture of existence.

Such a moment had arrived in the history of the Bulgarians,

once masters of the Balkan Peninsula. The revolution of 1876

began in the hot blood of resentment, without preparation. The

Bulgarian peasant, under the hoof-beats of the wild Circassians,

imported in hordes into Bulgaria for the express purpose of

stamping out the last spark of spirit in its children, took up his

pitchfork and his goad in self-defense. He revolted in much

the same spirit in which the minute man of the American col-

onies, exactly a century earlier, had seized his flintlock to repel

aggressions much less grievous than those that threatened the

Bulgarians.

With the aid of fanatic forces which Turkey poured into

the revolted territory from Asia Minor, the revolution was put

down and the pacification was begun in characteristic Turkish

fashion. It was at this period that MacGahan came to Bulgaria

as the special correspondent of the London Daily News. It was

then that he began the work of unmasking the lie which the Brit-

ish foreign office, subservient to the banking interests that de-

manded the pound of flesh from the vitals of a starving peasantry,

had set up before the world.

"There are no Turkish atrocities," was the dictum of Dis-

raeli, whose memory is forever accursed in Bulgaria. "The

revolution is being put down with unexampled gentleness. The

Bulgarians are a turbulent lot who must be crushed for the sake

of the peace of the world."

Your distinguished fellow-townsman arrived at the shambles

to determine by observation whether the cry of the Bulgarians

was a mere theatrical exclamation uttered for political effect,

or whether Disraeli, with volumes of official reports from the

seat of the atrocities snugly stowed away in the pigeonholes of

the foreign office, was deliberately perverting the facts in order

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230       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

to help his great and good friend the unspeakable Turk. And

this is what MacGahan found:

The Turks had carried out the spirit of their religion in a

series of massacres that capped the climax of even Turkish

savagery. One instance will suffice to illustrate the conditions

throughout the pacified territory which MacGahan, the patron

saint of Bulgaria, disclosed. It is the case of Batak, where the

entire village population of between three and four thousand men,

women and children, had sought refuge in the large village church

from the humane methods of the Turkish pacifiers. The church

was surrounded by regular troops and Bashi-Bozouks. After

a siege of several days the Turkish commander offered free

pardon to the besieged if they would surrender their arms. The

terms were accepted for the sake of the women, the little chil-

dren and the helpless old men. When the last flintlock had

been handed out to the troops a bugle call was sounded, a stream

of kerosene played upon the church, and soon a match had set

the structure ablaze in every part, a funeral pyre worthy of

Disraeli and his humane allies in the extermination of a Christian

people whose only crime was their refusal to surrender their

faith and to coin the sweat of their labors into usurious interest

for pampered British bondholders. And this is what MacGahan

found in that church: An entire village population burned to

ashes-little children with their mothers; palsied old age and

powerless youth and manhood, all side by side in a horrible

death as a fitting memorial to Turkish savagery backed by Brit-

ish greed. Among the victims was Dimitri Tonjoroff, a kinsman

of the writer, who as village teacher shared the fate of his

pupils in that desecrated temple of the Redeemer.

Yet even in the face of these frightful disclosures, which

MacGahan made in the columns of the Daily News, the smug

diplomats of London maintained their denials with the utmost

hardihood, and your townsman was subjected to bitter attacks

as a perverter of the truth!

To the Bulgarians of the period, surrounded with visible

evidences of the hostility of the great and powerful British

empire, the appearance of MacGahan was like the dawn of

day after a dark night of terror unspeakable. It is recorded in

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The MacGahan Monument.                231

 

the Bulgarian Encyclopedia that MacGahan's last words to his

Bulgarian friends after he left those tragic scenes to return to the

office of his paper were:

"In less than a year you shall see the soldiers of the Czar

here."

History has recorded the accuracy of that prediction. How

much the noble pen of MacGahan contributed to the causes that

determined Alexander II., the Czar-Liberator, to undertake the

sacred task of shattering the chains from the hands of the Bul-

garians by the roar of the Russian cannon, may never be known.

Sufficient it is to say that had not the heartless plot of Disraeli

been exposed by MacGahan's revelations, British prejudice,

forever on the look-out for Russian poaching on British pre-

serves, might have frustrated Russia's move at its very inception.

As it was, the muzzles of the British naval guns were not bared

against the Russians until the standard of the Russian regiments

were at the walls of Constantinople and a liberated nation was

once more breathing God's pure air of liberty after a subjection

lasting through five stifling centuries.

But even while MacGahan was yielding up his life at Con-

stantinople, stricken by the scourge of war, the implacable foe of

the Bulgarians was partly undoing the work which MacGahan

and Alexander II. had wrought. MacGahan was the impas-

sioned advocate of the Great Bulgaria, as created by the treaty

of San Stefano, the signing of which halted the march of the

Russians toward the seat of Turkish power. He realized at that

early period in the negotiations, that the only solution of the

problem was the liberation of all the Bulgarians and the creation

of a country strong enough and favorably enough situated, with

an outlet to the Mediterranean, to be able to deal with its former

oppressor on something approaching even terms. Had his coun-

sel been followed, Bulgaria today would have been a kingdom

including the entire Bulgarian population of the peninsula, with

a large territory extending practically from the walls of Con-

stantinople to Salonica. That would have been a reasonable

and just solution of a grave phase of the Eastern Question

which would have eliminated a world of trouble that has since

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232       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ensued in the lands once liberated by the pen of MacGahan and

the sword of Alexander.

But Disraeli would not have it so. His keen financial mind

clung to the reflection that enough Bulgarians must be left en-

slaved to pay the interest on the British loans to Turkey-loans

which Turkey had used partly to keep those same Bulgarians

down. So, with the help of the Iron Chancellor at the congress

of Berlin, the British statesman marred the achievements of your

eminent townsman even before his warm heart had grown cold

beneath the cypresses of Stamboul. The Bulgaria of the treaty

of San Stefano- MacGahan's Bulgaria -was dismembered al-

most before it was born. Macedonia-that land of strife and

suffering-was cut off from the liberated territory and once

more placed under the tender mercies of Turkish rule. Bul-

garia itself, greatly lessened by the elimination of the vilayet of

Adrianople, was erected into a tributary principality, and Eastern

Roumelia, another part of the Bulgaria of San Stefano, was

put back under the Turkish flag as an autonomous province.

Now mark how the far-sightedness of MacGahan was justi-

fied by the events of history, coming fast one upon the other in

the lifetime of his generation.

In 1885 Eastern Roumelia in a bloodless revolution, packed

the Turkish governor off to Constantinople, tore down the Turk-

ish flag over the konak and declared itself an integral and in-

divisable part of Bulgaria, just as MacGahan had intended it

to be at the outset. The coffee-drinking gentlemen at Constan-

tinople scratched their pates beneath their fezzes, spat upon the

ground in disgust, wrote a warm letter to Sofia on the subject

uppermost in their muddled minds, and with true Oriental fa-

talism let things go at that. With the kind consent of Abdul

Hamid the Prince of Bulgaria was recognized as governor gen-

eral of Eastern Roumelia. What difference did it make, reasoned

the coffee-drinking gentlemen, if a vassal (the Prince of Bul-

garia) had made himself governor of an adjoining province?

It's all the same, if it is the will of Allah ! And, furthermore, does

not Bulgaria bind itself to see that the Eastern Roumelian tribute

is paid every year?  It is all the better so, since the tribute will

be paid.

• 18
 

The MacGahan Monument.               233

 

So matters remained until, in 1908, the Young Turks amazed

the world and took it in completely by the famous revolution

against Abdul Hamid and the proclamation of a constitutional

form of government. Had MacGahan been living, he would have

told his countrymen and the rest of Christendom that the paint-

ing of stripes upon a jackass does not make a zebra; that the

forms and spirit of constitutionalism are as far apart from the

warp and woof of Turkish character as heaven is from the

other place; that the only good Turk is the Turk who has to

be good or feel the impact of the compelling boot.

The events that have come to pass since the enactment of

the Ottoman comedy has demonstrated in striking fashion the

spirit of prophecy that dwelt in the body of Januarius Aloysius

MacGahan. For the atrocities which he disclosed in Bulgaria

in 1876 are being enacted to-day in Albania and in Macedonia,

where the Young Turks are seeking to destroy the nationality

and the religion of discontented subjects, just as they were

doing in Bulgaria under the eyes of the generous son of New

Lexington. To-day women are outraged and children spitted

on bayonets in Albania under the constitutional regime-a re-

enactment of the very methods of pacification which MacGahan

saw and described in the neighboring province in 1876 - and the

same freedom loving England is assuring the world, as it did

in MacGahan's startling revelations, that the Turks are as gen-

tle and humane as they can be in their dealings with subject

peoples.

Had the advice of MacGahan been followed at the close

of the Turkish war, the fangs of the wolf would have been pulled

and the beast would not to-day be tearing the remnant of the

flock.

In the meanwhile Bulgaria is justifying the sympathy of

her great and noble friend from America, who laid down his

life in his service to her. His dream of a free and independent

Bulgaria was realized shortly after the enactment of the Young

Turk Opera Bouffe, when the then Prince of Bulgaria, Ferdi-

nand, amid the solemn setting of the ruins of the Ancient Bul-

garian capital at Tirnovo, tore up the Objectionable article of

the treaty of Berlin -that compact of thieves and perjurers-

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234       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and declared Bulgaria no longer a vassal of the Grand Turk

but untrammelled mistress of her own house. That house, by the

verdict of history which MacGahan so potently helped to write,

includes Eastern Roumelia. Some day, please God, it shall also

include the still enslaved Macedonia.

The act of Tirnovo roused the rabble at Constantinople to

frenzy. They set up a demand for an immediate invasion of

the territory of the new kingdom. But there were wise men

among the statesmen at Stamboul. Early in the course of the

Russo-Turkish war MacGahan had informed the world, after

the epic of Shipka Pass, that the Bulgarians could fight. Seven

years after that war the Bulgarians had verified MacGahan's

discernment in a series of brilliant victories over the Servians

at Breznik, at Dragoman, at Slivnitsa, at Pirot. In 1908, while

Czar Ferdinand was reading the declaration of independence at

Tirnovo, there was an army of 50,000 Bulgarians -an army

which would have delighted the soul of MacGahan-    massed

on the Turkish frontiers, awaiting the word for a quick march

to Constantinople in the event of a declaration of hostilities

by the Turks. So the shouts of the rabble at Stamboul were

silenced and Turkey perforce acquiesced in the accomplished

facts. Once more the Bulgarians had proved their title to the

precious gift of liberty which was theirs partly by the grace of

the noble work of their friend from far-off Ohio.

One is impressed, as one considers the progress of the

country since those stirring days when MacGahan stretched out

the hand of human fellowship to its unhappy people, back in

1876, what delight it would have given him to revisit Bulgaria

in the present year of the world's enlightenment. Were he there

now he would see thriving cities under a flag of freedom where

in his day terror-stricken peasants huddled in starvation-ravaged

hovels. He would see the gleaming domes of churches where

in his day the shadow of the gallows-tree darkened the land-

scape. He would come upon school-houses and universities

where before he did his invaluable work prisons stifled the

groans of tortured men. He would see the light of noon shining

full into the places which he saw enveloped in the gloom of

night.

• 20
 

The MacGahan Monument.              235   Ladies and gentlemen of New Lexington- you who are the neighbors and the kin of MacGahan-you do well to dedicate on this, the natal day of your country's freedom, a monument to your great apostle of freedom. You do well to set up a re- minder to the coming generations of the glory and the human kindliness of the liberator of a people. But yours is not the power nor the privilege of building the most enduring monument to MacGahan. That monument is to be seen on every map of Europe. That monument rears its head upon every peak and summit of Bulgaria's mountains. The sweet and gentle thren- ody of his life is murmured by every torrent as it rushes sing- ing to the sea. The most enduring monument to MacGahan is builded of indestructible materials in the heart and soul of every Bulgarian, for all time. That monument is Bulgaria itself--

free, with its face toward the light, marching steadily to the fulfillment of its destiny; a destiny made pos- sible by the labor of love which Jan- uarius Aloysius MacGahan wrought with his life!     ADDRESS OF HON. RANDOLPH WALTON. Those in charge of these cere- monies are to be highly commended for conceiving the idea of having this Perry county homecoming on the Fourth of July. Their action leads us to a contemplation of the two loft- iest and noblest sentiments known to

men -love of country and love of home. The birth of this republic and its subsequent growth in power and influence, have not only been beacon-lights of hope to all people, and leavens which have lifted all the nations of earth to higher and better things, but have brought with them a series of unique and distinctively American festivals or holidays. Before the "Spirit of Seventy-Six" was material- ized at Yorktown, the people of the world had been accustomed

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236       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

in their fetes and holidays to celebrate the achievements of

princes or rulers, of emperors or kings. With the victory of the

Colonies came a new order of things, and holidays were then

and have since been set apart celebrating and glorifying the great

achievements of the people themselves.

Thanksgiving day was born when the Pilgrims at Plymouth

bowed in prayer and gave thanks to the great ruler of us all for

their escape from oppression and deliverance from the dangers

of the deep.

Labor Day is a holiday consecrated to those who toil, cele-

brating the progress of labor from the low state where it was

deemed fit only for slaves to its present high dignity where it is

worthy of the participation of all.

Decoration Day is a day devoted to recalling and recounting

the glorious deeds of our citizen soldiers in preventing the dis-

memberment of this Union, perpetuating the principles upon

which it was founded, and preserving its Flag untarnished in

the sky.

The Fourth of July is and ever should be the greatest

holiday celebration among men. Its observance each year should

imbue us all with a deeper love and reverence for the glorious

traditions of our struggles for liberty. The significance of this

day is lost unless we are led to more clearly realize what

that liberty means to us and to more fully appreciate the bless-

ings we enjoy under this government of the people.

It sometimes seems that all the history that is worth reading

is that which has been made since the discovery of America

in 1492. Before the inspired Columbus put out upon the un-

sailed seas and came at last upon this vast continent, this old

world hardly knew how to live. The minds and aspirations of

men had been blunted and lowered by centuries of despotism

and oppression. But here, out of the West came tidings of

better things, wonderful stories of a vast and fertile land,

whose forests and streams and plains would supply the settler

with homes and food; a land where man could be free-free

to worship or not, according to the dictates of his own reason-

a land where, unaided and unhindered, he could work out that

destiny his Creator intended for him.

• 22
 

The MacGahan Monument.               237

 

A free republic is the most fruitful in the birth of genius.

Great ideas are almost unknown under despotism. Since 1492

how mightily hath man wrought for progress? How irresistible

has been the onward sweep of civilization!

Since then Shakespeare and Milton and Burns and Byron

have penned their immortal lines. The absurd idea of the "divine

right of kings" has constantly given way before the insistence

upon the diviner rights of man. Washington and his fellow

patriots have brought forth this nation, conceived in liberty and

dedicated to popular sovereignty. Hamilton and Jay and Madi-

son and Jefferson have written their wise essays on government,

paving the way for the adoption of the Constitution. Webster has

expounded that great instrument, and Marshall has applied it to

the affairs of our national life. Irving and Hawthorne and Em-

erson and Longfellow have laid the foundation of our national

literature. The printing press, with its immense power for

enlightenment; has been perfected, so that the humblest homes

now possess libraries that would have been the envy of old time

kings, and the school boy of today is wiser than the ancient

sage. The sewing machine has come to lighten woman's burdens

and revolutionize the dress of the race. Steam and electricity

have been made to warm and light our homes, perform our

labors, flash our messages through space, and bear us upon

our journeys with the swiftness of the wind. Science, with

an Alexandrian restlessness, is constantly longing for new fields

of conquest, and even now we are seeing intrepid pioneer souls

"on joyful wings cleaving the sky." Lincoln wrote the im-

mortal proclamation which forever banished the curse of human

slavery from our fair domain. Later, this nation went to war

in defense of the oppressed and helpless, swept the last vestige

of Spanish tyranny from the Western Hemisphere, furnishing

the spectacle, unparalleled in all history, of a nation expending its

blood and treasure in defense of a neighboring people, with no

more selfish motive than that of seeing them sharing the bless-

ings of a republican form of government which we ourselves

enjoy. And the light is breaking in the east, for only recently

we have seen the birth of popular government in Portugal; and

in Russia and Turkey we have seen the hellish designs of force

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238      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and murder overwhelmed and defeated by the progressive

champions of more representative government.

These things have all come about because of the inspiration

of this one free Republic.

It is a beautiful custom that men have of erecting memorials

of bronze or brass or marble to perpetuate the names and pre-

serve from obscurity some recollection of the worth and works

of those who have been benefactors of the race. The results

of these efforts to prolong the memory of man have been of

varying degrees of effectiveness, ranging all the way from the

wonderful pyramids of the Pharaohs to the pathetic wooden

cross of the potter's field. The most enduring of these, in the

fierce crucible of time will crumble to dust and moulder away,

and their "pomp is one with Nineva and Tyre."

Those who have created, preserved and defended our country

have a monument more enduring and more glorious than any

that has ever been builded with hands and lifted its mute ap-

peal to the sky in behalf of soldier or statesman, poet or phil-

osopher, emperor or king. This Republic -with its fertile

farms, nurseries of our brawn and brain; its thriving cities,

pulsating with the activity and industry of millions; its com-

merce, borne by the railroads over the land and by the ships

across the sea; its school houses, sheltering the boys and girls

who are wiser than the ancient philosophers; the many homes,

where security and happiness reign; its mills and factories and

forges, illumining the sky with their lurid flame and sending

their smoke like incense into the heavens -this Republic, with

these and the other things which make it the grandest of all

the powers of the earth, stands here as a living, lasting monu-

ment to all the good, true and noble men who have helped

to create, advance and preserve it.

Inseparably connected with all the greatness of our country,

interwoven with all the tender memories of the past-the in-

spiration of mankind everywhere-is the flag which stands as

the emblem of this matchless Republic. While ours is one of

the youngest of the nations, ours is one of the very oldest flags

in point of adoption. It was first hoisted by Paul Jones, on the

day it was adopted, June 1₄th, 1777, aboard the ship "Ranger."

• 24
 

The MacGahan Monument.                   239

 

It inspired the colonists through the trials and triumphs of the

Revolution; was carried by Decatur against the Barbary pirates;

was with Perry on Lake Erie; with Jackson back of the cotton

bales at New Orleans; went with Scott on his victoroius sweep

through Mexico; still waved "When Sherman from Atlanta

marched in triumph to the sea, and Grant at Appomattox stopped

the flying hosts of Lee."

This flag, which caught the dying gaze of Lawrence and

draped the sacred dust of Washington, shall be first in the hearts

of loyal Americans forever. This flag was once hauled down

in temporary defeat from Sumter, but after the insult had been

avenged was raised again by the devoted hands of General

Anderson who had been permitted to take it away when the

fort capitulated. We love the Stars and Stripes, not alone be-

cause it is the most beautiful of all national banners, but more

profoundly because it is the emblem of the one nation whose

only king is an uncrowned monarch known as the will of the

majority, and whose only nobility is the nobility of character

and manhood.

 

"Boast of your war trained captains, Kaiser, Emperor, Czar;

Prate of your serried warrior hosts, and babble of might afar;

Point to your brilliant banners that follow the train of Mars,

But pray they may never meet in strife the flag of the Stripes and Stars.

 

Flag of a freezing army, that famished at Valley Forge,

Flag which a Viking flung aloft and humbled the cross of George;

Flag once torn by statesmen, now mended and shows no scars-

Flag of our nation, hail -all hail! -the flag of the Stripes and Stars.

 

Down with the cold eyed pennant who sees but a textile rag,

Up with the fiery patriot soul who shouts as he sees the flag,

And honor to those who bear it, men of the sword and tars,

As far as the eagle may take his flight, the flag of the Stripes and Stars."

 

From the sentiment of patriotism, let us turn now to that

of home. Someone has described home as "A place easily left

but not easily forgotten." That definition is certainly true of

Perry county homes, because when the invitations from the

home coming committee went forth to all parts of the earth,

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240      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

saying "Weary ones, where'er you wander, come, oh come,"

the transplanted sons and daughters of old Perry began long-

ing once more to look upon the familiar scenes and faces of

former days-and thank God that so many of them have been

permitted to be here today.

The home coming habit is as old as man. It is impossible

to discover who was the originator of this beautiful custom.

The first man to give the practice the right sort of vogue and

publicity was the Prodigal Son. When, after being reduced to

hunger and want, he thought of the love of his father and the

bounty of his father's household, and said "I will arise and go

to my father," he became the patron saint of all homecomers

forever.

Those of you who have returned here to your old homes

have been led by longings much akin to those which took pos-

session of that pioneer homecomer. The Prodigal returned in

a spirit of humility and abjection; you come willingly and

gladly. He was forced to return because he had wasted his

substance in riotous living; you are enabled to return because

you have well employed the talents entrusted to you. When

the Prodigal returned, the brother who had remained at home,

sulked and objected to the father killing the fatted calf, pre-

paring the rich feast, and lavishing upon the wanderer the best

robe; but with you, friends, as you return, it is different. Those

who have remained at home while you have been wandering, give

you a hearty welcome and have helped old Perry to kill the

fatted calf and prepare the feast for you, and the only injunc-

tion they have to place upon you is "Do not hurry away."

Homecomings are most excellent institutions. They afford

to the middle aged and the old an opportunity to take a sort

of inventory of themselves as it were. Back here in the midst of

the old scenes, they can recall the hopes, the ambitions, and the

air-castles of their childhood days, and can see how nearly the

achievements of maturity have approached the aspirations and

expectations of youth.

This event should not be lost upon the young people pres-

ent. They should ponder well the stories of the pioneers who

founded Perry county, should become familiar with its history,

• 26
 

The MacGahan Monument.                 241

 

and should study well the lesssons to be drawn from the lives

of those stalwart men and women who have sustained the good

name and standing of the county, from the time of its forma-

tion on March 1st, 1817, down to the present time; those who,

by reason of their intelligence, their enterprise, and their pa-

triotism have been leaders in the educational, industrial, and

political affairs of the community. The first lesson to be drawn

from the lives of those pioneers is that of fidelity to duty. That

was the trait which marked them among their fellows and

crowned their struggles with success.

The boys and girls here today must be the successors of those

faithful men and women who have been and are now carrying

the responsibilities of leadership in all the affairs of life. Well

will it be for them, and for the future, if these young people

go forth from these homecoming exercises with a determination

to profit by the examples and follow in the footsteps of the noble

men and women who have thus far so honorably and ably

upheld the good name and fame of Perry county.

Perry County has not only been fortunate in the caliber and

character of the men who have been her teachers, her clergymen,

physicians, merchants, workingmen; those who have served her

locally, and who have represented her in legislature and congress

and have graced the benches of all courts; but she has sent forth

her sons into all parts of the Union, some of whom by sheer

force of ability have lifted themselves to leadership, reflected

great credit upon the place of their birth, and have ably served

their adopted states in the gubernatorial chair and as their

representatives in the senate of the United States. That is why

all loyal sons and daughters of Perry county today love the

living Governor Carroll of Iowa, and cherish with reverence

the memory of the late Senator Stephen B. Elkins of West

Virginia.

There was also loved and nurtured here in the rugged hills

of Perry county two brave Irish-American lads, whose achieve-

ments challenged the attentions of the civilized world.

One of these was the son of a laboring man, who had come

from Albany, New York, where the child was born, to work on

Vol. XXI--16.

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242      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the old national road. The boy worked for a time in a hardware

store and later, in a dry goods store in Somerset. He was se-

lected by General Richie, member of congress, as cadet to West

Point in 1848; graduated July 1st, 1853, entered the army as

Brevet Second Lieutenant on May 14th, 1851, and by his dis-

tinguished bravery in the Civil War and meritorious services

in the regular army, rose through the various grades of com-

mand, until in 1888, he attained the supreme title of "General"

of the army of the United States, the commission of which

had been before him held by but three men-George Washington,

Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. This Perry

county boy was remarkable in that he was equally skillful in

the command of artillery, infantry, or cavalry, and some historian

has said that he saw the back of more rebels than any other

federal commander. At three o'clock one morning General

Grant summoned him from his bed and said, "I want you to

break the rebel lines, and if you fail, go and join Sherman."

This little fighting Irishman replied, "I'll make the attempt, but

I'll not go to Sherman; I propose to end it right here." His

command charged at Five Forks, the almost invincible lines of

Lee were broken, and Richmond was doomed.

From the beautiful National cemetery at Arlington, the Val-

halla of our nation's heroic dead, looking across that beautiful

vista, as if standing as a silent sentinel over the national Capitol

which he in life so zealously guarded and defended, is the simple,

rugged monument to this Perry county boy, and upon that monu-

ment is inscribed the imperishable, immortal name of Philip H.

Sheridan.

Tomorrow, here in New Lexington, will be dedicated a

monument to another son of Perry county, whose name and

the glory of whose achievements transcended all sectional, state

and national boundary lines and stirred the hearts of men

everywhere. He, too, was of the number who "came up through

great tribulations," from an obscure home, struggled along the

way that has been traveled by the self-made giants of our

Republic, and the story of his modest, unselfish, self-sacrificing,

heroic career, is one of the most beautiful that has ever been

recorded.

• 28
 

The MacGahan Monument.                243

This man was Januarius A. MacGahan. In his early man-

hood he had the ambition to teach his home school, but the

school board, thinking him too young, decreed otherwise. He

then went to Huntington, Indiana, and taught successfully for

two years, taking mother and the rest of the family, leaving

Perry county as a home forever.    He later moved to St.

Louis, where he spent four years, working as a bookkeeper,

studying and writing for the press. He then went to Europe,

with a view of studying foreign languages and fitting himself

for the practice of the law, but in the Providence of God there

was another and larger work mapped out for him to do. He was

engaged by the New York Herald and the London News to act

as their war correspondent with the French army in the

Franco-Prussian war. As the representative of those papers

MacGahan was in all the wars of Europe for ten years before his

death. He was condemned to death by the Commune in Paris,

and later by the Republicans in Spain, who mistook him for a

Carlist, but each time was saved by the diplomatic representa-

tives of the United States. No man ever had a more varied

experience. He traveled through Europe with General Sherman

and party in the early seventies, went with the Pandora ex-

pedition to the Arctic seas in 1875, while his long and perilous

ride across the Asiatic deserts to Khiva was the greatest display

of courage and endurance, of fearlessness in the midst of strange

and savage peoples in an unknown land, of which there is any

record.

But the greatest work of MacGahan was that of exposing

the fiendish acts of pillage and murder which Turkey was per-

petrating upon weak and helpless Bulgaria. His vivid, thrilling

accounts of the wrongs inflicted upon the Bulgarians fired the

hearts of humane people everywhere, and brought to the aid of

the Bulgarians a powerful friend in the person of the Czar of

Russia, who put a stop to the atrocities of the Turk and drove

him back to his own Capital. Bulgaria was free and MacGa-

han was her deliverer and savior. And the gratitude which

shall ever abide in the hearts of the people of far-off Bulgaria

is the most fitting memorial to Januarius MacGahan.

• 29
 

244       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   "When a deed is done for freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast, Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west, And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full blossomed on the thorny stem of time."   Mild-mannered, lion-hearted, clean-souled MacGahan! To you it was given to do a deed for freedom, and the romantic story of your birth, your boyhood struggles, your glorious work in carrying abroad the spirit of free America, of your communion with the great and powerful of the earth, and of your death for a friend, will go singing like a benediction down the ages. Bless old Perry County. May her future be in keeping with her honored past, and may the rising and coming genera- tions prove worthy successors of the sturdy men and noble women who have been her home-builders and creators.

• 30