REMARKS OF HON. SAMUEL F. HUNT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is certainly not my pur-
pose, in this unexpected call, to
disturb the very agreeable
impression which was made by the
scholarly oration of
the distinguished gentleman from
Massachusetts. For
historical research, for analysis of
fact, for application of
principles, for beauty of diction, it
has rarely been sur-
passed; and I may say that no less
instructive was the
oration of the gentleman from Virginia.
In the name of the people of Ohio, I may
say that they
reciprocate this sort of patriotism; and
Ohio, like Virginia,
hereafter will look to the Federal
Constitution as the
pledge of perpetual union.
It is very interesting to trace the
beginning of a civil-
ization, and to follow society in its
formative state. I was
greatly impressed by the allusion in
Senator Hoar's speech
to the victory of Wolfe on the Heights
of Abraham. It
has not been emphasized enough. It was
one of the
most momentous of the hours of history.
It determined
whether or not the institutions of the
Germanic or Eng-
lish-speaking race should dominate
hereafter in the great
Central States in this valley. He
crowded the action of
centuries into a few minutes, and he
filled his life with
lustre, although his sun went down
before it was day.
That civilization we are to-day-that one
hundred years
of results; the elements which have
produced it are found
in the organic law which has blessed the
people. Those
results are found, first in the religion
and the morality
which have emphasized all the
legislation of this civiliza-
tion during this hundred years.
The Ordinance of 1787 declared for
religion and mor-
ality. The Constitution of 1802 declared
for religion and
morality. The Constitution of 1851
declared for religion
and morality. Righteousness does exalt
a nation; and
to-day our civilization is marked by the
church spires,
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