Ohio History Journal

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The Croghan Celebration

The Croghan Celebration.                   27

 

 

ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS.

 

VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

I am gratified, indeed, to be present and participate with you for

a brief while upon this historic occasion. I have not come to make a

formal speech, nor did I come to make you a speech at all. According

to the programme, I am to indulge only in a few "remarks."

What I shall say to you shall be born of the moment. I have

brought with me no well-turned phrases. I have come simply to join

with you in paying tribute to the memory of men who did valiant service

in the cause of the Republic in the long

ago.

The spot whereon we stand is sacred

ground, for wherever men have fought in

the cause of American liberty, that ground

is sacred and ever will be held so.

George Croghan is a name that is in-

delibly written in the history of the Re-

public, and this great community honors

itself when it brings back his remains

from the sunny South and gives them

sepulcher in the soil hallowed by his

genius and valor.

We bring to-day beneath this beautiful

summer sky a tribute of our gratitude

for what he did for us and for our suc-

cessors in the centuries which stretch be-

fore us with so much promise. We lay the

remains of this brave soldier to their everlasting sleep beneath the shade

of yonder monument.

I wish we knew the names of the hundred and sixty men who stood

with him August 2, 1813, that we might call the roll of them here to-

day and pay to them the tribute of our gratitude and our admiration.

The brave commander who rendered illustrious service here in a critical

period of the war of 1812, is known to us and his name is upon our

lips and it will be sung by our children in days to come, but his brave

compatriots are unknown. The one hundred and sixty men who stood

here--as brave men as ever placed their lives upon the sacrificial altar

of their country--are known, for God Almighty knows men who go

down to the battle field to preserve American institutions for ages to

come.

There is one brave young man, who stood with Croghan, whose

name we cannot forget, and which we recall with pride and satisfaction,

and that is the name of Ensign Shipp. When the British General Proctor