INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
By PHILIP C. NASH
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
It is my very great pleasure and honor
to declare open the
sessions of the Maumee Valley
International Historical Conven-
tion.
It was 146 years ago that the Battle of
Fallen Timbers was
fought, and all the events that we are
commemorating in this
Convention occurred more than a century
ago.
There has been an orderly and gradual
development of civili-
zation in this neighborhood and in this
country ever since those
days, until we find here in 1940 a free
people living in a peaceful
democracy, joining with their neighbors
across the Lake not as
with persons from a foreign country but
as with friends from the
next town to celebrate the reunion, and
to bind more securely
the ties of friendship.
It is unfortunately true that just as
those Indians and fron-
tiersmen of a century and a half ago
were to some extent the
pawns of a chess game played in far away
Europe, so our meet-
ing tonight is influenced by a threat to
civilization itself that has
sprung up in Europe. One immediate
effect is that our country
in its defense preparations has thought
it necessary to require a
passport for entrance from Canada, not
because we have any fear
from the Canadians themselves but
because of fifth column ac-
tivities, and so it has been hard for
some of our Canadian friends
to be with us tonight. I greatly regret
this red tape and fervently
hope that soon all persons may cross our
mutual boundaries again
with the brief and inconsequential
formalities that I have experi-
enced in my many visits to Canada.
It is the function of the historian, in
mulling over the events
of the past, to better prepare himself
and his contemporaries to
meet the problems of the present and the
future. I hope that
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