OHIO'S HISTORY IN THE PLACE OF OUR
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Abstract of an Address by HON. JOHN
W. BRICKER
Governor John W. Bricker, in an
excellent address, which
unfortunately had not been reduced to a
manuscript, closed the
program of the Convention. It brought
out the great historical
significance of the Maumee Valley in
relation to the United
States. He said that few events in our
American history had more
effect upon the country's welfare than
the defense of Fort Meigs,
and that out of events today may come a
greater determination to
make a better world.
"Ohio," he said, "is
noted in human events. Here traversed
the Indians, the French, and the
English. Ohio has been the key
to the development of America. Here, two
hundred years before
Fort Meigs was built, came the Algonquin
tribes who rose up in
defense of the territory. Champlain and
LaSalle saw that those
who controlled the Maumee controlled the
Northwest; and this
battlefield was the key to that control
and to the expansion on the
Pacific Coast. During the Civil War this
territory was a tower
of strength to the Union. Fort Meigs,
Fort Stephenson with
'Old Betsy' should be inspirations to
us."
Governor Bricker referred to the
celebrations of peace which
he had attended. One celebrated the
settlement of the "war"
between Michigan and Ohio, which gave
the Toledo district to
Ohio and the Upper Peninsula with its
iron to Michigan. Another
was in Canada where the "Old Boys
Day" was celebrated, with
the Stars and Stripes displayed beside
the Union Jack in com-
memoration of peace between the two
countries.
"I have wondered why Canada and the
United States can live
together in such peace that on our
borders are no protecting forts,"
said the Governor. "Is it not our
respect for constitutional rights?
Is it not the spirit of friendship and
of liberty? Such are the
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