Remarks of Gov. James E.
Campbell. 161
REMARKS OF GOVERNOR JAMES E. CAMPBELL.
It was a long-deferred pleasure one year
ago, on the 19th of
October, to make my first visit here. I
learned after arriving
that it was an auspicious day, being the
ninety-ninth anniversary
of the landing upon the banks of yonder
river of the little band
of French settlers who founded this
handsome and flourishing
city. During an address to the people,
who gathered on that
occasion to hear the political
discussion of the then existing
campaign, I said, in a half-jocular way,
that I would return in a
year as Governor of the State to
celebrate the city's centennial.
In response to that promise, and your
subsequent courteous in-
vitation, my military staff and myself
have come to participate
in these interesting ceremonies. We are
here rather to be seen
than heard.
The programme announces that I am to
deliver an address,
but the unexpected and overwhelming
labors of the last fort-
night have absorbed my time to the
exclusion of anything but
official work, and I am, therefore,
obliged to confess that I have
no address-that the little I am to say
must be without prepara-
tion. I am simply a gleaner in the field
that has been harvested
so well by those who have preceded me.
The French settlers who came here a
century ago were, as
we all know, not the first French
settlers in the Ohio valley, for
the lilies of France had floated to the
breeze, both on the Ohio
and the Mississippi, a hundred years
before. They were found
north of the great lakes, and around the
southern bayous.
Parkham has happily described it by
saying that "French Amer-
ica had two heads; one among the snows f
Canada, the other
among the cane-brakes of
Louisiana!" Northern Ohio was
occupied by French fur traders as early
as 1680. They were
scattered along the lake from the Maumee
to the Cuyahoga.
Forty years before the settlement of
Gallipolis the English
settlers were warned out of Ohio by the
French commander,
and formal possession taken in the name
of Louis Fifteenth by
burying leaden plates along the Ohio
river, engraved with ap-
propriate inscriptions. The bloody and
picturesque drama of
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162 0hio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 3
frontier settlement was participated in
by French officers of vari-
ous dates.
But the French who came here a century
ago, did not come
under the auspices of the French
Government. They expatrat-
ed themselves, and left their allegiance
and friends behind them.
They came not for conquest, nor for
glory, but were in a sense
refugees from the bloody wars then
raging in their own country.
They sought quiet homes, peaceful
pleasures, and frugal but
contented lives. They and their careers
have been accurately
and graphically depicted by your fellow
townsman who ad-
dressed himself to that part of the
subject yesterday. He has
told in elaborate detail of the
fraudulent titles and false pictures
of pioneer life that brought them here;
of their departure full
of the enthusiasm that characterizes the
mercurial and versatile
Gaul; their shipwreck at sea; their
landing at Alexandria, then
one of the most important points of the
infant republic; of
their troubles after landing; their
correspondence with Washing-
ton about the titles to their lands; of
their western trip, and
their landing here in the beautiful
autumn season; of their in-
aptitude, by reason of their former
habits and customs, for the
hardships and struggles of their new
home. All this has been
recited, and to repeat it now would be
but a work of supereroga-
tion.
The history of Gallipolis and the
surrounding country from
that day to this has doubtless been well
told here under the title
of "A Century and its Lesson,"
by a distinguished citizen of
the oldest city in Ohio. The history of
your people for the cen-
tury is the history of all the people of
Ohio. In the beginning
there were the dangers from savages;
from fever and ague, and
the climatic diseases of a new country.
They lived in the same
log huts, with the same puncheon floors;
were clothed in the
same deer-skin garments; used the same
hewn furniture; ate the
same hoe-cake, fish and game; indulged
in the same shooting
matches, bear-hunts and militia musters,
as all the other pioneers
in the other counties of the State. The
men were of sturdy
stock, and the women were fit mothers
for the generations that
were to follow.
As they lived here upon the banks of the
river they saw
Remarks of Governor James E.
Campbell. 163
many changes. They saw the first
steamboat, the "Orleans,"
pass down in 1811. Some thought it was a
comet, and some
that the British had come; and to all it
was a wonder, a marvel.
In 1812 (a year later), they went with
McArthur's regiment to
fight the British. From that day to this
the citizens of Galli-
polis have done their part as Americans
and Buckeyes, adding to
the glory and greatness of their State
and country in peace and
in war. Some of them went to Mexico and
helped to bring the
"Lone Star" and the
"Golden Gate" into the sisterhood of the
republic. Hundreds of them, during the
last war, did their full
share in restoring their country to its
integrity, and were a
glorious part of the three hundred and
twenty thousand names
which Ohio wrote upon the muster roll of
the Union. Your
people have taken their part in the
field of statesmanship and
letters. They have been guided by lofty
patriotism and high in-
telligence; and as they gather here
to-day by the thousands,
with all the evidences of culture and
wealth-the product of
American school houses and churches-they
fitly represent the
free institutions which have arisen from
the hopes, ambitions,
and successes of the pioneers who
gathered here one hundred
years ago.