LOCAL HISTORY-FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH
IN
DEMOCRACY*
by S. K. STEVENS
State Historian, Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
It is not merely a pleasure but a
genuine honor to be with you
this evening at the capital of the
first great state to be carved out of
the Northwest Territory with its
government framed in accordance
with the principles of that outstanding charter of
liberties-the
Northwest Ordinance. Ohio has come a
long way since 1803 when
its state government was launched in a
tiny stone capitol building
in Chillicothe. We are all looking
forward eagerly to the cele-
bration in 1953 of your
sesquicentennial of statehood.
I feel an especial pleasure in
addressing the annual meeting of
your vigorous and forward looking state
historical society, because
there are many connections between the
history of Ohio and that
of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As
a matter of fact, for
many decades in the earliest history of
American frontier expansion
our history virtually was inseparable.
For at least half a century-
from about 1750 to 1800--the story of
Pennsylvania in its growth
west of the Alleghenies is as much a
story of the Ohio country
as it is the history of Pennsylvania as
we know it today within
present geographical limitations.
Virtually all of our dispossessed
Indians took refuge in what is now
Ohio, and remained for many
years most unpleasant visitors whenever
they returned to Penn-
sylvania. Our gentle Moravian
missionaries carried from far away
Bethlehem in Pennsylvania the message
of Christianity to the
Indians in the vast reaches of the Ohio
country long before the
coming of the settler.
In the days of the later frontier there
were Pennsylvanians of
another type who came to Ohio. One was
Arthur St. Clair, who
left in something of a hurry the second
time he passed through
Ohio, but lived to return another day
as governor of the entire
*This is the text of an address
delivered at the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Society, held at the Ohio State Museum,
Columbus, April 27, 1951.
221
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Northwest. Not long after that a small
caravan of covered wagons
wound its slow and arduous way across
the entire length of Penn-
sylvania from the Delaware at Easton to
West Newton on the
Youghiogheny in Westmoreland County.
Here the caravan halted
in the late fall of 1787 and built the
boats which floated the convoy
of settlers, mainly New Englanders,
down the Ohio to Marietta.
There they landed in the early spring
of 1788. That was the be-
ginning of permanent white settlement
in Ohio.
But peace had not settled upon that new
frontier. In October
1793 one of Pennsylvania's more
irascible generals, "Mad Anthony"
Wayne, moved the "Legion of the
United States," into winter
quarters at the site of Greenville in
the Ohio wilderness. There he
trained his men in the not gentle arts
of Indian warfare, and in the
spring of 1794 set forth to destroy the
power of the remaining
Indians of the Northwest. This he did
with care and finality, and
a Pennsylvania general had brought
peace to Ohio. Peace now
reigned all the way from the Genesee
country to the Mississippi,
and settlers could move into the new
American West.
Settlers meant new institutions of
government, and in April 1802
the enabling act was passed by congress
which permitted the or-
ganization of Ohio as a state.
Thirty-five men met, at long last, at
Chillicothe to frame a state
constitution for Ohio. Eight of these
men appear to have been Pennsylvanians,
and there were about an
equal number from Virginia and from New
England. These gentle-
men drew up one of the shorter state
constitutions on record. At
least some of its features appear to
have been borrowed from the
Pennsylvania constitution of 1790,
especially those relating to the
judiciary. In scanning recently the
pages of The History of the State
of Ohio, I note that Pennsylvania's contributions were not
always
on the side of the law. It is pointed
out by Dr. William T. Utter
that Pennsylvania appears to have been
second only to Virginia in
furnishing residents for your first
state penitentiary at Columbus.
There are many other places at which
Pennsylvania history touches
that of Ohio but time forbids their
recital.
I have yet a third reason for feeling a
glow of pleasure at being
here this evening. It is the most basic
of all the reasons. I am glad
to be here because I think that all of
us are interested in a great
Local History 223
and common cause. That cause is the
cause of local history and
its use to enlighten and to inspire our
people. Never before was
there a time when America needed more
to draw upon the great
reservoir of understanding,
inspiration, and soundly based idealism
which can result from a knowledge of
the history of this nation.
I want to keep everything I say about
this subject upon a highly
practical level. I could quote for you,
from some of our greatest
statesmen and orators of the past,
moving and high sounding state-
ments about the value of history. We
have had plenty of philosophy
about the meaning and value of history,
but we have had too little
action and accomplishment.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that
as a nation we need
today something to which we can anchor
our faith in America. As
a people we are given to hysteria and
emotionalism in a period of
great crisis when we should be doing
hard, sound thinking. I hardly
need mention the events of the last two
weeks as an indication of
this peculiar emotional instability. It
is so great as to become
frightening. When I pick up the paper
and read that it appears,
on a basis of public opinion polls,
that the single speech of a
deposed general of the army of the
United States has completely
reversed the national thinking on vital
matters of foreign policy,
which cannot safely be left to
emotional reactions, I confess that
I am a bit disturbed. It is little
wonder that our major European
allies openly express the feeling that
they wish we would determine
policy with our minds and not our
hearts.
On every side we hear discussion of the
degree to which the moral
fiber of society, business, and
government have deteriorated. On
every hand we witness evidence of
government by pressure groups,
each seeking to forward its selfish
policies at the expense of the
national interest as a whole. It would
be difficult to say that the farm
interest, the labor interest, the
business interest is the worst in this
respect. Even our teachers have fallen
into the habit of lobbying
and mass sending of telegrams to
influence public officials and
legislative bodies. I do not mean to
criticize any group or any interest
for seeking to advance its cause, but
it does seem to me that we
must somewhere draw a line between what
is good for all the
people and what is the selfish interest
of a few. If we examine the
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
public utterances of our
representatives in the congress of the United
States, how often can we say with
honesty and sincerity that our
senator or our congressman is speaking
in the interests of America
rather than in the interests of his own
personal ambitions or the
buttering of the bread of some pressure
group which he seeks to
conciliate.
In my humble opinion the true spirit of
democracy was never
burning more feebly in our nation than
it is today. We need a new
spirit of dedication to national unity.
We need a new spirit of
dedication to the immortal philosophy
of self-government which
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg on a cold
November 19th, four-
score and seven years ago,
characterized as "government of the
people, by the people, for the
people." But where are we going
to get that spirit? Are we going to get
it from the lips and the
leadership of some strong man in a
military uniform? Are we going
to get it from the lips and the
leadership of some second Huey
Long--the demagog and professional
patrioteer who inflames the
passions of the people and makes false
promises?
I do not think we are going to get
it-or at least we should not
get it--from any other source than from
within ourselves as a
people. As a matter of fact, we cannot
get it from any other source,
if we are to preserve even the
semblance of "government of the
people, by the people, for the
people." As a nation, we MUST under-
take a process of self-education and
re-dedication to the principles
of our great American heritage as a
free people. I can see no other
way in which we can hope to capture
that vital spark of under-
standing, of appreciation, of
veneration--if you please--of the
principles of democratic living. I
think we must do it today, because
we are in the midst of a world in which
our whole concept of
government, society, and general
progress is at war with alien
ideologies which assume that the future
of world civilization can
be built upon almost opposite
principles. And what is even more
important, the entire body of thought
which is opposed to ours is
being taught every day to millions of
people. In my opinion we
have more to fear today from the fact
that millions of people in
Russia and the satellite countries of
Russia are being educated
in a new way of life than we do from
their soldiers and weapons.
Local History 225
I think we could win a battle of
weapons because of our superiority
in technological and scientific skills.
I am not at all sure that we
can win the war of ideas unless we
achieve a miracle of re-dedication
of purpose and learn to live and to act
as a people genuinely
believing in the art of democracy as a
way of life. We need to
learn and to practice more of the
mechanics of sound government
based upon the concept that government
is truly "for the people,
by the people," and not for
gamblers, racketeers, selfish farm, labor,
or industrial interests, or indeed any
interest but that of all the
people. We need to learn and to
practice more of the principles
of basic humanitarianism and social
justice and to apply them to
the problems of our social democracy.
In the world of business we
need to learn the art of cooperation
and promotion of common
interests, avoiding cutthroat
competition and rampant selfish in-
dividualism. Businessmen, farm leaders,
and labor leaders need
education in the principle that
democracy is not only government
of, for, and by the people but an
integration of economic life and
interests. We can have an economy which
is of, by, and for the
people's interest rather than one which
is run on a basis of "grab
and take" by whatever interest
seems to be the strongest at the
moment. We have great superiority in
the skills needed to build and
operate machines of peace and war. We
are badly in need of de-
veloping the vital skills which are
essential to living in a modern
society and economy, and in operating a
government which expresses
the true interests of all the people.
Achieving this is essentially a problem
of education, and that
cannot be denied. That is why the
writers of modern textbooks in
the social sciences for use in our
public schools are placing such
great emphasis upon teaching those
things which express the essence
of good citizenship and people living
together in harmony and a
spirit of mutual interests. However,
back of all our efforts there
should lie a larger use of our American
history as a means for
acquiring a deeper and more
appreciative understanding of just
what America IS. I hasten to emphasize
that by this statement I
do not mean that we need to use history
to glorify the past in
terms of any narrow concepts, as is the
philosophy of many of our
so-called patriotic societies. Nor do
we need to use it to confirm the
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
shibboleths of "free
enterprise," "rugged individualism," and the
like, though all of these principles
and their true bearing upon
our American life would be revealed.
Those of us in the field of local
history in particular, if we are
to make effective use of that history
in this national effort at self-
education which I propose, need to
adopt to the fullest the modern
concept of history as constituting the
full story of the LIFE OF THE
PEOPLE. History is not simply past
politics, or wars, or Indian
skirmishes and massacres. Our
organizations must not exist to
perpetuate that narrow concept of
history, but accept the full
definition of history as something
which pertains to all activities
of the people and all our
institutions and ideas. We need also to
cut completely loose from the flavor of
antiquarianism and ancestor
worship which at one time characterized
the field of local history.
This last is vitally important. The
musty flavor once characteristic
of the whole field of local history
still lingers in the minds of many
laymen. I am afraid that a majority of
our average citizens and
our schoolmen think of state and local
history in terms of dark and
musty museums, and records in the
custody of forbidding per-
sonalities not at all anxious to be
bothered by anyone who wished
to see or use them. They think of
historical society activity in terms
of meetings, attended entirely by
elderly persons, descended from
the first families, listening to an
abomination called "papers," by
means of which the members tell each
other from time to time
about the glories of their respective
families.
Fortunately, this not not a true
picture of modern local historical
society activity. There are, I am sorry
to say, a few societies which
still retain the basic characteristics
of the antiquarian and genealog-
ical fringe. There are many more which
are alive to all the impli-
cations of the true nature of history
and are developing effective
programs for its fullest possible use.
Something is happening to
the entire field of local history in
America. Local history is coming
to be understood as living history and
possessing a dynamic, human
flavor which commands the attention of
all people. Few state his-
torical societies are doing a better
job of demonstrating the possi-
bilities inherent in a shift to a new
and dynamic concept of local
history than your own Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical
Local History 227
Society. There are many ways in which
such an organization today
reaches the people with a vital,
forceful, living message about their
heritage as Americans. It is done
through the printing of books
and pamphlets; through the preservation
and development of
treasured historical shrines; the
marking of historic sites; the crea-
tion of modern, living museums of
history; the use of the great
media of public information such as the
press, the radio, and
television; and in many other ways.
Now what can all of these things do to
aid in the process of
establishing a new faith in our
democracy? How can they contribute
to a broad education of the American
people in the true meaning
of our institutions and ideals as a
free people? I think the answer
lies in the proper understanding of a
very elementary principle
well known today to most people in the
field of teaching. The
principle is this: In order to interest
anyone in anything it must be
brought to them in such a way that it
is close to their personal
understanding and knowledge. It is the
philosophy of John Dewey,
which rocked the entire world of
education several decades ago,
that individuals learn through doing
and that the educational
process should be part of the
experience of living.
We have been teaching history in our
schools and colleges for
generations with the pious hope it
would contribute to citizenship
by enlarging the perspective of the
individual and teach him the
fundamentals of the American story. Yet
periodically someone
makes a survey and comes up with the
startling conclusion that
the average product of our schools and
colleges and the average
American simply knows nothing about
America's history. Part of
this sad result has been due, no doubt,
to the date and fact method
of teaching, which has made history
very dull and dry. More of
it, I am convinced, is due to the
effort to tell America's story in
terms of broad, sweeping
generalizations and descriptions which
deal with America as a whole. After
all, we are a huge country,
and when we try to do this it becomes
terribly thin. The life blood
literally is squeezed out of history.
It becomes something very
remote from the understanding and
personal experience of the in-
dividual. In short, in our teaching of
history we violate all of the
fundamental theories of the learning
process.
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
I am positive that the answer to the
use of history as a means
of building what we might term a
national morale or spirit lies
almost entirely in the local field. Let
us explore this thought a little
more fully. The morale or spirit of a
nation must be based upon
a state of mind. It includes a
conscious sense of necessity of certain
united effort and sacrifice under
certain conditions. The lack of this
sense seems to me to be a major matter
of concern in this nation
at this moment. There are times when
politics and like distractions
must be thrown out the window. There
are times, and this is one
of them, when we need AMERICANS and not
Republicans and
Democrats to develop and to carry into
execution certain great
national decisions and policies.
Now in terms of our thinking as a
people this national spirit
should include a conscious sense of the
superiority of our basic
ideals and institutions as opposed to
those with which we are in
conflict. This sense of superiority
should not be based upon self-
glorification but upon a deep
understanding of what freedom means
to us in terms of our heritage as a
people. We are faced today
with certain serious problems. We are
in an undeclared war which
promises no end. We face long years of
crisis in world situations
on a truly global scale. Because we
actually are not at war, the
stress and strain upon opinion and
feeling is greater by far than
under actual conditions of war as in
World War II. The pressure
of necessary governmental regulations
affecting every man, woman,
and child is apt to increase. There
will be increasing scarcity of
things common to our everyday lives,
and there must be some re-
duction of our boasted American
standards of living. There will
be an increasing and continued burden
of taxation produced by the
so-called emergency. Furthermore, in
the long struggle with com-
munism, there is no prospect that these
strains will ease for many
years. They may easily last through our
lifetime.
Our enemy has fixed purposes and a
program of dictated regi-
mentation of the minds and actions of
the millions under its control.
We must admit that our enemy believes
consciously in the superiority
of its way of life and its objectives.
We dismiss too lightly at times
as propaganda the statements of
communist leadership. We are
dealing with people who have something
of fanatical devotion
Local History 229
to their principles as they see them.
It doesn't matter to them that
we do not see things the same way. But
it should be a matter of
concern to us.
Our great problem is just how are we
going to develop the same
will to triumph, the same faith in OUR
CAUSE. What is our faith?
It can rest upon only one thing and
that is a belief in the superiority
of the democratic ideal, which is the
product of the last two cen-
turies of western European civilization
and of which we stand as
the major product and most powerful
custodian. It is on this faith
in our democratic ideals and
institutions, resting upon fundamental
concepts of human freedom and
individualism, that we must rest
our entire cause in the modern world. I
think we need as a people
a considerable indoctrination in just
what are the fundamentals
of the democratic way of life. Where
can we better begin that
process than at the local level? Where
better can we relate the
past, with its lessons, to the
experience and the understanding of
our people? Edward Everett once said,
"How is the spirit of a free
people to be formed and animated and
cheered but out of the
storehouse of its historical
recollections." That statement still holds
good.
It is to the history of our democracy
that we must turn to under-
stand it sufficiently to animate and
arouse our spirit as a people.
Somehow it must be made clear to
Americans that the rights and
the privileges of our democratic way of
life are not simply to be
taken for granted. They are in danger.
We need a spirit of collective
action to defend them and to absorb the
stresses and strains of the
present and the future, necessary to
defend the free way of life on
a global front. We must grasp the fact
that such things as free
public schools, freedom of worship, of
expression, and opportunity
are not ours by accident but the
product of long years of slow
struggle, leadership, sacrifice, and
even death upon the part of
heroic men and women of past
generations.
It is my belief we must start the
process of rekindling the
American spirit right at the local
level. In terms of the better
application of the fundamentals of
political democracy, it begins
with the improvement of the government
of our towns, our counties,
our cities, and our states. In terms of
the use of our history as a way
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
to animate the spirit of a free people,
we need also to begin right
at home. We have our great national
heroes, but there are Ohio
and Pennsylvania heroes. There are men
and women who have
lived and worked to develop every
institution and ideal which is
a part of our American heritage whose
lives never made the
Dictionary of American Biography. But in terms of the contributions
they made to forwarding those ideals
and institutions, they are no
less great. Inevitably, when the
historian sketches in broad strokes
the picture of the American past, there
are only major figures which
appear in the foreground. Back of them,
some not appearing at
all in the picture, are thousands of
men and women who lived no
less heroically and fruitfully in
building the solid foundations of
our great heritage. Those lives are
full of drama and accomplish-
ment. They are, if we know their story,
a rich source of inspiration.
Knowledge of them can mean more to us
as citizens of the states
and communities in which we live
and in which they lived than the
lives of those who dominated the
national scene.
So much for the realm of what we might
term biographical his-
tory. In the more general field of
history as the story of the growth
of institutions, ideas, and our general
social, economic, and cultural
progress, the history of our American
states and communities is
both universal and unique. Our local
environment and history are
the mirror in which are reflected every
aspect of our history as a
nation. Here are to be observed-and
what is more important,
understood--the processes through which
we built a nation out of
a wilderness. As a matter of fact, an
adequate understanding of
our local and environmental historical
backgrounds can advance
not only national understanding but
also international understanding
as well. It is local history which
shows in molecular detail the
processes of social growth and
evolution. Just as the botanist
examines the cell structure of a plant
to study its growth, so should
we approach the study of history as a
means of understanding the
nation's heritage.
Using this approach to history, it is
possible, through the medium
of local history, to use it as a powerful
force in the molding of
a spirit of sound nationalism in
America. Every democratic ideal
for which we are fighting today is
embodied somewhere, someplace,
Local History 231
in the history of Ohio and its counties
and towns. The story of
steady progress in evolving democratic
processes of government, the
growth of culture, and the spirit of
human freedom as expressed
in the rise of a free press, free
schools, religious freedom, and the
spirit of free inquiry, along with the
growth of free economic
enterprise, are all found in the same
place.
In view of this situation, this is not
a time to limit our activities
in the field of state and local
history. It is rather a time to expand
them and to spend more time and funds
on those projects which
bring history to the people. Rather
than closing any single historical
shrine, we should redouble our efforts
to preserve more of them
and to increase the usefulness of those
which we have in order that
they may become living reminders of our
heritage. Rather than
slowing our progress of research and
publication, we need to expand
them, so that our people may become
better acquainted with the
splendid traditions of our past. Rather
than closing our historical
museums, we should open wider their
doors and enrich their
exhibits. We need to make use,
especially, of all the great channels
of modern education and communication
of ideas to bring state
and local history directly to the
children in our schools and to the
average citizen. Courses in the history
of the respective states are
becoming popular, and I believe it is a
good place to start building
a true understanding of history. Such
courses need not be provincial
in the sense of glorification of the
history of any one state. They
will not be that if we keep before us a
realization that the true
purpose of state history is to portray
more clearly the scope and
meaning of American democratic
processes. Great state and local
anniversaries need to be taken
advantage of to produce a great
outpouring of popular interest in the
history of our states and
their subdivisions. The pageantry and
color of such occasions are of
incalculable value.
There is evidence on every hand that
the great majority of
Americans are more history minded today
than ever before. It is
evident in the vogue of the historical
novel, the historical motion
picture, the uses of history in
advertising, in the newspaper and
magazine, and in radio. This interest
can never be satisfied and
directed into the development of sound
national feeling by using
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again and again the well-known national
themes and characters
of our history. This latent interest can
be made the basis for at-
taining these objectives if we feed it
with the vast reservoir of
American local history which lies in
every state and every com-
munity. From that use we can arouse
that spark of pride, that
glimpse of what America means in terms
of its past, which will
make a better American out of an
Ohioan, with a broader and
sounder grasp of what is included in
the phrase-the American
Way of Life.