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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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
forces that bind together our one
hundred and thirty million people
and the people of Canada.
"These are things worth living for,
worth paying for in
taxes, worth fighting for and, if God
wills, worth dying for."
The Governor described vividly a meeting
which he attended
in Cleveland celebrating the American
citizenship of 3,000 aliens
who sought this for their home and who,
unlike those in their
native lands, have no thought of wiping
out one another.
The Governor also said that some time
ago he was on the bat-
tlefield of Yorktown, Virginia,
attending the one hundred fiftieth
anniversary celebration of the surrender
of Charles Cornwallis.
He depicted the pageant which told the
story. First came a man
on a white horse, representing George
Washington. With him
were the old Colonials. Then came his
French allies. Then with
muffled drums came plodding the
surrendering British. And,
finally, he depicted the passing of
Cornwallis' sword to Wash-
ington.
As he watched the pageant, a horse broke
loose and ran from
the field. At first, the Governor
wondered whether it was a
runaway or a part of the pageant.
"Don't you know?" asked a
lady near-by. "That is Mad Anthony
Wayne carrying the news
of Yorktown's surrender to Williamsburg
and hence to the whole
world." And Governor Bricker's
audience thought of Fallen
Timbers across the Maumee River where
Wayne in 1794 had
wrested this Northwest from the Indians
and the British.
"The old Greeks," said
Governor Bricker, "used to declare
that no democracy could exist beyond the
human voice. And
with them democracy was limited to about
the twenty thousand
people who could be reached by such
orators as Demosthenes.
But that day at Yorktown the President
of the United States
spoke not merely to the 150,000 people
gathered there to witness
the pageant, but to the whole United
States. The boundary of
twenty thousand which held the old Greek
democracies did not
exist for ours."