Old Fort Sandoski and the De Lery
Portage. 371
Indians which eventually led to his
dismissal from the service.
His distinguished engineer, Montresor,
was left to rebuild the
fort, which, however, was only partially
accomplished.
There is not much more recorded
concerning the portage
of old Fort Sandoski until the War of
1812, when, after the
victory of Commodore Perry, on September
10, 1813, General
Harrison, with his entire army, moved
down from his head-
quarters at Fort Seneca, on the Sandusky
river, first to Fort
Stephenson at Fremont, and then to the
old portage from Fort
Sandoski, at Port Clinton. Here,
following the example of
the French expeditions of earlier times,
he hauled his vessels
and his supplies across the famous de
Lery portage, where we
now stand, ready to transport his army
for a final conflict on the
banks of the Thames. He constructed a
fence across this pen-
insula in order to confine the thousands
of horses connected
with his command, until he should return
from his expedition
across the lake. Within the Marblehead
peninsula, thus inclosed,
he turned loose the horses to be guarded
by a small force until
his return. After the battle upon the
Thames the victorious
army returned to Port Clinton, gathered
up their horses and sup-
plies and joyfully started upon their
homeward journey.
Thus it will be seen that my opening
remarks were amply
justified by the facts. The deeds here
recorded deserve to be
imprinted upon the memory of every
citizen of Ohio. They
should be reiterated in the presence of
our children at home, and
should be incorporated into the
text-books prepared for the in-
struction of schools. As a slight effort
to perpetuate their
memory, we erect these monuments, and
leave to future gen-
erations the record engraved upon these
tablets. May no care-
less hand ever deface them, and no
ruthless hand ever do them
violence.
MR. RICHARDSON'S ADDRESS.
This is a day for memory, when our thoughts
revert to other
times and scenes. We stand today upon
historic ground. In
the breezes there once floated over this
spot the milk-white ban-
ner of Navarre, bespangled with the
golden lilies of the Bourbon
house. Here, too, floated the meteor
flag of England-the cross
372 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
in a field of blood; and later was
unfurled the starry banner of
the free-which we love to think will
never be supplanted.
We can close our eyes, and see again in
imagination the
swarms of bark canoes, touching with
their bows the sandy
shores, while files of painted warriors
grasp and carry them
across this narrow isthmus, to embark
again upon the waters
of the great lake. We can hear again the laughter and song of
those merry sons of France as they glide
in richly laden batteaux
over the surface of lake or bay. We see
the files of the soldiers
of the line, the voyagers, the hunters
and trappers as they make
their way across this portage. Here,
too, we hear the savage
war-whoop, the rattle of musketry and
see the smoking ruins
of the old blockhouse, and the stark
bodies of the slain.
You have done well to mark these places,
for they teach
the lessons of the past to those of the
present and the future.
The ceremonies here today give added
evidence to the high state
of civilization now attained. That
people with no monuments
to build have no history worth
remembering. You build monu-
ments to mark the pathway across this
narrow neck of land,
for it is the way by which civilization
marched, and barbarism
waged its unsuccessful resistance.
This was strategic ground. Here, to and
fro, the contending
strength of Britain and France ebbed and
flowed in the Colonial
wars. Here, far remote from the armies
along the sea-board,
Americans and British sought to serve
the cause of king and
country in the Revolutionary struggle;
and here embarked those
gallant sons of Virginia and Rhode
Island, who saved the north-
west and broke the power of Britain in
1813-William Henry
Harrison and Oliver Hazard Perry.
Erect your stately monuments, unveil your
tablets of en-
during bronze that the youth of these
more favored generations
may pause and consider the rugged
path-the bloody footprints
-the suffering unto death by which our
fathers won our price-
less heritage of free institutions.
Teach the lessons of the past,
remembering that the triumphs already
won are only to be en-
joyed while they are deserved, the
lesson, that our free in-
stitutions are ours only while we
loyally preserve them under
the salutary restraints of law.
Old Fort Sandoski and the De Lery
Portage. 373
We hear much in these latter days of
reviving the rule of
the people, as though the people had not
always ruled this land.
Who are "the people?" Some
would have us believe that "the
people" is some mighty separate
entity other than the individual
members of every community, who taken
together constitute the
whole people of each community.
"The people," my friends,
are simply you and me and all of us,
with our individual
needs, individual ambitions and
individual rights that each may
indulge and exercise freely so long as
we do not try to inter-
fere with every other individual in the
indulgence and exercise
of his ambition and his rights. Now, men
have been for long
ages engaged in devising something to
make human relations
possible, where each shall be free, and
yet bound to respect the
freedom of every other individual. That
something is called law.
Freedom under law is not a mushroom
growth. It is the
product of long ages of evolution
through tears and blood, be-
cause it had human greed and avarice
coupled with ignorance
and degradation to contend against.
America has been for a century and a
quarter the great
exemplar of this highest achievement in
the science of free gov-
ernment. Shall we throw it all away at
the demand of the
demagogue who, using "the
people" as a name to conjure with,
seeks the overthrow of the
representative form of government
founded by the fathers? Under it, we
have made the most mar-
velous material, intellectual and social
progress the world has
ever seen. There are those, who,
impatient of restraint, seeking
short cuts to selfish ends loudly
proclaim that our constitution
is outgrown and obsolete. They would
pluck the fruit and kill
the tree. They do not know its first
principles. It has met suc-
cessfully every exigency of our national
life, and is no more
obsolete than is the "Sermon on the
Mount."
If your reading of history has taught
you any one thing
more than another, it is this: That
every great crime against
civilization has been committed in the
name of "the people."
Every great despotism that has cursed
the world, has been set
up by popular acclaim, either purchased
or coerced.
Every civilization that has crumbled
into ruin has gone to
374 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
its doom because men quenched the fires
upon the altars of their
religion and corrupted the people by
appeals to their cupidity.
There are some aspects of our national
politics which at
this present time would be laughable if
they were not so serious
in possible consequences. I doubt not
that if Phinius T. Barnum
were alive now, he would recognize a
great opportunity, and he
would probably be working his old game
of fooling the American
public by running for the presidential
nomination, with "Let the
people rule and elect me" inscribed
upon his banner.
The serious thing about it is, that
matches in the hands of
vicious boys near a straw-stack, with
the wind toward the house
and barn-make a combination that needs
watching.
Our population, being much more
inflammable than when
cool blood of northern latitudes
predominated, is more in danger
than ever, for the violent harangue of
the oratorical firebrand
who has his own "axe to
grind."
These patriotic societies will do their
full duty only, as they
strive to educate the mind and awaken
the conscience, so that
men may heed the lessons of the past and
feel their moral re-
sponsibility to the present.
Thus, may we also place the coming generations
in our debt,
because, in these times of class
animosities and factional con-
fusion, we will have stood fast by the
principles of the fathers,
proven by the test of time and
experience.
The voices of the past-the spirit of our
fathers-the call
of ancestral ties-speak to us today. We
bear a grave responsi-
bility laid upon us by our very blood
and lineage. Shall we not
resolve to do our part worthily, that
the principle of repre-
sentative self-government, by free men
under the restraints of
just and equitable laws, shall not
perish from the earth?
INSCRIPTION ON MONUMENT OLD FORT
SANDOSKI, OF 1745.
[West Face]
FORT SANDOSKI,
1745-1748, 1750-1751, 1761-1763
"The first fort built by white men
in Ohio, erected by British traders
from Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1745,
under the protection of the
Huron Chief, Nicolas, and destroyed by
him after his defeat by the