The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1857-06-11
Gov, Cbase's Address Of Welcome
10 the HDited Guests at the Celebration
Of the Completion Qftbs Raihoqy Line
from Baltimore to S. L0uis, 0R their
ATjyaL at Marietta, June lst 1857

~ ttN NbHtpitttyit ~ tite AhUtNtllty AftI'a
from Baltimore to S. L0u.s, oa their
ArriUaL at Marietta, June 1st, 1857
GeuHsmen.-
The Committee Of Arrangements for
this auspicious occasion, has assigned
to me the very agreeable duty Of well
coming you to Ohio.
Tits, indeed an auspicious occasion
chat unites the citizens of so many
States in celebrating the happy con-
summation of a great work, so long ago
commenced, so steadily urged, and at
length, Notwithstanding manifold dis
couragements and difficulties almost in
Vulnerable, so triumphantly accomplish
ed.
Tt is with especial qualification that I
welcome to our soil and our hospitali-
ties, the Representatives Of that ancient
and honored Commonwealth, whose in-
fancy was guided by the wisdom of re-
ligious tolerotion, and whose maturer
age was illustrated by the conception
and Inauguration of the first railroad
attempted from the seaboard across the
mountains, into the vast interior, and
the Representatives of that Ancient Do
minion, honored mother Of Washington
and Jefferson, under whose auspices the
settlement of the North West was in
augurated.
greet with no less satisfaction and
with salutatious no less hearty, the Di-
rectors and officers Of the Baltimore
e. Ohio Railroad, the members of the
City Government Of Baltimore, mem
bers of the press-members Of that 9th
er government which governs us all
and those other distinguished citizens,
whose concurrence in this celebration
makes this one of the white days, which
we anticipate with pleasure and remem-
Der with delight
Welcome, gentlemen, welcome, one
and ALL May you derive from your
brief soiourn within the limits Of Ohio.
la pleasure as real and as great as that
which your coming affords to us To
you, sir, (turning to General Cass) ]
may say something more than Wei.
come to Ohio [ may almost say, Wei.
come homel Welcome, I may certainly
say, to the theatre of your earliest man
hood Welcome to the community from
which you received your first political
trust! Welcome to the spot which wit
messed near half century ago, the com
mencemeut of that long career of dis,
tinguished public service and high pub.
! lie trust through which you have NOV
ed--a career long yet, we trust, to be
protracted through a vigorous and hon
ored age, in the midst Of regards and af-
fections which may be augmented
perhaps by political sympathies but
cannot be extinguished by political
differences. Here, sir now, as then
trolls the same beautiful Ohio there
with willing tribute comes the swift
Muskingum; yonder rise the same yer
dant slopes; above bends the same be-
nignant sky. Would that I could add
that now, as then, here and all around
you, stand the friends of your youth to
welcome yCI back to the spot consecra-
ted by your youthful friendships A
few indeed, yet remain to greet you
The rest-but let me not awaken vain
regrets, Even the departed survive in
their spirit and greet you through theiI
work.
! My qualification i'm welcoming you tC
| Ohio, gentlemen, is doubled by the cir
cumstance that, at the same moment, ]
| may welcome you to the spot where tn,
| foundation of the State was laid-wherc
indeed, the Anglo-Saxou settlement of
the illimitable Northwest was begun
Hither, on the 9TH day of April, 1788
not yet quite seventy years ago, afte
a winters journey across the Allegha
j nies, through deep SHOWS and over al
2 most impossible ways; after a voyag,
in boats constructed by themselves
down the Youghiogheney, down tn,
MonOngahela, down the Ohio, underth
lead of RUFUS PUTNAM, a Brigade
General of the Revolutionary Army
who possessed and fully deserved tn
entire confidence of Washington; cam
the first settlers of Ohio,-noble soul
devoted patriots-brave soldiers--wh
having gallantly aided in achieving tn
independence of their country, nov
consecrated their energies to the estab
, lishmont of new homes for frcemer
, and a new Empire Of Freedom in th
Western wilderness.
Here they found in singular preser
walton, those remarkable and eXtensiv
earthworks, existing, though in a some
what impaired condition, to this day
the purpose of which, whether civil O
military, secular or ecclesiastical, battle
antiquarian research, though all agre
that they must have been constructed ii
{ remote antiquity and by race of me-
which has long since disappeared
Here, too, they found the successor
of that race, the red man Of the forest
stillresentful of their defeat in Pontiac
war, and jealous of the encroaohment
of the white man.
With characteristic energy andpromT
titude on the very next day after thei
arrival they commenced the work O
b dividing the land, and prepared
once, for cultivation and defence Hor
pointed for thom a bright, though di
tant future, but not even the magic per
! oil Of hope could have pictured the mas
/ niioent reality From this germ in th
i. wilderness has already sprung a Stat
y as rich in resources and as powerful i
n arms as were the whole United Coloni,