Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1859-09-15
Interesting Historical Address.
First AnglO-SaxOn Settlement West
Of The AlIegEanies.
Speech of James VeccPa, Esq,
AT THE OPENING OF THE
Fayette County, Pa. Railroad, July
4th, 1859.

Fayette County, Pa. Railroad, July
4th, 1853.
On the Fourth of July, James Yeech, Esq,
made the address at the opening of the Fay
ettc County Railroad, before very large au-
dience. After some Introductory remarks in
reference to the day and railroad, Mr. Vsech
spoke in substance as follows:
We are assembled at Crisis Run, on the
lands and in sight of the mansion of Mount
Braddock. From its lofty mountain seat Dun
bars camp looks down upon u.s. while Wash
ingtons entrenchment rises from its ruins be-
fore us. These are names which have q
charm beyond the inanimate existences they
designate. They will 'start spirit on any
day, at any place much more on This day.
here Haskl do you hear those earnest whis-
perings-do you see those manly forms which
rise from the earth we tread? The neighngs
Of the iron horse cannot hush them, the rush
of the train cannot drive them away They
are voices and spirits of the past. They are
inhabitants here and this is their holiday
They becon us far back upon the track Of
time, to far off station in our early history
around which their memories are thickly
strewn. Let us go and gather some of them
They will at least be suggestive Of contrasts
with the objects which have hitherto here to-
day engrosscd oar attention.
First 90 back with us, if you please, one
hundred aud fifty years. How brief the pc
Rod compared with that during which this
earth has rolled round yonder sun. Then, it
is believed, no white man-huuter or roya-
gew-had ever crossed these mountains
Then, this rich expansc Of hill and vale which
spreads out at their base round the head of
the Ohio. now dotted all over with the varied
proofs of healthful industry, was one un-
broken wilderness; uuinhabited, save by birds
and beasts and reptiles, with here and there
perhaps rowing Indian | say, perhaps
because for an indefinite period prior to about
1925, it is doubtful whether a solitary human
beng of any hue inhabited this region. At
some not far remote period the fierce lroquoi.
of the Lakes had ovcrrun the intervening ter
ritory extermnating some Of its ancient in
habitants and banishing others. Trees gre W
upon their mounts and their forts had crun-
bled. But Providence had not appointed this
fertile country to be an everlasting waste
and agencies were soon set to work which
have made it what it now is, and is destined
yet to be- Their beginnings were afar off
and apparently untoward. Their progress
was through tolls, and sullcrings, and blood.
The first agency introduced was that new
influx of aboriginal tribes which during the
twenty years that succeeded 1925, rapidly
peopled the region between Lake Erie and
the mountains, and of which the head of the
Ohio became, as it still is and ever will be,
the focal point of transit and traffic. These
consisted Of detached bands of the Iroquois,
or Six Nations, ienominated Mingoes and OF
Deawares and Shawauese, who had come
last from Eastern Pennsl lvania. The lro-
quois confedcracy claimed to be lords of the
! soil but their seat of empire was far away,
on the Mohawk; and in Indian policy, pos
session is power. The possessors held the
portals of the west. The part assigned to
them was first t. attract, then to repel, the
advances of European civilization; then to
Weld and vanish before it, We are wont to
regard the Indian in no other light than as Il
| cruel savage We must now regard those
round the heGd of the Ohio as posses sing
an importance which attached to no other
equal number of human beings on tho con-
tinent.
You all know the hereditary hostility of
France and England. They quickly avlled
| themselves of the discovery of Columbus to
/
colonize portion of their pent up animosi-
ties in the New Woili. The discoveries aud
settlements made 10y each. in America, were
nearly simultaneous. England seatAl her
colonies all along the Atlantic border. from
Maine to Georgia while France crcpt in be-
| hind them at the North, and planted an in
cipient Empire in Canada. She rapidly
spread her posts to the iurthest of the great
+ Tukcs. nutil in lG13-S2 the discovery and
explorations Of the Mississippi, by Marquette
and Las Sale, gave to her an advantage which
cost her rival near a century of diplomacy
and strife, and millions OF treasure. TO over
come Ere the Puritan, the Scot-lrlSll, or the
Cavalier had carried the banner OF britain
beyond an Atlantic breeze, the jesuit and
corueW de Go's had hoistea the Lilies Of
France all over the North and North west,
and along the Father OF Waters, from the
BaliZe to the Lake oi tEe oous. Inc Eng
ish colonization was slow but permanent
The French system was more steathy and
diffusive, but evanescent. Had 1t been lett
to its own resources IN America 1t would pro-
bably have soon disappeared amid tie sur
sounding barbarism, as river SINKS IN the
sands of the desert. But, believing 1T could
be made an ehectual barrier against colonial
aeEranoi"ei'ehu' .'o S"e"N ~ ~
of Paris were strained to sustain it, Between
1909 and 1882, the British Kings had par
celled out "the west'-even to the Pacific
among some five or six of their Atlantic col
onies but for all practical purposes they
might as well have essayed to make partition
of the moon. French discoveries and actlvi-
ties, from one end of the Mississippi valley to
the other, nullifed these grants; and in 11l2,
Louis NV. supplied them by grant to Gro
Eat, of Louisiana, reaching from the Gulf OF
Mexico to the very fountains Of the Youghi-
ogheny and Monongahela. And by the re-
cognized law of nations as then applied to
America. he had an undoubted rightto doso.
As against England, the title was perfect
But the occupancy and claims OF the Indians
INTERVIEWED to mar its enjoyment. Tocireum-
vent and conciliate them, became now the