The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1860-09-21
Hon. Geo. Bancroft's Grafton.


| NOO' y OIdJlDuI
At The Inauguration of the Perry Statue,
Cleveland, September l0th, 1860.
MEN OF Quo Fellow CITIZENS OF
THE UNITED STATES: The defense Of our
country is not burden 10 be stunned,
but an inahenab|e right which we are 10
assert, and a sacred duty which we are
TO fulfill. The heroic deeds OF those who,
in manly battle, have stood up for the
moral existence of the nation. and given
the greatest proof Of their love for il bv
periling their lives in its defense, deserve
10 be commemorated by works Of art, that
the evidence Of their virtue may be ever
present TO The eye Of the people. BY our
willing sympathy with their efforts, we
make their glory our own: by contem.
! plating their actions with love, we renew
in our own breasts the just courage with
which they glowed, and gain the emo.
bling consciousness that we too have the
power within us to- initiate their example
Citizens Of Cleveland. executing pur
pose which had its origin in R,eir own
municipal government, chcered by the
! patriotic zeal Of an artist who is native
of their State, and sustained by the con.
fding energy Of their spirited contractors
! have raised the monument which has Just
been unveiled. Before the mvriais here
assembled this statue is now dedicated TO
tie Union in the name Of tile people Of
! Ohio!
The inhabitants Of this Commonwealth
are allied by their descent ofcommon blood
with nearly all the older States. and all
the mos; highly civilized countries OF the
world. The homes Of their ancestors arc
TO he found in the Old Dominion and all
the States to the North OF it, in the British
s'es and Ireland, in the Ibcrian peninsula,
in France, in Italy; and. of all the Con.
tlnental States. especially in Germany
so that. in addition 10 the mysterious az
fnity Of human nature with truth and
freedom, no word can be uttered in anv
part OF the cultivated world for right and
liberty, but you may claim in it family
interest o! your own. Ii is the sons oil
your forefathers of whom you expect that
the tomb and the birth place Of Virgil will
be secured to the guardianship Of the free
it is you. brothers and vour kindred who
are 10 take the only worthy vengeance for
what our revolutionary fathers suffered
from the petty princes of now fallen EN-
pirc, by acting and teaching its immorta
people 10 construct free and united Ger
many.
Ohio rises before the world as the ma
jestc witness to the beneticent realty oI
the democratic principle. common.
wealth younger in years than he who ad
dresses you, not long ago having no vis.
ole existence but in the emigrant wagons,
now numbers almost ms large n popula
ior as that Of England, when it gave
( birth to Raleigh, and Bacon, and Shaks
peare, and began its continuous attempts
at colonizing America E,ch one Of heI
inhabitants gladdens in the fruit of hi,
own tori. She possesses wealth tha
must be computed by thousands Of mil
lions; and her frugal, industrious ant
benevolent people, a: once daring ant
prudent, unfettered in the use OF their fac
ul'ies, restless in enterprise, do not squan
T der the accumulations Of their industry
in vain show, but ever 60 on 10 render
the earth more productive, moro beauti
iul and more convenient 10 man master
ing for mechanic purposes the unwaslin!
iorces OF nature; keeping exemplar,
good faith with their public creditors
building, in half a century more churcbe
than all England has raised since thi
continent was discovered endowing anc
sustaining universities and other semina
ries Of learning. Conscious of the dy
mamie power of mind in action as the bes
of fortresses, Ohio keeps no standing
army but that Of her school teachers, o
whom she pays more than twenty thou
sand she provides library for ever,
school district she counts among he
citizens E1ore than three hundred thou
sand men who eau bear arms, and she
has more than twice that number Of chill.
dren registered as students in her public
schools. Here the purity of dom este
morals is maintained by the virtue and
dignity OF woman. In the heart of the
temperate zone of this continent, in the
land OF The corn, of wheat, and the vine
the eldest daughter of the ordinance o.
1887, already the young mother Of other
commsnwealths, that bid fair to vie with
her in beauty, rises in her lovellness and
glory, crowned with cities, and challenges
the admiration of the world. Hither
should come the political skeptic, who in
his despair is ready TO strand the ship oI
state for here he may learn how to
guide it safely on the waters. Should
some modern Telemachus, heir TO an
island empire. touch these shores, here
he may observe the vitality and strength
OF the principle of popular power; take
from the book Of experience the lesson
that in public affairs great and happy re-
suits follow in proportion to faith in the
efficacy OF that principle and learn to
rebuke ill.sdvised counsellors who pro.
nounce the most momentous and most
certain Of political truths delusiOn and