Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-07-18
ASHTA ABUI4A OHIO, FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1879.

adopted to 1912 was the great period of
Interpretation, the adjustment, the set
thing of the great departments of the gov
ernment. Then came our war with Eng
land, to prove that we had not only free
dom from other nations on land, but free
dom on the sea, and equal rights with all
the world. Then came the period of con-
Struction, running up through JacksOn's
time, and finally, to summarize all in a
sentence, after we had conquered our in
dependence, and conquered our equality
on the sea, and put down all our Indian
tribes in hostility, when We had become
masters of the continent and equals with
the world, we had to be tried in that last
crucial test whether We were masters Of
ourselves. The wise man has said, "He
that ruleth his own soul is greater than he
that taketh a city" and IN 1861 this ma
tion was called upon to stand that test, to
see whether it could rule its own soul and
be chief over itself and put down all dis
turbers within its own heart. In the great
war through which we passed we proved at
last that We were masters Of ourselves. Zap
plause) And here to-day, in this reunited
Republic, clothed in its right mind, in the
glory of its century of achievement, we
stand TO meet all question that may arise
in the large and liberal spirit of the faith
ers who bore US, and the soldiers who saved
us, and the Constitution that guides US,
and the people that will always watch for
their own.
Now, fellow citizens, one word more.
We are here almost on the border of the
Western Reserve mean on its western
line-and know of no spot on earth Of
equal size that illustrates so well the gen.
ius of American institutions. Eighty
three years ago this day, forty-twO men
from New England made their way up the
Mohawk River and down the 0swegO, and
around the Falls of Niagara, and along the
shore of Lake Erie, and struck the little
creek called Conneaut Greek, in my Con-
gressional District, that makes the bound
AIRY between Pennsylvania and Ohio. They
landed there on the morning Cf the fourth
day of July, 1896. West of Buffalo, and
all the way to Detroit, with perhaps the ex-
ception o. two cabins here on this rocky
coast, where hunters lived, there was not
the smoke of white mans cabin in all
this wilderness country-not one. The
forty-two men who landed at Conneaut
Greek, before they entered upon their work
of SURVEYOR they were the surveyors of
the Western Reserve-stopped to celebrate
this day, and christened the new world with
a spirit of liberty which they brought.
What was this Western Reserve when they
commenced to survey? 1t has an old his
tory, coming from Connecticut. 1t was
surveyed and sold at forty cents per acre,
eighty-three years ago, and the men who
came here to settle it brought very little
treasure, except the inestimable treasure
Of brave hearts, strong hands, and clear
heads.
Now the twelve great counties that make
up this Western Reserve-the great cities,
the great industries, the great intelligence,
the glory, the patriotism, the character,
that make up this Western Reserve, a spot
equal in glory to ancient Greece-have all
been planted here by the steady, sturdy
blows of the laboring hand of freemen, and
1t is community that rivals in intelli-
gence and culture and power, and wealth,
any community on the face of this round
globe. (Applause) 1t is an illustration
of what freedom can do. 1t is an illustra-
ton how we get strong. We have gotten
strong as a people by no arts but the man
ly arts. All this has been done by honest
toll, under the benignant light of free
and equal institutions, and we that come
to celebrate to-day, if we keep alive this
sacred fire and transmit it to our children,
celebrations hundred years hence, under
trees grander than these, and by the side
of this great free lake, will be held by our
great grandchildren after US to celebrate
the glories of the work their fathers and
our fathers did; and in the light of these
facts, these cons0lIng reflections of histo-
ry, let US depart, when we shall leave this
place on this Sabbath day of the Nation,
strengthened, invigorated, and knowing
and belieYIng, that for a nation, as for a
man, this is the sum of his hope; Self-rev-
erance, self-knowledge, self-control. These
three alone lead life to sovereign power.
EApplause.)
The vast audience listened closely to the
eloquent speaker, who spoke for nearly
three-guarters of an hour. When he re-
tired the applause was loud and prolonged.
General Garfield, before his arrival, had
hardly expected to make much of Il speech
and consequently had made but little prep
aratiOn. He was warmly congratulated by
General Ewing at the close of his effort,
who advised General Garfield never to pre-
pare an address if that was his manner
when uDDraDared